require it than ceremonial and if they knew nothing of an Expiating Messiah they sought no further for the expiation of moral guilt than the blood of bulls and goats Now touching the Sacrifices two things are to be noted The one is this there is somewhat in Christ which answers to the Expiatory Sacrifices The sacrifice was to be perfect and without blemish that it might be accepted the blind or broken or maimed or corrupted thing was not to be offered up to God answerably the human nature of Christ which was the great Sacrifice was without spot or guile it was formed by the Holy Spirit and breathed out nothing but sanctity that it might be a pure offering unto God Had there been any blemish in it it could not have been united to the Person of the Word nor offered up as a sacrifice to God for us The Sacrifice pure in it self was substituted in the room of sinful defective men there was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the life of a Beast instead of that of a Man Sutably Christ the meek patient immaculate Lamb of God stood in our room he died for us he gave his life a ransom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 instead of many Mat. 20.28 His Person was put in the room of ours and his sufferings too in the room of ours Had he not stood in our stead he could not have been capable either to bear the stroke of penal sufferings or to free us from the same not to bear penal sufferings he being nothing but meer innocency in himself nor to free us from them he being in no conjunction with us The sacrifice being put in the sinners room had sin imputed to it they were to lay their hands upon the head of it Lev. 1.4 a confession of sins was made over the Scape-goat Lev. 16.21 their sins were in a sort transferred upon the sacrifice that it might bear them away Thus it was with Christ he was made sin for us 2 Cor. 5.21 The Lord laid on him the iniquities of us all Isa 53.6 Our guilt as it was fundamentum poenae was imputed to him so far as to render his sufferings penal and as an Ancient hath it he was delictorum susceptor non commissor having no guilt of his own he stood under ours in order to a glorious expiation and abolition of it in his death and satisfaction Sin being charged upon the sacrifice there was destructio rei oblatae a destroying of the thing offered so it was with Christ when our sins were laid upon him with the Corn he was bruised with the Wine and Oyl poured out with the Lamb slain and roasted in the fire of Gods wrath and with the Scape-goat driven into the wilderness of desertion crying out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me His sufferings were very many and great for us The sacrifice being slain its blood did expiate sin an atonement was made remission ensued upon it Thus Christ dying on the cross his blood was expiatory our fault was compensated Justice was satisfied wrath was averted and God appeased and reconciled towards us In these things appears a fair analogy between those ancient sacrifices and Christ the grea Sacrifice The other is this There is that in Christ which infinitely transcends all the legal sacrifices In the sacrifice there was only a brute in perfection but in Christ there was an human nature in perfection an human nature which had the Spirit above measure and was as full of grace as the capacity of a creature could hold there was in his humanity such a beauty and unmatchable perfection of grace as far surpassed the united and accumulated excellencies of all the Angels in Heaven The sacrifice stood and suffered in the room of offenders by constraint and compulsion it was bound with cords to the horns of the Altar but Christ stood and suffered in our room by choice and voluntary sponsion his soul was not snatched away but poured out his life was not meerly taken away but laid down he was under no constraint but that of his own compassion he was tied with no cords but those of his own love In the private sacrifice some particular sin was charged upon it in the publick one the sins of the Jewish Nation were charged upon it But upon Christ were laid the sins of a World sins of vast distances as far remote in place as the quarters of the earth and in time as the morning and evening of the world met all together upon him In the sacrifice there was a meer simple death and the blood was but the blood of a brute but Christs death was not a meer simple one but a death with a sting and a curse in it a death with as much wrath in it as was due to the sin of a world nor was his blood the blood of a brute but the blood of a man nay of God himself and what manner of Sacrifice was this how compensative for sin how satisfactory to Justice how aversive of wrath how impetrative of all good In every respect it was infinitely valuable and sufficient The Sacrifice suo modo did expiate sin it took away civil guilt by freeing the offender from that temporal death which in the strict sanction of the Law was due to him It took away ceremonial guilt by freeing him from those legal impurities which excluded him from the publick Worship hence the Apostle saith That the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean did sanctifie to the purifying of the flesh Heb. 9.13 Thus far went the sacrifice but it could go no further the moral guilt was still unremoved Justice was still unsatisfied the wrath to come was still unaverted God as yet was unreconciled there was somewhat done to the flesh nothing to the conscience somewhat in foro soli in the Jewish Judicature nothing in foro poli in the Court of Heaven to give a full satisfaction to Divine Justice Hence the Apostle saith that those sacrifices though often repeated could not make the comers thereunto perfect Hebr. 10.1 The blood of bulls and goats could not take away sin v. 4. Still there was a conscience of sin and a remembrance of it every year v. 2 3. Hence God reprobated all those sacrifices and would have none of them they were not rejected for the hypocrisie of the offerer as they were Isa 1.12 13 nor comparatively as being in the outward work less than mercy Hos 6.6 But they were rejected as not able to do the great work to expiate sin they were to vanish as Clouds before the Sun as Types before the substance But when Christ gave himself an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour Ephes 5.2 there was a penal total expiation of sin not the flesh but the Conscience was purged not ceremonial but Moral guilt was done away Thus the Apostle comparing his Sacrifice with the legal ones saith The blood of Christ who through
Love and Mercy of God an excellent Motive to stir up our Love towards God and Man HAVING spoken of Gods Justice I now proceed to his Love Mercy and Grace These are eminently ascribed to him in Scripture He is love it self 1 John 4.16 essentially such He is the Father of mercies 2 Cor. 1.3 Mercy is his off-spring and joy He is the God of all grace 1 Pet. 5.10 The fountain of it is in him and all Graces in the Creature issue from thence Love communicates good to the Creature Mercy communicates it to the Creature in misery Grace communicates it to a Creature though unworthy All the drops and measures of goodness in the Creature are from Love when the good is suited to the misery of the Creature 't is Mercy when it exceeds desert and as it were triumphs over unworthiness 't is Grace in a special manner I shall not discourse of these distinctly but as the usage in Scripture is promiscuously these are in a very signal manner manifested in Christ So admirable a Glass is he that not only Wisdom Holiness and Justice are represented in him but Love Mercy and Grace also In these it is that this wonderful Occonomy terminates Wisdom laid the plot Holiness and Justice appeared in our Saviours Passion but the Center of all is Grace and Mercy These are highly exalted in the Reconciliation and Salvation of Men. The first appearance of these stands in this That God did not stand upon the first terms upon the Old Covenant of Works God made Adam a very knowing and righteous Creature he gave him excellent Laws Moral ones inscribed in his heart and over and above one positive Law in the Tree of knowledg He entred into a Covenant with him as the head and root of all mankind the terms were That all his Posterity should stand or fall in him He transgressed the Command of God and so Sin and Death came upon all the humane World Here God might have stood upon the first terms he was not bound to make new ones but might have stood upon the old and prosecuted them to the utter ruin of all Mankind This is plain by these Considerations 1. The Laws given by God to Adam were such as became God to give and Adam to receive very just and righteous The Moral Ones were congruous to his holy Faculties and conducible to his Happiness they were interwoven into his very rational Powers and Obedience might have come forth in the easiness of his Holy Principles The positive one was a just one God who made Man Lord of the lower World might well except one Tree as a token of his Supreme Soveraignty when the thing forbidden was not a thing in it self evil but indifferent Gods Authority appears the more Sacred and Mans Obedience would have been the more pure the Tree as lovely to the eyes was a fit curb to the sensitive appetite And as a Tree of knowledg was a just restraint to intellectual curiosity the prohibition of such a Tree was an excellent Item to man to look to both faculties the terms were just not only as to himself but as to his posterity Had not God made them he would never have told us that all sinned in one and that by one judgment came upon all Rom. 5.12 18. Which without such terms would have been impossible and if he made them it was no less impossible that they should be unjust Adam was the root and head of Mankind we were in him naturally as latent in his loins and legally as comprised within the Covenant His Person was the fountain of ours and his Will the representative of ours The thing therefore was equal unjust Laws should be abrogated but in this case the Laws and Terms being Righteous God might have stood strictly upon them 2. Adam having holy Powers sufficient for Obedience was bound to keep them with all diligence that which was formerly spoken to the Church in Thyatira Hold fast that which thou hast Rev. 2.25 was virtually spoken to Adam Nature dictates that Duty should be returned where benefits are received The Law of fidelity requires that a Trustee should keep the depositum God intrusted man with excellent endowments but if he will by his transgression cast them away must God make them good Must he follow after a Rebel a wasting bankrupt Creature to repair the lost Image and set him up again with a new stock of Grace No He who made him ex beneplacito cannot be bound ex justitiâ to new-frame him being broken He might without the least spot of injustice have left all mankind in the ruins of the Fall 3. The case of the fallen Angels determines this point When they left their Principle or first Estate Did God capitulate or enter into new Articles with them Was there a tabula post naufragium a room for Faith or Repentance Had they a Christ or a Gospel tendred unto them No they were cast down immediately into chains of darkness The sentence was irreversible their misery eternal annihilation would have been a kind of favour to them That God who stood upon the first terms with Angels superior creatures might have done so with man being a little lower than those glorious Creatures I know there are differences assigned between the two Cases Angels were the first transgressors the ring-leaders in sin Man followed after The Angels had a most pure light and that without any allay of flesh Mans intellect was lower and in conjunction with matter The Angels sinned by self-motion and of their own meerly Man sinned by seduction and through the guile of the Serpent In the Fall of Angels all the Angelical nature fell not In Adams Fall all the humane Nature fell no Religion was left in the lower world But not withstanding all this God might in Justice have stood upon the first terms with Man as well as with Angels and that he did not do so it was from meer Grace as the primary Reason thereof 4. Grace is in a very eminent manner lifted up in the Gospel Grace gives Christ and Faith to believe in him Grace justifies and sanctifies Grace faves and crowns with a blessed Immortality Every-where in the Gospel sounds forth Grace Grace but if God might not justly have stood upon the old terms the giving of new ones to Man was not Grace but Debt not Mercy but Justice Those Novatores who say That it would have been unjust for God to have condemned Adams Posterity for the first Sin do thereby overturn the Grace of the Gospel The Apostle who is much rather to be believed saith expresly That by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation Rom. 5.18 that is according to the terms of the old Covenant but if the old terms might not have been stood upon the new ones must be necessary and due to mankind and so no Grace at all They who deny the Justice of the old Covenant overturn the Grace of
the new God as we see might have stood upon the old terms even to the utter ruin of fallen mankind But oh immense Love He would not he would do so with Angels but he would not with Men an abatement was made to them not afforded to those nobler Creatures once Inmates of Heaven In the case of Sadow God came down lower and lower from fifty righteous persons to forty five and so at last to ten I will not do it for tens sake Gen. 18.32 But in the case of fallen man when all had sinned when there was none righteous no not one God comes down from the first terms made with Man to such lower ones as might comply with his frailty Under the Law there were Sacrifices called by the Jewish Doctors Gnoleh najored ascending and descending The rich man offered a Lamb the poor whose hand could not reach so far offered two Turtle-Doves While Man was rich in Holy Powers and Excellencles God called for pure perfect sinless Obedience but after the Fall he being poor in Spirituals altogether unable to pay such a sum God stoops and accommodates himself to Humane weakness a faithful conatus a sincere though imperfect Obedience will serve the turn in order to Mans happiness This is the first step which infinite Mercy takes in raising up Man out of the ruins of the Fall The old terms were not stood upon But now that new terms might be made and established that the second Covenant might have an happier issue than the first Mercy goes on to give the Son of God for us God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life John 3.16 This so is unutterable this Love unmeasurable diffusing it self not to Jews only but to a World and that overwhelmed in sin giving and that freely without any Merit of ours a Son and an only begotten Son that we through faith in him might have life eternal and there enjoy him who is Love it self for ever Here is a Mine of Love too deep and rich for any Creature to fathom or count the value of it But before I open it I shall first remove the ill use which the Socinians make of this Love to overturn Christs Satisfaction If God say they so loved us as to give his Son for us then he was not angry with us Oportuisse Deum jam placatissimum esse Soc. de Serv. l. 1. c. 7. Non vos pudet iram divinam eamque immensam ibi fingere ubi nil nisi immensus amor elucet Cui iraseâ—batur Deus cum unigenitum filium in mortem dabat Sclicting contr Meisn and if not angry then there was no need at all of a Satisfaction to be made for us Unto which I answer Anger and Love are not inconsistencies in Scripture both are attributed unto God He gave his Son for us was not that Love immense Love He wounded and bruised him for our iniquities he made him to be sin and a curse for us Was not there Wrath great Wrath We have both together in one Text Herein is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins 1 John 4.10 The high Emphasis of his Love was in giving his Son to be a Propitiation for us unless there had been just anger a Propitiation would have been needless unless there had been immense Love his Son should not have been made one for us We have a plain instance in Job's friends Gods Wrath was kindled against them and yet in love he directs them to atone him by a Sacrifice Job 42.7 8. God could not but be angry at the Sin of the World and yet in love he gave his Son to be an expiatory Sacrifice But for a more full answer I shall lay down several things 1. God may be considered either as a Rector or as a Benefactor As a Rector he acts out of a just anger in vindicating his broken Law by Penal Sufferings As a Benefactor he acts out of admirable love in giving his Son to be a Propitiation for us When he vindicates his Law by Punishments Is it not Anger when he gives his Son for us Is it not Love If he be a Rector Can he not be a Benefactor too Then he could not give his Son without laying down of his Government If he be a Benefactor Can he not be a Rector too Then he could not govern without laying down his Love but if as the truth is he may be both then Anger and Love may consist together 2. Gods displeasure may be taken either as it terminates on the sin or as it terminates on the sinner as it terminates on the sin it is altogether unremovable God himself with reverence be it spoken can no more remove it than he can lay down his Sanctity which in the very notion of it includes an abhorrency of sin As it terminates on the sinner so it may be removed This appears in that God pardons sin and that as the Scripture-phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imports in such a way that the Penal Sufferings are translated from the sinner himself to his Sponsor The Divine displeasure did pass off from us or else we could not have been pardoned or saved and it did light upon Christ or else that Holy One could not have been made a Curse which no meer Sufferings if abstracted from Divine Wrath can amount unto We see here there is displeasure at the sin and yet infinite love towards the sinner in translating the punishment upon another 3. Gods Love is double a Love of Complacence which delights in the Creature and a Love of Benevolence which designs good to it The first takes pleasure in the Saints who bear his holy Image The second diffuses it self to sinners who in themselves are worthy of Wrath. Hence the Apostle tells us God commended his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us Rom. 5.8 Sinners are objects of displeasure and yet Love breaks out towards them in that great instance the Death of Christ If ever there were anger in God 't was at the Sin of a World if ever there were Love in him 't was in the Gift of his Son These two may very well stand together 4. Man may be considered either as a Sinner or as a Creature A man who hath a rebellious Son may be angry with him as rebellious and yet compassionate him as a Son In like manner God may be angry with us as Sinners and yet love us as Creatures Having removed the Socinian-Cavil I shall now proceed to speak of Gods Love in giving his Son for us Here I shall distinctly consider the giver The Gift The manner how it was given The persons for whom The evil removed and good procured by it and the excellent Evangelical terms built upon it Each one of these will illustrate this Love
he would strip himself of his Orient pearl that he would give his Son his eternal Joy out of his bosom to assume an humane Nature and in it to bear the horrible stroke of Justice which was due to us for our iniquities In giving Laws and Promises God gives but a created Image of his Sanctity and Grace but in giving his Son he gave his essential increated Image to suffer in the flesh for us that his holy Image broken in the fall might be repaired again in us When we were off from God the Center of Souls and wandring in the foul ways of sin God out of his immense Love sent no less person than his only begotten Son to seek us and bring us back unto himself that we might be for ever happy in the fruition of him The greatness of this Love will yet further appear if we consider the manner how the Son of God was given for us The lower a man stoops and condescends to do another good the higher and more eminent is his Love the steps wherein the Son of God came down and humbled himself for us evidently declare the infinite height of that Love which made him stoop so low to compass our Salvation The first step was his Incarnation the word was made flesh he who was in the form of God took on him an humane Nature In the Creation infinite produced finite but here infinite assumed finite there Eternal brought forth Temporal but here Eternal took Temporal into it self and what a wonderful Condescension was this It 's true Reason in the Socinian laughs at it but Faith in the Christian must needs admire it Had the greatest Monarch on Earth confined himself to the poorest Cottage there it would have been nothing to God Tabernacling in the flesh Should the highest Angel in Heaven have put off his Perfections and come down into an humane Nature and from thence have passed into a brutal bestial one and so on into a tree or stone and at last into nullity it would not have been a Condescension comparable to that of the Son of God coming in the flesh His Sacred Person was infinitely more above humane Nature than an Angel is above matter or nullity it self and what unparallel'd Love was here The Creator became a Creature the Son of God assumed our nature and that after it was in us tainted with sin Dr. Bates of the Attributes fol. 171. The natural distance saith that excellent Man between God and the Creature is infinite the Moral between God and the sinful Creature if possible is more than infinite Yet the mercy of our Redeemer overcame this distance What an extasie of Love transported the Son of God so far as to espouse our nature after it was defiled and debased with sin He was essential Innocence and Purity yet he came in the similitude of sinful flesh which to outward view was not different from what was really sinful Thus he St. Austin calls Love junctura duo copulans a coupling of two together That after man had rent off himself from God by his Apostacy God should assume an humane Nature into himself to make up the breach and reduce Man into an Union with himself again Miror Deum in utero Virginis miror omnipotentem in cunabulis miror quemodo verbo Dei caro adhaeserit Cypr. de Nat. Christi must needs be Love in a transcendent excess infinite This made St. Cyprian overlook the wonders in Nature that he might ravish himself in the admirations of an Incarnate God The Condescension was here so great that God seems to neglect his own Majesty that he may comply with our necessities yet infinite Love would have the Son of God stoop a little lower and do honour to that Sacred Law which we had violated His humane Nature being an inmate in his infinite Person could not but have a right to Heaven and might have been immediately rapt up thither but Love set him another task He the great Lawgiver was made under the Law He who knew the Father in an infinity of light now knew him in a finite Reason He who embraced the Father in an infinity of Love now loved him in a finite Will He who was Lord of all was subject to Parents and Magistrates He who upholds the world went up and down as a man doing of good he stooped as low as the Ceremonial Law His pure flesh was circumcised he kept the Passeover and so obedientially stood under his own shadow This is a Condescension much greater than if all the Angels in Heaven had put themselves under the Laws of the lowest matter yet infinite Love would have the Son of God go down a little lower We have him hungry thirsty weary weeping suffering the contradiction of Sinners enduring the temptations of Satan all his life-through a man of sorrows at last we have him bleeding on a Cross hanging there as a spectacle of shame his hands and his feet were pierced his body was racked and tortured to death in a stinking Golgotha But which was the greatest of all he bore the Wrath of God and what was that Wrath which was due to the sin of a World or what those Sufferings which satisfied Justice for it What a great thing was the Passion of God and how much beyond the dissolution of a World Words cannot utter it thoughts cannot measure it That Love must be no less than immense which made the Son of God stoop so low to take us up out of the ruins of the Fall The Love of God will yet more appear if we take notice of the persons for whom Christ was given it was for man poor impotent man a creature worth nothing a bankrupt in Spirituals one void of all those Primitive Excellencies which at first Crowned the humane Nature for him it was that God was at so vast an expence as that of his own blood Spond Annal. Anno 431. 'T was great Charity in Paulinus Bishop of Nola that he would give himself in pawn to the Vandals for a poor Child but it was transcendent superlative Love in God to give his Son one worth Millions of Worlds and as rich in Excellencies as a Deity could make him to be emptied and humbled to death for poor worthless worms such as we are Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich yet for our sakes he became poor that ye through his poverty might be rich saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 8.9 The Riches of a God were laid out to set up broken man again But further it was for Sinners for Enemies such as were in Arms against God such as had broken his Laws despised his Authority cast off his Soveraignty and as much as in them lay stained his Glory These were the persons upon whose Salvation infinite Love set so high a rate that rather than fail the Life of God should be paid down for it The Apostle notably sets forth this
Scarcely for a righteous man will one dye yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to dye But God commended his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us Rom. 5.7 8. Sometimes possibly though but rarely one may dye for a righteous good Man who is a blessing to the place where he lives But this was Christs Prerogative to dye for Sinners this was the supereminency of Divine Love to give him so to do Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends Joh. 15.13 Thus our Saviour A greater proof or effect of Love than death there cannot be but Love is then in an higher and more excellent degree when that death is as in our Saviours case it was for Enemies than it is when the death is for Friends Damon and Pythias two intimate friends were willing to dye one for another but Christ died for Enemies In Creation God overcame Nullity but in Redemption he overcomes Enmity it self and that in a wonderful way He assumes an humane Nature and in it pours out his precious blood to melt and break that horrible Enmity which was in us against him If we would see more of this Love let us turn our eyes upon the evils removed and the good procured by our Saviour Christ All evils are either Moral such as sin or which waits upon the other Physical such as punishment all of them are removed by our Saviour who saves from Sin and Wrath. Man was under the guilt of Sin and so under the Wrath of God Wrath in the threatning hung as an horrible Tempest over his head and within there was the dreadful Eccho of it in Conscience But the Sufferings of Christ were so satisfactory and meritorious for us that as soon as we return and believe on him all our guilt is done away It 's true the guilt in it self in the intrinsecal desert of punishment is perpetual because sin cannot cease to be sin but it doth no longer redound upon our persons to oblige us to punishment The heavy burden is now lifted off from Conscience the black Cloud of Wrath is dissolved the cursing Law hath nothing to say against us There is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Rom. 8.1 It 's true afflictions may fall upon a Believer but there is no Condemnation there is not a jot of Wrath in them they are rather Castigatory than Penal managed in the hand of Mercy rather than Justice In the issue it appears that there was Love and Faithfulness in them that even in those afflicting paths Mercy and Truth are found all things shall work together for good unto the Believer Afflictions and all These serve for excellent purposes to fan off his Vanity melt away his Corruption alarm his spiritual Watch refine his golden Graces cast him into the Image of a meek suffering Christ unearth unself him and elevate his affections towards the everlasting rest which is above Affliction after it hath budded and blossomed with such precious fruits is no longer evil but an excellent good It 's true also that death Temporal will seize upon him but the curse is gone the sting out death which at first was a punishment now hath a blessing in it It was Originally introduced by sin but through the admirable Grace of our Saviour it carries away those reliques of sin which no Tears Prayers Watchings Pious endeavours could utterly extirpate whilest we are in the body it throws down the earthen walls into their mother-dust But who would not dye and with Hilarion bid his Soul Go out that he might be rid of sin There is indeed a passage out of a Temporal life but it is into an Eternal one The soul when it leaves its old friend the body flies into the blessed Region there to enjoy God in an immediate manner to read truth in its Original and taste goodness in the Fountain the body which at present dissolves into dust shall wake again and be made like to the glorious body of Christ Mortal shall put on immortality corruptible incorruption death shall be swallowed up in victory it is no longer an evil to the Believer Again Man was under the Power of Sin and so under the Tyranny of Satan Sin was a Lord a Ruler over him not only over his outward man whose members were the weapons of it but over the inward too It had strong-holds in his Reason and a throne in his Will he was a drudg a slave to his lusts hurried up and down by one Corruption or other wandring in error or swelling in pride or pining in envy or boiling in malice or burning in lust or drowning in sensual pleasures some way or other serving his Iniquity Satan the Ruler of darkness hath a Palace in his heart and keeps possession there upon all occasions he blows up Original Corruption into sinful motions motions into consents consents into acts acts into habits Thus he carries on the sinner in a circle of sinning till inevitable ruin overtake him but in and through Christ there is deliverance from this horrible servitude The Holy Spirit comes and rescues the sinner it opens his eyes to see himself standing as he doth at the brink of Hell and Death it melts him into tears and godly sorrows for sin it breaks down the strong-holds and throne of sin in the heart it casts out Satan and the hellish furniture it translates the poor sinner from the power of darkness into the Kingdom of Christ into a Region of Grace and Power where Sin and Satan cannot have the Victory Those precious Promises that sin shall not have Dominion that Satan shall be bruised under our feet are now sealed and experimented in the heart The poor Captive is now brought out of Bondage into the true liberty of Holiness and Obedience Here we see the matchless incomparable Love of God which delivered us from so many great Evils Hezekiah being rescued from Death made his acknowledgments O Lord thou hast in love to my soul delivered me from the pit of corruption or as the Original hath it Thou hast loved my soul from the pit of corruption Every Believer who hath tasted of the great Salvation may say Lord thou hast loved me from Sin Satan Death Hell by delivering me from all these evils Moreover as all evils were removed so all good things were procured by Christ Temporals were so the world owes its standing to him Justice but for his expiatory Sacrifice would have dashed it down about the sinners â—ears Sin but for the Cement of his blood would have unframed all things in nature that right to the Creature which we forfeited by our iniquity was restored again by his Merits The Believer shall now have so much of the world as infinite Wisdom and Mercy more competent Judges than humane Reason and Will shall think a fit portion for him and what he hath he shall have with the Love
this is but it was never so manifested as in Jesus Christ If ever any creature might preserve it self one would think that the highest noblest of all should do so his human nature was lifted above the top of the Creation above the highest Angel It was which never any Creature was before assumed into the Person of God yet it had no subsistence of its own it did not preserve it self it was held by that Deity which it did cohabit with in the Person of the Word still it was a Creature it could not like the Deity spread it self over the World it was not a self-subsistent or independent upon its Creator Here we plainly see that no creature no not the highest can support it self in being without Providence Ellhardus Lubinus in his Book De Causa Mali hath drawn a very ingenious Scheme to shew the dependence of the Creature upon God he sets the summum Ens uppermost under it the scale of Creatures in their order first Angels then Men then Beasts then Vegetables then meer being under all imum nihil As far as the summum Ens draws any thing ex imo nihilo out of meer nothing so far it ascends the scale into being or life or sense or reason or Angelical perfection As soon as he leaves it it sinks down into the imum nihil into nothing This doth in a very lively manner set forth the dependence of the creature upon its Maker but it was never so fully set forth as in Jesus Christ His human nature though above the whole scale of creatures is supported by the Deity No creature now may presume that it can be a self-subsistent or stand upon its own bottom all must confess a Providence supporting and bearing of them up in being The second act of Providence is Ordinative it directs and governs all God steers the ship of the World and all the passengers in it He orders the great House and all the Families of creatures in it Providence turns every wheel in nature and when there is a wheel within a wheel intricacy and seeming crossness of motion yet there is an eye in the wheel a wise Providence which preserves order in confusions All things are directed by congruous means to their proper end There are millions of creatures which know not what an end is but Providence conducts them thither Millions of Events are casual as to us but there is a certainty in Providence Millions of acts are free as to us yet Providence hath a soveraignty over them In all things God is Alpha and Omega the first Mover and the last End the wise Disposer and sure Moderator of every thing for his own glory This great Truth is excellently set forth in Christ Three things will make this evident 1. There was a signal Providence over Christ 2. There was a great Providence over the fruit of his Satisfaction in raising up a Church 3. All other Providences may be reduced to the other two 1. There was a signal Providence over Christ Gods eye and heart were upon the Temple which was but a type how much more intent must they be upon Christ who is the substance Providence all-along had an eye upon him It watched over his Genealogy a deluge swept away the corrupt World but Noah must have an Ark the true Noah the Messiah who is our rest and comfort was to come from him Abraham's body and Sarah's womb were both dead yet there must be an Isaac that the true Isaac the joy of the Father may come in the flesh from him Isaac was in a sort offered up that he might be a type of Christ but not sacrificed and actually slain that Christ might come from him Judah and Tamar commit incest yet Providence is not at a stand no Medium is too hard for it even this way come the Holy One into the flesh Ruth must leave her Countrey and be married to Boaz that David and afterwards Christ the true David whose Kingdom was to be perpetual might come from thence The whole Scripture aims at Christ but the Book of Ruth seems to be penned on purpose to shew forth his Genealogy The Tribe of Judah was carried to Babylon the Family of David was brought into a very low mean condition but Judah must return again the withered stem of David must bud and bring forth the Messiah and that when it was in the lowest ebb The Lamp of David was almost quite extinct but at the coming of the Messiah it was turned into a glorious Sun which should reign for ever When Christ was to come Providence took order that it should be in due circumstances a long train of types and sacrifices such as filled many ages passed before his appearance There was Gallicinium Prophetarum the Cock-crowing of the Prophets before the rising of this Sun John Baptist came a little before to prepare the way of the Lord by Sermons of Repentance At last he came in the fulness of time in the prae-appointed hour when the Gentiles were desperately corrupted when the Jews were horribly degenerate then he came to heal the world He was born in the right place Augustus's Tax calls up Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem the House of Bread that there our Saviour the true Bread from Heaven might be born He being God and Man in one person Providence took order that all along there should be an appearance of Majesty and Meanness At his birth there was a Star directing to him wise men worshipping him an Host of Angels congratulating the good tydings yet himself an Infant wrapped in poor clouts and laid in a Manger In his life he east out Devils yet was tempted he healed infirmities yet was weary The glory of Mysteries and Miracles brake forth from him yet he was in the fashion and frailty of a man The Officers a little before his death went backward and fell to the ground yet he was apprehended He was crucified through weakness but liveth by the power of God He hung upon a Cross but even there triumphed over all the powers of darkness All which suits to God in the flesh Nothing more sublime than God nothing more vile than Flesh Accordingly in our Saviour there appeared a mixture of glory and weakness To add but one thing more Providence would have the righteousness of his life and the sufferings of his death to be such as might be a full and ample Satisfaction for the sin of the world and so it was The righteousness of his life highly honoured the rule of the Law the sufferings of his death were accommodated as much as could be to the curse of the Law Here the two great things in which the Law hath as high a completure as could possibly be in a Sponsor on our behalf that is fulfilling the righteousness and bearing the curse of the Law were both eminently comprised Here the two great Attributes of God which called for a Satisfaction that is his Holiness which perfectly hates
grace nay precious love-tokens from their Father in Heaven The wicked in their worshipping of God give him only the shell and outside accordingly he gives them the things of this world which in comparison to those of a better are but toys and trifles The good serve God in spirit and truth sutably he makes them to inherit substance Prov. 8.21 that is those spiritual and eternal Realities which transcend all the shadows and pompous apparitions of the world The wicked are creatures and so have a portion in this life yet in the midst of all their prosperity they move to that Hell which is the center of their iniquity The good are sinners and so have some afflictions to purge out the reliques of sin yet in the midst of their troubles they pass on to that Heaven which is the center of their fanctity If the wicked should have nothing but adversity it would look as if there were no judgment to come no after-reckoning for their iniquity If the good should have nothing but prosperity it would seem to hint as if their reward were only here as if there were no such things as Heaven and Life-eternal reserved for them The wicked prosper that we might not set too high a rate or value upon those outward things which the vilest and basest of men enjoy The good are afflicted that the Crowns and Recompences of Holiness might appear to lye not in this vale of tears but in that Region where there is perfect blessedness But pretermitting all these we have an eminent solution of this scruple in our Lord Christ What an excellent one was he What a pure innocent lamb how meek humble holy harmless merciful zealous heavenly obedient patient was he how fair and lovely in all Graces was he what a divine light and lustre did his Virtues cast forth into the World how attractive and ravishing were the Perfections shining out in him What Sermons did he preach What Cures did he do What was his life but a continual doing of good Who where is the man that ever was so profitable to Mankind or so obliged the World as he did And yet how was he used What entertainment did he meet withal here He was despised rejected a man of sorrows acquainted with griefs extreme poor not having where to lay his head at last he was arraigned falsly accused unjustly condemned spit upon buffeted mocked nailed to a tormenting Cross there to breathe out his last Never did Innocency so suffer as here and yet never did Providence shew it self in such glory in and by the sufferings of this Holy One the great work of Redemption was accomplished his Stripes were healing ones his Blood a laver to wash sinners his Cross was a triumphant conquest over Death and Hell his Sacrifice made a perfect atonement his Sufferings answered for the sin and suffering of a World His sorrows made way for good tydings his shame procured glory for us his condemnation was in order to our absolution his poverty was to enrich us with grace and glory This was the very Masterpiece of Providence never did the Sun see such an incomparable design as here out of death comes life out of the sufferings of an holy righteous person rises up an eternal spring of blessings and all good things The last Objection made against Providence is this If there is a Providence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whence is that greatest of evils sin Providence rightly and wisely disposes of things sin is an horrible and monstrous ataxy and confusion such as makes the Earth without form and void Jer. 4.23 as if the old Chaos were come again and how comes it to pass that such an inordinate thing should be in the world It was the Objection of Marcion * Si Deus bonus praescius suturi avertendi mali potens cur hominem quidem imaginem suam passus est labi Tâ—rt Advers Marcion l. 2 That if God were good and foreknowing of futures and able to avert evil he would not have suffered man to fall In answer to this Objection it is to be premised That God is not nor cannot be the author of sin God is light sin darkness God purity sin uncleanness God omnipotency sin imbecillity God a pure act sin a defect Sin cannot be from such an one as he is nevertheless it is clear that sinful actions do not fall out altogether without a Providence The Scripture is very pregnant herein Joseph's Brethren sell him into Egypt but God sent him thither Gen. 45.5 Shimei cursed David but God bid him do so 2 Sam. 16.11 Absalom lies with his Fathers Concubines but God said I will do it 2 Sam. 12.12 a lying spirit deceived Ahab but God said Go and do so 1 King 22.22 Thus and much more saith the holy Book but neither is Reason silent herein I shall therefore offer two things 1. It was a determinate Verity and that before the event that such and such sinful actions should come to pass a Verity it could not be without a Providential purpose for then it would be an independent self-originated unpreventable truth the thing must come to pass whether God would or no That which is of it self and a kind of origine to it self can have no impediment it will exist and be a kind of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or self-subsistent to avoid which absurdities I take it to be necessary to say that such a verity cannot be without a Providence 2. The greater number of humane actions are sinful and if all these were exempt from Providence how could Providence rule the World If God were the author of sin he could not judg the world because he could not be author and ultor respectu ejusdem but if sin fall out without a Providence he could not rule the World because the major part of humane actions are evil But seeing it is certain that Providence is for being and order and that sin is an ataxy and confusion I shall give a more distinct answer to this Objection and here the light must be divided from the darkness In a sinful action there are three things considerable I mean the anomy or ataxy the entity the order of it 1. The anomy or ataxy is meer darkness it is a defect and only from a deficient agent it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the expression is Joh. 8.44 of a mans own Creatura habet redire ad non esse a se the creature falls from its defectibility and pravity here Providence is only a permissor on the one hand it is certain that no sin can possibly come to pass without a permission If God suffer it not no man can wrong Israel Psal 105.14 And which is less than an injurious act Balaam cannot curse her Numb 22.38 And which is yet less than a cursing word the Idolatrous Nations cannot desire her Land Exod. 34.24 Let a man be in never so great a phrensie of lust God can hedg
saved without any respect to Christ or faith in him and what need then was there of Christ or his satisfactory sufferings for us the great work might be done without him Hence it appears that to deny Original sin is to cast off Christ and Grace The Jewish Rabbins who made the evil figment in mans heart to be but a light matter small as a thread weak as a woman ruleable by the good figment of our own reason were very ignorant of that great point of Regeneration Hence Nicodemus a Master in Israel was startled and stood at a maze at our Saviours Doctrine about it How can a man be born when he is old can he enter the second time into his mothers womb and be born saith he Joh. 3.4 Such carnal and gross expostulations could never have dropt from him if he had had a true sense of Original sin but for want of that Regeneration was a strange and unintelligible mystery to him The Pagan Philosophers had some glimmerings of Original sin hence they complained that the soul had lost her wings and crept upon these lower things that it was in the body as a prison and there lookt out at the grates of sense that it was fallen from the happy Region and inclined to evil But because these were but glimmerings they did not so much as dream of Grace or Regeneration because they did not see the depth and venom of our Original wound they thought there was medicamentum in latere enough in the Power and Free-will of the soul to heal it self they reckoned all virtues to be among the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the things in our power and accounted the will to be such a mistress of it self that it might make it self good and excellent at its pleasure By all these instances we see plainly that the Doctrine of Original sin is very useful and momentous Original sin is set forth by many names in Scripture It is called Sin The sinning sin The sin that dwelleth in us The sin that doth easily beset us The Law of sin and death The Law in the Members The flesh and the old man The root of bitterness The plague of the heart in the Fathers it is called the paternal poyson The first radical sin The venom and stroke of the old serpent The contagion of the ancient death The weight of the ancient crime The injury of our Original And St. Austin that he might ascertain that in which he opposed the Pelagians called it Original sin from whence that name was afterwards frequent in the Church it was so called partly because we have it in our Original it is interwoven with our nature and may say to every one of us As soon as thou wert I am partly because it is derived to us from Adam the head and original of mankind * Non peccat iste qui nascitur non peccat ille qui genuit non peccat iste qui condidit per quas rima◠inter tot praesidia innocentiae peccatum fingis ingressum Aust de Nup. l. 2.28 Hence when Julian the Pelagian argued thus against Original sin He sins not who is born he sins not who begets he sins not who creates By what chinks or cranies among so many guards of innocence Quid quaerit latentem rimam cum habeat a pertissimam januam Per unum hominem ait Apostolus quid quaerit amplius do you feign that sin did enter St. Austin answers him thus Why doth he seek a chink or a crany when he hath an open gate By one man saith the Apostle what would he have more It is that one man Adam the original of mankind by whom sin entred into the world it is by him that it is derived to us That one Text touching the one man is enough to break and sweep away all the subtile cobwebs which the Pelagians and Socinians have spun out of their Wit and carnal Reason to oppose the Doctrine of Original sin Original sin consists in two things 1. In that Adams first sin is imputatively ours 2. In that we have an inordination and inherent pravity derived upon us from him The first thing is Adams first sin imputatively ours not that God reputes us to have done it in our own person not that it is imputed to us in the full latitude as it was to Adam We sinned not as the head and root of mankind we murdered not the whole humane nature we did not usher in sin and death upon the world no as the Apostle saith this was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by one Adam but as soon as any man becomes proles Adae in conjunction with him it is imputed to him pro mensura membri in such sort and proportion as is competent to him being a part and piece as it were of Adam 12. Quest 81. Art 1. Aquinas illustrates this by a notable instance Murder as a sin is not imputable to the hand in it self as distinct or separate from the body but as it is a Member in man and moved by his Will in like manner the sin of Adam is imputed to us not so properly as we are in our selves but as we are parts and pieces of him and derived our nature from him Adams sin was past before we were born It is therefore as Bellarmine well expresses it Nobis communicatur co modo quo communicari potest id quod transiit nimirum per imputationem De Amiss Grat. l. 5. c. 17. communicated to us in that manner as a thing past can be communicated namely by imputation we did not personally commit it It is therefore imputed to us in that measure as is fit and just for it to be imputed to those who are parts and members of Adam In that capacity it is constructively and interpretatively ours and accordingly God justly reckons and imputes it unto us That this is so I shall offer some Considerations 1. That of the Apostle is very pregnant by one man sin entred into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned Rom. 5.12 In the Original it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in him that is in Adam all have sinned Those words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are Relative Three things as St. Cont. 2. Epist Ptl. l. 4. c. 4. Austin observes are set down in this verse before Adam Sin and Death those words relate not to sin for Sin in the Greek is a Feminine nor to death for men do not sin in death but dye in sin therefore they relate to Adam in him all have sinned It 's true others take the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 causally for that all have sinned But I think that as I said before they are to be taken Relatively in him all have sinned Thus those three things which the Apostle conjoyned together in this verse that is the propagation of sin the original of death and the foundation of both very well cohere
together in this manner The first we have in those words By one man sin entred into the world The second in those Death passed upon all The third in those In him all have sinned Thus those phrases sin entred death passed have a plain explication Sin did not stay in Adam but it entred into the world But if Adams sin be not imputatively ours how did it enter It entred by Imitation say the Pelagians but how vain is this Sin entred upon all upon whom death passed and death passed upon all without exception But neither infants who sin not actually or after the similitude of Adams transgression nor those adult persons who sin actually but never so much as heard of Adams sin could have sin from Adam by Imitation We are all sinners and children of wrath not by Imitation but by nature Adams sin was not meerly his own but ours by Imitation Thus sin entred into the world and as a penal fruit of it death passed upon all it did not stay at Adam but passed upon all and if Adams sin became not ours how should that be The Apostle doth not barely set down sin and death but sets them down in their order and connexion First sin entred and then death passed and that not as a meer infelicity or misery but as a just punishment for sin Hence it is observable that the Text saith That death came by sin and so passed upon all The Particles by and fo shew that death passed upon all as a punishment If Adams sin were not all mens how could death pass upon infants who have no actual sin God is not cannot be unjust where there is no fault there is no room for punishment if infants in no sense transgressed the Command in Adam the death in the threatning cannot fall upon them De Incar c. 14. Quâ justitiâ parvulus subjicitur peccati stipendio si nulla est in eo peccati pollutio saith Fulgentius With what justice can an infant be subject to the wages of sin if the pollution of it be not in him May there be poena sine causa a punishment without a why or a wherefore It cannot be If therefore even Infants in Adam died as the Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 15.22 then in Adam all sinned as he tells us in the frequented Text. That this is the genuine meaning of it doth not only appear by the Text it self but by that which followeth By one mans disobedience many were constituted sinners v. 19. No. unimputed sin can do this If therefore Adams sin constitute us sinners it is imputed to us To say as the Socinians and some others do to constitute us sinners is only to make us obnoxious to death and so to be treated as sinners is a thing vain and repugnant to the Text. To be treated as a sinner is not to be constituted such To be treated as a sinner when a man is not such is very unjust and unequal To be a sinner is to be culpable or guilty of a fault and the proper signification must be retained The Apostle in this Chapter evidently distinguishes between sin and death transgression and condemnation and makes Adam the origine of both first of sin and then by sin of death Therefore Adam first makes us sinners and then obnoxious to death Thus the words being taken relatively In him all have sinned the conclusion is plain That Adams sin is imputed to us Nay if the words be taken causally for that all have sinned the conclusion is the very same If death passed upon all men because all have sinned then Infants because death passes upon them have sinned And how have they sinned Not in their own persons they are not capable of sinning actually but in Adam the root of mankind Not by an Imitation they are not capable of such a thing but by a participation of the first sin which by a just Imputation becomes theirs 2. The capacity which Adam was in is very considerable He was not considered as a meer individual person but as the Principle and Origine of Human nature The admirable endowments of righteousness and immortality were trusted and deposited in his hands not meerly for himself but for his posterity The command was not given to him as to a singular person but as the Root and Head of Mankind The Covenant made with him run thus If he did as he was able obey the command he should transfer innocency and life to his posterity If not he should transfer sin and death to it We were in him naturally as latent in his Joins and legally as comprized within the Covenant This is very clear because the death in the threatning annexed to the command given to him falls upon his posterity Had not the command extended to his children the threatning could not have reached them Had not they sinned in Adam their Head and Root death could not have faln upon them in such sort as it doth that is in a state of infancy void of any actual sin of its own This being the true state of things it is no wonder at all that Adams sin should be imputed to us as parts and pieces of him Adam was here considered as the Root and Origine of mankind his Person was the fountain of ours his Will the representative of ours Omnes nos unus ille Adam We were one with him and branches of him Hence we sinned in his sin and putrified in him as in the root These things if weighed give an easie solution to all the cavils and objections which the Pelagians and their followers make against the imputation of Adams sin to us First They say Deus qui propria peccata remittit non imputat aliena God who forgives us our own sins doth not impute to us another mans But here is a great mistake as if Adams sin were just nothing at all to us Adam was the Root and bore all mankind in himself we were seminally and legally in him His sin therefore was not alien altogether to us but in a sort our own We sinned in him as our Head We fell with him as the branches fall with the body of the Tree St. Austin saith Contr. Jul. l. 6 cap. 4. Though Adams sin were alien proprietate actionis yet it was ours contagione propaginis Gregory Nazianzen speaking of Adams sin cryes out pathetically O infirmitatem meam O my infirmity St. Serm. 1. Dom. 1. Post 8. Epiph Bernard notably expresses it Culpa aliena est quia in Adam omnes nescientes peccavimus nostra quia etsi in alio nos tamen peccavimus nobis justo Dei judicio imputabatur licet occulto Adams sin was alien to us because we ignorantly sinned in him yet it was ours because we sinned though in another and it was to us imputed by the just though secret counsel of God Again they say That which is properly sin in us is voluntary and an act of our will but Adams was
not such I answer The foundation of this Objection That all proper sin is voluntary or an act of our will is not universally true Vain thoughts are sin and such as are the objects of a good mans hatred much more of the hatred of the Holy One yet they are no acts of our will The first risings and stirrings of lust which antecede consent are sins and yet no acts of our will The mutinies and rebellions of the lower faculties against Reason are sins and yet no acts of our will But might this rule hold in actual sin yet surely it cannot in original for then there should be no such thing as original sin though Scriptures Fathers Councils assert it though the Church have been possessed of this truth in all ages yet it is an error there is really no such thing For neither was Adams transgression the act of our will neither is the inherent pravity in us such If then we confess original sin we must acknowledg that the rule extends not to it Thus when Julian objects That there is no sin in Infants because they have not the exercise of free-will St. Austin distinguishes thus Hoc recte dicitur propter proprium cujusque Contr. Jul. lib. 3. cap. 5. peccatum non propter primi peccati originale contagium Whatever may be said in actual sin it is not so in original Further Adams sin as to us may be said to be voluntary in two respects the one is this It was voluntary voluntate primi parentis in the will of Adam the Head of Mankind while he stood in his integrity He was the moral Head of Mankind and as Bellarmine speaks Totius humani generis gessit personam he sustained the person of all mankind his will therefore was interpretatively ours our will was virtually in his Murder is imputed to the hand because the will though it be not there is yet in that person of whom the hand is a part In like manner Adams sin is imputed to us because the will though it was not personally in us was yet in him of whom we are parts and members Thus that learned Professor Dr. De Peccat Or. 107. Ward Ex voluntate primi parentis ex quo tota posteritas derivatur peccatum illud in posteris velut in membris Adae voluntarium esse censetur The will of the first Parent from whom all the posterity is derived renders his sin voluntary in all men as being members of him The other respect is this it is voluntary in us in our own persons habitually there is in us an evil frame and disposition to sin and transgress as Adam did the act was his yet a seed of it is found in us Further they say It is against justice and equity that Adams sin should be imputed to us that we innocent in our selves should be guilty by a sin not our own I answer Adams capacity considered there is no injustice in it he was the head and root of mankind he was the common Trustee of righteousness and immortality for all the Covenant was made with him for himslf and for his posterity his sin therefore was not meerly his but ours neither are we born innocent but guilty If it were against justice and equity to impute his sin to us then it was against justice and equity to punish us for it with death temporal spiritual eternal But the latter is false so therefore is the former Death falls as a punishment upon Infants void of actual sin of their own Thus the Apostle lays it down clearly Sin entered into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men Rom. 5.12 Death was not a meer misery or infelicity but a just punishment Surely it consists not with justice and equity that proper punishment should fall on persons altogether void of guilt or that the threatning of death should seize upon those who no way transgressed that command to which it was annexed therefore the imputation of Adams sin to us is so far from being against justice and equity that without it the equity and justice of God in inflicting death as a punishment upon all men cannot be reasonably cleared I need add but one thing more God dealt with Adam the head of mankind upon terms of abundant equity for as Adam sinning was to transfer sin and death to us so Adam obeying was to transfer righteousness and immortality to us The terms were equal on both hands we were in him as our head as well for the obtaining of blessedness upon his obedience as for the incurring punishment upon his disobedience These objections being removed out of the way I conclude That the capacity which Adam stood in at first is a clear evidence that his sin is imputed to us 3. If Adams sin be not imputed to us then neither was his righteousness so then we never were righteous we never were esteemed such in Gods account then we are not fallen creatures we are meerly simply as God made us Then what need of renovation or regeneration An unfallen creature is uncapable of reparation Whence then or by what way could it possibly come to pass that there should be an innate inordination or proneness to evil in us Such things cannot be found in an unfallen rational creature yet doubtless they are found in us The Scripture tells us that we are naturally dark nay darkness it self That the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked Nay the very Philosophers spied out this Hence Tully saith That man was brought forth into life not by nature as a Mother but as a Step-mother with a body naked frail infirm with a mind anxious in troubles low in fears soft in labours prone to lusts Upon which St. Austin glosses thus Contr. Jul. l. 4. cap. 12. Naturam accusavit rem vidit causam nescivit latebat eum cur esset grave jugum super filios Adam He accused nature the thing he saw the cause he knew not the grievous yoke on the sons of Adam was hid from him Nay the very Socinians though in the point of Original sin they are more blind and void of sense than Pagans confess thus much Homines ad peccandum sunt naturâ proni Volk de Rel. l. 1. c. 6. Men are by nature prone to sin Nay it is added sense and appetite draw them as it were with chains to vice Thus saith one of them Whence then is this natural inordination and pravity Is it from the fall We are not fallen creatures Is it from the Creator It is impossible Darkness cannot be from the Father of lights nor pravity from the fountain of infinite goodness Adams sin not being imputed to us no tolerable account can be given how it should ever come to exist among men But supposing what is most true That it is naturally in us yet unless Adams sin be imputatively ours it is not sin in us What though we want knowledg and righteousness It is
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
can do it but Christ's Satisfaction The Quaere therefore is Whether that Satisfaction be our Righteousness in it self or only in its effects if in the effects only then something less than Christ's satisfaction viz. an effect is our Righteousness as to the Law and by consequence something less than that satisfies the Law I cannot imagine that one thing should satisfie the Law and another justifie against it one and the same satisfaction of Christ doth both There are but two sorts of Righteousness as to the Law the one a Righteousness in the idem a direct conformity to it the other a Righteousness in valor a full compensation or satissaction for the breaches of it a third cannot be found where there is neither such a conformity to the Law that all is done as it ought to be nor such a satisfaction to it that all that is done amiss is compensated there is no such thing as Righteousness a pardon or freedom from punishment there may be but a Righteousness there is not Because there is nothing done to the Law either by way of obedience or recompence and where nothing is done to the Law there cannot be a Righteousness Now a Sinner not being capable of a Righteousness of consormity his Righteousness must be that of a satisfaction or compensation not an effect of it but the thing it self no other thing can be a Sinners Righteousness It is observable in Scripture That Justification is so set forth that the Law is established in it Rom. 3.31 that its Righteousness is fulfilled Rom. 8.4 that it hath its end Rom. 10.4 And all this because in Christ's Satisfaction there is a full compensution made for sin such as comes in the room of a perfect conformity and supplies that defect of it which rises out of the suult committed This is done by the Satisfaction it self not by an effect of it Nothing less than it self could give the Law its end or establishment If that Satisfaction be our Righteousness not in it self but in its effects what is that effect Is it a Pardon that is God's act God's act may make or esteem us righteous but it is not the Righteousness it self it is a jus impunitatis that is not the Righteousness it self a Righteousness as to the Law must be either a perfect conformity or a satisfaction but a Jus impunitatis is neither of these as in Condemnation the Obligatio ad paenam is not the very culpa but a consequent of it So in Justification the Jus impunitatis is not the very Righteousness but a consequent of it A Jus impunitatis is opposite to the reatus paenae but a Satisfaction which is our true Righteousness is opposite to the reatus culpae as compensating the fault committed It remains therefore that Christ's Satisfaction is not in its effects but in it self our Righteousness which also further appears In that when we are to answer for our breaches of the Law our great Plea is to that no other than his Satisfaction Ostendo fide jussorem meum De Just hab 370. saith Bishop Davenant When the Law makes its demands against me I shew my Sponsor Christ who satisfied it Now if his Satisfaction be it self our Righteousness it must be made ours by Imputation for that which is not ours cannot be our Righteousness neither doth God who judgeth according to Truth esteem it such You will say Though it self be not ours yet it is that for which God doth justifie us To which I answer Though God justifie us for it yet unless it be ours it is no more our Righteousness than it is our Holiness when God sanctifies us for it no Man I think will call it our Holiness no more unless it be ours may we call it our Righteousness If it be ours by Imputation then it is more than a meritorious cause It is the very matter of our Justification neither can I tell how to think it less seeing a Sinner is capable of no other Righteousness as to the Law but a Satisfaction seeing so glorious a Satisfaction as that of Christ is is ushered into the World for that very end it is to me unimaginable that that Satisfaction should yet not be our Righteousness as to the Law but something less than it self should have the honour of it Thirdly Very momentous in this point is the collation of the two Adams Rom. 5. the first Adam was the Origen of Sin Christ the second Adam was the Origen of Righteousness and Life never were there in the World two such Heads as these uterque quod suumest cum suis communicat as the Learned Beza hath it Adam communicates Sin and Death to his Posterity Christs Righteousness and Life to his believing Seed in the parallel it is observable that Christ is as strong nay a stronger Head than Adam Adam was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Type of him that was to come and less then the Antitype who was more potent to rebuild the ruines of the fall than Adam was to make them Righteousness came as full from Christ as sin did from Adam nay more fully as the Apostle hints in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 verse 15. and in the abundance and superabundance of Grace vers 17. 20. hence it appears that so far as Adam's sin was ours so far is Christ's Righteousness ours also Adam's sin was not ours in the full latitude as it was in him we did not eat the Fruit in our own persons we were not heads of Mankind we did not usher in Sin and Death upon the World no this was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by that one Adam neither was it ours in the effect only for then our innate pravity would be no sin as meerly proceeding from that first sin of Adam in which we participated not that in the Schools must needs be true peccatum habituale dicit essentialem ordinem ad praecedens actuale It s impossible that one should be a sinner habitually who in no sense was a sinner before hence that of St. Austin quoted by Dr. Ward Nulla foret hominis culpa st talis a Deo Creatus esset qualis nunc nascitur it remains therefore that Adam's sin it self is derived to each one of us pro ratione membri proportionably Christ's satisfaction is not ours in the full latitude as it was in him we satissied not God's Justice in our own Persons we were not Heads of the Church neither did we usher in Life and Righteousness into the World no it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by that one Christ neither is it ours in the effect only for then the effect a thing less than the satisfaction it self should justifie or make us righteous against the Law which cannot be It remains therefore that it is it self derived upon each one of us pro mensurâ membri Again Adam's sin did first in order of Nature make us sinners by it self imputed and then by the inherent pravity consequent in like
imputed to the Members of the Body as being in conjunction with the Soul else the Body should not rise and suffer for it But how is it imputed what in the full latitude Doth God account that the sin properly did issue from the Members and reside there It is not true or possible yet in a lower and diminutive manner is it to them imputed nor according to Principles of Justice our sin and that as but now was proved not in the effect only but in some sence in it self was imputed to Christ and that upon Principles of Justice upon his Sponsion to satisfie for us our sin was imputed to him but what in the full latitude what to make as if there were a spot or turpitude in the Holy one as if he by his own sinful commissions had deserved penal sufferings No by no means but in the least respect that could possibly be in no other respect than this viz. So far as to render his sufferings penal Nor yet according to the Divine Constitution this is most proper to the present case And for this I must bring forth the Parallel of the two Adams because there never were any two such Heads as these Adam's sin as I have before proved was imputed to us but what in its full latitude Were we the Head of Mankind did we usher in Sin and Death upon the World as Adam did No This was by one Adam but in a lower measure and according to the capacity of Members it came upon us as Bellarmine well expresses it Eo modo quo communicari potest id quod transit nimirum per imputationem it came upon us ex post facto after the action done Interpretativè and by way of reception it only so far redounded upon us as by that sin to make us sinners Rom. 5.19 In like manner Christ's Righteousness is imputed to us but what in its full latitude were we the Saviours or Redeemers of the World did we usher in Life and Righteousness upon the Church No This was by one Christ but in a lower measure and according to the capacity of Members it comes upon us only by Imputation and Interpretativè it only so far redounds upon us as by that Righteousness to make us righteous against the Law Rom. 5.19 These things being laid down it appears that the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness to us doth not imply that we are our own Saviours or Redeemers much less that we are such to the World we did not satisfie Divine Justice No This is as Bishop Davenant tells Bellarmine Ridicula illatio a thing which cannot be inferred from imputed Righteousness we do only as Members of Christ so far participate of his Satisfaction as to be thereby justified against the Law To say that his Satisfaction if imputed to us must become ours as amply as it is his is to say things impossible as if Imputation were as much as Action or the derivative could equalize the Primitive as if Head and Members because there is a communication between them must be confounded and become the same as if the Believer if once called into Communion with Christ as the Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 1.9 must become a Christ a Saviour or Mediator all which is meer confusion But in Imputation the proportion between Head and Members is kept inviolate Christ the Head communicates to Believers yet Salva praerogativâ capitis Believers receive from him but it is only in the measure of Members Object 3. If Christ's Righteousness be imputed to us then God reputes us to have made satisfaction and so errs in his Judgement which cannot be Ans God with out error imputes Adam's sin to us yet doth not repute us to be the very doers of it he without error imputes the internal sin of the Will to the Members of the Body yet doth not repute the Members to have done it Christ's Satisfaction is not imputed to us as to Agents but as to Participant Members and that truly because according to that Divine Constitution which made Christ an Head as strong to communicate Righteousness as Adam was to convey sin Object 4. If Christ's Righteousness be imputed to us then we are as righteous as Christ is Ans The Consequence is absurd and the Learned Chamier gives this Reason Fieri non posse ut tà m justus sit qui inhaerenter injustus imputativè justus est quà m qui inhaerentèr justus nam iste à se per se justus est ille tantùm precariò id est aliundè in alio Christ's Righteousness hath distinct respects as to himself it was the idem as to us the tantundem as it was inherent in him it was Justifying and Sanctifying too as it is imputed to us it is Justifying only it was Christ's in the Agency the glory of it is ours only by Participation Christ is the Author of the Satisfaction we are but the Receivers in the quality of Members it was his in the capacity of a Sponsor Saviour Redeemer Mediator Head it is ours only derivatively and as participant Members of him Object 5. Imputed Righteousness is the root of Antitinomianism this dissolves the Law as if it did no longer oblige us to Obedience Ans Christ's Righteousness is not imputed to us as it is the idem of the Law but as it is a Satisfaction made thereunto neither was that satisfaction meant to dissolve the Law-obligation so as that it should cease to be a Rule of Holiness in point of Sanctification but to dissolve it so as that the Law should demand from Believers no other matter but it self in point of Justification Did it cease to be a Rule of Holiness in Sanctification we must all be Antinomians Did it not cease to demand no more than it self in Justification we must all be undone it s further demand viz. Perfect Obedience from us in our Persons being impossible Justification and Salvation must be so also Christ's Satisfaction was made that we might be justifiable against the Law it is imputed that we may be actually justified against it If the Satisfaction imputed run into Antinomianism so doth the Satisfaction made which is indeed the Socinian out-cry Contr. Meisn 208. Quis nexus quae copula inter sidem quâ creditur Christum pro nobis Deo plenissimè satisfecisse inter bonorum operum studium So Schlictingius Quid causae est De Ver. Rel. l. 5. c. 22. cur is qui satisfactionem istam persuasam habens aliquid in repellendâ à se impietate justitiáque colendâ laboris sibi ponendum existimet So Volkelius Now what is answered on the behalf of Satisfaction made viz. That the Law is still a Rule of Holiness that Christ's Satisfaction is an inflammative to it that the just odium of sin is seen in the atoning Blood that that Blood is sprinkled only upon Believers with the like the same may be as truly answered on the behalf of Satisfaction imputed Object 6. If
that such things as these should be made known to us that Heaven should open and let down such mysteries before our eyes What manner of persons ought we to be who live in the shining days of the Gospel who have so much of the Divine glory breaking out upon us let us a little sit down and consider how infinite is the malignity of Sin how deep the stain of it when God who cannot nugas agere made such ado about the expiation of it when nothing less than the Blood of his own Son could wash it out Now to have slight thoughts of it is to Blaspheme the great Atonement now to indulge it is to rake in the wounds of Christ and Crucify him afresh to our selves How precious should Christ be to us how altogether lovely what a Person is the Eternal Word what an Union is Immanuel God and Man in one what a Laver is his Blood what a sweet-smelling Sacrifice is his Death who can tell over the unsearchable riches of his merit or set a rate high enough upon that righteousness of his which refreshes the heart of God and Man what a Sponsor was he who satisfied infinite Justice for the Sin of a World and what an excellent head who makes his Righteousness reach down to every Believer in the World who would not now say that he is totus desideria altogether loves and desires what little things are Worlds and Creatures what Dross and Dung in comparison what a wretched thing is a dead and frozen heart which will not warm and take fire at so ravishing an Object Who would now live in the old Adam the head of Sin and Death any longer or content himself in any state short of an Union with Christ in whom Righteousness and Life are to be had O how should we act our Faith upon him and give him the glory of his Righteousness and Satisfaction by believing How should we venture our Souls what ever our Debts are upon the great Surety Who paid the utmost Farthing and had a total discharge in his Resurrection How we should hide our selves in the Clefts of the Rock in the precious wounds of Christ as in a City of refuge where the avenging Law satisfied therein can never pursue and overtake us How willing should we now be to have Christ reign over us What! hath he come from Heaven and in our flesh fulfilled all Righteousness and by his obedience unto Death even the death of the Cross satisfied for our sins and turned away the dreadful wrath due to the same and shall he not Reign over us Hath he bore the heavy end of the Law the sinless obedience which we could not perform and the curse which if we had been under would have sunk us down into Hell for ever and shall he not Reign over us when by a condescending Law of Grace suited to our frailty he calls for nothing from us but sincerity Oh! prodigious ingratitude who would be guilty of it or can be so that is a Believer indeed Let us therefore by Faith joyn our selves to Christ that we may be justified by his Righteousness and as a real proof of it let us resign up our selves in sincere obedience to him that having our fruit unto holiness we may have the end everlasting Life CHAP. XII Chap. 12 Touching an Holy Life It is not from Principles of Nature it is the fruit of a renewed regenerated heart it issues out of Faith and Love it proceeds out of a pure intention towards the Will and Glory of God it is humble and dependant upon the influences of Grace it requires a sincere mortification of Sin without any Salvo or exception it stands in an exercise of all Graces it makes a man holy in Ordinances alms prosperity adversity contracts calling there is such an exercise of graces as causeth them to grow The conclusion of the Chapter HAving treated of Justification I come in the Last place to speak of an Holy Life which is an inseparable companion of the other Where Grace justifies and pardons there it heals where Christ is made Righteousness there he is made Sanctification these Twins of Grace can never be parted but ye are sanctified but ye are justified saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 6.11 Justification and Sanctification are ever in conjunction as in God Justice and Holiness In Christ the Priestly and Kingly Offices in the Gospel the Promises and the Precepts and in the Sinner the Guilt and the Power of Sin are in Conjunction so in Believers Justification and Sanctification are in Conjunction Were this Conjunction dissolved the other could not well together consist the person being Justified and yet not Sanctified Gods Justice must spare him yet his Holiness must hate him Christ must satisfie and save him as a Priest yet not command him as a King The Promises must speak comfort to him yet are the Precepts broken by him the guilt of Sin must be done away yet the power and love of it must remain but none of these can stand together neither can Justification stand without Sanctification An Holy life is a life separate and consecrated unto God the life of Sense is common to bruits a life of Reason is common to Men but a life of Holiness is separate and consecrated unto God the Epicurean would frui carne enjoy the Flesh the Stoick would frui mente enjoy his Mind and Reason but the Holy Man would frui Deo enjoy his God The Jewish Doctors call God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 place and the holy Man makes him such he would not go out from God or seek any other Being but in him he would not dwell in the barren Region of Self or Creatures but in God the Fountain and Ocean of all goodness his works are all wrought in God his rest and center are only in his Will and Glory he is not his own any longer The great Titles of Creator and Redeemer proper to his God will not suffer him to be so it is no less than Sacriledge in his eyes to be his own or so much as in a thought to steal away ought from God to whom his Spirit Soul Body all is due his Reason is not his own as one who knows it to be a borrowed light he resigns it up to God the Father of lights to be illuminated by him and to the holy mysteries to be ruled by them without asking any why's or wherefores Those two words Deus Dixit God saith is Satisfaction enough to him his Will is not his own it is not a Rule or Law to it self God is indeed such to himself but the Holy man will not perversely imitate God or like the Prince of Tyrus Cum homo vult aliquid per propriam voluntatem Deo aufert quasi suam Coronam Ansel de simil cap. 8. set his Heart as the Heart of God Ezek. 28.2 He will not snatch at God's Crown or assume his Glory he knows that his Will was made to
die and in that other which is a kind of Commentary upon it Cursed is he that continueth not in all things These Threatnings which were the sanction of that eternal Law touching which our Saviour assures us that one jot or tittle of it shall not pass away are not to be confounded with those conditional Threatnings which are extant in Scripture and were by God used to induce men unto repentance Now that Truth might be salved there was in Christs Sufferings a conjunction of a Satisfaction and a kind of execution of the Law Indeed an execution of it in the rigour or strict letter of it there was not neither could that be but upon the Sinner himself yet there was a kind of execution of it in an equitable sense in our Sponsor Jesus Christ his Satisfaction though it was not the idem the very same which the letter of the Law called for yet in infinite Wisdom it was accommodated to the terms of the Law as far as the decorum of his Sacred Person could admit of in the threatning there was Death and a Curse and both these were in the sufferings of Christ hence the Apostle saith That sin was so condemned in his flesh that the righteousness of the Law was fulfilled Rom. 8.3 4. It was in a sort executed in our Surety that in the same sufferings there might be a satisfaction to Justice and a compliance with Truth He that considers these Conjunctions will have cause to cry out with the Psalmist Mercy and truth are met together righteousness and peace have kissed each other Psalm 85.10 5. That poor lapsed man with his blind eyes and hard heart utterly uncapable in himself of Heaven may be made meet for it there was in Christs sufferings a conjunction of Satisfaction and Merit Justice was compensated and Grace impetrated Indeed the Socinians blind with their own corrupt reason cannot see how these two should stand together ubi est satisfactlo ibi non est meritum Satisfactio est solutio debiti de jure meritum autem opus indebitum Soc. Satisfaction being the payment of a just debt and Merit the doing of an undue work To which I answer It is true that when one pays a finite sum for his own debt there is not there cannot be a merit in it but when Jesus Christ paid down sufferings of an infinite value for us there cannot but be an immense merit in them Infinity is an Ocean and may run over in effects as far as it pleases those sufferings had a kind of Infinity in them enough to pay divine Justice and over and above by a redundance of merit to purchase all grace for us Hence the Apostle saith That the Holy Ghost is shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ Tit. 3.6 Christ ascended up to Heaven in the glory of his Merits and from thence poured down the Holy Spirit on men that their blind eyes might be opened upon the mysteries of the Gospel and their hard hearts might be melted into repentance Thus a fair way is opened to make fal'n man capable of Eternal Life 6. Because the inward vital principles of Grace in men must needs flourish most when there is an outward excellent pattern of Holiness set before them there was therefore in Christs sufferings a conjunction of Merit and Example the Merit procured the principles of Grace and the Example by its divine beauty drew them out into imitation Vix fieri posse videtur ut unâ eâdem re satisfiat simul exemplum relinquatur Socin Prael cap. 20. Socinus thinks that a Satisfaction and an Example can very hardly meet together in the same thing the like scruple may be made touching Merit and Example and the very truth is Satisfaction and Merit are a Cup which we cannot drink of a Sea in which we cannot trace or follow our Saviour Nevertheless infinite Wisdom laid one plot under another and under inimitable Satisfaction and Merit couch'd an incomparable pattern of Holiness for us We may clearly see in him how we are to mortifie corruptions bear afflictions learn obedience by sufferings and obey unto the death In these he hath left us an Example that we might follow his steps 1 Pet. 2.21 Having seen the contrivance in these rare Conjunctions let us now consider how the Divine Wisdom set Ambushments for our spiritual Enemies I mean Sin Satan the World and Death all which are in a very admirable manner overcome by Jesus Christ Sin which meritoriously was the bloody crucifier of the Son of God was crucified together with him when he suffered it was in his flesh condemned as an accursed thing worthy to die no sooner are we in him by Faith but it loses its kingdom and by a divine Virtue from his Cross it droops and languishes away in us Satan the arch-enemy at Christs death seemed to be a Conqueror that God Incarnate should be slain by his hellish Instruments that the whole Church should die in its Head looks like a mighty Victory when the Head shall die what shall the Members do when the Sun the great Globe of Light in the spiritual World shall be turned into blood what should remain but that darkness which Satan hath the power of Upon the death of the Duke of Guise Henry the Third broke out thus Nunc demum Rex sum Now at last I am King Upon the death of our Saviour Satan might suppose himself absolute Prince in the lower World a greater Adam than the first being fallen no man can probably stand before him But here infinite Wisdom shews forth it self Satan is taken in his own snare by that very death of Christ which was procured by his own Agents is he utterly overthrown Christ upon the Cross did spoil Principalities and Powers and triumph over them in it Col. 2.15 The satisfaction in his sufferings paid off divine Justice and the Merit in them procured that divine Spirit which is able to bind and cast out Satan from the hearts of men The Cross was now turned into a triumphant Chariot and as an Ancient hath it there were two affixed to it Du◠in cruce affixi sunt Christus visibiliter sponte ad tempus diabolus invisibiliter invitus in perpetuum Orig. Christ visibly freely for a time the Devil invisibly coactively for ever that Cross was a final Victory over him He was overcome not by a man only but by a man suffering bleeding dying upon a Cross the Lord reigneth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the Cross as some of the Ancients read that 10th verse in the 96 Psalm through death he destroyed him that had the power of death that is the devil Heb. 2.14 The Devil was destroyed by Death his own weapon and overcome in that which he had the power of The wicked World at the death of Christ triumphed and insulted even to blasphemy He saved others himself he cannot save Matth. 27.42 as if all his miraculous power were now
Aurelianus Dioclesianus turned their bloody swords upon them The very name of a Christian was crime enough upon every ill accident the Christians were cryed out upon as worthy of death as the only causes of the incumbent Calamity Thus the Powers of the World for the three first Centuries though ordained for good were Patrons of that great Evil Idolatry and utter Enemies to that great good Christianity No Christian in those times could imagine to retain his Religion unless he were willing to part with his life for it The great men in Wisdom the Philosophers of the World were Adversaries to Christianity their Wits as well as the Emperors Swords were bent against it outwardly they were in the splendor of Morality and seemed to make some approaches towards Christian Virtues but inwardly they were black with Enmity against the Gospel and at a vast distance from the holy Temper of it Many cavils they made against the Christians but the root of their Enmity lay in two or three things 1. Their carnal Reason would not stoop to the supernatural Truths revealed in the Gospel they were for Humane Wisdom but against Divine Those natural Truths which were within the sphere of Reason they looked on as Wisdom But those supernatural ones which were above it they esteemed no better than foolishness scorning that which they could not measure and casting that down below their Reason which indeed was above it With them St. Paul was but a babler Act. 17.18 one who had gathered up some vanities that he might scatter them abroad to others The Resurrection was a matter of mockery vers 32 as if the limits of Nature could not be exceeded no not by the God of it They thought that there was nothing in the Christian Doctrines Magd. cent 2. cap. 15. Fat c. Graecos praeter stultitiam nugas but toys and follies That God should be born a Man was against Reason a thing utterly incredible That a crucified man should be second to God the Father of all Just Mart. ad Anton. was madness and intolerable folly They thought that all the Wisdom lay on their own side Celsus could find much wiser things in Plato than in the Sacred Scriptures Julian boasted that the Gentiles had all the learning Spond Ann. Nazian Or. the Christians had only their Creed as if Faith which is a key to infinite treasures of Wisdom were a poor inconsiderable nothing These wise men of the World would not be made wiser than their own reason had made them and upon that account they set themselves against the great Mysteries of the Gospel 2. Their corrupt hearts would not brook that simplicity and sincerity which the Gospel called for they knew well enough that there was but one God yet in their very Worship in which if in any thing they should have been sincere and pure-hearted they dissembled and made as if there were many complying with the Idols of the place where they lived and doing many things Non tanquam Diis grata sed tanquam legibus jussa not as grateful to the Gods but as commanded by the Laws Hence St. Austin saith of Seneca Aust de C. D. l. 6. c. 10. that Colebat quod reprehendebat agebat quod arguebat He worshipped what he reproved he acted what he found fault with under all the beauty of Moral Virtues there lay a false heart such as could not bear a Command of internal Purity 3. They were animalia gloriae Creatures which lived upon popular air Accordingly their design was as opposite to that of the Gospel as pride is to the Grace of God That which the Gospel aimed at was that Pride might be stained that no flesh might glory in it self that we might be saved by meer Grace that God might be exalted therein But the aim of the Philosophers was quite contrary to this they were lifted up in self-excellencies in all their Moral Virtues they did but sacrifice to the pride of their own Reason and Will they needed no such thing as Grace or Prayer for it Quid votis opns est fac te faelicem saith Seneca What need of Prayers Epist 31. thou mayst make thy self happy Their fundamental maxim the very firmament of their happiness was sibi fidere to trust to themselves they would be virtuous as Ajax would be victorious without the help of God that the glory might be entirely their own In homine id landandum quod ipsius est that only is praise-worthy which is a mans own Their Virtuoso was Deorum socius a Peer to the Gods He did cum Diis ex pari vivere live equally with them nay he did in one thing go before them they were such by Nature he by Virtue This makes Seneca cry out Epist 53. Ecce res magna habere imbecillitatem hominis securitatem Dei Behold a great thing to have the frailty of a Man the security of a God This horrible Pride the venom in their Moral Virtues which was so near and intimate to them that one looking into Plato's vomit said I see his choler here but not his Pride meaning that that stuck too close to him to be cast up by him was a temper as opposite to the Gospel as any thing could be it did utterly evacuate Christ and Grace What room could there be for Grace when Nature might do the work What need that the Eternal Word the brightness of Glory should be incarnate when the little 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sinall spark of Reason in our bosom was enough to make us virtuous and happy No frame of mind no not that of the profane man could be at a greater distance from Heaven than this Salv. de Gub. l. 4. Inter maltos reos nullus est criminosior quà m qui fe non putat criminosum Among many guilty persons none is more criminal than the presumptuous self-justitiary who thinks himself not criminal at all Thus stood the Philosophers all in Armor of Pride opposing the Gospel and the Grace of it We see here to make men Christians was an admirable work a great deal of Power was to be laid out upon it Such a Faith was to be raised up as might render them victorious over all the Power and Wisdom of the World Veniant Crux ignis ossium confractiones modo Christum bakeam Ignat. Such a temper of mind was to be wrought as might make them ready to welcom death in what shape or terror soever it came and to pour out their dearest blood and life for the Gospel Those spirits which before hung about Earth and these lower things were to be tuned for Heaven and wound up to so Divine a pitch that the whole world should not be able to unbend them to loosen them from Christ or let them down into earthly Vanities The great Emperors with all their Engines of Power and Cruelty could not rent them off from the World to come or piece them to the
the lye upon the Promises of God He said that Christ should have a seed Isa 53.10 and yet according to this opinion he may be childless and have none at all He said That he should have the heathen for his inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession Psal 2.8 and yet he may have nothing He said that he should reign for ever and of his kingdom there should be no end Luk. 1.33 and yet by an utter failer of subjects he might not reign at all and of his Kingdom there might be not so much as a beginning He said That he should be head over all things to the church Eph. 1.22 and yet he may have no body nay nor so much as one poor member of it Notwithstanding all the Promises he may be a Father without Children an Heir without an Inheritance a King without Subjects an Head without Members And how can these things be Or how can God be true to his word which is dearer to him than the whole frame of Heaven and Earth Neither will it salve the matter to say That in the event there was a Church and so much God foreknew For if he foreknew it it was a certain immutable thing Meer Casuals such as may be or may not be are not the objects of Prescience If a Church might be or might not be as this Opinion would have it it was not the object of Prescience If a Church would certainly be then it is the object of Prescience but then this Tenet that it might be or not be falls to the ground However if we suppose a Prescience Prescience is not Providence Neither if there were there only nude Prescience would the Church in the event be from Proscience would the Church in the event be from Providence but from Chance and then the consequence is Chance which made no Promise performs all God who made the Promise performs nothing He is so far from taking care about it that he commits it to the Lottery of mans Will whether there shall be a Church or not If the event hit right yet God is never the truer he never performed the promise he took no care about it that thing or rather Nothing called Fortune did order all 2. This Opinion doth highly disparage Christ and his precious Blood Creatures nay the highest of them Angels may fail and miss the mark they have semina nihili seeds of vanity and defectibility in them but for Jesus Christ who hath all the treasures of wisdom and power in himself to fall short of his end and so as it were to fall from himself and his happiness For him to lay the foundations of a Church in his own blood and to have nothing built upon them For him to make a Laver of his own blood and to have never a soul washed in it For him to procure the Holy Spirit and to have never a Temple for it to dwell in is a wonderful disparagement The reflexion is in effect as if he were but a meer man not wise or powerful enough to compass his end or compleat his work as if his blood had no spirit or divine virtue in it effectually to procure a Church and people to himself All which are below and extremely unworthy of him and the great work in his hands Every little seed in nature hath a body given to it and yet according to this opinion the Son of God might sow his own Blood and Righteousness and have none at all A cup of cold water given in charity hath its reward and yet the Blood of Christ poured out in a transcendent excess of love may want it 3. This casts a foul blot upon Providence that such is its accuracy reaches to every thing in nature even to such minute things as hairs and sparrows yet according to this opinion it neglects Christs blood more worth than a World and the issue of it It was the horrible folly of the Emperor Domitian to spend his time in catching of Flies while he neglected the great things of the Empire And what just apology can be made for Providence if it wake and watch over the Sun Moon Stars Meteors Beasts Plants nay over the very Gnats and minute creatures while it slumbers and sleeps over the sufferings of the Son of God How much more tolerable were a neglect of all creatures than of that one concern which is a thing of infinite moment If we believe that Providence took no care about so great a thing as Christs death how can we perswade our selves that it should respect the creatures which are infinitely below it A greater failure in government there cannot be than this to be accurate in trifles and neglective in momentous things Again Providence reaches to the end of things it doth not go part of the way only but conducts them to their end yet according to this opinion it doth not do so in a thing of more consequence than all the world It watched over the genealogy birth life death resurrection of Christ but then it made a stand taking no care what the issue or fruit of all this should be after all was done whether Christ should have a Church or so much as one believer in all the world was not determined by Providence but left to the Lottery of mans Will A greater defect cannot be imagined than this To do great admirable things and then not to regard what shall become of them I shall say no more to this opinion but conclude That a very great Providence did watch over the issue of Christs death that a Church might be secured unto him But because it may be said That the Providences over Christ and the Church are though great yet but particular ones I shall proceed to the next thing 3. All other Providences may be reduced to the other two As God hath a special eye upon Christ and the Church so he orders other things to be some way or other subservient unto them I shall in brief touch upon the reduction of other Providences first to that over Christ and then to that over the Church First Other Providences are to be reduced to that over Christ It was an ancient saying of the Jews That the World was made for the Messiah The Apostle tells us expresly That all things were created by him and for him Col. 1.16 That Providence which was over him being the Master-piece the highest Providence that ever the Sun saw must in all reason be the rule of the rest in that we have the noblest prospect of God and the creature the Divine Attributes set forth in their glory and a creature an human nature elevated to the highest pitch unto that therefore other Providences are to be referred To give some instances God permitted Adam to fall and break his beautiful image of Holiness all to pieces and why did he permit it doubtless he could have upheld man in his integrity no man dares deny it