106. And was God ever denied the Liberty before t'other day to bring Good out of Evil 2. He lays it down as their Doctrine It pleased God that man should sin but when he hath sinned He is displeased with it This seems to be a piece of Wit designed to make the Devil Merry but all the Humour of it lies in the Ambiguity of one poor word It pleased God to permit sin and yet when man had sinned he was justly displeased with it Gods permission had no Influence upon mans Transgression But how would he have Insulted over that man that should openly Preach and Write That against the Holy Child Iesus whom God anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate and the People of Israel were gathered together for to do whatsoever Gods Hand and Gods Counsel determined before to be done and yet when it was done according to the Determination of his own Hand and Counsel he was extreamly displeased with it And yet I could tell him of one that has so said who Scorns his most scornful Censure It may please God that a thing may be done and take no pleasure in the thing done nor in the Instruments that did it It pleased him to suffer his own People to be afflicted by the Heathen and yet he was sore displeased with the Heathen that helped forward the Affliction Zech. 1. 15. It pleased the Father to bruise his Son and yet he was displeased with the Instruments that bruised him God can do the same thing Righteously which Men and Devils do unrighteously Judas delivered up Christ out of Covetousness the Iews out of Envie Pilate out of Fear or to pick a Thank from Caesar but God Delivered him for our Offences 3. He charges them with this Doctrine That nothing can withstand the Decrees of God We have scarce another Instance wherein he has Candidly represented their Judgment and was not able to throw some Dirt upon it 4. He proceeds to play the Lucian and Scoff at Gods Justice It 's impossible says he for God to forgive the least sin without a compleat and perfect Satisfaction Let him but grant that God cannot forgive the greatest sin without compleat and perfect Satisfaction and they will undertake to prove from thence that none is so small but needs a Satisfaction 5. He proceeds This falls hard upon those miserable Wretches whose ill fortune it was to be left out of the Roll of Election without any fault of theirs To be left out of the Roâ—…l of Election by Fortune is a piece of prophane Nonsence which at once discovers the depth of his Intellectuals and the height of his Boldness What more Desultory than that which Heathens call Fortune What more stable and fixed than that which the Word of God calls Election The Old Church of England would have Taught him to have Spoken otherwise of that Tremendous Mysterie Art 17â—… Election to Life is the everlasting purpose of God whereby before the Foundation of the World was laid He hath constantly Decreed by his Counsel secret to us to deliver from Curse and Damnation those whom He hath chosen in Christ out of Mankind and to bring them by Christ to everlasting Salvation c. Now though he believes little of all this yet he might remember he had Subscribed the whole and considered also t is the Doctrine of that Church whereof he is a Member and therefore might have Covered their Nakedness and at least Perfum'd them with a few good Cheap words against their Burial It were tedious to pursue the particulars I only say If this Scheme of Religion as it stands here upon Record be the Subject of his Scorn and Reproach I hope we may read it backwards and then 't will be his own Creed some few Slanders indeed which were inserted as a Haut goust to giue it the better Grace we may Omit but for the rest no doubt he will own it to be the Standard of his Belief God from the Beginning never Designed to Glorifie either his Iustice or Mercy and because there would have been Occasion abundantly Administred both to Punish and Pardon too though man had never sinned therefore he never concern'd himself how things would go And indeed it had been to no purpose for God to Decree any thing since if he had all his Decrees and Appointments had been easiâ—…y withstood And therefore man sinned whether God would or no and full sore against his Will for if he could have prevented it we may be sure he would but when man had sinned God was not much displeased with it for you must know that his Justice is so Facile and Easie an Attribute and if it be one at all it 's but a Secondary one that he can easily forgive the greatest sin without Satisfaction made to it This is very good News if it be true to all the World especially seeing there 's no such thing as the Roll of Election and by Consequence no preterition neither but all men stand upon even Ground and every one upon his own Legs which they may the better do because they have many ways left if need were to pacifie Gods anger in case he should happen to be a little displeased with sin viz. By their own Temporal sufferings Repentance and Obedience which though they answer not Gods Law yet being sincere it s well enough By this it appears that God is not Essentially Just and Righteous seeing He can Pardon the greatest sin and serve his own Glory without any regard to the Death of Christ or Inflicting upon sinners Eternal Sufferings But now this is but one part of the Glory of God that He can pardon sin without Propitiation made by Christ the other is that he can reward the sinner too without the Righteousness of Christ And therefore there 's more ado than needs about a pretended Difficulty how to Reconcile Gods Iustice and Mercy For neither is Iustice so severe as to require Satisfaction and the Merit of our own Obedience is so Considerable that we need not much be beholden to Mercy And to speak in a word the Demerit of sin is short of Infinite and therefore the Creature may Expiate its own sins by enduring Finite that is Temporary Torments whereas then men Talk that to Unite these two Extreams and reconcile such Contradictions was a work of Infinite Wisdome as well as Goodness they Talk Idly for as I said before whatever there was of Goodness in it there could be no great Wisdom and therefore it 's vainly said that to Effect it God should send his Son into the World to satisfie all Righteousness in his Life and to make a full satisfaction for sin by his Death for neither could his Blood be of Infinite value though for Fashion sake we call it the Blood of the Son of God nor Expiate an Infinite guilt or make satisfaction to Gods Justice if so be he had stood upon 't And therefore to Instruct you aright in these Matters sin
when a Serpent swallows a Serpent he becomes a Dragon What then could we expect less than Legion from the Teeming Womb of such Big-bellied Monsters For though in point of Argument his Mountain is often delivered of a Mouse yet in point of Errour his Mouse alwayes brings forth a Mountain 2 It was a Spur to my duller Temper to Observe how he had raked all the Kennels and common Sewers of Friendly Debates Ecclesiastical Polities which with Martial Law and Civil War make up the Four great Soloecismes of this last Age and borrowed Auxiliaries from the Scavinger to compose an Oleo to throw in the Faces of the Innocent some of the particulars the Reader will find wiped off by these Papers and returned with that Correction and Chastisement which it became me to give them though not with what they deserved to Receive but for fouling my fingers with them all I must beg Excuse it had been a work no less irksome and tedious than the cleansing of Augaea's Stable and no otherwise to be effected than by Letting in the Thames from Billings-gate through Buttolph-lane Yet one Instance of the Many omitted and one is too much for a Taste I shall here give the Reader hoping it may not turn his stomach against the Rest Dr. Owen Com. p. 177. has said By the Obedience of Christ I intend the universal Conformity of the Lord Iesus Christ as he was or is in his being Mediator to the whole Will of God c. Now this Obedience of Christ N. B. as Mediator may be considered two ways 1. As to the habitual Root and Fountain of it 2. As to the Actual parts and Duties of it 1. The habitual Righteousness of Christ as Mediator N. B. p. 178. in his Humane Nature was the absolute complete exact Conformity of the Soul of Christ to the Will Mind or Law of God 2. The Actual Obedience of Christ was his willing chearful obediential Performance of every Thing Duty or Command that God by vertue of any Law whereto we were subject did require and Moreover to the Peculiar Law of the Mediator Hereof there are two parts 1. That whatever was required of us by the Law of Nature c. He did it all 2. There was the Peculiar Law of the Mediator which respected himself Merely and contained all those Acts and Duties which are not for our Imitation Thus far the Doctor But now what a world of wit has our Author shewn upon this Occasion or rather no Occasion Declaiming for four five or six pages together upon the Trite and Common Theme of his own Ignorance pag. 298 299 300 301 302 303. So that by the Law of Mediation sayes he He understands whatever Christ was bound to doe as our Mediator whatever was proper to his Mediatory Office All this is not imputed to us as though we had done it I hope we shall find something at last to be imputed to us but there 's nothing left now but thirdly that which concerns him in a Private Capacity as a Man subject to the Law Now had this Gentleman been pleased to have understood the Doctor a little before he had pretended to Confute him he might have seen that He supposes 1. A general Law of the Mediator whereby he gave Obedience to the Law of Nature c. in our stead 2. The peculiar Law of the Mediator which respected himself merely to this he gave not Obedience in our stead But still whatever Obedience he performed 't was as Mediator though not according to the peculiar Law of the Mediator But alas this would have spoyled a great deal of excellent Wit and dear Drollery which no man engaged in a Design of Raillery and Scolding would willingly lose for a World especially when he was practising like the great Balsac in some of his Letters to make an Experiment what The Height of forced Fancy can produce out of a barren and dry Subject or placing his Draining Engines to Recover the Boggs and Fenns upon New-Market Heath 3 His Subtle and Politick Method of venting Blasphemies was that which mainly pressed me to this Service For it 's now grown the solemn Mode of this Tribe of Men to vomit out the most opprobrious Language against the Lord and his Christ and then to wash their hands in Pilate's Innocency by saying These are the Consequences of other Mens Opinions And herein lies this Authors singular Excellency and proper Talent Thus when some affirm That God is a Holy God a Righteous Governour a Iust Iudge who will by no means clear the Guilty one that will not fail to recompense to every man according to his Works and yet in infinite Wisdom and Mercy has made Provision in the Death of his Son for securing the Glory both of his Essential and Rectoral Righteousness that he may be and appear to be just and the Iustifier of him that Believes in Iesus You shall now guess at the Lyon by his Claw and see what nasty dirty filthy stuffe he can extract out of this Doctrine Pag. 46. The Iustice of God hath glutted it self with Revenge in the Death of Christ and so henceforward we may be sure he will be very kind as a Revengefull man is when his Passion is over And pag. 47. The summe of which is this That God is all Love and Patience when he has taken his fill of Revenge as others use to say the Devil is very good when he is pleased Again whereas the Church of England Art 17. has express'd her Conceptions about Predestination in these words Predestination to life is the everlasting Purpose of God whereby before the Foundation of the World was laid he hath constantly decreed by his Councel secret to us to deliver from Curse and Damnation those whom he hath chosen in Christ out of Mankind and to bring them by Christ to Everlasting Salvation Our Author is pleased to droll upon this Tremendous Mystery at this pleasant Rate Pag. 57. This falls hard upon those miserable Wretches whose ill Fortune it was without any fault of theirs to be left out of the Roll of Election Thus when one had ventured to say by Warrant from Christs own Mouth John 3. 14. That Christ was compared to the Brazen Serpent c. he comes in with this snearing Droll p. 115. Who can forbear being smitten with so lovely a Person In all which and a hundred times more we are bound to suppose That there is Nihil bonis moribus contrarium quò minùs cum publicâ Utilitate Imprimatur Now if no Reverence of the Majesty of God no Regard to the Authority of the Holy Scriptures no Respect to the Harmonious Confessions of Faith of All Protestant Churches could oblige his Pen to observe a due Temperament yet methinks Civility to that Church whereof He is a Member which has not been Uncivil to him and may exercise more kindness to to him might have commanded more becoming Language about those things wherein she has
without considering either Antecedents or Consequents to Nibble at some Expression that seems most lyable to Exception but herein we begge not his favour onely demand Iustice That he may not Usurp a Liberty to suppose that the Doctor asserts Revelation to be wholly silent in this Matter Revelatition silent Alas it rings loud with the continual sound of Gods pardoning Mercy to Sinners onely the Doctor judges that Revelation directs us to this Mercy of God through a Mediator for the obtaining of it When therefore our Author asks fo pertly whether the Doctor be not a confident Man to lay down such a Position I onely teturn that I have known our Author far more confident upon far less Grounds when the Doctor has a Foundation for his Confidence let him be so and spare not A great deal less Confidence may be sinfull when it wants a Basis proportionable to beare its weight and a great deal more Justifiable when it 's born up with sufficient Warrant Tell not me of the Doctors Confidence but examine his Reasons for it and let us see what our Author can do to dismount it Truely he offers us but one thing but I assure you it 's a knocker The Experence says he of the whole World confutes him Never was Man so confuted and confounded as he that stems the Experience of the whole World for though I ever look'd upon Experience as a very ticklish way of Confutation and the best way of employing them is to Experience in our own Souls the Virtue and Efficacy of certainly revealed Truths and not to make them the Umpires of questionable Doctrines yet I should be loth to run counter to the universal Sentiments of Mankind and the Experience of the whole World shall carry a mighty stroke in my Judgement but has our Author taken their Experiences by the Pole and do they one and all give in their Suffrages against the Doctor Yes Both Iews and Gentiles who knew nothing of what Christ was to doe in order to our Recovery did believe God to be gracious and mercifull to sinners I must own it That Jews and Gentiles are a sufficient enumeration of particulars they did once divide the World betwixt them and if they both agree in their Verdict against the Doctor Nemine contradicente he is gone for ever being over-born with Epidemical Experience 1. For the Iews the Day is like to goe for our Author if it be true what he tells us That God assured them he was a Gracious and Mercifull God pardoning iniquity transgression and sin which certainly he is and then that They knew nothing at all of what Christ was to doe for our Recovery but all the stick lyes there and we must enter a Friendly Debate with him upon the issue For 1. Whatever Manifestation of Gods Sin-pardoning Mercy was given to the Church of Old it had reference to the Blood of Christ who was as really sacrificed to their Faith as he was crucified to the Faith of the 〈◊〉 Galat. 3. 1. The Jewish Sacrifices were Types designed and appointed by God to represent that one Sacrifice which Christ should once offer upon the Cross to God and without reference to the Expiation of Sin Atonement and Propitiation of God made by him and manifested by them it would have puzzled the Faith of any particular person that God would pardon sin notwithstanding that Revelation Exod. 34. 6. for is it not immediately added And that will by no means clear the guilty God in that place reveals to Moses his Name that is his Nature and if we consult particulars we shall find that it 's as fair a Letter in Gods Name not to clear the Guilty under which Character all the world stand before God Rom. 3. 19. as to pardon iniquity but all this was cleared up and made easie by a believing attendance to those bloody Sacrifices which though weak in themselves yet receivâ—…d a Sacrament al strength from Him who travelled in the greatness of his to reconcile God and Man by the Blood of his Croâ—…s 2. There 's nothing more vain and idle than to 〈◊〉 that the Iews knew nothing at all of what Christ was to doe in order to our Recovery For 1. It was sufficient for that Dispensation that God had Revealed a Mediator who should take up the Controversie between God and sinners and this he did when it was early day with the world to Adam when received into a Covenant of Grace T is true the more minute Circumstances of when and how He should come in what manner he should accomplish his work might be veyled with some Obscurities and perplexed with some difficulties at the first yet still they had a Promise in the Lump that the Seed of the Woman should bruise the Head of the Serpent which the Apostle interprets Heb. 2. 14. by destroying him that had the Power of Death even the Devil And as it seemed good to the Wisdom of God to give forth the Promise at first in gross so in process of time to graduate and heighten the discovery of the Messias That there should come a deliverer out of Sion to turn away ungodliness from Iacob Isa. 59. 20. was evidently laid before their Faith to these Revelations did true Believers attend and by this Key did they open the difficultie how God should be a God pardoning Iniquity and yet by no means clear the Guilty And as the prefixed time of Christs appearing in the World drew nearer so the Prophesies and Promises of his Person Nature Work and Design thereof with the Circumstances attending it were multiplyed and more explicitely made out to them that so as they were growing up out of the State of Childhood and emerging from under their Bondage the discoveries of a Saviour might enlarge their Hearts and Minds in Knowledge Joy Love and Peace By Isaiah it was revealed that he should be born of a Virgin Isa. 7. 14. that he should be Immanuel God with us therein discovering both his Natures in one Person and his design to bring God and Man into one Covenant By the fame Prophet was it distinctly revealed what should be his Work and Employment his Dignity and Authority and the Success of all Isa. 9. 6. For unto us a Child is born unto us a Son is given and the Government shall be upon his shoulders and his Name shall be called Wonderfull Counsellor the Mighty God the Everlasting Father the Prince of Peace of the encrease of his Government and Peace there shall be no end By the fame Prophet it was revealed Chap. 53. by what means mainly he should accomplish the Ends of his coming into the World by being wounded for our Transgressions bruised for our Iniquities healing us by his stripes by Gods laying upon him the Iniquities of us all that it pleased the Father to bruise him to make his Soul an Offering for sin by the travel of his Soul by pouring it out to death being numbred amongst the
he spared him not in exacting Punishment Death came into the World by sin and yet Christ dyed who never sinned Rom. 5. 12. The Law in its Penalty had nothing to do with him who had not offended the Law in its Rule So that I profess I know no greater wonder in the world than that the Father would have him suffer and that he should be Capable of Sufferings till the wonder be removed by viewing Christ in the stead of others and thus the Scripture assoyls the difficulty Isa. 53. 10. His Soul was made an Offering for sin Nay he was made sin for us though he knew no sin that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5. 21. He so loved the Church that he gave himself for it And appearing in this Quality Death the Officer of Gods violated Law might justly arrest him and the Father be pleased to bruise him delighted in his Sufferings upon one account who was so infinitely satisfied in his Person upon another And yet all this while our Author can see no necessity of Christs Death I should rather have thought sayes he that Gods requiring such a Sacrifice as the Death of Christ was not because he could not do otherwise but because his infinite Wisdom judged it the most effectual way of dispensing his Grace Then 1. It seems though Gods infinite Wisdom saw this the best way yet it might have consisted with his Wisdom to have pitch'd upon a worse and then it will be a Question whether that had been Wisdom or no For we are told p. 48. That Wisdom consists in the choyce of the fittest and best Means to attain an End when there are more wayes than one of doing it If then Wisdom consist in choosing the fittest and best Means and the Death of Christ was the best Means for dispensing of Gods Grace either it was impossible for God to choose any other way than this or it is possible for God to act in a way not consisting with Wisdom But 2. Our Author had highly obliged the World had he discovered how sin might otherwise have been expiated than by the Sacrifice of Christs Death The Iews have pitch'd upon a Cock and at last upon their own Death But it 's twenty to one when our Author shall substitute any in the room of the perfect Sacrifice of Christ we shall find as many real Inconveniences in it as he has found imaginary absurdities in the Necessity of Gods requiring satisfaction to his Justice and Christs Tendring it upon the Cross. But 3. Who ever asserted simply that God could doe no otherwise than to require the Sacrifice of Christs Death Alas our Author is wide the whole Heavens in this Matter It must first be supposed that God will treat with the sinner and that Christ will accept the Terms of being a Mediator between God and Man The Necessity proceeds upon a presupposed Voluntariness both in the Father and in the Son and when you have supposed them there are who will dispute it with our Author when he pleases that upon supposition God will accept and justifie a sinner a just Compensation must be made to wronged Iustice. I find our Author and his Confederates now and then speaking a good word of Mr. R. B. and I doe the more wonder at it because I did not think they had had a good word for any man but themselves I shall therefore give him a taste out of his learned Labours and if he likes it he may have more at the same rate 'T is in his Reasons of the Christian Religion Part 2. Chap. 4. Sect. 6. No Religion doth so wonderfully open and magnifie and reconcile Gods Iustice and Mercy to Mankind as Christianity doth It sheweth how his Iustice is founded in his Holiness and his Governing Relation It justifieth it by opening the Purity of his Nature the Evil of Sin and the use of Punishment to the right Government of the World and it magnifieth it by opening the Dreadfulness and Certainty of his Penalties and the Sufferings of our Redeemer when he made himself a Sacrifice for our Sins But the storm is not yet over nor our Authors Fury quite spent Dr. O. had said Com. pag. 94 95. That there are many Glympses of the Patience of God towards Sinners shining out in the Works of his Providence but all exceedingly beneath that discovery which we have of it in Christ for in him the very Nature of God is discovered to be Love and Kindness whatever discoveries were made of the Patience and Lenity of God to us yet if it were not withall revealed that his other Attributes his Iustice and Revenge for Sin had their actings assigned them to the full there could be little Consolation gather'd from his Patience and Lenity It were very hard if a Spider could suck no poyson out of these words and I should conclude she had renounced her Nature but what was there in all this that could exasperate a sweet natur'd Gentleman Whilest a sinner hangs by the meer forbearance of God he hangs but over Hell-fire by a single Thread and if that breaks he falls irrecoverably into Everlasting Burnings and it can be little Consolation the Doctor was gentle he might have used a harsher word and said just none at all to an awakened Conscience to have a place in Gods forbearance when he has none in his Forgiveness or to depend upon mere patience without an interest in Gods pardoning Mercy God may have patience with when he has no pardon for a sinner he had so for the Old World for Sodom for Ierusalem which yet perisht under his just displeasure A sensible Soul will be apt to argue thus I am reprieved but is my Pardon sealed God visits not my Iniquities upon me but will he remember them no more Those that are the familiar Acquaintances of Nature and of the Cabal to Common Reason have told me that Forbearance is no Acquittance that Patience abused turns into Fury Nay perhaps it may be in Judgement that a Sinner is forborn for God hath sometimes suffered the Nations to walk in their own wayes Acts 14. 16. And endured with much long-sufferance the Vessels of Wrath fitted to destruction But now through Christ the Nature of God is discover'd to be Love and Kindness for seeing Provision is made for and regard had of all his other Attributes and Essential Perfections God can secure to himself the Glory of them all and yet the Sinner escape wrath to come And indeed it 's altogether as unaccountable why God should be mercifull to the reproach of his Holiness as why he should be severe to the disparagement of his Mercy As the Goodness of God naturally discovers it self in doing good where all due requisites are found so does Justice as readily exert it self upon the Sinner where a Propitiation doth not interpose And if Conscience were rightly instructed in its Office from the Word it would mind the Sinner
for his safety He wounded men that they might seek after healing and laid load upon their guilty minds that they might be content to take his Yoke upon them And that this is so 1. We have an Argument which is Instar omnium a Thousand Reasons by it self That is what our Author says That we must be affected with all the Arguments of Christs Incarnation c. so as to be sensible of the shame and folly of our sins Now how a man should be ashamed of sin till he sees its vileness and baseness and how he should see its vileness and filthiness till it s brought to the Test of Gods Holy Law which is the Rule of righteousness the Measure of Good and Evil is past my Conjecture Nay further that shame which fills a Soul does not merely arise from a sence of the Souls vileness but as compared with Gods Holiness who is a God so Pure so Holy c. that the Soul may well be ashamed and filled with Confusion of face to appear before him Now shame upon the account of the filthiness and dread upon the account of the guilt of sin are very near Neighbours Shame expresses the Souls sence of its own unworthiness to appear before God upon the score of its baseness and deformity and Fear expresses but the sence of Gods Authority which he hath Impressed and Stampt upon his Holy Law with the Souls reflection upon it self that it has violated that Law and thereby become liable to that Penalty which his own guilt has bound him over to And this was clear in Adams case He was Naked and therefore ashamed he was guilty and therefore feared to appear before this Holy God and Iust Iudge Now our Author will allow it lawful to fetch Arguments from Christs Incarnation Life Doctrine Death and what you please to make us ashamed of sin but by no means to be afraid of the Great God But the very truth is none say that it is the duty of Men to be Distracted and Unhinged in mind with slavish fears and Hellish apprehensions of Gods Justice But that this Dread may possibly run up some poor Creatures so high as to a literal distraction when the apprehensions of the Curse due to the Transgression of a righteous Law of a Holy and Jealous God shall overset a weak Judgement and dark Mind that sees its danger but no way to escape sees its Disease but not its Cure its sin with the demerits thereof but not a Saviour with his Merits and at once considers that Wrath of God which it concludes to be unavoidable and knows to be Intollerable 3. That our Saviour did use the Law and it's Terrors to awaken the Souls of men to a due apprehension of their sin and their danger thereupon the whole Tenour of the New Testament prove It was the Method of his Precurser Iohn the Baptist he laid this Ax to the Root of the Tree Mat. 3. 10. denouncing against them That every Tree that brought not forth good Fruit should be hewen down and cast into the fire And where-ever the Pharisees got it yet a warning they had got to flie from wrath to come The Apostle Paul both felt it and Preacht the use of the Law for Conviction of sin with all its Consequents and leading the sinner to Christ He felt it Rom. 7. 9. When the Commandment came sin revived and I died he saw himself a dead and lost man He Preacht also the Use of the Law Gal. 3. 24. to be a Schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. What use our Saviour in his own Person made of the Law may be seen from Matth. 5. and also chap. 23. where he thunders upon the dead and secure Consciences of Sinners with Arguments taken from the Law of God and the dreadfull Curse annex'd to the violation of it And though our Author will allow no more than an Awfull regard and reverence for God who is a holy and righteous Iudge and an irreconcileable Enemy to all Sin yet when a Sinner shall be throughly convinc'd that he is so and shall know that the wages of Sin is Death and that he that gave forth this Law and must sit in Iudgement upon him is both a Holy and a Righteous Iudge and an Irreconcileable Enemy to all Sin there will be more than an awfull regard and reverence for this God unless he have the faculty to tell a Sinner how he may stand guilty before his Judgement-Seat and not be filled with horror and unspeakable amazement But I see our Author can be both more severe than Christ where his severity is not due and more mercifull too at other times when his Clemency will destroy He will dawb over the chinks of their Consciences with untemper'd Mortar and skin over their wounds very smoothly he will not have men feel the workings of the Law nor any amazing terrours of Gods wrath Though it be hard to conceive how a Soul should see Sin and not see Gods wrath or seeing it not be terrified and amazed with it But such was not the Way and Method nor such the End and Design of Christs coming He never preach'd Peace when Destruction was nigh he accommodated not his Doctrine to the Lusts and Tempers of Sinners but Acted according to his Commission Isa. 61. 1 2. Preaching the Acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God But our Author has imposed it upon himself as his constant Method to discourse pro re natâ to fit the present purpose for pag. 3. of this excellent Piece he had told us That the Gospel of Christ is as severe a Dispensation as the Law which dooms men to Eternal misery that live not very vertuous and innocent Lives And they must be very vertuous and innocent ones indeed who escape that doom for just now he assures us That God is a righteous Iudge and an irreconcileable Enemy to all sin After all this storm there are yet a few drops behind which we may do well to shelter our selves from if we can He falls into some heat against our having Christ offer'd to us to be our Saviour against the Beseechings of Christ against Covenanting with Christ which is well express'd by Contract and Espousal And for this there is good warrant 2 Cor. 5. 20. As though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christs stead be ye reconciled to God This was Scripture before he was born and will be so when he is gone and therefore he may speak his pleasure against Christ and his Gospel But he has a License and let him make the best on 't for our parts we hope we shall not be Scoffed out of the Concernments of our Souls and Salvation and if that must Anger him let him repeat over the Alphabet or which will do as well Turn the Knot of his Girdle behind him To conclude the Persons whom our Authors lot is fallen out to reproach Doe build their Faith
immediate Effects of the Covenant and not of the Blood of Christ What should move the Apostles always to speak improperly to affix Reconciliation Atonement Redemption c. to the Blood of Christ and never to our Obedience when yet we are neither properly reconciled properly redeemed nor God properly atoned by Christ's Blood but all these are the proper Effects of our Obedience And now one word to the Therefore And therefore says he All the Blessings of the Gospel are owing to the Blood of Christ because the Gospel-Covenant it self was procured and confirmed by the Blood of Christ A very learned Argument that is to say We owe the Blessings of the Gospel to that which is no true and proper cause of them The Blood of Christ is not the proper Cause of our Justification therefore we owe our Iustification to it His Blood is not the proper Cause of our Reconciliation and therefore we are indebted to his Blood for our Reconciliation All Effects are owing to their proper Causes whatsoever therefore is the proper Cause of our Iustification to that we are indebted for it But how naturally would this Conclusion follow from his Premise The Blood of Christ is not the proper Cause of Iustification Reconciliation and Redemption and therefore we do not owe our Justification Reconciliation and Redemption to the Blood of Christ Or thus We owe all the Blessings of the Gospel to the Blood of Christ and therefore the Blood of Christ is the proper Cause of those Blessings And now let the Reader observe how his Reason brought up in the Rear has routed his Reason that marched in the Van. The Blood of Christ is not the proper Cause of the Blessings of the Gospel there 's your Reason in the Front why we do not owe the Blessings of the Gospel to it And again The Gospel-Covenant was procured and confirmed by it There 's your Reason in the Rear why we do owe the Blessings of the Gospel to it But to do our Author justice I shall look over these things more severely The Gospel-Covenant it self says he was procured by the Blood of Christ. And does not this sound more honourably for the Blood of Christ than to say it only confirm'd a Covenant To procure if we might measure the import of the Word by its sound implies that the Blood of Christ had some Influence upon God that moved him to enter into such a Covenant with Mankind which without that Consideration he had never done but to confirm a Covenant that supposes there was such a Covenant in being only the Blood of Christ gave security to Men that it should be made good So that if we know when we are well we had best keep our selves so and sit down contented with this NewHonour and Efficiency ascribed to the Blood of Christ that it procured as well as confirmed the Gospel-Covenant lest whilst we labour to engross more than is due we lose what the Charity of our Author has given us But they who think they have right to All will hardly be perswaded to be put off with half and therefore I must a little further enquire into this new-start-up Notion of procuring the Covenant What this Gospel-Covenant is which our Author so frankly attributes to the Procurement of Christ's Blood he has told us p. 320. A Promise of the Pardon of Sin and Eternal Life to those who believe and obey the Gospel I confess a clear and distinct Notion of what he calls Gospel would very much befriend us in our Enquiry The best I can find and it 's but a half-faced one neither is p. 34. To preach Christ says he is to preach his Gospel that is to expound all those Rules of Life and Articles of Faith which are contained in it Whether this be Gospel or no I shall not enquire or whether this be the Covenant of the Gospel I shall not torment him with but this is that which Christ has procured for us with his Blood A Promise of Pardon and Life to those who believe and obey all that 's revealed and commanded either in the Scriptures or the New-Testament or the Four Evangelists or in one of Christ's Sermons I think that must be it Now I must here entreat the Reader to open his Eyes and see how he has been cheated all this while 1. It 's very well known he propounded a Question at first What Influence the Righteousness of Christ's Life and the Sacrifice of his Death have upon our Acceptance with God To this he answers separately concerning the Death of Christ and its Influence and will come all in good time to shew us What Influence the Righteousness of his Life hath upon God for that End Concerning the Influence of his Death he has been perswading us that it confirms the Covenant and now in the Close he has stollen-in a Word we never dreamt of that i procures this Covenant Now I suspect some fraud for what Influence has the Death of Christ upon God to procure us such a Govenant Had he shew'd us that he had deserved better of his Readers than by all this Amusing Sophistry 2. He has told us p. 42. That the Light of Nature the Works of Creation and Providence do assure us that God designs the Happiness of all his Creatures according to their Capacities and they are capable of being justified and saved And that God is so Holy that he has a Natural Love for all good Men and is as ready to pardon them when they return to their Duty as a kind Father is to receive a Humble and Penitent Prodigal And p. 43. Had Christ never appeared in the World yet we had reason to believe that God is thus good and merciful Now having such good security from the Light of Nature Reason being clear in the Point and the thing so natural and essential to God that he will pardon and is ready to it upon Repentance and Obedience though Christ had never appear'd what has the Death of Christ done to procure this Favour or more Favour from God We will grant that the Death of Christ has confirmed the Truth of it more but what has it added to the Procurement of the thing If it be said that Christ's Death did not procure a Willingness in God to Pardon but only a Confirmation of his Willingness I would ask what greater Confirmation a rational Creature could well desire than an Assurance from the Light of Nature that this was Natural and Essential to God And I would further know what the Procuring of a Confirmation amounts to more than a Confirmation 3. The Scripture has assured us Gen. 17. That God gave an explicite Promise to Abraham that he would be his God or a God to him that is that whatever Abraham should want and yet could not want but he must be eternally miserable that thing God would be to him For 't is an uncouth Interpretation of the Promises I will be thy God that
Blood was carried in to the Holiest place ver 12. Neither by the blood of Bulls and Goats but by his own Blood he entred into the most Holy place having obtained eternal Redemption Thus Christ had obtained eternal Redemption and perfected the whole work of it as far as the paying of a price to God goes in the Matter before his Ascention and that which remained was the application of the benefit of what he had procured with God to us by his prevailing Intercession And as to the blood of the Sacrifices mentioned Exod. 24. 6. which the Apostle refers to ver 19. which our Author thinks had no other use but the confirming of the Mosaical Covenant it was never carried into the most Holy place at all nor the blood of any Propitiatory Sacrifice but onely that upon the Feast of Expiation once a year 2. The Apostle in this Chapter does not onely refer to the sprinkling of the Blood of the Sacrifice Exod. 24. but to the sprinkling of the blood of the Red Heifer Numb 19. 4. Eleazer shall take of her blood the red Heifer without blemish and without spot ver 2. and shall sprinkle it directly before the Tabernacle of the Congregation To which the Apostle expresly refers ibid. v. 12. If the blood of Bulls and Goats and the ashes of a Heifer sprinkling the unclean Sanctifieth to the purifying of the Flesh how much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit Offered himself to God purge your Consciences from Dead works And this blood was neither carried into the Holy place nor the Ministration of the Service performed by the High-Priest but by Eleazar which proves 1. That the blood of Christ had all its atoning vertue on this side his entrance into Heaven and 2. That Christ was Typified by the inferior Priests and not by the High-Priest alone For here not Aaron but Eleazar performed the Service of the Day 3. The Apostle clearly Disputes against this Figment of Christs presenting his blood to God in Heaven which the Men of this leaven will needs have to be all the Sacrifice that Christ Offered to God ver 25 26. Nor yet that he should Offer himself often for then he must often have Suffered No Offering without Suffering But Christ Suffered but once therefore he Offered but once Nay says the Apostle Now once in the end of the World hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself That which Christ did once he does not do always but if Christs appearing before God in Heaven be the offering of himself in sacrifice he does it always to the end of his Mediatory Kingdom 2 But what was it under the Law to which the Intercession of Christ answers To this he returns thus As the Death c. so his continual Intercession for us in virtue of his Blood once shed and once offer'd to God answers those frequent Expiations by Sacrifice under the Law especially to that General Sacrifice on the great Day of Expiation when the High-priest enter'd into the Holy of Holies with the blood of Beasts As the Death of Christ his Ascension and presenting his Blood to God answers that one so his Intercession answers the other Yes indeed just so with so much Truth and Regularity of Proportion that is with just none at all What parallel he can fancy between Expiation and Intercession I cannot divine This I know 1. The Expiations by Sacrifice under the Law were by Blood-shedding It was the Blood upon the Altar as the Life of the Sacrifice that made Expiation Lev. 17. 11. but in Christs Intercession there is no shedding of Blood 2. The Expiations by Sacrifice under the Law were by the Death of the Sacrifice and so was the Expiation of Christ And so says our Author too p. 327. He hath made a perfect Expiation for our sins by dying once p. 328. He procures the Pardon of our sins by his Death But in Heaven there is no Death and yet he says The Intercession of Christ answers the Expiations by Sacrifice under the Law that is just as much as Life answers Death But how to make our Author friends with the Apostle will be difficult who is so hard to be reconciled to himself 3. The Expiations which were made by the frequent Sacrifices were all without the Holyest but the Intercession of Christ is in the most Holy place And is not this a famous correspondency But how clear is all this if we could be reconciled to the Scriptures Where the Death of Christ upon the Cross answers all the Expiatory Sacrifices under the Law and the Intercession of Christ at the right Hand of God or his appearing continually in Heaven before his Father for us answers the High-priests entering into the Holy of Holies with that Blood which had been before shed at the Altar But whereas such was the imperfection such the poverty of the Types that no one was able to Answer all the Concerns of a Sinner no one could express all the various respects that a guilty Person had to God and his Law and therefore it was necessary that various Sacrifices should be instituted that they might represent those things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which it was impossible they should perform 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our Lord Jesus Christ by one Offering hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified Heb. 10. 14. For where Remission is there is no more Offering for sin v. 18. When therefore our Author affirms so secure of Contradiction That Christs continual Intercession answers those frequent Expiations under the Law especially that on the great day of Expiation he has said enough to determine this Matter For if there were frequent Expiations under the Law besides that of the Feast of Expiation and that there be any thing in Christs Sacrifice answering to them it follows that Christs Expiatory work was finish'd before his entrance into Heaven for the Blood of those other Sacrifices never came within the Holy of Holies which answers to the true Holy Place where Christ makes continual Intercession for us All this while the Reader ought charitably to believe that our Author is discoursing what influence the death of Christ hath upon our Acceptation with God To which he has answered that it Confirms a Covenant it procures a Covenant though how it procures a Covenant he has not yet informed us Justification Reconciliation Redemption are not the proper and immediate effects of his death nor indeed is any thing so but the abolishing ceremonies and conforming such a Covenant as he has obtruded upon us and for confirming that which he calls the Covenant there was the least need and I think no need at all but he closes up the whole with a parcel of good words Christ says he procures the pardon of our sins by his death and dispenses this pardon to us by his Intercession Is not this very Canonical and Orthodox yes sure but now mark his
shall be Pardoned and Saved if we Believe and Obey without any Ability purchased to Believe and Obey 2. Christ did not purchase any one single spiritual Benefit for us as the Cause of it immediate and proper 3. He purchased Nothing but that he may lose the whole Benefit of his Purchase 4. Obedience will as soon save us without the Blood of Christ as with it Lesser Obedience with that Blood is not more acceptable to God than Greater without it But this he will call an Influence upon our Acceptation with God I confess he is a Free-man for ought I know and may call or miscall Things as he has done Persons at his pleasure but surely no man whose understanding is his own would ever call this an Influence upon our Acceptation with God A contingent uncertain Influence it may have upon our Obedience but none at all upon the Acceptation of our Obedience An act of Love to God is as welcome and acceptable to God at this rate without Christ as with Him But this is the Misery of it when Men must say something and yet cannot tell well what to say but either on the one hand they must flie in the Face of the Scripture which they hardly dare do or else on the other hand renounce their beloved Errors which they are resolved never to do then must the Scriptures be wrested to their crooked Sentiments instead of Rectifying their crooked Notions by the straight Rule of the written Word 2 Having now Informed us what Influence the Death of Christ has upon our acceptance with God it remains that he Instruct us with equal Ingenuity what Influence the Righteousness of his Life has upon God for the same end But here he will be to seek for having assigned in words so much to the Death of Christ there is nothing left for his Life No matter upon which it may work but seeing all the former was in pretence there is Employment enough for it left still Though the pardon of sin and our justification be attributed says he to the blood of Christ yet I could never persuade my self that this wholly excludes the perfect obedience and righteousness of his life He cannot persuade himself very strange what had he attempted to satisfie his judgement about the exclusion of Christs righteousness and yet could he not be persuaded yes persuaded he was to exclude it but not wholly to exclude it there were some rubs and little scruples in the way that he could not get over but had he improved his own principles and built upon his own foundation I could have shewn him a way how he might wholly have excluded it for p. 243. he gives it us as a Note worth our observing that in the whole New Testament there is no such expeession as the Righteousness of Christ And p. 78. he lays it down as an infallible maxime That we cannot draw any one conclusion from the person of Christ which his Gospel hath not expresly taught seeing then we cannot safely draw any such conclusion from Christs Person and the Scripture has not expresly taught it what should hinder him from a plerophory in this point wholly to exclude that from his Creed which is not expresly taught in the Scripture and therefore may not be drawn from the consideration of his Person by consequence And if his scruples had been but as strong against the righteousness of Christ or he had been in the scrupling mood as against the justification of Abraham by the righteousness of Christ this matter had been put out of doubt with him wholly long before this In the mean time The righteousness of Christ is mightily beholden to his good Nature that when by his principles he might yet out of civility he would not and therefore could not wholly exclude it Some Place some Room it shall have some Remote and Improper causality as the Death of Christ had in our Acceptation with God But what may be the Reason why he could not altogether as well as almost exclude it O he tells us that the Apostle tells him Ephes. 1. 6. That we are accepted in the Beloved And is this the great difficulty Alas one of his Wedges would make this little Knot flie at the first stroke May there not possibly be given another meaning of it Must it needs be Interpreted of Acceptation through the active Obedience of Christ This would have done the work Or thus Our acceptation is ascribed to the Obedience of Christs Life because that has a great Influence upon us to make us Obedient which is that Righteousness for which we are accepted of God The Example of Christ has given us a Pattern of Obedience which when we Imitate we are accepted of God but what now if he had played one of his Omnipotent Machines against the Text he might have Batter'd down the Conclusion with ease By the Beloved is meant Christ by Christ is meant the Gospel by the Gospel is meant Obedience and then the sence is no more but this We are accepted in the Beloved that is We are accepted for our selves And I must needs say this had been a far more Rational Course than that he has taken with the Death of Christ Ay but says he whatever rendred Christ beloved of God did contribute something to our Obedience Something That 's a huge Kindness indeed There 's a vast distance between something and nothing and yet it may be such a something as is next to nothing Well we are glad of a little till we can get more For because he was beloved of God we are accepted for his sake That 's high and surprizing But still What kind of Cause was Christs Obedience of our acceptance One of the Poorest Lowest causes in the World is one that they Nick-name a Causa sine quâ non which yet is properly no cause at all And yet our Author when time was could tell us pag. 43. That had Christ never appeared in the World yet we have reason to believe God is thus Wise Good and Merciful to forgive us our sins when we return to our Duty Such a Cause was the Death of Christ of our acceptance Pag. 46. Gods requiring such a Sacrifice as the Death of Christ for the Expiation of our sins was not because he could not do otherwise If now we might have been accepted without his Incarnation I presume we might have been so without his Obedience and then it is not so much as that little nothing of a Causa sine quâ non But this is pure Trifling For the Question was What Influence Christs Righteousness has upon our acceptance with God He answers That because Christ was beloved we are beloved for his sake That is Christs Obedience has an Influence upon our acceptance but what that Influence is remains a Secret Suppose the Question had been Why are we accepted for Christs sake The answer might have been His Obedience has an Influence upon our acceptation Those