the Same Power that caused the Creature to be and continueth its Being can be suppos'd a reason of its Cessation We can prove no such Death as an Adnihillation of any thing nor does it appear to any that consider the matter that even any Bodily Creature ceaseth to be But the contrary might be shewn by many Arguments if it were doubted of Even those things which seem to the ignorant and inconsiderate to be most likely to be destroyed such as things that are burnt I can at any time demonstrate even to the eye that none of their parts cease but are only separated or altered The Death of the Body is but some kind of alteration or change of its Modes or Circumstances as a Separation of the parts of its Organical Structure or an Alteration of such and such Motions requisite to continue its Particular Mechanism or Animal Oeconomy The Body remains I mean all the Matter of it after the Division of its parts and it cannot rationally be suppos'd that the Mind the more Substantial and as all are ready to acknowledge the more Noble Part of Man should suffer more alteration by the Dissolution of the Body than the Body it self does The Change the Body undergoes is apparent but what Change you will say may the Mind be reasonnably suppos'd to suffer at its Separation from the Body or whether not enough to be call'd Death Many Treatises have been written and Discourses made to prove the Immortality of the Soul and some for its suppos'd Mortality but the Authors have not been so happy as to agree in the Notion of Life and Death with one another nor all so considerate as to fix any determinate Notion for themselves or to tell their Readers what they mean by its Living or Dying so that it may be true or false for them But I shall here state the question more plainly and tell you first that by the Life of the Soul I mean a Continuation of Thinking or of Understanding and Willing Where there are these Actions and Passions there is enough to be call'd Life and that which better deserves to be named Living than any whatsoever Organization and Motion in Bodies And the plain Question is this Whether upon the Death or Dissolution of the Body Thinking wholly ceaseth A Cessation of some of the Modes of Thinking cannot be enough to be properly call'd the Death of the Soul for so it would not only be always dying but dead as it alters so continually at least every night and day An Alteration of some of the Modes of Thinking may in a figurative and improper Sense be called Death but the Question is not of any such Death It is probable that many if not all those Thoughts and Ideas we have by occasion or on condition of our Body as so and so disposed may cease tho' it cannot easily be thought absolutely necessary for we cannot conceive the Body to be a natural Occasion of any Thoughts but so by the Will of God who if he please we may well think can cause the same Ideas and Thoughts without it tho' it seems not to any purpose or probable that he will For on the other hand it is more likely that God permitted Death for the Cessation of those Thoughts or at least many of them the Body is the occasion of since Man's fall into Sin in Good and Bad For as much as we are tempted to most of our Disorders by occasion of the Body and to gratifie some Sense or other disorderly or besides the Direction and Will of God seems to be the first and most constant Temptation every Man is drawn aside with Now the Good Man or Repenting Sinner through the Goodness of God on this Supposition of such Thoughts ceasing gets this by Death tho' in it self an Evil that he is freed from all the Allurements of this Life occasioned by his use of this Body The undue Gratifications of Sense can now no more perswade him the unprofitable care of avoiding little Bodily Displeasures now takes not up his Thoughts the Difficulties from the Injustice and Cruelty of Sinners press him now no more to act against his Maker's Will but he seems perfectly freed from Temptation having perhaps now no Object of desire present but God and nothing to interpose for his Love as a Rival with his Maker Nothing now seems necessary for him to know but God and himself Nor needs he or values he could he have them any little pleasures in Creatures when he is at God the Fountain and Cause of all On the other side the Evil Man also looses all those Gratifications of Sense he so much affected and erringly counted his chiefest Good and must needs find that he foolishly set his Heart on that which would not make him happy but so soon left him And as his Will is not reconcil'd and subjected to God's but he desires still that which cannot be God cannot so communicate himself to him to make him joyous but he must be subject to all that Anguish that the Reflection on the loss of the Creatures he so much delighted in and that he hath miss'd the Fountain of all Good can cause in him with all the Vexation and Trouble that all the disorderly Thoughts of such a Soul can raise to it self But to come to the point in hand again It cannot well be thought that the Soul or Mind of either Good or Bad should die or Thinking wholly and for ever cease or yet for a time upon the Body's Death because the Continuation of Thinking or Life of the Soul can't rationally be suppos'd to depend on the Body a thing more ignoble than it self being very unlikely to be its cause but upon the Will of God its Author And God cannot well be suppos'd thus to let any of his Creatures cease or disown his Works that are good as the Beings of all things are much less can Minds the Intelligent and Active Beings be thought to be adnihilated or cease Thinking so soon and to no purpose Change they may and do as all Creatures are mutable but what of God would be seen in the Cessation of any especially of Minds who are the only kind of Beings capable of beholding God If the Soul ceaseth to think and so dies more than a figurative Death it ceaseth to be for Thinking and Mind are the same Being which if you will not be perswaded to believe you must at least acknowledge them inseparable For a Mind that does not think or a Thinker that cannot think is a Contradiction and to call that a Power or Agent that can do nothing is absurd for that which can do nothing is no Power or Agent and a Power or Agent that will do nothing is as great a Contradiction for Willing is Doing even Thinking Again Nothing is more strongly implanted I may say concreated in the Mind of Man than a desire to continue and if Being is good the Continuation of Being is good
if the Desire to continue be good God is the Cause and Implanter of such a Desire and consequently wills we should have such a Desire I think none can but desire to continue if it were the Will of God we should cease to be the desire to continue would be a Sin but God can't be suppos'd to will we should desire that which he don't will should be that would be to will us to will contrary to his Will Now whatever God wills to continue cannot be supposed to cease If God wills to manifest himself in and to his Creatures to be loved and feared by them he must continue them for by their Cessation all these things will cease and be impossible Every Good Man that loves God would continue to love him it 's God's Will he should love him Can God be suppos'd to make him cease to love his Maker To what purpose Let it but be granted that it is not God's Will I should cease to love him and the Immortality of my Soul is secured for while I love I live viz. mentally Nor can the Evil Man that don't love God nor fear to act contrary to his Will be suppos'd to be for ever or for a long time exempted from the Evils of his Rebellion against his Maker or rendered by God himself uncapable of all Conviction Or can it be thought probable that God should make Creatures to deny him a little while and then cease under so great a Mistake as never to believe and confess God to be their Sovereign Lord and Sufficient Benefactor But if God approve himself and his own Works he will rather continue them and suffer them to make themselves miserable and find they are not God's than not assert himself God one way or other to all his Intelligent Creatures Besides the Soul either of Good or Bad cannot with any reason be suppos'd to cease for a time and then be again for if it cease to be it is not and nothing can be properly affirm'd or deny'd but of that which is Where there is no Being neither Life nor Death can be asserted So that if a Soul cease to be and a Soul be afterwards it cannot be the same but a new one to whom can be charged no account of the ceased Souls past Actions There must be a Continuation of Being or there can be no Identity or Sameness and the Essentials of the thing must remain or there is not the thing but another If there be not a Continuation of Thinking and Conscience of former Thoughts it cannot be conceived how the Sameness of a Mind can be ascertained and if a Soul in this present State be wicked and cease at the Dissolution of the Body it can neither be just nor good that a new one should be miserable because the ceased Soul was unrighteous nor be determined what new one should be so Nor that a Soul penitent in this World should not it self be happy hereafter but have its hopes of future Happiness utterly frustrated and be put off with the Mock-happiness of being happy in another Soul What Encouragement can I have to my Duty if I suppose I must not continue to the Perfection and Happiness of my Obedience but must perish and only now be contented to think that God will create a Soul hereafter and perhaps give it my Dust to be happy because I only began to be holy Or how shall I be deterr'd from Sin if I am perswaded I my self must be discontinued and that it is not I but another Mind that is in danger of everlasting Vexation it may be with my old Body if I now die impenitent When we say a Man is dead if we talk like Rational Creatures we must have some determinate Sense of those words He is dead Who is dead He. The He or Person must remain What is dead Such a thing A Man The thing or Man is tho'dead A Man is a Compound of Soul and Body Or a Mind doing and suffering with or by occasion of an Organical Body A Man's being dead is the Cessation of this manner of Life not of either of the Components Beings or Essential Properties The Body unacted by the Mind is useless among Men and tends to Corruption or Dissolution of parts so the Living put it out of their sight the Soul or Mind is invisible of its self and can neither converse with Men nor Men with it without the use of Body so when separate it is not to Men yet it no way follows but that it may well be to God and to it self which is Being enough But the Soul consider'd apart can have no Dissolution of parts having none to be separated nor can it die otherwise than in a figurative or Metaphorical Sense As it may be said to be morally dead or dead in Sin when it is impenitent and not conformable to its Duty To be Spiritually dead when it thinks not of or is not busied about Spiritual things To be dead to Sin or dead to this World when its disorderly Thoughts or undue Manners of Thinking on earthly vile sordid things cease It may be said to be dead to Joy or Comfort when it has lost all pleasant Thoughts and has only grievous horrid anxious ones without all hope or rest continually and if such a State always continue whether the Soul be separate from or joyned to a Body it is that which is properly call'd everlasting Death Thus I think it is apparent that the Soul is immortal and that which is its proper or natural Life viz. Thinking does not cease Tho' to suppose the Soul immortal of its own Nature or that it is or has any thing in it self which necessarily infers its Continuance would be as great or a greater Error than to fancy it mortal for that would be to suppose it immortal as its Author is But it cannot be suppos'd thus to be immortal for whatsoever had a Beginning or had not Being always may be supposed to have an End and cease to be Such are all Creatures who would fall into nothing if God should not will their Continuance But that he does will them to continue I think we may be perswaded by the foregoing Considerations 32. Moreover we have not only reason to believe that Souls do continue tho' separate from that is disusing their Bodies and such a Life they lived with them but that they shall have their Bodies again after some time because the end of the Souls having a Body cannot easily be thought to be fully attained in this Life This material World seems to be made chiefly for Man to be concern'd with and the things therein to be Objects of his Knowledge and Subjects of his Actions It is by means of his Body that he is now capable of knowing and acting in Bodily Nature but what he knows and does therein is so imperfect notwithstanding all the Wonders that have come within the reach of his Understanding and great things have
THE Atheist turn'd Deist AND THE Deist turn'd Christian OR THE REASONABLENESS and UNION OF Natural and the True Christian Religion BY THO. EMES Chirurgo-Medicus LONDON Printed in the Year 1698. Speak every Man Truth with his Neighbour for we are Members of one another Eph. 4.25 AND So speak ye and so do ye as they that shall be judged by the Law of Liberty Jam. 2.12 ERRATA PAge 3. line 10. for certify read certifie L. 20. for Lier r. Lyar. P. 4. l. 26. for ll read all P. 6. l. last for unbeholding r. un-beholden P. 21. l. 20. for then r. than P. 22. for beholding r. beholden So P. 34. l. 34. P. 43. l. 36. r. Marriage-Constancy P. 45. l. 5. for countervaile r. countervale P. 84. l. 6. for God's r. Gods P. 95. after same add time P. 118. l. 26. blot and after David P. 181. l. 16. for they r. the before Oaths Some of the principal Heads of this Discourse under which divers other things are touched upon Numb 1. WHAT necessary to the End of Man Numb 2. Three Ways whereby we know Truth Numb 3. The nearest Way to prove the Being of God Numb 4. Self what The Necessity of supposing a Divine Being thence proved Numb 5. God knowable by Experience or Sense Numb 6. Self more largely considered and said to be Cogitation or Mind Numb 7. Objections against Cogitation's being the Essence of Self answered Numb 8. God considered more largely and as in himself or essential Attributes Numb 9. The common Notion of Omnipresence false Numb 10. God considered in relation to the Creatures negatively and positively Numb 11. Of the End of God's making things Numb 12. Man's Duty or Religion considered in general Numb 13. The same considered more particularly in Love to God Numb 14. And Love to his Works Numb 15. Love the Foundation of all orderly Behaviour No. 16. The Natural Reason and Sense of the Decâ—logue No. 17. The Goodness and Well-being of the Creaturâ— wherein it consists No. 18. The Ground of Vnhappiness No. 19. The true Notion of Sin and that Sin is a ways an Act and Original Sin as supposâ— distinct from Actual Sin a Mistake the triâ— Notion of it No. 20. The Fall of Man from Innocence naturalâ— known No. 21. The Aggravation or Greatness of Sins Diâ—order No. 22. How the Creature should behave it self on thâ— Conviction of Sin With the Natural Dutâ— of Repentance No. 23. Forgiveness with God apparently discoverabâ—â— by the Light of Nature No. 24. Why God made Creatures capable of Sin No. 25. Free will considered No. 26. What an Arbitrary Command of God and hoâ— reasonable No. 27. All the Commands of God tend to Mans Happiness or Pleasure Disobedience to the contrary neither Obedience nor Disobedience add to or take any thing from God No. 28. That the Creature having once sinn'd is more inclinable to go on sinning than to repent No. 29. Convicted Sinners at first unapt to believe that God will forgive No. 30. The Scope of all God's Dealings with Sinners in order to their Recovery No. 31. Immortality and a future Life discoverable by Reason what Death is and its use since Sin with Arguments for the Immortality of the Soul No. 32. The Resurrection of the Body rationally concluded No. 33. Future Judgment necessary No. 34. Man capable of Repentance and doing his Duty No. 35. The divers Motives and Arguments God has given Men to perswade them to repent and what the compleatest No. 36. Revelation chiefly for enforcing Natural Religion Divers Considerations about Revelation Miracles Faith c. No. 37. Of Christ and his Work No. 38. Of his Person No. 39. All that are saved saved the same way viz. by Christ No. 40. Scripture a Gift of God argued and the need of Revelation No. 41. Some things taught in the World as Doctrines of the Bible not tending to the true End and Scope of Revelation No. 42. As Mistakes about Reconciliation Christ's Death and Sacrifice Propitiation c. No. 43. About Satisfaction No. 44. Mistakes about Punishment God not to be thought the Cause of the Creatures Misery No. 45. Mistakes about Imputation of Sin and Righteousness No. 46. Mistakes about Merit No. 47. About Redemption No. 48. About Intercession No. 49. How the Mediation of Christ becomes â—â—fectual No. 50. Of the Doctrine of Fate or absolute Predestâ—â—nation No. 51. A Reflection on the present State of Christiâ—â—nity 1. THERE are Two Things necessary for Man in order to his attaining the End of his Being To know the Truth And to Will well Or in other words To be Wise and Good As for Knowing the Truth there are two Things wherein this Necessary Wisdom doth chiefly consist The Knowledge of God and the Knowledge of Ones Self And there is one thing wherein Man's Goodness doth consist and that is in the Conformity of his Will to the Will of his Maker to will as God wills The Order of our Knowledge of these two Objects God and Self seems to be this We begin to know our Selves as the Objects of which we are first aware and then we proceed to the Knowledge of God But the Connection of the Knowledg of God and of our Selves is such that we can never know our Selves well tell we arise to the Knowledge of God nor know God as we ought if we know but little of our Selves 2. There are but three Ways I conceive whereby we can have any Knowledge of God our Selves or any thing else 1. By Sense 2. By Reason Or 3. By Revelation By the Knowledge of Sense I do not mean only the Sensation or Perception of Bodies but also and rather the Experience Sense or Conscience we have of our own Thoughts or may have of others All those Notions we have as it were passively received without reasoning and which are as it were the Matter or Ground on which Reason works The second way of Knowledge Reason is the Faculty of arguing or discoursing with our Selves whereby from considering our passive Knowledges or Sensations we arise to get more full Knowledge of things and of what we had no immediate Sensation or Intuition and by getting the Knowledge of some things we proceed by Arguments and get the Knowledge and better Knowledge of others As by considering the Creatures especially our selves we may arise to the knowledge of God and then by considering our Maker we are led back again better to know our selves and from a better knowledge of our selves we get still the clearer knowledge of our Author The third way we may be made acquainted with God our selves or other things viz. Revelation is but as it were a compendious Assistance of the two former An express or particular Instruction from God telling the Creature in short what he would have been either ignorant of or not so soon or easily have known without such an immediate Teaching As for instance What God is and will be found to be what we are ought to
themselves uncapable of Forgiveness and Happiness yet it is commonly blind to see God as he is and is more apt to fly from him than come to him measuring God by its own standard it having been very apt to account it Justice to revenge the crossing its Will on those it was able to affect thinks God like it self not considering that the perfect Good-will of God cannot take Pleasure or Satisfaction in the Miseries of his Creatures tho' they are Enemies much less in their Sin or continuing Enmity the formal Cause of their Unhappiness But tho' Man is so apt to look upon God as an inraged Enemy hardly to be appeas'd severe to reckon with the Sinner resolved that the Sinner shall never be happy unless something can be given him to purchase his favour that he values more than the Sinner's Repentance or new Obedience Yet I say tho' Man is so apt to look upon God as such like himself we must affirm that God is not nor can he properly be said to be an Enemy to Man or any of his Creatures as they are to him and to one another He hates or sets himself against nothing but their Sins their Unhappiness wills nothing but what is for their good nor can he but love whatsoever is his own Work as the Beings of all his Creatures are and their Good Order which is their Happiness therefore he cannot but will their Reconcilement to him or to their Duty 30. Now all that God hath done does or will do in order to Man's Recovery from Sin and Misery tends unto this one thing To bring Man again to will as God wills Where ever this is done it is done and the End of God's Dealing with Sinners is accomplished whatever the means were by which it was brought about and so far as we are come towards this so far we are in the way of Salvation or saved To will as God wills or to love our God with all our Heart Soul and Strength and our Fellow Creature as our self is the whole Law that God does so much to perswade Man to keep To will and n'ill the same is perfect Love and Love is manifested by doing the Will of the Beloved In doing the Will of God is Life I mean Happiness not only in this Present State but also in that which is to come 31. And that there is a Life to come and Immortality discoverable clearly even by Reason and divers Notices thereof implanted in Nature we shall a little attempt to shew That Men are mortal and live in this Life but a little while is the experience of the whole World That the Body is subject to decay or the Order of its Motions wherein its Life consists liable to be destroyed and cease and by another as to Life disorderly Motion to be separated and so its Organical Figure to be spoiled and changed all Men perceive by the least Observation But that Death is not a Termination or End of our Being I think will appear by these Considerations First We have no reason to conclude that the End or Design of our Being is fully accomplished in this Life The Manifestations of God's Perfections to Man and Man's Pleasure or Happiness in beholding them the End of Man by reason of Sin are not so clear and so great in this Life as they may be should be and are to be desired God is not seen and enjoy'd by any now as he may be by some but very little The desires of some I may say of all that desire God are not satisfied in this short and sinful State None have unerringly and sufficiently beheld the Divine Excellencies and acknowledged God as he ought to be acknowledged Some have lived and died and hardly ever truely confess'd and own'd their Maker few or none have loved and obeyed him to their capacity and been as pleas'd or happy in him as they may be Therefore it is reasonable to conclude nay we cannot well think otherwise that there is a Life to come wherein the Ends of the Creation shall be accomplished God cannot be thought to let his Works perish without fulfilling his or their true Ends in them The Good those that have been so far convicted of the Disorders of Sin as to repent and change their Minds from willing contrary to God's Will in some measure to will as God wills and to desire that they may do so more yea perfectly and always Those that have some-what beheld God lovely have not yet or in this Life been brought up to so great a degree of Obedience as they are convinced is their Duty nor seen so much of God's Excellence as they desire to see nor been satisfied with the sense of his Love as they would If these their Desires Duties and Happiness are good convenient suitable to the Natures of God and his Creatures as evidently they appear to be certainly God wills them sometime or other to be and that more than the Creature can will them because God is the Supreme Good-will So that it is altogether unlikely that the Good Man should perish and not attain the Good that he is capable of desires is convenient and God wills more than he Nor is it any more likely that the Bad Man he that hath seen no greater Delight than in contradicting the Will and Order of God by the disorderly Enjoyment of the Creatures should perish or cease under so great a Mistake as never to see and be convinced of the Absurdity and Evil of prosecuting his own proper Will as the chief Good as never to find that the way of Happiness is not in acting contrary to the Will of God That God should have an Intelligent Creature never to be made acknowledge his Maker is a thing hard to be thought It is more probable that even the Bad Man will remain one way or other to be convinced of his Disorders of his Rebellion against God Injustice and want of Goodness to his Fellow Creatures The Good Man in this Life seems often to be the Man of Sorrow the Son of Adversity that doth not gather the full-ripe Fruits of his Repentance and Obedience being among a world of unhappy and injurious Impenitents Therefore it is requisite there should be a Future State wherein he may reap in Joy what he has sowed in Tears The Evil Man seems often to be the Man of Joy and Pleasure in this Life he rejoyceth and even glorieth in his Disorders yea in that very great one of afflicting the Man that is better than he Now it is most equal and just that he should some time or other come to see the Good Man before-hand with him rejoycing and happy in God when he is sorowing to see he hath turn'd from the fountain of Joy and Blessedness These things are not accomplished in this Life therefore we must necessarily suppose a Future Again It is certain that no Creature can cause it self or another to cease Nothing but the withdrawing
of the Conception When we say such a Woman is with Child of a Boy we mean her Child is a Man Child not that a Boy impregnated her Now what is there inconceivable or mystical in all this I admire that any Man should make it a difficulty to believe that God whom they acknowledge to be the Creator as he hath made Seeds to grow in Plants and fall off and increase in the Earth to the due size of Plants as he hath caused Seeds to grow in Man which ejected into their proper place for Nourishment the Matrix of the Woman are informed with a Mind and grow to perfect or due sized Animals fit to be nourish'd another way and so come to be born and act of themselves in the common order of the Creation could not as well if he pleas'd go for once on a special occasion out of his common way in Nature and work a Miracle in the First Production of a Humane Seed or Small Organical Body in a Woman and give it to a Soul of his immediate Producing without the Will of Man Or that this Mind and Organical Body of God's particular making should not be thought to be an Innocent Man free as Adam that he might obey God in overcoming the greatest Temprations That such a Person so produced was really given amongst Men besides the Prophesies of him in the Old Testament for instance that the Seed of the Woman shall bruise the Serpents Head Gen. 3.15 The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee of thy Brethren like unto me unto him shall ye bearken According to all thou desired'st of the Lord thy God in Horeb in the day of the Assembly saying Let me not hear again the Voice of the Lord my God neither let me see this great Fire any more that I die not And the Lord said unto me they have well spoken that which they have spoken I will raise them up a Prophet from among their Brethren like unto thee and will put my Words in his Mouth and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him c. Deut. 18.15 16 17 18 c. and a Virgin shall be with Child and bring forth a Son c. Isa 7.16 See Chap. 11.1 c. Dan. 9.25 26. and Gen. 49.10 Which Texts all deserve to be well considered tho' I omit to recite them at length Besides these Prophesies I say and many more agreeing with his Character Circumstances and Time of Manifestation we have the sufficient Testimony of his Disciples not absurd and contradictory but such as we have endeavoured to shew might well be conceived to be true All which I think is enough to challenge the Belief of any that will give themselves leave to consider Besides the Consideration of Christ's Person as an Innocent Perfectly Obedient Man thus produced and related it was necessary that God should be with him in an extraordinary manner inspiring him with Wisdom enduing him with Authority inflaming him with Love Luk. 2.40 47 42. acting in him who yet acted freely with God as it were his Organ whereby he made known his Will and manifested himself most clearly to Sinners and was as it were conversing amongst them working Miracles by him to convince Men of his special Sonship and Mission which Christ frequently asserted from that Argument of the mighty Works of God wrought by him Which Wonders of Christ were also necessary to perswade the Truth of his Doctrine as received from God especially in that part of it where he taught the Insufficiency of the Levitical External Worship which the Jews were so unapt to believe other than the Will of God or ever to be abolished But tho' Christ taught that which to them seem'd a new way they were inexcusable in not believing him when God concurr'd with real Signs and Wonders which he cannot be thought to do to perswade Falshood so much against his pure Will These Miracles wrought by his means and by his Disciples from his Authority were not only testified by his Disciples but seen and confess'd by many the Opposers of his Doctrine It was necessary I say God should be with him in so extraordinary a Manner who was to be the most Extraordinary Embassadour or Instrument of God And that God was so with him cannot with any reason be doubted if his Friends Testimony and his Enemies Confession of his other Miracles be not enough his Prophesies of so many things exactly fulfilled in relation to himself his Disciples the City of Jerusalem c. methinks are convincing Arguments that he was the Prophet that God had promised a Prophet being to be known to be sent of God by the things coming to pass The Anointed with whom God was in a most special manner and never left him unless so far as to shew that the most Perfect Creature is insufficient in it self and cannot be satisfied or pleased in the withdrawing of the Chearing Presence of God To let it appear that an Innocent Man may be grieved at the Disobedience and Misery of Sinners and not only sympathize with them in their Unhappiness but be afflicted by them not only be greived at their unjust and wicked Doings but suffer from them that Sorrow that in the common course of Nature is occasioned by what may be done to the Body And tho' God left him so far to the Will of the Wicked as that they prevailed to put him to Death whereby we may have occasion to believe that Adam was not invulnerable or naturally immortal before the Fall but by the Grace of God in the Gift of the Tree of Life and his special Providence which on his Obedience would have prevented external Hurts and Death thereby tho' I say God suffered the Wicked to put him to Death on a false Accusation as a Malefactor and he patiently suffered to give us an Example that nothing should deter us from Obedience it was necessary that God should raise him from the dead That as he had chose Death rather than omit his Duty God should crown his Sufferings with a Resurrection to Immortality as a Token that he had regarded his Obedience as perfect that he deserved not Death but Men unjustly laid hands on him and slew him and that their so doing was disapproved of God Which Resurrection of his being the Confirmation of his being the Christ and of his having done his Work so far exactly and that he would in due time finish it wholly his Disciples constantly witnessed as having seen him and convers'd with him Forty days after his Suffering and the Jews and Romans having heard it said he would rise again after three days taking strict care to watch the Sepulchre least there should be any cheat in the matter so that there can be no rational doubt of it It is very easie to be sure a Man is put to Death and as easie to know he is alive if many Persons see and hear him
be attained but by Love and Obedience to God And when we return to our Father's House and acknowledge our Folly and Rebellion then we shall find it true that God is our best Friend and was so before we thought of returning It was an Opinion in the Pagan Divinity that their Gods were sometimes angry and must be attoned or reconciled and intreated to do them no Mischief or to be favourable to them and this they thought was to be done by some thing or other which they fancied was more pleasing to the Gods than that which they were angry at was displeasing something or other they liked so much better than doing Good that they were thereby over perswaded to do them such Favours they would not otherwise have done such a pleasure to them in their opinion was the slaying of a Beast and the offering it to them yea the horrid Act of sacrificing Men. But Christians should have a better Opinion of God who are taught that he is Love that is unchangeable Good will Who can imagine that the Blood of a Lamb pour'd out or the wasting of a Bullock on an Altar or the Death yea the Murder of an Innocent Man can be so grateful to the Most High as to make him a Friend when he was suppos'd before to be an angry Enemy Can this be an Argument to prevail with him to alter his Mind and like the Sinner any better What Delight or Advantage can we suppose the Death or Spoiling any Creature can be to the Self sufficient God Tho'd Christ for some Reasons is compar'd to or call'd a Sacrifice we can with no good reason retain the vulgar notion of it or believe that he by his being murder'd appeas'd God's Wrath and made him change from an angry Enemy to a pleased loving Friend or render'd him less disliking the Sins of Men than he was before No the Enmity is in Man against God not in God against Man it is Man that is to be changed not God Besides nothing but a wonderful Prejudice can make us think that the Murder of the most innocent Man the World ever had should be so much more pleasing to the most Just God than all other Sins were displeasing so that That and nothing else could pacifie him or make him willing Men that had sinn'd should yet obey him and be happy Did we but consider we should never have hopes to digest this opinion so many hard things are in the bowels of it If God hath commanded all Men not to kill can we with any sense think that God is at any time pleas'd with the breach of that Command Yea that the most Innocent must needs be murder'd that God might be justly pleas'd with the Guilty yea his Murderers This is to make Wickedness necessary and God pleas'd with it yea implacable without it This is to represent God worse than Man This is to suppose that some must of necessity sin and be damned or else none could possibly be saved Ah poor Judas that never taught'st us such hard things of God must thou needs betray thy Innocent Master and be damn'd that we might be saved who think so hardly of our Maker Why not another that thou might'st be saved or why not we for others that have a better opinion of God But God has without exception forbid all Injustice and especially the shedding Innocent Blood and if Men had believed and obeyed God as they ought and consequently might if they had received Christ's Doctrine and follow'd his Example as it was God's Will and so their Duty there would have been none to have slain Christ but Men would nay must have been saved without any ones committing such a nefarious Fact Yea if the Husband-men had yeilded the Due Fruits at the Approach of the Servants they would have been far from being so wicked as to have murder'd the Son Again if God could have been supposed to will that Christ should be put to Death if the Slaying of Christ had been that without which God would not be pleas'd it had been no Sin in those that did it but some Bodies Duty to kill him and so the notion of their being Murderers or Sinners in that Action had been destroyed But God never commanded any to put him to Death but the Action of those who did it is spoken of in Scripture with the highest Disapprobation But Christ was to be a Sacrifice you will say I answer That the business of Sacrifices is not well consider'd by many hor does the Death of Christ agree with the common notion of a Sacrifice tho' he is in some sense call'd a Sacrifice Christ is call'd a Priest and an Altar and a Sacrifice when one Person cannot possibly be all these in a proper sense The Priests slew the Sacrifices Christ flew not himself or any other nor were those who slew him Priests for that purpose The Priests might without Sin slay the Beasts they offered those that slew Christ had the absolute Prohibition of God in the Sixth Commandment The Offerings with the Levitical Priesthood not being to be thought for any Profit or Pleasure to God Almighty could have no reason except some prosit to Man might come thereby some of them fed the Levites who had no portion among their Brethren a People needing a sufficient number of Teachers of the Moral and Civil Law could they have been contented to be unlike the Nations round about them satisfied with a Spiritual Worship and Pure Theocracy without the more pompous and insignificant Ceremonies but God knowing the Inclination of that People let them have work burthensom enough to keep them from the Abominations of the Heathen had they shewed their Obedience in observing no more than what they were directed in a burden expensive enough to drain their Superfluities and enure them to spare when they should come more to need the Beneficence of one another when they were no longer a Peculiar People But whatever might be the Original Reason of Sacrifices or what apt Tendency there might at any time be found in them to bring Man to his Chief End we do not find that any of the Inhabitants of the Earth except the Hebrews nor they till they came into the Wilderness had any Institutions or Directions about Sacrificing Animals however Mankind Hebrews and others came to be so fond of it for so many Ages But to leave this that we may conceive how Christ may be call'd a Sacrifice let us consider what we find in Scripture as the most Plain Discoveries of God's Mind in relation to Sacrifice by the Prophets and Apostles Psal 50.8 I will not reprove thee for thy Sacrifices or thy Burnt-offerings to have been continually before me Ver. 9. I will take no Bullock out of thy House nor He-goats out of thy Folds Ver. 10. For every Beast of the Forrest is mine and the Cattel upon a thousand Hills Ver. 11. I know the Fowls of the Mountains and the wild Beasts
of the Field are mine V. 12. If I were hungry I would not tell thee for the World is mine and the Fulness thereof V. 13. Will I eat the flesh of Bulls or drink the blood of Goats V. 14. Offer unto God Thanksgiving and pay thy Vows unto the most High V. 15. And call upon me in the day of trouble I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorifie me Psal 51.16 Thou desiredst not Sacrifice else would I give it thou delightest not in Burnt-offerings V. 17. The Sacrifices of God are a broken Spirit c. Jer. 7.22 I spake not unto your Fathers nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the Land of Egypt concerning Burnt-offerings or Sacrifices V. 23. But this thing commanded I them saying obey my Voice and I will be your God and ye shall be my people c. 1 Sam. 15.22 To obey is better than sacrifice Hos 6.6 God will have mercy and not sacrifice Math. 9.13 If ye had known what this meaneth I will have mercy and not sacrifice Ye would not have condemned the guiltless Spoken to the Jews condemning his Disciples when they being hungry plucked the Ears of Corn but might have been said to them rather when they afterwards more unjustly condemned and slew him Is 1.11 To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me saith the Lord I am full of the Burnt-offerings of Rams and the fat of fed Beasts and I delight not in the blood of Bullocks or of Lambs or of He-goats c. And at the 16th Wash ye make you clean put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes cease to do evil Ver. 17. Learn to do well seek Judgment relieve the Oppressed judge the Fatherless plead for the Widow Mich. 6.6 7 8. Wherewith shall I come before the Lord and bow my self before the High God Shall I come before him with Burnt offerings with Calves of a year old Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of Rams or with ten thousands of rivers of Oil Shall I give my first-born for my Transgression or the fruit of my Body for the sin of my Soul He hath shewed thee O Man what is Good And what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and love mercy and walk humbly with thy God But the sacrifices of God Psal 107.22 are sacrifices of Thanksgiving Psal 4.5 Sacrifices of Righteousness 1 Pet. 2.5 Spiritual Sacrifices Ye also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house an holy Priesthood to offer up spiritual Sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ Sacrifices of praise and doing good Heb. 13.15 16. By him therefore let us offer up the sacrifice of praise to God continually that is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name But to do good and communicate forget not for with such sacrifices God is well pleased Sacrifices of love to God and our Neighbour Mark 12.33 And to love him with all the Heart and with all the Understanding and all the Soul and with all the Strength and to love his Neighbour as himself is more than all whole Burnt-offerings and Sacrifices Living Sacrifices Rom. 12.1 I beseech you therefore Brethren by the mercies of God that ye present your Bodies a living Sacrifice holy acceptable to God which is your reasonable service And the Author to the Hebrews chap. 10.5 brings Christ in from Psal 40.6 c. saying to God A Sacrifice and Offering thou wouldest not but a Body hast thou prepared me as the Septuagint reads it but the Hebrew hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my Ears hast thou digged viz. opened to hear thy Commands not to Sacrifice certainly for saith he in Burnt-offerings and Sacrifices for sin thou hadst no pleasure Then said I Lo I come to do thy Will O God Above when he said Sacrifices and Burnt-offerings for sin thou wouldest not neither hadst pleasure therein c. Then said I Lo I come to do thy Will O God He taketh away the first viz. Sacrifice that he may establish the second viz. doing the Will of God By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the Body of Jesus Christ once for all c. Ver. 16. This is the Covenant I will make with them after those days speaking Jer. 31.33 of the New Covenant saith the Lord I will put my Laws into their Hearts and in their Minds will I write them Ver. 17. And their Sins and Iniquities will I remember no more Ver. 18. Now where remission of these is there is no more offering for sin c. From all which places compared and many more that we might consider it appears that Christ is a Sacrifice or Offering acceptable to God as he does his Will in prosecuting the end of his Mission the bringing Sinners to Repentance and Obedience to God against all opposition even Death it self giving up his Body to Death rather than omit any thing he was to do And Sinners have the benefit of this Sacrifice not as God is appeas'd atton'd or reconciled to Sin or Sinners by any pleasure that can be added to him by beholding the Pain Bloodshed or Death of an innocent Man but rather as they are attoned or reconciled to God and their Duty to him by beholding Christ's Obedience in doing the Will of his Father even under the greatest Sufferings even to Death he could meet with from the opposition of Earth and Hell his Constancy being a convincing Argument that his Doctrine was good and his Life to be imitated a Perswasive to follow him in Gospel or exact Moral Obedience through whatsoever Persecution for Righteousness sake leaving all those external and childish things of the Levitical Priesthood as useless Wherefore as a better Covenant God saith He will put his Laws into their Hearts What Laws The Laws of Offerings and Ceremonies might possibly be put into their Hearts no such Laws as readily come into the Hearts of considering Persons such as we have ver 24. viz. Love and good Works So that the Obedience of Christ is the Christian Sacrifice but not ours by its pacifying God for us Sinners but by our following it as it is an Example in offering up all we are and have in love to God which is our reasonable Duty Christ may also be said to be sacrificed for us as he dedicated and offered up his Life in prosecuting the Good of Sinners by teaching them and perswading them to be reconciled to God He may also be said to be a Sacrifice to the Wrath and Malice of the wicked Jews as they devoted him and gave him up to Death according to the Councel of Caiaphas to prevent the Romans coming upon them on the noise of his being said to be the King of the Jews they supposing as also his Disciples for some time did that he meant then to set up an earthly Kingdom thinking it was better that one Man should die than that the whole Nation should perish
loath to repent and try him except she were sure She can't find in her heart to forgive her poor Debters Some-body or other has wrong'd her and she 's resolved to have Satisfaction it is but just So she thinks God must have Satisfaction for her Sins or he can't be just and tho' she has heard a Sin-sweetning-Story that Christ hath made Satisfaction for Sinners she can't believe she is of that number she is not sure she 's one of the small number predestinated Shall I tell her yet more plainly what 's her Disease She loves Sin too much Duty too little her Heart is not inflam'd with Love to God so as to influence all her Actions She has not had him represented to her so Good Merciful Loving Ready to Forgive all freely as indeed he is Besides that Witness for God the Conscience that testifies when Man hath done well or ill is not clear perhaps and according to the measure of Obedience or Disobedience in known Duty will the Comfort or Discomfort generally be to a convicted Soul and faith that there is Forgiveness with God is one Duty without which Comfort is seldom securely enjoy'd Now let us consider has God left or afflicted such Persons No they have left God and hid themselves from him let them but be perswaded to turn to God and believe his Infinite Love and Goodness and love him with all their Hearts and they will quickly find that Perfect Love casts out Fear their Troubles will cease with the restifying their Judgments and changing their Wills Now of all the Miserie 's sinful Creatures are lyable to the Eternal Torments as they are call'd of the Damned in Hell can I think with least reason be thought to come from the hand of the Best Being as the Inflicter or Executioner when these Miseries may well be thought chiefly to consist in the Exasperation and height of those uneasie Thoughts which are the very Acts of Sin as Wrath Envy Hate Despair Desire impossible to be satisfied c. Add unto these their Effects with whatsoever Devils and Immortal wicked Men may be able to inflict upon one another and the most uncharitable Soul can hardly desire a greater Hell for his greatest Enemy But what I have said already of Displeasure merely Mental and that which comes by the means of the Body may be easily applied here if well considered But yet farther methinks it is a very hard Thought to think that God who as the beloved Disciple tells us is Love should hate and take Pleasure or Delight in tormenting his poor foolish frail Creatures or that he should afflict willingly or from his Heart or affect with Grief the Children of Men and that for ever But he must be supposed either to do it willingly and take pleasure in so doing or he cannot properly be said to do it for God cannot with any reason be said to do any thing against his own Will or in which he has not pleasure that cannot be suppos'd of a Perfect or Self sufficient Being nor can any action of the Creature be thought to bring God under a necessity of doing any thing he delights not in and he swears he hath no pleasure in the Death of the Wicked Ezek. 33.11 chap. 18.32 It is the Sinner that will die or chooseth Death he seeks pleasure indeed but he hath it not because he seeks it where it is not to be had viz. in his own foolish disorderly Will distinct from God's Will when God cannot give it him that way it being impossible The Damned doubtless are exceeding uneasie why they have turned from God the Fountain of Pleasure They have lived and died in a course contrary to God's Will contrary to the only possible way of Happiness and God is just in suffering them to have their own choise in leaving them after innumerable Arguments to perswade them to real good to make the Experiment how happy they can be without being beholden to him and it is enough to shew that God approves not of their Sin if he continue their Being his Work under the greatest Misery they can bring themselves into and as they are no more sinful than they themselves and their fellow Sinners can make them so if they have no more Misery than what they can work in themselves and one another it will be proportionable to their Sins and both may be exceeding great God can't be thought to work or cause Despair Wrath Malice Hate and Envy at the greatest Good Extream Discontent at his Will and the Happiness of others fierce furious unsatisfied Desire c. in his Creatures he must not be thought to be the Cause or Agent of those sinful Passions they are all against his Will as he hath clearly manifested And we cannot suppose that God's Justice requires that Sinners for a short life of Rebellion against their Maker in this World should be bound to rebel against him for ever or believe that they can satisfie for some Sins here with a Continuance of all Sins they are capable of in a State of Immortality hereafter No there is no necessity of Unhappiness but what the Sinners own perverse Will brings upon him his disorderly Passions are let loose and to what extremity Passions may be carried out who knows These will be Tormenters if there were no Devils able to vex And where these evil Passions are in their extream how can it be thought that the Bodies such Anxious Souls would delight in can be other than the Occasions of far greater Misery than they were capable of being in this Life wherein some of the Passions disorder'd have brought the Bodies to be very uneasie Concomitants with this Aggravation that they have then no more Death to expect to rid them of that uncomfortable Companion unless we could suppose that Hell it self hath at least this Happiness to be a Remedy for the Diseases of the Body and a Safeguard from all those Evils Sinners could lay upon one another in this life or that their Folly could bring God under a necessity to disown his well-wrought Work their Being and to let them fall into nothing As for the Examples of external Judgments as they are call'd which we have especially in Scripture wherein some may think the immediate Act of God as inflicting is always required when they were more than Preventions of greater Evils the Persons would have run into they may easily be accounted for by supposing Men sometimes left to the power of the Devil the Prince of the power of the Air who seems eagerly covetous to enlarge the Dominion of Hell or to do any kind of Mischief Of this we have an Example in Job Or that God sometimes withdraws his Providential hand from protecting a People or a Person that leaves him and suffers them to fall into the hands of others that are wicked their Enemies As were the Judgments on Israel or others by Inimical Nations in which Instances we can't suppose God does