the noise of it but still men are to seek what this great thing should be They awake men out of their sleep and make them look and gaze about them but let them see nothing of that which they have to take in hand They bid them indeed Believe but it is very hard to know when they do They have intangled Faith in Disputes when it should have been imployed in good Works They have obscured a plain thing in many laborious definitions of it They have made it so subtill and to consist in so nice a point that it is a difficult thing for any to see it They handle matters of doubt weakly and as before a people that will accept of any thing In the Doctrine of Manners there is little to be had but Generality and Repetition The bread of life they toss up and down but break it not They say in the gross that men must live well but they tell them not how to live They bring not their Doctrines down to Cases of Conscience that a man may be warranted in his perpetual Actions whether they be lawfull or not Nor take they care to teach men their lawful liberty as well as their restraints To keep them from superstitious Observances as well as Prophane transgressions Nay I wish we could not say that it is the least of some mens care to promote a godly life Faith is made a thing that is quite distinct from it Good Works and Faith are commonly opposed in the Justification of a sinner The one is thought to exclude the other And to be justified it is said to be necessary that a man do Nothing for it The most that Christ can get is by way of Gratitude which you know is small or none in bad Natures At the best they will put him off with desires or purposes or an indeavour of a new life though still these things be ineffectual All which is said for no other end but that you may not have mens persons in admiration That you may be at liberty to prove all things and hold fast that which is good That you may not bear a greater reverence to Masters then you do to Truth which is ready to become the portion of those who are more in love with it then with their party And since you seem to me to be one of those I shall spare no pains to bring you and Truth together But if you think it needful I will give you further satisfaction in this which we have contested and make you confess that there is nothing plainer then that which I have said of Faith in Christ You will gratifie me very much replyed the other if you will be at the trouble to teach me this lesson better And I am prepared already by what I have now learnt to consider and weigh not who but what it is that I hear Very good said he again let me Catechise you then a little and be not offended at this common and easie Question Do you not think that Christ came into the World for some end Nay was he not sent of God upon some high design You cannot doubt of it and therefore I will not stay for your answer But tell me what do you think that great end was Wherefore for instance did he dye and shed his blood Was it only that our sins might be pardoned Did he bear the Cross that we might bear none Did he deny his own Will that we might have liberty to do ours Is his Death to excuse us from holy living Hypocrisie indeed thinks so but true Religion teaches us that the intent of his death was by keeping us from dying to make us alive to God By saving us from execution when we were condemned to render us honest men by denying of himself to teach us to take up our Cross and follow him Will you hear what they that knew the mind of Christ have taught us in this argument He that committeth sin saith St. John is of the Devil 2 Joh. 3.8 for the Devil sinneth from the beginning For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the Devil which is as much as to say that he appeared in the world that men might cease to sin And so St. Paul tells us 2 Cor. 5.15 That he dyed for all that they which live should not henceforth live to themselves but to him which dyed for them and rose again i.e. will come to judge them as a little before he had declared This is the end for which he gave himself for his Church That he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word Ephes 5.25 26 27. that he might present it to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish Nor is it a slight and superficial Holiness that he intends the clensing only of the outside or the washing away of some pollutions but He gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity Titus 2.14 and purify to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works For he hath reconciled us as it is in another place in the body of his flesh through death Colloss 1.21 22. to present us holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight And to say no more St. Peter also teaches us that He his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree 1 Pet. 1.24 that we being dead to sin should live unto righteousness by whose stripes we are healed I know not what sense Hypocrisie may pick out of these words which hopes the scourges on Christs back will save sinners from the lash and that his death shall preserve them from dying though their sins still live But it is evident to them that are sincere that the Apostles meaning is our Saviour dyed not meerly to save us from dying of our wounds or to take away the anguish and torment of them but that our Natures might be healed and made sound and whole again He is such a Physitian as removes the pain and the smart by curing of the wound that easeth the part affected by making it well that doth not lend his Creeple patient a Crutch to support him but infuses strength into his feet and anckle-bones and spirits into his sinnews that he may walk in the wayes of Gods commandments I wish there was nothing harder then this to understand in the Book of God It is not a truth which men cannot but which they will not understand It is against a corrupt interest or else they would not resist it There is a strong party in their heart against this end of Christs death or else there would be no dispute about it The biass that inclines their will is not on the side of this truth It contradicts their pleasures their unlawful gain or some such thing which they are loath to leave and therefore it
yet I have not done so much because I think these things are so grosly ridiculous that they laugh themselves to scorn I have only told the plain story of them and that confutes it self sufficiently To expose things of this nature to the world is abundantly to disprove them To bring them into view is to put them to shame and make them hide their face To make mention of them is enough to silence them We need not be at the trouble to abuse them for they make Invectives against themselves and carry their own Satyrs in their bosome Not to speak of them is the only Civility we can do them It is necessary to shut our eyes if you would not have us smile at the folly which they reveal to us We do not first strip them and then lay the lash upon them for as soon as they appear they discover their own nakedness and carry a whip at their own backs But suppose any of them be more neatly contrived and cunningly painted the better to deceive would you not have us pull off the Mask or wash off the paint that we may shew things in their proper colours That is all that we intend and therefore be not angry at it If we should throw never so much salt in your face you would receive no harm unless you be raw and ulcerous But I beseech you what are the Authors you speak of upon whose credit we are to receive these things are they not such as need some body of more credit to be their Vouchers To cite the authority of such men is as if you should bring those for your sureties for whose honesty not only Certificates but also pawns and engagements of Bodies would be required from other men that are better known then themselves Not only we but some that believe as you do in other things have the honesty to accuse the fraud of the first beginners of these stories and the folly of them that follow their Sotteries They do not stick to say that they are very dull people and such as never are wont to blow their Noses who do not smell the forgery of them that first stuff their Sermons and then their Writings with suchlike tales Nay in plain words they tell us that all Histories within seven or eight hundred years last past are so hydropically swoln with lying Legends that a man would think the Authors of them had made it their main strife who should advance the greatest number Then said one of the Pilgrims you do not believe I warrant the story of St. John the Evangelist appearing to St. Edward the Confessor in such an habit as you now see us wear and craving an Alms of him who gave him his Ring off from his finger knowing nothing but that he was a poor man that stood in need of a great Charity Did not God do a great honour herein to Pilgrimages and the holy Reliques which they went to visit Indeed said the Father again I have not faith enough to believe it and I wonder much how you came to know that St. John went a begging to that pious Prince O said the other that is a thing not hard to know for as a certain Abbot hath told us St. John himself revealed it to two English men as they were going to visit the Holy Sepulchre For they being in danger to loose themselves in an unknown Countrey were directed in their way by that blessed Apostle Who told them they should have a prosperous Voyage and that God and he would be propitious to them for their good Kings sake whom I loved said he very tenderly for the excellency of his Chastity I am John the Apostle and you shall carry back this Ring to him which he gave me some dayes since and let him know that the day of his death approaches and that six moneths shall not pass over his head ere I put him into the company of those Virgins which follow the Lamb wheresoever he goes Truly replyed the Father with a smile I am no more satisfied then I was before and cannot possibly resign up my belief to any such relations of the dronish Monks of those days This story seems to me to be just as true as another which the same Abbot reports how that St. Edward one day saw Jesus Christ himself upon the Altar stretching forth his hand to bless him with the sign of the Cross as he was worshipping of the Host and adoring the Divine presence there A thing that was never talkt of till he was dead as the Author of it acknowledges and then it was pretended that he had given it in charge to the Earl that saw this apparition with him and conjured him most sacredly that he should say nothing of it while he lived Which is as much as to say that it should not be told while it could be confuted by that Good King who would have made this lye to have stuck in the Authors throat I perceive said another of the Pilgrims that you have obstinately bolted your heart against all these pious Stories but yet I hope you do not disallow of all Pilgrimages nor think it unprofitable for the souls health to go to Jerusalem to worship at the Sepulchre of our Lord. To tell you the truth replyed he all is alike to me I do not imagine there is any holiness in that Land more then in any other nor can I have an opinion of any Sanctity that I shall bring away with me if I should go thither And therefore it is far better to employ our selves well at home then to take so long a journey to do that which may as well be done in any other place That 's strange answered the other I see now you matter not though you disbelieve the Scriptures themselves which give us many examples of Holy Pilgrimages As the Lame you know and the blind went up to Jerusalem to be healed in the Pool of Bethesda v. Rhem. Test And the Eunuch came out of Ethiopia to Worship in that City and at certain times all the people of Jerusalem went up to their Feasts which I have been told were all so many Pilgrimages But howsoever that be you may see if you will that they are as old as Christ himself and were conceived as Wise men judge at the very same time with him For he went a Pilgrimage in the Womb of his Mother to see Elizabeth in the Hill Countrey And after that he went from Nazareth in Galilee to Bethlehem Judah when she was near the time of her travel Pits l. 3. cap. 2. de peregr And as he honoured Pilgrimages thus in his Mothers belly so afterward when he hung on her breast he travelled into Egypt and after that returned into Judaea and every year went up to the Temple of Jerusalem I have waited a great while said the Father who here interrupted him for some word or other that should drop from your mouth to the purpose but
shall be false though never so clear in it self lest these beloved sins should suffer any harm But if there were any honesty in mens hearts if they were void of guile they would be able to see this without the help of so many testimonies out of holy writ that it was not a thing worthy of the Son of God to come and dye for any less end then to make the World better and render it obedient to the Creator For what do you mean I beseech you when you say that Jesus satisfied for your sins What was it do you think that he gave satisfaction unto Was it not all those Glorious Attributes of God his Wisdom his Truth his Justice his Holiness saving the Honour of which he might now pass by the offences of returning sinners Was it not that the credit of all these might be maintained and yet the rebels not perish That the Sentence might not be executed and yet the Authority of the Laws be preserved There is nothing plainer then that this death of Christ did do great honour to God in the face of the World asserted his right gave countenance to his Authority proclaimed his righteousness and purity was a not able testimony on his behalf against sinners and so there could be nothing more powerful to move God to grant a pardon to those rebels that would submit to him since now he should lose nothing by it but that which he had a mind to give away and not demaund viz. the penalties which they had incurred by the breach of his Laws But is it not manifest then that God cannot love sin nor be friends with sinners until they amend Did not the death of Christ shew that his nature is such that he cannot indulge men in their trespasses Is it not apparent that it was not fit to pardon even penitent and returning offenders unless he shewed his displeasure at their offences Did he not take care to secure his Authority when he issued out a pardon There is nothing more visible And if Hypocrisie had not over-run us and thrust true Reason as well as Religion out of doors men would easily see that Christ could not dye meerly to procure us a pardon much less that men might sin with more security and without any fear of punishment No natural reason tells us that men must needs be hateful to God while they are unlike him that all the Blood of Christ cannot wash them and make them lovely as long as they continue in actual rebellion against him His very nature is against such men his Wisdom is an enemy to them For how should he maintain any Government in the World if he himself should be the cherisher of Traitors if he should take care for their protection and set up a Sanctuary to which they may boldly fly if he should make the Altar of the Cross a refuge where they may find Salvation and Safety who are the opposers of his Authority It cannot be that God should be so liberal as to give away all his own right He cannot quit his title and claim unto our universal obedience It is impossible that Christ by his death should repeal all the Laws of God and absolve us from our duty There is no question he intended to strengthen them when he made a relaxation And when he procured a dispensation he did more establish and secure that which is not dispensed withall It is a rule of Reason that all exceptions do confirm the Law They tell us that it is not to be extended to any further indulgence And therefore Christ dying that the punishment might not be executed this is all the remission that we are to expect and not that God should remit all our duty to him It is very easie if men were well disposed to read at once in the death of Christ the greatest Love of God to us and the greatest Love to his Laws His Love to us appears in that he would for our good and that we might not be eternally undone lay aside his own right which he hath to punish forgive us a debt which we were not able to pay alter his Law and abate the strictness of it dispense with the execution of the Old Law and make a New one of Grace and Favour and that he might do so and save both us from dying and his Law from contempt by our escape that he would provide such a wise remedy as this of his Sons dying for us Herein was his Love indeed manifested and we can never sufficiently admire it that he would have him dye rather than us that he would have him suffer that we might be delivered But then this also plainly tells us the great Love that he bears to Holiness to his Laws and to our Duty which he took care should not be injured by this favour and remission Though he would not have all dye out of love to us yet he would have one lest we should still continue in the love of sin Though he would not have every one of us suffer for the breach of his Laws yet he would have Christ suffer that we might not take the boldness still to break them This death of his Son reduced things to an excellent temper providing that neither we nor God might be damnified That we might not suffer for what we have done and that he might not suffer by our doing still the same That he might be what he is and we become what we ought That the old Original Laws which require our obedience might remain in force and the rigour of them not be executed for our disobedience That he might part with some of his right and yet recover all the rest In one word that he might be moved to let go his right to punish us and we not moved to be careless in yielding him the rest of his right which he hath to our hearty and constant obedience I wish heartily that you and every body else would seriously consider this and not expect that God should not require your service and obedience for it is so much his due that for the sake of his Son he cannot part with his right and claim unto it Nay I have a bolder thing to say than all this and that is That the Death of Christ is so far from intending our pardon only that it is not the chiefest thing that he intends Of the two the purifying of our hearts and lives was more in his design than the forgiveness of sin and this was but in order to the other So much you may easily gather from many of those places of the Holy Writings which were mentioned before for though he bare our sins in his own body on the Tree yet it was for this end this was the ultimate scope of it that we being dead to sin might live unto righteousness And so another Apostle saith He gave himself for our sins Gal. 1.4 that he might deliver us from this present evil
World By shewing his willingness to pass by our faults he would move us to acknowledge them to repent of them and become more dutiful This must be done before we can actually receive his pardon and absolution Titus 3.5 6 7. according to that of the Apostle He saved us according to his mercy by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost that being justified by his Grace we should be made Heirs of eternal life Where it is visible to them that will not shut their eyes that his Mercy cannot save us unless we become New Creatures and that this must go before the Justification which we expect by the Grace of God And indeed reason tells us that Christ must need have more regard to his Fathers rights than to our accommodation and intend more the reclaiming of his rebellious subjects than the procuring of their pardon Which is a thing so apparent that I am ashamed to do more than mention it And besides by this time I believe you will be ready to ask me a question who have asked you so many and demand to what purpose have you made this long discourse The Answer is ready and the end of it is as clear as any thing that hath been said viz. That since justifying Faith is to have respect to our Saviour and his Death just according to the intention of God in sending of him it cannot be so little as the casting our selves upon him for pardon of sin The former part of this argument you will grant me for we must look upon an object according as it is proposed Faith cannot apprehend things otherwayes than God hath revealed them it cannot receive the Son of God in any other manner than as the Father gave him The consequent then God himself demands your assent unto for you see that he had another end and a far greater also in giveing his Son for us than the forgiveness of our offences He gave him that he might cleanse and purge our Souls from all filthiness that he might make us holy and unblameable in his sight Why do you not then thus receive him Or how comes it about that you will not only put this end behind the other but also speak as if justifying Faith had nothing else to do but to lay hold on the merits of Christ This I am sure you make to comprehend the whole notion of it for we hear of nothing besides in its definition This is either all the business of Faith or else you do very ill not to express the rest I beseech you in the Name of Christ that dyed for us reform this grand errour Let your Faith be as large as the Gospel it self And let this be your principal care that it may purifie your heart When you expect to be justified through Faith in his Blood Heb 9.14 remember that it was shed to purge your conscience from dead works to serve the Living God And that I may resume the beginning of my discourse and so make way for a speedy conclusion let me ask you another Question or two which seem to be very pertinent to my present design If there was an end and so great an one as you have confessed of Christs coming into the World then what is he but a means unto this end He dyed saith the Apostle 1 Pet. 3.18 that he might bring us to God And by him we believe in God who raised him from the dead and gave him Glory that our Faith and Hope might be in God Cap. 1.21 Our belief in God then which is no small thing but comprehends all our duty to him was the end of Christs Appearing and of all he did and therefore must not he stand in the place of a means to it It must be so said the other But what then continued the Father will become of your resting on Christ and your staying or leaning on him for Salvation Is it not manifest that this only is insufficient for your purpose that it will let you fall to the ground and leave you short of your happiness Is it not plain that this Faith fixes it self where it should proceed and rests in the means whereby it should advance to a noble end There is nothing me-thinks more evident than that the Faith which justifies a sinner is not that which lastly terminates it self in the person of Christ and which doth not clearly and in its own nature produce a cordial obedience to God Means must be used and not rested in From whence it unavoidably follows that Christ himself and his merits must not be rested in as the last end of our Faith but it must go further and beget an holy life Let us so speak of Faith then that it may be visible whither it tends Let it be seen at what it aimes and that it designs more than the casting our selves into the arms of Christ that he may protect us from the wrath to come Learn I beseech you before it be too late that Jesus cannot save a man by a naked confidence in him i.e. in his person or any thing that he hath done or can do All they that think so reproach our Saviour and make him the advocate of sin and not of sinners one that shall save their lusts and not them from the power of them They stay in the half-way to Heaven and so shall never come thither They rest when they should go forward They lean upon that staff wherewith they should walk They make Christ their support only who should be also their strength They cast themselves upon him but would not have him carry them to God and a divine nature They make him to stand in their way and not to be the way unto obedience They render him an enemy to God who shall keep his subjects with him and detain them from their duty They content themselves with what they find in him and care not for any righteousness of their own They rest satisfied with what he hath done and by vertue of that do nothing themselves And so he that is made of God a means of life they make to themselves a means of death because they make him indeed the End of all and not the means to our End CAP. XXXIX The joy which the Pilgrim conceived in this discourse and how much he applauded his happiness in having such a Friend The Serenity of his Condition after all these Clouds And how nothing troubled him but only that he could do so little to testifie his love to his Guide who easily gave him satisfaction by shewing the true grounds of Friendship IT is not to be expressed what contentment the Man took in this discourse for which he rendred him a thousand thanks professing that he had learnt a great deal in a little time and that though he never intended less than to become a Good man by Faith in Christ yet he did not so well understand till now how to