Reason of Man's Tenure and Subjection Sixthly As we may suppose the Forbidden Tree to have stood in the midst of the Garden from the Ninth Verse of the Second Chapter of Genesis so a Tree so placed was by its very Situation a very fit and proper Thing to be made use of for such a purpose because being in some measure at least equidistant from the Boundaries of the general Grant it must for that Reason be most likely to present it self to Adam's View to whatever Part of the Garden he moved and by so doing must constantly or at least frequently put him in mind of the Nature of his Tenure viz. that he held it of him who had setled him in the Possession and Use of all the rest So that as the Law is Positive if we only look upon the express Words of it so it is Moral if we consider what is implied in it And therefore as the immediate and direct Transgression of the Law was the eating the forbidden Fruit so the couched Immorality of such Transgression was an Usurpation upon God's Prerogative in this lower World and an Encroachment upon the reserved Rights and Demeans of the Supreme Lord. The Transgression of the express Law then was a Sin against God's Command But the Transgression of the implied Law was a Sin against his Natural and Supreme Right The first was a Sin because it did what God had expresly forbid The last was implicitly forbid because it was a Sin and therefore was a Sin tho' God did not expresly forbid it The first was therefore only unlawful because forbidden The last was unlawful in it self To sum up all in a few Words Tho' the Designation of the particular Thing viz. the Tree in the midst of the Garden was Arbitrary and therefore Positive yet the Designation of Something was as Just and Wise so I may add Moral and Necessary too at least so far as it is so that God's Supreme Right ought to be asserted and owned For so far forth the Prohibition given to Man of eating of the Fruit of any Tree marked out or of medling with any Thing else is grounded upon the Antecedent and Eternal Rules of Reason and Justice that is of Morality And therefore tho' the express Prohibition of the Law be only Positive yet the Reason of the Prohibition is at least so far Moral as it is so That Man by some Means or other should acknowledge God to be his Supreme Lord and that he receives from him whatsoever he enjoys and that if God do expresly appoint the Way and Means of his so doing he ought to do it by the Way and Means so appointed And I therefore say expresly because so far as the Words of the Law under our present Consideration do go it is notorious that what is expresly prohibited by it is only Arbitrary and Positive But that the Morality of the Prohibition is not expressed but at the most but couched and implied By what has been spoken we may learn 1. That the Sin expresly prohibited by the Law may therefore truly be esteemed a lesser Sin because it is only a Sin against a Positive Law For such a Sin is a Sin only against God's Authority Whereas a Sin that contains a Natural Immorality in it if I may so speak is a Sin both against God's Authority and against his Purity and Holiness too 2. That the express Penalty of the Law is only a Punishment threatned against the Transgression of the express Prohibition of the Law For it does not look like Justice to assign an express Punishment in the Law for the Transgression of any Thing which is not expresly contained in the Law 3. Such Punishment so threatned against the Transgression of the express Law is express absolute and peremtory Adam then did therefore fatally suffer the Penalty of the Law because he sinned against an express Prohibition which was ratified by an absolute peremptory and express Threat For God may therefore be thought to be obliged by his Truth to punish Adam's Transgression according to the express Threat of the Law because he had passed his more solemn Word that he would do so And as he was obliged by his Truth to punish it as the Law had threatned so he was obliged to punish it because it was a Sin For so undoubtedly is the Transgression of any of God's Laws From hence it may be concluded that we all die a temporal Death for Adam's Sin For as we were in the Loins of him in the day of his Transgression so God has not by any other Law assigned an Universal Mortality as the Punishment of Sin And so speaks the Scripture In Adam all died 4. As the Moral Law couched in the Positive Law is not express so neither is there any express Punishment threatned to the Transgression of such couched Law For while Man was in a State of Innocence as there was no need that God should prescribe him any express Law to guide him in such Things which were in their own Nature good because the dictates of his own reason were of themselves sufficient for such his guidance for Moral Goodness is nothing else but the Dictates of right Reason employed about the Actions of Rational Creatures So for the same Reason there was no occasion to threaten him in that Case with any express Penalty because the threatning of an express Penalty antecedent to the Commission of the Crime can only be proper there where there is an express Law commanding a Duty Whereas Man had never by his Reason known that it had been a Sin to eat of any Fruit which kindly offer'd it self to his View and natural Inclinations if such Fruit had not been forbidden by some express Law And therefore for the same Reason that it was necessary that such Law should be express it was necessary that the Penalty of such Law should be express too 5. As the Sin against the Moral Duty which is only implied in the Law were that Duty supposed to be express Law is greater than the Sin against the express but Positive Law so were there a Punishment to be expresly assigned to such Sin it must in Justice be greater than the Punishment assigned to the less Sin that is to the Transgression of the Positive Law The Punishment therefore assigned by the express Law to the Transgression of it being only Death and that too as appears from the Nineteenth Verse of the Third Chapter of Genesis a temporal Death our Reason and that natural Sense we have of the Proportions of Justice will assure us that the Law which forbids a greater Sin than this Law does must in Reason and Equity assign an heavier Punishment to such greater Sin 6. Such heavier Punishment must suppose a Resurrection For a greater Punishment than Death cannot therefore be inflicted upon a dead Man without a Resurrection because no Punishment at all can be so inflicted upon him For where there is no Sensation
and his Law he would be unwise also And therefore 6. Lastly The last Judgment and that Description that we meet with of it in Gods Word do fully assure us that he has no such Designs in his Counsels as to throw away his Laws to gratifie his Enemies with Impunity From all which Reasons and as we do believe from each of them in particular it seems satisfactorily evident that a Gospel-Pardon of Sin is no absolute Pardon And that therefore when God does in the Gospel promise Pardon of Sin there must be some previous Conditions that must be observed in order to such a Pardon And what Share our Saviour has in the Performance and Accomplishment of such Conditions we shall learn hereafter In the mean time before we dismiss this Chapter we must not dissemble that it may be surmised and therefore also that it may be objected That tho' there should be no alsolute Gospel-Pardon that yet there may be an arbitrary Gospel-Pardon and that there are some Expressions in the New Testament that lean that way and may at least incline us to believe that there is such a Thing But because we are sure that no Pardon can come from God but what is just and because we know that Arbitrary Justice is only one Branch of Arbitrary Power and therefore is in reality no Justice at all for it is only a resolute Determination of the Will without any Reason for such Determination therefore we are sure that it cannot belong to God For all his Actions are limited and bounded by his Holiness that is by the Eternal Rules of Reason and Justice And he only therefore wills what he pleases because he neither does not can please to will any thing but what is Just CHAP. III. A Gospel-Salvation contains in it 1. Pardon of Sin 2. The Gift of Eternal Happiness To these Two other Things required 1. An Expiation of Sin 2. A Restitution to Holiness Negatively the several Ways how such Expiation cannot be made from whence an Inference of the Doctrine asserted with some Practical Inferences HAving in the First Chapter made it good that Misery and Death that is in one Word that Vengeance is as the just so also the necessary Wages of Sin And in the Second That the Gospel it self holds out no such thing to us as either an Absolute or Arbitrary Forgiveness of Sin Our next Proposition must be That because the Gospel in this very Case is the Revelation of God's Will and because the Will and Counsel of God in that Gospel revealed is the Pardon and Salvation of Man that therefore Man's Sin is to be pardoned tho' not by an absolute or arbitrary Forgiveness And then because it must for that Reason be pardoned some way or other it will be our next Business to enquire what that Way is For by such Enquiry it may perhaps appear to be a Gospel-Truth and that too agreeable to Reason That there is not Salvation in any other but in Jesus Christ alone and that there is no other Name under Heaven given among Men whereby we must be saved And here because the Gospel promises no absolute Pardon of Sin as we do from thence in the first place conclude that the Pardon must be conditional so we must in the next place enquire what that Condition or what those Conditions are upon which this Pardon is to be obtained Now if in order to our more rational and satisfactory Resolution of this Enquiry we do first look into the Gospel there to inform our selves what a Gospel-Salvation means we may from thence learn that it does contain in it Two Things Whereof the first is Pardon of Sin and the second is the Gift of Eternal Happiness And in order to the obtaining of these Two Things as we shall see more fully in the farther Prosecution of this Matter Two other Things are in the Gospel required 1. An Expiation of Sin and 2. A Restitution to our lost Holiness For as we may conclude from our second Proposition That tho' the Gospel does allow a Pardon yet because it does not allow an absolute Pardon of Sin that therefore something will be required in order to such a Pardon So we may conclude from our first Proposition That because Punishment for Sin is necessary therefore some Punishment be that what it will at present must be suffered for our Sin And then if in the Progress of our Discourse it shall appear that in Consideration of any such Punishment so suffered the Gospel-Pardon of our Sins does afterwards ensue then such Pardon may be so far ascribed to such Punishment as that our Guilt and the Vengeance due to such our Guilt may be truly esteemed to be expiated by it Now in order to find out what Punishment it is that can make such an Expiation we shall first enquire what Punishment cannot do it And because Repentance does not so wholly consist in Action but that it must have something of Suffering mixed with it therefore in pursuit of our Design let our first Negative Proposition be this 1. That our Repentance for our Sins can never make out an Expiation of our Sins For tho' Repentance for our Sins be a Gospel-Condition required of us without which we shall never be made Partakers of the Benefit of the Gospel-Expiation yet notwithstanding that we neither do nor can by our Repentance make out that Expiation for Sin which is by the Gospel necessary for our Salvation For besides that there is no Man's Repentance so exact and compleat as to free him from all Sin while he lives and so after all he must remain a Sinner as long as he lives I say besides that His very manner of going out of the World and that is by Death is a demonstrative Proof that his Repentance has not made an Expiation for his Sins because we may most certainly conclude that his Sins are not then expiated and so neither pardoned when God himself lays on the Penalty threatned in his Law with his own Hand For when God gave his Law to Mankind in their universal Father and Representative Adam we know that he ratified such Law by the Penalty of Death and we know also that every Man let him be as pemtent as can be supposed does still suffer that Penalty And we may from thence also know that for that Reason no Man's Repentance can so far expiate his Sin as to free him from the Punishment threatned to it by the Law And then from the whole we may conclude That if any Man be saved because he is a true Penitent he must be saved by some other Expiation than by such his Repentance forasmuch as his Repentance can at the most but qualifie him to be made a Partaker of such Expiation 2. As Man's Repentance for his Sin which we may call his voluntary Punishment for Sin cannot so neither can his professed Punishment which we may call his legal Punishment for Sin expiate his Sin and so
of Sin Let us first hear what the Spirit saith who in the Fourth to the Ephesians the Fourth and Fifth Verses tells us That when the Fulness of Time was come God sent forth his Son made of a Woman made under the Law that is his Son was Incarnate and was under the Law and therefore made so as to be obliged to be obedient to it to redeem them that were under the Law that we might receive the Adoption of Sons And when we are told in one place That the Son of God was manifested for this very purpose that he might destroy the Works of the Devil and in another That he was manifest to take away Sin And when to answer to and explain the Meaning of these Places we are assured from other Places that at least one Way of his taking away Sins was by the Sacrifice of himself as in the Twenty sixth Verse of the Ninth to the Hebrews and that he appeared for that very purpose in the same Place And when we add to all this what we find in the Fifth Verse of the following Chapter that God had prepared him a Body and in the Tenth Verse that we are sanctified that is our Sins are put away through the offering of the Body of Jesus Christ once for all who as St. Peter speaks his own self bare our Sins in his own Body on a Tree I say when the Spirit of God does all along in the Scriptures expresly and categorically tell us That our Saviour suffered in his Body shed his Blood lost his Humane Life for our Sins for the Remission of Sin for the Redemption of Sinners when it does in several Places compare his Death to the Expiatory Sacrifices under the Law when it calls him the Lamb of God alluding to the Paschal Lamb that taketh away the Sins of the World when it tells us that he is the Propitiation for our Sins and the like It does by these and such like Expressions as much as Words can do it acquaint us at the same time that he suffered in his Body and died to atone for and to expiate our Sins And therefore all the uncouth and forced Interpretations of these and such like Texts which yet are a multitude that attempt to evacuate their plain Meaning may as soon persuade an honest and sincere Man that the Scriptures both of the Old and New Testament are a Book full of Collusion and Prevarication as they may that Jesus Christ our Saviour did not die to expiate the Sins of Mankind And were I not assured of God's Providence I should be apt to fear that the Devil might in time so bring Things about that if he could upon Pretences of Reason wipe away that Part of the Bible that concerns our Saviour's Incarnation and the Relation which that has to Man's Redemption that he might at last raise his Hopes of blotting out the whole Christian Religion For to tell us that our Saviour is only such a Man as other Men are but only conceived in a different and therefore more wonderful manner to tell us that he died patiently tho' wrongfully only that he might give us an Example of an exact Patience and of an entire Submission to God's Providence to tell us that he was slain a Sacrifice only to confirm the Covenant of Grace but that there was no such Design in his Death as to suffer for or to expiate our Sins as it is a notorious Contradiction to and not an Exposition of the Scriptures so for that very Reason it will appear to have a direct Tendency towards the overthrowing the Grand Design of the whole Book of God All which to them who shall scan the Scriptures exactly is directed to and does center in the Saviour and that Redemption which he purchased for Mankind by his Death and Merits Having therefore thus in short taken notice of what the Scripture tells us concerning the Expiation of Sin by the Susserings of our Saviour and having already made it out 1. That no Creature can by any means expiate the Sin of Mankind and 2. That our Saviour is God Incarnate or God and Man united in One Person we do in pursuit of our main Design lay it down in the 3. Third place That the Way and Method of Man's Salvation as it is expresly and frequently laid down in the Scriptures which is by the Sufferings and Death of the Son of God manifested in the Flesh is agreeable to right Reason and exactly congruous to the Measures of Truth and to the Rules of Justice And in order to our making this plain and clear we take notice 1. That that Law about the Transgression of which and the Release from the Penalty of such Transgression the Gospel-Forgiveness is only concerned was given to Man For the Scriptures give us no Account of the Forgiveness of the Breach of any other Law but only of that Law which God had prescribed to Mankind And therefore tho' in the Scriptures we have several broad Hints of the Fall of the Angels and tho' our Reason tells us that that which put them under the Displeasure of God must needs be Sin in the general yet we are therefore ignorant what their Sin was because we are ignorant what that Law was against which they sinned 2. We take notice That as that Law about which alone the Gospel-Forgiveness is concerned was the Law given by God to Man so the Gospel takes no other or farther notice of the Transgression of that Law than as that Law is broke by Man From whence we infer in the 3. Third place That that Punishment which the Law threatens against those who transgress it can only in Justice belong to those to whom the Law was given and directed For they can never transgress a Law who have no Law assigned them and they can never be justly punished for the Transgression of the Law who can never transgress the Law The Law therefore about which alone a Gospel-Forgiveness is concerned being the Law given to Man and transgressed by Man Man alone can justly suffer the Penalty of such Transgression From whence we infer in the 4. Fourth place That if any Penalty can ever justly expiate that Guilt which is contracted by the Breach of the Law that Penalty that must make such Expiation must be a Penalty laid upon Man And therefore our Common Sense of Justice will not allow us to think that either Angels which are ranked above Mankind nor Beasts which are ranked below them can by any Sufferings whatsoever expiate or atone for the Breach of such Law which being given by God to Man does so far forth concern Man alone And tho' we have before made it out that neither Angels on the one Hand nor brute Beasts on the other can expiate the Sin of Mankind as both the one and the other are Creatures yet what we now say is that they cannot do it as they are different Creatures For it seems necessary and that
World is restored to that Holiness which was lost by the Transgression of the Law and because no Man shall be compleatly and actually justified till he be so restored 2. Because the Expiation of our Sin by our Saviour and by consequence the Pardon of Sin by God is not Absolute but Conditional and because some of those Conditions upon which such Pardon does depend are to be performed by us such are our Repentance Conversion and the like and because lastly our Condition in this World is such that there will of necessity be required Time for our Performance of such Conditions Therefore we do conclude that as our Saviour has purchased for us such Conditions in order to our Redemption so has he also purchased for us a longer Term in which we may perform such Conditions For it is evident that the Denunciation of the Law upon the Transgression of it is In the Day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die And in strict Justice and Reason the Punishment is then to be inflicted when it becomes due and it then becomes due so soon as the Law is broken For were it not due then it would never become due at all Now because we find and that too by Experience that notwithstanding not only Adam's Sin but our own Sins too we do not presently die but that God waits our Return that he may be gracious to us and because we know that such his Patience and Forbearance is therefore extended to us that we may by our Repentance qualifie our selves to be made Partakers of that Expiation which is made by our Saviour for there is not Salvation in any other therefore we do at last conclude that the Grant of a Space for Repentance is the Purchase of our Saviour For it would have been the same thing for our Saviour to have made no Purchase for us at all if such his Purchase had been clogged with such Conditions on our Part which it was utterly impossible for us to perform And it had been utterly impossible for us to make out our Repentance and Amendment if we had not been allowed a competent Time to make them out in And what we have said concerning God's allowing of a competent Time in which Sinners may perform the Conditions of the Covenant purchased by the Saviour that we say also concerning the Means which are necessary for such their Performance Such are his Word the Succours and Assistance of his Spirit his Sacraments and whatever else does usually come under the Title of Means of Grace For it is not conceivable that our Saviour should purchase for us the End and yet leave us without the Means which are necessary for the bringing about such End But yet because the Means to enable us to perform the Conditions required of us in order to our Salvation are not nor indeed can possibly be that very Salvation for which they are designed or employed as means and because while we live in this World we are required and it is necessary in it self that we always have and also employ such Means to the purpose of our Justification and lastly because it is so far from being necessary that it is neither proper no nor wise to employ any Means for any End already attained therefore what we observed under our last Head will still remain true and that is That no Man is actually justified in this Life 3. From what has been said we take notice That tho' Afflictions in this Life are undoubtedly the Executions of Justice yet which is owing to our Saviour's Purchase there are always couched in such Afflictions Designs of Mercy For tho' as they look backward they have an Eye to our Sins yet as they look forward they have an Eye to our Amendment or at least to our Restraint For had we died for our Sins according to the Law we had been both immediately punished for our Sins past and had by the same Means been prevented from ever sinning for the time to come For a Death without a Resurrection had proved a sure and everlasting Prevention But as we have seen our Life being continued in consideration of our Saviour's Purchase tho' Afflictions are laid upon us during the Reprieve and tho' such Afflictions do confessedly come from the Hand of Justice yet they are never laid on without a Design and Mixture of Mercy And therefore as they are the Punishments of Sins past so they are designed as Means of Grace for the time to come And by the wise Counsel of our merciful and gracious God are employed chiefly indeed for our future Reformation but at least for our future Restraint and so are one and a great Branch too of what we call Restraining Grace As therefore we took notice under our last Head that the Reprieve of Man from the immediate Execution of the Sentence of the Law was the Purchase of our Saviour and that so Man's Life came to be continued notwithstanding his Transgression so under this Head we may observe that tho' Sin during such Continuance of Life cannot be restrained by Death yet the Just Merciful and All-wise God has not even in such Circumstances left it without all Restraint but has by Afflictions fitted such a Curb for it which notwithstanding the Saviour's Purchase is an irrefragable Proof of his Justice But tho' it be so does in no wise encroach upon such Purchase but rather promotes the Design of it For a Life continued in order to the Performance of those Conditions by the Performance of which Man in and through his Saviour may obtain Salvation A Life I say continued to such a Purpose is more likely to answer to such Purpose if its Attempts after sinful Commissions be restrained than it could be were such Attempts left free and at large For which Reason such Restraint tho' it be caused by Afflictions does rather fall in with than controul the Design of our Saviour's Purchase And tho' it be confessed that such Restraint is not so efficacious for the Prevention of future Sins as Death without any Reprieve had been for in the last Case the Prevention had been necessary whereas in the first it is at the most but possible yet it must be confessed also that it is most wisely suited to the Circumstances of those about whom it is employed and that for this Reason Because all Restraint being designed either to keep or to make them Good it is necessary in order to either that it be left to their own Choice whether they will improve it to either or both Designs or no For there can be no Goodness at all without such Freedom By all which we may at last understand that tho' Afflictions as well as Death are the Wages of Sin and tho' God does not let the reprieved Life of a Sinner pass on without the Tokens of his Displeasure that is in the present Case without Afflictions yet that it is owing to our Saviour that all such Afflictions are employed
and because none but such who do so shall by the Tenor of the Gospel suffer eternal Punishment therefore it is no Objection against the Merit of our Saviour's Death to say that his temporal Death cannot expiate an eternal Punishment because he did not suffer Death for any such Purpose and he did not do so because he did not suffer Death for those who alone shall suffer eternal Punishment that is he did not suffer Death for those who shall refuse and reject the only Means of Salvation which he purchased for Mankind by his Death Much more might be offered upon this Occasion but this being sufficient in this Place I shall therefore here add no more In the mean while I do not question but that the Value of our Saviour's Sufferings sâ—fficient to expiate the Guilt of any Sins for whose Expiation such Sufferings were designed tho' such Guilt should be supposed or allowed to deserve eternal Punishment of it self And from the Whole that has been spoken on this Subject we do at last conclude That a Release from the Vengeance due to Sin by the Law and purchased for Man by his Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ who for Man's sake made his Soul a Sacrifice for Sin is a just and legal Pardon and agreeable to the Measures of Right Reason and to the Laws of Justice For because the Pardon of Sin does imply in it a Desert of Punishment in the Party forgiven and because the laying the Punishment which he deserves upon another is in effect a Remission of that Punishment to him and because lastly a Remission of Punishment to the Party which deserves such Punishment may be truly accounted a Pardon of his Sin For Pardon of Sin to any Party whomsoever is neither more nor less than the Releasing or Freeing him from the Punishment due to his Sin Therefore if by what has been spoken it has appeared that the Punishment due to our Sins was without any Injustice translated upon another and that upon such Translation it cannot justly be exaâ—â—ed of us then it will follow that so far forth as our Sin was pardoned so far forth the Pardon was just And therefore so far as we have hitherto gone we may truly and rationally conclude That that Method in which the Gospel discovers our Salvation to be brought to pass does exactly square to the Rules of Right Reason and Justice For so we have seen that it does in the first thing which a Gospel-Forgiveness does imply and contain in it and that is the Pardon of Sin CHAP. VIII Bare Pardon of Sin not sufficient for a Gospel-Salvation Some Reasons offered for it They who are entitled to the Reward of the Law must be entitled to the Obedience paid to the Law Such Obedience must be perfect Some Practical Reflections THo' we have hitherto asserted the Sufficiency of our Saviour's Sacrifice for the Expiation and Pardon of Sin yet it must be confessed that bare Pardon of Sin upon any Considerations whatsoever be those Considerations never so valuable yet can never in Reason or Justice make out a Gospel-Salvation And therefore we laid it down at the Beginning that as in order to a Gospel-Salvation there was first required an Expiation and in consideration of such Expiation a Pardon of Sin so there is also required a Restitution to Holiness and the Gift of Eternal Happiness For because God's Law as every good Law besides does consist of Two Parts First the Directive or what it requires to be obey'd and Secondly the Vindictive or what upon Disobedience it requires to be suffered And because Sin is the Disobedience to or Transgression of the Law Therefore so far as we have discoursed of the Justice of the Pardon of Sin so far we have only discoursed of that Justice which concerns the Vindictive Part of the Law But by doing that we have not at all discoursed of that Justice which concerns the Directive Part of the Law And if upon our neglect to follow such Directions God does for any Reasons whatsoever forgive us the Penalty which we incur by such our Neglect and nothing more it must be confessed that by such a way of Proceeding all Care of the Directive which is indeed the principal Part of the Law is thrown away For because all Men are Sinners that is because none do obey the Law tho' God upon valuable Considerations do remit the Punishment to some or all of those Sinners yet still it is certain that the Duty enjoined by the Law remains undone by all And I therefore say it is certain because it will notoriously appear by what follows that the Pardon of Sin that is the Pardon of the Transgressionof the Law tho' such Pardon be granted by God and obtained by us in Consideration of our Saviour's Suffering in our stead can never pass for the Performance of the Directions of the Law that is can never pass for that Righteousness which consists in an Obedience to such Directions and therefore as we shall see more fully hereafter can never be sufficient for our obtaining a Gospel-Salvation which includes in it an eternal Holiness and an eternal Happiness as well as the Pardon of Sin Now that the Pardon of our Transgression of the Law can neither in Reason nor Justice pass for our Performance of the Directions of the Law will appear notorious from these following Considerations 1. Because Forgiveness does imply in the very Notion of it a Desert of Punishment and a Desert of Punishment does imply in it the Transgression of the Directions of the Law For no Man can be truly forgiven who does not justly deserve to be punished and no Man can justly deserve to be punished who does not transgress the Directions of the Law Now for the same Reason and upon the same Account to esteem a Man Innocent and yet a Criminal must needs be absurd because it is a Contradiction And then because in Contradictions only one Part can be true therefore so sure as we are that he who is truly forgiven must be a Sinner so sure we are also that he neither is nor can be truly supposed to be Innocent And therefore when God forgives as it is supposed in Reason and Common Sense that he does forgive Sins and is so expressed in general in the Scriptures so it is supposed in the same Reason and the same Common Sense that he does forgive those Sins to Sinners And therefore we cannot be supposed to have obeyed the Directions of the Law upon the Account that God does forgive us the Punishment threatned in the Law 2. Nor can we be so secondly Because should we undergo the Punishment which the Law threatens yet we could not by so doing ever fulfil the Directions of the Law For it is notorious in it self that the suffering what the Law threatens is not the doing what the Law commands Now it is certain that the Forgiveness of that Punishment which we have deserved can give us no
better a Title to Obedience than our suffering such Punishment could have done had that Punishment not been forgiven And it looks absurd at first view that Guilt should consist in the neglect of Obedience and that Punishment should be the Desert and therefore in Justice the Effect of our Guilt and yet that Obedience should be the Effect of our Punishment That is that Guilt after one Remove should be the proper and in a manner natural because just Cause of Duty But we may be therefore sure that it is no such matter because we are told by God himself that there is a Punishment after this Life which shall be Eternal which yet would be impossible if the suffering of Punishment were equivalent to a perfect Obedience to the Directions of the Law Which because for the Reason alledged and for more that might be alledged it cannot be therefore neither can the Forgiveness of such Punishment be so For it is evident that the Forgiveness of our Punishment can do no more towards the making us obedient than the Punishment it self could do should we undergo it And therefore the Pardon of our Sins for the Sake of our Saviour's having suffered in our stead does not of it self suppose us to have fulfilled the Directions of the Law 3. The Forgiveness of our Sins does imply nothing more in it than our Freedom from that Vengeance which the Law has threatned and which we have deserved by our Transgression of the Directions of it and so does only free us from the vindictive Part of the Law But does not for that Reason entitle us to those Rewards which the Law promises to those who obey its Directions Now it is a very different Thing to be barely freed from the Vengeance of the Law and to be entitled to the Promises of the Law because the Case may really so be put as that a Man may obtain a Release in the First Case and yet never be entitled to or possess the Promise in the Last And in all Cases let them be what they will yet still we are certain that the First can only in Reason nay in Nature belong to those who have transgressed the Law and that the Last can only in strictness of Law belong to those who have obeyed the Law And therefore that the First can be only Matter of Favour whereas the Last may be Matter of Right Now if there be any Difference in the Two Cases then let that Difference be lodged where it will yet we are from thence assured that the Cases are not the same and therefore neither can the Forgiveness of our Sins upon the Account of our Saviour's suffering the Vengeance of the Law in our stead be any Argument that we have fulfilled the Directions of the Law And therefore tho' it be affirmed by several Learned Men that we are sufficiently entitled to Eternal Happiness by the bare Pardon of our Sins in Consideration of our Saviour's Sufferings and that for this Reason because when we are treated by God with Impunity we are at the same time treated as Innocents and that he who is treated as an Innocent by God himself who cannot be mistaken in the Case must therefore needs be so Yet these Men as they do not sufficiently distinguish between an Innocent and a Saint so neither do they between Impunity and a Reward For tho' our Saviour's Sufferings are meritorious of a Reward to himself and so the Scriptures tell us yet they are only expiatory to us and that too in the Nature of the Thing For the utmost Design the natural Tendency and the only Business of an Expiation is to obtain an Impunity for such who have deserved and therefore must in Justice without such an Expiation suffer Punishment But neither Scripture Reason or Justice will tell us that a Purchase of Impunity from the Vengeance due to the Transgressors of the Law can be a Purchase of that Reward that is only due to Obedience to the Law In one Word Reward and Punishment derive not only from different but from contrary Principles And Impunity has and that too in the Nature of the Thing a Respect or Relation only to Punishment but none at all to Reward And for that Reason the meritorious Cause of Impunity can have no Concern with Reward neither Since then the Death of our Saviour is the meritorious Cause of Pardon to those who have transgressed the Law it is absurd in Nature and Reason to make it also the meritorious Cause of that Reward which as it supposes no need of Pardon so does by the Law only belong to those who have obeyed the Law So that an Expiation does at the most but make a Man Innocent but does nothing to make him a Saint For it only cancels his Neglect of Duty but does not do that Duty for him which he has neglected By all which it appears 1. That Reward does in Propriety and Justice only belong to Obedience to the Law 2. That Punishment does in Propriety and Justice only belong to the Transgression of the Law 3. That Expiation has no Relation to the Reward of Obedience but that it only concerns that Punishment which without such Expiation is in Justice due to Disobedience Now because God has taught us not only that our Sins shall be forgiven in and through our Saviour but that also in and through the same Saviour we shall obtain a glorious Reward And because as has appeared in general Reward does in Reason and Justice as properly belong to Duty and Obedience as Forgiveness does to Expiation Therefore our next Enquiry must be upon what Obedience such Reward is grounded For we are very sure that because the Distribution of such Reward is lodged in God's Hand therefore the Reward will be bestowed justly and because we are sure of that therefore we are farther assured that it will be conferr'd upon Duty and Obedience And indeed having in what went before seen what Provision God has made for the fulfilling the Vindictive Part of the Law in order to the Possibility and Justice of Man's Salvation and being satisfied that that Provision which he has made for that purpose will not also fulfil the Directive Part of the Law it must be our next Business to enquire what Provision he has made for the fulfilling of such Directive Part. For 1. In the first place We may therefore be certain that it shall be fulfilled one way or other because the Law being God's is in it self Holy Just and Good And we know and that too by the Light of Nature that it cannot be an indifferent Thing to the Ever-wise and most Holy Law-giver whether a Law which is so be obeyed or not For that would be in effect to cast off all Regard to Duty Holiness and Righteousness Nay which is yet more because every just Law must for that Reason even because it is just design the Obedience of them for whom it is made I say because it
Mankind besides yet by such Communications it is so far particularized if I may so speak as that in the estimation of the Gospel those who enjoy such Communications do become a Part of himself And hence it is that such People are in the Scripture said to be Members of his Body of his Flesh and of his Bones and that he is so often in the same Scriptures called their Head And we may know that he himself does so account them because he reckons those Kindnesses which are done to his distressed People as done unto himself These Things then being so how does the Scripture teach us to reason upon them in relation to our present Business Why as Sin was the Transgression of Adam entailed upon all his Posterity because the Covenant was made with him and with all his Seed for all Mankind as the Apostle in the Epistle to the Hebrews speaks in the like Case were in the Loins of Adam in the Day of his Transgression So Believers in consideration of their Saviour being regenerated by the Spirit and so becoming the Children of God the Righteousness of such their Saviour does so belong to them who are his Seed See Isaiah 53. ver 10. as Adam's Sin did to his And therefore in him they are the Sons of God and the Heirs of the Covenant of Grace And to this very purpose and in this very manner too if I be not very much mistaken the Apostle argues in the Fifth to the Romans and the Nineteenth Verse For as by one Mans Disobedience many were made Sinners so by the Obedience of one shall many be made Righteous And we may safely pronounce it that the Parallel of the Apostle would be no Parallel at all if the Obedience of Christ did not so affect Men in reference to their Righteousness as the Disobedience of Adam did to their Corruption And therefore the same Apostle tells us in the First to the Corinthians chap. 1. ver 30. That Christ is made to us Wisdom and Righteousness and Sanctification and Redemption And the same Apostle still after he had renounced his own Righteousness as well knowing that it would not avail him for the Purchase of that Happiness which the Gospel promised does confide only in that Righteousness which is through Faith in Christ in the Third to the Philippians ver 9. And in another Place we are said to be made the Righteousness of God in him and in the Prophet Jeremiah he is twice called the Lord our Righteousness Other Places might be produced which tho' they have been interpreted to a different Sense yet by that Light which has been already offered it does appear that they do more than barely countenance what we now maintain viz. That our Saviour's Obedience shall be made ours and how it shall be made so For what we have said concerning that Intimate Relation between him and his People will be a sufficient Warrant for the Imputation of his Righteousness to them CHAP. X. Some Objections answered and some Practical Inferences made NOW besides those Objections which lay directly in our Way and which we were therefore constrained to speak to in order to clear and open our Passage in the Profecution of the present Argument there are some others which lie against our whole Discourse and which because we have promised so to do we must now speak to apart and by themselves 1. And first it is objected against the Imputation of our Saviour's Righteousness That such his Righteousness which is meant in the present Case is his Obedience to the Law and that his Obedience to the Law does consist in the Conformity of his Actions to the Law His Obedience therefore being lodged in his Actions unless his Actions can be made ours it is impossible that his Obedience should be so For so long as the Actions of one Man are not the Actions of any other Man so long it must and will be true that the Obedience which is only paid by such Actions and which is therefore undoubtedly lodged in such Actions cannot be that others neither This is the Substance of the Objection which might be put in more Words but because I think the full Force of it is sufficiently expressed in what we have spoken therefore it needs not 1. Now in order to clear this matter we observe first That the Right which one Person has in a Thing may be made over or transferred to another Person by the delivery of such Thing to him provided that he who delivers it do some way or other signifie that it is his Mind by such his Delivery to transfer such his Right Where we must take notice of Two Things First That bare Delivery of the Thing without such Signification does not alter the Right in such Thing For in such Case the Thing being only transfer'd naturally but not legally the Right in it is not transferred with it Take the Thing in an Instance A Man puts a Purse of Money into another Man's Hand who stands by him to hold it In this Case the Purse and Money is actually and naturally transferr'd from one Man to another but tho' it be naturally transferr'd yet it is not for all that legally transferr'd For the Alteration of the Possession does not in the Case alter the Right and so tho the Money be removed from one Man to another yet the Propriety in the Money is not On the other Side one Man by Deed of Gift or some other legal and sufficient Conveyance makes over his Right in the Purse of Money to another but still keeps the Money in his own Possession In such a Case tho' the Money be not naturally or locally call it which you please transferr'd or made over to that other yet it is legally so For tho' the Possession remain in the Donor yet the Right is transferr'd to and therefore is in the Donee The second Thing to be observed in this Case is that that Thing whose Right is transferr'd by Delivery must be something which is capable as our Law speaks of Manual Occupation For tho' the Right to some Things may be transferr'd by Delivery yet the Right to others cannot be so transferr'd 2. Secondly therefore The Right in a Thing may be transferr'd from one Person to another by Deed or any proper and legal Instrument of Conveyance there where the Nature of the Thing is such that the Thing it self cannot be transferr'd by Delivery And such a Thing for Instance is a Privilege For we may bestow upon another a Privilege which of Right belongs to our selves and by so doing may give him a Right in such Privilege tho' we cannot so put him in the possession of it as we can do of a Ring or a Garment Such a Thing then may be legally and rightfully transferr'd to another tho' because it is not capable of Manual Occupation it cannot be transferr'd locally or naturally 3. Thirdly Where a Thing not capable of Manual Occupation does so
the Law had promised to such Obedience 1. Now in order to our making good our first Proposition we must examine what Qualifications are absolutely necessary in order to fit any one to make such Purchase and then enquire farther Whether such Qualifications either do or can belong to any other besides our Saviour alone 1. Now the first and leading Qualification in him who shall be fitted for the Purchase of a Release from the Penalty of the Law which they have incurred who transgress the Law is that he who makes such a Purchase must be one of the same Kind with them to whom the Law was given that is in the present Case must be a Man For the Law was given to Man was broke by Man and therefore also the Breach of it in the Congruity of Things and by the Laws of Common Sense and Justice is to be punished in Man Now tho' our Saviour was not the only Person in the World who had this Qualification for every Man besides is as real a Man as he was yet he was the only Man among all Mankind who by this Qualification was fitted for the effectual enterprising and bring to pass those other Things which are absolutely necessary for the Purchase of the Release spoken of 2. For secondly The next Qualification of him who is fitted for the Purchase of a Release from the Penalty of the Law is that he must be an Innocent Man He was to be a Lamb without Spot or Blemish and to answer to the Paschal Lamb which in this as in several other Things was a Type of that Lamb of God which should take away the Sins of the World For he who is qualified to suffer for others in order to release those others from the Penalty of Sin must not therefore be a Sinner himself because if he be so then he must by the Laws of Justice and even according to the Tenor of that Law which assigns such Penalty suffer the Penalty for his own Sin And he who suffers the Penalty of the Law for his own Sin cannot therefore suffer the Penalty of the Law for the Sin of others at least in the present Case he cannot because the Penalty of the Law upon the Transgression of it being the loss of Life his own Penalty exhausts the whole Stock or Possibility of his so suffering For he who has but one Life and no Man has more can pay that Life but once And therefore if he lays it down for his own Sin he must for that Reason have nothing remaining to lay down for the Sin of others 3. He who is duely qualified to purchase for Mankind a Release from the Penalty of their Sins must be a Man whose Life is of more value than the Lives of all the rest And the Reason for it is plain and obvious because we know that the Lives of all the rest can make no such Purchase And the Lives of all the rest cannot therefore make any such Purchase because the Death of no single Man can make such a Purchase for himself For what no single Man's Death can do for himself that the Death of all Men cannot do for all For there is just the same Proportion between all Men and the Death of all that there is between one Man and the Death of one Besides supposing a Man to be a Transgressor of the Law it looks very absurd to affirm that the Death of such a Man which is the Punishment of his Transgression can be the Purchase of his Release from such Punishment For then the self-same Thing and that is his Death will bear a quite contrary Character for it will be both the Wages of his Sin and the Purchase of his Ransom that is it will be the Vengeance of the Law and the meritorious Cause of his Freedom from the same Vengeance Every Sinner therefore against the Law must be a Sufferer under the Vengeance of the Law and that Law which adjudges those who transgress it to Death does not by so doing design to return them to Life For if it did then by inflicting its Sentence it must design to revoke that Sentence and by making the Punishment a Release from the Punishment must look like Trifling and not like Justice The Loss of no Sinner's Life then is of Value sufficient to put a Period to the Execution of that Sentence which the Law pronounces against those who do transgress it And every Man's Death in the Course of the Law had been eternal were there nothing else to remove it but his own Strength that is in the present Case but his own Death For if the Death of a dead Man can do nothing for him we are sure that no other of his Powers or Merits can For in the Case before us he can have no other Merits of his own to restore him to Life but the Merits of his Death and the Merits of his Death as we have seen are none at all And to expect any Relief from a dead Man's Powers is to expect Relief from no Powers at all for Death crushes all the Powers of all Men whom it seizes Now this being the Condition of all Men who die because they are Sinners we may from hence safely conclude That if any Man who is not a Sinner shall undertake by his own Death to make good the Ransom of all the rest from Death and after that shall make good his Undertaking I say if any Man shall do this we may be sure that his Death or his Life which you will is therefore of more Value than the Life or Death of all the rest because he does by it make that Purchase which all the rest could not do by theirs For in the present Case the Value of the Thing may be truly and justly estimated by the Possibility of the Purchase it can make because the Possibility of the Purchase depends upon the Allowance of the Great and Just God And then when God is willing to release Man from Death in Consideration of the Death of his Innocent Saviour and when he is not so in Consideration of sinful Man 's own Death and when he does professedly declare such his Will in many Places of his Word and by the repeated Attestations of Matter of Fact whereby several People have been raised from the Dead in the Name and by the professed Power of the Saviour I say when we find all these Things to be so as we do or at least easily may find them so to be we may from the Whole conclude That the Death of our Saviour is of more Value than the Death of all Mankind because it can do that which the Death of all the rest cannot do and that too by the Allowance of God himself Now from these Propositions so laid down we may therefore conclude That there is not Salvation in any other but only in our Saviour set forth in the Gospel 1. Because it was absolutely necessary in Justice that the
were but Types and Shadows it is notorious for that very Reason that they were not the Reality and Substance and that therefore the Expiation did not belong to them Take what we say in the Apostle's Words and so it may be more satisfactory in the Tenth to the Hebrews and the beginning For the Law having a Shadow of good Things to come and not the very Image of the Things can never with these Sacrifices which they offered Year by Tear continually make the Comers thereunto perfect And after some other things to the same purpose he concludes in the Fourth Verse that it is impossible that the Blood of Bulls and Goats should take away Sins And therefore tho' it be freely granted that a Remission of Sin did usually follow upon the offering of those Legal and Ritual Sacrifices yet from what has been said it must be granted also that such Remission did not proceed from the Consideration of any real Expiation that was made by those Sacrifices but only from that Expiation of which they were the Types viz. from the Expiation made by the Lamb of God which was slain from the Foundation of the World that is the Merit of whose Death does extend it self from the Fall of Adam to the Consummation of a Things 2. But secondly The Lives of the Creatures offered to God as an expiatory Sacrâ—fice for Sin can never make the Expiatiâ— designed because all those Lives are his as tecedent to such Offering To attempt therâ— fore to expiate our Sins by them is no betteâ— than to offer to God what is his own already or for our Sins are in the Gospel calleâ— Debts it is to pay our Debts to God wiâ—â— his own Money which rightly considereâ— is so far from bringing us out of debt that really increases our Debt by the folly if no also by the mockery of the Attempt This 〈◊〉 God's own Argument to his People the Jewâ— in the Fiftieth Psalm I will take no Bullock oâ— of thine House nor He-goat out of thy Folds for every Beast of the Forest is mine and 〈◊〉 are the Cattel upon a thousand Hills witâ— more to the same purpose relating to thâ— Insufficiency of their Legal Sacrifices for thâ— Expiation of Sins 3. The Lives of the Creatures offered tâ— God for the Expiation of the Sins of Men can never make such Expiation because the are of far less Value and that too not only in the Nature of the Thing but also in thâ— Estimation of those that offer them than thâ— Lives of those for whom they are offered Now it can never answer to the Rules of Justice to pay our Creditor only an hundreâ— Pence when we owe him an hundred Pounds And he who shall think that he can so discharge his Debt may by the same Measures come in time to reckon that he may discharge it for nothing I have spoken something the larger to these Things tho' perhaps it may seem needless partly because they have been a Part of God's own Instituted Worship partly because they are a Part of the Religious Worship of many Nations at this Day but chiefly because they have a Relation to that great Sacrifice which is the main Design of all our Discourse And this our Design will still be farthered if we consider in the 4. Fourth place That as neither Man for himself nor the Creatures that are inferior to him can make any Expiation for his Sins so neither can the Creatures above him Now the most exalted Creatures that Revelation has acquainted us with and we know nothing in this Case but what we have from Revelation are the Angels and Archangels And we may be therefore satisfied that those glorious Beings can never make an Expiation for the Sin of Man because it appears by the Revelations of God that they can never make an Expiation for their own Sins And therefore as we are told in such Revelations that some of them have sinned so we are in the same told that those that have so done are reserved in everlasting Chains to the Judgment of the great Day Now our Natural Reason tells us that no Creature can be so in love with Misery and surely everlasting Chains and a fearful expectation of Judgment do imply Misery for the Devils believe and tremble But I say our Natural Reason tells us that no Creature can be so in love with Misery as not to free it self from it were it in its power so to do And therefore the same Natural Reason does tell us that the true Reason why the faln Angels do not do so is because they cannot do so And if they cannot expiate their own Sins we may be pretty well satisfied that they cannot expiate Sin at all And we may be the rather so satisfied because we are as sure that they would in the Case employ their best Endeavours for themselves as we are sure that they love themselves best Besides we know that in the Case of Mankind Death is threatned as the Penalty for the Breach of the Law And we may be pretty well satisfied that without Death no Expiation can be made For without Blood there is no Remission But on the other side we have some Reason to believe that Angels are not liable to Death at least not to such a Death to which Man is obnoxious and therefore for this Reason as well as the former we may pretty rationally conclude That the Angels are in no Capacity to expiate the Sins of Mankind and that therefore they cannot do it One thing more I would add to this Head before I leave it and that is this That tho' the Angels are very glorious and exalted Creatures and by the Account we have of them in the Scriptures are placed in a much higher Scale in the Creation than Man and so are far above him yet still because they are Creatures they are therefore at as great a distance from God as Man himself is For their Distance from him is infinite and there are we know no Degrees in Infinity Now because the Expiation of Sin is to be made to God and to God alone and because there is an infinite Distance between God and Angels as well as there is between God and Man I say for these Reasons we can no more think the Interposition of an Angel effectual for making an Atonement and Expiation for Sin than we can think the Interposition of a Man to be so And if we should suppose a sort of Creatures a thousand nay ten thousand or more times as much above Angels as Angels are above Men yet because after such a Supposition even this sort of Creatures are as much below God as Man is and because the Expiation of Sin if attempted by such Creatures is to be made to God therefore we cannot think that the Dignity of their Station can contribute any thing at all towards the making their attempted Expiation effectual And we know and that too by unquestionable Proof
too in the Nature of the Thing it self that Creatures so different should be under different Laws and that therefore neither their Obedience to nor their Transgression of those several Laws under which they are should have any such Concern or Relation to one another as that one sort of Creature should in any Case undergo the Penalty of the Transgressions of the other sort of Creature And therefore for the same Reason that we should look upon it as absurd and unjust that a Man should suffer for the Sin of an Angel I say for the same Reason we should think it no less absurd and unjust that an Angel should suffer for the Sin of a Man The Thing might be made out in more Words But it needs not Now these few Remarks being left by the way to give Perspicuity and Strength to those Things which are to follow the Wisdom Justice Reasonableness and Congruity of the Redemption of Mankind by the Sufferings and Death of our Saviour as that Redemption is expresly laid down in the Scriptures will appear from these following Considerations 1. And first Our Saviour who by his Death and Sufferings undertook the Purchase of Man's Redemption was as really and verily a Man himself as were those whom he undertook to redeem This is evident because he is all along in the New Testament called Man the Son of Man and the like as we have made it out already And this so far accommodates the Scripture-Account of the Purchase of Man's Salvation to the Law that 1. As the Law threatned the Punishment to Man alone and to no other Creature so in the Purchase of the Redemption Man alone suffered such Punishment and no Creature besides 2. And secondly As it accommodates the Scripture-Account of the Purchase of Man's Redemption to the Law because our Saviour who suffered in order to such Purchase was a Man So it accommodates the Scripture-Account of the Purchase of Man's Redemption to the Rules of Justice because our Saviour who suffered in order to such Purchase was an Innocent Man It may perhaps at first sight look strange when I say that the Purchase of Redemption by the Death of an Innocent Man is accommodated to the Rules of Justice But the Wonder will then vanish when I shall come to make it out that tho' an Innocent Man cannot without his own Consent be justly punished yet that with such his Consent he may be so punished But because That belongs to another Place therefore in this I pass it by For that that I design at present is only to shew that it is not agreeable to the Laws of Justice that a Criminal against the Law should expiate another Man's Sin by suffering the Penalty of the Law Because the Penalty which he suffers being the just Demerit and Wages of his own Sin he cannot by undergoing the Punishment of his own Sin add any such Desert to such his Punishment as to make it meritorious of Impunity to any other Sinner As therefore under the last Head we learnt that he who by his Punishment expiates the Sin of another Man must in Reason and Congruity be a Man himself so under this Head we may learn that he must be an Innocent Man likewise And so the Sufferings and Death of our Saviour for the Redemption of Mankind will afford us a further Congruity to the Rules of Reason and Justice in that that Saviour is exhibited to us in the Gospel not only to be a Man but also to be an Innocent Man 3. The Wisdom Justice and Reasonableness of the Redemption of Mankind by the Sufferings and Death of our Saviour as that Saviour was a Man will yet farther and more notoriously appear if we consider the first Rise and Formation of Mankind according to that Account which the Scriptures give us of it For there we are told in general that God did of one Blood make all Nations of Men for to dwell on the Face of the whole Earth in the Seventeenth Chapter of the Acts of the Apostles And then if we look back to the original Creation of Mankind and there enquire more particularly how this was done we shall from thence be informed that God first made Adam out of the Earth and that after that he made Eve out of Adam both of them extraordinary and miraculous Productions and that then through all succeeding Generations he formed all the rest of Mankind out of both or such succeeding Pairs which proceeded from both to an understanding Man as miraculous tho' a more ordinary Production than that of the first Man and Woman So that all Mankind are by the Scripture-Account of the Thing a continued Propagation of the Blood of Adam branched out through the several Disseminations of all succeeding Men and Women from his Days to this present Time Now our Saviour as he was Man took part of this Flesh and Blood so the Scripture and by doing so became a Part of that Common Blood out of which all the particular Men in the World are and always have been made as well as he he stands therefore in as near a Relation to all Mankind as can possibly be made by the same Flesh and Blood and that Relation may well be granted to be very near because it is that very Relation which the several Parts of a Thing by continued derivation the same have to one another And so far the Relation of our Saviour to the rest of Mankind is in all Circumstances exactly the same with that Relation which every other Man has to every other But yet there is something peculiar to our Saviour in his becoming Man which does not belong to any other Man whomsoever And that is that as the first Woman was formed only out of the Man so our Saviour was formed only out of the Woman And accordingly the first Promise of Redemption that God gave to Adam after he had sinned was Prophetically worded when he told him that the Seed of the Woman should break the Serpent's Head And therefore as Adam is in the Scriptures called the first Man because he was formed out of the Earth so our Saviour is called the second Man in the same Scriptures because he was formed out of the Woman that is he was the first Man after his Kind as Adam was in his To our present Purpose and Design then As we cannot but take notice that God's Counsel and merciful Purpose for the Redemption of Mankind was very early for that Counsel must needs be so that was in a manner Cotemporary to Man's first Sin as the immediate Discovery of that Counsel to Man upon the Commission of that Sin does make it appear so some Glimpses of that Counsel do to me seem to shew forth themselves in the Scripture-Account of Man's Creation For when God tells us in his Word that he has so ordered the Creation Propagation and Dissemination of Mankind that tho' their Numbers are to us Innumerable yet we do for all
that know that they all came from one single Fountain that is from one single Man and so that they are all but so many Rivulets from that Fountain And when moreover we are assured that our Saviour is One of those Rivulets For tho' our Saviour was only to be made of the Woman yet because the Woman was made out of the Man therefore our Saviour did by the Woman derive from the same one single Person with the rest of Mankind I say when we consider all this methinks it is no hard matter to conceive that God himself does in his Word lay the Ground-work of Man's Redemption by a Saviour if I may be allowed so to word my self in that near and intimate Relation which our Saviour by becoming Man has to all Mankind besides and that the Intimacy of such Relation consists in this that the Saviour and all Mankind do derive from one single and common Fountain And hence we are told in one Place that as by Man came Death there is the Sin of Adam and the Wages of such Sin by Man came also the Resurrection of the Dead there is the Redemption of our Saviour and his Purchase And more expresly still to our present Purpose speaks the same Apostle in the same Chapter the Fifteenth of the First to the Corinthians For as in Adam all died so in Christ shall all be made alive And to the same purpose again in the Fifth to the Romans and the Eighteenth Verse Therefore as by the Offence of one Judgment came upon all Men to Condemnation even so by the Righteousness of one the Free-gift came upon all Men unto Justification of Life In all which Texts and several others that might be named it is notorious that the Redemption of Mankind is so ascribed to the second Adam the Man Christ Jesus as the Sin and Death of Mankind is ascribed to the first Man Adam And I do not at all question but that those Hints which the Scriptures do frequently offer to us of our Saviour's taking the Humane Nature in order to our Redemption of his taking Part of the same Flesh and Blood with us of his being our Brother and the like I say I do not at all question but that when seriously considered they may mightily assist and facilitate both our Conceptions and Belief of the Wisdom Justice Reasonableness and Congruity of our Saviour's Incarnation Death Resurrection in one Word of that Redemption which he by being made one with Mankind by taking their Nature upon himself has purchased form them And may mightily conduce to the Removing of those Difficulties which the Enemies of the Cross of Christ have thrown as so many Stumbling-blocks in the Way of plain and honest Christians 4. The Wisdom Justice Reasonableness and Congruity of our Saviour's Incarnation in order to his Purchase of Man's Redemption does yet farther appear in that by becoming Man he put himself into a Capacity of suffering Death that is of suffering that Punishment which the Law had denounced against those that should transgress it For it is a gross Mistake and does indeed bring a Scandal upon God's Veracity to affirm That he threatens greater Vengeance in any Law before the Transgression of it than he will execute after the Transgression that so he may the more effectually prevent such Transgression For God never yet threatned any peremptory and unconditional Punishment in any Law which he has not or when the Time comes he will not as certainly execute In the Day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die says God The Threatning we see is peremptory and the Execution we find is so too and therefore all Sinners die And I cannot in the least doubt but that for the same Reason an eternal Punishment will be the certain Vengeance upon a final Impenitence But that is not so direct to my present purpose and therefore here I pass it by But to confirm what I am now upon I say that God does not pardon the Death threatned in his Law against Sin no not in Consideration of the Death of our Saviour and therefore notwithstanding his Death and that too in our stead we see that all Men and even those who hope for Salvation by such his Death do yet die What therefore our Saviour in this Case has puchased for us is not a Freedom but a Release from Death And therefore that Redemption from Death which is the Purchase of his Blood is to be accomplished after we have been dead by a Resurrection A Resurrection then is to make good the Purchase of his Death and therefore his Death purchased for us not a Freedom but a Release from our Death by such Resurrection Now as his Death was necessary for such a Purchase so his Incarnation was necessary in order to such his Death And he was therefore made of the same Blood with all Mankind that by shedding that Blood for Mankind he might after his own Resurrection restore the Lives of all Men which had been forfeited by Adam's Transgression So that as his Death was the meritorious Expiation of Sin and as a Resurrection is the Fruit and Effect of such his Expiation So his Incarnation was a necessary Forerunner of such his Death and therefore before he could possibly die for Man and so purchase a Redemption of Man from Death it was agreeable to the Laws of Wisdom Justice and Reason that he should become Man himself But then how his Death came to be of so valuable a Price as to make so glorious a Purchase we must leave to farther Enquiry For by that it will appear that as it was necessary that he should die the Death of a Man so it was necessary that such his Humanity should be united to the Divinity And by both it will appear that God was manifested in the Flesh to destroy the Works of the Devil and that therefore when the Scriptures tell us so much they tell us no more than what is agreeable to Wisdom Justice and Reason CHAP. VI. The Divinity of the Son of God necessary for the Expitation of Man's Sin as well as his Humanity Some Doctrinal Inferences A general Proof That as our Saviour did actually die so that he might justly die for the Expiation of Sin HAving therefore seen that our Lord Jesus Christ was qualified by his Incarnation to make an Expiation for Sin by the Sacrifice of himself and that such his Qualification is agreeable to the Laws of Justice and to the Rules of Reason and Wisdom Our next Enquiry must be How such his Sacrifice came to be of such a Value as to be justly sufficient to make good such an Expiation For because the Death of an Innocent Man if he be no more than a mere Man is but the Death of a Creature and because no Creature can by its Punishment in another Creature 's stead expiate the Sin of that other Creature for if it could then a Creature might by its own Punishment
is no Security that any Creatures Personal or Natural Holiness shall be eternal If therefore we shall bring our present Business to this Case and by comparing one with the other take leave to judge of what may be by having seen what has been we may take notice that if our Saviour did nothing more for Man's Salvation but only expunge the Guilt of his Sins and so restore him again to his Original Innocence all this would warrant no more than that Man should by this Means have been restored to that Innocence or Holiness of which Adam stood possessed before his Transgression But that this Holiness should be lasting and eternal we have not all this while any the least Ground of Warrant no nor of Conjecture Nav we may rather conclude that it would not be so because we know to our Cost that Adam's was not so For I would ask Whether this Innocence or Holiness be sufficient to make Man happy If it be both answered and granted That it is then I would further demand Whether it will secure that Happiness to Eternity If it will then it must be something more than a Restoration of Man to a State of an Adamical Holiness for we are sure that that first Holiness could do no such thing If it will not then it will not answer to a Gospel-Salvation because such a Salvation does imply in it everlasting Happiness and everlasting Happiness must as we have seen be attended with everlasting Holiness In one Word therefore if as Man's Happiness does depend upon his Holiness so his everlasting Happiness must depend upon his everlasting Holiness then we may well reckon that that Holiness of Man which shall accompany eternal Salvation must be an indefectible Holiness that shall never fail and therefore whose Reward shall never cease And by this time we hope that the Truth of what we have laid down and of what we designed to make good may begin to appear which is 1. That the Chief Design of our Saviour's coming into the World was to bring sinful Man to a State of perfect Holiness for by that Man 's chief Happiness and which is yet a great deal more God's original Dominion and Jurisdiction over Man is provided for 2. That an everlasting Holiness is required to an everlasting Happiness 3. That such an Holiness is none of Man 's own and that therefore 4. It must come from some other and that that other must be God Having therefore seen by what has been said that an everlasting Holiness is necessary in order to Man 's everlasting Salvation and that such Holiness must come from God Let us proceed and by that Light which his Revelations have afforded us in this Case enquire what Provision God has made for the furnishing Man with such an Holiness in order to such his Salvation And 1. We are instructed by such Revelations That God sent his Son our Saviour into the World cloathed with the same Flesh with sinful Man to instruct and direct him in the Ways of Holiness by his Doctrine and by his Example That upon this Account he is called the Light of the World for he made our Duty plain and intelligible took off that Veil from Mens Understandings by which they were induced to believe that Holiness did consist in outward Washings in Ceremonies and Formalities and such other or Modes or Gestures which contained nothing of true Holiness in them because they did not form our Spirits to God's Likeness nor make us holy as he is holy And because he found Men laden with Sin he did advise them to unburden themselves by Repentance that so they might the more expeditely set about the Attainment of that Holiness which he recommended to their Practice And hence it was that his Fore-runner John the Baptist first and he himself and his Apostles afterwards did all begin their great Work with an Exhortation therefore to Repent because the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand In a Word in order to terrifie Men from their wicked Courses and to invite them into the Paths of true Piety and Godliness he did by his Threats acquaint them with a more express grievous and future Punishment and by his Promises with a more express happy and future Reward than either Natural Reason or Revelation had as yet discovered These with some other were the Methods which our Saviour when in the Flesh took to persuade Men to add their own Endeavours to his for their obtaining Salvation And because these Things were designed for such a Purpose by him and because they have in themselves a natural tendency to bring such Design to pass and because lastly the Salvation of Man does in the whole Oeconomy of it proceed from the Grace of God therefore these Things when summed up together under one Denomination are called Means of Grace These therefore and the like Means of Grace and them too backed and confirmed by Miracles our Saviour made use of to engage Men to practise and attain that Holiness by which alone they could in Justice be fitted for Salvation 2. But then secondly we are instructed both by God's Word and by our own Experience That all these Means made use of by our Saviour did never yet produce that Holiness in any Man which is to fit him for his designed Salvation For what from Weaknesses and Irresolutions from within and what from Temptations from without what from the Temptations of the Devil and what from his own wicked habitual and over-ruling Practices every Man falls short of the Grace of God and his very best Practices being corrupted with Carelesness or Inadvertency or Wilfulness and all of them Evil do not beget in him that Holiness to which alone eternal Salvation can in Justice belong It may be then demanded How any Man comes to be saved To which I answer in the next that is the 3. Third place That tho' the Means of Grace do not beget that Holiness in any Man in this Life in Consideration of which he can in Justice obtain eternal Salvation yet we are assured that the Means of Grace tendred in the Gospel and made use of by Man may and often have this Effect as to engage Men heartily to desire and wish for such an Holiness This is what our Saviour calls hungring and thirsting after Righteousness An hearty and sincere Desire to be what we ought to be and to make good the Sincerity of such our Desire an hearty and sincere Endeavour to be what we desire to be For no Man does or can heartily and sincerely desire any Thing who does not also heartily endeavour to obtain it Now an hearty Desire and an hearty Endeavour after Holiness does if I may so speak open and enlarge the Soul to admit and receive such Holiness whenever God shall be pleased to bestow it And because every good and perfect Gift comes from above from the Father of Light we may be therefore sure that Holiness the best and most perfect Gift