a Reprieve of about Eighty Years Our Opposers can show no Context of Holy Scripture in which their threefold Death for this Sin is contained or in which the Posterity of Adam are said to have his Sin imputed to them and that they are punish'd for it The only Offer they make is from Romans Chap. 5. the Apostle there at v. 19. saith As by one Man's Disobedience many are made Sinners so by the Obedience of one shall many be made Righteous By one Man's Disobedience say they that is by God's Imputation of one Man's Disobedience to them even Adam's in Paradise so many have been made Sinners How much more dexterously and agreeably to the Justice and Wisdom of God Pelagius and the Vnitarians By one Man's Disobedience that is saith Pelagius not as Austin has newly fancied by God's Imputation but by our Imitation of one Man's Disobedience so many have been made Sinners and on the other hand by the Obedience of one that is by Imitation not by Imputation of one Man's Obedience even the Lord Christ's many shall be made Righteous Trinitarians make the same Blunder at ver 18. As by the Offence of one Judgment came upon all Men to Condemnation even so by the Righteousness of one the free Gift came or shall come upon all Men to Justification and Life Here again they see not that by the Offence of one Man and again by the Righteousness of one Man are not as much as to say by the Imputation of one Man's Offence and of one Man's Righteousness but by Imitation of one Man's Righteousness and of another Man's Offence Justification and Condemnation have come upon all Men. We die for imitating the Disobedience of Adam and we shall be justified and saved for and by imitating the Righteousness of the Lord Christ And thus it is that St. Paul himself explains himself in this very Chapter v. 12. As by one Man Sin entred into the World and Death by Sin so also Death hath passed upon all Men for that or because all have sinned He saith not as Trinitarians do because Adam sinned but because all have sinned therefore Death hath passed on all that is all of us have deserved the Death we must undergo or have undergone by our own Sins But they say Infants die and what Sin have they unless you allow the Imputation of Adam's Sin to all his Descendents But why do they not consider too that Beasts die is Adam's Sin Imputed also to them They ought therefore to know that Holy Paul in that Context is speaking only of Adult and Grown Persons as for Infants Beasts and such like that have not Sin because they have not Vnderstanding of Good and Evil of Moral and Immoral such die because they have Mortal Bodies liable to Diseases and Accidents From which Accidents and Diseases to deliver and rescue them it does not please God to Interpose by an Extraordinary and Miraculous Power For which sort of Providence towards them divers Probable Reasons might be given but being not Necessary or Proper to be here inserted I omit them Of Partial Redemption THE Transgression of Adam in Paradise or his eating the Forbidden Fruit was in Him Actual Sin in his Descendents 'tis called Original Sin but the Effects of it are the same in Both namely the before-mentioned three-fold Death or three Deaths Death Temporal which is the separation of the Soul from the Body and all temporal Calamities and Evils Death Spiritual which is the Corruption of the Faculties that we are averse to all Good and inclined to all Evil. Death Eternal which is the everlasting Suffering of Body and Soul in Hell-fire These Deaths are the Consequences and Desert of Adam's Sin to himself as the Actual Offender to us as his Sin is Imputed to us by the Justice of God But the Mercy of God and his Wisdom have found out a most Gracious and Glorious Expedient by which to deliver Mankind though not from Temporal Death yet in part from Spiritual Death and wholly and altogether from Death Eternal But before we speak more particularly of the Expedient 't is necessary to caution Learners that they fall not into this Error that God designed the Benefit of the Expedient for All Men and Women For when we say Mankind or all Men have been Redeemed from the before-mentioned Deaths our meaning is that the Elect or as that most consider'd and weigh'd 17th Article of the English Church speaks Those whom God hath chosen out of Mankind are as that Article farther says brought to everlasting Salvation as Vessels of Honour These are called according to God's purpose in due Season his Spirit working in them And they through Grace obey that Calling These Elect are a definite certain and unalterable Number that can neither be increased nor diminished as is Expresly and in words declared by the Suffrage of the Divines of Great Britain at the Synod of Dort Suffrage p. 9. It is saith the same Suffrage at p. 43. for the Elect that Christ died that He might Effectually obtain for them and Infallibly bestow on them both Remission of Sins and Salvation If the Unskilful ask here How this Doctrine agreeth with those Declarations of Holy Scripture so often repeated which seem to say that Christ died for the Sins of the World or for All Men The Divines above said answer at p. 47. Here it is that the secret Decree of Election sheweth it self inasmuch as the Price was indeed payed for All yet is not Beneficial to All because All have not the Gist of fulfilling the Condition of the Covenant They mean All have not Saving Grace given to them whereby to Believe and to Obey the Gospel They rightly add at p. 55. We no where meet in Scripture any Promise by which God hath bound himself to impart his Grace to All and every One Farthermore the same excellent Suffrage teaches at p. 27. that 't is a Supposition without any good ground that all Infants are saved It saith that those Infants who are saved are saved by virtue of their Election which respecteth not the Age of Persons but only looketh upon the common heap of Fallen Mankind out of which it chooseth And concerning such Choosing or Election it teaches at p. 34. that Grace doth find some whom it Adopteth out of the most Wicked and at their last End while Many who seem less Guilty have no part in this Gift Therefore when All are said to be Redeemed or when 't is said Christ died for All or such like Expressions are used this is to be understood of All sorts or orders of Men and Women He died for High and Low for Old Men and Infants for Youth and Middle-age for Rich and Poor for Wise and Unwise for all these sorts for some particular Persons of all these for such of all these sorts as are Elected And those whoever they be who extend any farther than this the Redemption purchased by Christ are Arminians But
Infinite Punishment of all Mankind no nor of one Man 4. But if it were admitted that one Man was so dignified by the Inhabitation of God in him as to be an Equivalent for all Men admitting also that the three days Temporal Death of such a Man amounts to as much as the Deaths Temporal and Spiritual and the Eternal Damnation of all Mankind What will follow hereupon It will follow that God is obliged in Equity to release all Mankind from all the three Deaths Temporal Spiritual and Eternal else He hath received an Equivalent on behalf of Mankind without discharging those for whom He received it which is contrary to Equity nay to Justice For in Equity an Equivalent ought to discharge the Person whether he be Offender or Debtor but if the Equivalent be not only tendred but accepted also on behalf of the Debtor or Offender the Offender hath Wrong done him if he is not immediately discharged of his Punishment and the Debtor of his Debt But do Trinitarians pretend or dare they that God doth discharge Mankind from the three Deaths on the Oblation and Sacrifice of himself made by the Lord Christ on their behalf By no means they own we are not at all discharged from Death Temporal but in some part from Death Spiritual and only a few Persons from Death Eternal It follows that the Sufferings and Death of our Saviour were not in deed an Equivalent to the three Deaths of Mankind 5. To add now no more The Unitarian Doctrine is consistent nay is the very same with what the Scriptures every-where say namely that Almighty God of his Grace the Riches and Abundance of his Grace and Love has pardoned Offenders for Christ's sake on the Conditions on their part of Faith Repentance and Newness of Life But the Trinitarian Doctrine which saith the Punishment laid on the Lord Christ was truly equivalent to the Punishment due to all Mankind doth deprive God our Maker and Father of the Glory of his Pardoning Grace and Mercy Nay it saith in effect that we are not beholden to God our Father on that account It saith he hath been harsh nay hath been apparently unjust in that he hath received more than an Equivalent for our discharge from the three Deaths and yet he hath not wholly releas'd any and but very few are at all released I will only add Whereas Trinitarians call the Sufferings of the Lord Christ a Punishment and will have that Punishment to be equivalent to the Infinite Punishment due they say to Mankind for Sin Original and Actual and whereas they call this Doctrine the Doctrine of the SATISFACTION by the Lord Christ they have mistaken in the Name as well as in the Thing 'T is the Unitarians who in proper speaking hold that the Lord Christ made Satisfaction to God for Sin not Trinitarians We say that the Sufferings of the Lord Christ not being equivalent in the exact Scales of Justice for what all Mankind have deserved yet God was satisfied with them that is was graciously pleased to accept them as an Intercession on our behalf and this is the proper Notion of a Satisfaction But Trinitarians in saying the Sufferings of Christ were equivalent to the Demerit of our Sins were a full Payment to the Justice of God for them do not hold a Satisfaction but a Reparation or Plenary Amends The more elegant Latinists call Confession Deprecation and such like imperfect and partial Reparations and Payments by the Name of Satisfactions Of the Incarnation BEcause no other but a Person of Infinite Merit and Dignity could satisfy the Divine Justice for Adam's Transgression therefore the second Person of the Blessed Trinity called the Son offered himself to undergo the Equivalent to that Punishment or threefold Death which belonged to Adam and his Descendents and this Offer was accepted by the other two Persons of the Trinity It was agreed that the Son should become incarnate in an Human Nature should be Whole and All united to a Finite Man even the Man Christ Jesus and be one Person with him By this means the Man Christ Jesus became of that unspeakable Merit and Dignity that one drop of his Blood was an Equivalent to the Eternal Punishment of all Mankind in Hell-Fire and his Holiness and the Merit thereof was infinitely more than enough for himself it was meritorious of Heaven for never so many Sinners The Son was so incarnate in a particular Human Nature as to be personally thereto united in the very Womb of the Virgin Mary so that Mary as General Councils of the Orthodox have rightly defined was not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Mother of Christ but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mother of God This Incarnation of the Son in the Man Christ Jesus begets also such a Communication of Idioms that is of Properties and Attributes between the Divinity and the Humanity of the Lord Christ that we must say on the one hand God was born God suffered God died as we must say also on the other hand the Man Christ Jesus is Eternal Omnipotent Omnipresent Creator of Heaven and Earth As all Learned Divines acknowledg and Cardinal Bellarmine in particular has largely proved from Fathers and Councils of the Orthodox Bellar. de Christo l. 3. c. 9. The Notes The Doctrine of the Incarnation claims the place of all the Trinitarian Doctrines even of the Trinity it self in regard of its Seniority For while our Opposers were only Homo-ousians that is believed and professed only two Eternal and Consubstantial Persons not having yet dreamt that the Holy Spirit is God in the days of the first Nicene Council even then they held the Incarnation of the second of those Persons Neither does this Doctrine come behind any of their Doctrines either in the Number or the Rarity and Strangeness of its Wonders and Mysteries but of these three are more remarkable than the rest I will make a short Reflection on each of them The first Wonder is that an Infinite Person is whole and all incarnate in a Finite Nature Which amounts to this That Infinite is less than Finite for else how should Infinite be incarnate that is cased in the Finite But make the greatest Allowances possible yet the Infinite which is whole and all incarnate in the Finite can at most but be commensurate to the Finite that is but equal to it Now these are two such Paradoxes that till our Opposers can separate them from their Doctrine of the Incarnation they will never perswade that Doctrine to any who make use of their Reason and Consideration The second great Mystery or Wonder of this Doctrine is that the particular Human Nature in which a Person of the Trinity vouchsafed to be incarnate became thereby of Infinite Dignity and Merit for 't was an Equivalent for an Infinite number of Men and for the Infinite Punishment due to them and yet still remained and continued a meer and bare Human Nature Which is to say a
Arminianism is only a Limb of Socinianism as a Map of a Province or Kingdom is but a Limb of a Quarter-map or of a Map of the whole World For Arminians have borrowed all they have both Doctrine and Argument from the Socinians or Vnitarians And for that reason it must be farther said that Such as extend the Redemption by Christ beyond what is above declared are so farforth Socinianiz'd have departed from the Articles of the English Church and from the Suffrage of the British Divines at Dort The Notes They tell us that God so Imputed the single Transgression of one Man to all Men as to make all Men thereupon obnoxious to the Three Deaths Temporal Spiritual and Eternal but that soon Repenting him of this Rigour he took up a Contrary Resolution even to Redeem all Men. Well do they hold of that Mind For if they do 't is no very Hurtful Tragi-comedy because however Unjustly all Men were Condemned yet if they are all Pardoned they have been more Scared than Hurt But the Matter it seems is otherways for when God resolves to Redeem all Men the meaning is he intends to Redeem Some and farther in Electing or Choosing those Some his Election oft-times is from the most wicked and those also at their last End or when they have sinned as long as they can In a word of those Few whom God is pleased to Redeem from that Ruine which his Imputation of Adam's Sin to them brought on them he chooses They say the least Worthy for Objects of the Highest Mercy and exercises the uttermost Unjustice and Cruelty on those that are Better or however not so bad Let us consider these two Notable pieces of Orthodox Doctrine 1. God hath Elected to Salvation and has Redeemed only Some of those Many who were undone by his Imputation of another Man's Transgression to them Now though Vnitarians deny there was any need of a Redeemer to rescue us from Adam's Transgression or the Punishment thereof because neither could that Transgression be Imputed to us nor could we be justly Punish'd for it yet on other accounts we own there was need of a Redeemer As to reconcile the World to the one True God from whom they were departed by an Universal Idolatry and to reconcile God to the World for that and Other Actual Sins and divers other Reasons But we say also that whatsoever was done or suffer'd by Christ the Redeemer or Saviour was equally done for all Men and Women none excepted We deny not that Holy Scripture speaketh of the Elect but we say it means not thereby some few certain Persons chosen out of the rest of Mankind to Eternal Life while all others are doomed to Damnation or lest in an incapacity of Salvation But the Elect are all Such as turn to God all such are by him Elected that is chosen and designed for Salvation and he would have all Men and Women to be of that number if they are not it proceeds from their own Negligence or Wilfulness not from Adam much less from God This is most clearly the Doctrine taught in Holy Scripture even that the Redemption by Christ is intended for All John 6.51 The Bread which I give saith our Saviour is my Flesh which I give for the Life of the WORLD The beloved Disciple saith the Lord Christ was a Propitiation for our Sins and not for ours only but for the Sins of the WHOLE World 1 John 2.2 St. Paul to the Romans saith By the righteousness of one even the Lord Christ the free Gist is come upon ALL Men to Justification of Life Rom. 5.18 The Author to the Hebrews saith By the Grace of God Jesus Christ hath tasted death for EVERY Man Heb. 2.9 Or if they want a Text wherein the very word Imputed is found St. Paul saith God by Christ reconciled the WORLD to himself not Imputing their Transgressions to them 2 Cor. 5.29 To tell us Here as our Opposers do that the WORLD the WHOLE World ALL Men EVERY Man are only some Men and those also a very Few what is it but to give us a Flat denial of Scripture instead of an Interpretation thereof And I will Here leave it with the unprejudic'd Considerer whether these Texts do not sufficiently prove this part of the Damnable Socinian Heresy But they say farther 2. In choosing or electing out of the heap of fallen Mankind God's Election or Choice is sometimes from among the most wicked and those also at their last end or after they have sinned as long as they can The next thing that we may expect from some Men is that they will write a Panegyrick in Praise of the Devil If they had said that the Election for which they contend is made by the Devil or falls upon Persons by chance of the Dice it had been credible that Redemption and Salvation is the chance of the most wicked and at their last end But to say People are elected to Salvation and that by God and yet that they are the most wicked and at their last end who are elected and saved is not said without such manifest Impiety that I will not now stand to dispute against it but leave it with every sincere Lover of God to judg betwixt us and our Opposers But this one thing I will observe that when they were loading their Maker with such scandalous Imputations they should have so contrived their Calumnies as to be self-consistent and not contradictory to one another as they are in this Article For of what worse or worst Men and Women elected to Salvation do they dream when themselves have before assured us that the Imputation of Adam's Sin to us makes All averse to all Good and inclined to all Evil Of such Persons there is neither worse nor worst but all are bad alike so bad that Satan himself neither is nor can be worse If we all have such an Inclination to Evil only and to every kind of Evil as is neither restrained nor corrected but by an extraordinary and particular Grace of God it unavoidably follows that all are bad alike and that 't is a Contradiction to say the worst or the most wicked are chosen to be Subjects of the Grace of Redemption and of a Pre-eternal Election 'T is no manner of Evasion here to say that the Restraining Grace which God bestows more or less on every Person even on the Reprobate hath several degrees and from hence it comes to pass that some are not so bad as the rest For seeing 't is not their own Choice or Act but merely the Momentary Grace blown into them that restrains any from any sort of Wickedness it can no more be said of such that one is better or less bad than another than a chained Lion can be said to be tamer or less fierce than a Lion who is loose and at full liberty Of the Satisfaction WHen the Divine Wisdom and Goodness had determined to redeem all Men that is some
meer Human Nature continuing and abiding a bare and meer Human Nature is a Divine Nature For in affirming it hath Infinite Dignity and Merit how much soever they may say in words 't is a bare and meer Human Nature they have in sense affirmed 't is a Divine Nature For what is Divine but as much as to say of Infinite Dignity and Infinite Excellence or Merit The third Wonder is That by Virtue of the Incarnation of a Divine Person in an Human Nature the Divine Person or God must be said to have been born in Time to have suffered and died and on the contrary the Humanity or Man Christ Jesus must be said to have been from all Eternity to be Omnipotent Omnipresent Creator of all things and whatsoever else is said of God But that our Opposers may not complain that they are misrepresented I must own this is only the fore part of the Prodigy the other end or hinder part is of a contrary Nature For tho you must say God was born God suffered God died yet saith their Doctrine farther you are not really to think God can be born in Time can suffer or can die and on the other hand you must say the Man Christ Jesus was from all Eternity created the World is Omnipresent and Omnipotent but you are not so to think The reason is because the Communication of the Properties of the Divinity to the Humanity and of the Humanity to the Divinity is not real but only nominal or in words Now Unitarians being but plain Fellows and having Country Consciences like not this juggling that we must say one thing and must think or mean another Yet because we ought to yield to hard things for Peace sake if our Opposers are content that we may do so also in the other Articles that is if they are content that we only say as is said in those Articles and may declare at the same time that we think the contrary and if Trinitarians will also so do in those Articles we will comply with them in this third Wonder or Mystery of the Incarnation And this is the only Composition that can possibly be agreed to in these Controversies without renouncing our Christianity our reasonable Faculties and our Senses Of Grace IT is true the Lord Christ God and Man in one Person paid down a more than sufficient Ransom for the Actual Deliverance of a thousand Worlds from the Imputation of Adam's Sin and the Consequences of that Imputation even the three Deaths yet the Ransom was not accepted for all but only for the Elect nor yet was it accepted for Deliverance from the whole Punishment but only from part of it For no Man is thereby delivered from such a share of Spiritual Death as to be able to do a good Action or think a good Thought without an immediate and particular Assistance or GRACE of God's Spirit beginning continuing and perfecting such good Action or Thought in him and by him As hath been often defined and concluded in the Councils of the Orthodox in opposition to the Heresy of Pelagius revived by Vnitarians and Arminians The Notes After they have tried their Skill in misrepresenting and deforming the true Idea we ought to have of God and of his Perfections and Attributes our Opposers proceed to calumniate Human Nature the Image of God and will have it to be the Image of the Devil They tell us we come into the World so depraved in all our Faculties and Powers that we cannot do any good Action no nor think a good Thought without a particular and extraordinary Grace of God beginning continuing and perfecting such good Action or Thought in us and by us In sober sadness is this the Character of that sort of Creature of whom the Apostle saith be is made in the similitude of God James 3.9 Or is it the very Description of the Devil himself if at least it be not a Calumny even of him Will God own such a Creature as his Similitude as has a natural Impotence to all that is holy and good and a violent and perpetual Biass to Evil only and to every kind of Evil Yes they say our Likeness to God consists not in a Capacity to Holiness or ought that good is but in the Dominion we have over some Creatures in this lower World But by this account of our Likeness to God he that is most of all unlike to God is much more the Similitude and Image of God than Man is the Dominion and Power of Satan is incomparably greater and larger than Man's is therefore in their Hypothesis he is more the Similitude of God than Man is But as absurd as these things are I will not now insist on them but content my self to acquaint the Reader with some of the principal Reasons of the Vnitarians why they hold that Man is a free Agent as capable of doing Good as Evil nay more capable of the former because he has more reason for it than of the latter not the Slave to only one of the Contraries but at absolute liberty towards both 1. Our Blushes and Remorses for having acted at any time otherways than we ought are Testimonies and Witnesses of our certain and internal Consciousness that we could have done as Religion and Duty require of us that is could have forbore that Evil and have done the contrary Good 2. Deliberation and Consultation what and how we are to act argue also not only that we are free but that we are sensible we are so 3. We experience that our Piety and Vertue are our own Work by the Difficulty we feel and the slow Progress we are able to make in attaining those Habits and in subduing the contrary Habits 4. If Men are good not by a spontaneous Choice or Power of their own but only by an extraordinary and immediate Aid no tolerable reason can be given why we should not always be acted to Good or why we are but partially and imperfectly Good Is it credible that God should do his own Work in us after a desultory inconstant and impersect manner 5. What Piety or Vertue is it or how can God love or esteem any Person whether Him or Her for that well-doing or that abstinence from Evil which was not their own Choice Will or Discretion but the Work and Effect solely of God's Grace acting by them or in them 6. That every good Thought and Action is not an Inspiration or the Gift or Grace of God is confirmed by this that God doth sometimes disallow and forbid some good Intentions and Actions of his Servants Thus 't was a good Thought and Intention in David that he would build an House for the Lord a Temple for God's publick Worship and Service 't was so good a Thought and Purpose that it was rewarded with a Promise from God that God would build David 's House i. e. would establish and confirm his Family on the Throne of Judah and Israel But as good a