a Reprieve of about Eighty Years Our Opposers can show no Context of Holy Scripture in which their threefold Death for this Sin is contained or in which the Posterity of Adam are said to have his Sin imputed to them and that they are punish'd for it The only Offer they make is from Romans Chap. 5. the Apostle there at v. 19. saith As by one Man's Disobedience many are made Sinners so by the Obedience of one shall many be made Righteous By one Man's Disobedience say they that is by God's Imputation of one Man's Disobedience to them even Adam's in Paradise so many have been made Sinners How much more dexterously and agreeably to the Justice and Wisdom of God Pelagius and the Vnitarians By one Man's Disobedience that is saith Pelagius not as Austin has newly fancied by God's Imputation but by our Imitation of one Man's Disobedience so many have been made Sinners and on the other hand by the Obedience of one that is by Imitation not by Imputation of one Man's Obedience even the Lord Christ's many shall be made Righteous Trinitarians make the same Blunder at ver 18. As by the Offence of one Judgment came upon all Men to Condemnation even so by the Righteousness of one the free Gift came or shall come upon all Men to Justification and Life Here again they see not that by the Offence of one Man and again by the Righteousness of one Man are not as much as to say by the Imputation of one Man's Offence and of one Man's Righteousness but by Imitation of one Man's Righteousness and of another Man's Offence Justification and Condemnation have come upon all Men. We die for imitating the Disobedience of Adam and we shall be justified and saved for and by imitating the Righteousness of the Lord Christ And thus it is that St. Paul himself explains himself in this very Chapter v. 12. As by one Man Sin entred into the World and Death by Sin so also Death hath passed upon all Men for that or because all have sinned He saith not as Trinitarians do because Adam sinned but because all have sinned therefore Death hath passed on all that is all of us have deserved the Death we must undergo or have undergone by our own Sins But they say Infants die and what Sin have they unless you allow the Imputation of Adam's Sin to all his Descendents But why do they not consider too that Beasts die is Adam's Sin Imputed also to them They ought therefore to know that Holy Paul in that Context is speaking only of Adult and Grown Persons as for Infants Beasts and such like that have not Sin because they have not Vnderstanding of Good and Evil of Moral and Immoral such die because they have Mortal Bodies liable to Diseases and Accidents From which Accidents and Diseases to deliver and rescue them it does not please God to Interpose by an Extraordinary and Miraculous Power For which sort of Providence towards them divers Probable Reasons might be given but being not Necessary or Proper to be here inserted I omit them Of Partial Redemption THE Transgression of Adam in Paradise or his eating the Forbidden Fruit was in Him Actual Sin in his Descendents 'tis called Original Sin but the Effects of it are the same in Both namely the before-mentioned three-fold Death or three Deaths Death Temporal which is the separation of the Soul from the Body and all temporal Calamities and Evils Death Spiritual which is the Corruption of the Faculties that we are averse to all Good and inclined to all Evil. Death Eternal which is the everlasting Suffering of Body and Soul in Hell-fire These Deaths are the Consequences and Desert of Adam's Sin to himself as the Actual Offender to us as his Sin is Imputed to us by the Justice of God But the Mercy of God and his Wisdom have found out a most Gracious and Glorious Expedient by which to deliver Mankind though not from Temporal Death yet in part from Spiritual Death and wholly and altogether from Death Eternal But before we speak more particularly of the Expedient 't is necessary to caution Learners that they fall not into this Error that God designed the Benefit of the Expedient for All Men and Women For when we say Mankind or all Men have been Redeemed from the before-mentioned Deaths our meaning is that the Elect or as that most consider'd and weigh'd 17th Article of the English Church speaks Those whom God hath chosen out of Mankind are as that Article farther says brought to everlasting Salvation as Vessels of Honour These are called according to God's purpose in due Season his Spirit working in them And they through Grace obey that Calling These Elect are a definite certain and unalterable Number that can neither be increased nor diminished as is Expresly and in words declared by the Suffrage of the Divines of Great Britain at the Synod of Dort Suffrage p. 9. It is saith the same Suffrage at p. 43. for the Elect that Christ died that He might Effectually obtain for them and Infallibly bestow on them both Remission of Sins and Salvation If the Unskilful ask here How this Doctrine agreeth with those Declarations of Holy Scripture so often repeated which seem to say that Christ died for the Sins of the World or for All Men The Divines above said answer at p. 47. Here it is that the secret Decree of Election sheweth it self inasmuch as the Price was indeed payed for All yet is not Beneficial to All because All have not the Gist of fulfilling the Condition of the Covenant They mean All have not Saving Grace given to them whereby to Believe and to Obey the Gospel They rightly add at p. 55. We no where meet in Scripture any Promise by which God hath bound himself to impart his Grace to All and every One Farthermore the same excellent Suffrage teaches at p. 27. that 't is a Supposition without any good ground that all Infants are saved It saith that those Infants who are saved are saved by virtue of their Election which respecteth not the Age of Persons but only looketh upon the common heap of Fallen Mankind out of which it chooseth And concerning such Choosing or Election it teaches at p. 34. that Grace doth find some whom it Adopteth out of the most Wicked and at their last End while Many who seem less Guilty have no part in this Gift Therefore when All are said to be Redeemed or when 't is said Christ died for All or such like Expressions are used this is to be understood of All sorts or orders of Men and Women He died for High and Low for Old Men and Infants for Youth and Middle-age for Rich and Poor for Wise and Unwise for all these sorts for some particular Persons of all these for such of all these sorts as are Elected And those whoever they be who extend any farther than this the Redemption purchased by Christ are Arminians But
of all sorts and of every Order of Men from the damning Imputation of Adam's Transgression to them to this end it was ne-necessary that a full Reparation should be first made to the Blessed Trinity for that Transgression of Adam and that a Punishment equivalent to the Punishment or threefold Death which Adam had drawn on himself and on his Posterity should be undergone by some Person or Persons in the stead and place of Adam and his Descendents It is true there is no such Vindictive Justice in God that He could not by his Mercy forgive this Transgression or any other but in the case before us God is to be considered as a Righteous Governour who would not suffer his Law to be despised and violated without a full Satisfaction to his Honour and Justice by the Offenders or some other on behalf of the Offenders For this reason it was that 't was necessary to find out a Person or Persons who should undergo the threefold Death for Mankind or other ways make an Equivalent to the Justice of God The Person undergoing the Punishment or the Equivalent must be a Righteous Person else he would need one to satisfy for himself Nay he must be a Person of Infinite both Merit and Dignity else he could not merit Heaven for so many nor could his Sufferings be accepted instead of so many as were obnoxious and obliged to undergo the threefold Death The Expedient therefore at length resolved on by the Blessed Trinity for the Redemption of Mankind was this That a Righteous Person of Infinite Dignity and Merit should be substituted to the Punishment deserved by Sinners in the room stead and place of Sinners This was judged more agreeable to the Majesty of God as Governour of the World than either to forgive to Adam his Transgression and to his Descendents God's Imputation of it to them or than to inflict on him or them any less Punishment as suppose some Temporal Calamity than the threefold Death Which thing God might have done either by his Mercy as a Maker and Father or by his Authority and Prerogative as a Soveraign and Governour 'T is true there is a wonderful depth of Mystery never to be fathom'd by Human Understanding in this manner of proceeding And Human Wisdom would without doubt have chose either to forgive the Sin or to abate somewhat of the Punishment rather than have substituted in the room of the Wicked and Worthless a Person infinitely Righteous and Worthy even tho such Person should be supposed to have offered himself to the Punishment But my Thoughts are not your Thoughts neither are your Ways my Ways saith the Lord. Isa 55.8 The Notes In their Doctrine of Original Sin our Opposers feign that Almighty God imputes the one Sin of one Man to all Men and concludes them thereupon under the threesold Death or three Deaths but in this Doctrine of the Satisfaction they tell us of a contrary Prodigy that he imputes all the Sins of all Men to one Man and what is yet a greater Monster says on him alone a Punishment equivalent to the three Deaths Temporal Spiritual and Eternal of all Mankind We might call this the Trinitarians Fetch-back if it were not that the Interpretation they give of this Doctrine is contrary to the Doctrine it self One would think if we might judg of their meaning by what they say that the Doctrine of the Satisfaction made a compleat Amends for the Doctrine of Original Sin that is that the supposed Satisfaction by Christ did as it were fetch-back the Damage and Losses occasioned they say by the Sin of Adam But 't is not so for tho they say the Redeemer was able to suffer and did actually suffer an Equivalent to the three Deaths of all Mankind yet say they farther neither his Merit nor his Sufferings do any good but only to a few that is to the Elect. As to the Vnitarians they most thankfully and devoutly own profess and publish that the Lord Christ underwent the greatest of Labours and Sufferings for poor wretched Apostate Mankind He made himself an Oblation an Expiatory Sacrifice on the Altar of the Gross for our Sins to reconcile us to God and in some respects God to us But we say that his Labours and Sufferings on our behalf were not as Trinitarians teach designed as a Punishment laid on him in our stead because Punishment is the Evil of Suffering inflicted for the Evil of doing and the Lord Christ having done no Sin as the Holy Scriptures expresly teach 1 Pet. 2. â—3 it necessarily follows that what he underwent were purely Labours and Sufferings not Punishment And for those Sufferings we say further it has pleased God by way of Recompence highly to exalt him and give him a Name above every Name Phil. 2.9 Nor was the Oblation or Sacrifice which the Lord Christ made of himself on our behalf an Oblation made as our Opposers contend to the Justice of God or by way of full Reparation to God's Justice but as all other Sacrifices formerly were an Oblation or Application to the Mercy of God For this Doctrine of ours we judg the following Reasons to be such Proofs as must needs be allowed by every one that considers them freely and impartially 1. One Man could not possibly be judged an Equivalent for such an immense number of Sinners as were all of them obliged to be as righteous as he and because they were not so were liable to Punishment therefore it was not to the Justice of God that the Lord Christ offered himself for those Sinners as an Equivalent but to God's Mercy by way of humble suit 2. If one Man can be conceived to be an Equivalent for all Men yet if the Sufferings or as our Opposers speak the Punishment he underwent was not equivalent to the Punishment due to them then it must not be said he tendred himself to the Justice of God but only to his Mercy on behalf of the Offenders and instead of their Punishment The Punishment as well as the Person suffering must be equivalent else Justice will refuse it but Goodness or Mercy may admit of it But now who sees not that the Temporal Sufferings and three days Death of the Lord Christ were far from being equivalent to the Death Temporal Spiritual and Eternal of so much as one Man 3. Uniratians will never detract from the Dignity of our Saviour's Person they acknowledg with the Scriptures that God was with him nay God by his Spirit was in him But if they could also add as Trinitarians do that the Humanity of Christ was one Person with God yet seeing only the Humanity could suffer or die and seeing no Union of a Man with God can exalt Humanity to be Divinity or make that to be Infinite which of its own nature is Finite therefore the Temporal Sufferings and three days Death of a meer Human Nature cannot be equivalent to the Death Temporal Spiritual and Eternal which is an
Person They confound us yet more if more can be by telling us only and so often of the Creator never of Creators as Trinitarians would have us to speak Gen. 6.7 Jebovah said I will destroy Man whom I have made Isa 42.5 HE that created the Heavens HE that spread out the Earth HE that giveth Breath unto the People Nehem. 9.6 THOV hast made the Heaven the Heaven of Heavens with all their Host the Earth and all things therein the Sea and all that is therein and THOV preservest them all and the Host of Heaven worshippeth THEE This Text assures us there was no dividing the work between two or more Persons It was one THOU who both created and preserves all things and THEE saith the Text the the Host of Heaven worshippeth not YE not THEM not more Persons but one only Isa 4.28 The CREATOR of the Ends of the Earth fainteth not Rom. 1.25 Served the Creature more than Gr. besides the CREATOR But what is not really found in Scripture for their purpose Trinitarians know how to discover that 't is there which with respect to the case before us they do these two ways First by interpreting the Texts which by Confession of their ablest Criticks speak of the new Creation or Renovation of the World from Idolatry to the Knowledg of the one true God which was by Christ concerning the old Creation or the making of Heaven and Earth which was by God Secondly They oft-times honestly add the word or words that were wanting on their behalf which they have done in abundance of Contexts But for both these Artifices their Detection and their Confutation I refer to the brief History of the Vnitarians Of Original Sin SOon after the Creation Adam the first Man transgressing the Law given to him of not eating the forbidden Fruit he thereby incurred the Penalty of Death that was the Penalty annex'd to the Law which he had violated But first he incurred this Penalty not only for himself who was the actual and real Offender but for his whole Posterity God impating to them or reckoning to them his Offence as if they had been the Doers of it Secondly We are to know that in the word Death there is implied not only what is naturally and commonly meant thereby even the Separation of the Soul from the Body and the Body's returning to Dust but first such a Corruption and Depravation of our Faculties that we are all born naturally averse from every good Word and Work and inclined to Evil only and to all kinds of Evil. Then all Temporal Calamities and Evils to which human Life is subject and finally Eternal Damnation All these are implied in the words of the Sanction The day thou eatest thereof thou shalt die and they are by Divines commonly called the three Deaths or the threefold Death Spiritual Temporal and Eternal But we mean not to say that the word Death doth in its first or proper Signification import all the abovesaid Evils But it pleased God when He passed Sentence on Adam to extend the Signification of that Word which exprest and contained the Penalty of his Law 'T is true 't would be cried out on as most unjust among Men to reckon or impute the Transgression of a Father to his Children and other Posterity and much more if they were punish'd for it in a far more extream manner than is truly and indeed implied in the Penalty annex'd to the Law that was violated that is if the Word or Words of the Penalty were extended and strained beyond their proper and natural meaning Yet these things cannot be unjust with God because He can do no Unjustice and the reason of that is because Things or Actions are not just or unjust in themselves or in their own Natures but only as God who hath all Authority and Power either willeth and commandeth them or on the contrary nilleth and forbiddeth them The Notes This Postulatum that Things or Actions are not just or unjust in themselves or in their own Natures but only as the Supream Authority and Power that is to say GOD shall please to will or nill them to command or forbid them is indeed necessary to the Defence of such Doctrines as these that God doth arbitrarily impute the Sin of one Man to all Men and that in punishing those whom he hath made guilty by his meer Will he infinitely exceeds the true proper and natural Signification of the Words in the Sanction that is of the words of that part of his Law which contain the Penalty of transgressing it That Postulatum is so necessary to this Doctrine of Original Sin that it must be owned that the Calvinists have judged better and spoke more consistently than their Opposers of some other Sects and Churches who hold Original Sin as 't is before described and yet seem unwilling to allow of that only Basis on which Calvinists have rightly seen it will stand namely this that Just and Unjust Good and Evil are only the Will and Prohibition of him that hath Supream Power But as the Postulatum is necessary to the Doctrine for which it was devised so it as much destroys the Eternal Rectitude and Holiness of God as the Doctrines in the foregoing Paragraphs which have been already considered overthrow the Unity the Omnipresence and other his Essential Perfections and Attributes It is horrible but to think that these Imputations on the most Holy God are such as would make up the just Character of an Almighty Devil For if the Devil had Supream Power what worse could he do than they feign is done by the Fountain it self of Rectitude and Holiness Could he do worse than impute the Sin of one Man to all Men and punish them for it besides and beyond his own Sanction with an utter Inability to all that is good then punish Inability which was neither their Act nor Desert and of which himself was the only cause with Eternal Damnation Here many to help themselves a little say God saves some from this Ruine he rescues his Elect tho not from Sin and Temporal Death and Calamity yet from Eternal Damnation nay bestows on them the unspeakable and everlasting Beatitudes of Heaven But this is no better than the other For the highest Injustice to the far-greater number is so far from being excused by an ungrounded Partiality for a very few that this latter may be truly called a new and fresh Instance of sort of Unjustice Is it not Partiality and Vnjustice too to make a great number of Creatures of the same kind and tho one deserves no more than another of them either for Good or Evil cherish one with whatsoever Omnipotence can do for him and burn against the other with Wrath eternal and insupportable But they say God having all Authority and Power what He willeth must needs be Law that is to say Justice and what He nills or forbids must be Transgression that is to say Evil Sin and Vnjustice
But from thence it unavoidably follows that the Devil wants nothing but Supream Power to legitimate all his Wickedness and to change the nature of it from Wickedness to Goodness If that Spirit had Supream Power we must call him as we now do GOD most Holy most Just most Righteous And seeing God hath all Power and Authority it would on this Hypothesis be in him Righteous Good and Praise-worthy if He were pleased to damn his most faithful Servants to break the Covenant and disappoint the Hopes of Life and Happiness which he hath confirmed by his Oath and on the contrary should think fit to save not only the most Godless and Impious Men but the very Devils These Consequences are unavoidable on the before-said Hypothesis or Doctrine that Things and Actions are not Good or Evil in themselves but only by the Will of Supream Power and they that admit of such Consequences or cannot decline them how can they be disputed with But let us see what is the Doctrine of the Vnitarians concerning the first Sin or pretended Fall of Adam and the Consequences thereof What Vnitarians teach concerning the Sin of Adam and the Consequences thereon WE say when Almighty God had formed the Protoplasts Adam and Eve He forthwith declared them Proprietors and Lords of whatsoever is in the Earth or Seas Gen. 1.28 Have Dominion saith God there to them over the Fish of the Sea over the Fowl of the Air and over every living thing that moveth on the Earth And I have given you every Herb and every Tree Adam having thus received from his unspeakable Maker such Marks of his Favour was admonish'd withal that he must remember he is a Creature and has received of another whatsoever he is or hath Notwithstanding thou hast to deal with such a Soveraign as will not require of thee unreasonable or troublesom Testimonies of thy Regards and Respects to him See the whole World is before thee and it is all given to thee only in this Paradise there is one Fruit the Fruit of the Tree of Knowledg of that thou art not to eat 'T is the Obedience that thy Maker requires of thee 't is the only Trial his Goodness is pleased to make of thy Love and Duty to him If thou breakest this Charge the Penalty is that thy Life presently departs from thee the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt die that is shalt return to Dust from whence as much of thee as is visible and as thou art yet aware of was taken It cannot be denied that this was the most proper of all Trials the most prudent of all Commands Adam could not be forbid to commit Adultery or Fornication there being but one Woman and she also his Wife or Murder because he had too much occasion for Evt and she for him to entertain such Thoughts or Theft for all the World was theirs But he was thorowly tried by the Prohibition of the Tree of Knowledg because of our natural Thirst of Knowledg and the Ambition all have to be wise It is not necessary however to determine whether the forbidden Fruit had indeed a Power to sharpen the Faculties of the Mind Understanding and Memory 'T was sufficient for the Trial God designed to make of Adam's Obedience only to name or call that Fruit the Fruit of the Tree of Knowledg There was nothing more just than that Adam should be satisfied with the great Advantages he already possest for all the Creatures whether Animate or Inanimate were his and he could not but be sensible that his present Knowledg or Understanding was sufficient both for himself and them But Adam was perswaded by Satan to endeavour himself to make himself more like to Elohim i. e. to the Angels and Spirits of Heaven by the use of the forbidden Fruit. Thou shalt know saith the Tempter if thou follow my Counsel Good and Evil the meaning seemeth to be Thou shalt know whatsoever Good and Evil is in every thing by the use of this happy Fruit. He that forbids thee this Fruit has confest its Virtue in the Name he was given to it why therefore has he forbad it to thee but because he is envious jealous or morose Ye shall not surely die by eating this Fruit for how should it be more mortal to you than to the Serpent and to so many other Beasts and Birds as daily gather it up Adam hearkens to these and such like Reasonings eats the forbidden Fruit and thereby becomes obnoxious to the Penalty even present Death But it pleased God to defer the threatned Punishment or Penalty he deferred it for upwards of nine hundred Years which seem to be Lunar Years that is Months notwithstanding what Dr. Lightfoot and others have urged for such kind of Years as are now in use Their Arguments are partly Mistakes partly Inadvertences partly groundless Conjectures But tho the threatned Punishment was not presently executed on Adam and Eve yet the Wisdom of God did not think fit to incourage Sin by wholly passing over this beginning of it He punish'd Adam and caution'd his Posterity by cursing the Earth that is by causing it to bring forth Thorns and Thistles c. as well as profitable Seeds and Plants so that Adam and his Descendents must now Manure and Till the Ground if they would have a regular Harvest of Seeds and Fruits Against Eve he pronounced that whereas Conceiving and Child-bearing are naturally and necessarily both sickly and painful in some degree yet both these should be more troublesome to her than usual or natural I will GREATLY multiply thy Sorrows in thy Conception and with Sorrow shalt thou bring forth saith the Angel who represented God Gen. 3.16 The Holy Scriptures go no farther than this in the account they give of the Sin of Adam and the Punishment and Consequences thereof saving that they expresly contradict the Doctrine of Trinitarians concerning a threefold Death Temporal Spiritual and Eternal which was inflicted they say on Adam and on all his Descendents for his Sin Where shall we look for the true Explication or Meaning of the Penalty or Punishment annex'd to a Law but in the Sentence which the Judg and Lawgiver himself passes on the Offender The Law was this The day thou eatest thereof of the forbidden Fruit thou shalt die Gen. 2.17 that is say the Vnitarians Thou shalt return to Dust thy Life and Spirit shall leave thy Body and be disposed of as shall seem good to thy Maker who in Judgment always remembers Mercy Let us now see in the Sentence whether this was not indeed the whole meaning of these words of the Law Thou shalt die Gen. 3.19 Dust thou art and to Dust thou shalt return Here is the evident Declaration from the Mouth of the Judg and Law-giver giving Sentence what was meant by the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt DIE. And this Penalty Punishment and Sentence was at length executed on Adam tho he had the favour of a long Reprieve
meer Human Nature continuing and abiding a bare and meer Human Nature is a Divine Nature For in affirming it hath Infinite Dignity and Merit how much soever they may say in words 't is a bare and meer Human Nature they have in sense affirmed 't is a Divine Nature For what is Divine but as much as to say of Infinite Dignity and Infinite Excellence or Merit The third Wonder is That by Virtue of the Incarnation of a Divine Person in an Human Nature the Divine Person or God must be said to have been born in Time to have suffered and died and on the contrary the Humanity or Man Christ Jesus must be said to have been from all Eternity to be Omnipotent Omnipresent Creator of all things and whatsoever else is said of God But that our Opposers may not complain that they are misrepresented I must own this is only the fore part of the Prodigy the other end or hinder part is of a contrary Nature For tho you must say God was born God suffered God died yet saith their Doctrine farther you are not really to think God can be born in Time can suffer or can die and on the other hand you must say the Man Christ Jesus was from all Eternity created the World is Omnipresent and Omnipotent but you are not so to think The reason is because the Communication of the Properties of the Divinity to the Humanity and of the Humanity to the Divinity is not real but only nominal or in words Now Unitarians being but plain Fellows and having Country Consciences like not this juggling that we must say one thing and must think or mean another Yet because we ought to yield to hard things for Peace sake if our Opposers are content that we may do so also in the other Articles that is if they are content that we only say as is said in those Articles and may declare at the same time that we think the contrary and if Trinitarians will also so do in those Articles we will comply with them in this third Wonder or Mystery of the Incarnation And this is the only Composition that can possibly be agreed to in these Controversies without renouncing our Christianity our reasonable Faculties and our Senses Of Grace IT is true the Lord Christ God and Man in one Person paid down a more than sufficient Ransom for the Actual Deliverance of a thousand Worlds from the Imputation of Adam's Sin and the Consequences of that Imputation even the three Deaths yet the Ransom was not accepted for all but only for the Elect nor yet was it accepted for Deliverance from the whole Punishment but only from part of it For no Man is thereby delivered from such a share of Spiritual Death as to be able to do a good Action or think a good Thought without an immediate and particular Assistance or GRACE of God's Spirit beginning continuing and perfecting such good Action or Thought in him and by him As hath been often defined and concluded in the Councils of the Orthodox in opposition to the Heresy of Pelagius revived by Vnitarians and Arminians The Notes After they have tried their Skill in misrepresenting and deforming the true Idea we ought to have of God and of his Perfections and Attributes our Opposers proceed to calumniate Human Nature the Image of God and will have it to be the Image of the Devil They tell us we come into the World so depraved in all our Faculties and Powers that we cannot do any good Action no nor think a good Thought without a particular and extraordinary Grace of God beginning continuing and perfecting such good Action or Thought in us and by us In sober sadness is this the Character of that sort of Creature of whom the Apostle saith be is made in the similitude of God James 3.9 Or is it the very Description of the Devil himself if at least it be not a Calumny even of him Will God own such a Creature as his Similitude as has a natural Impotence to all that is holy and good and a violent and perpetual Biass to Evil only and to every kind of Evil Yes they say our Likeness to God consists not in a Capacity to Holiness or ought that good is but in the Dominion we have over some Creatures in this lower World But by this account of our Likeness to God he that is most of all unlike to God is much more the Similitude and Image of God than Man is the Dominion and Power of Satan is incomparably greater and larger than Man's is therefore in their Hypothesis he is more the Similitude of God than Man is But as absurd as these things are I will not now insist on them but content my self to acquaint the Reader with some of the principal Reasons of the Vnitarians why they hold that Man is a free Agent as capable of doing Good as Evil nay more capable of the former because he has more reason for it than of the latter not the Slave to only one of the Contraries but at absolute liberty towards both 1. Our Blushes and Remorses for having acted at any time otherways than we ought are Testimonies and Witnesses of our certain and internal Consciousness that we could have done as Religion and Duty require of us that is could have forbore that Evil and have done the contrary Good 2. Deliberation and Consultation what and how we are to act argue also not only that we are free but that we are sensible we are so 3. We experience that our Piety and Vertue are our own Work by the Difficulty we feel and the slow Progress we are able to make in attaining those Habits and in subduing the contrary Habits 4. If Men are good not by a spontaneous Choice or Power of their own but only by an extraordinary and immediate Aid no tolerable reason can be given why we should not always be acted to Good or why we are but partially and imperfectly Good Is it credible that God should do his own Work in us after a desultory inconstant and impersect manner 5. What Piety or Vertue is it or how can God love or esteem any Person whether Him or Her for that well-doing or that abstinence from Evil which was not their own Choice Will or Discretion but the Work and Effect solely of God's Grace acting by them or in them 6. That every good Thought and Action is not an Inspiration or the Gift or Grace of God is confirmed by this that God doth sometimes disallow and forbid some good Intentions and Actions of his Servants Thus 't was a good Thought and Intention in David that he would build an House for the Lord a Temple for God's publick Worship and Service 't was so good a Thought and Purpose that it was rewarded with a Promise from God that God would build David 's House i. e. would establish and confirm his Family on the Throne of Judah and Israel But as good a
Arminianism is only a Limb of Socinianism as a Map of a Province or Kingdom is but a Limb of a Quarter-map or of a Map of the whole World For Arminians have borrowed all they have both Doctrine and Argument from the Socinians or Vnitarians And for that reason it must be farther said that Such as extend the Redemption by Christ beyond what is above declared are so farforth Socinianiz'd have departed from the Articles of the English Church and from the Suffrage of the British Divines at Dort The Notes They tell us that God so Imputed the single Transgression of one Man to all Men as to make all Men thereupon obnoxious to the Three Deaths Temporal Spiritual and Eternal but that soon Repenting him of this Rigour he took up a Contrary Resolution even to Redeem all Men. Well do they hold of that Mind For if they do 't is no very Hurtful Tragi-comedy because however Unjustly all Men were Condemned yet if they are all Pardoned they have been more Scared than Hurt But the Matter it seems is otherways for when God resolves to Redeem all Men the meaning is he intends to Redeem Some and farther in Electing or Choosing those Some his Election oft-times is from the most wicked and those also at their last End or when they have sinned as long as they can In a word of those Few whom God is pleased to Redeem from that Ruine which his Imputation of Adam's Sin to them brought on them he chooses They say the least Worthy for Objects of the Highest Mercy and exercises the uttermost Unjustice and Cruelty on those that are Better or however not so bad Let us consider these two Notable pieces of Orthodox Doctrine 1. God hath Elected to Salvation and has Redeemed only Some of those Many who were undone by his Imputation of another Man's Transgression to them Now though Vnitarians deny there was any need of a Redeemer to rescue us from Adam's Transgression or the Punishment thereof because neither could that Transgression be Imputed to us nor could we be justly Punish'd for it yet on other accounts we own there was need of a Redeemer As to reconcile the World to the one True God from whom they were departed by an Universal Idolatry and to reconcile God to the World for that and Other Actual Sins and divers other Reasons But we say also that whatsoever was done or suffer'd by Christ the Redeemer or Saviour was equally done for all Men and Women none excepted We deny not that Holy Scripture speaketh of the Elect but we say it means not thereby some few certain Persons chosen out of the rest of Mankind to Eternal Life while all others are doomed to Damnation or lest in an incapacity of Salvation But the Elect are all Such as turn to God all such are by him Elected that is chosen and designed for Salvation and he would have all Men and Women to be of that number if they are not it proceeds from their own Negligence or Wilfulness not from Adam much less from God This is most clearly the Doctrine taught in Holy Scripture even that the Redemption by Christ is intended for All John 6.51 The Bread which I give saith our Saviour is my Flesh which I give for the Life of the WORLD The beloved Disciple saith the Lord Christ was a Propitiation for our Sins and not for ours only but for the Sins of the WHOLE World 1 John 2.2 St. Paul to the Romans saith By the righteousness of one even the Lord Christ the free Gist is come upon ALL Men to Justification of Life Rom. 5.18 The Author to the Hebrews saith By the Grace of God Jesus Christ hath tasted death for EVERY Man Heb. 2.9 Or if they want a Text wherein the very word Imputed is found St. Paul saith God by Christ reconciled the WORLD to himself not Imputing their Transgressions to them 2 Cor. 5.29 To tell us Here as our Opposers do that the WORLD the WHOLE World ALL Men EVERY Man are only some Men and those also a very Few what is it but to give us a Flat denial of Scripture instead of an Interpretation thereof And I will Here leave it with the unprejudic'd Considerer whether these Texts do not sufficiently prove this part of the Damnable Socinian Heresy But they say farther 2. In choosing or electing out of the heap of fallen Mankind God's Election or Choice is sometimes from among the most wicked and those also at their last end or after they have sinned as long as they can The next thing that we may expect from some Men is that they will write a Panegyrick in Praise of the Devil If they had said that the Election for which they contend is made by the Devil or falls upon Persons by chance of the Dice it had been credible that Redemption and Salvation is the chance of the most wicked and at their last end But to say People are elected to Salvation and that by God and yet that they are the most wicked and at their last end who are elected and saved is not said without such manifest Impiety that I will not now stand to dispute against it but leave it with every sincere Lover of God to judg betwixt us and our Opposers But this one thing I will observe that when they were loading their Maker with such scandalous Imputations they should have so contrived their Calumnies as to be self-consistent and not contradictory to one another as they are in this Article For of what worse or worst Men and Women elected to Salvation do they dream when themselves have before assured us that the Imputation of Adam's Sin to us makes All averse to all Good and inclined to all Evil Of such Persons there is neither worse nor worst but all are bad alike so bad that Satan himself neither is nor can be worse If we all have such an Inclination to Evil only and to every kind of Evil as is neither restrained nor corrected but by an extraordinary and particular Grace of God it unavoidably follows that all are bad alike and that 't is a Contradiction to say the worst or the most wicked are chosen to be Subjects of the Grace of Redemption and of a Pre-eternal Election 'T is no manner of Evasion here to say that the Restraining Grace which God bestows more or less on every Person even on the Reprobate hath several degrees and from hence it comes to pass that some are not so bad as the rest For seeing 't is not their own Choice or Act but merely the Momentary Grace blown into them that restrains any from any sort of Wickedness it can no more be said of such that one is better or less bad than another than a chained Lion can be said to be tamer or less fierce than a Lion who is loose and at full liberty Of the Satisfaction WHen the Divine Wisdom and Goodness had determined to redeem all Men that is some
Infinite Punishment of all Mankind no nor of one Man 4. But if it were admitted that one Man was so dignified by the Inhabitation of God in him as to be an Equivalent for all Men admitting also that the three days Temporal Death of such a Man amounts to as much as the Deaths Temporal and Spiritual and the Eternal Damnation of all Mankind What will follow hereupon It will follow that God is obliged in Equity to release all Mankind from all the three Deaths Temporal Spiritual and Eternal else He hath received an Equivalent on behalf of Mankind without discharging those for whom He received it which is contrary to Equity nay to Justice For in Equity an Equivalent ought to discharge the Person whether he be Offender or Debtor but if the Equivalent be not only tendred but accepted also on behalf of the Debtor or Offender the Offender hath Wrong done him if he is not immediately discharged of his Punishment and the Debtor of his Debt But do Trinitarians pretend or dare they that God doth discharge Mankind from the three Deaths on the Oblation and Sacrifice of himself made by the Lord Christ on their behalf By no means they own we are not at all discharged from Death Temporal but in some part from Death Spiritual and only a few Persons from Death Eternal It follows that the Sufferings and Death of our Saviour were not in deed an Equivalent to the three Deaths of Mankind 5. To add now no more The Unitarian Doctrine is consistent nay is the very same with what the Scriptures every-where say namely that Almighty God of his Grace the Riches and Abundance of his Grace and Love has pardoned Offenders for Christ's sake on the Conditions on their part of Faith Repentance and Newness of Life But the Trinitarian Doctrine which saith the Punishment laid on the Lord Christ was truly equivalent to the Punishment due to all Mankind doth deprive God our Maker and Father of the Glory of his Pardoning Grace and Mercy Nay it saith in effect that we are not beholden to God our Father on that account It saith he hath been harsh nay hath been apparently unjust in that he hath received more than an Equivalent for our discharge from the three Deaths and yet he hath not wholly releas'd any and but very few are at all released I will only add Whereas Trinitarians call the Sufferings of the Lord Christ a Punishment and will have that Punishment to be equivalent to the Infinite Punishment due they say to Mankind for Sin Original and Actual and whereas they call this Doctrine the Doctrine of the SATISFACTION by the Lord Christ they have mistaken in the Name as well as in the Thing 'T is the Unitarians who in proper speaking hold that the Lord Christ made Satisfaction to God for Sin not Trinitarians We say that the Sufferings of the Lord Christ not being equivalent in the exact Scales of Justice for what all Mankind have deserved yet God was satisfied with them that is was graciously pleased to accept them as an Intercession on our behalf and this is the proper Notion of a Satisfaction But Trinitarians in saying the Sufferings of Christ were equivalent to the Demerit of our Sins were a full Payment to the Justice of God for them do not hold a Satisfaction but a Reparation or Plenary Amends The more elegant Latinists call Confession Deprecation and such like imperfect and partial Reparations and Payments by the Name of Satisfactions Of the Incarnation BEcause no other but a Person of Infinite Merit and Dignity could satisfy the Divine Justice for Adam's Transgression therefore the second Person of the Blessed Trinity called the Son offered himself to undergo the Equivalent to that Punishment or threefold Death which belonged to Adam and his Descendents and this Offer was accepted by the other two Persons of the Trinity It was agreed that the Son should become incarnate in an Human Nature should be Whole and All united to a Finite Man even the Man Christ Jesus and be one Person with him By this means the Man Christ Jesus became of that unspeakable Merit and Dignity that one drop of his Blood was an Equivalent to the Eternal Punishment of all Mankind in Hell-Fire and his Holiness and the Merit thereof was infinitely more than enough for himself it was meritorious of Heaven for never so many Sinners The Son was so incarnate in a particular Human Nature as to be personally thereto united in the very Womb of the Virgin Mary so that Mary as General Councils of the Orthodox have rightly defined was not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Mother of Christ but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mother of God This Incarnation of the Son in the Man Christ Jesus begets also such a Communication of Idioms that is of Properties and Attributes between the Divinity and the Humanity of the Lord Christ that we must say on the one hand God was born God suffered God died as we must say also on the other hand the Man Christ Jesus is Eternal Omnipotent Omnipresent Creator of Heaven and Earth As all Learned Divines acknowledg and Cardinal Bellarmine in particular has largely proved from Fathers and Councils of the Orthodox Bellar. de Christo l. 3. c. 9. The Notes The Doctrine of the Incarnation claims the place of all the Trinitarian Doctrines even of the Trinity it self in regard of its Seniority For while our Opposers were only Homo-ousians that is believed and professed only two Eternal and Consubstantial Persons not having yet dreamt that the Holy Spirit is God in the days of the first Nicene Council even then they held the Incarnation of the second of those Persons Neither does this Doctrine come behind any of their Doctrines either in the Number or the Rarity and Strangeness of its Wonders and Mysteries but of these three are more remarkable than the rest I will make a short Reflection on each of them The first Wonder is that an Infinite Person is whole and all incarnate in a Finite Nature Which amounts to this That Infinite is less than Finite for else how should Infinite be incarnate that is cased in the Finite But make the greatest Allowances possible yet the Infinite which is whole and all incarnate in the Finite can at most but be commensurate to the Finite that is but equal to it Now these are two such Paradoxes that till our Opposers can separate them from their Doctrine of the Incarnation they will never perswade that Doctrine to any who make use of their Reason and Consideration The second great Mystery or Wonder of this Doctrine is that the particular Human Nature in which a Person of the Trinity vouchsafed to be incarnate became thereby of Infinite Dignity and Merit for 't was an Equivalent for an Infinite number of Men and for the Infinite Punishment due to them and yet still remained and continued a meer and bare Human Nature Which is to say a