most Holy Reform'd Religion of our Church which is indeed no other than the pure and genuine Christianity by decrying it as Heretical and Damnable To obviate the Designs of these men nothing can be more effectual than to apply our selves diligently to the study of Christianity to enquire in the Holy Scriptures what Christ hath revealed to us and to search the Design and Mysteries of his Religion This is become the Duty of every private Christian at this time that so his Ignorance may not lay him open to the Attempts of designing Men who lay in wait to deceive and betray him to be a prey to Errour and Superstition To this pursuance and encrease of knowledge our Church encourageth and earnestly intreats us She taketh no refuge in the Ignorance of her Communicants nor discourageth them from examining her Doctrines and Opinions as well knowing that this Examination will end in a full Conviction of the truth of them and that the Improvement of our knowledge in Divine Matters and an impartial study of them will infallibly secure us from the delusions of her Enemies And this is the first Reason why every private Christian ought to be fully instructed concerning the Reasons of his Faith that so he may answer the Objections and escape the Assaults of those who endeavour to withdraw us from the truth or seduceus to the belief of any Enrour II. It is a strict Enquiry into the Reasons and Arguments of our Religion and full Comprehension of them which properly maketh Faith to be praise worthy in it self acceptable to God and capable of reward An assent to Christianity without respect to the Arguments of its truth may be a Happiness to ignorant Persons in as much as they enjoy those opportunities which lead to such an assent such as are Education in a Christian Countrey or under Christian Parents or Masters whereby through custom or respect to the Authority of those Persons they embrace Christianity and are led thereby to the knowledge of God the Practice of their Duty and dependence upon the Merits of a Crucified Saviour But surely we cannot imagine this to be an Act deserving the Favour of God or even comparable to the meanest of moral Vertues Before all which a true Divine Faith is so frequently and so eminently preferred in Scripture For since such a Disposition of Mind I mean an inclination to follow the Example and Authority of our Countrey Parents or Masters in assenting to the Religion received by them may and doth equally dispose Men to the embracing of Errour as of Truth it is to be accounted a thing wholly indifferent and if it proceeds from a a willful Negligence of examining the Grounds of any Religion when means and ability are not wanting to us is extremely vicious but no otherwise laudable than in the happy consequences of it and opportunities it may possibly minister of coming to the Truth Indeed Christianity is so admirably fitted to the perfection and Salvation of Mankind that it cannot be assented to upon any Grounds whatsoever even by the most ignorant Persons without a precedent habit of Mind which is truly vertuous and excellent and in an extraordinary manner testifying a profound obedience to the Commands of God in the Person assenting may not unfitly be thought to qualifie him for the Divine Favour For Christianity proposing such Rules as restrain the corrupt Lusts and Passions of men teaching a strict Sobriety and Abstinence from unlawful Pleasures forbiding the satisfaction of the most darling Lusts and commanding men to deny to themselves what they are apt to imagine an extreme Happiness the unlimited Fruition of all sensual Pleasures and even upon occasion to forforsake the Conveniences of Life it self Choosing rather to suffer affliction than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season None can assent to a Religion of this Nature without first overcoming his Lusts and Passions and being thoroughly convinced that all these ought to give place to the Command and Will of God which he believes to be proposed to him in the Christian Religion Such a Disposition is truly excellent and in them who want means of attaining a more perfect knowledge is rewarded by God as a true and perfect Act of Faith who condescends to the imperfection of Mankind and requiring of none more than he hath given to him supplyeth by his Mercy what is wanting to the perfection of our Faith But then such a Disposition of Mind is so far from being a true and proper Faith that it may consist without it and be joyned with Errour Neither can we imagine that Faith which hath all those glorious and particular Pro rises of Reward annexed to it in the Holy Scripture consists only in assenting to and firmly believing what we are assured God hath revealed to us For that we cannot but do None ever that believed the Existence of a God dis-believed what he was perswaded to have been revealed by him To do that were to suppose that God could err or lye and consequently were not God Such an assent therefore being necessary and unavoidable is not capable of a Reward and hath nothing excellent in it No Man can be an Infidel in this Sense And therefore none can be esteemed faithful from it And hence it appears that to have only moral and not demonstrative Proofs is so far from prejudicing the truth of Christianity that it is both necessary and advantageous to it For if the Truths of Christianity had been self evident or placed in as clear a Light as the Sun in Heaven Assent to them had been necessary and no Act of Choice and therefore incapable of reward Whereas now God hath so wisely contrived it that a rational Afsent to it and perfect Comprehension of it will exercise the diligence obedience and reason of Mankind in enquiring into whatsoever carrieth the stamp of Divine Authority in submitting to whatsoever justly appears to bear that sacred Character in using aright our Faculties of Reason and Understanding and employing them to the Glory of God All these Acts and Habits are in themselves praise worthy and rewarded by God with the Reward of Faith that is with infinite and eternal Happiness For 't is in a rational and just Assent to the Christian Religion for the sake of those Arguments which perswade it to have proceeded from the Divine Authority and a due use of our Reason in discovering its Divine Original that a true and perfect Faith consists For upon Conviction of its having been revealed by God we cannot but yield to the truth of it and if we desire or expect to attain the Rewards proposed by it betake our selves to a serious obedience to the Precepts of it For as a due use of our Understanding is no less difficult in it self and advantageous to us than of our Will so we ought to suppose that God will no less favourably accept it and no less highly reward it Certainly a right use of our Reason
wonderful Miracles should be wrought by him And some such extraordinary Actions were required to excite the Jews to a serious consideration of the Quality and Character of the Person who wrought them If the Actions of Christ had been deficient in any one point of Conformity to the precedent Prophesies it had been irrational as well as unlawful for the Jews to have admitted his Revelations altho' confirmed by the greatest Miracles imaginable Since they must have owned thereby the falsity of those Prophesies of the truth of which they were abundantly convinced as being confirm'd to them by an equal Authority of Miracles But not only doth the Reason and Nature of things demonstrate this Truth The Practice and Example of Christ and his Apostles evidently manifest it The first while yet on Earth constantly asserted his Divine Mission and Quality of Messias from the Scriptures of the Old Testament which had Testified of him And his Disciples after his Death carryed on the same Argument He perform'd indeed greater Miracles than any ever had done before him But in Disputing with the Jews he commonly waved that Argument and appealed to the Scripture As well knowing That if they would not hear Moses and the Prophets neither would they be perswaded though one rose from the Dead By which words he plainly infinuates that the greatest of his Miracles his Resurrection was a less valid proof and inferiour to the Testimony of Moses and the Prophets This he often thought alone sufficient to propose as a necessary motive of belief to the Jews And such a motive as could not be rejected without disowning and destroying the Authority of the Old Testament For thus he Disputes in the Vth. of St. John Verses 39 46 47. Search the Scriptures for in them ye think ye have eternal life and they are they which Testifie of me For had ye believed Moses ye would have believed me For he wrote of me But if ye believed not his writings how shall ye believe my words No other Method did he make use of to convince his Disciples walking to Emmaus that all those Calamities which had befallen his Person ought necessarily to be inflicted on the Messias All those Glorious Miracles of which themselves had been witnesses proved unsuccessful and could not secure their Faith from a shameful fluctuation Until Christ beginning at Moses and all the Prophets expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself and opened their understanding that they might understand the Scripture that it was thus written and that it thus behoved Christ to suffer and to rise from the Dead the Third Day If the constant Companions of our Saviours Life could be drawn to the true knowledge of him by no other Argument than a full and plain Interpretation of the Prophesies of the Old Testament In vain do we hope that any other Arguments could convince the remaining Jews who were less acquainted with the Holiness of his Life and greatness of his Miracles In the next place we may observe that the Apostles were chosen by Christ and used as the inseparable Companions of his Life Not so much to be instructed in the Mysteries of the Christian Faith or trained up in the necessary qualifications of Preachers who might propagate the Gospel after the departure of their Master As to be Witnesses and Spectactors of his Actions and Conversation which they might afterwards Testifie to the World and thereby convince Mankind that they were intirely conformable to the Antient predictions of the Prophets That the former could not be the end or intention of their accompanying Christ through the whole discharge of his Prophetick Office appears plainly from their Ignorance both of the Mysteries of Religion and their own Duty at the time of our Saviours Crucifixion Yet can we not suppose but that Christ obtain'd his chief aim which he proposed to himself in selecting certain Persons for the Companions of his Life This end therefore could indeed be no other than that which I have already assigned of witnessing and publishing to the World the Actions of Christ whose reasonableness and agreement to the predictions of the Mosaick Law was to be judged and determined by every private Man For we no where find that the Apostles from the Authority of their Miracles which were not inferiour to those of Christ himself pretended to set up themselves for infallible Judges or exercise an arbitrary command over the judgments of other Men. They might indeed much more justly have claimed such a priviledge than any ever since their times As being personally infallible and endued with the power of working Miracles Yet they never endeavoured to command the assent of their hearers before they had informed and satisfied their Understandings But proceeded in a more rational method and following the example of their Master chose rather to convince their judgment with Arguments whose attention they had before excited by Miracles These Arguments when directed to the Jews were chiefly taken from the Old Testament Whose Prophecies they demonstrated to have plainly soretold and described the Actions and Sufferings of Christ of which Actions themselves were witnesses Thus we find St. Peter in his Sermon made to the Jews upon this Day to have used no other Method And not so much to have urged the Illustrious Miracle of the gift of Tongues newly conferred on them as the conformity of that and all other Actions of Christ to the Antient Predictions of the Prophets His Sermon in the following Chapter proceeds from the same Foundation And St. Stephen in the VII Chap. St. Paul in the XIII use no other Argument when Disputing against the Jews From a clear Interpretation of the Prophecies in Scripture concerning the Messias Philip convinced the Eunuch who was a Jewish Proselyte of the Divinity of Christ Acts VIII and Acts XVIII Apollos is said to have mightily convinced the Jews and that publickly shewing by the Scriptures that Jesus was Christ. St. Paul pleading before King Agrippa endeavoured before all things to prove that he stood there to be judged for the hope of the Promise made by God unto the Fathers Acts XXVI 6. And ver 27. appealed to the Prophets and asked Agrippa whether he believed not them insinuating that if he truly believed the Prophets and understood their genuine Sense he could not but embrace the Christian Religion Lastly to say no more his Disputes with the Jews at Rome were employed in expounding and Testifying the Kingdom of God Perswading them concerning Jesus both out of the Law of Moses and out of the Prophets from Morning till Evening Acts XXVIII 23. It appears then That the chief reason of the choice of the Apostles to a familiar conversation with our Saviour before his Ascension was no other than that they might thereby be enabled to Testify and publish to the World his Actions Miracles and Sufferings which being received from them might then by every private Man be examined and compared with the
those which are revealed by God supposing them to have been indeed revealed but only that any such Revelation is really made can appear no otherwise than by Arguments of probability Thirdly a perfect knowledge of all the Mysteries of Religion might have been extraordinarily obtained by the Apostles before the Ascension of our Saviour by conferring on them the same Gifts of the Holy Ghost as were afterwards poured on them on the day of Pentecost But neither was this convenient to the design of the Gospel nor the Wisdom of God Not to the former For the plentiful Effusion and Mission of the Holy Ghost was an Act of the Regal power of Christ which he commenced not till after his Ascension when he first began to exercise that Authority which he had obtained to himself by the obedience of Death And therefore our Saviour tells the Apostles S. Joh. XVI 7. Nevertheless I tell you the truth it is expedient for you that I go away For if I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you but if I depart I will send him unto you And in another place this is assigned as the Reason why the Holy Ghost was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified The Wisdom of God also was no less engaged which might justly have been arraigned if he had used so wonderful and signal a Miracle as was the Mission of the Holy Ghost for the extraordinary instruction of the Apostles before the Ascension of our Lord since no such Instruction was yet necessary which was the second Point I proposed to prove Namely II. That a perfect and infallible Information of the Apostles was not absolutely necessary till after the Ascension of Christ. For this was required in the Apostles for no other cause than that they might thereby be inabled to teach the Doctrines of our Saviour to the whole world and at last deliver them down in writing to succeeding Ages infallibly and without danger of any intermixed Enrour to the suspicion of which the Christian Religion would ever have been subjected if they had not been indued with such clearness of apprehension concerning every Point of it and attended by such an extraordinary assistance as might secure them from all possible danger of mistaking the Sense of that Doctrine which they were to deliver to the rest of Mankind To create this clear apprehension in the Apostles and convey down this assistance to them was the chief intention of sending the Holy Ghost as upon this day and the principal effect of that Mission at least as far as I am at present concerned So that since the sending of the Holy Ghost was designed purely to enable them to the due execution of their Office of preaching and propagating the Doctrine of Christ to the whole world which Office was not to be commenced till after his Ascension it manifestly follows that an exact and infallible knowledge of the Mysteries of the Christian Religion was not absolutely necessary to the Apostles before that time A perfect knowledge would have been useful indeed to them even before that time but useful to them only as private Persons not as bearing the publick Office and Character of Apostles whose Office before the Ascension of our Saviour consisted as we before observed in taking notice of the Actions Sufferings and Miracles of Christ that they might be able afterwards to testifie them to the whole world This Office of observing the Actions of Christ required no exact and perfect knowledge of all the Reasons of his Actions and Mysteries of his Doctrine but might be sufficiently discharged by any Persons who were not devoid of common Sense and Honesty The Mission of the Holy Ghost was necessary upon Reasons of another nature and would have continued necessary although the Apostles had perfectly understood all the Doctrine of our Saviour before his Ascension For however they might then sufficiently understand it nothing less than a perpetual extraordinary assistance of the Holy Ghost could infallibly secure them from all future Errour in delivering it to others or create such a degree of probability as might deserve the Assent and Belief of Mankind in all future Ages Thus I have shewn the Reasons of that Ignorance of the Apostles which is so remarkable through all the History of the Gospels and for which our Saviour promiseth so extraordinary a remedy in the words of my Text and withal demonstrated that there is nothing in all this Conduct of the Apostles continuing under that Ignorance till the Ascension and of our Saviour permitting it till that time disadvantageous to the Truth and Divinity of the Christian Religion It remains that I draw some few Conclusions from what hath been said which was the third and last Proposal First then if as we before shewed our Saviour and the Apostles who were unquestionably infallible never set up themselves for infallible Judges nor required from their Hearers a blind Assent to their Dictates if they submitted their Doctrines to the Examination of Scripture and Judgment of all private men in vain do any at this day pretend in vertue of an Authority derived from them to set up themselves for infallible Judges of Controversie from whom lyeth no Appeal either to Scripture or Reason and thereby exercise a Jurisdiction which they never claimed But I wave that Particular and choose rather to insist on some more practical Considerations Of which The first is That if the knowledge of the Christian Religion was so difficult to the Apostles who enjoyed so many and so great advantages under the Instruction and Government of their Divine Master the Author of this Religion if after the sight of his Miracles the Enjoyment of a triennial Conversation and the constant hearing of his Divine Discourses they continued ignorant of the true Spirit and Nature of Christianity this ought to excite us to great diligence in learning and studying the Mysteries of our Religion and enquiring the true Sense of those Revelations which our Saviour conveyed to the world It is indeed the peculiar Excellency and Glory of the Christian Religion that its admirable simplicity hath fited it to the Understandings and Capacity of all men that it is not such an abstruce Science as surmounts the ordinary reach of Mankind and must intirely be confined to the Discipline of the Schools and knowledge of Learned men the acquisition and understanding of it is possible and even easie to all men But then God in proposing this Religion intended not purely to supercede the Labours of men and consult their ease Some Conditions are also necessary on our side that we diligently search the Truth examine the Scriptures hearken to the instruction of our Pastors carefully weigh the Reasons of things and bring a mind ready disposed to assent to any Truths which shall evidently appear to us how contrary soever they may be to our Passions and Inclinations For although we labour not with those prejudices of a temporal Kingdom
of the Soul otherwise it would be vain and trifling to found Piety and Religion in the internal Acts of the Mind and appropriate either Rewards or Punishments to them only Again Christianity directeth all our Actions to their natural end the Supreme Good the Enjoyment of God and Obedience to him It is but too apparent and hath been plainly confessed by many of them that all the refined Morality of the Heathen Philosophers was founded upon a Principle of Vanity and directed rather to the Acquisition of Praise and Glory than the discharge of their Duty to God Themselves and their Neighbours Whereas the Christian Faith directs us to perform all in obedience to the Divine Laws to ascribe all our good Deeds to God the Author and Fountain of them and preserve an awful Sense of our own unworthyness in respect of the Divine Majesty and Goodness Hereby it addeth to all other excellent Perfections and Crowns them with Humility a Vertue almost unknown to any other System of Religion yet naturally arising from the Principles of Christianity Lastly This Religion is most pure and simple equally adapted to all Orders and Ranks of men and thereby may justly be accounted most agreeable to their Nature since it equally concerneth and includeth all The Precepts of it are plain and easie laying level with the meanest Capacity and placed beyond the Power of none such as carry their Conviction along with them and need no other Argument than to be proposed The Principles and Mysteries of it are perspicuous and significant such as may create a right Sense and esteem of the Divine Attributes and afford powerful Arguments to Men of manifesting their obedience to God In a word nothing can be found or discovered in it unworthy of God or not agreeable to Men nothing which doth not proclaim it self owing to a Divine Original Which brings me to the second Consideration Namely II. That the Christian Religion is rational and evident in respect of the undoubted certainty of its having been revealed by God To evince this we have already made no inconsiderable advance in shewing it to be most worthy of God and fitted to the Nature and Necessity of Mankind For hereby all Objections which can be formed against it are prevented and the Proofs of its Revelation left in their full force Whereas no one System of false Religion hath ever obtained in the World which hath not taught somewhat contrary to Reason and upon that account ought to have been rejected without inquiring into the truth of those Proofs and Arguments whereby it pretended to Revelation The falfeness of the Pagan Religion discovered it self in proposing the Worship of many Gods in giving extravagant and undecent Notions of them representing them as Murderers Adulterers and Criminals of the like Nature in practising Childish and oft-times brutish Superstitions and confining all Religion to external Worship To come to our own Times the falseness of the Mahometan Religion appears in the most absurd and extravagant Fables which it relates of God unworthy the petulancy of an Infant much more the Majesty of an all-wise Being But chiefly in placing the Supreme and eternal Happiness of Man after this Life in an open Violation of the Laws of Nature by the continual Practice of unbridled Lusts and indulging a brutish Appetite in all sensual Pleasures I will not add to these a corrupt part of the Christian Church which teacheth Doctrines contrary both to Sense and Reason But from the whole we may draw a convincing Argument of an All-wise Providence presiding over the World and directing all things to the good of Mankind In that it never suffered any false Religion to obtain which did not carry along with it most evident Marks of its falseness and consequently into which none could enter but by betraying their Reason and wilfully shutting their Eyes upon the Truth Hereby the Plea of Ignorance and involuntary Errour is taken from all For the existence of One only God may be easily discovered by the light of Nature The Laws of Nature are known to all and the meanest Ideots may judge of sensible things by their Senses So that to fall into any Errours contradicting the light of Nature or the report of our Senses may justly be accounted wilful and inexcusable Thus all erroneous Religions discover themselves by the falseness of their Doctrines whereas Christianity recommends it self to the Understandings of all Men by the reasonableness and Divinity of its Doctrines To this we may add that some Revealed Religion was plainly necessary to Mankind overwhelmed with an universal corruption of Ignorance and Superstition and miserably subjected to the Dominion of the Devil and their own Lusts. But as none more excel-cellent Religion than this could be proposed so none could be founded upon better Proofs For since all Revelation must be made at some certain time to some certain Persons and in some certain place However it might to them be attested with the greatest and most uncontestable Miracles yet the report of it could be conveyed to Persons distant in place and time no otherwise than by the Testimony of those who had been Eye-witnesses of it and consequently to them the Proofs of it could be no other than the Nature of the thing would admit Not Demonstrative and excluding all Doubt but Moral and excluding all just Doubt No general and universal Revelation such as is Christianity can be made in any other manner and therefore to expect any other Proofs of it would be highly unreasonable although these it possesseth in the highest and most eminent manner which I proceed in the next place briefly to shew Miracles are by all acknowledged to be the peculiar effects of God and to exceed the Power of a finite Being That wonderful and unaccountable Actions may be and often have been performed by the sleight of Men or concurrence of evil Spirits must be Confessed but these fail not to carry some Evidence of deceit and imposture along with them and may easily be discerned by judicious and attentive Persons from those which proceed from the finger of God and are the real works of Omnipotence Now it cannot be imagined that God will exert his Almighty Power in working Miracles upon slight and trivial occasions much less in Confirmation of a Lye or any pretended Revelation If therefore any Prophet appears invested with the Power of Miracles and we be satisfied that the Miracles are true and real and that his Revelations neither contradict the light of Nature nor any precedent Revelation we must own his Divine Commission and submit to his Revelations which in that Case will truly carry along with them a Divine Authority This was the Case of Moses whose Miracles were unexceptionable and his Revelations in no respect contrary to Reason nor yet to any precedent Revelation for no precedent one was yet made This also was the Case of our Saviour Christ but in a more eminent manner His Revelations far from opposing
we are warned by Examples to Repentance and still continue unmoved We hear the voice of our Lord calling to Repentance the Exhortations of his Apostles preaching to the World whose Message was Repent and be baptized We read the dreadful Examples of Punishments inflicted in this World upon notorious Sinners And yet reflect not that we are the Creatures of God as well as they that we are subject to the Laws of Government that the Duty is not remitted but made more severe and that the hand of God is not shortned that he cannot punish us but that his Power always continueth the same and that the Rules of Conduct given to Men are no more changed than is the Nature of them It is somewhat surprizng indeed that Men should know and confess all this and yet not attend to it that it should be possible to form an habit of Acting constantly in opposition to the clearest and no less constant Conviction of mind For can we hear with what Detestation the Scripture speaketh of the hardness of Pharaohs Heart and what a sudden Destruction followed and not reflect that in continuing deaf to so many Admonitions of Repentance we are guilty of the same Crime and that in one respect in a higher Degree inasmuch as he knew not at first that that God who commanded him to let the Captive Jews depart was the true God until he was convinced by many Miracles whereas we are convinced from the beginning of the Divine Authority of him who imposeth this Duty on us Or can we call to mind the severe Judgments which God exercised upon the Jews for sudden and rash Resolutions taken up in heat and as soon repented of such as their frequent Rebellions against Moses their refusing to march to the promised Land after having râ—…ceived a false account from the timorous Spies and many such other occasions Do we remember all this and imagine that God will pass-by unregarded our deliberate and obstinate Rebellions such as is the Continuation of every habit of Sin These things were written for our Example that by them we might receive Instruction being terrified by the knowledge of their Sufferings from following the Example of their Sins It is absurd to think that God hath remitted his Justice herein and will oversee those Sins in us which he so eminently revenged in elder times His Attributes always continue the same his Justice his Holiness and his hatred of Sin The Reasons of his Favour are eternal and unchangeable being Piety and Obedience Although he hath been pleased in ancient times to demonstrate his Justice by more visible Examples than in after Ages which was no more than was necessary at the first Delivery of any general Revelation partly to attest the Authority of those Revelations and partly to deterr Men by such severe Examples from the Prosecution of sin who ought thence to conclude That if God exercised not the same Severity toward them in this Life he reserved it for another it being impossible that God who is no respecter of persons should be so inexorable to some Sinners and unaccountably indulgent to others involved in the same Guilt To be farther convinced of the impossibility of Salvation without Repentance we may consider the Mystery of our Lords Incarnation Death and Passion who having taken upon himself the Sins of Mankind bore our Infirmities upon the Cross and became answerable to God for them Surely if ever God would Pardon the sins of Men without any Satisfaction whether of Punishment or Repentance he would have remitted his Methods of Justice to his only begotten Son and not required him to take upon himself the Shame and Bitterness of the Cross. Yet such was the Divine Hatred of Sin that although earnestly and passionately intreated by Christ in his Prayer in the Garden to remit his Decree therein and receive Mankind to Mercy without requiring so severe a Satisfaction he would not condescend to do it nor would give Pardon to Man upon any other terms than that that ever Blessed Person who had taken the Sins of Mankind upon him should suffer all the Marks of Divine Displeasure which Man in this Life can undergo and expiate it by the shedding of his own Blood Could the Justice of God permit him to Pardon the sins of Man without any satisfaction he would never have put such an hard Condition upon his own Son as that either the World whose Redemption he had undertaken must be for ever lost or himself must lay down his Life in exchange for it When therefore a Life of such inestimable value must be Sacrificed to appease the Anger of God to sinful Men how terrible must that Anger have been how vehement his Hatred of sin the occasion of it Nor did his Hatred of sin expire with the offering up of that inestimable Sacrifice that continueth yet fixed and constant Only now he may remit to men the full and just Punishment of their sins without any prejudice to his Attributes of Holiness and Justice which without that Satisfaction of the Cross he would not do least Man should conclude that he took delight in or winked at their sin which he pardoned so easily or that Sin was not of so deep a Guilt since Man with all his sins was capable of the Divine Favour without any Compensation for it whereas now Man cannot reflect upon the means of Pardon offered by God without conceiving at the same time his hatred of Sin God indeed required ne the Life of every particular Man in Punishment of his Sins which in strict Justice would seem agreeable but he required the Life of his own Son more valuable than the Lives of all sinful Men put together He receiveth to Mercy the most enormous Sinners but condemned to Punishment that Divine Person who took the Sins of them all upon him And even after so much done and suffered by Christ for the Expiation of the sins of Men God distributeth not the Benefits of that Sacrifice indifferently to all who lay any Claim to it Hereby the sins of Men are not actually pardoned nor Man immediately acquitted of the Guilt of them but only made capable of Pardon and the grant of Pardon in God made possible without any Diminution to his Justice This Pardon he distributeth to Men upon those Conditions which himself hath pleased to appoint and those such which farther declare his Hatred of sin being Repentance and Reformation a Confession of the guilt of sin and a forsaking of it such means as may produce in the Soul of Man a like Detestation of Sin Upon no other account can Man claim any Benefit from the Merits of that Sacrifice the sum of the Conditions required being included in that comprehensive form of Speech so often mentioned in the New Testament Repent and be baptized Acknowledge the Guilt of your former sins conceive a Sorrow for them and form a Hatred of them Renounce any farther Exercise of them testifie your Resolutions
to the Church into which you are received by taking such a visible Mark upon you as may be both a fit Emblem of your designed Purity and a Seal of the Covenant made there with God These are the Conditions upon which alone Mercy is offer'd to Mankind even after the great Expiation of the Cross. Nor may it be hoped that God will dispense with these Conditions in any Man God proposed to his own Son undertaking the Salvation of the World as the only Condition to effect it the laying down his Life for it He proposeth to Man seeking Delivery from the Sentence of Damnation due to his Sins as the only Condition of Pardon sincere Repentance He would not remit to his own Son the determined Condition of the Salvation of the World much less therefore will he remit to sinful Men the Condition of Pardon which he hath once fixed If he spared not his eternal Son herein much less will he spare Man the work of his own hands especially while continuing in Rebellion against him It neither becomes us nor will it be of any use to us to enquire whether God could not have pardoned the Sins of men without exacting so great a Satisfaction or whether he cannot yet Pardon the sins of particular Men without requiring from them the ordinary Condition of Pardon which is Repentance It is sufficient to us that he hath declared that he will not do it and that he hath also said of himself that he cannot lie He hath done all which is wont to create a Belief in Man to perswade him of the certainty of his Resolution in this Matter he hath affirmed that he will not justifie the Sinner unless he turns from the evil of his way He hath often repeated his Asseverations he hath confirmed them by an Oath he hath given frequent Examples of it in visible Punishments of more notorious Sinners he hath Sacrificed his own Son because he would not change his Resolution and yet he cannot perswade us that in all this he deals in earnest We willingly believe all other Points of Revelation but this we will not believe that God will judge us according to the strict Rules of his Gospel nor grant us any more Mercy than what he hath there promised We presently lay hold of all such Passages as declare the infinity of his Mercy little considering that it is joyned with no less infinite Justice We remember what passionate Concern he often expresseth for the good of Mankind forgetting his unchangeable Hatred of sin Whereas if we fairly considered those very places where God expresseth the greatest Tenderness and whence Men chiefly raise their hopes we shall find that even in them he giveth manifest Indications of the impossibility of receiving his Mercy without their own precedent Repentance He representeth himself as stretching forth his Hands to them all day long but adds that if they will not hear he giveth them up to their own hearts Lusts. He describeth his Concern for them by the similitude of a Housholder cultivating his Vine Dressing Digging about it and watering it but subjoyns his command of cutting it down if it still remains unfruitful He breaks out into passionate Exclamations in sorrow for their obdurate Impenitence As in Ezek. XXXIII 11. As I live saith the Lord God I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from his way and live Turn ye Turn ye fâ—…om your evil way for why will ye die O ye house of Isaael And Psal. LXXXI 14. O that my people would have hearkned unto me for if Israel had walked in my ways I should soon have put down their enemies c. and Matt. XXIII 37. O Jerusalem Jerusalem thou that killest the Prophets c. how often would I have gathered thy children together even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings and ye would not In all the Scripture there are not more vehement Protestations of kindness to Mankind and yet all these carry along with them a certain Denunciation of Destruction without Repentance In the first place it is plainly insinuated that if Israel will not turn from their evil way there is no Remedy but they must die The second Passage carrieth this Sense in other words O that my People would put themselves into a capacity of receiving my Favour which while they continue Disobedient to me I cannot bestow upon them Which because they would not do it is adjoyned in the 13. Verse But my people would not hearken unto me and Israel would have none of me Therefore I gave them up unto their own hearts lusts and let them follow their own imaginations or in other words I would have none of them And in the last place where to the passionate Commiseration of Jerusalem it is added that our Lord even wept over it yet it immediately follows that because they would not obey his command of Repentance and put themselves under his Protection Behold your house is left unto you desolate However then we dare â—…not affirm that God could not have pardoned Man without the Expiation of the Cross or that he cannot communicate the Benefits of the Cross to an unrepenting Sinner because we presume not to measure the Power of God yet this we may affirm and this is most evident that Man continuing in a state of Unrepentance cannot receive the Mercy and the Pardon of God For the distribution of Mercy or Pardon supposeth a Reconciliation between God and Man and therefore St. Paul saith of his Exhortations to Repentance We pray you in Christs stead be ye reconciled to God While Man continueth in Sin he is in a state of Enmity with God in as much as every Sin is a violation of the Divine Authority and a Rebellion against him in its own Nature and every willful Sin is an absolute disclaiming of his Government and renouncing Subjection to him Resolvedly to deferr Repentance is such a willful Sin and therefore cuts off all Communication of Favour between God and Man it being absurd to say That he is reconciled to God who continueth in Rebellion to him and fears not to Affront him with his sins who defieth his Threats of Punishment against impenitent Sinners or at least slights his Commands of universal Repentance These things are so inconsistent that the least Attention will manifest the impossibility of a Pardon without Repentance This also follows from all those earnest Exclamations of God before recited which are so many Affirmations that while Men continue in disobedience to him he cannot bestow any Act of Favour on them cannot I say not by reason of any defect of his Power but by reason of the incapacity of Man to receive in that state of Unrepentance any such Favour and in complyance to his most just Determinations of the contrary Upon which account he plainly makes it impossible for himself to Pardon unrepenting Sinners Jeremy V. 9. Their transgressions are many and their backslidings