Devil believe all the Articles of Faith Does he belive that God will forgive his sins and bestow on him eternal Happiness Then he is a perfect Fanatic in his Faith for he believes without any Reason unless our Author can show that the Gospel promises of forgiveness of sin and eternal life which are two great Articles of our Faith do as much belong to the Devil as to men and I am sure without the belief these the belief of all the other Articles of our Creed can neither better his life nor administer any comfort to him XVIII The last ground of the Devils hope of Salvation is the nature of our Union to Christ by Faith which is not mystical that is analogical to a natural Union between Vine and Branches nor therefore are we passive in the reception of Grace to believe and live accordingly but a Mediator is only a Minister of Grace i. e. one who by powerful Motives persuades us to be gracious come by Grace as we can and so it is not impossible but I may get Grace though I be not United to Christ. Now if all this were true it is only a repetition of what was said in his Fourth ground of hope and there you may find the answer but he proceeds The Union made by Faith is Political consisting in a belief of Christs Revelations which I have already though you have now heard that he neither has nor can have that Faith and government of our actions which I am in hopes of in time for Christ is the Minister of this Grace by proposing powerful arguments to it this has been already answered and if he have no more to say for himself he is like to be a Devil still but we may observe how hard the Devil is put to it to make out his evidences sometimes he hopes he may be saved without being United to Christ and sometimes he begins to hope that he is United to Christ in part already and may be perfectly United to him hereafter Thus you see that though we liberally grant M. Danson whatever he asks and suffer him to represent my Principles just as he pleases which as he represents them are so unlike to mine that I should never have known them had he not said so yet no such thing can follow as he pretends that the Devil has the same grounds to hope for Salvation that Mankind has But indeed this is not M. Dansons talent to reason and argue and draw consequences he knows much better how to imitate the Devil than to defend him lies and slanders and misrepresentations are the best weapons he has and therefore having got rid of the Devil I shall now come to Danson and take him to task for that abuse and cheat he has put upon his credulous Readers and that great injury he has done to me in perverting my words and sense And to make this as short and useful as I can I shall reduce it to certain Heads which may offer some occasion for profitable discourse First then one great artifice of our Authors is to represent me as attributing that knowledg wholly to the Light of Nature and the works of Creation and Providence which I expresly ascribe to Revelation also as the most certain and infallible means of knowing the nature and will of God this we had one instance of in the very beginning concerning Gods goodness to all his Creatures which he often repeats without the least mention of Revelation Thus p. 29. The Light of Nature assures sinners that God is so good that he hath a natural love for all good men and will not fail to reward them though he never made them a promise Knowledg of Christ p. 42. 43. as he cites the place though whoever looks there shall find no such thing that last Clause though he never made them a promise being his own addition though Printed in a different Character as my words Thus p. 10. The Light of Nature and the works of Creation and Providence assure us that God is so Holy that he hath a natural love for good men and will not fail to reward them and had Christ never appeared in the world yet we had reason to believe that God is thus good and holy and merciful The Appearance of Christ did not first discover the Nature of GOD to us but confirms us in the belief of what we had learn'd before from Nature pag. 42 43. GOD is as ready to pardon the worst of Men and why not the worst of Angels when they return to their Duty as a kind Father is to receive an humble and penitent Prodigal pag. 43. Now any one who reads this might conclude that I very much slight the Revelations of the Gospel and resolve all our Faith into the Light of Nature and therefore to discover the gross Knavery of this for I know not what gentler term to give it I shall transcribe that whole Paragraph which runs thus The Light of Nature and the Works of Creation and Providence and those manifold Revelations GOD hath made of himself to the world especially that last and most perfect Revelation by JESUS CHRIST our Lord assure us that God is infinite in all Perfections that he is so powerful that he can do whatever he pleases so wise that he knows how to order every thing for the best so good that he desires and designs the happiness of all his Creatures according to the capacity of their natures so holy that he hath a natural Love for all good men and will not fail to reward them but hates all sin and wickedness and will as certainly punish all obstinate and incorrigible Sinners but yet that he is very patient and long-suffering towards the worst of men and useth various methods of Kindness and Severity to reclaim them and is as ready to pardon them when they return to their Duty as a kind Father is to receive an humble and penitent Prodigal These Properties of GOD are plainly revealed in the Scripture without any further Acquaintance with the Person of Christ that is without reasoning from a pretended Acquaintance with the Person of Christ which is Dr. Owen's way of discovering those Gospel-Mysteries which cannot be learn'd from Revelation only against which this whole Discourse was levelled and which you may see fully stated and explained in pag. 38. of my Defence but to proceed and had Christ never appeared in the world yet we had reason to believe that GOD is thus wise and good and holy and merciful because not only the works of Creation and Providence but the Word of GOD assures us that he is so The appearance of Christ did not first discover the nature of GOD to us but only gave us a greater Expression of Gods Goodness than ever we had before confirms us in the belief of what we had learn'd before from Nature and Revelation just as his Resurrection which is an ocular demonstration of another Life confirms us in
the belief of that blessed Immortality he had promised and yet we could not have learned this neither from the Person of CHRIST had he not told us for what ends he came into the World as will appear more anon Where the Reader may observe that all those Expressions which refer to Revelation and are here printed in a different Character are every where left out by our Author though they were the very next in course and he was forced to break off in the middle of a Sentence to avoid them which could not be done by mistake but out of a bad design to represent me as no Friend to Revelations and those words why not the worst of Angels which are Printed as mine and are not though he has given notice of the mistake among the Errata yet now knowing the man so well I have reason to think it was done upon a design for he knew very well few of his Readers would consult the Errata and it had been no great matter to have Corrected that fault with a Pen in such a Pamphlet And now I dare venture this Paragraph with any man in his wits for does not the Light of Nature and the works of Creation and Providence assure us that God is Good and Merciful and Holy c. And does not Revelation give us a more perfect discovery of the nature and will of God than Nature does and is it any disparagement to the Revelations made by Christ to say that the world did understand something of God before Christs appearance though not so perfectly and certainly as we now do Must we then deny that the Heathens or Jews knew any thing of God or of another world for fear of making Christ useless who notwithstanding what the world knew before is said to make known God to us to Reveal him to us in S. Johns Phrase and to bring life and immortality to light by the Gospel And yet p. 9. he quarrels at my notion of a natural Faith that is a belief or assent as I expresly call it in the same place of those principles of Religion which are discoverable by the Light of Nature as that God is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him which was the Faith of Enoch and Abel now let this be science or opinion or what he pleases to call it I desire our Author to tell me how he will prove the being of God but by Natural or Moral Arguments I suppose he is so wise as to prove the being of God from Scripture though we must first believe the being of a God before we can believe the Scriptures to be the word of God or prove any thing from their Authority and S. Paul proves the being of God from his works The invisible things of God from the Creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal power and Godhead so that they are without excuse Rom. i. 20. The same Arguments the Apostle uses Acts xvii 24. c. and Acts xiv 17. Nevertheless he left not himself without witness in that he did good and gave us rain from Heaven and fruitful seasons filling our hearts with food and gladness What then is my fault is it that I say that the belief of the being and Providence of God are the first Principles of all Religion And will our Author deny that they are so let him then name what is before them or that I assert that God required no more of those good men who had no other particular Revelations of his will and will he say that God required they should believe more than he had revealed to them or can he prove that they had any more particular Revelations from God It is not impossible but they might have considering how familiarly God was pleased to converse with good men in those days but there is no more recorded and the Author to the Hebrews when he designedly gives an account of the Faith of these good men whereby they were accepted by God takes notice of no more and therefore is as obnoxtious to the peevish censures of our Author as my self To the same purpose he alledges another Passage of my Book p. 21. That the only Knowledge necessary to the purposes of Religion is such a Knowledge of Gods Nature and Will as is sufficient to direct our actions and encourage our obedience Knowledge of Christ pag. 33. by which he would insinuate that I make nothing more necessary to Religion than a natural Knowledge of Gods Nature and Will Let us then consult the place where we have these words The result of all is this that God is the last and highest object of Religious and saving Knowledge i. e. that the only Knowledge necessary to the purposes of Religion is such a Knowledge of Gods Nature and Will as is sufficient to direct our actions and encourage our obedience and whereas God was formerly known by the Light of Nature c. Now the only true Medium of knowing God is the Knowledge of Christ who came into the World to declare God to us So that I expresly assert that we must now fetch the Knowledge of Gods Nature and Will which comprises the whole of Religion from that perfect Revelation which Christ hath made To the same purpose he quarrels with me p. 13. for saying that when God chose the posterity of Abraham to be his peculiar people he did not design to exclude the rest of the world from his Care and Providence and all possible means of Salvation The Interpretation of which he says is this That the Gentiles before the Preaching of the Gospel as well as since had all possible means of Salvation and that as he elsewhere expresses it without a Saviour God deliver me from such Commentators who cannot understand the difference between not being excluded from all possible means of Salvation and having all possible means of Salvation As if I should say that M. Danson is not free from all the signs and suspicions of Knavery in writing his Debate and others should expound this that he has all the signs and suspicions of Knavery He who has any one possible means of Salvation is not excluded from all and yet cannot truly be said to have all when he has but one Another Exception of the like nature is that I say No man could believe in Christ till he came that is could not believe any thing upon his Authority which is the true notion of believing in him Now pray what is the fault of this Proposition Does not the Gospel represent believing in Christ by believing his Divine Authority that he came from God and declared the will of God to the world which infers a belief of the whole Gospel And could any man do this before Christ came and preached in Person and confirmed his Authority by those many Miracles which he wrought But our Author for Satan and he are all
Ages was more or less obscure according to the different Revelations which God made to the World as it must necessarily be It was but little that Adam understood from that promise The seed of the woman shall break the Serpents head nor could that promise made to Abraham In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed instruct him who this seed was or what he should do or by what means he should bless the world as I shewed particularly in my first Discourse to which I shall refer my Reader The promise made to David of a great Prince that should come of his Race and sit upon his Throne and those other magnificent descriptions of the Kingdom of the Messias by the Prophets betrayed the Jews into an expectation of a temporal Prince which was the reason why they rejected Christ when he came And though the Prophesies of Isaiah and Daniel concerning the Sufferings of the Messiah seem very plain to us now the event has expounded them yet it is as evident that the Jews did not understand them and must we be forced now to please Mr. Danson to say that Adam and Enoch and Abraham and the whole Jewish Nation did understand that their promised Messiah was to be no less Person than a God incarnate that he was to live in a mean condition to preach the Gospel to suffer Death upon the Cross to rise again from the dead and ascend up into Heaven there to intercede for us and that we are to be saved by a fiducial relyance and recumbency on the Merits and Righteousness of his Life and Death truly I would do something to gain his favour but I cannot renounce my senses and assert that to be which is so plain never was I believe that the true Light of the Gospel never shone upon the World till the day-spring from on high visited us but this is no hindrance to Gods accepting and rewarding good men for the sake of Christ for why may not God accept us for reasons which at present he thinks sit to conceal from us The vertue of Christs death to procure our pardon and reward does not depend upon our knowing but Gods accepting it and why may not God if he pleases accept it unknown to us Thirdly the terms and conditions of Salvation were always the same viz. such a sincere and hearty Faith as governs our lives and actions The objects of this Faith alter according to the different degrees of revelation The belief of the being and providence of God was all that could be required of those who had no more revealed to them but every new revelation God made enlarged the objects of their Faith till it grew up to the perfection of the Gospel Revelation and now our Faith in Christ whereby we are justified is of the same kind with the Faith of Abel and Enoch and Abraham but enlarged and perfected by a more perfect revelation as those good men believed whatever discoveries God made to them and governed their lives accordingly so must we believe all the Revelations Christ hath made to us of the Will of God and the way to Salvation and govern our lives by them and this is the righteousness of Faith as I have at large proved in the Knowledge of Christ pag. 252. c. Were the only condition of our justification a fiducial reliance and recumbency on Christ a rowling and resting our Souls on him and a fancyful application of his Merits and Righteousness to our selves these good men could never have been saved by Christ because this requires a particular knowledge of what Christ was to do and suffer which they had not but such a Faith in God as teaches us to love and serve him is of the same kind with the Christian Faith whereby we are now justified such a Faith in Christ as makes us obedient to the Gospel This our Adversaries are very sensible of and therefore nothing will serve them but to assert that Abraham and other good men before Christ had an explicite knowledge of Christ and were saved by resting on Christ for Salvation as they hope to be but it is evident that this is false and therefore it is as evident that their notion of Justification is false or else they must say that these good men were not saved by Christ. Fourthly the evidence these good men had of their acceptance with God did vary also according to the different Dispensations they were under that natural knowledge we have of God from the natural impreffions on our minds or from the works of Creation and Providence give us some assurance of Gods love to good men and of his readiness to pardon and reward those who are sincere Worshippers of him but this knowledge is not certain as that which is founded upon an express promise confirmed by our Saviour Christ himself the arguments from Nature without the help of Revelation are sufficient to incline honest minds though they are not without all possibility of a mistake as it was in the belief of a future state we see Mankind did generally agree in it though the evidence was not so great but that it needed a farther confirmation and therefore notwithstanding that evidence the World had of it yet Christ is said to have brought life and immortality to light by the Gospel because he has given us such assurance of it as the World never had in former Ages And therefore till the appearance of Christ in the World God gave them some additional confirmation of his acceptance of good men above what the light of Nature afforded as the frequent apparitions of Angels who possibly might make some greater discoveries to them than are recorded and the peculiar expressions of his goodness to Abraham Isaac and Jacob and to all their Posterity for their sakes all the promises of the Law of Moses which though according to the letter were but temporal yet were designed to typifie and represent spiritual and future blessings and were understood so by good men And since God for wise reasons reserved to himself was pleased to make but an imperfect Revelation to these good men he accepted also of a more imperfect obedience than the Gospel of our Saviour requires of us according to our Saviours known Rule To whom much is given of them shall be much required And since God was pleased to accept of good men for the sake of a Saviour whom they did not know with a distinct and explicite knowledge and to accept of meaner attainments when they wanted those powerful motives and assistances which were necessary to raise them to the Evangelical Heights of Goodness it brings it to such an equal balance that we cannot say that God was wanting to these good men But yet fifthly it was necessary that Christ should actually come into the World and suffer and dye because these good men were accepted upon account of that atonement which Christ was to make in the fulness of
and Forgiveness for his past sins and the proper use of Gods love in sending Christ into the World is to conquer our obstinacy and to encourage our Hopes Thus the greatness of Christs Person gives great Reverence and Authority to his Gospel and an inviolable Sanction to his Laws as the Apostle argues If the word spoken by Angels was stedfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of Reward how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation which at first began to be spoken by the Lord 2 Heb. 1 2 3. And this gives great Authority to his Example and lays forcible obligations on us to imitate him who was not only our Saviour but God incarnate And this assures us of the infinite value of his Sacrifice and of the power of his Intercession God cannot but be pleased when his own Son undertakes to be a Ransom and to make Atonement for Sinners which is so great a vindication of Gods Dominion and Soveraignty of the authority of his Laws and the wisdom and justice of his Providence that he may securely pardon humble and penitent sinners without reproaching any of his Attributes and we can desire no greater security for the performance of this Gospel-Covenant than that it was sealed with the blood of the Son of God And this is a great encouragement to return to God when we have such a powerful Advocate and Mediator to intercede for us But then we must expect no more from Christ upon account of his personal Excellencies and Perfections than what he hath promised in his Gospel Christ is the object of our Faith and Hope only as he is our Saviour and he is our Saviour in no other sense than as he is our Mediator and he mediates for us as our Priest that is in vertue of that Covenant which he hath sealed with his blood and therefore we have no reason to expect any thing from the Person of Christ which is not contained in his Covenant much less which contradicts it for that would be in effect to renounce his Mediation and to trust to the goodness of his Nature Christ will in his own Person accomplish all those Promises he hath made whether they concern the present assistances of his Grace or his Providence and Protection in this World or the future rewards of the next but we must learn what Christ will do for us and upon what terms not from the boundless Perfections and Excellencies of his Person but from the Declarations of the Gospel though the consideration of his Person who he is and how he lived and what he taught may convince any man that he will be a Saviour to none but those who live in the practise of that Righteousness of which he was a Preacher and Example Now to silence the clamors of some men who upbraided those Preachers who spent their greatest zeal in expounding the Laws of Christ and in pressing men by all the Motives and Arguments of the Gospel the Sacrifice and Mediation of Christ the necessity of a good Life to make men happy hereafter and the many great advantages of Holiness here c. to the practice of an universal Righteousness I say to silence the clamors of those who upbraided such Preachers with not preaching Christ I considered in the next place what it is to know Christ and so consequently what it is to preach Him and the sum of it was this That to know Christ is to be acquainted with that Revelation which Christ hath made of Gods will to the World For as in former Ages God made himself known by the light of Nature and the works of Creation and Providence and those partial and occasional Revelations of his Will which he made to good men now in these last days he hath sent his Son into the World to declare his Will to us And therefore the only useful knowledge is to understand those Revelations which Christ hath made of Gods Will the necessary consequence of which is that he who expounds the Laws and Doctrine of the Gospel does in the most proper sense preach Christ as Philip is said to preach Christ to the Samaritans Act. 8. 5. which in ver 12. is called Preaching the things concerning the Kingdom of God and the Name of Jesus Christ that is the whole Doctrine of the Gospel The whole Christian Religion is the Knowledge of Christ and the Laws of Righteousness and the Motives to Obedience as principal a part as any because this was the ultimate design of Christs coming into the World to reform mens lives and to prepare them for the happiness of the next World by transforming them into a Divine Nature All that Christ did and suffered was only in order to this end and then we understand all those Mysteries of the Incarnation and Death and Intercession of Christ as much as is necessary to the purposes of Religion when we understand what obligations they lay on us to a holy Life and feel their power and virtue in renewing and sanctifying our minds In the next place I observed that the foundation of the greatest and most dangerous mistakes was laid in a wrong notion of our Union to Christ of which some men discourse in such uncouth and Cabbalistical terms as no body can understand and therefore I endeavoured to state the true notion of our Union to Christ and Communion with him And the sum of it is this that those Metaphors which describe our union to Christ do primarily refer to the Christian Church not to every individual Christian as Christ is the Head and the Church or whole Society of Christians his Body a Husband and the Church his Spouse a Shepherd and the Church his Flock a Rock whereon his Church is built the chief corner Stone and the Church a holy Temple But as for particular Christians their Union to Christ is by means of their Union to the Christian Church that is no man can be united to Christ till he be a Christian and no man is in the Scripture account a Christian till he make a publick profession of his Faith and be solemnly admitted into the Christian Church which is the Body of Christ for which he died and to which all the Promises of the Gospel are made A secret and private Faith in Christ is not ordinarily enough to make any man a Christian but Faith in the Heart and the Confession of the Mouth are both necessary Rom. 10. 9 10. Christ himself hath appointed the publick Sacrament of our Initiation and our Church teaches her Children that in their Baptism which is their solemn admission into the Christian Church They are made Members of Christ the Children of God and the Inheritors of the Kingdom of Heaven But I have abundantly confirmed this Notion in my former Discourse and those who would be more fully satisfied in it may have recourse thither The next thing to be considered is what is the true nature of
Laws of the Gospel a new Nature and Holiness of Life are the necessary conditions of our Justification by Christ and to say that they are essential to our Union to Christ by whom we are justified are different forms of Speech but signifie the same thing because Christ justifies none but those who are united to him and none are united to him but by Faith and Obedience and so è converso those who believe and obey the Gospel are in so doing united to Christ and they and none else shall be justified by him which gives a plain account how the Virtue and Merit of all is due to Christ because we are justified by our relation to him and explains the meaning of those Phrases of receiving Christ and coming to him for Life and Salvation and believing in him which signifies our being united to him by a sincere Faith and Obedience which is necessarily required of all those who would be justified by him In the last Chapter I give a short account of the nature of Christs love to us and of our love to Christ that no man might mistake the love of Christ for a fond and easie passion nor think to please him with some heats and raptures of Fancy instead of the substantial Returns of Duty and Obedience the sum of which in short is this that Christ expressed a wonderful and stupendious Love in dying for us especially in dying for us while we were his Enemies upon which account the Scripture every where magnifies the love of Christ but though this were the greatest yet it is not the only expression of his love but he manifests the same good will in all the methods of his Grace and Providence he is an easie and gentle Governor who rules with the natural tenderness and compassion of a Shepherd a Husband a Head a Friend He pities our weaknesses and infirmities and is ready to help and succour us he is now ascended up to Heaven where he personally intercedes for us and with his own hand dispenses all those Blessings to us which we want and pray for in his Name And he who loved Sinners so as to die for them must needs take pleasure in good men and dwell with them as one Friend dwells with another Joh. 14. 21 23. Christ will in a more special manner be present with such good men who are careful in all things to obey him and will give very sensible demonstrations of his presence with them will manifest himself unto them and make his abode with them And now in return to this we must consider that Christ is our Superiour our Lord and Master and therefore our love to Christ must not express it self in a fond and familiar passion such as we have for our Friends and Equals but in a great Reverence and Devotion Superiours must be treated with Honour and Respect and therefore our love to our Parents and Superiours in the Fifth Commandment is called Honour and the same religious Affection to God which is sometimes called Love is at other times called Fear which signifies a Reverential Love or a Love of Honour Reverence and Devotion and therefore the external expressions of our love to our Saviour are as various as the expressions of Honour and must bear some respect to the nature and condition of the Person and that relation we stand in to him Christ being the only begotten Son of God we must have regard to the Greatness and Excellency of his Person Since he became Man and died for us we must admire and praise his Goodness He being our Mediator and Advocate we must trust and confide in him and expect the returns of our Prayers and all other Blessings from the prevalency of his Intercession He being our Prophet and Law-giver we must express our Love to him in a belief of his Gospel and a sincere Obedience to his Laws as Christ requires of his Disciples If you love me keep my Commandments And when we consider our Saviour as our Guide and Example the truest expression of our Love and Honour is to imitate him to live as he lived in the World And that which perfects our Love is an undaunted courage and resolution in professing the Faith of Christ whatever dangers and miseries it may expose us to in this World For there is no fear in love but perfect love casteth out fear These are the proper expressions of our love to Christ which are summarily comprehended in believing his Gospel and obeying it for to be a true Lover of Christ signifies neither more nor less than to be a good Christian. This is a faithful account of the Design and Doctrine of my Book which hath raised so much noise and clamour and hath sharpned the Pens and Tongues of so many against me but it is a vain attempt to think to out-face the Sun these are such bright and glorious Truths as will out-shine all the New Lights of present or former Ages and command belief from all honest and inquisitive Minds by their own natural Evidence The Doctrines which I designedly opposed in that Discourse are such as contradict these great Truths or at least such as I apprehended to do so either expresly or in their immediate consequences and because this is the principal thing which has anger'd so many men whose Cause and Reputation are concerned in the quarrel I shall give some brief account what those Doctrines are and in what sence I reject them which I hope may silence those scandalous Reports as if I had struck at the very Foundations of Christianity And first whereas I observed that to know Christ signifies the belief and knowledge of those Revelations which Christ hath made to the World which includes whatever he hath revealed to us concerning his own Person Natures Mediation and the whole Will of God concerning our Salvation which must be learnt from the express Declarations of the Gospel not from some fanciful and imaginary consequences which is a very unsafe way in matters of pure Revelation Doctor Owen hath advanced an Acquaintance with the Person of Christ as the only Medium of saving knowledge that is when we have from the Gospel learnt who Christ is what he hath done and suffered for us when we have learnt those things which concern his Person Offices and Work we may then give free scope to our fancies and draw such conclusions as are no where expresly contained in Scripture or could not possibly have been learnt from Scripture at least not clearly and savingly without such an Acquaintance with the Person of Christ that is without reasoning and drawing conclusions from what Christ hath done and suffered These conclusions must be formed into artificial Theories and Schemes of Religion and then these are the great Gospel-Mysteries and the only saving knowledge of Christ and those men only preach Christ who fill peoples heads with such choice Speculations as they have learnt from this Acquaintance with Christ. I thought there was
one cannot understand why they could not do this that is believe upon Christs Authority before he came to preach if he was the eternal Son of GOD by whom the world was made For then he was praeexistent and being GOD they that lived before he came in the flesh wanted not the Ratio formalis of Divine Faith the Authority of GOD revealing pag. 24. And this he is so fond of because it contains so foul an insinuation that I deny the Godhead of our Saviour that he repeats it again in his POSTSCRIPT But it is very happy that Malice is blind and foolish Is there no difference then between considering Christ as the eternal Son of God and considering him as the Messias who was Incarnate in time and came to Preach the glad tidings of Salvation to us No difference between Gods speaking to the Fathers by the Prophets and his speaking to us in these last days by his Son Heb. i. 1. No difference between believing in God and believing in Christ though our Saviour makes a difference between them ye believe in God believe also in me John xiv 1. All the Prophesies of the Old Testament go in the name of God not of Christ and though believing in God contain a Virtual belief in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or eternal word and in the Holy Ghost also as being All one God yet will any man say that this is any where in Scripture called believing in Christ I perceive now who a late Author meant by his Uncatechized Upstarts for had our Author ever learnt his Catechism we cannot imagine but he must have had more wit Thus p. 21. he quarrels that I say that God in former ages attempted various ways for the recovery of mankind but with little success at last God sent his own Jesus Christ our Lord to be the great Shepherd and Bishop of Souls to seek and to save that which was lost p. 89. God hath now committed unto Christ all the secret purposes of his Counsel concerning the Salvation of mankind which were concealed from ages p. 30. Certainly our Author is mad or possessed that he should quarrel at such great truths as these are which are so evident to every one who has read the Bible Did not God use various Methods for the recovery of mankind before the appearance of Christ in the world What signified then his Methods of judgment and severity of clemency and mercy all the apparitions of Angels the giving of the Law and exhortations of the Prophets And had all this that success which might have been expected Did not the world even the Jewish Church continue very wicked Does not God complain of the unfruitfulness of his Vineyard Isaiah v. what could have been done more to my Vineyard that I have not done to it Did not God in these last days send his Son into the world has not he made a more perfect Revelation of Gods will than ever the world had before Has he not discovered those Mysteries which were concealed from ages Does not S. John tell us That no man hath seen God at any time the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father he hath revealed him John i. 18. Does not our Saviour himself tell us All things are delivered unto me of my Father no man knoweth the Son but the Father neither knoweth any man the Father but the Son and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him Matth. xi 27. And must Christians be forced to prove to Christians that our Saviour Christ hath discovered those secret Counsels of God concerning the Salvation of mankind which the world was not acquainted with before And yet nothing will satisfie our Author unless we will acknowledg that which is contrary to the express Testimony of Scripture and to the Records of all former ages viz that the world was as well acquainted with the Gospel before our Saviour Preached it as we are since for thus he argues I understand you not unless you mean that the knowledge of a Saviour was concealed from the world till Christ came in the flesh and the reason of that concealment was because the knowledg of a Saviour was not absolutely necessary to the purposes of Religion whereof eternal Salvation was not the least considerable and if the knowledg of a Saviour was not absolutely necessary then not a Saviour himself for he gives Salvation by giving the knowledg of Salvation and it is eternal life to know Jesus Christ. And if the world were saved for so long a time without a Saviour why may it not for the remainder of its duration be it more or less If our Author would but accustom himself to read whole Sentences he could never talk at this extravagant rate Those very places he alludes to would have convinced him of his mistake for not to take notice that giving knowledg of Salvation Luke i. 77. does not refer to Christ but to John the Baptist who was to prepare the way for Christ by giving knowledg of Salvation to his people the next Verses would have satisfied him what state the world was in before the appearing of Christ. Through the tender mercy of our God whereby the day-spring from on high hath visited us to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death to guide our feet into the way of peace and that other place John xvii 3. This is life eternal to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent plainly speaks of such a knowledg of Christ as was consequent to his being sent to his coming into the world this is that knowledg which Christ gave them and which they had not before For I have given to them the words which thou gavest me and they have received them and have known truly that I came out from thee and have believed that thou didst send me v. 8. But to make this discourse as useful as may be I shall briefly state this matter and consider what the condition of mankind was in the several ages of the world before the Incarnation of our Saviour with respect to their acceptance with God and hopes of a better life First then I lay this down as the foundation of all That ever since the fall God was reconciled to man only in Christ in that promised Seed of the Woman that in due time should break the Serpents head and therefore he is said to be the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world Revel xiii 8. Not only with respect to the decree of God but to the extent and merit of his Sacrifice For Christ is the head of all mankind who are saved as Adam was the head of all men who descend from him by carnal generation so is Christ the head of the new and spiritual birth that is of all good men in all ages of the world who are all United into one Church and one Body Secondly the knowledge of Christ in former