our stead 2. That the Socinians have wretchedly perverted the true Intendment of these Texts by glossing and diluting their true Intendment thus he died for us gave himself for us That is say they for our Good indeed but not properly in our stead 3. That they may give some colour to their Subterfuges they assign some certain Benefits to the Death of Christ as to give us an Heroick Example of Suffering whatever Persecutions for the Profession of the Christian Religion and to confirm the Truth of his Doctrine by sealing it with his Blood and some few others 4. In return to which we say 1. That it was a far greater Good that Christ by his Death procured for us Dan. 9. 24. To finish Transgression to make an end of Sins to make reconciliation for Iniquity to bring in everlasting Righteousness In order to which p. 26. The Messiah must be cut off but not for himself And Heb. 9. 26. Now once in the end of the World hath he appeared to put away sin by the Sacrifice of himself 2. We say that these and other ends of his Death and Sufferings could never have been procured had not Christ according to the Father's Ordination and his own consent suffer'd in our stead and made himself an expiatory and propitiatory Sacrifice And 3. We say that all the Ends which the Socinians have assigned to the Death of Christ might have been attained without the Death of Christ the Doctrine was confirmed by Miracles and the encouragement to suffer the utmost for the Christian Religion was from the Promises of present assistance under them and the Recompence of Reward to them 5. That the satisfying Divine Justice in our stead and procuring thereby our good are by no means to be considered as opposite but subordinate For as I would answer an Antinomian let him give us one Instance in which Christ suffered in our stead which did not Terminate in our Good So would I say to a Socinian let him shew me an Instance of any Spiritual Good which he could possibly procure or purchase without suffering in our stead And here is the great Demonstration of the Divine Goodness that he has not separated his own Glory from the Spiritual and Eternal Good of the Elect and thus has our Blessed Redeemer secured both the Demands of Justice and at the same time the Salvation of the Elect. To draw to a Conclusion of this Discourse You observe that our Author 's singular Gift and Talent is Misrepresentation and this great Gift wherever he had it or how he came by it I know not he exercises through his whole Defence to revile me as a Soc inian an English Unitarian this he brings in by Head and Shoulders Vapours with it Triumphs in it over looking that thro the whole Rebuke this Calumny had been abundantly obviated of which I will now give you over-abundant evidence Reb. p. 6. That Christ was made Sin a Sacrifice for sin that he bore the Curse due for sin is so express the Language of the Scripture that he who denies the former must disbelieve the latter Reb. p. 8. Certainly when Christ our only and ever Blessed Mediator stood in our place and stead when he made his Soul an Offering for sin when the Lord laid on him the Iniquities of us All There was a Change of Christ's Person for Sinners He was substituted in their room and stead Again ibid. There is a Change all own it there was so under the Law Iustice allowed that the Offender should live the Sacrifice die There is so under the Gospel that Christ suffered the believing sinner is discharged just as Abraham sacrificed the Ram by God's own appointment for that is in the stead of Isaac In a word As I have always uniformly asserted that Christ suffered and satisfied in our stead so shall I always Assert that Christ suffered and satisfied for our good and tho I never affirmed that Christ died or suffered only for our good which is the falshood the Author would impose upon the Reader and my self so I did Assert That it was impossible he should die for more than our good seeing he was pleased to make the Salvation and eternal good of those whom the Father had given him whom he had in his Eye and upon his Heart the great Commanding End unto which he referred all his Obedience Active and Passive so that Christ had nothing more nothing farther nothing beyond that in his Eye But of these things thus far Sir I am yours as you know c LETTER III. Of Christ's being our Surety SIR You come a little too quick upon me other and better Work engaged my Thoughts and Time that I lost the last Post and 't was with some Difficulty that I saved this I will not dispute with you why you caused me to break the Thread of my Discourse about Commutation of Persons c. and are now urgent to give you my Opinion about Christ's Suretiship however I will comply I had but little concern with the Reporter in this Matter only I offered my humble Advice Reb. p. 46. Not to insist so strictly upon the Terms of Debt and Debtor because if he supposed sin to be only a Pecuniary Debt and the sinner to stand obnoxious only as such a Debtor to God as the Creditor he has betray'd the Cause he seems so Zealous to defend to the Socinians And because I thought he might give some Deference to the Learning and Authority of the Bishop of Worcester I seconded my Advice with a Caution from him The true state of the Controversie says he has been rendered more obscure by the Mistakes of some who have managed it with more Zeal than Iudgment That Christ paid a proper and rigid satisfaction for the Sins of Men under the Notion of a Debt This was the Caution the Bishop gave and that was the Counsel which I gave to both which the Defender was too proud to hearken But the same Learned Person has in a late Letter to Mr. D. W. superadded weighty Reasons to his Caution p. 60. This Christ's putting on the Person and standing in the place of a Debtor I have shewed long since to be a very wrong Notion of Christ's Satisfaction which in effect gives up the Cause to the Socinians For if Sins be considered as Debts God may freely forgive them without disparagement of his Wisdom and Iustice without Satisfaction And the Right of Punishment then depends on God's absolute Dominion and satisfaction must be by way of Compensation but I cannot but wonder at the Author of the M. S. that he doth at the same time assert our Sins considered as Debts and yet the Necessity of Vindicative Iustice for what Vindicative Iustice belongs to a Creditor May not a Creditor part with his own Right and forgive what and whom he pleases without any violation of Iustice I can hardly think that those who write so rudely and inconsistently ever penetrated into
Hereticks who affirmed That Christ took on him the person of sinners and these from the first Author and Founder of their Sect were call'd Nestorians who maintain'd that Christ was constituted of two persons the one the Eternal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who did assume the other a Humane Person who was assumed And I confess my self prejudiced against the phrase of Christ's taking on him our Person because it carries an odd sound that syncretizeth with the Nestorian Gibberish 4. Let any Man use the phrase that is fond of it he shall not offend me but none shall assume to himself the power to impose upon my Faith or Conscience those Arbitrary Terms for with the same ease that they propose or impose them I can reject them and stand fast in the Liberty wherewith Christ has made me free nor will I be intangled in and with that Yoak of Bondage for since there are choice of phrases whose signisication is clear and not so obnoxious to Misinterpretation which convey to my Mind the Import of the fundamental Truth I will chuse while I am at my own liberty to chuse some other and will never gratisie never humour these Tyrants over and Usurpers on Consciences 5. And because the Publick Confessions of all the Reformed Churches have not thought fit to use this Phrase of Christ's dying in the Person of Sinners It s a strong Argument to me that they neither judg'd it necessary to the Explication or Confirmation of that Doctrine of Christs dying in our stead and that either they were Strangers to it and it to them or at least had more Discretion than to vex and torment the Faith of Believers with a Term borrow'd from the Civillians or the Stage-Players 6. And its safe to govern our selves in all such Matters by the Rule and Reason of the Apostle 1 Cor. 10. where he assigns one and the same Reason for his Advice to a clear contrary Practice ver 25 26. Eat says he making no question for Conscience-sake For the Earth is the Lords and the fullness thereof And yet ver 28. Eat not for Conscience sake for the Earth is the Lords and the fulness thâ—reof This has been and shall be the Rubrick of my Behaviour where 't is reasonably applicable If any Phrase be dubious I 'le take the safer side and forbear it and leave it to them who have greater clearness It may possibly be Innocent therefore I 'le not Iudge another But it may be dangerous therefore I will judge for my Self there are other Phrases of better Credit The Earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof I have heard of a plain honest Man that Address'd himself to a Learned Casuist With this Question Pray good Sir Is it lawful for me to Marry my Cousin Germain Ay said the Dr. I would have you Marry her if there was never another Woman in the World Implying that Necessity may justifie some Actions which yet a wise Man would not venture upon where there 's variety of Choice if there were never another Phrase in the World to express that Truth I would I must use it but seeing we have good store I will chuse elsewhere till I be satisfied that a competent Power has determined me and my indifferency about it 7. Though I am not averse to the Phrase yet I am really afraid of it ever since I observed Dr. Crisp and his Disciples are so enamour'd of it we must reckon our selves if we will reckon Right to be in Christs Person and Christ in our Person Now what can he mean less than that Christ dying in our Person had all our Personal filth upon him and that we suffering in Christs Person must needs be pardoned acquitted justisied from the Moment of his Death without more ado But he that reckons without God and the Scripture makes a very unconscionable reckoning 8. And I will add this further which is common to all the suspected Phrases that as they have been made subservient to Antinomianism an Engine of Division so have they been introduced into the first Paper to persecute and run down Mr. D. W's and I am abundantly confirmed in my former Suspicions from Defence p. 42. If Mr. Williams had taken this Phrase in our place and stead in the ancient and genuine Sense it would have argued that he was sound in the Faith Would it so Why then say I prove it and prove it like a Schollar as you would be thought to be without Tricks Quibbles and bare Suspicions that he has taken it in any other Sense than the ancient and genuine and for my Part I will throw up Mr. W's and your Self and all the World besides that shall be found equally guilty When some Years ago I heard a general Clamour from one sort of People against Mr. Ws his Book of Gospel Truth I was tempted to think there could not be such a loud out-cry but there must be some Wooll nor such a Smoak and Smoother but there must be some Fire and therefore I confess I came with no small prejudice to the Reading it and upon my Impartial Perusal I found this Noise was only the shearing of Hoggs But they have found an Art to render Mr. W. or any Man alive guilty of whatsoever Heresies they shall please to clap upon them in spight of their Teeths He was charged once by the six Brethren to deny the Imputation of Christs Righteousness otherwise than in the Effects To this he answered that besides the Effects of Christ's Righteousness made ours he had expresly affirmed that the very Righteousness of Christ it self is imputed to True Believers Shall he be sound in the Faith 〈◊〉 No! never while he Lives and Breaths for they can draw and wire-draw some Consequences from some of his Words in some place or other that shall evince that he believes otherwise than he intends and this Art is the Sheet 〈◊〉 that never yet fail'd the Defender at a dead lift I could wish it might be seriously considered 1. Whether these Men may not possibly be mistaken in the Inferences they draw from other Mens Words Especially when they are not direct and immediate and more especially when the Eye that pretends to discover them has the Glaucoma and is all over tinctured with the Jaundice which makes all the World of the same Complection 2. Whether any Man as well as He may not be mistaken in the Consequences of his own Words Which may perhaps be such as the Author could not foresee and which if he could have foreseen would have abhorred and retracted what he had before asserted 3. Whether there is not a great Allowance to be made to humane Frailty whose acutest Eye cannot always see to the end of a long Train of Words and Thoughts The first Paper expresses a good Temper if the Authors had seen it meet to govern themselves by their own Canon Not thinking it reasonable or Iust to charge upon any Brother such Consequences of any Expression
Humble thee that what carries the Appearance of Great Honour is if well consider'd a Real Burden to be surcharged with the Common Titles of the Iudicious and Learned the Courteous and Candid the Impartial and Indifferent and whatever other goodly Epithites a wretched Cause may need or a fruitful Invention can produce either to blind thy Judgment or bribe thy Affections It may serve for thy Mortification in some degree that thou art Postponed from the Preface to the Postscript from the Van to the Rear and that thou who hast commonly pretended to Ride in State on the Fore-Horse art degraded to come behind with the Portmanteu However lay aside for a while thy Prejudice and Passion thy Interest and Party and consider seriously a few things before I give thee a long Farewell I. I will give thee the good News that our Author is at last become more Orthodox than when he wrote his Report for then he gave us his Substance of the Gospel which had no Iustifying Faith in 't no Repentance in order to Pardon no Regeneration no Conversion no Holiness no new Heart and therefore no new Obedience Rejoyce therefore with us all that he is now come home to himself return'd to the Truth p. 43. Our Sins being the Meritorious Cause of Christ's Sufferings and his Sufferings a proper Punishment of our Sins for the Satisfaction of Divine Iustice that whoever believes on him may be Acquitted and Saved But it is not intended that the Filth of our Sins which is distinct from the Guilt was upon Christ or that he was any otherways Criminal in God's Account than by the Imputation of our Sins to him Say not Reader this is utterly inconsistent with that Scheme of Religion the Report has given us for I am willing to deal much more favourably than he will with Mr. W. and let his Words pass for his Meaning however irreconcileable they are to other places But again Appeal p. 8. We Reject the Opinion of those who hold That upon transferring the Guilt of our Sins to Christ he is to be esteemed the Person that committed all the Sins of those for whom he Died or that the Turpitude and Filth of our Sins was transferred upon him which is a Notion equally False Blasphemous and Imposible Besides nothing can be Renounced by us with greater Indignation than such a Change of Persons as implies that we are actually discharged from Punishment whilst Unbelievers or Impenitent I rejoyce heartily that our Author is once more given to Change and that for the better and that we have at length heard some Tidings of Faith and Repentance in order to our Discharge from Punishment which were wholly lost in the Report So much do we owe to the seasonable Deaths of two Antinomians under whose Influences he then was and to the Lives of two Sound Divines under whose Awe he now is II. Reader thou maist observe that the Author whether Defender or Appellant has the oddest way of answering a pinching Objection that ever any Respondent in the World us'd which is not by shewing the Weakness of it but by lending more strength to it One notable Instance I have already given in the Matter of Fact When the Report had affirmed the First Paper gave Satisfaction to the most Learned of both Parties The Rebuke replyed That it gave no Satisfaction at all to Mr. Cole and Mr. Mather And those two surely might be reckon'd among the most Learned of one Party To which he rejoyns That for some other Reasons they declined Subscription where instead of Answering he confirms by Reasons tho secret Reasons that they declined Subscription which is not to Answer but Confess the Objection The Objection was that they did not Subscribe and he very officiously without my asking gives an Account why they did not Subscribe But I shall now give an Instance or two more of this way of answering Objections from his Appeal 1 Instance Appeal p. 18. he tells us That Iesus Christ as our Surety entred into the same Bond with us and that he by virtue of the Sanction of the Law of Works was obliged to suffer for our Sins and for the Proof of this mighty Assertion he quotes Heb. 7. 22. Iesus was made the Surety of a better Testament To this Mr. W. answers Christ was called the Surety of the better Testament and therefore not of the Law of Works which in all probability was not the better Testament but the worse of the two that is it was our less good And to speak with impartiality it sounds harshly to my Ears That Christ being called the Surety of a better Testament that is of the Covenant of Grace should prove him the Surety of a worse Covenant that is of the Covenant of Works Now how does the Appellant take off the Objection Why he brings in Curcellaeus making the same Objection and that is all his Answer But still the Objection is the same whoever makes it and stands where it did in its full strength till he fairly removes it when therefore and not till then he shall prove that the Covenant of Works is the better Testament he shall prove that Christ was the Surety of it But if the Covenant of Grace be the better Covenant of the two and Christ be made or constituted the Surety of that Covenant he must bring other Texts to prove that Christ is the Surety of the Covenant of Works which will be the more difficult for him to do because the Title of Surety applied to Christ is not used in any other Text in the whole New Testament 2. Instance The Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity says the Appeal p. 37. To the end he might more plausibly expose those parts of the Christian Faith which relate to Iustification insinuated as if they had been such abstruse Matters that tho the Dissenters contended so fiercely about 'em as to divide the Communion and separate upon them yet their Teachers confess that they understand not what it is that our Differences are about This is I confess a most sharp Weapon and thrown with a strong Arm It would rejoyce me to see a good Answer to it and that I conceive is that our Judgment about these Points of Satisfaction and Justification are most clearly laid down in the Confessions of the Church of England those of the Assembly of Divines at Westminster and at the Savoy and we know well what our Differences are about them But the Appellant has written several Pieces and this last among or above the rest that has justified the Objection which is his peculiar way of answering and rendred these Doctrines unintelligible and his poor Clients may now answer him as they did their Advocates Fecistis probe incertior sum multo quam dudum He has misled his Followers first into the Wilderness and then out of their Wits so many Postulata so many things begged others borrowed some supposed others presupposed and from these so