excesses of Nature and therefore things very congruous to seal up those super-natural Truths which are above our Reason Evangelical Mysteries are such as eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither have they entred into mans heart They are above the line of Reason and so very aptly ratified by those miraculous Works which are above the line of Nature We are in all Reason to conclude that God who acts above Nature is to be believed even when he speaks above Reason which being but a part of Nature may be as well exceeded by Mysteries as other parts of Nature are by Miracles But further his Miracles had a special aptitude in them to confirm the Gospel they were not destructive as the wonders in Egypt were nor meerly to raise an admiration as Simon Magus's were who would present himself flying in the air Spond Annal. 68. frame walking-statues and make bread out of stones that he might be esteemed a great one a kind of Deity among men No our Saviours Miracles were for the good of mankind he went up and down doing of good he healed the distempers of men and cast Devils out of their bodies And what works could be more admirably fitted to the Gospel which was ordained to heal inward distempers and cast Satan out of the Souls of men What can better accord together than healing Miracles and healing Doctrines It is very reasonable to believe that he who did such wonders on the bodies of men can do as much and more upon their souls He who cast Satan out of the outward man can eject him and all his furniture out of the inward Moreover it is to be observed that his Miracles were ordinarily wrought upon Faith Thus he said to the Centurion As thou hast believed so be it done to thee Matth. 8.13 Thus to the blind men According to your faith be it unto you Matth. 9.29 Thus to the Father of the possessed Child If thou canst believe all things are possible to him that believeth Mark 9.23 as if the Divine Power were made over to Faith We see here how our Saviour in doing his Miracles did put an honour upon Faith which is the Condition of the Gospel and withal what great reason we have to go to him for Spiritual Miracles who hath done so many Corporal The last instance of the Divine Power is in converting the world to Christianity in raising up a People to God out of the ruins of the Fall The Son of God did not come in the flesh meerly to do Miracles upon the bodies of Men No his greatest work is upon their souls Corporal Miracles were pledges of Spiritual Some of them as the inlightning of the blind and raising of the dead did as Estius observes type out the giving of the Vital Principles of Grace In Sent. lib. 2. fol. 337. to restore the faln faculties in men Some of them as Peters walking on the Waters by the helping-hand of Christ did shadow forth the giving of auxiliary Grace to Saints to keep them from sinking under Temptations As the external Miracles were wrought by the Power and Spirit of God so are the internal also When a blind mind is irradiated there is a word of Power such as at first commanded light out of darkness When a dead sinner is raised up to a Divine Life the Glory of God may be seen in it even as it was upon Lazarus's coming out of the Grave Now that we may see some Rays of this glorious Power several things are to be considered by us First of all let us look upon the state of the World as it was at our Saviours coming The world was made up of Jews and Gentiles both of them were not only tainted with Original sin but deeply corrupted with Actual out of both God would raise up a Church to himself to make the Power of his Grace known The Jews once Gods special People were now desperately degenerate blindness was upon them notwithstanding that Rabbinical learning was at the height in the Schools of Hillel and Shammai they interpreted the holy Scriptures as the Vail upon their hearts would let them in a very gross carnal manner as if they had lost all savour of things Divine and Spiritual Thus the establishing the mountain of the Lords house in the top of the mountains Isa 2.2 is with one of them the bringing of Tabor and Carmel and setting Jerusalem upon the top of them Buxt Syn. c. 10. The calling the sabbath a delight Isa 58.13 is to eat and drink and indulge their genius They made the Sacred Law whose primary aim was at the heart to bind only the outward Man According to their corrupt gloss there was no Murder but what purpled the hand with blood nor no Adultery but what was in the gross Act evil thoughts and purposes were not so much as peccadillo's neither did God take notice of them so as to punish for them A thought or purpose of sacriledg in Antiochus was nothing with Josephus regarding or seeing iniquity in the heart was nothing with David Kimchi as appears by his gloss upon the 66th Psalm Thus the Law was dispirited and strip't of its Divinity Religion went off from its Center the heart to paint and varnish over the outward Man Sin might reign and do what it would within so as it did not break out and profane the Life Having thus humbled the Law according to their own Model they stood upon their Terms with God they would establish their own Righteousness though it were a poor cadaverous thing without any Divine Life or Spirit in it yet they would prop it up and make it stand before God they were full of their own Righteousness and compleat in themselves they looked only for a Temporal Messiah one who by his outward greatness might subdue their Enemies and feast them in the holy Land A spiritual Saviour they expected not neither could it be thought according to their Principles what such an one should do for them As for his suffering or dying for them they jested at it as an horrible absurdity saying Tobias deliquit Weems of the Jew sigog plectitur their own Temporal death was expiation enough for all their sins Hence the sick man was to pray thus Buxt Syn. c. 35. Sit mors mea expiatio pro omnibus peccatis meis As for regenerating-Grace to be procured for them they dream't of no Regeneration but a ritual one The baptized Proselyte was accounted by them as recens natus one new-born The sick man having but his name changed was esteemed as nova creatura a new creature As for Eternal life they thought they could earn it by their own Works In none of these respects would the pride of their hearts suffer them to see any need of a Spiritual Saviour Further they advanced their Traditions above the written Word their Talmud is Lux illa magna that great light Isa 9.2 it is fundamentum legis the
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-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
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
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
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
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
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
swallowed up in weakness Let him come down from the Cross and we will believe him Matth. 27.42 as if without a fresh Miracle all his holy Doctrines would vanish into nothing The Jews who were for Signs stumbled and fell in the midst of those glorious Miracles which he wrought among them The Greeks who were for Wisdom saw nothing but foolishness in the midst of the divine Mysteries which he brought down out of his Fathers Bosom A crucified Christ look'd like a spectacle of weakness and folly But here the divine Wisdom appears in that as the Apostle hath it The foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God stronger than men This crucified Christ shall attract a Church out of the corrupt Mass of mankind the foolishness of Preaching shall do it The Plato's or Aristotles of the World shall not be employed in the work no there shall be only Piscatoria simplicitas a few Fishermen shall catch men and draw them home unto God to the effectually called this despised Christ shall be the power and wisdom of God The divine Spirit merited by him shall endue them with a wisdom much higher than that of Nature and Philosophy and cloathe them with a power to make them live above all the hopes and fears of this World Death the last Enemy which had devoured so much humane flesh did not spare that Sacred portion which was assumed into the Son of God but in his death Death it self was swallowed up in Victory It passes indeed upon all men but when it comes to a Believer it lays by its sting and becomes only a passage into life Eternal To conclude In all these Conquests we may see one Contrary brought out of another Life out of Death Power out of Weakness a Blessing out of a Curse and a Victory out of Sufferings which speaks no less than an admirable contrivance therein These appearances of Divine Wisdom naturally teach us humility of mind Humane Reason is indeed in its own Orb an excellent Light but a greater than it the Reason of God himself comes forth to us in supernatural Mysteries to make us sit down at his feet for Instruction Nothing can be more just and purely rational than for our Intellect being finite to be subject to the infinite Truth and being lighted up by God to do homage to its great Original It 's true ever since man tasted of the Tree of Knowledg his Reason hath had a malignant pride in it of a Minister it would be a Lord over our Faith assuming the Magisterial Chair it would fall a-judging Divine Mysteries it would comprehensively span them within it self and what could not be so comprized it would out of enmity cast away as spurious This in the issue hath so far as it hath prevailed desperately overturned all Faith in the act and in the object in the act for to believe a thing because I can comprehend it is not faith in God but trusting in my own heart not a sealing to his Veracity but a subscribing to my own Sagacity Hence the learned Maresius saith of the Socinians That they have manus oculatas hands with eyes in them that only do they believe which they see they will trust God no further than they see him Also in the Object this hath been very subversive to the Gospel In the Pagan Philosophers whose Motto was Soli rationi cedo it cast away Christ crucified as foolishness and the Gospel as an absurd Fable it reflected on Christians as meer Simpletons men of an easie and irrational faith hence that jeer of Cato Stultitia est morte alterius sperare salutem it 's folly to hope for salvation in the death of another In the Socinians whose Rule is Nihil credi potest quod a ratione nequeat capi nothing can be believed which cannot be comprehended by Reason it hath blown up the fundamental Articles of Christianity the sacred Trinity to them is a contradiction the Hypostatical Union an irrational repugnancy the Satisfaction of Christ a contumely to Gods grace and in all this they do but build a Tower a Name to their own Reason and as a just punishment in the doing of it they fall into confusion and inconsistencies Mar. Hydra Tom. 2.460 Sometimes they make the Law to exact a more perfect obedience than the Gospel Sometimes the Gospel to call for a more accurate righteousness than the Law To evert Satisfaction they lift up Grace but to elevate Free-will they depress it They own a God yet deny his Prescience they say Christ is but a creature yet they worship him Thus that great thing Reason falling from the supreme Truth becomes a forlorn spectacle of vanity In a kind of self-splendor it goes out in the darkness of errour and confusion But now to humble our minds it is of excellent use to consider the divine Wisdom which is so much above us When our Reason stands by sense it hath a noble stature and greatness but as soon as it turns about to infinite Wisdom it perceives a greater Presence than it self and must in all reason confess it self a little spark a very Nothing in comparison It cannot step out into the sphere of Nature but it finds matter of humility being true to it self it can do no less than say that it is everywhere posed and nonplust It is not able rationally to stand under the secrets of Nature much more must it stoop and do reverence before such a Mystery as that is God manifest in the flesh in which the transcendent Mystery amazes us and the unparallel'd Pattern draws us into humility Thither must we come or else turn Infidels and allow Reason for a Deity saying with Seneca Quid aliud voces animam quà m Deum in humano corpore hospitantem What is the rational Soul but God dwelling in flesh a kind of Christ or rather Antichrist This I am sure Christian ears cannot bear But a little more to demonstrate how necessary a thing humility of mind is let us consider Reason in a three-fold state then it will appear that Reason in its Integrity could not find out supernatural Mysteries in its Fall cannot spiritually know them and lastly in the irradiations of Faith cannot comprehend them 1. Reason in its Integrity could not find them out The pure primitive light in Adam could dive into the secrets of Nature but it could not reach such a Mysterie as that of the sacred Trinity which is the fundamental center of Christian Religion He could name the creatures and that significantly to their natures but that Question What is his sons name Prov. 30.4 would have been too hard for him There are say the School-men some obscure Images of the Trinity in the Volume of Nature but they were found out à posteriori and not to be read till after Revelation and how should humane Reason dictate in those things which it could not find out or know any thing from it self when it hath
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
present evil one The Philosophers with all their Arts and Eloquence could not decoy them from supernatural Mysteries or induce them to take up their repose in humane Learning or Wisdom The whole World was annihilated to them and they unto themselves they became fools that they might be wise and Nothing that God might be All the Ornaments and Self-excellencies were put off that they might be compleat in Christ They lay at Gods feet for Mercy and lived in a continual dependance upon the influences of his Spirit and Grace In such a work as this the Arm of God must needs be revealed in a very eminent manner Here we have just cause to say What hath God wrought The Divine Power will yet more appear if we look upon the instruments in this Work In making the World there were none at all no Leavers or Engines to rear up the great Fabrick An Almighty word absolved it in converting it instruments were used but such that by the no-proportion between them and the great effect it might appear that the Power was of God only He sent not the glorious Angels to Preach up a crucified Christ but Men. The treasure was in Earthen-vessels in poor frail Mortals who carried about bodies of Clay That the excellency of the power might be of God 2 Cor. 4.7 that it might be clearly seen that the great Work was Gods Among men he sent not the Anshe Shem Persons of Renown for Learning or Wisdom but mean illiterate men Hence the Apostle saith God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise and the weak things of the world to confound the mighty 1 Cor. 1.27 that the Divine Power might appear in the Work These mean men preached not with excellency of speech or wisdom 1 Cor. 2.1 with the charms of Eloquence or the pomp of humane Wisdom but with plain words their Preaching was look't upon as foolishness That salvation should be by a crucified Christ seemed foolish that it should be communicated by Preaching Sclat in Pools Synop. seemed more foolish that it should be done by Preaching in a low simple plain manner seemed most foolish of all Yet in this way it was that Christ would ride conquering and to conquer the World to himself The great success of their Preaching was a signal proof that God was with them of a truth At Peters first Sermon three thousand souls were converted unto God Act. 2.41 and at his second they were encreased to five thousand Act. 4.4 multitudes of Believers came in to Christianity In a little time the Gospel was propagated over a great part of the World one Paul spread it from Jerusalem to Illyricum And what did all the rest of the Apostles who carried about this Evangelical light do What did the seventy Disciples do who as Ecclesiastical Writers say had their several Provinces to Preach the Gospel in The word did then run and was glorified it passed through many Countries with a Divine swiftness and success at the sound of the Gospel the World was spiritually turned upside down and of Pagan became Christian Tertullian enumerates divers Nations and at last adds touching us Britannorum inaccessa Romanis loca Christo tamen subdita sunt the Evangelical Power entred there where the Roman could not By such weak means to produce so great an effect was a work worthy of Omnipotence Moreover the Divine Power will yet more appear if we consider the things proposed in the Gospel Narces the Roman-General discontented at the Empress Sophia to invite the Lombards into Italy sent them many sorts of excellent fruits from thence The Present being congruous to sense the project took effect The Gospel indeed proposes very excellent things to us But they are so great and so far above humane Nature that the proposal if not accompanied with a Divine Power would have been altogether ineffectual I shall instance in two or three things 1. It proposes super-rational Mysteries such as the Doctrine of the Sacred Trinity The Incarnation of the Son of God The Satisfaction made to Justice by his Blood These are objects of Faith and so depend one upon another that unless we believe the Trinity we cannot believe the Incarnation and unless we believe that we cannot believe a Satisfaction and without believing that we cannot fulfil the condition of the Gospel which requires us to rest upon Christ for salvation These therefore are necessary objects of Faith but without an Act of Divine Power Faith in these cannot be had Two things evidence this the one is ex parte objecti the things are above Reason As the things of Reason are above Sense so the things of Faith are above Reason without a Revelation Reason could not have found out these Mysteries after it Reason cannot comprehend them It may shadow them out by similitudes but there is in them a light unapproachable such as Reason cannot look into an infinite Abyss such as Reason cannot measure The other is ex parte subjecti man who is to believe these things is fallen and in his fall not one or two faculties fell but all of them and among the rest his intellectual and believing faculties fell also The intellect hath lost its subjection to God the Supreme Truth The believing faculty centers in the Creature and without the Power of Grace cannot lift up it self to supernatural Truths A Divine Power is requisite to captivate the understanding to the first Truth to elevate the believing faculty to super-rational Mysteries Hence in Scripture Faith is called the Gift and Work of God such an one as is the product of Divine Power it is wrought by Power Eph. 1.19 it is fulfilled and consummated by Power 1 Thes 1.11 it is stiled the spirit of faith 2 Cor. 4.13 It is not from our own spirit but Gods outwardly revealing the mysterious object in Scripture and inwardly inlightning and elevating the heart to entertain it Hence Fulgentius compares the production of Faith in the heart Carnem illam nec concipere Virgo posset nec parere nisi ejusdem carnis Spiritus Sanctus operaretur exortum in hominis corde nec concipi sides poterit nec augeri nisi eam Spiritus Sanctus infundat nutrint ex eodem Spiritu venati sumus ex spuo natus est Christus Fulg. de Incar cap. 20. with the conception of Christ in the Virgins Womb both are by one and the same Spirit Christ is no less formed in the heart by it than his flesh was in the Virgin It is therefore a work of Power to raise up the mind of man to believe those supernatural Mysteries which are far above it self 2. It proposes super-moral Virtues It would have us to be humble and deny our selves To sanctifie the Lord in our hearts To have a love for his Goodness a fear for his Majesty and Greatness a faith for his Truth and Mercy a sincerity for his all-seeing eye and such a posture of soul
that the inward affections and motions may in an holy manner answer and correspond to one Divine Attribute or other It calls upon us to have internal purity to indulge no lust no not in a thought to baulk never an holy Duty to love our very Enemies and overcome evil with good These I call super-moral because they are above the Power of Nature Meer Moral Virtues may spring out of the Principles of improved Nature but these do not do so The Philosophers those improvers of Nature and Masters of Morality never arrived at them They were so far from humility and self-denial that Pride was their temper and Self their center Their splendid Virtues did not glance only but directly look at vain-glory They did not sanctifie God in their hearts but set up their own Reason taking it not in its own place as a Minister of God but abstractively from him they turned it into an Idol and sacrificed unto it in their virtuous actions doing them as congruous to Reason but not in respect to God who inspired it or to his Will which was declared in it or to his Glory which was to be promoted by it They would talk of internal purity but were indeed strangers to it Internal corruption was no burden to them Regenerating-grace no desire They dissembled and complied with the outward Idols of the place where they lived and within in the secret of the heart they had their Idols and indulged lusts Socrates had immoral impure corruptions Zeno and Chrysippus allowed unnatural lust Seneca was in-insatiably covetous In the very best of them sensual sins were but swallowed up of spiritual The beauty in their life was but to gratifie the pride in their heart they knew nothing touching love to Enemies Vltion looked like a piece of natural Justice Cicero tells us Justitiae primum munus est ut ne cui noceat nisi lacessitus injuriâ they thought that upon injury they might revenge or if revenge might be forborn they little thought of love to Enemies Nature we see cannot ascend above it self nor produce these Evangelical Virtues the Divine Power and Spirit must do it Hence they are called the virtues of God 1 Pet. 2.9 as being far above the virtues of men and the fruits of the Spirit Gal. 5.22 as being produced by a spirit and power much higher than that of Man Without a Divine Power it is not imaginable how such excellent Virtues should ever be found in the heart of poor fallen Creatures 3. It proposes super-mundane Rewards which are no attractives to a carnal heart unless it be elevated unto them by the Power of Grace This plainly appears by comparing the heavenly Rewards and the earthly Man together The Rewards are at a great distance from sense They lye in another world The treasure is in Heaven The recompence is above A red Sea of death is to be passed through before we can come at it The Man to whom the tender is made is earthly carnal living by sense wrapt in the vail of time one like the infirm Woman in the Gospel who is bowed together and can in no wise lift up himself no not to a Heaven of Glory and Blessedness freely offered unto him He hangs in the Clay of one earthly thing or other and by bonds of strong Concupiscence is fastned to this lower world and which is a prodigy in an immortal soul he loves to be so and thinks that it is good being here A little Earth with him is better than Heaven Sensual pleasures out-relish the pure Rivers above O how unfit is such a man to close in with such a reward How much work must be done to make him capable of it The man must be un-earthed and unbound from this lower world The concupiscential strings which tye him thereunto must be cut that his soul may have a free ascent towards Heaven A precious faith must be raised up that this world may appear such as it is a shadow a figure a nothing to make man happy that Heaven with its beatitudes may be realized and presentiated to the mind A Divine Temper must be wrought that he may be able to rent off the Vail of time and take a prospect of Eternity to put by all the World and look into Heaven He must be a pilgrim on Earth living by Faith walking in Holiness every step preparing for and breathing after the heavenly Countrey He must pray work strive wrestle watch wait serve God instantly and all this to be rewarded in another world without such a Temper Heaven will signifie nothing and without a Divine Power such a Temper cannot be had Hence St. Peter tells us That God hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible 1 Pet. 1.3 4. The lively hope which takes hold upon the great Reward is not from the Power of Nature no 't is from a Divine Generation 't is an heavenly touch from Christ risen and sitting at the right hand of Majesty from thence to do Spiritual Miracles as upon Earth he did Corporal Hence St. Paul argues If you be risen with Christ seek those things which are above Col. 3.1 The natural man dead in sin cannot seek them only those who are spiritual and risen with Christ can do it It is therefore from the Divine Power and Spirit that men naturally carnal and earthly are made capable of closing with the heavenly and supernal Rewards which are tendred in the Gospel The Power of God being so gloriously revealed how humble should our minds be How should our Reason kneel and bow down before such a Mystery as that God manifest in the flesh There was a pattern of humility in the Condescension of it and withal there was matter of Adoration in the Mystery Presume not O man to measure Divine Mysteries by thy Reason which bears not so much proportion to them as a little shell doth to the great Ocean Remember thy Reason is short and finite The Mysteries are deep and infinite If God could not work above the measure of Man he would cease to be God If Mysteries were not above the line of Reason they would cease to be Mysteries When these are before thee do as an Ancient advises 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bring forth thy Faith subject thy intellect to the Supreme Truth captivate thy thoughts to Scripture humbly adore and confess That the Lord doth great things and unsearchable marvelous things without number Job 5.9 This is the way to have knowledg and establishment like the pious Man in Gerson whose certainty in Articles of Faith was not from Reason or Demonstration but from humiliation and illumination a montibus aeternis The Socinians who in intellectual pride do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fight against God and supernatural Truths lose themselves and the Mystery together But the humble soul who subjects his Reason to God and his Truth is rooted in Faith and
from the fountain of light Leaving the first Truth it wanders and loses it self in a wilderness of Errors Forgetting its great Original it gropes in the dark about the Supreme End and cannot of it self find the dore to true happiness It doth and that by a singular priviledg above other creatures know its Maker and yet in an unreasonable manner it turns away from him and seeks an happiness in the lower World or at best in it self It should like the Celestial bodies move circularly and after a survey of all creatures return back to the same point from whence it came which is the bosom of God himself and yet it flies away from him and makes its nest in one Creature-vanity or other It hath a natural and indelible instinct after happiness and perpetually cryes out Who will shew us any good And yet it is not able so much as by a holy thought to aspire after the great Blessedness set forth before it in the Gospel Heavy things descend by a right line to their center Brutes hasten to those things which are congruous and convenient to their natures Only Man though endowed far above these with Reason and Liberty falls short and misses the mark Pure Precepts excellent Promises heavenly Mysteries are set before him in the Gospel yet without a supernatural illumination he cannot perceive or receive them at most he sees them only in the image or picture of the Letter but not in their liveliness and spiritual glory a form or shell of knowledg he may have but he doth not tast or savour the sweetness of them And all this because his Reason though active enough in naturals is in spirituals but as an eye without an optick faculty dark nay darkness it self The Will though its proper object be good turns away from God who is Goodness it self and seeks its chief good somewhere else It opens it self in a free choice to every vanity that passes by yet is it shut to God and all the offers of grace forsaking God the Fountain of Liberty it becomes an arrant Slave and Drudg to sin and which is wonderfully prodigious it is in love with its chains and loth to be made free indeed All the goodness in God Christ Heaven Blessedness outwardly proposed move it not to stir a foot towards such attracting objects still it hangs in vanity and lyes upon the dunghill of the world and rowls it self in the mire of one lust or other It hath an enmity against God who made it free it would be above his Will who is Supreme rather than its inordinate lusts should be restrained it would have God cease to be There is in every man De Civit. l. 14. cap. 28. as St. Austin speaks Amor sui usque ad contemptum Dei a love of himself even to the contempt of God The Affections are all vain earthly carnal mutinous against reason insomuch that they by an unnatural violence depose it and so unman the man Hence he becomes as the beasts that perish The Reason saith this or that is good but the Affections repugn and resist The Soul is paralytick Reason moves to the right hand Affection to the left and carries all before it Hence that saying Video meliora proboque deteriora sequor The Affections which primitively were servants to Reason are now upon the Throne Reason though once a Royal Prince is dethroned and become servile That which is the glory of our nature and proves us to be men that is hurried up and down by the rude rabble of lusts and malapert passions This being the natural frame and temper of man let us sit down and consider Was it thus from the beginning Was humane nature such in the first impression Did God put his Reason under a Cloud or his Will into chains and servitude Was it from God that the one turns away from the first truth and the other from the chief good Did God put into man an instinct after happiness in vain or inspire into him an immortal spirit that it might creep upon the earth and pour out it self to every vanity Did God create man at variance with himself and at first set up that unnatural intestine war which is between the rational and sensitive powers Was it his pleasure that the inferior faculties in man should contumaciously reluct against the superior or that the superior should basely serve the inferior Without doubt it cannot be God is light purity Wisdom it self these things are darkness corruption ataxy and cannot be from him No other account can be given of them but this That they are the bruises of the fall the wounds of corrupt nature 3. No man who looks abroad into the World can with any colour oppose this truth The millions of actual sins which as a mighty deluge overspread the world are as so many pregnant proofes of that original pravity which is in us In the old world all flesh had corrupted its way Gen. 6.12 Afterwards all nations walked in their own ways Acts 14.16 That is in sinful ones sin is the course of the world Ephes 2.2 It is the element and proper ubi of it the whole world lies in it 1 Joh. 5.19 And whence is it that sin is so universal that iniquity abounds in all times and places Our Saviour opens the bloody fountain of it Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts murders adulteries fornications thefts false-witness blasphemies Matt. 15.19 All these black troops of wickedness issue out from the corrupt heart of man the inherent pravity which is there is seminally all the monsters of vice The Apostle Paul proving all under sin doth thus describe the corrupt estate of men There is none righteous no not one There is none that understandeth none that seeketh after God They are all gone out of the way they are together become unprofitable there is none that doeth good no not one Their throat is an open sepulcher with their tongues they have used deceit the poison of asps is under their lips Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness Their feet are swift to shed blood Destruction and misery are in their ways The way of peace have they not known There is no fear of God before their eyes Rom. 3. Here the Apostle paints out corrupt nature not that all men actually do these things but that there is in every one even from their infancy a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an universal seminary of iniquity a venemous root of all actual sins In this respect the description appertains to all even to little infants and the scope of the Text requires that it should be so interpreted for before this description the Apostle tells us that all are under sin vers 9 and after it that every mouth is stopped that all the world is guilty before God that by the deeds of the law no flesh shall be justified in his sight vers 19 20 and afterwards that all have sinned and come short of the
hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light Col. 1.12 The first rise of Grace is in the bosom of eternal love the appearance of it in men is in supernatural gifts the period and center of it is in the Glory of Heaven Two things in this point of Grace offer themselves to our consideration the freeness of Grace and the Divine efficacy of it First The freeness of Grace is to be considered and that in two or three particulars 1. It is of Free-Grace that all mankind doth not eternally perish in the ruines of the fall That there is a possibility of Salvation for any one Son of Adam When the Angels sinned but one sin God turned them down into chains of darkness for ever Might he not in justice have dealt so with fallen men He was not bound to repair the Angels those golden Vessels once inmates of Heaven and who can who dares conceive such a thought That he was bound to repair men who are but Images of clay dwelling in the lower World I know many differences are assigned Man sinned by seduction Devils by self-motion in the fall of Man all the human nature fell in the fall of Angels all the Angelical nature fell not The sin of Angels was more damnable than Mans because their nature was more sublime than his Men are capable of repentance but Devils not because whatever they once choose they do will immovably But alas all these are but extra-Scriptural conjectures Man though tempted was voluntary in the transgression all men were involved in the fall but that 's no apology for the sin The sin of Man if not so high as that of Angels was yet a damnable one It is a vain dream to suppose that Almighty Grace could not have wrought a gracious change in Devils That which differences us from them is as the Scripture tells us no other than the meer Grace and Philanthropy of God towards us he might justly have left us under that wrath which our apostacy deserved Two things will make this evident 1. Original sin which reaches to all is properly sin and being such merits no less than eternal death We all sinned in Adams sin by that one man sin entred into the world The disobedience of that one constituted all sinners which unless it had been imputatively theirs it could never have done The want of Original righteousness is properly sin because it is the want of that which ought to be in us it ought to be in us because the pure spiritual Law calls for an holy frame of heart it ought to be in us or else we are not fallen creatures but are as we ought to be If it ought to be in us then the want of it is properly sin The Apostle proving that all are sinners and short of the Glory of God tells us That there is none righteous no not one none that understandeth none that seeketh after God They are all gone out of the way They are together become unprofitable There is no fear of God before their eyes Rom. 3. Which words denote a want of that habitual righteousness which ought to be in all even in little Infants That want is sin else the Apostle could not from thence conclude That all Infants not excepted have sinned and come short of the glory of God To want habitual righteousness which ought to be in us is to be sinners and short of our original That original concupiscence which is in all is properly sin it is over and over called sin in Scripture it is the root and black fountain of all impiety it is opposite to the Law and Spirit of God it impels to all sin it fights against all graces and particularly against that of love to God where the creature is inordinately loved there God is not loved with all the heart and Soul These things make it appear That Original sin is properly sin and if so it merits no less than death eternal The Scripture abundantly testifieth this The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 6.23 In which we have a double Antithesis Wages is opposed to Gift and eternal Death to eternal Life By one man sin entred into the world and death by sin Rom. 5.12 Not meer infelicity but sin entred not meer temporal death but eternal followed upon it Hence the Apostle tells us That there was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 judgment unto condemnation and that upon all men vers 16 and 18. We are by nature children of wrath even as others Eph. 2.3 He doth not say by practise or custom but by nature we are Children of wrath that is worthy of it Nature as corrupted is here opposed to Grace which as the Text after speaks saves us wrath appertains to nature salvation to grace This one Text is as a stroke of Lightning * Hoc uno verbo quasi fulmine totus homo quantus quantus est prosternitur Bez. in Loc. to lay all men flat and prostrate before God even little Infants being unclean in themselves cannot if unregenerate stand at Gods right hand and enter into the holy Heavens they must therefore stand at his left and go into darkness Hence St. Austin †Finge Pelagiane locum ex officina perversi doginaâ—is tui ubi alieni a Christi gratia vitam requiei gloriae possidere parvuli possint Aust Hyp. l. 5. tells the Pelagians who denied Original sin That they must forge out of their Shop of Heresy a middle place for such Infants as are Aliens from the Grace of Christ If Infants are unregenerate they cannot enter Heaven the place of bliss If as the Pelagians say they are free from sin they cannot go to Hell the place of misery Tertium ignoramus A third place I know not nor can find any such in Scripture They are therefore subject to eternal death for their Original sin The sum of this Argument we have in Anselm Si originale peccatum sit aliquod peccatum De conc Virg. cap. 27. necesse est omnem in eo natum in illo non dimisso damnari If Original sin be sin it is necessary that every one born in it should be condemned for it unless it be pardoned it being impossible that any one should be saved so much as with one unremitted sin If Original sin be indeed sin and do merit death eternal then God may justly inflict that death for it seeing he cannot be unjust in doing an act of justice in inflicting that punishment which is due to sin 2. As on Mans part there is a merit of eternal death so on Gods the mission of Christ to save us was an act of meer Grace This is set forth in Scripture God commended his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us Rom. 5.8 In this was manifested the love of God towards us because he sent
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
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
Grace that he doth so The willing and believing are voluntary acts in regard of mans will but acts of power in regard of Gods Spirit which touches and moves the heart thereunto It may be thought by some that there needs no expence of power towards willing and believing that a power of willing and believing is enough for us But should God give us only a power to will and believe and leave the rest to our will we have great reason to think that we should all do as innocent Adam did fall from God and never reduce that power into act The Divine Principles in Adam were pure and without mixture but the power of believing and willing in us hath in the same heart where it dwells an Inmate of corruption which continually counter-works it In innocency the temptation stood without a-courting the senses but after the fall it makes nearer approaches as having a party within ready to open and betray every faculty To me it looks like a proud thought for any to imagine that under such a disparity he could act his part better than Adam did If then the foundation of God must stand if the election must obtain if Christ must have a seed if the Spirit must have a temple it is no less than necessary that the power of Grace should secure that willing and believing without which those high and great designs of Heaven cannot take effect 3. There is an efficacy of Grace as to perseverance in Faith and Holiness Perseverance wherever it is is from Grace The inherent Graces in the Saints are but creatures no creature no not the most spiritual doth or can preserve it self All depend upon their Original in their being and duration hence as St. Jerom observes God is always a-working Ad Ctesiph cap. 3. always a-giving Non mihi sufficit saith he quod semel donavit nisi semper donaverit It is not enough for me that he once give unless he always do so Hence that of St. Austin Non ita se debet homo ad Dominum convertere ut cum ab eo fact us fuerit justus De Gen. ad Lit. lib. 8.12 abscedat sed it a ut ab illo semper siat Man ought not to convert to God that being made just he might depart from him but that he might be always made just by him The Physician heals and departs but God doth not do so he is still a-healing and new-making us by the continual spirations of his Spirit and Grace that we may persevere unto the end Were not perseverance from Grace there could be no such thing as a life of Faith it would be utterly needless to hang upon Promises or to look up for influences of Grace or with David to pray that God would keep the good frame in the heart or hold up our goings in his paths Perseverance being from our selves we may center and safely lye down there We may say as Laodicea We are rich and have need of nothing no not of God the Fountain of Grace We may do what St. Jerom charges on the Pelagians that is Ad Ctes cap. 3. bid God depart he is no more necessary to us It 's true he gave us a stock of power and free-will but now we can stand upon our own bottom all is in our own hand there is no room for a life of faith no nor for any true gratitude for our standing in Grace De Civ lib. 12. cap. 9. It is St. Austins observation That the Angels who stood were amplius adjuti more helped than those who fell therefore they cast down their Crowns before God ascribing their standing not to themselves but to Grace Should they do what they cannot do ascribe it to themselves they could not be thankful In like manner holy men who persevere attribute nothing to themselves but all to Grace Ad Ctes cap. 3 Quodcunque in suo rivulo fluit as St. Jerom speaks ad fontem refert Whatever flows in his rivulet he refers to the great fountain that he faulters and lapses is of his own that he stands and perseveres is of Grace Were it not so the praise and glory should be ascribed not to God but to our selves which would be to turn Gratitude into Presumption The Graces of the Saints may be considered in the act or in the habit The acts have their too frequent pauses and interruptions but the habit the vital principle is a seed of immortality and never dyes In the saddest falls of a Saint it may be said of him as it was of Eutychus His life is in him He that is born of God doth not commit sin nay he cannot sin 1 Joh. 3.9 Doubtless he can sin sins of infirmity nay and gross sins too as appears in the falls of David and Peter but he cannot sin so as totally to unframe the new-creature and lay himself in an unregenerate state This is clear by the reasons in the Text For his seed remaineth in him and he is born of God Could he by sin extinguish the very principles of Grace he might sin to all intents and purposes contrary to the express letter of the text nay and his seed might not remain and he might ceafe to be born of God contrary to the reasons in the text If the Divine seed and birth do not preserve him from regnant sin such as would overthrow him it preserves him from no sin at all the text and reason are altogether insignificant But if as the text and truth is it preserves him from regnant sin then the Divine Principles are not extinguished when he falls into sin The habits of Grace may be considered meerly in themselves or in their dependence In themselves they are but defectible creatures and might totally fail their being is not from themselves no more is their duration in their dependance they cannot possibly fail because they are supported by somewhat greater than themselves Remarkable is the difference between the case of Adam and that of believers in Adam one act of sin expelled perfect holiness so that upon the fall there was not left in him so much as the least relick of sanctity or spark of spiritual life he and after him all his posterity became spiritually dead in sin not in part only for then the new-creature should be new but in part but totally every thing in fallen man wants quickening But in believers not one not many sins are able to drive out the principles of Grace though those principles are imperfect in themselves and dwell together with much inherent corruption yet are they not driven out and the reason of this difference is Adam had the stock of holiness in his own hands but the graces of the believers depend upon somewhat greater than themselves Now touching this Dependence I shall lay down three or four things 1. The Graces of Saints depend upon Election though Election be in it self from all eternity yet it buds and blossoms in
crucified for us neither did it satisfie Justice on our behalf it is therefore Faith in its object that is Christ's Righteousness which justifies us against the Law that Faith which is counted for Righteousness is that which establishes the Law Vers 31. and that Establishment Faith makes not in it self but in its object Christ's Righteousness which established the Law by satisfying of it Faith therefore and its object must be taken together Hence the Apostle who mentions the Imputation of Faith Ver. 5. in the 4. Chapter mentions also the Imputation of Righteousness Ver. 6. It 's true both are but one in sence but in words the latter expresses the object of Faith as the former doth the Act Thus as I said before Faith in Conjunction with its object takes in the whole of Justification and then the after-words quoted out of the Psalm touching Remission do not describe the Imputation of Righteousness in its proper Nature but in its blessed Fruit viz. Pardon of sin which is not properly our Righteousness but a consequent upon it Another place is this Through this Man is preached unto you the Forgiveness of sin and by him all that believe are justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the Law of Moses Acts 13.38 39. Here it seems that what is called Remission in the first verse is called Justification in the next but I take it they are not the same in the 38. Ver. We have Remission in the offer or tender of the Gospel in the 39. we have Justification actual as it is in the Believer So they are not the same Justification here is not Remission but Justification by Sacrifice Justification by Christ's Sacrifice is opposed to Justification by the Legal ones Justification by these was typical and but in some cases the Law not allowing a Sacrifice in all but Justification by that is real and in all cases where Faith is not wanting here therefore Justification and Remission are not the same Another place is Luke 18. when the Publican penitentially prayed for Pardon God be merciful to me a Sinner he went home justified Vers 13 14. Justified is the same with Pardoned I answer This place shews that Justification follows upon true Repentance but not that Justification and Pardon are the same the Satisfaction of Christ justifies a Sinner a Pardon only frees him from punishment To name but one place more The Free-gift is of many offences to justification Rom 5.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Free-gift seems here to import Pardon as if Pardon and Justification were all one To this I answer The Apostle in this famous place sets down a Parallel between the two Heads Adam and Christ Adam's Sin and Christ's Righteousness Adam's Sin making us Sinners unto death and Christ's Righteousness making us righteous unto Life But the word Pardon or Remission is not so much as once named in all the Parallel by the Free-gift Vers 16. is not meant Remission but Christ's Righteousness This is clear upon a double account the one is this The Free-gift is opposed to Adam's sin and that which in this Parallel is opposed to Adam's sin must needs be Christ's Righteousness this appears throughout the whole Parallel in the 15 16. Vers Adam's Sin and the Free-gift are opposed in the 18. Vers Adam's Offence and Christ's Righteousness are opposed in the 19. Vers Adam's Disobedience and Christ's Obedience are opposed Hence it appears that what is the Free-gift in the 15 and 16. Vers is the Righteousness or Obedience of Christ in the 18. 19. Vers neither indeed can the Parallel stand if any other thing than Christ's Righteousness should be opposed to Adam's sin The other is this these words The Free-gift are put instead of Christ's Righteousness or Obedience this appears in that where the one is mentioned the other is omitted in the 15 16 17. Vers The Free-gift is mentioned but the Righteousness or Obedience of Christ is omitted in the 18 and 19. Vers the Righteousness and Obedience of Christ is mentioned but the Free-gift is omitted Indeed in our Translation we have the Free-gift Vers 18. but not in the Original Hence it appears that they are the same I suppose that in the 18. Vers should be otherwise supplied Thus it appears that the Free-gift is not Pardon Having seen the most material Texts I shall observe one thing more Justification is set forth in such a way in Scripture that it must needs be distinct from Pardon It is set forth so that the Law is established by it Rom. 3.31 but the Law is not established by a Pardon but by a Satisfaction You will say Our Pardon is upon a Satisfaction but if that Satisfaction do not justifie us if it be no Ingredient in our Justification then in our Justification the Law is not established as the Apostle speaks Justification is set forth so that the Righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in us Rom. 8.4 But the Righteousness of the Law is not fulfilled in a Pardon neither is it fulfilled in our imperfect though sincere Obedience The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is as Aristotle saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eth. l. 5. cap. 7. Correctio injuriae Satisfaction for the injured Law but nothing is such but Christ's Righteousness The Apostle in the precedent Verse saith That sin was condemned in the Flesh of Christ and of this there is a double Fruit first Justification The Righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in us that is Christ's Satisfaction becomes imputatively ours and then Sanctification we walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit This Interpretation harmonizes with the first Verse ther first we have Justification There is no Condemnation to them who are in Christ and then Sanctification We walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit as therefore Christ's Righteousness is the only thing which satisfies the Law so it is the only justifying matter against it Justification is so set forth that the Law hath its end Thus the Apostle Christ is the end of the Law for Righteousness to the Believer Rom. 10.4 as he is the end of the Law so he is for Righteousness he is not the end of the Law in a procured pardon but in a Satisfaction made and applied Justification therefore consists not in a Pardon but in a Satisfaction applied and made ours by Imputation Thus far out of Scripture Secondly Justification cannot be without a Righteousness that God who judgeth according to truth who is Just and a Justifyer doth not esteem or pronounce us righteous unless we are so a pardon is not our Righteousness for that is God's Act and God's Act though it may make or esteem us righteous is not it self our Righteousness neither is that which a pardon gives viz. an immunity from punishment such an immunity from punishment which is ex merâ indulgentiâ as in the case of a pardoned Malefactor is not such the Malefactor
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
way into the Holy of Holies into the Glory and Immortality there Notwithstanding all this without Repenting there is nothing but perishing without Holiness there is no seeing of God A life after the flesh must end in death The divine Justice and Law which was fully satisfied in Christ will seize upon rebellious sinners and ask a second Satisfaction as if there had been none before the divine hatred of sin which was so signally evident in the sufferings of Christ will appear again in their utter ruin and destruction Things are so knit together that Holiness must be necessary to make us happy Christ is a Saviour and a Lord too where he saves from Hell there he rules in the pure ways towards Heaven His blood and Spirit are ever in Conjunction if the one deliver from Guilt and Wrath the other subdues sin and implants Holiness Promises and Precepts which are intermixed in the Word must be both taken together into the heart where the latter hath not obedience the former can minister no comfort True Faith receives an entire Christ as it rests upon his Merits and Righteousness so it subjects to his Spirit and Word in all things That hope of Heaven which purifies not is indeed a Prefumption and not an Hope a Cobweb hanging in a vain heart and not an Anchor sure and stedfast entring into that within the Vail God out of love to Holiness hath linked it in with Christ Promises Faith Heaven and Salvation that no man can or may enjoy the one without the other till Christ can be divided his Sacrifice from his Scepter till Promises can be rent off from the holy Precepts to which they are annexed till a vital Faith can cease to do its function in acts of obedience till the holy Heavens can admit an unclean thing into them till then an unholy person cannot arrive at Happiness In all this we see how high a respect God hath for Holiness Now what remains but that Christians who have this glorious Attribute set before them should bethink themselves what manner of persons they ought to be God acts like himself Should not they do so their decorum stands in an holy Assimilation to him Christianity is as an Ancient hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a likeness to God to be after him in his imitable Perfections to be loving merciful holy patient as He is is to be and act like themselves One Virtue of God or other should be still breaking forth from them to tell the World that they are Christians Their finite love and mercy to fellow-creatures should speak their sense of that infinite love and mercy which they have tasted of Their patience under injuries should carry a resemblance of those Riches of goodness and forbearance which God hath spent upon themselves All their holy Graces should appear as so many Rays and little Images of Him who is the great Fountain and pattern of Holiness For them to walk worthy of God and in imitation of him is to walk condecently to themselves and in correspondence to Christianity Again God doth all things for Himself his own Glory and this must be the aim of Christians To be a Center to themselves they must not do it an higher and nobler End than God himself cannot be It is naturally just that He who is the first Principle of all things should be the last End That Axiom That God in all things must be glorified is fundamental Divinity that is the very thing which they must look to as their ultimate scope They should put away the by-glances at Self and the unbecoming Squints at base and false Ends that they may have a single Eye and a pure Intention to the true and great End of all things This is the very life and marrow of Religion it sanctifies holy Duties it spiritualizes civil and natural Actions it elevates the life unto the great Center of all things and by consecrating the Actions unto God gives them a kind of Immortality It transforms the Soul into a deiformity or divine Nature that it becomes one spirit with the Lord and falls in with the same Will and End with him If we will be like Christians the frame of our heart must be above the interests of flesh and self All those things which are off from the true End and Center must be in our eyes as so many impertinent follies the whole of our hearts and lives must be under a consecration to that Eternal Design The Glory of God blessed for ever Moreover God hath an hatred of sin and a love of Holiness and what is the work of Christians but to follow him Sin is so vile an evil that it cannot but be worthy of hatred To the holy God and his Attributes it is meer enmity and rebellion to the World it is a Gurse a blast of Vanity to the Soul an Ataxy turpitude and corruption to the Lord Christ as Nails a bloody Cross and Cup of Wrath. A horrible evil it is and to be hated accordingly a meer evil without mixture of good and to be hated with a pure hatred without mixture of Love An All-evil opposite to God the All-goodness and to be hated with all-hatred not a drop or degree of hatred should be let out upon any thing else All of it in the most intense degree and measure should be poured out upon it in what place or time soever it be still it is evil and upon that account to be hated perpetually and in all places And indeed if we do bethink our selves the groans of the poor creatures which are constant and everywhere round about us do very strongly move us hereunto the blots and turpitudes upon our own Souls tell us that we must hate it as much as we love the beauty and glory of our immortal Spirits The bloud and wounds of our dear Saviour cry out for Justice and Vengeance to be executed upon it And if we have any love for him we must crucifie it and cast it away as an accursed thing On the other hand Holiness cannot but be a fit Object for our love It is a pure thing let down from Heaven and if our love be there it can do no less than embrace so divine an off-spring as that is It is the very rectitude and true temper of Souls that which sets them in a right posture towards God and all holy things and for that reason more love is to be set upon it than that which is due to our own Souls Though in man it be but a little Ray or spark yet because of its divine Nature it doth in little resemble him who is all Holiness and Purity and upon that account our love which in its highest measures ascends up to Him must in proportion be due to it The amiableness of it in the Letter made the Holy man cry out Oh how I love thy Law Psalm 119.97 and how illustrious and attractive must it be when it is in its proper
Vbi living and breathing in the spirits of men Rather than it should not revive there God would be manifest in the flesh and die in it And how should we die to our selves and the World that it may live in us Which when it doth we live indeed and that a life more divine and of higher Excellency than is the life of meer Sense or Reason nay this life is complicated with Happiness and makes us meet for life Eternal If we would live for ever in Bliss and Glory we must follow after Holiness heart and life must be consecrated unto God else Heaven will not be capable to receive us nor shall we be fit to enter in there CHAP. IV. Chap. 4 Gods Punitive Justice asserted from Scripture and Nature It was necessary that there should be a Satisfaction for Sin Rectoral Justice required it Vnless Christs Sufferings were satisfactory no good account can be given of them It 's not enough to say That he was an Example of Patience That he confirmed the Covenant That Gods immense Love was manifested therein or that his Resurrection assured ours Gods Justice appears in that He though of infinite Mercy inflicted those Sufferings on Christ In that Christ the Patient was Man the Son of God an holy Innocent One In that the Sufferings of Christ were proportionable to the sinning-powers in Man To the Law To the sin and sufferings of a World The fruits of his Sufferings as to Himself and as to Vs The Dreadfulness of sin in respect of the Sufferings of Christ and the miserable end of impenitent Sinners HAVING discoursed of Gods Holiness I now come to his Vindictive Justice which as a learned man saith is a Branch or Emanation from the other That pure Essence which cannot but hate sin Justitia vindicatrix in Deo sanctitatis summae rectitudinis pars quaedam est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Turret de satisfact must needs have a propensity to punish it That propensity cannot be separated from the hatred of sin nor that hatred from infinite Rectitude The Socinians that they might raze Christs Satisfaction to the very foundation deny this Attribute This Justice say they is not an Attribute in God Neither is it called Justice in Scripture but rather Severity which is not resident in God but only an effect of his Will But that there is such an Attribute in God is evident in Scripture He is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Right and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Righteous As the first chiefly respects his Universal Righteousness so the second doth his Judicial one He is said to be just in his judging Revel 16.5 His judgment is a righteous judgment Rom. 2.5 It is a righteous thing with him to render tribulation 2 Thess 1.6 Punishment is called a just Recompence Heb. 2.2 Punishment how afflictive soever cannot be Punishment unless Justice be declared in it nor can Justice be declared in that which it requires not The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sometimes denotes the Punishment Jude v. 7. Sometimes the Punitive Justice it self Acts 28.4 One 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is from another just Punishment issues out from Vindictive Justice with respect to that only it is that God is called a consuming fire Heb. 12.29 As he is Light in his Essential Purity so he is Fire in his Essential Justice which is ever in Conjunction with his Purity and as it were the ardour of it breaking out in flames of Wrath in such sort as seems fit to him Thus Scripture But further Nature concurs to make it good This that God is Just is graven in the minds of all men The very Heathens by the indelible Characters which they find there are able to read the Judgment of God and say that he hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an avenging Eye a Ray of it shines in their own bosom The Barbarians upon the sight of the Viper on Pauls hand cry out of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Vengeance that pursued him as a Murderer The very instinct of Nature told them that there was a Connexion between Guilt and Punishment Conscience is Dei vicarius a kind of Representative Numen in men it hath a secret Tribunal in the Heart and from that Seal and impress which divine Justice hath set upon it dooms and judges Offenders unto misery Hence that saying Prima est haec ultio quod se Judice nemo nocens absolvitur Punishment is coetaneous to Guilt Sin in its egress out of the heart leaves a sting behind The Offender cannot be well within his distemper is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a conscience of his evil-deeds his mind reflects torment upon it self inwardly he is nothing but Wounds and amazing Horrors the Apparitions of Wrath haunt him Conscience is sensus praejudicium judicii divini a kind of anticipation and presensation of the last Judgment After all this to deny God to be just is to offer violence to the Principles of Nature and put a lye upon those Notions which are born with and instamped-upon our Reason It is to say That the Image and Impress of a Deity upon our hearts is but a Counterfeit That Conscience is but a Cheat and all the Terrors there but a false Alarm In a word It is to eradicate all Religion and open a Flood-gate to all wickedness and impiety These being intolerable absurdities it cannot but be granted that there is such an Attribute in God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Plutarch Justice follows God or rather it is his very Essence It is an enquiry among Divines How far it was necessary that sin should be punished that without Satisfaction there should be no Remission It is an indubitable Verity That it was necessary by virtue of Gods Decree He hath declared himself that he will by no means acquit the guilty But this is not all In Scripture Punishment is not attributed meerly to his Will or Decree but to his just and righteous Nature Thou art righteous O Lord because thou hast judged thus Revel 16.5 Though the mode and circumstance of Punishment be determined by his Soveraign pleasure yet the punishment it self issues out from his Justice Sin merits punishment They that do such things are worthy of death Rom. 1.32 It is not meerly Gods Will but his Justice which renders unto sin its due The proportion which is between Sin and Punishment shews who holds the ballance Were it meerly at the divine Pleasure to punish sin or not God need not punish obstinate and impenitent persons This the Socinians themselves cannot bear They say There is one Justice in God unaâ—est justitia Dei quâ perpetuo utitur dum scelestos contumaces ac perditae spei homines plectit atque exterminat Soc. de Serv. pars prima cap. 1. Indignum Deo est eorum scelera impunè dimittere Crell de Deo Attr. cap. 23. which he ever useth in punishing contumacious sinners nay it would be unworthy of