first created to himself and â—…hen pleads against us which is to Lacquey it after â—…olkelius For so he lib. de verâ Relig. cap. 10. p. â—…38 Christum autem saepenumerò non Christi Perâ—…onam aut Naturam sed per Metonymicam dicenâ—…di figuram à liud quippiam vel ad Christum respiâ—…iens vel ab illo profectum designare ex illis locis â—…erspicuum est ubi Christum accepisse Christum diâ—… Christum induere debere aut eundem 〈◊〉 in Christo esse in Christo denique 〈◊〉 dicimur That Christ oftentimes signifies 〈◊〉 the Person or Nature of Christ but something 〈◊〉 either relating to him or proceeding from him 〈◊〉 a Metonymie is plain from those places wheâ—… we are said to have received Christ to have leaâ—… Christ that we ought to put on Christ and 〈◊〉 have put him on to be in Christ and lastly to 〈◊〉 in Christ And at this rate in a while the Persâ—…nality of Christ shall lye at the mercy of these meâ—… there being no place of Scripture left that shall â—…cessarily prove him to be a Person but with oâ—… of these evasions they can enervate and with a 〈◊〉 dash of a wanton pen strike him clear out of 〈◊〉 Writ But let us a little examine his Consequencâ—… Christ sometimes signifies the Church therefore 〈◊〉 be in Christ to be united to Christ must be so â—…derstood From May be in the premises to must 〈◊〉 in the conclusion is a high leap let our Author 〈◊〉 a care he do not break his Neck for my part I 〈◊〉 not be too sollicitous to answer such Inferences But I had almost forgotten that under the 〈◊〉 Head he interpreted In Christ to signifie in 〈◊〉 Doctrine and now to serve the present Turn it 〈◊〉 signifie to be in the Church To which I onely saâ—… If they be one thing this Head is needless and 〈◊〉 they be two they make a contradiction In the mean time our Author is the most unhaâ—…py man I have met withall that having perhaps 〈◊〉 place or two of Scripture where possibly the 〈◊〉 Christ may signifie the Church mystically consideredâ—… as it takes in the Head and Members the Fouâ—…dation and Building the root and branches the 〈◊〉 and Subjects the Husband and Spouse yet shoulâ—… so unhappily fix upon those Texts which would â—…empt a rigid Antagonist to put him to the proof â—…f what in a sober sence will not be denyed Let us â—…hen attend to his Quotations Rom. 12. 5. We beâ—…ng many are one Body in Christ. All true Christiâ—…ns how many soever they be constitute but one Body but how come they to be One what is that Center wherein they meet that common Bond or Ligament which ties them together who is the Corner-stone that couples together the parts of this Building The Apostle tells us t is Christ He is the Head in whom the members are united the corner-stone in whom the sides of the building are joyned â—…he Center in whom as in a point all the Faith of Individual Believers does meet now cannot they be thus One but the Name Christ must needs signifie Church Well let us hear one of his Id ests i. e. saith he We are all but one Christian Society which is the Body of Christ. Very good according to our Authors Fancy it must run thus We are all one Christian Society which is the Body of the Church But whatever truth there is in the Notion it never grew upon this root all the Apostle asserts is this that Particular Christians are compared to the particular members of the natural body the whole Church collectively taken is compared to the natural body and that he might shew how the particular Members of this Mystical Body are united and become One he tells us it is in Christ. Again Col. 1. 2. To the Saints and faithfull Brethren in Christ. Ergo what Why they are Christian Brethren True but how come they to be so That is indeed the Question to which our Author speaks Ne gry quidem His last proof is from 2 Cor. 5. 17. He that is in Christ is a New Creature It seems somewâ—… strange to me that the word Christ should signiâ—… otherwise in this Verse than it had done v. 14. 1â—… and must do again v. 18. Before the Text v. 1â—… The love of Christ constrains us And that 〈◊〉 dyed for all Was it a Person who out of pure Loâ—… dyed for his Church who offered himself a Sacâ—…fice to God for it and is it all o th' sudden groâ—… a Church The Church I had thought was the Oject and not the Subject of that Love mentioneâ—… After the Text v. 18. we read that God hath recoâ—…ciled us to himself by Iesus Christ And how doâ—… our Author wedge in Church instead of Christ in thâ—… 17th verse Must the blessed Apostle be made 〈◊〉 speak Non-sence argue impertinently conclude aâ—…surdly to gratifie one of his forced and wresteâ—… Notions Well for once that we may not purchasâ—… his displeasure let him paraphrase the eighteentâ—… verse thus God hath reconcil'd the Church to hiâ—…self by the Church What remains in this particular is onely that descant which he gives upon hiâ—… Text i. e. Every sincere Christian is a New Creature Agreed To be in Christ and to be a sincere Christian do explain one another But the descanâ—… upon his descant is the Life of all Whoever professeth the Faith of Christ and lives in society with the Christian Church hath obliged himself to live 〈◊〉 new Life Better and better still What is it to be in Christ Ans. To be a sincere Christian. Qu. Anâ—… what is it to be a sincere Christian Ans. To profess the Faith of Christ and live in society with the christian Church Most admirable The clearest fullest and exactest Definition without all peradventure that ever was in the world of a sincere Christian and out-vies all that Mr. Shepheard's Sincere Convert or Sound Believer can afford us The onely fault that I find with it is that the lewdest and vilest Hypocrite that ever was in the world may be one of our Authors Sincere Christians You have heard what a Sincere Christian is to your unspeakable comfort no doubt Will you but hear what the New creature is and you are made for ever Qu. What is it to be a New creature Ans. To oblige himself to live a New life Nay if an Obligation nay a voluntary Obligation to live a New life will render a Man a New Creature I am sure God has obliged all men so to live and most men have superadded a voluntary Obligation of their own so to live and then what a sad rout of New Creatures is the world pester'd withall The Reader has seen by this time that his first Notion of Christ is false his second onely necessarily True his third very questionable and the fourth unproved and if it had been proved would not have done his work and now it 's high time to
declared her Judgement And I will not conceal it This was one thing that quickned me to undertake this Province when I saw how readily some men could snatch the Pen to under-write what with the same Hand and Pen and Breath they intended to Confute or if not to Confute yet however to Deride Upon a serious Reflection on these things Remembring somewhere a Passage of Austin That he would have every man that can hold a Pen write against Pelagius that sworn Enemy to the Free Discriminating and Effectual Grace of God and Remembring also the Command of the Apostle Iude v. 3. To contend earnestly for the Faith once delivered to the Saints I thought we had as good a License to plead for Christ and his Truth here at the Footstool who pleads for us according to his Truth upon the Throne as any man can pretend to plead against them And therefore to deal Freely with my Reader I judg'd it my Duty rather to lament than imitate that Deep and Dead Silence of those who are equally concern'd with and better qualified for the Work than my self to give some Check to this growing Petulancy and sawcy Humour of daily encroaching Prophaneness A poor Man came once to a Learned Physician for Advice but first he would know Whether it was safe to take Physick in Dog-dayes His Physician replyed no more but this If it be lawfull to be sick it 's lawfull to be well at any time of the Year I shall apply it no further than this If this Author be qualified to Oppose every true Christian is qualified to Defend the Gospel of Jesus Christ For the Dispute is not now about Decency and Order about Fringes and Philacteries about the tything of Mint Anise or Cummine nor about a Pin or Peg in the Superstructure of the Churches Polity nor about the three Innocent Ceremonies but about The Influence of the Righteousness of Christs Life and the Sacrifice of his Death upon our Acceptance with God about the Interest of the Blessed Spirit in the glorious Work of the New Creation Whether Christ be a proper Priest or no Whether as a Priest he Offer'd himself as a proper Sacrifice to God or no Whether God and Man are Reconciled and we Redeemed from the Curse of the Law by the Blood of Iesus or no Whether we are Iustified before the Just and Holy God by our own Righteousness or by the Righteousness of a Mediator And in a word Whether the Death of Christ be the proper and immediate Cause of any one single Blessing great or small of the Covenant of Grace In which the Concerns all the Eternal Hopes of every Christian are wrapt up and wherein that he may not mistake and so Finally miscarry as 't is the unseigned Design of these Papers so 't is the Earnest Prayer of READER Thy Servant in the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour IESUS CHRIST N. N. CHAP. I. Containing an Answer to the First Chapter concerning the Name Christ The Offices of Christ c. IT was a Question stated by the Curious Why Homer should begin his Iliads with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Answer had a spice of the same vanity because forsooth Anger is blind Let none be so Hypercritical as to enquire Why our Author commences his Discourse wâ—…th ALL ERROUR nor any so hasty to Reply Because he intends to continue the Metaphor and carry on the Humour proportionably to the End but hear him out All â—…rour hath some Appearance of Truth to which if you shall adde and All Truth may have some Appearance of Errour You have then his Syllabus Capitum the Marrow and Contents of Five long Chapters with their Sections Paragraphs and goodly Periods spun out into Four hundred thirty and two Pages The whole dividing it self into these two general Heads Blanching of Heresie and smutting of Truth The Gentleman Alwayes took it for granted that Christ and his Religion were very well agreed and he is still of the same Mind that his Person is not at Oddes with his Gospel but it seems there are some who have made as irreconcileable a difference betwixt the Religion of Christs Person and of his Gospel as between the Law and Grace p. 3. It was no smaller a Name than that of the great Socrates who curst the Man whoever he was that first distinguisht between Bonum Utile and Honestum and I must confess I have no small Pike against that Generation of Men who have made Two Religions of one and then set them both together by the Ears Whether there be any such on this side Utopia I shall not determine but this I will 'T is highly expedient nay absolutely necessary that some such there should be for else what will become of all that heavy Dinne our Author has raised upon that one Supposition and with what a ruefull Clutter will the Superstructure fall upon the Head of the Architect who has rear'd it full five stories high upon that single Hypothesis To prevent which fatal Inconvenience I would humbly Advise the Persons concern'd in the Charge to plead Guilty to the Indictment if they may do it with a good Conscience and not to be so uncivil and disingenuous as to render an Exceâ—…lent Author Ridiculous And yet if what he tells us be true That the Gospel of Christ be as severe a Dispensation as the Law I see not what Great Disparagement it can prove to the Religion of his Person and his Gospel to be at as great a Feud as the Law and Grace A mistake then there is somewhere or other which though we poor dull Mortâ—…ls could not discover our Authors piercing Eye had soon observ'd the ground of it viz. That some men wherever they meet the word Christ alwayes understand by it the Person of Christ p. 4. That was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it seems the Spring of all this mischief And if they do not so understand and misunderstand to boot there 's no way to Deliver His Discourse from two little silly Scapes of Impertinency and Superfluity nor any warrant to justifie the reviling of those Men for expounding Faith in Christ and Hope in Christ of a fiducial Relyance and Recumbency on Christs Person in contradistinction to Obedience to his Laws For the very truth is as I shall acquaint my Reader privately betwixt him and me Those Persons whom he reflects upon with so much sâ—…ornfull Indignation do not in the least urge Faith in Christ in opposition to Obedience onely they judge That an Evangelical Obedience to the Commands of the Gospel must as indispensibly follow Faith in Christs Person as it must necessarily precede Eternal Life and Salvation revealed promised and purchased by Christ It 's no Question then with Them Whether Obedience to the Gospel shall have a Place a great Place but what is the Proper place of that Obedience But this I speak onely under the Rose being loath to nip the blossoming hopes I have conceived of
without considering either Antecedents or Consequents to Nibble at some Expression that seems most lyable to Exception but herein we begge not his favour onely demand Iustice That he may not Usurp a Liberty to suppose that the Doctor asserts Revelation to be wholly silent in this Matter Revelatition silent Alas it rings loud with the continual sound of Gods pardoning Mercy to Sinners onely the Doctor judges that Revelation directs us to this Mercy of God through a Mediator for the obtaining of it When therefore our Author asks fo pertly whether the Doctor be not a confident Man to lay down such a Position I onely teturn that I have known our Author far more confident upon far less Grounds when the Doctor has a Foundation for his Confidence let him be so and spare not A great deal less Confidence may be sinfull when it wants a Basis proportionable to beare its weight and a great deal more Justifiable when it 's born up with sufficient Warrant Tell not me of the Doctors Confidence but examine his Reasons for it and let us see what our Author can do to dismount it Truely he offers us but one thing but I assure you it 's a knocker The Experence says he of the whole World confutes him Never was Man so confuted and confounded as he that stems the Experience of the whole World for though I ever look'd upon Experience as a very ticklish way of Confutation and the best way of employing them is to Experience in our own Souls the Virtue and Efficacy of certainly revealed Truths and not to make them the Umpires of questionable Doctrines yet I should be loth to run counter to the universal Sentiments of Mankind and the Experience of the whole World shall carry a mighty stroke in my Judgement but has our Author taken their Experiences by the Pole and do they one and all give in their Suffrages against the Doctor Yes Both Iews and Gentiles who knew nothing of what Christ was to doe in order to our Recovery did believe God to be gracious and mercifull to sinners I must own it That Jews and Gentiles are a sufficient enumeration of particulars they did once divide the World betwixt them and if they both agree in their Verdict against the Doctor Nemine contradicente he is gone for ever being over-born with Epidemical Experience 1. For the Iews the Day is like to goe for our Author if it be true what he tells us That God assured them he was a Gracious and Mercifull God pardoning iniquity transgression and sin which certainly he is and then that They knew nothing at all of what Christ was to doe for our Recovery but all the stick lyes there and we must enter a Friendly Debate with him upon the issue For 1. Whatever Manifestation of Gods Sin-pardoning Mercy was given to the Church of Old it had reference to the Blood of Christ who was as really sacrificed to their Faith as he was crucified to the Faith of the 〈◊〉 Galat. 3. 1. The Jewish Sacrifices were Types designed and appointed by God to represent that one Sacrifice which Christ should once offer upon the Cross to God and without reference to the Expiation of Sin Atonement and Propitiation of God made by him and manifested by them it would have puzzled the Faith of any particular person that God would pardon sin notwithstanding that Revelation Exod. 34. 6. for is it not immediately added And that will by no means clear the guilty God in that place reveals to Moses his Name that is his Nature and if we consult particulars we shall find that it 's as fair a Letter in Gods Name not to clear the Guilty under which Character all the world stand before God Rom. 3. 19. as to pardon iniquity but all this was cleared up and made easie by a believing attendance to those bloody Sacrifices which though weak in themselves yet receivâ—…d a Sacrament al strength from Him who travelled in the greatness of his to reconcile God and Man by the Blood of his Croâ—…s 2. There 's nothing more vain and idle than to 〈◊〉 that the Iews knew nothing at all of what Christ was to doe in order to our Recovery For 1. It was sufficient for that Dispensation that God had Revealed a Mediator who should take up the Controversie between God and sinners and this he did when it was early day with the world to Adam when received into a Covenant of Grace T is true the more minute Circumstances of when and how He should come in what manner he should accomplish his work might be veyled with some Obscurities and perplexed with some difficulties at the first yet still they had a Promise in the Lump that the Seed of the Woman should bruise the Head of the Serpent which the Apostle interprets Heb. 2. 14. by destroying him that had the Power of Death even the Devil And as it seemed good to the Wisdom of God to give forth the Promise at first in gross so in process of time to graduate and heighten the discovery of the Messias That there should come a deliverer out of Sion to turn away ungodliness from Iacob Isa. 59. 20. was evidently laid before their Faith to these Revelations did true Believers attend and by this Key did they open the difficultie how God should be a God pardoning Iniquity and yet by no means clear the Guilty And as the prefixed time of Christs appearing in the World drew nearer so the Prophesies and Promises of his Person Nature Work and Design thereof with the Circumstances attending it were multiplyed and more explicitely made out to them that so as they were growing up out of the State of Childhood and emerging from under their Bondage the discoveries of a Saviour might enlarge their Hearts and Minds in Knowledge Joy Love and Peace By Isaiah it was revealed that he should be born of a Virgin Isa. 7. 14. that he should be Immanuel God with us therein discovering both his Natures in one Person and his design to bring God and Man into one Covenant By the fame Prophet was it distinctly revealed what should be his Work and Employment his Dignity and Authority and the Success of all Isa. 9. 6. For unto us a Child is born unto us a Son is given and the Government shall be upon his shoulders and his Name shall be called Wonderfull Counsellor the Mighty God the Everlasting Father the Prince of Peace of the encrease of his Government and Peace there shall be no end By the fame Prophet it was revealed Chap. 53. by what means mainly he should accomplish the Ends of his coming into the World by being wounded for our Transgressions bruised for our Iniquities healing us by his stripes by Gods laying upon him the Iniquities of us all that it pleased the Father to bruise him to make his Soul an Offering for sin by the travel of his Soul by pouring it out to death being numbred amongst the
that God can be just in destroying without the least Impeachment of his Mercy and Goodness since Mercy it self is not obliged to plead for the Sinner without respect had to the other Properties of that God who is Essentially what he is But has our Author never a Stone to throw at the head of this Truth Two things he offers most lamentable Ignorance and horrid Blasphemy 1 Here 's most wretched Ignorance A happy Change sayes he this from all Iustice to all Love No Sir don't trouble your self here 's no Change at all happy or unhappy God is the same holy just righteous gracious and loving God that ever he was onely sayes the Doctor he 's otherwise discovered Justice and Mercy are not contrary things in God he can be all Love and Mercy and yet punish the Sinner that cannot plead the Death of Christ for his Discharge and he can be all Iustice too and yet pardon the believing repenting Sinner through Jesus Christ The Change is not made in God with whom is no variableness nor shadow of turning but the Change is made in the State and Condition of the Creature who once standing upon his own bottom and so considered by a holy and righteous God was the Object of just displeasure but now being found in Christ and so eyed by God is in another Capacity and meet to enjoy the benefit of that Grace and Love to which before such Qualification he had no right and whereof he was utterly incapable 2 I wish Ignorance had been the worst that might be charg'd upon his Discourse for certainly here 's a vein of the most unparallel'd Blasphemous Drollery that ever faced the World with an Imprimatur except Friendly Debates Ecclesiastical Policies and some few others of the same Kidney And first he will represent the Holy God in his taking Vengeance or requiring Satisfaction like an angry passionate Man and the Grace of God upon the Account of Christ's Death and Sufferings to the Kindness of a revengefull Man when he has glutted himself with Revenge and his Passion is over I think it might become our Author or the proudest Worm on Earth to have spoken more reverently of the way of Gods dealing with repenting Sinners through our Lord Jesus Christ That discomposure and perturbation of Mind to which frail man is obnoxious falls not upon the great God he can turn the wicked into Hell and all those that forget God without Passion Fury is not in me saith God Isa. 27. 4. An earthly Judge in his private Capacity may weep when he pronounces Sentence of Death against a Malefactor and yet remember that he is a Iudge and cut off from the City of God the wicked of the Land Nihil minùs quam irasci punientem decet Nothing is more uncomely in him that punisheth than Passion And though we read of Gods Anger Wrath and Fury yet it becomes us to conceive of God according to his Dignity even when he represents himself to our Capacity Though God humble himself we have no warrant to abase him whatever things are attributed to God which are common to Men it 's our Duty to garble out all the Imperfections and Frailties that those Qualities are mixed and attended with in Men before we ascribe them to God But this is not the worst he will strain his impious Drollery a few Notes higher The summe of which is that God is all Love and Patience when he has taken his fill of Revenge as others use to say the Devil is good when he is pleased This is indeed the summe of all our Authors blasphemous Froth but neither the total summe nor any particular of what the Doctor has ever asserted The summe of the Doctors words is this That God is the righteous Iudge of all the Earth and that it 's a righteous thing with him to render to every Man according to his Works and yet he has pleased to admit of Satisfaction to be made by his Son Iesus Christ who most willingly offer'd himself a Propitiatory Sacrifice to God In which Son of his whoever shall believe God is ready to pardon and forgive him And now must the plain Truth of the Gospel be thus muffled up and disguised in ugly Expressions to render it lyable to scorn and contempt Thus have the Papists array'd the Martyrs of Jesus in the Sambenit or Devils-Coat first shewing them as Hereticks and then sacrificing them to the flames I see he has furnish'd himself with a Creep-hole It 's not as he but as others say Sed malè dum recitas incipit esse tuus As 't is applyed it 's his own and yet it hits not neither For the Devil is never so pleased as to become Good nor God ever so displeased as to become Evil Nay the Devil is then worst when he is pleas'd for the greatest evil pleaseth him best and God is gloriously excellent when he is displeased for the greatest Evil is the Cause of his displeasure But let this pass for an Ornament of our Authors style which is indeed embellished with Figures but none more beautifies it than this which we may well call a Satanismus He has not yet done he has not loaded the Truth with Reproach to his mind and therefore one id est will doe it That is he would not believe God himself should he make never so many Promises of being good and gracious to Sinners unless he were sure he had first satisfi'd his Revenge But let him not be angry We believe every Promise that God has made of being gracious to Sinners but we say we cannot find one such without Provision first made for the securing Gods Righteousness Shew us a Promise that is Yea and Amen and not in Christ. Produce that Promise wherein God is engaged to justifie a Sinner and not be just himself quote us the place from whence we may flatter our selves that God will destroy any of his Attributes to save a Sinner However therefore our Author has represented God he has thus represented himself 1. That he is a Holy God A God of purer eyes than to behold evil and that he cannot which is the Word so displeases the Man look on iniquity he cannot but see it wherever it is as he is omniscient and yet he cannot see it cannot look on it wherever it is without Abhorrency He is a holy God and from his Natural and Essential Holiness does it arise that he cannot behold sin with Approbation and therefore must and will punish it Thus has he represented himself Psal. 5. 4 5 6. Thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness neither shall evil dwell with thee The foolish shall not stand in thy sight thou hatest all the workers of Iniquity 2. God further testifies of himself that he is the righteous Iudge of all the Earth Governing and Judging the World according to his own holy Nature and the Rules of his holy Law and not according to our Authors good
fitted to return the Glory due to a Redeemer which an unhumbled unbelieving unconverted unsanctified Sinner could not possibly be 2 The Death of Christ devested of those its proper respects of a Sacrifice offered to God to atone and reconcile him a price paid to ransom and redeem us and a Punishment born to satisfie Divine Iustice was no infallible proof of the Doctrine which he preached For 1. Many have laid down their lives to Abett and endured extremity of Tortures rather than renege the Doctrine they have openly preached their Confidence the mean while supported either by a mistaken Conscience or perhaps some sinister respects All that it can prove in the largest judgment of Charity is That they suppose their Doctrine to be true or else would hardly lose their All rather than lose a Principle but not that therefore the Doctrine is true because the Preacher dies for it That which is false in it self will not become true by laying down our life for it In the Memory of the last Age there were some who sacrificed their lives to the Flames in defence of Contradictory Doctrines So that to say that the Death of Christ has no other use but To confirm the Truth of that Doctrine which he preacht is but a more modest civil and gentle way of saying it has no use at all 2. To whom should the Death of Christ confirm the Truth of his Doctrine to his Enemies or his Friends For his Enemies Many of his Sufferings the very greatest and sorest of his Sufferings were out of their notice either privately in the Garden or more privately in his Soul such as whereof they could take no cognizance and for these which were visible they looked on them as the just rewards of his violation of the Law As for his Friends his Death considered singly in it self without respect to its proper Ends was so far from confirming of their Faith or Belief of his Doctrine that it was that which shook their hopes and dasht their expectations out of countenance their Hearts died in his Death and those two expressed the Sense of more than their own diffidence Luk. 24. We trusted that it had been he that should have redeemed Israel But whether to Friends or Enemies the Death of Christ considered without his antecedent Miracles and subsequent Resurrection and concomitant Sacrifice was so improper a means to confirm that it had proved the clearest Confutation of his Doctrine that malice could have desired 3. The Death of Christ was so far from confirming this Doctrine That God would pardon Sinners that separate this one Consideration of it as satisfactory to Divine Iustice from his Death and it quite overthrows the credibility of the Doctrine and runs all the World down into utter despair For our Author must have a happy dexterity if he can conclude that because God dealt so severely with an innocent holy Person that therefore he will not fail to pardon repenting Sinners We must despair that ever repentance should make us personally equal with Christ If then God did these things in the green Tree what will be done in the Dry If Iudgment begun at God's own House where shall the Ungodly and Sinner appear He that spared not his own Son how much less will he spare the Sinner It could not be expected that any should believe Christ telling them God would pitty and pardon others who found him so severe to himself But that indeed the true Reason why God deals so graciously with the repenâ—…ing Sinner is because he had dealt so justly with his own Son voluntarily becoming his Surety and Substitute 4. There were proper proofs designed by God for the Confirmation of the Doctrine of Christ and no need at all to take sanctuary in that which nakedly considered was not so Those frequent clear stupendious Miracles wrought by Christ were fully adequate and commensurate to that End Reason will teach us to believe that God will not alter the course of Nature nor reverse its standing Laws to confirm a Lye to bear witness to a grand Imposture And surely they who would not believe Christ to be sent of God upon his Testimony to him in those Extraordinary Works would never believe it for his Death which was no wonder at all otherwise than as the fruit of his ineffable Love offering himself to God as a Sacrifice for Sin and so indeed it was the greatest Wonder of them all The Enemies of Christ triumpht in his Death that they had nailed his Cause with his Person to the Cross and that which they feared was his Resurrection A Miracle so far beyond all exception to confirm that he was sent of God and therefore his Doctrine must needs be true that their greatest care was to have prevented it by sealing the Stone and setting a Watch. 5. But supposing that the Death of Christ had confirmed his Doctrine and particularly this That God would pardon and save the Believing and Obedient Sinner Yet still what influence has this upon our Acceptance with God Will God accept our Obedience the more because we have greater helps to obey May our duty expect a greater Reward because we come easier by it But when all is said that our Author can say it 's our Obedience that hath the Influence upon our Acceptance with God and Christ's Death has only an Influence upon our Obedience The same Obedience given to the Commands of the Gospel without the motive of his Death had found equal if not greater Acceptance from him than when drawn from us by so cogent an Argument But if the Death of Christ may be said to have any influence upon our Acceptance with God because he thereby confirmed his Doctrine then the Death of the Martyrs also may be said to have an Influence upon our Acceptance with him for they by their Death 's confirmed the Truth which they preacht which Truth was the true Covenant of Grace And whereas many of them laid down their Lives with that Heroical Magnanimity with that gallantry of Spirit with more than that boasted Stoical valour kissing the Stake embracing the Flames triumphantly singing in the midst of their Torments professing they felt no more pain than in a Bed of Roses as if they were to ascend Heaven in that fiery Chariot to the Confutation of their Enemies the encouraging of their Friends and the credit of that Gospel they died for evidently assuring all that they were immediately supported from above to bear with patience nay with exultation those extremities which to Flesh and Blood were intolerable We see our Blessed Saviour on the contrary in his Sufferings strangely dejected amazed troubled in Soul earnestly begging that if it were possible that Cup might pass from him and crying out in the bitterness of his Soul That he was forsaken of God which consideration is enough to satisfy an impartial Enquirer That the Sufferings of Christ were fitted for some higher design than the confirming of
Church believed at all adventures right or wrong he has introduced another full as easie The Belief of the Resurrection of Christ from the Dead A Faith happily contrived for the Genius of this sparing Age which saves us two parts in three of Christ's Offices and eleven parts in twelve of our very Creed 3. Let it be modestly examined also whether To be justified through Faith in the Blood of Christ and to be justified by believing that God raised up Christ from the Dead â—…e expressions of the same importance If they be then we may be said to be reconciled to God by the Resurrection and that Christ in being raised from the Dead was made sin for us a Sacrifice for sin and it 's something strange that none of the Apostles could hit upon such expressions as might recommend them and their writings to our Author's Charity 4. Let it be considered also whether Christ's Resurrection was the last Argument he gave to confirm the Truth of the Gospel I think his visible Appearance to his Disciples after his Resurrection and those Miraculous Operations he then put forth his Ascension into Heaven whilst his Disciples looked on his pouring out the Spirit upon the Apostles enabling them to speak with Tongues his empowering them to work Miracles many years after his Resurrection and Ascension were all Confirmations of the Truth of his Gospel and all subsequent to his Resurrection 5. Let it have a place in our Thoughts too seeing Christ's Resurrection was the great Confirmation of his Doctrine without which all the rest and especially his Death had been no Confirmation of it and yet Atonement Propitiation Reconciliation Redemption are not ascribed to it whether the Death of Christ to which all these are ascribed have an Influence upon our Acceptance with God only as it confirms his Doctrine It is strange that the Apostles should word matters so crosly to attribute those things to the Death of Christ which do most properly belong to the Resurrection and those things to the Resurrection which do most properly belong to his Death And all-out as strange that our Author should make such a noise with Atonement Reconciliation Redemption and ascribe all these to his Death when-as upon the sole-Reason of his Ascribing them to that Death they are much more rationally applicable to his Resurrection There are some well-meaning Souls no doubt that have read our Author's Book who finding such Glorious things ascribed to the Death of Christ Iustification by his Blood Redemption by his Blood Reconciliation by his Blood lift up their Eyes and cry out What pitty it is that such a sweet young Gentleman that has written such a precious Piece of Union Communion Sacrifice Atonement Redemption and Reconciliation stuft so full with Orthodox Propositions should be taken upon suspicion for a Socinian and yet when we come to scan these fine words they prove nothing but a company of sweet Flowers stuck about his Dead Body And to be justified by Faith in the Blood of Christ is no more but to believe that Christ is a Prophet sent to reveal God's Will to us The Conclusion of the whole Matter then will be this If the Death of Christ has no other influence upon our Acceptance with God but that it confirms to us this Truth That God will pardon and save them that believe and obey the Gospel it has no influence at all upon God for that End for which I refer my self to the Reader and the Reader to the foregoing Discourse He goes on Hence is it also that the Apostles attribute such things to the Blood of Christ as are the proper and immediate Effects of the Gospel-Covenant and therefore all the Blessings of the Gospel are owing to the Blood of Christ because the Gospel-Covenant it self was procured and confirmed by the Blood of Christ. I am now perfectly cured of my Ambition to be one of the Corporation of your Rational Divines and if this be Reason I do by these presents renounce it for ever Here are two words Hence and Therefore which always pretend to inference and conclusion I shall examine how well they make good their Pretences First Hence I pray whence Out of what Premises is this Conclusion deduced That the Apostles attribute such things to the Blood of Christ as are the Proper and Immediate Effects of the Gospel-Covenant Let us look back as far as fairly we may To be justified by Faith by the Faith of Christ by Christ by his Blood c. signifie one and the same thing and Hence it is that the Apostles attribute such things to the Blood of Christ c. And really turn it quite backwards and it will conclude as strongly The Apostles attribute such things to the Blood of Christ as are the proper and immediate Effects of the Gospel Covenant and 〈◊〉 it is that To be justified by Faith by the Faith of Christ by Christ by his Blood c. signify one and the same thing Now when he can once bring matters into this Posture he is safe and out of the Gun-shot of Reply for which way soever you come to attaque him you must deny the Conclusion But let us leave out the Hence and consider the words absolutely The Apostles attribute such things to the Blood of Christ as are the proper and immediate Effects of the Gospel-Covenant To which I answer 1. It 's just as easie for another if he had but a Licence to say The Apostles attribute such things to the Gospel-Covenant as are the proper and immediate Effects of the Blood of Christ and with better Reason because whatever acceptation our Services and Duties our Repentance and Obedidience find with God is clearly assigned to the Blood of Christ. But 2. This is a foul scandalous slander which he throws upon the Apostles they give to the Blood of Christ it s own proper and immediate Effects they rob not Repentance and Obedience to adorn the Sacrifice of Christ with borrowed Plumes They give to Christ the things that are Christ's and to Faith Repentance and Obedience the things that are Theirs They ascribe our Redemption to the Blood of Christ as a proper Price paid to God and they ascribe to Faith it s own Efficiency to interest us in the Benefits of that Redemption They ascribe Reconciliation to the Blood of Christ as its immediate proper Effect without any intervening Act of the Creature for that End and they ascribe to Faith Repentance and Obedience their proper and immediate Concerns to put us into the actual and full Possession of all the Fruits of that Reconciliation made with God They attribute Pardon of Sin to the Blood of Christ who was made sin for us an expiatory Sacrifice to remove guilt that is the Obligation of the Sinner to punishment and they attribute the Application of that Pardon unto Individuals unto Faith as that whereby we receive Christ and all his Benefits 3. If these be the proper and
as Mediator between God and Man he must either give it to God or Man for as Mediator he stands onely between these two Parties How absurd it is that he should pay it to Man needs not many words to evince it remains therefore that he paid it to God himself But the Apostle Peter puts that out of dispute in the place under consideration For he tells us that we were Redeemed by the blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot whence it appears that Christ was the true Sacrifice chosen by God immaculate to be the real sin-offering and that he was Offered to God as the Lamb was 3. Sect. Our Author supposes that all that the Gentiles were Redeemed from was some gross sins he instances onely in Idolatry but we favourably allow him to include all Actual sins and yet he comes not up to the design of Christ in Redemption The vain Conversation received by tradition from their Fathers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was that Corruption that they derived by propagation being by Nature the Children of wrath even as others Jews and Gentiles being all equally under the Curse and Condemnation of the Law 4. Sect. He supposes that we are Redeemed by the Preaching of the Gospel To which I Answer That we could never in any sense have been Redeemed by the power of the Gospel Preached if we had not first been Redeemed by the price of the Blood of Christ paid to God in a proper sense 5. Sect. He asserts that Deliverance by Preaching is called Redemption by Christs blood because we owe this unspeakable blessing to his Death But how do we owe the Preaching of the Gospel to the Death of Christ When our Author himself was in such a Huff not long ago with any that should own a Doctrine as Gospel that was not Preach'd by Christ in his Life He admired the Sermons of Christ beyond those of the Apostles and will not allow that his Disciples Believed his Death before he was Crucified and yet now we owe it all to his Death As if Moses had not sufficiently confirmed the Truth of his Mission and Doctrine by Miracles though he never dyed himself to confirm them And as if Christ had not done the same abundantly though he had never dyed Christ sent his Apostles to Preach the Gospel to the Iews and Preach'd it in his own Person before his Death and yet of those Jews it 's said Ye were Redeemed not with Corruptible things as Silver and Gold but with the precious Blood of Christ. But this our Author thinks he has proved from Eph. 2. 15 16 17. Having abolished in his Flesh by his Death the enmity even the Law of Commandments c. Came and Preached Peace to you which were afar off and to them which were nigh That which he would prove from hence is this That the Redemption of the Gentile World by the Death of Christ signifies no more than the Removing of the Ceremonial Law and reclaiming them from Idolatry and Prophaneness by Preaching the Gospel and then bringing them into one body or Church with the Jews To make the Text Serviceable to such a design it was necessary 1. That he should lustily bind over our weaker imagination to his own stronger fancy that by Flesh is meant the Death of Christ For my part I see no necessity that Flesh should signifie any more than his Assumption of our Nature In which Nature he has answered and fulfilled all the Types and Ceremonies of the Law though in divers ways and at divers times 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render to Abolish signifies not any formal positive Act whereby a Law is expresly repealed and disanulled but the rendring a thing useless of course when it 's end is attained Thus were all the Ceremonies of the Law rendred absolete and of none effect when Christ in the Course of his Ministry had answered their design and particularly Sacrifices became useless by the Death of Christ those Services which were Mercies and no curses in their day being swallowed up of that greater mercy of the Death of Christ. 3. He must suppose and that is indeed a reaching supposition that Christs Preaching Peace is the same thing formally with his procuring peace by his Death than which nothing can be imagined more precarious for he first procured Peace by his Blood and then Preached that Peace which he had procured to Men in his Person and by his Apostles and therefore though Christ Preach'd that peace to the Jews before he Suffered yet it was with reference to that peace he should procure by his Sufferings An eminent instance whereof we have in his Institution and first Celebration of his last Supper Mat. 26. 28. This is my blood of the New Testament which is shed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the Remission of sins for though his blood was not yet shed Actually yet in Gods regard and the Faith of Believers it was considered as shed Antecedently to the Remission of sins for without shedding of blood there is no Remission Heb. 9. 22. And thus was the Blood of Christ considered as shed from the first establishing of the New Covenant Christ being called The Lamb slain from the Foundation of the World even that Lamb without spot and blemish by whose precious Blood Iews and Gentiles were Redeemed 4. He must suppose too that the enmity here mentioned is nothing but some bickering that had fallen out between Jew and Gentile about Ceremonies which the Gentiles that I can find were never very envious at and then when he has made all those suppositions and begged those Postulata's he will be ready for Demonstration A particular consideration of the Text will set that strait which he had made crooked And 1. The Apostle describes the state of the Gentiles by Nature to be most wretched and miserable ver 12. They were Aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel Strangers from the Covenants of promise without Christ having no hope without God in the World They that are without Christ are without God and they that are without a promise are without Christ and they that are without Covenant are without promise and they that are without all these must needs be without hope Their Case must needs be desperate that have â—…o Christ to bring them to God no promise to bring them to Christ and if they were Aliens from the Church where the means of Grace were to be had they must needs be without all these 2. The Apostle shews the true means whereby the Gentiles were brought nigh to God Ye who sometimes were afar off are made nigh by the blood of Christ It was Christs blood alone by which the great impassable gulph was filled up that was between God and his Creature by sin for Christ is our Peace 3. That the Gentiles might not Object that there were many Ceremonial Hedges and Fences that kept them off from enjoying the Priviledges of those who were