is the Son of God signifies the same thing too Joh. 20. 31. But here our Author has relieved himself from his old Artifice which never failed him the forceing Scripture over to him when he is lazy and will not stir a step to go to the Scripture The Text speaks its own Language thus These things are written that ye might believe that Iesus is the Son of God and believing ye may have life through his Name where the Evangelist says not They are justified by believing that Iesus is the Son of God but that having first satisfied their Faith from Scripture that Jesus is the Son of God which Truth being well studied well digested and improved will give us a marvelous light into the Mystery of the Gospel and without which the whole of the Gospel is involved in eternal Night and then believing they have eternal Life through his Name by his satisfactory Blood and Righteousness and the Authority which he has thereby with the Father But believe it here is harder work than all this behind for our Author will propound several Questions and when he has done answer them 1. Quest. What is it to believe that Christ is the Son of God Ans. That is says he That Messiah and Prophet whom God sent into the World Very good Now as I remember p. 4. he told us That Christ was anointed to be the Messiah at his Baptism let the Reader examine it Now if to be the Son of God be to be the Messiah and that he was not the Messiah till his Baptism then he was not the Son of God till his Baptism and then for about 30 years he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a mere Man and yet this is a great favour I assure you for his Baptism was about three or four years before his Resurrection and then they are to blame who will suspect this Principle to be Socinian well But yet to believe Christ to be the Son of God is to believe him to be the Messiah Ay But there 's one odd misadventure more in the thing that is that Hebrew is easier than Greek for if Messiah explain Christ any better I am very much out in my reckoning Some from hence will pretend to give us a Scheme of our Author's Faith about the Deity of Christ and perhaps should they deal with him as he has dealt with others or half so uncharitably it would be found dissonant to what he professedly owns in subscribing the three Symbols of Faith but I see no reason to fix an Opinion upon any Man that he will not openly avow 2. Quest. But what is the Messiah Ans. Why The Prophet whom God sent into the World to reveal his Will to us To believe him to be the Son of God is to believe him to be the Messiah and to believe him to be the Messiah is to believe him to be a Prophet and that is as near as I can measure it just one third part of his Mediatory Employment Surely he has mean thoughts of his Reader 's Intellectuals or great presumptions upon their good-Natures or a high esteem of the persuasiveness of his own Rhetorick that can hope to proselyte them into a belief without one Argument That the Son of God signifies no other than Messiah Messiah no more than Prophet and that the Prophetical-Office of this Messiah is the just compleat Object of our Faith 3. Quest. But what does this Belief of Christ to be the Messiah the Prophet include Ans. A general Belief of the Gospel which he preacht most rare Divinity I suppose we may be saved upon very cheap terms by and by For 1. A general Belief of the Gospel will serve the turn to justify 〈◊〉 well enough that is as far as Faith has ought to do in Justification If Faith believes Christ to be the Messiah that is a Prophet whom God sent to reveal his Will to us it has got a general Belief of the Gospel which may be without understanding in particular one syllable of what Christ has revealed of his Father's Will and then I suppose a general Obedience will serve well enough for a general Faith 2. We may believe Christ to be the Messiah yet if we believe not also what that Person is in whom the Office of Mediator resides we shall understand very little of its Nature Dignity and Efficacy To believe Christ to be Anointed signifies very little unless we understand also who it is that is so Anointed 5. To believe that God raised Christ from the Dead doth the same Doth the same the same what Why it includes a general Belief of the Gospel because his Resurrection was the last and great Confirmation of the Gospel Let us now put all this together We are said to be justified by believing that God raised up Christ from the Dead and that signifies the same with being justified by the Blood of Christ and both these signify to be justified by believing and obeying the Gospel and yet to believe that God raised up Christ from the Dead includes only a general belief of the Gospel In all which there is nothing but what is rotten at the Core 1. Let us examine in what sense we are said to be justified by believing that God raised up Christ from the Dead The place assigned is Rom. 10. v. 9. If thou shalt confess with thy Mouth the Lord Iesus Christ and shalt believe in thine Heart that God â—…ath raised up him from the Dead thou shalt be saved Where Salvation is not promised to a Belief of this Proposition That God raised Christ from the Dead but to a Believing it with the Heart such a Faith as closes with the Redeemer included in that Proposition as is evident from the Faith of Thomas Joh. 20. 28. Our Lord Jesus willing to satisfy his doubts and scruples about the Truth of his Resurrection shews him his Hands and Feet gives him leave to put his Hâ—…nd into the Print of the Nails and the Hole of his Side upon this he is satisfied and expresses the Belief of his Heart in these words My Lord and my God When therefore the Apostle tells us That by believing with the Heart that God has raised Iesus from the Dead we shall be saved he intends such a Faith as accepts of and gives up the Soul mutually to a Redeemer as its own God and Lord and not a general Belief that Christ must needs be the Messiah because he was raised from the Dead and if the Messiah his Doctrine must needs be true be it what it will though we know nothing of it 2. It may be enquired whether such a general Belief that God raised up Iesus from the Dead be a true justifying Faith If it be An Implicite Faith will serve tum for all the Particulars of the Gospel and this would save abundance of needless pains that men take in reading of meditating upon the Scriptures and now instead of the Colliers Faith who believed as the
in Question but hear his proof 1 Cor. 12. 13. By one Spirit we are all baptized into one Body In which says he the Apostle seems to allude to Baptism which conferres the same Holy Spirit on us All and thereby makes us all Members of that one Body which is his Church I think he is resolved never to produce a pertinent Scripture to prove the plainest Truth For 1. here 's but an Allusion at most and has he scolded all this while against Allusions Allegories and must he lay the main stress of his Argument upon an Allusion 2. It but seems to Allude neither and that weakens the Credit of it exceedingly An Allusion a seeming Allusion A shadow the dream of a shadow Any thing or Nothing will serve his turn for plain demonstration when a Mans Name is up for a demonstrative Man he may lye in bed till noon 3. This Baptisme says he conferres the same Holy Spirit upon us all But the Apostle sayes no such matter but the contrary by the Spirit we are baptized and not by Baptism receive the Spirit Thus the Spirit Unites us to Christ then comes Baptism which looks backward as a Seal of what we have received and forward to our visible state in the Church and hence it appears that our Union to Christ is the Reason of our Union to the Church and not our Union to the Church the Means to unite us to Christ. 4. Baptism admitts not into a particular Church but the visible Church at large and then it will be harder still for our Author to prove from thence that the Union of particular Christians to Christ is by Means of their union with a particular Church under the Bishops and Pastors But if Allusions will not pass currant Then sayes he more expressely in Eph. 4. 4 5. There is one Body and one Spirit as you are called in one hope of your Calling one Lord one Faith one Baptism That is the Christian Baptism is but one and is A Sacrament of Union making us all the Members of that one Body of Christ this is called being Baptized into Christ i. e. Admitted into the Christian Church by a visible Profession of our Faith in Christ Now for a small matter I could grant him all this and yet despair of seeing his Conclusion Baptism is but one be it so It 's a Sacrament of Union take it for granted It makes us all Members of that one Body of Christ which is his visible Church let it be supposed But still I wait for proof of this That by Baptism we are all really united to Christ. But here are some things very pretty 1. Baptism is but one and is a Sacrament of Union Very good and so is the Spirit but one and therefore he is the Means of Union 2. By Baptism we are made Members of the one Body of Christ that is of the Visible Church but is there no means to make us Members of the Invisible Church 3. This is called being Baptized into Christ. But is there no other way of uniting us to Christ but by Baptism 4. We are admitted into the Christian Church by a publick Profession of our Faith in Christ Very true we are solemnly admitted into a Visible Station in the Visible Church thereby alwayes supposing Repentance whereby we forsake sin and Faith whereby we steadfastly believe the Promises of God made to us in that Sacrament which has already united us to Christ. 2. The Lords Supper is a Sacrament of Union and signifies that neer Conjunction between Christ and Christians Signifies it It presupposes an Union both with Christ and a particular Church All are supposed in one sence or other to be in the Church to be in Christ that are admitted to it Read over the Exhortation in the Liturgy at your best leisure My duty is to exhort you to consider the Dignity of this Mystery And so to search and examine your Consciences that you should come holy and clean to a most Holy Feast for otherwise receiving of the Holy Communion doth nothing else but encrease your Damnation Again in the other Exhortation For as the benefit is great if with a true penitent heart and lively Faith we receive that holy Sacrament for Then we spiritually eat the flesh of Christ and drink his blood Then we dwell in Christ and he in us so the danger is great c. and therefore if any of you be a Blasphemer of God N. B. an hinderer or a slanderer of his Word N. B. an Adulterer or be in Malice N. B. or Envy or any other grievous crime bewail your sins and come not to this holy Table least the Devil enter into you as he did into Iudas But what can be more evident our Author supposes we are united to the Church united to Christ by Baptism and therefore surely this other Sacrament confirms our Union and does not first Create it I have long waited for an Argument to enforce his Conclusion and now we shall have it The Intention of our Lord and Saviour in what he did and suffer'd for us was not to reform and save some single Persons but to erect a Church and to combine all his Disciples into a publick Society A fairer Truth never dropt from his Pen which some will like the better because it is so handsom and proper a Confutation of the whole Section For if this be Christs design to combine all his Disciples into a publick Society then sure they were his Disciples related to him as their Lord and Master before such combination Now to be a true Disciple of Christ is no such slighty and trivial matter that we may be such a one and yet not united really to Christ It implyes Self-denyal taking up the Cross and following Christ and that will go a great way to an Union with Christ and yet of such as these it 's granted the Christian Society must be composed But he copes up all this with a little Reason And therefore our Saviour does not own any Relation to particular men as such but as they are Members of his Body As such Now for an Explication of the Quà He owns no Relation to particular men as such that is as particular men No I am very well satisfied of that for then he should own a Relation to all particular men for à quatenus ad omne valet consequentia But does he own a Relation to particular Believers as Believers will he own a Relation to a Disciple as a Disciple I am sure he has promis'd to own those that own them as Disciples and I am as sure that if a particular Church be a combination of Disciples he will own his Disciples wherever he finds them so that I was just a concluding the clear contrary if our Author had not given me timely Notice That because Christ does combine all his Disciples into publick Societies that therefore he does own and is so related to united with and will have
Scripture are equally revealed both equally claim a share in Gods Veracity and till we can be resolved to Satisfaction how God may be such a one as pardons Iniquity and yet will by no means clear the Guilty till we can see how this seeming Contradiction may be Reconciled we shall either have none or but a faint and Dying knowledge of it But now Christ he is the very Life of this Knowledge for in his Death and Sufferings we see and know clearly that Gods Justice is satisfied upon Christ and his pardoning Mercy Magnified upon the Repenting and Believing sinner and thus to know God to be a Sin-pardoning God has indeed Life in 't For thus to use the words of the Learned Bishop Reynolds upon Psal. 110. A Way is found out that things may be all one in respect of Man as if the Law had been utterly Abrogated and that they may be all one in respect of God as if the Creature had been utterly Condemned pag. 500. This is all the Doctor here intends wherein though he should be mistaken yet has he not discovered a Fellonious Intention and so I hope it will not prove a Hanging Matter But yet our Author with his prying Eyes can see further into a Milstone than he that Pecks it And as our Critical Scholiasts upon the Poets discover Elegancies Figures and great Rarities which the poor man never Dreamt of so can our Author discover Errors multitudes of hideous Errors in the Doctor which he neither Sleeping nor Waking was ever aware of For says he He explains himself thus These things are Clearly Eminently and Savingly only to be discovered in Iesus Christ. Whether the Doctor say any such thing or no we shall take the Boldness to Catechise our Author by and by and make him produce his Chapter Paragraph and Page e're we have done or abide by the shame that is due to a Malicious Slanderer At present I only ask which of these Terms it is that he will Duel or will he throw down the Gantlet to them all that we may have Battle Royal 1 These things are only clearly to be discovered in Iesus Christ I see the most Innocent things may give Offence But who would have suspected that in this place For suppose that Sun Moon and Stars Gods general Goodness to his Patience with and Forbearance of Sinners might Intimate some such thing that there was Forgiveness with God yet surely there 's a more clear account given of it in Christs Person who was made sin for us 2 Cor. 5. 21. which the Prophet Isaiah Chap. 53. v. 10. calls making his Soul an Offering for sin And that methinks clears it up a little more than if we had been put to spell out the meaning of Patience and Forbearance with the Fescue of our own understanding And though the Scripture abundantly reveals Pardon of Sin yet the Manner how the Reason why which are the very Life and Soul of all Knowledge is revealed to be from the Mercy of God through the Blood of Christ Ephes. 1. 7. In whom we have Redemption through his Blood the Forgiveness of Sins according to the Riches of his Grace And the rather may we be bold to say that the pardon of Sin is cleared up in the Person of Christ because so Authentick so Infallible an Author as ours is has given us leave to believe pag. 20. that the Gospel-Covenant is sealed with the Blood of Christ and therefore we can desire no greater Security And this I am sure of from Heb. 8. 10. that the Summe and Substance of that Covenant is I will be their God and they shall be my People and a main Branch of that Covenant I will be Merciful to their Iniquities and Remember their Sins no more If then we could but clear this one Poynt that the Bliod which Sealed this Covenant was not the Blood of a Doctrine nor of an Office nor of the Church but the precious Blood of Iesus Christ the Son of God even the Blood of a Person it would then be clear also that God's pardoning Mercy is only clearly or so clearly however to be discovered in Iesus Christ. 2 For the Term Eminently if the Bluster be against that I shall not much trouble my self I am no great Friend to because poorly skilled in Metaphysical Notions but as it stands here in Conjunction with other honest words I see no harm in 't To me it denotes no more but that the Pardon of sin is Notably Chiefly Gloriously and in a most Special and Excellent manner discovered in the Personal Sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ But if our Author after all this be not satisfied but finds himself Aggrieved the Law is open I plead no Protection let him take his Course and the Remedy the Law has given him 3 Therefore it must needs be that last word Savingly that is guilty of all and therefore must bear the Charge brought in against the whole Sentence That pardon of sin is only savingly discovered in Iesus Christ. I cannot tell but I do shrewdly conjecture that our Author has spoken as dangerous a thing as this comes to and has given us sufficient warrant to distinguish between a vain empty Insignificant Knowledge and an Useful Profitable and Saving Knowledge pag. 36. There is says he a larger Notion of the Knowledge of Christ which includes the Vertue and Efficacy of this Knowledge For how true soever our Speculations be the Scripture brands all those as Ignorant of God who do not love Reverence and Obey Him Now if the Doctors Book had had but the Happiness to have seen the World after our Authors he might have Explained himself so as to come off with a dry Head Notwithstanding what I have said of Gods Sin-pardoning mercy and the Knowledge thereof as in Him yet there is another Knowledge thereof which Includes and takes in the knowledge of this God to be our God and pardoning our sins which God is only in and through the Lord Iesus Christ and therefore the Scripture brands all those as Ignorant of God and his pardoning Mercy who know him not as their God in a Covenant of Grace whereof Christ is the Mediator and therefore without Him we can have no Saving-knowledge of or Interest in God or his Sin-pardoning Goodness whatever our Speculations may be of Mercy and Grace and Pardon to be in God But after all this Trouble our Author has put me to and just as much that I have put the Reader to the Mischief on 't all is this The Doctor says not one Word Syllable Letter Jot or Tittle of all this but the contrary I am sure the Reader is startled and his Hair begins to stand an end What no Truth on Earth Is Astraea more than in a Fable gone to Heaven Well Reader when thou art come to thy self and art a little more Cool and Composed Consult the Doctors Book pag. 90. Sect. 6. There are some of the most eminent Properties
of God that there is not the least Glimps to be attained of out of the Lord Jesus Christ but only by and in Him and some that comparatively we have no Light of but in Him and of all the rest no true Light but by Him In which words the Doctor evidently sorts all Gods Properties under three Heads 1. Such whereof there is not the least glimps to be attained out of Christ and under this Head he reckons Gods Love his pardoning Mercy or Grace to sinners 2. Such whereof we have comparatively no Light but in Christ and to this Head he refers Gods Vindictive Justice in punishing Sin c. 3. Of all the rest he affirms we have no true Light but by Him Now concerning the second sort he says pag. 92. Sect. 10. Secondly There are other Properties of God which though also otherways discovered yet are so clearly eminently and savingly only in Iesus Christ. Now Reader for a tolerable pair of Eyes Our Author would make the Doctor say that Gods pardoning Mercy is clearly eminently and savingly only discovered in Christ But the Doctor himself says Sin-pardoning-mercy is not at all known there 's not the least glimps of it but in Christ. So pag. 91. Out of Christ there 's not the least Conjecture of it not the least Morsel to be tasted of it out of Christ That is God has not any way any where at any time discovered that he will pardon a Sinner but upon the Account of his Son And now Reader I hope I may fairly protest against our Authors Bills for the future or however carry a very suspicious Eye over him as being in his Quotations either sick of sapine Negligence thick Ignorance or transparent Malice and let all men know by these presents that henceforwards I shall not take his Word for a single Farthing But how false or impertinent soever this be I knew he did not raise all this dust and make such a heavy adoe for Nothing whatever the Doctors Principles and Assertions were he was resolved to pay him home and load him soundly with ill-favour'd Inferences and mishapen Conclusions and in that one Knack lies our Authors Master-piece So that sayes he it seems the Gospel of Christ makes a very imperfect and obscure Discovery of the Nature Attributes and Will of God and the Methods of our Recovery we may throughly understand whatever is revealed in the Gospel and yet not have a clear and saving knowledge of these things untill we get a more intimate Acquaintance with Christs Person There was never any Man that made better use of est's and that 's than our Authour So that The Doctor had said That Christ hath revealed the Properties of God in his Doctrine c. and what would you now think follows from hence Why surely one would think That therefore the Gospel of Christ makes a perfect and clear discovery of the Nature Attributes and Will of God Nay there you are out sayes our Author for hence it followes that the Gospel makes a very imperfect and obscure discovery of them But what Necessity may there be to draw such a Conclusion from such a Doctrine I will tell thee Reader in thy Ear Sub Sigillo Concessionis as a great Secret Otherwise as excellent a piece as ever blessed the World with New Divinity had got a knock in its Cradle and would have retain'd a soft place in its head all the dayes of its life Now that which he would fain fasten upon the Doctor is a piece of the greatest Foolery Imaginable As if he made the Person of Christ no part of Gospel-Revelation whereas 't is indeed his great Principle that Christ is the summe and substance of it He could never once fancy it possible to have a through understanding of the Gospel but we must ipso facto have also a through understanding of Christs Person nor to have a through understanding of the Gospel and Christ the Subject of it but we must have also a through understanding of Gods Nature Attributes and Will and of the Methods of our Recovery by Iesus Christ But this is the Product of our Authors So that which alwayes agrees with his Premises just like Brains and Stairs Harp and Harrow If therefore any one will do the Doctor Justice he must read our Authors words backwards with a pair of Hebrew Spectacles and that will give him a truer Account of the Doctors Sentiments The Gospel of Christ makes a very perfect and clear discovery of the Nature Attributes and Will of God and of the Methods of our Recovery but we can never throughly understand what is there revealed unless we understand the Person of Christ who is so considerable a part and indeed the whole of Gospel Revelation And by such a knowledge of Christ revealed in the Gospel will the Person of Christ be justly advanced and the Gospel which reveals him greatly recommended Shall we then smile at or lament our Authors simple Conclusion This sets up a New Rule of Faith viz. Acquaintance with Christs Person in whom dwells all the Treasures of wisdom and knowledge And here a vein of his old thredbare Fallacy discovers it self which I now perceive like the poysonous string in the Lamprey he resolves shall run through his whole Discourse Dividing those things which God has joyned and supposing those things inconsistent which are indeed subservient one to the other Christs Person is Revealed by the Doctrine of the Gospel and not opposed to it Christ as a Prophet reveals himself to our Faith as God-man as Mediator and Redeemer and as vested with all those Offices for the discharge of his whole Mediatory Employment To advance his Person is not to degrade his Gospel the Magnifying of a Prophet is no disparagement to his Prophesie The Honouring of a King is no reproach to his Law The Gospel is therefore Excellent because it reveals to us so Excellent a Person as the Word made flesh the Person of Redeemer New Rule of Faith therefore we own none and wish heartily that they who condemn us whilest they pretend to abhorre Idols did not commit downright Sacriledge that they set not up New Rules of Faith upon a pretence that the Scripture is not sufficient to direct our Faith and Obedience in things pertaining to God but it 's Common for some to exclaim against feeding on the Devils flesh who yet will sup soundly of the Broth that he is boyl'd in But these things our Author has been told so often of that I see it to no purpose to tell him a story unless I could find him Ears But these are but Velitations and light Skirmishes our Author is preparing for a most terrible Charge upon the Doctor These whiffling Slanders do but make way for the Show like the Turkish Spabi good for nothing but to fill up the Trenches or blunt the edge of his Enemies Weapons we are now waiting to receive the formidable Impression of his Ianizaries Two things
he will Confound us all with First by shewing what Additions This Dr. O. and some others make to the Gospel And then Secondly what an unsafe way of Arguing they use And 1 He will shew us What Additions these men make to the Gospel from an Acquaintance with Christs Person I must needs say I was extremely startled to hear a Charge of Additions to the Gospel brought in against any Man I presently expected either unwritten Traditions or immediate Revelations or I know not what African Monster should stare me in the face And I know nothing at which my Nature more recoyls nothing more abhorring to my Temper than such sawcy Additions and the rather because I presently remembred that dreadfull Curse Rev. 22. 18. If any one shall adde unto these things God shall adde to him all the Plagues that are written in this Book If Men will be Adding God will be Adding if Men will adde their whimsical Inventions God will adde his Righteous Iudgements And for that Reason I never liked either the Addition of Officers to those Christ has commanded to govern his Church nor the Addition of Canons to those by which he has appointed his Church to be governed I alwayes thought it safest to leave the Doctrine Worship and Government of Christ as we found them we may be chidden for adding or substracting but never for being no wiser than the Gospel and when we have done our Best and chopt and changed we shall hardly ever make better than those Christ made for us If therefore our Author can but prove his Declaration as he has layd it I am his absolute Creature his prepared Man and shall be sure to find for him against the Doctor and a thousand more Innovators But at last I perceive all this is but the old stratagem of his Neighbours of Billings-gate where the crafty Slut calls her Opponent Whore first lest she should be prevented with as bad language and better Proof But there are no less than Three Additions that this one single Doctor has made to the Gospel In which as he sayes is summ'd up all true Wisdom and Knowledge and not any one of them to any purpose to be obtained or is manifested but only in and by the Lord Christ Now though our Author had almost pored his eyes out with seeking for these things in the Gospel to no purpose yet still he was so perspicacious as to espy one sorry single little word by which the Doctor had fallaciously added to include the Revelations made by the Gospel Whether that little word was added fallaciously or no I shall not at present determine but this I will say that it was as mischievously and enviously added as ever any word of that Bigness was added in the world of set purpose no doubt and propense Malice to spight our Authors design and most inhumanely and barbarously to cross all his Projects For it 's plain that the Particle in referres to obtaining and this other Particle by to Manifesting which by resolving the Doctors words into their distinct Propositions is more than evident 1. The things mentioned are not to be Obtained but In Christ. And 2. The things mentioned are not Manifested but By Christ. Obtained in him that is Through his Merit Mediation Intercession or Procurement And Manifested by him that is By his Preaching and the Preachings and Writings of his Evangelists and Apostles Now had but the Doctor left out that one word by as a good Natur'd man would have done our Author would have had a fair Ear of advantage to lay hold on for reviling him as excluding the Revelations of the Gospel and therefore I must say it again it was not so Civilly done of the Doctor nor so like a Gentleman as might have been expected from him to insert that one word to the apparent prejudice hazard if not utter disherison of our Author his Cause Learning Rhetorick and Reputation But yet he thinks it was fallaciously Added because his first undertaking was to shew how impossible it is to understand these things savingly and clearly notwithstanding all those Revelations God hath made of himself and his Will by Moses and the Prophets and by Christ himself without an Acquaintance with Christs Person He that cheats me once proves himself a Knave but if he over-reaches me a second time he proves me a Fool Remembring therefore how Matters stood between our Author and my self and that I was under bond never to trust him more I took down the Doctors Book and with the best Eyes and Spectacles I had viewed the place and what I find there the Reader shall have as cheap as I had it P. 87. Com. All true wisdom is laid up in and onely to be obtained from and by the Lord Iesus Christ. So thought I hitherto we are safe and the Person of Christ and his Gospel are very good Friends Again p. 88. All that wisdom which God layeth out for the discovery and Manifestation of himself is in Christ crucified held out in him by him and onely to be obtained from him Very good there we have by again and Gospel Revelations are not shut out of dores Yet again p. 90. There are some Properties of God as pardoning Mercy the least glympse whereof is not to be obtaineâ—… out of the Lord Iesus Christ but onely In him and By him Hitherto we are alive and alive's like Once more p. 98. The Riches of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God are onely hid in and revealed by Christ And to give our Author his full Dose p. 88. God is not known upon any other Account to Salvation but onely the Revelation of the Son And now instead of disparaging the Doctor I doubt we shall erre on the other hand and too much magnifie him as having written by Revelation who twenty years before could foresee the Objections that would be levell'd against his Writings Well sayes our Author let that pass Oh the Charity of the Man that will not ruine his Enemy all at once and indeed it 's not good Husbandry to eat up a Man at one Meal Polyphemus himself would reserve Ulysses for a Breakfast when he supped so liberally over night with picking the Bones of his Mates and yet there was as much Discretion in the Case as Frugality not to shew his Teeth when he could not Bite or however not to fasten them where it might break his Fangs But it will be seasonable to examine the particular Additions 1 The first is concerning the knowledge of God his Nature and Properties And here the Doctor has made a great Addition viz. that The Love of God to sinners could never have entred into the heart of Man but by Christ p. 90. Now our Author promises us that he will not examine particularly every thing the Doctor sayes Of which we have had good proof all along for 't is not his Genius to trouble himself with any more than what may conveniently serve his purpose but
Nature and the Rules that he shall prescribe to him and therefore 3. Agreeable to his holy Nature and holy Law it shall not be with the Righteous after the way of the Wicked nor with the Wicked after the way of the Righteous for the Iudge of the whole Earth must do right This God has revealed and we believe and as much more as shall be made known to us to be of his Revelation But that God is so indifferent about Sin as these men would perswade us that those Scoffers Zeph. 1. 12. The Lord will not doe good neither will he doe evil did charge God wisely we do not believe but that he insists upon the Honour of his Attributes the Credit of his Laws the Vindication of his Authority which Ends if they may be otherwise attained than by Christ and his Sacrifice yet our Author has not yet discover'd to us the Way and however he has confessed that Christ is the best and most effectual Means of attaining them There are a few drops which follow this Storm yet behind The Doctor had said p. 96 97. That God does sometimes bear with Sinners and forbear them long and yet there may be no special design of Mercy in it neither But now evidently and directly the End of the Patience and Forbearance of God which is exercised in Christ and discovered in him to us is the saving and bringing unto God those towards whom he is pleased to exercise them God is now taking a Course in his infinite Wisdom and Goodness that we may not be destroyed notwithstanding our sins which a little before p. 97. sect 15. he explains to be by leading us to Repentance Now I knew it would be no difficult task to a willing Mind to put an ugly Vizor upon the fairest Face which thus he has done As before the least Sin could not escape without a just Punishment c. so now the Iustice of God being satisfied by the Death of Christ the greatest Sins can do us no harm but we shall be saved notwithstanding our sins But I doubt our Author will be miserably disappointed in his Markets and lose Money by his dirty Ware 1. The least Sin cannot escape without Punishment Very true we own it The wages of Sin is Death the Threatning is level'd at Sin as Sin and therefore against all sin A quatenus ad Omne valet Consequentia and therefore go scold with the Apostle that which will bring him off will bring off the Doctor 2. The Justice of God is Natural and Essential to him Well let him mend himself how he can we are of the same mind still and are like to be so 3. He cannot forgive sin without punishing it Goe on somewhere or other the Punishment must lye which amounts to no more but this that God cannot forgive sin but in such a way as may secure his Glory 4. The Iustice of God is satisfied by the Death of Christ It is so but that Satisfaction is applyed to particular persons in that way that God has appointed that no other of his Attributes may be damnified 5. Now the greatest sins can doe us no hurt Nay there our Author is quite out For Unbelief Impenitency Unregeneracy obstruct the Sinners having any share in the Satisfaction of Christ or the Benefits procured by it But 6. The Doctor had said We shall be saved notwithstanding our sins He does say we shall not be destroyed and let that amount if he pleases to We shall be saved That is 1. Former Sins repented of shall not be charged upon the Sinner to Condemnation 2. Such sins as are consistent with the state of Grace the Power and Predominancy of Godliness shall not eventually ruine the repenting Sinner and for those that are inconsistent with that state he that undertook to satisfie for them will also take care they shall not commit them that he may not lose the Fruit of his Death and Sufferings and therefore he has promised that he will put his Fear into their hearts that they shall never depart from him And now I think our Author has either lost Money by his Discourse or got it over the Shoulders All his hopes were to perswade us That the Doctor design'd to assert that the satisfaction of Christ would save sinners notwithstanding their sins lived in continued in delighted in and dyed in in sensu composito but let an ordinary Understanding with ordinary diligence read over that Paragraph and he shall find all conspiring with that great Truth Without Holiness no man shall see God And thus he has talk'd his pleasure about Mercy and Iustice. As to Gods Wisdom which most gloriously appears in this design of Saving sinners by Christ the Doctor had said Com. 98. That Gods Wisdom in managing things for his own Glory is clearly discovered in Christ And if Wisdom display it self in the works of Creation and Providence and in his holy Law yet still Wisdom is most eminently revealed in a Mediator and he was the more emboldened thus to speak because he had encouragement from the Apostle 1 Cor. 1. 24. We preach Christ crucified to the Iews a stumbling-block and to the Greeks foolishness but to them who are saved both Iews and Greeks the Power of God and the Wisdom of God And here I confess our Author had just Cause of Complaint That the Apostle should so unluckily place this Wisdom in a crucifyed Christ to the utter undoing that laudable Invention of Christ for an Office a Church a Doctrine and this might well vex every vein of his heart But still the Doctor proceeds and for ought I can see minds our Author no more than you would be concern'd about that peevish thing that infests your skins as you walk the streets with impotent Noyse shewing That this Wisdom of God is such a Mystery such hidden Wisdom such manyfold variegated curiously wrought Wisdom that the Angels desire to pry into it and the Wisdom thereof lyes much in this That by Christ things are recovered into such a state after the Confusion wherein they were involved by the Curse as shall be exceedingly to the advantage of Gods glory P. 98 99. This indeed was pungent and galled that tender part which cannot endure to hear too much Good spoken at once of Christs Person For says he if Justice be so Natural to God that Nothing could satisfie him but the Death of his own Son this may discover his Justice but not his Wisdom Why so Oh the Reason is plain Wisdom consists in the choyce of the best and fittest Means to attain an End where there are more wayes than one of doing it but it requires no great wisdom where there is but one possible Way Where I am stumbled at our Authors Philosophy as much as at his Divinity For 1. Saving to our Author his good Learning Wisdom lyes also in Managing fit Means in such a Way as may reach their Ends effectually that there be no disappointment in
in determining the Will And if by irresistable Grace no more be meant than a powerfull and effectual production of the principle of Grace in the Soul it 's no more than what God has promised in the New Covenant Ezek. 36. 26. A new heart also will I give them and I will take away the heart of Stone out of their flesh and I will give them an heart of Flesh And he that removes the onely resisting Principle in the Soul the Heart of Stone may be said well enough to act irresistably in the working of Grace Nor can I see any danger in ascribing such a way of working to the Holy Spirit nor did the Apostle Eph. 1. 19 20. who believe according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him up from the dead where the Apostle is not afraid nor ashamed to ascribe the working of Faith to the same Power that raised up Christ from the dead and he that had a mind to make a fluster with Greek like our Author could take a fair Opportunity to tell him what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doe signifie and then to rub him up with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And whether these denote not the Creatures Impotency and Gods Efficacious Power let the Reader judge 3. Our Author is much mistaken if he thinks that the work of Gods Grace and Spirit in Conversion of a Soul to God may be compared to the moveing of a Machine Perhaps he had seen about Billingsgate the Maugeing of a Crane where a lusty Fellow with a Mastiffe-Dog in a Wheel will take you up an incredible weight otherwise unmanagable and he being taken with the Omnipotency of the Engine knew not how to bestow his pleasure better than upon the Operation of the Holy Spirit But Gods Spirit knows how to act effectually and yet not offer violence to any of the Faculties of the Soul He can lead the Creature powerfully and yet in a way agreeable to its Frame and Constitution He that has engaged Ioh. 6. 37. That all that the Father has given him shall come unto him knows well how to bring them in without committing a rape upon their own wills he can make them willing and yield by surrender and not need to take them by storm he can powerfully and yet gently and sweetly lead his Creature he makes no Assault and Battery upon it When then the Psalmist prayes and we with him Psal. 119. 36. That God would encline his heart to his Statutes there 's enough in his Prayer to imply his own disability and Gods Power and yet enough in the Souls Inclination to exclude all Force and Violence But still he presseth upon the Doctor who p. 106. had said There are Four things in sin that clearly shine forth in the Death of Christ 1. The Desert of it 2. Mans Impotency by reason of it 3 The Death of it 4. A New end put unto it Against the two former he has sufficiently Discovered his feeble Passion the third he waves and now against the fourth he Rises up with incredible Zeal and Fury For says the Doctor Sin in its own Nature tends merely to the Dishonour of God the Ruine of the Creature but now in the Lord Iesus Christ there is the Manifestation of another and more Glorious end viz. The praise of Gods glorious Grace in the pardon and forgiveness of it God having taken order in Christ that that thing which tended merely to his Dishonour should be managed to his Infinite Glory And here our Author has need of all his Machines and Engines that he may disorder things so as to serve his turn of them and therefore upon good advise no doubt reserved them all for this place 1. One Machine which he plies is that old Rotten Engine called Invidious Representation and this will do good Service still for want of a better That is says he lest Gods Iustice and Mercy should never be known to the World he appoints and Ordains sins to this end that is Decrees that Men shall sin that he may make some of them Vessels of Wrath and others the Vessels of his Mercy to the praise of his Grace in Christ. It 's a sad Drudgery to satisfie wilfully blind Malice For what more plain from the Doctors words than that he speaks not Hot or Cold of Gods Ordaining men to sin but of his putting a New end to sin upon supposition that it is already in the World Cannot God bring Good out of Evil but our Author must go Mad It 's a very Ruful cause that needs such Subsidies to maintain it Let any one Read the Doctor again pag. 112. Sin in its own Nature tends merely to Gods Dishonour In the Lord Iesus Christ there is the Manifestation of another end And as he said before pag. 106. There 's a New end put to it of Gods Ordaining and Appointing and Decreeing men to sin not a word not a syllable only he says that supposing sin to be already in the World carrying on its fatal Designs of Dishonouring God Damning Souls God has in Infinite Wisdom Curb'd and Restrained its Natural Tendency Over-rul'd its native malice against and thirst after the blood of souls and made it Comply with his own Glory So said Austin God is so Good that He would never suffer sin to be in the World if He were not also Omnipotent to bring Good out of the Evil. 2. Another Machine which our Author plies upon those words is That famous Engine of Archimedes of which he used to boast that Give him but a place out of the World where to fix his Engine and he would undertake to Unhinge the Earth from its Center The same Confidence has our Author in this Machine which indeed never failed him And no less truly than commonly called a Down-right falsehood Let the Reader mark it well he charges the Doctor for saying pag. 112. Com. That the glorious end whereunto sin is appointed and ordained is discovered in Christ for the Demonstration of Gods Vindictive Iustice in Measuring out to it a meet recompence of Reward Now remember the old Caveat Hic nervus est sapientiae nihil fidere Take the Book and read with all the Eyes you have and can borrow and there you shall find the clear contrary The Comminations and Threatnings of the Law do manifest one other end of sin even the Demonstration of Gods Vindictive Iustice in measuring out to it a meet recompence of Reward but here the Law stays with it all other Light and discovers no other use or end of it at all but in the Lord Iesus Christ there is the Manifestation of another and more Glorious end c. And now after all this sorrow we shall have a fine Scene of Mirth for our Divertisment Nature says he would teach us that so Infinitely glorious a Being as God is needs not sin and misery to
Iesus Christ who has by the Sacrifice of Himself reconciled God to Man and Man to God has received some Light and Confirmation from these Papers That our Author has opposed any thing that may stagger the Faith of Christians tolerably exercised in the Word of Righteousness I do not see but that it 's easie to erect a Castle in the Aire and when we have so done to draw a formal siege about it to batter storm rase and utterly demolish it not to leave one stone upon another this I grant he has satisfied me in to satiety For having all along laid it for the ground-work of his most accomplisht Raillery That some men found all their Religion upon the Person of Christ exclusive of the Scriptures he is now resolved to destroy that Hypothesis to give it no Quarter but even to Internecion plow up the Foundation and sow it with Salt that After-ages may sing goodly Ballads of his Atchievement Iam seges est ubi Troja fuit Thus when the Creative Power of the Imagination has given Life to a Chimâ—…ra the same Power with the same ease can stop it s breath annihilate it and calcine it to it 's primitive Nothing There are Two parts of his present Discourse First a false Supposition Secondly a most unmercifull Confutation of that Supposition 1. That which he supposes and is resolved to suppose in spight of Fate is that These men you wot of Pretend to learn their Religion from an Acquaintance with Christs Person to which he often addes and alwayes understands without Gospel Revelation A Supposition so idle absurd and palpably false that none can possibly believe it of those Persons upon whom 't is fixt but those and some such there are that have accustomed themselves to tell a Lye so often till at length they begin to be pretty well perswaded that they speak Truth Happy men that have found an Expedient so far to mitigate their Guilt that what was before a formal Lye becomes now onely a material Untruth That Iesus Christ is God and Man that he dyed for our Sins and rose again for our Iustification that he was set forth by God to be a Propitiation for sin to declare Gods Righteousness for the Pardon of it that he is our High-Priest our Advocate with the Father with whatever else comes within the compass of their Creed they do solemnly profess to have learnt from the Gospel onely and surther than as Scripture has been Liberal herein they protest in so many Letters and Syllables they know nothing less or more these things are owing purely to Revelation and they are ready when or wheresoever cited before their competent Iudges to give it under their Hands and Seals attested with all the Good men and True of the Vicinage The plain Truth is Their Principles lie in it their Writings witness to it and at other times they are reproach'd by these very same unreasonable men that they so tenaciously and pertinaciously adhere to the written Word that they make it the Rule of their Faith the Rubrick of their Worship the Directory of their Prayers the Square of their Obedience the Treasury of their Hopes and the grand Cynosure whereby they steer or desire to steer the whole Course of their Conversation to Eternal Life 2. The Confutation of this Hypothesis which is his second Travel must therefore needs be very easie And to this purpose he brings us in two pompous Reasons mounted like St. George himself on horse-back armed Cap-a-pe with his Trusty Morglay by his side his Launce ready couch d but all this while where 's the Dragon Or like a Champion of State who upon the Coronation of some Great Prince presents himself in rigid Steel throws down his Gantlet defies all Men Women and Children in defence of the Princes Title when he knows well enough before-hand that none will Take it up Now his Reasons are drawn the former from the uncertainty of such a Way and the Second which is as strong as the other from the uncertainty of such a Way Reader do not smile It was no less a Piece than the Great Demosâ—…henes who being ask'd What were the Main Qualifications of a Good Oratour answer'd The first is Pronunciation the second Pronunciation and the third forsooth was Pronunciation But stay awhile and you will see our Author come off well enough 1 His first Argument is taken from the uncertainty of such a procedure This is at best to build Religion upon uncertain Conjectures we agrâ—…e to it and whatever I could be content to be at a loose end in it should not be my Religion but yet for more sureness he lines his Argument with an under-reason and had he faced it with Bayes it would have worn like Steel Had we seen Christ in the flesh and been witnesses of the many Miracles he wrought of his Death upon the Cross and his Resurrection from the Dead had he not acquainted us with the End and Design of all this we might have ghess'd and ghess'd till we had been weary but it's odds we had never ghess'd right Nay yet further to overwhelm all Opponents with Reason upon Reason he addes Because there 's no natural and necessary connexion between the Person of Christ and what he did and suffer'd and the Salvation of Mankind for these things are available for those Ends to which God design'd them the virtue and efficacy of them depends upon God's Institution and Appointment and therefore can be known onely by Revelation So that his Conclusion is this Whoever would learn the Religion of our Saviour must learn it from his Doctrine and not from his Person To say the Truth the greatest fault I find with all this is that he betrayes the Truth he contends for and does not understand that his Clyent had better have given him a Double Fee to say Nothing than a single one to Destroy the Cause he pretends to plead I shall therefore only burden his Margin with a few asterisks and fairly dismiss him 1. Let the Reader carefully enquire who those We are that if they had seen Christ in the flesh his Miracles Death and Resurrection yet without He had acquainted them with the End and Design of all this might have ghess'd themselves weary e're they had ghess'd aright And for the clearing of that let him know that he speaks not here in his own Person but in the Person of others who have not the knack or if they had are not fortified with a Priviledge to conclude Quidlibet ex Quolibet or to demonstrate Godwin-Sands from TenterdonSteeple for as to Himself you may be pleased to understand that he can infallibly prove all this and more from as little as that comes to and less Admire his Abilities pag. 84. When We remember that Christ died as a Sacrifice and Propitiation for Sin this gives Us a great Demonstration of Gods good will to us how ready he is to pass by all our former sins in
the Apostle has fixt the Notion for us And ver 5. we read Who is he that overcometh the World but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God And ver 6. This is he that came by Water and by Blood even Iesus Christ. Ver. 9. This is the Witness of God which he hath Testified of his Son And ver 10. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the Witness in himself And ver 11. This is the Record that God hath given to us Eternal Life and this Life is in his Son And then follows the words under Examination He that hath the Son hath Life I conclude then that if by Son ver 5 6 9 10. c. he meant the very Son of God our Lord Iesus Christ then by Son in ver 12. is meant the very self same Person And I am the more Confirm'd in my Opinion because our Author p. 101. will not allow any to separate a single Sentence from the Body of the Discourse to make the Scripture speak their own sence Though I confess he intended it as a Caution to others that they may avoid it but a Canon to himself that he might observe it What to others was set up for a Buoy to discover a Rock to himself is hung out for a Lanthorn to discover his way But I shall take his Caution and charitably believe so well of the Apostles sincerity and judiciousness in Discourse that he would not speak of one thing in one Verse and another in the next under the same words without sufficient intimation of his Intention But now for having the Son of God that is the remaining enquiry Now in this our Author speaks more Truth than he is aware of What can having the Son signifie says he but having an Interest in Him Being made one with Him especially when we remember that it is called being in Christ and abiding in him which must signifie a very near Union between Christs Person and ours It must so If the Son signifie the very Son of God we must have Him as he is capable of being had and that 's only by Interest and Propriety through Compact agreement and the Constitution of God in a Gospel Covenant Ay but says our Author Some will be so Perverse as to understand it of believing and Obeying his Gospel Well and if they will be so Perverse without a Reason we shall take the freedom to be as Perverse as they can be and believe no more than we have proof for But let us practise with his Gloss a little By the Son he understands the Gospel and then his Paraphrase of v. 5. will run thus smoothly Who is he that overcometh the World but he that believeth that Jesus is the Gospel that is he that believes a Lye he is the man that overcomes the World Ay but we must remember that by Iesus he has understood the Gosple also and then indeed you will have a Paraphrase compleat in all Points Who is he that overcomes the World but he that believeth that the Gospel is the Gospel And sure he must be a Dull thing indeed that cannot and a Perverse one too that will not believe and Subscribe so Self-evident a Proposition But the World is full of perverse People and therefore no wonder if some will so understand it And amongst many others one Volkelius lib. 3. de verâ Relig p. 37. in John 1. 4. In him was Life Hoc est Ipsi commissa est vitae Eternae viae ad eam ducentis Anunciatio quâ Hominum animos mirificè collustravit Ignorantiae tenebras quantum in ipsa fuit ab iis depulit quod idem alio in loco edisserit 1 Joh. 5. 10. dum ait Hoc est Testimonium quod Deus Testatus est de filio suo quod vitam Eternam nobis dedit Deus haec in filio ejus est That is to him was committed the Declaration of Eternal Life and of the Way that leads thither whereby he wonderfully enlightened the Minds of Men and scattered the Darkness of Ignorance from them as much as in him lay which he Discourses also in another place 1 Iohn 5. 10. c. The Reader cannot but observe the Parenthesis That Christ enlightned men as much as in him lay if he could have done more he would But what would they expect from a Man Now when I observe our Author in this very place Deriding the Hopes of them who expect to receive free Comunications of Pardon and Grace Righteousness and Salvation from our Lord Iesus Christ Methinks I see Quantum in ipso fuit and whether he filled his Vessel from that Cistern or no is not so clear but this is certain that all came from the same Fountain To conclude this Head the Gloss of this Text according to the Proportion and Analogy of our Authors Faith must be this He that believeth and obeyeth the Gospel believeth and obeyeth Life and he that believeth not and obeyeth not the Gospel believeth not obeyeth not Life But our Gloss is this He that hath an Interest in Christ hath an Interest in Life and he that hath not in the one hath not in the other but the Wrath of God abides on him there being no means discovered whereby we can escape it but by Jesus Christ. It would have been small Satisfaction to our Author to pervert the Sence unless he might be allowed also to pour Contempt upon the Phrase of the Scripture which he has carried on to that height of Daring-provocation that I am certain he never met with his Superiour and do hope he may never find an Equal He is at last grown almost weary of Reproaching the Expressions of Men too mean a Quarry for one of his Wing to stoop at and now the Expressions of the Holy Ghost must find him Game that he may appear truly Great by great Enmities Erostratus was resolved to Eternize his Name though by Firing the Temple of Diana at Ephesus And Nero conceived great hopes from the Burning of Rome and his unsampled Butcheries to Inoculate his Name into History that he might upon any Terms survive his Funeral It 's some Alleviation to them who Groan under the burden of Obloquy that they meet with no harder Measure than their Lord and Master And it might quiet the grieved Spirit of a righteous Lot when his words are wrested when the holy Spirit of God is grieved with the Affronts put upon his Expressions The Disciple is not ought not expect to be above his Master nor the Servant above his Lord It 's enough that the Disciple be as his Master and the Servant as his Lord If they have called the Master of the House Beelzebub how much more shall they call them of the Houshold Mat. 10. 24. Let them therefore possess their Souls in patience and comfort one another with these words And thus our Author enters upon his Business It 's Self-evident that before we can be United
Doctrine and a wide Gap to all Rebellion What a pitiful plight were Princes in if the Foundations of Government the Essential reasons of the Peoples subjection were to be Discanted upon by every Churchman The Childs relation to his Father does not consist in his filial Obedience but is the reason of it The Subjects relation to his Prince does not consist in Subjection but is the true Ground of it The Wife her relation to her Husband does not consist in her submission to her Husband but is the Spring of it A disobedient Child is a Child still he cannot shake off the relation a rebellious person though he deserves not the honourable Title of a Subject yet he is a Subject and cannot put off that relation An untoward Wife is a Wife still and every act nay many acts of Disobedience cannot dissolve the Copula For otherwise the way to be rid of a relation would be to Violate the Duties of it and then all future Disobedience would be no sin Because when the union is once Null and the relation dissolved there 's no Foundation upon which the Superiour can build a claim to Duty and this would be a short Cut and save abundance of time and Charges in sueing out a Divorce For let but the Wife disobey and the union which consists in Obedience Vanishes A little Divertisment will now be seasonable both for our Author and his Readers and therefore he will give us a plain Account of the only cause that can justifie Separation In the mean time it seems there is a Cause though but one only Cause that will justifie it and separation will not always argue Sâ—…hism And now all you that would know the one the only one Cause in all the World that can justifie a Separation from a true Church draw near and give your attention 1. When any Church prevaricates in the Laws of Christ. Prevaricates How many thousands of Schismaticks will shrowd themselves under the Covert of that one Word He has opened a Gate at which three Coachful of Separatists may Drive all-a-Brest If then a Church shall pretend to give us the Laws of Christ in Scriptis such was the Knavery of a Cardinal in the Consistory before the Conventicle of Trent and yet by Preaching and Practice destroy those very Laws or the Ends of them if the Church of Rome shall talk Big words of Holy Mother Church and yet embrace in her arms as her Children the vilest Varlets and shut out none but the Good unless now and then an old Fornicator or some such like Vermine that want Money to Buy off or Commute for Penance this is an unworthy Prevarication and if it shall certainly appear will justifie a separation 2. When it corrupts Religion And this will go a great way I promise you in some particular Churches Corruption may be by Addition Substraction Multiplication or Division The end of the Keys may be perverted those shut out whom Christ would receive and they admitted whom Christ would exclude It may strike with the back of the spiritual Sword when it should use the edge and wound with the edge when it should sleep in the Scabbard Christs Religion may be corrupted by mingling our own inventions with this pure and plain institutions and then we have a cause or a piece of a cause that paves our way for separation as broad as that by which Israel departed out of Egypt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 five in a rank 3. When it undermines the fundamental design of Religion which is to make men good and vertuoùs So that though they do not openly assault it by battery and escalado yet if they shall secretly undermine Godliness by denying the office of the holy spirit in Creating men to good and vertuous works and teach men to trust to their own natural strength and shall craftily oppose the Doctrine of the Scriptures and the Church of England That the condition of man after the fall is such that he cannot turn by his own natural strength without the Grace of God preventing him that he may have a good will or if they shall disown the satisfaction of Christs death upon the cross to Gods holiness and his justice founded thereon which is the bottom of our return to God and of our holy walking with him why then farewell as far as the shooes of the Gospel will carry you 4. When we cannot obey our spiritual rulers without disobeying the Laws of Christ when Christs commands and they forbid when he forbids and they command then we have our pasport to be gone and travel to the utmost ends of the Earth These are those four things all in one that will justifie a separation from a particular society and if our Authour would preach this Doctrine to his Parishoners he might leave it to them to make the Application But now on the otherside if the Church we live in acknowledges the Authority and submits to the Laws of Christ we are bound to live in Communion with it Very true but not true for our Authors Reason because this Unites us to Christ which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but go on when nothing is made the condition of our Communion which is expressely forbidden by the Laws of the supreme Lord we acknowledge his Authority in our subjection to our spiritual guides Now here are many things might be opposed 1. Let it be considered whether an implicite prohibition from the supreme Lord be not sufficient to make a condition of Communion unlawful and I cannot but wonder that our Authour in this case is all for an expresse prohibition when perhaps that may signifie a Command if he follows but his own rule not to interpret phrases by the sound of words But 2. In submitting to such conditions of Communion as are not expressely forbidden the Question is whether herein we submit to Christs authority and this I confesse I stick at And the Reason of my doubtful hesitation is this Because it supposes an acknowledgment of Christs Authority where he has not interposed his Authority supposes him to speak where he is silent and to Command obedience where he commands nothing nay where he has forbidden though not expressely forbidden that condition Now as I am not bound to obey an inferiour Magistrate unlesse his particular command be warranted by his Commission though it be not forbidden in his Commission so it seems I am not bound to Obey a particular Church in a particular imposed condition if not authorised by Christs instructions though it be not forbidden there at least no such refusal of obedience can be interpreted to be a disowning of Christs Authority because he is supposed to have determined neither Pro nor Con. If we turn back to p. 164. Our Authour has these words No man can be said to submit himself to his prince who denies subjection to those subordinate Magistrates who act by his Commission so no man can be said to resist his Prince who
his body and of his flesh and of his bones And for this cause says the Apostle vers 31. a man shall leave Father and Mother and cleave to his Wife and they two shall be one flesh But now says he that which I have discoursed to you will seem very abstruse and as some will phrase it mystical non-sense and unintelligible Drollery but I speak concerning Christ and his Church For however this be true That the Husband and Wife are but one flesh in the eye and consideration of the Law yet it 's more eminently true concerning Christ and his Church who in the consideration and eye of God are but one Spirit All Metaphors and Similitudes taken from outward things come infinitely short and cannot decypher that mystical Union which is between Christ and all true Believers Your Political Union is but a new-invented Bawble your Natural Union is lean and hungry your Civil Union is low and flat it is a Mystical Union Ay but this Paul was an obscure Author and writes very darkly But yet he may comfort himself the better under this hard Censure since God himself cannot escape the Lash of Virulent Peâ—…s emboldned with an Imprimatur whose Institutions are reproached to be of Obscure Signification to aw the Childish Minds of men into Veneration And then that the internal Ligaments of this Union are the Spirit and Faith as the Scripture is free in affirming so our Author is shy in denying only he throws away a little scornful Drivel upon 't This Mystical is a hard word Let it be so Dr. Iacomb shall explain it on Rom. 8. p. 42. And first says the Doctor There is an Union of three Persons in one Nature 2. There 's the Union of two Natures in one Person 3. There 's an Union of Persons where yet Persons and Natures are distinct Concerning which he observes 1. Here 's an Union but no Transmutation Commixtion or Confusion Here 's an Union of Persons but no Personal Union Say you so Doctor then I promise you here 's one has made bold with some of your names for page 103. he tells his Reader and me amongst the rest That these men place all their hopes of Salvation in a personal Union with Christ. But pray Dr. go on The Person of Christ is united to the Person of a Believer and the Person of a Believer to the Person of Christ But for this our Author has a dry flam As it must needs be where the Person of Christ is united to the Person of a Believer Silly Man the Doctor observes that Christ is united to a Believer by the Spirit and a Believer united to Christ by Faith Though the Terms of the Relation are the same in Christ's Union with a Believer and a Believer's Union with Christ the Bond that unites them is Distinct. A Father is related to his Son and a Son to his Father yet Paternity is one thing and Filiation another and the Foundations of these Relations differ The Foundation of the one is to beget of the other to be begotten But says the Doctor Faith is the uniting Grace and this Faith receiving Christ 1 John 13. it must also unite us to the Person of Christ But of this our Author doubts because men are not united to every thing they receive Alas-a-day yet when a Master receives any one to be his Servant that Reception is the bottom of his Relation If a Woman receives a person to be her Husband that Reception creates an Union But I had rather the Reader would give himself the satisfaction to peruse the Doctors Book where he shall find these things laid down with Modesty backed with strength of Reason Scripture and the suffrage of Learned Christians And if our Author thinks that a few Squirts and Flashes which he is resolved to call Wit be a sufficient Confutation he shall enjoy the Contentment of admiring his own Excellencies without any Rival Again This Union says the Doctor may be thus described ' T is that Supernatural Spiritual Intimous Oneness and Conjunction between the Person of Christ and the Persons of Believers through the Bonds of the Spirit and Faith upon which there follows mutual and reciprocal Communion each with other I will not conceal from the Reader my thoughts I really expected that our Author should have highly commended the Doctors Modesty who in a subject so Sublime as might well exercise the Tongues of Angels should draw his Description with a Peut estre it may be described And the rather because by that means he has not excluded our Authors greater Abilities from travelling in the subject but left room enough for his Defining Faculty But instead of that I sâ—…e he 's Angry still though impotent This Oneness and Conjunction are hard words So they are indeed It 's hard to say Whether they will prove Arabic or Syriac or Welsh or Wild-Irish But to be sure they came but lately into England and are not yet made Denizons to purchase our Author's favour The great danger is lest we should mistake this Conjunction for one of the Eight parts of Speech Oh Sirs what inextricable perplexities has this one lewd word involved the Nation in since it landed The old Shiboleth was an innocent Chrysom to it Political Union and Machine are sorry Sneaks to it Indeed Tetrachymagogon and Syncategorematical come pretty near But Oh Conjunction This Conjunction is not to be tolerated in a Land professing the Seven Liberal Sciences And yet after all this I dare venture an even Wager That as many understand Conjunction as Opposition and more than know what to make of Antithesis and yet that never choak'd our Author but he could swallow it without making any Bones of it or a Vespasian face at it p. 264. But if some small splinter should stick in his throat the Doctor will be that charitable Crane to pluck it out for he adds Believers are said to be joyned to the Lord 1 Cor. 6. 17. Now if no words will down with him but such as melt in the mouth let him substitute Ioyning for Conjunction and that will serve for a Vehicle with a spoonful of Syrrup of Mulberries to supple the passage Our Author finding that the Doctor has bewildred himself will endeavour to help him out It 's a plain case says he if Christ and Believers are united their Persons are united too for the Person of Christ is Christ himself and the Persons of Believers are Believers themselves and I cannot understand how they should be united without their Persons but then they are united by mutual Relations as the Person of a Prince and his Subjects of a Husband and his Wife are united by mutual affections This I confess a surpassing kindness and therefore that frequent reckonings may make us long Friends I shall call some small Follies to account ere they be forgotten 1. I am more confirm'd in my old Observation That our Author writes only from hand to month He has
told us p. 157. That our Union to Christ is not an Union to his Person but confists in a sincere Union to his Church And so again p. 151. and yet now If Christ and Believers are united their Persons are united too for he cannot understand no not for his heart I warrant you how they should be united without their Persons 2. He charges the Doctor with owning an Adhesion nay a Natural Adhesion of Persons I confess I never admired any mans Confidence more that in the face of the Doctors words which he himself had quoted directly affirming the contrary should charge him with asserting a Natural Adhesion of Persons Thus he reports the Doctors words The Person of Christ and Believers are united and yet it 's no Personal Union Again the Doctor thus It 's a Spiritual and Supernatural Conjunction Our Author had need tell nothing but Truth for he is the poorliest qualified for a Lyar that I have met withal And now let it be referred to the Groom-Porter Whether Adhesion be not as like to choak narrow throats as Conjunction 3. He says Christ and Believers are united by mutual Relations And then makes a Quaere upon 't Whether all the Absurdities he would fasten upon the Doctors words will not recoyl upon his own For it signifies no more than if he had said Christ and Believers are united by their Union and related by their Relation and thus Christ is Christ and Believers are Believers and Union is Union The Truce is now expired and he is once again falling upon Dr. Owen For as the Serpents in Africa lay aside their Poyson whilest they drink and then presently suck it up again so I was pretty secure our Author would lick up that vomit again which he had cast in Dr. Iacomb's face that he might serve the other with the same sawce But whilst I am considering his Extravagances there comes to my hand an Answer from the Doctor wherein since he has condescended to chastise our Author in person it may justly supersede any further attempt of mine in his Vindication At p. 243. I meet again with our Author where he falls upon that weighty point of Justification In his exposing of which Truth he takes occasion from a passage in Dr. O. I see I must mention him again Com. p. 55. There is no man whatever that hath any wants in reference to the things of God but Christ will be to him that which he wants I speak of those N. B. who are given him of the Father Is he Dead Christ is Life Is he weak Christ is the Power of God! Hath he a Sense of Sin upon him Christ is Compleat Righteousness Jer. 23. 6. The Lord our Righteousness Which words being fortified with express Scripture it concerned our Author to take good advice and to go gingerly to work in perverting of them Two Artifices he uses which like Fire and Water will make the strongest Cloth shrink And 1. He lops off one whole Sentence p. 214. and then exclaims This sounds like Universal Redemption What down-right Arminianism Really I am sorry for 't Is the Doctor sheer gone over to the Remoustrants Come come Sir you have a Card in your Sleeve pray produce it I speak says the Doctor of those who are given him of the Father Now where are your ears Does this chink like Universal Redemption But so true is the old Observation He that is prepossest with an Opinion finds it in all he reads 2. If that way fails another will hit What Comfort is this to us says he that Christ was Righteous if we continue wilful and incorrigible sinners Yes says the Doctor hast thou a sense of sin upon thee Christ is Compleat Righteousness Fie upon it put on a Mask for shame Is the Soul that labours under the sense of some particular sin a wilful and incorrigible sinner It 's the repenting the broken and the sorrowful sinner that the Doctor directs to Christ. Our blessed Saviour has invited those that labour and are heavy-laden to come unto him promising that he will give them rest I wonder our Author could forbear twitting him that he encouraged wilful and incorrigible sinners But pray what would our Author say to a Soul that has the sense of sin upon him without peradventure Repent of thy sin forsake thy sin c. And does he think that Repentance will save a wilful and incorrigible sinner one that Repents and sins and sins and Repents again and goes on in a circle of sinning and halfrepentance Say but the same for the Doctor He Counsels the Soul under the sense of sin to believe but then it 's only the Repenting sinner that will that can that ought to make his Address to Christ that he may find rest to his Soul For our Author's Method in prosecuting this great Point I dare not warrant it Such as it is Reader shall have it as cheap as I had it my duty is to Follow and not to Dispute 1. His first enquiry will be In what sense Christ is called our Righteousness and what the Scripture intends by those Phrases of The Righteousness of God the Righteousness of Faith or The Righteousness of God by Faith He begins with that famous place Jer. 23. 6. where Christ is expresly called the Lord our Righteousness To which our Author returns three things A pitiful Scoff a woful Evasion and a wretched Answer worse than both 1. He begins with a Scoff A very express place to prove that Christ is our Righteousness that is that the only Righteousness wherewith we must appear before God is the Righteousness of Christ imputed to us Who these men should be that thus expound it I cannot Divine unless it be the first Reformers of this Church and they do indeed tell us Artic. 11. That we are accountted Righteous before God only for the Merit of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ and not for our own Works and Deservings Wherefore that we are justified by Faith only is a most wholesome Doctrine and full of comfort And I believe our Author experienced it to be a most sweet and comfortable Doctrine when he subscribed it for a fat Benefice But in the mean time these men whoever they be have a very hard task on t. For one while they must not draw one Conclusion from the Person of Christ which his Gospel has not expresly taught to use their own Reasons to deduce one single Inference from Gospel-premises is present Death But what now if they produce express Scripture that Christ is our Righteousness Why that 's as bad for this is to interpret Scripture by the sound of words 2. He retreats to a most woful Evasion Is there no other possible sense to be made of this Phrase If it be possible to procure another Sense for Love or Money it shall never go thus The Cause looks with a very desperate face when once it comes to this when men are ready to shoot the Pit
and only watch for the Creep-hole of a bare Possibility If they intended honestly they would lay things together as well as they can labour to find out the meaning of God's Spirit with Sobriety and Humility and never strain their Wits and vex and torture the Scripture with utmost Possibilities The Text tells us that the namâ—… whereby Christ shall be called is the Lord our Righteousness Now it 's granted that this was not designed to be his Praenomen or Cognomen that which should distinguish him in Common Discourse from other persons and therefore He shall be called is no less than He shall Really be our Righteousness Thus 1 Iohn 3. 1. Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called that is that we should become the sons of God Isa. 9. 6. His name shall be called i. e. he shall Really be Wonderful Counsellor The Mighty God the Everlasting Father The Prince of Peace The true intent and meaning of which place I know how some have attempted to elude by this fine device of the Possibility of another meaning and whether our Author sharpned his weapon at their forge he knows best But 3. He returns an Answer worse than both the other Righteousness in Scripture is a word of a very large sense and sometimes signifies no more than Mercy Kindness Beneficence and so the Lord our Righteousness is the Lord who does us good But 1. Is it not vainly supposed That for Christ to do us good is inconsistent with being our Righteousness 2. Though Christ be a Redeemer of Mercy Kindness and Beneficence yet he is no-where called The Lord our Mercy The Lord our Kindness The Lord our Beneficence Which clearly proves that when he is called and really is The Lord our Righteousness the expression implies more than an Imparting or Communication of good things to us Hence some would say That if our Author's Conscience were not larger than the sense of this word he had never given so stretching an Answer But says he Righteousness signifies that part of Iustice which consists in relieving the oppressed Isa. 54. 17. Their Righteousness is of me saith the Lord which is a parallel expression to The Lord our Righteousness and signifies no more than that the Lord would avenge their Cause and deliver them from all their Enemies So that all the benefit we are to expect from Christ is Temporal Salvation and Deliverance To which I answer 2. That the Reason of Christ's glorious Name The Lord our Righteousness assigned by the Prophet that in his days Iudah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely is interpreted by the Angel Matth. 1. 21. to be this He shall be called Iesus for he shall save his people from their sins And the end why God raised up his Son Jesus in the World is expresly assigned to be To bless his people in turning away every one of them from their iniquities Acts 3. 26. Thus Rom. 11. 26. Out of Zion shall come the Deliverer and he shall turn away ungodliness from Iacob To turn away iniquity from us and to turn us away from iniquity is I hope something of a more useful import than to relieve the injured and oppressed and deliver them from their Enemies I do not at all envy our Author therefore the glory of his discovery that for God to justifie good men is to deliver them from the violence and injuries of their Enemies And I would gladly hope that all good men have something better wherein to glory In Ier. 33. 16. the Church is called The Lord our Righteousness because she only glories in the Righteousness of Christ her Head and Husband to whom being so nearly related and with whom being so closely united his Righteousness is her Righteousness and therefore she who upon the account of the imperfection of her Inherent Righteousness can find no not the least matter of boasting before God yet has whereof to Triumph in Christ her Saviour Isa. 45. 24. Surely shall one say In the Lord have I Righteousness In the Lord shall all the seed of Iacob be justified and shall glory Now the Apostle whom I take to be a competent Interpreter of Scripture assures us that God has taken special care that in his dispensing of Grace to sinners No flesh shall glory in his presence 1 Cor. 1. 29. which he has well provided for ver 30. since Christ is made unto us of God for Righteousness and therefore he that glorieth let him glory in the Lord Which is exactly parallel to that of Isa. 45. 24. In the Lord shall all the seed of Iacob be justified and shall glory Come we now to our Author's Interpretation of Isa. 61. 11. which is of the same leaven with the former I will greatly rejoyce in the Lord my soul shall be joyful in my God For he hath clothed me with the garments of Salvation and covered me with the robe of Righteousness c. This Text one may perceive struck cold to his heart and he gives us as cold an Answer that 's ready to freeze between his lips The Garments of Salvation says he and the Robe of Righteousness signifie those great Deliverances God promised to Israel Signifie I would our Author would write a Dictionary of the Signification of words We use to say A bad Answer is better than none Reform the Proverb for shame for such an one is worse than none 1. It 's evident that the Triumph of the Church was upon the view of Jesus Christ vers 1. Anointed to preach Good-Tidings to the meek to bind up the broken-hearted to proclaim liberty to the Captives and the opening of the Prison to them that are bound To proclaim the acceptable Year of the Lord Which our Saviour Christ applies to himself Luk. 4. 18 19. when he was far from working out for the Iews those great Deliverances by improbable means which should make them glorious in the eyes of men 2. The Virgin Mary quotes this very place Luke 1. 46 47. My soul doth magnifie the Lord and my spirit hath rejoyced in God my Saviour where the joy of her heart broke out at her lips in Contemplation of that Eternal Redemption wrought out by him in whom she could more seriously glory as her Saviour than as her Son And it 's a wonder to me then men can patter over their Magnificat every day and not observe it 3. It 's observable that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render Decketh signifies to Adorn as a Priest and implies that Christ as our High-Priest shall present us acceptable to God upon his Account 4. There 's nothing more familiar with the Spirit of God than to clothe Evangelical Mercies in a Mosaical Dress and to express New-Testament Salvation in Old-Testament Phrase Thus Gospel-Believers are understood by Israel the Church by the Temple Evangelical Ministers by the Legal Priests and the covering of Sin by the covering of Nakedness and by
Which two things are more different than any of his three kinds of Faith Noah was an Heir of Righteousness that is he inherited those advantages which come by Righteousness he had the peaceable fruits of Righteousness As a Son by being his Fathers Heir inherits the Purchases Possessions Honours of his Father Thus Noah by being an Heir of Righteousness enjoyed whatever Priviledges the Promise of God had entailed upon Righteousness Noah was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Heir of Righteousness where Righteousness is not Geâ—…itivus materiae but efficientis It denotes not that Righteousness was the thing he inherited but the true Reason why he inherited those blessings Righteousness answers not to the Possession but to the Ancestor not what but from what he inherited And this is clear from this one Consideration That Noah was righteous before God before that particular Revelation was made to him He was not made righteous because he believed that particular Revelation but God made him that particular Revelation because he was already righteoâ—… Gen. 6. 8 9. Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord Vers. 9. Noah was a just man and perfect in his Generations and Noah walked with God Vers. 13. God said unto Noah The end of all flesh is come before me Ver 14. Make thee an Ark of Gopher wood Ver. 17. And behold I even I do bring a Flood upon the Earth He proceeds to Abraham Who in obedience to the divine Revelation left his Country went into a strange Land offered his son Isaac which seem'd to thwart that former promise In Isaac shall thy Seed be called i. e. That from Isaac should proceed that numerous Off-spring which God had promised Abraham and yet he was so well assured of the power and faithfulness of God that whatever Impossibilities Humane Reason suggested he would neither disobey Gods Command nor distrust his Promise Now here would arise several Queries As 1. Whether then Abraham's Religion was of the right stamp seeing it would not approve it self to his Reason and Whether Abraham's Reason was not Carnal that suggested Impossibilities against God's Promise and Whether our Author had he been in Abraham's Circumstances ought not by his own Principles to have disobeyed and distrusted God both in his Precept and Promise because they did not approve themselves to his Reason 2. It might be enquired What inference he will make from hence and that he tells us is That the Faith whereby Abraham and all good men were justified before God was such a firm belief of the Being and Providence of God and all the particular Revelations God made to them as made them careful to please God in all things Now this is still the Question and is like so to continue for any assistance we are like to have from our Author's Arguments But 3. There is one thing that I shall particularly examine Whether that Promise Gen. 21. 12. In Isaac shall thy Seed be called be made good in that numerous Off-spring that issued from Isaac ' s loyns Now if any regard might be had to the Apostle he would soon decide the Controversie Rom. 9. 7 8. In Isaac shall thy Seed be called that is they which are the children of the Flesh are not the children of God but the children of the Promise are counted for the Seed See here now the vast difference in mens judgments In Isaac shall thy Seed be called id est says our Author from Isaac should proceed that numerous Off-spring No says the Apostle In Isaac shall thy Seed be blessed id est The children of the Flesh are not the children of God but the children of the Promise are counted for the Seed Again Rom. 4. 16. Therefore it the Promise is of Faith that it might be sure to all the seed not only to that which is of the Law but to that which is of the Faith of Abraham who is the Father of us all Gal. 3. 29. And if ye be Christs then are ye Abrahams Seed and Heirs according to the Promise 4. It were easie to evidence that what the Apostle speaks of Abraham's Faith in offering up his son related not to the Act of it whereby he was justified but to the Evidence of his Justification His third sort of Faith follows § 3. From hence says he we learn what Faith in Christ is which is now imputed to us for Justification From hence From whence If we never learn what faith in Christ is better than from the Faith of Abel Enoch Noah and Abraham which are the whole Heavens asunder each from other as he has ordered the matter we must be content to be ignorant of it till our lives end For who could learn the special Nature of one thing from another that differs from it in the kind But let us give him the hearing Our faith in Christ must signifie such a stedfast belief of all those Revelations which Christ hath made to the World as governs our lives and actions Why so To make our faith in Christ answer to the faith of Abraham and all good men in former Ages without which the Apostles Argument from Abraham ' s being justified by faith to our Iustification by faith is of no force There is a necessity then granted that our faith in Christ and Abraham's do answer one another lest the Apostle should be reproach'd with a Non-sequitur Now to perform this instead of making Abrahams to be a faith in Christ as it really is he debases faith in Christ as low as if not below the faith of Abraham He pretends to under-prop the Apostles Argument but really he undermines it and whilst he seems to provide an Expedient that his Reasonings may not be invalidated he renders them more than Nugatory For 1. How can faith in Christ answer to the faith of all those good men in former times Abel Enoch when their's was Faith without Revelations but faith in Christ is a Faith grounded upon Revelations The Motive of their Faith was Natural Demonstrations the Reason of ours is Revelation The Object of our Faith in his sense is Eternal Life but whether they had any such thing in their eye our Author will not grant for he that will not allow Abraham whose Faith was grounded upon Revelations to have had any spiritual Promises will less allow those poor good men the priviledg whose Faith was only built upon Natural Demonstrations 2. How can faith in Christ answer to the faith of Abraham He has laid it down as the bottom of this Discourse p. 252. that The different sorts of Faith result from the different Objects and Motives of it But Abraham's Faith had different Objects and Motives from ours as he tells us And therefore it 's of another nature sort and kind than ours for so he says expresly The Apostle takes notice of two kinds of Faith and faith in Christ makes a third Now will it not be hard for the Apostle to maintain his great Principle That Abraham is the
1 Cor. 2. 2. I determined not to know any thing amongst you save Iesus Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even him Crucified The Person of Christ under that consideration as Crucified and the Reasons are as Cogent as the thing is clear For 1. In the Knowledge of Christ that very Christ whom the Father sent into the World consists Eternal Life This is Life Eternal to know thee the only true God and Iesus Christ whom thou hast sent 2. VVe are Commanded to love this Iesus another great fault our Author finds with these Men but how to love him and not to be acquainted with him may be reckoned amongst the Impossibilities 1 Pet. 1. 7. At the appearing of Iesus Christ whom having not seen ye love in whom though now ye see him not yet believing ye rejoyce with Ioy unspeakable and full of Gloâ—…y The Apostle commends their love to and faith in an unseen Saviour whence it 's easie to conclude that it was the Person of Christ they loved for the Scriptures they had seen the Gospel the Church they had seen an Office I confess they could not very well see and yet they are praised for loving him that was not seen 3. VVe are commanded to Worship this Jesus to give Divine Honour to Him Iohn 5. 23. That all should Honour the Son even as they Honour the Father And accordingly we read that the Disciples did Worship Him Luke 24. 52. Nay the Command is given to the Angelical Nature Heb. 1. 6. Let all the Angels of God Worship Him But it 's a strange kind of Worship that we give Darklings One of the smartest Rebukes Christ gave the Samaritans was that they Worshipped they knew not what but We says Christ know what we Worship 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 VVe must not only know who He is but what He is whom we worship 4. It 's our plain duty to acquaint our selves with God that we may be at peace Iob 22. 21. But Christ is true God very God witness the Athanasian and Nicene Symbols 5. VVe are in particular commanded to believe in Him John 14. 1. Ye believe in God believe also in me And it concerns us to know by what authority he Imposes his Commands upon us what is his Varacity that we may depend upon his Promises and what is his Power to carry us through the difficulties that ever attend conscientious Duties to Eternal Life I am the more for acquaintance with Christs Person because it 's so great a Venture to trust the unknown This Prudence all men will be sure to exercise in Common affairs much more where Souls and Eternal Life lie at stake and such did the Apostle Practise 2 Tim. 1. 12. I know whom I have believed 6. The whole Design of the Scripture leads us to an acquaintance with the Father Son and blessed Spirit Hence was the Apostle so Zealous that the Colossians might come unto all Riches of the full assurance of Understanding to the acknowledgment of the Mysterie of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Even of the Father and of Christ in whom are hid all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge VVhich are those Provoking words that have so often Ruffled our Authors thoughts into Disorder 7. The whole of the Scripture is an unaccountable Riddle without the Knowledge of Jesus Christ VVe are told there how God has been atoned by the Sacrifice of Oxen Sheep what a sweet smelling savour he has sented in the burned Flesh of the Holocaust which without Consideration of the Person of Christ and Reference to Him is Irrational To speak of the Death of Christ himself as reconciling God and man is also wholly Unintelligible without due regard to Him as Mediator what Office he bore what Place he filled in whose Stead he stood what that Covenant was that between the Father and his Son was agreed upon For according to our common apprehension of Things God should rather have Destroyed the World for Crucifying his Son than have been Reconciled and Propitiated by his Death Now I know well our Author will Reply that he good Man is no Enemy to acquaintance with Christs Person provided always we do not VViredraw New Doctrines from it and Extract greater and deeper Mysteries thence than are to be found out in the Gospel To which we Rejoyn That it 's not Christs Person that teaches us the Doctrine but the Doctrine that Acquaints us with his Person We study not the Person of Christ to find out Gâ—…spel Mysteries but to resolve them Not to Discover the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of New Truths but to Demonstrate to us the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Old But if after all that can be said our Author will be Clamorous we must be Content and Satisfie our selves with this that it 's the Nature of the Creature and some things we know are so untractable by their Constitution that though you Bray them in a Morter amongst Wheat with a Pestle yet their Crabbed Froward Awkward Tempers will not depart from them CHAP. III. Sect. 3. How unsafe it is to found Religion upon a Pretended Acquaintance with Christs Person I Foresee this Section will certainly prove Unanswerable the Comfort is it 's the onely one that appears to be such in the whole Book The Reader will judge with me that he must needs have a hard Task on 't and perhaps equal to any of Hercuâ—…es his Labours that shall maintain it safe To found Religion upon Hypocrisie and yet this must be his lot who will defend That it 's safe to build Religion upon a pretended Acquaintance with Christs Person Some report that that Goodly Beast which for Honours sake we will call a Porcupine keeps alwayes Two Avenues to her Cell that let the Wind sit where it will it shall never blow full in the Dore and let her Enemies besiege her how they can she has a secret Sally-port to creep out at With the same wisdom has our Author provided for his own Retreat in this Section For if any shall be so fool-hardy as to assault him with an Argument That it 's our Duty to be acquainted with Christs Person and for that end to search the Scriptures which testifie of him direct and lead us to him that so upon the Person of our Redeemer we may build our Faith as upon that Rock against which the Gates of Hell shall not prevail he can readily reply upon you True but it 's onely a Pretended Acquaintance with Christs Person that I so zealoâ—…sly declaim against I perceive it 's no small advantage in all Disputes to have the Priviledge to state the Question to our own good liking and he that has once got a Faculty for it is out of Gun-shot unless he be so incorrigible a Coxcomb as not to be aware of his own Interest That the Religion of Sinners is built upon a Mediator as the Religion of the Innocent was upon the Being of a God That this Mediator is the Lord