Solut. That God is immutable has been proved Sect. 1. Par. 8. and therefore his changing the Course of Nature can truly import no Change in him that which may rightly be inferred from thence being only this that God from eternity determined the same should be done in time when occasion required which because it could never happen on God's account for any good that might redound thereby to himself when ever Miracles are wrought they are always done for the good and benefit of Men. And in regard nothing is truly good and beneficial to them but Holiness and the Fruit thereof everlasting Life Sect. 14. the intent of working Miracles is to cause Holiness in their hearts in order to the bringing them to Eternal Bliss And forasmuch as Holiness is not wrought in the heart but by Instruction and Motives Sect. 9. par 4. Miracles are intended for the confirmation of the Truth of some Doctrin requisite for directing the Understanding or for affording Motives to incline the Will to Virtue or for both at such certain times and on such occasions when the constant course of Providence and usual Series of Causes appointed by God to draw Men from the Love of worldly Vanities and sinful Lusts to the sincere Love of himself generally fail of effecting it not only in those who through perverseness of Will but in others also who by reason of the imbecility of corrupted Nature cannot be won thereby For as to the former sort neither the ordinary nor extraordinary workings of God unless in a juncture perhaps of some pressing Circumstances use to work a Reformation in them as is apparent by the Examples of Korah Dathan and Abiram opposing and reviling Moses and Aaron and of those Jews who heard Christ's Doctrin saw his holy Life and beheld his Miracles of Wonder and Mercy and yet would not receive him but barbarously and ungratefully prosecuted him to Death As Miracles we have seen are done for the benefit of Men so was it likewise out of design for their good that the Wisdom and Goodness of God ordered them to be done at the Instance of some or other holy Person or with reference to him For that Men whose holy Lives were known and observed by the People should be concerned about the working of Miracles was requisite on this account that notice might be taken of the great and special regard the Almighty had to Holiness which otherwise they would not have understood however not by far so well and by consequence the Miracles done would have had small or no influence on them more than to have caused astonishment or admiration and so have missed of their due and designed end of being instrumental Means of leading Men to the Love of Truth and Virtue for the gaining of everlasting Bliss Object 7. There is nothing said in all this Discourse of Prayer or the other mentioned means of Beatitude of the Power of the Holy Ghost without which notwithstanding all other Helps are not able to work a through Amendment of Life to Salvation Solut. It is readily granted that without the Power of the Spirit of God all Helps and Means whatsoever are ineffectual to the obtaining of Felicity but in the right use of the Means the Power of the Holy Ghost is evermore supposed to be present For since Christ's Ascension into Heaven all the Aids and means of Salvation are ordered and applied by his Holy Spirit whom he promised to send after his departure to abide with the Church But to assert that all the Means which God the Father appointed God the Son prepared and God the Holy Ghost makes application of to particular persons should really work nothing would be too absurd to suppose any rational Person guilty of For in case they work or effect nothing to what purpose is their use or wherefore did Christ undergo what he did both in Life and Death to prepare them and cause his Disciples also to publish them to the daily hazard and at length the loss of Life But if any thing be effected by them in what is their effective Virtue terminated Do they not reach the Understanding to convince it nor the Will to incline it if not whence is Man's Conversion wrought If you say that the Spirit of God comes after the Means used and causes by his own immediate operation the Conversion made in the Soul you attribute that to God which cannot be truly affirmed of him for since he is a pure essential Act and that whatever is in God is God Sect. 1. Par. 9. and 11. it is not possible that he should effect any thing save only by willing it without any physical action operation or emanation issuing from him and terminated in the Object whether the effect be to be brought about with or without means for if it be to be brought about without means it unavoidably follows from God's sole willing of it as the Creation did there being no need nor use of any thing besides to produce it But if Means be appointed by God to be used then will not the effect follow without the use of the Means appointed they immediately yet but instrumentally producing it by virtue of the principal Cause which employs and invigorates them to that End or wills that the Effect should be brought to pass by them If it be urged that Christ himself saith None can come unto me unless the Father which hath sent me draw him John 6. 44. I answer by granting the infallible truth thereof but withal deny that it can be gathered from thence that whom the Father draws he draws them not by Means there being no mention made of the Manner of his drawing Yea is it not plain that the Father drew men to Christ by means of a Voice from Heaven when he said This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear ye him Matth. 17. 5. And what were the Works but Means to draw men to believe in Christ which he speaks of to the Jews saying If I do not the Works of my Father believe me not but if I do though ye believe not me believe the Works John 10. 37 38. In a word since God sent his Son into the World that whosoever believed on him should not perish but have everlasting Life it is manifest that every thing our Blessed Saviour either taught did or suffered whereby men are induced to believe and trust in him for Salvation is a Means by which the Father draws them unto Christ Object 8. If the Means of Salvation through the Power of the Spirit of God assisting them be the Cause thereof why are not all men saved to whom Salvation is tendered and the means conducible thereunto applied Solut. As a material Instrument cannot effectually work on matter not qualified to be wrought upon as for Instance a Knife cannot cut Brass or Iron asunder but a Straw or Stick it can so the means of Salvation held forth by the Gospel though being
within us doth justifie us and deserve our Justification for that were to count our selves to be justified by some Act or Vertue within our selves The Act or Vertue here mentioned being set in opposition to the Merits of Christ which are an efficient Cause 't is in effect as if it were said The Merit of Christ only and not any Act or Virtue of our own whatsoever is the efficient Cause of our Justification But the true understanding and meaning hereof is that although we hear Gods Word and believe it and although we have Faith Hope and Charity Repentance Dread and Fear of God within and do never so many Works thereunto yet we must renounce the merit of all our said Virtues of Faith Hope and Charity and all other Vertues and good Works which we either have done shall do or can do as things that be far too weak and unsufficient and imperfect to deserve remission of our Sins and our Justification and therefore we must trust only in Gods Mercy and that Sacrifice which our High Priest and Saviour offered upon the Cross Lo here again Christs Merits and Mans are set one against the other which would be impertinent if they were not spoken of the same sort of Causes but of Causes different in kind and a meritorious Cause is an efficient Cause as was seen above The Merit of Christ then in the 11th Article of our Religion is not to be understood of the Formal Cause of Mans Justification or Righteousness but of the efficient Cause thereof in respect of which I assert it to be most truly said that We are justified by Faith only because by it alone Christs Merits are applied to us SECT XII Neither by the Light of Nature nor by the Law of Moses without Christ could ever any either Jew or Gentile be eternally saved and come to Glory but through him both of them might The Christian Religion is in many respects preferable to the Law of Nature and the Law of Moses The Injunction of the Judaical Ordinances Rites and Ceremonies had a farther Tendency then the exacting of meer Obedience 1. SInce the ultimate End of creating Man was that he might be eternally happy through the perfect Love of God for ever Sect. 4. it plainly follows that inasmuch as no man since Adams Fall can attain to the perfect Love of God but through Christ Sect. 9. and 11. There is none other Name under Heaven given among Men whereby we must be saved Acts 4. 12. 2. For though some few do by nature i. e. the Light of natural Reason the things contained in the Law viz. the Moral for the Gentiles could not by the Law of Nature observe the Ceremonial Law of the Jews Rom. 2. 14. by being brought through a serious Consideration of the glorious Structure of the World more especially of Man himself and of Gods Providence in preserving and governing all things to adore the Divine Majesty to pray to him and to praise him as the Author of all Good and thence contract an habitual Love to him above the Enjoyment of the vain Pleasures of the World. And albeit many by the Law of Moses have not only obtained the habit of Charity but have also acquired an high degree and measure thereof yet in that neither Jew nor Gentile could ever without Christ attain to the perfect Love of God Sect. 9. and 11. 't is clear that through Christ they must do it if ever they arrive at eternal Bliss 3. Which most blessed State forasmuch as God is no respecter of Persons but in every Nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted with him Acts 10. 34 35. and that he who habitually loves God above all things is Righteous Sect. 11. every one who departs this Life with an habitual Love to God shall at length obtain For seeing all must appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his Body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad 2 Cor. 5. 10. 't is plain that every righteous man whatsoever shall receive a righteous mans Reward at the last day which Reward is everlasting Bliss 4. For since nothing is wanting to one endued with sincere Charity but something to perfect the same in him to make him for ever happy and that the glorious appearance of Christ coming to Judgment will throughly purge out of the Soul of every one habitually possessed of Charity all the Relicks of worldly Affections Sect. 11. Solut. of Object 4. and thereby entirely disposed and ultimately and immediately prepared to obtain the Beatific Vision 't is evident that the Reward which every righteous man shall have at the last day is everlasting Bliss Object 1. If every one of all Mankind from the beginning of the World to the end thereof that habitually loves God above all things and consequently his Neighbour as himself Sect. 11. Solut. of Object 2. when he leaves this World shall at length be eternally blessed through Christ what need men concern themselves so much as they do what Religion they be of Solut. It concerns every one so much as his Salvation is worth to be solicitous to be a Member of the Catholic Christian Religion not only because there 's small hopes that he who is not desirous to take the best course he can to be saved will in sincerity of heart observe the Rules of any Law whatever but also because if notwithstanding the Divine Excellency of the Precepts Motives and Discipline of the Gospel-Dispensation thousands perish within the Bosom of Christ's Visible Church through the strong Temptations of the World the Flesh and the Devil wherewith they are overcome the perdition of Souls will be certainly much greater and more general where those potent Adversaries of man's Bliss find small Resistance made against them Wherefore since no man ever attain'd to live a virtuous Life in order to the End for which he was created but in regard he was directed and inclined thereunto either by the Law of Nature or by some Revealed Law of which later sort there are only two the Jewish and the Christian 't is apparent that if the Christian Religion be in many respects highly preferable for the obtaining of Felicity by it to them both it alone where it can be had is to be chosen and embraced And that the Christian Religion is in many respects highly preferable to them both for that End is evident For First It doth exceedingly much more fully and clearly reveal to the World the Nature of God the Immortality of the Soul the Excellency of the Fruit of a virtuous godly Life after Death and the intolerable Torments of the Wicked in the World to come Secondly It gives far more perfect Rules and shews abundantly more efficacious Helps and Means of leading such a Life as must bring men to Felicity if ever they attain thereto Thirdly It propounds infinitely more convincing and powerful Arguments
and slight those Benefits which God by them tenders to him and in so doing not only sets slight of the Author of them but also rejects the End at which they ultimately aim Felicity No man therefore possibly can deliberately dishonour his Parents or other his Superiors but his Heart will be thereby estranged from God. But much more in wilfully disobeying their just Commands is there an Aversion from their Sovereign Good for therein is a direct Refusal of God's Goodness offered by them whilst every thing they lawfully command is some way more or less directly or by consequence advantageous to the acquisition of Bliss if right use be made thereof The 6th Commandment which is Non occides Thou shalt not kill or Thou shalt do no Murther is not kept by a meer abstaining from desiring contriving or attempting the Death or bodily Harm of our Neighbour but in wishing and doing likewise our Endeavour to preserve his Life and Health in order to the eternal Welfare of his Soul which we cannot do save only as we are excited thereto by the Love we bear to our own Life and good Estate of our Bodies as serviceable to the End for which Life and all the Helps and Attendants of it were given For neither Health nor Life ought to be desired if such Circumstances occur as that the Preservation of them is inconsistent with the everlasting Welfare of the Soul which because it is placed in the Fruition of God the Love we have thereto is the principal reason and motive why we ought to desire to continue in Life and Health our selves or wish the like to our Neighbour for making preparation towards the full Enjoyment of him after this Life is ended And on the contrary the bare doing of bodily Harm to our Neighbour or even the taking away of his Life is no sin simply in it self considered but in this respect only that he who does it has not that due regard for want of the Love of God to the preservation of it which the importance thereof in order to the end whereunto it was given requires For who is ignorant that the Execution of the Penalties in Laws for capital Crimes is no Sin either in the Judge who gives Sentence of Death or in him that executes the same provided they have no personal Malice to the Offender but solely have an Eye to the satisfying of the Law which intends not any Mischief to the Malefactor but Good to the Weal-public by removing an incorrigible Member from among the People But if the Judg or Executioner desire his Death out of hatred to him albeit he deserve to die and be justly condemned and executed there is Murther committed notwithstanding that the Party suffering has no more Torment inflicted on him than if no Malice had been towards him whence it is apparent that the Breach of this Commandment lies in that depraved Disposition of Mind which is opposite to the sound desire of wishing a Man's Neighbour's bodily Welfare in order to the Health of his Soul which because none ever heartily doth but in virtue of his own Love of Bliss the Want of that Love is the formal Reason why the bereaving any one of Life or working his bodily harm is a sin or hinderance to Felicity The 7th Commandment is Thou shalt not commit Adultery the Breach of which doth not consist in the material Act of carnal copulation with anothers Wife but in forsaking the Love of God for an unlawful Pleasure For suppose a Wife should leave her Husband and be married to another Man inculpably ignorant of her former Marriage the Woman alone would offend against this Precept albeit the Man also transgressed the Letter of the Law in carnally knowing anothers Wife Or in case a Man should have his Neighbours Consort put into his Bed thinking her to be his own he offended not although he should commit the external Act of Adultery with her And on the contrary if an Husband lay with his own Wife thinking her to be his Neighbours he would in so doing sin against this Precept and yet no Transgression of it would thereby be made as to the external Act prohibited Hence it is plain that the Violation of the Seventh Comandment is in the depraved Affection of the Will in turning the Heart away from the Love of God to unchast Pleasures and that it is kept by having a Mind undefiled with fleshly Lusts which every one so long hath as Charity or the Love of God above all things is predominant in the Soul. If it be objected that simple Fornication also alienates the Heart from God through the desire of unlawful Venereal Pleasures whence it should be a sin no less grievous then Adultery I answer that he who attempts to pollute his Neighbours Bed knows that he ought upon a double account not to do it First because his Neighbours Wife is not tied in a Matrimonial Bond to him Secondly because she is bound to another and therefore he will have his Heart more hardned in sin or farther estranged from God than if he only desired to satisfie his Lust with one from whom upon the former account alone he holds himself to be restrained and so the sin of Adultery all Circumstances being equal is a more heinous Transgression of the Law of God than the Sin of simple Fornication is The 8th Commandment is Thou shalt not steal by which we are obliged not only to abstain from taking by Force or Fraud whatsoever temporal Good our Neighbour has a Right to but also to employ our Endeavours if just occasion require to help to secure him in the lawful Possession of the same yet with this intent that he use it as a Means to further him in the pursuit of his Eternal Good the fruition of which is the Vltimate End of all Laws whether Divine Moral Canonical or Civil in the sincere Desire whereof they are only truly kept and for want of which they are solely broken as to their principal and Grand Design albeit not as to their particular respective ends which they more immediately but less beneficially look at And therefore even this Precept which more obviously regards and enjoyns the doing Justice may be violated as to the letter of it without a formal Breach thereof as will appear by shewing that in some Case one Man may without violating this Precept take from another without his Consent what the Municipal Laws of the Land where they both live entitle him to which I thus undertake to do No Man by the primary Law of Nature or Reason can or ever could except Adam who was Lord of the whole Earth claim Propriety in any thing without himself Propriety came by a latter Law namely either by Distribution of Lands and Goods made by Adam or else by Division or Occupancy after Adams Decease of what he had not disposed of immediately or mediately in his Life time to which purpose Grotius in his Second Book
designs it to be a Warning to others not to imitate them in their gross Impiety and at that time when he knows the Offenders will rather grow worse than ever after come to amendment And as Man's Condition here for any Decree of Gods to the contrary is as good as can be considering the Causes Natural and Moral which render his Condition what it is so will his State hereafter likewise be the necessary and voluntary Causes considered which bring him to it of which Causes the Variety in respect of all Mankind is so great at all times and so differently circumstantiated in their Influence and Application and the Subjects to be wrought on so contrarily often disposed one to another that it is easie to conceive that they may very well become effectual Means of Conversion to some great Sinners while other less Offenders are not moved to a thorow Amendment by them so that the dying of men in their Sins cannot justly be so attributed to the Divine Will and Pleasure as if the Almighty suffered them to perish out of pure design for the manifestation of his Glory the infallible Word expresly declaring to us the contrary God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance 2 Pet. 3. 9. And again who will have all Men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the Truth 1 Tim. 2. 4. To which knowledge though they do not all attain yet is the Word of God no less firm and sure Why all Men in the World have not heard of God's infinite Love manifested in the Death of Christ many Causes may be assigned all grounded on Gods infinite Justice and Mercy Of Christ's Death many which heard not might have heard many which are not might have been Partakers save only for their free and voluntary Progress from evil to worse or wilful refusal of Gods loving Kindness daily proffered to them in such Pledges as they were well content to swallow foolishly esteeming these good in themselves being good only as they plight the truth of God's Love unto them which he manifested in the Death of his Son. With this manifestation of his Love many again out of meer Mercy have not been acquainted lest the sight of the Medicine might have caused their Disease to rage and made their Case more lamentably desperate Dr. Jackson in his Treatise of the Divine Essence and Attributes Cap. 17. Paragr 3. All which I mean that hath been said in the whole Answer to the Objection considered together with this that it was not only better to create than not to create but also that no other World could be created save only that which doth exist Sect. 3. Par. 8. 't is clear that the Almighties Wisdom and Goodness are justified even to the Eye of Human Reason notwithstanding the different times and ways of men departing Life either in respect of Age or of dying more or less in Sin. Objection 14. From the Instances given in the explanation of the Seventh Commandment sect 19. you seem to hold that there can be no external Sin in the Body of any one denomination where there is not an internal Sin in the Soul of the same kind from which alone the exterior Act as being produced by it can be called sinful Against this Opinion I offer it to your Consideration whether there may not be external Idolatry where there is no internal as suppose an Idol be commanded by the Magistrate under pain of Death to be worshipped by bowing down before it and a Christian to save his Life bows his Body towards it but at the same time abominates the Idol in his heart so as that he is far from giving any internal Honour to it and yet surely you will not say but that he commits the Sin of Idolatry and may be justly censured by the Church as an Idolater Answer Since the Christian instanced in does what is commanded so far forth as that the Lookers on have sufficient cause to believe he has committed Idolatry the Church ought to esteem and censure him as an Idolater for what he has done by reason it cannot judg of the Heart but by outward Signs and inappearance he has committed Idolatry But yet if you 'l go to the exact definition of Idolatry you 'l find the Fact comes not within the compass of it and that Sin which will not come under the definition of Idolatry you must needs grant cannot be truly speaking the Sin of Idolatry for Idolatry is a Crime which exhibits the honour due to God alone to another Object and therefore since the bowing down of the Body is not an Act appropriated to the Divine Majesty for we lawfully and laudably bow unto our Prince Parents and others in Authority over us of which there are several Examples in Holy Writ it is evident that the mentioned act of bowing towards the Idol is not Idolatrous according to the definition of Idolatry To make this more plain by an Instance let 's suppose another Christian to be brought before the Idol and commanded to bow unto it as the other did which he likewise in appearance does by stooping down that he may catch it by the feet to overthrow it and according to his intent casts it with scornful indignation to the ground in doing of which he gives full satisfaction to the Beholders of his abhorrence of performing any manner of Worship to it notwithstanding that they all see him bow towards it as low as the other did judg him an Idolater till the Reason of his incurvation becomes apparent to them by seeing the Idol so contemptuously used at the length Is then you 'l say the formerly spoken of Christian who is granted to deserve the Churches Censure as an Idolater no more guilty of Idolatrous Worship according to the strictest Notion of Idolatry than the latter I refer you to the definition of Idolatry which cannot delude you for answer Is he therefore you 'l peradventure reply only sinful in the sight of Men and not also in the sight of God Yes undoubtedly he is a very grievous Offender even before God as well as men for he not only scandalizes Christianity in giving the Enemies of it an occasion to triumph in hardening them in their idolatrous Worship and in encouraging them to proceed to persecute Christians with hope of desired success but also in disheartning of the weaker Brethren in making them to stagger in the Faith and in grieving all the Members of Christ in general to do any one of which is a great Sin but to do all of them together is a Crime of complicated Scandal to the Gospel of Christ which at once instructeth and exhorteth saying Be not afraid of them that kill the Body and after that have no more that they can do But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear fear him which after he hath killed hath power to cast into Hell yea I say unto you fear him
troubled and what shall I say Father save me from this hour but for this cause came I unto this hour John 12. 27. And to what end came he unto it but to destroy Sin by the Sacrifice of himself upon the Altar of the Cross that Men might die unto Sin and live unto Righteousness whose Fruit is everlasting Life for so the two chief Apostles plainly tell us Now once in the end of the World hath he appeared to put away sin by the Sacrifice of himself Hebr. 9. 26. Who his own self bare our sins in his own Body on the Tree that we being dead to sin should live unto Righteousness by whose Stripes ye were healed 1 Pet. 2. 24. Knowing this that our Old Man is crucified with him that the Body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin Rom. 6. 6. That he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live to themselves but unto him which died for them and rose again 2 Cor. 5. 15. Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all Iniquity and purifie unto himself a People zealous of good Works Tit. 2. 14. For if the Blood of Bulls and of Goats and the Ashes of an Heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifieth to the purifying of the Flesh how much more shall the Blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without Spot to God purge your Conscience from dead Works to serve the living God Heb. 9. 13 14. Which Scriptures since they evidently prove that Christ came into the World to undergo Death that by virtue thereof we might die unto Sin and live unto Righteousness or be converted from our wicked Courses to lead a godly Life what I have now only remaining to do is to prove Secondly That there is no Condemnation to those who forsaking their sins turn unto God or that are converted from the Love of the World and worldly Vanities to the Love of God for the certainty of the truth whereof we have the Testimony of Truth it self assuring us He that hath my Commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and will manifest my self to him John 14. 21. And a little after If a Man love me he will keep my Words and my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him Ver. 23. And St. Paul in express words saith There is therefore now no Condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit Rom. 8. 1. Nor is the truth of this Doctrine averred only by Scripture but it is also evident to Human Reason for since Sin is the privation of the due Love of God in the Soul through the inordinate Love of the World Sect. 8. Par. 2 3 4. and that everlasting Misery is the necessary effect of the perpetual continuance in sin after this Life Sect. 7. Par. 1 2 3 4 5. 't is as manifestly impossible that he who has forsaken the Love of the World for the Love of God should eternally perish unless he relapse and die in mortal sin by leaving again the Love of God for the Love of the World as it is impossible that the same Man should love the World above God and God above the World both together to eternity For what end Christ died for us suffered for us bare our sins in his own Body upon the Tree for us the Word of God it self having expresly shewn viz. That we being dead unto Sin should live unto Righteousness 1 Pet. 2. 24. there is no need for the explicating those Expressions that Christ either really transferred our sins from us to himself or took upon him the Punishment due to our sins being the perpetual Loss of Heaven and the everlasting Pains of Hell to assert any of which would be no less than Blasphemy 'T is abundantly enough that in regard Christ is ΘεάνθÏωπος God-man he underwent so much in behalf of Sinners that his unexpressible Sufferings are a truly meritorious i. e. an efficacious efficient cause of cleansing us from sin of justifying us and of bringing us to Glory which they effectually are to as many as through a vigorous Faith rightly weigh the Value of them whilst the due Consideration of the immense and unmerited Love of Christ to Man manifested chiefly in his bitter and ignominious Death constraineth Men to forsake all worldly Pleasures for the Blessed Enjoyment of so gracious and stupendiously loving a God and Saviour accordingly as St Paul averreth saying For the love of God constraineth us because we thus judge that if one died for all then were all dead and that he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which died for them and rose again 2 Cor. 5. 14 15. which words are thus cleared unto us by the learned Dr. Hammonds Paraphrase on the place For our Love to Christ founded on his to us hath us in its Power to make us do whatsoever it will have us making this Argument from this certain acknowledged truth of Christs having died for all Men that then certainly all Men are Sinners lapsed in a lost Estate and so hopeless unless they use some means to get out of that Estate which that he might help us to do was the Design of Christ's dying for all that we might having received by his Death Grace to lead a new Life live no longer after our own Lusts and Desires but in Obedience to his Commands that died and rose again to that end to bless us in turning every man from his Iniquities Acts 3. 26. 'T is clear then from what hath been said that our Conversion to God was the very Design of Christ's Crucifixion to the end we might be eternally saved and not that he might so suffer for us as to really transfer our Sins or the Punishment thereof from our Persons to his own which that the words he bare our sins in his own Body on the Tree so very much urged and insisted on by some do not necessarily import may be certainly gathered from another Text not unlike to this When the Even was come they brought unto him many that were possessed with Devils and he cast out the Spirits with his word and healed all that were sick that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the Prophet saying himself took our Infirmities and bare our Sicknesses Matth. 8. 16 17. for none questionless will affirm that Christ transferred the Infirmities and Sicknesses of those whom he cured to his own Body from theirs When it is therefore said that Christ bare our Sins and bare our Infirmities it is to be understood that he really cured both and as truly by virtue of his Death takes away sin and the eternal Punishment thereof from all that by Faith apply it to themselves as he took away diverse Infirmities by his Word from several who believed on him so that the Socinians injuriously and blasphemously deny the Divine Power and efficacy of the infinitely meritorious and satisfactory Sacrifice of our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ upon the Cross for the Redemption of Man who by the eternal Love of GOD the FATHER through the Merits of GOD the SON apprehended by Faith wrought in the Heart by GOD the HOLY GHOST is effectually delivered from the miserable Thraldom of Sin Sathan and Damnation for which ineffable undeserved Kindness is of Right therefore perpetually to be given to that ever adorable TRIN-VNI DEO GLORIA