such is his Wrath in the Execution of Vindictive Judgment upon all Sinners so that if there could be an Intermission of this providential Circulation an immediate Deliquium of the Universe must ensue The conscientious Awe of this being the only real Security of Human Relation and Society There must then upon every hainous Offence be either Satisfaction to Justice or the Execution of Justice Both which intirely and absolutely depend upon and proceed from the Will of God which cannot be liable to any finite Thought or Assignation Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord or being his Counsellor hath taught him With whom took he Counsel and who hath instructed and taught him in the Path of Judgment O the Depth of the Riches both of the Wisdom and Knowledg of God! The Riches of his Grace hath abounded towards us in all Wisdom and Prudence according to his Pleasure which he hath purposed in himself To declare his Righteousness that he might be just and the Justifier of the ungodly which believeth in Jesus The Institution and Hope of this Redemption was revealed to our first Parents under the forlorn Consternation of their Fall when God gave the Promise of the Seed of the Woman to bruise the Serpent's Head In the Scriptures relating the History of the World and of the Church before the Ministry of Moses it hath not pleased the Holy Ghost to speak particularly of the Institution of Ceremonial Worship and Religion But as from Adam to Moses Death the Wages of Sin reigned now Sin is not imputed when there is no Law for Sin is the Transgression of the Law So likewise the Salvation of the first Patriarchs and of the whole Church of God particularly of Abel and Enoch could not be obtained but by Faith in the promised Mediator without which it was impossible to please God Neither can Faith be separated from Obedience to a Word of Command and Promise The Object of Faith being from the beginning even Jesus Christ the same yesterday and to day and for ever The Expression of the Prophet Jeremy is to this most apposit A glorious high Throne from the beginning is the place of our Sanctuary That is from the beginning of God's reconciling the World to himself Jesus Christ the Lamb of God slain from the Foundation of the World was the only and necessary Mediator of the Covenant of Grace between God and Man for Redemption and Remission also for Intercession and Acceptance who so became the Author of Eternal Salvation to all that obey him Obedience then to the revealed Will of God is the indispensable Duty of all true Worshippers of God with Acceptance It pleased God in gracious Condescension to Human Frailty before the Fulness of Time came that Jesus Christ should offer up himself once in the End of the World when he appeared to put away Sin by the Sacrifice of himself in that mean time to institute Sacrifices which were not voluntary Devotions by the Will of Man either gratulatory to God or representative to the Offerer but exact Performances according to the express Precept of God For as Lactantius says God only can teach how he would be worshipped The Evidence of this also appears from the words of holy Scriptures concerning Abel offering a more excellent Sacrifice by which he obtained Witness that he was Righteous which could not be unless his Sacrifice were entirely and only such as God commanded so that being dead he yet speaketh and instructeth us in this great Truth That there can be no Righteousness in any Religion but as it is the Observance of the Word of God It evidently also appears that Sacrifices were of Divine Institution because they were only to be such Offerings of Beasts and Fowl as were not by natural Distinction but by positive Command selected to be clean and made capable to be sacrificed all other Species being excluded as unclean In the next place must be understood the right End and Intention of Sacrifice The Scripture speaks expresly that without shedding of Blood there is no Remission of Sin yet the Blood of Bulls and Goats could not avail to make the Worshipper perfect so that the continual Sacrifice daily offered and all other extraordinary Burnt-offerings occasionally appointed by the Law were merciful Surrogations of Typical Propitiations with respect to Christ whose Blood only could take away the Sins of the World Whose Blood being the Blood of the everlasting Covenant could only make the Comers unto God perfect Man being made in Honour did not therein abide but because like the Beasts that perish Also being raised up to Hope in the Promise of Grace by Jesus Christ they apostatized quickly becoming vain in their Imagination and their foolish Heart being darkened changed the Truth of God into a Lie and worshipped and served the Creature more than the Creator who is blessed for ever Notwithstanding there remained in the Hearts of the Heathen Idolatrous Nations a Conviction that there was a necessity of Propitiatory Sacrifices to appease the Wrath and atone the offended Justice of Divine Majesty Profane Histories are full of continual Instanccs of the Solemnities of Sacrifices Ilastical to appease the Wrath of God All which Offerings were feigned and imposed as if divinely authorized and instituted And the Ceremonies relating thereunto stiled Mysteries as being the visible Signatures of spiritual Intention and Efficacy For tho the Medium and Object of propitiatory Worship by the Heathen were vain and false yet most rational was the indelible Conviction of the necessity of Propitiation and Atonement towards God for the Remission of Sins committed by the Rebellion and A postacy of Human Creatures The mystery of Godliness great without Controversy represents God manifested in the Flesh believed on in the World This is the Mystery of God and of the Father and of Jesus Christ The Explanation of which is That God was in Christ reconciling the World unto himself not imputing their Trespasses unto them For he hath made him who knew no Sin to be Sin for us that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him This Reconciliation and Remissfion is always expressed under the Notion of Ransom Atonement Redemption Propitiation and Expiation all which is to be performed by the Death of a slain Sacrisice For the Scripture testifies without shedding of Blood there is no Remission of Sins But it is not possible that the Blood of Bulls and Goats should take away Sins The Divine Justice could not take Plcasure in any Sacrifices which were offered tho by the Typical Law for Sin so as thereby to receive Satisfaction Therefore when the Son of God came into the World a Body was prepared for him therein to do the Will of God by the which Will we are sanctified through the offering of the Body of Jesus Christ once for all For it is only the beloved Son of God in whom
Man concerning his Justification but only a true and lively Faith which nevertheless is the Gift of God and not Man's only Work without God And yet that Faith does not shut out Repentance Hope Love Dread and the Fear of God to be joined with Faith in every Man that is justified but it shutteth them out from the Office of justifying So that altho they be all present together in him that is justified yet they justify not altogether Nor the Faith also doth not shut out the Justice of our good Works necessarily to be done afterwards of Duty towards God for we are most bounden to serve God in doing good Deeds commanded by him in his holy Scripture all the days of our Life but it excludeth them so that we may not do them to this intent to be made good by doing of them For all the good Works that we can do be unperfect and therefore not able to deserve for our Justification But our Justification doth come freely by the meer Mercy of God and of so great and free Mercy that whereas all the World was not able of themselves to pay any part towards their Ransom it pleased our Heavenly Father of his insinite Mercy without any our desert or deserving to prepare for us the most precious Jewels of Christ's Body and Blood whereby our Ransom might be fully paid the Law fulfilled and his Justice fully satisfied So that now Christ is the Righteousness of all them that truly do believe in him He for them paid their Ransom by his Death he for them fulfilled the Law in his Life So that now in and by him every true Christian Man may be called a Fulfiller of the Law forasmuch as that which their Infirmity lacked Christ's Justice hath supplied Now that the most important Truths which have been represented in this small Treatise may appear in right Light let the following Propositions be duly considered according to Reason enlightned and directed by the Word of God God having given to Man an Intellectual Faculty to judg and discern of the Nature Use and Excellency of Things a Conscience of the Laws of things morally good or evil and the certain inseparable Appendixes of Rewards and Punishments are imprinted upon the Mind with inward experimental Assurances as certain as that we know that we are and have a Being The Demonstrations of which Truths are clearly manifested in the Word of God the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament which do not only move and perswade but effectually constrain and inforce an enlightened Soul to yield Obedience to the incomparable and undeniable Divine Authority thereof as to the Fountain of all saying Knowledg and the Standard and Rule of all holy Practice in order to everlasting Blessedness the supreme End and Felicity of Man Now as Mathematical Theorems tho equally demonstrable yet are not alike perceived and apprehended by every Human Mind the Faculty not being rightly disposed to the Object as in species visible it is not sufficient that the Object and Medium be duly disposed unless the Organ be suifficiently enabled and not disturbed For neither a blind Eye nor a Jaundice Sight can judg of Colours Accordingly the holy Scriptures which are the lively Oracles of God full of Lights and Perfections do fully demonstrate the great Mysteries of Godliness concerning the eternal invisible yet certain and necessary Felicities and Duties of Rational Intelligent Beings whose Immortality also is therein undeniably proved Yet notwithstanding all these glorious and excellent Truths of the Spirit of God are not received by Animal Minds to whom they are Foolishness as all sort of Wisdom is to Fools because of the Blindness and Ignorance of the Understanding the Mind it self the governing Power in Man being vitiated with the sussusion of Vanity and the deceitfulness of Sin until the Power of the Spirit come into the Soul with a quickning renewing restoring Demonstration upon the Intellectual Faculty to make it receive in Love the benign Influences of eternal Truth and Goodness Accordingly consider duly 1. That from everlasting to everlasting God is Infinite in his Perfection of all Divine Incomprehensible Attributes whose Essence is eternally in and of himself and gives and preserves all Beings which were made for his Pleasure and Glory according to his own Will not out of any necessity of Nature his Majesty being exalted above all Blessings and Praise so that his infinite Essential Glory cannot be liable to any Addition or Detraction from any Creature 2. That in the beginning of Time God condescended to manifest his immense Wisdom Power and Goodness in the Creation of the World and all Beings therein by the Word of his Power by which all things are upheld and do consist All being made and preserved for the Glory of God according to the Original Law of the Will of God respectively dispensed to every Being 3. That all things were made for distinct final Causes appointed by the Law of God to be the Rule for the Operation of Life conferr'd upon every Being 4. That the Providence of God doth actually effectually continually govern and over-rule all the Actions and Operations of all Beings to his Glory according to his determinate Counsels For known unto God are all his Works from the beginning of the World so that all contingent Effects and Actions of all created Beings are not only futurely turned and disposed but primarily decreed and ordered to be infallibly subservient for the Glory of God's eternal Truth Justice and Goodness 5. That as Activity and Operation is the necessary Expression of Life it is also necessary that there be an universal Law to direct regulate and judg the Affections and Actions of all Intelligent Beings Which Law can only be the holy and righteous Will of God the Creator of all Beings who only can righteously reward and punish all Actions 6. God made Man upright in his Divine Image 〈◊〉 Righteousness Knowledg and Holiness with Freedom of Will but under a Covenant of Life upon Obedience and of Death upon Disobedience which is Sin For Sin is the rebellious Transgression of the Law 7. Man tho made upright being left to the Freedom of his Will rebelled against and renounced God his Creator in his all-sufficient Truth and Goodness and sought out and embraced the Vanity and Iniquity of the Devil's Lie by which Apostacy and Rebellion Mankind fell into a state of the Condemnation and Corruption of Death which is endless Misery according to the righteous Judgment of God 8. The first Parents of Mankind were not only Persons individual but common Representatives of all their Posterity The Evidence whereof necessarily flows form the Consideration of the Covenant of Life which God made with Man when created and placed in Paradise The eating of the Tree of Knowledg of Good and Evil being threatned with Death which passed upon all Mankind both Infants and Adult according to the righteous Denunciation of God and the Consent of
Man necessarily supposed for otherwise the refusal to consent would have been a Sin preceding the Transgression in eating the forbidden Fruit. The Equity of this is owned by the universal Justice of all Nations according to which capital Crimes of Parents corrupt the Blood and devest the Posterity of all Privilege conferred upon such Families Thus all the World must justfy the Ways of God to be most equal 9. The Apostacy of Mankind was not only one transient Act of Offence against a positive Command but the Sinfulness of Sin extended to an utter Renunciation of the Love and Fear of God and introduced a Corruption which the Scripture stiles Death in all the Powers and Faculties of a created Life 10. The Justice of God being infinite the rebellious Offence against that Justice must necessarily incur an everlasting Punishment Such as the Infinite Wisdom Righteousness and Holiness of God the Creator determines to inflict to vindicate his Glory 11. The Salvation and Redemption of Man liable to eternal Wrath as it proceeds only from the free Grace of God so it is impossible to be effected without Satisfaction to the infinite Justice of God For without such Satisfaction the Godhead would be exposed to continual Dishonour and the Fountain of all Righteousness residing only in the infinite Justice of God the violation thereof remaining unsatisfied consequently there must be always a failure of common Justice in the World 12. It was impossible for any meer finite Creature to satisfy the Offence done by Sin against the infinite Justice and Majesty of the Creator 13. It was impossible and also unlawful for any finite created Intelligence to imagine or contrive or effect a due Satisfaction for the Rebellion of the Creature 14. It is the undeniable Sovereign Propriety and Right of God blessed for ever the Creator and Possessor of all Beings to contrive appoint and accomplish the Means of Satisfaction to his own infinite Justice and of Salvation for his miserable condemned corrupted Creature 15. Right Reason is the Faculty of discerning the difference between Good and Evil The Lamp of God for intellectual Evidence for the practical Judgment concerning all Objects being derived from and the Exercise of Knowledg which is part of the Image of God in Man but this being lost by Man's sinful Apostacy from God there is necessity of the recovery and renewal of the Faculty of right Reason by supernatural Light and Power 16. Tho the invisible things of God even his eternal Power and Godhead are clearly seen from the Creation of the World so as to leave Man without Excuse Yet the Manifestation of the Grace of God for the Salvation of Sinners through the Satisfaction of his Justice by a Redeemer is and can only be revealed by the Word of God contained in the holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament and made effectual upon the Heart and Mind of Man by the holy Spirit For the things of God knoweth no Man but the Spirit of God But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit for the Spirit searcheth all things yea the deep things of God 17. God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the Fathers by the Prophets hath in these last days compleated the whole Canon and comprehensive Cycle of the Revelation of his Will as the only Standard in Truth and Goodness for the Faith and Obedience of Mankind 18. The Word of God contained in the holy Scriptures fully makes known the Love of God in Christ which passeth Knowledg 〈◊〉 the Kindness and Love of God our Saviour towards Man which first appeared in the Promise of a Redeemer confirm'd according to the manifold wisdom of God by the Institution of propitiatory Typical Sacrifices and Ceremonial Worships as Shadows and Pledges and symbols that in the fulness of Time God should be manifested in the Flesh even Jesus Christ the eternal Son of God who is the true God and eternal Life 19. It is impossible for an intelligent Beings to devest the knowledg and obligation of Dependance upon God his Creator and Preserver Consequently the Devotion of continual Worship is indispensable Duty and Felicity in drawing near to God the only infinite eternal all-sufficient and necessary Good It is also undeniably true that the only Rule of acceptable advantagious Worship must be the revealed Will of God For only God can direct and teach how He will be supplicated and worshipped The knowledg of this Rule in the Manifestation of the Light and Perfection of Divine Truth and Goodness is only to be found in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament wherein is revealed the absolute Simplicity and Perfection of the Christian Religion freed from the Confusion of vain and fabulous Superstition and Will-worship 20. The Covenant of Life and Happiness vouchsafed by God to Man upon his first Creation being by Man's Apostacy forfeited and the Ability to fulfil it utterly lost A second Covenant called the Covenant of Grace absolutely free on God's part but intirely necessary on the part of Man is by God instituted for the Salvation of Man The Tenor of the Engagement to which Covenant is the Institution of Baptism in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost In which Ordinance is summarily represented the Truth of the Doctrine of the Divine Trinity in the Unity of the Godhead for as the Father is revealed to be the God of Glory so is the Son to be the Lord of Glory and the Holy Ghost the Spirit of Glory The incommunnicable Attributes of the Deity being ascribed unto the Son and 〈◊〉 the Holy Ghost as unto the Father in respect of Creation of Preservation of Regeneration of Omniscience the Necessity of Redemption and Regeneration is evinced by the Misery and Death common to all and by the universal depraved Vitiosity of all Mankind Nor it is impossible that either Redemption or Regeneration can be effected by less Power than Divine Omnipotence and Omniscience The knowledg of the Heart in all the inmost Recesses of Thought and Imagination is ascribed to Jesus Christ and to the Holy Ghost The contrary cannot be fancied without the greatest Absurdity For if the Redeemer and Mediator were not essentially able to know all the Thoughts and Dispositions of the Heart of Man then some profane Hypocrite might mock or defeat with false pretended Devotion the Intercession of our Redeemer or wickedly and securely lie to the Holy Ghost Also something most necessary for a Sinner might escape the discern of our Mediator so that he could not be a Saviour to the uttermost consequently they who come to God by him must remain most miserable The essential Being of God is of such terrible Majesty covered with the Light dwelling in the Light inaccessible so that no created Intelligence can possibly arrive at any due Perception of the Godhead but only according to the Revelation whereby God vouchsafed the