more firme and sure then that which is setled by the meanes of a Testament an instrument which naturally requireth all favourable construction that things may take effect according to the best meaning of the Testator And was it not the richnesse of Gods grace that hee would settle this Testament by the death of Christ who was his owne and onely son whom he made his substitute to dye in his stead for the testifying confirming and executing of his Testament that it might be in force and take effect whereby I might finally enjoy the benefit of it For could not God have setled his Testament by meanes lesse chargeable and costly to him then the precious bloud of his owne Son And lastly this richnes and abundance of grace was it not grace onely for grace onely for my thankes i. e. onely for my fayth to accept the present right to it for my hope to expect the future possession of it and for my love to performe the condition of it For is not the richnesse of this grace abundant enough to draw these thankes from mee Is it not rich enough to perswade my faith to accept the present right to my Legacy and to embrace it with all my heart and all my soule Seeing Christ hath dyed to testifie confirme and execute that Testament wherein it is devised unto mee For is faith to bee given to any thing which I have not seene if this bee not credible and to bee believed Is not this grace rich enough to assure my hope to receive the future possession of my Legacy for when the Executor of the Testament so loved mee that hee dyed for my sake that the Will might bee in force for which hee dyed can I imagine that hee will deny mee my Legacy For what will not hee give me who gave himselfe for mee When the Executor sitteth at the right hand of the Testator upon his Throne in Heaven where he hath all honour and power to doe all things can I imagine that hee can bee either unwilling or unable to performe the whole Will of the Testator For will such an Executor in such a condition wrong the Testator or defraud any Legatary who is co-heire with him Is not this grace rich enough to procure my love to performe the condition of my Legacy For seeing the Executor so loved mee that hee dyed for my sake to performe the condition of his Executorship Is it not reason that I should love him againe and chearefully addresse my selfe to the workes of love in all the waies of holynesse which is the condition of my Legacy If therefore I conceive that this grace of God comes to mee by the Law and claime my right to it by the Law Doe I not heereby wave the death of Christ and suppose that hee dyed without a cause that there was no neede of his death to testifie confirme and execute the New Testament And consequently doe I not heereby frustrate the grace of God and disanul the gratious meanes whereby it was conveyed and finally debarre my selfe from the benefit of it For what right have I to this grace of God if that Testament wherein it is devised unto mee bee of no force and have no effect For what force or effect can any Testament have which is not testified confirmed and executed But contrarily if I meane that Gods grace shall bee effectuall and will hope to enjoy the blessing of it I must acknowledge the gracious meanes whereby it was conveyed unto mee namely through the death of Christ who shed his pretious blood to testifie confirme and execute that Testament wherein it was conveyed For this grace was not given by meanes of the Law but it came by the meanes of Jesus Christ John 1.17 For the Law was given by Moses But grace and truth came by Jesus Christ Hence the New Testament is called the Gospel of the grace of God Act. 20.24 So that I might finish my course with joy and the Ministery which I have received of the Lord Jesus to testifie the Gospel of the grace of God And afterward it is called the word of his grace in the same Chapter vers 32. And now brethren I commend you to God and to the word of his grace But unto the Law grace is contrary for they are things in themselves opposite Rom. 6.14 Yee are not under the Law but under grace Thus the causes of Christs death were repugnant to the effect of the Law and were consequent to the effects of Gods Love and Grace The Contents of this Second Chapter are 1. History Paul went not to Jerusalem to learne the Gospel vers 1. 1. Because fourteene yeares after his Preaching of it he went up to Jerusalem with Barnabas and tooke Titus with him also vers eod 2. Because he went up by revelation and communicated unto them that Gospel which hee Peached among the Gentiles vers 2. 3. Because Titus who was with him was not compelled to bee circumcised although and because it was urged of false brethren to whom he gave place by subjection no not for an houre vers 3 4 5. 2. History Paul was no way inferiour to the chiefest Apostles vers 6. 1. Because from those who seemed to be somewhat whatsoever they were he differed nothing vers eod 2. Because they who semed to be somewhat in conference added nothing to him vers eod 3. Because they saw that the Gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto him as the Gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter vers 7. 4. Because hee that wrought effectually in Peter to the Apostleship of the circumcision the same was mighty in Paul towards the Gentiles vers 8. 5. Because when James Cephas and John who seemed to be pillars perceived the grace that was given unto Paul they gave to him and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship onely desiring them to remember the poore vers 9.10 3. History At Antioch Paul withstood Peter to his face vers 11. 1. Because Peter was to be blamed vers eod 2. Because before that certain came from James Peter did eate with the Gentiles But when they were come he withdrew fearing them of the circumcision vers 12. 3. Because the other Jewes dissembled likewise with him insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation vers 13. 4. Because when Paul saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the Gospel hee sayd unto Peter before them all if thou being a Jew livest as the Gentiles and not as the Jewes why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as the Jewes vers 14. 4. Doctrine A man is not justified by the workes of the Law but by the faith of Jesus Christ vers 16. 1. Because by the workes of the Law shall no flesh bee declared righteous v. eod 2. Because through the death of the Law I am dead to the Law that I might live unto God for I am crucified with Christ Neverthelesse I live yet no more I the man that I was but Christ liveth in mee And though I now live in a body of flesh yet I live in the Faith or Religion not of Moses but of the Sonne of God who loved mee and gave himselfe for me vers 19.20 3. Because I doe not frustrate the grace of God for if the right whereto I am justified come by the Law then Christ dyed without cause vers 21. 5. Duty While wee seeke to bee justified by Christ we must not bee found sinners to continue in sinne vers 17. 1. Because God forbid that Christ should bee or be thought to bee the Minister of sinne vers eod 2. Because if I build againe the things or sinnes which I destroyed I make my selfe a transgressour vers 18. FINIS O My Heavenly loving Father that hast justified mee to bee thy sonne and hast given mee faith to accept the grace of it Circumcise my heart of flesh and cut away from it all carnall love operate and polish it with thy spirit and engrave therein thy Law of love that with all reverence and obedience I may worship and serve thee in all the offices and duties of a sonne lest I prove an ungracious wretch unworthy of so gracious a Father And thou my deare Lord and Saviour that hast dyed to buy mee with thy bloud to make me thy Brother and Co-heire make mee thy Disciple in love that from thee I may learne the wayes of love and for thy sake love them that are thine doing to all men as I would they should doe unto mee
of them The Termes or words whereby these Legacies or promises are disposed and conveyed unto Beleevers are imputing ordayning and predestinating which in this respect signifie no more then what men commonly understand by the two usuall Testamentary words of Devising and bequeathing The Conditions or precepts whereto these Legacies or promises are limited and without which they shall never be possessed are the Duties of Repentance or holines in the works of love towards our selves toward our neighbour and toward God which workes who so performeth that person is truly sayd to be delivered from this present evill world according to the will of God And our Father i. e. who is our Father For the particle and is not heer copulative as if it joyned and argued divers persons whereof God is one and our Father another but explicative to specifie divers attributes of the same person because the person according to whose will Christ died for our sinnes the same is both God and our Father Wherefore the particle and is heere put for that is or rather for the pronoune relative who is And heerby Paul doth tacitly insinuate the fundamentall Legacy of Gods last Will and Testament which is the grace of divine alliance by adoption whereby God makes over unto us the donation of himselfe to become our Father and whereby hee accepts us for his sonnes and heirs and co-heirs with Christ who was his only native sonne For our Adoption whereby wee acquire this divine alliance that God is our father is the Testamentary foundation whereon are grounded and setled all the subsequent Legacies whereto wee are justified as the Sanctification of the spirit the Remission of sinnes the Resurrection of the body and life everlasting For because initially in the first place God gives himselfe unto us to become our Father therefore consequently hee will doe all further acts which become a father to doe for his sonnes and will impart unto them the fulnesse of his blessings And further he attributes unto God this title of being our father as a Motive unto us for our holines Because our deliverance from the evill and sin of this world which makes our holines is according to the will of God our father who is himselfe holy in all his works and requires from us works of holines and enableth us to performe them For by his last Will and Testament hee promiseth and covenanteth with us to regenerate or sanctifie us with his holy spirit and to write in the tables of our hearts those lawes and rules which containe in themselves and require from us a greater measure and degree of holines then ever were in those lawes which once he wrot in the tables of stone See and compare Jer. 24.7 and Jer. 31.33 and Ezech. 11.19 20. and Ezech. 36.27.28 and 2. Cor. 3.3 and Heb. 8.10 And because by our holines of life God becomes most really and properly our Father for upon our adoption God is but our jurall father whereby we have a right to blessednes even the same right with Christ to be co-heirs with him thereunto but upon our holines of life God becomes our morall father after whose likenes we doe right wherein we most resemble God for thereby we put on the new man which after Gods image is renewed in righteousnes and true holines Thus our most gracious God who before vers 1. was by the Apostle stiled the father by way of community in generall is now by vertue of his last Will and Testament related to us in particular and stiled our father Although by vertue of Gods first testament God became a father unto the Jewes and they to him were children yet in that testament God doth not ordinarily stile himselfe their father but their God and their Lord. Because though hee were their father yet he caryed himselfe toward them not in the condition or quality of a Father but of their Lord and Master and they though they were his heires yet because they were children in their non-age they differed nothing from the condition or quality of servants for they were held in bondage under the worldly elements of carnall commandements as will appeare afterward Cap. 4.1 of this Epistle But by vertue of his last will and testament God becomes unto Christians not onely a Father indeed and condition but also in title and appellation stiling himselfe constantly by the name of our Father and commanding us to petition or pray to him by the title of our Father which title argues a relation of more comfort favour love and grace then that of Lord. They therefore are in an errour who in their Prayers Sermons or other discourses esteeme it a higher honour to God and affect it as a greater grace to themselves to mention God by the name of the Lord according to the Jewish forme under the Law then by the name of our Father which is the Christian forme under the Gospell VERSE 5. Text. To whom bee glory for ever and ever Amen Sense To whom i. e. To God our Father Bee glory i. e. Bee given the Supreme and highest degree of honour For ever and ever i. e. Throughout all ages in this world and also in the world to come Amen i. e. so be it or God grant it may be so Reason These words returne a Devotion by way of doxology benediction or thanksgiving unto God for his grace unto us by Christ For seeing Christ hath died for the remission of our sinnes and for our sanctification to deliver or withdraw us from the sinfulnes of this present world and seeing this is done according to the will and testament of God who is thereby become our father therefore what lesse thankfulnes can we return for these blessings then to glorifie our heavenly Father Comment Christ must bee glorified by us Amen an adverb not of swearing but of affirming and of wishing TO whom be glory Though Grammatically the Relative to whom be of the singular number and referred to the person last mentioned who is God our Father yet Theologically it must also be referred more antecedently to the person mentioned further off who is Christ our Lord. Because we must not by any meanes exclude Christ from the right and due of glory for as the blessing unto us comes primarily from God and derivatively by Christ so our Blessing or thanksgiving for it must be derived or conveyed unto God by Christ who brought this grace from God unto us and who is the Person by and through whom we must glorifie God See Rom. 16.27 and Ephes 3.21 and Heb. 13.21 For how can we containe our selves from blessing and glorifying of God our Father by Christ our Lord when we apprehend and consider that God is become our Father at so deare a rate as the death of his only Son Jesus Christ our Lord For ever and ever Because God and Christ doe live and reigne for ever and we who are true Christians shall live with them for ever for everlasting
God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ Hence also it appeares that the divine service of invocation or prayers is due unto Christ Because this salutation heere is an invocation though indirectly framed wherein Paul prayes for grace and peace unto the Galatians from God and from Christ For Christ as it is evident from these words and from the like in other places wherein the government and care of Gods Church is ascribed unto him doth know the wants and the desires of the faithfull and therefore also doth heare their votes and prayers Now the knowledge and the audience of such things is a ground sufficient for invocation or prayer to bee made unto Christ especially seeing his knowledge and audience are seconded with a power and a will whereby hee is able and ready to helpe and to save those Believers who call upon him Hence Christ commands his Disciples to pray in his name and promiseth to effect their prayer John 14.13 Whatsoever yee shall aske in my name that will I doe that the Father may bee glorified by the Sonne If yee shall aske any thing in my name I will doe it This Invocation was preached by Steven when hee was stoned Act. 7.59 And they stoned Stephen calling and saying Lord Jesus receive my Spirit And practised by Paul when there was given him a thorne in the flesh 2 Cor. 12.8 For this thing I besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from me They therefore are in an errour who to barre Christ from the honour of Invocation doe read this Text thus From God our Father and of the Lord Jesus Christ referring the Pronoune Our unto God the Father and thereupon construing the words as if the Apostle prayed for grace and peace from the Father onely and not from Christ But would onely intimate that God is the common Father of us and of Christ But this construction is not onely against the sense of the words but also against reason For it is not reason that when the Apostle would call God the Father of Christ and also our Father hee should then first call him our Father before hee called him the Father of Christ Especially in a passage where he intends to magnifie the honour of Christ as by the verse following where he expresly calls God our Father it appeares he intends it This place therefore and the like wherein the Pronoune Our in reference to the Father is omitted doth wholly oppose this construction VERSE 4. Text. Who gave himselfe for our sinnes that hee might deliver us from this present evill world according to the will of God and our Father Sense Who gave himselfe viz. Unto death and died For our sinnes i. e. For the remission or forgivenesse of our sinnes by confirming through his death Gods last Will and Testament wherin the Remission of sinnes was devised unto us That he might deliver us i. e. That he might separate or withdraw us From this present evill world i. e. From the evill of this present world or from the present sinfulnesse or wickednesse commonly practised by the men of this present world In a word That he might draw us to Repentance or holinesse of life or sanctifie us According to the will of God i. e. According to the last Will and Testament of God who therein had expressed his mind and purpose for the Death of Christ for the Remission of our sinnes and for our repentance Of God and our Father i. e. Of God who is our Father viz. By vertue of his last Will and Testament wherein he hath adopted or justified us to be his sonnes and heires Reason Having in the former verse stiled Christ our Lord hee gives heere a tacit reason why hee stiled him so shewing by what right or title he is so namely by right of Redemption Because Christ through his death wrought for us a double deliverance one from the punishment of our sinnes by the remission or forgivenesse of them the other from the servitude of sinne by our Repentance and forsaking of them And further he declares that these three things viz. the Death of Christ the Remission of our sinnes and our Repentance are consequent suitable and according to the last Will and Testament of God wherein these things were thus ordayned Heere therefore are described two finall causes ends or effects of Christs death first the Remission of our sinnes and secondly our Repentance from sin Yet so as the latter is an end or effect subordinate to the former and the condition of it for our sins are remitted or forgiven to this end and upon this condition that wee should Repent and forsake them And unto these finall causes is annexed the efficient cause of Christs death that it was not meerely according to the will of the Jewes who put him to death but it was according to the will of God who in his last Will and Testament had decreed his death for the ends and effects heere specified By all which he would intimate unto the Galatians that for their salvation they were not to adhere unto Moses and to the Ceremonies of the Law according to Gods old testament but must depend upon Christ and the benefits by his death according to Gods last Wil and Testament For Paul intends these words as an Evangelicall attribute or description of Christ our Lord as before ver 1. the words who raysed him from the dead were an Evangelicall attribute unto God the Father Comment Giving is put for Dying The word Remission is sometime silenced sometime expressed sometime implied by Taking away and Bearing away Christ was not punished for our sinnes but onely tooke and bare away the punishment from us as hee tooke away sicknesses and diseases Christs death causeth the forgivenesse of our sinnes and our Repentance which is a Deliverance from sinfulnesse which is wickednes not Locally but Morally Deliverance from evill in the Lords Prayer The nature of Repentance which is really all one with holynesse The Motive to it is our Forgivenes 2 Reasons of it 1 Repentance is the purpose of Forgivenes 2 Repentance is the condition of it and an adequate condition of it Examples of the former Christ is to be Judge of our Repentance Yet he will judge of it in mercy The Alliance between remission and Repentāce Gods will is his Affection Decree Purpose Covenant and Testament Yet so taken chiefely in the Gospell And so here for 3 Reasons And is the efficient cause of Christs death But the principall efficient is God by meanes of the New Testament 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 the Testator the Executor the Forme the Apparance the Legataries the Legacies and Conditions God is our Father Jurally and Morally and to be stiled our Father VVHO gave himselfe Wee must heere supply the word unto death which many times in Scripture is silenced but is supposed and must bee understood when the words of giving himselfe are ascribed unto Christ Of whom they signifie that his death was not wholly
infused internally into his soule by an act immediate without any meane externall as because our future glory shall totally penetrate into our whole person therefore it is sayd of it that it shall be revealed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. into us Rom. 8.18 Yet elsewhere in the New Testament the word revealed is expressed with a single dative governed from the Verb it selfe without any preposition intervening See Matt. 11.27 and Matt. 16.17 and 1. Cor. 2.10 and Eph. 3.5 and Phil. 3.15 The Syriak Interpreter renders it by me which sense is very sound and must needs follow upon the former in respect of the end for which Christ was revealed to Paul namely that by Paul he might be preached among the Heathen as appeares by the words following q. d. When it pleased God by his speciall grace to call me to the sacred office of an Apostle I at that time was no way qualified for the Function of it for Christ whom I was to Preach was to me a meer mystery and a stumbling block of whom I was wholly ignorant that he was the son of God having not only no true knowledge thereof but a wicked misknowledge for at the very time of my calling I was persecuting him whom I was to Preach but God who called mee by his grace did also by his grace qualifie and enable me for hee cleerely inlightned my thick darknesse by removing the veile of Christ and revealing the mystery of his son unto me infusing the knowledge of him into my soule That I might Preach him among the Heathen Preach him i. e. Christ and the Gospell containing his Doctrine Among the Heathen i. e. among the Gentiles for so the Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is for the most part rendred in this Epistle and so alwayes in all the rest excepting onely one place namely 2 Cor. 11.26 The end and purpose for which God revealed Christ unto Paul was this that Paul might preach the Doctrine of Christ among the Gentiles In which words he describes his peculiar and proper office for the line or circuit of it that he was to â—e a separate Apostle to exercise his Ministery apart from the rest in preaching the Gospel among the Gentiles The Jewes had already designed unto them their peculiar Apostles namely the twelve whom Christ had chosen and called before during his owne Ministery here on earth as we shall see in the Chapter following This he therefore mentions that no man might surmise he exercised his Apostleship among the Gentiles by meere chance or by his owne private motion or to procure their favour by exempting them from the Law of Moses thereby to make them more willing to embrace the Gospel of Christ but he did it in obedience to the will and command of God who from his Mothers wombe had designed him for a separate Apostle and called him by his grace and revealed his sonne unto him for that very purpose Hence it appeares that when Paul preached Christ at Damascus to the Jewes in their Synagogues Act. 9.20 he did but make as it were an Essay or preparative to his Ministery which three yeares after his first calling he fully and wholly undertooke when because the Jewes would not endure his preaching at Jerusalem therefore Christ in a vision commanded him speedily to depart thence and gave him his Commission for a Preacher to the Gentiles and this was done then when hee was praying and in a trance in the Temple at Jerusalem See Act. 22.17.22 Immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood Flesh and blood is a phrase in Scripture put for any mortall man because every man while hee remaines under that constitution is in the state of mortality and in this place Paul opposeth mortall man to God and Christ his onely Masters and Teachers in the Gospel for hee made the like opposition before in this Chapter vers 1.11.12 The like sense this phrase beares Mat. 16.17 Where it stands opposed to God the Father and the like againe Ephes 6.12 Where it is opposed to wicked spirits who notwithstanding their wickednesse are immortall I conferred not The Greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. I discovered it not related or imparted it not to any mortall man that I was called to the Gospel and was to preach it The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is no where used in all the New Testament but onely in this Epistle and in this but twice viz. heere and againe cap. 2.6 in both which places it signifies to discover relate or impart some secret to make it knowne to some other who had no knowledge thereof before with intent either to ease the Relaters minde or to consult the Hearers judgement or to informe and increase the Hearers knowledge and in this sense to this last intent the word shall bee taken cap. 2. vers 6. â—s there shall bee shewed For the word is materially the same with revealed from which it differs onely modally in reference to the person making the Relation for when God is the Relator of the secret then in the sense of the Scripture the Relation is called a Revelation But when man is the Relator it is called an Information Communication or Discovery And it is the very same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from which it differs onely terminally for that knowledge which in respect of the Speaker who utters it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. expounding the same in respect of the hearer who receives it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. imparting or communicating for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is rendred in our last English Translation cap. 2. vers 2. And it is opposed to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. to conceale or keepe secret which word is used of the Virgin Mary that shee concealed or kept secret pondering in her heart the things which shee heard from and concerning Christ See Luke 2.19.51 So in this place Paul in a manner saith the very same thing of himselfe in a negative forme of speech that what God had revealed in him concerning his sonne that matter hee discovered not or imparted not to any mortaâ—l man which is all one with concealing or keeping it in his heart Immediately must bee referred two wayes first backward to his Revelation when Christ was revealed in him and then forward to his going into Arabia whither hee went immediately after his Revelation before hee discovered or related it to any mortall man and before he went to Jerusalem to the Apostles But then wee must marke the time whereto hee applyes the denyall of this discovery namely that at no time betweene the time of his calling and his going into Arabia hee discovered the Revelation hee had to any mortall man but afterward and in times following hee at divers times discovered it to divers persons as appeares from severall passages in his Epistles The maine sense is Paul mentions this his Concealement of
calls it Rom. 2.29 and Rom. 7.6 and 2. Cor. 3.6 the spirit of the Law according to the tacit intent true meaning and purpose of the Law-giver for times and things future above and beyond the common construction which the words and clauses of the Law afford This mysticall sense for the spirit of the Law was not understood at least not plainly and fully by the people of Israel to whom the Law was given neither could it be understood of any unlesse God revealed it from Heaven in a way extraordinary as privately was done in some measure unto some speciall persons but publickly it was never revealed untill it was Preached and published by Christ who was the first that did away the vaile of the Law and brought to light that true sense and minde of the Law whereof the former sense which even unto this day 2. Cor. 3.15 is a vaile upon the heart of the Jew was a figure and a shadow in foreshewing some representment of those things which should have a future existence under the new covenant which is little else but the new and true sense of the old For according to this sense of the spirit the Promises of the Law were to be Celestiall and eternall blessings in the Kingdome of Heaven whereof the principall and finall is a divine holinesse like that of the Angels pure and perfect without any spot or staine of sin and the accessories to that blessed state in Heaven are eternall life eternall rest eternall joy and eternall glory in the eternall company of eternall persons The judgements penalties or curses of the Law for the spirit of it were to be infernall and eternall death with all the losses and miseries thereto incident quite contrary to the former blessings The Precepts of the Law for the spirit of it were to be all Moralities for the legall moralities and all the ceremonies excepting onely those which were especiall figures of Christ were to be refined and exalted into the evangelicall moralities of poorenesse of spirit purenesse of heart mourning meekenesse hunger and thirst after righteousnes mercifulnes peaceablenes and gladnes under persecution for none of all these are Counsels or advises left unto mans choyse to be done or not done but all of them are Precepts or commands injoyned by Christ who thereupon assureth heavenly blessednes Mat. 5.3 And unto all these the generall or capitall morality is the new Commandement of Love refined also and exalted above and beyond the legall love yea above and beyond that love which moves and workes by the Law of nature as to love mine enemies to blesse them that curse me to benefit them that hate me to pray for them that despite me and persecute me to lay downe my life for my Brother and therefore much more for my heavenly Father whensoever a just cause shall require it Lastly the workes of the Law for the spirit of it were to be Cordiall wrought inwardly in and upon my heart by Circumcising of my heart by Sacrificing of my heart by Expiating of my heart in cutting killing and cleansing away the lusts motions and affections of sin And the workes were to be Liberall done in the free and noble way of love answerable to that love and kindnes which appeareth in God in condescending to this divine alliance of being my heavenly Father and of promising me an heavenly Inheritance and answerable to that love and duty which is due from me who am made the son of God and his heyre to eternall blessednes And finally the works were to be Perfect so exact and compleat as to performe an universall and perpetuall obedience to every precept not transgressing any one at any time so sinlesse and blamelesse that none of them should need any pardon or forgivenesse so upright and holy in the sight of God as to merit and deserve those divine and heavenly blessings as their proper and due wages The full meaning therefore of the Apostles Negative in this verse is this A man is not justified by any workes whatsoever no not by the spirituall workes of the Law i. e. his Moralities or morall workes by poorenes of spirit meekenes purenes of heart meeknes mercifulnes c. being measured by the spirituall sense of Gods Law are not cordiall liberall and perfect enough to make him a title whereby to acquire and have a true right of divine alliance with God and of the heavenly Inheritance consequent to that state This Negative the Apostle proves in this Chapter by three severall arguments which are not to be here anticipated but shall be specified in their due places in all which he mentions workes with restraint of them to the Law but his arguments hold against works in generall and in his Epistle to the Romans he handles the very same Doctrine of workes in generall without any restraint of them to the Law proving it there by the same arguments alleaged heere yet because there he produceth two arguments which here are omitted I shall therefore mention those two and but onely mention them One is Rom. 3.27 and the same is also alleaged Ephes 2.9 If mans title or cause procreant whereby he acquireth or hath a right of divine alliance and inheritance with God come by his owne workes then all boasting on mans part cannot be excluded for man doth naturally boast of his works particularly of such workes whereby he acquires some great alliance and inheritance especially of such as would make him a divine alliance to be the son and heire of God The other is Rom. 4.4 If mans title c. be by his workes then by the Law of equity heavenly blessednes becomes a debt and is due unto him as his wages which he hath earned by his worke Now these two respects that man should be able either to boast of his blessednes or to earne it are both derogatory to the love grace mercy and kindnes of God for where is Gods grace and his kindnes when either I can boast of my earnings or he is drawne to pay his debt But concerning the literall workes of the Law there may hereupon be inferred these two consequences 1. That the literall workes of the Law are no title whereby a man is justified procreantly or acquisitively to the spirituall promises thereof For if the spirituall workes which are farre more sublime and more pleasing to God make man no title to the spirituall promises as was proved before much lesse can the literall workes doe it which are farre lesse 2. That the literall workes of the Law were no title whereby the Israelites were acquisitively justified to the temporall promises thereof For when God gave them the Land of Canaan to possesse it hee utterly disclaymes their workes and their uprightnes from being any title whereby they acquired their right of possession Deut. 9.5 Not for thy righteousnesse or for the uprightnesse of thy heart doest thou goe to possesse their Land but for the wickednesse of these Nations the
were spoken from Mount Sinai the Israelites could not indure to heare them but entreated that they might heare no more of them See Exod. 20.19 Deut. 18.16 Heb. 12.19 20. And Gods Judgments are his revealed word but these because they come from his wrath and anger are but ill words and farre worse then the former for they are cursed and fearefull words see the Curses of them at large Levit. 26. and Deut. 28. But Gods promise is his revealed word also and this word because it proceeds from his love and kindnes is his good word for so it is called 1 Kings 8.56 There hath not failed one word of all his good promise where for good promise the Hebrew hath good word and Jerem. 29.10 I will visit you and performe my good word unto you i. e. my promise for your returne from captivity If therefore an Assent to the words of Gods precepts and judgements which are hard and ill words be Faith as indeed it is though in effect it prove but a sorrowfull and wofull faith which can justifie no man but may convict all of sin and condemne many to death for it is that faith wherewith the Divels believe and tremble much more an Acceptance of Gods promise which is his good word is faith because Acceptance is more then Assent and more then Consent for it is an act subsequent unto a Consent whereby a Consent is seconded and ratified As plainly appeares in most contracts and particularly in that of Marriage where after the mutuall Consent of the parties to have each other there followes a mutuall Acceptance in taking each other Hence it is manifest that over and besides all other sorts of Faith there are three sorts answerable to the word of Gods Will viz. a promissory a preceptory and a judicatory faith for so let us call them till we finde fitter appellations because the promises precepts and judgements of God are the words of his Will 2. From the Concurrence of faith to a promise The acts about a promise are chiefly three namely the Making the Accepting and the Performing of it unto all which from the first to the last faith must needs concurre in a manner as a Soule wherewith the promise is animated and lives and without which it expires and dyes becomming frustrate and voyd For the Making of a promise is a giving of faith so the best Canonists and Casuists define a promise though we for thy better understanding defined it otherwise And the Performing of a Promise is a keeping of faith which is commonly called Faithfulnes for hence God is called faithfull because when he hath been gracious to give his faith by making a promise he will be faithfull to keep his faith by performing it And therefore the Accepting of a promise which intercedeth between the making and performing is a taking of faith for when the thing given is faith then the thing taken must needs be the same and therefore faith also And if the performance of a promise doth denominate him faithfull who makes it as in all good Writers and in common speech it doth much more doth the Acceptance of the promise denominate him faithfull who takes it because the faith of the taker doth naturally precede the faithfullnesse of the giver as acceptance naturally precedes performance But if Gods Promise have any effect at all and be not frustrated by a refusall that effect in thee must needs bee faith for seeing Gods Promise is a Declaration of his Will to devise unto thee a present right to the future possession of some blessing this Declaration comming from God doth or should worke in thee a ground to hope for that future blessing and a ground of things hoped for is faith as the Apostle notifies it Heb. 11.1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for i. e. a ground for hope is faith And because the blessing is future therefore it is not seene for things future are not seen yet Gods declaration of the futurity thereof doth or should produce in thee an evidence or knowledge of it and an evidence or knowledge of things not seen is faith as the Apostle againe designes it in the former verse 3. From the Examples of Faith In the Old Testament Gen. 15.4.5 God promised unto Abraham a Sonne and Heire of his owne body and a numerous Posterity as the Starres of Heaven i. e. God declared unto Abraham his will to give him a present right to that future blessing and in the verse following Abraham believed in the Lord i. e. Hee accepted of Gods Promise in taking it and this taking was seconded with trusting to it for by his acceptance hee had a good ground to hope for a sonne and an evidence for a sonne not yet seene which ground and evidence is faith or beliefe But the act which caused that ground and evidence was his Acceptance or taking the Promise God by the message of Moses promised unto the Israelites in Egypt a deliverance from their bondage and an entrance into Canaan and Exod. 4.31 the people believed i. e. They accepted of this promise by taking it and their taking caused their trusting to it i. e. Their faith caused their hope of it and to expresse their thankfullnesse for it They bowed their heads and worshipped In the New Testament God by the message of Jesus Christ hath made unto thee most precious promises for hence that Testament is called the Gospel i. e. The good message or word of God as the promise of present freedome or alliance with him to bee his sonne jurally by having a present right of inheritance the promise of present sanctity to regenerate thee with his spirit to bee his Sonne morally by leading a holy life and the promise of future priviledges and blessings to bee his sonne gloriously in the finall state of blessednesse as the future forgivenesse of thy sinnes the future resurrection of thy body and thy future life everlasting for God by Christ hath declared his will to impute unto thee a present right to all these blessings Is now thy will answerable and agreeable to Gods will to correspond and consent to him heerein And further dost thou actually accept of these promises to take God at his word Then thou hast faith and dost believe For although these blessings bee not seene yet by thy accepting the promises of them thou hast a good evidence for them and a good ground for thy hope of them and such evidence and ground is faith and beliefe And though thou dye before thou possesse all these blessings as certainely thou shalt and must either dye or bee changed before thou canst enter the possession of all Yet thou dyest in faith because Heb. 11.13 Thou hast seene them a farre off and wast perswaded of them and hast embraced them for by these reasons the Apostle proves that the Patriarchs dyed in faith though they had not received the promises i. e. Not the possession of the blessings
him both Jewes and Gentiles have an accesse by one spirit unto the Father and 1. Pet. 1.21 By Christ wee doe believe in God that our faith and hope in Christ might bee faith and hope in God Hence Christ saith that our faith in him is not faith in him John 12.44 Hee that believeth on mee believeth not on me but on him that sent mee i. e. Hee believeth not on mee ultimately and finally but his faith is carryed through and beyond mee to determine and end finally in him that sent me 2. It is called the faith of Christ because Christ is the Authour or Beginner of it who worketh it in us who by his publishing and preaching of Gods promises doth invite call and draw us to that acceptance of them which is our faith For some may peradventure say how shall a man know whether the promises of the Gospel come from God and whether the beetle Will and Testament of God seeing many things are imposed on the World for the will of God which either are not his will or are not sufficiently declared and proved to bee his will Unto this query the answer is That Christ hath abundantly made full faith unto the World both of his person that hee was the Sonne of God and of his Message that it was the Will and Testament of God and consequently on his part doth sufficiently worke in us that faith whereby wee accept the Legacies or Promises therein contained and devised unto us And Christ was the Founder or Beginner of this faith who first made it unto the World For that faith which is wrought in us by reading those Evangelists and Apostles who have written the Gospel or by hearing those Ministers who preach the Gospel is but a derivation and propagation of that faith which was originally and primitively taught by Christ From whom the Apostles and all the Ministers of the Gospel since succeeding have their Commission and Authority to teach it and unto whom they are Witnesses to attest that truth which was first testified by Christ as the first person that made faith of it And Christ hath made faith of Gods last Will and Testament by two Acts. 1. By Declaring Gods Will. The last Will and Testament of God was decreed or determined long since even from the foundation of the World But during many Ages and Generations it was but a Mystery namely a Will sealed up concealed and kept secret For hence it is called Gods secret Will the purpose and counsell of his Will and hence the Apostle calls it Col. 1.26 The Mystery which hath beene hidden from Ages and from Generations Knowne it was in generall that there was such a Will for the Being of it was witnessed by the Law and by the Prophets Yet the contents of it in particular were not knowne But in the last Age of the World God nuncupated his Will unto Christ by expressing unto him particularly the decree purpose or counsell thereof which in former Ages had beene so long concealed And Christ by speciall Commission from his Father sent into the World revealed published declared and made knowne that Will to worke in us our faith of it For first hee made it knowne unto his Apostles John 15.15 All things that I have heard of my Father have I made knowne unto you And againe John 17.8 I have given unto them the words which thou gavest mee and they have received them and have knowne surely that I came out from thee and they have believed that thou didst send mee And afterward hee commanded his Apostles to make the same Will knowne to all Nations for the obedience of faith Rom. 16.25 Now to him that is of power to establish you according to my Gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the Revelation of the Mystery which was kept secret since the World began but now is made manifest and by the Scriptures and by the Prophets according to the commandement of the everlasting God made knowne to all Nations for the obedience of faith And againe Ephes 1.9 Having made knowne unto us the Mystery of his Will according to his good pleasure which hee hath purposed in himselfe 2. The second Act whereby Christ makes faith of Gods Will is by Proving it for as hee was the Publisher of that Will to declare the matter of it So hee was the Probator to certifie the verity of it that it was the true whole and last Will of God All which hee hath proved so fully that never any Will in the World whether Will of man or the first Will of God had such a probation for thereof Christ hath made faith five wayes 1. By his Witnesses For hee had the Testimony of John Baptist who John 1.6.7 was sent from God and came for a witnesse to beare witnesse of the Light that all men through him might believe And John witnessed of him John 1.29 that hee was the Lambe of God which taketh away the sinne of the World And heereof John was not an eare-witnesse who heard it from others but an eye-witnesse who John 1.31 saw the spirit descending from Heaven like a Dove and it abode upon him And Christ had the Testimony of God the Father who by a voice from Heaven witnessed of him at his Baptisme saying Mat. 3.17 This is my beloved Sonne in whom I am well pleased And his Father witnessed of him againe at his transfiguration on the Mount saying Mat. 17.5 This is my beloved sonne in whom I am well pleased heare yee him Hence saith Christ John 5.36 I have greater witnesse then that of John for the Father himselfe who hath sent mee hath borne witnesse of mee Now if wee receive the witnesse of men for the proofe of mens Wils and Testaments as commonly wee doe much greater is the witnesse of God for the proofe of Gods Will. And if at the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall bee established Much more shall a Will bee established when one of the Witnesses is God himselfe Hence saith the Apostle 1. John 5.10 Hee that believeth not God heerein hath made him a Lyar because hee believeth not the Record that God gave of his Son 2. By his Miracles The signes and wonders which Christ wrought were not bare signes but full proofes to make faith that his message was from God For he rebuked the windes and the Sea from a great tempest into a great calme hee cast out Divels from the possessed and they obeyed his command hee cured the sicke of diseases incurable and hee raysed the dead who had lyen in the grave Now if two or three miracles of Moses made faith of his message as they did for Exod. 4.30 When he did them in the sight of the people the people beleeved much more the many marvellous and mighty workes of Christ are of power to produce faith in Christ Because they were so incomparable that by the confession of multitudes Mat. 9.33 the like had never