both be reconciled to God and what did the removal of Ceremonies contribute to that end But says he This New-Covenant belongs to all Mankind to Gentiles as well as Iews there 's now no distinction of Persons no Man is ever the more or less accepâ—…able to God because he is a Iew or a Greek very true I wonder when ever it was otherwise Our Author could have Answered himself from p. 27. Those particular favours that God bestowed on Israel were not owing to any partial fondness and respect to that People but the design of all was to encourage the whole World to Worship the God of Israel And that the Jews were not accepted for their Ceremonial Services we may easily believe if we can but believe what he tells us Pag. 269. The Law of Moses 〈◊〉 them up in a ritual and external Religion taught them to Worship God in the Letter by Circumcision Sacrifices and an external Conformity to the Letter of the Law but the Gospel aloue teaches us to worship God with the Spirit to offer a reasonable Service to him And if he can but assure me that the Gentiles were never the less accepted of God because they were Gentiles I dare give him my Warrant that the Iews were never the more accepted of God for their Judaism according to those Measures which our Author has given of their Religion which it seems was mere Pageantry 2. Concerning Redemption he acquaints us what it signifies both to Iews and Gentiles 1. As to the Iews They says he are said to be redeemed from the Curse of the Law by the accursed Death of Christ upon the Cross Gal. 3. 13. Because the Death of Christ put an end to that legal Dispensation and sealed a New and better Covenant between God and Man It 's well he could find any thing small enough to be the proper and immediate effect of the Death of Christ but who shall reconcile the Apostle and our Author The Apostle says Christ redeemed them by being made a Curse for them Our Author says No he only put an end to that Legal Dispensation The Apostle says they were redeemed by a price paid 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He brought them out with a price which he expresses in words at length 1 Cor. 6. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ye are bought with a price No says he Christ's Death put an end to that legal Dispensation The Apostle says they were redeemed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from under the Curse No says he 't was only a freedom from the legal Dispensation Two suppositions he makes use of to give a Colour to his matters 1. Sect. That the Iews were under no other Curse but that of the Ceremonial Law Now 1. He should have been sure that the Ceremonial Law was a Curse It 's a wonder to me what grievous sins the Iews above all the World should commit that God should put them under such a Curse as should need the Death of Christ to redeem them from it especially what great Crimes had Abraham been guilty of that God should thus Curse and plague him with Circumcision which yet the Scripture calls the Seal of the Righteous Faith Rom. 4. 11. 2. It would be considered whether ever God gave a Law to any People in the World besides them that in its own Nature was a Curse Our Author once told us p. 196. That it pleased God to Institute a great many Ceremonies in the Iewish Worship to awe their Childish minds into a greater Veneration of the Divine Majesty And truly better so than worse better be frighted into Obedience than not at all Obedient But that ever God designed it for a Curse is past my apprehension 3. The Ceremonial Law in it's constitution end and design was a great Blessing there they had Pardon of sin Atonement Reconciliation exhibited and sealed to them Lev. 17 11. 2 Chron. 29. And all this could be no curse but to those who loved their sins better than the pardon of them and to such every Blessing of God would eventually prove a Curse 4. It will appear they were under a greater curse than what arose from the burden someness or their violation of the Ceremonial Law viz. That Condemnation which came upon all Men by the Fall of Adam Rom. 5. 12 13 14. 17 18 19. Such a Curse as was Common not only â—…o Iew and Gentile but to every individual under both capacities Rom. 3. 9. We have proved both Iews and Gentiles that they are all under sin ver 19. That every mouth may be stopped and all the World become guilty before God ver 23. For all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God And therefore all had need of free justification by Grace through the Redemption that is in Iesus Christ ver 24. 5. The Jews were under a curse upon the Account of their violation of the Moral Law and their not duly attending to the true ends of the Ceremonial Law but if the violation of a Law would make it become a curse then the Moral Law was become a curse too and then they had need of a Redeemer from the one as well as the other though both were blessings in themselves The Ceremonial Law in particular had this great blessing in it That as it discovered to them the demerit and Wages of sin in the slaying of the Sacrifices so it discovered a remedy two in the Sacrifices slain for them which directed them to look through them beyond them and above them to him who was the Lamb of God slain from the Foundation of the World All this was no curse 2. Sect. He supposes that the Text Gal. 3. 13. Christ hath Redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us relates onely to the Iews Whereas the Apostle adds to obviate that Cavil That the Blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles Christ is made a curse for them upon whom the Blessing of Abraham came by his Death but the Blessing of Abraham came upon the Gentiles by his Death therefore Christ is made a Curse for the Gentiles And that the Law from the curse whereof both Jews and Gentiles were Redeemed by Christs being made a Curse for them is the Moral Law I have endeavoured to evince in the last Section but whether to our Authors content or no I know not One thing more he supposes that Christs Sealing a New Covenant is Redemption But there must go more than the sealing of such a Covenant as he has described There must be the payment of a Price to Iustice or there can be no Redemption To Redeem is properly to buy back again that which was forfeited and such were Sinners Their Persons forfeited to Iustice their Mercies escheated into the hands of the Law Now comes a Redeemer and gives himself to God as a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Counter-price a valuable Consideration to Answer the demands of Justice and the claims of the Law and
despised As that they argue from Fancies and Imaginations from some pretty Allusions Similitudes and Allegories which have no certain shape Yet I am well assured that no man was ever more firmly bounden and indebted to an Allegory than our Author unless I saw him clapt up for one upon Execution in the Kings-Bench pag. 6. He did but meet with the word Salem upon the Road and he presently spies the New Ierusalem coming down from Heaven in it pag. 161. He had heard that Eve was taken out of Adams side and he sets his Allegorical Machine awork and hales the Church taken out of Christs crucified Body Out on 't Though to Qualifie the Matter he says it was but with a Quasi as it were or if he might so say but by and by he grows more flesht with Success and Peremptorily concludes That the Church is taken out of the crucified Body of Christ which says he in the Mystical sence answers to the Womans being taken out of the Man and from this pretty Allusion grounds his Interpretation of Ephes. 5. 30. 1 Col. 21. 22. Although the state of Innocency had no proper instituted Types however the passages of Gods Providence therein may be accommodated by the Penmen of the Holy Scriptures Infallibly inspired to Illustrate Evangelical Verities But let a taste of these things stay the Readers Stomach a while and if his Mouth waters at such Theology he shall have his Belly full even to Surfeit of such Luscious Allegories in due time Thus much to his first Argument taken from the uncertainty of this way of arguing 2. His second Reason follows drawn also from the uncertainty of this way of arguing For thus his Argument runs This way of reasoning will serve any mans turn Which is nothing but the uncertainty of it and had not our Author who alway argues as occasion serves from the Essential differences of things told us it was another reason it might have Militated under the colours of the former But he puts in a Caveat against all the World but himself and his Brethren For though it will serve any mans turn yet you must always Interpret it with this restriction who have any Quickness and Vigour of Fancy which clearly cuts out all the rest of Mankind as shall appear from the Fag end of this Section What remains of this Discourse is laid out upon the Equipping of another Scheme of Religion from an acquaintance with Christs Person Where in the Quickness and Vigour of his Fancy doe Triumph The World shall now see I that they shall what other-guise work our Author can make on 't when he comes to the Trimming of this Matter than those clumzy Fellows ever could who have attempted that way and shall see that Scanderbags Sword and Arm together can work Wonders It 's ordinary to find the Physitians Trencher loaden with that Meat which he Prohibits his Patient upon pain of Death If any else had presum'd to have finger'd this Theme he had got a rap o th' Knuckles and yet here we find our Author up to the Elbows in 't Great Spirits know how to give Laws to others and yet themselves to Live above them I have openly owned it that this Section is unanswerable and that my Reader may not Censure me for a Dictator I am Obliged to give him an Account of the Impregnableness of it The Scheme which he here presents us withal is not supposed to be his own Iudgment but meerly an Imitation of other Mens way though the Copy out-doe the Original If therefore any one shall Essay to Answer it he comes over you I did but play the Fool because I supposed others had done so and I was willing to let you see I could do it as neatly as another To meddle therefore with the substrate Matter and main Doctrine thereof would be lost Labour to Examine whether it be stufft with Orthodox or Heterodox propositions shall be all one to me but one thing I confess I am tempted to search into because he Boasts so highly of his Skill in it how easie it is to present us with many more Schemes with fair Colours Exact and regular Proportions and artificial Connexions viz. Whether there be that regular proportion betwixt his Confidence and his Performance whether he has put such fair Colours upon things but that the Morphew of the skin shines through the Ceruss whether his Matters be Linckt together with such artificial connexions Or whether the Sun in the Firmament and as the Battoon in the Chimney coâ—…ner do not as well shake hands that is whether the Wind-Mill be not alive for all Don Quixot 1. He tells us Since we see Christ come in the Nature and Likeness of a Man nothing dreadful in his Countenance having all the sweetness of Innocency his Miracles Great and Glorious but not Frightful and Astonishing his Almighty Power displai'd in Methods of Love and Kindness healing the Sick dispossessing Devils c. From all this we may safely Conclude He came upon an Embassy of Peace to assure the World of Gods good Will to them and to Reconcile the Differences betwixt God and Man Now for my own part my Eyes are not a whit Dazled with the fairness of his colours nor my Thoughts much ravisht with the exactness of the Symmetry of this Piece For 1. It 's very Disproportionable to his main assertion How unsafe and dangerous it is to found Religion upon an acquaintance with Christs Person Whereas in this Period he assures us We may safely conclude thence that Christ was an Ambassador of Peace that he came to reconcile the Differences betwixt God and Man Which I promise you makes a shrewd Hole in Religion 2. It bears no better proportion to its self for I hope the Reader has not forgotten how he is Erecting a Scheme of Religion from an acquaintance with Christs Person not taking in Gospel Revelation Now here he supposes Christ to have been the Eternal Son of God leaving his Fathers Throne coming into the World which he could never have concluded from his Person had he seen him in the flesh unless the Mystery of it had been revealed to him from above Math. 16. 16 17. Thou art Christ the Son of the Living God Blessed art thou Simon Bar-Iona for flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee but my Father which is in Heaven 3. He pretends to gather Christs design in coming into the World from his Person Miracles Behaviour and sweet demeanoâ—… towards men yet here we want Proportion if we may believe himself pag. 76. Had we seen Christ in the flesh and been witnesses of the many Miracles he wrought of his Death upon the Cross and his Resurrection from the dead had he not acquainted us with the End and Design of all this we might have ghess'd our selves weary and never have hit upon the right But Now what a happy change is here we may safely Conclude now who could not sorrily Ghesse
but the working of heated Fancy and Religious Distraction that to speak of Christs beauty loveliness fulness and preciousness are but Romantick Descriptions of him That is All is Fancy that comports not with his own extravagant Whimsâ—…y The Knowledge of Christ informs our Judgements affects our Hearts reforms our Lives and it will argue little love to our Redeemer if we entertain meaner thoughts of him by loud Clamour and impotent Reflections upon him 2. It moves their Passions and if we be a little passionately affected with the love of our Redeemer it 's a pardonable Errour When our Author would curry favour with his Reader and perswade him that for all his scandalous Expressions he was no Enemy to Christ he could say as much as that came to p. 184 185. This is a Sacrament wherein we celebrate the Love of our dying Lord and express our most passionate Love to him Here is Love passionate and most passionate Love and yet others Passions must not be moved for fear they set the Town on fire 3. They find great breakings of heart I would we experienc'd them more upon Condition we were ten times more reviled for them but I cannot well conceive how the Heart should be broken from sin that is not broken for sin and though this is grown so despicable a Matter in his eyes yet we have this Relief that a broken and contrite heart God will not despise 4. But they melt and dissolve into Tears when they remember what their Lord suffer'd for them They are content he should be called their Lord if others renounce him they are willing to own him It 's better to be reproached in this World that they have a Saviour than condemned in the next World because they have none and let it be their and all our Cares that Men may not hate us for professing Christ and God too because we do but profess him But is it so heynous a Crime to weep at the remembrance of what Christ suffer'd for us We pray that God would fulfill upon us that Promise Zech. 12. 10. That he would pour out his Spirit upon us that we may look upon him whom we have pierced and mourn over him and for him as one mourns for an onely Son and we say with Holy Herbert If thou hast no Sighs nor Tears Would thou hadst no Sins nor Fears Who hath These Those ill forbears But 5. They see him hang upon the Cross and have all his Agonies and dying groans in their ears Well if Faith represents to us a crucifyed Christ the Galatians were not called foolish upon that Account When we read that Christ was amazed and sore troubled that his Soul was exceeding sorrowfull even to death that it express'd from his Body clods of Blood all the Question is whether we ought to Read these things between sleeping and waking or get the most lively and powerfull Impressions of them upon our Souls The Primitive Church used to pray 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 libera nos Domine And the Present Church of England By thine Agony and bloody Sweat by thy Cross and Passion good Lord deliver us 6. They Curse their Sins that nayled him there The truth is they do not bless their Sins for crucifying Christ though he was a Person above our Authors scorn that used that Hyperbole Foelix Peccatum quod peperit Christum But sin has proved so dishonourable to our God so wounding to Christ so grievous to the Spirit so bitter to the Conscience that we would say the worst by it we can on this side Cursing And this we have good Authority for pag. 185. The Memory of what Christ has done and suffered excites in us a just Hatred of our sins So that were we but Masters of his Regular Proportions could we but find the just Measure of the Hatred of sin and Nick it exactly betwixt too much and too little hatred of sin we might escape the severity of his Censure Hitherto we have been taught That the just Measure of loving Christ is to love him without Measure and the just Measure of the Hatred of sin is to hate it without Measure but our Author good Man is very solicitous least we should over-love Christ or over-hate our iniquities 7. They tremble at the Thoughts of the Naturalness of Gods vindictive Iustice to him And if they doe consider God as one of purer eyes than to behold Iniquity if they do view his Holiness and in the sense of their own vileness cry out Woe is me for I am undone because I am a Man of unclean lips As good as they or he have trembled at 〈◊〉 sight of this Glorious Holy and Righteous Judge 8. But they feel all the Horrors and Agonies of damned Spirits I knew we should have a Rapper before we had done Is this the Fruit of Acquaintance with Christ I question not but a Cain a Iudas a Spira may have felt in this Life something of the horrours of the Damned The Apostle denounces some such dreadfull vengeance against Renegadoes from the Christian Faith Heb. 10. That there remains no more Sacrifice for sin but a certain fearfull looking for of Iudgement and fiery Indignation to devour the Adversaries v. 26 27. But these despairing horrours proceed not from an experimental Knowledge of Christ as our Author either ignorantly dreams or maliciously calumniates but from an Ignorance of him the true design of his Death in Reconciling God and Man This is one of their Extreams for at other times they are ravish'd with his Love charm'd and captivated with his Beauty refresht and ravisht with his Comforts c. It is easie to observe that our Author alwayes writes pro re natâ just as the present occasion invites him for he will tell you p. 396. That the Soul many times feels such great and Ravishing delights in all the Acts of Religion as infinitely excell all the pleasures of Sense they relish great Pleasure and Satisfaction in the sense of Gods Goodness P. 397. They must needs feel sometimes such divine Touches and Impressions as are the Effects if I may so speak of a mutual Love and Sympathy And had these men but the Happiness to have express'd themselves in his very words and Syllables they might have said either the worst or best of Religion they had pleased without Rebuke But all this he tells us may be no more than the working of a warm and Enthusiastick Fancy but then if it should prove the work of the Holy and Blessed Spirit which he ascribes to Fancy and Conceit how near it may come to the sin of those who ascribed that to Beelzebub which was effected by the Finger of God I must leave to his serious Consideration Enthusiasm is much reproached and little understood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Enthusiasme is when the Mind is wholly enlightned by God In which sence I pray God make us all Enthusiasts And let the End of all that Ioy and Satisfaction that we have
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
Church believed at all adventures right or wrong he has introduced another full as easie The Belief of the Resurrection of Christ from the Dead A Faith happily contrived for the Genius of this sparing Age which saves us two parts in three of Christ's Offices and eleven parts in twelve of our very Creed 3. Let it be modestly examined also whether To be justified through Faith in the Blood of Christ and to be justified by believing that God raised up Christ from the Dead â—…e expressions of the same importance If they be then we may be said to be reconciled to God by the Resurrection and that Christ in being raised from the Dead was made sin for us a Sacrifice for sin and it 's something strange that none of the Apostles could hit upon such expressions as might recommend them and their writings to our Author's Charity 4. Let it be considered also whether Christ's Resurrection was the last Argument he gave to confirm the Truth of the Gospel I think his visible Appearance to his Disciples after his Resurrection and those Miraculous Operations he then put forth his Ascension into Heaven whilst his Disciples looked on his pouring out the Spirit upon the Apostles enabling them to speak with Tongues his empowering them to work Miracles many years after his Resurrection and Ascension were all Confirmations of the Truth of his Gospel and all subsequent to his Resurrection 5. Let it have a place in our Thoughts too seeing Christ's Resurrection was the great Confirmation of his Doctrine without which all the rest and especially his Death had been no Confirmation of it and yet Atonement Propitiation Reconciliation Redemption are not ascribed to it whether the Death of Christ to which all these are ascribed have an Influence upon our Acceptance with God only as it confirms his Doctrine It is strange that the Apostles should word matters so crosly to attribute those things to the Death of Christ which do most properly belong to the Resurrection and those things to the Resurrection which do most properly belong to his Death And all-out as strange that our Author should make such a noise with Atonement Reconciliation Redemption and ascribe all these to his Death when-as upon the sole-Reason of his Ascribing them to that Death they are much more rationally applicable to his Resurrection There are some well-meaning Souls no doubt that have read our Author's Book who finding such Glorious things ascribed to the Death of Christ Iustification by his Blood Redemption by his Blood Reconciliation by his Blood lift up their Eyes and cry out What pitty it is that such a sweet young Gentleman that has written such a precious Piece of Union Communion Sacrifice Atonement Redemption and Reconciliation stuft so full with Orthodox Propositions should be taken upon suspicion for a Socinian and yet when we come to scan these fine words they prove nothing but a company of sweet Flowers stuck about his Dead Body And to be justified by Faith in the Blood of Christ is no more but to believe that Christ is a Prophet sent to reveal God's Will to us The Conclusion of the whole Matter then will be this If the Death of Christ has no other influence upon our Acceptance with God but that it confirms to us this Truth That God will pardon and save them that believe and obey the Gospel it has no influence at all upon God for that End for which I refer my self to the Reader and the Reader to the foregoing Discourse He goes on Hence is it also that the Apostles attribute such things to the Blood of Christ as are the proper and immediate Effects of the Gospel-Covenant and therefore all the Blessings of the Gospel are owing to the Blood of Christ because the Gospel-Covenant it self was procured and confirmed by the Blood of Christ. I am now perfectly cured of my Ambition to be one of the Corporation of your Rational Divines and if this be Reason I do by these presents renounce it for ever Here are two words Hence and Therefore which always pretend to inference and conclusion I shall examine how well they make good their Pretences First Hence I pray whence Out of what Premises is this Conclusion deduced That the Apostles attribute such things to the Blood of Christ as are the Proper and Immediate Effects of the Gospel-Covenant Let us look back as far as fairly we may To be justified by Faith by the Faith of Christ by Christ by his Blood c. signifie one and the same thing and Hence it is that the Apostles attribute such things to the Blood of Christ c. And really turn it quite backwards and it will conclude as strongly The Apostles attribute such things to the Blood of Christ as are the proper and immediate Effects of the Gospel Covenant and 〈◊〉 it is that To be justified by Faith by the Faith of Christ by Christ by his Blood c. signify one and the same thing Now when he can once bring matters into this Posture he is safe and out of the Gun-shot of Reply for which way soever you come to attaque him you must deny the Conclusion But let us leave out the Hence and consider the words absolutely The Apostles attribute such things to the Blood of Christ as are the proper and immediate Effects of the Gospel-Covenant To which I answer 1. It 's just as easie for another if he had but a Licence to say The Apostles attribute such things to the Gospel-Covenant as are the proper and immediate Effects of the Blood of Christ and with better Reason because whatever acceptation our Services and Duties our Repentance and Obedidience find with God is clearly assigned to the Blood of Christ. But 2. This is a foul scandalous slander which he throws upon the Apostles they give to the Blood of Christ it s own proper and immediate Effects they rob not Repentance and Obedience to adorn the Sacrifice of Christ with borrowed Plumes They give to Christ the things that are Christ's and to Faith Repentance and Obedience the things that are Theirs They ascribe our Redemption to the Blood of Christ as a proper Price paid to God and they ascribe to Faith it s own Efficiency to interest us in the Benefits of that Redemption They ascribe Reconciliation to the Blood of Christ as its immediate proper Effect without any intervening Act of the Creature for that End and they ascribe to Faith Repentance and Obedience their proper and immediate Concerns to put us into the actual and full Possession of all the Fruits of that Reconciliation made with God They attribute Pardon of Sin to the Blood of Christ who was made sin for us an expiatory Sacrifice to remove guilt that is the Obligation of the Sinner to punishment and they attribute the Application of that Pardon unto Individuals unto Faith as that whereby we receive Christ and all his Benefits 3. If these be the proper and