Selected quad for the lemma: sin_n
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A52535
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A discourse of natural and reveal'd religion in several essays, or, The light of nature a guide to divine truth.
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Nourse, Timothy, d. 1699.
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1691
(1691)
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Wing N1417; ESTC R16135
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159,871
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385
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after driven out of the Camp into the Wilderness as a Creature utterly polluted and abandon'd How much more capable then was Jesus of bearing the sins of many who indeed was the thing it self Symboliz'd by that Creature thus much concerns Christ's humane Nature in which he suffer'd But when we call to mind that the Punishment due to the transgression of the Law not onely of the Mosaical but also of the Commandment given to Adam was Eternal Death as the Obedience of the Law was Eternal Life 't was necessary that this Redeemer or publick Representative of Mankind should make an infinite satisfaction which since it could not be ex parte Poenis for then must he have suffer'd and been damn'd to all Eternity it remains that both his Active and Passive satisfaction was infinite ex parte Personoe and consequently that this Redeemer must be God also so that the Person suffering was Eternal and Infinite though the capacity in which he suffer'd was Infinite and Mortal This Redeemer therefore was to doe whatsoever Men were oblig'd to doe whether by the Law of Nature or that of Moses as he was to suffer also the Punishments due to all Transgressions whatsoever By him therefore was the Law fully explain'd as also the Ceremonial and Levitical Laws abolish'd by exhibiting the substance or thing it self to which they had Relation In him all the Types and Sacrifices had their true Signification in him were all Predictions terminated and when all this was done the blessed Jesus made an Offering of himself to God commending his Spirit into the hands of his Father and together with it the plenary Redemption of the World in that full and compartial Ejaculation of his Soul crying or proclaiming with his last Breath it is Finished We have taken a short view of the Doctrine of Christ as our Redeemer and which we are requir'd to believe Let us in the next place take a transient Glance of Christ's Doctrine as our Legislatour and this concerns matter of Practice This Doctrine is amply propounded to us in the 5th 6th and 7th Chap. of St. Matthew's Gospel where we have his most correct and true Explanation of the Decalogue being such as was according to the true scope of the Law and the Intention of the Law-giver of which we have spoken already we have also his most lively Description and earnest Recommendations of these excellent duties of Alms Fasting and Prayer We are taught Humility Meekness of Spirit Purity of Affection Patience under Persecutions Chearfulness under Slanders and Reproach and Comfort under Afflictions We are taught to live Peaceably and to live Exemptorily to shun Ostentation and to unite our selves to God by inward Acts of Piety by holy Duties of Charity and Penance and by relying upon God's Providence in renouncing the Riches of the World and avoiding Hypocrisie and by a prudent Circumspection with many other Heavenly Duties and Instructions and last of all by a due Preparation of our selves for a general Judgment and life Eternal This is the subject matter of his Divine Sermon upon the Mount and indeed the summ and substance of all Evangelical Duties we are taught in other places how to address our selves to God by Prayer particularly in that most Excellent and Comprehensive form which is alone sufficient to prove the Divinity of its Author we have also many Evangelical Counsels touching voluntary Chastity and our abdication of Riches He instituted holy Sacraments as instruments of conveying Grace and as Symbols of his Death and Passion as also of his Eternal Union with his Church and as a Bond of Union and Communion amongst Christians He took Law for the future Enlargement and Government of his Church by appointing his Apostles the Overseers of it endowing St. Peter with many singular Prerogatives and last of all he promis'd them the assistance of his holy Spirit to-direct and comfort them all which was verified in a wonderful manner As touching the Nature and Obligation of Evangelical Works it is a point which will require a little to be insisted on for some there are who allow of Evangelical Works but not as Commands but as Counsels only and as such indeed which may adorn our Profession but yet that they are to be taken up or left at the discretion of the Professour And to insinuate this they tell us That Christ came not with a Legislative Power to introduce new Laws but to confirm the Moral And therefore that all those Passages in the 5th 6th and 7th of St. Matthew with whatsoever else accrues in the Evangelists of this Nature have not the Authority of Precepts but are seasonous ' only and were propos'd by Christ as Invitations to embrace his Faith and no doubt very privilegious being much to this purpose Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest that is I require you to cut off your right Hands to pluck out your right Eyes to bless them that curse you c. and to sweeten all with a gracious promise I tell you that whosoever would save his Life shall lose it This we see is the Gospel Stile and had our Saviour us'd this Rhetorick by way of Invitation there needed no other Argument to prove the World's Conversion to have been miraculous No rational Man can be so blind as to believe that Christ us'd this Language to allure us to him that by which he sought and which prov'd most effectual to win Men over to Christianity was the propos'd Happiness and Eternity of another Life and for the procurement hereof he prov'd the Exercise of Self-denial and true Severities in these and such like Passages as the best Expedient And that these Precepts were not bare Explanations of the Mosaical Law or Institutions but had in themselves the force of binding Laws is very demonstrable from Christ's own Works Mat. 22. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy Soul and with all thy Mind This is the first and great Commandment and the second is like unto it Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self which words though they have Relation to the two Tables of the Decalogue yet do they exact much more than what is requir'd in them The ten Commandments being almost all Negatives confest in these two general Prohibitions of Worshipping false Gods and of injuring our Neighbour whereas Christ's commands goe farther They are positive and require our utmost endeavours to advance the wellfare of our Neighbour though he be our Enemy whom the Jewish Law allowed to hate Farther the Moral Law had respect onely to the Act Christ's Law extends to our very Thoughts Nay we may observe the like difference in the Judicial Law there an Eye for an Eye c. Evil was to be compensated with Evil but here is no Lex Talionis no returning of like for like but on the contrary a quiet submission to him who offers Violence and instead of
Concurrence in all their Actions whether Good or Evil it being impossible a Creature should subsist a moment independant upon God but more especially such Actions are ascrib'd to him by reason of his foreknowledge of all future Events from all Eternity And for as much as by his Previdence or Providence he so orders these wicked Actions as to make them beneficial to Men and declaratory of his own Glory either by using them as Punishments or to humble them under the sense of their Failings or to divorce them from their Passionate Desires after worldly Comforts all which shews great Power as well as Goodness proper only to Almighty God to produce such excellent Effects out of Evil and to make an Antidote out of the Poison of the Serpent This may more specially be demonstrated from all the Instances which Calvin does enlarge upon in making God to work inwardly in the Minds of Men and as it were to inspire them with wicked Purposes First then for Shimei's cursing David it was a Transgression against the Fifth Commandment of the Moral Law David who dated his Miseries from the time of his Sin against Vriah reflecting upon God's Just Judgments on him in a continual series of Afflictions commencing from that fatal Transgression piously ascribes this particular Injury of Shimei to God's Just Judgment for had he been ascertain'd that God had directed or inspir'd Shemei to it it had been very unjust in David upon his Death-bed to mind Solomon of taking Revenge on Shimei for what was done many years before by God's special Command Next for Absalom's lying with his Father's Concubines this was occasion'd by David's Transgression of the Seventh Commandment for which God tells him 2 Sam. 12. that he would raise up Evil against him out of his own House and that his Neighbour should lie with his Wives in the sight of the Sun which was verified in Absalom who transgressing the Fifth Commandment as also the Seventh executed what God had foretold by spreading upon the Terrass of the Royal Palace and there lying with his Father's Concubines in the sight of all Jerusalem This execrable Fact is said to be done by God's Appointment for as much as he made use of it for the Punishment of David by a way of Retaliation when yet the Author or Counsellor of this wicked advice was the Devil or Ahitophel who by this means thought to make the Breach betwixt the Father and the Son to be incurable Another Instance is that of Job's Calamities but this was not Malum Culpae but Malum Poenae design'd by God for the tryal of Job's Patience and for the Procurement of greater Blessings and executed by the Devil with design to drive Job to Desperation in which Passage we find that God's Part was only permissive in withdrawing that Vertue by which the Devil was kept in Awe and Subjection Another Example is that of the Prophet who seduc'd Ahab to go up and fall at Ramoth-Gilead 1 Kings 22. This was said also to be from the Lord forasmuch as he suffer'd a Spirit or the Devil to inspire the Prophets with a Lye This fatal End was justly due to Ahab who himself all his Life time had been willingly seduc'd by false Prophets and was guilty also of shedding the Blood of Innocent Naboth Nor does it appear that what was reported by Micaiah in this Matter was any more than Visionary representing God's Permission that Ahab should perish by Seducers who whilst he liv'd was the great Patron or Protector of them For to understand it literally that God did hold such a Consult and ask Advice of Evil Spirits how to destroy Ahab is what we cannot apprehend but under such Imperfections and Characters of Deformity as are utterly inconsistent with the Nature of God In like manner ought we to interpret that Place in Ezekiel of God's saying that when a Prophet is deceiv'd 't is he that deceiveth him as likewise that other Passage of 2 Thessal 2. all which cannot be understood otherwise than of God's withdrawing his Grace and so leave Men to the Course of their own Impetuous Lusts and Passions and to the Instigation of the Devil And here I cannot but call to remembrance how Blasphemously such Expressions were abus'd in the Time of the late Usurper For some of his Chaplains as they call'd themselves pretending to have a Revelation from Heaven of his Recovery when the Cheat was confuted by his subsequent Death one of them in a Strain of Humiliation charg'd God in the Language of Ezekiel crying out Lord thou hast deceiv'd us nay even thou hast ly'd unto us To such dreadful Blasphemies are Men misled by such gross and perverse Interpretation of Scripture The last Argument of Calvin's which I shall mention is that of the Prophet Isaiah cap. 6. Where God bids the Prophet Make the Heart of the people fat deafen their Ears and blind their Eyes lest they should see with their Eyes hear with their Ears and understand with their Hearts and be converted and live This Passage Calvin much triumphs in making frequent use of it to prove That Spiritual-Infatuation is the work of God Now if this be understood literally it proves that God does use his utmost endeavour to seduce and destroy those who otherwise would turn to him by Repentance a thing which cannot be thought of but with great Impiety Besides it proves the contrary to that for which Calvin does alledge it for Calvin labours to prove from hence that Man has not a power to decline a sinful Act when yet the Words import the very contrary For were it not for such a Spiritual Infatuation and Blindness Men happily might see and understand too and be converted so that they are blinded on purpose to prevent their Conversion by seeing And if they were blind before what needs a direction to make them blind This would be the same thing as if we should take one who was born without Eyes and shut him up in a dark close Dungeon for fear he should see and make an escape or as if we should load a Cripple with Irons for fear he should make use of his Legs and run away so that the very manner we see of the Prophets expressing himself does imply a power in the Sinner of making use of his Eyes and Understanding in order to his own Conversion All that can be concluded then from this place is this That God may in Justice deprive Men of or withdraw those Natural Gifts from wicked Men who have for a long time withstood the good Motions of God's Holy Spirit inviting them to Repentance which the Prophet does express Symbolically by deafning and blinding That we may not expatiate in infinitum upon this Topick we will take in one Instance more out of the New Testament which Calvin so much relies upon and which carries indeed the greatest shew of difficulty being that of Acts the 2. where St. Peter says that Christ was deliver'd up by