l. 10. p. 360. when making gaudy offerings to them No let but the hand free from guilt be lifted up to the Altars of the Gods not the most rich or costly hecatombs shall sooner reconcile the angry Deities than those I shall add no more to shew that sense the Pagans had of the ends of religion but onely make a short reflection upon God's justice in dealing with Mankind as set down by St. Paul He tells us God will render to every man according to his deeds Rom. 2.6 c. to them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality eternal life but to them that are contentious and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish to every soul of man that doth evil to the Jew first and also to the Gentile Now that the Jews and Gentiles who stood upon no equal ground yet should suffer equally in case of disobedience seems to some very harsh but if again it be considered that that God who gave the Jewish Nation such great advantages required of them proportionably great returns whilst the Gentiles who had been partakers of less light were onely required to walk in that light they had to come up as near to a perfection in faith and virtue as that would admit of This consider'd the Gentiles were every whit as guilty in neglecting their duties which were lighter and fewer as the Jews in neglecting theirs which were more numerous and difficult since the disobedience to the Divine commands is as notorious in one case as in the other and this reflection reaches farther and teaches those who are more weak and ignorant not to presume too much upon God's mercy because they know so little since it 's as reasonable they should perform that little they know as that we who know more should do our duties and their negligence and proportionable unfruitfulness in good and ours proceed from one and the same damnably offensive principle for as the Apostle urges it v. 12. as many as have sinn'd without Law shall perish without Law and as many as have sinn'd in the Law shall be judg'd by the Law This every Man must acknowledge to be the greatest equity in the World the faith and works of the Jews and so of Christians shall be canvas'd and examin'd by those rules of faith and practice extraordinarily imparted to them the Gentiles had no such Law but the light of Nature was their guide therefore their works shall be tried by that and by no other light now a defect in obedience to the innate light of nature is as much a contempt of God and so as criminal as a defect in obedience to the written Law of God and consequently as justly punish'd now how far this natural light extends as these passages I have quoted from Heathen Writers considerably evidence so the Apostle tells us That the Gentiles which have not the Law i. e. the same Law that was given to the Jews v. 14. do by nature the things contain'd in the Law they not having the Law are a Law unto themselves This proves that truth that God's written Law is not a disannulling but a confirming and enlarging upon the Law of Nature in the manner of a Commentary upon an intricate Text to illustrate and explain it well then The Gentiles shew this natural Law written in their hearts by the witness of their consciences and their thoughts in the mean time accusing or excusing one another v. 15. for having as I shew'd before clear apprehensions of the Being of a God and having made very considerable discoveries of his nature so far as legible in the works of the Creation they cannot upon a serious debate with themselves and weighing their own actions by their own notions and rules but have an infallible certainty of the rectitude or pravity of their actions and this is as much as a Jew or Christian can do by his publick Laws and an exact scanning of them Now if my Conscience can certainly inform me of things essentially and eternally so whether they be good or bad the same Conscience will give me as infallible a certainty that God is and must be just when he rewards me according to my actions whether they be good or evil he calls me to account for what I do know not for what I do not know and punishes me for transgressions within the reach of my understanding to have avoided and not for those that were unintelligible without a positive revelation and this even corrupted Reason will own is agreeable to the strictest rules of equity and justice We are to enquire since we have seen what Jews and Gentiles before our Saviour's birth into the World understood concerning the nature and ends of Religion which every one for himself supposed to be true since none can be thought mad enough to trouble himself about that religion he certainly knew to be false We are to enquire how far both Jews and Gentiles had deprav'd and perverted those ends and what care they took to manage themselves according to that knowledge they really had when our Saviour appear'd in the flesh And here again we may begin with the Jews among whom if we find an extraordinary degeneracy we can the less wonder at it among the Gentiles If then we examine the state of things among them we have it thus It was once among them Do this and live i. e. Live here on Earth in a strict obedience to those things commanded you in the Law and you shall be rewarded with an happy future life Now when the terrors and glories of Mount Sinai were fresh in memory and Parents according as they were order'd took care to inculcate God's power justice and goodness particularly exerted toward the People of Israel into their Children and gave agreeable examples in themselves obedience was the common study and peace here and a glorious expectation hereafter the common consequence But when a new generation arose who had not seen God's wonderful dealings with his people and the too prevailing examples of neighbouring Idolaters taught the Israelites a wicked ingratitude the Law of God was slighted and as it is among us at this day the Man who could defie Heaven with the greatest audacity was the most set by And though frequent judgments over-took their Impieties there was no thorough purgation made among them but they went on to add sin to sin so that among the Scribes and Pharisees the great Zealots of the Law at the time of Christ's coming in the flesh things were at that pass that the blessed Jesus had reason when he told his Auditors that Except their righteousness should exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees Matth. 5.20 they should in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven If therefore the very best among the Jews as they were generally esteem'd were utterly uncapable of eternal happiness what may
end to all the strength and vigour of the Animal so crush'd nothing can be more fatal to a real Serpent than a Wound inflicted there it may live some time afterwards and when the Head is crush'd may threaten with the Tail but those Threatnings are languid and easily to be avoided If therefore the Seed of the Woman could crush the Serpent's Head he must get the Mastery and intire Conquest over all the Wiles and Stratagems over all the Strength and Violence of the Devil so as He must for the future lose his Interests and Power and be defeated in the expected events of his Malice and in short have his Tyranny wholly broken by the Seed of the Woman this was what alone could comfort Adam after his fatal Error But this Victory was not to be so easily gotten but that the Seed of the Woman must be partaker of the Inconveniences of the War the serpent must bruise his heel or wound his inferiour Part that which was at the greatest distance from his Vitals and from the Head that governing directing advising instructing Part so that the Government and Power of the Woman's Seed was not to be ended but he was to lose some Blood in that Conflict in which the Serpent's head was to be crush'd without Blood-shed then there could be no Victory obtain'd nor must the Seed of the Woman be absolutely invulnerable for had he been so there could have been no shedding of Blood and consequently no hope for remission to miserable Man Now those Sacrifices afterwards offer'd wherein the blood of living Creatures was shed were propitiatory or design'd to atone that God who was justly displeased with Sin and Sinners not as if the blood of Bulls or Goats or Lambs had any thing propitiatory in their own Nature but they were to represent continually to the Offerers minds that effectually propitiatory Blood which was to be shed in the great Combat between the Seed of the Woman and the Serpent wherein the former was to suffer in his less noble and inferiourly originated part and if those outward a scrifices effected so much they did as much as possibly they could and as much as was necessary for them to do for while Men had daily before their Eyes a representation of that bloody Contest wherein that great and malicious Enemy of Mankind was to be entirely conquer'd Men had reason always to live in hopes and to reap inviolable Comforts from those hopes But now after all if those Commemorative or Typical Sacrifices did bring to mind that Blood afterwards to be shed then when that Blood so represented was actually shed there was no need of any farther prophetical Representation and if the several Washings and Purifications under the Law related to that inward Cleanness and Purity which was afterwards by a more proper medium to be effected then when upon the Conquest gain'd by the Woman's Seed over that infernal Serpent that Sacred Blood was shed which was able to cleanse Mankind from all Sin the inward Purity of the Soul was effectually procured and ceremonial Purifications were rendred altogether useless and therefore that Law enjoining such Ceremonies might very well be disannull'd since Types or Shadows were never invented by any with any other design but to be vacated and abolished at such times as those things appear'd of which they were design'd at first to be the Shadows or Representations The Ceremonial Law though given to the Jews at first by God himself yet might very well be abrogated because in it self it was not essentially necessary to the being or well-being of a Church had it been so it had been unchangeable because it had been a part of the Law of Nature as the Moral Law was that receiv'd no additions or diminutions by the Ceremonial Law nor by the coming or the inherent Legislative Power of the Messias The truth of this reason that the Ceremonial Law is not necessary to the being or the well-being of a Church we find by the existence of the Christian Church among our selves at this day and by a due reflection upon the Church of God existent in the World before the time of Moses's receiving a Law from Mount Sinai We cannot deny but that the Roman part of the Christian World is as much nay infinitely more clogg'd with Ceremonies than that of the Jews ever was though we take in the traditional part of Jewish Ceremonies which had no foundation in what was delivered by Moses this our Church takes notice of in that preface concerning CeremonÃes prefixt to the Liturgy where giving the reason why many Ceremonies were taken away which had been used in times of Popery She tells us Preface of Ceremonies why some abol some kept It is partly because the great excess and multitude of them had so encreas'd in these latter days that the burden of them was intolerable whereof St. Augustine in his time complained that they were grown to such a multitude that the estate of Christian People was in worse case concerning that matter than were the Jews and therefore he advised the taking away that burden as there was opportunity but if he complain'd then much more would he have done so had he seen the number of those in use at the time of the Reformation to which the Multitude he had seen was nothing to be compared which multitude of Ceremonies was so great and many of them so dark that they did more confound and darken than declare and set forth Christ's Benefits to us This Persuasion was so rationally settled in the minds of our first Reformers that whatsoever the Enemies of it may pretend the established Church of England as distinct from that of Rome was settled with the fewest and the most decent Ceremonies of any National Church in the Christian World and upon that reason among others has been accounted the Glory of the Reformation by all but a few Ingrateful and Hypocritical Schismaticks whose viperine Rage has always been endeavouring to tear out the Bowels of their Mother Indeed under the Roman Cloud of numberless Ceremonies true Christianity has been almost lost and the Strength and Purity of that Holy Religion delivered to the World by our Saviour and his Apostles perverted into gaudy Show and ridiculous Pageantry Simplicity as far as it interferes not with Brutality and Slovenliness best becomes the Oeconomy of the Gospel and to be sure the Everlasting Truth will shine brightest there where there 's no Artifice made use of to disguise it nor more of Weight in matters of Salvation laid upon outward Circumstances than upon inward and solid Sincerity and Holiness This was the Ornament of God's Church before the Mosaic particular Dispensation for though it were impossible for Adam or any of the Antediluvian Patriarchs or for Abraham and his Posterity till the Redemption out of Aegyt to perform their Sacrifices without somewhat of Ceremony yet neither the same nor the same number were required of them as were
try'd He could not reasonably refuse to stand to that Tryal but neither do we find that his Enemies ever went about to shew the Discrepancy between his Doctrines and his Practice and therefore when they thought to cajole him into their snares by a most malicious Complement they gave him indeed no more than a true and proper Character Master we know that thou art true Matth. 22.16 and teachest the way of God in truth neither carest thou for any man for thou regardest not the persons of men this Character was really his due whatsoever they meant by it and they who were unwilling to acknowledge their own Hypocrisie could never fairly go off from so remarkable a Testimonial If then the Blessed Jesus were so signally innocent He was above all other the fittest to assert and vindicate the Authority of his Father's Laws and this he carefully did and made his appeal to all those Laws without exception according as occasions offer'd themselves After all then if he would really put an end to the Ceremonial Law and yet maintain to the last his Character of Truth and Justice He must of necessity be the Son of God and God himself his Authority otherwise notwithstanding the mutable Nature of those Laws not being sufficient to bear him out in so great an Alteration Our Saviour was Incarnate That the Law of God as given to the Jews might in our Nature be fulfilled exactly and according to the Letter and so that he who fulfilled it might be a compleat example of Holiness and Obedience to us and how great an Undertaker this required we shall have hereafter Opportunities enough to understand Now when I lay down this reason by the word Law I understand whatsoever was given to the Jews whether Moral as confirming the Law of uncorrupted Nature or Political as relating to their Civil Government or Ceremonial as referring to their various Religious Rites both the last so far as they could concern the Practice of a private Person so that indeed the whole Law as given to the Jews contain'd in it whatsoever could have been expected from Adam had he retain'd his original Innocence or whatsoever humane Nature in its utmost perfection could possibly attain to Now that such a compleat Obedience should be expected from some One Partaker of humane nature was but reasonable when the great work of Man's Redemption was in hand for since Man created in all that Perfection his Nature was capable of had yet fall'n from that Obedience which was justly expected from him he being in a condition every way capable of performing it and by that fall of his had necessarily involv'd all those who should be deriv'd from him in all those Miseries attending the guilt of Sin and since the intent of God's Goodness was that from the Obedience of one man descended of the same flesh and blood many should be made righteous or be blessed with those Rewards attending upon Righteousness as the Apostle assures us it came to pass it was but just and reasonable that that Man from whom that righteousness was to descend to Mankind that that Man should compleatly make up that Character of the first Man when in Innocence which had he persever'd in as he ought his whole Posterity had been entirely happy and yet that task was abundantly greater for the second Adam our Lord Jesus Christ than it was for the first Adam our great Parent for Adam had no Corruption deriv'd down to him from his Original from whence it has been not impertinently question'd Whether before Sin enter'd into the World and Death by Sin He was liable to the common Rules of Mortality But our Saviour when he took Flesh of the Virgin took it up at such a time as Humane nature was sunk into its utmost depravation nor would an allowance of that Roman Foolery That the Blessed Virgin was born without any Original Sin or Guilt upon her help the matter For so long as she was descended from such Parents as had their share in the Corruption of Humane Nature her Freedom would not of consequence free every one who should be born of her but she being no way beyond other Women but only on account of her Practical Holiness our Lord as descended from her must be in all things like his Brethren liable to all the Inconveniences attending a Body certainly mortal for as for his being without Sin it depended on the Union of a Mortal to an Immortal Being the very nature of which superiour Being was more effectual than the Refiner's Fire on Gold or Silver purifying that otherwise corrupt Body it was united to and fortifying it against all that proclivity to Sin and easie succumbency to Temptation which the rest of Mankind was obnoxious to Nor was it any thing but such a coacting Omnipotence which could possibly have produc'd a clean thing out of an unclean or a Body without Sin out of that which was naturally sinful There is certainly such a state as that of Eternal Happiness but it is attainable only as the reward of Merit in a proper sense or as we ordinarily say it 's as Wages which he who faithfully performs his work deserves and may justly lay claim to as his own and therefore cannot be deny'd without Injustice as for instance whereas the condition of eternal Life is This do and live whosoever it is that performs the Condition and does what 's requir'd he has for so doing provided there be no circumstantial failure in the performance of the work a just and rightful claim to that eternal Life propounded and God himself could not be just should he deny the propos'd reward to such a One as should compleatly perform the Condition set before him Had Man continued in the state of Innocence he had had this proper claim of his own to eternal Happiness he might justly have claim'd it and could not without extremity of Injustice have been deny'd it but that eternal Happiness which we now expect is of Grace or it 's the free Gift of God which we as Sinners and such we are all without exception have no proper or inherent right to but it 's not the immediate free Gift of God as if he without any performance of incumbent duty on our part would bestow upon us an eternally glorious Inheritance for this would be as inconsistent with that infinite Justice which makes up the Idaea of the Supreme God as it would be to deny Wages or a Reward to him that had truly deserved it nor is it a free giving Man such an inward Ability to perform all the punctilio's of the Divine reveal'd Will as by which they might make a full compensation to Divine Justice for the original pravity of Nature and do all such things to the utmost as could be requir'd from the beginning to the end of Life for this were to alter the whole frame of Humane Nature and to give it in the present state of things an
yet out of a supine laziness troubled not themselves to improve reason so far as they might and ought to have done and therefore without any consideration of the divine Nature fell to worship Idols or to respect the Creature more than the Creator yet even that Idolatry it self is an uncontroulable evidence of the general notion of God's existence since no man possibly could be drawn to adore several if he really believ'd there were no God at all Nor farther does it follow that because I 'm satisfied there is a God therefore I must necessarily be acceptable to God for tho' my sence of his Divinity may of it self be pleasing to my Maker yet if that sence have no operation upon my life and conversation my continuance in sin must cancel all those advantages I could hope to receive upon an inevitable conviction Nor does Scripture any where tell us of such as believe there is no God Ps 10.4 Ps 14.1 It 's true we read of some in all whose thoughts God is not of the foolish body saying in his heart there is no God but wicked men even assisted by Divine Revelation to the knowledge of God's existence may forget him nay the very best of men do so when they fall into sin and for a wicked man to say in his heart there is no God i. e. to wish heartily there were none and to believe there is none are very different things Caligula that Roman Emperour said in his heart there was no God when he would needs supply the worlds defects by assuming Divinity to himself but Caligula own'd that he was otherwise convinc'd when upon a thunder-storm he sculk'd into vaults and hid his head from the fury of an angry Superiour And we have now a-days but too many Atheistical wretches who employ all their witts to prove to themselves and others that there is no God who yet when death approaches or some terrible distemper shakes their bodies tremble at approaching judgments submit to old innate notions of a God which they had long endeavour'd to have stifled and are ready to cry to the mountains to fall upon them and to the rocks to cover them from his wrath whose very being they formerly pretended to defie Nor yet are there really any Nations discover'd who are wholly without such notions of a God as flow from a due contemplation of Nature vid. Blavii Atlant. maj in America Braslianā Nay the very Brasilians themselves to whose story Socinus refers us tho' of all other nations the most ignorant and barbarous are not so wholly Atheistical but that if we may believe Geographers they believe the Souls immortality and existence after its separation from the body a thought alone which must be attended with the owning of a God and hence Crellius well enough observes De Deo attr l. 1. c. 3. Quod sacri libri non semel ad rerum in naturâ existentium contemplationem nos vocant ut Divinae Majestatis radios in eis relucentes admirandarum ejus proprietatum vestigia illis impressa lustremus That the holy Scriptures do more than once call upon us to meditate on the various parts of Nature that we may see the rays of Divine Majesty shineing in them and the footsteps of God's power wonderfully impressed upon them For not only all the works of Nature in a body but every single thing gives us a particular argument of the being of a God But supposing we pursue the opinion of Socinus recommended by Smalcius to the University of Heidelberg if withal we observe what the Racovian Catechism asserts that Man 's free will is not impair'd by Adam's sin and conclude what 's very natural that the other faculties of the Soul are no more weakned than the Will it will plainly follow that Man even in the state of Innocence was not capable naturally of knowing there was a God and therefore Socinus fairly refers his knowledge in that kind to God's revealing himself at first to him And certainly that natural light which even in primaeval purity could not reach to the bare existence of a God must be at this time very insufficient to judge of every thing God has reveal'd and to comprehend every mystery which is concern'd in man's salvation Farther if such as the Brasilians or Indians are really wholly without the apprehension of a God it will appear from thence that Traditional knowledge may be worn out but as for divine Revelation as extant in the Word of God it can have no credit among Heathens till they are first convinc'd there is a God whose that Word is therefore there must be arguments drawn by discourse from the worlds structure that must first prove that principle and then that there are really divine Revelations and that those writings which we call the Word of God contain those Revelations will be demonstrable enough Tertul. de resur carnis For as Tertullian says Praemisit Deus naturam magistram submissurus prophetiam quo facilius credas Prophetiae Discipulus naturae God sends Nature as a mistress before designing to assist it with revelation or prophecy that being first the disciples of Nature we might the more readily give credit to revelation Therefore S. Basil calls the school of Nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the school of rational Souls and the disciplinary of the knowledge of God And the antient Monk Anthony answered the inquisitive Philosopher very well when he asked him how he could live without books Socrat. Hist Eccl. l. 4. c. 23. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 My book is the nature of all existent things a book which is always ready when I would know the words of God Though the words of Tully a Heathen are more directly oppos'd to Socinus De Divination l. 2. Esse praestantem aliquam aeternamque naturam eam suspiciendam adorandámque hominum generi pulchritudo mundi ordoque rerum coelestium cogit confiteri That there is some excellent and eternal nature and that to be ador'd and admir'd by mankind the very beauty of the world and the curious order of coelestial bodies will force us to confess If then an Heathen by natures light could discover not only the being of a God but the necessity of worshipping him it 's sufficient evidence of our conclusion That humane reason or the meer light of Nature may shew us the general necessity of Religion notwithstanding those decays it has undergone by Sin For if that notion naturally imbib'd that there was a God urged men to serve him by several methods of Religion it 's plain that notion enforced Religion in general upon all mankind we conclude That humane Reason as it now stands corrupted when it applies it self industriously to Religion or the adoration of a God meerly on general notions as a reward for that industry certainly meets with divine assistances by which means those intentions which at first are honest and sincere are made really
the latter part of the verse for let us with Grotius by the mystery of godliness understand the Gospel as we commonly understand it and which we own does contain the mystery of godliness That the Gospel was preach'd by weak Men we own nay that our Saviour himself in his state of exinanition or in his humane nature appear'd weak and contemptible enough we own too but that the Gospel appear'd in the flesh or cloath'd with flesh which is the proper import of the Apostles phrase we deny as absurd That the Gospel was justified in or by the Spirit the miraculous effusions of that confirming the truth of the Gospel preach'd we may own well enough but that the Gospel was seen of Angels is scarce sence that it was never known before it had been declar'd by Men is false for the Angels could not be unacquainted with the several Prophecies of the old Testament concerning the Messias to come nor could they be so far to seek in the meaning of those Prophecies many of which they had been instrumental in delivering and the Angels themselves were indeed the first preachers of the Gospel So the Angel Gabriel tells Zacharias concerning the Son that should be born to him Many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children Luke 1.16 17. and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. The same Gabriel afterwards tells the blessed Virgin Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb and shalt bring forth a Son and shalt call his name Jesus v. 31 32 33. He shall be great and shall be called the Son of the highest and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever and of his kingdom there shall be no end It was an Angel that appear'd to Joseph in a dream Matth. 1.20 21. and told him that his espoused wife was with child of the Holy Ghost And she shall bring forth a Son says he and thou shalt call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins Again an Angel of the Lord tells the Shepherds who were watching their flocks by night Luke 2.10 11 13 14. Behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour which is Christ the Lord. To which Gospel a whole Choir of Angels subjoyned their Eucharistical Hymn Glory be to God on high in earth peace good will towards men These instances are enough to prove that Angels knew the Gospel before men preacht it not to mention their administring to our Saviour in the wilderness when entring on his prophetical Office and their publishing his resurrection the great confirmation of the Gospel before his Apostles had any apprehensions of it The Gospel was indeed preach'd unto the Gentiles and believ'd on in the World but it was far from being receiv'd in glory for it was scorn'd and derided and cruelly persecuted both by Jews and Gentiles the Devil raising all the powers in the world as far as possible for the extirpation of what was so great an enemy to his Tyranny the Gospel then will not answer all those particular marks set down in the Text. Neither yet are they applicable to God the Father as several of the Socinians would have them for to say God the Father was manifest in the flesh because his will was preach'd by Men who were but flesh and blood besides that such an assertion quits the Suppositum or Subject which was God the Father unless God and Gods will be one and the same thing which cannot be asserted It 's so uncouth an expression as is no where to be parallel'd either in Scripture or any Ecclesiastical Writer We read not any where that God the Father ever appear'd in the flesh or assum'd Humane nature nor did ever any dream of such a thing unless we recur to the ancient Patropassians so call'd because they believ'd it was really God the Father who being Incarnate suffer'd death on the Cross for the sins of Mankind but of that we have no foot-steps in holy Writ nor was the Deity it self ever made manifest in the flesh but in the flesh of the blessed Jesus Col. 2.9 in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily not in his doctrine as the Socinians would have it but in himself Vid. Schlicktin in loc and according to their own demands on the like occasion we would have them shew us some other clear place of Scripture wherein God the Father is said to be manifest in the flesh or to be manifest in Christ and the Apostles and then we may the better consent to their interpretation Again it 's as odd and unusual to say God the Father was justified in the Spirit for what need was there of any such justification his Eternal Power and Godhead were visible in the Universal fabrick of nature and all the Miracles done by our Saviour which Socinians refer to the influence of the Spirit were done that Men might know he was the promis'd Messias and those done by the Apostles after his ascent into Heaven carry'd along with them the same respect but we never heard of any publick declaration made by the Spirit for a more peculiar conviction of the World that the most High God was God indeed or the true God we may understand things thus as the Socinians say but we may a great deal better let it alone and not run into such interpretations of God's Word as we can neither reconcile to truth nor sense If we go farther the matter is not mended at all when we say God the Father was seen of Angels for what novelty was there in that had not they stood continually before his face from the instant of their first Creation or should we flie to God's will was not that known to his peculiar Ministers till such time as they came to learn it by the preaching of mortal men who can imagine so short a Text of Scripture and design'd to make known the greatest mystery in the world should lash out into such absolute impertinencies but to proceed God the Father was preach'd to the Gentiles but where he 's mention'd often doubtless as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ in those Epistles written by the Apostles to their Gentile Converts but the Gospel it self is stil'd the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Apostles pretend to preach nay to know nothing among their Converts but Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 2.2 and him crucified as St. Paul expresses himself if we must say God the Father was preach'd he was certainly preach'd most to the Antediluvian World by Noah and the elder Patriarchs or he was preach'd
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
them nor worship them he excluded every Creature from a capacity of receiving divine Honours whatsoever was capable of being represented by any figure or image if it was worshipped was an Idol the Creature represented was so as well as the representation and invisibility as well as any other attribute is ascribed to the true God as a peculiarity whereby we might know him to be the only proper object of our Worship by both these precepts our Saviour is perfectly shut out from being the subject of Divine Honours as he is suppos'd by the Socinians to be a God in subordinacy to his Father and as he is a Creature and capable as other Creatures be of being represented by a material Image which is wholly inconsistent with a true Divinity For tho' the Socinians allow our Saviour to be the Son of God in a peculiar manner by reason of his being begotten in the Womb of the Virgin by the Holy Ghost or as they call it by the influence of Almighty God this does not at all put him out of the rank of the Creatures nor does that Glory and Honour and Immortality which they suppose his Father to have adorned him with after his resurrection make him a God who was before a Man for all these things are reserved too in a just proportion for all such as die in the true Faith of Christ by which they too in their turns must necessarily be Gods tho' because their proportion of honour is suppos'd inferiour to that of Christ they must be Gods of an inferiour rank and quality but this Collation of dignity effects nothing at all and the Socinian distinction between a God made by the supreme God and a God made by Men comes to nothing at all The Poets Divinity in that point is better and more rational than theirs Qui fingit sacros auro vel marmore vultus Non facit ille Deos Qui rogat ille facit He who represents a Divine face in gold or marble makes it not a God but he who prays to it makes it such So if God render the body of our Lord never so illustrious that makes him not a God but the presenting of Humane supplications to him makes him one so that Christ by that means comes to be a God made so by Man as well as any other Idol whatsoever is therefore according to the Socinians own principle Christ being a meer Man if he be prayed to must be an Idol There can be no true God but He who is the Creator of all things nor does it lye within the reach of omnipotence it self to make a Creature a Creator therefore either Christ must be the Creator of all things or else he cannot be true God He remains a meer Creature still and all those adorations presented to him by the Christian World are notorious and damnable Idolatry The common notion of Idolatry confirms this so S. Cyprian tells us according to the notion he had of it Idololatria committitur cum Divinus honor alteri datur Idolatry is then committed when that Honour which belongs to God is given to another Gregory Nazianzen gives us this definition of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Idolatry is a transposition of divine worship from the maker to the thing made from God the Creator of all things to the Creature Therefore so long as our Saviour is really but a Creature which he must be if he be not the eternal God so long all that Worship paid to him according to this antient notion is Idolatry Now let a Socinian if he please impeach those of the Roman Communion as Idolaters we 'l agree with him and we really believe them to be so but there 's no Argument which can properly be made use of against that Church to convince them of Idolatry by reason of their praying to Angels or departed Saints from which practice they have been sufficiently and undeniably proved to be Idolaters but the same will hold good against these The strength of all Arguments against Rome lying in that That they transfer the Honour only due to the Creator to a Creature which is as true of all those who pay divine Worship to our Saviour if he be no more than a Creature The Gods who have not Created all things who have not Created Heaven and Earth shall perish from the earth and from under the Heaven as we alledged from the Prophet before but according to the Socinians our Lord did not make the Heaven and the Earth Therefore tho' they say he is True God at the same time they say He is not The true God He must be one of those Gods which must so perish A conclusion which our Adversaries either must deny or fairly renounce all their pretences which indeed are but weak at best to Christianity Divine Honours cannot be lawfully offered or Prayers lawfully presented to any created Being but upon supposition of some defect in the Creator for a positive Command from him to that purpose could it be suppos'd would not be enough for a Divine Command open and plain cannot make that which in its own nature is Evil to be good things morally good or evil are eternally so and that from that consideration that their moral goodness or illness flows from their agreement with or contradiction to the Divine Nature Now what was once contradictory to the divine Nature God himself cannot make agreeable to it because He cannot change his own Nature which yet must be if that which being abstractedly considered was a sin against him should now under the same abstracted consideration 1 Tim. 3.16 be no longer so therefore we are sure God himself cannot command any thing that is morally evil but diverting that â—orship which belongs to the Creator of all things from him to his own Creature let that Creature be what it will is morally evil it 's Idolatry therefore God cannot command it therefore he cannot give or have given Christians any positive or open Command to Worship our Saviour if he be a meer Creature because that 's translating that Worship due only to the true God to the Creature To suppose any defect in the Creator is blasphemous if there can be yet any just reason or apparent necessity of Mens addressing themselves to any Being which is but their fellow Creature for the attainment of that for which they were wont to apply themselves only to the supreme Being or Creator before it must be asserted but where there is all Perfection concluded to reside in that Sovereign Being to whom it 's granted on all hands that Divine Worship is due there 's no kind of necessity that we should apply our selves to any Intermedial Power or go round about when we may have a direct access to the throne of grace While we own Christ to be the True God as his Father is of the same eternal Nature whatsoever obliges us in our necessities to call upon the True God obliges to call upon
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