by the Apostle Paul and that without a Figure the Blood of God Act. 20.28 i. e. which the Sonne of God shed in that Humane Nature which he had united unto himself Who is there then that will not think such Blood sufficient Ransome For as the Apostle argues excellently Heb. 9.13 If the Blood of Bulls and Goats sanctifies to the purifying of the Flesh How much more shall the Blood of Christ who through the Eternall Spirit offered himself up to God purge our Conscience from Dead Works i. e. Cleanse our Souls both from the Leprosie and Guilt of Sinne So that to eek out this Sacrifice by mingling with it any Vain Oblations of our own is nothing else but to lessen its value as they who light up their Candles at noon-day doe onely Affront and Prejudice the splendour of the Sunne When such a Price is already paid for any to appear Nice and Dainty to cry out they are not Humbled not Sorrowfull not Thankfull Enough and therefore neglect to make use of it this is nothing else but either Peevishly to refuse offered Comfort or else Proudly to think we are able by our delay to make our selves worthy of it Reason 3 Thirdly The last Argument may be taken from the Impossibility there is that we should be able to perform any thing acceptably unto God till we are come within the Terms of the Covenant Then are we within the Covenant on Gods part when we have accepted it on ours but till then we are under the Law all our Works are Legall Works and our Repentance it self is to be repented of as being infinitely short of that Perfection which the Law requires Besides upon supposition that such a measure of Humiliation Sorrow Contrition or other such like Acts were prerequired to capacitate and make us fit for the receiving of our Pardon what infinite disquiets must this needs beget in every Sinner that is now upon the point of his Conversion for who shall be able to fix a just Proportion or assuredly tell him that he hath grieved and mourned enough since there can be no Proportion between our Sinne and our Sorrow and likewise our Bodies may be wasted with Grief and our Eyes fail us with weeping and yet all our Fears prove onely an Idle and a Fruitless Expence as Cains and Judas did There can be therefore no better or more warrantable Advice be given unto a poor lamenting Creature than to bid him leave off his Works and throw himself immediately into the Arms of Mercy since who so rests upon his own Endeavours labours in the very Fire and undertakes a Task beyond his manage in thinking to Fit himself for Mercy whereas it must be Mercy already in some measure apprehended which must qualifie and fit us for the receiving more Object 1 Against this it may be objected That the Promise in the Gospell runs Mar. 16. He that believeth shall be saved and the Command by the Apostle is Acts 3 19. Repent that your sinnes may be blotted out From whence it may be gathered that Faith and Repentance are required as Conditions to Remission and that Pardon of Sinne is not so Absolute on Gods part but that still something must be done on ours to qualifie us for the receiving it But I answer Answ 1. For Repentance that is no distinct and separate condition of it self because it alwayes follows Faith and can no more be severed from it than Motion from Life whence it is that the Apostles doe promiscuously use one for the other as Peter to those who were wrought on by his Sermon and came to him for Direction he bids them Repent Acts 2.37 but Paul to the Jaylor who was in the same case he commands him to Believe and our Saviour joyns them both together in that Epitome of his first Sermon Repent and believe the Gospell Mar. 1.13 thereby intimating that one could not be without the other Therefore 2. Though Faith be required as a Condition to the receiving of Christ and Pardon by him yet it is such a Condition as takes nothing at all from the Freeness of Gods Gift no more than Emptying the Hand and taking an Almes doth lessen his Bounty that bestowes it For Faith is nothing else but a Naked Hand and hath no influence at all upon Gods Gift to make it more or less Free but all its influence is downwards by applying and appropriating of that Gift to make it Ours And therefore in Scripture-language to Believe in Christ and to Receive Him is the same thing As John speaks Joh. 1.12 As many as received him to them he gave power to become the sonnes of God even to as many as believe on his Name As a Medicine may be given gratis by a Physician he may ask nothing for it yet except the sick-man take it it will not cure him So God offers Christ and Mercy freely but unless we Believe i. e. Receive him he will not profit us And in this and no other sense is Faith a Condition But 3. Even in this signification as Faith signifies not a power of Acting but meerly a power of Accepting yet so it is a Condition onely of Gods bestowing and not of Mans procuring Thus our Saviour Joh. 6.44 vers 35. None can come unto me i. e. believe on me as he there explains except the Father which hath sent me draw him And again He that hath heard and learned of the Father he cometh unto me so No man can come unto me vers 45. except it were given to him of my Father All which places show that Faith which is a coming to Christ vers 64. is not wrought in any but peculiar Power and Influence of God And accordingly the Apostle Paul By Grace saith he are ye saved Ephes 2.8 through Faith and that not of your selves it is the Gift of God i. e. That Faith by which ye are enabled to receive Christ is as much the Gift of God as Christ himself who is received by it Therefore he prayes that they may be strengthened by the Spirit of God c. 3.16 17. in the Inner Man that so Christ might dwell in their Hearts by Faith intimating that without such Supernaturall Assistance they neither could nor would Believe Object 2 Against this it may be objected again If God alone gives Faith why then are we commanded to Believe and to Repent for this presupposes a Power in the Creature to Obey or else the Command would be in vain Answ I answer That Gods command doth not alwayes presuppose a Power already existing in the Creature but being a Word from God it gives that Power which was not there before As when God said Let there be Light there was no activity in that Dark Chaos sufficient of it self to produce it but God by his Word at the same time created what he did command To which Action of Gods the Apostle compares his
Liberality of the Invitation There is no condition so sad but there is some word of Invitation or other which particularly concerns that condition Prov. 9.4 5. Isa 55.1 Mat. 11.29 Rev. 22.17 The Foolish and simple in Proverbs The Hungry and Thirsty in Isay The Weary and Heavy-laden in Matthew and which is beyond all Whoever will in the Revelations Whoever will let him come and drink of the Water of Life freely There cannot be any thing more free and more inviting than this that whoever will may be sure of Well-come I doe not say that any Man hath this will of or from himself but this I say that he who hath a Will hath a Warrant and may boldly come to Christ and claim the benefit of his Promise Especially since Justification dependeth not at all upon our Working but upon our Willing as the Apostle hath it to him that worketh not that is that bringeth no meritorious works along with him but believeth on him that justifies the Ungodly his Faith is counted for Righteousness Lastly Consider the Tender and the Compassionate Nature of Christ how he never refused any that came unto him And therefore Lepers the Blind and Lame Publicans and Sinners had on earth most both of his Presence and Power The same Promises which brought them he hath left to encourage us when he sayes Every one that my Father giveth me will come unto me and He that cometh to me Joh. 6.37 I will in no wise cast out He that saith of himself He came not onely to save but likewise to seek that which was lost will not be harsh to any who are now upon the point of returning to him Hence we read that Peter who denied Paul who persecuted the three thousand in the Acts who crucified him were all upon their Repentance received by him Our Saviour hath the same Bowels still and though he hath changed his Place yet he hath not changed his Nature Heb. 4.15 16. Wherefore in the Apostles words since we have not an High-Priest which cannot be touched with our infirmities Let us come with boldness unto the Throne of Grace that we may obtain Mercy and find Grace to help in a time of Need. And so much for the first Point Doct. 2 The second Point to be handled was this That Nothing is more effectuall to mortifie the power of In-dwelling Sinne than to consider how Free and Absolute Gods Grace is in pardoning it By Free here that I may repeat what I mentioned a little before I doe not mean Free as excluding Christ in consideration of whom God is thus Free to Pardon as the expressions run 2 Cor. 5.19 God was in Christ reconciling the World unto himself And Rom. 3.24 We are justified freely by his Grace through the Redemption that is in Jesus And In whom i. e. in Christ we have redemption through his Blood the forgiveness of Sinnes according to the Riches of his Grace But I mean Free as excluding our selves or any thing we can doe either as a Cause procuring or as a Condition qualifying us for receiving this Grace In this sense that the Freeness of Gods Grace is the best way to mortifie the Power of In-dwelling Sinne will appear 1. From Instances 2. From Reason 1. For Instances here is one occurres in the Text How shall we i. e. Believers who are dead to Sinne live any longer therein i. e. In us this Doctrine being rightly understood hath wrought to the killing of Sinne since we now learn how much we are indebted to Christ and therefore something must be done to express our Thankfullness which he prosecutes throughout the following Chapter and uses an Argument to draw them off from sinning which at first sight may seem Harsh and Inconsequent but indeed is most demonstrably efficacious Ye shall not sinne or sinne shall not have dominion over you for ye are not under the Law which like Pharaohs Task-masters requires the whole tale of Brick and allows no straw but ye are under Grace ye now stand in those termes with God that he gives strength and accepts of what you doe in proportion to that Ability which he bestows and for this Reason Sinne shall not have dominion over you So again the Apostle in his Epistle to the Galatians handling the same subject he layes down this Position Gal. 2.16 That a man is not justified by the Works of the Law but by the Faith of Jesus Christ Against which he brings an Objection But if saith he while we seek to be justified by Jesus Christ we our selves also are found sinners is therefore Christ the Minister of sinne i. e. If we who profess to be justified by Christ alone doe notwithstanding sinne daily will it not thence follow that this Doctrine makes men careless as if thereby they might take occasion to sinne more freely To this the Apostle answers as he doth here first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Farre be it and then he urgeth to the contrary his own example I am crucified together with Christ Gal. 6.14 and in another place Farre be it that I should glory in any thing save in the Cross of Christ by which the World is crucified unto me and I unto the World And what he affirms of himself we find him in another place ascribing unto all Believers of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They who are Christs Gal. 5.24 i. e. who by Faith have received and are united to him have crucified the Flesh i. e. their corrupt and sinfull Nature with the Affections and Lusts i. e. have rooted up as it were the very Fibres and lesser particles by which sinne was fastned and incorporated into them And the Reason of this is clear Reason Because He who is once truly in Christ i. e. who hath rightly apprehended him forthwith becomes a New creature as the Apostle argues Christ saith he 2 Cor. 5.15 17 died for All i. e. Believers that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which died for them From whence he inferres Therefore if any man be in Christ be is a New Creature i. e. he is altogether another kind of person than he was before What the meaning of those words New Creature are will best appear by comparing two places of Scripture together In one place it is Gal. 6.15 In Christ Jesus neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor Uncircumcision but a New Creature which in another place runs In Jesus Christ Gal. 5.6 neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor Uncircumcision but Faith which worketh by Love From whence it appears that in the Apostles sense to be a New Creature is nothing else but to have a Faith working by Love which our old Nature is no more capable of than Darkness is of Light but as soon as ever the Spirit of God begets Faith in the Heart of any that Faith presently produceth Love as Fire begets Heat and then Love enflames and
quickens to Obedience As the Apostle Paul found it in himself when he sayes The Love of Christ constrains us 2 Cor. 5.14 since none can apprehend such an Excess and Overflow of Undeserved Love but must needs think himself obliged to return all Acts of Love whereby he may express his complacency in and desire of a streighter Union As the Apostle John argues we love him i. e. God because he loved us first 1 Joh. 4 19. Since then our Lord Christ is pleased with nothing more then with the Crucifying of those Lusts and Mortifying of those Sinnes for which he died it must needs follow from hence that every Believer and therein a Lover of Christ will find himself sensibly stirred with the Hatred of Sinne as often as he reflects upon the death of Christ as men use to detest and abhorre the sight of those Weapons by which their Friends were Murdered For since every Believer must needs know that he hath no otherwise any Title to Pardon than as he is purified by the Blood of Christ Heb. 9. without the shedding of which there would have been no Remission hence he dares not nay he cannot goe on to live in Sinne because by so doing he shall adde New Wounds New Sorrowes New Marks of Dishonour to Christ by whose Stripes alone he must expect to be healed Adde to this that the Spirit of God which by quickning the Immortall Seed of the Word Psal 51. begets Faith is a clean Spirit and will not suffer Sinne to cohabit with it self but Mortifies Subdues and Quels it according to that of the Apostle Rom. 8.9 Ye are not in the Flesh but in the Spirit i. e. Ye walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit if so be the Spirit of Christ dwelleth in you and again If Christ vers 10. i. e. his Spirit be in you the Body is dead by reason of Sinne vers 13. i. e. it dies to sinne And if by the Spirit ye mortifie the deeds of the Flesh ye shall live All which places imply that it is the Spirits proper business to Mortifie Sinne there is no True Life without it So that put all this together Since 1. Gods pardoning Sinne for the sake of Christ is the highest expression of Love imaginable 1. Joh. 4.10 as the Apostle John cries out Herein is Love i. e. Love to an Hyperbole Love beyond any degree of comparison not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Sonne to be the Propitiation of our Sinnes 2. Since this expression of Love on Gods part cannot be embraced by Faith on ours but it must needs beget Love again as the Sun beams cannot fix themselves directly upon the Earth but they will conveigh Warmth and Heat together with themselves 3. Since whereever Love is engendred it is always Active carrying out the Soul with unquiet longings after Union with and till that can be compassed of Likeness to the Object it loves As the Earth no sooner conceives Heat by the Action of the Sunne but presently returns and reflects it back again Lastly Since the Spirit of God which dwells in a Believer is alwayes actuating and blowing up this Love and improving the strength of it especially in the subduing of Sinne upon this consideration because Sinne is contrary to the Nature of God and to the Merit of Christ from hence it demonstrably follows that the best way to Mortifie Sinne is rightly to conceive of the Freeness of Gods Grace in pardoning it Vse This may serve to show us the True Nature of Justifying Faith To think as perhaps some careless men doe that Faith is nothing else but a Confident Perswasion that our Sinnes are pardoned for the sake of Christ without any other notable Effect upon us this is at the best an Ungrounded Fancy which will in the end deceive us From what I have said it may appear that True Justifyfying Faith carries along with it these two Inseperable Effects 1. It pacifies the Conscience it begets a Calm within When a Sinner first begins to be troubled for Sinne there must needs be a kind of Earthquake and Tempest in the Soul as God saith of the wicked that he hath no Peace but he is like a troubled Sea which cannot rest Isa 57.19 A wicked man is not more Eager and Impatient to commit Sinne than he is troubled and disquieted after it for whenever he cools and can be at leasure to consider what he hath done he can propose nothing to himself but matter of Anguish and Vexation without there is the Law complaining and God sentencing within Conscience accusing and Sinne condemning In this Tumult and Hurry of Thoughts if there be but dropped into any so much strength of Faith as to lay fast hold upon Gods generall Pardon like Easther catching at the Golden Scepter when it was stretched out to her presently the storm is laid and a marvellous calm ensues As the Apostle hath it Rom. 5.1 Being justified by Faith we have Peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord. I doe not speak this as if I thought that Faith did exclude all manner of Doubting but that it doth expell Distraction For to doubt is so much consistent with Faith that I take it for granted there never was nor ordinarily can be any True Faith without it As at the Creation Night did precede Day so in Conversion Darkness and Ignorance did precede the Enlightnings of Faith and Doubting like a Mist doth still attend it because our Faith like our Knowledge in this life neither is nor can be perfect for then it would no longer be Faith but Fruition Yet this Doubting which like an Allay God suffers to be mixed with the strong Wine of Faith need not at all disturb our Peace of Conscience but rather is left as the Canaanites were to teach Israel to warre Jude 2. to quicken our endeavour and to make us diligent in the use of those means whereby we may be yet more confirmed and setled 2. True Faith as it Pacifies the Conscience so it Purifies the Heart Acts 15.9 as the Apostle Peter speaks that God did put no difference between the Jews and Gentiles because he purified their Hearts by Faith Which is so inseparable an Effect of True Faith that though Justification be not Sanctification yet it is never without it and therefore they are sometimes put one for the other as he that is just 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let him be justified still i. e. let him goe on to be more Holy Rev. 22.11 And to the Corinthians Ye are washed ye are Sanctified 1 Cor. 6.11 ye are Justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God So By his mercy he saved us Tit. 3 5 7. by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost That being justified by his Grace we should be made Heirs Where Holiness which is an Effect
believingly to sue out his Pardon And as with Pardoning so likewise will it sit with Preventing and strengthning Grace Free-will makes the one Desperate and the other Vselesse For what need I pray for that which I have already by me nay which I am sure shall never so long as I am a man be taken from me No man prayes for the Money that is in his Chest nor for those goods that he stands possessed of So neither can we without being guilty of Vain-babling pray for strength to do Gods will if we think every man Naturally hath a power to do it I will pray said one of the most learned Assertors of Free-will Tully for Fortune and Riches for these are in Gods Gift but not for Virtue for that I can give my self Whereas he that knows he stands by Grace that he cannot doe any thing well but as the Spirit of God doth act him and that the Actings of the Spirit are Arbitrary not at ours but at his own Disposal he will find a Necessity upon him to be often begging for that strength which he sees he wants and God alone can furnish him with Thirdly Another Inconvenience of this Opinion of Free-will is that it must needs betray poor Sinners to a delaying and putting off their Repentance For he that finds it written how ready God is to pardon upon Repentance and is told withall that it lies in his power to Repent whenever he pleases cannot be wrought upon by any Argument that I know of to forbear his sinfull pleasures for the Moment At least why he should make such haste as the Scripture doth presse us to there can be no Imaginable Motive For if I live according to this Doctrine I shall be sure to give my self Repentance because I have a Natural Ability to do it and that any man now living should be so suddenly strook as not to have time enough for that Work which whenever it is done it is done in a moment though it may perhaps not be evidenced so soon is so much ods that any Sinner may safely venture to try a little longer the pleasures of Sinne before he resolves by too sudden a Repentance to leave them Whereas he that owns every good Motion inviting that way to be not the Impulse of his own Heart but the Calling of Gods Spirit which like light may shine for a time and suddenly be withdrawn again he will find himself engaged to Answer at the first Call least while he tarries God leaves off to call him and gives him over as unworthy of Mercy because of his Stubborn Refusall 4. It is impossible but those who are leavened with this Doctrine must needs be swelled with Pride and puffed up with conceit of themselves above all other men since they imagin all their Graces to be purely the result of their own well managing and improving their Naturall Abilities This was the Temper of the Pharisees heretofore who justified themselves and despised others for as Josephus tells us they were extremely addicted to the Opinion of Free-will and it appears in that they so much overvalued their own Power that they would needs be more Holy and Righteous than the Law of God commanded and therefore found out New Ceremonies and many self-invented Forms of Devotion which were their Works of Supererogation which Humour still reignes as a Naturall Effect of it among all those severall Parties where the Opinion of Free-will is entertained Whereas the Acknowledging that Gods Grace onely fills the Soul and we like Empty Vessels have nothing but what we daily receive will keep the Mind humble and Thankfull as to God and likewise Tender and Compassionate towards others who may for the present want the same Mercy which we enjoy Lastly I might adde that the whole Practice of Will-worship whether it relates to the Inventing of uncommanded Methods in Divine Worship or to the Imposing of such usages upon others is altogether founded upon a supposition that every Man hath Free-will and therefore Magistrates conceiving it doth not arise from Tenderness of Conscience but meerly from an Affected Obstinacy that Men submit not to their Injunctions it makes them more Harsh and Rigorous in exacting Obedience than otherwise they would ever attempt to doe which thing alone makes the Belief of Free-will in Religious matters altogether inconsistent with and destructive of the Peace of Christian societies as every age wherein there hath been the least dawings of Spirituall Light doth abundantly evidence All the sufferings of the Saints having been inflicted upon them upon this single account in that when they refused to Worship the Beast or his Image their Persecutors thought it lay in their Power to doe him that Homage whereas indeed it did not it being impossible for any to avoid or forbear acting according to the Dictates of a Well-grounded and Conscientious Perswasion But when as in opposition to all this the maintainers of Free-will doe urge that the Contrary Doctrine of Free Grace doth open a door to all manner of Licentiousness since by leaving nothing in mans power it leaves them free to doe nothing and likewise that it makes void and Ineffectuall all Gods Commands which suppose a Power of Obeying in us or else they had been given in vain which Objections being managed by persons of much Rhetorick and outward Sanctity doe make a great Impression upon a Slight and Vnwary Reader I have therefore in this Treatise fully at least to my own satisfaction answered both those Objections and have as I hope sufficiently demonstrated that nothing doth more incline the soul to a Cheerfull Obedience than a right Vnderstanding of the Doctrine of Free-grace which because it is the business of this Book to evidence I will no longer detain the Reader from it but recommend It for its Success and Issue to the same Grace which first gave it Birth and Beginning June 11 1662. Edward Bagshawe Errata Page 4. line 24. dele but. p. 19. l. 28. read but by the. p. 30. l. 23 24. dele p. 35. l. 4. r. Affections ib. l. 17. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 THE Doctrine of FREE-GRACE no Doctrine of Licentiousness Rom. 6.1 2. What shall we say then shall we continue in sinne that Grace may abound Farre be it How shall we that are dead to sinne live any longer therein THese are the words of the Apostle Paul brought in by way of Objection against and of Answer for that Doctrine of Free-Grace which he doth in this Epistle expresly handle For the understanding of his Discourse we must have recourse unto Chap. 3. where after a long and accurate handling of this Question vers 28. How a man comes to be Justified in the sight of God the Apostle concludes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We inferre therefore or Argue from the Premises as the word signifies that a Man is justified by Faith without the Works of the Law The reason and ground or which Assertion is this
bringing any to the Knowledg of Christ 2 Cor. 4.6 God saith he that commanded Light to shine out of Darkness hath shone into our Hearts to give unto us the Knowledg of his Glory in the Face of Christ So in the New Testament when our Saviour commanded the Sea to be still the Blind to See the Dead to Rise c. there was no Ability in those Creature to Obey his Commands but his Command going out with Divine Authority gave unto them Power so when the Ministers of the Gospell command Sinners to Believe and to Repent the word goes out in the Name and in the Strength of God and whereever it is effectuall it conveighs that Power which was not there before And this is it which makes Preaching necessary unto the worlds end because the Spirit of God doth cooperate with it as the Apostle hath it when he commands a Minister to be Meek and ready to Teach even those that set themselves to oppose the Truth if saith he 2 Tim. 2.24 peradventure God will give them Repentance We Preach to and Pray for Sinners onely with a Peradventure perhaps God may work some good by us but if God doth not work our Words cannot and the Sinner himself will not Vse This may serve to teach all those who begin to be troubled for their past Sinnes which way they must take to arrive unto Comfort and satisfaction There are some Ignorant and Unskilfull Physicians of the Soul who prescribe Fasting Pennance Uneasie Postures of Prayer and the like which are at the best but Bodily exercise 1 Tim. 4. which Profits little because it reacheth not to the Core of Sinne that lies within Such kind of Methods as these doe onely prune and lop the Branches of Corruption but leave the Root entire Men may in a needless Rigour starve their Bodies and all the while doe nothing else but feed their Pride My advice rather is to a disconsolate Sinner that he would presently lay hold upon his Pardon And my grounds for this Advice are these two Motive 1 1. Nothing doth more engage us in a Wilfull and Deliberate Course of Sinning than Despair of Pardon When once Cain cries out Gen. 4. that his Sinne was greater than could be forgiven the next News we hear of him is That he went out from the Presence of the Lord. Thus when God summoned the People by his Prophet Jeremy Jer. 18.12 to return from the Evill of their Wayes he brings them in saying There is no Hope and then it presently follows but we will walk in the Imagination of our own Hearts The Apostle Peter therefore exhorting those to whom he writes to make a Progress in Holiness by adding one Grace to another But he saith he who wants these things is blind 2 Pet. 1.9 forgetting that he was cleansed from his old sinnes thereby intimating that as Presumption begets Confidence so Despair begets Carelesness in Sinning As we read of some who have died for fear of Death so is it in this case when men dare so much wrong Gods goodness as to imagin that he will not make good his Promise to them though it runs Indefinitely they runne so farre in Sinne till at last they dare not think of Returning which seems to have been Davids case when he cries out Innumerable Evils have compassed me about mine Iniquities have taken hold upon me so that I am not able to look up they are more than the hairs of my head therefore my heart faileth me While he stayed and forbore to pass the Ford which Mercy had shallowed for him his Sinnes like a Torrent began to overwhelme him with horror and amazement Motive 2 2. Pardon of Sinne for the time past and Power against Sinne for the time to come goe both together As when a Judge doth free a Prisoner at the same time he gives him Liberty he knocks off his Chains so when God intends to doe good unto a Sinner he never severs his Gifts but compleats the work of his Redemption by Purifying and strengthening Grace at the same time As he speaks by the Prophet Ezek. 36. I will sprinkle clean water upon you and ye shall be clean then he presently adds A new heart also will I give you and I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my wayes and you shall keep my Judgments and doe them And the reason of this is clear because when a Sinner hath once received his Pardon he may boldly goe to God and Christ and by Prayer engage their Power in his behalf but till then he is not able to doe any thing he cannot pray in Faith because he hath no Assurance that he shall be heard he cannot act in Faith because he hath no Promise that he shall be assisted but when once he hath taken what God offers he hath a certainty of both But some may object That were their Sinnes less Object then there was some Hope but their Sinnes have been so many and so strangely aggravated that they must needs sit down under the sorrow as being in an hopeless condition For answer I wish all those who make this Objection Answ as indeed none ever thinks of returning to God but he meets with this Lion in his way would seriously ask whether they find themselves as Willing to forsake their Sinnes as they pretend to be sorry for them And if they doe then let them consider these three things 1. The Latitude and Extent of Christs Death I doe not mean as to the Universality of the Persons for I find no ground for that but as to the Qualifications of those for whom Christ died And we shall find it was for Sinners for the Ungodly for Enemies Rom. 5.6 8 10 from whence a Repenting Sinner may thus argue If Christ died for Sinners then certainly he will not refuse me because I have been a Sinner If he died for Enemies then sure he will not cast me off if I am ready to lay down my Weapons and be reconciled unto him This was it which comforted Paul It is saith he a Faithfull saying 1 Tim. 1.15 that Christ came to die for Sinners among which I am chief he confesses as much Guilt as could possibly stick to him and yet takes comfort in that generall Truth that Christ came to die for Sinners And then proposes his own Example For this cause I obtained Mercy that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all long-suffering for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting We must take heed how we frustrate the Grace of God for as the Apostle argues If Righteousness or Justification had been by the Law then had Christ died in vain So if Sinners who are desirous above all things to come unto Christ should therefore be driven out from him because they have been Sinners then would Christ have died in vain 2. Consider the Freeness and
Spirit to blow it up which should make us carefull to throw out the evil Firment least it should sowr the whole Mass and by its corrupt quality infect whatever it mixeth with Vse This may serve to rectifie their mistakes who think it a very facile and easie matter to be a Christian Were there indeed no more required then to keep modum peccandi to regulate our vile Actions and to preserve a mean in sinning this would not at all be hard such a measure is atteinable by meer Morality The Heathen whose Lives we read of had many of them this degree in great Perfection whose best virtues were onely vitia temperata well mingled and Allayed Vices Their light how glorious and great soever it seems was nothing else but Coloured Darkness and their best Heats onely rebuted cold sufficient to satisfie the world and to get Applause with Men but as for Inward Purity and Heart-Mortification that was a thing they never dreamt of this was a task reserved for our Saviours followers He hath not minced the matter when he tells us that the way to Heaven is a Streight and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. a squeezed pressed and Narrowed way so pent up Mat. 7. and very streight that no Wind of Ambition no Tumour of Pride no running-Sore of Lust will enter there he tells us plainly that we may take our choice either cut off our Hands i. e. abridg our selves of our most Usefull and Profitable Sinnes or else into Hell fire it will certainly be very dreadfull to endure the one and it must needs be painfull to doe the other Hence Fear and Trembling Watchfullness and Sollicitude are so often called for we must be alwayes upon our Guard because ever in a fighting posture which is a very uneasie service And these being the Termes upon which we are to follow Christ it is very sad to consider what a Liberty both in Life and Language even Professors of Religion doe take as if they had a mind to try how neer they could come to Sinne without actuall Sinning We use to be afraid of the shadow of a Lion and in a bodily distemper none willingly would venture upon a little Poison least by accident it should prove Mortall Why we should not be as carefull to avoid those Sinnes which none but fools count Little is a Question we cannot assoil if we either value our Souls or prize our Peace with God with whom to break in little things is great Presumption It will be to no purpose to scape greater Corruption if less may be sufficient to damn us Rom. 6.14 One Chain ties the Slave as fast to his Oar as if he had a thousand so doth one Lust bind up the Sinner unto Satans service since all the while it reigns it proclaims that Sinne is our Master Vse 2 To exhort all Believers to set upon this Duty as for others they have no skill in it it is a peculiar Task for such as have the Life of Faith and this they ought so much the more earnestly be excited to in that all the while they allow themselves in any one Sinne they are Estranged from the Life of God 1 Joh. 1.7 if we expect to have fellowship with him we must walk in the Light as he is in the Light As Darkness is nothing else but the Absence of the Sunnes Light so Sinne which the Apostle calls Spirituall Darkness is nothing else but the Absence of the Light of Gods Countenance which while it shines upon the soul it preserves it not only from Discomfort but likewise from Dangerous stumblings It is indeed very possible for a True Believer through heedlesness and inadvertency to fall into some Gross Sinnes as David Hezekiah and Peter did but yet as while they lye in them their condition seems little to differ from that of Reprobates so when they begin to recover out of them we may learn from the Practice of those forementioned Saints that their Peace with God and Assurance of his Favour is not recovered without great Expence of Tears and Sorrow Every Sinne therefore is to be mortified if for no other respect yet for this in that any one allowed and countenanced in the Soul will cast a cloud upon all our Graces and hinder us for the time from discerning the Truth and Sincerity of any As we therefore prize our own Peace and Sense of Communion with God so must we bestirre our selves to keep every Corruption from breaking out and prevailing For the effecting of which the observing of these Rules will be very necessary 1. Distinguish carefully between the Naturall and the Sinfull Desires of the Soul There are some Desires viz. of Food of Rest of Raiment c. which as they are Naturall so they are Innocent too Our Saviour himself was not without them the Apostle saith Heb. 4.15 He was tempted in all things as we are i. e. with Hunger with Cold and Nakedness yet without Sinne. The Body as it is a creature of God is good and must be provided for and therefore the Mortification of the Body consists not in denying it the Necessaries of Life but in Abridging it of its Irregular and Sensuall Appetites 1 Tim. 6.8 Having Food and Raiment saith the Apostle let us be therewith content from whence it follows that either through Want to be Destitute or through Will to deprive our selves of Food and Raiment is our Misery and not our Mortification They that are in the Flesh cannot please God Rom. 8.8 The meaning is not they that are in the Body cannot please God for so it is our duty to please him but they that walk in the Vanity and Sensuality of their Fleshly Mind cannot please God Such as commit those Actions that the Apostle hath branded with the Name of Works of the Flesh as Adultery Fornication Uncleanness Gal. 5.22 Drunkenness c. these cannot please God because they walk in Wayes directly contrary to the Holiness and Spirituality of his Commands But where the Appetite is hedged in and bounded within those limits that God hath appointed there to come Eating and Drinking as our Saviour did may more redound to the Glory of God in our thankfull Using of his Bounty than any Forced and uncommanded Abstinence So that all those Wayes of Mortification which are now prescribed in the Church of Rome and too much doted on by men that love to be talked on for their Sanctity are but the Old Needless and Sinfull Methods of the Pharisees revived with greater Rigour and Austerity which consist as the Apostle hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Col. 2.23 in Unmercifullness to and not sparing of the Body and seem to have a Face of Wisdome and True Holiness but indeed are meer Folly as neither reaching to pull out the Core of Sinne which lies within nor being able to keep the practisers of them from Exchanging a Carnall Lust for Spirituall Pride and so instead of right subduing the Body they onely swell and puff up the Soul 2. Pray for the Spirit of Christ without which we shall be too Weak to set upon and conquer this In-bred Enemy Whatever is born of the Flesh is Flesh i. e. both Prall and Sinfull and Flesh will never be able to subdue Flesh the Spirit which alwayes acts in Believers must be set awork about it Rom. 8.13 If by the Spirit ye mortifie the deeds of the Flesh faith the Apostle ye shall live i. e. ye shall live indeed for it is this Spirit alone that quickens And whoever thinks of mortifying his Corruptions without this supernaturall Assistance begins a Combate wherein he is sure to be foiled since not onely his own Nature but likewise the Powers of Hell are violently bent against him and how shall he scape the Malice and Wickedness of those Evill spirits unless the Spirit of God which will alwayes reside where his presence is sollicited doth secure the soul and give us strength for the Victory Lastly Labour for the Assurance of the Pardon of your Past Sinnes As he that runnes a Race must first put off his Fetters so whoever engages against the Violence of his Lusts must first be satisfied that his past offences are forgiven or else the sense of Sinne unpardoned will lye like a Weight upon him and instead of exciting him to strive against it betray him to its Assaults For the Attaining of this besides what the Spirit of God may immediately work which case falls not under any Rule since the Spirit blowes where and when it pleaseth there is no Method can be given better than that which I have hitherto been insisting on and that is to cast our selves upon Gods Free-Grace in Christ which who so doth is as certain never to miscarry as the Word of God and the Experience of all the Saints now Triumphing in Heaven can make him FINIS
vers 20. Because by the Law is the knowledge of sinne i. e. A strict and impartiall view of the Law in its latitude and spirituall significancy and comparing of our Lives with it is so farre from discovering the Rectitude of our Nature and Actions that it rather serves to manifest the Obliquity and sinfullness of them both And therefore there must be some other expedient found out to Acquit or Justifie men in the sight of God vers 27. than an appeal unto the Law of Works and that is the Law of Faith as the Apostle speaks The Righteousness of God i. e. which avails before God vers 22. and is accepted by him is by Faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe for there is no difference For all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God whereby is meant either the Graces which God requires or the Happiness which he promises Men were not of themselves able to perform the one and therefore had no Right or Title unto the other whereupon it follows that all such as are Justified are Justified Freely by his Grace through the Redemption that is in or by Jesus This Doctrine which doth so levell the Pride of man by putting his Salvation quite out of himself and therein is utterly contradictory to humane conception the Apostle foresaw would meet with great opposition and therefore that he might Assert and Clear this Fundamentall Truth from all possibility of Cavill he urges and answers three of the main Objections which either are or can be alleaged against it Object 1 The first Objection is taken from the Example of Abraham concerning whom the common opinion of the Jews was that he was Justified by Works which they gathered from Gods renewing his Blessing upon him after his signall obedience in attempting to offer his sonne For now I know Gen. 22.12 saith God that thou fearest God seeing thou hast not withheld thy sonne thine onely sonne from me And again Because thou hast done this thing vers 16 17. and hast not withheld thy sonne thine onely sonne In blessing I will bless thee Whereupon the Apostle James seems clearly to Affirm that Abraham was justified by his Works in that Question Was not Abraham our Father Justified by Works when he had offered Isaac his sonne upon the Altar To this Instance Answ the Apostle answers by directly denying that Abraham was Justified by Works for proof of which he quotes a place out of the Old Testament Gen. 13.6 That Abraham believed in God and it i. e. that Faith of his was imputed to him for Righteousness Which was spoken of Abraham long before he had received Circumcision and done that Signall and Heroick Action by which the Sincerity and Truth of his Faith was evidenced So that the Apostle James words cannot be understood as if he intended to decide whether Faith or Works did Justifie but onely that he determins what kind of Faith it was which Justified viz. not a Naked and Barren but an Effectuall and Working Faith And that Abrahams was such a kind of Faith he manifested afterwards in undertaking so Perillous and Dangerous a Task meerly in obedience to Gods Command From whence it follows that if Abraham who is stiled the Friend of God did attain to the esteem of being reputed Righteous before God meerly upon the account of his Faith then all others whose highest commendation is onely to be the Followers and Imitators of Abraham have no other way of obteining True Righteousness but by treading in the same footsteps of Faith which the Patriark Abraham walked in as the Apostle concludes Rom. 4.23 24. It was not written for him i. e. for Abraham alone that it was imputed to him But to us also to whom it shall be imputed if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the Dead Object 2 The second Objection against this Doctrine is taken from that seeming Absurdity and Contradiction which would follow should men think of being saved by the Righteousness of another For as every man is to be condemned onely for his own sinnes so it seems to be most Just and Equall that every man should be saved onely for his own Righteousness according to the Reasoning of God himself who doth not onely say that the Wickedness of the Wicked Ezek. 18.20 but likewise that the Righteousness of the Righteous shall be upon him Answ 2. To this Objection the Apostle excellently answers throughout the whole fifth Chapter of this Epistle by drawing a parallel between Adam and Christ who were the two great Heads and Representatives of all Mankind in their severall Estates Now if it shall appear that Adam destroyed his Race by the Imputation of his sinne then it cannot be Unreasonable to believe that Christ may save his Race by the Imputation of his Righteousness But that Adam destroyed his Race by the Imputation of his sinne appears clearly from hence in that Death which is the Wages of sinne vers 14. doth actually ceaze those who never Actually sinned and therefore could be but liable to it onely upon the Account of Transmitted Derivative and Imputed sinne as he Argues Death reigned from Adam to Moses even over those that had not sinned after the similitude of Adams Transgression i. e. over Infants From whence he inferres As by one mans disobedience Many i. e. All who descend from him by Naturall Generation were made sinners so by the obedience of one man Many i. e. all who are related to him by Faith and supernaturall Regeneration shall be made Righteous Nay by how much Christ is a greater Person than Adam the one being formed from Earth the other 1 Cor. 15.47 being the Lord from Heaven by so much shall the Obedience and Righteousness of that One more avail to Save than the Unrighteousness and Sinne of the other did to Destroy And this the Apostle clears in two Particulars 1. In Extent of the Pardon which is to many sinnes whereas the Condemnation was onely for One. For saith he the Judgment or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Guilt was by one i. e. Offence to Condemnation but the free-gift is of many Offences vers 16. unto Justification In Adam one sinne and that of the lesser sort stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a slip or so was sufficient to undoe a World But in Christ Many sins how aggravated and circumstanced soever shall not be sufficient to destroy one Soul 2. In the Excellence of the purchase Adam by his Sinne purchased Death and Damnation which is like a Motion down-hill very Naturall and easie to be conceived For that a Creature should die that a Sinner should be sentenced may without any Difficulty be imagined But Christ purchased Life Eternall which is like a Motion up-hill very Hard and exceeding Difficult to be comprehended From whence the Apostle concludes that where Sinne i. e. the Guilt or Demerit of Adams Sinne