than the Gofpel allows The Question then shall never be stated by me thus Whether we must Obey or no Keep the Commandments of Christ or no And that upon Peril of Eternal Damnation But whether out of this Obedience of ours may be gathered that righteousness in which we may safely venture to appear before the Iudge of all the Earth in the great day as that which we resolve to stand and abide by venturing our all upon it This is that the Doctor thinks the Apostle reproved Rom. 9. 31 32. Israel which followed after the Law of righteousness hath not attained to the Law of righteousness because they sought it not by Faith but as it were by the Works of the Law Where the Apostle Intimates that though we do not directly seek a righteousness by the Works of the Law yet to do it Obliquely and Indirectly is destructive and that the Doctor intends no more no other than this is evident from the words our Author calls in And though I would have walkt according to my own mind yet now I give up my self to be wholly guided by thy Spirit This Netled our Authors Conscience and he takes Sanctuary in the most wretched Subterfuge that ever betrayed it's Confider What a pretty Complement does the Soul make to Christ We are now sheer gone from the Truth of the Principle to the Truth of the Heart in receiving it If it proves a Complement in the Mouth of an Hypocrite yet in Thesi its a Truth That whoever receives Christ upon his own Terms does renouncing his own will and way give up himself wholly to be ruled by the Spirit speaking in the Scriptures At this wiâ—…d rate I have often heard a silly Quaker answer this Proposition Iesus Christ that Died at Jerusalem is the Saviour of the World Ay says he but doest thou witness that from the Light within 2. Others make Obedience necessary upon the account of Christs Fulness But this he says makes it no otherwise necessary then as we are necessarily passive in it However if it be necessary upon any account it 's enough to make him blush that flatly Charges it upon them to say it 's not necessary But to be passive in our Obedience is all the Soul means in giving up it self to be ruled by the Spirit of Christ. Then the Soul means Nonsence For to give it self to be ruled by the Spirit has something of Activity in it Our help and asistance to give up our selves is from the Spirit but the giving up is an an act of the Souls 'T is the Believer that obeys and yet the ability to obey is from the Holy Ghost It 's the Creature that works and yet its God that works in him to will and to do of his own good Pleasure Phil. 2. 13. It 's the man that believes and yet he believes according to the working of Gods mighty Power Ephes. 1. 19 20. What is it else that he prays to the Spirit for O God the Holy Ghost proceeding from the Father and the Son have Mercy upon us miserable sinners But all this might have been Superseded had our Author duly Recollected what he has Subscribed and openly given his Assent and Consent to in the 10th Art of the Church of England We have no power to do Good works acceptable to God without the Grace of God preventing us that we may have a good Will and Working with us when we have that good Will Allow but the Doctor the Benefit of the Clergie and he will need no more to bring him off though that very Article would prove our Authors Neck-verse In the Work of Grace the Spirit Acts according to the Nature of the Subject which is here the Rational Creature He gives not new Natural Powers but a new Moral ability to Exercise them he bestows not a new Will Physically but enlarges it from its Fetters discharges it from its Slavery and powerfully though Gently enclines it to Gods Testimonies not destroying its radical self-determining Power and hence I conclude our Author is but sorrily Skilled in the true meaning of souls when they Profess a subjection to Christ. The Soul meant honestly she had no Mental reservation none of these Quirks and Tricks but plainly and sincerely Designed to give up her self in all Obedience to her Lord and Saviour She in her Text intended very singly but our Author has Commented upon it Knavishly I said so indeed in haste another would have said perhaps Foolishly for what more Idle Chat could he have Learn't from the good Women his Neighbours at Billings-gate than a willingness to obey against ones Will. This is all our Author is willing to own of the Grounds of our Obedience but I shall help his weak and frail Memory a little though to his great Regret Doctor O. Com. pag. 212. Obedience says the Doctor is necessary as a Means to the End N. B. God hath appointed that Holiness shall be the Means the Way to that Eternal Life which as in it self and Originally is his Gift by Jesus Christ so with regard to his Constitution of our Obedience as the Means of attaining it is a Reward and God in bestowing of it a Rewarder though it be neither the Cause Matter nor Condition of our Justification yet it is the Way appointed of God for us to walk in for the obtaining of Salvation And therefore he that hath hope of Eternal Life Purifies himself as he is Pure and none shall ever come to that End who walketh not in that Way for without Holiness it is impossible to see God The bare Repitition of which words are as plain and full a Rebuke to all our Authors Dirty Nasty Reflections as a reasonable Creature can desire But these things we shall meet withall anon and therefore here they shall lie ready in Banco till our Authors Leisure shall call for them I had now eased my self and my Reader of any further Vexation in this Section had I not unhappily overseen one Passage in Mr. Watson from which our Author thinks he has some Advantage The words are these Evangelical Truths will not down with a Natural Heart such a one had rather hear some quaint Point of some Vertue or Vice stood upon than any thing in Christ c. Which he thus Canvasses Such sanctified Souls and Ears loath all Dull Insipid Moral Discourses which are perpetually Inculcating their Duty on them and Troubling them with a great many Rules and Directions for a good Life which he is pleased to call the Quaint Points of Vertue and Vice Good Sir be not angry have but a little Patience and all will be well to your Hearts Content Mr. Watson does not Inveigh against your Poynant Invictives against the one or your most Elaborate Encomiums of the other Run down sin at the highest rate of Zeal and Fervency you can render Prophaneness as Odious and expose her for a Fulsomè sâ—…urvy Baggage if you please Invent new Names for her
and then our Authors Argument will hold though his Cause break If God for the sake of Abrahams imperfect Obedience yet as he was the Head of the League gave so many temporal Mercie to Israel surely then God for the sake of Christ the Head of all that the Father hath given him will bestow Spiritual and Eternal Mercies for the Head and Members making but one Body the Obedience of the Head is reputed the Obedience of the Members And as the Blessings which God bestows for Christs sake are Transcendently gâ—…eater than those bestowed on Israel for Abrahams sake so is the Obedience which Christ performed upon it's own account and the Dignity of the Person infinitely beyond the imperfect Obedience of Abraham and the Union which Faith makes with Christ is a stricter Union than any Natural Civil Political Union that could possibly be between Abraham and his Posterity Thus I have endeavoured to Vindicate our Authors Argument but I am sure he had rather it should perish than be thus justified But is it not strange our Author should tell us That he knows how many Blessings God bestowed upon the Children of Israel for their Fathers sakes and yet not acquaint us with one single Blessing that God bestows on us for Christs sake For the sake of Christs Personal Obedience I wish I had so much Interest in any Friend of his that had that Interest in him to perswade him to acquaint us freely and open-heartedly what those blessings are and how procured Why just now he comes to it The Righteousness of his Life and the Sacrifice of his Death both serve to the same end to establish and confirm the Gospel-Covenant God was so well pleased with what Christ did and suffered with the obedience of his Life and Death that for his sake he entred into a Covenant of Grace with Mankind Very good what needed all this Circumlocution and Periphrase To beat about and about the Bush Had it not been more Civil to have given us our doom in plain English than to Tantalize us with sugared hopes and expectations of some great matter from Abraham Isaac and Iacob Some would say 1. That this ascribes more Influence to Abrahams Obedience than thus to Christs for God for the sake of Abraham's Active Obedience entred into a Covenant with Israel and chose them to be his peculiar People without the Death of Abraham but the Obedience of Christs Life and Death must both concur to procure this Covenant and yet it is such a one as I suppose God would not refuse upon as small an account as the sake of Abraham 2. Some will say this is not to Answer the Question but perplex it The Question at first was what influence the Righteousness of Christs Life and the Sacrifice of his Death have upon our acceptation with God He Answers They serve to establish the Covenant they confirm to us that God will pardon and save us if we believe and Obey but what if I Obey without such confirmation shall my Obedience be rejected without it be performed upon that Confirmation Ay but God entred into this Covenant of Grace for Christs sake Still I say that 's not an answer but the bandying the Question upon us again a hundred times over Why should his Life and Death have such an influence upon God to make that Covenant Why should they Operate that way What connexion is there between Christs active and passive Obedience and such a Covenant But sure we forget our selves for we are enquiring into the influence of Christs Active Obedience And 1. For Confirming a Covenant let any rational Man satisfie me how The Obedience of a Person perfectly holy pure spotless sinless being accepted of God should prove this promise That therefore God will accept them whos 's best Obedience is imperfect and defective This is so far from confirming it that God will accept me who am a Sinner that it leads to utter dispair of acceptance with him seeing I came so infinitely short of my pattern What hope can a sinner have of acceptance from a consideration that God has accepted Christ who was no sinner If Faith was ready to believe that God would accept him that believes and obeys yet had it seen Christs Faith and Obedience and his acceptance thereon it might have stagger'd him that ever such pitiful things as his Faith and Obedience should find favour with God And if Faith was so strong as to overcome that difficulty as to believe the Promise notwithstanding this staggering Example yet it 's far enough from Truth that a sinner should believe the promise ever the more that his imperfect Service should be accepted and rewarded because Christs entire obedience was so Nay without question it had been a greater confirmation of that promise to have had assurance that God had pardoned some hainous Offender some flagitious wretch who deserved Condemnation than to behold him accepting a Person not obnoxious to Condemnation So says the Apostle 1 Tim. 1. 16. Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy that in me first Iesus Christ might shew forth all long-suffering for a pattern to them who hereafter should believe on him to Life everlasting The Pardon of a Blasphemer one injurious a Persecutor is a stronger confirmation that God will pardon a sinner than the acceptance of Him that had done no wrong neither was guile found in his mouth 2. But now for Gods making such a promise for Christs sake or entring into a Covenant to pardon accept for Christs sake this answers not the Question in the least for 1. It onely asserts that God has declared openly that he will do it Now a Declaration of Pardon is not a Pardon a promise of acceptance is not acceptance and therefore a Reason of or Motive to such a Promise such a Declaration is not a Reason of or Motive to Pardon and acceptance Christs Obedience was so well pleasing to God that for his sake he made such a Promise Well but if my Obedience be little Christs Obedience will not make it accepted as if it were great if imperfect it will not render it accepted as if it were perfect 2. That God has made such a promise for Christs sake answers not the Question for it s but turning the Question into an Assertion As if we should enquire what Reason is there that God should accept me for Christs obedience And he should Answer there is a Reason why God should accept me for it but never shew the Reason Or thus What Cause is Christs Obedience of the Acceptance of our Obedience And he should say it is a Cause but not shew the Cause But then further The Obedience and Righteousness of Christs Life was one thing which made his Sacrifice so Meritorious I confess I question the Truth of the Proposition had Christ Sacrificed himself as soon as he came into the World his Sacrifice had been as Meritorious being the Sacrifice of him that as Priest was God and
Frustra fit per plura quod fieri potest per pauciora 2 What Righteousness was it that these Men preach'd Surely it would have been a hard Venture to have preached to them Their own for if Mans Nature be Corrupted and he lyable to Gods Wrath and Damnation as the Church of England determines it will be very difficult at least to bring such a Righteousness to God out of so vitiated a Nature by its own mere strength as may plead acceptance with him That Righteousness which is the Result of our utmost Obedience has some flaws in it that make it very improbable to justifie any person in the world under our Circumstances that is Sinners 1. That Obedience which we may plead and abide by before God for Justification and Eternal Life must be entirely our own performed in our own strength it were idle presumption to come to God for Acceptation and a Reward for that which we are beholden to his Grace and strength to help us to perform 2. That which is not absolutely perfect cannot justifie in the face of a perfectly holy Law and an infinitely perfect holy God For if any thing short of Gods demands would serve to justifie a Sinner what should hinder but that seeing God is infinite and absolute in Mercy he might abate the whole Nay indeed if God can abate and come down from his first Terms who shall set the Dice upon his Grace and goodness and say Thus far shall Mercy goe in Abating and no further And in a little while no doubt this Doctrine will be so well improved that we shall have it made as plain to us How God may justifie all the Debauches of the World as a Repenting Sinner if no respect be had to the Satisfaction and Interpoposition of Another But of these things abundant occasion will be administred for Debate in the following Papers But then Secondly there 's another Expedient which God used to reclaim the more Degenerate part of Mankind and that he tells us was the good Examples of good men how they lived and how well they sped by Holy Living and how they were rewarded and how happily they dyed and how much God delighted in them All this is True in it self Enoch's Translation Noah's Preservation Abraham's Exaltation and Lott's Ereption were convincing Arguments how dear these good Men were to God But first I would say it was a more Convincing Argument to me that God was Good to them who made them so who call'd Abraham from Ur of the Chaldees from the Idols which his Family had worshipt on the other side the Flood It was Gods Grace that raised up the Righteous Man from the East and call'd him to his foot Isa. 41. 2. And then secondly I would say too that there wanted something more than outward Examples to make that Age happy even an inward Operation of Gods Grace for the Church of England has excellently resolved Art 10. The Condition of Man is such after the Fall of Adam that he cannot turn without the Grace of God preventing him that he may have a Good Will 3. We are now arrived at a third Division of Time stretching it self from Abraham untill Christ came in the Flesh. For when the World would not be reformed by single Examples as ye know one Swallow will not make a Summer what did God doe then why he chose the Posterity of Abraham to be a publick and constant demonstration of his Power and Providence and Care of Good Men. Our Author fancies that God had been trying Conclusions and casting matters in his thoughts how he might reform the rugged World and that he might be sure to hit o' th' right way at last he ventur'd first upon single Experiments and then upon Experiments in Consort just like my Lord Verulams and yet none of them would come up to the designed End I have heard of one that would needs trye how to make a dead body stand upright he set him upon his feet and placed him iâ—… his true perpendicular yet still he crinckled i' th â—…ams or one mischief or another he would not stand at last tyred out with his fruitless labour he gave it over concluding all was not right within there was some wheel or pulley some spring or string broken Just such a process does our Author modestly ascribe to the great and wise God He supposes God was not wanting to his Creatures Happiness and I may suppose God knew well what would serve to answer his Creatures Happiness in the present posture he was in and yet all came to little or nothing surely there 's something wanting somewhere or other But there never comes better on 't when men will proceed upon a false ground and tyle over one Absurdity with another that their Errours may not rain through Therefore 1. God was never disappointed in the Counsels and purposes of his heart whatever he undertakes according to the good pleasure of his will he goes through with it If he will work none shall let If he sayes it he will doe it and his word shall not return to him in vain but accomplish the thing for which he sent it Thus Enoch's Noah's Abraham's Ministry atchieved whatever his hand and Counsel fore-ordained by them should be done And if any be angry hereat without a Cause they must be pleas'd again without amends 2. Gods varying the dispensation was not because he found it ineffectual contrary to his hopes but because he would make all these Providences comply with his grand Purpose of conveying the Messiah to the World at last He takes this Family the Posterity of Abraham to be his Peculiar and as any braâ—…ch of that Family lay out of the Road of Christ he left it to take its lott in his more general oversight and cure of his Creatures That branch of this Root which was to bear the Messiah alwayes was kept alive and the rest in process of time wither'd and fell off of themselves But there was an odde word dropt from his Pen at unawares that had like infinitely to have ravel'd all his Affairs and to have quite marred the Musick of this Paragraph had he not been aware of it in due time He had said That God chose the Posterity of Abraham Now you know that the World is wide enough and Choosing in its first Notion implies the taking of one and leaving another and how to make that fadge with some other Cross-Capers he has in s Head was a Matter worthy his thoughts and timously to be reconciled which he has thus done When God chose the Posterity of Abraham he did not design to exclude the rest of the World from his Care and Providence and all possible Means of Salvation That God did exclude the rest or any part of the World from his Care and Providence I suppose none are concern'd to affirm but they who are for God's governing the World by his Courtiers onely and great Ministers of State That
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
without considering either Antecedents or Consequents to Nibble at some Expression that seems most lyable to Exception but herein we begge not his favour onely demand Iustice That he may not Usurp a Liberty to suppose that the Doctor asserts Revelation to be wholly silent in this Matter Revelatition silent Alas it rings loud with the continual sound of Gods pardoning Mercy to Sinners onely the Doctor judges that Revelation directs us to this Mercy of God through a Mediator for the obtaining of it When therefore our Author asks fo pertly whether the Doctor be not a confident Man to lay down such a Position I onely teturn that I have known our Author far more confident upon far less Grounds when the Doctor has a Foundation for his Confidence let him be so and spare not A great deal less Confidence may be sinfull when it wants a Basis proportionable to beare its weight and a great deal more Justifiable when it 's born up with sufficient Warrant Tell not me of the Doctors Confidence but examine his Reasons for it and let us see what our Author can do to dismount it Truely he offers us but one thing but I assure you it 's a knocker The Experence says he of the whole World confutes him Never was Man so confuted and confounded as he that stems the Experience of the whole World for though I ever look'd upon Experience as a very ticklish way of Confutation and the best way of employing them is to Experience in our own Souls the Virtue and Efficacy of certainly revealed Truths and not to make them the Umpires of questionable Doctrines yet I should be loth to run counter to the universal Sentiments of Mankind and the Experience of the whole World shall carry a mighty stroke in my Judgement but has our Author taken their Experiences by the Pole and do they one and all give in their Suffrages against the Doctor Yes Both Iews and Gentiles who knew nothing of what Christ was to doe in order to our Recovery did believe God to be gracious and mercifull to sinners I must own it That Jews and Gentiles are a sufficient enumeration of particulars they did once divide the World betwixt them and if they both agree in their Verdict against the Doctor Nemine contradicente he is gone for ever being over-born with Epidemical Experience 1. For the Iews the Day is like to goe for our Author if it be true what he tells us That God assured them he was a Gracious and Mercifull God pardoning iniquity transgression and sin which certainly he is and then that They knew nothing at all of what Christ was to doe for our Recovery but all the stick lyes there and we must enter a Friendly Debate with him upon the issue For 1. Whatever Manifestation of Gods Sin-pardoning Mercy was given to the Church of Old it had reference to the Blood of Christ who was as really sacrificed to their Faith as he was crucified to the Faith of the 〈◊〉 Galat. 3. 1. The Jewish Sacrifices were Types designed and appointed by God to represent that one Sacrifice which Christ should once offer upon the Cross to God and without reference to the Expiation of Sin Atonement and Propitiation of God made by him and manifested by them it would have puzzled the Faith of any particular person that God would pardon sin notwithstanding that Revelation Exod. 34. 6. for is it not immediately added And that will by no means clear the guilty God in that place reveals to Moses his Name that is his Nature and if we consult particulars we shall find that it 's as fair a Letter in Gods Name not to clear the Guilty under which Character all the world stand before God Rom. 3. 19. as to pardon iniquity but all this was cleared up and made easie by a believing attendance to those bloody Sacrifices which though weak in themselves yet receivâ—…d a Sacrament al strength from Him who travelled in the greatness of his to reconcile God and Man by the Blood of his Croâ—…s 2. There 's nothing more vain and idle than to 〈◊〉 that the Iews knew nothing at all of what Christ was to doe in order to our Recovery For 1. It was sufficient for that Dispensation that God had Revealed a Mediator who should take up the Controversie between God and sinners and this he did when it was early day with the world to Adam when received into a Covenant of Grace T is true the more minute Circumstances of when and how He should come in what manner he should accomplish his work might be veyled with some Obscurities and perplexed with some difficulties at the first yet still they had a Promise in the Lump that the Seed of the Woman should bruise the Head of the Serpent which the Apostle interprets Heb. 2. 14. by destroying him that had the Power of Death even the Devil And as it seemed good to the Wisdom of God to give forth the Promise at first in gross so in process of time to graduate and heighten the discovery of the Messias That there should come a deliverer out of Sion to turn away ungodliness from Iacob Isa. 59. 20. was evidently laid before their Faith to these Revelations did true Believers attend and by this Key did they open the difficultie how God should be a God pardoning Iniquity and yet by no means clear the Guilty And as the prefixed time of Christs appearing in the World drew nearer so the Prophesies and Promises of his Person Nature Work and Design thereof with the Circumstances attending it were multiplyed and more explicitely made out to them that so as they were growing up out of the State of Childhood and emerging from under their Bondage the discoveries of a Saviour might enlarge their Hearts and Minds in Knowledge Joy Love and Peace By Isaiah it was revealed that he should be born of a Virgin Isa. 7. 14. that he should be Immanuel God with us therein discovering both his Natures in one Person and his design to bring God and Man into one Covenant By the fame Prophet was it distinctly revealed what should be his Work and Employment his Dignity and Authority and the Success of all Isa. 9. 6. For unto us a Child is born unto us a Son is given and the Government shall be upon his shoulders and his Name shall be called Wonderfull Counsellor the Mighty God the Everlasting Father the Prince of Peace of the encrease of his Government and Peace there shall be no end By the fame Prophet it was revealed Chap. 53. by what means mainly he should accomplish the Ends of his coming into the World by being wounded for our Transgressions bruised for our Iniquities healing us by his stripes by Gods laying upon him the Iniquities of us all that it pleased the Father to bruise him to make his Soul an Offering for sin by the travel of his Soul by pouring it out to death being numbred amongst the
he spared him not in exacting Punishment Death came into the World by sin and yet Christ dyed who never sinned Rom. 5. 12. The Law in its Penalty had nothing to do with him who had not offended the Law in its Rule So that I profess I know no greater wonder in the world than that the Father would have him suffer and that he should be Capable of Sufferings till the wonder be removed by viewing Christ in the stead of others and thus the Scripture assoyls the difficulty Isa. 53. 10. His Soul was made an Offering for sin Nay he was made sin for us though he knew no sin that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5. 21. He so loved the Church that he gave himself for it And appearing in this Quality Death the Officer of Gods violated Law might justly arrest him and the Father be pleased to bruise him delighted in his Sufferings upon one account who was so infinitely satisfied in his Person upon another And yet all this while our Author can see no necessity of Christs Death I should rather have thought sayes he that Gods requiring such a Sacrifice as the Death of Christ was not because he could not do otherwise but because his infinite Wisdom judged it the most effectual way of dispensing his Grace Then 1. It seems though Gods infinite Wisdom saw this the best way yet it might have consisted with his Wisdom to have pitch'd upon a worse and then it will be a Question whether that had been Wisdom or no For we are told p. 48. That Wisdom consists in the choyce of the fittest and best Means to attain an End when there are more wayes than one of doing it If then Wisdom consist in choosing the fittest and best Means and the Death of Christ was the best Means for dispensing of Gods Grace either it was impossible for God to choose any other way than this or it is possible for God to act in a way not consisting with Wisdom But 2. Our Author had highly obliged the World had he discovered how sin might otherwise have been expiated than by the Sacrifice of Christs Death The Iews have pitch'd upon a Cock and at last upon their own Death But it 's twenty to one when our Author shall substitute any in the room of the perfect Sacrifice of Christ we shall find as many real Inconveniences in it as he has found imaginary absurdities in the Necessity of Gods requiring satisfaction to his Justice and Christs Tendring it upon the Cross. But 3. Who ever asserted simply that God could doe no otherwise than to require the Sacrifice of Christs Death Alas our Author is wide the whole Heavens in this Matter It must first be supposed that God will treat with the sinner and that Christ will accept the Terms of being a Mediator between God and Man The Necessity proceeds upon a presupposed Voluntariness both in the Father and in the Son and when you have supposed them there are who will dispute it with our Author when he pleases that upon supposition God will accept and justifie a sinner a just Compensation must be made to wronged Iustice. I find our Author and his Confederates now and then speaking a good word of Mr. R. B. and I doe the more wonder at it because I did not think they had had a good word for any man but themselves I shall therefore give him a taste out of his learned Labours and if he likes it he may have more at the same rate 'T is in his Reasons of the Christian Religion Part 2. Chap. 4. Sect. 6. No Religion doth so wonderfully open and magnifie and reconcile Gods Iustice and Mercy to Mankind as Christianity doth It sheweth how his Iustice is founded in his Holiness and his Governing Relation It justifieth it by opening the Purity of his Nature the Evil of Sin and the use of Punishment to the right Government of the World and it magnifieth it by opening the Dreadfulness and Certainty of his Penalties and the Sufferings of our Redeemer when he made himself a Sacrifice for our Sins But the storm is not yet over nor our Authors Fury quite spent Dr. O. had said Com. pag. 94 95. That there are many Glympses of the Patience of God towards Sinners shining out in the Works of his Providence but all exceedingly beneath that discovery which we have of it in Christ for in him the very Nature of God is discovered to be Love and Kindness whatever discoveries were made of the Patience and Lenity of God to us yet if it were not withall revealed that his other Attributes his Iustice and Revenge for Sin had their actings assigned them to the full there could be little Consolation gather'd from his Patience and Lenity It were very hard if a Spider could suck no poyson out of these words and I should conclude she had renounced her Nature but what was there in all this that could exasperate a sweet natur'd Gentleman Whilest a sinner hangs by the meer forbearance of God he hangs but over Hell-fire by a single Thread and if that breaks he falls irrecoverably into Everlasting Burnings and it can be little Consolation the Doctor was gentle he might have used a harsher word and said just none at all to an awakened Conscience to have a place in Gods forbearance when he has none in his Forgiveness or to depend upon mere patience without an interest in Gods pardoning Mercy God may have patience with when he has no pardon for a sinner he had so for the Old World for Sodom for Ierusalem which yet perisht under his just displeasure A sensible Soul will be apt to argue thus I am reprieved but is my Pardon sealed God visits not my Iniquities upon me but will he remember them no more Those that are the familiar Acquaintances of Nature and of the Cabal to Common Reason have told me that Forbearance is no Acquittance that Patience abused turns into Fury Nay perhaps it may be in Judgement that a Sinner is forborn for God hath sometimes suffered the Nations to walk in their own wayes Acts 14. 16. And endured with much long-sufferance the Vessels of Wrath fitted to destruction But now through Christ the Nature of God is discover'd to be Love and Kindness for seeing Provision is made for and regard had of all his other Attributes and Essential Perfections God can secure to himself the Glory of them all and yet the Sinner escape wrath to come And indeed it 's altogether as unaccountable why God should be mercifull to the reproach of his Holiness as why he should be severe to the disparagement of his Mercy As the Goodness of God naturally discovers it self in doing good where all due requisites are found so does Justice as readily exert it self upon the Sinner where a Propitiation doth not interpose And if Conscience were rightly instructed in its Office from the Word it would mind the Sinner
that God can be just in destroying without the least Impeachment of his Mercy and Goodness since Mercy it self is not obliged to plead for the Sinner without respect had to the other Properties of that God who is Essentially what he is But has our Author never a Stone to throw at the head of this Truth Two things he offers most lamentable Ignorance and horrid Blasphemy 1 Here 's most wretched Ignorance A happy Change sayes he this from all Iustice to all Love No Sir don't trouble your self here 's no Change at all happy or unhappy God is the same holy just righteous gracious and loving God that ever he was onely sayes the Doctor he 's otherwise discovered Justice and Mercy are not contrary things in God he can be all Love and Mercy and yet punish the Sinner that cannot plead the Death of Christ for his Discharge and he can be all Iustice too and yet pardon the believing repenting Sinner through Jesus Christ The Change is not made in God with whom is no variableness nor shadow of turning but the Change is made in the State and Condition of the Creature who once standing upon his own bottom and so considered by a holy and righteous God was the Object of just displeasure but now being found in Christ and so eyed by God is in another Capacity and meet to enjoy the benefit of that Grace and Love to which before such Qualification he had no right and whereof he was utterly incapable 2 I wish Ignorance had been the worst that might be charg'd upon his Discourse for certainly here 's a vein of the most unparallel'd Blasphemous Drollery that ever faced the World with an Imprimatur except Friendly Debates Ecclesiastical Policies and some few others of the same Kidney And first he will represent the Holy God in his taking Vengeance or requiring Satisfaction like an angry passionate Man and the Grace of God upon the Account of Christ's Death and Sufferings to the Kindness of a revengefull Man when he has glutted himself with Revenge and his Passion is over I think it might become our Author or the proudest Worm on Earth to have spoken more reverently of the way of Gods dealing with repenting Sinners through our Lord Jesus Christ That discomposure and perturbation of Mind to which frail man is obnoxious falls not upon the great God he can turn the wicked into Hell and all those that forget God without Passion Fury is not in me saith God Isa. 27. 4. An earthly Judge in his private Capacity may weep when he pronounces Sentence of Death against a Malefactor and yet remember that he is a Iudge and cut off from the City of God the wicked of the Land Nihil minùs quam irasci punientem decet Nothing is more uncomely in him that punisheth than Passion And though we read of Gods Anger Wrath and Fury yet it becomes us to conceive of God according to his Dignity even when he represents himself to our Capacity Though God humble himself we have no warrant to abase him whatever things are attributed to God which are common to Men it 's our Duty to garble out all the Imperfections and Frailties that those Qualities are mixed and attended with in Men before we ascribe them to God But this is not the worst he will strain his impious Drollery a few Notes higher The summe of which is that God is all Love and Patience when he has taken his fill of Revenge as others use to say the Devil is good when he is pleased This is indeed the summe of all our Authors blasphemous Froth but neither the total summe nor any particular of what the Doctor has ever asserted The summe of the Doctors words is this That God is the righteous Iudge of all the Earth and that it 's a righteous thing with him to render to every Man according to his Works and yet he has pleased to admit of Satisfaction to be made by his Son Iesus Christ who most willingly offer'd himself a Propitiatory Sacrifice to God In which Son of his whoever shall believe God is ready to pardon and forgive him And now must the plain Truth of the Gospel be thus muffled up and disguised in ugly Expressions to render it lyable to scorn and contempt Thus have the Papists array'd the Martyrs of Jesus in the Sambenit or Devils-Coat first shewing them as Hereticks and then sacrificing them to the flames I see he has furnish'd himself with a Creep-hole It 's not as he but as others say Sed malè dum recitas incipit esse tuus As 't is applyed it 's his own and yet it hits not neither For the Devil is never so pleased as to become Good nor God ever so displeased as to become Evil Nay the Devil is then worst when he is pleas'd for the greatest evil pleaseth him best and God is gloriously excellent when he is displeased for the greatest Evil is the Cause of his displeasure But let this pass for an Ornament of our Authors style which is indeed embellished with Figures but none more beautifies it than this which we may well call a Satanismus He has not yet done he has not loaded the Truth with Reproach to his mind and therefore one id est will doe it That is he would not believe God himself should he make never so many Promises of being good and gracious to Sinners unless he were sure he had first satisfi'd his Revenge But let him not be angry We believe every Promise that God has made of being gracious to Sinners but we say we cannot find one such without Provision first made for the securing Gods Righteousness Shew us a Promise that is Yea and Amen and not in Christ. Produce that Promise wherein God is engaged to justifie a Sinner and not be just himself quote us the place from whence we may flatter our selves that God will destroy any of his Attributes to save a Sinner However therefore our Author has represented God he has thus represented himself 1. That he is a Holy God A God of purer eyes than to behold evil and that he cannot which is the Word so displeases the Man look on iniquity he cannot but see it wherever it is as he is omniscient and yet he cannot see it cannot look on it wherever it is without Abhorrency He is a holy God and from his Natural and Essential Holiness does it arise that he cannot behold sin with Approbation and therefore must and will punish it Thus has he represented himself Psal. 5. 4 5 6. Thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness neither shall evil dwell with thee The foolish shall not stand in thy sight thou hatest all the workers of Iniquity 2. God further testifies of himself that he is the righteous Iudge of all the Earth Governing and Judging the World according to his own holy Nature and the Rules of his holy Law and not according to our Authors good
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
the Issue by male Administration and herein is Gods Wisdom seen that he carries on as well as layes the Design of saving Sinners with admirable Success maugre all the Counterminings Projects and Contrivances of Hell One way that reaches the End effectually is worth a thousand that prove addle and bring forth nothing but Wind and he might have learnt so much from the Fable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. Wisdom lyes in reconciling differing Interests in adjusting the various Pretensions and Claims of the concerned Parties these Contrasto's of bandying Parties clashing one with another render Healing designs difficult The Iustice of God demands Satisfaction the holy Law of God abetts that Demand the Truth of God backs both their Claims and before Grace and Mercy can be actually exercised towards the Sinner some Expedient must be found out to content those Demands and all this God hath done in Christ in whom Mercy and Truth have met together Righteousness and Peace have kissed each other Psal. 85. 10. 3. It s Wisdom to find out a Means to reach an End though there be but that one Mean to be found in the whole Circle and compass of Beings We should not much reproach that Physician that should discover to his dying Patient an effectual Remedy though it prove the onely one in the world and we will own him for an Aesculapius that will prescribe to our Author a good round dose of Hellebore and yet it 's more than probable it 's the onely Drug upon Earth that can purge out that frantick insulting petulant humour which in his Writings fills both Pages At length seeing there is no other Remedy our Author will allow some small Wisdom to appear in the Design but then the Knowledge of it all is owing to the Revelations of the Gospel and not to any fanciful Acquaintance with Christ. Still we are haunted with that old Fallacy which by this time I had hoped had been quite worn out at the Elbowes That because the knowledge of this Wisdom is owing to the Gospel Revelations therefore nothing is due to him who is the Reason and Ground of this wise and happy Contrivance And so this Bolt also is soon shot 2 The second Addition the Doctor is charged with is That a great part of our Wisdom lyes in the knowledge of our selves and that both in respect of Sin and Righteousness and that we cannot attain to these but in and by Christ. And 1 For Sin the Doctor had said p. 110. Com. That our disability to answer the Mind and Will of God in any of that Obedience which he requireth is in Christ onely to be discovered And the Doctor has herein asserted two things 1. That there is in every man a Natural Impotency to answer the Will of God And he seems not to be so peremptory in it as the Scripture 2 Cor. 3. 5. Not that we are sufficient of our selves to think any thing as of our selves all our sufficiency is of God It 's God that works in us to will and to doe of his own good pleasure and if we be deceived by these and many other such Testimonies the Church of England was misled by them as well as we Art 10. The Condition of Man after the Fall of Adam is such that he cannot turn and prepare himself by his own Natural strength Our Author durst once appeal to the Experience of the whole world will he stand before the same Tribunal and be judged in this Case There are such universal Complaints about this very thing and such dismal stories all men tell of their Impotency and disability to answer Gods Laws that that Man should labour under insupportable prejudices that will controle all mens Experiences I know They talk most of the Easiness of keeping Gods Law who never tryed it and perhaps if they were well pump'd they mean nothing but how easie it is to break it Let any man set himself in his own strength to discharge one single Command of God in its full extent and latitude keeping it with his whole heart laying out his whole strength and might therein which that holy Law challenges let him attend to the Purity and Perfection of that and severely compare himself thereby dress himself in that Glass and when he has made some fruitless Essayes and been foyled and baffled with vain attempts he may then perhaps see more need of Christ than before and may spare the Experience of the whole World for his own singly will convince him of his disability to answer the Law of God in all or any of that Obedience which he therein requireth 2. The Doctor conceives That this Impotency of ours is discovered clearly in the Death of Christ wherein he is warranted by the Apostle Rom. 5. 6. For when we were yet without strength in due time Christ dyed for the ungodly In his Divinity we see a Sinner and one without strength are convertible terms and that the Death of Christ supposed it All the difficulty here will be How our Author shall expose this Truth and represent it to its greatest disadvantage but he has a singular Talent that way and whereof we need never to despair That is sayes he It 's impossible for us to do any thing that is good but we must be Acted like Machines by an external Force by the irresistible Grace and Power of God And the business is done But 1. Our Author is hugely out in supposing the Doctor to assert that It 's impossible to doe any thing that 's good Some good thing a Man may do and yet not doe all that 's required in doing it the Material part of a Duty he may doe and yet not perform it in such a way that it may answer Gods Law or be acceptable to him Bonum oritur ex integris there must be a right Principle a right End and all circumstances must concurre to make it entirely good I think there are none that deserve the Name of Christians who do not pray to God for his Grace to enable them to do their Duty but if indeed they could perform it in their own strength I see not what that Prayer would signifie more than a Complement Quid foris quaeram cùm domi habeam Why should a rich Man turn a Beggar And indeed the Heathens Principles hung together with more Consistency who would not trouble their Gods for what they had in their own Power nor thank them for that which they had earned with their own fingers-ends Quia unusquisque sibi virtutem acquirit nemo sapientum de eâ gratias Deo egit Since every man is the Procurer of his own Vertue no wise man ever gave thanks to the Gods for it 2. He is no less mistaken if he presumes upon his Power to tye the Doctor to use what Expressions he pleases in signifying his own Thoughts it may be he will not use that term of irresistable it will satisfie him if Grace work efficaciously
recommend his Glory and Perfections What Nature will teach us so great a Darling of hers the Privado to all her Mysteries cannot be Ignorant of but in my Judgment he fetches a huge Blow to do Nothing We believe God was perfectly happy from all Eternity in the Enjoyment of his own Self and Infinite Perfections and needed not have recommended his Glory to his Creatures he made not the World because he needed it but by our Authors good leave or without it supposing that God will recommend his Glory he must have something out of himself to which he may recommend it And on like Supposition that He will Manifest his pardoning Grace and Mercy there must be a fit Object capable of that Grace and Mercy unless our Author from his too much familiarity with Nature can tell us how God can Pardon one that is no sinner or forgive him that is not guilty Though every sinner be not an Object qualified to receive Mercy yet he must be a sinner upon whom pardoning Mercy is exercised though all Misery be not a fit Object of pity yet Pity supposes Misery some of Gods Attributes create their Objects as Omnipotency but others do suppose them as Sin pardoning Grace and so God may be said to need Sins and Misery to recommend some of his Perfections I am sure supposing sin and misery to exist God has recommended his Son to us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us Rom. 5. 8. Of the same bran is that which follows God would not Truckle and Barter with the Devil and Sin for his Glory It 's like he would not but when the Devil and Sin had confederated against God I know not why God might not Over-reach them in their Designs and as he has made the wrath of Man so he might also the policy of Satan to serve and praise Him and thus he fixes a New end upon sin which the Devil never dreamt on or however did not design But I perceive our Author is wondrously pleased with the fine Notion of Trucking and Bartering and that we might not loose the beauty of it he warns us amongst the Errata I would there were no worse that for Truckle we read Truck Oh be sure Courteous Readers you do not mistake for there 's some weighty Controversie depends upon it which the Coffee-house and the Inch of Candle must determine But further Nature teaches him That God had much rather be Glorious in the Happiness and Perfection and Obedience of his Creatures than in their sin and misery Nature is an excellent School Mistress I see and this is one of her highest Mysteries that God delights in Obedience more than Sin But what now if Sin and Disobedience have got in for my part I question whether Nature will teach him that God had rather much rather or however how much rather he had be more Glorious in exacting one Attribute than another or whether God may not equally glorifie himself in the Execution of his just Displeasure against Sin obstinately pursued as in the glorifying the Penitent and Reformed sinner but this I know that the former has more deserved Eternal Punishment than the other can pretend to merit Eternal Life But perhaps he has Ballances that will turn with the Twentieth part of a Grain and in these he knows how to weigh which of Gods Attributes weigh heaviest And that he can do for he tells us That pardoning Mercy and vindictive Iustice are but secondary Attributes What warrant he has to marshal Gods Attributes in this order I dare not enquire which are first rate which second rate Attributes is a Nice enquiry but I expected a Dish of Coleworts before he had done for these have been served up to us in the Racovian Catechism Let these things be as they will I observe 1. That vindictive Justice and pardoning Mercy are both equally Gods Attributes 2. They are not the less Essential and primary Attributes because they were not Eternally exercised for then neither would Omnipotency be such God was Eternally Omnipotent though he Created not the World from Eternity and he was also Eternally a God of pardoning Mercy and a God of punitive Justice though to the Exerting the outward Acts proper to those Eternal excellencies there was required an Object capable of receiving them This Nature and Scripture teaches us and we are not much concern'd in our Authors Theologie but to close up all he gives us an Inference from his Doctrine and a Reason of that Inference His Doctrine was this Vindictive Iustice and Pardoning Mercy are not Primary but Secondary Attributes His Inference is this Therefore God cannot Primarily design the glorifying of them His Reason is this For that cannot be without Primarily designing the sin and misery of his Creatures That is God cannot Primarily design one thing except he Primarily designs another and so we shall have two Firsts without a Second This is very thin Stuff it shines through 2. The Reader has heard to his great Contentment how admirably he has acquitted himself in the Matter of sin if he can but play his part as well in the Matter of our Righteousness too he will deserve the Whetstone and that may save him the Labour of going to the Counter-door As it is with your Artificial Fencers that never knew further than the Discipline of the School they have all the Terms of Art know their Postures and with good Credit can play a Prize upon the Stage yet when these men come to Sharpe when the Point of a real Enemies Sword is ready prest at the heart it puts them often out of their forms their School-play and Systematical skill Thus possibly it may fare with our confident Bravo's who can talk very confidently of appearing before God in their own Duties and a Righteousness finely Composed out of those Materials yet possibly their Blood may freeze in their Veins and the Colour forsake their bold Cheeks when God shews himself in his glorious Majesty and they must be in a moment as they must be for ever None ever Ranted higher than Bellarmin nor Hector'd the World with Arguments against Imputed Righteousness yet when he saw Death was in good Earnest he was glad to Lower his Top-sail and cry out Precor ut inter sanctos suos non estimator meriti sed veniae largitor me admittat And in his very Ruff against that Doctrine retreated to his Tutissimum est liâ—… 5. de justificatione What Doctor Owen asserts herein is briefly thus much Com. pag. 113. All men are perswaded that God is a most Righteous God Hab. 1. 13. and therefore the Ungodly cannot stand in the Judgment Hence the enquiry of every one convinc't of Immortality and the Judgment to come is concerning the Righteousness to appear before this Righteous God The first thing that offers it self for Direction and Assistance is the Law which hath many fair Pleas to prevail with a Soul to close with it for a
them and the only thing that gives a right to the promises of Future glory is to obey the Laws and imitate the Example of our Saviour and to be transformed into the Nature and Likeness of God We must crave his leave to take his words in pieces that we may the better deal with them 1. The Gospel says he makes a different Representation of it tells us expresly that he is righteous that doth righteousness But say I This is no representation of our justification different from what the Doctor has assigned And let the words be Interpreted how he will they make nothing against the Doctors assertions 1. Let these words He is Righteous signifie He is Inherently righteous or holy and then the plain Sence is that he that doth righteousness that practises an Uniform and Universal conformity in his Life to the Gospel may charitably be judged by others and certainly known by his own Conscience to be such a one as a Tree is known by its fruits For so are we warranted by our Saviour to make a Judgment Mat. 7. 16. And the same warrant we have from the Church of England Art 12. Insomuch that by them good Works that necessarily spring of a true and lively faith a lively Faith may be as evidently known as a Tree discerned by the Fruit. 2. Let the words be interpreted of that Righteousness by which in which and for which we stand accepted as Righteous before God yet it meets in the same point he that from an honest and good heart brings forth holy Fruit most certainly justified in the sight of God and is accepted of him we may argue â—… hope without Offence from the Effect to the Cause and yet the Cause and the Effect are two things He that is sanctified is justified and yet Sanctification is not Justification we may safely conclude an imputed Righteousness from an imparted Righteousness and yet that Righteousness which we have in Christ may be another thing from that Righteousness which we have by influence from Christ as our Head 2. Sayes he The Gospel tells us that without Holiness no man shall see God It does so indeed but does it tell us that Holiness is inconsistent with our Iustification by the Righteousness of Christ Or does it tell us that upon the account of our own Holiness we shall be justified before God 3. The onely way to obtain the Pardon of Sins is to repent of them and forsake them That without Repentance there 's no possibility of obtaining Pardon of Sin we freely grant they must be Sinners that need a Pardon and they must be penitent Sinners that are qualified to receive one The Gospel has annex'd by express Promise the Pardon of Sin to Repentance 1 Ioh. 1. 9. If we confess our sins he is faithfull and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness But what an absurd way of procedure is this to jumble and confound things together which ought to have their several Apartments and distinct Interests allotted to them in one and the same Effect The Grace of God as the great Spring and Fountain of all Mercy must have a place in the Pardon of a Sinner and the blood of Iesus Christ as the Meritorious Cause justly challenges a great room therein Eph. 1. 7. In whom we have redemption through his blood even the remission of sins according to the riches of his grace and Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ will come in for a share too as it gives us an Interest in what he has suffered by way of Atonement to God and Expiation of our sins and godly sorrow for hatred of and turning from sin in Purpose and Resolution at least must have its proper Concern therein too But to assert that Repentance is the onely way of procuring Pardon excluding Faith and the Propitiation made in the Blood of Christ needs more grains of Allowance than he will afford to any he deals with to make it justifiable But the vanity of this Fallacy lyes in this That he opposes the Righteousness of Christ and the Means whereby it 's applyed to our Persons As if one would stiffly contend that we are justified by Faith alone and therefore not by the Righteousness of Christ whereas we are therefore justified by Faith because we are justified by Christ we are justified by the Righteousness of Christ alone as that which God onely considers in the Justification of a Sinner to answer his Law his Justice and we are justified by Faith alone as that which makes Christ ours Say the same here Repentance is a Means to qualifie us for the receiving the pardon of Sin God will never give forth a Pardon to that Sinner that is not brought upon his knees throughly humbled for his Transgressions yet still that which God respects in the pardon of a Sinner is the Blood of his Son without shedding of which there is not there cannot be any Remission Hebr. 9. 22. But no man shall perswade our Author to distinguish betwixt Christs procurement of so great a Mercy and the Way of the Gospel appointment for the Applying it to our selves 4. The onely thing that gives us a right to the Promises of future Glory is to obey the Laws and imitate the Example of our Saviour and to be transformed into the Nature and Likeness of God For my part I conceive far otherwise That though our Holiness give us a Meetness and Fitness to partake of the Inheritance of the Saints in light yet it was the Lord Jesus Christ that procured our right and title to it and the Promise of it The Church of England was of the same Opinion when it decreed Art 13. That works done before the Grace of Christ and the Inspiration of the Spirit are not pleasant to God neither do they make men meet to receive Grace c. And then we may presume will not make us meet to receive Glory much less give us a right and title to the Promises of it And Art 12. That the works which follow after Iustistification are those that are pleasing and acceptable to God and I think we may equally take it for granted that upon our justification with God we have a right to the Promises of future Glory But if this be true that the onely thing that gives us this right be Obedience to Imitation of Christ and Conformity to the Nature of God we may have a Right to when we have actual Possession of Glory for till then it will hardly be true that we have obeyed all Christs Laws But our Author had Wit in his Anger and was aware of an Objection that was coming against him and wisely layes in for it as well as he could It might be returned to all that he had said How can so imperfect an Obedience as ours is so every wayes lame and defective and short of the exact Law of God ever give us a right to the Promises of future Glory Yes
had no such Infinite guilt in 't as Christians speak of nor did Gods Justice exact such Satisfaction For he is more Glorified by Conniving at and Indulging of sin at cheap Rates for the Naturalness of Gods Iustice to him is a Position to be abhorred without any Security given or Compensation made to it that is he is so Merciful that whereas sin may possibly have some Grains of Evil in it yet in God there are not only Drams but Ounces of such Mercy which he will freely dispense without regarding what becomes of his other Attributes which you will confess to be a glorious kind of Mercy and such as Impenitent sinners cannot wish for a better And since as I have often said and must Inculcate it again the Justice and Vengeance of God if they should prove more than Names yet require no Consideration to be had of them but that their Claims may be easily waved or slighted or slubber'd over by general Mercy without reference to Christ his Death or Sufferings and God can Pardon as many and as great sins as He pleases without fear of being reputed a Remiss Governor Hereupon a most glorious and comfortable Scene of Affairs appears to sinners for now God can embrace sinners as a kind Father and account them Righteous without any Adoption through Christ nay as we told you above though Christ had never appeared in the World And this is enough in all Reason to make sinners Transported with Joy But yet I have better News than this For as God never required that his Iustice should be satisfied so he is not so Punctual and Strict that his Laws should be Obeyed For if we be but Innocent once by Pardon what 's matter for a Righteousness by keeping the Law or any other way to make us accepted with God for the former will deliver us from Hell and that 's all that we need care for But indeed you cannot well conceive what 't is to be Pardoned but must presently be flusht up with a Conceit of Eternal reward There is one thing I would acquaint you with but 't is a great Secret If Christ has Satisfied at all it s for sins of Omission as well as Commission that is though we never Repent Believe Turn from sin to God yet if there be any thing at all in 't I 'me enclin'd to this that the very Neglect of the Terms of the Covenant shall not hurt us but we may be Reputed by God to have done all and never regarded to keep any And now God and sinners may very well agree together for though Communion be an ill favoured word yet I allow they may Converse For what should hinder them Original sin they have none and for Actual sin there 's no such Demerit in it as should necessarily enforce Gods Justice to Insist upon a Reparation of its Honour and therefore let none trouble themselves with those Mormo's some have made of Iustice to affright Children nor on the other hand make such a doe to be cloathed with the white and spotless Robes of Christs Righteousness for though I cannot deny God to be Holy yet his Iustice sleeps like a Sword of State in a Velvet Scabbard Let all therefore set their hearts at rest do but repent as well as you can and you shall be Saved with a notwithstanding Gods Iustice and notwithstanding you have no Interest in the Satisfaction of Christ. These may reasonably be supposed some of our Authors Fundamental Doctrines seeing he so vehemently Persecutes their Contraries which for Distinction-sake may well be called The Religion of his own Itching Noddle Our Author had promised â—…s a Discovery of what Additions some men had made to the Gospel and he has now saved his Recognizance and shew'd himself Master of his word at as wild a Rate as ever was Indited from Bedlam There is but one thing more calls for his Abilities and that is to Render the Practice of it as ridiculous as he has done the Principles and then perhaps we may obtain a short Cessation from this hot Service Now the Practice hereof he says consists in accepting of Christ and coming to Him and applying his Merits and Satisfaction and Righteousness to our selves for Pardon and Iustification and in those Duties which are consequent upon such an Union and closure with Christ. And is it possible that these things should hear ill with them who would pass for Christians Or must we Renounce the Scriptures to Gratisie a few Raving Men who are fallen out with all the World and their own Understandings Accepting of Christ must be Reviled and yet to this are we directed that we may become the Sons of God John 1. 12. As many as received him to them he gave power to become the Sons of God Coming to Christ must be loaded with Scorn and yet our Saviour has expresly encouraged All that labour and are heavy laden to come to him that he may give them rest Mat. 11. 28. If these Phrases be not rightly understood let us be Instructed in the Spirit of Meekness but by no means let the very Expressions of Scripture be the Theam for every conceited Buffoon to exercise his Railing Faculties upon The first thing that offers it self is a gross Self-contradiction For whereas he had Confessed that The Practice of these mens Religion consists in accepting of Christ c. And in those Duties which are consequent upon such an Union and closure with Christ yet in the very next words before he had finisht his Period or made a Pause he represents it thus Christ having satisfied for our sins it 's a plain and necessary Consequence that we have nothing to do but to get an Interest in the Satisfaction and Righteousness of Christ that they may be Imputed to us for he is very Ignorant of Christ that hopes any thing else will avail him to Salvation Nothing to do Yes We have those consequential Duties to do which follow upon our Union and closing with Christ. Nothing to do Why we have enough to do for Time and Eternity enough to fill up every corner of our Hearts every Moment of our Time with Service and Obedience to Him who hath Reconciled us to God by the Blood of his Cross If Malice were not sometimes blind there would be no Living by it in the World Now says he that we may thus come to Christ it s absolutely necessary that we be sensible of our Lost and Undone condition And dares he prescribe it as a safer way to keep up an Insensibility of it A sensless regard to our Sin and Misery thereupon is no very hopeful way to put a sinner upon a serious enquiry after the proper Remedy I wish we were sure of our Authors Thoughts herein and whether he does indeed own that All men are by Nature in such a Lost and Undone condition The Church of Englands Thoughts are Evident Art 9. Of Original or Birth-sin Original sin standeth not in the
following of Adam as the Pelagians vainly talk but it is the corruption of the Nature of every Man whereby Man is very faâ—… gone from Original Righteousness and is enclined to Evil. So that in every Person born into the World it deserveth Gods Wrath and Damnation Surely here 's something that deserves our most serious Thoughts That which deserves Damnation at Gods Hands deserves consideration at ours He that can carry about with him daily a depraved Nature enclined to evil running counter to Gods Will and not lament it with a bitter Lamentation has taken some of our Authors Hypnoticks and how to bewail it without being sensible of it is a Mysterie perhaps as deep as any of those we owe to his Discovery And is not this to Reproach Christ himself Mat. 9. 12 13. They that be whole have no need of the Physitian but they that are sick Ay says he these are Metaphors and I will Rail them out of Credit and Countenance immediately Well you shall not fall out with Christ for a Metaphor if I can help it Read the Next words I come not to call the Righteous but Sinners to Repentance And they must be sensible sinners that will regard the Call of Christ or think they need Repentance Another Quarrel he has against the Practice of their Religion is That they hold it absolutely necessary that we be sensible how Impossible it is for us to Attone the Wrath of God to have any righteousness of our own that can bear the severe Scrutiny of his Iustice. Be it so if there be no Remedy It seems then if we could work up our Imagination into a Presumption that Gods Anger against sin is very small and our Righteousness very great so great as to endure the severe Scrutiny of Gods Iustice we might purchase this Gentlemans favour But the Gospel has taught us otherwise Rom. 3. 10. That there is none righteous no not one That by the deeds of the Law shall no flesh be justified in Gods sight ver 20. But he lays about him and Reproaches the Spirit of Bondage the Spirit of Adoption and at last falls a Reviling Christs own Words We shall says he in his fleering way never Value and Prize Christ and go to him for Salvation till we are Convinc'd of the necessity of him and driven to him by the Threatnings of the Law and the Promise of Ease and Rest is made only to the weary and heavy Laden and those only shall be satisfied who Hunger and Thirst after Righteousness Really this Doctor Owen and his Fellows are dangerous Persons I wonder not now that some think it not fit they should live a day That ever they should be so bold to read or quote Matth. 5. 6. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after Righteousness for they shall be filled or that other place Matth. 11. 28. Come unto me all you that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest or to mention Galat. 3. 24. Wherefore the Law was our School-master to bring us unto Christ But did they make the Scriptures or coin and invent these words of their own heads or has our Author a License to expose the Expressions of the Holy Spirit as well as the Doctors Surely an awfull regard to the Authority of Jesus Christ speaking in them might have commanded some Reverence to them and controlled this unbridled liberty of prostituting Sacred Matters But thus much and too much of what they make of Conviction And now says he being thus stung with Sin it is time for us to look up to Christ as the Israelites did on the Brazen Serpent that we may be healed But is this Gentleman indeed a Minister a Teacher of others the Rector of St. George Buttolphs-lane and knows not that he reproaches Christ himself Ioh. 3. 15. And as Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness even so must the Son of Man be lifted up that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have Eternal Life And does not Christ himself authorize the Parallel That as none were healed in the Wilderness but those onely who sensible of pain looked up to the Brazen Serpent as Gods own Institution to which a Promise of healing was annexed so neither can we receive any benefit by Christ till under a deep sense of our sin and misery we accept of and close with a Redeemer whom the Father has held forth to be a Propitiation through Faith in his Blood for the Remission of sins But this is not all Now we must begin to see his fulness and perfection and suitableness to the wants and necessities of our Souls that he is our Attonement our Wisdom our Righteousness and all that we can desire or need Well and if they do conceive Christ to have both fulness and suitableness of all Grace and Mercy in him I hope it 's neither Felony nor Treason neither We have an Assurance Heb. 4. 15. That Christ is such a Priest as is touched with a feeling of our Infirmities and was in all points tempted like unto us yet without sin there 's great suitableness and we are encouraged to come boldly to the throne of Grace that we may obtain Mercy and find Grace to help in time of need and there 's fulness And surely our Author does sometimes pray to Christ at least he is enjoyn'd by the Litany to say O God the Son Redeemer of the World have mercy upon us miserable Sinners Now if he can indeed discover no suitableness no fulness of Grace in Christ to answer the needs and wants of those miserable Sinners he had better save his Breath to cool his Pottage It is further charged upon them That when the sense of their sins and unworthiness makes them afraid to come to Christ they have recourse to their Acquaintance with Christs Person to answer their Doubts and quiet their Consciences Which charge though it has a Tincture and dash of our Authors good Nature in it they can easily bear and do confess that when the sense of their sins and Unworworthiness at any time discourages them from Comeing to God for the Pardon of sins they do relieve themselves from the Gospel which has spoken great things of the Ability and Readiness of a Mediator to save humble and repenting Sinners that are willing to receive him as God has offer'd him in the Covenant of Grace They do there find that Christ came into the World to save the chiefest of Sinners such as had been Blasphemers Persecutors and Injurious and yet have obtained Mercy that Christ in them might shew forth all long-suffering for a Pattern to them that should afterwards believe on him to Everlasting Life 1 Tim. 1. 15 16 17. And do further believe that to deny this is at once to renounce the whole Gospel and if it be not a Fruit of down-right Infidelity and Atheisme yet most apparently leads thither Our Author having destroy'd the Living begins to prey upon the Dead
without Gods respect to Christ for herein the Scripture is Peremptory and God is at a point with all the World Acts 4. 12. There 's no other Name under Heaven given by which we must be saved neither is there Salvation in any other 2. It 's evident from those very Places where the Concerns of Christ and of Faith are joyntly mentioned not only that they have really distinct Interests but that Christ carries the Supremacy and that Faith has only a subservient Concernment therein Rom. 5. 1. Therefore being justified by Faith we have peace with God through our Lord Iesus Christ. Whence it 's plain that whatever Faith contributes to our peace with God yet even that Operates through Jesus Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So Gal. 3. 16. Ye are all the Children of God by Faith in Iesus Christ It 's the Redeemer as made a Curse for us ver 13. that gives Faith all it 's Vertue and Efficacy And Gal. 2. 20. The life which I now live in the Flesh I live by the Faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me Where such a Concernment is ascribed to Christ in the Soùls life that Faith is not at all Capable of He loved me and gave himself for me 3. It 's no loss evident that Christ by his Death and Sufferings has removed those insuperable Impediments which lay in the way of a sinners Justification Reconciliation with God Expiation of sin which Faith could not possibly Undertake and Atchieve 4. That what ever Parts Christ and Faith have in this Glorious work yet no more must be Ascribed to either than can consist with a Free and Gratuitous Iustification Rom. 3. 24. Being justified freely by his Grace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And 5. It 's evident that the Sacrifice Sufferings c. of Christ and that Reconciliation and Atonement procured by them do not in the least Enterfere with Justification by Free-Grace for Christ himself is Free-gift and that God would admit a Mediator to Interpose on our behalf that he would accept a Propitiation for us is all due to Free-Grace and therefore Free-Grace and Jesus Christ are joyned together Rom. 3. 24. Being justified freely by his Grace through the Redemption that is in Iesus Christ. 6. It is also as evident that to ascribe Justification to Faith as it is our Work or Act will take off just so much from the freedom of Grace as is ascribed to it as a work in us or done by us and therefore Faith must needs Justifie us by vertue of that respect that it carries towards a Redeemer and to assign it any other Interest is to Entrench upon that free Justification which the Gospel does so abundantly Preach Now what Title to give to Faith as it Justifies whether that of an Instrument or a Condition I dispute not let the proper Concerns of Faith and Christ be secured and their distinct Actings kept Inviolable and Sacred and if any can find more apposite and significant Terms than Protestants have used I shall be very well content But now our Author will favour us with a Reason why Iustification by Faith as it is our own Act may consist with Iustification by Free-Grace Modest men says he who dream not of Meriting by every thing they do would have thought that Free-Grace and Faith might have been easily reconciled though 〈◊〉 had justified as our own Act since the Reward and Recompence does so infinitely exceed the Work that there can be no suspition of Merit and where there is no Merit the reward is of Grace and not of Debt what ever the Condition of the Promise be But 1. Gods Free-Grace will not be beholden to nor stand to the Courtesie of Mans Modesty and besides all men are not so Modest as our Author is and if they were it would be hard Trusting them Man is indeed a very Proud and Haughty Creature till Free Grace tames him loth to stoop to those Methods of Gods Wisdom for the abasing the Creature that Grace may be magnified in his Mercies And I see plainly that God has Contrived the way of shewing favour to a lost Sinner in such Wisdom that every Mouth shall be stopped that Boasting shall be excluded and that no Flesh shall glory in his presence 1 Cor. 1. 29. 2. It 's not what men will do out of their sweet Natures that comes here into Consideration but what they may do God has taken a Course they shall not cannot have cause to Glory but if the sinner be justified by his own Act as 't is his he has whereof to boast Rom. 4. 2. If Abraham were justified by Works he hath whereof to boast though it may be some Virtuoso's would be so Modest and Civil as not to lay it in the Dish of Free-Grace 3. It 's precariously supposed that Grace in the justification of a sinner is only opposed to Merit The Scripture has opposed it to Works and set them as Inconsistent in the dealings out of Mercy from God to men whether there be such a proportion between the Work and the Reward or no Rom. 11. 6. And if by Grace then it 's no more of Works otherwise Grace is no more Grace 4. They may be very Immodest men and yet want the Confidence to dream of Merit by every thing they do and yet there are those that dream to this day of Meriting Heaven by that for which they a thousand times better merit a Halter Protestant Divines in the explicating the Concerns of Faith in our Justification that they might Accommodate their Discourses to the Capacity of them with whom they deal have found out certain Similitudes which do well express their own Intentions when they say Faith justifies us not as our own Act but by vertue of its Relation to Christ who is our Righteousness Thus we say the Ring stanches Blood and yet we intend no more than that the Haematites set in it has that Vertue That our Hand relieves us and yet perhaps it contributes no more towards it than that it receives the Charity of another That a Bucket quenches our Thirst yet all it does is to bring us the Water from the Fountain which quenches it And many others they have Invented the best they could find none so mean but is above Contempt yet none so excellent to be above Malice The use they make of them is as I said to cloath their Conceptions and give some Light into the Thing but by no means to prove the Truth when it is drawn into Controversie But from hence our Author is taking another Ramble and going to run his old Wild-Goose Chase of Prophaneness and Scurrility the easiest way of Confutation certainly that ever was Invented But let his own Folly chastise him or if not delight him and in the mean time excuse me from bearing him Company 2. Another Instance and but another he will give us How Men argue from their preconceived Notions and that is
he will improve it Where says he the Fellowship of Christ can signifie no more than fellowship with the Church because the Apostle addes in the next Verse I beseech you brethren that you all speak the same thing that there be no Divisions among you I confess he has a heavy hand at Reasoning and it goes hard with us that must continually feel the weight of it But yet 1. The Apostles Argument will conclude as strongly from the Communications of Grace from Christ unto Peace among our selves as from Union q. d. You have all been made partakers of the Communications of Grace and Peace from Christ you have many mercies in hand and more in hope much in possession but infinitely more in Reversion and will you run into Factions among your selves But 2. The very plain Truth is The Apostle argues neither the one way nor the other Verse 9. has no such Influence upon Verse 10. but the Rise of his Discourse is from Verse 3. Grace be unto you and Peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Where you have First The Union and Relation God our Father Our Lord and Saviour Secondly The Communion that flows from that Relation 〈◊〉 and Peace i. e. All new covenant-Covenant-Mercies And because whatever Grace or Peace comes from the Father as the Fountain and Spring from the Son in a way of Purchase and Procurement comes also from the Holy Ghost by way of Immediate Efficiency therefore it 's called also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 13. 14. The Grace of our Lord Jesus the Love of God and the Communion or Communication of the Holy Ghost be with you all You all that is The Church of God at Corinth with all the Saints in Achaia Chap. 1. ver 1. who are supposed to be already United to Christ both in our Authors false Notion and in the true Now this Communication he calls The Grace of God given them or Communicated to them by Jesus Christ Verse 4. And shews the Measure of it Verse 5. Ye are enriched in every thing by Him And Verse 8. He shews that God would confirm them in as well as enrich them with his Grace to the end And for a Proof of this he minds them of the Faithfulness and Steddiness of God in his Covenant Verse 9. God is Faithful by whom ye are called unto the Communication of our Lord Jesus Christ. The end of your Effectual calling to an Union with Christ is a Communication of this Grace and Peace from Christ. And then Thirdly Our Authors Memory is very Treacherous For first he observes That Communion with God signifies a Political Union and that Political Union was such a one as is between a Prince and his Subjects pag. 156. And that certainly has the Persons of both for the Terms of the Relation And pag. 185. He observes That our Fellowship with the Father and the Son is founded on our Fellowship with the Christian Church and therefore fellowship with the Father and the Son and fellowship with the Christian Church are two things really distinct for it would be harsh to say a thing is founded on it self And yet after all this Fellowship with Christ can signifie no more than Fellowship with the Church And thus the short and long of the Business is this Union with Christ is Union with the Church And Communion with Christ is Communion with the Church And Union with the Church is Communion with the Church Quod erat Demonstrandum But we are terribly Threatned with an Argument from 2 Cor. 6. 14. Be ye not unequally Yoaked together with Unbelievers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where the Apostle refers to a Levitical Ordinance Deut. 22. 10. Thou shalt not Plow with an Ox and an Ass. In proportion to which the Apostle forbids Believers to joyn in the same special League and Covenant with Unbelievers Now the Reason why he disswades them from such an unequal union is because the end of all union is a Communion or Communication each to and with other in that Union But to be sure where there are such Contrarieties of Interests and Inclinations in the Persons joyned together there can be no assistance to the same common VVork The Cedar in Lebanon and the Thistle in Lebanon are not qualified for a Match for they will never serve and accommodate each other in the Duties of the Relation When the Wise God chose a VVife for Adam he provided one that was Homogeneous with him Bone of his Bone and Flesh of his Flesh that she might be a Meet-help for him But now says the Apostle If you joyn your selves with Unbelievers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 VVhat participation of good things can you expect from them whose Religion is as contrary to yours as Righteousness is to Unrighteousness And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 VVhat Communication can there be between Light and Darkness Pagans can Communicate nothing to you but their uncleanness and I would not have you communicate with the unfruitful Works of Darkness Ephes. 5. 11. Again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 VVhat Concord hath Christ with Belial VVhat Symphony or Harmony can there be in your Conversations You will be always Jarring There will be no Melody or Musick in your Converses VVhen you would be praising to their Idols so that never was there greater Confusion of Tongues at Babel than there will be in your Society And then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what Portion can a Believer have with an Unbeliever He will not ought not partake of the Lords Table with you and you will not ought not partake of the Table of Devils with him For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what Consent or Suffrage will the one give to the other The living God will not vote for dead and dumb Idols The Arke will never endure Dagon How absurd therefore must it be to enter into a Relation with them with whom you can enjoy no Fellowship in that Relation One Reserve he has still left from the Lords Supper whereby our Fellowship with God and Christ are expressed 1 Cor. 10. 16. The Cup of Blessing which we bless is it not the Communion of the Blood of Christ Now says he it 's called a Communion because it signifies 1. A Communion of Christians with each other 2. A Fellowship with God That is it 's called a Communion because it 's no Communion but onely the sign of a Communion There is indeed an outward and visible sign and there is also an inward and invisible Grace really exhibited and communicated from Christ by the Ordinance to the worthy Receiver And thus much he might have learn'd from the Church Catechism Qu. What is the inward part or thing signified Ans. The Body and Blood of Christ which are verily and indeed taken and received of the Faithfull in the Lords Supper Qu. What are the Benefits whereof we are partakers Thereby Ans. The strengthning and refreshing of our Souls by the Body and Blood of Christ As our Bodies
of splitting upon that Rock They might have taken warning from the Churches Confession Isa. 64. 6. We are all as an unclean thing and all our Righteousnesses are as filthy rags All the warning in the World signifies nothing to them that are resolved to interpret Our own Righteousness by Ceremony and Hypocrisie Had Christ inculcated the danger even to Tautology all may be evaded by that happy Gloss which he keeps Leiger by him True indeed he warns us to beware of our own Righteousness but he intends no more hereby than the works of the Ceremonial and external acts of the Moral Law 3. Christ had indeed given them fair warning but if they will not take it the sin must lie at their own doors and the Condemnation upon their own heads Luke 18. 9. He spake a Parable to them that trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others c. Now it may seasonably be here remembred 1. What was the design of this Parable And that the Evangelist tells us was to meet with them that trusted in themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 men that presumed very highly upon their own Abilities to answer the Law of God and therefore despised others who made such a stir about their own Impotency to keep it and kept such a coyl about the shortness of their obedience to it like the poor Publican who being conscious to himself of both makes his retreat to and shelters himself in the free Grace and rich Mercy of God to miserable sinners 2. It will be seasonable to enquire What that Righteousness was upon which the Pharisee in the Parable so stiffly insisted as that in which he durst adventure to appear before God And that as our Saviour puts the case was a Righteousness made up of obedience to Gods Commands And those both Prohibitory he was no Extortioner no Adulterer no Unjust Person and Affirmatively he paid his Tythes exactly which will go a great way and fasted twice a-week 3. Let it be considered that however many of the Pharisees of those days were Hypocrites yet our Saviour frames his Parable of a Pharisee not according to what many of them were but what they seemed to be and were reputed for amongst men who admired their Sanctity and reverenced their Devotions and therefore he describes not a Person acting his part well upon the Stage but living up to very high Attainments of Nature For 1. The duties instanced in are only some particulars in the name of all the rest He instances in his praying to and praising of God which comprehend all the duties of the First Table His freedom from Adultery Extortion and in a word from Injustice which is the whole of the Second Table Again He instances in duties of the Iudicial Law paying Tythes and of the Ceremonial Fasting with a little touch perhaps of Supereragation Twice in the week 2. When Christ introduces a person saying he was no Adulterer we may reasonably suppose he taught him to speak in the proper sense of the word which Christ himself allows Now in Christ's Dialect to be no Adulterer is not to commit it with the heart Mat. 5. still abating for Humane Frailties And 3. This is evident because our Savióur describes not this Pharisee as praying in the corners of the streets or in the Synagogues to be seen of men but in obedience to God's Command Going up to the Temple to pray and there praying to God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his own heart between God and his own Soul All which evidently prove that our Saviour puts not the case of a stinking Hypocrite but of one who went as far as Natures legs would carry him But 4. The miscarriage of this Pharisee lay not in this that he was what he pretended he was not or was not what he pretended he was but that he trusted to himself for a Righteousness to be compounded out of all these Ingredients wherein he would dare to stand before God and in despising others which is the natural Product of Self-Righteousness And yet upon our Author's Principles I see not why he might not trust to himself that he was Righteous if Righteousness be to be made out of Obedience and despise others too since his own free-will exerted and natural strength improved had made him differ from another even from that Publican But yet 4. There 's one Prejudice more remaining which perhaps may stick more with him than all the rest He is apt to admire our Saviour's Sermons in the first place before the Writings of the Apostles though inspired men I should be loth to weaken his Admiration of our Saviours Sermons But he may do well to examine Whether his Aptness to admire them before other Sermons given forth by the same Spirit may not proceed from great Ignorance or a worse Principle For though our Saviour's Person had more Authority than the Persons of the Apostles yet the Writings of the Apostles are of equal Authority with those of the Evangelists to command our Faith and Obedience The Epistles of S. Iohn are indited by the same Spirit by which hepenned the Gospel 'T is the Authority of Christ in both the Infallible Spirit speaking in both which are the Reason of our Belief of both All Scripture is given by Divine Inspiration 2 Tim. 3. 18. The same Spirit of Christ that spake in the Prophets of the Old-Testament and the Apostles in the New 1 Pet. 1. 11. And such Comparisons must needs be very odious where the Spirit of God has made none But the total sum of all these Prejudices we shall have in one Dilemma Did not our Saviour instruct his Hearers in all things necessary to Salvation or have the Evangelists given us an imperfect account of his Doctrine If the first then our Saviour was not faithful in the discharge of his Prophetical Office If the latter you overthrow the Credit of the Gospel Well! I hope we may out-live this horned-Argument for all the terrour of its looks 1. Christ was faithful in his Prophetical Office he instructed his Hearers in all things necessary to Salvation But then there are some great and weighty Doctrines which it was necessary to the Salvation of the Gentile World to know wherein the Iewish Church had been sufficiently instructed already The Doctrine of Atoning God making Reconciliation for sin expiating Transgressions was abundantly clear from their Sacrifices The Theory of God's justifying a sinner was evident from thence they knew what Imputation signified by the transferring of the guilt of the sinner upon the head of the Sacrifice And therefore when Christ came his main business with the Jews was to convince them that he was the Messiah promised of old and typified in their Sacrifices His Work they knew all the Question was Whether he was the Person Matth. 11. 3. Art thou he that should come or do we look for another Joh. 10. 24. If thou beest the Christ tell us plainly Christ's Sermons
admirable and to be placed amongst the wonders of the New-Divinity that God should enter into a Covenant with all the World to Pardon and save them upon condition of Faith Obedience and yet not let many of them know a syllable of it Nay that he should expresly countermand the promulgating of the Gospel to them And yet so has God done even by the preaching of the true Covenant of Grace Acts 16. 6 7. Now when they had gone throughout all Phrygia and the Region of Galatia and were forbidden by the Holy Ghost to Preach the word in Asia After they were come to Mylia they assayed to go into Bithynia but the Spirit suffered them not 2. Let us now briefly consider his Assertion That the Covenant of Grace such a one as he has made for us is owing to the Sacrifice of Christ's death and the Righteousness of his Life That God being pleased with these for Christ's sake entred into a New Covenant with Mankind I must tell the Reader that I have narrowly pryed into this Section wherein I find frequent assertions of this Doctrine That the Covenant of Grace is owing to procured by founded on the Obedience of Christ's Life and the Sacrifice of his Death and yet so unhappy have I been in my search that I cannot find any Proof or any attempt to prove it and therefore till I see evidence to the contrary I shall take it for granted that the Covenant of Grace is owing to founded on and given forth by that free Grace of God from whence it is justly denominated A Covenant of Grace though the intervention of a Mediator such a Mediator was absolutely necessary to put us into the Actual possession of those rich mercies designed for us by God in that Covevenant which Mediator himself is owing to founded on that Covenant of Grace and therefore the Covenant of Grace is not founded upon him but indeed for that Covenant which he is pleased to call a New-Covenant and a Covenant of Grace it 's no great matter where 't is founded and therefore let him dispose of his own Creature as he pleases 3. He supposes that Christ's Obedience and Sacrifice had no other influence upon our acceptance with God but that for his sake he entred into such a Covevenant with Mankind This is all however that he can find But this is a most miserable All and either is just nothing or very near it For § 1. Let him of Courtesy Answer one Question more since he is so good at it Whether God was ever at any time unwilling to pardon sin and give Eternal Life to those who did believe his Promises and obey his Precepts If he was unwilling Then let him shew how Christ's Obedience and Sacrifice did operate upon God to alter his will and of unwilling to make him willing what could there be in the Sacrifice of Christ's Death or the Righteousness of his Life that should make God more in Love with Faith and Obedience than he had been before But if God was willing and that without respect to Christ then how does he give the Pardon of sin and Eternal Life to them who Believe and Obey for Christ's sake I am sure of our Authors good-Nature in this point he will say he has said it That some that many were saved without respect to Christ The mercy and Grace of God it seems accepting their Belief of particular Revelations and their sincere Obedience to his Commands Repentance supplying the defects and shortness of their Conformity to the Law Now if God did all this without regard to Christ how does he do it for the sake of Christ But there 's an Answer to this that lies Dormant in the word Promise God did indeed Pardon sin and give Eternal Life to those who believed his Revelations and obeyed his Commandements but he never promised he would do it But now he has drawn out his Grace and good-will into a Promise to pardon sin and give Eternal Life upon the terms aforesaid and this he has done for Christ's sake And let us Audit the Account and all the influence that Christ's Obedience and Sacrifice bath upon our acceptation with God is that we have got a promise from God to do that which he would have done before to give us that he would have given us before only he would not promise to do it for us to give it to us Two things I shall briefly return 1. That God under the Old-Testament made explicite promises of the pardon of Sin and Eternal Life and if under that Dispensation I am sure our Author will say without respect to Christ that this was the Doctrine of the Old-Testament the Apostle asserts Act. 13. 40. To him give all the Prophets witness that through his Name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins 2 Sam. 7. 14. I will be his Father and he shall be my Son and there 's enough in that to secure a promise of pardon to a repenting Child Mal. 3. 17. They shall be mine and I will spare them as a Father spares his own son that serves him but it it is added If he sin against me I will chasten him with the Rod of Men but my Mercy shall not depart from him Ps. 99. 8. Thou answeredst them O Lord our God thou wast a God that forgavest them though thou tookest vengeance on their inventions And as the pardoning Grace that was in God's Nature was revealed to them as the foundation of their Faith and obedience Ps. 130. 4. There is forgiveness with thee that thou mayst be feared So it is drawn out into a promise v. 8. He shall redeem Israel from all his Iniquities which without the pardon of them is simply impossible As for the Promises of Eternal Lise we find good old Iacob now giving up the Ghost and having no hope in this Life expressing his Faith thus Gen. 49. 18. I have waited for thy Salvation O Lord Which doubtless was Eternal Salvation beyond the Verge of that short time of his Life which he knew was expired Ps. 73. 24. Thou shalt guide me with thy Counsel in my pilgrimage and afterwards receive me to glory but a more convenient place will offer it self for the discussing of this matter 2. If then this be all that the Obedience of Christ's Life and the Sacrifice of his Death do contribute to our acceptance with God that for Christ's sake we have got a Promise or a more explicite Promise of the pardon of sin and Eternal Life than before then I must be of the same mind still that it contributes just nothing to the acceptance of our Obedience with God Let me have Liberty to put the Case of two Persons v. g. David and Paul let us suppose these two equally obedient to God's commands the former without such an express and explicite promise of Reward the other encouraged by stronger Arguments of clear and numerous Promises of Pardon and Eternal Life Which
his Death His Death confirmed his Doctrine His Doctrine was he that believes and obeys shall be justified and saved Hereupon we believe it to be true and in process of time come to obey it our obedience justifies us and therefore the Blood of Christ may be said to justifie us And whereas Iudas his Covetousness the Jews Herod's Cruelty Pilates Flattery had a direct tendency to the Death of Christ why we may not be properly said to be justified by them also at this rate I profess I cannot apprehend Religion is fallen into most cruel and unmerciful hands in this latter Age who to give a â—…aint colour to any little sorry fancies of their own care not to interpret Scripture in such ways as shall certainly open a dore to elude the plainest Truths God is said to have made the World Now if any has a mind to eternize his Name which without some rare discovery cannot be let him take our Author's Course and he is secure of a Monument That is indeed a Scripture phrase but if you examine it throughly it signifies no more than that God made a company of Atoms and put them in Motion and then let them alone they will dance you so long in infinite spaces till they jostle themselves into that form wherein you see things at this day And thus here 's a fair Account how God may be said to have made the World because he made that which made the World and the Cause of the Cause you know may be said to be a Grand-Father-Cause of the thing Caused But this is infinitely beyond what our Author will allow the Blood of Christ of Causality in our justification for it 's only a Confirming Cause of the Promise and that in Commission with other things and they have a greater stroke in the business than it self then when we come to believe that Promise and that belief proves strong enough to perswade us into Obedience then we are justified for the sake of that Obedience But 5. The Consideration of the Text it self Rom. 5. 9. is enough to discredit this idle conceit for ever for Christ is said to dye for us and in order to our justification in the same sence that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of old 〈◊〉 who laid down Life for Life Blood for Blood Body for Body v. 6. Christ dyed for the â—…ngodly v. 7. For scarcely for a righteous Man will one dye yet peradventure for a good Man some one would even dare to dye v. 8. But God commendeth his love to us that while we were yet sinners Christ dyed for us v. 9. Much more then being now justified by his Blood c. 2. Christ says he is called a Propitiation through Faith in his Blood that is by a belief of the Gospel Covenant Rom. 3. 25. But how short this comes of the Apostle's design is obvious from the place Christ is set forth by God to be a propitiation through faith in his Blood to declare his Righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him that believes in Iesus But is God ever the more declared to be a just God demonstrated to be a Righteous God because Christ has confirmed his Doctrine and we believe and obey it The obedience of most men is so imperfect that when they have done all they will need mercy and that will declare one of God's attributes But what provision is here made that God may be declared Righteous and Iust All that he has assigned to the Blood of Christ turns not away the least of God's displeasure against sin or the sinner Christ dyed to confirm the Doctriâ—…e Well but still God is displeased with sinners for what Reason is there why God should be less displeased with them because Christ dyed to confirm his Doctrine Well but hereupon Man believes this Doctrine to be true but yet God's Anger is never the more turned away from the sinner because he believes what God says is true For what Reason is there why God should be less displeased with him who believes the Truth and yet will not obey his Commands So that neither the Blood of Christ nor Faith neither do reconcile God to us or propitiate him for us well at last Man gives obedience to the Commands and then God is propitiated and reconciled So that the true Scripture should have been had our Author had the pâ—…nning of it God hath set forth Man to be his own propitiation through his own obedience And why might it not have been said that God set forth the Martyrs to be a propitiation through Faith in their Blood For they willingly and chearfully shed their dearest Blood to confirm the Truth of the Gospel and upon their Confirmation of it some have believed it and upon their believing it have obeyed it and then by that obedience are reconciled to God And thus may Paul be said to have dyed for our sins and Peter to have been Crucified for us and both of them to have been set forth by God to be a propitiation through Faith in their Blood Nor let any say that the Death of the Martyrs was not so strong a confirmation of the Gospel as the Death of Christ For if we believe the Truth and obey it upon more infirm Evidence yet if that evidence produce a strong Faith and that a vigorous obedience such an obedience will not find less acceptance with God because it was begotten by weaker Motives 3 The Scripture says he uses these Phrases promiscuously to be justified by Faith and to be justified by the Faith of Christ and to be justified by Christ and to be justified through Faith in his Blood and to be justified and saved by Grace Nay by believing that Christ is the Son of God John 20. 31. And that God raised him up from the dead When our Author has a design upon any great Truth of the Gospel then the clearest expressions the wisdom of God's Spirit shall use are Phrases allusive figurative metaphorical tropical forms of Speech But the Scripture uses not these expressions promiscuously only our Author confounds them craftily Each of them have indeed something in common with the rest and no wonder all the Offices the Active and Passive Obedience of Christ the whole work of the Spirit the actings of Faith and every saving-Grace meet in this one great Project the glorifying of God the Electing love of the Father the Redeeming Love of the Son and the Sanctifying love of the Holy Spirit in the Iustification and Salvation of a Believer But yet each of these expressions carries in it something peculiar to it self for the Scripture abhors to speak at his dull and cloudy rate who by diversifying one and the same thing in twenty several shapes can vend it for so many several things when 't is but the same notion disguised in a new-fashioned expression One denotes the interest of Faith another speaks the concern of him who is Iehovah
Salvation in the House of his Servant David as he spake by the mouth of his Holy Prophets which have been since the world began ver 72. To perform the Mercy promised to our Fathers and to remember his holy Covenant the Oath which he sware to our Father Abraham where the firm Oath and Covenant of God to Redeem his People is assigned as the Reason of his giving Christ to be a Redeemer The places are too many to be insisted on that confirm this Truth Iohn 3. 16. 1 Iohn 4. 9 10. 2. Sect. Free grace is given as the true Reason of the Covenant of Grace Heb. 8. 8. For finding fault with them he saith behold the days come saith the Lord that I will make a New Covenant with the House of Israel c. They were a faulty an undeserving an ill-deserving People yet Free grace will make a Covenant with them Nor is there any opposition between Free-grace and Christs Merits in this Case if we consider that Free-grace is the Original Reason of Gods designation and purpose to bestow the good things of the Covenant and the Righteousness of Christs Life and the Sacrifice of his Death the way of recovering these Mercies which by sin had been forfeited and lost 3. Sect. The Scriptures give us no intimation that Christ is the Foundation of Gods making this Covenant or the Original Reason of Gods design to bestow the Mercies of the Covenant though it abounds with Testimonies that Christ is the way of procuring for us and conveying to us these intended mercies and in those things which depend upon mere good pleasure Revelation must be our onely guide In this case we may conclude Negatively Non credimus quia non legimus And we may shrewdly conjecture that there is no pretence from Scripture for this Figment of our Authors because it 's the Foundation of all his mistakes and yet he has not so much as attempted the perverting of one Scripture to give colour to it which may be reckoned amongst the Admiranda Nili 2. His other Assertion is this Our own Righteousness is the condition of the Covenant which with his former Assertion is obtruded upon us without proof and therefore I suppose he intends they must both be maintained at the Charges of the Parish Now 1 It is agreed for ought I know that an inherent righteousness is a necessary condition of eternal Salvation Heb. 12. 14. Without Holiness no man shall see God It is a Condition in the Covenant though not of the Covenant such a Condition as is due to every Person in a Covenant-state it doth necessarily attend that state though it be not allowed as antecedent to a Covenant-state 2. As to the Constitution of the Covenant in Gods purpose and Counsel I know no condition at all They that talk of the right use of free-will future Faith or good works fore-seen as the Reason of that purpose talk without book and onely intimate what a rare Covenant they would have made for us had they had the modelling and Contrivance of it like him that boasted that if he had stood by God when he formed Man he could have told him how to have made him more commodiously Rom. 9. 11. The Children being not yet born neither having done any good or evil Where those words neither having done any good or evil must necessarily exclude all respect to the future good or evil they should do as the Reason of the purpose of God according to Election because it 's evident by the form of speech That they deny something more concerning the Children than the former words being not yet born and yet even they exclude Having done good or evil Actually 3. The Question then is whether An inherent Righteousness be the Condition required of us and in us antecedent to our first Covenant-state And I durst leave this Matter to be determined by the Church of England if our Author would do so too Art 17. Predestination to Life is the everlasting purpose of God whereby before the Foundation of the World was laid he hath constantly decreed by his Counsel secret to us to deliver from Curse and Damnation those whom he hath chosen out of Mankind in Christ and to bring them by Christ to everlasting Salvation whence we are taught 1. That Election is not of all Mankind but of some out of Mankind 2. That this purpose of God was from everlasting 3. That it is a fixed constant decree 4. That the Design of it is to deliver those chosen out of Mankind from the curse under which Mankind was fallen and to bring them to everlasting Salvation 5. That the Reason of this eternal Election was his own counsel 6. That the Execution of this Decree is in and by Iesus Christ and the manner of it follows Wherefore they which be endued with so excellent a benefit be called according to the purpose of God working in due season by his Spirit They through Grace obey the calling they be justified freely they be made the Sons of God by Adoption they be made like the Image of his onely begotten Son they walk Religiously in good works and at length by Gods mercy they attain everlasting felicity Whence we are Instructed 1. That the calling of the Elect to a Covenant-state is from Grace as the reason and by Grace as it's efficient 2. Their obeying that call of God is by Grace 3. Good works necessarily follow effectual calling See also Art 10. 12 13. 4. Religious walking with God in good works is a necessary condition of eternal Felicity 5. That there is such a firm connexion in this golden chain of Salvation that no one linck can possibly be broken They are Elected freely called effectually justified freely Adopted graciously Sanctified gradually walk Religiously and at length by the mercy of God are saved eternally which the Apostle gives us more concisely Rom. 8. 30. Moreover whom he did Predestinate them he a so called and whom he called them he also justified and whom he justified them he also Glorified I conclude then that our own righteousness is not the condition of the Covenant of Grace neither of the designment of the Father nor the procurement of the Son nor of the effectual Operation of the Holy Spirit nor of our Covenant-state nor of our Covenant-right nor of the first covenant-Covenant-mercy but of many after-mercies and of Eternal Salvation it is the condition 1. Sect. That is not the Condition of the Covenant required of us on our part which God promises to work in us on His part but God has promised to work in us Inherent-righteousness both Root and Fruit Ezek. 36. 26 27. A new Heart also will I give you and I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my Statutes and ye shall keep my Iudgments and do them 2. Sect. That which God in Covenant bestows cannot be the Condition of a Covenant-state but God in Covenant bestows the new Heart for