and secured in his blessed estate as the holy Angels are and the Saints shall be in glory What his happinesse should have been and when consummate if he had Persevered we do not certainly and distinctly know The hour of Temptation seems to have been the hour of Triall and it 's very Probable that if in that conflict he had proved stedfast and Victorious he and his might have been blessed for ever But Man being in honor abode not § III and being tempted sin'd and aspiring higher and seeking by doing that which God had forbidden to attain the higher pitch of glory was devesâ—ed of his Honour and depriv'd of his happy estate And here Divines take occasion to speak of sin in generall And though I might have entered upon this subject when I spake of the fall and condemnation of many of the Angels yet because the Scripture speaks most of the sin of man therefore I will follow their example and practise and 1. Speak of sin in generall 2. Of the particular Sin of Adam The generall nature of sin is disobedience to the just command of a Superiour and because disobedience is opposed to obedience therefore it will not be amisse to enquire a little into the nature of obedience Obedience is not of Physicall but morall and politicall consideration For it presupposeth an intelligent and free agent and the same subject to the Power and bound by the Laws of a Superiour for where there is no Superiour Power there can be no Law and where there is no Law there can be no obedience or disobedience Whether the immediate subject of obedience be acts or habits was formerly determined in some manner but here you must observe that intelligent and free acts inclinations habits especially Acts are the subject immediat and proper of obedience and the proper and first subject of it is the will and heart the acts whereof are intelligent and free and no other acts else This is the reason why God so much requires the heart and will not accept any the greatest offerings and services if performed without the heart To this obedience 't is necessarily required that the will freely subject it self to the power of the superiour and exactly conforme unto his will and command in all inclinations and motions so far as it is bound in which respect the will must be no will in it self In this particular whereof we speak the subject is man who is an intelligent and free agent The superiour is God according to the power acquired in Creation The rule of obedience is the Law both Positive and morall and his obedience is a conformity both in subjection and acting according to the will and command of God The Principal subject of this obedience as an adjunct and cause of it as an effect is the Will and heart of man which is the proper seat of Integrity and Perversnesse For other Acts are so far good or bad as they depend on the Will and are so called extrinseca dominatione and by Participating their qualification from the Will As it is in this particular obedience required of Adam at the first so it is in all the other acts of obedience performed to God Sin in generall is opposed to this obedience § IV and is a disobedience to the Laws of God not of Man or any other superiour in strict sense Otherwise in a large sense the Laws of men may be the lawes of God and their power his Power and it 's Gods law and will that they should obey their Laws and submit to their Power For as the Wisdome of God is the first rule so the will of God expressed in his law is the first binding law That sin is a disobedience unto a Law and the Law of God the Apostle informs us in these words Sin is the transgression or rather disobedience to the Law of God 1 John 3. 4. For so the Apostle is to be understood as appeares by the context This Sin is so unbeseeming that nature and place of men and Angels wherein God created them as nothing more and so staines them that when they see themselves they loath and abhor themselves so as they cannot endure to look upon themselves It 's the basest thing in the world and most pernicious unto him that is once guilty of it It 's a Deviation from the best rule of divine Wisdom and a disagreement with the most just and holy God It 's a contempt or at least a neglect of the eternall power of this glorious King It makes our own imaginations and the suggestions of the Devil our rules and our own lusts our Masters as though we were not subject unto God It deprives us of eternall light and is the perpetuall fuel of Hell-fire and the desert thereof is very dreadfull For these reasons God hates it forbids it threatens it gave both men and Angels at the first power against it and for it not repented of pardoned he casts both men and Angels out of his presence into utter darknesse and torments them with eternall fire Yet all Sinnes are not equall § V as the punishments deserved are some lesse some greater And here I might enlarge and discover the severall sorts the aggravations the Consequents of Sin in generall 1. For the kinds and distinctions they are many For we hold that some sins are against the Law some against the Gospel some against God some against man Some of omission some of Commission c. And these distinctions may be tolerable in some sense 2. The degrees and aggravations are very many and might be observed out of Scripture and reduced into method as is done by the Learned and most judicious Doctor Chappel in his Method of Preaching The Crucifying of Christ the Lord of glory was an heynous crime yet some who had an hand in it were ignorant For so our Saviour prayes Father forgive them for they know not what they do Luke 23. 34. Yet others did it maliciously and contrary to the clear light of their Conscience and concerning these the supreme Judge is sollicited and desired to add iniquity unto their iniquity Psal. 69. 27. And there is a sin against the Holy-Ghost which according to the rules of Gods eternall justice renders the partyes sinning incapable of remission Such is the Blaspemy against the Holy-Ghost Math. 12. 31. and the Apostacy of Christians having once received the knowledge of the truth Heb. 10. 26 27. Paul was a Blasphemer a Persecutour and injurious yet he sinned ignorantly and in unbelief and upon his repentance obtayned mercy 1 Tim. 1. 13 16. The knowing Servant neglects to do his Masters will so doth the ignorant Servant too yet the sin of the former is greater then the sin of the latter and their punishment must be commensurable to their sin Luke 12. 47 48. These places I observe to let you understand and put you in mind 1. That sin is not in the outward act properly and immediately for
mother of concord the harmony of the world Therefore let us love our neighbour him more then his and endeavour by all means to observe this Commandement Though I have delivered many things concerning this Law § IX before I entred upon the Exposition of the several Commandements and therefore might immediately proceed to the Ceremonials and Positives yet it will not be amiss to add some Observations unto the former And 1. Obedience to this Law pre-requires the knowledge of the excellency and power of the Law-giver the matter of the Law it â—elf the binding force of it and the measure of this Obligation 2. These things first known we must consider the Wisdom of the Law-giver who knowing the Nature of Man and his very inward frame and so much the more perfectly because He made us He chiefly in this looked at the Immortal Soul and in the Soul at the Heart and Will which is the Queen and hath an Imperial Power over the whole Man and is resident in the Throne of the Soul and in the Heart at Love which is the principal Act of the Heart and is called Pondus Animae the Poise of the Soul inclining and carrying it whither it pleaseth 3. This love He directs by this Law upon the right Objects and gives it a right measure in respect of every Object whether God or our selves or our Neighbour 4. When we consider the right Objects and the right measure of love required in this Law and how far we observe both we shall find our obedience either to be disobedience or to be far short of what is required 5. By this we easily understand that by the obedience to this Law no man living can be justifyed and that after the Fall of Man it was never given or renewed for that end for if it had it must needs have proved ineffectual and such as could never reach that end 6. Yet it was an excellent means to discover unto man his sin let him see his misery and the necessity of a Saviour And when we make use of it to that end we must not onely examine whether we be Worshippers of Images perjured persons Prophaners of the Sabbath disobedient to Superiours Murderers Adulterers Fornicators Thieves False-Witnesses but how our very Hearts stand affected and in what measure we love God and our Neighbours Whether our love be rightly qualifyed fully extended and intended And by this we shall easily find the best imperfect the most abominably corrupted and few sincere and all of us by Nature before we be in Christ to be base and cursed Caitiffs And till by the first and last Commandements we see the inward depravation and the deep stain of our Souls we cannot throughly be humbled noâ— sincerely penitent nor truly reformed nor vehemently and effectually desirous of Christ for pardon of sin past and grace of Sanctification for time to come 7. It 's an excellent Rule of Obedience yet except we have a special care in the first place to observe the first and last Commandements all our performances are greatly defective and no ways acceptable 8. Though Faith as fixed in Christ dying for our sins and rising again for our Justification and Repentance as a return to God Redeemer be not commanded in this Law as given to Adam innocent yet both Faith and Repentance in their general Nature abstracted from their proper and formal notions in the Gospel are required in this Law For Faith as an assent to God's infallible truth revealed or as a reliance on God for his Blessings and Happiness is commanded in the first Precept Repentance as it 's an hatred of sin and an obedience to God in general is required in all the Commandements But Faith as presupposing the Party believing a sinner and guilty and as fixed upon Christ saving from sinne and Repentance as a return to obedience after disobedience and an hatred of that sin which is in us they cannot any ways belong to this Law as given at first or so understood 8. When we fell in Adam we lost our power to believe and return to God again otherwise what need is there to be born again of the Spirit And why are Faith Hope and Charity Gifts of the Spirit merited by Christ and given freely of God Actual Faith in God-Redeemer by the Word made Flesh they never had and therefore could never lose it 9. This Faith considered in general is a Moral Duty required in the Moral Law otherwise it could have no aptitude to be a condition of Justifycation and Eternal Life 10. Yet we by this Faith could not obtain either Justifycation or Eternal Life except Christ had merited and God had promised and ordained and that freely that upon Faith both should follow and Faith as a Moral Duty or a part of inherent Righteousness is not that whereby we are justifyed but as fixed on Christ and uniting us unto him 11. This Faith as a practical assent to the Truths of the Gospel which reveal the love of God in Christ suffering for our sins is a most excellent principle of obedience and love in the highest degree as it 's a confidence in God saving us onely for Christ's sake it tends most effectually to God's Glory and empties man wholly of all power and merit in himself as a base and miserable Wretch CHAP. XVII Of Positive and Ceremoniall Laws ordained by God HItherto of the morall Laws of God § I as a rule of obedience The Ceremonials and Positives come next to be considered And I will first enquire into the nature of a Ceremoniall Law in generall and so proceed to the more particular handling them according to their severall differences and distinctions The generall nature of these is 1. That they are Laws of God have a binding force and that upon the conscience The speciall nature and difference of them whereby they are distinguished from morall Laws is 1. In the matter which in it self is neither good nor evil morally 2. They differ in this also that they are religions rites which are compounded of outward and inward visible and invisible corporeall or sensible and spirituall sacred hidden parts In respect of the invisible and spirituall part and as instituted by God They are called Sacred and Religious Rites and if Ceremonia come of the Hetruscan word Cerus Sanctus then in the same respect they are called Ceremoniall too They are called Positive that is Arbitrary because they principally depend upon the arbitrary institution and position of the Law-giver The outward part may be performed without any respect to the inward and so ignorant and wicked men may observe them Yet the performance of them is never acceptable without the moral qualification of the party performing them in obedience to the institution and also joyning the practise of Morall duties with them This is evident out of many places of Scripture where men are reproved 1. For performing them with impure hearts and polluted hands 2. For neglecting the
his bodily life were many For his body became mortal subject to weariness infirmities languishing hunger thirst diseases grievous pangs and torments and monstrous deformities and of it self by little and little mouldred into dust Besides He was exposed to nakednesse cold heat lightening thunderbolts stings of Serpents rage of wild beast unmercifull and cruel murderers treacheries assassinations exquisite tortures and many other accidents destructive of his life which was every moment and in every place in danger to be cut off from without Besides the principles of mortality were alwayes within his body And the danger was the greater because he had lost the Ministery Guardiance and direction of Angels and was deprived of the speciall care and providence of his Lord and maker the Heavens above him were made like iron or brasse and either denied their light and influence or powred down stormes and terrified him with fiery Meteors and strange prodigious Comets or apparitions The earth was cursed barâ—en or fruitfull in proâ—â—cing unprofitable Weeds ingendring Toads Serpents and Pestilent Vermine and other creatures to consume fruites And the best soyl refused to give him bread without sweat labour care and both Heaven and Earth did often threaten him with hunger thirst and so with famine If the Earth and Heaven too did favour him so that through Gods Blessing and his industry they both promised a plentiful harvest and return yet it was subject to many casualties before it could be reaped and inned as to blasting mildew peâ—iâ—ential ayr inundatious fire Locusts Caterpillars and several sorts of worms and devouring Creatures which threaten death to man and beast If the fruits of the earth were layd up in his barnes and store-houses yet they were in danger If his house was furnished and his treasuries stored with rich and precious goods yet he was in peril of thieves Oppressours plunderers by Land and his Merchandise by Sea of Pirats and merciles enemies Neither could the Liberty of his Person be secure because of imprisonment banishment captivity His credit and reputation could not be safe but he might suffer in this particular and be stayned by reproaches slanders his own imprudent or base carriage His publique peace and safety might be disturbed by seditions rebellions civil Wars and forreign invasions and his houses Lands goods possessed by Strangers or made desolate And he might suffer from enemies desertion of Friends treachery ill neighbours bad servants his parents bretheren sisters near kinred nay from his own children issuing out of his own Bowels He might be cursed in his Cattle in his Children in his Lands in all his designs By his sinâ—â—e provoked God armed Heaven Earth Ayr Sea and all Creatures againâ—â— him His spirituall Condition was much prejudiced by evil education bad example pernicious counsail ungodly company and many other wayes These penalties and many more are recorded in the Scriptures and in the great Volum of divine Providence and stored up in the treasures of Gods Almighty and severe Justice To make a more full enumeration of the miseries whereunto Man by his first sin and Gods just judgments is exposed and reduce them into a Method would take up a great Volum Of the Penalties to be endured after this life I will not now say any thing These Penalties 1. Are spiritual § V bodily temporal private publick personal social and all may be reduced to Privative which we call punishments of losse or Positive which we call punishments of Sense 2. There be many degrees of these punishments and the continuance of them might be for ever so far as man is capable for ever to suffer them 3. Though every son of Adam be subject to these yet God doth not inflict them all upon any son of Adam 4. These Punishments may be deserved by other sins Against the Law of nature which the Gentiles violated Against the Law of Moses which the Jews transgressed Against the Gospel which Christians violate And many of Gods own Children may justly suffer For all actuall sins are not merely from Originall Corruption though it be a cursed root of all kind of iniquity 5. These Penalties become unremoveable either by Negative or Positive Impenitency and Unbelief or by Apostacy 6. All these Punishments in Scripture are signified by one word DEATH For the Wages of Sin is DEATH CHAP. XV. Of Original Sin and the Derivation of it from Adam to his Posterity IT s to be known § I 1. What the Authors who write or speak of it mean by Original Sin 2. Whether it be properly a Sin 3. How it is derived from Adam to his Posterity 1. Some distinguish of Original Sin and inform us that its Originans aut Originatum By the first they understand the first sin of Adam and this onely Pighius defines to be Original Sin By the second they understand the want of Original Righteousness and the depravation of our Nature following thereupon And thus it is commonly taken So that in it we may consider two things 1. Not onely the want or absence but the privation of the Righteousness which God gave Adam in the day of his Creation So that it is a want of it in the subject where it should be and was at first Yet this privation may be understood actively or passively Actively and so it 's a taking away from one that had it or denying it to one who never actually received it In the first sense God took it from Adam In the latter sense he denies it to all his Posterity In what manner God is in this Act to be considered or what was the reason why he did thus I do not here inquire Passively considered it respects the Subject from whom it 's taken or to whom iâ—'â— denied Upon this deprivation follows a depravation in the Moral and Spiritual Qualities and of the Acts of the Party deprived And this Depravation is either Negative or Positive Negative as Ignorance Positive as Errour in the Understanding Negative as no affection to good Positive as inclination to evil in the Will This Depravation doth not destroy the Essence of man nor his qualities nor his Acts but the perfection and excellency of them all and doth necessarily presuppose the Being Qualities Acts as the Subject All this doth imply that this Rightâ—ousness being an excellent Quality doth much ennoble and perfect man and did depend both in fieri in facto as they speak upon a superiour and intelligent-supernatural-tree Agent who could give it continue it as also upon cause take it away And if once the Soul lost it upon demerit or any other ways it was made imperfect defective and base and the inclinations and motions were unworthy so noble a Creature and so much the more because a Superiour Spirit had power to delude and deceive the mind and incline the heart to evil This is the reason why so many are said to walk after the Prince of the power of Darkness that now worketh in the
Children of Disobedience But § II secondly Whether is this Corruption which in Scripture is called the Flesh Concupiscence Sin the Body of Sin c. properly a Sin That it is from sinne called sin and is a cause of sin is generally confessed But that it is a sin in proper senâ—e is denied absolutely by Pighius But he is singular and differs from his own Church which generally acknowledgeth it to be a sin but not in such as are baptized Because Baptism being a Sacrament of Remission and Regeneration takes away the nature of sin from it so that the formal part of sin is taken away but the material remaineth For so I understand them because they call that which remains Concupiscence and the Fuel of Sin This were something if Regeneration did always accompany or immediatly follow upon Baptism which cannot be proved or if it did so accompany and follow Baptism as to be perfect and make the soul perfectly righteous and holy which it doth not as experience in God's own Children teacheâ—â— us yet this Doctrine doth confess plainly that it was sin before the formal reason and nature of sin was taken away and by the same reason it will follow that so far as it is not taken away it is properly sin It is placed by many of them especially in the Sensitive Appetite but certainly it 's found in the Rational Appetite and the Will and must needs be morally evil and they confess that it must be resisted and subduâ—d Some Remonstrants and Corvinus amongst the rest deny it to be properly sin upon another account because though it be materially contrary unto the Law yet formally it is not so And why Because the Law forbids future ill acts not habits But yet this is not precisely true because the Law forbids to all such as are under a Law not onely the future evil acts but also dispositions and habits especially such as depend any ways on Acts. But to give a more perfect Resolve of this Question § III we must 1. Distinguish of Sin Habitual and Actual And Actual Sin it is not 2. We may consider it as it 's in us by Conception and Birth and a Naturall Habit if I may so speak or as improved and increased by many Actual Sins and so become an acquired vitious habit and thus in this latter sense Paul seems to take it Rom. 7. and elsewhere In this latter sense few will deny it to be sin and by the same reason it may be sin in the former sense 3. We may conceive of this Original Corruption and the want of Originall Righteousness as taken away or denied upon a former demerit and so it 's certainly a punishment or absolutely in it self as a quality disposition or habit inherent in us and so it 's not properly a punishment but a sin Yet it 's not so a sin in us as it was in Adam For Adam once had Original Righteousness entire we have not Adam lost it by the demerit of an actual sin but Infants have not actual sin for which it 's denied unto them It seems to be rather a punishment then a sin though both in them who never were perfectly and personally righteous especially in such as never had the use of reason It 's certain that God never allowed in Man or Angel any vitious quality or disposition contrary unto his Law But the reason why it is a sin in Adam's Posterity is singular as will appear in the Derivation of sin from Adam which is the next thing In the third place § IV this which we call Original Sin is derived from Adam to his Posterity with many evils besides And first we must prove that it is derived Secondly shew how it is derived from him to us 1. The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it is so seems to be evident from those words By one man sin entred into the world and by Sin Death and so Death passed over all men in that or as some turn it in whom all men have sinned Rom. 5. 12. And by those As in Adam all die so in Christ shall all be made alive 1 Cor. 15. 22. The meaning is not as some conceive that one man the first man Adam was the first that sinned and so by his Example sin entred into the World As though his Posterity were sinners onely by imitation But the plain and clear sense is that by the sin offence and disobedience of one man many yea all men were made sinners and so liable to death as appears by the words following This sin was his first sin in eating the forbidden fruit For his after-sins were personal and not derived to Posterity in that manner as the first sin was So that the person from whom sin was derived was one man even Adam the means whereby it was derived was sin one sin the first sin of that one man that first man The parties to whom it was derived were All men The thing that was derived by this one sin was Death the death of all This sin offence disobedience is opposed to the obedience of Christ unto Death the death of the Cross and the Death from this Sir is oppoâ—ed to that Eternal Life which Believers obtain by Jesus Christ. So that the sin of Adam is the sin of all and the guilt of Adam is the guilt of all But the great difficulty is § V How Adam's sin and guilt is transmitted and derived to all The ordinary determination is that it 's derived by Propagation It 's true that without natural propagation it 's not derived because without it we cannot Be or if we could have our Being without it yet we could not be his children and except we be his children we cannot be any subject capable so as to derive any thing from him Yet this natural propagation doth onely make us subjects of this derivation of sin and guilt from him Therefore this participation of sin guilt death from him is an Act of just Judgment This therefore presupposeth 1. That Adam was sinful and guilty 2. That we are descended from him as sinful by Natural Generation 3. That we are some ways one person with him either by Nature or Law or both and God did so account of us 4. That in Adam innocent God judgeth us innocent in him guilty us guilty And though we be descended immediatly from our next Parents yet we deâ—ive the sin and guilt from Adam immediatly though we have our Being from him mediately by intermediate Ancestours and Parents All men were one man in Adam and in none else We were in him by Nature and Law By Nature for he was the Root and all men the Branches and it was God's Will that all Mankind should descend from him By Law for as all Nations account the Parents and Children as one person in many things and Children part of their Parents so that Children and Parents make but one body So likewise God did account Adam and all Mankind
essential And that perfect and perpetual obedience should be that condition upon which perâ—ormed it was God's Will Eternal Life should follow and no ways else was accidental So likewise it was that the sin of one should be the sin of all and His Death their death For the Law might have been a Law without any such thing This Law may be considered § IV 1. As given to Adam and in him to all Mankind 2. As continued yet with several accidental and extrinsecal alterations in the Kingdom of God-Redeemer As it was given to Adam it 's of a two-fold consideration in respect 1. Of him as Innocent 2. Of him as Fallen Adam as Innocent received this Law and it was given unto him as righteous and holy by Creation and he was able to keep it And he was bound to perform it perfectly and perpetually together with other Positives And this perfect and perpetual obedience was the onely condition of life to him and his and one sin one committed made him and his liable to death After that Adam and in him all his had sinned it was a Law of Sin and Death unto them and if God had made it a standing Rule of Judgment in strict Justice man must needs have bâ—en condemned to Eternal Death and there was no hope or possibility of Eternal Life by this Law For suppose God had pardoned this first sin and yet continued this Law in force man could not have been saved by it For he lost the Spirit of Sanctification and if God had continued to say Do this and live because he could not do this he could not live Neither was there any Promise of a Saviour to expiate his sin nor of the Spirit to enable him to keep it nor of Pardon upon expiation made if he afterwards transgressed it After that God in passing Sentence upon the Devil had said § V that the Seed of the Woman should bruise the Serpents Head this Law continued but with a great alteration in respect of man A Redeemer who should satisfie God's Justice and merit God's favour unto man was promised his satisfaction accepted the Spirit restored pardon and eternal life promised Faith in the Redeemer made the condition of life the Law of the forbidden Fruit ceased the Law of Works as the condition of life and rule of judgment for punishments and rewards repealed And all this was done in great mercy by God as Supream and absolute Lord above his own Law which bound not Him the Soveraign but Man His Subject Thus much I observed when I spake of the Judgment which God passed upon the Authors of the first sin But how the Law-Moral continued you shall hear-anon The knowledge of this Law § VI as applyed to the Acts Dispositions Habits of men is commonâ—y called Conscience which is nothing else but the knowledge of a man's Acts Dispositions Habits as agreeable or disagreeable to this or other Laws of God This Knowledge in respect of acts future is the Law of God within him to bind him to obedience and restrain him from disobedience In respect of acts past it 's a Judge within himself or a Witness for or against him before the Tribunal of God This it is properly yet tropically in Scripture it 's several times taken in another sense according to the several adjuncts thereof For the practical judgment of man is sometimes more sometimes less perfect and great is his Ignorance and many his Errours both in matter of Law and of Fact and most of all in applying the Law unto the Fact or Fact unto the Law Sometimes it 's a false Witness and an unjust Judge and hence man's Security in greatest Guilt and Despair when there is hope of Mercy This Knowledge of this Law-Moral in Adam innocent was more perfect § VII in his Posterity more imperfect For the enlightening Spirit was taken from him it was not so purely diligently constantly taught neither was the outward Revelation thereof renewed to all Besides the erroneous Traditions without the Corruptions of man's Heart within with other vicious Habits together with God's just judgment had much impaired this Knowledge though not utterly razed it out For even the wicked Heathen who had not the Law written yet by Nature did something contained in the Law and were a Law unto themselves which did shew the Works of the Law of God written in their hearts Rom. 2. 13 14 15. Yet the knowledge of it was always preserved in the Church by constant Teaching and reiterated Revelations improving the Natural Light of Reason Yet some Positives and Ceremonials were always added and it was joyned to the Law of Faith God renewed the Doctrine of it more perfectly and in a more solemn manner unto Israel both by an audible Voice and by writing it in Tables of stone Moses and the Prophets Christ and His Apostles more fully and clearly explain it And by outward Teaching and inward Illumination God writes it by degrees in the hearts of His people The use of the Law may be considered § VIII 1. In respect of the Gentile 2. Of the Jew 3. Of the Church in general but especially Christian. In respect of the Gentiles who had other positive Laws and Customs either by Tradition or the invention of the Devil and wicked men this Moral-Law so far as it was left written in their hearts taught them their Duty to the onely true God and also unto Man For it was a Rule in matters of Religion and in matters of Justice unto them both as they were single persons and also associated in a Family or a Common-wealth It was the Rule of their Civil Government both in making Laws and in Judgment And according to the violation of this Law God judged single persons Families Nations and Kingdoms And the knowledge thereof which they had or might have had though imperfect did manifest in their own Conscience the justice of God's Judgments executed upon them And so much the more because by His patience long-suffering and bounty together with this law he sought to draw them to Repentance But they holding the truth of God in unrighteousness and continuing impenitent were inexcusable and justly delivered up unto a Reprobate mind as may appear Rom. 1. from ver 18. ad finem Chap. 2. from ver 1. to the 17th And they that disobeyed this clear light of Nature were justly punished by God with the ignorance of Jesus Christ and the want of the Laws and Promises of God-Redeemer It was of singular use to the Jew For § IX 1. It was added to the Promise made to Abraham four hundred and thirty years before 2. It was so revealed that it reduced all Moral Duties to a few Heads and digesteâ— those Heads into an exact and excellent Method and was given with a special application to that People 3. It was Supernaturally written in two Tables of Stone that it might be reserved in the Ark as a rare and lasting Monument from Heaven
do Christians though the seventh day of the Jewes was the last as Christians is the first of the week as our weeks are now reckoned And if any people in the world then surely Jewes and Christians had their warrant for the observation of holy times from Heaven What the Patriarchs from Adam to Moses did in this particular we cannot so clearly determin because the Scripture in this point is silent That God set a special Character upon the seventh day of creation is evident Gen. 2. 2. 3. Because having finished his glorious works in six dayes he rested the 7th and blessed and hallowed that day and so he did none of the rest Some take it for certain that God even then insâ—ituted the Sabbath and others do think it probable that God from the beginning required of man the 7th part of his time and the 10th part of his goods for his service and reserved both as a chief rent to be paid to him as chief Lord in acknowledgment of his supreme dominion If reason were consulted it could not deny but that these are due to God especially if he require them by a command If Scripture which is a rule above humane reason some think it might be demonstrated that God did command Man to gave both in all times Yet to give both is not moral but positive That is properly Moral which is intrinsecally good just necessary and such as directly and immediately makes a man better and that which is good in this manner cannot any wayes be performed by a wicked man or an hypocrite Yet the tenth of a mans goods and the 7th of his time may be given to God by a Cain by an hypocritical Pharisee tho with an heart rightly qualified they cannot be offered to God by such kind of persons whose very hearts are corrupt and depraved That which is just and holy in it self and renders a man acceptable to God is of universal and perpetual obligation from the beginning If any particular duty afterwards become such by vertue of Gods command though the matter of the duty and the thing commanded in it self be not intrinsecally just then that duty is not moral but positive and receives its morality ab extrinseco from Gods Command not from the nature of the thing In respect of this Morality not onely the Sabbath but the Sacraments and the precept concerning the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil may be said to be moral and so moral and ceremoniall Lawes which are really difâ—erent should be consounded Yet if any will call such commands Positively moral I will not wrangle about words Yet I must say that term Positively moral is not proper nor accurate As in Grammer there be words which derive their signification and in Logick arguments which receive the force of arguing from Primitive so even in this decalogue which we call the moral law there be Commandements which derive their morality from others and all from the first Yet this is the diâ—ference between such Commandements and others which are purely positive or ceremonial That these derivatives have a nearer connexion with pure morals and conduce more effectually to pure justice and holinesse then these positives do whose matter in it self is indifferent and no better The end of this Commandement § III in the third place is to preserve Religion and the Worship of God which without the observation of set and determinate times would soon decay and determine And we find that they who usually neglect Sabbaths and Sanctified Times are prophane and irreligious Wretches God knew this better then we do and therefore so strictly required the Sanctification of the Sabbath Persons who take liberty in their own Families to neglect the constant times of Prayer and serving their God in private and are left to their liberty â—or publick Worship in a short time prove little better then Heathens The end of the Sabbath to the Jew was constantly to worship God in remembrance of Creation and deliverance out of Aegypt Deut. 5. 15. and to distinguish them from the Heathen who had forsaken that God who created Heaven and Earth and worshipped Idols and their Sabbath tended and did conduce to these ends The Christian observes his Sabbath in remembrance of Christ's Resurrection and his Deliverance from Eternal Death thereby and consecrates himself in that day the more solemnly unto that God who hath not onely created but redeemed him And take away their Sabbath-Christian their Religion is not likely to continue long To enter upon the Commandment It 's Affirmative and includes a Negative § IV and in the same we have 1. The Commandement it self 2. The Explication of it The Commandement it self is brief and delivered in few words The Explication is large The words are these Remember the Sabbath-Day to keep it holy Exod. 20. 8. Keep the Sabbath-Day to sanctifie it Deut. 5. 12. Remember in the former place is explained in the latter by the word Keep which word according to the Hebrew Chaldee and the Versâ—on of the Septuagint sometimes signifies to have a special care to keep or observe a thing and the Arabick word Natar is of the same signification And the meaning of it is Have a care and take special heed to sanctifie the Sabbath For when we are forgetful of a thing we neglect it To remember a thing is sometimes to do it if it be a thing to be done as when God saith He will remember His Covenant it 's meant he will be careful to keep and perform it Gen. 9. 15. God had a special reason to prefix this word which signifies or imports special care and heed 1. Because Religion did so much depend upon the Sanctification of the Sabbath and man's Salvation upon Religion 2. I believe the Israelites in Aegypt had much neglected the Sabbath and Holy Times neither if they had been careful could they so well observe them because of their cruel Bondage 3. Some of these Israelites contrary to God's Command went out upon the Sabbath to gather Manna as though that had been an ordinary 〈◊〉 and God did signifie himself much herewith displeased Exod. 16. 26 27. 〈◊〉 hence no man can conclude an higher degree of Morality in this 〈◊〉 then in others For of the four first it 's least Moral Thus far it is 1. As it 's commanded by God 2. As requiring a special and more solemn performance of Moral Duties 3. As necessary for preservation of Religion amongst men The Sabbath-Day The word § V Remember take care and heeâ— is but general though a special Item yet here it 's specified by the Object The Sabbath-Day and the end the Sanctification of it For the thing to be remembred and so carefully observed was the Sanctification of that time The word Sabbath taken from the Hebrew Language and used in many Languages of the World signifies 1. By it self Rest. 2. Joyned with the word Day a time of Rest. 3. A certain determinate time
Circumincession the nearest Union that can be with any distinction in the World In the Natures § VI we must consider 1. The number 2. The union 3. The distinction of them The Natures are two 1. Divine 2. Humane The Divine is He was the Word The Humane as He was Flesh. For if He was that Word which was in the beginning with God and was God so that all things were created and upholden by Him He must needs be God as the Father is God yet not the Father yet one God with the Father If He be Flesh He must needs be Man As God and the Word He is Eternal as Flesh and Man He is not Eternal That Jesus Christ was Man and that such a man there was both Jews and Mahumetans confess Yet Orthodox Christians onely acknowledge him to be God and that according to the Scriptures which in these great Mysteries are the onely infallible Rule And in them we do not read that ever the Word assumed the Nature of any irrational Creature nor of any of the Intellectual but the Nature of Man For he took not on him the Angels or the Nature of Angels but he took on him the Seed of Abraham Heb. 2. 16 For the Children being partakers of flesh and bloud he also himself likewise took part of the same that through Death he might destroy him that had the power of Death that is the Devil For 1. He redeemed not Angels 2. He redeemed Men. 3. He redeemed them Onely 4. He redeemed them by Death 5. Because the Word as the Word could not dye therefore the Word was made Flesh that he might dye This seemed good unto the Divine Wisdom and this was determined in the secret Counsel of the Eternal Deity The Union of these two Natures is personal § VII The Person and one Nature was Divine The other Nature was Humane This Union was by assumption the Person assuming was the Word the Nature assumed was that of Man This Assumption was begun in Conception consummate in Birth As His Birth was both mean on Earth and glorious from Heaven so his Conception was wonderful For He was so conceived that He had a Mother and the same a Virgin in her Conception yet he had no immediate Father who begot him and because his Mother was descended from David and Abraham therefore in respect of his Humane Nature he was the Son of David the Son of Abraham according to Divine Prediction and Promise and the Seed of the Woman in a special manner Concerning this Conception we are informed That the Virgin Mary after she was espoused and before she and Joseph came together was found with child of the Holy Ghost and to satisfie him an Angel was sent from Heaven to signifie unto him that that which was conceived in her was of the Holy Ghost and that according to a Prophesie Behold a Virgin shall conceive Math. 1. 18 20 22. And we read in another Evangelist that an Angel answered to this Blessed Virgin demanding how she should conceive such a Son seeing she was a Virgin and knew no man That the Holy Ghost should come upon her and the power of the Highest should over-shadow her therefore that Holy Thing which should be born other should be called the Son of God Luke 1. 34 35. So that this Conception was singular extraordinary and supernatural and no ways to be paralleâ—d And there was a two-fold end why it pleased God to have him thus conceived 1. That he should be holy 2. That he should be called the Son of God And certainly these two things followed upon it 1. He was holy and so free from Original Corruption either as considered in it self or as a punishment for the first sin For this Originall Sin was prevented 1. By the Sanctification of the Spirit 2. By this extraordinary Propagation For two things concur to this Native Corruption 1. That the man be in Adam as sinning and so sentenced for sin 2. And also descend from him by naturall propagation But neither of these did agree to him For though he was the Son of Adam and the seed of the Woman yet he was not in Adam sinning nor the Son of Adam in that manner as all other men were 2. He was called the Son of God not onely because he was conceived in a divine manner by the Holy Ghost but also as the Word was the Son of God and had that relation to his Father so this Nature assumed being personally one with this Word must have the same relation to the father too This incarnation of the Word and Son of God is a great mystery That Jesus Christ is the Word and not only flesh and not onely the Word but the Word made flesh is plain and expresse Scripture But the manner of this union is unsearchable And we must simply believe what is plain that it is so not curiously enquire how it is for that 's above our capacity Aquinas contra Gentes endeavours to exemplify this by the union of the Soul and body As the body is the instrument of the Soul and supposeth an universall reason or intellect which assumes and unites it self to the nature of man so as to use it as a Proper instrument as the hand is to the body and by the same worketh divine works proper to God and that not sometimes transiently but after the manner of a constant and permanent Act. This is the Sum of his exemplification which as he confesseth is very imperfect and farr too short This assumption was an act ad extra and therefore both Father Word and Spirit must concur in it yet so that the Word did in a special manner assume and was the proper terme of this Act. And that word in which was life which life was the light of men in the Creation did assume possesse dwell in and act by the Soul and body of man so as to be a Fountaine of Life and Spiritual light to man for ever This Word § VIII so became and was made flesh as that he assumed not onely the body but the Soul of man even whole man and the same at first subject to frailtyes and infirmityes to violence and death yet without sin And this union was indissoluble for ever And many were the consequents of this union as 1. The communication of Idioms in predication So that because the Word which was God was flesh and word and flesh are one therefore what is true of the word may be affirmed of that flesh and that which was properly true of that flâ—sh might be truly affirmed of that Word which was God So that it may be truly said That the flesh and man did that which God did and God might be said to suffer that which the flesh did suffer and that by a Metonymy and such as no Rhetorick ever taught us 2. A neare relation between the Word and that flesh and such as is not to be found in all the world 3.
said to be the confirmation of Prayer CHAP. XIX Concerning the Laws of God as a Rule of Judgment in the Promises and Comminations HItherto of the Law of God Redeemer § I both Moral and Positive as it 's a Rule of Obedience in Precepts and Prohibitions It remains that we speak of it and consider it as a Rule of God's Judgment in Promises and Threatnings By Precepts God binds Man by Promises He binds Himself Before I proceed one thing formerly omitted is to be added That some Precepts of this Law are mixt and are partly Moral partly positive as Faith and Repentance considered in their general Nature as Duties to be performed to God are Moral For Faith whether it be assent unto the Truth of God's Word or a reliance upon Him promising any Reward or Benefit Repentance as it includes materially in it subjection to God as Supream Lord and Obedience unto His Commands are Duties of the Moral Law as Moral But as Faith assents unto the Truths of the Word concerning Jesus Christ and relies upon God's Promises in Christ and Repentance as it 's a Return unto God-Redeemer in Christ as atoned by his Bloud and so made propitious may be said to be positive as the Objects of both are positive and above the Law of Nature as those positives which are Ceremonial are below it But to return to the Law as a Rule of Judgment we must enquire into 1. The Nature of Promises and Threats in general 2. The Order of this part of Divine Laws 3. The particular Nature of these Promises and Threats in the Laws God-Redeemer 1. For the Nature of Promises and then of Threats The Object of the Promises is Bonum suturum For we cannot promise evil but good at least that which is conceived to be good neither can we properly be said to promise good past or present The act of a promise is a voluntary Obligation whereby the party promising doth bind himself unto another for to do or give some good unto the foresaid party All promises are voluntary otherwise they are not promises The effect of them in respect of the party promising is Obligation in respect of the party to whom the promise is made some kind of right unto the thing promised To threaten is to signifie to another that we intend to do him some hurt or evil The Object is 1. Evil For we cannot properly threaten good 2. It 's evil to come otherwise it 's actual hurt or punishment 3. It presupposeth some intention or resolution to do hurt or inflict evil 4. It signifies by words or other signs this intention as Promises 1. Presuppose some intention to do good 2. A signification of this intention or purpose I will not here spend time in the enumeration of the Accidents or Adjuncts of these Promises to shew how they are private or publike annexed to the Precepts of the Law or not absolute or conditional made by Superiours Inferiours Equals feigned or unfeigned the Promises of such as have power to make them and also strength to perform them or of such as have nor I also pass by the accidental distinctions of Threats which word some think comes of Terreo to terrifie There are Promises and Threats of Man and of God These are of God annexed to His Precepts and Prohibitions as a Rule of Man's Obedience And in this respect they differ from other Promises and Threats The Order of these § II in this Government of God-Redeemer is very evident For 1. They are referred to that part of Government which is concerning Laws 2. In Laws they follow that part which in Precepts and Prohibitions is a Rule of Obedience For as the Law considered as a Rule of Judgment presupposeth something before in it as a Rule of Obedience So these Promises relate unto the Precepts observed as the Threats consider them as violated This is the Order determined by God to manifest His Justice in His Retribution of Rewards and punishments and hereby He signifies that though He be much inclined to reward and do good yet He will judge onely the Obedient a fit Subject of His Bounty and Rewards They that are just and obey His Laws and they onely shall live and enjoy His Mercies And he never threatens as He never inflicts punishments but upon demerit of the Disobedient For He never punished any but such as violated just Laws neither did ever intend it or signifie His intention otherwise The particular and distinct Nature of these Promises § III and Threats is the third thing to be considered They agree with the Promises and Comminations of the Law of Works in Creation with the Law also given to Israel from God by Moses both in that they are Promises and Threats of God and also because they are annexed to the Precepts as a Rule of Obedience These likewise as well as those may be called Sanctions as added to the Precepts for to enforce the Obedience For the Promises are mighty Motives and powerfully perswade to the Observation as Threatnings restrain from the violation of the Precepts And both these were so much the more effectual because there is â—n inward principle in man whereby he naturally desires his own preservation â—nd happiness and abhors to think of his own destruction or misery But these are distinguished from other Promises and Threats even of God 1. Because the Author of them is God-Redeemer as Redeemer 2. The things promised are merited by Christ and so promised and given and to be expected of Free-grace 3. The tearms upon which the Promises are made is Faith in Christ and sincere obedience to God Redeemer 4. The parties who must receive the mercies promised are in themselves 1. Unjust and unworthy 2. Derive their power to perform the Conditions and Precepts of the Law from the Redeemer upon the merit of Christ having satisfied God's Justice whereas the Promises of the Law of Works presupposed man to have power to keep it given in Creation and required perfect and perpetual obedience by that power And if man once lost that power there was no promise in that Law of restoring it again or giving new power It 's said Do this and live Sin in the least and die And so it bound to perfect and perpetual performance or unto death as unavoidable by that Law for there was no promiâ—e of pardon The Law of Moses did strictly command universal and constant obedience for Cursed is he that continueth not saith the Law in all things written in that Book it promised no Spiritual Blessing no Spiritual power nor Spiritual pardon As for the Threats of this Law they make Offenders liable punishment yet they determine Eternal Death as unavoidable to none offending but to final Impenitents and Unbelievers And this was the Imperabundant goodness of 〈◊〉 â—hat whereas He had given Man his Being his Laws his power to keep the 〈…〉 and by his absolute power might have required man's Service without any reward