Law are a Law unto themselves Which shew the work of the Law written in their hearts their Consciences also bearing witness and amongst one another their thoughts accusing or excusing By which and other places in the following Chapter 't is plain that under the Law of Works is comprehended also the Law of Nature knowable by Reason as well as the Law given by Moses For says St. Paul Rom. III. 9. 23. we have proved both Iews and Gentiles that they are all under sin For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God Which they could not do without a Law Nay whatever God requires any where to be done without making any allowance for Faith that is a part of the Law of Works So the forbidding Adam to eat of the Tree of Knowledge was part of the Law of Works Only we must take notice here That some of God's Positive Commands being for peculiar Ends and suited to particular Circumstances of Times Places and Persons have a limited and only temporary Obligation by vertue of God's positive Injunction such as was that part of Moses's Law which concerned the outward Worship or Political Constitution of the Jews and is called the Ceremonial and Judaical Law in contradistinction to the Moral part of it Which being conformable to the Eternal Law of Right is of Eternal Obligation and therefore remains in force still under the Gospel nor is abrogated by the Law of Faith as St. Paul found some ready to infer Rom. III. 31. Do we then make void the Law through Faith God forbid yea we establish the Law Nor can it be otherwise For were there no Law of Works there could be no Law of Faith For there could be no need of Faith which should be counted to men for Righteousness if there were no Law to be the Rule and Measure of Righteousness which men failed in their Obedience to Where there is no Law there is no Sin all are Righteous equally with or without Faith The Rule therefore of Right is the same that ever it was the Obligation to observe it is also the same The difference between the Law of Works and the Law of Faith is only this that the Law of Works makes no allowance for failing on any occasion Those that obey are Righteous those that in any part disobey are unrighteous and must not expect Life the Reward of Righteousness But by the Law of Faith Faith is allowed to supply the defect of full Obedience and so the Believers are admitted to Life and Immortality as if they were Righteous Only here we must take notice that when St. Paul says that the Gospel establishes the Law he means the Moral part of the Law of Moses For that he could not mean the Ceremonial or Political part of it is evident by what I quoted out of him just now where he says The Gentiles that do by nature the things contained in the Law their Consciences bearing witness For the Gentiles neither did nor thought of the Judaical or Ceremonial Institutions of Moses 't was only the Moral part their Consciences were concerned in As for the rest St. Paul tells the Galatians Cap. IV. they are not under that part of the Law which v. 3. he calls Elements of the World and v. 9. weak and beggarly elements And our Saviour himself in his Gospel-Sermon on the Mount tells them Mat. V. 17. That whatever they might think he was not come to dissolve the Law but to make it more full and strict For that that is meant by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is evident from the following part of that Chapter where he gives the Precepts in a stricter sense than they were received in before But they are all Precepts of the Moral Law which he reinforces What should become of the Ritual Law he tells the Woman of Samaria in these words Iohn IV. 21. 23. The hour cometh when you shall neither in this Mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father But the true Worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth for the Father seeketh such to worship him Thus then as to the Law in short The Civil and Ritual part of the Law delivered by Moses obliges not Christians though to the Jews it were a part of the Law of Works it being a part of the Law of Nature that man ought to obey every Positive Law of God whenever he shall please to make any such addition to the Law of his Nature But the Moral part of Moses's Law or the Moral Law which is every where the same the Eternal Rule of Right obliges Christians and all men every where and is to all men the standing Law of Works But Christian Believers have the Priviledge to be under the Law of Faith too which is that Law whereby God Justifies a man for Believing though by his Works he be not Just or Righteous i. e. though he came short of Perfect Obedience to the Law of Works God alone does or can Justifie or make Just those who by their Works are not so Which he doth by counting their Faith for Righteousness i. e. for a compleat performance of the Law Rom. IV. 3. Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness v. 5. To him that believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted for righteousness v. 6. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works i. e. without a full measure of Works which is exact Obedience v. 7. Saying Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered v. 8. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin This Faith for which God justified Abraham what was it It was the believing God when he engaged his Promise in the Covenant he made with him This will be plain to any one who considers these places together Gen. XV. 6. He believed in the Lord or believed the Lord. For that the Hebrew Phrase believing in signifies no more but believing is plain from St. Paul's citation of this place Rom. IV. 3. where he repeats it thus Abraham believed God which he thus explains v. 18-22 who against hope believed in hope that he might become the Father of many Nations According to that which was spoken so shall thy seed be And being not weak in faith he considered not his own body now dead when he was about an hundred years old nor yet the deadness of Sarah's womb He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief but was strong in faith giving glory to God And being fully perswaded that what he had promised he was also able to perform And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness By which it is clear that the Faith which God counted to Abraham for Righteousness was nothing but a firm belief of what God declared to him and a steadfast relying on him for the accomplishment of what he had promised Now this says
accounted worthy to obtain that World and the Resurrection from the Dead neither marry nor are given in marriage Neither can they die any more for they are equal unto the Angels and are the SONS OF GOD being the Sons of the Resurrection And he that shall read St. Paul's Arguing Acts XIII 32 33. will find that the great Evidence that Jesus was the Son of God was his Resurrection Then the Image of his Father appeared in him when he visibly entred into the state of Immortality For thus the Apostle reasons We Preach to you how that the Promise which was made to our Fathers God hath fulfilled the same unto us in that he hath raised up Iesus again As it is also written in the second Psalm Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee This may serve a little to explain the Immortality of the Sons of God who are in this like their Father made after his Image and Likeness But that our Saviour was so he himself farther declares Iohn X. 18. Where speaking of his Life he says No one 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 up again Which he could not have had if he had been a Mortal Man the Son of a Man of the Seed of Adam Or else had by any Transgression forfeited his Life For the wages of Sin is Death And he that hath incurred Death for his own Transgression cannot lay down his Life for another as our Saviour professes he did For he was the Just One Acts VII 57. and XII 14. Who knew no sin 2 Cor. V. 21. Who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth And thus As by Man came Death so by Man came the Resurrection of the Dead For as in Adam all die so in Christ shall all be made alive For this laying down his Life for others our Saviour tells us Iohn X. 17. Therefore does my Father love me because I lay down my life that I might take it again And this his Obedience and Suffering was rewarded with a Kingdom which he tells us Luke XXII His Father had appointed unto him And which 't is evident out of the Epistle to the Hebrews Chap. XII 2. he had a regard to in his Sufferings Who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the Throne of God Which Kingdom given him upon this account of his Obedience Suffering and Death He himself takes notice of in these words Iohn XVII 1-4 Iesus lift up his eyes to Heaven and said Father the hour is come glorifie thy Son that thy Son also may glorifie thee As thou hast given him power over all flesh that he should give Eternal Life to as many as thou hast given him And this is Life Eternal that they may know thee the only true God and Iesus the Messiah whom thou hast sent I have glorified thee on Earth I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do And St. Paul in his Epistle to the Philippians Chap. II. 8-11 He humbled himself and became obedient unto Death even the death of the Cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name that is above every name That at the name of Iesus every knee should bow of things in Heaven and things in Earth and things under the Earth And that every Tongue should confess that Iesus Christ is Lord. Thus God we see designed his Son Christ Iesus a Kingdom an Everlasting Kingdom in Heaven But Though as in Adam all die so in Christ all shall be made alive And all men shall return to Life again at the last day Yet all men having sinned and thereby come short of the Glory of God as St. Paul assures us Rom. III. 23. i.e. Not attaining to the Heavenly Kingdom of the Messiah which is often called the Glory of God as may be seen Rom. V. 2. XV. 7. II. 7. Mat. XVI 27. Mark VIII 38. For no one who is unrighteous i. e. comes short of perfect Righteousness shall be admitted into the Eternal Life of that Kingdom As is declared 1 Cor. VI. 9. The unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God And Death the Wages of Sin being the Portion of all those who had transgressed the Righteous Law of God The Son of God would in vain have come into the World to lay the Foundations of a Kingdom and gather together a select People out of the World if they being found guilty at their appearance before the Judgment-seat of the Righteous Judge of all men at the last day instead of entrance into Eternal Life in the Kingdom he had prepared for them they should receive Death the just Reward of Sin which every one of them was guilty of This second Death would have left him no Subjects And instead of those Ten Thousand times Ten Thousand and Thousands of Thousands there would not have been one left him to sing Praises unto his Name saying Blessing and Honour and Glory and Power be unto him that sitteth on the Throne and unto the Lamb for ever and ever God therefore out of his Mercy to Mankind and for the erecting of the Kingdom of his Son and furnishing it with Subjects out of every Kindred and Tongue and People and Nation proposed to the Children of Men that as many of them as would believe Iesus his Son whom he sent into the World to be the Messiah the promised Deliverer And would receive him for their King and Ruler should have all their past Sins Disobedience and Rebellion forgiven them And if for the future they lived in a sincere Obedience to his Law to the utmost of their power the sins of Humane Frailty for the time to come as well as all those of their past Lives should for his Son's sake because they gave themselves up to him to be his Subjects be forgiven them And so their Faith which made them be baptized into his Name i.e. Enroll themselves in the Kingdom of Iesus the Messiah and profess themselves his Subjects and consequently live by the Laws of his Kingdom should be accounted to them for Righteousness i.e. Should supply the defects of a scanty Obedience in the sight of God Who counting this Faith to them for Righteousness or Compleat Obedience did thus Justifie or make them Just and thereby capable of Eternal Life Now that this is the Faith for which God of his free Grace Justifies sinful Man For 't is God alone that justifieth Rom. VIII 33. Rom. III. 26. We have already shewed by observing through all the History of our Saviour and the Apostles recorded in the Evangelists and in the Acts what he and his Apostles preached and proposed to be believed We shall shew now that besides believing him to be the Messiah their King it was farther required that those who would have the Priviledge Advantages and
THE REASONABLENESS OF Christianity As delivered in the SCRIPTURES LONDON Printed for Awnsham and Iohn Churchil at the Black Swan in Pater-Noster-Row 1695. THE PREFACE THE little Satisfaction and Consistency is to be found in most of the Systems of Divinity I have met with made me betake my self to the sole Reading of the Scripture to which they all appeal for the understanding the Christian Religion What from thence by an attentive and unbiassed search I have received Reader I here deliver to thee If by this my Labour thou receivest any Light or Confirmation in the Truth joyn with me in Thanks to the Father of Lights for his Condescention to our Vnderstandings If upon a fair and unprejudiced Examination thou findest I have mistaken the Sense and Tenor of the Gospel I beseech thee as a true Christian in the Spirit of the Gospel which is that of Charity and in the words of Sobriety set me right in the Doctrine of Salvation ERRATA Page 35. line 22. read on the. p. 62. l. 26. r. Bethesda p. 63. l. 26. r. little of any thing p. 64. ult r. it was p. 65. l. 6. r. them at Ierusalem Ibid. l. 10 r. ing in that place p. 67. l. 17. r. that remained p. 69. l. 23. r. a king or rather Messiah the King p. 75. l. 6. dele these Ibid. l. 14. r. nor 〈◊〉 p. 112. l. 4. r. Bethesda p. 161. l. 2. r. and of p. 165. l. 20. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 present World p. 194. l. 11. r. availed not Devils p. 217. l. 11. r. In his Sermon in the. p. 263. l. ◠r. before observed p. 264. l. 24. r. custom p. 271. l. 2. r. apophthegms Ibid. l. 24. r. themselves and deduces p. 282. l. 〈◊〉 r. No touch of p. 284. 1. 〈◊〉 confusion p. 287. l. 17. r. life and. p. 295. l. 22. r. the Apostles p. 203. l. 20. r. Treatise p. 304. l. 4. ◠abstract Ibid. l. 14. read them The Reasonableness of Christianity as delivered in the Scriptures T IS obvious to any one who reads the New Testament that the Doctrine of Redemption and consequently of the Gospel is founded upon the Supposition of Adam's Fall To understand therefore what we are restored to by Jesus Christ we must consider what the Scripture shews we lost by Adam This I thought worthy of a diligent and unbiassed search Since I found the two Extreams that Men run into on this Point either on the one hand shook the Foundations of all Religion or on the other made Christianity almost nothing For whilst some Men would have all Adam's Posterity doomed to Eternal Infinite Punishment for the Transgression of Adam whom Millions had never heard of and no one had authorized to transact for him or be his Representative this seemed to others so little consistent with the Justice or Goodness of the Great and Infinite God that they thought there was no Redemption necessary and consequently that there was none rather than admit of it upon a Supposition so derogatory to the Honour and Attributes of that Infinite Being and so made Jesus Christ nothing but the Restorer and Preacher of pure Natural Religion thereby doing violence to the whole tenor of the New Testament And indeed both sides will be suspected to have trespassed this way against the written Word of God by any one who does but take it to be a Collection of Writings designed by God for the Instruction of the illiterate bulk of Mankind in the way to Salvation and therefore generally and in necessary points to be understood in the plain direct meaning of the words and phrases such as they may be supposed to have had in the mouths of the Speakers who used them according to the Language of that Time and Country wherein they lived without such learned artificial and forced senses of them as are sought out and put upon them in most of the Systems of Divinity according to the Notions that each one has been bred up in To one that thus unbiassed reads the Scriptures what Adam fell from is visible was the state of perfect Obedience which is called Justice in the New Testament though the word which in the Original signifies Justice be translated Righteousness And by this Fall he lost Paradise wherein was Tranquility and the Tree of Life i. e. he lost Bliss and Immortality The Penalty annexed to the breach of the Law with the Sentence pronounced by God upon it shew this The Penalty stands thus Gen. II. 17. In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die How was this executed He did eat but in the day he did eat he did not actually die but was turned out of Paradise from the Tree of Life and shut out for ever from it lest he should take thereof and live for ever This shews that the state of Paradise was a state of Immortality of Life without end which he lost that very day that he eat His Life began from thence to shorten and wast and to have an end and from thence to his actual Death was but like the time of a Prisoner between the Sentence past and the Execution which was in view and certain Death then enter'd and shewed his Face which before was shut out and not known So St. Paul Rom. V. 12. By one man sin entred into the world and death by sin i. e. a state of Death and Mortality And 1 Cor. XV. 22. In Adam all die i. e. by reason of his Transgression all Men are Mortal and come to die This is so clear in these cited places and so much the current of the New Testament that no body can deny but that the Doctrine of the Gospel is that Death came on all Men by Adam's sin only they differ about the signification of the word Death For some will have it to be a state of Guilt wherein not only he but all his Posterity was so involved that every one descended of him deserved endless torment in Hell-fire I shall say nothing more here how far in the apprehensions of Men this consists with the Justice and Goodness of God having mentioned it above But it seems a strange way of understanding a Law which requires the plainest and directest words that by Death should be meant Eternal Life in Misery Could any one be supposed by a Law that says For Felony you shall die not that he should lose his Life but be kept alive in perpetual exquisite Torments And would any one think himself fairly dealt with that was so used To this they would have it be also a state of necessary sinning and provoking God in every Action that men do A yet harder sense of the word Death than the other God says That in the day that thou eatest of the forbidden Fruit thou shalt die i. e. thou and thy Posterity shall be ever after uncapable of doing any thing but what shall be sinful and provoking to me and shall justly deserve my wrath and
directed the Lawyer who asked Luke X. 25. What he should do to inherit eternal life Do this i. e. what is required by the Law and thou shalt live On the other side it seems the unalterable purpose of the Divine Justice that no unrighteous Person no one that is guilty of any breach of the Law should be in Paradise But that the wages of sin shold be to every man as it was to Adam an Exclusion of him out of that Happy state of Immortality and bring Death upon him And this is so conformable to the Eternal and established Law of Right and Wrong that it is spoke of too as if it could not be otherwise St. Iames says Chap. I. 15. Sin when it is finished bringeth forth death as it were by a Natural and necessary production Sin entred into the World and death by sin says St. Paul Rom. V. 12. VI. 23. The wages of sin is Death Death is the Purchase of any of every sin Gal. III. 10. Cursed is every one who continueth not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them And of this St. Iames gives a Reason Chap. II. 10 11. Whosoever shall keep the whole Law and yet offend in one point he is guilty of all For he that said Do not commit Adultery said also do not Kill i. e. He that offends in any one Point sins against the Authority which established the Law Here then we have the standing and fixed measures of Life and Death Immortality and Bliss belong to the Righteous Those who have lived in an exact Conformity to the Law of God are out of the reach of Death But an Exclusion from Paradise and loss of Immortality is the Portion of Sinners of all those who have any way broke that Law and failed of a Compleat Obedience to it by the guilt of any one Transgression And thus Mankind by the Law are put upon the issues of Life or Death As they are Righteous or Vnrighteous Iust or Vnjust i. e. Exact Performers or Transgressors of the Law But yet all having sinned Rom. III. 23. and come short of the glory God i. e. the Kingdom of God in Heaven which is often called his Glory both Iews and Gentiles v. 22. So that by the deeds of the Law no one could be justified v. 20. it follows that no one could then have Eternal Life and Bliss Perhaps it will be demanded Why did God give so hard a Law to Mankind that to the Apostles time no one of Adam's Issue had kept it As appears by Rom. III. and Gal. III. 21 22. Answ. It was such a Law as the Purity of God's Nature required and must be the Law of such a Creature as Man unless God would have made him a Rational Creature and not required him to have lived by the Law of Reason but would have countenanced in him Irregularity and Disobedience to that Light which he had and that Rule which was suitable to his Nature Which would have been to have authorized Disorder Confusion and Wickedness in his Creatures For that this Law was the Law of Reason or as it is called of Nature we shall see by and by And if Rational Creatures will not live up to the Rule of their Reason who shall excuse them If you will admit them to forsake Reason in one point why not in another Where will you stop To disobey God in any part of his Commands and 't is he that Commands what Reason does is direct Rebellion which if dispensed with in any Point Government and Order are at an end And there can be no bounds set to the Lawless Exorbitancy of unconfined men The Law therefore was as St. Paul tells us Rom. VII 12 holy just and good and such as it ought and could not otherwise be This then being the case that whoever is guilty of any sin should certainly die and cease to be the benefit of Life restored by Christ at the Resurrection would have been no great Advantage for as much as here again Death must have seized upon all mankind because all had sinned For the Wages of Sin is every where Death as well after as before the Resurrection if God had not found out a way to Justifie some i. e. so many as obeyed another Law which God gave which in the New Testament is called the Law of Faith Rom. III. 27. and is opposed to the Law of Works And therefore the Punishment of those who would not follow him was to lose their Souls i. e. their Lives Mark VIII 35-38 as is plain considering the occasion it was spoke on The better to understand the Law of Faith it will be convenient in the first place to consider the Law of Works The Law of Works then in short is that Law which requires perfect Obedience without any remission or abatement So that by that Law a man cannot be Just or justified without an exact performance of every tittle Such a perfect Obedience in the New Testament is termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we translate Righteousness The Language of this Law is Do this and live Transgress and die Lev. XVIII 5. Ye shall keep my statutes and my judgments which if a man do he shall live in them Ezek. XX. 11. I gave them my statutes and shewed them my judgments which if a man do he shall even live in them Moses says St. Paul Rom. X. 5. describeth the righteousness which is of the Law that the man which doth those things shall live in them Gal. III. 12. The Law is not of Faith but that man that doth them shall live in them On the other side Transgress and die no dispensation no atonement V. 10. Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them Where this Law of Works was to be found the New Testament tells us viz. in the Law delivered by Moses Iohn I. 17. The Law was given by Moses but Faith and Truth came by Iesus Christ. Cap. VII 19. Did not Moses give you the Law says our Saviour and yet none of you keep the Law And this is the Law which he speaks of where he asks the Lawyer Luke X. 26. What is written in the Law how readest thou v. 28. This do and thou shalt live This is that which St. Paul so often stiles the Law without any other distinction Rom. II. 13. Not the hearers of the Law are just before God but the doers of the Law are justified 'T is needless to quote any more places his Epistles are all full of it especially this to the Romans But the Law given by Moses being not given to all Mankind How are all men sinners since without a Law there is no Transgression To this the Apostle v. 14. Answers For when the Gentiles which have not the Law do i. e. find it reasonable to do by nature the things contained in the Law these having not the
Deliverance of his Kingdom should enter themselves into it And by Baptism being made Denizons and solemnly incorporated into that Kingdom live as became Subjects obedient to the Laws of it For if they believed him to be the Messiah their King but would not obey his Laws and would not have him to Reign over them they were but greater Rebels and God would not Justifie them for a Faith that did but increase their Guilt and oppose Diametrically the Kingdom and Design of the Messiah Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all Iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar People zealous of good works Titus II. 14. And therefore St. Paul tells the Galatians That that which availeth is Faith But Faith working by Love And that Faith without Works i.e. the Works of sincere Obedience to the Law and Will of Christ is not sufficient for our Justification St. Iames shews at large Chap. II. Neither indeed could it be otherwise For Life Eternal Life being the Reward of Justice or Righteousness only appointed by the Righteous God who is of purer Eyes than to behold Iniquity to those only who had no taint or infection of Sin upon them it is impossible that he should Justifie those who had no regard to Justice at all whatever they believed This would have been to encourage Iniquity contrary to the Purity of his Nature and to have condemned that Eternal Law of Right which is Holy Just and Good Of which no one Precept or Rule is abrogated or repealed nor indeed can be whilst God is an Holy Just and Righteous God and Man a Rational Creature The Duties of that Law arising from the Constitution of his very Nature are of Eternal Obligation Nor can it be taken away or dispensed with without changing the Nature of Things overturning the measures of Right and Wrong and thereby introducing and authorizing Irregularity Confusion and Disorder in the World Which was not the end for which Christ came into the World But on the contrary to reform the corrupt state of degenerate Man And out of those who would mend their Lives and bring forth Fruit meet for Repentance erect a new Kingdom This is the Law of that Kingdom as well as of all Mankind And that Law by which all Men shall be judged at the last day Only those who have believed Iesus to be the Messiah and have taken him to be their King with a sincere Endeavour after Righteousness in obeying his Law shall have their past sins not imputed to them And shall have that Faith taken instead of Obedience Where Frailty and Weakness made them transgress and sin prevailed after Conversion in those who hunger and thirst after Righteousness or perfect Obedience and do not allow themselves in Acts of Disobedience and Rebellion against the Laws of that Kingdom they are entred into He did not expect 't is true a Perfect Obedience void of all slips and falls He knew our Make and the weakness of our Constitutions too well and was sent with a Supply for that Defect Besides perfect Obedience was the Righteousness of the Law of Works and then the Reward would be of Debt and not of Grace And to such there was no need of Faith to be imputed to them for Righteousness They stood upon their own legs were Just already and needed no allowance to be made them for believing Jesus to be the Messiah taking him for their King and becoming his Subjects But whether Christ does not require Obedience sincere Obedience is evident from the Laws he himself pronounces unless he can be supposed to give and inculcate Laws only to have them disobeyed and from the Sentence he will pass when he comes to Judge The Faith required was to believe Iesus to be the Messiah the Anointed who had been promised by God to the World Amongst the Iews to whom the Promises and Prophesies of the Messiah were more immediately delivered Anointing was used to three sorts of Persons at their Inauguration Whereby they were set apart to three great Offices viz. Of Priests Prophets and Kings Though these three Offices be in Holy Writ attributed to our Saviour yet I do not remember that he any where assumes to himself the Title of a Priest or mentions any thing relating to his Priesthood Nor does he speak of his being a Prophet but very sparingly and once or twice as it were by the by But the Gospel or the Good News of the Kingdom of the Messiah is what he Preaches every where and makes it his great business to publish to the World This he did not only as most agreeable to the Expectation of the Iews who looked for their Messiah chiefly as coming in Power to be their King and Deliverer But as it best answered the chief end of his Coming which was to be a King and as such to be received by those who would be his Subjects in the Kingdom which he came to erect And though he took not directly on himself the Title of King till he was in Custody and in the hands of Pilate yet 't is plain King and King of Israel were the Familiar and received Titles of the Messiah See Iohn I. 50. Luke XIX 38. Compared with Mat. XXI 9. And Mark XI 9. Iohn XII 13. Mat. XXI 5. Luke XXIII 2. Compared with Mat. XXVII 11. And Iohn XVIII 33-37 Mark XV. 12. Compared with Mat. XXVII 22. Mat. XXVII 42. What those were to do who believed him to be the Messiah and received him for their King that they might be admitted to be partakers with him of this Kingdom in Glory we shall best know by the Laws he gives them and requires them to obey And by the Sentence which he himself will give when sitting on his Throne they shall all appear at his Tribunal to receive every one his Doom from the mouth of this Righteous Judge of all Men. What he proposed to his Followers to be believed we have already seen by examining his and his Apostles Preaching step by step all through the History of the four Evangelists and the Acts of the Apostles The same Method will best and plainest shew us whether he required of those who believed him to be the Messiah any thing besides that Faith and what it was For he being a King we shall see by his Commands what he expects from his Subjects For if he did not expect Obedience to them his Commands would be but meer Mockery And if there were no Punishment for the Transgressors of them his Laws would not be the Laws of a King that had Authority to Command and Power to Chastise the disobedient But empty Talk without Force and without Influence We shall therefore from his Injunctions if any such there be see what he has made Necessary to be performed by all those who shall be received into Eternal Life in his Kingdom prepared in the Heavens And in this we cannot be deceived What we have from his own Mouth
new clad as I may so say with a true Repentance and Amendment of Life Nor adorned with those Vertues which the Apostle Col. III. requires to be put on 3. Those who were invited did come and had on the Wedding-Garment i.e. Heard the Gospel believed Iesus to be the Messiah and sincerely obeyed his Laws These three sorts are plainly designed here whereof the last only were the Blessed who were to enjoy the Kingdom prepared for them Mat. XXIII Be not ye called Rabbi For one is your Master even the Messiah and ye all are Brethren And call no man your Father upon the Earth For one is your Father which is in Heaven Neither be ye called Masters For one is your Master even the Messiah But he that is greatest amongst you shall be your Servant And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased And he that shall humble himself shall be exalted Luke XXI 34. Take beed to your selves lest your hearts be at any time over-charged with surfeiting and drunkenness and cares of this life Luke XXII 25. He said unto them The Kings of the Gentiles exercise Lordship over them And they that exercise Authority upon them are called Benefactors But ye shall not be so But he that is greatest amongst you let him be as the younger And he that is chief as he that doth serve John XIII 34. A new Commandment I give unto you That ye love one another As I have loved you that ye also love one another By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if ye love one another This Command of loving one another is repeated again Chap. XV. 12. 17. John XIV 15. If ye love me keep my Commandments V. 21. He that hath my Commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me And he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and manifest my self to him V. 23. If a man loveth me he will keep my words V. 24. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings John XV. 8. In this is my Father glorified that ye bear much fruit so shall ye be my Disciples V. 14. Ye are my Friends if ye do whatsoever I command you Thus we see our Saviour not only confirmed the Moral Law and clearing it from the corrupt glosses of the Scribes and Pharisees shewed the strictness as well as obligation of its Injunctions But moreover upon occasion requires the Obedience of his Disciples to several of the Commands he afresh lays upon them With the enforcement of unspeakable Rewards and Punishments in another World according to their Obedience or Disobedience There is not I think any of the Duties of Morality which he has not some where or other by himself and his Apostles inculcated over and over again to his Followers in express terms And is it for nothing that he is so instant with them to bring forth Fruit Does He their King Command and is it an indifferent thing Or will their Happiness or Misery not at all depend upon it whether they obey or no They were required to believe him to be the Messiah Which Faith is of Grace promised to be reckoned to them for the compleating of their Righteousness wherein it was defective But Righteousness or Obedience to the Law of God was their great business Which if they could have attained by their own Performances there would have been no need of this Gracious Allowance in Reward of their Faith But Eternal Life after the Resurrection had been their due by a former Covenant even that of Works the Rule whereof was never abolished though the Rigour were abated The Duties enjoyned in it were Duties still Their Obligations had never ceased nor a wilful neglect of them was ever dispensed with But their past Transgressions were pardoned to those who received Iesus the promised Messiah for their King And their future slips covered if renouncing their former Iniquities they entred into his Kingdom and continued his Subjects with a steady Resolution and Endeavour to obey his Laws This Righteousness therefore a compleat Obedience and freedom from Sin are still sincerely to be endeavoured after And 't is no where promised That those who persist in a wilful Disobedience to his Laws shall be received into the eternal bliss of his Kingdom how much soever they believe in him A sincere Obedience how can any one doubt to be or scruple to call a Condition of the New Covenant as well as faith Whoever read our Saviour's Sermon in the Mount to omit all the rest Can any thing be more express than these words of our Lord Mat. VI. 14. If you forgive Men their Trespasses your Heavenly Father will also forgive you But if ye forgive not Men their Trespasses neither will your Father forgive your Trespasses And Ioh. XIII 17. If ye know these things happy are ye if ye do them This is so indispensible a Condition of the New Covenant that believing without it will not do nor be accepted If our Saviour knew the Terms on which he would admit Men into Life Why call ye me Lord Lord says he Luke VI. 46. and do not the things which I say It is not enough to believe him to be the Messiah the Lord without obeying him For that these he speaks to here were Believers is evident from the parallel place Matt. VII 21-23 where it is thus Recorded Not every one who says Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the Will of my Father which is in Heaven No Rebels or Refractory Disobedient shall be admitted there though they have so far believed in Jesus as to be able to do Miracles in his Name As is plain out of the following words Many will say to me in that day Have we not Prophesied in thy Name and in thy Name have cast out Devils and in thy Name have done many wonderful Works And then will I profess unto them I never knew you depart from me ye workers of iniquity This part of the New Covenant the Apostles also in their Preaching the Gospel of the Messiah ordinarily joined with the Doctrine of Faith St. Peter in his first Sermon Acts II. when they were pricked in heart and asked What shall we do says v. 38. REPENT and be Baptized every one of you in the Name of Iesus Christ for the Remission of Sins The same he says to them again in his next Speech Acts IV. 26. Vnto you first God having raised up his Son Iesus sent him to bless you How was this done IN TVRNING AWAY EVERY ONE FROM YOVR INIQVITIES The same Doctrine they Preach to the High Priest and Rulers Acts V. 30. The God of our Fathers raised up Iesus whom ye slew and hanged on a Tree Him hath God Exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour for to give REPENTANCE to Israel and Forgiveness of Sins And we are witnesses of these things and so is also the Holy Ghost whom God
hath given to them that obey him Acts XVII 30. Paul tells the Athenians That now under the Gospel God commandeth all Men every where to REPENT Acts XX. 21. St. Paul in his last Conference with the Elders of Ephesus professes to have taught them the whole Doctrine necessary to Salvation I have says he kept back nothing that was profitable unto you But have shewed you and have taught you publickly and from house to house Testifying both to the Iews and to the Greeks And then gives an account what his Preaching had been viz. REPENTANCE towards God and Faith towards our Lord Iesus the Messiah This was the Sum and Substance of the Gospel which St. Paul Preached and was all that he knew necessary to Salvation viz. Repentance and believing Iesus to be the Messiah And so takes his last farewel of them whom he should never see again v. 32. in these words And now Brethren I commend you to God and to the word of his Grace which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all them that are sanctified There is an Inheritance conveyed by the Word and Covenant of Grace but it is only to those who are Sanctified Acts. XXIV 24. When Felix sent for Paul that he and his Wife Drusilla might hear him concerning the Faith in Christ Paul reasoned of Righteousness or Justice and Temperance the Duties we owe to others and to our selves and of the Judgment to come Till he made Felix to tremble Whereby it appears that Temperance and Iustice were Fundamental parts of the Religion that Paul professed and were contained in the Faith which he Preached And if we find the Duties of the Moral Law not pressed by him every where We must remember That most of his Sermons left upon Record were Preached in their Synagogues to the Jews who acknowledged their Obedience due to all the Precepts of the Law And would have taken it amiss to have been suspected not to have been more Zealous for the Law than he And therefore it was with reason that his Discourses were directed chiefly to what they yet wanted and were averse to the knowledge and imbracing of Jesus their promised Messiah But what his Preaching generally was if we will believe him himself we may see Acts XXVI Where giving an Account to King Agrippa of his Life and Doctrine he tells him v. 20. I shewed unto them of Damascus and at Ierusalem and throughout all the Coasts of Iudea and then to the Gentiles that they should repent and turn to God and do works meet for Repentance Thus we see by the Preaching of our Saviour and his Apostles that he required of those who believed him to be the Messiah and received him for their Lord and Deliverer that they should live by his Laws And that though in consideration of their becoming his Subjects by Faith in him whereby they believed and took him to be the Messiah their former Sins should be forgiven Yet he would own none to be his nor receive them as true denizons of the New Ierusalem into the inheritance of Eternal Life but leave them to the Condemnation of the Unrighteous who renounced not their former Miscarriages and lived in a sincere Obedience to his Commands What he expects from his Followers he has sufficiently declared as a Legislator And that they may not be deceived by mistaking the Doctrine of Faith Grace Free-Grace and the Pardon and Forgiveness of Sins and Salvation by him which was the great End of his Coming He more than once declares to them For what omissions and miscarriages he shall Judge and Condemn to Death even those who have owned him and done Miracles in his Name when he comes at last to render to every one according to what he hath DONE in the Flesh Sitting upon his Great and Glorious Tribunal at the end of the World The first place where we find our Saviour to have mentioned the day of Judgment is Ioh. V. 28 29. in these words The hour is coming in which all that are in their Graves shall hear his i. e. the Son of God's Voice and shall come forth They that have DONE GOOD unto the Resurrection of Life And they that have DONE EVIL unto the Resurrection of Damnation That which puts the distinction if we will believe our Saviour is the having done good or evil And he gives a reason of the necessity of his Judging or Condemning those who have done Evil in the following words v. 30. I can of my own self do nothing As I hear I judge And my Iudgment is just Because I seek not my own Will but the Will of my Father who hath sent me He could not judge of himself He had but a delegated Power of Judging from the Father whose Will he obeyed in it and who was of purer Eyes than to admit any unjust Person into the Kingdom of Heaven Matt. VII 22 23. Speaking again of that day he tells what his Sentence will be depart from me ye WORKERS of Iniquity Faith in the Penitent and Sincerely Obedient supplies the defect of their Performances and so by Grace they are made Just. But we may observe None are Sentenced or Punished for Unbelief but only for their Misdeeds They are Workers of Iniquity on whom the Sentence is Pronounced Matt. XIII 14. At the end of the World the Son of Man shall send forth his Angels And they shall gather out of his Kingdom all Scandals and them which DO INIQVITY And cast them into a Furnace of Fire There shall be wailing and gnashing of Teeth And again v. 49. The Angels shall sever the WICKED from among the IVST and shall cast them into the Furnace of Fire Matt. XVI 24. For the Son of Man shall come in the Glory of his Father with his Angels And then be shall Reward every Man according to his WORKS Luke XIII 26. Then shall ye begin to say We have eaten and drunk in thy Presence and thou hast taught in our Streets But he shall say I tell you I know you not Depart from me ye WORKERS of Iniquity Matt. XXV 21-26 When the Son of Man shall come in his Glory and before him shall be gathered all Nations He shall set the Sheep on his right hand and the Goats on his Left Then shall the King say to them on his Right hand Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the Foundation of the World For I was an hungred and ye gave me Meat I was thirsty and ye gave me drink I was a stranger and ye took me in Naked and ye cloathed me I was sick and ye visited me I was in Prison and ye came unto me Then shall the Righteous Answer him saying Lord When saw we thee an hungred and fed thee c. And the King shall answer and say unto them Verily I say unto you In as much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my