Immediate Work of God as the first Man was Whatever comes immediately out of the hands of the Creator cannot be thought to be other than pure but out of an unclean thing cometh that which is unclean That Christ might be a Second Man in Innocence he must not be begotten by the sinful Will of Man as other Men are Conceptions of Self Will and Erring Understanding so determin'd to Evil rather than to Good that their at first weak Understanding or Reason is not sufficient to counter-ballance the manifold Temptations by occasions of Evil within and without Instructions and Examples to sin they meet with very early from Parents and others whom they little suspect such Enemies to them who use them to those Actions which tho' Ignorance makes innocent Reason when they come to know what they do makes culpable and use determines to But Christ besides his pure Original doubtless had the special Grace of God keeping him from Temptation so long as God saw fit that he might have at least the same advantage of strength of Reason the First Man had who was to undergo far greater Temptations But tho' he might not be a Soul derived from Man's corrupt Soul yet his Body might well be taken from the Matter of Mankind without his being thereby sinful or the more inclinable to sin For the Body is not the Subject of Sin or that which infects the Soul it may be an occasion of Temptation to Sin but Sin entirely resides in the Mind being but a disorderly Act of the Will That a Soul coming pure out of the hands of God should become a Sinner by using a Body taken from a Person that was a Sinner is unreasonable to be thought while Matter has nothing in it but Quantity Figure and Motion which howsoever disposed or modified has nothing of the Notion of Sin in it We might as well suppose a Man must needs become a Thief or a Murderer if he dwell in a House given him by one that was such Christ we all acknowledge received the Body God prepar'd him from the Virgin Mary whom all suppose a Sinner except some of the Roman Church yet we suppose him not made a Sinner thereby It was convenient Christ should receive a Body from Mankind that he might be a Real Man and a near Kinsman or Brother A Rational Soul using an Organical Body such as a Man's is really a Man tho' the Soul do not begin mediately by Generation as much as if it did otherwise the first Rational Creature using an Organical Body would not have been a Man the same in kind as others The First Adam's Soul could come no way but by Inspiration and his Body was a more Immediate or Special Work of God than the Bodies of others his Off-spring therefore he is called the Son of God in a nearer respect than they And that Christ's Soul was produced by the Immediate Power of God and his Body by a Special Work of the Most High he is the more properly said to be the Second Man or Adam God forming a Seed in a Woman a Virgin that we might be sure he was not a common Man when a Woman is naturally or commonly a Creature whose Seed is not in her self originally but in the Man or perhaps to speak more properly that hath no Seed This Seed of the Woman inform'd with this Holy Soul this One Exception from the common Order of the Production of Men is therefore with good reason call'd the Son of God eminently as distinct from others who on any lesser or more common Accounts are said to be his Children And the same reason for Subsistance we have given us in the Gospel Luke 1.31 The Angel said unto Mary thou shalt conceive in thy Womb and bring forth a Son and shalt call his name Jesus Ver. 32. He shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Most High and the Lord God shall give him the Throne of David 〈◊〉 his Father Christ is said to be the Son of Abraham the Son of David only according to the Flesh because Mary from whom he received his Body materially was of the Off-spring of Abraham and David Ver. 34. And Mary said unto the Angel how shall this be seeing I know not a Man V. 35. And the Angel answering said unto her a Holy Spirit shall come upon thee and the Power of the Highest shall over-shadow thee therefore also that holy Thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God And to strengthen the Virgin 's Faith he tells her ver 36. Her Cousin Elizabeth who was old and accounted barren had conceived For v. 37. with God nothing shall be unpossible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every word shall not be unpossible viz. whatever can be said in reason to be a thing to be done shall not be unpossible with God He brings her from the less to the greater he that has caused the Old and Barren to be with Child a thing above the power of Nature can do more even cause thee a Virgin to conceive without the means of a Man Thus Christ that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that holy Soul Spirit or Mind that received his Body from Mary and so became the Compositum call'd a Man was truely call'd the Son of the Most High as God the Father of all was in a special manner his Efficient Cause and the Son of Mary and her Progenitors as she was the Material Cause of what was material in him And least any should think the Holy Ghost the Efficient Cause of Christ's Conception and so rather to be called his Father from whence would arise a great difficulty from those Expressions ver 35. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Math. 1.18 and 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let it be considered that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Spirit is put without the Article and is rather to be rendered a Holy Spirit and of a Holy Spirit then the Holy Spirit A Holy Spirit shall come upon thee or into thee Signifying thereby either that she should have a Holy Disposition in order to the over-shadowing Power of the Highest viz. of the Father coming to effect such a Conception or that she should receive a Holy Conception in her or both So she was found with Child of a Holy Spirit That which is conceived in her is of a Holy Spirit that is she hath a Holy Conception in her was found with Child of a Holy Conception neither a Spurious as Joseph thought nor a Common Conception The Particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does not denote the Efficient Cause any more here than it does when spoken of Mary Luk. 1.35 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of thee in thee or by thee and Matth. 1.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Mary or in Mary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was born or conceived Jesus not that she was the Cause
Opinion of his Omnipresence that supposes him locally present or essentially present in Bodily Nature is untrue For whatsoever is suppos'd to be in place is Body or Quantity has Dimension or is nothing Thinking has no Dimensions Quantities or Bulks and can be said to be present with Bodies only as having Ideas of them or willing about them as they may be Objects of the Understanding or Will So God is present with Bodies only as he knows them all and wills about them He is said to be eminently present here or there as the Effects of his Will are seen more eminently in one place then in another He is more intimately present with Minds because he does not only think of all that is in them and continually wills about them but that they also are often very sensible of the Acts of his Will about them which Bodies are not But he is especially present with himself because he always is the chief and necessary Object of his own Understanding and Will But an Essential local Omnipresence is absurd for if God be a Body as he must if locally omnipresent it would follow that there is no Body besides God for if you suppose Bodies that are not God they must have some place among one another which cannot be if God sill all with himself two things each of which fill a place cannot be suppos'd in the same place And to suppose God every where among Bodies will not make local Omnipresence but Interspersion whereby he would be suppos'd as a porous Body filling the void spaces between other Bodies which would be a very foolish Thought if we think it of God Besides whatever fills any thing fills it with its whole or with but part of it if God fills any or all Bodily Creatures with his whole in this local way he himself is contained and so according to this foolish fancy is wholly finite they being finite If he fill them with a part of himself he is present but in part not wholly and so is partly finite which is absurd Nor can Bodily Nature be said to be infinite even in Extension because it consists of Parts and where there are Parts there is a whole and that of which it can be said here is all may be suppos'd capable of Addition and so is not infinite But nothing can with good Sense be said to be in all places but all Bodies and Place is nothing but the relation of Bodies to one another as containing and contain'd on this side or that God's more excellent and real Omnipresence is virtual as we have said and his Infinity is nothing of the nature of Out-stretchedness whatever is extended being finite but is the boundless or absolute Perfection of all his Attributes incomprehensible to our created and limitted Conception And he was the same infinite or compleat when he had not made Body and consequently there was no space or place or any other Creature to be in or present with and he cannot be beholding to Creatures for any necessary Perfection He fills Heaven and Earth it is true but not with himself but with the Bodies they contain Bodies I say because no Minds are capable of Place or Being contained by Body or here or there among Bodies otherwise than as thinking of Bodies that are here and there Now whatever God is in himself is that without which he can't be conceived and that which is necessary and essential to him and implies him a necessary Being 10. But as to what he is in relation to Creatures or unnecessary Beings that might have had no Being he is Indifferent or Arbitrary which is the second way of considering him we now come to What he is in relation to Creatures he is not necessarily or essentially because he was indifferent to cause them or not no necessity compell'd him to produce them They are not necessary Beings they may be suppos'd not to be and if they had not been he had had no relation to them Neither the Existence no nor the very Ideas or Thoughts of Creatures or unnecessary Beings can be suppos'd necessary to the Divine Mind while we suppose him Self sufficient So that to be a Creator or Father a Lord or Governour is not necessary or essential to God but he freely chooseth or pleaseth so to be God must be suppos'd Self-sufficient or he cannot be suppos'd to be and Creatures must be acknowledged not Self-sufficient or they cannot be suppos'd Creatures if so there can be no necessary relation between God and Creatures There can be nothing but God and Creatures and so God can be related to nothing but Creatures relations are of divers things The Notion of Relation is what one individual thing is if compar'd to another Creatures may be related as Individuals of the same kind but God and Creatures cannot be so related they are infinitely different Relations must have their Correlates indeed but where the Relations were not necessary the Correlate depends on the Relation suppos'd one Individual cannot be relate and correlate so that there can be no relation essential in God God is but one Self or Mind and there can be nothing in God different from himself he is but one Individual not Individuals or else the Divine Nature could not be called He one essential Property or Attribute in God cannot be related to another essential Property or Attribute as a Causer Creator or Begetter God's Understanding cannot have the relation of a Cause Father or Lord to his Will or his Will to his Understanding The Cause or Begetter or Lord must be suppos'd before or greater than the Effect Begotten and Subject but nothing in God's essential Properties can be said to be before the Cause of or greater than another nor can one of them properly say thou to another they all being one selfsame or Mind God's Fatherhood might rather be said to have the relation of an Effect to his Will the Cause for he was not a Father as he would not but because he will'd to be so so that Fatherhood more properly is a Notion resulting from the Existence of things he hath willed into being Again God could not be a necessary or eternal Creator Producer or Father because things created produced or begotten would on that Supposition be eternal and necessary But Creating Produceing and Begetting imply Cause and Effect and nothing essential to God can be an Effect or thing caused an Effect or thing caused was not before it was caused and it would be the greatest Absurdity to suppose something in the Divine Essence which was not This would contradict the Notion of Eternity or the manner of Being that hath no fore and after in it or any alteration God alone is such The Creatures all of them have something past and to come what ever has any thing past and to come in its nature is a Creature had a beginning might have had none and may have an end Whatever has a former and a later
had a first and may have a last Nor can Fatherhood or Creatorship be thought an essential Attribute in God because whatever is in God's Nature is a necessary Perfection and he cannot be suppos'd to receive any such Perfection from the Effects he hath produced which he had not before which would be in effect to deny him to be a Self-sufficient Being Nor can we with any consideration say God might have made things sooner or later for when he did make then began the first moment there being no fore and after in God from which time could be named Now tho' the Attributes of Creator Cause or Father began with Time resulting from things related to God as Products and Effects there cannot be said to be any alteration in God or increase of his Perfections the things that are made are but the Images Pictures or Characters of his Perfections and he is not any thing more since he has painted out some of his Excellencies than he was before Nor can God be suppos'd ignorant for not knowing what is not mere not being is no Object of Knowledge God knowing himself only knew all when there was nothing else to know and knowing all that now is he can't be said to be ignorant for not knowing more than all yet we dare not say he cannot produce more Creatures when he alone was he knew himself the Original and Fountain of all Perfection and knew himself able to paint out or make Pictures of his Perfections and when he will'd them they were but before he will'd them to be they can't well be thought Objects of his Understanding Now tho' God may be suppos'd solitary or singlely in himself without any real relation without so much as the Thoughts of Creatures in himself the Creatures cannot possibly be suppos'd to be without supposing their relation to God as their Creator or Father As it is our experience that we are and that we find by consideration that God must be or we could not be it presently appears what he is to us viz. our Cause our Maker Producer or Father and consequently that he is our Owner Sovereign Lord and Ruler He that knows us perfectly both as to what he hath made us and what his Ends are in making us He cannot be suppos'd to make any thing of which he is ignorant in either of these respects he must also be suppos'd to have Will and Power yet Will and Power in God are properly but two words for the same thing and his Power or Will to make must be agreeable to his Wisdom or Knowledge how or what would best become him He could make nothing but what would be an agreeable Representation of himself fit for such a Being to make such as would represent him as he is and that must needs be good He could make nothing ill there could be no disorder in his Works It cannot be said that any thing might have been done better than he did it either as to the manner or end of being 11. The final Cause or End for which God made things if it be not Presumption to enquire seems to be no other than the Manifestation of his Wisdom and Power and the Communication of his Goodness to his Creatures for in respect to God there can be no final Cause God being all perfect and happy in himself that is Self sufficient there can no good or end come to him from any thing but we would rather say he acted as became him when he pleas'd to make Creatures and some of them such as were capable by considering themselves and other things they find to be made by the same power to acknowledge and admire him and to move one another to acknowledge and admire his Wisdom Goodness and Power so conspicuous in the curious and mighty System of the Creation and in so doing to be pleas'd or happy God being in himself absolute Goodness and so perfectly happy or pleas'd with himself was pleas'd to make Creatures capable of Happiness or Pleasure by the Communication of his Goodness who is not only good or perfect enough in himself to be altogether happy or pleas'd but his Goodness is also enough to make a world of Creatures happy or pleas'd also by having Him the Object of their Understanding and Will The Creature experiencing God's Wisdom Power and Goodness being duly affected with it and endeavouring to affect its Fellows is said to glorifie God not to make him glorious that is shewing forth Perfections but to see him such and be an Instrument to cause him to be seen such God being essentially Wise Good and Powerful that is Knowing and Loving himself and able to make Representations of his Excellencies if he please to make any things cannot but make them such as become him viz. good and for good that is such as are capable of being pleas'd with being what and how he hath made them and wills them to be that is Knowers and Lovers of him So that there appears in God as considered in relation to us chiefly Power in producing us Wisdom and Goodness as to the what and to what end he hath made us What God is and will be found to be to us considered as otherwise than he wills us may come to be considered better hereafter in another place nor shall we here enlarge these Considerations having laid them but as Foundations or Principles 12. We shall now come to consider what we ought to be or how we should behave our selves to God and for God's sake to one another And this Obligation is that which is properly call'd Religion Man having by considering himself found God or his own Cause having found what God is and does in himself and in relation to us what he has caus'd us to be who are nothing of our selves the great Question that concerns us is What we ought or what it becomes us to do And that is in short to exercise our Wills aright that is suitable to or becoming the Relation we stand in to God and one another so as becomes such Creatures of such a Creator We are sure he cannot be or act towards us but as becomes him that is best And that we may do this our Duty aright we ought first to seek God that is study to know him more and more that the regular Acts of our Wills may be stronger and stronger for the more truely and clearly we behold him the Object the more orderly and the more strongly will the Acts of our Wills be about him Now God being an absolutely perfect Being and consequently one who can have no Acts of Will but such as become himself or are pefectly good in relation to himself and his Works our willing suitably or orderly is determin'd and made such by the Conformity of our Wills to the Will of God willing as he wills we should Now to will what God wills us to will is the Essence Sum and Substance of all Religion I do not say
the Seventh is determined from whence we begin Fifthly As God is to have the Supream Honours and Worship as our Cause infinitely above us so even those Creatures God hath made the Instruments of our Being or before us in Excellency and and Dignity should be acknowledged as such and so more worthy than our selves and being honour'd by us this Honour should be shewn and testified by proper Submission to them with other Testimonies whereby we may shew our due esteem Those that we are immediately beholding to tho' but as Instruments for our being or well being those we have been necessitated to depend upon tho' but as means for the continuance of our Being in this life have in all reason due to them from us a debt of Honour Esteem and Regard and those that in any respect are better and more excellent than us can with no Justice be denied the Acknowledgment as we find occasion of what they really are Nor is the giving all our Betters especially those we have had our Dependance on as Parents their due Regard without a natural Tendency to our long and happy Continuance in this Life as they are thereby farther encouraged and provoked to contribute the more to our Felicity and we may also hope for as our Desert the like Honour from our Off-spring or bear the contrary with the less Regret Sixthly And as God has made us all the means of manifesting his Excellencies to one another the Representations or Images of himself it is the highest Presumption and Boldness that we should attempt to put an end to or spoil or put out of sight so excellent an Image of God as he hath made Man And this is first most unreasonable and culpable if practis'd on Self it being every Man's Duty and Interest to be as God would have him and a high Affront and Rebellion to refuse the Gift of Life and Duties thereof and as it were a bold revenging the Crosses of our foolish Wills on the Author of our Life spoiling as much as we can his Work And tho' we may be perswaded that possibly there may not be so much Excellency in some others as in our selves yet we should have so great a Love and Respect to the meanest Man as he is the Image of God an Epitome of the Creation a Lord of the Corporal and a Bond of Corporal and Spiritual Nature wherein God may be seen as in a Map of all his Works that we should not desire or presume to blot out so great a draught of the Divine Painter or deface so great a Representative of his Majesty And as Man is a Lord over the inferiour Creatures under God to put him as much as possible out of his Office his Stewardship or Viceroyalty is an Affront to his Sovereign for which he that does so ought himself to be put so far out of the same capacity tho' he ought not to put himself out which he himself vertually acknowledgeth since doing as one would be done by is a most apparently equitable Rule For if a Man loves Life as a Good as every man in his right mind does and would not that another should take that from him on which as well or ill used depends so much of Happiness or Misery consequently he ought not to take it from another whom God has made a living Man as well as he capable of as much Good as another and in this at least better than he that would break this Rule that he does not purpose like him to be a declared Enemy to his Kind and thereby adjudge his own Life ought rightly and also necessarily to be taken away to prevent a greater Mischief viz. the loss of another Life more valuable than the Life of this declared Despiser and Enemy of God and Man which Reasons do not only convince us that we should do nothing tending to hurt the Life of another but that we should do what in us lies to preserve it as well as our own Seventhly As it is most reasonable we should Esteem and Honour particularly and in especial manner those that have been the means of our Being and not slight and despise them that we should do as we would be done by and do nothing tending to destroy any of our Fellow-rational Creatures but labour to preserve them So also that we may avoid the said Mischiefs and perform the opposite Duties it is reasonable and necessary that in the business of the Propagation of Mankind Man should observe the Laws of Order and Conveniency that is that one Man and one Woman should be joyn'd together in free Love and Constancy and become one in that matter never leaving one the other to joyn with a third That one Man should not use more Women than such a one as a Wife while she lives nor one Woman more Men than her Husband before he is dead is most reasonable from many Considerations tho' Men are so inclinable to Disorders in this Matter and so willing to be blind and not see them As if the promiscuous use of Men or Women be practised it will be the unavoidable Confusion of Relations and Cause of the many evil Consequences thereof Relative Duties cannot be perform'd where Relations are not known As for instance A Child will be sometimes ignorant of his Parents and so will not only omit the Honour Gratitude and Reverence due to them but may sometimes be liable to slight despise contemn or even abuse them or do those things to them which tho' lawful to others not at all to be done to Parents which if ever they come to be known might cause great disquiet of Mind Again By the promiscuous use of Men or Women the Right of Inheritances will often be perverted and confounded one Man's Child will enjoy another Man's Land or Goods the true Heir being unknown a Man shall labour for another's Children and not for his own Again As all Children of Men are more helpless than any other Animals if both parents are not concern'd for them they will many ways be expos'd to Misery in the want of that Care and Love and all the Effects thereof which orderly Parents have for their Children And the Women who are not able to go through their Bringings forth and Breeding up of their Children alone as other Animals would be often exposed with their Children to great Miseries without the constant Help and Care of such a Relation as a Husband and Father ought to be Again if one Man should have divers Women tho' he were as a Husband to them all divers Inconveniencies would follow The Man would love one better than another and so not be equally just to them all for which cause they would not agree or live in Love and Content together they would have Jealousies and Strifes against one another and have many Temptations to Inconstancy when one Man is not enough ordinarily to satisfie the natural Desire of more Women some must be defrauded so on
less esteem of what is uncontroverted the Sum and Substance End and Design thereof Nor have we any reason since we may read the Book it self to look upon the Bible as it is most abused and deform'd by Expositors who if we were to take it from them have represented it to us but as a contradictory or confused Rule 41. For we find many things taught by them who take upon them to expound the Scripture as Doctrines clearly express'd as they say therein that have not only no apt Tendency to the Great End the Love of God and Man but some of them naturally tend or incline to the contrary Which Consideration bringeth me to the last thing I designed to speak to the last Stumbling block I shall endeavour to take out of the Deists way viz. The Consideration of divers Doctrines now confidently taught as Orthodox and main Points of Christian Faith which to render Christianity more reasonable more like it self I shall not only readily disown but endeavour to shew that they cannot reasonably be thought to be Doctrines of the Gospel necessary to Christianity or True That they cannot be accounted for or proved Points of a Rational Faith or truly deduced from the Bible But are Mistakes taken up through Prejudice from Tradition and confirm'd by mistaken Texts of Scripture It being an Evil but common Custom among Men to take up Opinions before they carefully read the Scripture or consider the Agreement or Disagreement of things and then to labour to make the Scripture prove and confirm them endeavouring to bring Scripture to their unreasonable Opinions when they should rather have brought their Opinions from Scripture and Reason Scripture so understood as to be reconcileable to it self and to Right Reason And as this word reconcileable brings into my Mind the notion of Reconciliation which I take to be misunderstood by many I shall first begin with that Point and endeavour to shew the Mistakes about it 42. It is the fancy of some that Christ has reconciled God to Sinners Let us a little consider the matter Reconciliation is a making Friends of some or other at variance When there is Disagreement Enmity or Hate in a Person that did agree love and was a Friend the taking away or changing these for Agreement Friendship and Love is properly Reconciliation Now to say that Christ hath reconciled God to us is as much as to say God was a Friend and did love Man but then became an Enemy and hated him and then was made a Friend and loved him again But this can with no good reason be said of God because he is unchangeable and these things imply a Change Foolish Men are very apt to look upon God to be such a one as themselves now willing one thing then another now angry then pleas'd because they find themselves so But such things are Imperfections incompatible with a Self-sufficient Being God has properly no Passions must be confess'd tho' Men do commonly speak of him as if he had and he is in Scripture so represented sometimes after the manner of Men. But he is the same still has the same Will the same Love to whatever is his own and cannot have less He represents himself as he is hating Sin or that unjust and unhappy Action of the Creatures willing contrary to its Maker's Will but he never hates the Creature his own Work but loves it He cannot be suppos'd to be reconciled to Sin he never loved or can love Injustice To suppose him so reconciled as to approve like or allow Sin in his Creature would be to suppose him to will Evil or contrary to his own Will And he is not reconciled to his Creature because he was never deconciled or an Enemy to it His Goodness and Bounty is over all his Works he is always ready to do Good to his Creatures and make them happy it is they that are Enemies to him and to themselves and to their own Happiness A Man that runs into a Cave and hides himself from the Light and Warmth of the Sun and is perswaded at length to come out and receive the Benefit of its Heat and Splendour may as well say the Sun was angry with him and his his Face and withheld his Beams but now is reconciled to him and shines on him again as to fancy that the Ever-overflowing-fountain of Good withholds his Streams from the Works of his hands He is the most loving Father that is always ready to do Good to his Children but they Rebellious will not always receive it Therefore we may boldly nay we must on good Consideration say that whatever Christ hath done and suffered does not make God any more willing Sinners should obey him or be saved than he was before If he could at any time will Sinners not to obey him he might be suppos'd not to will them to be saved but to will Sinners not to obey him is all one as to will his Will to be done and not done at the same time which is a Contradiction We find foollish Men commonly representing God as one full of Wrath Anger Hatred to his poor silly Fallen Creatures severe furious and hard to be appeas'd but Christ as one full of Love Mercy Pitty Good-will to Sinners but we must not think God to have less Love Goodness Mercy c. than Christ that would be unreasonable when there can be no less than an Infinite Distance between God and the most Perfect Creature in Goodness Mercy Kindness and all Perfections yea as much as God is above Man so much greater must we think is the Mercy Goodness and Love of the Father to Sinners than that of the Son who is but the Image of him that is greater than all God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life The Love of God was the Cause of Christ's both Sonship and Mission and the Cause must be greater than the Effect God could have no external Cause or Motive to love us but loveth us freely for he is Love which can be said of no Second No Man hath greater Love than Christ for he laid down his Life for us even while we were Enemies but he had a Motive to Love greater than from himself viz. his Duty to obey and imitate God his Father Moreover if God has commanded all Sinners to repent believe and be saved he must be supposed to will that they should do so or he deceives them which cannot be admitted If he wills them to repent and be saved he is not their Enemy but their Friend What then you will say did Christ come to reconcile I say with the Scripture to reconcile us to God who were Enemies to him by wicked Works to reconcile us to our best Friend and Father from whom we had gone astray and been prodigal Sons to reconcile us to our Duty yea to our own Happiness which can no way
the pleasing sight of as great pains as all his fallen Creatures can possibly suffer he will have it in the Innocent They represent God as one that taketh pleasure in the Death of him that dies in the Death of the Innocent for the Guilty as one much more pleas'd with the Punishment of the Just than of the Transgressor The most blameless Creature that ever was must not be abated one dram of Torment they can devise fancy due or wish to their most wicked Enemies They are not contented Christ should suffer those things merciless and unjust Sinners could lay upon him by means of his Body or what might come by the fear and apprehension thereof what he might suffer in his great Compassion to Sinners and Love to God on the Consideration of Man's Sin and Misery and God's leaving him for a time who loved him so greatly without more than common Assistance under these Sorrows or what he might possibly bear from attempts of Satan but they make God the Active Inflicter of more than all this of the greatest Torment even that of the Damned on that dear Soul who was the greatest Saint making God like a Tyrant like themselves or worse They tell strange Stories of Christ's bearing the weight of his Father's Wrath Burning Wrath Yea I have heard an ignorant but confident Preacher tell his inconsiderate Hearers that Christ was a Sacrifice and roasted in his Father's Wrath and his Agony was Certamen a Contest or Fight and that Christ fought not with Devils not with Men but with his Father But God himself testified the contrary to these bold Fancies by a Voice from Heaven that he was his beloved Son in whom he was well pleased and we can't suppose that God changed his Mind and became displeas'd with him who never sinn'd nor can he be suppos'd to contend fight or be displeas'd with his Father's Will while we grant him without Sin which is another Argument that God's Will was not the cause of his Sufferings for there is no Suffering but from some sort of Displeasure with the case we are in and if Christ were displeas'd with what God did he sinned But we believe God could not be displeas'd with Christ being without any fault at all so neither could Christ be displeas'd with God but he might be displeas'd and uneasie by means of Sinners It must be a hard Heart and impudent Tongue that can believe or affirm that God was wrath with the most Innocent Creature and tormented him when God calls him his Beloved Son God left him indeed to that Cup of the Sorrows of Death occasion'd by the Body inflicted by wicked hands he left him deeply to be sorry for and sympathize with miserable Sinners and to grieve for the breach of his Father's Laws but he never left him without the Knowledge of God's being his God and Father he never had the Misery of Despair Envy Malice Wrath Strong desire of Impossibilities Hate of God c. the chiefest Ingredients of the Damned's Misery Whatever was his fear of that Cup the painful and lingering Death of the Cross which was likely to be so tedious to one who in all probability had not been accustom'd to Sickness or Bodily Pains yet he was not left without the Heavenly Assistance of an Angel to strengthening him Whatever was God's forsaking him he was sure God was his loving Father and that that day he should be in Paradise If God left him to all the Pain and Anguish the cruel Death of Crucifixion or the Apprehension of it might produce in an Innocent Man as he has left many of his Followers to cruel Torments and did not interpose and prevent the Cup of Sufferings by some extraordinary means God can be thought to be no more but the Permitter of the Wicked so far to afflict the Righteous and to work no Miracle to separate Sorrows and Pains from their common Conditions in Humane Nature Christ's Patience under all praying for his Enemies submitting to Death tho' he deserved it not rather than omit his Duty may be of great use to us to set before us the greatest Pattern of Good-behaviour under Sufferings for Righteousness sake and to forewarn us what we must expect if we will be his Followers And whatever was the Cup Christ spake of in his Agony the Author to the Hebrews ch 5.7 8 9. tells us that when he had offered up Prayers and Supplications with strong Crying and Tears unto him that was able to save him from Death he was heard from his fear which may encourage us and tho' he were a Son he learned Obedience by the things that he suffered and being made perfect he became a cause of eternal Salvation To whom to all them that obey him So that if we should suppose Satisfaction possible to be made how full soever this Text tells us we could not be saved alone on the account of what Christ hath done or suffered because something else is yet necessary viz. our Obedience so Christ's doing and suffering is not indeed enough for us and so really no Satisfaction But that God does truely forgive Sinners that I think is so clearly and often declar'd in Scripture it needs not be farther demonstrated and Satisfaction cannot stand with Forgiveness any more than the Word can be found in Scripture 44. Having here discoursed somewhat concerning Sufferings I think it most proper to subjoin my Thoughts about the Common Opinion relating to the Evil call'd Punishment or the Miseries of the Creature consequent on Sin Wherein I think Men are generally mistaken while they look upon God as truely and properly the Inflicter as the sole Cause and Efficient of this Misery of the Sinner and obliged so to be It is no wonder indeed that those Men should be of this opinion who believe God was a Punisher and that a severe One of the Innocent Jesus they forgetting even the Oath of God That the Soul that sinneth shall die the Righteousness of the Righteous shall be upon him and the Wickedness of the Wicked shall be upon him one shall not bear anothers Wickedness as we read at large Ezek. 18. Nor is it strange that any who do not believe the Goodness of God greater than they can conceive or desire should esteem God the Author of some sort of Evil. But for my part I must confess I do not see cause to believe that God is properly and positively a Punisher or the cause of Unhappiness in any of his Creatures much less bound to be so or that any Evil can proceed from the Fountain of all Good or any thing but what 's good from Goodness it self but if God give any thing it must needs be good I would here be understood to speak properly for I know the Scripture Tropically and Figuratively after the manner of Men speaks often to the contrary I do not deny but affirm that the wicked that die impenitent shall be exceeding miserable and suffer Exquisite