minded there If he tell me there is no hope of getting a Cardinals Cap because the Doctrine of the Trinity is maintained by the Church of Rome also I Answer the Being of God is an Article of their Creed too and yet I doubt not but Mr. Considerators great Learning hath delivered him from so much ignorance in Church History That he well knows some Atheists or Atheistical Fellows have by more Wit and Learning then by sound Reason Honesty and true God liness stept into the inâ—alible Chair for before now And this may serve for an Answer to Our Nameless Authors argument in his Pag. 18. where he would deny the Doctrine of the Trinity because t is maintained by the Church of Rome An Argument so Weak and Foolish that I did not think it worth my while to take any other Notice of it than occasionally by the way for sure we shall never be able to maintain the Protestant Doctrine If this be any Argument with us That we are right because we dissent from them or because in many or most things they are wrong but a foolish Cause must have foolish Arguments or none at all And indeed notwithstanding the Considerators vain glorious boasting of his great Learning I look upon him to be as great a dishonour to the Schools for want of Answerable measures of sound Reason as it must be an affliction to our Clergy to find such Hereticks harboured in the Bosom of our Church For although he boast so much of the Mighty Revolution that greater liberty in matters of Religion would make from Christianity to Socinianism or Deism yet if he had sonnd Reason and integrity answerable to his great Learning and the knowledge that he must needs have there by in Church History The remembrance of the Arrian Persecution must deliver him from that foolish Dream nor could he were his attainments in Divinity and sound Reason proportionable to his great Learning deny our Lord Jesus Christ to be the true God and Eternal Life according to the Scriptures 1 Joh. 5. 20. when he himself asserts That in his Pag. 11. Colum 2. and Page 26. Colum 2. which by sound Reason and by Just and necessary Consequence proves him to be so for he saith God neither hath nor can give him the incommunicable properties of the Deity such as Ominpotency Omnipresence Omniscience and the like so then it is but for me or any private Christian to prove that Christ hath those incommunicable properties of the Divine being and the Considerator himself will maintain that he is God Now Sir if you had not excepted against the Revelation of St. John as being no part of Divine Writ you know I could presently have proved that our Lord Jesus Christ is Omniscient Rev. 2. 23. I am he that searcheth the reins and hearts Pray Sir compare this with Jer. 11. 20 27. and 10. 9. But seeing the Seducers and Cunningly devising fable Men of our day under the Specious pretences of Learning and Reason would fain gather up us Lay-men as Branches cut off from the true Vine and may succeed therein among the withered Branches according to what our Lord hath foretold and threatned concerning such in the 15th of Joh. and the 6th Yet our Lord hath given his word for it that they shall not deceive the Elect though they may and shall deceive many Mat. 24. 4 5. and 22 23 25. And that those pretenders to Reason are those very deceivers among others there spoken of is evident not only from our Lords words in ver 11. calling them False Prophets and deceiving many which they could never be able to do if they did not pretend Reason for there Cnnningly devised Fables but also their own Practices should bewray them to be Wolves in Sheeps Clothing in treading in the very steps of the Grand Saddneers in our Lords-day who that they might carry on that Fundamental Herisie of denying the Resurrection the more successfully they denyed the greatest part of the old Testament and would own nothing for Divine Writ but the 5 Books of Moses and sticking there they thought to confound our Lord himself by their Rational and Learned Argument that there must be Confusion Contradiction Absurdity and Nonsence if the dead Rise And you know Sir they grounded their Argument upon Scripture and made their foolish Reason and ignorance of the Power of God Judge of the Cause Seeing therefore the Considerator is not ashamed to tread in the Sadduces Steps but will imitate them in denying part of the Word of God and yet at the same time as they did pretend Reason and Scripture for what they held And to give them their due there are as many contradictions and seeming impossibilities to Reason against the Resurrection as there are against the Doctrine of the Trinity and our Faith therein must be intirely resigned up unto the revealed will and Almighty Power of God But I say seeing the Considerator will imitate the Sadduces in denying part of the Scriptures I shall endeavour to follow the Example of my Lord Jesus Christ and prove from such part of the Scriptures as they will own that our Lord Jesus Christ is Omnicisent and and Omnipresent but at the same time protesting against their unreasonable partiality in choosing and refusing what they please for Divine Writ and saving to the Service of the Truth all those arguments that are or may be drawn from any part of the Gospel of St. John the Three Epistles and the Revelation for destruction from God is a terror to me and because of his greatness I cannot indure to add to those things nor take away from the words of the Book of this Prophesie least God should take away my part out of the Book of Life Job 31. 22. Revelation 18. 19. Now Sir I think you do not except against the Gospel of St. Mat. and there we read Chap. 28. ver 20. Christ Promised his Disciples to be with them alway to the end of the World Now Sir let me freely Discourse with you concenring this Promise our Lord Jesus Christ is gone to Heaven and his Humane nature is to continue there till the Restitution of all things neither can a Man be at two Places at one time Now what will you do will you give our Lord the Lye in this Promise or will you believe that a Man or the Humane nature of Jesus Christ is not only in the Sacrament of the Alter and so in Thousands of Places at the same time with the Papist but also every where in all places of the World where ever there is a Believer Or will you believe the Truth as it is in Jesus that he is the Omnipresent God and so is with his People in all places and in all Conditions according to his gracious Promise Joh. 14. 18. I will not leave you comfortless I will come to you Perhaps you will tell me that this is no more then Paul said of himself 1 Cor. 5.
Reasons therein offered to maintain the things that were so boldly asserted as also to the Scriptures of Truth and sound Reason drawn from the same And I can truly say the more I lookt into both the more I were confirmed in my Faith and the more clearly did I see the unreasonableness though deep subtilty and cuning Sophistry of the Arguments that were laid down in those Books for denying our Lord Jesus Christ to be over all God blessed for ever more and for my own Memory sake I at first commited some Remarks to Paper and Ink and shewing them to a Friend he advised me to go on further in it Which accordingly I did and having almost finisht what I thought to do with respect to those two Books I Communicated it to another Friend and he shewed me and Lent me the great Boasting vain Glorious Considerator upon Four Sermons of his Grace the Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury a Discourse of the Bishop of Sarums another of the Bishop of Worster and an Eminent Dissenter and I have now forgot who besides And he stumps it about like a Haberdasher of small Wits against his Grace the Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury charges the Lord Bishop of Sarum with a Dissent from the Catholick Church and doth in Effect tell his Lordship though he be a Dignity of the Church yet he must vail the Bonnet to him as being a Freeman of the Common wealth of Wit and Learning and seems willing to perswade the the World that he is guilty of Sacriledge and that he hath Robb'd the Church of some of her best ornaments next to the Righteousness of Cnrist imputed to her and the Graces of his Holy Spirit wrought in her viz. Her Wit and Learning And as for the first of the Former and which indeed Constitutes her Truly Christian viz. the Righteousness of Christ imputed to her he will not own that she hath any Right or Title to it or that she shall ever be made partaker of it And as for the Second viz. The inwrought Graces of the Holy Spirit and which indeed makes her truly Glorious he hath brought up an evil Report upon it and will have it to be no other then Painted Paper-morality common to the Heathen And in order to perswade the World to believe him He tells us he is a Freeman of the Common-wealth of Wit and Learning What a mortification must it be to this Gentleman when he shall see that a Man of a mean capacity and Employment that never had the happiness to sit at the Feet of Gamaliel can see through his Sophistry And yet it must be acknowledged by all Men of common Sense that the Schools will give a Man great advantages in many things if he have but answerable Measures of Reason to improve the knowledge that may be attained there but Block-heads and Dunces must look like themselves as well when Posting from as when Whipt to and in the Cities of Oxford and Cambridge For indeed the Schools know better then to pretend to give Men Reason much less Vertue or Grace and yet we have a sort of soft-pated Gentlemen who because they can speak Three Languages besides their Mother Tongue will needs count themselves wise Men Ay and good Divines too but they will not pass for such among those that know what sound Reason and True Divinity is The Cosiderator by his Vanity and Boasting seems to be one of those Paper-scull'd Gentlemen I have therefore given him an Answer to some of his Arguments least he should continue to be wise in his own Conceit and to let him know that it better becomes such weak headed tho' perhaps well-meaning Gentlemen as he to learn of the Mechanicks than to contend with the Learned especially such of them as have answerable measures of Reason to improve the Knowledge they have attain'd by Learning for the same end for which God gave it them And I have taken Notice but of some of his Arguments neither because notwithstanding his great swelling Words of Vanity yet I find all his Arguments are briefly couch'd or may be reduced to our Short Accountant and to give that Gentleman his due he is as Stout a Champion for their Cause as the best of them all and so much the better because he is not so vain as the Considerator I thought therefore I ought not to let the Considerator pass without a Repremand for his sawcy insulting over the Dignities of the Church and thou wilt find Reader it is but a Reasonable one for I have quoted him Truly and Fairly as thou wilt see if thou compare Books and as for the Accountant I have Transcribed his Arguments almost word for word at least I have not knowingly omitted one Material Word in all his Book Now Reader I shall leave thee to Judge for thy Self whether it will be safest for thee to believe God to be as he himself saith he is or as pretendingly Wise but real Foolish Men say he is And if thou receive any Benefit by this Discourse let it be a Motive to thee not to lean to thy own understanding but to live by Faith on him that gives Wisdom to the simple and understanding to them that have no knowledge And if what is written may have any influence thereunto and in so doing to honour the Son even as we honour the Father he hath his end who is thine to serve thee so far as it is Reasonable for thee to Command or him to obey Nathanael Goldham A Reasonable Word TO THE DOCTORS OF REASON OUR Nameless Author in his Divine Vnity asserted spends his third and fourth Pages in laying down general Rules which must be used in discerning Truth from Error that we may not be deceived I shall therefore pass over those two Pages and consider how well he keeps to those Rules or to the Rules of Scripture or right Reason which he pretends to be so Great a Master of in clearing so Great a Controversie and which is so great a Mystery And first to begin with his Reasons which he lays down as a Foundation to build a Faith upon that shall reach to Heaven And he goes on and prospers in this building about as far as the Men of Babel did in their building in the Land of Shinar Gen. 11. 2 7. Indeed his Reason is as much confounded as their Language was for they did but contradict and so not understand one another and yet perhaps as great Doctors of Reason among them as our Author himself He tells us in page 5. that we have a Power of Reasoning or Faculty of encreasing our Knowledge by Industry whereby we come to a Certainty in many things Hence I gather from my Author 's Reasoning that there are various Degrees and Measures of Reason which the most High God is pleased to give to every Man according to the good Pleasure of his own Will to some more and to some less and to some so far as appears to By-standers none at
and Errors the Trinitarians may be guilty of yet it is certain they cannot be guilty of greater not indeed so great Boldness and Folly as our Accountant is as we have seen but now in his last Argument For I do not find that they enter into Judgment with God nor charge the most high foolishly nor with folly and I pray Sir upon second thoughts tell me which is the greatest Folly and boldness to believe what God declares of himself to be reasonable and true though we do not understand it or to give God the Lye and and tell him that what he declares of himself is false unreasonable and absurd because we do not understand it Such an Answer as this from a Servant to a Master would be Accounted Impudent boldness and we see there is nothing more common among Men whose Understandings and Reason differ greatly yet far enough are they from differing infinitely yet among Men it is no new thing for the Wise and Learned to understand and know that to be true and Reasonable which the more Ignorant are rather more ready to wonder at than they are able to give a Demonstration of Yet are these Gentlemen so confident in their own Reason that they will give the Lye to God himself if he tell them the Father the Word and Holy Ghost are One So careful are these Gentlemen that their Faith may not stand in the Power of God but in the Wisdom of Men. But whether it be right in the sight of God to believe or obey Men rather than God judge ye Acts. 4. 19. I have now done with my short Accountant the rest of his Book being meerly Historical of what did pass between him and B. R. S. and the Church of which he was a Member but I have nothing to do with that my Business being only to contend for that Faith which was once delivered to the Saints and to believe the Truth as it is in Jesus I shall therefore now take a view of our Nameless Author again and see if he can produce any sound Reason to perswade us to deny our Lord Jesus Christ For I take it for granted that it is as great a denial of him to deny him to be as he is God over all blessed for ever more as it is to deny him to be our redemer For indeed the Holy One of Isarel is the Redeemer thereof But on a Second view of our Author in his Divine Vnity asserted I do not find any other Reasons than what I have already considered and find in my Accountant save only he is somewhat larger and in his 10th page Colume 1. he would deny the Divinity of our Lord and prove it too if he didbut know how from this Argument that Man is made after God's own Image Now saith he If God be a Trinity and Man be his Image we may find an Image of that Trinity in our selves But he excludes the Body from any part of this Image which may look tolerable enough at first view because God is a Spirit and if he had stopt here he might have carried his Sophistry off pretty fair but the Wits of our day must over shoot themselves He tells you the Reason why the Body is excluded because saith he It is imperfect and there is no Imperfection with God Good Sir did you expect to find the Soul of Man a perfect Image of God when you first entred on this Argument really you might well have spared your Pains here and have given the Spirit of God the Lye once more and you should have as good Reason so to do as you have to give our Lord himself the Lye as you do in your 15th page colume 2. where you say The same worship which is due to the Father is not to be given to Christ but that which may be given to a Creature for God's sake Wherein you do in plain English give Truth it self the Lye for he hth told us that all Men should honour the Son even as they honour the Father as hath been already proved by Scripture John 5. 23. and by the Example of the Worshippers in Heaven But if you had been sincerely looking for a faint Resemblance of the Image of God in Man as a Trinity to say nothing of that Moral Likeness that God at first stampt on Man's Nature of himself which consisted in Righteousness and true Holiness which indeed was the greatest Resemblance in Man to God And yet we have reason to believe that the Angels were every whit as much like God as in this sense Man was Therefore it must be something else in the make of Man that did bear some Image of God for which cause it is said he made Man in his own Image and if you had not wilfully shut your Eyes you could not but see that the Scripture speaks of Body Soul and Spirit in Man as the Apostle Paul prays for the Thessalonians 1 Thes 5. 23. that They might be sanctified throughout in Body Soul and Spirit And if there be such a thing as Body Soul and Spirit in Man then here is some faint Resemblance in Man of a Trinity in God I say a faint Resemblance for I am not so void of Reason as to think that a finite weak Man can be a perfect Image of God Yet our Author to shew what a Talent of Wit he hath spends all his 10th page both columes and part of 11th to prove that which no Body denies or that which is forreign to the purpose But in his 11th page his Wit runs over and his Invention will run too fast for his Reason do what he can for he saith That cannot be called Generation or Origination which never began to be generated or originated and if he had stopp'd here he might have danc'd in the Dark and they that have no Eyes could never have seen him But the Gentleman's Invention hangs in the Light of his Reason He tells us the Reason is That which never began to be a doing was never done and therefore ETERNAL GENERATION must be ETERNAL NONSENCE Well argued most Learned Doctor a Man would be ready to think you were a Pensioner to Hobbs to make way for and gain Proselytes to his Leviathan For by this Argument that which never began to be cannot have a Being and then the Fool may ask us Where is your God and the Truth is the Attribute of God's Eternity is as much above and out of your Reason as the Doctrine of the Trinity and if you tell me there is a difference between a Being and an Act. I Answer that an Eternal Act is as much without a Beginning as an Eternal Being and it is equally as great a piece of Nonsence and as derogatory to the Glory of God to say God was before he acted as to say he acted before he was Really Gentlemen but only for the great Names and Titles by which you are pleased to dignifie and distinguish your selves from the common
People such as Masters of Reason Learning Scholarship and the like or else a Man may find more sound Reason among a few Men of the meanest Employments and meanest Capacities than in an whole Conclave of such Doctors as you are For I pray you Sir tell me without Heat and Prejudice and with solid substantial Reason what a kind of senseless lifeless something worse than nothing must you snppose God to be if you could suppose him to be without or before he acted Hath your great Learning spoiled your Memory so much as to make you forget that common Maxim that where there is Life there is Motion Sure that Cause must be very desparately defective and unreasonably bad that necessarily runs Men upon Atheism or something worse and so much the worse because they pretend to plead for Reason all that while Nay the Considerator in his Letter to H. H. is so confident but foolish enough God knows as to tell the World they were always too hard for the Trinitarians at these two Weapons Reason and Scripture But hitherto we have found them too short in their sound Reasoning we shall try what strength they have by the Scriptures in due place In the mean time it may not be an unreasonable Work to enquire what true Reason is that we may not be as Men beating the Air crying out great is Humane Reason and at the same time scarce know what true Reason is And if the Doctors of Reason would not be offended I would tell them what I take it to be It is a good Gift of God which he is pleased to bestow in some measure on most of the Children of Men whereby we are enabled to discern the Connexion or Dependancy that one thing hath upon another Hence it follows that Knowledge is not Reason neither can Reason work without knowledge any more than a Man can walk in the Air or a Carpenter can build a House without a Foundation Hence it follows that the greatest Scholars are not always the wisest Men as one of their own hath lately told us as good and as great a one perhaps as any this day living Saith he There are a great many Scholars who are carried only by their Books They know much and therefore can tell a great deal as you know every Fool can tell as he is told But for matter of sound Reason whereby they are inabled to draw just and Reasonable conclusions from known and certain Premises If it be never so little out of their Book Road and for which they have not as yet consulted an Author Truly a Man may let a great many of these Gentlemen alone hence it comes to pass for we are now discoursing about Reason it is a power of drawing just and right conclusions from known and certain Premises Hence it is that though Learning is in it self a very great and very good Gift of God and a great accomplishment to a Man and therefore to be highly prized by them that have it and to be honoured by them that have it not Yet great Scholarship cannot deliver some Men from being great Blockheads for Soveraign Pleasure will bestow his Gifts to whom and how he pleaseth to one a Word of Wisdom to another the Word of Knowledge by the same Spirit 1 Cor. 12. 8. How preposteriously then do those Gentlemen go to Work that would Measure the being and properties of the infinite God by their weak and imperfect Reason of which there are as many degrees it may be as there are Men in the World and which can no more Work of it self without some Knowledge to Work upon then an Artist can Work without Tools or Matter to Work upon And it is impossible for Man to have any saving Knowledge of God but by Revelation and there are but three Ways that ever God revealed himself by to Men they are his Works his Word and by his Holy Spirit and it is not our Reason as it is a Faculty or Power in us now corrupted that can gather any true or saving Knowledge of God as he is in himself or will be to us from his Works of Creation and Providence No nor from his Word neither without the Aid of his Holy Spirit and that in an especial manner We see this by the Heathen who were as great Masters of Reason as any of our present Pretenders and yet were far enough from a true Knowledge of God and how could they for who knows the Mind of God much less the Nature but the Spirit of God and he to whom he reveals him But let us consider the Knowledge that God gives us of himself by Creation and see what improvements Reason can make of it we see a visible World and therefore by the Apostles Argument in Romans 1. 19. 20. we may conclude that there was some being that gave being to those Visible Changeable things and that this being must be before all those things that do appear else he could not give them being Thus arguing by Reason from the Effects to the Cause we rise from the Men now in being to the first Man that was Made and so likewise of all other Created beings to the first of them And so likewise of the Heavens and the Earth and all that therein is whose very being declare they had a Maker who is God for he that Maketh all things is God Hence we may Reasonably conclude that this God is an Almighty Infinitely Wise God yea that he is a Merciful God for his Mercy is Written in visible Characters over all his visible Works and yet it must be acknowledged that all the Reason that the greatest Doctors of it ever had could never gather any Reasonable hope of the Pardon of their Sin or of Eternal Life by the Revelation that God hath made of himself by the Works of Creation and Providence If you tell me you may hope for Mercy because you are the Works of his hands his Mercy being over all his Works I Answer the Devils may as Reasonably hope for Mercy as you or I upon this Account for they are Creatures and so are we and they are Sinners and so are we So that there is a necessity for God to reveal himself to us by some more Clearer Light then that of Creation if you and I ever come to a true and saving Knowledge of him this necessarily leads us to consider what Revelation God makes of himself in his Word But Before I come to Consider that I would a little inquire what further improvements Reason can make of the Work of Creation to find out God and Counting things One by One to find out the Account as we have began we may come to know that God is an Eternal being without beginning of days or end of time and it is necessary he should be so else he could not give being to all other beings neither could such an Infinite being arise or spring out of nothing but he is a Self
Sufficient All-sufficient being without beginning Now though Reason rightly Arguing from the Effects to the Cause may find out the Eternal Power and God-head as the Apostle speaks that is know that God is an Eternal being Yet all the Doctors of Reason can never shew how it can be so any more than they can shew how the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost can be One God And I do hereby promise not to trouble the Learned about such impossiblities as either of these are that on the same Day in the Morning of which our Doctors of Reason shall give me a reasonable Demonstration how a being can be without a-beginning I will in the Afternoon of that same day before the Sun goes down give them as Reasonable a Demonstration how the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost are one God For when you have Magnified your Reason as far as you will or can you have but two ways to Work it by either you must argue from the Cause to the Effect or from the Effect to the Cause Not from the Cause to the Efect for the very Supposition of a Cause destroys the Nature of a Being without a Beginning nor can you find it out by arguing from the Effect to the Cause for where there is no Cause all Effects must cease So that the Argument is very Rational both against you that will not believe God to be as he is because your Reason cannot comprehend him Whereas if you could he must cease to be God for an Infinite and Eternal Being cannot be comprehended by a Finite Foolish Man As also against the greater Atheist who deny the being of God because they say there can be no being without a Beginning but that God is all his wondrous Works declâ—re for there could be no Effects If there were not a first Cause to Produce those Effects and he himself must be without a Cause or else he must be but an Effect of some other Cause and that destroys his Eternal Power and Godhead So that as the Works of God do clearly shew that he is and that he is and Eternal Being yet all the Reason in Man by the utmost searching can never find out the Almighty so to perfection as to give a Demonstration how he can be so So that however these Gentlemen of Reason cry out against Misteries yet this one Attribute of Gods Eternity is such a Mistery as all the Worshippers in Heaven both Angels and Men shall adore and admire God for as well as for his other excellencies and perfections even to Eternity And it is observable that in Rev. 4. ver 8. There the four Beasts that stood round about the Throne adore God for his Eternity and they rest not day and night saing Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come those Blessed Creatures adore and believe what they could not give a Reason for and for that very Reason they admire and adore God so much the more Whereas if they could have told how God was they would have declared it and not Ananias and Saphira like have kept back any part of their knowledge For we find in all their Thanksgivings they go as far as they can in Rev. 5. ver 9. in their new Song which they Sing they say the Lamb is worthy to take the Book and open the Seals thereof and when they Praise him for Redeeming them and making them Kings and Priests they rest not there but go as far as they can even to the Foundation of all saying who hath Loved us and washed us in his blood and thereby made us Kings and Priests unto our God Where by the way we may observe that all Gods Kings and Priests are made so by being washed in Christ Blood and not by their imperfect following Christ Example of which more in due place Upon the whole matter let our Men of Reason make never so much Noise and Clamor against the Doctrine of the Trinity as being contrary to Reason and after they have darkned Counsel by Multitudes of Words without Knowledge yet it is evident that all their Reasons may be reduced to one which lyes with equal force against the very being of God that is their Reason cannot comprehend how three can be One And I will for once venture to assert not knowing any Law nor Reason against it that their Reason can as little comprehend and their understanding is as much at a Loss to know how a being can be without a beginning So that notwithstanding their pretentions to Christianity they are but Factors to Atheism for if the Atheist can but prove that every Mans Reason is his sufficient Rule for what he ought to believe and Practice he will gain a great Point and the greatest Fools will never want Arguments to justifie their Foolish Notions and Practices For if the worst of Fools an Atheist come and say there is no God he will pretend Reason for it Though it be the most irrational thing that a Reasonable being can be guilty of For there can be no beings that we see but either made themselves or were produced by some other Cause or sprang out of nothing or else it is Eternal without beginning or Cause Surely we our Selves did not make our Selves nor could something of it self spring out of nothing much less could nothing produce somthing Therefore the Heavens and the Earth could not make themselves neither could such a Fabrick of it self arise out of nothing therefore it must have a Creator that by an Almighty Power could speak things into being without matter to Work upon Or else the Heavens and the Earth must be Eternal without Beginning or Cause and then they yield their Argument and contradict themselves If they say the Heavens and the Earth did by Chance jumble into the order in which they now are out of a confus'd Chaos of matter pre existant to the Heavens and the Earth to say nothing of the strangeness that it should not jumble back again into the same Confus'd Chaos by the same Chance before this time of day I Demand how this confus'd Chaos or disorderly matter came into being out of which this Heaven and Earth Chopt into into such an orderly Frame If they tell me that this confus'd matter was Eternal I answer That this is so sottish and blockish that none but Madmen or Fools can be guilty of it for who but those that have no reason or having had it have now lost it will deny an Infinite Eternal Being and yet attribute these Perfections to nothing or confused Matter which is worse than nothing But these are not the Fools I am concerned with I am treating with Gentlemen a Title too good and too great for the greatest Atheist in the World however they may assume it to themselves or their flattering Trencher dependants may as treacherously as well as cowardly give it unto them But the Gentlemen I am concerned with are Men of
had contradicted himself and his Argument would have been meer Nonsence and would have run thus a Man humbled himself and took on him the form and fashion of a Man Besides it is a Contradiction in the Nature of the thing it self and is no better Sence than to say a Man made himself a Man It may seem strange that Men should be so blind but how can it be otherwise when they will needs war against him who is the Light and Life of Men. I always thought that my Author was endu'd with a considerable stock of Learning only it look'd like a Jewel set in Lead for want of sound Reason and Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ to manage it until I met with his reconciling Faculty in his aforesaid 18th page and that brought to my Mind what the Apostle Peter saith 2 Pet. 3. 15 16. where speaking of some of Paul's Epistles of which this to the Philippians and that to the Hebrews are some He saith There are some things hard to be understood which the unlearned and unstable wrest as they do also other Scriptures to their own Destruction And when I read these things I cannot for my Life forbear thinking on my Nameless Author For besides the flat Contradiction he gives the Holy Ghost it is directly contrary to the Scope of the Apostle which was to move them to Humility and Condescension one to another from Christ's Example But if he were a Man only to say nothing of the Nonsence that there is in saying a Man humbled himself to become a Man the Man Jesus considered as a Man only was highly honoured in his being conceived and brought forth of a Virgin in such a Miracnlous Manner So that consider the Text which way you will either with respect to the Words themselves or with respect to the Context we are bound to believe the Truth as it is revealed that He thought it no Robbery to be equal with God There is nothing more material in my Author which I have not taken Notice of and shewed how unreasonable it is especially where he pretends Scripture for his cunningly devised Fables And the Truth is those Gentlemen would make much surer Work in their Babel Building if they could but race out the Scriptures from among us than ever they will be able to do by wresting them one by one to speak according to their foolish Reason And indeed the Considerator in his Answer to his Grace the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury bids fair for it for though he had tryed in vain by false and absurd Glosses to make the first Chapter of John and many other Texts mentioned by his Lordship to speak according to his own and his Master Socinus his foolish Reason or rather corrupt Mind Yet he flies at first to his best shift though for Subtilty sake somewhat indirectly to except against the Gospel of St. John the three Epistles and the Revelations and would impose upon us that they were counterfeited by one Cerinthus in John's Name And therein he hath not only secur'd his own Cause but greatly oblig'd the Papists a piece of Wickedness they never had the Impudence to attempt though they kept them lock'd up in an Unknown Tongue Yes but the Considerator tells us that the Revelations of St. John were denied and writ against by some of the Papists as being no part of Divine Writ Well be it so every Body knows for what Cause we have it recorded in Acts 6. 10. because they were not able to resist the Holy Ghost that speaks therein and at the same time others of them are striving with all the might they have to ward off the Blow that the Spirit gives to that Interest in wresting it to any sence that may secure their Popish and Foppish Cause In like manner doth the Considerator not only with the Revelations but with the Gospel of St. John and his three Epistles and scarce any Text that is urg'd against them but they say either it is not right translated or it is no Scripture or else they manifestly wrest it from the plain Sence and Meaning of the Holy Ghost There in one Instance among many we have in the Gospel of John Chap. 8. v. 58. where our Lord saith Before Abraham was I am Considerator pag. 57. colume 1. that is saith he In the Decree and Counsel of God Why good Mr. Considerator what a great Secret have you found out now are not all God's Works known to him from Eternity were not you and I and all the Men that shall be in the World to the end thereof in the Counsel and Decree of God from Eternity Surely God is not like Man to determine and purpose one thing yesterday and another to day But pray Sir be pleased to take a View of your own Learned Countenance in your 6th page colume 1st and 2d There you give several Arguments to prove a thing cannot be possess'd before it is in being and in particular you instance the Day of Judgment which is not yet come and therefore not possess'd I hope you will not say it is not or that it was not in the Decree of God when and before he made the World Therefore your Saying after Grotius that a Man descending from Abraham could not be any otherwise before Abraham than in Divine Purpose and Decree is very true and turns the Argument against you Besides Abraham was in the Decree of God as soon as any Man Therefore you must own that our Lord did exist before he was born of the Virgin or that he spoke Nonsence for they themselves knew that the Decrees of God were Eternal and our Lord had not given them an Answer to their Question which was whether he had seen Abraham he being not fifty years old Besides our Lord had told a plain direct Lye if he had said he was in the Decree of God before Abraham For Abraham was in God's Decree as soon as Adam and therefore no Man descending from Abraham could be in God's Decree before him But the Considerator goes a little further and saith our Lord did exist in the Promise of God before Abraham which is very true also for he was promised the same day of the Fall but neither will this do the Business nor discharge our Considerator from charging our Lord with Folly or Nonsence or both For it was promised presently after the Flood long before Abraham that God should perswade Japhet to dwell in the Tents of Shem and yet the Gentiles the Seed of Japhet did not receive the Gospel till since our Lord 's coming in the Flesh So likewise was it prophesied of Josiah an hundred years before he was born could he therefore say before I was born I am Nay is not Mr. Considerator himself and the rest of his Learned Brethren prophesied of by Name in 2 Pet. 2. 1. where the Holy Ghost tells us there shall be false Teachers among Christians who privily shall bring in damnable Heresies denying
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
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