not the light of his word and his Law written in the Scriptures to many Nations yet he giveth to them all the light and Law of Nature and therefore the transgressions of the Law of Nature are sins against God The Apostle saith until the Law sin was in the world but sin is not imputed where there is no Law nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses even over them that had not sinned after tbe similitude of Adams transgression Sin was in the world before the Law was given on mount Sinai But how can it be just to charge sin upon them who had no Law against which to sin Nevertheless death raigned from Adam to Moses even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression Who are they Some seem to understand Infants only who sinned not actually in their own persons as Adam did yet dying in their infancy were guilty of original sin Others take it for all that lived between the time of Adam and Moses who sinned not after the similitude of Adams transgression because they sinned not against an express Law given by revelation from Heaven as Adam did who sinned against that express prohibition of God forbidding him to eat of the fruit of the Tree of knowledge of good and evil under the pain of certain death and destruction I conceive this latter sense more probable because of that special limitation of time from Adam to Moses for the case of those that dye in their Infancy for ought I know is the same whether before or after the time of Moses before and after the Law written but the condition of those that lived between Adams time and that of Moses differed from those that lived after Now the Apostle sheweth that death the punishment of sin fell upon them so did many other judgements the flood destroying the old world the showr of fire and brimstone upon Sodom fell within the compass of that time and therefore certainly they were guilty of sin and justly punished because these calamities were the just judgements of God who is the righteous judge of all the world and therefore although these sinned not against any positive Law of God delivered to them either by word or writing yet they sinned against the light and Law of Nature which God had given them Secondly This may shew us the reason and the justice of those severe executions of God upon Heathen Nations who had no Scripture nor written Law to sin against They sinned against the Light and Law of Nature for the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness because that which may be known of God is manifest in them for God hath shewed it unto them c. The Judgements and Calamities publick national private personal brought upon any of mankind in several ages are evidences of Gods wrath and displeasure against them and therefore proofs of their sin and guiltiness against God otherwise the Lord who is perfectly righteous would not bring these evils upon them and among the rest the death of the body is a universal declaration of the wrath of God against mankind for sin If any should be free from all other evils yet this alone would be a sufficient proof of their sinfulness and therefore the Lord said unto Adam and in him to each particular person of his posterity soon after he had sinned and they had sinned in him Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return By one man sin entred into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned Euery dead Corps every Funeral that ye see or hear of all the persons that have died from the beginning of the world unto this day have by their death manifested the wrath of God against sin and mens guiltiness before the Lord for though through the grace and mercy of God in Christ the death of a true believer is turned into a blessing and made an inlet or entrance into everlasting life yet in its own Nature it is a consequent of sin and sin was the original of it In special the Heathens who had not the mind of God so fully revealed to them as those within the Church yet had the Light and Law of Nature and in sinning against that Light and Law were justly punished for they held the Truth in unrighteousness This common Light and Law of Nature was the Truth of God und they by opposing their wills and lusts against it and so not following the guidance of it were found guilty of fighting against God and crossing that Light which the Lord had given them and therefore the Lord dealt with them as Enemies So the Lord punished Sodom and the Cities adjoynning with fire and brimstone So the Canaanites and Amorites were destroyed for their sins against the Light and Law of Nature and Israel was planted in their Land The Lord told Abraham that his seed should possess it but not until after four hundred years Why Because the iniquity of the Amorites was not yet full so that it was the fullness of their iniquity which was the cause of their destruction it was because their sin was come to its full height that they were rooted out So the Lord having forbidden Israel the practice of divers great sins saith Defile not your selves in any of these things for in all these things the Nations are defiled which I cast out before you And the Land is defiled therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it and the Land it self vomiteth out the Inhabitants The Lord threatned divers grievous Judgements by the Prophet Amos against many Heathen Nations Syria the Philistines Tyrus Edom Ammon Moab All the miseries of war brought upon Heathen Nations what were they but revelations and reall demonstrations of the wrath of God from Heaven for their sins against the Law and Light of Nature The ruining of the Babylonish Monarchy by the Medes and Persians of the Persian by the Macedonians and Grecians the Macedonians by the Romans of the Roman by the Saracens and Turks on the one side and divers Northern Nations on the other these and the like were just Judgements of God upon Heathens for sins against the Light and Law of Nature So I conceive the cruel Spaniards were unjust executioners of the righteous Judgements of God upon the poor Indians or Americans for their sins against the same common Light and Law of Nature for the Lord executeth just Judgements by wicked men yea by Divels who aime not at all at the Lords end but either delight to exercise their malice and cruelty or act thus to make a ful conquest and utterly disable a people to make head again Thirdly This may clearly convince us that the sins of Christians are far more heinous then the sins of Infidels and Heathens because they sin against the same Law
any flee from sin and not rather add sin to sin doing evil that good may come that Gods grace may be the more manifested to his glory The Apostle rejecteth these with detestation shewing that notwithstanding all their perverse cavils they shall find God a severe judge and that their damnation is just for it doth no way lessen the guilt of sin that God getteth glory by it for sin in its own nature tendeth to the darkning of Gods Glory and men by sinning dishonour God but such is the infinite perfection of God that as he commanded the light to shine out of darkness though darkness be contrary to the light so he can work good and get himself glory out of the evil of sin which in it self tendeth to rob him of his glory So in the sixth Chapter of this Epistle shall we continue in sin that grace may abound The Apostle had shewed before that all had sinned in Adam besides the guilt of their own actual sins yea even such as lived before the Law was given by Moses and that by the publishing of the Law sin abounded the guilt of sin increased but then withal he added that where sin abounded grace did much more abound the free love and favour of God was gloriously manifested in pardoning sin thus heightned and aggravated by the express Law and in freely justifying sinners condemned by the written Law Hence this Question or Objection to which the Apostle answers with detestation as before and withal sheweth that they who are justified by the righteousness of Christ have received the Spirit and so dye to sin and live to righteousness and are engaged hereunto by their Baptisme and therefore it is in vain for any to hope for justification and pardon of sin through Christ who yeild themselves up to the service of sin So verse 14th he saith to Believers Ye are not under the Law but under Grace Hence again a Question or Objection of corrupt nature or carnal reason What then Shall we sin because we are not under the Law but under Grace May we not therefore sin securely if we be free from the Law if the Law have no power nor authority over us to condemn us The Apostle answereth this after his usual manner with detestation and then more fully Know ye not that to whom ye yeild your selves servants to obey his servants ye are to whom ye obey whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness They that are justâ—fied by Christ and freed from the curse the condemnation and rigour of the Law are the Members of Christ and servants of righteousness but they that sin securely upon a conceit that they are freed from the Law are indeed the servants of sin and this service of sin tendeth to everlasting death The Reason of this in general is the contrariety of mans nature unto God and his Truth since the fall since the Image of God was defaced and the Nature of man corrupted by sin so that the powers of the soul thus degenerated are become cross and opposite unto the counsel and truth of God They are of the world therefore speak they of the world and the world heareth them we are of God he that knoweth God heareth us he that is not of God heareth not us hereby know we the spirit of Truth and the spirit of Error all of us are naturally of the world and all remain so unless the Lord do effectually by his grace call them out of the world and so their worldly minds and hearts are unsutable and opposite unto the mind and truth of God More particularly 1. Ignorance is a great cause why men deprave the Scriptures and pervert the Truths of God the light shineth in darkness and the darkness comprehendeth it not All are naturally darkness and therefore full of contrariety to the light and truth of God ye were sometimes darkness saith the Apostle to those that then were light in the Lord the best of those whom God hath savingly inlightned by his spirit were sometimes darkness Lye not one to another seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds and have put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the Image of him that created him They that are regenerated are renewed as in other regards so in knowledge This sheweth that the old man is possessed with darkness Corrupt Nature is void of saving knowledge and therefore in that condition men are apt to put light for darkness and darkness for light The Sadduces that denied that great Mystery of the Resurrection of the body I conceive were much pleased with an Argument whereby they hoped to non-plus the Lord Jesus Christ they seemed not directly to deny the Resurrection but only to desire a Resolution in a difficult case concerning â—a woman that had seven husbands out-liv'd them all The Question was which of those seven should enjoy her for his wife at the Resurrection but the Lord Christ telleth them they shewed gross ignorance in that wherein they thought themselves veâ—y acute saith he Ye do err not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God and first sheweth them how by the Almighty power of God the bodies of the Saints at the Resurrection should be so wonderfully transformed and glorified that they should not need nor desire marriage or other things of the like natrue no more then the Angels do which are Spirits and have no bodies then he proveth by the Scripture that the dead shall rise Now this ignorance is more or less gross in several persons some that are not so grossely ignorant as others yet being weak in knowledge and judgement are apt to miscarry in this kind First by misunderstanding some Texts or passages of holy Scripture so it seemeth the Saints at Thessalonica mistook what the Apostle had written to them in his former Epistle when speaking of the last day he saith This we say unto you by the word of the Lord that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep the Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout with the voice of the Archangel and with the Trumpet of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the Clouds to meet the Lord in the Air. Where twice he speaketh of himself if we look on the bare words as if he should live to the end of the world as if Christ should come in glory before Paul should leave this world I conceive he spake by way of supposition that if he and other Believers then living should remain to the last day then they should be thus translated to Glory and as he saith elsewhere they should not dye but should be changed and this he might do to teach others by his example to live in a continual expectation
oâ— Christs gloriouâ— appearing especially considering that the day of death was to them as the last day not that he did peremtorily determine any thing concerning the time which was unknown now compare this with what he writeth to the same Church in the next Epistle Now we beseech you Brethren by the coming of our Lord Iesus Christ and by our gathering together unto him that ye be not shaken in mind or be troubled neither by spirit or word nor by letter as from us as that the day of Christ is at hand Let no man deceive you by any means for that day shall not come except there come a falling away first and that man of sin be revealed the son of Perdition c. It seemeth some went about to deceive them under pretence of Revelation implied in the word Spirit some by word of Mouth as if the day of the Lord should come in that age and these might abuse those words of the Apostle in his former Epistle therefore he saith by Letter or Epistle as from us Now Satan might have this pollicy and set a certain day and that within a short time that when they saw it did not come to pass at the time foretold they might doubt of the thing it self whether ever it would come to pass but the Apostle shews them that there must be a great change before that day a general Apostacy or falling away and the revealing that man of sin the Son of perdition Secondly by drawing false inferences and conclusions from some places of Scripture So in the present Text from that â—ound doctrine of the Apostle concerning free justification of sinners through the righteousness of Christ without any respect at all to the works of the Law it seemeth some drew this inference or conclusion that the Law was made void and do not the Antinomians the very same â—t this day yea do not many among us harbour the same conceits in their minds as if it were enough only to pray to God to pardon their sins for Christ his sake as if they â—eed not labour after conformity to the Law â—n righteousness and holiness On the other â—â—de whereas Christ saith Except ye repent ye shall likewise perish Except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God Follow Holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. From these and the like Scriptures some it seemeth draw false conclusions as if by repentance by holiness by prayers and other duties they might in part satisfie for their former sins and as if Repentance Regeneration Holiness were not only things accompanying justification and salvation but proper causes But ye must consider First that Christ his satisfaction and righteousness is the full perfect and only cause of â—ustification and pardon of sin and that no holiness no duties of the persons justified do help any thing at all towards their justification it is the Righteousness of Christ imputed to them which maketh up the whole matter of their Righteousness in the sight of God and covereth all their sins Secondly on the other side Regeneration Repentance Holiness are concomitants things accompanying justification and salvation and evidences of it So that although none can procure pardon of sin nor justification in the least degree by any graces or duties of their own yet none can have any â—ound hope that their sins are forgiven or their persons accepted of God as righteous without Repentance Regeneration and Holiness because none have their sins pardoned and their persons justified but such as receive Christ into their hearts by Faith Now Christ alwaies cometh by water and blood by his holy graces to wash and sanctifie the Soul as by his blood and merit to justifie and procure forgiveness of sin As the light of the fire giveth no heat and the heat of the fire giveth no light yet the heat and light are joyned together in the fire so righteousness imputed to the soul for justification and forgiveness of sin do not sanctifie and on the other side Repentance Regeneration holiness in Believers do not justifie yet they are joyned together and where one is there is the other and the latter is an evidence of the former I conceive it is a common case with many to mistake in this kind because they want judgement rightly to draw inferences from Scripture groâ—nds so the Anabaptists because they read of persons baptized when they made profession of faith and repentance hereupon they draw conclusions against Infant-baptisme whereas the case is not alike for those examples are of converted Jews or Heathens not of such as are born of Christian-parents whereas they should rather argue that because Infants born of Church-members under the old Testament were circumcised as Church-members by the Lord command therefore Infants born of Church-members under the new Testament are to be baptized as Church-members now Thirdly prejudicate opinions false conceits sutable to corrupt Nature and carnal reason forestalling the mind and being entertained aforehand make people very apt to deprave or deny the Truth when it is presented to them I conceive this was the cause why the Jews were so obstinate in rejecting Christ and his doctrine not receiving and obeying him as Christ because their carnal minds were forestalled with conceits of a Messias that should come in state as an earthly Prince and erect a glorious worldly Kingdom amongst them and this prejudice moved them to corrupt the Prophecies of the old Testament and to distaste the doctrines of the New they liked not to hear of a crucified Redeemer the doctrine of the Cross was to them a stumbling-block they did not close with a spiritual Kingdom of Christ attended with persecution yea Christ his Disciples were not free from this disease and therefore when Christ foretold his own sufferings Peter presumed to rebuke him and there was a contention among them for the chiefe place as if they expected great worldly honours and dignities by following Christ On the other side the Grecians were prepossessed with the rational principles of worldly wisdom and Philosophy and so despised the Gospel as foolishness though indeed there were such heights and depths of divine wisdom in the mysteries of the Gospel as never came into the head of the wisest men amongst them The carnal Israelites were forestalled with an opinion of their own righteousness and so rejected the doctrine of justification by the righteousness of Christ For they being ignorant of Gods righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God Ignorance and prejudice the fruit of ignorance caused them to disrelish the Truth of the Gospel Secondly the love of sin is a cause why men pervertor reject the Truths of the Gospel The Gospel and word of grac teacheth to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts c. This is distastful to a soul wherein sin raigneth The Gospel requireth Christians to
a pattern of holiness to men and women So the Lord in his Law saith Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self So that the least want of love unto our neighbour the least defect in love is condemned the least inclination contrary to love is forbidden Then again whatsoever is contrary to the right order of the affections in relation to God and our neighbour is against the Law for the Law commandeth to love God with all the mind c. And this is the first and greatest Commandment that of love to our Neighbour is the second and therefore love to God is to hold the chiefest place and so the weighty and principal duties of the first Table scil those toward God are to be looked at as the principal and love to our Neighbour is to be subordinate unto this love to God God is to be loved for himself Men are to be loved in the Lord and for the Lord. Now every inordinate affection every disorder of the affections this way is against â—he Law When the first and greatest Commandment is as it were turned into the second when any man hath an higher place or greater share in thine affections then God The Law forbiddeth and condemneth whatsoever in the heart or soul is contrary to any Commandment of the Law not only â—ctual thoughts but the inherent corruption every inclination to evil whatsoever distemper there is in the heart and soul contrary to any branch of any Command either of the first or second Table All sin is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whatsoever is contrary to the Law Now the very inclination to sin is contrary to the Law and therefore sinful Every inclination to distrust to Idolatry superstition to the dishonour of God c. is condemned by the Law This is the sin that naturally dwelleth in every one the corruption of Nature propagated from Adam the body of sin cross and contrary to the body of the Law in every point in every iota or title 3. All omissions of duties towards God and men are condemned by the Law 4. All commissions of sin in thought word and deed are condemned by the Law every evil thought every vain thought every profane â—ngodly obscene unchast malicious speech every idle word every action contrary to the Law grosser actions looks gestures And as we are to consider the perfection of the Law so on the the other side take notice of the severity of the Law The Law spareth not the least sin but denounceth a curse against every one Cursed is every one that confirmeth not all the words of the Law to do them and as the Apostle hath it Cursed iâ— every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the Law to do them Nothing contrary to the Law can escape the curse oâ— the Law The word spoken by Angels was steadfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward This word was the Law in the delivering whereof the Lord was pleased to use the ministry of Angels Such is the severity of the Law that it spareth no transgression or disobedience but layeth a penalty upon every one 3. Consider the perfect the infinite justice holiness purity majesty of God who is both the Law giver and the Judge who gave his pure and perfect Law and who will judge impartially by the Law Shall mortal man be more just than God Shall a man be more pure than his Maker Behold he put no trust in his servants and his Angels he charged with folly How much less on them which dwell in houses of clay whose foundation is in the dust Saith the Psalmist O Lord my God thou art very great thou art cloathed with honour and majesty who coverest thy self with light as with a garment behold the Nations are as a drop of a bucket and are counted as the small dust of the ballance behold he taketh up the Isles as a very little thing All Nations before him are as nothing and they are counted to him less than nothing and vanity The Prophet Isaiah in a glorious vision beheld a representation of the divine Majesty saith he I saw the Lord sitting upon a Throne high and lifted up and his train filled the Temple about it stood the Seraphims each one had six wings with twain he covered his face and with twain he covered his feet and with twain he did fly and one cried unto another and said holy holy holy is the Lord of Hosts the whole earth is full of his glory With what terrour glory and majesty did the Lord appear on Mount Sinai when he published the Law to the people of Israel There were Thunders and Lightnings and a thick cloud upon the Mount and the voice of a Trumâ—et exceeding loud so that all the people that was in the Camp trembled and Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoak because the Lord decended upon it in fire c. And Moses told the people The Lord thy God is a consuming â—re even a jealous God Now lay these things together the woful corruption of mans Nature every way contrary to the holy Law of God as darkness is to light having nothing in it conformable to the Law the â—umberless sins of omission and commission â—f each person against the Law the just â—igour and severity of the Law denouncing â—curse against every transgression and disâ—bedience the unspeakable unconceivable â—â—finite purity justice majesty of God who 〈◊〉 both Law-giver and judge And then â—ow clear is it that none can be justified in the sight of God by any works of theirs performed in obedience to the Law Secondly But there was a second thing proposed scil to shew how it appeareth by the doctrine of the Gospel that none can be justified by any works performed by themselves in obedience to the Law The Angel said to Ioseph concerning Christ Thou shalt call his name Iesus for he shall save his people from their sins He shall save them and therefore their own works shall not save them He shall save them from their sins and therefore he found them in their sins poor guilty condemned creatures and such as could not be saved or justified by their own works or righteousness The Lord Christ the night before he died said This is my blood of the new Testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins The Lord Christ did shed his most pretious blood for the remission or forgiveness of sins He by his death and obedience satisfied the justice of God for the sins of those who could not satisfie for themselves by any works of righteousness of their own compare this with that of the Apostle I do not frustrate the grace of God for if righteousness come by the Law then Christ is dead in vain This sheweth clearly that justification by the righteousness of Christ and justification by a mans