to the Sinner because the Lord is God and not Man Therefore we Read that Mercy and Truth are met together Righteousness and Peace have kissed each other Psal 85. 10. God is as Just in Justifiing him that Believeth in Jesus as he is in Condemning the Unbeliever Rom. 8. 26. So that it as clear as the Sun shining at Noon day that as Mercy was the first and only moving Cause of Gods sending his Son into the World to save Sinners and therefore there was no need of his coming to procure Mercy his coming being the greatest Demonstration of Mercy and Love Joh. 3. 16. So likewise is it a Demonstration that all he did and especially what he Suffered was with respect to Justice The determinate Counsels of the Three that bear Record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost the one Eternal God had first if we may to help the weakness of our understanding use such an expression as First or Second concerning the decrees of God I say the First thing God had in his Eye in saving Sinners by sending his Son into the World was the Manifestation of his own Glory This being the best good must be the First Cause and Last End of all Gods Works and in Subordination thereunto Gods Mercy and great Love wherewith he Loved us was the moving Cause of sending his Son into the World with respect to God himself the Manifestation of his own Glory was the Cause and must be the Effect and last End thereof with respect to us Love Pity and Compassion and Mercy was the First moving Cause and our Eternal Salvation the last End so then if Christ came to Expiate sin or to take away sin it must be to bear the punishment due to sin or to the Sinner for sin to take away the guilt of sin which cannot be done but by bearing the punishment due for sin the guilt must be taken away For God will by no means therefore not by Mercy it self clear the guilty Therefore the guilt must be taken away that Mercy may flow in with all its Blessed effects upon the Sinner therefore the Fathers sending his Son was the Highest Act of Mercy in the Father and the Sons coming and dying in our Nature was the highest Act of Love in the Son The thing it Self was all Mercy with respect to us and the doing of it was with respect to the Honour of Gods Law and and the Manifestation of his Justice and Truth Therefore Christ did not offer himself up as a Supplication to the Mercy of God but as an expiatory Sacrifice to his Justice and not as a partial expiating of sin for that would but in part take away guilt but all guilt must be taken away or else the sinner will remain guilty and God will by no means clear the guilty Hence we read of Gods forgiving for Christs sake Eph. 4. 32. and of Redemption through his Blood the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his Grace Here is Redemption but at no less Price than the Blood of Ghrist here is the forgiveness of sins but it is through the Blood of Christ for we are not Redeemed with Corruptible things but by the precious Blood of Christ Peter 1. 18 19. All which shews that we are freely Forgiven and yet Justice is fully satisfied God having no Motive nor was it possible he should to concern himself about our Salvation but his own Soveraign good Will and good Pleasure he will have Mercy because he will have Mercy This makes the difference between Man and Man and this makes the difference between Man and Devil he took not upon him the Nature of Angels but the Seed of Abraham And what ever Reasons may be given for this by those wise Criticks that will vainly intrude into those things that they have not seen yet they must at last all Center in this Even so O Father because it pleaseth thee It was the good pleasure of God to save his Elect therefore Christ did not come to purchase this good pleasure but to Execute it by taking away sin both in its guilt and filth and to bring in an Everlasting Righteousness Therefore we read the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand Isa 53. 10. Dan. 9. 24. And our Lord doth so often declare that he came not to do his own will but the will of him that sent him that is needless to mention particular Scriptures to prove it All which shows that Christ offering himself up by the Eternal Spirit as a Sacrifice to God was to take away sin both in the guilt and filth of it and had respect to the Justice and Holiness of God to Vindicate his Truth and the Honour of his Law in shewing Mercy to the Sinner Therefore it is said he was made sin for us that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him and in respect to Mercy and Love our Lord tells us At that day ye shall ask in my name and I say not unto you that I will pray the Father for you For the Father himself loveth you Joh. 16. 26. Yet if any Man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Righteous 1 Epist of Joh. 2. 1. And he tells us again At that day ye shall ask in my name and I say unto you that I will pray the Father for you and in Joh. 16. ver 23. Verily verily I say unto you whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name he will give it you Which compared with Joh. 14. 13. 14. shews that the Father and the Son are One for saith he Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name that will I do that the Father may be glorified in the Son And again in the next Verse If ye shall ask anything in my name I will do it All which shews that Christ did not purchase nor doth he interceed for the Fathers Love and Mercy but interceeds as an Advocate pleading his own merrit in taking away sin and bringing in an Everlasting Righteousness so that is for Gods glory the Honour of his Law the strickness of his Justice to shew Mercy to the Sinner Therefore he saith I will do it that the Father may be glorified in the Son And indeed it is little less then the Blasphemy to say that the Fathers Love and Mercy is not so great or was not so early as the Sons for God is of one Mind and who can turn him Having thus proved that Christ offered himself up as a Sacrifice to the Justice of God to make an Attouement for Transgression It will be necessary to enquire what kind of Priest and Sacrifice this must be what mighty Mediator this must be that interposeth between the Justice of God and the guilty Sinner Aand as the Doctrine of Satisfaction ought to be received with all Humility and Thankfulness with all Care and Watchfulness to prove our selves to be of the number of those that are Redeemed from
People such as Masters of Reason Learning Scholarship and the like or else a Man may find more sound Reason among a few Men of the meanest Employments and meanest Capacities than in an whole Conclave of such Doctors as you are For I pray you Sir tell me without Heat and Prejudice and with solid substantial Reason what a kind of senseless lifeless something worse than nothing must you snppose God to be if you could suppose him to be without or before he acted Hath your great Learning spoiled your Memory so much as to make you forget that common Maxim that where there is Life there is Motion Sure that Cause must be very desparately defective and unreasonably bad that necessarily runs Men upon Atheism or something worse and so much the worse because they pretend to plead for Reason all that while Nay the Considerator in his Letter to H. H. is so confident but foolish enough God knows as to tell the World they were always too hard for the Trinitarians at these two Weapons Reason and Scripture But hitherto we have found them too short in their sound Reasoning we shall try what strength they have by the Scriptures in due place In the mean time it may not be an unreasonable Work to enquire what true Reason is that we may not be as Men beating the Air crying out great is Humane Reason and at the same time scarce know what true Reason is And if the Doctors of Reason would not be offended I would tell them what I take it to be It is a good Gift of God which he is pleased to bestow in some measure on most of the Children of Men whereby we are enabled to discern the Connexion or Dependancy that one thing hath upon another Hence it follows that Knowledge is not Reason neither can Reason work without knowledge any more than a Man can walk in the Air or a Carpenter can build a House without a Foundation Hence it follows that the greatest Scholars are not always the wisest Men as one of their own hath lately told us as good and as great a one perhaps as any this day living Saith he There are a great many Scholars who are carried only by their Books They know much and therefore can tell a great deal as you know every Fool can tell as he is told But for matter of sound Reason whereby they are inabled to draw just and Reasonable conclusions from known and certain Premises If it be never so little out of their Book Road and for which they have not as yet consulted an Author Truly a Man may let a great many of these Gentlemen alone hence it comes to pass for we are now discoursing about Reason it is a power of drawing just and right conclusions from known and certain Premises Hence it is that though Learning is in it self a very great and very good Gift of God and a great accomplishment to a Man and therefore to be highly prized by them that have it and to be honoured by them that have it not Yet great Scholarship cannot deliver some Men from being great Blockheads for Soveraign Pleasure will bestow his Gifts to whom and how he pleaseth to one a Word of Wisdom to another the Word of Knowledge by the same Spirit 1 Cor. 12. 8. How preposteriously then do those Gentlemen go to Work that would Measure the being and properties of the infinite God by their weak and imperfect Reason of which there are as many degrees it may be as there are Men in the World and which can no more Work of it self without some Knowledge to Work upon then an Artist can Work without Tools or Matter to Work upon And it is impossible for Man to have any saving Knowledge of God but by Revelation and there are but three Ways that ever God revealed himself by to Men they are his Works his Word and by his Holy Spirit and it is not our Reason as it is a Faculty or Power in us now corrupted that can gather any true or saving Knowledge of God as he is in himself or will be to us from his Works of Creation and Providence No nor from his Word neither without the Aid of his Holy Spirit and that in an especial manner We see this by the Heathen who were as great Masters of Reason as any of our present Pretenders and yet were far enough from a true Knowledge of God and how could they for who knows the Mind of God much less the Nature but the Spirit of God and he to whom he reveals him But let us consider the Knowledge that God gives us of himself by Creation and see what improvements Reason can make of it we see a visible World and therefore by the Apostles Argument in Romans 1. 19. 20. we may conclude that there was some being that gave being to those Visible Changeable things and that this being must be before all those things that do appear else he could not give them being Thus arguing by Reason from the Effects to the Cause we rise from the Men now in being to the first Man that was Made and so likewise of all other Created beings to the first of them And so likewise of the Heavens and the Earth and all that therein is whose very being declare they had a Maker who is God for he that Maketh all things is God Hence we may Reasonably conclude that this God is an Almighty Infinitely Wise God yea that he is a Merciful God for his Mercy is Written in visible Characters over all his visible Works and yet it must be acknowledged that all the Reason that the greatest Doctors of it ever had could never gather any Reasonable hope of the Pardon of their Sin or of Eternal Life by the Revelation that God hath made of himself by the Works of Creation and Providence If you tell me you may hope for Mercy because you are the Works of his hands his Mercy being over all his Works I Answer the Devils may as Reasonably hope for Mercy as you or I upon this Account for they are Creatures and so are we and they are Sinners and so are we So that there is a necessity for God to reveal himself to us by some more Clearer Light then that of Creation if you and I ever come to a true and saving Knowledge of him this necessarily leads us to consider what Revelation God makes of himself in his Word But Before I come to Consider that I would a little inquire what further improvements Reason can make of the Work of Creation to find out God and Counting things One by One to find out the Account as we have began we may come to know that God is an Eternal being without beginning of days or end of time and it is necessary he should be so else he could not give being to all other beings neither could such an Infinite being arise or spring out of nothing but he is a Self
and only moving Cause of God's sending his Son into the World and therefore all that he did in the World could not be the Cause nor so much as a Means ro procure his Mercy consider'd without respect to Justice John 3. 16. For God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life Mercy and Love in God as the truly Rational and Heavenly Dr. Owen hath observed being no less than God's willing good to the Creature and whoever God wills Good to they must have that Good willed to them For God's Will in this Sence must infallibly be done both in Heaven and in Earth But God will not convey Good to any Creature in a way that shall destroy a greater Good then the Salvation of all the Men and Angels in Heaven and Earth will amount unto But such is the Manifestation of the Glory of God's Justice therefore though God's loving Kindness and Mercy was from everlasting and therefore needed not a Sacrifice in time to procure it much less a propitiatory one to appease it which is a Contradiction with a Witness but this is not to be taken Notice of in Men that have ingross'd all contradiction to themselves under the specious pretence of Reason for 't is below the pretended Wits of our Day the Great Vain glorious Freemen of the Common-Wealth of Wit and Learning to prove themselves little Fools But I say Mercy will never be extended in a way that in the least derogates from the Justice and Truth of God No Justice and Truth must be equally exalted with Mercy where-ever it is extended Therefore when God proclaims his Name in Exod. 34. 6 7. he proclaims himself to be a God that will shew Mercy and yet will by no means clear the guilty This you Men of Reason are pleased to contradict and do in so many words tell us that a Debt fully paid and yet freely for given is a contradiction Nameless Author page 6. col 1. And Mr. Considerator calls it a Mock Payment pag. 13. col 1. But we know the things of God useth to be accounted Foolishness with Men but Thanks be to God through our Lord Jesus Christ we do as well know that God hath made foolish the Wisdom of this World and that the foolishness of God is Wiser then Men 1 Cor. 1. 20 21 25 26 27. But in the aforesaid Exod. 34. The Lord proclaims himself to be the Lord God merciful and Gracious long suffering and abundant in goodness and Truth Pray observe goodness and Truth must go together and without Truth Goodness would cease to be so And in verse 7. He saith Keeping Mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity Transgression and sin and that will by no means clear theguilty Now Gentlemen are you not ashamed if you are not you may be to say a Debt fully paid and yet Freely forgiven is a Contradiction for do you not thereby Contradict God himself and Charge him with Folly and Falshood who saith he will pardon iniquity and forgive sin and yet will by no means clear the guilty Surely God is true and can no more Lye then he can dye or deny himself therefore his infinite wisdom hath contrived that which his Almighty Power hath effected a way to pardon sin and yet by no means clear the guilty This could not be done by offering up a Sacrifice to the Mercy of God nor was there any need of such a thing Mercy being the first moving Cause of setting infinite Wisdom to Work to find out a way to save the sinner and yet not clear the guilty and at the same time to save the Honour of Gods Law and to vindicate the immutability of his Truth to shew Mercy to the sinner and yet at the same time to magnifie his Law and make it Honourable Isa 44. 21. to magnifie his Mercy and yet at the same time and by the same way and means and with respect to the very same Persons to exalt his Justice This was a Work becoming God because no Created being had Wisdom and Power to do so and as it is wonderful in its own Nature so likewise should it be to us and Humbly and thankfully closed up with It is not to be quarrelled with but if you will reject the Counsel of God against your selves because it is Foolishness with you yet know you that to them that believe Christ is the Wisdom of God and the Power of God and they do receive this Truth with all manner of Acceptation And although it may seem to be foolishness to you wise Grecians yet to them that believe both Jews and Greeks Christ is the Wisdom of God and the Power of God hence it comes to pass that the Lord is well pleased for his Righteousness sake he thereby magnifying his Law and making it Honorable this answers the end of God both in Creation and Redemption The end of God was to manifie his own glory but for which he would not have descended into the Work of Creation nor Redemption For he bath made all things for himself even the wicked for the day of evil Prov. 16. 4. And we are Redeemed and Called for this very end that we may be to the Praise of the Glory of his Grace in Christ Jesus Eph. 1. 6 12. Yet so as that the Glory of his Justice might shine forth with equal Luster with his Mercy Rom. 3. 25 26. Whom God hath set forth to be a Propitiation through Faith in his blood to declare his Righteousness for the Remison of sins that are past through the forbearance of God ver 26. To declare I say at this time his Righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus God doth all things becoming himself and Gods glory being the chiefest good and the manifestation thereof the Highest end God could have no Lower end than the manifestation of his own Glory as the first and chief end in the Work of our Redemption and our Salvation next thereunto A wise Man will not do great and Noble things for a base and low End how much less will God save sinners in a way that advances the Glory of one attribute to the abasement or in the least Ecclipsiing the Glory of another This would reflect on his Wisdom and Power but God will not God cannot extend Mercy in a way that may reflect on his Justice and Truth If the King pardon a Convicted Traytor he thereby extends his Mercy and shews a great deal of Pitty and Compassion and good Will to the Person of the Traytor But he cannot with respect to that Person but stop the Execution of Justice and the Law in that particular Falls to the Ground and that because he is Man and not God but not one jot nor Title of Gods Law shall Fall to the Ground neither shall Justice be in the least stopt or Suspended by Gods extending Mercy