other World will by being eternally separated from its Pleasures convert into a hopeless desire and upon that account grow more furious impatient For of all the torments of the Mind I know none that is comparable to that of an outragious desire joyn'd with despair of satisfaction which is just the case of sensual worldly-minded Souls in the other Life where they are full of sharp and unrebated desires and like starved men that are shut up between two dead Walls are tormented with a fierce but hopeless hunger which having nothing else to feed on preys and quarries on themselves and in this desolate condition they are forced to wander to and fro tormented with a restlefs Rage and Hunger and unsatisfied desire oraving Food but neither finding nor expecting any and so in unexpressible Anguish they pine away a long Eternity And though they might find Content and Satisfaction could they but diver their affections another way and reconcile them to the heavenly Enjoyments yet being irrecoverably pre-engaged to sensual Goods they have no Savour nor Relish of any thing else but are like Feverish Tongues that disgust and nauseate the most grateful Liquors by reason of their own over flowing Gall. Lastly if in any thing I have writ about Christ's meritorious Satisfaction I peradventure fully accord not with some Divines the difference when the Matter is duly weigh'd will prove I hope to be only verbal For I assert sect 11. First That Christ's death on the Cross was of infinite value and merit Secondly That by and through the same Remission of Sin Justification and every other Good whether of Grace or Glory are obtain'd Thirdly That Christ's Crucifixion was as real and proper an expiatory Sacrifice for Sin as any under the Law of Moses but of infinitely more value ever was Fourthly That God's Justice is de jure prevented thereby from being exerted agaist Sinners in their everlasting Destruction The only difference then if any remaining is in this That I cannot apprehend what some others perchance think viz. That Christ's Merits operate upon God and work an Effect of Mercy and Favour in his Will whereas I humbly conceive them to be a secondary efficient Cause subservient to God's Love to Man for conveying and applying the same unto him by being an effectual Means of converting his Affections from the Vanities of the World unto God that he may be eternally saved for which I offer to serious consideration these following Reasons inducing me thereto 1. That Christ's most gracious doings and sufferings for Man are held by all Christians to be a Meritorious Cause 2ly That a Meritorious Cause is an efficient Cause 3ly That it is the Property of an Efficient Cause to work some real Effect 4ly That it seems plainly impossible that any real Effect should be wrought in God who is impassible and immutable sect 1. par 8 9. for otherwise seeing whatsoever is in God is God sect 1. par 11. such an Effect would be God himself and so the Merits of Christ would be the efficient Cause of the Deity 5ly That Christ's Merits therefore are not an antecedent but a subsequent Cause to the merciful-lovingkindness of God to Man by which the eternal Goodness actually confers all the happy Effects of divine Favour and Grace on him whereby he is delivered from Sathan Sin and Damnation and brought to everlasting Bliss If it be replied that however plausible yea certainly true this arguing be yet there is something more in Christ's Suffering for the Sin of Man than what hath hitherto been said namely the satisfying Divine Justice I answer that strictly speaking neither Justice nor Mercy nor other Attributes of God are formally distinct either from one another or from the very Essence of the Deity Sect. 1. Par. 11. and therefore albeit I willingly grant that Christ died for all men even the Reprobate as to me seems plain from these Words of the Apostle But there were false Prophets also among the People even as there shall be false Teachers among you who privily shall bring in damnable Heresies even denying the Lord that bought them and bring upon themselves swift Damnation 2 Pet. 2. 1. yet it was not to this very intent and purpose that he should undergo those Pains and Punishments which were allotted for Sin the everlasting Torments of Hell but to put Mankind thereby into a Way State and Condition that not any one should finally perish save only such as embraced not the Mercy of God in Christ manifested to the World in his Holy Gospel for what Justice is it that the Damned should suffer the Pains of Hell in case Christ had as truly and fully satisfied for them as if they had already undergone them themselves If it be answered that the actual Benefit of Christ's Satisfaction only reaches to those who believe in him and obey his Word so as that they shall not perish but have everlasting Life I readily own that Christ's Merits and more especially his bloody Death and Passion did in this sense abundantly satisfie Divine Justice for by these he really affected that none can justly be damned to whom they are applied by a lively and efficacious Faith Sect. 11. so that at the last day it will be equally just for God to render some for and through the Merits of Christ eternally blessed as it will be to give up others for their Sins to be for ever miserably afflicted and contrariwise it would be alike unjust to save the Wicked in that day who do not believe in Christ and obey him as to destroy the Godly who believe and put their Trust and Confidence in him whose Death on the Cross was as real a propitiatory Sacrifice for Sin but of infinitely more value as the annual expiatory Sacrifice under the Law as by the explanation of the Nature and Efficacy of it will appear The Sacrifice of Expiation was never compleat and perfect nor had the designed and due Effect of its Institution by the sole slaying and offering of the Beast however rightly and solemnly performed both by the Priest and People unless they added thereto the afflicting of themselves as is plain by Levit. 16. ver 29 30 31. In the seventh Month in the tenth Day of the Month ye shall afflict your Souls and do no Work at all whether it be one of your own Country or a Stranger that sojourneth among you For on that day shall the Priest make an Atonement for you to cleanse you that ye may be clean from all your Sins before the LORD It shall be a Sabbath of Rest unto you and ye shall afflict your Souls by a Statute for ever And again Chapt. 23. ver 27 28 29 30 31 32. On the tenth Day of this seventh Month there shall be a Day of Atonement it shall be an holy Convocation unto you and ye shall afflict your Souls and offer an Offering made by Fire unto the LORD And ye shall do no work in that
neither of these is true not the former because God is always alike Omnipotent so that in respect of him the World might as well have been created from Eternity as when it was nor the latter because no moment can be thought on wherein the World could have been more capable to be created then in any other Ergo the World might have been eternal Answer The World was incapable of existing eternally for since the glorious Structure thereof was successively made and not instantaneously as is clear from the account we have of its Origin Genes 1. and from these words also On the seventh day God ended his Work which he had made Gen. 2. 2. it implies a Contradiction that it should have been eternal for what was done on the second third fourth fifth and sixth day of the Creation could not possibly be eternal otherwise whatsoever was done on any of those days would have been done as soon as that which was done on the first day which is impossible because what was not done till the second third fourth fifth or sixth day could not be done before unless the same thing might be done and not be done at the same time And as what was done on the six latter days could not be eternal so neither that which was done on the first for in regard the first day was only one day before the second two days before the third three days before the fourth four days before the fifth and five days before the sixth it is not possible that what was done on the first day should be any more eternal then what was done upon any of the other except the addition of one day to two three four or five others could make their finite Number infinite If it be said that this indeed rationally makes it out that the World supposing the manner of the Creation as it is related by Moses could not be eternal But what if God had pleased to create the World in its full entire Glory instantaneously at once might it not then have been created from Eternity I conceive not for otherwise there would have been infinite successions of times and things which in Sect. 3. Par. 4. is made out to be impossible And therefore although it be not very apparent to Mans Understanding but that something instantaneously made by God might possibly be eternal Yet that any such thing could be created from eternity the Creation whereof would imply the supposal of contradictory assertions to become true from thence as from the Eternity of the World wherein things continually succeed one another the Creation thereof would do Sect. 3. Par. 4. there 's no appearance of any possibility at all Yea if the Reasons given Sect. 3. Par. 8. be found good First That God always of necessity acts according to the highest Wisdom and greatest Goodness Secondly That the Creation of any individual Creature or single Species of Creatures would not have answered that his Wisdom and Goodness Thirdly That nothing but the very Complex of Beings which constitutes the Universe could have been created it seems necessarily to follow that in regard the World which exists could not have been eternal nothing at all could have been created from Eternity Objection 8. Whereas it is affirmed Sect. 4 that God created Man for his own Good that he might inherit everlasting Bliss the Holy Scripture tells us in express words The Lord hath made all things for himself even the wicked for the day of Evil Prov. 16. 4. Answer As to the former part of the Verse The Lord hath made all things for himself I find one Exposition of it in the Critics against which I think nothing can be justly excepted to wit Omnia operatus est Dominus propter seipsum tanquam ultimum finem which as to Man's particular I have shown Sect. 4. Par. 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13. how it is most true And the like must pari ratione be held of all other rational Animals if any such there be in the Universe besides as also of every Angelical Nature whose Chiefest Good and Ultimate End and Perfection must consist in the Vision of God. Yea and meer corporeal Substances although they have not an immediate Tendency towards God yet are they necessarily serviceable to Man at least who has in that the circumstant material World is absolutely requisite to his Generation Nutrition Augmentation Conservation and even Perfection whilst by the Organs of Sense on which are no Operations wrought but by Corporeal Objects and Agents without him he attains to the Knowledge Admiration and Love of God so that all things either mediately or immediately appear to acquire their Vltimate End and Consummation in God. But to suppose the Almighty to have created all things so for himself as that his Ultimate Aim in all his gracious and glorious Acts was to Receive and not wholly to Do Good is to suppose an utter Impossibility to be an absolute Truth For since nothing is good but in respect of some Convenience of Profit or Pleasure which accrues by it to whom it is good 't is clear that God in whom is the Fulness of Perfection is totally incapable of receiving Benefit from the Creature And no less impossible is it that he should acquire Pleasure or obtain Delight from any thing without himself for what is of infinite Excellency is infinitely delightful which because the prime independent Being God is he must needs be infinitely delighted in the Contemplation of himself and to say there can be an accession of Pleasure to infinite Pleasure is in effect to say that Infinity is not infinite But farther I shew the Impossibility of God's receiving Pleasure from any Performances of the Creature thus Whatsoever Pleasure the Almighty has it is either essential to him or accidental essential he can have none but what is necessarily intrinsecal to his very Nature and such is not the supposed Pleasure arising from the Honour exhibited to God by the Creature And to say that any Pleasure by way of accident is in God or of a different Nature from his Essence is to deny him to be the most Simple and in Consequence thereto the most Perfect Being for what is not most simple is some way or other compounded and all Composition denotes Imperfeâ—â—ion because in every Composition the Parts compounding must of necessity be of a finite and limited Nature for if either or both Parts supposing there be only two were of infinite Perfection there could be no Composition made by reason that in one Infinite would be the entire Perfection of whatever could be in both Parts and so there would be nothing more in the Whole or Compound than in one Part thereof which since it is repugnant to the Nature of whole and Parts the Reality of such a Composition is impossible and cannot be in God who is essentially infinite in Perfection As to the latter part of the Verse in the Objection viz. even
all the desire the perpetual Enjoyment of Him will also love him most hereafter for exactly according to the measure of the Manifestation of Gods Glory both to the Saints and Angels is the Measure of their Love of Him or Delight taken in the Contemplation of his Excellence and in this consists their Felicity which though it is sufficient and satisfactory to every one of them inasmuch as they all love him with their entire Affection or are delighted in him with all their might and so are happy to their own Desire yet do they not however enjoy equal Happiness because the love of God in some of them is more intense than in some others as answering to a fuller manifestation of his Glory to them Object 4. If the formal Cause of Justification be inherent Righteousness or Charity then doth every degree thereof truly justifie so that man's Righteousness may be greater or less and consequently either every degree of Righteousness will not give a just Title to Heaven so as Possession shall ever ensue thereupon or else imperfect Charity shall estate men in everlasting Felicity which is contrary to what hath been often said Solut. In Answer to this Objection I grant that every degree of habitual Charity from the highest to the lowest if either it be not lost or being lost be renewed entitles men so truly to Heaven I that they shall not departing this life therewith finally fail of the full possession of Bliss but sooner or later shall certainly obtain the same sooner or later I say because such an absolute full desire to enjoy the Presence of God as totally excludes all appetite to earthly Enjoyments and Satisfactions of this Life is the sole immediate disposition which prepares the Soul for Bliss so that those alone who through their ardent desire to be with God are weary of this World shall strâ—ight upon their departure hence go to pure and simple Joy but yet so intense as they shall afterwards have at the last upon the re-union of Soul and Body I do not say All the rest that depart this life not having the like ardency of desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ their God and Saviour will in all appearance of Reason retain the mixture of Affection to God and the World which they left the later with for how a meer separation of Soul and Body should root out all Affection to the World is I think a thing unaccountable till the Resurrection from the dead If it be said as indeed it is by some that Christ's appearing to the Souls of good men that departed this Life before his Death must needs have been a Motive and Cause of Change unto them whence it came to pass that the Graves were opened and many Bodies of the Saints which slept arose c. Matth. 27. 52 53. I answer that since it is here supposed that there had been no Motive offered before that his shewing himself to them which had altered the state into which they entered at their separation from the Body it is reasonable to think that there will likewise be no Motive to cause a Change in those which have left or shall leave this World after that his appearing till his coming to Judgment at the last day which in that it must needs in some degree or other be both dreadful and amiable to every one that hath not totally rooted out all Affection to the World according to their different Measures of Fear and Hope arising from their finding themselves more or less clogged with terrene Desires will be a Motive rightly adapted wholly to purge out all the Dreggs of impure Affections and so cause them to fix their Minds for ever upon God. But in the intenim they 'l continue in that condition which they left the World with and so each of them as their Love to God is greater will have more and purer Delight yet not be altogether void of anguish of Spirit by reason they cannot go immediately to God through the load of Sin which though not so heavy as to press them down to Hell yet will not suffer them to soar up to Heaven For we see even in this Life the more Pious that men are the more serene Joy and greater inward Contentment they enjoy but have not withstanding their Groans and Sighs and trouble of Spirit because they find the Old Man is not throughly conquered and subdued and however brought low is nevertheless often giving check to their Spiritual Joy and causing their Grief Nor is an incompleat imperfect State after this Life till the Day of Doom only consonant to Reason but the Sacred Scripture also and Catholic Tradition appear to make for it for what mean these Expressions of being recompensed at the Resurrection of the Just Luke 14. 14. Of the Spirit being saved in the Day of the Lord Jesus 1 Cor. 5. 5. Of finding Mercy of the Lord in that Day 2 Tim. 1. 18. but that something is to be received at the Day of Judgment not to be obtained before Which the practical Tradition of the Church both Eastern and Western give Testimony to by their praying for the Dead but not for the delivery of Souls out of Purgatory a Practise so universal that the Learned Mr. Thorndike saith It hath been a Custom so general in the Church to pray for the Dead that no beginning of it can be assigned no time no part of the Church where it was not used Epilogue to the Tragedy of the Church of England Book 3. Ch. 29. P. 333. And another of our Learned Country-men Dr. Hammond writeth thus 'T is certain that some measure of Bliss which shall at the Day of Judgment be vouchsafed the Saints when their Bodies and Souls shall be reunited is not till then enjoyed by them and therefore may safely and fitly be prayed for Annotat. on 2 Tim. 1. 16 17 18. For besides that it is evident from Holy Writ that there shall be a general Resurrection The hour is coming in which all that are in their Graves shall hear his Voice and shall come forth they that have done good unto the Resurrection of Life and they that have done Evil unto the Resurrection of Damnation John 5. 28 29. it is manifest likewise to our Reason that there must be a Re-union of every Soul and Body at the last Day for since Christ shall then appear in his Humanity Ye Men of Galilee why stand ye gazing up into Heaven this same Jesus which is taken up from you into Heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into Heaven Acts 1. 11. corporeal Eyes will be necessarily requisite to behold Him with and that not only because the Organs or Sense are the proper Means instituted by God for the giving notice of corporeal Objects to the Souls of Men but for this farther reason also that there may be a manifest equal Distribution of Justice to the whole Generation of Mankind for
the Wicked for the Day of Evil Dr. Patrick in his Paraphrase on the Text tells us That it hath exercised many Pens to little purpose when the Sense is clear which is this The Lord disposeth all things throughout the World to serve such ends as he thinks fit to design which they cannot refuse to comply with for if any Men be so wicked as to oppose his Will he will not lose their Service but when he brings a Calamity upon a Country employ them to be the Executioners of his Wrath. This Interpretation makes nothing at all against any thing I have asserted But suppose the worthy Expositor should himself be mistaken no less then he thinks many others to be we may rationally conclude that no convincing Proof of any thing can be made from a Text whose Sense is so dubious that the determinate meaning of it cannot be assigned Objection 9. In the first Petition of the Lord's Prayer Hallowed be thy Name we desire that God may be glorified in the second Thy Kingdom come we pray for our own and other Mens eternal Glory or Felicity and therefore seeing God's Glory is desired in the first Petition and Man's Glory or Felicity in the second God's Glory and Man's Felicity cannot be the same thing as they are said to be Sect. 4. Solut. of the Objection there made Answer The Glory desired in the first and second Petition is not adequately the same but yet not totally different for in saying Hallowed be thy Name we pray that God's name may be glorified by the whole Work of the Creation of which Man being a Part we petition that Mankind together with the rest of the Universe except the Damned which are irrevocably lost may glorifie God and chiefly in acquiring the respective End for which every thing was created and therefore though the eternal glorifying of God by Man prayed for in the second Petition be not adequately the same with the glorifying God by the whole Creation in obtaining universally its End and observing the Laws appointed for procuring the same desired in the first Petition yet is it the same with Mans particular ultimate End or Felicity which inasmuch as it consists in loving God with all the Power and Strength of the Soul and that such Love is the Honour which God requires to be given by Man to Eternity Sect. 4. in the Solution of the Objection it is plain that Man 's eternal Glory and Felicity is the same with his glorifying God for ever Neither is it any Tautology which the designed Brevity of the Lords Prayer composed by Divine Wisdom necessarily I confess acquits it of when we have first prayed in general that the whole Creation whereof Man is a Part may glorifie God in the attainment chiefly of their respective Ends to crave more particularly for our selves and all others of the same Species with us the End for which Man was created whilst to pray so first in general is a proper operative Means and Inducement to cause us to desire more concernedly and with greater ardency of Devotion that we and our Neighbour may not our selves fail of the End of our Creation when we have already begged that every thing whatsoever may acquire its Perfection If God you 'l say be glorified chiefly in the acquisition of the End for which things were created it should seem that he is not at all glorified in the Damnation of Reprobate Men and Angels in that they neither obtain the End for which Rational and Intelligent Natures were created nor observe the Laws conducible thereunto I answer that therefore they do not glorifie God after the manner intended in the Lord's Prayer yet their Condition nevertheless is not such but that Glory redounds thereby to God and that not only in regard of their Beings whereof they would not be deprived as will hereafter be shown in the Answer to the 9. Obj. which are of God but also in respect that forsaking him and placing their Affections on other Objects never to be obtained they find themselves perpetually tormented and thence of necessity own that their Sufferings proceed from their perverse Desires continued in and that God is altogether Righteous not at all rejoycing or taking Pleasure in their wretched miserable Condition as he himself protesteth As I live saith the Lord God I have no pleasure in the Death of the Wicked Ezek. 33. 11. Objection 10. Death is said Sect. 6. among other Miseries which befall Mankind to be the Connatural Effect of eating the forbidden Fruit which seems to be contrary to Experience for Death is often caused by the Inequality and Corruption of the Air 't is clear at least that from thence do spring all Famins Plagues c. and 't is incredible those things should not act upon Man and cause Death although his animal Spirits were ne're so rightly tempered I know some say that in the State of Paradise there was no Summer nor Winter and so none of these things which are the Effects of such inequality of Seasons And indeed those more noble and conspicuous Stars scattered through the Zodiac that is on both sides the Ecliptic are a great sign that the Earth at its first drying was turned just under the Ecliptic and had its Axis still conformed to the Ecliptics Axis Now if this had continued I easily perceive all parts would have perpetually kept the same Relation to the Sun so would have had a constant equability of Heat But now we see it is otherwise and I would gladly learn how the Deviation of the Earth's Axis from the Poles of the Ecliptic to the Poles of the Aequator which is the cause of Winter and Summer and of all Distempers in the Air could be the connatural effect of the Fruit. Answer To this Inquiry in which the whole difficulty is wound up I thus make answer Since it was the good Pleasure of God to prevent the grand sad effect which the eating of the Apple would of necessity have produced I mean Adam's and Eves eternal Misery in case they had not returned to love God as their Sovereign Good it was requisite to let them understand the danger of transgressing the Almighties Command not only in regard of what was past but also of what was to come which to do in a way connatural and suitable to their State seems in reason to have been the very same which the Almighty took For whereas our first Parents were put into the Garden of Eden abounding with Variety of what was good and grateful to them thereby to incline them to be thankful to give Praise and Honour to God and above all to love him as the Author and Giver of every good thing they enjoy'd what so connatural a Course even to the eye of Human Reason could have been taken to bring them home to himself again by Repentance as to turn them out of the pleasant Enjoyments they in the State of their Integrity had experienced and for that
same day for it is a day of Atonement to make an Atonement for you before the Lord your God. For whatsoever Soul it be that shall not be afflicted in that same day he shall be cut off from among his People And whatsoever Soul it be that doth any Work in that same day the same Soul will I destroy from among his People Ye shall do no manner of Work it shall be a Statute for ever throughout your Generations in all your Dwellings It shall be unto you a Sabbath of Rest and ye shall afflict your Souls on the ninth day of the Month at Even from Even unto Even shall ye celebrate your Sabbath Lo how strictly it was commanded by God that every one should afflict himself to wit with Fasting and other pious Signs of Sorrow as Interpreters agree and to what end but that their afflicting themselves should work Contrition in them for their sins that the Lord might be propitious to them for without Contrition the inward Sacrifice of the Heart and a real turning from Sin unto God to which the very External Rite of Sacrificing did contribute something I say something for the Law made nothing perfect Hebr. 7. 19. whensoever it was seriously perform'd with calling to mind and detesting their Sin which the Institution necessarily required the offering of the Victim was not at all grateful to God but rather an Abomination to him though in the sight of the People who are not privy to the thoughts of the Heart the Law was fulfilled thereby and Offenders freed from Judicial Punishment as diverse Places of Holy Writ plainly shew To what purpose is the multitude of your Sacrifices unto me saith the LORD I am full of the Burnt-offerings of Rams and the Fat of fed Beasts and I delight not in the Blood of Bullocks or of Lambs or of He-goats When ye come to appear before me who hath required this at your hand to tread my Courts Bring no more vain Oblations Incense is an Abomination to me new Moons and Sabbaths the calling of Assemblies I cannot away with it is iniquity even the solemn Meeting Your new Moons and your appointed Feasts my Soul hateth they are a Trouble unto me I am weary to bear them And when you spread forth your Hands I will hide my Eyes from you yea and when ye make many Prayers I will not hear your Hands are full of Blood. Wash ye make ye clean put away the Evil of your Doings from before mine Eyes cease to do Evil Isa 1. ver 11 12 13 14 15 16. To what purpose cometh there to me Incense from Sheba and the sweet Cane from a far Country Your Burnt-offerings are not acceptable nor your Sacrifices sweet unto me Jerem. 6. 20. I hate I despise your Feast-days and I will not smell in your solemn Assemblies Though ye offer me Burnt-offerings and your Meat-Offerings I will not accept them neither will I regard the Peace-offerings of your fat Beasts Amos 5. 21 22. But of the inward Sacrifice of the Heart Contrition thus saith the Royal Prophet The Sacrifice of God is a troubled Spirit a broken and contrite Heart O God shalt thou not despise Psal 51. 17. And in all sincere Contrition a renouncing of Sin is always necessarily implied for whoever in good earnest bewails his sin cannot while so doing continue in a voluntary course of sinning There was then no Remission of Sin before God even under the Law of Moses but that Transgressors notwithstanding their observance of its external Ordinances were liable to Punishment yea and that Temporal also as well as Eternal as is evident from the Almighties afflicting the Jewish Nation with Plagues Famines and Captivity for their sins to prevent the sinning still anew and consequently the Aggravation of the Pain of such as he knew would never be reclaim'd and to be a Motive to the rest to leave their wicked ways in this World and transmitting those that continued obstinate and impenitent to everlasting Misery in the World to come for no Repentance no Pardon He that covereth his Sin shall not prosper but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have Mercy Prov. 28. 13. Let the Wicked forsake his Way and the Vnrighteous Man his Thoughts and let him return unto the LORD and he will have Mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon Isa 55. 7. It may be that the House of Judah will hear all the Evil which I purpose to do unto them that they may return every Man from his evil Way that I may forgive their Iniquity and their Sin Jerem. 36. 8. If the Wicked will turn from all his Sins that he hath committed and keep all my Statutes and do that which is lawful and right he shall surely live he shall not die All his Transgressions that he hath committed they shall not be mentioned unto him in his Righteousness that he hath done he shall live Ezek. 18. 21 22. Neither are Sins remitted in the time of the Gospel any more than they were in the time of the Law unless forsaken as might be proved from many Texts of the New Testament of which for brevities sake I will produce some few plain ones Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish Luke 13. 3. 5. Repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out Acts 3. 19. But shewed first unto them of Damascus and at Jerusalem and throughout all the Coasts of Judea and then to the Gentiles that they should repent and turn unto God and do works meet for repentance Acts 26. 20. Let every one that nameth the Name of Christ depart from Iniquity 2 Tim. 2. 19. as if the Apostle had said Let no Man presume that Christ will save any one who is a Christian unless by virtue of his Christianity he depart from iniquity Since then it is apparent that there is no Pardon of sin without Repentance and Conversion unto God and that the design of the Sacrifice of Expiation in Moses's Law was to be a Motive and Cause to incline Men to call their sins to remembrance to be sorry for them and to forsake them without doing of which that Sacrifice had not the Effect intended by its Institution as is clear from the Scriptures above recited it remains only to make it manifest that Christ's Crucifixion was a proper Expiatory Sacrifice for Sin to shew these two things First That he purposely came to suffer Death upon the Cross to the end that he might convert men thereby from their sins to God. And Secondly That there is no Condemnation to those that are so converted First That Christ came on purpose into this World to die the Death of the Cross for this very end that he might turn Mens Hearts from Sin unto God these following Texts of Sacred Writ will irrefragably I doubt not evince When our Blessed Saviour told his Disciples of his Death near at hand he said Now is my Soul