Evan. The apostle says, that "without faith it is impossible to please God," Heb. xi. 6; that is, says Calvin, (Instit. p. 370,) "Whatsoever a man thinketh, purposeth, or doeth, before he be reconciled to God by faith in Christ, it is accursed, and not only of no value to righteousness, but of certain deserving to damnation." So that, says Luther on Galatians, p. 63, "Whosoever goeth about to please God with works going before faith, goeth about to please God with sin; which is nothing else but to heap sin upon sin, to mock God, and to provoke him to wrath. Nay, (says the same Luther, on the Galatians, p. 23,) if thou be without Christ, thy wisdom is double foolishness, thy righteousness is double sin and iniquity." And, therefore, though you have walked very strictly according to the law, and led an honest life, yet if you have rested and put confidence therein, and so come short of Christ, then hath it indeed rather done you hurt than good. For, says a godly writer, a virtuous life, according to the light of nature, turneth a man further off from God, if he add not thereto the effectual working of his spirit. And, says Luther, "they which have respect only to an honest life, it were better for them to be adulterers and adulteresses, and to wallow in the mire."* And surely for this cause it is, that our Saviour tells the strict Scribes and Pharisees, who sought justification by works, and rejected Christ, that "publicans and harlots should enter into the kingdom of God before them," Matt. xxi. 31. And for this cause it was that I said, For aught I know, my neighbour Neophitus might be in Christ before you. Nom. But how can that be, when, as you know, he hath confessed that he is ignorant and full of corruption, and comes far short of me in gifts and graces ? Evan. Because, as the Pharisee had more to do before he could come at Christ than the publican had, so I conceive you have more to do than he hath. Nom. Why, sir, I pray you, what have I to do, or what would you advise me to do? for truly I would be contented to be ruled by you. Evan. Why, that which you have to do, before you can come to Christ, is to undo all that ever you have done already; * This comparison is not stated betwixt these two, considered simply, as to their different manner of life; but in point of pliableness to receive conviction, wherein the latter hath the advantage of the former; which the Scripture oftener than once takes notice of, Matt. xxi. 31, quoted in the following sentence, "I would thou wert cold or hot," Rev. iii. 15. The passage is to be found in his Sermon upon the Hymn of Zacharias, page 50. that is to say, whereas you have endeavoured to travel towards heaven by the way of the covenant of works, and so have gone a wrong way; you must go quite back again all the way you have gone, before you can tread one step in the right way. And whereas you have attempted to build up the ruins of old Adam, and that upon yourself, and so, like a foolish builder, to build a tottering house upon the sands,-you must throw down and utterly demolish all that building, and not leave a stone upon a stone, before you can begin to build anew. And whereas you have conceived that there is some sufficiency in yourself, to help to justify and save yourself, you must conclude, that in that case there is not only in you an insufficiency, but also a non-sufficiency:* yea, and that sufficiency that seemed to be in you, to be your loss. In plain terms, you must deny yourself, as our Saviour says, Matt. xvi. 24, that is, "you must utterly renounce all that ever you are, and all that ever you have done;" all your knowledge and gifts; all your hearing, reading, praying, fasting, weeping, and mourning; all your wandering in the way of works, and strict walking, must fall to the ground in a moment: briefly, whatsoever you have counted gain to you in the case of justification, you must now, with the Apostle Paul, Philip. iii. 7-9, "count loss for Christ,' and judge it to be, "dung, that you may win Christ, and be found in him, not having your own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith." SECT. III.-OF THE PERFORMANCE OF THE PROMISE. Sect. 1.-Christ's fulfilling of the Law in the room of the Elect.-2. Believers dead to the Law as the Covenant of Works.-3. The warrant to believe in Christ.-4. Evangelical Repentance a consequent of Faith.5. The spiritual Marriage with Jesus Christ.-6. Justification before Faith refuted.-7. Believers freed from the commanding and condemning Power of the Covenant of Works. Neo. BUT, sir, what would you advise me to do? Neo. Why, sir, as you have been pleased to hear those two declare their condition unto you, so I beseech you to give me leave to do the same; and then you will perceive how it is with * That is, you are not only unable to do enough, but also, that you are not able to do any thing. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves," 2 Cor. iii. 5. me. Sir, not long since, it pleased the Lord to visit me with a great fit of sickness; so, that, indeed, both in mine own judgment, and in the judgment of all that came to visit me, I was sick unto death. Whereupon I began to consider whither my soul was to go after its departure out of my body; and I thought with myself, that there were but two places, heaven and hell; and therefore it must needs go to one of them. Then my wicked and sinful life, which, indeed, I had lived, came into my mind, which caused me to conclude, that hell was the place provided for it; the which caused me to be very fearful, and to be very sorry that I had so lived; and I desired of the Lord to let me live a little longer, and I would not fail to reform my life, and amend my ways; and the Lord was pleased to grant me my desire. Since which time, though, indeed, it is true I have not lived so wickedly as formerly I had done, yet, alas! I have come far short of that godly and religious life which I see other men live, and especially my neighbour Nomista; and yet you seem to conceive that he is not in a good condition, and therefore surely I must needs be in a miserable condition. Alas, sir! what do you think will become of me? SECT. 1.—Evan. I do now perceive that it is time for me to show how God, in the fulness of time performed that which he purposed before all time, and promised in time, concerning the help and delivering of fallen mankind. And touching this point, the Scripture testifies, that God "did, in the fulness of time, send forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law," &c. Gal. iv. 4. That is to say, look how mankind by nature are under the law, as it is the covenant of works; so was Christ, as man's surety, contented to be; so that now, according to that eternal and mutual agreement that was betwixt God the Father and him, he put himself in the room and place of all the faithful,* Isa. liii. 6, " And the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." Then came the law as it is the covenant of works, and said; "I find him a sinner,† yea, such an one as hath taken * That is, all those who have, or shall believe, or all the elect, which is one and the same in reality, and in the judgment of our author, expressly declared in the first sentence of his preface. + By imputation and law-reckoning; no otherwise, as a sinner believing in him is righteous before God. (Thus Isaac Ambrose, speaking of justification, says, "This righteousness inakes a sinner sinless;" i. e. as to guilt.) This must, be owned to be the meaning of this expression, upon him the sins of all men,* therefore let him die upon the cross." Then said Christ, "Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not, but a body hast thou prepared me; in burntunless one will shut one's eyes to the immediately foregoing and following words, I find him a sinner, said the law; such an one as hath taken sin upon him. They are the words of Luther, and he was not the first who spoke so. "He made him who was righteous to be made a sinner, that he might make sinners righteous," says Chrysostom, on 2 Cor. v. Hom. 11. cit. Owen on Justification, p. 39. Famous Protestant divines have also used the expression after him. "When our divines," says Rutherford, "say, Christ took our place, and we have his condition,-Christ was made us, and made the sinner; it is true, only in a legal sense. He (Christ) was debitor factus,—a sinner, a debtor by imputation, a debtor by law, by place, by office." (Trial and Triumph of Faith, p. 245, 257.) Charnock argues the point thus: "How could he die, if he were not a reputed sinner? Had he not first had a relation to our sin, he could not in justice have undergone our punishment. He must, in the order of justice, be supposed a sinner really, or by imputation. Really, he was not; by imputation then he was," vol. ii. p. 547. Serm. on 1 Cor. v. 7. "Though personally he was no sinner, yet by imputation he was," says the Contin. of Poole's Annot. on 2 Cor. v. 21. "What Illyricus wrote, (says Rivet,) that Christ might most truly be called a sinner, Bellarmine calls blasphemy and cursed impudence. Now Bellarmine himself contends, that Christ might attribute our sins to himself, therefore he might also truly call himself a sinner, while in himself innocent, he did represent our person. What blasphemy, what impiety is here?" Comment. on Psalm xxii. 1. The Scripture phrase to this purpose is more forcible; 2 Cor. v. 21," For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." For as it is more to say we are made righteousness, than to say we are made righteous, since the former plainly imports a perfection of righteousness, if I may be allowed the phrase, righteousness not being properly capable of degrees; so it is more to say, Christ was made sin for the elect world, than to say he was made a sinner, since the first of these doth accordingly point at the universality and complete tale of the elect's sins, from the first to the last of them laid on our spotless Redeemer. Compare Lev. xvi. 21, 22, "And Aaron shall confess over him (viz. the scape-goat, which the apostle hath an eye to here) all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, and all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat. And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities," Isa. liii. 6. "And the Lord (marg.) hath made the iniquity of us all to meet on (Heb. in) him." These two texts give the just notion of the true import of that phrase, "He was made sin for us." * Our Lord Jesus Christ died not for, nor took upon him the sins of all and every individual man, but he died for, and took upon him the sins of all the elect, John x. 15; and xv. 13; Acts xx. 28; Eph. v. 25; Tit. ii. 14, and no other doctrine is here taught by our author touching the extent of the death of Christ. In the preceding paragraph, where was the proper place for giving his judgment on that head, he purposely declares it. He had before taught, that Jesus Christ did from eternity become man's surety in the covenant that passed betwixt him and the Father, p. 22-24. A surety puts himself in the place of those for whom he becomes surety, to pay their debt, Gen. xliv. 32,33; Prov. xxii. 26, 27. offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come to do thy will, O Lord!" Heb. x. 5—7. And so the law proceeding in full scope against him, set upon And our author tells us, that now, when the prefixed time of Christ's fulfilling the eternal covenant, paying the debt he had taken on him, and purchasing man's redemption by his sufferings, was come, he did, according to the tenor of that covenant, which stated the extent of his suretyship, put himself in the room and place,—he says not, of all men, but― of all the faithful, or elect of God; (see n.* p. 81,) Jesus Christ thus standing in their room and place, actually to take on the burden. "The Lord laid on him the iniquities of us all; the which Scripture text can bear no other sense in the connexion of it here, than what is the genuine sense of it, as it stands in the Holy Scripture, namely, that the Father laid on Christ the iniquities of all the spiritual Israel of God, of all nations, ranks, and conditions; for no iniquities could be laid on him but theirs in whose room and place he put himself to receive the burden, according to the eternal and mutual agreement. These iniquities being thus laid on the Mediator, the law came and said, I find him such an one as hath taken on him the sins of all men. This is but an incident expression on the head of the extent of Christ's death, and it is a scriptural one too. 1 Tim. ii. 6, "Who gave himself a ransom for all," i. e. for all sorts of men, not for all of every sort. Heb. ii. 9, "That he, by the grace of God, should taste death for every man," i. e. for every man of those whom the apostle is there treating of, namely, sons brought or to be brought unto glory, verse 10; those who are sanctified, Christ's brethren, verse 11; given to him, verse 13; and the sense of the phrase, as used here by the author, can be no other; for the sins, which the law found that he had taken on him, could be no other but the sins that the Lord had laid on him; and the sins the Lord had laid on him were the sins of all the faithful or elect, according to the author; wherefore, in the author's sense, the sins of all men which the law found in Christ were the sins of all the elect, according to the genuine sense of the Scripture phraseology on that head. And an incident expression, in words which the Holy Ghost teacheth, and determined in its connexion to the orthodox scriptural meaning, can never import any prejudice to his sentiment upon that point purposely declared before in its proper place. It is true, the author, when speaking of those in whose room Christ put himself, useth not the word alone; and in the holy Scripture it is not used neither on that subject. And it may be observed, that the spirit of God in the word, doth not open the doctrine of election and reprobation, but upon man's rejecting or embracing the gospel offer; the which different events are then seasonably accounted for, from the depths of the eternal counsel of God. See Luke x. 17-22; Matt. xxii. 1-14; Rom. ix. throughout; Eph. i. 3-5. To every thing there is a season. The author hitherto hath been dealing with the parties, to bring them to Christ; and particularly here, he is speaking for the instruction and direction of a convinced trembling sinner, namely, Neophitus; and, therefore, like a wise and tender man in such a case, he useth a manner of speaking, which being warranted by the word, was fitted to excite the awakening of the ordinary scruples in that case, namely, "It may be I am not elected,-it may be Christ died not for me;" and which pointed at the duty of all, and the encouragement that all have to come to Christ. And all this, after he had, in his very first words to the reader, sufficiently provided for his using such a |
