AN EXPOSITION OF THE SECOND VERSE OF The Fourth CHAPTER OF THE Epistle to the ROMANS: WITH AN APPENDIX ON CHAP. III. VER. 27.  
The former being the Sum of Fifteen Sermons, the latter of Five, for further Explication of that Great Doctrine of JUSTIFICATION.  
By WALTER CROSS, M. A.  
LONDON, Printed by J. A. for the Author, and are to be Sold by Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns at the lower end of Cheapside, near Mercers-Chappel, 1694.   

TO The RIGHT HONOURABLE, S it William Ashurst, Kt. AND LORD MAYOR OF THE CITY of LONDON.  
My LORD,  
THis little Book is brought forth in due Season, to Congratulate your Inauguration into an Office of that Trust and Honour, that admits no Citizen in Europe to be your Equal: The Subject of it is such, as not only becomes the greatest Prince, as well as meanest Peasant to Study, but it is absolutely Necessary they should; for none of their Affairs are of so great a Concern, as the Pardon of their Sin, and the Salvation of their Souls. Yet I am so distrustful of my Management of so great a Subject, that neither this, nor the Honour of your Acquaintance, nor the Knowledge of your Impartial Judgement, or Condescending Temper, had prevailed with me to prefix your Name to it, tho' I often did deliberate upon it; but its Edition so immediately following your Election, and its Publication being within the Verge, and under the first Dawnings of your Authority, it could not be Civil without Saluting you, and Craving your Patronage; and it gives me the Opportunity to tell You, that I, and I believe thousands more, who have no Vote of Election, do enjoy our Wishes, and are put in great hopes of a Reformed City.  
I bope you will be as far from Patronising Error as Protecting Vice, but there is nothing in this little Piece (to my Knowledge) contrary to the Confessions of our common Protestant Faith. Indeed there is a Notion about Faith, that I may call New, in it, viz. That as the Author of our Faith, is the Author of our Justification, Christ Jesus, and the Object of our Faith the Merit of our Justification, Christ's Righteousness; and the Exercise of our Faith upon this Merit, as the great Mean through which Divine Love, Grace and Mercy is conveyed to us, is the Condition of our Justification; so the Gift of Faith is the Sentence of our Justification, or Sign of it; for if the Spirit be an Earnest of Heaven, much more is it of Pardon: It's true, by this the Gift is before the Condition, which all grant; but the Sign or Signification of the Gift, which is the Sentence, is at least in order of Nature after the Condition; for we not only do not perceive, but we cannot perceive this Gift; and consequently it cannot signify divine Favour to us, until mixed with our spirit; for our Observation is from our Experience. This being new, I have proposed it to be tried before trusted; a Conditionality of the Covenant is a principal Pillar of Popery, Socinianism, and Arminianism, according to their several modes of Explication; and therefore the very sound of the Word fills the Heart of sincere Protestants with Jealousy: But if we allow Faith and Repentance, those absolute Gifts, and Effects of special Grace, to be Signs of special Grace and Favour, or Pardon, (for a Man cannot be in a state of Grace without Pardon) there is room for Duty, and Conditional Duty, without any Jealousy of these Errors.  
I pray the Lord may Confirm your Election with such an Unction that may signify his own Approbation of you, Mercy to us by You, and that may fit you fully for the place. It is a Place that never wanted Difficulties, nor are they like to decrease in your Day; the greater they grow, the more Need you have of the Favour and Fruition of Him, who is of God made unto us Wisdom as well as Righteousness, and a Counsellor as well as a Saviour; his providential Conduct in immediate directing of the Judgement, and Inclining of the Will of his Favourites, when plunged in difficult Affairs, or surrounded with dangerous Circumstances, fully supplies the want of Urim and Thummim.  
No doubt the Hopes of so many People being terminated on You, and so great things being expected from You, renders you concerned; but both of them may as truly encourage you: For what do we expect, but that you be of a Public Spirit, that your Aims and Ends be as public as your Place and Office, for the Common Wealth, or the common Good of the City? It's but of late that People have enjoyed this Security, that their most Supreme Magistrates are in no private Plott against their common Good; but though we are now secure as to the Throne, we are not as to all Places of Trust under it.  
What do we expect, but the Impartial Administration of Justice, to great or small, high or low, rich or poor, friend or foe? However unjust men's Actions are, their Consciences will cry, It is just, it is just, when they suffer most severe Punishment for their Crimes: Honesty is the best Policy, and needs lest the Volumes of Politic Axioms; an upright, single-hearted Man, with a general Notion of the Laws and Customs of the Land, will do more Service with a few obvious Rules, that almost every man knows, than a Cunning Man can with all his Skill, when he makes use of it for upholding him out of the Road of Equity and Righteousness.  
What do we expect, but that the Profanity of this City should now meet with an Hearty Enemy in the Chair? and you have a Notable Opportunity for showing yourself so, Wickedness being grown to that height, that it is an Injury, yea, a Ruin to many Families, who could wink at it while it remained only under the Form of a Sin or an Offence. He that will become a Check and a Terror to it now, will receive the Praise, and enjoy the Hearts of all Parties, who would not have their Posterity rot in Bawdy-houses, or made public Examples of Justice at Tyburn, or their Estates purchased by labour and industry, or preserved by pains, parsimony and prudence, drank away in Taverns, or thrown away at a Game. You will become the City's great Benefactor, in delivering it from such a Ruin, You will receive an Honour far above the Honour of your Office, if it may be recorded, that Profanity, which has so long increased, did decay, and receive its Deaths-wound under the Mayoralty of Sir William Ashurst. A zealous acting against Vice and Profanity, will not only be for your Honour, and the City's good, but it will be an acting for God, who is of purer Eyes than to behold Iniquity; the nigher you are brought to him, the more you ought to be like him; the more he Honours you, the more you ought to Honour him: He has generally given to you the Hearts of the City, will you suffer that Kindness to be in vain? He hath promised both Strength and Reward for his Work; trust him, he is surely faithful; but never trust his Enemies; you may gain your own personal Foes by Favours, but never think to make God's Foes your Friends, if you intent to act for God; you may sooner lose ten Friends than gain one of them; all your Favours will only make them Ridicule you, if not put them in a Capacity to Injure you.  
Not only may the things expected, but the Expectation itself, encourage you in the Administration of your Office; for they who truly hope for such things at your hand, will be constant Supplicants at the Throne of Grace, for Piety, Prudence, Patience, Candor and Courage, for you. That you may not only have a Power Faithfully to discharge your Trust, but with Ease, Pleasure and Success, you may perform every Duty of the Station, and at last descend from the Chair with an Honour greater than the Hope and Joy of your Friends at your Ascension to it, in this Catalogue he counts it his Honour to be, who is  
Your Humble Servant, Walt. Cross.   

THE HYPOTYPOSIS, OR Schematical INDEX.  

ROM. 4.1.  
1. THe Supposition, all Sinners are Justified one way, whereof Abraham was a famous Pattern. Page 1.  
2. The Prerogatives of Abraham, Prince of the Fathers. p. 2.  
3. The Grammatical Syntax asserted and proved, viz. That according to the Flesh belongs to finding, not to Abraham. p. 5.  
4. The Comprehensiveness of the word Flesh, and sense of finding as to the Flesh.  
5. The Importance of the Rhetorical way of expressing this sense, What shall we say then? p. 12.   

ROM. 4.2.  
I. An Introduction from the Momentuousness of the Doctrine of Justification. p. 15.  
II. The Proposition, that Abraham was not Justified by Works, which contains four Material Parts: 1. The Subject, Abraham, before spoken to; the other three are in the Predicate or Attribute: 1. Justification. 2. Works. 3. By. 

As to the first: 

1. The Forensical Sense of the word Justify is asserted and proved. p. 20.  
2. The Correlative Privileges are explained; 

(1.) Redemption. p. 24.  
(2.) Reconciliation. p. 25.  
(3.) Adoption. p. 26.    
3. The Sentence or Index of Justification, viz. 

(4.) Regeneration. p. 28.    
4. The Time of Justification. p. 36.    
As to the second part, Works: 

1. The Nature and Properties of Evangelically good Works are explained. p. 37.  
2. The Erroneous Limitations of Works refuted. p. 39    
As to the third part By; in every Causal or Meritorious sense, Works are affirmed to be excluded. p. 42.    
III. The Discourse on the first Argument, because no Matter of Glorying, has three principal parts: 

1. The Formation of it. p. 45.  
2. The Minor or Truth of it proved from 

(1.) Man's Being. p. 49.  
(2.) Man's Nature, . p. 55.  
(3.) Man's Gild. p. 77.  
(4.) Man's Impotence. p. 87.    
3. The Major or Strength of the Argument, that all Works affords ground of Glorying. p. 99     

ROM. 3.27.  
I. The Litteral Explication of the Text. p. 107.  
II. The Supposition or Axiom, the Justification of a Sinner must be in such a way as excludes boasting.  
III. The Negative Proposition, that Boasting is not excluded by the Law of Works, contains 

1. The Nature of the Evangelical Law. p. 110.  
2. The Pharisaical sense of the Law when Christians. p. 116.  
3. That all Laws requiring Works of us, are excluded from Justification, because they exclude not Boasting; therefore there is excluded 

(1.) The Nature of a Law in general. p. 126.  
(2.) The Natural Law. p. 129.  
(3.) The Moral Law. p. 132.  
(4.) The Mosaical. p. 134.  
(5.) The Evangelical. p. 136.      
iv The Affirmative Proposition, that the Law of Faith excludes Boasting, and therefore by it we are Justified, contains 

1. The Nature of an equal Interpretation or Exposition of a rigid Law. p. 142..  
2. That Christ was under a Law. p. 149.  
3. The Nature of that Law and its Righteousness, p. 152.  
4. That he Obeyed it in our room. p. 155.  
5. That the Law of Faith is this Mediatorial Law. p. 157.      

Correct,  
Page 1. line 21. for when justified, r. who was justified.  
Pag. 165. line 23. in some Copies, for it's right, r. taught.   

ADVERTISEMENT.  
A Compend of the Covenant of Grace. By Walt. Cross, M A. Sold by H. Barnard at the Bible in the Poultry. Price 6 d.   
ROMANS IV. 2. For if Abraham were Justified by Works, he hath whereof to glory, but not before God. 
THe Doctrine contained in this Verse is of great Moment, and requires our most earnest Attention and most narrow search and enquiry into its Nature and all its Circumstances; for it is, How shall we be Justified before God? how shall we behave ourselves before such an awful Tribunal? When he riseth up, what shall I do? and when he Visiteth, what shall I answer? says Holy Job; Wherewith shall we come before the Lord, and bow ourselves before the most High? will he be pleased with thousands of Rams, or ten thousands of Rivers of Oil? shall I give my Firstborn for my Transgression, the Fruit of my Body for the Sin of my Soul? That God would plead with Is●ael, made her Mountains tremble, and the Foundations of her Earth to shake, Mic. 6. It's David's Deprecation, Enter not into Judgement with thy Servant, for in thy sight shall no Man living be justified, Psal. 143. How can Man be just (or Justified) with God? for if he will Contend with him, he cannot answer him one of a thousand, Job 9.3. But it is a most certain thing, That we must all appear before the Judgment-seat of Christ, 
2 Cor. 5. Rom. 14.12. Psal. 139.  and that every one of us must give an Account of himself to God; We cannot decline it; Darkness cannot hid from his sight, nor Distance remove from his Presence: We cannot fly from his Spirit, tho' we had the Wings of the Morning: He is higher than the Heaven, what can we do? lower than Hell, whether can we go? from the Depth of the Sea, or the uttermost End of the Earth, his Hand can bring us back. He has appointed a Day, 
Act. 17.  wherein he will judge the World in righteousness, 
Eccl. 12.  and he will bring every Work into Judgement, with every secret thing, whether it be good or evil: 
1 Cor. 4.  He will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the Counsels of the Heart. 
Heb.  All things are naked and open to the Eyes of him with whom we have to do. If there be a God there is a Governor, and if there be a Governor there must be a Judgement: Can we be his Creatures and his Subjects, and will he be so Careless as not to take an Account of us? Humane Government is but an Image of his: There can be no Shadow without a Substance. Doth a Summons from Man fright us? Doth the very Name of an Arraignment, a Court, a Judge, an Appearance at a Humane Bar, shake off our Security, and rouse our Phlegmatic Constitution, and put us into a most serious thinking frame, and shall not the certain Warning of this rouse us out of our sleepy Condition, and entirely monopolise our Thoughts? Yet because of our Dullness to hear things concerning our Eternal State, I shall propose these Helps to render us serious about it.  
1. The Majesty and Holiness of the Judge, the Voice of the Archangel, the Trump of God, the Train of Saints, and glorious Appearance at the Great Day, will add nothing to it; he is as Holy, as Just, as Powerful now as then, as nigh to us now as then: When his Seat is upon the Conscience, is he not as nigh as when he makes a Cloud his Theatre? the Matter to be tried the same now that then, all the Business of that Day depends upon this: A sight of this God by Faith, and the Belief of our being now in his Presence, would put us in the same frame we shall be in then, as we may see from Job 40.4, 5. & 42.5. Behold I am vile, what shall I answer? I will lay my hand upon my Mouth, once have I spoken, but I will not answer: I have heard of thee by the hearing of the Ear, but now mine Eye seethe thee, wherefore I abhor myself in dust and ashes. Job's Faith would make Job's Temper.  
2. Exactness of the Law we are under as his Creatures; it's holy, just and good, it allows not, nor indulges any Sin, in Thought, Word or Deed, and is fenced with the most severe Sanction; In the Day thou eatest thou shalt die: Cursed is he that continueth not in all things written in the Book of the Law to do them, Gal. 3.10. This may fill Sinners with Terror, Isa. 33.14. The Sinners in Zion are afraid, fearfulness hath surprised the Hypocrite; who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burn?  
3. Our Condition; Sinners, Transgressor's of this Law, Rebels against this Sovereign God: There is none righteous, no not one; Jews and Gentiles, all are under Sin; there is no Pagan, but he approaches God with his Sacrifices and Prayers as an Offender; Propitiation, Pardon, Reconciliation, is that he looks after. Every one that has an Exercise of Conscience, whose Heart is not entirely hardened, has this for his principal Care, What shall I do to be saved? Acts 2.  
4. This is the Sum of the Gospel, the principal End of all Divine Revelation, to teach how this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, this guilty Person, this Enemy, this Ungodly Man may be Justified, Rom. 1.16, 17, 18. for these come all to one thing, How Saved? how Pardoned? how Justified? how Reconciled? how Sanctified? how in Covenant of Peace with God? how shall I escape Hell? how shall I enjoy Heaven? Christ is the one true and living way, Christ is the one Mediator, Christ is the Surety of the Covenant: We are Justified through the Redemption that is in Christ, that Jesus Christ is the Object of the Gospel, Gen. 3.15. Rom. 1.2, 3, 4. Heb. 7.25. This is the End of the Law, Gal. 3.24. Rom. 10.4. And this is the End of Ordinances, Salvation is by Faith, and Faith by Hearing.  
A 5th. Help to render us studious about it, is Satan's Pains, and alas! his Success too in either Corrupting it in our Thoughts, or keeping us from Thoughts of it: Satanae solamen (sicut solamen miserorum) est habere socios: A ringleader of Rebels drew all to his Party he could or can, and all Mankind he has brought unto the same Condemnation with himself: But our God from his special Compassion to us poor miserable Men who are deceived by Satan, has invented this way of our Salvation through Christ, which is a Delivery from Satan's Tyranny into the sweet Government of Christian Liberty; this he endeavours to hinder by Blinding men's Eyes, that they may mistake it, 2 Cor. 4.3. If our Gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, whose Minds the god of this World hath blinded: His Device among both Pagans and Jews in the old World, was to trust to their own Sacrifices, that God in Mercy would accept the Blood of a Beast for the Life of a Man, or one Man for many. The Jews took the Ceremonial Law for a Remedying Law, Gal. 1.6, 7. The Apostle calls it another Gospel, that is none; and v. 4. tells what the Gospel is: But all Sacrifices being laid down among the Christians, after Christ's sacrificing himself, Satan attempts other Methods. 1. The grossest: That Christ died only for an Example, and that his Self-denial to Natural Inclinations might move us to be denied to our sinful; and that his Powerful Interest in his Father, and Prayer to him, inclines him to Pardon on easy Terms, so that now half-work may be taken for the whole. 2. Others, That Christ's Sacrifice did obtain a Pardon, but not for all kind of sins; some for Original Sin only, some for sins in Ignorance also; some for all sins before Conversion, for others their own good Works, Merits, Penances, together with the Priestly Absolution, must pay or appease. A 3d. Opinion is, That Christ Merited that we might Merit, immediately we are accepted for our own Works, but remotely for Christ's, for on his Account our own are acceptable. Christ has purchased a Covenant of Grace for all, which Promises Remission of Sin, Helps of the Spirit, and a right to Heaven, under the easy Conditions of Faith and Repentance: by these a Man is just in respect of this Covenant that requires no more, and by this Justice and Righteousness he is Justified, but it is on the Account of Christ's Merits that this is reckoned Righteousness, and this Covenant or Law of Grace is given, that accepts such imperfect Holiness for Righteousness. This Righteousness is Meritorious, says Grotius, Luk. 17. because it consists in the Willingness of the Mind; the Obedience is due, but to do willingly Merits. As to the Order of the Covenant, it Merits an Interest in Christ's Righteousness. By this Doctrine all are equally Justifiable by Christ's Righteousness, but all do not equally partake of Gifts to perform the Conditions: Nor is there any Promise of Ability to perform these Conditions, for then some of the Promises would be absolute. Our Justification is by our own Works, but our Justification on such Imperfect Works is of Christ, or we are obliged to Christ for this easy Law; but the Works of the Law are our own, and we must be tried by them: And yet some Protestants say, this Evangelical Law requires greater Perfection than the Law of Nature, 
Bull. Examen. p. 173.  and that no other Law threatens Eternal Death, or Promises Eternal Life but it, and all since Adam are born under this Gospel-Law alone as to Eternal Concern. I think this deserves the Title of Neonomianism, and justles both Christ and his Gospel out of doors; for then there is no Pardon of Sin by Christ, for none can transgress the Law they were or are not under, and according to themselves Christ did not suffer for Sins against the Gospel, but they admit any Absurdity for this Idol: It's now in Vogue, and puts on many various shapes; I could reckon several, but shall forbear the Schemes of them till afterwards: I mention them now only to show Satan's Diligence in Obscuring and Perplexing this Case, that is of greatest Concern to our Souls of any in this World or the World to come; and should not we be as diligent in Searching out and Contending for this Faith once delivered to the Saints, since it is a Title to so great an Estate, our Charter for Heaven? And yet for the weak Christian's Comfort I must say, the Doctrine may be Fundamental that may have many Problematic Questions about it, that the Ignorance, Doubts or Errors in, will be but as the Stubble and Hay upon a good Foundation. Ill Management of our Plea at a Tribunal of Grace will not make us lose the Cause, when uttermost diligence is given. Once more under Correction, I believe that serious Christian that holds Faith as the Instrument of Justification in his Profession, and the other that earnestly Contends it bears the room of a Condition, often have not the least difference in their Ideas or Thoughts, when they plead their Cause in Prayer before God; yet when Ministers inculcate in People's Ears, they may, yea ought to plead their good Works at the Day of Judgement, as lately has been, it will soon breed this Difference in Ignorant People's Minds, and they who are Teachers of others ought to be better instructed themselves.  
A 6th. Help: Because the Purity of this Doctrine of Justification from any Mixture of Man's Works or Merits with it, is the greatest Blessing of the Reformation from Popery: In England the Discipline was very little altered, the Idolatry of Worshipping of Saints fell as a Consequent of this Doctrine, that ascribes all Merit to Jesus Christ. This Doctrine was the Everlasting Gospel Prophesied of Rev. 14.6, 7. and was fulfilled in the Preaching of Zuinglius and Luther, and they who followed them; they were the first of the Witnesses or Protestants God illuminated with this Doctrine, and encouraged them to bear their Testimony for it through all manner of Persecutions: For the Gospel is the Doctrine of Christ's Righteousness, his Righteousness is the Evangelical Righteousness, Rom. 1.17. c. 3.20, 21, 22. c. 9.31, 32. & c. 10.3. and the Righteousness of Faith, or by it; it is the Test of a Protestant and Shibboleth of an Heretic: It is, says Luther, Articulus stantis aut cadentis Ecclesiae; and Augustine before him, Ecclesia discernit justos ab injustis non Lege Operum, sed Lege Fidei: And there is great Reason for it, it has such an Influence on all other Doctrinal and Practical Truths. The Deity of Christ, if not God, no Value in the Satisfaction: the Trinity, if no distinct Persons, no Mediator; Original Sin, for if all not liable to Death, guilty Sinners, no need of his Righteousness, etc. There is no fear of relapsing into Popery by any Person on whose Heart this Doctrine is impressed; but there is ground to fear that Luther was a true Prophet, who said, Post mortem nostram hac Doctrina rursus obscurabitur. As we would Value the faithfulness of our Ancestors, who suffered Martyrdom for propagating this Doctrine to us, it is the most precious Inheritance we enjoy; as we would Value our own Souls, for there is no escaping Wrath if we neglect so great a Salvation, Heb. 3. as we Value the Sacred Revelations of God, for this is the Marrow of it, we would seriously set about this Study, How shall I be Justified before God? What doth Christ's Righteousness contribute to a Sinner's Salvation? What Kindness has our Lord Jesus Christ for poor Sinners?  
But I shall come to the Words, which contains these two things:  
(1.) The Explicatory Repartition of the former Proposition, that Abraham found nothing as to the Flesh; for if Abraham was justified by Works.  
(2.) An Argument for the Proof of it, because he had nothing to Glory in before God. To begin with the first of these, though the Proposition is Explicatory, yet such is the Subtlety of Satan, and his Diligence in filling the World with darkness of Error, and reflecting his black Clouds upon the Light of Scripture, that the Explication itself needs a Comment, or rather a Defence: The (1.) Thing to be explained, is the Signification of the Word itself, Justify: Never was there Word of greater Moment or Concern; for Justification is the Soul of Religion, and Marrow of the Gospel, without it nothing in the whole Scripture could Comfort a Sinner; never was Word matter of greater Strife and Contention, and yet never less Reason for it; but the greatness of its influence for bringing Souls out of Satan's Kingdom, makes it Satan's principal Butt and Aim; the most of all other Disputations of Religion end in Criticism, but this gins with it: The 1st. Question is, between us and Papists, with whom the Swinckfeldians take part, that is, Whether this Word Justify in St. Paul's Epistles, especially in this, when it treats of our Righteousness, the Ground of our Pardon before the Tribunal of God, is to be taken in a Physical or a Forensick Sense? Whether for sanctifying a Sinner and making an unjust Person just, or for a judicial Absolving of a guilty accused Person from the charge brought against him? The latter is the common Sense and Tessera of a Protestant, and the former the Shiboleth of a Papist, excepting Grotius and his Followers; who in this, and worse, take part with Papists. Therefore this shall be the first Assertion, That it is a Justidiction, not a Justification, of a Moral or Politic, and Relative, not an absolute Nature.  
(1. Arg. Tho' the Word itself is barbarous in the Latin Tongue, and made by Divines, for the most genuine near and faithful Translation of the Original Text; yet the Latin will favour this Sense, for Justifica mens deorum. Catul: Signifies their juridical Distributions of Rewards and Punishments, and an Adopted Son is called justus filius, from Jus Right, and in English we use the Word Magnify and Glorify, not for making but esteeming Great and Glorious. The Hebrew with all its Oriental Daughters do far more Confirm this Sense, for one of their Conjugations usually adds declaring to the Primitive Signification, as Barar pure, in Arabic, the Conjugation Taphahalah makes it signify, he cleared himself, or justified himself juridically; in the Heb. Tame polluted, Levit. 13.12. signifies to pronounce Unclean, which in this Word Zadak, to Justify, holds almost always in all the six Oriental Languages, in Hiphi●; as to the Greek we find it about thirty six or thirty eight times in the New Testament always in this Sense, declaring, esteeming, or judging Just; the shortest Method of the Proof is by instances of these Texts, that the Papists plead for, and some Protestants are willing to yield; (that it often signifies Forensically the Papist themselves grant) the Principal place is Revel. 22.11. A Forensick Justification is not capable of increase.  
Resp. (1.) In the Sense and Manifestation of it, it is. (2.) Where Courts are subordinate, it is; he that is justified in one, may go on to be justified in another. (3.) This Text speaks only of the Continuation of it, and there is a considerable difference between the first Sentence of Justification, and the Continuation in that State. (4.) Some Original Copies of considerable Authority, reads it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which removes all pretence. The next place to this in their Opinion is, Dan. 12.3. And they that turn many to Righteousness; the Original is, they that justify many. Resp. (1.) Preachers do as much Justify, as they Sanctify, their Instruction and Authority hath equal Influence on both: A third place, 1 Cor. 6.11. The Objection may be thus obviated, Tho' sanctifying and justifying be named together; yet they may be distinct Blessings, and not Explicatory one of another. (2.) Our Lord Jesus is the Author of the One, and the Spirit of God the Author of the Other. (3.) The Blessed Spirit of God is also a Cause of Justification, in his working Faith and Sealing a Pardon; but for Scriptures that prove its Forensick Sense, the Reader may look Deut. 25.1. 2 Sam. 15.4. 1 King. 8.31. Job 13.18. Mat. 11.19. and 12.37. Luk. 7.29. and 10.29. and 16.15. and on this very Subject, Rom. 2.13. and 8.33. which the Papists themselves grant. Thus much for the first Argument, from the Etymology, and usual Acceptation of the Word from Sacred Writ; to which may be added, the Testimony of Fathers and Profane Authors; as Chrys. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Homil. 15. to justify is to declare Just, the Greek Etymologist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, justified, that is judged Just. Suidas, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to esteem just; and most frequently in profane Authors, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to Punish. (2.) Argument is from its contrary, the contrary of making just, is Sinning, or Tempting to Sin; but the Scripture shows us, that the contrary of justify is to condemn, Deut. 25.1. Prov. 17.15. Luk. 18.14. Rom. 3.4, 5. and 8.33. The usual Signification, or Primitive Significations, to which all others are reducible, is the final result of a tried Case, to acquit or condemn, treat as just or unjust, upon an Antecedent judicial Trial: And Scripture uses the most favourable Signification to acquit; the profane Authors the other, to Punish or Condemn: from which we see no Word of the World so fit; for our Justification is not properly so, but a Pardon; it is an Acquitment upon a Suffering or Satisfaction given; Christ was properly justified, we properly pardoned; but the nearness of Relation between Him and Believers, the Reflection or Rebound his Justification has on our Pardon, gives it the Name. Christ was in some sense, tho' different, both condemned and justified; and so are we; this makes the Word which signifies both so proper; for our Justification is on a foregoing Condemnation. (3.) The Explicatory and Synonymous Expressions in Scripture, shows it to be taken in a Forensick Sense, as Remission of Sin, Reconciliation with God, not coming into Condemnation: Enter not into Judgement with thy Servant, for in thy sight shall no Flesh be justified. (4) The Description of it in Scripture, as the result of a judiciary Process: we read of the Judgement, Psal. 143.2. (1.) Job 9.3. How shall Man be Just with God, if he will Contend with him (2.) A Judge, the Judge of all the Earth will do righteously. (3.) Of a Law. (4.) Of a Guilty Person, Rom. 3.19. (5.) Of this Law drawn up into a Charge against a Man, Colos. 2.14. (6.) And Satan as an Accuser. (7.) Conscience as a Witness. (8.) There is a Tribunal of exact Justice, and a Throne of Grace as a Superior Chancery. (9) There is Faiths Pleading at the Bar of the one, and appealing from the other. (10.) Christ as an Advocate, 1 John 2.2. (11.) His Righteousness the Plea, and the Absolving Sentence passed upon that account, Rom. 3.26. To declare his Righteousness, that he may be just, and the justifier of him which believes in Jesus. (5.) I shall only explain that one Rom. 5.18. Even so by the Righteousness of one, the free Gift came upon all men unto Justification of Life: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. The Righteousness of that one Christ, as the Matter or Merit of our Justification, is put in Opposition to the offence of that one Adam, as the Matter or Demerit of our Condemnation; so Justification as the absolving Sentence is put in Opposition to Condemnation, for Holiness or Righteousness is not a proper opposite to Condemnation. The laborious Gerard does not without cause say Sanctification is rather used for Justification, than Justification for it; for when the Priest did cleanse the Leper, it was as much and more by Absolving and pronouncing clean, than by any Physical Cure those Ceremonies could make on that Distemper, Leu. 13.14. to which the New Testament alludes, Heb. 10.10. By the which Will we are sanctified, through the Offering of the Body of Jesus Christ once for all. The immediate Fruit of the Sacrifice was Atonement, Peace and Pardon, our Sanctification is the immediate Fruit of the Spirit. Thus much for the Signification of the Word, and general Nature of the thing.  
I shall next propose several Heads and Helps, for the more distinct Apprehension, and particular Knowledge of this great Mystery. (1.) The Relation it stands in to the other Benefits and Fruits of Christ's Death. (2.) What is to be reckoned for the Absolving Sentence. (3.) When it is, that the Sinner is Absolved and Justified. I shall leave other Questions to the 5th ver.  
1. There are four great Privileges and Fruits of Christ's Death, that are of a Relative Nature and as many of an absolute and Physical kind; for the first four, There is this Justification, Redemption, Reconciliation, and Adoption. (1.) For Redemption, it is taken two ways in Scripture: Either for the paying of the Price, or the Applicaion of the purchased Privilege to the Person.  
In the first Sense it is the Foundation of all the other Privileges, for it puts on the Nature of the Ransom, or whatever other Name it may put on, by which these Privileges are conveyed in Justice to us: Rom. 3.24. Being Justified through the Redemption. Colos. 1.20. Having made Peace through the Blood of his Cross. Gal. 4.5. To redeem, that we might receive the Adoption. Tit. 2.14. Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all Iniquity. Eph. 1.14. Until the Redemption of the purchased Possession. There Redemption is put for the Foundation of all these Privileges, being the common Term the Scripture uses to express the Sufferings and Death of Christ by, in its use and ends; by that he satisfied Divine Justice, by that we were freed from Death and Hell; and this Foundation being laid, he became the Avenger of Blood as to Satan who had slain us, and recovered the Captives from that Tyrannical Conqueror. (2.) Redemption, is put for the Application of the Privilege bought by this Price to the Person: As when a Slave in Algiers has not only attained Money to be paid to his Patron, but he himself is actually returned home; and therefore in Scripture it is seldom or ever used, for the Application of any one of the Privileges apart, but for the complete Consummation of all of them in Glory, Luke 21.28. The day of Judgement is called the day of our Redemption, and also, Ephes. 4.30. Grieve not the Holy Spirit, whereby you are sealed to the day of Redemption. Because all the Privilege purchased by that Price, doth not so much as commence till then; There is a beginning of Redemption from Gild before in Justification, and a Redemption from Enmity before in Reconciliation, and from Sin before its Pollution and Dominion; but they are not completed, nor a Glorification from Death and Mortality so much as begun. So much for the Relation between Justification and Redemption.  
The third Relative Privilege is Reconciliation, and that is of two kinds too; either (1.) As it puts on the Nature and form of an Inward Affection: For we cannot conceive of God positively, but under some humane resemblance; thus it is rather a reconcileableness, and belongs to the Love of good Will, a Willingness that mutal Communion and Fellowship should be again renewed, and that distance, by which we are undone no more continue. God's becoming our Council from Eternity, some improperly calls this a Justification, but Council precedes the Trial, Justification follows; and his so early Intimations of his kind Purposes, and his giving his Son to be a Peacemaker, tho' the pulling down of the Partition Wall cost his Blood: Reconciliation taken thus, is the Foundation of Redemption, and all built upon it. These two, viz. Love of God, and Gift of his Son, differ, as a Natural and Artificial Foundation; the natural Rock, and the first laid Stone, this Love and Reconcileableness is the very Nature of God, or an immediate result from it on the Position of such an Object; for God is Love, and Love made him communicate of the fullness of his Being to nothing, and he is a faithful Creator to protect and provide for what he brings forth, Love makes him so. (2.) Reconciliation is taken for the Agreement of Minds, Amos 3.3. Can two walk together, and not be agreed? Two Persons who once were of one Mind, and of one Heart, they had the same designs, and ends mutually engaged in Amity; and now this Temper and Condition after a miserable misunderstanding is again renewed; as David's bowels yearned after Absalon, he was reconcileable, but Communion was not renewed, until he had lived a considerable time in Jerusalem. So Pharaoh's Butler, when he is again restored to his wont Place: Thus Reconciliation is the very same with Justification. The divorced Woman is again reconciled to her Husband, in the same State of Fellowship through the Covenant of Grace that she was before breach of the Covenant of Works; as Justification is a restoring a Man to his former State before the Charge or Suspicion of guilt, so Reconciliation is a restoring to that State we were in before Enmity; they have both the same blessed Author, God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, they have both the same moving Cause, Goodness and Love, breaking forth in Grace and Mercy from Eternity: God became Man's Council in this Trial, wherein he is justified, and that Council was a Council of Peace; they have the same meriting Foundation, Christ's Redemption; they commence both at one and the same time, Gild and Enmity falls at once: The one Simile only helps to illustrate, wherein the other may become defective; for all the Transactions between Men and Men, have their Exceptions and Dissimilitudes, when they are brought to represent the Case between God and us: The one represents the Case as friendly, made up without going to Law, the other represents a fair Trial; the one represents it as a private Case, the other represents it as a public Crime pardoned, Authority being appeased by a Satisfaction: By the one Gild is removed, by the other Enmity; the one teaches that the other is not to be wiredrawn, for finding of something in it answerable to all the parts of the Simile.  
The fourth is Adoption, which is of the same Relative Nature with the former, and has the same Causes and Means of Conveyance, and commences at one and the same time; but yet seem to differ in these things.  
(1.) Adoption comprehends a greater Blessing, Justification gives Life, but Adoption gives an Inheritance; Justification makes us free Subjects, but Adoption makes us Sons; Justification puts us in Adam's Condition, but Adoption gives a right to Adam's Expectation; for Adam's Marriage from its very Original seems to be a Type of our Communion and Fellowship with Christ, Gen. 2.24. They shall be one Flesh. Eph. 5.32. it is said to be a great Mystery: Vid. Dr. T. Goodwin.  
(2.) Justification of a Sinner is a Sublapsarian Blessing, but Predestination to Adoption is an Antilapsarian Blessing, designed for Man before he fell, Eph. 1.5.  
(3.) Justification is a Mean, Adoption is an End, Tit. 3.7. That being Justified by his Grace we should be made Heirs according to the Hope of Eternal Life; and so in this Chapter it is treated of from the 13th. Verse, as posteriour to Justification.  
(4.) Justification is a more immediate Effect of Christ's Death, Adoption more mediate; it is by Justification that the blessed Line of Divine designs that was broken by Sin, is again tied. God designed a perpetual ascending Line of Blessings to his Creatures, but from Sin to Justification is a Parenthesis in this Line: John 12.24. Christ compares himself to a Corn of Wheat that dies, that it may bring forth fruit, so Psal. 45. Christ died and was Anointed to the Office of a Mediator, that he might recover those who were designed his Fellows and Companions, from their Forfeiture of it and Unfitness for it: Hence it is called a Purchased Possession, Eph. 1.14. by reason that is Purchased, without which we could not enjoy it. We can have no Privilege without Life.  
(5.) The one seems to require a more Noble and Heavenly Temper of Spirit correspondent to it: Regeneration answers the one, but the Spirit of Adoption, which is a higher degree, answers the other. The Regenerate Man may be under a Spirit of Bondage, but they who have received the Spirit of Adoption are more free from that slavish Temper, Rom. 8.14. Heb. 11.16. their Desires are fixed upon and more proportioned to their Estate.  
(6.) The one is ascribed more to the Death of Christ, the other to his Life: We are Justified by his Blood, Saved by his Life, Rom. 5.9. By Authority he forgives sins, but by his Intercession he prays for the Privileges of Adoption. But whatever dictinction there may be, there is no Separation, which is frequent among Men who have their Life often spared without restoring their Estates, and may forfeit the one sometimes without the other.  
(7.) There is a Priority in Justification to Adoption, tho' not in Time, yet in Order of Nature, this follows consequentially from all the rest, John 1.12. The right to Sonship follows Justifying Faith, Tit. 3.7. being Heirs follows being Justified: Rom. 8.17. We are first Children, than Heirs, and a Spirit of Prayer and Divine Conduct for a Holy Life answers Adoption. First Life, than Estate, in Order of Nature.  
The Arguments brought against it by the Learned Forbesius, are answerable.  
First, To Adopt is the Act of a Father, and the Acts of the Father in the Trinity are before the Acts of the Son and Spirit. Resp. That Order holds more in their Concurrence to one Act than in distinct Acts, for Justification is the Act of the whole Trinity, so is Adoption. (2.) That Order holds more in Antelapsarian than Sublapsarian Actions; for in the latter, Redemption, which is Christ's Act, is first, for there Actions flow not from God immediately as God. The Second, What is first in Christ, is first in us, but Christ is a Son first, before Justified as a Redeemer. Resp. This is true in the Order of Intention, for we are first designed Sons to be the Companions and Fellows of that only begotten, but 'tis not true in Order of Execution. (3.) We are Christ's Brethren by Adoption. Resp. He is a Brother by Incarnation, and fitted for being our Redeemer by it. It is not our Brotherhood by Adoption fitted Christ for Redemption, but his becoming our Brother by Incarnation. The relation of the absolute Blessings, Regeneration, Sanctification, etc. may be understood by the following head.  
A Second Help for more distinct Knowledge of this Blessing, is what supplies the room or place of the Justificatory Sentence. By Virtue of what Act of God upon the Arraigned Person doth he become formally free from the Curse of the Law? By what doth he publicly manifest such a particular Person pardoned? Resp. There are four apparent Competitors for this place: 1. The Voice of the Gospel, declaring all that believe are justified, Act. 13.39. but the Voice of the Law and the Voice of the Judge are of distinct Natures. The Gospel is in room of the Law, it's the Constitution of Christ's Kingdom, and it is also in room of the Records of a Court, it shows in general what is Constitutive of Justification, Rom. 5.19. By the Obedience of one shall many be made righteous; and is Decisive of them that are Justified, or to be Justified, and them that are not or shall not be, Joh. 3.36. He that believeth on the Son hath Life, and he that believeth not shall not see Life: But the Judg's part is to make an Authoritative Application of this Law or Constitution to an individual Person, this the Scripture doth not: All that Christ died for are Justifiable by the Gospel Constitution, but they often live a considerable time before they be actually Justified, 1 Cor. 6.11. Such were some of you, but you are sanctified, but you are justified. Mr. Baxt. Confess. p. 40. There is a triple Pardon constitutive by God as a Lawgiver, declarative by God as a Judge, determining our Right, and Executive in not inflicting the Poenalty: The Gospel doth the first, the second is that in question. There are others, such as the Testimony of the Spirit in a Person's own Conscience, and the solemn Sentence at the Day of Judgement, which I refer to the several Courts our Cause is tried in.  
That which I shall conclude on, as bearing nighest resemblance to it, is God's Act of Regeneration, his first Gift of Saving Faith and Sanctifying Grace, that beside its absolute Nature in Conforming the Soul to Christ, and raising his Image in it, it has a relative signification of Divine Favour, that is better than Life. God by that Deed or speaking Action says, All thy sins are blotted out, thy Iniquities forgiven, thou art a Freeman in the State. (1.) 2 Cor. 3.17. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is Liberty, Rom. 6.7. He that is dead is freed (Orig. justified) from sin. (2.) As soon as ever man sinned, Gen. 3. he became guilty, and as soon as guilty the Punishment of spiritual Death followed; so if as soon as sinned condemned, as soon as Christ's Righteousness applied he is justified; the receiving such a blessed Fruit of it as the Spirit, is a sure Application of it; there is as present and effectual Virtue in the Medicinal Potion for Life, as there was in the Poison to Death. (3. Eph. 1.14. The Spirit of the Lord is an Earnest of the Inheritance wherever he is; and since he ensures Adoption, much more he ensures Justfication. (4.) Regeneration makes us Sons, and the Privilege of a Son is more than that of a Subject. (5. Rom. 5.10, 11. Whenever we are reconciled, we are justified, for they are but different representations of the same Privilege, and Sanctification takes away the Enmity. (6.) When the Spirit is given to us, we receive a great Trust, many Talents, and called to a great Office in Christ's Kingdom, to praise and glorify him, to propagate his Kingdom, created unto all good Works. Sir Walter Raleigh, and with him all Lawyers, judged his being put in a place of Office and Trust, did virtually contain a Pardon in it. It implies much weakness in Government or Governors, to employ Traitors, Rebels and Criminals in places of Trust, who must strive for their Lives to hinder the just administration of the Government which would take away their own Life. (7. Mat. 9.2. When Christ the Judge of the World verbally pronounces Forgiveness, he signifies all imports one thing; Arise and walk: Eyes be ye open: Be thou healed: Or, Thy sins be forgiven thee: His gifts are in a comprehensive Cluster; there is a strong Chain of connexion among them, and he may name what is most easy; hence are they so united and involved into one another by Scripture, Titus 3.5.7. 1 Cor. 6.11. Rom. 8.30. Act. 5.31. And (8.) There is not only the Example of Christ's Justifying, but the Example of his being justified, Who was justified in the Spirit, 1 Tim. 3.16. All the Works of the Spirit on him and by him were God's justifying him: His Resurrection was his declared Justification, Rom. 4.25. It was the Pattern of ours, besides other great Influences on ours: By it was he taken from the Prison of the Grave, and acquitted from the Judgement, where tried, therefore our spiritual Resurrection, Rom. 6.7. is called Justification. (9) Ancient Custom shows that Authority did intimate their Sentence by symbolical Actions, and things as well as words. Ovid. Albis atrisque Lapillis. The White Stone was sent as a Symbol of Absolution to the Person whose Name they wrote upon it. Pierius in his Egyptian Hierogliphics gives this Account of the Rights of a Slaves Manumission: That he was Clothed in White Raiment, and his Patron's Ring put upon his Finger, and did eat at his Master's Table. The Scripture makes use of all these as Symbols of our Freedom from the Bondage of Corruption and Servitude of Sin, Luk. 15. The Ring is made mention of Revel. 19.8. there's the White Raiment, Rev. 2.17. there's the Manna, the Food of our Lord's Table, and the White Stone with our Names upon it. This expressing of a Sentence by an Action, is becoming of the Divine Majesty, with whom to do and to say are the same; his great Work of Creation required no more to its production but God's saying, Let there be a Light, a Firmament, etc. and it was so. This great Work of Regeneration, it's a begetting by his Word: Hos. 2.14. A speaking Comfortably to the Heart, and frequently a Calling, Whom he Called he Justified; his Vocation put them in a Justified State. (10.) Sanctification or Regeneration removes a Punishment as well as a Crime; the giving of a spiritual Life takes away a spiritual Death, which is the worst of Punishments: The Desertion by the Spirit is the greatest Curse, and that is removed by the Gift of the Spirit, and what takes away the Punishment does necessarily remove the Gild, or suppose it removed; for the greater Mercy does comprehend the lesser. Lastly, From the Nature of Faith, Isa. 53.11. By his Knowledge shall my righteous Servant justify many; it may either be by the Gift of Knowledge, or by the Act of Knowledge upon him; for Heb. 11.1. Faith is the Evidence of things not seen; it is no sooner in being than it is in exercise. The Seed of Grace is not like Material Seed, to need a Time of Corruption and intermixture with the Earth before it grow, but like the Beams of the Sun that act as they are received. The Gift of Faith is the Idea of Heavenly things suggested into the Soul, and there manifesting themselves by their own Light; so that we are Receivers of the Objects of Faith when we act Faith, Isa. 65.24. Before they call I will answer, and while they are yet speaking I will hear: Hence Regeneration's being the Sentence does not pecede the Exercise of Faith as a Mean: This might afford more Arguments for this Truth, because then the Union between us Debtors and Christ as Surety, is Completed, which is not till we apprehend him by Faith. (2.) Then the Soul actually Pleads, and therefore it's Termtime, the acceptable Day of our Salvation; the Court sits on our Case, and all the Causes of our Salvation are Clothed with a forensical Form from this Exercise of Faith, by which we look on God as our Judge, on Christ's Righteousness as our Plea, on Satan as our Accuser, on Christ as our Advocate, and his Spirit our Council; on the Law as an Indictment drawn up against us, and on its Constitution and Divine Justice as a Tribunal, from which we Appeal to the Chancery of the Gospel, founded on Goodness and Equity.  
Object. There are some Objections against this Doctrine: (1.) Sanctification is a gradual thing, Justification is one Act. (2.) That this would Confirm the Popish Error, that Justification is not a forensical or relative Act, but a Physical and Absolute one.  
To both which I Answer: (1.) That the Sentence of Justification is not Justification, but the Declaration of it, and the Gift of the Spirit for Sanctification the Sign of that. Faith is an Absolute Act, by which we are justified, but Justification is the relative Result of all the Causes and Foundations. Fatherhood or Sonship are Relative things, but to be Born, or to be Begotten, is an absolute thing. (2.) In all Similitudes there is somewhat of Unlikeness, and so in this: For, 1. He who is Judge, is both Lawgiver and supreme Governor too; in other Cases in this. 2. In others we have done with the Judge when the Sentence is past, but not in this. (2.) In others we need but one Act, because we can abstain from the like Crimes; but in this we need a Continual Justification or Remission: Hence we daily Pray, Forgive us our Sins; and we have daily Encouragement, that if any Man sin there is an Advocate with the Father: The Court constantly sits, we are always on our Knees before the Bar, our Faith perpetually Pleads, and Christ's always interceding, and he is always heard; hence a constant continued Stream of Justification, Dan. 9.9. called Forgivenesses; and Revel. 19.9. the Righteousnesses or Justifications, for it is the same word; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Rom. 5.19. is translated Justification, and thus may be expounded, Revel. 22.16. He that is Justified, let him be Justified still; and in this very Chapter, Rom. 4. Abraham is said to be Justified by Acts of Faith several Years after his first Conversion, Gen. 15.6. it was at least Ten Years after his first Faith. Our Case is a continued State of Justifying or Pardoning.  
That which recommends this Opinion to me, is not only its Appearance of Truth, but its Medicinalness for Reconciling the different Opinions of Persons so lately on foot; for the Subscribers Apology grants, 1. That Faith and Repentance are absolutely given to the Ungodly, for what is Man else before that Gift? 2. That Faith and Repentance are only given to the Elect. Are they not then, 1. The Gifts, Blessings, Tokens of special Favour, Symbols of divine distinguishing Love, though they may be long unintelligible to the Person under the Exercise of them, as the Inscription of Mene Tekel on the Wall was to the Chaldeans; yet ex Natura rei & intention Authoris, it imports a Person's being Reconciled to God, Fellowship with Heaven is begun, and two cannot walk together and not be agreed. Effects always signify their Cause, Rom. 5.15. 2. Can a Person be under special Favour, and not Pardoned, or Reconciled and not Pardoned? Called and not Justified? not under Wrath and yet under Gild, or else under Divine Love and Wrath at once? or that the Punishment, to wit, want of the Spirit, spiritual Death, is removed, and not the Gild or lyableness to the Punishment, although so removed as eventually never to return again from the Vigour of Divine Love fixed on that Person: Rom. 5. & 6. the Apostle describes a State of Grace and Justification as necessarily united: But I need not infer this from them, since the Reverend Mr. Baxt. Conf. p. 40. saith, To Sanctify is to Pardon, that is, executively, because it takes away the greatest Punishment, Spiritual Death; and the Sentence of Pardon must go before the Execution. And (further) our Pardon is subservient to our Renovation, by Sanctity as imperfectly now begun; for being imperfect the Defect of every Act deserves Condemnation, and needs Pardon, and yet this Pardon is a particular Pardon following the general Pardon of our Persons, by which we escape Wrath, and are capable of Acceptable Obedience for the future. By this the Pardon of our Persons should precede every Act of Faith and Repentance, for a following particular Pardon accompanies every Act of them.  
But the greatest difficulty is, how Faith and Repentance should bear both the Place of a Sentence and a Condition, which is needful to reconcile these two Opinions.  
R. 1. By Condition they mean not a Condition properly in a Law or a foederal Sense, as we use the Word in Bargains between Man and Man; for the Civilians inform me these three Properties make a Condition: 1. Potestative, that it be in the Parties Power to perform. 2. Casualty in itself, and to the other Party uncertain. 3. Causal, in that it bear a Valuable Consideration. The Law will not suffer a Man to injure himself so far, or another to deceive him, as to get a Title to an Estate of two or three hundred Pounds per Ann. for an hundred Guineas: But the Apol. informs us, that This Condion is neither in our Power, 2. Nor Uncertain, 3. Nor Meritorious, therefore not a Condition properly. Nay, further, (tho' the Gospel be a Law, and this Law is the Condition of the Covenant) yet it is not a Legal Condition: Therefore it must be in a Physical or Logical Sense, if not in a Law Sense; and a Necessary Connection is enough for the one, viz. Logical, as if a Man be Reasonable, he is capable of Learning, and if capable of Learning, he is reasonable; and Priority enough for the other, as that Wood must be laid to the Fire before it can be burnt. And this Opinion is very agreeable with Condition in this Sense, for there is not only a Necessary Connexion between Faith, Repentance and Justification, but there is a Priority, (the Covenant of Grace partakes more of Orderliness, it is Ordered in all things, than of Conditionalness) for the Foundation is before the Relation, the Sign before the Signification, the Gift of Faith and Repentance is before its Connotation of our Pardon, or being received into Favour. Nay, further, there is not only the Gift of Faith, but the exercise of this Grace as mixed with our Faculties, and become a Duty in order of Nature antecedent to this Connotation or Signification of our being now brought under Divine Favour; because the way of Communicating this Gift is by Calling, speaking immediately to the Soul, and representing spiritual Ideas, making us behold as in a Glass the glorious Image of the Lord, discovering unseen and hoped for things, as before and after both is further explained; and the Gift cannot be without this exercise, by which God and the Soul unite and mutually apprehend one another. In short thus: That this Gift may not only be long unperceived by the Receiver, but that it cannot Signify until in Exercise, tho' as a Gift it doth signify.  
There is but one thing more, that Justification and Glory are suspended upon these Duties of Faith and Repentance.  
R. Either by Suspension he means no more but Necessary Consequential; so we Agree, and I do not find his Arguments will prove more: For a Testament is fully as proper a Title, that gives Name to the whole Bible, as Covenant or Bargain; and Civilians say, the If used in Testaments, which is so frequent in Scriptures, is a demonstrative If, that doth not Suspend but Design the thing Promised, and some certain Time or Manner of Conveyance. If he understand it a Legal Suspension, it's the same with a Legal Condition, which he has denied before; for, Conditio est dispositionis suspensio ex eventu incerto ei opposito, and has an Obliging Influence on the Promiser, and Conferrs a Title of Right to the Benefit promised.  
I might Conclude this with some Testimonies out of the Fathers; but though I find Phrases to answer my Purpose, I find the Style sometimes Lose and Oratorical, and sometimes they Design another thing (which I wish a late Author had minded, who Attempts to prove the New Law out of the Fathers, when Daille who was better acquainted with them, says, It's in vain to make them Judges in many of the Controversies between us and the Papists; and yet this Author would bring them to Prove a more Nice Point, become a very late Question. In what sense the Law is New thoro the Gospel, or the Gospel may be called a Law, I shall only instance his first Citation out of Justin Martyr, p. 228. etc. and I am willing to be judged by any of the Subscribers that will take the Pains to read it, if Justin intends any thng more than the recommending the Christian Constitution, and proving it preferable to the Mosaical: For he says, This New Law is Posterior to Moses his Law, but the Apologist's New Law has been ever since the Fall of Adam. He says this New Law is Christ and his Testament. Any may see he took Law in no strict Sense, when he calls Christ and his Testament a Law; he calls it a Testament Eight times in that Page, and nigh Seventy times in that Dialogue, and seldom, I think not above Four times, a Law, (without the Explicatory word Testament added;) yet I think this Opinion will help to wrest the Fathers out of the Papists Hands. The Father's use the Words Justify and Sanctify often promiscuously, for making Just and Holy. The common Answer by Protestants is, the Father's use the Word according to its Grammatical Signification, not Forensical Use: To which the Papists answer, Then they were not acquainted with that sense. This affords another, for we may say, to Sanctify is to Justify, in the same Sense that Christ says, This Bread is my Body, that is, a Sign of it: And so we may understand the Fathers Est, or Is, Metonymically, for est Signum; and we may find enough among their Writings to show that all the Parts and Degrees of Sanctification are Signs of Justification; which doth sufficiently show, that tho' this Phrase is New, that the Gift of the Holy Spirit in order to our Sanctification, stands in the room and place of a Justificatory Sentence, yet the Sense is not; for it is the Sign, yea the spiritual Initiating Sign of our being in Covenant with God: This is the Covenant I will make with them, I will pour out my Spirit on them. Being in Covenant is a Relative Blessing as well as Justification, and they are inseparable: Now, says the Lord, my giving my Spirit imports this, I take thee to be one of my People, I avouch thee this Day to be mine. The Prince's Proclamation of Pardon to a Rebel, or the Judges Justificatory Sentence of a Person suspected, accused, imprisoned, is the first Authoritative Signification of the Governments Favour: So what is the first Sign of Divine Favour must stand in the place of a Justifying or Pardoning Sentence; but these absolute Blessings that are proper to the Elect, of Faith and Repentance, are the first Intimations of Divine Governments receiving us into Favour, therefore the Gift of them is the Absolving Sentence.  
A third Proposed Head, was the Time of our Justification, which being meant of the first Act, necessarily follows from the former Proposition, to be neither later nor sooner than the first Moment of our Conversion. The Goodness of God would not suffer our Justification to be sooner, for he would not keep us out of Possession of what is our Right; if as a just Judge he Justified us, as a Merciful Governor he would Treat us as such, and let us have the Common Privilege of Free Subjects, which is his Spirit: Not the later, for his Justice could not give to a condemned Criminal without the Imputation of Mediatorial Satisfaction, the greatest of the Favours and best of the Blessings of his Kingdom; but whatever Arguments proved the former Proposition, proves this: As for the Antinomian Notion of Justification from Eternity, it seems more absurd than the Eternity of the World.  
There is a Threefold Use this Doctrine affords, of Trial to the Doubtful, of Support to the Dejected, and of Conviction to the Carnal secure Person. As to the First, Whatever doth prove the Sincerity of a man's Faith, the Reality of his Regeneration, may be to him a sure Index and Token of his Pardon, since Regeneration itself is the Justificatory Sentence. As to the Second, Whether the dejection or despair of Mind arise from the greatness of Sin, the Violence of Temptations, the strength of Lust, the multitude of Backslidings, or long continuance in that comfortless State, or from such speculative Doctrines as the Fewness of the Chosen, and fixedness of the Number of them for whom Christ died; yet this one thing may support the Soul, and fill it with the Joy of a pardoned Criminal, that if there be the least dram of Grace, though small as a Mustardseed, Mat. 17.20. thy State is secured, whatever come of others, or however uneasy our present Condition be. For the Third, It is a vain thing for that man to live in Hopes, and trust in God's Mercy and Christ's Satisfaction, without any inward Change in the Temper of his Mind; for the Sentence of Justification is never passed upon him until he be Regenerate: Thus the Apostle argues, Rom. 6. obviating that Objection, If Grace be glorified in the Pardon of Sin, let us continue in sin that Grace may abound. He answers, How shall we that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? He that is dead, is justified from sin: These two are inseparable, a Justification from the Gild of sin, and a Mortication from the Power and Pollution of sin.  
I come now to the other Term of the Proposition, Works, which I shall first Explain by several distinguishing Characters, and then secondly, come to the Proposition, and show in what sense the one is denied: Of the other, how far Works are excluded from Justification. For the first, 1. They are Good Works; neither Jews nor Gentiles ever pretended that God would justify us for bad Works, that the same should be matter of Condemnation and Justification, that what needs a Pardon should deserve a pardon. 2. Not merely Good in men's Opinions; the Pharisees thought their Works better than they were, Luke 16.15. they did highly esteem what God did abominate, and justified themselves for it: for Paul might then, and should have brought Arguments to prove they would be Condemned for their Works: And 2ly, would have Corrected their Error as Christ did, Mat. 5. by showing their Works were not good, they came not up to the Extent and Spirituality of the Law. 3. The Apostle argues against the Works of the Law, Rom. 3.20. and the Law itself, v. 27. and 4.13. not against a misinterpretation of the Law. Christ calls that Mat. 5. said of old, and said of them, the Opinion and Tradition of Rabbins, not the Law, and Works of the Law. It's a sandy Foundation which some lay for their Comments, Systems and Sermons, that only the works here meant are Mosaical in the Pharisaical sense of them, without one word of proof for it; for then the fault or defect would be in the Law, not in the Works by the Law, for this Law say some of them had only Temporal Rewards and Punishments. 3. All Humane Actions, works in general, not as Grotius only External Works; Aristotle and his Followers distinguish between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Works and Actions. But Divinity that has only the Morality of Actions for its formal Object, cannot exclude Internal, where all Morality lies. The External works of the Apostles are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, their Acts, as their famous and Sacred History is entitled, and 1 Thes. 1.3. Faith and Love are styled Works: Besides, we find Obedience, Righteousness and Works, of the same import through the Scripture, and especially in this Epistle: Rom. 6.16. of Obedience unto Righteousness, and without Works, and without a Man's own Righteousness, are of the same import. (4.) Good Works are the Fruits of the Spirit, Eph●s. 5.9. The fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, rigbteousness and truth, Galat. 5.22. (5.) Good Works are wrought by a Righteous Man. Mat. 7.18. A good Tree cannot bring forth evil Fruit, neither, etc. Ephes. 2.10. The Apostle proves that we are saved not of Works, because Good Works follow our being God's Workmanship. (6.) Good Works must be according to Divine Command, for that is the Rule and Standard between Good and Bad, as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 1 John 3.4. is the formal Nature of Sin, so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the formal Nature of Good Works: Deut. 4.2. Good Works are called Righteousness, because according to the Law, that is the measure of the Creator's right to his Creatures, and of the fellow Creatures to one another. Hence we are always sent to the Law, and to the Testimonies, if not according to these, there is neither Truth nor Goodness in them. Johannes Agricola, the Ringleader of Antinomians, is usually condemned amongst Divines, and it's said, was Converted by Luther from this Error: That Repentance was taught by the Gospel, and not by the Law; for the Law is the Rule of all Obedience, the Gospel is a Doctrine of Joy: Luke 2.10. A word of Grace, Acts 20.29. because it brings the tidings of pardon to guilty Persons. The Law teaches Man's Righteousness, but the Gospel teaches God's Righteousness, Rom. 1.17.3.21. And hence our State being mixed of Law and Gospel, no Works are truly good and acceptable to God by the Law alone: Not from a defect in the Law, but a defect in us that cannot fulfil it. Hence (7.) No work is good without Faith, Heb. 11.6. Rom. 14. last. There is some deformity in every action by reason of some defect or want of its Conformity to the Law. And (8▪) Its action needs a Pardon as well as every Person; and therefore are only acceptable in the Name of Christ, Coloss. 3.17. Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the Name of the Lord Jesus. The doing in Faith, and the doing in his Name, are all One: so 'tis a Justifying Faith that's needed to justify every action, and this Composition makes the Actions truly good, and as acceptable to God as those that were no ways deficient either in Matter or Manner.  
The Use I shall make of this, is of Refutation; for since none can pretend to be justified by any Works but such as are good and acceptable in the sight of God, and none are such that want the  Qualifications, all the distinctions of Adversaries about the Kind's of Works, are to no purpose. That this may be more evident, I shall rank them under these four Kind's.  
(1.) The Socinians, who say that the Apostle means Works in their Perfection, that are excluded from a divine condescendency to our Impotency; he will not require what we cannot perform, but will justify us for what we can. Resp. 1. If we did and always had perfectly fulfilled the Law, we should have been justified by its Works: Rom. 2.13. The doers of the Law shall be justified: 2 Tit. 3.7. Not by works of righteousness which we have done. 2. It would heinously reflect on the Holiness of God as a Lawgiver or Judge, to make an Imperfect Law, or to Judge a Man just for Imperfect Performance of a Perfect Law, Gal. 3.10. Cursed is he that continues not in all things, etc.  
The Second Opinion is of them who exclude the Mosaical Law; and these of two, and may be more sorts.  
1. Some exclude only Ceremonies, and indeed the Controversy began about them, Act. 15. the Instances by Paul most mentioned are of that kind, Gal. 2.14, 16. and by their resemblance of a Remedying Nature, the Jews mistook them for the thing itself: Thus Lombard and the Schoolmen, Alphons. a Cast. Dom. a Soto. But the Law the Apostle speaks of, as the Rule of the Works he excludes, cannot be Confined so narrowly; for Rom. 2.15. it's a Law that the Gentiles had; Rom. 3.20, 28. a Law that bond all Flesh, a Law by which the Knowledge of sin, Rom. 4.14. a Law that worketh Wrath.  
2. By others the whole Works of the Mosaical Law are excluded in the Pharisaical Sense of them, that is, as separated from the Essential Duties of the Covenant as given to Adam, Noah and Abraham. Respon. (1.) I grant that the Pharisees did mistake the Law in its Extent and Intent too; the former Christ corrects, Mat. 5. but it's very reasonable to think that they who had now embraced Christ, to whom the Apostle writes, had forsaken that Error; for the Apostle's Dispute is of another kind; not what was their Duty or Work, but what place this Work or Duty had with respect to its Reward: Whether or not it was truly Meriting; and his Business is to prove, that let their Works be what they would, they could never serve for this Use; and the Apostle tells them, Rom. 10.4, 5. that they did not know Christ completely, viz. that he was the End of the Law, who would put such a Value on their own Works. Sir Nor. Knat. Observes on Rom. 2.14. that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Work of the Law, signifies the Office of the Law; this was to Convince a Man of Sin, that he might fly to Christ, as Galat. 3. 'tis called a Schoolmaster to bring us to Christ: The Law is the Mean, He is the End. The Moral Law was a Mean to make them sensible of their Need of Christ, and the Ceremonial was a Mean to represent him as the End of the other, as One who was a Sacrifice, and gave satisfaction for their Breach of the Law. (2.) The Apostle gives no Countenance to this Opinion in his Phrase; for Galat. 3.21. If there had been a Law given, etc. There is an Impossibility in any Law, or its Works prescribed to Adam, Noah or Abraham, since Man was a Sinner, to Merit in any sense Justification at the Hand of God. (3.) Romans 3.20, 21, 22. The Apostle calls the Works he excludes, Works of the Law; not in any abstracted sense, but Works that the Law required; and the Mosaical Law comprehended all the former Laws under it, as Joh. 7.32. Ye received Circumcision of Moses, not that it was of him, but of the Fathers: And when the Mosaical and the Christian Constitution are opposed, Mosaical comprehends the whole Old Testament State. (4.) The Righteousnesses that are in this Epistle opposed, are God's and M●n's; not Adam's essential Duties in the first Edition of the Naked Covenant, and Moses his in the Political Administration of it, Rom. 3.22. The Syriac renders it thus, The Righteousness of God by the hand of Faith on that Jesus Christ: Not a Righteousness that is God's Gift, and is acceptable to God by Virtue of his prescribing it as the Condition he required; a Righteousness that lay in the Fruits of Faith, or in the Nature of Faith, from its Conformity to the Law of the Covenant, but a Righteousness that Faith as a Hand takes hold of. (5.) This Law the Apostle speaks of, comprehends all inward Obedience, all Righteousness: Vid. Ch. 3. and 7. of this Epistle; nay, the Pharisee, Mat. 22. did conclude Love to God to be the great Duty of the Law.  
3. The third Opinion is of Grotius, who if the Writings that go under his Name, and have so much Corrupted the Age, be his own, he was both a Papist and Apostate; or if Mr. Baxter's Grotian Errors, and that other Book called Grotius Papizans, or Walleus in N. T. Preface, be to be Credited; indeed his Doctrine on this very Point of Justification is a very great Proof it, as his Comments on the Epistles doth testify, especially this: for tho' they are as Corrupt as he in their Disputes, yet rarely in their Expositions, are any Papists so Corrupt: His Doctrine is thus, 1. Works that are only External, Civil, deserving Praise of Men, and by Humane Strength performable, are excluded from an Interest in Justification. 2. Faith of God, is an Esteem of his Attributes, and Faith of Christ is the Knowledge of him and his Doctrine. 3. To Justify is to Purify, to Cleanse from Vice; so the Works are hypocritical, the Faith historical, and that which Devils has, the Justification papistical. Resp. 1. It's very improbable that the Apostle should Dispute so Nervously, that a Man cannot be Internally Sanctified by External Works; and as improbable that any should be so absurd to maintain it, that a Man may become Just by Hypocritical Performances, that external Civility is internal Holiness. 2. That Law, Rom. 7.7, 14. required more than external Works. 3. Abraham had better Works than External, and Paul when he knew nothing by himself, yet not thereby Justified, did not mean only External. 4. They were what Works the Law required, and the God that searcheth Hearts nev●r made a mere External Law to Judge Men by.  
4. The fourth Opinion is that which is common among Papists; 1. Works before Faith are excluded, but not after Faith: Sorrow for Sin without the Aids of Grace, doth not Merit: Preparatory Works to Grace doth not Merit; though some, and that generally, allow a Congruity and Fitness to them; others, as Becanus, deny it: This is no more true than the others, for v. 3. Abraham had Believed for Ten Years, and yet his Works not Imputed to him; and so Paul, Gal. 2.16. 1 Cor. 4.4. 2. If Works after Faith be most Meritorious, then there is most Matter of Boasting from them; but Abraham had none to boast of, therefore none that could Merit. 3. The Works of Believers, 1. Are Due. 2. Not our own. 3. Imperfect, therefore cannot Merit. But tho' there are different Opinions about what Works are excluded, there is an Agreement about what Works are included: Faith as a Work, as the Matrimonial Consent, pregnant of all the Duties of Marriage. Repentance is included, Sincere Obedience is included, which I shall endeavour to refute on the fourth Verse.  
The Second thing proposed, was, In what Sense they are Excluded. I shall Treat this, 1. Positively. 2. Comparatively. 3. Give Account of the different Notions and Respects under which others think they may be Included.  
For the First, the Text excludes them indefinitely, in all respects that may be brought under the Particles with, of or by; for not by Works, without works, are the Apostle's Terms: For tho' Works are the Effects, Evidences, Concomitants, Properties of our Justification, yet Justification is not by them; for by denotes some Causal Influence, either by Efficacy or Dignity, and Works have no such Influence on our Justification.  
2. Comparatively, they are more excluded from our Justification here on Earth before God, than at the great Day of Judgement. Works have a less Influence on our being Called and Entered a Member of the Church Militant here below, than on our Entering the Triumphant State in Heaven; for the former is merely a Matter of Right, and our Works have neither Being nor Dignity for that End; but the latter is Matter of Possession, and many things are requisite to Possession that are not to Purchase. Our Justification at the Great Day requires Proof of our being Justified here; and many things are Necessary to the Proof of Justification, that are not Necessary to the first being of it: Yet I much doubt any formal Process, the bare appearance of the Persons in Sanctity and Glory, is evidence enough. (1.) In Order to our going to Heaven, besides the Necessity of Precept, Gratitude. For, Right good Works are real Means of Order, Preparation of ourselves, and helping of others thither. (2.) Good Works have a real Efficacy in them, as all Actions have to beget and strengthen a Habit. (3.) Good Works have a real Congruity in them, to make us meet and fit for that Holy Fellowship and Communion above. (4.) Good Works are the Necessary Effects of Justification and Sanctification; the Spirit of God cannot dwell in a Soul without transforming it more and more into a Likeness to Christ. (5.) Good Works have a real Utility in 'em, for heightening our Reward in Heaven: Not that they can from their own dignity Merit Degrees of Happiness, more than the Being of Happiness; but from the beautiful and harmonious Order of Divine Providence, in advancing us from one step to another, and not Conferring Degrees per saltum; there is no End of the Increase of Christ's Kingdom, as to its Blessings; but its Increase is by way of a Life, in a perpetual and gradual Growth. (6.) Heaven is truly a Reward to our Holiness here, by Virtue of Divine Order and Connexion from Divine Condescendency, as Basil says; Manet requies sempiterna non tanquam debitum operibus redditum, sed secundum munificentissimi Dei gratiam. Hysichius. The Kingdom of Heaven is not the Reward of Works, but is the prepared Grace of God: And as another says, It's proposed as a Reward more to attract us to Duty, than a due Debt of our Duty; and it is rather the Righteousness of Christ by which all our Actions are rendered acceptable, that is Rewarded, than our Actions themselves. Lastly, Our good Works are Necessary to Heaven, as the Beginning and Growth of a thing is Necessary to its Perfection; as Sowing in the Spring is Necessary to Reaping in Harvest, and our being Children in Order to our being Men. Perfect Holiness is as much the Condition of Heaven as Faith is of Justification, and Ordinances of Conversion, and rather more; for there are Exceptions in the last, but none in the first.  
The Third thing proposed, was the several respects, that several Persons plead Works to be necessary, in Order to our Justification; and herein there is a greater Variety of Terms, viz. A Tenor or Hold, a Plea, the Form or Matter, Preparations, Dispositions, Conditions, Moral Means, Merits of Dignity or Congruity, than there is in Thought and Opinion; and so a greater variety of Persons, Professions, Names and Ages of the World, than there is in the thing itself: for all these very different Sentiments we may find amongst the Papists themselves. (1.) The grossest of them, as Vasquez and Cajetan, faith, Our Works Merit from their own Dignity, that God in strict Justice could not but Reward such Pains, such Mortifications, such Fast and Prayers, with Heaven, or Eternal Happiness, this not true of Adam's Covenant. But a second, and more Moderate sort, as Marsilius, Leonardus, etc. admit of a Triple Alloy to render them Meritorious: And the first is, That Christ hath merited, that our Works may Merit: Ours as subordinate Conditions to an Interest in his: The second is from Divine Ordination, because though our Actions are not worth a Pardon, yet he hath Promised both a Pardon, and a Heaven for them: A third that lays Foundation for the former, is a natural Congruity and Aptness, that the diligent Worker should have a Reward, and the sincere Endeavourer should not be slighted, when the Bounty doth not Empoverish but Honour the Donor; and that a Penitent Person should be pardoned: And ever since the Interim, at the first Birth of the Reformation, there has been a party amongst Protestants, in little or nothing differing from them, called sometimes Interimists, Cassandrians, Majorists, Conditionalists, Calixtians; and others that have run as far to a no less dangerous extreme, as Amsdorfius, who said, Good Works were so far from being necessary to Justification, that they were pernicious and hurtful to it.  
I do not comprehend under Conditionalists, all who have asserted the Covenant to be Conditional, for they have explained themselves, that they mean no more by it, than the immediate and nearest means of these Blessings, viz. Justification and Glory: And add many Cautious and Negative Senses, that destroy the proper Nature of a Condition; some five, some ten; but I see no Reason for their Zeal against them who say it's not Conditional; since they say it's three to one, five to one more not Conditional, than Conditional, viz. it's not Conditional Antecedently, it's not Conditional Naturally, it's not Conditinal Meritoriously, it's not Conditional Legally, it's not Conditional Uncertainly; and yet cry Error, Error, if another say it's not Conditional, and call it a Disposition of Grace through means to a certain end; if we take the Word Condition in its vulgar use, for the whole stipulated part of the Bargain or Bond to be performed wholly by the restipulating party, it's more apt to deceive vulgar People (who have that Idea of Condition) to say its Conditional without Limitation, than to say it's not Conditional; and do they think their Brethren have neither Power nor Skill to add Limitations to their not Conditional, as well as they to their Conditional? and fewer are Necessary, viz. tho' Faith and Repentance are Gifts of Grace, yet they are Duties; and tho' the Lord calls effectually where he will and when, yet our Consent is courted, and wooed, not forced; we freely yield to the Spirits Conduct, though our yielding is the Spirit's Effect, and Effects bear not the Name of Conditions.  
The Sense then of the Apostle is this, That no Works Ceremonial, Moral, with Faith or without it; by the Spirit of Grace, or Strength of Nature, external or internal, perfect or sincere; no Works of any Law performed by us, are either Merits, Matter, Form, Legal Condition or Plea, etc. for our Justification before God; they neither by Efficacy do Constitute it, nor by Dignity deserve it: What the Apostle has excluded without Limits, we should. The Arguments for the Truth of this follows next in the Text.  
So I come now to the second Part of the Verse, which is the first Argument that proves we are not Justified by Works; He hath whereof to glory, but not before God. The Argument is from the Topick of Impossibility or Absurdity; the Matter is impossible, and the Action is absurd, that such a Worm as Man, or any thing that is a Creature, should boast, or have ground of boasting before its Maker: Much more absurd is it for this Creature, becoming a Rebel and a Transgressor, to boast of its Meritting a Pardon, or rendering its Pardon a Justification: If a Slave should break a Vessel of great worth, and boast he could restore it, or satisfy for the Damage, when he is not his own, it would be unbecoming, but too mean a Type of this.  
There are three things to be Treated in the Argument: 1. The Form of it. 2. The Truth of it. 3. The Strength of it.  
1. The Form of the Argument is thus: 

Maj. If Abraham were Justified by Works, he has Matter of glorying.  
Min. But Abraham has no Matter of glorying, at least before God.  
Concl. Ergo, Abraham is not Justified by Works.    
This is the general Interpretation of Protestants, and some others; Erasmus, Vatablus, Calvin, Zegerus, Beza, Piscator, Paraeus, Dickson, Hyperus, Melancton, Sclater, Tuckney.  
But there are Interpreters of great Number and Note, that form the Argument in a contrary Method, thus: 

Maj. If Abraham were Justified by Works, he would have no Matter of Glorying before God.  
Min. But Abraham had Matter of Glorying before God, viz. His Faith.  
Concl. Therefore not Justified by Works.    
Origen, the first Interpreter, says, if Faith had not been a real Glory before God, he would not have Imputed it to him in place of Works; but there is no Reason to Impute this Error to Origen but his Popish Translator (for we have no other Origen on this Epistle that I know.) Rufinus, as we may read in his Preface to that Epistle, p. 634. Basil. They say there is so much of this work thy own, that thou shouldst entitle it with thy own Name, not origen's: But tho' I have had an Herculean Labour in adding, diminishing and altering, yet I will not steal his Title that laid the Foundation, but let the Reader ascribe the Merit of the Work to whom he will, to him or to me, I shall put both our Names in the Title. They who form the Argument thus are of two kinds; either, 1. Those who differ both in Form of the Argument, and in the Truth, as the Papist, Aquin. Sasbout, Estius, etc. who say that  affords a Man Matter of Glorying; by it he has made himself differ from others, Converted himself, Prepared himself, performed the Conditions of the Covenant: May not a Workman glory in his Work? 2. Those who only differ in Grammar and Form, as First, The Fathers: Chrys. Faith thinks highly of God, and so glorifies him: Therefore he gloried not that he loved God, but that God loved him. Secondly, Some Protestants, as Bucer, P. Mart. and also L. de Diu. His glorying before God, was glorying in God. 1 Cor. 1.31. He that glories let him glory in the Lord. Faith sends a Man out of himself, to glory in God, and in Christ.  
I reject this Form of the Argument, and embrace the former for these Arguments.  
1. The Propositions of the latter Argument are not in the Text, but the contrary are; the Text says not, If Justified by Works, he has no Matter of glorying, but quite contrary, He has Matter of glorying if justified by Works; the Text says not, He has Matter of glorying before God, but, Not before God; so nothing of their Syllogism in the Text, all the other is.  
2. Both the Propositions of their Argument are false: The first is false, That Works afford no Matter of glorying; for Rom. 3.27. Glorying is not excluded by the Law of Works: Eph. 2.9. If we were Saved by Works, we would boast. An Innocent Man has more Matter of Glorying in his Works that deserve a Justification, than a Pardoned one whose Works deserve Damnation. The Second is false, That Abraham had any Matter of glorying, for 1 Cor. 4.7. Who maketh thee to differ? what hast thou that thou didst not receive? if thou didst receive, why dost thou glory?  
3. We find the same Apostle forming the Argument according to the first, Eph. 2.9. We are not Saved by Works, that we may not glory, v. 10. 1. Because we are God's Work. 2. Through Christ, so a Relation there before. 3. Good Works the End, Ergo not the Mean: Christ the Mean to our Good Works, not Good Works the Mean of an Interest in him.  
4. From the following Argument, v. 3. that Faith is imputed to Abraham for Righteousness, proves no matter of glorying in Faith: For, 1. It is a Gift, Eph. 2.8. Heb. 12.2. no glorying in a Gift, 1 Cor. 4.7. 2. Faith put for its Object, or containing its Object, makes glorying in God, not before God. 3. For the Exercise of Faith, which is receiving, trusting, depending, affords no more Matter of boasting before God, than the Beggar's glorying of his Receiving, before his Benefactor and his Bounty.  
5. Those who do not Err as to the Matter, commit a double Fault in the Grammar of the Words: 1. To translate, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, before God, or with God: in God or from God, as we may see from Parallel places, 2 Cor. 2.17. As of God, in the sight of God speak we: Rom. 5.1. Being justified by Faith we have peace with God: 1 John. 3.21. If our Hearts Condemn us not, then have we Confidence towards God: So that the Sense is, to have Matter of glorying, God being Judge and Witness, and consequently Matter of Justification; for they differ but in this, that Justification presupposes the Charge of a Crime, or Suspicion of one: Praising or Glorying doth not: So that Praising and Justifying differ only as Comfort and Joy; and Grotius himself being Judge, on John 1.1. this is the Sense of the Phrase. 2. Glorying in God is expressed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Rom. 2.17. And makest thy boast of God: 1 Cor. 1.41. He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord: Psal. 34.2. My Soul shall make her boast in the Lord. These two are vastly different; to have Matter of Glorying in ourselves, in our Actions towards God, God himself being our Judge and Witness, and to Glory in God, his Favour and Kindness, when we have deserved nothing but Wrath. A second Grammatical Error is to think that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 differ in Scripture; for we find that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Glorying, is put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Matter of Glory, 2 Cor. 1.12. Our rejoicing is this, the Testimony of our Conscience; Rom. 15.17. I have therefore whereof I may Glory, in things that pertain to God: And so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the Act of Glorying, 1 Cor. 5.6. Your glorying is not good: 9.15. Make my glorying void: 2 Cor. 5.12. Occasion to glory on our behalf. But beside, if Man had Matter of Glorying, there might be justly glorying, where there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there may be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. God doth never deny any man his due. The deepest Degrees of Humility God requires, are but suitable Apprehensions and Conversations to what we are. And Lastly, a Man's Works affords Matter of Glorying as well as his Faith, Heb. 11.17. James 2.20. God praises Abraham's Works as well as his Faith.  
6. The Critics generally are against this Translation; and so the Ancient Versions, as the , which puts a Reward here in place of Glorying; and the Arabic, which says, If he was Justified by Works, he should have Glory in them.  
Lastly, It is the making of a Neutral Verb active, without any Authentic Examples to Countenance it.  
But I come to the second thing, which is the Truth of the Argument, That Abraham had no Matter of Glorying before God. I shall form it into this general Doctrine.  That no mere Man has any Matter of Glorying before God. 
This I shall Confirm and Illustrate from these four general Topics.  
(1.) From Man's Existence and Being.  
(2.) From his Constitution or Essence.  
(3.) From his Undoing of himself, his ruining and destroying his Soul by Sin, his guilt; which not only affords matter for Humility, but of mixing it with Sorrow, Shame and Confusion of Face.  
(4.) From our Impotence to restore ourselves from this Fall, tho' there is matter in it to remove our Sorrow, none to remove our Humility, or lay a Foundation of our Glorying.  
I shall begin with the first of these Topics.  
First, Our Being or Existence; this has seven Properties that are inseparable from it, or from any Creature; whether Angels above us or Beasts below us: They are the seven Properties of a Creature as a Creature, and the just Consideration of them, is that which makes Angels never Mind themselves, but be unwearied, and without Intermission taken up with the Praises and Contemplations of a God: These are the things which make Seraphims cover their Face and their Feet with their Wings.  
The first is Creatures Contingency; that is, though it now is, it might not have been, and may not be again; there is no repugnancy to not Being in its Constitution; which I shall thus Illustrate. Before our Birth we were not Men: Atheists that pretend our matter to have been from Eternity, and that when we die, we only dissolve into that Common Mass; yet they grant, that we begin to be Men, and cease to be Men, and that every individual Man hath a beginning.  
(1.) If there is no Necessity of our being Men, there is no Necessity of our being any thing, especially Inferior to Man, as Matter is owned to be; for Necessity of Existence, is a high Perfection: Contingency that borders next to nothing, is a great Imperfection; and therefore the greater Perfection is to be placed in the more perfect Being. Therefore if no Necessity of his Being man, there is no Necessity of being any thing Inferior to him. Necessary Existence must be the Attribute of something, for since something now is, something always has been, and that which hath been always, doth Exist by the Intrinsic Perfection of its own Essence; for what suffers nothing to be before it, admits of no External Cause. But, (2.) That which hath the least Imperfection of any kind, it wants this Perfection of necessary Existence; whatever has any Imperfection, is but a Contingent thing. For if there be not a reality of Perfection, to exclude a little Imperfection, there cannot be a sufficient reality to exclude a greater Imperfection. If the fullness of the Being's Perfections, do not include a lesser Perfection, they cannot include a greater; for instance, if Matter cannot include among its Perfections these lesser ones of Thinking, Reasoning, Speaking, Feeling, it cannot include a more Noble Perfection of Necessary Existence; for not to be, is a greater Imperfection than not to be Reasonable, or not to be Sensitive: Necessary Existence is at the greatest distance from not Being that is possible; and therefore, since not Being is the greatest Imperfection, necessary Being is the greatest Perfection; and whatever has it must want no Perfection; and whatever wants it, is but a Contingent thing. (3.) All that own a God, own that necessary Existence is his incommunicable Attribute; and does contain an incomparable, an incomprehensible Perfection; it is the highest Degree of removal from nothing, a grain of Dust is better than nothing; all Creatures are in a middle State between Nothing and a necessary Being; Nothing is not, God's Name is Being, Exod. 3.14. I am what I am, his Name alone is Jehovah. But Creatures are indifferent to be, and not to be; there is no repugnancy in us against Being, nor no impossibility in our Constitution to hinder us from not Being. Christ himself bears a Similitudinary Image of Independency, because having once a Life given, he is said to have Life in himself, in his own Power; but there is no Image of this Necessary Existence: Atheism is very unreasonable to place this Perfection in Matter, which as the Reverend Mr. How says, is next to Nothing, for it can do nothing; and shall we place the Attribute that is most distant from Nothing, in the Subject which is next to nothing. What great ground of Humility doth this afford, that I am more than a Fly! it is of God not of me, that I differ from the Dust, or the Dirt I tread on, I own it to God; I am not so much as one Breath, yea the smallest particle of the most subtle Air of myself; that I am more than mere nothing, is wholly of another. I am obliged and indebted for it. But, (4.) All who own the Scriptures, own that Man is a made Creature; a Workmanship of Divine Art, and a Fruit of his mere good Pleasure. That he might have made us, or not made us, as he would, Rom. 9.20. That the Thing formed, say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Isa. 45.9. Our Possibility is from his Power, our Futurity is from his Will, our Existence from his Act, our Matter, our Dust was his by absolute Propriety, and our Form is the Effect of his Wisdom.  
2. We are Dependent, Experience proves this; we depend of our Parents, and yet not solely, for they die and we survive; we depend on Meat, Drink, Air, yet not only, for our Life is more Noble than they; nothing can give or communicate what it has not; there must be some more noble Independent Being, in whom we live, move, and have our Being's; Act. 17. c. as the Poet Aratus that lived about 290 Years before Christ, could say, We all use God, we all enjoy God, we are all his Offspring— 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  
2. Since we are Contingent, we must also be Dependent, for Contingency is no more determined to Being, than not Being, Perseverance than Perishing: for such as our Nature was in primo fieri, so it remains; a Contingent thing is a Tottering Being, of itself inclinable any way, and External Force forces its Lot. 3. It's a Prerogative of God to be Independent, a Spirit Independent is the best Definition we can form of him, and it is his Glory to have all things Depending on him; the whole Mass of Being's, to be nursed by the Breasts of his Alsufficient Fullness; he is a Careful Parent of his Offspring, it is no Toil to his Power, nor Difficulty to his Wisdom, nor Draining to his unsearchable Riches, where all is Infinite; but a wonderful discovery of that Plenty that is in him, which is his very End and Design: How should this stop the boasting Mouth, silence the glorying Tongue, and stifle the proud Thoughts of Man! If thy Dependence were a bare Permission, that thou cannot live an hour on God's Earth without his leave, or use his Creatures for Profit or Pleasure; he can sweep thee off the Stage of Being with a Besom of Destruction in a Minute: But Dependency is a Divine Manutenency, it's a keeping us up by force from falling into that Pit or Abyss of Nothing we were drawn out of, and still hang over, Job 26.7. He hangeth the Earth upon nothing: For since Creating was an Act of Violence upon Nothing, and such an Act as needed Omnipotent Strength to force it into the Condition of Being; Preservation is the Positive Influence of the same powerful Hand to keep this Tottering Being upward, that is by Natural Tendency declining into its Original Nothing; there is no need of Power to make any thing Nothing, for than nothing would be the Effect of Divine Power. There is no necessary Connexion between the Creation of any thing, and its Continuance; because we were Yesterday, it doth not follow that we shall be to Morrow; we daily change, we are not to Day what Yesterday, there is no such Inference where the Being is Contingent; how gladly would we live, but it is not in the Power of our Will, our Nature, or all our Friends and Physicians; no Cordial, no Food, no Physician can do; and if they cannot preserve Life, far less Being. The Glorious Arches of the Heaven would dwindle away, the Depth of the Ocean dry up, the steady Earth tremble into a Nonentity; the most Immortal Spirits faint, and Angels be annihilate by one Minute's Intermission of Omnipotency: A Proud Man is a Mad Man, a deceived Soul; thou cannot move thy Tongue, nor exercise thy Thought, but thou art under an Infinite Obligation to Infinite help for supporting thee in it, and wilt thou use it against him? the more perfect we are, the more we depend; the more imperfect we are, the more we need his Power to support us.  
3. Unprofitable: Job 35.7. If thou be righteous what givest thou him? or what receiveth he of thine hand? Job 22.2. Can a man be profitable to God, as he that is wise may be profitable unto himself. (1.) It is a Property of Divine Decrees to be disinterested, of pure Generosity and Bounty, the Issues of Love and Goodness, that is still giving and communicating. (2.) His End to make his likeness, and form his Praise without himself, from that Content and Satisfaction he had in beholding it in himself; he would have others taste of the sweetness of that Being he enjoved, therefore called Nothing into his Banqueting-house, and his Banner over it was Love, by which it was brought into Being. (3.) His Fullness: it is Gods Original Glory to want nothing, his Sufficiency and Fullness is such that admits of no Addition. (4.) Creatures Emptiness: we must pay our debt before we Profit, and every day we are obliged for an Infinite Flux of Goodness and Power, to keep our Souls in Life; and yet we have craving Appetites, like the Barren Womb, that cries, Give, give, but make no grateful return; this keeps all the Quires of Angels in the perpetual Exercise of humbling themselves, and praising of God. Not unto us, O Lord! not unto us, unto thee be all Glory and Honour.  
4. Temporary Being's: Job 8.9. For we are but of Yesterday, and know nothing; because our Days upon Earth are a Shadow. 1. There is a difference between the time of Men in this World, and the Aeviternity of Angels, Rev. 14.6, 7. The one is to end, viz. Time with the seventh Trumpet, that is, Time measured by Sun and Moon; for there will be no Sun the true Standard of Time, Rev. 21.23. No more Night and Day, the Foundation of Chronology. But Aeviternity, or Time, as defined by Successive Motion still continues in Heaven; for the Mind of an Angel is not Infinite, therefore comprehends not all Objects at once, nor doth not comprehend the incomprehensible God, for that is Inconsistent with Adoration or Admiration, which still supposes something unknown; therefore of Necessity their Minds change its Objects, sometimes thinking of one thing, sometimes of another, and consequently one thing in Order before another, and Time is a Motion through former and latter: This affords another Argument, that this World is not from Eternity, because Successive; for where a former and latter, a second, third and fourth, there is a first and last; this may be rendered more easy by these Instances. (1.) No Man's Death is from Eternity, for his Life, his Birth was before it, and if his Death not from Eternity, neither his Birth, for that but a short time before his Death▪ no Man has lived a thousand Years, it were a very absurd thought of Eternity, to say, it was but a thousand years longer than Time. (2.) Eternity is an Infinite Duration, but the Duration of Years not so; because exceeded by number of Days, Hours and Minutes. The second Difference is between the Eternal Duration of God, and that Duration of Creatures, Psal. 102.27. They shall be changed, but thou art the same, and thy Years shall have no End. The one is founded in an Immutability, the other in Change; the Infinite God possesses his whole Essence Independently and most perfectly at once; in Time there is Past, Present and Future; the Eflux of a ●●ing from Past to Future by the present Minute, this agrees not to Him whose Nature is I am, that is, In me, nothing ●ast in me, nothing Future. This alone has great Matter of Humiliation in it: of what awe would the Presence of a S●ge Angel, that hath been since the Creation, to such a Mushroom as Man, a new startup in the World; we suffer not Children to speak in the Presence of Men; how much more should man's Mouth be stopped before the Ancient of days; who has ten thousand Times ten thousand ministering before him, and charges the Angels with Folly.  
5. Man is an Imaginary Being, rather the Picture of Being, than the Reality; and this is not a Dignity, that every Creature attains to be called, the Image of God; they are his Workmanship, Rom. 1.20. And so are proofs of an Eternal Powerful and Wise Being, and they bear some Prints of his Being upon them, 2 Tim. 2.13. He cannot deny himself, neither in Word, nor in Deed; he cannot do any thing but what must represent him to be such as he is, though there are vastly different Degrees of Representation. The Common Properties of Creatures seems to be their Reality, Durability, Goodness and Beauty; but Man alone of all Earthly Creatures bears the Name of an Image, because there is some Representation of all the Divine Attributes in him, either Subjectively, as Spirituality, Knowledge, Reason, Will; or Objectively, as he possesses an Idea of the Divine Nature impressed upon him, 2 Cor. 3.18. We all with open face, behold as in a Glass, the Glory of the Lord, and are changed into the same Image: Or Qualitively, as Righteousness and Holiness: Or Reflexively; and thus the incommunicable Attributes of Sovereignty, Independency and Alsufficiency, are represented by our Submission, Emptiness and Dependency; as the Wax doth represent the Seal: Or Deputatively, as he is Governor of the World; but as this is Man's Dignity above other Creatures, to be God's Image, so it is the most excellent thing in itself; and this is our great Misery, the loss of this Image; and our Happiness lies in its Restauration, so that Man at his best, who is the best of the Creatures, is but an Image.  
6. A mere Passiveness: Matter is a very Passive Object to work upon, yet through the Disposition of its parts, hardness or softness, it is fit for one thing than another, and more easily wrought into that frame; but nothing is equally Passive for all, equally fit to be an Angel, and an Atom of Dust; and whatever Activity the Creatures may now have on one another, yet with respect to God they are Passive Being's.  
7. Creatures are more Nothing than Being, Isa. 40.17. We are Nothing, and less than Nothing: Nothing Naturally, and less than Nothing, by Debt and Obligation owing the Being we have received, but far more by our Gild and Transgression, for what is worse than Nothing is less than Nothing. A Marble Statue form in the likeness of a Man is more a Stone than Man, because the one by Art, the other by Nature: So Man, by Nature he is nothing, by Divine Art he is God's Image: We are from Nothing, that is our Original, for we are brought into being by the Force and Violence of Omnipotent Power. If God's proper Name is Jehovah, Psal. 83.18. and of him only can it be said, Exod. 3.14. I am, or, He is, then properly is it said of the Creatures, They are not. Philosophers usually grant that Ens, or Being, is not a Genus Vnivocum, when applied to God and Creatures, there is no Generical Oneness in it: When we say the Creature is Being, and God is Being, it is not one thing that is meant by that word Being; for the one really is, the other is the Image, as we call the Picture of a Man a Man. Since any one of these affords matter of Humiliation, how much more all being put together? and if they afford matter of Humiliation for Angels, how much more matter of Humiliation for Man? If an Angel be but a Contingent, Dependent, Unprofitable, Temporary, Passive, Imaginary Being, a Being more Nothing than Being in Comparison of God, how little a thing must Man be in Comparison of him, and how much less a sinful Man?  
I come to the second Topick of Arguments for the Proof of this Doctrine, That Man has nothing to Glory in before God; which is the Form he was made in, and by which he Excels other Earthly Creatures, and is called an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Lord of his own Actions, a Self-powered Creature, or as Cicero says, a Power of Living as he will. The Common Title for it is , Liberum Arbitrium, which Amyrald thinks to be better Translated a Free Judgement. The Apostle Paul calls it the Prevailing Will, Rom. 7.17. If I do that I would not, it is not I, but Sin. I, as that which denominates the Man. I shall insist the more largely on this, because it is that which the most part of the World are proud of. The former Argument is more commonly granted, That Man cannot be Proud of his Being, but therein still he would be Equal to the Angels; and the Pride of Man can hardly aspire higher, but for this Argument, that Man has no Matter of glorying from his Free Will, is not so easily Complied with, whether we View Men's Professions or their Practices. (1.) The Pagans, they commonly ascribed all Virtue, all their Heroic Actions, and the Praise of 'em, to themselves: Upon this Account Cicero, De Natura Deorum, says, We may thank God for Riches, or Fortune, but not for Virtue, that is our own; for that we are Praised, for the want of that we are blamed: We may glory of our Virtue, which we could not do if it were God's Gift. Seneca, Ep. 53. A wise Man in some things is preferable to God, for the one is Wise by the Benefit of Nature, the other by the Benefit of Virtue: Ep. 20. Be Content with thyself, and the Goods brought forth by and of thyself, so thy Happiness shall be next to Gods. (2.) The Jews, especially the Pharisees, on this account were as Proud as the others, for they reckoned the External Administration of the Law, which g●ve Occasion to their Merit by , to be the principal difference between them and the Pagans. Maimonides says this is one of their Fundamentals, That they had such a perfect Free Will, and sufficient Power for Virtue and Goodness, that they only needed the Law to exercise their Power about: Rab. Gaon. Saadia says, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉" All things are in the Power of Heaven, except the Fear of Heaven, that is Religion. There is a difficulty of reconciling their Opinions about this Point, because they also owned a Fate; which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Josephus, who was one of them, says, lib. 2. chap. 7. that they attributed all things to God and Fate, but it is no wonder, for wherever Error is, there is Contradiction; for every Man holds some Truth, and whatever Error he holds is repugnant to the Truth he holds; but Camero thus explains their Sense from Josephus his own words, That by Faith is meant God's Providential Help, but most is to be placed in Man; and lib. 18. chap. 2. We are not to separate Man's Will from inclining Fate: so that the Sense of it is, Providence gives Occasion to Work, but the Work itself is wholly Man's own. (3.) The Pelagians are not inferior in this Pride to any of the former, who confine all God's Grace to Man, in giving of this Noble and Natural Endowment of , by which a Man is able to do all good Commanded. They say none can give a Man spiritual Riches but himself, for these he is justly Praised, and jure Preferred to others; for these can have no Being but in himself and from himself; hence he taught this Form of Prayer, Lord behold the Purity of my Lips, by which I Pray to thee, and the Innocency of my Hands which I stretch forth before thee. (4.) The Papists, especially Jesuits and Molinists, tho' others seem to diminish the Power of  when they writ on that Head, yet when they come to the Point of Merit, they again extol it, Bel de Just. lib. 5. chap. 3. because it is more honourable to obtain a thing by Merit than by Grace alone; therefore that God might Honour his Children, he has granted that they might prepare Eternal Life to themselves by their Merits, and more proudly; Ruard. in Top. Art. Lov. God forbidden that the Righteous should expect Eternal Life as a Poor Man doth an Alms, since it is more glorious for them as Victors and Triumphants to possess it, as the Crown and Palm due to their S●eats and Labours; and their Common Doctrine is, that by the strength of Nature preparing ourselves we Merit ex Congruo, special Grace, and afterwards being made just by it, we can so perfectly fulfil the Law, that we Merit Heaven ex Condigno, and why may not a Workman glory in his Work? (5.) Socinians and Arminians, who hold the Freedom of the Will inconsistent with any Necessity, and that it is out of the Power of God effectually to Call a Sinner when he will, or according to the Terms in Dispute: Grace is always resistable, but the Will of Man unconquerable. (6.) We find many others, and more ancient, too much extolling Man on this account, as Prudentius in his Poems on that Subject: Insubjecte potens, rerum arbiter, arbiter idem & judex Mentis propriae. Powerful, being subject to none, Lord of all things, Lord also and Judge of thy own Mind: And elsewhere," He that made thee Lord of all things, would he not make thyself free? He that made thee King of the World, would he not make thee King of thyself? would he so Curtail thine Honour and Matter of glorying? Besides, the common Definition of it signifies no less, that supposing all things in act that are fit, or have Power to move or incline it, it may Act or not Act, or act the contrary as it will: Neither God nor Angels, Men or Devils, have Powe● certainly to determine it. (7.) They who have their Minds better instructed, yet have Practical Sentiments secretly latent in their Minds of this kind, which we may learn from our Observation of ourselves: As, 1. When Men adventure on sin because they think they can make amends by Repentance. 2. When Pe●sons delay Repentance upon this ground, that they can do it afterwards. 3. When Persons stifle Convictions, and quench the Spirit, because they think they can enjoy it again when they will. 4. When Persons do not Pray, from this latent Error, that they have a Power to Accomplish their Designs themselves. 5. When men Neglect the outward Ordinances and Means of Salvation, which God has appointed not only as Means between Us and the End, but as Means between our Can and our Cannot, because we cannot do any thing of the Essentials of Salvation, Meriting Pardon, Enlightening the Understanding, or Sanctifying our Wills, God has prescribed these Means that we can do, and has Promised to Perform that which we cannot, Phil. 3. Work in and about your own Salvation with fear and trembling, for he worketh in you to will and to do: Now that which many Neglect the Means for, is because they think they can go about the thing itself. The Security that destroys the most of perishing Souls is founded on this corrupt Root, that we have a Power in a very short time to do all the Business of our Salvation. Were it not for this, Sinners Despairing wholly in themselves would be rolling themselves in the Dust, and prostrating themselves before a Father of Mercies and God of Grace, and constantly Watching for the Angels troubling of the Waters; they would be daily waiting at Wisdoms Gates for the Spirit promised to Attendants upon appointed Means.  
In opposition to all this, I shall lay down these Eight Propositions, with their several Confirmations, to prove that this Noble Principle that God hath endowed Man with, though it hath exalted him above Brutes, it affords him no ground of Pride, or glorying before God; four are Positive, and four Negative.  
1.  is a part of that Excellency by which Man is the Image of God: All in Man by which he excels mere Animals, he therein is God's Image. This is a great Dignity, to be in the Image of God, but this should humble Man before God, because he is but an Image; tho' in respect of inferior Creatures, they being only a Vestigium, or a Print of some one perfection; as the Print of a Man's Foot represents but one part of him, an Image represents the whole or most principal Parts.  is founded in Wisdom and Power, and in these Man is God's Image, but this Excellency affords no Matter of glorying. (1.) From the Scriptures own Expression, Psalm. 39.6. there is a Reason given, why Man in his best Estate, that is, in the Purity of his Nature, in the unfaded and unstained flower of all his Senses and spiritual Faculties, is but Vanity; because every Man walks in a Vain show, so we Translate it, but the Original is Bezalim, the same Word which in Gen. 1. is used for the Image of God. Man is Vanity, because at best but an Image. Our greatest Perfections by Nature did not free us from Defectibility. (2.) Indifferency doth not represent the Will of God as terminate upon himself, but as terminate upon the Creatures; to him it was indifferent whether they should be or not be: They are Lusus Dei, the Fruit of his mere Pleasure, things of no moment; so when we experience in ourselves that the Foot, the Tongue, the Hands, the Eyes, move in Obedience to the Will as Nimbly as we can think, it do●● not represent God's Essence, but his Relative Sovereignty over his Creatures, so 'tis but an inferior part of an Image. (3.) The Will of God is a Power, and causes these real goods that are its Objects; but the Liberty of Man is only admissive or rejective of these Objects in the Understanding, and gives occasion to their Influence upon the Faculties of the Soul, and so affords no Matter for Glory in the Work of our Conversion. Suppose the Sunbeams should enter a Room before dark, by some Casement or Cranny, and fill this room with Light, yea, render its Earth flourishing and verdant, should we ascribe this great Change to the Sun or to the Casement? Nay, suppose farther, that the Sun by its perpetual Heat and repeated Influence has made the Board's give way, and made its own entrance, should we ascribe the Glory of the Action to that which so long hindered it, and is yet the Cause of the Works being so weak? And this is the very Case, as far as Matter can represent Spirit; for the Lord opened the Heart of Lydia, and he says Rev. 3. Behold I stand at the door and knock, and if any Man open I will come in. (4.) The Will of God never acts without the highest Wisdom, Ephes. 1. According to the Counsel of his Will: Therefore the setting up of a Liberty in Man, distinct from the Conduct of the Understanding, is a Chimaera, no Image of God, who cannot deny himself in any of his Works, he never did any thing that might give us false Sentiments of his Nature. (5.) Our Liberty is much inferior to God's, because of the Narrowness of its Sphere: The Beast has only Sense, Man has also spiritual things for his Object to Converse about, but the Divine Will converses about those things we never saw nor heard, nor has it entered into our Heart to conceive. (6.) Our Liberty is a Gift, God's is Self-originate; ours a Shadow, his the Substance; ours but an Emanation of his, as the Image of a Face in a Glass, but we have no such Help distinct from him, he is the Support and Spring of both. (7.) His is Infallible, always equal, vigorous, active; Ours faints and wearies, as in Sleep and Infancy, and fails, as in every Sin.  
2 Prop. The Liberty of the Mind of Man consists (to be more particular about it) in a Freedom from Physical Necessity or Coaction, in a Freedom from Sense or Matter: It is a general Axiom, and therefore needs the less proof, That  is only the Property of thinking and reasoning Creatures, that propose an End to their Actions, and deliberate about what is fittest for gaining that End. The Fire burns whatever comes nigh it, but the Will doth not choose every thing proposed. The Imagination of a Beast is confined to Material Ideas, but the Mind of Man is not determined nor limited to such Objects: A Beast can only be alured by present things, but things of a hundred years' distance can move a Mind; this is a great Privilege, but affords no matter of Glory. For (1) It lays us under the greater Obligation to our Maker, who made us Men and not Beasts. (2) Our Abuse of it in making ourselves worse than Beasts, being carnally minded and lead by Sense, who have more Noble Faculties to govern us. (3) The more Knowledge the more Liberty by this Rule, and therefore our Blindness and Ignorance should make us bemoan our Confinement: The Natural man knoweth not the things of God● and therefore can have no Liberty about them. But more of this under another Head.  
3 Prop. Liberty consists in a Freedom from Restraint, an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as well as a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, goes to the making up of this Perfection, a Willingness as well as a Judgement. Augustine de Spir. & Lib. Chap. 31. defines it to be, A Power of doing what we will, and thus it doth principally consist in the Imperate acts; called free because they proceed from a free Principle: To will and to can are two different things; a Man may will what he cannot, and then the Will hath not this Freedom. The Scripture seems to take it in this sense, 1 Cor. 7.37. Having no Necessity, but hath power over his own Will, and hath so decreed in his heart. By Freedom from Necessity there, is meant a Power to put his Purpose in Execution: And so Rom. 7. What I would, that do I not. The Spirit is willing, but the Flesh is weak: Taking Liberty thus for a freedom from Constraint, or a Power of doing what we will, it affords no matter of Glorying to Man, he is under so many Restraints, by his Nature, by his Sin, by Punishment, all his Faculties are restrained; about Objects Natural, Moral, and much more Spiritual, he is restrained and limited. As we see among sensitive Creatures, some are confined to the Water, as Fish, some to the Earth; but others have a more ample Sphere of Activity, and a more vigorous Principle to carry them through Water, Earth or Air. So we find Man more confined than Angels; we can only understand Earthly things: John 3. Christ tells Nicodemus, that there was a Necessity of representing Heavenly things under some Earthly Similitude, that we might be capable of understanding them. (1) Peter and Paul were Saints of the first magnitude, and yet when they were brought to converse with Heavenly things, the one confessed he knew not what he heard; and the Spirit asserts of the other, that he knew not what he said. It is an old Jewish saying, That God descends in a humane Mantle, that we may have some suitable Apprehensions of him; and it is most amazing Humility in God, to reckon our highest Thoughts of him an Honour or a Glory to him. (2) By Sin the Scripture calls Man Darkness, led captive at the will of Satan, a slave to Sin, and dea● in Sin, therefore he is wonderfully confined and restrained by it. A Habit in any one particular Vice, how doth it ensnare and confine one to its Courses. How can you believe that receive honour one of another? The Pharisees who were covetous, derided the Doctrine of Charity. They that are accustomed to do evil, can no more do good than the Aethiopian can change his Skin, or the Leopard his Spots. (3) All Afflictions and Sufferings put Restraints on Man's Liberty. John 21.18. Thou girdest thyself and walkedst whither thou wouldst; here was Liberty: but another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldst not; here is a Restraint or Compulsion. A man may have a will to move a gouty Finger, or stop a Convulsive or Paralytic Motion of his Nerves, but he has no Liberty to do it, as Dr. Lock says well. (4) In our Intellect and elicit acts of the Will we experience this Compulsion; we would love God as the Angels do, but we cannot: How many would throw off Terrors, Convictions impressed on their Minds, but they cannot? We cannot keep our Mind at ease when the Body is under pain. (5) How little do we know in things Natural, notwithstanding all the Pains that has been given by Students, and far less in things spiritual.  
4 Prop. There is a Liberty of Indifferency in Man about many things that are in his Power to do, whether Natural, Moral, and after received Grace, Spiritual also. (1) Our common Experience witnesseth this; in matters of Contrariety, as telling the Truth or a Lie; matters of Disparity or Specification, as going to the Church to Prayer, or about some other business of our Vocation or Calling, or what is sinful; in matters of Contradiction, to do a thing or omit it. (2) There are many Examples in Scripture that witness this: 2 Sam. 24. There are three Judgements proposed to David's Choice, about which he had not only a Moral but Physical power. 1 Kings 3.5. Solomon had four things put in his power to ask of God, long Life, Riches, the Life of his Enemies, or Wisdom. It was proposed to Adam's choice by what Name to call any Creature, and of what Tree to eat. 1 Cor. 9.4.17. Paul had a power to eat and drink, and there was a Necessity upon him by Moral Obligation to preach the Gospel, which he might perform willingly or against his Will: Ezra 7.13, 15. Numbers 30. there are more Examples of this kind. (3.) Without owning this Indifferency in Man, we cannot defend the Holiness of God: There can be no greater Absurdity than to think or say that God is the Author of Sin, or to assert any thing that does of Necessity infer it, for it takes away all place for Repentance, and fills the Soul with most dreadful Apprehensions of a Deity, viz. To make a Man sin, which is worse than to tempt him, and then to Punish him, it darkens the Beauty and Glory of the Divine Essence. Holiness is that which the Saints and Angels treble in his Praise, and they know him best. The whole System of the Scripture declares God's Innocency as to this thing, for it declares that God made Man upright, Eccles. 7.29. and the Angels also, Judas 6. He made them in his own Image. (2.) He gave him a Holy Law to keep him from sin, Rom. 7.12. and he fenced Obedience to that Law by most terrible Threaten, Thou shalt die; and with great speed he did execute the Punishment, for spiritually he died that very Moment he sinned, and the stroke reached the very Instruments of the Sin, and by no influence could God incline or determine him to what he did forbid, for with him is no Unfaithfulness or Unsincerity, nor want of Holiness. (3.) James 1.13. God tempts no Man, he cannot deny himself; but to Necessitate Man to sin, is to do the sin, and can God do what he hates? Hab. 1.13. Psal. 11.7. Besides, if Sin were not voluntary and free, it would not be a sin; would that be against God which was from God? could it be Gild wherein Man was wholly a Sufferer? (4.) The very Nature of Permission, which is of purpose and designedly to let that be which he can hinder: Genesis 20.9. Abimelech did not sin, because God did not suffer him; if he had suffered him he would have sinned; as in the instance of Hezekiah, God left him to try him, that it might be known what was in his Heart: So where God permits, man has a Physical Liberty to do or not to do. God did permit Adam to sin, for if he had designed to impede him, he could not have done it. We must not Clip divine Power, more than Slain divine Purity: Omnipotency would be turned into Impotency, if Adam sinned whether God would or no: He could have Chained up Satan from laying the Bait, or Adam from swallowing of it; but on the other Hand, as he did not hinder him from it, he did not predetermine him to it: Whether the first act of sin be Pride, Unbelief, or Inconsideration; God could not incline the Will to an Averseness to his own Amiableness, or Distrust of his own Faithfulness, or Disobedience to his own Commands. (5.) Without allowing this Indifferency, there were no room for the Office of a Magistrate: Can Joshua say to Achan, Why hast thou troubled us? the Lord shall trouble thee this day, Josh. 7.25. There could be no room for Praise or Rebuke, and there would still be place for some Excuse in Man. He that wanted the Wedding Garment would not have been speechless altogether, if there had been an Impossibility of attaining it; he was brought a Beggar from the High ways and from the Hedges, and so had no Wedding-garments of himself, Mat. 22.9. but it was to be put on freely; and tho' Man is now a Slave to sin, yet multitude of particular sins he might have omitted.  
This brings me to the second and principal thing, That this Liberty of Indifferency is no Matter of Glorying, but a great Matter of Humiliation before God: for, First, The Indifferency of the Will often flows from Fluctuation of the Judgement: Ignorance in the Understanding occasions Uncertainty in our Choice, Eph. 4.18. We are alienate from the Life of God, through the Ignorance of its Excellency and Beauty. This Ignorance consists, (1.) In Uncertainty and Doubtfulness: We doubt if there be a God, a Devil, a Heaven or a Hell; that makes 'em have less Power in determining our Choice. (2.) In Short-sightedness, like a Pur-blindness in the Mind, that the future Punishment or Reward appears little, the present Pain or Pleasure great. If the Sickness and Trouble that is consequential to Drunkenness, Prodigality, Vileness, were as nigh to our Sight and View, as the Sin or the Act is, we would never embrace it; if the Pain of the aching Head were in the , when the Drunkard drinks up the Glass, he would never swallow it down: And if Temporal Punishments, because at a distance, appear so little, how much less does Eternal. (3.) In Narrow-sightedness: Our Understandings are like small-mouthed Vessels, that can only take in one thing at once. Hence we commonly reckon the present Pain the worst, and the present Pleasure the sweetest, because it so fills the Narrow Mind, that there is no room for other Ideas. (4.) In gross and carnal Corruptness, that spiritual things are so subtle that they do not suit its Disposition; hence we scarce feel an Appetite after Spiritual things, but the Appetite of the Flesh is strong, its Urgency precipitates the Deliberation, and does not allow a due time for balancing the Account, and stating the Cost on both sides: this affords great Matter of Humility, that our Spirits are so weak, and Understandings so dark. Secondly, This Indifferency flows from the Meanness of the Object, or different Disposition of the Subject, when the things proposed are Trifles, of no great Moment or Concern, or indifferently suiting our Disposition or Temper, than we are indifferent about them; the more we are employed about such things, to so much the less purpose do we spend our Lives, and therefore have the less Matter of Boasting in them; for there is a great difference between our Indifference and Adam's, that was to good or bad; ours to Bad, and has its Choice of Bads. Thirdly, This Indifferency flows from Divine Permission, as is before proved; but a far greater Blessing it is to be inclined and determined by God, than to be left to our own Conduct; for God always inclines the Heart to good, and we never read of any left to themselves and their own Determinations, that did good; therefore David Prays, Incline my Heart to thy Testimonies. Adam was permitted to his own Will, and he fell; and so it is said of the Israelites, Psal. 81.12. I gave them up to their own Hearts-lust, and they walked in their own Counsels: Acts 14.16. He suffered all Nations to walk in their own ways; and these were Idolatry and Profanity: But he did not permit Abimelech, Gen. 20.9. and he did not permit Laban, and therefore they did not sin. Fourthly, From the Natural Mutability and Defectibility of the Creature, we being, as is before proved, Contingent, Dependent Creatures. The Indifferency of the Will is the tottering of the Creature, it's like the reeling and staggering of a Drunken Man, or like a Post set up before fixed, if the Upholders withdraw their Hands, and permit it to itself, it declines one way or other. Fifthly, This Indifferency gave Birth to the first sin of Angels and Man: He put them in a good State, Judas 6. but they left it; He made man upright, Eccles. 7. but he found out many Inventions. Sixthly, This is the great Impediment that hinders men's Conversion, their Repentance and turning to God, Psal. 81.11. My People would not hearken to my Voice, and Israel would none of me: It's always laid at the Door of this Will, Mat. 23.37. I would have gathered you as a Hen doth her Chickens, but you would not. Seventhly, All these great Crimes and actual Transgressions which would the Conscience, flow from this Spring, as now wrongly biased by Corruption. There is a considerable difference between the good things a Man can do, and what he does, and all that Gild is chargeable upon his Will as indifferent; for if it be not within his Power, than he is not indifferent to it. This loads the Soul of Man with Gild, if we consider our Powers, which comprehends so many Talents given of God to be Improved by us, and all the Mis-improvement lies at this door of our Will. (1.) A Man's Tongue, together with all his Senses, especially those that are the Instruments of Discipline, Seeing and Hearing, these are entirely under the Dominion of our Will, and therefore either the Omission of them where they ought to have been employed, or the Exercising of them where they ought to have been restrained, renders us so far Guilty. (2.) Our Health, Strength, Estate, Honour, Acquaintance, how great a Sphere of Power do they afford, especially to some Men, and yet how little Good, or rather how much Mischief is done by it? (3.) Our Reason is a considerable Talon for bridling our Senses, for searching into the certainty of Religion, Natural or Revealed, for comparing of Spiritual with Carnal, Eternal with Temporal things. (4.) Our Memories are a Treasury for Divine Commands, Convictions, Comforts and Experiences. (5.) Our Consciences for empowering Practical Light; its Power is of a large extent in keeping in awe from sin, and in quickening to Duty. (6.) Providential Dispensations, that we have them through all our Life, to observe God's Method of dealing with Man, that we may see how Good and Patient he is, Rom. 2.4. We may learn that verily there is a God that Judgeth the Earth, and that verily there is a Reward for the Righteous. (7.) The Revelation of the Gospel, with that Spirit that usually attends it, to Convince of Sin, Righteousness and Judgement, is yet a far greater Power, and when it grows up into a Conversion, and God's Gifts crowned with Special Grace, how much more is the Power of Man heightened, Rom. 6.18. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness: 1 Cor. 15.10. By the Grace of God I am what I am. What great Progress in Religion may a Man make, that is endowed with all these Powers, and how unexcusable are their  Lives and Conversations! Few can with Paul say, The Grace that was bestowed upon me was not in vain, but I laboured more abundantly than they all. Lastly, Should a Sinner Glory in that which has rendered him void of all Cloak and Excuse to his Sin? but this Will of Indifferency, considering the Powers God has given Man, and is still ready to give more or more upon ask or admitting, it renders Men, especially that live under the Gospel, altogether without Excuse; for what Excuse can a Man make for the Neglect of such a Concern, if it or any thing tending to it lie within the Compass of Possibility? Difficulties can be no Excuses, to say with the Sluggard, he could not Blow nor Sow in the Winter, because it was Cold: If a Man has exercised his Power as much other ways, he cannot excuse his Neglect of it in things tending to Salvation. Mat. 16. Christ tells the Pharisees, that they might as easily Collect by the Exercise of their Reason about Scripture Prophecies, that he was the Messiah, as they did the fair and fowl Weather in the Morning from the Evening-skye. If Persons once could be more frequent and serious in the Duties of Religion, when Self-Interest went along with it, and the Profession of Godliness brought External Gain, or when a severe Rod was on their Back, than they do now; this Omission can have no Excuse, for neither the one nor the other did or can contribute Strength to the Exercise of Religion. It is not in vain that the Scripture lays our Destruction at the door of our Wills, for if there be a Will, God accepts it for the Performance, 2 Cor. 8.12. If there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to what a Man hath: 2 Sam. 17.20. A Humiliation under the sense of Impotency is accepted for the Performance. Religion lies within the Sphere of the Spirit, and the Spirit's comprehensive Faculties are Light and Love, Knowledge and Inclination, or Understanding and Will. (2.) Persons are often glad they want Power or Opportunity of doing good, when Magistracy and Ministry are Profane, they are glad of it: Jer. 5.31. The Prophets prophesy falsely, and the Priests bear rule by their means, and my People love to have it so: Hos. 5.11. Ephraim is oppressed and broken in Judgement, because he willingly walked after the Commandment: Isa. 66.3. Their Soul delighted in their abominations. (3.) Because they Fancy they have a Power to do what is spiritually Good, and yet Neglect Outward Means, either Positive in External Ordinances, or Negative in Omitting cf Vices and Outward Wickednesses. (4.) Because they are not frequent and serious in ask the Strength they want, or readily compliant with Power offered, Isa. 65.24. How often are we prevented with Convictions and Suggestions about good Resolutions that we don't kindly entertain, as if they came Messengers from Heaven, but throw them off with that Violence that we ought to do Temptations from Hell! Should we be proud of that which is a Defect of our Nature, and supposes a Defect in the Understanding? that which we never did Good by? that which all our Evil came by? that which removes all Excusableness from our Evil?  
I Insist more on this for the Use it may have, than the need of it for an Argument; for the Will being limited to the Understanding, as shall be afterwards proved, Ignoti nulla Cupido, it is only indifferent about trifles, or what the Understanding thinks so; the Concerns of Salvation and Happiness are none of its Objects as such; when God puts Life and Death, that is the Means of them, to our Choice, we count them foolishness, until God give an Understanding; when we discern them of such a Concern, indifferency is gone.  
I come now to those Prerogatives falsely attributed to the Will of Man, that is the Sink of all the Spiritual Pride and shameful Boasting in sinful Man. I may reduce them to these four:  
1. A Freedom from all Necessity, essential to the Will of Man.  
2. A Freedom from the Empire of God as to Fact, though not Duty.  
3. A Freedom from the Conduct of the Understanding.  
4. Freedom to all kind of things whatsoever, sensitive, rational, spiritual, heavenly.  
First, That a Freedom from all Necessity, or a Freedom of Indifferency, is not essential to the Will of Man.  
1. That Liberty is only Essential to the Will of Man, that renders him worthy of Reward or Punishment, Praise or Blame, by reason of his Actions; but a Man is thus free and thus deserving in his most necessary Actions, which admits of no indifferency; for Man pursues his ultimate and Supreme Happiness necessarily, nothing can desire to be miserable. Enjoyment of God in the most intimate Fellowship we are capable of, is our greatest Happiness, and yet it is worthy of greatest praise to pursue this end: when a Man's Self, either Self-will, Self-pleasure, or Self-profit, seems to him the last End, he necessarily pursues it, and yet is worthy of Reproof and Punishment for it. Self-Denial is the highest Virtue, and Self-seeking the greatest Sin. Moreover, when any thing appears either as an only or a necessary Means to obtain this great End, being formally considered as such, is as necessarily pursued as the End itself. If our Understandings were Illuminated, we would as necessarily and as fervently seek an Interest in Christ the Mediator, as in God the End: We are as much bend and determined to Food, as to preservation of our Life.  
(2) When all Necessary Causes are presupposed in Act, the the Effect must necessarily follow: Therefore if Divine influence, and the attractive Power of the Object be set forth by the most clear Light in the Understanding, the Will must be persuaded; or else it must not be a perswadable Appetite, if any reason can be given why it was not moved by these Arguments, than all Necessary Causes are not in Exercise; if none can be given, the Will is not a reasonable Appetite, but our Experience speaks the contrary, that when we refuse a thing one day, and embrace it another, it is by more seriously weighing the Matter, and find it appears more suitable to us.  
(3.) What is Essential to a thing, is inseparable from it, universally and perpetually agreeing to the whole Species; but this Indifferency is not so to a Will, for the Will of God is not indifferent to Good and Evil, nor the Will of Christ, whose Righteousness was Meritorious, nor the Will of Angels, who do most freely Praise their Maker.  
(4.) What is Essential to the Will as in other things, is most visible when the Will is in its greatest perfections, as hardness in a Marble, not Lead; whiteness in Snow; therefore the Essential Perfections of the Will are most visible in God and Christ, Angels and Saints, that are most determinate in their Designs and Actions.  
(5.) What is Essential to the Soul, is best known when it is most perfect, for Defects make not up the Nature of any thing. Christ was a Man, though not sinful, therefore Sin is not a Necessary Property of Man. Man is a reasonable Creature, tho' there are many Fools or Madmen; and it is as reasonable to draw the Essentials of a Spirit from the Common Observations of a sinful Man Unregenerate, as from the Common Observation of Fools or Madmen. The Will is in its greatest Perfection when in exercise, for Acts do perfect our Faculties, and when the Soul acts most sweetly and fervently, there is the least Indifferency; for the Efficacy of the Action removes its languidness, and the sweetness all its fluctuation; and whenever the Will acts, it is determined; for, Quicquid est, quando est, necessario est; and much more determinate it is, when in a State of Giory, acting without Weariness and Intermission.  
(6.) What is Essential to the Soul, is best known when in exercise about its proper and most principal Object; the Eye about Light, the Ear about Sounds, the Intellect about Truth, and the Will about Good. We search the Nature of Sight, rather in the Eye of an Eagle than of an Owl, because it looks on the Sun the principal Object; the other through its weakness sees with greatest ease in a Twilight. So the Will is to be Considered rather as it Acts about its Ultimate End, than about Means; rather about a Chief Good than a Doubtful Good; rather about God in most Clear Vision, than in this World, where so much Darkness.  
(7.) That cannot be Essential to the Will that is Inconsistent with its other Properties in their Perfection, but this Indifferency is inconsistent with a previous Judgement, without all Fluctuation or Obscurity; for what Aversion and Appetite is in the Will, that Affirmation and Negation is in the Intellect, the one bears the same respect to Good that the other bears to Truth; Doubtfulness in the one, and Indifferency in the other, are both Defects.  
Lastly, That is not Essential to the Soul which it desires to be removed, Eph. 5.19. No man ever yet hated his own flesh: Indifferency is an Impediment and Hindrance to Action, like the waving of the Scales, which is no Principle to, but an Impediment of Action: We Love, quod facilitat facere, not what hinders us. Time is consumed in Deliberation; Shall I? Shall I? does no Business: we strive and struggle to come to a Determinateness, therefore that must be the Perfection, the other a Defect, a Companion of Ignorance and Uncertainty.  
2 Prop. The Will of Man is not free from the Empire and Government of God, neither as to Law or Fact; as to the former there is no dispute, the latter these Arguments may Confirm. (1.) Man would be then an ungovernable Creature, which is a great Absurdity: for God intended the Care and Government of the Creatures he made, he could not make him Happy or Miserable in Spirit, if not free his Will, and would he make one that might disorder his Harmony, and frustrate his Designs, whether God would or no? (2.) Such a Power in Man would limit an Infinite Being; it would limit his Will, he worketh all things according to the Counsel of his Will, Eph. 1.11. The distinction has Absurdity enough in it, of those who say 'tis true in Natural things, but not in things Moral. (3.) It limits God's Power as to all Civil Affairs in the World; for still his designs must depend on the Inclination of Man. (4.) The Knowledge of God: This Conclusion is so apparent, for what is uncertain in itself, cannot certainly be known; that Poieret denies God's foreknowledge of Sin, and that until it came to pass, there was not one Thought or Idea of it in God: And Pomponatius denies his Knowledge of Future Contingencies. (5.) It would both rob God of much Praise and Glory, and rob poor Sinners of much Hope and Comfort: For  
1. The Doctrine of Perseverance is undetermined by it: No Person could have any Assurance from his highest Attainments in Grace. Paul could not have had any Confidence of God's perfecting the begun Work of Grace, Phil. 1.6. if that had been true: Nor Peter have concluded God's establishing, strengthening and settling the dispersed Jews, from their being called, 1 Pet. 5.10. Those Chains of Grace between Predestination, Calling, Justification and Glory, would be very easily solvible.  
(2.) God's Providential Care, [Mat. 6.31. If God so  the Grass of the field, shall he not much more  you, Oh ye of little Faith?] is overthrown by it.  
(3.) The Work of Conversion, [Luck 11.25. I thank thee, O Father, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed unto Babes:] is derogated from Go● by i  
(4.) The Scripture positively asserts the contrary, both in Morals and Spirituals: Exod. 34.24. Neither shall any Man desire thy Land, when thou shalt go up to appear before the Lord thy God, thrice in the year. There was then a brave opportunity for the Enemies to invade Israel, when all the Males were at Jerusalem, and not one Man in all the Land, not one Man in all the Country left to defend any Fort, Passage, City, or Castle; the Lord promiseth not only that he would protect it, which he could have done by many miraculous ways, but he promiseth though they should fight against it all the Year over, yet at that time they should not desire it. John 6.44. No man can come to me except the Father draw him; every Man therefore that hath heard and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me. Phil. 2. He worketh to will and to do. Psal. 110. The people shall be willing in the day of thy power. Jer. 20.9. Thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed; the manner how is expressed before; O Lord, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived: But the Original is, Thou hast enticed or overperswaded me. Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his Name; but his word was in my heart as a burning fire; I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.  
(5.) The Efficacy of Effectual Calling is ascribed to the Efficacy of Divine Influence on the Heart of Man, and not to Man's Will, or the Rhetoric of Ministers: 1 Cor. 2.4. that Efficacy is called a Powerful, Spiritual Demonstration, there is a triple Demonstration; the one is to our Sense, when we see with our Eye, and hear with our Ear; the other is to Reason, when the Connection between Terms, or Properties of things are clear and evident; but this third Kind seems to be the Lords immediate proposing clear Apprehensions of the thing to the Soul of Man, which is called a speaking to the Heart, Hos. 2.14. I will allure her, and will sp●ak to her Heart: which is particularly described 2 Cor. 3.18. We all with open face beholding as in a Glass the Glory of the Lord, are changed into the same Image, from Glory to Glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. There is first the Image or Idea, which is a Glorious and ravishing Apprehension of God. Secondly, There is the Glass wherein this Idea is represented, which is either the Scripture, as the Mean of Conveyance, or rather the Intellect of Man, because it is by an immediate Efficiency of the Spirit: and the Apostle is discoursing of the Jews, who had that Glass of the Scripture, but could not receive this Idea into their Minds from it, by reason of a Veil on their Minds; they were blinded: but this Veil is done away in Christ. So there is a double operation, the first is a disposing of the Mind, so as these Objects may be suited to it; for there is no Love but where there is a Likeness. Different Palates relish different Dishes; the Eye cannot be made to see by outward light, without a due Disposition for receiving and reflecting this Light: the Pharisees could see no takingness in the Doctrine of Humility, while they received Honour one of another; nor any goodness in Charity, while they remained Covetous: The Gentiles thought the Gospel foolishness, while they judged their own imperfect Rigeteousness acceptable to God, or their Sins so small, that the loss of a Beast in a Sacrifice could make a sufficient recompense. And so it is said of every Natural Man, that the things of God are foolishness unto them, and that they cannot discern them, because they are spiritually discerned: But when he is Spiritual, he discerneth all things. So this subjective Influence is the making of a Man Spiritual, which is called a New Creation, a Regeneration, a Resurrection. The third thing is the Author of this Persuasion, or of this Image raised in the Mind, the Spirit of the Lord. The fourth thing is the influence it hath upon the Soul; we are changed into the same Image: So that whether the Objective Operation, or the Subjective, have the precedency, is a Question among Divines. But this Text sets the amiable, and most persuading and charming Object of God, presented to the Soul, as that which moulds the Soul in a likeness to its self; as we see in Bodily things passionately seen, marks a Child in the Womb of the Mot●er: This is called, A drawing with the Cords of a Man; that is, not by Violence, as with Cart-ropes, but with bands of Love, Hos. 11.4. and the constraining Power of Love, 2 Cor. 5.14. And when the Word is blest to be an Instrument of it, it is called an engrafted Word, or a Divine Seed. Lastly, This Doctrine of Denying God an Absolute Empire and Government over the Will of Man, to turn it which way he will, and when he will, (though he doth not so always, which is called his Permission) it doth discourage the Duty of Prayer, and emasculate our Faith and H●pe; how faintly and hopelessly should we beg Counsel of God for success in our Affairs, our choice of Means for attaining our End, if this be true? For the answer that we expect, is God's inclining our Wills to choose methods that he will prosper, or inclining the Hearts of others to favour us; as Abraham's Servant prayed, Gen. 24.14. that the Damsels Words and Actions, and his own Words too, and Thoughts towards her, might be determined of God. To how little purpose should the Church pray, Draw me, and we will run after thee; turn us, and we shall be turned; and David, Incline my Heart to thy Testimonies; if it were not in the Power of God to answer their Desires? In what a Despairing Condition should poor Souls be, who know the Deceitfulness of their own Hearts, the Brittleness of their Resolutions, and their own Impotency for removing of that Prejudice and Antipathy they have against that Necessary Work of a thorough Repentance, and Universal Mortification or Self-denial? It is therefore ill Divinity of the Molinists, who as they say, God did not foreknow sin before it came to pass; so they also assert," He could not have prevented it, if he had foreknown it, because Establishing Grace must follow an Habit.  
3 Prop. The Will of Man is not free from the Guidance and Conduct of the Understanding. Limborgh the now great Corypheus' of the Arminians, asserts the Will of Man after all Deliberations of the Mind, and fixed Purposes of the Judgement, remains free to follow those Dictates, or brutally and unreasonably to forsake their Conduct by suspension, or acting the quite contrary; but the contrary of this has been the Opinion of Ancient Philosophers, who say, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: All Men do all things because they seem good to them, pleasant or profitable: And as Dr. Lock says, A Man cannot but choose what he likes best, and what likes him best that he calls the best Good, and what displeaseth him most that he calls the greatest Evil, and a thing only can appear pleasing or displeasing, Good or Evil, by the light of the Understanding. It's true, the Disposition of our Mind or Bodies have great Influence upon the Intellect, as a Glass of Spring-water to one in a  appears the pleasantest thing in all the World. But, (2.) A greater Authority than Humane asserts this Point, 1 John 2.9. He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his Brother, is in darkness even till now: Ch. 4.8. He that loveth not, knoweth not God: There the Spirit of God asserts the Will, and consequent Practice necessarily to follow an enlightened Understanding; and on the contrary, Eph. 4. Alienation of our Minds from God necessarily does follow Darkness in the Understanding; and elsewhere, If they had known the Lord of glory, they would not have Crucified him: If Jerusalem had known what had belonged to her Peace, she would have pursued it; if the God of this World did not blind men's Minds, they would obey the Gospel. (3.) Preaching, Exhortation, Counsel and Advice, would be improper Means for Reforming of Men; the Ministry would be an useless Ordinance, if Men were not guided by their Understandings; for suppose that Fort was gained, nothing at all was gained, for the Will would remain in its freedom, whether to be guided by it or no; a Man might be thus spiritually a wise understanding Man, and yet a wicked unconverted Man, but the usual Phrase of a wicked Man in Scripture is a Fool. (4.) This would allow of another Variety of Creatures the World has not known, to wit, a Creature with a  without an Understanding; for if they can act separately, they may be separate. (5.) The Unity between the Will and the Understanding, they being both the same indivisible Soul, does not admit of the Inclinations of one part contradicting the Inclinations of the other; they are but two different Denominations from different Objects. The Soul conversing about Truth is called Understanding, about Good is called Will, they are so linked and interwoven, that there is a Will in the Understanding, and Understanding in the Will; for there is an Inclination to Truth, that is Will; and there is a Sense of Good, an impression of itself upon the Mind, this is Intellect; the Will is a rational Appetite, and the Understanding is an Appetizing Reason: How can therefore one act independently from the other? We may see it in this Instance of Hope and Joy; Hope is the Opinion of a future Good in the Understanding, Rejoicing is the Disposition of the Will that this Idea or Appearance works: Now is it possible for us not to fear on the appearance of a future Evil, or to rejoice on the appearance of a future Good? and what are all these Affections and Passions that do variously arise upon the various appearance of Good and Bad, but the various Motions of the Will? the Will is the Soul's Inclination, the Soul's Inclination is Love, the Passions are Love's different Postures, like the variegated Light in the Rainbow, embracing Beauty fainting under Despair of Fruition, taking Courage in its wrestling with the Impediments that lie in the way to its End, when it finds them Conquerable, and gins to surmount them: The strongest of Objections against this, seems (1.) to be Experience, Video meliora proboque, deteriora sequor: I see better things, and approve them, but I cannot but follow my old ill Course. In such Instances the Inclinations of the Will seem to fight against the Dictates of the Understanding. Resp. Solomon observed the Nature of this Experience more narrowly than a Medea or a Virgil, and he expresseth it thus, Prov. 13.4. The Soul of the Sluggard desireth and hath nothing: Hath is added by the Translators; if we let the Text supply itself, it is thus, The Soul of the Sluggard desireth, and not; to wit, desireth: The Opposition is in the same faculties, a Desire and not a Desire, a Will and not a Will: There is the Vacillation of the Judgement, as well as the Velleity of the Will. The Contention is about the Object, not about the Faculty: So far as our Judgement is for the thing, so far our Will is for it: If there be a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, there will be a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that is, a true Repentance; when the Judgement is so far altered to see the Evil of the former Actions; whereas, there may be great Deceit in Grief and Sorrow raised upon the consequent Circumstances of some evil Action. (2.) Object. Then we should seem to need no Grace, but that of Light to our Understanding. Resp. This Objection is founded on a false Supposition, that the Will and Understanding of the Soul are like different parts of the Body, Head, Hands and Feet; it is impossible for the Soul to receive any Grace but what has an influence upon it all, and yet the Scripture tells us, this is the manner of Grace's influence, viz. To renew the Will by enlightening the Mind, 2 Cor. 3.18. (3. Obj. Stat pro ratione voluntas; that we often have no other Reason of our acting but our mere Will, or as some say, I will, because I will. Resp. That saying either is the saying of a Politician, who means he will Conceal his Reason, or of a Fool that knows not what he says. (4. Obj. Ignorance much excuseth a Fault, but if our Wills did always follow our Intellects, than all our Sins would be Sins of Ignorance, and so not so full of Aggravation as otherwise. Resp. The Scripture calls all our Sins Errors, Heb. 9.7. Which he offered for himself and the Errors of the People: And both the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and th● Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, signify to Mistake or Err; and the very first sin of Man is called, a being deceived. 2. There is an Ignorance that aggravates as well as an Ignorance that excuses; for he that has given Diligence and Pains to know the Will of God and State of his own Soul, he that has attended upon Ordinances for increasing the Knowledge thereof, is less guilty than he who remains Ignorant of what the other knows by his Negligence.  
I sh●ll conclude this with these two Inferences: 1. That there then was an Error or Mistake in the first sin of Angels as well as Man; tho' they had no Outward Tempter, yet their own glistering Beauty and glorious Excellencies appearing in their own Mind, were too abstractly Considered, and too precipitantly doted upon. 2. That the great Object of our Prayers and Diligence should be to attain true Knowledge. Wisdom is the principal thing; we ought daily to Watch at her Gates, that the Eyes of our Understanding may be enlightened, that we may know what is the Hope of his Calling, and what is the Riches of the Glory of his Inheritance; to know more of God's Love and Power toward them that believe, to know more of the Beauty of Holiness, Vileness of sin, and Vanity of the Creature.  
The fourth Proposition is, That the Will of Man is not free to all things: Every thing is Confined to its own Sphere, the Carnal Man to Carnal things, the Spiritual Man discerneth all things, yet that is Confined to spirituals here below; for neither Peter nor Paul could Converse rationally about Heavenly things. This necessarily follows from the former Proposition, viz. That the Will of Man is confined to the Understanding: Indeed the Appetite is in this sense larger, that it Craves a greater Good than the Eye of the Mind can point out to it; but in particular Choice and Prosecution it can only seek after such as the Mind demonstrates to it: Ignoti nulla cupido; and it will be further proved under the last Topick, viz. Man's Impotency.  
The third Topick, or General Argument for our Humility, is our Gild. This is the Argument the Apostle insists so largely upon, to prove by it, that we are not justified by Works, or to render the Gospel which brings the Tidings of a Justification by Faith more acceptable. First, We are Naturally guilty, Eph. 2.3. and we are by Nature the Children of wrath, even as others; a Child of Wrath is one liable to Wrath, or guilty of Wrath, as Judas is called a Son of Perdition, Joh. 17.12. And so we read of a Son of Hell, Mat. 23.15. and Children of the Curse. 2 Pet. 2.14. Deut. 25.2. a Child of beating, is translated worthy to be beaten. But the great Controversy is, What is meant by being thus liable to Wrath by Nature? There be two ways that they who deny Original Sin explain it: First, some say it signifies only truly Children of wrath, as in Gal. 4.8. By Nature were not Gods. Resp. 1. We grant they are truly so, but where doth ever the word Nature signify no more? For these Gods wanted a Divine Nature, Spirituality, Independency, etc. and the Rule of interpreting Scripture, is to let every word signify as much as it can. 2. The obviated contrary would be such as none ever pretended, viz. and were in Opinion the Children of Wrath even as, etc. the Jews were not in their own Opinion thus, Gal. 2.5. A second way is: By Custom Children of Wrath; they found their Interpretations on these two things: The Context speaks of their Conversation. 2. The word Nature signifies sometimes Custom, 1 Cor. 11.14. Nature teaches that if a Man have long hair, it is a shame unto him. Resp. 1. He mentions two kinds of Sins beside Conversation, viz. Flesh and its Lusts, Wills or Desires, by way of Genealogy succeeding one another. 1. Flesh. 2. Lusts. 3. Conversation or fulfilment of them. There are two things here to be proved, That we are Flesh Antecedent to any Custom. 2. To be Flesh is to be sinful. For the former, see John 3.3. every thing born of flesh is so, 1 Cor. 3.3. it's common to Man as Man in this State:— are ye not carnal, and walk as men? For the latter, see Rom. 8.6, 7, 8, 9 The Apostles design is to prove, that the Jews were not only as guilty as the Gentiles in Conversation, but in Lusts and fleshly Dispositions; and so naturally Acts are before Custom, but a natural Principle before Acts. It's Nature before Custom teaches that Lesson, which brings forth longer and more Ornamental Hair in Women than Men; Rev. It's a Natural Character of distinction of Sexes. 2 Custom is called second Nature; Like Nature, or acquired Nature; not Nature simply, and teaches nothing of this Matter: for in some countries' Men nourish and dress it, in others not; but Nature constantly distinguishes; and these distinguishing Characters are called Nature, Rom. 1.26, 27.  
Two Ways Nature is most usually taken: (1.) For the Internal Causes, the Principium, motus, the Disposition or Constituti- of a thing. Rom. 2.14. The Gentiles do by Nature the things of the Law. Or (2.) for Birth, as Rom. 2.27. The Gentiles are the uncircumcision by Nature, in opposition to the Jews, who by Birth had the privilege of Circumcision belonging to them, Gal. 2.15. Both these are here comprehended, the Arguments for it are these: (1.) Flesh and Nature here seem to be one thing; for the reason of our being Children of Wrath, is, because we had our Conversation in the lusts of the Flesh By Flesh in Scripture is understood, that Natural bias and tendency to Carnal things that is in every Man from his Birth: Hence it's called a fleshly Mind, a Carnal Mind; and, in my flesh dwells no good thing; and this fleshly Disposition is Nature to us, for whatsoever is born of the flesh is flesh. There is substantial Flesh, of which we are born, and then there is this fleshly disposition, that is, the property: As it is said, That what is born of the Spirit is Spirit: The one is the Holy Ghost, the other a Holy Habit in the Mind. So as the Seed of Grace in a Regenerate Man is called the Divine Nature: So this Flesh or Carnal Disposition, it is our Corrupt Nature, and it is called Flesh from its opposition to the Spirit: for as Substances, Flesh and Spirit are opposite in the Scripture, so also Spiritual and Carnal Disposition; until a Man hath a higher principle, he only can converse about Carnal things: Carnal and Earthly things are equivalent, they did partake of your Carnal things: So Galat. 6.12. 2 Cor. 5.16. Phil. 3.3. The strength of the Argument lies thus: That since by our Birth, and by our Natural Disposition, we are Carnal, therefore by our Birth and Natural Disposition we are liable to Wrath. By our Birth we are Flesh, John 3.3. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and the Text says this Flesh renders us liable to Wrath.  
(2.) We are liable to Wrath from all the successful Temptations of the Prince of the Air: for all the results, saith the Context, are Disobedience. Now Satan both can and doth act us before any acquired Custom or Habit; and according to the Common Notions of the Soul, there is no apparent repugnancy why his suggestions may not be thrown into the Soul, and succeed too before we are born.  
(3.) Nature and Grace here are opposed, as Comprehending the two entire States of Man by Nature; you are the Children of Wrath, but by Grace you are saved. So Nature comprehends the whole of a Man's Life before Grace, else he may be saved without Grace; except Nature were taken in this sense, his Argument would be in two considerable Points defectible: 1. In showing, as to Eternal Concerns, that by Birth and Nature the Jews and Gentiles condition were alike, as well as by Conversation. 2. In depressing the Jews false grounded Pride, who reckoned all the Seed of Abraham in a sinless Condition until adult, Gal. 2.15. Is it supposable, that when the former is so true, and the latter so dangerously false, and both the Apostles design in the very place, that there should be nothing in his Argument to signify them, or that when no word more proper than this word Nature could be thought on, that that word should be used in a most improper sense?  
I might add four more to enforce this: 1. Authority. Austin and Prosper did interpret this Text of Original Sin. 2. Etymology; the word Children is changed, it is not the same that in the second is called Children of Disobedience, but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which signifies our Birth. 3. The other Texts of Scripture, Psal. 5. and Job, I was conceived in Sin, and born in Iniquity: Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? 4. Matter of Fact: Infants die, suffer Miseries, Pains, that are the Effects of Wrath in Scripture Language, if they were not liable to them, how should they generally and frequently suffer them?  
2ly. We are personally guilty: To prove that all Men are guilty, is, because the Scripture describing the Heraldry of our Sinfulness, doth not derive it from our Actions, but derives the Evil of our Actions from our Persons. We are Corrupt trees, and therefore bring forth Corrupt fruit. That which cometh out of a man defiles a man; and Satan like, when he speaks a lie, speaks his Own, John 8 44. If God from a Man's Birth do determine his Will, and so sanctify him, it may stop this Course, but being left to himself, he cannot but sin, for Nature will follow its own Course. For the Wicked drink in Iniquity as the fish do the water; they go astray from the Womb, speaking lies; and being left to himself, as soon brings shame, as Wise Solomon observes: Mat. 12.3, 4. being evil, ye cannot speak good:— An evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. Tit. 1.15. Unto them that are defiled every thing is impure: Prov. 21.4.27. the ploughing and praying of the Wicked are Sins; Hag. 2.12. they defile whatever they touch; the dead Carcase, and other defiling things under the Law did typify them. The Nature of God is the Rule of ours, antecedently to his Will, being the Rule of our Actions, and the want of Conformity to the Rule is a Sin, and where the want of his Image is, there is the want of a Likeness or Conformity to him; this may be called a Personal Gild, antecedent to our Gild by Actions, and is a Confirmation of the former, and much of the same Nature with it.  
3dly. We are universally Guilty: This is the Apostles great and demonstrative Argument, to prove that we are not justified by Works. (1.) He supposes Salvation possible, attainable. (2.) That a Righteousness was necessary to it; for the Judge could not be just in justifying the Unjust. (3.) This Righteousness must be inherent or imputed; a Righteousness to be believed, or a Righteousness to be done by us; a Righteousness by Works or Faith; by our own Righteousness, or another's; by a proper Righteousness, or Vicarious, what Sovereign Authority in Justice might accept in its room; the former is by the Law, the latter is by the Gospel: the former is that the Apostle rejects with most industrious pains, and strenuous proof. For it's a disjunction that admits of no Medium; if guilty by the Law, only saved by the Gospel. (4.) He proves, that we are universally guilty as to the Law.  
(1.) The Gentiles are, from Chap. 1.18. to Chap. 2.17. Because they knew God, but did not glorify him; they detained the truth in unrighteousness; they condemned in others what they did themselves, their Conscience accused them for transgressing the Law wrote on their minds.  
(2.) He proves the Jews guilty, and that in measure above the Gentiles, from Ch. 2.17. to Ch. 3. From their having more Knowledge and worse Lives, by which they made the Gentiles blaspheme their Religion, and the Author of it. 2. By doing the same things, or things of like Nature, they taught from the Law of God was not to be done. After the obviating of an Objection against that Argument, from Ch. 3. to v. 9 he there gins a New Argument, to prove all guilty to v. 20. by the Authority of the Old Testament, the Jews and Christians, only owns the strength of the Argument; but it's Conclusive Universality, doth not only prove the Jews are guilty, but all, v. 9 both Jews and Gentiles, v. 10. None righteous, no not one; v. 19 All the World guilty before God: The Citations are so interwoven as to guard against all Exceptions: Negatively, None righteous; Positively, All gone out of the way; Subjectively, understanding, none understandeth: Will; none seeketh after God; Words, v. 13.14. Their throat is an open Sepulchre, etc. Works, v. 15. Their feet are swift to shed blood: Objectively, against Men, v. 16. Destruction and misery are in their ways: Against God, viz. There is no fear of God before their eyes. Which may sufficiently discover the unreasonableness of their Opinions, who to limit this Gild, and make some room for Works in Justification, say, The Gild and Works here spoken of are only against the Ceremonial Law, others against the Judicial and Civil Constitution of the Jews; others the Moral only, as abstractly considered from Evangelical, in Strength or Duty: But more of this on Verse 4.  
4thly, Not only universally guilty, but Numerously guilty: Every Man is not only guilty of Sin, but the account of his Sins are Innumerable: For first, the Actions of our Life are innumerable, together with the words of our Tongues, and Thoughts of our Mind; and there is a sinfulness accompanying each of these. We must give an account of every idle word, Mat. 12.36. and all our Actions are to be set before us, and how will then the Sinner be humbled, when his aggravated Talents, or Sins, amount to ten thousands, and no coming out till all be paid? Mat. 18.24, 34. how much more numerous must Farthing-Debts be? And yet Mat. 5.26. there is no coming out till the uttermost farthing be paid. (2.) God as a Punisher, or as a Pardoner, he reckons the multitude of every Transgressor's Sins great, Gen. 6.5. The Deluge was sent on the Old World because every thought of the imagination of their Heart was only evil continually. The Captivity was sent on the Jews, Ezek. 16.25.51. because their Whoredoms were increased, and she had multiplied her Abominations more than Samaria: Nay Samaria had not committed half the Sins. When God forgives Sins, he forgives many Sins: All manner of Sin and Iniquity shall be forgiven: Luke 7.47. I say unto thee, her Sins which are many, shall be forgiven, Rom. 5.16. The free gift is of many offences unto Justification: James 5. and last, He that Converts a Sinner, hides a multitude of Sins.  
3. The Saints own account of their Sins, or rather Vain Attempts to account of them, Job 9.2, 3. We cannot answer for one of ten thousand; ten thousand was one of the least parcels he could put by their selves. David, Psal. 19.12. Who can understand his errors? Cleanse thou me from secret faults. Psal. 40.12. Innumerable evils have compassed me about, mine Iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up: Solomon, Eccles. 7.27. One would expect the best account of him of any body, if he should lay out his Talon of Wisdom that Way, which after he became a Penitent, or one gathered into the Church, as the Hebrew Phrase is, he did; for Verse 25. he says, I applied my Heart to know the wickedness of folly, even of Wickedness and Madness; Ver. 27. he says, This he had found, counting one by one, to find out the account, which yet my Soul, saith he, seeketh, but I find not. That is, he found the account of Sin was not to be found out; but this he found, Verse 29. that they were many, they had sought out many inventions, and that God was Author to none of them.  
4. The Similitudes they are compared with, the Hains of our head, Psal. 40.12. the drops of a living Spring, the Sand on the Seashore, as the words of Manassehs Prayer hath it. The very Tongue itself, saith St. James, is a World of Iniquity; the Dimensions of Sin are high as Heaven, Ezra 9.6. Deep as Hell, Hos. 9.9. Psal. 130.1. It's Breadth and length are such as nothing but the Incomprehensible height, depth, length and breadth of the Love of Christ can cover.  
5. We may know the Number of our Sins by the Books of Accounts, that the great Auditor of Accounts Christ Jesus will make use of at the great day: There is the Book of Scripture, that contains the Law, and so teaches us Skill in this Holy Arithmetiek; the second is the Book of Conscience, which is like our Diary, Rom. 2.14. and has all Matter of Fact wrote in it: By comparing these together, every Man may get sight of a huge and terrible Number of Sins. First for the Law, it is exceeding broad; but yet there is an opposite Law in our Members, that is as broad as it; for there is no Law but we have some way or other broken, and that by a nigher Transgression than by that Rule the Apostle gives; he that transgresses one is guilty of all: This Law has a famous Division in Ten Commandments; but the Jews subdivide them into 613 Ceremonial and Judicial Precepts, and so may we in as many particular Moral ones: As for Instance, Thou shalt have no other Gods before me, Comprehends our Faith in God and all his Promises; and who can reckon the number of Promises, Blessings? Secondly, Knowledge and Study of God; and who can reckon the various parts of Divinity? Thirdly, Love of God, and this should be as much repeated as his Mercies are to us, that admit of no Intermission. Fourthly, Adoration, and this admits as many parts as there are things unknown of the Incomprehensible God, or as there are New Discoveries made of them. Fifthly, Obedience, and this is as large as all particular Precepts: Sixthly, Farther, if we shall take one of these particular Commands, they admit of Variety of Kind's of Transgressions against them; for Instance, Adoration, Atheism, Idolatry, Magic, Superstition, Blasphemy, Hypocrisy, are all Transgressions of that Duty; and yet there is none of these Species of Sins, but may be subdivided into multitude of Inferior Branches. For Instance; Idolatry; Men have been as many ways guilty of it as there are Creatures, the very Mouse has been Worshipped, and Art has been put on the Rack for Invention of Kind's of Molten, Carved, Painted Idols, or Images: There has been variety of Idols, for all the Ends or Uses Man wanted any good: There has been Gods of Sneezing, there has been as many Idols as there are things that Men set their Hearts too much upon Profits, Pleasures, Honours. If we will next take the other Book of Conscience, and search how often we commit Idolatry with what is our Idol, which by our practice we perpetually pursue; We talk on it, we think on it, we dream on it; who can then reckon the multitude of his Transgressions? If our Consciences be secure, and we reckon ourselves pretty Innocent from gross abominable Sins, yet this Number might startle us; there are multitudes, Multitudes in the Valley of Decision. We cannot but say, Beelzebubs Sin was the greatest Sin in the World, yet we dare not say 'twas greater than the Sins of all the rest that Complied with him; for they lost God, a vast number of Creatures, and threw Dirt on multitudes of his Glorious Images: So thy many Sins have rob God of many Duties. Beside, in the number of our Sins there is not only a bare increase of Quantity, but there is increase of Intention with their Extension: As Poison, or Physic, five Grains at one time will work more than four Grains at two times: So we find, Mat. 18.22. Peter thought eight times was unpardonable; and the Lord says, Numbers 14.22. Because they had ten times rebelled, they should none of them enter into the Land.  
Lastly, Constant Multiplication of Sin has a Continuedness of Sin in it, and this is highly provoking to God: As Continuedness in Prayer prevails with him for Blessings, Continuedness in sinning provokes him to Anger.  
5. We are heinously guilty. This accompanies every Sin, it's a property of its Nature, though few see it. When the Apostle had his eyes open to see it, the sight struck him dead: Rom. 7.9. When Sin revived, I died: The Effects of it discovers this, it debases the Soul to slave on Earth, and live on Husks; it defiles the Soul so, that no Nitre can wash it clean; it made the Angels who sparkled like Morning-stars, fall to the ground like a shot, spent Meteor: It disordered Divine Government, eclipsed his Glory, destroyed his Imnge; it ruin'd this World, and laid the Foundation of Hell. It's the Root and Abstract of all other Evils; they live and move by it, they all serve to give it Names, it's Poison, Vomit, Mire, Darkness, Blindness, Folly, Madness, Death, Poverty, Shame and Nakedness. God glories to be the Author of all things, but abhors this as a Bastard, Jam. 1.13. never had any hand in its production. Our Lord Jesus Christ glories that he has born all Evil, that he was able and willing to drink the Cursed dregs out of the Cup of our Afflictions, but he would never taste of this. The Saints who but see it's Evil as with one Eye, through a Cranny, prefer the bitterest of Sufferings to the pleasures of Sin, Heb. 11.24. 1 Tim. 5.6. She that liveth in pleasure, is dead while she liveth. The Devil is not worse than Sin has made him; there is no Evil in him but Sin and its Fruits. The Divine Attributes have Variety of Objects, but Wrath, Hatred is all engrossed on this one Object Sin, and there it acts with such Vigour, as that where it is only imputed, and the Person his only begotten Son, he will not spare him, Rom. 8.32. And its Evil is seen more in its being as contrary to God, as God is to it, Rom. 8.7. It's against his Existence, Rom. 1.30. it hates him, wishes he were not; it's against all his Attributes, all his Laws, all his Favourites. We cannot say it's as bad as God is good, because he can forgive it, ruin it, sanctify from it; but as he is only good, it is only evil; he is to be Loved for himself, it is to be Hated for itself; and by being against him directly and only: Psal. 5.1. Against thee, thee only have I sinned; it puts on an Infiniteness of Evil, Acts being denominate from their Objects: So we have a twofold Infiniteness in Sin: The Number of Sin, and the Nature of Sin. No wonder there needed an Infiniteness in the Ransom.  
6. There are great Aggravations accompany the guilt of every Sinner, beside the Essential Heinousness of every Sin, and besides the particular aggravations that distinguishes one Sinner from another; there are three Circumstances that much swell the guilt of sin, as a triple addition of Venom to a Toad, that no adult Persons want in some degree. (1.) Sin against Knowledge, Luke 12.47. of this Pagans were guilty: Rom. 1.18, 21. (2.) Against Mercies; of this the Pagans were guilty too, Rom. 1.21. and 2.4, 5. Acts 14.17. Formation in the Womb, Integrity of Mind, Senses and Members, safe Deliverance, a furnished World to come into, a time of Reprieve, and space of Repentance to stay in it. (3.) Voluntariness, bend of Mind: Some would have an Indifferency necessary to the Voluntariness that makes Man guilty, and what wants this, is no guilt: A Drunken Man's Murder is no sin in their sense, nor an Infant's Inclinations, Passions not sins, nor an Adults thoughts, except the prevalency and consent of the Will be to it; but this is very contrary to Scripture: For (1.) It makes Lust a Sin, which is an Inclination before an Act. (2.) The Apostle owns sin where the I or prevalent Will is not: Rom. 7.7, 17, 18. Not I, but Sin in me. (3.) It makes willingly an Aggravation: Heb. 10.26. Rom. 1.28, 32. (4.) If there are Sins of Ignorance, there are Sins without , for no Freewill without Knowledge. (5.) We are Originally Guilty, but the Apostle leaving this industriously out of his Argument, in the first, second, and third Chapter, and treating of it in the Fifth Chapter, by itself, I shall omit, and pass to the last Topick.  
I come to the fourth and last Argument, to prove that Man has no Matter of Glorying before God, and that is from his Impotency of doing any good; as he is guilty by sinning for the time past, so it is not in his Power to abstain from sinning still: And this Impotency is twofold, Natural and Moral. Moral Impotency is an Aversion and Antipathy in the Will from a thing, but a Natural Impotency is a Defect in some other Faculty that hinders the Action; Mat. 8.2. the Leper says, Lord, if thou wilt thou canst make me clean: He doubts not the Natural but the Moral Power. Joseph's Brethren they hated Joseph, and could not speak peaceably unto him, the Defect of Power was in the Will, not in the Tongue. That there is this Moral Impotency in Man to any Spiritual Good, is generally granted amongst Protestants, and is founded upon these reasonable grounds: (1.) Because the Scripture lays our Disobedience at the Door of our Wills, Joh. 5.40. You will not come unto me that you might have Life: How often would I have gathered you, but you would not. (2.) Because the Scripture calls this Impotency an Enmity, Romans 8.7. The Carnal Mind is enmity against God, therefore it is not subject to the Law of God, neither indeed can be: So Luk. 11.7. The Parable says of the Friend, that the Children were in Bed, and he could not rise: And another Parable, Luk. 14. says of the several Rejecters of Christ, That they could not receive him; I have Married a Wife, and therefore cannot come. (3.) Christ tells the Pharisees, that they had a Natural Power to know that he was the Messiah, because they employed it about other things that Needed more Skill to know them: Mat. 16.3. Ye can discern the Face of the Sky, can ye not discern the Signs of the Times? (4) This Impotency towards Holiness is like the Impotency in God towards sinning, but that is only a Moral Impotency; for Omnipotency is Uncapable of a Natural Weakness, Habak. 1.13. Thou art of purer Eyes than to behold Evil, and canst not look on Iniquity: Titus 1.2. God that cannot lie: This Impotency is a high Perfection, and when the Saints are Regenerate in a likeness to God, they partake of this Aversion to Sin also: Whosoever is born of God doth not Commit Sin, for his Seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin. A Potency to sin is an Imperfection, but an Impotency by which one cannot forbear sinning is the greatest Perfection that can be, Rom. 8.7. Ephes. 4.24. (5.) Our Natural Indisposition or Natural impotency is a farther Proof of this, for things are grateful or ungrateful to our Taste, according to the Disposition of our Palat. Our Will is our Spiritual Appetite, and according to its Natural Disposition its Sympathy or Antipathy arises. We are a Generation of Vipers, there is Poison in our Constitution, and being evil we cannot speak good; Mat. 7.18. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. This Indisposition is granted both by Arminians and their Antagonists, but the Dispute between them, is, Whether 'tis a Sin or no. The Divine Nature in Holiness, Righteousness and Knowledge, is as much the Measure and the Rule of the Disposition of the Mind of Man, as the Divine Law, which is the Copy of that Holy Nature, is the Rule and Measure of Man's Actions; and therefore since Sin is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a Want of Conformity to the Law, there is a sinfulness in our very Natures, though undoubtedly it wants much of the Sinfulness and Gild that our actual Transgressions have; the one is our Misery and our Grief, the other is Matter of our Repentance and Amendment: It seems to receive a Diminution in that 5th. of Romans, that they have not sinned after the similitude of Adam. The Scripture elsewhere aggravating the Sins of Adult Persons, says, They have Transgressed like Men, but the Original hath it, like Adam. This Moral Impotency is as unconquerable as Natural Antipathies, Mark 10.25. It is easier for a Camel to go through the Eye of a Needle, than for a rich Man to enter into the Kingdom of God: The Text represents a Penetration of Dimensions, which is beyond a Miracle, to be easier than for an Unregenerate Man to mortify his Earthly Inclinations. Transubstantiation is easier to be Believed, than that a Man can Convert himself when he will, tho' receiving all External Helps; for in this young Man here was a good Natural Disposition, Jesus loved him; here was a good Education, All these have I observed from my Youth; here was an excellent Preacher, Jesus Christ himself; here was a Careful Attention, for he went away grieved at the Proposal of the Choice; Christ offered him Treasure in Heaven for parting with Treasure on Earth, but that he could not do. Lastly, Because the Scripture asserts, that we are made Willing by Divine Power, John 6.44. No Man can come to me except the Father draw him: Psal. 110. Thy People shall be willing in the Day of thy Power: 1 Thes. 1.5. Our Gospel came not to you in Word only, but also in power.  
Secondly, There is a Natural Impotency as well as a Moral. (1.) Because this Impotency is in our Natural Constitutions, Psal. 51.5. I was shapen in Iniquity, and in sin did my Mother conceive me. Neither the Grammar, nor Sense gathered from the Context, will allow David to be bemoaning here his Parent's Transgression, for that could not make up a part of his Repentance; and here David doth oppose it unto that Truth that God desired in the hidden and inward Parts of Man: Job 14.4. Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? If the First fruit be Holy, so is the Lump, if the Root be Holy, so are the Branches. We are by Nature the Children of Wrath; read Mat. 7.18. and 12.34. Since this Averseness is born with us, Universal to all, I think it may be called Natural, tho' in the Will, so the Moral Impotency is Natural. (2.) The more Moral Impotency that a Man is under, the more Guilty he is: But there is an Impotency in Man to good, that in some part, tho' not wholly, doth excuse Gild, as the Infants in Nineve. It is said, All dye, because all have sinned, but none can be so Uncharitable towards Poor Infants, whose Impotency is greater than the Adults, to think that therefore they are more guilty, Rom. 5. (3.) The Invincibleness and Unconquerableness of this Impotency being represented under such an utter Impossibility, doth manifest a Defect in all the other Powers as well as the Will, as impossible as for a great Camel to go through the Eye of a Needle; it requires as great a Power as Creation and the Resurrection of one from the Dead doth, Eph. 1.19. it requires the exceeding greatness of his Power, the Energy of his mighty Power. If all the other Faculties were fitted for their Office, especially the Understanding, it might and would sway the Will, since the Will follows its Conduct, as is proved before; for the Gospel proposes such Objects with such a Certainty that would surely Captivate and Conquer the Will, if there were no Defect in discerning it; and Paul the Apostle complains of the Defect of other Powers; To will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not. Christ blames the Disciples for the Weakness of the Flesh, when the Spirit was willing: Suppose our Wills entire, our Animal Spirits would not serve us to Obey the Law of Innocency, and this Incapacity is from our sin; so a Man is as Guilty by this Impotence, as in Omissions of Duty through Drunkenness, and I cannot think but a Man is Guilty of Blood that Kills his Neighbour in Drink, or doth not deliver him sinking in the Water, because his Drunkenness has made him uncapable, the Impotence is voluntarily Contracted: Gal. 5.17. The Flesh lusteth against the Spirit, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would: Was there no Sin in the Impotence, since they were willing? (4.) The Understanding is a distinct Power from the Will, and antecedent in Manner of working, and there is an Impotency ascribed to it; 1 Cor. 2.14. The Natural Man cannot know spiritual things. The Contrivance of our Salvation, which is the Effect and Glory of Divine Wisdom, appeared to the Grecian Philosophers seriously Studying the Case, a ridiculous Dream of a weak Brain. Act. 17.19. The Epicureans and Stoic Philosophers, tho' they heard him again and again, and tho' his Speech was Divine, yet the Conclusion was Laughter and Mockery: Resurrection of the Dead was a strange and incredible Doctrine to Pagans; Heaven and Hell, a Day of Judgement, and Destruction of this World, were Chimeras and Fancies: Caecil the Philosopher thus: O wonderful Foolishness and incredible Boldness! they Contemn present Torments, and yet fear future Pains; they fear not Death, but fear to die after Death; their Fear is foolish, and their Hope fallacious of Comfort at the revival from Death, for they are not Contented with the furious Opinion of the Dissolution of the World, threatening the very Stars with Fire, but they tell old Fables of a Birth after Death from the Cinders and Ashes. Epictetus' said, the Galileans were Melancholy Persons, who willingly chose Death from Hopes of good things afterward. Christianity appears as foolish to Politicians, the spiritual Kingdom of Christ is to them a Castle in the Air: When Pilate, John 18. heard that Christ's Kingdom was not in this World, he thought it was not worth his Attention, some imaginary Business: Nor had the Vulgar any better thoughts of it, Joh. 6. they would follow him for Earthly Bread, and Crown him for it, but they could not relish his Discourse of Heavenly Bread. The Pagans used to call them Atheists, because they had no Temples, Altars, Sacrifices, nor Holy Days; an inward Religion in Thoughts was no Religion to them, their gross Minds could not feel it; and they used to throw their Ashes in the Rivers, thinking thereby to prevent their Resurrection. An Universal Monarch from among the Jews was no credible Doctrine to a Roman, whose Subjects or Slaves they were, far less to believe him a God and a Saviour, one rejected by the Jews, Mocked, Scourged and Crucifi'd.  
The Jews, who enjoyed Divine Oracles, especially the Prophetical ones of such a Prince and Saviour, yet how contemptible was the Obscurity of his Life! And what offence was the Cross of his Death to them? and how foolish did his Doctrine appear, John 7. 49! His holy Laws about Loving our Enemies seemed impossible to practice, and contrary to Heroic Virtues, in the Opinion of both Jew and Gentile: Regeneration was a Miracle to a serious Nicodemus. On these Examples, especially that Act. 17. the Apostle seems to reflect in that Assertion, 1 Cor. 2.14. But secondly, the Scripture is most frequent and emphatical in this Assertion, that the Understanding, Eph. 4.17. is,  
1. Dark: We are in darkness; but more is said, Eph. 5.8. We are darkness. Some Creatures can see in the dark, that carry a light about with them; but we are dark, yea darkness, Acts 13.41. therefore cannot believe this Work, though a man should declare it unto us: And there is not only Darkness, or some Veil over the Eye, or defect in it, but it is expressed by the want of Eyes, Ears, and Understanding too as to this, Deut. 29.4. An heart to perceive, eyes to see: 1 Joh. 5.20. And hath given us an understanding.  
2. Flesh, Mat. 16.18. Flesh and Blood hath not revealed it; Fleshly Wisdom, carnally minded, because it can only discern Earthly things.  
3. Sick, 1 Tim. 6.4. Corrupt minds; the word signifies sickly, but how? by being destitute of the Truth.  
4. Weak, Impotent; We are not sufficient of ourselves to think a right thought. The evil of our Thoughts proceed from the weakness of the Mind; there was weakness before Sin: Eve was deceived, beguiled, much more since Sin. I might form an Argument thus: The Understanding is a distinct Power or Faculty from the Will, but there is an Impotence in the Understanding; therefore there is a Natural Impotency, for a Natural Impotence is an Impotence in another Faculty than the Will: Prov. 24.5. The Wisdom of a Man is his strength. If a General had the strength of an Ox, and Courage of a Lion, what serves it for without Wisdom? therefore Ignorance is weakness; to be Carnally minded is to be weak: The weapons of our Warfare are not carnal, but mighty. There is great Reason we should believe the Scripture in this Point, because the Eye cannot see itself, and the most Ignorant Man thinks he is knowing. The blind Pharisees said, Are we blind also? And Rom. 2.19. they were confident they were sufficient Guides to the Blind. A Fool, a Madman thinks himself Wise; God has given us this Glass to see our Minds in, and undeceive ourselves. Further,  
5. The Scripture asserts, That the Common Profession of Christianity on an Historical Faith, is a Gift of the Spirit: No Man can call Jesus Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. All those Philosophers and Politicians before mentioned, could not see grounds of embracing him until this Gift was given: The spreading of Deism at this time is a great and sad sign of the withdrawing of these gifts. The Protestant Profession sprung out of Popery by such a Light: Nay,  
6. Natural Religion is a Divine Gift, Rom. 1.21. and 2.25. God manifests himself, he writes his Laws on our hearts. Since we see some born Fools and Idiots, all might be; Neither for this man's sin nor his Parent's sin was he born blind; therefore if for any, it was for Sin common to the whole of Mankind. Now the Scripture shows what makes the difference, John 1. He is the Light that enlightens every one that comes into the World; he has Gifts for the Rebellious, Psal. 68.18. No Man is so bad as he deserves.  
7. The skill of Ploughing, Sowing, Trading, are from God: Isai. 28.24. it is both fully and clearly asserted. If then Man by Nature is weak as to these, how much more as to Saving Knowledge, the least Grain whereof, if like a Mustardseed, initiates in the Kingdom of God, Mat. 13.31. the very Smoke of it is preferable to the Light of most sparkling Gifts, for it will never be quenched. It is specifically distinct from other Knowledge of Scripture by Gift or Acquirement; the one is, to use the Schoolman's Language, Specie Propriâ, the other is, Specie Aliena; by the one we only know the signs of Divine things, by the other, the things themselves, (or rather in my weak Thought) a more like or nigher Idea of them framed by God himself; the one is like the sight of a Picture, the other is like the Person; the one like an Anatomy by Book, the other by immediate Dissection; one like Learning by an Herbal Book, the other by Simpling, tasting of Meat, and telling another of it: The two Persons Thoughts much differ. Job says, I have heard, now I see, Ch. 42. v. 5. and 1 Cor. 2.9. Mat. 11.25. Joh. 14.17, 21. 1 Joh. 5.20.  
I can imagine nothing that can be Objected against this but one of these three. 1 Obj. If a Man's Will were right, he could do good enough, and be happy enough without this Knowledge. Resp. One may as well think a Watch can go without the Spring, for the Understanding is the Guide; 2 Cor. 1.12. Not by fleshly Wisdom, but by the Grace of God. According to the kind of Knowledge, Gracious or Fleshly, so the Conversation, Jer. 4.22. Eph. 2.3. Lusts of the mind might be Englished Wills of reasoning: The Will follows that, but that being Corrupt, the Will is a Lust. 2 Obj. If we had a true Will for this Knowledge, we should have it. Resp. Not by pains, for it's the Work of the Spirit, nor by Promise, for we have generally a desire for Knowledge, we would be as wise as Angels; we have an earnest desire for more skill in our Employs and Callings, and as to saving Knowledge God gives to whom, and when he will. 3 Obj. If we have a Will for it, God accepts the Will for the Deed. Resp. This Axiom admits of Limitation, for it could not be admitted by the Law of Innocence, it's only under the Gospel Constitution, it's on Christ's Account the Will is accepted for the Deed; that is, through him the Defect and Imperfection is pardoned: The want of the Deed is then a Sin, it needs a Pardon: So there is a Sin, the Will being supposed right; To will is present with me, but how to perform, etc. Rom. 7. Ye cannot do the things that ye would, Gal. 5.17. A second Limitation is, that the Will is accepted according to what a Man hath; he must do what he can, else the Will will not be accepted for the rest. From these Texts the fault is not laid on the weak degree of the Will, but on other Powers.  
A Fifth Argument for Natural Impotence, is from the Oneness and Unitedness of Soul. The Soul is a Natural principle in the Man, and there is Impotence in every part therefore if in one: If Impotence in the Will is called Moral from the Subject, the Will being so, why not Natural by being in the Understanding, or whole Soul? If that be Natural which is born with us, this Impotence is so: If the Texture and Frame of Essential Properties be Nature, as we say Nature will do the Cure, Nature is strong or weak, this is Natural; if that be Natural which is Universal, this is so, Universal in every Man, and part of Man; if all be polluted, all is weak, Sin is a Rust and Dust in the Wheels, Gal. 3.22. All under Sin, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 1 Thes. 5.23. Soul, Body and Spirit need Sanctification: Spirit is Judgement, Conscience: and Soul, Affections or Passions, Heb. 4.12. Soul and Spirit are compared to Joints and Marrow, the Animal Spirits are seated in the Marrow; but gross Joints and Bones of the Body are without: from this Oneness of the Soul, the Argument for Moral Impotence alone appears strong; if a Man's Will were right all were right: This is true, because it cannot be sanctified or cured alone: It is as true, if a Man's Understanding were Cured, all were Cured, therefore its Cure is reckoned the greatest Mercy: Col. 1.12, 13. 2 Tim. 2.25. It's the sum of Conversion, Eph. 5.8, 14. Jam. 1.18. to open their Eyes, and turn them from Darkness to Light, is the sum of the Gospel. It's the sum of the Covenant, Jer. 31.34. They shall all know me.  
A sixth Argument for Natural Impotency, is from the Devil's Potency over our Souls; he uses a Natural or Physical Efficiency to hinder our Conversion, Eph. 2.2. he works effectually, with an Energy, and there is need of such an Energy to remove him and his influence: Moral Suasion will not Chain Satan; he would become very good, if persuasion would make him leave off tempting: Gal. 2.8. He that wrought effectually in Peter— the same was mighty in me. Before Man's Fall Satan stood without, and used only Moral Suasion, which Man could have resisted and dissented from; but now his Operation is of a superior Kind than by Humane Converse: Eph. 6.12. it's called Heavenly, We wrestle against wicked Spirits in heavenly's; so the Marginal reading is: the Text shows its the manner of Operation that is called heavenly, as well as the subject, about which he sits on the Imagination, as a Spider on his Web, he can bridle our ruling Faculties as a Man a Horse, and spur him in the most tender and unguarded part, as a Man's way of Conduct is superior to that of a Horse, another Horse cannot do so; so Satan is in a superior Order and Rank of Creatures to us, he knows where our Helm stands, and can lay his hand upon it, and turn us at pleasure; we may see it in Lunatics, whom the Scripture calls possess d, and yet Possession is a more External way, affecting more the Body: for I believe possessed Persons may be in a State of Grace; it's more an Affliction and Punishment than a Sin, Heb. 2.14. Satan has the Power of death, Heb. 2.14. for any thing I know that Scripture intimates, that he has an active Influence on the Death of every Man: We call it a Natural Death, but it is the Devil, with as active Causality, as if the Executioner cut our Throat: And if Man could resist him either in punishing Soul or Body, he were not a fit Executioner of Divine Wrath: Tho' his influence is inferior to the Operation of the Holy Spirit; for Eph. 6.12, 13. in the power of his might we can resist him, tho' in that only; and tho' Temptation is by way of presenting Objects, yet since he is a powerful Spirit, abides and works within us, we cannot limit it to Objective Influence, nor deny all Physical Influence to Objects, since Satan can even paint them upon the Imagination, and from thence throw his Bombs into the very Soul, and prevent our attending any thing that may divert our Thoughts. If one more strong than I set an Object before my Eye or Ear, and keep my Eyelids open, or not suffer me to stop my Ear, I cannot prevent the Influence of the Object, it's got within the guards; but when Satan is in our imagination, he is much nigher and intimate.  
7. The Naturalness of this Impotency may be drawn from the Object, or necessary Way of Divine Operation in Curing this Distemper; which is by presenting the true Image of God and Divine things to the Understanding, before ever the Will can be affected with them: If the  of Man were advanced as high as the Pelagians would have it, that is, without receiving the least crack or flaw from Man's Fall, it's Power is only to admit or reject, choose or refuse what's brought within its ken, or what Objects are proposed in the Understanding: Now no Man can have any Knowledge of heavenly things, except a Heavenly Being proposeth the Idea of them to the Mind: No Man can learn any thing by mere words, and those Metaphorical too, and such are the Scriptural Expressions of heavenly things. Our Mind must be some way acquainted with the thing itself before it can know it: A Book cannot make a Man an Astronomer without his Globe, nor the Globe either without an immediate contemplating the Stars: If a Traveller had learned his Geographical Map with the greatest Accuracy and Exactness, he finds his Idea of the Country a mere mistake, as soon as he views it with his Eye: God has made our Souls a Mirror, wherein his own Image may be represented as a Looking-glass; Water, or polished Brass represents the Image of Bodies, but they can never do it except the Person immediately approach before them: So God must draw nigh to the Soul before it can discern him: He by his presence produces his own likeness on the Soul; Psalm 17.15. When I shall awake, I shall be satisfied with thy likeness: David knew this by some earnest of it; this made his Soul pant and thirst so for it under the want of it, Psalm 42.2. My Soul thirsteth for God, for the living God, when shall I come and appear before him This Likeness, or Spiritual Image is what the Apostle Paul so much traveled for, Galat. 4.19. Of whom I travel in birth again, until Christ be form in you: For it seems to be the Knowledge of Christ, from Verse 9 After that ye have known God, or rather are known of God. Our Knowledge saith that Text is more passive than active, to wit, an Impression of the Idea, and this Idea is Christ formed objectively within, or his Glorious Image, 2 Cor. 3.18. not excluding, but having consequentially to it, a likeness of the Soul to Christ in Holy Qualities: As that Text has it, Beholding his glory we are transformed into the same Image. Without this the Soul is as a Carcase forsaken of the Soul as to Spirituals: To be carnally minded is death; as the dark and dolesome Air forsaken of the Sun, or as the stinking Lantern, when the flame is extinct; both these last Arguments are mentioned, John 8.43. Why do ye not understand my Speech? because ye cannot hear my Word, ye are of your Father the Devil. 1. A Denial of the Act, Ye do not understand my Sermons or Discourses: 2. A denial of the Power; Ye cannot. 3. The Power of Learning is denied, that is the power of Understanding: For Hearers are Learners: Rev. 2. and 3. He that hath an Ear, let him hear: they wanted the Faculty represented by the Organ; Therefore speak I to them in Parables, because seeing, they see not, and hearing they hear not, nor understand. 4. A Reason of this Impotency is from the Object; My Word, Verse 38. That which I have seen with my Father, and have received Commission to preach, v. 45. the Truth; John 3.3. things concerning his Kingdom. Rom. 14.17. Righteousness, Peace, and Joy in the Holy Ghost. 5. A further Reason why the Truths of the Gospel are an unintelligible Object to an otherwise intelligent Creature, is, Ye are of your Father the Devil; the powers of Darkness have begotten this Darkness and Enmity, that makes up the Constitution of thy Soul: 2 Cor. 4.4. The God of this World hath blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ should shine unto them. Psal. 89.15. Blessed are the people who know the joyful sound, they walk in the light of thy Countenance, O Lord. For there is this freedom from Satan, who like a Father propagates an hereditary Distemper of Darkness and Hatred about heavenly things in the Soul of his Children; and this Distemper is our Natural Temper, through it we are by Nature Children of Wrath.  
3dly, As the Averseness of our Will is a Moral Impotency, and the darkness of our understandings a Natural Impotency, so I may add an Habitual Impotency, that in Adult Persons hardens and strengthens both; and this habit has a threefold Spring that feeds it, or a threefold Cord that Chains and Fetters the Soul; Education, Custom, and Company.  
1. Education; the Soul of Man is a Chamber of Imagery, and as soon as it comes into being, God, or the Devil, or our Senses by their Objects constantly fill it: and he that takes the start, has the greatest advantage, and easiest work, Prov. 22.6. Train up a Child in the way that he should go, and when he is old he will not departed from it. The sooner Parents begin, the more acceptable to God, and the Impressions stick the deeper: There is the more room for them, it becomes a Vessel of Honour or Dishonour, according as Instructers fill it: If we are so impotent to good, that we cannot Conquer any one of those acquired Impediments of Custom, Company, and Education, which might properly be called Moral Impotence, and both the other Natural; how much less when we are Chained to Evil by all of 'em, and when they have the Power of Hell to back them, and when they are but as Twigs, or small Grafts from that bulky Stock of our Natural Corruption? and if so impotent to good, how little reason of Glorying over what good we find in us, or ascribing any part of it to ourselves. If you will seem to set a value on a Rattle, a Child will prefer it to Gold: If you will act fear at the sight of a Friend, the Child will cry. Cartesius complains of the great Impediments in our Progress in Philosophy by Childish prejudices from Education; they do much more injury to Religion; few Parents can instruct their Children, and far fewer do it. How few can give any reason for their being Dissenters, or Conformists, Protestants or Papists, Christians, Mahometans or Pagans, but their Education, their Parents or their Master's first taught them so: This is a very ill Foundation for Religion.  
2. Custom: Jer. 13.23. Can the Aethiopian change his skin, or the Leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil: There is a kind of Moral Impossibility in changing of Custom; the Doctrines of Popery in this Nation and others were more easily reform than Customs; it's Carnivals', Maypoles, holidays, Altars, Rails, Cross and Kneel with Sacred Vestures, and other Rights, are all kept by the power of Custom; the Learning of Synods, nor the Wisdom or Powers of Parliaments have not been sufficient to conquer Custom in such trivial and indifferent things: A Custom in doing good, empowers a Man mightily in Religion, John 7.17. If any Man will do his Will, he shall know of the Doctrine: If he will but attempt to practise, and make experiment, he shall soon become a thriving Christian, Psalm 119.100. I understand more than the Ancients, because I keep thy Precepts. By the start of practice he soon outstripped his Teachers in Knowledge: Heb. 5.12, 14. they were dull in hearing, because they did not use their Spiritual Senses; but Custom of doing Evil grows faster than the other, because it is engrafted upon our Inclination, and our Inclination is the Stump from the Root of our Nature. Our Conversation is from our Lusts, and our Lusts from our Flesh. Men proud and ambitious, can never learn the Doctrine of Humility, Self-denial, or the Cross: Charity and Liberality are Paradoxes to the Covetous, and all revealed Religion a Mystery to the Profane. Heaven is a Dream to the Earthly Worm, and he will as soon forsake the one for the other, as his Life. The  
3. And last, is Company; Evil Company corrupts good manners. A Man can never maintain Converse, but with Persons suitable to his Inclination, or to whose Humours he forms and suits his own. The Penal Laws of Cities or Nations, the Discipline of Masters or Parents, are not of so great Influence as what is valuable and fashionable in the Society we live in. In a School or College where Learning is valued among the Students, it is of greater force for Learning, than the severe stripes of the most rigid Master. So mean a thing as a Top-knot by the alone strength of this, has stood out against the powerful Arguments of Reason, and serious Prayers of tender Consciences, the Admonitions of Relations and Friends, the Satyrs of Wits, the Ridicule of the Bullies, the pointing of the Boys, all these joined together, have not been able to pull down this Ensign from the Tower it stood on. The strength of the hold lay in the Custom and Fashion of the place we live in: How awful might this be, if we consider how many things of far greater Moment, and worse Influence, this is a foundation to in each of us, since in Ephes. 2.2. to follow the fashion of the World, is a certain sign of a Child of Disobedience.  
I come now to the Last thing in the Verse, the strength of the Argument, or necessary Connexion between Justification by Works and Glorying, what is just ground for the one, is just ground for the other also, they have a reciprocal Relation, Ch. 3.27, 28. if no matter of Glorying, not justifieed by Works in this Verse; not justified by Works, because no Matter of Glorying. The Reasons of the Connexion are, 1. The Sameness and Identity of the Matter; the difference between Praising and Justifying lies only in Circumstances; the one is before a Populacy, the other is in a Court of Authority; the one is a Panegyric, the other a Juridical Transaction; the one supposes an Accusation or Suspicion, the other not; they differ as Comfort and Joy, Repentance and Obedience, they are of the same Intrinsical Nature: Comfort and Joy are the same motion of Blood and Spirits, the same Temper of Mind; the Acts of Obedience and Repentance are Works of the same Law, only the one supposes the Course of Obedience interrupted; it's a repeated or renewed Obedience after Transgression, as Comfort renewed Joy after Sorrow. Justification is a Vindication of Honour and Credit by Authority; after some Cloud on it, it is renewed Praise or Glory. Among Men there is usually another difference in degree, Men are praised for Heroic Acts, Acts of great advantage to Learning, Religion or Country, but justified for obeying Orders, doing no Evil or Injury to them: But this has no place with God, for we are unprofitable Servants at best.  
2. Humility is the Test of all true Doctrine, and therefore a proper Test for this Doctrine of Justification: Whatever Doctrine tends to the debasing of a Sinner, and humbling of a Creature, is sound Doctrine. To walk humbly with our God, is the sum of our Religion; and Rom. 10.3. their going about to establish their own Righteousness, is called the want of Submission to God. The humble Publican went home justified, while the proud Pharisee, standing upon his Personal Differences, was rejected of God, Luke 18.14. The Papists, though in Dispute with Protestants, do seem to deny a Glorying to their Works, yet Necessary Connexion makes the contrary Conclusion appear in their own Writings against their Will. Bell. lib. 5. Ch. 3. De Just. says, Because it is more honourable to have somewhat of Merit than of Grace alone, therefore God, that he might the more Honour his Children, has done this for them, that they might prepare Eternal Life to themselves by their own Merits: and yet more proudly, Ruard. Tap. in Art. Leu. God forbidden that the Righteous should expect Life Eternal as a poor Man doth Alms, for its much more Glorious for them to possess Heaven as Victors and Triumphers do a Palm of Glory due to their own Sweats. But the Scripture teaches us, Psalm 115.1. to say, Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy Name give Glory, for thy Mercy and for thy Truth's sake: Rom. 3.19. Every mouth must be stopped before God; for we have not one word to say in our own defence.  
3. God doth never deny Man his due. Humility is the true Sentiment or Value of a Man's own self in his own Mind, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, we are only required not to think of ourselves above what's meet, or not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought, Rom. 12.3. yea, 'tis added positively, that we may think of ourselves soberly, according to the measure of Faith God has given us: And because Scripture is a true Rule to our Judgement, we are bid to think not above what's written. If therefore we had any Works to be justified by, or any Ground to plead from as of ourselves, our Glorying so far would not be a Sin. God ascribed to Abraham Glorying before Men, because his due.  
4. Glorying is a Species of Pride, but Self-justifying is a Glorying. We can never be justified through the Exercise of what is most abominable to God, Luke 16.15. and 18.12. God resists the proud; they are Sins of the same kind, and suppose a Diabolical Temper of Mind, 1 Tim. 3.6. and a Mind very ignorant of its own Condition; Job 42. he owns he had uttered what he understood not, since more acquainted with God his Judgement is altered. Paul says, though he were so sinless as to know nothing by himself, he durst not adventure a Trial upon that score, yet I am not thereby justified.  
5. To be Justified by Sincerity, would afford us as much Glorying, as Adam by Perfection; because his strength proportioned: It's as much Glory for a Child to do a little thing, as a Man a greater; that we have received the Grace through a Mediator, doth not abate any Glorying. Adam's was Free Gift, this our Sureties and Brothers Purchase; nor that ours subordinate to Christ's, for it's reckoned the sole Condition of the Covenant of Grace, that gives right to Christ's Merits. Christ's Merits are no Conditions of that Covenant: Works, Faith and Repentance are not Lex Negotio addita, but Negotium itself in it.  
This is the sense of them who would bring in Evangelical Works, as giving a right to Remission of Sin, or Glory. It's true, the Angels are justified by their Works, yet Rev. 5. they ascribe all Glory to God, and our Lord Jesus Christ: But that is the Glory of those Works they could not perform, the Work of Redemption and saving of sinful Man; but we do not find them denying themselves to the Glory of not Confederating with the false fallen Ones, tho' they derived the Grace by which they stood from God. If our Sincerity were the proper Condition or Matter of our Justification, Man might Glory of God's yielding to him, and coming to lower Terms. All own the Works of the Innocent deserves praise; but if a Nocent and Guilty Person should bring forth Works worthy of a Justification, he should deserve more praise than the Innocent, because Works of an higher value necessary to it, nay more praise than the Works of our Lord Jesus Christ; far easier to be Mediator for another than themselves; easier for an Innocent to Merit than a guilty Person to Merit. Sinlesness was a necessary Qualification in the Mediator; but if one sinful could Merit, the more Worth must be in the Work: Therefore suppose it be granted a Working, Meriting, Glorying under Christ, it may be equal to Adam's, for if he had stood as Angels, it must have been by freely given Grace; but this cannot be allowed, because a more low Humility is required of us than Adam, by Repentance, Sorrow, Grief, etc. Therefore I add  
6. There is no Kind of Works but affords some Matter of Glory in them: Rom. 3.27. Where is boasting then? it is excuded. By what Law? of Works? Nay, but by the Law of Faith: So wherever there is place for Works, as the Condition of our Justification, there is place for some boasting; but the Scripture every where stops Man's mouth, Rom. 3.19. That every mouth may be stopped, and all the World may become guilty before God: And it ascribes all the Glory to him, Psal. 115.1. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy Name give Glory, for thy Mercy and for thy Truth's sake; Eph. 1.6. To the praise of the Glory of his Grace.  
7. All kind of Works affords some Plea, and pleading is a Glorying, for it is a standing upon our own defence; and this is another way of addressing God than either the Example of the Saints, or the Rules of Holy Writ teach us; Petition and Confession, Deprecation and Lamentation, with Praise and Thanksgiving on the Receipt of Mercies, are the only ways we are taught to approach God. The lowest kind of pleading is one of these four: First, By way of Comparison, as when a Man can say, I must have either done that or worse; either to have neglected a Parent or a Wife, either to have fled, or suffered the Army to be cut off, there was no room for this Excuse in Adam's Sin. Secondly, Relation, when we throw the fault upon them that accuse us; this did but aggravate Adam's Crime, and add to the Sin, when he said, The Woman whom thou gavest me. Thirdly, When we remove the Evil of the Fact upon some other Person, as Eve did the eating of the Apple upon the Serpent, and Adam upon Eve. Lastly, A Purgation, when we acknowledge the Fact, but diminish it through some necessary Circumstances, or Ignorance. We do not find any of these ways usual, or acceptable at the Throne of Grace, but rather an aggravating of our own Gild, like Poreus when he was Converted from the Pelagian Error, to the Catholic Truth. What I shall first condemn in myself I know not, wherein to excuse myself I know not. Petition or Deprecation, says the Learned Vossius out of Cicero, is no pleading, except for a Person whose former Actions have highly merited— and therefore it becomes not a Court of Justice, as Cicero for Ligarius before Caesar, O Caesar, I have brought many Pleas, and that before thee when in Court, where thy Honour and Authority was concerned, but never as now when privately and before a Parent, than I pleaded, the Crime is a Fiction, the Witnesses are false, he never did it, he never thought it: But now, O Father, he has erred, he has fallen, he will never do the like: But a Justifying Defence must be made before Authority Juridical.  
I shall conclude this with Answering some Objections briefly, that are brought as Arguments to prove, that since no Works are excluded, but what affords occasion of Glorying, than some Works may have room for an Interest in our Justification. For instance, 1. God may freely first give Grace to work, give Faith and Repentance, and then justify us for the Exercise of them, whereof we cannot Glory, because the Grace is received, and they are the Fruits of Grace. 2. God gives a Gracious Law, a New Law, the Law of Faith, Rom. 3.27. that excludes Glorying, and therefore we may be justified by the Works thereof. 3. These Works come not in as the Meriting Cause of Justification, but as the Condition of it. Resp. In general this Contrivance of the Method of Justification is such a Fruit of Divine Wisdom, that it is the special Glory thereof, and therefore there is no wonder that the feeble Beam of our Light, cannot show us the depth of it, or pierce into all the Harmonies and Connexion's of its parts, or their mutual Relations and Influence, and consequently no wonder Divines do not agree about such things, and the Disagreement ought to be born with Meekness, Patience, and mutual Endeavour to instruct one another. I profess myself a Seeker and a Learner in many of these mysterious Points, and I am never satisfied with a Sermon, except I receive some Edification to my Understanding by it: And if Divisions and bitter Language, unbecoming Christians, Scholars or Men, were not the sad Fruits of these Disputants, not the Disputes, they ought to be encouraged; I bless God for the Sparks I have already received from them, and I hope to receive more; and that my Heart is as much united in Love to both Parties as ever, and I am as much at a Loss as the poor Children when asked whether they Love Father or Mother best: But in particular I shall begin with the first Objection.  
Resp. 1. It is inconsistent with what I have before proved, viz. that the Gift of absolute and distinguishing Grace, the Spirit, a New Heart, etc. that beside its absolute and sanctifying Virtue, it is of a Relative Nature, both to signify and entitle, as the Ring in Marriage, or other Earnests and entitling Symbols. Phil. Melanct. in his Annotat. on this Epistle, [in Comparison of which, (Luther says) that Jerom and origen's Commentaries are but Merae nugae & Ineptiae] says, Deus solus Justificat transfundens in nos Spiritum suum, p. 17. We must either reckon him a Papist, who was the first Protestant, (this Book I have is Printed 1522.) or else say that Gift was the Sentence, or its declarative Sign. Mr. Baxter says, When a Person is Converted, the Angels rejoice, and therefore have some Notification of it; and they who know our Conversion, cannot be ignorant of our Justification, which they cannot know without some Divine Manifestation: A second part of the expressed or declared Sentence of our Justification (he says) is the illustration of our Minds with the Holy Spirit, althò often obscure. I think there is great Reason to unite these two in one, thus: The Angels who are so well acquainted with our Minds, and the Language of Divine Operations, know our Justification from the ruling of the Spirit in us, after such a special manner: Eph. 1.17. Who is the earnest of our Inheritance, and so the Earnest of total and Complete Pardon. Now if Absolute Grace bear the Nature of a Title or Sentence, the Exercise cannot be the Cause, tho' it may be the Condition, that is orderly Connexion: for tho' it procure it's own Confent, it is not received, except complied with, and yielded to. Our Confession of Faith says, We are not justifyjd, until the Holy Spirit apply Christ to us, and confirms it from Tit. 3.6, 7. which Text seems to show a greater Connexion between them than that of Time; By the renewing of the Holy Ghost, that being justified, etc.  
Resp. 2. All Glorying of boasting is not excluded: by this half-workers should receive half-wages, and half Credit. Now when Grace is exercised, the Work is ours, Believing, Repenting, etc. Tho' this is not Pelagian, it is Popish. Suppose a Man have a broken Arm or Leg, and do some great or Heroic Act, after its Cured, he will not ascribe the Glory of the Action to the Physician, or the Medicine, tho' he own them Author and Cause of the Cure. Mr. Sclater is large on this Subject against Bellarm.  
Resp. 3. Such a Special Gift as the Spirit is, the Grace of Faith and Repentance is, supposes the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness; tho' such Gifts as Men in Common receive, viz. A Reprieve from Hell, and outward Benefits, may not, yet such as Spiritual Life cannot be given without it. A Prisoner for Treason may have Conveniencies allowed him, and some Favours, but Places of Trust cannot be bestowed on him; there is a necessary Connexion among all Spiritual Blessings, in due order to be possessed, whereof Faith is the first, and therefore the Argument is good from the first to the last, if Faith, Justification, Adoption, Eternal Life; It is of Faith, that it might be of Grace. Thus Poieret argues, It is not Consistent with our Sovereign Lord and Governor to forgive Impenitent Persons, for that were to let them have all the Glory; for by yielding, he should lose his own Authority; and it is as inconsistent to give the best of his Blessings to them, to deal equally with Friends and Foes, Rebels and Obedient Subjects; but to give his Spirit, is to give the richest Fruit of his Love: How shall then Man be saved? He Answers, By providing a Mediator, and granting to them an Interest in his Satisfaction, therefore this Interest is first in order to be enjoyed: Faith and Repentance are Fruits of his Death, and inseparably united with the others: The first Fountain is Mercy and Favour on the Mediators Account, Pardon of our Sin follows Imputation of his Righteousness; immediately therefore as soon as such Gifts are, Pardon is.  
Resp. 4. That Exercise of Faith needs a Pardon, being imperfect, and must first be accepted, before it can render us acceptable; It is common Doctrine, That the Person must be justified before the Actions, The Tree must be good, than the Fruits: A Cause must be before the Effect; so these two things prevents this Order, the Posteriority and Pollutedness of our Actions: Tho' Grace is pure as from the Spirit, sinful Infirmity accompanies every Action of ours; and so there must be an Interest in Christ antecedently for the Pardon of these Actions.  
Resp. 5. This would make the Covenant of Grace a Covenant of Works; for our Ability to obey was from God then, as is mentioned Argument 5. before.  
Obj. 2. That we may be justilled by Obedience to the Law of Faith without boasting, Rom. 3.27.  
Resp. (1.) It is the Common sense of Interpreters, that the word Law here, is put in figuratively, for Faith, or the Doctrine of Faith, because it comes in the room of the Law, as Christ's Satisfaction is called a Righteousness, because it comes in place of ours: for suffering is a bearing of the Threatening of the Law, and not properly Righteousness. (2.) Beside, the Name of a Law being honourable in the Jews esteem, and frequently in their Mouths, as the Foundation of all their distinguishing Privileges, the Apostle in imitation of them calls Faith a Law. (3.) From the Likeness of Faith to a Law, it being a powerful productive principle of Good Works: On the same account we read of the Law of the Mind, the Law of the Spirit of Life, may be Faith is meant by both; so we read of the Law of our Members, which is Flesh, or our fleshly Disposition: Th●s Chrys. and Theophil. Ambros. and Austin among the Fathers, Expound it. Among Modern Divines, Philip. Melanct. Calvin, Pet. Mart. Gr. Gom. Pisc. Beza, Willet, Zaegerus, Pareus, who say Glorying is excluded by the Law of Faith, because that is to be justified by another's Righteousness, to wit, Christ's, which Faith apprehends. Wilson adds, Faith is the hand by which we receive Christ's Righteousness; it is the Gift received enriches, not the stretching out of the hand; the poor Leper may remain poor all his days, tho' he stretch out his hand as long as he is able, he may starve for want if nothing be given him: The Gift and the Giver is to be Gloried in, and not the extended Palm. Sclater thus: The Law of Faith is the Gospel Law, and Christ's Righteousness is the Gospel Righteousness, his fulfilling of the Law for us is our Gospel Righteousness: So much for Authority. But to come more particularly to the Text, it being the Foundation of one of our Late Controversies, I am willing to show myself not unconcerned in Zions Afflictions, and throw all the Water upon that Fire I can, to extinguish the Heat, not the Light, that may be received from it. The Text is thus:   

The APPENDIX.  ROM. III. 27. Where is Boasting then? it is excluded? by what Law? of Works? nay, but by the Law of Faith. 
ALL the valuable Translations agree with ours, and all to the Original, except the Vulgar Latin, which adds Thy, Where is Thy boasting then? And the , who read it thus: Wherein shall ye Glory? in what law shall ye work? there is not another law, but by Faith? But these are of no value to oppose others. The Syriack for excluded, has Aethbatela, useless, in vain, to no purpose; the word is but once in the Old Testament, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eccl. 12.3. The grinders cease; but often in the New, Ver. 31. Is the Law made void? It's the same word there, it's an Emphatical Explication, because Works afford a Ground for Glorying; therefore if a Man be justified by the Law, he would have Matter of boasting in it. The Papists add thy, because they think Glorying is only excluded from Works entirely our own, the Fruit of our . The sense of the Aethiopick seems to be, that the Works of no Law will bring us to Glory, but through Faith, without Faith the Work of no Law is acceptable. The Substance of the Text lies in this Syllogism. Major. Sinful Man must be Justified in such a way as must exclude all Matter of Glorying. The Minor is expressed by way of a Rhetorical Dialogism, by which, as Calvin says, the Apostle insults over his Adversaries; having demonstrated the Truth, he thunders against Pride, the Foundation of their Error: Where is boasting then? The Law of Faith, not of Works does exclude boasting. The Conclusion is in the 28th. Verse, That therefore a Man is justified by Faith, without the Deeds of the Law; the very same Argument that is in the Text I have been treating of: And because of the Affinity, or rather Identity with the former, I shall the more amply discourse of it: and to begin with the Major Proposition. I may call it the Fifth Principle of the Apostles accurately connexed Discourse; the first is, That Salvation, Forgiveness of Sin, Justification, is a possible thing, it is vain to preach what is not attainable: Despair plucks up the very Roots of Diligence, Hope is the very Spring to Virtue. The second is, that there is no Justification without a Righteousness; God cannot be just, and justify the unjust too, that is an Abomination, next to the Condemning of Innocent. Thirdly, No Man has any inherent Righteousness of his own, whether Jew or Gentile. Fourthly, That all Righteousness is by a Law; on this Subject he shows there is a Triple Law: The Natural Law, and its Righteousness, from Chap. 1.17. to Chap. 2.17. he excludes both the Law and its Righteousness from any Ability of this kind. (2.) The Mosaical and Moral Law, from that Verse 17. to the 21st. of the third Chapter; he also excludes that Law and its Righteousness from being able to justify Sinners: From Verse 21. he gins positively to assert and explain a third Righteousness, which he calls the Righteousness of God, or Righteousness of Faith; and a third Law, a Law of Faith: All which is Evangelical, for in the beginning of the Epistle he had described the Gospel and his own separation to the Office of preaching it, and laid down this Doctrine, Chap. 1.16, 17. That it was the Power of God unto Salvation to every Believer; and the Reason it is so, is, because therein is the Righteousness of God revealed: This Righteousness, after having excluded the Law, with its Works, he most accurately explains, from Verse 21. to the Text, where he gins a Discourse which is a Conclusion from the former, and a Proposition to the latter part of the Context, built upon this fifth Axiom, That there is a Necessity of the Justification of Sinners being in such a Method that may utterly stop their Mouth from either Glorying or Boasting: God has his Glory for his ultimate End in all his Actions, but there is a particular Reason, that the Glory be entirely his in this great Action; for a Sinner is God's Enemy, there is a Controversy between them; if the Peace or Reconciliation should be so made up, as Man should have any thing to brag of, God were so far the Yielder, and conquered party, Man were the Victor and Triumpher in this Affair; whatever Glory we ascribe to Man, we derogate so much from God. This may be clearly illustrated, by the Transactions of Peace between Armies, Nations, Besiegers and Besieged; they contend as much for having the Glory of the Peace on their side, as for having the Victory of the War on their side: And we find the Scripture punctual in ascribing the Glory to God in all the particular parts and points of this great Contrivance. (1.) Election, Eph. 1.4. (2.) Permission, the very letting of Man fall in Sin. Strangius says, Sin is none of God's Mediums, but the Permission of Sin is, Rom. 11.22. Gal. 3.22. (3.) The Calling of Man, Tit. 3.5. (4.) The sending of the Son into the World. (5.) The ordaining of such weak Ordinances for means of Conversion and Edification. (6.) The Calling of Men, when they stand at greatest disadvantage for Conversion; and so all the other parts of this whole Project; and likewise we find the Scripture in nothing more punctual than in describing Man's Gild and Impotency, his Wickedness and his weakness, and every thing that may contribute to humble and vilify him in the sight of God. And Satan is in nothing more diligent than to propagate this Lust of Pride: it was his own first Sin, and the Foundation of his Kingdom, and he maintains it as the principal Pillar thereof. Carnal Pride is a very strong Hold in his Kingdom; it is a very difficult thing to be denied to Credit, Honour, and Reputation among Men: But Spiritual Pride is a more subtle Sin, and not easily discernible, far less conquerable: And if Satan can maintain this one hold, we are never like to be sound about this Doctrine of Justification; whatever may be our Speculative Opinions in Profession, if we retain a Practical Sentiment of a Self-distinguishing Work, we run a very great Danger as to our Souls: Therefore as ever we would obtain this incomparable Privilege, we would endeavour to walk humbly with God, and to get Self-abasing Sentiments of ourselves.  
I come now to the Minor Proposition, or second Doctrine, which the Text expresses by way of Dialogism: What is not, and what is the way of Justification that excludes Glorying. I shall begin with the Negative part. viz. That Glorying is not excluded by the Law of Works: The Sense of it is, That if a Person can be justified by Works, he doth not want Matter of Glorying; for God doth not require Humility of a Man beyond his due; if his own Works can answer for him before the Tribunal of God, he has in Justice, viz. Distributive, merited his Life, and where there is Matter of Merit, there is Matter of Glory. There are a great many attempts to diminish this Proposition, viz. If a Man be justified by Works, he has Matter to Glory by the Law of Works: (1.) Some say it is only the Ceremonial Law, and its Works. (2.) Others say it is only the Judicial Law, and External part of the Moral, which made up the Jews Civil Law. (3.) Others say, only the Moral Law is excluded so far as obeyed without Grace. (4.) Others say, it's the Mosaical Law in the Pharisaical sense thereof. (5.) Others say, 'Tis the Law as requiring Perfection. (6.) Others as Meriting. But (7.) It has been the most Universal Sentiment among Protestants, that all Law is excluded, and all Inherent Works in sinful Men as Righteousness, or being conformed to that Law. It is more easy to fix upon this Question, Whether or not the Evangelical Law and its Works be excluded, yea, or not? For though all these six Ways differ in what Law is excluded, yet they generally agree, that the Evangelical Law, with its Evangelical Obedience, are not here excluded, but put in opposition to the former, and comprehended under this Notion of the Law of Faith.  
The first thing Needful, is, to inquire into the Nature of this Evangelical Law, which is the Influence of the Gospel upon the Law: The Moral Law and the Gospel are the two Ingredients whereof our Christian Religion is Constituted, and being thus Compounded, have an Influence one upon another; and the Law by reason of the New Modes and Relations it receives from this blessed Yokefellow in the Covenant of Grace, is called a New Law and a New Commandment, and an easy Yoke and light Burden. The New Constitution of the Law that we are under, is one of the blessed Fruits of Christ's Death, and this makes the Preaching of the Law Gospel to us; for the Gospel strictly taken, Rom. 1. to the 17. v. and Rom. 3. from the 21. to the 26. v. is a Narrative of Christ, his Nature, Person, Offices, States, with the blessed Fruits thereof to us, and the Manner of Application to us by the Power of the Holy Spirit. But in particular, the Moral Law is by the Gospel a New Law, that is, a Renewed Law after Man's Fall; Jure, the Law was quite Obliterated, but he who is the Light that enlightens every one that comes into the World, has re-wrote some Fundamental Parts of this Law in their Consciences, John 1.1. Rom. 2.14. But it has received a newer and later Edition under Moses, and yet a Newer under the Gospel by Christ and his Apostles; and a Newer still, when the Spirit writes a Clear and Regular Copy thereof from the Law, upon the Hearts of Men, which is called The engrafted Word, 1 John 2.7, 8. You may find the same Law called New and Old, and it's usual in Scripture to call that that is renewed, New.  
2. The Gospel brings the Law under a New Authority: The Reverend Mr. Baxter says well, That ever since the Fall, the very Law of Nature has been in the hand of Christ: Psal. 75.3. The Earth and all the Inhabitants thereof are dissolved, I bear up the Pillars of it, Selah. All things had turned into a mere Chaos, if he had not stepped in to preserve an Order upon a New Bottom, and there is no Order without a Law or Rule: Ver. 31. of the Context it is said, Faith, that is the Gospel, doth Establish the Law. Christ could not be King or Governor of the World without a Law, and his Law must reach as far as his Government is extended: He could not Judge the World but by a Law, Psal. 93. & 97. The Earth's Commanded to Rejoice, and the multitude of Isles to be Glad, because such a Lord Reigns; and from the 7th. of the Acts 31, to 39 we may see 'twas Christ that Delivered the Law upon Mount Sinai, for he is said to be the God of Abraham, and yet to be an Angel; and more fully and particularly, Mat. 5.17. he Delivers the same Law; Mat. 28. Gospel-Ordinances are solely founded upon his Authority; 1 Cor. 5. Church-Censures to be administered in his Name.  
3. The Gospel gives to the Law a New-Spring, or Principles of Obedience. Adam received Ability from God to obey, but the Ability was due, and it is now forfeited and lost: We are created in Christ Jesus unto good Works. The End of the Commandment is Charity, out of a Pure Heart, and of a good Conscience, and Faith unfeigned. Rom. 8.3. The Law of the Spirit of Life. It is this Living Spirit that enables us to fulfil the Law: I might add to this the Newness of Security, it being by Promise, Jer. 32.40. I will put my Fear into their Hearts, that they shall not departed from me: And the Newness of the Order, the Promises stand here first, and then the Precepts; God puts his Law in our Hearts, before we Obey.  
4. The Gospel gives to the Law New Ends: This is a Common End with the former, that it directs our Duty, and acquaints us with the Nature of God; but it doth not now stand as that which we are to be justified or Condemned by: There is a Righteousness of Faith that now comes in Room of that Righteousness of the Law, so as it hath lost that Old End, it has gained some New Ones. (1.) To teach us the knowledge of Sin. (2.) What Christ has done for us: And (3.) What Need we have of him: (4.) What we have Received from him: And (5.) Fits and Prepares us to be Fellow-Companions of his; and though its Obedience doth not give Right to Heaven, it serves for a certain Mark of the Right to Heaven, Rev. 22.14. Blessed are they that do his Commandments, that they may have Right to the Tree of Life. The Text says not that doing gives a Right, but that all have a Right who do.  
5. The Law receives from the Gospel New Motives; Ends and Motives differ as Future and Past: Creation, Provision and Providence, were the Motives of our First Duty; but now Christ's Redeeming us, and the Spirits Callng us, are Great Motives to obey the Law. We see Dilivery from the Bondage of Egypt was a Motive to the Isralites.  
6. There is a New Manner of Acceptance. Acceptance was formerly Bottomed upon the Exact Conformity of our Righteousness to the Law, but Now Faith is the Reason of Acceptance: Without Faith 'tis impossible to please God: What soever is not of Faith is Sin: All is to be done and accepted in the Name of Christ: Works before were Accepted for their being a Fulfilling of a Law; now they are for Christ's Fulfilling the Law for us; the Imperfection or Sinfulness of the Action is Pardoned on his Account.  
7. The Gospel Renders a New Measure of Law Obedience Acceptable: not that the Law is Altered in its Perfection; for Perfection in Faith is still required, and Perfection in Patience. Let Patience have its Perfect Work: but the Work is made up between the Spirit and the Son: the Defects in Measure, Manner, or Circumstances, are Forgiven, if it be the Spirits Work. I may add here, Repentance, because Perpetuity was one of the Measures of former Obedience, and Repentance Comprehends the whole Duty of the Law; but it only Implies an Interruption, that our Obedience has been for a considerable Time stopped; it is to be wise after Folly, and to be Obedient after Rebellion. The Chief Circumstance it differs in from former Obedience, is a leavihg off to do Ill; so Repentance must be Obendience to the same Law was Broken.  
8. The Gospel adds many New Objects to the Duties of the Law: By the Law we were to have no Gods for our God but one; Now we are also to have No Mediator but one. There is but one God, and one Mediator between God and Men; so that Commandment, Thou shalt have no other Gods before me, says also, Thou shalt have no other Mediator: The Apostle Paul says, There are many called Gods, and called Lords; but to us there is but One God, and One Lord. We are to love our Brethren by the Law of Nature, but Now we are to sympathise with them, from that Change that is made in Nature by Sin; Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the Law of Christ. The Angels have now new Objects of their Duty since the Fall, for they serve the Mediator, they protect and defend his Church: We were to trust in a Righteousness of our Own for Life by the first Law, but the Righteousness of another is a New Object the Gospel brings in.  
9 There are many positive Precepts added to the Law by the Gospel: The Law of Nature is so large, as to comprehend all Duty under this Axiom, That we are to do whatsoever God enjoins, or reveals; but beside, it has subdivided Axioms in particular, to which all Kind of Duties are specifically reducible: The Fourth Command doth now as well require the Observation of the First day of the Week, as it did formerly of the Seventh; for the Injunction and the Blessing are both annexed to the Sabbath, not the seventh; and the Jews themselves reduce all the Sacred Time to it. The Second Command doth Now comprehend all positive Ordinances under the Gospel, Baptism, Lord's Supper, Ministry, Church Order, and all other external Worship; they are as justly reducible to that Command as Circumcision, Sacrifices and Legal Washings were. Mr. Baxter says acutely, That the Law of Nature is what a reasonable Nature observes to be due from that Relation that is between Men and God, or Men and Men; Mutatâ Naturâ, mutatur Lex Naturae. To Love our Enemies, to be Charitable to the Poor, to Repent of our Offences, had been Paradoxical Duties to a sinless Man; but now they are plain Duties of the Law of Nature.  
10. From these very Circumstances, the Gospel brings a greater clearness and particularness to the Duties of the Law, than the Law itself since the Fall. The Blessed Trinity, that great Mystery, which is the adequate Object of our Worship, is more manifested by the Gospel, than ever the Law could have done; the Example of Christ fulfilling all the Law before the Eyes of Men, has not only cast an Honour, but a lustre upon it, as it never had before; the formal Reasons of Duties were never so discovered as they are by the Gospel, besides those Comments that in the Gospel he and his Apostles have made of it.  
11. The Gospel has yet a greater Influence upon the Law, in removing of its rigorous way of exacting Obedience of Fallen Man, it has a Coercive Irritating and Condemning Power upon them. First, A Coercive, because by the Terror of its Threaten it Commands what Man abhors, and when the poor Sinner obeys, he doth it as a Brute, for fear of blows, 1 Tim. 1.9. The Law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, etc. The Quietists say, that properly the Name of a Law arises from the Contention and War between Man's Inclinations and Duties; but when the Law is Writ in our Minds, and becomes our Delight, it is a Gospel, not a Law: however, when the Gospel brings in Light and Strength, it becomes a very easy Yoke. The Law of the Spirit increases its strength, and the Law of the Members decay and die: We obey by a kind of persuasion, God's Efficacy is so gentle upon the Soul, Galat. 5.8. This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you. Secondly, It has an irritative, or Pollutive Power: It's an Old Proverb, Nitimur in vetitum: Our desire increases by being forbid; Sins taking occasion by the Commandment, wrought in me all manner of Concupiscence; for without the Law sin was dead. Some think that Swearing, Profaning the Name of God, and Adultery, arises chief from this Natural Contradiction in us to the Nature of God; if Persons thought them no Sins, they would never so much delight in them. Thirdly, It has a Condemning Power, 2 Cor. 3.9. it's called a kill Letter. The Gospel is a City of Refuge; There is no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, who has satisfied the Law for all interested in him: This is a Newness, altering the Law from what it was to Man sinful, not sinless.  
12. The Law, which of itself is the Spring of Terrors, for the strength of Sin is the Law, becomes a Handmaid to Consolation in and through the Gospel; partly by its discovering to us, that Christ has fulfilled the Law for us; this is the Marrow of the Gospel, and by it the Law of Works is turned into a Law of Faith: Partly as it is an instrument to interest us into the Gospel; partly as the Law fulfilled or satisfied by Christ, is seen by Faith. By the Law we have the Knowledge of Sin, James 1.24. That's a Glass to see ourselves in, 2 Cor. 3.18. The Gospel is a Glass to see Christ in; the more vile and horrible the Looks of the one appears, the more aimiable appears the other. The Law is a Judge, Rom. 7.9. to kill the Man by Sentence, and to revive Sin. Man by Nature and Satan's deceitfulness is very secure, and a great Self-flatterer; but if the Spirit of the Gospel enliven the Law, it makes a Man conclude all the Threaten on himself, and bring him under a Spirit of Bondage: He cries, I am accursed, I possess the Sins of my Youth; my Sin is ever before me, I am undone. So the Gospel Spirit takes the kill Letter of the Law, and rouses him out of his Lethargy, it makes a Man weary and heavy laden; it makes People a People prepared for the Lord, for than he gins to see what he thought Righteousness, Gild, and what he thought Gain, Loss.  
13. The Gospel Spirit makes a Bridle of the Law to restrain Sin. The Wicked cry, Let us cast off these Cords from our Neck; but when the Spirit comes, a little Child may lead them. By this Law restraining Grace Works; Men are persuaded to forbear Evil by the Lords Terrors; what would become of either the Gospel or the Church, if it were not for this Use of the Law? Farther, the Law is a Rule for directing Evangelized persons how to live, and it is a Pattern from which the Spirit transcribes a Copy into the Heart of Man: It is a Mean of Conversion; The Law of the Lord is perfect, converting the Soul. The Gospel is much honoured when the Saints walk orderly, according to this Rule.  
The Second Enquiry is, about their Opinion whom the Apostle here opposes, viz. What a Christianized Pharisee is? For Act. 15.5. such they were. I do not say they were the only, but the principal party he opposes; how far their Faith and Profession reached, and wherein that Error did consist, is next to be considered. We find they were of two Kind's: Some that did oppose the Mosaical Law to the Gospel, as the Unbelieving Pharisees: Or the Natural Law, as the Pagan Philosophers. The one did overvalue Ceremony, the other Morality. We find the Apostle often disputing against both; against the former, Rom. 9.3. Philip. 3.1. Gal. 3.5. against the latter, 1 Cor. 1.23. Coloss. 2. Acts 17.19. The former Party did compose the Law with the Gospel: Acts 15.5. Certain of the Pharisees who believed said, it was needful to Circumcise 'em: Gal. 2.21. If righteousness be by the Law, Christ died in vain; this Argument would have been of little strength against the Pharisees who crucified him, and thought he died a Malefactor, but of great Influence against them who mixed Moses and Christ, Law and Gospel, and expected Salvation from their mutual Concourse. The latter denied the reality of Jesus his Satisfaction and Righteousness, but these did deny the Fullness of it; they would eak, or add to it; and except it were the Church of Thessalonica, we find by Paul's Epistles, that there was not any Church, but what was molested and partly corrupted by this Error: In the Epistles to Corinth, the Apostle calls them false Apostles, deceitful Workers, transforming themselves into the Apostles of Christ, 2 Cor. 11.13. In the Epistle to the Galat. he calls it another Gospel, by which they were Bewitched. We find the Church of Ephesus is Forewarned of such, Acts 20.30. And in the Book of the Revelation they are Charged of Falling from their First Love; yet it is Doubtful whether that came by this Error, or not; For Christ Appoves of her Orthodoxy, saying, She had tried them which said they were Apostles, and found them liars; she was molested with them, not corrupted. From the Third of Philippians, we find that Church was corrupted by 'em; for he calls such Teacher's Dogs, evil Workers, the Concision; and from his own Experience tells 'em he was once such an one that trusted in the Flesh, but now solely in Christ and his Righteousness. It is against both these Parties that the Apostle here disputes, but principally against these latter sort, as we may see by the state of the Question, Ver. 28. Justified by Faith without the deeds of the Law. His Disputes with the former were of another Kind, viz. To convince the Gentiles that Christ was the and the only Mediator, against the Jews; that Jesus was the Promised Messiah: But here the Question is, If we be justified by Faith mixed with the Deeds of the Law, or without it? And therefore we may conclude, That whatever Truth the unconverted Pharisees held, these Converts much more held; and that they did not plead these Works of the Law intentionally to exclude Christ or his Righteousness, whom they had embraced.  
Partly from the Scripture, and partly from their own Writings, I find this Account of their Doctrine of the Law. (1.) They were very zealous and laborious in all External Worship; they kept the Sabbath to a height of Superstition; and their Prayers were very long, Matt. 23.14. (2.) In Justice between Man and Man, they were so exact, as to tithe Mint, anise and Cummin. (3.) And though Christ in every thing blames them for Hypocrisy, yet he owns their Charity, and Alms; but their Hypocrisy was more in Practice than Profession: For (4.) In Mat. 22.37. they owned Love to God and their Neighbour, with all their Heart, Soul and Mind, to be the first and great Commandment: Which includes a (5th) That Sincerity was in great value with them, as Sephar Ikkarim, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, God has greatest respect to the Intention of the Heart; as David says, Create in me a clean Heart: So the Lawyer, Luk. 10.28. Sir, thou hast answered right; and St. Paul, Act. 23.1.— lived in all good Conscience. (6.) Their own Writings speak much of the Excellency and Virtue of Faith; the Author of Nitzakon says, He that believes not as he ought, his Circumcision makes him not a Jew; but he that believes as he ought, he is a Jew. And in Michlaz Jophi, Abram said to be the Father of all Men that followed him in his Faith: The Talmud says, When Abram was Father of the Syrians only, he was called Abram, but when he shall be the Father of all the World, he is called Abraham. The former Nitzakon says, Faith consists not in Circumcision, but in the Heart. And the Author of Sepher Ikkarim says, Faith is the Cause of Blessedness, and therefore of Life Eternal: And again in the same, 1 Lib. and 21 Chap. Abraham is praised for his Faith, as the Scripture says, Abraham believed God, and 'twas imputed to him for Righteousness. And Mat. 23. they were accused by Christ for neglecting Judgement, Mercy and Faith: It was their practical Omission was reprehended, not their Ignorance; for these are called the weightier Matters of the Law. Since they who did not own Christ, speak so much of the Commendation of Faith in God's Mercy, for that was the Object of their Faith, as we may see from Sepher Ikkarim, on those words in Daniel 9.18. Not for our Righteousness, but thy great Mercy: The Mercies of the Blessed God are upon all his Creatures from pure Grace, not Merit; for which the Author further citys Job thus: Wh● hath given to me, that it may be repaid? Much more must we conceive ●hem to say of Faith, and Faith in Christ, who own Christ for their only propitiatory Sacrifice and Saviour; and such were they against whom Paul disputes: And though the others believed not Jesus to be the Messiah, yet they believed the Messiah to be the Redeemer from Death and Hell by the Merit of his Sufferings, as may be seen at large in Raymundus Pugio Fidei, Jos. Voisin. Theologia Judaica, Porchet, Galatinus, Pseiferus, and their own Midrashes, on the Prophetical Texts of the Messiah. (7.) They highly praise the Confession of Sin; their Writers on Isaiah 45.22. Unto Me every Knee shall bow, and every Tongue confess, say, That a fourfold Confession is to be made to God: A Confession with the Mouth, a Con●ession in Works, a Confession with the Heart, and with all together; and they call the 100 Psalms, Mizmor Letodah, a Psalm of Confession. Bereshet Ketannah says, They who overcome their Lusts, and confess their Deeds, are worthy of the Future Age; but he that confesses not, is Cursed as Cain, who denied and hid his Sin; but Achan, Josh. 7.29. though he was troubled in this World, he was not in the other, because he confessed his Sin: From which they gathered a Necessity of particular Confession. And in the Conclusion of Reschet Chocme, All that die let them Confess; if they cannot, let them say, Let my Death be an Expiation of my Crimes. They own, we may see, not only a Confession, but joined with Forsaking, a Mortification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Original Lust, that gins as they say in our first Formation. (8.) Repentance is a Duty of great Esteem: Midrash Shirh●shirim: 5. 2. Open to me, my Sister, my Love, says thus: Open to me one Crevice of Repentance, and I will open the wide Gates of Glory to thee: Psal. 46.10. Be still and know that I am God; that is, Cease to do evil, and let thy Repentance be but as the Twinkling of an Eye, and thou shalt know me; if Israel could but repent one day, they would be immediately redeemed, and the Son of David would come. On Zach. 9.1. The Burden of the Word of the Lord in the Land of Hadrach. It's asked what's Hadrach? And answered, It is the Messiah, who is to bring all the World to the Face of God by Repentance; for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies who, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Way, or to lead; he leads by the Way of Repentance. Others thus: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies sharp, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tender; for the Lord is bitter to the Impenitent, but tender and Merciful to the Penitent. The Talmud on Psal. 25.8. Therefore will he teach sinners in the way; that is, the way of Repentance; for poena peccatoris est poenitentia; about which there is a hard Expression of theirs on the 14th of Hosea: That they say, In two things the Mercy of God exceeds man: One is, He will be pleased with Words, so not Man: Another is, when All have offended, he is reconciled with the Repentance of One. So that all Christ's Sufferings by them are called Repentance: Lam. 3.43. v. The Midrash Tillim says, The Gates of Prayer are sometimes shut, but the Gates of Repentance never: Repentance is like the Sea, that any at any time may go in to wash; Prayers are only heard in an acceptable time, but Repentance at all times. And on Psal. 37.3. Trust in the Lord and do good, it's said, There is no good in this World but Repentance. Resset Cochme contains twenty two penitential Canons, and concludes, Let every one search himself every day, that if he hath offended he may speedily repent, and implore God's Mercy with a contrite Heart: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. And Maimonides has wrote a Book of Repentance.  
There are two Objections lie against the Doctrine of the pharisees being of so comprehensive and Spiritual a Nature. (1.) Christ's Sermons about them, Mat. 5. & 23. (2.) Their own Writings, as Maimonides of the Mishnah: He that observes any one Precept, it shall be well with him, and his Days shall be Prolonged, and he shall Possess the Earth: That is, saith Maimon. by the Addition of this Work to his other Works, his good Works over-weigh his evil, and his Merits Proponderate his Demerits. M. Smith in his Select Discourses observes these Defects in their Righteousness, and their Notion of it. (1.) That the Law was merely a Dead Letter without 'em. (2.) Their  was a Selfsufficiency within 'em to be a Foundation of Merit. (3.) They might pick out particular Precepts for their Observation, with Neglect of the others. For tho' they have an Axiom, that it is not Lawful to Skip over Precepts, yet they expounded it thus: A Man is not to leave the Observation of one Precept, to go and observe another; yet they have another Canon, Mizbatorah Mirba Hajim, He that Multiplies the Law, multiplies Life: These things seem to Derogate from the Jewish Notion of their Works, rendering it Partial, External, Constrained, and Artificial; but these following Considerations may help to reconcile the former Position with the Objections. (1.) Christ asserts of 'em, Mat. 23. That their Opinion was better than their Practice, Ver. 4. They bind heavy Burdens on men's shoulders, but they won't move 'em with one of their Fingers: And on the 3d Ver. he seems to allow of their Doctrine; What they bid you Observe, that Observe and do, but do not ye after their Works. (2.) They reckoned Sincerity the Measure of the Law, or acceptable without Perfection; therefore Christ tells the Young Man, If thou wilt be Perfect, one Perfectly Righteous: They made a great Difference between Perfection and Sincerity; these they called Beninim, Middle-way Men, that had Sincerity, and should go to Eternal Life, either by the Preponderation of their good Works, or Repentance of their Evil: hence Obadias' the Bartanora says, Whosoever shall Perform any one of the 613 Precepts of the Law, without any worldly respect, for Love of the Precept, behold this man shall Merit thereby Everlasting Life. And R. Minach Kekannat," Know that the Life of Man in the Precepts is according to his Intention; He who obeys the Commands otherwise than for themselves, shall have no Reward but in this Life. So they did not lay the weight of Imperfect Obedience on particular partial Obedience, but on Sincerity: More Proof of it may be seen before on the 5th Particular, and in Maimonides his Explication of the Objection: For, 1. He says only Blessed in the Earth. 2. Others must be added. 3. Observed from Sincerity. (3.) The Jews make a great distinction between what the Law was in their time, and what it should be in the days of the Messiah. Rabbi Johannim, who lived about Titus his time, cited by the Midrash Shir Hashirim says, The Week in which the Son of David shall come, the Law shall return to his Newness, and it shall be renewed to Israel; as it is said in Jeremiah 31.31. A Law, that they should not break, because written in their Hearts. Midrash Kohlet 11.8." Every Law which Man learns in this Life, is Vanity, except the Messiah his Law: And 2.1. The Reason is rendered, Because men in this Age Learn and Forget; in the other it shall be wrote in their Hearts: And so their Gloss on Cant. 1.1. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his Mouth; that is," Writ it in my Heart, that I may never forget; Teach me o'er proprio, with his own Mouth. Moses had a Stammering Tongue, and Isaiah, polluted Lips, but the Messiah is the Unspotted Mouth of God, his Kissing is the immediate Touching of our Heart, as the Loadstone the Needle, and our Kissing him is our Turning to him, complying with his Voice: Psal. 2. Kiss ye the Son. Aben Ezra well observes, That Kissing there is opposed to Rebellion and Disobedience; in the ver. 1, 2. he illustrates it with this Simile: A King sent to destroy a City that rebelled, his Son intercedes, and reconciles them, the Citizens come with Submission and Gratitude to the King: Go says the King, Thank my Son, (that is, says the Author) Kiss him: And on Cant. 8.1. O that thou wert as my Brother, viz. Incarnate, Clothed with Humanity; that sucked the Breasts of my Mother; that is, Bring forth the Law unto a nourishing Life and Vigour; when I should find thee without, see thee thus manifested in External Humanity and Internal Power, I would kiss thee; that is, obey gratefully. See more of this, on ver. 1. I conclude from it, if they did expect such a spiritualised Law in the days of the Messiah; they, who had by the Power of his Spirit been made willing to embrace his Law, would they disown such a Truth? The Apostle says not, Gal. 3.2. Received ye the Spirit by the Works of the Law, or by the hearing of Faith? 2 Cor. 11.4. If ye receive another Spirit, or hear another Gospel: So whatever constraint the Unbelieving Jews obeyed from, the Believing obeyed from the Spirit; nay even the Unbelievers owned Divine Assistance, Luk. 18.11, 12. I thank thee, etc. Aug. He proudly said He was Righteous, tho' he owned God the giver of it: Hear this O ye that are worse than Pharisees, who say God made you Men, but you yourselves Righteous. Greg. He rightly thanked God for the good he had from him. Stella, there is a Triple Pride, The first denies God's Gift, The second owns him, but through Merit; The third, as this Pharisee, glories in it. He disputes against the abuse of the Law, performed and obeyed by that Spirit they had received: The Law is good, if a Man use it lawfully. So there is a great difference both between the Persons and the State of the Question, from that in Math. 5. they were mere Pharisees, here Christians too. 2. The Question was about the Perfection and Extent of the Law; here it is about its use and the Merit or Worth of its Obedience, supposing the other Error rectified, which was more Practical than Speculative: for according to Mat. 5.23. that Sacrifice will not be acceptable, when we are at Enmity with our Brothers: on Leu. 5.5. They say, Sacrifice will not expiate without Confession and Repentance; and according to ver. 28. the Talm. says, He that looks on a Woman with Intention, is, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he that had gone in unto her; and according to 29. One had better have their Belly cleaved than go to Hell whole: And according to 34. Maim. It is a great good, that a Man swear not at all: And according to 39 If one call thee Ass, suffer him to put a Saddle on thee too; and according to 44. Maim. says, David was excellently instructed with Virtue, when he said, Psal. 7. I have delivered him that without Cause is mine Enemy: For the Law says, Thou shalt not Avenge, Leu. 29.18. and Mat. 6.1. R. Jann. said, When he saw a Man giving Alms publicly, You had better give none than so; and ver. 34. He that has Bread in his Basket, and says, What shall I eat for to Morrow, is a Man of little Faith. Jos. de Voisin. has more of this kind; but it is certain, the Law was corrupted by their Traditions; but this Error here was about its use. 4. As to , I do not find that they say so much as the Armin. for Maim. says, that God can do with the Will of Man what he pleases; but he rather chooses the long and tedious way of Means, than work such a Miracle; as he rather led the People through the Wilderness to Canaan, than the shortest way by the Philistines. There are three things more, that are considerable to help us to the Jewish Sentiments in this concern. (1.) Their owning Universal and Original Gild. (2.) Their denying their own works to be of sufficient Merit, without respect to Divine Mercy, and the Office of the Messiah, when he comes: And (3.) Their great Encomiums of it. As to the first, Thus the Talmud from Beracot: When Adam sinned, the whole World sinned, for he was its Perfection; therefore the World lost its Perfection: This can be said of none of his Posterity; as to the first and last, Raym. 175. Rab. Josc. Gabl. says, Adam transgressed one Negative Precept, and behold how many Deaths on all Generations, certainly the Merits of the King Messiah doth overbalance; much more shall he justify all Generations, since the Iniquity of all met upon him. As to the second, the Author of Nove Schalam, says, on Exod. 33.19. I will have Mercy on whom I will, Worthy or Unworthy; and Ikkarim, on Dan. 9.18. Not for our Righteousness, but for thy great Mercies: The Mercies of the Blessed God are poured out on all Creatures, not for their Merits, but of Pure Grace; for who hath given to him, that it may be repaid? But a subordinate Merit they owned generally for Temporal Things. The Talmud has a saying, That the Camp of Israel was extended the space of three Leagues; which the Author of Caphtor Vphera explains thus: He saw the Power of this Nation, (viz. Baalim) (Numb. 23.9.) Consisting in these three things, their Strength, their Multitude, and their Merit, with the Merit of their Fathers, from the Top of the Rocks, that is, the Merit of the Patriarches. Who can count the Dust of jacob's? That is, their Multitude, and their Power in it; Let me die the Death of the Righteous; there is their own Merit, which he would have shared of: Another of its say, He plucked up the Mountain, which contained three Leagues; it's thus explained: As the Thought of Og, who said, Since this Nation has not Power with its Multitude to possess three Leagues, but by the Merit of their Fathers; and now I have got the Merit of Abraham from them, therefore I may drive 'em from this Mount, and use it against 'em. By Mountain is meant the Patriarches, Isa. 55.1. Look unto the Rock whence ye are hewn, look unto Abraham your Father. A third saying, But God brought the Aunts who pierced through the Mountain, that is, the Israelites, whose Strength is in their Tongue, Locusts-like, for by their Prayers, the Merit of Abraham stood by 'em, and did not help Og. And elsewhere, Moses in his Prayer needed the Merit of all the Patriarches, and the Merit of the Tribes, and his own Merit. But a subordinate Merit they allow in Eternals: In Raym. 469. Bereshit Rabath is cited thus: Jacob was very afraid, because no Man can be secure till Death; and though David knew there was a Reward for the Just, and that he was Holy, yet his Sin might prevent his Merit; and that all the Promises are Conditional, tho' the Condition be not expressed; there was a perpetual Priesthood promised to Phinehas, but that was meant if they did not backslide. So on Zach. 1.12. There is an absolute Promise of the Messia, but at the close of the Chapter, it's added, This shall come to pass, if ye will Diligently obey the Voice of your God: And thus they explain, Jer. 33.17. A Promise of a Perpetual Throne to David's Seed, and an Altar to Aaron's; the Condition was not fulfilled, and that Repentance is the greatest Condition: God will get the Angels to absolve him from his Oath, if People repent, and yet they cannot repent of themselves; For on Isa. 64.7. they Paraphrase thus: There is none of the Callers on thee, that is able to raise himself up against the Figment of his own Heart: (that is, Original Sin,) That he may take hold of thee, that thou shouldst not send him to Hell; (here Merit diminished): They believe all goes to Hell, Abraham and all the Prophets, tho' they think some of them like a Salamander in the Fire; no Merit can deliver from thence but the Messiah. Says R. Jamai, If I should suffer to be crushed between a Door and its Threshold, it would not prevail to free me from Death. R. Juda R. If my Tongue should be bruised by the Hinge of a Door, I could not escape Hell. They ascribe that only to the Messiah; they say the Lord told Adam when he made him, he must be very careful of Sinning, for the World, the Creation would be ruined by it; and none could repair it; the Just one, Messiah, must suffer by it; they fain two strange Conferences, one between God and Satan, that Satan seeing a Glorious Light under the Throne of God, asked whose it was? R. The Messiah and his Generation. Satan. Permit me, and I will destroy it? R. God. Against him thou cannot prevail. Sat. Let me, I can. R. That Attempt will destroy thee out of the World, when none of them shall be destroyed. The second Conference did on the back of this, presently begin between God and the Messiah. God thus: O Messiah, my Just One, these who are now in Secret and hid with thee by their Sins, shall bring thee into a grievous Age, for thy Eyes shall see no Light, thy Ears shall hear great Reproach, thy Tongue shall cleave to the Roof of thy Mouth, and thy Skin to thy Bones, and thou shalt be consumed and wasted through Grief and Sorrow: Wilt thou undertake these things? if thou dost it, it is well; if not, I will drive them from my Presence. The Messiah answered him, Lord of the World, for this I am Glad, and I undertake all these Tribulations, on this Condition, that in my day thou shalt raise the Dead, even all who have died from the first Adam until now; and all those that shall be Created, and shall save them, etc. The Conclusion I draw from this large Narrative is, That no part of Evangelical Obedience is here wanting, Faith and Repentance, the influence of the Spirit, Jesus a Lawgiver, and Principal Meriter, Sincerity an acceptable Measure, etc. And suppose them not all of a Mind, yet Charity will ever make us conclude, the Believers to be of the best Mind among them. And the Error here opposed in this Church at Rome, by the Apostle, is the same that now in the Church of Rome is opposed by the Protestants, 2 Thes. 2.7. This was that wherein the Mystery of Iniquity did already Work; the Doctrine of Merit was already begun, and no other Error can be found to have such a fair appearance; when the Apostle wrote to the Thessalonians, the Church at Thessalonica was free of the Error, and she of all the Churches only was; and may be therefore the Mystery of it was revealed to them. Mr. Squire of Shoreditch says on this Epistle to the Thessalonians, That the placing of Faith between Mercy and Merits, is like the Infant between the two Mothers; if divided it must be destroyed: It's like the Pale Horse, Death sits on it, and Hell follows; it is a damnable Assertion without peradventure, and a Bellarmine after his long Dispute for Merits, concludes, that it is most safe to trust in Mercy alone. And what way Rome had her first beginning by, that way she is most likely to attempt her Restauration; and by opposing Merit, our first Reformation began, which has this for its Glory, it's a Restauration of Christianity to its Primitive Purity; and while we preserve this Doctrine, she will never corrupt or slain our Souls, however she may prevail to oppress our Bodies. But it is to be lamented, that so many bearing the Name of Protestants, are so deeply tinctured with this Doctrine of Opera Tincta, Works Meriting because tinctured with Christ's Merits.  
The Third Enquiry, shall be a more close Examination of the Extensiveness and Comprehensiveness of this Law of Works, that is excluded from being the Rule or Law of our Justification: Because boasting would not be excluded from us by it, if justified by it; and on the most sincere Scrutiny I can make, I find all Laws, and all Works, as performed by us, are excluded; the Arguments for Proof of it I shall reduce to these five Heads. 1. The Nature of a Law in general is excluded. 2. The Natural Law is. 3. The Moral Law is. 4. The Mosaical Law is: And 5. The Evangelical, and our Evangelical Obedience to it, is excluded.  
(1.) The Nature of a Law in General is; for every Law is a Law of Works, and a Law of Works is excluded: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Law, signifies either in general Doctrine, as Isa. 2.3. Out of Zion shall go forth the Law, and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem. Joh. 10.34. Is it not written in your Law, I said ye are Gods? That is no Precept: See Joh. 15.25. Gal. 4.21. Or it is taken properly, and then it signifies a Doctrine of Works; hence Works and Law are reciprocal: without Law, Rom. 3.21. is the same with 4.6. without Works. We are justified, not only without the Law of Works, but by a Righteousness without the Law: Gal. 3.21. If there had been a Law given, which could have given Life, verily Righteousness should have been by the Law: Works is no Distinctive Addition, as Dr. Tuck of Cambtidge says, but Explicative, Rom. 2.13. The doers of the Law shall be justified; to do the Law and Works, are the same in the Apostles style, they are of so nigh kindred; he adds it, to tell us what he means by Righteousness of the Law, viz. Works Commanded by, and Conform to the Law; the whole Constituent parts of the Description of a Law manifests this, first its generical Nature; it's a just Act of a Superiors Will. We call Statutes or Laws Acts of Parliament, it's their Will what the Subject should do: Psal. 33.8. He commanded and it stood fast. Psal. 143. Teach me to do thy Will; and in the Lord's Prayer, Thy Will be done.  
(2.) The Author of a Law is the most Supreme Power, Dominative Power, as the Master over the Servant, the Father, Husband, Tutor, etc. Juridical Power is not: Judges are but Administrators, Applyers of the Law to particular Cases and Persons; they are Jussa Populi rogante Magistratu, the People's Commands ratified by the Supreme Magistrate. It's very diminutive English of Jussa, when it's called Votes, that is only Wishes; the old Saxon word is Low, Consent, because a Covenant between Prince and People is the Spring of Laws. But why all this Authority? The Command needs it, it's to Work; hard Work is required, and we need Awe to put us on; hence Exod. 19 & 20. God sets an Emblem of his Power and Authority before his Law.  
(3.) The Effects are, (1.) Obligation. (2.) Command and Prohibition. (3.) Punishment, or Impunity by permission; but all terminate in Works: And tho' the Mediatorial Law, which was the most severe Penal Law that ever was, Sufferings being the great Duty, yet the Fruit of it is called Work, and Doing: I come to do thy Will, and to work the Work of his Father.  
(4.) The Subjects of the Law, are by way of Eminency called Subjects, Rom. 3.19. They that are under the Law, are called so from its Energy and working Efficacy in them: And therefore, tho' only a rational Creature is a doer of a Law, moved reasonably by Fear or Hope, yet the Efficacy occasions Metaphors in mute Creatures, Job 38. Hast thou commanded the Morning since thy Day? and our Inclinations to Wickedness are called the Law of the Members; and Rules of Art are called Laws; Custom, which is a Habit of working, is called a Law.  
(5.) The Matter or Object is Work, something to be done: Th. A. A Law is a Rule directing our Acts, what is to be done, and what not: And again, It's Divine Wisdom as directive of all our Acts and Motions. Biel. It's a sign of Right Reason, dictating what we are obliged to do, and what not.  
(6.) The Properties are, Rom. 7.12. Holy, Just and Good: (1.) Holy, from the Matter; it distinguishes between Holy Actions and the Vile ones. (2.) Just, from the Manner, not to give Laws where not Subjects, or where they neither Protect nor can Punish: The Lawgiver must be able to Save or Destroy what he gives Laws to, Jam. 4. therefore it's ridiculous for Man to give Laws to a Spirit, or Conscience in Matters religious; and where he has Power he must distribute Burdens and Works by Proportion, according to Ability; to bring one part of a Nation under Penal Laws, and another under Privileges, is not an equal distribution, except when Offenders or highly meriting; Mat. 23. It was a great sin in the Pharisees to bind Burdens on others they touched not themselves. (3.) Good: Salus Populi suprema Lex: Plato says a Law is a Manner of Governing by fit Means, to the best End. No Privileges, that is, Privae Leges, aught to be granted without this Prospect: Knowledge of Sin, and Wrath, are the Consequents of Divine Law; but neither End nor Fruit of them, but of the Transgressor's. (4.) Publicly Proclaimed. (5.) Firmly ratified by Sanction; Laws are made that the Innocent may be safe among the Wicked, that the Wicked's Boldness may be bridled; the Law is not for a righteous Man.  
(7.) There is no kind of Law but what requires Works as its Object; the Negative forbids Works; the irritating make void Works; according to the kind of Works they are distinguished: Natural, of Nations; Civil, Canonical, Privileges, Penal, Customs, Counsels, Moral, Judicial, Ceremonial, Evangelical, and consequently the Law of Faith is not meant the Law requiring Faith, for than it would be a Law of Works; for Joh. 6.29. To believe is to work the work of God: Gal. 5.6. Faith works by Love; and the Pharisees even before Conversion, as is before proved, owned Faith as a most acceptable Work to God; so there would neither be fit distinguishing Terms of the opposite Propositions, nor any Refutation ot the Apostles Adversaries by this Sense of it: it must therefore either be taken largely, for the Doctrine of Faith, that is, the Gospel, the Object of our Faith, according to the Cloud of Protestant Commentators; or which is Materially the same, the Law, that is the Object of our Faith, and as such he had been before describing the Righteousness we are Saved by, and Justified by, to be a Righteousness, Rom. 1.17. & 3.22. Revealed to Faith, to be believed in; now this Righteousness must have a Law, which is the Mediatorial Law, as the other is the Mediator's Righteousness; He was made under the Law, to redeem us from under it: Gal. 4.5. & Mat. 5. He came to fulfil the Law; we are Justified by his Obedience to the Law for us. So by the Law of Faith, is not by the Law as Directing and Commanding our Works, but by the Law as believed to be fulfilled by Christ in our room: There can be no Pretence or show of Reason for the other Opinion, but on this bottom, that by Works and Faith are meant different kind of Works: But then why should the general term Comprehending all kind of Works be used for one Species? Would that be a good Division, to say God governs the Earth not by an Animal, but by a Man? or not by a Spirit but by an Angel? and there is no ground in the Context to take the word thus by Synecdoche, as shall next be proved: For there is no Divine Law under which we are, but what we may find excluded by the Apostles Arguments.  
(1.) The Natural Law and its Works are excluded, Rom. 3.9. We have before proved both Jew and Gentile, that they are all under sin, V 19 All the World is guilty before God; not from insufficiency of the Law; for Rom. 2.26. If the Uncircumcision keep the Righteousness of the Law, shall not his Uncircumcision be counted for Circumcision? for the Law of Nature now is the same with that in Innocence, only there is a Change in the Matter. Positive Laws do not bind ad semper, and the Negative Laws are all the same still; the Law says one thing to a married Person, and another to an unmarried: So tho' the Law command other things to fallen Man than to innocent Man, it is not another Natural Law: All the Natural Law, Tertullian says, was broken in Eating the Forbidden Fruit; there was Theft, yea Sacrilege, in stealing God's Proprium; there was Murder of himself and his Posterity; there was Coveting, there was want of Love to God, and Obedience too; yea Idolatry, to an Incarnized Devil, having more esteeming and adoring Thoughts of the Devil than God: So the Matter of the Law is the same, and the Measure of it too, viz. what Reason observes, or may observe to be its Duty from Divine Providence; Rom. 2.5. The goodness and forbearance of God leads to Repentance: The Author, God; the Principle, Love to God; the End, God's glory and our good, is still the same, its Sanction is Perishing and Salvation, Rom. 2.12. They that sin without Law, perish without Law; and if they observe it, it shall be Circumcision to them; but all are Sinners, all have broken it, their Conscience accuse them, they detain the Truth in unrighteousness, they did what they knew deserved Death, Rom. 1.32.  
(2.) The Natural Law being excluded, all Law is excluded; for they are all reduceable to it, and consequently it is comprehensive of them. Mr. Baxt. Method. p. 392. In illo tamen omnes eaedem fuere virtualiter aut eminenter: It is the Mother and Root of them all, but the further the Branches are removed from the Root, the lesser they are, and the more invisible, and stand at a greater distance from it. 1. These are its Primitive Axioms: That good is to be chosen, and evil to be refused, and the greater the good is for Weight or Duration, with the greater Desire and Endeavour to be pursued: That we are to do that which is becoming us, and to do as we would be done by in the like Circumstances. The second Order is more determined, to wit, God is to be worshipped by true, loving, trusting, adoring and Obediential Thoughts; that the Innocent is not to be Hurt, the Honest Man is to be Befriended, the Superior to be Reverenced, the Inferior to be Condescended to, and the Indigent to be Supplied, and many other Laws about Patience, Fortitude, Sobriety and Temperance. The third Order is more particular, Vices and Virtues are specified, by which Theft, Adultery, Murder, and the like, are forbid. The fourth Order is less apparent and evident, to wit, about Revenge, Fornication, Usury and Self-Murderers, in some Cases, which gives occasion to Civil and in some sense Canonical Laws also. These are two ways reduced to the Natural Law: First, because both Civil and Religious Society, and consequently Government, is constituted by this Natural Law, Rom. 13.1. There is no Power but of God, the Powers that be are ordained of God: Their Authority is both established and limited by his, and therefore their Laws ought to be subordinate to his, which is the second Connexion: For Rulers are not a Terror to good Works, but to the Evil. Hence a Penal Law obliging to Sin, or to suffer, is a most unjust thing; for it is a Terror to good, yet a Conformity to the Laws of God is pretended to by all Lawgivers, even under Paganism: The Moral Law is more properly this Law itself, than reductively belonging to it; for where Moral and Natural is opposed, it is in Sciences not in Laws; for what's Moral as to the Object, to wit, Praiseworthy, or Blame-worthy, Vice or Virtue, in a Man's Conversation towards God or Man, is natural as to the Principle; for what are Principles of Action in a Man, by common Gift of Knowledge, or Honest Inclinations, are natural Principles: Before the Law given to Moses, we may find footsteps of all the Ten Commandments, for Abel believed in God, which is the Duty of the first; and Sacrificed, which is the Duty of the second; and in the third Generation, when but very few Families on the Earth; and not above three, to wit, Adam, Seth and Enos', that were Worshippers, except we Charitably Hope some were Proselytes of the Cainitish Race, public worship was established, for then Men began to call upon the Name of the Lord: This was Obedience both to the second and third Commandment, which did suppose Obedience to the fourth, to wit, a sanctifying some publicly known Time for Worship, whose Determination God by Positive Command had fixed, though from a natural Reason, to wit, the Seventh-day, in which God had rested from the greatest and best of Works he had yet done in the World: The fifth and the seventh Command is manifest in the Practice of Marriage, for therein was the Period of Subjection to Parents terminated, in leaving Father and Mother, and an Aera of faithfulness to the Wife begun, expressed in cleaving to her; and it is probable that last and crowning Duty of children's Subjection to their Parents, is taxed as broken by these Sons of God, who took unto themselves Wives, according to their own Choice, Gen. 6.7. The sixth and ninth Command were both broke by Cain, who murdered his Brother, and then not only denied it, but denied the Knowledge of such a Fact, Gen. 4.8, 9 The eighth and tenth Command are thought by some, especially the Quietists, to have been neither Commands, nor broken, because there could be no Coveting of enlarging Property, but rather of Men, to share of the common good; and Sin gave occasion to particular Commands, though of such a General Nature: But we find Adam guilty of both▪ in coveting of a Deity, and robbing God of his Property; when but one Tree was reserved in all the World, for an acknowledgement of Gods having the Primitive Right: And we find Gen. 6. that the abounding Lusts of the Heart was the cause of the Deluge; and all Lust is coveting. The Ordinance of Circumcision was appointed, to be a Monument and Conviction of the Lusts of the Heart, and the Necessity of Mortification; the Sweat of the Brow, and toil of labour, were appointed as the means of our Maintenance; and the Nimrodical Hunting was a robbing men of what God had blessed their labour in. So we find the Moral Law in this Law of Nature.  
The next Enquiry, is about the Evangelical Law, whether any Prints of that is to be found under it, yea or not; and taking the natural Law most properly, and as here the Apostle explains it in his Discourse, for a Sign of Divine Will about our Duty as revealed in Nature, or by Creation and Providence, we may find footsteps of it here. (1.) For the Duties of it, here are both Faith and Repentance rendered concludable from Divine Forbearance and Goodness, Rom. 2.4. Not knowing that the Goodness of God leadeth thee to Repentance; but after thy hardness and impenitent Heart, etc. (2.) As there are Evangelical Duties, so Evangelical Influence; Chap. 1.18. Who hold the Truth in unrighteousness; here was a Truth preserved alive against their Wills, and as Gen. 6.3. the Spirit of the Lord was said to strive with men; and 1 Pet. 3.20. Those Souls that are now in Prison had once the Spirit of Christ dealing with them, and also Evangelical Acceptance: If the Uncircumcision keep the Righteousness of the Law, shall not his Uncircumcision be counted for Circumcision; for Circumcision is not that which is outward, in the Flesh, but in the Man whose Praise is of God: Therefore the Law of Nature being excluded, there is an Evangelical Law excluded, which Suarez calls the Con-natural Law, and Gratian says, Jus naturale est quod in lege & Evangelio continetur; and Mr. Baxter says, It is the first Edition of the Covenant of Grace, which two ways was published to all the World. (1.) By Natural Light, discovering God Merciful in his Nature. (2.) By External Proclamation. (1.) Once to Adam, that there should come a Seed of the Woman, who should tread down the Head of the Serpent. (2.) In Noah; and (3.) In Christ: For altho' none comes to the Father, but by the Son, and there is no other Name given under Heaven by which men might be saved, yet it doth not follow, that particular and distinct Knowledge of the Messiah was absolutely Necessary; for that many Infants who were saved have not, and the Disciples who lived with Christ were doubtful about it, yea Peter forbidden him to yield to Death, when he was very nigh to suffer for it.  
The Third Law excluded, is the Moral Law, whereof the Decalogue, qui 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, receives all things, is the Sum: To take the Moral Law according to common Sentiments, there is by it these three things added to the Natural Law. (1.) A Positive Institution with great Solemnity from Mount Sinai, with several Positive Determinations, that are not immediately concludable by the Light of Nature. (2.) The Spiritual Extension of the Moral Law is manifested; through Corruption much of the Law of Nature was obscured; as whether Fornication or Usury were Sins, or Thoughts of the Mind, before Formal Consent? or latent Inclinations to Unlawful Things? A third Edition is of Life and Authority to the Sanction, men very much Question whether a Man was liable to Eternal Death for evil Inclinations, Yea or No? but this Law is added, because of Transgression, that is, both to discover it, as the Apostle says, Rom. 7. I had not known Sin, if the Law had not informed me; so the Conviction of Sin was weak, until the renewed Sanction of the Law has made it more terrible: Sin gets many fair Colours; Covetousness gets the Name of Frugality, until the Spirit discover both the Sin, and the Curse; doubtful Duties are established, weak and faint Notions revived; corrupt Thoughts are corrected, the need of a Saviour more Manifested, and the Jewish State settled in a more perfect Condition than any State in the World. Now we find this Law is excluded, for Rom. 3.20. For by the Law is the Knowledge of Sin; there is no Law discovers Sin so as the Moral: The Natural Law discovers Sin, but neither so powerfully, nor so plainly; the express Word of God discovers the Malignity of Sin, the Root and Original of Sin, and the dreadful Issue and Event of Sin, more plainly and clearly, and removes all those Fogs and Mists that created many doubts, by which we were apt to think great Sins small, small Sins none, and no Sins so hateful in the sight of God as they are. The Ceremonial Law discovers Sin but by Accident, its Primitive Intention is to represent a Cure: We only see the Malignity of the Distemper, by the Strength and Power of the Medicine; the first Edition of the Natural Law was to direct to Duty, and to prevent sinning, but the principal end of this Edition is to make Trangressors sensible of the Number, and Aggravations of their Sin, and so to be a Schoolmaster to bring to Christ. (2.) That Law is excluded that worketh Wrath, Rom. 4.15. For the same Law cannot bring a Man both under the Curse, and under a Blessing; both to be a Ministration of Death and Life; the same cannot be both matter of Justification and Condemnation; and there is no Law renders a Man liable to Wrath as this doth; for being Guilty, Wrath is unavoidable by it. (3.) The particular Vices nominate from the 9th. verse to the 19th. which hinders Men from being justified by this Law, discovers this Law to be Moral, whereof they are Transgressor's: The Fear of God, that comprehends inward spiritual Worship; not following the Way of Peace, that shows want of Love to their Neighbour; and what can be more Spiritual than Understanding of God, and Seeking of God? and in the second Chapter, Theft, Murder, and Sacrilege, and want of Heart Circumcision, are mentioned as Reasons why they could not be justified by the Law. (4.) That Law and its Works are excluded, which is of universal Extension, Chap. 3. 19 That all the World may become Guilty before God, but that's only the Moral, which is but circumstantially distinct from the Natural. (5.) All Works that we have done are excluded, Titus 3. Not by Works of Righteousness which we have done; but all own Moral Obedience to be our Works.  
(4.) The Mosaical Law is excluded: for farther Explication of this, we may find it meet with a double Acceptation, as it is a Politic or Spiritual, concerning the Soul or Civil, a Type or Antitype, for their whole State was significant: for the former, as it was their Commonwealth Law, it did comprehend Ceremonies, the Judicial Law, and the External part of the Moral, this made up their Civil Constitution, and its faults were punishable by the Magistrate: It had only Temporal Promises and Penalties, and it was twofold, either most severe, as the Common Law threatening Death, for Non-performance to a Tittle; and this did (1.) Represent the Moral Law, or (2.) It was remedial, for smaller faults; for Types must not be enlarged to have overthrown the Commonwealth, and therefore there were no Sacrifices for Murder and Adultery, and the like, Leu. 20. But (2.) There was a Chancery, or a Remedying Law, to prevent these Penalties in many Cases, Acts 13.39. If there had been in all Cases, the Order of the Commonwealth had been turned into Confusion: This we may see in Heb. 7.8, 9, 10, Chap. This was the Ceremonial Law, Levit. 15. A Man for burying the Dead, was liable to perpetual Exile, which was a necessary Moral Duty, had it not been for this Relief? Now all grant this Law literally taken, is excluded from our Justification, and some lay the stress merely here, viz. in the Insufficiency of the Law, as that which God never intended to justify any Man as to Aeternal concerns by; but we see on the contrary, it was the insufficiency of the Obedience that did prevent it, not the Law itself. (2.) The Mosaical Law is to be taken Spiritually, and this in Correspondence to the Type, must be twofold also: Either as a most severe Law, requiring Perfect, Personal, and Perpetual Obedience, in Thought, Word and Deed; and Threatening Death for every offence. I have proved already this Law is excluded, or 2. As a Remedy for all Transgressions and Failures, against that exact Law: (for the Parallel of a Remedy as to some offences, Acts 13.39. is excepted;) and this was the Law as fulfilled by Christ Jesus for us, for he it was, and his Obedience who was obedient to the Death, that was represented by all these Ceremonies that were Tipifying Remedies under the Law; he was the City of Refuge, he was the Propitiating Sacrifice, his Blood sprinkles both Book and People, and only Purifies as to Conscience; and this is the Gospel, or Law of Faith, by which we are justified, and by which our Mouth is stopped as to all boasting, we being no ways fulfillers of it. For he alone did tread the Wine-press of the Father's Wrath, of all the People there was none with him; he built the House, and he ought to bear the Glory; by one Sacrifice he hath for ever perfected them that are Sanctified: They who plead for a Remedying Law to be obeyed by us, aught to find Scriptures interpreting the Typical Remedying Law to represent it; but they all Terminate and End in Christ, and therefore the Law is remedial as satisfied or obeyed by him; the Mediatorial Law is the Remedying Law. Indeed the Quietists Interpret a Broken Heart and Contrite Spirit to be typified by the Sacrifices, because called Sacrifices that God will not despise; but then they deny Christ's Sacrifice, for the Type must Point at one thing, else it would be of an uncertain sound; other things are by Allusion, but nothing is more plain in all the Scripture, than that he is the Antitype of all that Remedying Law. The Armin. System by Limbourgh says, The Dedication of ourselves to God, as living Sacrifices, Rom. 12.1. Or Alms and Charity, were represented by the Thanksgiving Offerings, not the expiatory Sacrifices; we must be Priests, in a justified State, a fellow of the High-Priests, before we can offer acceptably: This was the Gospel, and Law of Faith, and differed from ours only as symbols from express Words; a gradual difference in Clearness and Obscurity, and rendered the promised Seed of the Woman bruised, after the manner of an Expiatory Sacrifice, the Object of the Old Testament Faith.  
(5.) The Evangelical Law and its Works, are here comprehended under the Law of Works; for the Distinction lies more in the Manner of Obedience, and Acceptance of the Works, than in the Preceptive or Sanctive Nature of the Law. (1.) The Works of all Men are excluded: by the deeds of the Law there shall no Flesh be justified, Rom. 3.20. The Expression seems to be borrowed from the 143d. Psalm, v. 2. Enter not into Judgement with thy Servant, for in thy sight shall no Man living be justified. They to whom Paul writes, were Saints, Rom. 1.7. Beloved of God, called to be Saints. Galat. 1.2, 4. They were the Churches of Galatia in whose State Paul enrolls himself, Ver. 4. Who gave himself for our Sins: Abram is brought in here as an Example, having his Works excluded from giving any Right to Justification, and David who was a Man according to Gods own Heart, is brought in as another Instance, expecting Gods imputing Righteousness without Works. And indeed the Apostles Arguments for Justification without Works, would be of small Strength against any Man, except Believers in Christ: Galat. 2.21. If Righteousness c●me by the Law, then is Christ dead in Vain: They who did not believe in Christ, would grant all his Arguments, viz. that Christ died in Vain with respect to that End of Redemption of Sinners under the Law, Galat. 4.5. And not only Professors of Faith, but real Saints, being sanctified in Heart and Life, as may be seen by the Apostles answer to that Objection, Rom. 6.1. The Objection lies thus: If Grace be glorified in pardoning of Sin, and our own Works have no Interest in obtaining the Right of Pardon, than our Works are useless, but our Sin useful; Let's continue in Sin, that Grace may abound, and the like, Rom. 3.5. If our unrighteousness commend the Righteousness of God, how can God be Righteous in punishing man? Had it been the Works of any one kind of Law, that the Apostle had been here excluding, the most proper Answer had been by Distinction of Laws and Righteousness, viz. though Ceremonial Works be excluded, yet Moral Obedience is requisite; or though the Moral Law be excluded, and its Works, yet Evangelical Obedience is not excluded: But the Apostles answer is of another kind, viz. How shall we that are dead to Sin, live any longer therein? and he that's dead, is justified from Sin: The Strength of his Answer is founded on the necessary Connexion between Justification and Sanctification, the Bl●ssing of the one, is the Badge of the other: Bellarmine's Answer to this Argument, savours neither of Honesty nor Subtlety, viz. Saints do many things that are not Evangelical Obedience, many of their Works have neither Faith as a Principle, nor God's Glory as their End; but who did ever expect to be justified before God, on the account of their Sins and Transgressions? The very Pagans supplicate for the Pardon of such Crimes, and here the Apostle is disputing against a Company of seduced Christians.  
2. Arg. As the Works of all Men are excluded, so all kind of Works are excluded: There is no Man can do any Works that can be ground of Right to Pardon or Glory. We have Apostolical Testimony for this, Ephes. 2.9. Not of Works, lest any Man should boast: There are in that Text four Arguments excluding Works from our Salvation. (1.) An Opposite Principle, Grace; By Grace are we saved; therefore not by Wo●ks: By God's Gift, not your Merit: (2.) The ill consequent that would follow our Works being exalted to such a Dignity, usz. Boasting, lest any Man should Boast. A third is from the distorting of Divine Order in the Method of our Salvation, by putting Works before the Promise: We are his Workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good Works, which God had before ordained. The Divine Order lies thus: (1.) A Pre-ordination unto Holiness. (2.) An Union with Christ, as the great mean through whom its consistent wi●h a just God to bestow Blessings on Man. (3.) There is the Blessing itself, our being new moulded by a New Creation, for New Ends: Lastly, comes in the result of all, good Works, unto good Works: Holiness is a Possession, it's a begun Heaven, and the Right of Title must be before the Possession: Fourthly, The Reason is added, why they might be occasion of Boasting, because we are the Subjects of that Grace; Should Boast; for we are his workmanship, that we should walk in them: What is in us, is ours, as shall be proved; which is directly contrary to what is asserted by the Adversaries, that Works from Grace will not give occasion to Glory. The like is asserted of the Text; A Man is justified by Faith without the Deeds of the Law; and Galat. 2.16. Knowing that a Man is not justified by the Works of the Law, but by the Faith of Jesus Christ. I cannot here pass Bellarmine's Exception to this last Text, from the Vulgar Translation, which renders it thus; Nisi, Except by the Faith of Jesus Christ, so he would make the Sense run thus: A Man is not justified by the Works of the Law, except these Works flow from Faith; so that Evangelical Works here have room in the Matter of Justification. For the Refutation of which, I shall rejoin these Considerations. Nisi signifies sometimes But: Cic. De re nihil judicare possum, nisi mihi certè persuadeo te talem virum nihil temere facere. Ter. Nescio nisi mihi Deos satis scio iratos fuisse. The Greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which often in the New Testament must be translated but, and signifies adversatively, Matth. 26.42. If this Cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it: The Opposition is there Adversative. And Matth 12.4.— And did eat the Shewbread, which was not lawful for him to eat, but only for the Priest. John 5.19. The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seethe the Father do. (3.) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the Synonymon of it, and that is most frequently in the Septuagint, and also in the New Testament put adversatively. (4.) The Syriack in this Text is, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and from it is the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, all which signifies but; so though the Apostle wrote 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, he spoke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or rather took 'em both in one Sense. (5.) These proves that it may be as properly translated but as except; but Scripture Interpreting itself, shows that it must be translated but, and therefore our Translation is preferable to the Vulgar: For (1.) Other Texts in express Terms put Faith and Works Adversatively, and not Conditionally; and therefore if it contradict not itself, must be so understood here, Rom. 3.28. A Man is justified by Faith, without the Deeds of the Law: Without cannot signify a Condition. (2.) The Text shows, that the form of the Argument is Disjunctive, thus: A Man is either to be justified by the Works of the Law, or by the Faith in Jesus Christ; but a Man is not justified by the Works of the Law, but by the Faith of Jesus Christ, as we may see. Thirdly, In the Applicatory Conclusion: Even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the Faith of Christ, and not by the Works of the Law. Any new Law must suppose an Abrogation of the old, but that was impossible; and therefore there was a necessity of Christ's fulfilling it for us; but he having fulfilled it for us, by a kind of Equity our imperfect Obedience is accepted for Duty, but not for a Condition of Life, which I shall enlarge on the second part of the Text.  
3 Arg. As all men's Works, and all Works of all Men, are excluded, so all Law is, requiring Works of us, Galat. 3.21. If there had been a Law given which could have given Life, verily Righteousness should have been by the Law: But this has been spoken to under the third Head.  
(4) All Evangelical Obedience being imperfect, it can never be the Matter of our Justification; for what needs a Pardon for itself, cannot Merit a Pardon for another: If it cannot stand the Test of the Law, it can never be Justified by the Law: If it be accepted tho' imperfect upon the account of Christ, the Person who performs it must first have an Interest in Christ; for in him we are Created to good works: It is on the account of this imperfection of Works in themselves, and as to such an Office and End, that the Prophet says in the Name of the Church, Isaiah 64.6. We are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags: And so the Apostle, Philip. 3.8. I count all things but dung that I may win Christ. Bellarmine exclaims against Chamier and other Protestant Writers, for calling Gospel Holiness Dung and Rags, and therefore denies it to be comprehended in this Text of the Apostle, but thinks it to be understood in the 9th Verse, by that Expression The Righteousness which is of God by Faith: But these Arguments move me to think otherwise. (1.) In the 6th. Verse he particularised Pharisaical Righteousness, Touching the Righteousness which is in the Law blameless; but here in the 8th Verse he comprehends more than what he had before said, I count all things but loss. Now there can be nothing greater than Legal Righteousness but an Evangelical Righteousness, as to that Concern; and therefore the Evangelical must be comprehended under all, if any thing more be: which (2.) Doth appear from the Constellation of particles, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which the English cannot emphatically enough express, yea doubtless, without all peradventure or exception, I count all these things named, and all things else, but loss, etc. (3.) The change of the Tense of the Verb, I counted, V 7. when I was first Converted, and my Eyes were once opened, I presently counted all my former Gains in Opinion Loss, V 8. I do count all things still Loss; a known Christ is above all I have yet gained. I can only persevere in my Opinion, but among all my New Privileges and Gifts since I was a Christian, I count that the best. (4.) There is reason enough for calling our Sanctity dung: 1. In comparison of Christ, do count them but dung that I may win Christ. How intolerable and unchristianlike is that Pride that thinks it too mean an Abasement put upon his own Sincerity! too vile a Comparison to compare an Interest in our own Righteousness as an Interest in Dung, in comparison of an Interest in Christ's, and this Comparative Sense is the Apostles, Dung that I may win Christ; and that Sense makes me conclude he particularly eyed his Evangelical Righteousness: For Professors to whom he spoke and wrote, could be under no Temptation of placing any Righteousness else in the room of his. Through what a Magnifying Glass must a Man see his good Purposes, when not One of Ten executed; his well intended Vows most basely broken through small Temptations; his Prayers or Preach, Alms or Ordinances, to think Dung too diminishing a Metaphor, and therefore conclude the Apostle could not mean Gospel-Holiness? Adam's Holiness was Dung in comparison of it; Angels Holiness is Dung in comparison of it; its Value was from the Divinity, it was the Blood of God, the Sufferings of Immanuel, the Righteousness of God; and who can measure the distance between the Creator and Creature? the Angels for all the good Service they have done in and to the Church, or their own spotless Holiness, ascribe all Blessing, Honour, Glory and Power to him, Rev. 5.12, 13. all their Works could not merit Pardon for the least sin of the most sinless Saint. There are two more respects in which our Gospel Holiness is Dung: 1. For their Infirmity and Imperfection: Christians are called Saints from begun Holiness in them, which makes them differ from the World, where none at all: And the difference is great, to be acted by the Holy Ghost in any measure, and to have the Devil wholly ruling Lord and Master of his own House; but it's more than seven times a day the Saint falls in the Dung, he is but a Babe, 1 Cor. 3. Carnalness and Babes in Christ are consistent. A 2d. Respect is as to this Use or place of being the Matter or Merit of our Justification: Disorder is Dung, Order is Beauty and Comeliness; and the want of it, or what is contrary to it, is ugly, vile; Silver and Gold is Dung as to feeding our Bodies, it's not suitable: The Fruits of the Spirit are precious, but in us Dung; as to this End of Justification, they are Dii stercorei, tho' m●de o● Gold.  
(5.) V 9 And be found in hi●, is more applicable to a Political or Relative Interest than a Spiritual; there is an equality from the very Phrase to be in him, as a Political as well as Spiritual root; to be in him as a Debtor in the Surety, as well as a Branch in the Vine; but there is a Superiority from the general Scope of the Words, which all own to be spoken in relation to Justification; and the parallel Language of Scripture doth manifest it, Rom. 3.20. Therefore by the Deeds of the Law shall no flesh be justified: How like is it to this Phrase, Not having my own righteousness which is of the Law: So Rom. 3 22. Even the Righteousness of God, which is by Faith of Jesus Christ? How like is that to the latter part of the Verse, But that which is through the Faith of Christ, the righteousness of God through Faith? Justification being a relative thing, this being found in him is most probably of that Nature and Kind.  
(6) His own Legal Righteousness which is here renounced, comprehends his Evangelical Righteousness: For, (1.) Evangelical Righteousness is a Man's own: Scripture allows the Expression. Faith is God's Gift, yet it is ours, Rom. 1.8. Your Faith is spoken of: Mat. 9.2. Jesus seeing their Faith: V. 22. Thy Faith has made thee whole: Hosea 14.8. From me is thy fruit found: Though God is the Efficient or Author, yet the denomination is from the Subject: Prayers are ours, but the Spirit of God is the Author, 2 Cor. 8.8. To prove the sincecerity of your Love; that Grace is God's Gift also: Good Works are ours, but God gins and perfects them, Phil. 1.6. Eph. 1.15. After I heard of your Faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the Saints: vid. Rev. 3.10. (2.) As Evangelical Righteousness is ours, as well as Adam's innocent Righteousness, or Sinners common Gifts, for God is the Author of both, so it is a Legal Righteousness; for a Principle and a Rule are not opposite; Faith's being the Principle, renders it more legal, or more conformed to the Law. (3.) The very Order of the words, Being found in Christ, is put before, not having mine own righteousness, which in order of Nature follows a renunciation of Pharisaical Legal Righteousness. The first Husband, to wit, the Law, must be dead, before we be married to a second, to wit Christ, as it is expressed Rom. 7.1, 2, 3. (4.) The Apostle's expressing of his own Experience, and his daily exercise of Faith on Christ, his Solicitude and Care lest he should be found with a wrong Plea at the Day of Judgement; that I may be found: He had once been deceived by trusting to a Righteousness. It can hardly be thought he was jealous of his Relapse into Pharisaism: But there is a greater Danger of relying on Evangelical Righteousness, that needed more Watchfulness and Care, lest he should over-value what he ought to Value. (5.) This Experience and Care he expresses to be a Pattern and Example to the Philippians, V. 17. Be ye followers of me: Every Man is apt to value himself on the Righteousness he has; Rom. 10.3. the Pharisees in theirs, and the Christians to whom he wrote in theirs; it allures the Eyes of every Creature; and Act. 10.35. is accepted of God according to the measure of its Conformity; In every Nation he that fears God and works righteousness is accepted. (6.) The Apostle would hardly dignify Pharisaical Righteousness, now since Conversion, with that Name: for the Pinnacle of it, Persecuting the Church, was a sin; and he diminishes it, when speaking of it, he calls it a blamelesness, that is, before Men; so Bishop Downam.  
(7. Ver. 9 All the Properties and Epithets of Christ's Righteousness, imputed by God and applied by Faith to us, for our Justification, are here expressed. (1.) A Righteousness by Faith, and through Faith, not of Faith as Fruit of the Tree. (2.) By the Faith of Christ, a Righteousness that comes from Christ through Faith, the Righteousness is Christ's, and the true Office of Faith, in Justification, is described. (3.) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, of God, this Word added, as distinct from Christ, by Divines is Interpreted of God the Father; this Righteousness is by his Gift, his Contrivance, his Imputation, he is the Spring and Fountain of it; Christ is made of God unto us Wisdom, etc. He set him forth to be a Propitiation: God was in Christ reconciling the World unto himself.  
(8.) The Native Analysis and Coherence of the Apostles Discourse in this Chapter, further proves it, which is always to me an Argument of great Moment, and the Members of Division are here as evident, as in any Writings of this Apostle, and suitable to his Custom and Way of Writing: After an Introduction in the 1st. ver. in the 2d. ver. there is a Caution given about some bitter Enemies of the Gospel, and a Triple Character of them, Dogs, Evil-workers, Concision, by which it seems they were the old Enemies, the Pharisees. (2.) In Opposition to them, ver. 3. there is a Character of a true Christian in three contrary Epithets. 1. They Worship God in the Spirit. 2. Rejoice in the Lord. And 3. Have no Confidence in the Flesh. This triple Character, to the 15. ver. he enlarges and illustrates by the Example of his own Person, in a retrograde Order: 1. That he had no Confidence in the Flesh, ver. 4, 5, 6. 2. That he rejoiced in the Knowledge of the Lord Jesus; and though he put this in its proper Place, it was the Principal thing in his aim, ver. 1. his last Use, and Application from the Character of Christ in his Humiliation and Exaltation; finally my Brethren rejoice in the Lord; and might as the Principal Subject, given Method to the Chapter, as Branches to flow from it: But then one harmony would have been lost, the Character of Christ in the second Chapter, and Character of a Christian in the third; yet when he comes to it, it becomes on this account a new Spring to all that follows; for he divides the Reasons of our Rejoicing in the Knowledge of Christ, and highly valuing it, under these two Heads. (1.) Justification, ver. 7, 8, 9 And (2.) Sanctification, ver. 10, 11, 12, 13, 14. For ver. 10. he repeats the Knowledge of Christ as Root to another Blessing; the former was from the value of his Death, this from the Power of his Resurrection. So in this 10th. ver. the Third Member of the Christians Character gins, Their Worshipping God in the Spirit, their inward Holiness, but treated with a likeness to its Relation to the second Member or Character, to which it was immediately United: from the 15th. ver. follows the Application, pressing and exhorting the Philippians to true Christianity, as exemplified by and in him: And I think they who would jostle Christ's Righteousness out of this Discourse, may with as great Confidence attempt to jostle it out of the Bible, and out of the Christian Doctrine. The hard Names and rough Language given to the Adversaries, is no sufficient ground of concluding they professed not Christianity, but rather the contrary: for 2 Cor. 11.13. he calls the false Apostles who preached Christ, Deceitful Workers, and compares them not only to Dogs, but Devils, who had changed themselves into Angels of Light; their shining Lustre lay in this, They preached Free Grace, Christ's Meritorious Death, but the Satanicalness was in a Merit of their own praerequisite to an Interest in it: Their Light lay in denying Pharisaical Righteousness alone; but the Devil lay in placing a legal Right in their Gospel Obedience: Hence v. 14. it's said, they transformed themselves into Ministers of Righteousness; they did exalt Holiness and Righteousness more highly than Paul did, and afford it a more honourable Office, viz. the giving a right to Justification, Adoption, and Glory: 2 Cor. 11.4. This was a departing from the Simplicity that is of Christ; they preached not a simple, but double Righteousness; one of Christ's, another of their own; and hence room for this Currish and Doggish Temper, barking against the Apostle, as an Enemy to Holiness; They were Ministers of Righteousness, not He; and They preached the Spirit, the Gospel, and Christ, as well as He; but a greater value They put on inhaerent Righteousness than Herald And thus as the Serpent, that incarnate Devil, deceived Eve, so These did the Corinthian and Philippian Churches; they were a Concision, the Word signifies Renters, they made Schisms in the Church, by this New Doctrine about Inhaerent Righteousness.  
5 Arg. Is from the Order of receiving Divine Blessings, and the Equality in the freeness of the Gift. For the first, There is a common saying of Austin's: Bona opera sequuntur Justificatum, non praecedunt Justificandum: Good Works follow a justified Person, they do not go before in him to be justified; according to Rom. 4.5. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the . Mat. 7.18. A good Tree bringeth forth good Fruit. John 15.5. The Branch must be in the Vine before it can bring forth Fruit. As to the second, There is no Reason why Justification and Glorification should not be as freely given, and Grace as much glorified in the Gift, as Sanctification, which is owned to be an absolute Gift; necessary Connection or Posteriousness in Order, does not derogate from Freedom: But when the Posteriousness is by a depending Suspension on our Performance, there is a Derogation: Election is Free without Condition, Eph. 1.5. Having predestinated us unto the Adoption of Children, to the Praise of the Glory of his Grace; if the Intention was Free, why not the Execution? Rom. 9.11. That the purpose of God according to Election might stand, not of Works, but of him that calleth. Rom. 11.6. There is a Remnant according to the Election of Grace, and if by Grace, then is it no more of Works, otherwise Grace is no more Grace; but if it be of Works, then is it no more Grace, otherwise Works are no more Works. This Opposition is not between Grace and External Works, but between the very Nature of Grace and Works; they are repugnant, they can no more be the Moral Causes or Motives of any one Action, than one individual thing can be White and Black in the same part. So our Calling is Free, 2 Tim. 1.9. Who hath saved us, and called us with an Holy Calling; not according to our Works, but according to his own Purpose and Grace; as Purpose gives Measure to Calling, so Calling gives Measure to Justification, Rom. 8.13. Whom he did predestinate, them he also Called; but it is equally free, Rom. 3.24. Being justified freely by his Grace: What is wrought in the Soul by Calling, has no more Influence in our Justification, than our Justification has on our being Glorified; Whom he Justified, them he Glorified: But Justification can never merit Glory, being God's Act, but is only a Prior Blessing in Order: this Equality of Freedom solves an Objection, which is to many in appearance a great Argument for Admission of our Evangelical Obedience unto a Subordinate Merit, or ground of Right to our Justification: The Objection is founded on these Scriptures, Rom. 4.14. If they which are of the Law be Heirs, Faith is made void, and the Promise is of none Effect. Gal. 2.21. If Righteousness come by the Law, than Christ is dead in Vain. Chap. 5.4. Christ is become of none effect to you; whosoever of you are justified by the Law, ye are fallen from Grace. The Objection is thus form: Our Works are no farther excluded from Justification, than they exclude Faith, Christ, and the Promise from Justification; but Evangelical Obedience, Gospel or gracious Works, do not exclude Grace, for they are the Fruits of Grace; nor Faith, for they flow from it; nor the Death of Christ, for that has purchased it; nor the Promise, for they are conveyed through it; therefore Gospel Obedience is not excluded from Justification. Resp. (1.) This Evangelical Obedience does not exclude Grace, Faith, Christ and the Promise, from our Sanctification, thus explained: Because it owns good Works to flow orderly from them all, but it does not suffer them to have an equal Freedom in our Justification; because these Works, though the Fruits of Grace, they are as much ours, as Adam's Works were: For God was the Author of the Ability, by which they were wrought, therefore when what is ours truly and properly, is a Legal or Federal Condition, in order to enjoying the one and not the other, makes a great difference between the Freedom of the one and the other. All Christians Experience witnesses the Labour, Pains and Sweat, that is necessary to Mortification of Lusts, and Exercise of Grace; and by this Opinion, we must look on Justification as the Reward of our own Labour, though we must look on Sanctification as a Free Gift. (1.) In particular, there is a Derogation from the Fullness of Christ; his Satisfaction to the Law was not Complete, if our Obedience to the Law be one Penny of the Price. (2.) From Grace, that will be all or nothing in this Affair, according to Rom. 11.6. it will admit of no Composition; if Works come any way in as a Plea, they must either be perfect, or we must be condemned; for there is no Law in Scripture requires less than Perfection; the Law that requires Faith, requires perfect Faith; and the Law that requires Patience, requires perfect Patience: Therefore we must fall from Grace, that is, be certainly Condemned, if justified by the Law: So Works won't admit of Grace, more than Grace will admit of Works; Grace will have nothing, the Law will have Perfection; the Composition is a Contradiction. (3.) It derogates from Faith, that is from its Office, which is alone in this Work, and that as receiving, not as doing; we are justified by Faith, as we are nourished by our Appetite: Hence is it called Eating, Drinking, Hungering, Thirsting; it is the Food, not the Appetite that nourishes us. (4.) It derogates from the Promise, because it Promises Remission of Sin, Inheritance of Life freely; but this puts in an exceptive Clause of something on our part first to be done. Faith will be only Applicative alone in the Office, tho' not in the Subject, or not at all; Christ will be alone the Meriting Cause, or not at all; Grace alone the End and Motive, or not at all; and therefore these Arguments are as strong against Compounders of Grace and Works, as against Opposers; because the Compounding, is an Opposing Divine Wisdom and Order: A Man that Digs, tho' the Spade be borrowed of his Master, will not think his Wages Charity at Night, but on as exact Justice due, as he that digged with his own: A Man that walks twenty Miles a day, after his Lame Leg restored, will never impute the Journey to the Physician. And thus Christ, and Free Grace, tho' enabling us to Work, would lose their Honour and Glory in Justification.  
I am now come to the last part of the Text, viz. The Law we may be justified by, without ground and danger of boasting, which is the Law of Faith: All Christians are generally agreed that this Law is the Evangelical Law, the Law of Chancery or Equity; but all are not agreed about the Nature and Kind of that. All agree that there can be no Salvation, or Justification by the Moral Law, in its full Rigour, requiring Perfect, Personal and Perpetual Obedience, requiring the Righteousness of our Persons as well as our Works since Sin: There must be some Room for Equity, or none for Hopes; there is a Triple Application of this Equity, some applies it to the Sanction of the Law, some to the Duty of the Law, and some to the Persons subject to the Law. The first is Originisme, saying, the Equity lies in the Mitigation of the Punishment; an Eternal Death by Desert, is turned into a Temporary by Justice of Equity, and a Perpetual Hell into a Transitory Purgatory. The second Opinion applies it to the Duty and Works of the Law; before there was required Perfect Obedience, now imperfect will serve, if it be Sincere: Divine Government is content to take a Penny in a Pound, and of this Way there are several Explications. The Socinians, who deny Christ's Deity and Satisfaction, do hold that it's of mere Sovereign Mercy; but Arminians and Papists hold the Merits of Christ as the Fruit of that Sovereign Mercy, to be the immediate Foundation of this Justice of Equity: They say he has Conditionally died for all, and sincere Obedience to this new Law of Faith is the Condition, which they say is called Faith, from the Facility and Easiness of obeying it; because it requires no more Obedience, but with a Proportion to our Faith, and the Measure of our Faith is the Perspicuity and Assurance of Divine Revelation. The Socinian and Arminian deny Merit, but that is from the Odium of the Word only; for Crellius the Socinian says, No Master of Justice and Equity would rob his Servant of a due Reward, for a fault or two; God would not lay such a snare in the way of Wicked Men, to deprive them of Hopes, and discourage them from Duty: And Poppius the Arminian, describes the Christian Religion by those Works that consist in Obedience to the Commands of God and Christ, and on respect to which depends the Reward of Eternal Life; yea, which he is not to have without the Work be Plenè Consummatum, entirely and fully Perfect: And the Papists mean no more by Merit; they do not think their Works merit Heaven by a strict Commutative Justice, that is used in Bargains; nor Distributive, in the rigour of the first Covenant; but in Justice attempered with Equity, and tinctured with the meriting Blood of Christ; a Justice arising between a Foederal Promise, and the most mean Condition: And the Sincere, as well as Learned Mr. Baxter says, in his Catholic Theology, he only differs from them in the Word, because offensive, and that we ought rather to rejoice the Papists have so much Truth among them, than reject the Truth because they hold it: But whether he died in this Opinion, that our Works gave such a Right to the Reward, I doubt; for in his little Book against Dr. Crisps Errors, he says, I formerly believed the formal Nature of Faith to lie in Consent (as he elsewhere explains it, the Marriage Consent, that binds to all the Duties of the Married State, and so gives Right to all the Privileges,) but now says he, ● Recant it, (which he could not do so often as he used, without great Measures of Humility;) I believe, says he, it lies in Trust; this makes the Right to lie in the Object, for it is I depend on Christ, as the Matter or Merit of my Pardon, my Life, my Crown, my Glory. But thirdly, the Gospel, which is the equal Interpretation of the Law in its exactness, plainly teaches us, that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Equity, is to be applied to the Subject of the Law; and the Law by immutable Justice required Death; but there was place for Equity, in change of Persons; a Sponsor or Surety might be admitted to die; and some way there must be Infiniteness in the Death, because an Infinite Majesty offended; but the Law left it doubtful, whether the Infiniteness must be in the Duration of Suffering, or Dignity of the Sufferer; and Equity has interpreted it of the latter: As if a Father was permitted to suffer for a Son, or a Sum should be paid in Gold, which the Words of the Law required to be paid in Silver, or Copper: For Equity is (saith Aristotle) a Correction of the Law, wherein it is deficient in Words, by reason of its Universality: Or I think better, an Explication of the Words of the Law, according to the Will of the Lawgiver, in an extraordinary emergent Case: Or as Crellius says, it is a Justice mixed with Mercy; or a Virtue mitigating the Acrimony of the Law from Consideration of Circumstances; as St. James says, The Wisdom that is from above, is Pure, Peaceable, Gentle, and Easy to be entreated; full of Mercy and good Fruits; the Fruit of Righteousness is sown in Peace. And thus generally Protestant's expound the Equity of the Law, to be Gods admitting, yea giving Christ as a Surety for us; he was made under the Law, as a subsequent Surety. The first Covenant did not say, Thou Adam (either first or second Adam) shalt die; for then the first Covenant had been the Covenant of Grace still, there was no need of another Covenant, as the Reverend Mr. Baxter doth strenuously prove; but when we were under the Curse of the Law, he came in and took our Room, and became a Curse to redeem us from it, and the Law as fulfilled by him for us, is to us truly a Law of Faith, according to the Text: For farther Explication and Confirmation of which, I shall propose these four Heads. First, That all the Functions and Offices of our Lord Jesus Christ, all he said, and did, or suffered, was in Obedience to a Law. Secondly, I shall a little explain the Nature of this Law and its Righteousness. Thirdly, That Law he did fulfil for us, in our Room and Stead. Fourthly, That Law and its Righteousness, is to us a Law of Faith, and consequently the Law here mentioned in the Text, it is not proposed to us as a Rule of our Obedience, but as a matter of our Faith; yea our Faith Interests us in it, and makes its Righteousness effectively ours.  
For the Proof of the first, We find by Eternal Compact between the Father and the Son, in the Mediatorial Covenant, the Son came under a Mediatorial Law: Psal. 40.6, 7, 8, 9 In that Emphatical Account of it, we may make these Observations. (1.) There was a Compact by which he calls God his God: O my God. (2.) By Virtue of that Covenant which was recorded in the Volume of the Book, his place was to become a Servant, Lo I come; I am ready to obey. (3.) His Service was to fulfil the Divine Will. I delight to do thy Will. (4.) This Will was a Legal Will: Thy Law is within my Heart; for Law is a just act of a Superiors Will. (5.) The Law required him to be a Sacrifice, Heb. 10.10. By the which Will we are sanctified, through the Offering of the Body of Jesus Christ once for all. (6.) That no other Sacrifice either pleased God without this, or but this; Sacrifice and Offerings thou didst not desire. 2. By Virtue of this undertaking, the Son became under an Obligation to ob●y this Law, Heb. 2.17. Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his Brethren. And Luke 24.46. And thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the Dead: Yea this Obligation did extend to the most Minute Particles of his Life: John 4.4. He must needs go through Samaria. 3. In an answerableness to this Obligation, he did all he undertook: Hence is it said of him, He did all things well; and John 8.28, 29. I do nothing of myself, but as my Father hath taught me, I do always those things that please him: And Chap. 4.34. My Meat is to do the Will of him that sent me, and to finish his Work. Psal. 69.4, 5. Then I restored that which I took not away: O God, thou knowest my foolishness, and my Sins are not hid from thee. John 15. It is applied to Christ; and Theod. in Lat. Graec. expounds it thus: It is true, I am under a Gild, and made a Curse, but I call thee to Witness, from whose sight nothing is hid, that the least of 'em is not mine, not the smallest Sins of Folly and Infirmity; I restored that which I took not away; I never contracted the debt I paid; others rob thee of thy Glory, and the World of its Harmony and Beauty, but I have restored it all again; though they were mine by Imputation, they were never mine by Inherency. 4. He has Divine Approbation bearing Testimony, that he did so; tho' he was condemned in the Flesh, yet he was Justified in the Spirit, 1 Tim. 3.16. The Deity justified what Man condemned, Isa. 50.8. He is near that justifieth me, who will contend with me? All the Miracles wrought by him were Divine Testimonies, but especially his Resurrection: Rom. 1.4. And declared to be the Son of God with Power, according to the Spirit of Holiness, by the Resurrection from the Dead; Then he was visibly discharged out of the Prison of the Grave, having satisfied Divine Justice, and paid the Price of Redemption to the utmost demand: Never was there such a Miracle, as a Man having the Iniquity of us all laid upon him, and yet completely give Satisfaction, and receive an Acquittance: He was raised again for our Justification; all the Elect virtually risen in him: Hence Eph. 1.19. it is reckoned one of the greatest Effects of Divine Power that ever was. 5. By this Work he receives the Title of a Servant and Surety. (1.) He was a Servant, Isa. 49.6. It is a light thing that thou shouldst be my Servant, to raise up the Tribes of Jacob; his Service is described, to Enlighten the Gentiles, to be a Salvation to the ends of the Earth, etc. It was hard Service, Soul Travel, Isa. 53. It was great Service, to bring them that sat in Darkness to the Glorious Light of Heaven, and the Chained Prisoners to the Liberty of the Sons of God. (2.) He was a Surety; and this is evident from the other Title, Heb. 7.22. By so much was Jesus made a Surety of a better Testament. 6. His Service bears all the Denominations due, and Properties, that a Law uses to what is regulated by it: It's called Work: I must work the works of him that sent me; it was to him a Law of Works, tho' to us a Law of Faith; Obedience, Rom. 5.29. By the Obedience of one shall many be made Righteous; and Righteousness often; his temper of Mind under it is called fear, Heb. 5.7. And was heard in that he feared; and Phil. 2. The Form of a Servant. 7. The Rule of his Life, and Offices, is called a Law, Gal. 4.4. He was made under the Law; and Command, Joh. 10.18. This Commandment have I received of my Father: He was under the Mosaical Law, He was Circumcised; He was under the Evangelical, for He was Baptised; He was under the Moral, for He was Holy, Harmless, and Undefiled; He was under the Sanction of that Law as well as its Precept, Gal. 3.13. Christ hath redeemed us from the Curse of the Law, being made a Curse for us. And all this was but a part of his Subjection to the Mediatorial Law. There is a Noble Criticism, on 2 Sam. 7.19. The English has it thus: And is this the Manner of Man, O Lord God? But it may be translated thus: This is the Law of the Man the Lord God; as Dorscheus says on the 2d Psal. O Wonderful, O all together wonderful Law, by which God and Man should be united, and according to which an unexpected Divine Dispensation should make that this should be the Prerogative of some individual of the Posterity of David, that he should be the Lord God Oseander infers a Reason out of the Context, the sense of which he renders thus: I understand thee to have spoken of that Messiah, whose Law requires that he should be God and Man. And it does not want Reason, for what is said in the 12, 13, 14. vers. agrees best to this Messiah, for it is spoken of a Seed that should rise up after his Death, which should proceed out of his Bowels; but Solomon was both Born and set upon the Throne, before David died; yea 'tis particularly noted in the 19 ver. That this Prophecy was of his House a great way off. Secondly, It is said vers. 13, 16. That this Kingdom should endure for ever, which is expounded, Psal. 89.7. by the Duration of the Sun, Moon, and Heaven. Thirdly, He shall be to me a Son, vers. 14. he notes his peculiar Subject, as Psal. 2.7, 12. Heb. 1.5. God's first born, Psal. 89.28. This is the Interpretation of Calovius, Gerard, Thilo, and Piscator.  
Secondly, As to the Nature of this Law and its Righteousness. (1.) For the Law, it differs much from any other Law. 1. In Subject, Meer-man, and God-man, differ very far. 2. In the Precept, the principal thing it requires is Suffering, Joh. 10. I have Power to lay down my Life; this Commandment have I received of my Father: Suffering is but in Case of failure in other Laws, to make them obey, annexed by Sanction to the Law. 3. In the Work, it is the greatest Work that ever was commanded by Law, Isa. 61.1. To bind up the , to proclaim Liberty to the Captive, and open the Prison-doors to them that are bound. Act. 3.21. To restore all things, to reconcile such Enemies as a Holy God and his Creature, become his Enemies; to Justify the Guilty, Adopt Aliens, to turn an Hell into a Heaven; an extensive Work, Earth, Heaven and Hell, he is to be employed about; he is to Rehead, or Recapitulate all things which are in Heaven and Earth; a Work of the greatest Trust ever any was in, Isa. 22.14. They shall hang upon him all the Glory of his Father's House, the Offspring and Issue: All Vessels hang on that Nail, that is a Glorious Throne to his Father's House. 4. In that it has no Legal Sanction, no Threaten, there was no need of any; since he was so sufficient and faithful, nor no possibility, for the greatest Penalty was the Duty of the Precept. 5. The Promises, a Name above every Name; at his Name every knee must bow, Angels Adore and Worship him, he is at the Right Hand of the Throne of God.  
(2.) 
* There is a Distinction of Christ's Righteousness by Divines used. 1. Into Divine Righteousness as he is God, his has no Law but the Divine Nature to act becoming 〈◊〉. Official, proper to the Office of the Mediator. 3. Is scarious, common to Men, & 〈◊〉 Men, and therefore shall 〈◊〉 treated under the Head of ●●putation, but I think both ●ay be Comprehended under 〈◊〉 Law of Faith.  As to the Works or Righteousness of this Law, Rom. 3.21, 22. It is described to be, (1.) Righteousness of God. (2.) Without the Law. (3.) Witnessed to by the Law and Prophets. (4.) It is by Faith. As to the first Character of it, it is on a fourfold account the Righteousness of God. (1.) It is a Righteousness from God as the Author of it, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, so it's expressed in the third of the Philippians, it is the Gift of his Grace, the Contrivance of his Wisdom, and the Effect of his Power: It is the Gift of his Grace, Rom. 5.17. Much more they which receive abundance of Grace, and of the Gift of Righteousness. 2 Tim. 1.9. It is a Grace given us in Christ before the World began, but is now made manifest: By this Righteousness of God, Death is abolished, and Life and Immortality brought to light: God that so loved the World as to give his Son for them, gave all things with him; and this none of the least of the Gifts, which is as freely given as any other; for we are Justified freely by his Grace: It is also a Fruit of the depth of the Riches of the Knowledge of God, the Angels stand amazed at the Contrivance; the most Sagacious of them would have been non-plused, if asked by what Righteousness a Sinner could be justified: It's one of those things God hath prepared, that neither Eye hath seen, nor Ear heard, nor ever Heart considered; it is also an Effect of Infinite Power; what Power less could have united Divine and Humane Nature in one Person? What Power less could have made a Virgin Conceive? What Power less could have brought a Clean thing out of an Unclean? and Caused one to be born of a Woman, and partake of Humane Flesh and Blood, and yet be Sinless? It is a kind of Generation none can declare; What Power less could have done that great Work and Service, he was appointed by this Law? The Angels that excel in Strength, being all put together, could never have performed a thousand part of it; the restoring of all things to their Primitive Beauty and Order; What Power less could bear the Burden of Gild; the weight of one Sin is an intolerable burden to a Soul: No Man were able to stand, if God should mark Iniquity; but this sure Foundation Stone bore the guilt of the whole World, but never did yield, nor give way; did neither shrink, split or flinch; he is a tried Stone, and found to be a sure Foundation; he could rise again from the Grave notwithstanding the weight of this Grave-stone of Gild. (2.) It's the Righteousness of God Subjectively, because the Righteousness of that Person who is God; as the Blood of the Humane Nature is called the Blood of God; to feed the Church of God, which he hath purchased with his own Blood. All the Works of his Person, by Reason of their Conformity to the Mediatorial Law, are called Righteousness, Rom. 10.3. Have not submitted themselves unto the Righteousness of God; for Christ is the end of the Law: So we see the Righteousness of God is the Righteousness of Christ, ● Person in whom the Law gained all its ends, for he obeyed all its Precepts, he suffered all its Threaten, and he purchased all its Promises too. (3.) It's the Righteousness of God in Opposition to all Humane Righteousness; it's his in Opposition to our own; he is Jehovah our Righteousness, not Adam's or Man's Righteousness. (4.) It is the Righteousness which alone God can accept a Sinner for; he cannot be Just, and yet justify a Guilty Person, for any other Righteousness but this; he is the Lamb that takes away the Sins of the World: This was the Sacrifice God was well pleased with; God is pleased with the Sacrifices of a broken Spirit, for part of Duty being Sincere; but for no part of the price. This is my Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Isa. 42.21. The Lord is well pleased for his Righteousness sake: Act. 13. For all that Believe, by him are justified from all things. By the Obedience of one, many are made Righteous, Rom. 5.19.  
Secondly, It is without Law. (1.) As to its Existence obliging us; it was not directed or regulated by Ceremonial, Judicial, or Moral Law; for tho' it may be called the Natural Law of a Mediator, because one cannot be a Mediator without performing such Duties, yet it's distinct from any other Law, Moral or Natural, taken in its whole Latitude, these are distinguished, as a part from the whole. (2.) It was manifested without the Law; now, for tho' the Ceremonial did represent it, that Dispensation was at an end; it was now more perspicuously Taught, the Moral never taught it. (3.) We are interested in it without Law; we cannot be interested in any other Righteousness without obeying the Law Directing and Commanding it; but we are interested in this by Believing.  
Thirdly, It is witnessed to by the Law and Prophets, Isa. 2.2. Out of Zion shall go forth the Law, and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem: Prucknerus thus: This is the Law of Faith, Rom. 3.27. The Hearing of Faith, Gal. 3.2. The Word of Faith, Rom. 10.8. This is the Gospel, the Gospel is the Narration of all Christ has done for us, with the offer of it to us; and all he did was ordered by the Mediatorial Law, and therefore is called a Law. Hackspanus thus," Jalkut on this place, says, All the Consolations which God is to give to Man, shall arise out of Zion; for it is said, Out of Zion shall go forth a Law. Hence the Jews did expect their Salvation as well as we; and they bear Testimony that it is no new Law but a new Doctrine; and the Text itself calls it; the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem, to wit, that Word which was the Subject of the Apostolical Sermons, which Rom. 1. was the Gospel: Another Testimony we have from the 19th. Psalms, where it is said, The Law of the Lord is Perfect, Converting the Soul; that by this is meant the Apostolical Doctrine, may be seen from Rom. 10.18. where it's cited, that it was Prophesied their sound should go to the Ends of the Earth, that the Gospel Light should be as Universal as that of Sun and Moon. The Papists pretend to prove the Corruption of the Original Text, because what the Hebrews calls Lines, both the Version of the Seventy, and the New Testament, translated Sound; their sound went unto all the Earth; but in Sense they are agreeable: For the Sun and Moon have their Course by Lines; which Lines do typify the Travels of the Apostles and their Followers, or the spreading of a Voice by Lines in the Air: Bellarm. Capell. and Grot. think the Word was formerly read Kolam, and by Corruption turned into Kavam; but the Masora Marks it to be an once read Word; whereas Kolam by their marks is read fifteen times. As the Prophet's bare Testimony to this Law, so they do to its Righteousness, Jer. 23.6.33.16. This is the Name whereby he shall be called, The Lord our Righteousness. Abravanel reads thus, This is the Name whereby the Lord shall call him, to wit, the Messiah, our Righteousness; wherein he grants the Office of the Messiah, but denies his Divinity; but the Accent joining Lord and our Righteousness together by Apposition, asserts both his Divinity and Office to bring in a Righteousness. Other Jews also, as the Talmud and Midrash Tillim. So Dan. 9.24. To bring in Everlasting Righteousness; it was brought in in the Time of the Humiliation of Christ, but was Eternal as to its Efficacy, as his Redemption is called, Heb. 9.10. Having obtained Eternal Redemption; and so is the Gospel called Everlasting; and likewise in Isa. 53.11. He shall justify many, for he shall bear their Iniquity: And Psal. 32. Blessed is he to whom the Lord will not impute Iniquity. And as all the Prophets testify this, so the Law, both Ceremonial and Judicial, were Types of it.  
I come to the third thing, That Christ obeyed this Law for us. I shall leave the Examination of both Extremes to a more proper place, and only Confirm the Truth of it in a Scripture style, from these four Arguments. (1.) The Metaphors. (2.) The Types representing it. (3.) The Particles signifying Legal Change of Places. And (4.) From the Assertions and Reasonings of Scripture. For the First, He is called a Mediator, One God, and one Mediator. Satan was a , but Christ was Peacemaker; a Mediator acts in the Room of both Persons at distance; as a King and Prophet he Acts on God's part; as a Priest he Acts on our Part. Secondly, He is an Advocate and Intercessor only for us; it's a Part of his Priestly Office. (3.) I shall omit what the Reverend Mr. Brinsley says, That Christ was our Attorney, and only a little explain the Title of a Surety, Heb. 7. The great Questions are, (1.) What Covenant Christ was Surety in? And (2.) On which side he is? The Socinians say, He is Surety for God to us: but both against the Text, which makes Suretyship belong to his Priestly Office. And 2ly. Reason, Would any believe a Man more than God? But in which Covenant shall we believe him placed a Surety? in the Mediatorial he is Party, so not Surety; but the being Party in that makes him Surety in ours: The end of Security is to give ground of Trust, when the one Party is not responsible, or the other distrustful: And I think in both, but with a difference, according to their Nature: In the first, by way of Satisfaction; in the second, by way of Caution: The first is a Law, the second a Testament; he became a Sacrifice by the first, and as a Testator made the second; as to the first Mr. Rutherford says, The Legal Bond wherein he put his Name, made a  Union between him and us. 1. One Legal Object, the Law equally obliges both. 2. One Debt, he restored what he took not away: it became his Debt, tho' of our Contracting. 3. One Payment, our Suffering is no Satisfaction; the Law can pursue none united to Christ. 4. One Acceptance by the Governor or Creditor. 5. One Legal Effect, what the one doth, stands for both; we risen in him, and died in him; he takes our Legal Condition, he was made under the Law, and under that part we were under, to wit, the Curse; and our Names are put in his discharge; we share of his Reward: He was made Sin for us, that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him; it is an Accessary Obligation, when the Surety is subsequent, and so doth not free us, we are bound to obey still. The manner of Payment was by Satisfaction. The Socinians find fault with the Word, but it is Scriptural: Numb. 30.31. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which is there translated Satisfaction, is the same that's translated Ransom, Atonement, Leu. 16. and Numb. 5.8. and the Greek answering it, is applied to Christ, Rom. 3.25. A Propitiation, and Chap. 5.11. an Atonement, for these are but different Respects, expiating the Crime, ransoming of the Offender, and atoning or propitiating the Governor offended. (2.) In the Covenant of Grace, he is Surety by way of Caution and Bail, for performing of Conditions, renewing our Obedience: He became Hostage, that we should lay down Arms, and submit ourselves, if he would forgive us: All that the Father giveth me, shall come to me, Joh. 6.37. We are by the Covenant of Grace bound to keep all the Moral Law, and he is engaged before we go to Heaven, we shall be perfect in it; he doth not believe and repent for us, but has engaged we shall; the Condition is not to be performed before we be in Covenant; but by the Covenant which Christ by his Spirit has brought us into, we are bound to perform it.  
But the Book overgrowing the designed Bulk, I shall come to the Fourth and last Head, that this is a Law of Faith; which I shall confirm from these six Arguments. First, From the Denomination, Law of Faith, that is, a Law of Faith, that is the Object of our Faith: the Phrase is usual; Rom. 10.8. The Word of Faith which we Preach. Gal. 3.2. The hearing of Faith. And Rom. 4.13. The Righteousness of Faith; and 1.17. Therein is the Righteousness of God revealed from Faith to Faith: That is, says Sir M. Knat. in his Critical Observations, the Righteousness that we are interested in by Faith, is revealed to our Faith, that we may believe it, and be interested in it; and there is great Reason for this Title; for the Mediatorial Law is not known by the Light of Nature or Reason, but only by the Light of Faith, Gal. 3.12. The Law is not of Faith; it's founded in Natural Light, but this Law is not, it is of Faith. (2.) If the Righteousness we are justified by, be the Righteousness of Faith, than the Law of that Righteousness is the Righteousness of Faith; but the Mediatorial Righteousness is granted to be so. (3.) If the Gospel be the Narration of all Christ did for us, in himself, by his Spirit, or Apostles, all with the offer of it to us, and all this is called Faith, being the Object of it, Gal. 3.23. Before Faith came we were under the Law; then justly the Law by which he was regulated in all that Affair, was the Law of Faith. (4.) Since that Law is ●o otherwise to us a Law, but to our Faith, not to our Works, what we should do, the Mediatorial Office is too great Work for us, but it is a Measure to our Faith, we may and aught to believe that Christ did as much for us as that Law required; and there are as great things provided and prepared for us, as the Promises annexed to that Law did contain. (5.) It is a most Pathetical distinguishing Character, for all others required Works of Man.  
Secondly, It is very agreeable in Matter, tho' not in Words, to the Interpretation of the Text by Protestant Commentators; who say, that Law is taken largely for Doctrine, and not without Reason; for the Jews call all Divine Doctrine Law: Hence are these Titles of their Theology; Legal Science, Doctrine of the Law, the Divine Law, and Medrilta; that is, according to Hottinger, a Comment on Exodus, about two hundred and ten Years after Christ, oh the 12th. Chap. 3. he citys Deuteronomy 29.1. These are the Words of the Covenant, and thus expounds it: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Covenant is nothing else but a Law: and the Midrash on Leviticus, distinguishes thus between Statutes, Judgements, and Laws, in Chap. 26.46. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Law is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Doctrine, Learning, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Statutes are Midrashoth, Glosses, Expositions; and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Judgements are Hadaenin, Decisions of Cases in Law: and Aben Ezra on psal. 19.8. gives this Etymon of it; the Law is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Law, because it shows the Right way, and Converts Souls, by taking away their Doubts and Fears. But since they mean by Doctrine of Faith the Gospel, and the Gospel being regulated by this Mediatorial Law; Law of Faith and Doctrine of Faith are the same things; and it is usual in Scripture to use a Law and its Works of Righteousness promiscuously: Hence without the Law and without Works are the same; and so the Law of Faith and the Doctrine of Faith are the same; for it's a Doctrine of what was done in Conformity to this Law.  
Thirdly, The Opposition between the two Members in this Text doth Confirm it; for Law of Faith cannot be here understood a Law requiring Evangelical Faith, as a specifical distinct Duty from the Works the other Law did require: For first, Faith itself is a Work; 2 Thes. 1.11. The Work of Faith with Power. 1 Thes. 1.3. Remembering your Work of Faith; and in John, To Work the Work of God, is to Believe: For thus there would be no Distinction betwixt the Law of Works and Law of Faith; for the Moral Law required Faith in God, and the Ceremonial Law required Faith in him that was Typified by their Sacrifices. But to come nigher to this Opposition, as it is explained by the Socinians and Arminians, it must either lie in the Object, or in the Precept, or Duty, but in none of them. As to the Object, God and Christ, there is no Essential difference there; for either it must be between the Persons, and then there must be three Faiths specifically distinct: Or it must be between the Office and Nature, and we cannot say there is any greater Distinction there between God and Mediator than between God and Creator, God and Preserver, or Governor, or Sanctifier; all which are Incitements and Motives of our Faith or Love, or as Mr. Durham calls it, Objectum Considerationis; or as Cloppenburgh, Objectum Formale sub qua, but not Ratio formalis quae vel propter quam; and such distinct Formalities make no distinct Worship or Faith. We see the Lords bringing the People out of Egypt, is set down as an Incitement to their Observation of the Moral Law: I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the Land of Egypt; it is far from making a new Law distinct from the Moral; so Gods becoming our Redeemer, and delivering us out of the Regions of Darkness, and Prisons of Bondage, is the strongest Motive that ever was; and this Sinning against such a Motive, which is a Sin against the Gospel, is the greatest Sin; and as there is no specifically distinct Object in the first Table, so there is none in the second, to render our Evangelical Obedience to it, distinct from our Moral: For the Sympathising with our Neighbour under Adversity, as it's said, Bear you one another's Burdens, and so fulfil the Law of Christ; it is no farther remote from Loving our Brother, (being only Charity denominated from his Condition,) than not stealing of his goods from him, killing of him, bearing false Witness against him, or those other Precepts are; but it's called the Law of Christ, because that kind of Love was the Spring of all his Obedience to the Mediatorial Law; the principal part of his Work was to bear our Burden; but the Socinians are in a greater difficulty here than others, who deny the Deity of Christ, and yet do Religiously Worship him: Their Work should be how to find out a new Table, not how to find out a new Law, to place a kind of Obedience in that, is neither proper to God nor Man; nor are they altogether free of this Task, who though they own the Mediator to be God, yet as such talk of a specifical distinct Law of Duties to him, from what we own to God; as to Repentance, the Ability to perform it, and the Acceptance of it, being interrupted and imperfect Duty, flows from the Gospel; yet there is a Necessity that the Law it is regulated by, be the same Law that was broken. It was Man's Duty to Love God, to fear him, to have Faith in him, and to obey him; he has now by Sin omitted these Duties, what is else the Essence of his Repentance, but the repeating and renewing of it again; that he that broke the Law now keep it? If he observe not the Law he did violate, it is no Repentance: Repentance and Primitive Obedience differ no more than the Image of God that Man was created in, and Regeneration, which is a renewing of him to the same likeness of Knowledge, Righteousness and Holiness, as the Divine Nature is the rule of this Image both in one and the other, else it were no Image; so that Holy and perfect Law of God, founded on what is his due, from what he has been and is to the Creature, called the Moral Law, is the same Rule to our Actions; distinct Formalities in Objects make distinct Sciences and Arts, and may occasion distinct Precepts or Acts; for it is an imperfect Law, if it reach not to every Condition of the Subject: Hence Suarez says, The Law of Nature before and after the fall, differ only as the Acts of the same Law in Time of Peace and War. The Law says one thing to a Married Man, and another to an Unmarried; it has distinct Statutes to every Condition, but the Law is one: A Law meets with many changes, and yet remains the same; as a Man doth, and is yet the same Man in Essence. (1.) In Use, it may serve for directing the Obedient, convincing and condemning the Guilty, and be the same Law still: So the Moral Law was that we were to be justified or condemned by in the Primitive State; that use of it ceases: when the Sovereign Prince Pardons, than the Dignity of the Intercessor, or his own Bowels of Mercy, is his Measure. So God now proceeds with us according to what our Mediator has done for us, that is the Law of Faith, not according to what we have done: It is strange to say Faith in a Mediator will justify, and not Faith in God; or that Faith in God belongs not to the Moral Law; or that it's now having a Pardon for its Object, and before a Reward, brings it under another Law, the Angels have many a new Duty, and new Object of Faith, but their Law remains the same.  
(2.) The Law may meet with external Changes in its Administration, either by Dispensation, when positive only, as the Ceremonial, or an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Abatement of the Rigour in Words, but the Law the same that suffers the change.  
(3.) The Law may suffer some Change in particular Precepts, which are its Integral Parts. A Man is the same Man still, though he lose his Thumb: Collective Bodies are capable of Increase or Decrease, so Jus Collectum of Derogation, Surrogation or Erogation, but Abrogation, or Obrogation, altars the Essence; and until the Moral Law is Abrogate, we cannot expect one specifically distinct from it.  
But the Opposition is perspicuous thus: A Law that requires your Works, a Law to be obeyed by you, and a Law that requires your Faith, a Law fulfilled by another for you, which you ought to believe, and it thus Answers the Argument; we are justified by most perfect Obedience, but we performed it not, it was Christ.  
Fourthly, It is manifest from the Context and Harmony of the Apostles Discourse; he had all along joined the Laws and the Works together, which he excluded from Justification: First, The pure Natural Law among the Gentiles. Secondly, The manifold Mosaical; now he tells us of a Righteousness and a Law that we may and must be justified by, if at all; is it reasonable or possible to separate these two? Ver. 21, 22. But now the Righteousness of God is manifested,— Even the Righteousness of God, which is by Faith of Jesus Christ. If the one be the Righteousness of Christ the Mediator, surely the other is the Law of it; shall we separate the Righteousness of Faith, and the Law of Faith? The Text would not be a good Conclusion from what precedes, without this; that which he had proved, was, there is no Justification by the Deeds of the Law, but only by the Righteousness of God: Well, says he, if the Case be so, Where is your Boasting? it is excluded. He draws his Conclusion, Triumphing over them; How? By the Law of Faith. You are justified by the Righteousness of God, you are justified in a way that excludes Boasting; the Law of Faith excludes Boasting, and the Righteousness of God justifies you; do not then these two Coincide, the one as the Work, the other as the Command; if it were another Law, requiring a new kind of Obedience and Righteousness distinct from what he had spoken of, he had drawn a Conclusion without any Premises: There are two things should have been enlarged on. First, To prove that this Righteousness is the Righteousness of Christ, as Mediator. The Second, Whether or not this Law of Faith, refers to the Righteousness as the Rule of it, or the Faith by which it is applied. Both which I must defer to some proper Verses in the fourth Chapter; only at present, as to the first, that 2 Pet. 1.1. may persuade any unprejudiced Person; Through the Rsghteousness of God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ: As to the second, our Confession of Faith says, We are not justified by Faith, or that is not imputed to us itself as an Act, nor any other Evangelical Obedience: But this is to be treated in ver. 3.  
Fifthly, This Law is a Law we can be justified by, and it is before proved, that we cannot be by any Law requiring Obedience of us.  
Sixthly, The difficulties that attend the Explication of it, by Socinians, Arminians, & aliis melioris notae, who say, this Law is the Law of Christ the Mediator, not as made under it, but as a Lawgiver, requiring Faith and Repentance of us, as the Condition of an Interest in his Merits and Justification by them. I say the difficulties that attend it, render it the less credible. (1.) This Gospel-law or Law of Faith, must be a perfect Law, requiring Faith in Perfection, Repentance in Perfection, and so other Evangelical Obedience. Mr. Bull in his Examination, who is Zealous for this New Law, and who as Mr. Pitcarn, one of his many Adversaries, says, is of the greatest Acumen of the kind, he not only owns it, but proves it from Christ's own Words, Mat. 5.48. when he was Promulgating his Law, Be ye perfect as my Father in Heaven is perfect. 2 Pet. 3.18. Grow in Grace, and in the Knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. On which he thus Acutely Comments: The Commands of growth have no Bounds nor Limits, until we come to the Unity of the Faith, and the Knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect Man, unto the Measure of the Stature of the fullness of Christ, and it is a certain Truth, that there is no Duty in the Gospel wherein God's Law only requires sincere and not perfect Obedience; Patience should have its perfect Work, and that's a special part of Evangelical Obedience: Either the Gospel Law or Law of Faith must require Perfection of Obedience in these Duties, or some other Divine Law; else God would become an Indulger of Sin by Law; if it be by another Law, viz. the Moral, that he requires perfect Obedience, and by this sincere only, than these two Laws differ but in Degree, not in Specie, or Kind; because both require the same Duties or Works, and so this Gospel Law would be no Distinct Law, but only the Measure of sincere Obedience would receive a new use, which we own it has, to wit, to be an Index and Mark of our Justification, tho' we cannot own that use of its giving Right; but to proceed, a distinct Law they must hold, or quit their Cause, or this Foundation of it; for the Text sets the Law of Faith down as an opposite Law to that of Works, and that they hold. (1.) Then if it be a perfect Law, requiring perfect Obedience, there is no possibility of Justification in this Life, Poppius the Arminian grants the Conclusion, that our Obedience must be consummate before our Assurance; and others distinguish between a Complete and Partial Justification; the former is not, they say, until the day of Judgement. But this is not all the difficulty; for it's the adding a Load to a Burden: Is this Gospel, to a Man that is unable to perform the least part of the Moral Law, to tell him, that God or the Mediator requires perfect Obedience to it for the Future, and another too? Or is this Gospel, to say, you shall perish Eternally, and have the Fire of Hell seven times heated, if you obey not this Gospel? It's indeed a Conditional Hell, but it's more dreadful than the Law-Hell, and the Condition is more impossible; because we have less Power to shun this difficulty of two perfect Laws. Mr. Bull owns no other perfect Law but this Gospel-Law, since Man fell; but by shunning one difficulty he falls into two as great. (1.) Then the Moral Law is abrogated; beside the falseness of the Doctrine itself, for it is impossible that should cease to be our Duty, to love God with all our Heart, and Soul; what Advantage brings Christ's Death? To abrogate one perfct Law, and establish another; here is little Gospel. A second difficulty is, we must either say, Christ has purchased to us Pardon for Sins against the Gospel-Law, or for none at all, but that one Sin of Adam's, if the Moral Law be abrogated; after the Fall we never sinned against any Law but the Gospel's, for we were under no other Law, according to him; but how contrary is this to the Nature of the Gospel, whose greatest Cordial is Remission of all Sins against the Law: He brings a twofold Remedy or Solution to these Difficulties: 1. The Gospel renders all the Duties possible it Commands; hence is it called the Power of God, and Law of the Spirit: And the Reason, why the Law was imperfect before the Gospel, was, because there was not Power to obey a perfect Law; God cannot Command what is impossible: This is no less oppressed with Difficulty, than the Distemper it's brought to Cure. For (1.) Doth God lose his Right, because we lose our Power; the Devils have no Power to obey, do they therefore not Sin? he was a Liar and Murderer from the beginning, he continues it, doth he not Sin in it? If Sin be worse than Suffering, and there be no Sin in Hell, Hell is better than this Earth. Some would help him at this straight, with the Distinction of Moral and Physical Impotence; God cannot justly command what is Physically impossible, but he may what is Morally so; but he Scoffs at it as an Impotent Brat of Amyraldus, nursed by Mr. Baxter, and Mr. Truman; and I think it affords little relief: For when the Impotence is insuperable, yea more unconquerable than Physical Impotence, wherein is there a greater Foundation to Justice, because Sinners like to have it so? are we not Mad and Distracted, and may we impose on Fools what we will because they may like it? it looks like Tickling a Man to Death. But 2dly. Granting that which is certainly false, that the Gospel renders all it requires both Morally and Physically possible, it makes not the Gospel better than the Law; for in Innocence all commanded was more than barely possible. But the second and grand Remedy is, that though the Law require perfect Obedience, yet not under the Penalty of Death; there is no Law that threatens Death to every Sin, but to particular kind of gross Sins, 1 Cor. 6.19. Gal. 5.19. Yea only to Impenitence: This is the Gospel Law, this is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; but still difficulties attend it, and divide the Parties. (1.) Some say, this is an aequi-just Interpretation of the Moral Law, others of the Gospel Law. (2.) Some say, this is a Law and Constitution Evangelical by itself, others that it is an Administration of the Law by Sovereign Power, set in a Throne of Grace, but not Law. (3.) Some say, this is proper to the Gospel Law, others that the Moral Law did admit of it also; and that if ●ve had had only an Inclination to eat of the Forbidden Fruit (which in the Rigour of the Law was a Sin) and refrained from completing the Act, which was the Violation of the Covenant formally, she should not have died: It were too operose to follow all these Tracts, the Multitude of them would render one Jealous, that they are not the King's Highway, but some private Paths, that do derogate from the True and Living Way. In General, this doth Enervate the Law of God, the Law of Faith establishes the Law, but this doth Emasculate it, and turn it into a mere Counsel and Advice: What else is a Law without Sanction? Yea no Law; so there is no Sin but Impenitence, and indeed they call the rest Venial peccadilloes. Secondly, It is repugnant to the Moral Law to admit of Equity, because it is most equal in itself; those Laws admit of Chancery and Equity, that would in some Circumstances become rigorous and cruel; but there is no such thing in the Divine Law: It would be contrary to Equity, and so unjust, to establish a Law requiring partial Love to God, and partial Obedience. Thirdly, This Doctrine opens a door to Antinomianism; and History tells us it sprung from such a Mistake, that Faith and Repentance were taught and commanded by the Gospel, and they contained all necessary to Salvation; so the Law was needless: And Lemborgh says much the same. The Gospel needs no Law to be a Schoolmaster to lead to Christ; it has more terrible Threaten of its own, than the Law has, to drive men to Christ with, that Scripture Phrase belongs to the Ceremonial Law. Fourthly, This would put an Honour on the Mediator above God, that Imperfect Obedience to his Law might merit Heaven, or what is of as much worth, an Interest in Christ a right to his Merits; but no less than Perfect Obedience to God's Law can merit it. Fifthly, It would much derogate from God's Honour, who is now content to give his Favour and his Rewards on easier rates than before; he would have had perfect Service, now partial will serve: And consequently, Sixthly, Boasting would not be excluded by the Law of Faith; for Man might boast God was come to Easier Terms; he should lose Glory by the change of the Covenants, not gain. But