way into the Holy of Holies into the Glory and Immortality there Notwithstanding all this without Repenting there is nothing but perishing without Holiness there is no seeing of God A life after the flesh must end in death The divine Justice and Law which was fully satisfied in Christ will seize upon rebellious sinners and ask a second Satisfaction as if there had been none before the divine hatred of sin which was so signally evident in the sufferings of Christ will appear again in their utter ruin and destruction Things are so knit together that Holiness must be necessary to make us happy Christ is a Saviour and a Lord too where he saves from Hell there he rules in the pure ways towards Heaven His blood and Spirit are ever in Conjunction if the one deliver from Guilt and Wrath the other subdues sin and implants Holiness Promises and Precepts which are intermixed in the Word must be both taken together into the heart where the latter hath not obedience the former can minister no comfort True Faith receives an entire Christ as it rests upon his Merits and Righteousness so it subjects to his Spirit and Word in all things That hope of Heaven which purifies not is indeed a Prefumption and not an Hope a Cobweb hanging in a vain heart and not an Anchor sure and stedfast entring into that within the Vail God out of love to Holiness hath linked it in with Christ Promises Faith Heaven and Salvation that no man can or may enjoy the one without the other till Christ can be divided his Sacrifice from his Scepter till Promises can be rent off from the holy Precepts to which they are annexed till a vital Faith can cease to do its function in acts of obedience till the holy Heavens can admit an unclean thing into them till then an unholy person cannot arrive at Happiness In all this we see how high a respect God hath for Holiness Now what remains but that Christians who have this glorious Attribute set before them should bethink themselves what manner of persons they ought to be God acts like himself Should not they do so their decorum stands in an holy Assimilation to him Christianity is as an Ancient hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a likeness to God to be after him in his imitable Perfections to be loving merciful holy patient as He is is to be and act like themselves One Virtue of God or other should be still breaking forth from them to tell the World that they are Christians Their finite love and mercy to fellow-creatures should speak their sense of that infinite love and mercy which they have tasted of Their patience under injuries should carry a resemblance of those Riches of goodness and forbearance which God hath spent upon themselves All their holy Graces should appear as so many Rays and little Images of Him who is the great Fountain and pattern of Holiness For them to walk worthy of God and in imitation of him is to walk condecently to themselves and in correspondence to Christianity Again God doth all things for Himself his own Glory and this must be the aim of Christians To be a Center to themselves they must not do it an higher and nobler End than God himself cannot be It is naturally just that He who is the first Principle of all things should be the last End That Axiom That God in all things must be glorified is fundamental Divinity that is the very thing which they must look to as their ultimate scope They should put away the by-glances at Self and the unbecoming Squints at base and false Ends that they may have a single Eye and a pure Intention to the true and great End of all things This is the very life and marrow of Religion it sanctifies holy Duties it spiritualizes civil and natural Actions it elevates the life unto the great Center of all things and by consecrating the Actions unto God gives them a kind of Immortality It transforms the Soul into a deiformity or divine Nature that it becomes one spirit with the Lord and falls in with the same Will and End with him If we will be like Christians the frame of our heart must be above the interests of flesh and self All those things which are off from the true End and Center must be in our eyes as so many impertinent follies the whole of our hearts and lives must be under a consecration to that Eternal Design The Glory of God blessed for ever Moreover God hath an hatred of sin and a love of Holiness and what is the work of Christians but to follow him Sin is so vile an evil that it cannot but be worthy of hatred To the holy God and his Attributes it is meer enmity and rebellion to the World it is a Gurse a blast of Vanity to the Soul an Ataxy turpitude and corruption to the Lord Christ as Nails a bloody Cross and Cup of Wrath. A horrible evil it is and to be hated accordingly a meer evil without mixture of good and to be hated with a pure hatred without mixture of Love An All-evil opposite to God the All-goodness and to be hated with all-all-hatred not a drop or degree of hatred should be let out upon any thing else All of it in the most intense degree and measure should be poured out upon it in what place or time soever it be still it is evil and upon that account to be hated perpetually and in all places And indeed if we do bethink our selves the groans of the poor creatures which are constant and everywhere round about us do very strongly move us hereunto the blots and turpitudes upon our own Souls tell us that we must hate it as much as we love the beauty and glory of our immortal Spirits The bloud and wounds of our dear Saviour cry out for Justice and Vengeance to be executed upon it And if we have any love for him we must crucifie it and cast it away as an accursed thing On the other hand Holiness cannot but be a fit Object for our love It is a pure thing let down from Heaven and if our love be there it can do no less than embrace so divine an off-spring as that is It is the very rectitude and true temper of Souls that which sets them in a right posture towards God and all holy things and for that reason more love is to be set upon it than that which is due to our own Souls Though in man it be but a little Ray or spark yet because of its divine Nature it doth in little resemble him who is all Holiness and Purity and upon that account our love which in its highest measures ascends up to Him must in proportion be due to it The amiableness of it in the Letter made the Holy man cry out Oh how I love thy Law Psalm 119.97 and how illustrious and attractive must it be when it is in its proper
God not to punish them Now here two things may be observed The one is this Obstinacy is not punished for it self for in good it is Constancy and worthy of praise but it is punished because it is in evil Sin is punished 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for it self but Obstinacy for the sin only and if sin be punished for it self then every sin must be punished The other is this If Jesus Christ had not come and satisfied for us all sinners would have been impenitent and contumacious the grace of Repentance would never have been given by an unatoned God neither is it now derived to us but through a Mediator Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour to give repentance Acts 5.31 Hence it appears that without Christ all sin would have been in conjunction with impenitency and consequently necessarily punished But a little more to clear this Necessity I shall lay down some Particulars 1. Man a rational Creature could not be created but he would immediately by the very frame of his Soul be under a Law His Reason by the innate notion of a Deity could not but be bound to know the Supreme Truth His Will by its propension to its proper Object could not but be bound to love the Supreme Goodness The Respects which are in the rational Powers towards their Creator are a Law never to be altered God will no more dissolve them than he will contradict his own work Man cannot loose himself from them which are interwoven with his immortal Faculties As long as God is God the Supreme Truth and Goodness and Man Man an Intellective and Elective Creature It must needs be indispensably just for us to know and love our Creator The differences of Good and Evil are founded in Nature The Image of Righteousness is not a movable thing for then the love of God might be it to day and by a Counter-motion the hatred of him might be such to morrow which is utterly impossible 2. Man by his very Creation being under a Law it could not be otherwise but God must be a Rector and Judg over him He that made must rule him He that put a Law into his Faculties must be his Judg His Rectitude and Justice made him fit to be so Hence that of the Apostle Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance I speak as a man God forbid for then how shrll God judg the world Rom. 3.5 and 6 As if he had said Unless God cease to be Himself unless his Righteousness and Justice fail He must needs be Judg. 3. God being Rector and Judg He must needs carry himself as becomes one of infinite Rectitude and Justice It is right that sin should be punished And shall not the Judg of all the Earth do right After Man nay all the Race of mankind had for many Ages turned Rebels against God and violated and as much as in them lieth made void his Sacred Laws After they had by the contempt of their sins despised his Majesty and Soveraignty and by the turpitude of them offended his Purity and Holiness should all this pass unpunish'd how black would the Consequence be Would it not be a blot to his Government to nod and let fall the reins of Discipline a slight to his Law to neglect it as a thing ill-contrived or unworthy of a Vindication Would not the great things of the Law appear very small and the horrible Ataxy of sin a minute inconsiderable nothing Must not the divine Attributes of Rectitude and Justice be co-sufferers with that Law upon whose Commands and Comminations their very Image is engraven Would not the face of things look as if the moral Foundations the Differences of good and evil were shaken and destroyed as if all things were indifferent and sin or no sin were all one to the Holy One Which way should his infinite hatred and abhorrence of sin be manifested no more displeasure outwardly appearing at a world of sin than there would at none at all The total managery of things no way demonstrating Sin to be odious or Holiness grateful Obedience failing and there being nothing vicarious no Punishment to supply the room of it How could the order between the Creator and the Creature be preserved or what would become of that moral dependance and subjection which we owe to our Maker Doubtless no defect no jeofail can be in his Sacred Government His just Anger requires that Discipline should be kept Manners corrected and Licentiousness suppressed As an Ancient speaks Man being under a Law Surgimus ad vindictam non quia lasi sumus sed ut disciplina servetur mores corrigantur licentia comprimatur haec est justa ira quae sicut in homine necessaria est ita in Dto à qno ad hominem pervenit exemplum Lact. de Ira Dei. God must needs be Rector and being such He cannot chuse but act like himself in a just decorum to his holy Attributes and Law No blot or irregularity can light upon his Government Sin which makes a breach upon the sacred Order must be reduced in such a punitive way as may bear witness to his Rectitude and Justice There are two things in Sin a Macula a corrupting Spot and a Reatus an obliging Guilt The Spot is such a Turpitude and ill-temper of mind that the Soul in which it is resident and regnant cannot have Happiness the Guilt is such a Chain and strong binder unto Wrath that the Soul to which it adheres cannot have Impunity The Wisdom of God secures and ascertains the first Why should not his Justice secure and ascertain the second seeing God by the Law of his Essence is as much bound to act in congruity to his Justice as to his Wisdom 4. Upon supposal that a Punishment or Satisfaction were not necessary What should those millions of Sacrifices and slain Beasts under the Law mean If the substance the Sacrifice of Christ might have been spared what should the types and shadows do Nay why should the Son of God come and sweat and bleed and dye upon a Cross under Divine Wrath if all this might have been spared God doth not multiply things without cause much less did he make his dear Son the Curse causeless The Apostle tells us That it was not possible that the blood of Bulls and Goats should take away sin Heb. 10.4 But why so if a meer nothing a no-sacrifice might do it He signally distinguishes the blood of Beasts purifies the flesh and takes away Ceremonial Guilt But which is infinitely more the blood of Christ purges the Conscience and takes away real Guilt Heb. 9.13 14. But will not this distinction be altogether vain if no blood at all were requisite to take away guilt Also the Apostle asserts That we are justified by Christs blood Rom. 5.9 But why not without it if a Satisfaction were unnecessary It is very hardly imaginable that the All-wise God should fetch a compass and
p. 26. By it God acts like himself and doth all for his own glory p. 27. It imports an hatred of sin and love of holiness in man p. 27 28. In all these respects it was manifest in Christ p. 28 29 c. It was not indecent for God to come in the flesh and dye p. 29 30. The glory of God breaks forth therein p. 31 32. His hatred of sin and design to extirpate it p. 33 34 35. His love to holiness in doing so much to recover it and linking it with salvation p. 35 36 37 38. We should be followers of God therein p. 38 39 c. CHAP. IV. Gods Punitive Justice asserted from Scripture and Nature p. 42 43 44. It was necessary that there should be a Satisfaction for sin p. 45. Rectoral Justice required it p. 46 to 48. Vnless Christs sufferings were satisfactory no good account can be given of them p. 49 50. It 's not enough to say That he was an Example of Patience p. 50. That he confirmed the Covenant p. 51. That Gods immense love was manifested therein or that his Resurrection assured ours ibid. 52 53. Gods Justice appears in that He though of infinite Mercy inflicted those sufferings on Christ p. 54 55. In that Christ the Patient was Man the Son of God an holy innocent One p. 55 to 58. In that the sufferings of Christ were proportionable to the sinning-powers in man p. 59. To the Law p. 60 61. To the sin and sufferings of a World p. 61 62 63. The fruits of his sufferings as to Himself and as to us p. 64 65. The dreadfulness of sin in respect of the sufferings of Christ and the miserable end of impenitent sinners p. 65 66 c. CHAP. V. Gods Love and Mercy manifested in that he stood not upon the old terms as he might and in giving his Son for us p. 70 to 75. The Socinian objection That if God loved us he was not angry answered p. 76 77 78. The earliness and freeness of Gods love in giving his Son p. 79 80 81. The greatness of the gift p. 82. The manner how he was given p. 83 84 85. The persons for whom p. 85 86 87. The evils removed and the good procured by it p. 87 to 91. The excellent Evangelical terms built upon it p. 91. These are easie and sure p. 92 93 94. The Love and Mercy of God an excellent Motive to stir up our love towards God and man p. 95 96 97 c. CHAP. VI. The Power of God manifest in Christ p. 99 100. In his incarnation and conception p. 100 101 102. In his Miracles p. 103 104. These were true in the History p. 104 105 106. True in the nature of Miracles p. 107. They were numerous and great 108 109 110. They were suited to the Evangelical Design p. 111 112. Divine Power manifest in converting the World notwithstanding its deep corruption and the opposition of Potentates and Philosophers to the Gospel p. 113 to 124. The instruments mean that the power might be of God p. 124 125. The Gospel proposes super-rational Mysteries super-moral Virtues super-mundane rewards things so much above us that without a Divine power the proposal would have been fruitless p. 126 127. CHAP. VII The Truth of God manifested in Christ p. 133 134. The Promise of the Messiah p. 134. The Messiah is already come ibid. 135. Jesus is the true Messiah p. 136 137 138. All the other promises are built upon him 138 139. The truth of the Moral Law evidenced in him 139. The Mandatory part proved by his active Obedience The Minatory by his Sufferings p. 139 140 141. He is the substance of the Types and Sacrifices p. 142 143 144. Somewhat in him answers to them p. 144 145. And somewhat in him infinitely transcends them p. 146 to 149. The truth of Worship set forth in him p. 150. He unclogged it from Rituals opened the spiritual mode of it communicates Grace for it reveals the great Reward of Eternal Life p. 150 151 152. CHAP. VIII Gods Providence asserted from Scripture Philosophy and Reason 156 157 158. It hath a double act Conservative and Ordinative p. 159 160 161. Both are manifested in Christ p. 162. It was over Christ over his Genealogy Birth Life Death p. 162 163 164. Over the fruit of his Satisfaction in raising up a Church p. 165. It aimed at a Church directed the means and added the blessing p. 166 167. That opinion That Christ might have dyed and yet there might have been no Church is false p. 168 169 170. All other Providences reduced to those over Christ and the Church p. 171 to 176. Epicurus's Objection against Providence answered p. 176 177 178. Providence over free acts of men asserted and yet Liberty not destroyed p. 178 to 186. The objections touching the afflictions of good men and the event of sin solved p. 186 to 192 The Entity in sinful actions distinct from the Anomy the Order from the Ataxy p. 192 193 c. CHAP. IX The Doctrine of Original sin the great moment of it p. 202 to 205. Adam's sin imputed to us p. 206. The proof of it from Scripture p. 207 to 209. Adam's capacity p. 210. Adam's righteousness ibid. Objections answered p. 211 to 215. Our inherent pravity p. 216. The proof of it from Scripture p. 217 218. The experience of our hearts p. 219 to 221. The actual sins in the world p. 222 223. The doctrine of Original sin manifested from Christs extraordinary Conception p. 224 225. His Headship opposed to Adam's p. 226 from the institution of Baptism p. 227. The wickedness of the Jews in crucifying of Christ p. 228 229. The purchase of Regeneration and Salvation made by Christ p. 230 to 234. A short improvement of this Doctrine p. 235 236 c. CHAP. X. Touching Grace p. 239. The fountain of it Gods love ib. 240. The streams supernatural gifts p. 240 241. The center Heaven p. 242. It s freeness in that all perish not in the fall Original sin meriting death and Christ being a free gift p. 242 to 248. It s freeness in chusing a Church to God p. 248. Election not of all p. 249. No Legislative act but a singling out of some to life in an infallible way and meerly of Grace 250 to 259. It 's freeness in the external and internal Call p. 259 to 262. The distinction between the two Calls 263 to 269. The efficacy of Grace as to the Principles of Faith and other graces with the manner of their production p. 269 to 276. As to actual believing and willing with the proofs of it 276 to 285. As to perseverance in faith and holiness p. 285 286. The Habits of Grace desectible in themselves but not in their dependence p. 287 to 295. CHAP. XI Touching Justification as to the Law p. 325 to 327. Christs Righteousness constitutes us righteous p. 328. A double imputation One to the proper Agent another to those in
all from Revelation Nothing can be more absurd than such a presumption 2. Reason in its Fall could not spiritually know them Evangelical Mysteries being proposed it can go as far as its own line unto letters and words and sentences it can gather in a Notion a form of knowledg but it wants a congruous light it cannot spiritually discern them there being no alliance or resemblance between an unregenerate mind and supernatural Mysteries Were it not thus the new creature would be new only ex parte there would need no renovation in the spirit of the mind God who proposes the Object need not shine into the heart the Spirit of Wisdom which reveals the Gospel need not open the eyes We must either affirm such things as these or else confess that Reason of it self hath not light enough to be Umpire in supernatural Mysteries It doth not spiritually discern them and for that cause cannot be an Umpire and as soon as by supernatural Illumination it discerns them it will not dares not be such but with all reverence acquiesces and reposes it self in the divine Testimony Deus dixit then is enough 3. Reason in the irradiations of Faith cannot comprehend them a discerning there is but no comprehension let the Believer sail as far as he can in the pursuit of holy Truths still there will be a Plus ultrà an Abyss a vast Ocean such as the humane understanding can never pass through Faith seals to Gods Veracity but it offers not to measure the Mysterie it believes the thing so to be but it pryes not into the Modus nor saith How can these things be that is the voice of depraved Reason not of Faith whose excellent genius is to crucifie How 's and Why 's and to subject the mind to the Word and Authority of God These things being so we should be all over cloathed with Humility Understanding and all The higher the faculty is the more excellent is the Humility then is God honoured indeed when 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the Intellect the highest thing in man is subjected unto Him CHAP. III. Chap. 3 Holiness the glory of the Deity By it God acts like himself and doth all for his own Glory It imports an hatred of sin and love of Holiness in man In all these respects it was manifest in Christ It was not indecent for God to come in the flesh and die the Glory of God breaks forth therein His hatred of fin and design to extirpute it His love to Holiness in doing so much to recover it and linking it with Salvation We should be followers of God therein HAVING seen the Attribute of Wisdom in God I proceed to that of Holiness which is the glory of the Deity He is called the Hoty One above thirty times in Scripture the Seraphims in an Extasie cry out Holy Holy Holy denoting by that repetition the superlative Eminency of his Holiness This is an universal Attribute which runs through all the other Hence we find in Scripture that His Power or Arm is Holy Isa 52.10 His Truth or Promise Holy Psalm 105.42 His Mercy Holy Acts 13.34 A vein of Purity runs through His whole Name Without Holiness his Wisdom would be Subtilty His Justice Cruelty His Soveraignty Tyranny His Mercy foolish Pity all would degenerate into something unworthy of God Holiness is the infinite Purity and Rectitude of his Essence and it may be considered either respectively to himself or to the creature Respectively to himself it includes two things 1. That God in all that he doth acts like himself in a just decorum to his excellent Being and Attributes having no Law without or above himself He conforms to his Essence and carries himself so fitly to himself that no spot no darkness no shadow of turning no indecency or irregularity can possibly happen to him He cannot deny himself or do any thing unworthy of his Being or Attributes He doth whatever he doth in such a manner as becomes Him Hence Anselm observes That when God spares and is merciful towards sinners Justus es secundum te misericors es secundum nos Prosol cap. 10. he is just to Himself and that because he acts condecently to his infinite Goodness This is the first and prime part of his Holiness to be just and true to Himself to do all congruously to his own Excellency 2. That God doth all things for Himself his own Glory He that is Alpha the first Principle of all things must of necessity be Omoga the last End of them his Sanctity requires that all his works should return and give glory to their Original he should not be true or just to Himself if he should have any Center besides himself his Holiness is a Transcendent above that in Man Supreme Self-love which in man is a Belial thing is a Perfection in Him To do all for one's self which in man is Idolatry it is true Sanctity in Him It is most proper for him the supreme Cause and Essence to make all things for Himself as of and through him so to him are all things Again Gods Holiness taken respectively to the Greature imports two things 1. It imports an hatred of sin His pure Eyes cannot not look upon it with approbation His righteous hands will not let it go unpunished Sin is a very vile thing it despises Gods Authority casts off his Soveraignty contradicts his Purity provokes his Justice nay it strikes at his very Being it says Who is Lord that he should be obeyed It is the most prodigious Rebel that ever was weakness folly corruption rising up in arms against Power Wisdom and infinite Perfection The Holy One because he is such must needs hate such a filthy abominable thing He can no more cease to hate it than he can cease to be Holy His antipathy against it is so great that he can no more admit one drop of it into himself than he can suffer an extinction of his Essence 2. It imports a love of Holiness in the creature Holiness is a very choice thing 't is a pure breath from God a participation of the Divine Nature an Image or resemblance of the Deity more of the beauty and glory of God shines forth in it than in all the world besides The other creatures are but a dark shadow to it nay it is a thousand times more divine than the Soul it self The Holy One who loves himself must needs love so excellent a Picture of his own Sanctity The righteous Lord loveth righteousness Psalm 11.7 because he is righteous in himself therefore he loves righteousness in the creature Such as I said is Gods Holiness The display of it in Jesus Christ succeeds 1. The first part of his Holiness by which he does all in a just decorum to his excellent Being seems to be contradicted in this Dispensation May God be made flesh May Majesty be humbled May the immutable One be changed in an Incarnation May the immortal One die in
Vbi living and breathing in the spirits of men Rather than it should not revive there God would be manifest in the flesh and die in it And how should we die to our selves and the World that it may live in us Which when it doth we live indeed and that a life more divine and of higher Excellency than is the life of meer Sense or Reason nay this life is complicated with Happiness and makes us meet for life Eternal If we would live for ever in Bliss and Glory we must follow after Holiness heart and life must be consecrated unto God else Heaven will not be capable to receive us nor shall we be fit to enter in there CHAP. IV. Chap. 4 Gods Punitive Justice asserted from Scripture and Nature It was necessary that there should be a Satisfaction for Sin Rectoral Justice required it Vnless Christs Sufferings were satisfactory no good account can be given of them It 's not enough to say That he was an Example of Patience That he confirmed the Covenant That Gods immense Love was manifested therein or that his Resurrection assured ours Gods Justice appears in that He though of infinite Mercy inflicted those Sufferings on Christ In that Christ the Patient was Man the Son of God an holy Innocent One In that the Sufferings of Christ were proportionable to the sinning-powers in Man To the Law To the sin and sufferings of a World The fruits of his Sufferings as to Himself and as to Vs The Dreadfulness of sin in respect of the Sufferings of Christ and the miserable end of impenitent Sinners HAVING discoursed of Gods Holiness I now come to his Vindictive Justice which as a learned man saith is a Branch or Emanation from the other That pure Essence which cannot but hate sin Justitia vindicatrix in Deo sanctitatis summae rectitudinis pars quaedam est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Turret de satisfact must needs have a propensity to punish it That propensity cannot be separated from the hatred of sin nor that hatred from infinite Rectitude The Socinians that they might raze Christs Satisfaction to the very foundation deny this Attribute This Justice say they is not an Attribute in God Neither is it called Justice in Scripture but rather Severity which is not resident in God but only an effect of his Will But that there is such an Attribute in God is evident in Scripture He is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Right and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Righteous As the first chiefly respects his Universal Righteousness so the second doth his Judicial one He is said to be just in his judging Revel 16.5 His judgment is a righteous judgment Rom. 2.5 It is a righteous thing with him to render tribulation 2 Thess 1.6 Punishment is called a just Recompence Heb. 2.2 Punishment how afflictive soever cannot be Punishment unless Justice be declared in it nor can Justice be declared in that which it requires not The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sometimes denotes the Punishment Jude v. 7. Sometimes the Punitive Justice it self Acts 28.4 One 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is from another just Punishment issues out from Vindictive Justice with respect to that only it is that God is called a consuming fire Heb. 12.29 As he is Light in his Essential Purity so he is Fire in his Essential Justice which is ever in Conjunction with his Purity and as it were the ardour of it breaking out in flames of Wrath in such sort as seems fit to him Thus Scripture But further Nature concurs to make it good This that God is Just is graven in the minds of all men The very Heathens by the indelible Characters which they find there are able to read the Judgment of God and say that he hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an avenging Eye a Ray of it shines in their own bosom The Barbarians upon the sight of the Viper on Pauls hand cry out of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Vengeance that pursued him as a Murderer The very instinct of Nature told them that there was a Connexion between Guilt and Punishment Conscience is Dei vicarius a kind of Representative Numen in men it hath a secret Tribunal in the Heart and from that Seal and impress which divine Justice hath set upon it dooms and judges Offenders unto misery Hence that saying Prima est haec ultio quod se Judice nemo nocens absolvitur Punishment is coetaneous to Guilt Sin in its egress out of the heart leaves a sting behind The Offender cannot be well within his distemper is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a conscience of his evil-deeds his mind reflects torment upon it self inwardly he is nothing but Wounds and amazing Horrors the Apparitions of Wrath haunt him Conscience is sensus praejudicium judicii divini a kind of anticipation and presensation of the last Judgment After all this to deny God to be just is to offer violence to the Principles of Nature and put a lye upon those Notions which are born with and instamped-upon our Reason It is to say That the Image and Impress of a Deity upon our hearts is but a Counterfeit That Conscience is but a Cheat and all the Terrors there but a false Alarm In a word It is to eradicate all Religion and open a Flood-gate to all wickedness and impiety These being intolerable absurdities it cannot but be granted that there is such an Attribute in God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Plutarch Justice follows God or rather it is his very Essence It is an enquiry among Divines How far it was necessary that sin should be punished that without Satisfaction there should be no Remission It is an indubitable Verity That it was necessary by virtue of Gods Decree He hath declared himself that he will by no means acquit the guilty But this is not all In Scripture Punishment is not attributed meerly to his Will or Decree but to his just and righteous Nature Thou art righteous O Lord because thou hast judged thus Revel 16.5 Though the mode and circumstance of Punishment be determined by his Soveraign pleasure yet the punishment it self issues out from his Justice Sin merits punishment They that do such things are worthy of death Rom. 1.32 It is not meerly Gods Will but his Justice which renders unto sin its due The proportion which is between Sin and Punishment shews who holds the ballance Were it meerly at the divine Pleasure to punish sin or not God need not punish obstinate and impenitent persons This the Socinians themselves cannot bear They say There is one Justice in God unaâ—est justitia Dei quâ perpetuo utitur dum scelestos contumaces ac perditae spei homines plectit atque exterminat Soc. de Serv. pars prima cap. 1. Indignum Deo est eorum scelera impunè dimittere Crell de Deo Attr. cap. 23. which he ever useth in punishing contumacious sinners nay it would be unworthy of
Love and Mercy of God an excellent Motive to stir up our Love towards God and Man HAVING spoken of Gods Justice I now proceed to his Love Mercy and Grace These are eminently ascribed to him in Scripture He is love it self 1 John 4.16 essentially such He is the Father of mercies 2 Cor. 1.3 Mercy is his off-spring and joy He is the God of all grace 1 Pet. 5.10 The fountain of it is in him and all Graces in the Creature issue from thence Love communicates good to the Creature Mercy communicates it to the Creature in misery Grace communicates it to a Creature though unworthy All the drops and measures of goodness in the Creature are from Love when the good is suited to the misery of the Creature 't is Mercy when it exceeds desert and as it were triumphs over unworthiness 't is Grace in a special manner I shall not discourse of these distinctly but as the usage in Scripture is promiscuously these are in a very signal manner manifested in Christ So admirable a Glass is he that not only Wisdom Holiness and Justice are represented in him but Love Mercy and Grace also In these it is that this wonderful Occonomy terminates Wisdom laid the plot Holiness and Justice appeared in our Saviours Passion but the Center of all is Grace and Mercy These are highly exalted in the Reconciliation and Salvation of Men. The first appearance of these stands in this That God did not stand upon the first terms upon the Old Covenant of Works God made Adam a very knowing and righteous Creature he gave him excellent Laws Moral ones inscribed in his heart and over and above one positive Law in the Tree of knowledg He entred into a Covenant with him as the head and root of all mankind the terms were That all his Posterity should stand or fall in him He transgressed the Command of God and so Sin and Death came upon all the humane World Here God might have stood upon the first terms he was not bound to make new ones but might have stood upon the old and prosecuted them to the utter ruin of all Mankind This is plain by these Considerations 1. The Laws given by God to Adam were such as became God to give and Adam to receive very just and righteous The Moral Ones were congruous to his holy Faculties and conducible to his Happiness they were interwoven into his very rational Powers and Obedience might have come forth in the easiness of his Holy Principles The positive one was a just one God who made Man Lord of the lower World might well except one Tree as a token of his Supreme Soveraignty when the thing forbidden was not a thing in it self evil but indifferent Gods Authority appears the more Sacred and Mans Obedience would have been the more pure the Tree as lovely to the eyes was a fit curb to the sensitive appetite And as a Tree of knowledg was a just restraint to intellectual curiosity the prohibition of such a Tree was an excellent Item to man to look to both faculties the terms were just not only as to himself but as to his posterity Had not God made them he would never have told us that all sinned in one and that by one judgment came upon all Rom. 5.12 18. Which without such terms would have been impossible and if he made them it was no less impossible that they should be unjust Adam was the root and head of Mankind we were in him naturally as latent in his loins and legally as comprised within the Covenant His Person was the fountain of ours and his Will the representative of ours The thing therefore was equal unjust Laws should be abrogated but in this case the Laws and Terms being Righteous God might have stood strictly upon them 2. Adam having holy Powers sufficient for Obedience was bound to keep them with all diligence that which was formerly spoken to the Church in Thyatira Hold fast that which thou hast Rev. 2.25 was virtually spoken to Adam Nature dictates that Duty should be returned where benefits are received The Law of fidelity requires that a Trustee should keep the depositum God intrusted man with excellent endowments but if he will by his transgression cast them away must God make them good Must he follow after a Rebel a wasting bankrupt Creature to repair the lost Image and set him up again with a new stock of Grace No He who made him ex beneplacito cannot be bound ex justitiâ to new-frame him being broken He might without the least spot of injustice have left all mankind in the ruins of the Fall 3. The case of the fallen Angels determines this point When they left their Principle or first Estate Did God capitulate or enter into new Articles with them Was there a tabula post naufragium a room for Faith or Repentance Had they a Christ or a Gospel tendred unto them No they were cast down immediately into chains of darkness The sentence was irreversible their misery eternal annihilation would have been a kind of favour to them That God who stood upon the first terms with Angels superior creatures might have done so with man being a little lower than those glorious Creatures I know there are differences assigned between the two Cases Angels were the first transgressors the ring-leaders in sin Man followed after The Angels had a most pure light and that without any allay of flesh Mans intellect was lower and in conjunction with matter The Angels sinned by self-motion and of their own meerly Man sinned by seduction and through the guile of the Serpent In the Fall of Angels all the Angelical nature fell not In Adams Fall all the humane Nature fell no Religion was left in the lower world But not withstanding all this God might in Justice have stood upon the first terms with Man as well as with Angels and that he did not do so it was from meer Grace as the primary Reason thereof 4. Grace is in a very eminent manner lifted up in the Gospel Grace gives Christ and Faith to believe in him Grace justifies and sanctifies Grace faves and crowns with a blessed Immortality Every-where in the Gospel sounds forth Grace Grace but if God might not justly have stood upon the old terms the giving of new ones to Man was not Grace but Debt not Mercy but Justice Those Novatores who say That it would have been unjust for God to have condemned Adams Posterity for the first Sin do thereby overturn the Grace of the Gospel The Apostle who is much rather to be believed saith expresly That by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation Rom. 5.18 that is according to the terms of the old Covenant but if the old terms might not have been stood upon the new ones must be necessary and due to mankind and so no Grace at all They who deny the Justice of the old Covenant overturn the Grace of
the new God as we see might have stood upon the old terms even to the utter ruin of fallen mankind But oh immense Love He would not he would do so with Angels but he would not with Men an abatement was made to them not afforded to those nobler Creatures once Inmates of Heaven In the case of Sadow God came down lower and lower from fifty righteous persons to forty five and so at last to ten I will not do it for tens sake Gen. 18.32 But in the case of fallen man when all had sinned when there was none righteous no not one God comes down from the first terms made with Man to such lower ones as might comply with his frailty Under the Law there were Sacrifices called by the Jewish Doctors Gnoleh najored ascending and descending The rich man offered a Lamb the poor whose hand could not reach so far offered two Turtle-Doves While Man was rich in Holy Powers and Excellencles God called for pure perfect sinless Obedience but after the Fall he being poor in Spirituals altogether unable to pay such a sum God stoops and accommodates himself to Humane weakness a faithful conatus a sincere though imperfect Obedience will serve the turn in order to Mans happiness This is the first step which infinite Mercy takes in raising up Man out of the ruins of the Fall The old terms were not stood upon But now that new terms might be made and established that the second Covenant might have an happier issue than the first Mercy goes on to give the Son of God for us God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life John 3.16 This so is unutterable this Love unmeasurable diffusing it self not to Jews only but to a World and that overwhelmed in sin giving and that freely without any Merit of ours a Son and an only begotten Son that we through faith in him might have life eternal and there enjoy him who is Love it self for ever Here is a Mine of Love too deep and rich for any Creature to fathom or count the value of it But before I open it I shall first remove the ill use which the Socinians make of this Love to overturn Christs Satisfaction If God say they so loved us as to give his Son for us then he was not angry with us Oportuisse Deum jam placatissimum esse Soc. de Serv. l. 1. c. 7. Non vos pudet iram divinam eamque immensam ibi fingere ubi nil nisi immensus amor elucet Cui iraseâ—batur Deus cum unigenitum filium in mortem dabat Sclicting contr Meisn and if not angry then there was no need at all of a Satisfaction to be made for us Unto which I answer Anger and Love are not inconsistencies in Scripture both are attributed unto God He gave his Son for us was not that Love immense Love He wounded and bruised him for our iniquities he made him to be sin and a curse for us Was not there Wrath great Wrath We have both together in one Text Herein is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins 1 John 4.10 The high Emphasis of his Love was in giving his Son to be a Propitiation for us unless there had been just anger a Propitiation would have been needless unless there had been immense Love his Son should not have been made one for us We have a plain instance in Job's friends Gods Wrath was kindled against them and yet in love he directs them to atone him by a Sacrifice Job 42.7 8. God could not but be angry at the Sin of the World and yet in love he gave his Son to be an expiatory Sacrifice But for a more full answer I shall lay down several things 1. God may be considered either as a Rector or as a Benefactor As a Rector he acts out of a just anger in vindicating his broken Law by Penal Sufferings As a Benefactor he acts out of admirable love in giving his Son to be a Propitiation for us When he vindicates his Law by Punishments Is it not Anger when he gives his Son for us Is it not Love If he be a Rector Can he not be a Benefactor too Then he could not give his Son without laying down of his Government If he be a Benefactor Can he not be a Rector too Then he could not govern without laying down his Love but if as the truth is he may be both then Anger and Love may consist together 2. Gods displeasure may be taken either as it terminates on the sin or as it terminates on the sinner as it terminates on the sin it is altogether unremovable God himself with reverence be it spoken can no more remove it than he can lay down his Sanctity which in the very notion of it includes an abhorrency of sin As it terminates on the sinner so it may be removed This appears in that God pardons sin and that as the Scripture-phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imports in such a way that the Penal Sufferings are translated from the sinner himself to his Sponsor The Divine displeasure did pass off from us or else we could not have been pardoned or saved and it did light upon Christ or else that Holy One could not have been made a Curse which no meer Sufferings if abstracted from Divine Wrath can amount unto We see here there is displeasure at the sin and yet infinite love towards the sinner in translating the punishment upon another 3. Gods Love is double a Love of Complacence which delights in the Creature and a Love of Benevolence which designs good to it The first takes pleasure in the Saints who bear his holy Image The second diffuses it self to sinners who in themselves are worthy of Wrath. Hence the Apostle tells us God commended his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us Rom. 5.8 Sinners are objects of displeasure and yet Love breaks out towards them in that great instance the Death of Christ If ever there were anger in God 't was at the Sin of a World if ever there were Love in him 't was in the Gift of his Son These two may very well stand together 4. Man may be considered either as a Sinner or as a Creature A man who hath a rebellious Son may be angry with him as rebellious and yet compassionate him as a Son In like manner God may be angry with us as Sinners and yet love us as Creatures Having removed the Socinian-Cavil I shall now proceed to speak of Gods Love in giving his Son for us Here I shall distinctly consider the giver The Gift The manner how it was given The persons for whom The evil removed and good procured by it and the excellent Evangelical terms built upon it Each one of these will illustrate this Love
in giving his Son for us The Giver is God himself no other could do it And here two things offer themselves to us The one is the earliness of his Love It was no Novel temporary thing but ancient nay eternal upon the Prescience of the Fall he eternally designed that his Son should assume our Nature and in it dye as an expiatory Sacrifice for us Christ was the Lamb foreordained before the foundation of the world 1 Pet. 1.20 He was set down for a Redeemer in the eternal Volumes before the world was up and slain above in Decree long before he was slain below in Time A Plaister was provided before the wound a Saviour before the Fall of Man When David would set forth Gods Mercy in the highest strain He doth it thus His mercy is from everlasting to everlasting Psal 103.17 Such is his Love in Christ reaching as I may say from one end of eternity to another Each one of us may cry out as that Ancient did Sero te amavi Domine Lord 't was late e're I loved thee Our love is but of yesterday a temporary thing but his was as early as eternity it self The other is the freeness of it Love 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist Rhet. l. 2. c. 4. as the Philosopher speaks wills good to another for his sake not for our own In that wonderful Gift of Christ the Love was Gods the profit ours Mercy in man hath a kind of respect to the Donor frail Humanity and the wheel of a mutable world tell him That himself the now giver may peradventure come to be a receiver Hence the Apostle would have us remember them in adversity as being in the body Heb. 13.3 and restore the lapsed considering thy self Gal. 6.1 It may be our own case There is in such acts of Mercy a kind of respect to our future self which possibly may become an object for Mercy But Mercy in God which is the suavity of his Essence issues out in a pure gratuitous way no such respect can fall upon him who is immutable and blessed for ever In the freeness of his Love there are two things considerable On Gods part there was no want on Mans no attractive On Gods part there was no want of us or our Services were there want with him he could not be God Could we supply him we should be greater than himself in furnishing him with that which he could not do for himself He is All-sufficient and what want can be in him Infinite and what can be added to him An Ocean though vast yet because finite may receive an addition from a little drop But what can be added to infinity which in its unmeasurable excellency comprizes all things within it self All nations to him are but as the drop of the bucket and as the small dust of the ballance Isa 40.15 Their Righteousness cannot add one beam to his essential Glory neither can their iniquity in the least eclipse it However it be with the Creature he is still himself His own happiness a sphere of all Perfections a Theatre of Glory to himself Hence it appears that Gods Love in giving his Son for us was not a Love of indigence but of fulness and redundance flowing out in a pure gratuitous manner towards us that the honour might be his and the profit ours He gives like himself out of super-effluent goodness as becomes one who is a Donor only but no Receiver On Mans part there was no attractive to move God to give his Son for us Mans Love is usually drawn out by some excellency or other in the object but what can draw out Gods Could the Origine of all goodness be attracted by any thing in the Creature Yet is it possible that any thing should be found in a fallen Creature to attract it Mans misery was indeed the occasion but what was the attractive Was our Love first and a charm to his Oh! no to say that a Creature is first in Love is to blaspheme the Supreme Goodness which sets up Love in it The Apostle is express Herein is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins 1 John 4.10 Between men Love is ordinarily reciprocal he that loves is beloved again but here the Love was on one side only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist Rhet. l. 2. c. 4. God loved his very Enemies so far as to give his Son for them to raise up their Love to its great Original Among men an harmony of spirits a sameness of tempers is a motive to Love But what was there could there be any such thing in fallen man as such How then was he fallen What need was there of a Saviour That holy Harmony was Mans Primitive rectitude and whilest it lasted there was no need of any restorer Alas fallen man was a very Chaos of corruption his very rational Powers were depraved there was flesh in his spirit enmity in his mind against him who lighted up a pure Reason in him at the first There was bondage in his Will it could not nay such was its horrible perversness it would not elevate it self to the fountain of its liberty Among men goodness is an allective to Love but what goodness was there in a fallen degenerate Creature full-fraught with sin and opposite to its Maker The very reliques of the Divine Image which sin could not utterly expel out of the humane Nature were yet so captivated and imprisoned there that gross Idolatry filled the world in spight of all the notions of a Deity implanted in the hearts of men We see cleerly there was no attractive on our part Why then did God give his Son for us The only reason was from himself it was meer Grace self-moving Mercy a pure emanation of Love towards us unworthy Creatures who might have been made the objects of his Wrath and that for ever The next thing considerable is the Gift it self and that was the Son of God very God a greater a dearer person could not be given if we measure Gods Love by the Gift it is like that altogether unmeasurable Hence the Apostle tells us That there is a breadth and length and depth and height infinite dimensions in it such as pass the knowledg of men and angels Eph. 3.18 19. When God gave us the Creatures for our use he gave us but the drops and models of his Goodness but when he gave his Son for us he gave himself God was the Giver and God the Gift When God could swear by no greater he sware by himself when he could give no greater he gave himself Here was Love acted to the uttermost elevated to the highest point a greater Gift there could not be 'T was great Love in Jonathan to David that for him he would strip himself of his Robe nay and venture the cast of a Javelin from an angry Father But what manner of Love was it in God that
he would strip himself of his Orient pearl that he would give his Son his eternal Joy out of his bosom to assume an humane Nature and in it to bear the horrible stroke of Justice which was due to us for our iniquities In giving Laws and Promises God gives but a created Image of his Sanctity and Grace but in giving his Son he gave his essential increated Image to suffer in the flesh for us that his holy Image broken in the fall might be repaired again in us When we were off from God the Center of Souls and wandring in the foul ways of sin God out of his immense Love sent no less person than his only begotten Son to seek us and bring us back unto himself that we might be for ever happy in the fruition of him The greatness of this Love will yet further appear if we consider the manner how the Son of God was given for us The lower a man stoops and condescends to do another good the higher and more eminent is his Love the steps wherein the Son of God came down and humbled himself for us evidently declare the infinite height of that Love which made him stoop so low to compass our Salvation The first step was his Incarnation the word was made flesh he who was in the form of God took on him an humane Nature In the Creation infinite produced finite but here infinite assumed finite there Eternal brought forth Temporal but here Eternal took Temporal into it self and what a wonderful Condescension was this It 's true Reason in the Socinian laughs at it but Faith in the Christian must needs admire it Had the greatest Monarch on Earth confined himself to the poorest Cottage there it would have been nothing to God Tabernacling in the flesh Should the highest Angel in Heaven have put off his Perfections and come down into an humane Nature and from thence have passed into a brutal bestial one and so on into a tree or stone and at last into nullity it would not have been a Condescension comparable to that of the Son of God coming in the flesh His Sacred Person was infinitely more above humane Nature than an Angel is above matter or nullity it self and what unparallel'd Love was here The Creator became a Creature the Son of God assumed our nature and that after it was in us tainted with sin Dr. Bates of the Attributes fol. 171. The natural distance saith that excellent Man between God and the Creature is infinite the Moral between God and the sinful Creature if possible is more than infinite Yet the mercy of our Redeemer overcame this distance What an extasie of Love transported the Son of God so far as to espouse our nature after it was defiled and debased with sin He was essential Innocence and Purity yet he came in the similitude of sinful flesh which to outward view was not different from what was really sinful Thus he St. Austin calls Love junctura duo copulans a coupling of two together That after man had rent off himself from God by his Apostacy God should assume an humane Nature into himself to make up the breach and reduce Man into an Union with himself again Miror Deum in utero Virginis miror omnipotentem in cunabulis miror quemodo verbo Dei caro adhaeserit Cypr. de Nat. Christi must needs be Love in a transcendent excess infinite This made St. Cyprian overlook the wonders in Nature that he might ravish himself in the admirations of an Incarnate God The Condescension was here so great that God seems to neglect his own Majesty that he may comply with our necessities yet infinite Love would have the Son of God stoop a little lower and do honour to that Sacred Law which we had violated His humane Nature being an inmate in his infinite Person could not but have a right to Heaven and might have been immediately rapt up thither but Love set him another task He the great Lawgiver was made under the Law He who knew the Father in an infinity of light now knew him in a finite Reason He who embraced the Father in an infinity of Love now loved him in a finite Will He who was Lord of all was subject to Parents and Magistrates He who upholds the world went up and down as a man doing of good he stooped as low as the Ceremonial Law His pure flesh was circumcised he kept the Passeover and so obedientially stood under his own shadow This is a Condescension much greater than if all the Angels in Heaven had put themselves under the Laws of the lowest matter yet infinite Love would have the Son of God go down a little lower We have him hungry thirsty weary weeping suffering the contradiction of Sinners enduring the temptations of Satan all his life-through a man of sorrows at last we have him bleeding on a Cross hanging there as a spectacle of shame his hands and his feet were pierced his body was racked and tortured to death in a stinking Golgotha But which was the greatest of all he bore the Wrath of God and what was that Wrath which was due to the sin of a World or what those Sufferings which satisfied Justice for it What a great thing was the Passion of God and how much beyond the dissolution of a World Words cannot utter it thoughts cannot measure it That Love must be no less than immense which made the Son of God stoop so low to take us up out of the ruins of the Fall The Love of God will yet more appear if we take notice of the persons for whom Christ was given it was for man poor impotent man a creature worth nothing a bankrupt in Spirituals one void of all those Primitive Excellencies which at first Crowned the humane Nature for him it was that God was at so vast an expence as that of his own blood Spond Annal. Anno 431. 'T was great Charity in Paulinus Bishop of Nola that he would give himself in pawn to the Vandals for a poor Child but it was transcendent superlative Love in God to give his Son one worth Millions of Worlds and as rich in Excellencies as a Deity could make him to be emptied and humbled to death for poor worthless worms such as we are Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich yet for our sakes he became poor that ye through his poverty might be rich saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 8.9 The Riches of a God were laid out to set up broken man again But further it was for Sinners for Enemies such as were in Arms against God such as had broken his Laws despised his Authority cast off his Soveraignty and as much as in them lay stained his Glory These were the persons upon whose Salvation infinite Love set so high a rate that rather than fail the Life of God should be paid down for it The Apostle notably sets forth this
Scarcely for a righteous man will one dye yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to dye But God commended his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us Rom. 5.7 8. Sometimes possibly though but rarely one may dye for a righteous good Man who is a blessing to the place where he lives But this was Christs Prerogative to dye for Sinners this was the supereminency of Divine Love to give him so to do Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends Joh. 15.13 Thus our Saviour A greater proof or effect of Love than death there cannot be but Love is then in an higher and more excellent degree when that death is as in our Saviours case it was for Enemies than it is when the death is for Friends Damon and Pythias two intimate friends were willing to dye one for another but Christ died for Enemies In Creation God overcame Nullity but in Redemption he overcomes Enmity it self and that in a wonderful way He assumes an humane Nature and in it pours out his precious blood to melt and break that horrible Enmity which was in us against him If we would see more of this Love let us turn our eyes upon the evils removed and the good procured by our Saviour Christ All evils are either Moral such as sin or which waits upon the other Physical such as punishment all of them are removed by our Saviour who saves from Sin and Wrath. Man was under the guilt of Sin and so under the Wrath of God Wrath in the threatning hung as an horrible Tempest over his head and within there was the dreadful Eccho of it in Conscience But the Sufferings of Christ were so satisfactory and meritorious for us that as soon as we return and believe on him all our guilt is done away It 's true the guilt in it self in the intrinsecal desert of punishment is perpetual because sin cannot cease to be sin but it doth no longer redound upon our persons to oblige us to punishment The heavy burden is now lifted off from Conscience the black Cloud of Wrath is dissolved the cursing Law hath nothing to say against us There is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Rom. 8.1 It 's true afflictions may fall upon a Believer but there is no Condemnation there is not a jot of Wrath in them they are rather Castigatory than Penal managed in the hand of Mercy rather than Justice In the issue it appears that there was Love and Faithfulness in them that even in those afflicting paths Mercy and Truth are found all things shall work together for good unto the Believer Afflictions and all These serve for excellent purposes to fan off his Vanity melt away his Corruption alarm his spiritual Watch refine his golden Graces cast him into the Image of a meek suffering Christ unearth unself him and elevate his affections towards the everlasting rest which is above Affliction after it hath budded and blossomed with such precious fruits is no longer evil but an excellent good It 's true also that death Temporal will seize upon him but the curse is gone the sting out death which at first was a punishment now hath a blessing in it It was Originally introduced by sin but through the admirable Grace of our Saviour it carries away those reliques of sin which no Tears Prayers Watchings Pious endeavours could utterly extirpate whilest we are in the body it throws down the earthen walls into their mother-dust But who would not dye and with Hilarion bid his Soul Go out that he might be rid of sin There is indeed a passage out of a Temporal life but it is into an Eternal one The soul when it leaves its old friend the body flies into the blessed Region there to enjoy God in an immediate manner to read truth in its Original and taste goodness in the Fountain the body which at present dissolves into dust shall wake again and be made like to the glorious body of Christ Mortal shall put on immortality corruptible incorruption death shall be swallowed up in victory it is no longer an evil to the Believer Again Man was under the Power of Sin and so under the Tyranny of Satan Sin was a Lord a Ruler over him not only over his outward man whose members were the weapons of it but over the inward too It had strong-holds in his Reason and a throne in his Will he was a drudg a slave to his lusts hurried up and down by one Corruption or other wandring in error or swelling in pride or pining in envy or boiling in malice or burning in lust or drowning in sensual pleasures some way or other serving his Iniquity Satan the Ruler of darkness hath a Palace in his heart and keeps possession there upon all occasions he blows up Original Corruption into sinful motions motions into consents consents into acts acts into habits Thus he carries on the sinner in a circle of sinning till inevitable ruin overtake him but in and through Christ there is deliverance from this horrible servitude The Holy Spirit comes and rescues the sinner it opens his eyes to see himself standing as he doth at the brink of Hell and Death it melts him into tears and godly sorrows for sin it breaks down the strong-holds and throne of sin in the heart it casts out Satan and the hellish furniture it translates the poor sinner from the power of darkness into the Kingdom of Christ into a Region of Grace and Power where Sin and Satan cannot have the Victory Those precious Promises that sin shall not have Dominion that Satan shall be bruised under our feet are now sealed and experimented in the heart The poor Captive is now brought out of Bondage into the true liberty of Holiness and Obedience Here we see the matchless incomparable Love of God which delivered us from so many great Evils Hezekiah being rescued from Death made his acknowledgments O Lord thou hast in love to my soul delivered me from the pit of corruption or as the Original hath it Thou hast loved my soul from the pit of corruption Every Believer who hath tasted of the great Salvation may say Lord thou hast loved me from Sin Satan Death Hell by delivering me from all these evils Moreover as all evils were removed so all good things were procured by Christ Temporals were so the world owes its standing to him Justice but for his expiatory Sacrifice would have dashed it down about the sinners â—ears Sin but for the Cement of his blood would have unframed all things in nature that right to the Creature which we forfeited by our iniquity was restored again by his Merits The Believer shall now have so much of the world as infinite Wisdom and Mercy more competent Judges than humane Reason and Will shall think a fit portion for him and what he hath he shall have with the Love
of God which as it is the highest suavity in it self so it pours out a delicious relish into all outward things Spirituals were so those initial Graces of Faith and Repentance which introduce us into an Union with Christ are from him He is a Prince and Saviour to give repentance Acts 5.31 To you it is given in the behalf of Christ to believe on him Phil. 1.29 As soon as we repent and believe we are justified in his blood and by a conjunction with him the natural Son we have power and right to become the Sons of God by Adoption and Grace The Holy Spirit the fountain of Graces and Comforts which was upon him the head above measure will fall down upon us his Members in a proportion every Grace every piece of the glorious new-creature is created in him In the power of his Merits and Spirit every comfort every beam of Divine Favour comes down to us through him He is the true Mercy-seat where God meets and communes in words of Grace with us Eternals were so too all the weights of Glory and Crowns of life in Heaven were purchased by him His blood opens the Holy of Holies the pure River of life springs out of his Merits the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ Rom. 6.28 Had it not been for him we could never have entred into such a blessed Region as Heaven What a Gift is Christ which virtually contains all gifts and good things in him How incomparable that Love which gave us so comprehensive a Gift In the last place let us consider the excellent Evangelical Terms which were founded on the Death of Christ Here two things are considerable The one is this The terms are easier The Covenant of Works was Do this and live The Covenant of Grace is Believe repent and live The first called for pure sinless perfect obedience The last stoops and condescends to fallen man it accepts of sincere though imperfect obedience uprightness passes for perfection the main of the heart for all of it the will is accepted for the work pure aims are taken for compleat performances infirmities are covered with indulgence duties are taken into the hand of a Mediator and perfumed with his infinite Merits and hence they are acceptable and as sweet Odours to God O how low doth infinite Love and Mercy stoop to poor sinners It will save a repenting believing sinner and how can it possibly go lower That God should justifie an impenitent unbelieving sinner is utterly impossible to his Holiness unless he would open a gap to all sin and wickedness and make it capable to have a Crown of happiness at last He could not more condescend than he hath done in the terms of the Gospel there is a Kingdom for the poor in spirit a Comfort for the mourners an acceptance for a willing mind a favourable respect for the least spark of grace which is latent in a desire and but as a little smoke or wiek in the socket as the expression is Matth. 12.20 And what condescending Love is here How could God stoop lower for the Salvation of Men The other is this The terms are surer It 's true Adam had he stood in Righteousness would have had a reward But the difference is this Under the first Covenant it was not certain that Adam though he had sufficient grace should stand but under the second it is as sure as Gods Truth and Faithfulness in the promise can make it that a people shall be gathered up out of the corrupt Mass of mankind that Christ shall have a repenting believing seed and that they shall abide and persevere till they come to the recompence of reward in Heaven St. Austin distinguishes of a double adjutorium gratiae De Corrept Grat. cap. 12. or help of grace Adam had that grace without which he could not have obeyed Gods People have that which causes them to obey The first gave him a posse a power to obey and persevere The second gives us the very velle perficere the very willing and working with perseverance Hereupon he observes that Adams will though sound and without spot did not persevere in an ampler good whilest our will though weak and infected with indwelling Corruption doth persevere in a lesser Adam with all his Holiness fell before an Apple a little titillation of pleasure but the Christian Martyrs have stood it out notwithstanding the reliques of sin in them against racks and torments Under the first Covenant the stock of Grace was in Mans own hand the stress lay upon his Will the principle of Holiness in him was subjected to it to be continued or forfeited But under the second Covenant which was founded at so vast an expence as the Blood of God Mans Will is not made Trustee a second time the stock is not in his own hand Grace is a Victor and subdues the Will unto it self Hence this Covenant cannot as the other did miscarry God was a friend to innocent Adam but in the second Covenant God comes nearer to us in a double Union such as Adam never dreamt of There is an Hypostatical Union the Son of God taking our nature into himself and which is founded thereon a Mystical Union Believers being in a wonderful manner united unto Christ as members unto their head In the first Union of the Divine and Humane Nature in Christ there is one Person In the second Christ and Believers make one Christ 1 Cor. 12.12 Believers are but Christ displayed he lives in them he counts himself incomplete without them By virtue of these two Unions it is that Believers finally persevere Because I live saith Christ ye shall live also John 14.19 Their life is bound up in his as long as Christ the head is alive above the believing Members below shall not fail of quickning grace to maintain spiritual life unto eternal The Holy Spirit is in them a well of water springing up to everlasting life John 4.14 and to secure the abode of the Spirit with them Christ is a Priest after the power of an endless life Heb. 7.16 In the Covenant of Works there was no promise of perseverance but in the Covenant of Grace there are many such promises God shall confirm you unto the end 1 Cor. 1.8 He will put his fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from him Jer. 32.40 The Apostle praying for the Thessalonians that they may be preserved blameless unto the coming of Christ immediately adds Faithful is he that called you who also will do it 1 Thes 5.23 24 evidently God undertakes it and engages his Faithfulness in it To take these Promises conditionally is utterly to evacuate them to make them run thus If we will persevere we shall persevere and so much was true under the old Covenant and without any Promise at all The clear scope of those Promises is That Believers are not left in their own hand but kept in Gods and how sure
an hand that is our Saviour tells us None can pluck them out of my Fathers hand John 10.29 I know some take these words with a limitation None can pluck them away without their own voluntary consent but this limitation makes the words altogether insignificant it is not possible that they should be plucked away without their consent The words therefore with that limitation run thus None can pluck them but in such a way as the same is possible to be done and thus they signifie nothing That which our Saviour makes impossible in the Text becomes in the Gloss as possible as any other thing Here we see the incomparable Love of God to his People there is in Christ an everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure they are preserved in Christ and that unto salvation This infinite immense Love of God in Christ can do no less than call for a return What was it not enough for him to give us a World of Creatures Hath he given his Son his only begotten dearly beloved Son for us Hath he given him so far as to be made flesh and made under the Law the command and curse of it Hath he thereby removed all Evils and procured all good things for us Hath he done this for Sinners for Enemies and that out of an eternal design of Grace out of such Love as was an impulse to it self without any attractive on our part to move him thereunto And after all this shall not our hearts take fire and burn within us with Love to him again When his Love was up in Eternity shall not ours appear in time When he loved us worthless meritless Creatures shall not we love him upon the highest and greatest attractives When he gave his Son when the Giver and the Gift were both infinite shall our finite affections be shut up from him or denied unto him Our Love to his is but a little drop a poor inconsiderable nothing and with what face or reason can we withhold it when infinite Love calls for it Hath God himself come down as it were from his altitude and in admirable Grace followed us First into our flesh and then into a Law-subjection and at last into a Curse and Penal Sufferings and all this upon an errand of Peace and Reconciliation to reduce us again to himself and to happiness in him and shall we yet fly away from him and by an horrible indignity turn our backs upon such admirable pursuits of Love and Grace After such a deliverance from Sin and Hell as this May we think our selves our own or turn away our hearts so much as in the glance of a thought from so great a Saviour After such a purchase of Grace and Heaven should we not lye down at his feet in extatical admirations and send up our dearest affections to the great Donor If Creatures if Laws if Ordinances move us not shall we yet be unaffected at the spectacle of a God incarnate obeying bleeding dying for us Sinners and Enemies It 's horrible ingratitude having such a prospect of infinite Love before our eyes Let us do as becomes us give God our heart not a piece or corner of it but all not in some weak languid velleities but in the highest strains and raisures of spirit not in some drops or rivulets but in a full stream and current of affections such as is due to him who is the Original of souls Our desires before vagrant on Earth should now take Wing and fly up to Heaven our Love once in corrupt conjunction with Creatures should now aspire after a pure Union with him who is Love it self Our delights should no longer toy or sport with vanity but spread and sweetly dilate themselves in the Beams of infinite Goodness All the Powers of our Souls should now be gathered in from the World and upon on a full deliberate choice should be placed upon the Center of Perfections The proof of all this must be in a life of Obedience without this it is meer vanity to say that we love him Holy Love goes not alone or without a train of good works following after it the warmth and ardor of it in the heart purifies the life the inward suavity of it facilitates the outward Command and naturalizes us to Obedience as it sets a high rate and estimation upon God himself so upon every jot and tittle of his Law The complacency which we find in him makes us take pleasure in all the pure ways which he hath set before us if we esteem him above Worlds and Creatures we will allow his Will to be above all Wills and subject ours to it Moreover the Love of God moves us to love our Neighbour What hath God gone before us in such admirable steps of Love and shall we not be followers of him as dear children and walk in love as the Apostle speaks Eph. 5.1 2 Can there be an higher or nobler pattern than Love it self Shall he do good in the sphere of Nature and more and higher good in the sphere of Grace and we do none in our little sphere Shall infinite Bowels and Mercies be open and finite ones shut When God hath given so great a Gift as his own Son May we withhold our little Pittances of Charity Would we receive all and give nothing Exact pence from our Brother when Talents are forgiven to our selves Is God come into our flesh and shall we hide our selves from it I mean in the neglect or contempt of the poor Did he take humanity that we should put it off No in so doing we should reproach not our Maker only but our Redeemer too Inhumanity is now double treble to what it was before our Saviour took an humane Nature to read us a Lecture of Love and Goodness in the old Commandment of Love is now a new one urged upon us by a new Motive The incomparable Love of God in his giving his Son for us If we now shut up our Bowels and Mercies from others how dwelleth the Love of God in us What sense can we have of it upon our hearts Charity was the badg of the Primitive Christians The impress of Gods Love upon Mr. Fox was so great that he never denied any that asked for Jesus sake Our Love towards men should be a little picture or resemblance of Gods Love towards us Our Mercies and Compassions should tell the world that we have tasted of that infinite Grace and Mercy which is above Our Charity towards all should bear witness that we have been great receivers from God Our Love towards Enemies should be a thankful acknowledgment that we being such were reconciled to God by the Death of his Son CHAP. VI. Chap. 6 The Power of God manifest in Christ In his Incarnation and Conception In his Miracles These were true in the History True in the Nature of Miracles They were numerous and great They were suited to the Evangelical design Divine Power manifest in converting the
from the fountain of light Leaving the first Truth it wanders and loses it self in a wilderness of Errors Forgetting its great Original it gropes in the dark about the Supreme End and cannot of it self find the dore to true happiness It doth and that by a singular priviledg above other creatures know its Maker and yet in an unreasonable manner it turns away from him and seeks an happiness in the lower World or at best in it self It should like the Celestial bodies move circularly and after a survey of all creatures return back to the same point from whence it came which is the bosom of God himself and yet it flies away from him and makes its nest in one Creature-vanity or other It hath a natural and indelible instinct after happiness and perpetually cryes out Who will shew us any good And yet it is not able so much as by a holy thought to aspire after the great Blessedness set forth before it in the Gospel Heavy things descend by a right line to their center Brutes hasten to those things which are congruous and convenient to their natures Only Man though endowed far above these with Reason and Liberty falls short and misses the mark Pure Precepts excellent Promises heavenly Mysteries are set before him in the Gospel yet without a supernatural illumination he cannot perceive or receive them at most he sees them only in the image or picture of the Letter but not in their liveliness and spiritual glory a form or shell of knowledg he may have but he doth not tast or savour the sweetness of them And all this because his Reason though active enough in naturals is in spirituals but as an eye without an optick faculty dark nay darkness it self The Will though its proper object be good turns away from God who is Goodness it self and seeks its chief good somewhere else It opens it self in a free choice to every vanity that passes by yet is it shut to God and all the offers of grace forsaking God the Fountain of Liberty it becomes an arrant Slave and Drudg to sin and which is wonderfully prodigious it is in love with its chains and loth to be made free indeed All the goodness in God Christ Heaven Blessedness outwardly proposed move it not to stir a foot towards such attracting objects still it hangs in vanity and lyes upon the dunghill of the world and rowls it self in the mire of one lust or other It hath an enmity against God who made it free it would be above his Will who is Supreme rather than its inordinate lusts should be restrained it would have God cease to be There is in every man De Civit. l. 14. cap. 28. as St. Austin speaks Amor sui usque ad contemptum Dei a love of himself even to the contempt of God The Affections are all vain earthly carnal mutinous against reason insomuch that they by an unnatural violence depose it and so unman the man Hence he becomes as the beasts that perish The Reason saith this or that is good but the Affections repugn and resist The Soul is paralytick Reason moves to the right hand Affection to the left and carries all before it Hence that saying Video meliora proboque deteriora sequor The Affections which primitively were servants to Reason are now upon the Throne Reason though once a Royal Prince is dethroned and become servile That which is the glory of our nature and proves us to be men that is hurried up and down by the rude rabble of lusts and malapert passions This being the natural frame and temper of man let us sit down and consider Was it thus from the beginning Was humane nature such in the first impression Did God put his Reason under a Cloud or his Will into chains and servitude Was it from God that the one turns away from the first truth and the other from the chief good Did God put into man an instinct after happiness in vain or inspire into him an immortal spirit that it might creep upon the earth and pour out it self to every vanity Did God create man at variance with himself and at first set up that unnatural intestine war which is between the rational and sensitive powers Was it his pleasure that the inferior faculties in man should contumaciously reluct against the superior or that the superior should basely serve the inferior Without doubt it cannot be God is light purity Wisdom it self these things are darkness corruption ataxy and cannot be from him No other account can be given of them but this That they are the bruises of the fall the wounds of corrupt nature 3. No man who looks abroad into the World can with any colour oppose this truth The millions of actual sins which as a mighty deluge overspread the world are as so many pregnant proofes of that original pravity which is in us In the old world all flesh had corrupted its way Gen. 6.12 Afterwards all nations walked in their own ways Acts 14.16 That is in sinful ones sin is the course of the world Ephes 2.2 It is the element and proper ubi of it the whole world lies in it 1 Joh. 5.19 And whence is it that sin is so universal that iniquity abounds in all times and places Our Saviour opens the bloody fountain of it Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts murders adulteries fornications thefts false-witness blasphemies Matt. 15.19 All these black troops of wickedness issue out from the corrupt heart of man the inherent pravity which is there is seminally all the monsters of vice The Apostle Paul proving all under sin doth thus describe the corrupt estate of men There is none righteous no not one There is none that understandeth none that seeketh after God They are all gone out of the way they are together become unprofitable there is none that doeth good no not one Their throat is an open sepulcher with their tongues they have used deceit the poison of asps is under their lips Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness Their feet are swift to shed blood Destruction and misery are in their ways The way of peace have they not known There is no fear of God before their eyes Rom. 3. Here the Apostle paints out corrupt nature not that all men actually do these things but that there is in every one even from their infancy a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an universal seminary of iniquity a venemous root of all actual sins In this respect the description appertains to all even to little infants and the scope of the Text requires that it should be so interpreted for before this description the Apostle tells us that all are under sin vers 9 and after it that every mouth is stopped that all the world is guilty before God that by the deeds of the law no flesh shall be justified in his sight vers 19 20 and afterwards that all have sinned and come short of the
be upon our spiritual watch we should set guards within and without that sin may not creep in by the ports of sense nor rise up out of the deep of the heart When a temptation approaches to us we should say as an holy man did Auferte ignem adhuc enim paleas habeo Take away the fire yet I have chaff within If a Jonah fall into a pet against God if a David wallow in adultery and blood if a Peter deny his Lord with a curse What may not we do The remnants of Original sin in us should make us keep a watch over our hearts and ponder the path of our feet Our flesh is an Eve a Tempter within us nay a kind of Devil as an Ancient speaks Nemo sibi de suo palpet quisque sibi Satan est CHAP. X. Chap. 10 Touching Grace The fountain of it Gods love The streams supernatural gifts The center Heaven It s freeness in that all perish not in the fall Original sin meriting death and Christ being a free gift It s freeness in chusing a Church to God Election not of all no Legislative act but a singling out of some to life in an infallible way and meerly of Grace It s freeness in the external and internal Call The distinction between the two Calls The efficacy of Grace as to the Principles of Faith and other graces with the manner of their production as to actual believing and willing with the proofs of it as to perseverance in faith and holiness The Habits of Grace defectible in themselves but not in their dependence HAVING spoken of Original Sin I shall next consider of Grace which heals that deadly wound Grace in the primary notion of it is the Love and Good-will of God towards sinners and in a secondary sense it is those saving-gifts which are derived from that Love These are called Graces because they lye in mans heart as beams of that eternal Grace which is in Gods and tend to that Glory in Heaven which is Grace consummate Gods will goes foremost and works those Graces in mans which make him meet for eternal happiness The fountain of Grace is the free-love of God the streams of it are supernatural gifts in men the center of it is the glory of Heaven These things shew us the true notion of Grace 1. The Fountain of Grace is Gods free Love which moves it self and gratuitously flows out in spiritual blessings these issue out of love and that is a motive to it self Emphatical is that of the Apostle If by grace then it is no more of works otherwise grace is no more grace but if it be of works then it is no more grace otherwise work is no more work Rom. 11.6 It is essential to Grace to be gratuitous unless it be so it loses its nature Upon this account Pelagius that Enemy of Grace but for his counterfeit Recantation had had in the Palestine Council a just Anathema for that saying Gratiam dari secundum merita That Grace was given according to merits or works Aust Hyp. l. 3. When the Pelagians said Quia ego prior volui Deus voluit Because I first willed therefore God willed Saint Austin tells them That they brought in Merit that Grace was then no longer Grace In omni opere sancto saith he prior est voluntas Dei posterior liberi arbitrii In every holy work Gods will is first in order Si vel tantillum boni a Deo non est jam non omnis boni essector est eoque nec Deus Bucer and then mans Without this order Grace cannot be Grace nor God God If he be not the Fountain of all good if the least good start up and anticipate his will he is not as becomes him the origine of all good The Fountain of Grace must therefore be in his Love 2. The streams of it are Supernatural Gifts It 's true natural benefits are in some sense grace but this is not the noted acception of the word in Scripture This acception was but Pallium Pelagianorum the Pelagians cloak under which they hid their Heresie Hence Aust Epist 105. when that question was asked What that Grace was which Pelagians thought was given without any precedent merits Answer was made That it was the humane nature in which we were made for before we were we could not merit a being Thus they confounded Grace and Nature together but the gifts of Grace are above the sphear of Nature and altogether undue to it Indeed in Innocency righteousness was natural to man not that it was a principle of Nature or an emanation from thence but that it was necessary and due to that Integrity which God would set up the human nature in God would make man very good and how that could be without righteousness I know not Moral goodness is that which is proper to a reasonable creature neither can it be wanting but there will be a maim in the creature There was in man an Union of rational powers in which he had communion with Angels and sensitive in which he had communion with Beasts This Union could not be made in a perfect orderly manner unless the sensitive powers being the more ignoble were subjected to the rational being the more excellent faculties that subjection could not be without a righteousness This is the rectitude and harmony of humane nature without it all the parts and powers of the Soul must needs jangle into confusion God would have man to serve and obey him in a perfect manner And how could this be without a principle of holy love Which way should there be actual righteousness without original Without an internal rectitude man could not love God as he ought amore amicitiae with a love of friendship for his own sake and without such a love referring all to God and his glory all mans acts a primo ad ultimum must needs be sin God would set before a man a most glorious end the happiness of the beatifical vision And how should man ever arrive at it without righteousness Or want that righteousness which qualifies for it Such a want would set him below the most contemptible creatures none of which are destitute of that furniture which is requisite for the reaching of their ends In all these respects righteousness was natural and in a sort due unto man in Innocency But after mans fall and forfeiture of Original righteousness saving gifts are altogether supernatural not only as being above the power of nature but as being totally undue to it To the state of Innocency righteousness was in a sense due but to the state of Corruption there was nothing due but wrath 3. The center of it is the Glory of Heaven Grace prepares a Kingdom for Believers Hence God bids them come and inherit the Kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the World Matt. 25.34 it prepares them for the Kingdom Hence that of the Apostle Giving thanks to the father who
his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him 1 Joh. 4.9 God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Joh. 3.16 We see here the sending of a Saviour was an act of meer Grace and Grace being surely free and self-moving might have suspended its own act and that suspension had it been would have left all men in the ruines of the fall and that without any colour of injustice at all in God There is a vast difference between mercy in Man and mercy in God Man shews it ex officio out of duty and in every failure he is unmerciful but God shews it ex arbitrio out of Sovereignty in such sort as he pleases and to do more he is not obliged Hence Gods Purpose and Grace are joined together 2 Tim. 1.9 His Mercy though an infinite Ocean le ts not out a drop towards fallen creatures but according to his good pleasure If God antecedently to his own decree and promise was bound to send his Son to seek and to save that which was lost then the sending of him was not an act of grace but of justice and necessity it must it ought to be so the Grace and Love revealed in the Gospel is a meer nullity a thing no way free or gratuitous but if as the truth is God were not bound to send a Saviour then he might have suspended his own act and left all mankind in the ruins of the fall No man who believes these two things viz. That Original sin is sin and merits wrath That the Mission of a Saviour is Grace and self-moving can possiby have hard thoughts of Gods Decree in the point of Reprobation We being by Original sin in a state of wrath what might not God do with us Might he not justly leave us in the corrupt Mass Or might he not justly punish us there If not leave us then as he would be just he was bound to give a Saviour and by consequence the giving of him which is horrendum dogma is no more Grace or Mercy but Necessity If not punish us then as he would be just he was bound not to do an act of Justice I mean not to inflict that death which is as due wages to every sin To me it is clear That God cannot be cruel or unjust either in denying a Redemption purely gratuitous or in inflicting a death justly due to a sinful creature Epist 105. St. Austin brings in the Pelagians murmuring thus Injustum est in una eademque mala causa hunc liberari illum puniri And then answers Nempe ergo justum est utrumque puniri quis hoc negaverit If Original sin be sin and Grace Grace if God may be just in punishing or free in giving then he might without any colour of injustice have condemned all men and if so he might have reprobated all men and then no scruple can be made touching the reprobating of some Theodore Coruhert Integrum Deo est servare vellet an reprobare nil esse quod conqueratur who in his life wrote against Calvin and Beza touching Predestination at his death confessed That God might do his pleasure in saving or condemning him there was no reason of complaint either way It is very observable that those who deny Reprobation do either in whole or in part deny Original sin saying that it is no sin or which is all one improperly such or else they have no true notion of Grace in the freeness and self-motion of it And to do either what is it To deny Original sin is to contradict the Letter of Scripture the judgment of the Church nay and the experience of all men who will but reflect upon themselves To deny Grace to be free and self-moving is to say Grace is not Grace and to evacuate the Gospel and to take away the glory of it Neither of them may be done by any who calls himself Christian The true notion of Sin is That it is such a violation of the Law as merits death eternal The true notion of Grace is That it operates freely and of self-motion God though under no necessity though he might have left faln men as well as faln Angels under sin and wrath was yet pleased out of his meer good pleasure to give a Saviour unto men and to open a dore to them of salvation This is free-Grace indeed and for ever to be adored Thus much touching the first thing 2. It is of free-Grace that God chuses a Church and people to himself that he designs some certain individual persons to the infallible attainment of Grace and Glory And here I shall consider two things first That there is such an Election And then That it issues out of meer Grace 1. There is such an Election of men unto Grace and Glory Thus the Apostle He hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world Eph. 1.4 He predestinated us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ ver 5. In the clearing of this I shall lay down several things 1. Election is not of all but some It 's true Huberus asserted an universal election of all men But this is directly opposite to Scripture Few not all are chosen Mat. 22.14 The elect are opposed to the blinded ones Rom. 11.7 a clear distinction is made between vessels of honour and dishonour between vessels of mercy and wrath between those that are written in the book of Life and those that are left out of it Election is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it separates and fingles out some to mercy in a way of choice Were it of all it could not be Election there could be nothing of choice in it The Elect are said to be chosen out of the world Joh. 15.19 but all are not chosen out of all that 's impossible Election therefore is of some individual persons only The Lord knoweth those that are his 2 Tim. 2.19 Their names are all down in the book of life Phil. 4.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this individual person this very Paul who but now was breathing out blood against the Church this is a vessel of election Acts 9.15 saith God to Ananias The elect are called a remnant Rom. 11.5 because it is made up of some individual persons specially singled out of the corrupt mass unto God The will of Gods Complacence respects Graces without a distinction of persons Every one that fears God is accepted Acts 10.35 A good man draws out favour from the Lord Prov. 12.2 But the will of Gods Benevolence such as Election is is distinctive of persons for this decrees certain blessings to certain persons and not to all Election therefore is not of all but of some 2. Election is not Legislation The secret Counsels of Princes are not their Edicts neither is Gods Election a Legislation Election is an Eternal Decree Legislation is in time Election is
Grace is pure Grace his Love is meerly from himself Hence is that emphatical reduplication The elect whom he hath chosen Matt. 13.20 As if our Saviviour had said in Election there is nothing but pure Election nothing on mans part all is from the good pleasure of God This Truth is notably set forth in our Saviour Christ he was Gods chosen Servant Matt. 12.18 The Lamb fore-ordained 1 Pet. 1.20 And as St. Austin stiles him praeclarissimum lumen praedestinationis gratiae the most famous light of Praedestination and Grace He was as man predestinated to the superlative glory of the Hypostatical Union and that not out of any foreseen holiness in his human nature for all that did flow out of that union but out of meer grace the human nature did not do or merit ought to be advanced into that ineffable excellency neither may any man say Cur non ego Why were not I so advanced Nature is common but Grace is singular Here we have the Prototype and grand Exemplar of Predestination Christ was predestinated to be the Head we are predestinated to be his members He as man was predestinated that by an admirable assumption he should be the natural Son of God We are predestinated that we should be adopted ones He was predestinated to be such without any precedent merits or works We are predestinated to be such without them Hence the Apostle saith That we are predestinated to be conformed to the image of his Son that he might be the first-born among many brethren Rom. 8.29 Both Predestinations were free and in our Predestination there was a kind of imitation of his De bono persever l. 2. c. 24. Hence St. Austin saith Et illum nos Praedestinavit quia in illo ut esset caput nostrum in nobis ut ejus corpus essemus non praecessura merita nostra sed opera sua futura praescivit He predestinated him and us that he should be our Head and we his Body was not from our merit but the work of God It is certain that the Members cannot be above the Head they were not elected to a Beatifical Vision out of foreseen faith and perseverance when the Head was elected to the Hypostatical Union out of meer grace 3. It is of free grace that God calls men There is a double call an External and an Internal one both are of grace 1. The External call is of grace The Gospel is not a debt but a meer gift freely given to men It may be substracted from a Nation for their sins but it is never given to a Nation for their worthiness for all men are unworthy of it When God gives it to some it is not for their dignity when he denies it to others there is always in them a concomitant indignity of it No natural man can be worthy of it It is meerly of Gods good pleasure that the Sun of Righteousness shines in one part of the world and not in another that the Evangelical dew falls in some places and not in others Here the only solution is that of our Saviour Even so Father for so it seemed good in thy sight Mat. 11.26 I know it is here said by some That facienti quod in se est Deus non denegat gratiam To him who doth what he can God denies not grace The promise is Habenti dabitur To him that hath that is rightly useth what he hath more shall be given Upon the right use of naturals the Pagans might have supernaturals The Gospel in such a case should be revealed to them But as Bishop Davenant observes experience confutes this Proferant ab orbe condito vel unius Pagani exemplum saith he Determ f. 236. Let them bring forth if they can the example of one Pagan since the world began who by the right use of naturals attained to Evangelical Grace One would think that such as Socrates and Plato might if any rightly use naturals but they had not the Gospel manifested to them which yet hath been revealed to the poor Americans who comparatively to the other were brutish and barbarous That of the Schools Facienti quod in se est Deus non denegat gratiam Serm printed An. Dom. 1632. fol. 286. is as Bishop Saunderson in his Sermons calleth it the rotten principle and foundation of the whole frame of Arminianism ultimately it resolves all into nature Salvation is resolved into Faith Faith into the Gospel preached that into the use of naturals Nature may now lift up its hand and touch the Crowns of Glory above Grace may fall down to so low a rate as to be earned at the fingers ends of Nature And what is this but pure impure Pelagianism In the Palestine Synod Pelagius but for his counterfeit recantation had had a just anathema for that saying Gratiam dari secundum merita Secundum merita with the Fathers is all one with secundum opera and secundum opera all one with facienti quod in se est The Apostle flatly opposes this opinion He hath called us with an holy calling not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace 2 Tim. 1.9 The call is not according to works or according to the use of naturals but meerly purely totally from Grace Rightly to use naturals is to live up to the light of nature that tells us that God is the Supreme good and therefore in all reason to be loved with a supreme love We should not give him part of the price but all the mind heart soul spirit and that in pure perfection and who where is the Saint on earth that doth so Their purest acts of love come forth ex laeso principio out of an heart sanctified but in part and in their egress from thence cannot but have a taint or tincture from the indwelling corruption and may we imagine that God should offer the Pagans a Gospel on such terms as no Saint on earth ever arrived at Or that he would have them go about by the way of perfection to enjoy a Gospel of Grace It cannot be But suppose that they may have it upon a sincere love of him Can a Pagan out of natural Principles truly love God May true Love be without Faith the Root or without the Spirit the inspirer of all Graces Or doth the Holy Spirit work in a supernatural way without a Gospel or Ordinances Or if it did doth it work and not effect so much as the first element in Christianity I mean a sense of the want of Grace May the Spirit converse in those unclean places where nothing appears but Error Pride Idolatry Impiety and Wickedness of all sorts It is not reasonable to believe it If Nature could lift up it self to a sincere love of God the Spirit and the Gospel seem to be superfluous thereunto And as for habenti dabitur it speaks not to the point in hand because it speaks not of the use of natural
be subject to Gods and in that subjection stands his Liberty and true Freedom His will doth not stand upon its own bottom but resignes up it self to his Grace to be made free indeed and to his commands as the supream Law his affections are not his own he suffers them not to wander up and down among the Creatures there to gather Hay and Stubble a false happiness to himself but he dispatches them away into the other World and makes them ascend up to God the true Center of Souls and Fountain of Goodness he surrenders up his Soul and all to God the Image of Heaven which is upon him plainly tells him that all is due to him who is above to keep back part of the price or substract ought from him is to lie to that Holy Spirit who hath set his stamp upon every part of the new Creature and by an Universal Sanctification sealed up the whole Man for his own The life of an Holy Man is a life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to God 1 Pet. 4.6 It aspires after an Imitation of the holy one it complies with his holy commands and in all aims at his glory as the supream end of all The Apostle notably sets forth this Consecration of Man to God they gave themselves to the Lord 2 Cor. 8.5 They would be their own no longer They surrendred up themselves to God they dedicated themselves to his Will and Glory All Christians nay almost all Men will at least seem to cry up an holy Life but that we may see wherein it doth consist I shall set down several things First An holy Life is not the product of our Natural Reason and Will Aug. in Job Tract 81. that of Pelagius A Deo habemus quod Homines sumus à nobis ipsis quod justi sumus That we are Men is from God that we are just Men is from our selves is impium effatum a very wicked Saying such as justly grates upon the Ears of good Men because it utterly evacuates the Grace of Christ It s true Reason is a very excellent thing it can dive into Nature and bring up some of the secrets of it It can teem out many Arts and Sciences it can measure out Rules and Moral Vertues to Men but it cannot make a Man holy it can of it self tell us That God is an Infinite Wise Just Good Superexcellent Being but after all is done it cannot raise up that Love to him which is the Spring of an holy Life that Love is from God and a fruit of the Holy Spirit Bellarmine laies down this very fairly and roundly Non posse Deum sine ope ipsius diligi De Grat. Lib. Ar. l. 6. c. 7. neque ut Authorem Naturae neque ut Largitorem Gratiae neque perfectè neque imperfectè ullo modo That without the help of Grace we cannot love God neither as the Author of Nature nor as the Giver of Grace neither perfectly nor imperfectly any way If Reason cannot elevate our Love to God then it cannot produce an holy Life which is a fruit of that Love Further it may having the Gospel set before it gather up a great stock of Notions touching God and Christ and the holy Commands in the Word and the incomparable Rewards in Heaven but it cannot raise up holy Principles and Actions in us if it could then the very first and rudest draught of Pelagius which made all Grace to consist in Doctrinâ Libero Arbitrio must be a very Truth then internal Grace which renews the Soul and rectifies the Faculties thereof must be a fancy needless and altogether superfluous its true the Will in Man is a free Principle but to Divine objects it is not at all free till it be made so by Grace There is such a gravedo Liberi Arbitrii such a pressure of innate corruption in it that it cannot ascend above it self to love God above all and dedicate the Life to him Thus we see that an Holy Life is too high a thing to issue forth from meer Principles of Nature when the Apostle tells us That Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness Temperance are Fruits of the Spirit Gal 5.22 It is no less than prophane to put our Spirit in the room of God's and to say these are the fruits of our Reason and Will when again he tells us that We are his Workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good Works Ephes 2.10 It is horrible presumption in us to put by the New Creation and think that the Old may serve the turn for an holy Life I can as easily believe that Jewish Fable That there is in the Body a Luz a little Bone never putrifying from whence the Resurrection begins as that there is any thing left in fallen Man which in it self may become a Principle of Regeneration and holy Living could there be any such thing found in us there would be no necessity of Grace but of Nature only a Creator we might praise but a Redeemer we need not our own Spirit may serve the turn God's may be spared Secondly An holy Life is the fruit of a renewed and regenerated Heart it is the budding and blossoming of a Divine Nature in us in it a Man shews himself to be a Man off from the old stock of Adam and to be ingraffed into Christ and as a branch in him to have Life and Spirit from him to dedicate and consecrate himself unto a God Without this New state there can be no such thing as an holy Life upon this account St. Austin tells the Pelagians Contr. Jul. lib. 5. c. 4. those enemies of Grace That they were in their Doctrine Ruina morum the ruin of good Life For if you take away that Grace which makes the New Creatures there can be no such thing as an holy Life that must stand upon some foundation and in lapsed Nature there is there can be no other but a New Creature To shew this more fully I shall lay dawn two things distinctly The one is this An unregenerate Man cannot lead an holy Life The other is this An holy Life issues out of a Principle of Regeneration These two will fully clear the Point The first thing is An unregenerate Man cannot lead an holy Life I say not That an unregenerate Man cannot become regenerate but that an unregenerate Man whilst such cannot live holily not that there is a natural impotency a want of the Faculties of Understanding and Will but that there is a Moral one and in-dwelling corruption which renders him uncapable to attain to it That of our Saviour A corrupt Tree cannot bring forth good Fruit Matth. 7.18 carries a great evidence of Reason in it the Fruit cannot exceed the Tree the effect will not be better than the procreant cause is if an unregenerate Man be a corrupt Tree if an holy Life be good Fruit the one cannot proceed from the other It is vanity and
in Christ and then there is a Progeny of good Works first he quickens and gives us a Spiritual Being and then we walk and live an holy Life first there is a good Treasure of Grace in the Heart and then the good things are brought forth out of it Matth. 12.35 Ye have obeyed from the heart that form of Doctrine whereto or into which you were delivered saith St. Paul Rom. 6.17 Here we see whence an holy Life springs the Gospel was not only delivered to them but by the Regenerating Spirit they were delivered into it and cast into the holy Mould of it and this was the true Reason of their Obedience in an holy Life Of his own Will begat he us with the Word of Truth that we should be a kind of First-fruits of his Creatures Jam. 1.18 The Apostle in the precedent verse shews us the infinite Sun or Fountain of all good things and in this Verse he gives us a famous instance in Regeneration opposing it to that concupiscence which is immediately before spoken of conpiscence is the Fountain of sin and so is Regeneratition of holy Obedience the very end of Regeneration is that we might be a kind of First-fruits of his Creatures separate from the World and consecrated unto God in an holy Life living as those who by Regenerating Grace are made a choice portion and peculiar People to him It is observed by some Divines That the Holy Patriarchs had barren Wives that their Posterity might shadow out the Church which is not produced by the power of Nature but of Grace the end of which production is that Fruit might be brought forth unto God in an Holy Life The Hebrew Doctors say That God out of his great Name Jehovah added the Letter He to the Names of Abraham and Sarah Hence that of the Cabalists Abram non gignit sed Abraham Sarai non parit sed Sarah In allusion to this I may say It is not the Humane Principles but the Divine Nature which Believers the Children of Abraham partake of that makes them bring forth the Fruits of an holy Life We have this exemplified in a greater than Abraham even in Jesus Christ he was first conceived of the Holy Ghost and then gave us that incomparable Pattern of Holiness in his excellent Life Sutably we are first supernaturally begotten to a Spiritual Being and then we live an Holy life He that Sanctifieth and they who are Sanctified are all of one Hebr. 2.11 Hence Camero observes De Eccles 223. that between Christ and Believers there is a wonderful Communion of Nature Both have an humane Nature Sanctified by the Holy Spirit he was conceived by the Holy Spirit they are regenerated by it that they may live unto God but to make this point the clearer I shall consider the two parts of the new Creature that is Faith and Love I call them so because the Apostle who saith Neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but a new Creature Gal. 6.15 saith also Neither Circumcision availeth nor uncircumcision but Faith which worketh by Love Gal. 5.6 intimating that Faith and Love are two great parts of the new Creature an holy Life flows from both these Hence some Learned Divines observe that the good Acts of Heathens have an essential defect in them the good Acts of Believers have only a gradual defect but the good Acts of Heathens have an essential one in that they do not flow from Faith and Love and so cannot Center in the Glory of God Therefore St. Austin retracts that Speech wherein he said Retr lib. 1. cap. 3. Philosophos virtutis luce fulcisse that the Philosophers did shine with the light of virtue But to speak distinctly of these two Graces First An Holy Life-issues out of Faith an holy Life is virtually in Faith and proceeds actually from it Faith sees the commands of God to be as they are richly Engraven with the Stamps and Signatures of Divine purity and equity such as Proclaim that God is in them of a truth and that they are the very Counterpains of his Heart and from hence it presses the Believer unto obedience and secretly dictates that these are the very Will of God and must be done Thy word is very pure therefore thy Servant loveth it Saith David Psal 119.140 The Emphatical therefore in the Text cannot be practically understood by any thing but Faith the Carnal Mind which is enmity to God would argue from the purity of the command to the hatred of it but Faith such is its Divine Genius argues from thence to Love and Obedience It doth not only point out the Divine Authority which is stampt upon the command but shew the purity and rectitude which is there to attract us into our duty and that we may do it in a free filial manner Faith derives a free Spirit from Christ to make obedience easie and natural to us a Man with his old Heart drudges in the ways of God and brings forth duties as the Bond-woman did her Son in a dead Servile manner but when Faith comes the commands are easie and the Will is upon the Wheel ready to move sweetly and strongly in compliance thereunto The Believer is Spirited and new Natured for Obedience his Heart is in a posture to do the Will of God every where Faith finds Arguments and Impulsives for it Doth it look upon the Life of Christ it immediately concludes these are the steps of our dear Lord and shall we not follow him After whom shall we walk if not after him It 's true he walked in pure sinless perfection such as we cannot reach but the gracious Covenant hath stooped to our frailty and made us sure that sincerity will be aceepted and how can we deny it or refuse to comply with such condescending Grace Doth it look upon Christs wounds and bloody Death these will cast shame and confusion upon an unholy life May any one imagine that our Saviour bore the Curse and Wrath of God that we might provoke it or expiated our sins at so dear a rate as his own Blood and Life that we might indulge them who sees not now that Sin is bloody and holiness amiable and what easie terms are proposed to us when the Death and Curse was only Christ's and the sincere Obedience is all that is required to be ours Doth it look up for the Spirit the purchase of Christ's death We well know where that is to be found the more we walk in the holy Commands and ways of God the more are we like to have of the gales and Divine comforts of it while we are obeying and doing the Will of God that Spirit will usher in assistances and Heavenly consolations upon us to give us an experimental proof of that Promise That the Holy Spirit is given to them that obey him doth it look within the vail to the Rivers of pleasures and plenitudes of joy in Heaven where pious Souls see Truth in the
original and drink good at the Fountain head Nothing is more obvious than this that an holy Life is the true way thither who can rationally think that he can carry the blots and turpitudes of an impure Life into such a place or that any thing less than sincere Obedience can make him meet to enjoy God and holy Angels there nothing can be more vain than such an imagination as sure as Heaven is Heaven an holy Life must be the way thither Thus we see what a mighty influence Faith hath into Holiness hence Ignatius saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Faith is the beginning of Life Epist ad Ephes without Faith a Man cannot live an holy Life And St. Austin calls Faith Omnium Bonorum Fundamentum De Fide ad Petr. Proli The Foundation of all good things So good a thing as an holy Life cannot stand without it A Fide saith another venitur ad bona opera Unless we begin at Faith we shall never come to an holy Life To conclude this with that of the Apostle Without Faith it is impossible to please God Hebr. 11.6 Therefore without Faith it is impossible to lead an holy Life which is very acceptable to him The next thing is An holy Life issues out of Divine Love without this neither Heart nor Life can be right not the Heart the Will without Divine Love in it is tota cupiditas all concupiscence pouring out it self to every vanity that passes by not the Life whatever good is done without that Love is done servilitèr non liberalitèr whate ever is in the hand it is not done out of choice in animo non facit his Will concurres not as it ought in God's account it is as if it were not done at all Love is the root of an holy Life the summary of the Law though the Precepts of the Law are many in diversitate operis in the diversity of the Work yet they are but one in radice Charitatis in the root of Charity True Love is Donum amantis in amatum the Soul being drawn and called out of it self by the object loved yields and surrenders up it self thereunto if thus we love God there must needs be an holy Life the Heart when given up and consecrated unto him cannot chuse but carry the Life with it It would be a prodigy in Nature if the Heart should go one way and the Life another True Love sets a great price upon its object and if the object be as God is supreme it rates it above all things if we set the highest estimate upon God's Will and Glory nothing can divert us from an holy Life which complies with his Will and promotes his Glory it is irrational to neglect that which we value above all other things True Love seeks more and more Union with God to be one Spirit with him to have idem velle idem nolle to love as he loves that is Holiness to hate as he hates that is Sin It aspires after a further transformation into the Divine Image and likeness it never thinks the Soul like enough or near enough to him where it is thus there an holy Life cannot be wanting the Heart being assimilated to God the Life must needs answer the Heart and shine with the rays of the Divine Image which is there True Love desires to have a complacential rest and delight in God it flies to him like Noah's Dove to the Ark there to repose it self what weight is in a Body that Love is in the Soul Amor meus Pondus meum Aust weight makes the Body move towards its center Love makes the Soul tend by an holy Life to center in God the Supreme goodness leaving all other things as the Woman of Samaria did her Pitcher It hastens in a way of Obedience to enjoy him Thus we see how an holy Life issues out of a Regenerate Heart and particularly out of Faith and Love the Doctrine of it is not to be slubbered over as if it did meerly consist in external Actions or Moralities But we must search and see Whether there be a new Creature a Work of Regeneration at the bottom of it Job being by his Friends charged as an hypocrite tells them That the root of the matter was found in him Job 19.28 He was not a Man of leaves and outward appearances only but the root of true Piety was in him without this all good actions how specious soever are but like the Apples of Sodom which though fair to the Eye upon a touch fall into ashes and smoak Thirdly An holy Life proceeds out of a pure Intention Bonum opus Intentio facit Intentionem Fides dirigit saith St. Austin * In Psal 31. The Intention makes the Work good and Faith directs the Intention This is the single Eye mentioned by our Saviour If thine Eye be single thy whole Body shall be full of light If thine Eye be evil thy whole Body shall be full of darkness Matth. 6.22 23. A pure Intention casts a Spiritual Light and Lustre upon the Body of our good Works but that being wanting the whole Body of our Works is dead and dark like a carcass void of all Beauty and Excellency Let thine Eyes look right on saith the Wiseman Prov. 4.25 That is Have a pure Intention to the Will and Glory of God This is one thing in the Church which ravishes the Heart of Christ Thou hast ravished my Heart with one of thine Eyes with one chain of thy Neck Cant. 4.9 The first thing which excordiated Christ and took away his Heart was the One the single Eye and then the Chain of Obedience ravished him also without a pure intention a Man in his fairest Actions squints and looks awry by a tacit blasphemy he makes as if there were something more excellent than the Will and Glory of God for him to look unto and when Man squints God looks off and will have none of his Obedience Israel is an empty Vine he bringeth forth fruit to himself Hos 10.1 Fruit and yet empty is a seeming contradiction but the words reconcile themselves He bringeth forth to himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he weighs out his Fruit to himself he proportions his Religion to himself all being for himself God accepts it not but esteems it as nothing at all such Fruit and meer emptiness are much one before God He tells them Levit. 26.27 That they did walk with him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in accidente at all adventures when they chanced to light upon him by the by and besides their intention quasi aliud agentes as if the Service of God were a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a business only by the by but would God accept them or take it well at their hands No he will walk with them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too by chance at all adventures his Blessings shall come upon them as it were per accidens his Mind is not towards them as it
Works the center and compass of all is himself only and upon that account those Works are not good in the Eyes of God But when a Saint doeth good Works they fall into God's Bosom and center in his Glory To conclude Where pure Love adheres to God as the Supream Good there a pure Intention will dedicate the Life to his Glory as the ultimate End then and not before may we call the Life holy Fourthly An holy Life is humble and dependant upon the influences of God's Spirit and Grace Hence the Apostle bids us Work out our Salvation with fear and trembling Phil. 2.12 That is with all humility And the Reason is added For God worketh to will and to do of his good pleasure vers 13. which would be no Reason at all if we could stand upon our own bottom and work out our Salvation without any dependance upon that Grace which worketh the Will and the Deed But if as the reason tells us God works the Will and the deed of his good pleasure then we have all the reason in the World to work it out with fear and trembling as knowing our dependance upon God and his Grace Again The Apostle saith of himself I laboured more abundantly than they all yet not I but the Grace of God which was with me 1 Cor. 15.10 Observe his great caution he ascribes nothing to himself but all to Grace He said indeed I laboured yet he piouslly retracts it saying yet not I but the Grace of God He ascribes all to Grace because in all his labours he was in an humble dependance upon it as being that without which he could do nothing This note of an holy Life doth also shew that the Moral Vertues of the Heathens were not right they were indeed wise sober just merciful but what was their posture in their doing these things how did they crow and reflect upon themselves and cry up their own Reason and Will as the only Fountains of Vertue The Philosopher saith Epictetus expects all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from himself Ench. c. 17. Deorum immortalium munus est quod vivimus Philosophiae quod benè vivimus Epist 90. Our Life is from the Gods but which is greater than Life our Vertue is from Philosophy Thus Seneca their Virtuoso could vie perfection with God himself Epist 48. Hoc est quod Philosophia mihi promittit ut me parem Deo faciat saith Seneca Philosophy was to make him equal to God Nay there is a strain higher Epist 53. Est aliquid quo Sapiens antecedet Deum ille Naturae beneficio non suo sapiens est saith he There is something wherein a wise Man hath the precedence of God God is God by Nature but the wise Man is so by his Reason and Will They scorned that Vertue should be Res beneficiaria a thing precarious or dependant upon the Grace of God they would have it to be meerly and entirely their own De Natura Deor. Virtutem nemo unquà m acceptam Deo retulit nimirùm rectè propter virtutem jure laudamur in virtute rectè gloriamur quod non contingeret si id donum à Deo non à nobis haberemus thus Cicero No Man ever thank't God for being vertuous for Vertue we are justly praised in Vertue we rightly glory which we could not do if it were from God and not from our selves And may we call this Holiness No surely it 's horrible Impiety and desperate Pride for them thus to lift up themselves and dethrone God the great Donor The Angels by reflecting on their own excellencies in a thought were turned into Devils And I confidently say it Vertues which by a proud reflex are turned back upon themselves lose their Nature being altogether independant upon God the Fountain of goodness they are no longer Vertues but Fancies and Nullities A proud Self-subsister is a Man in a posture as cross to the Gospel as possibly can be the tumor in his Heart makes him uncapable of that Grace which is given to the humble the Self-sufficiency there makes it impossible for him to live by Faith as the Just do he depends not on God's Grace and how can he live to his Glory he is all to himself and what can God be to him Praef. in Psal 31. Some Pagans saith St. Austin would not be Christians quià sufficiunt sibi de bonâ vitâ suâ because they could live well of themselves If a Man can stand upon his own bottom and work out of his own stock to what purpose are Christ and Grace if he may be a Principle and End to himself what need he go out of his own Circle Such a Man as this is an Idol to himself fraught with Vanity and horrible Presumption but utterly void of God and an holy Life I shall say no more to this An holy Life is a Life of dependance the Just or holy Man lives by Faith he looks to God and is saved he waits till Mercy come he commits himself to God and his Grace he leans and rolls upon him as not bearing up his own weight he casts his burden on him as being too much for himself He gives himself to the Lord resigning up all his property in himself that God may be all in all still he is in dependance upon him He moves but under the First Mover he acts but under the great Agent when he sails towards Heaven he looks for the holy gales when he sows precious Seed he waits for the Heavenly dews and Sun-beams Still he depends upon Grace In the 119. Psal where we have the breathings of Vital Religion David admirably sets forth how in all his holy actings he did depend upon God Thou hast commanded us to keep thy Precepts but O that my ways were directed to do so vers 4 5. I will keep thy Statutes but O forsake me not utterly vers 8. With my whole Heart have I sought thee but O let me not wander from thy Commandments vers 10. I will run the way of thy Commandments but do thou enlarge my Heart vers 32. I love thy Precepts but quicken me O Lord according to thy loving kindness vers 159. I have chosen thy Precepts O let thine Hand help me vers 173. We see here the true Picture of an holy Life It is working and depending it is Obedience and Influence in Conjunction The holy Man very well knows that the new Creature though it be in it self an excellent thing and more worth than the Soul it self is defectible and cannot stand alone or subsist without a Divine concourse it was breathed out from God and without his continual spirations to support it it will vanish into nothing should God tell him That he should stand alone and upon his own bottom he would though richly furnished with divine Graces fall into an Agony and be ready to sink into despair his Heart would immediately suggest to him that he might with
thing of vast import and consequence therefore he would do it with the greatest strength of intention and affection David like he calls upon his Soul and all that is within him to intend the thing in hand but because when he hath done his utmost there will yet be many failures and infirmities the holy Man looks up to Mercy for a Pardon and offers up all his Duties in and through Jesus Christ the great Mediator In the Old Testament the holy Man prayed thus Remember O my God and spare me Neh. 13.22 Enter not into judgment with thy Servant Psal 143.2 If thou Lord shouldest mark iniquities who shall stand Psal 130.3 The sense of their many imperfections made them fly to a Mercy-seat In the New Testament we are expresly directed To do all in the Name of the Lord Jesus Col. 3.17 To make our approaches to God in and through him Eph. 2.18 To offer up spiritual Sacrifices acceptable to God by him 1 Pet. 2.5 Every Duty must be tendred unto God in and through the Mediator therefore the holy Man doth not stand upon the Perfection of his Services but implore a Pardon of his Infirmities neither doth he tender his Services immediately unto God but he puts them into the hand of Christ that being perfumed and as it were glorified by his merits they might from thence ascend up before God and be graciously accepted by him Moreover because Ordinances are but Medium's and Chanels of Grace the Holy Man in the use of them lifts up his Eyes to God to have them filled with the Divine Spirit and Blessing a meer outward Sanctuary of Ordinances will not serve his turn he would see the Power and the Glory the goings of God in it He cannot live by Bread only not the Life of Nature by the Bread of Creatures only not the Life of Grace by the Bread of Ordinances only in both he waits for that word of Blessing which proceeds out of God's Mouth this is that which makes the Ordinance communicate Grace and Comfort to us When the Word is preached it is not enough to the holy Man to have the Sacred Truths outwardly proposed or to hear the voice of a Man teaching the same but his Heart and his Flesh cry out for the Living God Oh! that God would speak inwardly in words of Life and Power that deep and Divine impressions might be made upon the Heart to sanctify it by the Truth and to cast it more and more into the mould of the Divine Will Oh! that God would come and shine into the Heart that he would uncover the holy things and bring forth Evangelical Mysteries to the view that the Heart might be ravished in the sweet odours of Christ that the Promises might flow out as a Conduit of Celestial Wine and make the Soul taste some drops of the pure Rivers of pleasure which are above This is the desire and expectation of the holy Man in hearing in like manner in Prayer it is not enough to him to pour out words before God but he looks for the holy Spirit to help his Infirmities and breath upon his Devotions that as Christ pleads above by his Merits and Sweet-smelling Sacrifice so the Holy Spirit may plead in the Heart with sighs and groans that cannot be uttered being conscious to himself what a thing his Heart is how much coldness hardness straitness is yet remaining there he waits for the Spirit to be as fire from Heaven to inflame the Heart and make it ascend up unto God to melt it and make it open and expand towards Heaven to set it a running in Spiritual fluency and enlargements towards God The holy Man esteems all to be lost and to no purpose unless he can have some converse and communion with God in every ordinance his Heart and the Ordinance have both the same scope and tendency that there may be a Divine intercourse between God and him God draws and he runs Cant. 1.4 God saith Seek ye my Face And the Soul answers Thy Face Lord will I seek Psal 27.8 There are Divine Influences and Spirations on God's part and there are compliances and responses in the holy Heart in Prayer it burns and aspires after him who set it a fire by the communications of his Grace and Love in Praise it carries back the received Blessings and lays them down at the feet of the great Donor in the hearing of the Word it hath something or other to answer to every part it trembles at the threatning it leaps up and in triumphs of Faith embraces the Promise it complies with the pure Command in holy Love and Obedience without this Communion in which God and Man spiritually meet together the holy Man looks on Ordinances but as dry empty things void of Life and separate from their chief end but if the holy Spirit breath upon the Heart and that breath out it self to God if the Soul set it self to seek God's Face and that irradiate the Duty then the Ordinance is full of Life and reaches its end The holy Man then perceives that God is in it of a truth hence one as Bellarmine relates used to rise from Duty with these words Claudimini oculi mei claudimini nihil enim pulchrius jà m videbitis Be shut O my Eyes be shut for I shall never behold a fairer object than God's Face which I have now beheld Take him in Alms and Charity he is holy there he knows that he was born nay and by a Divine Generation born again that he might do good It was a notable Speech of the Philosoper The Beasts Plants Sun Stars were designed for some work or other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and what are you for When he thinks that he is a Man a rational Creature and which is more a new Creature and by Adoption one of the Seed Royal of Heaven he sees a necessity laid upon him to be fruitful in Charity and Good Works If he who hath a first and a second Birth who hath the good things of Nature and Grace do not do good who shall do it or where may it be expected The holy Man therefore sets himself to do good he doth not only do the outward work of Charity but he doth it readily and freely when an object of Charity meets him he doth not say Go and come again when he himself goes to the Mercy-seat he would not have God delay or turn him off after that manner Neither will he do so to his poor Brother not only the command of God but the taste that he hath of the Divine Grace make him ready and free in good Works his Good Works have not only a Body but there is a free Spirit in them and as the thing given supplies the Receiver's want so the manner of giving revives his Spirit The holy Man doth not only give Alms but he doth it out of Love and Compassion Beneficentiâ ex Benevolentiâ manare debet he doth good out of
praeter illum Deum as if there were none in all the World besides himself and God still his Eye is upon God what ever he doth he doth it heartily as unto the Lord and not unto Men Col. 3.23 The great end and center of his actions is God's Glory and under that he designs to do good to Men he would conferre aliquid in publicum casts in something into the common good of Mankind An Holy Magistrate hath the fear of God upon him he judges not for Man but for the Lord he judges righteous Judgment and that as the Rabbins say is a sure sign that the Shecinah the Divine Presence is with him in the judgment An Holy Minister carries with him an Vrim and Thummim Light in his Doctrine and Integrity in his Life He burns in zeal for God and Christ he melts in labours and compassions for the Souls of Men. His Motto is the same with that of Mr. Perkins Verbi Minister es hoc age In a word whatever the Calling be the Holy Man is active faithful bent for the Glory of God still he remembers that he is a Christian Religion hath an influence upon his Calling His particular Calling which is Vocatio ad munus to a course of Life is made subordinate to his general Calling which is Vocatio ad Faedus to the Faith and Obedience of the Gospel Thus wee see An Holy Man is like himself at every turn as occasion is one odour of Grace or other is still a breaking forth from him Seventhly In an Holy Life there is not only an exercise of Graces but in that Exercise a growth of them the Holy Man of a Plant comes to be a Tree of Righteousness of a Babe he comes to be a Man in Christ he goes from strength to strength his path is as the shining Light which shines more and more unto the perfect day Prov. 4.18 He travels on from Vertue to Vertue to meet the everlasting day He grows in every part of the New Creature till he come to Heaven where Grace is perfected in Glory His Knowledg grows by following on to know the Lord he comes to know more of him by doing of God's Will he comes to understand it better than ever he did the Eye is more open the Heart is more unvailed the Truth is more sealed to the Mind the Understanding is more quick in the Fear of the Lord the Taste and Savour of Divine things is higher than it was before he had at his first Conversion a spiritual Knowledg and Understanding but exercising himself to Godliness he comes by degrees to all Knowledg 1 Cor. 1.5 and to Riches of Vnderstanding Col. 2.2 Notions are enlarged and withal Heavenly things are known per gustum spiritualem by a Spiritual taste of them his Faith grows at first there was but contactus but upon the Exercise of Graces there comes to be complexus fidei the touch of Christ by Faith is advanced into an embrace the recumbency on his Blood and Righteousness is stronger the subjection to his Royal Scepter is more full than it was the reliance on Promises and compliance with Commands are both raised up to an higher pitch than they were before at last Adherence comes to be Assurance His Love grows there comes to be an higher estimate set upon God a closer union with him a greater complacence in him than there was before At last Love becomes a vehement flame Cant. 8.6 Flamma Dei the Flame of God which burns up the earthly Affections and aspires after the full fruition of God in the Holy Heavens Also his Obedience and Patience are upon the increase by much obeying the Intention becomes more pure the Will more free the Obedience more easy and abundant he doth not only do the Work of the Lord but he abounds in it he doth not only bring forth Fruit but much Fruit Joh. 15.8 By patient bearing of Afflictions the Art or Divine Mystery of suffering comes to be understood the Heart is yielded and resigned up to the Divine pleasure he would be what God would have him be he hath not only patience but all patience Col. 1.11 Patience hath not only a Work but a perfect Work Jam. 1.4 Thus in the Holy Man Grace is still a growing Further The Holy Man grows every way he grows inward by exercising himself to Godliness his Vital Principles become more strong his Supernatural Heat is increased his inner Man is strengthened more than ever it was before he hath a Divine vigor to overcome corruptions to repel temptations to live above earthly things to perform Heavenly duties and to endure sufferings He is strengthened in the inner Man Ephes 3.16 and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in all Power Col. 1.11 to do what is decorous to his spiritual Nature he grows outward he hath not only the fruits of Righteousness but he is filled with them Phil. 1.11 The influences of Grace and supplies of the Spirit make him to bring forth much fruit and that with great variety as occasion serves all the fruits of the Spirit Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness Temperance which the Apostle mentions Gal. 5.22 23. break forth from him in their spiritual Glory He is like the Tree planted by the Rivers of Waters Ps 1.3 which hath a fruit for every Season or like Joseph's Fruitful bough by a Well whose Branches run over the Wall Gen. 49.22 There is a redundance and exuberancy of Holy Fruits which shew that he hath a Divine Spirit a Well of living Water in him springing up into all Obedience and good Works He grows upward by conversing in holy things he is un-earthed and unselved he converses more than ever in Heaven the Glory of God is more precious to him his Intention towards it is more pure than it hath been he waits and longs to be in that Blessed Region where God is all in all Every Duty and Good Work looks up more directly than was usual to God the great Center and End of all things He grows downwards I mean in Humility by conversing with God he comes to have a greater Light than ever which discovers the Majesty and purity of God the rectitude and Holiness of the Law the infirmity and reliques of Corruption in the lapsed Nature of Man and this Discovery makes him very humble and vile in his own Eyes even his very lapses and falls serve occasionally to this growth De Corr. Grat. c. 9. Hence St. Austin treating on those words All things work together for good to them that love God Rom. 8. adds Etiam si deviant exorbitant hoc ipsum eis faciat proficere in bonum quia humiliores redeunt doctiores Experience tells him that he is nothing and Grace is all Morever the Holy Man never thinks that he hath Grace enough never saith I am perfect or I have attained Inceptio bonae vitae in quovis gradu sine desiderio
a strong Motive to Repentance enough if duly considered to set all men a weeping over their iniquities What did the Creator suffer Was the Lord of Glory crucified Was the blessed One made a Curse Did the Son of God very God so dear so great a person sweat bleed cry out and expire upon a tormenting Cross and all this to take away sin What a spectacle is this Who can look upon it with dry eyes or an unmelting heart When the Son of God was broken should our hearts be untouched May we spare our tears when he parted with his blood To look upon his wounds and not mourn over our sins can be no less than unnatural hardness Oh! what a thing is sin how horrible how infinite an evil that it could not be expiated at an easier rate than the blood of God himself What Plea can be made or colour given for so vile a thing that it should have a Being in the world or so much as a residence in an humane Thought Should that be indulged which cost Jesus Christ so dear or that go free which nailed him to the Cross Canst thou love that which stabbed him at the heart or live in that for which he dyed May that be light which pressed him into an agony and bloody-sweat or that sweet which put so much Gall and Vinegar into his Cup Canst thou bless thy self in that which made him a Curse or follow after that which made him cry out of forsaking Think and again think if thy blind eyes and hard heart will let thee what and how dreadful a thing it is for thee to go on in thine iniquities In so doing thou dost not meerly run upon the Authority and Soveraignty of the Almighty but upon the wounds and blood of thy dear Saviour impiously trampling them under thy impure feet and how grievous a thing is this If thou art fearless and stoppest not here what hope canst thou have It becomes thee to sit down and lament that hellish impetus in thy own heart which moves swiftly towards Hell without admitting any remora A few words from God gave check to Abimelech Gen. 20. And shall not the wounds and blood of thy dear Lord do as much to thee The sword of an Angel put a stop to Balaam in his perverse way Numb 22. And wilt thou go on who hast seen the sword of God drawn against the Man his fellow for thine iniquities If the groans of the Creatures all round about sounding in thine ears did not startle thee yet shouldest thou be deaf and sensless to the Sufferings of thy Saviour bleeding and dying upon a Cross in comparison of which the dashing down of a world is a poor nothing If the breaches of the Sacred Law dearer to God than Heaven and Earth do not move thee yet wilt thou not be moved when thou seest that amazing sight God for our sins bruising and breaking his Son his essential Image in our assumed Nature If thou dost not blush at the blots and turpitudes which sin hath made in thy own soul yet methinks it should deeply affect thee that the Son of God was made sin and a Curse for thee Should God let thee down to Hell and after some scorches from the fire unquenchable take thee up again wouldest thou yet go on in sin no surely and why wilt thou do it now after thou hast seen such a spectacle of Justice in the Lord Jesus as more than countervails the Sufferings of a world When a Temptation approaches How is it that thou seest not the price of blood writ upon it Which way dost thou forget the nails and bloody Cross of thy Redeemer Thou seest plainly that God is ae just a righteous One and for a full proof of it he hath written Justice in red Letters in the Passion of his own Son if thou run on in thy sins how which way canst thou escape God spared not his own Son standing in our room and will he spare thee in thy impenitent sinning Wrath fell very severely upon the Holy Innocent meek Lamb of God and will it pass over thee wallowing in thy filthy lusts and corruptions What did God exact so great a Satisfaction for sin that it might be allowed Did he vindicate his broken Law at so high a rate that it might be more broken and that with Impunity 'T is utterly impossible those Sufferings of Christ which did witness Gods hatred of Sin could not open a gap to it the Surety did not sweat pray bleed and dye under Wrath that the impenitent sinner might be spared O how profane and blasphemous is such a thought which makes the great Redeemer a Patron of iniquity He came to save us from our sins not in them to redeem from iniquity not to encourage it What then where is thy hope O impenitent sinner Is it in Gods Mercy As infinite as it is it will not let out a drop to the impenitent neither indeed can it do so unless which is impossible one Attribute can cross another Mercy can reproach Holiness or Justice Believe it Salvation it self cannot save thee in thy sins Is it in Christ and his Merits He is the Saviour of the Body but thou art out of it He is the Author of eternal Salvation to them that obey him but thou art a Rebel May Christ be divided Canst thou have a part in his Priestly office who art in Arms daily against his Kingly Shall the Promises comfort thee who castest off the Righteous Commands It cannot be What Concord hath Christ with Belial How ill-suited are an hard heart and a bleeding Saviour How canst thou trust in that Jesus whom thou despisest and crucifiest afresh by thy Rebellions or depend on his Merits when thou livest in enmity against his Divine Spirit and Life These are meer inconsistencies Thy case while thou art in thy sins is very forlorn and desperate God will be a consuming fire to thee thy self must be as dry stubble before him every lust will be a never-dying worm thy soul will furiously reflect upon it self for its prodigious folly abused Mercy will turn into fury Christ the great Saviour will doom thee to perdition fire and brimstone and an horrible tempest will be rained down upon thee and that for ever If then thou hast any fear of God or love to thy self cast away thy transgressions and return to him that thou mayest escape the Wrath to come and enjoy the pure beatitudes which are in Heaven CHAP. V. Chap. 5 Gods Love and Mercy manifested in that he stood not upon the old terms as he might and in giving his Son for us The Socinian objection That if God loved us he was not angry answered The earliness and freeness of Gods Love in giving his Son The greatness of the Gift The manner how he was given The persons for whom The evils removed and the good procured by it The excellent Evangelical terms built upon it These are easie and sure The
propitiatory Sacrifice to God Hereupon God makes a general Decree That all persevering believers shall be saved and because man cannot believe of himself God decrees media ad fidem means to beget Faith and as soon as men believe there is a particular Decree for their Salvation or a kind of incompleat Election such as rises and falls with their Faith and when they arrive at the full point of perseverance the Election becomes compleat and peremptory This is their Scheme here many things are observable Here 's a Mediator Decreed without respect to that Church which in Scripture is the choice mark aimed at in the work here 's a general Decree to save all persevering believers and in that instant no Decree of the media ad fidem the means to beget Faith here 's a strange imperfection attributed to God his Will in its eternal acts must be in succession and make its gradual progresses from a general Decree to a perticular and from an incompleat Election I tremble at the word to a compleat one and in its passage to that compleature it must all the way vary and turn about to every point as the fickle will of man doth that standing in Faith there is an Election that falling there is none and so toties quoties as often as it pleases man to shew himself variable the Election will be something or nothing as it happens This doth not indeed ascribe eyes and hands to God as the gross Anthropomorphites did but it assimulates him to the silly turnings and variations of the creature which cannot but be very unworthy of him Here is such a particular Election as is temporal and totally superfluous it is temporal for if it depend upon persevering faith as its condition then it must be suspended and not in act till that faith be in being It 's condition being temporal it cannot pre-exist or be eternal It is also totally superfluous there being a general Decree of saving all persevering believers once past every individual man who is a persevering believer must needs infallibly arrive at Heaven without any more ado and then to what purpose is such a particular Election Neither do I think that the Remonstrants would ever have offered such an insignificant thing to the world but that they were under a necessity to say somewhat to those many and famous expressions which are found in Scripture touching the election and predestination of persons which could not be satisfied with that general Law That whosoever believeth should be saved Here 's an election of persevering believers but in plain terms that is no election at all Election must be to something but this is to just nothing not to Faith and Holiness these are presupposed in the object and there can be no election to that which is presupposed before There is therefore no election to Grace at all No nor to Glory That persevering believers had a right unto by the general Decree of saving such as they are and there can be no election to that which they had an antecedent right unto Thus all the great expressions in Scripture touching Election vanish into nothing In Election God severs and differences one man from another in a way of choice but according to the Remonstrants he gives all in common And how can God elect without a severing or differencing act Or how can he do such an act who gives all in common It 's true God severs final believers to life and final unbelievers to death but here is no choice of persons some go to life but all if final believers should do so some go to death but all if final unbelievers should do so Here is no choice at all but a meer judicial act according to the Evangelical Law When a Judg according to Law acquits one as innocent and condemns another as guilty it is not an act of choice but of righteous judgment No more is it in God to adjudg believers to life and unbelievers to death But I shall say no more touching the first thing That there is an Election 2. Election is of meer Grace It hath no other cause but the Divine pleasure only We are predestinated according to the good pleasure of his will Eph. 1.5 To the praise of the glory of his grace v. 6. God loves his people because he loves them Deut. 7.8 He saith I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious Exod. 33.19 In which words we have will and grace doubled as the only reason of it self Election is the primum indebitum if that be not purely free in God Cons ad Pol. cap. 29. nothing can be so Iniquus est saith Seneca qui muneris sui arbitrium danti non reliquit He is unjust who leaves not a gift to the pleasure of the giver All souls and graces are Gods and he may dispose of them as he pleaseth If he chuse any to himself he chuses freely else it is no choice at all it is not as the Apostle calls it an election of Grace Election is not built upon foreseen works for then it would not be an election of Grace but of Works the elect would not be vessels of Mercy but of Merit neither is it founded upon foreseen faith and perseverance these are given by God not to all but to some not out of common Providence but out of the Decree of Election Hence the Apostle when he blesses God for the work of Faith in the Thessalonians elevates his praises up to Election the first fountain of Grace Knowing brethren beloved your election of God 1 Thes 1.4 And when he praises God for blessing the Ephesians with all spiritual blessings in Christ he sets down the eternal rule of dispensing them According as he hath chosen us Ephes 1.3 4. He doth not choose us according to our faith and perseverance but blesses us with these blessings according to Election he chuses us not because we are holy but that we should be such Doth God foresee any good in men when he willeth to them their first good Or Doth he foresee good in them before he wills it to them What need then of his purpose to give it Or how can he possibly be the Donor of it If he foresee it they will infallibly have it whether he Decree it or not they will have it without his gift which is impossible Faith therefore and perseverance do not presuppose Election but Election is the eternal spring of those graces Unless this be granted God doth but eligere eligentes chuse those that first chuse him Mans faith must be earlier than Gods Grace he chuses before he is chosen loves before he is loved of God And to assert this What is it but to lift up man above God Mans Will above the Sovereign Will of his Maker A vanity it is and a blasphemy against the fountain of Grace which the Saints bless and adore as the origine of all that good which is in them Gods electing
Creator that a finite good should run and do homage to an Infinite one nothing can be more absurd and inordinate than this That a Creature should be a center to it self or should be loved or enjoyed for it self or that God the most excellent Being should be made but a Medium or should be loved or used for some other thing This is practically to blaspheme and say God is not God there is something better than he to be loved and enjoyed for it self When the Angels would stay at home and frui seipsis enjoy themselves they became Devils and lost all their glory in a moment All things therefore must be referred unto God his Glory must be the supream End to this Angels fly with Eagles wings to this holy Men walk to this irrational Creatures by a secret Instinct are carried to this Devils Will they nill they must be drawn this is the great End of all things for a rational Creature not to aim at this is against Nature and Reason the want of this made an essential defect in the Moral Vertues of the Pagans here they fall short They did not in them aim at the glory of God This appears in divers things they at the best made Vertue but pretium sui the Reward of it self for the honesty which was in it But they looked no further to the glory of God as they ought they looked on themselves as the chief object of their Love and so this Love never ascended to God they boasted and gloried in their Vertues as meerly their own and never saw any center but themselves they did not therefore aim at the glory of God in them Hence St. Austin who pronounces them no true Vertues saith That true Vertues are to be discerned Contr. Jul. l. 4. non officiis sed finibus not by the Work it self but by the end and that their Vertues were good only in officio in the work done not in fine in a right end And that not only the Epicureans who would taste of Carnal Pleasures Aug. de Verb. Apost Serm. 13. But the Stoicks who would set up Right Reason did live after the Flesh their Vertues were referred to themselves and that was corrupt Flesh they were no longer Vertues but pieces of Pride and Presumption Virtutes saith the same Author De Civ Dei l. 19. c. 25. cum ad seipsas referuntur inflatae superbae sunt Vertues if referred to themselves are proud and blown up with their own excellency Julianus the Pelagian Aust contr Jul. l. 4. c. 3. was so far convinced of this that he said They were steriliter boni because they acted not for God their Vertues would do them no good in another World in all reason those Vertues which are not referred to God as the ultimate End cannot possibly have any thing of Holiness in them They cannot be holy without a consecration to God and that cannot be without a pure Intention towards his glory It is not therefore enough for an holy Life to have Moral Vertues but we must search our Hearts and see what our end is what forms are in Naturals that the end is in Morals As the Man thinketh so is he Prov. 23.7 Mens cujusque id est quisque The Man is as his Mind is and his Mind is as his End is though the End be extrinsecal to the Act in genere entis yet it is essential to it in genere moris the Act cannot be holy unless the end be so Hence the Apostle tells us That whatsoever we do all must be done to the Glory of God 1 Cor. 10.31 The Jewish Rabbins say the same That whatever we do must be done in Nomine Dei in the Name of God an Act not dedicated to that great End is cut off and separate from its center And upon that account it is not holy but common and profane no less a nullity in Spirituals than a Creature if cut off from God the Fountain of Being would be in Naturals Hence St. Austin tells us That which is good in officio may yet be sin in fine For Quicquid boni fit non propter hoc fit propter quod fieri debet etsi officio videtur bonum ipso non recto fine peccatum est Contra Jul. l. 4. c. 3. as the Schools speak Finis dat speciem in Moralibus Those Acts which are good in the matter of them may be utterly marred by perverse Intention It becomes us than to look to the scope of our Actions Our Saviour Christ the great Exemplar of Sanctity tells us That he sought not his own Glory but his Father's Joh. 8.50 compared with Joh. 7.18 He was Deus de Deo God of God the Eternal Greator yet as he was in formâ servi in the form of a Servant a Man in time he sought not his own Glory but his Father's We see here what is the Design of an holy Life it is that God may be glorified our Holiness should shine as a little Beam or Spark from the Holy one the drops and measures of Mercy in us should point out that infinite Ocean of Mercy which is in him We should by our Obedience tell the World that God is Supream and by our sincerity testifie that he is omniscient and present every where we should study how to serve the Interest of the Blessed God how to shew forth his Praise how to unfold his Glory in an holy righteous humble heavenly Conversation still there should be Oculus in metam a pure Intention at the Glory of God If we are by a pure Intention joyned to that great End then our Works will be spiritualized our Holiness will never see corruption there will be be a kind of Immortality in every good Action but if we are off from that great End our Holiness perishes or rather is none at all There is a worm at the Root one base low inferiour End or other putrifies the good Work and makes it moulder into nothing When the Woman in the Revelations was ready to be delivered the Dragon stood before her to devour her Child but it was caught up to God and his Throne A devout Papist glosses it thus Nerimb de Vit. Div. When we bring forth our good Works Satan stands before us to devour them by one false Intention or other and will certainly do it unless by a pure one they be caught up to God and his Glory Another expostulates thus Quid juvat bonorum operum prolem gignere eam per Intention is depravationem necare What profits it to beget a progeny of Good Works and to kill it by a depraved Intention A Man who wants a right Intention murders his best progeny The Church therefore tells us That all her fruits were laid up for Christ Cant. 7.13 Propter te Domine propter te is the holy Man's Motto all his good Works are by a pure Intention consecrated unto God When an Hypocrite doeth good