Chapter V
That no creatures could make that satisfaction which an injured God required.
They cannot compensate the wrong done to him by sin, nor repair the loss
of his honour.
We have seen what satisfaction the law requires, and how far the crea
ture would fall short of that. Let us, secondly, now see what satisfaction God requires. And although re ipsa, in the thing itself, it comes all to one
to satisfy God and to satisfy his law, and both these heads be really coin
cident, yet our understandings may take a distinct consideration from each, which will serve the better to clear this point. Now to make way for the demonstrations I intend, let us define in gene ral what satisfaction is, and wherein it is to be made.
Satisfaction in general is, when so much clear emolument ariseth to the
party wronged, as was impaired by the trespass committed. Now all such
damages to be repaired do usually consist either in goods or honour ; and
satisfaction for goods is usually called restitution, but satisfaction for honour
is it which is more properly called satisfaction. Now we may consider a wrong done to God both these ways, and an
answerable satisfaction requisite.
First, For that of goods ; though it be a thing which God doth not much
reckon, yet something is considerable about it ; and therefore the prodigal s
wild course is expressed and aggravated by this, that he spent his father s
goods and substance in riotous living, Luke xv. 13. Therefore also God
compares himself to a householder, who commits goods and talents unto
his servants, to be by them improved, Mat. xxv. 14, and who, when he reckons with them, doth count up their waste and expense thereof upon their lusts ; and therefore they are said to
* consume them upon their
lusts, James iv. 3, that is, so to engross them to themselves, and as it were consume them, that God gets nothing by the things which he hath made. By reason of sin he hath no profit by those creatures which sin ners have committed to them, and the world becomes loss unto him. And though God stands not much upon this (as neither will I stand long upon the handling of it), yet this much is soon demonstrated, that no
creatures were ever able to make satisfaction for losses of this kind : they
92 OF CHKIST THE MEDIATOR. [BOOK III.
* countervail the king s loss, Est. vii. 4. Now, to instance in some particulars
are not able (as Esther said in another case) to make good, or
1. Sin by a forfeiture had quite destroyed this world, if Christ had not
upheld it. And can all the graces in the creatures make another, or up hold this from falling ? Surely no.
2. It blotted grace out of the heart of man ; and can the power of all the creatures make one dram of grace ? Yea, could we so much as have lighted our candles, that were blown out, at their tapers ? Surely no.
3. By sinners the law was destroyed also : Ps. cxix. 126, They have
destroyed thy law. Now, if you would set a price upon the law, one tittle of it is more worth than heaven and earth.
4. Through sin was much service due unto God lost. For that we may reckon amongst goods, as a master doth the service of an apprentice. Al
though all sinners should presently cease to offend God any more, yet still God hath lost so much service from them for the time past. Now all mere creatures being God s servants, and owing all their endeavours and services unto him for themselves, no one of them therefore can do two men s work, because they owe all they can do for themselves, and so they can never
repay that loss of service past. God did hire mankind into his vineyard for all eternity ; and though we could suppose they had not committed any
positive sin, yet if God had but only lost so much service from them, and the sin of that neglect had annihilated them (and it doth as good as anni
hilate them to God, and therefore he accounts and calls them lost ; as the
* lost sheep, the lost son, &c.), and then, if God had come to have entered into terms with any mere creature for these losses, and should have
said, Give me but the creatures you have spoiled, make me a new world, for your sin hath spoiled this, and subjected it to vanity ; had any of them power to have done it ? Surely no. When God would confute Job s
contending with him, he doth but ask him, whether he could make the
least creature, yea, or being made, command it: Thou! (says God) 1 where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth ? Job xxxviii. 4. Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days, or caused the dayspring to know its place ? ver. 12. Out of whose womb came the ice ?
* Canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds (and bid them rain), that abundance of waters may cover thee ? Canst thou send lightnings that may go, and say unto thee, Here we are ? ver. 34, 35. And though thou canst do none of all this, yet dost thou contend with me ?
ver. 29.
* Let me
see (says God) what thou canst do, Job xl. 7, 8, 9. If thou couldst make or command the least creature, then I will confess to thee that thine own right hand can save thee, ver. 14. Can all the angels in heaven (as powerful as they are) make one hair of thy head ? Can they set ordinances
in heaven ? Job xxxviii. 33. The philosophers feigned them to be but the movers of those wheels and orbs, not the founders of them. They cannot
set the clock, much less make it. And can they make grace, or can they make the law whole again, which sin had broken ?
But the truth is, that herein God expected not, nor is he capable of any satisfaction or restitution of goods, for none can be profitable to him, Job xxii. 2, 3. When that formalist thought to oblige God by sacrifices ; If I were hungry (says God), would I tell it thee ? Ps. 1. 12. The world is God s, and the fulness thereof, says the apostle, 1 Cor. x. 26. And again,
* Who hath given to him, and he shall be recompensed ? Rom.
xi. 35. No ; it is glory only that the creature is capable to give him. So
.CHAP. V.] OF CHKIST THE MEDIATOR. 93
* Thou shalt glorify me. God is not as a
it follows there in Ps. 1. 15,
king, whose tribute lies as well in goods as in honour ; but all the tribute he
expecteth or exacteth from the creature consists in honour, for that is the end of all his works. He made all things for his glory ; I formed it,
* Of whom, and to whom, are all things, to whom be glory for ever, says the apostle, Rom.
says he in the prophet, for my glory, Isa. xliii. 7.
xi. 36. And herein also, though it be most true that the creature can
contribute nothing to God s essential glory, yet to his manifestative glory
it may, and doth ; at least the creature may take from it, as by sin it doth. And the reason is, because this kind of glory is revealed in and by creatures. Now it is in this that God expects satisfaction, and that this
satisfaction in point of honour does much more infinitely transcend the
power of any creature, is the thing which I am now to demonstrate. Let us therefore in like manner come to the particulars wherein God s honour suffers by sin, and shew how irrecompensable the injury therein is
by creatures.
1. If it were no more than to satisfy for that tribute of honour left behind-hand unpaid, for the neglect of that homage due to God, and which
is to come in by our service of him, what a quarrel must it needs breed, not to be composed or taken up by any creature ! You know, kings that have homage due to them from other kings, their equals, though the
tribute itself, or thing to be paid, be small, yet if it be neglected, what wars and stirs hath it bred, merely because it is a matter of honour
! Hence also the neglect of paying a small acknowledgment (suppose a pepper-corn, or the like), or of doing some petty service yearly, do ofttimes forfeit great estates, because they are acknowledgments of honour to the lord of whom the tenants hold ; and so being omitted, they are neglects of an honour that is due. Now, the like slight being offered towards God, how great a wrong doth he account it ; if no more, yet be cause there is a neglect of his honour in it ! If indeed the terms of our
neglected
service between God and us did stand upon free mutual conditions of bar
gain, as when freemen are hired, and work only for wages, who if they
neglect a day s work, it is but calling in so much of their wages, and they are even again with him that hired them ; if it were thus between God and
us, the matter were easier to be reconciled ; but it carries a dishonour with
it, such as are those neglects of service to a great prince, which service is not due by any bargain for. wages, but out of subjection, or as to a lord
by way of knightservice, not out of love only and liberty, but out of re
spect and homage. God is desirous of nothing but honour from you, and
all the honour the creatures can give him is too little for him ; it satisfies
not, neither answers to his vast desires of being glorified, nor to the dues
of his most glorious excellency. And therefore if any be behind-hand un
paid by any of his creatures, it is a loss by creatures irreparable, for they render no overplus .to make it up, and he cannot but account it so much
loss to him ; and should they now do what they can, still God would want of his due.
2. Satisfaction is to be made for honour debased also ; for sin casts a
soil of disgrace and debasement upon the honour which God hath, and
goes about to despoil and rob him of it. It is said, Rom. ii. 23, In
breaking the law thou dishonourest God ; there is a dishonour cast upon him by it, yea, it toucheth upon the height of his honour ; which will
appear,
(1.) In that every law of his is backed with his prerogative, and is a
94 OF CHKIST THE MEDIATOR. [BOOK III.
note of his absolute sovereignty ; James iv. 12, There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy ; that is, he is the supreme potentate of all the world, the absolute Lord paramount ; and this is shewn and
declared in giving his law, and is therefore answerably denied by the crea
ture in every breach of every law, to which every sin is an aifront.
Now, as amongst men, kingly authority being the summity, the supre macy, the transcendency of all honour, therefore the law hath so fenced it, that whatsoever is immediately directed against it, or is a denial of it, is
rebellion, and crimen I&SCB majestatis; and to disgrace a king s personal per fections is not so much, nay, to speak dishonourably of the personal imper fections of a king, dishonoured him not so much as to oppose his kingly power and dignity ; as to say that kings are not so learned or so valiant as many other men, this is not in account so high a dishonour to them, be cause it toucheth not upon their sovereignty and princely dignity, for they may notwithstanding be acknowledged and obeyed as kings. But whatever tends to impair and blemish that their prerogative and dignity, is held to be the height of dishonour, as kingly authority is the sublimity and top of honour. So now in breaking the least law of God, we do deny the sove
reignty and kingly authority of God. To despise any of God s works, and
slight them, is a dishonour to the Maker, as Solomon says ; but to slight his law is more, because that his transcendent excellency and kingly autho
rity is thus engaged in it. Some of the schoolmen fondly reason to diminish and lessen the heinousness of sin, saying that all the evil of sin lying simply in this, that it is the breach of God s law, therefore it is not properly an
injury to God, no otherwise than as a thing contrary to his will; as when a master commands a servant to do a thing, and he doth the contrary, and
so, though indeed he displeaseth his master thereby (as doing a thing con
trary to his command), yet, say they, it is no injury. But they do not
consider that not only God s will is engaged in his law, but also his
supreme authority, the law being made by his prerogative, and by the same prerogative backed and commanded. Kings indeed, in their laws, do not lay all the weight of their authority upon every law, but God doth. And therefore every sin is not only a transgression of his will, but a debase ment of the sovereignty of his will. Hence in the promulgation of God s laws there runs this preface, 1 am the Lord thy God ; therefore do this, Exod. xx. 1. So that his sovereignty is slighted in every sin, and in it
there is a contempt of his crown and dignity.
Sin is not only a dishonour to him simply as he is a supreme lawgiver, but unto all his other personal glorious perfections. Every contempt of the
authority of a prince reflects not upon his personal virtues, but sin reflects
upon all God s excellencies ; as upon his goodness, &c., for men seek that
happiness and goodness in the creature which is to be had in God alone, and so profess him not to be the chiefest good. There is no attribute upon which a disgrace is not cast by the sins of men ; yea, and therefore they tend to make him no God: Titus i. 16, In their works they deny God.
Traitors may aim to unking a prince, and to that end rebel against him, and yet their treason not reach unto his life. But God s sovereignty, and
perfection, and glory are himself, and his life, the least detraction from which is to destroy the whole ; for quicquid est in Deo Deus est, whatever is
in God is God himself. It is true indeed that in the event those hurt not
God, no more than snow-balls thrown against the sun can hurt it. God
dwells in light which darkness cannot approach or touch. Sin hurts him no more than grace benefits him. But yet injuries and dishonours are not
CHAP. V.] OF CHRIST THE MEDIATOR. 95
measured in morality by the event only, but by what is the terminus, the
thing they tend to ; which is to un-God the great God, and despoil him of
all his titles. To resolve to kill a king is accounted treason, as well as to do it, and so punished for such ; therefore Solomon did put Adonijah to
death. Even as he who hates his brother is counted a murderer, 1 John
iii. 15, so he who hates God is a murderer of God. Now, every sinner is
said to hate God, Rom. i. 30, peccatwn est Deicidium. It is true that
physically sin is bniprivatio bonifiniti, of that good which we might have
in God, not boni infiniti, or Dei, not the privation of God as in himself, but as he is to be participated by us. Yet as the astronomers call the
interposition of the moon between the earth and the sun the eclipse of the
sun, though the sun doth really lose no light by it, but only the earth ;
yet because it makes the face of the world below to be as if there were no
sun, it is therefore commonly called the eclipse of the sun, and not of the
earth; so may it be said of sin. It is in the guilt of it a privation of God, and of his glory, and of his law ; because, though indeed and in truth we
only are the losers, yet it makes to us as if there were no God, as if God had no being; and so it may be said to be the eclipse of his being, viz., to us. Therefore men are said to live without God in the world, Eph.
ii. 12, and without the law, 1 Tim. i. 9 ; and to be deprived of the glory of God, as being not manifested in them nor by them, Rom. iii. 23. Now, if it be so that the sinfulness of sin thus lies in so great a dishonour
to so great a God, what satisfaction can then be made for the demerit of
it by all the creatures ? For in this respect it transcends in evil, and out
weighs all the goodness that is either in the persons or graces of all the
creatures. Indeed it is true, if we take sin physically, as it is a privation of the contrary habit of grace and of our good only, that then it hath no more evil in it than grace hath goodness ; for as sin separates from God
1 Your iniquities have separated you from me, Isa. lix. 2 so grace draws the soul nearer to God, and so makes a man as happy as sin makes him miserable : To draw near to thee is good, says the psalmist, Ps. Ixxiii.
28. But this is not that special evil in sin for which satisfaction is re
quired, as neither is it the chief matter of our repentance for sin ; for no man satisfies for an evil done to himself, neither is it sin s having so much
evil in it against us that hinders a mere creature from satisfying ; which
notwithstanding was that that misled some of the ancient schoolmen, who
upon that ground thought a pure creature might satisfy for sin ; all their reasons running upon the evil of sin as a privation of grace, and of God to ns only, and as he is our good ; not considering that over and above it is an evil against God himself: Jer. ii. 19, It is an evil and a bitter thing to forsake God. And sin is accordingly called enmity against God, Rom. viii. 7, and a provoking the eyes of his glory, Isa. iii. 8. It is
likewise said to be against him : so says David, Ps. Ii. 4, Against thee, thee only have I sinned. He looked not so much at the wrong to Bathsheba and Uriah, as at the dishonour done to God ; and this is the eminent
evil to be considered in sin ; for as God is the chiefest good, so himself is the measure of all other good and evil. Now, then, the evil of sin lying thus in so great a dishonour unto God himself, no creature can make amends for it. For, 1. Dishonour, which reflects upon a person of worth, cannot be satisfied
for but by a person equally worthy and honourable ; for the satisfaction must be made by restoring of honour again, and that will depend upon the honour and worth of the party honouring. The restoring of honour is to
96 OF CHRIST THE MEDIATOR. [BOOK III.
be measured by the same rule, and weighed at the same balance, that the honour of the person dishonoured is measure by. As, therefore, honour is
in itself a personal thing, so the repairing of it again depends upon the
personal worth of him that goes about to repair it. Were we and God
equal, so as there were as much worth in us to honour him withal, as our
dishonouring of him comes unto, then indeed, if we went about some way to restore again that honour that was impaired by us, we might perhaps
satisfy for it. And yet the law is so tender of dishonour, that in case of defamation it is not enough for a person equally honourable to submit, and
to say as much for a man as he hath said against him ; that is accounted*
satisfaction ; but the law enjoins a penalty besides. But however, the re
storing of honour being a thing personal, doth therefore depend upon the honour of that person who is to restore it ; for honor est in honorante, honour is in him that honours ; the meaning of which saying may well be
this, that honour depends upon the worth of the party honouring. There
fore we see that honour from a mean peasant is not esteemed or accounted
of by one that is highly noble. And hence it is, that wrongs in point of honour offered by inferiors to superiors do oftentimes transcend satisfac
tion. It is not so in goods ; a poor man may satisfy a king in goods, in
case he be able to restore, as well as another. And the demonstration of
of this is, that the best way of satisfaction to be made by such inferiors
being to submit themselves, and that submision being a due from them
alread}^, and no more than the distance of their ranks calls for, it therefore reacheth not to satisfaction. And thus it is in common esteem, and that founded upon what is in the things themselves, and not upon common
opinion only. And therefore it is evident, that though the creatures should
dojthat which might bring in as much glory to God as was lost, yet, because
of the distance and disproportion that is between the persons, it would never
satisfy. The aggravation of a dishonour ariseth not so much from the fact
as from the disproportion between the persons ; for honour is not inter res, but personas, it concerns not things, but persons. To strike, or offer
to strike at a magistrate (though we hurt him not), the heinousness of the
fault lies not so much in the fact, as in the disproportion between the
persons. Therefore though in the old law a tooth for a tooth was satis
faction enough between private men, yet not so in case of hurting a magis
trate, or striking a man s parent, which was death by that law, because of
the dishonour done to them thereby. So upon the same ground, for a mad man to strike the king is death by our laws, not in respect of the fact or of his
intention, but in regard of the transcendent honour of the person of a king, and the disproportion and inferiority thatjs in him that strikes him. Now the
disproportion between God and us is so infinite, that it makes our sinning a dishonour altioris ordinis, of a higher kind than is recompensable by creatures.
And to enlarge this demonstration further. If no creature can make unto God a reparation of goods (as was shewn), then much less can it make
satisfaction for his glory impaired. For goods are extrinsccal to a man s
person, and therefore the loss of them a man less regards ; yea, the greater
spirit a man is of the less he cares for goods ; and indeed the wrong therein becometh less ; even as to wrong a poor man in his goods is worse (because of his need) than to wrong a rich man ; bnt the greater any one is in spirit the more he regards honour, and that far above his goods. Men will lose their blood rather than suffer a hair of honour to perish ; which disposition, though it be often set wrong in men, yet it is a spark of God s image, and a
* Qu. is not accounted ? ED.
CHAP. V.] OF CHRIST THE MEDIATOR. 97
resemblance of what is in him. God can bear the loss of creatures and
worlds, and never be touched with it ; but he will not lose one ray of
: it is the lustre of his person which he carries and wears about him ; and it is intrinsecal to him, which goods are not ; and therefore God is willing to lose creatures, thereby to gain the more glory. So he casts away the most of men and angels for his own
honour. For glory is a personal thing
glory. My glory, says God I will not give to another, Isa. xlii. 8. But
his goods he doth : He gave the earth and all the fulness thereof unto the
sons of men, Ps. cxv. 16. He gives worlds and kingdoms away even to
the basest of men (says Daniel, Dan. iv. 17), but he will part with none of
his glory, that is proper to himself, unto any of them. Of all the goods he
* gives nations for
possesseth, his children are the dearest unto him ; he
* the apple of his eye ; and he that toucheth them, toucheth the apple of his eye. But his glory is dearer to him than all his children, for
them, Isa. xli. 2, and once he gave his Son for them ; they are
* he formed them
for his glory, as the same prophet there also says, Isa. xliii. 7. How bard
is it to pacify jealousy when a man s spouse is deflowered : It is the rage of a man, and he will not regard any ransom, as Solomon says, Prov. vi.
34, 35. How hard then must it needs be to pacify God, who is said to be
jealous of nothing but his honour ?
Again, 2. Though it be but the manifestation of God s glory, which hath
a soil and a reflection cast upon it by sin, not his essential glory (which loseth nothing by sin, as it gains not, nor is increased by all the works that
Christ or God himself hath done), yet not all that the creatures can do is worth
the least beam of that his glory as it is to be manifested. For that is the end for which they were all made, and is therefore better than they. And
besides, all they can do to the advancing of it they do owe it already ; and God stands not in need of them to manifest it ; he could have let them re main in the womb of nothing, and have raised up others to glorify him.
3. In that sin strikes at God s being, what is there in the creatures that can make amends for it, they being but shadows of his being, and he the
substance, whose name alone is I am ? The over-shadowing, therefore, of the eclipse of his being is more than the destruction of ours.
Obj. Yea, but you will object, and say that the grace of a mere creature may seem to vie with all the evil that is in sin, and this in point of honour. For as sin is against God, so grace, though but in an impure creature, can
say, I am for God ; and as sin sets up another god, so this grace glorifies God as God. Now God being the object of both, why should they not
alike set a worth or a demerit upon what is done, and God accept of grace, which is for him, as much as condemn and punish sin, the aggravation of the sinfulness of which is, that it is against him ?
Ans. For answers unto this :
1. Though it be true that sin hurts him no niore than grace benefits him
(in that God is capable neither of benefit nor hurt) ; even as clouds take no more from the sun than candles add to it ; and therefore in Job xxxv. 6, 7,
it is said, What dost thou to him if thou beest righteous, or against him
if thou sinnest ? For nothing is opposed to God immediately, but only to him in his works. As no darkness can obscure the sun itself, though his beams it may intercept, so sin may dim the manifestative glory of the Father of lights. Yet as we measure not kindnesses or injuries by the event, but by what they are in the acts themselves (as treason is not punished according to the event, but according to the nature of the act plotted or
purposed), so are we to do by sin.
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98 OF CHRIST THE MEDIATOR. [BOOK III.
And, 2. If we compare the ingredient qualifications considerable in the
one, and in the other, as the one is an injury and the other an act of obe
dience, we shall find a great disproportion between them. For,
(1.) If an injury is accounted more evil and blameworthy than all kind
nesses praiseworthy and to be accepted, then when the injury is an undue
act of us, unworthy of all the obligations between us and another whom we
wrong, when it is causeless, and when the kindnesses we do are all due from us, herein lies the disproportion which makes the obliquity of the
injury of sin the more transcendent. All the obedience we perform is due from us to God :
* You do, says Christ, what you ought to do, Luke
xvii. 10. But in this (as Christ again says), we hate God without a cause, John xv. 24, 25. And what iniquity have you found in me, says he,
* and for which of all my perfections or kindnesses to you, do }^ou sin against me ? John x. 32. Now it is this inequality that lies between the one and
the other, that makes the obliquity of the one^to exceed the goodness of the
other. As for example
: for a child to love his father, though it be good and commendable, yet in so doing he doth but his duty, and even what nature teacheth to do ; therefore this is not so praiseworthy, as to hate his
father is odious, for he therein goes against his kind, there is an unnaturalness in it ; and, therefore, we see that one such act does more discommend one to men, than all former acts of dutiful and loving obedience do or can commend him. The being due does diminish of the praise and commenda
: If you love those that love you (says Christ, Luke
tion of what is good
vi. 83, 34), what thanks have you ? No reward attends such a love,
although it be good, because it is a due and suitable act ; but love your enemies, says he, unto whom (in regard of any obligation to them) nothing
* then your reward shall be great ; this is praiseworthy indeed.
is due, and
I may turn this speech and say, that to obey God, and love him, and exalt him as God, though it be good, yet what is it but what is due from you, and that which all obligations tie you to ? What does God require of
thee, man, says Moses, but to love and fear him? Deut. x. 12. He
requires but wfcat is reasonable and due. Now to do all this is not thank
worthy, for if you knew him, you could not choose but love him ; but to be
rebellious to him, to be an enemy to one so good and so glorious, and one unto whom you are so much beholden, this is unsufierable.
(2.) As in regard of the undueness of the act, as from us to God, there
is a greater obliquity in sin than goodness in grace, so in regard of God
also. Though the act of a creature obeying God doth intend glory to him, as much as a sinner doth intend dishonour to him, yet the sin is more, and
that in regard of him who is the object of both. For,
. We do but attribute that to him which is his own already, and that independ
[1.] All the honour which we can give God is but his due ahead}
ently without us. What do we in being holy and obedient ? We exalt him
as God ; why, he is God already, whether we exalt him or no, yea, what we can do this way falls short of that which is his due in himself, for, Nehem.
ix. 5, He is above all blessings and praises. But the very formalis ratio
of sinning against him, is to set up another god, and so to attribute that to him which is not, or that which is below him, that is thereby to affix a new.
title of disgrace upon him, utterly unworthy of him. As for the eye to call
the light beautiful and glorious, and to admire it, what is it but only to
speak that of it which it is already ? But for the eye to call light darkness, this is de novo to coin and put a disparagement upon it, and sin is a new
invention of our own, as Ecclesiastes speaks, Eccl. vii. 29, to dishonour
CHAP. V.] OF CHRIST THE MEDIATOR. 99
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 chal-
lengeth it. Now to love goodness, what is it ! So to love God ; but what an incongruit}
7 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 sx TOV Itiov, 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 eleva
tion 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. 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 cequalia, 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
100 OF CHKIST THE MEDIATOR. [BOOK III.
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 com
pact 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 bucafupat rou sou, that judgment of God written in all men -s hearts, says that they who do such things are
* The wages of sin
worthy of death, Rom. i. 32 ; and so also Bom. vi. 23,
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 him
self 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
* 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
the other. In like manner, Luke xvii. 10, it is said,
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 transeendently 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, ap
pears 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 to wards other creatures innocent, though never so holy.
CHAP. VI.] OF CHRIST THE MEDIATOR. 101