The covenant of nature made with Adam described and cleared from sundry great mistakes. And thereby proving, I. That the kind of death that was threatned in that covenant, in Gen. 2.17. ought not to be understood of any other kind of death but of a double spiritual death, 1. By depriving Adam of Gods concreated image: and 2. By corruption of nature that followed thereupon. II. Proving that the said covenant was totally extinguished and made utterly null, as soon as Adam had but tasted of the forbidden fruit, and received the said threatned punishment. III. Expounding Gal. 3.10. and proving that the curse therein threatned must not be understood of the curse of the said covenant of nature, but of that curse that is threatned in the covenant of grace to the fallen posterity of Adam, for their not doing of Moses law by faith in Christ, which was given to them for the covenant of grace and reconciliation only. ... VIII. Expounding Rom. 8.1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 6, 8. in ch. 25. By William Pynchon.

CHAP. XIX. (Book 19)

Shewing from Chatta. in Piel. That Gods Reconciled For∣givenesse for the sake of Christs Sacrifice, doth make belie∣ving sinners to be sinlesse, That is to say, to be as perfectly holy and righteous as the Covenant of Grace and Reconcilia∣tion doth require them to be, to their attaining of the Heaven∣ly Inheritance.

1. CHatta: Sin, when it is in Piel, doth signifie a Sin (Offering) whereby Gods Atonement is merited or procured: or it doth signifie, to make an Expiation for sin, and so consequently it makes believing Sinners to be sinlesse: that is to say, to be as Negatively holy and righteous as the Covenant of Grace and Reconciliation doth require them to be.

2. It is said in 2 Chron. 29. 24. That the Priest killed the Sin (Offerings) and that they made Reconciliation with their blood (by sprinkling it) upon the Altar, to make a Reconciliation for all Israel: but the Seventy, and Tremelius render it thus: they made expiation with their blood upon the Altar, to make expia∣tion for all Israel: The word Reconciliation, or Expiation, is twice over repeated in this Verse; from two several Hebrew words: 1. From Chatta in Piel: and 2. from Caphar; and yet these two Hebrew words in this Verse have but one and the s••me sence in our Language, only they differ in their causes: For 1. Chatta must be understood, in the meritorious cause of Gods atonement or Expiation, by the Priests sprinkling of the blood of the Sin-(Offerings) upon the Altar.

But 2. Caphar must be understood of Gods atonement or Expiation, as it is the formal cause of purging sin-guiltinesse: but of this last word I have spoken at large in chap. 15. and also in Dan. 9. 24. Therefore I shall in this Chapter endea∣vour to give the true sence of the first word Chatta: S••n.

1. The Priests are said in Ver. 24. To make Reconciliation or Expiation with the Blood of the Sin upon the Altar (meaning, with the blood of the sin-Offer∣ings) 2. Thence it follows in the typified sence, that Christ is the true Sin, i.e. * 1.1 the true sin-Offering, and that God made him, i.e. appointed him to be sin for us, that we might be made the right••ousnesse of God in him, 2 Cor. 5. 21. that is to say, that we might be made Righteous from sin by Gods Reconciled Forgive∣nesse, as soon as we are in him by Faith. This Text of 2 Cor. 5. 21. cannot be better expounded, then by referring it to the meritorious and formal causes of Gods Reconciliation, as it is lively typified, in 2 Chron. 29. 24.

2. I have before observed the like double kind of Atonement and Forgiveness in the meritorious and formal causes, from 1 John 1. 7, 9. in the former Chapter at N. 19. with the concurrence of Mr. Calvin therein.

3. It is also worthy of special observation, that this Sin is called Atonement; not formally, but because it was the meritorious or procuring cause of Gods a∣tonement: This I do the rather observe to confute Mr. Nortons unjust Exception against my Dialogue, because I do therein sometimes call Christs Sacrifice, a sa∣crific▪ of Atonement, in pag. 122. and elsewhere: and see my fuller Rep••y for this, in chap. 15. sect. 4.

But saith Mr. Norton, in pag. 222. If righteousnesse for sinners be pur∣chased by Christs sacrifice of Atonement, neither then can Atonement be a sinners righteousnesse: that which procureth or purchaseth is the cause, That which is procured is the effect: The cause cannot be the effect.

[Reply 1] I have in my former printed Reply, in pag. 249. Replyed sufficiently to this Cavil: and yet for the Readers sake I will enlarge my Reply further. 1. It is a usual thing to give the name of the Effect to the meritorious Cause of it, as in Exod. 21. 21. The Bondslave is called his masters money, because he was pur∣chased * 1.2 with his Masters money: and it is a common expression to say, this Land or this House is my money, because it was purchased with his money: for money answereth all things, Eccl. 7. 12. Eccl▪ 10. 19. and in this sence it is, that the Poll-money that was employed to buy publick sacrifices for the procuring of Gods atonement, is called Atonement-money, Exod. 30. 16. and Trespasse-mon••y, and Sin-money, 2 Kings 12. 16. and Redemption-money, Numb. 3. 49. In like sort, * 1.3 the S••n-Offering is called by no other Name but Sin, in above a hundred places which I have cited in my former printed Reply, in chap. 14. sect. 2. and in that very sence only God made Christ to be sin, 2 Cor. 5. 21. and therefore the Ge∣neva Bible cites 2 Cor. 5. 21. to Exod. 29. 14. where the sacrifice is called Sin; and Trespasse, Esay 53. 10. because he was the true Sin and Trespasse-Offer∣ing that procured Gods atoned Forgivenesse of the sins and trespasses of all be∣lieving sinners: and in this sence it is, that the sin-Offering is called the sin of Atonements, Exod. 30. 10. Numb. 29. 11. and the Ram of Atonement, Numb. 5. 8. because these Sacrifices were ordained to procure Gods atonement; And it is also a usual thing among the Hebrew Doctors, to call the sin-Offering their atone∣ment: they say, that the Woman after the time of her Child-bed, brings her

atonement, and the Leper brings his atonement for his cleansing, i.e. his seve∣ral Sacrifices for the procuring of Gods atonement, for his full cleansing from his ceremonial sins: and for this see Ainsworth, in Lev. 12. 6. and in Lev. 14 9, 15. and often elsewhere: And David saith, that he would not drink of the water of Bethlem, because it was the blood of those men that bought it, i.e. it was purchased with the hazard of their blood, 2 Sam. 23. 17. and 1 Chron. 11. 19.

I cannot therefore but wonder at Mr. Nortons unjust, and I fear wilful Cavil at the Dialogue.

2. Consider that Christ is called our salvation, Heb. 5. 9. and our peace, in Eph. 2. 14. not formally, but as the meritorious cause of it, as it is also explain∣ed, in Eph. 2. 16. and so in like sort he is called our Wisdom, Righteousnesse, San∣ctification, and Redemption, 1 Cor. 1. 30. not formally, but as he is the meritorious cause of these Blessings: and from thence it follows, that Mr. Nortons said Ex∣ception, is very unjust, and I fear wilfully so.

3. Chatta: Sin, is also put for purging or sprinkling from sin, as in Exod. 29. 36. Thou shalt cleanse (or purge, or purifie) the Altar, when thou makest a∣tonement for it: but Tremelius renders it, Thou shalt purge it (or sprinkle it) from sin, when thou makest an Expiation for it: but the Seventy say, when thou dost sanctifie it, i.e. when thou dost make it holy from sin, by procuring Gods atonement. And Tindal doth render it thus: thou shalt hollow the Altar, when thou reconcilest it. From these several translated Terms (which do all suit very well to expresse the true sence of the word cleanse by atonement) we may learn from this teaching School-master, that to cleanse, purge, or justifie from sin, or to hollow or sanctifie from sin, in the meritorious cause, as well as in the * 1.4 formal, is called Atonement, or Expiation, or Reconciliation, or Sanctificatian: and from thence it comes to passe, that these terms are used interchangably, some∣times for the meritorious, and sometimes for the formal cause of a sinners justifi∣cation from sin.

4. It is said in Deut. 24. 4. Thou shalt not cause the Land to sin: but the Se∣venty say, thou shalt not cause the Land to be polluted: Hence I observe, that the Seventy do render Chatta, by polluted, they put the Effect for the Cause: For as their ceremonial sins had this effect, to pollute their bodies legally, so their publick moral sins (unrepented of) had this effect; to pollute the whole Land, Namely, to make the whole Land guilty of moral sin, Num. 35. 33. Psa. 106. 38. Jer. 3. 1, 2. Eze. 36. 16, 17, 18. and thence it follows by the Rule of Con∣traries, that Gods Reconciled Forgivenesse doth fully cleanse the body from the guilt of their ceremonial sins: and doth also fully cleanse the Soul from the guilt of moral sins: so that cleansing must necessarily be called holinesse, or sanctification, or justification, or Righteousnesse, or Redemption from the guilt of sin; and so consequently, Gods Sanctification, Justification, or Redemption from the guilt of sin, is but one and the same thing: first in the meritori∣ous, and then in the formal causes of it: as I have noted it more at large, in Chap. 17.

5. David saith thus, in Psalm 51. 7. Purge me (or as the Seventy render it, sprinkle me with Hyssop) and I shall be clean; or as it is more emphatically in the Hebrew, make me sinlesse with Hyssop (in the meritorious cause) and then

by Gods atonement thereby procured, I shall be fully clean in the formal cause; alluding thereby to the effects of the sin-water, because it was sprinkled on men (and on other things also) that were defiled with ceremonial sins, with a bunch of Hyssop to purge them, or to purifie them, i.e. to make them sinlesse, Numb. 19. 6, 18. Lev. 14. 4, 6, 49. Exod. 12. 22. Heb. 9. 19. This I have noted also at the beginning of the former Chapter, at N. 3.

2. Take notice, that this sprinkling was the last part of the purification of the unclean and that it typified the efficacy of Christs Expiatory Sacrifice, as it is the only meritorious and procuring cause of Gods atoned Forgivenesse, which doth fully and formally cleanse, purifie, and justifie the Souls of Believing sinners from the guilt of all their moral sins.

6. The Apostle, in Heb. 9. 13. doth also allude to this Levitical purifying: If (saith he) the blood of Bulls and Goats, and the ashes of an Heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth (i.e. maketh the body holy from ceremonial sins,) to the purifying of the flesh (i.e. to the justifying of the Body from its ceremo∣nial sins: Thence he doth infer, in Verse 14. How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the Eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works, &c. This word purge, in this 14 Verse, must comprehend as much under it as the typical word sprinkling doth, in Ver. 13. and the meritorious effect of that sprinkling, was to procure Gods atoned For∣givenesse to the sanctifying, and to the purifying of the flesh of the National Church from their ceremonial sins: and therefore consequently, the Blood of Christ is much more meritorious to procure Gods atoned Forgivenesse for the * 1.5 purging, i.e. for the sanctifying and purifying of the Soul from the guilt of all its moral sins.

2. The sprinkling of the blood of Christ, in 1 Pet. 1. 2. hath the same Greek Word for Sprinkling, that was first used by the Seventy, in Psalm 51. 7.

3. The blood of Christ is again called the blood of Sprinkling, in Heb. 10. 22. and in Heb. 12. 24. to note out the meritorious Efficacy of it.

4. Seeing the word Purge, in Heb. 9. 14. is deduced from the former word Sprinkled, in Verse 13. it doth from thence necessarily follow, that it must have the like signification in its Effects: But whosoever lives and dyes without Faith in Christs Expiatory Sacrifice, can have no Right to Gods atoned For∣givenesse, to cleanse them from the guilt of their ceremonial sins, Es. 22. 14 1 Sam. 3. 14. Heb. 11. 6.

7. Chatta, Sin; is by the Seventy rendred Propitiation, in Exod. 30. 10. Eze. 43. 21. Eze. 45. 19.

2. It is also rendred, a pleasing of God, or an appeasing of his anger for sin, * 1.6 in Eze. 44. 27.

3. It is also rendred, for an exchange by the Seventy, in Zach. 13. 15. But Ainsworth doth translate the Seventy [for a removal away] For he doth thus paraphrase this Verse of Zachary, in Numb. 19. 9. For sin (saith he) is for a purification for sin, and for a water of separation from uncleannesse, which two phrases, (saith he) the Greek interpretech, 1. for a removal away, and 2. for a sprinkling.

4. Saith he, this word sin, in Numb. 19. 9. is the Name of the Water that

purified from sin, as it is manifest by Verse 12. Wherefore, saith he, the Greek translateth this ninth Verse a sanctification, or a purification: and (saith he) a purification for sin is often used for a sin-Offering, or for a Sacrifice that doth expiate sin, as in Lev. 4. 3. Numb. 8. 7. And these two terms, a sanctifica∣tion, or a purification are also used by the Apostle, for the blood of Bulls, &c. in Heb. 9. 13. and, saith he, this Sin-(Water) is also called by the Greeks and Chalde Version, water of sprinkling, (because it was sprinkled on the unclean to purifie them) Numb. 19. 18, 19. according to which phrase, Christs blood is called the blood of sprinkling, Heb. 12. 24. because it purifies the Con∣science; and therefore it was figured by this sprinkling-Water, in Heb. 9. 13, 14.

5. I will now return again to expound this phrase, in Zach. 13. 1. For sin: It is rendred by the Seventy, for an exchange; For Kircherus doth translate their Greek word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, by mutatio, which signifies a Change, or an Exchange: but Ainsworth, doth render this Greek word, for a removal away: and therefore it will not be amisse to see how these two translated phrases may suit to the true sence of the Hebrew word Chatta, Sin.

1. Therefore consider, that the issues both of Men and Women (besides o∣ther sorts of ceremonial sins) caused them to be removed away from coming unto Gods holy Temple: until they were first cleansed according to the purifi∣cation of the Sanctuary; and after the Womans issue was stopped, she was still * 1.7 in part unclean; and therefore she was commanded to number unto her self se∣ven dayes, and then she was to wash her self, and then after that she shall be clean, Lev. 15. 13, 28. Namely, so far as to fit her for her going so far with∣in the holy Ground, as to bring her sin-Offering to the Priest on her eighth day, i.e. Two Turtle-Doves, or two young Pigeons: she shall bring them to the Priest to the door of the Tent of the Congregation, and the Priest shall make the one a sin-Offering, and the other a burnt-Offering, and the Priest shall make atonement for her before Jehovah for the issue of her uncleannesse, and then she shall be (fully) clean: From hence it follows, that until she had obtained Gods atoned Forgivenesse by her said sacrifices, she did continue Re∣moved away from having full communion with God in his holy Temple.

2. But as soon as her atonement was procured, her condition was changed or exchanged (as Kircherus doth translate the said Greek Word) from sin∣guiltinesse to purification, or to justification from sin, or from unclean∣nesse to cleannesse; from pollution, to sanctity; from enmity, to Reconciliation with God.

3. When Christ said unto those that stood by Jebosua, take away the fil∣thy Garments from him: and as soon as they were taken away, he said unto him, I have caused thine iniquity to passe from thee: And I will cloath thee with change of Rayment, Zach. 3. 3, 4. This Change was brought to passe by that living Fountain of Christs Blood which God hath set open to all Nations for a Change, or for an Exchange from sin-guiltinesse to justifica∣tion from sin: Namely, as the blood of Christ is the infallible meritorious Cause of Gods Reconciled Forgivenesse, to believing Sinners all the World over.

8. Chatta, Sin, is very often used in a metaphorical sence for sin-Offer∣ings, just in the same manner as Asham is for a Trespasse-Offering: as in Lev. 5. 6. Amos 8. 14. They that swear by the Trespasse, i.e. by the Trespasse-Offering, which the Priests of Samaria did offer unto God to procure his A∣toned Forgivenesse for their Trespasses: and in that Respect the Seventy do render Asham, the proptiation of Samaria: and thence it follows, that they did believe, that upon Gods accepting of it, they should not need any other Righteousnesse to bring them to Heaven, but his Reconciled Forgivenesse only. And 2. Thence it followes, that in case it had been a received Truth among them that no sinner could get to Heaven, unlesse God did im∣pute the moral Righteousnesse of Adams con-created Nature unto them, they would doubtlesse have left some foot-steps of that Faith, either in the An∣tient Translation of the Seventy, or in those Records that are cited from their ancient Hebrew Doctors; but I do not find neither in Mr. Broughtons works, nor in Mr. Ainsworth, nor in any others that have searched into their antient Records, that they do make any mention of that Tenent: but the contrary doth appear, by their Expositions of the Sacrifices: They held them to be the only procuring cause of Gods Reconciled Forgivenesse, and Rested in that as the only Righteousnesse that God had ordained to bring them to Heaven.

Notes

• * 1.1

  2 Cor. 5 21. with 2 Ch••on. 29. 24.
• * 1.2

  The name of the Effect is often given to the pro∣curing cause.
• * 1.3

  2 Cor. 5. 21. Esay 53. ult.
• * 1.4

  Eph. 2. 14, 16. Exod. 29. 36. Deut. 24. 4. Numb. 35. 33. Psalm 51. 7••
• * 1.5

  Heb. 9. 13, 14. 1 Pet. 1. 2. Heb. 10. 22. Heb. 12. 24.
• * 1.6

  Exod. 30. 10. Eze. 44. 27. Rach. 13. 1. Numb. 19. 9.
• * 1.7

  Lev. 15. 28. Zach. 3. 3, 4. Amos 8. 14.