Righteousness not for the Righteousness of our Work but his own Promise indeed what is there in us or our services worthy that Eternal Happiness which he hath promised as the reward of of his Grace to a sincere Repentance since both the Will and the Deed is from his Grace who works in us to will and to do of his own good pleasure Philip. 2. 13. So that after we through God having done the will of God what remains for God to reward in us but his own Gifts and Graces c. who renders to every man according to though not for his works and with him is no respect of persons Evident with respect 1. To the Perfection of his Nature who is free from all such Defects and Imperfections as are incident to Humane Natures whereby Judgment is often turned into Gall and Righteousness into Hemlock the Wicked are justified and the Righteous condemned both which are alike Abomination to the Lord and Justice frequently impartially administred in this Life Thus Saul spared Agag and the best of the Spoil of the Amalekites when he should have destroyed them all out of Covetousness or Cowardise or both 1 Sam. 15. 8. Thus Eli slightly reproved his Sons when he should have recompenced their sin with death which was great before the Lord through natural sondness 1 Sam. 2. 23. But God is free from all such Weaknesses and Imperfections and therefore with him is no respect of persons which will yet more evidently appear with respect to the Immutability of his Will who is not as a Man that he should change or as the Son of Man that he should repent God is free from all such grounds and causes as render Humane Wills subject to alteration as Ignorance and Impotence Men often change their Wills for want of discretion to chuse no better and for want of a present clear discerning and interview of things Men are often forced to After-games of Prudence which is the proper Notion of Repentance but God hath an Intuitive Knowledge and sees all things as they are and shall be in time from all Eternity Men frequently change their wills whether they will or no the Rational Faculty of the Soul is sometimes captivated through force and violence but who can resist his Will who is Omnipotent to whom all Nations are as the drop of a Bucket and as the small dust of the Ballance and the concurrent strength of created Power but as the Wit hs wherewith the Philistines bound Sampson as a Thred of Tow when it toucheth the fire c. And as for that Objection which some urge against the Immutability of the Divine Will from such Scriptures as seem to ascribe Repentance to God as Joel 2. 14. Jonah 3. 10. Who knows if he may repent be it considered that the threatnings of God are conditional and when not expressed are ever implyed according to that Maxime of the Prophet Jeremy 18. 7 8 9. At what instant I shall speak concerning a Nation and concerning a Kingdom to pluck up and to pull down and to destroy it if that Nation against whom I have pronounced turn from their evil then I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them So that it being the Immutable Will of God to repent of the Evil of Punishment upon Man's repenting of the Evil of Sin Penitere est sententiam mutare to repent is but to change his Sentence but not the Will the Will still remaining without variableness or shadow of turning And the immutability of his Will establisheth the truth of his distributing Rewards and Punishments according to every man's work without respect of persons and that he regards not the Persons of men but the persormance of the Conditions upon which he hath established the Covenant of our Reconciliation and Happiness by Jesus Christ The proper Inferences now from this Discourse are First Encouragement and Secondly Caution First Encouragement for every man to make good his Interest in the Common Salvation Indeed who would sweat in the Exercise of Grace and bleed in Conflict with Sin if after he hath done the Will of God he must remain uncertain whether he shall inherit the Promise This is that detains the Devils in Impenitence who believe and tremble James 2. 19. because they are reserved in everlasting Chains under Darkness to the Judgment of the Last Day Jude 6. But though Christ took not on him the Nature of Angels he hath of the Seed of Abraham and all that do the Works of Abraham are the Children of Abraham and Heirs according to the Promise Then let no man say with those in Jeremy 18. 12. There is no hope but we will walk after our own devices and every man do the imagination of his evil heart But let the Wicked forsake his way and the Unrighteous man his thoughts and turn unto God for he is gracious and unto our God for he will abundantly pardon And let every man work out his own Salvation with fear and trembling lest a Promise being left any man seem to come short of it c. Secondly Caution 1 Pet. 1. 17. Since we call on the Father who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work to pass the time of our sojourning here in fear and repose no more confidence of security from Succession from Holy men than as we are followers of their Faith and Virtues nor in the strict and zealous performance of all instituted Righteousness and positive Laws then as they are productive of the main end of purifying our hearts by faith renewing us in the Spirit of our minds and cloathing us with that New Man which after God is created in Righteousness and true Holiness and the end of the Commandment is Charity out of a pure heart and of a good Conscience and Faith unfeigned 1 Tim. 1. 5. And as it follows the Law that is Positive Law is not for a righteous man in whom the Law of Nature lives and can perform the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Dictates of it without the help of outward Laws for the design of all instituted Righteousness and positive Laws is but to conform us to the Duties and Obligations of the Law of Moral Righteousness and all obedience to them is no farther acceptable than as it is instrumental and serviceable to that great purpose And God is so far from being pleased with the performance of Instituted Righteousness in the guilt of Immoralities as it is the great aggravation of his displeasure and indignation Isa 1. 11. To what purpose is the multitude of your Sacrifices bring no more vain Oblations your hands are full of blood Isaiah 66. 3. He that kills an Ox is as if he slew a Man he that sacrificeth a Lamb as if he cut off a Dog's neck he that offers an Oblation as if he offered Swine's blood he that burneth Incense as if he blessed an Idol whilst they have chosen their own ways and their souls
A SERMON Preached before the KING AT WHITE-HALL July 30. 1676. By John Meriton M. A. Chaplain to the Right Honourable HENRY Earl of Arlington Lord Chamberlain of His Majesty's Houshold Printed by His Majesty's special Command LONDON Printed for Simon Miller at the Star at the West-end of St. Paul's 1677. MATTH iii. 8 9. Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance And think not to say within your selves We have Abraham to our Father for I say unto you that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham THese words were spoken to the Pharisees and Sadduces who were the great Zealots of the Jewish Church especially the Pharisees whom Saint Paul calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the most strait Sect amongst the Jews Act. 26. 5. Which knew me from the beginning if they would testifie that after the most strait Sect of our Religion I lived a Pharisee These were zealous and punctual in the observation of the Law of Circumcision and all other Rites and Ceremonies instituted of God by Moses under which for a time were contained the Mysteries of true Religion and Godliness Heb. 9. 9 10. which was a figure for the time then present in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices for sin which could not make him that did that service perfect as pertaining to the Conscience Which stood in meats and drinks and divers washings and carnal Ordinances imposed on them only until the time of Reformation In which Institutions consisted the external Profession and Form of true Religion and outward Communion with the visible Church until the coming of Christ in the Flesh but by a blind zeal for the Form without the Power of Godliness the Pharisees and Sadducees thought themselves privileged against the wrath menaced by the Baptist which contained a Prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem and other great calamities then approaching to the Jews under Titus and Vespatian and also the terrour of eternal punishment in the damnation of Hell The multitude came and were baptized of him in Jordan confessing their sins but these righteous in their own eyes had no sins to confess and came only to his Baptism out of a vain curiosity to see and censure deriding rather than believing that wrath they were warned to flee from reasoning as is evident from the Baptist's words in the Text We are zealous of the Law of Circumcision and all things enjoyned us of God by Moses and have Abraham to our Father Tush God cannot destroy us being righteous nor according to the Oath which he sware to Abraham and his Seed for ever but with Ixion in the Fable they embraced a Cloud instead of Juno whilst they thought they had found the clearest and the brightest truth it proved but a Cloud of palpable errour and darkness For the Baptist accuses their Righteousness of insufficiency admonishes them to repent and upbraids their vain oftentation and fruitless boasting of succession from Abraham from whose faith and vertue they were so far degenerated as they were more like a brood of Vipers than his Children They had proceeded all this while upon a false Hypothesis about that Righteousness wherein consisted the power and substance of true Religion and Godliness and upon which the Covenant of God in Christ was confirmed to Abraham four hundred and thirty years before the giving of the Law by Moses Gal. 3. 15 16. So that unless they would now upon means of better information recant their errours and recall their mistakes and reform their manners which is indeed to repent they could not secure themselves from being involved in the common Miseries then approaching their Land and Countrey under Titus and Vespatian or for ever escape the damnation of Hell For the Promise that he should be Heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law but through the righteousness of faith Rom. 4. 13. Religion is not a Complement but a real thing and that righteousness whereby we are righteous in the sight of God is not external obedience of the body to instituted Righteousness or positive Laws but internal obedience of the heart to the Law of Moral goodness and the Dictates of right Reason engraven upon the conscience of every man Rom. 2. 14. Explained and made more evident by the several Revelations of God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in times past to the Fathers by the Prophets and in these last days unto us by his Son Heb. 1. 1. The former which is our righteousness in the sight of men and but the shadow and carcase of Religion is called a righteousness of our own which is according to the Law Phil. 3. 9. As being the performance of the letter of the Law by the act and operation of the body through mere natural vertue which is our own But the latter which is our righteousness in the sight of God is called in the same Text The righteousness which is of God by faith in Jesus Christ Of which words I think my self obliged to give a distinct and full account and that according to the demonstration of truth to my own Conscience in the sight of God they being the directions of our present life to a future happiness which makes an errour dangerous and truth to be valued in opening them then I must give solution to these three Particulars 1. In what sence called the righteousness of Faith 2. Of God 3. Of God by faith in Jesus Christ 1. It is called the righteousness of Faith in a double respect 1. As being the most proper object of our Belief so to conceive of God as is most agreeable to natural notice and supernatural Revelation 2. As being the only Principle to the practice of all the Duties and Obligations of the Will of God so revealed Faith being the first Principle of all Religion both natural and revealed Heb 11. 6. He that comes to God must believe that he is and that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him 2. It is called the righteousness of God 1. As being the Copy or Image of that righteousness which God is in himself of which God himself is the Original and Perfection 2. As being that righteousness which God only approves and will reward Rom. 2. 28. He is not a Jew which is one outwardly nor is Circumcision that which is outward in the flesh but that which is inward in the heart whose praise is not of Men but of God 3. It is called the Righteousness of God by Faith in Jesus Christ 1. As to the performance of which we are assisted by the grace of God obtained by faith in Jesus Christ in whose Name whatsoever we ask believing we shall receive and the grace of the new Covenant consists in these three things 1. To encline our wills to accept the conditions 2. Upon our acceptance to assist our weakness 3. To accept our sincerity through many defects and imperfections the integrity of
and Esau have I hated respect not the persons of Esau and Jacob but their Posterities as is evident to all unprejudiced minds from that place of the Prophet Malachi 1. 1 2 3. referred to by the Apostle the words are The burden of the Word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi I have loved you saith the Lord yet ye say wherein hast thou loved us Was not Esau Jacob's Brother saith the Lord yet I loved Jacob and hated Esau and laid his Mountains his Heritage waste for the Dragons of the Wilderness c. So that the true meaning of the expressions Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated is comparative and gradual with respect only to grace and favour and not at all to ill will or hate and may be rendred Jacob have I preferred in my favour before Esau in giving his Posterity the good Land of Canaan and that of Esau's the barren Mountains And that these expressions were thus usually understood amongst the Jews is evident by those words of the same Dialect of our Saviour's Luke 14. 26. If any man come to me and hate not his Father and Mother and his own life Where Hate cannot refer to ill-will properly but to a less degree of love unless we can suppose our Saviour to cancel the bonds of natural affection and extinguish the common Principles of Nature And although our common relation unto God introduce no Anabaptistical parity or community in his favours but Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated yet it maintains his good will towards all and secures every man from being miserable that with hearty repentance and true faith turn unto him And this is a representation worthy of God and Christ worthy the infinite goodness and grace of God who is not straitned by saving a few or many as if he could save no more who is able to save unto the utmost all that come unto him in Jesus Christ for he is a Fountain of Living Water and can quench the thirst of all men and creatures without drawing himself dry his goodness like the Sun enlightens every Star and influences every Plant without abatement of his own vertue or light he is the true Moses's Bush that burns without waste warms and enlivens every thing without consuming or impairing his own heat or beams and it is a light thing for him that is an undervaluing of his Power and Goodness as he saith by his Prophet Isaiah to raise up the Tribes of Jacob and restore the preserved of Israel therefore have I given him that is Christ that he might be for Salvation unto the ends of the Earth and as they do but eclipse the glory of the Sun in the Firmament who restrain his light and influence to some few Regions and Countreys and extend them not from the rising to the going down of the same so do they the Riches of the Grace of God who confine it to a few and extend it not to Mankind It is also no less worthy of the infinite Merit of the Satisfaction of Christ who by his own Oblation of himself once offered upon the Cross made a full perfect and sufficient Sacrifice Oblation and Satisfaction for the sins of the whole world and can we deem without scandal and imputation to his Satisfaction the Merit of our Second Adam less powerful to redeem than the guilt of the First Adam was to captivate and enthral So that as by the offence of one Judgment came upon all men to Condemnation so by the righteousness of one the free Gift is come upon all men to justification of life Rom. 5. 18. And as for that Objection Rom. 9. 18. For who hath resisted his Will If God's Will must be accomplished and God hath willed the Salvation of all men by Jesus Christ how comes it to pass that any perish Be it considered for answer hereunto That God hath willed the Salvation of all men by Jesus Christ through the Conditions of Faith and Repentance and so his Will is unresisted in all that are saved and in all that perish Christ died by the Will of God for all that believe and repent but all that believe not but remain impenitent perish everlastingly which is the fault of their own impenitence and infidelity c. Nor can our Faith or Infidelity make the Will of God of no effect and such is the concurrence of God's Grace with every man's Will who works in us to will and to do of His own good pleasure whereby every man may if he will work out his own Salvation with fear and trembling nor can our acceptance or refusal of his Grace prejudice or lessen his good Will the neglect or contumely of the Patient cannot justly derogate from the kindness of the Physician or Sovereignty of the Remedy nor are the Riches of God's Grace less in themselves though multitudes continue poor only because they will not and despise And God is still the Saviour of all men though especially or actually only of them that believe because he is not really willing that any should perish but rather that all should come to Repentance his Nature and Property is always to have mercy and to forgive all that believe and repent and he is unwillingly compelled to destroy the Impenitent and Unbelieving and he is thirsty after no mans blood who hath granted unto all Repentance unto Life and his ways are equal who leaves every man to inherit his own Choice and renders to every man according to his works without respect of persons which is the next Particular to be discussed For Although Mercy and Free Grace admitted lapsed Mankind to Conditions of Reconciliation and Restitution by Jesus Christ yet Justice exacts the performance of those conditions and accordingly distributes Rewards and Punishments for the Grace of God is a Covenant of Grace and a Covenant without a Condition is a Contradiction and unless the Conditions be performed can it reasonably be expected there should be any force or vertue in the Obligation And in this adequate and impartial dealing of God he regards not the merit of the Opus operatum or or thing done by us but the Equity and Justice of his own Promise and Covenant who hath established a reward infinitely exceeding the Merit of the Obedience required either as congruous or condign from the consideration of the Work wrought which is but a just compliance with the Will of our Lawful Sovereign who hath power of Right to impose and it is but our duty to obey so that when we have done all we are but unprofitable Servants because we have done no more than was our duty to perform and whatever is of duty implies no reward as of Desert or Merit but only from that Grace which hath annexed a reward to our duty to make it our interest to obey So that it is a righteous thing with God to reward and crown our obedience to his Laws in Christ whence called a Crown of