as is here mentioned 1. That the things attributed to the Apostles could not arise from any meerly natural causes It is not my present business to prove the truth of the matters of fact viz. that the Apostles did those things which were accounted miracles by those who saw them or heard of them and that on the day of Pentecost they did speak with strange tongues for these things are so universally attested by the most competent witnesses viz. persons of the same age whose testimony we can have no reason to suspect and not only by those who were the friends to this Religion but the greatest enemies Jews and Heathens and by all the utmost endeavors of Atheistical men who have not set themselves to disprove the testimony but the consequence of it by saying that granting them true they do not infer the concurrence of a divine spirit that on the same grounds any person would Question the truth of these things he must question the truth of some other things which himself believes on the same or weaker grounds than these are Supposing then the matters of fact to be true we now enquire whether these things might proceed from any meerly natural causes which will be the best done by examining the most plausible accounts which are pretended to be given of them And thus some have had the confidence to say that whatever is said to be done by the power of miracles in the Apostles might be effected by a natural temperament of body or the great power of imagination and that their speaking with strange tongues might be the effect only of a natural Enthusiasm or some distemper of brain 1. That the power of miracles might be nothing but a natural temperament or the strength of imagination 1. An excellent natural temper of body they say may do strange and wonderful things so that such a one who hath an exact temperament may walk upon the waters stand in the air and quench the violence of the fire and by a strange kind of sanative contagion may communicate healthful spirits as persons that are infected do noisom and pestilential These are things spoken with as much ease and as little reason as any of the calumnies against Religion which are so boldly uttered by men who dare speak any thing as to these things but reason and do any thing but what is good 1. But can these men after all their confidence produce any one person in the world who by the exquisiteness of his natural temper hath ever walked upon the waters or poised himself in the air or kept himself from being singed in the fire If these things be natural how comes it to pass that no other instances can be given but such as we urge for miraculous We say indeed that Christ walked on the Sea but withal we say this was an argument of that divine power in him which as Iob saith alone spreadeth out the heavens and treadeth upon the waves of the Sea We say that Elijah was carried up into Heaven by a Chariot of fire and a whirlewind but it was only by his power who maketh the winds his messengers and flames of fire his Ministers as some render those words of the Psalmist We say that the three Children were preserved in the fiery fornace that they had no hurt and even Nebuchadnezzar was hereby convinced that he was the true God which was able to preserve his servants from the force of that devouring element which was therefore so much worshipped by those Eastern people because it destroyed not only the men but the Gods of other nations But is this enough to satisfie any reasonable men that these things were done by natural causes because they were done at all For that is to suppose it impossible there should be miracles which is to say it is impossible there should he a God which is an attempt somewhat beyond what the most impudent Atheists pretended But in this case nothing can be reasonably urged but common experience to the contrary if these were things which were usually done by other causes there would be no reason to pretend a miraculous power but we say it is impossible that such things should be produced by meer natural causes and in this case there can be no confutation but by contrary experience As we see the opinion of the Ancients concerning the uninhabitableness of the the torrid Zone and that there were no Antipodes are disproved by the manifest experience to the contrary of all modern discoverers Let such plain experience be produced and we shall then yield the possibility of the things by some natural causes although not by such an exact temperament of body which is only an instance of the strong power of imagination in those who think so whatever that may have on others Such a temperament of body as these persons imagine considering the great inequality of the mixture of the earthy and aërial parts in us being it may be as great a miracle it self as any they would disprove by it 2. But supposing such a temperament of body to be possible how comes it to be so beneficial to others as to propagate its vertue to the cure of diseased persons We may as well think that a great beauty may change a Black by osten viewing him or a skilful Musitian make another so by sitting near him as one man heal another because he is healthful himself Unless we can suppose it in the power of a man to send forth the best spirits of his own body and transfuse them into the body of another but by this means that which must cure another must destroy himself Besides the healthfulness of a person lies much in the freedom of perspiration of all the noxious vapours to the body by which it will appear incredible that a man should preserve his own health by sending out the worst vapors and at the same time cure another by sending out the best 3. Supposing we should grant that a vigorous heat and a strong arm may by a violent friction discuss some tumor of a distempered body yet what would all this signifie to the mighty cures which were wrought so easily and with a word speaking and at such great distance as were by Christ and his Apostles Supposing our Saviour had the most exact natural temper that ever any person in the world had yet what could this do to the cure of a person above twenty miles distance for so our Saviour cured the Son of a Nobleman who lay sick at Capernaum when himself was at Cana in Galilee So at Capernaum he cured the Centurions servant at his own house without going thither Thus we find the Apostles curing though they did not touch them and that not one or two but multitudes of diseased persons And nothing can be more absurd than to imagine that so many men should at the same time
to widen our differences or increase our animosities they are too large and too great already nor to condemn any humble and modest dissenters from us but I despair ever to see our divisions healed till Religion be brought from the Fancies to the hearts of men and till men instead of mystical notions and unacccountable experiences in stead of mis-applying promises and misunderstanding the spirit of prayer instead of judging of themselves by mistaken signs of Grace set themselves to the practice of humility selfdenial meekness patience charity obedience and a holy life and look on these as the greatest duties and most distinguishing characters of true Christianity And in doing of these there shall not only be a great reward in the life to come but in spight of all opposition from Atheism profaneness or superstition we may see our divisions cured and the Kingdom of God which is a Kingdom of peace and holiness to abide and flourish among us SERMON IX Preached at WHITE HALL WHITSUNDAY 1669. JOHN VII XXXIX But this spake he of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive For the Holy Ghost was not yet given because that Iesus was not yet glorified WHat was said of old concerning the first creation of the world that in order to the accomplishment of it the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters is in a sense agreeable to the nature of it as true of the renovation of the world by the doctrine of Christ. For whether by that we understand a great and vehement mind as the Jews generally do or rather the Divine power manifesting it self in giving motion to the otherwise dull and unactive parts of matter we have it fully represented to us in the descent of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles on the day of Pentecost For that came upon them as a rushing mighty wind and inspired them with a new life and motion whereby they became the most active instruments of bringing the world out of that state of confusion and darkness it lay in before by causing the glorious light of the Gospel to shine upon it And left any part should be wanting to make up the parallel in the verse before the text we read of the Waters too which the Spirit of God did move upon and therefore called not a dark Abyss but flowing rivers of living water He that believeth on me as the Scripture hath said out of his bellie shall flow rivers of living water Not as though the Apostles like some in the ancient Fables were to be turned into fountains and pleasant Springs but the great and constant benefit which the Church of God enjoys by the plentiful effusion of the Holy Spirit upon them could not be better set fotth than by rivers of living water flowing from them And this the Evangelist in these words to prevent all cavils and mistakes tells us was our Saviours meaning But this spake he of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive And lest any should think that our Blessed Saviour purposely affected to speak in strange metaphors we shall find a very just occasion given him for using this way of expression from a custom practised among the Jews at that time For in the solemnity of the feast of Tabernacles especially in the last and great day of the Feast mentioned v. 37. after the sacrifices were offered upon the Altar one of the Priests was to go with a large Golden Tankard to the fountain of Siloam and having filled it with water he brings it up to the water-gate over against the altar where it was received with a great deal of pomp and ceremony with the sounding of the Trumpets and rejoycing of the people which continued during the libation or pouring it out before the Altar after which followed the highest expressions of joy that were ever used among that people insomuch that they have a saying among them that he that never saw the rejoycing of the drawing of water never saw rejoycing in all his life Of which several accounts are given by the Jews some say it had a respect to the later rain which God gave them about this time others to the keeping of the Law but that which is most to our purpose is that the reason assigned by one of the Rabbies in the Ierusalem Talmud is because of the drawing or pouring out of the Holy Ghost according to what is said with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of Salvation By which we see that no fairer advantage could be given to our Saviour to discourse concerning the effusion of the Holy Ghost and the mighty joy which should be in the Christian Church by reason of that than in the time of this solemnity and so lets them know that the Holy Ghost represented by their pouring out of water was not to be expected by their rites and ceremonies but by believing the doctrine which he preached and that this should not be in so scant and narrow a measure as that which was taken out of Siloam which was soon poured out and carried away but out of them on whom the Holy Ghost should come rivers of living waters should flow whose effect and benefit should never cease as long as the world it self should continue So that in the words of the text we have these particulars offered to our consideration 1. The effusion of the Spirit under the times of the Gospel but this spake he of the spirit which they that believe on him should receive 2. The nature of that effusion represented to us by rivers of living waters flowing out of them 3. The time that was reserved for it which was after the glorious ascension of Christ to Heaven For the Holy Ghost was not yet given because that Iesus was not yet glorified 1. The effusion of the spirit under the times of the Gospel by which we mean those extraordinary gifts and abilities which the Apostles had after the Holy Ghost is said to descend upon them Which are therefore called signs and wonders and divers gifts of the Holy Ghost and the operations of the Spirit of which we have a large enumeration given us in that place The two most remarkable which I shall insist upon and do comprehend under them most of the rest are the power of working miracles whether in Healing diseases or any other way and the gift of tongues either in speaking or interpreting they who will acknowledge that the Apostles had these will not have reason to question any of the rest And concerning these I shall endeavour to prove 1. That the things attributed to the Apostles concerning them could not arise from any ordinary or natural causes 2. That they could not be the effects of an evil but of a holy and divine spirit and therefore that there was really such a pouring out of the spirit
SERMONS Preached on several Occasions To which a DISCOURSE IS ANNEXED Concerning the TRUE REASON OF THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST WHEREIN CRELLIUS his Answer to GROTIUS IS CONSIDERED By EDWARD STILLINGFLEET D. D. Chaplain in Ordinary to his Majesty LONDON Printed by Robert White for Henry Mortlock at the Sign of the Phoenix in S t. Paul's Church-Yard and at the White Hart in Westminster Hall 1673. THE CONTENTS PART I. Six SERMONS upon AMOS IV. XI I Have overthrown some of you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and ye were as a firebrand pluckt out of the burning yet have ye not returned unto me saith the Lord. pag. 1 PROV XIV IX Fools make a mock at Sin pag. 23 LUKE VII XXXV But Wisdom is justified of all her Children pag. 42 ROMANS I. XVI For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ for it is the Power of God unto salvation to every one that believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek pag. 62 HEBREWS II. III. How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation pag. 79 HEBREWS XII III. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself lest ye be weary and faint in your minds pag. 97 JUDE V. II. And perished in the gainsaying of Corah pag. 120 MATTHEW XXI XLIII Therefore say I unto you the Kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a Nation bringing forth the fruit thereof pag. 141 JOHN VII XX XIX But this spake he of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive For the Holy Ghost was not yet given because that Iesus was not yet glorified pag. 162 ISAIAH LVII XXI There is no peace saith my God to the Wicked pag. 178 II CORINTH V. II. Knowing therefore the terrour of the Lord we perswade men pag. 198 MATTHEW XVI XXVI For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul or what shall he give in exchange for his soul pag. 217 PART II. A Discourse concerning the true Reason of the Sufferings of CHRIST CHAP. I. OF the Socinian way of interpreting Scripture Of the uncertainty it leaves us in as to the main articles of Faith manifested by an Exposition of Gen. 1. suitable to that way The state of the Controversie in general concerning the sufferings of Christ for us He did not suffer the same we should have done The grand mistake in making punishments of the nature of Debts the difference between them at large discovered from the different reason and ends of them The right of punishments in God proved against Crellius not to arise from meer dominion The end of punishment not bare Compensation as it is in debts what punishment due to an injured person by the right of Nature proper punishment a result of Laws Crellius his great mistake about the end of Punishments Not designed for satisfaction of Anger as it is a desire of Revenge Seneca and Lactantius vindicated against Crellius The Magistrates interest in Punishment distinct from that of private persons Of the Nature of Anger in God and the satisfaction to be made to it Crellius his great arguments against satisfaction depend on a false Notion of Gods anger Of the ends of divine Punishments and the different nature of them in this and and the future state pag. 239 CHAP. II. The particular state of the Controversie concerning the sufferings of Christ. The Concessions of our Adversaries The debate reduced to two heads The first concerning Christs sufferings being a punishment for sin entred upon In what sense Crellius acknowledgeth the sins of men to have been the impulsive cause of the death of Christ. The sufferings of Christ proved to be a punishment from Scripture The importance of the phrase of bearing sins Of the Scape-Goats bearing the sins of the people into the Wilderness Grotius his sense of 1 Pet. 2. 24. vindicated against Crellius and himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 never used for the taking away a thing by the destruction of it Crellius his sense examined Isa. 53. 11. vindicated The argument from Matth. 8. 17. answered Grotius constant to himself in his notes on that place Isa. 53. 5 6 7. cleared Whether Christs death be a proper 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and whether that doth imply that it was a punishment of sin How far the punishment of Children for their Fathers faults are exemplary among men The distinction of calamities and punishments holds not here That Gods hatred of sin could not be seen in the sufferings of Christ unless they were a punishment of sin proved against Crellius Grotius his Arguments from Christ being made sin and a curse for us defended The liberty our Adversaries take in Changing the sense of words The particles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being joyned to sins and relating to sufferings do imply those sufferings to be a punishment for sin According to their way of interpreting Scripture it had been impossible for our doctrine to be clearly expressed therein pag. 265 CHAP. III. The words of Scripture being at last acknowledged by our Adversaries to make for us the only pretence remaining is that our Doctrine is repugnant to reason The debate managed upon point of reason The grand difficulty enquired into and manifested by our Adversaries concessions not to lye in the greatness of Christs sufferings or that our sins were the impulsive cause of them or that it is impossible that one should be punished for anothers faults or in all cases unjust the cases wherein Crellius allows it instanced From whence it is proved that he yields the main cause The arguments propounded whereby he attempts to prove it unjust for Christ to be punished for our sins Crellius his principles of the justice of punishments examined Of the relation between desert and punishment That a person by his own consent may be punished beyond the desert of his own actions An answer to Crellius his Objections What it is to suffer undeservedly Crellius his mistake in the state of the question The instances of Scripture considered In what sense Children are punished for their Parents sins Ezec. 18. 20. explained at large Whether the guilty being freed from the sufferings of an innocent person makes that punishment unjust or no Crellius his shifts and evasions in this matter discovered Why among men the offenders are not freed in criminal matters though the sureties be punished The release of the party depends on the terms of the sureties suffering therefore deliverance not ipso facto No necessity of such a translation in criminal as is in pecuniary matters pag. 295 CHAP. IV. The Death of Christ considered as an Expiatory Sacrifice for sin What the expiation of sin was by the Sacrifices under the Law twofold Civil and Ritual The Promises made to the Iews under the Law of Moses respected them as a People and therefore must be temporal The typical nature of Sacrifices asserted A substitution in the Expiatory Sacrifices under the Law proved
they found this so gainful and withall so easie a trade among the people when with a demure look and a sowre countenance they could cheat and defraud their Brethren and under a specious shew of devotion could break their fasts by devouring Widows houses and end their long Prayers to God with acts of the highest injustice to their Neighbours As though all that while they had been only begging leave of God to do all the mischief they could to their Brethren It is true such as these were our Saviour upon all occasions speaks against with the greatest sharpness as being the most dangerous enemies to true Religion and that which made men whose passion was too strong for their reason abhor the very name of Religion when such baseness was practised under the profession of it When they saw men offer to compound with Heaven for all their injustice and oppression with not a twentieth part of what God challenges as his due they either thought Religion to be a meer device of men or that these mens hypocrisie ought to be discovered to the World And therefore our Blessed Saviour who came with a design to retrieve a true spirit of Religion among men finds it first of all necessary to unmask those notorious hypocrites that their deformities being discovered their ways as well as their persons might be the better understood and avoided And when he saw by the mighty opinion they had of themselves and their uncharitableness towards all others how little good was to be done upon them he seldom vouchsafes them his presence but rather converses with those who being more openly wicked were more easily convinced of their wickedness and perswaded to reform For which end alone it was that he so freely conversed with them to let them see there were none so bad but his kindness was so great to them that he was willing to do them all the good he could And therefore this could be no more just a reproach to Christ that he kept company sometimes with these than it is to a Chyrurgion to visit Hospitals or to a Physician to converse with the sick 2. But when they saw that his Greatness did appear in another way by the authority of his Doctrine and the power of his Miracles then these wise and subtle men apprehend a further reach and design in all his actions Viz. That his low condition was a piece of Popularity and a meer disguise to ensnare the people the better to make them in love with his Doctrine and so by degrees to season them with Principles of Rebellion and disobedience Hence came all the clamours of his being an Enemy to Caesar and calling himself the King of the Iews and of his design to erect a Kingdom of his own all which they interpret in the most malicious though most unreasonable sense For nothing is so politick as malice and ill will is for that finds designs in every thing and the more contrary they are to all the Protestations of the persons concerned the deeper that suggests presently they are laid and that there is the more cause to be afraid of them Thus it was in our Blessed Saviours case it was not the greatest care used by him to shew his obedience to the Authority he lived under it was not his most solemn disavowing having any thing to do with their civil Interests not the severe checks he gave his own Disciples for any ambitious thoughts among them not the recommending the doctrine of Obedience to them nor the rebuke he gave one of his most forward Disciples for offering to draw his sword in the rescue of himself could abate the fury and rage of his enemies but at last they condemn the greatest Teacher of the duty of Obedience as a Traytor and the most unparallel'd example of innocency as a Malesactor But though there could be nothing objected against the life and actions of our Blessed Saviour as tending to sedition and disturbance of the Civil Peace yet that these men who were inspired by malice and prophesied according to their own interest would say was because he was taken away in time before his designs could be ripe for action but if his doctrine tended that way it was enough to justifie their proceedings against him So then it was not what he did but what he might have done not Treason but Convenience which made them take away the life of the most innocent person but if there had been any taint in his doctrine that way there had been reason enough in such an Age of faction and sedition to have used the utmost care to prevent the spreading it But so far is this from the least ground of probability that it is not possible to imagine a Religion which aims less at the present particular interests of the embracers of it and more at the publick interests of Princes than Christianity doth as it was both preached and practised by our Saviour and his Apostles And here we have cause to lament the unhappy fate of Religion when it falls under the censure of such who think themselves the Masters of all the little arts whereby this world is governed If it teaches the duty of Subjects and the authority of Princes if it requires obedience to Laws and makes mens happiness or misery in another life in any measure to depend upon it then Religion is suspected to be a meer trick of State and an invention to keep the world in awe whereby men might the better be moulded into Societies and preserved in them But if it appear to inforce any thing indispensably on the Consciences of men though humane Laws require the contrary if they must not forswear their Religion and deny him whom they hope to be saved by when the Magistrate calls them to it then such half-witted men think that Religion is nothing but a pretence to Rebellion and Conscience only an obstinate plea for Disobedience But this is to take it for granted that there is no such thing as Religion in the World for if there be there must be some inviolable Rights of Divine Soveraignty acknowledged which must not vary according to the diversity of the Edicts and Laws of men But supposing the profession and practice of the Christian Religion to be allowed inviolable there was never any Religion nay never any inventions of the greatest Politicians which might compare with that for the preservation of civil Societies For this in plain and express words tells all the owners of it that they must live in subjection and obedience not only for wrath but for Conscience sake that they who do resist receive unto themselves damnation and that because whosoever resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God Than which it is impossible to conceive arguments of greater force to keep men in obedience to Authority for he that only obeys because it is his interest to do so will have the same
punishments of the future state So that the ends of punishment here are quite of another kind from those of another life for those are inflicted because persons have been unreclaimable by either the mercies or punishments of this life but these are intended that men should so far take notice of this severity of God as to avoid the sins which will expose them to the wrath to come And from hence it follows That whatsoever sufferings do answer all these ends of Divine punishments and are inflicted on the account of sin have the proper notion of punishments in them and God may accept of the undergoing them as a full satisfaction to his Law if they be such as tend to break men off from sin and assert Gods right and vindicate his honor to the world which are the ends assigned by Crellius and will be of great consequence to us in the following Discourse CHAP. II. The particular state of the Controversie concerning the sufferings of Christ. The Concessions of our Adversaries The debate reduced to two heads The first concerning Christs sufferings being a punishment for sin entred upon In what sense Crellius acknowledgeth the sins of men to have been the impulsive cause of the death of Christ. The sufferings of Christ proved to be a punishment from Scripture The importance of the phrase of bearing sins Of the Scape-Goats bearing the sins of the people into the Wilderness Grotius his sense of 1 Pet. 2. 24. vindicated against Crellius and himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 never used for the taking away a thing by the destruction of it Crellius his sense examined Isa. 53. 11. vindicated The argument from Mat. 8. 17. answered Grotius constant to himself in his notes on that place Isa. 53. 5 6 7. cleared Whether Christs death be a proper 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and whether that doth imply that it was a punishment of sin How far the punishments of Children for their Fathers faults are exemplary among men The distinction of calamities and punishments holds not here That Gods hatred of sin could not be seen in the sufferings of Christ unless they were a punishment of sin proved against Crellius Grotius his Arguments from Christ being made sin and a curse for us defended The liberty our Adversaries take in Changing the sense of words The particles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being joyned to sins and relating to sufferings do imply those sufferings to be a punishment for sin According to their way of interpreting Scripture it had been impossible for our doctrine to be clearly expressed therein THese things being thus far cleared concerning the nature and ends of punishments and how far they are of the nature of debts and consequently what kind of satisfaction is due for them the resolution of the grand Question concerning the sufferings of Christ will appear much more easie but that we may proceed with all possible clearness in a debate of this consequence we must yet a little more narrowly examine the difference between our Adversaries and us in this matter for their concessions are in teâ—ms sometimes so fair as though the difference were meerly about words without any considerable difference in the thing it self If we charge them with denying satisfaction Crellius answers in the name of them that we do it unjustly for they do acknowledge a satisfaction worthy of God and agreeable to the Scriptures If we charge them with denying that our salvation is obtained by the death of Christ they assert the contrary as appears by the same Author Nay Ruarus attributes merit to the death of Christ too They acknowledge that Christ dyed for us nay that there was a commutation between Christ and us both of one person for another and of a price for a person and that the death of Christ may be said to move God to redeem us they acknowledge reconciliation and expiation of sins to be by the death of Christ. Nay they assert that Christs death was by reason of our sins and that God designed by that to shew his severity against sin And what could we desire more if they meant the same thing by these words which we do They assert a satisfaction but it is such a one as is meerly fulfilling the desire of another in which sense all that obey God may be said to satisfie him They attribute our salvation to the death of Christ but only as a condition intervening upon the performance of which the Covenant was confirmed and himself taken into Glory that he might free men from the punishment of their sins They attribute merit to Christs death but in the same sense that we may merit too when we do what is pleasing to God They acknowledge that Christ died for us but not in our stead but for our advantage that there was a commutation but not such a one as that the Son of God did lay down his blood as a proper price in order to our redemption as the purchase of it when they speak of a moving cause they tell us they mean no more than the performance of any condition may be said to move or as our prayers and repentance do The reconciliation they speak of doth not at all respect God but us they assert an expiation of sins consequent upon the death of Christ but not depending upon it any otherwise than as a condition necessary for his admission to the office of a High Priest in Heaven there to expiate our sins by his power and not by his blood but they utterly deny that the death of Christ is to be considered as a pròper expiatory sacrifice for sin or that it hath any further influence upon it than as it is considered as a means of the confirmation of the truth of his Doctrine and particularly the promise of remission of sins on which and not on the death of Christ they say our remission depends but so far as the death of Christ may be an argument to us to believe his Doctrine and that faith may incline us to obedience and that obedience being the condition in order to pardon at so many removes they make the death of Christ to have influence on the remission of our sins They assert that God took occasion by the sins of men to ex ercise an act of dominion upon Christ in his sufferings and that the sufferings of Christ were intended for the taking away the sins of men but they utterly deny that the sufferings of Christ were to be considered as a punishment for sin or that Christ did suffer in our place and stead nay they contend with great vehemency that it is wholly inconsistent with the justice of God to make one mans sins the meritorious cause of anothers punishment especially one wholly innocent and so that the guilty shall be freed on the account of his sufferings Thus I have endeavoured to give the true state of the