he spared him not in exacting Punishment Death came into the World by sin and yet Christ dyed who never sinned Rom. 5. 12. The Law in its Penalty had nothing to do with him who had not offended the Law in its Rule So that I profess I know no greater wonder in the world than that the Father would have him suffer and that he should be Capable of Sufferings till the wonder be removed by viewing Christ in the stead of others and thus the Scripture assoyls the difficulty Isa. 53. 10. His Soul was made an Offering for sin Nay he was made sin for us though he knew no sin that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5. 21. He so loved the Church that he gave himself for it And appearing in this Quality Death the Officer of Gods violated Law might justly arrest him and the Father be pleased to bruise him delighted in his Sufferings upon one account who was so infinitely satisfied in his Person upon another And yet all this while our Author can see no necessity of Christs Death I should rather have thought sayes he that Gods requiring such a Sacrifice as the Death of Christ was not because he could not do otherwise but because his infinite Wisdom judged it the most effectual way of dispensing his Grace Then 1. It seems though Gods infinite Wisdom saw this the best way yet it might have consisted with his Wisdom to have pitch'd upon a worse and then it will be a Question whether that had been Wisdom or no For we are told p. 48. That Wisdom consists in the choyce of the fittest and best Means to attain an End when there are more wayes than one of doing it If then Wisdom consist in choosing the fittest and best Means and the Death of Christ was the best Means for dispensing of Gods Grace either it was impossible for God to choose any other way than this or it is possible for God to act in a way not consisting with Wisdom But 2. Our Author had highly obliged the World had he discovered how sin might otherwise have been expiated than by the Sacrifice of Christs Death The Iews have pitch'd upon a Cock and at last upon their own Death But it 's twenty to one when our Author shall substitute any in the room of the perfect Sacrifice of Christ we shall find as many real Inconveniences in it as he has found imaginary absurdities in the Necessity of Gods requiring satisfaction to his Justice and Christs Tendring it upon the Cross. But 3. Who ever asserted simply that God could doe no otherwise than to require the Sacrifice of Christs Death Alas our Author is wide the whole Heavens in this Matter It must first be supposed that God will treat with the sinner and that Christ will accept the Terms of being a Mediator between God and Man The Necessity proceeds upon a presupposed Voluntariness both in the Father and in the Son and when you have supposed them there are who will dispute it with our Author when he pleases that upon supposition God will accept and justifie a sinner a just Compensation must be made to wronged Iustice. I find our Author and his Confederates now and then speaking a good word of Mr. R. B. and I doe the more wonder at it because I did not think they had had a good word for any man but themselves I shall therefore give him a taste out of his learned Labours and if he likes it he may have more at the same rate 'T is in his Reasons of the Christian Religion Part 2. Chap. 4. Sect. 6. No Religion doth so wonderfully open and magnifie and reconcile Gods Iustice and Mercy to Mankind as Christianity doth It sheweth how his Iustice is founded in his Holiness and his Governing Relation It justifieth it by opening the Purity of his Nature the Evil of Sin and the use of Punishment to the right Government of the World and it magnifieth it by opening the Dreadfulness and Certainty of his Penalties and the Sufferings of our Redeemer when he made himself a Sacrifice for our Sins But the storm is not yet over nor our Authors Fury quite spent Dr. O. had said Com. pag. 94 95. That there are many Glympses of the Patience of God towards Sinners shining out in the Works of his Providence but all exceedingly beneath that discovery which we have of it in Christ for in him the very Nature of God is discovered to be Love and Kindness whatever discoveries were made of the Patience and Lenity of God to us yet if it were not withall revealed that his other Attributes his Iustice and Revenge for Sin had their actings assigned them to the full there could be little Consolation gather'd from his Patience and Lenity It were very hard if a Spider could suck no poyson out of these words and I should conclude she had renounced her Nature but what was there in all this that could exasperate a sweet natur'd Gentleman Whilest a sinner hangs by the meer forbearance of God he hangs but over Hell-fire by a single Thread and if that breaks he falls irrecoverably into Everlasting Burnings and it can be little Consolation the Doctor was gentle he might have used a harsher word and said just none at all to an awakened Conscience to have a place in Gods forbearance when he has none in his Forgiveness or to depend upon mere patience without an interest in Gods pardoning Mercy God may have patience with when he has no pardon for a sinner he had so for the Old World for Sodom for Ierusalem which yet perisht under his just displeasure A sensible Soul will be apt to argue thus I am reprieved but is my Pardon sealed God visits not my Iniquities upon me but will he remember them no more Those that are the familiar Acquaintances of Nature and of the Cabal to Common Reason have told me that Forbearance is no Acquittance that Patience abused turns into Fury Nay perhaps it may be in Judgement that a Sinner is forborn for God hath sometimes suffered the Nations to walk in their own wayes Acts 14. 16. And endured with much long-sufferance the Vessels of Wrath fitted to destruction But now through Christ the Nature of God is discover'd to be Love and Kindness for seeing Provision is made for and regard had of all his other Attributes and Essential Perfections God can secure to himself the Glory of them all and yet the Sinner escape wrath to come And indeed it 's altogether as unaccountable why God should be mercifull to the reproach of his Holiness as why he should be severe to the disparagement of his Mercy As the Goodness of God naturally discovers it self in doing good where all due requisites are found so does Justice as readily exert it self upon the Sinner where a Propitiation doth not interpose And if Conscience were rightly instructed in its Office from the Word it would mind the Sinner
they had of their own for which God might justly have dealt thus with them yet God Declares that this was the Impulsive cause of their Punishment even the sin of David with whom the People having a Political Union as our Author phrases it they made but one Body in the sight of Vengeance And when others say That this was but a temporal Punishment and therefore it will not hold that God should punish the Posterity of Adam spiritually for his Transgression they say they know not what For God will not be Unrighteous and Unjust in Punishing the Sons of Men for that sin which is none of their own in the smallest thing from a Thread to a Shooe-latchet and the Rule of Justice in this Case is the Law for if the Law was back'd by a Sanction of Spiritual and Eternal threatnings then 't is Just with the Law-giver to Inflict the Punishment upon all that are under the Law our Union with Adam was another a stricter Union than the Israelites had with David it was Spiritual the other Civil External only And therefore according to the Law of Union and Relation though the Israelites could only suffer for Davids sin temporally yet the Posterity of Adam may by Righteous Judgment of God for Adams sin suffer Eternally And now let us briefly see whether our Author comes up to any thing of the Apostle or no God says he was so highly displeased with Adams sin that for his sake he Entailed a great many Evils Miseries nay Death it self upon his Posterity Nay but says the Apostle they were constituted sinners Iudgment and Condemnation came upon them though they had not sinned after the Similitude of Adams transgression the same Iudgment which in the Sanction of the Law was threatned against Adams sin and now to Fob and Flam off this with Evils Miseries and never tell us what they were not how it could be Just with God to Entail the least Evil upon them or touch a Hair of their Heads for the sin of another with whom they had no privity of Interest is to Reduce the sin of Adam as near to Nothing as he has Reduced Christs Righteousness 2. May we enquire also VVhether that Influence which he allows to Christs Obedience reach the Mind of the Apostle The Apostle affirms that By the Obedience of one many were made Righteous and that by the Righteousness of one the Free-gift came upon all to Iustification of Life v. 18 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Many or the many of whom he Treats shall be constituted Righteous For as all that were in the first Adam all his Natural Seed were by vertue of a Legal Constitution Ordinance and Appointment of God made sinners in the Transgression of their common Head and Representative so all the Spiritual Seed and Posterity of Christ which the Father had promised to give him as the Reward of his Death and Sufferings are by vertue of a New a better Law-constitution made Righteous by the Righteousness of their spiritual Head and Representative And therefore the Apostle v. 14. tells us expresly That Adam was the Figure of Christ He did exactly represent the Headship of Christ towards all his spiritual Posterity in that Headship which he bore towards his own Posterity But the Apostle has said enough in this Chapter to stomack the Pride and Restifness of humane Wisdom nothing more grating upon the Spirit of a Gallant than that he should be made a sinner by the sin or owe his Righteousness to the Righteousness of another This is the summe of the Apostles Discourse As the Posterity of Adam were made sinners constituted such by a Law and dealt with as such by God so are the Posterity of Christ made Righteous by such another way of Justification But then I assume The Posterity of Adam could not be made sinners by the sin of Adam otherwise than by the Imputation of Adams sin therefore the Posterity of Christ could not be made Righteous otherwise in the sight of God than by the Imputation of Christs Righteousness The Posterity of Adam could not possibly be made sinners by Adams first sin any other way than by charging it upon them according to the Terms of that Law under which he and they stood nor are the Seed of Christ capable of being made Righteous in Gods sight by the Obedience of Christ otherwise than by Imputing it to them according to that New Covenant-constitution called the Law of Faith and Righteousness under which Christ and Believers do now stand But if the word Imputation do Disgust our Authors delicate Ears let him call it what he pleases provided the Apostles Argument be satisfied and his main Design secured let us now see how our Author comes up to the Apostle God says he was so well pleased with the Obedience and Righteousness of Christs Life and Death that for his sake he bestows the rewards of Righteousness on those who according to the Rigour of the Law are not Righteous Wherein our Author and our Apostle come not near one another by many Leagues 1. Our Author says God bestows the reward of Righteousness on them that are not Righteous But our Apostle says we are made Righteous by the Obedience of Christ before we can be accounted Righteous by God The Holy God will not account half Righteousness for a whole one sinners may mock themselves but they cannot mock God That which the Law requires must be had the Apostle tells us 't is to be had in Christ By his Obedience through the Intervention of the Law-constitution of Faith and Righteousness Believers are made Righteous 2. Whatever is Lurking under the darkness of these Expressions The Rewards of Righteousness the Rigour of the Law yet this we may be sure of that all come to this in the Up shot That God for Christs sake has made a New Covenant of Grace which Pardons our past Sins and Follies and rewards a Sincere though Imperfect Obedience I can compare our Authors Copia Verborum his Variegated Equipollent Phrases and Expressions to nothing so well as that of the Chymists when they endeavour to bind Hermes or in plain English their fixing of Quicksilver they can Model it into many accidental Forms and Shapes and yet the Cunning versute Creature will be Mercury again do what they can unless some will compare it to the Young-mans Mistress in the Fable that Brided it for a day or so but yet upon the sight of her old Game put off her Personated self and reassumed her real self again Such Feats of Activity have we shown us ever and anon by our Author he can turn his words into more Shapes than Proteus tell us of this and that but when he comes to himself All the Influence that Christs Obedience has upon our acceptance with God is that we owe such a Covenant to it as he has described to us and Contrived for us Tells us That God for Christs sake has entered into a
he afterwards throwes up his Nose so scornfully at Some other matters may have a Room in our Consideration As 1 That this Knowledge of God was Natural had need be a little better trimmed than ordinary Natural either imports what is constitutive of our Beings or flows immediately from the Principles of Nature or else what is congruous and agreeable to our Natures as designed for such an Employment as is proper to them If he take Natural in the first sence I softly deny that The Knowledge of God which made or would have made Adam happy was Natural to him And my Reason is that what does so constitute Nature or flow immediately from the Principles thereof cannot possibly be separated from that Being but withall the very Being is destroy'd but we see damned Souls and Devils retain all that knowledge of God which did constitute their Essences and yet have lost all that knowledge of God which is or may be a Means to their happiness they retain their Beings are not physically stript of them though they are Morally devested of all the Comfort of their Beings but then if by Natural Knowledge no more be intended but that upon supposition God would create man to serve love and enjoy him it was due to a Being so posited to be so qualified If man must serve his Maker and in that service enjoy him and in that enjoyment be Happy in him then indeed is it natural such a Knowledge such a Will such a Heart should be bestow'd upon him but I would have this Bush soundly beaten by a better Huntsman than my self and ten to one he may from under it start a Pelagian 2 It would be enquired whether this Natural Knowledge was a sufficient means for Adams Happiness Our Author seems clearly to assert it but I confess I cannot joyn with him as believing that much more was required of and indeed bestow'd upon him than a Natural Knowledge of God He was made in the Image and likeness of God Gen. 1. 26 27. A main part of that Image lay in Righteousness Eccles. 7. 29. God made man upright 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rectum there was a Rectitude of all the Powers and Faculties an exact conformity of them to one another and of all to the Revealed Will of God And this appears In that the Image of God restored by Grace assures us what that Image was which he once had but since has lost Eph. 4. 24. And that ye put on the New Man which after God is created in Righteousness and True Holiness And indeed the first man not being capable of a forreign Righteousness whereby he might be justifi'd that Covenant either not needing it supposing he had stood or not admitting it on supposition of a Fall he must necessarily have a Righteousness inherent one of his own to qualifie him to hold Communion or to speak warrantably with our Author converse with God 3 I question much that Expression of Innocence as not very Innocent it has been taken upon suspicion many a time and sometime could not give a good Account of it self Casta quidem sed non credita And it has been the more narrowly observed since a Generation of Men arose in the world who would perswade us That the Perfection of Man in his first Creation lay not in any positive Qualities of Holiness Righteousness and Truth but in a bare Freedom from sin That is they would fancy Man to have been created as pure white and Innocent as a sucking Lamb but not so much as the first preparative blue towards the tincture of any Vertues but whether this one word in our Author may be iuterpreted so high time must discover And hitherto of the State wherein God created Man 2. A second Period of Time into which our Author has Thrown the World is that from Adam to Abraham inclusively Upon which Interval he Philosophizes even to our wonderment In after-Ages as Mankind grew more corrupt and declined to Idolatry Here I want our Authors Accuracy or must complain of a Fallacy for methinks it 's a deadly long stride to step from Adam to after-Ages without the Bridge of some Neat Transition he might have made two steps of this just now we found Man in the state of Innocency and now we find him corrupt and declined to Idolatry and yet none can imagine how this evil of Sin and Misery invaded the world The Heathens were at their wits-ends about it the Manichees could not invent a way to assoyl it but by assigning a double Eternal Cause or Principle the one of Good the other of Evil And now when we expected great matters from this Gentleman to be left in the lurch and fobb'd off with a blind account that this was done in after-Ages In after-Ages as Mankind grew more corrupt Oh! it seems they were Corrupt before and enclined to Idolatry but in these villanous after-Ages they grew more Corrupt Religion pass'd through many hands and in long Tract of time gathered Moss and Furre Men sliding insensibly none ever knew how into this degeneracy and Trace it up as high as you can yet Nilus hides his Head beyond the Mountains of the Moon That Men are corrupt and stark naught we see but how they became so or when first turn'd out of the way that 's hid in darkness and perpetual Night But there is one St. Paul as obscure an Author as some would represent him that would have spoken a thousand times more to our satisfaction than this Gentleman Rom. 5. 12. By one man sin entred into the World and Death by Sin and so Death pass'd upon all men in that or in whom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all have sinned V. 17. By one Mans Offence Death reigned by one V. 18. By the Offence of one Iudgement came upon all to Condemnation That the evil that we experience in the world and that 's abundance may be reduced to two heads it 's either Malum Culpae or Malum Poenae Either the Evil of Sin or the Evil of Punishment for sin Now this Excellent Author tells us that both these Evils came from one root one spring and that was one Man and that one Man was Adam This seems to have a probable face of the Origine of Evil but he was a dark Writer There is therefore another Author that wrote a Book called The Catholick Doctrine believed and professed in the Church of England one with whom our Author has some Reason to be acquainted for a Reason or two that I know of now this Author tells us Art 9. Of Original or Birth-sin That Original sin standeth not in the following of Adam as the Pelagians vainly talk N. B. but it is the Fault and Corruption of the Nature of every Man that Naturally is ingendred of the Off-spring of Adam whereby Man is very far gone from Original Righteousness and is enclined to evil so that the Flesh lusteth against the Spirit and therefore in every person born
106. And was God ever denied the Liberty before t'other day to bring Good out of Evil 2. He lays it down as their Doctrine It pleased God that man should sin but when he hath sinned He is displeased with it This seems to be a piece of Wit designed to make the Devil Merry but all the Humour of it lies in the Ambiguity of one poor word It pleased God to permit sin and yet when man had sinned he was justly displeased with it Gods permission had no Influence upon mans Transgression But how would he have Insulted over that man that should openly Preach and Write That against the Holy Child Iesus whom God anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate and the People of Israel were gathered together for to do whatsoever Gods Hand and Gods Counsel determined before to be done and yet when it was done according to the Determination of his own Hand and Counsel he was extreamly displeased with it And yet I could tell him of one that has so said who Scorns his most scornful Censure It may please God that a thing may be done and take no pleasure in the thing done nor in the Instruments that did it It pleased him to suffer his own People to be afflicted by the Heathen and yet he was sore displeased with the Heathen that helped forward the Affliction Zech. 1. 15. It pleased the Father to bruise his Son and yet he was displeased with the Instruments that bruised him God can do the same thing Righteously which Men and Devils do unrighteously Judas delivered up Christ out of Covetousness the Iews out of Envie Pilate out of Fear or to pick a Thank from Caesar but God Delivered him for our Offences 3. He charges them with this Doctrine That nothing can withstand the Decrees of God We have scarce another Instance wherein he has Candidly represented their Judgment and was not able to throw some Dirt upon it 4. He proceeds to play the Lucian and Scoff at Gods Justice It 's impossible says he for God to forgive the least sin without a compleat and perfect Satisfaction Let him but grant that God cannot forgive the greatest sin without compleat and perfect Satisfaction and they will undertake to prove from thence that none is so small but needs a Satisfaction 5. He proceeds This falls hard upon those miserable Wretches whose ill fortune it was to be left out of the Roll of Election without any fault of theirs To be left out of the Roâ—…l of Election by Fortune is a piece of prophane Nonsence which at once discovers the depth of his Intellectuals and the height of his Boldness What more Desultory than that which Heathens call Fortune What more stable and fixed than that which the Word of God calls Election The Old Church of England would have Taught him to have Spoken otherwise of that Tremendous Mysterie Art 17â—… Election to Life is the everlasting purpose of God whereby before the Foundation of the World was laid He hath constantly Decreed by his Counsel secret to us to deliver from Curse and Damnation those whom He hath chosen in Christ out of Mankind and to bring them by Christ to everlasting Salvation c. Now though he believes little of all this yet he might remember he had Subscribed the whole and considered also t is the Doctrine of that Church whereof he is a Member and therefore might have Covered their Nakedness and at least Perfum'd them with a few good Cheap words against their Burial It were tedious to pursue the particulars I only say If this Scheme of Religion as it stands here upon Record be the Subject of his Scorn and Reproach I hope we may read it backwards and then 't will be his own Creed some few Slanders indeed which were inserted as a Haut goust to giue it the better Grace we may Omit but for the rest no doubt he will own it to be the Standard of his Belief God from the Beginning never Designed to Glorifie either his Iustice or Mercy and because there would have been Occasion abundantly Administred both to Punish and Pardon too though man had never sinned therefore he never concern'd himself how things would go And indeed it had been to no purpose for God to Decree any thing since if he had all his Decrees and Appointments had been easiâ—…y withstood And therefore man sinned whether God would or no and full sore against his Will for if he could have prevented it we may be sure he would but when man had sinned God was not much displeased with it for you must know that his Justice is so Facile and Easie an Attribute and if it be one at all it 's but a Secondary one that he can easily forgive the greatest sin without Satisfaction made to it This is very good News if it be true to all the World especially seeing there 's no such thing as the Roll of Election and by Consequence no preterition neither but all men stand upon even Ground and every one upon his own Legs which they may the better do because they have many ways left if need were to pacifie Gods anger in case he should happen to be a little displeased with sin viz. By their own Temporal sufferings Repentance and Obedience which though they answer not Gods Law yet being sincere it s well enough By this it appears that God is not Essentially Just and Righteous seeing He can Pardon the greatest sin and serve his own Glory without any regard to the Death of Christ or Inflicting upon sinners Eternal Sufferings But now this is but one part of the Glory of God that He can pardon sin without Propitiation made by Christ the other is that he can reward the sinner too without the Righteousness of Christ And therefore there 's more ado than needs about a pretended Difficulty how to Reconcile Gods Iustice and Mercy For neither is Iustice so severe as to require Satisfaction and the Merit of our own Obedience is so Considerable that we need not much be beholden to Mercy And to speak in a word the Demerit of sin is short of Infinite and therefore the Creature may Expiate its own sins by enduring Finite that is Temporary Torments whereas then men Talk that to Unite these two Extreams and reconcile such Contradictions was a work of Infinite Wisdome as well as Goodness they Talk Idly for as I said before whatever there was of Goodness in it there could be no great Wisdom and therefore it 's vainly said that to Effect it God should send his Son into the World to satisfie all Righteousness in his Life and to make a full satisfaction for sin by his Death for neither could his Blood be of Infinite value though for Fashion sake we call it the Blood of the Son of God nor Expiate an Infinite guilt or make satisfaction to Gods Justice if so be he had stood upon 't And therefore to Instruct you aright in these Matters sin
for his safety He wounded men that they might seek after healing and laid load upon their guilty minds that they might be content to take his Yoke upon them And that this is so 1. We have an Argument which is Instar omnium a Thousand Reasons by it self That is what our Author says That we must be affected with all the Arguments of Christs Incarnation c. so as to be sensible of the shame and folly of our sins Now how a man should be ashamed of sin till he sees its vileness and baseness and how he should see its vileness and filthiness till it s brought to the Test of Gods Holy Law which is the Rule of righteousness the Measure of Good and Evil is past my Conjecture Nay further that shame which fills a Soul does not merely arise from a sence of the Souls vileness but as compared with Gods Holiness who is a God so Pure so Holy c. that the Soul may well be ashamed and filled with Confusion of face to appear before him Now shame upon the account of the filthiness and dread upon the account of the guilt of sin are very near Neighbours Shame expresses the Souls sence of its own unworthiness to appear before God upon the score of its baseness and deformity and Fear expresses but the sence of Gods Authority which he hath Impressed and Stampt upon his Holy Law with the Souls reflection upon it self that it has violated that Law and thereby become liable to that Penalty which his own guilt has bound him over to And this was clear in Adams case He was Naked and therefore ashamed he was guilty and therefore feared to appear before this Holy God and Iust Iudge Now our Author will allow it lawful to fetch Arguments from Christs Incarnation Life Doctrine Death and what you please to make us ashamed of sin but by no means to be afraid of the Great God But the very truth is none say that it is the duty of Men to be Distracted and Unhinged in mind with slavish fears and Hellish apprehensions of Gods Justice But that this Dread may possibly run up some poor Creatures so high as to a literal distraction when the apprehensions of the Curse due to the Transgression of a righteous Law of a Holy and Jealous God shall overset a weak Judgement and dark Mind that sees its danger but no way to escape sees its Disease but not its Cure its sin with the demerits thereof but not a Saviour with his Merits and at once considers that Wrath of God which it concludes to be unavoidable and knows to be Intollerable 3. That our Saviour did use the Law and it's Terrors to awaken the Souls of men to a due apprehension of their sin and their danger thereupon the whole Tenour of the New Testament prove It was the Method of his Precurser Iohn the Baptist he laid this Ax to the Root of the Tree Mat. 3. 10. denouncing against them That every Tree that brought not forth good Fruit should be hewen down and cast into the fire And where-ever the Pharisees got it yet a warning they had got to flie from wrath to come The Apostle Paul both felt it and Preacht the use of the Law for Conviction of sin with all its Consequents and leading the sinner to Christ He felt it Rom. 7. 9. When the Commandment came sin revived and I died he saw himself a dead and lost man He Preacht also the Use of the Law Gal. 3. 24. to be a Schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. What use our Saviour in his own Person made of the Law may be seen from Matth. 5. and also chap. 23. where he thunders upon the dead and secure Consciences of Sinners with Arguments taken from the Law of God and the dreadfull Curse annex'd to the violation of it And though our Author will allow no more than an Awfull regard and reverence for God who is a holy and righteous Iudge and an irreconcileable Enemy to all Sin yet when a Sinner shall be throughly convinc'd that he is so and shall know that the wages of Sin is Death and that he that gave forth this Law and must sit in Iudgement upon him is both a Holy and a Righteous Iudge and an Irreconcileable Enemy to all Sin there will be more than an awfull regard and reverence for this God unless he have the faculty to tell a Sinner how he may stand guilty before his Judgement-Seat and not be filled with horror and unspeakable amazement But I see our Author can be both more severe than Christ where his severity is not due and more mercifull too at other times when his Clemency will destroy He will dawb over the chinks of their Consciences with untemper'd Mortar and skin over their wounds very smoothly he will not have men feel the workings of the Law nor any amazing terrours of Gods wrath Though it be hard to conceive how a Soul should see Sin and not see Gods wrath or seeing it not be terrified and amazed with it But such was not the Way and Method nor such the End and Design of Christs coming He never preach'd Peace when Destruction was nigh he accommodated not his Doctrine to the Lusts and Tempers of Sinners but Acted according to his Commission Isa. 61. 1 2. Preaching the Acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God But our Author has imposed it upon himself as his constant Method to discourse pro re natâ to fit the present purpose for pag. 3. of this excellent Piece he had told us That the Gospel of Christ is as severe a Dispensation as the Law which dooms men to Eternal misery that live not very vertuous and innocent Lives And they must be very vertuous and innocent ones indeed who escape that doom for just now he assures us That God is a righteous Iudge and an irreconcileable Enemy to all sin After all this storm there are yet a few drops behind which we may do well to shelter our selves from if we can He falls into some heat against our having Christ offer'd to us to be our Saviour against the Beseechings of Christ against Covenanting with Christ which is well express'd by Contract and Espousal And for this there is good warrant 2 Cor. 5. 20. As though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christs stead be ye reconciled to God This was Scripture before he was born and will be so when he is gone and therefore he may speak his pleasure against Christ and his Gospel But he has a License and let him make the best on 't for our parts we hope we shall not be Scoffed out of the Concernments of our Souls and Salvation and if that must Anger him let him repeat over the Alphabet or which will do as well Turn the Knot of his Girdle behind him To conclude the Persons whom our Authors lot is fallen out to reproach Doe build their Faith
the Law only That all the World is not become guilty by the external deeds of the Moral Law and a failure therein he proves Rom. 5. 14. where he shews That death reigned over some who had not sinned after the similitude of Adam ' s transgression 5. Those deeds which David excluded from his Iustification the Apostle excludes from our Iustification for he quotes his Proposition from Psal. 143. 2. and therefore takes it in his sense or else he could not make use of his Authority But David excludes all his deeds whatsoever from Justification Enter not into judgment with thy servant for in thy sight shall no man be justified He durst not once think of God's entering into judgment with him upon the account of any thing he had attained From all which it appears that the Apostle exclâ—…es the Law the whole Law and the deeds thereof all the deeds thereof from having any concern in the Iustification of a sinner in the sight of God 2. We may observe hence That the Apostle opposes the Righteousness of God unto a Righteousness by the deeds of the Law But now says he the Righteousness of God without the Law is manifested vers 21. And as in vers 20. he says not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the deeds of the Law but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the deeds of Law of a Law of any Law So here he says not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without the Law as if he intended some singular Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without a Law without any Law And hence he fully silences and stops the mouth of our Authors Cavil that by the deeds of the Law is meant only an external Conformity of our Actions to it But the Apostles words leave no place for ambiguity For if the Righteousness of God without Law a Law any Law be manifested then without either Ceremonial or Moral Law then also without external or internal deeds of either But the Apostle shuts out Law simply and absolutely The Righteousness of God without Law is manifested As this term Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is more properly predicated of the Moral than of the Ceremonial Law so the deeds of Law are more properly predicated of internal than external deeds and Analogum per se stans stat pro famosior Analogato If then as our Author contends we are justified by the Moral though not by the Ceremonial Law or by internal Conformity to it though not by external Conformity to it only then the Apostles Doctrine is true in an improper or less proper sense but utterly false in the proper or more proper sense of the words For had 〈◊〉 words been inverted they had carried a clearer truth in them By the deeds the internal deeds of the Law the Moral Law shall all flesh be justified But now the Righteousness of God with the Law the Moral Law and it s internal as well as external deeds is manifested But this is not to interpret the Apostle but dictate a new Gospel to him But further Hence I have just occasion to complain of an unrighteous surmise with which our Author loads some men That because they exclude Law and Law-deeds from Iustification in the sight of God that therefore they exclude it from having any place in their Lives and Conversations The Apostle who is a zealous Vindicator of the interest of the Law as a Rule of our Obedience yet we see discharges it wholly from any from all use and service in the Justification of a sinner in the sight of God Therefore he adds Before God and the Psalmist In thy sight to teach us That though the Righteousness of God without Law is manifested as to the truth of the thing yet the Righteousness of God is not cannot be manifested to us without a sincere obedience to the Law There 's a Iustification before God to this the Law a Law any Law contributes nothing but there 's a Justification before Conscience before men and to this a sincere and evangelically universal obedience contributes much 3. The Apostle assures us That this Doctrine of his is no new fancy broached t'other day and set on foot lately in Gospel-times but the same way by which all the good men of old were justified v. 21. It 's witnessed by the Law and the Prophets Now as to the Prophets testimony though our Author approves not their Cryptick way of demonstrating but is all for plain Meridian demonstration yet they are full that Jesus Christ was the main consideration in the Justification of a sinner from of old Acts 3. 25 26. Ye are the Children of the Prophets and of the Covenant that God made with our Fathers saying to Abraham And in thy Seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed unto you first God having raised up his Son Iesus sent him to bless you in turning away every one of you from his iniquities Whence it appears God's raising up Christ in the World to bless his people with spiritual blessings was no more than what he had covenanted with Abraham and promised to him even in that very Promise which our Author thinks was fulfilled in the numerous Posterity of Isaac But now that this Righteousness of God without Law should be witnessed by Law this seems strange Does the Law witness against it self Is it false to it 's own interest But the Law is God's Law and when it witnesses to a sinner it witnesses home convinces him of the perfect holiness of that God who gave the Law of the peremptoriness of God in not abating one jot or tittle of the Law of the sinners utter inability to come up to the Demands of the Law and therefore the utter impossibility of being justified by the Law of the severity of God's Justice in punishing the violater of his Law and therefore unless he can find another Righteousness he must utterly perish 'T is true the Law speaks its old Language still Do this and live but then it speaks it only to those who are upon a bottom of Innocency for to a Transgressor its language is Cursed is very one that continues not in all things 4. The Apostle acquaints us what that Righteousness of God is which is manifested vers 22. Even the Righteousness of God which is by the Faith of Christ. Now hence it 's evident that the Righteousness of God and Righteousness by the Faith of Christ are both one and therefore Faith in God and Faith in Christ are both one As is the Righteousness such is the Faith as is the Faith such is the Righteousness which perfectly overthrows that Arbitrary distinction which our Author had studied for more need Of Faith in God and Faith in Christ on purpose to shut Abraham out of Christ and by Consequence out of Heaven and to lock him up in the Limbus Patrum 5. The Apostle concludes That there 's no difference in point of Justification all that are sinners by
both be reconciled to God and what did the removal of Ceremonies contribute to that end But says he This New-Covenant belongs to all Mankind to Gentiles as well as Iews there 's now no distinction of Persons no Man is ever the more or less accepâ—…able to God because he is a Iew or a Greek very true I wonder when ever it was otherwise Our Author could have Answered himself from p. 27. Those particular favours that God bestowed on Israel were not owing to any partial fondness and respect to that People but the design of all was to encourage the whole World to Worship the God of Israel And that the Jews were not accepted for their Ceremonial Services we may easily believe if we can but believe what he tells us Pag. 269. The Law of Moses 〈◊〉 them up in a ritual and external Religion taught them to Worship God in the Letter by Circumcision Sacrifices and an external Conformity to the Letter of the Law but the Gospel aloue teaches us to worship God with the Spirit to offer a reasonable Service to him And if he can but assure me that the Gentiles were never the less accepted of God because they were Gentiles I dare give him my Warrant that the Iews were never the more accepted of God for their Judaism according to those Measures which our Author has given of their Religion which it seems was mere Pageantry 2. Concerning Redemption he acquaints us what it signifies both to Iews and Gentiles 1. As to the Iews They says he are said to be redeemed from the Curse of the Law by the accursed Death of Christ upon the Cross Gal. 3. 13. Because the Death of Christ put an end to that legal Dispensation and sealed a New and better Covenant between God and Man It 's well he could find any thing small enough to be the proper and immediate effect of the Death of Christ but who shall reconcile the Apostle and our Author The Apostle says Christ redeemed them by being made a Curse for them Our Author says No he only put an end to that Legal Dispensation The Apostle says they were redeemed by a price paid 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He brought them out with a price which he expresses in words at length 1 Cor. 6. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ye are bought with a price No says he Christ's Death put an end to that legal Dispensation The Apostle says they were redeemed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from under the Curse No says he 't was only a freedom from the legal Dispensation Two suppositions he makes use of to give a Colour to his matters 1. Sect. That the Iews were under no other Curse but that of the Ceremonial Law Now 1. He should have been sure that the Ceremonial Law was a Curse It 's a wonder to me what grievous sins the Iews above all the World should commit that God should put them under such a Curse as should need the Death of Christ to redeem them from it especially what great Crimes had Abraham been guilty of that God should thus Curse and plague him with Circumcision which yet the Scripture calls the Seal of the Righteous Faith Rom. 4. 11. 2. It would be considered whether ever God gave a Law to any People in the World besides them that in its own Nature was a Curse Our Author once told us p. 196. That it pleased God to Institute a great many Ceremonies in the Iewish Worship to awe their Childish minds into a greater Veneration of the Divine Majesty And truly better so than worse better be frighted into Obedience than not at all Obedient But that ever God designed it for a Curse is past my apprehension 3. The Ceremonial Law in it's constitution end and design was a great Blessing there they had Pardon of sin Atonement Reconciliation exhibited and sealed to them Lev. 17 11. 2 Chron. 29. And all this could be no curse but to those who loved their sins better than the pardon of them and to such every Blessing of God would eventually prove a Curse 4. It will appear they were under a greater curse than what arose from the burden someness or their violation of the Ceremonial Law viz. That Condemnation which came upon all Men by the Fall of Adam Rom. 5. 12 13 14. 17 18 19. Such a Curse as was Common not only â—…o Iew and Gentile but to every individual under both capacities Rom. 3. 9. We have proved both Iews and Gentiles that they are all under sin ver 19. That every mouth may be stopped and all the World become guilty before God ver 23. For all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God And therefore all had need of free justification by Grace through the Redemption that is in Iesus Christ ver 24. 5. The Jews were under a curse upon the Account of their violation of the Moral Law and their not duly attending to the true ends of the Ceremonial Law but if the violation of a Law would make it become a curse then the Moral Law was become a curse too and then they had need of a Redeemer from the one as well as the other though both were blessings in themselves The Ceremonial Law in particular had this great blessing in it That as it discovered to them the demerit and Wages of sin in the slaying of the Sacrifices so it discovered a remedy two in the Sacrifices slain for them which directed them to look through them beyond them and above them to him who was the Lamb of God slain from the Foundation of the World All this was no curse 2. Sect. He supposes that the Text Gal. 3. 13. Christ hath Redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us relates onely to the Iews Whereas the Apostle adds to obviate that Cavil That the Blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles Christ is made a curse for them upon whom the Blessing of Abraham came by his Death but the Blessing of Abraham came upon the Gentiles by his Death therefore Christ is made a Curse for the Gentiles And that the Law from the curse whereof both Jews and Gentiles were Redeemed by Christs being made a Curse for them is the Moral Law I have endeavoured to evince in the last Section but whether to our Authors content or no I know not One thing more he supposes that Christs Sealing a New Covenant is Redemption But there must go more than the sealing of such a Covenant as he has described There must be the payment of a Price to Iustice or there can be no Redemption To Redeem is properly to buy back again that which was forfeited and such were Sinners Their Persons forfeited to Iustice their Mercies escheated into the hands of the Law Now comes a Redeemer and gives himself to God as a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Counter-price a valuable Consideration to Answer the demands of Justice and the claims of the Law and
Blood was carried in to the Holiest place ver 12. Neither by the blood of Bulls and Goats but by his own Blood he entred into the most Holy place having obtained eternal Redemption Thus Christ had obtained eternal Redemption and perfected the whole work of it as far as the paying of a price to God goes in the Matter before his Ascention and that which remained was the application of the benefit of what he had procured with God to us by his prevailing Intercession And as to the blood of the Sacrifices mentioned Exod. 24. 6. which the Apostle refers to ver 19. which our Author thinks had no other use but the confirming of the Mosaical Covenant it was never carried into the most Holy place at all nor the blood of any Propitiatory Sacrifice but onely that upon the Feast of Expiation once a year 2. The Apostle in this Chapter does not onely refer to the sprinkling of the Blood of the Sacrifice Exod. 24. but to the sprinkling of the blood of the Red Heifer Numb 19. 4. Eleazer shall take of her blood the red Heifer without blemish and without spot ver 2. and shall sprinkle it directly before the Tabernacle of the Congregation To which the Apostle expresly refers ibid. v. 12. If the blood of Bulls and Goats and the ashes of a Heifer sprinkling the unclean Sanctifieth to the purifying of the Flesh how much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit Offered himself to God purge your Consciences from Dead works And this blood was neither carried into the Holy place nor the Ministration of the Service performed by the High-Priest but by Eleazar which proves 1. That the blood of Christ had all its atoning vertue on this side his entrance into Heaven and 2. That Christ was Typified by the inferior Priests and not by the High-Priest alone For here not Aaron but Eleazar performed the Service of the Day 3. The Apostle clearly Disputes against this Figment of Christs presenting his blood to God in Heaven which the Men of this leaven will needs have to be all the Sacrifice that Christ Offered to God ver 25 26. Nor yet that he should Offer himself often for then he must often have Suffered No Offering without Suffering But Christ Suffered but once therefore he Offered but once Nay says the Apostle Now once in the end of the World hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself That which Christ did once he does not do always but if Christs appearing before God in Heaven be the offering of himself in sacrifice he does it always to the end of his Mediatory Kingdom 2 But what was it under the Law to which the Intercession of Christ answers To this he returns thus As the Death c. so his continual Intercession for us in virtue of his Blood once shed and once offer'd to God answers those frequent Expiations by Sacrifice under the Law especially to that General Sacrifice on the great Day of Expiation when the High-priest enter'd into the Holy of Holies with the blood of Beasts As the Death of Christ his Ascension and presenting his Blood to God answers that one so his Intercession answers the other Yes indeed just so with so much Truth and Regularity of Proportion that is with just none at all What parallel he can fancy between Expiation and Intercession I cannot divine This I know 1. The Expiations by Sacrifice under the Law were by Blood-shedding It was the Blood upon the Altar as the Life of the Sacrifice that made Expiation Lev. 17. 11. but in Christs Intercession there is no shedding of Blood 2. The Expiations by Sacrifice under the Law were by the Death of the Sacrifice and so was the Expiation of Christ And so says our Author too p. 327. He hath made a perfect Expiation for our sins by dying once p. 328. He procures the Pardon of our sins by his Death But in Heaven there is no Death and yet he says The Intercession of Christ answers the Expiations by Sacrifice under the Law that is just as much as Life answers Death But how to make our Author friends with the Apostle will be difficult who is so hard to be reconciled to himself 3. The Expiations which were made by the frequent Sacrifices were all without the Holyest but the Intercession of Christ is in the most Holy place And is not this a famous correspondency But how clear is all this if we could be reconciled to the Scriptures Where the Death of Christ upon the Cross answers all the Expiatory Sacrifices under the Law and the Intercession of Christ at the right Hand of God or his appearing continually in Heaven before his Father for us answers the High-priests entering into the Holy of Holies with that Blood which had been before shed at the Altar But whereas such was the imperfection such the poverty of the Types that no one was able to Answer all the Concerns of a Sinner no one could express all the various respects that a guilty Person had to God and his Law and therefore it was necessary that various Sacrifices should be instituted that they might represent those things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which it was impossible they should perform 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our Lord Jesus Christ by one Offering hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified Heb. 10. 14. For where Remission is there is no more Offering for sin v. 18. When therefore our Author affirms so secure of Contradiction That Christs continual Intercession answers those frequent Expiations under the Law especially that on the great day of Expiation he has said enough to determine this Matter For if there were frequent Expiations under the Law besides that of the Feast of Expiation and that there be any thing in Christs Sacrifice answering to them it follows that Christs Expiatory work was finish'd before his entrance into Heaven for the Blood of those other Sacrifices never came within the Holy of Holies which answers to the true Holy Place where Christ makes continual Intercession for us All this while the Reader ought charitably to believe that our Author is discoursing what influence the death of Christ hath upon our Acceptation with God To which he has answered that it Confirms a Covenant it procures a Covenant though how it procures a Covenant he has not yet informed us Justification Reconciliation Redemption are not the proper and immediate effects of his death nor indeed is any thing so but the abolishing ceremonies and conforming such a Covenant as he has obtruded upon us and for confirming that which he calls the Covenant there was the least need and I think no need at all but he closes up the whole with a parcel of good words Christ says he procures the pardon of our sins by his death and dispenses this pardon to us by his Intercession Is not this very Canonical and Orthodox yes sure but now mark his
Adams sake implies that Adams sin had an influence and it had this influence but how it could righteously or indeed possibly have that influence is still a Question and till that be resolved we shall never have the advantage from hence to know How the Righteousness of Christ could have an Influence upon God to shew us any kindness for Christs sake 3. God says he entail'd a great many Evils and miseries upon his Posterity for his sake Now seeing there are but a Many though a great many evils entailed upon them and not all Evils it 's very much our Interest to understand which are the Entailed evils and which our own Personal evils which are hereditary and which of our own procurement that so having found out which are entailed upon us we may search if there be not a way found to cut off the Entail by the Recovery wrought out by Christ. And the rather because the Text mentions not only Evils many Evils but seems to include all Evils As Life and Absolution comprehend all spiritual Mercies so Death and Condemnation comprehend all spiritual Curses And by these comprehensive words the Apostle expresses those Evils which God upon the Account of Adam's Sin has entailed upon Posterity I know how easily our Author presumes to dock the Entail by pleading that Death signifies onely Temporal Death but the Apostle has obviated that Cavil v. 11. As by one Man Sin entred into the world and Death by Sâ—…n and so Death passed upon all Men for that all have sinned By one man by Adam that Sin whose wages is Death and that Death which is the wages of Sin enter'd into the world even upon all his Posterity for that all have sinned And what that Death is which is the Wages of Sin he assures by opposing it to Eternal Life v. 21. As Sin reigned unto Death so might Grace reign through Righteousness unto Eternal Life by Iesus Christ our Lord. So again Chap. 6. v. 23. The Wages of Sin is Death but the Gift of God is Eternal Life 2 Qu. What Influence has Christs Righteousness and Obedience upon our Acceptation with God And had our Author answered the former question to purpose he had answered this in it and saved himself a great deal of needless pains in a New prosecution of it But he answers God was so well pleased with the Righteousness of Christ Life and Death that he bestowes the Rewards of Righteousness on those who according to the strictness and rigour of the Law are not righteous That for Christs sake he hath made a New Covenant of Grace which pardons our past sins and follies and rewards a sincere though imperfect Obedience A few notes also I shall make upon this and so dismiss it at present And First here is certainly a great Iuggle in these words God says he was so well pleased with the Righteousness and Obedience of Christs Life and Death that he bestows the rewards of Righteousness upon us Now these rewards of Righteousness be they what they will or can are either the proper and immediate effects of the Life and Death of Christ or not If they be then I am sure he was tardy p. 323. The Apostles attribute such things to the Blood of Christ as are the proper and immediate Effects of the Gospel Covenant And what that is in his Dialect I hope we are not to seek at this time of day But if they be not the proper and immediate Effects of the Life and Death of Christ then 1. He has juggled here with his Reader placing the rewards of Righteousness as bestow'd for Christs sake before any Consideration of the Covenant 2. If not then he has not drawn a fair Parallel between the Influence of Adams Sin and that of Christs Obedience For he tells us that God for Adams sake entailed a great many Evils Miseries nay Death it self upon his Posterity there are particular evils entailed upon Individuals for the sake of Another without any intervention of their own personal Transgressions Ay but there our Author will perhaps tell me That the truth is he means all this while by a secret reserve that Adams Posterity when they commit Adams sin or and other they then render themselves obnoxious to those miseries evils and death it self But then this is not to the purpose for then 't is not for Adams sake but for their own Not for that One Mans Offence but for every mans own Offence that judgement came upon them to condemnation Which is not to interpret the Apostle but dictate to him and indite his Epistles for him Miseries then and a great many miseries none knows how many are entail'd upon Adams Posterity for his sake without any intervention of their own sin But now here 's no Blessing not one single Blessing entailed upon such spiritual Posterity of Christ that they shall receive any one the least Favour without the Intervention of their own Obedience And so things are where they were at first Secondly I must note also That he says God bestows the rewards of Righteousness on those who according to the strictness and rigour of the Law are not righteous That is as he explains himself they shall be justified or treated like righteous Persons Now 1. If God can treat them like Righteous Persons who are not really so because he is so well pleased with Christs Obedience why may not God conceive me to have done that which I have not done as well as to be what I am not Why not to have obeyed in Christ to have suffer'd in Christs sufferings as to be a righteous Person in my self when there is no such matter Andthus our Author has laid a block in our way at which a well-meaning man though against our Authors meaning may stumble upon the Notion of the Imputation of Christs Righteousness It 's altogether unintelligible how God should punish me for Adams fault with Justice if Adams fault were not some wayes or other my own and fully as unaccouutable How God should deal with me as righteous who am not so for the sake of Christs Obedience if Christs Obedience some way or other become not mine I can easier satisfie my Reason how the Righteousness of the second Adam may make me righteous and accepted of God than how the unrighteousness of the first should make me a sinner and yet Faith believes both though it conclude stronglier for Christ Rom. 5. 17. For if by one mans Offence Death reigned by one much more they c. 2. God he says bestows the rewards of Righteousness on those who in strictness are not righteous Let some enquire at his house as they go by What he means by the Rewards of righteousness Is it Inherent Righteousness Then it 's Non sence or worse God gives them inherent righteousness who have not inherent Righteousness which in sensu composito is Non-sence and in sensu diviso not agreeable to our Authors Principles But if he mean the
declared her Judgement And I will not conceal it This was one thing that quickned me to undertake this Province when I saw how readily some men could snatch the Pen to under-write what with the same Hand and Pen and Breath they intended to Confute or if not to Confute yet however to Deride Upon a serious Reflection on these things Remembring somewhere a Passage of Austin That he would have every man that can hold a Pen write against Pelagius that sworn Enemy to the Free Discriminating and Effectual Grace of God and Remembring also the Command of the Apostle Iude v. 3. To contend earnestly for the Faith once delivered to the Saints I thought we had as good a License to plead for Christ and his Truth here at the Footstool who pleads for us according to his Truth upon the Throne as any man can pretend to plead against them And therefore to deal Freely with my Reader I judg'd it my Duty rather to lament than imitate that Deep and Dead Silence of those who are equally concern'd with and better qualified for the Work than my self to give some Check to this growing Petulancy and sawcy Humour of daily encroaching Prophaneness A poor Man came once to a Learned Physician for Advice but first he would know Whether it was safe to take Physick in Dog-dayes His Physician replyed no more but this If it be lawfull to be sick it 's lawfull to be well at any time of the Year I shall apply it no further than this If this Author be qualified to Oppose every true Christian is qualified to Defend the Gospel of Jesus Christ For the Dispute is not now about Decency and Order about Fringes and Philacteries about the tything of Mint Anise or Cummine nor about a Pin or Peg in the Superstructure of the Churches Polity nor about the three Innocent Ceremonies but about The Influence of the Righteousness of Christs Life and the Sacrifice of his Death upon our Acceptance with God about the Interest of the Blessed Spirit in the glorious Work of the New Creation Whether Christ be a proper Priest or no Whether as a Priest he Offer'd himself as a proper Sacrifice to God or no Whether God and Man are Reconciled and we Redeemed from the Curse of the Law by the Blood of Iesus or no Whether we are Iustified before the Just and Holy God by our own Righteousness or by the Righteousness of a Mediator And in a word Whether the Death of Christ be the proper and immediate Cause of any one single Blessing great or small of the Covenant of Grace In which the Concerns all the Eternal Hopes of every Christian are wrapt up and wherein that he may not mistake and so Finally miscarry as 't is the unseigned Design of these Papers so 't is the Earnest Prayer of READER Thy Servant in the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour IESUS CHRIST N. N. CHAP. I. Containing an Answer to the First Chapter concerning the Name Christ The Offices of Christ c. IT was a Question stated by the Curious Why Homer should begin his Iliads with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Answer had a spice of the same vanity because forsooth Anger is blind Let none be so Hypercritical as to enquire Why our Author commences his Discourse wâ—…th ALL ERROUR nor any so hasty to Reply Because he intends to continue the Metaphor and carry on the Humour proportionably to the End but hear him out All â—…rour hath some Appearance of Truth to which if you shall adde and All Truth may have some Appearance of Errour You have then his Syllabus Capitum the Marrow and Contents of Five long Chapters with their Sections Paragraphs and goodly Periods spun out into Four hundred thirty and two Pages The whole dividing it self into these two general Heads Blanching of Heresie and smutting of Truth The Gentleman Alwayes took it for granted that Christ and his Religion were very well agreed and he is still of the same Mind that his Person is not at Oddes with his Gospel but it seems there are some who have made as irreconcileable a difference betwixt the Religion of Christs Person and of his Gospel as between the Law and Grace p. 3. It was no smaller a Name than that of the great Socrates who curst the Man whoever he was that first distinguisht between Bonum Utile and Honestum and I must confess I have no small Pike against that Generation of Men who have made Two Religions of one and then set them both together by the Ears Whether there be any such on this side Utopia I shall not determine but this I will 'T is highly expedient nay absolutely necessary that some such there should be for else what will become of all that heavy Dinne our Author has raised upon that one Supposition and with what a ruefull Clutter will the Superstructure fall upon the Head of the Architect who has rear'd it full five stories high upon that single Hypothesis To prevent which fatal Inconvenience I would humbly Advise the Persons concern'd in the Charge to plead Guilty to the Indictment if they may do it with a good Conscience and not to be so uncivil and disingenuous as to render an Exceâ—…lent Author Ridiculous And yet if what he tells us be true That the Gospel of Christ be as severe a Dispensation as the Law I see not what Great Disparagement it can prove to the Religion of his Person and his Gospel to be at as great a Feud as the Law and Grace A mistake then there is somewhere or other which though we poor dull Mortâ—…ls could not discover our Authors piercing Eye had soon observ'd the ground of it viz. That some men wherever they meet the word Christ alwayes understand by it the Person of Christ p. 4. That was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it seems the Spring of all this mischief And if they do not so understand and misunderstand to boot there 's no way to Deliver His Discourse from two little silly Scapes of Impertinency and Superfluity nor any warrant to justifie the reviling of those Men for expounding Faith in Christ and Hope in Christ of a fiducial Relyance and Recumbency on Christs Person in contradistinction to Obedience to his Laws For the very truth is as I shall acquaint my Reader privately betwixt him and me Those Persons whom he reflects upon with so much sâ—…ornfull Indignation do not in the least urge Faith in Christ in opposition to Obedience onely they judge That an Evangelical Obedience to the Commands of the Gospel must as indispensibly follow Faith in Christs Person as it must necessarily precede Eternal Life and Salvation revealed promised and purchased by Christ It 's no Question then with Them Whether Obedience to the Gospel shall have a Place a great Place but what is the Proper place of that Obedience But this I speak onely under the Rose being loath to nip the blossoming hopes I have conceived of
the Issue by male Administration and herein is Gods Wisdom seen that he carries on as well as layes the Design of saving Sinners with admirable Success maugre all the Counterminings Projects and Contrivances of Hell One way that reaches the End effectually is worth a thousand that prove addle and bring forth nothing but Wind and he might have learnt so much from the Fable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. Wisdom lyes in reconciling differing Interests in adjusting the various Pretensions and Claims of the concerned Parties these Contrasto's of bandying Parties clashing one with another render Healing designs difficult The Iustice of God demands Satisfaction the holy Law of God abetts that Demand the Truth of God backs both their Claims and before Grace and Mercy can be actually exercised towards the Sinner some Expedient must be found out to content those Demands and all this God hath done in Christ in whom Mercy and Truth have met together Righteousness and Peace have kissed each other Psal. 85. 10. 3. It s Wisdom to find out a Means to reach an End though there be but that one Mean to be found in the whole Circle and compass of Beings We should not much reproach that Physician that should discover to his dying Patient an effectual Remedy though it prove the onely one in the world and we will own him for an Aesculapius that will prescribe to our Author a good round dose of Hellebore and yet it 's more than probable it 's the onely Drug upon Earth that can purge out that frantick insulting petulant humour which in his Writings fills both Pages At length seeing there is no other Remedy our Author will allow some small Wisdom to appear in the Design but then the Knowledge of it all is owing to the Revelations of the Gospel and not to any fanciful Acquaintance with Christ. Still we are haunted with that old Fallacy which by this time I had hoped had been quite worn out at the Elbowes That because the knowledge of this Wisdom is owing to the Gospel Revelations therefore nothing is due to him who is the Reason and Ground of this wise and happy Contrivance And so this Bolt also is soon shot 2 The second Addition the Doctor is charged with is That a great part of our Wisdom lyes in the knowledge of our selves and that both in respect of Sin and Righteousness and that we cannot attain to these but in and by Christ. And 1 For Sin the Doctor had said p. 110. Com. That our disability to answer the Mind and Will of God in any of that Obedience which he requireth is in Christ onely to be discovered And the Doctor has herein asserted two things 1. That there is in every man a Natural Impotency to answer the Will of God And he seems not to be so peremptory in it as the Scripture 2 Cor. 3. 5. Not that we are sufficient of our selves to think any thing as of our selves all our sufficiency is of God It 's God that works in us to will and to doe of his own good pleasure and if we be deceived by these and many other such Testimonies the Church of England was misled by them as well as we Art 10. The Condition of Man after the Fall of Adam is such that he cannot turn and prepare himself by his own Natural strength Our Author durst once appeal to the Experience of the whole world will he stand before the same Tribunal and be judged in this Case There are such universal Complaints about this very thing and such dismal stories all men tell of their Impotency and disability to answer Gods Laws that that Man should labour under insupportable prejudices that will controle all mens Experiences I know They talk most of the Easiness of keeping Gods Law who never tryed it and perhaps if they were well pump'd they mean nothing but how easie it is to break it Let any man set himself in his own strength to discharge one single Command of God in its full extent and latitude keeping it with his whole heart laying out his whole strength and might therein which that holy Law challenges let him attend to the Purity and Perfection of that and severely compare himself thereby dress himself in that Glass and when he has made some fruitless Essayes and been foyled and baffled with vain attempts he may then perhaps see more need of Christ than before and may spare the Experience of the whole World for his own singly will convince him of his disability to answer the Law of God in all or any of that Obedience which he therein requireth 2. The Doctor conceives That this Impotency of ours is discovered clearly in the Death of Christ wherein he is warranted by the Apostle Rom. 5. 6. For when we were yet without strength in due time Christ dyed for the ungodly In his Divinity we see a Sinner and one without strength are convertible terms and that the Death of Christ supposed it All the difficulty here will be How our Author shall expose this Truth and represent it to its greatest disadvantage but he has a singular Talent that way and whereof we need never to despair That is sayes he It 's impossible for us to do any thing that is good but we must be Acted like Machines by an external Force by the irresistible Grace and Power of God And the business is done But 1. Our Author is hugely out in supposing the Doctor to assert that It 's impossible to doe any thing that 's good Some good thing a Man may do and yet not doe all that 's required in doing it the Material part of a Duty he may doe and yet not perform it in such a way that it may answer Gods Law or be acceptable to him Bonum oritur ex integris there must be a right Principle a right End and all circumstances must concurre to make it entirely good I think there are none that deserve the Name of Christians who do not pray to God for his Grace to enable them to do their Duty but if indeed they could perform it in their own strength I see not what that Prayer would signifie more than a Complement Quid foris quaeram cùm domi habeam Why should a rich Man turn a Beggar And indeed the Heathens Principles hung together with more Consistency who would not trouble their Gods for what they had in their own Power nor thank them for that which they had earned with their own fingers-ends Quia unusquisque sibi virtutem acquirit nemo sapientum de eâ gratias Deo egit Since every man is the Procurer of his own Vertue no wise man ever gave thanks to the Gods for it 2. He is no less mistaken if he presumes upon his Power to tye the Doctor to use what Expressions he pleases in signifying his own Thoughts it may be he will not use that term of irresistable it will satisfie him if Grace work efficaciously
by the Law is the knowledg of sin But now the Righteousness of God without the Law is manifested being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets even the Righteousness of God which is by the Faith of Iesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe for there is no difference for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God Being justified freely by his Grace through the Redemption that is in Iesus Christ. In which words 1. I take notice of the Apostles peremptory Conclusion By the deeds of the Law shall no flesh be justified in his God 's sight Now as this Proposition smiles or frowns upon our Author or his Opponent so will the whole cause stand or fall on either side It seems indeed to carry a smart sound of words against his Notions but he is well enough provided against all Arguments drawn from express words and therefore we must enquire What that Law is by the deeds whereof no flesh can be justified If it proves the Moral Law our Author will not deny that he 's at least half undone and I find him feelingly aware of that all along Now to dally no longer with him nor to put him to a lingring death The Apostle who knew his own mind best has assured me that by Law he understands the Moral Law 1. It 's that Law by which we have the knowledg of sin His Argument runs thus By the deeds of that Law by which comes the knowledg of sin no flesh is justified But by the Moral Law comes the knowledg of sin therefore by the deeds of the Moral Law no flesh is justified The major is the Apostle's own in this very place The minor is his own too Rom. 7. 13. I had not known sin except the Law had said Thou shalt not covet From whence I argue By that Law which says Thou shalt not covet comes the knowledg of sin but that Law which says Thou shalt not covet is the Moral Law therefore by the Moral Law comes the knowledg of sin The major is the Apostle's own in the place last quoted the minor needs no other proof but that a man be able to read the Ten Commandments which is the sum of the Moral Law the Tenth whereof is Thou shalt not covet But now at what a weak rate must the Apostle argue to please our Author By the deeds of the Ceremonial Law shall no flesh be justified No Why not Why because by the Moral Law is the knowledg of sin 2. None can doubt of what Law the Apostle speaks that considers how he draws this great Conclusion out of vers 19. That every mouth may be stopped and all the World become guilty before God therefore by the deeds of the Law c. His Argument is this By the deeds of that Law by which every mouth is stopped and all the World become guilty before God shall no flesh be justified But by the Moral every mouth is stopped and all the World become guilty before God therefore by the deeds of the Moral Law shall no flesh be justified And this evidently excludes the Ceremonial Law from any Concern in this Argument For that Law never obliged all or half the World and therefore they could not violate it and therefore not become guilty by it before God Again the instances which the Apostle gives of the violation of the Law shews what Law he excludes from Justification vers 13. With their Tongues they have used deceit Vers. 14. Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness Vers. 15. Their feet are swift to shed blood c. which are all apparent violations of the Moral Law But is there never a Creep-hole at which our Author may escape the Apostles Argument Yes yes p. 245. The great dispute in the Epistle to the Romans is Whether we must be justified by the Law of Moses or by the Faith of Christ that is Whether the Observation of the External Rites and Ceremonies of the Law and an External Conformity of our Actions to the Moral Precepts of it will justifie a man before God c. This sorry evasion has all its small pretence from that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the deeds which our Author would willingly perswade himself signifie nothing but Observation of Ceremonies and outward Conformity to the Moral Law Now that the Apostle in this place directly excludes the Moral Law I have proved All the Question is Whether he disputes against Justification by external Conformity to its Precepts only or against Justification by whatever Obedience is or may be given to the Moral Law by man under his present Circumstances And against our Author's conceit herein I oppose these things 1. It appears not that ever there was such a Question started amongst any Christians Whether Hypocrisie would justifie a man before God much less was it ever laid down in Thesi and Dogmatically maintained that it would do so Many Hypocrites there were then there are so now who may deceive themselves into a Fools Paradise that Hypocrisie might not condemn and damn them but none ever so forsaken of common sense as to think that Hypocrisie would justifie and save them Many presume to be saved notwithstanding their sins but none to be saved for their sins If any should so dote they deserve to receive their Confutation from Bedlam rather than the Divinity-Schools I cannot therefore once imagine that the Apostle should so operosely handle a subject that he should rowse up his zeal and knit all the nerves of his spiritual Reason to confute what was either no-where or so thin and transparent a falshood that to recite it was clearly to confute it 2. The Deeds or Works of the Law are the Deeds and Works which the Law commands which it primarily commands but the Law never commanded outward Conformity of actions without inward Conformity of heart to its Precepts These are not the Deeds of the Law but such as God abhors therefore the Deeds of the Law by which no flesh shall be justified are not external works only 3. The Deeds of the Law by which no flesh shall be justified are the Deeds of every one of God's Laws the Deeds of every particular Commandment but the Deeds of one of God's Laws of onâ—… particular Commandment are only internal Deeds therefore the Apostle disputes not only against external deeds By the Law is meant the whole Law but one part of the Law extensively taken reaches internal deeds only As is evident in the Tenth Commandment Thou shalt not covet but according to our Author's way the Apostle should have laid down his Doctrine thus By the deeds of nine parts of the Law shall no flesh living be justified 4. The Apostle disputes against Justification by such deeds of the Moral Law as wherein all the World is become guilty But by the external deeds of the Law all the World is not become guilty therefore he disputes not against Justification by the external deeds of
Christ and so they far exceed and outstrip any thing the Moral Law being become weak through the flesh could assist the sinner in for so they are said actually to procure pardon of sin actually to make Atonement and reconciliation Lev. 17. 11. I have given you it the blood upon the Altar to make an Atonement for your souls for it is the Blood that maketh an Atonement for the soul 2 Chron. 29. 24. The Priests killed them the Sacrifices and they made reconciliation with their Blood upon the Altar to make an Atonement for All Israel Now let him shew me where ever Atonement Reconciliation are annext to the Actual performance of the Moral Law It is true that the Original design of the Moral Law was Justification but not the Justification of a Sinner but Man being now become such the Law is utterly uncapable of reaching it 's Primitive end and it 's as true also that Sacrifices upon their own Account could not supply that defect but as directing the sinner to him who is the grand Propitiation and from whose Death they received all their virtue and efficacy 3. As to his being of the Stock of Israel of the Seed of Abraham c. they might expect some favours thence but that any was so far bewitched as to believe that all of the Stock of Israel and the Natural Seed of Abraham should be justified cannot be proved 4. For external Civility and blamelessness of Conversation It would have gone a great way in our Authors account at any other time pag. 384. he asks the question with some heat and briskness what live a blameless innocent honest smooth life and yet live in some sin or other Paul would have past for a Righteous person upon his producing the Ticket of a blameless Conversation in that Section though in this he is rated at for a Hypocrite and all that 's naught but what-ever Paul was or was not whilst a Pharisee it makes no great matter to the business in hand seeing he has so freely and openly disowned what-ever was his own Righteousness after Conversion in the matter of Justification before God But to Confirm all this says our Author 〈◊〉 must observe a double Antithesis in the words We must what whether we can or no whether it be there to be observed or no what if there be but 〈◊〉 single Antithesis in them It 's no matter we must observe a double Antithesis if we will purchase our peace and quiet I promise you this Antithesis is a very hard word Graecum est non potest intelligi And I should assoon chuse to swallow Dr. Iacomb's Conjunction at which our Author made such a sowre face in the beginning of this Section as this crabbed Antithesis much more then a Double Antithesis but what is this Double Antithesis Why says he The Righteousness of the Law is opposed to the Righteousness which is by the Faith of Christ. And my own Righteousness opposed to the Righteousness of God There 's your double Antithesis Now says he the surest way to understand the meaning of this is to examine how these phrases are used in Scripture but in my mind it will be a surer I am sure a more Rational way to examine first whether indeed there be such a double Antithesis in the words as he pretends or whether a single one will not content the Text And the surest way to understand this is to examine the words themselves And be found in him not having my own Righteousness which is of the Law But that which is through the Faith of Christ the Righteousness which is of God by Faith Now if any one can find a double Antithesis or in plain English a double Opposition in these words he must have eyes like a Cat which some say can see as well by Night as by Day or however as well i' th' dark as without light Not having my own Righteousness which is of the Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There 's one member of the Antithesis where the Righteousness which is of the Law is a plain Exegesis there 's another hard-word for you of my own Righteousness and not any thing distinct from it My own Righteousness which is of the Law and then comes the other member of the Antithesis But that which is through the Faith of Iesus Christ the Righteousness which is of God by Faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where the repetition of the Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as every hungry Graeculist knows is as much as videlicet The Righteousness by the Faith of Christ namely or that is to say the Righteousness which is of God by Faith and thus Beza Non habens meam justitiam nempe quae est ex lege sed eam quae est per fidem Christi id est justitiam quae est ex Deo per fidem who for a smattering in that Language will not envy our Author So that nothing could by the Wit or Ignorance of Man have been more groundlesly absurdly and ridiculously invented than this double Antithesis And 1. Let us observe how ill-favouredly it was contrived The Text-order is this My own Righteousness which is of the Law That which is the Faith of Christ even the Righteousness of God by Faith Now if any man would needs have a double Antithesis to do him some special service it should have been laid between my own Righteousness and that which is by the Faith of Christ and then between That of the Law and the Righteousness of God by Faith but on the contrary our Author without any provocation without any umbrage of a pretence from the Text like old Iacob crossing his hands has laid them in saltire My own Righteousness to the Righteousness of God and the Righteousness of the Law to the Righteousness by the Faith of Christ. 2. Supposing all that he can desire how does this double Antithesis confirm that which he contrived it to confirm viz. that my own Righteousness signifies an external Righteousness only It has been an old saying that one absurdity being granted many more will easily follow And yet so hard is this Gentleman put to it that granting him a many absurdities he cannot make one follow but yet the Reader shall hear what he would serve out of this double Antithesis 1. The Righteousness of the Law as you have already heard is an external Righteousness which consists in Washings Purifications Sacrifices or an external conformity to the Moral Law So we have beard indeed once and again affirmed but never confirmed The double Antithesis was brought to confirm it and that must confirm the double Antithesis I desire therefore once for all to hear where the Righteousness of Law the Moral Law is said to consist in Externals The Righteousness of the Law is that Righteousness which the Law requireth but the Law requires an internal Conformity of heart to our outward Actions and of both to the Law of God
to work in us that Internal Holiness and Purity which is the Perfection and Accomplishment of the Figurative and Typical Righteousness of the Law which he gives us in other words p. 267. What the Law could not do i. e. govern our Minds and Passions this God effected by sending Christ into the World to publish the Gospel to us and to confirm all those great Promises and Threatnings contained in it with his own Blood This is indeed a parcel of excellent Divinity but that it 's wholly destitute of truth For 1. he supposes That that Law whose weakness the Apostle assigns as the Reason of Gods sending his Son was only the Ceremonial Law the Falshood whereof I shall demonstrate if that be not too great a word for any mans Mouth besides his own by and by 2. He insinuates that the whole of Christs being a Sacrifice for our Sins lay in confirming the New-Covenant the Falshood whereof the next Section will give us direct occasion to evince 3. He makes the whole business of the Ceremonial Law to represent inward purity and perhaps to effect it whereas though some of the Ceremonies did represent inward purity yet the main of their design was to lead to Jesus Christ and particularly Sacrifices which represented that Atonement and Reconciliation which Christ in due time should make with God on the behalf of Sinners Col. 2. 17. The Law had a shadow of good things to come but the Body is of Christ. 4. He scandalously charges it upon God that he appointed a means to an end which was found too weak to reach his End As if God must try conclusions and make experiments before he could be certain whether his design would take and his appointments reach their End 5. He renders Christ's Coming into the World unnecessary for what though the Ceremonial Law could not effect that inward Purity yet I hope God had means to effect it unless he will say all the World till Christ's Coming were whited-Walls and painted-Sepulchres For what was become of the Moral Law all this while had it no power to effect that End 6. He tells us p. 269. That the Reason why the Law of Moses was abrogated was because it could not make men good But then the Moral Law was either able to make men good or it was not If it was not why was not that abrogated also If it was able and had its effect then what need of Christ to come into the World to effect that which the Moral Law was able to effect without him But the true Reason why the Ceremonial Law is expired is because the Lord Jesus Christ has answered and fulfilled all that is represented When the Sun is risen the Shadows fly away there was no formal abrogation either made or necessary to be made it expired of course when Christ had made good what-ever the Ceremonies had exhibited to their Faith 7. He tells that Christ came to work in us that inward Purity represented by the Ceremonial Law but for all his good-morrows when he is throughly catechifed Christ's working is no more than those sufficient arguments and motives to excite their own wits whereby they might work it themselves and I cannot tell whether he will deny that the Jews had sufficient motives and arguments for that end under their Law 8. He contradicts himself which is no news for whereas he had said p. 265. That the Law was designed to work in them inward purity He says p. 269. That the Law nursed them up in a ritual and external Religion and taught them to serve God in the Letter by Circumcision and Sacrifices or an external Conformity to the Letter of the Law And then I hope God could not justly blame them much less damn them for being Hypocrites if they did as well as and no better than his own Law taught them Nay he adds That the Gospel of Christ alone teaches us to worship God with the Spirit and to offer a reasonable Sacrifice to him This is strange Doctrine but it 's less matter for that if it be but true But was not God always a Spirit and did he not always teach his People to worship him with their Spirits How osten does God complain that they drew nigh him with their Lips when their Hearts were far from him which he could not well do if he taught them no better It 's a Riddle to me that these Ceremonies should represent inward purity and yet not teach it when they had no way to teach that Purity but by representing it 'T is true the Gospel teaches us to worship God in the Spirit in opposition to Ceremonies but God always taught his People to worship him with their Spirits in opposition to Hypocrisie Psal. 51. 6. Thou desirest truth in the inward parts Did God institute a Law a Law so chargeable and burdensome and all to teach his People to worship like Parrots to mumble over their Mattens and like Puppets to make an outward noise without a rational Principle to guide it If they had no reasonable Service why were they reasonable Creatures But a little more reverence of the Divine Majesty would confute a great deal of such blasphemy Let us now seriously consider the Text and 1. It will be necessary to enquire what that Law is whose weakness the Apostle assigns as the reason of God's sending his own Son And for all the Authors presumptions I am well satisfied it was not the Ceremonial Law for what if the Ceremonial had proved weak what if it had been resolved into its first nothing the Moral stood still where it always did and what need of Christ's Coming into the World upon that account There was a time when the Ceremonial Law was not created and what if it had been again repealed and annihilated things had been but in statu quo But that the Law here mentioned is the Moral Law the Connexion of the Apostle's Words his Premises out of which he draws his Conclusion will abundantly manifest In Chap. 7. v. 7 He tells us he had not known sin except the Law had said Thou shalt not covet But sin taking occasion from that Law wrought in him all manner of Concupiscence v. 8. Nevertheless he clears the Law v. 12. The Commandment was holy and just and good had an intrinsick goodness righteousness in it and this he calls v. 25. The Law of God Now the Apostle having said v. 10. That this Commandment of the Moral Law which was unto life in God's Original Institution he found to be unto death Nevertheless Chap. 8. v. 1. he assures us That there is no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Iesus and he shews how Sinners are brought from under that Condemnation v. 3. What the Law could not do in that it was weak through the Flesh God sending his own Son c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That impossible thing of the Law where the Apostle adding the Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
fitted to return the Glory due to a Redeemer which an unhumbled unbelieving unconverted unsanctified Sinner could not possibly be 2 The Death of Christ devested of those its proper respects of a Sacrifice offered to God to atone and reconcile him a price paid to ransom and redeem us and a Punishment born to satisfie Divine Iustice was no infallible proof of the Doctrine which he preached For 1. Many have laid down their lives to Abett and endured extremity of Tortures rather than renege the Doctrine they have openly preached their Confidence the mean while supported either by a mistaken Conscience or perhaps some sinister respects All that it can prove in the largest judgment of Charity is That they suppose their Doctrine to be true or else would hardly lose their All rather than lose a Principle but not that therefore the Doctrine is true because the Preacher dies for it That which is false in it self will not become true by laying down our life for it In the Memory of the last Age there were some who sacrificed their lives to the Flames in defence of Contradictory Doctrines So that to say that the Death of Christ has no other use but To confirm the Truth of that Doctrine which he preacht is but a more modest civil and gentle way of saying it has no use at all 2. To whom should the Death of Christ confirm the Truth of his Doctrine to his Enemies or his Friends For his Enemies Many of his Sufferings the very greatest and sorest of his Sufferings were out of their notice either privately in the Garden or more privately in his Soul such as whereof they could take no cognizance and for these which were visible they looked on them as the just rewards of his violation of the Law As for his Friends his Death considered singly in it self without respect to its proper Ends was so far from confirming of their Faith or Belief of his Doctrine that it was that which shook their hopes and dasht their expectations out of countenance their Hearts died in his Death and those two expressed the Sense of more than their own diffidence Luk. 24. We trusted that it had been he that should have redeemed Israel But whether to Friends or Enemies the Death of Christ considered without his antecedent Miracles and subsequent Resurrection and concomitant Sacrifice was so improper a means to confirm that it had proved the clearest Confutation of his Doctrine that malice could have desired 3. The Death of Christ was so far from confirming this Doctrine That God would pardon Sinners that separate this one Consideration of it as satisfactory to Divine Iustice from his Death and it quite overthrows the credibility of the Doctrine and runs all the World down into utter despair For our Author must have a happy dexterity if he can conclude that because God dealt so severely with an innocent holy Person that therefore he will not fail to pardon repenting Sinners We must despair that ever repentance should make us personally equal with Christ If then God did these things in the green Tree what will be done in the Dry If Iudgment begun at God's own House where shall the Ungodly and Sinner appear He that spared not his own Son how much less will he spare the Sinner It could not be expected that any should believe Christ telling them God would pitty and pardon others who found him so severe to himself But that indeed the true Reason why God deals so graciously with the repenâ—…ing Sinner is because he had dealt so justly with his own Son voluntarily becoming his Surety and Substitute 4. There were proper proofs designed by God for the Confirmation of the Doctrine of Christ and no need at all to take sanctuary in that which nakedly considered was not so Those frequent clear stupendious Miracles wrought by Christ were fully adequate and commensurate to that End Reason will teach us to believe that God will not alter the course of Nature nor reverse its standing Laws to confirm a Lye to bear witness to a grand Imposture And surely they who would not believe Christ to be sent of God upon his Testimony to him in those Extraordinary Works would never believe it for his Death which was no wonder at all otherwise than as the fruit of his ineffable Love offering himself to God as a Sacrifice for Sin and so indeed it was the greatest Wonder of them all The Enemies of Christ triumpht in his Death that they had nailed his Cause with his Person to the Cross and that which they feared was his Resurrection A Miracle so far beyond all exception to confirm that he was sent of God and therefore his Doctrine must needs be true that their greatest care was to have prevented it by sealing the Stone and setting a Watch. 5. But supposing that the Death of Christ had confirmed his Doctrine and particularly this That God would pardon and save the Believing and Obedient Sinner Yet still what influence has this upon our Acceptance with God Will God accept our Obedience the more because we have greater helps to obey May our duty expect a greater Reward because we come easier by it But when all is said that our Author can say it 's our Obedience that hath the Influence upon our Acceptance with God and Christ's Death has only an Influence upon our Obedience The same Obedience given to the Commands of the Gospel without the motive of his Death had found equal if not greater Acceptance from him than when drawn from us by so cogent an Argument But if the Death of Christ may be said to have any influence upon our Acceptance with God because he thereby confirmed his Doctrine then the Death of the Martyrs also may be said to have an Influence upon our Acceptance with him for they by their Death 's confirmed the Truth which they preacht which Truth was the true Covenant of Grace And whereas many of them laid down their Lives with that Heroical Magnanimity with that gallantry of Spirit with more than that boasted Stoical valour kissing the Stake embracing the Flames triumphantly singing in the midst of their Torments professing they felt no more pain than in a Bed of Roses as if they were to ascend Heaven in that fiery Chariot to the Confutation of their Enemies the encouraging of their Friends and the credit of that Gospel they died for evidently assuring all that they were immediately supported from above to bear with patience nay with exultation those extremities which to Flesh and Blood were intolerable We see our Blessed Saviour on the contrary in his Sufferings strangely dejected amazed troubled in Soul earnestly begging that if it were possible that Cup might pass from him and crying out in the bitterness of his Soul That he was forsaken of God which consideration is enough to satisfy an impartial Enquirer That the Sufferings of Christ were fitted for some higher design than the confirming of
made sin for us that is he was constituted to be a sin-offering upon whom the Guilt and Punishment of our sin being laid the great obstructions to Reconciliation God's Justice and Holy Law being removed by being satisfied a way is cleared for a new Peace with God And the Apostle as hath been observed cites this from Isa. 53. 10. When he shall make his Soul an offering for sin the same word signifying both sin and sin-Offering 3. That the Preaching of this Reconciliation made with God to the World was committed to the Ministers of the Gospel that they as Ambassadors from God might treat with them also about their being reconciled to God which farther evinces a mutual Enmity and a mutual Reconciliation that God reconciled the World to himself by Iesus Christ whom God made to be sin for that great end and then establisht a Ministry to Preach the Doctrine to the Sons of Men and to deal with them in the Name of Christ that they would also lay aside their Malignity and accept of the Reconciliation procured by the Blood of Jesus Now this Reconciliation made with God respects the Gentiles and Iews equally for some might plead that it was the peculiar priviledge of the Iews as being the only Church of God to enjoy the benefit of propitiating Sacrifices others might think to do the Jews a kindness in pleading that Reconciliation only belonged to the Gentiles for they alone were Enemies to God and therefore they only needed it but the Apostle assures us that Iews as well as Gentiles had need of a Mediator of Reconciliation and that Gentiles as well as Jews had a share in the Grace and mercy of it God was in Christ reconciling the World to himself Thus the Apostle Eph. 2. 13. But now in Christ Iesus ye who sometimes were afar off are made nigh by the Blood of Christ. v. 16. And that he might reconcile both unto God in one Body by the Cross. Now here our Author meets us with a window open into his Soul that we may see the Pulse of his heart and what he understands by Christ's reconciling the World to God That is says he the Gentiles were received into the fellowship of God's Church and the Iews and Gentiles united in one Body or Society Some that were strangers to our Author's Sentiments would greedily ask what was that great quarrel between Jews and Gentiles that God must send his only begotten Son out of his Bosom to dye a most bitter violent painful lingering cursed Death to take it up That he must be made sin have Iniquities charged upon him to make them friends That there have been Wars and Contentions betwixt the Iews and their Neighbours Histories both sacred and prophane abundantly testify there are such amongst most Neighbouring Nations But shall we think that God will send his Son into the World to compose all the bickerings that ever were in the World But suppose there had been a Necessity of it was the feud so inveterate that nothing but the Death of him that came to make Peace could take it away must every Man dye a Cursed Death that comes to make up a breach between two wrangling Neighbours or Nations few would be ambitious to be Plenipotentiaries upon such Terms It is true there was a difference or distinction set up by God himself between the Jews and the rest of the World but no quarrel or enmity put between them But then 1. The Gentiles had Liberty to become Proselytes of Righteousness and then the union had been made the Ceremonial Law still standing in force 2. God could easily have taken down the Partition Wall and laid the Church open from the enclosure there was a Time when there was none of that discriminating Dispensation and he that set it up could have abrogated and repealed it without such a dreadful way of giving his only Son to be Made first Man and then Sin and then a Curse It seems strange that God should first Create a necessity of a quarrel and then put his Son upon a necessity to remove it at so dear a price as his own Blood 3. If our Author was once i' th' right there was no great need of removing these Ceremonies for says he p. 29. The rest of the World might when they pleased fetch the best Rules of Life and the most certain notices of the Divine Will from the Jews so long then as they might have a fairer Copy of their moral-Moral-Law they needed not be beholden to them for their Ceremonies But the bottom of the business is this and no other The Scripture is most express that Christ is said to reconcile us to God by his Blood by his Death it would be a burning shame to deny it What is then to be done First it 's resolved on that it 's not to be endured that any of the Blessings of the Gospel be allowed the proper effects of his Death or Blood why then some wholsome expedient must be found out that the expression may be owned and yet the thing it self rejected And the best that can be thought on at present is this To imagine a most terrible War between Jews and Gentiles upon the Account of Ceremonies such as set the whole World on a Flame and involved all Mankind in the dreadful Combustion not a single Person in all the World but sided in with one of the parties And now if we could but be Masters of so much Confidence as to say that Christ came and dyed and was made a Curse to make these two Parties friends there would be something that might be called Reconciliation Now upon a serious view of the premises it was observed that the Jews had some marks of distinction whereby they were priviledged above and differenced from the rest of Mankind Now a difference you know sometimes signifies a Quarrel which fell out as luckily as heart could wish and therefore these tokens of difference shall be called Enmity and Christ's taking away this difference shall be called the removing of the Enmity and by Consequence Reconciliation yes there it must go if anywhere for I see and am glad to see it that our Author is willing to carry some fair Correspondency and not to fall out flat with the Death of Christ. Now says he This Union of Iews and Gentiles is owing to the Gospel which takes away all marks of distinction and gives them both equal right to the Blessings of the New-Covenant But 1. To what purpose was the Enmity removed between Iew and Gentile if the Enmity of God against both had not been removed all Union on Earth without Peace without Heaven is but a wicked confederacy 2. The Iews as well as Gentiles are said to be reconciled Now what-ever grudg the Gentiles might have against the Iews yet the Jews had no Cause of any against the poor Gentiles did they envy them their darkness and blindness and Alienation from their Common-Wealth 3. They must
as Mediator between God and Man he must either give it to God or Man for as Mediator he stands onely between these two Parties How absurd it is that he should pay it to Man needs not many words to evince it remains therefore that he paid it to God himself But the Apostle Peter puts that out of dispute in the place under consideration For he tells us that we were Redeemed by the blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot whence it appears that Christ was the true Sacrifice chosen by God immaculate to be the real sin-offering and that he was Offered to God as the Lamb was 3. Sect. Our Author supposes that all that the Gentiles were Redeemed from was some gross sins he instances onely in Idolatry but we favourably allow him to include all Actual sins and yet he comes not up to the design of Christ in Redemption The vain Conversation received by tradition from their Fathers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was that Corruption that they derived by propagation being by Nature the Children of wrath even as others Jews and Gentiles being all equally under the Curse and Condemnation of the Law 4. Sect. He supposes that we are Redeemed by the Preaching of the Gospel To which I Answer That we could never in any sense have been Redeemed by the power of the Gospel Preached if we had not first been Redeemed by the price of the Blood of Christ paid to God in a proper sense 5. Sect. He asserts that Deliverance by Preaching is called Redemption by Christs blood because we owe this unspeakable blessing to his Death But how do we owe the Preaching of the Gospel to the Death of Christ When our Author himself was in such a Huff not long ago with any that should own a Doctrine as Gospel that was not Preach'd by Christ in his Life He admired the Sermons of Christ beyond those of the Apostles and will not allow that his Disciples Believed his Death before he was Crucified and yet now we owe it all to his Death As if Moses had not sufficiently confirmed the Truth of his Mission and Doctrine by Miracles though he never dyed himself to confirm them And as if Christ had not done the same abundantly though he had never dyed Christ sent his Apostles to Preach the Gospel to the Iews and Preach'd it in his own Person before his Death and yet of those Jews it 's said Ye were Redeemed not with Corruptible things as Silver and Gold but with the precious Blood of Christ. But this our Author thinks he has proved from Eph. 2. 15 16 17. Having abolished in his Flesh by his Death the enmity even the Law of Commandments c. Came and Preached Peace to you which were afar off and to them which were nigh That which he would prove from hence is this That the Redemption of the Gentile World by the Death of Christ signifies no more than the Removing of the Ceremonial Law and reclaiming them from Idolatry and Prophaneness by Preaching the Gospel and then bringing them into one body or Church with the Jews To make the Text Serviceable to such a design it was necessary 1. That he should lustily bind over our weaker imagination to his own stronger fancy that by Flesh is meant the Death of Christ For my part I see no necessity that Flesh should signifie any more than his Assumption of our Nature In which Nature he has answered and fulfilled all the Types and Ceremonies of the Law though in divers ways and at divers times 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render to Abolish signifies not any formal positive Act whereby a Law is expresly repealed and disanulled but the rendring a thing useless of course when it 's end is attained Thus were all the Ceremonies of the Law rendred absolete and of none effect when Christ in the Course of his Ministry had answered their design and particularly Sacrifices became useless by the Death of Christ those Services which were Mercies and no curses in their day being swallowed up of that greater mercy of the Death of Christ. 3. He must suppose and that is indeed a reaching supposition that Christs Preaching Peace is the same thing formally with his procuring peace by his Death than which nothing can be imagined more precarious for he first procured Peace by his Blood and then Preached that Peace which he had procured to Men in his Person and by his Apostles and therefore though Christ Preach'd that peace to the Jews before he Suffered yet it was with reference to that peace he should procure by his Sufferings An eminent instance whereof we have in his Institution and first Celebration of his last Supper Mat. 26. 28. This is my blood of the New Testament which is shed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the Remission of sins for though his blood was not yet shed Actually yet in Gods regard and the Faith of Believers it was considered as shed Antecedently to the Remission of sins for without shedding of blood there is no Remission Heb. 9. 22. And thus was the Blood of Christ considered as shed from the first establishing of the New Covenant Christ being called The Lamb slain from the Foundation of the World even that Lamb without spot and blemish by whose precious Blood Iews and Gentiles were Redeemed 4. He must suppose too that the enmity here mentioned is nothing but some bickering that had fallen out between Jew and Gentile about Ceremonies which the Gentiles that I can find were never very envious at and then when he has made all those suppositions and begged those Postulata's he will be ready for Demonstration A particular consideration of the Text will set that strait which he had made crooked And 1. The Apostle describes the state of the Gentiles by Nature to be most wretched and miserable ver 12. They were Aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel Strangers from the Covenants of promise without Christ having no hope without God in the World They that are without Christ are without God and they that are without a promise are without Christ and they that are without Covenant are without promise and they that are without all these must needs be without hope Their Case must needs be desperate that have â—…o Christ to bring them to God no promise to bring them to Christ and if they were Aliens from the Church where the means of Grace were to be had they must needs be without all these 2. The Apostle shews the true means whereby the Gentiles were brought nigh to God Ye who sometimes were afar off are made nigh by the blood of Christ It was Christs blood alone by which the great impassable gulph was filled up that was between God and his Creature by sin for Christ is our Peace 3. That the Gentiles might not Object that there were many Ceremonial Hedges and Fences that kept them off from enjoying the Priviledges of those who were
reputed the onely Children of God He removes that small Objection telling them Christ had already removed them in his Flesh in his Person he was the summe and substance of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Having already in his Flesh or Person made void the Law of Ordinances and already dissolved that Partition Wall He that has Reconciled you to one God has also brought you into one Church which he repeats again ver 16. That he might Reconcile both unto God in one Body by the Cross having slain the Enemy thereby or in himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Here are first the Parties Reconciled Jews and Gentles Secondly to whom they are Reconciled to God Thirdly the Fruit of this Reconciliation to God They are brought into one Church amongst themselves Fourthly The Means whereby they are Reconciled to God that so they might be capable of being United into one Church and that is by the Cross of Christ or by himself on the Cross who bare our sins on the Tree 4. The Apostle shews the way and means of promulgating this Peace which he had made with God and that was by the publick Preaching of the Gospel ver 17. He Preached Peace he made Peace with God and then Preached it to the Gentile World He that had procured good will towards men Preaches Peace on Earth How little ground now had our Author to say That we are said to be Redeemed by the Preaching of the Gospel when the Preaching of the Gospel is nothing but a Declaration of that Redemption which Christ has made of Jew and Gentile with God and the way and Method to be partakers of the benefit of it And now to draw to a close of this Matter let us re-view our Authors Doctrine of Redemption The Redemption of Iew and Gentile he makes to differ as much as the Faith of Abraham and that of Christians 1. They differ in the matter of Redemption that which they were Redeemed from The Jews they were Redeemed from the Ceremonial Law the Gentiles they were Redemed from Idolatry and impure practises 2. They differ in the manner of procurement for the Jews Christ says he by his Death put an end to that Legal Dispensation and so their turn is served that little Redemption that they needed which is all our Author can afford them was Actually accomplisht by the Death of Christ which was a proper and immediate cause of their Redemption such a one as it was but then the Gentiles they were Redemed after another fashion by the Preaching of the Gospel whereby they were turned from Idolatry and impure practises And this shall be called Redemption because it were dangerous to ascribe it to the blood of Christ for an Obvious Reason that he knows of but because the Scripture says we are Redeemed by the Blood of Christ and gives that Blood a concernment therein therefore to stop the â—…uth of the Scripture it shall be said we owe the Preaching of the Gospel to the blood of Christ. 3. There is one thing more from whence our Author flatters himself with hopes of great success and that is by mis-representing the Analogy between the Iewish Sacrifices and the Sacrifices of Christ Two things he attempts 1. To shew what it is under the Law to which the Death of Christ his Ascention into Heaven and presenting his Blood to God does Answer 2. What it is under the Law to which his Intercession Answers Which project of our Authors has been contrived and managed with a great deal more subtilty by those who would storm or blush to see their Arguments thus miserably abased 1. To the former of these he expresses himself thus Now as the Death of Christ upon the Cross and his Ascention into Heaven and presenting his Blood to God in that most Holy place did answer to the first sprinkling of the Blood under the Law which confirmed the Mosaical Covenant as the Apostle Discourses in Heb. 9. c. In which few words he has heaped up more absurdities and follies than another must hope to bring into twice as many For 1. Here is a supposition of Christs presenting his Blood to God in Heaven distinct from his Intercession which when he shall offer to prove it may be time to consider it 2. He supposes that Christs Ascention into Heaven answered the first sprinkling of blood under the Law A most ridiculous supposition For what is there in sprinkling that answers to Ascention or bears the least Analogy to it Surely these Gentlemen that create such parallels and fancy such uncouth resemblances must have some mad design in their Heads which nothing will subserve but such forced allusions And I do not now wonder that he should so tediously rail at the use of Allusions in others for they will deserve the most of scorn that can be thrown upon them if they be all like his own 3. That the Death of Christ upon the Cross did Answer the sprinkling of Blood under the Law which confirmed the Covenant is very true but then 1. It must be remembred in what respect it confirmed the Covenant not meerly as a witnessing to the Truth of what he has preach'd but as Answering the demands and claims of the Governing Iustice of God as we have before shewed 2. It must be remembred also that it was not such a Covenant as he has imposed upon us but the true Covenant of Grace wherein God promises to give that which our Author will not own the New Heart New Spirit and New Obedience 3. That to confirm a Covenant was not all the design of it's sprinkling but diverting of the wrath of God procuring his favour c. So the Blood of Christ has greater ends than confirming of the Truth he taught viz. the appeasing Gods just displeasure procuring his Actual Love pacifying of the Conscience cleansing the Soul 4. He supposes also that the Apostle Discourses to this purpose Rom. 9. which is to make the Apostle accessory to his own groundless fopperies who is indeed perfectly innocent of these crimes For 1. The sprinkling of the blood which the Apostle mentions Heb. 9. 9. in that mentioned Exod. 24. 6. Now there was another sprinkling of blood Antecedent to that which we read of Exod. 12. to which the blood of Christ did Answer and to which the Apostle refers as is evident from Heb. 11. 28. Heb. 12. 24. 2. The sprinkling of Blood Heb. 9. 19. being the same with that Exod. 24. 6. shews evidently that as the whole concern of the blood sprinkled at that time was not confirming a Covenant but Atoning God So the whole concern of the blood of Christ is not taken up in confirming a Covenant much less such a thing as he will mis-call a Covenant but in Reconciling God to Man paying a price of Redemption to God c. 3. That the Apostle carries another Argument is evident For 1. The Typical Interest which those Sacrifices had in Redemption were accomplish'd before the
Man and as Sacrifice was the Sacrifice of him that was Personally United with God but I am not concerned to insist upon that at present All I say is that it 's no Answer to the Question for to the best of my remembrance and it 's not a full Twelve-moneth since the Question came before us the Question was What influence the Righteousness of Christs Life hath upon our Acceptance and now we have got an Answer to another Question What influence the Righteousness of Christs Life has upon his own Acceptance with God As if we were at the Old Childish Game of cross Questions It was asked me How many Miles it is to London and it was answered me Thirteen shillings and a groat make a Noble For what is this Meritoriousness of Christs Obedience did he Merit for himself or for us If for himself onely then it 's out of the Olives If for us then that which he has Merited is ours Merit denotes a proportion between the Work done and the Reward received and it 's strict Justice in God to bestow upon us that which another has Merited for us if then Christ has Merited our Acceptance we cannot but be accepted it 's Iustice we should be so Again what is it that Christ has Merited Is it acceptauce Our Author will not say it what then Why a promise of acceptance that is that we shall be pardoned and saved upon Faith and Obedience And this is the bottom of the bag when he has turned his discourse into a thousand shapes and forms and varied his expressions infinitely yet all amounts to no more than this Christ has confirmed a promise procured a promise merited a promise that if we believe and obey we shall be pardoned and saved and yet the answer to the Question is to come For 1. There must be a better Reason assigned than the Righteousness of Christs Life why the Sacrifice of his Death should merit any thing for if his active obedience was due to Gods Law upon his own Personal account it could merit nothing for another The payment of a Debt will not merit a reward and if the Righteousness of Christs Life did not merit any thing it self it can never make his Death meritorious 2. To Merit for us a reward upon a condition and never to merit for us that condition is next to nothing as the Case stands with us For both Christ and we shall lose that which he has Merited if our Obedience be left to the desultoriness of our own will and the imbecillity of corrupt Nature Upon the whole Matter I conclude that according to his Principles our Author canot shew any one thing in all the Life and Death of Christ that may render our Persons and Services more acceptable to God than they would otherwise have been upon equal Holiness and Obedience and therefore we must make our Application to Persons of other apprehensions in Religion if we would have an honest satisfactory Answer to this Question What influence the Righteousness of Christs Life and the Sacrifice of his Death have upon our Acceptance with God There is a Text which some think will shew us more of that True influence that the Righteousness of Christ hath upon our Acceptance with God than all this tedious rambling Discourse of our Authors It is Rom. 5. 18 19. Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all Men to Condemnation even so by the Righteousness of one the free gift came upon all Men to Iustification of Life For as by one mans disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made Righteous From whence I have heard some Argue In the same sense that all are made sinners in the first Adam all that are righteous are made righteous in the second Adam but in the first Adam all are made sinners by the imputation of his Disobedience therefore all that are righteous are made so in the second Adam by the imputation of his Obedience Again If it was the Active Disobedience of the first Adam whereby many even all that were in him were made sinners then it is the active obedience of the second Adam whereby Many even all that are in him are made righteous but the former is true therefore so is the latter But says our Author This is the most that can be made of that place This What Why this something or this nothing which he had said before That God was so well pleased with the Obedience of Christs Life that for his sake he entred into a Covenant of Grace with Mankind And if this be all that can be made of that Text the Opposition must run thus As God was so ill pleased with the Disobedience of Adams Life that for the sake of it he entred into a Covenant of Works with Mankind So he was so well pleased with the Obedience of Christs Life that for the sake of it he entred into a Covenant of Grace with Mankind Really it must be so Reader take it or leave it for look what influence Adams Disobedience had upon God to provoke him to condemn the World the same influence had Christs obedience upon God to please him to save the World And will not this be a rare contrivance to fancy a Covenant of Works instituted after the Fall of Adam when we are certain it was established before his Disobedience And so was the Covenant of Grace before the Active and Actual obedience of Christ However let us consider the most he can make of it First says he there 's no necessity of expounding this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Righteousness of Christs Life or his active obedience This Answer of our Authors is like the Ariere banne it 's never raised but in a case of extreme urgency an Answer that will serve the turn of all the Atheists Hereticks and Miscreants upon Earth If you tell them that Eternal Salvation is promised in the Gospel they have it at their fingers ends that there is no necessity that Eternal should signifie a duration beyond the Horizon of time it 's used in other places for the lengthning out the existence of a thing to it 's own allotted period Thus the Aaronical Priesthood was an everlasting Priesthood it was to continue for the Ever of the Iewish World And as for that word Salvation there 's no necessity it should signifie a deliverance from Spiritual Evils for besides that there were no promises of any such Salvation in the old Testament the word is often used in the New for temporal deliverance As when the Apostle said Except these abide in the Ship ye cannot be saved Acts 27. But why is there no necessity of it It may well signifie no more than his Death because the Apostle tells us Phil. 2. 8. That Christ became obedient unto Death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but by his leave the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does indeed signifie obedient in general and
If then the penalty of sin may be inflicted there 's a necessity that the guilt of the sin be imputed It 's impossible indeed that we should Personally have committed Adams sin or performed that very Obedience which Christ performed but not impossible according to the Constitution of the Law of the two Covenants made with the first and second Adam that the Disobedience of the one or Obedience of the other should be â—…eckoned as committed or performed by us And when the Apostle shall expressely tell us That by one mans Offence we are made Sinners Death is passed upon us judgement come upon all to condemnation and therefore and in the same way by the Obedience of one many are made righteous I shall see very good Reason before I quit my Faith and renounce the Apostle upon an idle Tale of I know not what impossibilities Secondly Affirmatively Because we are made righteous both in a proper and a Forensick sence by the Gospel Covenant which is wholly owing to the Grace of God and to the Merits and Righteousness of Christ. I see now how hard it is to get our Authors Mind out of him P. 320. The Covenant of Grace was then Owing to the Sacrifice of Christs Death and the Righteousness of his Life And p. 334. God for Christs sake made a New Covenant of Grace But now it 's Wholly owing to the Grace of God and the Merits and Righteousness of Christ So that 1. If the Grace of God and the Righteousness of Christ be Con-causes of the Covenant and yet their proper concerns are not distinctly meted and bounded out he may allow as small a share to the Righteousness of Chhrist in procuring the Covenant as he allows the Power of God in Conversion Righteousness is not owing solely to Humane Endeavours well it may not be wholly and solely owing and yet within a very small trifle it may be wholly and solely owing to them so here This Covenant is wholly owing to Gods Grace and the Merits and Righteousness of Christ but how small a little singer Christ may have in it is a Secret and till an admeasurement be made will be so 2. This Covenant is wholly owing to the Grace of God c. Now what he understands by the Grace of God he has often told us Pag. 322. The Grace of God is the Gospel And pag. 334. The Gospel is the Grace and abundant Grace of God And the summe of this Gospel in words at length and not in Figures is A Promise of Pardon and Life to them that believe and obey the Gospel and then the short and long of this Business is That the Covenant is owing to the Covenant or the Gospel is owing to the Gospel or the Grace of God is owing to the Grace of God 3. The Grace of God and the Merits of Christ are here assigned as Con-causes of this Covenant Now if it be of Merit how is it of Grace if of Grace how is it of Merit I can easily understand how Christ should merit Pardon and Life for me and yet that this should be of mere Grace from God to admit anothers Merits to procure those Blessings for me which I cannot procure to my self But I acknowledge my own weakness I cannot understand How this Covenant of his should be owing both to Merit and Free-grace that is How God should make a Promise to pardon freely without any Consideration of making the Promise and yet Christ should merit it at Gods hands which implies a valuable consideration But thus it must be when men to save the Lives of two or three sorry Crotchets will forsake the Conduct of the Scriptures and lean to their own Understandings for the Scripture assures us that Free-grace is the only Foundation of the Covenant of Grace and that Christ himself is the Gift of God Joh. 4. 10. who by the Righteousness of his Life the Sacrifice of his Death the Power and Prevalency of his Intercession admits us into all the Grace and Mercy and Benefits of that Covenant with Security to Gods Honour and the Repute of all his Attributes But 4. This is no fair or tolerable Account How we may be said to be made righteous by the righteousness of Christ because the Covenant is owing to his Righteousness if it had been owing to it for as fair an Account may be given How we may be said to be made righteous by the Virgin Mary If we may be said to be made righteous by any thing to which that thing is owing by which we are really made righteous then we may be said to be made righteous by the Virgin Mary We are properly made righteous according to our Author by our own Obedience that this Obedience makes us so is owing to the Covenant that Covenant is owing to the Obedience of Christ his Obedience is owing to his Nativity his Nativity to his Mother and that may be run up in the Genealogical Scale as high as Adam and thus at this rate we may be said to be justified by Adam And for this he has wisely made a reserve A fair Account how we may be said that 's All. Not that we are so but that we may be said to be so and the Mystery of it lyes here The Scripture has said that we are made righteous by Christs Obedience and we take it for granted that the Scripture had not said it unless it had been really true but there are some who doe not believe it to be really true and therefore they must set their wits awork to find out how it may possibly be said to be true and yet not really be so that so they may neither throw the Lye directly in the face of the Apostles nor yet be compelled to wave their own Unbelief But it seems there is a two-fold sence in which we may be said to be made righteous by the Gospel-Covenant 1. Sect. A Proper Sence which is this The great Arguments and Motives and powerfull Assistances of the Gospel form our Minds to the love and practice of Holiness and so make us inherently righteous What needed all this pother and stir to no purpose The Righteousness of Christ contributes something though he cannot tell what to the Gospel-Covenant this Gospel-Covenant contains Promises and Duties or Motives Arguments Reasons to Obedience now when these Promises prevail with us to love and practise those Duties to perform that Obedience then we become inherently righteous in a proper sence and so that none may take it ill they shall have liberty to say that we are made righteous by the righteousness of Christ His Righteousness or Obedience was an excellent Pattern of a strong Motive to our being righteous Two things I shall oppose to this 1. That to be made inherently righteous is not the proper sence of being made righteous This was indeed the proper sence of being Righteous under the Covenant of Works when a perfect exact compleat inherent Holiness was the
encouraged nor the Common good damnified which was certainly done by Jesus Christ And God himself has declared how odious such an Indifferency of spirit is in a Magistrate Prov. 17. 15. They who justifie the wicked and condemn the Righteous are both an abomination to the Lord. 2. There 's a great suspition nay clear evidence of injustice in a private Persons departing from his right in some Cases we will suppose a summe of Money which is all the Livelyhood of a Personand his Numerous Family shall he not grievously sin who shall depart from his Right so far as to forgive this Debt and turn all his Family a grazing upon the bare Common of Charity which might have been plentifully provided for in a way of Righteousness and Justice But still he prosecutes the Comparison He is so far from being Iust that he is Cruel and Savage who will remit no offence till he hath satisfied his Revenge Which were true 1. If spoken of a private Person Vengeance belongs not to any in that state it 's a flowre of the Crown we are not to avenge our selves we may prosecute our own Right lawfully and yet even that managed with a revengefull Spirit is sinfull 2. A publick Person in punishing according to Law ought not to be called cruel and savage but just and righteous when the holy God executes the Penalty of his holy Law he does not satisfie his Revenge but vindicate his righteous Laws from Contempt he will not have them trodden under foot to please every sawcy and malapert Caviller that shall tax him with savage Cruelty And surely there are Terms more becoming the Majesty of a holy God which our Author might have bestow'd upon the righteous Iudge of all the Earth in his Process against Sinners That he is holy in all his wayes righteous in all his works that the same Law which is the Rule of Duty and Obedience is also the Rule of Punishing the Delinquent But still he will be importunate That part of Iustice which consists in punishing Offenders was alwayes look'd upon as an Instrument of Government and therefore the exacting or remitting Punishment was referred to the Wisdom of Governours c. What he means by an Instrument of Government I cannot well tell but this I know that Atheism will have God too to be an Instrument of Government a politick Engine to bridle the many-headed Multitude and keep the Herd of the Vulgar in some awe And I have learnt it from our Authors great Friend also that the Articles of the Church are an Instrument of Peace and no matter whether they be an Instrument of Truth but I would gladly be satisfied in a few things 1. Who they are that call Gods punitive Iustice an Instrument of Government and what warrant they have so to call it I have read indeed that the Law is an Instrument of Government but that the Righteousness and Justice of the Law-giver in giving to every one his due should be an Instrument of Government seems to me an Arbitrary Term onely invented that men might seem to say something when indeed they say just nothing 2. I would have a satisfactory Reason why That part of Iustice which consists in Punishing Offenders should be an Instrument of Government and yet the other part which consists in rewarding the Complyant and Tractable should not be such and why God may not as well choose whether he will reward the Righteous as whether he will punish the Wicked And then 3. Whether this will be an Instrument of Goverment or of Anarchy and Confusion for if after all Obedience and Disobedience the Law be not the Rule of dispensing Rewards and Punishments Good night to both If Laws be not executed both they and the Law-giver will be despised and this great Instrument of Government will be like Iupiters Log which made a noyse without execution and the wicked will be tempted to doe evil the Righteous discouraged in their Obedience But let his Antecedent sink or swim I am as little satisfied with his Consequent That therefore the exacting or remitting of Punishment was referred to the Wisdom of Governours who might spare or punish as they saw Reason without being unjust in either For 1. God has not left it to the Wisdom of Governours whether they shall secure the Ends of Government or no Nay we are assured that the Iews under their Theocracy were tyed up in many Cases especially and not left to their discretion Numb 35. 33. Thou shalt take no satisfaction for the Life of a Murderer he shall surely be put to death 2. What if God has obliged himself to the contrary that he will not remitt Punishment but has made his holy Law the Rule of his dealing with us as well as of our walking with him Numb 14. 6. 18. The Lord is long-suffering and of great Mercy and by no means clearing the guilty Nay what if this be the immediate result of Gods Nature supposing an Offender the Text makes this as essential to God as any of his other Attributes and if our Author can exclude one another when it shall serve the Scene will exclude all the rest and then we shall have a God to our Authors hearts desire In the Conclusion of this Point our Author unbosoms himself to us and ingenuously discovers the bottom of his heart namely that the Reason why he is so zealously engaged against the Vindicative Iustice of God is because he was well aware that it would put in strongly for the Necessity of Christs Death And he understood his Interest well enough for the Iustice of God once admitted enforces the Necessity of Christs Death if it be supposed that God will declare himself just in the pardoning of a Sinner and the Death of Christ also reciprocally will prove the holy peremptoriness of Gods Iustice against Transgressors For what else could call for the Death of the Lord Jesus Christ The Lord Jesus Christ was the onely begotten and dearly beloved of the Father free from Sin in whom no guile was found 1 Pet. 2. 22. and not onely voyd of Sin but full of Grace exact in his Obedience Matth. 3. 16. he fulfill'd all Righteousness and he durst avow it Iohn 8. 29. That he alwayes did those things that pleased his Father so that his Eternal Father in the view and Prospect of these things declares that he was well-pleased with him Math. 17. 5. Now let us consider how the Father dealt with this Dear this Holy this onely Son Isa. 53. 10. It pleased the Father to bruise him he hath put him to grief he laid upon him the Iniquities of us all what shall we say to these things the Father was well-pleased with his Person with his Obedience and yet well-pleased with his sufferings also he was made a Curse who was blessed for ever Gal. 3. 13. he dyed a poenal Death who had no Guilt Rom. 8. 32. God spared not his own Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉