Neither did Christ propitiate by meerly giving us an Example of Obedience which if we transcribe we shall assuredly have our Sins pardon'd For how much soever our Saviour's Example may be serviceable to our Sanctification it can have no regard to our Pardon For if we can work out our own Pardons by an exact and unerring Imitation of our Saviour's Obedience the exactness of which must consist in gaining the same Ends by the same Means then did our Saviour at this rate by his own Obedience work out a Pardon for himself or else he could be no Precedent for us But he did not purchase any Pardon for himself because he never stood in need of any never transgress'd the Law at any time nor had any occasion of having it dispenc'd with on his account Tho' He was number'd with Transgressors yet it was only in their Punishment not in their Crimes Tho' His Soul was made an Offering for Sin yet was it for our Transgressions that he was wounded and bruised for our Iniquities So that tho' by keeping close to our Saviour's Example we may be Holy as he is Holy yet cannot we by this procure our own Pardons for former Sins To close all The Death of Christ consider'd only as a Motive to an Holy Life and as inspiring into us the Hopes of a future State of Glory and so perswading us to perform what is necessary to Remission cannot be the Propitiation express'd in the Words For what force could the disgraceful and bloody Death of an innocent Person and of one who had made it his Business to go about doing good have to convince Men That God was a Rewarder of Virtue and Integrity Would it not rather discourage Men from the practice of Perfections which were crown'd indeed but with Thorns and whose only Exaltation was on the Cross to make them more conspicuous Instances of Woe and Infamy Socinus himself foresaw the power of this Objection and to evade it he has recourse to the little Sophistry of saying that Indeed there was no great Efficacy in the Death of Christ to be an Incentive to a good Life and so to make way for Remission but that there was in his Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven which were Consequents of his Death and that the Glories of that Kingdom he then took possession of carry the strongest Rhetorick in them to move us to abandon our Sins and lead Lives of Righteousness This is a miserable way of reasoning For would the Scripture apply the Propitiation so often and so expresly to the Death the Blood the Sufferings of Christ if it was all this while his Resurrection which effected the Remission of Sins Nay Does it not oppose the Benefits flowing from the Resurrection to those resulting from the Death of our Lord informing us that Christ died for our Sins but that he rose again for our Justification How then can these Acts in all regards be coincident be the same His Resurrection indeed was a Confirmation a Justifying to the World That he had by his Death purchas'd Remission of Sins to the Penitent but it neither was the Remission it self nor any way concurr'd to it more than by begetting in us a Faith in his Death and Merits The summ of what has been said is That Christ did not propitiate for Sin By dying to bear witness to his Doctrin because then his Death would only have been a Testimony of his Propitiation and not the Thing it self Nor By gaining a power to forgive Sin because he had This before he died Nor By setting his Life out to be an Example to his Followers because this Example has no force to purifie and absolve from Sins at least from past Sins Nor lastly did his Death consider'd as a Motive to an holy Life free from Sin because Christ's Death simply and abstractedly consider'd as the Death of a Just Man without its effect of actually removing Sin is not such a Motive As to the Enthusiast's method of Satisfaction which W. Penn's Christian Quaker p. 102. they resolve only into a spiritual shedding of the blood in their Hearts 't is a changing this comfortable Doctrin wholly into an Allegory and a substituting an imaginary phantastick Saviour instead of a true one And as none of these ways singly takes away Sin so neither do they all of them combin'd For the result of them all is this That God sent Christ into the World to live a Life of Righteousness and to die an ignomimous Death only to be a more successful Instrument to reform the Sinner and to prevent Sin for the future But if Christ did nothing but this How could his Merits reach to Sins committed before this Repentance or Reformation These would still lie open to the Divine Vengeance to the Wrath of that God who has too high a respect for his own Laws to suffer any breach of them to go unpunish'd but will certainly revenge them either on the Sinner himself or at least on his Proxy And tho' the Sinner should at length correct his ways yet what compensation would this be for his former Violations of the Commands of God Would this be any thing else but beginning to do that at last which he was always oblig'd to do So I shall proceed to state the true Means by which Christ did really take away our Sins and propitiate for them And to clear this Case from its original it is to be observ'd That God as the Governour of Mankind gave them a Law which was to be the general Rule of all their Actions This Law he secures on each hand as all other wise Magistrates with Penalties sutable to the power of the Lawgiver which being Omnipotent they too must of consequence be Infinite and Eternal The keeping of the Commands of God blest with ever lasting Life the breach of them punish'd with equal Misery This was the original Covenant or Contract between God and Man which was very just to be impos'd on Man in his Integrity for then he was endued with strength to perform the Condition and was as equitable to be exacted from him after his Fall because he had contracted his weakness and insufficiency by his own fault and had willingly disabled himself But God was more merciful than to deal with him according to the rigour of Justice he had a compassionate sence of that helpless State into which he was sunk and was willing to accept of a Propitiation He knew that the Sins he should commit in his faln Condition would be of a different Character from those of the Angels and therefore were more mercifully to be proceeded against That the Angels were irreclaimably lost because God had done for them all that could be done had created them so perfect that they had a whole prospect of their Duty at one view knew when they fell as much as they could know and therefore admitted of no room for Repentance or alteration of their choice But that
Man receives the Knowledge of his Duty by degrees and advances into a Mind prepossest with the prejudices of Sense and therefore may see farther and farther into things so as to correct his Errors and repent of them That his Passions grow strong before his Reason has force to govern them That his Duties are so many that in some cases they are almost inconsistent That even when he sins and provokes his Maker there are secret declarations in his Conscience against what he acts or in the Language of the Apostle The Evil that he would not that he does Such Considerations as these mov'd the merciful God to be willing to receive Man to favour made him inclinable to be reconcil'd and to mitigate that Anger he had justly conceiv'd against him for the breach of his Laws But it is impossible that God should be pacify'd while the Law which Man has broken and which the weakness of his Nature tempts him still to violate remains in its severity There can be no Peace between God and Man while this is to be executed upon every failure while Man is born under almost a necessity of Sinning and yet oblig'd to a necessity of Innocence Something must be done to this Law before God's displeasure can be remov'd and if so This Law must either be wholly taken away or Explain'd in a more easy Sence or some other satisfaction made it But the Law which ought to have been the Rule of Man's Life could not be repeal'd and quite taken away For then Man either must be left Lawless or some other Law made in the room of it The former throws down all the boundaries of Virtue and Vice gives encouragement to every Irregularity excludes God out of the Government of the World and places Man in the wildest State of Nature accountable to none but himself for his Actions If a new Law is to be substituted either this Law must partake something of the former or be oppos'd to it If it has somewhat of the Injunctions of the old Law it must have as much of the Difficulties of it too oppos'd it cannot be for the former Law rises so regularly from the Nature of Things that whatsoever should command any thing contrary to it would enjoin what is unjust and therefore would be null as soon as promulg'd Neither could this Law have a milder and more equitable Sence or Construction put upon it to soften its hardness that Man might in some measure evade the Obligation and therefore the Penalty of it For a mild interpreting of a Law is only a shewing That some Persons or Actions are not comprehended under it As the ancient Heathens were not oblig'd by the Jewish Judicial or Ceremonial Law or the present Chinese by the Evangelical As Works of Religion and Mercy are not included under the Prohibition of working on the Sabbath But neither of these can take any place here For Man could not pretend to be exempted from a Law which was made and design'd for him and could not be sutable to any other Order of Beings Nor could any Actions be excepted out of it for then must all Actions be so for tho' particular Persons might only break the Law in some special parts and therefore only have need of having those Actions Privileg'd which were contrary to it yet Mankind in general would violate every Branch of it so that all Actions in gross must be put out of its reach which is the same with an Abrogation or Repeal But there was a different Method from all these A Method by which the Law might be retain'd in its Majesty as well as Integrity not one jot or tittle of it pass away and yet Man be freed from its Rigour This was if a third Person would interpose and undergo the Punishment due to the Offenders would satisfy the Divine Wrath and propitiate for Mankind For the Dignity or Honour as well as the Force of a Law is sufficiently preserv'd if either its Injunctions are kept or satisfactory Punishment inflicted But Who can stand before God when he is angry Or Who attone for the Sin of Mankind Which of all the Angels or Arch-Angels can sustain the Person of a Mediator and satisfy the Law which we have broke Which in the Language of the Holy Job might like a Daysman betwixt God and us lay his hand on us both For God is not a Man as we are that we should answer him and should come together in Judgment The most perfect of Created Beings would shrink under so vast a Burthen So that the Son of God himself must be deputed for so glorious a purpose He that comes from Edom with dyed Garments from Bozrah Wherefore is he red in his Apparel and his Garments like him that treadeth in the Wine-fat The reason is because He has trodden the Wine-press alone and of the people there was none with him And in this God commended his Love towards us that while we were yet Sinners Christ died for us That the chastisement of our peace was upon him and that with his stripes we were healed For as by his Life he fulfill'd every part of the Law did whatsoever it had enjoin'd and so perform'd our Righteousness so by substituting himself to bear the Punishment of our Transgressions by enduring what the Law had threatned he dissolv'd our Obligation to those Sufferings which were due to us according to the Order of the Divine Justice and pacify'd the Diety's Fury the Law being still retain'd in its original Majesty And both these as well the Innocence of his Life as the Meritoriousness of his Death were necessary for the Person who should attone for the Sins of Mankind For had not his Life been wholly made up of Obedience had there been one flaw one Transgression in it he could not have been that holy and unspotted Sacrifice for the Sins of the whole World All that he could have done would have been to have died for his own Offences if perhaps he could have wash'd out his Personal stains by his Blood But as to our Faults it must cost more to redeem them the Sacrifice which can expiate for them must have nobler Qualifications so that He must let that alone for ever The Innocence of his Life was therefore not only an accomplishing of the Law in our stead and a Rule for us to act by but was in a more peculiar manner a Qualification also to prepare him to suffer duly for our Sins Which Passion was the formal Act which took away our Transgressions On him they were laid and he paid the Price of them By this Act and under this Qualification did he propitiate for our sins Secondly The equitableness of which Propitiation by removing the Penalty from the Sinner to a Stipulator who engages himself to suffer for the Guilty is the next thing to be consider'd If there was any Injustice in this as Socinus pretends there is it must either consist in this That
Doom at last and was to be the common Event of all both of those who sacrificed and those who sacrificed not It being therefore thus reasonable That God should release Man's Punishment it is as reasonable That he should lay this Punishment on Christ For either the Punishment must be laid on Christ or on some other or be remitted without any Satisfaction But without Satisfaction whatsoever the Deist may fancy the Penalty could not be sutably remov'd for that God should pardon Sin without receiving any Satisfaction is first against his Nature and Being for He is of purer Eyes than to behold Evil and cannot look on Iniquity Against his Justice because as a just and righteous Governour of the World he may not suffer his Laws to be affronted without vindicating their Honour Against his Truth since in his first Covenant with Man he has inseparably combin'd Sin and Punishment In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die Nor could the Punishment be laid on any other but Christ because none except one of the Persons of the ever-blessed Trinity could suffer Punishment sufficient to clear the Guilty For it was infinite Majesty which was injur'd and it must be satisfy'd by Majesty as infinite But it was not reasonable that the Father who i 〈…〉 the Oeconomy and Order of the Trinity is superiour to the Son and Holy Ghost should by this Humiliation be debas'd below them both It was not meet that the Holy Ghost should propitiate because he was to be sent by the Mediator in order to the applying of the Salvation which he should purchase So that whatsoever imaginary Models the School-men may raise of other Methods by which God might save the World yet there is none which agrees with Reason in all Points but the Propitiation which Christ wrought through his Sufferings The summ of all is That Christ is become our Propitiation not by Dying to bear witness to any saving or sanctifying Doctrin not by gaining a Right by his Death to forgive Sin not by giving us an Example by which we may have our Sins pardon'd not by any Encouragement his Death might yield us to an holy Life not by any of these single nor by all united but by Dying for our Sins and paying a Price tantamount to our Transgressions By clearing the Mulct which the breach of the Divine Law had contracted by an Act which at once secures Honour to the Law and Impunity to the Offenders Which Substitution of our Saviour to suffer for our Sins was shewn to be Just and Reasonable Just as having nothing in it which disagrees either with other methods of Divine Justice or with Human Proceedings Reasonable as being the only means by which God might shew his high value of his own Commands and yet his compassion for his Creatures and by one well-mixt Action display at the same time both his Justice and his Mercy A DISCOURSE Concerning MIRACLES HEB. Chap. II. ver 4. God also bearing them witness both with Signs and Wonders and with divers Miracles THE Apostle in the entrance of this Chapter informs us That Christ being a Prophet so much surpassing all before him and now advanc'd above the Angels to his Royal Office in Heaven whereby he is certainly able to perform what he foretold we ought in all reason to heed his Predictions and to make use of them as means to fortifie us when we are tempted to Sin or Apostacy For if the Law were given only by the Ministry of Angels and yet the Threats on the breaking of that did come to pass and all the Sins committed by the Israelites against it were severely chastis'd and the Transgressors not suffer'd to enter into the promis'd Land How shall we avoid equal Punishment if we do not by Constancy and Obedience make our selves capable of that Deliverance which Christ first at his being upon Earth and the Apostles which heard it from him assur'd us of and which God himself has testify'd by so many Prodigies and ominous Presages And by giving them who foretold 'em Power to work Miracles and other Abilities of the Spirit God also bearing them witness both with Signs and Wonders and with divers Miracles By Wonders in a strict sence are meant any extraordinary surprizing and new Operations whether springing from a divine Power or a natural By Miracles are understood Effects of a divine and infinite Power whether wrought privately or publickly on purpose to confirm any Doctrin or without any such design Thus our Saviour's Fast for fourty Days was a Miracle tho' it was not wrought for the confirmation of any Doctrin nor before any publick Assembly of Spectators A Sign is something more than a Wonder or a Miracle for it is wrought publickly by an infinite Power in confirmation of a Doctrin Thus our Saviour's changing Water into Wine is said to be the first of his Miracles of this kind that is the first of his Signs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For as to pure Miracles he had acted several before as his Fast for fourty Days tho Descent of the Holy Ghost in a Bodily shape This is the distinction of the Schools tho' in common vld. Aquln 2. 2dae q. 178. art 1. ad 3. acceptation Signs and Miracles are taken in the same sence Under which Notion I shall consider them and shew First What a Miracle is Secondly I shall examine what Power is capable of working a Miracle Thirdly I shall enquire into some of those Marks by which we may distinguish a true Miracle from a false one Fourthly I shall prove That the Miracles wrought by Jesus Christ and his Apostles have all these Marks of a true Miracle Lastly I shall close all by briefly shewing That tho' Christianity was at first establish'd by Miracles yet that there is no reason that we should expect a continu'd succession of them to the present times First I shall shew what a Miracle is A Miracle is something that surpasses the Power of Men or of Nature wrought in savour of a Person who knows that this Miracle shall be thus transacted 'T is a Work that surpasses the Power of Men or of Nature for let an Effect be never so surprizing or extraordinary yet while it is within the force of second Causes it is no Miracle It must in strict speaking bear the lively Impression and sovereign Stamp of Divinity upon it so that we may without hazard of being deceiv'd boldly vouch that This is the Lord 's doing and it is marvellous in our eyes Which we may safely say when Diseases are cur'd by a Touch the tumultuous Seas calm'd by a Rebuke and the Dead rais'd by the Command of One who assum'd no more than the Form of a Man When the Unlearned speak Languages which they never learn'd When the Flames shall lose their destructive Nature and instead of consuming guard When a Hand rais'd up shall determine the Fate of Armies When the Lord shall hearken to the voice
swerve For Justice and Judgment are the Habitation or as others the Basis or Foundation of his Throne As his own connate original Wisdom or the Rectitude of his own Nature is the Rule and Measure of his own Actions so is the Transcript of it if I may so speak the Rule for all other Agents to move by He has given the Sea his decree that the Waters should not pass his Commandments and if the proud tumultuous Waves move by his Divine Rules how much more has he settled a Rule for his Angels that excell in strength for those his blessed Ministers who do his Pleasure The very Title of Angel imports Duty and Obedience to that glorious Power from whence it receiv'd its Commission and Obedience implies some Rule by which it ought to be proportion'd As the Angels so the Saints in doe Subordination are in their several Stations rang'd under Rules and Laws For they are all Parts of the great Celestial Polity and all make up one Church Triumphant therefore must be subject to the same Heavenly Canons Laws and Constitutions For Thirdly This Rule is the same with that by which we ought to regulate our Actions therefore they are very fiâ—ly set out in â—hiâ— Prayer of our Lord's as a Pattern for our Obedience Now the Rule by which 〈…〉 ought to manage our Practice is that which is styl'd the Moral Law or that Law which first being stamp'd on Man's Heart in his Innocence notwithstanding what Mr. Hobbs * Human vnderstanding p. 366. passion Mr. Locke and others have said to the contrary was after his Fall retriev'd by Moses and the Prophets and lastly by Christ and his holy Apostles that Law which prescribes to us to entertain noble Apprehensions of God to worship and serve him which teaches us Moderation towards our selves and Justice towards our Neighbours which is comprehended in that brief Summary Thou shalt love the Lord thy God and thy Neighbour as thy self This is the Rule of our Actions on Earth â—and that it is the Rule of the Saints and Angels in Heaven may be thus prov'd 1st That it is the Rule of the Saints or of the Spirits of Just Men made perfect That Law which recovens in the Saints that Image of God which was defac'd by the Fall is the Rule of their Actions but the acting up to the Moral Law is a Recovery of this Image and so must be that Rule For Heaven is properly nothing else but a Recovery of that State with something more of Perfection from which Man by Transgression fell If therefore acting in conformity with the Moral Law in all its Points is a Recovery of that State and that Image it is probable to suppose that in Heaven this Law shall be the Rule of the Actions of the Blessed Saints but an acting up to the Moral Law in all its Points is a Retrieval of the Divine Image for the being made in the Image of God is nothing else but being made in conformity with the Moral Law and in a State of Legal Innocence For the Apostle speaking of the Image of God in Man says That it was nothing else but Man's being made in Righteousness and true Holiness which are the two great Points of the Moral Law the former denoting the Duties of the second Table and the latter of the first As long therefore as Man liv'd up to the Moral Law maintain'd Rightcousness and true Holiness so long was â—e to bear the Divine Image but Man being in Honour had no Vnderstanding but became like the Beasts that perish For when he once broke the Law of his Maker whatsoever the Nature of his Sin was he lost this Image and Likeness to God and resembled rather that Cursed Spirit who had Betray'd him than that Blessed God who had Created him And under this resemblance with the Apostate Angels had he continued had not God by an Effort of Goodness which excell'd even that by which he made him offer'd to retrieve him to his former Image and Likeness And this was by assisting him with his Grace to live up to the Moral Law which he had before broken to keep the Divine Commands which would so purify his Nature as to renew the Divine Image in some proportion till he should be receiv'd into Heaven which his Saviour had purchas'd for him where the Image of God should be renew'd with a Lustre surpassing that in which Man was at first created But the reason why the Image of God should shine with a peculiar Splendour in Heaven seems to be because Man is there put out of a possibility of sinning any more and of defacing this Divine Image And this Heavenly State being only a renewing of that Image of God which Man had shortly after his Creation lost if that Image did as was before shewn at first consist in Man's living up to the Rules of the Moral Law of Righteousness and true Holiness if this Image was forfeited by Transgressing these Laws if it is in some degree renew'd in this Life by acting up to them it seems to follow that it shall be totally renew'd and eternally preserv'd in Heaven by an everlasting Obedience of the Saints to these Laws of Morality of Righteousness and true Holiness This Law therefore is the Rule for the Saints to act by in Heaven And Secondly It is the Rule for the Angels to act by also which may be shewn from an Argument drawn from the Fall and Revolt of the Evil Angels and accuss'd Spirits The Argument is this If those Spirits which fell from before the Throne of God fell by their Disobeying that Law of God which is styl'd the Moral Law it follows that they were oblig'd to the Observance of this Moral Law For every criminal Disobedience supposes an antecedent Obligation But if these accurs'd Spirits were ty'd to the keeping of this Law we must conclude that all the rest of the Angelick Hierarchy wâ—â— under the same Allegiance For 〈…〉 ly there was not one Rule of Obedience given to one part of the Celestial Host and another to the Remainders So that the Point to be prov'd is That the Angels fell by Transgressing the Moral Law The Transgressing of the Moral Law was the Crime which banish'd them Heaven Whether their unpardonable Fault was Ingratitude towards God as some suppose or Infidelity as others or Pride and a Reflection on their own Perfections without considering God as the Author as most or Envy as * Chrysost in Gen. Hom. 19. St. Chrysostom and †Civit. Dei lib. 14. c. 11. St. Austin or whether it was as is most likely a Combination of all these some â—oul and dismal Sin form'd out of the Malignity and Venom of each one of them mixt together yet was it a Violation of the Moral Law It was an Injury offer'd to that Light which God had put within them as well as within Mankind They therefore who sinn'd against the Moral Law who