12th ver of that Chapter to the end of it is evidently to prove these two things First That as sin came first into the world by Adam's disobedience and death by sin and did not only seize on him but descended upon all his Posterity even upon them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression that is against a Law promulgated as he did he begetting them in his image after his Fall in his apostate state and not in his innocncy So from Christs obedience and satisfaction for sin came righteousness life and salvation In three things the Apostle makes the Feadship of Adam and that of Christ to run parallel First As Adam had a publick Station and stood so related to others that he had power to involve them in his own condition So had Christ Secondly the Effect of Adams sin was Vniversal came upon all The Effect of Christs obedience is so comes upon all that is both upon Jews and Gentiles without distinction which is the grand point the Apostle is all along making good Thirdly the first Adam by his disobedience was the general Author of death Christ the second Adam by obedience is the Great Introducer of life And secondly That there is not and exact equality and even proportion between the Headship of Christ and the Headship of Adam So the Apostle tells us in the 15 and 16 ver But not as the offence so also is the free gift For if through the offence of One Many be dead much more the grace of God and the gift by grace by one man Jesus Christ hath abounded unto many And not as it was by one that sinned so is the gift I or the judgment was by one to condemnation but the free gift is of many offences unto Justification The Advantage lyes much on Christs side in the comparison and that in three respects First Christs spiritual seed Believers are not so like him in degrees of holiness as Adams natural posterity are like him in degrees of sin And yet Life reignes as triumphantly amongst them as Death did over the posterity of Adam Secondly it was one sin of Adam that introduced Death But Christs obedience and the gift brought in by him was not upon the occasion of that or any other one sin but of many is the abundance of grace and procures forgiveness not only for that sin but for all other sins whatsoever that have ensued thereupon And thirdly there is a disparity between Adam and Christ in this and the advantage lyes much on Christs side That one sin one act of disobedience was enough to condemn But more the one act of obedience was requisite to procure our pardon And so although Christ do not save by his obedience so many as Adam condemned by his disobedience yet the second Adam is much more potent then the first because there is much more efficacy required in the Saving of One then there was in the Condemning of Many As the restoring of One dead to life is much harder then the destroying of the lives of many Now How by one mans disobedience were many made sinners Why Adam who had all mankind vertually in himself turning a Rebel and an Apostate his natural state was thereby changed his nature was attainted and became sinful and so fell under the sentence of death and that was included in the penalty threatned In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye Thy Natural state shall be changed and subjected to death And this falling out before he had propagated any of his kind he begat all his posterity in the same sinful Mortal state with himself So the Apostle tells us that in Adam all dye That is he becoming Mortal all were so propagated and Death reigned upon that account So on the contrary by one mans â—â—â—obedience many are made righteous As all meer men sinned in Adam being all in him and undergo the Effects of that sin So all Believers have virtually satisfied for sin in Christ By Christs obedience and satisfaction we come to be pardoned accounted of as righteous and saved But still 't is as an effect of Christs obedience that we come to be made righteous for the Apostle does not say In one mans obedience many shall be made righteous but By one mans obedience as a consequent and Effect of it many shall be made righteous As the effect of one mans disobedience many come to be shapen in iniquity and brought forth in a sinful condemned nature so as by the Effect of one mans obedience many come to be new born and brought forth in a righteous and a saving sfate A third Text insisted on is that in the 3d. chap. to the Philip. ver 9. And be found in him not having mine own righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by faith To this Text a short Answer will suffice No more is requisite then to read from the 4. v. where the Apostle is discoursing of his Attainments under the Law Though I might sayes he have confidence also in the flesh if any other man thinketh he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh I more circumcised the eighth day c. and so he goes on And in the 7th ver But what things were gain to me those I counted loss for Christ yea doubtless I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dung that I may win Christ and be found in him not having mine own righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by faith By which it is as plain as words can make it That the righteousness he desires Not to be found in was his own as he was a Jew and a Pharisee And to be found in Christ was no more then to be found ingraffed by Faith into the Christian Church to be found in that righteousness which is of God by faith which is the Gospel-righteousness No sober minded man can imagine the Apostle did not desire to be found in Gospel-righteousness or that by his own righteousness he meant that For 't is that alone can intitle us to the benefits of Christs righteousness And he himself every where so earnestly presseth men to strive for it as indispensably necessary to salvation and rejoyeeth in it telling us what comfort he had took to conling sider that he had fought a good fight had finished his course had kept the faith and that as a reward of so doing a crown of life was laid up for him in Heaven Nor is there any one passage of St. Pauls Epistles against works but 't is very plain from the context he intends the works of the Law and no other For as he opposeth faith to works so he also opposeth faith with Gospel-obedience
act and exercise of his Supream Justice according to that passage Rom. 3. v. 26. That God might be just and the iustifier of him that believeth in Jesus Secondly Gods justifying men stands in opposition to Accusation and Condemnation which we have plainly expressed in the forementioned 8th to the Rom. where the Apostle opposeth Gods justifying to Charging and Condemning Who shall lay any thing to the Charge of Gods elect It is God that justifieth Who is he that condemneth So that if you know what it is to Charge and Condemn you will know what it is to justifie it being naturally evidenced by its Contraries And as Condemnation is the result of a Law so is Justification We stand Condemned by the Law of works and are justified by the Law of faith Now what is it that Mankind is publickly accused of and charged with in Scripture 'T is Sin What is it that men stand condemned for at Gods Bar 'T is Sin And therefore their Justification must needs be a Clearing and Discharging some way or other from it And that which the Scripture every where intends by Justification is the Remission of Sin and Gods acquitting us in Judgment from the Charge Guilt Condemnaâ—ion and Punishment of it This is judiciously observed by Grotius Justificatio ut notum est passim in sacris literis sed maxime in Paulinis Epistolis Absolutionem significat quae presupposito peccatâ— consistit in peccatorum remissione ipso Paul semet clare explicante pr sâ—rtim Rom. 4. Pe Satis Chris chap. 1. pa 38. And this I shall endeavour to prove these several wayes First by producing divers Texts wherein the Foly Ghost speaks expresly of Justification and Forgiveness of sin in the Gospel way as one and the same thing Secondly by shewing that the whole Advantage of that satisfaction upon which as the Ground of it we are justified is generally issued in Scripture into the Forgiveness of sin Thirdly by shewing that whatever other expressions the Scripture at any time makes use of to signifie and Explain Justification to us by they all tend to give us this sense and signification of it and to express it to us as consisting in the forgiveness of sin And fourthly by shewing that the Grand Blessing that God still promised the world should partake of by the Covenant to his Grace and the sending of his Son from whence our Justification has its rise was the Pardon and forgiveness of sin And when I have done this there will be no need I hope to say more for the satisfaction of any under this Consideration For the first In the 4. chap. to the Rom. where St Paul treats more fully and more Critically of Justification then he does in any other place he there describes it in a Quotation out of the Psalms by the forgiveness of sin and the non imputation of iniquity But to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted for righteousness Even as David describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works saying Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sin is covered Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute iniquity Cometh this blessedness then upon the circumcision only or upon the uncircumcision also Where 't is not to be fairly denyed but that he describes the blessedness of a Justified person by the blessedness of a Pardoned person as being one and the same In the 9 ver Cometh this blessedness sayes the Apostle upon the Circumcision only or upon the uncircumcision also What blessedness Why the Blessedness he is treating of the Blessedness of being justified before God which he proves descends both upon Jew and Gentile in the Gospel way of faith and believing And what is that blessedness of being justified before God Wherein lyes it Why 't is the Blessedness he tells us that David describes of having our iniquities forgiven and our sins covered the Blessedness of having God not to impute sin to us 'T is plain the Apostles whole scope and drift is to prove that Abrahams justification was his pardon upon which acccount the Gentiles though great sinners might be justified as well as he and that Justification before God is not by works and so not from the merit of any inherent righteousness of our own but by Gods gracious Imputing righteousness without works which he makes to consist in the Pardon of sin and Not imputing of iniquity and to be the same thing with it In the 13th of the Acts the 38 and 39 verses we find the Apostle again expressing himself to the same purpose Be it known unto you therefore men and brethren that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins And by him all that believe are justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the Law of Moses Where he speaks of remission of sins and Justification Equivolently as terms importing the same thing In the 18th of Luke where the Publican is said to smite upon his breast and seek for pardon and forgiveness in that expression God be merciful to me a sinner our Saviour says He went home to his house Justified that is Pardoned rather then the proud Pharisee The one justified himself and asked no forgiveness the other condemned himself and sought for the pardon of his sins And by our Saviours own determination took the right method of attaining Justification thereby In the 5th of the Rom. v. 16. The Apostle treating of the difference between Adams sin and the condemnation introduced thereby and the Salvation we have by that tells us And not as it was by one that sinned so is the gift for the judgement was by one to condemnation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the free gift is of many offences unto justification By the free gift of many offences is meant the pardon of them and the pardon of them is unto Justification that is pardon of sin amounts to Justification and upon pardon we are actually justified We are often said in Scripture to have pardon and remission of sins by Christs blood And in the 5th of the Rom. and the 9 vers we are there said to be justified by his blood Much more now being justified by his blood shall we be saved from wrath through him By all which we are told that the scripture generally intends by justification and pardon one and the same thing Secondly The whole advantage and benefit of that satisfaction upon which we come to be justified before God is often issued into the pardon of sin and by the Scripture comprized therein If we look to the Types and Prefigurations of that satisfaction under the Law the grand end and signification of them was the removing and purging of sin This the Apostle tells us Heb. 9.22 Without shedding of blood is no remission And in the 26 ver he sayes Christ had once appeared in the end of the world
One being a voluntary act of Grace the other a necessary effect of Justice will not at all reach this case supposing it to be true For a sinners Justification results not from free and absolute Pardon nor consists in it but a sinner is pardoned and justified in a way judicial in pursuance of a Law by pleading an ample satisfaction made The greatest exercise of favour in such a case seems to lye in the acceptance of the satisfaction Now God who is the Party offended and the Judge declaring himself to be abundantly satisfied concerning the sins of the world by what Christ has suffered and done and it being perhaps highly requisite the Nature of Christs satisfaction considered in point of Justice too that he should so be the Pardon and Justification of a sinner are eminent effects of his Justice as well as of his Grace and Mercy And it becomes a Righteous thing now with God to pardon and justifie an offender so qualified in Judgement For it must be consider'd that although the Ground and Foundation of our Salvation and the whole of it in its contriving and effecting is nothing else but free and absolute grace and Divine goodness yet in such a Method and after such a Manner is Grace dispenced that in every Step that is taken toward the Salvation of a sinner God appears Righteous as well as Gracious and Justice and Mercy do kiss each other But still the Justification of such a one must exist in his Pardon by which he obtaines a Legal Discharge from all obligation to Punishment stands rectus in Curia no charge from the Law can be brought against him and he is upon even terms in the eye of the Law with those who never offended Nor can it be otherwise For no satisfaction be it never so Great can put an Offender out of need of forgiveness nor can it operate farther then to obtain forgiveness and so free him from condemnation and constitute him judicially righteous 'T is true that this is not such a Justification as an innocent person obtains in Judgment But 't is such a one as an offender is only capable of and has all in the effects and advantages that the other has and may be as truly and properly termed Justification And whoever denyes it makes the Justification of an offender utterly Impracticable and Impossible SECT II. ANd thus I have gone through the first Promise I obliged my self to which was to give an account of what is meant in Scripture by Justification We are not Justified as righteous and innocent persons by having Christs righteousness personally imputed to us as our own and we accounted in Judgment to have done what He did and acquitted as sinless thereupon Such apprehensions are vain and have no bottom in Scripture But we are Justified as in indeed and in truth we are as Sinners that is By pleading ample Satisfaction made for our sins in Christ and our own performance of that Gospel-condition which God has made necessary to our participation of the Benefits of it Upon which Plea God is graciously pleased judicially to pardon our sins to account of us as Righteous thereupon and to deal with us accordingly that is Legally to intitle us to all the grace and glory promised in the Gospel Divers Objections are raised against these Conceptions of Justification the value whereof seems to me to result rather from the Authors of them sundry Learned and Worthy men then from any weight in themselves The most Material are these three First It is Objected That when the Scripture describes Justification by Forgiveness of sin it speaks Synecdochically and expresseth the Whole by a Part. So in the 4th to the Rom. and other Texts And that Text Rom. 4. v. 25. is much insisted on to prove that Justification implyes more then Forgivenness of sin This Objection it will be acknowledged can be of no force unless it be proved that the Scripture does in other places ascribe some other distinct parts to Justification There can he but one more with any colour pretended and that is Adjudging Righteous upon the score of some righteousness Now it has been before proved That Pardoning of sin upon Christs satisfaction contains in it imputing righteousness without works and that in the Apostles sense they are all one When we are told in some Texts that we are justified by Christ in others That we obtain forgiveness of sin by Christ and in others That we are made righteous by Christ By an impartial comparing the Scripture with it selt it appears that one and the same thing is intended For whoever upon the performance of the Gospel-condition is legally Interested in Christs satisfaction and thereupon actually Pardoned is also thereby Justified and adjudged to be Righteous by the order and appointment of God in that case and in this the Scripture is every where very positive and plain That when the Scripture describes Justification by Forgiveness of sin it describes it Synecdochically expressing the whole by a part there is no good reason at all to believe but quite the contrary That it describes it comprehensively For it appears by Scripture-evidence that the whole form of Justification is compriz'd therein and the Scripture describes it most generally by pardon of sin and most fully in those places where it treats most largely and expressly of it In the forementioned 4th chap. to the Rom. 't will appear very plain to any impartial Reader That the Apostle there without any Synecdoche describes Justification in its full latitude if we consider these things First that he there fully and compleatly sets out the Justification of Abraham who in the manner of his Justification was to be the great pattern of Justification to all succeeding ages and the whole business of Gospel-Justification was compriz'd in the way and manner of his Justification Secondly he there states and determines the Grand and Deepest point about Justification whether it be by faith or works Now if he had not described it in its full extent and latitude and taken in the whole of Justification in that Quotation out of David by which he proves 't is not by works but by free forgiveness his Reasoning had not been Cogent For the Jews might well have replyed you speak but of one part of Justification and so conclude not about the whole That part indeed you prove to consist in the forgiveness of sin in the way of saith but it appears not but that there may be other parts also in Justification and they may result from works And so a man may be in part justified by free forgiveness and grace and in part by works Thirdly the Apostle very plainly makes the blessedness that David describes which in the blessedness of pardon and not imputing iniquity to be the blessedness of Justification For in the 9th ver Cometh this blessedness upon the circumcision only or upon the uncircumcision also that is the blessedness of Justification by faith which
if it had never been broken And his voluntary subjecting himself to the Curse and penalty of it made as great and honourable a satisfaction to it as if being broken the utmost penalty had been insticted upon every particular Offender Fourthly That which compleated perfected and crowned this satisfaction was Gods ordination A Statute made in Heaven that so Christ being himself freely willing should do and that should be accepted in so doing obtain his End and see the travel of his soul and be satisfied In the 10th of the Heb. we find this fully expressed by a Quotation out of the Psalms where David speaks in the person of Christ Then said I lo I come in the volume of the book it is written of me to do they will O God And in the 10th ver the Apostle tells us By that Will we are sanctified by the offering up of the body of Christ In the 3d. of St. Mat. upon Christs being baptized a voice came from Heaven and declared This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Not only with his Person but his Office with his mediatory work and imployment as being of mine own ordination and appointment Upon Christs voluntary undertaking to assume our nature and in that nature to represent us and to subject himself to a Law of Mediatorship such a Law as the performance whereof would contain a compleate satisfaction to Divine Justice God was pleased to ordain it so to be and that all that he Did and Suffered in that Nature should be accepted on our behalf and reckoned and accounted to our advantage and that Mankind should obtain salvation thereby This Ordination of God was the Broad Seal of Heaven affixed to all Christ did This ratified on high was done here below and made all the transaction of Christ on Earth to pass currant in Heaven Had not this been coincident nothing could have prevailed Had not God determin'd above that what Christ did and suffer'd on earth should be that satisfaction to his Justice for the sins of the world in which he would acquiesee and be well pleased and upon which he would ordain the Blessing even Life for evermore No pardon had been proclaimed we had been yet in our sins and the state of all mankind had been no better then that of the fallen Angels and final Impenitents even a fearful looking for of Judgment Two great Mistakes have arisen in the minds of many and of many Worthy and Good men about this matter the rectifying of which is of great and necessary importance First Some have supposed that The whole of Christs satisfaction for our sins consists in his Passive obedience And that his Active obedience is imputed to us to constitute us Personally righteous in God account And so Disjoyn the Active and Passive righteousness of Christ and apply them to Distinct ends and purposes This will appear in it self no way Reasonable and without the least warrant from Scripture First Each of these have their proper Interest in and do respectively contribute to the repairing the honour of Gods injured and violated Law and do joyntly compleat Christs satisfaction The honour of the Law is in a twofold respect to be required in the preceptive part and in the threatning part To what a degree is the Law honoured in the first respect by the perfect obedience of God-man How is the Justice Holiness and Goodness of it proclaimed and solemnized thereby when he disdained not to become obedient to it And to no less a degree is it honoured in the other respect for by his dying and suffering 't is eminently declared what sin deserved And the Justice of the Law is highly evidenced in its threatning and penalty So that these two are by no means to be severed for they contribute inseparably by their Effects to the great work of making one intire satisfaction for the sins of the world and procuring our Pardon Secondly They are in their own nature conjoyn'd and mutually participate of the qualities each of other For Christs active righteousness was all passive His coming from Heaven in the form of a Servant and yielding obedience to the Law here upon Earth had all vast humiliation and suffering in it And he himself was active also in all he suffered to the highest degree for 't was an act of his own free choice without the least constraint so to do No man could have taken his life had not himself made choice of death Thirdly To disjoyn these two and ascribe to them Distinct and Different ends to say that Christs passive obedience is imputed to us to procure pardon of all sin and his active obedience is imputed to us to constitute us righteous seems dangerous in its consequence and tends to make one of them appear altogether useless For if all sin original and actual of omission and commission were fully answered for and pardoned what need we more We must needs be brought into a righteous condition thereby Because the least defect of righteousness is some degree of sin and where there is no degree of sin there must needs be perfect righteousness So if all the active righteousness of Christ were personally by God in judgement reckoned to be ours we could not at the same time be accounted as sinners but in the utmost perfection of innocents And if so What need were there of Christs suffering or of any expiation for sin The Law did not require suffering and obedience both but obliged us either to obey or else to undergo the penalty How much better is the plain Scripture-account of this matter where these two are by God and Christ himself in their end every where conjoyn'd By which we are told that the whole of what Christ did and suffered in all its circumstances unitedly considered is as one intire price of inestimable value by way of satisfaction and valuable consideration paved unto God and by him so accepted for the redemption and Salvation of all such who submit to the terms and perform the condition of the Gospel A second Mistake about this matter is this Some have conceived that both the Active and Passive righteousness of Christ are so made ours by a personal imputation that we our selves are accounted by God in judgment to have done and suffered those very things that Christ himself in his own person did and suffered This conception is so Gross that it is not only to be reckoned amongst such things as are hard to be understood but amongst such things as are impossible to be accounted for to any common understanding The notion of imputation in general is no way to be opposed though we are no where told in Scripture in terminis that Christs righteousness is imputed to us that is 't is impossible for us to partake of the benefits and advantages of what was done by another as done in our stead and upon our account without some sort of imputation God is pleased that the whole of what
never circumcised may now also be justified that is have their sins forgiven if they believe the Gospel and Reform their lives And that by Justifying and Imputing Righteousness is meant the pardon of sin and that Abraham was justified as an ungodly person by being Pardoned and not as an Innocent person the next words declare ver 6. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth Righteousness without works whcih was Abrahams case And how is that Why Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin The scope of the Apostle in this Chapter is to prove that Abraham was not Justified by any original Innocency or such a sinless perfection of life as would make the reward to be of Debt And so not upon the terms of the first Covenant but he was justified by having Righteousness without Works upon the terms of another Covenant He was justified as an ungodly person as a Sinner That is was Pardoned upon his sincere Faith and suit able obedience and so arrived at the Blessedness David describes who takes it for granted that Blessedness comes not by unsinning perfect obedience which is inconsistent with Pardon For then he would have said Blessed are the sinless perfect persons that never offended But he sayes Blessed are they to whom God will not impute sin and blessed are they whose sins are pardoned The plain intention of this great Apostle of the Gentiles is by the instance of Abraham to establish Evangelical Justification of which the Gentiles were as capable as the Jews in opposition to Legal By works he intends all along the Law and the first Covenant and what was required to justifie a man therein And by Faith he intends the Gospel and all that is conditionally required of us thereby which is a sincere belief accompanied with suitable obedience And Abraham who was justified by performing the Gospel condition and not the condition of the Covenant of Works had such a sincere Faith accompanied with such obedience as the Story it self and the Holy Ghost by St. James positively tells us His Works wrought with his Faith that is to obtain the same End with it and by his Works his Faith was perfected T is absurd to imagine St. Paul ever intended to exclude Gospel-works such a sincere obedience as is naturally appurtenant to Faith and is included in it and supposed by it and which is accepted out of meer Grace and cannot pretend to the least merit But he speaks only against such works as might claim Justification as a reward of Debt in opposition to Grace such as the Jews insisted on which would utterly exclude the Gentiles from all possibility of Justification and establish it upon a Legal bottom and thereby subvert the whole design of the Gospel By justifying therefore the ungodly upon believing he means no more then the justifying a person that has not sinless legal perfection which the first Covenant made necessary to Justification by his performing the condition of the second Covenant which condition performed is through Grace accepted for Righteousness and procures actual Pardon Quest 4. Has Christ satisfied for our Gospel-sins For the breach of his own Laws as Mediator or not Answ This Question is resolved by one Text of St. John who tells us that The blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanseth from all sin Against whatever Law committed if we perform the Gospel Condition Ever since the Fall and sin of man Christ hath been extant in Promises and Types till his full Appearance And all Pardon and Forgiveness has some way or other come through Him He has been the great medium by and through which all Divine favour and Grace has been in all times dispensed Under the Gospel whoever perform the Condition and comes within the compass of that Latitude Christ by his New Law allows his sins of partial unbelief and all other sorts of Gospel-disobedience are Pardoned upon the terms thereof by the tenor of this New Covenant which Christ hath purchased by his blood whose blood is called the blood of the Covenant By this gracious Covenant a renewed pardon is still granted to all believers for every sin at any time committed upon sincere repentance and reformation And Christ proposeth himself to the world upon those gracious terms That if they cordially close with him and receive him as Lord and Christ as their King and Saviour all their past sins shall be forgiven And whenever they shall sin for the future and come short of that Duty they are to pay to him upon their Repentance they shall be renewed and God through and by Him and for His sake will exercise continual acts of Pardon towards them in all such cases And this day of Grace is for ought we know of the same duration with every mans life Every man while he lives has an Opportunity of embracing the Gospel And whoever falls by Temptation and the power of Corruption after he has so done has yet a continued possibility while God spares him in this world to be restored to a Pardoned Justified state by Repentance But whoever fails and comes short in performing the Gospel-condition Whoever closeth not with the Redeemer who hath all power put by the father into his hands upon his own Terms not one of that mans sins will he ever Remit or Account for to the Father But is he left to answer to that most dreadful Charge of the Law and besides by neglecting so great salvation falls under the utmost condemnation of the Gospel Is left to God as supream Judge of the World in the highest exercise of Justice having refused the terms of his mercy Is left to God without the interposition of a Mediator the terrour of which condition the Apostle thus expresseth 'T is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God Where he means without a Mediator For 't is spoken in terrorem to the Converted Jews who were in great danger of Apostatizing from the Gospel and the faith of the Mediator and returning back to the old Cancelled dispensation of the Law the end of which was Christ To conclude this whole matter The making and redeeming of a man is originally founded in an eternal transaction of the blessed Trinity God saw it fit to Create man at the first with a mutable Will with an inherent freedom of choice though he perfectly knew and foresaw all the consequents and what use man would make of it The Reason of this is not to be inquired into For although God is pleased in Scripture to permit us to Treat with him about his Justice and to Discourse with us about the equity of his proceedings whether his wayes be not equal towards us and ours unequal towards Him Yet he never admits us to any conference with him about his Wisdom never suffers any humane inquiry to be made Whether he does Wisely
or no in what he does but still puts us to silence in that point with his absolute Soveraignty over us and brands that man with a Wo that so strives with his Maker and shall dare to say Why hast thou made me thus Whatever God does we have these two prevailing Reasons to Acquiesce in it First That 't is done by him that has the supream Right of disposing All He that made all is sittest to dispose all and must needs be best intituled so to do Secondly That 't is the result of infinite Attributes such wherein is inherent the utmost possible Perfection we are able to conceive of in every kind Whatever opposeth or questioneth such Wisdom must needs be the highest Folly Whatever opposeth or thwarteth such Justice must needs be the greatest Injustice and so in all other instances God in this case saw it best to make man Free and leave him to the utmost exercise of that freedom that so Man might appear to be what he would be and God might appear to be what his is Evil had never been but that 't was infinitely better it should be then not to be For when the Creature has sinn'd to the utmost God over-rules that sin to excellent Ends and from the depths of Divine Wisdom we see it so brought about that glorious effects result from it Though the commission of sin is no way excused thereby and the guilt of it rests at every mans own door From created freedom all sin and all misery the adjunct of it had their first rise and from thence they were originally produced This created freedom of will was in it self and its own nature as first fram'd excellent and a bright beam of Divine perfection being of a Noble Faculty capable of a continual choice of what was best and 't is far more excellent freely to choose what is so then from any outward necessity to become obliged to it It was also suited in its nature to Gods giving a Law and mans Obedience Of the fitness of which we may easily conceive when we reflect upon that Relation there is between the Creator and a Creature from this Root of created freedom so adequate an adjunct to so noble a creature as Man and in its right exercise alwayes centering in God as the supream and chiefest good and most proper object of choice From hence sprang up the evil and apostacy of humane nature For no man can or from the beginning could say when he is tempted I am tempted of God for God cannot be tempted with evil neither tempteth he any man But every man is tempted when he is led aside of his own lust and enticed This freedom in man declining to disobedience puts a period to all his happiness Disorders and Disjoynt's all his Faculties and straight way renders him obnoxious to that supream and dreadful Attribute of his Maker his Justice God upon the first declension of this freedom upon mans first disobedience inflicts the utmost penalty of his Law Nor can we suppose it otherwise but that God in the first instance of that kind would give his Creatures to know what sin was That a Rebellion against Him the Highest most Absolute and most Perfect Being was of all things the most Intolerable contain'd in its bowels the utmost Evil being an opposition to the Greatest Good and must needs expose to the Worst of Conditions For nothing can oppose God and be happy or prosper Nor would it consist either with the Justice or Wisdom of such a Soveraign as God is to give Laws but upon the most perfect and unalterable Reason and upon that account to adhere to their punctual Execution And of this we are sufficiently informed when we see that nothing less then a satisfaction made by the Death of our Saviour that stupendious and Miraculous expedient of Divine Wisdom beyond the ken of Angels or Men whereby God receives a redundancy of compensation could relieve or release us from the severity and strict execution of the Law of Works and introduce that better Covenant the Law of Grace by which we are now justified and saved We must not imagine God dallyes when he gives Laws to the world or that he will connive at the breach of them or repeal them as men do 'T is otherwise with the supream Law-giver and Judge of all the earth to whom all things that are to come are fully and certainly known and before whom all future events are ever present Man by this chosen disobedience to the Law of his Maker stands before him thereby by as an object of his Justice who being also essentially good gracious and forgiving and acting nothing but in a perfect complyance with himself those two Attributes of Mercy and Justice So far as we are able to reach remain in such a juncture utterly irreconcilable till by a Miracle of Divine Wisdom which can never be sufficiently ador'd a way is found out to make those two Contending Attributes both triumphant Justice is fully satisfied and Mercy brought into its utmost exercise and all the Flood-gates of Divine Goodness let open upon the world This is all effected by the glorious and gracious undertaking of our blessed Redeemer by whom life and immortality is brought to light our Salvation proclaimed and stands for ever established upon these three fundamental points First That Christ perfectly performed all that was necessary for him to perform to constitute him a sufficient Mediator between God and Man exactly fulfilled all the Law of his publick Mediatorship and was approved of God so to have done A sufficient Instance whereof he gave to the world in raising him from the dead and exalting him at his own right hand Secondly That by reason of the Dignity of Christs person his obedience and sufferings were infinitely of more intrinsick value and weight then all the obedience and sufferings of Mankind ever were or possibly could be and so they are accounted of before God Thirdly That being perform'd in our Nature and wholly upon our Account God by an infinitely gracious Statute in Heaven accepts them for us though not as done by us and reckons all the effects and advantages of them by way of imputation to us The Lord Christ having made such a satisfaction to God for the sins of the world and thereby reversed that sentence of Condemnation that by the Law was Recorded against us has as Mediator the power of dispensing Pardon wholly committed to Him For the Father now judges no man but has committed all judgment unto the Son That is Christ as Mediator is established King And the world is now to be judged by a Law of Grace And two things in the exercise of this Mediatory Dominion are Eternally stipulated between the Father and the Son First that all pardon and Forgiveness shall be dispensed upon such Conditions that is upon the terms proclaimed by the Gospel whereby the glory of all the Divine Attributes as well as of Mercy and Forgiveness is highly display'd And Secondly That that power Christ as Mediator is vested withall to impower and inable whom he pleaseth by the sending forth of the Holy Ghost to perform the Gospel-Condition shall be exerted toward those alone to whom God in his Eternal Counsels who had all things in prospect and fore-knowledge and the whole of all mens circumstances before him from Everlasting designed present Grace and future Glory Those who through Divine Grace and Assistance receive Christ as he propounds himself to us in the Gospel are by the tenor thereof justified before God And he so propounds himself that whoever Receives him is thereby obliged to the performance of all Gospel-Righteousness And when the whole of Christs undertaking to bring many sons to glory shall be perfected and compleated we shall then see that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle calls it that multiformâ—s sapientia Dei that manifold wisdom of God in curious variety a-about this matter and the glorious Excellency there is in a Sinners Justification in its contrivance in its procuring cause in its condition and in its final effect And thence will result Everlasting Adoration and Hymns of praise and thanksgiving to him that sits upon the Throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever FINIS
to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself That was the grand thing typified and intended by the sacrifices to be done and that which our Saviour by his coming actually did do as we are told in the 1st chap. of the same book in that expression When he had by himself purged our sins he sate down on the right hand of the Majesty on high That is When he had fully accomplished that great End for which he came into the world which was to procure pardon of sins he then ascended to his Mediatory Throne and the exercise of that Authority If we look into the Gospel in the 26 of St. Matt. where our blessed Saviour first instituted and solemnly himself administred that Sacrament wherein Himself and all the saving Advantages appurtenant to him are represented and conveyed He there calls his Blood the blood of the New Testament shed for many for the remission of sins Declaring that to be the grand Effect of his purchase and the great attainment of the Gospel from whence all our happiness is derived In the 1st of the Ephes v. 7. the Redemption we have by Christ is called the forgiveness of sin In whom we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins In the 2d of the Acts vers 38. St. Peter there perswades the Jews to embrace the Christian-religion in these words Repent and be baptized for the remission of sins as the great End attainable by the Gospel and all the Institutions of it St. John in the 1st chap. of his 1st Epist tells us that If we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son Cleanseth us from all sin That being the great End of all Gospel faith and obedience to be cleansed from all sin and the in-let to all happiness And 't is that which all the Saints the whole Church unitedly do una voce adore the Mediator for as the grand Effect of his undertaking That he has washed them from their sins in his own blood and thereby made them Kings and Priests unto God and intituled them to all happiness and Glory In a word our Saviour himself summs up and Epitomizeth all those blessings he came to purchase for and confer upon the world and seems to be in the Supreamest exercise of his Mediatory Authority in pronouncing that Benediction Thy sins are forgiven thee Thirdly Whatever other expressions the Scripture makes use of to signifie and represent Justification to us by they all relate to the pardon of sin and give us this sense and signification of it The Scripture expresseth our Justification by three other Terms Sometimes 't is called Redemption sometimes Remission and sometimes Reconciliation And all these have a reference to sin and its forgiveness 'T is called Redemption with respect to that captivity and bondage that is in sin Remission with respect to that guilt and obligation to punishment that is in sin And 't is called Reconciliation with respect to that enmity and opposition to God that is in sin All which we are freed from by the pardon of sin as the great priviledge of a justified state and that wherein it consisteth Fourthly The great Blessing that the Scripture foretold and held forth to the world in the coming of the Messiah and that Covenant of Grace that God would graciously enter into with Mankind was the Remission of sin and blotting out of iniquity Instances of this kind the Scripture abounds with The great effect of Christs coming we are told should be To save his people from their sins and to make reconciliation for iniquity And in divers of the Prophets God declares the Grace of his Covenant to lye per eminentiam in this The pardoning of our iniquities and the remembring our sins no more So St. Peter declares Act. 10.43 To Him give all the Prophets witness that thorough his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive Remission of sins And when God was pleased to make the Attributes of his Mercy and Goodness in an especial manner to pass before Moses and to reveal it to him as it relates to Mankind 't is expressed by That as the Grand and Transcendent Effect of it the pardoning iniquity transgression and sin A third consideration to clear up the truth of this Definition I have given of Justification and which is of great prevailing in the case is this That whenever God pardons any mans sin He looks upon him as a Righteous person does cerstitute him so thereby and deal with him accordingly Where he sees no iniquity there his Countenance is as upon the righteous This I shall make out First from the Reasons of the Thing in it self abstractedly considered that it ought so to be Secondly from plain and positive Scriptures in the case whereby it appears to be Gods ordination that so it should be And thirdly from the Method God is pleased in his wisdom to take in the pardoning and justifying Offenders and the manner of his procedure therein whereby his Righteousness and his Justice become very evident in so doing There be these five Reasons result from the Thing in it self abstractedly considered for the proof of this point First Man in his primary Make was righteous and just that was his Original constitution Sin is but an Accidental Deprivation And therefore when all Sin and Guilt contracted is Legally removed and wholly obliterated 't is but reasonable he should be judg d of by his first state and it falls in naturally so to be Sublata privatione ponitur habitus is a firm Axiom in Logick Not that I am here about to prove that a man is restored barely to the state of Adams Original innocency by the Redemption and Forgiveness of the Gospel for by Gods gracious Ordination we are instated in much more I urge this only to evidence thus much That man being made Righteous and having made himself a Sinner his sin being pardoned and obliterated were there nothing else in the case 't were Just with God to account of him according to what at first he made him Nor can we with any good Reason abstractedly considering him so circumstanced judge of him otherwise then as in a righteous and so happy condition Secondly Remission of all sin is in its own nature constructively and properly enough so called a Righteousness According to that noted saying among the Antient Christians Hominis justicia est Dei Indulgentia He that is chargeable with no offence at Gods Tribunal as he is not that has all his sins both of omission and commission judicially and authoritatively forgiven must needs be Reputed upon even terms with an Observer of the whole Law and have a right to all the advantages appurtenant to an innocent person To want any of them were paena damni and a part of punishment which can have no place where there is no Sin nor Transgression Thirdly Man is a Subject in which