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
glory of God vers 23. If the description did not reach all men his conclusions drawn from thence would not hold the description might extend to some yet others at least little Infants might not be sinners or guilty and consequently might be justified by the Law as having nothing against them The Apostle therefore here by the actual sins of some proves original sin in all and upon that account proves all to be guilty under sin and unjustifiable by the Law because all have that inherent pravity which is the root of actual sins St. James tells us That every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed Jam. 1.14 Lust or original concupiscence is the great tempter it doth not only entice as an object but by a kind of impetus and importunity it draws us away from God the infinite goodness to one creature-vanity or other by its motions and titillations it wooes for a consent and afterwards it brings forth the outward act of sin The world tempts outwardly but this is domesticus hostis a traitor within in our own bosom it tempts not objectively only but effectively really inclining us to sin it is a perpetual tempter Resist the Devil and he will fly from you Jam. 4.7 but make never so great a resistence against this lust it will not in this life fly from you neither can you fly from it This is that which conceives and brings forth all the actual sins in the world Nay it is that which distils sinfulness into the best actions of Saints all the crying abominations in the world and all the defects in the Church are the progeny of it This is the root of all bitterness the fomes peccati the nest and womb of all actual sins It may be thought perhaps that all this discourse is besides the intended scope original sin was not exemplified in Christ But I answer It was not indeed exemplified in him but the Doctrine of it may be undeniably drawn from him To this end I shall offer these particulars 1. The conception of Christ is very considerable He was conceived in the Virgins womb not in the ordinary way of nature not by the conjunction of man and woman but in a Divine and extraordinary manner in a way above all the power and law of nature Hence the Angel tells the Virgin Mary The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee Luk. 1.35 Hence it is said that she was found with child of the Holy Ghost Matt. 1.18 That is the body of Christ was formed by the infinite power and virtue though not out of the substance of the Holy Spirit The substance of Christs flesh was taken out of the Virgin and like unto ours but the structure and manner of framing of it was infinitely surmounting that of ours Hence his flesh is said to be a tabernacle not made with hands not of this building Heb. 9.11 It was not set up in the natural way of generation but in a miraculous supernatural manner and why was it thus but that his humane nature might as St. Luke speaks be an holy thing pure from the least tincture of sin All men who come from Adam in a natural way contract guilt and pravity in their original but his flesh was formed out of the substance of a Virgin in a miraculous and extraordinary manner that so he though like to us in all things might not be like to us in sin that he might partake of our flesh and blood in a pure and unspotted way here we see purity was his prerogative the common lot of our nature is corruption It 's true the Pelagians are not afraid to assert That Christ was free from all contagion of sin Aust ad Bon. l. 4. c. 2. Non excellentia propria gratia singulari sed communione naturae quae omnibus inest infantibus Not by any proper excellency and singular grace but by a communion of that nature which is in all Infants But this is in effect to say that the coming of the Holy Ghost upon the Virgin the overshadowing her by the power of the Highest were superfluous and vain all might have been as well in an ordinary way this is to rob Christ of his prerogative to bring down the Saviour to the common level of the saved which can never indeed come to pass There is a great difference between Christ and us in this point our bodies are formed in the ordinary course of nature but his was formed in an extraordinary supernatural way We were in Adam secundum rationem seminalem We descended from the seminal vertue in him But he was in Adam only secundum substantiam corporalem He took the materials of a body from the Virgin but the modus conceptionis the manner of framing of it was supernatural We come forth into the world by that common benediction Increase and multiply but he came into the flesh by that singular promise The seed of the woman shall break the Serpents head We see here a plain difference Hence it appears that purity was a singular priviledg in Christs birth and pollution is the common lot of ours 2. The capacity Christ stood in is to be noted He was set up to be a common head of righteousness and life and that tells us that before him there was another who by his fall was a common head of sin and death Famous is that place Rom. 5 If by one mans offence death reigned by one much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ As by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men to justification of life As by one mans disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous We see here two heads Adam and Christ both are set before us the one cannot be well known without the other the Pagans know neither Christians must confess both If they say Christ is an head communicating righteousness and immortality to us they must also say Adam was an head communicating sin and death to us else the Apostles Parallel is vain and frivolous in that Christ who obeyed in a publick capacity is opposed to Adam who sinned only in a private one Both these heads must be admitted or neither if both then there is sin from Adam as well as righteousness from Christ Epist 190. Thus St. Bernard saith Alius qui peccatorem constituit alius qui justificat a peccato alter in semine alter in sanguine One Adam makes us sinners another makes us righteous the one by his seed the other by his blood if neither then the obedience of Christ is made fruitless and to no purpose Hence St. Austin saith De Nat. Grat. c. 6. 7. That the Doctrine of Original sin
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
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
swallowed up in weakness Let him come down from the Cross and we will believe him Matth. 27.42 as if without a fresh Miracle all his holy Doctrines would vanish into nothing The Jews who were for Signs stumbled and fell in the midst of those glorious Miracles which he wrought among them The Greeks who were for Wisdom saw nothing but foolishness in the midst of the divine Mysteries which he brought down out of his Fathers Bosom A crucified Christ look'd like a spectacle of weakness and folly But here the divine Wisdom appears in that as the Apostle hath it The foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God stronger than men This crucified Christ shall attract a Church out of the corrupt Mass of mankind the foolishness of Preaching shall do it The Plato's or Aristotles of the World shall not be employed in the work no there shall be only Piscatoria simplicitas a few Fishermen shall catch men and draw them home unto God to the effectually called this despised Christ shall be the power and wisdom of God The divine Spirit merited by him shall endue them with a wisdom much higher than that of Nature and Philosophy and cloathe them with a power to make them live above all the hopes and fears of this World Death the last Enemy which had devoured so much humane flesh did not spare that Sacred portion which was assumed into the Son of God but in his death Death it self was swallowed up in Victory It passes indeed upon all men but when it comes to a Believer it lays by its sting and becomes only a passage into life Eternal To conclude In all these Conquests we may see one Contrary brought out of another Life out of Death Power out of Weakness a Blessing out of a Curse and a Victory out of Sufferings which speaks no less than an admirable contrivance therein These appearances of Divine Wisdom naturally teach us humility of mind Humane Reason is indeed in its own Orb an excellent Light but a greater than it the Reason of God himself comes forth to us in supernatural Mysteries to make us sit down at his feet for Instruction Nothing can be more just and purely rational than for our Intellect being finite to be subject to the infinite Truth and being lighted up by God to do homage to its great Original It 's true ever since man tasted of the Tree of Knowledg his Reason hath had a malignant pride in it of a Minister it would be a Lord over our Faith assuming the Magisterial Chair it would fall a-judging Divine Mysteries it would comprehensively span them within it self and what could not be so comprized it would out of enmity cast away as spurious This in the issue hath so far as it hath prevailed desperately overturned all Faith in the act and in the object in the act for to believe a thing because I can comprehend it is not faith in God but trusting in my own heart not a sealing to his Veracity but a subscribing to my own Sagacity Hence the learned Maresius saith of the Socinians That they have manus oculatas hands with eyes in them that only do they believe which they see they will trust God no further than they see him Also in the Object this hath been very subversive to the Gospel In the Pagan Philosophers whose Motto was Soli rationi cedo it cast away Christ crucified as foolishness and the Gospel as an absurd Fable it reflected on Christians as meer Simpletons men of an easie and irrational faith hence that jeer of Cato Stultitia est morte alterius sperare salutem it 's folly to hope for salvation in the death of another In the Socinians whose Rule is Nihil credi potest quod a ratione nequeat capi nothing can be believed which cannot be comprehended by Reason it hath blown up the fundamental Articles of Christianity the sacred Trinity to them is a contradiction the Hypostatical Union an irrational repugnancy the Satisfaction of Christ a contumely to Gods grace and in all this they do but build a Tower a Name to their own Reason and as a just punishment in the doing of it they fall into confusion and inconsistencies Mar. Hydra Tom. 2.460 Sometimes they make the Law to exact a more perfect obedience than the Gospel Sometimes the Gospel to call for a more accurate righteousness than the Law To evert Satisfaction they lift up Grace but to elevate Free-will they depress it They own a God yet deny his Prescience they say Christ is but a creature yet they worship him Thus that great thing Reason falling from the supreme Truth becomes a forlorn spectacle of vanity In a kind of self-splendor it goes out in the darkness of errour and confusion But now to humble our minds it is of excellent use to consider the divine Wisdom which is so much above us When our Reason stands by sense it hath a noble stature and greatness but as soon as it turns about to infinite Wisdom it perceives a greater Presence than it self and must in all reason confess it self a little spark a very Nothing in comparison It cannot step out into the sphere of Nature but it finds matter of humility being true to it self it can do no less than say that it is everywhere posed and nonplust It is not able rationally to stand under the secrets of Nature much more must it stoop and do reverence before such a Mystery as that is God manifest in the flesh in which the transcendent Mystery amazes us and the unparallel'd Pattern draws us into humility Thither must we come or else turn Infidels and allow Reason for a Deity saying with Seneca Quid aliud voces animam quà m Deum in humano corpore hospitantem What is the rational Soul but God dwelling in flesh a kind of Christ or rather Antichrist This I am sure Christian ears cannot bear But a little more to demonstrate how necessary a thing humility of mind is let us consider Reason in a three-fold state then it will appear that Reason in its Integrity could not find out supernatural Mysteries in its Fall cannot spiritually know them and lastly in the irradiations of Faith cannot comprehend them 1. Reason in its Integrity could not find them out The pure primitive light in Adam could dive into the secrets of Nature but it could not reach such a Mysterie as that of the sacred Trinity which is the fundamental center of Christian Religion He could name the creatures and that significantly to their natures but that Question What is his sons name Prov. 30.4 would have been too hard for him There are say the School-men some obscure Images of the Trinity in the Volume of Nature but they were found out à posteriori and not to be read till after Revelation and how should humane Reason dictate in those things which it could not find out or know any thing from it self when it hath
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
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
Vbi living and breathing in the spirits of men Rather than it should not revive there God would be manifest in the flesh and die in it And how should we die to our selves and the World that it may live in us Which when it doth we live indeed and that a life more divine and of higher Excellency than is the life of meer Sense or Reason nay this life is complicated with Happiness and makes us meet for life Eternal If we would live for ever in Bliss and Glory we must follow after Holiness heart and life must be consecrated unto God else Heaven will not be capable to receive us nor shall we be fit to enter in there CHAP. IV. Chap. 4 Gods Punitive Justice asserted from Scripture and Nature It was necessary that there should be a Satisfaction for Sin Rectoral Justice required it Vnless Christs Sufferings were satisfactory no good account can be given of them It 's not enough to say That he was an Example of Patience That he confirmed the Covenant That Gods immense Love was manifested therein or that his Resurrection assured ours Gods Justice appears in that He though of infinite Mercy inflicted those Sufferings on Christ In that Christ the Patient was Man the Son of God an holy Innocent One In that the Sufferings of Christ were proportionable to the sinning-powers in Man To the Law To the sin and sufferings of a World The fruits of his Sufferings as to Himself and as to Vs The Dreadfulness of sin in respect of the Sufferings of Christ and the miserable end of impenitent Sinners HAVING discoursed of Gods Holiness I now come to his Vindictive Justice which as a learned man saith is a Branch or Emanation from the other That pure Essence which cannot but hate sin Justitia vindicatrix in Deo sanctitatis summae rectitudinis pars quaedam est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Turret de satisfact must needs have a propensity to punish it That propensity cannot be separated from the hatred of sin nor that hatred from infinite Rectitude The Socinians that they might raze Christs Satisfaction to the very foundation deny this Attribute This Justice say they is not an Attribute in God Neither is it called Justice in Scripture but rather Severity which is not resident in God but only an effect of his Will But that there is such an Attribute in God is evident in Scripture He is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Right and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Righteous As the first chiefly respects his Universal Righteousness so the second doth his Judicial one He is said to be just in his judging Revel 16.5 His judgment is a righteous judgment Rom. 2.5 It is a righteous thing with him to render tribulation 2 Thess 1.6 Punishment is called a just Recompence Heb. 2.2 Punishment how afflictive soever cannot be Punishment unless Justice be declared in it nor can Justice be declared in that which it requires not The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sometimes denotes the Punishment Jude v. 7. Sometimes the Punitive Justice it self Acts 28.4 One 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is from another just Punishment issues out from Vindictive Justice with respect to that only it is that God is called a consuming fire Heb. 12.29 As he is Light in his Essential Purity so he is Fire in his Essential Justice which is ever in Conjunction with his Purity and as it were the ardour of it breaking out in flames of Wrath in such sort as seems fit to him Thus Scripture But further Nature concurs to make it good This that God is Just is graven in the minds of all men The very Heathens by the indelible Characters which they find there are able to read the Judgment of God and say that he hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an avenging Eye a Ray of it shines in their own bosom The Barbarians upon the sight of the Viper on Pauls hand cry out of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Vengeance that pursued him as a Murderer The very instinct of Nature told them that there was a Connexion between Guilt and Punishment Conscience is Dei vicarius a kind of Representative Numen in men it hath a secret Tribunal in the Heart and from that Seal and impress which divine Justice hath set upon it dooms and judges Offenders unto misery Hence that saying Prima est haec ultio quod se Judice nemo nocens absolvitur Punishment is coetaneous to Guilt Sin in its egress out of the heart leaves a sting behind The Offender cannot be well within his distemper is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a conscience of his evil-deeds his mind reflects torment upon it self inwardly he is nothing but Wounds and amazing Horrors the Apparitions of Wrath haunt him Conscience is sensus praejudicium judicii divini a kind of anticipation and presensation of the last Judgment After all this to deny God to be just is to offer violence to the Principles of Nature and put a lye upon those Notions which are born with and instamped-upon our Reason It is to say That the Image and Impress of a Deity upon our hearts is but a Counterfeit That Conscience is but a Cheat and all the Terrors there but a false Alarm In a word It is to eradicate all Religion and open a Flood-gate to all wickedness and impiety These being intolerable absurdities it cannot but be granted that there is such an Attribute in God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Plutarch Justice follows God or rather it is his very Essence It is an enquiry among Divines How far it was necessary that sin should be punished that without Satisfaction there should be no Remission It is an indubitable Verity That it was necessary by virtue of Gods Decree He hath declared himself that he will by no means acquit the guilty But this is not all In Scripture Punishment is not attributed meerly to his Will or Decree but to his just and righteous Nature Thou art righteous O Lord because thou hast judged thus Revel 16.5 Though the mode and circumstance of Punishment be determined by his Soveraign pleasure yet the punishment it self issues out from his Justice Sin merits punishment They that do such things are worthy of death Rom. 1.32 It is not meerly Gods Will but his Justice which renders unto sin its due The proportion which is between Sin and Punishment shews who holds the ballance Were it meerly at the divine Pleasure to punish sin or not God need not punish obstinate and impenitent persons This the Socinians themselves cannot bear They say There is one Justice in God unaâ—est justitia Dei quâ perpetuo utitur dum scelestos contumaces ac perditae spei homines plectit atque exterminat Soc. de Serv. pars prima cap. 1. Indignum Deo est eorum scelera impunè dimittere Crell de Deo Attr. cap. 23. which he ever useth in punishing contumacious sinners nay it would be unworthy of
World notwithstanding its deep Corruption and the opposition of Potentates and Philosophers to the Gospel The instruments mean that the Power might be of God The Gospel proposes super-rational Mysteries super-moral Virtues super-mundane rewards things so much above us that without a Divine Power the proposal would have been fruitless IN the next place I come to consider the Power of God Power being a Perfection must needs be in him and being as all other Attributes are his very Essence it must needs be infinite The very light of Nature reveals this Attribute In the Grecian Philosophers he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Omnipotent Nihil est quod Deus efficere non posset saith Tully Ludovicus Vives wonders Comment in Aug. de Civit. l. 5. c. 10. that so learned a Man as Pliny should cavil at Gods Omnipotence as if he could not do all things because he could not dye In Scripture he is called Gibbor a mighty one Shaddai an All-sufficient God he is the only Potentate 1 Tim. 6.15 He can do every thing Job 42.2 Nothing is too hard for him Gen. 18.14 Power belongeth to him Psal 62.11 Whatever is an act of Power that he can do that he cannot do contradictories is not Impotency but Power and Perfection for him to lye were to deny his own Truth for him to dye were to cast off his Immortality for him to make a thing be and at the same instant to make it not to be were to act repugnantly and overturn his own action These argue Impotency not Power We may more properly say that these cannot be done than that God cannot do them he can do all things which being done do argue Power or Perfection but what argues Impotency can no more fall upon him than darkness can seize upon the Sun This excellent Attribute of Power was eminently set forth in Christ He is called the power of God 1 Cor. 1.24 Divine Power shews forth it self in him in several respects First it breaks out in his Incarnation The word was made flesh John 1.14 He who was in the form of God took upon him the form of a servant Phil. 2.6 7 that is he who had the Essence and Majesty of God assumed so low a thing as an humane Nature He did not lay down his Deity but assumed an Humanity two Natures a Divine and Humane were in one person Never did God come so near the Creature as here He was in the world by his Universal Presence he was in the Temple in types and symbols in the Saints he is by his Grace in Heaven he is in immediate Glory but in the Incarnation he is hypostatically in an humane Nature The person of the Word which was from Eternity an Hypostasis to his Divine Nature became an Hypostasis to his humane Nature in time O what wonders of Power are here Here God was made Man the Creator became one with his Creature Had the whole world been crowded into a single Atom it would have been infinitely a less wonder than this the putting a greater finite into a less cannot be comparable to the taking of finite into infinite Here are two Natures a Divine and an Humane in themselves infinitely distant met in personal conjunction finite is not absorp't by infinite infinite is not changed by finite Here Eternal dwells in the same person with Temporal yet runs not into succession immortal dwells with mortal yet falls not into passion Here an humane Nature is united to a person infinitely simple and infinitely compleat yet he loses not his simplicity nor yet doth he receive any additional perfection Here 's an humane Nature without any Personality of its own Naturally the humane Nature of Christ would have had a Subsistence of its own a Personality would have flown from it but the resultance was miraculously prevented the want of its own finite Subsistence was supplied by the Presence of an infinite one Mr. Jeans of the words Incarn fol. 81. the Son of God communicated his Hypostasis to it to sustain it Here we have in some respect more of Divine Power manifested than there was in the making of the World When meer nothing was by an Almighty word elevated into Elements Plants Beasts Men Angels still it was but into finite but here a finite humane Nature was taken into infinite and between the infinite God and the humane Nature the disparity must be far greater than it is between a world and nothing Here indeed God did not create an infinite that being impossible but he came as near it as possibly could be by assuming a finite Nature into himself All other Creatures are comparatively extra Deum but here the humane Nature was in the very instant of its production interwoven with the infinite Person of the Son Thus we see that in this stupendious work Divine Power acted magnificently and congruously to its own infinity never any work did so fully answer and correspond to Omnipotence as this A second instance of Power we have in the Conception of our Saviour his body was not formed in an ordinary way by the concurrence of Man and Woman but in a way super-natural A Virgin was with Child As the body of the first Adam was wonderfully framed out of the dust so the body of the second was admirably framed out of the Virgin That a Virgin should be with Child was a great an high Miracle far above all the Power of Nature How then was it effected The Evangelist tells us The Holy Ghost came upon her the power of the highest did overshadow her Luk. 1.35 This is a sublime tremendous Mystery the Holy Ghost as the word overshadow imports did as it were cast a Cloud over her to teach us that we should not over-curiously pry into so great a Work as this was The body of our Saviour was not produced spermatically out of the substance of the Holy Ghost but Operatively by the Power of it The matter of his body was from the substance of the Virgin the active Principle was the infinite Spirit The seed of Man was not here used it was not congruous that he who had God for his Father should have any Man to be so it was a miraculous extraordinary operation Hence Christ is called The stone cut out of the mountains without hands Dan. 2.34 There was an Almighty Power in the framing his humane Nature the Tabernacle of his body was not pitched by Man but by the Lord Heb. 8.2 There was a supernatural operation in the making of it it is called a tabernacle not made with hands that is to say not of this building Heb. 9.11 It was not made in a natural ordinary way of generation It 's true he took part of our flesh and blood but the manner of framing his body was in an extraordinary way the structure of it was Divine and much above that of our bodies Another instance of the Divine Power we have in the Miracles wrought by Jesus
working When Satan who labours to emulate Divine Works doth wonders the end of them declares their Original suitably to the Author they serve only to lead men into lies and Idolatries Antichrist comes with lying wonders 2 Thes 2.9 Lying wonders in themselves as being phantasms and mockeries of sense and lying wonders as tending to confirm men in false Doctrine and Worship but the Miracles of Christ being real ones were done to ratifie the super-natural Truths and pure Worship of God The Jews have a rule that we should believe him who doth Miracles unless he be the Author of Idolatrous Worship had they adhered to this rule they could not but have embraced our Saviour who with so many Miracles sealed up the true Doctrine and Worship of God 2. The Miracles of Christ were not a few but very numerous not in one or two places but diffused over the Creation thereby to proclaim that the Creator was come down to redeem the World There were Miracles upon the Water he turned it into Wine John 2.9 Shewing himself to be the Lord of Nature here doing that in an instant which he doth every year in the Vine Miracles in the Sea a fish brings him the tribute-money Matth. 17.27 to declare that all Creatures were Tributaries to him After an whole nights toil to no purpose the Net being let down at his word enclosed a great multitude of fishes Luk. 5.5 6. So that the awe of his Divine Power fell upon all the Spectators Miracles upon the Sea and Air together in a Tempest he rebuked the winds and the Sea and there was a great calm Matth. 8.26 as a proof that all the Elements were his servants Miracles upon the loaves in multiplying of them John 6.11 and upon the fig-tree in making it to wither away Matth. 21.19 as a clear demonstration that his blessing and curse were great things Miracles upon the bodies of men in healing all manner of sickness and disease Matth. 4.23 and upon their souls too in making them every whit whole John 7.23 in token that he was the great Physician of both Miracles in Heaven at his Birth a star conducted the Wise-men to him Matth. 2.2 at his passion the Sun was darkned Matth. 27.45 The star waited upon its Creator at his Birth the Sun sympathized with him in his Passion Miracles upon the Devils in casting them out by his Word Matth. 8.16 A sure sign that the Powers of Hell could not stand it out against him Very various are the Miracles of our Saviour recorded in Scripture But if all had been written the world could not have contained the books saith St. John Chap. 21. vers 25. The words are Hyperbolical yet they import that many of his Works were not committed to Writing Arnobius enumerates the miraculous Works of Christ and then cries out Adv. Gent. l. 1 Quid simile Dii omnes a quibus opem dicitis aegris periclitantibus latam When did the Pagan Cods do the like from whom you say that help is afforded to men in sickness or danger Never was there such plenty of Miracles as here 3. The Miracles of Christ were very great He did those works which no other man did Joh. 15.24 It was never so seen in Israel Matth. 9.33 I shall instance in two or three things First he raised up the dead The maid in her Fathers house the young man carried out upon the byer and Lazarus four days dead and stinking in the Grave What things are these How much above all the Powers in Nature In the sixth Council at Constantinople Crab. Tom. 2.386 Polychronius a Monothelite in Confirmation of his opinion offered to raise up a dead man but upon tryal he could do nothing at all which made the people cry out Novo Simoni Anathema Polychronio seductori populi Anathema The Emperor Basilius being in great grief for his deceased Son Spondan Annal 879. Theodorus Santabarenus presented his Son to him as alive but this was but a meer spectrum an illusion of sense After a few kisses and embraces the Emperor saw his Son no more Apollonius did call up the Ghost of Achilles that is to say a Devil De Verit. Relig. as the noble Mornay speaks Elisha raised the Shunamites Son to life but he was only a Minister and a Type of Christ the Power of God did the work but our Saviour raised the dead by his own Divine Power Another instance is his restoring sight to one born blind John 9. Touching which the blind man saith Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind vers 32. It was a work fit for the Messiah It is indeed storied that Vespasian the Emperor restored sight to the blind but it may be the person was not really blind at least not naturally Satan as Bellarmine well observes might possibly reside in his Eye and impede the use of that part that he might seem to cure when he did but cease to hurt But our Saviour by a Power above Nature and Art did cure one really and naturally blind and that with Clay a thing in it self more probable to put out Eyes than to cure them And so there was as the Rabbins speak Miraculum in miraculo one Miracle within another much as it was when the bitter waters were made sweet by salt 2 King 2.21 Another instance we have in his casting out Devils this was the Finger and Power of God It is said indeed that Apollonius did cast Devils out of Men But how Rayn de lib. Ap. Tom. 2. fol. 990 991. It was in the very Method and Discipline of Devils by such words and symbols as they themselves had prescribed so it was not an ejection but a going out by consent to honour the Sacraments of their own making But our Saviour did not cast them out in their own way but whether they would or not by his Almighty Power It is further to be noted that soon after the Death of our Saviour the Devils Oracles were struck Dumb. The Oracle told Augustus That the Hebrew Child bid him leave that house and be gone to Hell no more answers were to be expected from thence Whereupon Augustus erected an Altar in the Capitol with this inscription upon it Haec ara est primogeniti Dei the Altar of the first-begotten of God The Evangelical light made the Oracles cease the Priests of Delphos were brought to beggery Plutarch Morn de Ver. writing touching the ceasing of Oracles at last cometh to this point That the Spirits were mortal and by their Death the Oracles ceased Oh! what an one was our Saviour who made the Pagan Gods shrink and hide their heads What a Divine Light was he who chased away those false Lights These Works were for Greatness such as became God manifest in the flesh 4. The Miracles of Christ were excellently suited to the Evangelical design Miracles in their general Nature are
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
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
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
but of some Legislation extends to all Election is that Decree according to which God gives out spiritual blessings to some as a Benefactor Legislation sets down that Rule according to which God deals with all as a Rector who governs by Law In the Covenant of Works that do this and live was not Election neither was the opposite member therein transgress and dye Reprobation In the Covenant of Grace that believe and be saved is not Election neither is the opposite branch therein believe not and be damned Reprobation for then all men because they are under both parts of the Evangelical Law should be both elected and reprobated which is impossible nay because they were in Adam their head under both parts of the first Covenant they should be once before both elected and reprobated It is one thing to prescribe the terms of salvation another to chuse men to it one thing to write down Laws for all another to write down the names of some in the book of Life That general Law All that believe shall be saved predestinates none in particular It would stand true if all men were left in unbelief and perdition If there were no such thing as a Church in all the world but elective if it secure not a Church to God is altogether insignificant It is an election of none that is no election Our Saviour sets down two wills of God as distinct This is the will of him that sent me That every one that seeth the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life Joh. 6.40 And in the precedent verse This is the Fathers will which hath sent me that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing In the one we have Gods legislative Will defining the terms of Salvation for all in the other we have Gods elective Will designing some that is the elect the given ones to it The first without terms in it would not be Legislation the latter without persons in it would not be Election 3. Election being a chusing a singling out some to eternal life must needs do some singular thing for them it must confer upon them some distinguishing Grace such as may reserve them out of the corrupt Mass unto God And what Grace is that but Faith If all men did believe there would be no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or difference among them the righteousness of God would be upon them all the rivers of living water would flow in them all the Glory of Heaven would crown them all But Faith is a differencing Grace proper to Gods peculiar ones it is not given to all but to some not out of common Providence but out of Election It is a choice a prime Grace of Secretion and therefore in all congruity must needs issue out of the great design of Secretion that is Election If God give alike to all then he elects none he differences none however men may make themselves to differ God doth no such thing nor ever intended to do so Thus Election is a meer nullity But if as the truth is there be any such thing as Election then it bestows upon the chosen ones those special love-tokens of Faith and Perseverance which make them meet for Heaven and eternal Blessedness 4. Election is a sure infallible thing such as never fails Hence it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Praedestination or praedefinition such as never misses the mark Thus the Apostle Whom he did predestinate them he also called whom he called them he also justified whom he justified them he also glorified Rom. 8.30 The words whom and them fasten every link to its precedent and appropriate all throughout the whole chain to the same persons every person who is predestinated and called within this Text must be justified and glorified or the golden chain of Grace is broken The foundation of God standeth sure having this seal the Lord knoweth them that are his 2 Tim. 2.19 Election is a foundation not an human one but a foundation of God laid in the Divine Will standing in eternity sure in immutability sealed up with infallible knowledg and unvariable love towards the elect Nothing is more momentous than this That God have a Church Christ a Body and the Spirit a Temple This is the highest of designs the aim of the Sacred Trinity the very thing upon which God hath set his eyes and his heart more than upon all the world besides yet if Election be not sure and infallible that high and precious design may be frustrate and of no effect And what a blot would this be to Providence And how unbecoming would it be to the Holy one who sits at the Stern and rules all If so accurate a thing as Providence could which it cannot without disparaging it self stumble or faulter in the things of nature yet surely it cannot do so in its master-piece in the high and precious concerns of Grace Election therefore must be sure and infallible Volk l. 5. c. 17. de praedest That distinction of the Socinians that there is a double Election in God an infirm one of those who assent to the Gospel and a firm one of those who live according to the Gospel is frivolous and blasphemous it is in effect to say that there is infirmity in God that Gods choice is weak or rather none at all and mans choice supplies and strengthens it The great design of a Church could not be secured by such a choice as mans nor by any thing less than Gods his Election is a sure foundation his special call according to purpose and his gifts without repentance Hence it appears That according to the opinion of the Remonstrants there is indeed no such thing as Election They say that the object of Election is a Believer and whether there shall be a Believer or not after all the operations of Grace ultimately depends upon the Will of Man And if so How can God elect any one person in the world The act of his Election depends upon the object and the object upon the will of Man Mans will must go foremost and make the object or else for want of one Gods Will must stand still and not chuse at all It 's true God hath set down this Law or Rule That believers should be saved but no-where hath he said that believers should be elected for that would overthrow his own Election supposing such a Law or Rule That believers should be elected If a Man did believe and so was elected it would not be Gods first Law or after-choice but mans faith which determined the matter he would be his own elector God in the mean time would not be an Elector but a Legislator only But a little further to consider the opinion of the Remonstrants They set down the order of Gods Decrees in this manner upon Adams fall there was a merciful affection in God towards man but justice standing in the way a Mediator was ordained to offer up a
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
folly to expect Grapes from Thorns or Figs from Thistles and to look for an holy Life from an unregenerate Heart is no less It is the Apostle's Conclusion They that are in the Flesh cannot please God Rom. 8.8 By those in the Flesh is not meant the Regenerate who if any on Earth do surely please him but the Unregenerate accordingly the Apostle opposes those in the Flesh vers 8. to those in the Spirit in whom the Holy Spirit dwells vers 9. That is the Unregenerate to the Regenerate Hence we may conclude thus The Unregenerate are in the Flesh in their corrupt Nature and because such they cannot please God they cannot live that holy Life which is grateful to him Therefore the Apostle in this Chapter doth not only distinguish between the Regenerate and Unregenerate the one being in the Spirit and the other in the Flesh but between the acting of the one and of the other The Regenerate or those in the Spirit are after the Spirit and mind the things of the Spirit the Unregenerate or those in the Flesh are after the Flesh and mind the things of the Flesh vers 5. We have here two distinct Principles and Actings the Regenerate Nature acts in a way of Holiness and Obedience but the Old corrupt Nature acts in a way of sin and wickedness and unless a Man be new made by Grace it will continue to do so neither need we wonder at it the Proverb is no less rational than ancient Wickedness proceedeth from the wicked 1 Sam. 24.13 A Sinner studies sin and hath it in the very frame of his Heart he thirsts after it and drinks it as water he rejoyces in it and makes a sport at it he is never so much in his Element as when he is committing it But in an holy Life there is nothing congruous or connatural to him his carnal Mind is enmity against God it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be Rom. 8.7 His Will is contrary to God's the way of Holiness is a burden to him too grievous to be born and how can we expect that in this unregenerate state he should in the least enter upon an holy Life In all reason first there must be a Power or Divine Principle and then an Act it is unnatural and cross to the Method of Wisdom that the beam should preceed the Sun or the Fruit the Root that acts of Sence or Reason should go before their Faculties or that an holy Life should be imagined to take place before that Divine Nature which is the vital Root of it De Concord cap. 13. The Eye saith Anselm must be acute before it can see acutely The Wheel saith St. Austin * Ad Simpl. L. 1. must be round before it can move regularly The Will must be first illuminated and rectified in Regeneration before it can rightly will and move Repairing Grace saith Hugo first aspires that there may be a good Will and then inspires that it may move rightly Charity saith the Apostle is out of a pure Heart a good Conscience and Faith unfained 1 Tim. 1.5 But alas in the Unregenerate what Principles are there can ought be found there which may tend to an holy Life His Heart is impure through the many vile lusts which dwell there his Conscience is defiled through the many guilts which he hath contracted his Faith is a vain Fancy or Presumption and not a Faith and how can he live holily or what Principles hath he for it There must be a proportion between the Power and the Act And so there is in the Regenerate between the Seed of God and the crop of Holiness between the holy Unction and the Odours of Good Works But what proportion can be imagined between an unregenerate Heart and an holy Life An unregenerate Man as he is described in Scripture is weak and without strength and what can he do towards it He is unclean and polluted and how can such a thing as an holy Life proceed from him He is dark nay darkness it self and how can he walk in the Light He is dead in sins and trespasses and how can he live a Divine Life He is a Stranger nay and an Enemy to God and his Law and how can he walk with God or comply with his Law In an holy Life we walk in the Spirit and shew forth the Vertues of God and how can he walk in that or shew forth that which he hath not An holy Life points directly to Heaven as its center but the Principles in a Carnal man tend to Hell and Death Instead of bearing a Proportion to Holiness and Life eternal they carry in them a black contrariety and opposition to both I will only add one thing more to say That there may be an holy Life in one unregenerate is a contradiction The very light of Nature tells us That God must be consecrated in the Heart and worshipped purâ mente In the Heathen Sacrifices the Priest first looked on the Heart to see that it was right The Persians thought that God regarded nothing but the Soul in the Sacrifice God loves Spiritualitèr immolantes those that offer up the Spirit to him in every Duty an holy Life if it be such in substance and not in shadow only must be from a pure Heart and who can find such an one in an unregenerate Man Or if if it could be found there what need could there be of Regenerating Grace If an holy Life must be from a pure Heart and such an Heart cannot be in a Man unregenerate then it is not at all possible that an holy Life should be in him till Regenerating Grace hath made his heart Right It is said of Amaziah That He did that which was right in the sight of the Lord but not with a perfect Heart 2 Chr. 25.2 In the first part of the Verse his Obedience looks very fair and amiable but in the latter part of it there is a black mark set upon it to shew that it was not right the like mark must be set upon all that seeming Sanctity which is in unregenerate Men. The next thing proposed is this An holy Life issues out of a Principle of Regeneration The Socinians who deny original sin and therefore cannot speak cordially of Regeneration do sometimes speak so blindly and perversly of the Holy Spirit as if they meant to confound an holy Life and its Principle together Thus Socinus Christi Spiritus obedientia est The Spirit of Christ is Obedience De Servat par 4. c. 6. as if the cause and effect were all one Thus Volkelius will understand by the Spirit De Ver Rel. l. 4. c. 23. either the mind of Man informed with Christ's Doctrine or else the Doctrine it self as being loth to own the Regenerating Spirit But it is evident in Scripture that an holy Life is distinct from Regeneration and issues from it as a Blessed Fruit thereof First God creates us
is towards those which serve him spiritually A Man's Life cannot be holy praeterintentionally or by accident it is a pure Intention which spiritualizes and sanctifies the Life before God To clear this it is to be considered That the Life must be dedicated to God in a double respect it must be dedicated to him by a conformity to his Will And again It must be dedicated to him by a tendency to his Glory In both these there must be a pure intention to direct the same The first thing is There must be a pure Intention in our conformity to the Will of God Socinus saith That there is a Verbum quoddam interius a kind of internal word in Man that is a Reason to discern between that which is just and that which is unjust Praelect Theol. c. 2. And then he Adds He that obeys this internal word obeys God himself Etiamsi ipsum Deum non esse quidèm aut sciat aut cogitet although he do not know or think that there be a God And after concludes That such an Obedience is grateful to God But as great an Admirer of Holiness as this Heretick would seem to be it was no less than a prophane Assertion to say That there might be a grateful Obedience without any respect at all had to God or his Will Doth not St. Paul condemn in the Athenians the worship of an unknown God Doth not Christ charge the Samaritans that they did worship they knew not what Yet these are the portenta opinionum which this Master of Reason vents to the World But to pass over this It is not enough for an holy Life that the thing done be materially good but it must be therefore done because God commands it so to be an holy Man follows after Holiness because this is the Will of God Now that the material goodness of a thing is not enough may appear by these Instances Jehu in destroying the House of Ahab did do that which God commanded him to do yet God saith That he will avenge that Blood upon the House of Jehu Hos 1.4 And why so Jehu did that which God commanded but he did not obey in it he did it not in compliance with God's command but in pursuance of his own design as it is with the hand of a rusty Dial which stands still suppose at ten of the Clock to a Traveller passing at that hour it seemeth to go right but it is but by accident so was it with Jehu He seemed to obey in that which hit with his own Will but he did it not upon the account of God's for then he would have done other things But though he destroyed Ahab's House yet he did not destroy the Calves at Dan and Bethel For there God's Will did not fall in with his Another Instance we have in the acts of Moral Virtue in the Heathen those acts were materially good yet they did not in them serve God but their own Reason It 's true right Reason signifies the very Will of God but they did them not in compliance with Reason as significative of God's Will but in compliance with it as a chief part of themselves This is evident upon a double account the one is this That they were animals of Glory They did what they did not in an humble subjection to the Will of God but in a proud self-glorying way they arrogated all the praise and honour to themselves in all they did but sacrifice to the pride of their own Reason The other is this They did not only follow right Reason in their Moral Vertues but corrupt Reason in their Idolatries The Apostle saith Their foolish Heart was darkned Rom. 1.21 Here they followed Reason as a part of their corrupt self which those who follow it as significative of God's Will cannot be supposed to do Right Reason which imports God's Will was against their Idolatries yet they continued in them Hence it appears that in their Moral Vertues they did not serve God but their own Reason Hence St. Austin contends Contr. Jul. l. 4. c. 3. that their Vertues were not true Vertues They might be just sober merciful but they did all infidelitèr without respect to the Will and Glory of God Malè bonum facit qui infidelitèr facit Hence as Camero observes Cam. fol. 356. Lucretia hated Immodesty and Cato Perfidiousness not out of love to God but because those things were incongruous to Reason Another Instance we have in Carnal Professors under the Gospel they hear read pray give Alms but they do not do these spiritually in compliance with the Will of God the Duties are high but the aims in them are low and carnal Vast is the difference between an Holy and a Carnal Man An Holy Man is holy even in Natural and Civil Actions the Kingdom of Heaven is by a pure Intention brought down into his Trade Nay into his very Meat and Drink His deeds are by a Prerogative wrought in God when he toils as a Servant in servile Employment yet he serves the Lord Christ all is spiritualized by a pure Intention But on the other hand a Carnal Man is carnal even in spiritual Actions There is indeed the Opus operatum the Flesh the outward body of a Duty but there is no Soul or Spirit in it No pure Intention to carry it up to the Will and Glory of God to which it is consecrated Thus we see that it is not enough for an holy Life that the thing done be materially good No it must be done in compliance to the Divine Will I will keep the Commandments of my God saith David Psal 119.115 He would keep them not upon any by-account but because they were God's to whose Will he dedicated himself Lo I come to do thy Will O God saith our Saviour Hebr. 10.7 And again I seek not my own Will but the Will of the Father which hath sent me Joh. 5.30 Here we have the great Pattern of Holiness his Will was devoted and swallowed up in God's all that he did and suffered was in conformity to the Divine Will We must not dream of any true Holiness till we do what good we do out of compliance with the Divine Will as in matters of Faith we must believe quià Deus dixit so in matters of Practice we must obey quià Deus voluit His Command must sway and cast the Balance in Heart and Life the Nature of holy Obedience is this to do what God willeth intuitu voluntatis because he willeth it And hence an holy Man doth not pick and chuse among the commands of God but carry a respect to all of them The next thing is this There must be a pure Intention to direct our good Actions to the Glory of God seing God is Alpha he must be Omega seeing he is the Supream good he must be the Ultimate end of all things Nothing can be more rational than this That a Creature should be referred to its
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
thing of vast import and consequence therefore he would do it with the greatest strength of intention and affection David like he calls upon his Soul and all that is within him to intend the thing in hand but because when he hath done his utmost there will yet be many failures and infirmities the holy Man looks up to Mercy for a Pardon and offers up all his Duties in and through Jesus Christ the great Mediator In the Old Testament the holy Man prayed thus Remember O my God and spare me Neh. 13.22 Enter not into judgment with thy Servant Psal 143.2 If thou Lord shouldest mark iniquities who shall stand Psal 130.3 The sense of their many imperfections made them fly to a Mercy-seat In the New Testament we are expresly directed To do all in the Name of the Lord Jesus Col. 3.17 To make our approaches to God in and through him Eph. 2.18 To offer up spiritual Sacrifices acceptable to God by him 1 Pet. 2.5 Every Duty must be tendred unto God in and through the Mediator therefore the holy Man doth not stand upon the Perfection of his Services but implore a Pardon of his Infirmities neither doth he tender his Services immediately unto God but he puts them into the hand of Christ that being perfumed and as it were glorified by his merits they might from thence ascend up before God and be graciously accepted by him Moreover because Ordinances are but Medium's and Chanels of Grace the Holy Man in the use of them lifts up his Eyes to God to have them filled with the Divine Spirit and Blessing a meer outward Sanctuary of Ordinances will not serve his turn he would see the Power and the Glory the goings of God in it He cannot live by Bread only not the Life of Nature by the Bread of Creatures only not the Life of Grace by the Bread of Ordinances only in both he waits for that word of Blessing which proceeds out of God's Mouth this is that which makes the Ordinance communicate Grace and Comfort to us When the Word is preached it is not enough to the holy Man to have the Sacred Truths outwardly proposed or to hear the voice of a Man teaching the same but his Heart and his Flesh cry out for the Living God Oh! that God would speak inwardly in words of Life and Power that deep and Divine impressions might be made upon the Heart to sanctify it by the Truth and to cast it more and more into the mould of the Divine Will Oh! that God would come and shine into the Heart that he would uncover the holy things and bring forth Evangelical Mysteries to the view that the Heart might be ravished in the sweet odours of Christ that the Promises might flow out as a Conduit of Celestial Wine and make the Soul taste some drops of the pure Rivers of pleasure which are above This is the desire and expectation of the holy Man in hearing in like manner in Prayer it is not enough to him to pour out words before God but he looks for the holy Spirit to help his Infirmities and breath upon his Devotions that as Christ pleads above by his Merits and Sweet-smelling Sacrifice so the Holy Spirit may plead in the Heart with sighs and groans that cannot be uttered being conscious to himself what a thing his Heart is how much coldness hardness straitness is yet remaining there he waits for the Spirit to be as fire from Heaven to inflame the Heart and make it ascend up unto God to melt it and make it open and expand towards Heaven to set it a running in Spiritual fluency and enlargements towards God The holy Man esteems all to be lost and to no purpose unless he can have some converse and communion with God in every ordinance his Heart and the Ordinance have both the same scope and tendency that there may be a Divine intercourse between God and him God draws and he runs Cant. 1.4 God saith Seek ye my Face And the Soul answers Thy Face Lord will I seek Psal 27.8 There are Divine Influences and Spirations on God's part and there are compliances and responses in the holy Heart in Prayer it burns and aspires after him who set it a fire by the communications of his Grace and Love in Praise it carries back the received Blessings and lays them down at the feet of the great Donor in the hearing of the Word it hath something or other to answer to every part it trembles at the threatning it leaps up and in triumphs of Faith embraces the Promise it complies with the pure Command in holy Love and Obedience without this Communion in which God and Man spiritually meet together the holy Man looks on Ordinances but as dry empty things void of Life and separate from their chief end but if the holy Spirit breath upon the Heart and that breath out it self to God if the Soul set it self to seek God's Face and that irradiate the Duty then the Ordinance is full of Life and reaches its end The holy Man then perceives that God is in it of a truth hence one as Bellarmine relates used to rise from Duty with these words Claudimini oculi mei claudimini nihil enim pulchrius jà m videbitis Be shut O my Eyes be shut for I shall never behold a fairer object than God's Face which I have now beheld Take him in Alms and Charity he is holy there he knows that he was born nay and by a Divine Generation born again that he might do good It was a notable Speech of the Philosoper The Beasts Plants Sun Stars were designed for some work or other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and what are you for When he thinks that he is a Man a rational Creature and which is more a new Creature and by Adoption one of the Seed Royal of Heaven he sees a necessity laid upon him to be fruitful in Charity and Good Works If he who hath a first and a second Birth who hath the good things of Nature and Grace do not do good who shall do it or where may it be expected The holy Man therefore sets himself to do good he doth not only do the outward work of Charity but he doth it readily and freely when an object of Charity meets him he doth not say Go and come again when he himself goes to the Mercy-seat he would not have God delay or turn him off after that manner Neither will he do so to his poor Brother not only the command of God but the taste that he hath of the Divine Grace make him ready and free in good Works his Good Works have not only a Body but there is a free Spirit in them and as the thing given supplies the Receiver's want so the manner of giving revives his Spirit The holy Man doth not only give Alms but he doth it out of Love and Compassion Beneficentiâ ex Benevolentiâ manare debet he doth good out of
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.