and secured in his blessed estate as the holy Angels are and the Saints shall be in glory What his happinesse should have been and when consummate if he had Persevered we do not certainly and distinctly know The hour of Temptation seems to have been the hour of Triall and it 's very Probable that if in that conflict he had proved stedfast and Victorious he and his might have been blessed for ever But Man being in honor abode not § III and being tempted sin'd and aspiring higher and seeking by doing that which God had forbidden to attain the higher pitch of glory was devesâ—ed of his Honour and depriv'd of his happy estate And here Divines take occasion to speak of sin in generall And though I might have entered upon this subject when I spake of the fall and condemnation of many of the Angels yet because the Scripture speaks most of the sin of man therefore I will follow their example and practise and 1. Speak of sin in generall 2. Of the particular Sin of Adam The generall nature of sin is disobedience to the just command of a Superiour and because disobedience is opposed to obedience therefore it will not be amisse to enquire a little into the nature of obedience Obedience is not of Physicall but morall and politicall consideration For it presupposeth an intelligent and free agent and the same subject to the Power and bound by the Laws of a Superiour for where there is no Superiour Power there can be no Law and where there is no Law there can be no obedience or disobedience Whether the immediate subject of obedience be acts or habits was formerly determined in some manner but here you must observe that intelligent and free acts inclinations habits especially Acts are the subject immediat and proper of obedience and the proper and first subject of it is the will and heart the acts whereof are intelligent and free and no other acts else This is the reason why God so much requires the heart and will not accept any the greatest offerings and services if performed without the heart To this obedience 't is necessarily required that the will freely subject it self to the power of the superiour and exactly conforme unto his will and command in all inclinations and motions so far as it is bound in which respect the will must be no will in it self In this particular whereof we speak the subject is man who is an intelligent and free agent The superiour is God according to the power acquired in Creation The rule of obedience is the Law both Positive and morall and his obedience is a conformity both in subjection and acting according to the will and command of God The Principal subject of this obedience as an adjunct and cause of it as an effect is the Will and heart of man which is the proper seat of Integrity and Perversnesse For other Acts are so far good or bad as they depend on the Will and are so called extrinseca dominatione and by Participating their qualification from the Will As it is in this particular obedience required of Adam at the first so it is in all the other acts of obedience performed to God Sin in generall is opposed to this obedience § IV and is a disobedience to the Laws of God not of Man or any other superiour in strict sense Otherwise in a large sense the Laws of men may be the lawes of God and their power his Power and it 's Gods law and will that they should obey their Laws and submit to their Power For as the Wisdome of God is the first rule so the will of God expressed in his law is the first binding law That sin is a disobedience unto a Law and the Law of God the Apostle informs us in these words Sin is the transgression or rather disobedience to the Law of God 1 John 3. 4. For so the Apostle is to be understood as appeares by the context This Sin is so unbeseeming that nature and place of men and Angels wherein God created them as nothing more and so staines them that when they see themselves they loath and abhor themselves so as they cannot endure to look upon themselves It 's the basest thing in the world and most pernicious unto him that is once guilty of it It 's a Deviation from the best rule of divine Wisdom and a disagreement with the most just and holy God It 's a contempt or at least a neglect of the eternall power of this glorious King It makes our own imaginations and the suggestions of the Devil our rules and our own lusts our Masters as though we were not subject unto God It deprives us of eternall light and is the perpetuall fuel of Hell-fire and the desert thereof is very dreadfull For these reasons God hates it forbids it threatens it gave both men and Angels at the first power against it and for it not repented of pardoned he casts both men and Angels out of his presence into utter darknesse and torments them with eternall fire Yet all Sinnes are not equall § V as the punishments deserved are some lesse some greater And here I might enlarge and discover the severall sorts the aggravations the Consequents of Sin in generall 1. For the kinds and distinctions they are many For we hold that some sins are against the Law some against the Gospel some against God some against man Some of omission some of Commission c. And these distinctions may be tolerable in some sense 2. The degrees and aggravations are very many and might be observed out of Scripture and reduced into method as is done by the Learned and most judicious Doctor Chappel in his Method of Preaching The Crucifying of Christ the Lord of glory was an heynous crime yet some who had an hand in it were ignorant For so our Saviour prayes Father forgive them for they know not what they do Luke 23. 34. Yet others did it maliciously and contrary to the clear light of their Conscience and concerning these the supreme Judge is sollicited and desired to add iniquity unto their iniquity Psal. 69. 27. And there is a sin against the Holy-Ghost which according to the rules of Gods eternall justice renders the partyes sinning incapable of remission Such is the Blaspemy against the Holy-Ghost Math. 12. 31. and the Apostacy of Christians having once received the knowledge of the truth Heb. 10. 26 27. Paul was a Blasphemer a Persecutour and injurious yet he sinned ignorantly and in unbelief and upon his repentance obtayned mercy 1 Tim. 1. 13 16. The knowing Servant neglects to do his Masters will so doth the ignorant Servant too yet the sin of the former is greater then the sin of the latter and their punishment must be commensurable to their sin Luke 12. 47 48. These places I observe to let you understand and put you in mind 1. That sin is not in the outward act properly and immediately for
in the end to encline so farr as to look upon the fruit to cover it to touch it and tast it too And so the Vâ—nome of the Serpent infected Soul and Body Neither staid it here but did diffuse and Communicate it self to man who hearkened to his Wiâ—e and did eate and so transgresse Upon which the victory became compleat And though the temptation and plot was deeply laid and managed with greatest subtlety yet they could not be excused For the law was plain the power to observe it sufficient and God did in no wayes desert them in any thing necessary They did both willingly consent and yield They were too precipitate and did too hastily determin and resolve before they had sufficiently considered the matter either severally or joyntly together And their sin was in the issue so much the more heynous because they believed the false suggestions of the Devill and harkened to his damned Counsel contrary to the clear Command and peremptory Commination of their Creator In all this they had not the least cause to complain of God Their Sin and misery was from themselves and there was much of will in the transgression The Woman was first in the sin and was deceived Yet the Man followed her example Otherwiâ—e it might have been better with all mankind And in this place something may be â—aid of the permission of sin and Gods providence in respect of the same No doubt God could have prevented both the sin and the temptation yet being no wayes bound to do either he suffered both And this is one of the deep Counâ—ells of God whereof man can give no reason Arminiuâ— doth discourse of this subject and observes the acts of Divine providence about sin to be reducible to three heads 1. In respect of the Beginning 2. Of the Progress 3. The Consummation of it In respect of the Beginning the Acts of Providence are either permission or hinderance In respect of the Progress Direction and Limitation In respect of Sin Consummate Punishment or Remission But he that will accurately discuss this Point of Doctrine must distinguish 1. Between the first sin of Angels and the first sin of Man and other sinnes following these For in respect of these later that which we call permission may be a Desertion and to a Punishment which in the first sinnes cannot be 2. He must put a difference between a Moral and a Physical permission and also between the sinful Disposition and immediate Act of the Will as sinful and such Acts as follow and are not formally and intrinsecally sinful but bâ— participation 3. He must discern which of these Acts belong to Judgment as the two last evidently do and which not 4. It should be distinctly known what this Permission is For it 's not any Licence or Liberty to sin given by God to the Creature nor any toleration connivence indulgence much less any approbation of sin The proper and immediate first subject and cause of sin is the Will as free Therefore when Scotus had defined sin to be Carentia justitiae actui inesse debitae Occam corrects him and defines it to be Carentia justitiae voluntati inesse debitae And whereas many out of Austin take it for granted that Peccatum non habet causam efficientem sed deâ—icientem He â—aith That 's true onely of sins of Omission not of Commission and doth positively â—ffirm that God is the Author of every sin of Commission because in Commission there is something positive which is forbidden by the Law directly as well as that which is privative yet gives the reason why man is guilty and God not because man is under a Law and bound God is not And whereas some in sins of Commission distinguish between the Act whereof they grant God to be the Author and the Sinfulness of the Act whereof he is not the Author He answers That in sins of Commission the very Act is forbidden and therefore the very Act is so sin that you cannot make it the subject of sin is any ways different from sin In this making of God the Author of all sins he seems to be very bold and heterodox though very acute But let his Judgment in this be true or false these things are certain 1. That all the difficulty in this point ariseth from our ignorance of the manner how God concurs with the Free will of man in sin 2. That God could prevent all sins and every sin though he doth not 3. That God doth not necessitate much less force the intelligent Creature to sin for then sin could be no sin 4. That let Permission be what it will yet he so permits sin that he can justly punish it in the Parties guilty who alone are chargeable with it 5. The reason why God doth not cannot sin is not onely because he is under no Law but because he is absolutely just and holy and hates sin as he doth forbid it threaten it give power against it and punisheth it 6. We must not think that God doth so permit sin as not to order the sinner and out of evil bring good as once out of Darkness he created Light To think that God who is the Universal Judge is a bare Spectator of sin must needs be an Errour The cause of this sin § XI which was blameless was the Law which did forbid sin command obedience promise life to the Obedient threaten death to the Disobedient This could not by any inward native power or quality be a cause of Sin or Death for it was spiritual holy just good and so contrary to sin For every thing acts according to the inward power and quality And how should that be for sin which was the Rule of Holiness and for Death which was given for Life Yet a cause of sin it might be though not per Se yet per Accidens as the Logicians speak Not by any thing in it self yet by something from without in Man or the Devil Some instance in the dashing of a Pitcher against a Wall so that it 's broken The breaking of the Pitcher is an Effect but the Cause thereof is rather the force of him who purposely casts it against the wall then the Wall it self yet this Comparison is not so fuâ—l and perfect If there had been no Law there had been no sin For where there is no Law there is no Transgression saith the Apostle Rom. 4. 15. An if no transgression then no guilt no punishment If there had been no Law man might have done â—omething worthy of punishment yet without a Law he could have contracted no guilt so as to be bound to suffer punishment And though God knew that if he did give a Law it would be disobeyed yet he might justly give it For as he knew man would transgress it yet he knew likewise that he might keep it No Governour will forbear to enact Laws to regulate his People because he knows many will disobey them That the Law
as one And so far as God judged him one and made Adam the Head and Representative of all so far in Adam all men might be bound to obedience or penalty and so far judgments or rewards might be transmitted from him to all and no further And if God had not considered Adam and all his posterity as one person By one man sin could not have entred into the World and by sin Death so as to pass upon all men That this derivation was an act of judgment is evident from the Apostle because Sin and Death which is punishment presupposed a Law To impute sin and punish for sin and that with Death are Acts of Judgment and that according to a Law which was in force when Adam sinned and long before Moses Otherwise how could sin have reigned even over Adam and that from Adam to Moses and this by a Sentence of Judgment in force to this day according to a Law in force when Adam transgressed it For upon that transgression God condemned Adam and in him all Mankind In this respect the doubt how the Soul being made by God becomes corrupted is vain and that conceit that it is polluted by entrance into the body or from the body is false For 1. God in the Creation of the Soul of every individual person is to be considered as a Creatour and a Judge As a Creatour he makes a Soul and gives it Essence and all things necessary flowing from the Essence and appertaining to it As a Judge he denies that person as one with Adam sinning his sanctifying Spirit which Adam received for him and his and in him sinning was lost to him and his 2. It is evident that the Soul is not so much polluted by the body as the body by it and it from it self For there are many Spiritual sins as Pride Envie Malice and such like which are purely from the Soul and in the Soul as they are in Angels who have no bodies but are spirits And those sins which have their Rise from the sensitive appetite could not pollute the Soul except it were depraved in it self And the first sin began in the Soul as may easily be understood from Gen. 3. and was there compleatly moulded before Eve looked upon the forbidden fruit to covet it and desire it as a bodily food Yet whilest we discourse of the Derivation of Original Sin as it is a Deprivation and a depravation following thereupon because man falls under the power of Death yet we must consider that Adam's Posterity derive not onely that original corruption from him but many other evils together with their Being All the evils are reduced to Sin and Death We participate with him in some manner in the first sin and in him sinning we sin and in him being guilty we are guilty in him dying we die And by Death all Punishments God sentenced us to in him are understood not onely that which we call Original Sin but all Actual Sins virtually included in it and issuing purely from it by vertue of the first Desertion And here we may wonder at the severity of God's Judgment yet we must in no wise question the Justice and Equity thereof CHAP. XVI Of the Attributes of God manifested in this Judgment of Men and Angels THE last thing to be considered in this Judgment and Execution is the manifestation of the Attributes § I and perfections of God and of his Supream Power judicial as well as Legislative The Attributes manifested are these His Wisdom his Holiness his Power his Knowledge but principally his Justice and Mercy His Wisdom was wonderful in this particular in that he laid the Foundation of man's Eternal Life to be recovered again in sentencing the Devil to Eternal Death and in a wonderful way so that the Devil himself should be powerfully active to the ruine of his own Kingdom whilest he â—eeks to confirm and enlarge it His Holiness was evident in this that he spared not sin in his most noble Creatures punishing the Devils without mercy as first in the sin not sparing man made in his own Image though tempted to sin and in accursing the Serpent though an irrational Creature and but onely an Instrument abused All this signifies that he detests and abominates sin and being holy Himself requires holiness in Men and Angels made holy and if by sin they pollute themselves he casts them out of his presence His Power appeared in that he so presently and so fully executed his Sentence and makes it good to this day and none can hinder him His Knowledge is as exact for he evidently knew the sin of Men and Angels with the measure and circumstances thereof and proportions his Judgment accordingly But principally his Justice and Mercy shined forth in this judicial Proceeding § II First his Justice must be considered The Justice of God is Legislative or judicial Legislative Justice determines man's duty and binds him unto the performance thereof and also defines the rewards and punishments which shall be due upon the Creatures obedience or disobedience His judicial Justice which is called distributive is that whereby he renders unto the intellectual Creatures according to their Works This is remunerative or vindictive For taking cognizance of their cause he rewards the obedient and punisheth the disobedient The justice manifested in this judgment was punitive and vindictive and it did appear in that 1. He spared not sinners much less rewarded them 2. He punished none but sinners and such as did concur in this sin 3. He punished onely for sin and not out of any absolute and arbitrary power Therefore God said to the Serpent Because thou hast done this therefore thus and thus shalt thou be punished The Woman suffered and is condemned because she hearkened and gave consent to the Serpents temptation The man is judged to death because he had hearkened to the voyce of his wiâ—e 4. The punishments determined and executed did not exceed the measure of their sin 5. The Devil sinned most and therefore his punishment is the greatest and no ways mitigated or allayed by mercy The Woman and Man sinned being tempted and their sin was less and it was allayed by mercy yet the womans sin was greater then Adam's though less then the Devils For she was first in the transgression and brought man into the snare being instrumental to the Devil and therefore she was adjudged to two punishments to which man was not liable This Justice is not an Attribute but the exercise and manifestation of an Attribute as here it 's taken It 's called Anger Wrath Fury Rage Jealousie Indignation as the sin is more or less heinous and he more or less displeased It 's called Revenge in that it renders the evil of punishment for the evil of sin It 's Judgment because he proceeds according to Law upon the evident knowledge of the violation of the same It 's punishment as God inflicts it and the Creatures suffer it The principal
in the Sin the Tryall the Sentence is observeable In the sin the Devill is first the Woman the second the man third and last In the Tryall Man is first Woman the second the Devill the third In the sentence the Devill is first Woman second Man last 3. The partyes sentenced are not one Devill one Serpent one Woman one Man but the whole body and society of Devills all Serpents all Mankind 4. Yet some kind of Serpents was accused above all the rest the Prince of Devills was principally judged and so Adam and Eve were sentenced as the beginning root head of all mankind And though the seed of the Woman did comprehend a vast multitude yet they had one Head and one principall amongst them which must break the Serpents head 5. The subject of this judgement being guilty persons doth inform us that the sentence did not determine any reward to be rendered but onely punishment to be inflicted by God and suffered by offenders It was a sentence of condemnation not of justification 6. As there was difference in the partyes sinning so there was in the punishments For the punishment of the Serpent was one of the Woman another of the Man another though there might be some punishment generall to them all 7. The punâ—shment of Man was great of Woman greater of the Devill the greatest For the degrees of punishment were equally proportioned to the degrees of Sin These things premised in generall § III I proceed to discourse of and unfold the sentence passed upon the Devill and the Serpent and its certain that as the naturall Serpent is here expressed so he is accursed and most part of the words agree directly to that kind of Creature which is cursed above all the beasts of the field goes crawling on his belly and licks the dust And there is emnity and Antipathy between Woman the Serpent between all kind of Serpents the Posterity and seed of the Woman and Man doth often break his head to take away his Life and he stings man in the Heel and foot and by his poyson sometimes endangers sometimes takes away his Life This by constant and universall experience is sound true and yet the curse was not at the first Creation For then God blessed the Creatures and every thing was good Nor was this enmity from the Creation For man was Lord over these Creatures and they subject unto him so as there was neither harme nor feare from any of these Creatures And though this Beast was irrationall merely an instrument and abused yet to signifie his detestation of sin God did thus accurse him Thus the earth is curâ—ed for mans sake and for the sins of Israel the Land must mourn the inhabitants with the Beasts of the field and the fowles shall languish and the fishes shall he take away Hos. 4. 3. So Christ cursed the Figgâ—ree because fruitlesse Yet § IV this must needs be understood of the Spirituall Serpent the Devill too and that more principally yet in a spirituall sense The Devill was accursed before but much more now Therefore some think that after this their condition became desperate and unalterable And surely As to their former sin they had added Lying and Murder So God in this sentence did add unto their punishment and their condition became very bad and miserable This is signified more plainly in the latter part of the sentence verse 15. Wherein with some learned Commentatours we may observe 1. A perpetuall emnity and thereupon a perpetuall War and the issue of this War The emnity is 1. Between the Serpent the Devill and the Woman 2. Between the Serpents seed and the Womans seed 3. Between the Prince of Devills and some speciall seed of the Woman which was Christ. The issue of this emnity and opposition was the ruine of the Serpent and the hurt of the Womans seed More plainly the ruine of Sathans Kingdome the suffering of Christ and the persecutions of his Church The first emnity is between the Devill and the Woman both present at Gods tribunall and this emnity was by a divine decree made irreconcileable for though they could agree and converse together in sin to the transgression of Gods Law yet now it was Gods will that they should for ever stand at a distance hereafter And it 's very likely that Eve being a true Penitent did for ever hate as much as any other did the Devill who had deceived her as she did abhor the Serpent and detest him as most abominable because he had been an instrument in that damned and dangerous designe against her And the more penitent and pious she was alwayes expecting when God should give her a Child who should take eternal vengeance upon him so the Devill did the more hate her and seek her ruine Yet notwithstanding this decree of eternall emnity how many Cursed Witches have familiarity with the Devill The second emnity is between the seed of the Serpent and the seed of the Woman And by his seed is meant not onely all the rest of the Devills and Powers of Darknesse but also all Wicked Persons especially enemyes and Persecutours of the Power of Godlinesse in the Saints These are called A generation of Vipers that is Serpents the Brood of the Devill Math. 3. 7. To be of their Father the Devill 1 Ioh. 3. 8. So Cain was of that Wicked one the Devill verse 12. By the seed of the Woman is not understood her mere naturall Posterity for many of them as Cain were of the Devill But her posterity according to the Spirit the Regenerate Penitent Pious and Beleevers as she was Yet these are her seed as under Their Head and Generall Jesus Christ. And here as the hatred is bitter so the opposition is cruel and bloody and the contrariety so great that they seek the mutuall destruction one of another The more of God and Heaven is in the seed of the Woman the more they Hate sin and â—eek to break the Power of Sathan both in themselves and others Yet all their strength is in God and Jesus Christ. These the Devill and his brood hate with a dearly hatred and if they cannot overcome their souls they Persecute their Bodyes And hence so many â—earfull dissentions Wars and Bloody Persecutions But the highest degree of this emnity is between the Prince of Devills and the Son of God made Man and so the Seed of the Woman that he was not immediately the seed of any Man He suffered more from the Devill and his Angells and Agents then ever any did and the more holy he was the more he was hated And the more wicked the Devill was the more Christ did oppose him and prevayled against him according to his excellent divine transcendent Power and holy Policy more then all men and Angells could do The issue of the great Battail especially upon the Crosse was a fiâ—all and Fatall Victory For in it and by it he spoyled Principalityes and Powers
fittest of all others to represent that Priest Jesus Christ who had no Predecessour from whom he might derive his right nor successour because he live in Heaâ—ven a Priest for ever who alone hath right to receive tithes and homage 〈◊〉 his people and blesse them with spiritual and eternall blessings And the Throne and Scepter of David and his successours in his Kingdome did shadow him whose Throne is for ever and ever and his Scepter a right Scepter Faith and obedience to pure morals to be performed to God Redeemer by the power of the renewing Spirit were alwayes required by the Lawes of this Kingdom for the Lawes of Faith and obedience to pure Morals were alwayes the same Yet to these Lawes of Faith and obedience in pure morals were added from the beginning divers positive and ceremoniall precepts especially that of sacrifice And when the promise of the Messias to descend of 〈◊〉 was renewed of Abraham circumcision was instituted as a Seal of the righteousnesse of faith and a solemn right of engagement unto their Saviour and of his admiâ—sion of them into the Church upon their submission And this was by his command to be administred to Infants born in the Church When Israel came out of Aegypt the Passeover was ordained in remembrance of that great deliverance and did continue till that great Paâ—chal Lamb was slain by whose blood we are redeemed from the wrath of God Hell and everlasting death But after that the posterity of Abraham Isacc Jacob being multiplyed into a nation were reduced by God into a Common-Wealth both civil and Ecclesiasticall and presented before God appearing in a glorioâ—s and retrible manner upon Mount Sinai they entred into a solemn Covenant with their God He promiseth to be their God to protect and blesse them and they engage themselves solemnly to be his loyall subjects Upon this Foundation of a Kingdom once layd God proceeds as their Lord and Soverenig to give them morall judiciall ceremoniall Lawes In the morall he reduceth all morall dutyes to certain heads in a brief exact and excellent method in the Ceremonials he reduceth all former rites and ceremonials Instituted by himself into order and adds many more as he saw convenient for that people in that time In the judicials he dilivered them a perfect body of the civill Law These judicials were for direction in judgment and the adminstration of their civil state The moralls and ceremonials were for the Church and looked far higher The moralls tended to give them a more perfect knowledge of morall dutyes to be a rule of moral obedience to let them see their inability to keep it their impossibility to be justified by it to make them sensible of their sin and seek a Saviour who should deliver them from the curse and paenaltyes threatned by the Law and deserved by their disobedience The ceremonial was more mysticall 〈◊〉 therein God did prescribe a Tabernacle a Priest and a solemn 〈◊〉 of service The Tabernacle was a type of the Heavenly Temple the High Priest of the great eternal Universall High Priest and the Services especially that 〈◊〉 Sacrifice and most of all that yearly Sacrifice of expiation to be offered onely by the High Priest the 10th day of the 7th moneth with the blood whereof he ente 〈◊〉 into the most holy place was a type of that sacrifice of Christ by which he obtayned eternal Redemption Besides that these did signifie heavenly things they were given to this people to keep and preserve them pure from Heathenisâ— Idolatry and superstition to continue them seperate especially in Religion and Divine Worship from all other nations of the world Tâ—ey were for the multitude and charge of them a burthen and heavy yoke to keep them undeâ—â— and cause them to long for their Messias who should free them from those dark and mysterious shadows give them a clearer and more glorious light and a perfect liberty and ease from this servitude This time was the time of the infancy and minority of the Church for as the Heyr so long as he is a Child differeth nothing from a Servant though he be Lord of all but is under Tutours and governours untill the time appointed of the Father So they when they were Children that is under age were in bondage under the elements of the world But when the fullnesse of that time that was appointed by God their Father was come God sent his Son made of a Woman made under the law to redeem them that were under the law c. Wherefore after that they were no more Servants but sons Gal. 4. 1 2 3 4. 7. The time of the Gospel therefore is a time of emancipation and liberty not onely from the Ceremonials but from the curse and servitude of the law of works which that law of Moses did threaten and could no wayes free them from it For in that law there was no promise of the Spirit to enable them for to obey the morall law nor of pardon though they did transgresse it Neither was there any Sacrifice Priest or Service that could expiate sin and purge the conscience from dead Works For though their expiations lustrations and purifying ceremonyes might free them from legall pollutions yet from sin they could not This covenant was not the same with that of the seed of the Woman § II which should break the Serpents head nor with the same renued more explicitly unto Abraham That in his seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed much lesse was it the same with the promises of the Gospel made in Christ exhibited And by the way we may take notice that the Apostle Gal. 3. puts a difference between the Promise the Law Faith The promise looks at Christ to come and was made more particularly to Abraham The Faith is the same with the Gospel and looks at Christ already come This law comes in between along time after the promise and a longer time before the Gospel And one end why it entred in between both was that sin might abound Rom. 5. 20. and it was added because of transgression till the seed that is Christ should come and before Faith that is Christ and the Gospel came they were kept under the Law shut up unto the Faith which should afterwards be revealed So that the Law was their School-Master or Tutour unto Christ Gal. 3. 19. 23. 24. By all this we may easily understand that this Law and Covenant made onely with the Jew of whom Christ was to come considered as God intended it was neither against the Promise nor the Gospel but subordinate to both And though it was not the same with the Law of works given to Adam innocent yet it had much affinity with it For it 's said Do this and live and Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written and contained in it yet it promised no power to observe it nor pardon if not observed as was said before And the
alone so the worshipping of one God in purity according to our duty and His Institution is called Chastity And such as did not pollute themselves with the Worship of Idols are called Virgins Rev. 14. 4. 2. Where there is this pure Virgin-love free from all Idolatry there will be an universal obedience and keeping of God's Commandements especially of the two first which virtually include the rest By Commandements therefore in this place are strictly understood the first and this second with all the Branches thereof Yet because these especially the first are the Root of all the rest therefore the rest may by consequence be understood The extent of this Mercy is to a Thousand Generations that is for ever For if Israel had been faithful to their God they might have continued an happy People unto this day and so God's Promise was God never with-drew His mercy from them nor executed His Judgments upon them but when they forsook him and violated these Commandements It 's true that the last Judgment which lyes upon them at this day had another cause than Image-Worship and it was the rejection of their Saviour and Messias when God had sent Him to save them according to the Promise made unto their Fathers For the more full understanding of this last part of the Commandement § IX in the Commination and Promise we must consider this with the former Commandement 1. As given to the Jews 2. As by the Light of Nature continued to the Gentiles 3. As most clearly manifested to Christians by the Gospel These Promises and Threats are called by some the Sanction that is the confirmation ratification and establishment of a Law Yet they add no binding force unto it for that is wholly from the Will of the Law-giver once expressed Onely this they may do make the Law the more effectual The Threatning is a great restraint from Violation and the Promise of Reward a strong Motive to Obedience These Threatnings and Promises in this place had special reference to Israel in the Land of Canaan and both the Punishments threatned and Mercies promised were Temporal for since the Fall of Adam there is no Promise of Spiritual and Eternal Mercy but in Jesus Christ promised or exhibited And it 's observable 1. That Israâ—ls sin usually if not always began in the Violation of this Commandement 2. That in the publique Judgments executed upon them this is expressed sometimes as the onely sin sometimes the first sin sometimes the chiefest and always implyed as one cause thereof 3. That when they observed this Commandement they enjoyed always this mercy here promised in their Successive Generations 4. The publick judgemâ—nts executed upon them for this sin did seldome at any time lye upon them further then the fourth generation as in the Captivity of Babylon which was the longest continuance of any other which that people suffered so farr as they continued a people Israels Captivity and the penalty of the ten Tribes as a distinct polity lyes upon them to this day For the generality of them were and do continue banished but where we certainly know noâ— A part of them adhered to the Tribe of Judah and Benjamin As for the Gentiles their Apostacy began in the Violation of this and the â—ormer Commandement and theiâ— punishment was not so much temporal as Spiritual For this sin of Idolatry and Image-Worship they were delivered up to vile affections and a reprobate mind and continued excommunicate and accurâ—ed for many yeares This their sin and punishment we may read Rom. 1. from verse 18. to the end And they were never admitted into the Church as Proselytes or Christians but upon renouncing of the Devil and his Pompatical and Idolatrous Worship and their turning from Idols to the living God As for Câ—ristians who turn from the living God and Chriâ—â— their Saviour to Idols and the Worship of the work of mens hands and to receive the cup of Fornication from the hand of the great whore their penaltyes shall be grievous and not onely temporall but spiritual and eternal if they come not out of Babylon and repent betimes as we may read in the book of the Revelation especially Chapters 14 15. 16 17 18. Whether any sin but final unbelief be threatned in the Gospel with death shall be examined God willing when I come to consider the Laws of Goâ— Redeemer as they are a rule of judgement It 's true that the Lawes of God Redeemer pâ—esupposing man as sinfull require a present return by repentance and faith and the continuance in any one sin against the morall Law or any other positive in force is formally a transgression as it is a continuance without repentance and faith There was a special reason why these reasons were given in this Commandement and it was because they were so prone unto this sin and he knew that in time to come this would be the great transgression Thus far the explication of the words of this Commandement § X it followes that we examin What the sins here forbidden and the dutyes here commanded be It 's expresseâ—y negatiâ—e and implicitly and by consequence affirmative The thing forbidden expresly is the making of Images for religious uses and the bowing down to them and worshipping of them The Commandement doth not take any notice whether in this Bowing and Worshipping they terminate their Worship either upon the Image or the thing repreâ—eâ—ted by the Image for both are sins And the distinctions devised by Iconolatrists will not excuse them before God This Image Worship is here represented as not instituted but forbidden by God devised by Men or Devils as corrupting and polluting the Pure Worship of God From hence it followes That 1. All kind of Religious Worship not instituted by God and warranted either by some particular expresse â—uâ—e of Scripture or grounded upon some generall precept is here forbidden 2. So is also all such manner of Worship as is devised and invented by Man or Devil 3. Whatsoever tends to the Corruption of the Pure instituted Worship of God cannot be lawfull 4. To conceive that there is any holinesse or sanctifying power in any such worship or manner of Worship or to think that the observation thereof is acceptabâ—e to God in it self or renders the party performing acceptable to him is a sin here prohibited This sin here forbidden may be called superstition in a large sense For to account that holy and divine as an object of Worship which is not such nor can be proved such by reason or divine revelation and also to invent religious rites and ceremonyes or to use them and this without any warrant from God is superstition It seemes to be an Extream opposed to prophaness For nothing can be holy or unholy but that which God hath made such For man to determin the object the kind the manner of worship and institute rites upon his own head or upon the suggestion of Sathan or any other must needs be an
For when He was asked Which is the greatest Commandement He answered Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart with all thy soul and with all thy mind This is the first and great Commandement And the Second is like to this Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self To love our Neighbour as our selves is the last Commandement as shall appear anon These two are the Epitome of the whole Law and virtually contain all the Precepts of it The first All of the first Table the last All of the Second Table Therefore they are general Commandements the one of the first part of the Law this other of the Second For after that God had in the four first Precepts of the Second Table determined the right of persons and things out of judgment and in the Ninth given a Rule of judgment In this last He prescribes a general Duty which is the measure and Rule of the rest both out of Judgment and also in Judgment This Commandement is Negative wherein we must consider 1. The Act 2. The Object That so we may understand what the Sin prohibited is The Act is to covet the Object something that is our Neighbours To covet is to desire It presupposeth some knowledge at least of apprehension of the thing desired as good and in some respect good to us It 's an Act of the Will and presupposeth the good desired as absent and not possessed or enjoyed and there are degrees of this Act according as we conceive the good desired less or greater That which is best if we be rightly informed is to be desired most and other things in a certain order and measure as they are nearer unto or further distant from the greatest good We may mistake and conceive many things to be better then they are and so deceive our selves and desire that which is not good at all or that which is least good as though it were the greatest So most men are deluded when they covet Earthly Things more then Heavenly and imagine that in them there is a vertue and power to make them happy and so we prefer the World and love it more then God This is a sin against the first Commandement and it's Idolatry Thus ambitious covetous voluptuous men do We covet things as good to us that we may have them and enjoy them and this coveting may be upon a simple apprehension and before a deliberate consent or it may follow it and then the Soul begins to move and use means to compass it Yet Coveting in it self § II is indifferent neither good nor bad Some things may some things must be coveted some things must not Therefore we must know in what respect Coveting is here forbidden when it 's said Thou shalt not covet and what the things are which we cannot lawfully desire to be our own and that is easily understood by the Object the second thing here determined by God The things not to be coveted are here expressed 1. By a particular Enumeration 2. By a general and comprehensive Term. In this particular Enumeration we have House Wife Man-servant Maid-servant Ox Ass Field Deut. 5. 21. Some reduce this to Utile and Jucundum things pleasant or unprofitable The general and comprehensive Word is ANY THING Thou shalt not covet any thing This was added to include all things and to leave nothing excluded Yet these things may be considered materially and so Wife House Field Cattle may be desired or formally as our Neighbours and so we must not covet them We must not covet his House his Wife his Field c. nor any thing that is his that is our Neighbours That which is not ours but his both by the Laws of God and Men must not be the Object of our Desires We may like them but not covet them as his For if we do it 's an evident sign that we love our Selves too much our Neighbour too little Nay we love his and not him or his more than him And this is a want of that love God requireth He requires a love of his Person as of our Selves it forbids a love of his So this Commandement was given to regulate the very motions of the Heart with the Affections and Inclinations of it in respect of our Neighbour This is the plain and genuine sense of the words § IV which inform us of many things 1. That the Law of God prescribing the Duty of Man to Man doth reach the Heart binds the Conscience and requires a conformity and obedience in the Inner-man 2. That God in Judgment will take Cognizance not onely of men's words and actions but of the motions inclinations and dispositions of the Soul 3. That both God's Laws and also his Judgments are far above the Laws and Judgments of men 4. That this Commandement is the Rule and Measure of the five former Commandements according to which we must understand them 5. It reacheth them all and is the principal and they the conclusions which derive their Morality from it so that in obeying it or disobeying it we obey or disobey the rest Therefore sayes the Apostle It 's the fulfilling of the Law Rom. 13. 10. And all the Law that is which requires the Duty of Man unto Man is fulfilled in one word Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self Gal. 5. 14. 6. That whatsoever Duty we perform to Man is not agreeable to the Will of God if it be not done out of love to our Neighbour as our love to our Neighbour is not regular if it issue not from and be subordinate to the love of God 7. That this with the first of the First Table do more clearly discover Original Corruption and the Root of all Sin in us than any of the rest 8. That if we could perfectly obey these two as we never shall in this life we might perfectly obey all the other and might pluck up by the very Roots all other sins 9. That by this we easily understand what necessity we have of Christ and his sanctifying Spirit without both which we can neither hope for remission of sin past or power to avoid sin and transgressions of this Law for time to come For if our hearts be not renewed they will be ever coveting and coveting will be a continual Spring of dishonour of Superiours Murder Adultery Theft False-Witness as our Saviour teacheth us For out of the Heart proceed evil Thoughts Murthers Adulteries Fornications Thefts False-Witness Blasphemies Math. 15. 19. Wars and Fightings are from our Lusts Jam. 4. 1. Achan covets and commits Sacriledge Ahab covets and commits Murder Therefore we must not covet In these words is forbidden all discontentedness with that Estate God hath given us § V â—o as to be any cause or occasion of coveting that which is our Neighbours All Envy likewise must be a sin against this Law but Hatred and Malice in general and Contempt are directly contrary to it In a word the want of Love
〈◊〉 onely his Protection and Preservation as Humane Law-givers onely do yet He was willing by Promises to bind Himself to reward him gloriously and after he had lost his power to send Christ to redeem him and give him a new power and first to promise to give him excellent Rewards and in the end actually to reward him for Christs sake with full and everlasting glory and that upon easie and fairest terms For this cause is his Mercy so often magnified in the Scriptures and especially in the Gospel Therefore is it said That God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith He loved us even then when we were dead in sins He quickned us by Grace we are saved and raised us up together and made us â—it in Heavenly places in Christ Jesus that in the Ages to come He might shew the exceeding Riches of His Grace in His kindness towards us through Christ Jesus Ephes. 2. 4 5 6 7. And it was His great mercy that He doth threaten no sinners and offenders with punishments unavoidable or unremoveable but final Impenitents and Unbelievers as such From all this His Promises may be described to be A part of the Laws of God-Redeemer whereby He freely bound Himself and did signifie that for Christ's sake He would give all Mercies to Man believing that may make him for ever fully blessed And his Threats are A signification of His Will whereby the party offending should be liable to punishments removeable or unavoible upon certain conditions and onely unremoveable or unavoidable upon â—â—nal unbelief There was one great Promise made presently upon the Fall to give Christ. And this was fully performed in the fulness of time and so to us it 's no Promise and this was not made in consideration of the merit and satisfaction of Christ and did at first include a Promise to call and afford the means of Conversion The rest of the Promises were grounded upon the Satisfaction and Merit of Christ and were better Promises then those of the Law of Works And they are better not onely in respect of the things pâ—omised but of the tearms upon which the Promises were to be performed They are exceeding great and precious that by them we might be partakers of the Divine Nature having escaped the corruption that is in the World through Lust 2 Pet. 1. 4. Some tell us § IV that the Gospel threatens not any sin with Death but final Unbelief And hereupon ariseth a Question about the Threats of the Gospel Whether there be any such Threats of the Gospel which make the Offender liable to Death but onely the final Unbeliever For Solution whereof we must consider 1. That if the Gospel were so strictly taken as it is by many as to contain and consist onely in Promises then it would follow that no sin no not final unbelief could be threatned with Death by the Laws of God-Redeemer as Redeemer 2. We must know that in Scripture by Death is meant punishment in general Whether it be Temporal or Eternal Bodily or Spirituall 3. That every sin deserves Death that is Punishment whether they be sins against the Law of Works or of Grace 4. That the same sins against the morall Law which were threatned with Death by the Law of Works are threatned with Death by the Law of Grace For as that Law bound to obedience or upon Disobedience unto Death so doth this Yet observe 1. That the sins against the Law of grace are sins formally against God-Redeemer as such and giving Laws unto sinful man 2. That these sins have not only the nature of sins as transgressions of a Law of God but also the nature of impenitency and unbelief For whosoever continues in sin or delays if but an hour his return to God Redeemer is not only a sinner against God but an impenitent Sinner against God-Redeemer in Christ requiring repentance and faith instantly and not granting the liberty to continue in sin and to delay repentance for a moment 3. Though the Law threatned every sin against it with punishment and death unremoveable or unavoydable yet the Gospel though it threaten every sin against it with punishment yet it threatens none with punishment unremoveable or unavoyable but finall unbelief or such sins as upon which by his ordination finall unbelief is necessarily consequent 4. This Law of grace threatens not only sins against the morall Law but against the very Ceremonialls of the Gospel How else could the Corinthians have bin guilty of the body and blood of Christ and have suffered so grievous a punishment as many of them did for the unworthy receiving the Lords Supper The rule of this judgment was neither the Law of works as given to Adam nor as given to Israel either in the moralls or positives If any say that Christ died not to satisfie for such sins as finall unbeâ—ief and â—ins unto Death as Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost or some kind of Apostacy it may be said that one immediate effect of Christs death was to satisfie Gods justice and make sin remissible in generall not that it was God's intention that all sins or any sin should be remitted absolutely but upon certain termes defined by his wisdome and justice In this regard these sins as sins in generall were made remissible by Christs Sacrifice Yet in respect of Divine ordination and the termes defined for remission they are irremissible So that as sins by Christs death they are remissible yet made irremissible Per accidens in another respect Yet here we must observe that not only finall unbeliefe and impenitency are sins against the Laws of Redemption and the precepts of the Gospel but every degree of them from the first to the last from the least to the greatest are so too Neither is finall unbelief merely as finall unpardonable but per accidens Because after a certain time granted by God for belief is expired he will never vouchsafe time nor meanes or power for it afterwards and belief he hath made a necessary condition of pardon and hath decree'd never to pardon but upon this condition These promises § V or threats may be considered either formally or materially and in respect of their matter and accordingly may be discovered and summed up in Scripture All such places of Scripture as command and require Repentance and Faith have some promise annexed and the same either expressed or implyed And to such places these promises of God do properly belong For Promises and Duties go together and therefore in most of the promises the duty is expressed And they are made to persons so and so qualified Insomuch that till the person be rightly qualified he hath no immediate right unto the thing promised nor can have any hope of performance For God is only bound to performe his promise when man hath performed his duty This was the Wisdome of God so to make his promises that man might have no cause to presume or deceive himself The
generall qualificatition to which all these promises are annexed is faith and repentance All those places both of the Old and new Testament which prohibit reprove dehort from impenitency unbelief blindnesse and hardnesse of heart have some threatnings or commination annexed either implicitly or expresly And as Duty and Promise so Impenitency and Threatning go together and as the promises many times expresse the duty so these the sin and the same not repented of And as the sins not repented of are many so the punishments threatned are too I might give examples as If ye be willing and obey ye shall eat the good of the Land but if you refuse and rebel ye shall be devoured with the Sword Eâ—ay 1. 19 20. Where 1. To eat the fruit of the Land is a mercy promised 2. To be willing and obdient is the duty and qualification and that 's Repentance as doth easily appear from the context 3. To be devoured with the Sword is the punishment threatned 4. To Refuse and Rebel is the sin threatned and that 's Impenitencie More expresly He that believeth on him is not condemned He that believeth not is condemned already c. Joh. 3. 18 36. Yet we must 1. Distinguish betwixt threatning and peremptory denunciations upon impenitency continued foreseen For those Denunciations are rather Sentences of the Supreme judge or predictions then comminations of the Supreme Lawgiver Thus God did denounce the universall deluge the ruine of Jerusalem the rejection of the Jews 2. We must seperate from these promises and threats those which God signified to Adam innocent and to Israel as a body politick in the Land of Canaan till Christ was exhibited For though these and those might generally and materially be the same yet specifically and formally they were not 3. There is a difference between promises and threatnings in that promises bind God to reward the obedient yet threatnings do not bind him to punish the disobedient For by promises God doth bind himself to reward by threatnings he only binds man to suffer His promise he cannot deny because he is faithfull and just His threatnings signifie what man deserves and how he may justly punish him and the effect thereof is this that the party offending is instantly liable to punishment and bound to suffer it though God be not bound to inflict it If he were bound by it in the same manner as he is by promise he could have no power to pardon sin and if he must make the Law the Rule of his judgment and were bound so to do in the threatning as he is in the promise he must needs punish every sin and pardon no sin But He being slow to wrath and ready to forgive and much inclined to mercy He in his wisdome thought good in his Law so to threaten sin as to reserve a transcendent power above his threatnings to shew mercy Some threatnings may be peremptory but all are not such He also so threatens sin that if man commit it he is not bound absolutely to punish it nor obliged to punish it wholly or in part instantly upon the commission of the sin but hath power to deser his judgment And hence his patience and long-suffering wherâ— by according to the Law of Redemption he gives man time and means of returning and seeks to draw him to Repentance Yet lest any should presume and despise his threatings he lets man know that if he delay his Repentance too long he shall in no wise escape the punishment and there will be a day of the Revelation of his just judgment wherein he will powre out the treasures of his Wrath in full measure upon impenitent Wretches and the more they contemned his patience the more they shall suffer Though God hath power to dispence with his Law in respect of judgment threatned yet he hath bound himself by an eternall decree not to spare or pardon but upon condition of Christs expiation and mans repentance for which there is a limited time granted wherein if we repent not pardon will become impossible These promises in respect of the matter promised § VI may be again distinguished 1. Into promises of blessings or deliverances and as both are bodily or spirituall temporall or eternall so the promises be The Apostle assures us that godlinesse hath the promises of this life and that which is to come 1 Tim. 4. 8. And our Saviour informs us That if we first seek the Kingdome of God and his Righteousnesse then these temporall necessaries shall be added unto us Mat. 6. 33. This is evident from Christs pattern of Prayer wherein as you heard before he taught us Supplications for good and the same not onely Spirituall but temporall and deprecations of evill and that also both spirituall and temporall He promiseth the Kingdome that 's a promise of a spirituall and eternall reward Luke 12. 32. And Food and Rayment and that 's a promise of bodily and temporall blessings verse 31. ibid. So he hath promised to deliver us from temporall evils and also from condemnation and eternall death Yet 1. He binds himself in these promises only to godly men as you heard before and in them unto godly men for temporall mercies in subordination to spiritualls and so far as his Divine wisdome shall see them tending to their eternall good The spirituall promises are such as whereby he bindes himself to give blessings to be received in this life or in the life to come in this life either blessings antecedent to conversion or consequent to it consequent are either the state of justification upon our union with Christ or our continuance of it according to our continuance in Christ. Mercies promised for the life to come are either such as are Sutable to the State of Separation or the State of Resurrection And there may be a distinction in respect of the subject to whom they are made For some are made to single persons some to familyes some to whole Nations some to mankind in generall And some of these are ordinary some extraordinary According to these heads all the promises in Scripture might be reduced to a certain method if some would take paines and it would be a profitable work The threatnings also materially considered § VII may be distinguished according to the matter threatned which is punishment And seeing the punishments are contrary to the rewards and so the threatnings to the promises therefore they may receive the same distinctions which the promises do as to be spirituall or bodily temporall or eternall And so of the rest For as the whole man body and soul sins and all his parts faculties and members participate in iniquity and concurâ—e in tranâ—gression severall wayes and in severall degrees so the punishments both threatned and executed are distinguished and proportioned They may be differenced from those of the Law of Creation For those ranne thus Sin and Dye And in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye Gen. 2. 17.
comfort And God knowing this doth alwayes in this particular declare the Sentence by the Execution and never did justify and person and left him unsanctified And by this Sactification doth plainly testify unto the party justified that he hath freed him from the guilt and obligation to the greatest Punishment of all Yet this Regeneration is not perfect at the first neither shall be fully perfect in Body and Soul untill the Resurrection This must needs be the first part of branch because all that follow depend upon it and without it we are uncapable of them For as God for order so far as our shallow capacity will reach is first conceived to be holy before he be conceived as happy so man must needs be The greatest and first penalty for Sin was to take away the sanctifying Spirit and the greatest mercy is to restore it again And this as all the rest is derived immediatly from Christ believed upon For by faith we first have Union then Communion with him and derive both Grace and Peace from God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ and are blessed in him with all spirituall Blessings It 's called Regeneration because we are by it delivered from that most fearfull death we call the death of Sin and receive a new and spirituall life being created anew according to his Image in Righteousnesse and true Holinesse It may be said to be begun though at some distance in Vocation when ouâ— Hearts are first prepared for then informed with Faith and so we are ingrafted into Christ and made one with him Yet all this was but a preparation for it and tending unto it to complete our union with our Saviour And when we are once united that Spirit which did onely prepare us is given to abide in us constantly and first as a Spirit of Sanctification In this the foundation of eternall Joy and Glory is laid and now we begin to move directly towards our full happinesse This not onely takes away former guilt but the very Root of former guilt of Sin The second Branch is our Reconciliation § XI for being justified by Faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom also we have accesse into the Grace wherein we stand This is said to be an effect of Justification strictly taken In the words of the Apostle Rom. 5. 1 2. we must consider 1. The Condition of the party to be reconciled before he be reconciled 2. What this Peace with God is 3. Who they are that are thus reconciled and have this Peace 4. How they have it through Jesus Christ our Lord. 1. Because Reconciliation presupposeth Emnity therefore the condition of the party to be reconciled must be that he is at Emnity with God and God at Emnity with him There is Emnity between them and this is a very sad condition to be at Emnity with that God in whom all our comfort is and upon whose favour depends our spirituall and eternall happinesse The cause of this Emnity is Sin considered either in the habit or in the act or guilt By the habit and the act we are contrary to God as just and holy and God must needs abhorr us Therefore the Scripture represents Sin as base and filthy polluting the Sinner and God as pure and holy hating detesting abominating sin For nothing is so contrary to God and so odious in his sight as sinne Therefore is it said Thou art not a God that hast pleasure in Wickedness neither shall evil dwell with thee The foolish shall not stand in thy sight Thou hatest the Workers of Iniquity â— Psal. 5. 4 5. And thou art of purer eyes then to behold evil and canst not look upon Iniquity Hab. 1. 13. And there shall in no wise enter into the new and holy Jerusalem any thing that defileth Rev. 21. 27. And without as in no wise admitted to enter are Dogs and Sorcerers and Whoremongers and Murderers and Idolaters and who so maketh a Lye Rev. 22. 15. That is men polluted and defiled with sin are uncapable of this Society and communion with the most holy God and his most holy people Nay we are commanded to be holy as He is holy and if we be not so He will not admit us into his presence hear our Prayers accept our Persons or our Service nay He will cast us out of His Presence And though He may love us as Men yet He cannot love us as polluted with sin As sin so the Emnity begins on our part for we first sin and so are alienated and Enemies in or by our mind by wicked Works Col. 1. 21. Where the Learned Bishop of Salisbury observes 1 The miserable estate of those Colossians before they were reconciled it was an estate of Emnity and Hostility And 2 The cause and that was the mind in sin set on sin so he with Beza understands it The first Emnity therefore is from sin as sin But this is not all for sin as a transgression of the Law of God threatning punishment offends God and provokes him to anger as it makes man liable to punishment So as that God who as merciful is inclined to reward as just is bent to punish and so not onely take away his mercies but inflict Positive Penalties to take vengeance upon the sinner for the Transgression and Contempt of His Law And he that continueth in his sin without repentance must needs be an Enemy and the subject of His Wrath. God is an enemy to him not as a man but as a sinful man continuing in sin and as he is unclean he can have no fellowship with God who is Light and in whom there is no Darkness because he walks in Darknessâ— and he is deprived of his special favour and love and lies under His heavy displeasure This is the condition of the party before He be reconciled The 2d Thing to be considered is What this peace with God should be And 1 It 's peace after Emnity Therefore called Reconciliation 2 It 's a removal and taking away the emnity by taking away the cause thereof as you shall hear hereafter 3 This Emnity is so taken away that the state of the Person reconciled is not a bare Neutrality between God and him but a state of special love and favour whereupon follows an acceptation of the person and an admittance into God's presence to come with boldness and confidence unto the Throne of Grace a delight in his Prayers and Service and a Peace and quiet calm of Conscience which cannot be without great joy God before did hate hide his face cast out of his presence and man once sensible of his sin doth fear and fly from God's preâ—ence as from a conâ—uming Fire As Adam hearing the voice of God was afraid and hid himself and Israel trembled before Mount Sinai burning with fire up to the midst of Heaven Now God loves and man is bold and confident This is a special favour God bears unto his
Attribute which God did exercise § III and manifest in this Judgment passed upon man was his Mercy which is his free love of man who had made himself unworthy For after that he had sinned and made himself miserable though his misery were an object of compassion yet his sin did provoke to anger and deserved vengeance God looking upon man in this condition was more willing to pitty him then to punish him to remove the sin then to destroy the sinner He was unwilling all Mankind should perish as they must needs have done if he had proceeded in strict justice against them The sin in it self was no fit subject of mercy yet seeing that Woman was deceived by the subtilty of the Devil and Man by Woman his dearest Wife brought into transgression God took occasion to pitty them yet there could be no mercy for them except it issue out of the abundant goodness of God who is slow to anger and so much inclined to compassion and willing in this particular rather to manifest the glory of his mercy then of his justice Man had made himself unworthy and liable to eternal misery and God might have eternally punisht him and that justly too yet mercy kept justice back mitigated the rigour of it and confined it in a narrow compass to inlarge her self more abundantly This mercy was the Fountain from which issued the Promise of Christ the ruine of Sathan's Kingdom the Redemption of Mankind the Relicks of God's Image the means of Conversion the patience long-suffering bounty and clemency of God the gifts of the Spirit the remission of sin and eternal life And that God might be placable Sin pardonable Man saveable he accepts Christ's propitiation reverseth the Law of Works as requiring and that strictly perfect and perpetual obedience as the condition of life and makes a new Law and Covenant which determines Faith to be the condition of life and that condition to be performed by the power of the Spirit merited by and restored for Christ's sake This mercy did appear in this great Judgment many ways § IV 1. God sentenced the Devils in the first place and that without any mercy and for this very cause even because they had attempted the eternal ruine of man which upon the success of their damned Design had proved unavoidable and the recovery of man impossible if God should not have done some extraordinary work to prevent it Upon this fiery indignation of God against these Liars and Murderers of Mankind expressed in this Sentence it did appear 1. That the punishment to be suffered by these cursed Fiends was grievous unavoidable and unremovable for ever 2. That God was highly displeased at their malice shewed against and the mischief done to Mankind in that he takes so fearful vengeance upon them 3. That there was some pitty in God towards poor man trembling at the Bar of God for though their folly was inexcusable yet their condition considering the temptation was lamentable 2. This mercy was manifest in an high and extraordinary degree and measure in that in this Sentence he promiseth or at least implies a most certain promise of Jesus Christ a Saviour and Redeemer It 's true that this great promise was folded and wrapt up in a few words and the same very mysterious as we read them in Moses Gen. 3. 15. But those very words inform us 1. That the Redeemer should be the Seed of the Woman that Woman whom the Serpent had so deluded and who now stood guilty before God's Tribunal 2. That this Seed of the Woman should bruise the Serpents head and so be the ruine of his Kingdom and Dominion over Man 3. That he should not obtain this Victory without Blood for his Head must be bruised and he put to death And there is not onely an Emphasis but a Mystery in those words The Seed of the Woman The Emphasis is in this That God doth not say an Angel or Spirit or some man more excellent then Adam whom he should create instantly but the Seed a Child a Mortal Man born of that sinful Woman though now contemptible and miserable should encounter the Devil with that power and policy as to foil him The Mystery seems to be this That it 's not said the Seed of Man nor the Seed of Man and Woman but the Seed of the Woman signifying though darkly that Christ should be the Seed and Child immediate of a Woman but of no Man For as he was Man he had an immediate Mother who conceived bare him brought him forth but no immediate Father Upon these words as the condition of Man and Woman became more comfortable so the Kingdom and Government of Mankind began instantly to be altered and a second Adam was appointed their Head to redeem them as the first Adam had undone them We must needs think that our first Parents being sinful guilty and convicted before the Supream Judge of Heaven and Earth stood with sad and heavy hearts expecting their doom and condemnation to Eternal Death until they heard these words The Seed of the Woman should bruise the Serpents Head Then their Despair was turned into Hope and their sinking-dying-hearts began to revive For to them these were words far above all expectation of sweetest comfort Never better words spoken never better heard 3. This mercy was evident in that God did not send the Spirit of Despair nor of Slumber and Security upon them § V nor deliver them up to a reprobate mind as he might justly have done and so made their condition desperate and irrecoverable nor presently execute his judgment Eternal upon them either by taking away their lives in their sin or making their bodies immortal to punishment in body and soul for ever Neither did he take from them the Light of Nature and the sense and power of Conscience but gave them the saving-light of the Gospel and the means of Conversion with the promise of the Spirit All this is evident by the promise of Christ the ruine of Satan's Kingdom a final Victory after a Bloody War in this Sentence of the Devil and it doth further appear by the Education of Cain and Abel and especially in the Faith of Abel That the means of Conversion have been denied several persons whole Tribes many Nations and the greatest part of the World howsoever it might be deâ—erved by this sin of Adam yet usually it 's the punishment of Apostasie as of the generality of mankind before the â—lood of the Gentiles before Christ's incarnation and of the generality of the Jews and many of the Gentiles since the preaching of the Gospel to all Nations And the very Gentiles were not delivered up unto a Reprobate mind before they abused the Light of Nature Yet the very outward means of Conversion were a gift of Free grace for the merit of Christ who was promised of pure and abundant mercy The Sentence of Justice past upon them was allayed § VI and tempered with great mercy
for an Act of Divine Power as it is a cause of subjection which must â—o before admission To understand this we must consider the Subject of it and that is Man as sub alienâ potestate under the power of Sin and Sathan and so out of God's Kingâ—om and as an Alien to this Heavenly Common-wealth and such is every one by Nature as he is out of Jesus Christ. Yet there are degrees of this distance some are further off some nearer to this Kingdom This is evident from the condition of Jews and Gentiles in former times and always especially since the times of the Gospel Because all men are either in the visible Church or out of it And men may be out of the Church two ways 1. As never admitted into the same Or 2. Such as being in the Church prove Apostates The Gentiles once were not Gentiles For their first Apostate Fathers were in the Church and the Jews in former times were God's people but for their unbelief are cast out and continue LO-AMMI none of God's people and this shall be their condition till such time as the fulness of the Gentiles be come in And we must distinguish of such as are in the visible Church for some are sincerely subjected unto God-Redeemer according to their Allegiance Some are Subjects onely by Name and Profession and by their ignorance unbelief disobedience are little better then Heathens and Aliens Some are subject in some measure but come short of that degree which is required to admission All these excepting one sort are out of this Kingdome as it consists of reall Saints and living members of Christ. Apostates shall never be called much lesse admitted if they be personally and wilfully such For if we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth there remaineth no more Sacrifice for sins Heb. 10. 26. and if no more Sacrifice then calling is in vain and to no purpose Yet the posterity of Apostates may be and have been called And if once God vouchsafe the meanes of conversion to Idolators who have forsaken not only God as their Redeemer but as Creatour and Preserver he requires of them to renounce the Devil and turn from their Idols to the living God first and then unto him as Redeemer by Jesus Christ. They which have forsaken Jesus Christ or deny him as their Saviour and yet acknowledge and worship God alone as the Creatour of Heaven and Earth the Preserver and Governour of the World as Turks all Mahumetans and the unbelieving Jews do at this day are bound to acknowledge Christ as their Saviour and Redeemer and sure his incarnation and glorification as already come into the World The case of the Jew in the times of Christ and the Apostles was singular For the sincere Proselyte and Jew had onely this to do to believe in Christ already come as before they believed in him to come and so they became compleat members of the Church Christian and perfectly subjects of the Kingdome of Christ glorified The Ignorant and Prophane as also the Hypocrits must forsake their wicked wayes and sincerely submit themselves Yet none of these things can be done without a power from Heaven and a Vocation which is a gracious work of God Redeemer wherein he by his Word and Spirit reduceth man to subjection so that he is fitted to be a subject of his Blessed Kingdome For by Calling we are delivered from the power of darknesse and translated into the Kingdome of His Dear Son Col. 1. 13. Therefore said to be called out of darknesse into his marveylous light 1 Pet. 2. 9. And upon this they who were not a people are made the people of God verse 10. For God will put his lawes into their mind and write them in their hearts and thereupon He will be their God and they shall be to him a People Heb. 8. 10. In all these Passages and many more it 's evident 1. That by nature and as born of sinfull Adam we are in darknesse out of Gods Kingdome none of Gods People 2. That we passe out of darknesse into light and into Christs Kingdom 3. This is not a work of our own merit or power For it 's God that delivers us translates us writes his lawes in our hearts and this of his free mercy and by his great and wonderfull power 4. By this we become Gods people and subjects of Christ's Kingdom And all this is said to be by calling For he called us out of darknesse into his marvaylous light All these particulars are expressed or implyed in those words of the Apostle who signifies that God would send him to the Gentiles to open their eves and to turn them from darknesse to light and from the power of Sathan unto God that they may receive remission of sins and as inheritance among them which are sanctifyed by saith in Christ Act. 26. 17 18. This Vocation § VII as it is an act of power and great mercy and free grace for by grace we are saved so it s a work which is effected by the Word and Spirit For as we are regenerate so we are called and we are regenerate 1. By the Word 2. By the Spirit By the Word For of his own will he begat us with the word of truth Jam. 1. 18. By the Spirit For except a man be born again of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdome of God Joh. 3. 5. In the Word God commands and promiseth The command binds man to submit The promise is a motive to enforce the performance of the precept This we maâ— understand and observe in the Call of Abraham For 1. He is commanded to get him out of his Countrey and from his kindred and from his Fathers house unto a land that God would shew him and to perswade him God promiseth to make him a great nation and to blesse him c. But the principall promise was that in him all the familyes of the earth should be blessed Gen. 12. 1. 2 3. This precept implyes that man is under the domiâ—ion of sin and Sathan and therefore commands him to forsake his sin and Sathan and turn from Satan unto God In this God makes use of the Doctrine of the fall of Adam and the Morall Law as given unto him and binding him to perfect and perpetual obedience and upon disobedience threatning Death And by the precept is discovered mans sin and by threatning his misery to humble him break his heart make him weary of sin and desirous of deliverance and willing upon any termes to accept a Saviour Yet this gives him no Comfort nor any Power to do that which is his duty though God make use of it to prepare mans heart The first dutyes commanded are 1. A sight of sin as sin in our selves whereby we are miserable The 2. Is saith whereby we believe that God being satisfyed and attoned by the blood of Christ will be mercifull and pardon sin This faith
and Mercerus understand it Yea the Apostle himself informs us that the people fore-known Rom. 11. 2. are a Remnant according to the Election of Grace ver 5. And the Election that is the persons elected ver 7. So that to fore-know is to decree to Call and is the same with the decree of Election strictly taken 3. Predestination § X in this place is distinct from Election or Fore-knowledge and is a decree to justifie adopt and glorifie the Elect or Called For in these words of the Apostle To be conformed to the Image of his Son is to be glorified For Image in several places of the Old Testament is taken for Glory So O Lord when thou awakest thou wilt despise their Image that is their Glory Psal. 73. 20. When I awake I shall be satisfied with thy likeness that is thy Glory Psal. 17. 15. The similitude of the Lord shall He that is Moses behold that is his glory Numb 12. 8. In both places the Septuagint turn the word which signifies likeness or image glory And in the New Testament Man is the Image and glory of God 1 Cor. 11. 7. And though not here yet in another place God is said to predestinate us to Adoption Ephes. 1. 15. Where Adoption may be glory for so sometimes it 's taken And it 's implyed That we are Predestinate unto an Inheritance ver 11. 4. Election signifies both when it is written That God hath chosen you that is the Thessalonians to Salvation through Sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth 2 Thess. 2. 13. 5. The Subject of Election is Man but not as Man merely nor as man made nor to be made nor as fallen in massâ corruptâ though man may be considered under all these notions but the immediate subject of Election and Predestination is every person considered in that condition as God shall find him when he calls him For the execution of Election begins in that Calling upon which follows the first sincere Conversion And because in many this Calling goes long before final Faith as final Therefore man as finally believing is not the immediate Object of Election though final Believers be the immediate Subject of Glorification The first Compilers of the Articles of Subscription for the Church of England in King Edward the 6th His Reign do understand Predestination and Election for two distinct and different Acts of God as appears by the 17th Article For they make the Elect to be the Object of Predestination and imply that Election is Antecedent to Predestination But whether they meant by Election a Decree to Call is difficult to determine Neither need we trouble our selves in the search thereof because our Rules is the Scripture and their words are capable of a good sense Thus much may be sufficient for the explication of the words § X The thing signified by the Words in the next place is to be examined Election taken in the larger sense both for the Decree of Calling and Predestination too may be defined from 2 Thess. 2. 13. to be A Decree of God whereby He determined to chuse certain persons unto Salvation through Sanctification of the Spirit and Belief of the Truth Or thus more at large It is a Decree of God whereby He decreed according to His good pleasure before the Foundation of the world to call certain particular persons and by Christ to justifie and glorifie them First the general Nature of Election is a Decree A Decree is an Act of the Will that act which we call a determination or resolution to do something and this is an act of God's Will and according to our manner of understanding and the expression of the Scriptures it doth pre-suppose his counsel and practical knowledge directing the Will For we are said to be predestinate according to the good pleasure of Him who worketh all things according to the counsell of his will Ephes. 1. 11. Where observe 1. That the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is turned Purpose signifies sometimes good pleasure and so it s to be understood there 2. That Counsell is antecedent to the Will and directs the determination thereof As the general Act is a Decree So Secondly the Decree was passed by God before the Foundation of the world and the existence of things and in this respect is not onely Destination but Predestination Yet this Decree is not properly Eternal as the existence of the Deity and the immanent Acts of God upon Himself are 3. This Decree was not onely a free act but an act of free and abundant grace and mercy in Christ therefore said to be according to the good pleasure of His Will to the praise of the glory of His Grace wherein He hath made us accepted in His Beloved Ephes. 1. 5 6. 4. The Object or Subject of this Decree is sinful man yet considered as redeemed by Christ For otherwise He could not be eligible or predestinable to Salvation and Eternal Glory seeing that by the first Law of Works transgressed he was a Vessel of Wrath and as such in no possibility of Salvation For once guilty he was no way save-able but by Christ's Redemption and the New Covenant Therefore we are said to be chosen in Christ to be predestinate unto the Adoption of Children by Jesus Christ Ephes. 1. 4 5. And from hence it followeth that there was no merit in man fore-seen nor any cause out of God that might move God or determine His Will The merit of Christ fore-known could not necessitate His Will yea neither final Faith fore-seen nor the foresight it self of Faith could any ways pre-determine God's Will But this Will did freely determine it self both in general to chuse any and much more to chuse these or those particular persons The fore-knowledge of Christ Faith good-works final perseverance as possible could not make the Salvation of sinful man to be future for the futurition of it depended merely upon his good pleasure yet directed by his Wisdom And the Object of this Decree was not man in general but certain single persons and the same not onely guilty by the first Sin of Adam but by many other actual sins even all their actual transgressions which they had committed before God's effectual Call and their Conversion Yet this is to be understood of such as are Adulti and at age before their Conversion This is evident both out of the Epistle to the Romanes but especially in that to the Ephesians Chap. 1. 4 5 11. and that to the Thessalonians 2 Chap. 2. 13. For we find the subject to be persons and such as were guilty not onely of the first sin but many proper actual sins before their Conversion and their Election pre-supposeth Christ the Redemption the Covenant The Remonstrants inform us that the Decrees of Predestination are these 1. A Decree to give Christ to redeem sinful man 2. A Decree to save all those who shall sincerely and finally believe in Him 3. A Decree
help and comfort and upon the Fall Per accidens the avoiding of Fornication One effect and that a principal one is That the Wife hath not power of her own body but the Husband and likewise also the Husband hath not power of his own body but the Wife and this is the reason why Adultery is so grievous a sin and a just cause of dissolution because the party committing it doth give that body which is anothers and not their own unto a third party contrary to Gods institution the Covenant and the principal end of marriage Amongst Christians this Marriage doth resemble that spiritual and blessed union of Christ and the Church begun on Earth to be consuâ—mate in Heaven and should be entred upon and continued so and also observed in that holy manner as that it may be a furtherance not an hinderance to that more Heavenly bond and society We should first give our selves to be married to Christ before we give our selves to be married one unto another For Redemption did not abolish but perfect Marriage It 's not made necessary to eternal life for as we may be married and not saved so we may be unmarried and yet Married to Christ and Saved Yet all Christians should marry in the Lord Though the Marriage of Heathens as Marriage is lawfull and their children born in Marriage are legitimate By these things premised concerning Marriage § II we may easily understand what Adultery is It is the defiling of the Marriage-bed The Apostle saith Let Marriage be honourable in all and let the bed be undefiled Heb. 13. 4. That the words are a dehortation appeareth from the context The sin dehorted from is Adultery which is a dishonouring of Marriage and a defiling of the Marriage bed This Adultery is opposed to chastity and fidelity in married persons The sense is Let all that are married preserve the honour of Marriage and preserve the Marriage-bed pure This Adultery is committed three wayes 1. When the Adulterer is single and the Adulteresse Married 2. When the Woman is single and the Man or Adulterer Maâ—ried 3. When both the parties are Married When one party onely is Married and the other single one bed onely is defiled but when both the parties are Married two Marriage-beds are defiled by one act This Commandment followeth the former in order For the best and nearest thing is Mans life the next is his Wife who by Gods institution and solemn contract is one Person and one flesh with him And for an Husband or Wife to commit this sin is a wrong unto their bodies which is of more account then their goods can be And Adultery is a wrong more heynous than Theft and next to that of Murther Some have observed that the sixth and seventh Commandement are fitly joyned together because Adultery and Murther often go together And we must avoid Adultery the cause that we may avoid Murther which is often committed to conceal Adultery as in the example of David who having committed Adultery with Vriah's Wife caused him to be slain lest his Adultery should be discovered Others consent to murder that they may enjoy one another more freely Thus Adulterous Wives conspire with their Paramours to poyson or secretly murder their Husbands Adultery in either Party is a grievous sin but especially in the Wife because it may bring in a Bastard and a spurious brood to inherit her Husbands estate This sin appears to be heinous many wayes § III and therefore ought with the greater care to be avoided and abhorred It 's contrary to Gods institution to the sacred and solemn contract of the Married parties it 's a dishonour of the body For every one should know how to possesse his Vessell in Sanctification and honour 1. Thâ—ss 4. 4. This Vessel is the body the Sanctification and honour is chastity Which implies that Adultery as also fornication is the dishonour and slain of the body In this respect it may be said that he that committeth Fornication sinneth against his own body It 's a disgrace to the Children a blot upon the Family the cause of wofull discord the dissolution of the sacred bond the ruine of Families and the â—ource of many miseries This is farther evident from the Penalty determined by God against this sin which was death The Man that committeth Adultery with another Mans wife even he that committeth Adultery with his Neighbours Wife both the Adulterer and Adulteresse shall surely be put to death Levit. 20. 10. Judah adjudgeth his daughter in Lâ—w Thamar to the fire for Adultâ—ry Many Heathen States made it Capital The King of Babylon condemned Ahab and Zedechiah to be burnt for this sin Jer. 29. 22 23. The Tribe of Benjamin was almost destroyed for the same Judg. 19 20. Chapters David commits Adultery in secret and his own Concubines are defiled by his own Son in the sight of the Sun and all Israel And for this sin God was so incensed with the Men of Judah that he saith Shall not I visit for these things Shall not my Soul be avenged on such a Nation as this Jer. 5. 8 9. Diseases and beggery with perpepual inâ—amy and sometimes death follow by Gods just Judgments upon the Parties guilty of this Crime Again this society of Marriage being ordained for propagation is the Seminary of Church and state and if it be stained by Adultery both are stained And to multiply a Bastard brood for the beginning of a Civil or Ecclesiasticall association is to be abhorred by all Wise and honest much more by Religious Persons It 's a curse and dishonour to any people to be derived from any such spurious spawn Therefore all well-ordered states have made strict Laws concerning Marriages and most civilized Nations have their Rites and Customs for the more solemn Celebration of the same Christians appointed the Publication of the Banns and the solemnization of the Marriage it self was to be performed in the open Congregation with holy instructions exhortations and Prayers All this was done to prevent Fornication uncleannesse and Clandestine Marriages Again this Crime amongst Christians is more hainous because our bodies are the members of Christ the Temples of the Holy Ghost and are bought with the price of Christ's blood 1 Cor. 6. 15 16 17 18 19 â—0 This is a sin that shuts out of Heavens Kingdome Chap. 16. verse 9. 10. For this sin as for others the wrath of God comes upon the Children of disobedience Ephes. 5. 6. And Whoremongers and Adulterers God will Judge Heb. 13. 4. And he will punish them not onely with temporall but if they repent not with eternall punishments Though Adultery § IV as most pernicious to humane Society be onely forbidden expresly yet implicitly many other sins come under this Prohibition And for the better understanding of this commandement as of some others we must take notice of some Rules given by Catechists Casuists and Expositors viz. That where one sin is forbidden all of that
contents than sin and displease our God and endanger our poor souls Many are not Chast at all few and very few perfectly Chast and this Commandement discovers much sin and manifests an absolute necessity of Christs merit and Gods mercy in this particular Many are wicked the best are frail and all imperfect at least in our strange and unclean thoughts which are very hardly prevented in them who abhor the sin and love the virtue I might in this pâ—ace take occasion to enlarge but I will not debate either of the nullity of some marriages or what doth make a nullity or determine the severall degrees of consanguinity or affinity and so discover what marriages are inceâ—â—uous or enquire into the nature of divorce and the causes thereof and whether divorce for Adultery doth totally dissolve the matrimoniall bond or onely separate à mensa thoro the bond continuing still or declare in what cases Man and Wife may live asunder As for living or not living together when the one party is a Believer the other an Unbeliever the Apostle 1. Cor. 7. hath sufficiently determined These particulars might take up a Volume Let the Reader observe that in this Commandement God saith to all single Persons Be Chaste To all Married Persons Be Faithful CHAP. XIV The Eighth Commandement THE Sin forbidden in this Commandement § I is THEFT Thou shalt not steal Theft is the unjust usurpation of anothers goods or the taking away or detaining anothers goods unjustly By unjust Usurpation I mean a making that our own which is not our own and to which we have no right For the better understanding of Theft we must consider 1. The matter of it 2. The form 3. The Persons that are guilty under which comes in the several distinctions of Theft 4. The Causes and Antecedents which make way unto it 5. The Degrees thereof The matter of Theft are the goods of other men Therefore as the former Commandement presupposed Marriage so doth this Propriety and a right to those things we call goods which are such things as God hath given us for the preservation comfort and ornament of this bodily life and in that respect called our lively-hood because they are not onely convenient but necessary in a competent measure for the continuance of life The absolute and highest degree of Propriery in these Earthly goods is onely in God because He made them For the Earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof the World and they that dwell therein for He hath founded it upon the Seas and establisht it upon the Floods Psal. 24. 1 2. The Earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof This is God's Propriety He hath founded and prepared it This is the reason and ground of this absolute Propriety Yet He was willing that seeing He made these things for Man he should have some right unto them and an inferiour kind of Propriety in them Therefore it is written The Heaven even the Heavens are the Lords but the Earth hath He given to the Children of Men Psal. 115. 16. So that Man derives his Right unto them from God by way of Donation and that from the Creation Gen. 1. 28 29. This Donation is from God not as Redeemer but Creatour and Preserver Therefore it 's true that Dominium non fundatur in Gratia That Man by Sin might â—orfeit there can be no doubt yet if God took not the Forfeit so as to re-enter the Right remains unto men as men not as sanctified The sanctified onely have a sanctified use of them and will be able to make a good account God renewed his Charter and Donation Gen. 9 3. and this after the Flood Yet this is but a common and general Right given unto man in general and might stand good though all things continued as common This gave neither publike Right to many nor private to any yet was a just Foundation of the Division and Appropriation of things which was once introduced by the Law of Nations and of several States and by the consent of private persons and though this Division and Appropriation leâ—t some things common and did onely constitute a publike or private Title yet to make that publike which God and Nature have made common as to drink water out of the River c. or that private which is publike is a breach of this Commandement Besides the Laws and consent of men there is a special Providence of God both in disposing the several parts of the Earth to several Nations as the Land of Canaan to Israel of Mount-Seir to Esau c. and also making private men rich or poor and giving to one more to another less This Donation of God is not absolute and unlimited for He gives with a Proviso to dispossess and take away at will and pleasure especially when whole Nations States or private men by their heynous crimes do forfeit These goods which God gave licence to be divided are either in no man's possession or propriety or in some man's possession or propriety For such as no man claims any right unto nor can justly do it they fall to the first Inventour and Possessour and this is a good Title as also Presciption For such goods as others have a Right unto whilest that Right continues we cannot in Justice challenge as ours except they be given us by the Owners or sold or exchanged or left by Inheritance or deserved by some Service or be made Lords thereof upon Conquest in a just War There be other just ways of acquiring but I remember them not These goods are corporeal or incorporeal corporeal are immoveable as Lands or moveable as other goods incorporeal as usages to pass to drive to carry through another mans ground and other such like There be degrees of this propriety Some have onely the use of another mans goods but not the profit some the use and profit but no right of alienation some have right of alienation some have onely Dominium Eminens as chief Lords and can onely demand a chief Rent which the Vassal in alienation must always except A man may be wronged in all or any of these and to deprive a man of the least right he hath in these things by the Laws of God and just Laws of men is Theft So that the Form is in the injustice of the Possession of these goods § II and to know when this Possession is unjust we must 1. Distinguish betwixt things common things publike things private that we may understand and that distinctly the common the publike the private Propriety and Right 2. We must consider that some Propriety and Right is grounded upon the Laws of God some upon the Laws of Men whether the Law of Nations or Laws of particular States some upon both 3. We must observe that some things may be proper and due by the Laws of men which are not due by the Laws of God and on the contrary and some things are due both by the Laws of
God as our onely Lord and Redeemer by him and so we take him to be our God The 2. Is totall reliance upon God as our Redeemer in Christ Jesus dying and rising again for us 3. An engagement with the whole heart unto the obedience of his commands and to be his people his loyall and obedient subjects And because this duty is a return unto our God formerly forsaken by us therefore it 's called Repentance And because it 's not onely a belief of his truth but a reliance upon his promises it s called Faith By this we turn from darknesse to light and from the power of Satan unto God The reward that follows upon this is that God will be to us a God and we shall be to Him a people Heb. 8. 10. This is our admission of us as subjects of his Kingdome wherein as we must perform dutyes so we shall enjoy priviledges This makes us one with Christ ingrafts us unto him so as we become his living members and derive from God by him all grace and peace and saving blessings But of this there are degrees 1. We have Christ as our Saviour and Redeemer 2. A right unto the mercyes merited by him and promised by God in him 3. Some degree of possession and enjoyment of them 4. In the end a full communion with God the Father and Jesus Christ his Son so that our joy is made full Before I proceed to the next benefit or reward something must be observed both concerning this duty and this reward 1. The repentance faith and submission unto God Redeemer in Christ is in consistent with the habituall dominion of any sin 2. Though it be such and therefore sincere yet it 's not perfect but admits of degrees and must encrease untill we come to perfection 3. They do not look at any particular promise of God or office of Christ or benefit merited by Christ but at God Redeemer in generall as the fountain of eternall life and all benefits conducing thereunto and at all the offices of Christ and all the merits of Christ even at whole Christ as by whom God will give us this eternall full salvation 4. Yet they virtually include and are the root of all particular acts to be terminated upon particular promises offices merits Concerning the reward 1. The estate of such as have received it is inconsistent with the estate of such as are under the dominion of sin and liable to the condemnation unto eternall death 2. As the duty so the reward is imperfect at the first 3. It 's no particular reward as of justification or reconciliation or adoption or the rest formally actually and particularly considered but virtually all For we have God to be our God whole Christ to be our Saviour and be in Christ Christ is in us by his Spirit And whereas formerly the Spirit was in us to prepare us now he as the Spirit of Christ our head is in us to abide and constantly to sanctifie and comfort and seale us to the day of Redemption And the first reward upon this faith having received Christ and God received him as a member of Christ is Justification a reward The great reward CHAP. XXII Of Justification by Faith in Christ. Justification is a reward of God Redeemer whereby he justifieth a sinner believing in Christ § I as having by his blood satisfied Gods justice merited remission and making intercession in Heaven according to promise or as being the propitiation for sin by his blood and pleading this propitiation before his Father's Tribunall in Heaven In which words we must conder 1. The Judge 2. The party judged 3. The judicial Act or the reward actively considered 1. The Judge is God but 1. Not largely as Judge of men and Angels but as Judge of men 2. Not as Creatour and Judge by the Law of Creation and of works but by the Law of Redemption and grace 3. Not as merely just though just but as mercifull 4. Not as mercifull in generall and ex nuda voluntate without any respect had to satisfaction but as propitiated by the blood of Christ and having accepted the propiation made by his blood 5. Not meerely as propitiated by his blood but as moved by his intercession which he makes as our Advocate in Heaven not onely pleading the propitiation made and accepted but the repentance and faith of the sinner and the promise of him the Judge before whom he pleads 6. The Scripturâ—s in this judiciall processe consider God as a Judge and Christ as an Advocate as may appear Rom. 8. 33 34. Heb. 7. 25. 9. 24. 1 Joh. 2. 1 2. In which places Christ is made the propitiatour and intercessoâ—r or advocate 7. Though God by Christ as King may passe this judgment yet he must before that act be passed by Christ look upon Christ as propitiatour and intercessour as a priest and â—uch he must be before he can be a Judge and so looked upon not onely by God the Judge justifying but the sinner to be justified before this Judge proceed to passe and execute the judgment by his Son as King For man must first be justificable by Christ a Priest before he can be justifyed by Christ a King The generall nature of justification is a reward It 's a reward merited by Christ as Priest and Mediatour promised by God Redeemer as a Law-giver and rendred by him as Judge upon a duty performed by the Sinner to be justified and this doth difference it from the retributions of punishment according to the Laws of Redemption violated The party judged § II and justified is 1. Man 2. Man a Sinner 3. Man a Sinner believing 4. Believing in Christ as propitiatour and intercessour Propitiatour by his blood shed and offered unto God Intercessour by his blood being shed offered and accepted as pleaded 1. The subject of this act and the materiall immediate cause of this act is Man For it 's not a judgment passed upon Angels good or bad 2. Man is here considered not as innocent as he was first Created but as a Sinner and disobedient and so guilty For it is God that justifieth the ungodly that is sinners and guilty persons Rom. 4 5. Therefore the Apostle making way for his Doctrin of Justification proves Jew and Gentile that is all men under sin Rom. 3. 9. and that all the world was guilty before God that is Gods tribunal verse 19. and again affirms that all have sinned verse 23. For death passed over all men because all have sinned in one man Rom. 5. 12. For he that hath the least sin is guilty of the first sin of the first man and lyes under the penalty thereof till he be delivered For by the offence of one many were dead and by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation verse 15 16 17. For there can be but two wayes whereby men or Angels can be justifiable before God the universall and supreme most
absolute Power might have done so yet His Wisdom did not think good to do it neither do we read that he doth it The principal thing to be noted is that this is the principal if not the onely place that speaks of Imputation of Righteousness and this Imputation is Remission of Sinne by a Sentence of the Supream Judge 3 Remission and Justification and Eternal Life is ascribed to the Sacrifice of Christ's Death as the meritorious cause thereof in many other places especially Heb. 9. And Christ is said by one Offering to have perfected that is consecrated the Sanctified for ever Hebr. 10. 14. To be consecrated for ever is to be made compleat Priest to serve the Living God in the Temple of Heaven and to be eternally glorified And this is ascribed to the Death and Offering of Christ. QUESTION III. Whether Justification continued and finally consummate be by Works and not by faith alone as the first Justification is MIne Answer hereunto is negative § XII that neither Justification continued nor finally consummate is by Works but faith onely though that faith be not alone For the Scriptures inform us that there is but one way of Justification of a sinfull man and that is by faith in Christ. For seeing the Apostle determines but two wayes possible the one by Works the other by faith and proves that no man living by Works can be justified in God's sight because all are sinfull no man no not the best without sin no man performs perfect and perpetuall Obedience it seems strange to me that any man should affirm that Justification either continued or finall should be by Works If it be by Works then the reward of Righteousnesse is of debt according to the Law of Works and then it 's not of Grace If it be by works then works must be perfect and such as can endure the severity of God's Justice at our last triall If by works then the worker is so righteous in himself by reason of them that no one can lay any thing to his charge For Justification first and last must look upon man as chargeable with no sin otherwise he will not be justifiable by the most just God But no works of man are such If by works then by faith as a work we may be justified but that cannot be If by works then works may receive Chirst as our Propitiatour and Intercessour But that 's the proper act of faith If by works then we receive not the reward of righteousnesse and eternall Glory as merited by Christ and derived immediately from Christ to us as believing on him and renouncing all righteousnesse in our selves If by works then our finall Justification is not a Remission of sin If by good works then our good works may be pleaded in the title unto righteousnesse and eternal life before the Tribunal of God But the Promise it self and the Reward promised were merited by Christ and God promiseth this righteousnesse and reward for Christ's sake and for his sake alone and he promiseth it unto him and onely unto him that resteth upon Christ and Christ alone for it and pleads Christ's merit and onely Christ's merit upon the promise of God If by good works then good works can expiate our sins and satisfy for our evill works If by works then there is some promise made in the Gospel to justifie us by them and as righteous through them and so righteous that we need not plead Christ or remission upon Christ's propitiation But there is no such promise in the Gospel The Law indeed saith Do this and live But the Gospel saith Confesse with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead and thou shalt be saved Rom. 10. 9. If by works then why doth the Apostle say By Grace you are saved through Faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God Not of works c. Why might he not as well have said By Grace ye are saved through faith and works It was as easy for him to say the one as the other The power to do good works and our doing of them is a reward derived from Christ by faith For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works Ephes. 2 8 9 10. After that we are once ingrafted into Christ Jesus we derive all the good from first to last whether for duty or reward from him All the vertues which we have all the good works which we do on earth or in heaven presuppose us in Christ and justified by and for his merits All good works of regenerate persons are virtually in faith receiving Christ and no such faith continuing can be without good works It is certain that as God in the Gospell commands good works commends such as do them promiseth rewards unto Well-doers â—o he will in his last Judgment justifie good Works and the doers of them so as Wisdom is justified of her Children But this Justification is onely Approbation whereby man may justify God as well as God justify man in this manner Therefore we must needs say that as good Works are commanded by God pleasing unto God so they are approved and rewarded of God They so farr as good prevent future guilt take away no former guilt do evidence our faith and Title unto everlasting Glory strengthen our union with Christ because they strengthen faith confirm our hope glorify God give good example unto men make us more capable of Communion with God tend towards the possession of Glory distinguish us from the prophane and hypocrites give some content to our Consciences and there is a kind of happinesse in the doing of them and in the remembrance of them done Blessed are they who alwayes abound in them For they know that their labour is not in vain in the Lord. Yet Bellarmin though a great advancer of Merit thought it not onely safe but the safest Way to put our whole and sole trust not in these our good Works but in Christ. But it is not onely the safest but the onely way so to do if we would be justified before God To say that good Works are a condition of the Covenant of Grace we shall be judged according to our works remission of Sin is promised to such as forgive others and that such as love God fear him serve him do his commandements shall be rewarded and have eternall life therefore We are not justified by faith alone but by good works also is no good arguing If the Sequel be denied as it must be no wit of man can prove it and make it good They may be a condition of the Covenant yet not such a condition as faith receiving Christ as Propitiatour and Advocate and resting upon God's Promise in him alone and such must of necessity be that condition whereby we are justified and stand blamelesse and without Spot before the Throne of God Though we shall be judged according to our works it
doth not hence follow that we shall be justified by our works In the matter of Judgment and the Cause to be tried there are two things the Merit and the Evidence And who dare say that good works are the merit of the cause which are only the Evidence Gregory the Great distinguisheth in this case saith we shall be judged and so rewarded Secundum sed non propter Opera Where Promises of Life Blessing Reward and of Glory and of Remission of Sin are made to such as do works of Mercy or suffer for Christ's sake or love God or serve and fear him we must observe that where any one of these is named all the rest are meant and that the Person qualified with one is qualified with all and the reason is because there is such a connexion between them that where one is predominant and in sincerity all the rest are inseparably joyned Yet none of these can be where faith in Christ is not neither can a living faith continue without all these or any of these and where such a faith is not none of these can be in such a Subject or if they could be without it yet without it they could not be acceptable nor rewardable Neither could this qualifie the Person aright nor faith qualify aright if it were not fixed on Christ. The Apostle James indeed saith that Abraham was justified by works and that by works a man is justified and not by faith onely Chap. 2. 23. Yet we must consider 1. That he speaks of the same justification of Abraham wherein Paul instanceth who affirmeth that Abraham was justified by faith and not by works and proves it out of Psal. 32. 12. 2. That James speaks against such as professe â—aith without practise and his principall Scope is to shew that a vain faith a dead faith a faith without works the faith of Devills which may be in Devills cannot justify nor can any man be justified by such a faith and implies that when Paul or any Apostle speaks of justifying faith they do not mean such a faith and that no Solifidian can be justified at all before God He speaks of such works as follow faith and Justification by saith which did evidently prove the sincerity of their faith and the certainty of their Justification One cause of this mistake both in them of Rome and others is 1. Because they do not consider that the Righteousnesse required before the Judgment Seat of God especially at last triall must be perfect and such as the party to be justified cannot by law that Law which should be the Rule of Judgment be chargeable with any the least Sin 2. They do not consider that the party to be justified is in himself a guilty Sinner and as such can in no wise be justifiable before the most just and sin-detesting Judge 3. That the Justification so much spoken of in Scripture especially in the Apostles writings is Remission and onely Remission of Sin in which respect no man guilty can be justified by Works For all the good works a man can do in a thousand years cannot expiate one Sin antecedent intervenient or consequent nor free him from the guilt of eternall death Austin saith truly that our righteousnesse is true because referred to the right end yet in this life it consists potius remissione Peccatorum quà m perfectione Virtutum rather in Remission of Sin then perfection of Virtue For as he manifestly shews our righteousnesse of good works is imperfect many wayes imperfect therefore he exhorts us to give thanks to God for our good works whereby he implies that they are God's gifts and more God's then ours And certainly they are so and God never gave them to us that we should stand upon Terms with God and plead that the Righteousnesse of them was such as that for them he in Justice was bound to justify them No penitent Sinner dare plead so No wise man will plead so and the best of men in that last day of Triall will wave the Plea of Works and will onely plead God'â— Mercy and Christ's Merit and his own faith in the one and the other onely What shall we plead Merit or righteouâ—ness of works or any title to reward by them because God hath freed us from the Dominion of Sin and the Power of Satan and by his Spirit enabled us to do a few good Works and the same through our own default imperfect whereas he might have bound us to a thousand years oâ— Penance and as many of service in good Works without promising any Reward the least Men may dispute acutely and subtilly for justification by Works now and here but then and there summond to be tried before the great glorious and most just King they will recant be ashamed of their arguments and abhor themselvs as in themselvs most sinfull and guilty wretches God did never ordain good works which are the fruits of a sincere faith in Christ to acquire a right unto Remission of Sin and eternall life but to be a means whereby we may obtain the Possession of these Rewards he hath promised And whosoever will take the words of St. James in proper Sense neglecting the true Scope of the Apostle can hardly avoid it but must contradict the Doctrine of St. Paul agree with the Papists in their Doctrine of justification by Works for the main use the same arguments to maintain it and give the same Answers to Objections against it which they do though in some Terms and Circumstances they may differ CHAP. XXIII Of the several Branches Parts and Degrees of Justification and the continuance of them unto us until the Final Judgment HItherto of Justification by Faith in Christ § I in general After which follow the several Branches or Parts and degrees thereof if we may so call them and the continuance of them to us till the final and universal Judgment of our great and glorious Lord and King-Redeemer These are Regeneration Reconciliation Adoption Ministery of Angels and the rest And they may be considered 1 As they free us from the guilt and punishment of sin Whether the punishment be privative or positive 2 As they make the estate of the justified person of miserable to be happy and blessed The first is Regeneration which in the Execution of this great and special Judgment frees us from that great Penalty of Original Unrighteousness the Dominion of sin and slavery under Sathan of this you have heard before and shall hear more distinctly and particularly of it in the continuance hereafter For the first thing in order though not in time seeing all go together is the restoring of the regenerating and sanctifying Spirit to abide in us after it hath prepared us and it is so necessary a part of Justification that if we distinguish between the Sentence removing the guilt and the Execution removing the punishment the Sentence without the Execution could be little advantage unto us nor could it minister any
before whose Throne of Grace we may approach without fear We are free Children of a free Mother We are not Servants born of Hagar the Bond-woman but free women of Jerusalem which is above and Mother of us all Gal. 4. 26. And as Jerusalem is our Mother so God is our Father who hath given us the Spirit of Adoption 3 We being adopted enjoy the Ministery of Angels those Blessed and Immortal Spirits who have a charge to keep us in all our ways guard us and pitch their Tents about us If we be in any place in any danger at any time they must be ready at hand If Jacob fear his Brother Esau two Armies of them shall meet him and secure him from danger When man by sin forsakes his God he 's out of God's special Protection and the Angels have no Commission to take care of him But if he return unto his God again they rejoyce upon his Conversion and upon God's Command do pitch their Tents about him And since Jesus Christ the Son of God was made Lord of Angels as soon as any do believe in him and are made the Sons of God he gives them special charge concerning his little Ones For they are all ministring Spirits sent forth to minister for them that shall be Heirs of Salvation Heb. 1. 14. 4 So soon as we are Sons we fall under God's special Providence and so He takes a far greater care of us than of others If we offend He in dearest love will chastise us not to destroy us but correct us because He will not suffer sinne to lye upon us He will try us not vex us but to exercise our Virtues and purifie our Faith that so we may come out of the Furnace of afflictions more pure then finest Gold If we fall He will raise us up again If we grow cold He will quicken us If we fall into danger He will deliver us if into want He will provide for us necessaries For our Heavenly Father knoweth that we have need of all these things 5 He in His excellent Wisdom out of greatest mercy so orders all events all conditions either of Prosperity or Adversity all his Works of Providence so that Heaven and Earth Men and Angels yea all Creatures and all things shall conspire and work together for our good and all shall unite Forces and full power which united as in one single cause shall further our Salvation 6 God loves them as his Children with a special love and pities them far more then any Father in the World pities his Child and nothing shall be able to separate from the love of that Father whom they love 7 He gives his Spirit of Adoption into their Hearts to anoint them seal them assure them of their present right unto and the full Possession in due time of their Heavenly Inheritance God their Father loves them and they must certainly know it Their estate therefore is an estate of unspeakable joy comfort Yet it requires that we should be obedient and dutiful Children and the love of God which is so great and advanceth them so high should deeply engage them to the love and obedience of their Heavenly Father This is the beginning of God's Judgment § VII in dispensing and disposing of his Spiritual Rewards of Conversion and Justification which include all the rest and bring them into an happy and blessed estate After this the continuance of this blessed estate is to be considered For God continues to judge and reward according to the continuance of their Faith and this in all parts of the World where any of his Saints shall be For all jointly and every one severally are the subjects of this Judgment which continually proceeds according to his Laws of Redemption As their Faith and Repentance are not made perfect at the first so their rewards joys and comforts are not consummate but by degrees And as their Faith may be sometimes greater sometimes less so this estate is better or worse or rather not so good Whilest Faith habitual remains rooted in 〈◊〉 heart they are virtually justified When it 's actual their Justification actual will follow When their Faith is lively and continues to act vigorously their estate is so much the more comfortable In this continuance of Rewards the same Rewards formerly given there is required a continuance of the grace of God's Spirit abiding in them to enable them to Duty and observance of his Laws and according to the continuance of this grace a continuance of performances without both which there can be no continuance of Rewards The grace of God is so continued that it doth not prevent all sin and disobedience and therefore we are not free from all punishments Yet as we contract new guilt every day so every day we should renew our Repentance and Faith and so present our selves before the Tribunal of this Heavenly Judge and sue for Pardon in the Name of Christ and suffer no guilt to lye long upon us And as this Court is continually open to dispense Rewards so it is to punish and chastise according as our deserts shall be If our sins shall be greater and our neglect of our renewing our Repentance and Faith longer the greater punishments both of loss and pain shall be as was evident in David This state of Conversion § VIII and Justification may be considered as continued in this Life or after Death until the Resurrection And it 's a continuance of it in the several Branches of Justification as in the continuance of Regeneration Reconciliation Adoption Regeneration which is commonly called Sanctification as continued is the first For that which they call Sanctification which follows Justification is the continuance of the first Regeneration which is a Bâ—anch of Juâ—â—ification and a removing of that great Penalty of loss of the sanctifying Spirit and the woful immediate consequent thereof as Blindness Perversness and the Dominion of Sin from which issue all Actual Transgressions which would multiply to a great number and rise to a higher degree of Malignancy if God by Reâ—â—raint or Renovation did not prevent both To understand this Sanctification continued the better we must distinguish of it as Active and Passive As Active it's an act of God sanctifying us Passive it 's those gifts and graces of the Spirit whereby we are enabled to avoid sin and obey God For though this be an active Power yet in respect of God giving it and us receiving it it may be called Passive though properly it be an effect of God the cause and a cause of an obedience following The active Sanctification is 1 The acting of the Spirit to prepare us convert us work Faith in us and by Faith unite us unto Christ. For all these may be called Acts of Sanctification in a large sense yet in Scripture they are called Vocation whereby God through the power of the Spirit accompanying the Word doth convert us and bring us to Christ. 2 This Sanctification active