their Happiness as if themselves had done and suffered what Christ did Reader were these Men duly tender or honest when they pervert Words â—o plain and ascribe to me what is as directly contrary to my Words as yea and no. They say I affirmed what I do deny and that I denied the very thing I affirmed But the Turn could not be served without these Methods 3. The Ground of Jealousie I 'll give and judge you how just it is 1. I did affirm that Christ did bear the Punishment of our Sins yea and he bare the Guilt of our Sins which is that respect of Sin to the threatning of the Law whereby there is an Obligation to bear the Punishment of Sin But I denied that Sin it self as to its Filth and Fault was transacted on Christ and that Christ was made and accounted by the Father the very Transgressor the Adulterer and Blasphemer Gospel-Truth p. 10 11. Here 's my Crime for Mr. M. hath oft preached up the later 2. I affirm as thou seest of the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness but my Fault is that I deny that God accounts that we legally died and obeyed that we made Satisfaction to God though I grant that Christ died for us yea in our Place and stead 3. I have through the Goodness of God lived to declare in this Book enough to confute his Prophesie and his Opinion too though I think he should pray for a more calm and charitable Spirit before he prâ—tend to Predictions concerning his Brethren 4. Will he repent of his rigid censorious Slander For I 'll here declare that I assent to his own Words p. 18. By imputed I mean that it Christ's Righteousness is looked on by God as belonging to us in order to our being judicially dealt with according to the Merit thereof This I have oft affirmed but it 's far short of what elsewhere he strains it too 4 Charge The Son of God was united to an Embrio which is a Piece of ignorant Blasphemy Repl. My Words were Oh! For God-Man to be at any time unactive as an Embrio or Child in the Womb for him to be born of a Woman I said not that the Son of God was united to an Embrio unactive as an Embrio is another thing And I 'll â—â—ing him twice Ten to oppose his two Witnesses But had I said it where is the Blasphemy when the divine Nature I hope was united to Christ's dead Body in the Grave as all grant And very many say that the divine Nature was united to the Flesh before it was organized or animated of whom Turretin's Instit. Theol. p. 372. Etsi anima infundi non potuit in Corpus nisi jam organizatum c. Non sequiter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non potuisse carnem statim sibi unire cum Opus ejus non possit aut praesente aut absente anima sibi coarctari Pierson and Multitudes are Blasphemers with this bold Man But supposing that though the Virgin conceived by the Power of the Holy Ghost and went her usual Time and that Christ was like other Children and the Faetus had Matter and Nourishment ministred thereto by the Virgin who conceived by the Power of the Spirit Yet that the Divine Person was not united to the Flesh before it was animated But are not many Phisicians so ignorant as to judge the Soul is united to the Body unorganized and if so either the humane Nature of Christ had a separate Subsistence from the Divine Person which is false or the Divine Person assumed it when the Body was unorganized But it 's a Theme not fit for me to pursue who must confess my Ignorance therein in Comparison of Mr. M. who can tell us how the humane Nature of Christ leans on the God-head in the Son and hath the eternal Power of the Deity clasping about it and holding it in that Vnion p. 63. May not this seraphical yet very dull Author call what he please in this Point a Piece of ignorant Blasphemy whatever greater Divines or skilful Phisicans say to the contrary 5 Charge Because I would wash off all his Dirt at once I 'll give you one Charge out of his Book that he forgets in his Postscript though it hath been their best Tool viz. That I lick up Bellarmin's Vomit in my Exposition of Phil. 3.8 9. Repl. This is as true as the rest for when I expounded that Text I plainly affirmed thaâ— 1. We are justified by Christ's imputed Righteousness only 2. That all Holiness compared with winning Christ is to be esteemed as Dung 3. The best thing in us is vile compared with Christ's Righteousness And indeed if that Text speaks only of Justification and that the Apostle designes to oppose his own Righteousness to Christ's then his own and ours are as unfit as Dung to be found in 4. But I then judged and still do that the Apostle there designed to proclaim the Preferrableness of Christianity to Judaism and what was Pharasaical yea or self-invented And therefore as he enumerates all the Dignities of Judaism so he ascribes to Christ the whole Glory of his entire redeemed State shewing that not only his Justification but his Sanctification too came from and by Christ both which were of a diviner Nature as well as appointment than what he arrived to whiles he was a Stranger to Christ and therefore expected and pressed after a Perfection therein whiles he despised all Things Priviledges and Attainments which stood in Competition with Christ Yea was glad he had lost them all for Union with him a Perseverance in whom with higher Communications from him was the very main Aim of his Life and Endeavours I am sure this Sense best agrees with the Context and is far enough from Bellarmin's Sense neither want I Reasons sufficient to prove it had I room yea my Exposition of that Text is so far from militating against Justification by Christ's Righteousness that it proves it strongly 2. I come now to consider Mr. M's Defence of his own Errors He confines them to two Saying I kept Silence as to more When others read this Book they 'll see a greater Number though it seems he could not perceive them when he read my Notes and hath left out of his printed Sermons many obnoxious Passages yet he 'll meet with his Suretiship Righteousness the Debtor being as clear as the Surety P. 24. With his limiting so far Christ's Merit to his active Obedience p. 13. With his Position that all Graces of the Spirit are Effects of our being justified and not at all the Means thereof p. 32. That all our Obedience avails no more to our Justification than our worst Sins p. 71. Though he ascribes a Causality to Faith that the Crown of Glory is due to us in Justice p. 12. Even a remunerative Justice is exerted to us p. 15. c. But let us take what he thinks most concerns him the first whereof is that Christ's Incarnation was no
the Law which we had frustrated But this will not make him such a Surety in this broken Bond as shall make us legally accounted to do all and suffer and answer all and be as righteous as he that did it though it be in his very Righteousness that we are saved notwithstanding we have failed in all this For I ask when he put his Name in this broken Bond Sure not before it was broken then he was Surety before Again when he did put his Name did he do it to the same very purpose as we were originally bound viz. that we might live by our Innocency and Obedience as our Righteousness No it was to redeem us from the Effects of our own Disobedience Did he engage that we should do and suffer what would be a Price of our Redemption and Salvation No he was to do it himself in his own legal Person I say legal because the divine Dignity of his Person gave the legal yea supralegal Value in God's Account to what he did and suffered for one meer Man's doing and suffering what the meer Law injoined would not have satisfied for Millions and the broken Bond it self did not require a divine Person 's obeying any more than the whole Bond did though the Attainment of its Ends did so Again if Christ's Suretiship was so limited within this broken Bond than as he was bound to do and suffer no more than it required so neither he nor we are entitled by that Obedience to any more than this broken Bond at first covenanted to give Yea further Mr. M. faith P. 57. The elect were constituted at first under another Head and under another Covenant which had nothing in it of Christ and his Righteousness either to be brought in for them or to be applied to them Reply But if Christ's Righteousness be no higher than that Covenant did require before it was broken the Righteousness of perfect Adam had been as great as Christ's And if the unbroken Covenant was the same as the broken Bond How should the unbroken Covenant neither have nor require any Righteousness of Christs and yet the broken Bond measure and limit Christ's Righteousness and Sentence us legally Righteous for it But if as Mr. M. saith the Covenant with Adam and the Elect was another Covenant from the broken-Bond then we are not under the Covenant requiring what at first it injoyned and being federating Parties only in the first and subjected to Penalty only by it as it 's broken Here 's no Obedience-work for a Surety nor place for a proper Surety in bearing the Penalties But I have elsewhere enlarged and therefore conclude That such Confusion about the Suretiship should abate Mens regard to his Censures against such as will not own he himself knows not what and proveth none sees how 6. I find after all that this Equality of Righteousness between Christ and us is not so much from Legal Union or Judicial Imputation but from a Coalescence of Believers into one mystical Person with Christ by Vital Union Thus p. 55. Between our believing and our being justified there comes in our Coalescing into one mystical Person with Christ by this Vital Vnion and our having his Righteousness upon us unto the Iustification of Life and so our being justified is not the next or immediate effect of our Believing c. Here indeed if I understand what one person is he may well argue we are as Righteous as Christ for we are Christified with Christ not in Name or on Account of his undertaking or his being the Head of the Church as his mystical Body But as being one mystical Person opposed to a Legal Person than by pointing at any Believer you may avoid the danger of Ioh. 8.24 If you believe not that I am he you shall die in your sins Mr. M. may rise higher than that we are as Rightâ—â—us as Christ and say we are as Holy as Christ as Honorable as Christ as Wise as Christ and so interpret his proof 1 Cor. 1.30 Nay are we not assumed into a Personal Union with the Eternal Word as the Humane Nature of Christ is which I think is unavoidable unless Christ hath more Persons than one Besides his being a legal Person which he opposeth this mystical Person to And that he means something like this hear him p. 60. It 's called a Vital Vnion because in effecting it there is a Vital Touch as I may say between Christ and us and a clasping each on other Compare this with P. 63. The Humane Nature of Christ leans on the Godhead in the Son and hath the Eternal Power of the Deity clasping about it and holding it in that Vnion c. The Eternal Power of the Godhead in Christ and not so much the strength of any created Principle of Grace in us holding our Hearts unto him and causing them for ever to live upon him Can you find much difference though he pretend a Disproportion The Awfulness of the Subject restrains me from exposing this affected Cant which is the only Gospel with these Men because its Mystery i. e. unintelligible Nonsence fitted to a Rosocrucian or Behemist It is not enough that Christ is the Author of all in us and the Securer of all promised Good to us and that he condescended to confirm this and comfort our Souls by such gracious Instances of a Mystical Union as that between Vine and Branches Head and Members Husband and Wife yea that the same Spirit dwells in Christ and us each of which inform and assure to us the Blessing designed to be signified thereby but not whatever our Profane Fancies may wrest a Metaphor or force an Expression to Must Men strain it to one Person whereby Christ's Prerogatives and our Vile Defects are in common to Christ and us Is this to let Christ in all things have the Preheminence Col. 1. 18. The Scriptures needed not so many Metaphors to represent to us the several Benefits we have by Union with Christ This one would have served for all yea far exceeded all only that one Person would consist but with few of them nay with none Head and Members do not make one Person but one Body yea one Spirit in Christ and us doth not make one Person unless you 'll make the Holy Ghost to be an animating Soul to the Body and so be the chief constitive part of the whole Person What will a deluded vain Fancy expose Men to at last Exceptions against some more Passages in Mr. M's Book I Have been already engaged to hint at some yet among many obnoxious enough let 's consider some more of his Stamina 1. That God hath ordained Christ to do all with God for the Elect and that he shall be aâ—â— from God to them c. All I say that in this ruined Condition they need to bring them to that heighth of Happiness c. P. 56 58. Reply If he had meant only that Christ was to do all with God in
render us the Persons whom it so entitleth thereto And is this nothing though it be not the Righteousness for which we are Justified as legal Obedience was to be 7. He ventures too far in making the Crown of Glory and Justification to be Effects of Remunerative strict Iustice as to us which is untrue notwithstanding Christ's Righteousness is imputed to us P. 12 13 15. Among many other Expressions of this kind he saith It is the Constitution of God that all the Saving Good and Blessing which shall be given us shall be given not only by Free Grace but by the Hand of Justice Reply If he mean only that the Consideration upon which all Saving Good was granted is a Righteousness that answered strict Justice I grant it But to say which he seems fully to intend that the Righteousness of Christ is so impured to us as that Benefits are actually conferred on us in a way of Remunerative Justice as to us I deny and say it is a Thousand Fold worse than they whom he Condemns durst ever have a thought of I own also it 's a Reward of Justice to Christ that Believers should be Justified and Glorified But Justification and Glory are given of meer Grace to those Believers though in a Gospel way of Government They cannot plead Now Lord I have Christ's Righteousness on me I have a Claim to these as a Debt or Reward due to me from Remunerative Justice For though Christ give the Crown in his own Right and his Right to secure that Crown yet he reserves the Claim of Justice to his own Person and we must accept of all even at God's Hand of Gift Sinners shall not have the Saviour's Plea in themselves though he will plead it for their Good There is more Spiritual Pride in this kind of Talk than many imagine â—he Gift of God is Eternal Life even when he gives it and not only as to antecedent Causes we look for the Mercy of Christ to Eternal Life Iude 21. and it 's still for Christ's sake we must intreat and expect and not for our own nor for any thing as it 's ours whatever be the Effect of the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness on us 8. That which he calls telling a Story to us of the deep Counsels of the Wisdom and Grace of God how this Righteousness is upon us from its first and highest Original is in several things an unsafe Account and greatly to the Dishonour of Father Son and Spirit Some parts of it I have already considered I now shall briefly observe these things 1. He strikes at the Essential Glory of the Son of God 2. He describes the Fall of Man very Dishonourable to God 3. He much mistakes what is most properly the Glory of God 4. He leaves out Man's Acknowledgment of the Holy Spirit in the Work of Salvation 1. Mr. M. strikes at the Essential Glory of the Son of God Before I prove this I would premise 1. The Son of God as second Person in the Trinity is equal to the Father in Essence and Glory though he be of the Father as to the Mode and Manner of Subsistence Hence he hath the same Divine Perfections and Glory 2. Whatever is ascribed to Christ before he assumed the Humane Nature must be such as is consistent with his Divine Nature as the Son of God and proper thereto 3. Nothing is added to the Divine Nature as in Christ by its Union to the Humane Nature besides relation to that Humane Nature 4. The Person of the Son of God was compleat before he assumed the Humane Nature and therefore the Humane Nature is no Constitutive part of the Second Person but as Dr. Ameswell saith is only as an Adjunct If Mr. M. mean more it 's horridly Dangerous when he saith P. 8. The Humane Nature belongs to the Constitution of Christ's Person as he now is And looks the worse for his words P. 7. Christ's dwelling in our Nature is no part of the Punishment of Sin for then the Divine Nature only is punished and not the Humane at all nor the Person As if what terminated on one Nature only did not terminate on Christ's Person and by the same Rule the Acts confined to one Nature as their Principle are not the Acts of his Person unless they be the Acts of both Natures 5. Since the Incarnation we frequently meet with a Personal Communication of Properties what is proper to either of the two Natures is ascribed to Christ as God-Man as Christ died c. 6. Yet there is neither a Transfusion or Communication of the Properties of one Nature to the other nor must we ascribe to his Person any thing in any manner that would tend to the Confusion of the two Natures 7. All the Glory or Humiliation that can be justly ascribed to the Son of God as such cannot infer any Change in or Addition to him and must be confined to what is Manifestative and Relative His Glory may appear more but cannot be added to it may be obscured but it cannot be really diminished 8. Hence whatever Addition of real Glory or Afflictive Suffering belongs to Christ it is with respect to his Humane Nature This was only capable of Rewards of being Exalted of being Deferred of God's hiding his Face and Dying I shall now evidence that Mr. M. strikes at the Essential Glory of Christ as the Eternal Son of God 1. He makes Christ as the Eternal Son of God capable of an Addition to his real Glory as God P. 56. God the Father from Eternity begat his Son the Second Person in the Trinity and loving him with an infinite Love designed a special Revenue of Glory and Honour and Praise unto him as from all his Creatures in their Kind and Way so more eminently from and in a certain Number of Mankind c. The End and Vpshot and last Issue that all his Counsels about them comes to is this That they may be brought to the Acknowledgment of the Son of God c. P. 61. You see how the grand Original Design of God to bring in a Revenue of singular Honour and Praise and Glory to his Son Christ is brought about c. I shall presently repeat more Let 's consider 1. It 's plain he intends the Son of God as such It 's he as begotten from Eternity he as the Second Person in the Trinity it 's he as loved with an infinite Love yea from being so infinitely beloved as God's Eternal Son the Contrivance had its Rise The Design in the Vpshot is That he might be acknowledged to be that Son of God It cannot be meant that this Additional Glory might be designed for him as foreseen Mediator or as in Flesh for this Design is the first step and this Glory of the Son is the Original of all the Contrivance He was pursuant to this purpose made a Mediator and legal Head and he tells us to confirm this That for this end of bringing a
enjoyed before his Incarnation but a Glory and Riches granted as to his Humane Nature which fully commenced upon his Exaltation though eternally decreed And to both indeed there was a Title from the Union of the Human Nature to the Divine Person and also as a Reward of what was suffered and done in the Human Nature 3. The utmost Glory belonging to or received by Christ as acquired was of another kind than what belonged to him as God and which he enjoyed before the Incarnation The â—ne is dependant the other independant the one is Creature Glory though above Angels the other is increated essential and divine even the same with the Father's Obj. Did not Christ lay by his Divine Glory A. 1. He could no more part with it no nor with the Enjoyment of it than he could part with his Divine Essence 2. He voluntarily agree'd to have it vailed as to Manifestation for a time but in the least quitted not the Enjoyment of it as the Son of God 3. The sensible Communications of it and of the Divine Favour were a while much suspended from the Humane Nature But considered as the Son of God he always alike possessed and perceived the Divine Glory and Favour The Father could as well be displeased with himself as with his Son as he was God 4. Hence though what Christ did and suffered did entitle him to the restoring of the sensible Enjoyments of the Divine Favour to the Humane Nature yet there was no Place or room for acquiring a Right to any sencible Communications of Love Riches or Glory to him as Son of God For they were never suspended they were essential to him and to suppose an acquired Right were to make that Love and Glory dependant and bring them within a Creatures State whereas you may see Christ in his humbled State still when he speaks as the Son of God asserting his Title and Possession in Equality with the Father yea to be the fame Ioh. 16.15 Ioh. 5.18 19 26. Ioh. 1.18 Reader judge how he honoureth Christ I could tell him what Names the Ancient Church gave to such a Heresie but I better like that he gives to my Opinion causlesly the name of Blasphemy than that I should give so just a Cause though I met with a Man so â—ld as should hope it was only ignorant The Son of God as God capable of an addition of real Glory and be the Object of God's Frowns and Displeasure and capable of parting with the enjoyment of God's Favour and the Glory and Riches he had before he was Incarnate and that he could have an acquired Right to that Essential Glory and Love and Riches superadded to his natural Right thereto are such Positions as should make a Man to tremble how he ventures afterwards to meddle beyond his depth My concern for these things prevents my using the advantage Mr. M. gives me 2. He describeth the Fall of Man in a manner very dishonourable to God 1. He makes it a designed necessary means resolved on to bring to the Son of God that Revenue of Honour and Praise which the Father had before designed for him This is fully expressed by him in his Model of the eternal Decrees The 1. Step is the Design of that Revenue of Glory to the Son 2. Step is Christ's being to do all for the Elect with God for them c. 3. Is making a Man innocent 4. Is the Fall of Man 5. The double Union issuing in legal and mystical Persons 6. Faith is the Means of mystical Union 7. This Faith in its Nature is to rest on Christ for all P. 58 59 60. The thing I infer is that the Fall being the Fourth Step must needs be not a thing supposed to the Fathers Design of the Revenue of Glory to Christ by some mens acknowledging him to be the Son for that 's first in order resolved and then the Fall appointed not over-ruled as a necessary means thereto as that by which he was to obtain this Glory and without which he must have gone without it and been limited to the privilege of his Birth Therefore he tells us P. 58. The Fall of the Elect into a state of Sin and Death and Wrath may seem somewhat remote from the point in hand But it is not for hereby a Door is opened to the Son of God to step in and do all with God for them that in this ruined condition they need c. So that as Christ speaks of the blindness of him Ioh. 9.3 that it was that the works of God might be made manifest in him we may say this of the Fall of the Elect it was in the Counsel of God designed to this end that the depths of the riches the knowledge of God might be manifest in them and as Christ speaks of Lazarus his sickness and dying it was not to death c. So must we say of this falling of the Elect into a state of spiritual death in sin and trespasses it is not unto Death for ever but for the Glory of God that the Son of God might be Glorified in recovering them Repl. I am sure the Son of God did not need any such Glory he had been as happy and perfectly Glorious as now he is though Man had stood 2. It seems very unagreeable to the purity and goodness of God to design the breaking of his own Laws the destroying of the greatest part of mankind the defacing of his own Image the gratifying of the Devil in the sin and misery of Men such dishonour to his own Name c. and this as a necessary means to Glorifie his Son to Decree the permission of the Fall and so to over-rule it to good ends is another thing 4. By this Model it was as impossible for Man to have stood or for the moâ—â— of Mankind to have avoided Sin and Eternal Ruin as it was for Man to have hindred God to give to his Son that special Revenue of Glory as he designed for him which I think would be a greater ease to the damned than their Consciences will feel or the Pleadings of God with Men will import 5. It greatly abates that admiring and thankful regard to God and our Saviour which the Scriptures always direct us to For if Mr. M's Model be right it was Love to the Son of God that brought Men to need a Saviour and not Love to Sinners that enclined God to give his Son and the Son to give him-self to be a Saviour Ioh. 3.16 The utmost which this Model can rise to is that since God resolved for the Glory of his Son that all should fall into a state of Sin and Death and Wrath that thereby some of them might be to his Glory they were ordained to be some of those which indeed is a mercy but not so greatly displaying of Divine Pity Love and Grace as the word represents it Therefore 6. to suppose Man foreseen as fallen and self-ruined and thereupon
Nature was taken as an obscuring Vail and in the manner of Assuming it that Vail was exceeding thick which will appear in these Things 1. Christ was conceived in a Woman's Womb there was he confined the usual time he was born he sâ—ent part of his time in the unactive state of Infancy and Childhood He was capable of growing in knowledge Luke 2.52 This points to the manner of his Incarnation and is there no concâ—alment of his Glory herein no laying it aside Oh for God-Man to be at any time unactive as an Embrio or Child in the Womb for him to be born of a Woman for him to pass through the Incapacities of Infancy and the like necessary Consequences of the manner of his Incarnation Sure here 's a Suspension of Glory Eve was formed in a way more Glorious Whereas the Apostle notes it of Christ that he was made of a woman made under the law Gal. 4.4 2. Christ in his very Incarnation assumed the Humane Nature when in a low State yea after the Fall and subject to many Effects of that Fall It was not a Glorious Body a Spiritual Body a Body cloathed with Immortality but a Body subject to Hunger Thirst Weariness yea Death it self The Apostle leaves a Remark on this 2 Cor. 5.16 Thô we have known Christ after the Flesh yet know we him so no more Further what a Vail was it that he assumed our Nature after Man had sinned after he was condemned and part of the Sentence executed Yea there was need of an extraordinary way of Generation to prevent the propagation of Guilt and Defilement to him our Lord was subject to Grief Fear Trouble Temptations from without c. and the same Infirmities as we fallen Men are Sin only excepted Heb. 4.15 And was all this no Humiliation his meer Incarnation was his assuming a Body in the frame and habit whereof these Infirmities had actual place and not a Body exempted from these He was in the likeness of sinful flesh Rom. 8.3 3. The Apostle includes Christ's Incarnation in his Inferiority below Angels Heb. 2.9 We see Iesus who was made a little lower than the Angels for the suffering of death c. Thô his Exaninition in assuming our Nature be not all yet it is a great part of his Minoration as taking a Nature below the Angelical Thô he could soon raise it above Angels when he had assumed it and finished his Work therein and hence some render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a little while But it 's plain that the Humane Nature in it self is below the Angelical and therefore in taking this lower Nature he was so far Humbled and went so far further from his Glory 2. Christ's receding from his Glory in taking our Nature in this state and after this manner in obedience to God and for the ends for which he assumed such a Body was truly a degree of Humiliation That Christ should become Man was one Article submitted to by him Heb. 10.5 It was a Debt Heb. 2.16 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He was Incarnate and that in the very described manner that he might be capable of enduring those full effects of Sin that he might tast Death for every Man be Tempted and the like Had not he assumed our Flesh he was not capable of enduring these yea had he not assumed our Nature in an humbled State and submitted to a Vail on his Glory the World would have been dazled with his Brightness above the Sun 's and none durst have blasphemed or assaulted him But our Lord was thus Incarnate his Humane Nature was in this humbled Condition and not in an exalted State when he assumed it and begun not to be humbled afterwards he laid by his Glory when he put on our Flesh in his Conception and therefore Iohn 17.5 he prays Glorifie me with that glory which I had with thee before the world began And the Apostle reckons it as a degree of his Humiliation Gal. 4.1 Made of a woman made under the law Yea I think it might be demonstrated that the Lord 's quitting the Display of his Divine Glory in his Conception Birth and the whole time of his Life was the greatest degree of his Humiliation And what can exclude his Incarnation especially in such a manner from being a part of Humiliation unless this following Objection for it was in a way of Obedience his Glory obscured and this to abasing Purposes Obj. How could the Divine Nature be humbled A. It was the Eternal Word or the Second Person that was humbled as far as his Incarnation obscured his Glory in the way above described 1. The Divine Nature essentially considered could neither be humbled nor exalted nothing can add to or take from it 2. Neither could the Divine Nature feel or resent Sufferings in the same manner as the Humane Nature it was not capable of Passion 3. Yet the Eternal Word was capable of laying aside his Manifestative Glory of subjecting himself to do so in obedience to the Father and persuant to his Covenant Undertaking and to make himself capable of drinking the whole of the Cup by being cloathed with such Flesh and that in a manner so obscuring of his Glory It 's more strange that this should be questioned by such who ascribe to Christ Acts properly Mediatorial before his Incarnation 3. R. Christ for his very Incarnation among other things received Authority as a Reward Iob. 5.27 He hath given him authority to execute judgment because he is the son of man If you say he was not capable of such a Gift but as the Son of Man even that argues a degree of Humiliation that the Person to whom all was due by virtue of his Divine Essence should assume another nature to be capable of this as a Gift But the words express his being the Son of Man to have a Causality 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Authority is a Reward for his Incarnation among other things And if this be rewarded it must come within the compass of his Humiliation for all Christ's Meritorious Acts come under the consideration of his being humbled and the Acts of his exalted State are not properly Meritorious I might add other Reasons as from the dependant State to which Christ became subject by assuming our Nature and from the way how the Glory of Christ's Person added to value the Sufferings of the Humane Nature c. But I think what is already offered is sufficient Obj. If Christ's Incarnation was a part of his Humiliation then he is in a state of Humiliation in Heaven A. 1. Christ's continuing in the Nature assumed when he hath exalted it may not be a part of his Humiliation and yet his assuming that Nature was a part of his Humiliation The Act of Assumption is one thing remaining United is another The Nature in a humble State as it was when he was Incarnate is one thing that Nature in a perfected glorious State as it is now in
Frailties and that because it was our Nature whom he was to Redeem and because it was in that State by our Sins which he had obliged himself to expiate Yea 5. Upon his being thus obliged Millions of Sinners were Pardoned and Saved before his Incarnation and therefore he stood charged with their Concerns so as to be obliged to Satisfie for their Sins and that in their Nature for out of their Nature would not serve Put these two last together and we shall come even with Mr. M's own good liking to our Point viz. That Humiliation doth properly predicate of the Incarnation strictly taken Yet I suspect it will hardly go down Why Because Mr. M. is so very fond of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Filth of Sin being on Christ that he cannot think Christ humbled sooner or longer than he can with some tolerable Decency call Christ the very Murtherer Adulterer Blasphemer c. which hath too frequently Preached and in his Book P. 14. he a little washeth by saying He put on the Sinners Garments and our Guilt our Sins were upon him Crispian Phrases which for some end or other he still likes to Consecrate With him the true Model is Christ must be as Unrighteous as Sinners that Sinners may be as Righteous as Christ and our Saviour cannot be humbled till he be a Sinner nor Sinners happy till they be Saviours Here is the Arcanum whatever be the Pretence 2. The next Term he dissecteth and strictly garbleth is Incarnation It is strictly his dwelling in Flesh comprehending under it both the Act of Assumption and the Relation or Vnion effected thereby between the Humane Nature so Assumed and the Person of the Son of God Reply If one should ask him How the dwelling in Flesh comprehends under it the Act of Assumption which is supposed to it as much as entring into an House is to a Man's abode in it I know not what Answer he will make unless that the Son of God repeats the Act of Assumption as long as he dwells therein by that which he calls The Divinity clasping the Humanity P. 63. If one should again demand Why he leaves out all that is proper to real Dwelling Since there might be Assumption and Relation though it had ceased the next Moment I judge he must answer Pardon my improper Speaking in making that the Principal Thing which nothing of what I speak saith any thing to But if he should answer by dwelling in Flesh I do intend Christ's still remaining in our Nature and only suppose to it the Act of Assumption and the Relation effected thereby I reply That this is the Grossest Fallacy for Christ's continuing in our Nature is remaining Incarnate and not formally Incarnation which is the Term in the Question And the Design of this Fallacy is to change the Question for the sake of an Argument that he greatly wants since the Question thereby would be Is the Son of God's continuing in our Nature a part of his Humiliation And is any so Foolish as to say That this is the same Question as was the Son of God's Incarnation a part of his Humiliation Where the Term Incarnation is the very Assuming our Flesh into Relation and Union and is so far from being comprehended in the Son of God's still dwelling in Flesh that it is supposed thereto yea as its Cause yea and doth not so much as connote it but as he assumed it to dwell in it for ever Such Juggling it seems is necessary But the main Enquiry I now come to viz. Whereby was the Act of Assumption How did the Son of God take our Flesh into Union to his Divine Person Was this in and by his Conception To this Mr. M. answers Mr. M. P. 74. Christ's Incarnation is one thing his Conception another by the one he became Man by the other he became the Son of Man The former implies only his Participation of the Nature the other together with the Nature the Manner and Way of his partaking it though in Christ they did Concur and Coexist Reply It seems then being Man and being the Son of Man differ and that so far as humbled and unhumbled But did not the Son of God become Man by becoming the Son of Man If so then he was humbled by becoming the Son of Man but again unhumbled by becoming Man He saith They Coexisted What as two Separate things No He tells you it's as a Thing and the Way and Manner of that Thing therewith But to the loss of his Fancy he will find that the Thing hath its being by what he calls the Way and Manner of that Thing for the Son of God's Incarnation was by his Conception as the Means and Cause of it and therefore if he was humbled by his Conception he was humbled by his Incarnation too for he became Incarnate by being Conceived He tells us They did Concur as well as Coexist in Christ What meaneth he Did Christ's being Man as by Incarnation concur to make him the Son of Man by Conception as his being the Son of Man by his Conception did concur to make him a Man or Incarnate i. e. He took Flesh as a Man that he might be Conceived as much as he took Flesh by being Conceived At last finding upon a long rolling in his Mind that if to be Conceived was to be Humbled the Son of God then must be Humbled by becoming Incarnate He leaves this Profane Cant and tries what he can make of granting There was an Abasement in the Manner of his Conception but not in his being Conceived But as I think he can never part them so I have elsewhere proved That his being Conceived is â—he greater Debasement and there was nothing in the Manner of it Debasing but as supposing the Thing it self was so Alas What is this or that Humane Circumstance compared with God's taking our Flesh And what are the Circumstances Mary though no Rich Woman was of David's Line a Free Woman and a Virgin Yet let 's hear his Reason since he seldom offers any The Humane Nature was really related to Mary as to its Cause for she Conceived him yet she was not a Cause either of his Incarnation or of his Humiliation Doth he intend that Mary was not the Cause of the Son of God's Will to be Incarnate and so Humbled But that is not the Point and none doubt it But I ask Was not Mary the Cause of the Humane Nature as it was Christ's Humane Nature And did not it become his Humane Nature as he was Conceived of her by the Efficiency of the Spirit Well therein and so far she was the Cause of his Incarnation And if she was not the Cause of his Humiliation Pray whence was the Abasement in the Manner of his Conception which Mr. M. just now affirmed I dare not pretend to seek out any least in naming the word Embrio he should call it a piece of Ignorant Blasphemy Mr. M. after all his
Superfine Distinctions of Christ's Assuming our Nature being another Thing than his Conception the Thing and the Manner of the Thing though that Manner was a Cause of it the Conception and the being Conceived being Self-conscious that he had offered no Arguments fit to Proselite any his Admirers not being able to understand them and such as could guess at what they did signifie being sure to despise if not abhor them he comes down to offer a Proposal from his own Choice For my own part I would chuse to refer Christ's Conception to the Things that made him allied in Blood to us and so fit to act as our Surety rather than to his actual performing the Work of Suretiship as antecedently standing in that Relation to us P. 75. Reply Designeth he by this to leave others to chuse for themselves without a Damning Sentence That 's unlike the Heighth and Heat of the Man But what can we make of this Jargon as connected with what past before Was not Eve allied in Blood to Adam though she was not Conceived a Daughter of Man or Woman And therefore Christ might have been allied without Conception Again was not Christ allied in Blood to us by his Incarnation which he saith is another thing than Christ's Conception It seems by our Author's words That his abstracted Incarnation was Christ's taking the Humane Nature or Flesh but not Specifically our Humane Nature or Flesh Or was his Assuming the Humane Nature as distinct from Conception an Assuming a Humane Soul not allied to our Souls as he is allied to us in Blood by Conception and he doth here confine it thereto Here we meet with another Distinction sufficient to argue him still a Designing Man but not a very Distinct or Discerning one Here 's a Humane Nature and yet not a Humane Nature allied to us a Humane Flesh and Blood and not a Flesh and Blood allied to ours By Christ's Incarnation he took a Humane Nature a Flesh and Blood not allied to us By Conception he became allied to us in Flesh and Blood and in Nature too unless he hath it in his Mind that Christ hath not a Humane Soul allied to ours Those words also are very uncertain Antecedently standing in that Relation to us Doth he mean that Christ was not related to Men as their Surety before his Incarnation How then were all the Saints Saved before his Coming Or is it that the Son of God did not perform any Suretiship-Act in Assuming our Nature or being Conceived If so then he had not undertaken to Assume our Nature before he took it though all that he did or suffered had it been possible would not have availed us unless so done and suffered in our very Nature And can you suppose he engaged not that as a Surety or Sponsor without which nothing had been Payment Or doth he intend that Christ wa◠not allied to us in Blood before his Conception It 's true and yet as true That he was allied to us in Blood by his very Incarnation as well and as soon as by his Conception Christ did not Assume a Humane Nature before nor otherwise than as he was by his Conception allied to us in Blood and Soul too At last we are gotten out of this Labyrinth made up of nothing but ripe blown Thistles His Authorities when examined avail him little I have but room to examine one yet he is at the Front of them Ames Medulla Cap. 20. P. 94. Humiliatio est qua subditus est justitiae Dei ad illa omnia perficienda c. The Humiliation of Christ as Mediator is that whereby he was subject to the Justice of God for finishing all those things which were required for Man's Redemption Phil. 2.8 Here he confineth Humiliation to one part viz. a subjection to Justice not Authority and this to finishing not beginning what was necessary to the Redemption of Man which by the Text he quotes refers to his Death or Passion on the Cross of which besure he was not capable as God But that he confined not all Christ's Humiliation to this which excludes his Incarnation is not evident for the next words are Humiliatio ista non fuit c. that Humiliation was not properly of the Divine Nature or Person considered in themselves but of the Mediator God-Man Therefore the Assumption of the Humane Nature simply and in it self considered non est Humiliationis hujus pace is not a part of this Humiliation That Humiliation and of this Humiliation do indicate that he had an Eye to somewhat else that might be called by this Name Humiliation at least it doth not prove that Christ's Incarnation was not a part of any Humiliation of the Son of God because it was not a part of this Humiliation Dr. Ames limits it to this part Mr. M. concludes against any other Our Author at last having bungled so at Demonstration he falls to suspicion-work which I confess his Talent renders him much more expert in as if thinking no Evil were no part of Charity or at least want of Charity were no Challenge to Faith But what hath his Jealous Head brought forth after so oft tumbling the word Conception Even this his own Doctrin of Imputation is lost if Christ's Incarnation be a part of his Humiliation Well it 's a point I never thought of before and it 's a comfort to me the Gospel Doctrin of Imputation will suffer nothing but be availed thereby I hope to find much more of Christ imputed to me as done for me than what I was personally obliged to do by the Law or was esteemed legally to perform though I own as well as Mr. M. that Christ died in my stead yea and so obeyed too as you 'll see in this Book But with him farewell all Christ's Obedience or Humiliation if we did not legally do and endure all the very same and if so he must take his leave of the greatest part of the price of Redemption viz. the value given to all Christ's Obedience by the Divine Nature for I hope the Law never required that in Man's Obedience And since he lays such stress on his point of the Incarnation being no part of Humiliation let us Appeal to Competent Judges Phil. 2.6 7 8. Christ Iesus who being in the form of God thought it no robbery to be equal with God but be emptied himself of his Glory taking on him the Form of a Servant being made in the Likness of Man And being found in Fashion as a Man he humbled himself and became obedient unto Death even the Death of the Cross. I have rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 emptied himself of his Glory and left out the two Copulatives which are not in the Original The main Matter is reducible to these 1. Is emptying himself of his Glory any Humiliation I answer it signifies more Humiliation than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is rendred humbled Vers. 8. The Word is as much as rendring all Glory
a way of Satisfaction Impetration Merit or Intercession it were true but as he words it it may be very Erronious and it is to Scrue an Error he doth thus express it Hence because he finds Repentance and Faith are so necessary to our Salvation he hath in his Pulpit endeavoured to inform Men how Christ repented and that he repented for us and though he doth not-publish it in this Sermon as he did elsewhere That Christ believed for us yet you 'll see presently how much he endeavours to convince us that he did so for if he believed whilst humbled it was for us and it 's imputed to us as he oft in this Book affirms Had I Mr. M's liberty what would I call this Error for though it 's in Christ's Strength and Grace that we Repent Believe turn to God and do good Works yet if we do not these as our Personal Acts Misery will be our Portion If you not I believe not you shall die in you Sins John 8. 24. Except you not I repent you shall all perish saith Christ Luke 13. 3. I say Except your Righteousness not mine exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees you shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Matt. 5.20 Had Mr. M. been an Auditor he had not said Lord thou understandest not the Gospel it 's thou art to do these things this is the deep Counsel of God however legally thou speakest He might as well say it 's thou Christ shall perish as thou Christ art to repent 2. Faith is a prime and principal part of our Being conformable to the Image of Christ c. He is the first Pattern and original Copy of Believing P. 62 63. Reply Is Christ's Faith the Pattern of Faith in Christ I remember somewhere Dr. Goodwin speaks of God's trusting Christ till he was Incarnate and of Christ's trusting the Father since the time of his Sufferings Yea we may easily grant that Christ believed God's Promise and as a Man depended and relied on God's Power and Truth But this is no other Faith than Adam in Innocency acted than the Law of Works directed to By this account we may think better of the State of Pagans than most do for without Gospel-Revelation they may believe in God trust him and depend on him But what is this to the account the Scripture gives of Faith in Christ Did Christ come to himself as a Saviour Did he receive himself as a Crucified Redeemer Did he eat his own Flesh and drink his own Blood for Eternal Life Did he plead his own Merits and rely on his own Righteousness for Pardon and restored Peace Did he consent to be married to himself Did he look to himself for Healing Or to use Mr. M's account of Faith in this very Page Did he go out of himself unto himself for all Yea take part of his Description of Faith in Christ p. 39 40.1 The Subject of Faith is the Heart of a convinced broken-hearted Sinner c. The very Nature of Faith and the acting of the Soul in it is such as doth imply and include a Sight and Sense of Sin and Misery and a lively heart-influencing Conviction of utter Helplesness in a Man's self and unworthiness to be helped by God c. Reader Doth Christ's Faith in the Nature of it imply a Sense of utter Helplesness and Unworthiness in himself or of his Sin and Misery The Reason he gives for Justling out such as Abram and setting up Christ for the original Copy of believing in himself is this The Humane Nature of Christ lives and subsists in the second Person leaning on the Eternal Deity of the Son of God it hath its Subsistence in the Bosom of the Godhead c. and hath the Eternal Power of the Deity clasping about it P. 63. The Apostle did not know this Faith when he said that Charity was greater than Faith Well as Sublime as this Reason seems to be I will venture to say This is not that Faith in Christ which the Gospel requires of Sinners 1. I will give you a Reason of Mr. M's which besure is none of the best P. 7. Christ's dwelling in our Nature is no part of the Punishment of Sin for then the Divine Nature only is punished and not the Humane at all nor the Person It 's a bad one for what he brings it since that Assuming the Nature and dwelling in it differ and I have answered it before and it needs a great Allowance to keep it from But if the Sufferings or Acts of only one Nature be not the Sufferings or the Acts of the Person of Christ then the acting of Faith of the one Nature on the other Nature is not acting of Faith upon the Person of Christ and consequently not Gospel-Faith which is to be acted on the Person of Christ here the Humane Nature believes but that is not with him Christ that believes it believes on the Divine Nature and that with him is not Christ who is believed on What now is become of Christ's Believing even by his own Reasoning 2. The Object of Faith in Christ is God-Man Mediator a Crucified Christ c. but the Deity of the Son of God abstractedly considered is not God-Man Mediator c. Truly if our Gospel-Faith is specified by this I see not the need of Christ's Incarnation or Death yea or regard thereto 3. This leaning and especially to the purposes assigned to this Act of Christ's Humane Nature is not all that which is Essential to the Faith in Christ which the Gospel requires But why should I Scribble the little Paper left It 's like the Reasons he gave for Christ's Repenting viz. The reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me and he was a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with Grief 3. He plainly discovers his Mind to be that Faith is an Act of the Soul whilst spiritually dead and unregenerate P. 61. He joins with such as say Faith is the means and way of our being made spiritually alive rather than our acting Life as being already brought into a state of Life as the Bodies Clasping hold on the Soul by the animal Spirits which are Corporeal things is rather the means of Life than an act of Life c. P. 62. Suppose that the principle of Grace begotten and created in us in Regeneration contain in it the Habit of Faith which I will not now call in question Yet c. P. 32. All our new Obedience and all the Graces of the Spirit comprized under that one word Love are the Effects and Fruits of our being justified P. 60. In Vnion by Faith which is the cause of this Union we are brought immediately into a state of Spiritual Life first Relative then Qualitative c. Repl. Here with the Arminians he denieth the habit of Faith necessary to the actings of Faith He is contrary to the Assembly of Divines who tell us That God in effectual Vocation takes away
not only to the Eternal Woe of one Offender but at least of all those Sinners who escape it Consider these and the like Things and see if the Law of Works which all Men were perfectly to Obey did injoyn all that Obedience which Christ was to yield as the condition of his Reward of which Manâ— Salvation is but part especially when it s a Reward adjusted by strict Governing Justice abating nothing of the Meriting Price thereof I mention these Things to let you see the danger of confining Christs Obedience to the idem of what the Law injoyned on Man or promised to him Alass we should be infinite Loosers thereby we could expect at best no moâ—e Happiness than what the Law of Works promised Nay I think a Pâ—â—demption of Sinners in a way of Justice would be more exceptionable than some Persons think who dare much because they see too little A Suretiship of Christs confined to what the Covenant of Works includes would be an uncomfortable Doctrine But the Obedience of Christ was not only super-equivalent to all that Man was to do by the Law but equal to all the Reward promised in the Covenant of Redemption The Dignity of his Person the Things he did and suffered and the Intenâ—ness of his Obedience His Unobligedness to do or suffer these but on the accoâ—â—t of Glorifying God by satisfying for Sin and opening a way for exerting Grace to Sinners with many more concur to Aggrandize his Obedience Of this more elsewhere Obj. Will not the Dignity of his Person let in all Happiness to us by a Suretiship in the meer Covenant of Works Ans. No but yeâ— I ask Where doth the Law of Works require this Dignity in the Person Obeying Or How can it put such a value on what it requir'd not And how can it impure that Dignity to us which it never exacted And if it could Where are many of those fore-mentioned Rewards promised in its Sanction and if they be not so included How can that Covenant conveyâ—â— Right to them God hath better contrived for his own Glory and for our Good for which we should for ever Praise and Adore him He hath taken the Essentials of the Law into the Covenant of Redemption and added these to other superadded Articles Promising Christ a Seed and their utmost Felicity as also Rewards to himself in the Humane Nature if he performed these Articles These Christ undertook and performed to a title And what Christ hereby acquired he is dispencing in a Gospel way of Grace and yet of Government and Blessed be his Name he is our Surety that we shall not violate the Terms of the Gospel Covenant and a Witness for God that we shall obtain the good promised in the said Covenant 8 Pro. Our Redeemer did fully vindicate the Glory of Governing Justice from the injury offered by Sin and caused his Government by his Obedience to appear venerable notwithstanding all the Forgiveness and Blessings which Grace should bestow in Christs Right upon any Sinners Forgiveness is a Mercy which the Devil foresaw not and besides according to Gods Methods with himself he could hardly suspect it possible because he knew God would nâ—â— reflect on his own Justice or Purity nor prostitute his Glory as a Governor nor hazard the ends of Government by Pardoning Delinquents He therefore tempted Man with confidence of his final Ruin if persuaded to Trangress A Satisfaction by an equivalent he understood not But infinite Wisdom Triumphed over Satans Wiles and spoiled his Glorying over his Captive Prey God â—â—â—ds a way of Forgiveness without Tempting any to offend the more and appeareth exactly just whilst yet he shews as much Pardoning Mercy as the Offendors needed yea makes Sin appear more Awful and his Government more Sacred by the Satisfaction on which he Pardoned than in the Punishment of all that had Transgressed Rom. 3.26 To declare at this time his Righteousness that he might be Iust and the Iustifier of him which believeth in Iesus In v. 25. The Apostle had affirmed That the Pardon of Sins committed before Christs coming was on the account of Christs Propitiation as well as of those since He adds That in the Propitiation whereby any Sins were remitted God appeared Righteous whilst he Pardoned though he justifies the Believer yet he appears Gloriously just in that Propitiation whereupon he justifies 9 Pro. The Lord Jesus thus Glorified God as he satisâ—ied and Merited by perfectly Obeying the Will of God and by the whole of his Humiliation especially in offering up himself an Atoning Sacrifice by Death upon the Cross. His Active and Passive Obedience concurred in the whole of Redemption 1. He perfectly Obeyed the Will of God Whatever was adjusted as his Duty he performed He made the Authority of the Law-giver manifest and exemplified the perfect Purity of the Law He was habitually Holy without defect and blemish and actively Obedient to the extent and spirituality of the Precept Heb. 7.26 He was Holy harmless and undefiled separate from Sinners He fulfilled all Righteousness Mat. 3.15 not refusing Obedience to the Institution Ministred by Iohn the Baptist He fulfilled the Moral Law yea observed the Ceremonial Law and filled up every Relation wherein he stood He not only did what we are to do but whatever act of Obedience was consistent with his Circumstances He pleaded no Exemption because of his Dignity nor waved any thing as too mean or difficult An accurate observance of the Divine Will ran as a constant Line through his whole Life according to the various opportunities presented to him And every Act of his Obedience was filled with that Love Zeal and Alacrity as might prescribe Instruction to the highest Angels and convince them how just meet good and excellent a thing the profoundest Obedience is when God in Flesh was thus Observant Thus he made the Law honourable and thereby the Lawgiver Is. 42.21 2. He was Humbled and suffered the utmost punishment which Justice required and God proposed for the expiation of Sin He was Incarnate and therein emptied himself Phil. 2.7 He was a Man of Sorrows as if they made up his Constitution and was acquainted with Grief even with the inwards of it as his Familiar Is. 53.3 He endured reproach so as to cry out they have broken my Heart Ps. 65.20 So low was he brought as to express his Estate by those Words I am a Worm and no Man Ps. 22.6 He was beholding to others for Necessaries Luc. 8.3 which seems felt by him in the commoness of that passage with him it s more Blessed to give than to receive Acts 20.35 He received Comfort by the Ministry of Angels Matt. 4.11 Luc. 22.43 How oft was he Blasphemed Mock'd by Men grieved by his Followers and deserted by his Friends His Blood was often shed at Circumcision when Stoned Whipp'd Crowned with Thorns Crucified and at last his Heart Blood let out Iohn 19.34 Oh! the direful Agony which so amazed him Forced
Clots of Blood and rendred him Sorrowful even to Death God hid his Face from him A Death in the manner of it accursed as well as shameful he tasted and endured He lay in the Grave for a time after he had thus wade◠through a Sea of Blood Shame and Terrour Alas Who can tell what he underwent whose Resentments of all must give them a weight beyond our conjecture One so Glorious to be thus Debased one so near to God to be thus Deserted c. How astonishing a sight was it to see Christ hang upon a Cross The purposes designed by it must be answerable to the wonder and so we shall acknowledge when we understand the Justice and Purity of God the Evil of Sin the Harmony of Divine Government the value of Pardon and Eternal Life the Honour of the Mediatour and the influence of his Obedience on Myriads of Angels At present we see the Pardon of Sin made consistent with Justice Our Lord endured that Punishment of Sin that God might be Glorious whilst the Believing Sinner escapes By this God declared the Righteousness of his Government whilst he Glorified his Grace in saving Transgressors Christs being Obedient even unto Death Honoured the Law above all that Men could perform in their best Condition yea sets it above Contempt when the Penitent is forgiven his greatest Enormities So that God as our Governor receives such Glory by Christs Subjection as it suffers nothing by the Impunity and Happiness of all who are saved Yea A Dying Christ is more fit to Awe every one against Rebellion and dispose to the exactest Obedience than any other Consideration For the further clearing of this Point I shall propose three Enquiries 1 Enq. Were Christ's Sufferings a part of the Obedience of Christ whereby we are made Righteous Ans. The Sufferings of Christ were a part of the Obedience of Christ whereby we are made Righteous No Precept could try his Obedience more than that he should make his Soul an Offering for Sin Herein he outdid the Loyalty of all Beings for the proof of this Point I shall give you some further Evidence that Christs Sufferings were a part of his Obedience 1. Whatever was endured by Christ was injoyn'd on him in a way of Authority upon supposition he would be Redeemer He agreed to be a Subject and Servant He learned whât Obedience was even by what he endured Heb. 5.8 and still acknowledged an Authority over him as Mediatour This Commandment I have received of the Father 's John 10.18 Not as I will but as thou wilt were his Words when the Human Nature hinted so much Reluctancy as expressed the Cup to be truly bitter Mat. 26.29 2. Christ's Sufferings were endured by him in a way of Obedience he obeyed in whatever he endured Isa. 50.5 6. The Lord God hath opened my Ear and I was not Rebellious I gave my Back to the Smiters c. Mat. 26.42 He shews the most Obediential regard Thy Will be done Phil. 2.8 He was Obedient unto Death The Law of Mediation injoin'd it his Will exerted its true consent even giving up the Ghost 3. The efficacy of Christ's Sufferings much depended on their being acts of Obedience had they been against his Will or had he Repented after he had first agreed Men had fail'd of Salvation Heb. 10.9.10 Lo I come to do thy Will O God By the which Will we are Sanctified through the Offering of the Body of Iesus Christ one for all The Will of God appointing and accepting this Atonement and the Will of Christ obeying and freely performing what was appointed are that we are Saved by The Obedient Heart of Christ in all gives a Power thereto Hence there 's a Stress laid on his Voluntariness in his Work He gave Himself Gal. 14. Tit. 2 14. And he offered Himself Heb. 7 27. He testified this in being the Priest that offered himself as well as the Sacrifice that was offered These being such amazing instances of Obedience tended much to glorify Gods Government how sacred is that Authority and how binding are its mandates ◠When the Son of God in Flesh will observe them even when they require such Sufferings to be endured and submitted to These are harder precepts than Angels or Men were ever called to obey and therefore how chearful should they be in observing such Commands as be less humbling and difficult especially when the Authority of Gods precepts are founded in his absolute Dominion over them But Christ could be under no Law till by his own consent he was willing to be a Subject I infer then that if Christs Sufferings were a part of his Obedience then we are made Righteous thereby or we are made Righteous by only some part of his Obedience which I suppose you 'l not affirm 2. Christ's Sufferings are a part of Christ's meriting Righteousness this will both prove that they are part of Christs Obedience and that we are made Righteous thereby Unless any should surmize we are made Righteous by some what of Christs besides his Obedience or that his meriting Righteousness doth not conduce to make us Righteous That Christs Suffering are apart of his Righteousness might be demonstrated many ways as First They were part of the condition whereupon Christ had a right to Mens Pardon and Salvation Isaiah 53.11 12. Second Christ pleads and interceeds in the virtue of his Sufferings 1 Iohn 2.1 2. Third We are justified by his Blood Rom. 5 9. Four They are meritorious of what blessings we receive but these things will be insisted on in the third Enquiry 2. Enquiry Was Christ's Incarnation a part of his Humiliation Ans. Christs Incarnation was a part of his Humiliation To argue this point with evidence I must mind you that the subject of this proposition must be taken as it naturally lieth I would think it of no use to you and in it self a vain question to ask had Christ assumed our Nature in another State than it is since the Fall or had Christ become incarnate in another manner than by being Conceived in the Womb of the Virgin Whether then his Incarnation had been a part of his Humiliation thô I know some Popish Schoolmen ungroundedly affirm that Christ would have taken our nature into union with him if Adam had not fallen and so there would not have been that place for his Humiliation yet I think not hard to prove that for the Eternal word to become Incarnate in any manner would have been a great Humiliation and there must have been somewhat that would have rendred it so or he would not have assumed our Nature But we have nothing to do with such Chimaeras Christ was Incarnate he hath assumed our Nature the Word of God tells us in what manner he assumed it and to what ends and in what State Therefore we must in our Question speak of Christs Incarnation as it was and not as it was not and which ever way it be decided every one must
confine his Conceptions according as the Subject in the Question is Stated unless they will deceive others and themselves I shall offer these Reasons to prove that Christs incarnation was a partt of his Humiliation 1 R. The Word of God in express Terms affirms this Phil. 2.7 But made himself of no Reputation and took upon him the form of a Servant and was made in the likeness of Men. Let us for the better apprehending the force of this Text consider 1. The Context 2. The Words in the Verse 3. The Objection that can be offered to enervate it from V. 8. For if the Context tend to prove that Christs Incarnation was a part of his Humiliation and the text in plain Words affirm it and there be nothing in the whole against it the Proof must be express only let me give you the 7 verse as it is in the Original which by our translation is Darkened Christ emptied Himself taking on him the force of a Servant being made in the likeness of Men. 1. Le ts consider the Context The Apostle had commanded Self-denial Charity and Humility ver 3 4. This charge he inforceth by Christs example ver 5. Let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus lhat he might give this instance the greater Advantage 1. He shews the glorious dignity of Christ as God ver 6. Who being in the form of God thought it no Robbery to be equal with God He was equally glorious he that assumed our Nature and suffered in it was as excellent and the Beams of his Glory as Illustrious as God himself being of one Essence and Nature with God and having no other Nature besides his Divine 2. He then proceeds to tell them how this Glorious One humbled and debased himself v. 7. of which presently and thereby lets them see how meet it was that they should not grudge at denying themselves or being the most lowly and humble when Christ so infinitely more Glorious was content to become so low and mean as to take our Nature and suffer in it You see the Context requires that whatever is affirmed in this seventh Verse must refer to Christ's Debasement or it cannot answer the plain scope of the Apostles Reasoning which is to perswade Men to be Self-denying from this Example of Christ's humbling himself 2. The words of the seventh Verse are next to be considered He made himself of no reputation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is the first Expression if you regard the derivation of the word it amounts to this He rendered himself such as if his Perfections and Glory were vain or useless The word is consonantly translated 1 Cor. 9.15 Make my glorying void It 's render'd by Tertullian Se Exhausit c. Of all made himself nothing By Beza Quasi ex omni seipsum ad nihil redegit Zanthius raiseth it higher Se Evacuavit omni gâ—oria aequalitate cum patri He emptied himself of all Glory and Equality with the Father Indeed who can comprehend the utmost of this Examinition Now these words must refer to his Incarnation as what let in and made him â—â—pable of all the subsequent Sufferings The next words are He took on him the form of a servant or taking on him the form of a Servant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wherein was this I answer In taking our Nature For by assuming this Nature he became God's Servant and subject to his Authority as if not his own Master thô a Servant to Man he never was He that was in the form of God that is truly so was in the form of a Servant that is truly so that is the sense the next words confirm and was made or being made in the likeness of Man Not likeness in opposition to the reality of the Humane Nature but a conformity in Nature and the natural Operations thereof He assumed our very Humane Nature I hope then the plain order and import of the words appear to be this The Lord Iesus did greatly empty and humble himself in taking our Nature by the very assumption of which Nature he was a Servant And lest you should think that by being a Servant is meant some Servile Debasement after he assumed this Nature and not his meer Incarnation the Apostle explains it yet more Being made in the likeness of a Man is added after the form of a Servant Nay lest any one should deny his Incarnation to be part of his Humiliation by inverting the order of the words He proceeds v. 8. And being found in habit or fashion as a man he humbled himself q. d. Being thus emptied and debased in taking our Nature and being to observance in a State common with other meer Men he went on to undergo those sensible Sufferings which his Humane Nature rendred him capable of enduring Which leads me 3. To the Objection from v. 8. Being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself becoming obedient unto death even the death of the cross Whence may be objected That his Humiliation is confined to his dying in the Humane Nature after he had assumed it A. Christ's Dying was a great part of his Humiliation but that doth not argue that it was all his Humiliation Christ's Death and lying in the Grave finished his Humiliaiton but it doth not follow that was the beginning of it His Incarnation did begin it thô he proceeded to Consummate it by obeying unto Death And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Emptying himself which is ascribed to his Incarnation doth as truly express an Humiliation as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render Humbled Yea the former denotes a far greater Humiliation as to the significancy of the word To conclude this I cannot conceive how the Apostle could more expresly assert that Christ's Incarnation was a part of his Humiliation nay he seems to lay a very great stress upon it and variously expresseth Christ's assuming our Nature as that wherein the Wonder consisted most Oh that he who had a Glory shining equally with the Father should so submit to the with-holding of it as to be made a Man Let me mind you that the Socinians will thank any Man that denies the sense I give of this Text. 2. R. Christ did in his very Incarnation in obedience to God's Command voluntarily submit to the concealing and suspending of his manifestative Glory that he might be capable to suffer the utmost Punishments he had engaged to endure This Argument will appear in greater strength if we consider it in its several Parts 1. By shewing what a concealing and suspending of Christ's Manifestative Glory there was in his very Incarnation 2. That submiting and enduring this in obedience to God and for the Ends he thus assumed our Nature was truly a Degree of Humiliation 3. I shall answer an Objection that may be offered against the Son of God being capable of being humbled 1. There was a great suspending and concealing of Christ's Manifestative Glory in his very Incarnation Our
Heaven is another Christ doth not in Heaven assume our Nature Denovo but remains United to that Nature which he assumed in the Womb And the state of this Nature is now Glorious whereas he took our Flesh when it was Inglorious A Prince may humble himself in marrying an ignoble deformed sickly Beggar and yet it will not follow he humbleth himself still because he lives with her as a Wife especially if he hath ennobled beautified healed and enriched her 2. Saying That Christ's Humane Nature is exalted in Heaven is an acknowledgment that Christ was humbled in taking our Nature in the manner and condition he assumed it in Would Christ's Body be in an exalted State if it were in the form it had in its first Conception Yet so it was in the moment of Incarnation Were it exalted if still to be Born Yet so it was Would he be in an exalted State if still an Infant or Child Yet this was necessary from the manner of Christ's Incarnation Would this Nature be exalted if still subject to Weariness Pain Grief Hunger Shame Temptation and Death Yet such was the frame and habit of it when he assumed it This vast difference in the state of Christ's Body in Heaven and when he became Incarnate may convince us that Christ humbled himself in assuming it unless you will suppose it was first a Glorious Body i. e. when he took it and after he assumed it it was deprived of that Glory and humbled and then again exalted But such Conceits I pass by 3. I might add Thô the exalted Body of Christ be now a more fitted Medium whereby the Divine Glory is exerted and manifest and also the Glorious Purposes attained by the Hypostatical Union continued do compensate it Nevertheless the Human Nature is in a sense at present some Vail upon the Glory of Christ as the Eternal Word notwithstanding the Exaltation of the Humane Nature 1 Cor. 15.28 But these things are so beyond our comprehension that an humble Reverence doth best set Limits to our Thoughts But what hath been insisted on without enlarging on this may suffice to give us juster Thoughts of our selves as Men at least so as not to furmise it was no Act of Humiliation in the Lord of Glory to become Man by being Conceived and Born for him to be a Child to assume Flesh subject to Weariness Pain Sorrow Faintness Temptation Death c. for the Creator of the World to assume to a Personal Union with himself the lowest sort of intelligent Creatures and for the Lord of Glory to become a Subject and Servant I shall conclude this Point by giving you the Westminster Assemblies Judgment Less Catech. Q 27. Wherein did Christ's Humiliation consist A. Christ's Humiliation consisted in his being born and that in a low condition made under the Law c. You see that they thought Christ's being boâ—â— was a part of his Humiliation And not only the Miseries that followed his being born nor the Low Condition wherein he was born 〈◊〉 tech. Q. 46. The Estate of Christ's Humiliation was that low condition wherein he for our sakes emptying himself of his Glory took upon him the form of a Servant in his Conception and Birth Life Death and after his Death till his Resurrection Q. 47. Christ humbled himself in his Conception in that being from all Eternity the Son of God in the Bosom of the Father he was pleased in the fulness of Time to become the Son of Man made of a Woman of a low Estate and to be born of her with divers Circumstances of more than ordinary Abasement You see his very becoming the Son of Man and his Conception whereby he was Incarnate were Parts of Christ's Humiliation 3. Enq. Did Christ by his Death and Sufferings merit any thing and that for us A. Christ by his Death and Sufferings merited yea even saving Blessings for us I shall 1. Premise somewhat that may tend to clear this 2. I shall prove the Thing I affirm 1. Let this be premised Christ's Death and Sufferings may be conceived of first as Satisfactory and then Meritorious On the other hand Christ's active Obedience is to be conceived as first fit to be Meritorious and then Satisfactory The reason of the former is this Had not Christ's Death and Sufferings been for to make satisfaction God had not admitted them or delighted therein as the merit of any Benefits nay God would have looked at them with dislike in stead of accounting them a meet Price of Blessings The reason for the later is That had not Christ's Active Obedience been perfect and so fit to merit it could not satisfie or be a recompense for Man's Disobedience by vindicating the injured Glory of God's righteous Government Imperfect Obedience had tempted Creatures to offend instead of atoning God for the Offence 2. I shall prove that Christ's Death and Sufferings did merit greatly and that for us Short Hints will suffice to confirm a Position to plain 1. R. That for which Christ was rewarded both as to himself and as to us did truly merit and that for us But Christ was rewarded both as to himself and us for his Death and Sufferings That Christ was rewarded for his Death and Sufferings as to himself is past Question Phil. 2.9 Wherefore God hath highly exalted him and given him a name above every name The Covenant of Redemption adjusteth this Christ claimeth this oft as of Right and the Father is oft said to perform it as of Justice That Christ was for his Death and Sufferings rewarded as to us is as evident All the saving Benefits we receive are part of Christ's Reward and dispensed as such Isa. 53.11 12. He shall see of the travel of his soul and shall be satisfied by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justifie many for he shall bear their iniquities Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great and he shall divide the spoil with the strong because he hath poured out his soul untâ— death c. I shall presently instance the Saving Blessings which we receive for the Sufferings of Christ as the procuring Caâ—se thereof 2. That which is the Price of our Redemption did merit for us but Christ's Death and Sufferings were the Price of our Redemption c. 1 Cor. 6.20 For ye are bought with a price 1 Pet. 1.18 19. Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things but with the precious blood of Christ c. Acts 20.28 To feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood You cannot doubt but that by which we are redeemed and bought did merit the just God was a detainer of us as guilty Offenders until Christ by Death made reparation to his Glory 3. That which is part of the Righteousness of Christ for which we are justified did merit for us But Christ's Death and Sufferings are part at least of the Righteousness of Christ for which we are justified c. Rom. 5.9 We are
effects be produced in a different manner We must not limit our being made Righteous by Christ's Obedience below our being made Sinners by Adam's Disobedience as far as Adam made us Sinners so far Christ makes us Righteous or the reddition is improper We are as truly absolved by Christ's Obedience as we were made guilty by Adam's Disobedience And we are as truly Regenerated by Christ's Obedience as we were Depraved by Adam's Disobedience In the first we are made free from the Curse of the Law due to us as Sinners in the later we are preserved from being impenitent ungodly Infidels to whom the Gospel doth not give a freedom from the Curse but leaves such under the Law 's Sentence yea denounceth greater punishments against them By the first we have a full Righteousness to stand before God in notwithstanding the exactness of the Law of Innocency and all our Faults and Defects By the second we are render'd the Objects or Subjects of that full Righteousness according â—o the Gospel promise which is the Instrument whereby God bestows it But hereof more fully in due place I shall insist most on the first point 1. To be made Righteous by Christ's Obedience is to be made Free from Condemnation as if we had not Sinned and to be Entitled to Acceptance with God and Eternal Glory as if we had kept the whole Law and both for the sake of Christ's Righteousness imputed to Penitent Believâ—â—s for Pardon and Adoption I can in the shortest way Comprehend the Nature and Parts of this Particular by the following Propositions 1 Pro. All Men are unrighteous by nature Rom. 3.10 There is none righteous no not one We are all Transgressors and therefore each is liable to Vengeance Rom. 3.19 All the world is become guilty before God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he might have arrested and Executed Judgment upon all of us When Innocency ceased the Sentence of the Law took place and obnoxiousness to Misery inevitably followed This includes a forfeiture of Right to Happiness by the Law of Works Be sure if it condemns us by its Threats it cannot reward us by its Promise Disobedience putting us past a possibility of perfectly obeying which was the Condition of its Reward Therefore by the deeds of the law shall no flesh living be justified for by the law is the knowledge of sin Rom. 3.20 God can never speak peace by it to the Sinner nor acquit the Offender because by it he condemns for the least Sin and promiseth Life to none but the perfectly Obedient By this Law Sin is not only known to be Sin but Sin is known to bring Damnation and to bar us from Happiness Hence though Christ's Obedience was perfect according to the Law yet it is not by the Law that God pronounceth the Believer just but by the Gospel Righteousness comes not by the Law Gal. 2.21 No Man is justified by the Law Gal. 3.11 Exh. Be affected with that Unrighteous State wherein you all once have been and the Impenitent still remain Is it a small thing to have been Rebels against the holy Law of your Maker Can you make a light account of being under the Curse which comprehends the utmost Misery Gal. 3.10 This as a flaming Sword keeps thee from the Tree of Life and with irresistible power binds Vengeance on thee whilst thou art Christless Divine Wrath points to thee as the Obnoxious Person and in the mean time thou hast no Claim to God's Favour no Title to God or any Saving Blessing In this State the best of you once were Eph. 2.12 And what Grace was it that refâ—ued you out of this extremity Who can enough adore it But what is the stupidness of such among you that can quietly sleep in an Unrighteous State yea so long despise and refuse Deliverance from it Hell is your due every moment and should you die in this condition as you may without farther warning neither the Mercy of God nor the Merits of Christ will prevent Eternal Torments 2 Pro. God is so Righteous and Jealous of the Glory of his Government that his richest Mercy admits the Pardon of no Offender nor Saving Benefits to such as in the least fail in their Obedience but on the account of a Righteousness at least exactly adequate to what strict governing Justice did enjoin and prescribe It must be a Righteousness of Obedience as perfect as the Law Precept required of Men it must be a Righteousness of Satisfaction by bearing a Punishment equivalent to what the Law Threatning denounced against Sinners And because this Law in its Precepts and Threats was a Law to Men and they were Men that transgressed therefore Justice required that the Obedience should be yielded and the Punishment suffered by and in the Humane Nature Hence even the Son of God must take our Flesh if he would be a Redeemer The Satisfaction must yield as much glory to Justice as the Sin forgiven did injure it The Merit must be proportioned in the Scale of Justice to the Benefit to be conferr'd and that upon Offenders which render'd what was appointed to Christ to be above what the Law required of Men. Of which I have spoken somewhat already and shall have reason again to enlarge Rom. 3.26 His Righteousness is declared and he appears just when the Justifier of him that believes in Jesus Sin must be condemned in the flesh of Christ by his dying a Sacrifice for it that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit Rom. 8.34 Exh. Adore the Authority and Justice of God notwithstanding Pardoning Mercy The Atonement speaks it neither is it debased by all the Displays of Grace We are as subject to God as if he had never spared us and he is still as just as if all Mankind were to be damned If you despise his Dominion you shall find the edge of his Sword if you reject the Atonement the Severity of his Justice will instance it self upon you See then that you provoke not the Lord to jealousie Deut. 29.20 3 Pro. No Grace nor Act of the best Saint can be a Satisfaction for the least Fault or a Righteousness Meritorious of the least Benefit All Saints have sinned yea Sins and Defects adhere to their best Duties Our exactest actions cannot atone for a past Crime because they are no more than what 's at present due from us Imperfect Duties cannot merit because they are not in the estimate of governing Justice proportioned to the lowest Benefit A Reward of Debt can be to none below him that never sinned and perfectly obeyeth Rom. 4.4 though a Reward of Grace is promised to the Upright Ps. 50.11 When we have done all we now can do we are unprofitable Servants and by the Law of Works the iniquity of our holy things were enough to bring us under condemnation Exh. See your need of a greater Righteousness than your own and submit to the
first Testament viz. Before his Incarnation which were pardoned on the prospect of it And by his Death he purchased that his Called might receive the Promise of the Eternal Inheritance Heb. 9.15 As Testator he bequeaths and disposeth by and according to this Gospel Testament what he acquired by his Obedience even to a Bloody Death and by that Death this Testamentary Disposition is irrevocable As Surety he undertakes that his Testament which is also God's Covenant with us shall be fulfilled even on our parts and also unto us And this the Apostle directly applies to Christ's ever-living and interceding as what fitted him for it and whereby he executeth this Suretiship Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost who come unto God by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them Heb. 7.24 25. Many Testaments are unfulfilled because the Testastor being Dead cannot see to the Execution of them and so the Legatees are wronged but Christ ever lives and attends to the fulfilling his Testament which is the same with God's Covenant with respect to whâ—â—â— as God's Covenant he still intercedes as well as ever lives You 'll find this Apostle Lodge the height of the Security of Christians against and from Condemnation upon this Intercession of Christ Rom. 8.34 Who is he that Condemneth it 's Christ that Died yea rather is risen again who is even at the Right Hand of God who also maketh Intercession for us He ascribes our Safety to his Living and Interceding rather and more than to his meer Dying for though by his Death he acquired and bequeathed Absolution c. for his Seed yet it 's by his Living again and Interceding he secures and sees his Seed possessed of that Absolution and all other Blessings And if we consider that this Covenant mentioneth here rather Benefits promised to his Seed than Conditions of any Benefits as required either of him or his Seed He seems to be pointed at here more directly a Surety to see God's Promises made good to his Seed than that their New Covenant Engagements shall be made good by his Seed though it 's a great Truth he is a Surety on our part that we shall keep Covenant or we should soon undo our selves I think then it 's past Contradiction That the Covenant Christ is Surety of in this place which is the only place he is called Surety is the Gospel Covenant and if so he can even as a Money Surety hereby be bound with us to no more than what we are engaged to do and suffer by this Gospel Covenant It 's true by the Covenant of Redemption he was engaged to suffer Death in the Humane Nature for Satisfaction and this in our place and also to Obey the whole Law and both for the Salvation of his Seed But in that Covenant he was Principal for God never obliged us to Redemption-Work either by our selves or by any other and therefore Christ herein is what the Civilians call ex promissor He is obliged alone though he acts for another But how strange is it that from Christ's being a Surety of the New Covenant or Testament Men should conclude that Christ is a Money-Surety of the Covenant of Works and as such paid all our Old Covenant Debts as Debts and that altogether in Kind and so as we are accounted to pay that Debt and merit Life by that very Covenant yea and damn all that will not say as they say though to say so makes either Christ's Obedience or his Suffering needless all Forgiveness impossible all Gospel-terms of Application of Christ's Merits Unjust a suspension of a Right to those â—enefits for any time Injurious a Right in Men to Equal Rewards with Christ Inviolable all remains of Displeasure on and the Reign of Sin in the unconverted Elect matter of just Complaint against God and a Claim to any greater Blessings than the Law of Works promised Impossible I might further argue this Point by other Considerations as its Inconsistency with Christ's being a Mediator he being a Party also with Christ's being a proper Redeemer of Sinners any more than of himself yea it excludes the True Gospel Imputation of Christ's Righteousness in our Justification upon Believing as having no Righteousness of Christ's given us for it was Legally in us as much as in him we having Legally performed the Conditions as much as him and so we need not look out of our selves for Righteousness though our Surety did the Acts from whence that Righteousness resulted yet the Law-Right was in us as well as in him with many other All that I aim at by insisting on this Point is to guide your thoughts to true apprehensions of the Doctrin of Satisfaction and secure you against the Vulgar Mistakes and Dangerous Notions that are gathered from the abusive straining of the word Surety Whereas if you consider God as Rector Sinners as Criminals Sin as a Crime making Sinners liable to the Curse according to the Law which Law must be Honoured in the Satisfaction of Justice and Vindication of Divine Government And the Lord Jesus on the Law-givers proposing it freely undertaking and promising in the Covenant of Redemption to submit to â—â—e Obligation of bearing the punishment due to and in the Stead of those Sinners this Punishment being to be endured in the Humane Nature and of equal Weight yea in many things of the same Kind with what they were to endure And the Law-givers promising to Christ for his enduring this Punishment and perfectly Obeying his Will a great and certain Number that should certainly Believe in him and that all Believing on him should in his Righteousness be Pardoned Adopted Sanctified and Eternally Saved in a way of Faith and persevering Holiness to his Glory And that Sinners should have an Offer of these Benefits on the Terms of the Gospel Covenant and the Benefits to be dispensed assuredly in that Gospel Way c. I say in this manner every thing is Consistent and with these Limitations the Terms Sponsor Mediator Surety and Redeemer are Proper and Consistent I proceed to the Second Point viz. To prove that we are not Equally Righteous as Christ and shall have occasion to shew we are not so as to his Suretiship Righteousness 1. We are not Equally Holy as Christ this is a Conformity to the Divine Image and Will and is called Righteousness Have we an Habitual Holiness in a measure comparable to his Or can we pretend to that Purity of Heart and Life or that exalted Obedience to the Will of God which he rendered Our Hearts must condemn such a Thought nay Angels dare not be Rivals with him therein much less can we whose Defects are so manifest and Defilements are so many Iob 40.4 He is our Example proposed but in what can we imitate him in Equality Mal. 11.29 2. It is not true that we performed the Conditions of Redemption and Life Equally with Christ. I suppose they mean this by Suretiship
needed Alas Believers have their Right to Blessedness maintained by God's frequently Forgiving their Sinful Forfeitures Without this Forgiveness they would soon be liable to Misery and to be dealt with as Unrighteous And are such equally Righteous as Christ 4. It were intollerably Arrogant for Believers to Plead with God as they might justly do if they were equally righteous as Christ Dare they say Lord we need no Pardon from thee thou forgivest us nothing I legally paid the utmost Farthing by perfectly Obeying and Suffering too I will that this and that be done for me Iohn 17.24 thou art unjust to me as well as to my Surety and not only Unfaithful if I am denied Would this sound Conscientiously any more than Decently Have Believers a Right pleadable on this Head of Iustice And yet Christ is so Righteous that he can plead so of Right Can they be in equality Righteous whose Claim is so Different 5. We are not dealt with as if we were equally Righteous with Christ and yet God is not Vnjust nor Vnfaithful therein Believers have much Sin in their Hearts frequent Offences they commit they want much of God's Image their Graces are very Weak and Imperfect the Spirit of God oft grieved by them and for it abates his Influences God is provoked frequently and therefore hides his Face and rebukes them in Displeasure yea leaves them under Temptations To say nothing of other Penal Corrections as Poverty Cursed Relations Death and the Fears of it yet in all God is Righteous even when these are inflicted for Sin nay a great part of them is Sin in them though the with-holding of more Grace is Righteous in God and oft repeated as Penal yea indeed all remains of Sin in our Hearts are the Penal Effects of our first Apostasie not yet removed by Divine Grace Can any Man consider this and say Believers in this case are equally righteous as Christ Hath he no more a right to his present exalted State than we have to our present Freedom from the Effects of our Apostasie Or are we equally righteous when all these things are justly left upon us Had we a right to be at present Free from all Sin and Trouble to be immediately made fully conformable to Christ sure we should arrive thereto even now And if we have not a right to a present Freedom from these Evils and Enjoyment of the opposite Good we cannot be now righteous equally with Christ A present right to Freedom from Sin hereafter is even in that an Inequality to Christ's right who is entitled to a present Freedom from all that is Humbling or Afflictive and never was subject to Sin it self 6. Christ hath a right to much more Good than we shall ever enjoy or have a right to Believers have not now no nor ever shall have a right to a Reward equal to the Redeemer's Crown He will receive a Homage as Redeemer His Humane Nature possesseth a Glory beyond all created Beings Now can they be equally righteous with Christ in matter of right who have a right to no more than what is abundantly short of his It is unaccountable to denominate one righteous from the Greatness or Largeness of right and conclude them equally righteous who have so unequal a Right as to the Greatness of the Things they are entitled to of which this Head speaks and in what so differenceth the Nature of their right as applied to them of which before Christ hath given us in his right many Blessings which begin the Felicity he intends to compleat hereafter according to our various Capacities to receive but he hath not transferred to us his right to the Salvation of Millions to Dominion of Angels to give out the Fruits of his own Righteousness as he pleaseth and many such Prerogatives that never belong to Believers I might add We are not so Solemnly adjudged righteous as Christ is and that makes an Inequality And our righteous State is sustained by a constant Intercession of Christ in his own right but I think enough is said to conclude this Point for if we are not equally Holy as Christ nor have equally performed the legal Conditions with Christ nor have an equal right to the Rewards promised on those Conditions as Christ nor are equally adjudged righteous by God's solemn Sentence as Christ was Where is the least Shadow of doubting that Believers are not as righteous as Christ in equality No not as to Suretiship-righteousness or in any other proper Sense Obj. If my Surety paid my Debt I am as Free from my Creditor's Arrest as if I never owed him any thing I can tell him I legally paid him all and he cannot charge me c. and therefore I am as Righteous as Christ. Ans. The Improperness of calling God Creditor and Sin Debts otherwise than Metaphorically I have spoken to The Socinians have such an Advantage by it that all Men who understand the true way of opposing them quit these Terms But 1. Such as make this Objection and urge it to prove that Believers are as righteous as Christ must confine our Righteousness as a right only to Impunity and not extend it to positive Good as eternal Glory is And is it not strange to affirm Christ by his Death only paid a Debt but merited nothing and yet argue we are as righteous as Christ meerly because our Debt is paid which is by his Death What is not Christ's Active Obedience a part of his Righteousness If it be then notwithstanding our Impunity by the Payment of our Debt Christ is more righteous than us as having the Merit of his Active Obedience 2. But it is so far from true that the Believer paid God all his Debt that it is true he paid God not one Penny of his Debt neither by himself nor by Christ as a Money-Surety Christ made Satisfaction to God the injured Law-giver as a Priâ—cipal Undertaker to save us in his way but the Believer never made any Satisfaction to God for the least Sin as I have fully proved And therefore it 's gross arguing that I am as righteous as Christ because I paid all my Debt when I paid nothing but was forgiven all 3. The Believer is contracting new Debts every day and were it not for a renewed Washing or Pardon by Christ's Blood still applied he would be subject to new Arrests Ier. 36.3 Psalm 51.9 Matt. 6.12 Is it well argued then I am as righteous as Christ because I would daily run my self into Prison but that I have a Pardon oft repeated in the Virtue of his Righteousness 4. Though Pardon in Christ's right will keep a Believer out of Hell yet he is unacquainted with the Word and the Dealings of God with Believers that think they feel none of the bitter Fruits of Sin and several Arrests of Displeasure for Sin Rev. 3.19 Ames 3.2 Eternal Condemnation is the soarest but not the only Effect of Sin Is it a part our Freedom that our Lusts
Revenue of Glory unto his Son in the Salvation of the Elect God ordained that he shall do all with God for them and he shall be all from God unto them which is his second step and therefore what is subsequent to this in Intention cannot be before the other his Office and Incarnation are but means to this end So that no Doubt can remain that Christ is in this Design considered as the Eternal Son of God 2. Let 's weigh how he describes the Glory intended It 's an especial Revenue of Glory and Honour It 's a Revenue of singular Honour and Glory somewhat that made him more Glorious than he was as the Son of God nay it was his being acknowledged to be the Son of God which is the Vpshot of the Design about him as if though he were Son before yet he would not have been acknowledged to be the Son of God without this added Revenue of Glory 2. He makes the eternal Son of God considered as to his Divine Nature to be for a while under the Frowns and Displeasure of God 3. He makes the eternal Son of God as God to be capable of an acquired Right superadded to his natural Right even to his essential Glory as God and also of an acquired Right to that Love which he enjoyed as the Son of God in the Divine Nature before he was the Son of Man Take his Words p. 25 26. 'T is true Christ hath another Title and Right to the Love of God and unto Heavenly Glory viz. by the Prerogative of his Birth I mean his Eternal Generation as he is the only begotten Son of God But though he was rich yet such is his Grace that for our Sakes he became poor he consented not to forego his Title but for a Time to forego the actual Enjoyment of the full Fruit and Benefit of it He was contented to lay aside his Glory for a Time and to dwell here below on Earth under the Frowns and Displeasure of God his Father untill he should fully to the utmost Farthing have paid our Debt but then he was to be restored and raised up to the Enjoyment of his Father's Love and Heavenly Glory in the Virtue of that forementioned double Right or Title viz. both as the Son of God by Nature and as also having discharged all the Debt of the Elect as their Surety This latter being accumulated and superinduced upon the former and therefore being not a Natural but Acquired Title 1. You see that it is the eternal Son of God considered as to his Divine Nature which was under God's Frowns and Displeasure for it was only as to that Nature his Person was the Subject of God's Love before his Incarnation and it was that Love he alone could be restored and raised to which he had before his Incarnation and there could not be a restoring and raising to the Enjoyment of this Love as to this Nature unless that he was under the Frowns and Displeasure of his Father as to his Divine Nature For whatever Nature he enjoyed the Love of God in before he did forego the Enjoyment of it and to the Enjoyment of which he was raised and restored must be the Nature he endured those Frowns and Displeasure in which are opposed to the actual Enjoyment of that former Love He tells us that he did forego the actual Enjoyment of this Love and so dwelt under his Father's Frowns here below on Earth therefore it must be as to his Divine Nature he did forego the Enjoyment of that Love and Glory And consequently as to that Nature he endured the opposite Frowns since that he had not enjoyed that Love in his Humane Nature before he dwelt on Earth 2. It 's as plain that he makes the eternal Son of God as to his Divine Nature to have a superadded Right to that essential Glory from God which he had a former natural Right to For the Glory he enjoyed before his Incarnation was his essential Glory as the Son of God and it was his essential Glory he had a Natural Right to Again he had no Glory in his Humane Nature before he was Man to be restored to therefore the Glory he had an acquired Right to being a Glory to which he was restored and raised must be his essential Glory enjoyed only by the Divine Nature He could be restored to the actual Enjoyment of no Glory but what he actually had before he affirmed our Flesh and could not be restored to any Glory which he had not till he assumed our Flesh. The Matter is the same as to the Love that his Father bare to him as his Eternal Son for it 's the Love he was restored to the Enjoyment of which Christ is said by Mr. M. to have an acquired superadded Right to which must be no other than he was the Object of before his Incarnation yea he tells them it 's that very love and glory which was due to him by Privilege of Birth that he had this superadded Title to yea even that which he did not forego his Title to though he did forego the actual Enjoyment of for a while and to this he was restored in the Vertue of this double Right so he tells us Christ was rich yet he became poor How poor By foregoing the actual Enjoyment of the full Fruit and Benefit of it which he enjoyed before The Meaning of the Place he refers to is that though the Son of God was Maker and Heir of all things yet as to his Humane Nature he was in a necessitous suffering Case But hence Mr. M. infers that Christ as the Son of God did forego the actual Enjoyment of the full Fruit of his Inheritance which he fully possessed before and in that respect was poor This is plainly his Sense for he speaks of his being rich as he was antecedently to his Incarnation as to Enjoyment as well as Title and as to Riches he did not forego his Title to as he was the Son of God and yet the full Benefit of those very Riches he was so entitled to as Son of God he did forego the actual Enjoyment of whereas he might as well say he did forego the Enjoyment of all the Benefits as any and of his Title as of the Enjoyment all being alike possible to the Son of God who still enjoyed that whole Inheritance to the full as Son of God as he enjoyed it by his Title before he was the Son of Man to forego the Manifestation and the actual Enjoyment differ as to his Glory And as to Riches it 's one thing for the Human Nature to want for the Divine-Nature to abate any Enjoyment of what it was entitled to is quite another thing A poor God is a wild Phrase Obj. Had Christ as our Redeemer a Right to no Glory as a Reward Ans. 1. Yes to a Glory and Riches as to his Humane Nature But 2. that was not a Restauration of what the Son as God
a Saviour ordained to recover and actually save a certain number of these And for this to be in his suffering Nature to be rewarded and eternally exalted receiving the Praises of his saved ones fully answers the Account the Scripture gives of the Oeconomy of Redemption Rev. 1.5 6. Man is supposed thus fallen in all the. Texts which Mr. M. cites for God's Design of a Revenue of Glory to his Son from the Elect Eph. 1.3 4 5 6. We are chosen in Christ in what State You 'll see that by the Nature of the Blessings we are to obtain by him to be holy who were by the Fall unholy To be without Blame before him in Love who were so reproveable and hateful to the Adoption of Children who had by Sin lost our natural Birthright and become Aliens accepted in the Beloved to the Praise of the Glory of his Grace who had made our selves unacceptable and Condemnable in the Eye of Justice Redemption in him and Forgiveness of Sin according to the Riches of his Grace who had enslaved our selves committed Sin and were incapable to redeem our selves make Atonement or merit our Recovery And then he addeth Vers. 8. That in all this he abounded towards us in all Wisdom and Prudence Amazing Wisdom To find a Way to sanctifie the depraved justifie the blamable love the hateful adopt the alien accept the vile and unworthy whom Justice condemned redeem the captive and forgive the guilty Sinner Here 's Work for all Wisdom and Prudence to abound much more than it was to resolve first to glorifie the Son of God and then find out a Way for it by designing to make Men fall into Misery and Death that he might come to this Glory by it Look into Vers. 9. and you 'll see that according to what I have shewen to be the Apostle's Model he concludes this is the Counsel of God's Will and his Purpose in himself even to recover by Christ Sinners thus in his Eye fallen and miserable The same Sense is plain in Rev. 5.11 12.2 Thess. 1.10 Eph. 4.13 I confess when I consider some Mens Temper I am at a Loss whether they are led by what themselves are to think of God as so cruel and far from Goodness or that the strange Representations of God which they believe do form them to what they think is his Resemblance Would any Divine else dare to preach that God took the Sin of Adam and squeezed out the Quintessence of it into the Humane Nature to propagate to the World And God took delight to see the Wicked Sin as one that sets Rats-bane to kill Rats looked through the Key-hole with delight to see the Rats eating the Rats-bane knowing it would kill them so God looked at the Wicked through his Fingers with Pleasure to see them Sinning knowing it would destroy them And the Spirit of God striving with Sinners did Enlighten them Reform them c. But why did he thus strive with many whom he did resolve he would never Save It was that they might be brought to those higher Degrees of Torments in Hell which he had fore-ordained them to As Iudas went to his own place that is to the higher Torments in Hell which God had decreed him to he could not come to this but by falling from his Apostleship he could not fall from his Apostleship if he had not been an Apostle and he could not have been an Apostle if the Spirit of God had not striven with him Mr. M. I suppose hath not forgotten these unsavory Passages which I do not think I have varied a word of at least I am sure this is the Substance and not aggravated at all as I have abundant Witnesses to prove 3. He mistakes what is the Glory of God as to its principal Sense this consists in his Essential Perfections as in himself yea the Manifestative Glory of God Father and Son is not so much in the Creatures Acknowledgments as in the display of his own Perfections in a way commanding their Admiration and Love Mens Hosanna's are a poor-thing comparatively even therewith He made all things for his Glory i. e. To express thereby his Wisdom Goodness Power Justice c. His Glory shines forth more in the Impresses of his Excellencies on any Being than in their Thankful Returns of Gratitude to him or Oral mention of his Praises Men by these do their Duty and contribute to their own Good but add not to his Glory yea his manifestative Glory is not hereby so promoted by those Men as by his Image on them and his Authority acknowledged by their Obedience and Good Works Matt. 5.16 God is glorified by Christ as Redeemer in our Nature as his Government was honoured Justice satisfied his Hatred to Sin expressed his Image restored his Authority among men acknowledged his Blessed Nature exemplified in the Humane Nature and Behaviour of Christ his Love and Mercy to Sinners made manifest by his Death By these I say much more than that some few Men do own him to be the Son of God yea our Redeemer even as in our Nature is more glorified by honouring God vindicating his Government from Contempt opening a way for Mercy to exert it self without Injury to God's Holiness or Justice accomplishing God's Purposes and Promises having all Fullness of Grace in him Authority and Judgment committed to him defeating Satan's Projects and breaking his Strength and Power even by the Humane Nature his giving his Spirit restoring the Image of God to a degenerate World rendring Men subject to the Divine Laws Imitaters of his Example subject to his Authority 2 Thess. 1.10 raising the Dead judging the World his wise equal and effectual Managing his Kingdom c. he is by them honoured I say far more than in a few Persons acknowledging his Sonship and being that his Sonship became obscured by his dwelling in Flesh I admire that Mr. M. would place the Vpshot of Christ's acquired Glory in the Elects Acknowledgment of his Sonship as if he took a Vail to do and suffer so much chiefly if not only to buy off its being a Vail 4. He leaves out the Holy Spirit as to the mention of any Gâ—â—â—y designed to him in the Oeconomy of the Salvation of Sinners Yet sure the Eternal Spirit hath a Glory Superior to Christ's Humane Nature and a Right thereto Superior to Christ's acquired Right Yea we are Baptised as Redeemed ones into or in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost Matt. 28. But with these Men his Honour is little regarded he shall not have a Hand so much as to render some Sinners to be the Persons that shall rather than others be invested in Christ's Right to any Saving Benefits according to a Gospel-Rule Though God hath so wisely contrived the Acknowledgment of Father Son and Spirit in the Saving of Sinners the Father gives and sends his Son to Redeem the Son pays the Price of Redemption the Holy Spirit applies it by rendring Sinners
wherein I except my self Mr. M. hath done more to favour Socinianism than all those whom he accuseth 1. By calling such Semisocinians whose doctrin and Principles will approve themselves to most Men to be Orthodox Many will abate their prejudice against the real Socinian as not being so bad as the word imported 2. He falls in wholly with the Socinians in denying Christ's Incarnation to be a part of his Humiliation and deprives us of the force of one of the greatest Texts for the Deity of Christ Phil. 2.6 7. 3. He supports the Socinian Cause and one of their strongest Topicks against the Satisfaction of Christ by speaking still of God as a Creditor Sin as a Debt the Law as a Money Bond Christ as a Money Surety whereas all our Divines find it impossible to defend that Doctrin without denying this Metaphor and therefore plead that God is to be considered as a Rector Sin a Crime Sinners Criminals Christ a Sponsor in consistency with his being Redeemer Mediatour Saviour Sacrifice and Priest c. For if Sin were a Money Debt why could not God forgive it without Satisfaction as well as other Creditors do c. 4. He grants the absurdity in the sense objected by the Socinians and still opposed by our Divines viz. That we are as Righteous as Christ in equality Turretin Instit Theol. p. 714 715. proves that licet c. though we are justified by Christ's Righteousness imputed non sequitur nos non minus justos esse quam Christum it doth not follow that we are no less Righteous than Christ So doth Dr. Owen of Iustif. p. 509 510. All our celebrated Opposers of Socinianism do the same Mr. M. may say as well of these as he doth of us for denying it as they do They have a heart-hatred of standing in the Righteousness of Christ. 5. The Socinians have their whole Cause favoured against the Deity of Christ or at least the Arrians by what he asserts concerning the Person of the Son of God He makes him such a God as was capable of a real Glory to be added to him that as God he might be under God's frowns and displeasure might quit and forgo the actual enjoyment of that Love Glory and Inheritance which as Son of God he was entitled to and possessed of before his Incarnation not in a way of manifestation nor as to his Humane Nature but in reality and as to his Divine Nature in which alone he acted before his Incarnation a God capable of an acquired Right superadded to his natural Right to those very Riches Love and Glory which he enjoyed before he was Son of Man And also that the Humane Nature belongs to the Constitution of the Person of the Son of God as it is now p. 8. c. Are not these bold Strokes which I have before fully proved to be his Assertions Though Charity binds me to acknowledge that I think he designeth not to oppose the Eternal Deity of the Son of God by Assertions so unsuitable to the Divine Essence and so mistaketh what God is rather than who he is 6. I might add he blasts all the opposition made by our best Authors against Socinianism by branding even them as Semisocinians To say nothing of his representing the Doctrin of imputed Righteousness in a manner not defensible and tempting to most Mens being Socinians unless they have a better Notion of it Few will believe that we did legally do and suffer what Christ did that we are as Righteous as Christ and that the Gospel enjoineth no Duty as a Condition on us for obtaining the blessed Effects of Christ's Merits which be the only ground of his quarreling thus hotly with us Men of his suspicious temper will judge he designeth to favour Socinianism by calling us Semisocinians 12. Mr. M. Attempts to instruct us how to Preach but with an evil insinuation and in some things very contrary to Apostolical Preaching Thus your Teachers should instruct and lead you This is the Apostles direction to Titus that he should teach them that have believed to be careful to maintain good works not to teach and press sinners in their Vnbelief to fall to doing of good works first and overlook believing wholly or to postpone it after them p. 69. Repl. 1. Which teacher of his Hearers doth teach any to postpone Faith or overlook it wholly or delay it at all If by Believing he means a due accepting of a whole Christ yea do not they direct them to expect all from God through Christ and look to Christ as he in whom all fulness is But our Author is one of them who think Christ is never Preached unless his Name be mentioned and that as a Priest too His revealed Truths and enjoined Laws c. are not Preaching Christ. 2. But may one call Sinners to no Duty till they are Believers Must they not be prest to examin themselves pray read the Word hear it Preached fear God teach their Families love their Wives meditate consider strive with their Hearts resist Temptations believe the Scriptures nor relieve the Poor till they be Believers Peter was to learn of our Author to Preach for though he knew Simon Magus to be in the gall of bitterness yet he bids him then repent of this thy wickedness and pray God if perhaps the thoughts of thy heart may be forgiven thee Acts 9.22 perhaps he 'll say he believed true in such a manner as I fear some that pretend high to Faith exceed not Paul gives such an account of much of his Ministry at first to Jews and Gentiles Acts 26.20 That they should repent and turn unto God and do works meet for Repentance the Baptist was an ill Teacher and Christ's Sermon on the Mount Mat. 5. and Paul's at Lystra Acts 14.15 16. needed Mr. M's direction Paul saith to unbelievers We are Men of like Passions with you thus far he 'll agree and Preach unto you that you should turn from these vanities unto the living God that made Heaven and Earth c. a good Work is pressed before they believed Here Mr. M. would have told him you Paul should not teach thus But what are his Reasons 1. They that believed in God should be charged to excel in good works therefore they that believe not in Christ should not be pressed to endeavour to set upon doing any good Work Hos. 5. 4. They must not so much as frame their doings to turn unto the Lord. 2. A few words after through Faith that Righteousness will be upon you and being upon you it will produce good Works Here it seems as I have oft heard it urged Ministers should not urge you nor you strive and labour after good Works this Righteousness will produce them but are all that I hope have Faith so abundant therein as not to need Spurs Do all that pretend to it shew that they have it by it's Fruits and how can we know them And is its being upon us the