THE REASONABLENESS OF Christianity As delivered in the SCRIPTURES LONDON Printed for Awnsham and Iohn Churchil at the Black Swan in Pater-Noster-Row 1695. THE PREFACE THE little Satisfaction and Consistency is to be found in most of the Systems of Divinity I have met with made me betake my self to the sole Reading of the Scripture to which they all appeal for the understanding the Christian Religion What from thence by an attentive and unbiassed search I have received Reader I here deliver to thee If by this my Labour thou receivest any Light or Confirmation in the Truth joyn with me in Thanks to the Father of Lights for his Condescention to our Vnderstandings If upon a fair and unprejudiced Examination thou findest I have mistaken the Sense and Tenor of the Gospel I beseech thee as a true Christian in the Spirit of the Gospel which is that of Charity and in the words of Sobriety set me right in the Doctrine of Salvation ERRATA Page 35. line 22. read on the. p. 62. l. 26. r. Bethesda p. 63. l. 26. r. little of any thing p. 64. ult r. it was p. 65. l. 6. r. them at Ierusalem Ibid. l. 10 r. ing in that place p. 67. l. 17. r. that remained p. 69. l. 23. r. a king or rather Messiah the King p. 75. l. 6. dele these Ibid. l. 14. r. nor 〈◊〉 p. 112. l. 4. r. Bethesda p. 161. l. 2. r. and of p. 165. l. 20. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 present World p. 194. l. 11. r. availed not Devils p. 217. l. 11. r. In his Sermon in the. p. 263. l. ◠r. before observed p. 264. l. 24. r. custom p. 271. l. 2. r. apophthegms Ibid. l. 24. r. themselves and deduces p. 282. l. 〈◊〉 r. No touch of p. 284. 1. 〈◊〉 confusion p. 287. l. 17. r. life and. p. 295. l. 22. r. the Apostles p. 203. l. 20. r. Treatise p. 304. l. 4. ◠abstract Ibid. l. 14. read them The Reasonableness of Christianity as delivered in the Scriptures T IS obvious to any one who reads the New Testament that the Doctrine of Redemption and consequently of the Gospel is founded upon the Supposition of Adam's Fall To understand therefore what we are restored to by Jesus Christ we must consider what the Scripture shews we lost by Adam This I thought worthy of a diligent and unbiassed search Since I found the two Extreams that Men run into on this Point either on the one hand shook the Foundations of all Religion or on the other made Christianity almost nothing For whilst some Men would have all Adam's Posterity doomed to Eternal Infinite Punishment for the Transgression of Adam whom Millions had never heard of and no one had authorized to transact for him or be his Representative this seemed to others so little consistent with the Justice or Goodness of the Great and Infinite God that they thought there was no Redemption necessary and consequently that there was none rather than admit of it upon a Supposition so derogatory to the Honour and Attributes of that Infinite Being and so made Jesus Christ nothing but the Restorer and Preacher of pure Natural Religion thereby doing violence to the whole tenor of the New Testament And indeed both sides will be suspected to have trespassed this way against the written Word of God by any one who does but take it to be a Collection of Writings designed by God for the Instruction of the illiterate bulk of Mankind in the way to Salvation and therefore generally and in necessary points to be understood in the plain direct meaning of the words and phrases such as they may be supposed to have had in the mouths of the Speakers who used them according to the Language of that Time and Country wherein they lived without such learned artificial and forced senses of them as are sought out and put upon them in most of the Systems of Divinity according to the Notions that each one has been bred up in To one that thus unbiassed reads the Scriptures what Adam fell from is visible was the state of perfect Obedience which is called Justice in the New Testament though the word which in the Original signifies Justice be translated Righteousness And by this Fall he lost Paradise wherein was Tranquility and the Tree of Life i. e. he lost Bliss and Immortality The Penalty annexed to the breach of the Law with the Sentence pronounced by God upon it shew this The Penalty stands thus Gen. II. 17. In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die How was this executed He did eat but in the day he did eat he did not actually die but was turned out of Paradise from the Tree of Life and shut out for ever from it lest he should take thereof and live for ever This shews that the state of Paradise was a state of Immortality of Life without end which he lost that very day that he eat His Life began from thence to shorten and wast and to have an end and from thence to his actual Death was but like the time of a Prisoner between the Sentence past and the Execution which was in view and certain Death then enter'd and shewed his Face which before was shut out and not known So St. Paul Rom. V. 12. By one man sin entred into the world and death by sin i. e. a state of Death and Mortality And 1 Cor. XV. 22. In Adam all die i. e. by reason of his Transgression all Men are Mortal and come to die This is so clear in these cited places and so much the current of the New Testament that no body can deny but that the Doctrine of the Gospel is that Death came on all Men by Adam's sin only they differ about the signification of the word Death For some will have it to be a state of Guilt wherein not only he but all his Posterity was so involved that every one descended of him deserved endless torment in Hell-fire I shall say nothing more here how far in the apprehensions of Men this consists with the Justice and Goodness of God having mentioned it above But it seems a strange way of understanding a Law which requires the plainest and directest words that by Death should be meant Eternal Life in Misery Could any one be supposed by a Law that says For Felony you shall die not that he should lose his Life but be kept alive in perpetual exquisite Torments And would any one think himself fairly dealt with that was so used To this they would have it be also a state of necessary sinning and provoking God in every Action that men do A yet harder sense of the word Death than the other God says That in the day that thou eatest of the forbidden Fruit thou shalt die i. e. thou and thy Posterity shall be ever after uncapable of doing any thing but what shall be sinful and provoking to me and shall justly deserve my wrath and
indignation Could a worthy man be supposed to put such terms upon the Obedience of his Subjects much less can the Righteous God be supposed as a Punishment of one sin wherewith he is displeased to put Man under a necessity of sinning continually and so multiplying the Provocation The reason of this strange Interpretation we shall perhaps find in some mistaken places of the New Testament I must confess by Death here I can understand nothing but a ceasing to be the losing of all actions of Life and Sense Such a Death came on Adam and all his Posterity by his first Disobedience in Paradise under which Death they should have lain for ever had it not been for the Redemption by Jesus Christ. If by Death threatned to Adam were meant the Corruption of Humane Nature in his Posterity 't is strange that the New Testament should not any where take notice of it and tell us that Corruption seized on all because of Adam's Transgression as well as it tells us so of Death But as I remember every ones sin is charged upon himself only Another part of the Sentence was Cursed is the ground for thy sake in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return unto the ground For out of it wast thou taken Dust thou art and to dust shalt thou return This shews that Paradise was a place of Bliss as well as Immortality without toyl and without sorrow But when Man was turned out he was exposed to the toyl anxiety and frailties of this Mortal Life which should end in the Dust out of which he was made and to which he should return and then have no more life or sense than the Dust had out of which he was made As Adam was turned out of Paradise so all his Posterity were born out of it out of the reach of the Tree of Life All like their Father Adam in a state of Mortality void of the Tranquility and Bliss of Paradise Rom. V. 12. By one man sin entered into the world and death by sin But here will occur the common Objection that so many stumble at How doth in consist with the Justice and Goodness of God that the Posterity of Adam should suffer for his sin the Innocent be punished for the Guilty Very well if keeping one from what he has no right to be called a Punishment The state of Immortality in Paradise is not due to the Posterity of Adam more than to any other Creature Nay if God afford them a Temporary Mortal Life ' 't is his Gift they owe it to his Bounty they could not claim it as their Right nor does he injure them when he takes it from them Had he taken from Manking any thing that was their Right or did he put Men in a state of Misery worse than not being without any fault or demerit of their own this indeed would be hard to reconcile with the Notion we have of Justice and much more with the Goodness and other Attributes of the Supream Being which he has declared of himself and Reason as well as Revelation must acknowledge to be in him unless we will confound Good and Evil God and Satan That such a state of extream irremidiable Torment is worse than no Being at all if every one ones sense did not determine against the vain Philosophy and foolish Metaphysicks of some Men yet our Saviour's peremptory decision Matt. XXVI 24. has put it past doubt that one may be in such an estate that it had been better for him not to have been born But that such a temporary Life as we now have with all its Frailties and ordinary Miseries is better than no Being is evident by the high value we put upon it our selves And therefore though all die in Adam yet none are truly punished but for their own deeds Rom. II. 6. God will render to every one how according to his deeds To those that obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doth evil v. 9. 2 Cor. V. 10. We must appear before the Iudgment-seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to that he has done whether it be good or bad And Christ himself who knew for what he should condemn Men at the last day assures us in the two places where he describes his proceeding at the great Judgment that the Sentence of Condemnation passes only on the workers of Iniquity such as neglected to fulfil the Law in acts of Charity Mat. VII 23. Luke XIII 27. Mat. XXV 42. But here is no Condemnation of any one for what his fore-father Adam had done which 't is not likely should have been omitted if that should have been a cause why any one was adjudged to the fire with the Devil and his Angels And he tells his Disciples that when he comes again with his Angels is the Glory of his Father that then he will render to every one according to his works Mat. XVI 27. Adam being thus turned out of Paradise and all his Posterity born out of it the consequence of it was that all men should die and remain under Death for ever and so be utterly lost From this estate of Death Jesus Christ restores all mankind to Life 1 Cor. XV. 22. As in Adam all die so in Christ shall all be made alive How this shall be the same Apostle tells us in the foregoing v. 21. By man death came by man also came the Resurrection from the dead Whereby it appears that the Life which Jesus Christ restores to all men is that Life which they receive again at the Resurrection Then they recovered from Death which otherwise all mankind should have continued under lost for ever as appears by St. Paul's Arguing 1 Cor. XV. concerning the Resurrection And thus men are by the Second Adam restored to Life again That so by Adam's sin they may none of them lose any thing which by their own Righteousness they might have a Title to For Righteousness or an exact obedience to the Law seems by the Scripture to have a claim of Right to Eternal Life Rom. IV. 4. To him that worketh i. e. does the works of the Law is the reward not reckoned of Grace but OF DEBT And Rev. XXII 14. Blessed are they who do his Commandments that they may HAVE RIGHT to the Tree of Life which is in the Paradise of God If any of the Posterity of Adam were just they shall not lose the Reward of it Eternal Life and Bliss by being his Mortal Issue Christ will bring them all to Life again And then they shall be put every one upon his own Tryal and receive Judgment as he is found to be Righteous or no. And the righteous as our Saviour says Mat. XXV 46. shall go into eternal life Nor shall any one miss it who has done what our Saviour
directed the Lawyer who asked Luke X. 25. What he should do to inherit eternal life Do this i. e. what is required by the Law and thou shalt live On the other side it seems the unalterable purpose of the Divine Justice that no unrighteous Person no one that is guilty of any breach of the Law should be in Paradise But that the wages of sin shold be to every man as it was to Adam an Exclusion of him out of that Happy state of Immortality and bring Death upon him And this is so conformable to the Eternal and established Law of Right and Wrong that it is spoke of too as if it could not be otherwise St. Iames says Chap. I. 15. Sin when it is finished bringeth forth death as it were by a Natural and necessary production Sin entred into the World and death by sin says St. Paul Rom. V. 12. VI. 23. The wages of sin is Death Death is the Purchase of any of every sin Gal. III. 10. Cursed is every one who continueth not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them And of this St. Iames gives a Reason Chap. II. 10 11. Whosoever shall keep the whole Law and yet offend in one point he is guilty of all For he that said Do not commit Adultery said also do not Kill i. e. He that offends in any one Point sins against the Authority which established the Law Here then we have the standing and fixed measures of Life and Death Immortality and Bliss belong to the Righteous Those who have lived in an exact Conformity to the Law of God are out of the reach of Death But an Exclusion from Paradise and loss of Immortality is the Portion of Sinners of all those who have any way broke that Law and failed of a Compleat Obedience to it by the guilt of any one Transgression And thus Mankind by the Law are put upon the issues of Life or Death As they are Righteous or Vnrighteous Iust or Vnjust i. e. Exact Performers or Transgressors of the Law But yet all having sinned Rom. III. 23. and come short of the glory God i. e. the Kingdom of God in Heaven which is often called his Glory both Iews and Gentiles v. 22. So that by the deeds of the Law no one could be justified v. 20. it follows that no one could then have Eternal Life and Bliss Perhaps it will be demanded Why did God give so hard a Law to Mankind that to the Apostles time no one of Adam's Issue had kept it As appears by Rom. III. and Gal. III. 21 22. Answ. It was such a Law as the Purity of God's Nature required and must be the Law of such a Creature as Man unless God would have made him a Rational Creature and not required him to have lived by the Law of Reason but would have countenanced in him Irregularity and Disobedience to that Light which he had and that Rule which was suitable to his Nature Which would have been to have authorized Disorder Confusion and Wickedness in his Creatures For that this Law was the Law of Reason or as it is called of Nature we shall see by and by And if Rational Creatures will not live up to the Rule of their Reason who shall excuse them If you will admit them to forsake Reason in one point why not in another Where will you stop To disobey God in any part of his Commands and 't is he that Commands what Reason does is direct Rebellion which if dispensed with in any Point Government and Order are at an end And there can be no bounds set to the Lawless Exorbitancy of unconfined men The Law therefore was as St. Paul tells us Rom. VII 12 holy just and good and such as it ought and could not otherwise be This then being the case that whoever is guilty of any sin should certainly die and cease to be the benefit of Life restored by Christ at the Resurrection would have been no great Advantage for as much as here again Death must have seized upon all mankind because all had sinned For the Wages of Sin is every where Death as well after as before the Resurrection if God had not found out a way to Justifie some i. e. so many as obeyed another Law which God gave which in the New Testament is called the Law of Faith Rom. III. 27. and is opposed to the Law of Works And therefore the Punishment of those who would not follow him was to lose their Souls i. e. their Lives Mark VIII 35-38 as is plain considering the occasion it was spoke on The better to understand the Law of Faith it will be convenient in the first place to consider the Law of Works The Law of Works then in short is that Law which requires perfect Obedience without any remission or abatement So that by that Law a man cannot be Just or justified without an exact performance of every tittle Such a perfect Obedience in the New Testament is termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we translate Righteousness The Language of this Law is Do this and live Transgress and die Lev. XVIII 5. Ye shall keep my statutes and my judgments which if a man do he shall live in them Ezek. XX. 11. I gave them my statutes and shewed them my judgments which if a man do he shall even live in them Moses says St. Paul Rom. X. 5. describeth the righteousness which is of the Law that the man which doth those things shall live in them Gal. III. 12. The Law is not of Faith but that man that doth them shall live in them On the other side Transgress and die no dispensation no atonement V. 10. Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them Where this Law of Works was to be found the New Testament tells us viz. in the Law delivered by Moses Iohn I. 17. The Law was given by Moses but Faith and Truth came by Iesus Christ. Cap. VII 19. Did not Moses give you the Law says our Saviour and yet none of you keep the Law And this is the Law which he speaks of where he asks the Lawyer Luke X. 26. What is written in the Law how readest thou v. 28. This do and thou shalt live This is that which St. Paul so often stiles the Law without any other distinction Rom. II. 13. Not the hearers of the Law are just before God but the doers of the Law are justified 'T is needless to quote any more places his Epistles are all full of it especially this to the Romans But the Law given by Moses being not given to all Mankind How are all men sinners since without a Law there is no Transgression To this the Apostle v. 14. Answers For when the Gentiles which have not the Law do i. e. find it reasonable to do by nature the things contained in the Law these having not the
accounted worthy to obtain that World and the Resurrection from the Dead neither marry nor are given in marriage Neither can they die any more for they are equal unto the Angels and are the SONS OF GOD being the Sons of the Resurrection And he that shall read St. Paul's Arguing Acts XIII 32 33. will find that the great Evidence that Jesus was the Son of God was his Resurrection Then the Image of his Father appeared in him when he visibly entred into the state of Immortality For thus the Apostle reasons We Preach to you how that the Promise which was made to our Fathers God hath fulfilled the same unto us in that he hath raised up Iesus again As it is also written in the second Psalm Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee This may serve a little to explain the Immortality of the Sons of God who are in this like their Father made after his Image and Likeness But that our Saviour was so he himself farther declares Iohn X. 18. Where speaking of his Life he says No one taketh it from me but I lay it down of my self I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it up again Which he could not have had if he had been a Mortal Man the Son of a Man of the Seed of Adam Or else had by any Transgression forfeited his Life For the wages of Sin is Death And he that hath incurred Death for his own Transgression cannot lay down his Life for another as our Saviour professes he did For he was the Just One Acts VII 57. and XII 14. Who knew no sin 2 Cor. V. 21. Who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth And thus As by Man came Death so by Man came the Resurrection of the Dead For as in Adam all die so in Christ shall all be made alive For this laying down his Life for others our Saviour tells us Iohn X. 17. Therefore does my Father love me because I lay down my life that I might take it again And this his Obedience and Suffering was rewarded with a Kingdom which he tells us Luke XXII His Father had appointed unto him And which 't is evident out of the Epistle to the Hebrews Chap. XII 2. he had a regard to in his Sufferings Who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the Throne of God Which Kingdom given him upon this account of his Obedience Suffering and Death He himself takes notice of in these words Iohn XVII 1-4 Iesus lift up his eyes to Heaven and said Father the hour is come glorifie thy Son that thy Son also may glorifie thee As thou hast given him power over all flesh that he should give Eternal Life to as many as thou hast given him And this is Life Eternal that they may know thee the only true God and Iesus the Messiah whom thou hast sent I have glorified thee on Earth I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do And St. Paul in his Epistle to the Philippians Chap. II. 8-11 He humbled himself and became obedient unto Death even the death of the Cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name that is above every name That at the name of Iesus every knee should bow of things in Heaven and things in Earth and things under the Earth And that every Tongue should confess that Iesus Christ is Lord. Thus God we see designed his Son Christ Iesus a Kingdom an Everlasting Kingdom in Heaven But Though as in Adam all die so in Christ all shall be made alive And all men shall return to Life again at the last day Yet all men having sinned and thereby come short of the Glory of God as St. Paul assures us Rom. III. 23. i.e. Not attaining to the Heavenly Kingdom of the Messiah which is often called the Glory of God as may be seen Rom. V. 2. XV. 7. II. 7. Mat. XVI 27. Mark VIII 38. For no one who is unrighteous i. e. comes short of perfect Righteousness shall be admitted into the Eternal Life of that Kingdom As is declared 1 Cor. VI. 9. The unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God And Death the Wages of Sin being the Portion of all those who had transgressed the Righteous Law of God The Son of God would in vain have come into the World to lay the Foundations of a Kingdom and gather together a select People out of the World if they being found guilty at their appearance before the Judgment-seat of the Righteous Judge of all men at the last day instead of entrance into Eternal Life in the Kingdom he had prepared for them they should receive Death the just Reward of Sin which every one of them was guilty of This second Death would have left him no Subjects And instead of those Ten Thousand times Ten Thousand and Thousands of Thousands there would not have been one left him to sing Praises unto his Name saying Blessing and Honour and Glory and Power be unto him that sitteth on the Throne and unto the Lamb for ever and ever God therefore out of his Mercy to Mankind and for the erecting of the Kingdom of his Son and furnishing it with Subjects out of every Kindred and Tongue and People and Nation proposed to the Children of Men that as many of them as would believe Iesus his Son whom he sent into the World to be the Messiah the promised Deliverer And would receive him for their King and Ruler should have all their past Sins Disobedience and Rebellion forgiven them And if for the future they lived in a sincere Obedience to his Law to the utmost of their power the sins of Humane Frailty for the time to come as well as all those of their past Lives should for his Son's sake because they gave themselves up to him to be his Subjects be forgiven them And so their Faith which made them be baptized into his Name i.e. Enroll themselves in the Kingdom of Iesus the Messiah and profess themselves his Subjects and consequently live by the Laws of his Kingdom should be accounted to them for Righteousness i.e. Should supply the defects of a scanty Obedience in the sight of God Who counting this Faith to them for Righteousness or Compleat Obedience did thus Justifie or make them Just and thereby capable of Eternal Life Now that this is the Faith for which God of his free Grace Justifies sinful Man For 't is God alone that justifieth Rom. VIII 33. Rom. III. 26. We have already shewed by observing through all the History of our Saviour and the Apostles recorded in the Evangelists and in the Acts what he and his Apostles preached and proposed to be believed We shall shew now that besides believing him to be the Messiah their King it was farther required that those who would have the Priviledge Advantages and