troubled and what shall I say Father save me from this hour but for this cause came I unto this hour John 12. 27. And to what end came he unto it but to destroy Sin by the Sacrifice of himself upon the Altar of the Cross that Men might die unto Sin and live unto Righteousness whose Fruit is everlasting Life for so the two chief Apostles plainly tell us Now once in the end of the World hath he appeared to put away sin by the Sacrifice of himself Hebr. 9. 26. Who his own self bare our sins in his own Body on the Tree that we being dead to sin should live unto Righteousness by whose Stripes ye were healed 1 Pet. 2. 24. Knowing this that our Old Man is crucified with him that the Body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin Rom. 6. 6. That he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live to themselves but unto him which died for them and rose again 2 Cor. 5. 15. Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all Iniquity and purifie unto himself a People zealous of good Works Tit. 2. 14. For if the Blood of Bulls and of Goats and the Ashes of an Heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifieth to the purifying of the Flesh how much more shall the Blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without Spot to God purge your Conscience from dead Works to serve the living God Heb. 9. 13 14. Which Scriptures since they evidently prove that Christ came into the World to undergo Death that by virtue thereof we might die unto Sin and live unto Righteousness or be converted from our wicked Courses to lead a godly Life what I have now only remaining to do is to prove Secondly That there is no Condemnation to those who forsaking their sins turn unto God or that are converted from the Love of the World and worldly Vanities to the Love of God for the certainty of the truth whereof we have the Testimony of Truth it self assuring us He that hath my Commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and will manifest my self to him John 14. 21. And a little after If a Man love me he will keep my Words and my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him Ver. 23. And St. Paul in express words saith There is therefore now no Condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit Rom. 8. 1. Nor is the truth of this Doctrine averred only by Scripture but it is also evident to Human Reason for since Sin is the privation of the due Love of God in the Soul through the inordinate Love of the World Sect. 8. Par. 2 3 4. and that everlasting Misery is the necessary effect of the perpetual continuance in sin after this Life Sect. 7. Par. 1 2 3 4 5. 't is as manifestly impossible that he who has forsaken the Love of the World for the Love of God should eternally perish unless he relapse and die in mortal sin by leaving again the Love of God for the Love of the World as it is impossible that the same Man should love the World above God and God above the World both together to eternity For what end Christ died for us suffered for us bare our sins in his own Body upon the Tree for us the Word of God it self having expresly shewn viz. That we being dead unto Sin should live unto Righteousness 1 Pet. 2. 24. there is no need for the explicating those Expressions that Christ either really transferred our sins from us to himself or took upon him the Punishment due to our sins being the perpetual Loss of Heaven and the everlasting Pains of Hell to assert any of which would be no less than Blasphemy 'T is abundantly enough that in regard Christ is ΘεάνθÏωπος God-man he underwent so much in behalf of Sinners that his unexpressible Sufferings are a truly meritorious i. e. an efficacious efficient cause of cleansing us from sin of justifying us and of bringing us to Glory which they effectually are to as many as through a vigorous Faith rightly weigh the Value of them whilst the due Consideration of the immense and unmerited Love of Christ to Man manifested chiefly in his bitter and ignominious Death constraineth Men to forsake all worldly Pleasures for the Blessed Enjoyment of so gracious and stupendiously loving a God and Saviour accordingly as St Paul averreth saying For the love of God constraineth us because we thus judge that if one died for all then were all dead and that he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which died for them and rose again 2 Cor. 5. 14 15. which words are thus cleared unto us by the learned Dr. Hammonds Paraphrase on the place For our Love to Christ founded on his to us hath us in its Power to make us do whatsoever it will have us making this Argument from this certain acknowledged truth of Christs having died for all Men that then certainly all Men are Sinners lapsed in a lost Estate and so hopeless unless they use some means to get out of that Estate which that he might help us to do was the Design of Christ's dying for all that we might having received by his Death Grace to lead a new Life live no longer after our own Lusts and Desires but in Obedience to his Commands that died and rose again to that end to bless us in turning every man from his Iniquities Acts 3. 26. 'T is clear then from what hath been said that our Conversion to God was the very Design of Christ's Crucifixion to the end we might be eternally saved and not that he might so suffer for us as to really transfer our Sins or the Punishment thereof from our Persons to his own which that the words he bare our sins in his own Body on the Tree so very much urged and insisted on by some do not necessarily import may be certainly gathered from another Text not unlike to this When the Even was come they brought unto him many that were possessed with Devils and he cast out the Spirits with his word and healed all that were sick that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the Prophet saying himself took our Infirmities and bare our Sicknesses Matth. 8. 16 17. for none questionless will affirm that Christ transferred the Infirmities and Sicknesses of those whom he cured to his own Body from theirs When it is therefore said that Christ bare our Sins and bare our Infirmities it is to be understood that he really cured both and as truly by virtue of his Death takes away sin and the eternal Punishment thereof from all that by Faith apply it to themselves as he took away diverse Infirmities by his Word from several who believed on him so that the Socinians injuriously and blasphemously deny the Divine Power and efficacy of the infinitely meritorious and satisfactory Sacrifice of our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ upon the Cross for the Redemption of Man who by the eternal Love of GOD the FATHER through the Merits of GOD the SON apprehended by Faith wrought in the Heart by GOD the HOLY GHOST is effectually delivered from the miserable Thraldom of Sin Sathan and Damnation for which ineffable undeserved Kindness is of Right therefore perpetually to be given to that ever adorable TRIN-VNI DEO GLORIA
1. 'T is a Maxim That men cannot desire what they know is impossible to be had which if true the damned cannot retain any affection for the things of this world because they are certain they must never return to earth to get possession of them Solut. That Maxim is true only of as many as are governed by right Reason but not of such as are overborn by Passion or Wilfulness For wherefore should the ambitious man's heart burst through grief for the loss of Honour if he either hoped to be restored to it again or that his Affections were taken off it since none kill themselves with Sorrow while there is hope of having what they wish nor grieve for want of that which they have no desire to When the Miser has lost his Gold if he either saw an appearance of getting it again or found a willingness in his Mind to forget it he would not be so hasty as for dispatch sake to be his own Executioner Nor is the poysonous Cup acceptable to the distressed Lover because his Mistress is not at hand but because his hopes of enjoying her is at an end and yet his desire of mutual Embraces is no whit lessened but more enlarged thereby And if the Maxim hold not good in those and other vicious men while in the Flesh neither will it when they are departed hence seeing their Affections are so far from leaving them that they are encreased and become more vehement by the Souls being separated from its Body of lumpish Earth Object 2. There be several Places in holy Scripture where Hell is set forth by such a Fire as seems plainly to denote an external material Fire as the Furnace of Fire Mat. 13. 42. Vnquenchable Fire Mark 9. 43. The Lake of Fire Revel 20. 15. The Flames of Hell therefore are not an internal but an external Fire Solut. Since the Reasons given above shew that the Demned are most grievously tormented with the internal and unquenchable Flames of their own ardent and perpetually frustrated Desires the Furnace of Fire and the Lake of Fire spoken of in Scripture must either be another Hell of tormentive Flames or else but Expressions fitted to the Capacities of the generality of the People who are to be taught in Words adapted to their Understandings to signifie unto them the extremity of the Pain and Misery which vicious men for ever suffer after Death But that there are more Hell-Fires than of one kind mentioned in Scripture is no where I think to be met with in it And in regard the Torments of Hell are described likewise by the Worm that dieth not Mark 9. 44. by weeping and gnashing of Teeth as also by outer Darkness Mat. 22. 13. as well as in the other Places by Fire and that these Expressions are certainly Tropical since a Worm cannot gnaw upon the Souls of the Damned which yet are held to endure the Pains of Hell before their re-union to the Body that Spiritual Substances cannot really shed Tears nor gnash Teeth and that there is no Darkness amidst abundance of material Fire it will be I presume an hard matter to produce a convincing Argument why the Furnace of Fire and the Lake of Fire must of necessity be literally understood especially seeing the Damned endure intolerable Pain though there be no external Punishment at all in any sort whatsoever inflicted on them Add hereunto that whereas in Matth 5. 22. it is written Whosoever shall say unto his Brother thou Fool shall be in danger of Hell-Fire Dr. Hammond has it in the Margin liable to the Fire in the Valley of Hinnom which Fire being long since extinct cannot in a Literal Sense signifie the tormentive Flames of Hell. Besides why the Pleasures and Joys of Heaven should be mystically represented in the 21st and 22d Chapters of the Revelation of St. John and yet the Pains and Torments of Hell set forth by Fire in the 20th Chapter should admit of none but a Literal Interpretation is a thing unaccountable If Reply were made that the Apocalyps is wholly Mysterious whereas other Scriptures are so only here and there I would retort That then the Lake of Fire Revel 20. 15. is not to be understood according to the Letter no more than the pleasant Objects of Delight Rev. 21 and 22. quoted before of the New Jerusalem which if so by Hell-Fire in other Places of Sacred Writ is not meant a material Fire except the Lake of Fire in the Revelation and the Furnace of Fire in St. Matthew and unquenchable Fire in St. Mark relate not all to one and the same manner of Torment which if any one will say they do not let him bring a convincing Reason for so doing and be believed Lastly Whereas if Hell-Fire be a Torment externally forced on the wicked several Difficulties to my apprehension insuperable offer themselves as First How a material Substance can immediately act on an immaterial which is not essentially united with it Secondly Why a finite Act or a Thing done and past should be punished with endless Pain And Thirdly Wherefore the Creator should eternally afflict his Creature for no good at all to himself for doing of that which can neither really harm nor grieve him especially since that which men call Vindicative Justice cannot in Reason be exercised either by God or Man as shall hereafter be made appear in the 10th Section But in this other way of mens frustrated vicious desires tormenting themselves there 's no need of those or any such like strange and unreasonable Suppositions while the damned are their own Tormentors and yet voluntarily persist in those desires wherewith they are tormented because in the Object of them is their conceived Felicity placed For the Covetous Ambitious Voluptuous or Revengeful Mind could not at all relish the spiritual Joys of Heaven nor would exchange what it more values for the full Fruition and perpetual possession of them according to that which we find elegantly said by the Author of the Causes of the Decay of Christian Piety Alas what Delight would it be to the Swine to be wrapped in fine Linnen and laid in Odors his Senses are not gratified by any such Delicacies nor would he feel any thing besides the Torment of being withheld from the Mire And as little Complacency would a Brutish Soul find in those purer and refined Pleasures which can only upbraid not satisfie him But what still more confirms the Truth of that which has been writ in this Section according to the Doctrin asserted in it Heaven and Hell are directly set against each other and the several ways that lead unto them diametrically opposite to one another For the Joys of Heaven are the fulfilling the Souls desires in the fruition of the really chief Good of man. The Torments of Hell the Frustration of the Souls desires of some falsly supposed Chief Good. Virtue the Way of Bliss is the preferring the Love of God before the Love of the World.
had never been recovered from his lost Condition to have attained the end of his Creation if God himself had not undertaken the great and otherwise insuperable Work of his Recovery by being made Man and in doing and suffering what he did to regain his Love. And therefore lastly whereas Christs bloody Death and Passion was the strongest and most endearing Argument and Motive of all other Testimonies of his stupendious Love to man for drawing his Affections off from the Love of the World to the Love of God which is the purging away of Sin the shedding of Christs pretious Blood on the Cross is said to be a Sacrifice for Sin that is for the putting or taking away of Sin even as the sacred Text it self directly asserteth He appeared to put away Sin by the Sacrifice of himself Hebr. 9. 26. Hence it is that mans Redemption and Salvation are so frequently attributed to Christs Death on the Cross it being the most remarkable Instance of his Love and thereupon the potentest Motive of all others to win mans firm Affection to himself For that our Blessed Saviours Incarnation and whatsoever he either did or suffered in his Manhood are likewise real Causes of mans Redemption and Salvation the Churches Litany assures us in which we pray to be delivered from all Sin and Mischief from the Crafts and Assaults of the Devil from the Wrath of God and from everlasting Damnation by the Mystery of Christs holy Incarnation by his holy Nativity and Circumcision by his Baptism Fasting and Temptation by his Agony and Bloody Sweat by his glorious Resurrection and Ascension and by his sending of the Holy Ghost aswell as by his Cross and Passion Object 6. If after all the Endeavour that hath been used to frame Arguments to solve Objections and to explicate how mans Redemption Reconciliation and Salvation are in a true scriptural Sense wrought by Christ for clearing the Assertion that the sincere habitual Love of God or Charity is the Formal Cause of Justification it be found that the Assertion it self is repugnant to the 11th Article of our Religion wherein it is said that we are justified by Faith only for the Merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ all that has been done is nothing better not to say worse then labour in vain Solut. That Christ's Doings and Sufferings which constitute his Merit are a real Cause of mans Justification has been both asserted and proved in this Section so that if any difference be between what the 11th Article teaches and what is averred by me concerning Justification 't is only after what manner the Merit of Christ justifies a Sinner namely whether as an Efficient or a Formal Cause And yet even as to this also there will be found no difference when the matter is well discussed For I stedfastly hold and maintain together with the Article that Christ's Merit is apprehended and applied to a Sinner for his Justification by Faith only whilst he firmly believes that God through them will according to his free Promise in the Gospel deliver him from the Slavery of Sin and the Consequent of it everlasting Misery so that in regard it is the Grace of Faith alone which draws the Merit of Christ home to a Christians Soul whence it becomes an effectual Motive to gain his Affections in turning them from the false Pleasures of the World unto God the sole true Delight of the Soul which is to be an efficient Cause of cleansing the Heart from Sin through Charity it must needs be that in this sense we are justified for the Merit of Christ by Faith only And that the 11th Article of Religion is to be understood in this sense seems clear both from the words wherein it is expressed and from the Churches Homily referred to for a fuller explication of what they intend The words of the Article are these We are accounted righteous before God only for the Merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by Faith and not for our own Works or Deservings Wherefore that we are justified by Faith alone is a most wholsome Doctrine and very full of Comfort as more largely is expressed in the Homily of Justification Here 't is plain that our Blessed Saviour is affirmed to be the meritorious Cause of Justification and it is undeniably true that aswell Divines as Philosophers place a Meritorious Cause among the efficient Causes whence the learned Prelate Forbesius writeth thus Justitia Christi nos justificari ut Causa formali atque etiam meritoria ut asserunt qui priorem tuentur sententiam nempe Christi Justitiam esse Causam formalem Justificationis dici non potest nequit enim fieri ut eadem res sit simul Causa efficiens ad quam Meritum reducitur Formalis ejusdem effecti quia sic simul de essentia effecti foret non foret cum Causa formulis sit interna 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 efficiens autem externa uti constat Considerationes modestae pacificae Lib 2. Cap. 3. Paragr 5. Seeing then it is impossible that a Meritorious Cause should be a Formal Cause and that in the 11th Article no mention is made of a Formal Cause it remains that the Merit of Christ spoken of in the Article is either an efficient Cause of Mans Justification or else none at all And the same is likewise manifest from the Churches Homily referred to in the Article in which we read Part 2. Par. 4. as follows You shall understand that in our Justification by Christ it is not all one thing the Office of God unto Man and the Office of Man unto God. Justification is not the Office of Man but of God or Man cannot make himself righteous by his own Works neither in part nor in the whole for that were the greatest Arrogancy and Presumption of Man that Antichrist could set up against God to affirm that Man might by his own Works take away and purge his own Sins and so justifie himself What can well be more plain unless it were expressed in the very Language of the Schools then that God is here affirmed and Man denied to be the efficient Cause of his Justification But Justification is the Office of God only and is not a thing which we render to him but which we receive of him not which we give to him but which we take of him by his free mercy and by the only merits of his most dearly beloved Son our only Redeemer Saviour and Justifier Jesus Christ Here the free Mercy of God and the Merits of Christ are put together as Causes of the same kind and who is ignorant that the free Mercy of God is an efficient Cause only of Justification so that the true understanding of this Doctrine We be freely justified by Faith without Works or that we be justified by Faith in Christ only is not that this our own Act to believe in Christ or this our Faith in Christ which is