Truth And now I will crave leave for a little descant for the Matter and Use will bear it In all Tryals at our Judicial Courts there is a Statute upon which the Party or Parties accused are indited and according as they are found guilty or not by that Statute they are acquitted or condemned The Law by which Men shall be all tryed at judgment is not the Law of Works I have said but the Law of Grace I have need of saying this more than once because I know the notion of many Protestant Divines in their dispute with the Papist does bend them to another apprehension There is a Constitutive and Sentential Justification Juris Judicis The Law by which we are justified is that Law by which we must be judged It is by Faith we are justified and not by Works and that is all one as by the Law of Faith and not by the Law of Works Both is Scripture To maintain or to have any Conception that the Sentence at Judgment shall pass according to the Law of Works is an Errour and such as does tend to the subverting the Gospel and practical Religion It will be the great and only enquiry of that Day whether thou art a Performer of this Law the Law of Faith this Law of Pardon or Grace that is whether thou art a true or sound Believer If the Devil puts in his Accusation that thou art a sinner that thou hast done thus and thus and so art condemnable by the Law Christ will tell him streight I have put in bayl as to that I have satisfied my self in his behalf for that and there is at my Bar no question as to my part but as to his Not whether I have done mine but whether he hath performed his Have you any thing to prove the Man no Believer or no sound believer that he must be cast according to this Law or this Act Hear the Act read which is all one with Christs Will at his death Father I will that such an Act be passed which shall give a pardon to all the world and for all their sins with this clause in the Act The threat that is in the law of works to the contrary notwithstanding Only I will have every one that reaps the benefit of this Act which is laid in before to receive the Grace when promulgated with such a belief of it as working by love shall shew it self in a serious continued desire and endeavour to forsake their sins and cleave unto God in sincerity of heart and life And I will that such a sincerity shall be accepted notwithstanding all their failings nay very much gross and long sinning which they fall into through infirmity unto Life and Salvation This is the Tenour of this Act this Will of Christ that Law or Covenant of Grace by which we shall be judged Well now As for this servant of mine here at the bar accused by you will Christ say When I was a hungry he fed me and when naked cloathed me That is by such works of Charity as these and so of Piety and Sobriety or Temperance Justice and all other Vertue it does appear the man is a Believer and my Disciple These and these things are Manifestations and Evidences of a Sincere heart and a sound faith and therefore I declare him not guilty of the breach but a performer of this Law this Law of Faith upon which he is tryed By the way not here that the declaring a man righteous according to the Act he is tryed by is the most undoubted proper Justification As for the Mans Sins and the sins of the whole world I have my self bore them will our Judge say on the Cross I have satisfied for them by my death in the behalf of all men and this Act is a Declaration of a Vniversal forgiveness as of my Will upon these Terms Indeed the Act and my Will does require such Terms that all shall believe and repent that partake the advantage And this faith and repentance and upright life appearing in this person I do allow his right to the benefit I do allow that my Righteousness or the merits of my life and the Satisfaction or sacrifice of my Death be imputed to him unto this Effect I pronounce him righteous according to this Act and thereby justified and blessed And the righteous that is according this Law to life everlasting And now Sir there is a day when you and I and all the world must appear before God in judgment a day which for ought we know may last as some Learned Divines have thought a thousand years for a thousand years to God is but as one day I have some things that I have formerly thought on and writ and laid up in my heart as my small store to live upon and uphold me against the fear of that terrible day which is also a blessed day and a good day whensoever it comes It is upon the mercy of God and merits of Christ the most sanctified soul and the most miserable penitent sinner must both stand As David has a Psalm he calls A Psalm to bring to remembrance so shall the rest upon this subject which follows be We know that God hath appointed such a one to be our Judge who is a merciful high Priest touched with the feeling of our infirmities He knows our frame and that we are but dust We know that the Government of God we are all under is a gracious Government a righteous Government and a righteous one because gracious For I have learned this farther than some others that the very Righteousness of God in the New Testament towards fallen man is Grace We know that by the Law of Grace God expects we shall be righteous and that he accepts of an Evangelical obedience according to this Law as Perfection For when all that is ill done and all that is undone is forgiven us and not imputed that which we have done let it be never so little must according to this Law be Perfect We know for all that that the holiness of the most holy man living could never be accepted to Salvation but for the merits of Christ and when it is not for the value of the work done but upon the account of Christs merits that any man is accepted Whether my works be more or less if I be found sincere it is all one in regard to such an Acceptation Let me give my body to be burnt or let me give but a cup of cold water in Christs name if Christ sees integrity in it and his merits be imputed the one will be accepted as well as the other Let me have wrought but one hour or let me have wrought twelve my penny still is of Grace and for Christs sake We know farther that he whom God hath made to be our Judge is also and will be our Advocate and if there be any thing to be accepted as if there be any thing thou hast done
offended and many others at what you delivered But there was nothing said by me to contradict that not a word about that matter That I will now say reserving my peculiar thoughts till by and by is this The death of Christ may be considered as it avails to the purchasing of Remission of sin and Salvation upon condition Or as it redounds to the procuring the condition for Remission and Salvation The death of Christ was for All or Christ died for All in the first sense In the second I will suppose with him only for his Sheep or the Elect. There is no doubt but God or Christ may maius minus amare Who is the Saviour of all men says the Scripture specially of those that believe That which moved this Gentleman I believe and others if there were any other besides them he moved was my speaking of a General Pardon for all the world purchased by Christ the Saviour of the World This seemed new to him at the hearing but by that time I came down from the Pulpit to the Vestry his own reason did prompt him being I will suppose a judicious but perhaps conceited man and whether so or no Citizen or Scholar I know not to understand no other by my General Pardon but that Christs Redemption is Vniversal which therefore he alledged as the point offended him In whom we have redemption through his blood even the Remission of our Sins says the Apostle in two places Redemption therefore and Pardon are of equal extent out of question I quoted that Text and this other God was in Christ reconciling the World unto Himself not imputing their Trespasses If this Gentlemans Conception be True That Christ hath purchased a pardon only for the Elect then the Apostle should not have said Reconciling the World but Reconciling the Elect to himself And when the Apostles says the World why should he be offended if I speak after the Apostle and not him Then came the Disciples and said to him Knowest thou not that some are offended But he answered Let them alone In such a Case as this I must say after my Saviour is any any man offended 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let them look to it Sir you know there are two sorts of such as oppose Arminianism One that is the high sort and the other the moderate sort that are for the middle way in these Controversies and I confess my self one who have wrote several peices so called We that are of this sort do hold Election to be of particular persons not the choosing Believers to be saved with the Arminian and Lutherans but the choosing Persons to believe But Redemption we hold to be Vniversal The Scriptures say Christ died for all and for every man God so loved the World says Christ that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life By the World this Gentleman must understand the Elect but when by the words that whosoever believeth in him Christ plainly intimates that there are some of those God loves do believe and some not the World must be more than the Elect. Of the world of those God loves so as to give his Son to dye for them some believe in him and have everlasting life and some believe not and perish But of the Elect all believe and none perish One Text more I will quote Whom he did predestinate them he called Whom he called them he justified Whom he justified them he also glorified And why is Redemption here left out of the Apostolical Chain but because those he hath redeemed are all the world If the Doctrine that this Gentleman hath received were right the Apostle would have said Whom he did predestinate them he Redeemed I shall use no more Arguments or Scriptures when so many may be had but because this Gentleman was apt to think me singular in what I said it is fit he know that the Church of England and consequently our Holy Martyrs Cranmer Ridley Latimer Bradford does in her Catechism assert this Doctrine when the child is made to answer there Who hath redeemed me and all mankind The excellent Dr. Bishop Davenant hath wrote a Book on purpose De Morte Christi to maintain this point Archbishop V sher not to name any of our Eminent forraign Divines hath done the like Mr. Baxter that every foot is commending this book of Davenants so highly is one I won't scruple to say now he is dead no less profound himself and chose to go this way with them There is a distinction which this Gentleman hath not I suppose ever considered which may bring light and some Conviction to him A distinction of Christ in the Flesh and of Christ in the Spirit It is we know a Scripture distinction What Jesus Christ now hath done for us in the flesh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he hath and must have done for All and the direct and immediate fruit of it belong to all for he took on him our flesh not as the flesh of the Elect but as the flesh of Mankind the nature of man not that of Angels What he does for us in the Spirit is peculiar to some and if it be saving to the Elect only The work of Christs redemption being by his Blood was wrought for us through his Flesh in which all mankind have Union with him and that is therefore Universal with the benefit that does directly and immediately issue from it the giving us Faith and Repentance is the work of Christ through the Spirit in which his Members only have Union with him and is particular to the Chosen To come up closer then to this person speak exactly if I can The death of Christ as it is Redemptory Propitiatory or Satisfactory for sin hath this fruit I speak of Pardon It is this is the direct immediate proper fruit of it I think I may say too the only such fruit of it for Pardon for all sin of Omission and Commission and consequently a disobligation from all punishment of Loss and Suffering is passively taken no less than a right to Impunity and Life and this is held forth upon condition of Faith and Repentance to all the World But the Condition it self performed by some is not the fruit of Christs death as a Propitiation though by way of Redundancy it comes by it If you ask me what Redundancy or How I will tell you though I can't Peremptorily as thus In all things whatsoever we pray for suppose it be for fair weather as we have Collects for such Occasions we ask it in Christs name for his sake or through his merits when yet it would be a strange speech to say Christ dyed that we may have fair weather And nevertheless there is some sense in which there is a Truth in this for if Christ had not attoned God by his satisfaction for sin there is no blessing could be obtained for or by any Now when there
is some distinction must be made here so that mediately indirectly or some way by way of Redundacy such blessings even as these are the benefits of Christs Redemption to such and such particular persons let that distinction be formed right and in such a sense will the condition we speak of be a fruit hereof to the Elect even by its redundant merit and value The purchase Christ made was a purchase for us and for himself His purchase for us was that we should be pardoned upon Condition He purchased for himself a power to give us that condition that our pardon may be compleat All power is committed to me in Heaven and Earth faith Christ after he was risen There is accordingly a Redemption by price our Divines say and by power Pardon upon condition is the fruit of his Redemption by price But the Condition is the Effect of his Redemption by power When by his Death I say he had paid the price of a pardon for All upon Condition by his Resurrection he receives power to conferr the condition to whom he pleases that is the Elect which when they perform they are justified or have absolute right in it And that may be a good resolution as to the sense of that Text He was delivered for our sins and raised again for our justification To make the matter though more plain we have that Text in the Acts. Him hath God exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins Repentance we see and so faith comes from this power the power of Christ as a King rather than as a Priest and if as a Priest both 't is by vertue of his Intercession as he is at Gods right hand rather than of his Oblation Now Christ intercedes for nothing but according to Gods Will His will is his Decree and it is from the decree his decree of Election that our faith and repentance does come It is not from Christs purchase by price it is not from the power of our free will but it is from Election which belongs to God not as Rector but as Lord of his own gifts working the same effectually in us It is out of this Treasury Christ gives it And not by virtue of a right to any from his death but by the power of an endless life Not as Testator but as the Executor or Dispenser of his Fathers Election In fine Christ by his death did merit or procure this power that he hath at God rights hand By this power he gives us Repentance and Faith Faith and Repentance then is not the fruit of Christs death any otherwise than mediately or indirectly as being derived from this power which he obtained by it God I again say for the merit of Christs life and death exalts him to the power mentioned Wherefore God hath highly exalted him By this power or as exalted Christ gives his Spirit to work Faith and Repentance in whom he chooses or hath chosen By this work they are regenerated and that Article in the Agreement or Covenant as some call it between Father and Son When thou shalt make his Soul an offering for sin he shall see his seed is made good to him In this way about then and no other does Faith and Repentance come to the Elect by his death when the direct and immediate fruit of it is Vniversal That is Faith and Repentance the Condition is the fruit of Christs death as all other Blessings are which are asked of God for Christ's merits sake or which he as Prince and Saviour bestows on his people Whereas now it pleased the Gentleman to tell me That he never heard any Divine say in the Pulpit that which I said If he will understand me right I will take it for a Commendation rather than disparagement seeing it does import that what these Moderate Divines do generally say in the Substance was so deliver'd by me by way of Cultivation as did make some impression upon him as if it had been new rare or singular altogether That which I delivered in effect was indeed only this That Christ hath procured for the World a General Pardon But there is none have Benefit by it but he that believes and repents If I had called this a Vniversal conditional Remission and said no more which is the same whole thing he had not perhaps been surprized and I could as easily have said so but to speak as I did was better as fitted to my pacificatory end This is what I said I gave it light from the consideration of a Pardon by Act of Parliament A Pardon is agreed on by the King and the two Houses the People know nothing of it and do nothing to the obtaining it and the Pardon is General Nevertheless if any come to have the benefit by this Pardon he must look into the Act and see how it runs he must see what Qualifications it requires and if he does or will not qualify himself according to to the Act he loses the benefit It is so in this Act of Grace or Pardon for the world It is an Act of Grace I say perfectly free to man No man does or can do any thing to pacify God or merit the same It is all from the Agreement between Father and Son that Christ should fulfill the Law and by suffering also satisfy for our sins and the Pardon thereby be granted in our behalf while man does nothing himself by way of Cause I must say Condition or Active Occasion thereunto and here do I bring off those that say this Act Law or Covenant of Grace is without condition which in this sense we all see is really so And yet when any man comes in particular for benefit by this Pardon Act of Grace Grant Law Covenant Testament for this Grant of Pardon obtained by Christ the Covenant or Testament of Christ which is his Will bequeathing what he hath purchased upon his own terms are all we must know but the same thing he must read the Act and see how it is passed or read over the Will and see how it is made he must go to the Rowl which is the Word of God It was decreed from Eternity it passed at Christs death it was inrolled in Gods Words and promulgated by the Ministers of it and there he will find that God requires of every man to Believe Repent and walk sincerely before him in order to have the Benefit and that unless he Believes and Repents he is to have none by it And by this do I justifie those also of our Divines which are the Generality who say this Act Law or Covenant of Grace hath Conditions And when thus much will be acknowledged on both sides to wit That it is the sound Believer only or sincere Convert that is pardoned Absolutely so as to be Saved you have a way chalked out for Reconciliation of our Brethren at least so far as I drive to wit That Conscientious
something practical at the end That Christ hath redeemed us from the Law or delivered us from it as the Scripture speaks so that we are not Vnder the Law but under Grace is not to be denyed by any and yet that we are still to obey the same is no less certain If thou wilt enter into life keep the Commandments The Law therefore may be considered qua Regula or qua Foedus say our Divines which does in the gross state the matter By the Law we mean not the Ceremonial Law which containing things that were but shadows whereof the substance is come is abrogated out of question but we mean the Law Moral the Law of Nature or Law of Works Now this Law as a Rule we say that is as it prescribes us our duty to God our selves and our neighbour cannot cease but be always of force because it is founded on Our Nature and Gods and so long as they are the same this must be so also For ever O Lord thy Law is setled in Heaven But the Law as a Covenant that is as God and Man are obliged thereby so that man must live or dye and God deal with him according to his keeping or breaking it this is not to stand in force but we are delivered from it by Christ To come to the Difficulty There are three things in the Covenant the Precepts the Promise and the Threat The Preceptive part now is and must be still of force because the Law qua Regula is The Comminatory part is of force likewise because Christ tells us those that believe not are condemned already and St. Paul sayes that we are all by Nature the Children of wrath which could not be if the Threat were void The Promisory part then only remains and Divines say therefore that the Capacity of the Subject ceasing that ceases The condition thereof they say cannot be performed and the Promise is void But neither what they say is true nor is it the thing which should be said It is not the thing because the delivery of us from the Law which the Scripture speaks of as the purchase of Christ is the freeing us from the curse and condemnation of it To be freed from the Promisory part what good is that Neither is this true because the Lord Jesus a man as we are did perform the condition and made the reward thereby due to him of debt or merit and accordingly entred into glory This can be gain-said by no body If then Neither the Promise nor Threat nor Precepts are ceased how does the Law cease as a Covenant or we be freed from it Here now is the thing I must speak to and I humbly answer there are two Parties in a Covenant as I have asserted before and consequently there is Our part and there is Gods part in the Covenant On our part the Law qua Regula qua Foedus both being the Law and Covenant of Nature must for ought I see continue and always for when Christ after the day of Judgment shall have delivered up his Mediatory Kingdom and the Laws of it I do believe that man being made perfect in Holiness and confirmed therein this Law is that which he and the blessed Spirits in Heaven shall live by and keep for evermore But as to Gods part now and till the Judgment is past the case is altered We are by this Covenant through our Transgression we and all the world in Gods hands lyable to Wrath and Condemnation and God as Rector is engaged to deal with us according to his Threat But Mans case being verily pittiable he in his Wisdom found out and in his Goodness accepted of a satisfaction to be made by his Son and thereupon he is taken off so as not to inflict the punishment upon us There are two Reasons upon which a Law-giver who also is Rector may forbear the punishing a Delinquent One is when the case of the person is Pittiable and requires Commiseration and the other when his Justice and Honour can be saved also tho' he spare that person Such is the case here If God deal with man according to this Law all mankind must Perish which is pittiable indeed and it pleased Him therefore that the Lord JESUS his Son should interpose who by fulfilling the Law exactly for himself and bearing the punishment of it also in our stead it is made a Righteous Thing hereby without casting any dishonour upon Himself or Law to deal otherwise on his part with us than the Covenant required Here then to speak properly the Law is not Abrogated nor Ceased but Relaxed it is not an Abrogation or a Cessation but a Relaxation or a Dispensation as to the Penalty of it that is so as we shall not be condemned by it It is hitherto then the Point is come and so far doublesly we are in the Right We are not freed from the Law so as that we are no longer to obey it but we are delivered so as God will not deal with us according to it How then will you say does or will he deal with us I Answer by another Law a Remedying Law the law of Grace the Covenant of Forgiveness the law of Faith in opposition to the law of Works Christ sayes to the Father I will Redeem these lost Creatures from the Sentence of the Law by which every mortal man of them else must Perish But I will take the Redeemed into my Hands or under my Government so as they shall not be Lawless for all that They shall have the Law still as in my Hand to live by as well as they can and as far as human frailty will permit but they shall be dealt with in regard to Acceptation according to the Grace I have purchased for them and is promulgated in the Gospel The Law then remains still as a Rule to Live by but not as the Rule we shall be Judged by as a Rule of our Duty but not as the Rule by which we shall be Justified or Condemned There is a Universal Pardon in regard to the Sentence of the Law of Works procured passed and declared in the Gospel upon condition of our Faith and Repentance But the obligation of Obedience to the Precepts of it can never cease I must say still so long as it is the Law of Nature which never ceases The Law of Nature then or the Law of Works is the Norma Officii the Rule of Life but the Law of Grace this Act of Pardon is the Norma Judicii the Rule of Judgment We are not delivered from the Law so as that we are free from living according to it I must inculcate this to be sure I mistake not or be mistaken But we are delivered from it so as we shall not be Judged by it which is all one as not to be Justified or Condemned by it We shall be Judged by the Law of Liberty says St. James and St. Paul According to my Gospel Blessed be God for this