there was not any one sort of things which the whole World knew better than all that belong'd to Sacrifices At the time of writing the New Testament they certainly were more accustom'd to it and understood it much better than we generally do now in Ages in which those practices have so long ceas'd that the Memory of them is quite extinguished It is indeed very probable that many particular Phrases belonging to them might have been by a Poetical Liberty extended to other Matters for things of the sacred'st nature are by Poets and Orators made use of to give the liveliest Illustrations and raise the strongest passions possible yet after all an entire Thread of a sacrificatory Style was a form of description that the World must have known could belong only to an Expiatory Sacrifice that is to some person or thing that was devoted to God by a Sinner in his own stead and upon the account of his sin and guilt was to be some way destroy'd in sign of what he own'd he had deserv'd and this was to be done in order to the reconciling the guilty Person to God the Guilt being transfer'd from the Person to the Sacrifice and God by accepting the Sacrifice was reconcil'd to the person whose sin was upon that account forgiven This being thus laid down let us look next to the whole strain of the New Testament particularly to those parts of it in which this matter is more fully treated about Here I will again follow the method that I took upon the former Head and not enter so particularly upon the Criticisms of some passages but will view the thing in gross that seeming to be both the most convincing way in it self and the best suited to my present purpose I must further observe that this was a point of vast Consequence as being that which concern'd men's Peace with God the pardon of their sins and their hopes of God's Favour and of Eternal Happiness Therefore we ought not to imagine that Rhetorick or Poetical Forms of Speech could be admitted here to the aggravating of so solemn a piece of our Religion boyond its true value so that we must conclude that here if in any thing the Apostles writ strictly besides that their manner of writing is always plain and simple When then they set forth the Death of Christ with all the Pomp of the sacrificatory Phrases we must either believe it to be a true Propitiatory Sacrifice or otherwise we must look upon them as warm indiscreet men whose Affections to our Saviour heated them so far as to carry them in this Matter out of all measure far beyond the truth Those who oppose this Article believe that Christ only died for our good but not in our stead that by his Death he might fully confirm his Gospel and give it a great Authority that so it might have the more Influence upon us they also believe that by his dying he intended to set us a most perfect pattern of bearing the sharpest Sufferings with the perfectest Patience and Submission to the Will of God and the most entire Charity to those at whose hands we suffer and that by doing this he was to Merit at God's hands that supream Authority with which he is now vested for our good that so he might obtain a Power to offer the World the pardon of sin upon their true Repentance and finally That he died in order to his Resurrection and forgiving a sensible Proof of that main Article of his Religion That we shall all be raised up at the last day therefore he was to die and that in such a manner that no man might question the truth of it that so his Resurrection might give a most demonstrative Proof both of the possibility of it and of our being to be raised up by him who was thus declared to be the Son of God by his Rising from the dead On the other hand we believe that God intending to pardon sin and to call the World by the offers of it to Repentance design'd to do it in such a manner as should both give us the highest Ideas of the guilt of sin and also of his own Love and Goodness to us which he thus order'd That after that Divine Person in whom dwelt the Eternal Word had sufficiently opened his Doctrine and had set a perfect pattern of Holiness to the world he was to be fallen on by a company of perfidious and cruel men who after they had loaded him with all the spiteful and reproachful Usage that they could invent they in conclusion Crucified him he all the while bearing besides those visible Sufferings in his Person most inexpressible Agonies in his Mind both before and during these his Sufferings and yet bearing them with a most absolute Submission to his Father's Will and a perfect Charity to those his Persecutors and that in all this he willingly offer'd himself to suffer both upon our account and in our stead which was so accepted of God that he not only raised him from the dead and exalted him up on high giving to him even as he was Man all power both in Heaven and Earth but that upon the account of it he offer'd to the World the pardon of sinâ— together with all those other Blessings which accompany it in his Gospel and that he will have us in all our Prayers for pardon or other favours claim them through that Death and owe them to it These are two contrary Doctrines upon this Head Now let us see which of them come nearest the Manner and Style in which the Scriptures set it out in the New Testament Christ is said to have reconcil'd us to his Father to be our Propitiation to have born our sins and to have been bruis'd for our Iniquities to have been made sin for us to have been accursed for us to have given himself for our sins that he might redeem us from all Iniquity he is said to have died for or in the stead of our sins to have given his life a ransom for us or in lieu of us he is said to have born our sins on his own body he has appointed a perpetual Remembrance of his Death in these words That his body was broken for us and that his blood was shed for many for the Remission of sins Remission of sins is offered in his name and through his blood God laid upon him the iniquities of us all he was our justification our peace and our redemption He is called the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the World His Death and intercession are very copiously compared to the Expiation made on the solemn day of the Atonement for the whole Nation of the Iews on which after the Sacrifice was offer'd on the Altar the High Priest carri'd in the Blood to the Holy of Holies and set it down before the Cloud of Glory as that which reconcil'd that people to God This is done in so full a
Four Discourses Delivered to the CLERGY OF THE Diocess of Sarum CONCERNING I. The Truth of the Christian Religion II. The Divinity and Death of Christ. III. The Infallibility and Authority of the Church IV. The Obligations to continue in the Communion of the Church By the Right Reverend Father in God GILBERT Lord Bishop of SARVM LONDON Printed for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-yard MDCXCIV Imprimatur JO. CANT Ian. 22. 1693 4. TO THE CLERGY OF THE Diocess of Sarum My Reverend and dear Brethren THESE Discourses were at first prepared for you and were delivered to you among a great many more on other Subjects on several occasions they were so well received by you that many of you desired that you might have them copied out for a more lasting use This has set me on publishing these that follow they relating to Four different sort of men with whom you may be engaged The first is against Atheists and Libertines who grow to be so bold and insolent that it is of the last importance that you should be well furnish'd with Answers to those Objections with which they make the greatest noise This is the Pest of the Age we live in the most dangerous as well as the most contagious of all others It strikes at all and corrupts the whole Man as well as it dissolves all the bounds of Nature and Society This promises such an Indemnity and gives so entire a liberty that depraved Inclinations and Affections will be always of its side and it has some specious things to alledge the Novelty and Boldness of which makes them pass for Wit and Good Humour which will be always taking to those who want and desire supports and excuses for sins Upon all these accounts and chiefly upon the fatal progress which this Blasphemous Spirit of Infidelity has made among us it becomes us to consider these matters well that we may be throughly acquainted with all those depths of Satan and know what to answer to all those false shews of Wit or Reason as wall as to the more petulant demands by which that prophane Crew study to undermine and beat down all Religion One of their common Topicks is the decrying all Mysteries and in this they fall in to the same opposition with the Socinians tho upon very different designs For the Socinians run down all Mysteries and think they can make it appear That those passages of Scripture by which they are commonly proved have another meaning whereas Libertines do it being persuaded that they are indeed contained in the Scriptures and therefore they hope that they will gain their main end of decrying all Revealed Religion if strong prejudices are once formed against Mysteries and yet they are at the same time consider'd as parts of the Christian Religion and are believed to be contain'd in the Scriptures I must also do this right to the Socinians as to own that their Rules and Morality are exact and severe that they are generally men of Probity Iustice and Charity and seem to be very much in earnest in pressing the obligations to very high degrees of Virtue Yet their denying all secret Assistances must cut off the Exercises of many Devotions that give a softness and tenderness to the mind which if once extinguish'd it must of necessity draw after it a dry flatness over all a man's thoughts and powers their denying the certainty of God's foreseeing all future events that depend upon the freedom of a man's Will must very much weaken our Confidence in God our patience under all misfortunes and our expectations of a deliverance in due time Their Notions of another state do also take off much of the terror under which Bad men ought to be kept and lessen the Ioys of Good men On all these accounts their Opinions seem to have a great Influence upon practice but with â—â—lation to the great Article of Christianity concerning the Person and sufferings of Iesus Christ their Doctrine gives so different a view of this Religion in its most important Head that either we have been guilty of a most Irreligious prophanation in esteeming one to be God and giving him all the Acknowledgments and Adorations that belong to the Great and Eternal God who yet is a meer Creature or they must be no less guilty who if he be the Great and the True God do look on him only as a Creature and yet offer him all divine Honour and Worship and if his Death was only a pattern or any thing else than a true propitiatory Sacrifice then we who look on it as our Propitiation and Redemption who claim and trust to it as our Ransom and Atonement do very impiously raise its value beyond the Truth and fix our Confidence with relation to our Peace with God upon a false foundation Whereas on the other hand If God has set forth his death as a Propitiation for the forgiveness of sin then they are guilty of black Ingratitude and of defeating the chief design of the Gospel who so far detract from its value as to reckon it only a patern of dying a confirmation of the Gospel and necessary preliminary to a Resurrection Upon all these accounts it is that I could never understand the Pacificatory Doctrines of those who think that these are questions in which a diversity of Opinions may well be endured without disturbing the Peace of the Church or breaking Communion about thâ—m They seem to be the Fundamentals of Christianity and therefore I thought it was very necessary for me to give you a ful and clear Instruction in this matter The 3d. Discourse relates to that upon which the whole Cause of Popery turns for if they are Infallibâ—e it is to no purpose to dispute about any thing else and if they are fallible their pretending to Infallibility is of it self a just prejudice against their whole Church and against all their other Doctrines when they claim to so high an authority without good grounds Since therefore this is the most Important part of all our Controversies with that Church and since it is that to which they always turn themselves by which they gain Prosclites and estâ—blish their own Votaries and set them out of the reach of all Convistion the understanding of this matter in its full extent seems to be a very necessary piece of study We are apt upon a little Interval of quiet to forget the practices of that Church and because we do not think of them we may be apt to fancy that they think as little of us but they do still pursue their point with an unwearied diligence They never give over but when one design fails they either study to retrieve it or to set another on foot with an Industry that ought to awaken us and keep us always on our guard The Numbers of their Emisâ—aries are great and their Zeal is ever warm and active therefore we must never lose sight of them and
can have such influence both on our Lives and in our Death as the Belief of another World and of the Account that is to be made after Death Nothing strikes the hatred of Sin or the obligations to Vertue deeper than the whole Theory of the Death and Sufferings of Christ. The Rules given in the Gospel to all the Orders of Men and in all the Relations of Life would make all Families and Societies both easie and happy the obligation to strict justice to all others and to an abatement of what in justice we might demand from others by doing as we would be done by The Rules of not only passing by and forgiving Injuries but of loving Enemies and doing good for evil the tenderness as well as the extent of our charity the measures and manner of our bounty to the Poor the modesty of deportment the condescending gentleness as well as the unaffected humility that are enjoined have all such Characters in them so suited to our Faculties and to Human Society to the calm of a man's mind as well as to the comforts of his life to fortifie him against misfortunes and to support him against the feebleness and frailties of his Nature that he who will suffer himself to weigh all this carefully must feel a strong disposition to believe a Religion to be true that agrees with the highest thoughts that we can have of God and the best Seeds or Principles that we feel within our selves All this receives a vast accesfion from the simplicity of the Worship prescribed by it which consists chiefly in the exercise of the sublimest thoughts that we can entertain of God and the justest that we ought to have of our selves all which are to be expressed in the most genuine and simplest manner possible with the fewest but the plainest and most significant Rites Thus a great advance is made when a Man can be induced to lay all these things together The whole moral and practical part of Christianity together with the modesty and reasonableness of its Worship are great Inducements if not Arguments to believe all the rest of it And this will appear the more sensibly if one sets by it the Idolatry and Magick the Cruelties and Brutalities that have defiled the whole Gentile World either as we find them anciently even among the Politest Nations of Greece and Rome and as they continue to this day in so great a part of the World which lies still under the darkness of Paganism according to the Descriptions that Navigators and Travellers have given us Here is the first foundation to be laid To this is to be added That a Nation which hates our Religion does yet retain many Books that give a vast strength to it and so much the greater as they the Iews I mean have preserved those Books with great care It was a remarkable step when those Books were put in a Language of greater extent and more certainly understood than that in which they were first writ and that long before our Religion appeared which was done by the Men of that Nation That Translation was received and long used by them which prevented endless Disputes that must have otherwise arisen in the beginnings of Christianity concerning the true rendring of many Passages in them which relate to an extraordinary Person that was to be sent to them and was looked for by them under the name of the Messias For the Hebrew Language as it was little known so it was capable of such different Readings and Interpretations that if the matter had not been setled before by an Authentical and Authorized Translation it does not well appear how it could have been done A Christian would not have had credit enough nor a Iew honesty enough to have given a Work of this kind in which the World would have acquiesced Now in these Books as there are some Predictions that seem looser and more general such as those concerning the Seed of the Woman the Seed of Abraham and the Issue of David so some chiefly of the later Prophets fixed upon a period of time as that he should come during the Second Temple and within a limited course of Years and that he should be cut off but that afterwards the City and Sanctuary should be destroyed That Desolations were determined till the War should be at an end Now without entring into the exact adjusting of the time limited of 70 Weeks we do certainly know that their Temple and City were destroyed many Ages ago and but a few Years after that he whom we believe to be that Messias had appeared among them and was cut off by them So that either it must be owned that this was not a true Prophecy or the Messias came before the destruction of Ierusalem This Argument receives a vast strength by those who have made out the point of Chronology of the 70 Weeks of Years that is 490 Years which does exactly agree to the interval of time This whole Matter receives a great confirmation from that Unvaluable History which Iosephus a Iewish Priest and a Man of great Learning and Judgment well skill'd both in Civil and Military Affairs and full of zeal both for his Country and Religion has writ in so particular a manner he having been an Eye-witness and a considerable Actor in the whole Affair Whosoever is at the pains to compare that dismal Scene with our Saviour's Predictions sees such an agreement between them that this is no small Argument to prove the truth of the whole Religion Nor is it to be past over without a special remark that we have this piece of History writ by a Iew who cannot be suspected had a Christian writ it he might perhaps have been thought too partial to his Religion or had a Roman writ it he might have been suspected to have aggravated matters for raising the Triumphs of his Country but there lies no possible colour of suspicion against Iosephus And since he mentions the Story both of the Forerunner and of the Disciple of our Saviour this is a great presumption either that the Passage relating to our Saviour himself is genuine or that if he said nothing of him it was because he knew he could say nothing that could derogate from his Credit and that he would say nothing to raise it For it is plain from those Relations concerning St. Iohn Baptist and St. Iames that he was acquainted with the beginnings of our Religion besides that we see a particular Curiosity possessed him of being well informed concerning all the different Sects that were among them and their particular Tenets and Customs There are so many Passages in the Gospel of which the Iews must have had such Full and Authentical Information that if they had been falsly related it must have been in their power to have confuted them beyond the possibility of a contradiction So that as to this part of the Argument so much is certain That the Iews looked for their
Discourse and with such a variety of Expressions that it is not easy to imagine how any thing could be more plainly told He is call'd the High-Priest that was consecrated to offer up Sacrifices for the people it is said That he has entred into the Holy Place by his own Blood having obtain'd Eternal Redemption for us his Blood purges our Consciences from dead woks to serve the living God he hath put away sin by the Sacrifice of himself and was once offer'd to bear the sins of many we are Sanctifi'd by the offering of the Body of Christ once for us all and after he had offer'd one Sacrifice for sins he for ever sate down on the right hand of God having by that one Offering for ever perfected them that are sanctified so that we enter into the holiest by the Blood of Iesus He is also compared to the Sacrifice that was burnt without the Camp and that he might Sanctify the people with his own Blood he suffer'd without the Gate and he is call'd that great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting Covenant Now let it be consider'd That as this Argument is in some places closely pursu'd in many chosen and strict Expressions so it returns in a great variety of Phrases through the whole Epistles in so many different places and on so many several occasions that nothing can appear plainer in words than that the Apostles cosider'd this as the Capital Article of their whole Doctrine and the Main Point given them in Commission In their preaching to all Nations they inculcate it chiefly they repeat it often and for ought I have been able to judge they have not left one single Phrase that belong'd to Sacrifices in the Old Testament which they have not appli'd to the Death of Christ in the New It is true they mention his Resurrection often as the Great and Eminent Proof of Christ's being the Messias but they never apply that with those lively and inflam'd Expressions to men's Consciences that they do his Death and Sufferings The Merit is plainly put there the Resurrection being the Glorious Reward and Consequence of it Upon his Death and Cross it is that they dwell the most they set an infinite Value upon his Loving us and dying for us Now if he had only di'd for our good tho it is not to be deni'd but that this was a great Evidence of perfect Love yet the world was full of Stories of men that had di'd for their Country so that barely the dying for our good if it had not been likewise in our stead could not have born such a sublime Strain as that is in which they set this out If our Saviour had only been to endure those bodily Torments how violent soever it does not give any extraordinary Character of him that the very night before he was so exceedingly amaz'd at the prospect of what he was entring upon that he became sorrowful even to the death and was in such a bodily Agony that his Sweat fell down as great drops of Blood which shews that his Mind was then in a much more unconceivable and unsupportable Agony so that an Angel was sent from Heaven to comfort him Now if there was no more in his Sufferings than that which we see here is a depression far below what great Heroes have express'd even during the most extream Sufferings and yet it was at a distance from them only upon the prospect of their coming on All the while before our Saviour knew they were coming and yet till then no Agony is heard of which intimates that there was somewhat peculiar in it which some Churches have in their Liturgies call'd very properly his unspeakable and unutterable Sufferings They are so indeed for we who have only a Notion of vast Agonies in the Mind when Rack'd with the Horror of guilt it cannot bear the apprehensions of the Wrath of God and the reproaches that arise from a wounded Conscience cannot apprehend what could have rais'd such amazing Sorrows in so pure and unspotted a Soul that was conscious to it self of no sin and so could fear nothing from a just and good God therefore we must not pretend to explain what we cannot understand But to return to the main Argument When this whole Collection of the ways in which the Death of Christ is propos'd to the World in the New Testament is laid together we must conclude that either this Death was a propitiatory Sacrifice or we must for ever despair of finding out the meaning of any thing that can be express'd in words Nothing could be plainer said nor oftner repeated in a greater variety of Expressions proper to signify this and not proper for any thing else I do not deny but those who would turn all this another way have found to every one of these passages somewhat that seems to favour the diverting them to another signification but as it was observ'd before if some of the Sacrificatory Phrases have by some Authors and upon some occasions been brought down to a signification less important it will not from thence follow that Discourses that are a contexture of those Notions and Forms of Speech should be so wrested from their natural Signification to a sense so far below the genuine and receiv'd Importance of the words And indeed I do not see what we can make of any part of the New Testament or how much of it we can receive with any degrees of Esteem if we do not believe the Death of Christ to have been a truly Expiatory Sacrifice offerr'd up to God in our stead Nor does this at all contradict the freedom of the Grace of God in pardoning sin which is so much set forth in Scripture since there is matter enough for Free-Grace to exert it self notwithstanding the Atonement made by Sacrifice For God might have in the strictness of Justice demanded satisfaction from our selves so his commuting the matter and accepting of it in the person of another is a very high Act of his Grace then our Saviour's offering himself up so freely for us was a signal as well as an undeserv'd Act of Love in that he died for us while we were yet Enemies and tho this Act belong'd to his Human Nature yet the Union between it and the Eternal Word that dwelt in him may very well entitle God to it so that in that respect this also may be call'd an Act of God's Grace The offering this to us on such easy terms and the exacting only a sincere obedience as the condition of it without insisting on an entire Obedience is another part of the Grace of it and finally The proposing such vast Rewards to our poor services and the conveying the knowledge of this to some Nations when others are left in Darkness and Ignorance are very great and undeserved Acts of Love and Mercy so that the sense of our Saviour's dying for us as our Sacrifice does not at
the Holy Ghost fell visibly on Cornelius and his Friends Can any man forbid water that those should not be baptized who have received the Holy Ghost as well as we And with this he settled the minds of those who were a little offended at that action This shews that no pretence to a high dispensation of the Spirit can evacuate that Precept since on the contrary an evidence of the giving the Holy Ghost was pleaded as an Argument for baptizing Nor does any one passage in which Baptism is mentioned in the New Testament limit it to that time and intimate that it belonged only to the beginnings of Christianity or that it was to determine when it was more fully setled so that this with the constant practice of all succeeding Ages without a shadow of any Exception must conclude us as to this Point Our Saviour did also appoint the other Sacrament to be continued in remembrance of him by which St. Paul says we shew forth his death till he come Now these words cannot be understood of any supposed inward and spiritual coming since the most signal coming in that sense was the effusion of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost and yet after that time the Apostles continued to practice it and delivered it to the Churches as a Precept still obligatory till Christ should come If then we ought still to remember him and shew forth his death if it is the Communion of his Body and Blood if it is the new Covenant in his Blood for the remission of sins then as long as these things are Duties incumbent on us so long we must be under the obligation of eating that Bread and drinking that Cup. Further If Christ has left different Gifts to different Orders of men some Apostles some Prophets some Evangeliste and some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting the Saints for the work of the Ministry and for edifying the Body of Christ till we come unto a perfect man and are no more in danger of being tossed to and fro and carried away with every wind of doctrine These words do plainly import That as long as mankind is under the frailties of this present state and in this confused Scene that some of these Orders must still be continued in the Church and that those Rules and Preceps given to Timothy and Titus concerning such as were to be ordained Bishops or Elders that is Priests and Diacons were to be lasting and standing Rules for indeed if the design had not been to establish that Order for the succeeding Ages there was less need of it in that in which there was such a plentiful Measure of the Spirit poured out upon all Christians that such Functions in that time might have been well spared if it had not been for this that they were then to be setled under the Patronage if I may so speak of the Apostles themselves from whom they were to receive an Authority which how little necessary soever it might seem in that wonderful time yet was to be more needed in the succeeding Ages Therefore we may well conclude That whatsoever was ordered concerning those Offices or Officers of the Church in the first Age was by a stronger parity of reason to be continued down through all the Ages of the Church and in particular if in that time in which Women received the Gifts of the Holy Ghost so that some prophesied and others laboured much in the Lord that is in the Gospel yet St. Paul did in two different Epistles particularly restrain them from teaching or speaking in the Church to which he adds That it was a shame for Women to speak in the Church that is it might turn to be a reproach to the Christian Religion and furnish Scoffers with some colours of exposing it to the scorn of the Age. This was to be much more strictly observed when all those extraordinary Characters that might seem to be exemptions from common Rules did no longer continue As for those distinctions into which they have cast themselves of the Hat and the denying Titles and speaking in the singular Thou and Thee it is to be considered That how unfit soever it be and how unbecoming Christians to be conformed to this world yet it rather lessens than heightens the great Idea that the world ought to have of the Christian Religion when it states a diversity among men about meer Trifles Our Saviour and his Apostles complied as much in all innocent Customs as they avoided all sinful ones Honour to whom honour is due is a standing Duty and though the bowing the Body and falling prostrate are postures that seem liker Idolatry and more abject in their nature than the Hat yet the very Prophets of God paid these respects to Kings Outward Actions or Gestures signify only what is entended to be expressed and what is generally understood by them so that what is known to be meant only for a piece of Civil respect can never be stretched to a Religious respect and though that abject homage under which the Iewish Rabbies had brought their Disciples and which they had exprest in Titles that imported their profound submission to them was reproved by our Saviour yet we see that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sir or Lord was then used as commonly as we now do since Mary Magdalen called him whom shee took for a Gardener Sir or Lord. And St. Paul gave Festus the Title which belonged to his Office it being the same that Claudius Lysias gave Felix who certainly was not wanting in that and that being the Title of men of Rank St. Luke adresses both his Books to Thephilus designing him in one ofthem in the same manner Words signify nothing of themselves as they are meer sounds but according to the signification in which men agree to use them so if the speaking to one man in the plural number is understood only as a more respectful way of treating him then the plural is in this case really but a singular Indeed these things scarce deserve to be so narrowly lookt into The Scruple against Swearing is more important both to them and to the Publick They have indeed the appearance of a plain Command of our Saviour's against all manner of Swearing which is repeated by St. Iames but this must be restricted to their communication according to the words that follow since we find Swearing not only commanded in the Old Testament but practised in the New The Apostles swear at every time they say God is witness and more solemnly when God is called for a record upon their Soul The Angel of God lifts up his hand and swears by him that lives for ever and ever God swears by himself and an Oath for confirmation that is for affirming any matter is the end of all Controversy We find our Saviour himself answered upon Oath when adjured by the High Priest to tell If he was the
the works of the law And by the tenor of the whole Discourse it is plain That by the works of the law are meant the Mosaical Precepts and not the Works of Moral Vertue For St. Paul had divided Mankind into those who were in or under the law and those who were without law that is into Iew and Gentile The design of the Epistle was not to give us Metaphysical Abstractions and Distinctions between Faith as it is a special Grace and Works or Obedience to the Laws of God but by Faith he means the entire receiving of the whole Gospel in its Commands as well as Promises for so he reckons Abraham's readiness to offer up his Son Isaac as an Act of his faith so that faith stands for the complex of all the Duties of Christianity and therefore his Assertion of our being justified by faith without the works of the law signifies no more than that those who received the Gospel who believed it and lived according to it were put in the favour of God by it without being brought under the obligation of the Mosaical Precepts The same Argument is handled by him upon the same grounds in his Epistle to the Galatians only there he gives a more explicite notion of that faith which justified that it was a faith that wrought by love So that in all St. Paul's Epistles he understands by faith the compleat receiving the Gospel in all its parts But whether these Expressions were any of those that St. Peter says the unstable wrested to their own perdition or not we see plainly by St. Iames's Epistle that some began to set up the Notion of a bare believing the Gospel as that which justified as if the meer profession of Christianity or the persuasion of its truth without a suitable Conversation justified For St. Iames speaks not of the works of law but of works simply and as he had just reason to condemn a Doctrine that tended to the total corruption of our Faith so he plainly shews that he did not differ from St. Paul since he takes his chief Instance from Abraham's Faith which made him offer up his Son Isaac upon the Altar by which he was justified so that faith wrought in his works and by works faith was made perfect And he concludes all That as the body without the spirit was dead so faith without works was dead also From whence it is plain that faith in St. Iames stands strictly for a believing the Truth of the Christian Religion and not for an entire receiving the Gospel which was the faith that St. Paul had treated of These things will appear so clear to any one who will attentively read and consider the scope of St. Paul's Epistles to the Romans and Galatians and the Discourse in St. Iames's Epistle that I am confident no scruple can remain in men that are not possessed with prejudices or over-run with a nice sort of Metaphysicks that some have brought into these matters by which they have instead of clearing them rendred them very intricate and unintelligible Their stating the instrumentality of faith in Justification their distinguishing it from Obedience in this but joining it with it in Sanctification are niceties not only without any ground in Scripture but really very hurtful by the disquiet they may give good minds For if the Christian Doctrine is plain in any one thing it must be in this which is the foundation of our quiet and of our hope It would make a long Article to reckon up all the different Subtilties with which this matter has been perplexed As whether Justification is an immanent or transient Act whether it is a Sentence pronounced in Heaven or in the Conscience or whether it is only a Relation and what constitutes it what is the efficient the instrument and the condition of it these with much more of the like nature filled many Books some years ago The strict sense of Iustification as it is a legal term and opposite to Condemnation is the absolution of a Sinner which is not to be solemnly done till the final Sentence is pronounced after death or at the day of Judgment But as men come to be in the state to which those Sentences do belong they in a freer form of speech are said to be justified or condemned And as they who do not believe are under condemnation and said to be condemned already that is they are liable to that Sentence and under those Characters that belong to it blindness obduration of heart and the Wrath and Judgments of God So such Believers to whom the Promises of the Gospel belong and on whom the final Sentence shall be pronounced justifying them are said now to be justified since they are now in the state to which that belongs They have the Characters of it upon them Faith Repentance and Renovation of heart and life by which they come to be in the favour and under the protection of God The Gospel is of the nature of a publick Amnesty in which a Pardon is offered to all Rebels who return to their duty and live peaceably in obedience to the Law and a day is prefixed to examine who has come in upon it and who has stood out upon which final Acts of Grace or Severity are to pass It is then plain that though every man is pardoned in the strictness of Law only by the final Sentence yet he is really in the construction of Law pardoned upon his coming within the Terms on which it is offered and thus men are justified who do truly repent of and forsake their sins who do sincerely believe not only the truth of the Gospel in general but do so firmly believe every part of it that acts proportioned to that belief arise out of it when they depend so much on the Promises that they venture all things in hope of them and do so receive the Rules and Laws given in it that they set themselves on obeying them in the course of their whole life and in a most particular manner when they lay claim to the Death of Christ as their Sacrifice and the means of their Reconciliation with such a Repentance as changes their inward Natures and Principles and such a Faith as purifies their hearts and makes them become new Creatures These are the Conditions of this Covenant and they are such Conditions that upon lower than these it became not the Infinite Purity and Holiness of God to offer us pardon or to receive us into his favour For without these the Mercies and Favours of the Gospel had been but the opening a Sanctuary to Criminals and the giving encouragement to Sin if a few howlings to God for mercy and the earnest imploring it for the sake of Christ and on the account of his Death would serve turn This every man under the least agony of thought will be apt to do especially when death seems to be near him and yet be still in all
respects as bad as ever this indeed is so slight a thing that a greater disparagement cannot de offered to our Religion nor can a greater strengthning of sin be contrived than the giving any sort of encouragement to it for it is one of the greatest and the most mischievous of all those practical Errors which have corrupted Religion These are the most important parts of our whole Commission and therefore we ought to state them first aright in our own thoughts that so we our selves may be fully possessed with them that they may sink deep into our own minds and shew their efficacy in the reforming of our Natures and Lives and then we shall be able to open them to others with more clearness and with better advantages when our hearts are inflamed with an overcoming sense of the Love and Goodness of God If the Condition of this New Covenant were deeply impressed on our thoughts then we should publish them with more life and joy to others and we might then look for the fulness of the blessing of the Gospel on our selves and on our labours DISCOURSE III. Concerning the INFALLIBILITY AND AUTHORITY of the CHURCH AFTER we are well setled in the Belief of the Christian Religion our next enquiry must naturally be into the Way and Method of being rightly Instructed in the Doctrine and other parts of this Religion and that chiefly in one great Point Whether we ought to employ our own Faculties in searching into this and particularly into the meaning of those Books in which it is contain'd or Whether we must take it from Oral Tradition and submit to any man or body of men as the Infallible Depositaries and Declarers of this Tradition In this single point consists the Essence of the differences between us and the Church of Rome While we affirm that the Christian Doctrine is compleatly contain'd in the Scriptures and that every man ought to examine these with the best helps and all the skill and application of which he is capable and that he is bound to believe such Doctrines only as appear to him to be contain'd in the Scriptures but may reject all others that are not founded upon that Authority On the other hand The foundation upon which the Church of Rome builds is this That the Apostles deliver'd their Doctrine by word of mouth to the several Churches as the Sacred Depositum of the Faith That the Books of the New Testament were written occasionally not with intent that they should be the Standard of this Religion that we have these Books and believe them to be Divine only from the Church and upon her Testimony that the Church with the Books gives us likewise the Sense and Exposition of them they being dark in many places and that therefore the Traditional Conveyance and the Solemn Decisions of the Church must be Infallible and ought to be submitted to as such otherwise there can be no end of Controversies while every man takes upon him to expound the Scriptures which must needs fill mens Minds with Curiosity and Pride as well as the World with Heresies and Sects that are unavoidable unless there is a living speaking Judge This they also prove from some places of Scripture such as Christ's words to St. Peter Vpon this Rock will I build my Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it and unto thee will I give the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven Tell the Church I am with you alway even to the end of the World the Spirit shall lead you into all Truth and the Church is the Pillar and Ground of Truth This is their Doctrine and these are their chief Arguments upon which it is founded There is no point in Divinity that we should more clearly understand than this for it is in it self of great Consequence and is that which determines all the rest if it is true it puts an end to all other Controversies and if it is false it leaves us at liberty to examine every thing and gives us the justest and highest prejudices possible against that Church that pretends to it without just grounds It is also that which of all others the Missionaries of that Church understand the best and manage the most dextrously they are much practised to it and they begin and end all their practice with this which has fair appearances and will bear a great deal both of popular Eloquence and plausible Logick so if men are not on the other hand as well fortifi'd and as ready on the other side of the Argument they will be much entangled as often as they have occasion to deal with any of that Church There is not indeed any one point that I know of that has been open'd and examin'd both with that Beauty and Force that is in Chillingworth's Unvaluable Book upon this Subject Few things of this nature have ever been handled so near a Mathematical Evidence as he has pursu'd this Argument and his Book is writ with such a thread of Wit and Reason that I am confident few can enter upon it without going through with it I shall now endeavour in as narrow a compass as is possible to set this matter in its true Light We must then begin with this That the freedom of a man's Thoughts and Understanding is the most Essential Piece of his Liberty and that in which naturally he can the least bear to be limited therefore any Restraints that are laid upon him in this must be well and fully proved otherwise it is to be suppos'd that God could never intend to bring us under the yoke in so sensible and so valuable a thing without giving clear and evident warrants for it And as every Invasion on the Liberties of the Human nature ought to be well made out so every Priviledge which any person claims against the common fate of Mankind ought to be also fully proved before others can be bound to submit to it We perceive in our selves and we see in all others such a feebleness of understanding such an easiness to go too quick and judge too fast and such a narrow compass of knowledge that as we see all Mankind is apt to mistake things so we have no reason to believe that any one is exempted from this but as there are evident Authorities to prove it Since then this is a Priviledge in those that have it as well as an Imposition on those that have it not it ought not to be offer'd at or obtruded on the world without a full Proof Probabilities forced Inferences or even disputable Proofs ought not to be made use of here since we have reason to conclude that if God had intended to put any such thing upon us he would have done it in so plain and uncontested a way that there should have been no room to have doubted of it Besides all such things as do naturally give jealousy and offer specious grounds of mistrust ought to be very clear Since