Reason of Man's Tenure and Subjection Sixthly As we may suppose the Forbidden Tree to have stood in the midst of the Garden from the Ninth Verse of the Second Chapter of Genesis so a Tree so placed was by its very Situation a very fit and proper Thing to be made use of for such a purpose because being in some measure at least equidistant from the Boundaries of the general Grant it must for that Reason be most likely to present it self to Adam's View to whatever Part of the Garden he moved and by so doing must constantly or at least frequently put him in mind of the Nature of his Tenure viz. that he held it of him who had setled him in the Possession and Use of all the rest So that as the Law is Positive if we only look upon the express Words of it so it is Moral if we consider what is implied in it And therefore as the immediate and direct Transgression of the Law was the eating the forbidden Fruit so the couched Immorality of such Transgression was an Usurpation upon God's Prerogative in this lower World and an Encroachment upon the reserved Rights and Demeans of the Supreme Lord. The Transgression of the express Law then was a Sin against God's Command But the Transgression of the implied Law was a Sin against his Natural and Supreme Right The first was a Sin because it did what God had expresly forbid The last was implicitly forbid because it was a Sin and therefore was a Sin tho' God did not expresly forbid it The first was therefore only unlawful because forbidden The last was unlawful in it self To sum up all in a few Words Tho' the Designation of the particular Thing viz. the Tree in the midst of the Garden was Arbitrary and therefore Positive yet the Designation of Something was as Just and Wise so I may add Moral and Necessary too at least so far as it is so that God's Supreme Right ought to be asserted and owned For so far forth the Prohibition given to Man of eating of the Fruit of any Tree marked out or of medling with any Thing else is grounded upon the Antecedent and Eternal Rules of Reason and Justice that is of Morality And therefore tho' the express Prohibition of the Law be only Positive yet the Reason of the Prohibition is at least so far Moral as it is so That Man by some Means or other should acknowledge God to be his Supreme Lord and that he receives from him whatsoever he enjoys and that if God do expresly appoint the Way and Means of his so doing he ought to do it by the Way and Means so appointed And I therefore say expresly because so far as the Words of the Law under our present Consideration do go it is notorious that what is expresly prohibited by it is only Arbitrary and Positive But that the Morality of the Prohibition is not expressed but at the most but couched and implied By what has been spoken we may learn 1. That the Sin expresly prohibited by the Law may therefore truly be esteemed a lesser Sin because it is only a Sin against a Positive Law For such a Sin is a Sin only against God's Authority Whereas a Sin that contains a Natural Immorality in it if I may so speak is a Sin both against God's Authority and against his Purity and Holiness too 2. That the express Penalty of the Law is only a Punishment threatned against the Transgression of the express Prohibition of the Law For it does not look like Justice to assign an express Punishment in the Law for the Transgression of any Thing which is not expresly contained in the Law 3. Such Punishment so threatned against the Transgression of the express Law is express absolute and peremtory Adam then did therefore fatally suffer the Penalty of the Law because he sinned against an express Prohibition which was ratified by an absolute peremptory and express Threat For God may therefore be thought to be obliged by his Truth to punish Adam's Transgression according to the express Threat of the Law because he had passed his more solemn Word that he would do so And as he was obliged by his Truth to punish it as the Law had threatned so he was obliged to punish it because it was a Sin For so undoubtedly is the Transgression of any of God's Laws From hence it may be concluded that we all die a temporal Death for Adam's Sin For as we were in the Loins of him in the day of his Transgression so God has not by any other Law assigned an Universal Mortality as the Punishment of Sin And so speaks the Scripture In Adam all died 4. As the Moral Law couched in the Positive Law is not express so neither is there any express Punishment threatned to the Transgression of such couched Law For while Man was in a State of Innocence as there was no need that God should prescribe him any express Law to guide him in such Things which were in their own Nature good because the dictates of his own reason were of themselves sufficient for such his guidance for Moral Goodness is nothing else but the Dictates of right Reason employed about the Actions of Rational Creatures So for the same Reason there was no occasion to threaten him in that Case with any express Penalty because the threatning of an express Penalty antecedent to the Commission of the Crime can only be proper there where there is an express Law commanding a Duty Whereas Man had never by his Reason known that it had been a Sin to eat of any Fruit which kindly offer'd it self to his View and natural Inclinations if such Fruit had not been forbidden by some express Law And therefore for the same Reason that it was necessary that such Law should be express it was necessary that the Penalty of such Law should be express too 5. As the Sin against the Moral Duty which is only implied in the Law were that Duty supposed to be express Law is greater than the Sin against the express but Positive Law so were there a Punishment to be expresly assigned to such Sin it must in Justice be greater than the Punishment assigned to the less Sin that is to the Transgression of the Positive Law The Punishment therefore assigned by the express Law to the Transgression of it being only Death and that too as appears from the Nineteenth Verse of the Third Chapter of Genesis a temporal Death our Reason and that natural Sense we have of the Proportions of Justice will assure us that the Law which forbids a greater Sin than this Law does must in Reason and Equity assign an heavier Punishment to such greater Sin 6. Such heavier Punishment must suppose a Resurrection For a greater Punishment than Death cannot therefore be inflicted upon a dead Man without a Resurrection because no Punishment at all can be so inflicted upon him For where there is no Sensation
of Sin Let us first hear what the Spirit saith who in the Fourth to the Ephesians the Fourth and Fifth Verses tells us That when the Fulness of Time was come God sent forth his Son made of a Woman made under the Law that is his Son was Incarnate and was under the Law and therefore made so as to be obliged to be obedient to it to redeem them that were under the Law that we might receive the Adoption of Sons And when we are told in one place That the Son of God was manifested for this very purpose that he might destroy the Works of the Devil and in another That he was manifest to take away Sin And when to answer to and explain the Meaning of these Places we are assured from other Places that at least one Way of his taking away Sins was by the Sacrifice of himself as in the Twenty sixth Verse of the Ninth to the Hebrews and that he appeared for that very purpose in the same Place And when we add to all this what we find in the Fifth Verse of the following Chapter that God had prepared him a Body and in the Tenth Verse that we are sanctified that is our Sins are put away through the offering of the Body of Jesus Christ once for all who as St. Peter speaks his own self bare our Sins in his own Body on a Tree I say when the Spirit of God does all along in the Scriptures expresly and categorically tell us That our Saviour suffered in his Body shed his Blood lost his Humane Life for our Sins for the Remission of Sin for the Redemption of Sinners when it does in several Places compare his Death to the Expiatory Sacrifices under the Law when it calls him the Lamb of God alluding to the Paschal Lamb that taketh away the Sins of the World when it tells us that he is the Propitiation for our Sins and the like It does by these and such like Expressions as much as Words can do it acquaint us at the same time that he suffered in his Body and died to atone for and to expiate our Sins And therefore all the uncouth and forced Interpretations of these and such like Texts which yet are a multitude that attempt to evacuate their plain Meaning may as soon persuade an honest and sincere Man that the Scriptures both of the Old and New Testament are a Book full of Collusion and Prevarication as they may that Jesus Christ our Saviour did not die to expiate the Sins of Mankind And were I not assured of God's Providence I should be apt to fear that the Devil might in time so bring Things about that if he could upon Pretences of Reason wipe away that Part of the Bible that concerns our Saviour's Incarnation and the Relation which that has to Man's Redemption that he might at last raise his Hopes of blotting out the whole Christian Religion For to tell us that our Saviour is only such a Man as other Men are but only conceived in a different and therefore more wonderful manner to tell us that he died patiently tho' wrongfully only that he might give us an Example of an exact Patience and of an entire Submission to God's Providence to tell us that he was slain a Sacrifice only to confirm the Covenant of Grace but that there was no such Design in his Death as to suffer for or to expiate our Sins as it is a notorious Contradiction to and not an Exposition of the Scriptures so for that very Reason it will appear to have a direct Tendency towards the overthrowing the Grand Design of the whole Book of God All which to them who shall scan the Scriptures exactly is directed to and does center in the Saviour and that Redemption which he purchased for Mankind by his Death and Merits Having therefore thus in short taken notice of what the Scripture tells us concerning the Expiation of Sin by the Susserings of our Saviour and having already made it out 1. That no Creature can by any means expiate the Sin of Mankind and 2. That our Saviour is God Incarnate or God and Man united in One Person we do in pursuit of our main Design lay it down in the 3. Third place That the Way and Method of Man's Salvation as it is expresly and frequently laid down in the Scriptures which is by the Sufferings and Death of the Son of God manifested in the Flesh is agreeable to right Reason and exactly congruous to the Measures of Truth and to the Rules of Justice And in order to our making this plain and clear we take notice 1. That that Law about the Transgression of which and the Release from the Penalty of such Transgression the Gospel-Forgiveness is only concerned was given to Man For the Scriptures give us no Account of the Forgiveness of the Breach of any other Law but only of that Law which God had prescribed to Mankind And therefore tho' in the Scriptures we have several broad Hints of the Fall of the Angels and tho' our Reason tells us that that which put them under the Displeasure of God must needs be Sin in the general yet we are therefore ignorant what their Sin was because we are ignorant what that Law was against which they sinned 2. We take notice That as that Law about which alone the Gospel-Forgiveness is concerned was the Law given by God to Man so the Gospel takes no other or farther notice of the Transgression of that Law than as that Law is broke by Man From whence we infer in the 3. Third place That that Punishment which the Law threatens against those who transgress it can only in Justice belong to those to whom the Law was given and directed For they can never transgress a Law who have no Law assigned them and they can never be justly punished for the Transgression of the Law who can never transgress the Law The Law therefore about which alone a Gospel-Forgiveness is concerned being the Law given to Man and transgressed by Man Man alone can justly suffer the Penalty of such Transgression From whence we infer in the 4. Fourth place That if any Penalty can ever justly expiate that Guilt which is contracted by the Breach of the Law that Penalty that must make such Expiation must be a Penalty laid upon Man And therefore our Common Sense of Justice will not allow us to think that either Angels which are ranked above Mankind nor Beasts which are ranked below them can by any Sufferings whatsoever expiate or atone for the Breach of such Law which being given by God to Man does so far forth concern Man alone And tho' we have before made it out that neither Angels on the one Hand nor brute Beasts on the other can expiate the Sin of Mankind as both the one and the other are Creatures yet what we now say is that they cannot do it as they are different Creatures For it seems necessary and that
and because none but such who do so shall by the Tenor of the Gospel suffer eternal Punishment therefore it is no Objection against the Merit of our Saviour's Death to say that his temporal Death cannot expiate an eternal Punishment because he did not suffer Death for any such Purpose and he did not do so because he did not suffer Death for those who alone shall suffer eternal Punishment that is he did not suffer Death for those who shall refuse and reject the only Means of Salvation which he purchased for Mankind by his Death Much more might be offered upon this Occasion but this being sufficient in this Place I shall therefore here add no more In the mean while I do not question but that the Value of our Saviour's Sufferings sâ—fficient to expiate the Guilt of any Sins for whose Expiation such Sufferings were designed tho' such Guilt should be supposed or allowed to deserve eternal Punishment of it self And from the Whole that has been spoken on this Subject we do at last conclude That a Release from the Vengeance due to Sin by the Law and purchased for Man by his Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ who for Man's sake made his Soul a Sacrifice for Sin is a just and legal Pardon and agreeable to the Measures of Right Reason and to the Laws of Justice For because the Pardon of Sin does imply in it a Desert of Punishment in the Party forgiven and because the laying the Punishment which he deserves upon another is in effect a Remission of that Punishment to him and because lastly a Remission of Punishment to the Party which deserves such Punishment may be truly accounted a Pardon of his Sin For Pardon of Sin to any Party whomsoever is neither more nor less than the Releasing or Freeing him from the Punishment due to his Sin Therefore if by what has been spoken it has appeared that the Punishment due to our Sins was without any Injustice translated upon another and that upon such Translation it cannot justly be exaâ—â—ed of us then it will follow that so far forth as our Sin was pardoned so far forth the Pardon was just And therefore so far as we have hitherto gone we may truly and rationally conclude That that Method in which the Gospel discovers our Salvation to be brought to pass does exactly square to the Rules of Right Reason and Justice For so we have seen that it does in the first thing which a Gospel-Forgiveness does imply and contain in it and that is the Pardon of Sin CHAP. VIII Bare Pardon of Sin not sufficient for a Gospel-Salvation Some Reasons offered for it They who are entitled to the Reward of the Law must be entitled to the Obedience paid to the Law Such Obedience must be perfect Some Practical Reflections THo' we have hitherto asserted the Sufficiency of our Saviour's Sacrifice for the Expiation and Pardon of Sin yet it must be confessed that bare Pardon of Sin upon any Considerations whatsoever be those Considerations never so valuable yet can never in Reason or Justice make out a Gospel-Salvation And therefore we laid it down at the Beginning that as in order to a Gospel-Salvation there was first required an Expiation and in consideration of such Expiation a Pardon of Sin so there is also required a Restitution to Holiness and the Gift of Eternal Happiness For because God's Law as every good Law besides does consist of Two Parts First the Directive or what it requires to be obey'd and Secondly the Vindictive or what upon Disobedience it requires to be suffered And because Sin is the Disobedience to or Transgression of the Law Therefore so far as we have discoursed of the Justice of the Pardon of Sin so far we have only discoursed of that Justice which concerns the Vindictive Part of the Law But by doing that we have not at all discoursed of that Justice which concerns the Directive Part of the Law And if upon our neglect to follow such Directions God does for any Reasons whatsoever forgive us the Penalty which we incur by such our Neglect and nothing more it must be confessed that by such a way of Proceeding all Care of the Directive which is indeed the principal Part of the Law is thrown away For because all Men are Sinners that is because none do obey the Law tho' God upon valuable Considerations do remit the Punishment to some or all of those Sinners yet still it is certain that the Duty enjoined by the Law remains undone by all And I therefore say it is certain because it will notoriously appear by what follows that the Pardon of Sin that is the Pardon of the Transgressionof the Law tho' such Pardon be granted by God and obtained by us in Consideration of our Saviour's Suffering in our stead can never pass for the Performance of the Directions of the Law that is can never pass for that Righteousness which consists in an Obedience to such Directions and therefore as we shall see more fully hereafter can never be sufficient for our obtaining a Gospel-Salvation which includes in it an eternal Holiness and an eternal Happiness as well as the Pardon of Sin Now that the Pardon of our Transgression of the Law can neither in Reason nor Justice pass for our Performance of the Directions of the Law will appear notorious from these following Considerations 1. Because Forgiveness does imply in the very Notion of it a Desert of Punishment and a Desert of Punishment does imply in it the Transgression of the Directions of the Law For no Man can be truly forgiven who does not justly deserve to be punished and no Man can justly deserve to be punished who does not transgress the Directions of the Law Now for the same Reason and upon the same Account to esteem a Man Innocent and yet a Criminal must needs be absurd because it is a Contradiction And then because in Contradictions only one Part can be true therefore so sure as we are that he who is truly forgiven must be a Sinner so sure we are also that he neither is nor can be truly supposed to be Innocent And therefore when God forgives as it is supposed in Reason and Common Sense that he does forgive Sins and is so expressed in general in the Scriptures so it is supposed in the same Reason and the same Common Sense that he does forgive those Sins to Sinners And therefore we cannot be supposed to have obeyed the Directions of the Law upon the Account that God does forgive us the Punishment threatned in the Law 2. Nor can we be so secondly Because should we undergo the Punishment which the Law threatens yet we could not by so doing ever fulfil the Directions of the Law For it is notorious in it self that the suffering what the Law threatens is not the doing what the Law commands Now it is certain that the Forgiveness of that Punishment which we have deserved can give us no
better a Title to Obedience than our suffering such Punishment could have done had that Punishment not been forgiven And it looks absurd at first view that Guilt should consist in the neglect of Obedience and that Punishment should be the Desert and therefore in Justice the Effect of our Guilt and yet that Obedience should be the Effect of our Punishment That is that Guilt after one Remove should be the proper and in a manner natural because just Cause of Duty But we may be therefore sure that it is no such matter because we are told by God himself that there is a Punishment after this Life which shall be Eternal which yet would be impossible if the suffering of Punishment were equivalent to a perfect Obedience to the Directions of the Law Which because for the Reason alledged and for more that might be alledged it cannot be therefore neither can the Forgiveness of such Punishment be so For it is evident that the Forgiveness of our Punishment can do no more towards the making us obedient than the Punishment it self could do should we undergo it And therefore the Pardon of our Sins for the Sake of our Saviour's having suffered in our stead does not of it self suppose us to have fulfilled the Directions of the Law 3. The Forgiveness of our Sins does imply nothing more in it than our Freedom from that Vengeance which the Law has threatned and which we have deserved by our Transgression of the Directions of it and so does only free us from the vindictive Part of the Law But does not for that Reason entitle us to those Rewards which the Law promises to those who obey its Directions Now it is a very different Thing to be barely freed from the Vengeance of the Law and to be entitled to the Promises of the Law because the Case may really so be put as that a Man may obtain a Release in the First Case and yet never be entitled to or possess the Promise in the Last And in all Cases let them be what they will yet still we are certain that the First can only in Reason nay in Nature belong to those who have transgressed the Law and that the Last can only in strictness of Law belong to those who have obeyed the Law And therefore that the First can be only Matter of Favour whereas the Last may be Matter of Right Now if there be any Difference in the Two Cases then let that Difference be lodged where it will yet we are from thence assured that the Cases are not the same and therefore neither can the Forgiveness of our Sins upon the Account of our Saviour's suffering the Vengeance of the Law in our stead be any Argument that we have fulfilled the Directions of the Law And therefore tho' it be affirmed by several Learned Men that we are sufficiently entitled to Eternal Happiness by the bare Pardon of our Sins in Consideration of our Saviour's Sufferings and that for this Reason because when we are treated by God with Impunity we are at the same time treated as Innocents and that he who is treated as an Innocent by God himself who cannot be mistaken in the Case must therefore needs be so Yet these Men as they do not sufficiently distinguish between an Innocent and a Saint so neither do they between Impunity and a Reward For tho' our Saviour's Sufferings are meritorious of a Reward to himself and so the Scriptures tell us yet they are only expiatory to us and that too in the Nature of the Thing For the utmost Design the natural Tendency and the only Business of an Expiation is to obtain an Impunity for such who have deserved and therefore must in Justice without such an Expiation suffer Punishment But neither Scripture Reason or Justice will tell us that a Purchase of Impunity from the Vengeance due to the Transgressors of the Law can be a Purchase of that Reward that is only due to Obedience to the Law In one Word Reward and Punishment derive not only from different but from contrary Principles And Impunity has and that too in the Nature of the Thing a Respect or Relation only to Punishment but none at all to Reward And for that Reason the meritorious Cause of Impunity can have no Concern with Reward neither Since then the Death of our Saviour is the meritorious Cause of Pardon to those who have transgressed the Law it is absurd in Nature and Reason to make it also the meritorious Cause of that Reward which as it supposes no need of Pardon so does by the Law only belong to those who have obeyed the Law So that an Expiation does at the most but make a Man Innocent but does nothing to make him a Saint For it only cancels his Neglect of Duty but does not do that Duty for him which he has neglected By all which it appears 1. That Reward does in Propriety and Justice only belong to Obedience to the Law 2. That Punishment does in Propriety and Justice only belong to the Transgression of the Law 3. That Expiation has no Relation to the Reward of Obedience but that it only concerns that Punishment which without such Expiation is in Justice due to Disobedience Now because God has taught us not only that our Sins shall be forgiven in and through our Saviour but that also in and through the same Saviour we shall obtain a glorious Reward And because as has appeared in general Reward does in Reason and Justice as properly belong to Duty and Obedience as Forgiveness does to Expiation Therefore our next Enquiry must be upon what Obedience such Reward is grounded For we are very sure that because the Distribution of such Reward is lodged in God's Hand therefore the Reward will be bestowed justly and because we are sure of that therefore we are farther assured that it will be conferr'd upon Duty and Obedience And indeed having in what went before seen what Provision God has made for the fulfilling the Vindictive Part of the Law in order to the Possibility and Justice of Man's Salvation and being satisfied that that Provision which he has made for that purpose will not also fulfil the Directive Part of the Law it must be our next Business to enquire what Provision he has made for the fulfilling of such Directive Part. For 1. In the first place We may therefore be certain that it shall be fulfilled one way or other because the Law being God's is in it self Holy Just and Good And we know and that too by the Light of Nature that it cannot be an indifferent Thing to the Ever-wise and most Holy Law-giver whether a Law which is so be obeyed or not For that would be in effect to cast off all Regard to Duty Holiness and Righteousness Nay which is yet more because every just Law must for that Reason even because it is just design the Obedience of them for whom it is made I say because it
the Law had promised to such Obedience 1. Now in order to our making good our first Proposition we must examine what Qualifications are absolutely necessary in order to fit any one to make such Purchase and then enquire farther Whether such Qualifications either do or can belong to any other besides our Saviour alone 1. Now the first and leading Qualification in him who shall be fitted for the Purchase of a Release from the Penalty of the Law which they have incurred who transgress the Law is that he who makes such a Purchase must be one of the same Kind with them to whom the Law was given that is in the present Case must be a Man For the Law was given to Man was broke by Man and therefore also the Breach of it in the Congruity of Things and by the Laws of Common Sense and Justice is to be punished in Man Now tho' our Saviour was not the only Person in the World who had this Qualification for every Man besides is as real a Man as he was yet he was the only Man among all Mankind who by this Qualification was fitted for the effectual enterprising and bring to pass those other Things which are absolutely necessary for the Purchase of the Release spoken of 2. For secondly The next Qualification of him who is fitted for the Purchase of a Release from the Penalty of the Law is that he must be an Innocent Man He was to be a Lamb without Spot or Blemish and to answer to the Paschal Lamb which in this as in several other Things was a Type of that Lamb of God which should take away the Sins of the World For he who is qualified to suffer for others in order to release those others from the Penalty of Sin must not therefore be a Sinner himself because if he be so then he must by the Laws of Justice and even according to the Tenor of that Law which assigns such Penalty suffer the Penalty for his own Sin And he who suffers the Penalty of the Law for his own Sin cannot therefore suffer the Penalty of the Law for the Sin of others at least in the present Case he cannot because the Penalty of the Law upon the Transgression of it being the loss of Life his own Penalty exhausts the whole Stock or Possibility of his so suffering For he who has but one Life and no Man has more can pay that Life but once And therefore if he lays it down for his own Sin he must for that Reason have nothing remaining to lay down for the Sin of others 3. He who is duely qualified to purchase for Mankind a Release from the Penalty of their Sins must be a Man whose Life is of more value than the Lives of all the rest And the Reason for it is plain and obvious because we know that the Lives of all the rest can make no such Purchase And the Lives of all the rest cannot therefore make any such Purchase because the Death of no single Man can make such a Purchase for himself For what no single Man's Death can do for himself that the Death of all Men cannot do for all For there is just the same Proportion between all Men and the Death of all that there is between one Man and the Death of one Besides supposing a Man to be a Transgressor of the Law it looks very absurd to affirm that the Death of such a Man which is the Punishment of his Transgression can be the Purchase of his Release from such Punishment For then the self-same Thing and that is his Death will bear a quite contrary Character for it will be both the Wages of his Sin and the Purchase of his Ransom that is it will be the Vengeance of the Law and the meritorious Cause of his Freedom from the same Vengeance Every Sinner therefore against the Law must be a Sufferer under the Vengeance of the Law and that Law which adjudges those who transgress it to Death does not by so doing design to return them to Life For if it did then by inflicting its Sentence it must design to revoke that Sentence and by making the Punishment a Release from the Punishment must look like Trifling and not like Justice The Loss of no Sinner's Life then is of Value sufficient to put a Period to the Execution of that Sentence which the Law pronounces against those who do transgress it And every Man's Death in the Course of the Law had been eternal were there nothing else to remove it but his own Strength that is in the present Case but his own Death For if the Death of a dead Man can do nothing for him we are sure that no other of his Powers or Merits can For in the Case before us he can have no other Merits of his own to restore him to Life but the Merits of his Death and the Merits of his Death as we have seen are none at all And to expect any Relief from a dead Man's Powers is to expect Relief from no Powers at all for Death crushes all the Powers of all Men whom it seizes Now this being the Condition of all Men who die because they are Sinners we may from hence safely conclude That if any Man who is not a Sinner shall undertake by his own Death to make good the Ransom of all the rest from Death and after that shall make good his Undertaking I say if any Man shall do this we may be sure that his Death or his Life which you will is therefore of more Value than the Life or Death of all the rest because he does by it make that Purchase which all the rest could not do by theirs For in the present Case the Value of the Thing may be truly and justly estimated by the Possibility of the Purchase it can make because the Possibility of the Purchase depends upon the Allowance of the Great and Just God And then when God is willing to release Man from Death in Consideration of the Death of his Innocent Saviour and when he is not so in Consideration of sinful Man 's own Death and when he does professedly declare such his Will in many Places of his Word and by the repeated Attestations of Matter of Fact whereby several People have been raised from the Dead in the Name and by the professed Power of the Saviour I say when we find all these Things to be so as we do or at least easily may find them so to be we may from the Whole conclude That the Death of our Saviour is of more Value than the Death of all Mankind because it can do that which the Death of all the rest cannot do and that too by the Allowance of God himself Now from these Propositions so laid down we may therefore conclude That there is not Salvation in any other but only in our Saviour set forth in the Gospel 1. Because it was absolutely necessary in Justice that the
there can be no Punishment and a dead Man can have no Sensation unless we could suppose him to be alive and dead at the same time This Head may meet with Objections but I shall wave them and any Answer to them at present and that too so much the rather because it is notorious that the Scriptures do lay the greater Punishment that is the Punishment greater than Death not only beyond the Resurrection but also beyond the last Judgment it-self 7. Lastly In such Places of Scripture where the greater Punishment is threatned it is not as the Punishment of the Transgression of the Positive Law was absolute and peremptory but only conditional And therefore if we except first the Sin against the Holy Ghost whatever that be for it does not concern us to enquire at present and secondly The Refusing the Conditions of Salvation offered in a Saviour that grand and comprehensive Sin which either neglects or renounces the only Means appointed for Man's Salvation from all his other Sins I say if we except these Two Cases if yet they be Two not only the future Punishment threatned against the Breach of this or that Law but of any or all may as far as the Gospel-discoveries go be remitted Which may teach us to think that the Punishment threatned in the Law given to Adam was not a Punishment after a Resurrection but a Punishment without a Resurrection And that not only because at that Time when the Law was given to him there was not only no Resurrection promised but no Saviour neither by whom alone a Resurrection was to be brought to pass To which we may add That the Death threatned to Adam by the Law given to him was as we have seen upon his Transgression of such Law absolute and peremptory and that the Execution of such Threat is as the Scripture and our Experience tells us absolute and universal Whereas the Threat of an eternal Death as we are well assured is upon the Breach of God's Laws only conditional Now it looks hard to our Reason that when only Death is threatned in the Law and that Death at the very most but indefinite to say that the Death so threatned does imply a double Death that is both a Temporal and Eternal Death And it looks harder yet to say that the Threat and Execution of one of the Deaths is absolute and universal but that the Threat and Execution of the other is only partial and conditional For our Reason tells us that neither any Threat nor Execution of Death can be both Absolute and Conditional both Universal and Particular too From the Whole we take notice That tho God was obliged both by his Truth and Justice to execute the Threatning against the Transgression of the first Law because that Law being given to Man in his Innocence that is before he stood in need of a Saviour and therefore before God had promised one the Threat of Punishment upon the Breach of the Law was as we have seen absolute and peremptory Yet because the Revelation of a future and everlasting Punishment in the New Covenant is rather made by way of Information than by way of peremptory Threat and absolute Denunciation therefore God is obliged to the Execution of such Penalty only by his Justice but not at all by his Veracity If then there be a Means provided to satisfie such his Justice without the rigorous Execution of such declared and without such Means certain Penalty it will well enough follow That such Penalty may be remitted without any Prejudice either to his Justice or to his Truth And therefore in what is to follow we trust to make it good That our Lord and Saviour JESUS CHRIST may and will justly save us from the Punishment peremptorily threatned to Adam viz. the Loss of Life executed upon him and all Mankind by releasing us from it after we have suffer'd it and from a future and eternal Punishment expresly revealed in the New Testament to Christians and probably also after the Fall of Adam and the Promise of the Seed of the Woman believed by the Patriarchs and by God's Church among the Jews by preventing it CHAP. I. The Scriptures do most expresly assert That Mankind are redeemed by the Blood of JESUS CHRIST It is not agreeable to the Divine Wisdom or to the Method of his Proceedings in the like Cases to employ greater Means to bring his Purposes to pass where less may be sufficient Punishment is the necessary Wages of Sin An Objection to this Position answered AND as we have grounded what we have said in the Introduction upon the Revelations of God which have acquainted us how Sin and the Punishment of it Death entred into the World So in what is to follow concerning the Redemption of Mankind both from Sin and Punishment we shall take our Rise from Revelation likewise Not only because we had known nothing of the Matter but by Revelation but also because in the present Case Revelation is undoubtedly the best Guide of our Reason For Reason must of necessity be guided best by that without the Guidance of which Reason it self is confessedly blind And we are very sure that it becomes all those who acknowledge the Scriptures to be the Revelations of God I say it becomes them in modesty and deference to the Author and in prudence for their own more certain Conduct rather to endeavour to bring their Reason to comply with the Revelation than to bring the Revelation to comply with their Reason And therefore that we our selves may practise what we cannot but judge to be best in the Practice of others we shall lay the Ground-work of all that is to follow upon the Words of St. Peter in the Fourth of the Acts and the Twelfth Verse Neither is there Salvation in any other For there is no other Name under Heaven given among Men whereby we must be saved In which Words the Apostle and he too at that time filled with the Holy-Ghost as appears by the Eighth Verse does expresly tell us for the Words do import so much That Men must be saved by JESUS CHRIST of Nazareth consult the Tenth Verse and by no other For it is evident that by Name in the Text is meant Jesus Christ himself because what he calls Name in one Part of the Verse is opposed to any other in the other Part of the Verse As in the Tenth Verse he tells us that the impotent Man was made whole by the Name of Jesus Christ in the beginning and that he was made whole by Him that is by Jesus Christ in the latter end of the Verse Those who professedly and avowedly make it their Business to evacuate the Purchase of Our Saviour's Merits and Blood do to that purpose start if not an impertinent yet a very sawcie Question which is Whether or no God could not have saved sinful Man by some other Means than by the Death of his Son And by that means would alter
also this is the Voice of Truth And then as we shewed before that all the good Things that we do or can enjoy did proceed purely and meerly from God's Good-will so I do now add that our Sins do naturally turn that Good-will into Displeasure and then the Good-will ceasing all those Emanations that flowed from it must in course cease also And then because where they cease there the Sinner's Punishment does begin therefore we may now from the Whole begin to perceive that the Punishment of Sin is not so arbitrarious a thing as it is usually taken to be but that it does when traced to the beginning depend upon the same Necessity by which God loves himself For if we sum up all our Discourse upon this Head from the beginning we shall understand That God loves himself That he is in his own Nature Holy That therefore he hates whatsoever is contrary to such his Nature That all Sin therefore is so because it is contrary to his Holiness That the Effects of his Hatred must be contrary to those of his Love or at the very best That the Emanations of his Love must then be stopped when that Love is turned into Hatred and Displeasure That when his Creatures lose those Emanations then their Misery begins That all those Creatures must needs lose them that lose that Love from whence alone they do proceed and That they lose that Love by their Sins because as we said before Sin and Sin alone does turn it into Hatred and Displeasure So that if we may be allowd so to speak in Morality there is an essential Relation between Sin and Punishment and the Necessity of Punishment when narrowly scann'd is founded upon the eternal and immutable Laws of Truth Holiness and Justice But before we leave this Head I would if that be possible make all a little plainer by an Instance And that Instance shall be in that Punishment which the first Sin brought upon the whole Race of Mankind And I do the rather take my Instance there because the Law was given and broken and so the Penalty both threatned and incurred when there was no Saviour to remit the rigorous but just Execution of such Penalty Now we are assured by the Reason of the Thing it-self as we have already discoursed But if that will not do we are assured by God's Word by his Promise by his Oath that he neither wills nor delights in the death of a Sinner And when he swears so to us it would be both proper and modest in us to believe that there is something in Sin which does oblige God in Justice and that is the same thing with God as to be obliged by Necessity to punish it with Death And to this purpose we may take notice that it is derogatory to God's Honour for us to resolve any Punishment which we suffer into God's Will only and not into his Justice Because as we shall presently perceive when God wills the Death of a Sinner he therefore only wills it because Justice does require it and that in the Nature of the Thing antecedently to such his Will For if the Death of a Man should be therefore just only because God wills it tho' the Man do not deserve it then it may be all one as to the Event and that justly too whether a Man were perfectly innocent or the most profligate Miscreant upon the Face of the Earth For according to that Doctrine which we now oppose God might in such a Case justly will the Death of the Innocent and save the Criminal alive For if the ultimate Resolution of the Justice of our Death be only into the Will of God then nothing can hinder but that God may justly slay a perfect Innocent And so when God told Adam that in the day of his Transgression he should surely die the Meaning of his Threat must have been that he might have died whether he had transgressed or not But because we cannot without Blasphemy tax God's Law of such notorious Prevarication therefore we must determine that the ultimate Resolution of Adam's Punishment in such Case must be into the Desert of such Punishment by the Breach of the Law and that God's willing his Death was a just Consequent of such his Desert In short God wills such things only which he can will justly and he who will rationally and truly account for the Proceedings of God in that and such like Cases must have a care to do it so as to maintain the Harmony of all his Attributes He must not magnifie his Power no nor his Mercy so as to impeach his Truth Wisdom and Justice For he who confounds the Events of Innocence and Guilt will be found when his Opinion comes narrowly to be scanned to make God either a Favourer of Sin or an Enemy of Righteousness The Sum of all is That when God tells us that Death is the Wages of Sin he does not therefore pass it into a Law because it pleases him so to do but because it is just in it-self that he should do so And that if it had not been just in it-self he had not upon that single Account willed it at all So that upon the whole it does remain a fixed and setled Truth That Death is the Wages of Sin by the eternal and immutable Laws of Iustice and that it cannot be otherwise so long as God loves himself and so hates whatsoever is contrary to himself and to his Nature as all Sin most undoubtedly is And therefore when any Man sins against God as by so doing he does of necessity forfeit God's Favour so also by consequence he does by necessity forfeit his own Life which has nothing else to depend upon but that Favour alone And as a Temporal Death upon Sin is necessary because both threatned and incurred before the Promise of a Saviour so after the Saviour has laid down his Mediatorial Office an Eternal Death will be found to be so too I word it so lest my Caution before this Head should by this time be forgot Now if it be not an Eternal Law of Justice that Punishment is the necessary Reward of Sin then it may be all one as to the Event and that justly and finally too whether a Man depart this Life the best or the worst Man in the whole World For if there be not some Law of Justice that shall at the last Day distinguish the Event of their contrary Courses then nothing can And if that Justice be not necessary let the Means by which it is not so be what they will the Difference between their Condition can be but casual or at the very best but arbitrary and so we must leave them both to a grand Perhaps which will be in effect to destroy all Religion and Justice There is one thing against this Discourse of weight and moment which tho' I shall professedly answer in another Place yet shall not go unmentioned here And that is That
if the Punishment of Sin be absolutely just and necessary then how came it to pass that God did in his Counsel design and in his Wisdom appoint a Saviour in order to the Paâ—don of Sin For in Order of Nature the Design of Pardon must be antecedent to thâ— Design of sending a Saviour And therefore if the Punishment of Sin be as it is laâ— down both just and necessary God's Design of Pardon going counter to this Law should seem to be unjust For how could he justâ— design to pardon That which in Justice anâ— Necessity he stood obliged to punish Now to this several Things may be answered As 1. First That God did never design 〈◊〉 pardon Sin but only in and through a Savâ—our And how far such his Design undeâ— such a Restriction and Limitation is juâ—â— is very much the Business of that part of thâ— Discourse which in its Place is to follow anâ— therefore must not be forestalled here 2. That notwithstanding a Saviour yeâ— God did never pardon any sinful Creature All the Sinners that we know are the falâ— Angels and Men. What the Scriptures acquaint us with concerning the first we know well enough And among such Things 〈◊〉 know also that it gives us an Account 〈◊〉 the Punishment of their Sin And as foâ— Men those of them that shall be saved aâ— last in consideration of their Saviour's Merits do yet in this World suffer Losses anâ— Crosses and Pains and Diseases and Death All which are undoubted Punishments of Sinâ— And for the rest who shall by a final Impenitence reject the Benefit of the Saviour's Purchase besides the Calamities which they suffer in common with the Good in this World the Scriptures do acquaint us sufficiently with their Doom in the next So that if it may be an Argument that Punishment is the necessary Reward of Sin because all Sinners have do and shall suffer Punishment then God's designing of a Saviour for Mankind in order to their Pardon does not take off the Force of such Argument because notwithstanding such his Design and such Saviour no Sinner whatsoever did or ever will go unpunished 3. But then thirdly It is a Mistake that the Salvation of Man from Punishment was the immediate and direct Design in God's Counsel of sending a Saviour For as we shall see hereafter See Chap. 12. the Business of our Saviour's Coming was to bring back Mankind to his Father's Kingdom who had been drawn into a Revolt from his Dominion and Jurisdiction by the Sollicitations of the Devil and had thereby put a Slight upon the Authority of the King of all the World and so in some sense lesned the Extent of his Kingdom Now those whom our Saviour shall so bring back to their Allegiance by restoring them to their lost Holiness shall indeed be saved But then their Salvation is a Consequence of their Return to Holiness and so was not properly the Design of God's sending a Saviour but the Consequence of the Success of such Design CHAP. II. The Gospel holds forth no such thing as an Absolute or Unconditional Pardon no nor yet an Arbitrary Pardon THe next and Second Proposition offered to be made good in order to our main Design is this That the Gospel holds out no such thing to us as an absolute Forgiveness of Sin Which Proposition I therefore lay down here not only because it is introductive to some Things which are to follow but also to obviate the Conceit of those Men who think they do sufficiently wipe away the Merits of our Saviour in reference to the Pardon of our Sins by telling us that God may without any more ado pardon such our Sins by his Free Grace 1. But in the first place we cannot but take notice that what God may do and what he has declared he will do are Two very different and distinct Things Though therefore it be supposed that God may grant us an absolute Pardon yet if in those very Revelations in which he has discovered to us his Intention of pardoning us he does expresly tell us that he will not do so it will be proper and modest in us to acquiesce in what he so tells us rather than to raise in our Imaginations conceited Possibilities which do directly contradict such his Declarations 2. But secondly He who brought us the Gospel-Dispensation in order to the Pardon of our Sins does in that Dispensation require our Repentance in order to such our Pardon Now if Repentance be a Condition of the Pardon then for that Reason alone the Pardon cannot be Absolute because an Absolute Pardon is an Inconditional Pardon and it is impossible that the same Pardon should be a Conditional and an Inconditional Pardon too 3. An Absolute Pardon of Sin fights directly against all that we have said under our last Head concerning the Necessary Justice of Punishment And therefore till all that be wiped away we may upon those Grounds deny that there is any such sort of Pardon For it looks a little too harsh and that too to Natural Reason to tell us that God will be reconciled to the Enemy of his Nature and that upon the account of mere Mercy and Compassion and that in order to his being so he will throw away all Considerations of his Justice which in this Case we may adventure to call his Natural Displeasure 4. If we should suppose or allow such a thing as an Absolute Forgiveness then we must also allow that it may be the same thing whether a man has been the best or the worst Man in the whole World For an Absolute Forgiveness in the Reason and Nature of it may as well be extended to the one as to the other For let what Reason soever be assigned why it may not and that very Reason be it what it will will prove the Forgiveness not to be absolute For that Forgiveness cannot be so that is limited or restrained by any Reason whatsoever 5. An Absolute Pardon does throw a Slur upon God's Wisdom no less than it does so upon his Justice For the Law being his against which we have transgressed and he having in that very Law threatned Vengeance upon such as shall transgress it if after the Transgression he should grant an absolute Pardon to such Transgression he would by such a Pardon as much void and annul the Law as he had by his Threatning established and confirmed it And so it might come to the same pass as to the final Event whether he had made any Law or no. For what is the Difference not to make a Law and not to execute it And therefore St. Paul point-blank to our purpose tells us in the Third to the Romans the Fifth and Sixth Verses That if God should not execute Vengeance he would not only be unrighteous but that also he could not judge the World And we may add that he would not only be unrighteous but considering the Contrariety that would be between his Practice
and his Law he would be unwise also And therefore 6. Lastly The last Judgment and that Description that we meet with of it in Gods Word do fully assure us that he has no such Designs in his Counsels as to throw away his Laws to gratifie his Enemies with Impunity From all which Reasons and as we do believe from each of them in particular it seems satisfactorily evident that a Gospel-Pardon of Sin is no absolute Pardon And that therefore when God does in the Gospel promise Pardon of Sin there must be some previous Conditions that must be observed in order to such a Pardon And what Share our Saviour has in the Performance and Accomplishment of such Conditions we shall learn hereafter In the mean time before we dismiss this Chapter we must not dissemble that it may be surmised and therefore also that it may be objected That tho' there should be no alsolute Gospel-Pardon that yet there may be an arbitrary Gospel-Pardon and that there are some Expressions in the New Testament that lean that way and may at least incline us to believe that there is such a Thing But because we are sure that no Pardon can come from God but what is just and because we know that Arbitrary Justice is only one Branch of Arbitrary Power and therefore is in reality no Justice at all for it is only a resolute Determination of the Will without any Reason for such Determination therefore we are sure that it cannot belong to God For all his Actions are limited and bounded by his Holiness that is by the Eternal Rules of Reason and Justice And he only therefore wills what he pleases because he neither does not can please to will any thing but what is Just CHAP. III. A Gospel-Salvation contains in it 1. Pardon of Sin 2. The Gift of Eternal Happiness To these Two other Things required 1. An Expiation of Sin 2. A Restitution to Holiness Negatively the several Ways how such Expiation cannot be made from whence an Inference of the Doctrine asserted with some Practical Inferences HAving in the First Chapter made it good that Misery and Death that is in one Word that Vengeance is as the just so also the necessary Wages of Sin And in the Second That the Gospel it self holds out no such thing to us as either an Absolute or Arbitrary Forgiveness of Sin Our next Proposition must be That because the Gospel in this very Case is the Revelation of God's Will and because the Will and Counsel of God in that Gospel revealed is the Pardon and Salvation of Man that therefore Man's Sin is to be pardoned tho' not by an absolute or arbitrary Forgiveness And then because it must for that Reason be pardoned some way or other it will be our next Business to enquire what that Way is For by such Enquiry it may perhaps appear to be a Gospel-Truth and that too agreeable to Reason That there is not Salvation in any other but in Jesus Christ alone and that there is no other Name under Heaven given among Men whereby we must be saved And here because the Gospel promises no absolute Pardon of Sin as we do from thence in the first place conclude that the Pardon must be conditional so we must in the next place enquire what that Condition or what those Conditions are upon which this Pardon is to be obtained Now if in order to our more rational and satisfactory Resolution of this Enquiry we do first look into the Gospel there to inform our selves what a Gospel-Salvation means we may from thence learn that it does contain in it Two Things Whereof the first is Pardon of Sin and the second is the Gift of Eternal Happiness And in order to the obtaining of these Two Things as we shall see more fully in the farther Prosecution of this Matter Two other Things are in the Gospel required 1. An Expiation of Sin and 2. A Restitution to our lost Holiness For as we may conclude from our second Proposition That tho' the Gospel does allow a Pardon yet because it does not allow an absolute Pardon of Sin that therefore something will be required in order to such a Pardon So we may conclude from our first Proposition That because Punishment for Sin is necessary therefore some Punishment be that what it will at present must be suffered for our Sin And then if in the Progress of our Discourse it shall appear that in Consideration of any such Punishment so suffered the Gospel-Pardon of our Sins does afterwards ensue then such Pardon may be so far ascribed to such Punishment as that our Guilt and the Vengeance due to such our Guilt may be truly esteemed to be expiated by it Now in order to find out what Punishment it is that can make such an Expiation we shall first enquire what Punishment cannot do it And because Repentance does not so wholly consist in Action but that it must have something of Suffering mixed with it therefore in pursuit of our Design let our first Negative Proposition be this 1. That our Repentance for our Sins can never make out an Expiation of our Sins For tho' Repentance for our Sins be a Gospel-Condition required of us without which we shall never be made Partakers of the Benefit of the Gospel-Expiation yet notwithstanding that we neither do nor can by our Repentance make out that Expiation for Sin which is by the Gospel necessary for our Salvation For besides that there is no Man's Repentance so exact and compleat as to free him from all Sin while he lives and so after all he must remain a Sinner as long as he lives I say besides that His very manner of going out of the World and that is by Death is a demonstrative Proof that his Repentance has not made an Expiation for his Sins because we may most certainly conclude that his Sins are not then expiated and so neither pardoned when God himself lays on the Penalty threatned in his Law with his own Hand For when God gave his Law to Mankind in their universal Father and Representative Adam we know that he ratified such Law by the Penalty of Death and we know also that every Man let him be as pemtent as can be supposed does still suffer that Penalty And we may from thence also know that for that Reason no Man's Repentance can so far expiate his Sin as to free him from the Punishment threatned to it by the Law And then from the whole we may conclude That if any Man be saved because he is a true Penitent he must be saved by some other Expiation than by such his Repentance forasmuch as his Repentance can at the most but qualifie him to be made a Partaker of such Expiation 2. As Man's Repentance for his Sin which we may call his voluntary Punishment for Sin cannot so neither can his professed Punishment which we may call his legal Punishment for Sin expiate his Sin and so
obtain for him a Gospel-forgiveness and that for this Reason because there is such a Thing in the Gospel as an eternal Punishment allotted to Sin And as under the last Head we found that Reason did fall in with the Gospel and that they both spake the same thing so also we shall find it here For it is certain that the Punishment of sinful Man can therefore never expiate his Sin because it can never purchase a just Release from Punishment and it is certain that it cannot do that if it may be justly continued to Eternity And that it may be so we may learn from hence because the Law of Grace being God's Law as well as the Law of Works must for that Reason be just And we are assured by this Law as much as Words can assure us that the Punishment which it denounces against those who do not fulâ—â—l the Conditions of it is Eternal And that it shall so prove besides the express Words of the Law we have this farther Reason which is that the suffering the Punishment threatned by the Law to those who neglect to perform the Conditions of the Law can neither in Sense or Reason pass for the Performance of such Conditions so neglected and that the Neglect of this Law shall and that in Reason and Justice be repaid with an additional Vengeance for the refusal of the Mercy offered in it which designs to free us from the Punishment of all our other Sins as well as with that Punishment which is due to such Sins For it is Reason and Justice that a more heinous Sin should be punished with a more grievous Judgment and it is Truth and Reason that a Sinner does then become a more heinous Criminal when to his Desert of Punishment he adds a Neglect or Contempt of the easie Conditions of Pardon And since by the Tenor of the Covenant of Grace such Sinner is to suffer his Punishment after his Resurrection from the Dead that is not only after the Time limited for the Possibility of his Pardon is expired but also after Death it self shall be destroyed as we may from thence conclude the certainty so may we also the eternal Duration of his Punishment For as a Punishment due after the Day of Grace is past will not be remitted so such Punishment when Death is no more cannot be determined By which we may understand that as Death is without a Saviour the just and necessary Wages of Sin as we made it good in our first Chapter so also that when such Death is sure by a Resurrection purchased by a Saviour to be taken away in order to an happy and everlasting Life and that too upon the easie or at worst the very feasible Conditions of the Gospel yet if Men will neglect such Salvation so placed within their reach and so leave the eternal Life purchased for them in order to their Happiness exposed to the Vengeance which is the just and necessary Reward of all their other Sins and of such their Neglect they must impute it to their own Folly if such Vengeance in stead of Happiness be the continued Companion of their eternal Life For in the Case so put the Restoration from Death to Life comes from the Mercy of God the making that Life eternal comes from the Mercy of God the Designing to make that eternal Life happy comes from the Mercy of God The granting Means to Men and those no very hard ones neither of obtaining that Happiness comes from the Mercy of God But foolish Man defeats the Counsel of God by an obstinate and unrelenting Perseverance in Sin and does in this Case as he does in most others turn the Blessing of God into a Curse upon himself that is he makes that Life which was designed for his eternal Happiness an Occasion of the eternity of his Misery One thing more may be added to what has been said upon this Head and then we shall apply it to our present Design and that is That at that time when the Punishment we now speak of shall come to be inflicted our Saviour as the Scriptures tell us will have laid down his Mediatorial Office and so Men must stand the Award of their own Deserts and then if such their Deserts be Evil we may be instructed from what was said in the First Chapter that the Justice which will overtake them will be Justice without Mercy and that pure and unmix'd Vengeance will be their Portion even such Vengeance which will only revenge upon them the Breach of the Covenants of their God but will never so much as pretend to make up such Breach To our present purpose then If the Punishment of Men for their own Sins shall without the Interposition of a Saviour be eternal and if this appear to be so by the Testimony of that very Gospel in which however there is a Possibility of Salvation held forth and if Reason do vouch for the Truth of what the Gospel in this Case teaches and lastly if an Eternity of Punishment be absolutely inconsistent with an Expiation of Sin by such Punishment for the last supposes the Sin to be cancelled and the first supposes it to be continued Then we may conclude that the Punishment of Man for his Sin can no more expâ—ate his Sin under this Head than his Repentance as we there made it good could do so under the last Anâ— then because there is no other possible Way for Mankind to expiate their Sin but by their Repentance or by their Punishment wâ— do conclude that there is no possible Way for them to make any Expiation of it at all 3. As Man cannot expiate his Sin by any Punishment of his own neither by his Repentance nor by his Death whether Temporâ— or Eternal So neither can he expiate his Siâ— by the Death of any other Creature This 〈◊〉 therefore add because we may be apt to surmise that what has been done already may be done again And we can hardly be ignorant that the Lives of other Creatures have been offered to God and that too by his own Appointment for the Expiation of the Sinâ— of Men. And which is yet something more they have not only been offered by Man but they have been also accepted by God as aâ— effectual Expiation And that they have beeâ— so the History of the Jewish Religion recorded in the Bible it self may easily convince us But notwithstanding all this yet he who shall look nearer into the Matter and examine it more nicely will be satisfied 1. That all those Sacrifices tho' instituted by God himself were only Types and Shadows of that great Propitiatory Sacrifice that was to expiate the Sins of the whole World And therefore tho' they may serve to inform us that such a Sacrifice ought to be in order to the Expiation of Sins and because they did prefigure such a Sacrifice they might over and above foretell that such a Sacrifice should be yet because they themselves
that the Dignity of the faln Angels and among them one of them Son of the Morning whatever that signifies but we may be satisfied that it signifies something excellent but I say we know that the Dignity of the faln Angels did not so far avail them but that God provided and accepted an Expiation for faln Man whereas he left them in the Hands of Justice to attend the Events of their own Deserts So that for ought we can discover either by Revelation or Reason the Dignity of no Creature whatsoever does qualifie him to make an Expiation for those Sins which he shall commit against the Creator For in this Case the Distance between the Party offended and the Party offending being infinite there cannot possibly be any Mediation or Expiation that can extend it self to both the Extremes And therefore we shall at last from what has been said upon this Head conclude That no Creature tho' never so much above Man can ever make an Expiation to God for the Sins of Man 5. Fifthly and lastly As no sinful Creature can ever by its Punishment expiate its own Sins or the Sins of any other Creature so no innocent Creature can do the last that is no innocent Creature can ever expiate the Sins of any sinful Creature For in such a Case it must in order to its undergoing the Punishment justly first take upon it the Sin willingly and so by putting it self into the Place of the Sinner must first be supposed to be such a Sinner it self before it can undergo the Punishment due to its Sin But then when any Creature is supposed to lie under the Burden of such Sin it is at the same time supposed to be in the same Condition with the Original Sinner himself For when the Punishment comes to be transferr'd from the last to the first it is therefore so transferr'd because the Law allows the Act of the Surety by which he has owned and accepted the Sin to be his own And then the Law in such a Case makes no difference between the Surety and the Principal And if the Law makes no difference then as to the Business of Punishment we may be therefore sure that there is none because both are Creatures and both are Sinners If therefore as we shewed before the Principal could not by his Punishment had he undergone it himself have expiated his Guilt then for the self-same Reasons the Surety will also be unable to expiate the self-same Guilt So that the Conclusion of this Head will be that as no sinful Creature is able to unload its self of its Sin by its Punishment so no Creature be it never so innocent will be able to do it by being punished for its Fellow-Creature And therefore as we do not know that any of the Blessed Angels who retained their Innocence did ever interpose for the Redemption of those that fell so we do most assuredly know that tho' they did interpose the Event did not answer because we know that the Condition of those that fell does continue desperate Nay there do not want probable Reasons to persuade that the faln Angels themselves do not interpose for their own Redemption in any kind no not so much as by Prayer Which if it be true as it is a good Argument of their Despair so it is a probable Argument that they have no Mediator in whose Name they may put up such their Prayers and for whose sake they may with any probability hope that they will be accepted And yet all this while we have no Reason to doubt but that That noble Charity which must needs accompany a perfect and unspotted Innocence such as that of the Holy Angels is would be inclined to engage it self one way or other for the Redemption of their faln Brethren did not their Prudence check and controul such a possible Inclination And then if such their Prudence do not consist in One of these Two Things that is that they either think or know that such their Interposition would be either sawcie or vain we can hardly upon any other ground excuse their Neglect of such their Interposition In One Word The Scriptures have acquainted us that some of the Angels have sinned and that their Condition thereupon is become desperate But the Scriptures have not acquainted us that they have any Mediator to intercede with God in their behalf or to make Expiation for their Sin And as we may be satisfied that were an Expiation made their Sin must in Justice be remitted so may we that if any of the good Angels had taken upon himself to make such Expiation he must in order to his so doing have taken upon himself the Sin and so he must have brought himself into the very same Condition with those that fell and that therefore he would have been just as unable as they to free himself from such Condition No! no! We do or may know well enough that Sin has Weight enough in it to crush both Men and Angels Experience has acquainted us with the first and Revelation has assured us of both And then the Conclusion is easie That he who in such a Case could relieve either must for that Reason be more powerful than both And when we come to make it out that he who did so was so we shall then begin more plainly to perceive that there is not Salvation in any other tho' most of what we have hitherto offered has directly tended to the same Design But before we proceed any farther we shall make some few Remarks upon what has been already laid down that may have an Induence upon our Practice 1. And first From what has been offered we may take notice of the great Malignity of Sin For People would hardly sin so freely if they thought Sin so deadly And yet a little Reflection will tell us that Sin has slain all Mankind from the time of Adam to the time of the Expiration of the last Man that died We may think the Plague the Sword the Famine great Destroyers They are indeed the Beesoms of Destruction and where they come make great Devastations among Mankind but when we have taken a View of the Desolations caused by them and by all other Miseries and Mischiefs besides we must know that as Sin has been the Parent of them all so has it been also of all those Calamities and Destructions that all of them have produced And because it has so therefore we take notice in the 2. Second place That God's Justice is no such trifling Thing as is but too generally thought For there is no Sinner who ever escaped being a Sufferer For if all the Miseries which we suffer in this World and those are neither few nor light do come from our Sins as most certainly they do then we may be easily satisfied that even those Sinners whom yet God does treat with the greatest Kindness of all others do yet never go without the Marks of his Displeasure
too in the Nature of the Thing it self that Creatures so different should be under different Laws and that therefore neither their Obedience to nor their Transgression of those several Laws under which they are should have any such Concern or Relation to one another as that one sort of Creature should in any Case undergo the Penalty of the Transgressions of the other sort of Creature And therefore for the same Reason that we should look upon it as absurd and unjust that a Man should suffer for the Sin of an Angel I say for the same Reason we should think it no less absurd and unjust that an Angel should suffer for the Sin of a Man The Thing might be made out in more Words But it needs not Now these few Remarks being left by the way to give Perspicuity and Strength to those Things which are to follow the Wisdom Justice Reasonableness and Congruity of the Redemption of Mankind by the Sufferings and Death of our Saviour as that Redemption is expresly laid down in the Scriptures will appear from these following Considerations 1. And first Our Saviour who by his Death and Sufferings undertook the Purchase of Man's Redemption was as really and verily a Man himself as were those whom he undertook to redeem This is evident because he is all along in the New Testament called Man the Son of Man and the like as we have made it out already And this so far accommodates the Scripture-Account of the Purchase of Man's Salvation to the Law that 1. As the Law threatned the Punishment to Man alone and to no other Creature so in the Purchase of the Redemption Man alone suffered such Punishment and no Creature besides 2. And secondly As it accommodates the Scripture-Account of the Purchase of Man's Redemption to the Law because our Saviour who suffered in order to such Purchase was a Man So it accommodates the Scripture-Account of the Purchase of Man's Redemption to the Rules of Justice because our Saviour who suffered in order to such Purchase was an Innocent Man It may perhaps at first sight look strange when I say that the Purchase of Redemption by the Death of an Innocent Man is accommodated to the Rules of Justice But the Wonder will then vanish when I shall come to make it out that tho' an Innocent Man cannot without his own Consent be justly punished yet that with such his Consent he may be so punished But because That belongs to another Place therefore in this I pass it by For that that I design at present is only to shew that it is not agreeable to the Laws of Justice that a Criminal against the Law should expiate another Man's Sin by suffering the Penalty of the Law Because the Penalty which he suffers being the just Demerit and Wages of his own Sin he cannot by undergoing the Punishment of his own Sin add any such Desert to such his Punishment as to make it meritorious of Impunity to any other Sinner As therefore under the last Head we learnt that he who by his Punishment expiates the Sin of another Man must in Reason and Congruity be a Man himself so under this Head we may learn that he must be an Innocent Man likewise And so the Sufferings and Death of our Saviour for the Redemption of Mankind will afford us a further Congruity to the Rules of Reason and Justice in that that Saviour is exhibited to us in the Gospel not only to be a Man but also to be an Innocent Man 3. The Wisdom Justice and Reasonableness of the Redemption of Mankind by the Sufferings and Death of our Saviour as that Saviour was a Man will yet farther and more notoriously appear if we consider the first Rise and Formation of Mankind according to that Account which the Scriptures give us of it For there we are told in general that God did of one Blood make all Nations of Men for to dwell on the Face of the whole Earth in the Seventeenth Chapter of the Acts of the Apostles And then if we look back to the original Creation of Mankind and there enquire more particularly how this was done we shall from thence be informed that God first made Adam out of the Earth and that after that he made Eve out of Adam both of them extraordinary and miraculous Productions and that then through all succeeding Generations he formed all the rest of Mankind out of both or such succeeding Pairs which proceeded from both to an understanding Man as miraculous tho' a more ordinary Production than that of the first Man and Woman So that all Mankind are by the Scripture-Account of the Thing a continued Propagation of the Blood of Adam branched out through the several Disseminations of all succeeding Men and Women from his Days to this present Time Now our Saviour as he was Man took part of this Flesh and Blood so the Scripture and by doing so became a Part of that Common Blood out of which all the particular Men in the World are and always have been made as well as he he stands therefore in as near a Relation to all Mankind as can possibly be made by the same Flesh and Blood and that Relation may well be granted to be very near because it is that very Relation which the several Parts of a Thing by continued derivation the same have to one another And so far the Relation of our Saviour to the rest of Mankind is in all Circumstances exactly the same with that Relation which every other Man has to every other But yet there is something peculiar to our Saviour in his becoming Man which does not belong to any other Man whomsoever And that is that as the first Woman was formed only out of the Man so our Saviour was formed only out of the Woman And accordingly the first Promise of Redemption that God gave to Adam after he had sinned was Prophetically worded when he told him that the Seed of the Woman should break the Serpent's Head And therefore as Adam is in the Scriptures called the first Man because he was formed out of the Earth so our Saviour is called the second Man in the same Scriptures because he was formed out of the Woman that is he was the first Man after his Kind as Adam was in his To our present Purpose and Design then As we cannot but take notice that God's Counsel and merciful Purpose for the Redemption of Mankind was very early for that Counsel must needs be so that was in a manner Cotemporary to Man's first Sin as the immediate Discovery of that Counsel to Man upon the Commission of that Sin does make it appear so some Glimpses of that Counsel do to me seem to shew forth themselves in the Scripture-Account of Man's Creation For when God tells us in his Word that he has so ordered the Creation Propagation and Dissemination of Mankind that tho' their Numbers are to us Innumerable yet we do for all
that know that they all came from one single Fountain that is from one single Man and so that they are all but so many Rivulets from that Fountain And when moreover we are assured that our Saviour is One of those Rivulets For tho' our Saviour was only to be made of the Woman yet because the Woman was made out of the Man therefore our Saviour did by the Woman derive from the same one single Person with the rest of Mankind I say when we consider all this methinks it is no hard matter to conceive that God himself does in his Word lay the Ground-work of Man's Redemption by a Saviour if I may be allowed so to word my self in that near and intimate Relation which our Saviour by becoming Man has to all Mankind besides and that the Intimacy of such Relation consists in this that the Saviour and all Mankind do derive from one single and common Fountain And hence we are told in one Place that as by Man came Death there is the Sin of Adam and the Wages of such Sin by Man came also the Resurrection of the Dead there is the Redemption of our Saviour and his Purchase And more expresly still to our present Purpose speaks the same Apostle in the same Chapter the Fifteenth of the First to the Corinthians For as in Adam all died so in Christ shall all be made alive And to the same purpose again in the Fifth to the Romans and the Eighteenth Verse Therefore as by the Offence of one Judgment came upon all Men to Condemnation even so by the Righteousness of one the Free-gift came upon all Men unto Justification of Life In all which Texts and several others that might be named it is notorious that the Redemption of Mankind is so ascribed to the second Adam the Man Christ Jesus as the Sin and Death of Mankind is ascribed to the first Man Adam And I do not at all question but that those Hints which the Scriptures do frequently offer to us of our Saviour's taking the Humane Nature in order to our Redemption of his taking Part of the same Flesh and Blood with us of his being our Brother and the like I say I do not at all question but that when seriously considered they may mightily assist and facilitate both our Conceptions and Belief of the Wisdom Justice Reasonableness and Congruity of our Saviour's Incarnation Death Resurrection in one Word of that Redemption which he by being made one with Mankind by taking their Nature upon himself has purchased form them And may mightily conduce to the Removing of those Difficulties which the Enemies of the Cross of Christ have thrown as so many Stumbling-blocks in the Way of plain and honest Christians 4. The Wisdom Justice Reasonableness and Congruity of our Saviour's Incarnation in order to his Purchase of Man's Redemption does yet farther appear in that by becoming Man he put himself into a Capacity of suffering Death that is of suffering that Punishment which the Law had denounced against those that should transgress it For it is a gross Mistake and does indeed bring a Scandal upon God's Veracity to affirm That he threatens greater Vengeance in any Law before the Transgression of it than he will execute after the Transgression that so he may the more effectually prevent such Transgression For God never yet threatned any peremptory and unconditional Punishment in any Law which he has not or when the Time comes he will not as certainly execute In the Day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die says God The Threatning we see is peremptory and the Execution we find is so too and therefore all Sinners die And I cannot in the least doubt but that for the same Reason an eternal Punishment will be the certain Vengeance upon a final Impenitence But that is not so direct to my present purpose and therefore here I pass it by But to confirm what I am now upon I say that God does not pardon the Death threatned in his Law against Sin no not in Consideration of the Death of our Saviour and therefore notwithstanding his Death and that too in our stead we see that all Men and even those who hope for Salvation by such his Death do yet die What therefore our Saviour in this Case has puchased for us is not a Freedom but a Release from Death And therefore that Redemption from Death which is the Purchase of his Blood is to be accomplished after we have been dead by a Resurrection A Resurrection then is to make good the Purchase of his Death and therefore his Death purchased for us not a Freedom but a Release from our Death by such Resurrection Now as his Death was necessary for such a Purchase so his Incarnation was necessary in order to such his Death And he was therefore made of the same Blood with all Mankind that by shedding that Blood for Mankind he might after his own Resurrection restore the Lives of all Men which had been forfeited by Adam's Transgression So that as his Death was the meritorious Expiation of Sin and as a Resurrection is the Fruit and Effect of such his Expiation So his Incarnation was a necessary Forerunner of such his Death and therefore before he could possibly die for Man and so purchase a Redemption of Man from Death it was agreeable to the Laws of Wisdom Justice and Reason that he should become Man himself But then how his Death came to be of so valuable a Price as to make so glorious a Purchase we must leave to farther Enquiry For by that it will appear that as it was necessary that he should die the Death of a Man so it was necessary that such his Humanity should be united to the Divinity And by both it will appear that God was manifested in the Flesh to destroy the Works of the Devil and that therefore when the Scriptures tell us so much they tell us no more than what is agreeable to Wisdom Justice and Reason CHAP. VI. The Divinity of the Son of God necessary for the Expitation of Man's Sin as well as his Humanity Some Doctrinal Inferences A general Proof That as our Saviour did actually die so that he might justly die for the Expiation of Sin HAving therefore seen that our Lord Jesus Christ was qualified by his Incarnation to make an Expiation for Sin by the Sacrifice of himself and that such his Qualification is agreeable to the Laws of Justice and to the Rules of Reason and Wisdom Our next Enquiry must be How such his Sacrifice came to be of such a Value as to be justly sufficient to make good such an Expiation For because the Death of an Innocent Man if he be no more than a mere Man is but the Death of a Creature and because no Creature can by its Punishment in another Creature 's stead expiate the Sin of that other Creature for if it could then a Creature might by its own Punishment
expiate its own Sin both which we have already shewed to be impossible Therefore it was necessary that as our Saviour in order to his undertaking the Expiation of Sin should be a real Man a Creature so that he should be more than a Creature in order to the accomplishing of such his Undertaking For tho' by becoming Man he did accommodate his Condition to his Design of undertaking an Expiation as we have just now seen yet for all that his Humanity had sunk under but but had not taken away the Burden had it not been supported by his Divinity For that that crushes both Angels and Men and that too while they cope against it only with their own Strength beyond the possibility of a Recovery must for the same Reason have crushed him also when once he had put himself in Man's stead and by consequence into Man's Condition had he not been endowed with a Power superiour to both to enable him to subdue and conquer it And what Power but that of God can we think sufficient to conquer Sin and Death and that too when they had got to such an heighth as to have infected and over-run the whole Race of Mankind Can we think that when the Contagion and Mischief had spread it self so wide that even the best of Men and those whose Graces are chiefly celebrated by the Spirit of God himself could not preserve themselves from the overflowing Inundation I say can we think that in such a Case any one single Man were he no more than a Man could have saved himself from the universal Mischief by the Strength of his own Resolution or Vertue And if in Reason we must think that he could not then how can we in Reason think that his Strength should be sufficient to rescue and save all the Rest No! Such Salvation belongs only to the Arm of God and He who can save from Sin Death and Hell and can over and above extend such Salvation over all the Earth and that too through all the successive Generations of Mankind that ever did or ever shall live upon the Earth must be God and God alone The Extensive Merit therefore of the Death and Sufferings of the Man Christ Jesus derives it self from the Infinite Dignity of Jesus the Son of God For had not this Jesus been the Son of God as well as the Son of Man he had never been the Saviour of Man And if there be not Salvation in any other as in effect the whole Book of God does tell us it may seem inconceivable how this Seed of the Woman should extend this Salvation and so break the Serpent's Head from the Days of Adam to the Consummation of all Things unless all Things were in his Disposal that is unless he were God No! He who considers the Thing seriously and wisely may be satisfied not only by the Scriptures but by his own Reason also that there is the same Mercy and the same Power required to redeem sinful Man that was required to make Man and that He only who did the first can do the last And therefore as we are taught by God that all Things were made by his Word so are we also that this Word was made Flesh and that by being so made he became to us after we were dead in Trespasses and Sins the Word of Life From all which and a great deal more that might be offered both from Reason and from Revelation some of which Things we have already spoken to and some of which we shall have occasion to speak to hereafter we may be not only informed but assured That the great Merit of our Saviour's Expiation made for Sin by his Death and Passion did arise from hence that his Divinity was personally united to that Body which underwent such Death or that nothing less than the Death of the Son of God could expiate that Death which the Law had denounced against the Sin of Man But because these Thing will appear in a more full and clear Light in the farther Prosecution of our Design therefore we here leave them for a while and proceed For it having appeared as to Matter of Fact and that too by most express Declarations of Scripture that our Saviour was made an Expiatory Sacrifice for Sin and it having also appeared that he did by his Incarnation accommodate his Condition to the making good of such Expiation and that too in a Way very agreeable to our Natural Sense and Reason The next Thing to be spoken to is the Matter of Right or whether or no he could make such Expiation in Justice But before we proceed to speak to That it will be proper that we make some Inferences of weight and moment from what has been already spoken And 1. By what has been said it appears plainly That tho' our Saviour made good the Purchase of our Redemption by his Death and Resurrection yet that such his Purchase shall not be fully made over to us till our own Resurrection That he made good the Purchase his Resurrection is a Demonstration For because the Wages of Sin is Death and because he died for our Sins and not for his own and because after such his Death he rose again and because such his Resurrection was a Discharge from the Penalty of those Sins for which he died I say from all these Things it is evident that he accomplished his designed Purchase that is he made good his Expiation by his Death and Resurrection But then on the other side because it is most certain that we are not redeemed from the Curse or Penalty of the Law till we are redeemed from Death and because we are not redeemed from Death till we rise from the Dead that is till our own Resurrection therefore it is as evident that till such our Resurrection we are not put into the Possession of such his Purchase And therefore strictly speaking no Man be he who he will is â—actually justified in this Life For because every Man that lives shall certainly die and because Death is the Penalty threatned to Sin by the Law it therefore grates too hard upon our common Sense to tell us that any Man is then justified when he is not only liable to the Vengeance of the Law but when he is also sure in a little time to undergo such Vengeance If therefore any Man be according to a Gospel-estimate of Righteousness a righteous or good Man we may upon that Account say and we shall say true that he is in a justifiable Condition but we cannot truly say that he is a justified Person Justification then in the Execution belongs to a future Life and not to this And when we shall come to discourse on the second Thing contained in a Gospel-Salvation which is a Restitution to Holiness and the Consequent of it the Gift of Eternal Life we shall then be more fully satisfied that Justification cannot belong to any Man in this World because no Man in this
World is restored to that Holiness which was lost by the Transgression of the Law and because no Man shall be compleatly and actually justified till he be so restored 2. Because the Expiation of our Sin by our Saviour and by consequence the Pardon of Sin by God is not Absolute but Conditional and because some of those Conditions upon which such Pardon does depend are to be performed by us such are our Repentance Conversion and the like and because lastly our Condition in this World is such that there will of necessity be required Time for our Performance of such Conditions Therefore we do conclude that as our Saviour has purchased for us such Conditions in order to our Redemption so has he also purchased for us a longer Term in which we may perform such Conditions For it is evident that the Denunciation of the Law upon the Transgression of it is In the Day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die And in strict Justice and Reason the Punishment is then to be inflicted when it becomes due and it then becomes due so soon as the Law is broken For were it not due then it would never become due at all Now because we find and that too by Experience that notwithstanding not only Adam's Sin but our own Sins too we do not presently die but that God waits our Return that he may be gracious to us and because we know that such his Patience and Forbearance is therefore extended to us that we may by our Repentance qualifie our selves to be made Partakers of that Expiation which is made by our Saviour for there is not Salvation in any other therefore we do at last conclude that the Grant of a Space for Repentance is the Purchase of our Saviour For it would have been the same thing for our Saviour to have made no Purchase for us at all if such his Purchase had been clogged with such Conditions on our Part which it was utterly impossible for us to perform And it had been utterly impossible for us to make out our Repentance and Amendment if we had not been allowed a competent Time to make them out in And what we have said concerning God's allowing of a competent Time in which Sinners may perform the Conditions of the Covenant purchased by the Saviour that we say also concerning the Means which are necessary for such their Performance Such are his Word the Succours and Assistance of his Spirit his Sacraments and whatever else does usually come under the Title of Means of Grace For it is not conceivable that our Saviour should purchase for us the End and yet leave us without the Means which are necessary for the bringing about such End But yet because the Means to enable us to perform the Conditions required of us in order to our Salvation are not nor indeed can possibly be that very Salvation for which they are designed or employed as means and because while we live in this World we are required and it is necessary in it self that we always have and also employ such Means to the purpose of our Justification and lastly because it is so far from being necessary that it is neither proper no nor wise to employ any Means for any End already attained therefore what we observed under our last Head will still remain true and that is That no Man is actually justified in this Life 3. From what has been said we take notice That tho' Afflictions in this Life are undoubtedly the Executions of Justice yet which is owing to our Saviour's Purchase there are always couched in such Afflictions Designs of Mercy For tho' as they look backward they have an Eye to our Sins yet as they look forward they have an Eye to our Amendment or at least to our Restraint For had we died for our Sins according to the Law we had been both immediately punished for our Sins past and had by the same Means been prevented from ever sinning for the time to come For a Death without a Resurrection had proved a sure and everlasting Prevention But as we have seen our Life being continued in consideration of our Saviour's Purchase tho' Afflictions are laid upon us during the Reprieve and tho' such Afflictions do confessedly come from the Hand of Justice yet they are never laid on without a Design and Mixture of Mercy And therefore as they are the Punishments of Sins past so they are designed as Means of Grace for the time to come And by the wise Counsel of our merciful and gracious God are employed chiefly indeed for our future Reformation but at least for our future Restraint and so are one and a great Branch too of what we call Restraining Grace As therefore we took notice under our last Head that the Reprieve of Man from the immediate Execution of the Sentence of the Law was the Purchase of our Saviour and that so Man's Life came to be continued notwithstanding his Transgression so under this Head we may observe that tho' Sin during such Continuance of Life cannot be restrained by Death yet the Just Merciful and All-wise God has not even in such Circumstances left it without all Restraint but has by Afflictions fitted such a Curb for it which notwithstanding the Saviour's Purchase is an irrefragable Proof of his Justice But tho' it be so does in no wise encroach upon such Purchase but rather promotes the Design of it For a Life continued in order to the Performance of those Conditions by the Performance of which Man in and through his Saviour may obtain Salvation A Life I say continued to such a Purpose is more likely to answer to such Purpose if its Attempts after sinful Commissions be restrained than it could be were such Attempts left free and at large For which Reason such Restraint tho' it be caused by Afflictions does rather fall in with than controul the Design of our Saviour's Purchase And tho' it be confessed that such Restraint is not so efficacious for the Prevention of future Sins as Death without any Reprieve had been for in the last Case the Prevention had been necessary whereas in the first it is at the most but possible yet it must be confessed also that it is most wisely suited to the Circumstances of those about whom it is employed and that for this Reason Because all Restraint being designed either to keep or to make them Good it is necessary in order to either that it be left to their own Choice whether they will improve it to either or both Designs or no For there can be no Goodness at all without such Freedom By all which we may at last understand that tho' Afflictions as well as Death are the Wages of Sin and tho' God does not let the reprieved Life of a Sinner pass on without the Tokens of his Displeasure that is in the present Case without Afflictions yet that it is owing to our Saviour that all such Afflictions are employed
as Means of Preventing Grace Whereas otherwise the Prevention of Sin by a Death without a Reprieve that is a Death without a Saviour and so without a Resurrection had been no Means of Grace at all but only pure and mere Punishment 4. Lastly From what has been said I take notice that our Saviour by his Expiation of Sin did not purchase for us an Absolute Freedom from Death so that by vertue of such his Expiation we should not die at all but only a Release from Death so that after our Death we should be raised to Life again This I spake to before and the thing is as certain as it is certain that all Men do die and therefore I shall speak no farther to it at present Only one Quaere I would make upon it and that is this Whether because the Law required Death as the Punishment of Sin and because our Saviour for the Purchase of our Redemption and for the fulfilling of the Law was necessitated in his own Person to undergo Death I say Whether upon this Account God by a Mixture of Mercy and Severity might allow his Expiation to extend no farther than only to release us from Death after we had suffered it but not to prevent us from suffering it at all But as I said before I leave this as a Quaere because the Scripture speaks nothing to it and so the Resolution of it lies in the dark Only I thought it not amiss to mention it because it may help to instruct us in the very great Malignity of Sin As most undoubtedly that must be very pernicious to God's Creatures which is downright Enmity to him who made them and which is not wholly expiated by our Saviour himself However the Wisdom and Harmony of God's Truth Justice and Mercy do seem to me from what has been said to shine forth very conspicuously in his Counsel for the Redemption of Mankind For tho' God executes that Death upon Man fatally which upon his Transgression of the Law he threatned peremptorily and so notwithstanding the Death of our Saviour makes good the Truth of his Threat by the Execution of the Penalty Yet for all that he does not so execute such Penalty but that he first allows Man a Reprieve for a time to make himself a fit Subject for his Saviour's Purchase and secondly he grants him a Release from Death by a Resurrection to capacitate him to be put into the actual Possession of such Purchase Again tho' the Life of Man continued in Consideration of his Saviour's Merits be ever and anon overcast with Afflictions and tho' such Afflictions are a Punishment for his Sins and so a Proof of God's Justice Yet still those very Afflictions are in Consideration of his Saviour turned into Means of Grace and so are a merciful Discipline to secure him from those Mischiefs which otherwise might retard or defeat his Pursuit after the purchased Pardon and Inheritance These Remarks being left by the way we proceed to the next thing proposed and that is Whether our Saviour as he did in Fact so also might in Justice and Right die for the Sins of Mankind For because the Scriptures do lay down the Matter of Fact not only in express Terms but also in great variety of Expressions and because those who deny the Doctrine of the Expiation do in this Case as they do in most others oppose Reason to Revelation Therefore as by what has been said already we have made it out that our Saviour did die for our Sins so in what is to follow we shall endeavour to make it out also that he might so die For if the Matter of Fact be found to be the Declaration of God we may be sure that it will have the Approbation of Justice For Justice and Truth can never clash nor interfere But however before we begin I cannot but take notice in the 1. First place That the Redemption of Mankind by our Saviour is one of those Things of God which no Man knoweth but the Spirit of God and that upon that Account it is not so proper a Subject for the Deliberations of Humane that is of short-sighted Reason And my Warrant for so judging I therefore take to be good because it was a Thing as the Scriptures themselves tell us that was hid from Principalities and Powers from Ages and Generations till it was made known by God to his Church that is to those who were chiefly and as to their own Persons only concerned in it And therefore we are very sure that no Man by the Sagacity of his own Reason could ever have made any Discoveries of it 2. I cannot but be satisfied in the second place that any Man of an ordinary or of an extraordinary Understanding who is willing in honesty and sincerity of Heart to receive the Scriptures as the Revelations of God I say I cannot but persuade my self that such a Man and that too by the bare Conduct of his Common Sense would readily acknowledge and accept it for a Truth in those Scriptures revealed that our Saviour suffered and died to expiate the Sins of Mankind For the Texts that assert it are so often repeated and when compared do so mutually not only confirm each others Truth but also explain each others Meaning and the Management of the whole Thing is so exactly accounted for and that through all the Stages and Periods of it till our Saviour comes to offer his Sacrifice to God in the Heavens the Place of his more peculiar Residence and Abode as the High-Priest did typically in the like Case do in the Holy of Holies the more peculiar Discovery of God's Residence among the Jews under the Law I say all these Things are so categorically asserted and explained and so critically accounted for in the Revelations of God that I cannot as yet persuade my self that Common Sense and Common Sincerity will not oblige those to receive and believe them who are willing to receive those Books in which they are so laid down for the Word of God 3. Neither can I persuade my self that Reason if it be not spun too fine and what is so may easily break but I say I cannot persuade my self that Reason upon a sober Examination of the Matter as it is laid down in the Scriptures can in any wise call in question the Justice of it For as it is there laid down there are only three Persons more especially concerned in it and those are God our Saviour and Man Let us therefore take the Sum of the Business in these Three Propositions and then see if our honest and natural Reason can discover any Injustice in it And First God does forgive our Sins in Consideration of our Saviour's Sufferings Secondly Our Saviour did suffer in our stead in order to the obtaining of such Forgiveness Thirdly We do obtain such Forgiveness in Consideration of such his Suffering Now if we set our plain and honest Reason on work to examine
whether there be any Injustice in this whole Transaction that will readily tell us that if there be any such Thing as Injustice in it that Injustice must be attributed to some of the Persons concerned in it For in this Case it is not sufficient to say that the Transaction either in the Whole or in any Part of it is unjust unless we do particularly assign that Person engaged in it to whom that Injustice does belong For all Injustice in Matters of Fact must be ascribed to some Person or other And no Injustice in any Matter of Fact whatsoever can be truly ascribed to any Person whomsoever if that Person be supposed to have nothing to do in that Matter of Fact Now in the Case as it is put there are as we observed just now no other Persons concerned but God our Saviour and our selves If therefore the Thing prove to be as by the Revelations of God it will be found to prove that we Sinners are reconciled to God by the Sufferings Death and Merit of our Saviour and so are pardoned for our Sins then it will follow that if there be any Injustice in the Case that Injustice must be either ascribed to God to our Saviour or to our selves Now there cannot possibly be any Injustice in us because we are purely passive in the Case For so far forth as we are forgiven and that is as far as we are concerned most certainly we are so And we may be very sure that Reason will never tell any Man that he is therefore a Criminal because he receives a great Blessing from God and least of all will it tell him that it is a Sin in him to receive from God the Pardon of his Sins And I dare not so far question the Modesty of any Christian as to suppose that they will fix any Injustice in the present Case either upon God or upon our Saviour And therefore because no Injustice can be charged upon any of the Persons concerned in the whole Affair therefore if we be but once satisfied that God himself has told us in his Word that the Affair was so managed as most certainly so he has told us then the Conclusion at last must be that there was no Injustice in it at all I say I am satisfied that this would be the way of Reasoning to a sober and modest Christian and that this would be good and satisfactory if Men would with Modesty and Humility bring their Rational Sentiments to comply with the Scriptures and not industriously struggle to force the Scriptures to comply with their own prejudicate Opinions or Surmises For in a Thing of that Depth and Counsel as is the Redemption of Mankind I am sure it is much more safe as well as more modest to comply with the Declarations of God whose Counsel and Work it is and that too especially where as we have seen a sober and modest Reason falls in with and approves such his Declarations than by a more refined way of Reasoning and a more tedious and intricate Deduction of Consequences where any little Flaw or Mistake may spoil the whole Concatenation and at long run determine in Deceit and Fallacy downright to controul and contradict such Declarations For God is our best and most sure Guide in all things And then when he professedly undertakes to be so and that too in such Things that our Natural Reason knows nothing of without such his Guidance it would be the best Use that we can possibly make of such our Reason in all such Cases to follow his Conduct For in this very Case God has himself told us that he has confounded the Wisdom of the Wise For Christ crucified was to the Jews a Stumbling-block and to the Greeks Foolishness And it has before our Days been thought very good Reason that he therefore could not save others because he could not save himself Tho' I cannot persuade my self to doubt but that That and all other Methods of Reasoning that attempt to make out the Injustice of his Suffering in our stead or any other ways to evacuate the Merit and Purchase of his Blood will in the conclusion prove frivolous and empty and that they will be found light even in the Balance of Reason it self But to carry this Business a little farther As we have made it out that sober and sound Reason will warrant the Justice of Man's Redemption if it was so managed as we have laid it down so that it was so managed we may be as much assured by the Word of God as we may of any other Thing contained in that Word And hence we are told that God made our Saviour to become Sin for us who knew no Sin 2 Cor. 5. ult That he reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ in the Eighteenth Verse of the same Chapter He tells us also that he was reconciling the World to himself not imputing their Trespasses unto them in the Verse immediately following And that we may be assured that God does all this in Consideration of our Saviour's Death and Passion we are told in one Place that he died for our Sins in another that the Blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all Sin in a third that being justified by his Blood we shall be saved from Wrath through him All which with a great deal more to the same import that might be alledged amounts to thus much That our Saviour took upon himself our Sins and in our stead died for them and that thereupon God pardoned such our Sins and was reconciled to us Now because God himself tells us such a thing and that too in as plain and express Words as any thing can possibly be told in we may be very sure that what is so told is plain and open Truth And because at the same time he tells us that what was so done was done by himself we may moreover be sure that what was so done was just and right However thus far we are certain that if in the present Case we will be contented to be determined by the Word of God that then there neither are nor can be any Laws of Justice that can hinder our Saviour's Suffering in our stead in order to our obtaining the Pardon of our Sins by such his Suffering The Answer then to what shall be alledged against such Justice we shall defer to the next Chapter Only before we break off here we cannot but take notice that the Doctrine of our Saviour's Expiation as it has in part already and will more fully hereafter appear to have more Truth in it than what is alledged against it so also it will appear to have more Comfort For if there be no other Name whereby we must be saved it must needs be very imprudent at least to refuse to admit our own Salvation in and by him And it is a Doubt at least whether they who deny his Expiation the Purchase of his Blood and the Forgiveness of Sins in
that the Merits of our Saviour's Sufferings should be imputed to Man in order to Man's Release from Death That is Imputation is as reasonable and as justifiable in one Case as in the other for they both stand upon one and the same Foot and for that Reason he who throws down one throws down both And therefore whoever rejects the Doctrine of the Imputation of our Saviour's Righteousness to Man does by so doing reject the Imputation of Man's Sin to our Saviour and all the Consequences of it Or in other Words he who rejects the Doctrine of the Imputation does by so doing reject the Doctrine of the Expiation likewise 2. Those Men who do so far maintain Man's Salvation to depend upon the Merits of our Saviour's Death alone as to deny Imputed Righteousness to have any thing to do in the Purchase of Salvation do not seem to me sufficiently to consider that there are Two Things contained in the Death of our Saviour 1. The Death it self and 2. His Obedience to the Will of his Father in submitting himself to such a Death Now because Death is properly speaking what he underwent for the Expiation of Man's Sin for the Vindictive Part of the Law does expresly assign Death as the Punishment of Sin hence it is as I conceive that most of those who have discoursed of Man's Redemption for the Sake and Merit of our Saviour's Death have placed the Merit of the Purchase only in such Death and in the mean time have wholly laid aside all Consideration of the Merit of that Obedience which attended it But because the Scriptures in the Case speak otherwise and because we must needs be best instructed out of them in any thing which concerns our Saviour therefore laying aside at present all Schemes of Humane Reasoning or Contrivance we shall entirely apply our selves to them for such Instruction Take we notice therefore that they inform us that our Saviour was delivered to death by the determinate Counsel and Foreknowledge of God So St. Peter tells us in the Second of Acts and Twenty third Verse and so we are told in other Places From which we infer that the Sufferings and Death of our Saviour was an Act of Obedience to the Will and Counsel of God All which St. Paul gives us in a few Words but those very full to our present Purpose when he tells us in the Second to the Philippians the Eighth Verse that Jesus Christ being found in fashion as a Man humbled himself and became obedient unto Death even the Death of the Cross Since therefore our Saviour's Death was at least one Branch of his Obedience to the Will of his Father that is since his Obedience in the Scripture-Account was shewed in his Death as well as in his Life and therefore Both when in Conjunction were one and the self-same thing I would desire to know upon what Ground or by what Warrant it can be imagined and much less defended that Man is saved for the sake of his Death but that he is not saved for the sake of his Obedience And I would so much the rather insist upon this Inquiry because tho' it should be granted that our Saviour's Death was meritorious of Man's Everlasting Happiness and that is the present Case then if we must make an Opposition between his Death and his Obedience and to ascribe Man's Happiness to his Death but not to his Obedience does make such an Opposition but I say if there must be an Opposition made between them it seems much more agreeable to Reason nay indeed to common Sense to ascribe such Merit to the Obedience of his Death than to his Death For it is the Voice of Natural Justice that Duty and Obedience may deserve a Reward but it is a Strain beyond Conceit that Punishment should do so too For if that were allowed then the suffering of Punishment for the Breach of the Law might be justly meritorious of a Reward as well as Obedience to the Command of the Law and so at long run it would come to the same Event to break the Law as to keep it But because that cannot be allowed therefore if People will have an Opposition in the Case where the Scripture has made none we should rather ascribe Man's Eternal Happiness to the Obedience of our Saviour's Death than to the Death it self And then if our Eternal Happiness may be ascribed to the Merit of our Saviour's Obedience in one Case why may it not be so in more For for the same Reason that a Believer may be interessed in the Obedience of his Death he may be interessed in the Obedience of his Life too Since then in the present Case it is allowed that a Believer has his Interest by Imputation in the first Case it will follow that he may and considering what has already been said that he must have it so in the last That is in a few Words That the Obedience of our Saviour both in his Life and in his Death must purchase for Man that Happiness which by the Tenor of Justice is the proper and appropriated Reward of Obedience It being evident then that for the same Reason for which the Merits of our Saviour's Death may belong to Believers the Merits of his Obedience may do so too and that both the one and the other do therefore belong to them because they are imputed to them Our next Business must be with those Men who deny all Imputation whatsoever and therefore neither allow the Merits of his Life or Death to have any thing to do in the Purchase of Man's Salvation And because we have already and largely discoursed of the Purchase made by his Death Our only Business at present will be to enquire concerning the Purchase made by his Obedience And because the Men we have now to do with do deny all Imputation of what our Saviour did or suffered whatsoever therefore we shall lay down and attempt the Proof of this following Proposition That that Righteousness by which Believers shall be judged and in consideration of which they shall obtain Salvation at the Resurrection and the Great Day shall be the Obedience of their Saviour while he lived in the Flesh imputed to such Believers 1. In order to this we take notice in the first place That the Scriptures do tell us That all Men shall be judged according to their Works that is according to their Obedience or Disobedience in this Life 2. We lay it down in the second place That all those who shall be adjudged to enjoy an Eternal Happiness must in order to that blessed Sentence be first entitled to a perfect Righteousness This we reckon is proved before 3. We take notice in the third place That no Man tho' never so righteous yet ever did does or shall arrive at a perfect Righteousness in this Life The Question then that remains to be resolved is How any Man shall come to be entitled to a perfect Righteousness
that the Objection supposes an Opposition between the imperfect Obedience of Believers and the Imputation of their Saviour's Righteousness from which supposed Opposition it infers That if Salvation be bestowed upon them in consideration of the one that it cannot for that Reason be bestowed in consideration of the other And indeed such a Supposition being granted the Inference would be good 2. But then secondly we do assert and maintain That there is no such Opposition between the Imputation and the imperfect Obedience of Believers as that Salvation must be disjunctively bestowed in consideration of the one in opposition to and exclusive of the other For tho' we allow a Believer's imperfect Obedience to be a subordinate yet we do not allow it to be the meritorious Cause of Man's Salvation that is tho' he shall have the Benefit of the Imputation in consideration of his sincere but imperfect Obedience yet he shall only obtain his Salvation in consideration of such Imputation For Justice only bestows the Reward there where it is deserved and to bestow it elsewhere may be called Mercy or may be called Favour but cannot either in propriety of Speech or Truth be called Justice Since therefore it is our present Business to maintain that Method in which God bestows not only Pardon of Sin but over and above an eternal Happiness to be just and since in order to its being so it must conform to his Law which is so or else the Law cannot be fulfilled and since lastly the Law does not assign its Reward to an imperfect Obedience For it requires a perfect not an imperfect Obedience and its Reward can and does only belong to what it requires not to what it does not require Since I say the Case stands thus it is obvious to observe First That because the Reward is only bestowed upon the Saviour's that is upon a perfect Obedience to which alone by the Law it does belong that therefore the Execution of the Law in the Distribution of its Reward is just And Secondly That because as we have already proved such his perfect Obedience is justly imputed to Believers in consideration of their sincere tho' imperfect Obedience that therefore as by his Obedience alone they are entitled to the Reward so according to the Tenor of the Gospel by their own Obedience they are entitled to His. When therefore Believers come to be judged in another World according to what they have done in this the Enquiry shall not be Whether by their Life led in this World they have deserved an eternal Happiness in that for that needs no Enquiry because it is most certain in it self and confessed on all Sides that they have not But their Trial shall be Whether their Obedience in this Life tho' imperfect and therefore in it self undeserving of eternal Happiness be such as may so far entitle them to their Saviour's Purchase as that his Obedience may be imputed to them in order to their obtaining such Purchase I have therefore pursued this Thing the farther because the Socinians do as much as in them lies vilifie the Imputation of our Saviour's Righteousness for by that Means they gain great Advantages to run down the Doctrine of the Expiation And yet too many of our own People do here close with them and do not to me seem to discern the mischievous Consequences that will fall upon the whole Doctrine of Redemption if once our Saviour's Obedience be excluded from being the meritorious Cause of Man's Salvation For as to my self I am at present very well satisfied that if the Law had never been fulfilled by Obedience the Breach of it had never been expiated by any Punishment inflicted for such Breach whatsoever For God's Design in promulging his Law was that it should be obeyed For most certain it is that it cannot be indifferent to him whether we obey what the Law commands or suffer what it threatens No! his Design is that we should be holy and safe Such a Design flows from his Nature and is an Effect of his essential Bounty and Goodness and therefore came from him freely without the Invitation or Sollicitation of any Thing besides his own Propension or Inclination But Judgment that is Punishment for the Breach of his Law is his strange Work that is it does not come from him as his Goodness and Bounty does freely and spontaneously but is extorted from him by the Interposition and Provocation of Sin To accomplish therefore the principal and more natural Design of his Law it is necessary that his Law should be obeyed for there is no other way of fulfilling of it And therefore He who told us that not one Jot or Tittle of it should fail told us likewise that he came to fulfil it Fulfil it not only as the Antitype of it but likewise as a Subject to it The Law then was fulfilled by our Saviour's Obedience and by his Obedience alone For all the rest of Mankind broke it And had he not fulfilled it by obeying it the Vengeance of it had always continued For it must have continued so long as it was justly due and it must be justly due so long as the Law remains broken and not obeyed We owe our Reward therefore to our Saviour's Obedience as we do our Redemption to his Death Nay which is more and more direct to our Text because the Law must of necessity be obeyed and because He alone did obey it therefore for that Reason as well as for several others there is not Salvation in any other I would desire them whom it chiefly concerns seriously to consider it And now having seen what Reason says to the Doctrine of our Saviour's Imputed Righteousness the next Thing to be enquired because the next Thing proposed will be to see what the Scriptures say to it In order to which take we notice in the 1. First place That our Saviour at his Incarnation did take upon him the same Flesh and Blood with us Men. For because he the Man Christ Jesus and we do both of us derive from one and the same single and common Stock Adam and because we are several Propagations and Branches from that one Stock therefore we may be truly reckoned because in reality so we are the several and distinct Parcels of that common Flesh and Blood out of which all Mankind are made But tho' the Son of God became Man in order to be the Saviour of Man and tho' he was made of the same Blood with all Men in order to his becoming Man yet because we know that the distinct Parcels of this common Flesh and Blood have and that justly too very different and sometimes contrary Allotments of Justice therefore we take notice 2. In the second place That all those who according to his Gospel are sincere and penitent are secure of having the Communications of his Spirit And then tho' that Flesh and Blood of which they with him are made Partakers be common to all
Mankind besides yet by such Communications it is so far particularized if I may so speak as that in the estimation of the Gospel those who enjoy such Communications do become a Part of himself And hence it is that such People are in the Scripture said to be Members of his Body of his Flesh and of his Bones and that he is so often in the same Scriptures called their Head And we may know that he himself does so account them because he reckons those Kindnesses which are done to his distressed People as done unto himself These Things then being so how does the Scripture teach us to reason upon them in relation to our present Business Why as Sin was the Transgression of Adam entailed upon all his Posterity because the Covenant was made with him and with all his Seed for all Mankind as the Apostle in the Epistle to the Hebrews speaks in the like Case were in the Loins of Adam in the Day of his Transgression So Believers in consideration of their Saviour being regenerated by the Spirit and so becoming the Children of God the Righteousness of such their Saviour does so belong to them who are his Seed See Isaiah 53. ver 10. as Adam's Sin did to his And therefore in him they are the Sons of God and the Heirs of the Covenant of Grace And to this very purpose and in this very manner too if I be not very much mistaken the Apostle argues in the Fifth to the Romans and the Nineteenth Verse For as by one Mans Disobedience many were made Sinners so by the Obedience of one shall many be made Righteous And we may safely pronounce it that the Parallel of the Apostle would be no Parallel at all if the Obedience of Christ did not so affect Men in reference to their Righteousness as the Disobedience of Adam did to their Corruption And therefore the same Apostle tells us in the First to the Corinthians chap. 1. ver 30. That Christ is made to us Wisdom and Righteousness and Sanctification and Redemption And the same Apostle still after he had renounced his own Righteousness as well knowing that it would not avail him for the Purchase of that Happiness which the Gospel promised does confide only in that Righteousness which is through Faith in Christ in the Third to the Philippians ver 9. And in another Place we are said to be made the Righteousness of God in him and in the Prophet Jeremiah he is twice called the Lord our Righteousness Other Places might be produced which tho' they have been interpreted to a different Sense yet by that Light which has been already offered it does appear that they do more than barely countenance what we now maintain viz. That our Saviour's Obedience shall be made ours and how it shall be made so For what we have said concerning that Intimate Relation between him and his People will be a sufficient Warrant for the Imputation of his Righteousness to them CHAP. X. Some Objections answered and some Practical Inferences made NOW besides those Objections which lay directly in our Way and which we were therefore constrained to speak to in order to clear and open our Passage in the Profecution of the present Argument there are some others which lie against our whole Discourse and which because we have promised so to do we must now speak to apart and by themselves 1. And first it is objected against the Imputation of our Saviour's Righteousness That such his Righteousness which is meant in the present Case is his Obedience to the Law and that his Obedience to the Law does consist in the Conformity of his Actions to the Law His Obedience therefore being lodged in his Actions unless his Actions can be made ours it is impossible that his Obedience should be so For so long as the Actions of one Man are not the Actions of any other Man so long it must and will be true that the Obedience which is only paid by such Actions and which is therefore undoubtedly lodged in such Actions cannot be that others neither This is the Substance of the Objection which might be put in more Words but because I think the full Force of it is sufficiently expressed in what we have spoken therefore it needs not 1. Now in order to clear this matter we observe first That the Right which one Person has in a Thing may be made over or transferred to another Person by the delivery of such Thing to him provided that he who delivers it do some way or other signifie that it is his Mind by such his Delivery to transfer such his Right Where we must take notice of Two Things First That bare Delivery of the Thing without such Signification does not alter the Right in such Thing For in such Case the Thing being only transfer'd naturally but not legally the Right in it is not transferred with it Take the Thing in an Instance A Man puts a Purse of Money into another Man's Hand who stands by him to hold it In this Case the Purse and Money is actually and naturally transferr'd from one Man to another but tho' it be naturally transferr'd yet it is not for all that legally transferr'd For the Alteration of the Possession does not in the Case alter the Right and so tho the Money be removed from one Man to another yet the Propriety in the Money is not On the other Side one Man by Deed of Gift or some other legal and sufficient Conveyance makes over his Right in the Purse of Money to another but still keeps the Money in his own Possession In such a Case tho' the Money be not naturally or locally call it which you please transferr'd or made over to that other yet it is legally so For tho' the Possession remain in the Donor yet the Right is transferr'd to and therefore is in the Donee The second Thing to be observed in this Case is that that Thing whose Right is transferr'd by Delivery must be something which is capable as our Law speaks of Manual Occupation For tho' the Right to some Things may be transferr'd by Delivery yet the Right to others cannot be so transferr'd 2. Secondly therefore The Right in a Thing may be transferr'd from one Person to another by Deed or any proper and legal Instrument of Conveyance there where the Nature of the Thing is such that the Thing it self cannot be transferr'd by Delivery And such a Thing for Instance is a Privilege For we may bestow upon another a Privilege which of Right belongs to our selves and by so doing may give him a Right in such Privilege tho' we cannot so put him in the possession of it as we can do of a Ring or a Garment Such a Thing then may be legally and rightfully transferr'd to another tho' because it is not capable of Manual Occupation it cannot be transferr'd locally or naturally 3. Thirdly Where a Thing not capable of Manual Occupation does so
other sort of Natural Philosophy they had been very well satisfied and contented without that new and uncouth Article of their Christian Faith Other Instances might be produced to shew that gross Fooleries and Corruptions have crept into Religion at this Door Whereas a due Consideration that the Christian Religion is a Covenant and the treating of it as such would acquaint us much better with the Nature and engage us more effectually to the Duties of it But this useful Remark being left in this place we proceed 2. The second Objection therefore against the Imputation of our Saviour's Obedience to Believers in order to their obtaining the promised Reward of the Covenant stands thus That supposing that our Saviour did provide for the Directive Part of the Law by his Obedience and that he did also fulfil the Vindictive Part by his Death In such Case there does therefore seem to be a Superfluity in his Provision because should his Obedience alone be imputed to us we should by that Means be entitled to a perfect Righteousness and then there had been no need of his Death to expiate our Sins because then we should have had no Sins to be expiated And that which may add some Strength to what is thus alledged is this That our Saviour paying that Obedience to the Law while he was in the Flesh the Obedience so paid was paid before his Death and therefore in the Course of Things it should seem that it might be imputed before his Death and in the Course of Justice without it For when by such Imputation we were once entitled to his Righteousness the Plea of his Death in order to qualifie us for Happiness must needs be useless and superfluous Now tho' it may seem indeed that Things might have gone so if we only have a Regard to the Order of Time yet if we look to the Order of Reason and Justice we shall easily perceive that they could not For we cannot by any Estimation of Justice whatsoever be reckoned Righteous so long as our Guilt lies upon us and when once by our Sins we have made our selves guilty such Guilt must needs lie upon us till it be one way or other expiated Now because we have already and fully made it out that it neither is nor can be expiated any other way than by the Death of our Saviour therefore the Death of such Saviour must in the Order of Justice first expiate such our Guilt before we can possibly be entitled to a perfect Righteousness For who can put a clean thing into an unclean It is neither agreeable to the Methods of Wisdom or Justice so to do And therefore we may be sure that it cannot be the Practice of the most Wise and Just God No! we know well enough because we are told so by the Spirit of God that our Saviour first died for our Sins and after that rose again for our Justification And we know moreover that when God had once given forth his Law tho' had an exact Obedience been paid to it the Vengeance of it which was only Conditionally threatned had never been executed for the Justice and Execution of such Vengeance does entirely depend upon our Transgression yet after we had transgressed the Law the Execution of such Vengeance was as necessary as was the Happiness promised if we had not transgressed it For Vengeance does by the Tenor of the Law stand in the same Relation to Sin as Happiness does to Obedience The first becomes our Due in case we neglect our Duty the last in case we perform it And the Distribution both of the one and the other must as necessarily follow upon our Performance or Non-performance of those Conditions to which each of them do stand respectively engaged as it is necessary for God to love Holiness and hate Wickedness One Part of the Law therefore is in Justice to be provided for as well as the other And then if neither the Punishment of Man could fulfil the Law on the one Hand nor the imperfect Obedience of Man on the other and if our Saviour undertook for Man's sake to supply Man's Defects then there was the same Necessity in Justice that he should fulfil the Vindictive Part of it by his Death that there was that he should fulfil the Directive Part of it by his Obedience And therefore as neither his Obedience not his Death had been necessary no nor his Incarnation neither upon which such his Death and such his Obedience do depend But I say as neither his Obedience nor his Death had been necessary if Man had obeyed the Law himself so upon Man's Transgression of the Law they both became necessary Because as we have already seen Man's Punishment is in Justice as necessary upon his Breach of the Law as his Obedience was upon God's Promulgation of the Law And therefore when our Saviour undertook to save sinful Man that is Man who had transgressed the Directions of the Law and Man who lay exposed to the Vengeance of the Law it was necessary in order to his doing so justly that he should have a Regard to one Part of the Law as well as to the other that is that he should fulfil the Vindictive by his Death and the Directive by his Obedience And had he not done both one Part of the Law at least had been neglected and so the Redemption had not been just By which we may by this time understand that there is no Superfluity in his providing for Man's Salvation both by the Obedience of his Life and by the Sufferings of his Death For that cannot in Reason be accounted Superfluous in the doing of any Thing whatsoever without which such Thing cannot be done justly Now as in our Answer to the former Objection we made good not only the Possibility but the Legality too of the Imputation of our Saviour's Righteousness so in our Answer to this we have shewed the conjunct Necessity both of the Imputation and of his Death in order to Man's Salvation By all which we may at last come to understand that God in his Counsel for Man's Salvation as he consulted his Mercy so did not lay aside the Care of his Justice For the whole Transaction as we have largely seen was in him Justice as it was to us Mercy Justice as it fulfilled the whole Law Mercy as it redeemed us from the Curse and invested us in the Promise of the Law A strange Mixture and had it not been discovered to us by Revelation by our Natural Reason not to be fathomed But as it is revealed agreeable as we have seen to such Reason so assisted 1. By which we may in the first place understand That tho' Christ crucified be to the Jews a Stumbling-block and to the Greeks foolishness yet to us he is and that notoriously the Wisdom of God and the Power of God For his Wisdom and his Power can we see bring Things to pass beyond the reach of Angels and
Devils and therefore much more beyond the reach of short-sighted Man And yet by his Light he can because he has instructed us that such Things are not only the Effects of an Almighty Power but of an Almighty Wisdom of an Almighty Justice and of an Almighty Mercy too For in the Business of Man's Salvation as in all Things else he does so display his Attributes as that they never clash nor interfere His Mercy does not fight against his Justice nor his Justice against his Mercy and neither fights against his Wisdom By the Revelation therefore of the Christian Religion God has admitted us to a nearer View of his Dealings with the Children of Men and has at least communicated so much of his Counsel to us as may assist us if we be not wanting to our selves to provide for our own everlasting Happiness and Security and to vindicate and assert his Justice and Mercy Let us therefore thankfully receive the Mercy as it is graciously offered and not pretend to regulate his Revelations by our feeble Reason but guide our Reason by his Revelations For we know that he can do more than we can and therefore also we may know that he can guide us better than we can guide our selves And because he has vouchsafed in Mercy so to do it will but very ill sort with that Deference we owe him to do as too many now-a-days do that is to return from Revealed to Natural Religion and so to walk in Paths not only of our own chusing but many times of our own making too For since the Day-Star from on High hath visited us it is our Duty as to guide our Lives so to guide our Faith by that Light which it affords us 2. Since we can only be saved in Consideration of our Obedience to the Law and since none of us have paid such Obedience and so if we stand the Award of our own Deserts we must needs fall short of Salvation I say since Things are so we ought with Heart and Voice to praise our Saviour who by an Infinite Condescension both obliged himself to obey the Law and so intimately united us to himself as to entitle us to his Obedience by which we may be saved For as there is no other way of obtaining Salvation but by Obedience so there is no other Name given but his whereby we must be saved and therefore we may safely conclude that that Obedience by which we must be saved is his His Love to Righteousness then made his Obedience perfect and his Love to us made his Obedience ours and Both if we be not wanting to our selves will make our Condition happy and secure And then surely our Security and Happiness as they do very well deserve so they do require a Thanksgiving For we therefore stand bound to be grateful to and to love the Author of our Happiness because we find that we cannot but love our selves 3. As we cannot be saved without our Saviour's Righteousness so as we desire our own Safety we should heartily endeavour to qualifie our selves to be made Partakers of such his Righteousness And we may be sure that our Desire at least after Righteousness and our Good-will to entertain it are necessary even for our obtaining the Imputation of it because it cannot in any Sense be ours if we be not willing that it should be so We must be therefore disabled to receive it if we be unwilling to entertain it So much Righteousness God requires of us in order to our being entitled to a perfect Righteousness I know that some Divines do speak of Irresistible Grace and that some few do defend it That is in a few Words they make God by the arbitrary Determinations of his own Pleasure to bestow Grace upon some Men whether they will or no and even against their Inclinations And to make good what they so maintain they instance in the Conversion of St. Paul and such like Cases But tho' St. Paul and some others have been converted by Miracle yet we know well enough that Miracles wrought for the self-same purpose have not always been attended with Success and that the Miracles even of our Saviour himself and those too wrought before their Eyes did fail of their designed Effect and that in a manner upon the whole Nation of the Jews And we know not the Hearts of Men nor the inward but real Preparations of Soul that may duely qualifie them to admit God's Grace But we do know that St. Paul thought verily that he ought to do as he did And then tho' he was defective in his Knowledge yet because he acted according to such Knowledge he was therefore honest and sincere in his Practice And then if God in pity to his Ignorance and in approbation of his Sincerity did reward that Sincerity with an extraordinary Direction for the guidance of his Practice we may from thence be taught that his Grace was suited to St. Paul's Will For he willed that after the Miracle which he willed before it that is he willed that which he took to be good And indeed we may as well think any other Creature to be capable of Righteousness as we may think Man to be so without his own Will and Consent Let us therefore take care that we will and endeavour to obey God's Law that is to be righteous if we design that God our Saviour should make us so For we cannot be like him unless we are willing to be so He therefore who would appear at the Wedding Supper of the Lamb must take care to wash and cleanse himself from all Filthiness of Flesh and Spirit in order to his putting on the Wedding-Garment For as they only shall be pronounced Blessed who shall be found Righteous so they only shall be found so who do sincerely desire and endeavour to be so CHAP. XI The First and General Proposition asserted from all that has been said That the whole Doctrine of a Gospel-Salvation as laid down in the Scriptures is agreeable to the allowed Practices of Mankind in their Legal or Judicial Proceedings and is worded in the Scriptures accordingly AND now having gone so far before we proceed any farther we shall bring all that we have hitherto spoken to our Design at the Beginning and by so doing shall endeavour to make it out That there is not Salvation in any other but in Jesus Christ alone and That there is no other Name under Heaven given among Men whereby we must be saved 1. And to do this we shall first shew That no other but our Saviour alone could so suffer for Sin as to obtain a Release from the Penalty which the Law had threatned against it Or which is much one and the same Thing That no one but our Saviour alone could make an Expiation for the Sin of Man 2. And secondly That no one but our Saviour alone could by an exact Obedience to the Law purchase that Reward the Gift of Eternal Life which
Law being broken by Man the Punishment threatned by the Law should be inflicted upon Man For the Threatning of the Law has the same Eye and the same necessary Relation to the Transgression of the Law that the Reward has to the Obedience of the Law and either the same necessary Relation to each that it has to God's Holiness and Justice And therefore so necessary as it is that God should be holy and just and so necessary as it is that he should in his Laws be serious and true so necessary also it is that the Vengeance threatned by his Law should there take place where the Duty commanded by the Law is not observed Now because no Man except our Saviour could so undergo the Vengeance of the Law as without such Saviour's Help to be ever freed from such Vengeance therefore we do from hence conclude in the first place That there is not Salvation in any other but in our Saviour alone as Salvation is taken for our Redemption from the Vengeance and Penalty of the Law 2. Because no Man is qualified to suffer the Penalty of the Law so as by such his Suffering to redeem others that are Sinners against the Law from their suffering for their Sin unless he be Innocent himself and because no Man except our Saviour was ever Innocent that is no Man except him alone did ever fulfil the Law therefore no Sinner can be saved as Salvation is taken for a Release from the Vengeance of the Law but only by the Death of our Saviour that is by the Death of him who was the only Innocent Person of all Mankind 3. Since the Death of all Mankind because it is the Punishment threatned by the Law against the Transgressors of it is not of Value sufficient to expiate the Sin of Mankind whether we consider their Punishment and their Guilt in the Gross or Lump or whether we consider it in Parcels and Particulars and since Death is the necessary Punishment of the Law and since lastly if there be any Redemption purchased from such Penalty it must for the Reasons alledged be made by a Death of more Value than all the Deaths of all Men I say from these Reasons in conjunction we do conclude That such a Death is necessary for Man's Redemption from the Curse of the Law And then whose Death that Death was the Scriptures do sufficiently acquaint us for they expresly and frequently tell us that it was the Death of him whom they set forth to us as our Saviour And from the Whole we do infer in the first place that no other but our Saviour alone could so suffer for Sin as to obtain a Release from the Penalty which the Law had threatned against it and that therefore there is no Salvation in any other and that there is no other Name given under Heaven among Men whereby we must be saved as Salvation is taken for our Redemption from that Vengeance which the Law threatens and executes upon the Transgressors of it 2. The second Proposition therefore laid down at the Beginning comes next in order to be made good and that is That no one but our Saviour alone could by an exact Obedience to the Law purchase that Reward Eternal Life which the Law has promised to such Obedience And to make this good in a few Words we take notice in the first place That as the Law by the same Tenor of Justice does engage the promised Reward to the Obedience as it does the threatned Vengeance to the Transgression of the Law so we may from thence infer under this Head That every Man who will be Partaker of such Reward must pay such Obedience as we did under the last That every Man who was guilty of such Transgression must suffer such Vengeance He therefore who does not obey the Law does lose his Reward as certainly as he who transgresses it does pull upon himself his own Punishment Now because among all the Race of Mankind no one except our Saviour has obeyed the Law therefore every Man besides him when left to the Purchase of his own Obedience has forfeited his Reward No Man therefore does upon his own Account deserve such Reward And then because we know that Justice does deal with Men according to their Deserts therefore the Reward being Eternal Life or Happiness every Man when left to himself has lost such Happiness That Part therefore of a Gospel-Salvation which consists in Eternal Life is not to be expected by any Man but by the Saviour alone Now that our Saviour obtained it for himself is not questioned And that it was the Gift of God to others in Consideration of his Obedience to that Law to which others as well as himself stood obliged we have already and at large made good If therefore all other Mens obtaining Eternal Life does not proceed from their own Obedience but from their Saviour's then we may now begin to perceive that there is not Salvation in any other but in our Saviour alone and that too as Salvation is taken in the Gospel for the Gift of Eternal Life The Socinians we know who deny the Salvation of Man to be our Saviour's Purchase do attempt to elude the Force and Evinence of that Text which is the Subject of our present Discourse and of several other express Places of Scripture which assert the same Thing with it by starting the Question Whether or no God might not by some other Means have saved Mankind had it pleased him so to do And by that Means have as we observed at the Beginning endeavour'd to alter the Controversie from Matter of Fact to Matter of Possibility and to engage others in that sawcy Dispute of what God can do and of what God cannot do Whereas it is sufficient for us to know what God has done and abundantly sufficient when he himself does furnish us with such Knowledge by his own express Word And if what that Word tells us in the Case be agreeable to our rational Sentiments to that Light which he has afforded us to judge Things by if moreover it be agreeable to the Common Sense that all Men have of Justice and Justice and Reason in this Case are the same if that our Light which confirms to us the Reasonableness and Justice of his Proceedings in the present Case does by the same Measures guide all Governments not only Christian but others and if it be more than a shrewd Sign that because Mankind do and that too in their Laws and Judicial Proceedings treat one another for the most part as God in the present Case does treat Mankind that they are guided so to do by that Light which he himself has afforded them I say if all these Things are so then it may besides all that has hitherto been offered make out the Conclusion at least very plausible That his Dealings with Mankind in and through a Saviour as we have out of the Scriptures laid it down are just and
greatest Kindness will not for that very Reason refuse us in a less It concerns us therefore as we would not reject the Kindness already offered and as we would not exclude our selves from all future Love and Kindness to make good our Gratitude by receiving our Saviour and that Salvation which he brings along with him with a due Acknowledgment and Respect and to make good such our Respect and such our Acknowledgment by receiving him upon any but more especially upon his own Terms Let us therefore cast away our Sins that we may receive him Let us by loving each other practice our selves to love and receive him Let us receive him by receiving the Pledges of his Love exhibited to us in the Sacrament of his most Blessed Body and Blood And let us not think that Christ crucified will profit us any thing if we do not so receive him as he requires and therefore also so receive him as we ought For he does in effect refuse the Gift who refuses the Instrument of Conveyance by which such Gift is to be signed and made over to him And it is irrational and imprudent to expect the Love of him the Pledges of whose Love we do reject Let us cast off therefore every evil Work every Sin that does beset us and gird up the Loins of our Mind as the Scripture speaks and do the Work of Christians in all Cases whatsoever that so at last we may receive the blessed Wages of such Work through Jesus Christ our Lord and only Saviour CHAP. XII That besides the Saviour's Righteousness imputed God will after their Resurrection endow Believers with a perfect inherent and eternal Holiness How the Saviour did fit and prepare Men for such an Holiness BY what has been hitherto discoursed we have seen 1. That God in a Saviour has made Provision for the Expiation of Man's Sin in order to save him from the Vengeance of the Law the just Wages of such Sin 2. We have seen that he has not barely provided for Man's Escape from the Vengeance of the Law by the Merits of his Saviour's Death but that he has also provided for his positive and future Happiness by the Merit of his Saviour's Obedience 3. But yet in what is now to follow we shall find that his Mercy has not stopped here because in the third place he will in and through our Saviour endow Man with a perfect and inherent Holiness By which I mean such an holy Angelical and withal durable Frame of Spirit that shall for ever secure him from all possible Sin and shall for ever engage him in a vigorous and chearful Discharge of all holy Duties and in so doing shall both accompany and secure his Happiness to all Eternity For tho' it be confessed that Believers do by the Communications and Assistances of the Spirit arrive to a Degree of such an Holiness in this Life yet it must be confessed also that it is but an imperfect Degree For it is not vigorous nor uniform nor constant but irresolute and weak and therefore has its frequent Intermissions and Failings But as we shall see more fully in what is to follow the Holiness of the Saints in Glory is like their Happiness firm lasting and immutable and therefore will be found to be a Gift of God in Christ that does vastly if not infinitely exceed the most refined Holiness of the very best Man in this Vale of Sin and Misery It shall be the Business then of our present Undertaking to make it good that besides that Title which Believers in another World shall have to their Saviour's Righteousness in order to their future Happiness that they themselves shall be endowed with a perfect inherent and indefectible Holiness in order to the secure Eternity of such their Happiness Now to put this Matter into a clear Light that so we may be the more rationally satisfied in all that is to follow we lay it down First That God by his Almighty Power having made the World and all particular Beings in it has by virtue of such his Creation an undoubted Right and Title to the Dominion over all Things so by him created And that therefore all his Creatures ought to be in Subjection to him and to act according to the Determinations of his Will And it is hardly to be doubted but that all those Creatures which by the Boundaries of their Creation are devoid of Understanding and Free-will do constantly act according to those Impresses and Powers that God in their Formation has stamped upon them in a regular Subordination to such his Will And the Scriptures do give us not only frequent Hints but also express Declarations that so they do Now as God created those lower Creatures so did he the higher and those which are endowed with more noble Faculties And because among such Creatures upon whom he has bestowed an Understanding to enable them to know his Will and with a Will to enable them to chuse Obedience to such his Will we are not acquainted with any other but Angels and Men and because our Design is only concerned about them and chiefly about the latter therefore directly to our present Purpose we take notice That some of the Angels first and by their Instigation the first Man and because all Men ever since do derive from him in a Lineal Propagation therefore also all Mankind by transgressing God's Will made known to them in his Laws have revolted from their Allegiance to him and have by so doing in effect renounced and disclaimed that their Subjection to his Dominion which was if I may so speak his natural and essential Right For Wickedness is a professed and avowed Renunciation of that Subjection which Rational Creatures owe to their Holy and Rightful Lord and King even the God that made them And for that Reason it is an Encroachment upon his Anthority for it does lessen and contract the Extent of his Kingdom For because a Scepter of Righteousness is the Scepter of his Kingdom and because all those Laws by which its Administration is executed are in themselves Holy Just and Good it is upon that Account very obvious to conceive that Wickedness so far as it goes does defeat such Administration and overturn such Laws and by so doing does diminish the Authority and encroach upon the Jurisdiction and Dominion of the Rightful and Supreme Lord. Now from what has been thus spoken in short we may easily understand that the faln Angels having first revolted themselves and by their Sin withdrawn their Allegiance and Subjection to their most Holy and Supreme Lord did what other Rebels after their Example and perhaps by their Instigation have done to weak and short-sighted People by false Colours and taking Delusions invite Mankind into the same Revolt and Rebellion with themselves and by so doing draw away a Part of God's Kingdom and Dominion and in opposition to his Holiness that is in opposition to God himself set up a Kingdom of
their own a Kingdom of Darkness and Wickedness in plain English a Kingdom made up of such Creatures who by their Sin and Wickedness did rebel against and revolt from their Holy and Rightful Lord and King All this being Matter of Fact is expresly discovered to us by the Revelations of God And the History of Man's Fall recorded in his Word with the Account that we there meet with of the Devils Kingdom of his Servants and Subjects of his Slaves and Captives of his Wars against the Holy Angels the faithful Subjects of the True and Everliving King do afford us a very lively Description of the Thing And because no Christian who is but tolerably acquainted with the Revelations of God in his Holy Word can possibly be a Stranger to it therefore we have thought it less necessary to quote the several Texts which by being put regularly together will give us an exact and Historical Account of it And indeed we have so much the less need to do so because we shall be farther and more fully satisfied in it by those Things which are to follow Well then Things standing in this State God was pleased to send his Son his Beloved Son made of a Woman made under the Law made Man to be a Saviour a Redeemer a Light to Mankind that is he sent him in Man's Nature to guide and direct to save and redeem Man from that Condition into which he was brought by his Sin and Rebellion What that Saviour did in order to the obtaining of such Salvation we have seen already and what is to be done in order to the everlasting Continuance of such Salvation is to be enquired now As therefore it was one Part of God's Counsel in sending his Son to Mankind to expiate their Sins so it was another and indeed the main and grand Design of such his Message to rescue them from their Slavery to Sin and from their Subjection to Satan and so to bring them back to his own Kingdom and to resettle them under the Jurisdiction of his own most holy Dominion For it is a very great Mistake which I am apt to believe has proceeded chiefly from our oversondness of our selves to think that God's chief Design in sending our Saviour was to free us from the Vengeance due to our Sins thereby vainly imagining that God has a greater Concern for our Impunity than he has for our Holiness and that he had rather we should be safe than that we should be good Whereas our Reason will tell us that God must needs love Holiness as he loves himself because he himself is if I may so speak Essential Holiness And then the same Reason will tell us that he must needs love himself better than he loves our Safety and that more especially when we our selves by slighting and neglecting of Holiness had betrayed such our Safety As therefore Man did by his Compliance with the Devil that is by his Sin expose himself to the Prosecutions of God's Vengeance and as he did by the same Means so far forth revolt from his Dominion and withdraw himself from his Jurisdiction as to become the Subject of Satan and Slave of Sin by which Means God was ousted of his Natural and Original Right to Man's Obedience and his Subjects so far forth drawn of from their Allegiance to him as to slight his Authority by slighting his Laws and to fight against him by opposing his Holiness so when the Hostilities were come to this pass that Man did fight against God by his Sins and that God did fight against Man by his Justice tho' God in order to a Reconcilation sent his Son into the World and by him a Proclamation of Pardon to all who should return to their Duty yet our Reason nay our Common Sense will tell us that the Restoration of God's just Right and Dominion by Man's Return to Holiness and Duty is in it self a Point of greater moment than Man's Pardon And therefore by the Tenor of that very Covenant in which the Articles of Reconciliation are contained it is stipulated that Man shall first be obliged to repent and return before God shall be obliged to forgive And we know that our Saviour himself in that Prayer which he taught his Disciples and in them all Christians does put that Petition Thy Kingdom come before that by which we pray that God would forgive our Trespasses Why all the Nations of the Earth are before him but as the Drop of the Bucket or the small Dust of the Balance And then can we think that his Honour and Natural Right is not to be consulted before Man's Safety It cannot be and because it cannot therefore we do conclude that tho' God did design the Pardon of Man's Sin by a Saviour yet for all that the grand and principal Design of sending him who was to be that Saviour was the bringing Man from a State of Sin to a State of Holiness the purchasing to himself a peculiar People zealous of good Works or as it is in the Fifth to the Ephesians ver 27. a glorious Church not having Spot or Wrinkle or any such Thing and thereby restoring to God so much of that Part of his Dominion which by the Temptation of the Devil and by Man's Revolt had been broke off from his Kingdom and which was willing upon the Gospel-Conditions the Proclamation of Pardon to be restored again to it Now from what has been spoken I would infer That it is a great Mistake to make the Sending of our Saviour in its first principal and grand Design to be the Pardon of Sin For as Obedience to the Law is the first and principal Design of the Law and as Punishment is but a secondary Design of the Law and is only grounded upon the Defeat of its grand and principal Design So Pardon of Sin in the very Nature of the Thing it self depending only upon the Desert of Punishment can therefore rise no higher than its Fountain and therefore can at the most be but a secondary Cause of our Saviour's Coming And therefore should we suppose God to pardon Sin tho' in and through our Saviour without any Regard had to the fulfilling of the Directive that is of the grand and principal Part of the Law we should by that means suppose him to break the Directive Part of the Law in order to his contradicting the Vindictive Part that is we should suppose him to break both Parts of the Law in order to such a Pardon For Veracity is one Branch of Holiness and when God tells Man in his Law that upon his Transgression he should surely die as we may perceive by the manner of the Delivery that the Denunciation is serious and solemn not only because it is backed with an Asseveration but because also it is incorporated into the Law so to tell us that God may by a Pardon that has no Regard to the Directive Part of the Law revoke such his solemn Threat
is no Security that any Creatures Personal or Natural Holiness shall be eternal If therefore we shall bring our present Business to this Case and by comparing one with the other take leave to judge of what may be by having seen what has been we may take notice that if our Saviour did nothing more for Man's Salvation but only expunge the Guilt of his Sins and so restore him again to his Original Innocence all this would warrant no more than that Man should by this Means have been restored to that Innocence or Holiness of which Adam stood possessed before his Transgression But that this Holiness should be lasting and eternal we have not all this while any the least Ground of Warrant no nor of Conjecture Nav we may rather conclude that it would not be so because we know to our Cost that Adam's was not so For I would ask Whether this Innocence or Holiness be sufficient to make Man happy If it be both answered and granted That it is then I would further demand Whether it will secure that Happiness to Eternity If it will then it must be something more than a Restoration of Man to a State of an Adamical Holiness for we are sure that that first Holiness could do no such thing If it will not then it will not answer to a Gospel-Salvation because such a Salvation does imply in it everlasting Happiness and everlasting Happiness must as we have seen be attended with everlasting Holiness In one Word therefore if as Man's Happiness does depend upon his Holiness so his everlasting Happiness must depend upon his everlasting Holiness then we may well reckon that that Holiness of Man which shall accompany eternal Salvation must be an indefectible Holiness that shall never fail and therefore whose Reward shall never cease And by this time we hope that the Truth of what we have laid down and of what we designed to make good may begin to appear which is 1. That the Chief Design of our Saviour's coming into the World was to bring sinful Man to a State of perfect Holiness for by that Man 's chief Happiness and which is yet a great deal more God's original Dominion and Jurisdiction over Man is provided for 2. That an everlasting Holiness is required to an everlasting Happiness 3. That such an Holiness is none of Man 's own and that therefore 4. It must come from some other and that that other must be God Having therefore seen by what has been said that an everlasting Holiness is necessary in order to Man 's everlasting Salvation and that such Holiness must come from God Let us proceed and by that Light which his Revelations have afforded us in this Case enquire what Provision God has made for the furnishing Man with such an Holiness in order to such his Salvation And 1. We are instructed by such Revelations That God sent his Son our Saviour into the World cloathed with the same Flesh with sinful Man to instruct and direct him in the Ways of Holiness by his Doctrine and by his Example That upon this Account he is called the Light of the World for he made our Duty plain and intelligible took off that Veil from Mens Understandings by which they were induced to believe that Holiness did consist in outward Washings in Ceremonies and Formalities and such other or Modes or Gestures which contained nothing of true Holiness in them because they did not form our Spirits to God's Likeness nor make us holy as he is holy And because he found Men laden with Sin he did advise them to unburden themselves by Repentance that so they might the more expeditely set about the Attainment of that Holiness which he recommended to their Practice And hence it was that his Fore-runner John the Baptist first and he himself and his Apostles afterwards did all begin their great Work with an Exhortation therefore to Repent because the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand In a Word in order to terrifie Men from their wicked Courses and to invite them into the Paths of true Piety and Godliness he did by his Threats acquaint them with a more express grievous and future Punishment and by his Promises with a more express happy and future Reward than either Natural Reason or Revelation had as yet discovered These with some other were the Methods which our Saviour when in the Flesh took to persuade Men to add their own Endeavours to his for their obtaining Salvation And because these Things were designed for such a Purpose by him and because they have in themselves a natural tendency to bring such Design to pass and because lastly the Salvation of Man does in the whole Oeconomy of it proceed from the Grace of God therefore these Things when summed up together under one Denomination are called Means of Grace These therefore and the like Means of Grace and them too backed and confirmed by Miracles our Saviour made use of to engage Men to practise and attain that Holiness by which alone they could in Justice be fitted for Salvation 2. But then secondly we are instructed both by God's Word and by our own Experience That all these Means made use of by our Saviour did never yet produce that Holiness in any Man which is to fit him for his designed Salvation For what from Weaknesses and Irresolutions from within and what from Temptations from without what from the Temptations of the Devil and what from his own wicked habitual and over-ruling Practices every Man falls short of the Grace of God and his very best Practices being corrupted with Carelesness or Inadvertency or Wilfulness and all of them Evil do not beget in him that Holiness to which alone eternal Salvation can in Justice belong It may be then demanded How any Man comes to be saved To which I answer in the next that is the 3. Third place That tho' the Means of Grace do not beget that Holiness in any Man in this Life in Consideration of which he can in Justice obtain eternal Salvation yet we are assured that the Means of Grace tendred in the Gospel and made use of by Man may and often have this Effect as to engage Men heartily to desire and wish for such an Holiness This is what our Saviour calls hungring and thirsting after Righteousness An hearty and sincere Desire to be what we ought to be and to make good the Sincerity of such our Desire an hearty and sincere Endeavour to be what we desire to be For no Man does or can heartily and sincerely desire any Thing who does not also heartily endeavour to obtain it Now an hearty Desire and an hearty Endeavour after Holiness does if I may so speak open and enlarge the Soul to admit and receive such Holiness whenever God shall be pleased to bestow it And because every good and perfect Gift comes from above from the Father of Light we may be therefore sure that Holiness the best and most perfect Gift
because in the Case so put he could have no Concern with Justice but what was his own and because he himself had paid an exact Obedience to the Law and because Life is the Reward of such Obedience as Death is the Wages of Disobedience Therefore if we do allow him to have unloaded himself of the Sin of Man which he had taken upon himself by his Death we must and do by so doing reinstate him in his own Right that is we must allow that he had a Right to be and therefore in Justice ought to be restored to Life again And therefore it is not at all to be questioned but that our Saviour had never died at all if he had never taken upon himself the Sins of other Men. But of this more by and by In the mean while these Things being laid down we proceed and 1. Observe in the first place That our Saviour's Resurrection is almost constantly by the Scriptures of the New Testament ascribed to God the Father And Multitudes of Texts might be quoted for it as the Second of the Acts ver 24 30. The Fifth Chapter of the same ver 26 30. The Tenth ver 40. The Seventeenth ver 31. The Tenth to the Romans ver 9. The First to the Corinthians chap. 6. ver 14 c. We know well enough that they who make it their Business to degrade our Saviour below his most exalted Dignity and Station do make use of these Texts for such their Purpose But we know withal that there are other Texts tho' indeed not so many and some of them when compared with their Context not so Categorical which yet ascribe his Resurrection to himself Such is that in the Second Chapter of St. John v. 19. Destroy this Temple and in three Days I will raise it up And so again in the Tenth of St. John v. 18. No Man taketh it from me but I lay it down of my self I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again Now as we made it out just now that after the Expiation finished he had a Right to rise from the Dead so we do not at all question but that he had a Power to raise himself too But tho' it should be allowed as we do not at all question and that too from several Things already laid down and made good but that it may be proved But I say tho' it should be allowed that he had both a Right and a Power to raise himself from the Dead yet notwithstanding that it was not altogether so congruous or agreeable to the equitable Proceedings of Justice that he should exercise such his Power or put himself into the possession of such his Right in the present Case For because he had submitted to offer his Life an Expiatory Sacrifice to the Divine Justice for the Sin of Man he had by such his Submission so far resigned such his Right and Power into the Hand of God as that both by the Laws of Reason and Justice as well as by the Rules of Decency and Congruity God was now become the sole Judge of the Validity of such his Sacrifice for the Accomplishment of the designed Expiation And if God was the sole Judge of the Validity of his Sacrifice he had by the same Means the rightful and I may add the sole Power of declaring such Validity And because the Resurrection of our Saviour from the Dead was in effect such a Declaration therefore we may now be satisfied why the Holy Ghost does so very frequently and in a manner constantly ascribe the Resurrection of our Saviour in the Scriptures to God alone To which we may add That the High-Priest under the Law who in this very Case was a Type of our Saviour was obliged once a Year to enter into the Holy of Holies but as the Author to the Hebrews words it not without Blood which he offered for himself and for the Errors of the People In which Case it must be confessed that the offering of the Blood to God was in order to his acceptance and that God's acceptance of the Blood that is of the Life of the Sacrifice was the Ratification of that Expiation that was made by such Sacrifice And in deed and truth our Saviour in the Business now before us being both the Priest and the Sacrifice to God for the Sins of Man and his Resurrection being the first Testimony or Declaration of the Acceptance of such his Sacrifice We cannot in any Congruity suppose that such Testimony or Declaration should be ascribed to any other but to God alone And therefore as all those Texts which ascribe our Saviour's Resurrection to God do in this Case speak strictly and properly so we may now by what has been said perceive that they are no Prejudice to his Divinity because he having obliged himself to offer that Body to which his Deity was united a Sacrifice for Sin he had by the same Act obliged himself to expect from God the Approbation and Allowance of such his Sacrifice and therefore also to receive from him his Resurrection which was an effectual Declaration of such Allowance And therefore 2. I do offer it to Consideration That the Resurrection of our Saviour from the Dead was an undoubted Argument that he had finished and compleated that Expiation which he had undertaken to make by his Death for the Sins of Men. For as we are assured by the Scriptures that he was crucified dead and buried and so that he died the Death of a Criminal So we are assured by the same Scriptures that he did not die for his own Crimes For it is utterly impossible and that too in the Nature of the Thing that he should die for his own Sins who yet did no Sin neither was Guile found in his Mouth that is who had no Sins of his own to die for Now because we are taught by the Scriptures and as we have already made it out because our Reason guided by them does fall in with them and so both do tell us that the Wages of Sin is Death that is that there is a Natural Justice in the Case that Death should be inflicted as the Punishment of Sin And because we are assured by the same Natural Reason that it must needs be unjust to inflict the same Punishment upon an Innocent Person which is the just Punishment of a Criminal I say for this Reason we may be satisfied that our Saviour tho' he was in himself a Lamb without Spot yet did die for some Sins or others be those Sins whose they will at present And therefore because the Spirit of God has by his express Word told us that he died for our Sins we may upon his Testimony rest satisfied that so he did Thus far therefore we have advanced towards our present Purpose and Argument That Death was what the Law threatned for our Sins and that we being Sinners and so having incurred the Vengeance threatned