severe enough for ungodly Ministers of the Glorious and most Holy Gospel of the Blessed Jesus I will adde one more saying of our Saviour's which he spake to his Disciples whom he was training up for the Ministry Matt. 5. 13. Ye are the Salt of the earth but if the Salt hath lost its savour wherewith shall it be salted It is thence-forth good for nothing but to be cast out and to be trodden under foot of men Well I say that the Design of our Saviour and his Gospel being to make men holy those behave themselves infinitely disbecoming his Ministers and the Preachers of the Gospel that live unholily and so do all such also as was at first intimated as do not above all things endeavour the promoting and furtherance of that Design And of that number are those that are ever affecting to make people stare at their high-flown and Bum-baste Language or to please their Phancies with foolish jingles and Pedantick and Boyish wit or to be admired for their ability in dividing a hair their Metaphysical acuteness and Scholastick subtilty or for their doughty dexterity in controversial squabble And among such may those also and those chiefly be reckoned that seek to approve themselves to their Auditors to be men of Mysteries and endeavour to make the plain and easie Doctrines of the Gospel as intricate and obscure as ever they are able These are so far from endeavouring above all things to advance the Design of the Gospel that it hath not any greater enemies in the whole world than they are And to them I may adde such as preach up Free-grace and Christian Privileges otherwise than as Motives to excite to Obedience and never scarcely insist upon any Duties except those of believing laying hold on Christ's Righteousness applying the promises which are all really the same with them and renouncing our own Righteousness which those that have none at all to renounce have a mighty kindness for All which rightly understood may I grant and ought to be preached but to make the Christians duty to consist either wholly or mostly in those particulars and especially as they are explained by not a few is the way effectually to harden Hypocrites and encrease their number but to make no sincere converts Those again do nothing less than chiefly promote the business of Holiness that are never in their Element but when they are talking of the Irrespectiveness of God's Decrees the Absoluteness of his Promises the utter disability and perfect impotence of Natural men to do any thing towards their own conversion c. and insist with greatest Emphasis and Vehemence upon such like false and dangerous opinions And those may well accompany and be joyned with the foregoing that are of such narrow and therefore Unchristian Spirits as to make it their Great business to advance the petty interest of any party whatsoever and concern themselves more about doing this than about promoting and carrying on that wherein consists the chief good of all Mankind and are more zealous to make Proselytes to their Particular Sects than Converts to a Holy Life and press more exact and rigid Conformity to their Modes and Forms than to the Laws of God and the Essential Duties of the Christian Religion Such as all the forementioned have doubtless little cause to expect a well done good and faithful servant from the mouth of their Saviour at the last day their practice being so very contrary to that of his whose Ministers they profess themselves to be when he was in the world and they making Christianity so infinitely different a thing from what he made it And furthermore it is unquestionably the Duty of all the Stewards of the Mysteries of God to take special heed that they do not by over-severe insisting on any little matters and unnecessary things give their people a temptation to conclude that they lay the greatest weight upon them but so to behave themselves towards them as to give them assurance that there is no interest so dear to them as is that of the Salvation of their Souls And lastly to be so self-denying as to have a regard to the weaknesses of persons so far as lawfully and without disobeying Authority they may to prevent their departure from Communion with the Church they belong to and to use all fair and prudent ways to perswade those back again thereunto which there is any the least reason to hope are not irrecoverably gone away It being very much the interest of their souls not to continue in separation and not of theirs only but of others too in that strifes and contentions envyings and animosities are like to be kept alive and greatly to encrease while men keep at a distance from one another and where these are as it was said S. Iames hath told us there must needs be confusion and every evil work And this is no other than what the great S. Paul thought it no disparagement to him to be exemplary to us in For saith he 1 Cor. 9. 19 c. Though I be free from all men yet have I made my self a servant to all that I might gain the more And unto the Iews I became as a Iew that I might gain the Iews to them that are under the law as under the law that I might gain them that are under the law to them that are without law or observe not the law of Moses as without law that I might gain them that are without law To the weak became I as weak that I might gain the weak I am made all things to all men that I might by all means save some The summe of which words amount to this That he denyed himself in the use of his liberty to gain those who were not acquainted with the extent of it and dealt with all sorts of men in that way which he thought most probable to convert them to Christianity and keep them in the profession of it Not that he sneaked and dissembled and made weak people think that he was of their mind and so confirmed them in their mistakes and follies or had any regard to the humours of unreasonable and meerly captious people that will be finding faults upon no ground at all this must needs be unworthy of an Apostle for it is so of all Inferiour Ministers and likewise of every private Christian. And our past discourse assures us also that the promoting of Holiness in mens hearts and lives ought to be the only design of Ecclesiastical Discipline and Church Censures And 't is easie to shew that if the Laws of all Christian Churches were framed and the execution of them directed onely or above any other to the service of this Design or that no interest did sway so much with their Chief Governours as that which was and still is most dear to the Great Founder and King of the Church whom they represent and if they were willing to lose in their little and petty concerns
THE DESIGN OF Christianity QVI SEQVITUR ME NON AMBULAT IN TENEBRIS Clem. Alexandr Paedag. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 THE DESIGN OF Christianity OR A plain Demonstration and Improvement of this Proposition VIZ. That the enduing men with Inward Real Righteousness or True Holiness was the Ultimate End of our Saviour's Coming into the World and is the Great Intendment of His Blessed Gospel By EDWARD FOWLER Minister of God's Word at Northil in Bedford-shire LONDON Printed by E. Tyler and R. Holt for R. Royston Bookseller to the King 's most Excellent Majesty and Lodowick Loyd MDCL XXI Imprimatur April 17. 1671. Rob. Grove R. P. Dom. Episc. Lond. à sac Dom. To the Reader Reader WHereas there was somewhat above a Twelve-moneth since exposed to Publick view a Free Discourse between the two intimate Friends Theophilus and Philalethes which containeth an Account of some Principles and Practices of certain Moderate Divines c. together with a Defence of them I desire thee to take notice that in this Tractate is pursued the main and Fundamental Reason of that Dialogue As if thou art not a stranger to it thou mayest easily guess by the foregoing Title-page And if thou shalt please to give thy self the trouble of running over the following Pages I hope thou wilt be satisfied that the Doctrines that are chiefly maintained in that Book do most naturally result from and those which are most opposed in it are confuted by the Argument that is here insisted on If thou conceivest that in Demonstrating the establishment of Real Righteousness and True Holiness in the world to be the Ultimate Design of our Saviour's Coming and the Grand and even whole Business of the Christian Institution I have taken upon me to prove a Proposition that is as evidently and imdisputably true as any First Principle I must tell thee that I most heartily wish there were more of thy mind than I doubt there are And that I have been so far from giving my Reader any the least Temptation to suspect the Contrary that I have expresly as thou wilt see shewn That there is nothing in the whole world more clearly apparent than the Truth thereof to such as are not either through Ignorance or Wilfulness very strangely blinded or that have with any seriousness read the New Testament or but a small part of it But though this be so I may not be accused of so idley employing my self in the first Section as if I there held up a Torch to shew the Sun for I have pointed to it by its own light only that is exposed to thy View in a few leaves the summ and substance of that abundant evidence which throughout the Gospel is given us of that great Truth And whosoever shall say that to do this was needless I shall give him my unfeigned thanks would he make me sensible that I am guilty of a mistake in believing otherwise And upon that account rejoyce to be convinced that I have in that business spent time impertinently But alas it is no less undeniable that a Discourse of this nature is necessary and seasonable than that the matter thereof is true For it cannot be at all doubted that the Design of the Christian Religion is by abundance of its Professors very sadly mistaken and that though it is with infinite plainness expressed to be no other than the Reformation of our Lives and Purification of our Natures and is wholly adapted to that purpose the complaint that Tully took up of certain Philosophers viz. that they esteemed their Philosophy Ostentationem scientiae non Legem vitae a boast of science not a law of life may be applied to not a few of those that are called Christians concerning their opinion of Christianity And besides that there are diverse Opinions that too many among us are greatly fond of which make it absolutely certain that they think otherwise than they ought and have entertained unworthy notions of the Design of the Gospel it must be acknowledged that such Practices are likewise observable in the far greater part as are a Demonstration that if they have no false conception of it yet it is but little considered and therefore not thorowly believed by them And this alone is abundantly sufficient to avouch the Usefulness of my undertaking both in that and the two other Sections And till those that Profess themselves Christ's Disciples do more generally become effectually sensible as those of the first Ages were That the Mystery into which they are initiated is purely a Mystery of Godliness and that it is entirely composed of such Principles as tend throughly to instruct Man-kind in the Particulars of that Duty that the Law of their Nature obligeth them to towards their Creatour themselves and their Fellow-creatures together with the most Powerful Motives to Excite and the best means and most successful assistances to enable them to a faithful discharge of them we may never hope to out-live or to see the least abatement of that gross Superstition Fanaticism and Enthusiasm or those mad Enormities and most impious Practices which have now for a very long time sullied and most miserably defaced the beauty obscured nay and even utterly extinguish'd the glory of the Church of Christ have laid the honor w ch she was deservedly once crowned with in the very dust and bring the borridest scandal upon her holy profession and that Blessed Name she is called by But not to detain thee with a tedious Preface thou wilt have no reason to accuse me upon the account of this Discourse of starting and troubling the world with any more Controversies but mayst on the contrary be greatly assured That there cannot be taken a more effectual course to put an end to those we are at this day disturb'd with and to the pernicious effects of all whatsoever than is the right explaining and well improving of the Subject that is here handled For this is to strike at the Grand cause of them they being to be imputed to nothing so much as to the Ignorance of or Non-attendence to the Design of Christianity I will add no more but that if thou shalt please to accept this small performance as ingenuously and candidly as it is meant honestly and believe that it proceeds not from an Humour of Scribling but a sincere desire of doing some service thou wilt be but just to him who is ambitious of nothing so much as of being Instrumental towards the promoting of that most Excellent and infinitely Important Design in thy Heart and Life E. F. The Contents SECT I. That True Holiness is the Design of Christianity plainly Demonstrated CHAP. 1. The nature of true Holiness Described Pag. 5. Chap. 2. A general demonstration that the holiness described is the Design of Christianity by a Climax of seven particulars pag. 12. Chap. 3. A particular demonstration that holiness is the onely design of the Precepts of the Gospel And that they require 1. The most
if multitudes of those which lay a great claim to it should be as Excellent a Religion as it is little the better nay and in some respects even the worse for it And on the Contrary it is not to be in the least doubted That nothing can be so available to the introducing of a better state of things the abating and perfectly quenching our intemperate Heats the regulating and bringing into due order our wild exorbitances the governing and restraining our extravagant and Heady Zeal the induing us with becoming tempers sober thoughts and good spirits as would the thorow-belief the due minding and digesting of this one Principle And for this Reason I am not able to imagine how time may be spent to better purpose than in endeavouring to possess mens minds with it And to Contribute thereunto what it can is the Business of this Treatise Whereof these following are the General Heads which shall be insisted on with all possible perspicuity and convenient brevity viz. 1. First A plain Demonstration that True Holiness is the Special Design of Christianity 2. Secondly An Account how it comes to pass that our Saviour hath laid such Stress upon this as to prefer it before all other 3. Thirdly An Improvement of the whole Discourse in diverse and most of them Practical Inserences SECT I. That True Holiness is the Design of Christianity plainly Demonstrated CHAP. I. The Nature of True Holiness Described IN order to this Demonstration it is necessary to be premised That the Holiness which is the Design of the Religion of Christ Jesus and is by various Forms of Speech express'd in the Gospel as by Godliness Righteousness Conversion and Turning from Sin Partaking of a Divine Nature with many other is such as is so in the most proper and highest sense Not such as is Subjected in any thing without us or is made ours by a meer External application or is onely Partial But is Originally seated in the Soul and Spirit is a Complication and Combination of all Vertues and hath an influence upon the whole man as shall hereafter be made to appear and may be described after this manner It is so sound and healthful a Complexion of Soul as maintains in life and vigour whatsoever is Essential to it and suffers not any thing unnatural to mix with that which is so by the force and power whereof a man is enabled to behave himself as becometh a Creature indued with a principle of Reason keeps his Supreme Faculty in its Throne brings into due Subjection all his Inferiour ones his sensual Imagination his Brutish Passions and Affections It is the Purity of the Humane Nature engaging those in whom it resides to demean themselves sutably to that state in which God hath placed them and not to act disbecomingly in any Condition Circumstance or Relation It is a Divine or God-like Nature causing an hearty approbation of and an affectionate compliance with the Eternal Laws of Righteousness and a behaviour agreeable to the Essential and Immutable differences of Good and Evil. But to be somewhat more express and distinct though very brief This Holiness is so excellent a Principle or Habit of Soul as causeth those that are possessed of it I mean so far forth as it is vigorous and predominant in them First To perform all Good and Virtuous Actions whensoever there is occasion and Opportunity and ever Carefully to abstain from those that are of a Contrary Nature Secondly To do the one and avoid the other from truly generous Motives and Principles Now in order to the right understanding of this it is to be observ'd That Actions may become Duties or Sins these two ways First As they are Complyances with or Transgressions of Divine Positive Precepts These are the Declarations of the Arbitrary Will of God whereby He restrains our liberty for great and wise reasons in things that are of an indifferent nature and absolutely considered are neither Good nor Evil And so makes things not good in themselves and capable of becoming so onely by reason of certain Circumstances Duties and things not evil in themselves Sins Such were all the Injunctions and Prohibitions of the Ceremonial Law and some few such we have under the Gospel Secondly Actions are made Duties or Sins as they are agreeable or opposite to the Divine Moral Laws That is Those which are of an Indispensable and Eternal obligation which were first written in mens hearts and Originally Dictates of Humane Nature or necessary Conclusions and Deductions from them By the way I take it for granted and I cannot imagine how any Considerative supposing he be not a very Debauch'd person can in the least doubt it That there are First Principles in Morals as well as in the Mathematicks Metaphysicks c. I mean such as are self-evident and therefore not capable of being properly demonstrated as being no less knowable and easily assented to than any Proposition that may be brought for the proof of them Now the Holiness we are describing is such as engageth to the performance of the Former sort of Duties and forbearance of the Former sort of Sins for this Reason primarily because it pleaseth Almighty God to command the one and forbid the other Which Reason is founded upon this certain Principle That it is most highly becoming all Reasonable Creatures to obey God in every thing and as much disbecoming them in any thing to disobey him And secondarily upon the account of the Reasons if they are known for which God made those Laws And the Reasons of the Positive Laws contained in the Gospel are declared of which I know not above three that are purely So viz. That of going to God by Christ and the Institutions of Baptism and the Lord's Supper Again This Holiness is such as engageth to the performance of the Duties and forbearance of the Sins of the second kind not meerly because it is the Divine pleasure to publish Commands of those and Prohibitions of these but also and especially for the Reasons which moved God to make those Publications namely because those are Good in themselves and infinitely becoming Creatures indued with Understanding and Liberty of Will and these are no less evil in their own Nature and unworthy of them That man that would forbear gratefully to acknowledge his Obligations to God or to do to his Neighbor as he would that he should do to him c. on the one hand and would not stick at dishonouring his Maker or abusing his Fellow Creatures in any kind c. on the other if there were no written Law of God for the former and against the latter doth not those Duties nor forbears these Sins by virtue of an Holy nature that informs and acts him but is induced thereunto by a meer Animal principle and because it is his interest so to do And the Reason is clear because no one that doth thus onely in regard of the Written Precepts and Prohibitions of the Divine
explained by Turning from the power of Satan unto God And the following clause viz. And the Glory of thy people Israel signifieth the same thing Namely that in the place of their outward and Ceremonial observances called by the Apostle Beggarly Elements He should bring in among them a far more Noble viz. an inward substantial and Everlasting Righteousness and by abrogating that and establishing only this Righteousness He should enlarge their Church an accession of the Gentiles being by that means made unto it Fifthly This is expressed by S. Iohn the Baptist immediately before our Saviour's solemn entrance upon his office as the business he was undertaking Matth. 3. 11 12. I indeed baptize you with Water unto repentance that is especially from the more plain and confessed exorbitances but he that cometh after me is mightier than I whose shoes I am not worthy to bear he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire which will take away those stains and pollutions that Water cannot whose fan is in his hand and he will throughly purge his floor Sixthly Again after our Saviour's entrance upon his office he himself declared that He came to call sinners to Repentance And that he was so far from coming to destroy the Law and the Prophets that he came 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to fulfil or perfect them that is by giving more and higher instances of Moral Duties than were before expresly given And he tells the Jews presently after that Except their Righteousness shall exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees that is unless it be above their Practical and meerly External Righteousness they shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven And he abundantly made it appear as will be quickly shewn that the Reformation of mens lives and Purification of their Natures were the Great Business that he designed Lastly This was frequently asserted after he forsook the World by the Apostles he left behind him S. Peter told his Countrey-men Acts 3. 26. That as God sent Christ to bless them so the Blessing designed them by him consisted in turning them from their iniquities To you first saith he God having raised up his Son Iesus sent him to bless you by turning every one of you from his iniquities Again Acts 5. 31. The same Apostle with others saith that Him hath God exalted with his Right Hand to be a Prince and a Saviour to give Repentance to Israel and forgiveness of Sins Repentance first and then Forgiveness S. Iohn tells us 1 Epist. â—… 8. that for this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the Devil And S. Paul calleth the Gospel of Christ The Mystery of Godliness 1 Tim. 3. 16. The Doctrine that is according to Godliness And gives us to understand that that which the Grace of God which brings Salvation teacheth is that denying Vngodliness and all worldly Lusts we should live Soberly Righteously and Godlily in this Present World Tit. 2. 12. CHAP. III. A Particular Demonstration that Holiness is the only Design of the Precepts of the Gospel And that they require 1. The Most Extensive Holiness 2. The most Intensive An Objection answered BUT to give a more particular proof of what we have undertaken First It is most apparent That Holiness is the Design the only Design of the Christian Precepts and that this is the Mark which they are wholly levelled at What the Apostle spake of the Iewish may be much more said of the Christian Law that It is Holy just and Good For as Clemens Alexandrinus in his Paedagogus saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Even Infant-Christianity is perfection compared with the Law or the Mosaical Dispensation There is no Affirmative Precept in the Gospel but it either Commands Holiness in the general or one or more Particular Vertue or Habit of Holiness or some Essential Act or Acts of it or Means and Helps to the Acquiring Maintaining or Encrease of it Such as Hearing and Reading the Word Prayer Meditation Good Conference Watchfulness against Temptations Avoiding occasions of evil c. And there is no Negative Precept but doth forbid the Contrary to some one or more of those Duties but doth forbid some thing or other that doth tend either directly or indirectly immediately or mediately in its own nature or by reason of some Circumstance to the depraving of Humane Nature and rendring us Perfectly Wicked or in some degree or other less holy To make this appear by going over the Several Precepts contained in the Gospel would be a work of too much time but whosoever as he reads them shall duly consider each of them cannot be to seek for Satisfaction concerning the truth of what I have now said and I dare undertake he will readily acknowledge That there is nothing that is not upon its own or some one or other account greatly Becoming us and Perfective of Humane Nature in the whole Gospel Commanded And that there is not any thing in it self and in all respects innocent there forbidden This can be by no means said concerning the Precepts of the Law of Moses but that it may concerning those of the Gospel is absolutely Certain But my whole Discourse upon this present Argument shall be confined to these two Heads Namely to shew That the Christian Precepts require the most Extensive and most Intensive Holiness that is exactly such a Holiness as hath been described First They require the most Extensive Holiness Not onely towards God but also towards our Neighbour and our selves In the forecited place Tit. 2. 12. S. Paul puts all these together under the Phrases of Living Soberly Righteously and Godlily as making up that Holiness which the Grace of God that brings Salvation teacheth The Precepts of our Saviour command us not onely to give unto God the things that are God's but also to Caesar the things that are Caesar's Not only to obey God in all things but to be subject likewise to every Ordinance of Man for the Lords Sake that is to every Ordinance of Man that doth not Contradict the Law of God Not only to fear God but also to honor the King and to obey our spiritual Governors likewise which watch for our Souls c. and to behave our selves towards all persons sutably to the Relations we stand in to them Wives to submit themselves to their own Husbands as unto the Lord Husbands to love their Wives even as Christ loved the Church Children to obey their Parents in the Lord and Fathers not to provoke their Children to wrath but to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord Servants to be obedient to their Masters with singleness of heart as unto Christ c. and Masters to do the same things unto them forbearing threatning or a harsh behaviour towards them knowing that they have a Master in Heaven with whom is no respect of persons We are commanded to love
is and how much he hateth sin on the one hand and how infinitely gracious he is in his willingness to forgive sinners on the other was Christ set forth by him to be a Propitiation through Faith in his blood There are many and they no Adversaries to the Doctrine of our Saviour's satisfaction that do not question but that God could have pardoned sin without any other Satisfaction than the Repentance of the Sinner and in the number of them were Calvin P. Martyr Musculus and Zanchy as might be fully shewn out of their several works but that this is not a place to do it in but he chose to have his Son die for it before he would admit any terms of Reconciliation that so he might perform the highest act of Grace in such a way as at the same time to shew also the greatest displeasure against Sin And therefore would he thus do that so he might the more effectually prevent wicked mens encouraging themselves by the consideration of his great mercy to persist in their wickedness Therefore was Christ set forth to be a propitiatory Sacrifice for Sin I will not say that his Father who is perfectly sui juris might be put by this means into a capacity of forgiving it but that it might be a Cogent motive and most prevailing Argument to Sinners to reform from it There is an excellent place to this purpose Rom. 18. 3. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin or by the means of sin condemned sin in the flesh that is what the Precepts of the Mosaical Law could not do in that they were weak by reason of the impetuosity of mens fleshly inclinations that the Son of God coming in the humane Nature and in all respects becoming like to us sin onely excepted did and by being a Sacrifice for Sin so the word Sin signifieth in diverse places as Leviticus 4. 29. Chap. 5. 6. 2 Cor. 5. 21. and as I suppose also Gen. 4. 7. Condemned Sin in his flesh he by this means shewing how hateful it is to God took the most effectual course to kill and destroy it And moreover the most dearly beloved Son of God undergoing such extreme sufferings for our Sins it is evidently thereby demonstrated what dismal vengeance those have reason to expect that shall continue impenitent and refuse to be reclaimed from them For saith he Luke 23. 31. Is they do these things in a green Tree what shall be done in the dry If God spared not his own most innocent holy and onely Son than whom nothing was or could be more dear to him but abandoned him to so shameful and horrid a death for our Sins how great and severe sufferings may we conclude he will inflict upon those Vile Creatures that dare still to live in Wilful disobedience to him And from the Death of Christ considered as a Sacrifice we farther learn what an esteem God hath for his holy Laws that he would not abate their Rigour nor remit the punishment due to the Transgressors of them without a Consideration of no meaner value than the most Pretious blood of his own Son And lastly in that Christ hath laid down his life at the appointment of God the Father for the purpose of making an Atonement of Sin this gives all men unspeakably greater assurance of the Pardon of True Penitents than the bare Consideration of the Divine Goodness could ever have done And so by this means have we the greatest encouragement that our hearts can wish to become new men and return to obedience and have all ground of Jealously and suspicion removed from us that we have been guilty of such heinous and so often repeated impieties as that it may not become the Holiness and Justice of God to remit them to us though they should be never so sincerely forsaken by us In the Death of our Saviour thus considered are contained as we have seen the strongest and most irresistible Arguments to a Holy Life and I farther adde such as are no less apt to work upon the principle of Ingenuity that is implanted in our natures than that of self-love For who that hath the least spark of it will not be powerfully inclined to hate all sin when he considereth that it was the Cause of such direful sufferings to so incomparably Excellent a person and infinitely obliging a Friend as Christ is Who but a Creature utterly destitute of that principle and therefore worse than a Brute Beast can find in his heart to take Pleasure in the Spear that let out the heart-blood of his most blessed Saviour and to carry himself towards that as a loving friend which was and still is the Lord of Glory's worst enemy Again hath Jesus Christ indured done so much for our sakes and are we able to give our selves leave to render all his sufferings and performances unsuccessful by continuing in disobedience Can we be willing that he should do and suffer so many things in vain and much more do our parts to make him do so Is this possible Nay hath he been Crucified for us by the wicked Iews and don 't we think that enough but must we our selves be Crucifying him afresh by our Sins and putting him again to an open shame by preferring our base lusts before him as the Iews did Baral bas Hath he expressed such astonishing love to us in dying for us and wo'nt we accept of it which we certainly refuse to do so long as we live in Sin Hath he purchased Eternal Salvation for us and such great and glorious things as Eye hath not seen nor ear heard and which have not entered into the heart of man to be conceived by him and can we perswade our selves to be so ungrateful to him as well as so wanting to our-selves as to refuse to receive these at his hands on those most reasonable terms on which he offers them Hath he bought us with such a price and can we refuse to be his Servants and rather chuse to be the slaves of Sathan the Devil's Drudges Where can we find so many strongly inciting Motives to hate and abandon all sin as are contained and very obvious in the Death and sufferings of our Saviour for it Fifthly The Death of our Saviour is in a special manner effectual to the making of us in all respects vertuous and holy as he hath thereby procured for us that Grace and Assistance that is necessary to enable us so to be In regard of his humbling himself as he did and becoming obedient to the death of the Cross hath God highly exalted him and given him a name that is above every name that at the Name of Jesus every Knee should bow of things in Heaven and things in Earth and things under the Earth And that every Tongue should Confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God
antient traditions of the Hebrews But as for their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the splendid body and spiritual vehicle they talk of they mean not that Glorious Coelestial body which the Apostle tells us this Terrestial one shall be changed into but a thin subtile body which they say the soul even while it is in this gross one is immediately inclosed in And which being in this life well purified from the pollution it hath contracted from its Case of flesh the soul taking its flight from thence with it enjoyeth its happiness in it But I say the change of this vile into a Glorious body they were perfectly strangers to Now what an unspeakable encouragement to Holiness is the happiness which the Gospel proposeth to us and gives us assurance of also that the now mentioned or any of the Philosophers could never by the best improvement of their Intellectuals have conceived to be so much as likely to be attainable by mankind And who would still serve their filthy lusts and in so doing be the vilest of slaves here that looks to reign with the King of the world for ever hereafter He that hath this hope in him saith S. Iohn purisieth himself even as he is pure 1 Iohn 3. 3. And what hath been spoken of the greatness of the Reward which is promised in the Gospel to obedient persons may be said also of the punishment it threateneth to the disobedient It would make one would think even an heart of Oak and the most hardened sinner to tremble and shake at the reading of those expressions it is set forth by Some of the Philosophers do speak very dreadful things concerning the condition of wicked men in the other world but they fall extremely short of what the Gospel hath declared But I confess a discourse on this head will not very properly come in here For mere reason might make it exceedingly probable that so highly aggravated sins as those which are committed against the Gospel are shall be punish'd as severely if impenitently persisted in as is declared by our Saviour and his Apostles they shall be But however it is no small awakening to us Christians that we have such an undoubted assurance from God himself what we must expect if we will not be prevailed upon by all the means afforded us for our reformation but shall notwithstanding them persevere in the neglect of known duties and in the allowance of known wickedness CHAP. XV. That the Gospel containeth incomparably greater helps for the effecting of the design of making men inwardly righteous and truly holy than God's most peculiar people the Israelites were favoured with Where it is shewed 1. That the Gospel is infinitely more effectual for this purpose than the Mosaical Law was 2. And that upon no other accounts the Jewes were in circumstances for the obtaining of a thorow reformation of life and purification of nature comparable to those our Saviour hath blessed his Disciples with IN the second place it is the clearest case That the Gospel of our Saviour containeth incomparably greater helps and advantages for the effecting of the great work of making men really righteous and truly holy than God's most peculiar people the Israelites whom he knew and favoured above all the nations of the earth were partakers of First Nothing is plainer than that the Gospel is infinitely more effectual for this purpose than the Mosaical Law was For indeed that was directly designed only to restrain those that were under the obligation of it from the more notorious sins It was added saith the Apostle because of Transgression till the Seed should come c. Gal. 3. 19. Iustin Martyr saith particularly of the Sacrifices that the end of them was to keep the Jews from worshipping Idols which Trypho also though a Jew that greatly gloried in the Law acknowledged They were an extremely carnal and vain people exceedingly prone to be bewitched with the Superstitions of the Gentiles God gave them therefore a pompous way of worship that might gratifie their childish humour and so keep them from being drawn away with the vanities of the Heathens among whom they dwelt and he gave them withall such Precepts inforced with threatnings of most severe and present punishments as might by main force hold them in from those vile disorders immoralities and exorbitances that had then overspread the face of the woefully depraved corrupted world It is certain that the Law of Moses strictly so called did properly tend to make them no more than externally righteous and whosoever was so and did those works it enjoined which they might do by their own natural strength was esteemed according to that Law and dealt with as just and blameless and had a right to the immunities and privileges therein promised But much less was it accompanied with grace to indue the observers of it with an inward principle of Holiness And the Apostle S. Paul expresseth this as the great difference between that Law and the Gospel in calling this the Spirit and that the Letter as he several times doth Not that God who was ever of an infinitely benign nature and love it self as S. Iohn describes him was wanting with his Grace to well-minded men under the Old-Testament or that the Jews were all destitute of an inward principle of Holiness nothing less But the Law which Moses was peculiarly the promulger of did not contain any promises of Grace nor did the obligation thereof extend any farther than to the outward man But there ran as I may so express my self a vein of Gospel all along with this Law which was contained in the Covenant made with Abraham and his Seed by virtue of which the good men among the Jews expected Justification and eternal Salvation and performed the substance of those Duties which the New Testament requireth and which were both by Moses and the Prophets at certain times and upon several occasions urged upon them But as for this Law of Moses considered according to its natural meaning it is called a Law of a carnal Commandment Heb. 7. 16. And the services it imposed weak and beggerly Elements Gal. 4. 9. And a Law which made no man perfect Heb. 7. 19. Its promises therefore were only temporal upon which account the Author to the Hebrews saith that the Gospel is established on better promises Nor was Justification before God obtainable by it as S. Paul frequently sheweth and therefore did account the righteousness of it very mean and vile in comparison of that which the Gospel indued men with No man could be acquitted by the severest observance of this Law from any other than Civil punishments nor were its Sacrifices able to make the offerers perfect as pertaining to the conscience Heb. 9. 9. And though it be true as Mr. Chillingworth observeth in his Sermon on Gal. 5. 5. That the legal Sacrifices were very apt and commodious to shadow forth the oblation and satisfaction of
Christ yet this use of them was so mystical and reserved so impossible to be collected out of the letter of the Law that without a special Revelation from God the eyes of the Israelites were too weak to serve them to pierce through those dark clouds and shadows and to carry their observation to the substance So that proceeds he I conceive those Sacrifices of the Law in this respect are a great deal more beneficial to us Christians For there is a great difference between Sacraments and Types Types are onely useful after the Antitype is discovered for the confirmation of their faith that follow As for Example Abraham ' s offering of Isaac by Faith did lively represent the real oblation of Christ but in that respect was of little or no use till Christ was indeed Crucified it being impossible to make that History a groundwork of their Faith in Christ. The like may be said of the Legal Sacrifices And for a clear understanding of the direct use of this Law I refer the Reader to that Sermon Where it is fully and in my opinion as judiciously discoursed as I have ever elsewhere met with it Secondly Nor were these special Favourites of heaven upon any other accounts in circumstances for the obtaining of a thorow reformation of life renovation and purification of nature comparable to those which our Saviour hath blessed his Disciples with For though they had as we said for the substance the same Spiritual Precepts which are enjoyned in the Gospel over and above the Mosaical Law yet these were inforced by no express promises of eternal happiness or threatnings of eternal misery Nor was so much as a life to come otherwise than by Tradition or by certam ambiguous expressions for the most part of their inspired men or by such sayings as onely implyed it and from which it might be rationally concluded discovered to them As for instance in that place particularly where God by his representative an Angel declared himself to his servant Moses to be the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Iacob from whence our Saviour inferred that Doctrine for this Reason That God is not the God of the dead but of the living And that the notices they had hereof were not very plain and clear is apparent in that there was a Sect among them viz. the Sadduces that professed to disbelieve it and yet notwithstanding were continued in the body and enjoyed the privileges of the Jewish Church But that one forecited Assertion of the Apostle 2 Tim. 1. 10. putteth this out of all question viz. That Christ hath brought Life and Immortality to light through the Gospel From whence we may assuredly gather thus much at least viz. That in the Gospel is manifestly revealed Life and Immortality which was never before made known so certainly I adde moreover that the Israelites were required to keep at such a distance from all other Nations that they could not but be by that means greatly inclined to morosity self-conceitedness and contempt of their fellow-creatures And were ever and anon employed in such services as naturally tended through the weakness of their natures to make their spirits too angry and fierce not to say cruel As for instance that of destroying God's and their enemies and sometimes their innocent children too and the cattle that belonged to them And several connivances and Indulgences they had as in the Cases of Divorce and Polygamy and Revenge which did not a little conduce to the gratifying of Sensuality and the Animal life in them All which are taken away by our Saviour Christ. These things with diverse others made it in an ordinary way impossible for those people to arrive at that height of vertue and true goodness that the Gospel designeth to raise us to And though we find some of them very highly commended for their great Sanctity we are to understand those Encomiums for the most part at least with a reference to the Dispensation under which they were and as implying a consideration of the Circumstances they were in and the means they enjoyed And thus have we shewed what a most admirably effectual course our Blessed Saviour hath taken to purifie us from all filthiness both of the flesh and spirit and to make us in all respects Righteous and Holy And how much the Christian Dispensation excelleth others as to its aptness for this purpose And from what hath been said we may safely conclude That neither the world nor any part of it was ever favored by God with means for the accomplishment of this work comparable to those which are contained in the Christian Religion So that well might S. Paul call the Gospel of Christ the power of God to Salvation that is both from misery and the cause of it Well may the weapons of the Christian Warfare be said not to be carnal and weak but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds and casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth it self against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Great reason had Clemens Alexandrinus to call our Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Instructer and School-master of Humane Nature and to say as he doth in the following words That he hath endeavoured to save us by using with all his might all the instruments of Wisdom or all wise courses and draws us back by many bridles from gratifying unreasonable appetites And Iustin Martyr speaking of the Gospel had cause pathetically to break out as he did in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c O thou expeller and chaser away of evil affections O thou extinguisher of burning lusts This is that which makes us not Poets or Philosophers or excellent Orators but of poor mortal men makes us like so many Immortal Gods and translateth us from this low earth to those Regions that are above Olympus And well again might the same good Father having throughly acquainted himself with the Stoick and Platonick Philosophy by which latter he thought himself to have gained much wisdom and at last by the advice of an old man a stranger having studied the Gospel thus express himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I found this alone to be the safe and profitable Philosophy and thus and by this means became I a Philosopher Symplicius faith thus of Epictetus his Enchiridion That it hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so much of powerfulness and pungency that those which are not perfectly dead must needs come to understand thereby their own affections and be effectually excited to the rectifying of them Could he give such a Character as this of that little Book of his BrotherHeathen what can be invented by us high enough for the Gospel That as very fine a thing as it is being most apparently extremely weak and insufficient for the purpose upon the account of which he praiseth it if
his Gospel among us For sin being so apparently the greatest of evils it can be no other than the highest and most significant expression of hatred to us to encourage us to the commission of it It is so far from being part of our Christian Liberty to be delivered from our obligation to all or any of the Laws of Righteousness that such a deliverance would be the most Diabolical yoke of Bondage If any man can be so silly as to object that of the Apostle Rom. 6. 14. Ye are not under the Law but under Grace Let him give himself an answer by reading the whole verse and then make ill use of that passage if he can tell how The words foregoing it in the same verse are these Sin shall not have dominion over you and these words are a proof of that assertion For ye are not under the Law but under Grace That is as if he should say It is the most inexcuseable thing for you to continue under the dominion and power of sin because ye are not under the weak and inefficacious Paedagogy of the Law of Moses but a Dispensation of Grace wherein there is not only Forgiveness assured to truly Repenting sinners but strength afforded to enable to the subduing and mortification of all sin Our Saviour hath told us expresly that he came not to destroy the Law that is the Moral Law but to fulfil it And that Heaven and Earth shall soouer pass away than that one jot or little thereof shall sail And it is absolutely impossible that our obligation thereunto should cease while we continue Men. All the duties therein contained being most necessary and natural results from the Relation we stand in to God and to one another and from the Original make and constitution of humane souls But it is too great an honour to the Doctrine of Libertinism to bestow two words upon its confutation it being so prodigiously monstrous that it would be almost a breach of Charity to judge that Professour of Christianity not to have suffered the loss of his wits that hath entertained it or hath the least favour for it supposing he hath but the least smattering in the Christian Religion It is a most amazing thing that such a thought should have any admission into the mind of such a one while he is compos mentis and not utterly deprived of his Intellectuals Our Saviour's Gospel being wholly levelled at the mark of killing all sorts of sin in us and rendering us exactly obedient to the Divine Moral and also all innocent humane Laws Let me speak to such as so shamefully abuse our incomparable Religion as to take liberty from thence to be in any kind immoral in the words of S. Paul Rom. 2. 4 5. Despisest thou the Riches of God's goodness and forbearance and long-suffering not knowing that his goodness leadeth thee or designeth the leading of thee to Repentance But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up to thy self wrath against the day of wrath and Revelation of the Righteous Iudgment of God c. CHAP. XIX The Fourth Inference That a right understanding of the Design of Christianity will give satisfaction concerning the true Notion 1. Of Iustifying Faith 2. Of the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness FOurthly From what hath been said of the Design of Christianity may be clearly inferred the True notion of Iustifying Faith and of the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness First Of Iustifying Faith We thence learn That it is such a belief of the Truth of the Gospel as includes a sincere resolution of Obedience unto all its Precepts or which is the same thing includes true Holiness in the nature of it And moreover that it justifieth as it doth so For surely the Faith which intitles a sinner to so high a privelege as that of justification must needs be such as complieth with all the purposes of Christ's coming into the world and especially with his grand purpose and it is no less necessary that it should justifie as it doth this That is as it receives Christ for a Lord as well as for a Saviour But I need not now distinguish between these two there being but a notional difference between them in this matter For Christ as was shewn as he is a Saviour designeth our Holiness his Salvation being chiefly that from the worst of evils sin and principally consisting in deliverance from the power of it I scarcely more admired at any thing in my whole life than that any worthy men especially should be so difficultly perswaded to embrace this account of Iustifying Faith and should perplex and make intricate so very plain a Doctrine If this be not to seek knots in a Bulrush I know not what is I wish there were nothing throughout the Bible less easily intelligible than this is and I should then dare to pronounce it one of the plainest of all books that ever pen wrote For seeing the great end of the Gospel is to make men good what pretence can there be for thinking that Faith is the Condition or I 'le use the word Instrument as improper and obscure as it is of Iustification as it complieth with only the precept of relying on Christ's Merits for the obtaining of it especially when it is no less manifest than the Sun at Noon-day that obedience to the other precepts must go before obedience to this and that a man may not rely on the merits of Christ for the forgiveness of his sins and he is most presumptuous in so doing and puts an affront upon his Saviour too till he be sincerely willing to be reformed from them And besides such a Relyance is ordinarily to be found among unregenerate and even the very worst of men And therefore how can it be otherwise than that that act of faith must needs have a hand in justifying and the special hand too which distinguisheth it from that which is to be found in such persons And I adde what good ground can men have for this fancy when as our Saviour hath merited the pardon of sin for this end that it might be an effectual motive to return from it And can any thing in the world be more indisputably clear than if the only direct scope that Christianity drives at be the subduing of sin in us and our freedom from its guilt or obligation to punishment be the consequent of this as I think hath been demonstrated with abundant evidence that faith invests us with a title to this deliverance no otherwise than as dying to sin and so consequently living to God are the products and fruit of it And seeing that one End and the Ultimate End too of Christ's coming was to turn us from our iniquities if the nature of Faith considered as Iustifying must needs be made wholly to consist in Recumbence and Reliance on him he shall be my Apollo that can give me a sufficient reason why it ought only to consist in Reliance on the Merits of