by any Man no nor by all Men nor can a Man enjoy what he is capable of enjoying altogether and at once So that where ever God forbids what we could desire it is but where a smaller Enjoyment will hinder our having a greater one frustrate our having many a small Present and short one disappoint us of a future great and lasting one And what Folly is it to be displeased because God some way forbids a Bodily or Sensual Pleasure that we may have a better a Rational or Mental one or a Joy in a Creature where it would hinder our Rejoycing in the Creator himself I believe if we had time to trace in particular the Disorders of Men we should find that all and every of them even their most beloved ones do but abate their Felicity Where is any that does not tend to destroy our Health or Peace or Wealth or Ease c. and so bring upon us some Mischief or other by which the little Pleasures in them are very much out-ballanced Is it not highly reasonable as well as for our Interest that God who is most wise and good should be our Chooser if he condescends to choose for us Is it not the greatest Presumption and Affront to our Maker who is the Cause of all our Good that we should act as if we knew better than he what is best for us Is it not the greatest Injustice not to love him and study his Will to obey it who has no profit by us but does all for our Benefit If we may receive all the Profit shall we deny to give him all the Honour For God indeed cannot be profited by his Creatures he sees his own Excellencies in them as Shadows but in himself as in the Substance but there can be no increase of his Perfections who is Self-sufficient necessarily Nor can Man's Disobedience take away any thing from his Happiness or affect him with the least Infelicity Sin does indeed obscure his Glory but not from himself but only from the Sinners who thereby loose that most pleasant and happy Vision And a cause of that great dislike of Sin in God which hath been sometimes express'd by the Symbols of Anger and Wrath is that he loves his Creature so well that he cannot approve any Action that in the least hides his Glory and Goodness from his beloved Works And as God neither looses nor gets any thing by the Creatures Sin or Obedience so in particular his Justice or Righteousness cannot be impaired He is not unrighteous or unjust tho' he suffers Man to be unrighteous and unjust The Creature cannot possibly bring any change upon God or lay him under any necessity or obligation God alone can oblige himself by his Promise and that is not properly an Obligation in God for 't is but the Declaration of his constant and free-will To say God cannot in Justice break his Promise is no more than to say he will not If he leave the Creature to reap the fruits of Sin he does him no wrong if he perswade the Creature to leave his Sin and be happy he wrongs not himself He can neither loose nor get any thing by the Creatures Sin and Unhappiness or Repentance and Happiness God is essentially righteous or just before Creatures had a Being and his Essential Righteousness or Justice as I have else-where said is to love and approve himself and to do his own Will His Justice in relation to the Creatures is his Approbation of them so far as they are his Work and according to his Will what he has made he shews his Approbation of by upholding and continuing the Being of He approves not the Creatures denial of him in disobeying his Will but shews the greatest Testimonies of his Dislike of its Disobedience So that if the Creature goes on in willing or acting contrary to God's Will God will not or which is all one he cannot make it happy and joyous in its continuing so to do unless he could make it to be God and cease to be God himself For the Creature cannot be satisfied with willing Good while it wills Evil nor can it be pleased in having its Will while it wills that which is impossible and while it leaves God's Will or willing that which is good and possible it must be miserable more or less according to the strength of its Evil Will and if it for ever goes on seeking Pleasure in vain or to satisfie its Will so as it cannot be satisfied it must for ever be unhappy and reap the Natural Fruit and Work of its own Doings unless and until it acknowledge God's Will Sovereign just and good and its own Will as disagreeing with its Maker unjust and evil and that it ought to be subject and be perswaded to change its foolish Will and desire to know and do the Will of God for the future that is unless or until the Sinner repent 28. But the Creature having once chose its own Will against the Will of God having committed one Act of Rebellion against its Maker is or seems much more inclinable and propense to go on and persist in its Sin than to repent and will well again For having once affected to be its own Lord and Arbiter or to be independant which is the greatest Perfection and best Manner of Being tho' impossible to a Creature it goes on with a strong Desire whose perpetual Acts perfuing so great a Thing hinder its Understanding to judge and reflect on the Impossibility Absurdity Injustice and Consequents of such an Attempt And every fresh act of Sin does but strengthen its Disobedience in which perhaps it would go on for ever if God did not upon its mistake give it abundant Arguments by one means or other to bring it to a stand cause it to consider convict it of its Folly and Disorder and so change its Will Till which change is effectually begun it is always and only endeavouring the Impossibility of separating the unpleasant or bitter effects it finds either in or following or fears may find the fruits of its disorderly Actions So that it would not be saved from its evil Will the Cause but from the Displeasure it finds attending it the Effect 29. But when it is once throughly convinced that its own Will disagreeing with the Will of God is an impossible way or means of Happiness or lasting Pleasure and sees the Unreasonableness and Badness of such an Attempt the Soul is very unapt to believe that God will forgive And considering it Self and its Sin more than God and his Goodness the sight of its most irrational Acts which it hath committed with the Tendency thereof often makes such a horrid Impression on the Soul and takes up its Thoughts so much that tho' God has given Arguments enough to perswade that he wills all Men to repent with various and clear Notices that he is ready to forgive and yet make happy those that by persisting in Rebellion do not render
or abuse it as if they were Men unfit for business when the greatest Debauchees having once signalized their Wickedness in profaning the holy Table of the Lord are Men thought fit for Employments But such Communicants shew themselves no more really to be of the Comprehensive Church they partake with or of any True One whatever the Parson may fancy than theâ— Oaths so strictly imposed to oblige them to be faithful in all Offices makes them so For a Man that makes no Conscience of profaning the Sacred Name of the Most High in his daily Conversation or of any other Immorality cannot be thought to come to the Table of the Holy Jesus but for Fashion or for Interest and he that calls God to witness a hundred times a day to the grandest Lies and as often swears to the Promise he never so much as intends to perform is a Man very unlikely to count himself bound by a solemn Oath And I cannot but admire the profound Policy of those if there are any so cunning who think to oblige Infidels to Fidelity by swearing them as I wonder at the Excess of their Religion who will needs bind Men by Oaths in almost all Offices to things never intended or hardly possible to be done I confess I had thought the Worldly Interest enough to oblige any Man in worldly things and the most likely to bind those who by their Immoralities shew themselves Men of no Conscience and I acknowledge it was my opinion that the pinching of the Pocket by squeezing a Fine or some Corporal Punishment for the Failure in Performance of an Office was more likely to be sensibly felt in this Life by the drowsie Conscienc'd Sinner than the Guilt of fashionable unpunish'd Perjury But still I think a good Man the most likely Person to do his reasonable Duty tho' not obliged by an Oath and a conscientious Man injur'd when he cannot be trusted without invoking the Sacred Name of God in trivial matters 50. I should have thought of concluding here but that a monstrous Opinion at last starts up viz. the old Pagans Doctrine of Fate sprung up in Christianity which Hydra must be beheaded or all is in vain What signifies all I have said To what purpose should we labour to be wise good or penitent If God has not absolutely decreed that we shall go to Heaven all that we can do will be in vain God hath absolutely decreed that a certain small number shall be saved and none else possibly can whatever they do the few thus elected cannot perish but all the rest God hath fore-ordained to Destruction and they cannot possibly be saved saith this Doctrine But if we consider a little this Opinion will appear highly unreasonable even without examining those Texts of Scripture that some fancy do favour it or as the Custom of Disputers is opposing others It is certain that God can never be suppos'd to disown himself or contradict his own Will and therefore we may not think that God does not will the Rational Creatures to behave themselves as such Creatures ought or as it becomes them that is freely to acknowledge own love and obey their Maker but to say God wills the Damnation of any of his Creatures is the same thing as to say he wills they should not behave themselves as becomes their relation to God but that they should persist in setting up their own Wills in opposition to their Creator's For Damnation and persevering Disobedience is the same thing or at least inseparable so that Damnation cannot be will'd or absolutely decreed unless Sin be also so decreed which would be to make God the Author of Sin yea to destroy the notion of Sin for God's Will is the Rule of Duty and if it be God's Will I should sin and be damn'd it is best so to be yea my Duty and so there is neither Sin nor Damnation But as God's Will can't be contradictory to his Will so his Will and his Word cannot differ If God has commanded me to love and obey him and none I think is excepted from that Duty and I suppose he has determined I shall not love and obey him or laid me under a necessity of doing otherwise this is to affirm God the greatest Deceiver and Mocker of his Creatures but this must not nay cannot in reason be imagined of Goodness Nor can it be thought that God should be so indigent or cruel to the Works of his hands poor rail Creatures as to make or suffer them to be miserable for any Satisfaction or Pleasure he can have in their Misery or who can well imagine that if the Creature throw down its Weapons of Rebellion against its Maker and submit yield under him and acknowledge him God will not be ready to forgive and make him happy in Obedience Since Man hath sinn'd nothing can be better than his Repentance and future Obedience his Rebellion can't possibly be as good as Obedience certainly then God cannot will or effectually cause that which is not so good God has done very great things to perswade all to obey and be happy If Obedience or Disobedience were not free but necessary it would cease to be Obedience or Disobedience Men have power to act or suspend their Action till they are perswaded by Argument to act If they will not obey God and be happy 't is their own fault not God's he has given them means of Information as well as Arguments to perswade them God I think is but barely the Permitter of any sort of Evil the Creature is the Cause and Worker thereof and tho' God fore-knows that his Creatures will do Evil he does not by any Fore-knowledge determine that they shall do it or necessitate them or perswade them thereto God does perswade and that strongly to Good no doubt but never to the contrary nor can he be well said to necessitate us to do Good for what a Man cannot but do is no Obedience nor properly his Action God's Decree and his Foreknowledge I think ought to be distinguish'd and his Decree it self also is to be considered two ways viz. either as absolute or as conditional That which he hath absolutely decreed is that which he will certainly effect and can be nothing but Good What he hath conditionally decreed comes to pass but on Supposition of the Conditions and it is left in the Creatures liberty to perform or not perform the Conditions and even the things thus decreed must be suppos'd to be good things that God will do if the Creature will perform the Conditions otherwise not so that God is properly said to decree his own Actions thus or thus The Fore-knowledge of God or what he is said to foresee is no more but what the Creature who always chooseth an appearing Good will think well or ill and so do or not do so that God decrees his own Actions but fore-knows the Creatures Actions And what the Creature at any time thinks well or ill
THE Atheist turn'd Deist AND THE Deist turn'd Christian OR THE REASONABLENESS and UNION OF Natural and the True Christian Religion BY THO. EMES Chirurgo-Medicus LONDON Printed in the Year 1698. Speak every Man Truth with his Neighbour for we are Members of one another Eph. 4.25 AND So speak ye and so do ye as they that shall be judged by the Law of Liberty Jam. 2.12 ERRATA PAge 3. line 10. for certify read certifie L. 20. for Lier r. Lyar. P. 4. l. 26. for ll read all P. 6. l. last for unbeholding r. un-beholden P. 21. l. 20. for then r. than P. 22. for beholding r. beholden So P. 34. l. 34. P. 43. l. 36. r. Marriage-Constancy P. 45. l. 5. for countervaile r. countervale P. 84. l. 6. for God's r. Gods P. 95. after same add time P. 118. l. 26. blot and after David P. 181. l. 16. for they r. the before Oaths Some of the principal Heads of this Discourse under which divers other things are touched upon Numb 1. WHAT necessary to the End of Man Numb 2. Three Ways whereby we know Truth Numb 3. The nearest Way to prove the Being of God Numb 4. Self what The Necessity of supposing a Divine Being thence proved Numb 5. God knowable by Experience or Sense Numb 6. Self more largely considered and said to be Cogitation or Mind Numb 7. Objections against Cogitation's being the Essence of Self answered Numb 8. God considered more largely and as in himself or essential Attributes Numb 9. The common Notion of Omnipresence false Numb 10. God considered in relation to the Creatures negatively and positively Numb 11. Of the End of God's making things Numb 12. Man's Duty or Religion considered in general Numb 13. The same considered more particularly in Love to God Numb 14. And Love to his Works Numb 15. Love the Foundation of all orderly Behaviour No. 16. The Natural Reason and Sense of the Decâ—logue No. 17. The Goodness and Well-being of the Creaturâ— wherein it consists No. 18. The Ground of Vnhappiness No. 19. The true Notion of Sin and that Sin is a ways an Act and Original Sin as supposâ— distinct from Actual Sin a Mistake the triâ— Notion of it No. 20. The Fall of Man from Innocence naturalâ— known No. 21. The Aggravation or Greatness of Sins Diâ—order No. 22. How the Creature should behave it self on thâ— Conviction of Sin With the Natural Dutâ— of Repentance No. 23. Forgiveness with God apparently discoverabâ—â— by the Light of Nature No. 24. Why God made Creatures capable of Sin No. 25. Free will considered No. 26. What an Arbitrary Command of God and hoâ— reasonable No. 27. All the Commands of God tend to Mans Happiness or Pleasure Disobedience to the contrary neither Obedience nor Disobedience add to or take any thing from God No. 28. That the Creature having once sinn'd is more inclinable to go on sinning than to repent No. 29. Convicted Sinners at first unapt to believe that God will forgive No. 30. The Scope of all God's Dealings with Sinners in order to their Recovery No. 31. Immortality and a future Life discoverable by Reason what Death is and its use since Sin with Arguments for the Immortality of the Soul No. 32. The Resurrection of the Body rationally concluded No. 33. Future Judgment necessary No. 34. Man capable of Repentance and doing his Duty No. 35. The divers Motives and Arguments God has given Men to perswade them to repent and what the compleatest No. 36. Revelation chiefly for enforcing Natural Religion Divers Considerations about Revelation Miracles Faith c. No. 37. Of Christ and his Work No. 38. Of his Person No. 39. All that are saved saved the same way viz. by Christ No. 40. Scripture a Gift of God argued and the need of Revelation No. 41. Some things taught in the World as Doctrines of the Bible not tending to the true End and Scope of Revelation No. 42. As Mistakes about Reconciliation Christ's Death and Sacrifice Propitiation c. No. 43. About Satisfaction No. 44. Mistakes about Punishment God not to be thought the Cause of the Creatures Misery No. 45. Mistakes about Imputation of Sin and Righteousness No. 46. Mistakes about Merit No. 47. About Redemption No. 48. About Intercession No. 49. How the Mediation of Christ becomes â—â—fectual No. 50. Of the Doctrine of Fate or absolute Predestâ—â—nation No. 51. A Reflection on the present State of Christiâ—â—nity 1. THERE are Two Things necessary for Man in order to his attaining the End of his Being To know the Truth And to Will well Or in other words To be Wise and Good As for Knowing the Truth there are two Things wherein this Necessary Wisdom doth chiefly consist The Knowledge of God and the Knowledge of Ones Self And there is one thing wherein Man's Goodness doth consist and that is in the Conformity of his Will to the Will of his Maker to will as God wills The Order of our Knowledge of these two Objects God and Self seems to be this We begin to know our Selves as the Objects of which we are first aware and then we proceed to the Knowledge of God But the Connection of the Knowledg of God and of our Selves is such that we can never know our Selves well tell we arise to the Knowledge of God nor know God as we ought if we know but little of our Selves 2. There are but three Ways I conceive whereby we can have any Knowledge of God our Selves or any thing else 1. By Sense 2. By Reason Or 3. By Revelation By the Knowledge of Sense I do not mean only the Sensation or Perception of Bodies but also and rather the Experience Sense or Conscience we have of our own Thoughts or may have of others All those Notions we have as it were passively received without reasoning and which are as it were the Matter or Ground on which Reason works The second way of Knowledge Reason is the Faculty of arguing or discoursing with our Selves whereby from considering our passive Knowledges or Sensations we arise to get more full Knowledge of things and of what we had no immediate Sensation or Intuition and by getting the Knowledge of some things we proceed by Arguments and get the Knowledge and better Knowledge of others As by considering the Creatures especially our selves we may arise to the knowledge of God and then by considering our Maker we are led back again better to know our selves and from a better knowledge of our selves we get still the clearer knowledge of our Author The third way we may be made acquainted with God our selves or other things viz. Revelation is but as it were a compendious Assistance of the two former An express or particular Instruction from God telling the Creature in short what he would have been either ignorant of or not so soon or easily have known without such an immediate Teaching As for instance What God is and will be found to be what we are ought to
are of and by the means of external things let in by the Organs of the Senses which are as Conditions in this life at least of our receiving such Cogitations the Indisposition of the Senses or want of those Conditions leaves us without those Thoughts if wholly indispos'd but if only in part the Thoughts are weak and pass unremembred and not reflected on and so are by some inconsiderately suppos'd not to have been But tho' our Eyes are shut in sleep and we then see nothing we have visible Ideas sometimes from the Remembrance of things seen tho' confused for no one born blind and so continuing ever dreams he sees yet the other Senses are not quite laid by we feel hear and smell c. tho' but remisly and our Thoughts or Perceptions are but faint and so it is no wonder if we forget them as fast as they pass and so suppose we had none And which to me makes the matter past doubt I have discours'd with a Person fast asleep who hath answer'd me distinctly to many Questions without so much as dreaming of any thing that was said But moreover if we do not think when asleep we do neither understand nor will or which is the same have no Understanding or Will but every Morning or perhaps twice or thrice every Night a new Mind for Understanding that understands not or Will that wills not is no Understanding or Will but an Absurdity And it is the same as to say I am Thinking and yet do not think But we remember we think sometimes in sleep and that strongly and though most commonly it is but weakly yet it is Thinking And such weak Thinking we may suppose a Child in the Womb may have none perhaps but what comes by Feeling or Tasting I speak according to the common Meaning for all Senses are but different ways of Feeling and yet the very Ideas that come by the grossest of the Senses are Thoughts still it being the Mind that perceives not the Body From these Considerations to name no more we may be perswaded that we always think tho' we don't always reflect and remember our Thoughts and so that Thinking is real and constant But to the second Objection That Thinking is but an Act of something else the Agent or an Attribute of something else the Subject I answer First by demanding what this more real and noble Agent is What Notion have we of it I have long try'd and can find nothing an Object of my Understanding but either Thinking or Body what others may chance to do who never try'd and are resolved they never will I know not Let them tell us what thought they have of it different from Body and Thinking if they can But if neither they nor we have any notion of such a third Being we cannot with any reason affirm any thing of it or that such a thing is If they have any thought of it they have some knowledge of it and so need not acknowledge themselves at such a loss as they commonly do when this Question is put them What is the Soul or expose themselves as they commonly do by talking of that whose Essence they acknowledge themselves wholly ignorant of But if any suppose Thinking an Action or Attribute of Body or that it is Body some way or other posited or moved how they cannot tell that is Thinking or that as they rather would say thinks they must suppose Body more noble as the Cause or Agent which I believe they will hardly do But we can suppose Body not to be we may be ignorant of it and yet think which could not be if it were Body that thinks besides if Body thinks it knows it self to think and so the Dispute is at an end but Body does not know it self to think because it is doubted whether it thinks or no Whatever thinks cannot be ignorant of its Thinking nor can any thing be well thought to be an Agent that is ignorant of its being so or does not will to be so If Body could be suppos'd to think and know it self to think it would be Thinking consequently not Body for of Body and Thinking there are wholly different Notions But Body we affirm to be no Agent of any thing or Creator of Ideas or Thoughts God alone must be supposs'd with good reason to be the Cause and Contriver of our Thinking As we find our Thoughts do not cause our Body much less can we suppose Body to cause our Thoughts or act any thing in us our Body is moved according to our Will and our Will and Understanding is often affected by means of our Body but Body is not the Cause or Agent of either Besides one half of our Thoughts are Passions nothing but our Desires or the Application of our Will about Objects seems properly our Action And tho' Thinking be look'd on as an Attribute requiring a Subject different we may as well suppose an essential Attribute or Attribute that is Identical the same with the thing it self in the created Mind as to say what-ever is in God is God or that there is not another thing which is not Wisdom Goodness Power c. which is God in which Wisdom Goodness Power c. reside as things accidental Nor is it so strange an Expression as that it may not be admitted to say Cogitatio est cogitans or Thinking thinks for in truth I take it to be the same as to say Thinking is Thinking which is no worse than an Identical Proposition But to leave this Question with these few touches to give others occasion to consider as besides my main purpose I shall pass to that Knowledge of our selves which most concerns us and even that Knowledge is the Knowledge of our selves as Thinking and that as Thinking well or ill If our Thoughts are well in order that something else that some fancy is the Agent of the Action Thinking in us that unknown Soul that Chimera or that Body whose Particles are very far from one another or friggle about very nimblely such is the common Notion of a Spirit is of little value If my Thoughts are duely apply'd to their due Objects I care not for that unknowable Soul for it is in the right order of our Thoughts that Happiness consists and whereby we come to attain the End of our Being 8. Having thus found our selves to be imperfect Minds variable limited caus'd or created Cogitations let us consider our Cause or Creator and that First as he must needs be thought to be in himself and then we shall the more fully discover the Second thing which hath been partly discours'd already What he is to us And the first notion that occurs to my Mind of God or the Cause of caused insufficient things as consider'd in himself is That he is Self-sufficient or Self existent Having found my self insufficient and consequently that I must have a Cause sufficient to be so which he could not be were he himself caused
if the Desire to continue be good God is the Cause and Implanter of such a Desire and consequently wills we should have such a Desire I think none can but desire to continue if it were the Will of God we should cease to be the desire to continue would be a Sin but God can't be suppos'd to will we should desire that which he don't will should be that would be to will us to will contrary to his Will Now whatever God wills to continue cannot be supposed to cease If God wills to manifest himself in and to his Creatures to be loved and feared by them he must continue them for by their Cessation all these things will cease and be impossible Every Good Man that loves God would continue to love him it 's God's Will he should love him Can God be suppos'd to make him cease to love his Maker To what purpose Let it but be granted that it is not God's Will I should cease to love him and the Immortality of my Soul is secured for while I love I live viz. mentally Nor can the Evil Man that don't love God nor fear to act contrary to his Will be suppos'd to be for ever or for a long time exempted from the Evils of his Rebellion against his Maker or rendered by God himself uncapable of all Conviction Or can it be thought probable that God should make Creatures to deny him a little while and then cease under so great a Mistake as never to believe and confess God to be their Sovereign Lord and Sufficient Benefactor But if God approve himself and his own Works he will rather continue them and suffer them to make themselves miserable and find they are not God's than not assert himself God one way or other to all his Intelligent Creatures Besides the Soul either of Good or Bad cannot with any reason be suppos'd to cease for a time and then be again for if it cease to be it is not and nothing can be properly affirm'd or deny'd but of that which is Where there is no Being neither Life nor Death can be asserted So that if a Soul cease to be and a Soul be afterwards it cannot be the same but a new one to whom can be charged no account of the ceased Souls past Actions There must be a Continuation of Being or there can be no Identity or Sameness and the Essentials of the thing must remain or there is not the thing but another If there be not a Continuation of Thinking and Conscience of former Thoughts it cannot be conceived how the Sameness of a Mind can be ascertained and if a Soul in this present State be wicked and cease at the Dissolution of the Body it can neither be just nor good that a new one should be miserable because the ceased Soul was unrighteous nor be determined what new one should be so Nor that a Soul penitent in this World should not it self be happy hereafter but have its hopes of future Happiness utterly frustrated and be put off with the Mock-happiness of being happy in another Soul What Encouragement can I have to my Duty if I suppose I must not continue to the Perfection and Happiness of my Obedience but must perish and only now be contented to think that God will create a Soul hereafter and perhaps give it my Dust to be happy because I only began to be holy Or how shall I be deterr'd from Sin if I am perswaded I my self must be discontinued and that it is not I but another Mind that is in danger of everlasting Vexation it may be with my old Body if I now die impenitent When we say a Man is dead if we talk like Rational Creatures we must have some determinate Sense of those words He is dead Who is dead He. The He or Person must remain What is dead Such a thing A Man The thing or Man is tho'dead A Man is a Compound of Soul and Body Or a Mind doing and suffering with or by occasion of an Organical Body A Man's being dead is the Cessation of this manner of Life not of either of the Components Beings or Essential Properties The Body unacted by the Mind is useless among Men and tends to Corruption or Dissolution of parts so the Living put it out of their sight the Soul or Mind is invisible of its self and can neither converse with Men nor Men with it without the use of Body so when separate it is not to Men yet it no way follows but that it may well be to God and to it self which is Being enough But the Soul consider'd apart can have no Dissolution of parts having none to be separated nor can it die otherwise than in a figurative or Metaphorical Sense As it may be said to be morally dead or dead in Sin when it is impenitent and not conformable to its Duty To be Spiritually dead when it thinks not of or is not busied about Spiritual things To be dead to Sin or dead to this World when its disorderly Thoughts or undue Manners of Thinking on earthly vile sordid things cease It may be said to be dead to Joy or Comfort when it has lost all pleasant Thoughts and has only grievous horrid anxious ones without all hope or rest continually and if such a State always continue whether the Soul be separate from or joyned to a Body it is that which is properly call'd everlasting Death Thus I think it is apparent that the Soul is immortal and that which is its proper or natural Life viz. Thinking does not cease Tho' to suppose the Soul immortal of its own Nature or that it is or has any thing in it self which necessarily infers its Continuance would be as great or a greater Error than to fancy it mortal for that would be to suppose it immortal as its Author is But it cannot be suppos'd thus to be immortal for whatsoever had a Beginning or had not Being always may be supposed to have an End and cease to be Such are all Creatures who would fall into nothing if God should not will their Continuance But that he does will them to continue I think we may be perswaded by the foregoing Considerations 32. Moreover we have not only reason to believe that Souls do continue tho' separate from that is disusing their Bodies and such a Life they lived with them but that they shall have their Bodies again after some time because the end of the Souls having a Body cannot easily be thought to be fully attained in this Life This material World seems to be made chiefly for Man to be concern'd with and the things therein to be Objects of his Knowledge and Subjects of his Actions It is by means of his Body that he is now capable of knowing and acting in Bodily Nature but what he knows and does therein is so imperfect notwithstanding all the Wonders that have come within the reach of his Understanding and great things have
act as a living Man On the account of his Resurrection too he is called the first begotten Son of God Rev. 1.5 1 Cor. 15.20 Col. 1.18 And by his Resurrection also was given a Testimony of the Truth of his Doctrine especially of the Points of the Resurrection of the Body and Life immortal And having fully instructed his Disciples and authorized them his Ministers to prosecute the same end he was sent for viz. the bringing rebellious disorderly Sinners to Repentance and Obedience for the fulfilling his Promise of the Mission of the Holy Ghost the Power by means whereof they wrought Miracles it was requisite he should leave this Earth which he did in the sight of many and go to some Heavenly Mansion till his Second Personal Appearance which Angels at his Ascension inform'd the Beholders should be in like manner and which he had before promised and wherein he will wholly finish his Office of Mediator between God and Men a part of which is his Ruling or Judging the World fully determining what 's right and what 's wrong as God has authorized him After which he shall give up that his Kingdom to his God and Father's immediate Government to whom he is and then will more eminently appear to be Subject tho' God has made him the Head or Chief of the Creation But I can but name things where every head would yield a large Discourse This is the Sum and Substance of the Revelation of God's Will by Jesus Christ And whosoever believes Christ's Doctrine and does it or in his own words He that hears his Word and believeth on him that sent him hath everlasting life and shall not come into Condemnation but is passed from Death unto Life Joh. 5.24 And not every one that suith Lord Lord unto him shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the Will of his Father which is in Heaven Matth. 7.21 But whosoever heareth the Sayings of Christ and does them not whatever he may think of Christ or how great soever an Opinion he professeth of him hath but built upon the Sand v. 27. It is Obedience that is the end of all true Doctrine and whosoever having been convinced of Sin and changed from doing his own disorderly Will does the Will of God and persevers in so doing will be happy nay is saved by what means soever this Change hath been wrought Where the End is accomplish'd it is accomplish'd Many have been the Instruments and various the Means that God hath used to reduce Sinners and some rebellious ones have been changed to comply with their Maker's Will by smaller Arguments some by greater The Means of Conviction God hath given the World seems from the beginning to have grown greater and greater as Wickedness hath increased but some Sinners have been so perverse that the greatest Motives God has pleas'd to give them have not done but they have appear'd resolved to abandon God and to devote themselves to their Sin and Misery Yet there have been many righteous Men who have not seen and heard what some others have and yet have indeed been righteous And they that have seen and heard the most of the Manifestations of God have little cause to censure and condemn them that have seen and heard the least when these have sometimes shewn as much or more of the End Goodness accomplished in them 39. But whatsoever means God may make effectual towards the Salvation of Men or bringing them from Sin to Obedience it may truly be said they are all saved the same way and that is by Christ Which must not be understood that it is absolutely necessary that every Man should be instructed in the Will of God and receive his Commends from Christ's own Mouth or from those he hath expresly sent to preach the Gospel Nor is it to be thought impossible that any should be saved without Reading or hearing read the Books we call the Holy Scriptures But whosoever is saved is necessarily some way or other instructed in the same things Christ hath taught viz his Duty to God and his Neighbour and brought to comply therewith and so to follow Christ in a Life of Obedience Christ is the Way the Truth and the Life There is no other Way Sinners can come to the Father but what he hath shown viz. Repentance bringing forth the meet fruits thereof There are no other Truths necessary to be known in order to living that Life of Obedience Christ gave us the highest Example of than what he taught There is no other Man a Master or Teacher teaching another Doctrine in which is Salvation for God hath given him the chief coruer stone of the Spiritual Building to which the rest must be squared and he hath given no other name among Men under Heaven in which we must be saved There is none a different or so compleat a Rule Acts 4.11 12. The Way the Truth and the Life is the same that all must go in believe and live However Men may disagree in Speculations and Opinions if they know but enough to subject their Wills in Agreement to this Life of Obedience which Christ in the name of God commanded and himself gave an Example of they may meet in Heaven Those that disagree from this Living Rule and persevere in their Dissention will not see Life notwithstanding their highest Pretences to Faith or Knowledge And if I am brought to submit to the Will of my Maker by reading the Bible or hearing Discourses on it it does not follow that none could be inform'd of the same Truths and reduced to the same Obedience any other way Before the Scripture was written there were Righteous Men accepted of God no doubt and since the Love of God has appeared larger than the Love of Christians in recommending and communicating that most useful Book to the rest of Mankind For there have been Examples out of the Pale of the visible Christian Church of such a Life as would become a considerable Christian at least of such as was proportionable to the measure of Knowledge And some things left so excellent in the Writings of some of those we call Heathens that Charity methinks would excuse me if I should esteem them Christians indeed without the name or such in Conformity to the Will of God as Christians should be And there have been not a few who have been no happier than to be educated in the Worship of the True God under no better an Instructer than Moses or Mahomet that might have shamed the Nominal Christian to behold their Vertues God sent Prophets of old in a special manner to instruct the Sons of Heber and doubtless it was their Duty to teach others the Knowledge and Worship of the True God and he sent his Son Jesus also first unto some of them but Christ commanded his Disciples to teach all Nations If Hebrews and Christians have not done their Duty it cannot be thought that therefore the rest of Mankind must
future Obedience cannot be Obedience for the time past in Disobedience and if one Man's Obedience cannot be another Man's Obedience much less can the Suffering or Unhappiness a Creature meets with in or by Sin be a Satisfaction for Sin or instead of Obedience or enough without it The Law of God does not say it is alike acceptible to the Lawgiver that you do which you will obey or be miserable in disobeying but saith absolutely thou shalt and thou shalt not do so and so To be unhappy is no Duty or Debt we owe to God nor is our Discontent tho' we are discontented for ever equivalent to or that which God takes instead of our being pleas'd in our Maker's Will 'T is Obedience only he requires Happiness and Misery are but the natural Consequences of our being obedient or disobedient yea in some sense the same as Obedience and Disobedience To forbid Sin is also to forbid Misery Misery cannot be alike acceptable to God as Obedience any more than Sin can God's Law is never the less broke by the Creatures being unhappy or discontent but rather the more because Discontent is grounded chiefly in willing either that which is not good or that which is not possible God can never will the Creatures Misery instead of Obedience for to be unhappy by willing otherwise than God wills is but continued Disobedience to God who wills all Men to repent believe and obey or else it were not their Duty And he wills them to be saved from their Sins or else he could not will them to obey which is the same thing God cannot absolutely will Unhappiness to the Creature without willing the cause of it its Sin nay what God wills me to do can't properly be call'd my Sin but my Duty and none can well believe Duty is the Cause of Misery Sinners tho' damned and becoming as miserable as possible do not thereby satisfie the Law of God suffering by Sinning not being Obedience but doing ones Duty That a Murderer or Thief is commonly said to have satisfied the Law when he is put to Death is a vulgar Error especially if it be meant of God's Law according to which Humane Laws ought to speak The cause why God has ordered a Murderer to be put to Death is not to satisfie the Law Which saith Thou shalt not kill for that could not be said to be kept enough tho' the Death of the Murderer would restore the life he took away for it was but enough if he had never committed Murder so much as in desire But the Murderer suffers Death rather because Satisfaction can't be made that he may be prevented doing such an irrepairable Wickedness any more He that hath once by such an Act declar'd himself a dangerous Enemy to Mankind one that regards not his Maker's Law but is very likely to be the loss of other Lives better than his if he be suffer'd to live dies to prevent greater Evil and to save more precious Lives For any other Man's life is worth more than the life of such a Madman as a Murderer being likely to be more beneficial to Mankind than such an inimical and dangerous Person But in some Sins as they are committed against Man Satisfaction may possibly be made to Man and I think it unreasonable as well as dissonant to the Laws of God that a Man should be put to Death for an Injury done to another Man where Satisfaction may fully be made as in Theft c. If I am robb'd what is so taken from me may be restor'd with such advantage that I may be really no looser but have that returned that will be better to me than what was taken away and countervail for the fear danger or other Damages I may have suffer'd in beingrobb'd so that then I cannot truly count my self a Looser but rather a Gainer And by such Satisfaction made the Thief will be a sufficient Looser without loosing life which is of more value than all the Goods a Man hath And if all the Goods I have is of less value to me than my Life I cannot but grant that all I have is of less value than anothers Life It is certainly best where there is least Evil and the designs of all wise Law-givers is that there may be as little evil as possible The first intent of a Law is that it should be kept The second that if it be broken amends may be made if possible or as far as can be And the last that the Transgressor be prevented or discouraged from doing so any more Now in the case of Theft if I am robb'd my Reason presently tells me I ought in Justice to have what was took from me restor'd if it may be which is better and more desirable to me than that the Thief should be destroy'd which no way makes me amends unless I could count the devillish pleasure I may take in his Misery equivalent to my Goods But if the Thief be caused to make Restitution there is less evil which if it were made with sufficient interest for what he robb'd or borrow'd against my Will the Thief would be sufficiently discouraged by finding Thieving an unprofitable trade and no way for his interest Where the Robber has nothing to restore he might serve in Prison and work it out By which means such Crimes would be more prevented as being made the way to Poverty and Work the things such covetous Persons seek to avoid by stealing from others when Death it self is to them but as a desperate cure of the Disease of Want which some passionate Persons in this and other Discontents will inflict upon themselves But to leave this Digression If the Sinner's own Misery is not a Satisfying God's Law equal to Obedience anothers Misery can much less be a Satisfaction for him and least of all can the Sufferings of Christ an innocent Person satisfie the Law of God broken by Sinners It is true Christ suffered for Sinners as well as by Sinners that is he underwent all the Sufferings he met with in prosecuting their Good for their sakes because he would not have suffered had it not been for them But thoâ— Christ suffered for Sinners and by Sinners it cannot therefore be said Sinners have not sinned or that they have done enough of the Law And as Christ's doing righteously is not the Sinner's doing so so Christ's Suffering is not the Sinner's Suffering could Suffering be equivalent to or please God as well as Obedience much less is Christ's Suffering the Sinner's doing his Duty People very confidently fancy and assert most absurd things of Christ's Sufferings That God is so mightily pleas'd therewith that he is not so much displeas'd with Sin nay that he don't dislike all other Sin so much as he likes his innocent Son 's Undeserved Suffering from the hands of Sinners They fancy God loves the Misery of his poor guilty Creatures so much that nothing must prevent it rather than he will not have
Torments But I do not believe that those Torments or Pains and Diseases in this life are inflicted or caused by God's Immediate Hand but are the Work and Procurement of Sinners according to that Jer. 2.19 Thine own Wickedness shall correct thee c. God can I think be no more the Cause of the Creatures Misery than of its Sin otherwise than as he is the Cause of the Creatures being capable thereof so that the Creature could neither sin nor sorrow if God had not made it a Creature Let us endeavour to clear this matter if possible that I may not be thought by all Men grosly mistaken to hold so great a Paradox as that God does not punish for Sin There are two sorts of Evils the Creature is capable of Sin and Misery or rather Sin and Displeasure which though we call two are in many Respects the same That God should be the Cause of Sin few will in words tho' many do in consequence affirm and I think I have said enough before to convince them both But Displeasure or Misery most Men I meet with esteem God the Cause of to the Creature In the Consideration of Misery we have First The Want of Good or Pleasure Secondly The Presence of Evil or Displeasure First As to the Want of Pleasure It is certain God made Intelligent Creatures capable of Intense and perpetual Pleasure and Satisfaction but if the Creature has it not it is not God's fault It was impossible the Creature should have continual Happiness or Pleasure as God has it viz. independently in it self or by its own Will as its own oppos'd to the Will of God God could make it no more than a Creature and so the Creature must needs be satisfied by its Creator But if the Creature turns from God and sets up a Will against him he must needs want Satisfaction when through Creature-Impotence he can't have his Will God's Will not concurring with his and when through Creature-Folly he has willed what was not best for him and finds it so So that if the Creature wants any Pleasure or Good it is because he has turned from it or left it or at least has some other Sinners hindering it or taking it from him by their Sin for even the Innocent as Christ was being Creatures may suffer by the Sins of others But the presence of this Evil of Displeasure may farther be considered under two Heads 1st Displeasure merely mental 2dly Displeasure or Pain by the occasion of the Body both of them in their center are nothing but discontented or uneasie Thoughts a Consideration or Apprehension of something against ones Will. Now as to the first If I desire that which is contrary to the Order of the Creation unfit to be and cannot have it and therefore am foolishly discontent angry fret rage c. it is not God that makes me do so No the disorderly Desire is a Sin something against God's Will therefore God don't will it To will something against God's Will is a Sin and to be angry and fret and rage because we can't have our disorderly Will is a farther Aggravation of the Sin a stronger Will against God's Will therefore God can't cause or will it that were to cause Sin so that God cannot be suppos'd the Cause of the Mental Unhappiness or Displeasure God has given Man a very large desire but for what that it should be crossed because he is but a Creature and can't be God No but that it may be satisfied in the way it possibly can viz. by its Maker in the compliance with his Will in the excellent Order of the Creation that Man willing what God wills viz. that which is good and so to be doneby God's Power may be very happy But as to those uneasie Thoughts we have or may have by occasion of the Body which go under the name of Pain and Disease there seems more difficulty to excuse God's hand from being the Giver But I think if we consider it may soon appear that God is no more the Cause of all the Conditions or the Actual Existence of this Misery than of that Discontent Sinners have when they have not their foolish Wills in other things The Connection of the Body with the Mind without which such Sensations are not probably thought to be in the Mind is to be ascribed to God as the cause The manner of this Union of Soul and Body is Use the Mind desires to use the Body acts upon it by and with it and receives divers Ideas or Thoughts of Body by occasion of it God's Will is indeed the Bond of this Union he wills that the Mind should desire to use its Body gives the Mind power to move it and to do divers things in Bodily Nature by it and causes that when such and such Conditions are in the Body the Mind should have such and such Ideas or Thoughts pleasing or displeasing But as I said before of Sin God made Man capable of Sin not that he might sin so God made Man capable of displeasing Thoughts by means of the Body not that he might have them as the end of the Capacity but that he might as much as possible avoid the least thing that tends to the spoiling or disordering of the Body with which he is to act a Part for a time When there are the Conditions of Pain or Disease God in his general Law in Nature wills Pain or discontented Thoughts should follow and so this Discontent in it self is not sinful but God is not the Cause of the Application of the Conditions but the Sinner himself or some other Sinner for him When there is such and such a Body abus'd and unduly apply'd to Man's Body the Mind presently is uneasie as at the approach of some Enemy but this Uneasiness was not the end God caused in Man such a Sensibility but that Man might be the more affected with the pleasing Sensations he has made him capable of by avoiding at the first touch all things that tend to remove the Conditions of Pleasure that he might sooner be warned so than he could by Consideration God made Man exquisitely sensible that he might be capable of Pleasure even by having a Body and not be as it were imprison'd against his Will and whenever the Conditions of Pleasure are present God fails not to cause that Sensation tho' under Circumstances where the Creature acts against his Will So on the contrary But Man has a power given him to use or abuse things and it is one part of his business in this World to do all those things that tend to keep his Body most in health and ease that he may be the more capable of the chief part of his work which does not relate only to this Life but that which is to come viz. the rectifing his Thoughts in order to his greatest and lasting Happiness But to bring the matter near the eye if possible take this instance Fire tends to
inspire the evil Agents with malicious Desires of Murders Robberies Rapes c. God may indeed be thought to permit yea commissionate a People to stand up against another in just defence and to cut off the declared and dangerous Enemies of Mankind but such wicked Persons have brought others under a necessity of preserving themselves and them that are better than these wicked ones or of delivering the Unhappy that are in their hands God may likewise leave Persons obnoxious to be surprized by the Elements as by Thunder and Lightning Earthquakes Inundations things not evil in themselves Falls of Houses Infectious Diseases Casual Fires by which wicked Men may suffer yea the Good be translated from this wretched life without any special Act of God But all these things or I think whatever you can name of Evils would be absent were Men but as wise and good as they ought Wisdom would foresee and prevent and Goodness do no ill the Wise and Good would not expose themselves or others to the too strong Motions of Bodily Nature nor want God's special Preservation which the Rebellious have forfeited Were but the Evil of Sin absent from the World I do not see that there would be any other Evil for which Mankind could be thought unhappy or could be unthankful for their Being tho' all things else were just as they are yea were Man to lead his Life on this Earth for ever Had I but this one Point to handle I think I could easily shew how were there not Sin all the Defects in Nature would be remedied To conclude God hath made all things in an excellent Order such as is most conducive to Man's Happiness but if Man foolishly affect to be his own Rule and strive to cross the most wise Order of his Maker it is no wonder that those things God made for his Good and Service are often the Occasions of his Hurt and too hard for him God continues the Natures and Qualities of things and it is not fit he should alter the Creation at the foolish Caprice of every silly Man that Fire may not burn and Water not drown when Sinners please to have them changed but tho' Fire burn and Water drown him that foolishly abuses them yet those noxious Effects cannot properly be looked on as Punishments inflicted by God any more than he that hangs himself can be said to die by the hands of the Executioner And if God cannot be said to give Good to his Creatures as obliged so to do but still gives of Grace how can he be thought to be so bound to give Evil as that he cannot be said merely to permit the Creature to make it self miserable 45. Another Opinion that hath passed long with Credit in the World without any good ground is the Doctrine of Imputation of Sin and Righteousness Adam's Sin say some is imputed to his Off-spring and so they become guilty in the sight of God and are deprived of original Righteousness Let us consider the Plain English of it and it is this God reckons Adam's Children guilty of Adam's Sin They don't mean the same Sin in kind but that God charges them as guilty of their Fathers very Acts of Transgression which is all one as to say that Adam's Act of Sin is his Childrens Act. But this cannot be true for as my Father's Action is not my Action nor my Action my Father's God cannot be deceived and suppose the doing of one Man is the doing of another Men commonly say we sinn'd in Adam but it is absurd to say a Man sinn'd before he had a Being that which is not can have nothing said of it nor can it do till it is We were indeed potentially in Adam but not actually and where there is no actual Being there can be no Action to be guilty of God himself tells us by a Prophet The Father shall not bear the Iniquity of the Son nor the Son the Iniquity of the Father but the Wickedness of the Wicked shall be upon him and the Righteousness of the Righteous shall be upon him and the contrary would be unjust One Man may commit the same Sin another did commit and in that sense be guilty of the other Man's Sin or rather of the same kind of Sin the other did commit Or one Man may tempt another to sin and so be guilty of the others Sin but still a Man's Guilt is his own and not anothers It may with more reason be said that Adam is guilty of our Sins and we of the Sins of our Off-spring than that we are guilty of his or they of ours because sinful Parents are the cause of bringing a sinful Off spring into the World and often their Instructers in Wickedness It is certain that one Man may suffer by the Sins of another but not for the Sins of another justly The Father may waste his Estate and so the Children may be brought to Poverty the Father may teach his Child to do Evil either by Precept or Example and so bring him to Misery As for the Propagation or Original of Sin in Adam's Posterity there are Two Opinions either of them much more likely to be true than the Fancy of Imputation of Sin or God's taking away original Righteousness which is no better than to say my First Father sinn'd and God charges me with it tho' not guilty of it and causes me therefore to want Righteousness or to become a Sinner Taking away ones Righteousness is tempting one to sin The one of the two more probable Opinions is that the Soul as well as the Body is propagated and a sinful Soul is uncapable of begetting a Soul without sinful Inclinations a pure thing being unlikely to come out of an impure Now least it should seem that the Soul is suppos'd propagated without any ground for such an Opinion I say both Scripture and Reason do at least favour it Adam begat a Son in his own likeness and Abraham begat Isaac and Isaac begat Jacob. 'T is not said Adam begat a Body but a Son in his own Likeness if he had begat only a Body he had not begat a Son in his own Likeness Adam was the Image of God as he was an Intelligent Being and a Lord over the inferiour Creatures and if Adam had not begat an Intelligent or Thinking Son he had not indeed begat a Son in his own Likeness It is said of the Regenerate they were not begotten of Bloods nor of the Will of the Flesh nor of the Will of Man which implys that a Natural Man is so begotten as to his Body of Bloods that supplies Matter to the Seed and of the Will of the Flesh that is Carnal Desire instigating its Projection but as to his Soul of the Will of Man desiring to get his like That the Body of a Man proceeds from the Bodies of his Parents none doubts why may not the Soul as well proceed from the Soul of the Father in the Act of Generation
or of the Mother in Conception It is by Virtue of the Word of God Increase and Multiply that there is any Generation at all and why may not the same Word give a power to the Soul to beget a Soul as well as to the Body to beget a Body The Word is spoken to Man as a Compound of Body and Soul and neither part is excepted Isaac was a compleat Man consisting of Body and Soul if Abraham begat only Isaac's Body he did not truely beget Isaac But you will say perhaps the Body is divisible and part of it may be separated and become another Body but the Soul does not consist of parts and so cannot be thought capable of producing another Soul I answer This is no difficulty for the Soul to be begotten does not consist of Parts has no Quantity or Bulk and so needs not a Bulky thing to spare a part to make it of Why may not the Soul the Immaterial and more Noble Part of Man by the Will of God be as capable of begetting a Soul as the Body the Bulky and more ignoble is for the Production of a Body Why must the Soul be thought capable of less in its kind than the Body in its kind Why may not Cogitation break forth into new Heads of Cogitation as well as Body sprout out into new Organical Bodies tho' we may be ignorant of the precise Manner of both But there is a second Opinion which possibly may be true whether the Soul be propgated or no and that is That every Son and Daughter of Adam is tempted and falls as soon as they are capable of choosing Good or Evil tho' not as their first Father with a forbidden Apple yet with many other forbidden things tho' how soon or precisely when they thus fall is uncertain That Children are for some time Innocent seems to some very probable not only because the Scripture in divers places speaks of them as not having done Good or Evil not knowing the right hand from the left not knowing to choose the Good and refuse the Evil not to have sinn'd after the Similitude of Adam 's Transgression c. but because it is not reasonable that Sin should be reckon'd where there is no Law and there can be no Law where there can be no Knowledge of a Law Had God not told Adam himself he should not eat of the Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge he could not have transgress'd in so doing And that all transgress and become Sinners is no wonder if Adam a Man in his perfect use of Reason having but one thing forbidden and but one immediate Tempter was so soon tempted and fell much more liable are they to fall who have not such a Capacity of discerning have many things forbidden many Tempters within and without yea and many Examples of Transgression the strongest Temptation and are thereby inured to those Actions before they can judge of them which when they are capable of knowing what they do become Sins and tho' they come to know such Actions are sinful Custom is as it were natural and not presently changed Moreover Children are not only tempted and taught to sin by Example but even by Precept from Parents from Nurses from Servants from Play-fellows c. to be Proud to Revenge to Lye to Covet to Steal c. so wretched a World is every Mother's Child brought forth into that there are none but the Son of the Blessed Virgin who was not only begotten by the special Operation of the Most High but was strong in Spirit and filled with Wisdom by the special Grace of God from his very Infancy I say there are none but he who have not fallen by divers Temptations Yea we are often falling even after Repentance and have every day need to renew our Repentance and come to the Throne of Grace for the Pardon of our Sins Now if every Man's Sin is his own and not anothers and no Man can justly suffer for anothers Sin much less can the Sins of Fallen Men be truely imputed or reckon'd to Jesus Christ As Christ is not really guilty of the Commission of any Sin or the Cause of any Man's Sins so it is impossible God should think he is or reckon him guilty Neither the Will of God nor of Christ can be in such an Untruth and Injustice Neither God nor Christ nor any but Sinners can charge Sin upon the Innocent or punish him for it Tho' Christ be said to bear the Sins of the Sinful it is not the Guilt of them because he is not guilty and God can't reckon him so nor the Punishment of them justly or from God but it is either meant he bears them away that is saves them from them by being an Effectual Means of bringing them to Obedience or that he with Patience and Compassion suffer'd under their sinful Actions and Miseries bore their Affronts Injuries Mockings Scourgings condemning and crucifying of him and was grieved at their Unhappiness in so doing Neither is Christ's Righteousness or any ones else truely imputed or reckon'd to others God cannot reckon or think Christ's being obedient is my obeying because it is not so or reckon any Man obedient till he is so because Christ is obedient If he could he would reckon amiss I cannot but admire at many who reckon themselves special Christians how they dare affirm that God reckons us guilty of Adam's Sin or Christ guilty of ours and punishes the one for the other notwithstanding God has declared the contrary saying The Father shall not bear the Iniquity of the Children nor the Children of the Father and that he will not clear the Guilty nor condemn the Innocent I believe the blind fancy of our Sins being imputed to and punish'd in Christ and Christ's Righteousness being transferred on us has been a means of transferring Righteousness and consequently Salvation from many a Soul 46. Another Fancy common among us and near of kin to this is That we are to be saved by the Merits of Christ and that he meriteth of God Life and Salvation for us c. The notion of Merit is this The Person meriting does something or other more than his Duty whereby he obligeth the Person he merits of to something or other as due and the Meritor so deserves that he ceaseth to be beholden for what is become by his Action due to him but it is a Debt that cannot be withholden without Injustice in the Person he merits of Now that it is a groundless Fancy that God should become indebted to Christ or to us for any thing Christ hath done or suffered will appear if we consider that it is impossible for any Creature to merit any thing of God for it self and if not for it self much less for another It cannot merit for it self because all that the Creature has or is except Sin it has from God and all the Acts of Obedience it can do are naturally due to God God can receive