The Common Principles of the Christian Religion, Sermon 22
Gal. 3. 12. The Law is not of faith, but the man that doth them shal live therein. Gen. 2. 17. What day thou eatest thereof thou shalt die.
THe Lord made all things for himself, to shew forth the glory of his Name, & man in a more eminent and speciall manner, for the more eminent manifestations of himself, therefore all his dealings towards men, vvhether righteous or sinfull, do declare the glory of God. Particularly, in reference to the present purpose, he resolved to manifest two shining properties, his Soveraignty and Goodnesse, his Soveraignty is shewed in giving out a Law and Command to the creature, & his goodnesse is manifested in making a Covenant with his creature: As here you see the termes of a Covenant, a duty required, & a promise made, and in case of failing, a threatning conformed to the promise. He might have requi…ed obedience simply, as the Lord & Soveraign owner of the Being and operations of the creatures, and that was enough of obligation to bind all flesh; that the Creator is Law-giver, that he who gives a being doth set bounds and limits to the exercise and use of that being? But it pleased the Lord in his infinite goodness & love, to add a promise and threatning to that Law & Command, & so turnes it to the nature of a voluntary Covenant and agreement vvhereby he doth mitigate and sweeten his Authority and Power, and condescends so low to man as to take on himself a greater obligation than he puts upon man, Do this and thou shalt live. He might then out of his absolutenesse & power, have required at the creatures hand any termes he pleased, even the hardest could be imagined, and yet no injustice in him, he might have put Laws on men to restrain all their naturall liberty, and in every thing to proclaim nothing but his own supremacy. But O vvhat goodnesse and condescension is even in the very matter of the Law, & then in the manner of prescribing it vvith a promise: In the matter so just & equitable to convince all mens consciences; yea, even engraven on their hearts, that he layes not many burdens on, but vvhat mens consciences must lay on themselves, that there is nothing in it all when summed up harder than this, love God most of all, & thy neighbour as thy self, which all men must proclaim to be due, though it had not been required: And but one precept added by his meer Will, vvhichwhich yet was so easie a thing, as it was a wonder the Lord of all put no other conditions on the creature: And then for the manner, that it is propounded in Covenant-wise, with a promise (not to expect the creatures consent, for it did not depend on his acception, he being bound to accept any termes his Lord propounded) but because the matter and all was so equitable, & the conditions so ample, that if it had been propounded to any rational man, he would have consented with an admiration at Gods goodnesse: Indeed if we speak strictly, there cannot be a proper Covenant between God and man, there is such an infinite distance between such unequal parties, our obedience and performance being absolutely in his power, we cannot promise it as our own, and it being but our duty, we cannot crave or expect a reward in justice, neither can he owe any thing to the creature; yet it pleased his Majesty to propound it in these termes, and to stoop so low unto mens capacities, and as it were come off the throne of his Soveraignty, both to repuire such duties of men, and to promise unto them such a free reward, and the reasons of this may be plain upon Gods part, & upon ours: in such dealing, he consulted his own glory, & mans good. His own glory, I say, is manifested in it, & chiefly the glory of his goodnesse & love, that the most High comes down so low as to article with his own foot-stool, that he changes his absolute right, into a moderate and temperate Government, and tempers his Lordly & truly Monarchicall power by such a commix…ure of gentlenesse & goodnesse, in requiring nothing but what man behoved to call reasonable and due; and in promising so much as no crea…ure could challenge any title of it. When the Law was promulgate. Do this, Eat not of this Tree, Adams conscience behoved to say, Amen Lord, all is due, all the reason in the Word for it: But when the promise is added, & the Trumpet sounds longer, thou shalt live, O more than reason, more then is due, must his conscience say, It vvas reason, that the most high Lord should use his foot-stool as his foot-stool, & set his servant in the place of a servant, and so keep distance from him: But how strange is it, that he humbles himself to make friendship with man to assume him in a kind of familiarity & equality? And this Christ is not forgetfull of, vvhen he restores men, he puts them in all their former dignities, I call you not servants, but friends: Next, his wisdome doth appear in this, that when he had made a reasonable creature, he takes a way of dealing suitable to his Nature, to bring forth willing and free obedience by the perswasion of such a reward, and the terror of such a punishment. He most wisely did inclose the will of man as it were one both sides with hedges of punishment and reward, which might have been a sufficient defence or guard against all the irruptions of contrary perswasions, that man might continue in obedience, and that when he went to the right hand or left, he might be kept in, by the hope of such an ample promise, & the fear of such a dreadfull threatning. But then the righteousnesse of God doth appear in this: for there is nothing doth more illustrate the justice of the Judge, then when the Malefactor hath before consented to such a punishment in case of transgression; when the Law is confirmed by the consent and approbation of man, now he has man subscribing already to his judgment, and so all the world must stop their mouth and become guilty in case of transgression of such a righteous command after such warning.
But in the next place, its no lesse for mans good: What a honour and dignity was put upon man, when he was taken into friendship with God? To be in covenant of friendship with a King, O what a dignity is it accounted? And some do account it a great priviledge to be in company and converse with some eminent and great person. But may not man say vvith the Psalmist, Lord what is man that thou art so mindfull of him, or the Son of man that thou visitest him? Psal. 8. Again, what way more fit and sutable to stir up and constrain Adam unto a vvilling and constant obedience? When he had the encouragement of such a gracious reward, & the determent of such a fearfull punishment: Between these two banks might the silver streams of obedience have run for ever vvithout breaking over. He was bound to all, though nothing had been promised: But then to have such a hope, what spirits might it adde to him? The Lord had been free upon mans obedience either to continue him his happy estate, or to denude him of it, or to annihilate him, there was no obligation lying on him; but now, what confirmation might man have by looking upon the certain recompence of reward? When God brings himself freely under an Obligation of a Promise, and so ascertains it to his soul, vvhichwhich he could never have dreamed of, & gives him liberty to challenge him upon his faithfulnesse to perform it. And then lastly, there was no way so fit to commend God, and sweeten him unto his soul, as this. Adam knew that his goodnesse could not extend to God, that his righteousnesse could not help him, nor his wickednesse hurt him, and so could expect nothing from his exact obedience; but now vvhen Gods goodnesse doth so overflow unto the creature, and the Lord takes pleasure to communicate himself to make others happy, though he had need of none: O, how must it ingage the heart of man to a delightfull remembrance and converse vvith that God? As his authority should imprint reverence, so his goodnesse thus manifested should engrave confidence. And thus the life of man vvas not only a life of obedience, but a life of pleasure and delight; not only a holy, but a happy life, yea, happy in holinesse.
Now as it was Pauls great businesse in preaching, to ride marches between the covenant of grace, and the covenant of works, to take men off that old broken ship to this sure plank of grace that is offered by Jesus Christ to drowning souls: So it would be our great work to shew unto you the nature of this Covenant, and the terms thereof, that you may henceforth find and know that salvation to be now impossible by the Law, which so many seek in it; We have no errand to speak of the first Adam, but the better to lead you to the second: Our life was once in the first, but he lost himself and us both, but the second by losing himself saves both. We have nothing to do to speak of the first Covenant, but that we may lead you or pursue you rather to the second, established upon better tearms and better promises.
The tearms of this covenant are, Do this and live: perfect obedience without one jot of failing or falling, an intire and universall accomplishment of the whole will of God, that is the duty required of Man; there is no latitude left in the bargain, to admit endeavours in stead of performance, or desire in stead of duty: there is no place for Repentance here, if a Man fall in one point he falls from the whole promise; by the tenour of this bargain, there is no hope of recovery. If you would have the duty in a word, Its a love of God with all our heart and soul, & our Neighbour as our self, & that testified & verified in all duties & offices of obedience to God, & love to men, without the least mixture of sin & infirmity. Now, the promise on Gods part is indeed larger then that Duty, not only because undeserved, but even in the matter of it, it's so abundant; Life, eternal life, continuance in a happy estate. There is a threatning added, In what day thou eatest, thou shalt die: that is, thou shalt become a mortall and miserable creature, subject to misery, here and hereafter, which is more pressingly set down in that Word, Cursed is he that abides not in all things written in the law to do them. It is very peremptory, that men dream not of escaping wrath, when they break but in one suppose they did abide in all the rest Cursed is every man from the highest to the lowest, the Lord Almighty is engaged against him, his countenance, his Power is against him to destroy him & make him miserable; whoever doth fail but in one jot of the commands, he shall not only fall from that blessed condition freely promised, but lose all that he already possessed, fall from that image of God, dominion over the creatures, and incur, in stead of that possessed and expected happinesse, misery here on soul & body, in pains, sicknesses, troubles, griefs, &c. And Eternal misery on both, without measure hereafter. Eternall destruction from the presence of the Lord, & the glory of his power.
Now, This Law is not of Faith, saith the Apostle: This opens up the nature of the bargain, and the opposition between the present Covenant & that which is made with lost sinners in a Mediator. This Covenant is called, of Works, Do this and live, To him that worketh is the promise made, though freely too. It is grace that once a reward should be promised to obedience, but having once resolved to give it, herein justice appears in an equall and uniform distribution of the reward, according to Works, So that where there is an equality of works there shall be an equality of reward, and no difference put between persons equall: Which is the very freedome of the Covenant of grace, that it passes overall such considerations; and deals equally in mercy with unequall sinners, & unequally it may be with them that are equall in nature.
You may ask was not Adam to believe in God, & did not the Law require faith? I answer, Christ distinguishes a twofold faith, You believe in God, believe also in me. No question he was called to believe in God the Creator of the VVorld, and that in a three-fold consideration.
First to depend on God the self-beeing and fountain-good: his own goodnesse was but a fluxe and emanation from that Sun of righteousnesse, & so was to be perpetuated by constant abiding in his sight; the interposition of mans self between him and God did soon bring on this eternal night of darknesse. Nature might have taught him to live in him in whom he had life, & beeing, and motion, and to forget & look over his own perfections as evanishing shadows: But this quickly extinguished his life when he began to to live in himself.
Next, he was obliged to believe in Gods word both threatning and promise, & to have these constantly in his view: And certainly if he had kept, in his serious consideration, the inestimable blessing of life promised, and the fearful curse of death threatned, if he had not been induced first to doubt, and then to deny the truth and reality of these, he had not attempted such a desperate rebellion against the Lord.
Then thirdly, he was to believe and perswade himself of the Lords fatherly love, and that the Lord was well pleased with his obedience, and this faith would certainly beget much peace & quietnesse in his mind and also constrain him to love him, and live to him who loved him, and gave him life and happinesse out of love; yet this holds true that the Apostle saith, the law is not of faith, to wit, in a Mediator and Redeemer; it was a bond of immediate friendship, there needed none to mediate between God and man, there needed no reconciler, where there was no ods nor distance? But the Gospell is of Faith in a Mediator; its the souls plighting its hope upon Jesus Christ in its desperate necessity, & so supposes man sinfull and miserable in himself and in his own sense too, and so putting over his weight & burden upon one whom God hath made mighty to save: The Law is not of Faith, but of perfect works, a watch-word brought in of purpose to bring men off their hankering after a broken and desperate Covenant; It admits no repentance, it speaks of no pardon, it declares no Cautioner or Redeemer; there is nothing to be expected, according to the tenor of that Covenant, but wrath from Heaven; either personall obedience in all, or personall punishment for ever, that is the very tearms of it, & it knows no other thing. Either bring compleat righteousnesse and holinesse to the promise of life, or expect nothing but death.
This may be a sad meditation to us, to stand and look back to our former estate & compare it with that into which we are fallen: that Image we spoke of is defaced and blotted out, which was the glory of the Creation, and now there is nothing so monstrous, so deformed in the world as man; the corruption of the best thing is alwayes worst, the ruines of the most noble creature are most ruinous, the spot of the soul most abominable; we are nothing but a masse of darknesse, ignorance, errour, inordinate lust, nothing but confusion, disorder and distempers in the soul, and in the conversation of men, & in sum, that blessed bond of friendship with God broken, discord & enmity entered upon our side, & separated us from God, and so we can expect nothing from that first Covenant, but the curse and wrath threatned: By one mans disobedience sin entered upon all, & death by sin; because in that agreement Adam was a common person representing us, and thus are all men once subject to Gods judgement, & come short of the glory of God, fallen from life into a state of death, & for any thing could be expected irrevocably. But it hath pleased the Lord in his infinite mercy, to make a better Covenant in Christ his Son, that vvhat vvas impossible to the Law, by reason of our vveakness and vvickedness, his Son, sent in the flesh, condemned for sin, might accomplish, Rom. 8. 3. There is some comfort yet after this, that Covenan… vvas not last, and that sentence vvas not irrevocable: He maketh a new transaction, layes the iniquity of his elect upon Christ, and puts the curse upon his shoulders vvhichwhich vvas due to them: Justice cannot admit the abrogation of the Law; but mercy pleads for a temperament of it: and thus the Lord dispenses vvith personal satisfaction, vvhichwhich in rigour he might have craved; and finds out a ransom, admits another satisfaction in their name: And in the Name of that Cautioner and Redeemer, is salvation preached upon better terms, Believe, and thou shalt be saved, Rom. 10. Thou lost and undone sinner, vvhoever thou art, that findest thy self guilty before God, and that thou canst not stand in judgement by the former Covenant; thou vvho hast no personal righteousness, and trusts in none, come here, embrace the righteousness of thy Cautioner; receive him, and …est on him, and thou shalt be saved.