1 Cor. 2. 2. I determined not to know any thing amongst you save Iesus Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even him Crucified The Person of Christ under that consideration as Crucified and the Reasons are as Cogent as the thing is clear For 1. In the Knowledge of Christ that very Christ whom the Father sent into the World consists Eternal Life This is Life Eternal to know thee the only true God and Iesus Christ whom thou hast sent 2. VVe are Commanded to love this Iesus another great fault our Author finds with these Men but how to love him and not to be acquainted with him may be reckoned amongst the Impossibilities 1 Pet. 1. 7. At the appearing of Iesus Christ whom having not seen ye love in whom though now ye see him not yet believing ye rejoyce with Ioy unspeakable and full of Gloâ—…y The Apostle commends their love to and faith in an unseen Saviour whence it 's easie to conclude that it was the Person of Christ they loved for the Scriptures they had seen the Gospel the Church they had seen an Office I confess they could not very well see and yet they are praised for loving him that was not seen 3. VVe are commanded to Worship this Jesus to give Divine Honour to Him Iohn 5. 23. That all should Honour the Son even as they Honour the Father And accordingly we read that the Disciples did Worship Him Luke 24. 52. Nay the Command is given to the Angelical Nature Heb. 1. 6. Let all the Angels of God Worship Him But it 's a strange kind of Worship that we give Darklings One of the smartest Rebukes Christ gave the Samaritans was that they Worshipped they knew not what but We says Christ know what we Worship 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 VVe must not only know who He is but what He is whom we worship 4. It 's our plain duty to acquaint our selves with God that we may be at peace Iob 22. 21. But Christ is true God very God witness the Athanasian and Nicene Symbols 5. VVe are in particular commanded to believe in Him John 14. 1. Ye believe in God believe also in me And it concerns us to know by what authority he Imposes his Commands upon us what is his Varacity that we may depend upon his Promises and what is his Power to carry us through the difficulties that ever attend conscientious Duties to Eternal Life I am the more for acquaintance with Christs Person because it 's so great a Venture to trust the unknown This Prudence all men will be sure to exercise in Common affairs much more where Souls and Eternal Life lie at stake and such did the Apostle Practise 2 Tim. 1. 12. I know whom I have believed 6. The whole Design of the Scripture leads us to an acquaintance with the Father Son and blessed Spirit Hence was the Apostle so Zealous that the Colossians might come unto all Riches of the full assurance of Understanding to the acknowledgment of the Mysterie of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Even of the Father and of Christ in whom are hid all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge VVhich are those Provoking words that have so often Ruffled our Authors thoughts into Disorder 7. The whole of the Scripture is an unaccountable Riddle without the Knowledge of Jesus Christ VVe are told there how God has been atoned by the Sacrifice of Oxen Sheep what a sweet smelling savour he has sented in the burned Flesh of the Holocaust which without Consideration of the Person of Christ and Reference to Him is Irrational To speak of the Death of Christ himself as reconciling God and man is also wholly Unintelligible without due regard to Him as Mediator what Office he bore what Place he filled in whose Stead he stood what that Covenant was that between the Father and his Son was agreed upon For according to our common apprehension of Things God should rather have Destroyed the World for Crucifying his Son than have been Reconciled and Propitiated by his Death Now I know well our Author will Reply that he good Man is no Enemy to acquaintance with Christs Person provided always we do not VViredraw New Doctrines from it and Extract greater and deeper Mysteries thence than are to be found out in the Gospel To which we Rejoyn That it 's not Christs Person that teaches us the Doctrine but the Doctrine that Acquaints us with his Person We study not the Person of Christ to find out Gâ—…spel Mysteries but to resolve them Not to Discover the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of New Truths but to Demonstrate to us the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Old But if after all that can be said our Author will be Clamorous we must be Content and Satisfie our selves with this that it 's the Nature of the Creature and some things we know are so untractable by their Constitution that though you Bray them in a Morter amongst Wheat with a Pestle yet their Crabbed Froward Awkward Tempers will not depart from them CHAP. III. Sect. 3. How unsafe it is to found Religion upon a Pretended Acquaintance with Christs Person I Foresee this Section will certainly prove Unanswerable the Comfort is it 's the onely one that appears to be such in the whole Book The Reader will judge with me that he must needs have a hard Task on 't and perhaps equal to any of Hercuâ—…es his Labours that shall maintain it safe To found Religion upon Hypocrisie and yet this must be his lot who will defend That it 's safe to build Religion upon a pretended Acquaintance with Christs Person Some report that that Goodly Beast which for Honours sake we will call a Porcupine keeps alwayes Two Avenues to her Cell that let the Wind sit where it will it shall never blow full in the Dore and let her Enemies besiege her how they can she has a secret Sally-port to creep out at With the same wisdom has our Author provided for his own Retreat in this Section For if any shall be so fool-hardy as to assault him with an Argument That it 's our Duty to be acquainted with Christs Person and for that end to search the Scriptures which testifie of him direct and lead us to him that so upon the Person of our Redeemer we may build our Faith as upon that Rock against which the Gates of Hell shall not prevail he can readily reply upon you True but it 's onely a Pretended Acquaintance with Christs Person that I so zealoâ—…sly declaim against I perceive it 's no small advantage in all Disputes to have the Priviledge to state the Question to our own good liking and he that has once got a Faculty for it is out of Gun-shot unless he be so incorrigible a Coxcomb as not to be aware of his own Interest That the Religion of Sinners is built upon a Mediator as the Religion of the Innocent was upon the Being of a God That this Mediator is the Lord
to be content to be saved by Christ without being either humble or holy or fair or beautifull any otherwise than as he is pleased to make us so by his Satisfaction for our Sins and the Imputation of his Righteousness to us Nay that 's a Rapper let him but look up to what he quoted from Mr. Shepheard Christ hath tâ—…ken upon him to purge his Spouse and make her fit for himself and that she can never be without being holy humble beautifull by inherent Grace Shall I but entreat the Readers patience a very little to lay his finger upon these words The result of all that they mean by coming to Christ is to be content to be saved by him without being holy humble or beautifull c. and I will promise him for his Patience and Pains he shall within a Page or two hear our Author most effectually confute his own Slander and raise a Mighty Blister upon his own forgetfull Clapper And now our Author comes to consider what Duties are consequent upon such an Union and closure with Christ. As first A mighty love of the Soul for her Saviour Head and Husband and Another is Obedience to our spiritual Husband And now Reader where didst thou lay thy finger Are these the Men that are content to be saved by Christ without being holy humble c Are these they that were charged p. 56. with trusting to the Expiation of Christ for Salvation without doing any thing themselves Or are they the same men that were reproached p. 62. as saying They had Nothing to â—…oe but to get an Interest in the Satisfaction and Righteousness of Christ and yet now are so hot for loving of Christ that their great Crime is that they over-love him and are sick of love for him and are all for Obedience to Christ too resigning up themselves to his Will to be govern'd by his Laws and in all things to glorifie him in New Obedience Yes but then it 's very hard to find a proper place for Obedience in this New Religion Well but if we can find a proper place for it in the Old Religion it 's no great matter what place it has in the New And indeed I would not have it Controverted what place in Religion they will allow to Obedience who are of no Religion who are open Scoffers at Christ the Holy Spirit the Scriptures and all Religion Ay but it 's very hard to deduce it from an Acquaintance with Christ's Person Very Hard what a word was that why it 's simply impossible to deduce any Religion at all from an Acquaintance with his Person for all the acquaintance we have with him is by an acquaintance with his Gospel from whence we understand him to be God and Man from thence we learn him to be King Priest and Prophet thence we learn what he has done and suffer'd for us and what he is now doing for us at the Right hand of the Father But why should it be so very hard to find a proper place for Obedience in these mens Religion Why Reason will tell you that if there be any room at all for it it must be either before our closing with Christ or after it Now indeed he argues close and home and pursues his business as snug as you can desire 1. Then this Obedience is not necessary at all to our coming to Christ and closing with him Not necessary that 's very strange Coming to Christ is with them a Main part of Obedience and to Obey without Obedience is not so easie as he imagines He that answers that Call of Christ Come unto me therein obeyes him and believing in Christ has been reputed a considerabe part of Gospel-Duty 1 Ioh. 3. 23. This is his Commandement that we should believe on the Name of his Son Iesus Christ That there are several Duties which flow from Faith the Scripture Church of England and all men living doe acknwowledge but that this Believing is also a Duty they must equally acknowledge So that here 's one proper place or at least a Corner of a place where he may wedge in Obedience if he pleases 2. Sayes he When the Marriage is consummated there 's less need of it than before Nay there his Non-sence is too open He supposes them to own consequential Duties such as follow the Marriage-covenant and yet now he would perswade us that there 's less need of them than before the Marriage-Covenant If he can invent a way how consequential Duties should goe before the Marriage Covenant by my consent he shall have the sole honour of the Discovery In my poor Judgment and I am perswaded most men are of my Judgement consequential Duties doe follow or to humour him following Duties ought to be consequential There was once a Learned and Friendly Debate betwixt a Mayor and his Brethren what the Question was I am not very certain but one wiser than the rest had reduced the Matter to this Head That if they could but make it out that Edward the third reigned before Edward the first they should carry the Cause And if our Author can find any place proper or improper for consequential Duties before that thing to which they are consequential he shall be Registred amongst the great Benefactors to our understandings But yet in spight of Fate he will not allow any place for Consequential Duties after Marriage for then we have less need of them than before A fine Argument if well Improved to satisfie men in the Lawfulness of committing Adultery But why not 1. Then we are adorned with the Beauty of Christ Ergo we need no Inherent beauty Then we are Iustified Ergo we need not be Sanctified 2. Then we are Holy with Christs Holiness Ergo we need not be Holy 3. Then we are delivered from the Guilt of sin by his Expiation Ergo we need not be delivered from the filth of sin 4. Christ must look to see the Debt discharged to God which he hath taken upon him Ergo we owe no Debt of Gratitude to the Father for his Son to the Son for his Love 5. We are then righteous with his Righteousness which gives us an actual right to Glory Ergo we need no Inherent righteousness to make us meet for Glory and to partake of the Inheritance of the Saints in Light All I shall say is this If men may Argue at this Rate they are the most formidable Disputants we may cast our Caps at them and it 's as safe to handle the Torpedo as to touch them with a long Pole But such Merriment he is pleased to Divert his we aried Reader withal and sometimes for Variety it may be Grateful but really too much Nonsence in a Discourse is very odious For the Place or rather no Place of Obedience thus far An enquiry in the Reasons of it seems also necessary And for that he says It 's concluded on all hands that this Obedience is but a Consequential Duty that which ought to
that he hath appointed an Atonement for us and given no less Person than his own Son for our Ransome The Reader cannot but observe that he is there giving us Another Scheme of Religion from an Acquaintance with Christs Person without Scripture and then when he comes to take the Matter in hand he can from the Person of Christ demonstrate Gods good Will his pardoning Mercy and what not when others indeed venture upon Conclusions without Scripture they give some uncertain conjectures get some feeble hints some dim appearances and smattering Iâ—…cklings of the Matter but to Us it speaks nothing less than Apodictical and great Demonstration 2. The Reader will observe how perfectly he Overthrows the very design he would exalt for undertaking to prove How unsafe it is to found Religion upon a Pretended acquaintance with Christs Person and assigning this for a Reason that this is to build Religion upon uncertain Conjectures which we acknowledge to be Cogent When he comes to wind up his bottomes he tells us Though we had seen Christ in the flesh we could never have ghess'd at the End and Design of it had not he Christ Acquainted us with it So that the short and long of this great Demonstration is this That it 's uncertain to found our Religion upon Christ's Person because we could have known nothing of Religion unless we had been Acquainted with him He will lift himself off this flatt by replying that he means nothing but Christs acquainting us in and from his Gospel and we rejoyn that that which will bring him off will bring off his Neighbours for who ever affirm'd any more 3. He has herein at unawares stabb'd his main Cause to the heart For if there be no necessary connexion between the Person of Christ his Death and Suffering and the Salvation of Mankind but that as he assures us the End and Design of Christ in dying must be known onely by Revelation then it will unavoidably follow that Christ dyed for some greater Ends than to give us an Example of Patience and Submission to the Will of God to Confirm what he Preach'd seeing we needed no Revelation to acquaint us that a holy man is to be imitated in all holy things living or dying and that he thought at least his Doctrine was true or else he would never have exposed and layd down his Life to justifie it Now it 's plain however our Author does now and then humour us with Propitiation Ransom Atonement Expiation these are all reducible by his Engine to Christs confirming what he preach'd Pag. 320. All that I can find in Scripture concerning the Influence that the Sacrifice of Christ's Death hath upon our Acceptation with God is that to this we owe the Covenant of Grace which is Nothing else in his sence but God's Promise of saving us if we obey his Laws 4. He is slipt into the very same guilt with which he loads though unjustly his Adversaries viz. The Dividing the Person and Gospel of Christ. He was of a good Mind once p. 3. if he could have kept him in 't That the Person of Christ is not at oddes with his Gospel and that Christ and his Religion were well agreed but he has quitted his Post and dogmatically asserts That whosoever would understand the Religion of our Saviour must learn it from his Doctrine and not from his Person And why not from his Person in or by his Doctrine It 's a harder matter than our Author is aware to hear a Sermon preach'd without a Preacher and almost as difficult to believe it without good warranty that the Preacher has good Authority for what he delivers All the Authority of the Scripture is resolved into the Authority of Christ and therefore it concerns us to fetch our Religion from Christ by his Word 5. I must needs observe to the Reader one piece of cleanly conveyance and Legerdemain which our Author is forced frequently at a standing pull to serve himself of to draw Dun out o' th' Mire and that is to shew you a fair round Tester and then fob you off with a Counter to shew you a Horse in the Premises and pass to an Asse in the Conclusion He has pasted and posted it up in the Title of this Section How unsafe it is to found Religion upon a Pretended acquaintance with Christs Person but when he addresses himself to prove his Thesis he falls a persecuting the old thing of Learning Religion from an Acquaintance with Christs Person He who has the famous Art of Arguing from the essential Differences of things can he find no accidental difference at least betwixt Principium essendi and Cognoscendi Betwixt the Foundation of our Religion and the Means of conveying the Knowledge thereof unto us A thing may be first in Knowledge which is last in Being there has been some such Distinction in former Ages There was a time when the old World learnt it's Religion from Angels as our Author thinks from Prophets from the Government of the World will he say that the Religion of those dayes was founded upon any thing short of God upon Angels Men Sun Moon Stars Say the same in our Case Jesus Christ has revealed what we are to know and believe of the Father Son and Spirit in his Word he has reveal'd it yet our Faith Hope Love Obedience is founded on and ultimately terminated in God alone by Christ He that believes a Promise obeyes a Precept does believe the veracity of Christ in that Promise and obey the Authority of Christ in that Precept That Credit we give to Letters Patents praemunited with the Royal Seal is resolved ultimately into the Kings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Obedience we give to a Law is founded upon the Authority of the Legislator We learn our Duty from a printed Act of Parliament from a Proclamation but that which is the formal Reason of our Duty is the Relation wherein we stand to our Prince So childish is our Author in his Reasonings he begins to make a Cauldron and tinckers up a sorry kettle Amphora coepit institui currente rotâ cur urceus exit He undertook to prove the unsafeness of the Foundation of our Religion but he 's glad to come down a button-hole lower and prove onely the danger of learning of our Religion from a pretended acquaintance with Christs Person without Scripture-Revelation 6. He tells us there is not a Natural and Necessary connexion between the Person of Christ his Death c. and the Salvation of Mankind Very discreetly worded Not a natural and necessary connexion What 's matter if it be not Natural if it be Necessary Let it be owned Necessary any way that 's fair and honest and let him choose whether it shall be necessary by Nature or no. If our Author understands himself here it 's very well I am sure some others do not Does he mean therefore of all Mankind that there 's no natural connexion betwixt Christs Person
his body and of his flesh and of his bones And for this cause says the Apostle vers 31. a man shall leave Father and Mother and cleave to his Wife and they two shall be one flesh But now says he that which I have discoursed to you will seem very abstruse and as some will phrase it mystical non-sense and unintelligible Drollery but I speak concerning Christ and his Church For however this be true That the Husband and Wife are but one flesh in the eye and consideration of the Law yet it 's more eminently true concerning Christ and his Church who in the consideration and eye of God are but one Spirit All Metaphors and Similitudes taken from outward things come infinitely short and cannot decypher that mystical Union which is between Christ and all true Believers Your Political Union is but a new-invented Bawble your Natural Union is lean and hungry your Civil Union is low and flat it is a Mystical Union Ay but this Paul was an obscure Author and writes very darkly But yet he may comfort himself the better under this hard Censure since God himself cannot escape the Lash of Virulent Peâ—…s emboldned with an Imprimatur whose Institutions are reproached to be of Obscure Signification to aw the Childish Minds of men into Veneration And then that the internal Ligaments of this Union are the Spirit and Faith as the Scripture is free in affirming so our Author is shy in denying only he throws away a little scornful Drivel upon 't This Mystical is a hard word Let it be so Dr. Iacomb shall explain it on Rom. 8. p. 42. And first says the Doctor There is an Union of three Persons in one Nature 2. There 's the Union of two Natures in one Person 3. There 's an Union of Persons where yet Persons and Natures are distinct Concerning which he observes 1. Here 's an Union but no Transmutation Commixtion or Confusion Here 's an Union of Persons but no Personal Union Say you so Doctor then I promise you here 's one has made bold with some of your names for page 103. he tells his Reader and me amongst the rest That these men place all their hopes of Salvation in a personal Union with Christ. But pray Dr. go on The Person of Christ is united to the Person of a Believer and the Person of a Believer to the Person of Christ But for this our Author has a dry flam As it must needs be where the Person of Christ is united to the Person of a Believer Silly Man the Doctor observes that Christ is united to a Believer by the Spirit and a Believer united to Christ by Faith Though the Terms of the Relation are the same in Christ's Union with a Believer and a Believer's Union with Christ the Bond that unites them is Distinct. A Father is related to his Son and a Son to his Father yet Paternity is one thing and Filiation another and the Foundations of these Relations differ The Foundation of the one is to beget of the other to be begotten But says the Doctor Faith is the uniting Grace and this Faith receiving Christ 1 John 13. it must also unite us to the Person of Christ But of this our Author doubts because men are not united to every thing they receive Alas-a-day yet when a Master receives any one to be his Servant that Reception is the bottom of his Relation If a Woman receives a person to be her Husband that Reception creates an Union But I had rather the Reader would give himself the satisfaction to peruse the Doctors Book where he shall find these things laid down with Modesty backed with strength of Reason Scripture and the suffrage of Learned Christians And if our Author thinks that a few Squirts and Flashes which he is resolved to call Wit be a sufficient Confutation he shall enjoy the Contentment of admiring his own Excellencies without any Rival Again This Union says the Doctor may be thus described ' T is that Supernatural Spiritual Intimous Oneness and Conjunction between the Person of Christ and the Persons of Believers through the Bonds of the Spirit and Faith upon which there follows mutual and reciprocal Communion each with other I will not conceal from the Reader my thoughts I really expected that our Author should have highly commended the Doctors Modesty who in a subject so Sublime as might well exercise the Tongues of Angels should draw his Description with a Peut estre it may be described And the rather because by that means he has not excluded our Authors greater Abilities from travelling in the subject but left room enough for his Defining Faculty But instead of that I sâ—…e he 's Angry still though impotent This Oneness and Conjunction are hard words So they are indeed It 's hard to say Whether they will prove Arabic or Syriac or Welsh or Wild-Irish But to be sure they came but lately into England and are not yet made Denizons to purchase our Author's favour The great danger is lest we should mistake this Conjunction for one of the Eight parts of Speech Oh Sirs what inextricable perplexities has this one lewd word involved the Nation in since it landed The old Shiboleth was an innocent Chrysom to it Political Union and Machine are sorry Sneaks to it Indeed Tetrachymagogon and Syncategorematical come pretty near But Oh Conjunction This Conjunction is not to be tolerated in a Land professing the Seven Liberal Sciences And yet after all this I dare venture an even Wager That as many understand Conjunction as Opposition and more than know what to make of Antithesis and yet that never choak'd our Author but he could swallow it without making any Bones of it or a Vespasian face at it p. 264. But if some small splinter should stick in his throat the Doctor will be that charitable Crane to pluck it out for he adds Believers are said to be joyned to the Lord 1 Cor. 6. 17. Now if no words will down with him but such as melt in the mouth let him substitute Ioyning for Conjunction and that will serve for a Vehicle with a spoonful of Syrrup of Mulberries to supple the passage Our Author finding that the Doctor has bewildred himself will endeavour to help him out It 's a plain case says he if Christ and Believers are united their Persons are united too for the Person of Christ is Christ himself and the Persons of Believers are Believers themselves and I cannot understand how they should be united without their Persons but then they are united by mutual Relations as the Person of a Prince and his Subjects of a Husband and his Wife are united by mutual affections This I confess a surpassing kindness and therefore that frequent reckonings may make us long Friends I shall call some small Follies to account ere they be forgotten 1. I am more confirm'd in my old Observation That our Author writes only from hand to month He has
10. 38. How God Anoynted Iesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with Power which proves indeed that he was Anoynted and that with the Holy Ghost but not the Time when he was Anoynted onely we are Assured that after the Baptism of Iohn it was openly Preach'd and Published v. 37. I have met with some of your systematical Divines that would have scorn'd to talk so crudely and loosely of these matters and they tell us 1. That Christ was Anoynted by the Holy Ghost with an All-fulness of Gifts and Graces from his Incarnation and that there was no Moment wherein Christ was and yet was not anoynted with the Oyl of gladness above his fellowes 2. That he was declaratively Anoynted at his Baptism when the Spirit descended on him like a Dove And therefore they can grant that Christ was then Anoynted according to that known Rule Multa tunc fieri dicuntur quando facta esse manifestantur Thus the Resurrection of Christ is said to be a fulfilling of the Psalmist Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee Act. 13. 33. when yet the same Apostle understood well his own meaning that Christ was then Declared to be the Son of God with power by the Resurrection from the dead Rom. 1. 3 4. But because our Authors Mistake herein seems to be more speculative and notional to carry a more innocent Aspect with it than some others of his which like blazing Comets dart their malignant Influences upon the very Vitals and Essentials of Christianity it may plead for a more gentle Treatment and accordingly I shall dismiss it without more severe Animadversions than what it carries along with it 2 He proceeds in the next place to inform us in the true Nature of Christs Offices and that first in General p. 5. His Consecration to the Mediatory Function Virtually contained all those Offices of the Prophet Priest and King which are not properly distinct Offices in Christ but the several parts and different Administrations of his Mediatory Kingdom I shall take little notice what Poyson may lurk under that fair word Virtually it sounds somewhat oddely that Christ should be Actually consecrated to a Mediatory Function and yet his Offices reside in him onely Virtually a Function in Act without an Office in Act is â—…ust like an Office in Act without a Function I know no difference nor they that are wiser than I Christs Offices it seems lay dormant in his Function till time should serve for them to emerge into Act They were in Abeyance that is when he should ascend to Heaven he should then become a Priest We know very well in what Shop this Tool was forged Nor shall I stay upon that Expression wherein he so much delights of Christs Mediatory Kingdom as if all the Offices of Christ were to be reduced to that of the Regal Power that which he plainly speaks out is That the Offices of King Priest and Prophet are not properly distinct Offices in Christ. It has been the Interest and therefore the unwearied endeavour of the Socinians to confound the Offices of Christ which else they were well aware would confound their Heterodoxies so Volkelius lib. 3. de verâ Relig. cap. 37. de Sacerdotio Christi Iam ut de Pontificio Christi munere explicemus primo loco animadvertendum est illud ab ejusdem officio Regio si in rem ipsam mentem intendas non multum differre Now that we may speak of the Priestly Office of Christ we must in the first place observe that it differs not much from his Kingly Office if we narrowly attend the Nature of the Thing and his fellow Crellius to the same purpose Duo ista Munera Regium nempe Pontificium in sacris Literis apertè a se invicem disjuncta ut in Scholis loquuntur contradistincta nuspiam cernas sed potiùs alterum in altero quodammodò comprehensum videas Those two Offices viz. the Kingly and the Sacerdotal you shall never observe in the Scriptures to be separated or as the School men speak contradistinguished but rather the one included after a sort in the other And our Authors Notion is the very Pallas hammer'd out of their Brains the Falshood whereof we shall endeavour to lay open in a few words And 1. The Names which express the Offices of Christ signifie things properly distinct amongst men and yet these very Names by which God knew we understand properly distinct Offices was he pleased to Use to express the Offices of Christ by They were not Names or Terms coyned by the Holy Ghost and then a signification stampt upon them by Divine Authority but they were first used in common speech and past currant in the world never any question'd but a Priest a Prophet a King were distinct Officers and it were more than strange the Spirit of God should translate the words to signifie Religious matters and never give us the least intimation that the Significations of the words were changed 2. They were Properly distinct Persons who Typified our Lord Jesus Christ in his Offices Aaron was onely a Priest had a Priesthood in him distinct from the Kingly and Prophetical Office and it were really an astonishing thing that Aaron should be a real proper High-priest and bear that Office distinct from all others to typifie him who had the Office but in an improper and that a confused manner in himself Nay those Persons in whom two of these Offices did meet yet kept the Offices in them distinct Melchizedek acted otherwise when he enacted Laws at Salem than he did when he stood besides the Altar though both those Offices center'd in his Person yet they remained really and truly distinct 3. The special Acts of all these Offices are properly distinct in Christ. As the Kings Crown is really another thing from the Bishops Mitre the Scepter really distinct from the Censor so are Teaching Governing Sacrificing Properly distinct things As I cannot imagine how to drag foretelling things to come into the Kingly Office nor conquering of Enemies and trampling them under his feet to the Prophetical Office so neither how to force offering up a Sacrifice to God upon an Altar to be an Act of either of the other two offices 4. The Objects of these Offices are distinct For as the Kingly and Prophetical have Men for their Objects Men are to be governed and instructed so the Sacerdotal hath God for its Object Sacrifices are for Men but unto God Heb. 5. 1. For every High-Priest taken from amongst men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God that he may offer both Gifts and Sacrifices for sins And we may admire the wisdom of God in ordering matters with such exactness in every punctilio that our Lord Jesus should so exactly and closely answer this description that no room for cavil might be left nor any creep-hole for a witty evasion He was taken from amongst men ordained for men in things pertaining to God he
these it is acknowledged once for all that though he had the Original and Radical Power the plenary Commission to put in Execution all these matters during the state of his Humiliation and in some pregnant particulars did accordingly exert and put forth that Authority yet the way and manner the degree and measure of his Acting therein was in much wisdom suited to that dispensation wherein he was to appear in the form of a Servant The more illustrious august and solemn exercising thereof being reserved for the State of Exaltation when he should Appear like himself cast off the Cloud which had eclipsed the rayes of his Deity and sit down on the right hand of the Majesty on high But 3ly I must repeat my charge of Falshood against his Doctrine in that he sayes All this is called his Intercession p. 6. That Government of the Church Raising the Dead Judging the world c. should be called Christs Intercession looks as like Non-sence as ever I saw any thing in my life For Intercession has God for its Object as Intercessor he deals with his Father though on the behalf of Men 1 Ioh. 2. 1. We have an Advocate with the Father and he is the propitiation for our sins I should wonder to hear that an Advocates Office should be to plead with his Clyent and not with and before the Iudge on the behalf of his Clyent but because Intercession is the other great Branch of the Sacerdotal Office and some are deeply concerned that he should not offer up a Proper sacrifice to God they judge it Reason that one part of the same Office should not fare better than the other The High-Priest under the Law when he had offered Sacrifice upon the Altar upon the Feast of Expiation he goes into the Holy place with the blood carrying on his Breast and on his shoulders the Names of the twelve Tribes to signifie that he went in to intercede with God for the whole Church what He did typically Christ has done really Hebr. 9. 12. for when he had obtained eternal Redemption for us by his blood he goes to Heaven there to Appear before his Father and our Father his God and our God on our behalf and this is indeed called his Intercession the benefits we have thereby comprize some or all of those things before mention'd but I think it 's reasonable to distinguish between a thing and its proper effects and fruits but these are nothing but the Socinian Coleworts twenty times â—…oyled till they are rank poyson So Volkel lib. 3. de verâ Relig. p. 148. Primò illud occurrit quod seipsum pro nobis in Coelo offert vel quod idem reipsa est pro nobis coram Deo astaâ—… seu apparet atque interpellat quae omnia verba ad Christi Regnum translata sunt per similitudinem ab illorum Pontificum Officio ductam quod erat omnia modò enumerata in terrestri illo Sanctuario propriè verèque perficere This we take notice of in the first place that Christ offers himself for us in Heaven which is all one stands or appears and intercedes for us before God all which words are applyed to the kingdom of Christ by a Metaphor taken from the Office of those High-priests which was properly and really to perform the things fore-mentioned in that Earthly Sanctuary So that now according to this mans Sentiments the typical umbratile Priests under the Law did that really and properly which Christ the onely True and proper High-priest performs but in a shadow And I do the more wonder at the Confidence of the Man who could to this purpose quote Hebr. 7. which Chapter plainly sets Christ's ever living to make Intercession for us upon this bottome that he hath an unchangeable Priesthood But p. 149. he comes close up to our Authors apprehensions Itaque consequens est Interpellationem nequaquam propriè sed per translationem quandam Christo tribui nihilque reverà aliud ejusmodi loquendi formis significari quam Christum divinitùs sibi concessâ potentiâ omnia quae ad salutis nostrae Rationem pertinent summo studio perficere Hence it followes that Intercession is not at all properly but by Allusion ascribed to Christ and that nothing else is signified by those forms of speech but that Christ by a Power granted him from God doth very earnestly perform all things that belong to the Business of our Salvation And how sweetly does our Author syncretise with him Government of the Church sending the Spirit are called his Intercession And his Reason is as pretty as his Doctrine because like the Intercession of the High priest under the Law it 's founded on his Expiation and Sacrifice The strength of this Argument if it has any will be easily seen If Christs Intercession be founded on his Expiation then his Governing the Church is called his Intercession But the former is as true as what 's most so Ergo the latter is True also The Assumption is but a meer Presumption one part of Christ's Priesthood is not founded upon another but both are equally founded in his Unction and that Authority which he received from his Father but it 's the Consequence of the former Proposition which I would see a little more clear for methinks they hang untowardly together Suppose Christs Intercession were founded upon his Sacrifice for what I can discover his governing the Church sending his Spirit raising the dead may be Acts of his Kingly Power as they have alwayes been Let this whole matter be layd even with the type Aaron did not only offer Sacrifice to God upon his Altar but he went into the most holy plâ—…ce to make intercession for the people Was his Intercession founded on his Oblation or both his Power to Offer and Intercercede grounded upon his Office that he was High-priest Intercession then signifies not the Administration of a Mediatory Kingdome which has Men for its immediate and proper Object but the Administration of an everlasting Priesthood which has God for its Object though managed on the behalf of Men so it has signified this sixteen hundred years and so it is like to doe till we see stronger Engines to unfix the Notion of it Hitherto of the Nature of Christs Offices which he sayes is a true Account of his Mediatory kingdome but I say it 's the most false absurd and Idle account that ever was given by any but our Author and his partizans of the Socinian misbelief and is neither reconcileable with the Truth nor with it self one instance whereof we have in this last Paragraph That sayes he to which we commonly appropriate the Name of Regal power is his Intercession Commonly indeed but not truely so called and yet in the close he tells you that Intercession signifies the Administration of a Kingdom which how it should doe and not pertain to his kingly Office I cannot make out And now from the Nature of Christs Kingdome he proceeds to the
that Sacrifice once for all to be offer'd up to God for that end 6. And it was Necessary that the gracious God who had trusted the World so long with Pardon Peace and Life should at last be satisfied and not alwayes be put off without due Compensation to his Justice and Truth 7. The Case and Condition of the Elect of God made by the common Apostacy Enemies to God and under the Curse annex'd to the Violation of the Law upon this one Supposition that God would pursue his Original Love and Purposes of Grace to them that a due Compensation should be provided for his wronged Justice Sin had perplexed matters and involved things in such Intricacies that Humane Wisdom could not find out an Expedient How God might be Just and yet the Justifier of him that believes how Mercy and Truth should meet together how Righteousness and Peace should kiss each other Many Salvo's have been propounded to the World many Expedients set on foot but upon severer scrutiny have been found Physicians of no value not able to heal the wounds of an inquisitive Conscience awaken'd with the sense of the Souls worth and Gods wrath in the Judgement to come All these things does the Lord Christ alone compromise adjust all these Accounts and reconcile these Intrests The Justice of God is satisfied the Law fulfilled the Truth of God secured his Holiness vindicated and all his Attributes unreproached 'T is true indeed God is a free Agent and absolutely consider'd might have left the world to perish under the Curse but seeing it pleased him to carry on his design of Love still notwithstanding the intervention of sin what others may pretend I know not but to our Apprehensions as there is but one God the Father of whom are all things and we in him so there is one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things and we by him 2 Cor. 8. 6. 2. The Work of Christ whilest in the World was the discharge of his whole Mediatory Undertaking as Prophet Priest and King To divide Christ is to destroy him As half a Heart is no Heart in Gods Acceptation so half a Christ is no Christ as to any saving advantage the Soul can possibly reap from him He was therefore 1. A Prophet to acquaint us fully with the Preceptive will of God in which rank we must place that great Command of Faith in Christ 1 John 3. 23. And this is his Commandement that we should believe on the Name of his Son Jesus Christ. He acquainted us also with the Promissory Will of God as the great Encouragement of our Souls in walking resolvedly with God in wayes of New Obedience He acquainted us also with the Purposes of God which should follow his Promises and Precepts to invigorate them with Efficacy and Success And this he does by the Ministry of his Word but more especially by the Holy Spirit inwardly and powerfully and yet sweetly not offering violence to our Faculties but making us a willing People in the day of his Power 2. He was a Priest and as such he offer'd himself a true and proper Sacrifice to God thereby answering the Sacrifices of the Old Testament which though they were Typical yet in their way were true and Real Sacrifices and all this in pursuit of the Fathers Love and his own 1 Joh. 4. 10. Herein is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the Propitiation for our sins what Intercessions as a Priest he made for those the Father had given him we need no other pattern of than that Prayer John 17. per totum 3. His Kingly Office he exercised in gathering governing defending protecting his Church abolishing those Laws which were accommodated to that other Dispensation and would not fit its present posture and instituting New Ordinances of Worship agreeable to the oeconomy of the New Testament which Office yet he exercised in such a way that little of Glory and Majesty appeared therein to a Carnal Eye the Grandeur thereof being vailed under the form of a Servant 3. The general Design of this Work we may assure our selves was exceeding Glorious nothing but admirable could be the Product of such an undertaking with what Joy and Triumph was it entertain'd by the Angels who were less concern'd therein than poor fallen Man Luke 2. Glory be to God on high on Earth peace good will towards men 1 Tim. 1. 15. This is a faithfull saying and worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the World to save sinners the chiefest of Sinners Which Great End that he might attain he dealt with God as a Priest to reconcile him to us with Us he dealt as a Prophet enlightning our Minds in the Knowledge of God and our selves and as a King subduing our hearts by his Spirit of Grace to accept of those Terms which might secure the Glory of God in our Eternal Salvation But the main Design I shall express no otherwise than in the words of the Church of England Art 2. who suffered and was crucified dead and buried to reconcile his Father to us and to be a Sacrifice not only for Original but all Actual sins of Men. From whence we learn 1. That Reconciling and Sacrificing Work is onely proper for a state of Humiliation it 's annex'd to his Death Sufferings Sacrifice 2. That the Death of Christ according to the mind of this Article supposes God to be incensed against and angry with Sinners and therefore he suffered to Reconcile God to us 3. That the Death and Sufferings of Christ are of sufficient value to secure Gods Honour and appease his Anger 4. That Original Sin how small a mote soever it may seem in some mens eyes is yet such a troublesome Beam in Gods eyes that it requires the same Blood of Christ to be a Sacrifice for it 5. That all Actual sins even the smallest if any may be called small need the Blood of Christ to reconcile God to the Sinner without which they will infallibly destroy the Soul Thus far the Church of England of whose Doctrine our Author has great Reason to be very tender if not for the Truths sake yet for his Credits sake having subscribed it and above all for St. Georges sake Buttolphs-lane for otherwise it may be easie for some poching prolling Fellows to dismount George-a-horse-bâ—…k and get into our Authors Saddle CHAP. III. Sect. 2. Of Acquaintance with the Person of Christ. INterest is beholden to the Eagle for two of its greatest Excellencies a quick Eye to discover and sharp Pounces to seize the Quarry When once it had appeared in some pregnant Instances that the High-road to Preferment lay in the way of exposing Religion under the Persons of the Non-Conformists it 's incredible how soon sagacious Interest discern'd and made her advantage The old dull Methods of Marrying the Chamber-maid or Trucking with the young Gentleman grew as Obsolete as Systematical Divinity An unhappy happy
following of Adam as the Pelagians vainly talk but it is the corruption of the Nature of every Man whereby Man is very faâ—… gone from Original Righteousness and is enclined to Evil. So that in every Person born into the World it deserveth Gods Wrath and Damnation Surely here 's something that deserves our most serious Thoughts That which deserves Damnation at Gods Hands deserves consideration at ours He that can carry about with him daily a depraved Nature enclined to evil running counter to Gods Will and not lament it with a bitter Lamentation has taken some of our Authors Hypnoticks and how to bewail it without being sensible of it is a Mysterie perhaps as deep as any of those we owe to his Discovery And is not this to Reproach Christ himself Mat. 9. 12 13. They that be whole have no need of the Physitian but they that are sick Ay says he these are Metaphors and I will Rail them out of Credit and Countenance immediately Well you shall not fall out with Christ for a Metaphor if I can help it Read the Next words I come not to call the Righteous but Sinners to Repentance And they must be sensible sinners that will regard the Call of Christ or think they need Repentance Another Quarrel he has against the Practice of their Religion is That they hold it absolutely necessary that we be sensible how Impossible it is for us to Attone the Wrath of God to have any righteousness of our own that can bear the severe Scrutiny of his Iustice. Be it so if there be no Remedy It seems then if we could work up our Imagination into a Presumption that Gods Anger against sin is very small and our Righteousness very great so great as to endure the severe Scrutiny of Gods Iustice we might purchase this Gentlemans favour But the Gospel has taught us otherwise Rom. 3. 10. That there is none righteous no not one That by the deeds of the Law shall no flesh be justified in Gods sight ver 20. But he lays about him and Reproaches the Spirit of Bondage the Spirit of Adoption and at last falls a Reviling Christs own Words We shall says he in his fleering way never Value and Prize Christ and go to him for Salvation till we are Convinc'd of the necessity of him and driven to him by the Threatnings of the Law and the Promise of Ease and Rest is made only to the weary and heavy Laden and those only shall be satisfied who Hunger and Thirst after Righteousness Really this Doctor Owen and his Fellows are dangerous Persons I wonder not now that some think it not fit they should live a day That ever they should be so bold to read or quote Matth. 5. 6. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after Righteousness for they shall be filled or that other place Matth. 11. 28. Come unto me all you that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest or to mention Galat. 3. 24. Wherefore the Law was our School-master to bring us unto Christ But did they make the Scriptures or coin and invent these words of their own heads or has our Author a License to expose the Expressions of the Holy Spirit as well as the Doctors Surely an awfull regard to the Authority of Jesus Christ speaking in them might have commanded some Reverence to them and controlled this unbridled liberty of prostituting Sacred Matters But thus much and too much of what they make of Conviction And now says he being thus stung with Sin it is time for us to look up to Christ as the Israelites did on the Brazen Serpent that we may be healed But is this Gentleman indeed a Minister a Teacher of others the Rector of St. George Buttolphs-lane and knows not that he reproaches Christ himself Ioh. 3. 15. And as Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness even so must the Son of Man be lifted up that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have Eternal Life And does not Christ himself authorize the Parallel That as none were healed in the Wilderness but those onely who sensible of pain looked up to the Brazen Serpent as Gods own Institution to which a Promise of healing was annexed so neither can we receive any benefit by Christ till under a deep sense of our sin and misery we accept of and close with a Redeemer whom the Father has held forth to be a Propitiation through Faith in his Blood for the Remission of sins But this is not all Now we must begin to see his fulness and perfection and suitableness to the wants and necessities of our Souls that he is our Attonement our Wisdom our Righteousness and all that we can desire or need Well and if they do conceive Christ to have both fulness and suitableness of all Grace and Mercy in him I hope it 's neither Felony nor Treason neither We have an Assurance Heb. 4. 15. That Christ is such a Priest as is touched with a feeling of our Infirmities and was in all points tempted like unto us yet without sin there 's great suitableness and we are encouraged to come boldly to the throne of Grace that we may obtain Mercy and find Grace to help in time of need and there 's fulness And surely our Author does sometimes pray to Christ at least he is enjoyn'd by the Litany to say O God the Son Redeemer of the World have mercy upon us miserable Sinners Now if he can indeed discover no suitableness no fulness of Grace in Christ to answer the needs and wants of those miserable Sinners he had better save his Breath to cool his Pottage It is further charged upon them That when the sense of their sins and unworthiness makes them afraid to come to Christ they have recourse to their Acquaintance with Christs Person to answer their Doubts and quiet their Consciences Which charge though it has a Tincture and dash of our Authors good Nature in it they can easily bear and do confess that when the sense of their sins and Unworworthiness at any time discourages them from Comeing to God for the Pardon of sins they do relieve themselves from the Gospel which has spoken great things of the Ability and Readiness of a Mediator to save humble and repenting Sinners that are willing to receive him as God has offer'd him in the Covenant of Grace They do there find that Christ came into the World to save the chiefest of Sinners such as had been Blasphemers Persecutors and Injurious and yet have obtained Mercy that Christ in them might shew forth all long-suffering for a Pattern to them that should afterwards believe on him to Everlasting Life 1 Tim. 1. 15 16 17. And do further believe that to deny this is at once to renounce the whole Gospel and if it be not a Fruit of down-right Infidelity and Atheisme yet most apparently leads thither Our Author having destroy'd the Living begins to prey upon the Dead
thee worship but the Liturgy teaches the Man to use those words to his Spouse With my Body I thee worship So that I see no great Danger that ever Christ and a Believer should be marryed by the Liturgy Again he cites Mr. Watson A Soul in Christ is actually united to him and one with him and being so no sentence can fall on him but the same must light upon Christ himself That true Believers are one with Christ is very clear from the Gospel and it would be much our Concern to clear up this one point that we are true Believers for the other is clear 1 Cor. 12. 12. As the Body is one and hath many members even so is Christ and therefore there 's no condemnation to them that aâ—…e in Christ Iesus who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit Rom. 8. 1. A silly Jerk he has at this too And who would desire to be more secure than Christ is Why none that I know of And so a short Horse is soon curried What Mr. Watson had said before in the Apostles words that there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ that he illustrates by this similitude As a Woman in Marriage though she owe never so many Debts yet the Arrest doth not light upon her but upon her Husband And it has been owned as a Maxim in the Law Uxoâ—…i lis non intenditur But let that be as it will If the Main Fort hold out we can spare him the Out-works let it be acknowledged a Truth that There is no C ondemnation to them that are in Christ and let the Metaphor scape as well as it can O blessed Priviledge says he who would be afraid of running into debt with God when he hath such a kind Husband to discharge all Any one surely that has an ingenuous spirit as they all have who stand in that Relation to Christ Jesus Christ does not onely take the Soul into a Conjugal Relation but qualifies it that it may fill up the Dutyes of that Relation with Love desire to please fâ—…ar to offend readiness to obey with a spirit of thankefulness and fruitfulness with a Heart studying What shall I render to the Lord for all his Benefits Who would be afraid O vile and abominable heart that could form such a Conclusion of Sin out of the premises of abounding Grace Who would be afraid Nay who would not tremble at the heart to think least it should be drawn into sin to the wounding of him afresh that was wounded for me on the Cross How shall I doe this wickedness and sin against my Redeemer Shall he be crucifyed by me that was crucified for me There 's no such Argument in all the world against sin as the Consideration of what I owe to him who loved me and gave himself for me I deny not but the Doctrine of Grace may be turned into lasciviousness by them that never came under the Authority and soul-subduing Power of it but when a self-condemned self-abhorred Sinner comes to see what Christ has done and suffered for him what he is to him what he has wrought in him the Result whereof is Justification before a holy God and Sanctification of Soul such a one will retort upon the Tempter his own Temptation with the greatest Abhorrency Shall I continue in sin that Grâ—…ce may abound God forbid Rom. 6. 1 2. Still Mr. Watson prosecutes the Priviledges of the Saints This is their glorious Priviledge Christs beauty and loveliness shall be put upon them Ay says our Author snearing How vile and impure soever they are The old Crambe again They shall have Christs beauty put upon them and yet continue ugly still they shall have Christs whiteness on them and yet be as sooty and swarthy as before but this is none of Mr. Watsons sence but our Authors Non-sence who durst tell the World as the Purport of these mens Expressions That upon receiving Christ there 's a blessed Change made and yet we continue as we were But Mr. W. proceeds in the Priviledges of those that are engraffed into Christ and made members of his Body Nothing that ever was a member of Christ can be lost to Eternity Can he lose a Member of his Body then his Body is not perfect No fear not ye Saints neither Sin nor Satan can dissolve your Union with Christ. Our Author is now turning Catechist and asks this wise Question But what if Sin should make them no Saints would not that endanger the dissolving the Union Yes indeed it would endanger it as much as a Man is in danger of dying when his Head is chopt off but I hope we may ask one Question for another What if Christ will preserve them so effectually that they shall not sin to that height as to become no Saints why then the Union is not dissolved and so there 's a Pot-lid for our Authors Pot. But Mr. Watson Reasons further our Author says sweetly but I say it 's no great matter for that if he does it but strongly If any branch be pluckt away from Christ it 's either because Christ is not able to keep it or because he is willing to lose it And our Author Queries again Why not because it will not stay And I will tell him why Because he has given it a will and desire above all things in the world to stay with Christ. All Mr. Watsons unhappiness is that he had a good Cause but not the Luck to hit upon our Authors convincing Argument who p. 184. assures us That this New Life wherein our Conformity to the Resurrection of Christ consists is an immortal Principle of Life which can no more die then Christ can die again now he is risen from the dead And to shut up all Mr. Shepheards Sincere Convert is brought upon the Stage p. 77. though I could not meet with it till p. 113. Weaknesses do not debarre us from God's Mercy The Husband is bound to bear with the Wife as the weaker vessel and can we think that God will exempt himself from his own Rule and not bear with his weak Spouse It would have been something difficult to have made sport with such Innocent Expressions but he had an id est left in his Budget that never fails him Weakness says he that is no strength no grace no nor so much as a sense of Poverty How false this is Mr. Shepheard will satisfie any one that will but consult the next Question p. 116. Upon what Conditions may Christ be had and he answers Give away thy self to him give away thy Sins to him give away thy Honour Pleasure Profit Life to him give away thy Rags thy own Righteousness You will say you will have Christ with all your heart but will you have him upon these Tearms upon these four Conditions And now the total summe the result of all that these men mean by Accepting of Christ our Author gives us with his wonted Candour It is
with that Reverend Divine and tell her to her Teeth she is a Tatter-de-mallion and a Rapscallion And let Vertue Duty and a good Life be Urged and Pressed upon the Conscience with the most Cogent Arguments that Reason and Scripture will afford you Mr. Watson will Live and Sleep and Love you They are only these Quaint Nice Finical points of Vice and Vertue which he and all Judicious Christians who had rather have their Hearts and Lives better'd than their Ears tickled do Disgust A Quaint point of Vice at which your Jesuites are so Excellent that they have acquainted the World with more Sublimated and Speculatives Rogueries than perhaps else the Devil himself had ever thought of Such we meet with in their Books of Casuistical Divinity where men are Taught an Art of sinning to be Villanous in Mood and Figure and as some have reacht the perfection of Poysoning by Smells at a distance so have these Infected the World with their Theories of Monstrous Debaucheries They have started Game for unclean hearts to Hunt down and set unsanctified Nature agog for those Pollutions of which it had else lived in a blessed Ignorance There are Quaint points of Vertue too which will not down with any sanctified Souls and Ears who desire to hear of their Redeemer and their Obligations to him upon the Account of what he has Purchased and Procured for them When one that suppâ—…ies the place of the Minister but more fit to fill up the room of the Ideot shall with a starched Gravity Dress you up a Vertue A-la-mode like a Morice-dancer with a comely Feather in her Cap Ribands at her Ears and Tuneable Bells at her Heels and then come off with a Flourish Oh what a goodly thing is this Madam Vertue Let him that speaks speak as becomes the Oracles of God let him without affected Quaintness with a serious Spirit in the Words which the Holy Ghost teacheth open the Excellency demonstrate the Necessity of any Vertue and Mr. Watson is very well contented Having now made an Essay towards the Reconciling Mr. W. and our Author I hope I may without Offence proceed Before our Author takes his leave of his Reader which he does with much Civility he lets him know what he has had for his Money First he tells him He has given him an entire Scheme of a New Religion resulting from an acquaintance with Christs Person But we crave leave to Demur to that It 's neither a Scheme much less an entire Scheme of any Religion New or Old only a Wispe that he set up to himself to Scold at Next he lifts up his Masque that we may see the full Face of his Design for hitherto he has been in Masquerade and that he tells us was to Expose these Mens Principles to Scorn But that we saw through his Vizor and needed not his Gazet to give us an Advertisment that his chiefest Talent lies in Misrepresenting mens Persons their Expressions and Intentions in casting Dirt upon the the sincerest Actions and Invidiously traducing the greatest Truth of the Gospel Thirdly He tells us That every considering Person cannot but discover how Inconsistent the Religion of Christs Person and of his Gospel are But this Distinction was but the Superfoetation of his own Parturient Brain we own one God and one Mediator between God and man one holy Spirit one Faith one Baptism delivered to us in the Scriptures of Truth And further than the Scriptures have a Tongue to Speak we have no Ear to Hear Whereas therefore a certain Vagrant Principle concerning the difference betwixt the Religion of the Person and Gospel of Christ has been taken Begging at our Doors and would have Father'd it self upon us Now know all men whom it may Concern that we have Executed the Law upon it have Stript and Whipt it and do hereby send it from Constable to Constable till it shall come at the Parish of St. George ButtolphsLane and the Rectory there where the Brat was Born and Bred and there 't is most fitting it should be Maintained The Reader cannot but Observe that how Hotly soever our Author is Engaged in the Pursuit of his Design yet he can always find leisure to have a Fling at the Acquaintance of Christs Person If there were but two things in all the World to Rail at one of them should be Acquaintance of Christs Person Hence it is that he has not got a finer Nick-name for those he would Vilifie than the Acquaintances of Christ. Thus pag. 56. As these bold acquaintance and familiars of Christ use to speak p. 68. As another great acquaintance of Christ speaks which though it be perfect Nonsence yet serves to express his Scolding Humour well enough Now I confess I cannot Divine what should thus give Fire to his Choler and enflame his Passion against acquaintance with Christ. It must be either the Name or the thing it self that I am satisfied in 1. Then Is it that Term that disliks him Alas poor Word What harm had it ever done him I could wish that to prevent Quarrels and keep the Peace he may have liberty to make some other word its Substitute and Surrogate Let it be the Knowledge of Christ the Understanding of Christ or what ever other Synonima his Sylva will furnish him with rather than to have such a continual Peal rung in our Ears with this Acquaintance And yet he might have known that the Word is no worse than what the Learned Translators of our English Bible saw or thought they saw Reason to employ It has now lain so long Mellowing in that Version that it might be presumed to have lost the Austerity of its Nature and to have been Sweetned to his Curious and Judicious Palate In Iob 22. 21. Acquaint now thy self with him and be at peace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the word signifies to Familiarize our selves to a Thing or Person And the same word is used to express Gods own Knowledge of and Acquaintance with his Creatures and all their ways Psal. 139. 3. Thou art acquainted with all my ways 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And it s opposed to a strange overâ—…y Carriage when we live at a distance from another as if there was no good and clear Correspondence between us and the truth is it implies a thing called Communion and therein lies its Guilt But 2. I suspect that it is acquaintance with Christs Person that has provoked all this Rage Acquaintance with any Thing or Person else might have scaped a Scouring and yet under Correction 1. The Scripture presses it as our Duty to Study Understand and get a through Knowledge of the Personof Christ 2 Pet. 3. 18. But grow in Grace and in the Knowledg of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ to him be Glory both now and for ever Amen And 2. We find holy Men to have made it their business to get an acquaintance with Christs Person which this Gentleman makes it his business to Reproach
Hope and Expectations upon God through Christ The Knowledge of all which they owe alone to the Scriptures given forth by the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost The supposition therefore that our Author has proceedeed upon all this while is a meer Falshood yet had it been True what he charges them with he had very weakly overthrown their Errour and none can doe greater disservice to the Truth than by a weak and feeble defence of it or a weak Opposition to the contrary it 's enough to tempt some men to take up what he opposes and to presume there are no better Arguments one way or other because so confident a Designer could give no better For all the Misadventures in his Tedious Scheme he will make us believe hee 's not bound to answer for them for if the Proportions be but regular let the Doctrine be what it will he does but personate the Mode of others But yet we have discover'd here many of his own dear Notions sent abroad in Masquerade which will appear more bare-faced in the following sheets Imitating herein the famous Limner who would stand behind his Exposed Piece to Eaves-drop the Censure of the Critical Spectator Just thus does our Author skulk behind his New Model of Divinity and if it meets with an Imprimatur he will play a more Overt Game but if otherwise he can quickly pluck in his Horns CHAP. III. Sect. 4. How Men Pervert the Scriptures to make it Comply with their own Fancies IT 's storied of Messa la Corvinus once a Famous Orator that he got such a Crack in his Pericranium that he quite forgot his own Name the most unhappy man certainly in all the World to have been Employed in the Management of a Lye the Mystery whereof consists mainly in Tying both the Ends so handsomely together that it may not Ravel out into Thrums Our Author has Managed a severe Charge against some that they Deduce all their Religion from an acquaintance with Christs Person without consulting the Scriptures And yet now The truth is says he if you consult their Writings you will find them stuffed with Scriptures These things did not Cotten very Lovingly and he was as much put to his Trumps to make both ends meet as the Gentleman who told it with great Confidence That he shot a Deer with one Arrow through the right Ear and the left Foot behind But he has an old Friend that never fails his Servants at a Pinch and he lifted him over the Style with this They do but accommodate Scriptures to their own Fancies Their Crime then in the last Result is this That they are not so happy Interpreters of Scripture as himself They have the same Text but they want his Head-piece to Comment on 't They have the same Materials to work upon but they want his Tools Or as one of his Friends expres'd it they have his Fiddle but cannot get his Fiddle-stick But to reproach them upon this Account is to reproach by far the greatest part of Mankind All were not Born under his smiling Stars nor had the same benign Aspects of the Planets in their Nativity It 's not every mans happiness to have the Bees swarm about his Cradle or to be entranced upon the Top of Parnassus However after all the Scuffle we have gain'd this Point that we may joyn Issue with him upon the Question and modestly Debate it Whether he or they do best understand the Scriptures Two great Faults and they are great ones indeed he finds in their Writings First That they Expound Scripture by the sound of Words And secondly That they reason about the Sence of Scripture from their own preconceived Notions 1. They Expound Scripture by the sound of words Our Author had discovered to us p. 80. the Danger of using a way of Reasoning that would serve any Mans turn that had but any Quickness and Vigour of Fancy What a dangerous way then must this be that will serve any Mans turn though he be not blessed with his Quickness and Vigour of Fancy For though his Antagonists Pulse toll as heavily as Tom of Lincoln though he never drew his Breath but in Boetia nor ever had his Temples crown'd with the Ignis Lambens yet he can with as much ease and more truth Retort all his Rhetorick When mens Fancies are so possessed with Schemes and Idaea's of Religion what ever they look upon appears of the same shape and colour where with their Minds are already Tinctur'd like a Man sick of the Iaundies or that looks through painted Glass who seeth every thing of the same colour that his Eye or the Glass gives it Some such Medium the poor Priest used to Prove that the Virgin Mary was Prophesied of from the beginning of the World because he had made a shift to read Gen. 1. 10. Congregationem aquarum vocavit Maria And with the same learned skill did the Rector of Convince his obstinate Parishioners that it was their Duty to Pave his Chancel for him from Paveant illi ego non Pavebo And let me tell our Author for all his Vapouring and that he looks so goodly on 't he has not a more serviceable Engine than this one in all his Arsenal For having once double-dyed his Fancy with a strong Conceit that the word Christ signifies a Church an Office a Doctrine you cannot Quote that Text where the Word occurs but his Fancy Chimes all in just as Imagination thinks so Scripture clinks and every thing he sees turns round to that Crotchet when all the while the Wind-Mill is in his own Head If you should but venture to say that for an Orator our Author is truly excellent but for a Logician he is but Ordinary I l'e undertake from the sound of that one word he shall conceit himself at first Dash to be a Bishop So easie it is for a French Cook to make Suffolk-street Soupe of a Stool-foot and most Ravishing Minc't Pies of an Old Boot-top or a Leather Doublet As it is a Ridiculous procedure to make the sound of words the Measure of our Interpretation so is it no less perverse a Method to Expound Scripture by the Ranverse and go just cross to the sound of words The Plain and Literal sence commands our Reception unless the Context and Coherence Evident contradiction to some other plain Scripture or some gross Absurdity and insuperable Difficulty compell us to Recede from it But now according to our Authors Rule which he has most Religiously observed throughout his Book the further any Interpretation departs from the sound of words the better it is that is to say for his own purpose As suppose you should meet with this word Heaven let not the Chiming and Tinckling of your Fancy betray you into a Notion of some Glorious place where the spirits of Iust men made perfect are Blessed in the enjoyment of God for that would be but to Gratifie your Tinctured Imagination with the sound of a word
that Rhimes pretty well to your own Conceits But rather work up your Imagination to the prospect of some dreadful Dungeon where nothing but Ratling of Chains Blowing of Bellows Hissing of Serpents and the Yellings of Griesly-people strike a Horror into your Mind and then to be sure you shall purchase our Authors good word and never be Taxed for Interpreting by the Sound and Clink of words Thus if you meet with that Expression the Son of God be sure you do not understand a Person but a Thing and if at the long Run you should chance to Interpret it into No thing it will do best of all For then you may lay your Life on 't you have not Interpreted Scripture by the sound of words Now as much as our Author pleases himself with his Humour in this thing the truth is he did but Steal or to make the best on 't Borrow it from one of those he hopes to wound with it And well might the Eagle sigh to see her self shot through with a Dart which had borrowed its Feathers from her own Wing I will only burden him with one Passage The Papists having hatched that monstrous Figment of Transubstantiation upon the discovery of any Expressions amongst the Antients though made use of to another end cry out and Triumph as if they had found the whole Fardel of the Mass in its perfect Dress and their Breaden God in the midst of it Iust so says he it is in the case of Episcopacy Men of these latter Generations from what they saw in being and the usefulness of it to their Desires and Interests searching Antiquity not to Instruct them in the Truth but to Establish their Opinion whatever Expressions they find that fall in as to the sound of Words with what is now Insisted on instantly they cry out Vicimus Iö Poean And now either our Authors guilty Conscience or his Acumen will tell him to whom he stands Indebted for Observing to him the Danger of Interpreting by the sound of words And let him take this Caution along with him to forbear using that way of Reasoning which serves any mans turn as well as and most mens better than his own It will be now time to descend to Particulars that we may reduce his Rule into Practice And he has singled out these Expressions of knowing Christ Christ's being made Wisdom to us Having the Son To give us an Experiment what Wonders his Rule will work And 1. For the Knowing of Christ. They that Interpret Scripture by the sound of words Interpret the Phrase of Knowing his Person and all his Personal Excellencies and Beauties Fulness and Preciousness c. And so has the Expression been used Iohn 17. 3. This is Life eternal to know thee the only True God and Iesus Christ whom thou hast sent Where the Person of the Messiah under that Personal Excellency of being sent of God Anointed and Appointed by him to Reveal and procure Eternal Life is made the Object of our Knowledge Again Iohn 1. 33. I knew him not but he that sent me to Baptize with Water the same said unto me upon whom thoushalt see the Spirit descending the same is He and I saw and bare Record that this is the Son of God Where to Know Christ is Interpreted by knowing Him to be the Son of God And all the fault of this Interpretation is that it comes a little too near the sound of words But that Learned Doctors practical Interpretations who interpreted Iesus by Iudas would have pleased our Author infinitly because it was more modest and durst not come so near the sound of the word Well But how does the Man himself expound the Phrase Nay as to that he is in a brown study and says never a word and that I assure you is a safe way to avoid the Odium of Expounding it by the sound of words But 2. Christ is said 1 Cor. 1. 30. To be made Wisdom to us And amongst many others I find Beza thus expounding it Datus est nobis a Deo ut in ipso omnem sapientiam consequeremur quae quidem eo nomine verè digna sit quum in Uno possumus Deum ejus Arcana contemplari quae ne suspicari quidem unquam cautissimi homines potuerunt He is given to us of God that in him we might attain Wisdom that truly deserves the Name seeing that in Him alone we may behold God and his Secrets which the most discerning Men otherwise could never have Ghessed at Let this Interpretation because it comes too near the sound of words only serve for a Foyle to set off the Lustre of our Author Some duller men says he can understand no more by it than the Wisdom of those Revelations Christ hath made of Gods Will to the World But I fear it 's more their Sullenness than their Dulness that they can see no more of Wisdom in Christ than a meer Ravelation of Gods Will. For had they not worn Racovian Spectacles they might have seen Satisfaction to Divine Justice in his Death as well as a Declaration of Gods Will to us issuing from his Mouth But then 3. Here 's another great Controversie What having of the Son should signifie But before we fall upon that we must deliver our selves from an Ambuscado secretly laid for our utter Ruine When men have Learnt says he from an acquaintance with Christ to place all their hopes of Salvation in a Personal Union with Christ c. He might for his Credits-sake have produced his Vouchers to make good his Charge I do indeed believe that as the Person of the Husband is related to the Person of the Wife and yet there is no personal Union made though they are one Flesh yet they continue two distinct Persons or Subsistences so Christ and Believers are Personally related each to other in the Covenant of Grace and are one Mystical Body one Spirit and yet they are not taken into Personal Union with Christ. Nay our Authors Conscience was fast asleep when he wrote this Twang For pag. 198. He Quotes these words from Doctor Iacomb This Mystical Union is an Union of Persons but yet no Personal Union And if our Author know not how to Distinguish these two Expressions he 's sadly Accoutred to Manage this Controversie And being now freed from all Danger in the Rear let us Advance to the Question What this having of the Son should mean 1 Iohn 5. 12. He that hath the Son hath Life and he that hath not the Son hath not Life Now the clearest way to resolve this Doubt that I can think on at present is to Examine who or what is meant by the Son and when we have Settled and well Fixt the Notion of that to try what further Light we may get into the Phrase of Having the Son For the former Who or what the Son is I know no more Hopeful and Promising way than to look into the Chapter to see if peradventure
the Apostle has fixt the Notion for us And ver 5. we read Who is he that overcometh the World but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God And ver 6. This is he that came by Water and by Blood even Iesus Christ. Ver. 9. This is the Witness of God which he hath Testified of his Son And ver 10. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the Witness in himself And ver 11. This is the Record that God hath given to us Eternal Life and this Life is in his Son And then follows the words under Examination He that hath the Son hath Life I conclude then that if by Son ver 5 6 9 10. c. he meant the very Son of God our Lord Iesus Christ then by Son in ver 12. is meant the very self same Person And I am the more Confirm'd in my Opinion because our Author p. 101. will not allow any to separate a single Sentence from the Body of the Discourse to make the Scripture speak their own sence Though I confess he intended it as a Caution to others that they may avoid it but a Canon to himself that he might observe it What to others was set up for a Buoy to discover a Rock to himself is hung out for a Lanthorn to discover his way But I shall take his Caution and charitably believe so well of the Apostles sincerity and judiciousness in Discourse that he would not speak of one thing in one Verse and another in the next under the same words without sufficient intimation of his Intention But now for having the Son of God that is the remaining enquiry Now in this our Author speaks more Truth than he is aware of What can having the Son signifie says he but having an Interest in Him Being made one with Him especially when we remember that it is called being in Christ and abiding in him which must signifie a very near Union between Christs Person and ours It must so If the Son signifie the very Son of God we must have Him as he is capable of being had and that 's only by Interest and Propriety through Compact agreement and the Constitution of God in a Gospel Covenant Ay but says our Author Some will be so Perverse as to understand it of believing and Obeying his Gospel Well and if they will be so Perverse without a Reason we shall take the freedom to be as Perverse as they can be and believe no more than we have proof for But let us practise with his Gloss a little By the Son he understands the Gospel and then his Paraphrase of v. 5. will run thus smoothly Who is he that overcometh the World but he that believeth that Jesus is the Gospel that is he that believes a Lye he is the man that overcomes the World Ay but we must remember that by Iesus he has understood the Gosple also and then indeed you will have a Paraphrase compleat in all Points Who is he that overcomes the World but he that believeth that the Gospel is the Gospel And sure he must be a Dull thing indeed that cannot and a Perverse one too that will not believe and Subscribe so Self-evident a Proposition But the World is full of perverse People and therefore no wonder if some will so understand it And amongst many others one Volkelius lib. 3. de verâ Relig p. 37. in John 1. 4. In him was Life Hoc est Ipsi commissa est vitae Eternae viae ad eam ducentis Anunciatio quâ Hominum animos mirificè collustravit Ignorantiae tenebras quantum in ipsa fuit ab iis depulit quod idem alio in loco edisserit 1 Joh. 5. 10. dum ait Hoc est Testimonium quod Deus Testatus est de filio suo quod vitam Eternam nobis dedit Deus haec in filio ejus est That is to him was committed the Declaration of Eternal Life and of the Way that leads thither whereby he wonderfully enlightened the Minds of Men and scattered the Darkness of Ignorance from them as much as in him lay which he Discourses also in another place 1 Iohn 5. 10. c. The Reader cannot but observe the Parenthesis That Christ enlightned men as much as in him lay if he could have done more he would But what would they expect from a Man Now when I observe our Author in this very place Deriding the Hopes of them who expect to receive free Comunications of Pardon and Grace Righteousness and Salvation from our Lord Iesus Christ Methinks I see Quantum in ipso fuit and whether he filled his Vessel from that Cistern or no is not so clear but this is certain that all came from the same Fountain To conclude this Head the Gloss of this Text according to the Proportion and Analogy of our Authors Faith must be this He that believeth and obeyeth the Gospel believeth and obeyeth Life and he that believeth not and obeyeth not the Gospel believeth not obeyeth not Life But our Gloss is this He that hath an Interest in Christ hath an Interest in Life and he that hath not in the one hath not in the other but the Wrath of God abides on him there being no means discovered whereby we can escape it but by Jesus Christ. It would have been small Satisfaction to our Author to pervert the Sence unless he might be allowed also to pour Contempt upon the Phrase of the Scripture which he has carried on to that height of Daring-provocation that I am certain he never met with his Superiour and do hope he may never find an Equal He is at last grown almost weary of Reproaching the Expressions of Men too mean a Quarry for one of his Wing to stoop at and now the Expressions of the Holy Ghost must find him Game that he may appear truly Great by great Enmities Erostratus was resolved to Eternize his Name though by Firing the Temple of Diana at Ephesus And Nero conceived great hopes from the Burning of Rome and his unsampled Butcheries to Inoculate his Name into History that he might upon any Terms survive his Funeral It 's some Alleviation to them who Groan under the burden of Obloquy that they meet with no harder Measure than their Lord and Master And it might quiet the grieved Spirit of a righteous Lot when his words are wrested when the holy Spirit of God is grieved with the Affronts put upon his Expressions The Disciple is not ought not expect to be above his Master nor the Servant above his Lord It 's enough that the Disciple be as his Master and the Servant as his Lord If they have called the Master of the House Beelzebub how much more shall they call them of the Houshold Mat. 10. 24. Let them therefore possess their Souls in patience and comfort one another with these words And thus our Author enters upon his Business It 's Self-evident that before we can be United
his little Glosses Why they offend against his great standing Rule Interpreting things by the sound of words For says he what better proof can you desire for all this than Express words Really the Laws upon which we must be permitted to discourse with our Author are very severe for p. 78. he laid it down as a Law of the Medes and Persians that none must dare to Draw one Conclusion from the Person of Christ which his Gospel hath not expressely taught Well we accepted the Tearms and have brought him expresse and expressely express words and do speak as Volkelius commands us dilectis luculentissimisque verbis and yet we are never the nearer for now we offend in trusting to the sound of words Just thus did Procrustes entertain his Guests wracking out them that were too short and lopping off their feet that were too long for his Bed All men I perceive are awake to their Concerns in this Rule as well as our Vigilant Author When it is urged that Christ is called expressely God the True God He that was in the beginning by whom were all things made who upholds all things by the Word of his Power the Socinians have now a compendious Answer Ay this is to interpret Scripture by the sound of words And the Atheist has an inckling of it too he can subscribe all the Scriptures as True but when you urge him that God created all things out of Nothing that he is the Owner Governour Iudge of the whole World they are provided with a short Answer Yes this is interpreting Scripture by the sound of words And whether every Drunkard Swearer Adulterer all the Rakehells and Rakeshames upon Earth may not in time make their advantage of it I cannot tell That Ministers do but fright them with a sound of words Thus have some dealt with the Sacerdotal Office of Christ He is a Priest they confess he offer'd a Sacrifice was a Propitiation made an Atonement did expiate sin but have a care you do not interpret these things as the words sound he did indeed something like a Priest offer'd something like a Sacrifice but truely and properly he was nothing did nothing of All this It had been therefore more plain-heartedly and ingenuously done had our Author written a Confutation of the Scripture proving that the Spirit did not speak intelligibly but All in good time he has Materials ready for the work P. 100. The wildest and most extravagant Opinions that were ever yet vented under the Name of Religion have pretended the Authority of Scripture for their Patronage And yet he knew how first to break its head and then make it a Playster This famous Rule of our Authors may be applyed to all things under the Sun but there are two Principles onely that he will examine by it at present 1. The spiritual Impotency of all men without grace to perform that which is Acceptable to God This says he they prove wonderfully from our being dead in trespasses and sins and therefore as a Dead man can contribute nothing to his own Resurrection no more can we towards our Conversion I wonder when the Scripture will be able to speak so plain that deaf men will understand it One would have thought the Spirit of God should never have chosen that Expression of being Dead in trespasses and sins to signifie what mighty power and abilities the Creature has to Obey But we are instructed better from this usefull Caveat not to interpret Him by the sound of his words for now we must understand by Being dead Being Alive and proportionably by Sins and Trespasses we must understand Duty and Obedience and then to keep close to our Instructions and far enough from the sound of words To be Dead in Sins and Trespasses is to be Alive to all Duty and Obedience And thus that other vexing place Rom. 5. When we were without strength in due time Christ dyed for the ungodly must be Paraphrased When we were strong and Active and had no need of Christ he dyed for the godly And this I think if that be good for ought is very remote from grating our Ears with the unpleasant sound of words Ay but says our Author This is true of Natural Death but will be hard to prove of a Moral Death Hard to prove Methinks we want his wonted out-facing Confidence But why so hard to prove Has not the Spirit of God selected those words borrowed from the Condition of one Naturally dead to instruct us in the true Condition of one Morally dead It 's true of a Natural and therefore not of a Moral Death Nay it 's therefore true of a Moral Death because it is so of a Natural Death What wild Similitudes would he impose upon the Holy Scriptures Even as one that 's Naturally dead can contribute Nothing to his Resurrection just so one that 's Morally dead can contribute something to his Conversion This is the great Illustrator of dark Metaphors But wherein doth this Morall Death consist Oh says he In the prevalency of vicious habits contracted by long Custom which was the Case of the Heathens whom the Apostle there speaks of which do so enslave the Will that it 's very difficult though not impossible for such Persons to return to the love and practice of Vertue But who can tell whether by enslaving the Will which is a Luscious Metaphor our Author would not have us understand enfranchising the Will lest we should border too near upon a sound of words But I am not illuminated with our Authors Reasonings For 1 Moral Death doth not consist in the prevalency of vicious Habits it is the general Condition of all men born into the world who are privatively Dead in respect of that Life we all once had in the first Adam and Negatively Dead in respect of that Life which is attainable by the second Adam And in those dayes when men studyed not Aequivocations to subscribe every thing and believe Nothing it was not question'd in the Church of England Art 10. The Condition of Man since the Fall is such that he cannot Turn and prepare himself by his Own Natural Strength and good Works to Faith and calling upon God wherefore we have no power to doe good works pleasant and acceptable to God without his Grace preventing us that we may have a good Will and working with us when we have that Will. But 2 Supposing that this Moral Death did consist in the Prevalency of vicious Habits contracted by long Custom yet such may be the prevalency of them into such a slavery may the Will be brought that it may be not onely diâ—…ficult but impossible without the effectual assistance of the Spirit for the Sinner to return to God Ier. 13. 23. Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the Leopard his spots then may ye also doe good that are accustomed to doe evil Whence the Prophet shews that such is the prevalency of a vicious Habit contracted by long Custom
about the Necessity of Good Works For says he when they are pressed with those Scriptures that urge the Necessity of Good Works What do they then Nay that he could not tell but carries on a suspended Sence for almost two whole Pages and in the end leaves it unintelligible Nonsence But however let us hear those Texts that are so pressing for Good works and a holy Life Why VVithout Holiness no Man shall see God The wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all Unrighteousness and Ungodliness of Men. Truly these Scriptures do press upon our Consciences and Practices but not upon our Principles Well then there are others that assert Our Acceptation with God depends upon a Holy and Vertuous life I promise you that presses indeed But it does not press me Our Acceptation with God depends upon a Holy life as the Qualification but it depends upon Christ for Procurement But the places are Acts 10. 35. God is no Respecter of Persons but in every Nation he that feareth God and worketh Righteousness is accepted of him Well let us examine whom this Text does press most The Apostle Peter in that excellent Discourse ver 43. tells us To him Christ give all the Prophets witness that through his Name whosoever believeth in Him should receive Remission of sins Whatsoever of acceptation with God then they that fear God and work Righteousness do obtain still it 's through the Name of Christ. The Text then presses not us he must call for more weight if he designs to Press us to Death But as I remember pag. 44. our Author with much Confidence would bear us down that the Iews who knew nothing at all of Christ yet undeâ—…stood God to be a Sin-pardoning God And yet the Apostle assures us 1. That all the Prophets gave witness to Christ. 2. That their Testimony was this That they were to expect Remission of sins through the Name of Christ. 3. That the Means of acquiring the Remission of sins through Christ was by believing in Him And now let him ask his own Shoulders whether this Text does not press him But there is another Scripture that will break their bones Mat. 5. 20. Except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven And what was their Righteousness Why he tells us They were a company of Immoral Hypocrites who placed all their Righteousness in observing the Ceremonies of the Law without the purity of their Hearts and Lives Well and we think a Man may Travel a great many Leagues beyond such Debauches and never come near the Kingdom of Heaven Let them then Groan under the weight of it who place their Religion in Ceremony and prophane Drollery it presses not them who professing Faith in our Lord Iesus Christ and Repentance from Dead works subject themselves to his Gospel Well but there is one more that will Grind them to Powder ver 19. He that breaks the least of these Commandments and teaches men so shall be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven And this will certainly press them who Renouncing their part in the Satisfaction given to God by Christ trust to their own Imperfect repentance wherein there are so many Flaws as will amount to the breach of some Commandment and then our Author has quite shut them out of the Kingdom of Heaven To conclude this Section our Author has one round Fling at Doctor Owen and it is ex Officio no doubt I suppose he may hold some fair Estate by this Tenure That he Persecute the Doctor with Fire and Faggot as far as a pair of Shooes of a great price will carry him The Question is What necessity there is of Obedience The Doctor had said That Universal Obedience and good Works are Indispensibly necessary to Salvation by the sovereign appointment and Will of God To this our Author answers This is not one syllable to the purpose Why then It 's the end of the Fathers electing Love That 's not one syllable to the purpose It 's the end of the Sons redeeming Love That 's not one syllable to the purpose It 's the end of the Spirits sanctifying Love That 's not one syllable to the purpose Well but it 's necessary to the Glory of the Father Son and Holy Ghost That 's not one syllable to the purpose neither If neither the Sovereignty of God over us the Love of God to us nor the Glorifying of God by Us be to the purpose of Obedience let our Author speak to the purpose So he will God hath commanded Obedience but where 's the Sanction of the Law Will he Damn all that will not Obey for their Disobedience Where 's the Sanction of the Law I am sure that Question is very little to the purpose It 's the Command it self that makes a Duty that creates a necessity The Authority of the Law-giver lays the Obligation upon the Subject It 's our Interest to Obey upon the account of the Sanction but it 's our duty to Obey upon the Command it self But not to hold him in suspense God will Damn all those that will not Obey for their Disobedience Our Author has now quite run himself a Ground and is Pumpt dry of his Drollery and therefore turns Catechist and Persecutes us with Impertinent Queries I have heard some say that an Ideot may tye more Knots in an Hour than a Wise-man can untye in a day But however though we might plead it's Coram non Iudice yet for once let him suppose himself in his Desk and his poor Catechumens humbly waiting upon his Foot-stool Quest. Will God Damn those who do not Obey for their disobedience Answ. Yes and it please you Sir Qu. But will he save and reward those who do Obey for their Obedience An. He will reward their Obedience but not save them for their Obedience Qu. But will the Father Elect none but those that are Holy An. Yes and it like your good Learning he Elects them that they may be Holy but not because they are Holy Ephes. 1. 4. Ephes. 2. 10. Qu. But wil the Son Redeem none but those that are holy An. Yes indeed Sir a great many for a Redeemer supposes them to be sinners and Captives under sin Qu. But will he reject and Reprobate all that are not Holy An. God has not Reprobated all that were or are not holy for then he had Reprobated all the World but he will reject all that continue unholy to the Death Qu. But tell me Doth this Election and Redemption suppose Holiness in us or is it without any regard to it An. Neither the one nor the other It 's Fallacia plurium Interrogationum They neither presuppose Holiness in us nor are they without all regard to Holiness it is a necessary Effect but not a Cause of Election and Redemption Qu. Dost thou stand chopping Logick with thy Betters If we be Elected and Redeemed without regard
to our being Holy our Election and Redemption is secure whether we be Holy or no. An. Good Sir excuse me we are Elected to Grace as well as to Glory and he that appoints to the end appoints to the necessary means leading to the end Qu. But is holyness necessary on our parts An. Yes indeed Sir that we be so but it 's necessary also that Grace make us so unless we can make our selves so Qu. But how can Obedience be for the Glory of the Father Son and Spirit when the necessity of Holiness is so destructive to free Grace An. Obedience in its proper place and for its proper end is not destructive to free Grace But when Hypocrites will assign it a room which God has not appointed as to justifie us before a righteous Iudge and give us a proper right to Heaven then it crosses the design of free Grace Qu. But how can Holiness be for our honour in making us like God when the perfect Righteousness of Christ would be more for our honour An. Good Sir be not angry and I l'e tell you Inherent Righteousness is much for our honour being compleat in its kind but Imputed righteousness is more for our honour being absolutely compleat Qu. But you say Holiness is for our Peace Must we then at last fetch our peace from our Duties and Graces is not this to renounce Christ An. Pray Sir be not so hasty we have our Reconciliation with God and Security from his Wrath by the Blood of Christ but we have our inward peace in the Conscience from the evidence of our Sanctification Qu. But does not Doctor O. say That we must not set about correcting our Lives for by the deeds of the Law no man is Justified and that if God should mark what is done amiss there 's no standing before him An. Yes indeed does he That we must not set about correcting our Lives in order to Justification before the Righteous Judge of all the Earth Qu. But how can Holiness serve for the Conviction of Enemies when it is not Essentially necessary to his Friends An. Indeed Sir if you will believe me it 's Essentially necessary to all his Friends and I pray it may prove more serviceable to the Conviction of his Enemies Qu. Wilt thou dare to Contradict me I tell thee I am resolved they shall hold that Holiness is not necessary to Salvation An. Nay pray Sir do not force them to that And if you can make any shift Rail at them upon some other account Qu. But how can Holiness be necessary to the Conversion of others when men may be Converted without it An. Ay indeed if your Worship can Inform us how to conceive of Conversion without Holiness you shall be owned for the Wisest man in all the Parish Qu. But why cannot the Righteousness of Christ keep the Judgments of God from others more effectually than the Holiness of men An. Because visible Holiness honours God most before men and therefore he will honour it most with visible Mercies Qu. But how can Obedience be necessary to the state of justified Persons when they are cloathed with the Robes of Christs righteousness which is the only Foundation of our Communion with God An. Very well Sir for though Christs righteousness be the Foundation of our Communion yet Holiness and Obedience give us a meetness and fitness for the exercise of that Communion Qu. But how can Holiness be neâ—…essary to Sanctification An. Holy Obedience is necessary to Sanctification because the new Creature is Nourisht by suitable Acts of Obedience even as all other things are fed by those things of which they are made Qu. But is not this Idem per Idem An. No I assure you Sir for the Vital Principle of Obedience and the Living Fruits of it are really two distinct things Qu. But yet I cannot see any necessary Obligation to Holiness from those mens Principles what should be the Reason An. I can soon tell you that Sir do younot remember you almost Pored out your Eyes in the second Section Qu. I have one question more answer me that and take all Is Holiness necessary to Salvation as a means to an End Now speak to the purpose An. Really Sir it is absolutely and indispensibly necessary Qu. This is indeed Home Pertinent and somewhat to the purpose bút yet I have a question or two more I am sure will Choak you Come on your ways young Man What say you What Holiness necessary to Eternal Life and yet neither the Cause Matter nor Condition An. Sir I perceive you have a frail Memory for you quoted the Doctor just before saying It was neither Matter Cause nor Condition of our Iustification And now you put the question about its being the Cause Matter or Condition of Eternal Salvation Qu. Did you spie that An. Do you think your Readers have all pored their Eyes out as well as your self Quest. Well hold your peace I will now Irrefragably prove Holiness to be a Cause at least Causa sine quâ non of Eternal Life What say you to that An. Pray spare your pains lest you spoil the Cause for if you can prove it no better a Cause you had as good let it alone for Causa sine quâ non non est Causa we allow it to be both the Condition and the Matter also of Eternal Life It 's the Condition for the Doctor has owned expresly That none shall come to the end who walks not in the way And it 's the Matter too for Grace is Glory begun and Happiness is Holiness perfected Qu. Well I will not Dispute about words I am content it should only be a necessary way to Eternal Life But what becomes of Christ then who is the only way An. Take you no care for that Christ is the only way of Merit Purchase and Procurement but Holiness is a way of Means preparatory Meetness and Fitness for Eternal Life I suppose you sometimes read the 11th Aâ—…t of the Church of England which acquaints you that we are Justified only for Christs Merits and yet justified by Faith only There may be several Only's in the same Effect and yet each the Only one in suo genere Qu. But is not the Righteousness of Christ able to save us without an additional righteousness of our own An. No Sir for the Righteousness of Christ being made ours by the appointment constitution and free Gift of God we must enjoy the benefits of it in that Method it pleases the Donour to Ordain It 's reason the Giver should dispose of his own Gift And yet it 's true the Righteousness of Christ is able to save us without any of our own employed for that special end for which the righteousness of Christ is used Qu. But do the Active and Passive Righteousness of Christ both free us from Guilt and Punishment and give us an actual Right and Title to Glory and yet can we not be saved without
in Christ be improved for Obedience That his Love to us may so powerfully constrain our hearts that we may wholly live to him that dyed for us and rose again who is also at the right hand of God making Intercession for us To him be Glory Amen CHAP. IV. Sect. 1. Of our Union to Christ and Communion with him OUR Author will not in Courtesie or cannot for Shame deny that the Scripture does mention such a Relation between Christ and Christians as may be express'd by an Union and that these Phrases of Being in Christ and Abiding in Christ can signifie no less Now this Union to Christ being a very suspicious Phrase he is deeply concern'd to mollifie it with some such Healing Explication that it may not prejudice or however not utterly destroy his main design To interpret it according to the sound of words is to blow up himsels with his whole Cause and therefore it is judg'd a safer way to accommodate the Expression if it will be tractable or to force it if it proves obstinate to a Complyance with his own espoused Notions and preconceived Opinions And now we see that the True Reason why he so zealously declaimed against that way of Interpreting Scripture in the last Section was that he might without suspition serve himself of it in this Some do not like his Tottering and Staggering way of wording his Matters It may be express'd by an Union and it can signifie no less than an Union A form of speech invented doubtless to let us know how unable he is to deny and yet how loath he is to confess the plainest Truth I have not forgot that he told us p. 108. That the Scripture describes the Profession of Christianity a sincere Belief and Obedience to the Gospel by Having Christ and Being in Christ but now he is graciously pleased to Mount them a little higher and is gently content that they should signifie no less than an Union with Christ. Four Notable Observations he makes to us in this one Section 1 That those Metaphors which describe the Relation between Christ and Christians do primarily referre to the Christian Church and not to every Individual Christian. I am sorry that it must still be my great unhappiness to dissent from him but seeing all Accommodation is desperate we must bear the shock of his Reasonings as well as we can Christ says he is called a Head but he is the Head of his Church which is his Body as the Husband is the Head of his Wife No particular Christian is the Body of Christ but onely a Member in this Body This indeed would do pretty well but that it wants two small Circumstances Truth and Pertinency which being so inconsiderable we may well spare in any of His Writings And 1. Methinks I want that sorry circumstance of Truth in his Argument Christ is the Head of his Church as the Husband is Head of his Wife but the Headship of the Husband over the Wife will not exactly measure the Headship of Christ over Believers we must call in assistance from another Similitude that of the Head in the Natural Body over the Members Christ is a Head of Influence as well as Authority he communicates Grace to Obey as well as commands Obedience And this is that the Apostle would teach us Eph. 4. 15 16. The head even Christ from whom all the Body fitly joyned together and compact by that which every joynt supplyeth according to the effectual working in the measure of every part maketh increase of the Body to the edifying of it selâ—… in love Here 's an effectual Operation in every part the Growth and Increase of every individual Member by virtue of that Influence which the Head communicates to it And now to make the Husbands headship over the Wife to represent the whole of Christs Headship is craftily to seduce us from the Consideration of that Grace which from Christ we receive to help us in time of need The Holy Ghost has singled out the most per and perspicuous Metaphors that outward things would afford to instruct us in the Nature of that Union and Relation that Believers have to Christ the Priviledges and Advantages which they receive thereby and those Duties which indispensably arise from thence and yet such is the incorrigible and untractable Nature of all outward things such is their shortness poverty and narrowness that they do not yield a Similitude that will adaequately and commensurately express the total of Christs Grace Mercy and Authority or of our mutual Obligations and Duty Much of the Poverty and Beggarliness of the Mosaical Types lay in this those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gal. 4. 9. that they could not represent Jesus Christ to the life whom yet it was their design in some measure to shadow out And when I have named a shadow I have given a sufficient Reason of my Assertion for though a shadow may describe the general Lineaments of its Body yet it will not paraphrase upon the Complexion To supply this defect it has pleased the Wisdom of God to institute that numerous train of Types that so what could not be express'd by any one might yet in parcels be described by Another Hence is it that one Type represents the Death of Christ as a Sacrifice for Sin as the Goat of the Sin-offering Lev. 16. 15. Another the Intercession of Christ at the right hand of the Father as Aarons appearing in the Most Holy place upon the Feast of Expiation The same Wisdom has it pleased the Spirit of God to exeâ—…cise in describing to us the Union and Relation betwixt Christ and Believers for seeing that no one single Metaphor however borrowed from the nearest and most intimous Relation upon Earth could possibly convey to our understandings all that Mercy Grace and Love which from Christ issues to all that are in Covenant with him nor all that Reverence Love and Duty which from Believers is due to a Redeemer therefore has he chosen out many that so by putting together the Mercy and Duty which is comprehended in each we might spell out the Meaning of what is wrapt up in that Relation wherein we stand to him But 2. It wants Pertinency as well as Truth For what if no particular Christian be the Body of Christ. yet is he a Member of that Body and Christ as Head of that Body is related in particular to him without the Intervention of the Body A Body is nothing else but the result of all the Integral parts put together in their due Scite and proper Order and the Church is nothing else but the aggregate of many Christians united under their proper Pastor And as the Head in the Natural Body is immediately related to all the parts so is Christ immediately related to every true Christian. If then he will argue thus No particular Christian is the Body therefore Christ is primarily related to the Body any one with as much honesty may inferre
carries a sound to a mere English Ear very like to Union but if we examine either the Synonymous word Communion or the Greek words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which are rendred Fellowship and Communion and how those words are used in Scripture we may abundantly satisfie our selves that they signifie something very distinct from Union or Relation Fellowship and Communion are words of the same import and the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is indifferently render'd by either of them 1 Ioh. 1. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And truely our Fellowship c. And v. 6. If we say that we have fellowship with him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 3. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Communion of the Holy Ghost and the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is once translated Fellowship 2 Cor. 6. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For what Fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness Now what the general Nature of Fellowship Communion or Participation and Communication is the Apostle will clear up to us Phil. 4. 15. Now ye Philippians know That no Church communicated with me as concerning Giving and Receiving but ye onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which he explains if there be need of that v. 16. Ye sent once and again unto my necessity Communion therefore or Communication is the Mutual bestowing of those good things which are in each others power grounded upon some Union and Relation between the Parties And this is more fully expressed by that Scripture phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To have hold exercise or maintain Communion or Communication of all those good things which may be expected from each other in a Relation 1 Ioh. 1. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I must profess my self therefore wholly dissatisfied with our Authors New Notion of Communion That it signifies the same thing with Union That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are Terms adequately Measuring each other There must be first a Relation before there can be a communicating of those good things which presuppose the Relation Thus the Love of a Father to his Child his Care over him his Bounty to him is founded in his Relation to him as his Son and the Child 's filial Love Duty Fear are all bâ—…tomed upon the Relation which he holds to his Father Thus we conceive first a Real Union between the Head and the Members before we can conceive the Head should communicate spirits to all the parts to quicken them to Motion And this the Apostle expresses Col. 2. 19. That they who do not Hold the Head that are not united to Christ can never receive from him those supplies or Communications of Spiritual Nourishment that they may encrease with the encrease of God And thus must there be an Union between the Husband and the Wife before there can be a Communication of what is in each others power That is they must give what they are before they can give what they have And this Order and Method is well observed in the Liturgy though our Author is pleased to make himself very merry with it where the Man first takes the Woman to be his wedded Wife and then assigns or makes over what he has to her Use with all my worldly Goods I thee endow For he that gives Himself will never stick at a'l the Rest. And thus the first thing that God gives to his in Covenant is Himself Heb. 8. 10. I will be their God and then follows the Communication of all his Covenant Mercies v. 12. I will be mercifull to their Iniquities and remember their sins no more And in the same Order the Soul proceeds in its Restipulation with God 2 Cor. 8. 5. First gave their â—…wn selves to the Lord. Now as the Union or Relation is for kind so also are the Communications that flow from or follow upon the Relation and Union If the Union be a more general Union the Relation a more common Relation the Communications in due proportion will be more general and Common we are Related to all men none are so remote but they are our Neighbours but yet we have a more special and peculiar Relation to all Christians And hence is it that the Apostle apportions out to us the Nature of those good things that we ought to commuicate to both Gal. 6. 10. Doe good to all but especially to them that are of the houshold of Faith The great God as Creator is Related to all and therefore does good to all Psal. 36. 6. Thou preservest Man and Beast Yet as he stands more nearly related as a Father to some than others so he commnicates more choyse and peculiar Favours to them Hence is that Prayer of David Psal. 106. 4. Remember me O Lord with the favour thou bearest to thine own People O visit me with thy Salvation that I may see the Good of thy Elect ones And because the Electing Love of the Father and the Redeeming Love of the Son are exactly parallel therefore has Christ a general 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as well as a special 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim. 4. 10. He is the Saviour of all men specially of them that Believe It was never doubted but the Relation of a Master to his Servant ought to produce suitable Communications to that Relation And yet those of a Fatheâ—… to his Child are of another and sweeter Nature those of the Husband to the Wife yet more endearing and those of the Head to the Members still more intimous and intrinsecal Now that Communion is a Communication of Good things flowing from Union the Apostle will not suffer us to doubt Gal. 6. 6. Let him that is taught in the Word communicate unto him that teacheth in All Good things Where the Relation between the Teacher and the Disciple is the Foundation of that Communication of all good things but if indeed our Author will abide by his Notion That Union and Communion are both one Then if his Parishioners do but hear him preach they may spare the Impertinency of Tythes it is but Actum Agere and Commuâ—…ion is satisfied in the Notion of Union so that they have here a general Release of all Minute and Praedial Tythes under his own hand from the beginning of the World to this Day The Sophistry of our Authors Argument from 1 Joh. 1. 3. we have already considered and discovered He leads us now to 1 Cor. 1. 9. God is faithfull by whom ye are called into the Fellowship of his Son Jesus All the advantage he can expect from these words is upon a presumption of his Readers Simplicity that he will not spye small faults to be called into fellowship with Christ cajouls the Ear into a Conceit of Union But that which spoyls all is our Translation reads unto the Fellowship or Communication or Participation of his Son and the Mischief on 't is the Greek reads 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But let us see however how
Father of the faithful if Abraham's Faith and theirs differ toto Genere Those things that differ in their special Nature may yet agree in their common Nature but those things that are of divers kinds wherein shall they agree But all this is but a scandal thrown upon the Apostle who proves from Abraham's way of being justified the way of Christians being justified Rom. 4. As Abraham was justified without Works so are we Vers. 2. As Abraham had a Righteâ—…sness imputed to him even so have we Vers. 11. That Righteousness might be imputed to them also As Abraham's Righteousness was a Righteousness of Faith even so is ours Vers. 11. A Seal of the Righteousness of Faith As Abraham was justified by free Grace so are we V. 5. To him that worketh not but believeth in him that justifieth the ungodly Thus was his Righteousness the patern of ours his Faith the patern of ours And is it not a strange Copy that differs in kind from its Idaea That 's a huge way off from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As if you should propound a House for your patern and draw a Horse to sample it Once more look into Gal. 3. 8. The Scripture fore-seeing that God would justifie the Heathen through Faith preach'd before the Gospel to Abraham Now if Abraham had not our Faith what needed he to have our Gospel The end of preaching the Gospel is to beget Faith and it was an equivocal Generation if it begat a Faith of one kind in Abraham another in Christians What needed this circumspect Caution of Providence that Abraham should have the glad tidings of the Gospel preach'd to him which made him rejoyce and be glad if a Faith of a lower size would serve his turn for Justification Again vers 13. That the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles through Iesus Christ. If we have his blessing surely he had our Faith Or could Abraham get the blessing without Christ but Christians no other way but in Christ But thus has our Author vindicated the Apostles Reasonings as if he had secretly design'd as he openly professes of the Wriings of others to expose them to contempt It may be now seasonable to examine his Definition of a Gospel-Faith viz. Such a stedfast belief of all those Revelations which Christ hath made to the World as governs our lives and actions If this be to define put but a company of Letters in a bag shuffle them well together then shake them out and they will tumble into as good a Definition as this comes to But thus did Atoms by dancing in Infinite and Eternal Spaces justle one another so long till at last they produced this beautiful Fabrick of Heaven and Earth I except against it 1. Because the whole Priestly Office of Christ is excluded by it Propitiation Atonement Expiation of sin are shut quite out of all consideration and the Death and Sufferings of Christ of no regard unless perhaps they may come in by way of Motive to believe his Doctrine as a Prophet And if this be his Faith I must profess I would not venture my Salvation in his Church for the hopes of all the good or fear of all the evil this World can either flatter or affright me with however I beg Grace from God that I may not He that has but half a Christ had as good have no Christ and he that takes him not wholly into the Definition of his Faith may as safely leave him wholly out As half a heart in God's account is no heart so half a Saviour in Faith's esteem is no Saviour 2. I except against it because it may be found in Hypocrites They may so far believe the Revelations of Christ as to govern their lives and actions and yet their hearts never be purified by that Faith 3. It pretends to define Faith and yet gives us no Genus of it Faith is such a Belief as governs our lives and actions that is Faith is Faith that governs our lives and actions But the Question is What is that Faith that will so govern our lives and actions For it describes not any direct influence of Faith upon our Iustification but our obedience And whereas he pretends to assign some differences that may distinguish it from all other Faith true or false yet in plain terms they do nothing less 1. It 's a belief of those Revelations Christ has made to the World Now unless he can prove that those Revelations which Christ has made to the World are essentially distinct from those which God before made to the World their being revealed by Christ makes no essential difference For Christ came in his Fathers name under the New-Testament and the Spirit came in Christs name under the Old-Testament All Christ's Revelations in order to the governing our lives and actions may be reduced either to Precepts or Promises Now though some have been tampering at it I cannot find that Christ revealed either a new Moral Law or added any thing to the old Self-denial Taking up the Cross Praying for our Persecutors c. were Old-Testament duties though not met with in New-Testament phrase As a Rule of obedience Christ medled not with it all he did was to vindicate it from the corrupt Glosses the Scribes and Pharisees had put upon it As to Promises Christ has revealed no other Heaven no other Glory no other Salvation only he has cleared up these given us more light into them poured out more Grace that we might live more in fellowship with God and hopes of Glory But this and much more will make no essential difference in the Revelation 2. It 's such a Belief as governs our lives and actions But such a Belief was Enoch's Abel's Noah's Abraham s their 's govern'd their lives and actions too and somewhat more their Hearts and Consciences This therefore will make no essential difference 4. I except against it that it mentions not God as the proper Object of Faith For though Christ who is God be in the Definition yet not as God there 's nothing supposes him to be so no employment that necessarily requires it should be so assigned to him only he is allowed Revelation-work which a meer man instructed with God's Commission might have done And now once again he will reassume his Argument If by the Righteousness of Faith you understand the Righteousness of Christ apprehended by Faith and imputed to us you utterly destroy the Apostle's Argument for our Iustification by Faith for Abraham and all the good men of old were not justified by such a Faith as this is They never heard of Christ's Righteousness imputed to us c. Now how does it follow that because Abraham was justified by such noble and generous Acts of Faith therefore we shall be justified by Christ's Righteousness imputed But whoever overthrows the Apostle's Argument I have some things that will overthrow and utterly overthrow our Author's 1. That he begs and most shamefully begs the
as a secondary Use some surly ill-conditioned People would conclude that it was not used to confirm a Covenant because the other half was not imployed for that use 2. Another use of the Blood of the Sacrifice sprinkled was to procure the favour of God 2. Chron. 29. 21 22. where we read 1. That all these Lambs Bullocks Rams Goats were offered to God at the Altar Hezekiah commanded the Priests to offer them on the Altar 2. That when the Blood had been shed at the Altar it was afterwards sprinkled on the Altar 3. To shew that the great operation of the Blood even as sprinkled was by vertue of his having been once shed at the Altar The two Goats of the Sin-Offering were only slain by the Priests after they had laid their hands on them and thereby laid the sins of the People upon them in their Typical way but their Blood was not at all sprinkled upon the Altar and yet the greatest efficacy is ascribed to them as the Sin-Offering 4. The design of all these Sacrifices their Offering upon the Altar the shedding and then sprinkling of the Blood is said to be v. 24. to make Reconciliation with their Blood upon the Altar and to make Atonement for all Israel 5. And that none might harp upon the old humour that surely the People were fallen out among themselves were all in Mutiny and Civil-Wars and this Blood was to reconcile them and make them friends We are told It was for all Israel for the Kingdom the Sanctuary for Iudah for Church and State Prince and People All had offended God and this was the Typical way of recovering his favour and regaining a Communion with him in his Temple 3. The Blood was sprinkled also for Purification and Cleansing Lev. 14. 5. Answerable hereto God has promised in the Covenant of Grace that he will sprinkle his people with clean water and from all their Idols and Abominations will be cleanse them Ezek. 36. which he effects by the power of the Holy Spirit and by the Blood of Iesus Therefore are Saints called elect according to the foreknowledg of God the Father through the Sanctification of the Spirit uâ—…to obedience and sprinkling of the Blood of Iesus Christ. 1 Pet. 1. 2. 4. The Blood was sprinkled before the Mercy-Seat Lev. 16. 15. When the Priest had shed the blood of the Sacrifice at the Altar and offer'd it to God he carries in some of the Blood into the most Holy place and by that Blood intercedes with God for the People Thus our Lord Jesus when by the once offering of himself he had made an Atonement with God for sin discharges the other great part of 〈◊〉 Priesthood becomes our intercessor at the throne of Grace and in the merit and vertue of that Blood which was once shed for the reconciling of God and procuring his favour he lives for ever to make intercession for us And now I suppose it may be left to all indifferent Persons to judg whether our Author has not most barbarously Murdered the Death of Christ it self and trampled his sacred Blood under his feet allowing no other end or use to it but that oâ—… confirming a Covenant whereas considered as the Blood of sprinkling it has far greater and higher ends and yet the Blood as sprinkled comprehends not the whole design of that Blood § 4. But yet supposing That all the ends of the Death of Christ were wrap't up in that one expression the Blood of sprinkling and supposing also that the Blood of the Sacrifices as sprinkled had no other end or use but the confirming of a Covenant yet how will this prove his main Assertion That we owe the Covenant of Grace to the Death of Christ All that will follow is that we owe the Confirmation of the Covenant to it and only the Confirmation of the Covenant and then another thing will follow too that we do not owe the Covenant it self to it unless he can prove that procuring and confirming are Terms of the same importance The advantage our Author has got by this way of Reasoning is that he has found out a way how to own all Scripture-Expressions and yet accommodate them to his own preconceived Opinions 1. Hence says he we are said to be justified by the Blood of Christ Rom. 5. 9. That is by the Gospel-Covenant which was confirmed and ratified by his Death To which I Answer 1. If we may be said to be justified by his Blood because his Blood confirmed the Covenant then we may be said more properly to be justified by his Miracles for they indeed had a proper direct immediate and sufficient evidence in them to confirm the Doctrine which he Preacht and it 's a Miracle almost as great as any of them that the Scripture should never once intimate that we are justified by Miracles which directly and properly confirmed his Doctrine and yet constantly affirm it of his Death which directly and properly confirmed it not 2. Then also with the same propriety of Speech we may be said to be justified by the Blood of the Martyrs which was a convincing Testimony that they believed their Doctrine to be true and then the old Popish Rhime will come in fashion again Tu per Thomae sanguinem quem pro te impendit Da nos Christe scandere quo Thomas ascendit 3. If the Blood of Christ contribute no more to our justification than as it confirmed the Truth of this proposition amongst others He that Believes and obeys the Gospel shall be pardoned and saved then it 's possible to be justified without the Blood of Christ God has given us many Arguments to confirm the Truth of the Gospel If then I believe the Truth of what Christ preached upon those Arguments which are suited to its confirmation as upon the evidence of Miracles c. and accordingly obey all its Commands It were very hard if I should miss of Pardon and Life for not believing it upon one single Argument and that but a probable one neither What if I Believe the Promise upon nine of God's Arguments and hit not upon the Tenth obey upon nine of God's Motives and want only that single String to my Bow shall my Faith and Obedience be rejected because not grounded upon every particular Reason that may possibly be Muster'd up to confirm them 4. It will be in vain ever to speak or write again if such far-fetcht Consequences be allowed to interpret what is spoken and written There are no two things in the world so remote each from other but they have some kind of Relation and Affinity and if this way will salve all there will hardly be found that thing in the World if it may but be conceived to have had any Relation as an Argument to our Faith and Obedience but we may be said to be justified by it We are said to be justified by the Blood of Christ True But how Why thus The Blood of Christ signifies
his Death His Death confirmed his Doctrine His Doctrine was he that believes and obeys shall be justified and saved Hereupon we believe it to be true and in process of time come to obey it our obedience justifies us and therefore the Blood of Christ may be said to justifie us And whereas Iudas his Covetousness the Jews Herod's Cruelty Pilates Flattery had a direct tendency to the Death of Christ why we may not be properly said to be justified by them also at this rate I profess I cannot apprehend Religion is fallen into most cruel and unmerciful hands in this latter Age who to give a â—…aint colour to any little sorry fancies of their own care not to interpret Scripture in such ways as shall certainly open a dore to elude the plainest Truths God is said to have made the World Now if any has a mind to eternize his Name which without some rare discovery cannot be let him take our Author's Course and he is secure of a Monument That is indeed a Scripture phrase but if you examine it throughly it signifies no more than that God made a company of Atoms and put them in Motion and then let them alone they will dance you so long in infinite spaces till they jostle themselves into that form wherein you see things at this day And thus here 's a fair Account how God may be said to have made the World because he made that which made the World and the Cause of the Cause you know may be said to be a Grand-Father-Cause of the thing Caused But this is infinitely beyond what our Author will allow the Blood of Christ of Causality in our justification for it 's only a Confirming Cause of the Promise and that in Commission with other things and they have a greater stroke in the business than it self then when we come to believe that Promise and that belief proves strong enough to perswade us into Obedience then we are justified for the sake of that Obedience But 5. The Consideration of the Text it self Rom. 5. 9. is enough to discredit this idle conceit for ever for Christ is said to dye for us and in order to our justification in the same sence that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of old 〈◊〉 who laid down Life for Life Blood for Blood Body for Body v. 6. Christ dyed for the â—…ngodly v. 7. For scarcely for a righteous Man will one dye yet peradventure for a good Man some one would even dare to dye v. 8. But God commendeth his love to us that while we were yet sinners Christ dyed for us v. 9. Much more then being now justified by his Blood c. 2. Christ says he is called a Propitiation through Faith in his Blood that is by a belief of the Gospel Covenant Rom. 3. 25. But how short this comes of the Apostle's design is obvious from the place Christ is set forth by God to be a propitiation through faith in his Blood to declare his Righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him that believes in Iesus But is God ever the more declared to be a just God demonstrated to be a Righteous God because Christ has confirmed his Doctrine and we believe and obey it The obedience of most men is so imperfect that when they have done all they will need mercy and that will declare one of God's attributes But what provision is here made that God may be declared Righteous and Iust All that he has assigned to the Blood of Christ turns not away the least of God's displeasure against sin or the sinner Christ dyed to confirm the Doctriâ—…e Well but still God is displeased with sinners for what Reason is there why God should be less displeased with them because Christ dyed to confirm his Doctrine Well but hereupon Man believes this Doctrine to be true but yet God's Anger is never the more turned away from the sinner because he believes what God says is true For what Reason is there why God should be less displeased with him who believes the Truth and yet will not obey his Commands So that neither the Blood of Christ nor Faith neither do reconcile God to us or propitiate him for us well at last Man gives obedience to the Commands and then God is propitiated and reconciled So that the true Scripture should have been had our Author had the pâ—…nning of it God hath set forth Man to be his own propitiation through his own obedience And why might it not have been said that God set forth the Martyrs to be a propitiation through Faith in their Blood For they willingly and chearfully shed their dearest Blood to confirm the Truth of the Gospel and upon their Confirmation of it some have believed it and upon their believing it have obeyed it and then by that obedience are reconciled to God And thus may Paul be said to have dyed for our sins and Peter to have been Crucified for us and both of them to have been set forth by God to be a propitiation through Faith in their Blood Nor let any say that the Death of the Martyrs was not so strong a confirmation of the Gospel as the Death of Christ For if we believe the Truth and obey it upon more infirm Evidence yet if that evidence produce a strong Faith and that a vigorous obedience such an obedience will not find less acceptance with God because it was begotten by weaker Motives 3 The Scripture says he uses these Phrases promiscuously to be justified by Faith and to be justified by the Faith of Christ and to be justified by Christ and to be justified through Faith in his Blood and to be justified and saved by Grace Nay by believing that Christ is the Son of God John 20. 31. And that God raised him up from the dead When our Author has a design upon any great Truth of the Gospel then the clearest expressions the wisdom of God's Spirit shall use are Phrases allusive figurative metaphorical tropical forms of Speech But the Scripture uses not these expressions promiscuously only our Author confounds them craftily Each of them have indeed something in common with the rest and no wonder all the Offices the Active and Passive Obedience of Christ the whole work of the Spirit the actings of Faith and every saving-Grace meet in this one great Project the glorifying of God the Electing love of the Father the Redeeming Love of the Son and the Sanctifying love of the Holy Spirit in the Iustification and Salvation of a Believer But yet each of these expressions carries in it something peculiar to it self for the Scripture abhors to speak at his dull and cloudy rate who by diversifying one and the same thing in twenty several shapes can vend it for so many several things when 't is but the same notion disguised in a new-fashioned expression One denotes the interest of Faith another speaks the concern of him who is Iehovah
Salvation in the House of his Servant David as he spake by the mouth of his Holy Prophets which have been since the world began ver 72. To perform the Mercy promised to our Fathers and to remember his holy Covenant the Oath which he sware to our Father Abraham where the firm Oath and Covenant of God to Redeem his People is assigned as the Reason of his giving Christ to be a Redeemer The places are too many to be insisted on that confirm this Truth Iohn 3. 16. 1 Iohn 4. 9 10. 2. Sect. Free grace is given as the true Reason of the Covenant of Grace Heb. 8. 8. For finding fault with them he saith behold the days come saith the Lord that I will make a New Covenant with the House of Israel c. They were a faulty an undeserving an ill-deserving People yet Free grace will make a Covenant with them Nor is there any opposition between Free-grace and Christs Merits in this Case if we consider that Free-grace is the Original Reason of Gods designation and purpose to bestow the good things of the Covenant and the Righteousness of Christs Life and the Sacrifice of his Death the way of recovering these Mercies which by sin had been forfeited and lost 3. Sect. The Scriptures give us no intimation that Christ is the Foundation of Gods making this Covenant or the Original Reason of Gods design to bestow the Mercies of the Covenant though it abounds with Testimonies that Christ is the way of procuring for us and conveying to us these intended mercies and in those things which depend upon mere good pleasure Revelation must be our onely guide In this case we may conclude Negatively Non credimus quia non legimus And we may shrewdly conjecture that there is no pretence from Scripture for this Figment of our Authors because it 's the Foundation of all his mistakes and yet he has not so much as attempted the perverting of one Scripture to give colour to it which may be reckoned amongst the Admiranda Nili 2. His other Assertion is this Our own Righteousness is the condition of the Covenant which with his former Assertion is obtruded upon us without proof and therefore I suppose he intends they must both be maintained at the Charges of the Parish Now 1 It is agreed for ought I know that an inherent righteousness is a necessary condition of eternal Salvation Heb. 12. 14. Without Holiness no man shall see God It is a Condition in the Covenant though not of the Covenant such a Condition as is due to every Person in a Covenant-state it doth necessarily attend that state though it be not allowed as antecedent to a Covenant-state 2. As to the Constitution of the Covenant in Gods purpose and Counsel I know no condition at all They that talk of the right use of free-will future Faith or good works fore-seen as the Reason of that purpose talk without book and onely intimate what a rare Covenant they would have made for us had they had the modelling and Contrivance of it like him that boasted that if he had stood by God when he formed Man he could have told him how to have made him more commodiously Rom. 9. 11. The Children being not yet born neither having done any good or evil Where those words neither having done any good or evil must necessarily exclude all respect to the future good or evil they should do as the Reason of the purpose of God according to Election because it 's evident by the form of speech That they deny something more concerning the Children than the former words being not yet born and yet even they exclude Having done good or evil Actually 3. The Question then is whether An inherent Righteousness be the Condition required of us and in us antecedent to our first Covenant-state And I durst leave this Matter to be determined by the Church of England if our Author would do so too Art 17. Predestination to Life is the everlasting purpose of God whereby before the Foundation of the World was laid he hath constantly decreed by his Counsel secret to us to deliver from Curse and Damnation those whom he hath chosen out of Mankind in Christ and to bring them by Christ to everlasting Salvation whence we are taught 1. That Election is not of all Mankind but of some out of Mankind 2. That this purpose of God was from everlasting 3. That it is a fixed constant decree 4. That the Design of it is to deliver those chosen out of Mankind from the curse under which Mankind was fallen and to bring them to everlasting Salvation 5. That the Reason of this eternal Election was his own counsel 6. That the Execution of this Decree is in and by Iesus Christ and the manner of it follows Wherefore they which be endued with so excellent a benefit be called according to the purpose of God working in due season by his Spirit They through Grace obey the calling they be justified freely they be made the Sons of God by Adoption they be made like the Image of his onely begotten Son they walk Religiously in good works and at length by Gods mercy they attain everlasting felicity Whence we are Instructed 1. That the calling of the Elect to a Covenant-state is from Grace as the reason and by Grace as it's efficient 2. Their obeying that call of God is by Grace 3. Good works necessarily follow effectual calling See also Art 10. 12 13. 4. Religious walking with God in good works is a necessary condition of eternal Felicity 5. That there is such a firm connexion in this golden chain of Salvation that no one linck can possibly be broken They are Elected freely called effectually justified freely Adopted graciously Sanctified gradually walk Religiously and at length by the mercy of God are saved eternally which the Apostle gives us more concisely Rom. 8. 30. Moreover whom he did Predestinate them he a so called and whom he called them he also justified and whom he justified them he also Glorified I conclude then that our own righteousness is not the condition of the Covenant of Grace neither of the designment of the Father nor the procurement of the Son nor of the effectual Operation of the Holy Spirit nor of our Covenant-state nor of our Covenant-right nor of the first Covenant-mercy but of many after-mercies and of Eternal Salvation it is the condition 1. Sect. That is not the Condition of the Covenant required of us on our part which God promises to work in us on His part but God has promised to work in us Inherent-righteousness both Root and Fruit Ezek. 36. 26 27. A new Heart also will I give you and I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my Statutes and ye shall keep my Iudgments and do them 2. Sect. That which God in Covenant bestows cannot be the Condition of a Covenant-state but God in Covenant bestows the new Heart for
he afterwards throwes up his Nose so scornfully at Some other matters may have a Room in our Consideration As 1 That this Knowledge of God was Natural had need be a little better trimmed than ordinary Natural either imports what is constitutive of our Beings or flows immediately from the Principles of Nature or else what is congruous and agreeable to our Natures as designed for such an Employment as is proper to them If he take Natural in the first sence I softly deny that The Knowledge of God which made or would have made Adam happy was Natural to him And my Reason is that what does so constitute Nature or flow immediately from the Principles thereof cannot possibly be separated from that Being but withall the very Being is destroy'd but we see damned Souls and Devils retain all that knowledge of God which did constitute their Essences and yet have lost all that knowledge of God which is or may be a Means to their happiness they retain their Beings are not physically stript of them though they are Morally devested of all the Comfort of their Beings but then if by Natural Knowledge no more be intended but that upon supposition God would create man to serve love and enjoy him it was due to a Being so posited to be so qualified If man must serve his Maker and in that service enjoy him and in that enjoyment be Happy in him then indeed is it natural such a Knowledge such a Will such a Heart should be bestow'd upon him but I would have this Bush soundly beaten by a better Huntsman than my self and ten to one he may from under it start a Pelagian 2 It would be enquired whether this Natural Knowledge was a sufficient means for Adams Happiness Our Author seems clearly to assert it but I confess I cannot joyn with him as believing that much more was required of and indeed bestow'd upon him than a Natural Knowledge of God He was made in the Image and likeness of God Gen. 1. 26 27. A main part of that Image lay in Righteousness Eccles. 7. 29. God made man upright 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rectum there was a Rectitude of all the Powers and Faculties an exact conformity of them to one another and of all to the Revealed Will of God And this appears In that the Image of God restored by Grace assures us what that Image was which he once had but since has lost Eph. 4. 24. And that ye put on the New Man which after God is created in Righteousness and True Holiness And indeed the first man not being capable of a forreign Righteousness whereby he might be justifi'd that Covenant either not needing it supposing he had stood or not admitting it on supposition of a Fall he must necessarily have a Righteousness inherent one of his own to qualifie him to hold Communion or to speak warrantably with our Author converse with God 3 I question much that Expression of Innocence as not very Innocent it has been taken upon suspicion many a time and sometime could not give a good Account of it self Casta quidem sed non credita And it has been the more narrowly observed since a Generation of Men arose in the world who would perswade us That the Perfection of Man in his first Creation lay not in any positive Qualities of Holiness Righteousness and Truth but in a bare Freedom from sin That is they would fancy Man to have been created as pure white and Innocent as a sucking Lamb but not so much as the first preparative blue towards the tincture of any Vertues but whether this one word in our Author may be iuterpreted so high time must discover And hitherto of the State wherein God created Man 2. A second Period of Time into which our Author has Thrown the World is that from Adam to Abraham inclusively Upon which Interval he Philosophizes even to our wonderment In after-Ages as Mankind grew more corrupt and declined to Idolatry Here I want our Authors Accuracy or must complain of a Fallacy for methinks it 's a deadly long stride to step from Adam to after-Ages without the Bridge of some Neat Transition he might have made two steps of this just now we found Man in the state of Innocency and now we find him corrupt and declined to Idolatry and yet none can imagine how this evil of Sin and Misery invaded the world The Heathens were at their wits-ends about it the Manichees could not invent a way to assoyl it but by assigning a double Eternal Cause or Principle the one of Good the other of Evil And now when we expected great matters from this Gentleman to be left in the lurch and fobb'd off with a blind account that this was done in after-Ages In after-Ages as Mankind grew more corrupt Oh! it seems they were Corrupt before and enclined to Idolatry but in these villanous after-Ages they grew more Corrupt Religion pass'd through many hands and in long Tract of time gathered Moss and Furre Men sliding insensibly none ever knew how into this degeneracy and Trace it up as high as you can yet Nilus hides his Head beyond the Mountains of the Moon That Men are corrupt and stark naught we see but how they became so or when first turn'd out of the way that 's hid in darkness and perpetual Night But there is one St. Paul as obscure an Author as some would represent him that would have spoken a thousand times more to our satisfaction than this Gentleman Rom. 5. 12. By one man sin entred into the World and Death by Sin and so Death pass'd upon all men in that or in whom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all have sinned V. 17. By one Mans Offence Death reigned by one V. 18. By the Offence of one Iudgement came upon all to Condemnation That the evil that we experience in the world and that 's abundance may be reduced to two heads it 's either Malum Culpae or Malum Poenae Either the Evil of Sin or the Evil of Punishment for sin Now this Excellent Author tells us that both these Evils came from one root one spring and that was one Man and that one Man was Adam This seems to have a probable face of the Origine of Evil but he was a dark Writer There is therefore another Author that wrote a Book called The Catholick Doctrine believed and professed in the Church of England one with whom our Author has some Reason to be acquainted for a Reason or two that I know of now this Author tells us Art 9. Of Original or Birth-sin That Original sin standeth not in the following of Adam as the Pelagians vainly talk N. B. but it is the Fault and Corruption of the Nature of every Man that Naturally is ingendred of the Off-spring of Adam whereby Man is very far gone from Original Righteousness and is enclined to evil so that the Flesh lusteth against the Spirit and therefore in every person born
into the world it deserveth Gods wrath and damnation I promise you here are a great many terrible words that would not be dofft of with a Flim-flam of Mens growing corrupt in after-Ages for this Article is positive that All that are naturally engendred of Adam have a corrupt and faulty Nature Abel as well as Cain Iacob as well as Esau and Isaac as well as Ishmael Such however then was their State Now what Means did God afford the Men of this Generation that he might not be wanting to his own Glory and their Happiness Why you must know in the first place that some of the Men of this Age were good Men others were corrupt declined to Idolatry and degenerate Very good but then one would long to know how the Good became so for how the evil became evil we are satisfied every one engendred of Adam brought with him a corrupt and faulty Nature but for the other sort these good men our Author leaves us as much in the dark how they became good as he did before how those other became evil Let us consult that excellent Author last Named Art 10. The Condition of Man after the Fall of Adam is such that he cannot Turn and prepare himself by his own Natural Strength and good Works to Faith and Calling upon God wherefore we have no power to do good Works pleasant and Acceptable to God without the Grace of God preventing us that we may have a good Will and working with us when we have that Good Will But let us goe on God afforded Good Men the frequent Apparitions of Angels who were the great Ministers of his Providence Carry this one thing in your heads as you goe Along with my Author and me viz. That he is demonstrating That God in all ages was not wanting to his Creatures happiness but by one means or other made himself and his will known to them Now then what did these Angels appear to these good Men for to acquaint them with his Will why it 's supposed they knew that before else how became they good for such they could not be without the Knowledge of Gods Will antecedent to their Obedience though perhaps they might have stumbled upon some Act materially the Command of God as a Blind Man by Chance may catch a Hare what then to protect them Protection required not Apparition what then to carry some occasional Errand from God wherein they were concern'd to be instructed upon the emergency of some extraordinary Providence Very true but not at all to his purpose but I shall have no more Concern herein than to move a few Quaeries 1. It may be enquired what Angel it was that Ordinarily appeared to the Patriarchs of old the rather because he is peremptorily called Iehovah the Essential Name of the True God And I find some have pleaded that the Second Person of the Trinity by way of Praeludium to his future Incarnation to shew that his delights were with the Sons of men and how ready he was to do the Will of his Father in the Redemption of the World when in the fulness of time a Body should be offer'd him and their Pleas have not been removed and they are somewhat confident cannot be And as I remember amongst many other they insist upon Hosea 12. 3 4 5. He took his Brother by the heel and by his strength he had power with God he had power over the Angel and prevailed he wept and made supplication to him The Lord God of Hosts the Lord is his Memorial 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If this was not the True God blessed for ever that wrestled with Iacob an Atheist will bid you prove there 's a Better than the Lord God of Hosts whose Memorial is Iehovah if it be then he was also the Angel that appeared and who could that be but the Second Person 2. It may be asked I hope without offence supposing that Created Angels did as sometimes they did appear to good Men and that their Message was the Mind of God concerning their Happiness and Blessedness in the Enjoyment of God whether they preach'd any other Gospel than they preach'd to the Shepherds at Bethlehem because it would seem that these inferiour Angels could not employ their Tongues upon a more welcome Theme than Him who was their Head and under whose Obedience they were Ranged by Creation and to whom he was also a Mediator of Confirmation 3. It might deserve Consideration How far Angels are the Ministers of Gods Providence That they are Ministring Spirits sent out to minister unto them who shall be Heirs of Salvation Hebr. 1. last we thankfully believe and own yet God has not left his Inspection into or oversight of this lower World This looks like some New Divinity new vamped up from the old Epicurean Philosophy which represents God as living at ease and enjoyingly in Heaven and not concerning Himself for that would they think disturbs his Peace with the Brangles and Contrastoes of Men but Rules all by the Court of Delegates For the Good men we shall not need to be too sollicitous how they did doubtless they would shift well enough in the world All the difficulty is about the Degenerate how God carryed it towards them that he might not be wanting to their Happiness Now here indeed our Author helps at a dead lift Two Expedients he used First The Preaching of some eminent Persons such as Enoch Noah and Abraham And herein we cannot but admire the wisdom of God in the Old World that he sent none but Righteous Men to preach Righteousness to an unrighteous generation To vapour against sin and then to wallow in it to forbid our Patients that Food which is often found upon our own Trenchers will not gain much credit to our Doctrine and therefore Christ Acts 1. 1. is said first to Doe and then to Teach Otherwise Ministers words are look'd on as things of Course to while out one Glass that they may be readier for another Such Preachers being like him in the Comoedian Qui alterâ manu fert lapidem panem ostentat alterâ that is he feeds his Auditors like Apes with a Bitt and a Knock but here are a few things upon this head that we cannot pass by for our Author is as full of Excellencies as an Egge is full of Meat 1 Here has been good Provision made for Good men and pretty good too for the more degenerate part of Mankind but there 's a midling size of Men all this while that have no care taken of them sink or swim Men that your Papists will tell you are too good for Hell and too bad for Heaven but of a just Gage for Purgatory Now these men did not need such extraordinary Helps as Noahs and Abrahams Sermons nor could deserve the apparitions of Angels and therefore they must be content to drudge through the work in their own strength whereof having a sufficiency enough is as good as a feast