to the Sinner because the Lord is God and not Man Therefore we Read that Mercy and Truth are met together Righteousness and Peace have kissed each other Psal 85. 10. God is as Just in Justifiing him that Believeth in Jesus as he is in Condemning the Unbeliever Rom. 8. 26. So that it as clear as the Sun shining at Noon day that as Mercy was the first and only moving Cause of Gods sending his Son into the World to save Sinners and therefore there was no need of his coming to procure Mercy his coming being the greatest Demonstration of Mercy and Love Joh. 3. 16. So likewise is it a Demonstration that all he did and especially what he Suffered was with respect to Justice The determinate Counsels of the Three that bear Record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost the one Eternal God had first if we may to help the weakness of our understanding use such an expression as First or Second concerning the decrees of God I say the First thing God had in his Eye in saving Sinners by sending his Son into the World was the Manifestation of his own Glory This being the best good must be the First Cause and Last End of all Gods Works and in Subordination thereunto Gods Mercy and great Love wherewith he Loved us was the moving Cause of sending his Son into the World with respect to God himself the Manifestation of his own Glory was the Cause and must be the Effect and last End thereof with respect to us Love Pity and Compassion and Mercy was the First moving Cause and our Eternal Salvation the last End so then if Christ came to Expiate sin or to take away sin it must be to bear the punishment due to sin or to the Sinner for sin to take away the guilt of sin which cannot be done but by bearing the punishment due for sin the guilt must be taken away For God will by no means therefore not by Mercy it self clear the guilty Therefore the guilt must be taken away that Mercy may flow in with all its Blessed effects upon the Sinner therefore the Fathers sending his Son was the Highest Act of Mercy in the Father and the Sons coming and dying in our Nature was the highest Act of Love in the Son The thing it Self was all Mercy with respect to us and the doing of it was with respect to the Honour of Gods Law and and the Manifestation of his Justice and Truth Therefore Christ did not offer himself up as a Supplication to the Mercy of God but as an expiatory Sacrifice to his Justice and not as a partial expiating of sin for that would but in part take away guilt but all guilt must be taken away or else the sinner will remain guilty and God will by no means clear the guilty Hence we read of Gods forgiving for Christs sake Eph. 4. 32. and of Redemption through his Blood the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his Grace Here is Redemption but at no less Price than the Blood of Ghrist here is the forgiveness of sins but it is through the Blood of Christ for we are not Redeemed with Corruptible things but by the precious Blood of Christ Peter 1. 18 19. All which shews that we are freely Forgiven and yet Justice is fully satisfied God having no Motive nor was it possible he should to concern himself about our Salvation but his own Soveraign good Will and good Pleasure he will have Mercy because he will have Mercy This makes the difference between Man and Man and this makes the difference between Man and Devil he took not upon him the Nature of Angels but the Seed of Abraham And what ever Reasons may be given for this by those wise Criticks that will vainly intrude into those things that they have not seen yet they must at last all Center in this Even so O Father because it pleaseth thee It was the good pleasure of God to save his Elect therefore Christ did not come to purchase this good pleasure but to Execute it by taking away sin both in its guilt and filth and to bring in an Everlasting Righteousness Therefore we read the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand Isa 53. 10. Dan. 9. 24. And our Lord doth so often declare that he came not to do his own will but the will of him that sent him that is needless to mention particular Scriptures to prove it All which shows that Christ offering himself up by the Eternal Spirit as a Sacrifice to God was to take away sin both in the guilt and filth of it and had respect to the Justice and Holiness of God to Vindicate his Truth and the Honour of his Law in shewing Mercy to the Sinner Therefore it is said he was made sin for us that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him and in respect to Mercy and Love our Lord tells us At that day ye shall ask in my name and I say not unto you that I will pray the Father for you For the Father himself loveth you Joh. 16. 26. Yet if any Man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Righteous 1 Epist of Joh. 2. 1. And he tells us again At that day ye shall ask in my name and I say unto you that I will pray the Father for you and in Joh. 16. ver 23. Verily verily I say unto you whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name he will give it you Which compared with Joh. 14. 13. 14. shews that the Father and the Son are One for saith he Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name that will I do that the Father may be glorified in the Son And again in the next Verse If ye shall ask anything in my name I will do it All which shews that Christ did not purchase nor doth he interceed for the Fathers Love and Mercy but interceeds as an Advocate pleading his own merrit in taking away sin and bringing in an Everlasting Righteousness so that is for Gods glory the Honour of his Law the strickness of his Justice to shew Mercy to the Sinner Therefore he saith I will do it that the Father may be glorified in the Son And indeed it is little less then the Blasphemy to say that the Fathers Love and Mercy is not so great or was not so early as the Sons for God is of one Mind and who can turn him Having thus proved that Christ offered himself up as a Sacrifice to the Justice of God to make an Attouement for Transgression It will be necessary to enquire what kind of Priest and Sacrifice this must be what mighty Mediator this must be that interposeth between the Justice of God and the guilty Sinner Aand as the Doctrine of Satisfaction ought to be received with all Humility and Thankfulness with all Care and Watchfulness to prove our selves to be of the number of those that are Redeemed from
they might have as good a Stock of it as your self Sir for ought I know I say their Reason thought it reasonable so to do and it is not long since one of your Doctors of Reason told us if I am not mis-informed there was no God in his Leviathan and for ought I know to the contrary he might have as good Reason so to do as you have to deny our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to be God But our Author goes hobbling on according to that little blind Reason he hath and can any Man think it strange that he stumbles when he kicks at the very Fountain of Light and Life OUr Author is like one of Jeremiahs conceited Lords spoken of Jeremiah 2. 31. and therefore he will not come to him in whom are hid all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge Colos 2. 3. No he is so far from that that he will tell God to his Face that a Debt freely Forgiven and yet fully Paid is a contradiction For what doth it signifie for God to reveal himself to be a God pardoning iniquity forgiving transgression and sin and yet a God that will by no means clear the guilty This is a contradiction in this Gentlemans Reason and therefore cannot be true by Revelation Short Accountant Page the Third Reason the Third Yet least our short Accountant should Charge me with being too short in given up his Account of his Reasons for his denying the Lord Jesus Christ to be over All God blessed for every more I must step back to his 2d Page where after he hath given some Account of the unkind and if all be as he relates it unjustisible carriage of Bishop R. S. and the Church under his Care towards him He begins to lay down his Reasons which I shall consider without taking any notice of their Relative Neglects one to another I having nothing to do with either the Bishop R. S. or the Church over which he is Overseer I not knowing this short Accountant nor B. R. S. nor any of his Congregation that I know of no not so much as by Sight or Name till since I see R. S. on this Subject and upon inquiring after that I have been told his Name To begin therefore with the Account he gives of himself he saith As to his Life and Conversation he doth not know that any hath blamed him for it nor that he hath been charged with Immorality which is so far very well and is his Mercy that God hath not left him so far to himself as to run with many others into the same excess of Riot But he was not as he saith Able to bear the hearing that Jesus Christ who was born of the Virgin was God by Nature Co-equal Coeternal with the Father And here I cannot but observe the dark ingenuity of the Gentleman who foreseeing that any Christian would be ready to grant that the humanity of Christ which was Born of the Virgin was not God for then he had not been Man but God only and so we should have been at a loss for a Mediator For there is one Mediator between God and Man theresore he saith He was not able to bear the Notion of a Compound of part God and part Man to make up one Person I do not find the word part God and part Man in Scripture but the Scriptures do plain enough declare that our Mediator is true God and true Man But now I shall consider my short Accountants Reasons why he cannot believe him to be so His first Reason is because God is represented in Thousand of Places of Scripture to be One single Person or Being and in some few mistaken and dark places that seem to infer a plurality of Persons in the Divine Being Now saith our short Accountant page 3. and our Nameless Author pag. 7. colume 2. We must not oppose a few Texts against many nor dark ones agaiust clear ones Very true and for the same Reason we must not oppose many against a few nor clear ones against dark ones and here any reasonable unbyast man may see how those Gentlemen contradict themselves Our Author saith page 4. colume 1. That if a thing does not appear clear to him he hath no good cause to affirm it And by the same rule if a thing appears dark to him it is presumptuous Folly in him to deny it for a Man to deny that to be true which he doth not know or understand to be so by an infallible Rule And I hope this Gentleman will not say his Reason is infallible in the things of a Man much less in the things of God such a Man is guilty of equal Folly with him that affirms a thing to be true though he do not know it to be so but upon Hear-say or by the Dictates of his own weak and erring Reason So my Author and I are agreed in this that Scripture cannot contradict it self But I proceed to my short Accountants Second Reason which is this That this Revelation of God as one single Being or Person is agreeing to the Notion taat I have of God in my Mind by my Reason as most High Best and the like Now tho' I do not pretend to any great stock much less to be Master of infallible Reason yet I must own that according to that measure of Reason that God hath given me this Argument seems most unreasonable and absurd and it is to believe a Man's Notions are true because they are his Notions what reasonable Proofs are these For though I never saw Hobbs's Leviathan yet I make no doubt but he had as good Reason as this to deny the Being of God for what is this more or less than for the Fool to say in his heart there is no God and then to introduce this Saying or Notion of his and produce it as an Argument or Reason to prove that there is no God I must needs say that I have reason to believe that the Scripture doth not say in vain that as the Fool walketh by the way his Wisdom faileth him and he saith to every one that he is a Fool Eccles 10. 3. And what if I had not reason enough to see this Truth of God would the Truth of God be ever the less vailed for my Ignorance I see my short Accountant falls much too short in giving a true reasonable Account of his Faith But I shall pass to his Third Reason and see if there be any more truth in that than in his two former and here he tells us What is not true in Reason cannot be true by Revelation For saith he pray mark the reason of the Gentleman's Argument What is above my Capacity to understand or contradictory to my understanding cannot be revealed to me Surely if our Accountant were not blinded with being wise in his own Eyes he would have seen his Ignorance in this Argument quick enough Why good Sir is your Capacity solarge and your Understanding so great that
the Lord that bought them and bring upon themselves swift Destruction Will you add so much Pride to your Folly as to say concerning your self as our Lord did that because I was in the Decree of God and prophesied of therefore 1600 Years before born I am Besides I Am is a peculiar Title to God signifying his Self-existence and Self-sufficiency which no created Being can take to himself without Blasphemy Well but after all the Considerator is resolved to be a good Champion for a bad Cause who will loose his Ground Inch by Inch And therefore he saith in his 57th page first colume That notwithstanding all this we must be Socinians or Arrians for Christians we may not be No by no means if the Considerator can but jump into the infallible Chair and prescribe a Religion for us Thus it is and thus it will be as the truly Rational and Learned as well as Pious Doctor Owen hath observed Truth will not please the Devil will subscribe to any Creed but that which God gives of himself in his Word But good Sir why must we be Arrians Why because Christ though he did exist before the World was made yet he was but a Creature for all that but the first that ever God made But neither will this shift enable you to overthrow the Christian Religion nor shall you thereby rob the Author of it of his Divine Nature who is the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ who gave himself for us Titus 2. 13 14. For hereby you do but tread in your old Steps by resisting and contradicting the Holy Ghost as your Predecessors did in Acts 7. 51. For in Revelation 1. the 8th and 11th Verses our Lord saith he is the First and the Last And to put the Matter out of Doubt that it is Jesus Christ there speaks the 12th Verse to the End of the Chapter makes it evident he being in the Likeness of the Son of Man And in the 17th Verse he saith again I am the first and the last And in the 18th I am he that was dead and am alive All which shews that this was Jesus Christ and that this Jesus Christ is Godman for he being the first God the Father was not before him then he could not be first and he being the last End of all things all things must end and terminate in his Glory For God's Glory is the highest and chiefest Good and therefore must be the ultimate and last End of all things and that this was no other than Jesus Christ is evident in that he saith I am he that liveth and was dead Surely God cannot dye therefore this must be that mighty Child that was given to us who also was the everlasting Father spoken of in Isa 44 6. and Isa 9. 6. Godman God with us in our Nature And therefore he may well be called wonderful because he is Godman in one Person God he must be else he could not be the first nor last neither for God only is the last End as well as the first Cause of all things Man he must be else he could not dye and God he must be else he could not have power to raise himself again as he tells you he had John 10. 18. No man taketh it from me saith he but I lay it down of my self and I have power to take it up again And this compared with the next Verse together with Acts 20. 24. proves the Father and him to be one as he saith of himself in ver 30. of this 10th Chapter I and my Father are one Besides in the first Chapter of Gonesis it is said In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth Why then will you impose Arrianism upon us and contradict the Spirit of God by telling us that God created before the Beginning or before he created the Heavens and the Earth The Considerator therefore shall never impose his School-Divinity upon me of one Senior and two Junior Gods for unto me and unto us Christians there is but one God the Father of whom are all things and we in him and one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things and we by him 1 Cor. 8. 6. And indeed here lies these Gentlemens Mistake they find the Scriptures in many places speak of Jesus Christ as Man Therefore say they he cannot be God as my Accountant pag. 4. but as hath been observed we do not say that Man is God or that the Humane Nature is the Divine or that those two Natures are confounded but we believe according to the Scriptures of Truth that God took upon him our Nature Heb. 2. 16. and united that Holy Thing that by the over-shaddowing of the Holy Ghost was conceived and born of the Virgin So that it did not subsist nor was it a distinct being of it self but was united into a personal Union with God the Son and thus he continues to be two Natures in one Person for ever If you ask me how these things can be I answer such Knowledge is as much too wonderful for the Angels for ought I know as to know how God was and therefore neither you nor I must pretend to it It is enough these are the true Sayings of God and therefore it is to the Peril of those that will not believe it If you say it is impossible I answer with Men it may appear so and really be so but with God all things are possible If you say it is Nonsence and Contradiction I Answer it is the highest impiety and greatest impudence that a Man professing to believe there is a God can be guilty of to say that any thing that God reveals concerning himself or us is impossible or contradictory to it self And therefore after all the Considerators glorying of his own and the rest of his Brethrens Honour and Dignity as being Freemen of the Common-wealth of Wit and Learning Page 44. both Collums And after he hath spoken very Contumeliously of the Dignities of the Church and given himself a good Word as a Person fit for Preferment If the Honours and Profits of the Church were bestowed as they were at first designed upon Persons of Wit Learning and Merrit no doubt but he might come in for an Arch-Bishop And yet in all this glorying I do not find him mention one thing that Paul a Minister of Jesus Christ made any reckoning of his Study and glorying being to know Jesus Christ and him Crucified No the Considerator doth not speak one Word of this in all his own Letter of Recommendation though both Colums Pag. 44. be taken up about it yet there is not one word of Repentance towards God and Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ spoken of as being of any Concernment in a Minister of Jesus Christ And therefore seeing he hath such a conceit of his own Merits without those accounted unnecessary things I would advise him to step Over to Rome for if he make good Friends those things are not much
and only moving Cause of God's sending his Son into the World and therefore all that he did in the World could not be the Cause nor so much as a Means ro procure his Mercy consider'd without respect to Justice John 3. 16. For God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life Mercy and Love in God as the truly Rational and Heavenly Dr. Owen hath observed being no less than God's willing good to the Creature and whoever God wills Good to they must have that Good willed to them For God's Will in this Sence must infallibly be done both in Heaven and in Earth But God will not convey Good to any Creature in a way that shall destroy a greater Good then the Salvation of all the Men and Angels in Heaven and Earth will amount unto But such is the Manifestation of the Glory of God's Justice therefore though God's loving Kindness and Mercy was from everlasting and therefore needed not a Sacrifice in time to procure it much less a propitiatory one to appease it which is a Contradiction with a Witness but this is not to be taken Notice of in Men that have ingross'd all contradiction to themselves under the specious pretence of Reason for 't is below the pretended Wits of our Day the Great Vain glorious Freemen of the Common-Wealth of Wit and Learning to prove themselves little Fools But I say Mercy will never be extended in a way that in the least derogates from the Justice and Truth of God No Justice and Truth must be equally exalted with Mercy where-ever it is extended Therefore when God proclaims his Name in Exod. 34. 6 7. he proclaims himself to be a God that will shew Mercy and yet will by no means clear the guilty This you Men of Reason are pleased to contradict and do in so many words tell us that a Debt fully paid and yet freely for given is a contradiction Nameless Author page 6. col 1. And Mr. Considerator calls it a Mock Payment pag. 13. col 1. But we know the things of God useth to be accounted Foolishness with Men but Thanks be to God through our Lord Jesus Christ we do as well know that God hath made foolish the Wisdom of this World and that the foolishness of God is Wiser then Men 1 Cor. 1. 20 21 25 26 27. But in the aforesaid Exod. 34. The Lord proclaims himself to be the Lord God merciful and Gracious long suffering and abundant in goodness and Truth Pray observe goodness and Truth must go together and without Truth Goodness would cease to be so And in verse 7. He saith Keeping Mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity Transgression and sin and that will by no means clear theguilty Now Gentlemen are you not ashamed if you are not you may be to say a Debt fully paid and yet Freely forgiven is a Contradiction for do you not thereby Contradict God himself and Charge him with Folly and Falshood who saith he will pardon iniquity and forgive sin and yet will by no means clear the guilty Surely God is true and can no more Lye then he can dye or deny himself therefore his infinite wisdom hath contrived that which his Almighty Power hath effected a way to pardon sin and yet by no means clear the guilty This could not be done by offering up a Sacrifice to the Mercy of God nor was there any need of such a thing Mercy being the first moving Cause of setting infinite Wisdom to Work to find out a way to save the sinner and yet not clear the guilty and at the same time to save the Honour of Gods Law and to vindicate the immutability of his Truth to shew Mercy to the sinner and yet at the same time to magnifie his Law and make it Honourable Isa 44. 21. to magnifie his Mercy and yet at the same time and by the same way and means and with respect to the very same Persons to exalt his Justice This was a Work becoming God because no Created being had Wisdom and Power to do so and as it is wonderful in its own Nature so likewise should it be to us and Humbly and thankfully closed up with It is not to be quarrelled with but if you will reject the Counsel of God against your selves because it is Foolishness with you yet know you that to them that believe Christ is the Wisdom of God and the Power of God and they do receive this Truth with all manner of Acceptation And although it may seem to be foolishness to you wise Grecians yet to them that believe both Jews and Greeks Christ is the Wisdom of God and the Power of God hence it comes to pass that the Lord is well pleased for his Righteousness sake he thereby magnifying his Law and making it Honorable this answers the end of God both in Creation and Redemption The end of God was to manifie his own glory but for which he would not have descended into the Work of Creation nor Redemption For he bath made all things for himself even the wicked for the day of evil Prov. 16. 4. And we are Redeemed and Called for this very end that we may be to the Praise of the Glory of his Grace in Christ Jesus Eph. 1. 6 12. Yet so as that the Glory of his Justice might shine forth with equal Luster with his Mercy Rom. 3. 25 26. Whom God hath set forth to be a Propitiation through Faith in his blood to declare his Righteousness for the Remison of sins that are past through the forbearance of God ver 26. To declare I say at this time his Righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus God doth all things becoming himself and Gods glory being the chiefest good and the manifestation thereof the Highest end God could have no Lower end than the manifestation of his own Glory as the first and chief end in the Work of our Redemption and our Salvation next thereunto A wise Man will not do great and Noble things for a base and low End how much less will God save sinners in a way that advances the Glory of one attribute to the abasement or in the least Ecclipsiing the Glory of another This would reflect on his Wisdom and Power but God will not God cannot extend Mercy in a way that may reflect on his Justice and Truth If the King pardon a Convicted Traytor he thereby extends his Mercy and shews a great deal of Pitty and Compassion and good Will to the Person of the Traytor But he cannot with respect to that Person but stop the Execution of Justice and the Law in that particular Falls to the Ground and that because he is Man and not God but not one jot nor Title of Gods Law shall Fall to the Ground neither shall Justice be in the least stopt or Suspended by Gods extending Mercy
11th page not only denies it but also acknowledges if he be so he must be the Living and True God because it is an incommunicable Attribute of God Now we have our Lor'ds Words for it over and over again that he will be with his People in all places in the World Now whether Mr. Considerator will believe our Lord's Words or give him the Lye or whether his Reason hath taught him that the Humane Nature of Jesus Christ is bodily present with his People in all places and at all times and if so he gives himself the Lye Or whether he will believe that he is the Living and True God and fills Heaven and Earth with his Presence Let him choose I am not to be accountable for his Faith But the Considerator goes on in his 11th page and tells us some of their Number think Our Lord Jesus Christ may be invocated in Prayer not because he is omnipresent or omniscient but because it pleased the Father to reveal to him our Prayers And quotes Revelation 1. 1. He might as well have quoted Mark 13. 32. For neither of those Texts speak of Prayer but of the Humane Nature of Jesus Christ and if he had been writing to those that deny his Humane Nature they had been to his purpose But Christians that believe him to be Godman are confirm'd in their Faith by these Texts as by several other in Revelations and elsewhere He being that wonderful Person who is the First and Last who was dead and is alive But if some of your Number scruple praying to him I do not know any of the Number of Christ's Disciples that make any scruple of it Stephen the first Christian Martyr dyed calling upon God and saying Lord Jesus receive my Spirit Acts 7. 5. But pray Sir sometimes you pretend to be a Man of Reason but as is your Reason so is your Divinity The Scriptures speak every where of coming to the Father by the Son not to the Son by the Father Ephes 2. 18. Through him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father Neither can any man come to the Father but by the Son John 14. 6. But if the Father reveal our Wants to him and he cannot know them by his own Omnisciency then we are necessitated to come to the Son by the Father and instead of Jesus Christ spreading our Wants and offering our Prayers to the Father with his own Incense the Father must offer up our Prayers to the Son It is not for Mechanicks to call the Learned Blockheads nor will I presume to determine whether it be a Common or a Strange Thing to find such a Monster as a Learned Dunce among the Schoolmen But I must needs say this Sir that notwithstanding your great Boasting in your 44th page of your being free of the Common-Wealth of Wit and Learning though I will not question the Copy of your Freedom of the City of Learning And yet we Mechanicks have so high an Esteem for the Noble City of Learning that we cannot think such Jolts could ever attain the Honour of being free of that City But that we are inform'd that it is the Custom of that City confirm'd by a Law made by a Common Council of the same for the Encouragement of Strangers to send their Children thither that after seven years Service every Tutor shall be obliged to make all his Dunces free But notwithstanding all this Sir I think it is a Reproach to the States of the Common-Wealth of Sound Reason to naturalize such Gentlemen as you are among them Yet I would not reflect on the Proceedings and Conduct of that Sereen Republick And therefore I do freely acknowledge that it is very probable that we Mechanicks may not understand the Meaning of some of those Learned Words that flow so naturally from such great Criticks as you are we having not the Gift of divers kinds of Tongues And therefore it is probable that by Wit and Learning you mean only the Den of Subtilty and Cunning Sophistry whereby you are enabled to devise cunning Fables to deceive us Laymen if God do not give us more Grace and Sound Reason to withstand you And so you may notwithstanding all this foolish Flourish pag. 44. be Strangers and Alliens from the Common-wealth of Sound Reason And truly you have little Reason to Glory in your being free of the Den of Subtilty and Cunning for when you have done all you can the Old Serpent will outdo you in that kind of Learning and Logick But I think it is almost time for me to take my leave of Mr. Considerator for although I promised my self great Improvements of my Reason when I first saw his Title Page and no doubt but much might have been learn'd from him had his Book been as rational as his Attempt is daring and bold And yet upon a Close View I do not find his Reasons are any other that what are contained or may be reduc'd to what I find in my short Accountant save only that his great Learning hath puft him up with so much Vanity that he is not ashamed to speak evil of Dignities But Mr. Considerator goes on in his 11th page from denying the Omnipresence of Christ to deny the Satisfaction of Christ's Death And in page 12. colum 1. he saith The end of Christ's Death was to recommend Mankind to the Mercy Forgiveness and Favour of God And again Col. 2. he saith He suffered to recommend us unto the Mercy of God And in page 32. colum 1. he saith Though he would willingly give it us in the Lord Bishop of Sarum's Words and doth indeed no less than charge his Lordship with a Dissent from the Catholick Church in his 1st colum page 31. But in page 32. colum 1. he saith The Sacrifice of Christ was not tendered to the Justice of God as an equivalent Amends or Reparation but to his mercy as a Supplication and as such accepted And this he saith the Socinians contend for but pray Sir let us reason the Case a little about this Account that you give of the End of Christ's Death But first let it be remembred that you grant that Christ died to expiate the Sins of Mankind page 31. col 2. This expiation was not offered to the Justice of God you say but to his Mercy and to his Mercy not as an Expiation of Guilt but as a Supplication for Mercy This is a double Contradiction I see the Gentleman will not prove himself a small Fool for first you set the Cause in the place of the Effect and the Effect in the place of the Cause And in the second place you destroy the very Nature of Mercy and make it no other than Justice it self in that an expiatory and propitiatory Sacrifice for the Sins of Mankind must be offered up thereunto First You make the Effect to be the Cause of that which it is but the Effect of For the Mercy and Love of God was the first