תמונות בעמוד
PDF
ePub

made impotent and invalid by the sin of man, which now it cannot prevent or remove, but only discover and condemn.

Both these conclusions, that the law is neither sin nor death, I find the apostle before in this epistle excellently proving. "Until the law, sin was in the world; but sin is not imputed where there is no law: nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression:" That is, as I conceive, over those who did not sin against so notable and evident characters of the law of nature, written in their hearts, as Adam in Paradise did: for sin had, between Adam and Moses, so obliterated and defaced the impressions of the moral law, that man stood in need of a new edition and publication of it by the hand of Moses. That place serves thus to make good the purpose of the apostle in this, Sin was in the world before the publication of the law; therefore the law is not sin.'-But sin was not imputed, where there was no law. Men were secure and did flatter themselves in their way, were not apt to charge or condemn themselves for sin, without a law to force them unto it; and therefore the law did not come anew to beget sin, but to reveal and discover sin. Death, likewise, not only was in the world, but "reigned even over all men" therein, before the publication of the law; therefore the law is not death neither. There was death enough in the world before the law; there was wickedness enough to make condemnation reign over all men; therefore neither one nor other are natural or essential consequences of the law. It came not to beget more sin; it came not to multiply and double condemnation; there was enough of both in the world before: sin enough, to displease and provoke God,-death enough, to devour and torment Therefore if the law had been useful to no other purposes, than to enrage sin, and condemn men; if God's wisdom and power had not made it appliable to more wholesome and saving ends, he would never have new published it by the hand of Moses.

men.

Here then the observation which from these words we are to make, (and it is a point of singular and special consequence to understand the use of the law) is this: That the

h Rom. v. 13, 14.

law was revived and promulgated anew on Mount Sinai, by the ministry of Moses, with no other than evangelical and merciful purposes. It is said in one place, that "The Lord hath no pleasure in the death of him that dieth."—But it is said in another place *, that "The Lord delighteth in mercy." Which notes, that God will do more for the salvation, than he will for the damnation of men. He will do more for the magnifying of his mercy, than for the multiplying of his wrath for if that require it, he will revive and new publish the law; which, to have aggravated the sins, and so doubled the condemnation of men, he would never have done.

Before I further evidence the truth of this doctrine, it will be needful to remove one objection, which doth, at first proposal thereof, offer itself:-If God will do more for his mercy, than for his wrath and vengeance, why then are not more men saved than condemned? If Hell shall be more filled than Heaven, is it not more than probable, that wrath prevaileth against grace, and that there is more done for fury, than there is for favour?

To wave the solution given by some ', that God doth intentionally and effectually will and ordain every man to be saved; but few of that every will have themselves to be saved: (an explication purposely contradicted by St. Austin m and his followers, whose most profound and inestimable judgment the orthodox churches" have, with much admiration and assent, followed in these points,) I rather choose thus to resolve that case :--It will appear at the last great day, that the saving of a few is a more admirable and glorious work than the condemning of the rest. The apostle saith, that "God shall be glorified in his saints, and admired in those that believe." For, First, God sheweth more mercy in saving some, when he might have judged all, than

i Ezek. xviii. 32. k Micah vii. 18. 1 Massilienses in Epist. Prosperi ad Aug.,et in Epist. Petri Diaconi ad Fulgent. cap. vii. m Aug. de peccat. Merit. et Remiss. lib. 1. cap. xxviii.-De Nupt. et Concupiscent. lib. 2. cap. xxvii.-Contra Julian. Pelag. 1. 4. c. viii, et lib. 6, cap. xxiv.-De Prædestinat. Sanctorum, ad Prosper. et Hilar. 1. 1. c. viii.—de Corrupt. et Grat. cap. xiv.—Epist. 107. ad Vitalem. Enchirid. c. xcvii. et c. ciii.-Prosper. de vocat. Gent. 1. 1. cap. iii. iv. v. lib. 2. cap. i. x.-Idem Epist. ad Ruffin. et ad Capitula Gallor. cap. viii.—Fulgent. de Incarnat. et Grat. Christi, cap. xxix. xxx. xxxi.-Author Hypognostic. 1. 6. cap. 8. n Vide Judicium Ecclesiæ Lugdun. in Histor. Gotteschal. à celeberrimo hujus ævi Theologo nuper conscripta, p. 63, 66, 71. c. ii. Thes. i. 10.

justice in judging many, when he might have saved none. For there is not all the justice, which might there have been, when any are saved; and there was more mercy than was necessary to have been, when all are not condemned.-Secondly, The mercy and grace of God in saving any, is absolute, and all from within himself, out of his unsearchable riches; not as essential in him, yet as operative towards us; is not absolute, but conditional, and grounded upon the supposition of man's sin.-Thirdly, His mercy is unsearchable in the price which procured it; he himself was to humble and empty himself, that he might shew mercy: his mercy was to be purchased by his own merit; but his justice was provoked by the merit of sin only.-Fourthly, Glory, which is the fruit of mercy, is more excellent in a few, than wrath and vengeance is in many; as one bag, full of gold, may be more valuable than ten of silver. If a man should suppose, that God's mercy and justice, being equally infinite and glorious in himself, should therefore have the same equal proportion observed in the dispensation and revealing of them to the world; we might not there-hence conclude, that that proportion should be arithmetical, that mercy should be extended to as many as severity. But rather as, in the payment of a sum of money in two equal portions, whereof one is in gold, the other in silver, though there be an equality in the sums, yet not in the pieces by which they are paid ;—so, inasmuch as glory, being the communicating of God's own blessed vision, presence, love, and everlasting society, is far more honourable and excellent than wrath; therefore the dispensation of his mercy in that amongst a few, may be exactly proportionable to the revelation of his justice amongst very many more in the other. Suppose we a prince, upon the just condemnation of a hundred malefactors, should profess, that as in his own royal breast mercy and justice were equally poised and tempered, so he would observe an equal proportion of them both towards that number of malefactors, suffering his justice to condemn, and his mercy to spare just so many as might preserve his attributes in æquilibrio, that the one might not overweigh the other ;—certainly, in this case there would be more mercy in saving ten out of favour, than in punishing and condemning all the rest of their just demerit.-Fifthly, and lastly, Let me proble

matically, and by way of query only, propose this question: Why may it not be justly said, that there shall be in Heaven as much glory distributed amongst those few which shall be saved, as wrath in Hell amongst those many which perish? I dare not speak where the Scripture is silent; yet this by way of argument may be said: The proportion of wrath is measured by the finite sins of men; the proportion of glory, from the infinite merits of Christ. There is more excellency and virtue in the merit of Christ, to procure life for his few, than vileness or demerit in sin, to procure death for many. As there may be as much liquor in ten great vessels, as in a thousand smaller; so there may be as much glory by the merit of Christ in a few that are saved, as wrath from the merit of sin in multitudes that perish.

But to return to that from whence I have digressed. Manifest it is, that God will do more for the magnifying of his mercy, than for the multiplying of his wrath, because to be merciful he will new publish the law, which for enlarging his judgments he would not have done, but would have left men unto that reign of sin and death, which was in the world between Adam and Moses. Notable to this purpose is that place which I have before cursorily touched, and shall now desire again more particularly to unfold, with submission of my judgment therein unto the better learned. It is Gal. iii. beginning at the 15th verse: 66 Brethren, I speak after the manner of men: though it be but a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth or addeth thereunto." The apostle before mentioned the covenant of promise and grace made to Abraham, and in him as well to the Gentiles as to the Jews; unto which the consideration of the law's insufficiency to justify, and by consequence to bless, had led him. In these words, he doth, by an allusion unto human contracts, prove the fixedness and stability of the covenant of mercy, even from the courses of mutable men. If one man make a grant and covenant to another, do engross, sign, seal, take witness, and deliver it to the other for his benefit and behoof, it becomes altogether irreversible and uncancellable by the man which did it. If a man make a testament, and then die, even amongst weak and mutable men, it is counted sacred; and impiety it is for any man to add, diminish, or

alter it. But now, saith the apostle, God is infinite in wisdom, to foresee all inconveniences and evil consequences, which would follow upon any covenant of his; and so, if need be, to prevent the making of it. Things, future in their execution and issuing out of second causes, are yet all present to the intuition of God: and so any thing which might after happen to disannul or void the covenant was present and evident to his omniscience before; and therefore would then have prevented the making of it. If then men, whose wills are mutable, whose wisdoms may miscarry, who may repent and be willing to revoke their own covenants again, do by their hand, seal, and delivery, disable themselves to disannul their own act, when it is once past;-much more God, who is not like man that he should repent, when he makes a covenant, doth make it sure and stable, constant and irreversible, especially since it is a covenant established by an oath", as the apostle elsewhere shews; and when God swears, he cannot repent. Thus the apostle proveth the covenant of mercy and grace to be perpetual, from the immutability and wisdom of him that made it; and if it be perpetual, then all other subsequent acts of God do refer some way or other unto it.

--

It followeth, verse 16,-" Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made: he saith not, And to seeds, as of many, but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ:" Where by one,' we understand one mystically, and in aggregato, not personally, or individually; and by 'Christ,' the whole church, consisting of the head and members, as he is elsewhere taken, 1 Cor. xii. 12. Now these words do further ratify the stability of the covenant: for though a covenant be in itself never so constant and irreversible, yet if all the parties which have interest in or by it, should cease, the covenant would of itself, by consequence, expire and grow void but here, as the covenant is most constant in regard of the wisdom and unvariableness of him that made it, so it can never expire for want of a seed to whom it is made for as long as Christ hath a church and members upon earth, so long shall the promise be of force.

:

:

Verse 17; "And this I say, that the covenant, which was confirmed before of God in Christ,--the law which was four

[blocks in formation]
« הקודםהמשך »