the eternal spirit offered up himself without spot to God shall purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God Heb. 9.14 Emphatica omnia totidem pene causae quot verba aeternae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 per Christum partae saith the worthy Paraeus all things in the Text are Emphatical and there are almost as many causes as words of the eternal redemption obtained by Christ He offered not as the Gentiles to Devils but to God he offered not as the Priest under that Law a Sacrifice distinct from himself but he offered himself the thing offered and the Priest beyond all parallel were one and the same He offered not as the deceiver a corrupt thing Mal. 1.14 but his pure and innocent self in whom there was no spot or blemish He offered up himself not meerly through an human spirit but through a Divine Eternal one through his Divinity which aspired an eternal vigor and fragrancy into his Sacrifice so that it needed not as the legal ones any reiteration for as the Apostle hath it he hath by one offering perfected for ever them that are sanctified Heb. 10.14 This is that great Sacrifice more than all other sacrifices which satisfied Justice expiated moral guilt averted the wrath of Heaven and procured an eternal redemption for us Further Christ was not only the substance of the sacrifices but of the High-Priests also He hath the true holy garments the graces of the Spirit the true Vrim and Thummim lights and perfections His girdle is Truth his golden bells pure Doctrine his anointing the Spirit and Power He entred not with the blood of Goats and Calves into the Holy of Holies here below but with his own blood into Heaven there to appear in the presence of God and bear the names of his people upon his heart He is an High-Priest above all high-priests not a meer man but God whose Deity poured out an infinite virtue upon his Sacrifice He was not made an High-Priest only but made such by an oath The Lord sware Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedeck Hebr. 7.21 The Aaronical Priesthood was temporary and of less moment but Christs was unchangeable and of far greater moment hence God pawned his Holiness Life Being it self to make it immutable for ever Other high-priests died as men but Christ though he died as a Sacrifice yet as an High-Priest he lives for ever hence the Apostle saith That he was a Priest after the power of an endless life Heb. 7.16 His Deity made him an everliving Priest and transfused an endless life of merit into his Sacrifice He is consecrated for evermore Heb. 7.28 He is a perfect Priest the efficacy of his Sacrifice is perpetual the holy Unction on his head is indeficient and ever running down upon believers This is the great High-Priest the substance of all those under the Law Lastly The truth of Gods Worship is set forth in and by Christ Though the truth and sincerity of Worship were required under the Law though external Worship as well as internal be due under the Gospel yet the truth of Worship was never so excellently set forth as it is in and by Christ This appears in three or four things 1. The matter of Worship is now more free and pure than it was the clog of Ceremonies and ritual observances is now removed Under the Law there was abundance of Corn Ordinances a great number of Sacrifices Circumcisions Washings Purifyings Fringes Festivals Travels to the Temple and distinctions of meats but in and by Christ the yoke is broken the carnal Ordinances cease and all is turned into spirituality Our Sacrifice is to present and consecrate our selves to God which is a service highly reasonable and indeed no other than the right posture of the soul towards him Our Circumcision is in the spirit and a cutting off the corrupt flesh of it Our Washing is that of Regeneration and Reformation Our Purifying is that of Faith which purifies the heart by the Blood and Spirit of Christ apprehended by it Our Fringes are no outward ones those being supplied by the Law in the heart Christ is our Passover the Holy Spirit poured out our Pentecost Our Feast is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to do our duty as one saith To delight in works of Virtue as another hath it There is now no tye to this or that place Omnis locus viro bono templum Every place is a Temple to a good man Every-where we may lift up holy hands to God Nor any distinctions of meat To the pure all things are pure The Levitical uncleanness in beasts did shadow out the moral uncleanness in men Quod Judaei vitabant in pecore id nos vitare oportet in more What the Jews avoided in the beast that we are to avoid in our conversation If there be no discretion of things in us the beast doth not part the hoof if no heavenly rumination it doth not chew the cud An idle person is a fish without fins or scales seldom in motion An earthly man is a creeping thing that goes upon his belly and feeds on dust Thus in and by Christ Religion is refined the load of carnal and ritual observations is cast off and Worship is brought forth in its pure and spiritual glory 2. The mode of Worship is excellently set forth in the Gospel God who is a Spirit must be served as becomes him in spirit and truth There must be a lowliness and humility of mind a reverence and godly fear an elevation and devotional ascension of the soul to God a filial love and obedience to his command a single eye a pure intention at his glory a divine fervour and freedom of spirit in the work a faith in the great Mediator for acceptance a waiting and holy expectancy upon God that he would bless his own Ordinance and irradiate the duty with the light of his countenance It 's true this mode of Worship was known under the Old Testament but it was never so illustriously set forth as by our Saviour Jesus Christ As a Painter saith Theophylact doth not destroy the old lineaments but only make them more glorious and beautiful so did Christ about the Law by his pure discoveries he put a gloss and glory upon the Divine Worship 3. The help to Worship is communicated in and by Jesus Christ The Holy Spirit which first new-frames the heart for pure spiritual Worship and then stirs up and actuates the holy Graces in it is more largely afforded under the Gospel than ever it was before Under the Law there were some dews and droppings of it in the Jewish Church but under the Gospel it is poured out upon all flesh It was a Judaical axiom The Divine Majesty dwells in none without the Land of Israel But after Jesus Christ had by his sweet-smelling Sacrifice purchased the Spirit and in the glory of his Merits had ascended into Heaven he shed forth the Spirit in a
it were out of the fire and breathes out a Death and a Curse against it It further appears when the Threatning comes forth in actual Judgments in which God falls upon his own creature the work of his own hands It more appears when Wrath comes down not upon this or that sinner but upon multitudes and not upon the offending persons only but upon their Infant-relations upon their fellow-creatures upon the very places where they acted their iniquities Adam sinned and Wrath fell upon the whole Race of mankind nay and a Blast and a Curse fell upon the Creation such as makes it groan and travel in pain with an universal Vanity The old World was drowned in sensualities and a Deluge sweeps away them and their fellow-creatures The Sodomites burned in their unnatural lusts and fire and brimstone was rained down upon them Korah Dathan and Abiram turned Rebels and the Earth opened her mouth and swallowed up them and all that appertained to them These are notable Tokens of displeasure but a greater is yet behind The Eternal Son of God cannot assume our flesh and stand as a Sponsor for us but he must bear an infinite Wrath such as was due to the sin of a World Though he were the Wisdom of God he must be sore amazed and ready to faint away in a fit of horror Though the Fathers joy he must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 surrounded with sorrows even unto death He bore up all things yet now under the burden of Wrath he must fall and grovel upon the ground He must pour out tears and strong cryes to God that the bitter Cup may pass He must be in an Agony a dismal conflict with the Wrath of God and sweat great dropt and clotters of blood under the pressure of it The blessed and beloved One of God he was yet he must be made a Curse and upon a tormenting Cross cry out My God! My God! why hust thou for suken me The Sun must now withdraw his light and the Earth quake in sympathy with their Creator Oh! What a spectacle of displeasure was here What is a Deluge or the groans of a dissolving World in comparison There meer creatures suffer but here God in the flesh The Marks of divine Wrath were now set upon that humane Nature which as assumed into an infmite Person is far above all the Greation Never was there so high a demonstration of Gods infinite hatred and antipathy against sin as there is here No created Understanding of Men or Angels could ever have found out such a wonderful Manifestation as this is Infinite Wifdom did it to make sin look like it self infinitely odious Moreover As it is the nature of Hatred to be a Murderer to seek the not being of the thing hated so it was the great Design of this Mysterie to extirpate sin out of the hearts of men For this purpose was the Son of God mantjested that he might the stroy the works of the devil 1 John 3.8 There are three things in sin the guilt the power and the being The aim of a crucified Christ was to extirpate there all Christ was made Sin and a Curse for us He did by his sweet-sinelling Satrifice fully fatisfie the Law and Justice of God And why did he do it but that the bonds of guilt might be broken off from us The strength of sin in binding us over to Death and Hell is the Law and the Law in its threatning of a Curse and Condemnation is the voice of vindictive Justice these two being fully satisfied in Christ the guilt of sin becomes powerless and unable to hold such sinners as by Faith and Repentance partake in that Satisfaction There was in Christs Sufferings not only a fulness of Satisfaction but a redundance of Merit Thereby he procured the Holy Spirit for us and why so but that the power of sin might be dissolved in us Our own spirit of it self could not would not do this but the divine Spirit which Christ hath procured doth in true Believers effect it Sin is no longer a prevailing-Law in the heart the Holy Spirit takes away its dominion that the Throne of Christ may be set there It is true as Saint Bernard saith Velis nolis infra fines tuos habitat Jebusaeus Sin hath a being in Believers but even that doth the holy Spirit in the Article of Death remove from them that their Souls may fly away into that pure Region where are the spirits of just men made perfect Thus God manirests his hatred of sin in that he laid in the Sufferings of Christ a design for the extirpation of it 4. Gods Holiness as it imports a love of holiness in man is here clearly seen in that when it was lost he did so much for the recovery of it Holiness that divine Life being by the Fall beaten out of the heart of man stood without in the letter of the Law but that it might be recovered into the heart of man again that his heart might be made a Sanctuary an holy Place for the divine Majesty to dwell and take pleasure in God hath done very much and been at a vast expence about it He hath not only wished for Holiness O that there were such an heart in them Deut. 5.29 but he hath sent his own Son into the flesh to be a rare Pattern and Samplar of it nay and to bleed and die upon a Cross that it might be revived in poor fallen man It could not be revived there without the holy Spirit and that could never have been had unless Justice were satisfied and Satisfaction could not be made without a Sacrifice of infinite value Christ therefore was made such an One that the holy Spirit might come and re-imprint Holiness in man again God died in the flesh that man might live in the Spirit One great end of Christs sufferings was Holiness He gave himself for us that he might purifie to himself a peculiar people Tit. 2.14 that he might have a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle Ephes 5.27 Rather than lose Holiness which is the Glory He would humble himself to the shame of a Cross rather than we should not be sanctified or consecrated to God in Holiness he would sanctifie and consecrate himself to be a sacrifice to Justice Oh! What a rate or value doth God set upon Holiness in man How highly must he delight and take pleasure in it when he will come in the flesh and die rather than suffer it to be extinct in the World a greater demonstration of Love to it than this cannot possibly be imagined Further Gods love to Holiness appears in this that he orders things so that no man can partake of Jesus Christ unless he subject himself to the holy terms of the Gospel he that names the Name of Christ must depart from iniquity What if Christ be a most glorious Saviour and Redeemer What though he fulfilled Righteousness and made Satisfaction What though he opened a
will be loved no longer nay it will look according to its own hue like a vile base deformed thing fit for nothing but to be hung upon a Cross there to die and expire Hence it appears that an holy Man as long as his Faith discovers a vanity and nothingness in the fairest prospects of the World must needs overcome the World and the lusts of it Again An holy Man according to that supernatural Consecration which is upon him surrenders up his Love and Joy and Delight to God and Christ and Heavenly things the stream of his Heart which before run out upon the lying vanities here below is now turned to the excellent things above his Conversation is in Heaven his Treasure and his Heart are both there and then what must become of Sin must it not needs die away and become as a Body without a Spirit in it It is the Love and the Joy and the Delight of Man which animate Sin but if these are not here any longer but risen and gone away into the upper World to place and center themselves upon the excellent objects which are there then Sin must needs languish and die away it hath nothing to animate or enliven it any more were this Divine surrender in perfection Sin could not so much as be and proportionably where it is but in truth only Sin must needs grow heartless and powerless Notable is that of the Apostle Walk in the Spirit i.e. in the Elevations of holy Faith and Love and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of Flesh Gal. 5.16 Sin shall grow weak and by little and little give up the Ghost To conclude this Character An holy Man which way soever he looks sees just reason to mortify Sin the rectitude of the Law saith It must die for its crookedness and ataxy the threatning of Death saith It must die or the Soul must die in the room of it The bleeding Wounds of our dying Lord say That the Crucifier must not be spared but die after that manner That excellent Guest the holy Spirit saith It is too vile a thing to live under the same roof with it self The precious immortal Soul saith The wounds and turpitudes of it are too intolerable to be endured any longer Heaven that blessed Region saith It is not to be tolerated by any who mean to enter into that place We must then mortifie the deeds of the Body that we may live Rom. 8.13 that we may live a Life of Holiness here and a Life of Glory in another World Sixthly An holy Life is not made up of the Exercise of this or that Grace in particular but of the Exercise of all Graces pro hic nunc as occasion serves St. Peter saith That we must add to our Faith Vertue to Vertue Knowledge to Knowledge Temperance to Temperance Patience to Patience Godliness to Godliness Brotherly kindness and to Brotherly kindness Charity 2 Pet. 1.5 6 7. Holy Men who are partakers of the Divine Nature spoken of immediately before have Grace upon Grace and must as occasion serves exercise one after another that there may be a Constellation of Graces appearing in their Lives to give the more full resemblance of the Perfections which are in their Father in Heaven our Saviour Christ in whom all Graces are set forth in lively and Orient colours and are really and practically exemplified to our view had this character justly given him he went up and down down doing good every step one odour of Grace or other brake forth from him Subjection to Parents or Magistrates or Zeal towards God or Humility in washing his Disciples feet or Meekness under false Accusations or melting Compassions letting out cures on the Bodies and Heavenly truths on the Souls of Men or admirable Patience under great sorrows and sufferings one glorious way of Holiness or other was always coming from him Proportionably an holy Man Who is a living Member of Christ must be in his measure holy in all manner of Conversation 1 Pet. 1.15 In the Original it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which way soever he turn himself he must be holy in it he must have a respect to God at every turn this will best appear by the particular parts of his Life Take an holy Man in Divine Ordinances there he is holy He would first be sure that he is in a right Church and in a right Ordinance in a right Church for there the Lord commands the Blessing even Life for evermore in a right Ordinance for unless the Institution be from God the Benediction cannot be expected from him and then he would serve God in a right manner and sanctify his Name in his approaches when he comes to an Ordinance he hath high thoughts of God as being the Infinite Majesty of Heaven the Excellency of all Perfections one whom Angels adore and Devils tremble at accordingly he lies low before God he serves him with Reverence and godly Fear he draws nigh to him yet forgets not the infinite distance between them he blushes to think that he must go before so pure a Majesty with the dust of Mortality about him and again he blushes to think that he must do so in the spots and rags of many Infirmities which being in the Soul are much more abasive than those in the Body The Beams of the Divine Glory strike an holy awe into him and make him conclude That a Soul though entirely given up is to God but a little very little thing but as a Beam to the Sun or a drop to the Ocean and which is matter of more shame and abasement the Soul is much less in that the innate corruption holds back and the bewitching World steals away a great deal of it from God very little or rather nothing it is that we can give to him however the holy Man such is his Divine temper would not abate any thing but endeavour in Ordinances to give God his Spirit and highest Intention he knows that God is a Spirit and meer bodily worship is as nothing to him what is the bowing of the Knee when there is an Iron Sinew of Rebellion within or the lifting up of the Hands or Eyes when there is an earthly depression upon the affections towhat purpose is an open Ear when the Heart is deaf and shut up against holy Truths And what a shadow a meer lye in worship is the Body when the Mind is stole away and gone after Vanity He therefore sets himself to serve God in spirit and truth while God is speaking to him in his Sacred Word he would have no converse at all with worldly objects he bids these stand by and not interrupt his attention while he is speaking to God in prayer he would not only pour out words to God but his very Heart and Spirit if it were possible all of it without reserving so much as a glance or a piece of a broken thought towards carnal things a Duty to the Great God is a
Speculum Theologiae in Christo OR A VIEW OF SOME Divine Truths Which are either Practically Exemplified IN JESUS CHRIST Set forth in the GOSPEL Or may be reasonably deduced from thence By EDWARD POLHILL of Burwash in Sussex Esq LONDON Printed by A. M. and R. R. for Tho. Cockerill at the Three Legs in the Poultrey over-against the Stocks-Market MDCLXXVIII TO THE CHRISTIAN READER IT was anciently observed by St. Austin touching the Prophets under the Old Testament Non tantum lingua illorum hominum verum etiam vita fuit Prophetica They did not only prophesie or reveal the mind of God by words but by things done by or upon them Isaiah must walk naked and barefoot to shew the shame of the Egyptian captivity Jeremy must go down to the Potters House and there see the Vessel marred to give the Jews a pregnant demonstration that God could unmake and destroy them Ezekiel was to remove and bring forth his stuff to give them a lively representation of their captivity Above all this was eminently seen in our great Prophet Jesus Christ He did not only reveal the Gospel but he himself is the substance and marrow of it He is the very mirror of Divine Truths and Perfections His stile is the Image of the invisible God the brightness of the Fathers Glory As an eternal Son he is such in himself As incarnate he is such to us The Messiah say the Rabbins is facies Dei the face of God The Glory of God faith the Apostle is in the face of Jesus Christ The Divine perfections appear in him as beauty doth in the face The invisible one may here be seen the inaccessible Majesty may be approach'd unto Infinity to accommodate it self to our Model appears nube carnis in a Cloud of flesh that his glory might not swallow us up In our Emanuel we have a body of Theology an excellent Summary of Divine Truths in a very lively manner set forth to us The Atheist who owns not a God in Heaven might here if he had eyes of Faith see God in the flesh The Wisdom of God doth here appear not in the orders and harmonies of nature but in a plot much greater and more admirable God and Man infinite and finite Eternal and Temporal are met in conjunction that the human finite temporal nature in Christ might be the Theater for the Divine Infinite Eternal nature to shew its perfections in The Truth of God manifests it self illustriously in that no difficulty could hinder the early promise of the Messiah made immediately after the fall of man neither could any time bury it in oblivion He would be true in that which was the hardest thing for him to do in parting with his only begotten out of his bosom for us After many ages the Promise must bud and blossom and bring forth the Messiah We see here That God is the holy one his hatred of sin is writ in Red Characters in the blood and wounds of our dear Lord. His love to holiness was such that he would send his own Son in the flesh to recover holiness into the heart of man again We have here Providence accurately watching over our Saviour all-along first over his Genealogy then over his birth life death resurrection And lastly over the issue of all a Church raised up to sing Hosannah's to him for ever Omnia plena Sacramentorum saith an Ancient Every thing in Christ reads us a Lecture of Divinity He being the second Adam who brought in righteousness and life unto men we are sure that there was a first who brought in sin and death to them From his conception being an extraordinary one we may plainly gather what the Two states of Nature and Grace are By the common generation we are flesh of flesh unclean creatures By the power of the regenerating spirit overshadowing our hearts we become spirit of spirit holy new-creatures In his life and preaching we have miracles triumphing over nature and all the order of it Mysteries exceeding Reason and all its Acumen and a Samplar of humility Meekness Mercy Righteousness Holiness Obedience such as the Sun never saw In his death we have what the proud Socinian thinks impossible Infinite Mercy and Infinite Justice kissing and embracing each other Mercy was seen that God should give his only his dearly beloved Son for us Justice was seen that God should exact of him standing in our stead as much as would counterpoize the sin and suffering of a World in his glorious satisfaction We see what that is which justifies sinners and makes them stand before the Holy God In his excellent example we see how justified ones which are mystical parts and pieces of him ought to walk and tread in his steps These things are the subject matter of the ensuing Discourse may all who are called Christians study Jesus Christ The little 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Reason of Man is much cried up in this Age may we much more adore the Infinite Word and Wisdom of God The temper of St. Bernard may be recommended to all Si scribas non sapit mihi nisi legero ibi Jesum si disputes aut conferas non sapit mihi nisi sonuerit ibi Jesus The devout Father could not relish any thing but Jesus Christ may our hearts ever burn and be inflamed with love to him in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledg may we desire none but Christ Non aliud praeter illum non aliud tanquam illum non aliud post illum Nothing besides him nothing like him nothing after him This is the scope of my Book if it profit or do good to any it is enough and as much as is desired by him who is A Lover of Truth Edw. Polhill Jan. 21. 1677. THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. A short View of Gods Allsufficiency and condescension in revealing himself p. 1 2. The various ways of manifestation In the making of the World and Man p. 3 4 5 6. After the fall in the Moral Law and in types and shadows p. 7. Lastly and above all in and by Jesus Christ p. 8. CHAP. II. Christ considered as a Prophet and a Speculum p. 9. The Divine Attributes shine in him particularly Wisdom p. 10. The obstacles of Redemption to be removed p. 11 12. The Son of God fit for the work p. 13. Many admirable conjunctions of God and Man of Justice and Mercy of Punishment and Obedience in Christs sufferings p. 14 15. Of Satisfaction and a kind of execution of the Law p. 16. Of Satisfaction and Merit p. 17. Of Merit and Example p. 18. All tending to our salvation ibid. The rare conquest of Sin Satan the World Death p. 19 20 21. Humility of mind necessary p. 21. The desperate issue of the pride of Human Reason p. 21 22. Need of Humility from the threefold state of Reason in Integrity after the Fall after Faith p. 23 24 25. CHAP. III. Holiness the glory of the Deity
conjunction p. 329 330. The conjunctions between Christ and us p. 331 to 334. How Christs Righteousness is imputed to us p. 335 to 337. That it is not only the Meritorious but Material cause of our Justification 338. This is proved from that phrase The Righteousness of God ib. 339 340. From the nature of Justification p. 341 to 343. From the parallel of the two Adams 344 to 351. From other phrases in Scripture 351 to 357. From a pardon as not being the same with Justification 357 to 364. From Christs suffering in our stead 364 365. The Objections against imputed Righteousness answered 365 to 374. What justifies us as to the Gospel-terms 374 c. The necessity and connexion of a twofold Righteousness 375 to 381. How we are justified by Faith 381 382. How Good works are necessary 382 to 387. A short conclusion 387 388 c. CHAP. XII Touching an Holy Life 390 to 392. It is not from principles of Nature 393 394. It is the fruit of a renewed regenerated heart 395 to 401. It issues out of faith and love 401 to 407. It proceeds out of a pure intention towards the will and glory of God 407 to 414. It is humble and dependent upon the influences of Grace 414 to 421. It requires a sincere mortification of sin without any salvo or exception 421 to 427. It stands in an exercise of all Graces 427 428. It makes a man holy in ordinances alms prosperity adversity contracts calling 428 to 441. There is such an exercise of graces as causeth them to grow 441 to 447. The conclusion of the Chapter 447 to 449. CHAP. I. Chap 1 A short View of Gods All-sufficiency and condescension in revealing himself The various ways of Manifestation In the making of the World and Man After the fall in the moral Law and in types and shadows Lastly and above all in and by Jesus Christ GOD All-sufficient must needs be his own happiness he hath his Being from himself and his happiness is no other than his being radiant with all Excellencies and by intellectual and amatorious reflexions turning back into the fruition of it self His Understanding hath prospect enough in his own infinite Perfections his Will hath rest enough in his own infinite Goodness he needed not the pleasure of a World who hath an eternal Son in his bosom to joy in nor the breath of Angels or men who hath an eternal Spirit of his own he is the Great All comprizing all within himself nay unless he were so he could not be God Had he let out no beams of his glory or made no intelligent creatures to gather up and return them back to himself his happiness would have suffered no eclipse or diminution at all his Power would have been the same if it had folded up all the possible Worlds within its own arms and poured forth never an one into being to be a monument of it self His Wisdom the same if it had kept in all the orders and infinite harmonies lying in its bosom and set forth no such series and curious contexture of things as now are before our eyes His Goodness might have kept an eternal Sabbath in it self and never have come forth in those drops and models of Being which make up the Creation His Eternity stood not in need of any such thing as time or a succession of instants to measure its duration nor his Immensity of any such Temple as Heaven and Earth to dwell in and fill with his presence His Holiness wanted not such pictures of it self as are in Laws or Saints nor his Grace such a channel to run in as Covenants or Promises His Majesty would have made no abatement if it had had no train or host of creatures to wait upon it or no rational ones among them such as Angels and men to sound forth its praises in the upper or lower World Creature-praises though in the highest tune of Angels are but as silence to him as that Text may be read Psalm 65.1 Were he to be served according to his Greatness all the men in the World would not be enough to make a Priest nor all the other creatures enough to make a Sacrifice fit for him Is it any pleasure to him that thou art righteous saith Eliphaz Job 22.3 No doubt he takes pleasure in our righteousness but the complacence is without indigence and while he likes it he wants it not That such an infinite All-sufficient One should manifest himself must needs be an act of admirable supereffluent Goodness such as indeed could not be done without stooping down below his own Infinity that he might gratifie our weakness Those two Hebrew words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which imports flesh or weakness and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is to annunciate and declare good tidings are of a neer affinity In the mysterie of the Incarnation God came down into our flesh and in every other manifestation of himself he comes down as it were into the weakness of creatures or notions that we who cannot hear or understand the eternal Word in it self or enter the Light inaccessible might see him in reflexes and finite glasses such as we are able to bear Every manifestation imports condescension The World as fair and goodly a structure as it is is but instar puncti aut nihili like a little drop or small dust to him Creature-reason though a divine particle and more glorious than the Sun it self is but a little spark for the Infinite Light to shew himself in No words no not those in the purest Laws and richest Promises are able to reach him who as an Ancient hath it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Essence Goodness Wisdom all in hyperbole in a transcendent excess above words or notions His Name is above every name nevertheless he humbles himself to appear to our minds in a Scripture-image nay to our very senses in the body of Nature that we might clasp the arms of Faith and Love about the holy beams and in their light and warmth ascend up to their great Original the Father of Lights and Mercies God hath manifested himself many ways He set up the material World that he though an invisible Spirit might render himself visible therein all the hosts of Creatures wear his colours Sensible things say the Platonists are but the types and resemblances of spiritual which are the primitive and archetypal Beings Every thing here below say the Jewish Cabalists hath some root above and all Worlds have the print and seal of God upon them Eternity shadows forth it self in time infinite Power Wisdom and Goodness pourtray out themselves upon finite things in such legible characters that as soon as we open our eyes upon them we see innumerable creatures pointing to the Creator and teaching that Wisdom which Archytas the Philosopher placed in the reduction of all things to one great Original Almighty Power hath printed it self upon the World nay upon every little particle of it
way into the Holy of Holies into the Glory and Immortality there Notwithstanding all this without Repenting there is nothing but perishing without Holiness there is no seeing of God A life after the flesh must end in death The divine Justice and Law which was fully satisfied in Christ will seize upon rebellious sinners and ask a second Satisfaction as if there had been none before the divine hatred of sin which was so signally evident in the sufferings of Christ will appear again in their utter ruin and destruction Things are so knit together that Holiness must be necessary to make us happy Christ is a Saviour and a Lord too where he saves from Hell there he rules in the pure ways towards Heaven His blood and Spirit are ever in Conjunction if the one deliver from Guilt and Wrath the other subdues sin and implants Holiness Promises and Precepts which are intermixed in the Word must be both taken together into the heart where the latter hath not obedience the former can minister no comfort True Faith receives an entire Christ as it rests upon his Merits and Righteousness so it subjects to his Spirit and Word in all things That hope of Heaven which purifies not is indeed a Prefumption and not an Hope a Cobweb hanging in a vain heart and not an Anchor sure and stedfast entring into that within the Vail God out of love to Holiness hath linked it in with Christ Promises Faith Heaven and Salvation that no man can or may enjoy the one without the other till Christ can be divided his Sacrifice from his Scepter till Promises can be rent off from the holy Precepts to which they are annexed till a vital Faith can cease to do its function in acts of obedience till the holy Heavens can admit an unclean thing into them till then an unholy person cannot arrive at Happiness In all this we see how high a respect God hath for Holiness Now what remains but that Christians who have this glorious Attribute set before them should bethink themselves what manner of persons they ought to be God acts like himself Should not they do so their decorum stands in an holy Assimilation to him Christianity is as an Ancient hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a likeness to God to be after him in his imitable Perfections to be loving merciful holy patient as He is is to be and act like themselves One Virtue of God or other should be still breaking forth from them to tell the World that they are Christians Their finite love and mercy to fellow-creatures should speak their sense of that infinite love and mercy which they have tasted of Their patience under injuries should carry a resemblance of those Riches of goodness and forbearance which God hath spent upon themselves All their holy Graces should appear as so many Rays and little Images of Him who is the great Fountain and pattern of Holiness For them to walk worthy of God and in imitation of him is to walk condecently to themselves and in correspondence to Christianity Again God doth all things for Himself his own Glory and this must be the aim of Christians To be a Center to themselves they must not do it an higher and nobler End than God himself cannot be It is naturally just that He who is the first Principle of all things should be the last End That Axiom That God in all things must be glorified is fundamental Divinity that is the very thing which they must look to as their ultimate scope They should put away the by-glances at Self and the unbecoming Squints at base and false Ends that they may have a single Eye and a pure Intention to the true and great End of all things This is the very life and marrow of Religion it sanctifies holy Duties it spiritualizes civil and natural Actions it elevates the life unto the great Center of all things and by consecrating the Actions unto God gives them a kind of Immortality It transforms the Soul into a deiformity or divine Nature that it becomes one spirit with the Lord and falls in with the same Will and End with him If we will be like Christians the frame of our heart must be above the interests of flesh and self All those things which are off from the true End and Center must be in our eyes as so many impertinent follies the whole of our hearts and lives must be under a consecration to that Eternal Design The Glory of God blessed for ever Moreover God hath an hatred of sin and a love of Holiness and what is the work of Christians but to follow him Sin is so vile an evil that it cannot but be worthy of hatred To the holy God and his Attributes it is meer enmity and rebellion to the World it is a Gurse a blast of Vanity to the Soul an Ataxy turpitude and corruption to the Lord Christ as Nails a bloody Cross and Cup of Wrath. A horrible evil it is and to be hated accordingly a meer evil without mixture of good and to be hated with a pure hatred without mixture of Love An All-evil opposite to God the All-goodness and to be hated with all-hatred not a drop or degree of hatred should be let out upon any thing else All of it in the most intense degree and measure should be poured out upon it in what place or time soever it be still it is evil and upon that account to be hated perpetually and in all places And indeed if we do bethink our selves the groans of the poor creatures which are constant and everywhere round about us do very strongly move us hereunto the blots and turpitudes upon our own Souls tell us that we must hate it as much as we love the beauty and glory of our immortal Spirits The bloud and wounds of our dear Saviour cry out for Justice and Vengeance to be executed upon it And if we have any love for him we must crucifie it and cast it away as an accursed thing On the other hand Holiness cannot but be a fit Object for our love It is a pure thing let down from Heaven and if our love be there it can do no less than embrace so divine an off-spring as that is It is the very rectitude and true temper of Souls that which sets them in a right posture towards God and all holy things and for that reason more love is to be set upon it than that which is due to our own Souls Though in man it be but a little Ray or spark yet because of its divine Nature it doth in little resemble him who is all Holiness and Purity and upon that account our love which in its highest measures ascends up to Him must in proportion be due to it The amiableness of it in the Letter made the Holy man cry out Oh how I love thy Law Psalm 119.97 and how illustrious and attractive must it be when it is in its proper
go round about by his Sons blood when a word a merciful pleasure might have done the work without it These things premised I now proceed to shew how Punitive Justice was manifested in the Sufferings of Christ The Apostle speaks memorably God set forth Christ to be a propitiation to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins as if he had said There could be no remission without it and to make it the more emphatical he doubles the phrase To declare I say at this time his righteousness and withal he adds That he may be just Rom. 3.25 26. Righteousness that is Punitive Justice was eminently demonstrated in the propitiatory Sufferings of Christ unless this were so no sufficient account could be possibly given of them The Socinians who deny Christ's Satisfaction cannot give a tolerable reason thereof For what say they Christ in his Sufferings was an example of Patience I answer he was so but there was a Cloud of suffering-Martyrs before his Incarnation and then what singular thing was there in his Passion It 's true he was the greatest Pattern that ever was but had that been all why did he suffer as our Sponsor and Mediator why did he bear the Sin of a World and the Wrath of God due to it Here he was alone no man no Angel was able to trace or follow him The Saints may fill up the Sufferings of Christ in his mystical body but they cannot dare not aspire so far as to go about to imitate him in those satisfactory Ones which were in his own proper body Had he been only an exemplary Saviour he could have saved none at all Not those under the Old Testament for Example doth not like Merit look backward to those who were before it Nor those under the New for no meer Example no not that of an Incarnate God could have raised up Man out of the ruins of the Fall unless there had been in his Sufferings a Satisfaction to Justice The Guilt of Sin could not have been done away unless there had been therein a Merit to procure the Holy Spirit The Power of Sin could not have been subdued a meer exemplary Christ would have been but a titular Saviour The great design of raising up a Church out of the corrupt Mass of Mankind would have failed a Pattern only being too weak a bottom for it to stand upon Again they say Christ suffered that he might confirm the Covenant with his own blood I answer the Covenant was confirmed in Abrahams time Gal. 3.17 It was made immutable by Gods Word and Oath Heb. 6.17 It was ratified by the glorious Miracles of Christ it was sealed up by the precious blood of Martyrs and why must the Son of God dye for it or if he must might not a simple death serve Why was there a Curse and an horrible Desertion upon him There can be no imaginable coherence or connexion between his bearing the tokens of Gods Wrath and his confirming the Covenant of Grace the one can have no congruity or subserviency to the other The Scripture therefore which gives a better account tells us that he dyed to pay a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Ransom for us obtain eternal Redemption abolish and make an end of sin deliver from the world and the wrath to come reconcile to God purchase a Church and bring in everlasting Righteousness and an happy Immortality suitable thereunto These noble and excellent ends could not be compassed but by Sufferings penal and satisfactory such as had the bitter ingredients of Divine Wrath and displeasure in them Christ was not a meer Witness but a Priest Redeemer and Mediator His blood was not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Testimony but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Propitiation neither was it only confirmative of the Covenant but fundative all the Promises of Grace and Glory sprung up out of his satisfactory and meritorious Passion Further they say that in his Sufferings the immense Love of God was manifested I answer His immense Love was indeed very Illustrious in giving his Son but to what purpose was he given but to be a Propitiation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In this was love that he sent his Son to be a propitiation for our sins saith the Apostle 1 John 4.10 When inexorable Justice-stood as an Obstacle in the way when Satisfaction must be made or mankind eternally perish then infinite Love appeared in giving the only begotten Son to be an expiatory sacrifice for us to satisfie Justice that we might partake of Mercy But if a Satisfaction were needless if the Sufferings of Christ might have been spared Where is the vehemence of Love It may seem rather to be in Remission of sin than in the Passion of our Saviour That Remission should come to us through his intervenient Death when that Death was not necessary looks not so much like an act of Love as of Sapience and yet how Sapience should unnecessarily and without just cause order so great a thing as the Death of Christ to be I cannot understand Moreover they say Christ suffered that his Death intervening we might be assured by his Resurrection of our own and of life eternal to be obtained in a way of Obedience But I answer This is rather to assign the end of Christs Resurrection than of his Death for his Death here comes in only by the by as a meer intervenient thing a causa sine qua non a thing which hath no proper end of its own It is not to me imaginable that such an one as he was should dye meerly to testifie to those things which were before fecured by the immutable Word and Oath of God himself O beatos nos quorum causâ Deus jurat miseros si ne juranti credimus saith Tertullian his Oath cannot but be a sufficient security It 's true Christs Death and Resurrection do assure Believers that they shall rise and live for ever in Glory But how do they do it what exemplarily only no surely his Death was satisfactory for sin and meritorious of life eternal His Resurrection was a Seal a pregnant proof that the Satisfaction made by his Death was full and consummate Hence arises in Believers an assurance of Life and Immortality the same being purchased and paid for by the blood of Jesus Had his Death and Resurrection been exemplary only which way should an assurance be drawn from it The argument if any must run after some such rate as this Jesus Christ God as well as Man one having Power over his own life free from all sin never seeing corruption able to overcome death it self did rise from the grave Ergo meer men having no power over their lives tainted with sin subject to corruption unable to conquer death shall rise also the inconsequence is apparent On the other hand let the argument run thus Jesus Christ did by a passion of infinite Merit and Satisfaction purchase eternal life for Believers Ergo they shall be sure
of God which as it is the highest suavity in it self so it pours out a delicious relish into all outward things Spirituals were so those initial Graces of Faith and Repentance which introduce us into an Union with Christ are from him He is a Prince and Saviour to give repentance Acts 5.31 To you it is given in the behalf of Christ to believe on him Phil. 1.29 As soon as we repent and believe we are justified in his blood and by a conjunction with him the natural Son we have power and right to become the Sons of God by Adoption and Grace The Holy Spirit the fountain of Graces and Comforts which was upon him the head above measure will fall down upon us his Members in a proportion every Grace every piece of the glorious new-creature is created in him In the power of his Merits and Spirit every comfort every beam of Divine Favour comes down to us through him He is the true Mercy-seat where God meets and communes in words of Grace with us Eternals were so too all the weights of Glory and Crowns of life in Heaven were purchased by him His blood opens the Holy of Holies the pure River of life springs out of his Merits the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ Rom. 6.28 Had it not been for him we could never have entred into such a blessed Region as Heaven What a Gift is Christ which virtually contains all gifts and good things in him How incomparable that Love which gave us so comprehensive a Gift In the last place let us consider the excellent Evangelical Terms which were founded on the Death of Christ Here two things are considerable The one is this The terms are easier The Covenant of Works was Do this and live The Covenant of Grace is Believe repent and live The first called for pure sinless perfect obedience The last stoops and condescends to fallen man it accepts of sincere though imperfect obedience uprightness passes for perfection the main of the heart for all of it the will is accepted for the work pure aims are taken for compleat performances infirmities are covered with indulgence duties are taken into the hand of a Mediator and perfumed with his infinite Merits and hence they are acceptable and as sweet Odours to God O how low doth infinite Love and Mercy stoop to poor sinners It will save a repenting believing sinner and how can it possibly go lower That God should justifie an impenitent unbelieving sinner is utterly impossible to his Holiness unless he would open a gap to all sin and wickedness and make it capable to have a Crown of happiness at last He could not more condescend than he hath done in the terms of the Gospel there is a Kingdom for the poor in spirit a Comfort for the mourners an acceptance for a willing mind a favourable respect for the least spark of grace which is latent in a desire and but as a little smoke or wiek in the socket as the expression is Matth. 12.20 And what condescending Love is here How could God stoop lower for the Salvation of Men The other is this The terms are surer It 's true Adam had he stood in Righteousness would have had a reward But the difference is this Under the first Covenant it was not certain that Adam though he had sufficient grace should stand but under the second it is as sure as Gods Truth and Faithfulness in the promise can make it that a people shall be gathered up out of the corrupt Mass of mankind that Christ shall have a repenting believing seed and that they shall abide and persevere till they come to the recompence of reward in Heaven St. Austin distinguishes of a double adjutorium gratiae De Corrept Grat. cap. 12. or help of grace Adam had that grace without which he could not have obeyed Gods People have that which causes them to obey The first gave him a posse a power to obey and persevere The second gives us the very velle perficere the very willing and working with perseverance Hereupon he observes that Adams will though sound and without spot did not persevere in an ampler good whilest our will though weak and infected with indwelling Corruption doth persevere in a lesser Adam with all his Holiness fell before an Apple a little titillation of pleasure but the Christian Martyrs have stood it out notwithstanding the reliques of sin in them against racks and torments Under the first Covenant the stock of Grace was in Mans own hand the stress lay upon his Will the principle of Holiness in him was subjected to it to be continued or forfeited But under the second Covenant which was founded at so vast an expence as the Blood of God Mans Will is not made Trustee a second time the stock is not in his own hand Grace is a Victor and subdues the Will unto it self Hence this Covenant cannot as the other did miscarry God was a friend to innocent Adam but in the second Covenant God comes nearer to us in a double Union such as Adam never dreamt of There is an Hypostatical Union the Son of God taking our nature into himself and which is founded thereon a Mystical Union Believers being in a wonderful manner united unto Christ as members unto their head In the first Union of the Divine and Humane Nature in Christ there is one Person In the second Christ and Believers make one Christ 1 Cor. 12.12 Believers are but Christ displayed he lives in them he counts himself incomplete without them By virtue of these two Unions it is that Believers finally persevere Because I live saith Christ ye shall live also John 14.19 Their life is bound up in his as long as Christ the head is alive above the believing Members below shall not fail of quickning grace to maintain spiritual life unto eternal The Holy Spirit is in them a well of water springing up to everlasting life John 4.14 and to secure the abode of the Spirit with them Christ is a Priest after the power of an endless life Heb. 7.16 In the Covenant of Works there was no promise of perseverance but in the Covenant of Grace there are many such promises God shall confirm you unto the end 1 Cor. 1.8 He will put his fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from him Jer. 32.40 The Apostle praying for the Thessalonians that they may be preserved blameless unto the coming of Christ immediately adds Faithful is he that called you who also will do it 1 Thes 5.23 24 evidently God undertakes it and engages his Faithfulness in it To take these Promises conditionally is utterly to evacuate them to make them run thus If we will persevere we shall persevere and so much was true under the old Covenant and without any Promise at all The clear scope of those Promises is That Believers are not left in their own hand but kept in Gods and how sure
an hand that is our Saviour tells us None can pluck them out of my Fathers hand John 10.29 I know some take these words with a limitation None can pluck them away without their own voluntary consent but this limitation makes the words altogether insignificant it is not possible that they should be plucked away without their consent The words therefore with that limitation run thus None can pluck them but in such a way as the same is possible to be done and thus they signifie nothing That which our Saviour makes impossible in the Text becomes in the Gloss as possible as any other thing Here we see the incomparable Love of God to his People there is in Christ an everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure they are preserved in Christ and that unto salvation This infinite immense Love of God in Christ can do no less than call for a return What was it not enough for him to give us a World of Creatures Hath he given his Son his only begotten dearly beloved Son for us Hath he given him so far as to be made flesh and made under the Law the command and curse of it Hath he thereby removed all Evils and procured all good things for us Hath he done this for Sinners for Enemies and that out of an eternal design of Grace out of such Love as was an impulse to it self without any attractive on our part to move him thereunto And after all this shall not our hearts take fire and burn within us with Love to him again When his Love was up in Eternity shall not ours appear in time When he loved us worthless meritless Creatures shall not we love him upon the highest and greatest attractives When he gave his Son when the Giver and the Gift were both infinite shall our finite affections be shut up from him or denied unto him Our Love to his is but a little drop a poor inconsiderable nothing and with what face or reason can we withhold it when infinite Love calls for it Hath God himself come down as it were from his altitude and in admirable Grace followed us First into our flesh and then into a Law-subjection and at last into a Curse and Penal Sufferings and all this upon an errand of Peace and Reconciliation to reduce us again to himself and to happiness in him and shall we yet fly away from him and by an horrible indignity turn our backs upon such admirable pursuits of Love and Grace After such a deliverance from Sin and Hell as this May we think our selves our own or turn away our hearts so much as in the glance of a thought from so great a Saviour After such a purchase of Grace and Heaven should we not lye down at his feet in extatical admirations and send up our dearest affections to the great Donor If Creatures if Laws if Ordinances move us not shall we yet be unaffected at the spectacle of a God incarnate obeying bleeding dying for us Sinners and Enemies It 's horrible ingratitude having such a prospect of infinite Love before our eyes Let us do as becomes us give God our heart not a piece or corner of it but all not in some weak languid velleities but in the highest strains and raisures of spirit not in some drops or rivulets but in a full stream and current of affections such as is due to him who is the Original of souls Our desires before vagrant on Earth should now take Wing and fly up to Heaven our Love once in corrupt conjunction with Creatures should now aspire after a pure Union with him who is Love it self Our delights should no longer toy or sport with vanity but spread and sweetly dilate themselves in the Beams of infinite Goodness All the Powers of our Souls should now be gathered in from the World and upon on a full deliberate choice should be placed upon the Center of Perfections The proof of all this must be in a life of Obedience without this it is meer vanity to say that we love him Holy Love goes not alone or without a train of good works following after it the warmth and ardor of it in the heart purifies the life the inward suavity of it facilitates the outward Command and naturalizes us to Obedience as it sets a high rate and estimation upon God himself so upon every jot and tittle of his Law The complacency which we find in him makes us take pleasure in all the pure ways which he hath set before us if we esteem him above Worlds and Creatures we will allow his Will to be above all Wills and subject ours to it Moreover the Love of God moves us to love our Neighbour What hath God gone before us in such admirable steps of Love and shall we not be followers of him as dear children and walk in love as the Apostle speaks Eph. 5.1 2 Can there be an higher or nobler pattern than Love it self Shall he do good in the sphere of Nature and more and higher good in the sphere of Grace and we do none in our little sphere Shall infinite Bowels and Mercies be open and finite ones shut When God hath given so great a Gift as his own Son May we withhold our little Pittances of Charity Would we receive all and give nothing Exact pence from our Brother when Talents are forgiven to our selves Is God come into our flesh and shall we hide our selves from it I mean in the neglect or contempt of the poor Did he take humanity that we should put it off No in so doing we should reproach not our Maker only but our Redeemer too Inhumanity is now double treble to what it was before our Saviour took an humane Nature to read us a Lecture of Love and Goodness in the old Commandment of Love is now a new one urged upon us by a new Motive The incomparable Love of God in his giving his Son for us If we now shut up our Bowels and Mercies from others how dwelleth the Love of God in us What sense can we have of it upon our hearts Charity was the badg of the Primitive Christians The impress of Gods Love upon Mr. Fox was so great that he never denied any that asked for Jesus sake Our Love towards men should be a little picture or resemblance of Gods Love towards us Our Mercies and Compassions should tell the world that we have tasted of that infinite Grace and Mercy which is above Our Charity towards all should bear witness that we have been great receivers from God Our Love towards Enemies should be a thankful acknowledgment that we being such were reconciled to God by the Death of his Son CHAP. VI. Chap. 6 The Power of God manifest in Christ In his Incarnation and Conception In his Miracles These were true in the History True in the Nature of Miracles They were numerous and great They were suited to the Evangelical design Divine Power manifest in converting the
Aurelianus Dioclesianus turned their bloody swords upon them The very name of a Christian was crime enough upon every ill accident the Christians were cryed out upon as worthy of death as the only causes of the incumbent Calamity Thus the Powers of the World for the three first Centuries though ordained for good were Patrons of that great Evil Idolatry and utter Enemies to that great good Christianity No Christian in those times could imagine to retain his Religion unless he were willing to part with his life for it The great men in Wisdom the Philosophers of the World were Adversaries to Christianity their Wits as well as the Emperors Swords were bent against it outwardly they were in the splendor of Morality and seemed to make some approaches towards Christian Virtues but inwardly they were black with Enmity against the Gospel and at a vast distance from the holy Temper of it Many cavils they made against the Christians but the root of their Enmity lay in two or three things 1. Their carnal Reason would not stoop to the supernatural Truths revealed in the Gospel they were for Humane Wisdom but against Divine Those natural Truths which were within the sphere of Reason they looked on as Wisdom But those supernatural ones which were above it they esteemed no better than foolishness scorning that which they could not measure and casting that down below their Reason which indeed was above it With them St. Paul was but a babler Act. 17.18 one who had gathered up some vanities that he might scatter them abroad to others The Resurrection was a matter of mockery vers 32 as if the limits of Nature could not be exceeded no not by the God of it They thought that there was nothing in the Christian Doctrines Magd. cent 2. cap. 15. Fat c. Graecos praeter stultitiam nugas but toys and follies That God should be born a Man was against Reason a thing utterly incredible That a crucified man should be second to God the Father of all Just Mart. ad Anton. was madness and intolerable folly They thought that all the Wisdom lay on their own side Celsus could find much wiser things in Plato than in the Sacred Scriptures Julian boasted that the Gentiles had all the learning Spond Ann. Nazian Or. the Christians had only their Creed as if Faith which is a key to infinite treasures of Wisdom were a poor inconsiderable nothing These wise men of the World would not be made wiser than their own reason had made them and upon that account they set themselves against the great Mysteries of the Gospel 2. Their corrupt hearts would not brook that simplicity and sincerity which the Gospel called for they knew well enough that there was but one God yet in their very Worship in which if in any thing they should have been sincere and pure-hearted they dissembled and made as if there were many complying with the Idols of the place where they lived and doing many things Non tanquam Diis grata sed tanquam legibus jussa not as grateful to the Gods but as commanded by the Laws Hence St. Austin saith of Seneca Aust de C. D. l. 6. c. 10. that Colebat quod reprehendebat agebat quod arguebat He worshipped what he reproved he acted what he found fault with under all the beauty of Moral Virtues there lay a false heart such as could not bear a Command of internal Purity 3. They were animalia gloriae Creatures which lived upon popular air Accordingly their design was as opposite to that of the Gospel as pride is to the Grace of God That which the Gospel aimed at was that Pride might be stained that no flesh might glory in it self that we might be saved by meer Grace that God might be exalted therein But the aim of the Philosophers was quite contrary to this they were lifted up in self-excellencies in all their Moral Virtues they did but sacrifice to the pride of their own Reason and Will they needed no such thing as Grace or Prayer for it Quid votis opns est fac te faelicem saith Seneca What need of Prayers Epist 31. thou mayst make thy self happy Their fundamental maxim the very firmament of their happiness was sibi fidere to trust to themselves they would be virtuous as Ajax would be victorious without the help of God that the glory might be entirely their own In homine id landandum quod ipsius est that only is praise-worthy which is a mans own Their Virtuoso was Deorum socius a Peer to the Gods He did cum Diis ex pari vivere live equally with them nay he did in one thing go before them they were such by Nature he by Virtue This makes Seneca cry out Epist 53. Ecce res magna habere imbecillitatem hominis securitatem Dei Behold a great thing to have the frailty of a Man the security of a God This horrible Pride the venom in their Moral Virtues which was so near and intimate to them that one looking into Plato's vomit said I see his choler here but not his Pride meaning that that stuck too close to him to be cast up by him was a temper as opposite to the Gospel as any thing could be it did utterly evacuate Christ and Grace What room could there be for Grace when Nature might do the work What need that the Eternal Word the brightness of Glory should be incarnate when the little 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sinall spark of Reason in our bosom was enough to make us virtuous and happy No frame of mind no not that of the profane man could be at a greater distance from Heaven than this Salv. de Gub. l. 4. Inter maltos reos nullus est criminosior quà m qui fe non putat criminosum Among many guilty persons none is more criminal than the presumptuous self-justitiary who thinks himself not criminal at all Thus stood the Philosophers all in Armor of Pride opposing the Gospel and the Grace of it We see here to make men Christians was an admirable work a great deal of Power was to be laid out upon it Such a Faith was to be raised up as might render them victorious over all the Power and Wisdom of the World Veniant Crux ignis ossium confractiones modo Christum bakeam Ignat. Such a temper of mind was to be wrought as might make them ready to welcom death in what shape or terror soever it came and to pour out their dearest blood and life for the Gospel Those spirits which before hung about Earth and these lower things were to be tuned for Heaven and wound up to so Divine a pitch that the whole world should not be able to unbend them to loosen them from Christ or let them down into earthly Vanities The great Emperors with all their Engines of Power and Cruelty could not rent them off from the World to come or piece them to the
present evil one The Philosophers with all their Arts and Eloquence could not decoy them from supernatural Mysteries or induce them to take up their repose in humane Learning or Wisdom The whole World was annihilated to them and they unto themselves they became fools that they might be wise and Nothing that God might be All the Ornaments and Self-excellencies were put off that they might be compleat in Christ They lay at Gods feet for Mercy and lived in a continual dependance upon the influences of his Spirit and Grace In such a work as this the Arm of God must needs be revealed in a very eminent manner Here we have just cause to say What hath God wrought The Divine Power will yet more appear if we look upon the instruments in this Work In making the World there were none at all no Leavers or Engines to rear up the great Fabrick An Almighty word absolved it in converting it instruments were used but such that by the no-proportion between them and the great effect it might appear that the Power was of God only He sent not the glorious Angels to Preach up a crucified Christ but Men. The treasure was in Earthen-vessels in poor frail Mortals who carried about bodies of Clay That the excellency of the power might be of God 2 Cor. 4.7 that it might be clearly seen that the great Work was Gods Among men he sent not the Anshe Shem Persons of Renown for Learning or Wisdom but mean illiterate men Hence the Apostle saith God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise and the weak things of the world to confound the mighty 1 Cor. 1.27 that the Divine Power might appear in the Work These mean men preached not with excellency of speech or wisdom 1 Cor. 2.1 with the charms of Eloquence or the pomp of humane Wisdom but with plain words their Preaching was look't upon as foolishness That salvation should be by a crucified Christ seemed foolish that it should be communicated by Preaching Sclat in Pools Synop. seemed more foolish that it should be done by Preaching in a low simple plain manner seemed most foolish of all Yet in this way it was that Christ would ride conquering and to conquer the World to himself The great success of their Preaching was a signal proof that God was with them of a truth At Peters first Sermon three thousand souls were converted unto God Act. 2.41 and at his second they were encreased to five thousand Act. 4.4 multitudes of Believers came in to Christianity In a little time the Gospel was propagated over a great part of the World one Paul spread it from Jerusalem to Illyricum And what did all the rest of the Apostles who carried about this Evangelical light do What did the seventy Disciples do who as Ecclesiastical Writers say had their several Provinces to Preach the Gospel in The word did then run and was glorified it passed through many Countries with a Divine swiftness and success at the sound of the Gospel the World was spiritually turned upside down and of Pagan became Christian Tertullian enumerates divers Nations and at last adds touching us Britannorum inaccessa Romanis loca Christo tamen subdita sunt the Evangelical Power entred there where the Roman could not By such weak means to produce so great an effect was a work worthy of Omnipotence Moreover the Divine Power will yet more appear if we consider the things proposed in the Gospel Narces the Roman-General discontented at the Empress Sophia to invite the Lombards into Italy sent them many sorts of excellent fruits from thence The Present being congruous to sense the project took effect The Gospel indeed proposes very excellent things to us But they are so great and so far above humane Nature that the proposal if not accompanied with a Divine Power would have been altogether ineffectual I shall instance in two or three things 1. It proposes super-rational Mysteries such as the Doctrine of the Sacred Trinity The Incarnation of the Son of God The Satisfaction made to Justice by his Blood These are objects of Faith and so depend one upon another that unless we believe the Trinity we cannot believe the Incarnation and unless we believe that we cannot believe a Satisfaction and without believing that we cannot fulfil the condition of the Gospel which requires us to rest upon Christ for salvation These therefore are necessary objects of Faith but without an Act of Divine Power Faith in these cannot be had Two things evidence this the one is ex parte objecti the things are above Reason As the things of Reason are above Sense so the things of Faith are above Reason without a Revelation Reason could not have found out these Mysteries after it Reason cannot comprehend them It may shadow them out by similitudes but there is in them a light unapproachable such as Reason cannot look into an infinite Abyss such as Reason cannot measure The other is ex parte subjecti man who is to believe these things is fallen and in his fall not one or two faculties fell but all of them and among the rest his intellectual and believing faculties fell also The intellect hath lost its subjection to God the Supreme Truth The believing faculty centers in the Creature and without the Power of Grace cannot lift up it self to supernatural Truths A Divine Power is requisite to captivate the understanding to the first Truth to elevate the believing faculty to super-rational Mysteries Hence in Scripture Faith is called the Gift and Work of God such an one as is the product of Divine Power it is wrought by Power Eph. 1.19 it is fulfilled and consummated by Power 1 Thes 1.11 it is stiled the spirit of faith 2 Cor. 4.13 It is not from our own spirit but Gods outwardly revealing the mysterious object in Scripture and inwardly inlightning and elevating the heart to entertain it Hence Fulgentius compares the production of Faith in the heart Carnem illam nec concipere Virgo posset nec parere nisi ejusdem carnis Spiritus Sanctus operaretur exortum in hominis corde nec concipi sides poterit nec augeri nisi eam Spiritus Sanctus infundat nutrint ex eodem Spiritu venati sumus ex spuo natus est Christus Fulg. de Incar cap. 20. with the conception of Christ in the Virgins Womb both are by one and the same Spirit Christ is no less formed in the heart by it than his flesh was in the Virgin It is therefore a work of Power to raise up the mind of man to believe those supernatural Mysteries which are far above it self 2. It proposes super-moral Virtues It would have us to be humble and deny our selves To sanctifie the Lord in our hearts To have a love for his Goodness a fear for his Majesty and Greatness a faith for his Truth and Mercy a sincerity for his all-seeing eye and such a posture of soul
established by Grace Again The Power of God being revealed in a way of Grace How should we look up to him by Faith that he may do great things for us He who gave his own Son to come in the flesh can do every thing for us He can raise up Children to Abraham out of the very stones He can melt the Rocky heart into Repentance He can write his Law in the inward parts He can make us willing in the day of his Power He can subdue the most strong and inveterate lusts He can new-frame the heart and draw his own Image upon it He can make all Grace abound towards us and supply all our need according to his Riches in Glory by Christ Jesus Let us look unto him and be saved Let our Souls ever be in a posture of waiting and dependance upon him that the Divine Power which was so eminently manifested in Christ may in a measure be felt and experimented in us that we who are poor impotent Creatures in our selves may be able to do all things through Christ strengthning us CHAP. VII Chap. 7 The Truth of God manifested in Christ The Promise of the Messiah The Messiah is already come Jesus is the true Messiah All the other Promises are built upon him The truth of the Moral Law evidenced in him The Mandatory part proved by his active Obedience The Minatory by his Sufferings He is the substance of the Types and Sacrifices Somewhat in him answers to them and somewhat in him infinitely transcends them The truth of Worship set forth in him He unclogged it from Rituals opened the spiritual mode of it communicates Grace for it reveals the great Reward of Eternal Life HAving spoken of other Attributes I proceed in the last place to consider the TRUTH of God It was a notable speech of a Philosopher That Truth is so great a Perfection that if God would render himself visible unto men he would chuse Light for his Body and Truth for his Soul Indeed God is Ipsissima Veritas very Truth it self and can no more cease to be such than he can cease to be Himself He is true in his Essence Others are only gods by fancy or fiction but he is God by nature and essence He is true in his Promises he means what he promises and he doth what he means Promissa tua sunt Confes l. 12. c. 1â— quis falli timeat cum promittit veritas saith St. Austin He is true in his Commands these are the counterpanes of his Will he approves what he commands and rewards what he approves He is true in all his Works the Creatures have first an Ideal being in him before they have a real one in themselves they are therefore true because congruous to the first Truth He is so true that it is impossible that he should lye A lye which arises from weakness or wickedness can no more be found in him than Weakness can be found in Power or Wickedness in Sanctity it self The Truth of God doth in an excellent manner appear in Jesus Christ He is the Complement of the Law the Pearl of the Gospel The Truths of the Old Testament run unto him as to an Ocean to be swallowed up in his Perfection The Truths of the New meet in him as in the Center to receive all their strength and stability from him The Divine Truth is manifested in Jesus Christ several ways First It is manifested in him in that all the Promises and Predictions of a Messiah to come are accomplished and compleated in him Two things will clearly evidence this The one is this It is plain that the promised-Messiah is already come The Scepter shall not depart from Judah nor a Law-giver from between his feet until Shiloh come and unto him shall the gathering of the people be saith Jacob Gen. 49.10 Shiloh is the Name of the Messiah the ancient Rabbins confess it Messiah saith one of them shall not come till there be a clean riddance of Judges and Magistrates in Israel The Jews had Kings in their own Land Heads or Princes of the Captivity in Babylon and after their return from thence they had Governours and Judges but now Government and Judiciary Power hath been for 1600 years departed from them The Messiah therefore is already come Again within the compass of the Seventy weeks mentioned in Dan. 9 many things were to come to pass The re-edifying the City and Temple of Jerusalem the coming and cutting off the Messiah the confirmation of the Covenant the cessation of the Sacrifices and after all these the universal destruction was to ensue However these weeks be computed yet it evidently appears that first the Messiah was to come and be cut off ver 26 and afterwards the Oblation and Sacrifice was to cease v. 27 this being the true order of things in the Text the Messiah must needs come whilst the Sacrifices were standing If the Sacrifices under this second Temple have for these 1600 years ceased as they have then the Messiah must needs be come many Centuries since Scho. Sacr. disput 10.72 73 74. Franzius used this argument to a learned Jew who only returned this answer Perhaps one week in Daniel might be one thousand years Franzius replied If that were admitted Yet if he thought that Daniel's weeks were not expired he would entreat him to shew where the Jews do now sacrifice seeing according to Daniel the Messiah was to come before the abrogation of the Sacrifices it must needs be that the Sacrifices must still stand in being if the Messiah were not yet come To this no answer at all was made the knot being indeed too hard to be untied Further the Messiah was to come while the second Temple was standing hence that of the Prophet The glory of this latter House shall be greater than of the former Hag. 2.9 The first Temple had more of outward glory and magnificence than the second Under the first there were as the Rabbins observe five things the Ark the Fire from Heaven the Majesty or Shecinah the Spirit of Prophecy the Vrim and the Thummim which were wanting under the second From whence then came that greater glory in the second The Prophet tells us God would shake the heavens and the earth that is do a very great work the Messiah the Desire of all Nations should come v. 6 7 His presence should put a greater glory upon the second Temple than was upon the first In the first there was the types and symbols of Gods presence but into the second the Lord himself came in our assumed nature Mal. 3.1 and so filled it with glory This is the only tolerable account can be given of that greater glory This second Temple being long since destroyed it must needs be that the Messiah did come before the fall of it The other is this Our Jesus the Son of Mary is the true Messiah he is that seed of the woman who broke the Serpents head Gen. 3.15
rich and abundant measure upon all sorts of men Jews and Gentiles Into what place soever the Gospel comes there the Spirit is at work to frame new creatures and set them in motion that God may be served not in the oldness of the letter but in the newness of the spirit that his Worship under the gales and sweet influences of the Spirit may come forth as it ought in its life and pure spirituality 4. The great motive to Worship the reward of eternal life was never so manifested as it was by Jesus Christ It 's true holy men of old had some glimmerings of it Abraham sought after an heavenly Country Jacob waited for Gods salvation Moses had respect to the recompence of Reward Job speaks of seeing God in his flesh the believing Jews could see eternal things in temporal and measure Heaven by an Astrolabe of Earth In their Ikkarim in the Articles of their Creed there is one touching the Resurrection of the dead Those Ancients had some obscure knowledg of life eternal but in and by Christ it is set forth plainly and clearly in lively and orient colours Heaven as it were opens it self and in pure discoveries comes down and approaches near unto our faith It is now plain that the true worshippers shall ever be with the Lord shall see him and be like him shall enter into his joy and be swallowed up there shall have a Crown of life a weight of glory and that to all eternity All this is as clear as if it were writ with a Sun-beam Hence the Apostle saith That Christ brought life and immortality to light 2 Tim. 1.10 and again That befor the way into the holiest of all was not made manifest Heb. 9.8 that is That light or manifestation of this Reward which was under the Law was as none at all in comparison of the pure and great discovery of it which is under the Gospel The servants of God need not say What shall we have The Reward is before them the Celestial Paradise is in plain view to attract their hearts into the holy ways which lead thither In this display of Truth we have a notable proof of the truth of our Religion Admirable are the harmonies and compliances between the two Testaments the Substance though but one corresponds to the Types and Shadows though very many The Messiah in the flesh notwithstanding the vast distance in time fully answers to the Messiah in Promises and Predictions All things concur and conspire together to evidence the truth of our Religion It was the observation of some of the ancient Fathers That there is umbra in lege imago in Evangelio veritas in coelo a shadow in the Law an image in the Gospel the Truth in Heaven Hence we may thus conclude That Religion which was in the Law in shadow in a darker representation which is in the Gospel in the image in a more lively representation and which leads to Heaven where is perfection of light and eternal life in the thing it self That Religion must needs be true Or we may go higher than the Mosaical Law and conclude thus That Religion which in the morning of the World immediately after the fall of man appeared in the first Promise of the Messiah which afterwards appeared in types and more Promises which after these shone out illustriously in Jesus Christ which at last introduces into the perfect day in Heaven That must needs be true The succession and harmony which is in these things tell us that infinite wisdom did order and dispose the same Now after the Evangelical light is clearly revealed to us what manner of persons ought we to be How thankful should we be that we live in the shining days of the Son of man The Pagans are in gross darkness but we have the Divine light shining round about us The Jews had some dawnings and strictures of light but we have the Sun the full Globe of light We need not now grope in the dark after happiness Christ the true light is come the glory of the Lord is risen upon us in the pure light of the Gospel How should we believe and adhere to the Promises God hath performed the great Promise of the Messiah and it is not imaginable that he should fail in the other which are but appendants to that great Promise The Promises now have a double seal Gods Veracity and Christs Blood and in all reason we should seal them up by our faith not to do so is practically to say that God may lye or Christs Merits fail In what truth and obedience should we walk No lust should now be indulged no duty should now be baulked Every holy beam must be welcome as coming from Heaven to guide us thither Every Command of God must be precious as being the Counterpane of his heart and proved to be such by the obedience of his own Son in the flesh Now to walk in darkness is to reproach the holy light which shines round about us To be false to God who is so true to us is no less than horrible ingratitude to him and in the end will prove utter ruine to our souls it being utterly impossible for us while we are false to him to be true to our selves or our own happiness How spiritual should we be in worship With what holy fear faith zeal devotion should we serve him Our spirits should be consecrated and offered up to God our duties should have warmth and life from the inward parts the infinite Spirit must not be mocked with a shell a meer body of Worship Jesus Christ the Substance being come we must not rest in the shadows and rituals of Religion God is real in promises and we should be so in services He will give us the best Reward even Heaven it self and we should give him the best we have even our hearts that he may dwell there till he take us up into the blessed Region to dwell with him in glory in so doing we shall at once be true to him and to our own happiness CHAP. VIII Chap. 8 Gods Providence asserted from Scripture Philosophy and Reason It hath a double act Conservative and Ordinative both are manifested in Christ It was over Christ over his Genealogy Birth Life Death Over the fruit of his Satisfaction in raising up a Church It aimed at a Church directed the means and added the blessing That Opinion That Christ might have died and yet there might have been no Church is false All other Providences reduced to those over Christ and the Church Epicurus's Objection against Providence answered Providence over free acts of men asserted and yet Liberty not destroyed The Objections touching the Afflictions of good men and the event of Sin solved The Entity in sinful actions distinct from the Anomy the Order from the Ataxy HAVING spoken of the Divine Attributes I now proceed to speak of Providence which in a special manner directed this great Dispensation God manifest
in the flesh in which as we have seen the Attributes of God do eminently appear Providence is more than Previdence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not nude Prescience it is as a learned man speaks Praecognitio cum curâ a Precognition with care It is the Divine Reason of the Supreme Lord which disposes of all things it is that act of God whereby he doth in eternity pre-ordain and in time direct every thing to the great end of all his own glory The Scripture doth very fully set forth this Of him and through him and to him are all things Rom. 11.36 Of him as the Author through him as the Conservator and Director and to him as the ultimate End are all things He giveth life and breath and all things Acts 17.25 In him we live and move and have our being ver 28. The original the continuance the guidance of all is from him As a mighty Monarch he doth whatsoever he pleaseth in heaven and in earth Psal 135.6 He doth according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth None can stay his hand or say unto him What dost thou Dan. 4.35 All places are within his dominion all creatures are under his government Known unto him are all his works 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from eternity Acts 15.18 He worketh all things after the counsel of his own will Eph. 1.11 That the things in time may answer and go true to the counsels in eternity Providence works and watches over every thing Angels are not above nor Worms below the care of it It reaches to the great Image of Earthly Monarchy Dan. 2. It humbles it self to hairs and sparrows Mat. 10.29 30. Natural Agents though determined ad unum cannot act without the concurrence of it Free Agents though upon the wings of liberty cannot flye out of its dominions Meer Contingents as the Lot are ascertain'd by it In every thing it sits at the stern and moderates the event The Philosophers do at least in some sort own a Providence Thus Theophrast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is a Divine Principle by which all things both are and continue to be Thus Aristotle What the Governour is in the Ship the Driver in the Chariot the Master in the Dance the Law in the City the Leader in the Army that is God in the World Thus Tully argues God is the most excellent being and therefore must needs be Governour of the World Plato's Idea's existing in the mind of God were as is thought no other than his Decrees The Fate of the Stoicks is by some taken for nothing else but the Providence of God Hence the Epicureans who denied Providence in contempt called it Anum fatidicam Stoicorum the Stoicks foretelling old woman There was excellent Divinity in the ancient Fable That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Providence was Midwife to Latona that is Nature The Creature though never so pregnant with power brings forth just nothing without it Aust de Civ l. 10. c. 14. Plotinus disputes That the Providence of God reaches to the lowest things The Flowers have their beauty from an incommutable form the sensible World comes from that intelligible one which is with God Reason evinces this Truth Si est Deus utique Providens est ut Deus nec aliter ei potest divinitas attribui nisi praeterita teneat praesentia sciat futura prospiciat Lact. de Ird. A World without a Providence is a very great absurdity in such a case how should God be God May he be an infinite Mind and without forecast or a pure Act and do nothing at all among his creatures May he be every-where present and no-where profitable Or fill all things and signifie nothing May he be an intelligent Agent and without an End Or the Great Alpha and forget that he is Omega May he be Creator of all and yet no Provisor Or Almighty and yet not reign over his own World May he be infinitely Wise and Good and yet neglect himself and his Creatures his own glory and their good Is it imaginable that such an One as he should frame a World out of nothing and set it in delicate Order meerly for Fortune to sport it self in or to shufflle down into confusion And how then could the World be a World Or how could it stand in order or its parts hang together by links of amity Without the hand and touch of Providence Nature would jangle and be out of tune without its glue and virtue the whole system would unframe and fall asunder in a moment If God saith Bradwardine De Causa Dei l. 1. c. 14. should cease to be there could be nothing past or future true or false possible or impossible necessary or contingent so necessary is He. I may say If God should cease to work there could be nothing in all the world but perfect nullity So necessary is his Providence There are two great acts of Providence the one is Conservative which upholds all The other Ordinative which directs and disposes of all Both are eminently set forth in Jesus Christ The first act of Providence is Conservative and upholds all the Creature cannot preserve and immortalize it self for then it would be a Self-subsistence and a God to it self it stands juxta non esse at the brink of nullity and unless that Divine Power which brought it from thence into being hold it up there it naturally returns and falls back into Nothing as its Center Preservation is an influx of Being and none but the Supreme Being which is its own original can afford such a thing It is a continued Creation and none but he who gives esse primo the first being to a creature can give esse porro the second or protracted being to it Should he withdraw his influence or cease continuo facere still to go on preserving and new-making as it were his Creature it would vanish into nothing no creature could begin where he left or carry on the work Should all the Angels in Heaventry and put out all their strength to guard and keep up in being the least particle of matter and that but for one moment only they could do nothing they could not be Creators at second hand I mean in point of Preservation The Earth being the Center of the World seems to stand fast and yet without Providence it would waver into nothing The Sea is a vast spreading Element and yet were it not in the hand of Providence it would contract it self into nothing The Heavens are strong bodies and yet all those glorious Arches unless kept in repair by Providence would fall and totter down The Angels are immortal Spirits and yet their immortality is a donative and a continual spiration from the Father of spirits the knot of their perpetuity is Providence and without it they would break and dissolve into nothing Providence we see contains and preserves all things a great truth
the lye upon the Promises of God He said that Christ should have a seed Isa 53.10 and yet according to this opinion he may be childless and have none at all He said That he should have the heathen for his inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession Psal 2.8 and yet he may have nothing He said that he should reign for ever and of his kingdom there should be no end Luk. 1.33 and yet by an utter failer of subjects he might not reign at all and of his Kingdom there might be not so much as a beginning He said That he should be head over all things to the church Eph. 1.22 and yet he may have no body nay nor so much as one poor member of it Notwithstanding all the Promises he may be a Father without Children an Heir without an Inheritance a King without Subjects an Head without Members And how can these things be Or how can God be true to his word which is dearer to him than the whole frame of Heaven and Earth Neither will it salve the matter to say That in the event there was a Church and so much God foreknew For if he foreknew it it was a certain immutable thing Meer Casuals such as may be or may not be are not the objects of Prescience If a Church might be or might not be as this Opinion would have it it was not the object of Prescience If a Church would certainly be then it is the object of Prescience but then this Tenet that it might be or not be falls to the ground However if we suppose a Prescience Prescience is not Providence Neither if there were there only nude Prescience would the Church in the event be from Proscience would the Church in the event be from Providence but from Chance and then the consequence is Chance which made no Promise performs all God who made the Promise performs nothing He is so far from taking care about it that he commits it to the Lottery of mans Will whether there shall be a Church or not If the event hit right yet God is never the truer he never performed the promise he took no care about it that thing or rather Nothing called Fortune did order all 2. This Opinion doth highly disparage Christ and his precious Blood Creatures nay the highest of them Angels may fail and miss the mark they have semina nihili seeds of vanity and defectibility in them but for Jesus Christ who hath all the treasures of wisdom and power in himself to fall short of his end and so as it were to fall from himself and his happiness For him to lay the foundations of a Church in his own blood and to have nothing built upon them For him to make a Laver of his own blood and to have never a soul washed in it For him to procure the Holy Spirit and to have never a Temple for it to dwell in is a wonderful disparagement The reflexion is in effect as if he were but a meer man not wise or powerful enough to compass his end or compleat his work as if his blood had no spirit or divine virtue in it effectually to procure a Church and people to himself All which are below and extremely unworthy of him and the great work in his hands Every little seed in nature hath a body given to it and yet according to this opinion the Son of God might sow his own Blood and Righteousness and have none at all A cup of cold water given in charity hath its reward and yet the Blood of Christ poured out in a transcendent excess of love may want it 3. This casts a foul blot upon Providence that such is its accuracy reaches to every thing in nature even to such minute things as hairs and sparrows yet according to this opinion it neglects Christs blood more worth than a World and the issue of it It was the horrible folly of the Emperor Domitian to spend his time in catching of Flies while he neglected the great things of the Empire And what just apology can be made for Providence if it wake and watch over the Sun Moon Stars Meteors Beasts Plants nay over the very Gnats and minute creatures while it slumbers and sleeps over the sufferings of the Son of God How much more tolerable were a neglect of all creatures than of that one concern which is a thing of infinite moment If we believe that Providence took no care about so great a thing as Christs death how can we perswade our selves that it should respect the creatures which are infinitely below it A greater failure in government there cannot be than this to be accurate in trifles and neglective in momentous things Again Providence reaches to the end of things it doth not go part of the way only but conducts them to their end yet according to this opinion it doth not do so in a thing of more consequence than all the world It watched over the genealogy birth life death resurrection of Christ but then it made a stand taking no care what the issue or fruit of all this should be after all was done whether Christ should have a Church or so much as one believer in all the world was not determined by Providence but left to the Lottery of mans Will A greater defect cannot be imagined than this To do great admirable things and then not to regard what shall become of them I shall say no more to this opinion but conclude That a very great Providence did watch over the issue of Christs death that a Church might be secured unto him But because it may be said That the Providences over Christ and the Church are though great yet but particular ones I shall proceed to the next thing 3. All other Providences may be reduced to the other two As God hath a special eye upon Christ and the Church so he orders other things to be some way or other subservient unto them I shall in brief touch upon the reduction of other Providences first to that over Christ and then to that over the Church First Other Providences are to be reduced to that over Christ It was an ancient saying of the Jews That the World was made for the Messiah The Apostle tells us expresly That all things were created by him and for him Col. 1.16 That Providence which was over him being the Master-piece the highest Providence that ever the Sun saw must in all reason be the rule of the rest in that we have the noblest prospect of God and the creature the Divine Attributes set forth in their glory and a creature an human nature elevated to the highest pitch unto that therefore other Providences are to be referred To give some instances God permitted Adam to fall and break his beautiful image of Holiness all to pieces and why did he permit it doubtless he could have upheld man in his integrity no man dares deny it
Dion de Div. Nom. c. 4. De Civ Dei l. 7. c. 30. God so administreth all things that as St. Austin speaks Ipsa proprios exercere agere motus sinat he suffers them to act and use their own proper motions he gave the Israelites favour in the eyes of the Egyptians Exod. 12.36 yet he robbed not the Egyptians of their liberty he touched the heart of Sauls followers 1 Sam. 10.26 yet he cracked never a string in their rational faculties he raised up his peoples spirit to build the Temple Ezra 1. 5 yet he did not depress their freedom Providence doth not operate by violent impulsions but sweetly accommodate it self to the wills of men Hence it may very well consist with Liberty It sets down humane events and a congruous mode waiting on them I mean it orders that such things shall come to pass and come to pass freely so that it is so far from being compulsive that it is completive of humane Liberty Should such things not come to pass freely the event would no less cross Divine Providence than humane Freedom 4. In Scripture Providence and Liberty stand in sweet conjunction God opened the heart of Lydia Act. 16.14 yet she opened her own heart to attend he stirred up the spirit of Cyrus Ezek. 1. 1 yet he stirred up his own spirit also Titus went to the Corinthians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of his own self-choice and option 2 Cor. 8. 17 yet God put it into his heart v. 16. The Jews did freely crucifie our Saviour yet Gods hand and Gods Counsel determined it to be done Act. 4.28 The Chaldees march against Gods People in violence and in the pomp of freedom insomuch that the Prophet saith that their judgment and their dignity proceeded of themselves yet they were ordained for judgment Hab. 1.7 12. In these and other Scriptures Providence and Liberty are clearly pregnantly asserted both are true both in conjunction What if we know not how to join these together or what is the mode of their conjunction We are yet humbly and piously to acknowledg and confess the truth of both God can do much more than we are able to search into Melancton used often to recite that of his Master Stadian viz. I know both Wal. de Pro◠f. 84. that God foreknows and determines all things and yet that there is a contingency but how to reconcile them so as to satisfie the contentious I see not 5. This objection is solved in Jesus Christ His human will was free or else his active and passive obedience was not meritorious or satisfactory and yet his human will was infallibly guided by his Divine or else his Merit and Satisfaction were not certainly determined It 's true some have been so hardy as to say That Christ might have sinned or not have obeyed his Fathers will Thus Arius said Filium Dei fuisse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the Son of God was capable of Vice and Virtue Thus some others have affirmed That Christ as man might not have obeyed But the Council of Nice pronounced an Anathema against Arius for that opinion Socrat. l. 1. c. 6 as being one of his blasphemies It 's very miserable that men should have no higher thoughts of Christ than so To say That Christ might have sinned or which is all one to say That he might not have obeyed is to say That there might have been a discord between the Father and the Son a repugnancy between the Divine and Human wills in Christ That the admirable Hypostatical union of the two natures in him might have been broken and dissolved That his human nature might have lost and forfeited the rich anointings and over-measures of the Spirit which were upon it That the great work of Redemption and Salvation in his hands might have failed and come to nothing Nay and that our glorious Redeemer and Saviour might by his sin have stood in need of one to save and redeem him All which shew the black blasphemies which are couched in that opinion To say no more of it I conclude That Providence rules over the free acts of men and that without any violence put upon their liberty Men act freely and yet dependently upon God the primordial Cause The next objection made against Providence is this If there were a Providence How or which way should it come to pass that the wicked should prosper and the good be afflicted This objection staggered the Heathens that many of them denied a Providence upon this account If there were a Providence Minucius Foelix f. 5. say they Why had Phalaris or Dionysius a Kingdom Why Rutilius or Camillus a banishment Why Socrates a Cup of Poyson When they saw bloody impure Tyrants sitting upon the Throne when good and just men toss'd with miseries and exposed to great afflictions they hence concluded That there was no such thing as Providence ruling over the world Hence that of the Poet Cum rapiunt mala fata bonos ignoscite fasso Sollicitor nullos esse putare Deos. Hence when Pompey in a good cause wanted success a sad complaint was made That res divinas multum habere caliginis Providence if any thing at all was very dark Nay this objection was a scruple to the Saints under the Old Testament Hence those expostulations Wherefore do the wicked live become old yea are mighty in power Job 21.7 Behold these are the ungodly who prosper in the world they encrease in riches Psal 73.12 Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper Jer. 12.1 Wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously Hab. 1.13 A scruple they had yet still they held fast this conclusion That God was good to Israel Psal 73.1 and righteous in all his dispensations Jer. 12.1 An answer may be made to this objection in many things I shall only in brief touch upon them It is a very good rule Non est judicandum de operibus Dei ante quintum actum This or that particular piece of Providence may look apart and by it self as if it were irregular but if all be set together the result is nothing but order and harmony The wicked prosper but it is only in outward carnal things within there are souls desolate and void of grace It is but for a moment a little span of life in the end they sink down into the bottomless pit of perdition The good are afflicted but it is in their body or outward lumber within there are souls florid and beautiful in grace it is but for a short time in the end they enter into rest and life eternal The blessings which the wicked have are good in themselves but to them who take them separate and without God the Donor they are but a lye a vanity a snare to their souls and fuel to their lusts The afflictions which fall upon the good are evil in themselves but to them who bear them in faith and patience they are antidotes against sin trials of
the consequences of that opinion and too heavy I confess for me to stand under I rest therefore in that of the Apostle He hath called us not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace 2 Tim. 1.9 Here purpose and grace are joined together if his purpose be free if his grace be gratuitous then he calls as he pleases In calling men home to himself he acts purely totally from Grace I conclude with that of Bonaventure Hoc piarum mentium est ut nihil sibi tribuant sed totum Dei Gratiae The genius of pious minds is to attribute nothing to themselves but all to Grace Thus far touching the first thing The freeness of Grace The next thing proposed is the power and efficacy of Grace The Apostle speaks of an exceeding greatness of power towards those that believe Eph. 1.19 So emphatical are the words there cam oper sol 343. that Camero is bold to say Nemo cui non periit frons negare potest significare vim potentiam None who hath not lost his modesty can there deny a force and power signified Now touching the efficacy of Grace I shall consider three things 1. It s efficacy as to the Principle of Faith and other Graces 2. It s efficacy as to actual believing and willing 3. It s efficacy as to perseverance in the faith The first thing is its efficacy as to the Principle of Faith and other Graces By the Principle of Faith I mean not the natural power of believing God doth not command us to take down the Sun for which we have no faculties but to believe for which we have an understanding and a will no natural faculty is wanting De Praed c. 5. Hence St. Austin saith the posse of believing is of nature This power in faln man because in conjunction with natural impotency never arrives at the effect The natural faculties are by the fall so vitiated that though in a sense he can yet he will not believe Trahit sua quemque voluptas one lust or other so attracts him that he cannot a se impetrare ut velit he cannot find in his heart to do it He hath a kind of can in his natural faculties but the corruption blasts the effect Neither do I mean that power which as some Divines say is supernatural yet not an habit or vital principle of faith Nature being fallen Grace say they gives a second power to set the will in aequilibrio but that power doth not as an habit incline or dispose a man to actual believving This power as I take it is nothing but Nature and Free-will I see not how it should be distinct from it There are as the Learned Doctor Twiss hath observed three things in the soul that is Powers Habits and Passions Powers may be the subjects of Habits and Passions but may a Power be the subject of a Power A natural power of a supernatural one This looks like a Monster By the same reason Habits may be the subjects of Habits and Passions of Passions And is this power of believing free or not If free then it is not supernatural it may be a principle of not believing and that nothing supernatural can be If not free then it determines the event but to what To not believing then it is not supernatural To believing then all men having as these men say the power must infallibly believe which Scripture and experience deny I mean therefore such a Principle of Faith as is an habit and vital Principle such as is seminally and virtually faith such as hath the nature and essence of faith such as inclines and disposes to actual believing and before the act denominates a man a believer When the act of faith comes forth into being is it from a believer or from an unbeliever If from a believer then there was an habit of faith before If from an unbeliever how unnatural is it and how cross to the suavity of Providence There must then be an act of faith before a principle a fruit before a tree or seed What shall we say of such an one He is a believer in act but in principle none as soon as the act ceases he is not at all a believer There must therefore be an habit a vital principle of faith This in the use of means is infused or created and that by the power of grace To clear this I shall lay down two or three things 1. The Principle of Faith and other Graces is not produced by meer suasion by a meer proposal of the Evangelical object In conversion there is a great work wrought within the deadly wound of Original corruption must be healed the new creature must be set up in us and can suasion do this Such a glorious work must be done by an efficient cause not by a meer allicient one such as suasion is A natural man is blind nay dead in spiritual things and what suasion can make the blind to see or the dead to rise Suasion is so far from giving a faculty that it presupposes it The use of it is not to confer a power but to excite and stir it up into act Satan uses suasion to subvert the souls of men and doth God do no more to convert them unto himself How then should he ever gather a Church to himself Satans suasions run with the tide and stream of corrupt nature but Gods are against it and in all reason the balance will be cast rather on that side which hath Natures vote and free concurrence than on that which hath Natures repugnancy and contradiction In this work there is more than meer suasion God is not a meer Orator but an admirable Operator his word is not significative only but factive commanding those Divine Principles into being vox imperativa abit in operativam he calls for a new heart and it is so 2. This holy Principle is not produced by assistent Grace as if a natural man did by Divine assistance work it in himself The Principle or power of believing is either natural or supernatural if natural it is by creation if supernatural it is by infusion or inspiration neither way is it produced in a way of assistance An assistance is not accommodated to a thing to produce a new power but to bring forth an act from thence The light is assistent to the eye in the act of vision but it gives not the visive power to it assisting grace concurs to the act of believing but it confers not a believing principle The greatest Saint in the world stands in need of assisting grace that his gracious principles may come into actual exercise he must have help from the holy one a supply of the Spirit of Christ the Heavenly roots do not cast forth themselves unless God be as dew to them the sweet spices do not flow out actually unless God breath upon them by auxiliary grace still he wants assistance to the doing of good as
Grace that he doth so The willing and believing are voluntary acts in regard of mans will but acts of power in regard of Gods Spirit which touches and moves the heart thereunto It may be thought by some that there needs no expence of power towards willing and believing that a power of willing and believing is enough for us But should God give us only a power to will and believe and leave the rest to our will we have great reason to think that we should all do as innocent Adam did fall from God and never reduce that power into act The Divine Principles in Adam were pure and without mixture but the power of believing and willing in us hath in the same heart where it dwells an Inmate of corruption which continually counter-works it In innocency the temptation stood without a-courting the senses but after the fall it makes nearer approaches as having a party within ready to open and betray every faculty To me it looks like a proud thought for any to imagine that under such a disparity he could act his part better than Adam did If then the foundation of God must stand if the election must obtain if Christ must have a seed if the Spirit must have a temple it is no less than necessary that the power of Grace should secure that willing and believing without which those high and great designs of Heaven cannot take effect 3. There is an efficacy of Grace as to perseverance in Faith and Holiness Perseverance wherever it is is from Grace The inherent Graces in the Saints are but creatures no creature no not the most spiritual doth or can preserve it self All depend upon their Original in their being and duration hence as St. Jerom observes God is always a-working Ad Ctesiph cap. 3. always a-giving Non mihi sufficit saith he quod semel donavit nisi semper donaverit It is not enough for me that he once give unless he always do so Hence that of St. Austin Non ita se debet homo ad Dominum convertere ut cum ab eo fact us fuerit justus De Gen. ad Lit. lib. 8.12 abscedat sed it a ut ab illo semper siat Man ought not to convert to God that being made just he might depart from him but that he might be always made just by him The Physician heals and departs but God doth not do so he is still a-healing and new-making us by the continual spirations of his Spirit and Grace that we may persevere unto the end Were not perseverance from Grace there could be no such thing as a life of Faith it would be utterly needless to hang upon Promises or to look up for influences of Grace or with David to pray that God would keep the good frame in the heart or hold up our goings in his paths Perseverance being from our selves we may center and safely lye down there We may say as Laodicea We are rich and have need of nothing no not of God the Fountain of Grace We may do what St. Jerom charges on the Pelagians that is Ad Ctes cap. 3. bid God depart he is no more necessary to us It 's true he gave us a stock of power and free-will but now we can stand upon our own bottom all is in our own hand there is no room for a life of faith no nor for any true gratitude for our standing in Grace De Civ lib. 12. cap. 9. It is St. Austins observation That the Angels who stood were amplius adjuti more helped than those who fell therefore they cast down their Crowns before God ascribing their standing not to themselves but to Grace Should they do what they cannot do ascribe it to themselves they could not be thankful In like manner holy men who persevere attribute nothing to themselves but all to Grace Ad Ctes cap. 3 Quodcunque in suo rivulo fluit as St. Jerom speaks ad fontem refert Whatever flows in his rivulet he refers to the great fountain that he faulters and lapses is of his own that he stands and perseveres is of Grace Were it not so the praise and glory should be ascribed not to God but to our selves which would be to turn Gratitude into Presumption The Graces of the Saints may be considered in the act or in the habit The acts have their too frequent pauses and interruptions but the habit the vital principle is a seed of immortality and never dyes In the saddest falls of a Saint it may be said of him as it was of Eutychus His life is in him He that is born of God doth not commit sin nay he cannot sin 1 Joh. 3.9 Doubtless he can sin sins of infirmity nay and gross sins too as appears in the falls of David and Peter but he cannot sin so as totally to unframe the new-creature and lay himself in an unregenerate state This is clear by the reasons in the Text For his seed remaineth in him and he is born of God Could he by sin extinguish the very principles of Grace he might sin to all intents and purposes contrary to the express letter of the text nay and his seed might not remain and he might ceafe to be born of God contrary to the reasons in the text If the Divine seed and birth do not preserve him from regnant sin such as would overthrow him it preserves him from no sin at all the text and reason are altogether insignificant But if as the text and truth is it preserves him from regnant sin then the Divine Principles are not extinguished when he falls into sin The habits of Grace may be considered meerly in themselves or in their dependence In themselves they are but defectible creatures and might totally fail their being is not from themselves no more is their duration in their dependance they cannot possibly fail because they are supported by somewhat greater than themselves Remarkable is the difference between the case of Adam and that of believers in Adam one act of sin expelled perfect holiness so that upon the fall there was not left in him so much as the least relick of sanctity or spark of spiritual life he and after him all his posterity became spiritually dead in sin not in part only for then the new-creature should be new but in part but totally every thing in fallen man wants quickening But in believers not one not many sins are able to drive out the principles of Grace though those principles are imperfect in themselves and dwell together with much inherent corruption yet are they not driven out and the reason of this difference is Adam had the stock of holiness in his own hands but the graces of the believers depend upon somewhat greater than themselves Now touching this Dependence I shall lay down three or four things 1. The Graces of Saints depend upon Election though Election be in it self from all eternity yet it buds and blossoms in
inflicted by Soveraignty but Justice such as were not the Curse causless but merited by sin unless they were merited by sin they were meer suffering not punishment punishment for nothing is no punishment if there was no punishment in his sufferings how were they satisfactory If there was no merit of sin to procure them how were they penal If Justice inflicted them not how were they a punishment or if they were penal how could Justice inflict them upon an Innocent Here we have nothing to say but this Christ was so far made one with us as to render his sufferings penal and satisfactory The other is that special conjunction which is between Christ and Believers Christ is the Head they are the Members the Ligatures of this Mystical Union are the Holy Spirit and Faith the quickning Spirit saith the reverend Vsher descends downwards from the head to be in us a fountain of supernatural life a lively Faith wrought by the same Spirit ascends from us upward to lay fast hold upon him The Scripture notably sets forth this Union We dwell in Christ and he in us John 6.56 We abide in him and he in us John 15.4 We are Members of his Body of his Flesh and of his Bones Ephes 5.30 32. And he is in us the hope of Glory Col. 1.27 This the Apostle calls a great Mystery and the Riches of the Glory of the Mystery we are ingrasted into him as Branches into a Root cemented to him as the building is to the foundation incorporated with him as the food is with our Bodies united to him as Members are to the Head We eat his Flesh and drink his Blood and become one Spirit with him nothing can be more emphatical the Holy Spirit which resides in him the Head falls down upon us his Members and so makes a kind of continuity between him and us too Spiritual and Divine to be interrupted by any local distance Hence St. Chrysostom saith that there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Com. 1 Cor. 3.11 no medium or middle between Christ and us hence St. Austin saith that Fideles siunt cum homine Christo unus Christus Believers are made one Christ with the Man Christ the Head and the Body make up one Christ Hence that of Aquinas that Christ and his Members are but una persona mystica one mystical person the consequence of this admirable Union is the communication of Divine Blessings from him to us tota verae justitiae salutis vitae participatio ex hâc pernecessariâ cum Christo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pendet saith the learned Zanchy All our good things depends on this most necessary Vnion Thirdly The righteousness of Christ may be taken under a double notion either as it was the very idem to all the Laws he was under or else as it was the tantundem a plenary satisfaction to the moral Law by us violated in the first notion it was a righteousness ex naturâ suâ being a perfect conformity to those Laws in the second it was a satisfaction ex divinâ ordinatione being by God ordained so to be in the first notion it was not for us who being once sinners were incapable of it But for himself to justifie and sanctifie him in that state which he undertook to be in In the second it was not for himself who as being pure from all sin was incapable of it but for us to justifie us sinners against the Law Here I shall only add that under the notion of satisfaction I take in all Christ's righteousness Active as well as Passive though I think the Active in it self alone could not have amounted to a satisfaction because without shedding of blood there was no remission to be yet the Active being in Conjunction with the Passive is a part of the satisfaction and makes it the more compleat for a satisfaction made up of both together answers the threatning and honours the precept of the Law it satisfies God's Justice in it self by penal sufferings and in its foundation that is God's holiness by perfect obedience Fourthly The Active and Passive Righteousness of Christ are not imputed to us as they are the Idem a perfect conformity to the Laws he was under for we were not under the Mediatorial Law nor being once sinners are we capable of a perfect conformity to the moral but they are imputed to us as they are the tantundem a plenary satisfaction to the moral Law by us broken for so they are very apt and proper to justifie sinners against the Law Neither is Christ's satisfaction imputed to all actually to justifie them against the Law for all are not justified against it but it is imputed to Believers as being mystical parts and portions of him hence that Learned Bishop saith Dav. de Just hab 369. Quia insiti sumus in corpus ejus coalescimus cum illo in unam personam ideò ejus justitia nostra reputatur because we are ingrafted into his body and grow as it were into one Person with him therefore his Righteousness is reputed ours neither is Christ's satisfaction imputed to his belleving Members according to its fulness and latitude as it is in Christ the Head but in such sort and measure as is meet for it to be communicated to Members this is notably illustrated in the parallel of the two Adams who are two such communicative Heads as never were the like who communicate to theirs in such proportion as is congruous between Head and Members Adam's sin is derived to each of us not in its full latitude but pro mensurâ membri and in like manner Christ's satisfaction is derived to each Believer not in its full latitude but pro mensurâ membri so much of Ada's sin comes upon each one of us as soon as he is proles Adae as makes him a sinner so much of Christ's satisfaction comes upon each one of us as soon as he is proles Christi as makes him Righteous against the Law in both there is a communication to Members yet in such a way as that the difference between Head and Members is observed Fifthly There was a Divine Constitution that Jesus Christ should be our Sponsor and standing in our room should satisfie for us that he should be an Head to Believers and his satisfaction should so far become theirs as to justifie them against the Law accordingly that satisfaction is truly imputed to them Some Persons have been pleased to speak of Imputed Righteousness as if it were a fancy a meer putative imaginary thing but we see here upon what grounds it stands the first Foundation of it is the Divine constitution made touching Christ the intermediate Foundation is this that Christ was our Sponfor and satisfied for us the immediate Foundation is this that Christ is a communicating Head to his believing Members and they as Members participate in his satisfaction these things are sufficient to make us conclude as Bishop Davenant doth
a difference one believes not another on God's a difference he justifies one not another but Christ stands only as a common cause his Satisfaction is in communi and constitutes no one righteous more than another He is no more as it seems the end of the Law for Righteousness to the Believer than to the Unbeliever Now if this be as it is durus sermo then it remains that Christ's Righteousness is by particular imputation made over to Believers and so becomes the matter of their Justification accordingly the Apostle in Rom. the fifth speaks of it not as a common cause but as peculiarized to Believers such as receive Grace He doth not speak of what Christ merited for all but of what Christ as an Head communicates to his Members The scope of the parallel between the two Adams evinces this it being no other than this That both of them communicate to those who are in them The sum of all is Adam and Christ are set forth by the Apostle as two communicative Heads if Adam's sin be imputatively ours so is Christ's Righteousness also I should now pass on to another Reason But possibly some may object That there is a great difference between the two Heads We were seminally in Adam we receive an Humane Nature from him but we were not seminally in Christ we receive not a Nature from him therefore though Adam's sin be imputatively ours yet so is not Christ's Righteousness In answer to this I shall offer several things First We receive an Humane Nature from Adam but is this the only foundation of the Imputation of his sin to us No surely Then all the sins of our Progenitors should be as much imputed to us as the first sin of Adam was Which I cannot at all believe Adam was a moral Head of Holiness and Righteousness to all Mankind but since the fall no Man no not Adam himself was such the sin of Adam is universally imputed to all even to the most holy but so are not the sins of other Progenitors we were not therefore one with Adam only by a Natural union but by a Divine Constitution Secondly We receive an Human Nature from Adam and have we not a Divine Nature from Christ are we not called his Seed are we not begotten by his Spirit and Word were we not in a Spiritual sence seminally in his Blood and Merits how else should any such thing as the New Creature be produced in a lapsed Nature These things are as proper to make us Parts and Members of Christ as an Humane Nature is to make us Parts and Members of Adam therefore the communication of Righteousness from Christ must be as full and great as the communication of sin is from Adam Bishop Vsher tells us That we have a more strict conjunction in the Spirit with Christ then ever we had in Nature with Adam one and the same Spirit is in Christ and Believers but there is not one Soul in Adam and his Posterity the communication from Christ therefore if answerable to the Union must be as great nay greater than that from Adam Thirdly Adam was a Head both by Nature and by Constitution Sin unless in Conjunction with Nature could not pass from him to us neither could we without a Nature conveyed from him have been members of him It diâ— therefore appertain to his Headship to convey a Nature to us but Christ was an Head not by Nature But above it by Divine Constitution he was not to convey Naturals to us but super-naturals since the Fall Righteousness was not to pass to us in Conjunction with Nature Nature was to be from one Head and Righteousness from another we were to be made Members of Christ not by communication of Nature but of Grace it therefore did not appertain to his Headship to communicate Nature to us yet was his Headship as potent to convey Righteousness to us as Adam's was to convey sin the Divine Constitution made him such an Head that his Satisfaction might become ours for our Justification thus much touching this Argument drawn from the Headship of Christ Fourthly Those Scripture phrases of being purged sprinkled cleansed washed justifyed in the Blood of Christ notably import two things the one that Justification is in a signal manner attributed to Christ's Blood as Sanctification is to the Spirit the other that Christ's Blood justifies by way of Application but neither of these can stand if that Blood be only a meritorious cause not the first how can Justification be signally attributed to it when as a meritorious cause it no less impetrates Sanctification than Justification nothing singular is done by it in the one more than in the other not the second how can it justifie by Application when as a meritorious cause it operates only by impetration You will say Christ's Blood is applyed in the effect in a pardon I answer those Scripture phrases before quoted shew that the Blood it self is applyed to us how else is it said that we are purged cleansed sprinkled washed in it unless it be applyed to us the phrases how emphatical soever seem to be improper surely a satisfaction must in its own nature be a justifying matter against the Law next to an absolute conformity to the Law Nothing is or can be more justifying against it then a satisfaction when God hath provided a plenary satisfaction to justifie us how may we think that it is not it self applyed to us actually to justifie us or that something less than it self should do it the Scripture sets forth this Application on both hands on our part it is applyed by Faith We receiving the Atonement Rom. 5.11 and Christ being a propitiation through Faith in his Blood Rom. 3.25 and on God's part by Imputation we being made the Righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5.21 and the Righteousness of God being upon us Rom. 3.22 I cannot tell how to think that such an excellent justifying matter as Christ's Satisfaction is should be provided for us and yet not applyed to us according to the terms of the Gospel a pardon is as I take it upon the satisfaction not meerly made but applyed for it is given to Believers only if the satisfaction be it self applyed then that is our Righteousness against the Law if it be applyed in the effect that is in a pardon then the pardon is the very application and not a pardon upon a satisfaction applyed or if there be a pardon upon a satisfaction applyed there will be a pardon before a pardon a pardon in the application and a pardon upon it if the satisfaction be it self applyed then it may precede a pardon and a pardon may be upon it but if it be applyed only in the effect in a pardon then it cannot precede a pardon no more then a pardon can precede it self You will say a pardon is not upon a satisfaction applyed but is the very application To this I answer the Learned Mr. Gataker saith
crucified for us neither did it satisfie Justice on our behalf it is therefore Faith in its object that is Christ's Righteousness which justifies us against the Law that Faith which is counted for Righteousness is that which establishes the Law Vers 31. and that Establishment Faith makes not in it self but in its object Christ's Righteousness which established the Law by satisfying of it Faith therefore and its object must be taken together Hence the Apostle who mentions the Imputation of Faith Ver. 5. in the 4. Chapter mentions also the Imputation of Righteousness Ver. 6. It 's true both are but one in sence but in words the latter expresses the object of Faith as the former doth the Act Thus as I said before Faith in Conjunction with its object takes in the whole of Justification and then the after-words quoted out of the Psalm touching Remission do not describe the Imputation of Righteousness in its proper Nature but in its blessed Fruit viz. Pardon of sin which is not properly our Righteousness but a consequent upon it Another place is this Through this Man is preached unto you the Forgiveness of sin and by him all that believe are justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the Law of Moses Acts 13.38 39. Here it seems that what is called Remission in the first verse is called Justification in the next but I take it they are not the same in the 38. Ver. We have Remission in the offer or tender of the Gospel in the 39. we have Justification actual as it is in the Believer So they are not the same Justification here is not Remission but Justification by Sacrifice Justification by Christ's Sacrifice is opposed to Justification by the Legal ones Justification by these was typical and but in some cases the Law not allowing a Sacrifice in all but Justification by that is real and in all cases where Faith is not wanting here therefore Justification and Remission are not the same Another place is Luke 18. when the Publican penitentially prayed for Pardon God be merciful to me a Sinner he went home justified Vers 13 14. Justified is the same with Pardoned I answer This place shews that Justification follows upon true Repentance but not that Justification and Pardon are the same the Satisfaction of Christ justifies a Sinner a Pardon only frees him from punishment To name but one place more The Free-gift is of many offences to justification Rom 5.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Free-gift seems here to import Pardon as if Pardon and Justification were all one To this I answer The Apostle in this famous place sets down a Parallel between the two Heads Adam and Christ Adam's Sin and Christ's Righteousness Adam's Sin making us Sinners unto death and Christ's Righteousness making us righteous unto Life But the word Pardon or Remission is not so much as once named in all the Parallel by the Free-gift Vers 16. is not meant Remission but Christ's Righteousness This is clear upon a double account the one is this The Free-gift is opposed to Adam's sin and that which in this Parallel is opposed to Adam's sin must needs be Christ's Righteousness this appears throughout the whole Parallel in the 15 16. Vers Adam's Sin and the Free-gift are opposed in the 18. Vers Adam's Offence and Christ's Righteousness are opposed in the 19. Vers Adam's Disobedience and Christ's Obedience are opposed Hence it appears that what is the Free-gift in the 15 and 16. Vers is the Righteousness or Obedience of Christ in the 18. 19. Vers neither indeed can the Parallel stand if any other thing than Christ's Righteousness should be opposed to Adam's sin The other is this these words The Free-gift are put instead of Christ's Righteousness or Obedience this appears in that where the one is mentioned the other is omitted in the 15 16 17. Vers The Free-gift is mentioned but the Righteousness or Obedience of Christ is omitted in the 18 and 19. Vers the Righteousness and Obedience of Christ is mentioned but the Free-gift is omitted Indeed in our Translation we have the Free-gift Vers 18. but not in the Original Hence it appears that they are the same I suppose that in the 18. Vers should be otherwise supplied Thus it appears that the Free-gift is not Pardon Having seen the most material Texts I shall observe one thing more Justification is set forth in such a way in Scripture that it must needs be distinct from Pardon It is set forth so that the Law is established by it Rom. 3.31 but the Law is not established by a Pardon but by a Satisfaction You will say Our Pardon is upon a Satisfaction but if that Satisfaction do not justifie us if it be no Ingredient in our Justification then in our Justification the Law is not established as the Apostle speaks Justification is set forth so that the Righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in us Rom. 8.4 But the Righteousness of the Law is not fulfilled in a Pardon neither is it fulfilled in our imperfect though sincere Obedience The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is as Aristotle saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eth. l. 5. cap. 7. Correctio injuriae Satisfaction for the injured Law but nothing is such but Christ's Righteousness The Apostle in the precedent Verse saith That sin was condemned in the Flesh of Christ and of this there is a double Fruit first Justification The Righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in us that is Christ's Satisfaction becomes imputatively ours and then Sanctification we walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit This Interpretation harmonizes with the first Verse ther first we have Justification There is no Condemnation to them who are in Christ and then Sanctification We walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit as therefore Christ's Righteousness is the only thing which satisfies the Law so it is the only justifying matter against it Justification is so set forth that the Law hath its end Thus the Apostle Christ is the end of the Law for Righteousness to the Believer Rom. 10.4 as he is the end of the Law so he is for Righteousness he is not the end of the Law in a procured pardon but in a Satisfaction made and applied Justification therefore consists not in a Pardon but in a Satisfaction applied and made ours by Imputation Thus far out of Scripture Secondly Justification cannot be without a Righteousness that God who judgeth according to truth who is Just and a Justifyer doth not esteem or pronounce us righteous unless we are so a pardon is not our Righteousness for that is God's Act and God's Act though it may make or esteem us righteous is not it self our Righteousness neither is that which a pardon gives viz. an immunity from punishment such an immunity from punishment which is ex merâ indulgentiâ as in the case of a pardoned Malefactor is not such the Malefactor
be subject to Gods and in that subjection stands his Liberty and true Freedom His will doth not stand upon its own bottom but resignes up it self to his Grace to be made free indeed and to his commands as the supream Law his affections are not his own he suffers them not to wander up and down among the Creatures there to gather Hay and Stubble a false happiness to himself but he dispatches them away into the other World and makes them ascend up to God the true Center of Souls and Fountain of Goodness he surrenders up his Soul and all to God the Image of Heaven which is upon him plainly tells him that all is due to him who is above to keep back part of the price or substract ought from him is to lie to that Holy Spirit who hath set his stamp upon every part of the new Creature and by an Universal Sanctification sealed up the whole Man for his own The life of an Holy Man is a life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to God 1 Pet. 4.6 It aspires after an Imitation of the holy one it complies with his holy commands and in all aims at his glory as the supream end of all The Apostle notably sets forth this Consecration of Man to God they gave themselves to the Lord 2 Cor. 8.5 They would be their own no longer They surrendred up themselves to God they dedicated themselves to his Will and Glory All Christians nay almost all Men will at least seem to cry up an holy Life but that we may see wherein it doth consist I shall set down several things First An holy Life is not the product of our Natural Reason and Will Aug. in Job Tract 81. that of Pelagius A Deo habemus quod Homines sumus à nobis ipsis quod justi sumus That we are Men is from God that we are just Men is from our selves is impium effatum a very wicked Saying such as justly grates upon the Ears of good Men because it utterly evacuates the Grace of Christ It s true Reason is a very excellent thing it can dive into Nature and bring up some of the secrets of it It can teem out many Arts and Sciences it can measure out Rules and Moral Vertues to Men but it cannot make a Man holy it can of it self tell us That God is an Infinite Wise Just Good Superexcellent Being but after all is done it cannot raise up that Love to him which is the Spring of an holy Life that Love is from God and a fruit of the Holy Spirit Bellarmine laies down this very fairly and roundly Non posse Deum sine ope ipsius diligi De Grat. Lib. Ar. l. 6. c. 7. neque ut Authorem Naturae neque ut Largitorem Gratiae neque perfectè neque imperfectè ullo modo That without the help of Grace we cannot love God neither as the Author of Nature nor as the Giver of Grace neither perfectly nor imperfectly any way If Reason cannot elevate our Love to God then it cannot produce an holy Life which is a fruit of that Love Further it may having the Gospel set before it gather up a great stock of Notions touching God and Christ and the holy Commands in the Word and the incomparable Rewards in Heaven but it cannot raise up holy Principles and Actions in us if it could then the very first and rudest draught of Pelagius which made all Grace to consist in Doctrinâ Libero Arbitrio must be a very Truth then internal Grace which renews the Soul and rectifies the Faculties thereof must be a fancy needless and altogether superfluous its true the Will in Man is a free Principle but to Divine objects it is not at all free till it be made so by Grace There is such a gravedo Liberi Arbitrii such a pressure of innate corruption in it that it cannot ascend above it self to love God above all and dedicate the Life to him Thus we see that an Holy Life is too high a thing to issue forth from meer Principles of Nature when the Apostle tells us That Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness Temperance are Fruits of the Spirit Gal 5.22 It is no less than prophane to put our Spirit in the room of God's and to say these are the fruits of our Reason and Will when again he tells us that We are his Workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good Works Ephes 2.10 It is horrible presumption in us to put by the New Creation and think that the Old may serve the turn for an holy Life I can as easily believe that Jewish Fable That there is in the Body a Luz a little Bone never putrifying from whence the Resurrection begins as that there is any thing left in fallen Man which in it self may become a Principle of Regeneration and holy Living could there be any such thing found in us there would be no necessity of Grace but of Nature only a Creator we might praise but a Redeemer we need not our own Spirit may serve the turn God's may be spared Secondly An holy Life is the fruit of a renewed and regenerated Heart it is the budding and blossoming of a Divine Nature in us in it a Man shews himself to be a Man off from the old stock of Adam and to be ingraffed into Christ and as a branch in him to have Life and Spirit from him to dedicate and consecrate himself unto a God Without this New state there can be no such thing as an holy Life upon this account St. Austin tells the Pelagians Contr. Jul. lib. 5. c. 4. those enemies of Grace That they were in their Doctrine Ruina morum the ruin of good Life For if you take away that Grace which makes the New Creatures there can be no such thing as an holy Life that must stand upon some foundation and in lapsed Nature there is there can be no other but a New Creature To shew this more fully I shall lay dawn two things distinctly The one is this An unregenerate Man cannot lead an holy Life The other is this An holy Life issues out of a Principle of Regeneration These two will fully clear the Point The first thing is An unregenerate Man cannot lead an holy Life I say not That an unregenerate Man cannot become regenerate but that an unregenerate Man whilst such cannot live holily not that there is a natural impotency a want of the Faculties of Understanding and Will but that there is a Moral one and in-dwelling corruption which renders him uncapable to attain to it That of our Saviour A corrupt Tree cannot bring forth good Fruit Matth. 7.18 carries a great evidence of Reason in it the Fruit cannot exceed the Tree the effect will not be better than the procreant cause is if an unregenerate Man be a corrupt Tree if an holy Life be good Fruit the one cannot proceed from the other It is vanity and
David roll in Adultery and Blood or with Peter deny the Lord Christ or with Julian turn total final Apostate were he left in the hand of his own counsel he knows he might do any thing which hath been done by others St. Austin brings in one speaking thus Non multa peccavi I have sinned little yet love much And then answers thus Hom. 23. Tom. 10. Tu dicis te non multa commississe Quare quo regente Hoc tibi dicit Deus tuus Regebam te mihi servabam te mihi agnosce gratiam ejus cui debes quod non admisisti Thou say'st That thou hast not sinned much Why who ruled thee Thy God saith to thee I ruled thee I preserved thee acknowledg then his Grace to which thou owest even this That thou hast not sinned as others The holy Man is very sensible that unless God bear him up with his Grace he shall soon sink into all manner of fin Hence that of Luther Vita hominis nihil aliud est nisi oratio gemitus desiderium suspirium ad misericordiam Dei Our Life should be a perpetual breathing after that Grace of God upon which we depend Were we full of divine Light yet if we should shut the windows and go about to possess it in a Self-subsistence we should soon be in the dark and find by experience that every Beam hangs upon that Grace which is above were we never so rich in inherent Graces unless there were influences from Heaven also we should soon spend our stock and become bankrupts The holy Man is a Part or Member of Christ and lives in dependance upon him as the Head There is as St. Chrysostom saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Spirit descending from Christ above which touches all his Members and makes a kind of Spiritual continuity between him and them Hence they are said in Scripture to live in the Spirit pray in the Spirit walk in the Spirit do all in the Influence of that Spirit which comes down from the Head to actuate their Graces Hence St. Paul saith I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me Gal. 2.20 His Graces as they had their Being from Christ the true Immanuel so were they continued and actuated by the Influences of his Spirit which in a sober sence are a kind of Immanuel God with us to uphold and quicken us to all holy Obedience As the humane Nature of Christ acted not in a separate way but in union with the Divine so the Believers Graces do nothing apart but all in union with Christ Still there must be as the Milevitan Councel tells us an Adjutorium Gratiae a supernatural Aid to work in us to will and to do When we do good then as the Arausican Councel hath it Deus in nobis atque nobiscum ut operemur operatur God works in and with us to make us work The Holy Man's Powers and Graces cannot go alone He is therefore depending upon that Spirit which acts the Sons of God in pure ways towards Heaven To deny this dependance is like the worshippers of Angels Not to hold the Head from which all the Body by joynts and bands having nourishment ministred and knit together increaseth with the increase of God Col. 2.19 Were the holy Man off from the Head what would become of him what illapses of the Spirit or Influences of Grace could he look for in a state separate from him how could he remain holy or continue in the Divine Life any longer In such a case he would be no longer a living Branch but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a quasi Branch dead and withered and fit for the Fire as the Exposition is Joh. 15.6 He could no more walk in Holiness than the old Dionysius as the Fable runs could walk a great way with his Head off We see then what manner of thing a true holy Life is it is that which stands in doing the Will of God in a way of humble dependance upon his Grace it is not enough to do that which is good but we must do it waiting and looking up to the God of Grace that he would strengthen our inner Man order our steps hold up our goings in his paths encline our Hearts and work all our works in us that he would by the continual supplies of his Spirit enlighten us when dark quicken us when dead draw us when backward hold us when falling enlarge us when in straits and actuate our Graces in the midst of our infirmities How excellent is the Life when God's Arm joyns it self to ours to set it a working when the Spirit breaths on our Graces and the Spices flow out when the Influences of Auxiliary Grace are as Dew and the Roots of Habitual Graces cast forth themselves in holy works sutable thereunto when there is Grace with our Spirit and in a sence a kind of Immanuel God with us to incline our Hearts to do all the Will of God and in the power of his Grace we set our selves seriously to the doing of it This is indeed an holy Life not only good in the matter but pious in the manner of it a vein of Faith and dependance runs through every Good Work God the Fountain and Original of Holiness is sanctified in every step we take there is an holy Life in us but the Fountain of Life is above we do Good Works but God is the Great Operator he works all our Works in us I shall conclude with that of the Arausican Councel Adjutorium Dei etià m renatis ac sanctis semper est implorandum ut ad finem bonum pervenire vel in bono opere perdurare possint Can. 10. Help from the Holy One must be ever implored even by the Saints themselves that they may arrive at the good End and abide in the Good Work Fifthly In an holy Life there must be a sincere mortification of sin without any salvo or exception no known sin may be indulged or spared It 's true in an holy Man there are reliques of in-dwelling sin adhering to him there are quotidian Infirmities Effluvium's of Humane Frailty breathing forth from him but neither of these are indulged both are inevitable in this Life Original Corruption is a very great burden to him it is the grief of his Heart to have such an evil in his Bosom to be a clog upon his Faculties a damp upon his Prayers a cooler upon his Zeal and Charity and a stain upon all his Duties and Good Works This makes him groan and cry out Oh! wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me from this Body of Death This is an Evil always present the holy Man shakes himself and yet it adheres he flies and yet it encompasses he mortifies and yet he must mortify on it is not it will not be extinct till Death dissolves him into dust He prays weeps sweats fights runs labours and yet he cannot make a total riddance of it However he indulges it not in
like manner is it with his daily Infirmities these are not indulged but they lie as an heavy burden upon him he wishes for he breaths after Perfection Oh! that there were no remaining Sin no moats of Infirmity But alas it will not be here Aust de Temp. Serm. 45. Concupiscere nolo concupisco saith the Father Innate corruption will be stirring and bubling up in us all that can be done on Earth is to war and fight against it the Triumph the Crown of sinless Perfection can be found no where but in Heaven But to clear this Particular I shall set down two things The one is this A Man who indulges or allows sin in himself cannot while he doth so lead an holy Life he hath no Principles for it no Principle of Repentance he cannot mourn over sin while he joys in it he cannot hate sin while he loves it he cannot forsake sin while he follows after it No Principle of Faith he cannot trust in God's Mercy when he rebels and is in Arms against him he cannot receive the Lord Christ when he hath another Master to rule over him he cannot close in with the precious Promises of the Gospel when he embraces the lying Promises of Sin No Principle of Holy Love he cannot truly love God with an Idol in his Heart he cannot love him and close in with sin his great Enemy he cannot love him and habitually willingly violate his Commands Such an one can have no pure Intention towards God's Will or Glory not towards God's Will he obeys with a salvo or exception he picks and chuses among the Divine Commands he complies only with those Commands which cross not his darling Lust The Jewish Rabbins say He that saith I receive the whole Law except one word only despises the Command of God The same Divine Authority is upon all the Commands and that Obedience which is with the exception of one Command which crosses the indulged Lust is as none at all Nor yet towards God's Glory How can he glorify God who by willful sinning dishonours him or how can he aim at that Glory who aims at the satisfaction of his own Lust or which way can one promote two such contrary ends as that Glory and his own Satisfaction Heaven and Hell Light and Darkness Holiness and Impurity may as soon be reconciled as two such contrary ends can meet together Every indulged Lust is one Idol or other either it is Baal Pride and Lorliness or Ashtaroth Wealth and Riches or Venus carnal and sensual pleasure or Mauzzim Force and earthly Power unless the Idol be put away we cannot serve God in in an holy Life The other thing is this It is of high concern to an holy Life to mortify Sin An holy Man is one in Covenant with God therefore he must maintain war against Sin the Enemy of God Sin is an opposite to God a rebellion against his Sovereignty a contradiction to his Holiness an abuse to his Grace a provocation to his Justice a disparagement to his Glory and how can an holy Man a Friend of God do less than set himself against it that he may kill and utterly destroy it Ye that love the Lord hate evil saith the Psalmist Psal 97.10 The Exhortation is pregnant with excellent Reason If you do indeed love God who is Purity Power Wisdom Excellency it self ye can do no less than hate Sin which is Pollution Weakness Folly and Vileness and if you do hate it you will seek the utter ruine and extirpation of it an holy Man is one in union with Christ and upon that account he must mortify Sin in Christ crucified he hath a pattern of Mortification what was done to his pure Flesh in a way of Expiation must be done to our corrupt Flesh in a way of Mortification The Nails which fastned him to the Cross tell us that our corruption must have such a restraint upon it that it may like one on a Cross be disabled to go forth into those acts of sin which it is propense unto the piercing and letting out his Heart-blood shews us that the Old Man must not only be restrained but pierced that the vital Blood the internal love of sin may be let out of the Heart he was active in his Passion he freely laid down his Life yet violence was done to him in like manner we must freely sacrifice our Lusts we must willingly die to sin yet sin must not die a Natural Death but a violent one it must be stabb'd at the heart and die of its wounds And because it will not die all at once it must by little and little languish away till it give up the Ghost there must be Mortification upon Mortification because sin is long a dying But further we have from Christ not an Examplar of mortification only but a Spirit and Divine Power for the Work while by Faith we converse about the wounds of Christ We have that Spirit from him which mortifies the deeds of the Body Rom. 8.13 That mind of Christ which makes us suffer in the Flesh ceasing from sin That we may no longer live to the Lusts of Men but to the Will of God 1 Pet. 4.1 2. If then the holy Man will live like himself and as becomes a Member of Christ he must by that Vertue and Spirit which he hath from him crucify his Lusts and Corruptions Thus the Apostle They that are Christ's have crucified the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts Gal. 5.24 They ought to crucify them they do crucify them so far that sin can reign no longer they go on crucifying every day more and more that the body of sin may be destroyed Moreover An holy Man hath such a Divine Faith as blasts all the World in comparison of Heavenly things in the Eyes of Faith Earthly Riches are not the true ones those Treasures which glitter so much to Sense are but poor moth-eaten things the World's substance is but a shadow an apparition a thing that is not too low for an immortal Soul to aim at too mean to enrich the inward Man the sensual pleasures which ravish Flesh and Blood are but the vain titillations of the outward Man Momentary things such as perish in the using and die in the embraces leaving nothing behind them but a sting and worm in the Conscience of the poor voluptuary Mundane Glories which take carnal Men so much appear to be but a blast a little popular Air to a Man up among the Stars the whole Earth would be but a small thing and to a Man who by Faith converses in Heaven Earthly Crowns and Scepters are no better Now when Sin which uses to wrap up it self in one piece of the World or other is blasted in its Covers and Dresses of apparent Good when those Pomps and Fancies of the World which usually paint and cover Sin to render it eligible unto Men are discovered by Faith to be but vanities and empty Nothings Sin
praeter illum Deum as if there were none in all the World besides himself and God still his Eye is upon God what ever he doth he doth it heartily as unto the Lord and not unto Men Col. 3.23 The great end and center of his actions is God's Glory and under that he designs to do good to Men he would conferre aliquid in publicum casts in something into the common good of Mankind An Holy Magistrate hath the fear of God upon him he judges not for Man but for the Lord he judges righteous Judgment and that as the Rabbins say is a sure sign that the Shecinah the Divine Presence is with him in the judgment An Holy Minister carries with him an Vrim and Thummim Light in his Doctrine and Integrity in his Life He burns in zeal for God and Christ he melts in labours and compassions for the Souls of Men. His Motto is the same with that of Mr. Perkins Verbi Minister es hoc age In a word whatever the Calling be the Holy Man is active faithful bent for the Glory of God still he remembers that he is a Christian Religion hath an influence upon his Calling His particular Calling which is Vocatio ad munus to a course of Life is made subordinate to his general Calling which is Vocatio ad Faedus to the Faith and Obedience of the Gospel Thus wee see An Holy Man is like himself at every turn as occasion is one odour of Grace or other is still a breaking forth from him Seventhly In an Holy Life there is not only an exercise of Graces but in that Exercise a growth of them the Holy Man of a Plant comes to be a Tree of Righteousness of a Babe he comes to be a Man in Christ he goes from strength to strength his path is as the shining Light which shines more and more unto the perfect day Prov. 4.18 He travels on from Vertue to Vertue to meet the everlasting day He grows in every part of the New Creature till he come to Heaven where Grace is perfected in Glory His Knowledg grows by following on to know the Lord he comes to know more of him by doing of God's Will he comes to understand it better than ever he did the Eye is more open the Heart is more unvailed the Truth is more sealed to the Mind the Understanding is more quick in the Fear of the Lord the Taste and Savour of Divine things is higher than it was before he had at his first Conversion a spiritual Knowledg and Understanding but exercising himself to Godliness he comes by degrees to all Knowledg 1 Cor. 1.5 and to Riches of Vnderstanding Col. 2.2 Notions are enlarged and withal Heavenly things are known per gustum spiritualem by a Spiritual taste of them his Faith grows at first there was but contactus but upon the Exercise of Graces there comes to be complexus fidei the touch of Christ by Faith is advanced into an embrace the recumbency on his Blood and Righteousness is stronger the subjection to his Royal Scepter is more full than it was the reliance on Promises and compliance with Commands are both raised up to an higher pitch than they were before at last Adherence comes to be Assurance His Love grows there comes to be an higher estimate set upon God a closer union with him a greater complacence in him than there was before At last Love becomes a vehement flame Cant. 8.6 Flamma Dei the Flame of God which burns up the earthly Affections and aspires after the full fruition of God in the Holy Heavens Also his Obedience and Patience are upon the increase by much obeying the Intention becomes more pure the Will more free the Obedience more easy and abundant he doth not only do the Work of the Lord but he abounds in it he doth not only bring forth Fruit but much Fruit Joh. 15.8 By patient bearing of Afflictions the Art or Divine Mystery of suffering comes to be understood the Heart is yielded and resigned up to the Divine pleasure he would be what God would have him be he hath not only patience but all patience Col. 1.11 Patience hath not only a Work but a perfect Work Jam. 1.4 Thus in the Holy Man Grace is still a growing Further The Holy Man grows every way he grows inward by exercising himself to Godliness his Vital Principles become more strong his Supernatural Heat is increased his inner Man is strengthened more than ever it was before he hath a Divine vigor to overcome corruptions to repel temptations to live above earthly things to perform Heavenly duties and to endure sufferings He is strengthened in the inner Man Ephes 3.16 and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in all Power Col. 1.11 to do what is decorous to his spiritual Nature he grows outward he hath not only the fruits of Righteousness but he is filled with them Phil. 1.11 The influences of Grace and supplies of the Spirit make him to bring forth much fruit and that with great variety as occasion serves all the fruits of the Spirit Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness Temperance which the Apostle mentions Gal. 5.22 23. break forth from him in their spiritual Glory He is like the Tree planted by the Rivers of Waters Ps 1.3 which hath a fruit for every Season or like Joseph's Fruitful bough by a Well whose Branches run over the Wall Gen. 49.22 There is a redundance and exuberancy of Holy Fruits which shew that he hath a Divine Spirit a Well of living Water in him springing up into all Obedience and good Works He grows upward by conversing in holy things he is un-earthed and unselved he converses more than ever in Heaven the Glory of God is more precious to him his Intention towards it is more pure than it hath been he waits and longs to be in that Blessed Region where God is all in all Every Duty and Good Work looks up more directly than was usual to God the great Center and End of all things He grows downwards I mean in Humility by conversing with God he comes to have a greater Light than ever which discovers the Majesty and purity of God the rectitude and Holiness of the Law the infirmity and reliques of Corruption in the lapsed Nature of Man and this Discovery makes him very humble and vile in his own Eyes even his very lapses and falls serve occasionally to this growth De Corr. Grat. c. 9. Hence St. Austin treating on those words All things work together for good to them that love God Rom. 8. adds Etiam si deviant exorbitant hoc ipsum eis faciat proficere in bonum quia humiliores redeunt doctiores Experience tells him that he is nothing and Grace is all Morever the Holy Man never thinks that he hath Grace enough never saith I am perfect or I have attained Inceptio bonae vitae in quovis gradu sine desiderio
from God the chief Good and Ultimate End if we consecrate our selves to God we must needs cast away sin from us the Spirit and Flesh are contrary Principles and cannot rule together the Works of the one and of the other cannot be compounded the great Centers Heaven and Hell are at a vast distance and cannot meet We must therefore die to Sin or else we cannot live to God let us labour to be Holy in all manner of Conversation let us go forth and meet God in every dispensation in Ordinances let us meet him with Devotion and holy Affection in Alms with Love and a free Spirit in Prosperity with Praises and Good Works in Adversity with Patience and Silence in our Dealings with Justice and Righteousness in our Callings with Faithfulness and Diligence In every thing let us walk 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 worthy of God as becomes those who are consecrated unto him Let us so exercise our selves unto Piety that we may grow in all Graces that our Faith may be more lively our Love more ardent our Humility more low our Heavenliness more high our Obedience more full our Patience more perfect that we may have our fruit unto Holiness and the End Everlasting Life Let us be ever making our selves ready for that Blessed Region where there are plenitudes of Joy Crowns of Immortality Rivers of Pleasures where God is the Light Life Love All in all to the Saints FINIS ERRATA'S PAge 57. Line 10. read burned p. 72. l. 27. formally p. 75. l. 4. Vajored p. 90. l. 19. ears p. 138. l. 14. Sun p. 141. l. 6. Vos p. 148. l. 14. plenal p. 150. l. 17. Carnal Ordinances p. 167. l. 6. often cast p. 203. l. 10. heart p. 247. l. 7. possibly p. 327. l. 20. none for the Promise Ib. l. 21. capable of p. 330. l. 2. true p. 339. l. 3. Righteousness of God p. 343. l. 1. is it a Jus Impunitatis p. 355. in the marg Note r. consecratum est p. 366. l. 4. its subject p. 371. l. 12. the Glory of it it is ours p. 420. l. 10. expression p. 428. l. 2. ray Reader the misplaced Points or Stops do sometimes very much alter or obscure the Sence let such places be read without any respect to them and then the Sence will appear Books sold by Thomas Cockerill at the Three Legs in the Poultry over against the Stocks-Market Books publish'd by the same Author PRecious Faith considered in its Nature Working and Growth in 80. The Divine Will considered in its Eternal Decrees and holy Execution of them in 80. An Answer to a Discourse of Mr. William Sherlock touching the Knowledg of Christ and our Union and Communion with him in 80. Morning Exercise at Cripple-Gate or several Cases of Conscience practically resolved by sundry Ministers in 40. A Supplement to the Morning Exercise at Cripple-Gate Or several more Cases of Conscience practically resolved by sundry Ministers in 40. The Court of the Gentiles in 4 Parts by Theophilus Gale in 40. Pseudodoxia Epidemica Or Enquiries into very many Received Tenets and commonly presumed Truths Together with the Religio Medici by Tho. Brown Knight M. D. 40. A Discourse of Patronage Being a modest Enquiry into the Original of it and a further prosecution of the History of it by Zachariah Cowdry in 40. The Poor Man's Family-Book by Rich. Baxter in 80. The Faithfulness of God considered and cleared in the great Events of his Works or a Second Part of the fulfilling of the Scriptures by the same Author in 80. The English School or The readiest way for teaching Children or Elder Persons to spell and read rightly pronounce and write true English containing also a Catalogue of all the words in the Bible c. by Tobias Ellys in 80. A New Book of Spelling with Syllables or an Alphabet and plain Path-way to the Faculty of Reading the English Roman Italian and Secretary Hands with several Copies of the same divised chiefly for Children that thereby with the less loss of their time they may be able to pass from Reading to the Latin Tongue Also this Book is very necessary for the Ignorant to teach them to write true Orthography in short time A Week of Soliloquies and Prayers with a Preparation to the holy Communion and other Devotions added to this Edition in two Parts by Peter Du Moulin D. D. in 12. De Causa Dei Or A Vindication of the common Doctrine of the Protestant Divines concerning Predetermination i. e. The Interest of God as the first Cause in all Actions as such of all Rational Creatures from the invidious consequence with which it is burden'd by Mr. John Howe in a late Letter and Postscript of God's Prescience in 80. A Dialogue between a Popish Priest and an English Protestant wherein the principal Points and Arguments of both Religions are truly proposed and fully examined by Matthew Poole Author of the Synopsis Criticorum in 12. The Spiritual Remembrancer Or A Brief Discourse of the Duty of those who attend upon the preaching of the Gospel by Samuel Welley in 80. God a Christian's Choice compleated by particular Covenanting with God wherein the Lawfulness and Expediency is cleared by Samuel Winney in 12. The Reüniting of Christianity Or The manner how to rejoyn all Christians under one sole Confession of Faith in 80.
he ought the greatest Saint though a man full of divine principles stands in need of assistance And doth a natural man one void of good fraught with evil need no more Is regenerating quickning renewing new-creating grace nothing but an assistance only May any one believe that the holy Spirit in Scripture should give such high stately titles to an assistance only May a man be a co-operator or co-partner with God in the raising up faith and a new creature in himself It 's true a natural man may by a common grace enter upon preparatories he may attend upon the means but what can he contribute to the work it self he is meerly natural the new creature is totally supernatural and what can he do towards it could he contribute ought what would the new creature be must it not be part natural as from man part supernatural as from God part old as from nature part new as from grace Thus it must be if this great work be divided between God and man Notable is that of Lactantius De fal Rel. Lib. 1. Cap. 11. Jovem Junonemque a juvando esse dictos Cicero interpretatur Jupiter quasi Juvans Pater dictus quod nomen in Deum minimè congruit quia juvare hominis est opis aliquid conferentis in eum qui sit egens alicujus beneficii nemo sic Deum precatur ut se adjuvet sed ut servet ut vitam salutemque tribuat nullns pater dicitur filios juvare cum eos generat aut educat illud enim levius est quam ut eo verbo magnitudo paterni beneficii exprimatur quanto id magis est inconveniens Deo qui verus est Pater per quem sumits cujus toti sumus a quo fingimier animamur illuminamur And at last he concludes Non intelligit beneficia divina qui se juvari modo a Deo putat He understands not divine benefits who thinks himself only helped by God Jehovah must not be transformed into a Jupiter or a meer helper man must not share with him in this great work it is God who makes us new creatures and not we our selves We are his workmanship not our own Ephes 2.10 Born not of the will of man but of God Joh. 1.13 As soon as a man is regenerate it may be truly said of him Hic homo jam naâ—ns est ex Deo this man is now born of God but to say that he is in part born of mans will is to blaspheme the Author of our spiritual being and to crown Nature instead of Grace 3. The holy principles of Grace are produced by an act of Divine power God lays the foundations of faith and the new creature as it were in mighty waters in the very same heart in which there is a fountain and torrent of corruption and no power less than the Divine can put back the stream of nature and set up the Heavenly structure of Grace in such an heart The production of gracious principles is in Scripture set forth in glorious titles such as do import power 't is called a Transtation Col. 1.13 it transplants and carries us away out of a state of sin into a state of grace 'T is a Generation Jam. 1.18 it begets us to a participation of the Divine Nature 'T is a Resurrection Ephes 2.5 It quickens us and inspires into us a Supernatural life of which the fall had left no spark or relick at all 'T is a Creation Eph. 2.10 it raises up a new creature out of nothing and gives us a spiritual being which before we had not and if these things do not speak power nothing can Hence the Apostle speaks of the Gospel coming in power 1 Thes 1.5 Nay that in the success of it there is an excellency of power 2 Cor. 4.7 and an exceeding greatness of power towards Believers Eph. 1.19 The work of faith is said to be fulfilled with power 2 Thes 1.11 How much more must it be an act of power to lay the Primordials and first principles of faith in a fallen unbelieving creature When there was nothing appearing in our lapsed nature but a vacuum a chaos of sin a spiritual death and nullity only the Divine power was able to repair the ruins of the fall and rear up the Heavenly life and nature in us This great truth was notably set forth in the conception of our Saviour Christ it was not in the course of nature his Mother knew not a man but the Holy Ghost came upon her the power of the highest overshadowed her that the holy thing might be born of her Luk. 1.35 In like manner when Christ is formed in the heart when the new-creature is set up in us it is not in the way of nature we know not the humane power in this work here is no less than dextra excelsi the right hand of the most High to effect it here are vestigia spiritus sancti the footsteps of the holy Spirit to bring it to pass the same power and spirit which formed Christ in the womb formes him in the heart as in his participation of the humane nature there was a Supernatural operation so is there in our participation of the Divine This is the first efficacy of Grace it new creates the heart and imprints the Divine image there it inspires holy Principles and so lays a foundation for obedience 2. There is an efficacy of Grace as to actual believing and willing St. Bernard asks the question Quid agit liberum arbitrium What doth Free-will do and then answers De Lib. Arbit Grat. Salvatur it is saved And Agatho in his Epistle lays down this as a rule Quod a Christo non susceptum est 6. Gen. Conc. Act. 4. nec salvatum est si ab eo humana voluntas suscepta est salvata est That which was not assumed by Christ is not saved by him If an humane will was assumed then it is saved and it is saved first in that principles of holy rectitude are instilled into it and then in that those principles are drawn forth in actual willing both these are necessary the first implants the vital principles of Grace in the heart the second makes them blossom and bring forth precious fruit without those vital principles the will however assisted ab extra is internally in it self but a faculty meerly natural and void of spiritual life it hath no proportion to the vital supernatural acts of Faith and Love Neither is it possible that any such should issue out from thence no not by any extrinsecal assistance whatsoever an act if vital and supernatural must be from an internal principle that is such Again unless those vital principles bring forth actual believing and willing they must needs lie dead and come to nothing And yet if we estimate things according to their worth and excellency we cannot but think it much more easie and eligible for the wise and good God to suffer an