greatest Kindness will not for that very Reason refuse us in a less It concerns us therefore as we would not reject the Kindness already offered and as we would not exclude our selves from all future Love and Kindness to make good our Gratitude by receiving our Saviour and that Salvation which he brings along with him with a due Acknowledgment and Respect and to make good such our Respect and such our Acknowledgment by receiving him upon any but more especially upon his own Terms Let us therefore cast away our Sins that we may receive him Let us by loving each other practice our selves to love and receive him Let us receive him by receiving the Pledges of his Love exhibited to us in the Sacrament of his most Blessed Body and Blood And let us not think that Christ crucified will profit us any thing if we do not so receive him as he requires and therefore also so receive him as we ought For he does in effect refuse the Gift who refuses the Instrument of Conveyance by which such Gift is to be signed and made over to him And it is irrational and imprudent to expect the Love of him the Pledges of whose Love we do reject Let us cast off therefore every evil Work every Sin that does beset us and gird up the Loins of our Mind as the Scripture speaks and do the Work of Christians in all Cases whatsoever that so at last we may receive the blessed Wages of such Work through Jesus Christ our Lord and only Saviour CHAP. XII That besides the Saviour's Righteousness imputed God will after their Resurrection endow Believers with a perfect inherent and eternal Holiness How the Saviour did fit and prepare Men for such an Holiness BY what has been hitherto discoursed we have seen 1. That God in a Saviour has made Provision for the Expiation of Man's Sin in order to save him from the Vengeance of the Law the just Wages of such Sin 2. We have seen that he has not barely provided for Man's Escape from the Vengeance of the Law by the Merits of his Saviour's Death but that he has also provided for his positive and future Happiness by the Merit of his Saviour's Obedience 3. But yet in what is now to follow we shall find that his Mercy has not stopped here because in the third place he will in and through our Saviour endow Man with a perfect and inherent Holiness By which I mean such an holy Angelical and withal durable Frame of Spirit that shall for ever secure him from all possible Sin and shall for ever engage him in a vigorous and chearful Discharge of all holy Duties and in so doing shall both accompany and secure his Happiness to all Eternity For tho' it be confessed that Believers do by the Communications and Assistances of the Spirit arrive to a Degree of such an Holiness in this Life yet it must be confessed also that it is but an imperfect Degree For it is not vigorous nor uniform nor constant but irresolute and weak and therefore has its frequent Intermissions and Failings But as we shall see more fully in what is to follow the Holiness of the Saints in Glory is like their Happiness firm lasting and immutable and therefore will be found to be a Gift of God in Christ that does vastly if not infinitely exceed the most refined Holiness of the very best Man in this Vale of Sin and Misery It shall be the Business then of our present Undertaking to make it good that besides that Title which Believers in another World shall have to their Saviour's Righteousness in order to their future Happiness that they themselves shall be endowed with a perfect inherent and indefectible Holiness in order to the secure Eternity of such their Happiness Now to put this Matter into a clear Light that so we may be the more rationally satisfied in all that is to follow we lay it down First That God by his Almighty Power having made the World and all particular Beings in it has by virtue of such his Creation an undoubted Right and Title to the Dominion over all Things so by him created And that therefore all his Creatures ought to be in Subjection to him and to act according to the Determinations of his Will And it is hardly to be doubted but that all those Creatures which by the Boundaries of their Creation are devoid of Understanding and Free-will do constantly act according to those Impresses and Powers that God in their Formation has stamped upon them in a regular Subordination to such his Will And the Scriptures do give us not only frequent Hints but also express Declarations that so they do Now as God created those lower Creatures so did he the higher and those which are endowed with more noble Faculties And because among such Creatures upon whom he has bestowed an Understanding to enable them to know his Will and with a Will to enable them to chuse Obedience to such his Will we are not acquainted with any other but Angels and Men and because our Design is only concerned about them and chiefly about the latter therefore directly to our present Purpose we take notice That some of the Angels first and by their Instigation the first Man and because all Men ever since do derive from him in a Lineal Propagation therefore also all Mankind by transgressing God's Will made known to them in his Laws have revolted from their Allegiance to him and have by so doing in effect renounced and disclaimed that their Subjection to his Dominion which was if I may so speak his natural and essential Right For Wickedness is a professed and avowed Renunciation of that Subjection which Rational Creatures owe to their Holy and Rightful Lord and King even the God that made them And for that Reason it is an Encroachment upon his Anthority for it does lessen and contract the Extent of his Kingdom For because a Scepter of Righteousness is the Scepter of his Kingdom and because all those Laws by which its Administration is executed are in themselves Holy Just and Good it is upon that Account very obvious to conceive that Wickedness so far as it goes does defeat such Administration and overturn such Laws and by so doing does diminish the Authority and encroach upon the Jurisdiction and Dominion of the Rightful and Supreme Lord. Now from what has been thus spoken in short we may easily understand that the faln Angels having first revolted themselves and by their Sin withdrawn their Allegiance and Subjection to their most Holy and Supreme Lord did what other Rebels after their Example and perhaps by their Instigation have done to weak and short-sighted People by false Colours and taking Delusions invite Mankind into the same Revolt and Rebellion with themselves and by so doing draw away a Part of God's Kingdom and Dominion and in opposition to his Holiness that is in opposition to God himself set up a Kingdom of
their own a Kingdom of Darkness and Wickedness in plain English a Kingdom made up of such Creatures who by their Sin and Wickedness did rebel against and revolt from their Holy and Rightful Lord and King All this being Matter of Fact is expresly discovered to us by the Revelations of God And the History of Man's Fall recorded in his Word with the Account that we there meet with of the Devils Kingdom of his Servants and Subjects of his Slaves and Captives of his Wars against the Holy Angels the faithful Subjects of the True and Everliving King do afford us a very lively Description of the Thing And because no Christian who is but tolerably acquainted with the Revelations of God in his Holy Word can possibly be a Stranger to it therefore we have thought it less necessary to quote the several Texts which by being put regularly together will give us an exact and Historical Account of it And indeed we have so much the less need to do so because we shall be farther and more fully satisfied in it by those Things which are to follow Well then Things standing in this State God was pleased to send his Son his Beloved Son made of a Woman made under the Law made Man to be a Saviour a Redeemer a Light to Mankind that is he sent him in Man's Nature to guide and direct to save and redeem Man from that Condition into which he was brought by his Sin and Rebellion What that Saviour did in order to the obtaining of such Salvation we have seen already and what is to be done in order to the everlasting Continuance of such Salvation is to be enquired now As therefore it was one Part of God's Counsel in sending his Son to Mankind to expiate their Sins so it was another and indeed the main and grand Design of such his Message to rescue them from their Slavery to Sin and from their Subjection to Satan and so to bring them back to his own Kingdom and to resettle them under the Jurisdiction of his own most holy Dominion For it is a very great Mistake which I am apt to believe has proceeded chiefly from our oversondness of our selves to think that God's chief Design in sending our Saviour was to free us from the Vengeance due to our Sins thereby vainly imagining that God has a greater Concern for our Impunity than he has for our Holiness and that he had rather we should be safe than that we should be good Whereas our Reason will tell us that God must needs love Holiness as he loves himself because he himself is if I may so speak Essential Holiness And then the same Reason will tell us that he must needs love himself better than he loves our Safety and that more especially when we our selves by slighting and neglecting of Holiness had betrayed such our Safety As therefore Man did by his Compliance with the Devil that is by his Sin expose himself to the Prosecutions of God's Vengeance and as he did by the same Means so far forth revolt from his Dominion and withdraw himself from his Jurisdiction as to become the Subject of Satan and Slave of Sin by which Means God was ousted of his Natural and Original Right to Man's Obedience and his Subjects so far forth drawn of from their Allegiance to him as to slight his Authority by slighting his Laws and to fight against him by opposing his Holiness so when the Hostilities were come to this pass that Man did fight against God by his Sins and that God did fight against Man by his Justice tho' God in order to a Reconcilation sent his Son into the World and by him a Proclamation of Pardon to all who should return to their Duty yet our Reason nay our Common Sense will tell us that the Restoration of God's just Right and Dominion by Man's Return to Holiness and Duty is in it self a Point of greater moment than Man's Pardon And therefore by the Tenor of that very Covenant in which the Articles of Reconciliation are contained it is stipulated that Man shall first be obliged to repent and return before God shall be obliged to forgive And we know that our Saviour himself in that Prayer which he taught his Disciples and in them all Christians does put that Petition Thy Kingdom come before that by which we pray that God would forgive our Trespasses Why all the Nations of the Earth are before him but as the Drop of the Bucket or the small Dust of the Balance And then can we think that his Honour and Natural Right is not to be consulted before Man's Safety It cannot be and because it cannot therefore we do conclude that tho' God did design the Pardon of Man's Sin by a Saviour yet for all that the grand and principal Design of sending him who was to be that Saviour was the bringing Man from a State of Sin to a State of Holiness the purchasing to himself a peculiar People zealous of good Works or as it is in the Fifth to the Ephesians ver 27. a glorious Church not having Spot or Wrinkle or any such Thing and thereby restoring to God so much of that Part of his Dominion which by the Temptation of the Devil and by Man's Revolt had been broke off from his Kingdom and which was willing upon the Gospel-Conditions the Proclamation of Pardon to be restored again to it Now from what has been spoken I would infer That it is a great Mistake to make the Sending of our Saviour in its first principal and grand Design to be the Pardon of Sin For as Obedience to the Law is the first and principal Design of the Law and as Punishment is but a secondary Design of the Law and is only grounded upon the Defeat of its grand and principal Design So Pardon of Sin in the very Nature of the Thing it self depending only upon the Desert of Punishment can therefore rise no higher than its Fountain and therefore can at the most be but a secondary Cause of our Saviour's Coming And therefore should we suppose God to pardon Sin tho' in and through our Saviour without any Regard had to the fulfilling of the Directive that is of the grand and principal Part of the Law we should by that means suppose him to break the Directive Part of the Law in order to his contradicting the Vindictive Part that is we should suppose him to break both Parts of the Law in order to such a Pardon For Veracity is one Branch of Holiness and when God tells Man in his Law that upon his Transgression he should surely die as we may perceive by the manner of the Delivery that the Denunciation is serious and solemn not only because it is backed with an Asseveration but because also it is incorporated into the Law so to tell us that God may by a Pardon that has no Regard to the Directive Part of the Law revoke such his solemn Threat
if the Punishment of Sin be absolutely just and necessary then how came it to pass that God did in his Counsel design and in his Wisdom appoint a Saviour in order to the Paâ—don of Sin For in Order of Nature the Design of Pardon must be antecedent to thâ— Design of sending a Saviour And therefore if the Punishment of Sin be as it is laâ— down both just and necessary God's Design of Pardon going counter to this Law should seem to be unjust For how could he justâ— design to pardon That which in Justice anâ— Necessity he stood obliged to punish Now to this several Things may be answered As 1. First That God did never design 〈◊〉 pardon Sin but only in and through a Savâ—our And how far such his Design undeâ— such a Restriction and Limitation is juâ—â— is very much the Business of that part of thâ— Discourse which in its Place is to follow anâ— therefore must not be forestalled here 2. That notwithstanding a Saviour yeâ— God did never pardon any sinful Creature All the Sinners that we know are the falâ— Angels and Men. What the Scriptures acquaint us with concerning the first we know well enough And among such Things 〈◊〉 know also that it gives us an Account 〈◊〉 the Punishment of their Sin And as foâ— Men those of them that shall be saved aâ— last in consideration of their Saviour's Merits do yet in this World suffer Losses anâ— Crosses and Pains and Diseases and Death All which are undoubted Punishments of Sinâ— And for the rest who shall by a final Impenitence reject the Benefit of the Saviour's Purchase besides the Calamities which they suffer in common with the Good in this World the Scriptures do acquaint us sufficiently with their Doom in the next So that if it may be an Argument that Punishment is the necessary Reward of Sin because all Sinners have do and shall suffer Punishment then God's designing of a Saviour for Mankind in order to their Pardon does not take off the Force of such Argument because notwithstanding such his Design and such Saviour no Sinner whatsoever did or ever will go unpunished 3. But then thirdly It is a Mistake that the Salvation of Man from Punishment was the immediate and direct Design in God's Counsel of sending a Saviour For as we shall see hereafter See Chap. 12. the Business of our Saviour's Coming was to bring back Mankind to his Father's Kingdom who had been drawn into a Revolt from his Dominion and Jurisdiction by the Sollicitations of the Devil and had thereby put a Slight upon the Authority of the King of all the World and so in some sense lesned the Extent of his Kingdom Now those whom our Saviour shall so bring back to their Allegiance by restoring them to their lost Holiness shall indeed be saved But then their Salvation is a Consequence of their Return to Holiness and so was not properly the Design of God's sending a Saviour but the Consequence of the Success of such Design CHAP. II. The Gospel holds forth no such thing as an Absolute or Unconditional Pardon no nor yet an Arbitrary Pardon THe next and Second Proposition offered to be made good in order to our main Design is this That the Gospel holds out no such thing to us as an absolute Forgiveness of Sin Which Proposition I therefore lay down here not only because it is introductive to some Things which are to follow but also to obviate the Conceit of those Men who think they do sufficiently wipe away the Merits of our Saviour in reference to the Pardon of our Sins by telling us that God may without any more ado pardon such our Sins by his Free Grace 1. But in the first place we cannot but take notice that what God may do and what he has declared he will do are Two very different and distinct Things Though therefore it be supposed that God may grant us an absolute Pardon yet if in those very Revelations in which he has discovered to us his Intention of pardoning us he does expresly tell us that he will not do so it will be proper and modest in us to acquiesce in what he so tells us rather than to raise in our Imaginations conceited Possibilities which do directly contradict such his Declarations 2. But secondly He who brought us the Gospel-Dispensation in order to the Pardon of our Sins does in that Dispensation require our Repentance in order to such our Pardon Now if Repentance be a Condition of the Pardon then for that Reason alone the Pardon cannot be Absolute because an Absolute Pardon is an Inconditional Pardon and it is impossible that the same Pardon should be a Conditional and an Inconditional Pardon too 3. An Absolute Pardon of Sin fights directly against all that we have said under our last Head concerning the Necessary Justice of Punishment And therefore till all that be wiped away we may upon those Grounds deny that there is any such sort of Pardon For it looks a little too harsh and that too to Natural Reason to tell us that God will be reconciled to the Enemy of his Nature and that upon the account of mere Mercy and Compassion and that in order to his being so he will throw away all Considerations of his Justice which in this Case we may adventure to call his Natural Displeasure 4. If we should suppose or allow such a thing as an Absolute Forgiveness then we must also allow that it may be the same thing whether a man has been the best or the worst Man in the whole World For an Absolute Forgiveness in the Reason and Nature of it may as well be extended to the one as to the other For let what Reason soever be assigned why it may not and that very Reason be it what it will will prove the Forgiveness not to be absolute For that Forgiveness cannot be so that is limited or restrained by any Reason whatsoever 5. An Absolute Pardon does throw a Slur upon God's Wisdom no less than it does so upon his Justice For the Law being his against which we have transgressed and he having in that very Law threatned Vengeance upon such as shall transgress it if after the Transgression he should grant an absolute Pardon to such Transgression he would by such a Pardon as much void and annul the Law as he had by his Threatning established and confirmed it And so it might come to the same pass as to the final Event whether he had made any Law or no. For what is the Difference not to make a Law and not to execute it And therefore St. Paul point-blank to our purpose tells us in the Third to the Romans the Fifth and Sixth Verses That if God should not execute Vengeance he would not only be unrighteous but that also he could not judge the World And we may add that he would not only be unrighteous but considering the Contrariety that would be between his Practice