a very great part of the Jewish Religion which was instituted by God himself seems to have been a plain condescension to the general Apprehension of Mankind concerning this way of appeasing the offended Deity by Sacrifices As it was also a Figure of that great and efficâ—cious Sacrifice which should in due time be offer'd to God to make atonement once for all for the Sins of all Mankind And the Apostle to the Hebrews doth very particularly insist upon this condescension of God to them in the Dispensation of the Gospel and whereas they apprehended so great a necessity of an High-Priest and of Sacrifices to make expiation for the sins of the People that it was an established Principle among them that without shedding of blood there was no remission of Sins God was pleased to comply so far with these Notions and Apprehensions of theirs as to make his own Son both a Priest and a Sacrifice to do that once for all which their own High-Priest pretended to do year by year And 〈…〉 hence the same Apostle takes 〈…〉 to recommend to them 〈…〉 Covenant and Dispensation 〈…〉 Gospel as having a greater 〈…〉 perfect High-Priest and a 〈◊〉 excellent Sacrifice than were the High-Priests and the Sacrifices under the Law the Son of God having by one Sacrifice of himself obtained eternal Redemption for us and perfected for ever them that are sanctified And this Apprehension prevailed no less in the Heathen World and proceeded to the Sacrifices of Men even of their first-born And with this Apprehension not to countenance but to abolish it God was pleased to comply so far as to make a general Atonement for the Sins of Mankind by the Death of his Son appearing in our Nature to become a voluntary Sacrifice for us God permitting him to be unjustly put to death and his blood to be shed by the malice of men in appearance as a Malefactor but in truth as a Martyr and accepting of his Death as a meritorious Sacrifice and propitiation for the Sins of the whole World That by this wise counsel and permission of his Providence he might for ever put an end to that barbarous and inhuman way of serving God which had been so long in use and practice among them The Son of God by the voluntary Sacrifice of himself having effected all that at once and for ever which Mankind from the beginning of the World had in vain been endeavouring to accomplish by innumerable and continual Sacrifices namely the pardon of their Sins and perfect peace and reconciliation with God For these Ends and Reasons and perhaps for many more as great and considerable as these which our shallow understandings are not able to fathom the Wisdom of God hath pitched upon this way and method of delivering Mankind from the guilt and dominion of Sin by the Sacrifice of his Son And to this end it was requisite that he should appear in our Nature and dwell amongst us for some considerable time that by a long course of the greatest Innocency and of the greatest Sufferings in our Nature he might be capable of making a perfect expiation of Sin So that two things were requisite to qualify him for this purpose perfect Innocency and Obedience and great Sufferings in our Nature even to the suffering of Death Both these the Scripture declares to be neccessary qualifications of a Person capable to make expiation of Sin and both these were found in the Person of our B. Saviour First Unspotted Innocency and perfect Obedience This the Scripture testifies concerning Him and the whole course of his Life and actions He was in all points tempted like as we are yet without Sin saith the Apostle to the Hebrews He always did the things which pleased God as He testifies concerning himself and we are sure that his witness is true He did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth as St. Peter tells us of Him And this was necessary to qualify him for the perfect expiation of Sin whether we consider Him as a Priest or as a Sacrifice As a Priest he could not have been fit to make expiation for the Sins of others had he not been without sin himself And this the Apostle tells us is one great Advantage of our High-Priest under the Gospel above the High-Priest under the Law who being a Sinner himself as well as those for whom he offer'd had need to offer for himself before he could make so much as a Legal expiation for the Sins of others But a perfect and effectual expiation of Sin so as to purge the conscience from the guilt of it cannot be made but by an High-Priest who is holy and innocent himself For such an High-Priest saith the Apostle became us that is now under the Dispensation of the Gospel when a perfect expiation of Sins is to be made such an High-Priest is necessary as is holy harmless undefiled separate from Sinners who needs not as those High-Priests that is as the High-Priests under the Law to offer up sacrifice first for his own Sins and then for the People The plain force of which Argument is this that he who will be qualified to make atonement for the Sins of others must be without sin himself And then if we consider Christ as a Sacrifice for Sin perfect holiness is necessary to make a Sacrifice acceptable and available for the expiation of Sin The necessity of this was typified by the quality of the expiatory Sacrifices under the Law the Beasts that were to be offered were to be without spot and blemish To which the Apostle alludes speaking of the quality and efficacy of the Sacrifice of Christ How much more says he shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God purge your consciences from dead works to serve the living God And to the same purpose St. Peter Forasmuch as ye know ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold but with the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot c. hereby intimating that nothing less than the perfect innocency and holiness of him who was to be a Sacrifice for us could have expiated the guilt of our sins and purchased eternal Redemption for us Secondly great Sufferings likewise in our Nature even to the suffering of Death were requisite to the perfect expiation of Sin I say even to the suffering of Death For the Sacrifices which were to make expiation were to be slain And it was a constant Maxim and Principle among the Jews and the Apostle more than once in this Epistle seems to allow and confirm it that without shedding of blood there was no remission of Sins Not that God could not have pardoned Sin without satisfaction made to his Justice either by the suffering of the Sinner himself or of a Sacrifice in his stead But according to the method and Dispensation which the Wisdom of God
any other Living Creatures that were wont to be offered up in Sacrifice yet that both Jews and Heathen did expect and hope for it is so very evident that it cannot without extreme Ignorance or Obstinacy be deny'd But this expectation how unreasonable soever plainly shews it to have been the common Apprehension of Mankind in all Ages that God would not be appeased nor should Sin be pardoned without Suffering But yet so that men generally conceived good hopes that upon the Repentance of Sinners God would accept of a vicarious punishment that is of the Suffering of some other in their stead And very probably as I said before in compliance with this Apprehension of Mankind and in condescension to it as well as for other weighty Reasons best known to the Divine Wisdom God was pleased to find out such a Sacrifice as should really and effectually procure for them that great Blessing of the Forgiveness of Sins which they had so long hoped for from the multitude of their own Sacrifices And the Apostle to the Hebrews doth in a large Discourse shew the great vertue and efficacy of the Sacrifice of Christ to the purpose of Remission of Sins above that of the Sacrifices under the Law And that the Death of Christ is really and effectually to our advantage all that which the Sacrifices under the Law were supposed to be to the Sinner But now once saith the Apostle here in the Text in the end of the World hath he appeared to take away Sin by the Sacrifice of himself This is the great vertue and efficacy of the Sacrifice of Christ that what ever was expected from any other Sacrifices either by Jews or Heathens was really effected by this This was plainly signified by the Jewish Passover wherein the Lamb was slain and the Sinner did escape and was pass'dby In allusion whereto St. Paul makes no scruple to call Christ our Passover or Paschal Lamb who was slain that we might escape Christ our Passover says he is slain or offer'd for us that is He by the gracious appointment of God was substituted to suffer all that in our stead which the Paschal Lamb was supposed to suffer for the Sinner And this was likewise signified by the Sinners laying his hand upon the Sacrifice that was to be slain thereby as it were transferring the punishment which was due to himself upon the Sacrifice that was to be slain and offered up For so God tells Moses that the Sinner who came to offer an Expiatory Sacrifice should do He shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt-offering and it shall be accepted for him to make an Atonement for him And the Apostle tells us that it was an established Principle in the Jewish Religion that without shedding of blood there was no Remission of Sins Which plainly shews that they expected this Benefit of the Remission of Sins from the Blood of their Sacrifices And then he tells us that we are really made partakers of this Benefit by the Blood of Christ and by the vertue of his Sacrifice And again Christ says he was once offered to bear the Sins of many plainly alluding to the Sacrifices under the Law which did as it were bear the faults of the Sinner And that this expression of Christ's being offered to bear our Sins cannot be meant of his taking away our Sins by his holy Doctrine which was confirmed by his Death but of his bearing our Sins by way of imputation and by his suffering for them in our stead as the Sacrifice was supposed to do for the Sinner This I say is evident beyond all denial from the opposition which follows after the Text between his first Appearance and his second Christ says our Apostle was once offered to bear our Sins but unto them that look for him he shall appear a second time without Sin unto Salvation Why Did he not appear the first time without Sin Yes certainly as to any inherent guilt for the Scripture tells us he had no Sin What then is the meaning of the opposition That at his first Coming he bore our Sins but at his second Coming he shall appear without Sin unto Salvation These words can have no other imaginable sense but this that at his first Coming he sustain'd the Person of a Sinner and suffered instead of us but his second Coming shall be upon another account and he shall appear without Sin unto Salvation that is not as a Sacrifice but as a Judge to confer the Reward of Eternal Life upon those who are partakers of the benefit of that Sacrifice which he offered to God for us in the days of his Flesh I proceed to the III d. Thing I proposed and which yet remains to be spoken to namely to vindicate this Method and Dispensation of the Divine Wisdom from the Objections which are brought against it and to shew that there is nothing in it that is unreasonable or any wise unworthy of God I shall mention four Objections which are commonly urged in this matter and I think they are all that are considerable First That this Method of the Expiation of Sin by the Sufferings of Christ seems to argue some defect and want of Goodnes in God as if he needed some external Motive and were not of himself disposed to forgive Sinners To which I think the Answer is not difficult namely that God did not want Goodness to have forgiven Sin freely and without any Satisfaction but his Wisdom did not think it meet to give encouragement to Sin by too easy a forgiveness and without some remarkable testimony of his severe displeasure against it And therefore his greater Goodness and Compassion to Mankind devised this way to save the Sinner without giving the least countenance and encouragement to Sin For God to think of saving us any way was excessive Goodness and Mercy but to think of doing it in this way by substituting his dearly beloved Son to suffer in our stead is a Condescension so very amazing that if God had not been pleased of his own Goodness to stoop to it it had almost been Blasphemy in Man to have thought of it or desired it Secondly How can our Sins be said to have been forgiven freely if the Pardon of them was purchased at so dear a rate and so mighty a Price was paid for it In Answer to this I desire these two things may be considered 1st That it is a wonderful grace and favour of God to admit of this translation of the Punishment which was due to us and to accept of the Sufferings of another in our stead and for our benefit when he might justly have exacted it of us in our own Persons So that even in this respect we are as St. Paul says justified freely by his grace through the Redemption that is in Jesus Christ And freely too in respect of any necessity that lay upon God to forgive us in this or any other way It
Duration past present and to come Besides that the Attribute of Almighty is also a part of this Description which is so peculiar a Property of God I mean of Him who is God by Nature that the Scripture never gives it to any other II. I shall in the next place produce those Texts which do expresly affirm that the World and all Creatures whatsoever were made by him And this will not only infer his existence before his Incarnation but from all Eternity And for this besides this Passage of St. John we have the Apostle to the Hebrews most express who says that by him God made the Worlds And St. Paul likewise says the same more fully and particularly calling Jesus Christ who was the Son of God the first born of every Creature that is as I have shewn in my former Discourse the Heir and Lord of the whole Creation For by him says he were all things created that are in Heaven and that are in Earth visible and invisible Whether they be Thrones or Dominions Principalities or Powers for so he calls the several Orders of Angels all things were created by him and for him and he is before all things Or as he is described in St. John's Vision he is the beginning of the Creation of God that is the Principle and Efficient Cause of the Creation or else he was when all things began to be made and therefore must be before any thing was created and for that reason could not be a Creature himself and consequently must of necessity have been from all Eternity Now these Texts must necessarily be understood of the old Creation and of the natural World and not of the moral World and the Renovation and Reformation of the minds and manners of men by the Gospel For that was only the World here below which was reform'd by him and not things in Heaven not the invisible World not the several Orders of good Angels which kept their first station and have no need to be reform'd and made anew Nor the Devil and his evil Angels for though since the preaching of the Gospel they have been under greater restraint and kept more within bounds yet we have no reason to think that they are at all reform'd but are Devils still and have the same malice and mind to do all the mischief to Mankind that God will suffer them to do So that these Texts seem at first view to be very plain and pressing of themselves but they appear to be much more convincing when we consider the groundless interpretations whereby they endeavour to evade the dint and force of them For can any man that seriously attends to the perpetual style and Phrase of the New Testament and to the plain scope and drift of the Apostle's reasoning in these Texts be induc'd to believe that when St. Paul tells us that all things were created by him that are in Heaven and that are in Earth visible and invisible whether they be Thrones or Dominions or Principalities or Powers I say can any man of good sense persuade himself that by all this the Apostle means no more than the moral Renovation of the World here below and the Reformation of Mankind by Jesus Christ and his Gospel which was preach'd unto them But there is yet one Text more to this purpose which I have reserv'd to the last place because I find Schlictingius and Crellius in their joint Comment upon it to be put to their last shifts to avoid the force of it It is in the Epistle to the Hebrews at the beginning of it Where the Apostle thus describes the Son of God God says he hath in these last days spoken to us by his Son whom he hath constituted heir of all things by whom also he made the Worlds From whence he argues the excellency of the Gospel above the Law For the Law was given by Angels but the Gospel by the Son of God whose preheminence above the Angels he shews at large in the two first Chapters of this Epistle And to this end he proves the two parts of the Description which had been given of him namely that God had constituted him heir of all things and that by Him he made the Worlds First That God had constituted him heir of all things which is nowhere said of the Angels But of him it is said that was made so much better than the Angels as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent Name than they The Angels are only called God's Ministers for which the Apostle cites the words of the Psalmist but to Christ he gives the Title of his Son and his first begotten by virtue whereof he is heir of all things For to which of the Angels said he at any time thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee And this I will agree with them to be spoken of Christ with respect to his Resurrection by which as St. Paul tells us he was powerfully declared to be the Son of God This is the first Prerogative of Christ above the Angels But there is a far greater yet behind for he proves Secondly That he had not only the Title of God given him but that he was truly and really God because he made the World That the Title of God was given him he proves by a citation out of the Psalmist But unto the Son he saith Thy Throne O God is for ever and ever c. And that he was truly and really God because he made the World he proves by a citation out of another Psalm where it is said of him Thou Lord in the beginning hast laid the foundations of the Earth and the Heavens are the works of they hands They shall perish c. Let us now see how Schlictingius and Crellius interpret this Text cited out of the Psalmist by the Apostle as spoken of Christ They say that the Author of this Epistle could not have referr'd to Christ the former words of this Citation which speak of the Creation of Heaven and Earth unless he had taken it for granted that Christ is the most high God especially if they be understood as they must necessarily be by those who take this for granted to be spoken in the first place and directly to or concerning Christ For since all the words of the Psalm are manifestly spoken of the most High God but that Christ is that God is not signified no not so much as by one word in that Psalm it is necessary that if you will have these words to be directed to Christ you must take it for granted that Christ is that most High God of whom the Psalmist there speaks Now we will join issue with these Interpreters upon this Concession viz. that the Author of this Epistle could not have referr'd these words which speak of the Creation of Heaven and Earth to Christ without taking it for granted that Christ is truly that God who made the
is fit for God to do and that he needs not to take counsel of any of his Creatures what will best become him in this or any other Case Behold in this thou art not just I will answer thee that God is greater than man Why dost thou dispute against him for he giveth not account of any of his matters Thirdly If our Reason could get over this Difficulty and admit that God might become Man yet it seems very unsuitable to the Son of God and to his great Design of instructing and reforming Mankind to appear in so low and suffering a condition This to the Heathen Philosophers who as the Apostle tells us by Wisdom knew not God did not only seem unreasonable but even ridiculous So St. Paul tells us We says he preach Christ crucified to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness To think that so poor and mean a Man was fit to give Laws to Mankind and to awe the minds of men by the Authority of his Doctrine That One who was put to Death himself should be believed by others when he promised to them Life and Immortality in another World could not but appear very strange and unreasonable For Answer to this besides other excellent Reasons and Ends which the Scripture expresly assigns of our B. Saviour's Humiliation in his assuming our Nature with the frailties and miseries of it As that he might be a Teacher and an Example to us That by his bitter Passion he might make Expiation for sin and â—et us a pattern of the greatest meekness and patience under the greatest provocations and sufferings That having suffered so grievously himself he might know how to commiserate and pity us in all our temptations and sufferings That by death he might destroy him that had the power of Death that is the Devil and might deliver those who through fear of Death were all their Life-time subject to bondage I say besides all this it was of great use that the great Teacher and Reformer of Mankind should live in so mean and afflicted a condition to confront the pride and vanity of the World by this consideration that the Son of God and the very best man that ever was was a Beggar and had not where to lay his head And likewise to convince Men of these two great Truths That God may grievously afflict those whom he dearly loves and That it is possible for men to be innocent and contented in the midst of poverty and reproach and sufferings Had our B. Saviour appeared in the Person and Pomp of a great temporal Prince the influence of his Authority and Example would probably have made more Hypocrites and servile Converts but not have persuaded men one jot more to be inwardly holy and good The great Arguments that must do that must not be fetch'd from the Pomp and Prosperity of this World but from the great and eternal Recompences of the other And it is very well worth our observation that nothing puzzled Cesar Vaninus who was perhaps the first and the only Martyr for Atheism that ever was I say nothing puzzled him more than that he could not from the History of our Saviour's Life and Actions written by the Evangelists with so native a simplicity fasten upon him any probable imputation of a secular interest and design in any thing that he said or did No doubt but Vaninus before he made this acknowledgment had searched very narrowly into this matter and could he have found any colour for such an imputation he would have thought it sufficient to have blasted both Him and his Religion You may be pleased to consider further that it was the opinion of the Wisest Jews that the best men the Children of God who called God their Father were many times exposed to the greatest sufferings and reproaches for the trial of their faith and meekness and patience as we may see at large in the Wisdom of Solomon where speaking of the malice and enmity of the wicked to one that was eminently righteous he brings them in saying after this manner Let us lie in wait for the righteous because he is not for our turn he is clean contrary to our doings He upbraideth us with our offending the Law and objecteth to our infamy the transgressions of our youth He professeth to have the knowledge of God and he calleth himself the Child of the Lord He is grievous unto us even to behold for his life is not like other mens his ways are of another fashion We are esteemed of him as counterfeits he abstaineth from our ways as from filthiness He pronounceth the end of the just to be blessed and maketh his boast that God is his Father Let us see if his words be true and what shall happen in the end of him For if the just man be the Son of God he will help him and deliver him from the hands of his Enemies Let us examine him with despitefulness and torture that we may know his meekness and prove his patience Let us condemn him to a shameful Death c. This is so exact a Character of our B. Saviour both in respect of the holiness and innocency of his Life and of the reproaches and sufferings which he met with from the wicked and malicious Jews who persecuted him all his life and at last conspir'd his death that whoever reads this Passage can hardly forbear to think it a Prophetical Description of the innocency and sufferings of the B. Jesus For He certainly in the most eminent manner was the Son of God being called by the Evangelist the only begotten of the Father Or if this was not a Prediction concerning our B. Saviour yet thus much at least may be concluded from it that in the judgment of the Wisest among the Jews it was not unworthy of the Goodness and Wisdom of the Divine Providence to permit the best Man to be so ill treated by wicked men And further that in their judgment the innocency and vertues of an eminently righteous man are then set off to the best advantage and do shine forth with the greatest lustre when he is under the hardest circumstances of suffering and persecution from an evil World Add to this likewise that the best and wisest of the Heathen Philosophers do frequently inculcate such Doctrines as these That Worldly Greatness and Power are not to be admir'd but rather to be despis'd by a wise man That men may be very good and dear to the Gods and yet liable to the greatest miseries and sufferings in this World That whoever suffers unjustly and bears it patiently gives the greatest testimony to Goodness and does most effectually recommend Piety and Vertue as things of greater value than the ease and pleasure of this present Life Nay further that a good man cast into the hardest circumstances of poverty and misery of reproach and suffering is the fittest person of all other to be the Minister and Apostle and