FROM THE LIBRARY OF
REV. LOUIS FITZGERALD BENSON, D. D
BEQUEATHED BY HIM TO
THE LIBRARY OF
PRINCETON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
IBM
vW
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2013
http://archive.org/details/worksofreverendl04watt
THE
WORKS r^^
APR SO 1937
r^
REVEREND AND LEARNED
ISAAC WATTS, D.D.
CONTAINING, BESIDES HIS
SERMONS, AND ESSAYS ON MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS!
SEVERAL ADDITIONAL PIECES,
g>eiecteti from $10 jWanuscrtpte
BY THE
REV. DR. JENNINGS, AND THE REV. DR. DODDRIDGE, IN 1753:
TO WHICH ARE PREFIXED,
MEMOIRS OF THE MFE OF THE AUTHOR,
COMPILED
BY THE REV. GEORGE BURDER.
IN SIX VOLUMES. VOL. IV.
ILon&on :
PRINTED BY AND FOR JOHN BARFIELD, WARDOUR- STREET,
PRINTER TO HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE PRINCE OF WALES.
1810.
CON T E N T S
OF THE
FOURTH VOLUME.
THE HARMONY OF ALL THE RELIGIONS WHICH GOD EVER
PRESCRIBED.
Inti
^'PRODUCTION 7
CHAPTER E
The Dispensation of Innocency; or, the Religion of i\.dam at first ----- 8 CHAPTER II.
The Adamical Dispensation of the Cove- nant of Grace ; or, the Religion of Adam
after his Fall --- 10
CHAPTER III.
The Noahical Dispensation ; or, the Reli- gion of Noah --------- lj
CHAPTER IV. The Abrahamical Dispensation ; or, the Religion of Abraham ------- 16
CHAPTER V. The Mosaical Dispensation; or the Jewish Religion ---------- 18
CHAPTER VI.
The peculiar Covenant of Sinai - - - - 20
CHAPTER VII. Of the Christian Dispensation - - - - 25
CHAPTER VIII.
The Doctrine of Justification by Faith, further explained under the Gospel of
Christ - 27
CHAPTER IX.
Sanctification or Holiness necessary as well as Faith -----------
CHAPTER X.
The Commencement of the Christian Dis- pensation; or, when was Christianity set up in the World -------
CHAPTER XI.
The gradual Change from Judaism to Christianity; and the Jewish and Gentile Christians at last united in one Rody -
CHAPTER XII. Of those who have had no Revelation - -
CHAPTER XIII. The last Judgment -------- 33
29
31.
32 37
CHAPTER XIV.
Conclusion
40
A CAVEAT AGAINST INFIDELITY;
OR, THE DANGER OF APOSTACY FROM THE CHRISTIAN FAITH.
Introduction ---------- 47
Sect. I. The Rules to obtain Salvation proposed, and the Duties required in the Gospel; or, the necessary Articles of Christianity ----------48
Sect. II. Considerations to prove the Doctrine ----------
54
Sect. III. Various Objections and Que- ries of the Deists answered - - _ _
Sect. IV. General Exhortations to Chris* tians, derived from the foregoing Dis-
course
Sect. V. Preservatives against Apostacy from the Faith of the Gospel - - - -
b 2
59
91
94
IV
CONTENTS.
PSALMS, HYMNS, &c.
The Psalms of David, imitated in the Lan- guage of the New Testament - 1 1 1 to 241
An Index ; or, Table to find a Psalm suited
to particular Subjects or Occasions - - 242
A Tabic to find any Psalm by the first Line 247 HYMNS and SPIRITUAL SONGS.
IN THREE BOOKS.
BOOK I.
Collected from the Holy Scriptures - - 257
BOOK II.
Composed on Divine Subjects - - - - 297
347
BOOK III.
Prepared for the Lord's Supper - - -
An Index ; or, Table to find any Hymn by the Title or Contents of it - - - - - 358
A Table to find any Hymn by the first Line 364
A Table of the Scriptures that are turned into Verse ----------
A SHORT ESSAY Toward the improvement of Psalmody - 369
DIVINE SONGS Attempted in easv Language, for the Use of Children - - - 389
68
HORiE LYRICiE.— POEMS CHIEFLY OF THE LYRIC KIND.
THREE BOOKS.
IN
BOOK I.
SACRED TO DEVOTION AND VIETY.
Worshipping with Fear ------
Asking Leave to sing -------
Divine Judgments --------
Earth and Heaven --------
Felicity above ---------
God's Dominion and Decrees - - - -
Self-consecration ---------
The Creator and Creatures - - - - -
The Nativity of Christ
God glorious, and Sinners saved - - -
The humble Enquiry -------
The Penitent pardoned -------
A Hymn of Praise, for three great Salva- tions ------------
The Incomprehensible -------
Death and Eternity --------
A Sight of Heaven in Sickness - - - -
The Universal Hallelujah ------
The Atheist's Mistake
The Law given at Sinai ------
Remember your Creator ------
Sun, Moon and Stars, praise ye the Lord -
The welcome Messenger ------
Sincere Praise ---------
True Learning ---------
423 423 424 424 425 425 425 42fj 426 427 427 427
428 429 I2fl 429 430 430 431 432
True Wisdom - - - - A Song to Creating Wisdom
43:] 4:):) 434 4:54 435 435
God's absolute Dominion ------
Condescending Grace -------
The Infinite ----------
Confession and Pardon ------
Young Men and Maidens, old Men and Babes, praise ye the Lord - - - - -
Flying Fowl, and creeping Things, praise ye the Lord ---------
The Comparison and Complaint - - - -
God supreme and self-sufficient - - - -
Jesus the only Saviour -------
Looking upward ---------
Christ dying, rising, and reigning - - -
The God of Thunder
The Day of Judgment -------
The Song of Angels above ------
Fire, Air, Earth and Sea, praise ye the Lord ------------
The Fare w el ----------
God only known to himself - - - - -
Pardon and Sanctification - - - - -
Sovereignty and Grace ------
The Law and Gospel -------
Seeking a divine Calm in a restless World
Happy Frailty
Launching into Eternity ------
A Prospect of the Resurrection - - - -
Ad Dominum nostrum et servatorem Jesum Christum ----------
Sui ipsius Increpatio -------
436 437 437 437
438
439 439 439 440 440 440 441 441 441
442 443 443 443 444 444 444 445 445 445
446
447
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Breathing toward the heavenly Country - 447
Casimiri Epigram ma 100- - - - - - 448
Englished ----------- 448
On the Demolition of the Protestant Church
at Montpelier _------- 448
Two happy Rivals, Devotion and the Muse 448
The Hazard of loving the Creatures - - 449
Desiring to love Christ ------ 450
The Heart given away ------ 450
Meditation in a Grove _..---- 450
The fairest, and the only Beloved - - - 451
Mutual Love stronger than Death - - - 451
A Sight of Christ 45 1
Love on a Cross and a Throne - - - - 452
A preparatory Thought for the Lord's Supper 452
Converse with Christ ------- 453
Grace shining and Nature fainting - - - 453
Love to Christ present or ahsent - - - 454
The Absence of Christ ------ 454
Desiring his Descent to Earth - - - - 455
Ascending to him in Heaven ----- 455
The Presence of God worth dying for; or,
the Death of Moses ------- 455
Longing for his Return ------ 456
Hope in Darkness -------- 456
Come, Lord Jesus -------- 456
Bewailing my own Inconstancy - - - - 457
Forsaken, yet hoping ------- 457
The Conclusion. God exalted above all
Praise ----------- 458
BOOK II.
SACRED TO VIRTUE, HONOUR AND FRIENDSHIP.
To her Majesty --------- 459
Palinodia ----------- 4Q0
To John Locke, Esq. retired from Business 460 To John Shute, Esq. (now Lord Barrington,) on Mr. Locke's dangerous Sickness, some Time after he had retired to study
the Scriptures -------- 4G0
To Mr. William Nokes. Friendship - - 461
To Nathaniel Gould, Esq. now Sir Natha- niel Gould ---.--.-- 461
To Dr. Thomas Gibson. The Life of Souls 461
To Mylo. False Greatness ----- 462
To Sarissa. An Epistle ------ 462
To Mr. T. Bradbury, Paradise - - - - 463
I'AOE
Strict Religion very rare ------ 464
To Messrs. C. and S. Fleetwood - - - 464
To William Blackbourn, Esq. - - - - 465
True Monarchy --------- 465
True Courage --------- 465
To the much honored Mr. Thomas Rowe, the Director of my youthful Studies. Free
Philosophy --------- 4Q6
To the Rev. Mr. Benoni Rowe. The Way
of the Multitude - ------- 466
To the Rev. Mr. John Howe ----- 467
The Disappointment and Relief - - - - 467
The Hero's School of Morality - - - - 468
Freedom ----------- 468
On Mr. Locke's Annotations ----- 469
True Riches ---------- 469
The Adventurous Muse ------ 470
To Mr. Nicholas Clark. The Complaint - 471
The Afflictions of a Friend ----- 471
The Reverse; or, the Comforts of a Friend 472
To the Rt. Hon. John Lord Cuts. The
Hardy Soldier -------- 472
Burning several Poems of Ovid, Martial,
Oldham, Dryden, &c. ------ 472
To Mrs. B. Bendish. Against Tears - - 473
Few happy Matches ------- 473
To David Polhill, Esq. An Epistle - - 474
The celebrated Victory of the Poles over
the Turks ---------- 474
To Mr. Henry Bendish. The Indian Philo- sopher ----------- 476
The happy Man -------- 477
To David Polhill, Esq. An Answer to an
infamous Satire against K. William III. 478
To the Discontented and Unquiet - - - 479
To John Hartopp, Esq. now Sir John
Hartopp, Bart. -------- 480
To Thomas Gunston, Esq. Happy Solitude 481
To John Hartopp, Esq. now Sir John
Hartopp, Bart. The Disdain - - - 481
To Mitio. An Epistle. The Mourning
Piece - 482
The Second Part ; or, the bright Vision - 483
The Third Part; or, the Account balanced 485 On the Death of the Duke of Gloucester,
just after Mr. Dryden ------ 486
An Epigram of Martial to Cirinus. In- scribed to Mr. Josiah Hort - - - - 486
Epistola Fratri suo dilecto R. W. - - - 486
¥1
CONTENTS.
PACE
Fratris E. W. olim navigaturo - - - - 487 Ad Reverendum Virum Dm. Johannem Pinhorne. Pindarici Carminis Specimen 487
Votum, seu Vita in Terris beata. Ad Virum dignissimum Johannem Hartop- pium, Bart. - - - - - - 489
To Mrs. Singer (now Mrs. Rowe), on the Sight of some of her divine Poems, never printed --------- 489
BOOK III.
SACKED TO THE MEMORY OF THE DEAD.
Epitapli on King William III. - - - - 490
RELIQUIAE
MISCELLANEOUS THOUGHTS, IM PROSE
DIVINE
I. Searching after God ------ 509
II. Roman Idolatry ------- 510
III. To Doric The first Lyric Hour - 512
IV. The Hebrew Poet 513
V. The thankful Philosopher - - - - 514
VI. The Praise of God ------517
VII. A Meditation for the first of May - 519
VIII. Divine Goodness in the Creation - 520
IX. The sacred Concert of Praise - - 521
X. The World a Stranger to God - - 522
XI. Purgatory --------- 522
XII. The Temple of the Sun - - - - 523
XIII. The Midnight Elevation - - - 524
XIV. The honourable Magistrate - - - 525
XV. A Lesson of Humility - - - - 527
XVI. The Waste of Life 527
XVII. The Table blessed 530
XVIII. Youth and Death 532
XIX. Babylon destroyed ----- 534
XX. An Epitaph on Bigotry, in Latin
and English --------- 535
XXI. The Death of Lazarus - - - - 537
XXII. An Hymn to Christ Jesus, the eternal Life ----__-__ 538
XXIII. Distant Thunder 538
XXIV. David's Lamentation over Saul
and Jonathan --------- 540
XXV. The Skeleton 542
XXVT. Words without Spirit - - - - 543
XXVII. The Church-yard 544
XXVIII. A Painter restoring an old Picture 545
XXIX. On the Sight of Queen Mary, in
the Year 1694 54G
PAGE
On the sudden Death of Mrs. Mary Peacock 4<J0
Epitaphium Viri venerabilis Dom. N. Mather 491
An elegiac Thought on the Death of Mrs. Anne Warner; inscribed 10 her Father, the Rev. John Shower ------ 490
On the Death of an aged and honoured Relative, Mrs. M. W. - 493
A funeral Poem, on the Death of Thomas Gunston, Esq. inscribed to his Sister, Lady Abney -.-------- 494.
An Elegy on Mr. Thomas Gouge - - - 499
JUVENILES.
AND VERSE, ON NATURAL, MORAL, AND SUBJECTS.
XXX. On the Effigies of George Prince of Denmark --- -____
XXXI. To Velina, on the Death of se- veral young Children ------
XXXII. Earth, Heaven and Hell - - A Hornet's Nest destroyed Citations and Inscriptions - -
Against Lewdness - - - -
Against Drunkenness - - -
Vanity confessed - - - -
XXXIII. XXXIV. XXXV. XXXVI.
XXXVII.
XXXVIII. Passion and Reason -
XXXIX. One Devil casting out another
XL. Excellencies and Defects compensated
XLI. Envy discovered ------
XLII. The rough Man softened - - -
XLIII. Ignorance of ourselves - - -
XLIV. Absence from God, who is our all
XLV. Formality and Superstition - - -
XLVI. Cowardice and Self-Love - - -
XLV II. Sickness and Recovery - - -
XLV1H. The Deist and the Christian -
XLIX. To Pocyon. The Mischief of warm Disputes and Declamations on the controverted Points of Christianity - -
L. Of Labour and Patience in instructing Mankind ----------
LI. Pub'ic Disputations - - - - -
LI I. Devotional Writings - - - - -
Llll. An Elegy on Sophronia, who died
of the Small-Pox -------
LIV. An Elegy on the Death of Mrs.
Elizabeth Bury --------
LV. An elegiac Ode on the Death of Sir Thomas Abney --------
546
547 54S 549 550 552 553 6o3 556 557 55S
559 5()1 561 563 oC)5 566 567 571
574 57 7 578
583.
583
584
CONTENTS.
vil
PAGE
Part I. His private Life - - - - 586
Part II. His public Character and Death 586
LVI. Entrance upon the World - - - 587
LVII. Souls in Fetters ------ 590
LVIII. To Lucius, on the Death of Serena 592 Ode I. The Spirit's Farewel to the
Body, after a long Sickness - - - 593
Ode II. The departing Moment; or,
Absent from the Body ----- 593
Ode III. Entrance into Paradise; or, Present with the Lord - - - - -
Ode IV. The Sight of God in Heaven Ode V. A funeral Ode, at the Inter- ment of the Body ------
LIX. Divine Conduct disputed and justified 594 LX. Sinful Anger for God's Sake - - - 596 LXI. On the Coronation of their Ma- jesties K. George TI. and Q. Caroline 599 LXI I. A loyal Wish on her Majesty's
Birth Day 600
LXIII. Piety in a Court - - - _ - 600 LXI V. The Courteous and the Peevish - 603 LXV. Common Occurrences moralized 606 LXVI. Fragments of Verse - - - -
1. The Preface of a Letter - - - -
2. The Sun in Eclipse ---___
3. In a Letter to Marinda, speaking
593 593
594
607 607 608
concerning our blessed Saviour LXVII. Inscriptions on several French Pictures, translated - . LXVIII. Inscriptions on Dials
- 608
small
609 609
LXIX. Inscriptions on Portraits - - - LXX. Epigrams --------
1. In mirum Maris Meridionalis The- sauri incrementum, Anno 1720 - -
2. On the wondrous Rise of the South- Sea Stock, 1720 -------
3. Inscribendum Maris Meridionalis Ga- zophylacio, sive Officinae - - - -
4: Sabina and her Companions travelling to see fine Buildings and
together Gardens
5. The same ---------
6. The same ---------
7. Ratio, Fides, Charitas - - - - - LXX I. Epitaphs --------
1. On Thomas Pickard, Esq. - - - -
2. On Mr. John May
3. On a near Relation ------
4. On the Rev. Samuel Harvey - - -
5. On the Rev. Matthew Clarke - -
6. On the Rev. Edward Brodhurst - -
7. On Sir Isaac Newton - - - - - LXXII. The Cadence of Verse - - - LXXIII. Of the different Stops and
Cadences in Blank Verse - - - - -
LXXIV. A dying World and a durable Heaven ------____
LXXV. The Rewards of Poesy - - - LXXVI. A moral Argument to prove
the natural Immortality of the Soul LXXVII. Three modern Absurdities
REMNANTS OF TIME EMPLOYED,
OR, SHORT ESSAYS AND COMPOSURES
I. Justice and Grace ------- q$q
II. The Death of a young Son - - - 638
III. Heathen Poesy christianized - - - 639
IV. The British Fisherman ----- 639
V. Redemption --_--___ (340
VI. Complaint and Hope under great Pain 640
VII. On an Elegy written by the Right Hon. the Countess of Hertford, on the Death of Mrs. Rowe ------ (34 1
V III. Dr. Young's admirable Description
of the Peacock enlarged ----- 641
IX. Vanity inscribed on all Things - - 641
The Rake reformed in the House of
Mourning _ 543
XI. Thou hast received Gifts for Men 648
XII.
XIII.
XIV.
XV.
XVI.
XVII
IN PROSE AND VERSE;
ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS.
The Gift of the Spirit - - - - The Day of Grace - - - - - God and Nature unsearchable - -
The Diamond painted - - - - Bills of Exchange - - - - _
. The Saints unknown in this World
XVIII. Praise waiteth for Thee, O God, in Sion. Psalm lxv. 1. - - - - - -
XIX. O that I knew where I might find him! Job xxiii. 3. --------
XX. The Figure of a Cherub - - - -
XXI. The Author's solemn Address to the great and ever blessed God, on a Review of what he had written in the Trinitarian Controversy - - - - -
TAGB
610 611
611
611
611
611 611
612 612 612 612 612 612 6i2 613 614 615 616
619
622 624
626 629
650 651 652 653 654 656
658
660
663
670
VIM
CONTENTS.
THE ART OF READING AND WRITING ENGLISH.
Preface ----------- 679
CHAPTER I.
Of Letters and Syllables 6S3
CHAPTER II. Of Letters changing their Nature, double Consonants, and Diphthongs - - - - C84 CHAPTER IH. Of Consonants changing their Sound - - 685
CHAPTER IV. Of Consonants that lose their Sound - - 686
CHAPTER V. Of the several Sounds of sinsjle Vowels - 687
CHAPTER VI. Of single Vowels losing their Sound - - 688
CHAPTER VII. Of the Sound of Diphthongs - - - - 689
CHAPTER VIII. Of the Sound of the Consonants in foreign
Words 689
CHAPTER IX. Of the Sound of Vowels in foreign Words 690
CHAPTER X. Of dividing the Syllables in Spelling - - 691
CHAPTER XI. Of compound and derivative Words - - 692
CHAPTER XII. Of Quantity and Accent ------ G93
CHAPTER XIII. Of the Notes or Points used in Writing or Printing --------- 695
CHAPTER XIV. Directions for Reading ------ 697
CHAPTER XV. Of the Emphasis, or Accent which belongs to some special Word or Words in a Sentence ---_-----_ 699
CHAPTER XVI. Observations concerning the Letters in printed Books, and in Writing - - - 701 CHAPTER XVII. Of great Letters -------- 702
CHAPTER XVIII.
Observations concerning the Size, Pages, Titles, &c. in printed Books - - - - 703
CHAPTER XIX.
Observations in reading the Bible - - - 703
CHAPTER XX. Of reading Verse -------- 704
CHAPTER XXI. General Directions for Spelling and Writing
true English --------- 708
CHAPTER XXII. Particular Rules for Spelling and Writing true English --- 709
CHAPTER XXIII.
Observations concerning the various Ways of spelling the same Word - - - - CHAPTER XXIV.
Catalogues of Words pronounced or writ- ten in such a Way as cannot be reduced to Rules, &c. --------
Table I. A Table of Words accented on different Syllables, according to the custom of the Speaker, even when they are used to signify the same Thing
Table II. A Table of AVords which are accented on the first Syllable when they signify the Name of a Thing ; but on the latter Syllable, when they signify an Action ----- -_.__
Table III. A Table of other Words pronounced different Ways, when they are used in different Senses - - - -
Table IV. A Table of Words, the same or nearly alike in Sound, but different in Signification and in Spelling - - -
Table V. A Table of Words different in Signification, by the Addition of e final
Table VI. A Table of Words that may be spelled different ways, which are not easily reduced to any Rules -
Table VII. A Table of proper Names, spelled different Ways in the Old Test- ment and in the New - - -
Table VIII. A Table of Words written very different from the Pronunciation -
Table IX. A Table of proper Names written very different from their Pronun- ciation -----------
Table X. A Table of Words joined together in common Discourse* and pro- nounced very different from their true Spelling ----------
Table XI. A Table of Abbreviations or Contractions, wherein One, or Two, or Three Letters stand for One or more Words
Table XII. A Table of Contractions used only in Writing, but scarce ever
711
713 714
714
715
715 720
721
723
72 j
726
727
in Print in our Age
Table XIII. A Table of Numbers and
Figures
729
Table XIV. A Table of Letters and other Marks used for whole Words, in Money, Weights and Measures - - - 732
Table XV. Copies containing moral
Instructions, Sec. ------- 733
The Conclusion -------- 735
THE HARMONY
or
ALL THE RELIGIONS
WHICH GOD EVER PRESCRIBED:
CONTAINING
A BRIEF SURVEY OF THE SEVERAL PUBLIC DISPENSATIONS OF
GOD TOWARD MAN,
Oil HIS APPOINTMENT OF
DIFFERENT FORMS OF RELIGION IN SUCCESSIVE AGES.
VOL. IV,
THE
PREFACE.
XVELIGION, in the most general sense of the word, signifies that veneration or reverential regard, which man pays to God, his Maker. This veneration is diversified, according to the various perfections of the divine nature discovered to us, or the various relations in which we stand to God. All this is internal religion, so far as it is found in the heart ; but, it is also to be expressed outwardly in the life, by the tongue, or the several powers of action, according to the daily occasions which are given us in the course of providence. Religion in the heart includes in it all that adoration we pay to God, because of his transcendent Majesty, our acknowledgment of all homage and obedience due to him, as our sovereign, our fear, our love, our imitation, our trust or dependence and submission, &c. according as we conceive of him, as the first and best of beings, as wise and powerful, as holy, just, and merciful, as our rightful Owner, Governor, and Judge.
The outward expressions of these inward sentiments of the mind, whether in voice, gesture, or action, are to be regulated by the dictates of nature or reason, so far as that reaches ; as for instance, nature seems to direct the lifting up of the hands and the eyes to God, in our solemn addresses to him, bowing the knee, or standing, or prostration in prayer to God, and laying hands on the head of another, when a blessing is pro- nounced on him, or implored for him ; the voice of joy and singing is directed by the light of nature, in speaking the praises of God, or in our holy rejoicing before him ; groaning and sighing, seems to be the language of nature also in our complaints to God ; laying the hand upon the heart, denotes an appeal to God, concerning our sincerity, &c.
These inward and reverential sentiments of the mind, may be also expressed by, or attended with a variety of other rites and forms, which God hath prescribed by reve- lation, in the several ages of his church : And God, only, has a right to prescribe them ; for he only knows in what manner he will, or he ought to be honoured or worshipped. Sometimes he has appointed abstinence from particular food, sometimes putting off the shoes from the feet, sometimes offering sacrifice to God by fire, sometimes washing or sprinkling with water or blood, sometimes eating or drinking as a holy festival, &c.
I add further, also, religion includes in it all our personal duties towards ourselves and our social duties towards our fellow-creatures, as well as our duties of piety towards God, so far as they are performed from a principle of veneration, obedience, and love to our Creator : For this principle turns the common actions of life into religious actions, which otherwise would be esteemed but merely moral or virtuous. Scripture favours
b 2
PREFACE
this representation. The apostle James seems to suppose it thus in the first chapter last verse ; Pure religion and nndefded before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the uorld. These moral actions done from a supreme regard to God, that is, before his sight, and as under his authority and approbation, render them truly religious.
When man was Hist created, and in his state of innocence, he was bound to fulfil all his duties towards God and man in perfection ; and he had power to perform them ; and these performances were his justifying righteousness in the sight of God, according to the law of nature and innocence. In his fallen or sinful state, he is still bound by the light of nature and reason, to pay the same duties towards God and man ; and that in a perfect maimer too, for the law of God is eternal and relaxes not its demands ; and though man is continually failing in his obedience, either in thought, word, or deed, yet that conscience, within him, which teaches him the law, Rom. ii. 14, 15. accuses him when he breaks it.
The religion of a fallen creature, according to the light of nature, requires also some additions of duty more than a state of innocence, viz, confession of our faults, sincere repentance of every sin, and addresses to God for mercy, with hope in his forgiving grace, together with a return to diligence in new obedience after every fall or trans- gression, and a constant zeal to subdue and mortify all sinful inclinations and pen- severance therein till death. This runs through every dispensation of grace. And since none of these works are so perfect in the best of men, as to fulfil the demands of the law of God, or to justify the man before God, therefore after all, if fallen man be ever justified, that is, pardoned and accepted of God, it must be by his trusting or depending upon divine grace, in whatsoever way it is or shall be manifested. This is the only thing, beside what I mentioned before, that remains for him to do in order to his acceptance.
Observe here, I do not say, that this is sufficient to procure certain pardon, or to obtain the justification of a sinner; for natural reason cannot assure us that an offended God will forgive all our past sins, upon this practice. But this I may boldly affirm, that reason directs to tin's practice, as the only way wherein we can reasonably hope for the favour of God, and acceptance before him. And, as this is the plain and obvious doctrine which the light of reason teaches, so this was practised, not only by Abraham and David, but by all the good men of old, in every nation, who wrought righteousness, and were accepted of God; Acts x. 35. This is St. Paul's doctrine of justification by faith, or trust in the grace of God without the works of the law, which he insists upon in his epistles to Rome and Galatia; though, it has most unhappily been perplexed and obscured by noisy controversies. In these papers, among other things, 1 have en- deavoured to scatter those clouds, and set this divine truth in a most natural and easy light.
Since the blessed God saw the light of nature after the fall, insufficient to give the sinful creature any solid assurance of pardon and acceptance, he condescended to make some special revelations of his mercy and his will, to poor perishing mankind ; and this he has done in several ages of the world, and in particular nations. Therein he has been pleased to reveal some further doctrines for men to believe, and some further duties for them to practise, which are not written in the book of nature: And they are such as these, viz. That God is ready to forgive all those sinners who return to him by
PREFACE.
sincere repentance, and who trust in his mercy, according- to the different discoveries ot it: That he will assist humble creatures in their return to God, and in their hearty endeavours to practise their duty: That he has appointed a Mediator, by whom sinners are to be restored to his favours. That this Mediator is the Son of God : That he was to be born of a woman, to spring from the house of Abraham, and the family of David : That he should be the great peace-maker between God and man, to reconcile sinners to God, and to restore them to the image of his holiness; that to this end he should not only fulfil the law of God, but also endure many sufferings, and die for sinners, as an atoning sacrifice, in order to free them from guilt, and deliver them from deserved destruction.
Again, he has made known to men also, that this Jesus Christ the Mediator is raised from the dead, is ascended to heaven, and there governs all things, till he shall return to judge the world; and that the dead shall be raised by him, to receive their final sentence from him, either a sentence of eternal misery, or everlasting happiness.
It is amongst these discoveries of grace and duty, that we must rank the several sacrifices, which God has appointed men to offer, and that not only of the flesh of sheep, and bulls, and goats, but also of corn and wine, &c. Sometimes he appointed parti- cular places, wherein he would have worship paid to him, and sometimes particular seasons set apart for public worship : Amongst these also, he ordained various cere- monies of washing and sprinkling persons and things, to denote purification from sinful defilements, and finally that we must worship or honour God in his latest and best institution, by washing or baptizing with water, by eating bread and drinking wine, according to his special directions and appointments.
The belief of these truths, and the practice of these duties, when or wheresoever they were revealed and required, became a proper part of the religion of men in those places, and in that time : For their inward veneration to God, was to be expressed by these outward transactions in obedience to him. The chief design of these things in the various ages and places, was but to teach mankind, by degrees, in a way of emblem or figure, that God is reconciling a sinful world to himself, that he is recovering men from the sin and misery of their fall, by the mediation of Jesus Christ, his Son, and by the influences of his grace or his blessed Spirit, and to engage them to comply with, and pursue this reconciliation and recovery.
This general design of God to recover sinners, as manifested in these divine revela- tions, may be called the covenant of grace proposed to men. It was not published all at once, in its various and complete glory and beauty, but in many successive ages, and that to particular persons, and by them to the rest of men, so far as the great God appointed ; viz. by Adam to his posterity, by Noah to his posterity, by Abraham to his family, by Moses and the prophets to the Jews, and by Christ and his apostles both to the Jews and gentiles. These transactions of God with men, and his appointments manifested to them, are usually distinguished into the several corresponding dispen- sations, which is the substance of the discourses in this book, and I think they are each of them distinguished from the other, by one or more special sign or emblem of grace or duty.
As the discovery of this gospel, or covenant of grace, was not made all at once, but by slow degrees, to answer some evident, and some unsearchable purposes of God, so it was four thousand years, before it was fully revealed by the blessed apostles of Christ,
6 PREFACE.
and that under several dispensations of increasing light. Since the days of the apostles there has been no new dispensation, nor any new divine religion. Every former dispen- sation of the gospel, was sufficient to save all those to whom it was made or proposed ; and it was that very religion by which all, who were under it, were actually bound to seek their salvation, till the next dispensation was revealed to them. This is so evident that it needs no argument for the proof of it.
And yet we must add also, that almost every following dispensation of the covenant of grace does, in some measure, help to explain the scriptural account of those which went before. As for instance, the dispensation of Abraham added some light to the patriarchal darkness : The dispensation of Christ casts numerous rays of illumination on the types and shadows of judiasm, and St. Paul, in his epistles, has taught us to understand many of them, by pointing to those graces and blessings of the Messiah and the gospel, which were signified by them.
Nor can we have a complete view of this covenant of grace, as it is held forth in scripture, if we confine our thoughts merely to the short representation of the sacred writers, in their first discoveries of each dispensation. It is only a full survey of all the successive editions of this covenant, which can give us the most comprehensive, and the justest idea of it, in any one edition, or under any one dispensation. Each of them casts a signal and sensible light upon the other, and whatsoever was truly glorious in the whole of them, is, as it were, summed up and united in the last dispensation, that is, Christianity, which answers the predictions and emblems of former ages, and reveals and unfolds many things, that seemed then to be veiled in darkness.
It should be remembered here, this short scheme of the dispensations of God, or the various religions of men, does not pretend to argue or debate much on any point, nor to trace out, and answer the objections that might be raised against these several reli- gions ; that would have required a large volume ; these arguments are therefore to be sought in other writings. This is only a compendious arrangement of the discoveries of the grace of God and the duty of man, in such an order as God has prescribed them, and such as may best shew their consistence, their reasonableness and equity ; and this may go a great way towards the evidence and proof of these representations, without long argument and dispute ; for there is nothing but truth, which, in every part and new of it, is constantly consistent with itself, whether we consider it as contained in scripture or represented by right reason.
1712.
THE
HARMONY OF ALL THE RELIGIONS
WHICH GOD EVER PRESCRIBED TO MEN, AND ALL HIS DISPEN- SATIONS TOWARDS THEM.
INTRODUCTION.
I. X HE public dispensations of God towards men are those wise and holy consti- tutions of his will and government, revealed or some way manifested to them, in the several successive periods or ages of the world, wherein are contained the duties which he expects from men, and the blessings which he promises, or encourages them to expect from him, here or hereafter ; together with the sins which he forbids, and the punishments which he threatens to inflict on such sinners : Or, the dispensations of God may be described more briefly, as the appointed moral rules of God's dealing with mankind considered as reasonable creatures, and as accountable to him for their behaviour, both in this world and in that which is to come. Each of these dispensations of God, may be represented as different religions, or, at least, as different forms of religion, appointed for men in the several successive ages of the world.
II. Hence it comes to pass, that in describing the several religions of men, or the public dispensations of God, we do not so much enter into his eternal designs, or the secret and inward transactions of his grace, either with, or concerning the children of men, in order to bring them into his covenant of grace ; nor do we search into his early and divine transactions with Christ Jesus, his Son, in the covenant of redemption, in order to the salvation of men: But it is sufficient, here, to set forth the outward discoveries of God's mind and will to men, in his public government of the universe, or those several constitutions by which he will either justify and reward, or condemn and punish mankind, as he is their supreme Lord and Judge. These are the things most properly signified by his dispensations towards men, and which I propose as my present theme.
III. We must here take notice, in the first place, that natural religion, or that religion which rises from the nature of God and men, and from their relations to God and one another, runs through every one of these dispensations, whether in a state of innocency, or after the fall. And wheresoever divine revelation or the scripture hath not given man positive, express and particular notice of his duty, there the light of nature or reason must be supposed to come in both before and after the fall of man, to clear up what is doubtful, and to supply what is wanting ; even as revelation is to supply us where the light of reason is defective or dubious.
Therefore, though our natural duties to God, viz. fear and love, trust and obedience, prayer and praise, together with the duties of justice, truth, and love to our neighbour
8 THE DISPENSATION OF INNOCENCY. Chap. i.
must be supposed to belong to every dispensation; yet there was no necessity of repeating them continually under every dispensation, since the law and light of nature plainly dictate and require them ; I desire this may be always kept in view.
IV. And under every dispensation, whether in innocency, or since the fall, there has been some further revelation of the mind, and will of God to men, some new doctrine or duty, precept or prohibition given for men to believe or obey, beside or beyond the mere dictates of the light of reason, or mere natural religion ; and these are called positive laws or commands, as the others are called natural or moral. Amon"- these I am ready to suppose, the observation of the sabbath, that is, some appointed day for rest from labour, and for public worship, holds a considerable place; for it seems to me to have been instituted in paradise, during the state of man's innocency ; Gen. ii. 3. and I think it has run through all the dispensations of God to man, though not with equal evidence. And perhaps this appointment may have always carried in it some type or figurative promise of a state of rest and glorious worship, after all the labours of our state of trial are finished.
V. In each of these constitutions or dispensations, there is also generally some outward visible emblem appointed of God, to be a sign, seal or pledge of these blessings to be bestowed on man, by God himself; and there is some visible ceremony, some outward action or abstinence enjoined on men, as a seal or pledge of their acceptance of, and compliance with this constitution of God.
VI. These two things have been often joined in one and the same emblem, when it is considered on one side as appointed by God, and on the other as to be performed by man. Such a double use had all the sacrifices of atonement in the dispensations of grace before Christ. The divine appointment of them sufficiently denotes the mercy of God, and the actual performance of them, testifies that those men accepted of God's covenant, and consented to it, that is, in a way of outward profession.
Now let us proceed to describe the several particular dispensations of God and the religions which have been prescribed to men.
CHAPTER I.
THE DISPENSATION OF INNOCENCY, OR, THE RELIGION OF ADAM AT FIRST.
1. jf\S soon as God had created man upon the earth, he placed him under the first dispensation, that is, that of innocency; wherein Adam, considered as the father and common head of mankind, being formed in the image of God, innocent and holy, and standing in his favour, was bound to a perfect performance of all the duties of the moral law, or law of nature which related to God, or to himself, or to his fellow- en at u res ; and he had powers given him by the God of nature, sufficient for the per- formance of them.*
I J. This dispensation, is commonly called the covenant of works, because the work done by man would have fully answered the demands of the law of God, it would have
* Note here, Whatsoever particular precepts or prohibitions tlic great God might give to his creature, in a way of special revelation, man was bound to obey them all, by that general law of nature, which requires the creature to obey its Creator in all things.
Chap. I. THE DISPENSATION OF INNOCENCY. 9
been his justifying righteousness, and have entitled liini to the reward, Do this and thou shalt live, are the terms of that covenant ; Rom. x. 5. This was his religion.
III. And God seems to have engaged himself to bestow immortality or eternal life on Adam, upon condition of his persevering in perfect obedience, by the emblem, sign or seal of this covenant, which was the tree of life planted in the garden of Eden, of which if man eat he should live for ever; Gen. iii. 22. There was a virtual promise in this emblem, sign or pledge. But, besides this intimation of a reward by the tree of life, it may be almost inferred by the light of reason, that where God is a commander of any self-denying virtue, or of any difficult duty, he will also be a rewarder of it ; for he will make it appear, he is good as well as just, in all his commands, and designs the happiness of his creatures in case of their obedience. And, in this view of things, it is most highly probable, that if mankind had stood innocent, and there had been no death through all generations, they would have been, after some state of trial and obedience*, translated by degrees to some advanced state of happiness, in some heavenly paradise ; for earth itself could not have contained them in all their increase and multiplications under the prolific blessing of heaven.
IV. There was also a threatening 6f death upon man's disobedience in express words ; and the emblem or sign of it, was the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and innocent man was commanded to abstain from eating of the fruit of this tree, as a special pledge and test of his obedience to God. Gen. ii. 17. In the day thou eatest thereof, in dying, thou shalt die, that is, thou shalt be subject to many afflictions and diseases, and at last to death itself.
V. Now, that this constitution or covenant was made with Adam, not for himself only, but for his posterity also, so as to interest them in the blessings or the curses of it, according to his obedience or disobedience, will appear from the effects of his actual disobedience or fall.
For when this covenant of works was broken, by the sin of man, he and all his posterity with him, lost their holy and happy state, and were subject to sin, misery and death. Rom. v. 19. By one mans disobedience many were made sinners, or guilty and subject to death. Rom. v. 12. As by one matt, sin entered into the world and death by sin, so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. It is plain that sin is imputed to them by death's passing upon them. The words following seem to imply it, viz. sin is not imputed where there is no law, but death reigned, that is, but sin was imputed, therefore there was a law or constitution which imputed it, and from this spring of iniquity and guilt, all men are become sinners, and come short of the glory of God, that is, that glory and happiness which they had at first, and that further glory which God had promised if they had not sinned. All mankind are born encompassed with sorrows and troubles, and with an inclination to evil, more than to any thing that is good : And even infants before actual sin are subject to death, as well as those who are actual sinners: For in Adam all die; 1 Cor. xv. 22. and Jews and gentiles, that is, all mankind
* It is not certain that the posterity of Adam, if their father had stood innocent and passed his trial well, would have had any dangerous state of trial, in their own persons, whether they should be happy or miserable: One would rather suppose, they would have had a proper state of probation, as to greater or lesser happiness, according to their degrees of labour and duty. But this matter is not plainly revealed.
VOL. IV. C
10 THE DISPENSATION OF INNOCENCY. Chap. 2.
are by nature children of ivrath ; Eph. ii. 3. As there is none righteous or holy, so there is none happy; no, not one; Rom. iii. 10.
VI. Now, since this is the scriptural account of the effects or consequence of Adam's sin on all his posterity, it is but reasonable and equitable to suppose, that if Adam had continued innocent and happy, all his posterity had at least come into the world innocent and happy also ; and perhaps, been confirmed in their innocence and happiness by the same righteous constitution. A God whose name is love, and his nature justice and goodness, would be supposed reasonably to deal thus with his creatures.
VII. But Adam and his race are fallen, and sinful creatures now: And though we cannot with perspicuity and full assurance, determine so well what sort of circum- stances might have attended us, if our first parents had continued obedient ; yet this we know by the word of God, by experience in ourselves, and by observation of others, that we are now in a sinful and unhappy state, prone to sin from our childhood, and liable to acute pains, sufferings and death, even in our infant age before any actual transgressions as well as afterwards.
VIII. This was the dispensation of God towards man, or his covenant with him in his original state of innocency, even the covenant of works ; which being violated by the sin of Adam, and thereby his posterity being brought into unhappy circumstances, it pleased God, out of his rich mercy to provide another and a better covenant, even the covenant of grace ; which is a wise, holy and merciful constitution of God for the recovery of fallen man to his favour and image by his Son Jesus Christ. Now the different dispensations, under which mankind have been placed ever since, are but different editions or manifestations of this covenant of grace to men in several ages of the world.
CHAPTER II.
THE ADAMICAL DISPENSATION OF THE COVENANT OP GRACE, OR THE RELIGION OF
ADAM AFTER HIS FALL.
I. X HE first dispensation after the fall, was that constitution of God to recover guilty and sinful man to holiness and happiness, which was given to our first parents, Adam and Eve, to be conveyed by them, with religious care, to all their posterity, who suffered by their fall. This is the first edition of the gospel, or the covenant of grace. Herein God promised by the seed of the woman to bruise the serpent's head; Gen. iii. 15. or as it is now explained by St. John : 1 John iii. 8. and might be then, perhaps, explained by God himself, that the promised seed came to destroy the ivorks of the devil. This was the general blessing of this dispensation, as expressed in that early age of the world. It intimates the design of God for the salvation of men, by some mighty Saviour, who should be born of a woman and should recover them to the image of God, and his favour, from which they fell by the temptation of the devil : And, though it was not clearly revealed at first, what this Saviour was to do or suffer, in order to reconcile God and man, yet all the further steps and gradual blessings of this reconci- liation, in every age of mankind, are owing to the undertaking and the promise of this Saviour ; and all tend to accomplish this first promise.
Chap. 2. THE ADAMICAL DISPENSATION OF THE COVENANT OF GRACE. 11
II. The duties herein required of man, were repentance for past sin ; a return to new obedience, and sincere love to God, with a humble faith or trust in his mercy. This is an acceptance of the covenant of grace. All this indeed, is not expressly recorded in Genesis ; but probably, God made a more explicit discovery of these things, than is written in so short a history ; and these things are plainly and expressly required in several of the following dispensations.
Besides, the very light of nature, under every dispensation of grace, requires all this, even repentance, faith, love and obedience, to be practised by every sinner that would find mercy of God : And what is plainly written in the law of nature is not always repeated so distinctly in every dispensation of grace, as I intimated before. This dispensation also, and, perhaps, all the following require further, that man should not only have faith or trust in general in the divine mercy, but as it is particularly promised to be manifested, by some mighty Saviour, as far as he is revealed to them, who should be the seed of the woman, or one of her offspring, and who was afterward called the Messiah, that is, the anointed or the Christ, and was to be expected under this character.
III. The great and final blessing to be expected, under this first dispensation, as also, under the following dispensations of grace, is not immortality, or a continuance in life without dying : The blessed God has determined that diseases and afflictions, mortality and death, which were brought in by sinning, or by the breach of the law of innocency, should so far remain throughout all the generations of men, as to be a constant memorial of that broken law, and of the evil of sin. Since, therefore, the good men of all ages, as well as the bad, pass through these diseases, sorrows, sufferings and death ; and there is but little distinction made between the righteous and the wicked in this life, by the providence of God ; it remains that the final blessing belonging to good men under all the dispensations of grace, must be some felicity to be enjoyed in a future world or another life : And that is the happiness of the soul in the everlasting love of God, and in the sense of his love, when the body is dead, together with some obscure hints of the resurrection of the body. These blessings were more clearly revealed by degrees, as the dispensations of grace went onward, and especially in the last dispensation, that is, Christianity. But, even in these early times, God translated Enoch, a most holy man, to heaven without dying, in order to give notice to the world by a "visible example, that there was some future state of reward and felicity for such as walked with God.
IV. The emblem or sign annexed to this dispensation, was the appointment of sacrifices to be offered ; and it is justly inferred from the words of Moses, that, with the skins thereof, man was clothed, since beasts were not then slain for food; Gen. iii. 21. These sacrifices were figures of Christ, the seed or son of the woman, the great Mediator between God and man, and the true sacrifice of atonement by which God is reconciled, and man is secured from deserved misery, the skins of beasts secure him from harm. This is called the Adamical dispensation of grace, which in the proposal of it belonged to all the family of Adam, that is, to all mankind, for he taught it to them and accordingly righteous Abel offered his sacrifice of a lamb, with acceptance before God ; Gen. iv. 4. This dispensation reached till Noah's flood.
V. Observe, that under this first, and under all the following dispensations of the gospel or covenant of grace, as they are proposed to men, the natural law of innocency,
c 2
1 £ THE ADAMICAL DISPENSATION OF THE COVENANT OF GRACE. Chap. 2.
which is usually called the moral law, not only with all its precepts, but with its penal- ties too, abides in force, and is by no means abolished : It stands perpetually in full power, and is written in the heart of man by nature; Rom. ii. 14, 15. to command every man to fulfil the precepts of it perfectly as well as to condemn every man who does not perfectly fulfil them : And the only way of his release from this condemnation, is by his acceptance of the dispensation or the covenant of grace, by repentance and trust in the divine mercy. Thus though every man enjoys the common blessings of life, and by God's long suffering is invited to repentance, and is put under some general and external proposals or encouragements of the covenant of grace, yet he lies under the sentence and curse of the broken covenant of works, till he stands entitled to the blessings of the covenant of grace, by his own acceptance of it.
VI. Let it be yet further observed, that reason and the law of nature, not only dictate our duty where revelation is silent, but the whole moral law in the precepts of it, was taken into every dispensation of the gospel, as a part of it, to be the constant and everlasting rule of man's duty ; for this law partly arises from the relation of creatures to the God who made them, and partly from the mutual relation of creatures to each other, and therefore it is unchangeable. And a perfect obedience to all the commands of it, is required under the dispensations of grace, as well as in the law of innocency or covenant of works ; for if perfect obedience were not required, then imperfection would not be sinful.
VII. You will say then, what is the difference between the two covenants? I answer here, one great difference lies in this, that, under the law of innocency or covenant of works, the perfection of our own personal works of obedience, answering the demands of the law, was to have been our justifying righteousness, and was the only condition of obtaining the blessing promised, that is immortality and eternal life ; and nothing short of this perfection was accepted of God : No law can justify those who are under it, unless it is perfectly obeyed. Here was no pardon of sin provided, nor any encourage- ment or promise given to repentance. But, in all the dispensations of the covenant of grace, though perfect obedience to the moral law be still required, and this law con- tinues to condemn those who break it, yet, for the sake of the Mediator, and of what he was to do and suffer, this condemning sentence is taken off, or reversed by the mercy of God in this new covenant : our sins against every law, and all our imperfections of duty are pardoned, and our souls are accepted of God unto salvation, if we accept of and submit to the dispensation of grace ; that is, if we return to God in a way of humble repentance for sin, with faith or trust in the discoveries of his mercy, so far as it is made known, or revealed to us, in our age.
Or, perhaps, we may better describe this our acceptance of and submission to every dispensation of grace, by such a faith, or hope in the mercy of God, so far as it is revealed, as raises in the heart an unfeigned repentance for having displeased him, with a sincere and hearty love to him, which love produces a holy obedience to his will, or an upright and hearty desire to obey it, as far as it is made known to men. This last seems to be the most natural and proper way of describing our acceptance of the covenant of grace, under every dispensation, because it is a hope or trust in the mercy of God, which is, and must be the spring of true repentance, and new obedience in every sinner ; for where ihere is no hope there is no encouragement to repent, or return to
Chap. 2. THE ADAMICAL DISPENSATION OF THE COVENANT OF GRACE. 13
God ; Psalm cxxx. 4. There is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared, loved and obeyed.
VIII. Hence it comes to pass, that as under the covenant of works, man was to be justified by his own perfect righteousness of works, commensurate to the demands of the law ; Gal. iii. 12. and Rom. x. 5. So, under every edition of the covenant of grace, men, who can no more be justified by their works, because they are imperfect, are to be justified by their faith, or dependence on grace; as Rom. iv. 1 — 16.* But this faith in the divine mercy, and forgiveness, doth in the very nature of it imply, or in the necessary consequences carry with it, a hearty acknowledgment or confession of guilt or want of righteousness in ourselves, as well as a sincere return to God, and constant desire to please him, arising from that, humble trust or hope in pardoning grace. Thus Abra- ham and David, under their different dispensations, were both justified by faith, or trusting in mercy, without a righteousness of ivorks, as well as St. Paul and the Romans under the dispensation of Christianity, as is most evident in Rom. iv.f
IX. To make this yet more evident, let us consider that the very light of nature, which requires of every creature a perfect obedience to all the will of God, requires also, of every sinner, perfect repentance and a complete return to universal obedience to all the commands of God. But this cannot be done or expected under our present degenerate state : And therefore, wheresoever men do truly repent of all sin, and return unto God with a honest heart, and sincerely, though not perfectly, obey his commands, and comply with the requirements of that dispensation, under which they live, from a hope of the favour and mercy of God, and under a sense of their failings do trust in divine mercy, so far as it is revealed, they shall have this faith or trust in the grace of a forgiving God, reckoned unto them, and accepted of him unto their obtaining a justi- fying righteousness, that is, unto their pardon and justification, or their having a right to impunity and eternal life. This is righteousness ; and this is the plain sense of Rom. iv. 3, 5. Faith is counted or imputed for righteousness.
It may not be improper, to dwell a little upon explaining this text. Observe here, first, that righteousness often in scripture, does not signify acts of righteousness, but a right to life, and so it is to be construed in this place. Observe, secondly, it is not said, that faith is imputed or counted instead of righteousness, which would have required the word hesf or if& : But it is ^Wn **/!&»% n? ?»*««>«!»£» that is, faith is imputed or reckoned to our account, as an important or necessary thing, in order to our having a justifying righteousness, or a right to impunity and life. Survey the whole verse ; Rom. iv. 5. to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is imputed for righteousness; that is, it is not the works of obedience which any man performs, that are, or can be counted or imputed to him, in order to his justifying righteousness,
* This doctrine is the chief design of the third and fourth chapters to the Romans. See the note on the words ff!ft{ and mrivu at the fifth section of the VIII. chapter of this treatise.
t Though God justified good men by faith, and not by works, under every dispensation of the covenant of grace, as the New Testament informs us, Rom. iv. yet there was no necessity that every good man, who was justified, should know this doctrine expressly and distinctly, under every darker dispensation of God. It was enough if they practised repentance and new obedience, under the influence of faith or hope in the divine mercy, or a belief of the grace which God revealed. This runs through the chapter in Heb. xi. God forbid, that we should suppose the knowledge of these christian controversies, and sublime doctrines, to be necessary to the salvation of every good man, under the darkness of those early dispensations. How far this accurate knowledge may be supposed to be necessary, under the New Testament, I will not debate here.
14 THE ADAMICAL DISPENSATION OF THE COVENANT OF GRACE. Chap. 2.
or justification; for when he first commences a believer, he has no good works, and when he has any, they are all imperfect, and answer not fully the demands of any law of God : But it is his faith or trust and dependence on forgiving grace, on the account whereof God accepteth and justifieth those who have been ungodly, even before they have actually wrought any such works of righteousness, whereby they might pretend to a justifying righteousness of their own, having had no time or opportunity for it.
Some interpreters make ««j35, the ungodly, in this place to signify the gentiles, as in some other scriptures ; and so it stands as a parallel of Abraham's being justified by faith, in his uncircumcised estate, or before he obeyed God in being circumcised, as it follows, verses 9, 10. But still it is faith, and not works, which must justify such sinful creatures, as the best of mankind are, in the sight of God ; because faith implies an acknowledgment of the imperfection and insufficiency of our best works, and a dependence on the forgiving grace of God. As I take this to be the true meaning of such texts of scripture, so it must be granted that the scripture teaches us elsewhere to add also that the constant and persevering endeavours of such penitents, after obedi- ence and holiness, shall be approved, and even rewarded by grace, so far as finally to obtain heaven and complete salvation through the meritorious undertaking of the Mediator.
X. As this has been a matter of much controversy, let me endeavour to make it yet more plain to every reader. The best of men in this world have not a righteousness of works commensurate to any law of God whatsoever; for their faith and repentance, and even their sincerity, are all imperfect, and do not fully answer the demands of God under any dispensation : But we are saved by a humble and hearty acknowledgment of sin, with a perpetual trust or dependence on free grace ; always supposing our faith to be attended with a return to God by repentance and constant endeavours to please him. And though faith or trust in the mercy of God be, in itself, a work of righteousness, and though it be attended or followed by repentance and love, and worship and holy obedience, yet in the matter of our justification before God, it is not considered as a work of righteousness, or as fully answering the demands of any law of God whatso- ever, and thereby claiming justification, by that law; but it is considered only as an act of the soul, whereby it humbles itself, empties itself, renounces itself and its own works as a sufficient ground for justification according to any law, and whereby it depends or trusts merely in the grace of God through a sense of its own guilt and imperfection. As when a son hath grievously offended his father by breaking his righteous laws or commands, and then throws himself down at his father's foot, and waits and hopes for pardon and acceptance, this hoping and waiting doth not justify him as a work of righteousness, but merely as renouncing all self-worthiness, and as a dependence on mercy; it is not considered so much as an obedience to his father's law, but as it is an acknowledgment of guilt, and trust in mere mercy. And this seems to be the true de- sign of St Paul, in the representation he makes of the matter, throughout the fourth chapter of Romans, which is the chief place in the Bible, where this matter is most expressly and directly treated of, and argued.
XI. Thus our acceptance with God arising from faith, and not works, none have any reason to glory in the presence of God : Justification by faith cuts off' all boasting. And, indeed, this seems to be one main design of the blessed God, in appointing our justifi- cation under all the dispensations of the covenant of grace, to be obtained not by works,
Chap. 3. THE N0AH1CAL DISPENSATION. 15
but by faith, or trust in free mercy, viz. that since pride and self-sufficiency was one great spring of the first sin and ruin of mankind ; this pride of man might be humbled, that no flesh should ever have the least ground for boasting; and that the salvation of man might appear to be all from God, and be acknowledged to be a work of mere grace ; Rom. iii. 27, 28. Rom. iv. 2, 16. Eph. ii. 9. Therefore, it is of faith, and not of works, that boasting may be excluded.
XII. And the apostle adds, therefore it is by faith, that it might be all of grace ; Rom. iv. 11. Therefore, neither the acts of love or zeal, or repentance, or fear, or worship, or any other actions of obedience are appointed to be the mediums or proper means of our justification, under any dispensation of the covenant of grace, because these actions carry in them, an appearance of our own doing something for God, our an- swering the demands of some law, and this would make it look like justification by a law of works : But faith or trust is that act of the soul, whereby we renounce our own works, as the ground of our justification or acceptance; we acknowledge our own imperfection, unworthiness, and insufficiency, and give the entire honour to divine grace, by our dependence on it. We are saved by grace, that God may have the glory of all.
XIII. It is worthy of our observation here, that though the violation of the first covenant or law of innocency exposed us to the curse of God, and brought us under many frailties, afflictions, and death itself, which are not cancelled and removed at regeneration or repentance ; yet, by the covenant of grace, all these calamities which continue to attack human nature, lose their sharpest sting, and are sanctified to our advantage ; they are made use of to help forward our repentance and sanctification, and our growing fitness for heaven. Even temporal death itself, which follows all these painful evils or curses, is also turned into a blessing, because it is made a means of delivering our souls from this body of sin and sorrow, and of introducing them into the presence of God, and the commencement of our heaven and happiness.
Thus much shall suffice, concerning the covenant of grace in general, and concerning the first edition of it.*
CHAPTER III.
THE NOAHICAL DISPENSATION ; OR, THE RELIGION OF NOAH.
I. JL HE second edition of the covenant of grace, was the dispensation of Noah after the flood : He was the second father of mankind. It is sufficiently evident, what an universal taint of iniquity had spread over all the race of Adam, when God, the governor of the world, saw it necessary in his wisdom to destroy mankind from the earth, for their abominable transgressions, because all flesh had corrupted its way upon earth, so that there was not one person, or not one family left who maintained the purity of religion, besides Noah and his house; Gen. vii. 1.
* Since St. Paul, in his discourses on the Doctrine of Justification, to the christians at Rome and Galatia, makes it appear, that the constitution of the covenant of grace represents not only christians to be justified by faith, but even Jews and patriarchs, David and Abraham ; I thought it necessary to introduce this doctrine, in my Representation of the First Patriarchal Dispensation, and to dwell something longer upon it here, because it runs through all the dispen- sations of grace and is common to them all, and a due knowledge of this, will render the whole scheme easier to be understood.
16 THE ABHAHAMICAL DISPENSATION. Chap. 4.
II. Therefore, after this universal destruction by the flood, God was pleased to repeat and renew this dispensation of grace, in another public edition of it unto Noah. It is true, this covenant is said to be made, not only with Noah, but with his sons also, and with every animal; Gen. ix. 9, 10. that the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all jtesh : But it is sufficiently evident, that there was contained in it the cove- nant of grace or salvation, for this was the great design of God in all his other covenants with men, since the fall ; and if mankind be no more destroyed by a flood, it is that the covenant of grace may save men in following ages.
III. This edition of the covenant of grace, contained in it the same blessings, pro- mises, and duties, with that of Adam after his fall, and probably the same sacrifices also : Here were superadded some further precepts about the distinction of meats, the prohibition of eating blood, the punishment of murder, and the promises of the church of God, in the family of Shem, as well as the promise, that the earth should no more be destroyed by water.
Note, that this promise manifested the grace and long-suffering of God to men, in order to call them to repentance after the flood. Of this promise the rainbow was an appointed emblem or pledge, token or sign ; and as such it stands round the throne of God, and Jesus the Mediator in Rev. iv. 3.
IV. This dispensation was published not only to Shem, but to Ham and Japhet also, that is, to all mankind after the flood, by their father Noah, who was a preacher of righ- teousness; 2 Pet. ii. 5. By this dispensation, Job and Melchisedec also were saved, with many others in that early age of the world.
V. Let it be observed here, that though we have a very short account of this dispen- sation in scripture, yet as Job probably lived under it, there are some bright discoveries of the resurrection of the dead, and of future happiness for good men, among the speeches of Job, especially in the xiv. and xv chapters.
VI. Observe also, that this has been the last dispensation of grace, which has been made known, and offered to most of the heathen nations, or their fathers, even to all such as were not descended from Abraham, and have never heard of Jesus Christ. All these therefore abide under Noah's covenant.
CHAPTER IV.
THE ABHAHAMICAL DISPENSATION ; OR, THE RELIGION OF ABRAHAM.
I. YV HEN the great God saw, that the greatest part of mankind in some generations after the flood, had let go the knowledge and worship of the true God, or mingled it with many superstitions and idolatries, he resolved to choose out a special family for himself, in which the true religion should be continued through all ages, until the coining of the Messiah, and by that means also to the end of the world. For this purpose, he chose the family of Abraham, who was a descendant of Shem, the son of Noah. First, God called him out of his own country, that he might leave all their super- stitions and corruptions behind him, and then he appointed him to live in Canaan, a land over-rnn with idolatry and iniquity, that his house might be a standing monument for God, and a preservatory of tine religion and virtue, in opposition to the degeneracies of the nations who dwelt all round him.
Chap. 4. THE ABRAHAMICAL DISPENSATION. 17
II. The next edition of the covenant of grace was, therefore, the same covenant of Noah, continued to Abraham and his family, with some clearer promises of the Messiah or Saviour. The gospel ivas preached to Abraham, viz. that the Messiah should arise from his posterity to bless all nations of the earth in due season ; Gal. iii. 8. This was the third edition of it, and was distinguished by the addition of a new blessing, viz. a promised inheritance in the land of Canaan, as an emblem or type of heaven and future happiness.
III. And here it should be observed, that the promises that God would be the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, which are construed by Christ into the resurrec- tion of the dead ; Luke xx. 37. as well as the other promises of an inheritance which was typified by Canaan, were understood by Abraham, so far as to mean a heavenly country, and a future recompence, as St. Paul informs us; Heb. xi. 10 — 16.
IV. Besides all the duties before required, God was pleased to add another special duty to this dispensation, viz. the peculiar precept of circumcision, which was enjoined to Abraham and his posterity. It was given partly as a seal of his justification by faith ; Rom. iv. 11. and partly as a sign or emblem of the mortification of sin, and consequently of true repentance, as the commencement of it. Whence it came to pass in after-times, that the scriptures speak of the circumcision of the heart, to signify sanctification, and to manifest the internal and spiritual design of this outward emblem or figure. And it should be observed, that while Moses is using this language, in one place he requires of the Jews to circumcise their own hearts; Deut. x. 16. and in another, he promises that God would circumcise their hearts, and the heart of their seed to love God, &c. Deut. xxx. 6. whence we may infer that it is God who promises to enable us by his grace to perform the duties which he requires. This runs through every dispensation.
V. This covenant is usually called the dispensation of Abraham, which in the literal sense, belonged chiefly to his family or posterity by Isaac and Jacob ; but in the more spiritual sense, as it is explained by St. Paul in his epistles to the Romans and Gala- tians, it extended to all nations, and included all the good men among the gentiles, who are the spiritual seed of Abraham, as St. Paul often represents them. See Rom. iv. 11 — 16. Gal. iii. 9, 29. though it was hardly possible they should know this so clearly till Christ or his apostles explained it.
VI. In this dispensation of Abraham, it is therefore worthy of our observation, that the whole course of his life, from the time he was called from Chaldea to his death, was a continual series of acts of faith, or dependence on the promises and mercy of God, with acts of entire submission to his providence, and obedience to his will.
This faith and dependence of his was so exemplary, and so well pleasing to God, while he constantly acknowledged his own insufficiency, and trusted to the all-sufficiency of God, and to the promises of his grace, that he hereby became as it were a pattern or precedent of the way of man's acceptance with God, or justification by faith ; Gen. xv. 6. compared with Rom. iv. 3. We are to be justified as Abraham was, when he believed in the Lord, and it was counted to him for righteousness, that is, he was justified or accepted of God.
His submission also, and his obedience to the will of God in difficult trials, was so honourable in that early age of the world, that hereby he was appointed a pattern to all future ages of obedience, as well as of faith. And the apostle Paul makes much use
VOL. iv. D
J8 THE MOSAICAL DISPENSATION. Chap. 5.
of the history of his life, in recommending his faith and obedience to their imitation ; and those who practise it are called the seed of Abraham, and are said to be blessed with the blessing of Abraham ; Gal. iii. 9.
VII. So great favour did he obtain in the sight of God, that God was pleased to bestow the special blessings of the covenant of grace on his posterity, Isaac and Jacob, in the following generations, and to give them the land of Canaan also in possession. In the household of Abraham and his posterity, God set up a visible church for himself, which also was continued in their families after them. This church in the days of Moses was formed into a national church, as we shall shew immediately ; and thus continued till the coming of the Messiah or Christ, who was born of this race of Abra- ham, a great many ages afterwards, according to the ancient promise.
VIII. Here is a remarkable controversy and dispute among christians, whether the promise or covenant, made by God to, and with the seed of Abraham in Gen. xvii. and in many other places, where God promises to be the God of Abraham and his seed, is to be construed to extend to his carnal seed, the Jews, in any of the spiritual blessings signified thereby ? Or whether the spiritual blessings signified thereby, belong only to his spiritual seed, who are the imitators of his faith and obedience, whether they be Jew or gentile. And then it is debated also, whether the spiritual seed of Abraham, under the New Testament, that is, true christians have any spiritual blessings promised, or entailed to their children by the strong assertions of St. Paul, concerning their in- terest in Abraham's covenant, and whether their carnal seed or offspring, have any general and indefinite title to spiritual blessings, by virtue of these and the like pro- mises to Abraham, as the father of the faithful : But I am not willing to embarrass this short essay with any such long and unhappy controversies.
IX. Let it be observed, that these three early dispensations of grace, are called the patriarchal dispensations, because they were first communicated to those three patri- archs, Adam, Noah, and Abraham.
r
CHAPTER V.
THE MOSAICAL DISPENSATION J OR, THE JEWISH RELIGION.
I. A HE same gracious covenant or gospel, was revealed further to the seed of Abra- ham, or the Israelites, by Moses, together with all the same seals or emblems of sacri- fice and circumcision, which signified atonement for sin, and sanctification or purifi- cation of our nature, God was pleased to discover this to Moses, as a fourth edition of the covenant of grace, and by him to the family of Jacob, who was the grandson of Abraham ; that is, to the nation of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai ; but not to the other nations of mankind : Though the other nations might and did reap considerable advantages, by God's setting up this one nation in the earth as a beacon on a hill to spread the light of true religion far around. This was called the levitical or mosaical or Jewish dispensation. And it is plain from Heb. iv. 2. That the gospel, that is, the true covenant of grace, or way of salvation, ivas preached unto them, as well as unto us, though their dispensation is oftentimes for special reasons, called the law in scripture.*
* It is necessary to take notice here, once for all, that the word " law," is used in various senses in St. Paul's epistles. Sometimes it siguities the moral law, or ten commandments, sometimes the five books of Moses, and some-
Chap. .5. THE MOSAICAL DISPENSATION. )9
II. Under this Jewish dispensation, the moral law, in all its duties, and the will of God in many and various particulars of his authority and his mercy, were more expli- citly set before men : Their encouragements also to repentance and hope in divine grace for eternal life, grew greater by the many precious promises and blessings, both of par- donino- and sanctifying grace, revealed to them, and many intimations and discoveries of the mercy of God, which they enjoyed. This was also eminently signified by the dwelling of God amongst them, both as their God and their King, in a visible glory, in his tabernacle or temple, upon the mercy-seat, in the holy of holies.
III. Here also, there were a multitude of new emblems added, that is, new cere- monies, new signs and pledges, both of the blessings of God and of the duties of man, as well as types and figures of the characters and offices of the Messiah or Mediator ; all which are usually called the Jewish ceremonies, and are too many to be enumerated here. The chief designs of them were, first, to give the Jews a ceremonious worship in that infant state of the church, that they might not be tempted by the pomp and orna- ments of heathen worship, to run into their idolatry. Secondly, to unite them as a nation in one form of religion and government, and to make and maintain an evident distinction of them from the rest of the nations round about them, who are called gen- tiles, which in the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew languages, signifies the nations. Thirdly, to typify and figure out to them the various glories of the Messiah, and of the gospel, in the duties and blessings of it, under the veils and shadows, and figures of that age, which are more clearly explained under the New Testament.
IV. As this dispensation was begun by Moses, so it was carried on in the nation or church of Israel, during all the time of the judges, the kings, and prophets, till the coining of Christ, or rather till his ascension to heaven, and pouring down of the Spirit. The business and design of the prophets, was not to introduce any new dispensation among the Jews, but to give them further assurances of the coming of the Messiah, or the promised Saviour, to keep him in their view in every age, and keep their hopes alive, even in their lowest estate. The prophets gave them also, more particular descrip- tions of his character and offices, in order to prepare them for believing in him, when he should come. They spoke more particularly of the promises of pardon of sin, of the sanctification of our natures by the Holy Spirit, with hints of a future state of recompence for the good and bad among mankind ; all which appear more eminently in the writings of David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel.
V. It was also a further design of the prophets, to put them in mind of their duty, to reprove them for sin, and by many motives and examples, by invitations, threaten- ings, and promises of every kind, both temporal and spiritual, to encourage, to warn, and to reform them, to awaken them to repentance and trust in divine mercy, and the practice of holiness, in order to their temporal benefit, and their eternal salvation ; and with all, to maintain their obedience to the law of Moses, or the whole levitical dispen-
times, the whole Old Testament ; sometimes, it means the peculiar covenant of Sinai, and at other times, it includes the whole Jewish dispensation, or the covenant of grace, as it was exhibited to them with all its legal or levitical appendices. Now it is only the connexion in which this word stands, that can distinguish and ascertain to us, in which of these senses the word " law" is used ; and I hope what I have here written, will go a great way towards shewing us what the holy writer means by it, in any particular text, and how to understand his sense and his rea- soning, which is of great importance, in learning the difference between the law and the gospel.
D 2
20 THE PECULIAR COVENANT OF SINAI. Chap. 6.
sation, which carried in it the covenant of grace. So saith Malachi, the very last of the prophets, in the end of his prophecy; Mai. iv. 4. Remember ye the law of Moses, my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb, with the statutes and the judgments; for these were appointed to continue till the Messiah came, even till the Lord, who was the messenger or angel of the covenant, should come to his temple, who was to be intro- duced by John the Baptist, under the name and character of Elijah the prophet, as is expressed, chapter iv. verses 5, 6. compared with chapter iii. verse 1.
CHAPTER VI.
THE PECULIAR COVENANT OF SINAI.
I. JtSUT it must necessarily be observed here, that in this dispensation of Moses, there were several outward precepts or ordinances, which were partly ceremonial or sacred, and partly civil or political, together with divers promises of a carnal and tem- poral kind, superadded to the gospel of grace and salvation ; which precepts and pro- mises, together with all the ten commands, considered distinctly and apart from the gospel, made up that Sinai covenant, which separated the Jews from the rest of the nations, and which was really in the nature of it a covenant of works. This is evident, because their works of obedience were to be their justifying righteousness, so far as to preserve their lives and comforts, in the land of Canaan, as Moses expressly teaches them ; Dent. vi. 24, 25. And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to J'ear the Lord our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as at this day : And it sliall be our righteousness, if ice observe to do all these commandments before the Lord our God. Now this is very different language from what St. Paul speaks to the Romans, and to the Galatians, when he describes our righteousness for justification before God, according to the covenant of grace and salvation.
And if in any instances, the Jews had broken the rules or laws of this Sinai covenant, in outward actions, or ceremonial defilements, they were bound to offer particular sacrifices, or to apply themselves to special washings or fastings, or other methods of purification or atonement, and to a visible reformation ; and then in the way of a law of works, they were absolved from the penalties threatened, that is, they were pardoned and freed from outward punishments, by the performance of these works.
III. But this Sinai covenant considered alone, was never designed to be that covenant of grace, whereby they should obtain salvation, or heaven and eternal life from God, as the Lord of souls and consciences. St. Paul expressly says, that these sacrifices, or rites of purification, could not make them perfect, as pertaining to the conscience, nor could they take away sin, or reach any further than the purifying of the flesh; Heb. ix. 9, 13. and this evidently appears to reach only to the present life, from this consideration among others, that in the law of Moses there were no sacrifices, atonements or purifications, ever appointed for capital crimes, such as adultery, murder, blasphemy, idolatry, &c. nor for spiritual sins, such as pride, malice, envy, atheism of heart, and such like; nor indeed for any offence whatsoever of a moral kind, which was not visible and injurious to the public welfare.
Nor did any of their sacrifices do any more than set them right, as to the state or visible church. St. Paul gives a hint of this, when in Acts xiii. 39. he says, ye who
Chap. G. THE PECULIAR COVENANT OF SINAI. 21
believe, are justified from all those things, by Jesus Christ, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. This Sinai covenant, therefore, was made only between God, as the political Head or King of that people, and the Jews, as his national sub- jects, or at most, but as sitting- on the mercy seat, on a cloud of glory, as the visible Head of a national visible church : And it Avas not designed to reach to the concerns of another world. It was as I have said, by the works of obedience to this political or outward covenant, that the Jews, whether considered as a nation, or a visible church, or as single persons, were entitled to long life and peace, in the land of Canaan, and temporal blessings therein ; and then by notorious violations of it, either as a nation, or as single persons, they forfeited these blessings.*
IV. Let it then be well considered, that this Sinai covenant between God, as their national king, and the Israelites as his subjects, which is often called the law in scrip- ture, and sometimes the first covenant, taken separately and apart by itself, was a very distinct tiling from the covenant of grace, and was but a temporal appendix to it. Yet the covenant of grace, or that gospel of pardon of sin and eternal life, which more evidently, or more secretly ran through all the dispensations of God, since the fall, was included in the Jewish dispensation also, as the most eminent part of it : This gospel related to their eternal concerns with God, as the Lord of conscience. This, in some clear expressions, and in many types, and dark hints, teas witnessed by the law and the prophets, as Rom. iii. 21. And it was this gospel, by which both Abraham and David, and the pious Jews were pardoned, and saved with an eternal salvation : St. Paul proves this in Rom. iv.
That great apostle, in his epistles to the Romans, and Galatians and Hebrews, is often teaching them, that this Sinai covenant, this law of Moses, with all the ceremonies of it, could not give them life; Gal. iii. 21. that is, peace of conscience, with pardon of sin, and eternal salvation ; nor was this Sinai covenant ever intended or designed by God himself for this end, and it was in due time disannulled for the weakness and unprofit- ableness thereof; Heb. vii. 18. yet the carnal Jews were very fond of applying it to this sense and purpose, expecting, that the blood of bulls and goats should take away their sins, and that this law of ceremonies should make the comers thereunto perject, and cleanse their conscience in the sight of God, as the Lord of souls and consciences.
And this is the reason why St. Paul gives them so frequent warnings against this mistake ; particularly in the third and fourth chapters to the Galatians, where he repre- sents the law as a covenant of works, which curses them who continue not in all things
* It is not improper, to make this observation by the way, viz. that God's dealing with whole communities, with societies, cities, or nations, through all ages of the world, in the visible dispensations of his common providence and government, has been very much, according to the tenor of this covenant of works, which he made with the Jews at Sinai, that is, according as their public outward behaviour should be, whether virtuous or vicious, so his visible blessings, or visible punishments should attend them as proper recompences. And if they should by their iniquities provoke God to punish them, yet upon their visible repentance and reformation, there should be a release from their bonds of punishment, and a restoration of their blessings; always provided that they had not sinned in so very pro- voking a manner, as to be given up by God the governor of the world, to utter ruin and desolation. Plain evidences of this may be derived from the Canaanites, Sodom, Nineveh, Babylon and some others.
And there is this plain reason for this part of divine conduct, viz. whatsoever single persons or individuals have prac- tised either virtue or vice, if they are not either rewarded or punished in this world, there is another world, or a future state, in which the righteous God, as the judge of all, can, and will reward or punish them: But communities, cities or nations belong only to this world, and are all dissolved, and have no being in the other, and can neither be rewarded or punished there as public bodies: And therefore God who exercises visible judgment on earth, when he pleases, will frequently reward or punish communities visibly in this world, to shew his love to virtue and piety, and his aversion to all sin, and to preserve an awful sense of his holiness and government among the children of men.
22 THE PECULIAR COVENANT OF SINAI. Chap. 6.
written in the law to do them; chapter iii. verse 10. and he represents the difference between this law and the gospel, by the difference between mount Sinai and mount Zion, or Jerusalem, in which Zion stood, the one as leading to bondage, and leaving the Jews under guilt and fear, the other as giving liberty, and life, and peace, chapter iv. verses 21 — 31. And it is for the same reason that Paul says, Gal. v. 3. that he that is circumcised, as hoping for salvation by this covenant of Sinai, he is a debtor to the whole law. Nor can he be saved this way, unless he obeys it all perfectly ; and he that seeks salvation by such a covenant of works, is fallen from grace, or has left the doctrine of grace ; verse 4.
V. Now, since this law of Moses taken by itself, as the mere Sinai covenant, was in the very nature of it a sort of covenant of works, for the man that doth the commands thereof, shall live by them; Rom. x. 3. Lev. xviii. 5. hence it comes to pass, that in the writings of St. Paul, who was well acquainted with all the dispensations of God, the law of Moses, in some places, is not only called the first covenant, to intimate another or clearer dispensation of grace to follow it, but it is brought in sometimes also as a representation or specimen of that original covenant of works, or law of innocency, which was made at first with man for immortality and eternal life : which law all man- kind have broken, and by nature they all lie not only under the commands, but under the curse of it ; and therefore by it no man can be justified or saved, as in Rom. iii. 19, 20. and x. 5. Gal. iii. 10, 12.
It is evident from several verses in these two epistles to the Romans and Galatians, that the Sinai covenant does certainly represent the original covenant of works, and the curse of it, under which all men lie, by nature, for it is said, that Christ had redeemed the Galatian gentiles, as well as St. Paul the Jew, from the curse of the law, by bearing the curse for them; verse 13. but the Galatians were never under the law of Sinai, nor did that law curse them, any otherwise but as breakers of the original moral law of God, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them ; verse 1 0.
^ 1. And indeed we may take notice, that the original covenant or law of works, which required perfect obedience, in order to mans justification or acceptance with God, is frequently exhibited and represented up and down in the writings of Moses, and set before the Israelites in many views, and that for several wise purposes: As, 1. To shew them what was the perfect rule of obedience and duty which God required of man ; and, 2. To instruct them how much God insisted upon perfection of righteousness, in order to justification by their own works in his sight. He did this also, 3. To convince them that they had all wretchedly transgressed this law of works, and broken this covenant of perfection : And, 4. That they might despair of eternal life by this law ; and that after all their necessary endeavours to obey this law, they might still betake themselves to faith, or a dependence on the pardoning mercy and grace of God ; in short, it was to lead them to trust in that gospel, which is contained in the general promises given them by Moses, and typified by the sacrifices of their Sinai covenant, and other ceremonies.
VII. St. Paul himself, in his writings, makes use of these mosaic representations of the law of works, sometimes for this very purpose. See Rom. iii. 20. By the law is the knowledge of si?i, whether it be the Jewish law of Sinai, or the original law of inno- cency. Again, Rom. v. 20. The laiv entered that sin might abound; which at least must
Chap. 6. THE PECULIAR COVENANT OF SINAI. 23
have this sense, that the Jewish law was introduced in the multitudes of its precepts, in the perfection of its requirements, and its repetitions of the moral law, or law of inno- cency, that sin might evidently appear to abound among men, and that by the law they might be so deeply convinced of sin, as to become dead to ike law, as St. Paul was ; Gal. ii. 19. that is, that they might be dead to all hopes of eternal life by the law of works, when they saw the number of its precepts, and perfection of its demands.
VIII. Thus by the law, the Jews might gain, not only the knowledge of sin, but also of the curse or death that was due to it. Rom. vi. 23. For the wages of every sin is there pronounced to be death; and Gal. iii. 10. cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the law to do them. And thus Paul argues, that they might be excited to fly to the grace of God, to obtain pardon, or justification, or a justifying righteousness by faith, or dependence on grace through Jesus Christ. Gal. iii. 24. The law was our schoolmaster, strict in its precepts, and severe in its threatenings and punish- ments, to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
He that diligently reads St. Paul's epistles to the Romans and Galatians, will find much of this sort of reasoning about the Jewish law ; supposing it to contain in it, or at least, to represent and figure out, the first covenant or original law of works, by which we sinful creatures can never be justified, and according to which many of the Jews were ever ready to hope for justification by their own works. And, probably, when the ten commands of this law were pronounced from mount Sinai, it was called by Moses, Deut. xxxiii. 2. a jiery law, because it was attended with such lightning and thunder, storm and terror, with a design to represent the curses of God, which attended every sinner, who had broken his general original moral law, as well as those who wilfully should break any particular law of God's making; Heb. xii. 18.
IX. Thus, though the word " law," in some scriptures represents the covenant of works, yet in some other places of St. Paul's writings, the law of Moses, or the Jaw and the prophets, including the whole Jewish dispensation, is brought in by the same apostle, as exhibiting the gospel, though not in its full clearness, and as witnessing to the covenant of grace, or the way of obtaining righteousness or justification by faith; by which Abraham the patriarch, and David the Jew, and all the Jewish saints, were pardoned, justified, and accepted of God, unto eternal life.
And, indeed, this covenant of grace, or gospel of salvation, through faith in the mercy of God by a Mediator, with all the benefits thereof, viz. pardon, justification, adoption, sanctification and heavenly glory, was included therein, was witnessed by the law and prophets, and was typified by many shadows and figures of the mosaic dispen- sation. See Rom. iii. 21. and iv. 5 — 7. and Heb. iv. 2. To them teas the gospel preached, as well as unto us, as the words should be translated : Even that same gospel, which was preached to Abraham ; Gal. iii. 8. That gospel, which was the blessing of Abraham, containing the promise of the Spirit, to be received by faith ; Gal. iii. 14. as well as the hope of righteousness. See this made further evident by St. Paul, explaining the types of that dispensation ; Heb. ix. and x.
X. It may be objected here, indeed, that the Jewish dispensation could never include in it the covenant of grace, because Paul the apostle, and Jeremy the prophet, both say, concerning the gospel, Behold the days come, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, — not according to the covenant I made with their fathers, when I led them out of the land of Egypt : But this is the covenant that I will make with the house
21 THE PECULIAR COVENANT OF SINAI. Chap. 6.
of Israel, in those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts, and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: For I wtll be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iydquilies will J remember no more; Heb. viii. 8 — 12. by which it seems evident, that the first, or old Jewish covenant, did not promise sanctification of the heart, and pardon of sin, which are promised in the new covenant, or the gospel of Christ.
To this I answer, that the Jewish covenant of Sinai, taken alone by itself was, as I have said before, a temporal covenant, or law of works, and an emblem of the original covenant of works, and did not include spiritual and eternal blessings, viz. pardon of sin and sanctification of heart : And yet it was upon this Sinai covenant, that the carnal Jews depended, and would depend, for these blessings, or for acceptance before God. But the whole Jewish dispensation, taken all together, did include these spiritual and eternal blessings in it, and they were bestowed in some measure on all the Jewish saints, though they were mingled with many darknesses, and left the people under great fears of death, and many doubts, and much bondage of soul; as Heb. ii. 15. and x. 1 — 3. Gal. iv. 24. But in the days of Christianity, and the proposal of the gospel to the Jews, these better promises of pardon and sanctification are much more numerous, more clear and explicit, and lead sinful men more directly into this salvation by Jesus Christ, as the Reconciler, and by the Holy Spirit, as the Sanctifier, and these blessings are bestowed in much greater abundance. This occasions it to be called a new covenant, though, in truth, it is only a new and fairer edition of the ancient covenant of grace, much brighter than that which the Jews had at first, which was so mingled with, and partly obscured by the Sinai covenant.
XL Thus it has been made evident, that the law of Moses, including the Sinai covenant, was so far an emblem of the original covenant of works, in the rigour of its commands, do this and live, and in the severity of its punishments, the soul that sinnctli shall die; Gal. iii. 12. The man that doth them shall live in them; and verse 10. cursed is every one that conlinueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them; and it was also an emblem of the covenant of grace, and the benefits thereof, viz. pardon and sanctification in the purifications and atonements appointed by water and fire, and bloody sacrifices; Heb. ix. 9, 13, 14, 24. and x. 1 — 4. The law had a shadoiv of good things to come: It con tain ed figures for the time then present: The holy places made with hands are the figures of the true, and the patterns of things in the heavens ; the Greek words are ix.i, ™^«Cai, iirohiypaTa, iflmm, &c. and the apostle argues upon this suppo- sition ; if the blood of bulls and goats, and the ashes of a heifer, mingled with running water, as in Num. xix. 17. sprinkling the unclean, sanctijieth to the purifying of the flesh, that is, to the removal of ceremonial defilement, how much more shall the blood of Christ — purge your consciences from dead works, that is, from works deserving death, to serve the living God.
XII. But we must remember also, what I said before, that the law of Moses was not only an emblem, but was really a covenant of works, so far as it related to temporal blessings, in the land of Canaan; and it was really a dispensation of the covenant of grace, so far, as it contained in it various promises of eternal pardon and inward sancti- fication, and God's acceptance of those that repented of their sins, and trusted in his grace, so far as it was then revealed.
XIII, It is a further remarkable evidence of this truth, that St. Paul distinguishes
Chap. 7. THE CHRISTIAN DISPENSATION. 25
the two different ways of justification, by the covenant of works, and the covenant of grace, by texts cited from the law of Moses. See Rom. x. 5. compared with verse 6. Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, saying, that the man who doeth those things, shall live by them: But the righteousness, which is of faith, speaketh on this tvise, say not who shall ascend into heaven, SfC the word is near thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart, that is, the ivord of faith which we preach, SfC. Here you see, is both law and gospel, contained in Moses's writings, if we can but learn to distinguish them, and not confound them.
XIV. Nor, indeed, can I think of any other way, to account for this conduct of St. Paul, in citing so frequently the law of Moses in different parts of it, both to prove the universal condemnation of all mankind, both Jew and gentile, by the law of innocence or covenant of works, and also to prove our justification by faith, through the grace of the gospel. This is the only clue that I can find, to lead me into the sense and meaning of the apostle in such texts, and the only method that I know of, to reconcile the reasoning of that great and holy writer, in the account he gives us of the Jewish and christian dispensations. But I now proceed.
CHAPTER VII.
OF THE CHRISTIAN DISPENSATION.
I. _L\ OT WITHSTANDING God had done so much before in several ages, towards the salvation and recovery of mankind, from the ruins of their fall, and had set up his church in the Jewish nation, to maintain the light of true religion there, within sight of the gentile kingdoms round about, yet the gentiles multiplied their iniquities and idola- tries, and the Jews turned almost all their religion into superstition and empty formalities, so that true vital godliness and morality were in a great measure lost out of the world. Therefore the blessed God saw it a proper season to put an end to this dispensation of Moses or Judaism, and to bring in the last and best of all the dispensations, and that is Christianity, which is revealed to us in the New Testament : This is the last edition of the covenant of grace, and is eminently called the gospel. Herein, we have many plainer discoveries of the transactions of God with men, even from the creation ; we have much clearer notices of our duty, and many richer promises of divine grace, than ever we had before, with greater assistances and encouragements to repentance, faith and holiness.
II. All this comes by Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the promised seed of the woman, the Messiah, $c. The lata came by 3Ioses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ,' John i. 17. Jesus, who was the Son of God, before all worlds, the appointed Mediator of the new covenant, foretold by Moses, and by the prophets, is now actually come down from heaven, and dwelt with men. In his incarnation, his poverty, his preaching, his holy life, his many miracles, his obedience and death, in his sacrifice of atonement, his burial and his resurrection from the dead, in his ascension to heaven, his intercession and exaltation to the kingdom, he fulfils the various offices of his mediation, which the ancient prophets foretold, and which the apostles have described, and explained to us, viz. that he was a Teacher of righteousness, a Prophet, an example of holiness, a High-
VOL. IV. E
26 THE CHRISTIAN DISPENSATION. Chap. V
Priest, a Sacrifice, a Saviour, an Intercessor, a King, and a head of life to his body the church, both spiritual and eternal.
III. As in this dispensation of Christ, revealed in the New Testament, we have a fuller and plainer discovery of our fallen state, our guilt and danger, our degenerate sinful natures, and our weakness to all that, is good ; so also we have much brighter manifestations made of the pardon of sin, and justification of our persons, the methods of its procurement by the obedience, sufferings, and death of Christ, which made a proper atonement for sin, the adoption of us into the family of God, the sanctification of our natures, by the influences of the Holy Spirit, to enable us to repent of sin, and mortify it daily, together with all our consolations in life, and hope in death. And besides all this, the future state both of saints and sinners, the resurrection of the body, the everlasting happiness of good men, and the eternal misery of the wicked, are brought much nearer to our view, as motives to our duty, and support to our hope : And they are set much plainer before us in all the blessings and the terrors of them, together with the duties of faith and love toward the Son of God our Redeemer.
IV. As I have also before observed, that the whole system of natural duties, or the whole moral law, is taken into every edition of the covenant of grace, so in the New Testament also, or in the dispensation of Christianity, it should not be forgotten, that we have a much larger, clearer, and fuller explication of the moral law in all the parts and precepts of it, with the more particular application of them to the occurrences of human life, and a more express notice, that they reach to the thoughts and desires of the heart, as well as to words and actions: So that our love and duty to God, to our neighbours, and ourselves, was never so plainly and fully set forth, either by the light of reason, or by revelation, as it is in this last dispensation. This is sufficiently evident in the sermons of Christ, and in the writings of his apostles. To these I add also, the special exaltation of the duty of love to our neighbours, and forgiveness of injuries to a superior height in the gospel of Christ. Our love to one another is made the sign and token of our Christianity; and our love even to enemies is required and enforced by the love of God to us, and an universal holiness of heart and life, proceeding from love to God and man, is frequently prescribed.
V. Under this dispensation almost all the former emblems of the covenant of grace required of us as duties, are entirely left out and abrogated ; and the chief, if not the only emblems, signs or seals, required in it are baptism and the Lords Supper, which are usually called the two sacraments. This new covenant is as it were sealed, between God and man, in the promised blessings of it, and in all the duties, by God's appointment of these signs or ceremonies on one side, and by man's acceptance of them with a siucere heart on the other.
VI. One of these sacraments, viz. baptism, more peculiarly represents the blessing of regeneration, or the purification of our souls from the sinful principles that work in us, by the Holy Spirit represented under the figure of baptismal water: Our submission to this ordinance, is our acceptance of this covenant. The other, viz. the Lord's Supper, more especially relates to our pardon of sin, through the death of the body of Christ, and effusion of his blood, which are represented by the bread broken, and the wine poured out in the Lord's Supper: Our partaking of this bread and wine, is our consent to this covenant.
VII. Here then we may take notice, that in all these five dispensations of grace,
Chap. 8. THE DOCTRINE OF JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH. 27
there have always been some emblems or figures of pardon of sin, through the great atonement that was made, or to be made, by the death of Christ: Such were the sacri- fices or the slaughter of beasts, under the four ancient dispensations, designed to prefigure this atonement, before it was actually made. And such is the Lord's Supper, wherein bread is broken, and wine poured out, under the dispensation of Christianity, as memo- rials of the dying body and blood of our blessed Saviour, to bring this atonement to remembrance, after it was made.
VIII. There hath been also under the three last and clearest dispensations, some emblem to represent the mortification of sin, repentance and regeneration, or newness of heart and life, viz. Abrahamical circumcision, the Jewish washings, and christian bap- tism.* Whence I think we may reasonably infer, that these two doctrines of pardon of sin through the atonement of Christ, and regeneration or sanctification by the Holy Spirit, are of vast importance in the covenant of grace : And that the christian, as he hath the greatest advantages by the clear discovery of these things, so is under the strongest necessity and command, to make these doctrines the matters of his faith, and these blessings the objects of his hope and prayer.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE DOCTRINE OF JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH, FURTHER EXPLAINED UNDER THE GOSPEL
OF CHRIST.
I. A HOUGH our justification before God is ascribed to faith, and not to works, under every dispensation of the covenant of grace, f yet, under the christian dispensa- tion, our pardon of sin, and our justification and acceptance with God, are more clearly represented to us, and more strongly denied to be owing to our works of obedience, and are much more frequently ascribed to faith ; especially in those places where the holy writers are directly and expressly teaching us the way of justification, according to the gospel, such as the epistles to the Romans and the Galatians.
II. This faith is sometimes represented as faith in the gospel, faith in Jesus Christ, faith in the righteousness of God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ, faith in God through Jesus Christ, 6fC All these phrases imply or include acknowledgment of insufficiency in ourselves, and dependence on the grace of God, or the mediation of Christ. And they hold forth this lesson to us, viz. that we cannot perform works of obedience or righteousness, answerable to the perfect demands of God, so as to stand entitled to impunity and life thereby, under this or any other of his dispensations, as we have shewed before in chapter ii. therefore we cannot be justified by any law of righteousness,
* We are told also by St. Peter, 1 Pet . Hi. 20, 2 1 . that the ark of Noah, wherein eight souls were saved by water, was a sort of emblem or figure like baptism, which now saves us, not by putting away the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toivard God, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. But the parallel is not so obvious and easy, as to encourage me to mention it as an emblem of regeneration or sanctification, in the dispen- sation of Noah ; and there may be some doubt whether the apostle doth not introduce it here, rather as a figure or emblem of that part of our salvation, which consists in our deliverance from the guilt of sin, and in par- doning grace.
t See this matter discoursed of in chapter ii. which should be reviewed before this chapter is read.
E 2
£3 THE DOCTRINE OF JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH. Chap. 8.
or any righteousness of works, which we can do : For St. Paul tells us, that if there had been any law which could have given lij'e to fallen mankind, verily righteousness or a right to life should have been appointed and obtained by that law ; Gal. iii. 21. but now since we cannot obtain a right to forgiveness and acceptance with God unto salvation by our works, therefore it must be done by the righteousness of faith, and dependence; Rom. ix. 30. that is, a righteousness, or rectitude in the court of God, or right to life, which we are made partakers of, by our trusting in mere mercy.*
III. This blessing must come upon us, therefore, as a gift of righteousness, as Rom. v. 17. or as a justifying righteousness imputed to us, as Rom. iv. 5, 6. 22 — 24. or reckoned to our account, because we have no justifying righteousness of our own working. And, therefore, it is often called the righteousness of God, because it is God out of his free grace appointed it, and it is God imputes or bestows it, or accepts us into his favour, as though we were perfectly righteous, when we believe or trust in Christ.
IV. It is called the righteousness of faith, the righteousness of God by faith, and that righteousness which is through the faith of Christ ; as in Phil. iii. 9. because it implies an acknowledgment of sin and imperfection in our works, and a dependence, faith, or trust on the mercy or grace of God, as manifested more clearly in the gospel through Jesus the great Mediator : Or a trust in Christ, who is called the Lord our righteous- ness; Jer. xxiii. 6. and who is made of God righteousness to us; 1 Cor. i. 30. that is, we are justified for the sake of his doings and sufferings.
V. And therefore this faith is called faith in Christ, faith in his name, faith in his Hood, faith in his righteousness ; Gal. iii. 24. John i. 12. Rom. iii. 25. 2 Pet. i. 1. to shew that we must trust or depend on Jesus Christ, our Mediator, and on what he has done and suffered, for our pardon and acceptance with God, or our justification. f It is he hath wrought out such a perfect righteousness, by his obedience and sacrifice, which are perfectly well pleasing to God, and perfectly satisfactory to God, whom we had offended, and which are the true and only ground and foundation of our pardon, justifi- cation, or acceptance with God.
VI. Thus we are justified by faith or trust, as an appointed medium, to be performed by us, in order to our interest in this blessing; and we are justified by the righteousness of Christ, or his obedience unto death, as the only foundation or ground of it : We are justified also by the free grace of God, as the prime author of this blessed transaction,
* In this and the like scriptures, where mention is made of the righteousness of God, of faith, imputed for righteousness, of the righteousness which is of the law, the righteousness which is of faith, Sfc. the word righteous- ness is taken in a forensic sense ; not for one or more acts of obedience or holiness, but for a rectitude in the court of God, or a right to impunity and life.
+ Here let it be observed, that the words 7r'r>? and iririvu, which continually return upon us in reading the Greek Testament, should be frequently translated, by ti-ust and trusting in God, or Christ, especially where the prepo- sition h or iif is added to it ; and it should not be so often called belief or believing ; for it is not such a mere assent as the English word " believing" means, that can justify or save us ; but such an assent to the gospel of Christ, as excites hoj)e or trust in mercy, and so draws forth the soul to love God, repent of sin, and fulfil the duties of holiness.
The Hebrew words which imply trust and dependence in the Old Testament, are represented often by nirtvu in the New Testament, as well as those which signify belief or assent : And therefore David, in the Psalms, where he expresses the inward actings of his soul towards God, is ever using the words trust and hope ; and the translators of our New Testameut should have much oftener used them to express the true meaning of the words r.lrn, and wiWvw in the sat red writers. As John xiv. 1. Ye trust in God, trust also in me. Acts xvi. 31. Trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shall be saved. Mark vi. 22. Have trust in God. Acts xx. 21. Repentance towards God, and trust in our Lord Jesus Christ. Rom. iii. 25. He is set forth as a propitiation through trusting in his blood ; and many other places. This is the constant sentiment of our protestant divines in their opposition to the papists, that ,, fides est fiducia."
Chap. 9. SANCT1FICATI0N NECESSARY AS WELL AS FAITH. . 29
and we are justified by the gospel or covenant of grace, as the great rule of divine con- duct or government in this affair.
VII. Nor should it be forgotten in this place, that as Adam is more clearly described or represented, in the New Testament, as the spring or head of all that sin, condemna- tion and death, which are imputed, or derived, or any way conveyed to all his posterity ; so our Lord Jesus Christ is called the second Adam; 1 Cor. xv. 45, 47. because he is the head and spring of that righteousness or justification, and right to life, which are also imputed, given, or conveyed to all his seed or posterity. As the children of men, the seed of Adam fell into condemnation and misery, by the disobedience of Adam, their head and representative ; so believers in Christ are his seed, and are raised also to justification, life, and happiness, by the active and passive obedience of their repre- sentative or surety, even the Son of God, of whom the first Adam was a type or figure ; see Rom. v. 14, 18, 19. As, by the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to con- demnation ; even so, by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men, that is, all those who are justified, to justification of life. For as, by one mans disobedience, many ivere made, or constituted sinners, by a certain appointment or covenant; so, by the obedience of one, many shall be made, or constituted righteous, by another agreement or covenant : And they are interested therein by free gift on the part of God, and by faith or dependence on their part, as I said before.
CHAPTER IX.
SANCTIFICATION OR HOLINESS NECESSARY AS WELL AS FAITH.
I. Jl)UT let it be always remembered, as under all the former dispensations, so under the christian, that this faith can never justify us if it be a dead faith, that is, such a faith as produceth no good works ; that is, where there is time and opportunity for them ; James ii. 17, 18, 20. It is only that faith that works by love, that is of any avail to our salvation ; Gal. v. 6. To trust in the grace of God, and to persevere in sinning against the authority of God, are subversive and destructive of one another : And the great end and design of God, in saving us by his grace, is to restore us to his holy image, and our duty, and to a willing obedience or submission to his authority, and by all these to make us capable of everlasting blessedness.
II. The very light of nature teaches us, it is in vain for rebels to expect or hope for favour from God, the Ruler of the world, while they repent not of sin, but abide in a state of wilful rebellion. The scripture always supposes our return to God, by repent- ance, and continued endeavours to please him, if ever we would be received into his favour. It is absurd to imagine or suppose the contrary opinion.
It is granted that the obedience which we can pay to any laws or commands of God, under any dispensation of grace, is not so perfect as to answer all the just demands of God in that dispensation, but has still some sinful defects in it, and therefore it cannot become a righteousness sufficient to justify us, or pronounce us completely righteous in the court of God ; yet reason itself constantly assures us, that God is too wise and too holy a being, to pardon and accept, or justify any creature who continues in constant and wilful disobedience. This would be a mere prostitution of his grace to the service of sin, and the encouragement of further disobedience. This would be to make God
30 SANCTIFICATION NECESSARY AS WELL AS FAITH. Chap. 9.
the patron of iniquity, and Christ the minister of sin; Gal. ii. 17. This would be turning the grace of God into wantonness ; Jude, verse 4. And this exceeding great, mercy of God, the holy apostle supposes, should be a sufficient guard against wilful sin, while we hope to be justified by faith. If we are justified by faith in Christ, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abomid? God forbid ; Rom. vi. 1, 2.
III. Besides this same apostle assures us, " that we are chosen, adopted, and for- given, for this very end, that we might be holy and without blame before God in love ; Eph. i. 4 — 6. Therefore is our conscience purged by the blood of Christ, from dead works, that we might serve the living God: Heb. ix. 14. Therefore are we redeemed from sin and hell by the precious blood of the Son of God, that we might be freed from the power of our iniquities, and become a peculiar people zealous of good works; Tit. ii. 14. Our holiness is one chief design of God, in all the exercises of his grace : And as we seek to frustrate his design, if we hope for his acceptance without pursuing holiness, so he will frustrate all our hopes.
IV. And it is upon this account, that holiness of heart and good works in life, where there is opportunity for them, are insisted upon as necessary to our final salvation through all the Bible; and perhaps in one or two places of the New Testa- ment, it is mentioned as necessary, even to our justification, as well as to final salvation: Not that our best works of holiness are such a complete righteousness as to answer the present demands of God, under the gospel, but because they are necessary to shew the truth of our faith, and to render it a living, justifying faith, which could not justify us if it were a dead faith, or without works. It is a working faith that must justify us, as good works evidence and prove the truth and life of our faith.
V. The apostle Janus argues this matter particularly in the last half of his second chapter,* viz. That works must be joined to our faith to make it a justifying faith. From all which it is plain, that in whatsoever scriptures faith is said to justify us without works, it can mean no more than this, viz. that we are pardoned and accepted of God through our faith, trust or dependence on divine mercy, and on the mediation of Christ, under a sense of the imperfection of our best works, and their insufficiency to answer the demands of any law for righteousness or justification. But still in other scriptures we are told, it must be such a faith as works by love, purifies the heart, and wheresoever there is opportunity, it produces the fruits of holiness in our lives; and therefore good works in this sense are needful to secure our justification, as well as they are very necessary, on many accounts, to honour God in this world, and to make us meet for final salvation. Thus the free grace of God in our justification is honoured, and yet holiness is effectually secured in all them that are saved.
VI. To conclude this head, let it be remembered, that since faith and repentance, and holiness of heart and life, are all necessary, in order to our salvation under the gospel, it is of infinitely more importance to see to it, that we pursue and practise this faith, repentance and holiness, than to be nicely and critically skilled in adjusting the logical relations of these christian virtues to our salvation, or our justification, or in
* Yet it i> not iimiss to observe here, that the apostle James, where lie treats on this matter, in the second chapter of his epistle, speaks of that faith, which is a mere assent to the truth revealed ; for it is such a faith as devils have, and it does nol arise to a serious and huiultle hope or trust in the mercy of God, for complete salvation, according to the gospel, which alone is supposed to be productive of good works.
Chap. 10. THE CHRISTIAN DISPENSATION. 31
ranging them artificially in their proper place and order. The most skilful, most zealous, and most orthodox person, will certainly fall short of justification and salvation, if he has not these good qualities of faith and holiness found in him ; and the weakest in knowledge shall be justified and saved, in whom these qualities and characters are found.
CHAPTER X.
THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE CHRISTIAN DISPENSATION ; OR, WHEN WAS CHRISTIANITY
SET UP IN THE WORLD.
I. A HIS last and best dispensation of grace, viz. the christian religion, was not properly set up in the world, during the life of Christ, though he was the illustrious and divine Author and Founder of it: And the reason is plain and obvious, viz. because many of the peculiar glories, duties and blessings of it, as they are described in the Acts, and in the sacred epistles, did really depend upon those facts, which had no existence in Christ's own life-time, viz. his death, resurrection, ascension, and exaltation. It was not proper, therefore, that Christ should publicly preach these doctrines of his atonement for sin, of faith in his blood, of his royalties and intercession in heaven, and our living upon them, &c. in too plain and express a manner in his own life-time, because it would have given too much offence to his hearers ; and his wisdom taught him to preach the truths of his gospel to men, as they were able to bear it; Mark iv. 33. John xvi. 12.
II. Therefore it was but seldom that he mentioned these things in his own personal ministry ; and it was but just at the end of his life, that he instituted the second sacra- ment, or the Lord's Supper, which discovers plainly, and in most express language, the blessed doctrine of his atonement for sin; and it was after his resurrection he completed the form of the first sacrament or baptism, wherein our regeneration by the Holy Spirit is represented, and the Holy Spirit is expressly named.
HI. The kingdom of Christ, therefore, or the christian dispensation, was not pro- perly set up in all its forms, doctrines and duties, till the following day of Pentecost, and the pouring down of the Spirit upon the apostles from our risen, ascended and exalted Saviour. It was just before his ascension, that our Saviour told them, that they should preach his gospel to all nations, when they had received the promised Spirit, and they were to tarry at Jerusalem, till they had received this power ; Luke xxiv. 42. The preaching of Christ, and his life, his death and his resurrection, laid the foundations of his kingdom, but it was the preaching of the apostles, after he ascended to the throne in heaven, that actually set up his kingdom here on earth.
IV. The three or four years of Christ's personal ministry upon earth, were a sort of medium, or an hour of twilight between the darkness of Jewish veils or types, and the clear daylight of the gospel or Christianity : It was rather a removing- away the rubbish of traditions, superstitions, and corruptions of truth and duty, &c. as a preparation for the kingdom of Christ in the world, than the very constitution of that kingdom. Accordingly, the preaching of Christ ran thus; Matt. iv. 17. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And the petition in the Lord's Prayer corresponds with it. Matt. vi. 10. Thy kingdom come.
He himself preached only to the Jeivs and Samaritans, and forbid his apostles to go
32 THE CHANGE FROM JUDIASM TO CHRISTIANITY. Chap. 11.
quite so far at that time; for as he would not suffer them to preach to the gentiles, so neither to carry their ministry into Samaria; Matt. x. v. whereas his gospel was designed for the heathens also, even for all mankind. This he often intimated in parables, during his public ministry on earth. He foretold them also, that he had many things to say to them, which they could not bear at that time. See John xvi. 12. And several other things which they heard and saw in secret, which related to the setting up of his king- dom, they were charged not to declare, till the Son of man was risen from the dead; Matt. xvi. 20. and xvii. 9. and what they heard from him then in the ear, they should afterwards publish, as upon the house-tops.
V. Thence it follows, that in order to learn all the doctrines and duties of the chris- tian religion completely, we must not only consult the history of the four gospels, which contain the life of Christ and his personal ministry, but we must also consult the acts of the apostles after his ascension, together with their epistles to the churches ; for therein, this our holy religion is more completely discovered and explained in many particulars, relating to Christ's atonement for sin by his death, our pardon and justifi- cation by faith in him, his intercession, his headship of the church, his kingdom over all, his final judgment, &c. For all this was more fully revealed to the apostles, by their conversation with Christ about his kingdom, forty days after his resurrection ; Acts i. 3. and by the large effusions of the gifts of the Holy Spirit upon them, when he ascended to heaven, and sent them to plant and propagate the christian church throughout all the world.
VI. And though the apostle Paid ivas the last of the apostles, that is, was called by Christ himself, after his ascension to heaven, yet we who are of the gentile nations, are more particularly to learn our religion, in the several doctrines and duties of it, from his writings, who was in a more especial manner commissioned to be the apostle of the gentiles; Gal. ii. 7, 8. and who had this mystery of preaching the gospel to the gentile world, revealed to him before the other apostles well understood it. He received his gospel from Jesus Christ himself by revelation, as he tells us; Gal. i. 1,2. And he came not a whit behind the very chiefest of the apostles, either in knowledge or gifts, or labours, in success, or in sufferings; but was more eminent and glorious, in his active and passive services for Christ, than any other, and perhaps than they all ; 1 Cor. xv. 10. and 2 Cor. xi. 5, 6. And he hath left more of his epistles behind him, for the use of the gentile churches, than all the rest put together.
It is moreover evident, from several of this apostle's writings, that he had a most peculiar insight into the various and different dispensations of God to man, from the beginning to the end of the world. 1 1 is writings, therefore, eminently demand our perusal, if we would learn our lessons of Christianity.
CHAPTER XI.
THE GRADUAL CHANGE FROM JUDAISM TO CHRISTIANITY; AND THE JEWISH AND GENTILE CHRISTIANS AT LAST UNITED IN ONE BODY.
J. IT is also from the writings of St. Paul, this great apostle, and from his practice and conduct, that we must chiefly learn f lit gradual procedure of God, in the aholition of the Jewish dispensation, and the complete introduction of Christianity into the world,
Chap. 11. THE CHANGE FROM JUDAISM TO CHRISTIANITY. 33
or among all nations, both Jews and gentiles, which thing has some difficulties attending it ; but I think may be made easy by the following account.
II. Let us first take notice, that among all the former dispensations of grace, there was none but that of Adam and Noah, who were the two common fathers of all man- kind, which was designed for all the nations of the earth, till the dispensation of Christ was introduced. . By this last dispensation, the heathen nations, as well as the Jews, even all mankind, wheresoever the gospel comes, are called to repentance and salvation. Matt, xxviii. 19. Go teach all nations. Acts xvii. 30. He now commands all men every where to repent. Rev. xxii. 17. Whosoever heareth let him say, come; and whosoever will, let him come. As for the two dispensations of Abraham and Moses, they were more confined to a particular family, and to their posterity, which made up the Jewish nation. The nations of the gentiles had, indeed, some acquaintance with these transactions of God with Abraham and the Jews, partly by their traffic, but chiefly by their captivities and dispersions. These were greatly useful, indeed, to preserve and restore the know- ledge of the one true God, not only among the neighbouring heathens, but among distant countries, Greece, Persia, Assyria, Egypt, &c. And as these things prepared the way for their receiving the gospel, so many prophecies of old did plainly foretel that the last dispensation, or the kingdom of the Messiah, should extend to all nations.
III. Though the apostles by the general words of their commission, which was given them at Christ's ascension, Matt, xxviii. 18 — 20. had an early right to preach the gospel to the heathen nations, yet this was made evident to them, by slow degrees, and conse- quently, their execution of this commission was gradual, according as divine wisdom saw proper, to enlighten them, and as divine Providence conducted them.
IV. The first public ministration of the gospel in its glory, was to the Jews only : It began at Jerusalem in the days of Pentecost, when the Spirit was poured out on the apostles, and other disciples, in the form of cloven tongues. As they were ordered to begin at Jerusalem, Luke xxiv. 47. so it was a most illustrious success, which attended the first opening of their commission : For, on this great day, three thousand souls were converted, that is, among the native Jews, and the proselytes of the temple, or complete proselytes, who were reckoned as natives, though they came from various nations, as appears, Acts ii. 5 — 11. Some time after this, five thousand more were converted at Jerusalem, Acts iv. 4. and the number of believers still increased, and many priests received the faith ; chapter vi. 7.
V. After this, the gospel was preached to the Samaritan Jews, whose predecessors Mere a sort of mingled people, and derived partly from Jews, and partly from heathens ; Acts viii. 5. Then the christian converts proceeded to preach the same gospel in foreign countries, but still to the Jews only, though they dwelt at Phenice, Cyprus, Antioch, §c. Acts xi. 19.
VI. The next sort of converts, who were received into the christian church, were such as the scripture calls the devout or worshipping gentiles, or men fearing God ; many of whom might be proselytes of the Jewish gate,* and who all owned the one true God. Cornelius and his house seemed to be the first fruits of this rank of converts,
* It has been generally taken for granted, that the distinction between the proselytes of the gate, and the prose- lytes of the temple, or of righteousness, was begun many ages before, and was maintained among the Jew s in our Saviour's time, and the next following ages : If this should prove to be a mistake, it will make no important difference
VOL. IV, F
34 THE CHANGE FROM JUDAISM TO CHRISTIANITY. Chap. 11.
at the preaching of St. Peter in Cesarea ; Acts x. 44, 48. After which, the gospel was preached also to these devout gentiles, at Tarsus in Cilicia, at Antioch in Syria, and other places.
\ II. And by degrees, St. Paul, having further and speedier light given him, than the rest of the apostles had, and being eminently made the apostle of the gentiles, preached Christ to the idolatrous gentiles, for their conversion. Perhaps Sergius Paulus, the governor of Cyprus, was the first fruits of the converts of this rank ; and the first great harvest of the conversion of the idolatrous heathens, was probably at Antioch in Pisidia ; Acts xiii. 7, 14.
VIII. Though the apostles themselves, as well as other converts, might have learned by the many parables of Christ, and by the express words of their great commission at first, that the gospel should be preached to all nations, even to all the heathen world; and though it was foretold by so many of the prophets, yet the prejudices of the Jewish nation cleaved so close to some of them for a season, that they could hardly tell how to admit the thought, that the idolatrous gentiles should receive the gospel, or be received into full communion with christian churches ; or even that the gospel was designed for them, at least till they were first made Jews, or proselytes to Judaism; But by much conversing with Barnabas and Paul, and by many glorious successes of the word, among the idolatrous gentiles, and the influences of the blessed Spirit on their minds, they were convinced and encouraged at last, to let the gospel of Christ have this general flow, and spread among all the heathens.
IX. All this while, many of the Jewish converts to Christianity thought they were bound to practise all the Jewish ceremonies ; for they imagined that whoever would come into the church or kingdom of the Messiah, they must come by the way of Judaism, that is, they must be circumcised, and become Jews first, and practise the law of Moses, in order to be christians, though in reality, at that time, it was almost going so far out of the way. And this was what occasioned the great debate in the synod of Jerusalem, where the famous decree was made about abstinence from eating blood and things strangled, ^r. Acts xv.
X. During these times, those devout gentiles, who might be proselytes of the Jewish gate, and were converted to the christian faith, and probably also all the gentile chris- tians* who had been before idolaters, were for a season laid under the restraints of that apostolical decree against eating blood, things strangled, and things offered to idols, lest the Jews or Jewish converts should take too much offence, and scarce admit them into their communion, as being polluted. And it is not improbable that these were the restraints laid by the Jews, during all former ages, on the proselytes of their gate, or those gentiles who were allowed to live within the towns or cities of Judea. This decree
in the icheme 1 have proposed. TIio gospel was first proposed to the Jews, then to the devout gentiles, who owned the true God, whether they were proselytes in any sense or no, and then to the idolatrous gentiles; for it is evident, that the devout "entiles were nearer to the faith of Christ, and might reasonably attend to, and accept the gospel much sooner than idolaters.
* I add, and probably also, all the gentile christians, who had been idolaters, and were then converted, might be restrained, ;is t'ai as the proselyted gentiles were at this season; because the reason of it is the very same, viz, lot offence should be given to the Jews, and Jewish christians. For, by the way, I may say it is scarce to be supposed, that the converted proselytes, or devout gentiles, who were so much better men, and so much nearer to the truth, should have heavier bonds laid upon them, when they received Christ, than those idolatrous gentiles, who were much worse men, and further from the truth.
Chap. 11. THE CHANGE FROM JUDAISM TO CHMSTIANITY. 35
was transmitted round the gentile churches; Acts xvi. 4. who probably at that time were made up of some idolatrous gentiles, as well as devout gentiles, or the Jewish proselytes of the gate.
XI. It was for a very good reason, that the sin of fornication, which was always immoral and unlawful, was joined in that prohibition with blood and things strangled, and tilings offered to idols, because the heathens, by their eating blood, and especially in their idol-feasts, were tempted to fornication and many pollutions ; and therefore this moral prohibition is set before their eyes, together with the other ceremonial prohibitions, to keep them more effectually from these practices, while they gave such offence to the Jewish christians, and the Jews.
XII. But as to those other ceremonial prohibitions, this apostolical decree seems to be but a temporary constitution or restraint ; because some time afterwards the apostle Paul did not keep the Corinthian converts, who had been idolatrous gentiles, under this restraint ; but permitted them to eat things offered to idols, wheresoever their liberty could not be made an occasion of offence, or stumbling to other weaker christians, such as had not learned the complete liberty of the gospel of Christ, so well as they; 1 Cor. viii. 7 — 13. And when these practices ceased to give offence to Jews or Jewish christians, I can see no reason why the proselytes should not be free also, or why they should have more restraint laid on them than others.
XIII. That the prohibition of eating blood and things strangled, as well as of things offered to idols, was but a temporary rule, may further appear from the early and original reason of this prohibition, viz. because the life or blood of the animal was claimed by God, and given to God, to make atonement for the soul, which is very expressly asserted ; Lev. xvii. 10 — 14. And by the pouring the blood out before God on the ground, the flesh was, as it were, sanctified to the use of food for the eater. And no doubt this was the chief reason why eating blood was prohibited to Noah and his sons, and it was derived down to the patriarchs, together with the doctrine of sacrifices. And so long as blood had any manner of appearance of making atonement in sacrifice, that is, till the dissolution of the Jewish state, so long was blood forbidden to the Jews, and to those gentile christians, especially who dwelt near them, or conversed with them. But when the Jewish state was dissolved, and all such brutal sacrifices were utterly abolished, then Judaism vanished, and gospel liberty was more established ; and there could be very few or none to take offence at the eating of blood. And then perhaps St. Paul's advice to other gentile churches became universal ; and set them all free as, Let no man judge you in meat or in drink; Col. ii. 16. Whatsoever is sold in the shambles, eat, asking no question for con- science-sake ; that is, not enquiring whether it were offered to idols, or whether it were killed in the Jewish manner, by letting out all the blood, and 1 Cor. x. 25. for to the pure all things are pure ; Tit. i. 15. J know and am, persuaded by the Lord Jesus, there is nothing unclean of itself, but let no man put a stumbling-block in his brother s way ; Rom. xiv. 13, 14. Meat commendeth us not to God ; neither if ive eat are we the better, nor if we eat not are we the worse ; 1 Cor. viii. 8. Every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving, for it is sanctified, not by pouring out the blood, but by the word of God and prayer ; 1 Tim. iv. 3, 4, 5.
XIV. But the gradual change from Judaism to Christianity will be more fully under- stood, if we attend to this which follows. In the Jewish dispensation there were three sorts of laws, viz. moral, ceremonial, and political.
f 2
3fi THE CHANGE FROM JUDAISM TO CHRISTIANITY. Chap. 11.
1. Tlie moral laws were everlasting, and belonged to all the dispensations of God» which relate to the children of men in all ages, whether patriarchal, Jewish or christian, and were never abolished. 2. The political laws of the Jews were the civil laws of that nation, which God, as their supreme king or political head, gave them by Moses, to be observed in their country, so long as their state or polity subsisted. The gentiles were never under these laws, and therefore when they turned christians, their conversion could by no means bring them into a subjection thereto; for Christianity makes no alteration in the civil governments of this world. The Jews or subjects of the government of Judea, especially while they resided in the land of Judea, were the proper subjects of these political laws, whether they received Christianity or no : and therefore Jewish christians in Judea complied with them, till their polity was finished by the destruction of Jerusalem. .3. As for the ceremonial laws, they were particularly designed, not only to distinguish the Jews from other nations, but also to be types and figures of the blessings of the gospel ; and therefore as they are wisely appointed to foreshew these blessings of Christianity, and to be a distinguishing mark of the Jews, so they were as wisely worn out and abolished when Christianity was introduced, and the partition wall of distinction between Jews and gentiles ivas broken down. They were but shadoivs or figures for the time being, and must vanish when the substance appeared. St. Paul, in his epistle to the Hebrews, chapters ix. and x. and to the Colossians, chapter ii. evidently uses this argument for their abolition, the great design of them being fulfilled.
XV. It is plain therefore, that these ceremonial or religious laws were not lawful for the gentile converts out of Judea, to observe at all, as St. Paul writes in his epistle to the Galatians, if ye are circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing; Gal. v. 2. since they were never appointed for the gentiles by the great God, nor imposed upon them by Christ ; and he is zealous to maintain this their liberty against all Jewish impositions and impostors, who would persuade the gentiles to be circumcised, and to observe their ceremonies.
XVI. As for the Jewish christians, though they were not obliged to observe them as matters of religion, after the setting up of Christianity, yet since all the Jewish nation Mere so much prejudiced in favour of these ceremonies, and since the Jewish christians, and even some of the apostles, could so hardly be brought off from them, they seemed to be indulged for a season in this practice.
And even St. Paul himself, who was a Jewish christian, at particular times engages in the practice of them ; not as things which he believed necessary, in order to serve God, but as mere lawful and indifferent things, and as matters of present expediency, which were wearing off, waxing old and vanishing away, as Heb. viii. 13. that is, they were vanishing as fast as Judaism hasted to its period, and as fast as human nature could bear the wearing out of its old prejudices : and therefore he became all to all at that time, that he might gain some proselytes ; 1 Cor. ix. 20—22. To the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews. I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. Therefore he took Timothy, whose mother was a Jewess, and circumcised him, when he sent him out as a preacher ; Acts xvi. 1—3. in order to ingratiate him with the Jews, or lest he should give offence to Jewish christians : therefore he himself consented to go through the rites of purification as a Nazarite, after the Jewish manner; Acts xxi. 23, 24, 20. So graciously has God, the ruler of the world, condescended to the weakness of men, by indulging these indifferent things for a season in several parts of his transactions with
Chap. 12. OF THOSE WHO HAVE HAD NO REVELATION. 37
them, and in divers ages, because human nature can hardly be led all at once into so great a change of principles and practices.
XVII. There might also be another reason for St. Paul and other Jewish converts, to comply with some of these ceremonies for a season, because the ceremonial and political laws among the Jews were so intermingled, that it was sometimes very difficult, if not impossible, to distinguish the one from the other : and while the Jewish polity lasted, several of these ceremonial laws might be complied with by Jewish christians, under the civil government of the Jews, considered as parts of that polity or government, though they might know their own real freedom and release, which Christ had given them from all Jewish ceremonies, considered as matters of religion. *
XVIII. But after the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, and the dissolution of the Jewish state, their political as well as ceremonial laws were utterly abolished; and by this time, not only the remaining apostles, but all the Jewish christians, were let more clearly into the knowledge of their own liberty in Christ Jesus, and their freedom from every thing written in the laws of Moses, which was not moral. Then the differences between the Jewish and gentile converts were taken away, and by degrees they came more perfectly to unite themselves together in all ordinances of christian communion, in their several churches through the world, according to the frequent directions and exhortations that St. Paul had given them in the xiv. chapter to the Romans, and several other parts of his writings. See on this subject an excellent dissertation of Mr. Benson, at the end of his late paraphrase and notes on Titus. Thus much shall suffice concerning the five dispensations of the covenant of grace.
CHAPTER XII.
OF THOSE WHO HAVE HAD NO REVELATION.
I. x\S for all the persons, the families and the nations of mankind, who have lived under these various dispensations of grace, it is evident that they have had the means of grace and salvation set before them, to recover them from the ruin of the fall of Adam, if they neglect this great salvation, they must perish with great justice. But as for those, who by the negligence and iniquity of their fathers, have lost all notices and traditions of all divine revelations, and of all the dispensations of grace, and particularly, of the last of them which their fathers enjoyed, whether it were patriarchal, Jewish or christian, and which they were entrusted to convey to their posterity, these have nothing remaining, but that knowledge of God, his law, his government and his mercy, which they could derive from the light of nature, and reason, and observation. And, indeed, there were many religious observations which they could and ought to have made on the nature and mercy
* Yet, perhaps, it may be worth enquiring, whether those ceremonies, which were plainly and purely religious, might not be appointed, partly for the public and visible honour of God, when he resided in a bright cloud in the tabernacle and the temple, as the visible head of a visible church on earth: and though he never did reside visibly in the second temple, yet when he rent the vail of the temple at the death of Christ, and when the holy of holies, which was his presence-chamber, was thrown open and common, then God ceased to have any appearance of a residence there, and their church-state was in a great measure dissolved, they having, if I may so express it, driven God from among them, by slaying his Son. And from that time their religious ceremonies might be so far abolished, as to become needless ; yet they were indulged for a season, as indifferent things to the Jewish christians, who had been used to practise them, till the holy city and the temple, or God's visible palace, were utterly destroyed, and those remains of a visible church, were scattered through the earth.
38 THE LAST JUDGMENT. Chap. n.
of the great God, and his gracious providence, his long-suffering, and his continued benefits, as well as from the working of their own consciences, in accusi?ig or excusing their conduct, &c. from which they might inter something of grace and hope.
II. It appears, by their daily experience, that they are sinners : conscience tells them much of their duty, shews them the law of works, accuses them of sin, and condemns them thereby. The daily providence of God, shews them that they have time and space to repent of sin, and trust in his mercy : he hath given them the common comforts of life, and Jilled their hearts with food and gladness, and thereby he hath left himself not without witness, both of his power, government, and goodness to them: Acts xiv. 17. He hath intimated to them hereby, that they should seek after God and his mercy, if happily they might feel after him, and find him ; Acts xvii. 27. supposing they should or might know that the long-siiffering and forbearance of God, should lead them to repentance ; Rom. ii. 4. So that, at least, they might reasonably say with the Ninevites, to encourage their repentance and their faith, who can tell but God may be gracious? Jonah iii. 9.
III. All this, with many other things, seem to give us some notice, that the sinful race of the heathens and savages, even those who never heard of the gospel, in any revealed dispensation of it, are not left merely in the condition of fallen angels to perish unavoid- ably without any hope, or any grace to trust in, or without any encouragement or motive to repentance.
IV. It is true, their light is but dim, and their means of grace run very low ; yet if there shall be found among these persons or nations, any, who fear God and work righteousness, who repent of sin, and hope in a merciful God, Ave believe they shall be accepted of him, through an unknown mediator as Cornelius was : for this fear of God, repentance and hope, is God's own work in their hearts, and he will not condemn the peni- tent soul ; Acts x. 35. Prov. xxviii. 13. Nor will he destroy his own good work in the heart of man, nor shall any penitent and pious creature perish for not knowing and believing those revelations of grace, which he never heard of, and which he could never know or believe.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE LAST JUDGMENT.
I. VV HEN all the dispensations of grace are finished — then conies the great day of judgment. Then all mankind, who have acted their parts on the stage of the world, in the several successive ages, shall appear together; those who are gone down to death, shall arise from the dead at the call or summons of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is appointed judge of the quick and /he dead: that is, of those who shall then be found living his appearance, as well as of those who shall be raised from the grave.
II. In that great and solemn day, every man shall be judged according to that dispen- sation of grace, under which he lived, whether it were that of Adam or Noah, Abraham, Moses or Christ : and sentence shall be passed upon every man according lo his works, that is, according to his compliance or non-compliance with the rules of that dispensation.
III. Those who have refused to repent of sin, and to trust in divine mercy, so far as it was revealed in the dispensation, under which they lived, they stand already condemned by the original moral law of God, or the law of innocence, which they have broken ; and they shall have that condemnation, as it v\ere doubly sealed upon them, for refusing
Chap. 13. THE LAST JUDGMENT. Sg
to accept of offered grace. John iii. 18, 36. He that believeth not, is condemned already: — and the ivrath of God abideth on him, because he hath not believed on the Son of God. But those who have repented of sin, and trusted in grace, and lived according to the dis- pensation under which they were placed, they may hope the condemning sentence of the broken law is reversed, and that they shall be publicly acquitted and absolved from their guilt, they shall have all their imperfections publicly forgiven for the sake of what Christ has done and suffered, they shall be accepted and their good works approved, they shall be acknowledged as the children of God, and be adjudged to eternal life, come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; Matt. xxv. 34.
IV. Here let it be observed, that in the sense of the gospel, good men while they are here upon earth, stand justified in the sight of God, as we have seen before, not by any righteousness of their own works, for they have no such righteousness ; but by faith in his mercy, through a Mediator. This is for the honour of divine grace, which justifies them
freely through the redemption that is in Christ; Rom. iii. 24, 28. and iv. 5. yet in the day of judgment, men shall be justified or condemned according to their works and their words in the sight of the world ; Rom.ii. 13 — 16. Matt. xii. 37. because this public judg- ment is appointed for the honour of divine equity or justice, to make it appear to all the world, that God distributes rewards and punishments to persons who are fitly qualified for the one, or the other ; Isaiah iii. 10. Say ye to the righteous, it shall be well with them, for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. Wo to the wicked! it shall be ill ivith him, for the reward of his hands shall be given him. And our Lord Jesus Christ, the appointed judge of all men, hath the same orders to execute, for he shall render to every man according as his work shall be; Rev. xxii. 12, 14, 15. Blessed are they that do his commandments that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. Snt the dogs, sorcerers, idolaters, liars, <$fc. are all without, they are excluded from heavenly blessings, by the Judge of all the earth, for they are utterly unfit as well as unworthy to enjoy it.
V. To make this matter yet plainer, and to reconcile the different representations which are given of our justification by faith in this life, and our justification by our words and works at the day of judgment, it must be considered, that every christian, who is admitted into heaven, may be said to have a two-fold right to it, viz. there is a right of inheritance which is by faith, whereby we are justified, and become the children of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; Gal. iii. 26. Rom. viii. 17. being interested by the free gift of God in the benefit of his Son's purchase, that is, the inheritance of heaven : and there is also a right of congruity or fitness, which arises from actual holiness of heart and life, whereby we are prepared for the actual possession of this inheritance. So an infant may have a right of inheritance to his father's estate, by his birth or adoption; but helms not a right of congruity or fitness, till he grow up to twenty-one years, or to the age of discretion and capacity to enjoy it, and then he is put into the possession. I think this distinction will sufficiently reconcile the appearing difficulties.
VI. As for those persons, those nations or ages, that have so far lost all the revelations and dispensations of grace, that they know nothing of their own duty, or of the grace of God, but what the light of nature teaches them, they shall be judged according to those teachings of the light of nature, or that knowledge of God, of his law and his govern- ment, of his grace and their duty, which they might have arrived at by the right exercise
40 CONCLUSION OF THIS ESSAY. Chap. U.
of their conscience and reasoning powers. This seems to be the sense of those words of the apostle, Rom. ii. 12 — 15. as many as have sinned without law, that is without a written or revealed law, they shall perish without law ; and as many as have sinned in, or under a written or revealed law, they shall be judged by that law; the gentiles which have not any written law, are a law to themselves, which shews the work of the moral law written in their hearts; their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts accusing or excusing them. But how far divine compassion shall exercise itself further in unpromised ways towards any of those persons or nations, who by the negligence and iniquity of their parents, had lost all the revelations of grace, is to be left to the wise, the righteous and the merciful Judge of all men.
CHAPTER XIV.
CONCLUSION OF THIS ESSAY.
I. *£*- DUE survey, of these dispensations of God to man in this light, perhaps, may enable us to understand many parts of the Bible much better, since it will happily account for many difficulties in the Old Testament and the New, which seem to me very hard to be solved in any other way, to the satisfaction of a diligent enquirer.
II. And as I have been led into this scheme, and manner of conceiving the transac- tions of God with men, by a diligent perusal of the holy scriptures, rather than by any human creeds, confessions or systems, either ancient or modern, so, I cannot but recom- mend the serious consideration of it to those who are resolved to follow the same method of study, and read the scriptures, to learn from thence the articles of our christian faith and practice. Let them, like the noble Bereans, search the scriptures, and see whether this representation of divine things does not come very near to the truth, and make scripture more easy to be understood by shewing the connexion and consistence of every part of it with all the rest.
III. It is confessed after all, there may be several difficulties still attending this scheme of the dispensations of grace, and, perhaps, some mistakes in it ; I am but a weak and fallible creature, and the ways of God are unsearchable, to man, and his judgments past
finding out; Rom. xi. 33. But let it be observed, that among a hundred men, every one can much sooner find faults in any system of divinity, or in the scheme of any science, than one of them will draw up a scheme or system which hath no difficulties.
IV. It has been often found, both in human and divine sciences, that when some particular parts of a scheme or system appear a little disagreeable to our sentiments, as perhaps this may do, we are presently ready to correct them ; but, we find also in a little time those supposed corrections, or their necessary consequences will not comport with other most plain and evident truths, that relate to the same subject, and we then are forced to retract our corrections. While men in this frail state are searching into the deep things of God, we must be content with some remaining darknesses : if there be any short summary of these transactions of God with men, which is more consistent with itself, which is nearer to scripture, and has fewer difficulties than this, I shall be glad to receive it and submit to it. O Lord ! Send out thy light, and thy truth; let them lead us to iky holy hill, let them bring us to the tabernacles of thy grace, and to the mansions of thy glory; Psalm xttii, 3, Amen.
A
CAVEAT AGAINST INFIDELITY:
OR, THE
DANGER OF APOSTASY
FROM
THE CHRISTIAN FAITH:
WITH AN
ANSWER TO VARIOUS QUERIES,
CONCERNING
THE SALVATION OF THE HEATHENS,
AND thb itorc or -rnt
MODERN DEISTS, UPON THEIR PRETENCES TO SINCERITY.
VOL. iv. o
THE
PREFACE.
XT was in the year 1722 these discourses were composed, and they have lain several years by me waiting for a more proper opportunity to be sent into the world. But deism and infidelity having made such violent efforts of late in this nation, and having obtained such unhappy success, as to draw away some from the faith of the blessed gospel, and to stagger others in their belief, I thought providence forbid any longer delay, and called me to add this attempt toward the restraint of a spreading pestilence.
It has not been my business and intent here, to produce the numerous train of argu- ments, whereby the christian religion is supported, and set them in a fair array. This has been done in many forms, and in many volumes by writers of the first rank in our age, which are sufficiently known in the world, and received with just honour.
Yet I take pleasure on this occasion to point to my reader two lesser writings lately published, which are worthy of his perusal. The first is the Lord Bishop of London's Pastoral Letter, written in defence of Christianity, wherein he has drawn into a narrow and comprehensive view, some of the most considerable arguments, for the vindication of our holy religion ; and by exhibiting them in a just and perspicuous manner, he has recommended them to the christian world. The other is Doctor William Harris's Two Discourses, wherein " the reasonableness of believing the gospel, and the unreasonableness of infidelity, are displayed in a convincing light." I could wish that believers and infidels would read these little books with a serious spirit.
There are two sorts of persons in our age, who have not only need to have the evidences of our holy religion set before them, in their fullest view, but it may also be very proper to excite them to a diligent, faithful, and religious attention to these evidences, by representing the formidable and tremendous threatening^ of God, against those who abuse the light they enjoy, and become infidels or apostates in the midst of divine advantages for faith. Happy should I be, if I could impress their souls with a solemn concern and solicitude, equal to the vast and infinite importance of the subject.
The one sort of men have declared themselves unbelievers of the gospel of Christ : They have gone so far as to renounce the scriptures, and forsake Christianity : Some of
o 2
44 PREFACE.
these set themselves to oppose it boldly by such assaults, either of wit or argument, as nature hath furnished them with ; and some join their attempts of reason and raillery together: May God recover them by his almighty grace! I fear there is but little pro- spect of recalling them to the faith, by any thing we can speak or write.
There are others who have not abandoned the gospel, yet have had their minds so corrupted and perplexed, by some objections of infidelity, that they are reduced to a doubting state, whether the religion of Christ be divine or no, and are seeking after some determination by fuller evidence. I do not call these persons deists or infidels : I hope, as well as pray, for their establishment in the faith of Jesus, the only Saviour.
Now my chief design in this treatise, was to attempt a recovery of some of these doubting christians, or to stop them in their course toward apostasy, by representing the dreadful and eternal hazard of rejecting the gospel of Christ, if it should at last appear to have come from heaven: That those who think of abandoning the christian faith, might see and be persuaded, that none of their pretences to natural religion can give them an effectual security from the condemning sentence of the great judge, if they shall to the last oppose and resist the light of evidence that shines round the gospel, in our nation and our day.
I am well aware that my conduct and manner of argument on this subject, will be represented as very uncharitable : Perhaps, I shall be told, that I assume the awful province of God, that I enter into the hearts of men, and pass a judgment concerning their sincerity, while 1 scarce suppose it possible for a man to be truly sincere, in seeking the truth, and yet to live and die an infidel, where the gospel is surrounded with its proper light and evidences.
I must confess it is a sensible grief to me, when I am constrained, by the word of God, to say any thing terrible and severe against my fellow-creatures, my partners in flesh and blood. I would hate and avoid all the characters of a censorious and uncha- ritable spirit. The gospel of Christ is a gospel of love, and while I preach it for the salvation of men, I would never mix my own wrath with it, nor Mould I willingly lie under the shadow of such an imputation. But when the great and blessed God, who has made this gospel, and who searches the hearts of men, has pronounced his wrath and damnation so often against those who believe not in Jtis Son, it is he himself who does in effect declare, that they are not sincere in their searches after the truth : For I am persuaded he would never proclaim such vengeance from heaven against any sincere soul, that with humble diligence and faithfulness enquires, " What he must do to please his Maker."
The blessed God who has ordained the gospel of his Son Jesus, to be the means of the salvation of men to the end of the world, has certainly furnished it with sufficient evidence for the propagation of it, through the successive generations of men, among all that are humble and willing enquirers after truth. The God of nature knows well how much light is necessary, both in the eye, and on the object, to convey the sight of it to those who are willing to see: The same all-wise God well knows also what
PREFACE. 45
capacity in the mind is requisite, and what degree of evidence is necessary to attend any revealed truth, in order to its being received by the honest and sincere soul : And his equity and goodness would never have suffered such a heavy curse to be denounced against unbelievers, if he had not foreseen, that nothing but some corrupt and guilty prejudices could withhold men from receiving the truth of the gospel, where it is accom- panied with its necessary testimonials. It is not I, therefore, but it is the word of God that declares the unbelievers of his gospel to be insincere, while he pronounces such a curse upon them.
The holy and gracious lips of our blessed Jesus, who knew the hypocrisy and insincerity of the Jews, in his day, did often pronounce a sentence of death and destruc- tion upon them ; and when he left the world, he repeated this condemnation upon all infidels, where his gospel should come with its proper evidence, He that believetk not shall be damned ; Mark xvi. 10. The great apostle of the gentiles has assured us, that they who believe not, have suffered the god of this ivorld, that is, the devil, to blind their minds; 2 Cor. iv. 4. and he has confirmed the awful sentence, If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema, or accursed till the Lord come ; 1 Cor. xvi. 22.
Now, since these solemn denunciations of divine vengeance are frequently repeated in our Bible, and make a part of that book, wherein our religion lies, since we are bound to declare all the counsel of God, for the salvation of men, and knowing these terrors of the Lord, we cannot but set them before the faces of those, who are in danger of being drawn away from their stedfastness in the faith ; that if they should at last perish in their own unbelief they may not lay the blame upon the ministers of the gospel, and plead that they had no warning of this condemnation.
It is, therefore, no instance of an uncharitable conduct, to point out to careless wan- derers, that pit of fire and destruction into which they are hastening, unless they turn their feet to another path : It has been always counted an act of charity and love, to pluck the wandering traveller from a fatal precipice, or affright him from approaching the brink of it, by displaying all the dreadful mischiefs, and the certain death that will attend his fall.
On this view of things, if any person shall be led by providence to look into these discourses of mine, whose thoughts have been entangled, and his heart drawn away to any degrees of apostasy, or whose faith of Christ and the gospel hath been shaken by the cavils of men, I would beg one favour of him, for his own sake, more than for mine, and that is, that he would not turn over these pages as a matter of mere curio- sity, nor let his wit loose upon them in wanton sport, nor toss the solemn subject about as an airy jest, or a matter of trifling dispute. This awful theme and contro- versy in Great Britain, hath, in my judgment, no less consequences attending it, than everlasting life or everlasting death.
" Non bic levia aut ludicra petuntur
Fraemia, lectoris de vita animjequc salute certatur,''
46 PREFACE.
The indulgence of a sportful fancy, or a ludicrous spirit in questions so divine and important, is not the character of an honest mind which seeks the truth, nor is it a likely way to find it. The great God, the Maker aud Lord of all, and the fountain of all light and knowledge, is not wont to bless such triflers with divine irradiations. His awful majesty, and his tremendous justice, many times leave them to sport them- selves in their oivn deceivings, till they have woven a fatal snare for their souls, and his righteous judgment may give them up to perish for ever, in their own impious mirth and madness.
If any wavering christian has a sincere desire to be established in the truth, and to save his own soul, let him set his conscience at work in the sight of God, while he peruses the books written on this subject. Let him examine, with an honest heart, whether it be not the utmost hazard of his immortal interest to depart from the chris- tian faith, and to forsake the holy commandments, that have been delivered to him, in the gospel; 2 Pet. ii. 21. Let him see if he can find any other solid and substantial hope of the favour of God, of the pardon of his sins, and final happiness, such as will enable hiin upon just and rational grounds, to face death with courage, and enter into the immediate presence of a holy and offended God.
May the Spirit of Christ accompany this essay, to guard his own divine religion, and make these discourses happily effectual, to establish the professing christian in his holy faith, to secure the wavering from apostasy, and to prevent the eternal ruin of souls. Amen.
London, February 4, 17-8-9-
A
CAVEAT AGAINST INFIDELITY.
2 TIM. ii. 5.
IF A MAN ALSO STRIVE FOR MASTERIES, YET IS HE NOT CROWNED, EXCEPT HE
STRIVE LAWFULLY.
INTRODUCTION.
X HE life of a christian is not a state of indolence and ease : If we seek for salvation and eternal glory, in the way of the gospel, we must shake off sloth and idleness : There is some sacred skill and wisdom required in it, with a vigorous and holy exercise of the best powers of nature : Therefore St. Paul, in my text, compares it to those games or bodily exercises, which were practised, at appointed seasons, by the Greeks, wherein they exerted their utmost care and activity : He uses the same comparison in his first epistle to the Corinthians, chapter ix. verses 24, 25. Where he speaks of being temperate in all things, and of striving to obtain a crown: And he alludes to it in several other parts of his writings. The apostle John, or rather Christ himself seems to have some reference to it, in his epistles to the churches, where he proposes large recompences to them that overcome, and promises a crown of life; Rev. ii. 10. and iii, 21.
These games were of various kinds, such as running a race, wrestling, fighting, &c. Now, for each of these kinds of contest, there were certain laws and rules ordained, as in racing, they must start from such a spot of ground, they must run such a road or track, they must reach such a goal, and approach it in a proper manner too : In wrestling, the law of the contest required them to be naked, that they might not take the advantage of each others clothing : In fighting, they must use only that sort of weapon which was appointed for the combat, &c. And though the crown, which was given to the conquerors was but a poor corruptible one, as the apostle speaks, for it was made of the leaves of an olive, a laurel, a pine tree, or of parsley ; yet, so much honour attended it, and so strict were the overseers of it, that none obtained this prize, though he took never so much pains, and shewed never so great activity, if he did not manage himself, in all things, according to the rules of the game or contest.
So a man, who seeks the prize of heavenly happiness, and aims at the crown of life and glory, must carefully conform himself to the sacred rules which God has appointed ; otherwise he may labour and strive in vain. I take this to be the precise meaning of the apostle in the text, and it gives us fair occasion to derive this doctrine :
Doctrine. — All our pains to obtain the heavenly prize will be lost, unless we seek it in the right way and manner : we shall not be crowned, except we strive lawfxdly. To render this doctrine useful and practical, I shall
I. Endeavour to shew what is the right way by which God has appointed us to seek eternal salvation, or what are the rules and laws of this sacred exercise in order to obtain the heavenly crown.
48 A CAVEAT AGAINST INFIDELITY. Sect. 1.
II. I shall lay down some considerations to enforce and prove this doctrine, viz. that heaven must be sought only in this appointed way.
III. I would answer several queries and objections, which are commonly raised against it in our day, chiefly by such as disbelieve the gospel.
IV. I shall offer two or three general exhortations to christians, derived from this discourse.
V. Propose some preservatives against apostasy, or a departure from the true way of salvation.
SECTION I.
Till'. RILES TO OBTAIN SALVATION PROPOSED, AND THE DUTIES REQUIRED IN THE GOSPEL, OR THE NECESSARY ARTICLES OF CHRISTIANITY.
The first enquiry is this, viz. What is the right way to obtain heaven? What are the appointed rules whereby we must govern our belief and practice ? The great and general rule is the divine revelation or word of God : For when man had lost his original state of innocency, and the favour of God by sin, God knew that his feeble reason, or the light of nature was not sufficient to inform him, what was necessary to recover his favour, and to direct him in the way to happiness ; and therefore he took the first oppor- tunity to acquaint his fallen creature man, that he would not for ever abandon him and all his race, but that there was some hope of his recovery ; and he told him of a Mediator or Saviour, even the seed of the woman that should break the serpent's head; Gen. iii. 15. that is, he should destroy the works of the devil, and repair the ruin which the temptations of Satan had brought in : And doubtless at the same time, the blessed God assisted the reason and conscience of Adam in his enquiries, what duties were to be performed on his part toward his recovering an interest in the love of his Creator. Nor has God been wanting ever since that time to give various discoveries of the right way of salvation in several successive ages, that mankind might be restored to his favour and image again.
The last, the brightest, and the best of all these discoveries is that which he has made in the gospel, by his Son Jesus Christ, and by the evangelists and apostles in the writings of the New Testaments This book therefore contains the rules of that sacred exercise or contest, in. which we must now be engaged to obtain the crown of glory. No pre- tences to the light of reason, no vain faneies of new revelations, no devices of our own heart must dare to oppose or eontradiet the rules given us in this holy book ; if we reject the gospel there is nothing will serve us instead of it. I will not here enter into the question, how far they shall be accepted of God, who never had the word of God revealed to them, nor the gospel of Christ published among them. I reserve this for the end of my discourse. It is sufficient to say at present, that God, the judge of all the earth, will deal in righteousness and wisdom with all mankind, and he is not wanting in mercy to his creatures, who submit themselves to him according to the dispen- sation they live under. Where he has given less, less shall be required : But this is certain, that he requires of all men a conformity to the rules, which he has made known to them ? and therefore wheresoever the gospel comes with sufficient light and evidence, as it has done to us in the British Isles, he expects that we should learn the rules of our
Sect. l. A CAVEAT AGAINST INFIDELITY. 4.9
holy race from thence, and conform ourselves to them, if we would ever obtain the prize of glory.
But to descend to particulars : The appointed way to obtain heaven under the gospel, may be comprized under the following heads, which I call the necessary requisites in order to salvation, and I have multiplied them into six particulars, that I might be more explicit and plain :
I. A knowledge and belief of the great articles of natural religion, whether they contain doctrines or duties :* For though these, alone and in themselves, are not sufficient to save sinners, yet they are necessary in order to our salvation, and the gospel of Christ teaches and confirms them all. We must believe that there is a God, the one only true and living God, almighty, all-wise, and all-good, the Creator of all things ; and we must believe that he governs the world which he has made, and does not sit idle in heaven, and let his creation run at random : But that as a wise and holy Ruler, he takes notice of the behaviour and conduct of all his reasonable creatures.
We must believe that there is a real difference between virtue and vice, between good and evil : And that this does not depend, as some have imagined, upon the mere customs and fashions of particular countries, or the will of princes, but upon the nature of things and the will of God. It is God, who has written it plain in our own consciences, and in the very frame of our rational souls, that it is our duty to fear and love him, to pray to him for what blessings we want, and to praise him and give him thanks for what mercies we enjoy, and to honour, worship, and obey him according to the discoveries of his nature and his will which he has made to us. And as it is our duty to know and honour this God, so it is evident that atheism and blasphemy, and the neglect or con- tempt of God and things sacred, are high crimes and offences against him.
It is written also, in our consciences, with sufficient evidence, that it is our duty to love our neighbour, to be honest, and just, and faithful, and kind: And that cheating and falsehood, injustice and cruelty to our fellow-creatures are hateful vices and never to be practised. It would be endless and needless to cite texts of scripture to prove all this.
We must believe, also, that this great God, the righteous Governor of the world, will call us to an account hereafter, how we have behaved ourselves here, and will sit as a judge upon our past conduct in this life. The light of nature tells us there is some reason to hope that he will reward us gloriously, if we are faithful and diligent, perfect and persevering in our obedience to all his will ; and it gives us just ground to fear, that he will punish us severely in a future state, if we are impious and perverse, and act contrary to the known rules of our duty. But the light of scripture gives us much clearer and surer discoveries of a heaven and a hell, a state of reward and punishment, according as our works shall be.
It is the voice of reason, and it is the language of revelation, that there is a future state to set all things right, and to account for the scenes of disorder in this present life. Without the faith of things unseen it is impossible to please God; for that he that comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those that diligently seek him ; Heb. xi. 6. Nor was there any revelation of grace, that God made to fallen man for his
* By the articles of natural religion in this place, I chiefly intend such as belong to mankind in general, without regard to his fallen and sinful state.
VOL. IV. H
50 A CAVEAT AGAINST INFIDELITY. Sect. I.
salvation, but it pre-supposed or included this article of a future state, and all the other doctrines of natural religion in it.
II. Another thing necessary to our attainment of the heavenly happiness is a due sense of our guilt and misery by reason of sin, and a humble confession of it before God : Some conviction of sin may be derived from our own experience, if we do but converse with ourselves, and take a survey of our own hearts and lives, and compare them with the law of God written in our consciences. Where is the man, who has per- fectly obeyed all the dictates of his own reason, and never contradicted this inward rule of duty? Surely if we know any thing of ourselves, we must confess we are sinners; we have offended God our Creator, and broken his laws : We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, we have lost all just hope of the reward : Every mouth must be slopped, and all the world become guilty before God; Rom. iii. 19. There is none innocent, no not one. Our own conscience accuses and condemns us, and subjects us to the just judgment of God. And not only must we be sensible of our being exposed to divine anger, by reason of sins actually committed, but we must also be acquainted with the corruption of our natures, the body of sin which dwells within us, and be abased before God because of those inward sinful inclinations, and vain affections, which are ever busy and ever starting up to defile our consciences, and pollute our lives.
The gospel of Christ makes a sense of sin necessary to salvation. They, who are whole, have no need of the physician; but only those who are sick: J came not, says our Lord Jesus, to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance ; Matt. ix. 1*2, 13. This is the language of the Old Testament as well as the New : He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy; Prov. xxviii. 13. Jf we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins: But if we say tee have no sin, tve make God a liar, and the truth is not in us; 1 John i. 8 — 10. Now it can never be supposed, that those wretches are in the right way to salvation, who, either through stupid ignorance, or a great degree of pride and self-flattery, fancy themselves innocent: These proud vain creatures must be far from the path of salvation and deliverance, who are not convinced of their sin and danger. They are not in the way to obtain relief, who feel not their distress and misery. Such a haughty spirit of vain conceit makes God a liar, by contradicting the testimony that he gives in his word con- cerning all the children of men,
III. Sincere repentance is another necessary duty required in the gospel, in order to a sinners salvation. Now this repentance implies a hearty sorrow for all our past offences, and a sincere return from sin to the love and obedience of God. The very light of nature and reason, which teaches an innocent creature to obey his Maker, does as plainly tell a sinful creature, that he must repent of his disobedience, that he must be heartily grieved for having broken the laws of his God, and that he must love and obey him for time to come, if ever he expect the least favour from him.
The scripture enforces this sacred duty of repentance continually upon the con- sciences of men, and the gospel of Christ being sent to the nations, commands all men every where to repent; Acts xvii. 30. It is the very word of Christ, Except, ye repent ye must all perish; Luke xiii. 3, 5. Not only must we forsake sin, and avoid it in our actions, but we must hate it in our hearts, and fulfil all our duties from a principle of divine love wrought in us. Our wills are by nature averse to God and goodness, and
5ECT. i. A CAVEAT AGAINST INFIDELITY. 51
turned toward sin and folly ; we must therefore repent and be converted, that our sins may be blotted out ; Acts iii. 19.
Our whole natures are vitiated and spoiled by sin, and we must be regenerated or born again, and made new creatures, that is, a universal change must pass upon all the powers of our natures, by the influence of the Holy Spirit, or we can never be fit for the enjoyment of God. It is only the pure in heart that shall see God; Matt. v. 8. Ex- cept a man be born again, be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot see the kingdom of God, nor enter into it; John iii. 3, 5. That is, except his nature, which was sinful, be renewed unto holiness, so that he begin to live a new life, as a new born child, he can- not be admitted into the kingdom of divine grace: Except he be cleansed from the power of sin, by the influence of the Spirit of God, as the body is cleansed from out- ward defilements by water, which is typified and represented in baptism, he cannot be saved ; for nothing that defileth shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; Rev. xxi. 27. and he that hath not the Spirit of Christ to sanctify him, to enable him to mortify sin, and create him anew unto good works, such a one, is none of his; Rom. viii. 9. that is, he does not belong to Christ, nor hath any interest in him as a Saviour.
IV. Another necessary rule we must observe, is this, viz. To draw near to God, and to seek his favour by a Mediator. This seems to be designed in the words of St. Paul, which I have chosen for the foundation of this discourse. He that will be crowded must strive lawfully, and, in the following verses, he bids Timothy consider what he teaches him, and remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to his gospel; that is, remember that Jesus Christ approved himself to be the Messiah, the anointed Saviour, by his rising from the dead. This is the only lawful way of striving for the heavenly crown, that is, by Jesus the Mediator. This doctrine of the mercy of God to guilty creatures by a Mediator, was the plain design of the first promise made to Adam after his fall, the seed of the ivoman shall bruise the serpent's head, as it is written ; Gen. iii. 15. Those very words led him to a Mediator, that is, to one born of a woman, that should relieve mankind under the mischief Satan had brought upon them. This blessed Mediator and our Saviour has been always kept in view, through all the succeeding revelations which God has made to the children of men. The Messiah, the anointed of God, who was to be the light of the gentiles, and the glory of Israel, and the Saviour of men, even to the ends of the earth, was continually expected by the ancient saints.
And in these latter days we are now bound not only to trust in God, manifesting his mercy through some Mediator, but to believe that Jesus of Nazareth is he, that the great appointed Mediator between God and man, is the man Christ Jesus; 1 Tim. ii. 5. for Christ himself has said it, IJ ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins; John viii. 24. It is sufficiently manifested in the gospel, that there is no other hope or refuge : There is salvation in no other, nor is there any other name given under heaven, whereby we can be saved beside the name of Jesus; Acts iv. 12. Our Lord assures us, that he is the way, that no man comes to the Father but by him; John xiv. 6. And when he bid his disciple preach the gospel to every creature, he bid them not only tell the world, that he that believeth shall be saved, but that he who believeth not shall be damned; Mark xvi. 16.
Here let it be noted also, that we are not called to trust in Christ only as a Mediator., to intercede or plead for us, though this is part of his appointed work; Heb. vii. 25.
h 2
52 A CAVEAT AGAINST IiNFIDELITY. Sect.!.
but we must receive him also as one who has made propitiation or atouement for sin. This is called in Rom. v. 11. receiving the atonement. For he becomes our propitiation through faith in his blood; Rom. iii. 25. And if ive sin wilfully by a public obstinate rejection of him, under his character of a sacrifice of atonement, I fear we shall hnd that there remains no more sacrifice for sin, but a certain fearful expectation of God'9 fiery indignation to devour us ; Heb. x. 26, 27. This text seems to me to carry a solemn terror in it, against those who pretend to be christians, and yet dare to deny that Christ made a proper atonement for sin by his death, since this doctrine of atonement for our sins by the blood of Christ, is so often and so expressly asserted in the word of God.*
You see then, that trust in a Mediator, and in the mercy of God manifested through him, is a necessary part of our religion. This is that faith in Christ which is foretold so plainly in the Old Testament, that in him should the gentiles trust. This is represented so often in the New Testament, as the great requisite of salvation, viz. the belief of Jesus Christ the Son of God, to be the only Mediator between God and man, and a trusting in the mercy of God in and through this Mediator, a committing the soul into his hands, as a Lord and Saviour from sin and from hell : And it is called faith in his blood, to shew that we must trust in him particularly as a Mediator of atonement. This is that faith of Christ that St. Paul preached wheresoever he preached the duty of repentance, as a necessary attendant of it, in order to a sinner's acceptance with God. Acts xx. 20, 21. Publicly, and from house to house he taught the Ephesians, and he testified both to the Jews and Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
V. A constant sincere pursuit of universal holiness, and perseverance therein till the hour of our death. This is also necessary in order to our arrival at heaven. We are entered into a race when we are first converted, and set our faces toward heaven; we must not turn backward, lest we lose the prize. We must keep the path of duty with sincerity and diligence, and, in this manner, we must run through the whole stage of life, till we reach the goal of death, if we would obtain the glorious crown of righteousness. It is true, the gospel does not suppose or expect, that we should be innocent or perfect in obedience ; and therefore a gracious God has made provision for the repentance of christians, and their return to his mercy after their renewed falls and sins, otherwise no flesh could be saved: But it is our duty to stir up ourselves to arise and return to God with sincere sorrow, and then with greater watchfulness to set upon our duty, and make it appear through the course of life that in our heart we hate sin and love holiness.
It is not the costly or toilsome performance of ceremonies, nor any long slavish labours in outward forms of godliness, nor any painful mortifications of the natural body, and severe penances of fasting and scourging, that will be accepted of God instead of inward piety ; nor yet is that piety to be all inward and confined merely to the heart: But it must appear in the life too. The grace of God that brings solvation^, teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, and by our good works, to adorn the doctrine of God our ISaviour in all things; Titus ii. 10 — 12. Whatsoever particular neglects the great God may excuse, he will never dispense with a general neglect of holiness : Por it is said expressly, Heb. xii. 14. without holiness no man shall see the Lord. He is a holy God, and as
* I do not tarry here to enlarge on the proof of the atonement of Christ for sin, having sufficiently proved it in my Sermons upon Rom. iii. 25. See volume the first, Sermons xxxiv. xxxv. xxxvi.
Sect. !. A CAVEAT AGAINST INFIDELITY. 53
compassionate and condescending as he is, he doth not lay aside one ray of his own holiness, in order to display his grace, nor will he dishonour that glorious perfection of his divinity to save a world of sinners. The gospel and the grace of God that saves us, can save us only in a way becoming the holiness of his nature. No unholy thing shall enter into heaven.
, We who are engaged in this christian exercise, have much of strife and conflict to pass through : It is not only a race, but a combat also, and it implies wrestling and fighting : We must take up arms against the sins of our natures and the corruptions of our hearts, as well as against Satan, and the temptations of this world. Then surely those that know not their spiritual dangers, who are not made sensible of the sins that dwell within them, have no reason to imagine or expect they shall be conquerors : They are not yet engaged in the spiritual warfare, nor apprized of their spiritual enemies : They are not in the way to obtain the prize. If we live according to the inclinations of our Jlesh we shall die, but if we through the spirit mortify the deeds of the body, we shall live: Rom. viii. 13. They that are Christ's must crucify the flesh, with its affections and lusts; Gal. v. 24. And it is not only flesh and blood must be opposed, but principalities and powers of darkness, and all the hosts of hell, as well as an army of temptations of this wicked world ; Eph. vi. 12. and if we lay down our weapons and give over fighting, we give up all pretences to victory, and lose the crown.
VI. A humble hope in the divine promises of joy and happiness in the world to come, is the last thing I shall mention. This is so necessary a grace, that it is said we are saved by hope; Rom. viii. 24. And it is often put for faith itself in the language of ancient prophecy, and in the writings of the apostles, Christ himself is called our hope; 1 Tim. i. 1. Unbelief of the promises, and despair of heaven cut off all the sinews of action, and will effectually prevent us from seeking and striving to obtain the prize : We must live therefore in humble expectation of future glory, looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearance of the great God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ ; Titus ii. 13.
And the apostle's argument in 1 Cor. xv. 12 — 16. seems to make the belief and hope even of the resurrection of the body, a necessary part of our Christianity also : For, if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is not Christ risen ; and if Christ be not risen, then our preaching is vain, and your faith is also vain, ye are yet in your sins. For my part 1 must own, that where this gospel comes in such full light and evidence, as we enjoy it, I hardly know what to make of their Christianity, who deny the doctrine of the resurrection.
These are the substantial parts of our religion, and the chief rules of the christian race, or contest in which we are engaged in order to obtain the crown. And concerning these I have endeavoured to make it appear from reason, or express testimony of scrip- ture, that God the great and blessed God, will not dispense with any of them in those persons who expect favour and salvation at his hands.
There are indeed many circumstantials that belong to our religion, which are by no means of equal importance with those substantial parts of Christianity before mentioned. In many of these circumstances of our duty, it has not pleased the Spirit of God, to write the rules of them in so plain and express language; and therefore there may be very different sentiments and practices in these points, without endangering dur sal- vation, without breaking the bonds of our christian love and unity. It is of infinitely
54 A CAVEAT AGAINST INFIDELITY. Sect. 2.
more importance, that we believe that there is but one God, that he must be worshipped and served by his creatures, that there is an essential difference between virtue and vice, that there is a future state of rewards and punishments, that we are guilty creatures, and can obtain favour of God no other way but by a Mediator, that we must repent of our sins and have our hearts changed and renewed unto holiness, and live in the sincere practice of every known duty, and in humble expectation of future blessedness; I say, these things are of infinitely greater moment, than whether we must be baptized in infancy or riper years ; whether that ceremony must be performed by dipping or sprinkling; whether the ordinance of the Lord's Supper must be received in the posture of guests sitting at the table, in the posture of children standing round their father's board, to receive his distributions of bread and wine, or in the posture of humble supplicants kneeling and adoring : whether our ministers must be ordained, and our churches governed by bishops or presbyters, or how far the concurrent acts of the whole church have an influence in these solemnities ; whether our prayers must be immediately conceived in our hearts, and invented as they are uttered in new expressions continually, or whether we may use forms written down before-hand : These things, and many others of the like nature, because they are not of such necessity, therefore are not so evidently determined in the word of God.
But as for the six general rules before mentioned, I do not see how we can expect that God should dispense with any of them, since he has appointed his written word to be the rule of his final judgment, and he seems to have required them in his word in so peremptory a manner. He that strives and takes pains to obtain heaven, with a neglect of these rules, I think we may boldly say, he 'does not strive lawfully, and he has no sufficient ground to hope that he shall be crowned.
SECTION II.
CONSIDERATIONS TO PROVE THE DOCTRINE.
I proceed now to the second thing which I proposed, and that is to lay down several considerations, which may serve to evince and prove the truth of the doctrine, and make it still more evident, that such as neglect the rules of God's appointment shall not obtain salvation.
Consideration I. " God alone has a right to appoint the way to his own favour, and he is jealous to secure this prerogative." God has the first and most unquestionable property in us as is creatures, and sovereign dominion over us as subjects. He has a right, and he only, to ordain in what manner we should honour him, and seek his favour. If we were innocent creatures, it is he must direct us to any special instances of our duty in that state of innocence, and tell us how we may krep ourselves in his love: Or since we are guilty and rebellious, he only can appoint the sacred methods to obtain his own favour again, and gain an interest in his compassion.
The Lord our God is a jealous God, and will not suffer himself to be disobeyed or mocked in things that so nearly concern his own sovereignty. This is evident in the second commandment, when- he appoints the method of his own worship: And though \\c may think paintings, or images to represent his glory, and his power, are very agreeable and proper to assist our sensible natures, yet he forbids every thing of this
SrcT. 2. A CAVEAT AGAINST INFIDELITY. 55
kind as mediums of divine worship, and he solemnizes the prohibition with an awful discovery of his own jealousy : He declares that he will avenge himself of those that dare to worship him in unappointed or forbidden ways, even to the third and fourth generations. It is worthy of our notice, that when he charges the Jews of old, with some of their idolatrous abominations, he mentions this as the reason of his anger, that they practised things which he commanded not, neither came they into his heart; Jer. vii. 31.
When God designed his own worship to be attended with a variety of pomp and ceremony, he prescribed every part of it to Moses with great exactness : And when he had given an account how the tabernacle, and table, and the candlesticks, and the altars should be made, he gives him a charge that he should precisely follow the divine directions ; Exod. xxv. 9. 40. JLook that thou make them after their pattern, which was shewed thee in the mount* Now if the great God requires such accuracy, and such exact conformity to his rules in matters merely external, typical and ceremonial, how much more may we suppose that he will be strict and severe in demanding a conformity to his own appointed methods of salvation in things of more solemn, more spiritual and everlasting concernment.
Suppose a traitor, guilty of death, should have orders from the king his sovereign to enter into his presence, dressed in the borrowed ornaments of the prince his son, and to be introduced by his hand in order to obtain pardon ; now if this condemned criminal should resolve rather to come and appear before the king in some bright ornament of his own preparing, and without the mediation of the prince; would he not deserve to be frowned away from the throne, and sent directly to execution ? Would not this be a new indignity offered to the king himself, aud a fresh instance of rebellion and disobedience? So when we consider ourselves as rebels and traitors against the majesty of heaven, if we will refuse the methods of God's own appointment in order to obtain his favour, and will walk in the devices of our own hearts, this will be justly construed a continuance in our rebellion ; and we must expect the sentence of death to be executed upon us ; Isaiah 1. 11. Hehold all ye that kindle afire, that compass yourselves about with sparks, walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled; this shall ye have of my handy ye shall lie down in sorrow.
II. " All the ways of recovering the favour of God, that proud vain man would con- trive for himself, are evidently fruitless and ineffectual, and if we consider them dis- tinctly, each of them will appear to be insufficient."
Shall we come to God in the way of innocency, and pretend that we have done no harm ? But we have before proved that all men are guilty. There is none righteous, no not one ; Rom. iii. 15. Shall we come in the way of hope and reliance upon the general and absolute mercy of God, trusting that God will forgive our sins because he is infinitely good and kind ? But the light of nature can give us no manner of assurance, that he will express his kindness and goodness in forgiving sinful men. This is a free act of his will, and there is nothing in his nature, or in our circumstances that obliges him to it. Nor in his gospel hath he given any promise of such mercy to be exercised, but through Jesus his Son : The grace of God that appears to men is only through Jesus Christ ; Tit. jii. 4. He justifies us freely by his grace, but it is through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ ; Horn. iii. 24.
Shall we approach to God in the way of humble address to him, and beg him to accept of our repentances and mortifications? But these can never atone for our past
56 A CAVEAT AGAINST INFIDELITY. Sect. 2.
offences. What are the tears, or sorrows, or little penances of a creature to make satis- faction for the affronts offered to God? Shall we come to God and hope for acceptance by our best duties