Crown of Life 2 Pet. 1. 5 6 7 8 11. Give Diligence to add to your Faith Vertue and to Vertue Knowledge c. for so an entrance shall be ministred unto you into the Everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour And those Threats on the other Hand to those that do not Persevere Heb. 10. 38. If any Man draw back my Soul shall have no Pleasure in him Heb. 12. 14. And Holiness without which no Man shall see the Lord. What I shall say to the last Point of Doctrine viz. That Salvation being thro' Faith doth not hinder or oppugn its being of Grace shall be in answering three Questions or Objections that may be made against its being of Grace Quest. 1. How is our Salvation of Grace since it is not without the Merit and Satisfaction of Christ But before I come directly to Answer this I must Premise something for the better Understanding of this Matter which is this That the Scripture speaking of the Salvation of Sinners as it doth assert that it is of Grace so we frequently meet with this Phrase that it is through Faith and elsewhere most frequently that it is thro' Christ. It is of Grace through Faith saith the Text 2 Tim. 3. 15. Wise unto Salvation through Faith in Christ Jesus Heb. 6. 12. Who through Faith and Patience inherit the Promises And elsewhere we find that Salvation and all the Parts of it are said to be through Christ Rom. 3. 24. Through the Redemption that is in Christ Jesus Eph. 1. 7. Redemption through his Blood Tit. 3. 5 6. But according to his Mercy he saved us which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour in these and many other Scriptures you may observe that Grace Mercy or Love as it is a Love of Benevolence or Good-will is at the Head or Top of all which is Gods gracious Free Propension and Inclination to do good to us to Pardon and Save us this you see is at the Head of all and before all but the Effects and Fruits of it is said to be given to us sometimes through Christ through his Blood and through his Redemption and sometimes through Faith and yet these hinder not its being of Grace 1. Salvation is through Christ with respect to God giving and bestowing of it that he may give such great and undeserved Mercies and Benefits to Sinners in a way becoming himself becoming of his Wisdom Holiness and Justice which could not be if they were given absolutely without respect to the Redemption and Satisfaction of Christ. 2. And it is said to be through Faith with respect to our receiving and being made actual Partakers of these Benefits of Pardon Life and Salvation We must receive these great and undeserved Benefits through Faith and partake of them only by Faith that we may in our very partaking of them honour both the Father and the Son both our Supream Rector and Redeemer that is we must receive and partake of them in such a way wherein we shall acknowledge admire and adore the Love and Mercy the Wisdom Holiness and Justice of God the Father Together with the Love Grace Condescension and Kindness of our Saviour and Redeemer God gives Salvation through Christ and his Redemption that he may give as becomes himself so as becomes an infinitely Wise Holy and Just Governour and we must receive or partake of it only through Faith that we may receive it as becomes our selves that is as becomes miserable guilty lost and undone Sinners we must receive the Salvation of Grace in such a way wherein our very receiving is an acknowledgment that our selves are nothing and that God and Christ is all that even when we receive a Pardon we shall at the same time yea in the same Act acknowledge that we deserve to be condemned and that Gods Grace freely bestows all upon us for the sake of the Redemption and Satisfaction of Christ so much in the general and which will afford Light for the solving of the following Questions or Objections Obj. 1. How is our Salvation of Grace and of such free Grace when it is not without the Merit and Satisfaction of Christ when so great a Price as the Life and Blood of the Son of God was exacted by God and paid by Christ for the Purchase of it Ans. The Socinians will easily answer this in their way for they say that our Pardon and Salvation is meerly an Act of Dominion and Favour and not procured by the Sufferings of Christ as a Punishment and Satisfaction for our Sins For they say that Christs Sufferings was no Punishment for our Sin nor any proper Satisfaction to Divine Justice and that our Sin was no antecedent inpulsive Cause of Christs Suffering nor his Sufferings any meritorious Cause of our Pardon or Salvation But this cannot be admitted without subverting the whole Gospel and destroying the very Foundations of the Christian Religion for this makes the whole Mediation Death and Sufferings of Christ to be in vain or of very little use for they assign but little if any thing more to the Death of Christ then what may be attributed to the Death and Sufferings of the Martyrs This therefore must be acknowledged that the Death and Sufferings of Christ were a Punishment for our Sins a proper Satisfaction to Divine Justice a price of our Redemption and yet that our Pardon and Salvation is of Grace notwithstanding For the right Understanding of which it is necessary to shew 1. How or in what Relation God is chiefly to be considered in this business of the Redemption and Salvation of Sinners 2. What is the Reason and Use of Christs Sufferings 1. God in the Business of Redemption is to be considered principally as the supream Ruler and Governour of the World infinitely Wise Holy and Just who was greatly offended and provoked by Sin and his Law and Government slighted dispised and trampled upon by Sinners and yet of his own infinitely good and gracious Nature was propense and inclined to shew Pity and Mercy yea to deliver and save his miserable Creatures that had made themselves so by their Sin and Apostalie But this could not be effected without some way or medium whereby the Honour of God's Law and of his Wisdom Justice and Holiness as the righteous Governour of the World shall be secured and preserved for God can do nothing unjustly nothing unwisely or unholily but should he of meer Grace and Favour without any Punishment of Sin or a sufficient Satisfaction to his Justice have pardoned the Sin of Man there would have lain great Imputations against his Wisdom and Holiness his Truth and Justice and such inconveniences as would have reproached if not subverted his Government It may not be amiss to give you alight touch of this for I design to not insist upon it so largely as it might be 1. If God should have pardoned and saved Sinners without a Satisfaction this would have reflected upon
his Wisdom for since he had with infinite Wisdom and Counsel made a Law for the Government of his Creatures with a Penalty annexed in case of Disobedience how could it stand with his Wisdom to suffer the Contempt and Violation of it and of his own Authority therein to go altogether unpunished What to have his Law trampled upon and as it were made void assoon as made if he should suffer this to go unpunished he would seem to disregard his own Law in the Sanction of it as much as his Creature had done the Precept of it Again should he suffer the Violation of of his Law to go altogether unpunished would it not seem as if he now saw Reason to alter his Mind since he saw good not to exact that Punishment he had denounced 2. And if he should have exacted no Punishment or Satisfaction for Sin there would lye a great Impeachment against his Justice and Wisdom together for either Sin did deserve Punishment and as great a Punishment as was threatened or it did not deserve it If it did not deserve it then it was unjust to enact it in the Law But if it did deserve it as no doubt it did then upon the entrance of Sin Justice must necessarily require that either the Punishment threatened or an equivalent and such as shall be full Satisfaction be exacted And here observe that though a Creditor may freely forgive a Debt that is owing to him without Injustice yet a Governour in many Cases connot forgive a Criminal without Injustice because Punishments are in some Cases absolutely necessary for the keeping up a due Reverence and Regard of the Governour and of his Laws And likewise for the good of the Common-wealth the preserving of due Order and the securing of the Lives and Properties of the Subjects why God is here to be considered as the righteous Governour of the World 3. And there would lye an Impeachment against his Truth and Veracity too for having threatened such a Punishment for the Violation of his Law would not his Veracity be called into Question if none was exacted 4. And from all these there would arise a great inconveniency and disorder in the future Government of the World for Men would hence take occasion to imbolden themselves in Sin and flatter themselves with Hopes of Impunity in it for they might thus Reason if God did once without any Satisfaction shew mercy to his sinning Creatures and that contrary to the Sentence of his own Law then why may he not do so again And if it be not inconsistent with his Nature and governing Justice to let one Sin go unpunished and that such a one as did quantum in se spoil the design of his works assoon as made then why not another and another and so Men would be incouraged to Hope that notwithstanding all the threatenings of Gods Law that yet they might have Peace though they did walk on in the ways of their own Hearts Nay and it would lay a Foundation for Men to distrust and be suspicious of the certainty and stability of his Promise too for if God do disregard the threatning of his Law then why not the Promise too and so both the stability of his Promise and the awe and terrour of his Threats would be mightily shaken at once the wicked imboldened and hardened in Sin with Hopes of Impunity notwithstanding all his Threats And the Comforts and Confidence of the Righteous weakened notwithstanding all his Promises These and many more such like great inconveniencies and disorders would necessarily have followed if Sin should have been pardoned and Sinners saved without a Satisfaction to the Justice of God These Things are necessary to understand the Reason and Use of Christs Sufferings 2. And now here comes in the Necessity and Reason of Christ Sufferings not that God was so delighted with the Blood and Sufferings of Christ meerly considered as Sufferings that he would sell his great Benefits to us for the Blood of his innocent Son nor to incline God to be merciful that was before averse to it No but since he was propense to shew Mercy he might in this way do it without any prejudice to his other Perfections because in the Death and Sufferings of Christ there is a sufficient salvo for the Honour of his Law and Government and of his Wisdom Holiness and Justice so that now his Mercy and Kindness is exercised in pardoning of guilty Sinners without any Impeachment of the Honour of his other Perfections he can now be just as well as merciful in Pardoning and holy as well as pitiful and kind in Sparing And his rich and free Grace in pardoning and saving Sinners in this way doth thus appear 1. In that this way for the Satisfaction of his own Justice and for the vindicating the Honour of his Law and Government was of his own finding out and provideing the Scripture every where attributes the contrivance of Redemption to God himself Job 33. 24. I have found a ransome God did out of his own Treasure provide for the Satisfaction of his own Justice the giving of Christ to be our Redeemer was the Fruit of his free self-moving Love and Grace Joh. 3. 16. God so love the World that he gave his Son 2. His Grace appears in accepting of what Christ did and suffered for us so as thereupon and for the sake of Christ to Pardon and Acquit us when we beleive in him for though the Suffering of Christ were abundantly sufficient to make Satisfaction yet it is of the free Grace of God to accept them on our behalf for in that very Thing there is a Relaxation of the Law for that did threaten every Offendor in his own Person and none else 3. Nay here seems to be a more abundant Grace and Love in giving Pardon and Salvation through Christ then if he had given it as a meer Act of Dominion and Favour without any Satisfaction to his Justice For you see that the Sufferings of Christ was not to purchase Gods Love of Goodwill to us for that was Antecedent to the Sufferings of Christ and the moving Cause of his giving Christ but the true Reason of Christs Sufferings is that the Honour of his Law and Government and of all his Perfections might be secured and provided for in the exercise of his Grace and pardoning Mercy towards us Now that he should give his only begotten and dearly beloved Son to be so humbled and abased to undergo such Shame and Misery and Death for us this was of all others the highest Instance and Demonstration of his Grace and Love to us it was impossible that he should be merciful at a dearer Rate or shew his Love and Kindness in a more stupendious Way We have a story of Zaleucus King of Locris that when his own Son was found to have transgressed a Law that threatened the loss of both Eyes to the Offendor the King resolves to execute the Law to
most provoking to God as we say Corruptio optimi est pessima the abuse of the best Things is of all other the worst and doth most heighten and aggravate the Sin and Guilt of those that do so If it be so hainous a Sin to abuse the Mercies of Gods common Providence such as his Benignity Patience and Long-suffering so as thereby to be more bold and fearless in sinning against him when they should be led thereby to Repentance and Thankfulness as it is Rom. 2. 4 5. Then how much more hainous and crimsondyed a Sin must it needs be to wrest and abuse his Grace that brings Salvation that offers Salvation that tends to Salvation that aims at and designs our Salvation that is the first moving and efficient Cause of Salvation to us What can be imagined worse than for Men to be evil and the more evil because God is good to them It is a Sin to return evil for evil to Men and what is it then to return evil to God for the greatest good of all There is nothing so provoking to a Man as to have his free Love and Kindness abused and turned against himself or to an end quite contrary to what he designed it and so it must needs be to God to abuse his Grace seems to be a greater Sin than to distrust his Power or to slight his Authority or to trample upon his Laws you only have I known of all the families of the Earth therefore I will punish you for your Iniquities 2. To abuse Grace is of all others the most pernicious and destructive to Mens Souls for this closes up the Fountain of all our Blessings this makes Grace it self a Mans Enemy and then who or what shall Plead for him and Justice will not fail to avenge the quarrel of abused Grace nay Grace it self will complain of the Wrong and solicite for Vengeance upon the Abusers of it If the only thing that can recover the Sinner be abused so that he falls the lower thereby that will be an irrecoverable fall indeed If a Man make Mercy and Grace it self his Enemy then who or what shall be his Friend But how or wherein is Grace abused 1. The Doctrine of Grace is notoriously abused when Men from hence do think that they are exempted or discharged from the Law as a Rule to govern their Hearts and Practices by this abuse may arise from a misunderstanding of that passage of the Apostle Rom. 6. 14. Ye are not under the Law but under Grace As if Grace and the Law was in all respects opposed to one another because they are in some as if because God doth acquit a Believer from the condemnation of the Law therefore we are discharged from all Obedience to it Our corrupt Hearts are very ready to imbrace such Doctrines of Libertinisme and Licentiousness as the Apostle shews by adding in the very next Words v. 15. What then shall we sin because we are not under the Law but under Grace God forbid It is very pleasing to our carnal fleshly part to hear that Grace doth discharge us from all Obligation to the Law that it hath no directing regulating Power over a Believer But this is a gross abuse of Grace for when the Apostle saith that we are not under the Law it is true in several Sences but it is manifestly false in this Sence that we are under no obligation by it as a rule of life The true sence how we are not under the law is this 1. We that is Believers are not under the condemning Power of the Law but are by Grace freed from the Curse and Condemnation of it 2. We are not under the Law as a Covenant of life and salvation We are not under the Law as to the rigid exaction of perfect sinless obedience as the only Term or Condition of Salvation No though perfect Obedience is still a Duty yet through Christ and for his sake sincere Obedience is accepted But now because we are not under the Law in these respects it doth by no means follow that we are not under it as a Rule or because it hath no condemning Power that therefore it hath no regulating Power over us you shall see that this Apostle that saith we are not under the Law yet saith that in other respects He is under the Law 1 Cor. 9. 21. Being not without Law to God but under the Law to Christ not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Apostle James saith If any break the Law in one point he is guilty of all Jam. 2. which plainely shews that all are under the Moral Law as a Rule of Life nay this Apostle when he had said We are not under the Law but under Grace the very next words shew that he means it in a restained Sence and that he did not mean that we are from under the Law as a Rule of Duty Rom. 6. 15. What then saith he shall we Sin because we are not under the Law but under Grace God forbid as if he should say you must not so understand it as if we were discharged from all Obligation of Duty by the Law for if so the Caution had been needless for where there is no Law there is no Transgression Again to say that we are not under the Law as a Rule of Duty is an high abuse of Grace because this is contrary to nay doth destroy the essential relation of the Creature as a Creature to God for our State and Condition as Creatures is necessarily a State of Subjection to God God is essentially related to us as our Governour and we to him as his Subjects but he is no Governour if he have no Law to govern us by nay he hath no Creature no not the highest Angels that are under no law The Angels they have many Immunities end Priviledges above us yet they are not exempt from Duty or from a Law Psalm 103. 20. Ye his Angels that do his Commandments hearkening to the voice of his Word 2. Grace is abused when it is pretended to the excluding of a cautious fear of sinning or an awful reverential fear of the Divine Majesty This abuse may arise from a misunderstanding that Scripture 1 John 4. 18. there is no fear in love for perfect love casts out fear which the Apoctle plainly means of a servile slavish Fear a distracting tormenting dispairing Fear but not of an awful Fear of God nor of a cautious Fear of offending him as is manifest by a multitude of other Scriptures both in the Old and New Testament For though we have through Grace freedom and boldness of aoeess to God yet it is still with reverence and godly Fear Nay the more Grace the greater Reverence of God and the greater Fear of sinning against him Heb. 11. 28. let us have grace Psalm 130. 4. there is mercy with thee that thou mayst be feared Hos. 3. 5. they shall fear the Lord and his goodness