quickned us together with Christ by grace yee are saved i. e. The cause of your present right to future salvation is the grace of God And Tit. 3.7 That being justified by his grace wee should bee made heires according to the hope of eternall life i. e. The cause of our Justifying is Gods grace and the effect of it is that thereby wee are made heires of eternall life and because wee are heires wee have good reason to hope for it for who can have better hope of any thing then an heire hath of his inheritance These are the chiefe authorities from the Scriptures to testifie this truth that our inheritance is by grace Causes to prove it there are none for wee sayd that Gods grace was the highest cause which had none above it and therefore this verity must needes bee a principle and consequently cannot bee proved for hee abuseth a principle who attempteth to prove it Yet there are reasons that may argue and perswade it and they being grounded on Scripture are chiefely these five following 1. Because this Right comes from Gods gift John 4.10 If thou knewest the gift of God i. e. everlasting life which comes from Gods gift for so the Well of water is interpreted at the last words of the 14. verse following And Acts 11.18 Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life i. e. then hath God given them the benefit or fruit of repentance which is eternall life for the originall is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. given yet it is Englished well enough because every grant is a gift And Rom. 5.15 But not as the offence so also is the free gift for if through the offence of one many bee dead much more the grace of God and the gift by grace which is by one man Jesus Christ hath abounded unto many here unto eternall death the cause whereof was the offence or sin is opposed eternall life the cause whereof is grace for it is a gift by grace And Rom. 6.23 But the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternall life through Jesus Christ our Lord. i. e. The cause of our present guiltinesse unto eternall death is sin whereof death is the wages but the cause of our present right unto eternall life is not our holinesse but Gods grace whereof life is the gift and that gift is conveyed unto us by the meanes of Jesus Christ And Heb. 6.4 It is impossible for those who were once inlightned and have tasted of the heavenly gift i. e. who have had the knowledge and have felt the joy of their inheritance to blessednes which is no earthly purchase but a heavenly gift proceeding from God Now the fountaine or cause from which gifts and grants proceed is not Law and justice but grace and favour for what else is a gift or grant but an act of grace 2. Because it commeth from Gods good pleasure Luk. 2.14 Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace good will towards men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. good pleasure towards men q. d. Let the God of Heaven be glorified for that blessednesse on earth descended from his favour or good pleasure towards men which he hath abundantly testified by sending his son to be their Saviour And Luke 12.32 Feare not little flock for it is your Fathers good pleasure to give you the Kingdome i. e. feare not the want of food and raiment for God is your Father and therefore will give it you and more then so for he will also give you the Kingdome of Heaven for the blessing thereof comes from his gift and that gift proceeds from his good pleasure And Ephes 1.9 having made knowne unto us the mystery of his Will according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himselfe i. e. That Will and Testament of God wherein we are made heirs to the inheritance of Heaven was a long time a mystery and concealed in secret but is now published and made knowne unto us and this is according to his good pleasure which he purposed in himselfe first for the making of that Will and after for the publishing of it Now that which proceeds from the good pleasure of any person is not an act of Law and justice but of Grace and favour for matters of Law and justice leave not a man to his good pleasure but oblige him to that which Law and justice require to be done 3. Because it comes from Gods goodnes or kindnes Rom. 11.22 Behold therefore the goodnesse and severity of God on them which fell severity but towards thee goodnes if thou continue in his goodnes otherwise thou also shalt be cut off i. e. The Jews were once in the state of alliance with God to be his children and people but because they fell from their obedience God cut them off and their excision proceeded from Gods severity but Gods election of thee in their room proceeds from his goodnes or kindnes towards thee if thou cōtinue in that state wherinto his goodnes hath grafted thee otherwise thou also shalt be cut off with the like severity And Eph. 2.7 And hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus that in the ages to come hee might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindnesse towards us through Christ Jesus i. e. God hath raised Christ from the dead and hath seated him in Heaven and in him he hath given us a precedent of our future possession there to be raised as he was and to be seated as he is for he was raised and seated there to him and his co-heirs i. e. to all believers in him that in the world to come after the Resurrection God might shew and impart unto us the exceeding riches or abundance of that blessednes which proceeds from the abundance of his grace and kindnes towards us through the means of Jesus Christ And Tit. 3.4 But after that the kindenesse and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared i. e. Those benefits whereby God is the Saviour of man proceeds from Gods kindnesse and love toward man Now Gods goodnesse or kindnesse is really the very same thing with his grace for his grace is that inward affection from whence his outward kindnesse floweth as the effect thereof 4. Because it comes from Gods Mercy or Pity Rom. 11.30 For as yee in times past have not believed God yet have now obtained mercy through their unbeliefe Even so have these also now not believed that through your mercy they also may obtaine mercy i. e. As heeretofore yee Gentiles were Infidells or Unbelievers yet now have believed upon the Jewes unbeliefe So now the Jewes are become unbelievers that upon your beliefe they may bee provoked to believe Hee calls beliefe mercy because the thing believed and the act of believing proceed from Gods mercy And Tit. 3.5 Not by workes of righteousnesse which wee have done but according to his
remit or forgive our sinnes by doing all such acts whereby we might finally enjoy the benefit thereof when hee shall rayse us from death to give us the possession of eternall life That he might deliver us Heer is another end or effect of Christs death subordinat to the former and therefore somewhat more remote from it namely our deliverance from the servitude of sin which though causally on his part it be a deliverance yet effectually on our part it is our Repentance The Greeke word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth properly signifie to exempt take out or pluck out in delivering from some sodain danger and delivering in a speciall maner namely powerfully and hastily plucking or snatching away the party by force and speed As Peter was delivered by the Angel out of prison from the hand of Herod the night before he should have been slaine wherof Peter making relation useth the same word Act. 12.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sayth he the Lord hath sent his Angel and delivered me out of the hand of Herod Or as Paul was delivered by Lysias the Colonel who with an army or band of men rescued him from the Jewes when they were about to kill him as Lysias relates Acts 23.27 where he useth the same word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sayth he which in our last English Translation is there rendred rescued To the same sense the Scripture useth the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to exempt redeeme or rescue From this present evill world The Greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. out of the sinfulnesse that he might deliver or pluck us out of that sinfulnesse which reigneth in the men of this present world For evill is heer put for sinfulnesse and the world for the men of the world or worldly men whose maners conditions and actions are evill sinfull or wicked If our deliverance be good as comming from Christ it must needs be then the terme or state from whence we are delivered must needs be evill Yet the evill heer meant is not the evill of punishment because thence we are delivered by the Remission of sinnes whereby the punishment is taken away as was intimated in the former clause of this verse Nor the evill of Affliction from which we are many times delivered and from which we pray for deliverance as 2. Thess 3.2 That we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men i. e. From the afflictions and violences which we suffer under them But Affliction cannot be heer meant because that is not an end or effect of Christs death for he died not to deliver us from affliction but rather to animate us against it and to encourage us to suffer it But the Evill heer intended is the evill of sin or rather that degree of sin which is wickednesse as it is opposed to sins of Errour and Frailty such wickednesse as Idolatry Murder Adultery c. For so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth properly signifie and the substantive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in King JAMES his Translation is constantly Englished Wickednesse Wherefore To be delivered from this present evill world is not meant locally as if we should be taken away from being in the world or be so separated from worldly men as not to feare any affliction from their violences or any corruption from their examples for then we must altogether go locally out of this world But the words are to be understood Morally for a separation from their wicked courses by abstayning from all wickednesse and in undergoing a course of life contrary to the common course of this present evill world framing our selves to the workes of love and to the wayes of holinesse according to the precepts and rules of Christ This distinction betweene a locall and a morall separation is taught us by Christ when he prayed to his Father for his Disciples Joh. 17.15 I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world but that thou shouldst keepe them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the evill i. e. From doing that evill which is wickednesse And so I understand Christ when he taught us to pray Matt. 6.13 And lead us not into temptation but deliver us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from evill i. e. Not only from suffering of that evil which proceeds from the wickednesse of others but chiefly from our doing of any evill which is wickednesse For we pray that God would not lead us into temptation now when we are tempted whether by meanes of affliction or otherwise the purpose whereat the temptation aymeth is not our suffering of evill but our doing of it See heere the nature of true Repentance Repentance is a separation from wickednesse For it is a deliverance or separation or turning from evill not from that of affliction which is the suffering of evill but from that of sin which is the doing of evill Yet not from all sin in every degree of it as errours and frailties for unto such a Repentance as to bee wholly sinlesse no sinner ever yet did or ever can attaine in this life But it is a separation from that degree of sin which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. malignity malice or wickednesse which consisteth either in a wilfull custome of sin or in the act of some one sin whereof the pravity amounts to a custome Repentance then is a liberty or freedome from wickednesse for when Christ by forgiving our wickednesse delivereth us from it then he causeth our repentance and when we by forsaking wickednesse are delivered from it then are wee come to Repentance Unto this Repentance many have attayned and thereto every Beleever may and must attaine in this life or else his faith is not effectuall unto salvation And this Repentance is really one and the same thing with holinesse though betweene them there may bee some rationall differences as the words in divers mens understandings may bee diversly dilated or restrayned For holinesse may bee in a person who never sinned as is that of God of Christ and of Angels but when the subject of holinesse is a person that was a sinner and the terme from whence it began was sin then such holinesse is repentance and in this life the holinesse of Beleevers is no other although therof there are diverse degrees wherein some far exceed others The Motive unto repentance or holinesse of life or the cause that should invite and draw us unto the workes worthy thereof or which is all one the Means whereby Christ delivereth us from the evill or sinfulnesse of this present world is the remission or forgivenes of our sinnes For to what end or effect did Christ die for us It was to this end to testifie and confirme the New Testament that it might be in force unto us and that we might have a present right to the Legacies therein devised or promised whereon one is the Remission or forgivenesse of our sinnes And to what end or effect are our sinnes forgiven
by conforming his owne unto it and whose service hee findes to bee no servitude but perfect freedome is acquitted and discharged from the burdens and penalties of the Law to rest and remaine under the friendship favour grace and love of God to bee inlightned guided moved strengthned and cheered by the holy spirit of God This is a state of grace an high noble divine and blessed condition a condition transcending farre above the proper nature and quality of man a condition honored and inriched with many other Rights Priviledges and Benefits thereto consequent incident and annexed whereof the first concurrent with it is a degree of spirituall freedome viz. a divine alliance to bee the Sonne and Heire of God The state whereto a man is Justified is this condition of spirituall freedome and alliance to bee the freed man and friend of God to bee the Sonne and Heire of God Hence Abraham being justified was called the friend of God Jam. 2.23 Abraham believed God and it was imputed unto him for righteousnesse and hee was called the friend of God i. e. Abrahams faith did justifie him or was imputed unto him for a right of Freedome Amity or Alliance with God to bee made and called Gods friend And Christ tells his Disciples that they were and should bee called his friends John 15.14 Yee are my friends if yee doe whatsoever I command you henceforth I call you not servants for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doth But I have called you friends for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made knowne unto you And the Apostle tells all Believers that by being justified they are made the Heirs of God Tit. 3.7 That being justified by his grace wee should bee made Heires according to the hope of eternall life For Justifying is the altering or changing of mans spirituall state or condition whereby hee acquires a new state much different from that wherein hee stood before Yet this change is not made downeward to abate and lessen it into the state of spirituall bondage but upward to advance and raise it unto spirituall Freedome Amity and Alliance with God Hence Justification is quite opposite and contrary to that Condemnation which the Civilians call Capitis diminutio i. e. a lessening of the head by debasing and changing the state or condition of a man from the better to the worse to make him an Alien or a Bondman who before was a Citizen or Freeman for anciently the word head did signifie jurally for the state or condition of a man Because a mans state or condition is the beginning fountaine or head from whence all his other rights are either derived or obstructed And because of this contrariety to Capitis diminutio Justification may be fitly tearmed Capitis exaltatio i. e. a raising or lifting up the head for to that sense the phrase of lifting up the head is used in the Old Testament Gen. 40. vers 20. And it came to passe the third day which was Pharoahs birth-day that hee made a Feast unto all his servants and hee lifted up the head of the chiefe Butler and of the chiefe Baker among his servants i. e. Hee raised their condition by giving them their freedome and releasing them from their former imprisonment And 2. King 25.27 And it came to passe that Evilmerodach King of Babylon in the yeare that hee began to raigne did lift up the head of Jehoiachin King of Judah out of prison i. e. Did give him his freedome from his imprisonment The state from whence a man is justified is the base condition of spirituall bondage and the miseries thereto consequent for that state is the terminus a quo or tearme of recesse from whence Justifying commenceth and from whence a man is thereby delivered and the state of freedome is the terminus ad quem or the tearme of accesse whereto Justifying exalteth and wherin a man is thereby invested and seated And although mans deliverance from bondage doth in order of nature precede his investiture into freedome Yet I first mentioned the last because the last is first in the order of our method and first in order of dignity as being the more worthy and more noble condition Hence it appeares that Justifying doth worke an alteration or change in a man for it changeth his state or condition Yet it appeares also that this change is onely jurall whereby hee is exalted or raised from a low and base condition to rest in a noble and divine state for such a jurall change and no other there is in a person naturalized legitimated infranchised redeemed pardoned and adopted in all which being severall sorts of Justifying there is a change yet that change is onely jurall by a change of condition As for any morall alteration or change upon the affections or manners of man that is not the proper worke of Justification but of Sanctification Yet the grace and blessing of Justification in changeing the state and condition of man doth strongly oblige and binde him to the workes of sanctity or holinesse in making a morall change upon his affections and manners by destroying sinne and the lusts thereof as the Apostle will seriously presse it in this Chapter vers 18. The Priviledges incident and consequent unto this state of divine freedome and alliance are all the residue of the Legacies or precious Promises devised in Gods Testament wherof the most future and most finall are the Remission of sins the Resurrection of the body and Life everlasting with all the glory and joyes thereto annexed all which three are in a maner eyther one and the same blessing or blessings so consequent one to another that the former must necessarily be antecedent to the latter For there can bee no Life everlasting unlesse the Resurrection of the body antecede and the Resurrection cannot be unlesse the Remission of sins antecede But when by the Remission of sins eternall death which is the punishment thereof is extinguished then the Resurrection of the body must needs follow and upon the Resurrection from eternall death Life everlasting must needes follow For the heyres of God dying on earth how shall they enter their heavenly inheritance unlesse they be againe raysed to life and dying for sin how shall they be raysed unlesse the sin be remitted for which they die As therefore the state of Sovereignty draweth unto it the rights and dues of tribute custome feare and honour Rom. 13.7 Render therefore to all their dues tribute to whom tribute is due custome to whom custome feare to whom feare honour to whom honour so the state of supreame alliance doth draw unto it the priviledges and blessings of Forgivenesse of sins the Resurrection of the body and Life everlasting For Abraham Isaac and Jacob have a right interest or clayme unto the Resurrection and consequently unto Life everlasting and their right interest or clayme thereto is by vertue of their state or condition of freedome and alliance unto
of blessednes whereto I had once a present right nor shall I ever possesse that inheritance whereto I was once a co-heyre with Christ For my faith which was lively and effectuall to procure my present right to blessednes doth by my evill workes become dead voyd and of no effect to the future possession of it Hence the Apostle asketh me 1 Cor. 6.9 if I know not this that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdome of God and he chargeth me to Be not deceived neither fornicators nor adulterers nor idolaters nor effeminate nor abusers of themselves with mankinde nor thieves nor covetous nor drunkards nor revilers nor extortioners shall inherit the Kingdome of God And the same Apostle hath told me Gal. 5.21 that they who doe the workes of the flesh shall not inherit the kingdome of God And this I know Ephes 5.5 that no whoremonger nor uncleane person nor covetous man who is an Idolater hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God let no man deceive me with vaine words c. And by my sinfull acts I destroy not only my state of Right but moreover by them I build againe my state of sin for one sinfull act added to another doth at last build a habit of sin as one stone upon another doth build an habitation Or one single act alone without any more if the sin be heinous and foule is enough to cast me into the state of sin I make my selfe a transgressor By building againe my state of sin I become a transgressor i. e. an exceeding sinfull sinner and a treble offendor against God by sinning first against his written Law and then against the rules of equity and thirdly against the grace of his mercy by a wilfull relapse into that state of sin which he had gratiously pardoned For the word Transgressor is not heere taken simply for one who commits some one act of sin against the Law but for one who after pardon relapseth into sin and thereby drawes upon himselfe the guilt of his sin and bindes himselfe over to the punishment of it without all hope of remedy by the ordinary course of Gods mercy For the transgressor heere is opposed not onely to the Just who is legally and morally righteous but also to the justified who is jurally righteous Am I not by this relapse a revolter from God and a traytor to him when after my amity and alliance with him I desert him and side with his enemy defrauding God of his services to bestow them upon Satan And am I not a felon to my selfe to rob my selfe of all my right to eternall life and cast away my selfe to eternall death For doth not the Law of Nations teach mee that by such facts as these any estate becomes forfeit and doth not the light of Reason teach me that if my Tenure faile my estate must needs escheat And doth not the sacred Scripture teach me that my last state in sin is worth then the first For doth she not playnely tell me Hebr. 10.26 that If I sin wilfully after that I have received the knowledge of the truth there remaineth no more sacrifice for sinne but a certaine fearfull looking far of Judgement and fiery indignation which shall devoure the adversaries And againe 2 Pet. 2.21 that it had been better for me not to have knowne the way of righteousnes then after I have knowne it to turne from the holy Commandement delivered unto me Doth she not cleerly declare this unto me by the horrid and loathsome comparisons of a house haunted with an uncleane spirit who being cast out and re-admitted doth re-enter with seven other spirits more wicked than himselfe Luk. 11.24 Of a Dog licking up his vomit againe and of a Som that after washing walloweth in the mire 2. Pet. 2.22 Yet Christ who justified me is no minister to my sin by justifying me neither is it hee that makes mee a transgressor For the right of Impunity or forgivenes of sins which is one of the Priviledges whereto Christ justified mee gives mee no license to sin As in the family the right of Impunity which the son hath above the servant not to be ejected or punished for every fault as the servant may doth give the son this Priviledge in faults onely such as are ignorances and infirmities but excuseth him not in crimes such as are malignities wickednesses and wilfull misdemeanors But if the son will abuse his Priviledge of Impunity and shall thereupon run into presumptuous and wilfull offences can wee charge the Father as the Minister to his sin that hee makes his son a transgressor Was ever any Father who duly corrected his son though he punished him not mentioned in such a case as this The like may bee sayd of a Malefactor who after pardon relapseth into the same or the like crime whereby his offence is highly aggravated can wee charge his relapse upon the Prince who in mercy granted the pardon to him Or when a bondslave whom his Lord hath infranchised shall afterward sell himselfe for a slave can any man in reason charge his latter slavery upon his first Lord who set him at liberty It is not Christ then who makes mee a Transgressour for my transgression is wholly against his will against the will of his Precepts wherein hee forbids it and against the will of his Judgements wherein hee threatens it with eternall death And my transgression is wholly against his deedes for in Justifying mee by faith hee hath strongly obliged mee against it and in sanctifying mee by his holy spirit hee hath sufficiently enabled mee against it What greater provision can Christ possibly make against my transgression What greater obligation from it could hee lay upon mee then the menace of eternall death in case I commit sinne and the promise of eternall life in case I refraine and destroy it in mee What greater ability in this life can I have to refraine and destroy it then the Power of his holy spirit alwayes resident in mee to inlighten strengthen assist and succour mee against it But on the contrary if upon my continuance in sinne Christ should promise to continue unto mee my right of inheritance to blessednesse and accordingly should afterward settle mee in the possession of it then certainely hee makes mee a transgressour and may thereupon bee justly accounted not onely the Minister of my sinne but also the rewarder of it It is therefore no other but my selfe who by reason of some default predominant in mee doe willfully on my part make my self a transgressor and that default seems twofold 1. My unfaithfulnesse not that I have no faith for then I could not bee justified or that my faith wants truth for a faith not true is all one with none Or that my faith wants strength for it is engaged and obliged by Gods infinite kindenesse in giving mee a right to eternall blessednesse And it is assisted and inabled by Gods holy spirit wherewith hee sanctifieth enlightneth
mercy hee saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost i. e. Our finall salvation which God hath decreed or devised unto us and our Sanctification in regenerating or renewing us by his holy Spirit which is the meanes to the former end proceedes not from any workes of ours which wee had done before according to any righteousnesse that was in us But our right thereunto proceedes from Gods worke as an act of his mercy And 1. Pet. 1.3 Blessed bee the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us againe unto a lively hope by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible c. i. e. Blessed bee God who by the Resurrection of Christ hath begotten and wrought in us a lively hope of eternall life which is an inheritance incorruptible All which proceedes from the abundance of his mercy Now all Mercy is Grace though all Grace bee not Mercy But when grace is so affected with the misery of a miserable person that thereby she is moved to relieve him from his misery then grace becomes mercy Because all mercy is grace to a person in misery 5. Because it comes by Gods Will and Testament John 1.13 Who were borne not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God i. e. Believers are made the sonnes of God not by generation or birth from the will of flesh and blood Nor by any adoption from the will of man But by that adoption which is from the Will and Testament of God And Ephes 1.5 Haveing predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himselfe according to the good pleasure of his Will i. e. Our adoption to bee the sonnes of God and the co-heires with Christ by meanes of Christ is predestinated ordained or devised unto us according to that good pleasure of God which hee hath expressed in his Will and Testament And in the same Chapter vers 11. In whom also wee have obtained an inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsell of his owne Will i. e. In or through Christ we are made co-heires with Christ unto blessednes wherto we are predestinated instituted and ordained by God who performeth all things according to that purpose counsell or meaning of his which he hath expressed in his Will and Testament Now things conveyed or devised by Will and Testament are not debts and duties whereto the Testator is bound by Law and justice but are gifts and Legacies proceeding from his grace favour and kindnes towards those Legataries unto whom they are devised for hence it is that Wills require a favourable construction or interpretation because they containe matters of favour And Gods grace wherby I am justified unto this Right is rich grace For that is a frequent attribute wherby the Scripture doth commend and magnifie the greatnes plenty and abundance of Gods grace by stiling it the riches of his grace As Rom. 11.12 Now if the fall of them be the richesse of the World and the diminishing of them the richesse of the Gentiles i. e. The fall of the Jewes is the occasion of Gods grace and of the riches or abundance thereof unto the Gentiles and unto all the world besides And Ephes 1.7 In whom wee have redemption through his bloud according to the riches of his grace wherein he hath abounded towards us And Ephes 2.7 That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindnesse towards us through Jesus Christ i. e. the exceeding plenty and abundance of his grace for although grace and kindnesse be really one and the same thing yet after the word grace the Apostle addeth the word kindnesse that by the abundance of his words he might signifie the abundance of Gods grace Certainely sin aboundeth in the world and hath done so in all ages yet grace doth over-abound it Rom. 3.20 The Law entred that the offence might abound but where sinne abounded grace did much more abound i. e. After the Law was given the event was that sin abounded and after sin had abounded the event was that grace did super-abound by over-reigning over-ruling and overcomming sin because God by his grace doth not only forgive eternall death which is the punishment of sin but over and above he doth give us a right unto eternall life by justifying us thereunto through Christ as it there followeth in the next verse That as sinne hath reigned unto death even so might grace reigne through righteousnesse through a Right unto eternall life And this richnesse or greatnesse of Gods grace appeares from three grounds 1. Because Gods grace is without a cause There was no cause moving God to justifie me for as we sayd before his grace is hereof the supreame or prime cause having no other cause above or beyond it to actuate or move it What moved God to bee so gracious unto mee as to predestinate or devise unto mee in his last Will and Testament this divine state of alliance and inheritance with him Certainely no Merit or desert of mine moved him for it was not for any worke or other act of mine which I had done or which God foresaw I would doe that could deserve this grace Because Gods grace and my workes are in respect of causality so inconsistent and contrary that they cannot both concurre as causes procreant of the same blessing But the claime by one doth necessarily exclude the other For if it bee by workes it is of debt and then it cannot bee of grace Rom. 4.4 Now to him that worketh is the reward reckoned not of grace but of debt But if it bee by grace it is of gift and then it cannot bee of workes Rom. 11.6 And if by grace then it is no more of workes otherwise grace is no more grace No Petition or Request of mine moved him for I never made any motion or suit for it neither was it my counsell or advice that God should devise this Legacy unto mee for Rom. 11.34 Who hath knowne the minde of the Lord or who hath beene his counsellour Neither had I any existence when Gods Will was framed Lastly no inquiry or seeking of mine moved him heereto for I never asked after it nor desired it and I had no desire to it because I had no knowledge of it hence saith God in respect of his grace Rom. 10.20 I was found of them that sought mee not I was made manifest unto them that asked not after mee And when by the preaching of the Gospel God sought mee asked after mee and called mee to accept his grace I was hardly perswaded to believe and receive it And unto this day many Nations cannot bee perswaded of it yea some Christians are not rightly and fully perswaded of it But God was heereto moved of his owne meere and proper motion wherein
saith of himselfe John 3.11 Verily verily I say unto thee wee speake that wee know and testifie that wee have seene viz. the New Testament or last Will of God which God had therefore revealed unto him that hee should speake and testifie it And againe hee saith John 18.37 To this end was I borne and for this cause came I into the World that I should beare witnesse unto the truth viz. unto the New Testament that it was the true and last Will of God Hence the Apostle saith of him 1. Tim. 6.13 that before Pontius Pilate hee witnessed a good confession now the confession which Christ witnessed before Pilate hee also witnessed with his death Hence hee is called the faithfull and true witnes Revel 3.14 These things saith the Amen the faithfull and true witnesse viz. because hee was the first true Martyr of the New Testament to testifie it with his blood Hence his blood is tearmed a witnesse on earth 1. John 5.8 And there are three that beare witnesse on earth the spirit and the water and the blood and these three agree in one And hence his Gospel which is the New Testament is called his Testimony Because it was testified and witnessed by his death 1. Cor. 1.6 Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you i. e. the Gospel or New Testament which Christ testified And 2. Tim. 1.8 bee not thou ashamed of the testimony of our Lord. i. e. of the Gospel or New Testament which Christ testified by his death upon the Crosse for unto the Gospel that shamefull death was made the common reproach and there was no other cause why Timothy should bee ashamed thereof 2. To establish or confirme the force of the New Testament Every Testament doth necessarily require a solemne Confirmation of it that may cause it to be of strength and in force because the constitution or making of a Testament is in it selfe an imperfect and infirme act untill it be ratified and established by a further act of Confirmation whereby all power to revoke it is extinguished in the Testator and whereby the Testament comes to be of force And among men this Confirmation of a Testament is made or done by the death of the Testator because his death doth wholly and for ever extinguish in him all power to revoke it for the dead have no power to do any act at all much lesse to make or revoke a Testament made That Testament therefore which during the Testators life lay dormant and was of no force doth upon his death ipso facto come to be in force Because every Testament according to the definition and nature of it is a Decree touching things to be done after death For the Testator in the time of his life doth predestinate ordaine and devise in his Testament those things which he would have take effect after his death and which before his death are of no force Hence sayth the Apostle Heb. 9.16 Where a Testament is there must also of necessity be the death of the Testator for a Testament is of force after men are dead otherwise it is of no strength at all whilst the Testator liveth The New Testament then was confirmed because God would have the world take notice that he had not onely no will to revoke it but also had left himselfe no power to revoke it And it was confirmed by death because God would further have all men to understand that upon the death of the Confirmer the Testament was ipso facto in force and began to take effect But God who is the Testator could not confirme his Testament by his owne death in his owne proper person because though he be a Person Testable who can make a Testament yet withall he is a person immortall who cannot dye and therefore the most High God hath this prerogative that he may confirme his Testament by the death of another For hereupon God confirmed his Old Testament by the death of Beasts whose bloud was sprinkled on the people to establish his Testament unto them Exod. 24.8 And Moses tooke the bloud of the Oxen slayne for sacrifice vers 5. and sprinkled on the People and sayd Behold the bloud of the covenant or Testament which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words But God confirmed his New Testament by the death of Christ a most Sacred person who was next himselfe and so neare unto him that he was in a maner himselfe even his onely and dearely beloved Son whom God made his substitute to dye in his stead for the confirmation of his last Will and Testament For as the New Testament is better then the Old and established upon better Promises so it had a most excellent confirmation For can I devise a greater assurance of blessednesse then to read the devise of it in Gods last Testament which cannot be revoked but is confirmed by the death of Christ to stand in force for ever and therefore actually justifieth upon the accesse of my fayth by giving me a present right to the future possession of that Inheritance which long before the confirmation of that Testament was therein predestinated pre-imputed and devised unto me Could God who could not dye devise a way to come nearer death then by the death of Christ who was next unto him Or could God devise a course more consequent and suitable to that love and grace which he shewed in framing of the New Testament then that his owne and onely Son should suffer death to confirme it Or could Christ devise a more precious meanes whereby to shew his love then to lay downe his life for a company of sinners who stood condemned to death that by Meanes of his death that Testament might come to be in force by which they might clayme not onely a pardon from eternall death but also an Inheritance to eternall life which is setled upon them at the price of his bloud For hence Christ instituted the Eucharist as a perpetuall commemoration of his death and called his bloud the bloud of the New Testament because the New Testament was thereby established and confirmed to be in force Mat. 26.28 For this is my bloud of the New Testament which is shed for many for the Remission of sinnes i. e. the Wine in this cup is a memoriall representing or betokening my bloud which is to be shed to confirme the New Testament wherein the Remission of sinnes is bequeathed unto many even unto all Believers And againe the like saying is expressed Marc. 14.24 This is my bloud of the New Testament which is shed for many i. e. the bloud wherby the New Testament was confirmed Hence Christ is frequently in Scripture sayd to give himselfe for us and to dye for us because by his death hee confirmed the new Testament to be in force for our sakes that wee thereupon might actually have our present right to all the blessings therein conveyed unto us Hence also the bloud of Christ is opposed
and gave gifts unto men and partly by the words immediately following vers 11. And hee gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the worke of the Ministery for the edifying of the body of Christ Now to doe these things was to execute and fulfill the last Will of God Hence the Apostle teacheth the conveniency of Christs death through the meanes whereof hee was fitted and perfected for the executing and doing of those things which according to the last Will of God conduce to our finall salvation For hence is our Expiation whereby wee are absolved and acquitted from our sinnes for Christ through his death was made a mercifull and faithfull high Priest to performe this gracious Office unto us Heb. 2.17 Wherefore in all things it behoved him to bee made like unto his brethren that hee might bee a mercifull and faithfull high Priest in things pertaining to God to make reconciliation for the sinnes of the people for in that hee himselfe hath suffered being tempted hee is able to succour them that are tempted And whereas at the Legall Expiation the Priest entred the Tabernacle after hee had shed the blood of Goates and Calves But Christ first shed his owne blood and thereupon entred the Sanctuary of Heaven once for all to make an eternall Expiation Heb. 9.12 Neither by the blood of Goates and Calves but by his owne blood hee entred in once into the holy place having obtained eternall redemption Hence is our Consolation whereby wee are succoured in all our sufferings and distresses for seeing Christ suffered and was tryed in all poynts as wee are therefore hee hath a sense of our infirmities and thereupon wee may confidently come to him for helpe in time of neede Heb. 4.15 For wee have not an high Priest which cannot bee touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all points tempted as wee are yet without sinne let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace that wee may obtaine mercy and finde grace to helpe in time of neede Hence is our Resurrection whereby wee are raised from death for Christ through his death destroyes the Divell who had the power of death and delivers us from our death whereof though wee feele the pressure yet wee need not feare the bondage that it will bee eternall Heb. 2.14 Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood hee also himselfe likewise tooke part of the same that through death hee might destroy him that had the power of death that is the Divell and deliver them who through feare of death were all their life time subject to bondage And hence is our Glorification whereby the possession of our eternall inheritance is delivered unto us for Christ was the Executor of the New Testament for this very cause that through the meanes of his death wee might receive the possession of that eternall inheritance to the present right whereof wee are called and justified Heb. 9.15 And for this cause hee is the Mediatour of the New Testament that by meanes of death for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first Testament they which are called might receive the promise the promised possession of eternall inheritance Hence also Christ himselfe before his death taught his Disciples the Expediency of his death that it was expedient for them hee should dye for otherwise the Comforter which was the holy Ghost would not come unto them John 16.7 Neverthelesse I tell you the truth it is expedient for you that I goe away for if I goe not away the Comforter will not come unto you But if I depart I will send him unto you By his going away and departing hee meanes his dying for wee commonly expresse dying by the words of going away and departing And after his death hee taught them the Necessity of his death that it behoved him to die and rise again from the dead that thereupon the Gospel might be preached in his name Luk. 24.46 And hee sayd unto them thus it is written and thus it behoved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day and that repentance and remission of sinnes should bee preached in his name among all Nations beginning at Jerusalem Thus the immediate proper finall causes or reasons why Christ dyed are chiefely three namely to Testifie the truth of the New Testament to Confirme the force of it and to Execute the decrees of it for unto a Testament once constituted what acts more do necessarily belong then the Testification the Confirmation and the Execution of it But the remote causes of his death might bee many and various For all the actions done by Christ as Mediatour of the New Testament were causes of his death whether wee respect his Prophetick Office in publishing Gods Will preaching his Doctrine and working Miracles or his Priestly Office in sanctifying Believers and expiating their sinnes or his Kingly Office in governing his people and subduing their enemies And all benefits redounding to Believers as the Legacies and Promises of the New Testament were causes of his death as their Justification the Remission of their sinnes their Resurrection and Glorification And all Duties to bee done by Believers as the conditions without which they are not to enjoy their Legacies are the causes of his death as their sanctity or holynesse their dying to sinne and newnesse of life in all the good workes of love But all these and the like are not opposite or repugnant to the three causes by us assigned but are comprehended and included in them are subordinate and consequent to them are collected and inferred from them For because Christ dyed to testifie confirm and execute the New Testament and my sanctity or holinesse is a Precept thereof and a duty by me to be done therefore Christ dyed for my Sanctification that I might dye unto sin and live unto holinesse and consequently he dyed for my patience temperance mercifulnesse c. because these and the like are branches of holinesse And because Christ dyed to testifie confirme and execute the New Testament wherein Remission of sins the Resurrection from the dead and Glorification were devised and promised as Legacies unto Believers therfore Christ also dyed for the Remission of my sins for my Resurrection and Glorification Yet among the remote Causes of Christs death the Scripture doth most frequently mention the Remission of sins Because my sins have the greatest force upon me to bereave or at least to hinder me from the hope of their forgivenes For according to the evidence of reason if I looke upon my sins to consider the custome and foulenesse of them how can I chuse but feare that I have deserved a fearfull punishment and that God in his Justice will inflict it on me Or if I looke upon my death to consider my dissolution and rottennesse in the Grave how can I hope that God whom I
bee justified i. e. freed by the Law of Moses and sometime it is translated by the word freed as Rom. 6.7 Hee that is dead is freed from sinne where the Margin shewes that the Originall word is justified From all those former jurall words thus referred to Justifying it plainely appeares that Justifying is not onely a jurall but also a curiall or Court-word Yet not borrowed from a Court criminall or any other Civill Court of Justice or Law where the suite is contentious and the sentence a judgement in which jus dicitur i. e. in which that right which was in being before is declared to bee according to the letter or meaning of the Law as heere in England is done in the Courts of the Kings Bench and of the Common Pleas where the Judges represent the King for his Justice But Justifying in the sense of the Apostle is rather proper to a Court of favour or grace where the suite is voluntary and the sentence is a Decree in which jus fit datur i. e. in which that right which was not in being before is made to bee according to the kindenesse favour goodwill and grace of the Prince wherein the iniquities and rigours of the Law are rectified pardons for offences are granted Patents and Charters for the Rights of Honours Profits and Priviledges are issued as heere in England is done in the Courts of Requests and the Chancery where the persons President represent the King for his Mercy and Grace and therefore are not called Judges as that word is properly signified by Judex But to avoyd the rough sense of the word Judges they are called by other names In effect therefore Justifying is a right Chancery-word whereby not onely our sinnes are cancelled crossed out and blotted but our Patent for blessednesse is granted and sealed But if wee may borrow a little light from the Civill Law or from those Courts wherein Wills and Testaments receive their Debates and Probates wee shall easily perceive that Justification is a Testamentary word Yet not for the letter of it for wee finde it not expresly used in Testaments But for the sence of it which is the very same or very neare with the Testamentary word of Institution Not as Institution is distinguished from Substitution But as it is opposed to Exheridation or disinheriting and signifies indifferently either for the ordaining of an Heire or for the devising of a Legacy In which ample signification Instituting is co-incident or equivalent with Justifying Both words carrying a sense either really the same or rationally consequent each to other For whosoever in a Testament is Instituted as an Heire or a Legatary that person is Justified or made to have a right to that Inheritance or Legacy which is therein conveyed or devised unto him And whosoever in a Testament is Justified unto any Inheritance or Legacy that person is thereto Instituted And the co-incidence or resemblance betweene these two words is the more proper Partly because Justification is a most gratious act proceeding from the meere favour and free grace of God without any previous Petition Motion or Request made by the party Justified As commonly Institutions are made in Wills and Testaments which are or should bee acts of meere favour and grace But chiefely because Justification is also a Testamentary act of God arising from his Will and Testament wherein all Believers are Instituted Heires to the Inheritance of everlasting life i. e. wherein they are Justified Having hitherto shewed the meaning of the word let us now gather nearer toward the nature of the thing to specifie more particularly what Right that is wee are made to have according to the purpose of the Apostle heere in saying that a man is justified Man is jurally a Sinner and ungodly i. e. a Calamitous person who is unto God an Alien and a Stranger who by his birth heere on earth hath no right to the Kingdome of Heaven For if a Native of England by his birth heere can claime no Inheritance in France nor in any other Kingdome on earth much lesse can a Native of earth claime any Inheritance in the Kingdome of Heaven And man is legally and morally a Sinner and ungodly i. e. Hee is unto God a Transgressour an Offendour and a Malefactour and by reason of sinne man is a Bondman and a Captive held a Prisoner in the Grave under Death and under Sathan who hath the Dominion and power of Death for because of sinne man is not onely debarred from Heaven but condemned to that earth from whence hee was taken even the uprightest man on earth can never bee found upright if God enter into judgement with him to take the examination of his life and marke what is done amisse Contrarily God is jurally Just or righteous i. e. hee is a Lord and Owner for hee is the universall and supreame Lord and Owner of all the whole World over all Owners Lords and Kings having the Soveraigne Dominion and Possession both of Heaven and Earth the Sea and all things else for the whole World and all the Creatures thereof are the workes of his hands and every workeman especially if hee worke upon his owne materialls is the Lord and Owner of his owne workes Unto God therefore doe belong not onely the things that may bee no mans and the things that may bee any mans but also the very things that are each mans as the Lands Goods and Chattells which each man possesseth For although God hath given the Earth to the Children of men and some men in respect of others are great Lords and rich Owners Yet all men even the greatest Kings in respect of God are but meane Lords and petty Owners or rather Tenants at will who have but a precarious use of earthly things the supreme seigniory and property whereof doth rest in God who still retaines to himselfe an absolute and full power to dispose of all things at his pleasure by giving and taking them away at his will See and compare Deut. 10.14 and Job 1.21 and Psal 24.1 and Psal 115.16 and Hos 2.8.9 and 1. Cor. 10.26 And God is morally Just or Righteous i. e. Hee is kind free and bounteous for hee is universally and supreamly kind free and bounteous to bestow in abundance his blessings upon all Creatures but chiefely upon man in a surpassing maner above all the rest Hence the Scripture is very serious and copious in setting forth Gods kindenesse for she magnifies it with the Attributes of great kindenesse Joel 2.13 and Jonah 4.2 of loving kindenesse Esay 63.7 and Jer. 31.3 and Hos 2.19 and in the Psalmes above 20. places of mercifull kindenesse Psalm 117.2 and Psalm 119.76 of marvellous kindenesse Psalm 17.7 and Psalm 31.21 and of everlasting kindenesse Esay 54.8 Shee extolls it with the praises of being Gods title that hee is the God of kindenesse Nehem. 9.17 and of being Gods exercise that hee makes it his delight Jer. 9.24 And the kindnesses which God
God that God is their God i. e. their benefactor or patron and they the beneficiaries or friends of God for long after their death God acknowledged this their state of alliance unto him in saying unto Moses Exod. 3.6 I am the God of thy father the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. And from this their alliance unto God Christ proveth their Resurrection and not only theirs but of the dead in generall Luk. 20.38 because God is not a God of the dead i. e. he neyther is nor can be a benefactor to give a blessing to the dead who while they rest in the state of death are not capable of any benefit but he is a God of the living i. e. The persons to whom God is a benefactor to give them his blessing must be living or being dead must be raysed to life that therby they may be capable to receive his blessing for unto him all live i. e. all the dead in God by vertue of their state of alliance unto him which state dies not by their dying have a present right to a future life whereto God being their benefactor is able and willing to rayse them The Degree of mans Right to these future Priviledges is a right of Institution If we consider mans state of freedome and alliance with God man therein hath now a right in possession to become seized of that state ipso facto and to enjoy it actually in this life for in this life a man justified is actually the freed-man and friend the son and heyre of God But if wee consider the future priviledges consequent to this state as the Remission of sins the Resurrection of the body and Life everlasting man unto these hath not a right in possession for untill the day of Judgement no mans sins are actually forgiven no mans body is actually raysed no mans person is actually possessed of life everlasting But unto these future blessings man in this life hath a right of Institution i. e. he hath a present right to the future possession of them and a present right to petition for that future possession to clayme and make suit for it Such a degree of right had the Israelites during their bondage in Aegypt unto the Land of Canaan whereof then they were not in possession yet then they had a present right to the future possession of it whereto God by his promise unto Abraham had instituted or ordayned them Such a degree of right had David after his anointing by Samuel during the life of Saul unto the kingdome of Israel whereof then he was not in possession yet then hee had a present right to the future possession of it whereto God by his anointing had instituted and ordayned him Such a degree of right have the faithfull during their mortall life unto the Remission of their sinnes the Resurrection of their bodies and the Life everlasting of which blessings they are not now in possession yet now they have a present right to the future possession of them because thereto God by his Will and Testament hath predestinated instituted or ordained them And such a degree of right hath a legatary to his Legacy when the Testament is once confirmed and come to bee of force but a possessory and compleate right hee hath not untill the Executor make delivery or payment of the Legacy which being not done in due time the Legatary by his right of Institution may bring his action and sue for it For Testaments Promises and Covenants have two different effects according to the two differences of time present and future their present effect is an Institution to a right and their future effect is a possession of the thing So their whole effect conjoyned is to institute or ordaine a present right to some future possession The manner how a man hath this state is factively i. e. hee is made to have it This state of divine franchise and alliance with God man hath it not natively i. e. not by virtue of his birth for hee is not borne free nor borne the Sonne of God but is borne an Alien to the Kingdome of Heaven and a stranger to the Family of God for man who is borne on earth and borne the Sonne of man how should hee by virtue of his birth become free of Heaven and bee the Sonne and Heire of God When by his birth in one Kingdome on earth hee can claime no right in another But the Verbe Justified being a compound of Justus and facio doth intimate unto man not onely his seisure of haveing this state but also the maner how hee hath it namely factively by the fact or deede of God by whom hee is made to have this right of state by whom hee is translated from the state of an Alien and of a Stranger to bee made the friend and sonne of God For hence wee are sayd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. to bee made the sonnes of God John 1.12 As many as received him to them gave hee power to become or bee made the sonnes of God and to bee made free John 8.36 If the sonne shall make you free yee shall bee free indeed and to bee made accepted Ephes 1.6 To the praise of the glory of his grace wherein hee hath made us accepted in the beloved and made to sit in heavenly places Ephes 2.6 And hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places and made nigh Ephes 2.13 Yee who sometimes were farre off are made nigh by the blood of Christ and made meet Col. 1.10 Which hath made us meete to bee partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light So Moses was the sonne of Pharoahs Daughter not natively for shee bred him not in her wombe but factively for shee found him by the Rivers brinke floating in a boat of bulrushes and made him her sonne So Uriah the Husband of Bathsheba was an Israelite not natively for by Nation hee was an Hittite but factively in being made an Israelite So Araunah was natively a Jebusite but factively an Israelite and so every Proselite became free of Israel factively to bee made free And this fact of God in making man to have this state the Scripture calls Justifying which though it much resemble the fact of Adoption yet in the sense of Paul is farre more ample more noble and more gratious Because Justifying is extended to more acts then adopting for it includes pardoning redeeming naturalizing legitimating infranchising and adopting And this justifying fact of God is a Testamentary act whereby this state is predestinated ordained or devised unto man in the Will and Testament of God For wee are made the sonnes of God by his Will John 1.13 Which were borne not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God i. e. Men are not borne the sonnes of God by flesh and blood nor made his sonnes by the Will and Testament of man
Believing Jewes who knew the Law and were well acquainted with the tearmes and phrases of those times seemes very concise in his expressions sparing and couching his words as his maner is that unto them he might not seeme tedious though thereby unto us of these times hee becomes in many poynts obscure But for our further and clearer understanding of the Apostles Negative that a man is not justified by the works of the Law we are to observe that of the Law there is made in Scripture a two fold sense I say not a two fold sense of every part of the Scripture but of that part which is here called the Law whereat we are the lesse to marvell because in a manner there is the like difference of sense in the Lawes that are made by man for the remedy whereof in all well ordered States the Courts of Equity are erected The first sense of Gods Law is the History saying writing or as Paul calls it Rom. 2.29 and Rom. 7.6 and 2. Cor. 3.6 the letter of the Law according to the proper signification and vulgar acception of those words and clauses wherewith the Law was first published spoken or written This sense of the letter was from the very beginning of the Law intelligible unto all the Israelites of ordinary discretion apprehended of all and acknowledged of all throughout all the passages of the Law excepting onely those ambiguities and doubts which fell out afterward in poynt of practice wherein the Priest or the Judge was to pronounce or declare that sense which they conceived For in vaine are those Lawes which carry not with them a literall sense because when that sense is not understood by the people on whom such Lawes are imposed the Lawes themselves can neither bee approved nor obeyed According to this sense of the letter the Promises of the Law were for terrene and temporall blessings consisting of a long and happy life abounding with plenty of all earthly things resting under the peculiar protection of God in peace and safety secured from the violences and injuries either of a Forraigne Enemy or of a Domestick Warre as any man may easily perceive who shall consult Levit. cap. 26. and Deut. cap. 28. and shall thence consider the large Declarations there expressed concerning the Legall Promises Yea the Originall Promises made unto Abraham long before the time of the Law were for the letter of them terrene and carnall namely the donation of the Land of Canaan for an Inheritance to him and his Heires for ever and a legitimate issue of his owne body that should multiply into a Nation to possesse it Contrarily the Judgements Penalties or Curses of the Law were for the letter quite contrary to the former blessings for their ordinary Penalties to bee executed by the Ruler upon Offendors were either a violent and untimely death by hanging burning stoning c. or corporall Corrections by Roddes and Whippes but their extraordinary Judgements inflicted on them by the hand of God when the Rulers hand was corrupt or remisse were all the miserable calamities of a wretched life by Warre Famine Plague and Diseases with divers other distresses which crossed the happynesse of this life as it plainely appeares in the two forecited Chapters The Precepts of the Law for the letter were terrene and carnall commandements proportioned to the nature of the Promises so fitted and suited to the rudenesse and childishnesse of the Nation that they did not much exceed the quality of humane Lawes and therefore afterward in this Epistle cap. 4. vers 3.9 they will bee called beggerly rudiments and elements of the world Their Moralities or morall Precepts of the Decalogue were the least and lowest commandements that are to bee found in the Law of Nature or rather were restraints from acts unnaturall ordained for men not of any good but of a bad and lewd condition for the tables of the Law were either barres from impiety to keepe men from being Atheists Idolaters perjurious and prophane or they were bridles from inhumanity to curbe men from being disobedient to Parents from being Murderers and Adulterers from being Thieves Lyars and Deceivers hence it is sayd 1. Tim. 1.9 The Law is not made for a righteous man but for the lawlesse and disobedient for the ungodly and for sinners for unholy and prophane for murderers of Fathers and murderers of Mothers for manslayers for whoremongers for them that defile themselves with mankinde for men-stealers for lyars for perjured persons c. Yea their generall or capitall Moralities of Loving God with all their heart and of loving their neighbour as themselves which were the great Commandements of their Law are to bee taken in a construction accommodate and agreeable to the speciall Precepts of the Decalogue for those two generalls containe in them no more then all these specialls joyntly together Their Ceremonies were odious Institutes or Statutes positive so numerous chargeable and troublesome that they were like yokes on their necks and burdens on their shoulders and are in Scripture so called for they were all carnall Ordinances or Lawes upon the flesh serving either for carnall distinction to difference them from other Nations or for carnall oblations in sacrificing the flesh and blood of Beasts or for carnall purifications in washing their owne flesh and their cloaths Insomuch that the Priests of the Law though their Function were glorious yet compared to the Ministers of the Gospel whose Function is more glorious seemed but a kinde of Butchers Cookes and Laundresses Lastly the workes of the Law done in duty to the Precepts thereof were for the Letter externall and servile by a kinde of eye-service performed out of feare under the spirit of bondage Yea the best of their workes as their Moralityes were not really workes but properly not-workes as not to have many gods not to worship images not to be forsworne not to worke on the Sabbath not to murther not steale not lye not defraud for all these and the like were meere Innocencies or abstinencies from wickednesse which make but a negative and beggarly holinesse As for any positive holinesse they had little or none for their Priests and Levites who went for the holiest persons amongst them untill afterward the Pharisees by an Hypocriticall holinesse exceeded them in the opinion of the people were acquainted with no workes of kindnes or mercy though they met with a man in extream distresse by thieves stripped wounded and halfe dead as Christ discovers them in the parable of the good Samaritan Luke 10.30 c. And yet their workes how poore soever had a large abatement or allowance not onely of all errours and frailties but of some willfull trespasses for which God in his mercy granted the legall favours of Expiation by certaine sin-Offerings and trespas-Offerings which remitted onely temporall penalties and mitigated besides the rigour of the Law in exacting of those workes The second sense of the Law is the mystery minde meaning or as Paul
it untill it bee accepted for a promise not accepted is not at all obligatory or when it is accepted by some hee is not obliged to performe it to others till they have accepted it for themselves But when his promise is accepted by faith there results from thence a double or mutuall obligation upon both parties whereby each is bound to the other and therefore neither can recede or goe back whereby each becomes debtor to the other and therefore also each is creditor to the other Because as was shewed before by faith thou entrest the Covenant of Gods grace and that Covenant is a contract of alliance wherein God is allyed unto thee as a Father and thou unto him as a Sonne and Heire and contracts breed not a single obligation upon one of the parties onely but a double and mutuall obligation upon both parties whereby each is reciprocally bound to the other As wee see in the contract of Marriage which is the ground of all naturall and legitimate alliance by blood the man is thereby bound to performe unto his Wife all the offices and duties of a Husband and reciprocally the woman is bound to all the offices and duties of a Wife for hence Marriage is called Wedlock because it lockes and bindes the parties wedded And all Alliances are also Contracts because an alliance is alligatio partium i. e. a binding or tying of parties together each to other One obligation resulting from thy faith is upon God who therein becomes thy gratious debtor to owe thee all the blessings which hee was pleased to promise and thereupon doth oblige and binde himselfe to the performance particularly to perform unto thee all the offices of a kinde loving and gratious Father according to thy divine alliance with him which is the fundamentall and leading promise Because as wee shewed before an effect of thy faith is to assure Gods promise by making it firm and sure which certainely is then made firme and sure when God is obliged to performe it and enters bond for thy security And God the more abundantly to corroborate this bond of his promise doth binde it over againe with the bond of his Oath that by two immutable and irrevocable things thou mightest have a strong assurance For thus God bound himselfe to Abraham by making a promise to him and by swearing the performance of it and because hee could sweare by none greater hee sware by himselfe and sayd Gen. 22.16 By my selfe have I sworn saith the Lord for because thou hast done this thing c that in blessing I will blesse thee And after the space of 400. yeares God acknowledged this bond for when hee gave the Israelites possession in the Land of Canaan hee therefore did it that hee might performe his Promise and his Oath made unto their Fathers Deut. 9.5 The Lord thy God doth drive these Nations out from before thee that hee may performe the word which the Lord sware unto thy Fathers Abraham Isaac and Jacob. For if by the Rule of Piety all persons are bound to performe their Promises and Oaths which they sware in the name of God Much more is the most holy God obliged to performe his Promise and Oath which hee sweares by himselfe in his owne name See heere the force and power of faith which though for the essence it bee a passion or sufferance yet for the efficacy is so strong and mighty that it is able to bind Almighty God Almighty God whose liberty and freedome is so transcendent that hee is bound by no Law for all his Lawes are bonds upon the Creature and not upon himselfe is pleased notwithstanding to bee bound by thy faith Search now and peruse all the conveyances evidences and assurances and see if any man living have a better right interest or claime to any estate on earth whereof hee stands not yet possessed then the faithfull have for the future possession of their heavenly inheritance for which they have Assurance from God himselfe by his double bond the bond of his Promise and the bond of his Oath The other Obligation arising from faith is a bond upon the faithfull who therein becomes a debtor unto God to owe unto him all those offices duties and services which are due unto God by the equity and piety of faith For by thy acceptance of Gods promise thou art consequently thereupon obliged and bound to performe all the conditions of the promise or if there bee no conditions expressed the contrary whereof is most manifest yet by virtue of thy faith thou standst bound to performe all those conditions which are necessarily implyed and all other things which naturall equity and piety require to bee done Because as was before shewed by thy promissory faith thou dost enter Gods Covenant of grace and that Covenant is a contract bonae fidei i. e. of speciall confidence and trust because it is perfected by thy sole consent and acceptance and therefore it binds the parties contracting to performe each to other not onely those things which are therein plainely expressed in words but also all things else which according to the rule of naturall equity are due and to bee done And because the Covenant of grace is a contract of alliance whereby God becomes thy Father and thou his Sonne and Heire if therefore there were no written Law of God in the World to specific or lay downe thy respects unto him Yet by the naturall Law of piety and equity thou standest obliged and bound to performe unto thy heavenly Father all those offices duties and services which are due from a Sonne and Heir And the more abundantly to corroborate thy bond to these duties thou dost binde it over againe with the bond of Baptisme whereby thou takest thy death upon it drowning thy selfe under the water and rising againe to a new life to performe the duties of thy new allyance for Baptisme is not onely a signe of grace received but of a death whereinto thou art buried and of a bond for newnesse of life Rom. 6.4 Therefore wee are buried with him by Baptisme into death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so wee also should walke in newnesse of life If then thy faith oblige thee not to the duties of a sonne it will disoblige God from the blessings of a Father and hee may disinherit thee for thy disobedience 4. The fourth effect is To justifie a man which effect will declare the Affirmative of the Apostles assertion that a man is justified by faith i. e. Faith is the Meanes or cause mediall whereby a man is made jurally righteous to have the right of a spirituall and divine state a state of freedome to the kingdome of Heaven and a state of alliance unto God to be the present son and heire of God having a present right to the future possession of all the blessings annexed to that alliance a present right to the present Regeneration
beene seene in Israel And because they were so available to beget faith and beliefe that Mat. 11.21 had they been done in Tyre and Sidon they would have repented long agoe in sackcloth and ashes or had they beene done in Sodome it would have remained untill this day Hence Christ to make the fuller faith of his message appeales from his words unto his workes for sayth he John 5.36 The workes which the Father hath given me to finish the same works that I doe beare witnesse of mee that the Father hath sent mee And againe John 10.37 If I doe not the workes of my Father beleeve me not but if I doe though ye beleeve not me beleeve the works that ye may know and beleeve that the Father is in me and I in him Hence also in Scripture miracles are called Signes because they are good proofes of that truth for which they are wrought and doe naturally beget the beliefe of it for every signe is a proofe of that which it signifieth 3. By his Holinesse Christ was a person so holy that one of his ordinary titles wherewith he is stiled in Scripture is to bee called The Holy one See Act. 2.27 and Act. 3.14 and 1. John 2.20 And that uncleane spirit who knew of no holinesse in himself did openly acknowledge the holinesse of Christ Marc. 1.24 I know who thou art the Holy one of God His Birth was holy for at his conception the Angel Gabriel tels the blessed Virgin Luk. 1.35 The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee therefore that Holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the son of God His Life was holy for through all the whole course of it hee was so innocent and so sinlesse that 2. Cor. 5.21 hee knew no sin And Heb. 4.15 hee was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin And 1. Pet. 2.22 He did no sin neyther was guile found in his mouth His Death was holy for he repined not at the sentence though most unjust hee complayned not at the execution though most painefull but Act. 8.32 He was led as a sheep to the slaughter and like a 〈◊〉 dumbe before his shearer so opened he not his mouth But hee bare all with an holy silence 1. Pet. 2.23 Who when he was reviled reviled not againe when he suffered he threatned not but committed himselfe to him that judgeth righteously Now Holinesse is a quality of mighty force to gaine faith and beliefe to the words of a person indued with that vertue for who would not beleeve the repent of that person whose holinesse is so eminent that in all his life he never sinned will such a person forge a Will or frame a deceit or maintaine an untruth and father it upon God certainly it is impossible that one and the same person should be 〈◊〉 holy and yet false 4. By his Death Christ tooke his death upon it that his message was from God For when hee openly acknowledged himselfe the son of God that saying was made the blaspheâ—y whereat the high Priest rent his cloths and it was made the crime for which he was adjudged to die and consequently was the cause for which hee suffered the shamefull and painefull death of the Crosse See Mat. 26.63 64 65 66. and John â—9 7 Yet neither the shame nor the paine of his death could force him to renounce that saying but he persisted in it to his last gasp and then crying with a loud voyce and commending his spirit unto God he called him his Father and gave up the ghost Luk. â—â— 46 Had not that saying of calling God his Father beene most certainely true the shame of the Crosse and the paines of his sufferings would have forced him to forbeare it at that time as a saying too insolent and wholly vaine which in that caâ—e could advantage him nothing But for our sakes it was this he would not forbeare it because hee would make full faith of it by making it in effect his last words and witnessing the truth of it with his bloud For as that saying caused his death so his death caused the faith of it because among men there As no greater proofe to make faith of a truth then when the person who averres it doth take his death upon it And the death of Christ seconded with some miracles at it was to this purpose so effectuall that presently at his giving up the ghost it bred the faith of this truth in the minds of many yea in some of his Executioners and the Centurion openly confessed it upon the place saying Mat. 27.54 Truly this was the son of God 5. By his Resurrection The Resurrection of Christ from the dead was such a strong proofe of his mission from God that it confirmed all the former proofes Not that those former were not sufficient but because his Resurrection was a speciall proofe which Christ had singled out to take away the scandall of his death that notwithstanding the Jewes would take away his life yet he could and would take it againe in rising from the grave the third day For when first the faithlesse Jewes demanded a signe of his authority hee proposed his Resurrection to oppose the scandall of his destruction Joh. 2.19 Destroy saith he this temple and in three dayes I will rayse it up And when he foretold his Disciples of his Passion hee alwayes comforted their minds against it by foretelling also his Resurrection Mat. 16.21 and Mat. 17.23 If therefore according to these Predictions his Resurrection had not followed then by default thereof his doctrine and his miracles had beene discredited and diffided The Resurrection therefore of Christ declared him to bee the sonne of God Rom. 1.4 and declared to bee the sonne of God with power according to the spirit of holinesse by the resurrection from the dead It prooved him to be the Judge of the world which because to the world it seemes incredible therefore God hath made faith of it by raysing him from the dead Act. 17.31 Because hee hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousnesse by that man whom he hath ordayned whereof hee hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raysed him from the dead This giving assurance heere is making faith for so is the Originall and so the vulgar Italian renders it and it is almost so in the margin of our last English Translation for there it is offered faith yet the sense comes all to one because all giving assurance is making faith And the Resurrection of Christ was of such force to make faith that the Apostles who were to spread faith made it the forme of their ordination ordayning Matthias to bee an Apostle under this forme Act. 1.22 To be a witnesse with them of Christs Resurrection And they made it the summe of their preaching for when they began to preach that Jesus was the Christ their
was not his love super-naturall above and beyond the Law of nature when his love to God with whom he had alliance only by faith surpassed his love to his only son with whom hee had alliance by nature and in whose behalfe he had received the promises Againe Jam. 2.25 Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by workes when shee had received the Messengers and had sent them out another way Did not Rahab continue justified by her worke in receiving rhe Messengers Was that worke a duty of the Law or was it not an office of love or as she called it Jos 2.12 a shewing of kindnesse whereby she entertayned and lodged strangers Was not her love super-legall above and beyond the Law for did any Law command that a woman of the City should entertain Spies who came to prepare the destruction of the City And was not her love super-naturall above and beyond the Law of nature when she shewed kindnesse to her enemies in housing hiding and sending them out another way These Offices of love at least the super-legall are the workes whereby at the day of Judgement my Justification must take effect for my salvation or finall possession of that inheritance whereto I am justified For according to these works the finall sentence of Blessednes is formed and pronounced by Christ for the righteous Mat. 25.34 Come ye blessed of my Father inherite the Kingdome prepared for you from the foundation of the world For I was an hungred and ye gave me meat I was thirsty and ye gave me drink I was a stranger and ye tooke me in naked and ye cloathed me I was sick and ye visited me I was in prison and ye came unto me And although to me in my owne person ye did not this yet in as much as ye have done it to one of the least of these my brethren ye have done it unto me And for default of these workes my present Justification will then at that day become of no benefit unto mee but will prove frustrate voyd and of no effect For according to the contrary of these workes the contrary sentence of eternall death is framed and pronounced upon the wicked whether they were ever justified or not justified as appeareth in the following part of that Chapter VERSE 19. Text. For I through the Law am dead to the Law that I might live unto God Sense Through the Law i. e. Through the death of the Law which is expired and dead I am dead to the Law i. e. I have left my old carnall life according to the letter and rules of the Law and doe not the workes thereof That I might live unto God viz. In a new spirituall life aceptable and pleasing to God Reason Heere begins a second Argument to prove the Negative of his principall assertion concerning Justification namely that A man is not justified by the workes of the Law and consequently that he himselfe was not so justified for having translated his discourse unto his owne person hee continueth his argument accordingly For because the Law it selfe is expired and dead therefore it can produce no such effect as to justifie mee for a thing that is dead is without effect And because I am dead to the Law not living by her rules nor doing her workes therefore by them I cannot bee justified for no man is justified by an act which hee doth not And his purpose heerein is that this argument should conclude much more for the Gentiles for if the Law bee dead unto Paul who was a Jew by nature and for whom it was enacted much more was it dead unto the Gentiles upon whom it was never in force and therefore much lesse should they bee forced to the workes of it This verse seemes to bee the summe of the first sixe verses in the seventh Chapter to the Romans Comment The Law ordayned as perpetuall Not limited to a time certaine Yet limited to a time uncertaine But is now expired how far and why so and to what effect and sub-effect FOR I through the Law There must heer be made a supply of the word Death or some such like to that sense thus For I through the death expiration or cessation of the Law am dead expired or ceased to the Law The Law of Moses in respect of the duration how long it should continue and remaine in force was ordayned by God to be perpetuall for unto many ordinances thereof there are annexed expresse words of perpetuity So Circumcision which was the soveraigne ordinance and the chiefe Ceremony of the whole Law was enjoyned for an everlasting covenant Gen. 17.13 And my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting Covenant So the Passover was to be observed as an Ordinance for ever Exod. 12.14 And you shall keepe it a Feast to the Lord throughout your generations you shall keep it a Fevst by an Ordinance for ever So the Sabbath was to be observed for a perpetual covenant Exod. 31.16 Wherefore the children of Israel shall keepe the Sabbath to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations for a perpetuall covenant So the Fast of Expiation was to bee an everlasting statute Levit. 16.34 And this shall be an everlasting statute unto you to make an attonement for the Children of Israel for all their sinnes once a yeare So the holy Assemblies or Festivals of the Lord mentioned Levit. 23. were to bee statutes for ever throughout their generations in all their dwellings So the Lamps for the Sanctuary Lev. 24.3 must burne before the Lord continually it shall be a statute for ever in your generations And the like is sayd for the Shewbread Levit. 24.8 Every Sabbath he shall set it in order before the Lord continually being taken from the children of Israel by an everlasting covenant Notwithstanding all these severall expressions of Perpetuity yet the Law of Moses was not ordayned to bee so everlasting that it should last as long as the World lasteth and have no end till the Worlds end For this opinion was and is the errour of the unbeleeving Jewes and of the beleeving Judaizers But the Law of Moses though it was ordayned to bee perpetuall and everlasting yet withall it was ordayned also to bee transitory mutable and ceaseable For the understanding whereof wee must observe that the duration of the Law was ordered two wayes 1. The duration of it was not limited to any time certaine or to a set number of yeares And in this respect it was perpetuall or everlasting especially because as the event shewed it lasted for the space of fifteene hundred yeares and according to the phrase of the Scripture any long space of time or any thing lasting long is called everlasting as Psal 24.7 And bee yee lift up yee everlasting doores i. e. Ye doores of Cedar which is a long lasting wood For the Perpetuity or everlastingnesse of a Law implieth not a duration infinite that should never have an end but consisteth in a duration
same act effected both these things for by his suffering on the Crosse hee confirmed the New Will and Testament for hence his bloud is called the bloud of the New Testament and the Wine at the Communion is the memoriall of that Bloud Mat. 26.27 And hee tooke the cup and gave thankes and gave it to them saying Drinke ye all of it for this is the bloud of the New Testament And by the same suffering hee cancelled the first Will and Testament Col. 2.14 Blotting out the handwriting of Ordinances which was against us which was contrary to us and tooke it out of the way nayling it to his Crosse Yet hee cancelled the first Will but onely Consequently i. e. upon his confirmation of the last Will it followed necessarily that thereby the first was cancelled and frustrated Am dead to the Law In respect of the Law I am putatively or as it were a dead person who am no way acted or moved at any thing in the Law not at her Promises nor her Judgements nor her Precepts in any kind whether for matter of Policy Ceremony or Morality For I regard neither what she promiseth nor what she threatneth not what she commands nor what she forbids And these words of mine are not presumptuous nor any way opprobrious or reproachfull to the Law because the Law it selfe is the cause why I am thus dead unto the Law namely because the Law it selfe is dead for through her death to me I to her am dead Yet my Person is not dead but my subjection to the Law is dead for my subjection was correlative to her dominion and Relatives as they mutually give being one to another so they mutually take away each others being for when either of the Relatives faile the whole Relation ceaseth the dominion therefore of the Law being dead doth make my subjection to dye with it As by the death of the Husband the Wife also dyeth Yet not in her person as she is a woman but in her relation as she is a wife for she ceaseth to bee a wife though still she remaine a woman For by this comparison the Apostle doth elegantly illustrate both the death of the Law and the death of the Jew unto the Law Rom. 7.2 For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the Law to her husband so long as hee liveth But if the husband bee dead she is loosed from the Law of her husband i. e. Shee ceaseth to bee his wife And from hence hee inferres this conclusion vers 4. Wherefore my brethren yee also are become dead to the Law by the body of Christ That I might live unto God These words are a tacit prevention of an objection that might bee made against his former words For some man might say unto him if the Law bee dead and you dead to the Law and free from the dominion of it then you may freely sinne without controule Heereto his answer is I am not dead to the Law for that purpose that I might sinne But contrarily I am dead to the law that I might not sinne but might dye as well to sinne as to the Law For I am therefore dead unto the Law that I might live unto God by framing all my actions according to his grations Will his last Will and Testament which is the Will that hee hath surrogated to the deceased Law of Moses that was his former Will but is now infringed and which is the Rule whereby I am now to walke that my wayes may bee acceptable and pleasing unto God For to this very end the Old Law is dead and I am dead to the Law that I might become a new Creature to live a new life in the service of God To serve him not carnally after the old way in the Old Testament but spiritually after the new way declared in the New Testament Rom. 7.6 But now wee are delivered from the Law that being dead wherein wee were held that wee should serve in newnesse of spirit and not in the oldnesse of the letter A like expression to the words in hand wee have Rom. 6 11. Likewise reckon yee your selves to bee dead indeed unto sinne but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. And another afterward Rom. 6.13 Neither yield yee your members as instruments of unrighteousnesse unto sinne but yield your selves unto God as those that are alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousnesse unto God VERSE 20. Text. I am crucified with Christ Neverthelesse I live yet not I but Christ liveth in mee and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Sonne of God who loved me and gave himselfe for me Sense I am crucified i. e. Quasily or in a maner for my old man or the man that I was is mortified or put to death With Christ i. e. By way of resemblance as Christ was put to death and because he was put to death Neverthelesse I live 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. But I live viz. a temporall life in this world Yet not I. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. No more I or no longer the same man that I was before when sinne lived in me But Christ lived in mee i. e. Christ by his spirit and by his doctrine is the guide and rule of all my life And the life which I now live in the flesh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. But in that I now live in my mortall body or body of flesh I live by the faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. I live in the Faith or in the Religion q. d. though I live in a body of flesh Yet my life is not fleshly but religious Of the Sonne of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. That of the Sonne of God q. d. the Religion wherein I now live is not that of Moses but that of Christ who is the son of God And gave himselfe for mee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. And delivered himselfe for mee viz. unto death or suffered death for my sake Reason This Verse is a Confirmation of his words in the former wherein hee affirmed that hee was dead unto the Law not to this end that hee might freely sinne but to this that hee might afterward live in the service of God the reason is saith hee because I am crucified with Christ For his being crucified doth argue or prove him dead because all Crucifying is dying and being crucified effectually is being dead though all dying bee not crucifying for crucifying is but one kinde of violent dying And his being crucified with Christ doth argue or prove that hee lived to God Because Christ though hee dyed on the Crosse yet now liveth unto God The rest of the Verse being a further Declaration of this first clause is adorned and varied with pathetick expressions arguing his divine and pious affections wherein by continuing his former Personation in transferring upon himselfe the person of a man
justified by Christ hee doth highly magnifie the benefit and religion of Christ thereby to manifest unto the Galatians their great rashnes and weakenesse in suffering themselves to be seduced from the Religion of Christ and reduced under the Law of Moses Comment Christian crucifying or mortification the Paterne of it the Ground of it the End or Effect of it Of self-love the Nature of it the Necessity of it the Facility and want of it the work of it the Order of that worke the nessity of it and Neglect of it Mortificatiō is true life and really is Sanctification by altering my life to the life of Christ Sense of the Text. Faith put for Religion To live in the flesh To live in the Faith Naturall actions may become religious and be subject to faith An attribute of Christ why given him heere The Religion of Moses servile But that of Christ is liberall and noble Another Attribute of Christ Delivering put for Dying The authors of Christs death Actions are morallized from their causes The end or purpose of it Christ dyed not in my stead But for my sake or for my good to certifie me of blessednes to justifie me to it to Sanctifie me for it to Exemplifie the way to it to glorifie me with it Christ dyed for me eminently More then any other person can Christs love caused his death not excluding Gods love which also caused it and not his Anger God then was not angry with Christ not with us but with the Jewes he was Christ dyed for Paul and for me by my name appellative of a Believer which kinde of Nomination is Certaine and Valid to the Inheritance of Heaven A Prayer unto Christ I Am Crucified The Crosse was an instrument for criminall executions whereon malefactors were put to death a punishment much practised and well knowne among the Romans Greekes and Jewes And to bee Crucified was to bee nayled hand and foot upon the Crosse to suffer thereby a shamefull paynfull and lingring death Hence by way of metaphor or resemblance the Faithfull when they renounce reject and crosse the motions desires and lusts of their carnall or fleshly appetite are sayd in Scripture to crucifie or mortifie the flesh and thereupon they themselves are sayd to bee crucified or mortified For when the Flesh or carnall appetite which is a kinde of Malefactor is so curbed and crossed that she cannot enjoy her former liberty and usuall motions unto sinne then she resembles a man crucified or nayled to the crosse who thereby loseth first his motion and at last his life The Apostle therefore would say My death unto the Law doth so far remove mee from living in sin that I am dead to sin also because I am as it were crucified For as a man that is crucified or nailed to the crosse doth dye a violent and paynfull death so my old man or that man that I was formerly is so bruised and crossed that it is dead not a naturall and easie but a violent and paynfull death For the denyall of my former selfe by crossing the motions desires and lusts of the flesh is unto my sensuall appetite not onely a simple death but a death with violence and torment because when my appetite is crossed she accounts her selfe vexed and tormented With Christ Not really and locally but putatively and quasively for I am mortified in a maner as hee was crucified and so I am for two reasons 1. Because his Crucifying is the Paterne resemblance or likenesse of mine For as Christ was crucified and dyed to his mortall life that he might rise to a new life and live unto God so I am mortified and dead unto sin that I might turne to a new life and live unto God as a new creature And as Christ was crucified but once dying no more but once for death had dominion over him no more but once so I am mortified and dead to sinne once for all and sinne shall never have dominion over mee more because I will never againe returne under the bondage of it For according to these resemblances the Apostle proposeth Christ unto every Christian as the true paterne of mortification Rom. 6.6 Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sinne might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sinne for he that is dead is freed from sinne And againe at the next verse following but one the other resemblance followeth Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dyeth no more death hath no more dominion over him For in that he dyed he dyed unto sinne once but in that hee liveth hee liveth unto God Likewise reckon yee also your selves to bee dead indeede unto sinne but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 2. Because his Crucifying is the cause ground or reason of mine For as through the death of the Law I am dead to the Law so through the Crucifying of Christ I am crucified with Christ i. e. his Crucifying and dying on the Crosse is the cause ground and bond why I must be mortified and dead unto sinne For seeing Christ by his death upon the Crosse did confirme and establish the last Will and Testament of God to the Legacyes and Promises whereof I by fayth am justified to have the same right in God with Christ or as Christ hath namely a right of alliance and inheritance to be the son and heyre of God as Christ is the son and heyre of God and consequently to be the brother of Christ and a co-heyre with him to eternall blessednes Are not these benefits by the death of Christ a cause ground and bond sufficient to engage and oblige mee to crucifie or mortifie my sin Shall I partake in the alliance and inheritance of Christ to bee a co-ally and a co-heire with him and shall I not partake in his obedience to be a sufferer with him especially in this holy suffering whereby my sin onely suffers death For seeing Christ for my sake layd downe his life shall not I for his sake lay downe my sinne Can I possibly doe lesse for his sake who suffered so much for mine then thus to conforme and plant my selfe into the likenesse of his death And can I possibly doe more for my owne sake when by thus conforming and planting my selfe into the likenes of his death Rom. 6.5 I shall be also in the likenesse of his resurrection If Christ dyed for mee then must I dye to sinne because his death bindes mee to it 2 Cor. 5.14 For if one dyed for all then were all dead i. e. then were all to dye or then all ought or must dye to sin for in this place as in divers others the action past is put for the duty to come If Christ have any right in me I must bee thus dead Rom. 8.10 And if Christ bee in you the body is dead because of sinne i. e. the flesh or sensuall appetite is mortified or dead that thereby ye may
am mortified and dead onely in respect of my lusts which are unruly and sinfull motions of my flesh or sensuall appetite but in respect of my love and other holy motions proceeding from my spirit or rationall Will I am vivified and quickned Wherefore I am dead and aliue in respect of different faculties of my soule because the death of one faculty is the life of the other for the death of my flesh is the life of my spirit This kinde of death and life not only may but needs must consist comply and stand together in me for in effect and substance this death and life are but one and the same thing which under contrary names make up in mee that one and the same thing which is sanctity or holinesse For as in a journey there seem two contrarieties namely a departing from one place and a travelling to another yet really and in effect both these are but one and the same journey differing onely in tearmes of recesse from one place and accesse to another yet the motion interceding betweene those distant places is one and the same Or as in curing the body of some disease there seeme two contrary actions namely an expelling of the disease and an inducing of health yet really and in effect both these make but one and the same cure So in my Repentance regeneration renovation sanctification or by what names soever the Scriptures call the cure of my soule there seem two contrarietyes namely my forsaking of sin or dying to it and my approching to holinesse or living to God yet really and in effect both these are but one and the same conversation or walking Hence it appeares that mortification and vivification are really but one and the same motion making up in me that one and the same morall alteration which is my sanctification yet there is between them a rationall difference in 3 respects 1. Of their order for in order of nature or reason though not of time or continuance mortification is first for that beginneth that consequently vivification may follow 2. Of their object for the matter mortified is sin but that vivified is holines 3. Of the subject for the faculty mortified is the flesh but that vivified is the spirit Yet the faculty of my flesh is not mortified for the essence of it but for some qualityes of it for the faculty of the flesh doth also live in mee as much as that of the spirit for although unto some motions my flesh bee deaded yet unto some others it still liveth and conduceth to usefull and lawfull effects in mee For as in the killing of quick-silver the silver remaines after the killing it and serves for severall uses but that malignity ferity or quicknes of the silver which in the use thereof would prove noxious and hurtfull is extinguished and deaded So in the Mortifying of my flesh the faculty remaines after the mortifying and lives in me to divers good purposes but that fiercenes rashnes and quicknes of my appetite the lusts and frauds of it whereby it would usurpe over my Spirit to reigne and rule in me these qualities and motions of my appetite are mortified and extinguished that thereby she may become obedient and serviceable unto my spirit for the better speeding of many holy duties And so when a horse is made to amble his motion lives in him still but the trot of his motion is deaded and a pace is put upon it that moves with more ease to the rider Yet not I. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. no more I or no longer I the same man that I was before I was justified when sin lived in me For elswhere the very same words are translated No more I as Rom. 7.17 Now then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. it is no more I that doe it but sin that dwelleth in me And Rom. 7.20 Now if I doe that I would not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. it is no more I that doe it but sin that dwelleth in mee And in this very place our former English translation which was in use before that of King James hath it thus not I any more q. d. Though after my crucifying or mortifying I live yet I am not any more the man that I was before neither doe I live any longer the life I did when living a naturall and carnall life sinne lived in mee and over-ruled mee For the man that I was is now mortified and dead unto sinne it is crucified as Christ was crucified and because hee was crucified But now there is a great alteration in my morall life or conversation for my old man which was naturall and carnall being dead I am now become a new man and a new creature to live a life which is spirituall and christian For in vaine I professe my selfe a Christian unlesse I become a new creature 2. Cor. 5.17 Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature For neither Ceremony nor not-Ceremony nor any thing else availeth in Christ but onely this to become a new creature Gal. 6.15 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but a new creature But Christ liveth in mee Not by his Person for so hee lives in Heaven sitting at the right hand of God But hee lives in mee by his spirit for his spirit infused into mee inspireth my spirit inlightning my minde animating my will and governing my actions to a life of holynesse whereto my single spirit in her naked state of nature could never of her selfe elevate and raise mee For unto my spirit the spirit of Christ is a Light a Strength and a Guide by whom I am lead and after whom I walke in the wayes of holynesse And Christ lives in mee by his life for as his death was the cause and paterne of my death whereby I am mortified with him So his life is the cause and paterne of my life whereby I am vivified with him For the holynesse of his life hath such an influence upon mine that according to the measure of grace and of my ability in my mortall condition I labour to bee holy as hee was holy that I may imitate and resemble his holynesse though I can not equall it However hee is the Rule whereby I live for I live not after mine owne will but after his and hee is the End for which I live for I live not unto my selfe to seeke my selfe but unto him to seeke him who dyed for mee and I therefore live thus because he dyed for mee For a like phrase to this is that 2. Cor. 5.15 And that hee dyed for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which dyed for them and rose againe And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. But in that I now live in the flesh For so it is rendred in the Vulgar Latine in the Vulgar
in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thankes to God and the father through him When I live thus ordering my humane actions in this maner and to this end then I may truly say of my selfe In that I now live in the flesh I live in the faith of the son of God as it followeth in the next words Of the Son of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. I live in the faith or religion in that faith or religion of the son of God The particle that being placed after faith doth emphatically determine and specifie the Author of that faith and religion wherein he lived namely in that of the Son of God And there is another emphasis in the article affecting the son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. in that faith or religion of that Son of God that hee might lay out a singular designation of Christ in distinguishing him from other sons of God For he hath reference unto that person whom in this verse hee had before mentioned by the name of Christ in saying I am crucified with Christ and Christ liveth in me Heere therefore hee againe mentions the same person by another name in saying I live in the faith or religion in that of that Son of God who loved mee and gave himselfe for me i.e. of Christ for these words are an eloquent and affectionat circumlocution or description of Christ Wherein are expressed two excellencyes or eminent qualityes of Christ the one of his Birth in relation to God that he was the Son of God the other of his death in relation to man whom he so loved that he dyed for his sake Every Angel every Prophet and every Believer is A son of God but Christ is The or That son of God in a most eminent and singular maner above all other persons that are sons of God whether they be men or Angels Because to omit all other reasons not serving to the Apostles scope in this place hee was begotten on a Virgin not by the power of any man or Angel but by the power of the Highest for as the Angel Gabriel certifies the Virgin Mary his mother Luke 1.35 hee was therefore called the Son of God And heere the Apostle understands no other filiation of Christ then that whereby he was a mortall man because hee argues from his death in saying who loved mee and gave himselfe to death for mee Hee describeth Christ by this attribute of the Son of God that thereby he might expresse another cause that moved him to forsake the Law and Religion of Moses to embrace the faith and Religion of Christ and thereby to regulate all the actions of his life namely because Christ is the Son of God Which first argues for his person that Christ is a person of farre greater dignity then Moses For although Moses were a great Prophet yet his ordinary stile in reference to God runnes but thus that hee was the servant of God and the man of God But the constant title and stile of Christ is to bee the Son of God For from this very difference of condition the Apostle argues the high prerogative of Christ above that of Moses Heb. 3.5 And Moses verily was faithfull in all his house as a servant c. but Christ as a sonne over his owne house And secondly heereby hee highly commends the Religion introduced by Christ beyond that which was setled by Moses as a Religion and service more agreeable to the will and pleasure of God For the Authour to the Hebrewes doth in this respect exalt the Religion of Christ in that God hath delivered the message thereof by his Sonne Heb. 1.1.2 God who spake in time past unto the Fathers by the Prophets hath in these last dayes spoken unto us by his son Hence it will easily bee collected that the Religion of Moses being but the servant of God was but a servile Religion for the services thereof were very servile Heb. 9.10 which stood onely in meates and drinkes and divers washings and carnall ordinances imposed on them untill the time of Reformation Hence that whole Religion is called Rom. 8.15 The spirit of bondage to feare because it wrought in the people a passion of slavish feare such as they commonly have who live under bondage or servitude Hence also the services thereof are called Gal. 4.3 the Elements or Rudiments of the World under which as under Tutors and Governours the Jewes though they were the adopted Children and Heyres of God were held in bondage in a condition nothing different from servants But the Religion of Christ who is that sonne of God is a filial liberall and noble Religion whose services are fitted for the sonnes of God according to the state and degree of sonnes in their plenage who are come to their perfect growth and fullnesse of time For so it followeth in the place fore-cited But when the fulnesse of time was come God sent forth his sonne to redeeme them that were under the Law in the condition of children and servants that they might receive the adoption of sonnes i. e. That they might receive their emancipation from the state of children to have their liberature according to the state and degree of sonnes in their plenage or full age The highest dignity which the Scripture ascribes to the Law or Religion of Moses is taken from the Publication of it in that it was ordayned and spoken by Angels and yet even in this respect she preferres the Religion of Christ before it because this was ordayned and spoken by that son of God who is the Lord not only of men but also of the Angels Heb. 2.2 For if the word spoken by Angels was stedfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward How shall wee escape if wee neglect so great salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord Who loved me and gave himselfe for me Heere hee addeth the other attribute or eminent quality of Christ expressing thereby another motive that caused him to forsake the Religion of Moses and to embrace that of Christ namely because Christ had thereto endeared him by dying for him who sayth he loved me and gave himselfe to death for me Whereby he would insinuate that Christ was far more excellent then Moses not only for the dignity of his person in being the Son of God but also for the dearenesse of his affection in dying for Beleevers for neyther of those are true of Moses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. And delivered himselfe for me Yet heere and elsewhere it is well enough translated gave himselfe because the words give and deliver when they are used in this sense are many times interchanged and one put for the other But in the word Deliver standing thus single and applied to a person there is commonly an ellipsis or defect which is to be supplyed according to the exigency of the matter in hand and which for the most part is some evill
especially Death from which or whereto the person is sayd to be delivered as Mat. 27.43 He trusted in God let him deliver him now i. e. Let him deliver him now from death And 2. Pet. 2.7 and delivered just Lot i. e. from death at the destruction of Sodome But in divers other places the deliverance is not from evill but unto evill and the evill whereunto Christ was delivered was death So Rom. 4.25 who was delivered for our offences i. e. delivered unto death And Rom. 8.32 He that spared not his owne sonne but delivered him up for us all i. e. delivered him up to death So heer and delivered himselfe for me i. e. delivered or gave himselfe unto death for me The Person who delivered Christ unto death was Christ himselfe for he delivered himselfe and gave himselfe to die Eph. 5.2 And walke in love as Christ also hath loved us and hath given himselfe for us where in the Originall it is hath delivered himselfe for us And againe in the same Chapter ver 25. Husbands love your wives even as Christ also loved the Church and gave himselfe for it where againe the Originall hath it and delivered himselfe for it Yet besides Christ there were other persons who were concurrent in this delivery of Christ to death For God the Father by his Decree and by the consent of Christ did deliver him to death Act. 2.23 Him being delivered by the determinate counsell and foreknowledge of God yee have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slaine And Judas who betrayed him delivered him for all treachery is a delivery of the person who is betrayed and Judas to extenuate the foulnesse of his treachery calles it by the moderat and generall name of delivery Mat. 26.15 Then one of the twelve called Judas Iscariot went unto the chiefe Priests and sayd unto them what will yee give mee and I will deliver him unto you and they covenanted with him for 30 peeces of silver and from that time he sought opportunity to betray him where in the Greeke the same word stands for delivering and betraying for all unlawfull and sinfull delivering is betraying Likewise the Rulers of the Jewes as the chiefe Priests the Scribes and Elders delivered him Luk. 20.20 And they watched him and sent foorth spies which should faine themselves just men that they might take hold of his words that so they might deliver him unto the power and authority of the Governour And lastly Pilate the Governour delivered him Mat. 27.26 And when he had scourged Jesus he delivered him to bee crucified Yet this one and the same action wherein so many persons concurred was in God and Christ an holy Act but in the rest a wicked crime Because actions are moralised to bee good or evill from their causes and circumstances which being altered doe alter the good or evill of the action God who was the father of Christ had power to deliver his son unto death and did actually deliver him for this end viz. to glorifie him that raysing him after death to an immortall life hee might become the perpetuall Priest and King of his Church and consequently the authour of eternall salvation to all that obey him And this act of God was good because hee had power to doe it and did it to a good and blessed end And Christ who was the sonne of God had power to deliver himselfe to death and in obedience to his father actually did it to the same end namely to be glorified Heb. 12.2 Looking unto Jesus the authour and finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the Crosse despising the shame and is set downe at the right hand of the throne of God And this act of Christ was good because hee had power to doe it for though no man had authority to take his life from him yet hee had authority from his father to lay it downe John 10.18 No man taketh it from mee but I lay it downe of my selfe I have power to lay it downe and I have power to take it againe this commandement have I received of my father And because Christ did this act for a good end that thereby he might compasse his owne glory and mans salvation But in Judas and the Jewes this very act of delivering Christ unto death was a foule wickednesse because they had no lawfull authority to doe it and because they did it to an evill end namely to destroy him and because they did it not as Gods will but as Satans will and their owne for John 13.2 The Divel put it into the heart of Judas Thus one and the same action done by divers agents upon divers motives and for divers ends may be diversly moralised to become in one respect good and holy but in another foule and wicked For me Christ delivered himselfe unto death and died yet not for himselfe only and only for his owne sake but also for me and for my sake Which is not to be so understood as if Christ had died in my stead or in my roome by suffering that death which I for my sin am to suffer For although Christ suffered a death in a manner somewhat like to that death which I deserve to suffer and suffered it for that end to free me from that death which I deserve to suffer and from which I should not have beene freed unlesse he had suffered death Yet first He suffered not that very death which I deserve to suffer for the death which I deserve to suffer is eternall death which kinde of death Christ suffered not for his death lasted but three dayes neyther could he suffer it because God had decreed and promised the contrary And if he had suffered it then could I have never beene freed from it and yet my freedome from it was the maine end for which hee suffered For if Christ had continued in death and had not beene raysed from it my faith to be raysed from it is vaine and whensoever I die I shall utterly perish 1. Cor. 15.17 And if Christ be not raysed your faith is vaine ye are yet in your sinnes then they also which are fallen asleepe in Christ are perished And secondly The death which Christ suffered was not in stead or liew of mine For the temporall death which Christ suffered doth not free mee from temporall death because I shall suffer that kinde of death and shall lie under it till the Resurrection not as a punishment of my sin for unto the Remission of my sinnes I am already justified and my death is not a punishment for them but as a Calamity of my birth as being the son of Adam in whose attainder I was tainted and for whose sinne I must die But by the temporall death of Christ my temporall death shall determine which otherwise would become eternall for his Rising from his death will rayse me from mine 1. Cor. 15.22 For as in Adam all die even so in Christ shall
all be made alive But of these words for me the meaning is that Christ delivered himselfe to death and actually died for my sake for my good and for my great benefit which benefit is no lesse unto me then first my Right and afterward my Possession of eternall Blessednesse For by or through his death I collect from Scripture these five benefits 1. Hee Certified mee of blessednesse That the Will and Testament which he published to the World concerning the future blessednesse of heaven was the true whole and last Will and Testament of God seeing hee testified this truth and made faith thereof by his death for because hee witnessed it with his bloud therefore his bloud is sayd to beare witnesse on earth 1 John 5.8 And there are three that beare witnesse on earth the spirit and the water and the bloud 2. He justified me to blessednes For the Will and Testament of God wherein the Legacies or Promises of blessednes are devised unto me was confirmed and established by the bloud and death of Christ who dyed instead of the Testator that the Testament might bee in force and that being in force I am upon my actuall faith actually justified to my Legacies therein for hence wee are sayd to bee justified by the bloud of Christ Rom. 5.9 Being now justified by his bloud we shall be saved from wrath through him 3. He sanctified me for blessednesse For those acts of holinesse which consist in dying to sin and in newnesse of life and which are the conditions and Precepts of Gods Will and Testament whereto the possession of blessednes is limited and without which I shall never possesse it were figured and shaddowed out unto mee by the death and resurrection of Christ For hee that had no sin himselfe how could hee otherwise represent unto me this duty of my death unto sin and newnes of life And that Christ dyed to doe this good upon mee is expresly taught in many places of the Scripture as Gal. 1.4 Who gave himselfe for our sins that he might deliver us from this present evill world And Ephes 5.25 Husbands love your Wives even as Christ also loved the Church and gave himselfe for it that he might sanctifie and cleanse it c. And Tit. 2.14 who gave himselfe for us that he might redeeme us from all iniquity and purifie unto himselfe a peculiar people zealous of good workes And Heb. 9.14 How much more shall the bloud of Christ who through the eternall spirit offered himselfe without spot to God purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God And 1 Pet. 1.18 Ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vaine conversation received by tradition from your fathers but with the precious bloud of Christ. And 1 Pet. 2.24 Who his owne selfe bare our sins in his owne body on the tree that we being dead to sin should live unto righteousnesse 4. He exemplified unto me the way to blessednesse The way leading unto blessednesse is a hard rough and narrow lane beset with many troubles dangers and certaine death through all which hee commands mee to passe A way that unto flesh and bloud is exceeding fearfull and full of horrour for it seemes to lead mee unto utter destruction yet is indeed the right true and onely way to eternall blessednes Now seeing Christ by his death passing this way came thereby to his crowne of glory doth not hee by his example in taking the assay of death and in tasting it for mee encourage me to suffer death and assure unto mee the likenesse of his glory for may I not playnely see this in the death of my Saviour Jesus Christ Heb. 2.9 But we see Jesus who was made a little lower then the Angells for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honour that hee by the grace of God should taste death for every man 5. Hee will glorifie mee with the crowne of blessednesse The Legacies or promises of my future blessednes are to be performed unto me by Christ because he is the sole Executor of that Will and Testament wherein they are devised unto mee and therefore also he is the Captaine of my salvation Unto which Office hee was enabled and perfected through the sufferings of death that after his death he might possesse his owne glory and might also bring me to glory after mine because this was a way beseeming and becomming the good pleasure of God whereby to bring all his sons unto glory Heb. 2.10 For it became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things in bringing many sons unto glory to make the Captaine of their salvation perfect through sufferings Christ himselfe having been once dead and gained by his death the power over death doth the more commiserate my death and will be the readier first to succour me at it and hereafter to rayse me from it Heb. 2.18 for in that he himselfe hath suffered being tempted be is able to succour them that are tempted In a word hee therefore dyed and revived that hee might bee my gratious Lord in what state soever I am whether dead or alive Rom. 14.9 For to this end Christ both dyed and rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and the living Yet I am further to conceive that these words Christ gave himselfe or dyed for mee must bee understood of him by way of eminency or excellency in a speciall and singular manner For although some other persons may dye for mee yet they cannot bee sayd to doe it in that maner or in that sense that hee did it Because Christ was the first person who dyed for mee in this kinde and by the meanes of whose death principally and chiefely according to the grace and mercy of God my salvation is established And because Christ was the onely person who dyed for mee to these speciall ends of Justifying Sanctifying and Glorifying of mee as hee was my sole and onely Mediatour without the conjunction of any other person heerein And because this deede of Christ in dying for mee is sometime in Scripture attributed unto Christ as a speciall property peculiar to him for hence it is sayd Rom. 14.15 Destroy not him with thy meate for whom Christ dyed viz. in an eminent and excellent manner And 1. Cor. 1.13 Was Paul crucified for you i. e. Neither Paul nor any other person was crucified for you principally and especially Otherwise besides Christ some other person may also dye for mee and may bee truely sayd to dye for the good of my salvation For touching himselfe Paul saith 2. Cor. 1.6 That hee was afflicted for the consolation and salvation of the Corinthians And 2. Cor. 12.15 That hee would very gladly spend and bee spent for their soules for so the Margin declares the Originall And Ephes 3.1 That hee was the Prisoner of Jesus Christ for the Gentiles and if consequently to his imprisonment hee had suffered
death then it must needes follow that hee had dyed for the Gentiles And 2. Tim. 2.10 That hee endured all things for the Elects sake that they may also obtaine the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternall glory And this was not the singular charity of Paul alone But it is also the duty of every Believer to lay downe his life for his brethren especially when the matter concernes their salvation for heereof the death of Christ is both the reason and the example 1. John 3.16 Heereby perceive wee the love of God because hee layd downe his life for us and wee ought to lay downe our lives for the brethren Likewise of every true Martyr by whose constancy I finde my selfe confirmed in the truth it may bee truely sayd that hee dyed for the good of my salvation Yet notwithstanding all other persons besides Christ are in this kinde onely subservient unto Christ and the benefit which I have by their death doth onely second my blessing by his Who loved mee The Motive that induced Christ to give himselfe for mee was his Love to mee For as the fruit of his death was my good So the roote of it was his love for because hee loved mee therefore hee dyed for mee Certainely a reall love not in word or in tongue but in deede and in truth testified and certified by his death for by the outward passion of his death hee declared the inward affection of his love And certainely a liberall love for seeing love delights to give what could hee give mee more then to give himselfe for mee For the greatnesse of his love unto mee is heere signified by two circumstances that inclose and stand about his Love One before it by the greatnesse of his person in that hee was the sonne of God for what greater person was there in the world who was mortall and able to dye for mee The other after it by the greatnesse of his passion in that hee gave himselfe to death for mee for what could hee possibly doe more for my sake then to lay downe his life for mee Seeing beyond this there can bee no greater love and hence hee himselfe commends the greatnesse of love John 15.13 Greater love hath no man then this that a man lay downe his life for his friends His love therefore was the Cause of his death and his death was the Effect of his love For hence in severall passages of Scripture his Love and his Death go hand in hand as the Cause with the effect As Ephes 5.2 Walke in love as Christ also hath loved us and given himselfe for us And Ephes 5.25 Husbands love your Wives even as Christ also loved the Church and gave himselfe for it And 1. John 3.16 Heereby perceive wee the love of God because hee layd downe his life for us Yet the love of Christ unto mee was not the sole and onely cause of his death for mee so as to exclude the love of the Father from being concurrent with the love of Christ For God the Father also loved mee and loved mee so eminently and so principally that his love was the cause why Christ loved mee and therefore consequently Gods love unto mee must needes bee the cause why Christ dyed for mee and must needes bee also the supreame cause that hath no higher cause above it For Christ therefore dyed for mee because hee loved mee and hee therefore loved mee because God loved mee But why God loved mee I know no cause beside his love Yet that Gods love to mee is the cause why Christ dyed for mee is manifest from severall passages of Scripture as John 3.16 For God so loved the World that hee gave his onely begotten Sonne i. e. Gave him to dye for his love to the World was the cause why hee exposed his sonne to death And Rom. 3.25 God hath set forth Christ to bee a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousnesse i. e. His kindnes which is the effect of his love And Rom. 5.8 But God commendeth his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ dyed for us And 1. John 4.10 Heerein is love not that wee loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins And the greatnesse of Gods love heerein is manifest also by two circumstances One of the Person dying a person of that Majesty and of so neare alliance unto God that hee was the sonne of God and his onely begotten sonne Which must needs argue in God an excesse and high degree of love For hee that is so free as to give up his owne sonne for mee doth thereby further give mee to understand that hee would willingly give mee all that ever hee hath And beyond this can there bee any greater love or can any love bee more free Yet such was Gods love to mee in the death of Christ Rom. 8.32 Hee that spared not his owne sonne but delivered him up for us all how shall hee not with him also freely give us all things The other Circumstance is of the persons for whom Christ dyed for they were sinners and ungodly wretches persons deserving death themselves and altogether unworthy that any one should dye for them and therefore much lesse the sonne of God Peradventure for good and godly men some man would dye but would any man dye for sinners and ungodly wretches But Christ dyed for us while wee were yet sinners and ungodly and therein God commended the greatnesse of his love to us Rom. 5.7 Peradventure for a good man some would even dare to dye but God commendeth his love towards us in that while wee were yet sinners Christ dyed for us Hence there will follow these three verities 1. Gods wrath was not the cause of Christs death For wee cannot finde any such Doctrine delivered in the Scriptures But from severall expresse Scriptures wee have clearely shewed that the cause of Christs death was Gods love unto us and that love was not ordinary and vulgar but singularly and intirely the greatest that ever was in the world Wee were indeede the children of wrath i. e. lyable to Gods wrath and worthy of it Yet it doth not thence follow that God was then actually wrath with us for God who is rich in grace and mercy may in a divers respect actually love them who actually deserve his wrath And when Christ dyed for us wee were then dead in sinnes i. e. guilty of death by reason of our sinnes Yet it thence followeth not that our sinnes were punished in the death of Christ for God may actually pardon their life who actually are guilty of death This God may doe de jure and hath already done it de facto and hee hath done it for this end that thereby hee might shew the exceeding riches of his love and grace in his mercy and kindnesse towards us through Christ Ephes 2.3 Wee all had our conversation in times past
in the lusts of our flesh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the minde and were by nature the children of wrath even as others but God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith hee loved us even when wee were dead in sinnes hath quickned us together with Christ by grace yee are saved and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus that in the Ages to come hee might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindnesse towards us through Christ Jesus Certainely such love as heere is mentioned so exceeding rich in grace mercy and kindnesse must needes bee free from wrath and anger unlesse wee are content to say that at one and the same time in respect of the same action and of the same persons God was exceeding loving and yet exceeding angry which at last will come to this that at the same time the same God loved and loved not 2. God was not angry with Christ when he dyed For would God bee angry with his onely begotten Son of whom hee gave this publick testimony from Heaven Mat. 3.17 This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased With his Son who was so obedient that hee tooke upon him the forme of a servant and God calls him his chosen servant in whom his soule was well pleased Mat. 12.18 Behold my servant whom I have chosen my beloved in whom my soule is well pleased With his Son who was so Innocent that in all his life hee knew no sin and therefore could bee no subject of Gods anger And could God bee angry with his Sonne then when hee was about Gods owne worke a worke to God so pleasing that God therefore loved him because he undertook it John 10.17 Therefore doth my Father love me because I lay down my life that I might take it againe A worke to God so agreeable that Ephes 5.2 it was an Offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour A worke to God so acceptable that for his undergoing of it God hath highly exalted him and caused every knee to bow unto him Phil. 2.8 Hee humbled himselfe and became obedient unto death even the death of the Crosse wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow c. 3. God was not angry with us when Christ dyed for us For could God bee angry with us then when wee were the objects of his admirable and infinite love when hee did a worke for our sakes whereby hee especially intended to free us wholly from his anger a work wherein he playnly declared the exceeding riches of his grace and the abundance of his mercy and kindnesse towards us a worke wherein hee spared not his own most dearly beloved Son but delivered him up for us all and thereby manifested that hee would freely give us all things a worke whereby hee conveyed unto us a right interest and clayme to the eternall possession of Heavenly blessednes Or if God were then angry with us when to settle upon us eternall life hee exposed his owne Son to a bitter death what sufficient argument can wee draw from his death whereby to assure our soules that God remaines not angry with us still even unto this very day True it is that God was angry with the Jewes who put Christ to death for his bloud was upon them and upon their children and afterward God punished their wickednes with a sin all desolation Yet if wee consider that anger of God according to the right course of causality we shall easily perceive that Gods anger against the Jewes was not the cause of Christs death but contrarily Christs death was the cause of Gods anger against the Jewes For God whose anger caused not the worke was justly angry with the workemen who did it because they on their part made it a wicked worke for they did it not as Gods worke not as his Will not for his sake not for his end nor by his authority Gods anger therefore against the Jewes for the death of Christ maketh nothing against the verities by mee premised that his anger was not the cause why Christ dyed For the like may bee sayd of every Martyr whose death is a just cause of Gods anger against his Persecutors though Gods anger bee no cause at all of his death But some man may say that the truth of these words who loved me and gave himselfe for me being spoken by Paul of himselfe and in his person of every Christian might be certainely knowne unto Paul Because hee might bee assured of this truth by the meanes of some revelation made unto him thereof for either Christ whom hee had heard and seen or God who revealed Christ unto him might also reveale this truth unto him But you that were borne some hundred yeares since the death of Christ and have no revelation touching any such love of Christ toward you how can you for your part certainely know and bee assured concerning your selfe that Christ loved you and gave himselfe for you Hereto I answer That this saying is also true of mee I certainely know and am assured from hence because my name is written in Gods last Will and Testament that Christ loved mee and gave himselfe for mee Yet I find not my name written there by my proper Christian and sir-name but by an appellative or common name of mine which unto mee is farre better and more certaine then my proper name For I certainely know of my selfe that I am a Believer in Christ and am truely called by that name and under that name I finde it written of mee that Christ loved me and dyed for me John 3.16 God so loved the world that he gave to death his onely begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life And againe Rom. 3.21 But now the righteousnes i. e. the kindnes of God without the Law is manifested being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets even the righteousnesse or kindnes of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his bloud Christ then dyed for all Believers whatsoever of what Nation and what age soever not onely for those who lived in that age wherein hee dyed but for all those also who should afterwards live in any age whatsoever Now because Christ for certaine dyed for all Believers and I for certaine am a Believer therefore for certaine Christ dyed for mee And if this Reasoning be not right there is no reason why man should bee accounted a reasonable creature or if this Reasoning breed not certainty man can have no certainty in any knowledge and consequently he cannot bee certaine that himselfe is a
man much lesse can hee bee certaine that any thing is doubtfull This nomination of mee by the common name of a Believer is fully sufficient to convey unto mee a proper right to everlasting blessednesse My Father by his last Will setled his estate upon my elder Brother and upon his heires but my Brother dying without issue I came to enjoy my fathers estate Because I was named to it in his Will yet not by my single or proper name but by my appellative or common name of Heire for collaterally by my birth I was heire to my Brother But because this is a parable therefore it is not necessary that the Argument of it should agree with the thing it should argue in every particular circumstance but it shall suffice that it hold in the maine purpose and scope of it My heavenly Father by his last Will setled the Kingdome of Heaven upon Christ my elder Brother and upon his Heires and heereby the inheritance of Heaven is assured unto mee Because in Gods Will I am named to it not by my single or proper name but by my appellative or common name of heire to Christ for having God my Father by faith I consequently become Brother to Christ and co-heire with him And an heire by faith when the Testator is pleased so to assigne it is jurally as sure as an heire by birth and in the case present much surer because the assignation is universall to all in generall Whosoever believeth in Christ shall not perish but have everlasting life And the righteousnes of God unto all and upon all them that believe If therefore a common name written in mans will be of force to convey and assure an estate much more shall it doe the like in Gods Will. Oh my deare and blessed Lord who hast loved mee and given thy selfe for mee and therefore wilt give mee any thing else beside grant mee the spirit of thy love that thine to mee may beget mine to thee But let mine bee a soveraigne love to adhere to thee against all the world and let it bee a diligent love not in word but in deed to serve thee faithfully in all thy commands Grant mee also the virtue of thy death to worke in mee my death to sinne that as thou for my sake didst lay downe thy life so I for thy sake may lay downe my sinne Let the sprinkling of thy blood fall upon my heart to withdraw mee from the course of the world to cleanse mee from all vaine conversation to purifie mee from sinne and iniquity to consecrate and dedicate my soule to holynesse that as Adams sinne made mee guilty so thy death may make mee holy And when my naturall death approacheth seeing thou hast tasted death for mee bee pleased to succour mee at the houre of mine Let mee not feare or grieve or grudge to dye but answering the way of thy love let mee give my selfe for mee and then Lord Jesus receive my spirit for which thou didst vouchsafe to dye VERSE 21. Text. I doe not frustrate the grace of God For if righteousnesse come by the Law then Christ is dead in vaine Sense I do not frustrate the grace of God i. e. I make it not vaine or voyd by despising or rejecting it in attributing that blessing unto Gods Law which proceedeth from his grace For if righteousnesse come by the Law i. e. If the Right whereto Gods righteousnesse or kindnesse justifieth come by the Law or if Justification come by the Law as an effect of the Law Then Christ is dead in vaine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. dyed without a cause then Christ who dyed on the Crosse to settle that Will and Testament of God whereby this Right was conveyed dyed without a cause or there was no sufficient reason why he should so dye Reason These words containe the third and last Argument in this Chapter whereby he proves the Negative of his principall Assertion concerning Justification that A man is not Justified by the works of the Law and consequent y that he himself was not so justified For the Apostle according to his former personation continueth his argument in his owne person concluding his Negative from an absurdity which must necessarily follow upon the contrary Affirmative of it For if I am justified by the workes of the Law then it must needs follow that thereby I doe frustrate or made voyd the grace of God because the Law of God and the Grace of God make such opposite titles that if I claime by his Law I must needs disclaime his Grace The Necessity of this consequence he further declares and confirmes by instancing in the gracious Meanes whereby this divine Right of Inheritance to Blessednes is conveyed and setled upon me namely by the bitter death of Christ upon the Crosse wherein God shewed the riches of his grace when by the death of his owne Son he testified and confirmed that Will and Testament wherein this Inheritance was devised unto mee For if my Right of Inheritance came by reason of the Law then Christ who died to settle this Right upon me dyed without any cause on Gods part and there was no sufficient reason why his Father who so dearly loved him should expose him unto death much lesse unto such a bitter death if therefore I frustrate the death of Christ I thereby also frustrate the grace of God And for this argument from Gods grace hee seemes to take occasion from the last words of the former verse wherein hee mentioned the love of Christ because all grace is love Comment Frustrate ampliated to 4 senses which really are the same Grace put for it selfe and for all the effects of it Of Justification the Matter the Title the Tenure the Author the Motive is meere Grace The Nature of grace in 2. things Testimonies for it No causes for it Yet reasons 5. 1. From Gods gift 2. from his good pleasure 3. from his goodnes or kindnes 4. from his Mercy 5. From his Will and Testament Gods grace is rich Testimonies hereof and Reasons 3. 1 It is without cause Not from Merit nor Request nor Inquiry But from Gods proper motion According to his owne will which otherwise were not his but ours 2. Rich for the Effect of Alliance and Inheritance seated most gloriously 3. For the Meanes which was costly precious Why Grace is not caused by my Works nor by my Will but is onely Gratis for Thankes 〈◊〉 what 〈◊〉 are Yet they follow not necessarily why not Grace how frustrated Righteousnesse put sometime for Uprightnes Faithfulnes Kindnes Heere for a Right For so it is taken in the Old Testament So in the New And sometime is so Englished So also here and why 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies without desert here without cause Christs death ampliated to his other actiōs Especially to his Resurrection Causes of Christs death fit to be knowne the ◠Causes humane the Divine which must be 1. Consequent to Gods
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the righteousnesse of the faith which hee had being uncircumcised that hee might bee the Father of all them that believe i. e. A seale of the right which hee had by faith being uncircumcised for a seale is not a signe of uprightnesse or morall righteousnesse but of a right interest or claime and the right sealed unto Abraham is heere specified That hee might bee the Father of all them that believe which condition in Abraham was not a morall righteousnesse but a jurall right of dignity And againe vers 13. For the promise that hee should bee the Heire of the World was not to Abraham or to his seeds through the Law but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 through the righteousnesse of faith i. e. through the right which hee had by faith for it hath reference to the two former words Promise and Heire which are jurall tearmes proper to matters of right for a Promise is an act which maketh a Right and an Heir is a person who hath a right The like sense the word Righteousnesse beareth in divers passages of that Epistle the recitall whereof would prove too numerous and tedious Yet for our further confirmation heerein wee may take notice that in the Old Testament the Hebrew word Zedakah doth not onely signifie a right but in King JAMES his translation is sometime so Englished As 2. Sam. 19.28 For all my Fathers house were but dead men before my Lord the King yet didst thou set thy servant among them that did eate at thine owne table mah iesh li Zedakah what right have I therefore yet to cry any more unto the King The Right heere mentioned is the right of Inheritance which Mephibosheth had to his Land whereof he stood then disseised by the treachery and calumny of Ziba as it appeares by the words following And Nehemiah 2.20 Then I answered them and sayd unto them the God of Heaven he will prosper us therefore we his servants will arise and build but you have no portion Uzedakah nor right nor memoriall in Jerusalem The Right heere mentioned was a Right of Inheritance or of some speciall Priviledge which the three persons to whom hee spake could not clayme because they were not Jewes but Strangers for Sanballat was a Samaritan Tobiah an Amonite and Geshem an Arabian And Psal 9.4 For thou hast maintained my right and my cause thou satest in the throne Judging Zedek right And Psal 17.1 Heare Zedek the right O Lord attend unto my cry Thus the Hebrew word Zedakah the Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the English righteousnesse doth many times signifie a Right and is sometime so Englished Now that the same word doth also signifie a Right here in the Text which we have now in hand though here it be not so Englished it playnly appeares from a parallell place in the next chapter following verse 18. For if the Inheritance be of the Law it is no more of Promise For first both these sayings carry the same sense because every Inheritance is a Right though not contrarily every Right is not an Inheritance for there be divers other Rights besides Inheritances But an Inheritance is one speciall kind and indeed the best kind of Right when it comes to be in possession because it is an universall and perpetuall Right extended to a whole estate for ever What therefore in one place is meant by the generall word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Right the same is expressed in the other by the speciall word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Inheritance Secondly both these sayings carry the same reason because in both places hee argues for one and the same conclusion namely that a man is not justified by the Law which hee proves from the severall absurdities which upon a supposall of the affirmative will necessarily follow for if a man be justified by the Law or if his right come by the Law or if his Inheritance be of the Law for all these sayings are all one in effect then all is frustrate voyd without cause and of no effect for the grace of God is frustrate faith is made voyd the death of Christ is without cause and the promise is of no effect For when he saith It is no more of Promise hee seemes to say The Promise is of no effect for so hee sayth expresly in a place paralell to both these Rom. 4.14 For if they which be of the Law be heires fayth is made voyd and the Promise made of no effect Then Christ is dead in vaine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Dyed without cause This is the absurdity which will necessarily follow upon the former supposition that the right to blessednesse commeth by the Law The Greeke Adverbe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not signifie in vaine for that is in vaine which is without effect neither is it elswhere in the New Testament ever translated in vaine neyther is that sense the minde of the Apostle heere though that sense be a truth and will follow upon the former supposition But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly signifies gratis i. e. for nothing or of gift without desert reward or recompence and in this sense it is commonly translated by the word freely as Rom. 3.24 being justified 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 freely by his grace Yet sometime and so heere in this place it signifieth causelesly or without cause and that is done causlesly or without cause for which there is no reason or at least no just weighty or sufficient reason So the word is rendred John 15.25 they hated me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without a cause and so in this place it stands rendred in that English translation which was here in use before that of King JAMES q. d. If the Right of Inheritance unto blessednesse bee Legitimate and come by the Law then there was no just cause nor no sufficient reason can be given why God should deliver Christ and Christ should deliver himselfe up to death But heere in the Death of Christ must bee tacitly comprehended by way of Synecdoche all those other actions of his without which his death would have failed of that due effect for which it was purposed as his Doctrine before it and especially his Resurrection after it For when the Apostle declares the causes of his Death hee commonly also makes expresse mention of his Resurrection joyning it with his death in respect of causality As Rom. 4.25 Who was delivered for our offences and was raised againe for our justification And Rom. 6.4 Therefore wee are buried with him by baptisme into death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead to the glory of the Father Even so wee also should walke in newnesse of life And Rom. 8.34 Who is hee that condemneth It is Christ that dyed yea rather that is risen againe And Rom. 14.9 For to this end Christ both dyed and rose and revived that hee might bee Lord both of the dead and the living And 2.
compulsory on the Jewes and Pilates part but also voluntary on his own part by yeelding himselfe unto death From which if he would have shunned it he could easily have rescued himselfe not only by his owne single power but Matt. 26.53 by the ayd of more then twelve Legions of Angels which at his request his Father would have presently given him but hee willingly yeelded and gave himselfe up to death So the word unto death must be understood Ephes 5.2 Walke in love as Christ also hath loved us and hath given himselfe for us viz. unto death as the words immediatly following declare it And Ephes 5.25 Husbands love your wives even as Christ also loved the Church and gave himselfe for it viz. unto death And 1. Tim. 2.6 Christ gave himselfe a ransome for all i. e. Gave himselfe unto death And Tit. 2.14 Christ gave himselfe for us that he might redeeme us from all iniquity i. e. Gave himselfe unto death For our sinnes Heere againe another word must be supplied which in many places of Scripture is silenced but yet supposed and understood because in other places it is mentioned And that word is Remission or forgivenesse that Christ gave himselfe unto death for the remission or forgivenesse of our sinnes So the word Remission must be understood Rom. 4.25 who was delivered for our offences i. e. Was delivered unto death for the remission or forgivenesse of our offences for this sense is declared by the words immediatly following and rose againe for our justification And 1. Cor. 15.3 I delivered unto you how that Christ died for our sinnes i. e. For the remission of our sinnes And Heb. 10.12 But this man after he had offered one sacrifice for sinnes for ever i. e. For the Remission of sinnes for ever For when in other places of Scripture our sinnes are referred to the death of Christ or unto his bloud being put for his death the word Remission is mentioned expresly As Matt. 26.28 This is my bloud of the new Testament which is shed for many for the remission of sinnes And Rom. 3.25 Whom God hath set forth to bee a propitiation through faith in his bloud to declare his righteousnesse for the remission of sinnes that are past And Ephes 1.7 In whom wee have redemption through his bloud the forgivenesse of sinnes according to the riches of his grace All which sayings and the like are explications or comments upon these words of Paul heer who gave himselfe for our sinnes Sometime the word Remission is not mentioned expresly but implicitly by substituting in stead thereof some other word therto equivalent as the word Taking away for the Remission or forgivenesse of sinnes is nothing else but A taking away of that punishment which by the Law is due unto sin Hence John 1.29 Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world Heere Christ is compared to a Lamb in respect of his death for sin which by his death is taken away i. e. is remitted or forgiven And 1. John 3.5 Ye know that he was manifested to take away our sinnes i. e. To remit or forgive our sinnes And the word Bearing which when it is applied unto Christ in respect of sin signifieth bearing away i.e. taking away from us the punishment of sin which is all one with Remission or forgivenesse As Esay 53.11 By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justifie many and shall beare their iniquities And againe in the next verse following Hee was numbred with the transgressors and bare the sin of many i. e. He shall and did beare away or take away from many the punishment of their iniquities and sinnes which in one word is the Remission or forgivenesse of their sins And 1. Pet. 2.24 Who his owne self bare our sinnes in his own body on the tree i. e. Tooke away from us the punishment of our sins Yet Christ did not take the punishment of our sinnes upon himselfe to beare and suffer in himselfe the punishment due to us for our sinnes for he was not punished in our stead for our sinnes but he only tooke away or bare away from us the punishment of them without inflicting it upon himselfe The certainty of this truth for this sense of these two words taking and bearing is taught us by Matthew for when the Prophet had sayd Esay 53.4 Surely he hath borne our griefes and carried our sorrowes Matthew cites this upon the miracles of Christ in healing all that were sick saying Matt. 8.17 Himselfe tooke our infirmities and bare our sickenesses Now in healing the sicke Christ did not so take their infirmities and beare their sicknesses as to be infirme or sicke himselfe but he only tooke away or bare away from the sick their infirmities and sicknesses For when a Physitian cureth a disease he doth not take it unto himself to be sick of it himself but he only takes it away from the Patient So Christ in dying for our sins took not unto himself the punishment of thē to beare or suffer the punishment himself but he only took away and bare away from us the punishment of our sins And when by the meanes of the Physitian the disease is taken from the Patient it is not necessary it should be layd on the Physitian or on any body else for it sufficeth if the disease be abolished So when by the means of Christ the punishment of sin is taken away from sinners it is not necessary it should bee layd upon Christ or on any else because it is finally abolished For the punishment of sin is eternall death which is already abolished in grant or promise and shall be abolished in esse at the Resurrection for death is the last enemy that shall be destroyed Our sinnes then are not the efficient cause of Christs death for Christ died not to be punished for them but his death is an efficient cause of the Remission or forgivenesse of our sinnes for by the meanes of his death the punishment of our sinnes is taken away or borne away And consequently the Remission of our sinnes is a finall cause end or effect of Christs death yet not immediat or proximous but a remote effect For as shall bee more largely declared cap. 2. ver 21. the immediat or proximous finall causes ends or effects of Christs death were to testifie to confirm and to execute the last Will and Testament of God whereof one article is the Remission of our sinnes which by way of Legacy is therein devised or promised unto us Christ then gave himselfe to death for our sinnes partly because by his death he testified and confirmed the new Testament wherein the right of Remission of sinnes is given us for that Testament being confirmed becomes of force and we by meanes of our faith have a present right to the future forgivenesse of our sinnes And partly because through his death he was made perfect with power to execute that Testament that he might actually
of them The Termes or words whereby these Legacies or promises are disposed and conveyed unto Beleevers are imputing ordayning and predestinating which in this respect signifie no more then what men commonly understand by the two usuall Testamentary words of Devising and bequeathing The Conditions or precepts whereto these Legacies or promises are limited and without which they shall never be possessed are the Duties of Repentance or holines in the works of love towards our selves toward our neighbour and toward God which workes who so performeth that person is truly sayd to be delivered from this present evill world according to the will of God And our Father i. e. who is our Father For the particle and is not heer copulative as if it joyned and argued divers persons whereof God is one and our Father another but explicative to specifie divers attributes of the same person because the person according to whose will Christ died for our sinnes the same is both God and our Father Wherefore the particle and is heere put for that is or rather for the pronoune relative who is And heerby Paul doth tacitly insinuate the fundamentall Legacy of Gods last Will and Testament which is the grace of divine alliance by adoption whereby God makes over unto us the donation of himselfe to become our Father and whereby hee accepts us for his sonnes and heirs and co-heirs with Christ who was his only native sonne For our Adoption whereby wee acquire this divine alliance that God is our father is the Testamentary foundation whereon are grounded and setled all the subsequent Legacies whereto wee are justified as the Sanctification of the spirit the Remission of sinnes the Resurrection of the body and life everlasting For because initially in the first place God gives himselfe unto us to become our Father therefore consequently hee will doe all further acts which become a father to doe for his sonnes and will impart unto them the fulnesse of his blessings And further he attributes unto God this title of being our father as a Motive unto us for our holines Because our deliverance from the evill and sin of this world which makes our holines is according to the will of God our father who is himselfe holy in all his works and requires from us works of holines and enableth us to performe them For by his last Will and Testament hee promiseth and covenanteth with us to regenerate or sanctifie us with his holy spirit and to write in the tables of our hearts those lawes and rules which containe in themselves and require from us a greater measure and degree of holines then ever were in those lawes which once he wrot in the tables of stone See and compare Jer. 24.7 and Jer. 31.33 and Ezech. 11.19 20. and Ezech. 36.27.28 and 2. Cor. 3.3 and Heb. 8.10 And because by our holines of life God becomes most really and properly our Father for upon our adoption God is but our jurall father whereby we have a right to blessednes even the same right with Christ to be co-heirs with him thereunto but upon our holines of life God becomes our morall father after whose likenes we doe right wherein we most resemble God for thereby we put on the new man which after Gods image is renewed in righteousnes and true holines Thus our most gracious God who before vers 1. was by the Apostle stiled the father by way of community in generall is now by vertue of his last Will and Testament related to us in particular and stiled our father Although by vertue of Gods first testament God became a father unto the Jewes and they to him were children yet in that testament God doth not ordinarily stile himselfe their father but their God and their Lord. Because though hee were their father yet he caryed himselfe toward them not in the condition or quality of a Father but of their Lord and Master and they though they were his heires yet because they were children in their non-age they differed nothing from the condition or quality of servants for they were held in bondage under the worldly elements of carnall commandements as will appeare afterward Cap. 4.1 of this Epistle But by vertue of his last will and testament God becomes unto Christians not onely a Father indeed and condition but also in title and appellation stiling himselfe constantly by the name of our Father and commanding us to petition or pray to him by the title of our Father which title argues a relation of more comfort favour love and grace then that of Lord. They therefore are in an errour who in their Prayers Sermons or other discourses esteeme it a higher honour to God and affect it as a greater grace to themselves to mention God by the name of the Lord according to the Jewish forme under the Law then by the name of our Father which is the Christian forme under the Gospell VERSE 5. Text. To whom bee glory for ever and ever Amen Sense To whom i. e. To God our Father Bee glory i. e. Bee given the Supreme and highest degree of honour For ever and ever i. e. Throughout all ages in this world and also in the world to come Amen i. e. so be it or God grant it may be so Reason These words returne a Devotion by way of doxology benediction or thanksgiving unto God for his grace unto us by Christ For seeing Christ hath died for the remission of our sinnes and for our sanctification to deliver or withdraw us from the sinfulnes of this present world and seeing this is done according to the will and testament of God who is thereby become our father therefore what lesse thankfulnes can we return for these blessings then to glorifie our heavenly Father Comment Christ must bee glorified by us Amen an adverb not of swearing but of affirming and of wishing TO whom be glory Though Grammatically the Relative to whom be of the singular number and referred to the person last mentioned who is God our Father yet Theologically it must also be referred more antecedently to the person mentioned further off who is Christ our Lord. Because we must not by any meanes exclude Christ from the right and due of glory for as the blessing unto us comes primarily from God and derivatively by Christ so our Blessing or thanksgiving for it must be derived or conveyed unto God by Christ who brought this grace from God unto us and who is the Person by and through whom we must glorifie God See Rom. 16.27 and Ephes 3.21 and Heb. 13.21 For how can we containe our selves from blessing and glorifying of God our Father by Christ our Lord when we apprehend and consider that God is become our Father at so deare a rate as the death of his only Son Jesus Christ our Lord For ever and ever Because God and Christ doe live and reigne for ever and we who are true Christians shall live with them for ever for everlasting
life is the finall Legacy devised unto us in Gods last testament therefore our divine service of thanksgiving must continue for ever and ever to glorifie God and Christ not onely in this world but in the world to come for there both Saints and Angels shall glorifie both for ever and ever See Revel 4.9 10. and Revel 5.13 and Revel 7.11 12 and Revel 19.1 4. Amen An acclamation setting our fiat to testifie and ratifie the sincerity of our devotion in glorifying God our Father and Christ our Lord. The word Amen is no wherein Scripture used as a forme of swearing for it signifies no divine attribute whereby God is invoked as a Witnesse of verity or an Avenger of perjury But in the new Testament where it is joyned or referred to a verb Indicative there it is an adverb of Affirming or Assevering and then it is the same with the Greeke word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies verily for in this sense we frequently meet with it in the Evangelists who use indifferently the words Amen and verily and the thing which in one Evangelist is assevered by Amen is by another especially by Luke expressed by verily this forme of asseveration was very frequent in the speeches of Christ because he assevered and assured the greatest and strangest truth that ever was published on earth and which for the substance and certainty thereof is by way of eminency called the Truth But where Amen is joyned or referred to a verbe Optative there it is an adverbe of wishing or praying and then it is the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies Vtinam i. e. God grant in which sense it is a Petition to God wherein we pray for some desired good redounding either to God our neighbour or our selves and in this sence Amen is opposed to the Greeke word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is an adverbe of forbidding and signifies absit i. e. God forbid which is a supplication to God wherein we pray against some impending evill which concerneth either God our neighbour or our selves See afterward Cap. 6. vers 14. Hitherto is the Proeme or Preface of the Apostle VERSE 6. Text. I marvell that ye are so soone removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another Gospel Sense Removed i. e. Changed or turned away From him that called you i. e. from Christ who called you Into the grace i. e. with or by his grace Vnto another Gospel i. e. pretended so to be Reason These words are an Entrance upon the body of the Epistle wherein hee obliquely and gently reproves the Galatians for their levity in suffering themselves to bee turned from the sincere doctrine of the Gospel containing the grace of Christ unto a counterfeit and pretended Gospel Comment A gentle reproof of the Galatians for their relapse and the suddainesse of it The construction of the words for the least difficulty and for the most plainesse Calling is a declaring of Gods will and a Metaphor taken from inviting which is effectuall by our acceptance Our title to salvation is by grace which is a word Evangelicall opposed to Nature and to our Workes and to the Law There is but one Gospel I Marvell that yee are so soone removed His words are a reproofe of their fact in that hee marvelleth at it yet his reproofe is but gentle in that hee doth but marvell for hee that saith hee marvelleth at a fact that is foule doth not reproove it sharpely but onely declares that hee hoped farre otherwise of them then by their fact appeares which was so inconsiderate and rash that it was altogether besides his expectation But the things whereat the Apostle marvells and thereby reproves are two whereof the one is the nature of their fact that they were removed or turned from the Gospel of Christ wherein hee againe mollifies his reproofe partly by using a Verbe of the passive voice of their being removed whereby hee seemes to remove the fact from themselves and to translate the fault of it upon their false Teachers who had troubled and perverted them as more plainely hee declares himselfe in the next verse following and partly by putting the Verbe passive in the present tense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if hee did not conceive them yet perfectly and fully removed in facto esse but onely upon a Remove in fieri The other thing whereat hee marvells is the suddainenesse of their fact that they were so soone removed which argued much inconstancy and levity of minde for this suddaine removall must not bee understood in respect of time onely but also of their judgement in that after Paul had planted the Gospel amongst them and once watered it by a visitation they while yet it was but greene and as it were in the blade should suddainely and rashly bee removed from it without expecting any fruit of it or without consulting him who planted it From him that called you into the Grace of Christ. The Greeke is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereof the construction seemes to bee thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. from Christ who hath called you by Grace or by his Grace For although the Genitive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bee not in construction governed by the Noune 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet in sence the matter of grace must needes bee referred unto Christ But if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bee governed by the Preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then wee shall have in the Text a Substantive for the Participle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not bee forced by way of supplement to seeke for such a Substantive out of the Text either in God or Paul because wee shall runne into greater difficulties before wee shall determine and agree upon the right Substantive to bee understood The reading wee have proposed hath of all others least difficulty and besides is no novelty for so are the words read by the Syriack Interpreter so by Jerome and so by Erasmus so also by the Vulgar French Translation But if wee take them in their literall order and referre Christ unto Grace then wee shall hardly determine of him that called who that person should bee whether God or Paul for betweene those two the different opinions lye and each of those opinions hath his difficulty For although sometime God bee wholly understood in and by the single Participle Calling as hee is afterward cap. 5.8 see also Rom. 9.11 and 1. Thess 5.24 And although for the most part in the writings of the Apostles our Calling bee attributed unto God as see Rom. 8.30 and 1. Cor. 1.9 and Act. 2.39 and 1. Cor. 7.15 and 1. Thess 2.12 and 2. Thess 2.14 and 2. Tim. 1.9 and 1. Pet. 5.10 Yet if in this place the Apostle had understood the Calling heere of God hee would hardly have said that God had called them by the Grace of Christ but rather by his grace as afterward in this cap. ver 15. Paul speaking of God calling
have so often and so much offended should ever restore me to life and translate me unto the Joyes of blessednesse The Scripture therefore is very frequent in pressing the point for the Remission of my sins because my gracious heavenly Father would have me to conceive and embrace a firme sure and stedfast hope of their future forgivenes that by virtue of that hope I might utterly forsake them and seriously devoting my life to holinesse I might cherefully walke on in the way to blessednesse Unto the Remission of my sins I have in this life a present right but the possession and benefit of this right is so future that I shall not enjoy it till the Resurrection and then all my sins past unto this day shall be actually forgiven upon my present forsaking of my sins For this futurity must exercise my hope and my hope of their future forgivenesse must engage me to a present forsaking of them Thus it is evident that Christ dyed not without cause seeing of his death there were three immediate causes and divers other remote causes Now let us consider the Apostles Argument and we shall perceive the force of it from these two points following 1. In that these causes are repugnant to Justifying by the Law For betweene these causes of Christs death and that effect of the Law the repugnancy ariseth thus It is the proper effect of every testament to Iustifie for therein the testator doth give a present right to the future possession of gifts Legacies and Inheritances which he predestinateth ordaineth and deviseth unto those persons whom he loveth and favoureth Hence it was an ancient Law of the twelve tables Vti quisque legassit suae rei ita jus esto i. e. as any man deviseth his estate by his Will so let the right passe and hereto agree both the Law of Nations and of nature That Testament therefore wherein no person is justified is more inofficious then that wherein persons to be necessarily justified are wholly preterited It is therefore the effect of both Gods testaments of the Old and the New of the Law and the Gospel to justifie in their kind But these two Testaments are apparently different Because they Justife differently for they justifie different persons the Old justifying workers onely but the New onely Believers they justifie from different sinnes the Old onely from ignorances and infirmities but the New from all sinnes whatsoever And they justifie unto different inheritances the Old onely to terrene and temporal but the New unto caelestiall and eternall as was largely declared before upon vers 16. Hence of the New Testament it is sayd expresly Heb. 8.6 That it is a better Testament which was established upon better Promises But if betweene the Old and the New there be no difference it cannot be truly sayd of the New that it is a better Testament because of two things that have no difference neither can be better then the other This difference then betweene these two Testaments breeds such a repugnancy between them that they cannot both subsist For when one and the same testator maketh different testaments then the subsistence of either is repugnant to the subsistence and force of the other Because one and the same person especially God who here is the testator cannot at one and the same time have two different Wills or testaments in force But the last and newest testament is alwayes the best and of such force that it wholly infringeth the former though the former at the first making of it were valid and good for when a latter testament is made it necessarily argueth that then at that time there is some defect or fault in the former which is amended in the latter If therefore the Old Testament be still in force or if it be an effect of the Old to justifie unto those better promises or if the right thereto come by the Law then there had beene no cause of making the New Testament and therefore no cause why Christ should dye to testifie confirme and execute it For if a mans first testament bee faultlesse there can bee no cause why hee should make a second because the true cause of making a second is to amend something amisse in the first but in a thing faultlesse there can be nothing amisse and therefore such a thing needs no amending Hence sayth the Apostle Hebr. 8.7 If that first Testament had beene faultlesse then should no place have beene sought for the second But if the two testaments of God be in effect all one as some teach they are then is the Apostles argument apparantly fallacious For then they can have no different effects but whatsoever is the effect of either must be also the effect of the other then the first Testament and the last must equally justifie unto the same blessednes then the Right thereto must come by the Law and consequently Christ dyed without cause For what cause could there be why he should dye for the last Testament if the first stood still in force and could effect as much as the last But if no discreet man will make two testaments that shall be both wholly to one and the same effect for there can be no cause of his so doing much lesse may we imagine this to be done of the most wise God 2. In that these causes were consequent and suitable to the love and grace of God When I was a poore miserable creature in the state of a grievous transgressor who had offended against the Law of God in the state of an improbous sinner who was peccant against the rules of naturall equity in the state of a calamitous sinner who was blemished as an alien and stranger to the Kingdome of God distressed and abandoned to all the miseries of this life tainted in the attainder of Adams sin and borne condemned to eternall death was it not an argument of Gods love and grace that he would so far please to cast his eye upon me as to Justifie me by releasing and freeing me from my state of sinne and death and by giving me besides a present right of alliance and inheritance with him to be his Son and Heire to eternall blessednes Was it not an argument of his love and grace to me that he would justifie me upon the condition of holinesse For seeing he justified me to be his Son and Heire was it not reason I should carry my selfe as his Son and Heire in the wayes of holinesse answerable to the holinesse of my heavenly Father For could it stand with the wisedome and holinesse of God to require any lesse condition of me then to walk worthy of his love and grace towards me And was it not an argument of his further love and grace that he would make my Justification to be Testamentary to convey this Right unto me by his last Will and Testament wherein by way of Legacy he predestinated and devised it unto me For can any conveyance of any estate be