Repentance of a Sinner is sufficient to answer whatever could be justly demanded as a Satisfaction thereto which if you should you would in consequence say that Man is or may be in himself just that is equal with God or that the sin of Man was not a transgression of the Law that was given and a procurer of the Punishment that is threatned by that Eternal God that gave it But let me give you a Caution Take heed that you belye not these men Christ cryes If it be possible let this Cup pass from me If what be possible why that Sinners should be saved without His Blood Ought not Christ to have suffered Christ must needs have suffered not because of some certain Circumstances but because the Eternal Justice of God could not consent to the salvation of the Sinner without a Satisfaction for the Sin committed Of which more in the next if you shall think good to reply Now that my Reader may see that I have not abused you in this Reply to your sayings I will repeat your words at large and leave them upon you to answer it You say Actions may become dutyes or sins two wayes first as they are compliances with or transgressions of Divine positive Precepts These are the declarations of the arbitrary Will of God whereby he restraineth our liberty for great and wise reasons in things that are of an indifferent nature and absolutely considered are neither good nor evil and so makes things not good in themselves and are capable of becoming so onely by reason of certain Circumstances Duties and things not evil in themselves sins SUCH were all the Injunctions and Prohibitions of the Ceremonial Law and some few SUCH we have under the Gospel page 7. Then page 9. you tell â—s That the reason of the Positive Laws that is concerning things in themselves iâ—different in the Gospel are declared of which say you I know but three that are purely so viz. That of Coming to God by Christ the Institution of Baptisme and the Lords Supper Here now let the Reader note That the positive Precepts declarations of the arbitrary Will of God in things of an indifferent nature being such as absolutely considered are neither good nor evil some few SUCH say you we have under the Gospel namely that of coming to God by Christ c. I am the more punctual in this thing because you have confounded your weak Reader with a crooked Parenthesis in the midst of the Paragraph and also by deferring to spit your intended venome at Christ till again you had puzzled him with your Mathematicks and Metaphysicks c. putting in another Page betwixt the beginning and the end of your blasphemy Indeed in the seventh Chapter of your Book you make a great noise of the Effects and Consequences of the Death of Christ as that it was a Sacrifice for sin an expiatory and propitiatory Sacrifice page 83. Yet he that well shall weigh you and compare you with your self shall find that words and sense with you are two things and also that you have learned of your Brethren of old to dissemble with Words that thereby your own heart-errors and the Snake that lyeth in your bosome may yet there abide the more undiscovered For in the conclusion of that very Chapter even is and by a word or two you take away that glory that of right belongeth to the Death and Blood of Christ and lay it upon other things For you sâ—y The Scriptures that frequently affirm that the end of Christs Death waâ— the forgiveness of our sins and the reconciling of us to the Father we are not SO to understand as if the blessings were absolutely thereby procured for us page 91. any otherwise then upon the account of our effectual believing I answer By the Death of Christ was the Forgiveness of Sins effectually obtained for all that shall be saved and they even while yet Enemies by that were reconciled unto God So that as to forgiveness from God it is purely upon the account of grace in Christ We are justified by his Blood we are reconciled to God by the Death of his Son Rom. 5â— Yea peace is made by the Blood of his Cross And God for Christs sake hath forgiven us So then our effectual believing is not a procuring cause in the sight of God or a condition of ours foreseen by God and the motive that prevaileth with him to forgive us our manifold transgressions Believing being rather that which makes Application of that Forgiveness and that possesseth the Son with that Peace that already is made for us with God by the Blood of his Son Christ Jesus Being justified by Faith we have Peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. The peace and comfort of it cometh not to the Soul but by believing Yet the Work is finished Pardon procured Justice being satisfied already or before by the precious Blood of Christ. Observe I am commanded to believe but what should I believe or what should be the object of my Faith in the matter of my justification with God Why I am to believe is Christ I am to have Faith in his Blood But what is 〈◊〉 to believe in Christ and what to have faith in his Blood Verily To believe that while we were yet sinners Christ dyed for us That even then when we were Enemies we were Reconciled to God by the Death of his Son To believe that there is a Righteousness already for us compleated I had as good give you the Apostles Argument and Conclusion in his own language But God commended his love towards us in that while we were YET sinners Christ-dyed for us much more then being NOW justified by his Blood we shall be saved from wrath through him And note that this word now respects the same time with yet that went before For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the Death of his Son much more being Reconciled we shall be saved by his life or Intercession Believing then as to the business of my deliveranc from the Curse before God is an accepting of a trusting to or a receiving the benefit that Christ hath already obtained for me by which act of Faith I see my interest in that Peace that is made before with God by the Blood of his Cross For if Peace be made already by his Blood then is the Curse taken away from his sight if the Curse be taken away from his sight then there is no sin with the Curse of it to be charged from God by the Law for so long as sin is charged by the Law with the Curse thereto belonging the Curse and so the wrath of God remaineth But say you Christ dyed to put 〈◊〉 into a capacity of pardon 10 page 91. Answ. True But that is not all He dyed to put us into the Parsonal Possession of Pardon Yea to put us into a personal Possession of it and that
you Mentioned the First though but once your Babel had tumbled about your Ears For if in the Holy Jesus did dwell the Word One of the Three in Heaven or if the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ was Truly Essentially and Naturally God then must the Principle from whence his Works did Proceed be better then the Principle from whence Proceeded the Goodness in Adam otherwise Adam must be God and Man Also you do or may know that the self same act may be done from several Principles And again that it is the Principle from whence the act is done and not the bare doing of the act that makes it better or worse Accepted or not in the Eyes either of God or Men. Now then to shew you the Main or Chief Design of the Life and Conversation of the Lord Jesus First It was not to shew us what an Excellent Holiness we once had in Adam But that thereby God the Eternal Majesty according to his Promise might be seen by and dwell with Mortal Men For the Godhead being altogether in it's own Nature Invisible and yet desirous to be seen by and dwell with the Children of Men therefore was the Son who is the self same Substance with the Father closed with or Tabernacled in our Flesh that in that Flesh the Nature and Glory of the Godhead might be seen by and dwell with us The Word was made Flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory What Glory The Glory as of the onely Begotten of the Father full of Grace and Truth Again The Life that is the Life of God in the Works and Conversation of Christ was Manifest and we have seen it and bear Witness and shew unto you that Eternal Life which was with the Father and was Manifested unto us And hence he is called the Image of the Invisible God or he by whom the Invisible God is most perfectly presented to the Sons of Men. Did I say before that the God of Glory is desirous to be seen of us Even so also have the Pure in Heart a desire that it should be so Lord say they shew us the Father and it suffiseth us And therefore the promise is for their comfort that they shall see God But how then must they see him Why in the Person and by the Life and Works of Jesus When Philip under a mistake thought of seeing God some other way then in and by this Lord Jesus Christ What is the Answer Have I been so long time with you saith Christ and hast thou not known me Philip He that hath seen me hath seen the Father and how sayest thou then shew us the Father Believest thou not that I am in the Father and the Father in me The Words that I speak unto you I speak not of my self but the Father that dwelleth in me he doth the Works Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me or else Believe me for the very Works sake See here that both the Words and Works of the Lord Jesus were not to shew you and so to call you back to the Holiness that we had lost but to give us Visions of the Perfections that are in the Father He hath given us the Knowledge of the Glory of God in the Face of Jesus Christ. And hence it is that the Apostle in that brief Collection of the wonderful Mystery of Godliness placeth this in the Front thereof God was Manifested in the Flesh Was Manifested viz. In and by the Person of Christ when in the Flesh he lived among us Manifest I say for this as one Reason that the Pure in heart who long after nothing more might see him I beseech thee said Moses shew me thy Glory And will God indeed dwell with Men on the Earth faith Solomon Now to fullfil the desires of them that fear him hath he shewed himself in Flesh unto them which Discovery Principally is made by the Words and Works of Christ. But Secondly Christ by his Words and Works of Righteousness in the days of his Flesh neither shewed us which was nor called us back to the Possession of the Holiness that we had lost but did Perfect in and by himself the Law for us that we had Broken Man being Involved in Sin and Misery by reason of Transgression Committed against the Law or Ministration of Death and being utterly unable to Recover himself there-from the Son of God himself Assumeth the Flesh of Man and for Sin Condemned Sin in that Flesh. And that First by walking through the Power of his Eternal Spirit in the highest Perfection to every point of the whole Law in it's most Exact and full Requirements which was to be done not onely without Commixing Sin in his doing but by one that was perfectly without the least being of it in his Nature yea by one that now was God-Man because it was God whose Law was broken and whose Justice was offended For were it now possible to give a Man Possession of that Holiness that he hath lost in Adam that Holiness could neither in the Principle nor Act deliver from the Sin by him before Committed This is Evident by many Reasons First because it is not a Righteousness able to answer the Demands of the Law for Sin that requiring not onely a perfect abiding in the thing Commanded but a satisfaction by death for the Transgression Committed against the Law The Wages of Sin is Death Wherefore he that would undertake the Salvation of the World must be one who can do both these things One that can perfectly do the Demands of the Law in Thought Word and Deed without the least Commixture of the least Sinful thought in the whole Course of his Life He must be also able to give by Death even by the Death that hath the Curse of God in it a compleat satisfaction to the Law for the breach thereof Now this could none but Christ accomplish none else having Power to do it I have Power said he to lay down my Life and I have Power to take it again And this Commandment have I Received of my Father This Work then must be done not by another Earthly Adam but by the Lord from Heaven by one that can Abollish Sin Destroy the Devil Kill Death and Rule as Lord in Heaven and Earth Now the Words and Works of the Lord Jesus declared him to be such a one He was first without Sin then he did no Sin neither could either the Devil the whole World or the Law find any Deceit in his mouth But by being under the Law and walking in the Law by that Spirit which was the Lord God of the Law he not onely did always the things that pleased the Father but by that means in mans Flesh he did perfectly accomplish and fullfil that Law which all Flesh stood Condemned by It is a Foolish and an Heathenish thing nay worse to think that the Son of God
Devil and the Wrath to come No Incouragement to Holiness like this like the Perswasion and Belief of this because this carrieth in it the greatest expression of Love that we are Capable of Hearing or Believing and there is nothing that worketh on us so Powerfully as Love And herein is Love not that we Loved God but that he Loved us and gave his Son to be the Propitiation for our Sins He then that by Faith can see that the Body of his Sin did hang upon the Cross bâ— the Body of Christ and that can see by that action Death and Sin the Devil and Hell destroyed for him 't is he that will say Bless the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me Bless his Holy Name c. Psa. 103. 1 2 3 4. Secondly Moreover the Knowledge of this giveth a man to understand this Mistery That Christ and himself are united in one For Faith saith If our Old man was Crucified with Christ then were we also Reckoned in him when he hanged on the Cross I am Crucified with Christ All the Elect did Mystically hang upon the Cross in Christ. We then are Dead to the Law and Sin First by the Body of Christ Rom. 7. 4. Now he that is Dead is free from Sin now if we be dead with Christ we Believe that we shall live with him knowing that Christ being raised from the Dead Dyeth no more Death hath no more Dominion over him for in that he dyed he dyed unto Sin once but in that he liveth he liveth unto God Likewise reckon your selves also dead unto Sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. This also Peter doth lively Discourse of Forasmuch then saith he as Christ hath suffered for us in the Flesh Arm your selves likewise with the same mind for he that hath suffered in the Flesh hath ceased from Sin 1 Pet. 4. 1 2. By which Words he Insinuateth the Mystical Union that is between Christ the Head and the Elect his Body Arguing from the Suffering of a Part there should be a Sympathy in the whole If Christ then suffered for us we were even our Sins Bodies and Souls reckoned in him when he so suffered Wherefore by his sufferings the Wrath of God for us is appeased the Curse is taken from us For as Adam by his acts of Rebellion made all that were in him Guilty of his Wickedness so Christ by his acts and doings of Goodness and Justice made all that were reckoned in him good and Just also But as Adam's Transgression did First and immediately Reside with and remain in the Person of Adam onely and the Imputation of that Transgression to them that sprang from him so the Goodness and Justice that was accomplished by the Second Adam First and Immediately Resideth in him and is made over to his also by the Imputation of God But again As they that were in Adam stood not onely guilty of Sin by Imputation but Polluted by the Filth that Possessed him at his fall So the Children of the Second Adam do not onely though first stand Just by Vertue of the Imputation of the Personal acts of Justice and Goodness done by Christ but they also receive of that inward quality the Grace and Holiness that was in him at the Day of his rising from the Dead Thus therefore come we to be Holy by the Death and Blood of the Lord This also is the Contents of those other Scriptures which abusively you Cite to Justifie your Assertion to wit That the great Errand of Christ in coming into the World was to put us again into Possession of the Holiness which we had lost And that onely Designed the Establishing such a Holiness as is Sealed Originally in our Natures and Originally Dictates of the Humane Nature The rest of the Chapter being spoken to already I pass it and Proceed to the next Your Eighth Chapter tell us That it is onely the Promoting of the Design of making Men Holy that is Aimed at by the Apostles Insisting on the Doctrines of Christ's Resurrection Assention and coming again to Judgement Though this should be granted as indeed it ought not yet there is not one Sillable in all their Doctrines that tendeth in the least to drive Men back to the Possession of the Holiness we had lost which is still the thing Asserted by you and that for the Proof of which you make this noise and adoe Neither did Christ at all Design the Promoting of Holiness by such Principles as you have Asserted in your Book neither doth the Holy Spirit of God either help us in or excite us to our Duty Simply from such Natural Principles But the Apostles in these Doctrines you mention had far other Glorious Designs such as were truly Gospel and tended to strengthen our Faith yet farther As First For the Resurrection of Christ They Urge that as an Undeniable Argument of his doing away Sin by his Sacrificing and Death He was delivered for our Offences because he put himself into the Room and State of the Wicked as undertaking their Deliverance from Death and the Everlasting Wrath of God Now putting himself into their Condition he bears their Sin and dyes their Death but how shall we know that by undertaking this Work he did accomplish the thing he intended The answer is He was raised again for our Justification Rom. 4. 25. even to make it manifest that by the Offering of himself he had Purged our Sins from before the Face of God For in that he was raised again and that by him for the appeasing of whose Wrath he was delivered up to Death it is evident that the Work for us was by him effectually done For God raised him up again And hence it is that Paul calls the Resurrection of Christ the sure Mercies of David Act. 13. And as concerning that he raised him up from the Dead now no more to return to Corruption he saith on this wise I will give thee the sure Mercies of David For Christ having Conquered and overcome Death Sin the Devil and the Curse by himself as 't is manifest he did by his rising from the Dead what now remains for him for whom he did this but Mercy and Goodness for ever Wherefore the Resurrection of Christ is that which Sealeth the truth of our being delivered from the Wrath by his Blood Secondly As to his Ascention they urge and make use of that for divers weighty Reasons also 1. As a farther Testimony yet of the Sufficiency of his Righteousness to Justifie Sinners withal For if he that undertaketh the Work is yet entertained by him whose Wrath he was to appease thereby What is it but that he hath so compleated that Work Wherefore he saith that the Holy Ghost shall Convince the world that he hath a sufficient righteousness and that because he went to the Father John 16. And they saw him no more because he went he Ascended up to the Father was there
the Knowledge or Faith or Spirit of the Lord Jesus as it's Foundation or Principle Yea Nature was his Foundation even his own Nature was the Original from whence his Righteousness and good Works arose The next Scriptures also viz. 2 Cor. 7. 1. Rom. 12. 1. overthrow you for they urge the Promises as Motives to stir us up to Holiness But Adam had neither the Spirit of Jesus or Faith in him as a Principle nor any Promises to him as Motives Wherefore this was not that to which or which we Christians are Exhorted to seek the Possession of but that which is Operated by that Spirit which we receive by the Faith of Jesus and that which is encouraged by those Promises that God hath since given to them that have closed by Faith with Jesus The rest also in Pag. 29. not one of them doth promise us the Possession of the Holiness we have lost or any mercy to them that have it You add And whereas the Promises of Pardon and of Eternal Life are Frequently made to believing there is nothing more Evidently declared then that this Faith is such as Purifieth the Heart and is Productive of good Works Pag. 30. Answ. If the Promise be made at all to believing it is not made to us upon the account of the Holiness we had lost for I tell you yet again that Holiness is not of Faith neither was Faith the Effect thereof But 2. The Promises of Pardon though they be made to such a Faith as is Fruitful in good Works Yet not to it as it is Fruitful in doing but in receiving Good Sir the quality of Justifying Faith is this Not to Work but to Believe as to the Business of pardon of Sin and that not onely because of the Sufficiency that this Faith sees in Christ to Justifie but also for that it knows those whom God thus Pardoneth he Justifieth as ungodly Now to him that Worketh not but believeth Mark here Faith and Works are Opposed Now to him that Worketh not but Believeth in him that Justifieth the Vngodly his Faith is counted for Righteousness Rom. 4. You add farther That the Promises may be Reduced to these three Heads that of the Holy Spirit of Remission of Sins and Eternal Happiness in the Injoyment of God Answ. If you can prove that any of these Promises were made to the Holiness that we had lost or that by these Promises we are to be Possessed with that Holiness again I will even now lay down the Bucklers For albeit The time will come when the Saints shall be absolutely and perfectly Sin-less yet then shall they be also Spiritual Immortal and Incorruptible which you cannot prove Adam was in the best of his Holiness even that which we lost in him The Threatnings you speak of Pag. 35. are every one made against Sin but not one of them to drive us into a Possession of that Holiness that we had lost Nay contrariwise he that looks to or seeks after that is as sure to be Damned and go to Hell as he that Transgresseth the Law because that is not the Righteousness of God the Righteousness of Christ the Righteousness of Faith nor that to which the Promise is made And this was manifested to the World betimes even in that day when God drove the Man and his Wife out of Eden and placed Cherubines and a Flaming Sword in the way by which they came out to the end that by going back by that way they might rather be Killed and Dye then lay hold of the Tree of Life Gen. 3. Which the Apostle also Respects when he calleth the way of the Gospel the New and Living Way even that which is made by the Blood of Christ Concluding by this Discription of the Way that is by Blood that the other is Old and the Way of Death even that which is by the Morral Law or the Dictates of our Nature or by that fond Conceit of the Goodly Holiness of Adam Heb. 10. Your Fifth Chapter tells us that the Promoting of Holiness was the design of our Saviours whole Life and Conversation among Men Pag. 36. Answ. 1. Were this granted it reacheth nothing at all the Design for which you in your way Present us with it For 2. That which you have Asserted is That the Errand about which Christ came was as the Effecting our Deliverance out of that Sinful State we had brought our selves into so to put us again in Possession of that Holiness which we had LOST For that you say is the Business of your Book Pag. 12. Wherefore you should have told us in the Head of this Chapter not so much that our Saviour Designed the Promoting of Holiness in General by his life but that the whole Design of our Saviours Life and Conversation was to put us again into Possession of THAT Holiness which we had lost into a Possession of that Natural Old Covenant Figurative Ignorant Holiness But it seems you count that there is no other then that now lost but never again to be obtained Holiness that was in Adam 3. Farther You also Faulter here as to the Stating of the Proposition for in the Beginning of your Book you State it thus That the Enduing Men with inward Real Righteousness or True Holiness was the Vltimate end of our Saviours coming into the World still meaning the Holiness we lost in Adam You should therefore in this place also have minded your Reader of this your Proposition and made it manifest if you could that the Vltimate End of our Saviours whole Life and Conversation was the Induing Men with this Adamitish Holiness But HOLINESS and THAT Holiness is alone with you and to make it his End and whole End his Business and the whole Business of his Life is but the same with you But you must know that the whole Life and Conversation of our Saviour was intended for another Purpose then to drive us back to or to Indue us with such an Holiness and Righteousness as I have Proved this to be You have therefore in this your Discourse put an unsufferable Affront upon the Son of God in making all his Life and Conversation to Center and Terminate in the Holiness we had lost As if the Lord Jesus was sent down from Heaven and the Word of God made Flesh that by a Perfect Life and Conversation he might shew us how Holy Adam was before he fell or what an Holiness that our Holiness was which we had before we were Converted Your Discourse therefore of the Life and Conversation of the Lord Jesus is none other then Heathenish For you neither Treat of the Principle his Godhead by which he did his Works neither do you in the least in one Sillable Aver the First the main and Prime Reason of this his Conversation only you Treat of it so far as a mean Man might have considered it And indeed it stood not with your Design to Treat a right with these things For had