instance of abusing the Scripture to a metaphorical sense where the words according to all Rules of Exposition will admit a proper one for I would desire Mr. Ferguson to tell me what is the proper sense of the Brightness of Gods glory and the express Image of his Person What is the proper brightness of a Spirit Nay the brightness of the Glory of God and the Image of an infinite Spirit which hath no shape I never met with any Expositor till now who thought these proper Expressions but every one hath reckon'd them metaphorical But besides this why does he imagine that Wisdom and Goodness and Power and Justice and such-like Perfections of the Divine Nature are but the metaphorical Glory of God And that those glorious Discoveries which God hath made of these Perfections in Christ are but a metaphorical Brightness of this Glory When we never read of any other Glory of God in Scripture except it were some glorious visible Appearance which is much more likely to be a metaphorical glory than the eternal and infinite Perfections of the Divine Nature And the same answer will serve for what he alledges about Christs being the Image of God But he tells us That Grotius and Hammond Persons to whom as he well guesses I pay a respect vouchsafe us a much better Paraphrase on Heb. i. 3. I shall be very glad to learn from these men and first let us consult Dr. Hammond and his Paraphrase upon those words The brightness of his glory and the express Image of his Person is this Who being the means of reflecting to us the sight of him who is otherwise invisible for the explication of which he refers us to Iohn i. 18. No man hath seen God at any time the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father he hath declared him and his Paraphrase on these words whereby we may know what the Doctor means by reflecting the sight of God to us is this God is invisible and not approachable by us and so his will and the knowledge of his Attributes cannot be conveyed to us but by some Intercessor and of this sort none can be comparable to Christ Iesus who is next unto the Father and most dearly beloved by him and knows most of his mind and his end of coming into the World was to declare this unto us So that Dr. Hammond gives no better Paraphrase but in part the very same which I do and must pass for a metaphorical Interpreter and Mr. Ferguson for a proper Slanderer And Grotius gives the very same account of the words He expounds the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the brightness of his glory by repercussus Divinae Majestatis qualis est Solis in Nube qui dicitur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A reflection of the Divine Majesty such as we may sometimes observe of the Sun in a Cloud and adds That this Divine Glory and Majesty cum per se conspici nequeat cernitur in Christo sicut Sol quem directe oculi nostri tueri nequeant cernitur in Aqua Speculo Nube Since we cannot immediately see it as it is in it self is discovered in Christ as the Sun which we cannot directly view is seen in Water in a Glass or in a Cloud and for the understanding of this refers us to 2 Cor. iv 4. Who is the Image of the invisible God which he thus paraphraseth Nimirum sicut ex imagine hominis species cognoscitur ita ex iis quae egit locutus est Christus Dei Potentia Sapientia Sanctitas Bonitas As a Man is known by his Image and Picture so is the Power Wisdom Holiness Goodness of God known and discerned by those things which Christ did and spoke while he was on Earth And the very same account he gives of Col. i. 15. What excuse Mr. Ferguson can make for this I know not though I presume that he who so often needs Excuses is never without one But to requite him for his civility to Grotius and Hammond I will direct him to two other Persons to whom I suppose he will pay some respect who are as metaphorical men in this point as my self and they are no less men than Calvin and Beza Mr. Calvin though he acknowledges as I do that those Expressions The brightness of his Glory and the express Image of his Person refer to the Divine Nature in Christ yet he tells us that we must consider this Phrase according to the scope and design of the Apostle Neque enim hic tradere voluit quid simile intus habeat Pater cum Filio sed quemadmodum dixi fidem nostram adificare cum fructu voluit ut discamus non aliter Deum nobis patefieri quam in Christo. i. e. That the Apostle did not intend in this place to acquaint us what internal similitude or likeness there is between the Father and the Son but to teach us that which is for the edification of our faith that God cannot be known any other way but only in Christ. With more to the same purpose Beza exactly follows his Master and gives this interpretation of the brightness of his glory Is in quo resplendet gloria illa ac Majestas patris alioqui infiniti inconspicui five is in quo uno splendorem suum conspiciendum praebet Pater qui propterea Col. i. 15. dicitur imago Dei inconspicui 1 Cor. iv 4. idque in Evangelio That is He in whom the Glory and the Majesty of the Father who otherwise is infinite and invisible shines forth or he in whom alone God makes his own brightness and glory visible to us upon which account Col. i. 15. Christ is called The Image of the invisible God and 1 Cor. iv 4. with respect to those Discoveries he hath made of God in the Gospel And as he proceeds We cannot truly contemplate the Father but in the Son in the Son I say incarnate by whom the Father speaks to us And he alledges the Authority of Tertullian adversus Praxeam for this Exposition Vicarium se Patris Christus ostendit per quem Pater videretur in factis audiretur in verbis et cognosceretur in filio facta et verba patris administrante Christ shewed himself the true Vicar of his Father for the Father was seen in his Actions heard in his Words and made known by that whole Oeconomy which was administred by the Son By this we may see what credit Mr. Ferguson deserves when he talks so confidently of the sense of Ancient and Modern Expositors who either is acquainted with none of them or thinks his Readers are not who either knows not or cares not what he says In the next place he observes that I expound the Fulness of Christ Iohn i. 16. to signifie a perfect Declaration of the Divine Will concerning the Salvation of Mankind and he gives this as another instance of my turning plain Scripture Testimonies into Tropes and Figures Now
else a Righteousness without Works signifies a Righteousness without the Perfection of Works and therefore the Apostle makes a Righteousness without Works the same with an imputed Righteousness and both of them to consist in forgiveness of sins even as David also describeth the blessedness of that man to whom the Lord imputeth Righteousness without Works saying Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered So that forgiveness of sins which supposeth an imperfect and defective Righteousness if we will believe our Apostle is a description of Righteousness without Works Upon the same account it is called Justifying the Ungodly vers 5. which can by no means signifie that God will justifie a wicked man while he continues wicked for this is a plain contradiction to the whole Gospel but it signifies that God will justifie those who though they have been wicked which was the case of Abraham and the Gentile-World yet return to him by a hearty Repentance and a true lively Faith Justification by Works requires a perpetual Innocency and Blamelesness of Life for a man who ever was a Sinner can never be justified by Works in this sense because he can never be innocent again it being impossible that that should never have been which has been But now the Righteousness of Faith which consists in the forgiveness of sins makes him Righteous who has been a Sinner and is still an imperfect Saint not that such a man never was a Sinner but that God doth not impute his sins to him This is the Apostles account of Evangelical Righteousness and Justification that it is an imputed Righteousness a Righteousness without Works a Justifying the Ungodly or which is the sum of all that it consists in the Pardon of Sin And now let our Author tell the Apostle That this is to turn plain Scripture into Metaphors and that it is inconsistent with the Immutability and Essential Holiness of God But secondly I have something more to say to Mr. Ferguson which I suppose will be of some weight with him viz. That all the Reformed Churches are for that Metaphorical Justification which he rejects that is they place our Justification in the forgiveness of sin Thus the French Church declares in her Confession which Beza presented to Charles IX in the Name of that Church Credimus totam nostram justitiam positam esse in peccatorum nostrorum remissione quae sit etiam ut testatur David unica nosâ—â—a a selicitas i. e. We believe that our WHOLE RIGHTEOUSNESS consists in the pardon of our sins which also as David witnesseth is our ONLY Blessedness In sola Iesu Christi obedientia prorsus acquiescimus quae quidem nobis imputatur tum ut tegantur omnia nostra peccata tum etiam ut gratiam coram Deo naniscamur And we rest wholly in the Obedience of Jesus Christ which is imputed to us both that all our sins may be covered and that we may obtain grace and favour with God By which last words we learn what they and other Protestant Churches mean by the Imputation of Christs Righteousness and resting on the Obedience and Righteousness of Christ not that his Righteousness is so imputed to us as to make us formally righteous and to answer the demands of the Law which exacts an unsinning Obedience but it is so imputed to us that for the sake of Christ God forgives our sins and receives us into favour Thus the Helvetian Confession tells us Iustificare significat Apostolo in disputatione de Iustificatione peccata remittere à culpa poena absolvere in gratiam recipere justum pronunciare To justifie according to the Apostles sense of it in his dispute of Justification signifies to forgive sins to absolve from guilt punishment to receive into a state of favour and to pronounce such a person just and righteous that is not just as an innocent but as a pardon'd man Nor is the Scotch-Confession more Orthodox in this point For giving an account of those benefits we receive by the Satisfaction and Righteousness of Christ it sums them up in this Deus Pater nos in corpore Iesu Christi Filii sui intuetur imperfectam nostram obedientiam quasi perfectam acceptat omniaque opera nostra quae in se multis maculis foedantur perfecta justitia filii sui tegit i. e. God the Father beholds us as Members of Christs Body accepts our imperfect Obedience as if it were perfect and covers all our works which in themselves are defiled with many spots and blemishes with the perfect Righteousness of his Son So that according to the sense of this Church to which our Author ought to pay some Reverence we are not acquitted and absolved as innocent Persons by the Imputation of Christs perfect Righteousness but for Christs sake God accepts our imperfect Obedience as if it were perfect and covers all the imperfections and defects of our Works with the perfect Righteousness of his Son that is pardons all our sins for the sake of Christs perfect Righteousness The Augustan Confession is very express in this matter and so is their Apology Consequi remissionem peccatorum est justificari juxta illud beati quorum remissae sunt iniquitates To obtain the pardon of sin is to be justified according to that saying Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven Thus the Churches of Bohemia declare their sense Per Christum homines gratis fide in Christum per misericordiam justificari salutem remissionem peccatorum consequi That to be justified is to obtain the pardon of sin and salvation freely by Christ. Thus we read in the Dutch Confession Credimus omnem felicitatem nostram sitam esse in peccatorum nostrorum remissione quae est in Christo Iesu eaque unica totam nostram justitiam coram Deo contineri We believe that our whole Happiness consists in the forgiveness of sins which is by Jesus Christ and that in this alone consists our WHOLE Righteousness before God And to conclude with our own Church in the Homily of Salvation we are taught that our Iustification consists in the forgiveness of sin and that this Iustification and Righteousness which we so receive of Gods Mercy and Christs Merits is taken accepted and allowed of God for our perfect and full Iustification I do not urge the Consent of Reformed Churches as if I thought their Authority sufficient to determine us in this matter they had no Authority but Reason and Scripture nor did they pretend to any other which is the true Principle of the Protestant Reformation There are but three sorts of Authority of any moment in Religion viz. The Authority of Divine Inspiration the Authority of Testimony and the Authority of Discipline and Order The Authority of Divine Inspiration is peculiar to Christ and his Apostles who spoke by an Infallible Spirit and is now confined to the holy Scriptures which are the only Infallible Rule of
justified in time as soon as they are capable of it that is as soon they are in being In his Book of Communion p. 204. he has ten Propositions much to the same purpose He there tells us That Christ in his undertaking of the work of our Redemption with God was constituted and considered as a common publick person in the stead of them for whose reconciliation to God he suffered And that being thus a common Person upon his undertaking as to merit and efficacy and upon his actual performance as to solemn declaration this is what Dr. Crisp calls Gods laying iniquity upon Christ by way of Obligation and by way of Execution was as such as a common person acquitted absolved justified and freed from all and every thing that on the behalf of the Elect as due to them was charged upon him or could so be So that he was from all Eternity upon his undertaking and in time upon his actual performance as a common Person that is in the name and as representing the persons of the Elect acquitted absolved and justified and therefore as it follows Christ received the general acquittance for them all and they are all acquitted in the Covenant of the Mediator whence they are said to be crucified with him to die with him to rise with him to sit with him in heavenly places namely in the Covenant of the Mediator This is what Dr. Crisp calls a secret application of Gods laying iniquity upon Christ to particular persons which is done before they know it and the only difference between him and Dr. Owen is that Dr. Owen will not allow this to be a discharge of the Elect in their own persons but only in the Person of the Mediator and Dr. Crisp thinks it more proper to say that this is a personal discharge of them since it is done in their names and persons but it is no great matter who speaks most properly when the thing is the same In another Discourse of the Death of Christ in answer to Mr. Baxter's Objections against his Treatise of Redemption p. 72. he asserts that the Elect have an actual right to all that was purchased by Christ's Death before believing and that is equivalent to their having a right from Eternity or from the first moment of their being And he offers it as his one opinion Whether absolution from the guilt of sin and obligation unto death though not as terminated in the conscience that is though it be not known to the Person which is Dr. Crisp's secret application for complete Iustification do not precede our actual believing and expounds the Justification of the ungodly Rom. 4. to this sense as Dr. Crisp expresly does And though he dare not assert complete Iustification to be before believing yet he affirms that absolution is as it is considered as the act of the Will of God that is secret and known only to God for a discharge from the effects of anger naturally precedes all collation of any fruits of love such as faith is And the difference between this absolution and complete Justification is no more but this That absolution wants that act of pardoning mercy which is to be terminated and completed in the conscience of a sinner That is though such a man be pardoned before believing yet he can have no sense of his Pardon before believing which is exactly Dr. Crisp's notion And absolution wants the hearts perswasion of the truth and goodness of the Promise and the mercy held out in the Promise And it wants the Souls rolling it self on Christ and receiving Christ as the Author and Finisher of that mercy an All-sufficient Saviour to them that believe All which signifies no more than that Absolution is before and without Faith for this apprehending the truth and goodness of the Promise and rolling it self on Christ according to the Doctors notion constitute the justifying Act of Faith And therefore when the Doctor elsewhere tells us that the Elect till the full time of their actual deliverance determined and appointed to them in their several Generations be accomplished are personally under the Curse of the Law and on that account are legally obnoxious to the wrath of God He only chuses to contradict himself to avoid the imputation of Antinomianism For by their actual deliverance I presume he must understand the time of their actual believing and if they are absolved before they actually believe how can they be under the Law or legally obnoxious to the wrath of God And therefore he immediately qualifies this that though they are obnoxious to the Law and the Curse thereof yet not at all with its primitive intention of execution upon them which is as much as to say that they are obnoxious to the Curse of the Law but not obnoxious to the execution of that Curse which I take to be non-sense How then are they obnoxious to the Curse of the Law Why as it is a means appointed to help forward their acquaintance with Christ and acceptance with God on his account By which I suppose he means that their Absolution being at present secret and not terminated and completed in the Conscience they are terrified and scared with the threatnings of the Law as fancying themselves to be under it when they are not and this makes them fly to Christ for refuge and sanctuary And though Dr. Crisp indeed do not like this way of affrighting men to Christ by the Law yet the difference is not great and makes no material alteration in the Scheme of their Religion And therefore when Dr. Owen adds That it was determined by Father Son and Holy Ghost that the way of the actual personal deliverance of the Elect from the Sentence and Curse of the Law should be in and by such a way and dispensation as might lead to the praise of the glorious grace of God and to glorifie the whole Trinity by ascending to the Fathers love through the works of the Spirit and Bloud of the Son All that he means by it is this that we shall have no sense of our Absolution by the Bloud of Christ till we actually believe nor be actually possessed of Eternal Life till we be renewed and sanctified all which Dr. Crisp will own and is consistent enough with our Justification or Absolution from Eternity since Faith and all other blessings are the effect of our antecedent Absolution in Christ as the Doctor confesses And this is all Mr. Ferguson means when he tells us That Christ's own discharge was an immediate consequent of his sufferings and they for whom he suffered had also immediately a fundamental right of being acquitted but their actual deliverance was to be in the way and order that he who had substituted himself in our room and he who had both admitted and been the Author of the substitution thought fit to appoint This is the necessary consequence of this Doctrine that if Christ acted as a Surety in the name
by him I am charged with deriding all trust and dependence on Christ for the performance of his Promises or the influences of his Grace and because I reject their proof of this from St. Paul's trusting in God in the faithful discharge of his Apostolical Office notwithstanding all the Persecutions he suffered from Jews and Heathens 2 Tim. 1. 12. I am accused of involving the Scripture in the same condemnation and bringing St. Paul himself under the same imputation Certainly these men think themselves all Apostles and that they expound the Scriptures with as infallible a Spirit as first indited them for otherwise they would not be so impudent as to charge every man who laughs at their ridiculous applications of Scripture-phrases with deriding the Scriptures and the holy Spirit And yet this is the true Reason of all this noise and out-cry about burlesquing the Scripture for he directs his Readers to page 62 63 c. of my Book for an example of my sacrilegious abuse of the words of Scripture to make my Readers sport and to render my Adversaries ridiculous and whoever consults the place will only find a Scheme of their Divinity expressed in their own canting phrases without any Art to make it look ridiculously but only a true and naked representation of it and though I cannot deny that it is a famous Example of burlesquing the Scripture yet Mr. Ferguson ought to have laid the Saddle upon the right Horses back and then I doubt his own dear Friends must suffer under this Imputation There is nothing I more heartily designed than to rescue the Scripture from such Abuses as appears from what I immediately added That the whole Mystery of this and a great deal more stuff of this nature not of Fanaticism as he cites my words purposely to create the greater odium which is very familiar with him and agreeable enough to the purity of his Christian Morals consists in wresting metaphorical and allusive expressions to a proper sense When the Scripture describes the Profession of Christianity a sincere Belief and Obedience to the Gospel by having Christ and being in Christ and coming to him and receiving him these men expound these phrases to a proper and natural sense to signifie I know not what unintelligible Union and spiritual Progress and Closure of the Soul with him an Union of Persons instead of an Agreement in Faith and Manners If this be to burlesque Scripture to deliver it from the Freaks of an Enthusiastick Fancy and to expound it to a plain and easie sense such as is agreeable to the Understandings of men and worthy of the Spirit of God I acknowledge the Charge and am afraid my Adversaries will never be guilty of that Crime Thus when I shew how convincingly these men prove their darling Opinions from a fanciful Exposition of Scripture-Metaphors and Types and Figures and among the rest observe how many pretty Resemblances of Christ Mr. Watson has discover'd in the brazen Serpent wherein Mr. Ferguson himself acknowledges he has prevaricated I am charged with deriding the Type it self and making scornful Reflections upon the main scope and design of the comparison T. W. among other things tells us that as the Serpent was lifted up to be look'd upon by the stung Israelites which looking implied a secret hope they had of cure so if we do but look on Christ fiducially we shall be cured of our sins by which comparison he would prove that because the Israelites were miraculously cured only by looking upon the brazen Serpent that therefore there is nothing more required of us to be cured of our Sins but only looking fiducially on Christ that is confidently hoping to be saved by him this Mr. Ferguson says is parallel to the words of our Saviour and the true intendment and meaning of them Iohn iii. 15 16. And as Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness even so must the Son of man be lifted up that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life And now I will acknowledge that I have done very ill in ranking this comparison of T. W's among the rest of his Prevarications if Mr. Ferguson can prove that this believing signifies no more than this fiducial looking on Christ which I am sure he can never prove except it be in Mr. Watson's way What he adds about Mr. Tho. Vincent is sufficiently answered already and shall be considered in another place This is the sum of his Charge against me for burlesquing Scripture in which I cannot think he was serious but only said this because he must say something and had nothing wiser to say Or as it is with some scolding people who wanting wit to make proper and sudden Repartees chuse rather than to say nothing to say the same things which were said to them though the impropriety of the application and the dullness of it serve only to make mirth for the by-standers This I perceive is Mr. Ferguson's peculiar Talent and to give him his due he is very dexterous at it as will appear in two or three instances more of a like narure I charge some of the Nonconformists for I never thought them all guilty of it with perverting the Scripture by expounding allusive and metaphorical expressions to a proper sense Mr. Ferguson dares not deny this Charge for the matter of fact is too evident but he shews great Skill in retorting it and gives several instances how I pervert Scripture in the same manner Thus he tells his Readers That whereas other Expositors of Scripture have expounded Christs being called The Brightness of his Fathers Glory and the express Image of his Person Heb. i. 3. in a plain and proper sense and have accordingly argued from it for the Deity of Christ against the Socinians Mr. Sherlock by Christs being stiled the Brightness of his Fathers Glory c. understands no more but those Discoveries which Christ hath made of God being as true a Representation of the Divine Nature and Will as any Picture is of the Person it represents When he says I understand no more by it he expresly contradicts my own words which are these Upon which account too as well as with respect to his Divine Nature he is called the brightness of his Fathers glory c. So that I acknowledge that Christ is called the brightness of his Fathers glory as well with respect to his Divine Nature as to the glorious Revelations of his Will and for Mr. Ferguson to say I do not and upon that account to insinuate so foul a Charge as Socinianism others would have called a wilful and malicious lye But suppose the worst that I had expounded Christs being called the brightness of his Fathers Glory c. only with respect to those glorious Discoveries he hath made of God he might have said it had been a false and dangerous and Socinian Exposition or what he pleased but it is a very unhappy
Christ and therefore tell us that St. Paul who had an excellent faculty this way observes what doth most effectually take with people to beguile their Spirits and with a kind of Craft to catch their Affections and that accordingly he meets with every thing that is most enamouring and taking with people Thus far Dr. Crispe and Dr. Owen very well agree in placing the great Mystery of Religion in winning and wooing People unto Christ though St. Paul tells us that the Ministers of the Gospel are Embassadors of Christ beseeching the People in Christs stead to be reconciled unto God So that Christ and his Embassadors woo for God but Antinomians woo altogether for Christ to win people to the Person of Christ. Let us then consider what course they take thus to woo and win people unto Christ Now if by this wooing people to Christ they understood no more than to persuade men to embrace the Faith and Religion of Christ the proper way to effect it were to prove the Truth and Certainty of the Revelation made by Christ to represent the Excellency of his Religion how easie and advantageous his Commands are how perfective of our Nature and how necessary to dispose and qualifie us for future Happiness to set before them those Rewards which Christ hath promised to those who obey him and those severe threatnings which he hath denounced against the Workers of Iniquity and to confirm them in the belief and expectation of all this by the consideration of the Incarnation Death and Sufferings of the Son of God who died to expiate our Sins and to purchase Pardon and Eternal life for all true Penitents and rose again from the dead and ascended into Heaven to intercede for us to dispence the influences of his Grace to raise us to a new and spiritual life here and at the last Day to raise our dead bodies out of the dust and to reward us with Immortality and Glory And then we may argue from the love of our Crucified Saviour to perswade men to live to him who died for them These and such like Arguments are very powerful to perswade men to be Christians but this is not the way of wooing for Christ You must with a holy guile catch peoples affections and make them fall in love with the Person of Christ and therefore you must describe his Personal Graces and Excellencies and consider what is most enamouring and taking with the People Thus for instance The World is mightily taken with Beauty with compleatness of Person Oh saith one let me have a beautiful person it is no matter how poor Well then Christ is a rare piece for such is the beauty of Christ that there is no beauty like his He is the Image of the invisible God the brightness of his Glory and the express Image of his Person And Mr. Watson could have furnished him with a great many other irrefragable proofs of Christ's beauty and loveliness though I think the Doctor had too much wit to have made use of them But besides Beauty some persons look for Linage what a Stock a person is of Well if this will take then there is no Stock like this of Christ he is of the greatest House in the world The First-begotten of all Creatures He comes of that great House of God himself He is not a Younger Brother in this House neither for he is the First-begotten of the House that is a great matter among persons to marry the Heir of the Family nay he is the Only-begotten of the House there is never another in all the Family and that is a great encouragement so that if men go all the World over to find a Match in the Noblest House they will never meet with such a one as this of the Son of God which exactly agrees with Mr. Vincent's reasoning to perswade young Women to chuse Christ for their Husband Well but if he be poor after all I shall live but poorly with him But Christ is rich in Treasure too it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell He hath the whole World to dispose of and therefore Gold and Silver are not to be compared to him which Notion Mr. Brooks hath excellently improved in his Riches of Christ. Thus to conclude You have a Proverb That Batchelours Wives and Maids Children must be rare Creatures that is their fancy will devise what kind of one they will have and what kinds of perfections they desire Let the fancy devise what kind of perfections it can to please sense Christ shall really out-strip in perfection all these fancies more than a Substance doth out-strip a shadow This is the great Mystery of Antinomianism which some of our Modern Divines call the Mystery of the Gospel and the only spiritual Preaching of Christ to attribute every thing immediately to the Person of Christ which is spoke of him either with respect to his Gospel and Revelations or his Propitiation and Sacrifice or his Mediation and Intercession for us as to give some few instances of it Thus it is a great Gospel truth That Christ is the way to the Father that he is the way the truth and the life both as he instructs us in the way to life and happiness how we may please God and save our Souls and as he is our Mediator and High Priest by whom we have access to God But then this requires that we study his will and live in obedience to his Laws that we may have an interest in his Mediation and may with a humble confidence put up our Prayers to God in his name Whereas the Antinomians agreeably enough with the Divinity of this last Age make Christ such a way as excludes every thing else even his Laws and Religion Evangelical Righteousness and Holiness from being the way Christ himself and nothing but Christ though in a subservency and subordination to him can be the way Thus Dr. Crisp tells us That Christ is the only way to free sinners from the guilt of sin which is true in a sober sense that Christ only makes attonement for our sins but in the Doctors Divinity Christ is so the only way that nothing else but Christ is required to this neither Repentance nor Evangelical Righteousness The Gospel holds forth the Lord Christ as freely tendring himself to people considering people only as ungodly persons receiving him that is taking him for their own to be justified and saved by him you have no sooner received him but you are instantly justified by him and in this Iustification you are discharged from all the faults that can be laid to your charge And his Argument to prove this is the same with Mr. Ferguson's He was made sin for us here you see plainly our sins are so translated to Christ that God doth reckon Christ the very Sinner nay God doth reckon all our sins to be his sins and makes him to be sin for us And what is