6

God. Thus unbelief makes God a liar; and what a wrong is that? It is not recompensable by all our acts of faith in believing that he is true; for to believe so, is but to declare what is his already; but the other is the invention of a falsehood obtruded upon him by men. For one to speak truth is but little or no commendation, for a man speaks but what is; but to tell a lie, is to invent a new thing that is false, and therefore how odious and shameful is it. Now, every sin is a lie concerning God, changing the truth of God into a lie,' Rom. i. 25. It declares that of God which is not. And to be the inventor of new gods, or of false things of God, what an evil is it? Again, to love God and honour him, is a thing due to his name-Give him the praise due to his name,' Ps. xxix. 2-and his excellency challengeth it. Now to love goodness, what is it! So to love God; but what an incongruity is it to hate goodness? For subjects to honour their king, whose title and prerogative is independent upon them, is not so much to him, as it is a dishonour for one man to disparage his title, and to go about the setting up of another king. Now God's glory is in and from himself; and therefore he hath reason to account it more dishonour to him, that one man should rebel, than honour to him, that all should obey him. When I honour him, his honour ariseth from himself, not me; as the glory of the sun shining in the water is not from the water, but from the sun. So when we reflect glory on God, that glory ariseth not out of what we do, but is in himself already. But the dishonour of him is wholly in us. We are the sole inventors of it, and there is no such thing extant, except in a sinner's heart.

[2.] Add to this, that all the grace wherewith we glorify God is not a man's own, but sin is wholly his own; so John viii. 44, when he sins, he sins ix To iciov, from his own; and so in Jude 16, their lusts are called their own; and, Eccl. vii. 29, they are said to be our inventions.

Again, [3.] If the compass and measure be taken of that dishonour which sin tends unto, there will be found a wider distance between the two terms of its reach, than there is of the honour that the creature can give to God, or than it doth extend itself unto. For the measure and compass of the dishonour is plainly this, to make the great God no God; these are the terms the least sin stretcheth itself unto, in the scope and tendency of the act, though not in the event, nor in the intention of the sinner. But when the creatures glorify God, though they should glorify him as God,' as far as the creatures can do it, yet if you take the measure of the utmost elevation of his glory by them, there still remains an infinite distance between the honour which they aim to give him, and what is in himself, so that it falls so far short, that it is infinite goodness in God to accept it.

6

As the conclusion therefore of this answer, and closure of this discourse, I will super-add these few demonstrations drawn from the effects, to shew clearly, and confirm this, that the least sin transcends in evil the worth of all created graces, which puts all out of question, and makes the whole demonstration undeniable; for satisfaction being reductio ad æqualia, a reducing of things to an equality, therefore if all their graces cannot make so much goodness as shall counterbalance the evil of sin, it is impossible they should ever satisfy. Now that they do not, appears by these demonstrations. First, One sin, when it is committed by the best of creatures, prevails more with God to condemn him, than all his righteousness to justify him. If one of the angels did never so much, so great, so long service, yet if, after millions of years, he sinned in the least, all the forepast service would be forgotten. As a favourite that hath done much service at court, or in

the wars; if, after all, he should be found guilty of one treason, that one act would put a blot upon all his former services, and render them nothingworth. If a man doth not all things, yea (more than that) continues not in all things,' he is accursed, Gal. iii. 10. Now if sin were not more evil in God's judgment (whose judgment is righteous) than all obedience is good, then this could not be. It is not as the pharisees dreamed, that men should be justified, if their good works were more than their sins; as if their good works being weighed, and found exceeding the other in number, they should therefore carry it; no, a world of good works will be found too light for the least dram of sin.

Secondly, The demerit of sin is more than the merit of goodness can be, for that the evil that is in sin does truly deserve death; not only in relation to, or by virtue of, a penal law arbitrarily given, or out of a voluntary compact and agreement between God and the creature, but in its own nature. That threatening, 'Thou shalt die the death,' is not added ex compacto only, neither depends it merely upon an outward declaration of God's will, but further, sin is such an evil as, in the nature of the thing, deserves death, and that immutably. Therefore that dizaiwa rou cou, that judgment of God written in all men's hearts, says that they who do such things are worthy of death,' Rom. i. 32; and so also Rom. vi. 23, The wages of sin is death.' But if you put all the grace in the world together, it cannot merit at God's hands his favour. God may out of his bounty oblige himself by a promise to reward it, but it is not out of the worth of the thing. So it follows there, in that Rom. vi. 23, 'The gift of God is eternal life;' you see what an apparent difference the apostle puts between the one and the other. In like manner, Luke xvii. 10, it is said, 'When you have done all,' if you could suppose you had done all, yet you are unprofitable servants for God's right over us is founded upon his excellence; and accordingly, our obligation to serve God is not from his benefits only, but from a due unto his own excellencies. And therefore, although there were no reward for our service, yet service were due from us. So says Aristotle : If any man transcendently excel all others, that man is to be king over them, and they are bound to serve him. Yea, and therefore the privilege to justify a man is separable from our graces (as in men sanctified by the gospel), but so is not condemnation from sin. And therefore, although sin in the godly redounds not in the event to the persons, to condemn them, by reason of Christ's righteousness imputed, yet all that righteousness makes not but that sin in its own nature deserves death; and so they are to judge themselves for it, as worthy to be destroyed. But all the grace that is in them doth not only not justify them ipso facto; but it hath wholly and for ever lost that privilege. Which argues that it is not seated in the nature of grace to justify, as to demerit death is seated in the nature of sin : for then, though the effect might be retained, yet that property would be inseparable from it.

And Thirdly, That the strength of sin was greater than that of grace, appears by this also, that it is able to expel grace out of the heart, as it did out of Adam's; but all the grace of all the creatures could not restore it.

Fourthly, It is counted more mercy to pardon one sinner, than goodness to reward and save all the angels. More riches are attributed even to God's mercy and patience towards wicked men, than to his simple goodness towards other creatures innocent, though never so holy.

CHAPTER VI.

That Christ hath made full reparation of all which was lost by sin.—The glory of the law, which sin had darkened, is by him perfectly recovered.—And God's image, which sin had defaced in man, is more fully restored in him.

We have seen the power of all the creatures set up, and at a loss as to this, the greatest and most difficult business that ever was set on foot, viz., the taking away of sins. Let us now come to lay open that fulness that is in Christ for this work; before which all these difficulties that have been put, and all our sins likewise, will vanish and melt away, as clouds before the sun. A fulness it is that answers to every defect, and to every particular objection made. I will begin with that satisfaction that is to be given to God; for in the wrong to him doth the principal knot and difficulty lie. First, If God should stand upon satisfaction to be made, in point of goods (which yet, as I said, he doth not), Christ hath therein abundantly made amends. Which although he reckons not as any part of his satisfaction, which only consists in his obedient humbling of himself, yet it may be considered as part of the surplusage and redundancy of it. Let justice come and bring in her bill of damages, and see if Christ hath not abundantly given satisfaction for them: as,

1. Will the complaint be of the loss, spoil, and waste made of the world, and of all the creatures therein, and of the unjointing that frame, unto the danger of the destruction of it, which no creature is able to repair or to uphold? Then let it withal be remembered that he that had undertook to satisfy God had his hand in making this old world, and without him it had not been made,' John i. 3. It is a consideration that both that evangelist, and the author to the Hebrews (Heb. i. 2), as likewise the apostle to the Colossians (Col. i. 16), do all suggest to this very purpose, thereby to shew Christ's ability to satisfy for sin. And if God would yet further desire new worlds to be made him for satisfaction, Christ could make enough. And it may be further pleaded, that this world (as we see) stands and continues still, notwithstanding all the sins committed in it, and that justice had destined it to present ruin the first day that man should sin. Now whose power is it that upholds it? Is it not Christ's, whose very word is able to underprop it? So Heb. i. 8, Upholding all things by the word of his power;' who with one hand holdeth his Father's hands from destroying this world, and with the other upholds it from tottering. Yea, if it were no more but this, that he who made the world would vouchsafe to admit himself into it, and become a part of it; and that he whom God did never make nor create, but from eternity begat, would be made flesh,' and become a creature and servant (which was an addition to God's goods, and worth all that he had made besides), this might make reparation for all such damages. And again, at whose expenses are all things here maintained? Are they not at Christ's? The Father did as it were deny to lay out any more power or patience in upholding the world, till he should be paid for it; and did not Christ undertake this, and at his due time lay down a price that fully bought it? who is therefore called the Lord that bought,' 2 Pet. ii. 1, as wicked men, so all the world. And that he who made the world, and is joint-heir with God, and hath as much right to it as he, should, to satisfy him, lay down his right, put himself out of all, and then take it up upon a new title, when it was his before, so buying what

6

himself made, and what was his own: that he should become poor, even not worth the ground he went on when he came into the world, and should suffer himself not to be owned (as John speaks), yea, to be cast out of the vineyard, as one that had nothing to do with it; will not all this make amends, will not this poverty rise to great riches? The apostle Paul tells us so. Wherefore this may well make satisfaction to God for goods lost. 2dly, If justice complain of the law defaced, and as it were abolished by sin; if she plead that through it the righteous law is made void, and of none effect, and so bring it in, in this inventory of wasted goods, considered only as it is a copy of God's will, an expression of his holiness, an effect of his wisdom, and monument of the same, the least iota of which is so precious, as not all in heaven and earth can make amends for its loss :-should justice make this complaint, then let the reply be, that our Redeemer's head was in the making of that law; and that the hand of him who was the Mighty Counsellor,' did guide the pen that wrote it in Adam's heart at first; and further, that himself is the substantial image of God, and the gwrórumov of the law. And besides, when it was lost, and no copy on earth to be found, he it was that wrote it in the consciences of men fallen. In which sense the apostle John says, that it is he who enlightens every man that comes into the world,' John i. 9. And because that was but an imperfect copy, it was he that further delivered the law, of which David says it was perfect: Ps. xix. 7, The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple;' and renewed it on Mount Sinai, Gal. iii. 19. And in the fulness of time himself came, and vindicated it from all corrupt glosses in his preaching, fulfilled it in his life, and in fulfilling it, writ it out again with his own hands, and so set a more perfect copy than ever was extant in the hearts and lives of angels. I came not to destroy the law,' says he, but to fulfil it.' Yea, and if all the copies of the law that are in the world were burnt, they might be all renewed in his story, insomuch that he is reckoned a new founder of it. 'A new commandment' (says the apostle, 1 John ii. 8), write I unto you,' and so the apostle Paul speaks of fulfilling the law of Christ,' Gal. vi. 2. 'Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.' Yea, and suppose, that that covenant (which is the first story and copy of God's will and wisdom) had been utterly lost (like as some of Solomon's books were), yet he by his works of mediation makes a new story of another wisdom infinitely more glorious, viz., the gospel, whereof he is the sole founder, and of whom it is written as being the subject of it, the least line of which is worth all the law, so that the angels stand amazed at the treasures of wisdom' that are to be found therein, being deeper than ever were revealed in the law. The law, that came by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ,' John i. 17-a new volume of truths, which had not been true, if he by his blood had not made them so.

3dly, Though God's image be lost by sin, yet he is such an image of him, as the very sight and beholding of him renews it, and changeth men into the same image: 2 Cor. iii. 18, But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.' Yea, the image which he renews is a better image than that of Adam's, it is of a higher strain and key, and raised by higher motives.

4thly, As for loss of service, to repair it, 'He took on him the form of a servant,' Phil. ii. 7. And such a servant he was, as was not to have been hired amongst all the creatures. They all could not do the work that he

did; The government of the whole world is upon his shoulders,' Isa. ix. 6. He easeth his Father of it for the present, and when he hath brought him in infinite revenues of glory, he will at last deliver up the kingdom to him,' 1 Cor. xv. 24, with a greater surplusage than else would have been had out of that begun course of providence taken up at the creation. And if you will not reckon that as part of satisfaction, yet consider the service he did in the priest's office, wherein God acknowledged him his servant. He despatched more work in those thirty-three years wherein he lived, yea, in those three hours wherein he suffered, than ever was or will be done by all creatures to eternity. It was a good six-days work when the world was made; and he had a principal hand in that, neither hath he been idle since; 'I and my Father work hitherto,' says Christ, John v. 17. But that three hours' work upon the cross, was more than all the other. Eternity will not have more done in it, than virtually was done in those three hours; so as that small space of time was rò vuv æternitatis. As they say of eternity, that it is all time contracted into an instant, so was all time, past, and to come, into those few hours, and the merit of them. For he then made work for the Spirit, and indeed for all the three persons, unto eternity. He then did that which the Spirit is writing out in grace and glory for ever, yea, and all that ever was or will be done towards the saints, was then perfected: He perfected for ever them that are sanctified, by that one offering:' Heb. x. 12, 14, But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God;' ver. 14, For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.'

6

CHAPTER VII.

That Christ hath repaired the loss of honour which God sustained by sin.— Satisfaction in point of honour being to be measured by the excellency, dignity, and reputation of the person satisfying.-Christ being God-man, in this respect makes the greatest which could be.

But the greatest evil of sin lies in the injury by it done unto the honour, and sovereign glory, and to the person of God himself, which is the thing that makes sin so heinous, that the difficulty of satisfying God herein is insuperable by all the creatures (as hath been shewed), unto which, notwithstanding, we shall see Christ is as much enabled, as we have seen him to be unto the former, to make amends for the damage which God sustained. Honour (as was said) being a personal thing, and a due resulting out of personal perfections, answerably therefore satisfaction therein is fundamentally to rise out of, and to be measured by, the personal worth, dignity, excellency, and reputation of the person who undertakes to satisfy. Wherefore, as the foundation of this great demonstration, let us consider briefly the personal worth of Christ our surety, as from whence all his satisfaction receives its force and value, and so we will go on to shew what his person hath done to make amends therein; and then by comparing (as we go along) both what he is, and what he hath done to satisfy, with what is in the dishonour done to God by sin (which is the thing to be satisfied for), you will see all the disproportions that have been mentioned and can be thought of, to make sin so above measure sinful, exceeded, and wholly overcome. Now as a ground-work to this, I will take but that one place ;—

Who, being in the form of God, thought it no robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant,