Heaven and whosoever shall do any other duty or act for these ends seeks to be justified by works in the Apostle Paul's sense They make it a certain damning sin to do any other act that we may be pardoned justified obtain right to Salvation For that certainly was it which the Apostle wrote against Now quae nimium probant nihil probant that which will prove more than they upon deliberate thoughts dare grant that use the argument that answers it self as to them Surely they dare not own what inevitably follows from this Then it follows that no man must pray for pardon of sin upon pain of damnation for this is to do one act more for Justification than that one act No man must repent for this end That his iniquities may be blotted out that is for Justification No man must by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and immortality for then he must be damned for surely well-doing comprehends more than believing when they take it for one act but God hath said To such only he will give eternal life No man must do the Commands of God for this end That he may have right to salvation If he do he shall be accursed whereas God saith Blessed Rev. ult 14. are they that do his commandments that they may have right to the tree of life What hath God made promise to repentance returning sincere Obedience of Pardon Justification Heaven and shall we provoke God if we perform the condition for attaining the benefit and expect the benefit upon performing the condition Would not this be as rational to threaten death for sin and yer be angry at us for fearing his threat for avoiding the sin upon the account of his threat as to be angry at us yea according to this principle damn us for performing the condition of the Promise that we may have right to the thing promised There is no possible avoiding this consequence for if you may act for reward then for right to the reward for you are not as I shewed before to act for Possession any further than for right to it And if any should object But you must not expect Justification and Salvation to come by these this would be to say You must think God unfaithful and his Promises nullities and we are apt to be too distrustful herein without bidding or but you must not think to merit by these things Very true but is it impossible to perform them for these ends but we think to merit by them Do they that say they may do the one act of Believing for Justification think they merit Justification by it Sure I am that many that held these things notionally did not hold them practically for many of the worthiest men both Prelates and others that ever England had held these things notionally yet so as to deny the consequence but never any good man held them practically I mean except just in a sudden fit of temptation I shall now yet more fully make out to you what this Gospel-condition the Covenant-terms of Justification and Salvation and all other benefits by Christ are for they have all the same condition every Covenant-benefit or any Covenant-benefit by reciting some of the most eminent Names the Gospel-condition is called by which is an easie matter to do and some may think it as well let alone as needless But the thing I am speaking of seems to me to be as weighty a matter as any point in Divinity and is opposed by many and therefore it shall not be grievous or burdensome to me and for you I think it safe and needful and let the more intelligent pardon my using so many words yea and Tautologies since I do it that the lowest-parted may understand me and doubt no more That Condition which we are to be justified and saved by is called by many Names which yet always mean the same thing for substance 1. It is called Knowledg By his Isa 53 11. knowledg shall my righteous servant justifie many Knowledg here is taken objectively not subjectively viz. for our knowledg of Christ not his knowledg whereby he knows So This is life eternal i. e. the condition of life to know thee and thy Son but it meaneth also Love Believe Obey and carry suitably to such Knowledg 2. The Gospel-condition is called Confession If we confess he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins So if any man say I have sinned and perverted that which is right it profiteth me not he will deliver his soul But the meaning is Si caetera sint paria Confess so as to forsake obey c. Else if God meant no more by these Promises we should have right and he would be unfaithful in denying us possession though we forsake not our sins 3. Sometime it is called Faith The righteousness of Faith speaketh on this wise that is the Gospel the Law of Faith in opposition to the Covenant of Works If thou confess with Rom. 10. 9. thy mouth and believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved What doth he mean no more than you must believe Christ is risen Nay you must believe he is ascended into Heaven also yea and believe the whole Gospel and obey and carry suitably to the Gospel also The Gospel-condition which is a sincere endeavour according to the best of our knowledg to perform the whole duty of man is frequently called by the name of Believing in the New Testament because it was the great business at that time to perswade the Jews and Gentiles that Christ was the Messiah and that he rose again There were new Articles now added to the old ones new Conditions to the old They take it for granted as a thing known that they were to repent and obey that they knew the duty of repentance toward God But this was the great difficult Doctrine to perswade them there was a necessity of Faith in the Lord Jesus and to believe his death and resurrection Try the spirits for many false prophets are gone out into the world and 1 Joh. 4. 1 2 3. gives this as a trial of the Prophets every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God but he that confesseth it not is not of God We may take this as a probable interpretation of the place He takes it for granted that they knew they that taught wickedness and idolatry were not of God whatever confession they made of Christ But his meaning may be If any coming as a Prophet seeming to be a man teaching Holiness he is not of God if he deny Christ come in the flesh but if he add to other such virtues Faith in the Lord Jesus he is of God You may easily apply it to the case in hand And whatever interpretation else you will give of this as confessing Christ in time of trial yet it must be meant and teach suitably to such confession
meant of those that are actually Believers or fore-seen and looked on as such by him for he saith they shall come unto me shall believe on me and this belief and coming is named as the effect of God's giving men to Christ and so the giving is antecedent to the coming in all consideration So Ver. 44. No man can come unto me except the Father which hath sent me draw him Ver. 45. It is written They shall all be taught of God every man therefore that hath heard and learned of the Father commeth unto me Ver. 65. No man can come unto me except it be given him of my Father This he said knowing that there were some that believed not Such is the wilful wickedness of the world that all would reject Christ yea and they cannot do otherwise in some sense though they can in another sense which senses I could make plain to you but it would take up too much time and be too large a digression so that the working the Condition the first Grace the first difference is to be ascribed to Election 4. Though the common saying is That Christ's death merited no Volitions no Decrees and so his fore-seen death merited not that God should will such and such things and the most build much upon Aquinas his saying Deus vult hoc propter hoc sed non propter hoc vult hoc meaning there are reasons and motives causes of the things willed but not of the willing of those things yet I look upon this saying as meer words and void of truth and we ought to have other conceptions or else we shall have conceptions unworthy of God Yet many go in such a method in speaking of God's Decrees that they make this such a main Pillar of their Fabrick that for one to hold that God's love or pity or man's misery was any motive to God to send his Son to dye which God forbid any should deny would destroy their whole method for it is impossible that any thing should be or be considered as ratio rei volitae a reason of the thing willed but it must be and must be considered as ratio actus voluntatis as the reason of the willing For a reason or motive is essentially a motive to the will of the principal Agent for what can it possibly be conceived to move but the Will Can it be a Motive and move nothing or can it be actually a prevailing-reason and not prevail with the Will What ever God doth in time for the Merits of Christ he decreed and willed from eternity to do it in time for the Merits of Christ for whatsoever God doth now in time for any end whatsoever or upon any motive whatsoever he decreed and willed for that end and upon that motive from eternity to do it If God in time created rain to make the earth fruitful then the reason why he decreed and willed to cause rain was that the earth might be fruitful And for us to conceive otherwise of God would be for us to conceive him to act irrationally as willing things for no end and would put a stop to all admiration of the wisdom of God seen in his Providence and therefore such a conception of him would be offensive to him for we ought to conceive of him in the most honourable way we are able and that is the most pleasing to Him who is above our best conceptions If he condemn men in time for their refusal of Christ then he decreed to condemn them because he foresaw that they would refuse Christ If he save none justifie none in time but for their believing then he willed and decreed from eternity to save none with any decree or violence that we are to conceive of as distinct from his Will or Decree to work the Condition in men that they might be justified and saved but those he foresaw should believe And it seems plain that as he absolutely and without condition justifieth and saveth none so neither did he absolutely and without condition decree to justifie and save any But God foreseeing what an order and concatenation of things he would make and was bound in Honour to make notwithstanding Christ's death As in time without Condition though not without means He worketh Faith and Repentance worketh the Condition in the Elect that they may be justified and saved by Christ So he willed and decreed absolutely and without condition to work the condition the first Grace that they might be justified and saved by Christ 5. Though Christ's death as a satisfaction expiation was the cause of no more to us than this That if we repent and believe we shall be justified and saved Satisfaction and Propitiation being only for sin yet considering this suffering of Christ as a highly pleasing meritorious act as a worthy voluntary undertaking for the Honor of God we may say Christ did merit that God should give this Faith work this Condition and keep it in the Elect for all would notwithstanding this and the easie reasonable terms made of their interest in it through their own wilful wickedness have perished and he deserved that his blood should not thus far be lost as water spilt on the ground but that he should have some fruit of the travel of his soul in seeing a Seed actually to honour venerate and adore their Redeemer Though I must say for the honour of our Redeemer in this great affair He will have some reward in those that perish in that he did a wonderful kindness for them it being only through their own chosen refusal that they had no benefit by it His Goodness and Grace is not therefore no Grace because men reject it And to do a good and gracious act is a reward and satisfaction in it self And you may as well maintain That except God be ignorant and know not that men will reject his mercy he cannot be righteous and just in punishing them for it which is contrary to the knowledg of the whole world as to say Except God be ignorant and know not that they will through their wicked wilfulness refuse his Mercy his Grace and Mercy is no Grace and Mercy If one of you take a long tedious and hazzardous journey to disswade your friend from something you hear he designs to do which you know will undo him though he wilfully persist and will not be perswaded by you and so is undone by it yet he is bound to thank you all his life after and your kindness ceaseth not to be kindness and you have this satisfaction and reward You did a kind act though he reap no benefit And suppose you might have prevailed with him if you had there stayed longer with him and taken more pains yet your kindness ceaseth not to be a kindness because you did no greater kindness since that which you did would have been enough had it not been for his wilful obstinacy And his after-ruing of his own folly bears a loud testimony to
Abraham's time Abraham thought it probable there might be fifty righteous persons in Sodom though it proved indeed otherwise and he was better acquainted with the state of those times than we are at this distance And to come to the Jews before Christ's time that had the Oracles of God and to whom the Lord sent Messengers rising up betime and sending them because he had compassion on them saying Turn and live And If the wicked turn from his wickedness and keep all my Commandments be shall live Yet it is next to an impossibility but that those amongst them that knew little or nothing of this great price or Satisfaction that scarce understood any thing of their Prophesies Types and Sacrfices but that those should have muddied and fluctuating thoughts about this pardon of sin when deeply convinced of God's Holiness and hatred of sin and of the hainousness of their sins how it could stand with his Justice and Honour to give eternal life to such unworthy wretches upon their repentance and poor broken obedience Good hearts sensible of God's Holiness and the hainousness of sin would be apt to say Though he will pardon sin yet it may be not such great sins as ours What unanswerable Arguments taken from God's Justice and Holiness might they seem to have against it No wonder if they that knew so little of this great Transaction though sincere ones were all their lives subject to bondage through fear of death No wonder if they were as Servants and our condition the state of Sons in comparison of theirs though the almost visibly convincing knowledg they had of God and his placableness and mercy did prevail with them to perform the Gospel-condition to be true Israelites sincere servants of God Blessed be God that hath revealed those things to us that were hid comparatively from many wise prudent yea and holy men What helps have we which they wanted to turn to God! What helps to the love of God and to all cheerful obedience He so wonderfully loving us first even while ungodly as we may clearly and with open face comparatively to them now see Rom. 5. 8. God commendeth his love to us in that while we were sinners and enemies and ungodly Christ died for us And if so much more now when we are converted and so justified by his blood we may easily believe We shall be saved from wrath through him for then we have a Right by Promise ver 10. For if when we were enemies living in opposition to Heaven and so he as Rector an Enemy to us if then he found a ransome and we were then reconciled to God in the death of his Son quoad meritum so far as concerns the price and the conditional pardon made out thereupon much more being actually reconciled as we are upon the performing the Gospel-condition we shall be saved by his living to intercede for us and to see we have the fruit of his Death and our Faith the salvation of our souls v. 11. And not only so but when thus converted we joy in God as having now received the atonement There was an atonement in his death before but now we have interest in it having performed the Gospel-condition we are actually and not only quoad meritum justified by it What madness is in our hearts if we refuse to hear Him that hath thus convincingly spoken to us from Heaven O foolish Galatians who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ was evidently held out crucified amongst you He means by the Ministry of the Gospel for Christ was crucified at Jerusalem and not at Galatia And the same may by the same reason be urged on us O foolish yea more than foolish even bewitched Creatures we to do such an unreasonable thing as to refuse to obey the Gospel even we before whose eyes Christ is evidently held forth crucified If we perish we may every one of us say with him in Terence Et prudens sciens vivus vidensque pereo I perish knowingly and with my eyes open We may say with the Apostle God in times past suffered yet not altogether but comparatively as the following words shew all Nations to walk in their own ways Acts 14. 16. yea and the Jewish Nation in comparison of us And God Acts 17. 30. neglected those times of ignorance as the words should be translated but now commands even with almost compelling-evidence and power all men every where where Christianity comes to repent 3. This informs us That fallen man could never have fulfilled the Law or satisfied Justice for the breach of it else Christ needed not to have died for this end That God might be just for God might then have been just and the justifier of faln man after their good deeds and sufferings or satisfactions without Christ's death whereas the Apostle tells All are concluded under sin and that therefore all that were or are justified were are and shall be justified were are and shall be justified only this way by the pardon of sin through this Propitiation upon their Faith Repentance and new Obedience To account our Reformations Humiliations Faith Obedience in the place of a Satisfaction Expiation for our evil deeds is to pervert the design of the whole Gospel Christ is become of Gal. 5. 4. none effect to you whosoever of you seek to be justified by the Law How contradictory to this whole Doctrine is the avowed Popish Tenent of Merits Though some of their deluded ones amongst us are kept so ignorant of their own Religion as to tell us Their Church holdeth no such thing as the meriting eternal life by their works I know they are all to pieces about this as well as about other things they hold it Heresie to deny But did these never hear or read them discoursing of their works of Super-erogation that they can not only merit but so over-merit as to supererogate and have much to spare for those that need Merits Many of them as Bellarmine confesseth speak at a higher rate for Merit than he himself and yet this moderate man is too high of all conscience Jam verò opera bona justorum Bellar. de Justif lib. 5. cap. 17. meritoria esse vitae aeternae ex condigno non solum ratione pacti acceptationis sed etiam ratione operis probatur his Argumentis c. He maintains here The good works of pious men are meritorious of eternal life ex condigno and that not only upon the account of God's Covenant and Acceptation which is a contradiction in the very words but upon the account of the very works themselves And he tells us Cap. 12 One drop of Christ's blood was of merit enough to have saved the whole World for the infinite Dignity of the Person and cites the Decretal Epistle of Clement the sixth to prove it and then adds At non dissimilis debet esse ratio meriti in Capite membris Igitur
For this Holiness they have in a more glorious manner than our Christ within us our imperfect holiness can present to their view This was not that Christ crucified that the Apostle did so prize the knowledg of And this work of Grace could never have been within us had it not been for a Christ without us and had it been within us yet it would never have been available to Salvation or Justification but for the Christ without us There is no blood no satisfaction in this Christ within us nothing but what would have been esteemed by God and is in reality as menstruous rags in respect of attaining Justification without this work of Christ without us upon the Cross And yet these would make Grace should I say I rather say Morality and Civility yea to speak truly of some of them Incivility and Discourtesie their righteousness though it be a Gospel-command to be courteous These delight so little in our Christ without us that it is with much difficulty that they will confess Christ come and crucified in the flesh if indeed they will confess it for-some shrink at such a question and would fain put it off And I dare say That any of you that ever heard them talk can bear witness that they speak not as men delighting in or making any account of this Propitiation Ransom c. Cursed are they that love not our Lord Jesus These honour not God The honour that cometh to God by works of Creation and Providence is counted as no honour in comparison of the honour that comes to him by this Redemption therefore it is said He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father God accounteth all honour as no honour in comparison of this Hence we read Ephes 3. ult Vnto him be glory in the Church by Jesus Christ Phil. 1. 11. Being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God And Spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ And in Heaven the loudest and highest praises will be upon this account Worthy is the Lamb to receive honour c. These seeking to establish their own righteousness make void the righteousness of God through their ignorance of the righteousness of God Wonderful that ever the Devil should so bewitch people that ever the God of this world should so far blind men's eyes that ever he should so prevail with this device to work Christianity out of men's hearts so as to make them renounce the Christian Religion under pretence of high Christianity to look on Christ as a carnal Christ or the blood of Christ as a common or unholy thing on our Redeemer whom all Christians venerate and adore as a low nothing and to call his faithful Ministers Lyers and Deceivers But study you these things that you may admire Christ for he is and is to be admired in and of all his people Here is not such obscurity as to discourage your endeavoâ—rs nor such facility as to occasion your contempt You may easily see enough to admire all your days and yet still you are to learn It may be said to them of the highest form Go and learn what it means what Christ crucified means Here is a riddle of Mercy a riddle of Wisdom a riddle of Justice Christ is called Wonderful He is so in his Natures Offices Death Let these things be much in your mind It is like his complaint Diem perdidi I have lost a day to have cause to say I have lived another day and have not had a serious thought of Christ and his Death Do this in remembrance of me Look upon him whom we have pierced Study the reasons and ends of his sorrows and sufferings He dyed not as a fool dieth it was for some great End and this end must not be frustrated Wo to us if it be as to us This knowledg would be better to us than our daily bread this study is more necessary than our appointed food Is there but one Medicine in the World to heal us and will you not learn it study it and the use and virtue of it and how to apply it by Meditation that it may have its diversity of effects upon us St. Paul desired to know nothing but Christ and him crucified And Peter's last words of Exhortation in his last Epistle are Grow in grace and in the knowledg of our Lord Jesus And acting our faith and knowledg of these things by Meditation would be hugely influential to work and encrease Grace Come to other knowledg and he that encreaseth knowledg encreaseth grief and sorrow but he that encreaseth in this knowledg and is suitably affected with it layeth a foundation for perfect peace quietness and assurance for ever Let Ministers study this more and so preach this more I desire to know nothing among you that is to know so as to preach nothing among you save Christ and him crucified Preach not your selves but Christ Vse much plainness of speech Preach not like Moses with a vail on your face Let not people live and dye in ignorance of Christ if you can help it Discover all to sinners Let them see the Lord their Righteousness Now in studying and contemplating these things Admire 1. Admire the Justice of God Never was such Justice heard of since the world began Justice in a Mystery He spared not his Son that he might spare Sinners He hardned his heart against the cry of his Son that he might opeu his heart to the cry of Sinners Behold how he not only loved us but hated sin The dreadful instances of man cast out of Paradise the drowning of the World the destruction of Jerusalem the reservation of the faln Angels in horror and darkness are fearful Monuments of God's hatred of sin But here Justice and Holiness shine as the Sun in the Firmament When his beloved Son stood in the place and stead of Sinners he must dye such a shameful painful accursed death Surely had there been any respect of persons with God could Justice have been perverted and drawn aside with any considerations his only beloved Son should have escaped Here is inexorable Justice inflexible Justice This declared his Righteousness indeed that he would not spare Sin but punish it though on his innocent Son Here is infinite Justice fear it dread it Make this God thy fear and thy dread 2. Admire the love of the Father and the Son The Father Bless God for this Propitiation How dreadful was our condition How if Justice had taken thee by the throat and said Pay me what thou owest thou couldst not have reply'd Have patience with me and I will pay thee all God lays great engagements upon us in causing his Sun to shine in giving rain and fruitful seasons in making provision for our bodies but that which should endear him most to the world and should occasion our highest praises should be the providing a Righteousness for our souls Oh that
the Lord should look upon such dead dogs as we are What is man that thou art mindful of him and the son of man that thou shouldst visit him That thou shouldst give him such a Physician as thy Son to cure him with his blood What is man that thou shouldst magnifie and set thy heart upon him Admire and wonder at the love of the Son that Christ the Lion of the Tribe of Judah should be willing to dye for such dead dogs That God's fellow should be willing to be smitten and wounded that by his stripes we might be healed that he should give Himself his Blood and Soul a Ransome for Traytors for Enemies That he should intercede as Moses Blot me I pray thee out of the book of life and say as Paul Let me rather be accursed That he should say to his Father If they have wronged thee put it on mine account I will pay it written not with my hand but with my blood That he should say with Rebeccah On me be thy curse my Son That Christ should go into the fire that we may be as brands pluckt out of the fire That the most blessed should be willing to be cursed that we cursed ones might be blessed That such a Tree of life such a fruit-bearing Tree should be willing to be cut down and dye to save Trees of death dead dry and barren Trees cumbring the ground It is commonly said of men undone by Suretiship Their own kind hearts undid them We may say of our Redeemer His own kind heart laid him thus low brought these calamities upon him How dear should he be to us Quanto pro me vilior tanto mihi charior Labour to know the love of God and Christ which passeth knowledg that you may be able to comprehend with all Saints the heighth length depth and breadth of it Eph. 3. 18 19. Had we hearts as full of love as they could hold yea as full as all the hearts of Men and Angels could hold we could not love him as he deserves from us We had need with the Widow to beg and borrow Vessels to fill our hearts cannot hold enough Were we not cold frozen pieces of earth the fire would burn while we are musing This love of God and Christ would set our hearts on fire 3. Admire the Wisdom of God in this great Transaction This was matter of reproach amongst the Heathen their grand Objection against Christianity Deus vester Patibulo affixus est Your God was crucified and Christ crucified was to the Jews a stumbling-block and to the Greeks foolishness But it is wisdom to them that are perfect and to them that are saved by Christ Christ is the wisdom of God and the power of God 1 Cor. 1. 8 24 25. Never was such a strain of Wisdom heard of as this since the World began O the wise plot and contrivance of the Trinity for the salvation of lost man here are Treasures of Wisdom unsearchable riches of Wisdom Wisdom in a mystery to find out a way for the greatest Justice and Mercy to meet Wisdom bringing light to us out of Christ's darkness life out of his death making the fall of Christ the rising of the World Such Wisdom as the Princes of this World knew not such Wisdom as the subtil Devils could not fathom Wisdom confounding the Devils and making them to help forward our salvation by endeavouring our ruin in destroying Christ He destroyed his own Kingdom in seeking to destroy Christ's Kingdom 2. Exhort Keep humble and low thoughts of your selves yea be ashamed and confounded in your selves because of his kindness in being thus pacified toward you Look to the hole of the pit whence you were digged and see what you were by nature and what your lot and portion was Look at your selves at the best but as Beggars in the elder Brother's Clothes Say of your Righteousness Alas it was but borrowed Some are admiring their own virtuous lives the innocent lives they have lived these cannot but sleight the Death and Satisfaction of Christ This is a direct opposition to the Grace of the Gospel and Publicans and Harlots will have benefit by this before them that justifie themselves What needed Christ to dye for thee if thou be so good as thou wouldst make thy self The design of the Gospel is That every mouth might be stopped in boasting and all flesh be guilty in their own sight before God And this is one part of the condition of life and righteousness through Christ To be deeply sensible how just it would have been with God to have damned us And the full soul in this sense cannot but loathe this honey-comb And these Truths would be sweet unto us were we pinched with want and hunger 3. Prize your Souls set a high value on them since God did so Christ did so They were ransom'd at a high rate You have heard sometime of the ransome of a King as a huge matter it is nothing to the ransome of a Soul this is precious indeed Christ that well knew the worth of Souls paying so dear for them Our souls were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold do not sell them away for silver and gold for that which could not purchase them We were not free-born with a great sum was this freedom this reprieve and hopeful time of trial obtained sell them not away for trifles Thirty and two years and upwards was this Temple in building this Soul in redeeming by Jesus Christ the Son of God lose it not sell it not for the sinful fading pleasures of a few days destroy it not in three days 4. Look too that this Blood be not lost this great Counsel of Heaven lost as to us Look to your selves that we lose not the things which we have wrought but that we receive a full reward 2 Joh. v. 8. It is sad thing for a man to complain I have beaten the air and spent my strength in vain Have you done and suffered so many things in vain if it be yet in vain But much more should this prevail with us Take heed that you lose not the things that Christ hath wrought A sad thing for Ministers to complain We have spent our strength in vain but much more for Christ to say I have lost my labours tears wounds death as to these men The Righteousness and Pardon and Life which he hath purchased were not for Himself he hath no more need of them than the Heavens have need of rain or the Sun of light Cut off but not for himself therefore if you refuse this offer you endeavour interpretatively that it may be said of Christ He died as a fool dieth You say to Christ's face virtually You might have been wiser than to work and take pains for one that gives you so little thanks Is this thy kindness to thy Friend Is this thy thanks to thy Redeemer Hath not Christ deserved thee If the Devil and Sin have and