in the Soul because God is a Spirit without Body yet some Conformity there is for it affords some Organs which are subservient to the Actions of the Soul and so the Body is in its manner an Image of Divine Perfection it doth hear and see and is a Symbol and Instrument of the Perfections of the Soul and of the Maker for the Wisdom Power and other Attributes of God are commonly represented by the Members as the Eyes Ears Mouth and Hands of the Body Lastly The Image of God did consist in the whole Person in Relation to the dominion which God gave Adam over all other Worldly Creatures also as to Happiness and Immortality for as God is Lord over the whole Work of Creation and Enjoys a Supreme Felicity so he constituted him Lord of other Creatures and placed him in a State of happy Immortality But several of these they deny or have corrupted they would not have God's Image to have consisted in Immortality and Righteousness for they affirm Adam to have been created Mortal and that he had died though he had not sinn'd but if so then God's Threatning his Disobedience with Death had been in vain and to no purpose if he had died whether or not he had sinned then Death had been no Punishment for his Sin yet the Apostle saith Rom. 6.23 Chap. 5.12 the Wages of Sin is Death he said before By one Man Sin entered into the World and Death by Sin Though his Body was made of a frail matter yet thorough God's Gift it might have been Immortal as it shall be after the Resurrection that Immortality of our first Parents we call a power and faculty of not dying which to them was Natural for if they had continued in their integrity they had not died and in that State 't was as Natural not to die as not to Sin Death necessarily follows Sin and no Sin no Death as to that holiness and Righteousness wherein chiefly consisted the Image of God in which they were created the Apostle speaks of it when he saith Epes 4.24 that ye put on the new Man which after God is created in Righteousness and true holiness which in the verse before he called to be renewed in the Spirit of your mind which implies that once in us there was such a thing but was since decay'd and lost in Adam we had and lost it in him but in Christ were restored thereunto but Socinians who pretend to a right of making all things to be as they would laugh at it primum c. to affirm saith one * Smalc exam Err. err 104. That the first Man received in his Creation holiness and supernatural gifts is an Old and stinking Fable They also would have the pains which Adam and Eve underwent to have been natural Gen. 3.16 17 18 19. Chap. 1.31 Chap. 2.17 V. 20. when we read they were a Punishment for their Sin this in them imports a reflection upon God their Maker and 't is to give Scripture the lie when it saith and God saw that every thing he had made was very good and also when God said to Adam in the day that thou Eatest thereof thou shalt surely Die. They say farther that he had not the excellent and certain Knowledge of the Creator nor of the rest of the Creatures which if true then he had been an imperfect Work of God but seeing God who was a competent Judge of the thing left it for him to give names to all Cattel and to the Fowl of the Air and to every Beast of the field which God approved of we must believe he had that certain Knowledge †Se statu prim hom c. 6. v. 23. though Smalcius be of a different Opinion and we also read he knew his Wife to be bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh Now when I am upon this point about Knowledge I shall pass to another which they oppose 't is this That there is a Natural Knowledge of God whereby we mean that Men who have the use of Natural Reason may without special Revelation by the consideration of God's Works in the World know that there is a God a first Cause of all who hath his being of himself and hath given all things theirs but they being used to gainsay Scripture affirm that by the light of nature Men cannot know that there is a God though Paul saith that which may be known of God is manifest in Men Rom. 1.19 20 21 28. for God hath shewed it unto them and it may more appear in the Verses quoted in the Margin and this knowledge is such as to leave them without excuse and this carries them so far as that by nature they do the things contain'd in the law which shew the work of the law written in their hearts Chap. 2.14 15. their Conscience also bearing witness and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another an evil Conscience attended with terrours for fear of punishment and a good one with joy do demonstrate there is a God revenger for evil and rewarder of good but what 's that to them let Scripture speak never so positively and plainly things must be as they will have them to be The next thing is about Original Sin that is the stain and corruption which we bring into the World and as it is in humane nature 't is so call'd because it hath it's spring and origine from Adam and also because 't is originally and naturally from the Womb in every Man Woman and Child it consists in the privation of that original righteousness wherein the first Man was created and in the corruption inherent in our nature whereby we are averse from good and inclined to evil which Socinians who are a line of the generation spoken of Prov. 30.12 Isa 65.5 that are pure in their own eyes even from the Womb and so being righteous in their own conceit think they may say to others come not near to me stand by thy self for I am holier than thou yet 't is said they are not wash'd from their filthiness of this Sin there are two parts the imputation and the inherency as to the first Adam was a publick Person the representative of all Mankind which was in his Loyns as Levi was in Abraham's when to Melchisedec he paid the tenth part of all Heb. 7.9 upon which account as the Apostle observes Levi paid Tithes in Abraham by the same reason whole Mankind which were in Adam's Loyns when he sinn'd are accounted to have sinn'd in him God's Promises and Threatnings were not confin'd in him but extended to his whole Posterity which would have enjoyed the benefit of his Obedience if he had continued in his integrity as they have smarted for his Disobedience as 't is usual among Men to see the Blood and Family of Traytors to suffer for the Crimes of Parents and thereby to forfeit Estates and Dignities this imputation
to mind what the Prophets or what God saith by the Prophets this is a bold stroak of a pen against the Old Testament he that is so sawcy with the Old can soon be so with the New and so against all Revealed Religion but because 't is fit for me to shew upon what occasion he saith it I must pass to another point and say few Words to it the more because this hits our Socinians who call themselves Vnitarians in that place the question is between the strict Socinians and the sect of Davidians whether or not Christ should be Worship'd and Pray'd to which Socinus was for though indeed to little purpose only as a Medium as †Tom. 2. p. 772. he saith and in Relation to God but Francis David against now Socinus and his Adherents were very strict and positive for their Opinion such as it is * Epist 3. ad Radecium Tom. 1. p. 391. he himself is large upon it and there saith de re omnium maxima c. 't is the greatest point of all in our Religion and somewhat lower he adds noli igitur rogo obsecro c. do not I beseech you oppose a most clear Truth but own the most excellent Mystery and foundation of Christian Religion here by the by take Notice how contrary to some of the Gang he calls Mystery something in our Religion and †Epist ad Synod Waegrov elsewhere to an Assembly of Antitrinitarians he saith they ought in their Churches to maintain the Adoration and Invocation of Christ for saith he if it be despised Judaism nor Epicurism or Atheism cannot be kept out and their * Catec Racov p. 115. eos prorsus non esse Christianos Catechism saith of those Men who pray not to Christ and hold he must not be adored they are no Christians at all seeing they really have not Christ whom they deny in deed though dare not do 't in Words This hits home the Vnitarians let them Answear it as they can But to say all tho' Socinus had as you read so strongly pressed that point yet †Epist ad Enjedin Tom. 1. p. 485. elsewhere he reckons it among indifferent things such as God in his Word hath neither commanded nor forbidden and so not altogether necessary It is very strange how one can be for the Adoration of Christ yet Blasphemously to call him * Smalc exam err 100. a made God or a deisied man a God of the second order a God subordinate to the supreme One but after what he saith in the same Book we must wonder at nothing from him †Err. 8. non est certum c. 't is not certain that God is precisely to be adored for his Divine Nature and elsewhere * Err. 15. non est certum c. to Worship one Onely God who is supreme God by Nature and independent is somewhat to Judaize and deny the Christian Religion nay he goes further and saith †Err. 17. Angelis qui sunt dij c. No man may deny that Divine Worship may be and hath under the Old Testament really been rendered to Angels which are heavenly Gods After this distinction there are also hellish Gods Further God may Command that every Angel be Worshiped for a God but I am sure God never will for he never contradicts himself is not this perfect Idolatry which we charge Socinianism with but I must get out of this stinking Blasphemous and Idolatrous dunghill the Devil John 8.44 saith the Lord is a lyar and his Children are liars and this Man is such one with a Witness for he gives God the lie But before I leave off this point to come closer upon some of our Socinians here I must with a stroak of my Pen hit their great Master Francis David who to shew his want of sincerity and his perverseness of Heart doth so wretchedly wrest the Protomartyr's Prayer to the Lord Jesus when being stoned to death he said Acts 7.59 Lord Jesus receive my Spirit which with his ignorant and unsound Interpretation the Heretick would thus depravate O God the Father who art the Lord of Jesus receive my Soul Did any wretch ever screw up his hellish brains to force such a sense upon Words so plain without the least shaddow or appearance of ground for it only because he would have him by no means called upon was ever any Text worse mangled than this by the Additions of that Wicked Man This is the Spirit of those who call themselves Vnitarians and I Socinian-Davidians but to the thing There is a phrase which answers this Chap. 9.14 viz. All that call on thy Name which can admit of no such sense as the Heretick would force upon the other for there Ananias speaks to the Lord Jesus of those who pray'd to and believed in him there is besides a prayer of St. John to our Blessed Lord which leaves not in the least place to quibble or cavil at Amen even so come Lord Jesus Rev. 22.20 which as to the Object fully and plainly answers that of Stephen Lord Jesus receive my Spirit when Paul besought the Lord thrice he certainly thereby pray'd to him who answered and said my grace is sufficient unto thee and that this was the Grace of Christ who thus answered his prayer in plain Words he declared it 2. Cor. 12.9 I will Glory in my Insirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me so that the Divinity and Invocation of our Blessed Saviour is clear enough out of Scripture so 't is out of the Faith and Practice of the Christian Church at all times That by the Primitive Christians he was believed to be true Consubstantial God and adored as such it appears not only out of the Writings of the Doctors of the Church both before and after the Nicene Council who Condemn'd as Hereticks all that did speak or writ against it but also by the Testimony of their Heathen Enemies as Pliny in what he did write to the Emperour Trajan about the Christians who gave of them this Character that they owned Christ to be God and as such Sung hymns in his Praise Now we must go on and speak of other things concerning Adam they hold many bad and dangerous Errours as Scripture saith Gen. 1.27 he was Created in God's own Image which consisted not in one but in many things in Soul and Body and in the Union of both in his Person the Soul is in the Image of God First As to her Nature which is Spiritual and Immortal Secondly As to the Faculties namely the Understanding and Will Thirdly As to the habits of those Faculties that is in Wisdom and Righteousness for as God is Spiritual and Immortal so is the Soul as to Understand and to Will are Proprieties of God so he endued Man's Soul with an Understanding and a Will as to the Body though there be less of God's Image in it than
blessed saviour call'd an High-Priest in one Epistle And in his kind of Priest-Hood he was as much a Priest as ever Aaron was in his and he offered himself as really as ever any expiatory and propitiatory Sacrifice were offer'd under the Law therefore his pretious Blood which was shed upon the Cross till Death intervened is so often mention'd in Scripture chap. 9.12 ver 14. By his own Blood he entered in once c. and the Blood of Christ which through the Eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God even to Death Again Now once in the end of the World hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself ver 16. ver 26. Ephes 5.25 Acts. 20.28 thereby to save and sanctifie his Church for he loved it and gave himself for it and so hath purchased it with his own Blood which could not be done without a Sacrifice and a Priest there 's no true proper and real Effect without a true proper and real Cause As the Article of Christ's Satisfaction is one of if not the most Fundamental of our Salvation so the Holy Ghost hath in Scripture taken special care to confirm it in both Testaments Isaiah 53.10 read the whole chap. His Soul was made an Offering for sin saith Isaiah and the Lord hath laid on him the Iniquities of us all thereby the Prophet alluding to the Ceremony of the scape Goat Asasel Levit. 16.21 1 Joh. 2.2 1 Pet 2.24 which was loaded with the Sins of the People so in several places of the Psalms c. in the New Testament he is said to be the Propitiation for our sins and who his own self bare our sins in his Body on the Tree with several others to the same Effect full and plain enough 2 Cor. 4.4 except to those in whom the God of this World hath blinded the Minds Yet Smalcius as if once had not been enough * Exam. 100 Err. Err. 57.66 said elsewhere That Christ is Metaphorically and improperly called a Priest and that he never offered a true but only a metaphorical sacrifice Again 't is false that Christ upon Earth purged our sins therefore they utterly deny the Merit of our Saviour's Death and thus impiously would overthrow the Foundation of our Salvation whilest St. Paul in several places of his Epistle to the Hebrews doth plainly demonstrate the Necessity Excellency and Efficacy of our Saviour's Sacrifice of himself for our Deliverance from God's Wrath the Curse of the Law and from Sin and Death Here I may shew an instance how far in an Impious way Men can go when God hath left them unto themselves These are the Words Et si nunc Vulgo c. * Racov. Cat. p. 177. And though now it be the Common Opinion of Christians that Christ by his Death hath deserved Salvation for us and fully satisfied for our sins yet that Opinion is Deceitful Erroneous and very Pernicious Where is that Fear of God Modesty Soundness and Humility which that worst sort of Men would in their Opinions and Expressions seem to pretend to But to omit so many other Evidences of their Blasphemous Writings I shall only add some Words of the same Smalcius †Exam. Err. 47.72 Christum nobis c. Christ hath not reconciled God to us nor when offended appeased him towards us God of himself and of his own Will is become favourable to Men without any ones Reconciliation Christ hath not obtain'd the Forgiveness of our sins by the shedding of his Blood for us So then with Paul we may say the Preaching of the Gospel is vain 1 Cor. 15.14.15.17 our Faith is also vain we are yet in our sins and the Apostles are found false Witnesses of God at one blow they with denying Christ's Satisfaction for us to Divine Justice would blast our whole Joy Comfort and Assurance in this Life and hope of Happiness in that which is to come 'T is certain that in the Work of Redemption to give and receive are Relatives for as a Man cannot properly be said to receive a thing except it be given him by another so no Man can properly be said to give except there be another to receive Thus in the Work of Redemption the price which Christ gives the Father receives it as Scripture saith Rev. 5.9 Ephes 5.2 Heb. 10.5.7.10 1 Pet. 1.18.19 Thou hast Redeemed us unto God through thy Blood and Christ hath loved us and given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor Again Ye know that ye were not Redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold But with the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot The Blood of Christ and his Death by the Sacrifice of himself is the Meritorious Cause of our Redemption and Salvation This Gospel-Doctrine should not be scoffed at by Men who would pass for Christians yet thereby make Heathens of themselves in joyning with Heathens to mock God's Institutions of the Ceremonial Law which represented Christ's Sacrifice upon the Cross let an Heathen who knew no better say †Cat. Distich de Morib l. 4. Stultitia est morte alterius Sperare Salutem 'T is a Folly to look for Salvation by another Man's Death but no Christian should say so I am apt to believe that Roman was not a meer stranger to the Custom of the Jews but as well as Ovid he might have read Moses's Books whereof the Translation by the Septuagint was then Extant and long before for by what that other in his Metamorphoses saith of the Flood of the Tower of Babel represented by the Gyants attempting to scale up to Heaven and some such other things we have ground to believe that he had read the Book of Genesis so might also Cato who though accounted a Wise Man by the World if he by the Verse of his already Quoted intended any thing against the Ceremonies of the Law about Sacrifices which represented that of the Messiah's Death whereby Salvation to Mankind was to be purchased according to the Prophecies of David Isaiah Daniel c. then we may reckon him to have been one of those whom Paul speaks of who professing themselves to be Wise became Fools Rom. 1.22 1 Cor. 1.23 24. so we may all others of his Opinion because as the Doctrine of the Messiah or Christ was to the Jews a stumbling Block so to the Greeks or Gentiles it was Foolishness but unto them which are called both Jews and Greeks Christ is the power of God and the Wisdom of God but we find Socinians to take part with those who barely are Jews and Greeks but not with them which are called so are more unexcusable than Cato and other Heathens who never had the Gospel-Light shining upon them as they have As they deny Christ's Satisfaction so wholly to deprive him of his Priestly Office they also would take away his
to be possible for a Man after the knowledge of the Truth never to Sin for saith he * Resp ad frantz disp 6. de bon oper thes 43. 1 Kings 8.46 Jam. 3.2 neither Scripture nor sound Reason nor any thing else hinders but that he who Sinn'd before may come to that degree of perfection as never to Sin hereafter This is to set up a Perfection in this life and freedom from Sin whilest Scripture doth abundantly affirm that there is no Man that Sinneth not that after the knowledge of the Truth and after Conversion in many things we offend all even the best all are under Sin Rom. 3.23 and all have Sinn'd and come short of the Glory of God One said well †Remigius in Cens Act. Synod Caris c. Go. tescal vivere absque peccato c. To live without Sin in the World belongs not to the state of the present Life but to the happiness of that which is eternal during our Life some Canaanites are still left to be Thorns in our Sides and the best Men have a Thorn in the Flesh So that freedom from Sin is certainly part of the Glory of God which in this World no Man whatsoever can attain unto and to pretend to 't is the Sin of the Devil and of our first Parents namely Pride and an Ambitious desire to be like God and equal with God their steps do Socinians follow who though they would seem to be great Enemies to Popery they in matters of Grace in every thing are a bad and in some worse than Papists By this principle of theirs they also make Salvation an easy thing though the Apostle saith 1 Pet. 4.18 Jerem. 13.23 the Righteous is scarcely saved and the Prophet 't is no more possible for them to do good that are used to do evil then 't is for the Ethiopian to change his Skin or for the Leopard his Spots There is a natural impossiblity by reason of Sin reigning in every Reprobate and dwelling in every Believer 1 John 1.8 wherefore we are commanded daily to pray to God to forgive us our Trespasses for indeed if we say we have no Sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us The Orthodox Doctrines about the Sacraments Faith Justification and in sew words every Article of our Holy Religion they more or less do depravate thus they set up a new one of their own making as it hath plainly been demonstrated by several Protestant Divines They set up two ways of Salvation one under the Old Testament the other under the New We own there are several ways to Hell yet there is but one and that strait too Heb. 10.20 leading to Heaven which is the new and living way which he Christ hath consecrated for us thorough the Vail that is to say his Flesh This in Substance though under different Circumstances was for his People under the Old as 't is under the New Testament The whole Church of God though consisting of Jews and Gentiles is but one Church so there is but one Head Lord and Saviour and so but one way to Salvation Now that Church God Christ hath purchased with his own Blood that is by the Merits of his Death Rom. 3.25 God hath set forth the Messiah Jesus Christ to be a propitiation thorough Faith in his Blood for his People under the Old as under the New Testament and we are justified by his Blood Chap. 5.9 Ephes 1.7 Col. 1.20 Heb. 10.19 Also we have Redemption thorough his Blood the Forgiveness of Sins Withal he hath made peace thorough the Blood of his Cross And the boldness we have to enter into the Holiest it is by the Blood of Jesus So then under both Testaments Men are justified and saved by Vertue of the Death of Christ Mediator and thorough Faith in him as 't is at large expressed Heb. 11. whether to come with the Jews Acts 4.12 or already come with Christians for the Apostle's words are full plain and general neither is there Salvation in any other for there is no other name under Heaven given among Men whereby we must be saved Yet this clear truth they will not yield to for saith * Smalc cont frantz disp 4. thes 8. one of them what Frantzius Writes that the Ancients believed in Jesus to come and thorough that Faith were justified ought to be reckon'd among the grossest errours Justification by Faith was never profered to Men before the coming of Christ neither was it promised that Man should be justified by Faith yet Abraham was justify'd by Faith Gal. 3.6 for Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness wherein did he believe God Not only in the promise that his Posterity should be very numerous but also chiefly at the promise that the Messiah should come out of his Seed Gen. 12.3 and in thee shall all the Families of the Earth be Blessed which was a renewing of the Promise made to our first Parents of the Woman's Seed which then God fixed in Abraham's Family now this Seed of his in whom all the Families of the Earth should be blessed is what Abraham believed and that Faith of his concerning it was to him accounted for Righteousness and there is no doubt to be made but that God who so familiarly conversed with him as with a Friend for so Scripture calls him Isai 41.8 in a special manner revealed to him the Mystery of his coming in the Flesh for it was the Son of God the second Person of the most holy Trinity who at several times under the name of an Angel and in the shape of a Man appeared to Abraham who as our Lord saith rejoyced to see his day with the Eye of Faith that day or time when he appeared in the Flesh which Abraham who lived so long before did see not as actually present but as to come and that Faith whereby Abraham believed in a Saviour to come he was justify'd by and as he is called the Father of all them that believe so all believers must have the same Faith which he had Ephes 4.5 for there is but one Faith and one Lord which imports one and the same object of that Faith only with this difference upon the account of time that Abraham believed in him that was to come and we in him who is already come Now to the later part of what Smalcius saith that there is no promise that Man should be justified by Faith I say if it be not by Faith it must be by Works for there is no middle but seeing St. Paul in several places of his Epistle to the Romans doth so positively exclude Works not only those of the Law but also those call'd Evangelical with the same Apostle we must conclude Man to be justified by Faith without Works but they are thorough paced Rom. 3.28 for regeneration and other good works Love Invocation Obedience Hope Charity
chap. 23.43 with a strong Asseveration he saith Verily to day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Which is evidence of his commanding Power there hereupon the words of an antient Doctor are remarkable * Hilar. lib. de Trin. p. 77. Habes conquerentem ad Mortem Relictum se esse quia Homo est Habes eum qui moritur profitentem se in Paradiso Regnare quia Deus est Thou hast him complaining to be forsaken at his Death because he is Man thou hast him who dying declares he Reigns in Paradise because he is God for none but God the King of Heaven hath Right and Power to dispose of places in Paradise When Paul saith He hath a desire to depart and to be with Christ He therein declares Phil. 1.23 how when God's Servants are departed this Life they are with Christ in Heaven a place of Joy and Comfort That there is a Hell we by the Grace of God shall prove it out of Scripture but before I must follow the charge how to make the Soul insensible after Death and the total Annihilation which is plain denial of Hell do take out of most part of the World all manner of Vertue and open a wide Door to all sort of Licentiousness Immorality and Wickedness for if the greater part of the World be as they are contain'd in their Duty more out of Fear of Punishment than love to Vertue what then will not the Covetous Ambitious Unclean Revengeful c. Men and Women dare to do to satisfie their several Passions if once they are persuaded that after this Life no Punishment shall be inflicted upon them for all their Wickednesses Are not Thoughts of Impunity an encouragment for them to commit Crimes For the fear of a Judgment and Torments to come are a Curb upon and Terror to the Wicked as we read that Paul's reasoning of Judgment to come made Felix tremble Acts. 24.25 After this rate they will fear nothing from God after Death and being free from the terrors of Hell's Torments their only care shall be how to avoid the Justice of Men which they can more easily do than that of God who cannot be imposed upon as Men are if they can but hide themselves from Man's Eye they will think they are safe enough 1 Cor. 15.32 and say Let us eat and drink for to morrow we die However let them do what they can to free Men from the Thoughs of Hell yet I defie them to free them from the Terrors of an Evil Conscience Such false Teachers who would persuade others that there shall be no Hell can hardly be able to persuade themselves of it no doubt but they wish it were so neither God nor Hell Acts. 24.15 Scripture saith There shall be a resurrection of the dead both of the just and unjust After Resurrection shall follow Judgment for the Dead shall rise to come to Judgment which shall pass upon all both Just and Unjust certainly that Judgment and Sentence shall be executed upon both and as for some it will be Eternal Life so by the Rule of Contrarles for others 't will be Eternal Death for as Felicity shall be Eternal so shall Misery be The Word of God speaks of Hell and of Heaven of Goats and Sheep Reprobate and Elect as we read in the description of that Judgment made by our Saviour where mention is made of an everlasting fire and the Eternity of those Torments for Soul and Body Matth. 25.41 Mark 9.45 46. Matth. 13.42 chap. 25.41 are expressed by a worm that never dieth and a fire that never shall be quench'd and a furnace of fire there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth Hence we see First there are after this Life Torments prepared for the Wicked for the Devil and his Angels for his Children Secondly those Torments are great being represented by what can be conceived and expressed to be most painful as is Fire with a mixture of Combustible Matters to make it more fierce therefore call'd Rev. 19.20 A lake of fire burning with brimstone which the beast and false Prophets were cast alive into Whether it will be a material Fire we may not well determine for we must not presume beyond what is written but a fire it is for in many places God's word calls it so Matth. 18.8 Thirdly Those Torments shall be eternal for Scripture saith it and we must not pretend to be wiser and know more or better than God who in the fore-quoted places calls it An everlasting fire that shall never be quenched Jude 7. 't is elsewhere call'd eternal Fire suffering the vengeance of eternal Fire otherwise called Everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the Glory of his power and 't is to last to all Eternity for 't is said that the beast and the false prophet with the wicked shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever which latter words plainly shew the continuation without intermission of those Torments and besides Scripture we have reason for it if the joys of Heaven be Everlasting so must the Torments of Hell be now both the justice and Truth of God which are two unshaken Pillars require that there be a continuation not annihilation of the wicked for is it not just that the Soul and Body which together sinn'd against God should also together suffer the pains due to Sin there must be an adequate punishment for offences against an infinite Eternal Majesty but the finite Creature cannot intensively suffer an infinite Torment therefore must extensively that is of an infinite duration and whether or not the fire be Material the wrath and curse of God can supply it with Fewel for ever and ever now that there is a judgment to pass and be executed upon all I am sure it is the Apostles doctrine when he saith for we must all appear before the Judgment-Seat of Christ 2 Cor. 5.10 that every one may receive the things done in his Body whether it be good or bad the same Reason there is for bad as for good and our Saviour speaks home when upon account of the Resurrection of the last day he saith they that have done good shall out of their graves come forth to the Resurrection of Life and they that have done Evil unto the Resurrection of Damnation but damnation is not Annihilation John 5.28 29 and can men be so impious as to think that the threatning of Hell is but a scare Crow a forged Tale or the Man in Clouts Another errour of theirs about Resurrection is this that the same Bodies which are buried shall not raise the question is not about the quality but about the Substance which shall be the same but of different quality God say they will give Spiritual ones instead of those we had here which is a forgery wholly destructive to the Resurrection of the dead one of the Articles of our Faith for if there be
Prophaneness and Spiritual Wickedness No Humane Law doth per se and of it self bind the Conscience only in as much as 't is grounded upon God's own who is the only Judge of it and can Men imagine that any Wise Law-giver will make Laws to maintain every Man's Right and Property and not in the least mind his own Therefore we must say that God hath given the Magistrate Power though not to Exercise any Office in Holy things as without a special Call to Preach the Word and Administer the Sacraments yet to defend maintain and be a Nursing Father to the Church which is God's House They would take advantage of this that when the Epistle was written to the Christian Church in Rome they were under the Dominion of Infidels who would not commend or enconrage them in matters of their Religion seeing they were not for but against it Let it be so yet tho' they would not own the Cause the Effects they sometimes would praise and commend as Humility Self-denial Patience Sobriety Temperance Gentleness and such Effects of a Christian Frame and Spirit The very Enemies of Christ sometimes admired to see those Graces which are the Fruits of Faith and of Christian Religion therefore saith the Apostle Be ye holy in all manner of conversation 1 Pet. 1.15 and this is not only for the discharge of their own Conscience but also in Relation to the Infidels and for the Credit of Christian Profession Chap. 2.12 15. for he adds Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles that whereas they speak against you as Evil doers they may by your good works which they shall behold glorifie God in the day of Visitation And because of a Prejudice which Christ's Enemies had against Religion and those who profess'd it which made them speak ill of both he saith For so is the will of God that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish Men. This the Apostle learned of his and our great Lord and Master who had said Let your light so shine before Men Matth. 5.16 that they may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in heaven So the Good Works of Christians might have praise from Christ's Enemies and Infidels such were the Roman Emperours Besides that St. Paul did intend those Rules not only for the present when he wrote to the Romans but also for after times for all those things were written for our Instruction and of others to the Worlds end it related also to Christian Emperours Kings and other Magistrates in after Ages who according to God's Promise were to be Nursing Fathers to the Church and Defenders of the Faith Now this I say that as in the Text is a generality of Persons exhorted to be subject to superiour Powers for 't is said Let every soul be subject and the Apostle speaking in the Singular Wilt thou Ver. 3. and if thou do Ver 4. meaneth every individual Person in the World So there is an Universality in the things committed unto the Magistrates Care which are reduced under these two Heads Religious and Secular Species are contain'd under the Genus and Particulars as said before under Generals When we pray for our Daily Bread therein Meat Drink Cloathes and other Necessaries for Life are included Now I am to take notice of his Answer to the other Text Job 31.28 This also were an iniquity to be punish'd by the Judge Speaking of Idolatry Here he thinks he hath a great advantage for the words to be punished by the are not in the Original and hereupon applauds himself thus It 's an easie thing to have proofs if Men when they cannot find them are resolved to make them To make Proofs when there are none and to deny Proofs when there are is proper for Socinians which we have too many Instances of but to tho thing 't is true those words are not in the Hebrew but any that is acquainted with that Tongue knows how short and Concise it is that 's the Idiome of it which he nor I cannot change but to make it Intelligible in other Languages something ought to be supplyed in the Original 't is thus This also an iniquity the Judge Which in English and every other modern Language is very lame there is no Verb Substantive is or were an Iniquity which any one may see ought to be understood Now I say that what is inserted is no Addition to the Original with an intent to impose upon the Reader for 't is Printed in a different Letter but only to make it Sense in English without which it hath none or at least a very imperfect one I also add that the Words inserted do express the true Sense and Meaning of the place an Iniquity and the Judge or Judged or Judicial are in the Original to what purpose upon the account of an Iniquity or Crime can a Judge be brought in but to punish it Doth not the Iniquity of Idolatry which is the thing in question deserve Punishment and who but the Judge may lawfully inflict it But he is so afraid of a Judge that though it be in the Hebrew yet he leaves it out for thus he renders the Text For pag. 70. this might he accounted to me an iniquity he is not content to leave out the word Judge but wedges in accounted which is not except he will deduce it from Judge and Judged for a Crime is accounted or imputed when the guilty is punished for it The better to understand this Verse we ought to compare it with another in the same Chapter containing the like expressions in the case of Adultery For this is an heinous crime yea 't is an iniquity to be punished by the Judges in the plural ver 11 there are some Iniquities which God alone doth punish but this of Adultery as the other of Idolatry must be punished by the Judges In this Verse no more than in the other the Word is is not in nor to be punished by yet 't is well known by God's Law Adultery and Idolatry were to be punished with Death so that it justifies bringing in the words to be punished by and as to the thing 't is not material whether Job lived before or after the Law To explain the thing out of several places of Scripture appears the necessity of supplying some words in our Translations to make up the Sense Three only I shall mention The first is out of Amos 't is said chap. 1.3 6 9 11 13. For three transgressions of Damascus and for four I will not turn away the punishment thereof The word Punishment is not in the Hebrew which in English makes certainly the Sense imperfect Turn away what the Punishment thereof of Damascus so that the word Punishment must be added to make up the Sense and that in seven several Verses of the same Chapter The other two are taken out of the Psalms whereof the first in the Original
call'd will help to strike the Nail farther into the Head of those proud and unchristian Sisera's Unbelievers I may also call them seeing they refuse to believe the true God of Israel when he speaks of his Son who under the Name of this Angel he promised should go before them Ex. 32.34 Mine Angel shall go before thee And in the next Chapter God calls him his Presence ch 33.14 or his Face God hath many Angels but in a most special manner that he calls his but God hath not many Faces 2 Cor. 4.6 only one and that is the Face of Jesus Christ in whom only is the knowledge of the glory of God for God giveth the knowledge of his glory only in him Because he is the express Image of his Heb. 1.3 the Father's Person Those two Texts in the Old Testament compared with and explained by these two in the New shew that the Lord Jesus the proper Son of God went before and guided his People in the Wilderness so pre-existed the time of his Birth of the Virgin and that it may not be said of any Creature that the glory of God is in his Face or that he is the express Image of the Person of the Father and the brightness of his glory as the Beam is the brightness of the glory of the Sun In my way towards a Conclusion I shall by the grace of God briefly bring in some few Texts which do explain and confirm the great Truths now in question some I elsewhere have taken notice of however I now shall add something to what I then said but others I shall mention which I did not before but this I shall premise In the Apostle John's Days who lived to a very Old Age sprang up some Heresiarks as Simon the first of all Cerinthus Ebion and Menander who deny'd the Divinity of Christ as now Socinians do This moved the Apostle to assert and vindicate it as in his Gospel Epistles and Revelation he hath done so fully that if there were no other Books left of the New Testament there is in them abundantly enough to certifie and confirm that Heavenly Truth as out of several places in his Writings I sufficiently demonstrated in my Book against the Blasphemies of Socinianism which he doth so plainly and so often that we must take notice how the Holy Ghost by his Pen intended chiefly and strongly to suggest to and convince Men of the Fundamental Truth of Christian Religion namely that the Lord Jesus is the proper Son of God 1 Joh. 5.5.9 10 11 12 13 20. and to the end that great Truth may make a deep impression upon the Souls of Men in one Chapter in no less than seven Verses he emphatically calls him the Son of God and v. 10 he is twice so called so twice in the 13th and that in such a manner so sensibly and with such Circumstances as denote a true proper and natural kind of Son-ship and he is so earnest upon 't may be all that time having in his Eye the Blasphemy of those Hereticks as to charge those who deny Christ to be the Son of God and believe not in him to make God a Lyar who is the God of Truth the highest Blasphemy that the Devil can infuse into Men For saith he he that believeth on the Son of God hath the Witness in himself he that believeth not God hath made him a Lyar He saith wherein Because he believeth not the Record that God gave of his Son And what is that Record Besides his Commission in sending him into the World and the Works attended with so many Miracles and Wonders which the Father gave him to finish and to the evidence of which our Saviour did appeal we have it in his Baptism in a most eminent and special manner for the Father bare record of him when he said from Heaven This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Certainly God spoke absolutely truly and properly and not Metaphorically improperly and by a Figure not my Son according to the Flesh spiritually or only in some respect but simply my Son that is begotten of my substance and of the same Nature with me as a Son ought to be and is of the same Nature with the Father Volkel l. 5. c. 12. whose only begotten he is which is the proper signification of the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which a Socinian would corrupt and render by that of Most beloved to enervate the strength of it The Priests Philosophers and Poets among the Heathen either out of Noah's or Abraham's Schools or by some other way had a kind of dark knowledge of this Truth which for want of Revelation they understood not therefore did hide it under Fables and Lies as may be that of Mercury Jupiter's Son and Messenger of Pallas born out of his Head but for Socinians who have God's Word so positively affirming this Truth 't is for them the unpardonable sin of Unbelief which sinks them into Atheism for whosoever knoweth not and worshipeth not the true God he is without God and all who deny Father Son and Holy Ghost to be the true God know not the true God poor Wretches who presume with the Line of their shallow Brain and weak Reason to fathom the deep things of God which prompts them to put several impertinent rash and blasphemous Questions how short do they fall of the Modesty Sobriety and Wisdom of an Heathen Sextus the Pythagorean who said Concerning God inquire of nothing but what thou mayst lawfully say nothing of God but what thou hast learned of God 't is better for one to lose his Life than to speak an idle word of God it is better to say nothing of God than rashly to speak of him Such Men shall at the last Day rise in Judgment against Socinians Among the Greeks Pythagoras himself made all perfection to consist in the number of three or in Trinity and Plato constituted three Principles of all things Good Understanding and the Soul or Life whereby we Christians may understand Father Son and Holy Ghost who created the World But I must go on The Centurion's Words are remarkable when he said to our Saviour Matth. 8.8 Lord speak the Word only and my Servant shall be healed just as Scripture speaks in the matter of Creation Psal 33.9 He spake and it was done he commanded and it stood Such a Word of Command we read of in Jonah And the Lord spake unto the Fish Jonah 2.10 and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry Land which last words imply a special Providence and ordering of things for the Fish might have vomited him in the middle or the bottom of the Sea but because God would save him 't was upon dry Land But to return to the Centurion whose great Faith the Lord commended he believed and was not mistaken that our Saviour might as absolutely command Distempers and Health Death and Life as he
commanded his own Soldiers and Servants for we read in several places how the Lord Jesus with speaking the Word to Diseases Winds and to Devils he rebuked them so that they could do no otherwise but to obey which proves his Divine Power and so his Divine Nature for none but God hath a Divine Power Upon this ground after the miraculous Work of curing the Impotent Man who had been sick 38 Years there our Lord compares his miraculous Works to his Father's when he said John 5. My Father works hitherto and I work The word my in the place is very emphatical to shew that his Works and the Father 's were wrought by the same Divine and Infinite power which meaning they understood well enough whence upon good grounds they concluded he had said God was his Father in a strict and proper sense and made himself equal with God In another place we read of some of the ten Men that were Lepers whom the Lord Jesus had cured Luk. 17.15 who when he saw that he was healed returned back and with a loud voice glorified God he turned back to Christ the great Physician to give him Thanks and Praises v. 16. and worship him upon his Knees for we must look upon him in that posture since our Saviour told him Arise go thy way v. 19. And by that Act he paid him a Divine Honour and by comparing v. 18. with v. 15. we shall find Christ to be the God whom the Man glorified for the Evangelist's and the Lord's Words are the same tend to the same purpose and the Object of the Glory given is the same There are not found said the Lord that returned to give glory to God that is to me who healed them save this stranger Farther to go on upon the matter let us observe how the Apostle speaking of Christ by his Name Jesus saith We have a great High-priest that is past into the Heavens Heb. 4.14 Jesus the Son of God The last words are put in to give us a proper and distinguishing Character of the Person whom he speaks of as indeed in the place this is added to make a difference between Jesus Christ our Blessed Saviour and the Jesus he had nam'd before v. 8. whereby he meaned Joshua for in Greek 't is the same as Joshua in Hebrew and here we see plainly how the Name Son of God proper to Christ doth distinguish him not only from Joshua Son oâ— Nun but from every other Man in the World as being his proper Name tho' never so good or great in God's Favour We must know that Joshua in bringing into Canaan the Children of Israel was the Type of Christ's bringing God's People into the Heavenly Land of Promise therefore in relation to that Office his Name was changed by Moses Numb 13.16 for his Name before was Oshea We must also take notice how those two great Servants of God had two several shares and acted two different parts which both parts thereby Typified were perform'd by the Lord Jesus their Antitype for Moses brought the People out of Egypt but introduced them not into the Land of Promise which Joshua did yet brought them not out of Egypt but our Blessed Saviour is the Author and will be the finisher of both our Deliverances from the bondage of Sin the Curse of the Law and from the power of Hell and also he will lead us into Heaven and Glory for he who hath began in and for us that good Work will perfect it to him upon a surer ground we may apply what Naomi said of Boaz Ruth 3.18 He will not be in rest until he have finish'd the thing Now when we are upon the Name Joshua Jesus or Saviour I am put in mind of that excellent place generally granted to be spoken of the Messiah whom none but Jews will deny to be Jesus Christ Isa 63.1 I am mighty to save 't is absolutely said mighty of himself not through the help of any one else v. 3. For in the place he saith I alone have trodden the Wine-press and of the people there was none with me No meer Man ever spoke after this rate for there as God he by the Mouth of the Prophet speaks of himself with this compare Zephaniah 3.7 The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty he will save One Saviour and that in both a mighty one Now mark how in a very different stile the great Apostle Paul speaks of himself I can do all things through Christ which strengthneth me such a manner of speaking the Lord Jesus never used but it seems Paul doth point at the quoted place of the Prophet when he saith that Christ is able to save to the uttermost them who come unto God by him Heb. 7.25 Here is a might to save not only in part or only some but fully and to the uttermost therefore the Name Jesus was given him by the Angel Thou shalt call his Name Jesus Mat. 1.21 for he shall save his people from their Sins His People that is the Israel of God for they are not all Israel Gal. 6.16 Rom. 9.6 which are of Israel Now the Lord Jesus is not only said to be a Saviour which in his capacity of Mediator may be called his proper Name so that every one may know whom we mean thereby This is the Character of God Isa 43.11 I even I am the Lord and besides me there is no Saviour For in that absolute way in Scripture none but God is so call'd but also in the Abstract Christ is said to be Salvation for he is the spring of it Neither is there Salvation in any other Acts 4.12 which yet Socinians would lodge in every Man who can be saved if he will but in the Word God and Saviour go often together and as to the thing are never asunder and as Christ is Saviour so he is God St. John who better than all Socinians knew who God is and who Christ is in his Writings doth often joyn God and Christ when he commended God's Love to us he meaned certainly the true God by Nature of him he saith 1 John 3.16 Thereby we perceive the Love of God because he laid down his Life for us None but the Patripassian Hereticks will say That God the Father laid down his Life for us but God the Son hath as in the next Chapter he thus explains it In this was manifested the Love of God towards us chap. 4.9 because God sent his only begotten Son into the World that we might live through him so the God who laid down his Life for us is the only begotten Son of God Who as is said in the next Verse Was sent to be the propitiation for our sins v. 10. this was the end of his coming and thus the laying down of his Life was a propitiatory Sacrifice of himself for our sins St. Paul saith Now