to have carried Mens sins or to have born them in his own Body at the place of Execution and it would be absurd and ridiculous to apply any such passages to him and yet as they say the Sins of Men were the cause of the death of those Victims offered to Almighty God by the Sinners and in the same manner were the cause of our Saviour's Death so the same Sins may truly be said to have been the cause of the death of St. Stephen and every Martyr yet the former Expressions being inapplicable to them and they contributing nothing to the Remission of Mens sins Christ onely being that Lamb of God who takes away the Sins of the World those Scriptural Expressions concerning the Death of Christ must signifie a great deal more than bare Dying upon Common Reasons can amount to But to answer this they tell us that whereas God proclaims himself Exod. 34.7 a God keeping Mercy for thousands forgiving Iniquities Transgressions and Sins according to the Hebrew Original it ought to be bearing or carrying Iniquities c. which is the same attributed here unto Christ and yet we cannot say that God as there named has satisfied for any sins therefore neither can Christ have satisfied for sins notwithstanding any such passages concerning him but this the Ancients easily answered by asserting our Jesus the Son of God to have been that very Being so often and emphatically called God who all along convers'd with the Israelites during their wandrings in the Wilderness as I formerly shewed and that Testimony given to their Opinion by St. Paul when dehorting the Corinthians from several Sins by the example of those Israelites 1 Cor. 10.9 he inserts Neither let us tempt Christ as some of them also tempted i. e. the same Christ and were destroyed of Serpents where Moses tells us they tempted God when they fell under that Judgment therefore that God was Christ therefore he really did converse with Israel in those days otherwise he could not have been tempted that Testimony for any thing I have yet seen may pass for unanswerable But with all respect to their Critical Skill we must assert they are mistaken the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from whence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the cited Text not signifying to carry in its primary acceptation but levare to ease or to take away Marin Brinxia in verbo and so Marinus in his Arca Noe translates this very Text by levare or tollere and so God when he pardons or forgives sins is rightly said to ease Men of that burthen they bear or to take them away and consequently our translating the word by forgiving is true and agreeable to the general sense of Interpreters hence the Authors of the Septuagint Translation as good Criticks as our Socinians render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taking away not carrying Sins and they could scarce be suspected of being Athanasians no more could the Chaldee Paraphrast who interprets it by those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 leaving or remitting Iniquity the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 never signifying Carriage or any thing of that Nature but only leaving or remitting with what else may be genuinely deduced from that Interpretation Vid. Castel Lex Hept in verbo so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Syriack Version signifies leaving remitting pardoning sparing but no where signifies supporting or carrying the Samaritans use 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word signifying easing and pardoning too the Arabic 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taking or driving as a flying Enemy is driven away by a pursuing Army So that for them because in a foreign sense the Hebrew word sometimes signifies to carry to interpret it so in this place contrary to the sense of all the World beside themselves is absurd and only shews what mean Shifts they are put to to find some Parallels to their abusive Constructions of Plain Scripture As for the Evangelists application of that Text Isa 53 4. He hath born our griefs and carried our sorrows to our Saviour Matth. 8.17 upon healing all the sick that were brought to him he only applies that to a particular there which really is of a general Import therefore what he applies to the removal of bodily Diseases St. Peter applies to Sins the Diseases of the Soul our Saviour visibly and openly removing the former as a sign of his removing the latter but not doing both in the same manner he cured bodily Distempers by a Word a Touch an Application of outward though seemingly unpromising Means but removing the Distempers of the Soul only by his Death and so by his blood cleansing us from all Sin satisfying his Father for all our Sins by his shedding of it purging our Souls from all the Filthiness and Corruption of Sins by the Application of it and by Faith in it and that Blood-shedding of our Saviour as tending to his Death prov'd it's infinite Price and Value so often taken notice of in Scripture by being equivalent to those Punishments Divine Justice might and must have laid upon Transgressours the Socinians indeed say He takes away our sins i. e. He makes a shew as if he died and bore the Punishment due to our Sins eorum quasi poenam in se recepit so putting a sham upon the World pretending or seeming to do what he never did from which if the World were convinced of the Truth of what they assert it would be very hard to persuade them that he did by such seeming Means eos à vera eorum poena exsolvere discharge Mankind really from those certain Punishments attending upon Sin so for that further put off That our Saviour may justly be said to procure Salvation for us by his Death because by that Obedience show'd to his Father in dying at his Command he had all Power conferred upon him both in heaven and earth and so had power to forgive our Sins and to confer eternal Life upon us It 's against Reason to believe it for all Power in Heaven and in Earth is infinite Power infinite Power must have an infinite Subject to reside in Christ being meer Man can be no such infinite Subject therefore no such Power can be confer'd on him on account of his Obedience for he cannot receive an impossible Reward but that infinite Power being essential to him as an infinite and eternal Spirit his Humane Nature as united to that is made Partaker of that infinite Power and consequently Christ God and Man can indeed bestow on us those mighty Blessings To fix in our Minds the Notion of Christ's Satisfaction for our sins the more we are told by the Apostle as I formerly cited him That we are justified freely by his Grace Rom. 3.24 25 26. through the Redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his Righteousness for the Remission of sins to declare at this time his
Obedience uninterrupted and universal at least it must be said He 's very unkind for He who can forgive and as Socinus asserts does forgive all our Sins without any Satisfaction tender'd to his Justice might as well forgive us without putting us to the trouble of informing our Minds or regulating and restraining our Actions for we cannot easily give any reason why he should exact such Duties of us as Conditions of our Salvation when if it pleas'd him he could give us Salvation without any Conditions at all If it be objected that He has declared otherwise in his reveal'd Will and it's Justice in him to be true to his own Declarations that Plea again reduces all to perfect Arbitrariness and he will be irrespectively Merciful merely because he will be Merciful and he will be irrespectively Vindictive merely because he will be so which things seem somewhat to contradict our common notion of Justice That it does suum cuique tribuere give to every one what 's due and proper to him We believe more safely that God lays those Duties which yet we are unable to perform in that perfect manner we ought upon us that they might be as continual Remembrancers to us of that Satisfaction which he really requires at our hands for could we perform all God's revealed Will without any failure either in Time or Circumstance God's Justice would be otherwise satisfied and employ'd wholly in distributing Rewards among us but since when we take the utmost pains our Duties are either at one time or other essentially or circumstantially sinful therefore we our selves ought to conclude some such Satisfaction necessary as may make up for our unavoidable defects and since we are assured by God's Word that One has undertaken that Work who was every way capable of performing it we are obliged in gratitude to so great a Benefactor to endeavour after all that Holiness and Perfection how little soever it is that we are capable of and we are oblig'd to do it for our own sakes because it 's no way reasonable those should be Partakers of any benefit from Christ's Satisfaction who do not perform those Conditions upon which only that Satisfaction can be any ways beneficial to us To this we may add yet further That if God can forgive Sinners without Satisfaction made for their Sins without any derogation from his Justice how merciful soever God may seem to Mankind yet he seems wholly to have forgotten all that Mercy with respect to the fallen Angels for if no Satisfaction was needful for Sin why could not their Maker forgive their Transgressions too without it as well as Men's there might have been a thousand Means doubtless found out to confirm a Covenant of Grace with them as well as that of the Death of Christ to confirm the same Covenant with Men but it seems God would not so forgive them though he could they could offer no Satisfaction for themselves therefore they are eternally and immediately damn'd these Conclusions are necessary and inevitable from Socinian Principles but in themselves are detestable and damnable But what the Socinians fail to effect by God's Word they make no doubt of making good by dint of Reason in which they look upon themselves as wholly invincible Here then they assert That if Christ have made Satisfaction for us and that suitable to our Necessities then Christ must have suffer'd the pains of Eternal Death because Mankind by Sins were liable to such Eternal Death but here we may observe that they fasten upon that single Instance of Christ's Sufferings viz. his Death in the matter of Satisfaction for Sinners onely whereas our Lord was a continual Sufferer on that account from his first Condescension to take our Nature upon him to his Crucifixion and I make no question but what he underwent when he bore humane Infirmities when he was in that bitter Agony in the Garden when he cry'd out upon the Cross My God My God why hast thou forsaken me I make no question but his Sufferings in those Instances were much greater than what he underwent in Death it self and so the very Story of his Passion represents things in relation to those latter Scenes of his Life on Earth for what prodigious Cause must we imagine there was that he declar'd to Peter and the Sons of Zebedee Matth. 26.38 My Soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto Death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my Soul is compass'd round about or even overwhelmed with Sorrow for so the Original imports In his Agony in the Garden what through a clear Apprehension of that dreadful Task he was then to set about more immediately what with the Fervour and Earnestness of his Prayers to his Father either that if it were possible that Cup that bitter Cup he was then to drink might pass from him or that what he was then suffering might be truly effectual to that great End for which he suffer'd Luke 22.44 his Sweat was as if it had been great drops of blood falling down to the ground the Terror of his instant Sufferings to that Flesh and Blood he had assumed as well as the Strength of his Enemies and the greatness of the Conflict he was then engaged in might be the occasion of that stupendous Sweat for experience tells us that Fear opens the Pores of the Body and emits as grumous Sweats as the most earnest Intention whatsoever of the Body or the Mind and the Angel appearing to Christ in the Garden and strengthening him seems more necessary with respect to those Terrors ready to seize on Flesh and Blood engaged in mighty Sorrows and oppressing Woes than meerly to re-inforce that Earnestness in Prayer which the greater the Danger is so long as the Soul is consistent with it self will naturally be the more earnest and importunate for Assistance or Deliverance His Sufferings yet seem to work more violently upon him when he comes to that bitter Cry My God My God why hast thou forsaken me why dost thou seem to hide thy Face from me and to leave me wholly to the barbarous Cruelties of wicked and malicious Men the Complaint was more natural and carried with it a greater Emphasis when proceeding from that Son of God that onely that beloved Son in whom he was well pleased so far his holy Soul seems to be upon the rack but when he receives his last bitter Draught and owns the mighty work as well as the Types and Predictions relating to him were finished the Storms that ruffled him before seem to sink into a Calm and he breath'd out his Sacred Life with those charming eruptions of unbounded Love Father forgive them Luke 23.34 for they know not what they do and those full expressions of absolute Satisfaction in what he had undergone Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit v. 46. Our Lord's Sufferings ended there and there with his dying Breath he rais'd to himself the first Trophies of his glorious Victories for though
that it could not reasonably be requir'd that a man should engage himself in the study of the whole Book of God if there were any thing positively asserted there the knowledge and understanding of which would be lost time as the studies of all impertinencies are But howsoever necessary these studies are if they are not prosecuted in a due manner i. e. with an humble sense of our own natural defects with a sober and submissive judgment and with all that modesty which becomes one who is desirous to learn they 'l prove but mischievous and make Hereticks Schismaticks or Atheists instead of knowing and improving orthodox Christians It 's true that nothing ought to be admitted into Religion which is contrary to reason but it must be understood which is contrary to reason in its primitive integrity for that which we call reason now we every one find extremely subject to mistakes and for me to measure those truths which are reveal'd by an infallible God by the standard of that sense or judgment which I know to be mistakeful and fallible is unreasonable with any sober discourser to extremity and it argues too great a pride in our low condition to imagine that because once we were made perfect that therefore we should in any respect continue so though we had sought out to our selves many inventions Many are deceived by their own vain opinion ver 24. says the Son of Syrach and nothing can certainly be more prejudicial to a Man in his disquisitions after truth than a great conceit of his own abilities to find it out God commonly blasts such fond pretenders to ingenuity and makes them take a great deal of pains only to procure infamy and perpetual disgrace to themselves Such mischiefs would be avoided yet Humane Reason have it's due use and esteem if the Apostles injunction were well obey'd that no man should think of himself more highly than he ought to think Rom. 12.3 but to think soberly according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith Men ought when they meet with any difficulties in divine Writings not to make their Reason the measure of Truth but to make Truth the measure of their Reason and rather to suspect their own apprehension of it than the weakness or ambiguity on the defectiveness of the authors assertions or expressions And so much for the use of Humane Reason in matters of Religion it 's a great blessing to us still tho' impair'd by sin and if soberly and modestly used will by divine assistance rise to a greater strength and vigour and be able to comprehend every day more and more of the mystery of Godliness till it comes in a glorifi'd state to comprehend every thing that can any way contribute to its consummate happiness Having gone thus far in the debate concerning the use of Humane Reason in matters of Religion and declared how careful we should be not to indulge our selves in vain and useless curiosities for the vindication of our selves as Christians we are to consider that a full proof of the Divinity of the Son of God is a task that comes under no reproof in the case That the blessed Jesus the great captain of our Salvation is God as well as Man that he is God of God light of light very God of very God as the Nicene Creed expresses it that he is perfect God not a factitious or an aequivocal God as some would have him but that He who is God the Son is infinite in all his Attributes God over all blessed for ever as God the Father is is Articulus stantis aut cadentis Ecclesiae such an Article of our Christian Faith so essential to the Mystical Body of Christ that while it 's embrac'd the Church has a real Being when it 's laid aside the very Being of the Church expires at the same time It 's so necessary an Article of Faith that except a man keep it whole and undefiled without doubt he shall perish everlastingly for he that believes in such a Messias such a Saviour who is not God is really an Idolater as fixing his belief in one that is not able to save For Man's misery is too great to be reliev'd by any inferiour power and the blood of Bulls and of Goats might as well have serv'd for the expiation of Humane guilt as the sufferings of one who was a meer man and consequently could have no proper merit to plead for us no inherent power wherewith to assist us Some of those Hereticks who deny the Divinity of the Son of God have been so sensible of this that they have maintain'd and preach'd it in those Congregations where they have been concern'd That it 's as lawful to pray to the blessed Virgin or to any other Saint or any Angel as it is to pray to the Son of God and that all those are really guilty of Idolatry who make any such Prayers or Supplications to him Now tho other Socinians call these blasphemers on this account they are really injurious to 'em for if that which they all agree in be true viz. That Jesus Christ is not the most high God then whosoever worships him as God breaks the first and second Commandments as much as those of the Church of Rome do and are as notorious Idolaters as we shall hereafter have occasion to prove In quest then of the truth of this doctrine That Jesus Christ is the true God we are to bend our Reason and to meet and baffle those great pretenders to it with their own weapons and to prove to them that tho we think the mystery of godliness to be great as the Text asserts it to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as S. Chrysostom expresses it to be unexpressible and wonderful and incomprehensible yet we receive some considerable advantages from its being revealed for by that means we know the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the positive truth that he who appear'd in the flesh visible to humane eyes and so far humbled to atone for humane Crimes was really God hence to be ador'd by us hence able to perform the work he came about and to save to the utmost all those that come to the Father in and by him and this we firmly and stedfastly believe tho' we cannot comprehend the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the manner how so great a miracle of Mercy should be brought about and those proofs by any particulars whatsoever laid down of this truth using reason with that sobriety and modesty which we ought we may examine and try throughly and judge how far they come up to those things they are designed to make good and so our Faith it self may be rational and thence invincible tho' every particular of it be not intelligible to us in its full extent With relation to the Text then we assert That the Mystery of Godliness which the Apostle tells us is great cannot be apply'd to the several particulars laid down in
as the thirsty Hart pants after the water brooks therefore they are willing to undergo every thing that a malignant World can lay upon them as being certainly assured that whatsoever the joys of Heaven are all the afflictions or sufferings they can meet with in this World are not worthy to be compared with them Impressions looking toward these things are so natural to the Soul of Man that all the artifices of wickedness are not able to efface them and yet the consequences of these impressions are so great and mysterious that all the wit of Man cannot possibly comprehend them yet faith goes through with all and is not cannot be mistaken in its confidence at last If Faith it self the continual security of the Soul be so dark and undefinable what must we judge of the objects of it they being generally so vast that Faith it self soaring as it is can go but a very little way in its Idea's of them that the objects of Faith are real and true is evident from what has been said that their Nature is incomprehensible and their Reasons inscrutable to created Beings is as true but not at all to be wonder'd at since there are a thousand common effects of Nature the truth of which we are beyond contradiction convinced of but why they should happen so or so the cunningest Philosophers are no more able to resolve than despised Ideots or Naturals Agreeably to what I am urging I instanc'd before in the being of God a truth which Men cannot balk tho' they take never so much pains to that purpose that this God this supreme Governour or Manager of all things must some way or other communicate himself to his Creatures for that otherwise they could neither pretend to a well being or a being is as clear by rational discourse but how God should communicate of himself to these creatures where there is so vast a disproportion in their Natures is a riddle which we have not yet found any Apollo subtle enough to resolve and yet that God does communicate himself to his creatures is as plain and undeniable Those who engage themselves into enquiries about these things do but lose themselves in inextricable Labyrinths and indeed according to the genuine rules of right reason do but take pains to no purpose it was that general sense which mankind all along has had of these things that has made them endeavour to frame some short Idea's of the Deity to themselves and so tho' they could conceive nothing adaequate to his Nature yet they have run high as words can carry them when they stile God a being infinitely just powerful good merciful wise c. These general notions of theirs in some measure influenc'd the lives of many but much more all the external and visible parts of their religious Devotions And when they have shewed their utmost skill in contriving Schemes of divine Worship those men have done best and most sutably to the nature of Religion who have contrived the outward parts of it so as they might a little shadow out the necessary apprehensions of the divine Nature and yet so too that the Devotoes who made the nicest observations of things might be sensible that those external religious shews referred to a great deal of a darker and more inintelligible nature and which no Symbols whatsoever could possibly illustrate or represent and those Divine Oracles which were spoken of in all parts of the World as they rendred Religion more August and Venerable to the eye of the World so the nature of those Oracles convinced the World yet more strongly of the defectiveness of humane understanding the certain knowledge of futurity where men imagine themselves free agents being Essential to the Deity but one of the most puzling things humane Reason can possibly fix upon This the Romans and their predecessors the Latines represented by a Janus with two faces the Hetrurians by a Janus with four which might as some tell us refer to the four parts of the year but more genuinely it represented the Deity looking every way so that nothing past present or to come could possibly avoid its knowledge and the Prophets of old had that character as communicated to them from the inspiring Deity that they knew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Didymus in Hom. Iliad 1. v. 70. it being as Didymus tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the part of a compleat Prophet to understand exactly the three differences of times Men are apt to be presuming enough on the depth of their own understanding but we find Heresies since the propagation of Christianity have taught men much more confidence than ever Nature did and therefore as we find Philosophers of old the more rational the more modest but that those who set up for senceless Paradoxes made it their business to hector every body into their own notions and to make up their want of argument by face and metal as we may see in Lucretius his Epicurean Poem So Schismaticks and Hereticks in the Christian Church the farther they fly from the genuine practice of ancient Christians and the Doctrine of the Gospel the more positive and daring they are in their assertions the more close Communion they pretend to hold with God and to be the very privadoes of Heaven as the profligate Gnosticks of old pretended to know every thing when indeed they knew nothing and some wretched Ignorants of late years when they have been led Captives by the Devil at his will have yet talked of being godded with God and Christed with Christ And our followers of Socinus who run violently against the stream of Reason bear themselves for the greatest rationalists in the world Whereas Nature tho' corrupted taught Men modestly to own their own ignorance to confess their inability to comprehend all those mysteries attendant on the Deity to look upon shadows and representations of things at a distance as the best way of imprinting reverence upon Mens minds and therefore to satisfie themselves with such shadows and figures lest by pretending to more they should fall into absurdities and by that means render themselves and Religion contemptible and ridiculous God took a particular care of the Jewish Nation and instituted all those Rites and Ceremonies which they made use of in their worship all which Rites and Ceremonies were either so many remembrancers of things past as the great goodness and mercy of God shewn to the people of Israel and his justice or vengeance on their enemies or otherwise they were so many types and shadows of things to come and particularly of that Messias or Saviour of the world to be born into it in fulness of time Now the manner of Gods avenging himself on his own and his peoples enemies was uncouth and prodigious but the birth of a Saviour one who by his interest with Heaven should visit and redeem his people to procure Salvation for the whole world was altogether a mystery a means of procuring the
find the King of Moab taking his eldest Son who was to have reigned after him 2 Kings 3.26 27. and offering him for a burnt-offering upon the wall of his besieged City The misery he was reduced to required something of extraordinary to allay it and nothing could show a more eager desire to atone his angry Gods to whose displeasure he imputed his present calamity than to offer a Sacrifice so dear and valuable to himself to atone them Where before I pass on I cannot but take notice of that passage in the contents of the now Cited Chapter in our English Bibles viz. The King of Moab by sacrificing the King of Edom's Son raiseth the Siege In which passage they follow the opinion of Junius tho' without any ground at all For how came the King of Moab so streightly besieged to get the King of Edom's Son into his possession We read of his desperate attempt to break through to that King of Edom with 700 valiant Men v. 26. But the consequence of his attempt was He could not effect what he desired the failure in which bold design made him in the extremity of his despair flie to as astonishing a remedy besides not to mention it that the King of Edom in those days was but a Deputy a Viceroy and his Government not hereditary We find the confederate Kings raising their Siege upon that strange action but had Moab so cruelly sacrificed the Heir of Edom reason will teach us it must have exasperated the more and made them press the Siege the more streightly to have been revenged on so extreme a barbarity Again some would perswade us with as little sense that that great Indignation which is said to have been against Israel was from the King of Edom enraged to see the Jews prosecute the Siege so far as to cost the life of his Son For indeed that anger against Israel was from God who having formerly given them a charge not to dispossess the Children of Ammon or Moab as being the Posterity of Lot Abraham's Nephew was displeas'd now to see them carry on a War so far as to make a considerable Prince commit in his extremity so great an abomination Their inveteracy against him forced him to it and God required mercy from them to their kindred and therefore the Israelites though late sensible of God's anger and the reason of it rais'd their Siege and gave over so inhumane a War Nor yet could it have been reasonably accounted so dear or precious a sacrifice to have offer'd the blood of an enemy as that of an onely Son as we may conclude from the aggravating circumstances of that severe command to Abraham Gen. 22.2 to take his Son his onely Son the Son whom he loved and to offer him a burnt sacrifice and from God's accepting nothing less than the death of his onely begotten Son for the Redemption of Mankind from the damnation of Hell Besides this unhappy Prince the Israelites themselves tho' so often caution'd against such things are justly charged by the Psalmist That they offered their Sons and their Daughters unto Devils Psal 106.37 38. and shed Innocent blood even the blood of their Sons and of their Daughters whom they sacrificed unto the Idols of Canaan and the Land was defiled with blood Where God 's own people fail'd it 's no wonder the Gentile world fell into such madnesses Praepar Evang. l. 4. c. 7. therefore we find the Carthaginians and Phoenicians burying Slaves alive on some extraordinary exigences as Eusebius from Porphyry informs us or offering them to Saturn The Romans running into the same follies in the second Punick War in obedience as they pretended to the Sibylline Oracles Now all these and the like Sacrifices were suppos'd to have some secret meaning and to represent imperfectly some mighty future events being things the vulgar might gaze and wonder at but could never understand yet they shewed that general sense of Mankind that Religion could not subsist without Mysteries and the Devil he made too good use of those natural notions furnishing the Heathen world with such Mystick Rites as might keep Men at the greater distance lest too plain discoveries of himself should have undeceiv'd thinking Men and have taught them to turn to the worship of the true God That the Devil might ape God the more exactly and over-aw Men the more securely as Idolatrous Priests in Scripture pretended to receive answers from their Gods so he in several places under several names had his Ammonian Delphian Pythian Dodonian Ephesian Paphian Oracles where he used to return ambiguous and puzling answers to such as came to enquire of him concerning the events of things by his ambiguous expressions he endeavour'd to conceal his want of omniscience and secured himself from the accusations of his deluded worshippers he likewise had his Prophets such as inspired with a Devilish fury raved out obscure and insignificant non-sence which yet were generally receiv'd with the greatest veneration and preserv'd as rules of practice for Men in their necessities to have recourse to out of which if in an exigence they were able to pick any thing they were ready to admire his veracity whom the Sons of Wisdom knew to be the Father of lies Such Prophets were Tiresias and his daughter Manto and Amphiaraus and Calchas the answerers from the Delphick Tripos from the Sibyls Cave and from Trophonius his Den c. These fill'd weak heads with mighty wonders that the Gods should so freely impart their secrets to Men whose sanctity they admired as much as Cyrus of Persia is said to have done that of Bell and his Priests in the Apocryphal story and were as grosly cheated But tho' by these Devices of Satan the far greater part of Mankind were miserably abused as to the object of their Devotions yet the reason and design of their Devotions was good and true nothing could blind them so far or lay them under so deep a stupidity but that they plainly observ'd their own unhappy and defective state they were able still in many moral cases to distinguish between good and evil virtue and vice and having a true sense of the existence of a God they had still so much natural Logick as to infer from their own extraordinary inclinations to wickedness or to be guilty of Immoralities that Heaven must be atoned that there must be some way of Mediation found out between God and Man otherwise they must be wholly miserable therefore they kept up their Sacrifices and solemn Devotions as some shadows or weak representations of that mediating work but even while they did so reason prevail'd and acted them so much farther that they concluded an upright a sincere and well purged mind was much more acceptable to the Vniversal Sovereign than their sacrifices for any intrinsick worth could be and this truth was so firmly fixt in the hearts of Men that the Devil himself never durst undertake to oppose it though it
generally corrupted and none of these admirable men taking any pains to stay the deluge of publick impieties But Non enim eadem sacra coluêre nec iisdem sacrificiis deo litárunt howsoever silent the Scripture may be concerning these devout and applauded Schismaticks we meet with the Pharisees often enough to their eternal ignominy They were besides their pretences to extraordinary knowledge in the Law and a supererogatory purity in their lives great intreaguers in affairs of state and finding the Saducees a powerful and encroaching faction they countermined them and taking the advantage of Queen Alexandra's superstitious humour who had a particular charge from her dying husband to close with them as powerful and indefatigable De bello Judaico l. 1. c. 4. and therefore the more capable of supporting her authority they engrossed almost all publick interests into their own hands as Josephus teaches us so they assumed a kind of Papal prerogative would be infallible in opinion or judgment and supreme in dignity and so be truly Custodes utriusque tabulae the great guardians of the whole Law of God as respecting both matters of faith and of practice A long habit of fear gotten into mens minds makes them at length forget how they came to be possest with it and that which arose from the force and violence of those whom they found able to compel them to any thing grows in tract of time to an apprehension of some great intrinsick merit in the person whom they fear thus when the Pharisees were clambring to that height of power they grasp'd at the steps they mounted by were visible and odious but their powers too great to be resisted when they had gotten a long and quiet possession of Authority the people who had forgot their former ill practices and violence grew into a strange opinion of pharisaick sanctity they found themselves no better than slaves to a prevailing faction and were willing to hide the scandal under the plausible pretext of only being admirers of and therefore servants to the Saints of the most high That these wretches might stand the higher in the worlds opinion the common people were perswaded to believe That if but two were destin'd to inherit eternal happiness the one must be a Scribe the other a Pharisee now the Scribes were not all necessarily Pharisees tho' some of them were the account given of their difference by Tostatus Petavii animadv in Epiph. ◠1. tom 1. ad Haeresin 15. as quoted by Petavius in his notes on Epiphanius is very good and it 's this Tho' the Scribes and Pharisees are joined in the same Gospel text yet as distinct one from another it s to be observ'd that they are not distinguished as the Pharisees and Saducees i. e. as if they were direct opposites for no Saducee can possibly be a Pharisee at the same time he is a Saducee but they are distinguished one from another as a Grammarian and a Logician may be for though its one thing to be a Logician and another to be a Grammarian yet the same person may very well be both so it s one thing to be a Scribe another to be a Pharisee for he that 's a Scribe must be a man learned in the Law of Moses he that 's a Pharisee must enter himself into a particular Sect and engage in a peculiar method of living but he that is a Pharisee that is a Sectary may be a Scribe too i. e. a man learned in the Law at the same time With these we have Lawyers named by our Saviour but their employment being to explain the Law to the people which was the employment of the Scribes too they seem to be one and the same sort of men and the case is the plainer if Maldonate's opinion be true Maldona◠in Matth. c. 2. That some Scribes were as publick Notaries others as publick Teachers so having a double office incumbent upon their party Take these Scribes Lawyers and Pharisees together they were notorious Hypocrites They had reduc'd Religion to nothing but air to a meer empty shew they had a form of Godliness but they denyed the power of it They were extremely ambitious and vain-glorious even to ridiculousness They laid heavy burdens upon the shoulders of others but would not touch them themselves with one of their fingers they did all their works to be seen of men they made broad their Phylacteries that they might seem the greater zealots for the Law and enlarged the fringes upon the corners of their garments for the same purpose they loved the uppermost rooms at feasts and the chief places in the Synagogues and greetings in the market places Matth. 23 4-7 and to be called of men Rabbi Rabbi all this contrary to that simplicity and modesty which their Law in several places required of them Again these in conjunction shut up the kingdom of heaven against those that were desirous to enter it They abused prayer by running it out into an impertinent length that the world might not suspect men of such fervent devotions could have any thoughts of devouring widows houses They abused the intent of Proselytisme that being to bring strangers to the knowledge of God but they made theirs twofold more the children of hell than they were themselves They allowed perjury payed Tythes of Mint Anise and Cummin but omitted the weightier things of the Law Judgment Mercy and Faith They were outwardly clean but inwardly conscious to themselves of infinite extortion and excess They appear'd outwardly righteous to the eyes of undiscerning men but within were full of hypocrisie and all iniquity as our Saviour informs us in the continuation of that chapter The Pharisees particularly were so infamous for these things that one Joshua an ancient Rabbine and if his age be rightly calculated antecedent to our Saviour's Incarnation reckons the foolish severities of the Pharisees as one of those things that brought a general infelicity upon the world and yet by those hypocritical severities they pretended to merit Heaven and more they judged their own wills so absolutely free their own abilities towards performance of the Divine Law so very great that They esteemed a reward of mercy or happiness attain'd by God's free grace a matter not worth their acceptance but glory purchas'd by merit was really great and honourable they encourag'd impieties admirably by entayling felicity or a portion in the future world upon every one that was born an Israelite were his circumstances never so discouraging a principle re-asserted and maintained by their modern Rabbines Which corrupt opinions extreme superstitions and shameful Hypocrisies as they fill'd them with abundance of prejudices against our Saviours Doctrine and Person which carried nothing but love and meekness humility and sincerity along with them all direct contradictions to their opinions and practices so after our Saviour's time they expos'd 'em to all the contempt and derision imaginable hence they got those ridiculous
drooping soul above all the gay prospects of a flattering world above all the dangers generally attending despised piety to make Men sit loose to all those exterior blessings they meet with in this world and to account all things but as loss and dung in comparison of that Salvation wrought for them by Jesus to make them scorn the rack and wheel and smile at flames and lingring tortures and all this only upon the credit of a future happy state for the purchace of Crowns and kingdoms invisible to all eyes but those of faith and this too when all such sufferings and inconveniences might be avoided by a few short words and some little inconsiderable actions these atchievements are far beyond the most ambitious thoughts of meer mortal Creatures beyond their most aspiring hopes tho' influenced by those united powers which acted so vigorously in all the several Prophets of foregoing Ages It 's extremely derogatory to God's justice and wisdom to imagine that Man who was not able to support himself in his innocent state when once attack'd by a slight temptation tho' there were then no defects of any kind in his intellectuals should be able now when every faculty in him is weakned and perverted by the spreading infection of sin to work his own redemption or should God have ordered a greater price to have been paid for satisfaction for sin when a lower would have effected it or have sent a partaker of the eternal Godhead to take upon him and suffer in humane nature for the worlds crimes when an inferiour person might have compassed the great design as well Nor had the benefit conferr'd upon us been so valuable had God only wrought that for us which had he not done we could as easily have wrought for our selves But the case was otherwise fallen Man was now in a state of damnation perfect innocence and compleat satisfaction for inveterate guilt must retrieve him from Hell but fallen Man was incapable of any such innocence or satisfaction Angels who had sin'd were incapable of pity who had not sin'd were incapable of merit their Creation from nothing and their support in original sinlesness were benefits so great that all their chearful attendances on coelestial services were too little to requite he must therefore be somewhat greater and more perfect than either Men or Angels who undertook the mighty work who was in a capacity of meriting and not under a necessity of mercy which only the eternal Son of God could be he alone who was of himself impeccable could fully satisfie the utmost pretensions of infinite justice who was a voluntary in his exinanition or humiliation and sufferings and who needed no sacrifices for his own sins could perfectly atone the wrath of God and therefore he took Man's cause into his own hand and came in our nature bringing Salvation along with him then Natures Laws justly yielded to him who was the God of Nature the Heavens then declared the glory of God and the firmament shewed his handy work the faith of pious Men was vigorously re-inforc'd by the full and miraculous accomplishment of antient Prophecies and Promises and Angels themselves own'd it an honour to be the first Evangelists To prove that Jesus Christ was and could be no other than the Son of God we come to consider the intent and design of that Doctrine introduced by him and by his Apostles and Ministers preached to the world in his name where we are to observe That as the writings of the Old and New Testament are to be the great standard of whatsoever is at this day published to the world as the will of God so before the writing of the Gospel the Law of Moses and of the Prophets was the true and certain Test by which all Doctrines were to be tryed and as the Apostle writes to the Galatians Gal. 1.8 Tho' we or an Angel from heaven preach any other Gospel unto you than that ye have received let him be accursed So had Jesus whom we conclude the Messias gone about to propagate any other kind of Doctrines than what the Prophets had before or than what was in every point agreeable to their precepts and rules instead of being the worlds Saviour he had proved himself an accursed impostor and therefore when the Jews thought to take the advantage of him on this very score he prevents them with that open declaration Think not that I am come to destroy the Law or the Prophets I am not come to destroy but to fulfil Matth. 5.17 18 19. for verily I say unto you till heaven and earth pass one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the Law till all be fulfilled whosoever therefore shall break one of these least Commandments and shall teach men so he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven i. e. That he shall be of no esteem or value at all in the true Church of God But whosoever shall do and teach them the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven Luk. 10.25 26 27 28. Agreeably to this when the Lawyer stood up and tempted him and said Master what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life Christ goes not about to give him any new rules of life but referr'd him to the old what is written in the Law says he how readest thou And when the Lawyer had answered Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy strength and with all thy mind and thy neighbour as thy self which was the real summary of the Mosaic Moral Law as our Saviour himself elsewhere informs us Christ replyes upon him Thou hast answered well This do and thou shalt live Now if life i. e. life eternal were to be obtained by the practising according to Legal instructions there was no need of prescribing any new way of obtaining that everlasting happiness and therefore when Christ gives us that parable of the rich Man and Lazarus and introduces the tormented rich Man supplicating that Lazarus might be sent to forewarn his five brethren lest they also should come into the same terrible place Luke 16.17 ad fin Abraham tells him they have Moses and the Prophets let them hear them and to shew the fulness of their writings for reforming of sinners Abraham upon his farther importunity subjoyns If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they believe tho' one rose from the dead By which passage our Saviour plainly informs us that even himself and his own Gospel after his resurrection would never take any place where Moses and the Prophets were despised before the Law being the Gospels foundation and preparing the devout soul for it's entertainment for Christ still took notice of what we ought to consider That truth is always agreeable to it self and consequently the God of truth must be so too and therefore if the writers of the Old Testament were inspired
from heaven which all wise men have hitherto believed then the writers of the New Testament had no other way to prove their own inspiration but by agreement with the former lest the holy Spirit to whose conduct both pretended should seem inconsistent with himself or variable as mens humours could apprehend him It 's not now to be doubted but that our Saviour who knew what was in Man therefore all along gave just preventives of those Cavils which the malicious Jews could afterwards raise against him and therefore in his first Sermon upon the Mount he shews himself so far from evacuating what was in its own nature moral and perpetually obliging that he on the contrary clears it from all those putid glosses the Jewish readers or Rabbins had fixt upon it and whereas they had endeavoured to find as many starting holes from the severity of good Morals as the Jesuites of later years have done he gave his hearers the full sense and meaning of the Law that so by pretending to liberty from its rigours they might not run themselves into eternal woes and in plain terms lets them know that whereas they were ready simply to imagine the severities of the Scribes and Pharisees very extraordinary and meritorious they were infinitely deceived and that except their righteousness should exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees they should in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven Matth. 5.20 It was doubtless the full end and design of Moses and the Prophets to advance the honour of that God who employed them to make his Name and his Laws respected not only among the tribes of Israel but among all those nations to whose knowledge their writings were likely at any time to come who by the rationality and tendency of the Laws would certainly judge of the wisdom goodness and integrity of the Law-giver but when those Prophets and others had done their best their endeavours were mixt with so many failures and imperfections that sometimes they fell themselves a great way under God's displeasure as Moses by his infidelity and presumption at the rock The man of God that Prophesied against the Altar in Bethel by yielding to the lying suggestions of the old Prophet Jonah by his frowardness because of God's superseding his prophetical denunciation by his long suffering and mercy extended to penitent sinners c. And besides in all those services those holy Men perform'd they could claim no higher a title than that of undeserving servants for that they had only done what was their plain duty and in case of failure they were obnoxious to very severe penalties and Moses tho' he have that honourable character that he was faithful in all God's house it was but as a servant still and for a testimony of those things that were to be spoken after Heb. 3.5 6. But Christ as a Son over his own house took a more exact and effectual care in all things to promote the glory of his Father It 's natural for the Son to be more sollicitous in such cases than a mercenary servant who does what he does prompted both by a fear of punishment and an earnest expectation of reward above both which things a pious Son always lives and therefore whereas the rest always call God their Lord and King c. the blessed Jesus continually calls him his Father his heavenly father and by that relation he so stands in to the Almighty and by what he has done for us in taking our nature upon him and the consequences of that assumption he has procured the same privilege superiour to what was apprehended by those of old with assurance of being heard to say in our Prayers Our Father which art in heaven But to effect all this in relation to his Fathers honour and our good how many scorns abuses persecutions and barbarous cruelties did he undergo from wicked Men yet as freely as if he had been altogether unconcern'd so long as Men could but any ways be reduced to an acknowledgment of their errors and a serious repentance What he underwent so made him as Man the more fit to prescribe Laws to others who were likely to suffer extremely from the same foolish world for embracing those truths he delivered them as we always esteem an Humble man most fit to teach others humility and a Charitable man charity and a Patient man patience For tho' others may declaim as well in commendation of the same virtues and in reproof of the same vices yet the discourses of exemplary persons are justly expected to make the deepest impressions upon their hearers With this advantage our blessed Lord instructed every one that would receive his Doctrine in the ways of happiness he used all the allurements of irresistible Wisdom and unanswerable Reason all the motives of Mercy and Goodness to procure their attendance and obedience He set them a compleat pattern of obedience to God and of innocence and holiness in his converse and then gives that as a standing rule that his Disciples should follow his example and let their light shine before Men for that very end that others seeing their good works might glorifie their Father which was in Heaven But when the blessed Jesus design'd the reformation of a sinful World the nature of his Doctrine and the manner of its propagation was adapted rightly to so admirable an end And therefore whereas the wretched Heathen part of Mankind did infinitely dishonour their Creator whereas they exactly answer'd that account of the Apostle When they knew God they glorified him not as God neither were thankful Rom. 1.21 22 c. but became vain in their Imaginations and their foolish hearts were darkned they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an Image made like to corruptible Man and to Birds and to four-footed Beasts and to creeping things they changed the truth of God into a lie and worshipp'd and serv'd the creature more than the Creator whence they were filled with all unrighteousness fornication wickedness covetousness malice envy c. Whereas this was their real condition infinite numbers of them by this means running head-long into everlasting damnation and yet the ill-natured Jews to whom the Oracles of God were at that time committed took no care for their recovery pleasing themselves onely with a fond conceit of their own righteousness crying to all the rest of Mankind Stand by your selves come not near us for we are holier than you Since they only talk'd of their being the people of God and boasted of his Temple studying more to proselyte Men to an outward Circumcision and a few empty Ceremonies than to real inward holiness and integrity since these very Jews did but abuse their own greater advantages and trample upon the most excellent and obliging part of the Law our Saviour rectified their Error by the dilatation of his own Doctrine and taking exact care to have it spread as far as humane guilt had extended before so
design'd to exempt us from all fear of Humane Authority or Justice but it 's à minore ad majus from the less to the greater If we should be afraid of humane Justice which can only inflict temporal Punishments much more should we fear that of Heaven which equally extends to body and soul to temporal and eternal Punishments so that when the fear of one comes in competition with the other we may chuse rather to undergo humane Severities than to cope with everlasting Burnings But if we look upon Justice in its own Nature it 's moral and good from Eternity and therefore the obligations laid upon us to follow Justice are indispensible Now as I formerly observ'd the excellence of Moral Virtues flows from their agreeableness to the nature of Almighty God who is the great and inexhausted source of every thing that 's good therefore whatsoever there is in Man that 's really commendable that Commendation flows from his endeavours to resemble God to be holy as He is holy and perfect as He is perfect and every such part of true Goodness is infinite in God so it 's good for a Man to be Wise and he may by endeavours acquire a considerable Talent in Wisdom but God is infinitely Wise so that without any assistance or forecast he knows and understands every thing at once with all those Circumstances attending on it It 's good for a man to cleanse and purifie himself as far as possible from all filthiness and pollution both of Flesh and Spirit to avoid the very garment spotted with the Flesh every appearance of evil endeavours of this Nature are always requir'd of all Men and those who are pure in heart have Blessedness ascertain'd to them but God is infinite in Purity nothing polluted can possibly approach him nor can the least thought of it be affixt upon him without denying him It 's good for a Man to be Tender Compassionate Loving no Duty 's more inculcated upon Men nothing more agreeable to the temper of the Gospel there will yet be some strugglings in corrupt Nature against it but God is Love it self Infinite and Essential yet as Wisdom in a Man consists in knowing some things rightly but in God consists in knowing all things as Purity in Man consists in honest Endeavours after Innocence and Blamelesness in every respect but in God exalts him infinitely above every thing that is corrupt or imperfect as Love in Man shews it self in doing Good as we have opportunity within the narrow Sphere of our Activity but in God is diffusive to all his Creatures so if it be Justice universal in Man to make good as far as he 's capable every thing that 's due to others universal Justice in God must be of the same nature only infinitely perfect in him because it 's impossible he should be deceiv'd or mistaken in any particular and therefore consequently if it be Justice in any Man according to that Power he 's entrusted with to punish those who do ill and to reward those who do well and if no Man can be counted universally Just howsoever he may manage himself in all other Instances if he be defective in this It 's then as certainly Justice in Almighty God to bestow Rewards and Punishments upon all Persons according to their Actions and therefore the Apostle sets off the consummate Justice of the great Tribunal at last by this that when we appear before it 2 Cor. 5.10 we shall all receive according to what we have done in the Flesh whether it be good or evil and therefore if it should be suppos'd that God should fail in this particular Distribution we must upon this supposition conclude God cannot be infinitely Just and if he fail of Infinity in any one proper Attribute he can really be infinite in none so not infinitely Wise or Merciful or Holy if withal he be not infinitely Just But if we allow that God is indeed infinitely Just then though we allow him to be infinitely Good and Merciful yet his Justice must as certainly be satisfied in the punishment of Criminals who are obstinate in their Crimes as his Mercy in pardoning Criminals who are truly sensible of that Guilt they lye under Now among the Sons of Men there are none who are not great Sinners therefore they are all properly the objects of God's Justice and infinite Justice can never be at rest till those who are Sinners are punish'd therefore that must be true that that Mercy is as infinite which pardons one Criminal who has deserved punishment as that Justice is which condignly punishes all Delinquents and this stands good let the Pardon be granted on what considerations soever for for Justice to punish the guilty is but natural but for Mercy to pardon them seems not so naturally necessary since Mercy shews it self infinite in giving all things their Being in providing every thing necessary for them in giving them Rules and Laws of all kinds to act by and all possible Encouragements for them to manage themselves by those Rules and all this when there was no Merit on the side of the Creature to oblige him to it and that God being infinitely happy in himself had no need either of their Existence or their Services therefore the very Being of all things is only the effect of his eternal Will as the four and twenty Elders acknowledge in their Eucharistic Hymns to God Thou art worthy say they Rev. 4.11 to receive Glory and Honour and Power for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were Created Now after all this Mercy shown and this Mercy abus'd and despis'd Justice might very properly take place in punishing the Despisers nor indeed could Mercy however infinite have taken place to the prejudice of Justice or the Obstruction of its free passage had there not been a proper Mean found out for the Satisfaction of Justice otherwise than by immediate or extream Punishment that is by the Interposition of our Saviour in and by whom Mercy and Pardon make their free approaches to undeserving Sinners He that shall go about to make one Attribute in God inferiour to another goes about to ruine the right Notion of a God for in an infinite Being nothing can be but what 's infinite and among Infinites there can be no inequality but they go about to degrade Divine Justice exceedingly who make all the effects of God's punishing Justice only Arbitrary and not natural or necessary and therefore determine that he punishes those who are eternally damn'd only because it 's his pleasure to do so whereas he could forgive them all freely were they never so guilty and those who are at all Forgiven he really does forgive so without any regard to any Merits of their Own or to the Merits of any Other on their account and all these things the Socinians assert merely that they may take away all the Merit of our Saviour's Life or Death and make
Mankind are eternally damn'd we conclude their Damnation is the effect of infinite Justice and that they have no more than they deserve and whereas all those who believe in Christ have their Sins pardoned and are eternally saved we believe that the consequence of the same infinite Justice for since Christ has really satisfied for our Sins and his Father has accepted it for us and the Will of God the Father and of God the Son being eternally the same so that the Satisfaction and the Acceptance were of eternal Determination God could not evidence that Justice to us but by making good that Original Contract or Agreement and so by bestowing Pardon and eternal Happiness on all those who believe in his Son and the same Justice is as much evidenc'd in the condemnation of the Wicked because the Satisfaction offer'd by Christ being sufficient to atone for all Sins upon condition that all Sinners believe in him who has so satisfied that sleight put upon the Condition or the Unbelief of the greater part of Mankind exposes them justly to Divine Vengeance as even common Reason teaches us The Socinians tell us as if they were the Privadoes of Heaven that God's Mercy and Justice are both moderated by his Wisdom and Goodness as if they needed somewhat of Limitation or Restraint but why should Justice and Mercy be moderated or governed by Wisdom and Goodness more than Wisdom or Goodness should be managed by Justice or Mercy God's Attributes do not superintend one another but they are all infinite concentred in one infinite Being therefore all equal and no more capable of interfering one with another than God can be supposed capable of disagreeing with himself and whereas we are taught by those Men of Reason that that Justice which is exercised in punishing Sinners is called in Scripture God's Severity his Anger and his Fury if we allow it will they say that Severity in God or Anger or Fury are unjust We know those words are generally understood in an ill sense Severity among Men can admit of no more favourable Character than that of Summum Jus or extremity of Law which is thought to be Summa injuria or extremity of Injustice and Anger and Fury in Men are generally taken for vicious Excesses and such as till a Man can govern or conquer he 's not look'd upon as any extraordinary proficient in Vertue but we hope there are no such vicious Excesses in God therefore such words are made use of only according to Mens Capacities to shew us how very angry God is with Sin and Sinners and yet no more than Justice in consistence with Mercy will allow and to strike a just Aw and Terror upon Men then they who will avoid breaking such or such a Law out of Fear of the Indignation of the Law-giver whose superiour Power and Authority may render him formidable may much more be afraid of breaking the Laws of that God whose Anger is irresistable and whose Justice is inevitable and though there be neither Justice nor Mercy in punishing the Innocent or in acquitting the Guilty yet there is no trespass upon either in pardoning the Guilty when the Innocent Freely and Voluntarily takes that Guilt upon himself especially when the Quality of that Innocent so offering himself is such that the same degree of Punishment or Punishment as heavy falling upon him cannot possibly bring eternal Ruines upon Him as it would upon inferiour Offenders as we often see among meer Men some of so strong and vigorous a Constitution that the same Pains shall scarce disorder them which bring present Death to those of feebler Tempers And if it were no Injustice for the Jewish High-Priests by God's immediate Command to transfer the Crimes of themselves and the People upon the Heads of those Beasts they offer'd in Sacrifice for Sin which Translation of their Guilt they signified by laying their Hands upon the Head of the intended Sacrifice Exod. 29.10 which Beasts were really innocent yet then died for Mens Sins not as in their own nature expiatory Vid. Oughtram de Sacrificiis l. 1. c. 22. but as referring to the Sacrifice of Christ which alone was so in it self then neither was it Injustice in God to lay upon Christ the Iniquity of us all and by so doing to expiate our Sins in earnest though the same Blessed Jesus were Holy Harmless and Vndefiled as we are sure he was Nor indeed could any thing but what was truly innocent be substituted to suffer for the Guilty since otherwise its native Crimes must have needed Expiation whence among other Reasons I conclude Humane Sacrifices abominable to God because all were Sinners and one Sinner could not reasonably atone for another which was no Exception to the Sacrifice of Christ But our Adversaries have their artificial Glosses whereby to put off the plainest Evidences of Scripture that assert His Satisfaction for our Sins for when we are told that our Saviour Died for us that He laid down his Life for Sinners c. they allow no more to be signified by it than this That Christ was a Sacrifice for us in the same manner as former Sacrifices were for those who offered them so that as those Sacrifices were never look'd upon as any Compensation for the Sins of the Offerers neither could that of Christ be a Compensation for theirs for whom he offered himself only his Offering Himself so seems like the others as a certain Condition on which Remission of Sins should be granted But if common Sense may be our Guide the Difference must be very great between this of Christ and all former Sacrifices offer'd by the Jews as generally the Antitype is accounted of a superiour Nature to the Type for tho' Remission of Sins were granted to the Offerer upon his Sacrifice being offer'd yet it was not upon account of that Sacrifice offered but upon account of the Sincerity and Obedience of the Offerer and that respect his Sacrifice had to the Death of the Messias yet to come for though Beasts were innocent there was nothing meritorious in their being sacrificed their Sufferings being involuntary and themselves in a corrupt and insensible state because there was nothing in the ancient Holocausts considerable but their relation to the Messias therefore they were offer'd continually from their first Institution to the time of our Saviour's Death but when the Messias was once come and had offer'd himself knowingly and voluntarily for Sin the former Sacrifices were all effectually to cease and our Lord to offer himself no more than once therefore there must be something extraordinary in that one Sacrifice which was not in others and once offering of that must be more than equivalent to all the former that really and effectually in it self expiating Sin which the others did not and this the Apostle himself urges when he tells us Heb. 9 9â— 11 12. That the Jewish Tabernacle was a figure for the time then present in which were
farther than as it laid him open to Sufferings but only to his Death and Passion and the Preliminaries to them that absolute Innocence reigning in his Humane Nature rendering all those Sufferings to which Humane Nature alone was liable the more meritorious and that inexpressible Condescension of the Eternal Son of God to take our Nature upon him join'd with his consequent Sufferings made one entire sufficient Oblation and Satisfaction for the Sins of the whole World But to suppose as Socinians do that one great meaning of the Death of Christ was that God by that means might give Men a pledge of that Favour or Pardon he intended for them is idle those who had any thing of a true Notion of a God would have depended upon his Word authentically revealed without any such extraordinary Pledge those who had perverse Notions of him would take very little notice of such a Pawn given for the Argument would be very obvious to a Sceptic If God be such as some define him infinitely Wise Good Powerful True there 's no need of such extraordinary Methods to confirm Men in an opinion of his Veracity if he be of a different or less perfect Nature a thousand such Strategems can give us no sufficient reason of Confidence in him We find indeed the Ancients upon Leagues or Compacts between them offering Sacrifices to their Gods and with their Hands laid upon the Victim's Head calling their Gods to witness their Sincerity in such Leagues and making their solemn Protestations one to another to observe propounded Articles the design of that Ceremony seems to be onely to intimate the agreeing Persons serious Imprecation that their own blood might be shed in the same manner as that of the dying Victims in case they falsified that Contract then made but we can imagine nothing of this nature to have pass'd between God and man in the Death of Christ Men were so far consenting indeed as to shed the blood of Christ but far from promising Faith and Obedience to their God at the same time no they acted in plain defiance to those Revelations God had made of himself and those very Persons who pretended to the most immediate Dependance upon Christ had very little Confidence in him till such time as his Resurrection from the dead reconfirmed their fading Hopes and made them believe he was capable of being their Saviour and Redeemer But if at last it were necessary that Almighty God should so seal the assurance of his Pardon to Mankind a meaner Victim might have serv'd than that of his onely Son since nothing could possibly create in guilty Men a greater Diffidence in God's Mercy than so severe a procedure on so very slight and impertinent a Reason with that Son concerning whom he profest that he was well pleased with him After all the Socinians would flamm us off with a metaphorical Redemption the Consequence of which I fear must have been but a metaphorical Pardon of our Sins in spite of which we might still be really and properly damn'd St. Peter drawing the parallel between ours and a proper Redemption teaches us to believe that our Redemption is proper too forasmuch as we were not redeem'd with corruptible things as Silver and Gold the ordinary means of redemption for Criminals or Captives 1 Pet. 1.18 19. but with the precious Blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and without Spot which precious Blood being of infinitely more value than Silver or Gold could and did effect as proper a Redemption for them for whom it was offer'd as the greatest Summs of Treasures paid down for their Ransom possibly could To convince us yet further of Christ's Satisfaction for our Sins the Scripture represents him to us as a Mediator but our Adversaries reply to this that Moses is called a Mediator too yet Moses never satisfied for the Sins of Israel to prove that Moses is so called they allege that of the Apostle That the Law was ordained by Angels in the hand of a Mediator Gal. 3.19 yet it 's well known that Ancient Writers and Interpreters generally understand that Passage of Christ whom they certainly and truly conclude to have been that God more particularly appearing to the Israelites in their passage from Aegypt to Canaan and so he delivered the Law to them by his own power or with his own Hand as we may well express it the Decalogue the great binding part of the Law being written with the Finger of God as Moses informs us and so put into the Hands of Moses and the blessed Angels as ministring Spirits attending their Lord in the Solemnity and this Interpretation is not easily to be eluded But if by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Mediatour we only understand with Suidas one that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Peace-maker it then is applicable to Moses or to any other who goes between contending Parties to make up any quarrel or breach that may be between them But in this case we must always consider the Persons between whom matters are to be rectified their Natures and the nature of that Offence which may have caus'd a breach between them and he who undertakes such a Work had need to have a considerable Interest in both the Parties who are at odds for an Vndertaker in such a case who is liable to any exception on either side is like to mediate to very little purpose Now it 's no very hard Task to find Persons fit enough to take up quarrels between Men and Men all Men agreeing in one and the same Nature and Offences between them generally arising from both sides but that breach there is between God and man is not so easily made up their Natures are infinitely different one absolutely pure and unchangeable the other miserably corrupt and humourous man continually offending God continually obliging man proud haughty disdainful insensible God kind condescending essential Love and Goodness yet a Mediator such as should be able to procure Peace between God and man must have a very great Influence on both sides to which purpose it 's indispensibly necessary he should be compleatly Innocent Moses was uncapable of such a Mediation though he interceded for the People of Israel by his Prayers and was earnest and importunate with God to turn from that fierce Anger he had justly express'd against a stubborn and ungrateful Generation but Moses himself at the very time of his zealous Interposition for Israel was as other Men obnoxious to God's anger and felt the effect of it when for his Transgression at the Rock he was deny'd entrance into the Land of Canaan so that in effect he did no more than what 's particularly incumbent on God's Priests in all Ages i. e. to offer Prayers and Supplications for the People they live among and by such means to the utmost of their ability to stand in the Gap and to divert threatning Judgments from guilty Heads Our Saviour as necessity required was Holy
habitual Obedience yet he stopt upon none of these Considerations but was for ought we can find by the Sacred Story as ready to be offered as his Parent was to offer him now such a kind of Obedience cannot reasonably be expected from any but a Son nor from any but the best of Sons such was Isaac but as the Burden the Son of God undertook was infinitely greater than what Isaac was concerned in the Eternal Determination of Heaven in respect of Man infinitely harder to comply with so it required a Son more Powerful more Obedient more united with his Father than any Earthly Son could be with the most obliging Earthly Parent therefore there being that Eternal Unity of Will between God the Father and God the Son it was impossible there should be the least Reluctance in the Son against what was resolv'd on for the rescue of Sinners from the Wrath to come and therefore that declining the terrible Hour which appears in his Prayer before his being seiz'd on by the Jews was purely the Effect of Humane Nature necessarily infirm but clearly understanding the Terror of the approaching Conflict and therefore shewing the result of the purest Flesh and Blood yet without Sin Again when we reflect on the Relation between a Father and a Son as it 's very close so their mutual Loves and Affections must needs be very extraordinary and tender this is observ'd and expected among earthly Parents and Children and it's what Nature commands and Religion so far as true obliges to this then must be much more eminent between God the Father and the Son and so our Lord himself teaches us The Father loveth the Son and as the greatest evidence of that intense Love John 3.35 he has given him all things into his hand he asserts the same again The Father loveth the Son and sheweth him all things that he doth 5.20 which is an Expression of the greatest Intimacy and Unity the same Jesus declares that his Father hears him always 11.42 and the Palmist in the Person of the Father speaking to the Son says Psal 2.8 Ask of me and I will give thee the Heathen for thine Inheritance and the uttermost parts of the Earth for thy Possession and on assurance of this Christ when he reproves St. Peter for using his Sword against those who came to take him tells him he could pray to his Father and he should presently send him more than twelve Legions of Angels from all which Circumstances we may be assured that the Interests of an infinitely Obedient Son with an infinitely Loving Father must be infinite therefore whereas Mens Sins were infinitely odious and that Vengeance infinite which was by consequence to fall upon Men for those Sins there was nothing but an infinite Interest that could possibly by any means whatsoever divert that Vengeance and this infinite Interest was proper to God the Son that is to such a Son as was at Unity nay was One with his Father from whence it is that we are taught by the Rules of Christianity and a Socinian himself will scarce contradict it to present all our Prayers to God in the Name of his Son Jesus Christ so whereas our Lord teaches his Disciples Whatsoever ye shall ask in my Name John 14.13 14. that will I do that the Father may be glorified in the Son if ye shall ask any thing in my Name I will do it 16.23 26. he afterwards varies thus In that day ye shall ask me nothing Verily verily I I say unto you whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my Name he will give it you Hitherto ye have askt nothing in my Name ask and ye shall receive that your Joy may be full which two Texts compared together shew the absolute Prevalency of the Name of the Son of God with our Heavenly Father and the absolute and indissoluble Union of the Father and the Son so that it may properly and without any thing like a Contradiction be asserted that what One does the Other does and what the Father grants for the Son's sake that the Son grants nor can any thing of an Heavenly Nature be granted to Mankind but by the Deity so united in it self by which Consideration all inferiour Intercessors between God and Man are excluded from being in themselves the Objects of our Religious Adorations because there can be no such adequate Unions of Persons between them nor any such absolute Power or immediate Interest in such inferiour Beings as there can be no reasonable Competition of Interests between a Son adopted out of Commiseration and an onely begotten and universally loving and obedient Heir as then the Interest of a Son with the Father was necessary for Humane Redemption so it was necessary that God the Son particularly should assume our Nature to do and suffer for us in such a measure as we might be redeem'd upon acceptance of the proper Conditions from Eternal Destruction Finally the Tenderness of the Son oft-times shews it self when the Gravity and just Severity of a Father seems inexorable to an Offender yet even then when the Father seems of himself and otherwise would be inflexible to the Criminal he is pleas'd to see the Tenderness of his Son and will frequently encourage and accept of his Intercession so if we may compare small things with great our Heavenly Father deals with us in respect of the Intercession of his Son and though Justice cry'd out for Vengeance against Sinners he was particularly well pleased when he saw Him cloth'd with Flesh for accomplishing that great Work of Mercy and Goodness he was pleas'd at his Interposition between the Criminals and impendent Punishment and since the Divine Nature was wholly incapable of flexible Affections nothing but unbounded Love Mercy Justice c. concentring in it the Apostle teaches us that our incarnate Lord our great High-priest was such an One as could be affected with our Infirmities Heb. 5.7 8 9. could have compassion on the Ignorant and of them that are out of the way who in the days of his flesh when he offer'd up Prayers and Supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death and was heard in that he feared Though he were a Son yet he learned Obedience by the things which he suffer'd and being made perfect he became the Author of eternal Salvation to all them that believe the Assumption of our Nature created in him a sympathetic Tenderness of Humane Infirmities as appear'd by his Tears over Jerusalem and at the Grave of Lazarus yet he was free from all Sin in those condescending Tears of his now he that had such extraordinary Compassion for miserable Sinners could not but exert the utmost of his sacred Interests on their behalf and make a free access for them to the Throne of Grace where such Obedience Interest and Compassion being indispensibly necessary for our Good and those Qualifications being naturally