of splitting upon that Rock They might have taken warning from the Churches Confession Isa. 64. 6. We are all as an unclean thing and all our Righteousnesses are as filthy rags All the warning in the World signifies nothing to them that are resolved to interpret Our own Righteousness by Ceremony and Hypocrisie Had Christ inculcated the danger even to Tautology all may be evaded by that happy Gloss which he keeps Leiger by him True indeed he warns us to beware of our own Righteousness but he intends no more hereby than the works of the Ceremonial and external acts of the Moral Law 3. Christ had indeed given them fair warning but if they will not take it the sin must lie at their own doors and the Condemnation upon their own heads Luke 18. 9. He spake a Parable to them that trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others c. Now it may seasonably be here remembred 1. What was the design of this Parable And that the Evangelist tells us was to meet with them that trusted in themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 men that presumed very highly upon their own Abilities to answer the Law of God and therefore despised others who made such a stir about their own Impotency to keep it and kept such a coyl about the shortness of their obedience to it like the poor Publican who being conscious to himself of both makes his retreat to and shelters himself in the free Grace and rich Mercy of God to miserable sinners 2. It will be seasonable to enquire What that Righteousness was upon which the Pharisee in the Parable so stiffly insisted as that in which he durst adventure to appear before God And that as our Saviour puts the case was a Righteousness made up of obedience to Gods Commands And those both Prohibitory he was no Extortioner no Adulterer no Unjust Person and Affirmatively he paid his Tythes exactly which will go a great way and fasted twice a-week 3. Let it be considered that however many of the Pharisees of those days were Hypocrites yet our Saviour frames his Parable of a Pharisee not according to what many of them were but what they seemed to be and were reputed for amongst men who admired their Sanctity and reverenced their Devotions and therefore he describes not a Person acting his part well upon the Stage but living up to very high Attainments of Nature For 1. The duties instanced in are only some particulars in the name of all the rest He instances in his praying to and praising of God which comprehend all the duties of the First Table His freedom from Adultery Extortion and in a word from Injustice which is the whole of the Second Table Again He instances in duties of the Iudicial Law paying Tythes and of the Ceremonial Fasting with a little touch perhaps of Supereragation Twice in the week 2. When Christ introduces a person saying he was no Adulterer we may reasonably suppose he taught him to speak in the proper sense of the word which Christ himself allows Now in Christ's Dialect to be no Adulterer is not to commit it with the heart Mat. 5. still abating for Humane Frailties And 3. This is evident because our Savióur describes not this Pharisee as praying in the corners of the streets or in the Synagogues to be seen of men but in obedience to God's Command Going up to the Temple to pray and there praying to God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his own heart between God and his own Soul All which evidently prove that our Saviour puts not the case of a stinking Hypocrite but of one who went as far as Natures legs would carry him But 4. The miscarriage of this Pharisee lay not in this that he was what he pretended he was not or was not what he pretended he was but that he trusted to himself for a Righteousness to be compounded out of all these Ingredients wherein he would dare to stand before God and in despising others which is the natural Product of Self-Righteousness And yet upon our Author's Principles I see not why he might not trust to himself that he was Righteous if Righteousness be to be made out of Obedience and despise others too since his own free-will exerted and natural strength improved had made him differ from another even from that Publican But yet 4. There 's one Prejudice more remaining which perhaps may stick more with him than all the rest He is apt to admire our Saviour's Sermons in the first place before the Writings of the Apostles though inspired men I should be loth to weaken his Admiration of our Saviours Sermons But he may do well to examine Whether his Aptness to admire them before other Sermons given forth by the same Spirit may not proceed from great Ignorance or a worse Principle For though our Saviour's Person had more Authority than the Persons of the Apostles yet the Writings of the Apostles are of equal Authority with those of the Evangelists to command our Faith and Obedience The Epistles of S. Iohn are indited by the same Spirit by which hepenned the Gospel 'T is the Authority of Christ in both the Infallible Spirit speaking in both which are the Reason of our Belief of both All Scripture is given by Divine Inspiration 2 Tim. 3. 18. The same Spirit of Christ that spake in the Prophets of the Old-Testament and the Apostles in the New 1 Pet. 1. 11. And such Comparisons must needs be very odious where the Spirit of God has made none But the total sum of all these Prejudices we shall have in one Dilemma Did not our Saviour instruct his Hearers in all things necessary to Salvation or have the Evangelists given us an imperfect account of his Doctrine If the first then our Saviour was not faithful in the discharge of his Prophetical Office If the latter you overthrow the Credit of the Gospel Well! I hope we may out-live this horned-Argument for all the terrour of its looks 1. Christ was faithful in his Prophetical Office he instructed his Hearers in all things necessary to Salvation But then there are some great and weighty Doctrines which it was necessary to the Salvation of the Gentile World to know wherein the Iewish Church had been sufficiently instructed already The Doctrine of Atoning God making Reconciliation for sin expiating Transgressions was abundantly clear from their Sacrifices The Theory of God's justifying a sinner was evident from thence they knew what Imputation signified by the transferring of the guilt of the sinner upon the head of the Sacrifice And therefore when Christ came his main business with the Jews was to convince them that he was the Messiah promised of old and typified in their Sacrifices His Work they knew all the Question was Whether he was the Person Matth. 11. 3. Art thou he that should come or do we look for another Joh. 10. 24. If thou beest the Christ tell us plainly Christ's Sermons
when a Serpent swallows a Serpent he becomes a Dragon What then could we expect less than Legion from the Teeming Womb of such Big-bellied Monsters For though in point of Argument his Mountain is often delivered of a Mouse yet in point of Errour his Mouse alwayes brings forth a Mountain 2 It was a Spur to my duller Temper to Observe how he had raked all the Kennels and common Sewers of Friendly Debates Ecclesiastical Polities which with Martial Law and Civil War make up the Four great Soloecismes of this last Age and borrowed Auxiliaries from the Scavinger to compose an Oleo to throw in the Faces of the Innocent some of the particulars the Reader will find wiped off by these Papers and returned with that Correction and Chastisement which it became me to give them though not with what they deserved to Receive but for fouling my fingers with them all I must beg Excuse it had been a work no less irksome and tedious than the cleansing of Augaea's Stable and no otherwise to be effected than by Letting in the Thames from Billings-gate through Buttolph-lane Yet one Instance of the Many omitted and one is too much for a Taste I shall here give the Reader hoping it may not turn his stomach against the Rest Dr. Owen Com. p. 177. has said By the Obedience of Christ I intend the universal Conformity of the Lord Iesus Christ as he was or is in his being Mediator to the whole Will of God c. Now this Obedience of Christ N. B. as Mediator may be considered two ways 1. As to the habitual Root and Fountain of it 2. As to the Actual parts and Duties of it 1. The habitual Righteousness of Christ as Mediator N. B. p. 178. in his Humane Nature was the absolute complete exact Conformity of the Soul of Christ to the Will Mind or Law of God 2. The Actual Obedience of Christ was his willing chearful obediential Performance of every Thing Duty or Command that God by vertue of any Law whereto we were subject did require and Moreover to the Peculiar Law of the Mediator Hereof there are two parts 1. That whatever was required of us by the Law of Nature c. He did it all 2. There was the Peculiar Law of the Mediator which respected himself Merely and contained all those Acts and Duties which are not for our Imitation Thus far the Doctor But now what a world of wit has our Author shewn upon this Occasion or rather no Occasion Declaiming for four five or six pages together upon the Trite and Common Theme of his own Ignorance pag. 298 299 300 301 302 303. So that by the Law of Mediation sayes he He understands whatever Christ was bound to doe as our Mediator whatever was proper to his Mediatory Office All this is not imputed to us as though we had done it I hope we shall find something at last to be imputed to us but there 's nothing left now but thirdly that which concerns him in a Private Capacity as a Man subject to the Law Now had this Gentleman been pleased to have understood the Doctor a little before he had pretended to Confute him he might have seen that He supposes 1. A general Law of the Mediator whereby he gave Obedience to the Law of Nature c. in our stead 2. The peculiar Law of the Mediator which respected himself merely to this he gave not Obedience in our stead But still whatever Obedience he performed 't was as Mediator though not according to the peculiar Law of the Mediator But alas this would have spoyled a great deal of excellent Wit and dear Drollery which no man engaged in a Design of Raillery and Scolding would willingly lose for a World especially when he was practising like the great Balsac in some of his Letters to make an Experiment what The Height of forced Fancy can produce out of a barren and dry Subject or placing his Draining Engines to Recover the Boggs and Fenns upon New-Market Heath 3 His Subtle and Politick Method of venting Blasphemies was that which mainly pressed me to this Service For it 's now grown the solemn Mode of this Tribe of Men to vomit out the most opprobrious Language against the Lord and his Christ and then to wash their hands in Pilate's Innocency by saying These are the Consequences of other Mens Opinions And herein lies this Authors singular Excellency and proper Talent Thus when some affirm That God is a Holy God a Righteous Governour a Iust Iudge who will by no means clear the Guilty one that will not fail to recompense to every man according to his Works and yet in infinite Wisdom and Mercy has made Provision in the Death of his Son for securing the Glory both of his Essential and Rectoral Righteousness that he may be and appear to be just and the Iustifier of him that Believes in Iesus You shall now guess at the Lyon by his Claw and see what nasty dirty filthy stuffe he can extract out of this Doctrine Pag. 46. The Iustice of God hath glutted it self with Revenge in the Death of Christ and so henceforward we may be sure he will be very kind as a Revengefull man is when his Passion is over And pag. 47. The summe of which is this That God is all Love and Patience when he has taken his fill of Revenge as others use to say the Devil is very good when he is pleased Again whereas the Church of England Art 17. has express'd her Conceptions about Predestination in these words Predestination to life is the everlasting Purpose of God whereby before the Foundation of the World was laid he hath constantly decreed by his Councel secret to us to deliver from Curse and Damnation those whom he hath chosen in Christ out of Mankind and to bring them by Christ to Everlasting Salvation Our Author is pleased to droll upon this Tremendous Mystery at this pleasant Rate Pag. 57. This falls hard upon those miserable Wretches whose ill Fortune it was without any fault of theirs to be left out of the Roll of Election Thus when one had ventured to say by Warrant from Christs own Mouth John 3. 14. That Christ was compared to the Brazen Serpent c. he comes in with this snearing Droll p. 115. Who can forbear being smitten with so lovely a Person In all which and a hundred times more we are bound to suppose That there is Nihil bonis moribus contrarium quò minùs cum publicâ Utilitate Imprimatur Now if no Reverence of the Majesty of God no Regard to the Authority of the Holy Scriptures no Respect to the Harmonious Confessions of Faith of All Protestant Churches could oblige his Pen to observe a due Temperament yet methinks Civility to that Church whereof He is a Member which has not been Uncivil to him and may exercise more kindness to to him might have commanded more becoming Language about those things wherein she has
draw with him towards a Conclusion Our Author is beginning to make an end but he must first discharge his stomach of a little froth and gall and spit up some venome that lies in his chest in the face of his Adversaries without which he could not possibly conclude his Chapter He tells you summarily what great feats he has done and what greater Atchievements he will adventure on What he has done amounts to this he has discovered great Mistakes in other mens Divinity but cannot espy any in his own he can spy a Mote in his Neighbours eye but considers not his own Beam He has also discover'd the rise of these Mistakes to be from the various usage of the Name Christ in the Writingâ—… of the Apostles The more excusable it seems they are if they had occasion from thence to erre which they might the more easily doe because as he observes well the Writings of Paul are obscure He has also discover'd to us the temper and humour of those Mistaken men They are zealous to advance Christs Person to the prejudice and reproach of his Religion which yet our Author himself when a Qualm of sweet Nature comes over his Heart thinks to be Impossible p. 17. The greater Opinion we have of his Wisdom and Reverence for his Person the more sacred Regard we have for his Lawes He has also discovered a horrid Plot to introduce a fancifull Application of Christ to our selves instead of the substantial Duties of the love of God and Men and an universal Holiness of Life But this is but a plot of his own making unless he had some supernatural Assistances from Beneath He has also for ever discharged the world upon his Blessing from closing with Christ getting into Christ and above all from overloving Christ and admiring his Excellencies and Perfections his Fulness Beauty Loveliness and Riches Wherein if he prevail to his mind he has for ever Obliged the Prince of Darkness to him and done more service to his black Kingdom than he with his Legions hath been able to effect these Sixteen hundred years What he intends further to doe he has reduced to four heads to which I referre the Reader and upon the whole Matter doe onely make this one Observation That through this whole Chapter he has cheated and tormented us with a sorry old Threadbare fallacy A benè compositis ad malè divisa The Persons whom he reviles dare not put asunder those things which God hath joyned together They love the Person of Christ and not therefore break but keep his Commandements They think that Faith in our Lord Iesus Christ and Repentance from dead works are very consistent may and must sweetly meet together and Kiss each other They would be glad to see those who revile them to love and admire Christs Person and shall be content to be reproved so far as they neglect and undervalue his Precepts but they are not to be frighted out of their Love to Him who loved them and gave himself for them They do freely confess that they admire at the Love of the Father in sending his onely begotten Son into the World upon such a design as to save Sinners and they do equally admire the Love of the Lord Jesus Christ that he was so willing to come into the world to be tempted persecuted reproached and at last to dye and give his Life a Ransome for many And though they have heard many Reproaches and Blasphemies uttered against their Saviour yet they have not met with one solid concluding Argument why they should not love him And therefore if they must be vile upon these Accounts they resolve in the strength of Christ to be vile more vile still and shall bind all the Ignominy that is cast upon them for Christs sake unto their Temples as a Crown and Diadem For indeed they do persist in that perswasion with some Obstinacy that it was the Person of Christ who dyed for them it was He upon whom the Chastisement of their Peace did lye it was He whose Soul was made an Offering for sin and upon whom God laid the Iniquities of us All. And therefore our Author must bear with them if they love him as much as they can because they have reason to fear they shall not love him as much as He has deserved They remember a Dreadfull word If any man love not the Lord Iesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha and would not for all the world fall under the weight of it Their love to his person makes them studious to please him fearfull to offend him zealous to glorifie him and if the will of God be so humbly content to suffer for him They have not met with any Author that has till of late endeavoured a Confutation of Christs personal Excellencies perfections fulness beauty loveliness and riches and they that have made the Attempt have exposed themselves to the universal censure of all that wear the Name of Christian and therefore they do ingenuously acknowledge that they doe admire and honour them and do humbly hope Christ at his coming will not rebuke them for it And when they are invidiously traduced as setting the Person of Christ at oddes with his Gospel they are satisfied that they have not done it in Principle and lament that they have in any the least degree done it in Practice And as they know that the Charge as apply'd to them is a pure impure slander so they conceive it 's vey difficult if not impossible in it self nor can they apprehend how any can really and truely maintain a due esteem of Christ in their hearts but they must have a proportionable value and regard for all his Commandments and Injunctions That these things are become Riddles to any professing the Name of Christ they tremble at as a sad symptome that the Gospel is hid to them and from them They do also in the general approve of any Labours managed with a due regard to the Majesty of God and the Lord Jesus Christ in order to the discovery of any Expressions in their Writings or Discourses which might in the least be misinterpreted to degrade and thrust down Holiness from its Throne but withall they are unwilling to be railed out of a good Opinion of Christs Person seeing that however they may have sinned in breaking his Laws it will not mend the matter to lessen the honour they justly have for Himself and had rather be severely chidden for their sin than scoffed out of their Duty But of these Matters thus far CHAP. II. Of what use the Consideration of Christs Person is in the Christian Religion IN the Entrance of this Chapter I observe our Author is feelingly concern'd to amove from himself the sinister suspition of a Design to render Christ useless And he makes a solemn Protestation not onely of his own Innocency but is ready to become Surety and Compurgator for all his Accomplices A design sayes he which I confess I
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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
follow the Espousals But the Reason of it is not Evident The Reason of the thing not Evident Why the thing it self is not evident Would he have an evident Reason of Nothing A Foundation for a Castle in the Air Can he find no place for Obedience and yet would he have a Reason for it But for all this Ranting his Conscience tells him that they do allow a place for it and can produce a Reason for it too and perhaps a more proper place and stronger Reason than our Author is able to show 1. Some tell us says he it 's due upon the account of Gratitude and thankfulness to our Saviour And methinks a great deal of Obedience will rest upon that Basis Has he come into this World whither none that loved his ease would come Has he taken our Nature upon him and as if that were a light Matter our sins Has he endured the Displeasure of men and as if that were little did it please God himself to put him to Grief Did he Die for sinners Does he Intercede for them Has he revealed the whole Counsel of God to them concerning their Salvation Has he given them the Holiest Laws and the best Encouragement to Obey them Did he Promise and has he sent his Holy Spirit to dwell in their Hearts Is it he through whom their Duties are accepted and shall not these Obey Here 's enough and yet there 's much more to Engage all the Love Service Obedience of Redeemed ones for ever And so the thing is at least a hairs breadth longer than 't is broad But here our Author is at a Loss he cannot so well understand this But whose fault is that Must the Truth suffer because he cannot see it The truth is he has Puzzled and Perpâ—…exed himself with an Idle scruple in his Head and Vulcan must come with the great Hammer to deliver his Brain of a Minerva though I know no Obligation lies upon me to cut the Rope as often as he will Snickle himself Yet hower let 's here the Difficulty Unless our Obedience be due to Christ in thankfulness to him for saving us without Obedience This is a Knot becoming the Sword of Alexder Christ never engaged to save us without Obedience and therefore he might have spared his pains to enquire how it should be due upon that Account We therefore owe him all our Obedience because 't is through him that such Imperfect Obedience may find acceptance with God Which is nothing more difficult than this We live to him because he Died for us and rose again Yet there is a more fomidable Objection in the reare against the grounding Obedience upon the bottom of Gratitude This is says he Hardly reconcileable with that Essential Condition of accepting Christ wherein those Spiritual espousals consists Well though it be hardly yet if it be reconcileable at all we shall not create him the Trouble of being a Conciliator There are rational Divines enough in the World for whose Heads this Province may be reserved Two things we must here find out if we can 1. What is the Essential condition of our accepting Christ. 2. How Obedience due upon the account of Gratitude comes to be so hardly reconcilable to that Essential condition 〈◊〉 What is the Essential condition of our 〈◊〉 Christ. For here lies the Intrigue and hâ—… 〈◊〉 so disguised Matters and Inck't himself like 〈◊〉 in Confusion that it will be hard to 〈◊〉 Now for that he quotes plain I. O. Com. pag. 63. viz. That the Soul consents to take Christ on his own Terms This is the Essential condition that has Created all the Pother The Souls consenting to take Christ is the Essential condition of taking But now 2. How is Obedience upon the account of Gratitude irreconcileable to its consent to take Christ on his own Terms Davus has made a diffity but where 's an Oedipus to resolve it Christs Terms are that the Soul shall give it self in Love and Obidence for ever He requires that the Soul should be wholly and entirely his and not for another and this is so far from being Irreconcileable to what he calls ridiculously the Essential condition of accepting Christ that it 's directly Included in it And this he might have been Taught from the Doctor had he not been too Proud to Learn Ibid. This accepting Christ by the will as the Souls only Husband Lord and Saviour is called receiving Christ John 1. 12. and is not intended for that Solemn Act only whereby at first entrance we close with him but also for that constant frame of abiding with him and owning him as such So that it would have been an Impossible task to part them but very easie to reconcile them Obedience is so far from being excluded by the Souls accepting Christ upon his Terms that its simply impossible to accept him upon his own Terms but we must Cordially and with an Evangelical Universality obey him all our days It 's something late I confess yet let us hear what he further quotes from the Doctor The Soul consents to take Christ on his own Terms to save save him in his own way and saith Lord I would have had Thee and Salvation in my way that it might have been partly of my Endeavours and as it were by the Works of the Law but I am now willing to receive Thee and to be saved in thy Way merely by Grace We have already seen that what he has Quoted and Summon'd in these words for was marvellously Impertinent to the pretended purpose But that which will not make á Shaft will make a Bolt Never did our Author meet that thing but he could make some use on 't As they that study the Philosophers Stone though they miss of the main Design yet stumble upon some pretty Experiments by the way that makes them flatter themselves they have not quite lost their Oyl and Labour Thus however our Author may be Frustrated in his primary Project which was Confuting the Truth yet probably he may find or make some advantage to slur the Doctor You may see him here like the great Hanibal making his way over the Alps with Fire and Vinegar If there be Matter for a Slander above Ground he will have it and if not Acheronta movebit That is says he without doing any thing without obeying thee If to receive Christ upon his own Terms as a King and abiding with him in that relation giving up it self to Christ as a King to obey him be doing nothing I cannot help it but let our Author do but thus much and he shall receive a Testimony from God that he has done all 'T is true the Doctor excludes all his own Obedience for those ends to which a proud Ignorant Iew might have abused them viz. To exclude the Free-Grace of God and the reconciliation made by Christ And this we ought to be Jealous of lest we ascribe any more Interest and concern to our own Duties
that he hath appointed an Atonement for us and given no less Person than his own Son for our Ransome The Reader cannot but observe that he is there giving us Another Scheme of Religion from an Acquaintance with Christs Person without Scripture and then when he comes to take the Matter in hand he can from the Person of Christ demonstrate Gods good Will his pardoning Mercy and what not when others indeed venture upon Conclusions without Scripture they give some uncertain conjectures get some feeble hints some dim appearances and smattering Iâ—…cklings of the Matter but to Us it speaks nothing less than Apodictical and great Demonstration 2. The Reader will observe how perfectly he Overthrows the very design he would exalt for undertaking to prove How unsafe it is to found Religion upon a Pretended acquaintance with Christs Person and assigning this for a Reason that this is to build Religion upon uncertain Conjectures which we acknowledge to be Cogent When he comes to wind up his bottomes he tells us Though we had seen Christ in the flesh we could never have ghess'd at the End and Design of it had not he Christ Acquainted us with it So that the short and long of this great Demonstration is this That it 's uncertain to found our Religion upon Christ's Person because we could have known nothing of Religion unless we had been Acquainted with him He will lift himself off this flatt by replying that he means nothing but Christs acquainting us in and from his Gospel and we rejoyn that that which will bring him off will bring off his Neighbours for who ever affirm'd any more 3. He has herein at unawares stabb'd his main Cause to the heart For if there be no necessary connexion between the Person of Christ his Death and Suffering and the Salvation of Mankind but that as he assures us the End and Design of Christ in dying must be known onely by Revelation then it will unavoidably follow that Christ dyed for some greater Ends than to give us an Example of Patience and Submission to the Will of God to Confirm what he Preach'd seeing we needed no Revelation to acquaint us that a holy man is to be imitated in all holy things living or dying and that he thought at least his Doctrine was true or else he would never have exposed and layd down his Life to justifie it Now it 's plain however our Author does now and then humour us with Propitiation Ransom Atonement Expiation these are all reducible by his Engine to Christs confirming what he preach'd Pag. 320. All that I can find in Scripture concerning the Influence that the Sacrifice of Christ's Death hath upon our Acceptation with God is that to this we owe the Covenant of Grace which is Nothing else in his sence but God's Promise of saving us if we obey his Laws 4. He is slipt into the very same guilt with which he loads though unjustly his Adversaries viz. The Dividing the Person and Gospel of Christ. He was of a good Mind once p. 3. if he could have kept him in 't That the Person of Christ is not at oddes with his Gospel and that Christ and his Religion were well agreed but he has quitted his Post and dogmatically asserts That whosoever would understand the Religion of our Saviour must learn it from his Doctrine and not from his Person And why not from his Person in or by his Doctrine It 's a harder matter than our Author is aware to hear a Sermon preach'd without a Preacher and almost as difficult to believe it without good warranty that the Preacher has good Authority for what he delivers All the Authority of the Scripture is resolved into the Authority of Christ and therefore it concerns us to fetch our Religion from Christ by his Word 5. I must needs observe to the Reader one piece of cleanly conveyance and Legerdemain which our Author is forced frequently at a standing pull to serve himself of to draw Dun out o' th' Mire and that is to shew you a fair round Tester and then fob you off with a Counter to shew you a Horse in the Premises and pass to an Asse in the Conclusion He has pasted and posted it up in the Title of this Section How unsafe it is to found Religion upon a Pretended acquaintance with Christs Person but when he addresses himself to prove his Thesis he falls a persecuting the old thing of Learning Religion from an Acquaintance with Christs Person He who has the famous Art of Arguing from the essential Differences of things can he find no accidental difference at least betwixt Principium essendi and Cognoscendi Betwixt the Foundation of our Religion and the Means of conveying the Knowledge thereof unto us A thing may be first in Knowledge which is last in Being there has been some such Distinction in former Ages There was a time when the old World learnt it's Religion from Angels as our Author thinks from Prophets from the Government of the World will he say that the Religion of those dayes was founded upon any thing short of God upon Angels Men Sun Moon Stars Say the same in our Case Jesus Christ has revealed what we are to know and believe of the Father Son and Spirit in his Word he has reveal'd it yet our Faith Hope Love Obedience is founded on and ultimately terminated in God alone by Christ He that believes a Promise obeyes a Precept does believe the veracity of Christ in that Promise and obey the Authority of Christ in that Precept That Credit we give to Letters Patents praemunited with the Royal Seal is resolved ultimately into the Kings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Obedience we give to a Law is founded upon the Authority of the Legislator We learn our Duty from a printed Act of Parliament from a Proclamation but that which is the formal Reason of our Duty is the Relation wherein we stand to our Prince So childish is our Author in his Reasonings he begins to make a Cauldron and tinckers up a sorry kettle Amphora coepit institui currente rotâ cur urceus exit He undertook to prove the unsafeness of the Foundation of our Religion but he 's glad to come down a button-hole lower and prove onely the danger of learning of our Religion from a pretended acquaintance with Christs Person without Scripture-Revelation 6. He tells us there is not a Natural and Necessary connexion between the Person of Christ his Death c. and the Salvation of Mankind Very discreetly worded Not a natural and necessary connexion What 's matter if it be not Natural if it be Necessary Let it be owned Necessary any way that 's fair and honest and let him choose whether it shall be necessary by Nature or no. If our Author understands himself here it 's very well I am sure some others do not Does he mean therefore of all Mankind that there 's no natural connexion betwixt Christs Person
about the Necessity of Good Works For says he when they are pressed with those Scriptures that urge the Necessity of Good Works What do they then Nay that he could not tell but carries on a suspended Sence for almost two whole Pages and in the end leaves it unintelligible Nonsence But however let us hear those Texts that are so pressing for Good works and a holy Life Why VVithout Holiness no Man shall see God The wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all Unrighteousness and Ungodliness of Men. Truly these Scriptures do press upon our Consciences and Practices but not upon our Principles Well then there are others that assert Our Acceptation with God depends upon a Holy and Vertuous life I promise you that presses indeed But it does not press me Our Acceptation with God depends upon a Holy life as the Qualification but it depends upon Christ for Procurement But the places are Acts 10. 35. God is no Respecter of Persons but in every Nation he that feareth God and worketh Righteousness is accepted of him Well let us examine whom this Text does press most The Apostle Peter in that excellent Discourse ver 43. tells us To him Christ give all the Prophets witness that through his Name whosoever believeth in Him should receive Remission of sins Whatsoever of acceptation with God then they that fear God and work Righteousness do obtain still it 's through the Name of Christ. The Text then presses not us he must call for more weight if he designs to Press us to Death But as I remember pag. 44. our Author with much Confidence would bear us down that the Iews who knew nothing at all of Christ yet undeâ—…stood God to be a Sin-pardoning God And yet the Apostle assures us 1. That all the Prophets gave witness to Christ. 2. That their Testimony was this That they were to expect Remission of sins through the Name of Christ. 3. That the Means of acquiring the Remission of sins through Christ was by believing in Him And now let him ask his own Shoulders whether this Text does not press him But there is another Scripture that will break their bones Mat. 5. 20. Except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven And what was their Righteousness Why he tells us They were a company of Immoral Hypocrites who placed all their Righteousness in observing the Ceremonies of the Law without the purity of their Hearts and Lives Well and we think a Man may Travel a great many Leagues beyond such Debauches and never come near the Kingdom of Heaven Let them then Groan under the weight of it who place their Religion in Ceremony and prophane Drollery it presses not them who professing Faith in our Lord Iesus Christ and Repentance from Dead works subject themselves to his Gospel Well but there is one more that will Grind them to Powder ver 19. He that breaks the least of these Commandments and teaches men so shall be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven And this will certainly press them who Renouncing their part in the Satisfaction given to God by Christ trust to their own Imperfect repentance wherein there are so many Flaws as will amount to the breach of some Commandment and then our Author has quite shut them out of the Kingdom of Heaven To conclude this Section our Author has one round Fling at Doctor Owen and it is ex Officio no doubt I suppose he may hold some fair Estate by this Tenure That he Persecute the Doctor with Fire and Faggot as far as a pair of Shooes of a great price will carry him The Question is What necessity there is of Obedience The Doctor had said That Universal Obedience and good Works are Indispensibly necessary to Salvation by the sovereign appointment and Will of God To this our Author answers This is not one syllable to the purpose Why then It 's the end of the Fathers electing Love That 's not one syllable to the purpose It 's the end of the Sons redeeming Love That 's not one syllable to the purpose It 's the end of the Spirits sanctifying Love That 's not one syllable to the purpose Well but it 's necessary to the Glory of the Father Son and Holy Ghost That 's not one syllable to the purpose neither If neither the Sovereignty of God over us the Love of God to us nor the Glorifying of God by Us be to the purpose of Obedience let our Author speak to the purpose So he will God hath commanded Obedience but where 's the Sanction of the Law Will he Damn all that will not Obey for their Disobedience Where 's the Sanction of the Law I am sure that Question is very little to the purpose It 's the Command it self that makes a Duty that creates a necessity The Authority of the Law-giver lays the Obligation upon the Subject It 's our Interest to Obey upon the account of the Sanction but it 's our duty to Obey upon the Command it self But not to hold him in suspense God will Damn all those that will not Obey for their Disobedience Our Author has now quite run himself a Ground and is Pumpt dry of his Drollery and therefore turns Catechist and Persecutes us with Impertinent Queries I have heard some say that an Ideot may tye more Knots in an Hour than a Wise-man can untye in a day But however though we might plead it's Coram non Iudice yet for once let him suppose himself in his Desk and his poor Catechumens humbly waiting upon his Foot-stool Quest. Will God Damn those who do not Obey for their disobedience Answ. Yes and it please you Sir Qu. But will he save and reward those who do Obey for their Obedience An. He will reward their Obedience but not save them for their Obedience Qu. But will the Father Elect none but those that are Holy An. Yes and it like your good Learning he Elects them that they may be Holy but not because they are Holy Ephes. 1. 4. Ephes. 2. 10. Qu. But wil the Son Redeem none but those that are holy An. Yes indeed Sir a great many for a Redeemer supposes them to be sinners and Captives under sin Qu. But will he reject and Reprobate all that are not Holy An. God has not Reprobated all that were or are not holy for then he had Reprobated all the World but he will reject all that continue unholy to the Death Qu. But tell me Doth this Election and Redemption suppose Holiness in us or is it without any regard to it An. Neither the one nor the other It 's Fallacia plurium Interrogationum They neither presuppose Holiness in us nor are they without all regard to Holiness it is a necessary Effect but not a Cause of Election and Redemption Qu. Dost thou stand chopping Logick with thy Betters If we be Elected and Redeemed without regard
Father of the faithful if Abraham's Faith and theirs differ toto Genere Those things that differ in their special Nature may yet agree in their common Nature but those things that are of divers kinds wherein shall they agree But all this is but a scandal thrown upon the Apostle who proves from Abraham's way of being justified the way of Christians being justified Rom. 4. As Abraham was justified without Works so are we Vers. 2. As Abraham had a Righteâ—…sness imputed to him even so have we Vers. 11. That Righteousness might be imputed to them also As Abraham's Righteousness was a Righteousness of Faith even so is ours Vers. 11. A Seal of the Righteousness of Faith As Abraham was justified by free Grace so are we V. 5. To him that worketh not but believeth in him that justifieth the ungodly Thus was his Righteousness the patern of ours his Faith the patern of ours And is it not a strange Copy that differs in kind from its Idaea That 's a huge way off from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As if you should propound a House for your patern and draw a Horse to sample it Once more look into Gal. 3. 8. The Scripture fore-seeing that God would justifie the Heathen through Faith preach'd before the Gospel to Abraham Now if Abraham had not our Faith what needed he to have our Gospel The end of preaching the Gospel is to beget Faith and it was an equivocal Generation if it begat a Faith of one kind in Abraham another in Christians What needed this circumspect Caution of Providence that Abraham should have the glad tidings of the Gospel preach'd to him which made him rejoyce and be glad if a Faith of a lower size would serve his turn for Justification Again vers 13. That the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles through Iesus Christ. If we have his blessing surely he had our Faith Or could Abraham get the blessing without Christ but Christians no other way but in Christ But thus has our Author vindicated the Apostles Reasonings as if he had secretly design'd as he openly professes of the Wriings of others to expose them to contempt It may be now seasonable to examine his Definition of a Gospel-Faith viz. Such a stedfast belief of all those Revelations which Christ hath made to the World as governs our lives and actions If this be to define put but a company of Letters in a bag shuffle them well together then shake them out and they will tumble into as good a Definition as this comes to But thus did Atoms by dancing in Infinite and Eternal Spaces justle one another so long till at last they produced this beautiful Fabrick of Heaven and Earth I except against it 1. Because the whole Priestly Office of Christ is excluded by it Propitiation Atonement Expiation of sin are shut quite out of all consideration and the Death and Sufferings of Christ of no regard unless perhaps they may come in by way of Motive to believe his Doctrine as a Prophet And if this be his Faith I must profess I would not venture my Salvation in his Church for the hopes of all the good or fear of all the evil this World can either flatter or affright me with however I beg Grace from God that I may not He that has but half a Christ had as good have no Christ and he that takes him not wholly into the Definition of his Faith may as safely leave him wholly out As half a heart in God's account is no heart so half a Saviour in Faith's esteem is no Saviour 2. I except against it because it may be found in Hypocrites They may so far believe the Revelations of Christ as to govern their lives and actions and yet their hearts never be purified by that Faith 3. It pretends to define Faith and yet gives us no Genus of it Faith is such a Belief as governs our lives and actions that is Faith is Faith that governs our lives and actions But the Question is What is that Faith that will so govern our lives and actions For it describes not any direct influence of Faith upon our Iustification but our obedience And whereas he pretends to assign some differences that may distinguish it from all other Faith true or false yet in plain terms they do nothing less 1. It 's a belief of those Revelations Christ has made to the World Now unless he can prove that those Revelations which Christ has made to the World are essentially distinct from those which God before made to the World their being revealed by Christ makes no essential difference For Christ came in his Fathers name under the New-Testament and the Spirit came in Christs name under the Old-Testament All Christ's Revelations in order to the governing our lives and actions may be reduced either to Precepts or Promises Now though some have been tampering at it I cannot find that Christ revealed either a new Moral Law or added any thing to the old Self-denial Taking up the Cross Praying for our Persecutors c. were Old-Testament duties though not met with in New-Testament phrase As a Rule of obedience Christ medled not with it all he did was to vindicate it from the corrupt Glosses the Scribes and Pharisees had put upon it As to Promises Christ has revealed no other Heaven no other Glory no other Salvation only he has cleared up these given us more light into them poured out more Grace that we might live more in fellowship with God and hopes of Glory But this and much more will make no essential difference in the Revelation 2. It 's such a Belief as governs our lives and actions But such a Belief was Enoch's Abel's Noah's Abraham s their 's govern'd their lives and actions too and somewhat more their Hearts and Consciences This therefore will make no essential difference 4. I except against it that it mentions not God as the proper Object of Faith For though Christ who is God be in the Definition yet not as God there 's nothing supposes him to be so no employment that necessarily requires it should be so assigned to him only he is allowed Revelation-work which a meer man instructed with God's Commission might have done And now once again he will reassume his Argument If by the Righteousness of Faith you understand the Righteousness of Christ apprehended by Faith and imputed to us you utterly destroy the Apostle's Argument for our Iustification by Faith for Abraham and all the good men of old were not justified by such a Faith as this is They never heard of Christ's Righteousness imputed to us c. Now how does it follow that because Abraham was justified by such noble and generous Acts of Faith therefore we shall be justified by Christ's Righteousness imputed But whoever overthrows the Apostle's Argument I have some things that will overthrow and utterly overthrow our Author's 1. That he begs and most shamefully begs the