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
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
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
of the Mediation of a third Person and that he is so well satisfied with what he hath done in order to it that he appoints it to be published to all the world to assure the Offender that if the Breach continues the fault lyes wholly upon himself The Second is when the Offender doth accept the Terms of the Agreement offer'd And these two we assert must necessarily be distinguished in the Reconciliation between God and us For upon the Death and Sufferings of Christ God declares to the World that he is so well satisfied with what Christ hath done and suffer'd in order to the Reconciliation between himself and us that now be publishes Remission of sins to the World upon those Terms which the Mediator hath declared by his own Doctrine but because Remission of sins doth not immediately follow upon the Death of Christ without supposition of any act on our part therefore the state of Favour doth commence from the performance of those Conditions that are required of us c. And now let the Authority of the Church of England interpose Art 31. Of the one Oblation of Christ finished upon the Cross The Offering of Christ once made is that perfect Redemption Propitiation and Satisfaction for the sins of the whole World both Original and Actual and there is none other Satisfaction for sin but that alone But we shall be soundly pelted with the Fathers and therefore he cites a great many more from Chrysostom and from all concludes That according to the sence of this Holy man particular Christians are united to Christ by Means of their Union to the Christian Church otherwise I cannot understand how our Union to Christ can be an Argument to Union and Concord among our selves But if that be the worst on 't that he cannot understand it Charity commands me to relieve his labouring understanding It 's a good Argument that Children should entirely love one another because they are Children of the same Father and yet for all that they become not Children to their Father by means of their Union one to another as Brethren but they are therefore Brethren because they are Children of the same Father It 's an Argument that Subjects should study and follow the things that make for Peace among themselves because they are all Subjects to the same Prince aud his honour the strength and security of his Kingdom lyes much in it and yet their Union among themselves is not the Means whereby they become related to their Prince but because they are all Subjects to him they become fellow-subjects each with other And now methinks a very ordinary pair of Brains might have understood how our Union to Christ is an Argument to Christians to unite amongst themselves though by their union amongst themselves they had not been united to Christ And thus he might as well have quoted the Ancient Father Mercurius Gallo-Belgicus as either Ambrose or Chrysostom but that we are all mightily concerned to know that he reads the Fathers to very little purpose But from hence he will give us a very seasonable word of Exhortation That they would seriously consider it who boast of their Union to Christ and yet rend his Church into a thousand little Factions I am glad however that they are not great Factions And I would have them seriously consider it also who broach such Doctrines so contrary to the main design of the Gospel that if owned by any Church must necessitate an absolute and total separation if we will be true to Christ. There have been many sad Controversies amongst us but they have been about Mint Anise and Cummin in comparison of the great and weighty things of the Gospel but the Question now must be Whether Christ be a true and proper High-priest whether 〈◊〉 death upon the Cross be a proper Sacrifice offer'd unto God to reconcile him to sinners The Question is now Whether we must hold Communion with God in Prayer or no Whether Faith and Repentance will unite us to Christ Nay whether there be any such thing as an Union with Christs Person or no Nay upon the Matter whether there be a Person of Christ or no or that all must not be interpreted into Doctrine Church Office and I cannot tell what Some I perceive are hugely afraid least differences should be accommodated they dread The tombe of Controversies almost as much as their Own they are more solicitous how Quarrels may live than about their own Deaths and therefore fearing those smaller Bones of Contention would not set the World together by the ears long they have thrown more considerable ones before us to entail Contentions upon Posterity and propagate Divisions to Eternity It 's the Interest of some men to make loud clamours against Divisions variety of Opinions difference in Judgements and yet to take special care that there shall never want matter for them to complain of the Fire and yet pour in Oyl to quench it and if they may but warm their own hands can sing over the flames which they have kindled and do still foment It has been the Policy of Rome to build partition-walls of Separation and then to rail at all that cannot leap over them to thresh the Wheat out of the Floor and then rage at it for Dividing from the Chaffe to beat their Servants out of doors and then send Huy-and-cry after them with all the Marks and Descriptions of Run-awayes Thus far our Author has led us out of the way and it will be high time to return The Fathers may now go to bed and sleep our Author will give them no further trouble Authority is but an inartificial Argument and now have at us with down-right Demonstration and Club-law Those Sacraments our Saviour hath instituted are a plain demonstration that our Union with Christ consists in our union with the Christian Church 1. For Baptism Baptisme is the Sacrament of our Admission into the Visible Church but in Baptisme we make a publick Profession of our Faith in Christ Therefore the Union of particular Christians to Christ is by Means of their Union with the Church This is that plain Demonstration we are threatned with and in a while if our Author does but eat a dish of Beans and Bacon it will be a plain Demonstration In Baptism we make a visible Profession of our Faith in Christ and if this Profession be true such a one as the Church of England requires as prerequisite to Baptism we are thereby United to Christ antecedently to our Baptism If Baptism finds us not in Christ it puts us not into Christ If it finds us not qualified for a Church state it makes us not so it is a Symbol but it supposes the thing signified and conferrs it not It is a Seal but presupposes a Covenant But that we are admitted into the visible Church by it he will prove and indeed he is excellent at proving what none deny and very untoward at proving the thing
Proof thereof For in Christ Jesus c. Did the Apostles Premises speak of one thing and his Conclusion of another 2. Here 's this lies in the way that no Cogent Reason can be assigned why we should depart from the Plain Ordinary Primary acceptation of the Word Christ for a Figurative Improper and Secondary acceptation but only to humour our Author for which at present I am not in the Mood 3. He is miserably short in his Foundation for after all his pains to prove that Christ signifies an Office a Doctrine a Church he must go over with all this again and prove that Jesus signifies a Doctrine and Jesus a Church or else he 's just in Statu quo For he had told us before that though Christ was an Homonymous word a Name of Desuetory Lubricous and Versatile sound Jesus was his Proper Name given him by the Angel before he was Born and therefore surely that has not been Warped and Twisted and Scrued at that Rate that this other poor Name has been for as it falls out unhappily Here 's Jesus joyned with Christ and that perswades us almost that a very Person is intended But yet secondly The apparent Falshood of it sticks more with me than all this I could easily down with a few Absurdities For I think and believe according to the Scripture That there is something besides a Vertuous Life of value to Recommend us to the Favour of God nay something more of Value and I shall not be Hector'd out of it by Blustering words 'T is the Righteousness of Jesus which I mean and we have the Apostles Warrant for it Ephes. 1. 6. He hath made us accepted in the Beloved If God should enter into Judgment with us according to the Exactest of our Obedience perhaps we should be willing to accept of Christ's Recommendation to the favour of God notwithstanding our most vertuous Lives but secondly I indite it of Falshood that he makes a new Creature and a vertuous Life equivalent Expressions For I had thought that a vertuous Life is but the Fruit that Grows on the Tree but the Tree must be made good e're the Fruit can be so A vertuous Life the Streams that flow from the Spring of the new Creature and the Fountain must be cleansed e're the Streams will be so In plain Terms the vertuous Life is but the Result of a new Heart the product of a Renewed Nature without which Principle of a vertuous Life and without Christ to Recommend both to God there is no hope to find favour in his sight His second place is Col. 2. 8. Beware lest any man spoil you through Philosophy and vain Deceit after the Traditions of Men after the Rudiments of the World and not after Christ. Where says he after Christ is oppos'd to the Traditions of Men and Rudiments of the World and therefore must signifie not the Person but the Religion or Gospel of Christ. Must And what necessity of that I can see none from the Text But if our Author has impos'd upon himself an absolute and indispensible necessity of being Baptiz'd into Volkelius then indeed it must be so Interpreted no remedy Lib. 5. c. 10. p. 437 438. Divinitatis Nomine nec Dei nec Christi Natura sed Divinae voluntatis notitia Deique colendi ratio Intelligi porest atque ideo debet By the name Deity not the Nature of God or of Christ but the knowledge of the Divine Will and the manner of Worshipping God May be and therefore Must be understood The Reader is now satisfi'd why it must be so 1. It may be so and therefore necessarily it must be so 2. Volkelius says it must be and therefore it must But let us be Judg'd by the words following Not after Christ for in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily ver 9. Does the fulness the all fulness of the Godhead dwell bodily in the Doctrine or in the Person of Christ ver 10. And ye are compleat in him who is the Head of Principality and Powerâ—… Is iâ—… Christs Person that is that Head of Angels or his Doctrine and so the Apostle runs it on till he comes to the Cross of Christ ver 14. Must we now to Gratifie these Gentlemen renounce our Reasons and say that a Doctrine is the Head of â—…roncipality and Power A Doctrine is rais'd from the Dead That we are Buried in a Doctrine That the Hand-writing of Ordinances was Nailed to the Cross of a Doctrine I confess I would go as far as another for Peace-sake but here I must fairly shake hands and leave my Author and his Masters to their own ways But though the words following the Text do frown severely upon them and their Cause yet they promise themselves much from the foregoing ver 6. As you have therefore received Iesus Christ the Lord so walk ye in him i. e. Obey the Doctrine of Christ as you have been taught it by us It must be remembred what our Author is endeavouring to prove still I hope he has not forgot it and I hope we shall not viz. That the Name Christ signifies the Gospel Now it is easily granted that though the Name Christ do Immediately signifie the Person of Christ yet Mediarely it may imply the Doctrine and yet all this while the Name or Word Christ stand in its Original posture and Purport As the name King does primarily signifie the Person of a Supreme Magistrate and yet that Treason which is committed against the Person of a King is against his Law and yet none will say that because Treason against the King is Treason against the Law that therefore the name King signifies Law To violate the Commands of the Gospel reflects upon Christs Person and he that sins against the one sins against the other because of that Privity of Interest that is betwixt a King and his Laws a Prophet and his Revelations a Priest and his Sacrifice yet it were harsh to say that Prophet does signifie Revelation or Priest Sacrifice or King signifie Laws Those things may have Relation one to another one be Inferred from another and not the one signifie the other As 1 Cor. 7. 12. When ye sin against the Brethren and wound their weak consciences ye sin against Christ To sin against the Brethren is by consequence to sin against Christ. Yet none will say that the Name Christ signifies Brethren But more particularly I answer 1. That Christ Jesus the Lord does signifie in the first place a Person And secondly That consequently it Includes the Promises the Precepts the Revelations the Death Sufferings the Intercession and the whole of Jesus But his main strength lies here That after Christ is opposed to the Traditions of Men and the Rudiments of the World and therefore must not signifie the Person but the Religion or Gospel of Christ. So argues Volk Lib. 3. de verâ Relig. p. 125. His mundi Rudimentis omnem Divinitatis Plenitudinem in Christo
am wholly a stranger to as I believe all those are who are so much charged with it When we hear a man zealously purging himself of some Notorious Crime noysed abroad onely in the general without praevious Accusation it 's apt to fly-blow our Heads with jealousie he may be Tardy an over-forward Vindication being reputed more than half an Accusation But I dare be one of his Twelve-Godfathers in this matter that he does not make Christ useless but will allow him to be of some use that is to say that Christ is good for something and in effect a little Better than though next to Nothing and I can with more security become Bound for Him because he has given me good Counter-security that I shall not forfeit my Recognizance P. 330. I could never perswade my self no not for your heart though you had attempted it that the perfect Obèdience and Righteousness of His Life was wholly excluded So that whatever rendred Christ beloved of God contributed something to our Acceptation P. 331. We ought not to think that we receive No Benefit by the Righteousness of Christ. And I hope something is better than Nothing Nay such is his Charity he can be content to Allow that God was somewhat more pleased with the Obedience of Christ than the Faith of Abraham ibid. And that his Sacrifice was of greater value than the Blood of Bulls and Goats p. 19. Naughty men are they then that wrong Him and Them so as to insinuate that they design'd to make Christ useless the rather because they proceed upon so bad a Ground We are charg'd with making Christ useless onely because we dare not make his Laws so And thus it seems they have unhandsomely payd him in his own Coyn who charges them with making his Laws Useless onely because they dare not make his Person so And yet to deal plainly with Him for all this I find a Double charge upon the File against him 1 That though he has not made Christ altogether Useless yet he has made him Needless Though he can use Him yet he could have spared him though he can make a shift with him he could have made a Rubbing shift without Him Ut tecum possum vivere sic sine te So p. 46. I should rather have thought that Gods requiring such a sacrifice as the Death of Christ was not because he could not do otherwise And if Gods Iustice could be contented without that sacrifice I may presume it shall not stick at our Authors good Nature p. 43. Had Christ never appeared in the World yet we had Reason to believe that God is thus Wise and Good viz. to Pardon sinners And as he labours to Prove Enoch Noah Iews and Gentiles who knew nothing at all of Christ p. 44. yet understood God to be a God pardoning iniquity without him And surely if the World jogg'd on for four thousand years without Christ it might have worn out the Remainder without him too 2 I find a second Charge against him That though he make not Christ useless as to some common ordinary and general Ends which might have been attain'd and reach'd without him yet he renders him wholly Useless as to those special those main and glorious purposes for which he came into the World The making satisfaction to Divine Iustice the Imputation of his Righteousness to Believers his powerfull and effectual sanctifying them by his Spirit for whom he undertook Whereof we shall meet with abundant Evidence in the progress of his Discourse So that a Declaration contrary to the Fact is of small weight with considering Readers and sinks it self below all consideration But to return Two things fill up this Chapter First That the Person of Christ is of some Consideration and Secondly That the consideration of his Person is of some use onely the difficulty to be assoyled by His Abilities is Of what use the consideration of his Person should be 1. Then the Person of Christ is of some consideration but e're he ventures upon that Province he bethought Himself it would be a Task worthy his great Parts to indoctrinate our Plumbeous Cerebrosities in the Nice Point What the Person of Christ is P. 15. By the Person of Christ I mean what all men ought to mean nay there 's no doubt of that All men at their utmost Peril ought to mean to a hairs breadth just as our Author means Christ Himself Had it not been a Prodigy as great as ever was in the World if by Christs Person had been meant any body else Such then is Christ's Person The Consideration thereof follows And as he assures us the onely proper consideration here is the Greatness of his Person This is the onely or however The onely Proper or at least the onely Proper consideration here whatever other improper considerations of it there may be in other places or cases upon other accounts or occasions at other times it skills not for Here at this Time and in this place the onely Proper Consideration is the Greatness of his Person And yet methinks the exceeding loveliness of his Person standing betwixt God and lost Sinners his laying down his Life as a Ransome payd to God his standing as a Surety in our stead his bearing our sins in his Body on the Cross might have claimed a Place and come in for a share in our consideration of his Person But thus much for that 2 The Use of this consideration follows And some good Use he has assign'd it 1 And first it 's a plain demonstration of Gods love to Mankind that he sent so dear and so great a Person into the World as his onely begotten Son to save Sinners It is so indeed but a very weak demonstration of Gods Love to his own Son to send him into the World to grapple with all those Miseries he met withall in his Soul in his Body from Enemies from Friends from Men from Devils nay from himself whom it pleased to bruise him and lay upon him the Iniquities of us all to make his soul an Offering for sin nay to be made sin for them who himself knew none to Die a cursed Death and all this without any Absolute or Indispensible necessity Contrary to all the Rules of Decorum Nec Deus intersit nisi dignus vindice Nodus inciderit And it would be of use to consider also the Love of Christ his Willingness to Accept the Terms of being a Redeemer though He knew well they were severe and would cost him Sweat and Blood and yet He cheerfully Undertook Underwent and went through with them He voluntarily assumed a Body that He might become a Sacrifice Heb. 10. He was willingly for a little while made lower than the Angels by Dispensation who was above them by Nature for the suffering of Death Heb. 2. 9. He understood well the Debtor was Insolvent and yet he became Surety He knew well the Righteousness of God and yet He was ready to put in sufficient
sayes he for though it be not exact and perfect in every thing yet if it be sincere we shall be accepted for the sake of Christ by vertue of the Covenant that he hath Sealed with his Blood But I am afraid he has conjured up a Spirit that he cannot lay again with so sorry a Charm For 1. I do not find that God has abated any thing of his Law but is as peremptory as ever for Do this and live Nothing will please God less than exact and perfect Obedience though in the Covenant of Grace he is pleased to admit Another a Mediator to doe it for Believers I had rather he would hear the Reverend and Learned Bishop Reynolds upon Psal. 110. p. 492. In point of Validity or Invalidity there can be but Five things said of the Law 1. Either it must be Obeyed and that it is not for all have sinn'd and come short of the Glory of God Rom. 3. 23. Or 2. it must be Executed upon Men and the Curse and Penalty thereof inflicted and that it is not neither for there is no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Jâ—…sus Rom. 8. 1. Or 3. it must be Abrogated or extinguish'd and that it is not neither for Heaven and Earth shall sooner pass away If there were no Law there would be no Sin for sin is the Transgréssion of the Law And if there were no Law there would be no Iudgement for the World must be judged by the Law Or 4. it must be Moderated and favourably interpreted by Rules of Equity and that it cannot be neither for it 's inflexible and one jot or tittle must not be abated Or lastly the Law it self remaining the Obligation thereof notwithstanding must towards such or such Persons be so far forth dispensed withall as that a Surety shall be admitted upon a Concurrence of all their Wills who are therein interested God willing to Allow Christ willing to Perform Man willing to Enjoy both to doe all the Duties and to suffer all the Curses of the Law in behalf of that Person who in Rigor should have done or suffer'd all so that the Law nor one jott or tittle thereof is abrogated in regard of the Obligation therein contained but they are all reconciled in Christ Thus far he But 2. That Sincerity which he talks of is indeed allow'd in the Gospel in the Matter of Inherent Righteousness and Sanctification there it has a proper and excellent place but comes not into the business of Iustification at all And 3. This Sincerity will be but a Cover-slut for the Omission and Neglect of our Duty for if Sincerity will do the work without Universality and Integrity of Obedience the best way will be to shrowd our selves under a profound Ignorance of Gods Commandements and then the less we know of Gods Will the safer we are under the shelter of Sincerity And 4. The Question will be How much shortness of Obedience will this Sincerity compound for It may be our Author will prescribe a Drachm of Sincerity to a Scruple of Disobedience but then Another will make a Grain of Sincerity a very little upon a knifes point serve to sweeten a whole Pound of Defect in Duty and thus every Mountebank with a dose of his Electuary of Sincerity will pretend to heal mens Consciences of those wounds that Sin has given them 5. Whereas our Author addes that we shall be accepted for the sake of Christ it 's a meer Iuggle for when he comes to enquire What Influence the Righteousness and Death of Christ have upon our acceptation with God he professes he can find nothing in the world but that God will pardon us if we believe and obey the Gospel p. 320. which doubtless he would have done without him But this is onely to make the same use of Christ that Politicians doe of the Foxes Case to piece the Lyons skin when it 's too short just so must Christ serve to eke out the shortness of their Obedience with his own and when they have stretcht their own Righteousness upon the Tenters as far as it will hold to be beholden to Christ for the Rest God for Christs sake does indeed accept our imperfect Duty Obedience Service and pardon the shortness of it according to the Tenour of the Covenant of Grace but not that it should thereby stand for our Iustification which we have onely upon the Account of what he has done and suffered for us made ours by accepting him upon his own Terms 3. We are come with much adoe to the third and last Addition that these men make or are supposed to make to the Gospel Viz. Concerning our Wisdom to walk with God To which thinks Doctor Owen there is required Agreement Acquaintance Way Strength Boldness and aiming at the same End and all these with the Wisdom of them are hid in the Lord Iesus It were worth the while to transcribe the Doctors discourse upon all these Heads but our Author has saved me the Labour The summe of all is this That Christ having expiated our sins and fulfilled all Righteousness for us though we have no Personal Righteousness of our own but are as contrary to God as Darkness is to Light and Death to Life and an universal Pollution and Defilement to an universal and glorious Holiness and Hatred to Love yet the Righteousness of Christ is a sufficient nay the onely Foundation of our Agreement and upon that of our walking with God Now without doubt our Author would have his Reader believe that the Doctor has said all this and that he intends we may have Communion with God whilest we continue thus I confess at the reading hereof I was amazed knew not what to think Have I been all this while so narrowly watching the Doctor that a false Print much less a false Doctrine could not escape me and is our Author come after me and findes all this filth and abominable stuffe Once again therefore because I durst not trust my own Eyes or Ears and am under a Vow never to trust our Authors Tongue or Pen speaking evil of the Doctor I took down the Book and what I find I will transcribe and let all the world judge Com. p. 119. The Prophet tells us that two cannot walk together unless they be agreed Amos 3. 3. Untill Agreement be made there is no Communion God and Man by Nature or whilest Man is in the state of Nature are at the greatest Enmity He declares nothing to us but wrath neither do we come short of him yea we first began it and continue longest in it In this state the wisdom of walking with God must needs be most remote from the Soul He is Light and in him is no Darkness at all we are Darkness and in us is no Light at all he is Life a living God we are dead Sinners dead in Trespasses and sins he is Holiness and glorious in it we wholly defiled and an abominable thing he is Love
his Death c. and the Salvation of all Mankind I presume the man 's either unborn or long agoe dead that ever asserted that there was any Connexion either Natural or Necessary between Christs Death and the Salvation of every individual Person that should be upon the Earth Does he mean any one of all Mankind I then do affirm and will abide by it that upon supposition the Son of God was incarnate took our Nature upon him and in that Nature dyed a cursed Death there is a Necessary connexion betwixt the Death of the Son of God and the Salvation of some at least of Mankind It 's very unconceivable that Christ should submit to such a Dispensation and have no fruit of his Labour But to put him out of fear that he may sleep at hearts ease we do not fancy any natural connexion of these things that Bond that tyes them together is the compact betwixt the Father and the Son that upon his Souls being made an Offering for Sin he should see his seed and the pleasure of the Lord should prosper in his hand Isa. 53. 10. The Total is this The Concurrence of the Sons Will with the Fathers good Pleasure gave the Death of Christ a necessary Connexion with the Salvation of some at least of Mankind But to talk at this loose Rambling rate is tedious All this while you see but very little into our Authors Design For as your great Politicians have their Causae justificae which they Hang out to view but the Causae suasoriae lie deep and are not to be Exposed to and Prophan'd by common Eyes Thus however our Author makes a Flourish and Vapour about the Connexion of Necessary causes and Necessary effects as if we see Fire we know it burns something and if we see Smoak we may safely conclude there is some Fire Which poor Reynards Experiment would have Confuted Notwithstanding I say all this Ostentation of Mysterious Philosophy there was something lay nearer his heart than this Bombaste and how to bring it upon the Stage handsomely required good Deliberation In plain Terms it was nothing but to state a Parallel betwixt the Rational and your Systematical Divine and to Demonstrate the excellency of himself and those of his exalted Intellectuals above those low Spirited Phlegmatick Tigurine Doctors who Trade all in gross Bodies and unweildy Systems of Divinity For these latter they Dull-men shape all Religion according to their Phancies and Humours and stuff it with an infinite Number of Orthodox Propositions such as the 39 Articles But now for your Rational Men They Argue the Nature of God his Works and Providences from the Nature of Mankind and those eternal Notions of Good and Evil from the Essential differences of Things from plain Principles which have an Immutable and unchangeable Nature and so can bear the weight and stress of a just Consequence Which singular Happiness may sooner be Envyed than Mistated Indeed it would do any man good at Heart to hear with what Nerves and Sinews of Brawny Reason they will Argue how they Drive all before them how they will Trounce a poor amazed Auditor into As. and Con. and force the most Obstinate herds of Contumacious Animals into good Behiavour by Duress In a word all their Discourses are Muscle and Cartilage And in one of these you shall have the Marrow and Pith the Quintessence and Elixir of your Profound Irrefragable Subtile Angelical Seraphical Doctors But I Chide my self for comparing them to the School-men who are Systematical Theölogues Let the Reader content himself with a short Specimen of their Abilities And 1. They argue from the Nature of God How Facile is he to Pardon sin all sin without any Compensation or Satisfaction made to his Justice For seeing Justice is but a secondary Attribute a mere Instrument or Tool of Government He may spare or punish as he sees Reason for it without being unjust in either For though the Scripture has told us Iosh 24. 19. That God is a jealous God who will not forgive Transgression nor sin and that He is of purer Eyes than to behold Evil and cannot look upon Iniquity Hab. 1. 13. And also that the wages of sin is Death which is the Religion of the Scripture yet now one of these familiar acquaintance of Gods Nature can inform you better that there was there was no necessity of Christs Death to declare the Righteousness of God that he might be Iust but that as he Pardoned the Old World for Four Thousand Years together who knew nothing of Christ 〈◊〉 he might have done for one poor Sixteen Hundred Years more and as much longer as it shall continue That Caution which he Hints to others pag. 76. he has as much need of himself That we be wary in drawing conclusions from Gods Nature since 't is so seldom we have any good Assurance those Inferences are Genuine Thus when he argues pag. 43 from Gods Long-suffering and Patience towards the World and the various Methods God uses to reclaim them that therefore he is as ready to Pardon sinners as a kind Father is to receive a penitent Prodigal I would have him Cautious lest he should over-run the Constable for God stands not related to sinners in the state of lapsed Nature as a Father but as an Enemy and our Son-ship and Adoption comes in by Jesus Christ and this may perhaps a little disturbe the Connexion of his Antecedents and Consequents And this for distinction-sake may be called his New Religion of Gods Nature from whence we learn those greater and deeper Mysteries whereof the Scripture is so silent And then 2. They argue with marvellous Success from the Works and Providence of God As how pag. 44. Those Natural Notions the Heathens had of God and the Discoveries God made of Himself in the Works of Creation and Providence did assure them that God is very Good and that 't is not possible to understand what Goodness is without Pardoning-Grace For you may be sure they cloud not see the Sun shine but presently they must conclude that the Light of Gods Countenance would shine upon them also nor have a showre of Rain but it did Demonstrate that God would wash away their sins nor forbear them a day but He would acquit them for ever But then 3. From the Nature of Mankind they Reason with incomparable Judgment As for Instance That because Man was Created upright therefore he is so still how Vegete Sprightly and active mans Nature is that without the Subsidiary assistance of effectual Grace working both to will and to do it can fulfil all Gods Commandments and that to talk of our own Impotency to Spiritual performances is to suppose us to be acted like Machines by an External force and the irresistable Grace and Spirit of God And further 4. They make admirable work from the eternal Notions of Good and Evil That God may punish sin if he pleases and if he sees good he may
his little Glosses Why they offend against his great standing Rule Interpreting things by the sound of words For says he what better proof can you desire for all this than Express words Really the Laws upon which we must be permitted to discourse with our Author are very severe for p. 78. he laid it down as a Law of the Medes and Persians that none must dare to Draw one Conclusion from the Person of Christ which his Gospel hath not expressely taught Well we accepted the Tearms and have brought him expresse and expressely express words and do speak as Volkelius commands us dilectis luculentissimisque verbis and yet we are never the nearer for now we offend in trusting to the sound of words Just thus did Procrustes entertain his Guests wracking out them that were too short and lopping off their feet that were too long for his Bed All men I perceive are awake to their Concerns in this Rule as well as our Vigilant Author When it is urged that Christ is called expressely God the True God He that was in the beginning by whom were all things made who upholds all things by the Word of his Power the Socinians have now a compendious Answer Ay this is to interpret Scripture by the sound of words And the Atheist has an inckling of it too he can subscribe all the Scriptures as True but when you urge him that God created all things out of Nothing that he is the Owner Governour Iudge of the whole World they are provided with a short Answer Yes this is interpreting Scripture by the sound of words And whether every Drunkard Swearer Adulterer all the Rakehells and Rakeshames upon Earth may not in time make their advantage of it I cannot tell That Ministers do but fright them with a sound of words Thus have some dealt with the Sacerdotal Office of Christ He is a Priest they confess he offer'd a Sacrifice was a Propitiation made an Atonement did expiate sin but have a care you do not interpret these things as the words sound he did indeed something like a Priest offer'd something like a Sacrifice but truely and properly he was nothing did nothing of All this It had been therefore more plain-heartedly and ingenuously done had our Author written a Confutation of the Scripture proving that the Spirit did not speak intelligibly but All in good time he has Materials ready for the work P. 100. The wildest and most extravagant Opinions that were ever yet vented under the Name of Religion have pretended the Authority of Scripture for their Patronage And yet he knew how first to break its head and then make it a Playster This famous Rule of our Authors may be applyed to all things under the Sun but there are two Principles onely that he will examine by it at present 1. The spiritual Impotency of all men without grace to perform that which is Acceptable to God This says he they prove wonderfully from our being dead in trespasses and sins and therefore as a Dead man can contribute nothing to his own Resurrection no more can we towards our Conversion I wonder when the Scripture will be able to speak so plain that deaf men will understand it One would have thought the Spirit of God should never have chosen that Expression of being Dead in trespasses and sins to signifie what mighty power and abilities the Creature has to Obey But we are instructed better from this usefull Caveat not to interpret Him by the sound of his words for now we must understand by Being dead Being Alive and proportionably by Sins and Trespasses we must understand Duty and Obedience and then to keep close to our Instructions and far enough from the sound of words To be Dead in Sins and Trespasses is to be Alive to all Duty and Obedience And thus that other vexing place Rom. 5. When we were without strength in due time Christ dyed for the ungodly must be Paraphrased When we were strong and Active and had no need of Christ he dyed for the godly And this I think if that be good for ought is very remote from grating our Ears with the unpleasant sound of words Ay but says our Author This is true of Natural Death but will be hard to prove of a Moral Death Hard to prove Methinks we want his wonted out-facing Confidence But why so hard to prove Has not the Spirit of God selected those words borrowed from the Condition of one Naturally dead to instruct us in the true Condition of one Morally dead It 's true of a Natural and therefore not of a Moral Death Nay it 's therefore true of a Moral Death because it is so of a Natural Death What wild Similitudes would he impose upon the Holy Scriptures Even as one that 's Naturally dead can contribute Nothing to his Resurrection just so one that 's Morally dead can contribute something to his Conversion This is the great Illustrator of dark Metaphors But wherein doth this Morall Death consist Oh says he In the prevalency of vicious habits contracted by long Custom which was the Case of the Heathens whom the Apostle there speaks of which do so enslave the Will that it 's very difficult though not impossible for such Persons to return to the love and practice of Vertue But who can tell whether by enslaving the Will which is a Luscious Metaphor our Author would not have us understand enfranchising the Will lest we should border too near upon a sound of words But I am not illuminated with our Authors Reasonings For 1 Moral Death doth not consist in the prevalency of vicious Habits it is the general Condition of all men born into the world who are privatively Dead in respect of that Life we all once had in the first Adam and Negatively Dead in respect of that Life which is attainable by the second Adam And in those dayes when men studyed not Aequivocations to subscribe every thing and believe Nothing it was not question'd in the Church of England Art 10. The Condition of Man since the Fall is such that he cannot Turn and prepare himself by his Own Natural Strength and good Works to Faith and calling upon God wherefore we have no power to doe good works pleasant and acceptable to God without his Grace preventing us that we may have a good Will and working with us when we have that Will. But 2 Supposing that this Moral Death did consist in the Prevalency of vicious Habits contracted by long Custom yet such may be the prevalency of them into such a slavery may the Will be brought that it may be not onely diâ—…ficult but impossible without the effectual assistance of the Spirit for the Sinner to return to God Ier. 13. 23. Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the Leopard his spots then may ye also doe good that are accustomed to doe evil Whence the Prophet shews that such is the prevalency of a vicious Habit contracted by long Custom
that it 's as possible for the Black-Moore to wash himself white which is the Embleme of Labour in Vain or the Leopard to rub out his Dapples as for such a one so enslaved to doe good And if difficulty onely be designed in the Comparison there 's great danger of seduction to have the Case of habituated sinners thus described 3 Our Author is much mistaken to say That the Apostle speaks of the Case of the Heathens The place is Eph. 2. 1. And you hath he quickened who were Dead in Trespasses and Sins c. And these things are exceeding clear 1. That to be dead in Trespasses and Sins let it signifie what it will is a Condition common to Iew and Gentile v. 3. Amongst whom also we all had our Conversation in times past in the lusts of the flesh fulfilling the desires of the Mind and of the Flesh and were by Nature the Children of wrath even as others v. 5. When we were dead in sins 2. That the same Power and Grace was required to Quickening of the one as the other v. 4. God who is rich in Mercy for his great Love wherewith he loved us quickned us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 4 It 's very ridiculous to express some strength by None As if you should say A dead man will hardly walk above five miles a day and then he must rest himself too at every miles end It 's true a Natural Death does not deny a Resurrection by Divine Power nor a Moral Death exclude the efficacious Power of him that raised up Iesus from the dead yet both exclude all Ability in the subject or we must despair of ever understanding one Syllable of Scripture to the Worlds end 2. There is Another Doctrine he will examine by this Rule viz. the Manner of Gods Working in Regeneration Concerning which the Apostle Eph. 2. 10. when he had before shewed all to be dead in Trespasses and Sins thus expresses himself For we are his workmanship created in Christ Iesus unto good works and 2 Cor. 5. 17. He that is in Christ is a New Creature Wherein the Apostle does instruct us in three very material points 1. Here is the Product of Gods Grace A real Effect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Something brought forth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a New Creature a New Creation Another a better though a lesser World 2. The End of this Work or Product of Gods powerfull Grace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it was to good works which God ordained they should walk in The End of the New Heart New Creature and New Nature is New Obedience 3. The Manner of Gods producing this work 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ye were Created to that End so that as God at the first by his Creating Power exerted brought forth the Creature and gave it power to bring forth fruit after its Kind So in this New Creation there is something that Answers both the created Effect the Creating Power and the End of this Creation This would have done pretty well had it not chimed too near the words and therefore our Author shall expound it himself and then if ever he will be in the good Humour This were true says he if our being created to good works did signifie the Manner and Method of our Conversion and not the Nature of the New Creature But what if it signifies both Here 's a Workmanship and here 's the Manner of working We are his Workmanship created The work called a New Creature shews the Thing and its being said to be done by Creation shews the Manner All the Apostles Metaphor will else be very lame The Manner of Gods producing the Old Creation expressed but Nothing to answer it in the New Creation and yet this was the Main of his design v. 5. Even when we were dead in sins and trespasses he hath quickened us v. 8. By Grace ye are saved not of your selves it 's the Gift of God But let us hear his Paraphrase That as in the first Creation we were created after the Image of God so we are renewed after his Image in the second which is therefore expressely called Renewing and Renovation An excellent Similitude just as God wrought All in the first Creation so for all the world he does Nothing in the second That is in plain Terms The New Creation is no Creation and the Apostle could not more unluckily have express'd the Doctrine of our own Ability to good Works than by saying we were created by God in Christ Iesus to the Performance of them To conclude That the Image of God restored should answer the Image in which God created Man at first I can be content onely to fill up the Pà rallel What is that act of God in the New which answers to Gods creating Act in the first Creation And that the New Creation should be called a Renovation I can very well digest but then we must take in Gods Renewing Power as well as the Renewed Effect but that this is called so expressely in other places I do not very well approve nor will our Author when he thinks better upon 't for that will discredit the whole Paraphrase because it chimes too harmoniously to the sound of words Hitherto we have heard a very learned Declamation against interpreting Scripture by the sound of words and now we shall have another Oration against Metaphors Similitudes Allegories Types Figures and all this under the same Head If they say Christ is our Righteousness our Wisdom c. then they interpret all by the sound of words and if they say the Pearl the Manna the Rock c. signified Christ which seems to be very remote from yet that is interpreting Scripture by the sound of words also so that we are in a Fork Snick or Snee and both wayes equally undone Mr. Watson thinks that The Pearl in the Parable Math. 13. 46. may be accommodated to Christ for as the Pearl is there said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so Christ is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 2. 7. That he was praefigured by the Manna upon the onely Credit of Christs own Interpretation Joh. 6. 48. I am the Bread of Life your Fathers did eat Manna in the Wilderness and are dead This is the bread that cometh down from Heaven that a man may eat thereof and not dye That the Rock also did typifie Christ from the Apostles warrant 1 Cor. 10. 3. They drank of the Rock that followed them and that Rock was Christ That Christ was also Resembled by the Brazen Serpent upon Christs own Authority Ioh. 3. 14 15. As Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness even so must the Son of Man be lifted up and that Christ is compared to a Vine Joh. 15. 1. I am the True Vine He proves also or thinks he proves That Christ has very lovely and excellent Titles given him in the Scriptures He is the Desire of all Nations Hag. 2. 7. The Prince of Peace Isa. 9.
of these two is more accepted of God He that performed equal Obedience upon more feeble encouragements or he that upon stronger Motives yet gave but equal Obedience If Reason might determine this Controversy it would clearly carry it for him that bore equal burden with less strength performed equal duty upon less inducements If then this be all the influence that the Obedience and death of Christ have upon our Acceptation with God that thereby we have got a greater help to obedience the best Answer to the Question had been that it has no influence upon our Acceptance with God § 2. His Answer signifies nothing or very near it For the Question was What Influence Christ's Active and Passive Obedience have upon our Acceptance with God And he has framed an Answer to another Question What Influence Christ's Active and Passive Obedience have upon our Obedience Which is quite another thing If Christ's Obedience have any influence upon our acceptation with God then God for Christ's sake must accept us and our Obedience for the sake of Christ which otherwise he had not would not have done and Christ must be supposed to have done and suffered something which had such an influence upon God as to procure the favour of God towards our persons and services which without that consideration had not been could not be procured But if this be all That God has made us a Promise to accept that Obedience for Christ's sake which without any respect to Christ would have accepted though not say be would accept then if our obedience be little Christ will not make it reputed much if imperfect Christ's Obedience will not render it perfect and thus in plain Terms The Sacrifice of his Death and Righteousness of his Life procure no acceptance at all no not the least of our Persons or Obedience with God 3. His Answer is so like nothing as cannot be discerned from nothing The Question was What influence Christ's Righteousness and Sacrifice have upon our acceptance with God The Answer is God for Christ's sake entred into a New-Covenant with Mankind c. which is to leave the Question just as he found it and if he leave it no worse it 's pardonable for it will be enquired still What influence the Righteousness of Christ's Life and the Sacrifice of his Death had upon God to move him to enter into such a Covenant Under what Notion did his Life and Death operate upon God Did Christ make a proper Reconciliation and Atonement with God Was his Death a proper Sacrifice Did it expiate the Guilt of Sin No! not a syllable of all this only for fashions sake it must be said to have had An influence though what it is or how it had that influence he cannot tell But he will speak to these things more distinctly 1. What influence the Death of Christ has upon our Acceptation with God But it is to be supposed that we have had our Answer and must sit down by it That God was so well pleased with the Sacrifice of Christ's Death that for his sake he entred into a New-Covenant with Mankind The Proof is all in all Why this is plain says he in reference to his Death Hence the Blood of Christ is called the Blood of the Covenant Heb. 10. 29. It 's plain that God for Christ's sake entred into this Covenant because his Blood is called the Blood of the new Covenant but yet it 's not so very plain neither A man may possibly mistake it for all that he has said to satisfy him well But then Christ is called the great Shepherd and Bishop of Souls through the blood of the everlasting Covenant Heb. 13. 20. but I can find no such Scripture well However The Blood of Christ is called the Blood of sprinkling which speaks better things than the Blood of Abel Heb. 12. 24. which is an Allusion to Moses his sprinkling the Blood of the Sacrifice wherewith he confirmed and ratified the Covenant between God and the Children of Israel c. I expected it would come to this at long run God entred into the Covenant for the sake of Christ's Death because his Death confirmed the Covenant A very trim Reason The confirming of a Covenant supposes a Covenant in being If then all the design of the Blood of Christ was to confirm and ratifie a Covenant it will not follow that therefore God did enter into such a Covenant for the sake of the Blood but therefore he did not I deny not that the Death of Christ was a great Confirmation of the true Covenant of Grace to our Faith For what stronger Confirmation could the most jealous Soul desire of the reality of free Grace promising to pardon sin and bestow Eternal Life upon believers than that the Son of God himself should first take upon him our Nature and in that Nature offer up himself to God to atone and reconcile him to us that he should make satisfaction to God's rectoral Iustice and pay the price of our Redemption thereby removing out of the way of our Faith the grand impediments of it the Justice of God and the Commination of the Law which stood in the way of our Pardon and Salvation But to obviate our Author's design I shall a little divert the Reader with the consideration of these Propositions 1. The Confirmation of such a Covenant as he has described viz. a Promise of the Pardon of sin and Eternal Life to those who believe and obey the Gospel was not the main end of the Death of Christ 1. Because there is such an end ascribed to his Death which the Death of no other person in the world could in any wise reach but now to confirm the Gospel and all the Promises thereof was an end which the Death of another might reach therefore this was not the main end of the Death of Christ. The crucifying of Peter the Martyrdom of Paul were a great Confirmation of the Doctrine which they Preached the Doctrine which they Preach't was the Gospel and all its Promises yet neither was the Death of the one or other able to reach the great Design of the Death of Christ 1 Cor. 1. 18. Was Paul Crucified for you Or were you Baptized into the Name of Paul None could be Crucified for Sinners in that way that Christ was Crucified for them into whose Name they might not be Baptized but into the Name of no mere Man might they be Baptized therefore no mere Man could be Crucified for sinners in that way and for those ends which Christ was Crucified for Paul suffered Death for the Churches good but not in the Churches stead He dyed to Confirm what he Preacht and he Preacht the Covenant of Grace with all its Promises yet he was not Crucified for the Church his Soul was not made an Offering for sin God laid not upon him all our Iniquities his Death was not a Sacrifice of Propitiation And yet all this may be said of Paul's
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-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
interpretation of himself He sealed the Covenant of Grace by his blood and intercedes for us in the virtue of his blood So that he wheels about again and Procuration is turned into Confirmation Christs procuring the pardon of sin is no more than that he has scaled this Doctrine that whosoever believes and obeyes shall be pardoned Expiation that 's owing to Christs intercession in heaven and reconciliation is nothing but making the Iews and Gentiles friends and preaching the Gospel to reclaim men from their debaucheries Notwithstanding all this our Author will not be beaten out of it but that he and his principles are better friends to the blood of Christ than those men that pretend to magnifie it for they attribute no more to it than the non-imputation of sin that Christ by his death bearing and undergoing the punishment that was due to us paying the ransom that was due for us delivered us from this condition the wrath and curse of God and his whole displeasure c. But now our Author ascribes much more than all this comes to For says he the Scripture gives us a different account of it we are said to be justified and redeemed by the blood of Christ nay we have boldness to enter into the Holiest by the Blood of Iesus we have admission into Heaven it self but the Doctor Owen says that the Blood of Christ makes us innocent but cannot give us a right to the Kingdom of Heaven And now what comparison is there between these two The summe of the business is this Our Author attributes perhaps more to the Blood of Christ in wordy complement but what the Doctor ascribes to the Death of Christ he does in reality Our Author will confess that we are redeemed by the Blood of Christ but when you come as all that are not Children will come to examine what he means by it then it shrinks into this Christ by his Death confirmed the Promise of Pardon and Life to them that Believe and Obey and this Promise he has appointed to be declared to the world and when men believe it and obey the Gospel themselves they are then Redeemed Christs death is no immediate no proper Cause of Redemption no price pay'd to God accepted by him for poor Captive Sinners Nay our Author will not stick to say We are justified by the Blood of Christ too but when you come to sift his Notion it 's all bran he confirmed the Promise which when we believe and obey the Gospel Commands we are justified so that in my weak Judgement it had beeen commendable in our Author to have been very sure that he attributes any thing at all to the Death of Christ as the proper Cause of that Mercy before he enter'd into Degrees of Comparison with others something I do perceive indeed he would attribute to Christs Death Viz. The confirming of a certain Covenant but so feebly asserted so weakly proved that it needs the Candour of the Reader But now what doe these other men attribute to the blood of Christ Why Nothing but Non-Imputation of Sin bearing and undergoing the Punishment that was due to us paying the Price that was due for us delivering us from this Condition The Wrath Curse and whole displeasure of God and that by the Death of Christ all Cause of Quarrel and Rejection is taken away And if this be Nothing in our Authors Arithmetick we desire he will ascribe more to it if he can justifie it when he has done But the truth is our Author is most grievously gulled in this business He reads their Writings who are too crafty for him and smile to see how little he understands of them Though these men attribute no more to the blood of Christ as shed on the Cross yet they are willing to let him know that they attribute more to the Blood of Christ than as it was shed on the Cross The Blood of Christ and the Death of Christ are not Expressions of equal latitude All the Concerns of Christs Blood are not comprehended in his Death for they consider it as that in the virtue whereof he intercedes for them upon the Throne of Grace as that which gives them a holy and humble boldness to draw nigh to God the Quarrel being removed by his Death And that our Author may see his own delusion herein I shall give him a short Collation from that person whom he contends with Exercit. on Heb. Vol. 2. p. 99. There are Two general Ends of Christs Interposition 1. Averruncatio Mali the turning away of all Evil hurt dammage or punishment on the Account of our sins and Apostacy from God 2. Acquisitio Boni or the procuring and obtaining for us every thing that is good with respect to our Reconciliation to him Peace with him and Enjoyment of him and these are intended in the general parts of his Office For 1. His Oblation principally respects the making Atonement for sins and the turning away Gods wrath which is due to Sinners wherein he was Jesus the Deliverer who saves us from wrath to come And this is all that is included in the Nature of Oblation as absolutely considered but it had a farther Prospect for with respect to that Obedience which he yielded to God therein according to the Terms of that Covenant betwixt the Father and Christ it was not onely Satisfactory but Meritorious that is by the Sacrifice of himself he not onely turned away the wrath of God that was due to us but also obtained for us Eternal Redemption with all the Grace and Glory thereto belonging And now if our Author will but ascribe any of all these things to the blood of Christ as its proper and immediate Cause he may hope to perswade the world that he is willing to ascribe something to the Blood of Christ I know well he will say That the Blood of Christ is said to Redeem us is said to Iustifie us these are Scripture Phrases indeed the sound of words carries it thus but when he comes to open the Meaning of things the Blood of Christ does neither redeem nor justifie us but after multitudes of Deductions and great windings of Inferences and Conclusions one upon the Neck of another it does that which does another thing which procures a third which leads to a fourth which brings us to believe that Belief may possibly bring us to Obedience and when all is done it 's our Obedience that justifies us And we owe our Acceptation with God to our own Obedience and he is more inclined to think that nothing can justifie us rather than to own it due to the Righteousness of Christ imputed as he expresses himself p. 272. And now at length he once more casts up his Reckonings Our Righteousness and Acceptance with God is wholly owing to the Covenant which he has purchased and sealed with his own blood What a rare sound does that word purchase carry with it But 1. He has purchased no more than that we
Another The short of the Business lyes here Our Lord Jesus Christ by his Resurrection Ascension into Heaven and sitting down at the right hand of the Majesty on high is visibly exalted to more Dignity and Honour he exercises his Regal power in a way more glorious and agreeable to his exalted state yet was he truely a King from his Incarnation and all along in this world and gave such Proofs of his Royal greatness and Power that the Devils had not Impudence enough to out-face them And now to conclude all with this excellent Gloss upon the whole matter It was an Act of his Regal Power to conquer Error and Ignorance to destroy the Kingdom of Darkness by the Brightness of his Appearing to erect his Throne in the Hearts and Consciences of Men. These Metaphors of conquering destroying erecting a Throne came in as luckily as the heart of man could wish to prove a Royal Power for what man will now be so refractory but he will confess and so senseless and stupid but he may smell a Kingdom in the wind when he hears such language but now if you strip these Metaphors to their bare skins and uncase them of all our Authors Bombast and Fustian they shrink into a mere declaration of Truth leaving the matter to the umpirage of an habitually prejudiced and prepossessed Will and some think here 's no great Kingship in all this for all this is done by the Power and evidence of Truth which argues a Prophet teaching an Oratour pleading or a Disputant arguing but little of a King commanding conquering and subduing the heart to himself and there erecting a Throne in opposition to all the force that Satan and Helâ—… can make against him We do freely own that to conquer and destroy the Kingdom of Darkness to erect a Throne in the Hearts of Men are proper Acts of Christs Kingly Office but then there goes a little more to the business than the bare Evidence of Truth the Arm of a King must be revealed as well as the Mouth of a Prophet opened a Power to deal with the enslaved and obstinate Will as well as a Light to shine into the darkened understanding which Light yet requires something of the Kingly energie to render it savingly enlightning to the mind and understanding And now our Author has made the kingly Office to swallow up the Prophetical have but patience till he has made it â—…at up the Priestly Office too and then â—…e day is his own for ever Secondly He comes to Attacque the Sacerdotal Office of Christ. He was saith he a Kingly Priest Well! so he was and so he might be and yet though both the Offices center'd in his Person they might be formally distinct in their Acts special Ends and proper Objects Nay we will allow that All his Offices conspiring in the same general Ends their Acts might have mutual respect and give reciprocal assistance each to other And he could not have chosen a fitter Instance than that of Melchizedek who being King of Salem and Priest of the most high God Heb. 7. yet would it savour of too gross Absurdity to say that when he offered sacrifice or blessed Abraham he appeared in the Quality of a King or when he enacted Civil Laws he bore the Character of a Priest but our Authors Proofs are as Pertinent as his Doctrine True His Doctrine is When he offered himself a Sacrifice for sin he acted like a King p. 6. Really one would think he acted as like a Priest as we could reasonably desire For 1. Here is a Sacerdotal Act he offer'd 2. A Sacrifice Himself And 3. This was for sin And what of a King do we spell out of all this The truth is there 's nothing in all this but a pitifull Socinian Iuggle who having resolved not to own Christ as a true and proper Priest at all and yet not daring to deny express phrases of Scripture found out this Expedient to own the thing in words and then to shuffle it off with a Metaphor The Proof of his Doctrine is of the same Leaven Ioh. 10. 18. No man took his Life from him he had power to lay it down and he had power to take it up again Our Author had told us p. 2. of a crafty sort of Men in the World that consider nothing but the sound of words and from thence form such uncouth Idaea's of Religion as are fitted to the meanness of their understanding and will tell us further p. 102. of some who Interpret Scripture by the Sound and Clink of Words and Phrases And it seems the Contagion of this vanity infected his own intellectuals he found the word Power in the Text and he runs away with a full crye 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the Mischief on 't is it 's not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not a Physical but a Moral Power that Christ owns there a Power which is common to all his Offices he had Power or Commission to Preach Power or Authority to Rule and govern Power or warrant from his Father to lay down his Life for the great End that was agreed on between them both For he explains himself in the same Verse Not this Strength but This Commandement I received from my Father Nor yet is it denyed that Christ made use of his Kingly might in laying down his Life and taking it up again all we plead for is that the Offices and their peculiar Acts may not be jumbled and confounded together Thirdly Having dispatch'd out of the way the two great Eye-sores of the Prophetical and Priestly Office he thought it not amiss to send the third after them And that to which we commonly appropriate the Name of Regal Power that Authority he is vested with to govern his Church to send his Spirit to forgive sins to dispense grace and supernatural assistances to answer Prayers and raise the dead and judge the World All this is the reward of his Death and Sufferings I confess I wondre'd why he should make the Regal Office of Christ so over-top all the rest but I soon satisfied my self from Volkelius lib. 3. de verâ Relig. p. 41. Maximè Regibus id habebatur honoris ut Christi sive uncti appellarentur ita ut cum Christum dici audis Regem imprimis dici intelligas Kings had chiefly that Honour that they should be called Christs or Anoynted ones so that when you hear the Name Christ mention'd you must understand that a King is especially intended This I confess quieted me but why our Author should be so zealous to set up a King of his own making and then all o' th' sudden to pluck him down again to enthrone and dethrone at pleasure is at present to me unaccountable for I observe he has removed these great Things from his Kingly Office and placed them upon another Foundation viz. the reward of his death and sufferings Now take away Preaching the Gospel from
his Prophetical Office subtract offering himself a Sacrifice from his Sacerdotal Office and then Governing the Church raising the Dead and judging the World c. from his Regal Office and when you have done compute the clear Remainder and I suppose at the foot of the Account you will have three great Cyphers without one poor figure to give them the least significancy or value I know he will say He does but onely place them upon other Bottomes and so long as we find them what 's matter where they are found But then say I they will have but a praecarious station in any other place and he that removes them from their proper and true grounds can with a wet finger jostle them from that false Basis whereon out of meer good Nature he had for a season set them But to come closer home to our Author There are two small faults I charge this Discourse with Confusion and Falshood First Here 's a great deal of Confusion As your old dull Philosophers use to tell us that Cold did congregare Heterogenea Unite things that were of differing Names and Natures so has our Author glazed over his discourse with Ice which has so united things of various Natures that its hard to find sure footing in his Expressions Christ pardons sin upon one Account governs his Church and raises the Dead upon another The former he does by his Sacrifice the other by his almighty power And yet some of these things in one respect belong to one Office of Christ and some of them to another he purchases Grace as a Priest he dispenses and gives forth that Grace as a King he offers Sacrifice for sin as our High-priest yet he applyes the pardon of sin to us as a King But Secondly I find as much Falshood as Confusion in these Expressions and that 1. In denying that these are truely appropriated to Christs kingly Office For if Governing the Church raising the Dead Iudging the World do not speak a king never talk more of a Kingly Office in Christ but make that Metaphorical too as you make the rest and so the Tree is cut up by the roots 2. In that these are assigned only as the Reward of his Death and Suf ferings For we find Christ invested with an Authority to execute and actually executing these Powers before his Death saving in one or two particulars where the Nature of the Thing did exclude the perfect and compleat exercise of them at that time It may be worth the while to run over the particulars 1 For governing the Church he gave Laws to it set up new Institutions of Worship for it Baptism and the Lords Supper to continue to the end of the World sent out his Apostles to preach the Gospel and we have good and sufficient warrant for it under our Authors own hand just on the other side of the Leaf That his preaching the Gospel was the exercise of his Regal Power and Authority in publishing his Laws 2 For sending his Spirit that is in an extraordinary way pouring out the gifts of Miracles 't is true the full and abundant effusion of these Gifts was reserved for the day when the Son of Man should be glorified Yet it is clear beyond Contradiction that Christ had the Power and delegated the Power too before his death The Gift of speaking with Tongues there was no need of and Christ never used to bestow extraordinary Gifts without an extraordinary and pressing Reason The Apostles were sent to their own Countrey-men and could dispatch their Errand and deliver their Message in their Vernacular and Mother-tongue Math. 10. 5. Goe ye not into the way of the Gentiles and into any of the Cities of the Samaritans enter ye not but goe rather to the lost Sheep of the house of Israel But as to other miraculous Operations of the Holy Spirit he had Authority to make it over to others v. 8. Heal the sick cleanse the Lepers raise the Dead cast out Devils Nay the Seventy Disciples had an extraordinary power in their Commission as it appears Luke 10. 17. And the Seventy returned again with joy saying Even the Devils are subject to us through thy Name That is We produced thy warrant and authority and the very Devils could not resist it 3 As to forgiveness of sins there needs no other proof that Christ had the power than that he exercis'd it Matth. 9. 2. Son be of good cheer thy sins be forgiven thee I know there are some who will allow Christ a Power to forgive sins even here on Earth but then it 's such an odde kind of Forgiveness as never was heard of Volkel lib. 3. de verâ Relig. cap. 21. Non diffitemur quidem eum viz. Christum cùm in terris degerit divinissimâ potentiâ praeditum fuisse quam ipse peccatorum in terrâ condonandorum id est terrena ab hominibus supplicia propulsandi potestatem appellat We deny not that Christ even when he was upon Earth had a most divine power which he calls a Power to forgive sins that is to drive away from men temporal and bodily punishments A very liberal concession truly to cure a Fever or an Ague must be pardon of sin when these mens Necessities require it should be so 4 That Christ did dispense Grace and supernatural assistances at any time we are glad to hear owned and as sorry that they vanish again into smoke and nothing when our Author is out of the good Mood but let them signifie what he will for once he dispensed them before his death he conquered Errour and Ignorance destroy'd the Kingdom of darkness by the brightness of his Appearing erected a Throne in the Hearts and Consciences of men by the power and evidence of Truth And I suppose he will allow Christ to do no more now he is risen from the dead 5 That Christ raised the Dead needs no other Confirmation than to call over the Instances of Lazarus the Widows Son of Naim the daughter of Iairus but whether he did it with or without Authority I list not to dispute till I hear the Gentleman endeavour to disprove it 6 That he answer'd Prayers will need no proof I think it would puzzle the most froward Caviller to instance in one Case where-ever he denyed Mercy to any that with Faith or Importunity craved it for themselves or others 7 That the power to judge the World was committed to him we have his own words Ioh. 5. 27. The Father hath given him authority to execute judgement because he is the Son of Man And the ground of this Power entrusted with him is not assigned because he had merited it by his death and sufferings but because he was the Son of Man And though it be true that the General Judgement be yet to come yet Christ was furnisht with ample Power to execute it whenever it should come Say the same of his bestowing immortal Life on all his Disciples Now concerning all
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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉