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
cast an aspiring glance after them Upon the whole matter we see this first Obstacle is such as no creature in Heaven and Earth was able to remove out of the way 2. Ex parte creaturae the impossibility is apparent may we look up to Heaven There seems to be a division above a kind of variance among the divine Attributes On the one hand Mercy that tender indulgent Attribute seems to melt and cry out over fallen man What! shall man made after the divine Image a poor seduced creature shall he nay his whole race Eternally perish shall I have never a Monument among the sons of men nay nor in the whole Creation shall nothing of the humane nature serve God or enjoy him On the other Justice pleaded That every one must have his due the wages of sin is death the Majesty of Heaven must not be offended nor his sacred Law violated without a just recompence Holiness which cannot but abhor sin could do no less than stand on the same side Truth remembred that that threatning moriendo morieris Thou shalt surely die was too sacred a thing to be made nothing of some way or other it ought to be satisfied Thus the Attributes themselves seem to be at a distance 3. Could a Ransom be found out to the content of Justice how should man depraved polluted man be made capable of receiving such a benefit who should unscale his eyes that he might look upon such a mystery who should break his iron-sinewed will that he might yield to such terms as Salvation was to be given upon It is certain that blind impenitent creatures cannot enter into Heaven before they can arrive thither their eyes must be opened upon the great Offer their hearts must be dissolved into the divine Will and how this shall come to pass is another difficulty Now after the difficulties let us see the admirable solution of them when all finite understandings were posed and nonplust at the case of fal'n man when neither men nor Angels could so much as start a thought touching a remedy infinite Wisdom found out a way of Salvation for us The incomparable contrivance was thus A creature a finite person could not satisfie Justice but an infinite one shall do it There are three persons in the sacred Trinity but the Son of God shall do it He shall assume an humane nature in it He shall obey and die upon a Cross and thereby he shall satisfie divine Justice and purchase Grace and Eternal life for us That the Son should do it rather than any other person was very congruous many ways Gods beloved One was fit to reconcile us his essential Image was fit to repair the gracious one none could be more meet to usher in Adoption than Gods natural Son nor to enlighten the World than the brightness of his glory the Eternal Word Incarnate must needs be an excellent Prophet the middle person in the sacred Trinity a most congruous Mediator The blessed Father shewed forth himself in a former work in Creation the holy Spirit appears in a subsequent work in Sanctification it was therefore very meet that the Son the second person in the Trinity should manifest himself in the middle work in Redemption But that we may look a little further into this admirable Design it will not be amiss to fix our eyes upon those rare Conjunctions which the divine Wisdom hath framed in order to our Salvation 1. There is a Conjunction of Natures God and Man in one person Jesus Christ who was consubstantial with the Father as to his Divinity was made consubstantial with us as to his Humanity Heaven and Earth were united together in an ineffable manner the distance between God and man was as it were filled up in this wonderful Incarnation supremum insimi did attingere infimum supremi the creature came as near God as possibly could be Admirable are the tendencies of this Union He was Man that he might be capable of suffering and that by suffering he might satisfie in the same Nature which had sinned He was God that he might stamp such an infinite value upon his sufferings that those though but the sufferings of one might answer for a World and though but temporal sufferings might counterpoise Eternal He was Man that in condescension to our weakness he might speak to us through a vail of flesh He was God that he might speak to our hearts in divine illuminations in words of life and power He was Man that he might be touch'd with a feeling of our infirmities and melt into tender compassions towards us He was God that he might break all the powers of darkness and erect an holy Throne in our hearts This was the first fundamental Conjunction a thing worthy to attract from us a much higher admiration than what is due to the Wonders in Nature 2. There is a Conjunction of Justice and Mercy These in men do usually like the Sun and Moon reign by turns but in this wonderful Dispensation these are in exercise and glory both at once Justice appears in that Jesus Christ our Sponsor was smitten and wounded to death and that an accursed one for our sins Mercy shines forth in that Sinners repenting and believing are spared nay and advanced to glory Justice did not spare the Surety but exacted all Mercy doth not exact ought from the believer but forgive all The sufferings of Christ respect both Attributes they satisfied the Law and founded the Gospel Justice had a full compensation and Mercy sprung up in promises of Grace and Life 3. Holiness in God which hates sin is the fundamental root of that Justice which punisheth it Punishment issues out of Justice Justice springs out of Holiness Now that Holiness may be contented and so Justice satisfied not only in it self but in its very foundation there was in Christs Sufferings a Conjunction of punishment and obedience It 's true the Socinians think these two altogether inconsistent Si Christi passiones rationem obedientia habent rationem poenae habere non possunt obedientia enim virtus est poena autem propter inobedientiam infligitur Schlict contr Meisn 128. because obedience is a Virtue but punishment is inflicted for disobedience But in Scripture the thing is clear there was a virtuous action in his Passion a signal obedience in his Sufferings he poured out his soul he was obedient unto death Pure entire obedience run through his whole life to the last gasp upon the Cross it was not at all broken or interrupted by the bloody Agony nor lost or forsaken in that night of desertion when he cryed out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me His Sufferings were very penal in themselves and inflicted by Justice yet freely undertaken and obedientially undergone Here therefore was an admirable work of Wisdom his Sufferings as penal satisfied Justice and as obediential gratified Holiness 4. The Truth of God was concerned in that first Threatning Thou shalt surely
the lye upon the Promises of God He said that Christ should have a seed Isa 53.10 and yet according to this opinion he may be childless and have none at all He said That he should have the heathen for his inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession Psal 2.8 and yet he may have nothing He said that he should reign for ever and of his kingdom there should be no end Luk. 1.33 and yet by an utter failer of subjects he might not reign at all and of his Kingdom there might be not so much as a beginning He said That he should be head over all things to the church Eph. 1.22 and yet he may have no body nay nor so much as one poor member of it Notwithstanding all the Promises he may be a Father without Children an Heir without an Inheritance a King without Subjects an Head without Members And how can these things be Or how can God be true to his word which is dearer to him than the whole frame of Heaven and Earth Neither will it salve the matter to say That in the event there was a Church and so much God foreknew For if he foreknew it it was a certain immutable thing Meer Casuals such as may be or may not be are not the objects of Prescience If a Church might be or might not be as this Opinion would have it it was not the object of Prescience If a Church would certainly be then it is the object of Prescience but then this Tenet that it might be or not be falls to the ground However if we suppose a Prescience Prescience is not Providence Neither if there were there only nude Prescience would the Church in the event be from Proscience would the Church in the event be from Providence but from Chance and then the consequence is Chance which made no Promise performs all God who made the Promise performs nothing He is so far from taking care about it that he commits it to the Lottery of mans Will whether there shall be a Church or not If the event hit right yet God is never the truer he never performed the promise he took no care about it that thing or rather Nothing called Fortune did order all 2. This Opinion doth highly disparage Christ and his precious Blood Creatures nay the highest of them Angels may fail and miss the mark they have semina nihili seeds of vanity and defectibility in them but for Jesus Christ who hath all the treasures of wisdom and power in himself to fall short of his end and so as it were to fall from himself and his happiness For him to lay the foundations of a Church in his own blood and to have nothing built upon them For him to make a Laver of his own blood and to have never a soul washed in it For him to procure the Holy Spirit and to have never a Temple for it to dwell in is a wonderful disparagement The reflexion is in effect as if he were but a meer man not wise or powerful enough to compass his end or compleat his work as if his blood had no spirit or divine virtue in it effectually to procure a Church and people to himself All which are below and extremely unworthy of him and the great work in his hands Every little seed in nature hath a body given to it and yet according to this opinion the Son of God might sow his own Blood and Righteousness and have none at all A cup of cold water given in charity hath its reward and yet the Blood of Christ poured out in a transcendent excess of love may want it 3. This casts a foul blot upon Providence that such is its accuracy reaches to every thing in nature even to such minute things as hairs and sparrows yet according to this opinion it neglects Christs blood more worth than a World and the issue of it It was the horrible folly of the Emperor Domitian to spend his time in catching of Flies while he neglected the great things of the Empire And what just apology can be made for Providence if it wake and watch over the Sun Moon Stars Meteors Beasts Plants nay over the very Gnats and minute creatures while it slumbers and sleeps over the sufferings of the Son of God How much more tolerable were a neglect of all creatures than of that one concern which is a thing of infinite moment If we believe that Providence took no care about so great a thing as Christs death how can we perswade our selves that it should respect the creatures which are infinitely below it A greater failure in government there cannot be than this to be accurate in trifles and neglective in momentous things Again Providence reaches to the end of things it doth not go part of the way only but conducts them to their end yet according to this opinion it doth not do so in a thing of more consequence than all the world It watched over the genealogy birth life death resurrection of Christ but then it made a stand taking no care what the issue or fruit of all this should be after all was done whether Christ should have a Church or so much as one believer in all the world was not determined by Providence but left to the Lottery of mans Will A greater defect cannot be imagined than this To do great admirable things and then not to regard what shall become of them I shall say no more to this opinion but conclude That a very great Providence did watch over the issue of Christs death that a Church might be secured unto him But because it may be said That the Providences over Christ and the Church are though great yet but particular ones I shall proceed to the next thing 3. All other Providences may be reduced to the other two As God hath a special eye upon Christ and the Church so he orders other things to be some way or other subservient unto them I shall in brief touch upon the reduction of other Providences first to that over Christ and then to that over the Church First Other Providences are to be reduced to that over Christ It was an ancient saying of the Jews That the World was made for the Messiah The Apostle tells us expresly That all things were created by him and for him Col. 1.16 That Providence which was over him being the Master-piece the highest Providence that ever the Sun saw must in all reason be the rule of the rest in that we have the noblest prospect of God and the creature the Divine Attributes set forth in their glory and a creature an human nature elevated to the highest pitch unto that therefore other Providences are to be referred To give some instances God permitted Adam to fall and break his beautiful image of Holiness all to pieces and why did he permit it doubtless he could have upheld man in his integrity no man dares deny it
Grace is pure Grace his Love is meerly from himself Hence is that emphatical reduplication The elect whom he hath chosen Matt. 13.20 As if our Saviviour had said in Election there is nothing but pure Election nothing on mans part all is from the good pleasure of God This Truth is notably set forth in our Saviour Christ he was Gods chosen Servant Matt. 12.18 The Lamb fore-ordained 1 Pet. 1.20 And as St. Austin stiles him praeclarissimum lumen praedestinationis gratiae the most famous light of Praedestination and Grace He was as man predestinated to the superlative glory of the Hypostatical Union and that not out of any foreseen holiness in his human nature for all that did flow out of that union but out of meer grace the human nature did not do or merit ought to be advanced into that ineffable excellency neither may any man say Cur non ego Why were not I so advanced Nature is common but Grace is singular Here we have the Prototype and grand Exemplar of Predestination Christ was predestinated to be the Head we are predestinated to be his members He as man was predestinated that by an admirable assumption he should be the natural Son of God We are predestinated that we should be adopted ones He was predestinated to be such without any precedent merits or works We are predestinated to be such without them Hence the Apostle saith That we are predestinated to be conformed to the image of his Son that he might be the first-born among many brethren Rom. 8.29 Both Predestinations were free and in our Predestination there was a kind of imitation of his De bono persever l. 2. c. 24. Hence St. Austin saith Et illum nos Praedestinavit quia in illo ut esset caput nostrum in nobis ut ejus corpus essemus non praecessura merita nostra sed opera sua futura praescivit He predestinated him and us that he should be our Head and we his Body was not from our merit but the work of God It is certain that the Members cannot be above the Head they were not elected to a Beatifical Vision out of foreseen faith and perseverance when the Head was elected to the Hypostatical Union out of meer grace 3. It is of free grace that God calls men There is a double call an External and an Internal one both are of grace 1. The External call is of grace The Gospel is not a debt but a meer gift freely given to men It may be substracted from a Nation for their sins but it is never given to a Nation for their worthiness for all men are unworthy of it When God gives it to some it is not for their dignity when he denies it to others there is always in them a concomitant indignity of it No natural man can be worthy of it It is meerly of Gods good pleasure that the Sun of Righteousness shines in one part of the world and not in another that the Evangelical dew falls in some places and not in others Here the only solution is that of our Saviour Even so Father for so it seemed good in thy sight Mat. 11.26 I know it is here said by some That facienti quod in se est Deus non denegat gratiam To him who doth what he can God denies not grace The promise is Habenti dabitur To him that hath that is rightly useth what he hath more shall be given Upon the right use of naturals the Pagans might have supernaturals The Gospel in such a case should be revealed to them But as Bishop Davenant observes experience confutes this Proferant ab orbe condito vel unius Pagani exemplum saith he Determ f. 236. Let them bring forth if they can the example of one Pagan since the world began who by the right use of naturals attained to Evangelical Grace One would think that such as Socrates and Plato might if any rightly use naturals but they had not the Gospel manifested to them which yet hath been revealed to the poor Americans who comparatively to the other were brutish and barbarous That of the Schools Facienti quod in se est Deus non denegat gratiam Serm printed An. Dom. 1632. fol. 286. is as Bishop Saunderson in his Sermons calleth it the rotten principle and foundation of the whole frame of Arminianism ultimately it resolves all into nature Salvation is resolved into Faith Faith into the Gospel preached that into the use of naturals Nature may now lift up its hand and touch the Crowns of Glory above Grace may fall down to so low a rate as to be earned at the fingers ends of Nature And what is this but pure impure Pelagianism In the Palestine Synod Pelagius but for his counterfeit recantation had had a just anathema for that saying Gratiam dari secundum merita Secundum merita with the Fathers is all one with secundum opera and secundum opera all one with facienti quod in se est The Apostle flatly opposes this opinion He hath called us with an holy calling not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace 2 Tim. 1.9 The call is not according to works or according to the use of naturals but meerly purely totally from Grace Rightly to use naturals is to live up to the light of nature that tells us that God is the Supreme good and therefore in all reason to be loved with a supreme love We should not give him part of the price but all the mind heart soul spirit and that in pure perfection and who where is the Saint on earth that doth so Their purest acts of love come forth ex laeso principio out of an heart sanctified but in part and in their egress from thence cannot but have a taint or tincture from the indwelling corruption and may we imagine that God should offer the Pagans a Gospel on such terms as no Saint on earth ever arrived at Or that he would have them go about by the way of perfection to enjoy a Gospel of Grace It cannot be But suppose that they may have it upon a sincere love of him Can a Pagan out of natural Principles truly love God May true Love be without Faith the Root or without the Spirit the inspirer of all Graces Or doth the Holy Spirit work in a supernatural way without a Gospel or Ordinances Or if it did doth it work and not effect so much as the first element in Christianity I mean a sense of the want of Grace May the Spirit converse in those unclean places where nothing appears but Error Pride Idolatry Impiety and Wickedness of all sorts It is not reasonable to believe it If Nature could lift up it self to a sincere love of God the Spirit and the Gospel seem to be superfluous thereunto And as for habenti dabitur it speaks not to the point in hand because it speaks not of the use of natural
time He hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ According as he hath chosen us in him Eph. 1.3 4. Divine Graces which are choice spiritual blessings issue not out of common providence but as St. Bernard speaks ex abysso aeternitatis out of the great fountain of Election The eternal Love which lay in Gods bosom comes forth in the production of those Graces Nay and in the duration of them God fulfills all the good pleasure of his goodness and the work of Faith with power 2 Thes 1.11 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 We see clearly Predestination carries them through the other links unto glory It is observable that when God expresses his fresh mercies to his people he doth it thus I will yet chuse Israel Isa 14.1 God gives such supplies of Grace to his Saints to make them persevere That it is as if he chose them again When the Saints are drooping and dying as it were away electing love gives them another visit and makes them live when their love cools and slacks his love is ever the same and inflames theirs afresh And how should their Graces fail The purpose of God according to election doth stand Rom. 9.11 The foundation of God standeth sure 2 Tim. 2.19 And how should the rivulets or superstructures of Grace fail They can no more do it than the great design of a Church can their lamp never goes out their seed never dies the false Christs and false Prophets cannot seduce them Mark 13.22 The Canker of Hymeneus and Philetus cannot eat into them 2 Tim. 2.19 Election which is the fontal love still gives a fresh supply of Grace 2. Their Graces depend upon Christs merit and intercession Christ prays for Peter that his Faith may not fail Luk. 22.32 neither doth it concern Peter only In his solemn praier on earth which was the Canon and pattern of his intercession in Heaven he prays to his Father for all believers thus keep them from evil Joh. 17.15 If they are kept from evil they do not fall away which is the greatest of evils if they are not kept from evil Christs intercession ceases or becomes powerless neither of which can be cease it cannot because he ever lives to make intercession become powerless it cannot because he is a Priest after the power of an endless life what he intercedes for must be done And this is yet the stronger if we consider for whom he thus intercedes It is for believers parts and pieces of his Mystical body such as he cannot tell how to part from Notable is that of the Apostle The God of peace who brought again from the dead the Lord Jesus make you perfect Heb. 13.20 21. That God who would lose nothing of Christs human nature no not in the Grave will perfect believers as mystical parts of him not suffering their Graces to see corruption in an utter decay nor leaving their souls in the hell of Apostacy This is another foundation of perseverance Hence Bishop Davenant saith De just hab 226. Amor Dei in renatos non fundatur in illorum perfectione aut omnimodâ puritate sed in Chrisio Mediatore The love of God towards the regenerate is not founded in their perfection or absolute purity but in Christ the Mediator As long as he intercedes their Graces fail not 3. Their Graces depend upon the holy Spirit and that upon a double account the one is this The Spirit dwells in believers it is an abiding Unction such as abides with them for ever Joh. 14.16 It is as a Well of water springing up to everlasting life Joh. 4.14 Continual irrigations of Grace issue from it to cherish the heavenly nature in them The Holy Spirit will enliven them as being parts of Christ Hence our Saviour saith Because I live ye shall live also Joh. 14.19 As long as the Spirit of life is upon the head it will flow down upon the members and whilst it is there there can be no such thing as Apostacy but on the contrary a sweet liberty to all the holy ways of God The other is this The Spirit witnesses to believers at least to some of them That they are the Children of God and by consequence heirs of him Rom. 8.16 17. And how high an evidence is this May such a Testimony fail or be reversed Or may believers cease to be children and fall short of the inheritance Far be it from that holy Spirit The Apostle calls the Spirit the earnest of our inheritance not for a time but till the redemption of the Church be compleated Eph. 1.14 till the whole sum be paid in glory the earnest goes along with the believer to Heaven his Graces therefore cannot fail by the way This is another ground of perseverance 4. Their Graces depend upon the promises In the Covenant of works there was no promise of perseverance but in the Covenant of Grace there are many such God shall confirm you unto the end 1 Cor. 1.8 He will put his fear in your hearts that ye shall not depart from him Jer. 32.40 He which did begin the good work in them will perform it till the day of Christ Phil. 1.6 He will put his spirit into them and canse them to walk in his statutes Ezek. 36.27 In such promises as these the believers state of Grace is secured Shall we now say that all these promises are conditional If we will persevere or which is all one do our duty Is not this to turn the Covenant of Grace into that of Works Is it not to evacuate all these promises touching perseverance as if God spoke in such contradictory terms as these If you persevere I will make you persevere as if perseverance could be the condition of it self After these promises the believers are but where they were before Without these promises it would have been true That if they persevere they do so and with them so interpreted what have they more What do they contribute to believers when the main stress of perseverance is laid on mans will and not on Gods grace These promises were penned to be great comforts to believers that God would establish them by his grace but what comfort can they take in them if the matter be left to their own lubricous will It is in effect as if God should say I will preserve you from all evils and dangers only for that greatest evil of all which is in your own hearts and wills I will not undertake What is this but to take away the spirit and life of the promises to leave the Saints in a dead and comfortless condition Our Saviour tells us to our comfort That his sheep shall never perish neither shall any pluck them out of his hand Joh. 10.28 not unless they themselves will Prael Theol. cap. 12. saith Socinus but what is this but to nullifie
be subject to Gods and in that subjection stands his Liberty and true Freedom His will doth not stand upon its own bottom but resignes up it self to his Grace to be made free indeed and to his commands as the supream Law his affections are not his own he suffers them not to wander up and down among the Creatures there to gather Hay and Stubble a false happiness to himself but he dispatches them away into the other World and makes them ascend up to God the true Center of Souls and Fountain of Goodness he surrenders up his Soul and all to God the Image of Heaven which is upon him plainly tells him that all is due to him who is above to keep back part of the price or substract ought from him is to lie to that Holy Spirit who hath set his stamp upon every part of the new Creature and by an Universal Sanctification sealed up the whole Man for his own The life of an Holy Man is a life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to God 1 Pet. 4.6 It aspires after an Imitation of the holy one it complies with his holy commands and in all aims at his glory as the supream end of all The Apostle notably sets forth this Consecration of Man to God they gave themselves to the Lord 2 Cor. 8.5 They would be their own no longer They surrendred up themselves to God they dedicated themselves to his Will and Glory All Christians nay almost all Men will at least seem to cry up an holy Life but that we may see wherein it doth consist I shall set down several things First An holy Life is not the product of our Natural Reason and Will Aug. in Job Tract 81. that of Pelagius A Deo habemus quod Homines sumus à nobis ipsis quod justi sumus That we are Men is from God that we are just Men is from our selves is impium effatum a very wicked Saying such as justly grates upon the Ears of good Men because it utterly evacuates the Grace of Christ It s true Reason is a very excellent thing it can dive into Nature and bring up some of the secrets of it It can teem out many Arts and Sciences it can measure out Rules and Moral Vertues to Men but it cannot make a Man holy it can of it self tell us That God is an Infinite Wise Just Good Superexcellent Being but after all is done it cannot raise up that Love to him which is the Spring of an holy Life that Love is from God and a fruit of the Holy Spirit Bellarmine laies down this very fairly and roundly Non posse Deum sine ope ipsius diligi De Grat. Lib. Ar. l. 6. c. 7. neque ut Authorem Naturae neque ut Largitorem Gratiae neque perfectè neque imperfectè ullo modo That without the help of Grace we cannot love God neither as the Author of Nature nor as the Giver of Grace neither perfectly nor imperfectly any way If Reason cannot elevate our Love to God then it cannot produce an holy Life which is a fruit of that Love Further it may having the Gospel set before it gather up a great stock of Notions touching God and Christ and the holy Commands in the Word and the incomparable Rewards in Heaven but it cannot raise up holy Principles and Actions in us if it could then the very first and rudest draught of Pelagius which made all Grace to consist in Doctrinâ Libero Arbitrio must be a very Truth then internal Grace which renews the Soul and rectifies the Faculties thereof must be a fancy needless and altogether superfluous its true the Will in Man is a free Principle but to Divine objects it is not at all free till it be made so by Grace There is such a gravedo Liberi Arbitrii such a pressure of innate corruption in it that it cannot ascend above it self to love God above all and dedicate the Life to him Thus we see that an Holy Life is too high a thing to issue forth from meer Principles of Nature when the Apostle tells us That Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness Temperance are Fruits of the Spirit Gal 5.22 It is no less than prophane to put our Spirit in the room of God's and to say these are the fruits of our Reason and Will when again he tells us that We are his Workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good Works Ephes 2.10 It is horrible presumption in us to put by the New Creation and think that the Old may serve the turn for an holy Life I can as easily believe that Jewish Fable That there is in the Body a Luz a little Bone never putrifying from whence the Resurrection begins as that there is any thing left in fallen Man which in it self may become a Principle of Regeneration and holy Living could there be any such thing found in us there would be no necessity of Grace but of Nature only a Creator we might praise but a Redeemer we need not our own Spirit may serve the turn God's may be spared Secondly An holy Life is the fruit of a renewed and regenerated Heart it is the budding and blossoming of a Divine Nature in us in it a Man shews himself to be a Man off from the old stock of Adam and to be ingraffed into Christ and as a branch in him to have Life and Spirit from him to dedicate and consecrate himself unto a God Without this New state there can be no such thing as an holy Life upon this account St. Austin tells the Pelagians Contr. Jul. lib. 5. c. 4. those enemies of Grace That they were in their Doctrine Ruina morum the ruin of good Life For if you take away that Grace which makes the New Creatures there can be no such thing as an holy Life that must stand upon some foundation and in lapsed Nature there is there can be no other but a New Creature To shew this more fully I shall lay dawn two things distinctly The one is this An unregenerate Man cannot lead an holy Life The other is this An holy Life issues out of a Principle of Regeneration These two will fully clear the Point The first thing is An unregenerate Man cannot lead an holy Life I say not That an unregenerate Man cannot become regenerate but that an unregenerate Man whilst such cannot live holily not that there is a natural impotency a want of the Faculties of Understanding and Will but that there is a Moral one and in-dwelling corruption which renders him uncapable to attain to it That of our Saviour A corrupt Tree cannot bring forth good Fruit Matth. 7.18 carries a great evidence of Reason in it the Fruit cannot exceed the Tree the effect will not be better than the procreant cause is if an unregenerate Man be a corrupt Tree if an holy Life be good Fruit the one cannot proceed from the other It is vanity and
in Christ and then there is a Progeny of good Works first he quickens and gives us a Spiritual Being and then we walk and live an holy Life first there is a good Treasure of Grace in the Heart and then the good things are brought forth out of it Matth. 12.35 Ye have obeyed from the heart that form of Doctrine whereto or into which you were delivered saith St. Paul Rom. 6.17 Here we see whence an holy Life springs the Gospel was not only delivered to them but by the Regenerating Spirit they were delivered into it and cast into the holy Mould of it and this was the true Reason of their Obedience in an holy Life Of his own Will begat he us with the Word of Truth that we should be a kind of First-fruits of his Creatures Jam. 1.18 The Apostle in the precedent verse shews us the infinite Sun or Fountain of all good things and in this Verse he gives us a famous instance in Regeneration opposing it to that concupiscence which is immediately before spoken of conpiscence is the Fountain of sin and so is Regeneratition of holy Obedience the very end of Regeneration is that we might be a kind of First-fruits of his Creatures separate from the World and consecrated unto God in an holy Life living as those who by Regenerating Grace are made a choice portion and peculiar People to him It is observed by some Divines That the Holy Patriarchs had barren Wives that their Posterity might shadow out the Church which is not produced by the power of Nature but of Grace the end of which production is that Fruit might be brought forth unto God in an Holy Life The Hebrew Doctors say That God out of his great Name Jehovah added the Letter He to the Names of Abraham and Sarah Hence that of the Cabalists Abram non gignit sed Abraham Sarai non parit sed Sarah In allusion to this I may say It is not the Humane Principles but the Divine Nature which Believers the Children of Abraham partake of that makes them bring forth the Fruits of an holy Life We have this exemplified in a greater than Abraham even in Jesus Christ he was first conceived of the Holy Ghost and then gave us that incomparable Pattern of Holiness in his excellent Life Sutably we are first supernaturally begotten to a Spiritual Being and then we live an Holy life He that Sanctifieth and they who are Sanctified are all of one Hebr. 2.11 Hence Camero observes De Eccles 223. that between Christ and Believers there is a wonderful Communion of Nature Both have an humane Nature Sanctified by the Holy Spirit he was conceived by the Holy Spirit they are regenerated by it that they may live unto God but to make this point the clearer I shall consider the two parts of the new Creature that is Faith and Love I call them so because the Apostle who saith Neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but a new Creature Gal. 6.15 saith also Neither Circumcision availeth nor uncircumcision but Faith which worketh by Love Gal. 5.6 intimating that Faith and Love are two great parts of the new Creature an holy Life flows from both these Hence some Learned Divines observe that the good Acts of Heathens have an essential defect in them the good Acts of Believers have only a gradual defect but the good Acts of Heathens have an essential one in that they do not flow from Faith and Love and so cannot Center in the Glory of God Therefore St. Austin retracts that Speech wherein he said Retr lib. 1. cap. 3. Philosophos virtutis luce fulcisse that the Philosophers did shine with the light of virtue But to speak distinctly of these two Graces First An Holy Life-issues out of Faith an holy Life is virtually in Faith and proceeds actually from it Faith sees the commands of God to be as they are richly Engraven with the Stamps and Signatures of Divine purity and equity such as Proclaim that God is in them of a truth and that they are the very Counterpains of his Heart and from hence it presses the Believer unto obedience and secretly dictates that these are the very Will of God and must be done Thy word is very pure therefore thy Servant loveth it Saith David Psal 119.140 The Emphatical therefore in the Text cannot be practically understood by any thing but Faith the Carnal Mind which is enmity to God would argue from the purity of the command to the hatred of it but Faith such is its Divine Genius argues from thence to Love and Obedience It doth not only point out the Divine Authority which is stampt upon the command but shew the purity and rectitude which is there to attract us into our duty and that we may do it in a free filial manner Faith derives a free Spirit from Christ to make obedience easie and natural to us a Man with his old Heart drudges in the ways of God and brings forth duties as the Bond-woman did her Son in a dead Servile manner but when Faith comes the commands are easie and the Will is upon the Wheel ready to move sweetly and strongly in compliance thereunto The Believer is Spirited and new Natured for Obedience his Heart is in a posture to do the Will of God every where Faith finds Arguments and Impulsives for it Doth it look upon the Life of Christ it immediately concludes these are the steps of our dear Lord and shall we not follow him After whom shall we walk if not after him It 's true he walked in pure sinless perfection such as we cannot reach but the gracious Covenant hath stooped to our frailty and made us sure that sincerity will be aceepted and how can we deny it or refuse to comply with such condescending Grace Doth it look upon Christs wounds and bloody Death these will cast shame and confusion upon an unholy life May any one imagine that our Saviour bore the Curse and Wrath of God that we might provoke it or expiated our sins at so dear a rate as his own Blood and Life that we might indulge them who sees not now that Sin is bloody and holiness amiable and what easie terms are proposed to us when the Death and Curse was only Christ's and the sincere Obedience is all that is required to be ours Doth it look up for the Spirit the purchase of Christ's death We well know where that is to be found the more we walk in the holy Commands and ways of God the more are we like to have of the gales and Divine comforts of it while we are obeying and doing the Will of God that Spirit will usher in assistances and Heavenly consolations upon us to give us an experimental proof of that Promise That the Holy Spirit is given to them that obey him doth it look within the vail to the Rivers of pleasures and plenitudes of joy in Heaven where pious Souls see Truth in the
original and drink good at the Fountain head Nothing is more obvious than this that an holy Life is the true way thither who can rationally think that he can carry the blots and turpitudes of an impure Life into such a place or that any thing less than sincere Obedience can make him meet to enjoy God and holy Angels there nothing can be more vain than such an imagination as sure as Heaven is Heaven an holy Life must be the way thither Thus we see what a mighty influence Faith hath into Holiness hence Ignatius saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Faith is the beginning of Life Epist ad Ephes without Faith a Man cannot live an holy Life And St. Austin calls Faith Omnium Bonorum Fundamentum De Fide ad Petr. Proli The Foundation of all good things So good a thing as an holy Life cannot stand without it A Fide saith another venitur ad bona opera Unless we begin at Faith we shall never come to an holy Life To conclude this with that of the Apostle Without Faith it is impossible to please God Hebr. 11.6 Therefore without Faith it is impossible to lead an holy Life which is very acceptable to him The next thing is An holy Life issues out of Divine Love without this neither Heart nor Life can be right not the Heart the Will without Divine Love in it is tota cupiditas all concupiscence pouring out it self to every vanity that passes by not the Life whatever good is done without that Love is done servilitèr non liberalitèr whate ever is in the hand it is not done out of choice in animo non facit his Will concurres not as it ought in God's account it is as if it were not done at all Love is the root of an holy Life the summary of the Law though the Precepts of the Law are many in diversitate operis in the diversity of the Work yet they are but one in radice Charitatis in the root of Charity True Love is Donum amantis in amatum the Soul being drawn and called out of it self by the object loved yields and surrenders up it self thereunto if thus we love God there must needs be an holy Life the Heart when given up and consecrated unto him cannot chuse but carry the Life with it It would be a prodigy in Nature if the Heart should go one way and the Life another True Love sets a great price upon its object and if the object be as God is supreme it rates it above all things if we set the highest estimate upon God's Will and Glory nothing can divert us from an holy Life which complies with his Will and promotes his Glory it is irrational to neglect that which we value above all other things True Love seeks more and more Union with God to be one Spirit with him to have idem velle idem nolle to love as he loves that is Holiness to hate as he hates that is Sin It aspires after a further transformation into the Divine Image and likeness it never thinks the Soul like enough or near enough to him where it is thus there an holy Life cannot be wanting the Heart being assimilated to God the Life must needs answer the Heart and shine with the rays of the Divine Image which is there True Love desires to have a complacential rest and delight in God it flies to him like Noah's Dove to the Ark there to repose it self what weight is in a Body that Love is in the Soul Amor meus Pondus meum Aust weight makes the Body move towards its center Love makes the Soul tend by an holy Life to center in God the Supreme goodness leaving all other things as the Woman of Samaria did her Pitcher It hastens in a way of Obedience to enjoy him Thus we see how an holy Life issues out of a Regenerate Heart and particularly out of Faith and Love the Doctrine of it is not to be slubbered over as if it did meerly consist in external Actions or Moralities But we must search and see Whether there be a new Creature a Work of Regeneration at the bottom of it Job being by his Friends charged as an hypocrite tells them That the root of the matter was found in him Job 19.28 He was not a Man of leaves and outward appearances only but the root of true Piety was in him without this all good actions how specious soever are but like the Apples of Sodom which though fair to the Eye upon a touch fall into ashes and smoak Thirdly An holy Life proceeds out of a pure Intention Bonum opus Intentio facit Intentionem Fides dirigit saith St. Austin * In Psal 31. The Intention makes the Work good and Faith directs the Intention This is the single Eye mentioned by our Saviour If thine Eye be single thy whole Body shall be full of light If thine Eye be evil thy whole Body shall be full of darkness Matth. 6.22 23. A pure Intention casts a Spiritual Light and Lustre upon the Body of our good Works but that being wanting the whole Body of our Works is dead and dark like a carcass void of all Beauty and Excellency Let thine Eyes look right on saith the Wiseman Prov. 4.25 That is Have a pure Intention to the Will and Glory of God This is one thing in the Church which ravishes the Heart of Christ Thou hast ravished my Heart with one of thine Eyes with one chain of thy Neck Cant. 4.9 The first thing which excordiated Christ and took away his Heart was the One the single Eye and then the Chain of Obedience ravished him also without a pure intention a Man in his fairest Actions squints and looks awry by a tacit blasphemy he makes as if there were something more excellent than the Will and Glory of God for him to look unto and when Man squints God looks off and will have none of his Obedience Israel is an empty Vine he bringeth forth fruit to himself Hos 10.1 Fruit and yet empty is a seeming contradiction but the words reconcile themselves He bringeth forth to himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he weighs out his Fruit to himself he proportions his Religion to himself all being for himself God accepts it not but esteems it as nothing at all such Fruit and meer emptiness are much one before God He tells them Levit. 26.27 That they did walk with him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in accidente at all adventures when they chanced to light upon him by the by and besides their intention quasi aliud agentes as if the Service of God were a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a business only by the by but would God accept them or take it well at their hands No he will walk with them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too by chance at all adventures his Blessings shall come upon them as it were per accidens his Mind is not towards them as it
Works the center and compass of all is himself only and upon that account those Works are not good in the Eyes of God But when a Saint doeth good Works they fall into God's Bosom and center in his Glory To conclude Where pure Love adheres to God as the Supream Good there a pure Intention will dedicate the Life to his Glory as the ultimate End then and not before may we call the Life holy Fourthly An holy Life is humble and dependant upon the influences of God's Spirit and Grace Hence the Apostle bids us Work out our Salvation with fear and trembling Phil. 2.12 That is with all humility And the Reason is added For God worketh to will and to do of his good pleasure vers 13. which would be no Reason at all if we could stand upon our own bottom and work out our Salvation without any dependance upon that Grace which worketh the Will and the Deed But if as the reason tells us God works the Will and the deed of his good pleasure then we have all the reason in the World to work it out with fear and trembling as knowing our dependance upon God and his Grace Again The Apostle saith of himself I laboured more abundantly than they all yet not I but the Grace of God which was with me 1 Cor. 15.10 Observe his great caution he ascribes nothing to himself but all to Grace He said indeed I laboured yet he piouslly retracts it saying yet not I but the Grace of God He ascribes all to Grace because in all his labours he was in an humble dependance upon it as being that without which he could do nothing This note of an holy Life doth also shew that the Moral Vertues of the Heathens were not right they were indeed wise sober just merciful but what was their posture in their doing these things how did they crow and reflect upon themselves and cry up their own Reason and Will as the only Fountains of Vertue The Philosopher saith Epictetus expects all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from himself Ench. c. 17. Deorum immortalium munus est quod vivimus Philosophiae quod benè vivimus Epist 90. Our Life is from the Gods but which is greater than Life our Vertue is from Philosophy Thus Seneca their Virtuoso could vie perfection with God himself Epist 48. Hoc est quod Philosophia mihi promittit ut me parem Deo faciat saith Seneca Philosophy was to make him equal to God Nay there is a strain higher Epist 53. Est aliquid quo Sapiens antecedet Deum ille Naturae beneficio non suo sapiens est saith he There is something wherein a wise Man hath the precedence of God God is God by Nature but the wise Man is so by his Reason and Will They scorned that Vertue should be Res beneficiaria a thing precarious or dependant upon the Grace of God they would have it to be meerly and entirely their own De Natura Deor. Virtutem nemo unquà m acceptam Deo retulit nimirùm rectè propter virtutem jure laudamur in virtute rectè gloriamur quod non contingeret si id donum à Deo non à nobis haberemus thus Cicero No Man ever thank't God for being vertuous for Vertue we are justly praised in Vertue we rightly glory which we could not do if it were from God and not from our selves And may we call this Holiness No surely it 's horrible Impiety and desperate Pride for them thus to lift up themselves and dethrone God the great Donor The Angels by reflecting on their own excellencies in a thought were turned into Devils And I confidently say it Vertues which by a proud reflex are turned back upon themselves lose their Nature being altogether independant upon God the Fountain of goodness they are no longer Vertues but Fancies and Nullities A proud Self-subsister is a Man in a posture as cross to the Gospel as possibly can be the tumor in his Heart makes him uncapable of that Grace which is given to the humble the Self-sufficiency there makes it impossible for him to live by Faith as the Just do he depends not on God's Grace and how can he live to his Glory he is all to himself and what can God be to him Praef. in Psal 31. Some Pagans saith St. Austin would not be Christians quià sufficiunt sibi de bonâ vitâ suâ because they could live well of themselves If a Man can stand upon his own bottom and work out of his own stock to what purpose are Christ and Grace if he may be a Principle and End to himself what need he go out of his own Circle Such a Man as this is an Idol to himself fraught with Vanity and horrible Presumption but utterly void of God and an holy Life I shall say no more to this An holy Life is a Life of dependance the Just or holy Man lives by Faith he looks to God and is saved he waits till Mercy come he commits himself to God and his Grace he leans and rolls upon him as not bearing up his own weight he casts his burden on him as being too much for himself He gives himself to the Lord resigning up all his property in himself that God may be all in all still he is in dependance upon him He moves but under the First Mover he acts but under the great Agent when he sails towards Heaven he looks for the holy gales when he sows precious Seed he waits for the Heavenly dews and Sun-beams Still he depends upon Grace In the 119. Psal where we have the breathings of Vital Religion David admirably sets forth how in all his holy actings he did depend upon God Thou hast commanded us to keep thy Precepts but O that my ways were directed to do so vers 4 5. I will keep thy Statutes but O forsake me not utterly vers 8. With my whole Heart have I sought thee but O let me not wander from thy Commandments vers 10. I will run the way of thy Commandments but do thou enlarge my Heart vers 32. I love thy Precepts but quicken me O Lord according to thy loving kindness vers 159. I have chosen thy Precepts O let thine Hand help me vers 173. We see here the true Picture of an holy Life It is working and depending it is Obedience and Influence in Conjunction The holy Man very well knows that the new Creature though it be in it self an excellent thing and more worth than the Soul it self is defectible and cannot stand alone or subsist without a Divine concourse it was breathed out from God and without his continual spirations to support it it will vanish into nothing should God tell him That he should stand alone and upon his own bottom he would though richly furnished with divine Graces fall into an Agony and be ready to sink into despair his Heart would immediately suggest to him that he might with
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
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
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.
die and in that other which is a kind of Commentary upon it Cursed is he that continueth not in all things These Threatnings which were the sanction of that eternal Law touching which our Saviour assures us that one jot or tittle of it shall not pass away are not to be confounded with those conditional Threatnings which are extant in Scripture and were by God used to induce men unto repentance Now that Truth might be salved there was in Christs Sufferings a conjunction of a Satisfaction and a kind of execution of the Law Indeed an execution of it in the rigour or strict letter of it there was not neither could that be but upon the Sinner himself yet there was a kind of execution of it in an equitable sense in our Sponsor Jesus Christ his Satisfaction though it was not the idem the very same which the letter of the Law called for yet in infinite Wisdom it was accommodated to the terms of the Law as far as the decorum of his Sacred Person could admit of in the threatning there was Death and a Curse and both these were in the sufferings of Christ hence the Apostle saith That sin was so condemned in his flesh that the righteousness of the Law was fulfilled Rom. 8.3 4. It was in a sort executed in our Surety that in the same sufferings there might be a satisfaction to Justice and a compliance with Truth He that considers these Conjunctions will have cause to cry out with the Psalmist Mercy and truth are met together righteousness and peace have kissed each other Psalm 85.10 5. That poor lapsed man with his blind eyes and hard heart utterly uncapable in himself of Heaven may be made meet for it there was in Christs sufferings a conjunction of Satisfaction and Merit Justice was compensated and Grace impetrated Indeed the Socinians blind with their own corrupt reason cannot see how these two should stand together ubi est satisfactlo ibi non est meritum Satisfactio est solutio debiti de jure meritum autem opus indebitum Soc. Satisfaction being the payment of a just debt and Merit the doing of an undue work To which I answer It is true that when one pays a finite sum for his own debt there is not there cannot be a merit in it but when Jesus Christ paid down sufferings of an infinite value for us there cannot but be an immense merit in them Infinity is an Ocean and may run over in effects as far as it pleases those sufferings had a kind of Infinity in them enough to pay divine Justice and over and above by a redundance of merit to purchase all grace for us Hence the Apostle saith That the Holy Ghost is shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ Tit. 3.6 Christ ascended up to Heaven in the glory of his Merits and from thence poured down the Holy Spirit on men that their blind eyes might be opened upon the mysteries of the Gospel and their hard hearts might be melted into repentance Thus a fair way is opened to make fal'n man capable of Eternal Life 6. Because the inward vital principles of Grace in men must needs flourish most when there is an outward excellent pattern of Holiness set before them there was therefore in Christs sufferings a conjunction of Merit and Example the Merit procured the principles of Grace and the Example by its divine beauty drew them out into imitation Vix fieri posse videtur ut unâ eâdem re satisfiat simul exemplum relinquatur Socin Prael cap. 20. Socinus thinks that a Satisfaction and an Example can very hardly meet together in the same thing the like scruple may be made touching Merit and Example and the very truth is Satisfaction and Merit are a Cup which we cannot drink of a Sea in which we cannot trace or follow our Saviour Nevertheless infinite Wisdom laid one plot under another and under inimitable Satisfaction and Merit couch'd an incomparable pattern of Holiness for us We may clearly see in him how we are to mortifie corruptions bear afflictions learn obedience by sufferings and obey unto the death In these he hath left us an Example that we might follow his steps 1 Pet. 2.21 Having seen the contrivance in these rare Conjunctions let us now consider how the Divine Wisdom set Ambushments for our spiritual Enemies I mean Sin Satan the World and Death all which are in a very admirable manner overcome by Jesus Christ Sin which meritoriously was the bloody crucifier of the Son of God was crucified together with him when he suffered it was in his flesh condemned as an accursed thing worthy to die no sooner are we in him by Faith but it loses its kingdom and by a divine Virtue from his Cross it droops and languishes away in us Satan the arch-enemy at Christs death seemed to be a Conqueror that God Incarnate should be slain by his hellish Instruments that the whole Church should die in its Head looks like a mighty Victory when the Head shall die what shall the Members do when the Sun the great Globe of Light in the spiritual World shall be turned into blood what should remain but that darkness which Satan hath the power of Upon the death of the Duke of Guise Henry the Third broke out thus Nunc demum Rex sum Now at last I am King Upon the death of our Saviour Satan might suppose himself absolute Prince in the lower World a greater Adam than the first being fallen no man can probably stand before him But here infinite Wisdom shews forth it self Satan is taken in his own snare by that very death of Christ which was procured by his own Agents is he utterly overthrown Christ upon the Cross did spoil Principalities and Powers and triumph over them in it Col. 2.15 The satisfaction in his sufferings paid off divine Justice and the Merit in them procured that divine Spirit which is able to bind and cast out Satan from the hearts of men The Cross was now turned into a triumphant Chariot and as an Ancient hath it there were two affixed to it Du◠in cruce affixi sunt Christus visibiliter sponte ad tempus diabolus invisibiliter invitus in perpetuum Orig. Christ visibly freely for a time the Devil invisibly coactively for ever that Cross was a final Victory over him He was overcome not by a man only but by a man suffering bleeding dying upon a Cross the Lord reigneth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the Cross as some of the Ancients read that 10th verse in the 96 Psalm through death he destroyed him that had the power of death that is the devil Heb. 2.14 The Devil was destroyed by Death his own weapon and overcome in that which he had the power of The wicked World at the death of Christ triumphed and insulted even to blasphemy He saved others himself he cannot save Matth. 27.42 as if all his miraculous power were now
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
go round about by his Sons blood when a word a merciful pleasure might have done the work without it These things premised I now proceed to shew how Punitive Justice was manifested in the Sufferings of Christ The Apostle speaks memorably God set forth Christ to be a propitiation to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins as if he had said There could be no remission without it and to make it the more emphatical he doubles the phrase To declare I say at this time his righteousness and withal he adds That he may be just Rom. 3.25 26. Righteousness that is Punitive Justice was eminently demonstrated in the propitiatory Sufferings of Christ unless this were so no sufficient account could be possibly given of them The Socinians who deny Christ's Satisfaction cannot give a tolerable reason thereof For what say they Christ in his Sufferings was an example of Patience I answer he was so but there was a Cloud of suffering-Martyrs before his Incarnation and then what singular thing was there in his Passion It 's true he was the greatest Pattern that ever was but had that been all why did he suffer as our Sponsor and Mediator why did he bear the Sin of a World and the Wrath of God due to it Here he was alone no man no Angel was able to trace or follow him The Saints may fill up the Sufferings of Christ in his mystical body but they cannot dare not aspire so far as to go about to imitate him in those satisfactory Ones which were in his own proper body Had he been only an exemplary Saviour he could have saved none at all Not those under the Old Testament for Example doth not like Merit look backward to those who were before it Nor those under the New for no meer Example no not that of an Incarnate God could have raised up Man out of the ruins of the Fall unless there had been in his Sufferings a Satisfaction to Justice The Guilt of Sin could not have been done away unless there had been therein a Merit to procure the Holy Spirit The Power of Sin could not have been subdued a meer exemplary Christ would have been but a titular Saviour The great design of raising up a Church out of the corrupt Mass of Mankind would have failed a Pattern only being too weak a bottom for it to stand upon Again they say Christ suffered that he might confirm the Covenant with his own blood I answer the Covenant was confirmed in Abrahams time Gal. 3.17 It was made immutable by Gods Word and Oath Heb. 6.17 It was ratified by the glorious Miracles of Christ it was sealed up by the precious blood of Martyrs and why must the Son of God dye for it or if he must might not a simple death serve Why was there a Curse and an horrible Desertion upon him There can be no imaginable coherence or connexion between his bearing the tokens of Gods Wrath and his confirming the Covenant of Grace the one can have no congruity or subserviency to the other The Scripture therefore which gives a better account tells us that he dyed to pay a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Ransom for us obtain eternal Redemption abolish and make an end of sin deliver from the world and the wrath to come reconcile to God purchase a Church and bring in everlasting Righteousness and an happy Immortality suitable thereunto These noble and excellent ends could not be compassed but by Sufferings penal and satisfactory such as had the bitter ingredients of Divine Wrath and displeasure in them Christ was not a meer Witness but a Priest Redeemer and Mediator His blood was not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Testimony but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Propitiation neither was it only confirmative of the Covenant but fundative all the Promises of Grace and Glory sprung up out of his satisfactory and meritorious Passion Further they say that in his Sufferings the immense Love of God was manifested I answer His immense Love was indeed very Illustrious in giving his Son but to what purpose was he given but to be a Propitiation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In this was love that he sent his Son to be a propitiation for our sins saith the Apostle 1 John 4.10 When inexorable Justice-stood as an Obstacle in the way when Satisfaction must be made or mankind eternally perish then infinite Love appeared in giving the only begotten Son to be an expiatory sacrifice for us to satisfie Justice that we might partake of Mercy But if a Satisfaction were needless if the Sufferings of Christ might have been spared Where is the vehemence of Love It may seem rather to be in Remission of sin than in the Passion of our Saviour That Remission should come to us through his intervenient Death when that Death was not necessary looks not so much like an act of Love as of Sapience and yet how Sapience should unnecessarily and without just cause order so great a thing as the Death of Christ to be I cannot understand Moreover they say Christ suffered that his Death intervening we might be assured by his Resurrection of our own and of life eternal to be obtained in a way of Obedience But I answer This is rather to assign the end of Christs Resurrection than of his Death for his Death here comes in only by the by as a meer intervenient thing a causa sine qua non a thing which hath no proper end of its own It is not to me imaginable that such an one as he was should dye meerly to testifie to those things which were before fecured by the immutable Word and Oath of God himself O beatos nos quorum causâ Deus jurat miseros si ne juranti credimus saith Tertullian his Oath cannot but be a sufficient security It 's true Christs Death and Resurrection do assure Believers that they shall rise and live for ever in Glory But how do they do it what exemplarily only no surely his Death was satisfactory for sin and meritorious of life eternal His Resurrection was a Seal a pregnant proof that the Satisfaction made by his Death was full and consummate Hence arises in Believers an assurance of Life and Immortality the same being purchased and paid for by the blood of Jesus Had his Death and Resurrection been exemplary only which way should an assurance be drawn from it The argument if any must run after some such rate as this Jesus Christ God as well as Man one having Power over his own life free from all sin never seeing corruption able to overcome death it self did rise from the grave Ergo meer men having no power over their lives tainted with sin subject to corruption unable to conquer death shall rise also the inconsequence is apparent On the other hand let the argument run thus Jesus Christ did by a passion of infinite Merit and Satisfaction purchase eternal life for Believers Ergo they shall be sure
in giving his Son for us The Giver is God himself no other could do it And here two things offer themselves to us The one is the earliness of his Love It was no Novel temporary thing but ancient nay eternal upon the Prescience of the Fall he eternally designed that his Son should assume our Nature and in it dye as an expiatory Sacrifice for us Christ was the Lamb foreordained before the foundation of the world 1 Pet. 1.20 He was set down for a Redeemer in the eternal Volumes before the world was up and slain above in Decree long before he was slain below in Time A Plaister was provided before the wound a Saviour before the Fall of Man When David would set forth Gods Mercy in the highest strain He doth it thus His mercy is from everlasting to everlasting Psal 103.17 Such is his Love in Christ reaching as I may say from one end of eternity to another Each one of us may cry out as that Ancient did Sero te amavi Domine Lord 't was late e're I loved thee Our love is but of yesterday a temporary thing but his was as early as eternity it self The other is the freeness of it Love 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist Rhet. l. 2. c. 4. as the Philosopher speaks wills good to another for his sake not for our own In that wonderful Gift of Christ the Love was Gods the profit ours Mercy in man hath a kind of respect to the Donor frail Humanity and the wheel of a mutable world tell him That himself the now giver may peradventure come to be a receiver Hence the Apostle would have us remember them in adversity as being in the body Heb. 13.3 and restore the lapsed considering thy self Gal. 6.1 It may be our own case There is in such acts of Mercy a kind of respect to our future self which possibly may become an object for Mercy But Mercy in God which is the suavity of his Essence issues out in a pure gratuitous way no such respect can fall upon him who is immutable and blessed for ever In the freeness of his Love there are two things considerable On Gods part there was no want on Mans no attractive On Gods part there was no want of us or our Services were there want with him he could not be God Could we supply him we should be greater than himself in furnishing him with that which he could not do for himself He is All-sufficient and what want can be in him Infinite and what can be added to him An Ocean though vast yet because finite may receive an addition from a little drop But what can be added to infinity which in its unmeasurable excellency comprizes all things within it self All nations to him are but as the drop of the bucket and as the small dust of the ballance Isa 40.15 Their Righteousness cannot add one beam to his essential Glory neither can their iniquity in the least eclipse it However it be with the Creature he is still himself His own happiness a sphere of all Perfections a Theatre of Glory to himself Hence it appears that Gods Love in giving his Son for us was not a Love of indigence but of fulness and redundance flowing out in a pure gratuitous manner towards us that the honour might be his and the profit ours He gives like himself out of super-effluent goodness as becomes one who is a Donor only but no Receiver On Mans part there was no attractive to move God to give his Son for us Mans Love is usually drawn out by some excellency or other in the object but what can draw out Gods Could the Origine of all goodness be attracted by any thing in the Creature Yet is it possible that any thing should be found in a fallen Creature to attract it Mans misery was indeed the occasion but what was the attractive Was our Love first and a charm to his Oh! no to say that a Creature is first in Love is to blaspheme the Supreme Goodness which sets up Love in it The Apostle is express Herein is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins 1 John 4.10 Between men Love is ordinarily reciprocal he that loves is beloved again but here the Love was on one side only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist Rhet. l. 2. c. 4. God loved his very Enemies so far as to give his Son for them to raise up their Love to its great Original Among men an harmony of spirits a sameness of tempers is a motive to Love But what was there could there be any such thing in fallen man as such How then was he fallen What need was there of a Saviour That holy Harmony was Mans Primitive rectitude and whilest it lasted there was no need of any restorer Alas fallen man was a very Chaos of corruption his very rational Powers were depraved there was flesh in his spirit enmity in his mind against him who lighted up a pure Reason in him at the first There was bondage in his Will it could not nay such was its horrible perversness it would not elevate it self to the fountain of its liberty Among men goodness is an allective to Love but what goodness was there in a fallen degenerate Creature full-fraught with sin and opposite to its Maker The very reliques of the Divine Image which sin could not utterly expel out of the humane Nature were yet so captivated and imprisoned there that gross Idolatry filled the world in spight of all the notions of a Deity implanted in the hearts of men We see cleerly there was no attractive on our part Why then did God give his Son for us The only reason was from himself it was meer Grace self-moving Mercy a pure emanation of Love towards us unworthy Creatures who might have been made the objects of his Wrath and that for ever The next thing considerable is the Gift it self and that was the Son of God very God a greater a dearer person could not be given if we measure Gods Love by the Gift it is like that altogether unmeasurable Hence the Apostle tells us That there is a breadth and length and depth and height infinite dimensions in it such as pass the knowledg of men and angels Eph. 3.18 19. When God gave us the Creatures for our use he gave us but the drops and models of his Goodness but when he gave his Son for us he gave himself God was the Giver and God the Gift When God could swear by no greater he sware by himself when he could give no greater he gave himself Here was Love acted to the uttermost elevated to the highest point a greater Gift there could not be 'T was great Love in Jonathan to David that for him he would strip himself of his Robe nay and venture the cast of a Javelin from an angry Father But what manner of Love was it in God that
Scarcely for a righteous man will one dye yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to dye But God commended his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us Rom. 5.7 8. Sometimes possibly though but rarely one may dye for a righteous good Man who is a blessing to the place where he lives But this was Christs Prerogative to dye for Sinners this was the supereminency of Divine Love to give him so to do Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends Joh. 15.13 Thus our Saviour A greater proof or effect of Love than death there cannot be but Love is then in an higher and more excellent degree when that death is as in our Saviours case it was for Enemies than it is when the death is for Friends Damon and Pythias two intimate friends were willing to dye one for another but Christ died for Enemies In Creation God overcame Nullity but in Redemption he overcomes Enmity it self and that in a wonderful way He assumes an humane Nature and in it pours out his precious blood to melt and break that horrible Enmity which was in us against him If we would see more of this Love let us turn our eyes upon the evils removed and the good procured by our Saviour Christ All evils are either Moral such as sin or which waits upon the other Physical such as punishment all of them are removed by our Saviour who saves from Sin and Wrath. Man was under the guilt of Sin and so under the Wrath of God Wrath in the threatning hung as an horrible Tempest over his head and within there was the dreadful Eccho of it in Conscience But the Sufferings of Christ were so satisfactory and meritorious for us that as soon as we return and believe on him all our guilt is done away It 's true the guilt in it self in the intrinsecal desert of punishment is perpetual because sin cannot cease to be sin but it doth no longer redound upon our persons to oblige us to punishment The heavy burden is now lifted off from Conscience the black Cloud of Wrath is dissolved the cursing Law hath nothing to say against us There is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Rom. 8.1 It 's true afflictions may fall upon a Believer but there is no Condemnation there is not a jot of Wrath in them they are rather Castigatory than Penal managed in the hand of Mercy rather than Justice In the issue it appears that there was Love and Faithfulness in them that even in those afflicting paths Mercy and Truth are found all things shall work together for good unto the Believer Afflictions and all These serve for excellent purposes to fan off his Vanity melt away his Corruption alarm his spiritual Watch refine his golden Graces cast him into the Image of a meek suffering Christ unearth unself him and elevate his affections towards the everlasting rest which is above Affliction after it hath budded and blossomed with such precious fruits is no longer evil but an excellent good It 's true also that death Temporal will seize upon him but the curse is gone the sting out death which at first was a punishment now hath a blessing in it It was Originally introduced by sin but through the admirable Grace of our Saviour it carries away those reliques of sin which no Tears Prayers Watchings Pious endeavours could utterly extirpate whilest we are in the body it throws down the earthen walls into their mother-dust But who would not dye and with Hilarion bid his Soul Go out that he might be rid of sin There is indeed a passage out of a Temporal life but it is into an Eternal one The soul when it leaves its old friend the body flies into the blessed Region there to enjoy God in an immediate manner to read truth in its Original and taste goodness in the Fountain the body which at present dissolves into dust shall wake again and be made like to the glorious body of Christ Mortal shall put on immortality corruptible incorruption death shall be swallowed up in victory it is no longer an evil to the Believer Again Man was under the Power of Sin and so under the Tyranny of Satan Sin was a Lord a Ruler over him not only over his outward man whose members were the weapons of it but over the inward too It had strong-holds in his Reason and a throne in his Will he was a drudg a slave to his lusts hurried up and down by one Corruption or other wandring in error or swelling in pride or pining in envy or boiling in malice or burning in lust or drowning in sensual pleasures some way or other serving his Iniquity Satan the Ruler of darkness hath a Palace in his heart and keeps possession there upon all occasions he blows up Original Corruption into sinful motions motions into consents consents into acts acts into habits Thus he carries on the sinner in a circle of sinning till inevitable ruin overtake him but in and through Christ there is deliverance from this horrible servitude The Holy Spirit comes and rescues the sinner it opens his eyes to see himself standing as he doth at the brink of Hell and Death it melts him into tears and godly sorrows for sin it breaks down the strong-holds and throne of sin in the heart it casts out Satan and the hellish furniture it translates the poor sinner from the power of darkness into the Kingdom of Christ into a Region of Grace and Power where Sin and Satan cannot have the Victory Those precious Promises that sin shall not have Dominion that Satan shall be bruised under our feet are now sealed and experimented in the heart The poor Captive is now brought out of Bondage into the true liberty of Holiness and Obedience Here we see the matchless incomparable Love of God which delivered us from so many great Evils Hezekiah being rescued from Death made his acknowledgments O Lord thou hast in love to my soul delivered me from the pit of corruption or as the Original hath it Thou hast loved my soul from the pit of corruption Every Believer who hath tasted of the great Salvation may say Lord thou hast loved me from Sin Satan Death Hell by delivering me from all these evils Moreover as all evils were removed so all good things were procured by Christ Temporals were so the world owes its standing to him Justice but for his expiatory Sacrifice would have dashed it down about the sinners â—ears Sin but for the Cement of his blood would have unframed all things in nature that right to the Creature which we forfeited by our iniquity was restored again by his Merits The Believer shall now have so much of the world as infinite Wisdom and Mercy more competent Judges than humane Reason and Will shall think a fit portion for him and what he hath he shall have with the Love
of God which as it is the highest suavity in it self so it pours out a delicious relish into all outward things Spirituals were so those initial Graces of Faith and Repentance which introduce us into an Union with Christ are from him He is a Prince and Saviour to give repentance Acts 5.31 To you it is given in the behalf of Christ to believe on him Phil. 1.29 As soon as we repent and believe we are justified in his blood and by a conjunction with him the natural Son we have power and right to become the Sons of God by Adoption and Grace The Holy Spirit the fountain of Graces and Comforts which was upon him the head above measure will fall down upon us his Members in a proportion every Grace every piece of the glorious new-creature is created in him In the power of his Merits and Spirit every comfort every beam of Divine Favour comes down to us through him He is the true Mercy-seat where God meets and communes in words of Grace with us Eternals were so too all the weights of Glory and Crowns of life in Heaven were purchased by him His blood opens the Holy of Holies the pure River of life springs out of his Merits the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ Rom. 6.28 Had it not been for him we could never have entred into such a blessed Region as Heaven What a Gift is Christ which virtually contains all gifts and good things in him How incomparable that Love which gave us so comprehensive a Gift In the last place let us consider the excellent Evangelical Terms which were founded on the Death of Christ Here two things are considerable The one is this The terms are easier The Covenant of Works was Do this and live The Covenant of Grace is Believe repent and live The first called for pure sinless perfect obedience The last stoops and condescends to fallen man it accepts of sincere though imperfect obedience uprightness passes for perfection the main of the heart for all of it the will is accepted for the work pure aims are taken for compleat performances infirmities are covered with indulgence duties are taken into the hand of a Mediator and perfumed with his infinite Merits and hence they are acceptable and as sweet Odours to God O how low doth infinite Love and Mercy stoop to poor sinners It will save a repenting believing sinner and how can it possibly go lower That God should justifie an impenitent unbelieving sinner is utterly impossible to his Holiness unless he would open a gap to all sin and wickedness and make it capable to have a Crown of happiness at last He could not more condescend than he hath done in the terms of the Gospel there is a Kingdom for the poor in spirit a Comfort for the mourners an acceptance for a willing mind a favourable respect for the least spark of grace which is latent in a desire and but as a little smoke or wiek in the socket as the expression is Matth. 12.20 And what condescending Love is here How could God stoop lower for the Salvation of Men The other is this The terms are surer It 's true Adam had he stood in Righteousness would have had a reward But the difference is this Under the first Covenant it was not certain that Adam though he had sufficient grace should stand but under the second it is as sure as Gods Truth and Faithfulness in the promise can make it that a people shall be gathered up out of the corrupt Mass of mankind that Christ shall have a repenting believing seed and that they shall abide and persevere till they come to the recompence of reward in Heaven St. Austin distinguishes of a double adjutorium gratiae De Corrept Grat. cap. 12. or help of grace Adam had that grace without which he could not have obeyed Gods People have that which causes them to obey The first gave him a posse a power to obey and persevere The second gives us the very velle perficere the very willing and working with perseverance Hereupon he observes that Adams will though sound and without spot did not persevere in an ampler good whilest our will though weak and infected with indwelling Corruption doth persevere in a lesser Adam with all his Holiness fell before an Apple a little titillation of pleasure but the Christian Martyrs have stood it out notwithstanding the reliques of sin in them against racks and torments Under the first Covenant the stock of Grace was in Mans own hand the stress lay upon his Will the principle of Holiness in him was subjected to it to be continued or forfeited But under the second Covenant which was founded at so vast an expence as the Blood of God Mans Will is not made Trustee a second time the stock is not in his own hand Grace is a Victor and subdues the Will unto it self Hence this Covenant cannot as the other did miscarry God was a friend to innocent Adam but in the second Covenant God comes nearer to us in a double Union such as Adam never dreamt of There is an Hypostatical Union the Son of God taking our nature into himself and which is founded thereon a Mystical Union Believers being in a wonderful manner united unto Christ as members unto their head In the first Union of the Divine and Humane Nature in Christ there is one Person In the second Christ and Believers make one Christ 1 Cor. 12.12 Believers are but Christ displayed he lives in them he counts himself incomplete without them By virtue of these two Unions it is that Believers finally persevere Because I live saith Christ ye shall live also John 14.19 Their life is bound up in his as long as Christ the head is alive above the believing Members below shall not fail of quickning grace to maintain spiritual life unto eternal The Holy Spirit is in them a well of water springing up to everlasting life John 4.14 and to secure the abode of the Spirit with them Christ is a Priest after the power of an endless life Heb. 7.16 In the Covenant of Works there was no promise of perseverance but in the Covenant of Grace there are many such promises God shall confirm you unto the end 1 Cor. 1.8 He will put his fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from him Jer. 32.40 The Apostle praying for the Thessalonians that they may be preserved blameless unto the coming of Christ immediately adds Faithful is he that called you who also will do it 1 Thes 5.23 24 evidently God undertakes it and engages his Faithfulness in it To take these Promises conditionally is utterly to evacuate them to make them run thus If we will persevere we shall persevere and so much was true under the old Covenant and without any Promise at all The clear scope of those Promises is That Believers are not left in their own hand but kept in Gods and how sure
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
it Never was such a seal set to the Law as here never did such a person as he obey it Here the Lord did magnifie his Law and make it honourable and that after a long and dark eclipse put upon it by the sins of a World Here the Antinomian who opposes the Law might satisfie himself The Law doth not condemn believers but it is and must be a Rule Our Saviour's whole life was a proof of it and Commentary upon it and our lives should imitate his we should tread in his steps and walk as he walked in both an homage is done to the Law The Minatory part of the Law denounced a death and a curse against the transgressor It 's true here God acted by Prerogative he relaxed the rigor and letter of the Law that the death and curse might not fall upon the sinner himself but was the threatning totally neglected was sin altogether unpunished No our sins were punished in our Sponsor Jesus Christ It 's true Socinus will not admit this De Servat pars 3. c. 4. Quas nos dicitis Christi poenas non vere proprie sunt poenae Christs sufferings however we call them were not such as were properly and truly penal He would not have them properly penal lest they should be properly satisfactory But I answer Where sin is not the impulsive cause there sufferings are not penal Sin is the foundation of punishment there cannot be poena sine fundamento a punishment without a why or a wherefore is a punishment for nothing that is no punishment But in Christs sufferings there wanted not an impulsive our sins were laid upon him Isa 53.6 they were condemned in his flesh Rom. 8.3 he bore them in his body 1 Pet. 2.24 he was wounded and bruised for them Isa 53.5 His sufferings were for sin and therefore penal Where meer Soveraignty inflicts there sufferings are not penal What is penal is from Justice not Power What is from Power is meer suffering not punishment But our Saviours sufferings were inflicted by Justice Indeed the relaxation of the Law the introduction of a Sponsor were acts of Prerogative and Supreme Power but the inflicting of sufferings upon our Sponsor the punishing of our sins in him were acts of Rectoral Justice Jesus Christ was set forth to be a propitiation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 3.25 to declare not the Dominion but Justice of God His sufferings were inflicted by Justice and therefore penal But if they were penal might they not have been somewhat less than a death and a curse No he bore both God had a respect to his threatning his sufferings were as much as might be to comply with the terms of the Law Though the threatning was not executed in a strict rigorous manner in the first debtor yet in an equitable way it was in a sort executed in the Sponsor he did undergo the essentials of punishment though not the accidentals Thus the truth of both parts of the Law was manifested in our Saviour Moreover the truth of all the types and shadows was set forth in our Saviour who was the body and substance of them all there was in him somewhat that did symbolize with them and somewhat that did infinitely transcend them Manna came down from Heaven and so did Christ but from the highest Heaven the place of Gods glorious presence to give not a temporal life but a spiritual an eternal one not to one Nation only but to a world Ex hoc pane coeli sancti reficiuntur Angeli With this bread of Heaven Saints and Angels are refreshed as an Ancient speaks The Rock smitten by Moses's Rod supplied the Israelites and Christ smitten by the curse of the Law supplies the Church not with earthly water but with heavenly with rivers of living graces and comforts following believers not for a time but indeficiently and for ever Hence the Jewish Rabbins say that the turning the Rock into water was the turning the property of Judgment into the property of Mercy All Mercies issue out from this spiritual Rock The brazen Serpent was lifted up upon a Pole and Christ was lifted up upon the Cross that healed the wounds made by the outward Serpents in the body and he heals the wounds made by sin in the conscience The corporal cure came by the eye by looking to the brazen Serpent the spiritual one comes by faith by looking to our Saviour for salvation God dwelt in the Tabernacle and Temple and in Christ he dwelt in the flesh not in types and symbols but really and hypostatically not for a time but for ever Christ is the true Tabernacle and Temple who hath all the holy things in him Here 's the Shecinah the Divine Majesty appearing in our nature Here 's the Ark where the Tables of the Law broken by men are kept inviolate Here 's the Mercy-seat or Propitiatory which covers our sins and from whence God communes with us in words of grace Here 's the vail the flesh of Christ which hid his Deity and through which there is a way into Heaven it self Here are the holy Lamps the Spirit of Wisdom and Grace derived from our Saviour Here 's the Altar of Burnt-offering the Deity of Christ sanctified his Humanity to be a sufficient sacrifice for a World And the Altar of Incense the odours of his Merit perfume all our services and render them acceptable unto God Almost every thing did breathe forth Christ and speak to his Honour He was in one all the Sacrifices and more than all of them Sacrifices began with the first promise of the Messiah The seed of the woman shall break the Serpents head Gen. 3.15 and after almost 4000 years standing they ended in his death a singular respect they had to him and a full complement in his perfect Sacrifice De Sacrif Disp 4. Adam and the ancient Patriarchs as the learned Franzius observes used at the sacrifices to speak of the Messiah and his sufferings these being the scope and ultimate mark of all the sacrifices were not altogether unknown to them A hint of them we have in that first promise of the Messiah the seed of the woman Gen. 3.15 who was to suffer a bruise in his heel his human nature that the Serpents that is Satans head might be broken Those Ancients knowing something of Christs sufferings though imperfectly and at a distance did in all probability at their sacrifices speak of them The believing Jews did not hang upon the shadow the outward sacrifices only but look at Christ the substance and marrow of them else they did as it seems worship God in their sacrifices in an ignorant manner without knowing the spiritual meaning of them nay else they offered them up in a mistake in the belief of that false impossible thing that the blood of Bulls and Goats could take away sin They knew that there was no remission without expiation they knew that moral guilt did as much nay more
require it than ceremonial and if they knew nothing of an Expiating Messiah they sought no further for the expiation of moral guilt than the blood of bulls and goats Now touching the Sacrifices two things are to be noted The one is this there is somewhat in Christ which answers to the Expiatory Sacrifices The sacrifice was to be perfect and without blemish that it might be accepted the blind or broken or maimed or corrupted thing was not to be offered up to God answerably the human nature of Christ which was the great Sacrifice was without spot or guile it was formed by the Holy Spirit and breathed out nothing but sanctity that it might be a pure offering unto God Had there been any blemish in it it could not have been united to the Person of the Word nor offered up as a sacrifice to God for us The Sacrifice pure in it self was substituted in the room of sinful defective men there was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the life of a Beast instead of that of a Man Sutably Christ the meek patient immaculate Lamb of God stood in our room he died for us he gave his life a ransom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 instead of many Mat. 20.28 His Person was put in the room of ours and his sufferings too in the room of ours Had he not stood in our stead he could not have been capable either to bear the stroke of penal sufferings or to free us from the same not to bear penal sufferings he being nothing but meer innocency in himself nor to free us from them he being in no conjunction with us The sacrifice being put in the sinners room had sin imputed to it they were to lay their hands upon the head of it Lev. 1.4 a confession of sins was made over the Scape-goat Lev. 16.21 their sins were in a sort transferred upon the sacrifice that it might bear them away Thus it was with Christ he was made sin for us 2 Cor. 5.21 The Lord laid on him the iniquities of us all Isa 53.6 Our guilt as it was fundamentum poenae was imputed to him so far as to render his sufferings penal and as an Ancient hath it he was delictorum susceptor non commissor having no guilt of his own he stood under ours in order to a glorious expiation and abolition of it in his death and satisfaction Sin being charged upon the sacrifice there was destructio rei oblatae a destroying of the thing offered so it was with Christ when our sins were laid upon him with the Corn he was bruised with the Wine and Oyl poured out with the Lamb slain and roasted in the fire of Gods wrath and with the Scape-goat driven into the wilderness of desertion crying out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me His sufferings were very many and great for us The sacrifice being slain its blood did expiate sin an atonement was made remission ensued upon it Thus Christ dying on the cross his blood was expiatory our fault was compensated Justice was satisfied wrath was averted and God appeased and reconciled towards us In these things appears a fair analogy between those ancient sacrifices and Christ the grea Sacrifice The other is this There is that in Christ which infinitely transcends all the legal sacrifices In the sacrifice there was only a brute in perfection but in Christ there was an human nature in perfection an human nature which had the Spirit above measure and was as full of grace as the capacity of a creature could hold there was in his humanity such a beauty and unmatchable perfection of grace as far surpassed the united and accumulated excellencies of all the Angels in Heaven The sacrifice stood and suffered in the room of offenders by constraint and compulsion it was bound with cords to the horns of the Altar but Christ stood and suffered in our room by choice and voluntary sponsion his soul was not snatched away but poured out his life was not meerly taken away but laid down he was under no constraint but that of his own compassion he was tied with no cords but those of his own love In the private sacrifice some particular sin was charged upon it in the publick one the sins of the Jewish Nation were charged upon it But upon Christ were laid the sins of a World sins of vast distances as far remote in place as the quarters of the earth and in time as the morning and evening of the world met all together upon him In the sacrifice there was a meer simple death and the blood was but the blood of a brute but Christs death was not a meer simple one but a death with a sting and a curse in it a death with as much wrath in it as was due to the sin of a world nor was his blood the blood of a brute but the blood of a man nay of God himself and what manner of Sacrifice was this how compensative for sin how satisfactory to Justice how aversive of wrath how impetrative of all good In every respect it was infinitely valuable and sufficient The Sacrifice suo modo did expiate sin it took away civil guilt by freeing the offender from that temporal death which in the strict sanction of the Law was due to him It took away ceremonial guilt by freeing him from those legal impurities which excluded him from the publick Worship hence the Apostle saith That the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean did sanctifie to the purifying of the flesh Heb. 9.13 Thus far went the sacrifice but it could go no further the moral guilt was still unremoved Justice was still unsatisfied the wrath to come was still unaverted God as yet was unreconciled there was somewhat done to the flesh nothing to the conscience somewhat in foro soli in the Jewish Judicature nothing in foro poli in the Court of Heaven to give a full satisfaction to Divine Justice Hence the Apostle saith that those sacrifices though often repeated could not make the comers thereunto perfect Hebr. 10.1 The blood of bulls and goats could not take away sin v. 4. Still there was a conscience of sin and a remembrance of it every year v. 2 3. Hence God reprobated all those sacrifices and would have none of them they were not rejected for the hypocrisie of the offerer as they were Isa 1.12 13 nor comparatively as being in the outward work less than mercy Hos 6.6 But they were rejected as not able to do the great work to expiate sin they were to vanish as Clouds before the Sun as Types before the substance But when Christ gave himself an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour Ephes 5.2 there was a penal total expiation of sin not the flesh but the Conscience was purged not ceremonial but Moral guilt was done away Thus the Apostle comparing his Sacrifice with the legal ones saith The blood of Christ who through
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
rich and abundant measure upon all sorts of men Jews and Gentiles Into what place soever the Gospel comes there the Spirit is at work to frame new creatures and set them in motion that God may be served not in the oldness of the letter but in the newness of the spirit that his Worship under the gales and sweet influences of the Spirit may come forth as it ought in its life and pure spirituality 4. The great motive to Worship the reward of eternal life was never so manifested as it was by Jesus Christ It 's true holy men of old had some glimmerings of it Abraham sought after an heavenly Country Jacob waited for Gods salvation Moses had respect to the recompence of Reward Job speaks of seeing God in his flesh the believing Jews could see eternal things in temporal and measure Heaven by an Astrolabe of Earth In their Ikkarim in the Articles of their Creed there is one touching the Resurrection of the dead Those Ancients had some obscure knowledg of life eternal but in and by Christ it is set forth plainly and clearly in lively and orient colours Heaven as it were opens it self and in pure discoveries comes down and approaches near unto our faith It is now plain that the true worshippers shall ever be with the Lord shall see him and be like him shall enter into his joy and be swallowed up there shall have a Crown of life a weight of glory and that to all eternity All this is as clear as if it were writ with a Sun-beam Hence the Apostle saith That Christ brought life and immortality to light 2 Tim. 1.10 and again That befor the way into the holiest of all was not made manifest Heb. 9.8 that is That light or manifestation of this Reward which was under the Law was as none at all in comparison of the pure and great discovery of it which is under the Gospel The servants of God need not say What shall we have The Reward is before them the Celestial Paradise is in plain view to attract their hearts into the holy ways which lead thither In this display of Truth we have a notable proof of the truth of our Religion Admirable are the harmonies and compliances between the two Testaments the Substance though but one corresponds to the Types and Shadows though very many The Messiah in the flesh notwithstanding the vast distance in time fully answers to the Messiah in Promises and Predictions All things concur and conspire together to evidence the truth of our Religion It was the observation of some of the ancient Fathers That there is umbra in lege imago in Evangelio veritas in coelo a shadow in the Law an image in the Gospel the Truth in Heaven Hence we may thus conclude That Religion which was in the Law in shadow in a darker representation which is in the Gospel in the image in a more lively representation and which leads to Heaven where is perfection of light and eternal life in the thing it self That Religion must needs be true Or we may go higher than the Mosaical Law and conclude thus That Religion which in the morning of the World immediately after the fall of man appeared in the first Promise of the Messiah which afterwards appeared in types and more Promises which after these shone out illustriously in Jesus Christ which at last introduces into the perfect day in Heaven That must needs be true The succession and harmony which is in these things tell us that infinite wisdom did order and dispose the same Now after the Evangelical light is clearly revealed to us what manner of persons ought we to be How thankful should we be that we live in the shining days of the Son of man The Pagans are in gross darkness but we have the Divine light shining round about us The Jews had some dawnings and strictures of light but we have the Sun the full Globe of light We need not now grope in the dark after happiness Christ the true light is come the glory of the Lord is risen upon us in the pure light of the Gospel How should we believe and adhere to the Promises God hath performed the great Promise of the Messiah and it is not imaginable that he should fail in the other which are but appendants to that great Promise The Promises now have a double seal Gods Veracity and Christs Blood and in all reason we should seal them up by our faith not to do so is practically to say that God may lye or Christs Merits fail In what truth and obedience should we walk No lust should now be indulged no duty should now be baulked Every holy beam must be welcome as coming from Heaven to guide us thither Every Command of God must be precious as being the Counterpane of his heart and proved to be such by the obedience of his own Son in the flesh Now to walk in darkness is to reproach the holy light which shines round about us To be false to God who is so true to us is no less than horrible ingratitude to him and in the end will prove utter ruine to our souls it being utterly impossible for us while we are false to him to be true to our selves or our own happiness How spiritual should we be in worship With what holy fear faith zeal devotion should we serve him Our spirits should be consecrated and offered up to God our duties should have warmth and life from the inward parts the infinite Spirit must not be mocked with a shell a meer body of Worship Jesus Christ the Substance being come we must not rest in the shadows and rituals of Religion God is real in promises and we should be so in services He will give us the best Reward even Heaven it self and we should give him the best we have even our hearts that he may dwell there till he take us up into the blessed Region to dwell with him in glory in so doing we shall at once be true to him and to our own happiness CHAP. VIII Chap. 8 Gods Providence asserted from Scripture Philosophy and Reason It hath a double act Conservative and Ordinative both are manifested in Christ It was over Christ over his Genealogy Birth Life Death Over the fruit of his Satisfaction in raising up a Church It aimed at a Church directed the means and added the blessing That Opinion That Christ might have died and yet there might have been no Church is false All other Providences reduced to those over Christ and the Church Epicurus's Objection against Providence answered Providence over free acts of men asserted and yet Liberty not destroyed The Objections touching the Afflictions of good men and the event of Sin solved The Entity in sinful actions distinct from the Anomy the Order from the Ataxy HAVING spoken of the Divine Attributes I now proceed to speak of Providence which in a special manner directed this great Dispensation God manifest
sin and his Justice which punisheth it were both gratified to the full This Satisfaction as obediential pleased Gods Holiness as penal satisfied his Justice in both there was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sweet-smelling savour unto God He was at least as highly if not more pleased in it as he was displeased at the sin of a world Thus there was as Providence would have it a very full and just compensation for sin and withal a redundancy of Merit to procure all good things for us 2. There was a great Providence over the fruit of his Satisfaction in raising up a Church to God The Son of God assuming our nature and in it making so glorious a satisfaction for us Providence would not I may say without disparagement to its own perfection could not suffer so great a thing to be vain or to no purpose no it therein aimed at a Church Two things will make this appear The one is the Promises of God He did not only say That Christ should be a light to the Gentiles and his salvation to the ends of the earth Isa 49.6 but in express terms That he should see his seed Isa 53.10 Which Promise having no other condition but his death only did thereby become absolute it was as sure as the Truth of God could make it that there should be a seed a progeny of believers And for the continuance of this seed successively remarkable is that promise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 filiabitur nomen ejus His name shall be sonned or childed from generation to generation Psal 72.17 There shall from time to time be a company of believers coming forth as the genuine off-spring of Christ Thus run the Promises and if God take care of any thing he will take care to be true If Providence which without an aim is not it self aim at any thing in all the world it will aim at the performance of the Promises the keeping of Gods word being more precious to him than the preserving of a World The other thing to clear this point is the End of Christs death which is signally set down in Scripture Christ loved his church and gave himself for it that he might sauctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word Eph. 5.25 26. He gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purisie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Tit. 2.14 He died that he might gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad John 11.52 Here the end of his death is plainly expressed and if Providence did not aim at the same thing how should the wills of God and Christ stand in harmony whilst Providence neglects what Christ desigs Or how should Christ after so vast an expence as his own blood ever arrive at the intended end To arrive at that by Providence which Providence never aimed at was impossible to hit it by chance was uncertain and infinitely below such an Agent as Christ and such a work as his Satisfaction It was therefore the aim of Providence that there should be a Church Further Providence doth not only intentionally aim at it but actually procure it And here two things are to be noted 1. Providence directs the outward means of grace These which are things so great that the Kingdom of God is said to come nigh unto men in them go not forth by chance but by the Divine pleasure they are not hits of Fortune but blessings of Providence and that in a choice special manner Evangelical light doth not as the corporeal Sun shine every-where Supernatural dews do not as the common rain fall in every place Providence directs whither they shall go Hence the Apostles did not at least for some time let out their light or drop their heavenly Doctrine in Asia or Bithynia Act. 16.6 7 but pass into other parts Their Commission was general to preach to every creature but they followed the duct of Providence in the executing of it When Paul was at Corinth his stay there was proportioned to his work God had much people in that city Act. 18.10 There was a great draught of believers to be made therefore the Evangelical Net was long and after cast in that place as Providence would have it So the holy light was spread abroad in the World 2. Providence takes order that the Holy Spirit in the use of the means should so effectually operate as might infallibly secure a Church unto God Hence besides the light in the means there is an in-shining into the heart besides the outward hearing there is an hearing and learning of the Father Cathedram in coelo habet In Epist Joh. Tract 3. qui corda docet He hath a Chair of State in Heaven who teaches hearts saith St. Austin There is not only a proposal of objects but an infusion of principles to assimilate the heart thereunto The Gospel doth not come in word only but in power and in the Holy Ghost 1 Thes 1.5 A Divine power opens the heart unlocks every faculty dissolves the stone which is in it imprints the Holy Law there and frames and new-moulds it into the image of God and thus there comes forth a Church of Believers or as the Apostle speaks a church of the first-born which are written in heaven Heb. 12.23 and all this is from the Providence and good pleasure of God Hence Saint Paul saith That they are called according to his purpose and grace 2 Tim. 1.9 Saint James saith That they are begotten of his own will James 1.18 Saint John saith That they are born not of the will of man but of God John 1.13 all is from the fo the good-will and pleasure of God This Providence which watches over the Church though it be a very signal one and next to that over Christ himself hath not wanted Adversaries Socinus saith That Christ the Head was predestinated but believers the Members were not Caput quidem certum esse debuit membra autem non modo incerta esse possunt sed etiam debent Praelect Theol. cap. 14. Corvinus saith That notwithstanding the death of Christ it was possible that there might be no Church or believer Grevinchovius asserts That Redemption might be impetrated for all and applied to none because of their incredulity This Opinion to me is a very impious one The Learned Junius observes upon that of Socinus Fieri potuisse ut nemo hominum in Christum crederet ac nulla esset Ecclesia Cor. contr Mol. That it is a portentous and monstrous thing that there should be an Head without a Body Omnibus potuit esse impetrata redemptio tamen nullis applicari propter incredulitatem Grevinch contr Ames And the Professors of Leyden * Censur fol. 289. call that of Corvinus Dogma 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an opprobrious and blasphemous Opinion The impiety of it appears in the foul consequences which flow from thence 1. It puts
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
must be defended against the Pelagians Ne evacuetur crux Christi lest the Cross of Christ be made of no effect According to the tenour of that place one head cannot stand without the other If Adam derive not sin to us neither doth Christ derive righteousness both must be only patterns neither communicative heads which to say is utterly to overturn the scope of the place 3. Our Saviour Christ instituted Baptism and that for Infants but if there be no Original pollution in them What need a washing-ordinance for them The washing of their bodies whose pure innocent undefiled Souls are uncapable of spiritual washing is but a shadow without substance a Sacrament without internal grace a thing too insignificant for Christ the Wisdom of God to institute Hence when the Pelagians on the one hand granted the Baptism of Infants and on the other denied Original sin Contr. Jul. l. 3. c. 3. St. Austin saith that they spoke wonderful things In Sacramento Salvatoris baptizantur sed non salvantur redimuntur sed non liberantur lavantur sed non abluuntur In our Saviours Sacrament Infants are baptized but not saved redeemed but not delivered washed but not cleansed And a little after he asks If they are saved what was their sickness If delivered what their servitude If cleansed what their pollution Take away the Doctrine of Original sin and the Baptism of Infants seems to be a very ridiculous thing To avoid this absurdity the Pelagians asserted Aust de Pecc Orig. l. 2. c. 5. That the Baptism of Infants was necessary not because there was any Original sin in them but that they might be capable of the Kingdom of Heaven But I answer Where there is no defect there is all due perfection If Infants are pure and free from all sin then have they all the righteousness and rectitude which ought to be in them and if they have so they are without Baptism capable of Heaven or if they were not the baptismal-washing which imports pollution seems to be a ceremony very unfit and incongruous to be applied to them who are without spot or to render them apt for Heaven 4. In and about the death of Christ two things are considerable The one is the horrible wickedness of the Jews in crucifying him The other is The infinite merit which is in his death and sacrifice Both will manifest the Doctrine of Original sin First The horrible wickedness of the Jews in crucifying him will do it The rottenness of the root shews it self in the branches the malignity of Original sin appears in actual ones especially in those which are of a deeper stain than others are It was the aggravation of Solomons sin that his heart was turned from the Lord who had appeared to him twice 1 King 11.9 The more eminently God appears to us the more aggravated are our actual sins against him and the more aggravated those are the more vile and venemous doth the inward root of them appear to be When God appears to us in Reason which is a beam from him more precious than a world it speaks desperate corruption in men that the brutal part should usurp and rule over it that the vile sensual lusts should tread down that Divine spark and as it were annihilate it that nothing of God might have place in the heart When God further appeared in the Law and the Prophets to raise up a purer knowledg of himself than was to be found in Reason as it lay in the dust and rubbish of the fall it argues a greater pravity and malignity in men that they should murder his Prophets and trample his Sacred Laws the images of his holy Will under their impure feet this was in effect as much as in them lay to explode God out of his own world and practically to say that he should not reign there When God yet more eminently appeared when he sent his own Son very God of God to be manifest in the flesh whose glory broke forth most illustriously in excellent Doctrines and Miracles whose whole life among men was nothing but innocency purity mercy meekness goodness humility love zeal heavenliness holiness obedience and all manner of virtue in spotless perfection one might have thought that men would have reverenced the Son that the indwelling-corruption however it had rioted under other manifestations would here have made a pause and stood as one astonied and over-awed at so stupendious an appearance infinitely transcending all other For what is the little spark of Reason to the brightness of Gods glory Or the Law in the letter to incarnate Sanctity and Holiness Or what are all the Prophets to him who came out of the Fathers bosom and brought down supernatural Mysteries into the world Here it might have been expected that Iniquity should have stopt her mouth and held her hands that the Divine Majesty of this appearance should have made Corruption to retire and hide it self in the secret of the heart But alas the event was quite contrary Original Corruption here did its utmost and shewed forth all its malignity the wicked Jews cried out This is the heir come let us kill him They reviled raged blasphemed persecuted apprehended accused condemned buffeted and at last crucified the Lord of Glory Oh matchless wickedness never did Original sin so fully discover it self never did the Hell in the Belial-heart so desperately break forth as here We see here our Corruption in its true colours and malignity it is the root and fountain of the highest impieties Antichrist-like it opposes all that is called God it would have nothing of God remain it would trample down every appearance of him not in Reason or Laws only but in his own Son in God incarnate and were it possible it would even crucifie and annihilate the Deity it self rather than part with its dear lusts it would have God cease to be The next thing considerable is the infinite Merit in Christs death it procured two things for us Regeneration and Salvation First It procured Regeneration for us This is a most precious thing it new-frames and new-moulds us it produces a new spiritual being it draws the Divine image and likeness upon the heart it sets the soul into an holy order and rectitude and whence is it but from the Spirit Or how is that procured but by Christ and his sweet-smelling Sacrifice The Apostle tells us That the Holy Ghost which renews us is shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour Tit. 3.5 6. Through him it is that the Holy Spirit comes down and effects this excellent work in us Again it procured Salvation for us That we are saved from our spiritual enemies that we are at last crowned with life-eternal it is from Jesus Christ alone Hence the Apostle calls him the author of eternal salvation Heb. 5.9 not the Minister but the Author of it meritoriously procuring and efficaciously giving it to his people But now if there be no such
Christ was aliorum salvator aliorum susceptor the Saviour of some the Susceptor of others the first were drawn in by Grace the second prevented Grace This made Prosper say Huic sententiae is potest praebere consensum qui se a Christo non vult esse salvatum He may consent to this opinion who would not be saved by Christ Cassianus denied Original sin he thought that in the first sin Adam only sinned that the Will in us is as free to good as it was in Adam before the fall and hence he held That the Church was particoloured part of it was justified by Grace part by Freewill These latter whom nature advanced were more glorious than those whom grace freed These latter were uncapable of being saved because they had nothing to be saved from Hence it follows That Christ is not the Saviour of all his body but of part of it that he saves not all his people from their sins but some We see clearly by these things that if Original sin be denied much of Christs purchase will be made fruitless and of no effect As therefore we would have a part in Christ and his purchase we must confess our selves to be pieces of old Adam and to have a share in his sin It being certain That there is corruption in us we should reflect and take notice of it This is that which depraves the whole man and turns him into a man of sin every faculty groans under the burden of it every part hath its wounds and putrifying sores The Understanding a spark of immortality is dropt out of its orb fallen from the first truth and fountain of light darkness covers it a black vail holds back its eyes from the glories and beauties of the spiritual world The Thoughts which are the first-born of the mind are vain empty things like the Fools eyes in the ends of the earth garish and running up and down from one thing to another having no more dependance than is in the broken words or speeches of distracted men like Quicksilver never fixed unless it be upon trifles or sinful objects The Will the principle of liberty turns away from the supreme good as a slave it lies in the chains of lust impotent and in it self unable to lift up a choice or option towards happiness its averseness to that good which would ennoble and beautifie it reproaches it with the fall its propensity to that evil which soils and deturpates it upbraids it as an apostate from its original The Affections have lost their wings and sink down to the lower world as their center there they lye in the mire and turpitude of inordinate lusts and without the elevations of Grace they cannot raise up so much as a desire towards the things above they are Apostates from Heaven and Rebels against that Reason which came down from thence to reign over them The Members of the Body are all instruments of iniquity ready to execute all the commands of sin the whole man is overspread with an universal contagion This is the root of bitterness the seed of all manner of impieties Every one doth not actually say with Pharaoh Who is the Lord Nor with the bloody Jew Crucifie the Son of God nor like the proud Antichrist exalt himself above God but all these are seminally in us there is aliquid intus somewhat in every ones heart answering thereunto There is that in us which would trample down every appearance of God in Reason sacred Laws holy Motions offers of Grace nay and that which if it were possible would annihilate God himself This is an abyss of all evil this is a black chaos which hath all manner of iniquities in it and upon the warmth of temptation will be ready to bring them forth into act Oh! What matter of lamentation is here How should we mourn over this innate corruption Is it nothing to us to have immortal spirits void of God and all spiritual perfections Nothing to have a Reason without light a Will without liberty Nothing to have a troubled sea of inordinate passions and innumerable lusts creaking there Nothing to carry an Hell in our own bosom to have an enmity against that good which if received would perfect and make us happy and a proneness to that evil which being imbraced will corrupt and make us miserable for ever May we here spare our tears Or can we do less than fill our selves with shame and self-abhorrency Paulinus would not let his Picture be drawn because of the in-dwelling sin Erubesco pingere quod sum said he I blush to paint what I am St. Paul cryes out O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death Rom. 7.24 How sadly should we look upon that forlorn spectacle I mean our corrupt selves How should we lothe our selves and lye low at Gods feet if peradventure he may give us a better nature Of what vast concern is it to wait upon God in Ordinances and by ardent devotions to press into Heaven that there may be a new-creation in us And when that great work is wrought in us How should we lift up free-grace and sing Hosanna's to it for ever How often should we have that in our mouths What hath God wrought We marred the first Creation and he hath set up a second We lay in the ruines of the fall and he came down thither to rear up his own image in us again Graces are now growing there where sin had its seat the Holy Spirit now inhabits there where Satan dwelt and reigned And what an excellent change is this Let us distinguish our selves according to the two Adams Whatever is vitious or defective in us relates to the first Adam whatever is gracious or perfective of our nature relates to the second Never can we be too humble under the sense of Original corruption which adheres to our nature Never can we be too thankful for that supernatural grace which gave us a new nature Because we have a Divine nature in us we should live sutably to it Had we had but one single creation we had been eternally bound to serve and glorifie God but when he sets to his hand the second time to create us again in Christ Jesus unto good works how should our lives answer thereunto When in the horrible Earthquake at Antioch the Emperor Trajanus was drawn out of the ruines it was a very great obligation upon him to serve and honour God who so signally delivered him how much greater obligation lyes upon us who are drawn by an act of grace out of the ruines of the fall How should we live in a just decorum to that Divine nature which we are made partakers of We should still be bringing forth the fruits of the Spirit and shewing forth the praises of him who hath called us out of darkness into his marvelous light Again because the reliques of corruption are still remaining even in the regenerate we should ever
audiunt they hear and learn of the Father He speaks to them inwardly in such words of life and power as produces the new-creature 4. The Ministry of Christ was a very excellent one He spake did lived as never man did there were Oracles in his mouth Miracles in his hands Sanctity in his life Never was there such an external call as here yet would this do the work Would this secure a Church or people to God No He tells them plainly That except they were born of the Spirit they could not enter Heaven That no man can come to him except the Father draw him There must be an internal traction or else there would be never a believer in the world Trahitur miris modis ut velit ab illo Aust ad Bon. lib. 1. cap. 19. qui novit intus in ipsis hominum cordibus operari In this Traction there is a secret and admirable touch upon the heart to make it believe and receive Christ This is an internal call indeed Yet as pregnant as the words are the Socinians have an art to turn Gods Traction into Mans Disposition and the Divine energy into human probity Vis praecipua in audientium probitate consistebat the chief force consists in the probity of the auditors Prael Theol. cap. 12. Thus Socinus touching that Traction Those who have probity of mind who will do Gods Will those honest Souls will embrace the Gospel When God is said to touch the heart 1 Sam. 10.26 the meaning is they had tangible hearts such as were inclinable to the Divine Will De Vera Rel. l. 4. cap. 1. so Volkelius And again when God draws men he proposes his Will and the probi the honest hearts are perswaded De Ver. Rel. lib. 5. cap. 18. so the same Author Thus by an odd perverse interpretation of Scripture the choicest operations of Grace are at last resolved into nature and freewill This more plainly appears by that explication which Volkelius in the place first quoted gives us of probity There are saith he in Man three things Reason Will and Appetite if the Will the middle faculty apply it self to Reason there is probity if to the Appetite there is improbity We see here what probity is the meer product of the Will Faith is resolved into probity and probity into the Will of man There is no need of Grace at least not of an internal one The probity requisite to Faith is according to these men much the same as Aristotle requires from the auditors of morality that is that they act 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to Reason Eth. l. 1. c. 3. Thus according to them there is nothing of Mystery or Grace in this Traction but only a following the common principles of nature out of this temper Faith will spring up But do these men believe Scripture There the natural unregenerate man is thus described He is dead in sin A corrupt tree which cannot bring forth good fruit He perceives not spiritual things His carnal mind is not subject to the Law nor indeed can be Without grace he cannot do good no nor so much as spend a thought about it He is a stranger from the life of God and blindness is upon his heart and can there be any true probity in such an one The Corinthians at least some of them were before their conversion Fornicators Idolaters Adulterers Effeminate Abusers of themselves with Mankind Thieves Covetous Drunkards Revilers Extortioners 1 Cor. 6.9 and 10. And what probity was in them True probity such as is towards God is no other than sincerity and sincerity is not one Grace but the rectitude of all And may such a thing go before Faith Where true probity is there is a pure intention to do Gods Will and may it antecede that Faith which is the single eye and works by love Probity is not an off-spring of nature but of Grace could Free-will elevate it self to it there would need no traction no influence of Grace at all * Qui humilitati obedientiae humanae subjungunt gratiae adjutorium nec ut obedientes humiles simus ipsius gratiae donum esse consentiunt resistunt Apostolo diceenti quid habes quod non accepisti Gratiâ Dei sum quod sum Conc. Araus 2. can 6. The Fathers in the Arausican Council condemn those who subordinate Grace to mans humility or obedience as if humility and obedience were not gifts of Grace To conclude the Fathers Traction doth not stand in mans probity but in a Divine energy such as produces faith in the heart 2. The internal call is meerly of Grace The Spirit breathes where it lists God calls as he pleases some are called according to purpose all are not so Every heart under the Evangelical means is not opened as Lydia's was God works in us to will and to do of his good pleasure If God be God an infinite Mind he must needs be free if free in any thing he must be so in acts of Grace in his calling men home unto himself It is true that according to some the Spirit is annexed to the Gospel and works equally on all the Auditors But this opinion labours under prodigious consequences I mean some such as these following are The Holy Spirit whose prerogative it is to breathe where he list and divide to every one as he will is here affixed to his own organ the Gospel and must part out his Grace equally to all The Ordinance of Preaching as if it were no longer a meer Ordinance or pendant on the Spirit must confer Grace if not ex opere operato yet in a certain promiscuous way to all The Minister who uses to look up for the spirit and excellency of power to succeed his labours may rest secure all is ready and at hand The peoples eyes which ought to wait on the Lord if peradventure he will give faith and repentance to them will soon fall down and center on the Ordinance where they are sure without a peradventure to have their share of Grace Those emphatical Scriptures which speak of singular Grace to some must now run in a much lower strain The opening of Lydia's heart how remarkable soever must be no singular Grace but common to the rest The tractions and inward teachings of the Father which make some to come to Christ must be general favours and extendible to those who come not to him When the Apostle saith That Christ is to the Jews a stumbling-block and to the Greeks foolishness but to them that are called the power and wisdom of God 1 Cor. 1. 23 24 How signal soever the difference in the Text be the internal call must be all one in those to whom Christ was a stumbling-block and foolishness as in those to whom he was the power and wisdom of God The called according to purpose are called but as other men Gods purpose is to call all a-like mans only makes the difference These are
the consequences of that opinion and too heavy I confess for me to stand under I rest therefore in that of the Apostle He hath called us not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace 2 Tim. 1.9 Here purpose and grace are joined together if his purpose be free if his grace be gratuitous then he calls as he pleases In calling men home to himself he acts purely totally from Grace I conclude with that of Bonaventure Hoc piarum mentium est ut nihil sibi tribuant sed totum Dei Gratiae The genius of pious minds is to attribute nothing to themselves but all to Grace Thus far touching the first thing The freeness of Grace The next thing proposed is the power and efficacy of Grace The Apostle speaks of an exceeding greatness of power towards those that believe Eph. 1.19 So emphatical are the words there cam oper sol 343. that Camero is bold to say Nemo cui non periit frons negare potest significare vim potentiam None who hath not lost his modesty can there deny a force and power signified Now touching the efficacy of Grace I shall consider three things 1. It s efficacy as to the Principle of Faith and other Graces 2. It s efficacy as to actual believing and willing 3. It s efficacy as to perseverance in the faith The first thing is its efficacy as to the Principle of Faith and other Graces By the Principle of Faith I mean not the natural power of believing God doth not command us to take down the Sun for which we have no faculties but to believe for which we have an understanding and a will no natural faculty is wanting De Praed c. 5. Hence St. Austin saith the posse of believing is of nature This power in faln man because in conjunction with natural impotency never arrives at the effect The natural faculties are by the fall so vitiated that though in a sense he can yet he will not believe Trahit sua quemque voluptas one lust or other so attracts him that he cannot a se impetrare ut velit he cannot find in his heart to do it He hath a kind of can in his natural faculties but the corruption blasts the effect Neither do I mean that power which as some Divines say is supernatural yet not an habit or vital principle of faith Nature being fallen Grace say they gives a second power to set the will in aequilibrio but that power doth not as an habit incline or dispose a man to actual believving This power as I take it is nothing but Nature and Free-will I see not how it should be distinct from it There are as the Learned Doctor Twiss hath observed three things in the soul that is Powers Habits and Passions Powers may be the subjects of Habits and Passions but may a Power be the subject of a Power A natural power of a supernatural one This looks like a Monster By the same reason Habits may be the subjects of Habits and Passions of Passions And is this power of believing free or not If free then it is not supernatural it may be a principle of not believing and that nothing supernatural can be If not free then it determines the event but to what To not believing then it is not supernatural To believing then all men having as these men say the power must infallibly believe which Scripture and experience deny I mean therefore such a Principle of Faith as is an habit and vital Principle such as is seminally and virtually faith such as hath the nature and essence of faith such as inclines and disposes to actual believing and before the act denominates a man a believer When the act of faith comes forth into being is it from a believer or from an unbeliever If from a believer then there was an habit of faith before If from an unbeliever how unnatural is it and how cross to the suavity of Providence There must then be an act of faith before a principle a fruit before a tree or seed What shall we say of such an one He is a believer in act but in principle none as soon as the act ceases he is not at all a believer There must therefore be an habit a vital principle of faith This in the use of means is infused or created and that by the power of grace To clear this I shall lay down two or three things 1. The Principle of Faith and other Graces is not produced by meer suasion by a meer proposal of the Evangelical object In conversion there is a great work wrought within the deadly wound of Original corruption must be healed the new creature must be set up in us and can suasion do this Such a glorious work must be done by an efficient cause not by a meer allicient one such as suasion is A natural man is blind nay dead in spiritual things and what suasion can make the blind to see or the dead to rise Suasion is so far from giving a faculty that it presupposes it The use of it is not to confer a power but to excite and stir it up into act Satan uses suasion to subvert the souls of men and doth God do no more to convert them unto himself How then should he ever gather a Church to himself Satans suasions run with the tide and stream of corrupt nature but Gods are against it and in all reason the balance will be cast rather on that side which hath Natures vote and free concurrence than on that which hath Natures repugnancy and contradiction In this work there is more than meer suasion God is not a meer Orator but an admirable Operator his word is not significative only but factive commanding those Divine Principles into being vox imperativa abit in operativam he calls for a new heart and it is so 2. This holy Principle is not produced by assistent Grace as if a natural man did by Divine assistance work it in himself The Principle or power of believing is either natural or supernatural if natural it is by creation if supernatural it is by infusion or inspiration neither way is it produced in a way of assistance An assistance is not accommodated to a thing to produce a new power but to bring forth an act from thence The light is assistent to the eye in the act of vision but it gives not the visive power to it assisting grace concurs to the act of believing but it confers not a believing principle The greatest Saint in the world stands in need of assisting grace that his gracious principles may come into actual exercise he must have help from the holy one a supply of the Spirit of Christ the Heavenly roots do not cast forth themselves unless God be as dew to them the sweet spices do not flow out actually unless God breath upon them by auxiliary grace still he wants assistance to the doing of good as
he ought the greatest Saint though a man full of divine principles stands in need of assistance And doth a natural man one void of good fraught with evil need no more Is regenerating quickning renewing new-creating grace nothing but an assistance only May any one believe that the holy Spirit in Scripture should give such high stately titles to an assistance only May a man be a co-operator or co-partner with God in the raising up faith and a new creature in himself It 's true a natural man may by a common grace enter upon preparatories he may attend upon the means but what can he contribute to the work it self he is meerly natural the new creature is totally supernatural and what can he do towards it could he contribute ought what would the new creature be must it not be part natural as from man part supernatural as from God part old as from nature part new as from grace Thus it must be if this great work be divided between God and man Notable is that of Lactantius De fal Rel. Lib. 1. Cap. 11. Jovem Junonemque a juvando esse dictos Cicero interpretatur Jupiter quasi Juvans Pater dictus quod nomen in Deum minimè congruit quia juvare hominis est opis aliquid conferentis in eum qui sit egens alicujus beneficii nemo sic Deum precatur ut se adjuvet sed ut servet ut vitam salutemque tribuat nullns pater dicitur filios juvare cum eos generat aut educat illud enim levius est quam ut eo verbo magnitudo paterni beneficii exprimatur quanto id magis est inconveniens Deo qui verus est Pater per quem sumits cujus toti sumus a quo fingimier animamur illuminamur And at last he concludes Non intelligit beneficia divina qui se juvari modo a Deo putat He understands not divine benefits who thinks himself only helped by God Jehovah must not be transformed into a Jupiter or a meer helper man must not share with him in this great work it is God who makes us new creatures and not we our selves We are his workmanship not our own Ephes 2.10 Born not of the will of man but of God Joh. 1.13 As soon as a man is regenerate it may be truly said of him Hic homo jam naâ—ns est ex Deo this man is now born of God but to say that he is in part born of mans will is to blaspheme the Author of our spiritual being and to crown Nature instead of Grace 3. The holy principles of Grace are produced by an act of Divine power God lays the foundations of faith and the new creature as it were in mighty waters in the very same heart in which there is a fountain and torrent of corruption and no power less than the Divine can put back the stream of nature and set up the Heavenly structure of Grace in such an heart The production of gracious principles is in Scripture set forth in glorious titles such as do import power 't is called a Transtation Col. 1.13 it transplants and carries us away out of a state of sin into a state of grace 'T is a Generation Jam. 1.18 it begets us to a participation of the Divine Nature 'T is a Resurrection Ephes 2.5 It quickens us and inspires into us a Supernatural life of which the fall had left no spark or relick at all 'T is a Creation Eph. 2.10 it raises up a new creature out of nothing and gives us a spiritual being which before we had not and if these things do not speak power nothing can Hence the Apostle speaks of the Gospel coming in power 1 Thes 1.5 Nay that in the success of it there is an excellency of power 2 Cor. 4.7 and an exceeding greatness of power towards Believers Eph. 1.19 The work of faith is said to be fulfilled with power 2 Thes 1.11 How much more must it be an act of power to lay the Primordials and first principles of faith in a fallen unbelieving creature When there was nothing appearing in our lapsed nature but a vacuum a chaos of sin a spiritual death and nullity only the Divine power was able to repair the ruins of the fall and rear up the Heavenly life and nature in us This great truth was notably set forth in the conception of our Saviour Christ it was not in the course of nature his Mother knew not a man but the Holy Ghost came upon her the power of the highest overshadowed her that the holy thing might be born of her Luk. 1.35 In like manner when Christ is formed in the heart when the new-creature is set up in us it is not in the way of nature we know not the humane power in this work here is no less than dextra excelsi the right hand of the most High to effect it here are vestigia spiritus sancti the footsteps of the holy Spirit to bring it to pass the same power and spirit which formed Christ in the womb formes him in the heart as in his participation of the humane nature there was a Supernatural operation so is there in our participation of the Divine This is the first efficacy of Grace it new creates the heart and imprints the Divine image there it inspires holy Principles and so lays a foundation for obedience 2. There is an efficacy of Grace as to actual believing and willing St. Bernard asks the question Quid agit liberum arbitrium What doth Free-will do and then answers De Lib. Arbit Grat. Salvatur it is saved And Agatho in his Epistle lays down this as a rule Quod a Christo non susceptum est 6. Gen. Conc. Act. 4. nec salvatum est si ab eo humana voluntas suscepta est salvata est That which was not assumed by Christ is not saved by him If an humane will was assumed then it is saved and it is saved first in that principles of holy rectitude are instilled into it and then in that those principles are drawn forth in actual willing both these are necessary the first implants the vital principles of Grace in the heart the second makes them blossom and bring forth precious fruit without those vital principles the will however assisted ab extra is internally in it self but a faculty meerly natural and void of spiritual life it hath no proportion to the vital supernatural acts of Faith and Love Neither is it possible that any such should issue out from thence no not by any extrinsecal assistance whatsoever an act if vital and supernatural must be from an internal principle that is such Again unless those vital principles bring forth actual believing and willing they must needs lie dead and come to nothing And yet if we estimate things according to their worth and excellency we cannot but think it much more easie and eligible for the wise and good God to suffer an
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
Christ's Righteousness be imputed to us then God sees no sin is in us Ans God sees not sin in us with a vindictive Eye but with an intuitive one he doth nay he cannot but do so as long as there is omniscience in him and sin in us Christ's Righteousness is imputed to us as it is a Satisfaction and that supposes us to have been Sinners else what need could there be of a Satisfaction though the Law were satisfied in point of Justification yet still it demands duty in point of Sanctification though that Satisfaction take away the imperfection of our duties and Graces as to the guilt yet not as to the very being Object 7. If Christ's Righteousness be imputed to us there needs no new Obedience in order to Salvation Ans The Socinians object this against Christ's Satisfaction in which notion I take it that Christ's righteousness is imputed to us * Cont. Meis Fol. 138. Si jà m Deo plenè persolutum est quod ei à nobis plenè debebatur quid adhuc nos pietate bonis operibus maceremus jam nec Deus nos jure punire not ab aeternâ vitâ jure excludere potest so Schlictingius But Christ's Satisfafaction may very well stand with our obedience Christ satisfied the Law so far as that his righteousness imputed justifies us against the Law but not so far as that it should be our very sanctity and holiness for then of imputed it should become such as they are inherent which is impossible in this respect therefore the Law asks obedience from us every Believer is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Under the Law to Christ as far under it as it is a rule to our life Nay Christ's righteousness is far from evacuating our obedience that it is the great foundation upon which the Holy Spirit the fountain of Holiness is communicated to us as it was under the Law in cleansing the Leper the holy Oyl was put upon the Atoning Blood Levit. 14.17 So it is under the Gospel in purifying us First the Blood of Christ is sprinkled on us by imputation and then the holy Unction the Divine spirit is poured out upon us were there no Atoning blood shed the Holy Spirit would not so much as touch upon fallen man were that Blood not applied to us the Holy Spirit would never dwell in us as a principle of obedience Object 8. Christs righteousness cannot be both the meritorious and material cause of Justification for then it should be both an external and internal cause thereof Which cannot be Ans We must not here take our measures from reason it was well said by one In Logicis ratio facit fidem in Theologicis fides facit rationem Evangelical mysteries though above the line of humane reason must be owned in Faith though the mode of them be inexplicable by us Christ's righteousness may be considered under a double respect either as it is offered up to God or as it is applied to men In the first respect it is common for all so far as to render them justifiable on Gospel terms In the second it is peculiarized to Believers In the first it founds the promises of justification by Christ's blood in the second it executes them and which is as easily conceiveable as the other in the first it is a meritorious cause of justification in the second a material Having answered these Objections which I look upon as most material I shall conclude as I began that Christ's righteousness as it is a Satisfaction is so far imputed to his believing members as to be the matter of their justification The Law in that point can ask no more of them than that satisfaction there is enough in that to answer for all their sins Thus far I have treated touching our righteousness as to the Law I now come to speak of our righteousness as to the Gospel Christ's righteousness answers as to the Law of works Faith answers as to the terms of the Gospel Do this or die was satisfied by Christ's righteousness Believe and live is answered by Faith Christus est impletio Legis Spirious est impletio Evangelii Now here I shall first shew the necessity of this two-fold righteousness and then the connexion which is between them 1. There is a necessity of this two-fold righteousness God at first made man a holy righteous creature and upon the fall he set to his hand a second time to lift up man out of the Chains of Sin and wrath into a state of Grace and Life eternal God as Creator gave man a Law of perfect obedience suited to his primitive nature and as it were interwoven with the principles of it God as Redeemer gave us a Law of Grace in which there is as much abatement and condescention to our faln estate as could comport with his own Holiness and Majesty In the former God stood upon the highest terms of perfect sinless obedience in the latter he comes down to the lowest terms imaginable He will justifie and save every one who by true Faith yields and resigns himself up to the conditions of the Gospel where there are distinct Laws there must be distinct righteousnesses to answer them That which comes up to the condescending terms of the Gospel falls much short of the high terms of the Law That which satisfies the Law is a thing of incomparably greater excellency than that which answers to the terms of the Gospel There are two distinct charges or accusations to be supposed the one that we are Sinners such as have broken the Law The other that we are Unbelievers such as have rejected the Gospel Here therefore must be distinct Plea's To the First the Plea is Christ's Satisfaction to discharge us from the Law To the Second the Plea is Faith which is the condition of the Gospel To the charge of final unbelief it is no Plea to say that Christ hath satisfied to the charge of being a sinner the Plea doth not consist in Faith it self but in its object viz. Christ's Satisfaction The righteousnesses themselves are of different natures as to the Law our righteousness is without us in the glorious Satisfaction of Christ made ours by a gracious imputation as to the Gospel our righteousness is within us in that Faith which complies with the Evangelical terms as to the Law our righteousness is not the idem but a satisfaction made for the breaches of it as to the Gospel our Faith is the very idem which the Gospel condition calls for It is of great concern in Justification to place these two righteousnesses in their proper Orbes if either of them be carried out of their own Sphear Religion is subverted As to the Law Christ's Satisfaction is our only righteousness it is true Faith receives the Atonement but neither Faith nor any other inherent Grace can here be our righteousness All these have their spots of imperfection how faltring is our Faith how cold our charity how much is
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
like manner is it with his daily Infirmities these are not indulged but they lie as an heavy burden upon him he wishes for he breaths after Perfection Oh! that there were no remaining Sin no moats of Infirmity But alas it will not be here Aust de Temp. Serm. 45. Concupiscere nolo concupisco saith the Father Innate corruption will be stirring and bubling up in us all that can be done on Earth is to war and fight against it the Triumph the Crown of sinless Perfection can be found no where but in Heaven But to clear this Particular I shall set down two things The one is this A Man who indulges or allows sin in himself cannot while he doth so lead an holy Life he hath no Principles for it no Principle of Repentance he cannot mourn over sin while he joys in it he cannot hate sin while he loves it he cannot forsake sin while he follows after it No Principle of Faith he cannot trust in God's Mercy when he rebels and is in Arms against him he cannot receive the Lord Christ when he hath another Master to rule over him he cannot close in with the precious Promises of the Gospel when he embraces the lying Promises of Sin No Principle of Holy Love he cannot truly love God with an Idol in his Heart he cannot love him and close in with sin his great Enemy he cannot love him and habitually willingly violate his Commands Such an one can have no pure Intention towards God's Will or Glory not towards God's Will he obeys with a salvo or exception he picks and chuses among the Divine Commands he complies only with those Commands which cross not his darling Lust The Jewish Rabbins say He that saith I receive the whole Law except one word only despises the Command of God The same Divine Authority is upon all the Commands and that Obedience which is with the exception of one Command which crosses the indulged Lust is as none at all Nor yet towards God's Glory How can he glorify God who by willful sinning dishonours him or how can he aim at that Glory who aims at the satisfaction of his own Lust or which way can one promote two such contrary ends as that Glory and his own Satisfaction Heaven and Hell Light and Darkness Holiness and Impurity may as soon be reconciled as two such contrary ends can meet together Every indulged Lust is one Idol or other either it is Baal Pride and Lorliness or Ashtaroth Wealth and Riches or Venus carnal and sensual pleasure or Mauzzim Force and earthly Power unless the Idol be put away we cannot serve God in in an holy Life The other thing is this It is of high concern to an holy Life to mortify Sin An holy Man is one in Covenant with God therefore he must maintain war against Sin the Enemy of God Sin is an opposite to God a rebellion against his Sovereignty a contradiction to his Holiness an abuse to his Grace a provocation to his Justice a disparagement to his Glory and how can an holy Man a Friend of God do less than set himself against it that he may kill and utterly destroy it Ye that love the Lord hate evil saith the Psalmist Psal 97.10 The Exhortation is pregnant with excellent Reason If you do indeed love God who is Purity Power Wisdom Excellency it self ye can do no less than hate Sin which is Pollution Weakness Folly and Vileness and if you do hate it you will seek the utter ruine and extirpation of it an holy Man is one in union with Christ and upon that account he must mortify Sin in Christ crucified he hath a pattern of Mortification what was done to his pure Flesh in a way of Expiation must be done to our corrupt Flesh in a way of Mortification The Nails which fastned him to the Cross tell us that our corruption must have such a restraint upon it that it may like one on a Cross be disabled to go forth into those acts of sin which it is propense unto the piercing and letting out his Heart-blood shews us that the Old Man must not only be restrained but pierced that the vital Blood the internal love of sin may be let out of the Heart he was active in his Passion he freely laid down his Life yet violence was done to him in like manner we must freely sacrifice our Lusts we must willingly die to sin yet sin must not die a Natural Death but a violent one it must be stabb'd at the heart and die of its wounds And because it will not die all at once it must by little and little languish away till it give up the Ghost there must be Mortification upon Mortification because sin is long a dying But further we have from Christ not an Examplar of mortification only but a Spirit and Divine Power for the Work while by Faith we converse about the wounds of Christ We have that Spirit from him which mortifies the deeds of the Body Rom. 8.13 That mind of Christ which makes us suffer in the Flesh ceasing from sin That we may no longer live to the Lusts of Men but to the Will of God 1 Pet. 4.1 2. If then the holy Man will live like himself and as becomes a Member of Christ he must by that Vertue and Spirit which he hath from him crucify his Lusts and Corruptions Thus the Apostle They that are Christ's have crucified the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts Gal. 5.24 They ought to crucify them they do crucify them so far that sin can reign no longer they go on crucifying every day more and more that the body of sin may be destroyed Moreover An holy Man hath such a Divine Faith as blasts all the World in comparison of Heavenly things in the Eyes of Faith Earthly Riches are not the true ones those Treasures which glitter so much to Sense are but poor moth-eaten things the World's substance is but a shadow an apparition a thing that is not too low for an immortal Soul to aim at too mean to enrich the inward Man the sensual pleasures which ravish Flesh and Blood are but the vain titillations of the outward Man Momentary things such as perish in the using and die in the embraces leaving nothing behind them but a sting and worm in the Conscience of the poor voluptuary Mundane Glories which take carnal Men so much appear to be but a blast a little popular Air to a Man up among the Stars the whole Earth would be but a small thing and to a Man who by Faith converses in Heaven Earthly Crowns and Scepters are no better Now when Sin which uses to wrap up it self in one piece of the World or other is blasted in its Covers and Dresses of apparent Good when those Pomps and Fancies of the World which usually paint and cover Sin to render it eligible unto Men are discovered by Faith to be but vanities and empty Nothings Sin
praeter illum Deum as if there were none in all the World besides himself and God still his Eye is upon God what ever he doth he doth it heartily as unto the Lord and not unto Men Col. 3.23 The great end and center of his actions is God's Glory and under that he designs to do good to Men he would conferre aliquid in publicum casts in something into the common good of Mankind An Holy Magistrate hath the fear of God upon him he judges not for Man but for the Lord he judges righteous Judgment and that as the Rabbins say is a sure sign that the Shecinah the Divine Presence is with him in the judgment An Holy Minister carries with him an Vrim and Thummim Light in his Doctrine and Integrity in his Life He burns in zeal for God and Christ he melts in labours and compassions for the Souls of Men. His Motto is the same with that of Mr. Perkins Verbi Minister es hoc age In a word whatever the Calling be the Holy Man is active faithful bent for the Glory of God still he remembers that he is a Christian Religion hath an influence upon his Calling His particular Calling which is Vocatio ad munus to a course of Life is made subordinate to his general Calling which is Vocatio ad Faedus to the Faith and Obedience of the Gospel Thus wee see An Holy Man is like himself at every turn as occasion is one odour of Grace or other is still a breaking forth from him Seventhly In an Holy Life there is not only an exercise of Graces but in that Exercise a growth of them the Holy Man of a Plant comes to be a Tree of Righteousness of a Babe he comes to be a Man in Christ he goes from strength to strength his path is as the shining Light which shines more and more unto the perfect day Prov. 4.18 He travels on from Vertue to Vertue to meet the everlasting day He grows in every part of the New Creature till he come to Heaven where Grace is perfected in Glory His Knowledg grows by following on to know the Lord he comes to know more of him by doing of God's Will he comes to understand it better than ever he did the Eye is more open the Heart is more unvailed the Truth is more sealed to the Mind the Understanding is more quick in the Fear of the Lord the Taste and Savour of Divine things is higher than it was before he had at his first Conversion a spiritual Knowledg and Understanding but exercising himself to Godliness he comes by degrees to all Knowledg 1 Cor. 1.5 and to Riches of Vnderstanding Col. 2.2 Notions are enlarged and withal Heavenly things are known per gustum spiritualem by a Spiritual taste of them his Faith grows at first there was but contactus but upon the Exercise of Graces there comes to be complexus fidei the touch of Christ by Faith is advanced into an embrace the recumbency on his Blood and Righteousness is stronger the subjection to his Royal Scepter is more full than it was the reliance on Promises and compliance with Commands are both raised up to an higher pitch than they were before at last Adherence comes to be Assurance His Love grows there comes to be an higher estimate set upon God a closer union with him a greater complacence in him than there was before At last Love becomes a vehement flame Cant. 8.6 Flamma Dei the Flame of God which burns up the earthly Affections and aspires after the full fruition of God in the Holy Heavens Also his Obedience and Patience are upon the increase by much obeying the Intention becomes more pure the Will more free the Obedience more easy and abundant he doth not only do the Work of the Lord but he abounds in it he doth not only bring forth Fruit but much Fruit Joh. 15.8 By patient bearing of Afflictions the Art or Divine Mystery of suffering comes to be understood the Heart is yielded and resigned up to the Divine pleasure he would be what God would have him be he hath not only patience but all patience Col. 1.11 Patience hath not only a Work but a perfect Work Jam. 1.4 Thus in the Holy Man Grace is still a growing Further The Holy Man grows every way he grows inward by exercising himself to Godliness his Vital Principles become more strong his Supernatural Heat is increased his inner Man is strengthened more than ever it was before he hath a Divine vigor to overcome corruptions to repel temptations to live above earthly things to perform Heavenly duties and to endure sufferings He is strengthened in the inner Man Ephes 3.16 and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in all Power Col. 1.11 to do what is decorous to his spiritual Nature he grows outward he hath not only the fruits of Righteousness but he is filled with them Phil. 1.11 The influences of Grace and supplies of the Spirit make him to bring forth much fruit and that with great variety as occasion serves all the fruits of the Spirit Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness Temperance which the Apostle mentions Gal. 5.22 23. break forth from him in their spiritual Glory He is like the Tree planted by the Rivers of Waters Ps 1.3 which hath a fruit for every Season or like Joseph's Fruitful bough by a Well whose Branches run over the Wall Gen. 49.22 There is a redundance and exuberancy of Holy Fruits which shew that he hath a Divine Spirit a Well of living Water in him springing up into all Obedience and good Works He grows upward by conversing in holy things he is un-earthed and unselved he converses more than ever in Heaven the Glory of God is more precious to him his Intention towards it is more pure than it hath been he waits and longs to be in that Blessed Region where God is all in all Every Duty and Good Work looks up more directly than was usual to God the great Center and End of all things He grows downwards I mean in Humility by conversing with God he comes to have a greater Light than ever which discovers the Majesty and purity of God the rectitude and Holiness of the Law the infirmity and reliques of Corruption in the lapsed Nature of Man and this Discovery makes him very humble and vile in his own Eyes even his very lapses and falls serve occasionally to this growth De Corr. Grat. c. 9. Hence St. Austin treating on those words All things work together for good to them that love God Rom. 8. adds Etiam si deviant exorbitant hoc ipsum eis faciat proficere in bonum quia humiliores redeunt doctiores Experience tells him that he is nothing and Grace is all Morever the Holy Man never thinks that he hath Grace enough never saith I am perfect or I have attained Inceptio bonae vitae in quovis gradu sine desiderio
ascendendi ad altiorem non potest esse sine fundamento praesumptionis nec sine inclusione tepiditatis nec sine periculo vivendi in vitiis spiritualibus Niremb this would shew him to be no Holy Man to have no Grace at all He is still a breathing and pressing after more Grace the Divine touch which in Conversion was made upon his Heart causes it ever after to point towards God the Fountain of Grace The sweet taste of Grace which he hath had makes him earnestly thirst after more it 's true he has not a thirst of total indigence in this respect he shall never thirst John 4.14 but he hath a thirst of Holy desires after more Grace his Soul pants after more of the Divine Image Oh! that he were more like unto God! that his Will were swallowed up in the Divine Will Nothing can satisfie him unless he be made more Holy He avoids those things which hinder Spiritual growth he will not lie in a sink of sensual Pleasures he will not clog himself with a burden of earthly things he will not fret away himself in Envy he will not puff up himself with Pride and Presumption he will not wither away in an empty fruitless Profession he will not grieve the Holy Spirit of Grace or willfully make any wounds in Conscience All these will be impediments to growth in Grace therefore he puts them away from him he busies himself in those things which may make him grow he is much in prayer that God would give the increase that the showres of Holy Ordinances may not drop and come down in vain that the Gales of the Holy Spirit may fill every Ordinance that the Sun-shine of God's Favour may make every thing prosper He knows that none can bless but he who institutes nothing can make rich in Grace but the Blessing for that he waits in all his Devotions He is much in the Holy Word he hears reads meditates digests it lays it up as a Treasure keeps it as his Life feeds on it as his Meat hath his Being in it and all that he may grow in Grace that beholding as in a Glass the Glory of the Lord he may be changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory as by the Spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3.18 That the Face of his Heart and Life may shine with a Divine Lustre and Beauty He acts his Faith upon Christ he adheres and cleaves to him He aspires after more close Union and Communion with him that by a Divine Spirit and Life from him he may increase with the increase of God Col. 2.19 that he may live like one in Union and Conjunction with Christ that he may honour that Glorious Head in whom the Spirit is above all measure and from whom it flows down upon all his Members He exercises himself unto Godliness he stirs or blows up his Holy Graces He repents believes loves obeys runs strives labours to do the Will of God and all that he may hold on his way and grow stronger and stronger Job 17.9 In a word he esteems it an horrible shame and disparagement to be barren and unfruitful under the Gospel What Is the Divine Nature which he partakes of for nothing every little living Creature propagates and brings forth its Image and shall the Divine Nature have no progeny of good Works to resemble its Father in Heaven Are Ordinances given in vain the outward Rain hath its return in Herbs and Flowers and excellent Fruits of the Earth and shall the Showers of Ordinances which come from an higher Heaven than the visible one have no return at all to what purpose is Christ an Head to Believers An Head is to communicate life and motion to the Members and can the Members of so glorious an Head as he is be dry and wither away in an empty unfruitfulness Why is the Spirit communicated but to profit withal when it moved upon the Waters at first it brought forth abundance of excellent Creatures in the Material World and shall it it do nothing in the Spiritual one or shall it produce Heavenly Principles in Men and not bring them into act or exercise Nothing can be more incongruous than such things as these The Holy Man therefore makes it his great business in the World to grow in Grace and in the Knowledg of of Christ to abound more and more in Obedience and Holy Walking till he come to the Crown of Life and Righteousness in Heaven We see what an Holy Life is nothing remains but that we labour after it lapsed Nature lies too low to elevate it self into Holy Principles and Actions how should we cast down our selves at God's feet for Regenerating Grace How much doth it concern us to wait upon him in the use of means to have our Minds enlightened to see Spiritual things to have our Hearts new made and moulded into the Divine Will to have a precious Faith to receive Christ in all his Offices to have an Holy Love to inflame the Heart towards God It is God's Prerogative to work supernatural Principles in us let us then look up to him to have them wrought in us We have lost the Crown and Glory of our Creation we are sunk into an horrible gulf of sin and misery but Oh! let our Eyes be upon God he can set to his Hand a second time and create us again unto Good Works he can let down an Arm of Power and lift us up out of the pit of Corruption nothing is too hard for him he can turn our stony Heart into Flesh he can by an omnipotent Suavity make our unwilling Will to be a willing one Oh! wait for this day of Power and when it comes give all the Glory to Free-grace and live as becomes the Sons of God who are born not of the Will of Man but of God it is too too much time we have spent in doing the Will of the Flesh let us now consecrate and dedicate our selves to the Will of God In the doing of it let 's live a Life of Faith and dependance upon the influences of Grace let 's get a single Eye a pure Intention towards the Will and Glory of God What good we do let 's do it in an holy Compliance with his Will in a sincere subserviency to his Glory This is right genuine Obedience in which God is owned as the first Principle and the last End if we depend not on him the Fountain of Grace how shall we stand or walk in Holiness If we direct not all our good Works to his Will and Glory how are our Works Holy or Consecrated unto God Let 's put away our high thoughts and proud reflexes upon self that we may wholly depend upon his Grace Let 's cast away all our Squints and corrupt aims from us that we may directly look to his Will and Glory Still let us remember that the work of Mortification must be carried on if we indulge sin we rent off our selves
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