Blood was carried in to the Holiest place ver 12. Neither by the blood of Bulls and Goats but by his own Blood he entred into the most Holy place having obtained eternal Redemption Thus Christ had obtained eternal Redemption and perfected the whole work of it as far as the paying of a price to God goes in the Matter before his Ascention and that which remained was the application of the benefit of what he had procured with God to us by his prevailing Intercession And as to the blood of the Sacrifices mentioned Exod. 24. 6. which the Apostle refers to ver 19. which our Author thinks had no other use but the confirming of the Mosaical Covenant it was never carried into the most Holy place at all nor the blood of any Propitiatory Sacrifice but onely that upon the Feast of Expiation once a year 2. The Apostle in this Chapter does not onely refer to the sprinkling of the Blood of the Sacrifice Exod. 24. but to the sprinkling of the blood of the Red Heifer Numb 19. 4. Eleazer shall take of her blood the red Heifer without blemish and without spot ver 2. and shall sprinkle it directly before the Tabernacle of the Congregation To which the Apostle expresly refers ibid. v. 12. If the blood of Bulls and Goats and the ashes of a Heifer sprinkling the unclean Sanctifieth to the purifying of the Flesh how much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit Offered himself to God purge your Consciences from Dead works And this blood was neither carried into the Holy place nor the Ministration of the Service performed by the High-Priest but by Eleazar which proves 1. That the blood of Christ had all its atoning vertue on this side his entrance into Heaven and 2. That Christ was Typified by the inferior Priests and not by the High-Priest alone For here not Aaron but Eleazar performed the Service of the Day 3. The Apostle clearly Disputes against this Figment of Christs presenting his blood to God in Heaven which the Men of this leaven will needs have to be all the Sacrifice that Christ Offered to God ver 25 26. Nor yet that he should Offer himself often for then he must often have Suffered No Offering without Suffering But Christ Suffered but once therefore he Offered but once Nay says the Apostle Now once in the end of the World hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself That which Christ did once he does not do always but if Christs appearing before God in Heaven be the offering of himself in sacrifice he does it always to the end of his Mediatory Kingdom 2 But what was it under the Law to which the Intercession of Christ answers To this he returns thus As the Death c. so his continual Intercession for us in virtue of his Blood once shed and once offer'd to God answers those frequent Expiations by Sacrifice under the Law especially to that General Sacrifice on the great Day of Expiation when the High-priest enter'd into the Holy of Holies with the blood of Beasts As the Death of Christ his Ascension and presenting his Blood to God answers that one so his Intercession answers the other Yes indeed just so with so much Truth and Regularity of Proportion that is with just none at all What parallel he can fancy between Expiation and Intercession I cannot divine This I know 1. The Expiations by Sacrifice under the Law were by Blood-shedding It was the Blood upon the Altar as the Life of the Sacrifice that made Expiation Lev. 17. 11. but in Christs Intercession there is no shedding of Blood 2. The Expiations by Sacrifice under the Law were by the Death of the Sacrifice and so was the Expiation of Christ And so says our Author too p. 327. He hath made a perfect Expiation for our sins by dying once p. 328. He procures the Pardon of our sins by his Death But in Heaven there is no Death and yet he says The Intercession of Christ answers the Expiations by Sacrifice under the Law that is just as much as Life answers Death But how to make our Author friends with the Apostle will be difficult who is so hard to be reconciled to himself 3. The Expiations which were made by the frequent Sacrifices were all without the Holyest but the Intercession of Christ is in the most Holy place And is not this a famous correspondency But how clear is all this if we could be reconciled to the Scriptures Where the Death of Christ upon the Cross answers all the Expiatory Sacrifices under the Law and the Intercession of Christ at the right Hand of God or his appearing continually in Heaven before his Father for us answers the High-priests entering into the Holy of Holies with that Blood which had been before shed at the Altar But whereas such was the imperfection such the poverty of the Types that no one was able to Answer all the Concerns of a Sinner no one could express all the various respects that a guilty Person had to God and his Law and therefore it was necessary that various Sacrifices should be instituted that they might represent those things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which it was impossible they should perform 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our Lord Jesus Christ by one Offering hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified Heb. 10. 14. For where Remission is there is no more Offering for sin v. 18. When therefore our Author affirms so secure of Contradiction That Christs continual Intercession answers those frequent Expiations under the Law especially that on the great day of Expiation he has said enough to determine this Matter For if there were frequent Expiations under the Law besides that of the Feast of Expiation and that there be any thing in Christs Sacrifice answering to them it follows that Christs Expiatory work was finish'd before his entrance into Heaven for the Blood of those other Sacrifices never came within the Holy of Holies which answers to the true Holy Place where Christ makes continual Intercession for us All this while the Reader ought charitably to believe that our Author is discoursing what influence the death of Christ hath upon our Acceptation with God To which he has answered that it Confirms a Covenant it procures a Covenant though how it procures a Covenant he has not yet informed us Justification Reconciliation Redemption are not the proper and immediate effects of his death nor indeed is any thing so but the abolishing ceremonies and conforming such a Covenant as he has obtruded upon us and for confirming that which he calls the Covenant there was the least need and I think no need at all but he closes up the whole with a parcel of good words Christ says he procures the pardon of our sins by his death and dispenses this pardon to us by his Intercession Is not this very Canonical and Orthodox yes sure but now mark his
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
immediate Effects of the Covenant and not of the Blood of Christ What should move the Apostles always to speak improperly to affix Reconciliation Atonement Redemption c. to the Blood of Christ and never to our Obedience when yet we are neither properly reconciled properly redeemed nor God properly atoned by Christ's Blood but all these are the proper Effects of our Obedience And now one word to the Therefore And therefore says he 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 A very learned Argument that is to say We owe the Blessings of the Gospel to that which is no true and proper cause of them The Blood of Christ is not the proper Cause of our Justification therefore we owe our Iustification to it His Blood is not the proper Cause of our Reconciliation and therefore we are indebted to his Blood for our Reconciliation All Effects are owing to their proper Causes whatsoever therefore is the proper Cause of our Iustification to that we are indebted for it But how naturally would this Conclusion follow from his Premise The Blood of Christ is not the proper Cause of Iustification Reconciliation and Redemption and therefore we do not owe our Justification Reconciliation and Redemption to the Blood of Christ Or thus We owe all the Blessings of the Gospel to the Blood of Christ and therefore the Blood of Christ is the proper Cause of those Blessings And now let the Reader observe how his Reason brought up in the Rear has routed his Reason that marched in the Van. The Blood of Christ is not the proper Cause of the Blessings of the Gospel there 's your Reason in the Front why we do not owe the Blessings of the Gospel to it And again The Gospel-Covenant was procured and confirmed by it There 's your Reason in the Rear why we do owe the Blessings of the Gospel to it But to do our Author justice I shall look over these things more severely The Gospel-Covenant it self says he was procured by the Blood of Christ. And does not this sound more honourably for the Blood of Christ than to say it only confirm'd a Covenant To procure if we might measure the import of the Word by its sound implies that the Blood of Christ had some Influence upon God that moved him to enter into such a Covenant with Mankind which without that Consideration he had never done but to confirm a Covenant that supposes there was such a Covenant in being only the Blood of Christ gave security to Men that it should be made good So that if we know when we are well we had best keep our selves so and sit down contented with this NewHonour and Efficiency ascribed to the Blood of Christ that it procured as well as confirmed the Gospel-Covenant lest whilst we labour to engross more than is due we lose what the Charity of our Author has given us But they who think they have right to All will hardly be perswaded to be put off with half and therefore I must a little further enquire into this new-start-up Notion of procuring the Covenant What this Gospel-Covenant is which our Author so frankly attributes to the Procurement of Christ's Blood he has told us p. 320. A Promise of the Pardon of Sin and Eternal Life to those who believe and obey the Gospel I confess a clear and distinct Notion of what he calls Gospel would very much befriend us in our Enquiry The best I can find and it 's but a half-faced one neither is p. 34. To preach Christ says he is to preach his Gospel that is to expound all those Rules of Life and Articles of Faith which are contained in it Whether this be Gospel or no I shall not enquire or whether this be the Covenant of the Gospel I shall not torment him with but this is that which Christ has procured for us with his Blood A Promise of Pardon and Life to those who believe and obey all that 's revealed and commanded either in the Scriptures or the New-Testament or the Four Evangelists or in one of Christ's Sermons I think that must be it Now I must here entreat the Reader to open his Eyes and see how he has been cheated all this while 1. It 's very well known he propounded a Question at first What Influence the Righteousness of Christ's Life and the Sacrifice of his Death have upon our Acceptance with God To this he answers separately concerning the Death of Christ and its Influence and will come all in good time to shew us What Influence the Righteousness of his Life hath upon God for that End Concerning the Influence of his Death he has been perswading us that it confirms the Covenant and now in the Close he has stollen-in a Word we never dreamt of that i procures this Covenant Now I suspect some fraud for what Influence has the Death of Christ upon God to procure us such a Govenant Had he shew'd us that he had deserved better of his Readers than by all this Amusing Sophistry 2. He has told us p. 42. That the Light of Nature the Works of Creation and Providence do assure us that God designs the Happiness of all his Creatures according to their Capacities and they are capable of being justified and saved And that God is so Holy that he has a Natural Love for all good Men and is as ready to pardon them when they return to their Duty as a kind Father is to receive a Humble and Penitent Prodigal And p. 43. Had Christ never appeared in the World yet we had reason to believe that God is thus good and merciful Now having such good security from the Light of Nature Reason being clear in the Point and the thing so natural and essential to God that he will pardon and is ready to it upon Repentance and Obedience though Christ had never appear'd what has the Death of Christ done to procure this Favour or more Favour from God We will grant that the Death of Christ has confirmed the Truth of it more but what has it added to the Procurement of the thing If it be said that Christ's Death did not procure a Willingness in God to Pardon but only a Confirmation of his Willingness I would ask what greater Confirmation a rational Creature could well desire than an Assurance from the Light of Nature that this was Natural and Essential to God And I would further know what the Procuring of a Confirmation amounts to more than a Confirmation 3. The Scripture has assured us Gen. 17. That God gave an explicite Promise to Abraham that he would be his God or a God to him that is that whatever Abraham should want and yet could not want but he must be eternally miserable that thing God would be to him For 't is an uncouth Interpretation of the Promises I will be thy God that
ANTI-SOZZO SIVE Sherlocismus Eneyvatus IN VINDICATION OF SOME Great TRUTHS Opposed AND OPPOSITION TO SOME Great ERRORS Maintained BY Mr. WILLIAM SHERLOCK 1 Cor. 16. 22. If any Man love not the Lord Iesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha LONDON Printed for Nathaniel Ponder at the Sign of the Peacock in the Poultry near Corn-Hill and in Chancery Lane near Fleetstreet 1676. The PREFACE Christian Reader SInce the Great Tyrant Custom has made every one that shall dare to Write a Debtor to every one that shall please to Read and obliged him under no less penalty than the forfeiture of his Readers Candour and falling foul upon his severe displeasure 〈◊〉 render a Reason of his Scripturiency that I may not seem to stem the violent Current of this inveterate and prevailing Humour by a sullen moroseness I shall suffer my self silently to be carryed down with the stream so far as to give thee this short Account of those Motives which won me over to this Undertaking In the Printed Catalogue of Books 1674. I met with One wearing the glorious Superscription of A Discourse concerning the Knowledge of Iesus Christ and our Union and Communion with him By W. S. And I did seriously rejoyce to see those who are Adorned with the Honourable Name of Ministers of the Gospel so profitably employ those Hours which they borrow from Publick Service as to travel in so necessary a Subject Now as this was the onely Reason of my first Ambition to be found amongst his Readers so perhaps I am not the first that has been decoyed by a specious glittering Title to place out precious Time upon Disappointments for I must freely confess how ashamed I was of my ill-spent pains when I found pro Thesauro Carbones not many Barley-Corns but not one Iewel in all that Dunghill I was willing at first to suspect that happily through some Oversight either in the Collator or Binder a wrong Title-page had been praefixt to the Book so irreconcileable did the Enmity seem between them but second thoughts informed me that the Title did not oblige the Book to Treat of the True Knowledge of Christ nor to acquaint us wherein our Union to and Communion with him did really consist for provided The Discourse was managed concerning these things though in Reproach of them or in Opposition to them yet it was enough to justifie its Harmony with and make good whatever was explicitly promised in The Bill of Fare But whatever my Apprehensions were about that I found many difficulties to remove and great discouragements to get over before I could perswade my self to give the Author the Contentment or the World the Trouble of this Answer The first and greatest that presented it self was from my own Inexperience and want of skill dexterously to handle the Polemical Saw But yet I was help'd over that Block by a temptation that softly whisper'd I must never hope for a more encouraging Piece to enter a Novice or flesh a junior Disputant For though it be not the Priviledge of every one with the great Hercules to strangle Serpents in his Cradle yet a Child may serve to kill Flies as well as the Mighty Domitian But I was more daunted at that Huffing Confidence wherewith he Hectors his low-spirited Readers into Obsequiousness challenging the whole World at all Weapons from the Spanish Needle to the long Pike and upwards and yet amongst them all I felt not the weight of Goliah's Weavers Beam His discourse indeed proceeds in Cavalcade like the Ceremonious Train of Bernice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with glorious Pomp and Gallantry but when I had rallyed up so much Courage as might make me once dare to look his Arguments in the Face truly I found nothing but a Gyants skin stuft with straw or the Guts of an old Warr-Saddle such as might well affright any but would kill no living thing Methought I saw how the poor terrified Frogs trembled at the first Appearance of Iupiters Viceroy Log but when they had retrieved their scattered spirits and came to examine the Reasons of their Consternation they soon made that the Object of their Scorn which had been so lately the Cause of their Terrour It minded me too of that little Policy of the great Alexander who to impress the Dread of his Name and Arms upon the Indians formed such a Camp that none but the widestradling Rhodian Colossus could look over the Breast-works and left such exalted Mangers behind him as would have sterved his own Bucephalus such as must presume every Horse in the Army to have been a Pegasus But yet my poor Labours might well plead a Writ of Ease from the weakness of his Reasonings which would hardly proselyte any but those who were half-curdled nor infect any with that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but such who were already in Latitudine Morbi But I consider'd withall that weak persons are mortally strong when they encounter weaker constitutions and there are not many who with Mithridates carry Antidotes in their Complexion This last Age has given us plain demonstration that Noyse Clamour and Confidence with a small sprinckling of Rhetorick are Charms able to over-sett ductile and sequacious Natures and the Eagles complaint has taught us that the Beetles enmity ought not to be despised But I was superseded a while by a more weighty Consideration That they who superintend Ecclesiastical Affairs would doubtless interpose and bestow a deserved Trimming upon the Book and make it doe Penance in its own sheets which had so openly defiled its own Mother exposed her avowed Principles but withall it was my Duty to consider that Non vacat exiguis rebus adesse Greatness and Smallness are two Circumstances of Beings which render them less Visible Thus we cannot take a view of the World because it 's too Bulky nor of an Atome because it 's too Minute an Object for the sight And possibly from one of these Accidents it was that his Book walks invisible and as under the Protection of Gyges his Ring has hitherto escaped the Cognizance of Authority Such were my Remora's but now whether those Inducements which lay before me might out-weigh these Discouragements and be sufficient to turn the scale of an aequipoiz'd Iudgement I must leave to the better judgement of the impartial Reader And 1 The Comprehensiveness of many of his Errours called aloud for Preservatives I saw the Offices of Christ so confounded ravelled and mangled that it was impossible to discern the Acts of the Prophetical from those of the Regal and the proper Employment of either of them from that of the Sacerdotal I saw the great and glorious Ends of the Death of Christ vacated and cashiered I saw the Work of the Holy Spirit in Regeneration scorned and denyed Now the Historian tells us There were in uno Caesare decem Marii the Ambition of ten such as Marius in One Caesar And others tell us that Serpens cùm Serpentem devorat sit Draco
offered Gifts and Sacrifices and for sins too And yet in all this we deny not but that the offices of Christ however really distinct yet do all meet together in one Person Moses his Prophetical Office was really distinct from his Regal Power and yet both met in Moses his Person and secondly we own that all these did meet in their general and common end the salvation of all Believers yet there are next and special ends very distinct enlightning the mind subduing the will and reconciling us to God do really differ in themselves and thirdly we grant that it was the same God who by one and the same Call invested our Lord Jesus Christ in all his Offices and as there was no moment wherein he was Iesus and not the Christ A Saviour and yet not authorized to be so so we conceive that there was no moment in which he was a half or two thirds of a Christ and not a whole Christ his Offices being conferred upon him at the same time Hebr. 5. 4 5. No man taketh this Honour to himself but he that is called of God as was Aaron Thus have I considered our Authors general Account of Christs Offices and proceed now to what he informs us concerning them in particular And first let us see what work he will make with Christs Prophetical Office His preaching the Gospel which we commonly call his Prophetical Office was the Exercise of his Regal Power in publishing his Laws Which we commonly call Yes indeed the vulgar and common Herd of Divines that are not emerged from under Systems and the prejudices they have contracted from gross Bodies of Divinity may be allowed to talk in the old Dialect but the common trite road is much below the gallantry of a rational Divine who is manumitted from that drudgery and therefore let the Volge call Preaching an Act of the Prophetical Office it is now determined and concluded for ever that henceforward it be an act of the Kingly Office But stay perhaps our Author wrongs this Vulgar Tribe I confess I am not sure but some of them may have spoken Non-sence in one place or another but I am sure I have not read this Non-sence in any of their works That Preaching the Gospel is called the Prophetical Office They do indeed call it the Exercise of that Office or an Act of that Office but should they call it an Office they would miscall it miserably but if Preaching the Gospel be onely commonly and not truely called an Act of his Prophetical Office what may we then call it safely for the future and escape a chiding Why you may securely venture to call it the Exercise of his Regal Power In good Time but how long shall this Protection be in force Just till you come to pag. 18. For there Preaching the Gospel is grown to be an Employment belonging to the Prophetical Office again he came to be our Prophet and our Guide to teach us by his Precepts and his Life But his proof is most admirable 1. Because the Gospel is called the Kingdome of Heaven Nay it 's often called the Kingdom of Heaven which our Author thinks hugely considerable but if it were call'd so but once it 's enough to command our Faith to what it asserts but the strength of the consequence is that I most am at a loss for The Gospel is called the Kingdom of Heaven Ergo Preaching the Gospel belongs to Christs Kingly Office That the state of the Gospel or the Church is called the Kingdom of Heaven or a Heavenly kingdome is out of Question That Christ is the Sovereign Lord and Ruler thereof that his Precepts are the Laws whereby he governs it is as little questioned but that there is no proper distinct Employment for a Prophet in this state or Kingdome is flatly denyed Christ was not onely a King to make Laws but a Prophet to declare promulgate and reveal those Laws Nay there is other work for Christ to doe besides making of Laws or promulgating of them there are many choyse discoveries of Gods Grace and favour to Sinners to be revealed Reconciliation and Attonement through the Sacrifice of Christ were to be made and to be made known and with what Engines he will hook these into the Regal Office I cannot Prophesie The Doctrine of the Gospel may be considered 1. As a Revelation or discovery and this is the work of Christ as a Teacher or Prophet the great Praeco or publick Officer of Heaven who having been in the Bosome of the Father from Eternity came from thence to reveal Gods Will to us Ioh. 1. 18. 2. It may be considered as powerfully yet sweetly prevailing over and subduing of our Hearts to that revealed Truth and this indeed is the work of Christ as a King but this is a Notion for which our Author will give me little thanks for not being willing to allow any more power to Christ than that of the Evidence of Truth and yet seeing a Necessity to assign some Employment or other to Christ as a King he thought it the safest course to Allott it this Task rather than none at all and to make the Regal go shares with the Prophetical office rather than be quite cashiered and shut out of Dores His next Proof is from Iohn 18. 37. where as our Author tells us Christ tells Pilate that he was born to be a King and the principal Exercise of his Kingly power in this World consists in bearing witness to the Truth But they must have other Bibles than we have or however be well skill'd in the New Device of variae Lectiones that can see any such matter there Christ asserts himseif to be a King he was so he was born so but that he was born to be a King he tells not Pilate all the strength of his Argument lyes in a little obvious piece of Knavery joyning the first words of the latter sentence to the last words of the former sentence which are clearly distinguished by a full Period Nor does he tell Pilate or us that the exercise much less that the principal exercise of his Kingly Power lay in bearing witness to the Truth but that he was born and came into the world to bear witness to the Truth which great Truth was the Promises made to the Fathers of sending the Messiah Rom. 15. 8. Iesus Christ a Minister of the Circumcision for the Truth of God to confirm the Promises made to the Fathers And indeed according to those apprehensions all Mankind have of Things Witness-bearing has nothing in it peculiar to the Royal Power but when he raised the Dead rebuked winds and waves and Devils fed Multitudes with a few loaves and fishes these look like Acts of Regality so like that the People were ready to come and take him by force to make him a King Ioh. 6. 15. upon that very occasion And this he did even in This world though our Author would fain reserve that for
Another The short of the Business lyes here Our Lord Jesus Christ by his Resurrection Ascension into Heaven and sitting down at the right hand of the Majesty on high is visibly exalted to more Dignity and Honour he exercises his Regal power in a way more glorious and agreeable to his exalted state yet was he truely a King from his Incarnation and all along in this world and gave such Proofs of his Royal greatness and Power that the Devils had not Impudence enough to out-face them And now to conclude all with this excellent Gloss upon the whole matter It was an Act of his Regal Power to conquer Error and Ignorance to destroy the Kingdom of Darkness by the Brightness of his Appearing to erect his Throne in the Hearts and Consciences of Men. These Metaphors of conquering destroying erecting a Throne came in as luckily as the heart of man could wish to prove a Royal Power for what man will now be so refractory but he will confess and so senseless and stupid but he may smell a Kingdom in the wind when he hears such language but now if you strip these Metaphors to their bare skins and uncase them of all our Authors Bombast and Fustian they shrink into a mere declaration of Truth leaving the matter to the umpirage of an habitually prejudiced and prepossessed Will and some think here 's no great Kingship in all this for all this is done by the Power and evidence of Truth which argues a Prophet teaching an Oratour pleading or a Disputant arguing but little of a King commanding conquering and subduing the heart to himself and there erecting a Throne in opposition to all the force that Satan and Helâ—… can make against him We do freely own that to conquer and destroy the Kingdom of Darkness to erect a Throne in the Hearts of Men are proper Acts of Christs Kingly Office but then there goes a little more to the business than the bare Evidence of Truth the Arm of a King must be revealed as well as the Mouth of a Prophet opened a Power to deal with the enslaved and obstinate Will as well as a Light to shine into the darkened understanding which Light yet requires something of the Kingly energie to render it savingly enlightning to the mind and understanding And now our Author has made the kingly Office to swallow up the Prophetical have but patience till he has made it â—…at up the Priestly Office too and then â—…e day is his own for ever Secondly He comes to Attacque the Sacerdotal Office of Christ. He was saith he a Kingly Priest Well! so he was and so he might be and yet though both the Offices center'd in his Person they might be formally distinct in their Acts special Ends and proper Objects Nay we will allow that All his Offices conspiring in the same general Ends their Acts might have mutual respect and give reciprocal assistance each to other And he could not have chosen a fitter Instance than that of Melchizedek who being King of Salem and Priest of the most high God Heb. 7. yet would it savour of too gross Absurdity to say that when he offered sacrifice or blessed Abraham he appeared in the Quality of a King or when he enacted Civil Laws he bore the Character of a Priest but our Authors Proofs are as Pertinent as his Doctrine True His Doctrine is When he offered himself a Sacrifice for sin he acted like a King p. 6. Really one would think he acted as like a Priest as we could reasonably desire For 1. Here is a Sacerdotal Act he offer'd 2. A Sacrifice Himself And 3. This was for sin And what of a King do we spell out of all this The truth is there 's nothing in all this but a pitifull Socinian Iuggle who having resolved not to own Christ as a true and proper Priest at all and yet not daring to deny express phrases of Scripture found out this Expedient to own the thing in words and then to shuffle it off with a Metaphor The Proof of his Doctrine is of the same Leaven Ioh. 10. 18. No man took his Life from him he had power to lay it down and he had power to take it up again Our Author had told us p. 2. of a crafty sort of Men in the World that consider nothing but the sound of words and from thence form such uncouth Idaea's of Religion as are fitted to the meanness of their understanding and will tell us further p. 102. of some who Interpret Scripture by the Sound and Clink of Words and Phrases And it seems the Contagion of this vanity infected his own intellectuals he found the word Power in the Text and he runs away with a full crye 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the Mischief on 't is it 's not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not a Physical but a Moral Power that Christ owns there a Power which is common to all his Offices he had Power or Commission to Preach Power or Authority to Rule and govern Power or warrant from his Father to lay down his Life for the great End that was agreed on between them both For he explains himself in the same Verse Not this Strength but This Commandement I received from my Father Nor yet is it denyed that Christ made use of his Kingly might in laying down his Life and taking it up again all we plead for is that the Offices and their peculiar Acts may not be jumbled and confounded together Thirdly Having dispatch'd out of the way the two great Eye-sores of the Prophetical and Priestly Office he thought it not amiss to send the third after them And that to which we commonly appropriate the Name of Regal Power that Authority he is vested with to govern his Church to send his Spirit to forgive sins to dispense grace and supernatural assistances to answer Prayers and raise the dead and judge the World All this is the reward of his Death and Sufferings I confess I wondre'd why he should make the Regal Office of Christ so over-top all the rest but I soon satisfied my self from Volkelius lib. 3. de verâ Relig. p. 41. Maximè Regibus id habebatur honoris ut Christi sive uncti appellarentur ita ut cum Christum dici audis Regem imprimis dici intelligas Kings had chiefly that Honour that they should be called Christs or Anoynted ones so that when you hear the Name Christ mention'd you must understand that a King is especially intended This I confess quieted me but why our Author should be so zealous to set up a King of his own making and then all o' th' sudden to pluck him down again to enthrone and dethrone at pleasure is at present to me unaccountable for I observe he has removed these great Things from his Kingly Office and placed them upon another Foundation viz. the reward of his death and sufferings Now take away Preaching the Gospel from
findeth his own Brother Simon and saith unto him we have found the Messiah which is being Interpreted the Christ. A Person then there was who under the Title of Christ was alwayes laid before the Faith and Expectancies of the People of God And of so great Concernment was this Name that Peter joyns it with the Son of God Matth. 16. 15. Whom do ye say that I am Simon Peter answered in the Name of the rest Thou art Christ the Son of the Living God I shall not urge the Testimony of the Devils Luke 5. 41. Thou art Christ the Son of the Living God For he is a Lyar from the Beginning and would not have owned the Truth but to Disparage it by his Testimony yet it s somewhat sad there should be greater Heresies on Earth than in Hell Nor shall I insist upon that of the Souldiers who took it for granted that he was commonly Distinguisht by the Name Christ Mat. 16. 68. Prophesie unto us thou Christ who it is that smote thee But Christs own Testimony must pass Matth. 23. 8. 10. Be not ye called Rabbi for one is your Master even Christ and all ye are Brethren neither be ye called Master for one is your Master even Christ. A huge Bussle there has been about this place and our Authors Evidence had it been Subpoened in would have struck the Business dead One is your Master even an Office And now will you hear a Facetious and Merry Reason why He is alwayes called Iesus in the Gospels which contain the History of his Life and Death p. 8. Because forsooth all this time it was Disputed whether He were the Christ or not Great Disputes indeed the Devil has raised about the Lord Jesus some will dare to Dispute it whether He be very God or not others whether He be the Christ of God or not And not a few whether he offered himself a Propitiatory Sacrifice upon the Cross to an offended God for sin so that if Christ must never be owned till all Disputes be ended we must Prorogue his Naming till the coming of Elias The World was then as 't is now which would alwayes be Disputing things in themselves Indisputable Disputed then his Name was before his Resurrection and so has been ever since by Infidels and by those who Believed neither Disputed before nor after I have heard of a great Dispute of late amongst Persons of great Learning about the Reason of an Appearance in Philosophy when one of the Company wiser it seems than his Neighbours gravely Counselled them to Examine more Narrowly whether indeed the Thing were so in Fact or no before they did beat their Brains about giving a Reason why it should be so His Advice was hearkned to and upon severe Scrutiny they had been Arguing about a Non-entity Thus it had become our Authors Excellencie to have shewn that it is before he came to flie so high at the Why it is But it seems the Matter was not weighty whether he were the Christ or not it being determined by our Authors own Licenser that whatever is Disputable is inconsiderable Thirdly Christ signifies the Gospel and Religion of Christ As Moses signifies the Writings and Law of Moses and the Prophets the Writings of the Prophets Hold good Sir Create your self no further Trouble we will grant you more than you con Prove even as much as you Demand that we may purchase our Peace And that in Common Speech Christ may signifie his Laws by much stronger Reasons than Moses can signifie his Laws For Moses was but a Servant in His Masters House but Christ a Son in and over his own House Christ was the Law Maker Moses only an Instrument for their Promulgation and Execution But then it must be Remembred withal 1. That the Name Moses signifies Originally Properly and Primarily the Person of Moses the very Man Moses and only Obliquely Secondarily Figuratively or as your great Friend Vol. has it Analogico Figuratoque dicendi genere the Doctrine Writings Laws of Moses 2. That when we meet with a word that has a Proper and an Improper a First and a Second a Plain and a Tropical signification we always let that Proper Plain and Primary signification take the Wall and have the Upper hand of the Improper Tropical and Second-hand sence all ways provided that no Cogent Inexorable Reason taken from the Circumstances of the Place do Oblige to the Contrary 3. We must well understand what our Author Claims and what we Grant That it's usual nothing more usual in Common Speech than to call any Laws or Religion by the Name of the first Authors In Common Speech then this holds for if he will lay the Weight or Stress of any Disputable Point upon it that the word is so used in Scripture we must beg his Pardon and desire him to hold us Excused unless he can Prove it by Convincing Arguments and we lay down this Protestation before-hand that we shall not take High mounted Confidence nor Imperious Dictates nor Hungry jejune Glosses for Apodictick in the Case The rather because we are ascertained that the Name Christ does Properly Primarily Frequently nay Generally express a Person in Office and if our Author will needs have it signifie or Office or Church or Gospel or any Living thing else in all the Worldâ—… merely to evade the force of Truth or to hedge in any Whimsical Notions of his own he shall get his Ground by Inches and force his Way through the main Rocks for we shall part with nothing that we can Fairly and Honestly keep But we attend his Evidence Gal. 6. 15. In Christ Jesus neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor Uncircumcision but a new Creature That is in the Gospel and Religion of Christ nothing is of any Value to Recommend as to the favour of God but a new Nature a Holy and vertuous Life p. 9. To which Gloss I oppose two small Incoveniencies First The Uncertainty Secondly The Apparent falshood of it First If there were nothing else to Disparage it its Uncertainty is enough for its merely Precarious that Christ must signifie so here If any has the Confidence to deny it though never so faintly the Cause is utterly blown up our Negative upon him puts him to Eternal silence When our Author is hard beset at any time he has one Answer ready Cut and Dried which serves for every Text in the Scripture as pag. 261. It is a sufficient Answer to this to say they need not signifie so If that will suffice him which others must be glad to be sufficed with he 's Answer'd But why not the Common Gloss In the Account of Jesus Christ Circumcision nor Uncircumcision avail nothing but c. And the strongest Probabilities lie on this side First The foregoing words whereof this Verse is rendred as a Reason do unquestionably speak of a Person ver 14. The Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. And now comes in this Verse as a Reason or
the Issue by male Administration and herein is Gods Wisdom seen that he carries on as well as layes the Design of saving Sinners with admirable Success maugre all the Counterminings Projects and Contrivances of Hell One way that reaches the End effectually is worth a thousand that prove addle and bring forth nothing but Wind and he might have learnt so much from the Fable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. Wisdom lyes in reconciling differing Interests in adjusting the various Pretensions and Claims of the concerned Parties these Contrasto's of bandying Parties clashing one with another render Healing designs difficult The Iustice of God demands Satisfaction the holy Law of God abetts that Demand the Truth of God backs both their Claims and before Grace and Mercy can be actually exercised towards the Sinner some Expedient must be found out to content those Demands and all this God hath done in Christ in whom Mercy and Truth have met together Righteousness and Peace have kissed each other Psal. 85. 10. 3. It s Wisdom to find out a Means to reach an End though there be but that one Mean to be found in the whole Circle and compass of Beings We should not much reproach that Physician that should discover to his dying Patient an effectual Remedy though it prove the onely one in the world and we will own him for an Aesculapius that will prescribe to our Author a good round dose of Hellebore and yet it 's more than probable it 's the onely Drug upon Earth that can purge out that frantick insulting petulant humour which in his Writings fills both Pages At length seeing there is no other Remedy our Author will allow some small Wisdom to appear in the Design but then the Knowledge of it all is owing to the Revelations of the Gospel and not to any fanciful Acquaintance with Christ. Still we are haunted with that old Fallacy which by this time I had hoped had been quite worn out at the Elbowes That because the knowledge of this Wisdom is owing to the Gospel Revelations therefore nothing is due to him who is the Reason and Ground of this wise and happy Contrivance And so this Bolt also is soon shot 2 The second Addition the Doctor is charged with is That a great part of our Wisdom lyes in the knowledge of our selves and that both in respect of Sin and Righteousness and that we cannot attain to these but in and by Christ. And 1 For Sin the Doctor had said p. 110. Com. That our disability to answer the Mind and Will of God in any of that Obedience which he requireth is in Christ onely to be discovered And the Doctor has herein asserted two things 1. That there is in every man a Natural Impotency to answer the Will of God And he seems not to be so peremptory in it as the Scripture 2 Cor. 3. 5. Not that we are sufficient of our selves to think any thing as of our selves all our sufficiency is of God It 's God that works in us to will and to doe of his own good pleasure and if we be deceived by these and many other such Testimonies the Church of England was misled by them as well as we 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 Our Author durst once appeal to the Experience of the whole world will he stand before the same Tribunal and be judged in this Case There are such universal Complaints about this very thing and such dismal stories all men tell of their Impotency and disability to answer Gods Laws that that Man should labour under insupportable prejudices that will controle all mens Experiences I know They talk most of the Easiness of keeping Gods Law who never tryed it and perhaps if they were well pump'd they mean nothing but how easie it is to break it Let any man set himself in his own strength to discharge one single Command of God in its full extent and latitude keeping it with his whole heart laying out his whole strength and might therein which that holy Law challenges let him attend to the Purity and Perfection of that and severely compare himself thereby dress himself in that Glass and when he has made some fruitless Essayes and been foyled and baffled with vain attempts he may then perhaps see more need of Christ than before and may spare the Experience of the whole World for his own singly will convince him of his disability to answer the Law of God in all or any of that Obedience which he therein requireth 2. The Doctor conceives That this Impotency of ours is discovered clearly in the Death of Christ wherein he is warranted by the Apostle Rom. 5. 6. For when we were yet without strength in due time Christ dyed for the ungodly In his Divinity we see a Sinner and one without strength are convertible terms and that the Death of Christ supposed it All the difficulty here will be How our Author shall expose this Truth and represent it to its greatest disadvantage but he has a singular Talent that way and whereof we need never to despair That is sayes he It 's impossible for us to do any thing that is good but we must be Acted like Machines by an external Force by the irresistible Grace and Power of God And the business is done But 1. Our Author is hugely out in supposing the Doctor to assert that It 's impossible to doe any thing that 's good Some good thing a Man may do and yet not doe all that 's required in doing it the Material part of a Duty he may doe and yet not perform it in such a way that it may answer Gods Law or be acceptable to him Bonum oritur ex integris there must be a right Principle a right End and all circumstances must concurre to make it entirely good I think there are none that deserve the Name of Christians who do not pray to God for his Grace to enable them to do their Duty but if indeed they could perform it in their own strength I see not what that Prayer would signifie more than a Complement Quid foris quaeram cùm domi habeam Why should a rich Man turn a Beggar And indeed the Heathens Principles hung together with more Consistency who would not trouble their Gods for what they had in their own Power nor thank them for that which they had earned with their own fingers-ends Quia unusquisque sibi virtutem acquirit nemo sapientum de eâ gratias Deo egit Since every man is the Procurer of his own Vertue no wise man ever gave thanks to the Gods for it 2. He is no less mistaken if he presumes upon his Power to tye the Doctor to use what Expressions he pleases in signifying his own Thoughts it may be he will not use that term of irresistable it will satisfie him if Grace work efficaciously
Righteousness It was given out by God himself for that end it contains the whole Obedience that God requires of the Sons of Men It has the promise of Eternal Life annext to it Do this and Live But there are two things that discover the Vanity of seeking Righteousness in this Path 1. That they have already sinned and come short of the Glory of God Rom. 3. 23. So that though they should for the time to come fulfil the whole Law yet there is a Score upon them already they know not how to answer for 2. That if former Debts were blotted out yet they are no way able to fulfil the Law for the future many other Devices men have found out but in the Issue the matter comes to this They look upon themselves 1. As sinners obnoxious to the Law of God and the Curse thereof so that unless that be satisfied it 's in vain from thence to seek after an appearance before God 2. As Creatures made to a Super-natural end and therefore bound to answer the whole Mind and Will of God Now both these being beyond the Compass of their own endeavours it 's their wisdom to find out a Righteousness that may answer both these to the utmost now both these are to be had only in the Lord Christ who is our Righteousness Who 1. Expiates former Iniquities 2. Fulfils the whole Law by his active Obedience Rom. 5. 10. We are saved by his Life And now the Doctor has told you the short of his Story But our Author confutes him much shorter and without Cicumlocution replies This is a mighty comfortable Discovery how we may be Righteous without doing any thing that is good or Righteous I 'le warrant you a whole Cart-load of Books hath been Written of this Subject all which with Laconick Brevity our Author has blown away with one Puff And is not this a Compendious way of Dispatching Controversies out of the World It is a Truth that none is Righteous but he that doth righteousness and as great a Truth that None is righteous before God because he doth righteousness Without Holiness no man shall see God and without something more than his own holiness no man shall see God or it were better he had never seen him But more distinctly 1. It 's seasonable to enquire what is the Mind of the Church of England in this Matter and She speaks freely Art 11. We are accounted righteous before God only for the Merit of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ by Faith and not for our own Works Pray ask her then Whether we may be Righteous without doing any thing that is Righteous for which we are so accounted in the sight of God And whereas he says with a Scoff This is a mighty comfortable Doctrine The Church in that very Article determines in earnest Wherefore that we are justified by Faith only is a most whole some Doctrine and full of Comfort Either then that Article Confutes his Assertion or his Assertion confutes the Article Again Art 13. Works done before the Grace of Christ and the Inspiration of the Spirit are not pleasant to God for as much as they spring not of Faith in Christ. And for that they are not done as God hath Commanded them to be done no doubt but they have the Nature of sin Hence it were easie to argue against our Author Those works which are not pleasant to God which have the Nature of sin cannot justifie the doer of them But all works done before the Grace of Christ the Inspiration of his Spirit which spring not from Faith are such therefore they cannot justifie the doer of them before God Either then we must never be justified or else we must be justified without good Works as that for which we are justified at least though the Article would conclude something more It 's very uncomely to see ill taught Children to spit in their Mothers face and we account that an evil Bird that defiles its own Nest. 2 It will be no less seasonable to enquire into the mind of the Spirit also And the Apostle Paul seems to speak high Rom. 4. 5. To him that worketh not but believeth in him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted for righteousness And more modesty would become him than to quip the Apostle and tell him This is a comfortable discovery how a man may be righteous without doing any thing that is righteous Again In the business of Election the Apostle argues thus Rom. 11. 6. If it be by Grace then it is not of Works otherwise Grace is no more Grace but if it be of Works then it is no more Grace otherwise Work is no more Work 3. It 's seasonable to enquire whether our Author had not better have understood the Doctor better before he had undertaken to answer him For when he asserts that we are justified by Christ he excludes not the way and means that God hath appointed to make the righteousness of Christ to become ours He that saith we are justified by Christ doth not deny we are justified by Faith and therefore not without doing something that is good Nay he excludes not Inherent righteousness from the Soul nor Gospel obedience from the Life only he excludes them as too defective and imperfect to make us stand before God in the judgment And herein he seems a more dutiful Son of the Church of England than our Author let the 12th Art judge Albeit Works which are the fruits of Faith and follow after Iustification cannot put away our sins and endures the severity of Gods judgment yet are they pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ and do spring out necessarily of a true and lively faith insomuch that by them a lively faith may be as evidently known as a Tree discerned by the fruit Whence it is obvious That if our good Works which are the fruits of Faith which follow Iustification cannot endure the severity of Gods judgment What shall become of those that are only the fruits of Nature and go before Iustification Again If those Works which are pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ yet cannot endure the severity of Gods Iudgment Where then shall those appear that being done before Iustification have the Nature of sin and are not pleasant to God As the 13th Art determines To whomsoever then this is comfortable Doctrine I am sure it was once so to our Author who by Subscribing these very Doctrines got a Living of very comfortable Importance and might have had the Civility with them of Ephesus to have owned By this Craft we get our Living But if our Author like not the Doctors way let him prescribe his own only let him be sure it be a better and safer way That he will The Scripture tells us expresly he is righteous that doth righteousness and without Holiness no man shall see God that the only way to obtain the pardon of our sins is to repent of them and forsake
follow the Espousals But the Reason of it is not Evident The Reason of the thing not Evident Why the thing it self is not evident Would he have an evident Reason of Nothing A Foundation for a Castle in the Air Can he find no place for Obedience and yet would he have a Reason for it But for all this Ranting his Conscience tells him that they do allow a place for it and can produce a Reason for it too and perhaps a more proper place and stronger Reason than our Author is able to show 1. Some tell us says he it 's due upon the account of Gratitude and thankfulness to our Saviour And methinks a great deal of Obedience will rest upon that Basis Has he come into this World whither none that loved his ease would come Has he taken our Nature upon him and as if that were a light Matter our sins Has he endured the Displeasure of men and as if that were little did it please God himself to put him to Grief Did he Die for sinners Does he Intercede for them Has he revealed the whole Counsel of God to them concerning their Salvation Has he given them the Holiest Laws and the best Encouragement to Obey them Did he Promise and has he sent his Holy Spirit to dwell in their Hearts Is it he through whom their Duties are accepted and shall not these Obey Here 's enough and yet there 's much more to Engage all the Love Service Obedience of Redeemed ones for ever And so the thing is at least a hairs breadth longer than 't is broad But here our Author is at a Loss he cannot so well understand this But whose fault is that Must the Truth suffer because he cannot see it The truth is he has Puzzled and Perpâ—…exed himself with an Idle scruple in his Head and Vulcan must come with the great Hammer to deliver his Brain of a Minerva though I know no Obligation lies upon me to cut the Rope as often as he will Snickle himself Yet hower let 's here the Difficulty Unless our Obedience be due to Christ in thankfulness to him for saving us without Obedience This is a Knot becoming the Sword of Alexder Christ never engaged to save us without Obedience and therefore he might have spared his pains to enquire how it should be due upon that Account We therefore owe him all our Obedience because 't is through him that such Imperfect Obedience may find acceptance with God Which is nothing more difficult than this We live to him because he Died for us and rose again Yet there is a more fomidable Objection in the reare against the grounding Obedience upon the bottom of Gratitude This is says he Hardly reconcileable with that Essential Condition of accepting Christ wherein those Spiritual espousals consists Well though it be hardly yet if it be reconcileable at all we shall not create him the Trouble of being a Conciliator There are rational Divines enough in the World for whose Heads this Province may be reserved Two things we must here find out if we can 1. What is the Essential condition of our accepting Christ. 2. How Obedience due upon the account of Gratitude comes to be so hardly reconcilable to that Essential condition 〈◊〉 What is the Essential condition of our 〈◊〉 Christ. For here lies the Intrigue and hâ—… 〈◊〉 so disguised Matters and Inck't himself like 〈◊〉 in Confusion that it will be hard to 〈◊〉 Now for that he quotes plain I. O. Com. pag. 63. viz. That the Soul consents to take Christ on his own Terms This is the Essential condition that has Created all the Pother The Souls consenting to take Christ is the Essential condition of taking But now 2. How is Obedience upon the account of Gratitude irreconcileable to its consent to take Christ on his own Terms Davus has made a diffity but where 's an Oedipus to resolve it Christs Terms are that the Soul shall give it self in Love and Obidence for ever He requires that the Soul should be wholly and entirely his and not for another and this is so far from being Irreconcileable to what he calls ridiculously the Essential condition of accepting Christ that it 's directly Included in it And this he might have been Taught from the Doctor had he not been too Proud to Learn Ibid. This accepting Christ by the will as the Souls only Husband Lord and Saviour is called receiving Christ John 1. 12. and is not intended for that Solemn Act only whereby at first entrance we close with him but also for that constant frame of abiding with him and owning him as such So that it would have been an Impossible task to part them but very easie to reconcile them Obedience is so far from being excluded by the Souls accepting Christ upon his Terms that its simply impossible to accept him upon his own Terms but we must Cordially and with an Evangelical Universality obey him all our days It 's something late I confess yet let us hear what he further quotes from the Doctor The Soul consents to take Christ on his own Terms to save save him in his own way and saith Lord I would have had Thee and Salvation in my way that it might have been partly of my Endeavours and as it were by the Works of the Law but I am now willing to receive Thee and to be saved in thy Way merely by Grace We have already seen that what he has Quoted and Summon'd in these words for was marvellously Impertinent to the pretended purpose But that which will not make á Shaft will make a Bolt Never did our Author meet that thing but he could make some use on 't As they that study the Philosophers Stone though they miss of the main Design yet stumble upon some pretty Experiments by the way that makes them flatter themselves they have not quite lost their Oyl and Labour Thus however our Author may be Frustrated in his primary Project which was Confuting the Truth yet probably he may find or make some advantage to slur the Doctor You may see him here like the great Hanibal making his way over the Alps with Fire and Vinegar If there be Matter for a Slander above Ground he will have it and if not Acheronta movebit That is says he without doing any thing without obeying thee If to receive Christ upon his own Terms as a King and abiding with him in that relation giving up it self to Christ as a King to obey him be doing nothing I cannot help it but let our Author do but thus much and he shall receive a Testimony from God that he has done all 'T is true the Doctor excludes all his own Obedience for those ends to which a proud Ignorant Iew might have abused them viz. To exclude the Free-Grace of God and the reconciliation made by Christ And this we ought to be Jealous of lest we ascribe any more Interest and concern to our own Duties
Iesus Christ who has by the Sacrifice of Himself reconciled God to Man and Man to God has received some Light and Confirmation from these Papers That our Author has opposed any thing that may stagger the Faith of Christians tolerably exercised in the Word of Righteousness I do not see but that it 's easie to erect a Castle in the Aire and when we have so done to draw a formal siege about it to batter storm rase and utterly demolish it not to leave one stone upon another this I grant he has satisfied me in to satiety For having all along laid it for the ground-work of his most accomplisht Raillery That some men found all their Religion upon the Person of Christ exclusive of the Scriptures he is now resolved to destroy that Hypothesis to give it no Quarter but even to Internecion plow up the Foundation and sow it with Salt that After-ages may sing goodly Ballads of his Atchievement Iam seges est ubi Troja fuit Thus when the Creative Power of the Imagination has given Life to a Chimâ—…ra the same Power with the same ease can stop it s breath annihilate it and calcine it to it 's primitive Nothing There are Two parts of his present Discourse First a false Supposition Secondly a most unmercifull Confutation of that Supposition 1. That which he supposes and is resolved to suppose in spight of Fate is that These men you wot of Pretend to learn their Religion from an Acquaintance with Christs Person to which he often addes and alwayes understands without Gospel Revelation A Supposition so idle absurd and palpably false that none can possibly believe it of those Persons upon whom 't is fixt but those and some such there are that have accustomed themselves to tell a Lye so often till at length they begin to be pretty well perswaded that they speak Truth Happy men that have found an Expedient so far to mitigate their Guilt that what was before a formal Lye becomes now onely a material Untruth That Iesus Christ is God and Man that he dyed for our Sins and rose again for our Iustification that he was set forth by God to be a Propitiation for sin to declare Gods Righteousness for the Pardon of it that he is our High-Priest our Advocate with the Father with whatever else comes within the compass of their Creed they do solemnly profess to have learnt from the Gospel onely and surther than as Scripture has been Liberal herein they protest in so many Letters and Syllables they know nothing less or more these things are owing purely to Revelation and they are ready when or wheresoever cited before their competent Iudges to give it under their Hands and Seals attested with all the Good men and True of the Vicinage The plain Truth is Their Principles lie in it their Writings witness to it and at other times they are reproach'd by these very same unreasonable men that they so tenaciously and pertinaciously adhere to the written Word that they make it the Rule of their Faith the Rubrick of their Worship the Directory of their Prayers the Square of their Obedience the Treasury of their Hopes and the grand Cynosure whereby they steer or desire to steer the whole Course of their Conversation to Eternal Life 2. The Confutation of this Hypothesis which is his second Travel must therefore needs be very easie And to this purpose he brings us in two pompous Reasons mounted like St. George himself on horse-back armed Cap-a-pe with his Trusty Morglay by his side his Launce ready couch d but all this while where 's the Dragon Or like a Champion of State who upon the Coronation of some Great Prince presents himself in rigid Steel throws down his Gantlet defies all Men Women and Children in defence of the Princes Title when he knows well enough before-hand that none will Take it up Now his Reasons are drawn the former from the uncertainty of such a Way and the Second which is as strong as the other from the uncertainty of such a Way Reader do not smile It was no less a Piece than the Great Demosâ—…henes who being ask'd What were the Main Qualifications of a Good Oratour answer'd The first is Pronunciation the second Pronunciation and the third forsooth was Pronunciation But stay awhile and you will see our Author come off well enough 1 His first Argument is taken from the uncertainty of such a procedure This is at best to build Religion upon uncertain Conjectures we agrâ—…e to it and whatever I could be content to be at a loose end in it should not be my Religion but yet for more sureness he lines his Argument with an under-reason and had he faced it with Bayes it would have worn like Steel Had we seen Christ in the flesh and been witnesses of the many Miracles he wrought of his Death upon the Cross and his Resurrection from the Dead had he not acquainted us with the End and Design of all this we might have ghess'd and ghess'd till we had been weary but it's odds we had never ghess'd right Nay yet further to overwhelm all Opponents with Reason upon Reason he addes Because there 's no natural and necessary connexion between the Person of Christ and what he did and suffer'd and the Salvation of Mankind for these things are available for those Ends to which God design'd them the virtue and efficacy of them depends upon God's Institution and Appointment and therefore can be known onely by Revelation So that his Conclusion is this Whoever would learn the Religion of our Saviour must learn it from his Doctrine and not from his Person To say the Truth the greatest fault I find with all this is that he betrayes the Truth he contends for and does not understand that his Clyent had better have given him a Double Fee to say Nothing than a single one to Destroy the Cause he pretends to plead I shall therefore only burden his Margin with a few asterisks and fairly dismiss him 1. Let the Reader carefully enquire who those We are that if they had seen Christ in the flesh his Miracles Death and Resurrection yet without He had acquainted them with the End and Design of all this might have ghess'd themselves weary e're they had ghess'd aright And for the clearing of that let him know that he speaks not here in his own Person but in the Person of others who have not the knack or if they had are not fortified with a Priviledge to conclude Quidlibet ex Quolibet or to demonstrate Godwin-Sands from TenterdonSteeple for as to Himself you may be pleased to understand that he can infallibly prove all this and more from as little as that comes to and less Admire his Abilities pag. 84. When We remember that Christ died as a Sacrifice and Propitiation for Sin this gives Us a great Demonstration of Gods good will to us how ready he is to pass by all our former sins in
never told us that he was bottomless and boundless And if God be not a God of bottomless and boundless Mercy it will not bear a regular proportion to enquire Whether Christs Goodness became less Infinite and boundless than it was before 3. He considers The Holiness and Innocence of Christs Life that he was a great Example of unaffected Piety towards God c. Hence does he reasonably conclude that he came to restore the Practice of Piety c. which had been banisht out of the world by the hypocritical pretences of a more Refined Sanctity in washing of Hands and Dishes in tything Mint and Cummin as he calls it Now this is to be fear'd is not very regular and exaâ—… for some would conclude as if Christ came to destroy the Ius Divinum of Tythes but we are to understand that the Venome and Villany of this Hypocrisie did not lye in Tything Egges or Pigs Chickens Ducks or Goslings Apples Pears or Plumbs much less those fatter Praedial Revenues of the Church but only in those uncanonical things Mint Annise Cummine and bate but those two or three and Tythes are Sacred out of all things from the Cedar in Lebanon to the Hyssop upon the Wall 4. Our Saviour by his Example as well as Laws taught us Another Lesson that as we lost our Happiness at first by Sin so the way to regain the Favour of God and an Immortal Life is by the practice of a Sincere and Universal Righteousness I must freely confess I would never desire any man to be more ridiculous whilest I live than our Author in these few words If he has forgot his design or lost himself in a Wood yet does he presume the Reader also has his wits gone after him a Wool-gathering He has pretended over and over that he would give us Another Scheme of Religion from acquaintance with Christs Person more beautifull for Colour more exact for Proportion than what all other men have been able to shew and all this without Gospel-Revelation And yet here contrary to all the Laws of Proportion he takes in Christs Laws from which we must learn this other Lesson but though his Laws came in by an Anomaly surely his Example is Regular and that teaches us that The way to regain Gods Favour is by the practice of a sincere and universal Righteousness Now if Christ has taught us this by his Example we must suppose that He had once lost Godâ—… Favour but happily regain'd it by this Expedient of a sincere and universal Righteousness Whether this be a Truth or no in it self is out of our Charter to examine for we are obliged onely to consider the Regularity of his Proportions and the self-consistency of his Notions 5. When We remember that Christ died as a Sacrifice and Propitiation for sin this gives Us a great demonstration of Gods good will to us how ready he is to pardon former sins in that he hath appointed an Atonement for us and given no less a Person than his own Son for our Ransome It 's very strange that none else may be allowed to gather all this from the Revelation of the Gospel and yet our Author with his Scrues of Artificial Connexions and Regular Proportions can draw it every Letter and Syllable from an Acquaintance with Christs Person But by what secret wayes he became Master of this Mystery is to me a greater mystery How the Person of Christ the Death of Christ should teach us the proper Ends and Designs of his Death unless he had Acquainted us with them I am yet to seek and so was our Author himself within these few leaves pag. 78. The Incarnation and Life and Death and Resurrection of Christ were available to those Ends for which God designed them but the Virtue and Efficacy of them doth depend upon Gods Institution and Appointment and therefore can be known onely by Revelation 6. He assures us That the Death of Christ assures him of the Desert of Sin and what it is And I aâ—… heartily glad to hear the News and wish it had been attended with Proof from Scripture which is pregnant in it and not shuffled off with that which is next dore to none Surely then there was somewhat in the Death of Christ which Answer'd the Demerit of it which was Gods Anger and Displeasure against it or it will be impossible from Christs Death to learn Sins Demerit without a Scripture-Comment upon the Text of his Crosse and Sufferings 7. Christs Death seals the irrevocable Decree of Reprobation That 's as terrible News as the other was comfortable but I fear he must be beholden to the Gospel for his Intelligence or he will never learn it from a bare acquaintance with Christs Person And now we may fairly presume there is such a Decree so irrevocable so immutable else how does the Death of Christ seal it It 's supposed ever that the Decree is made e re it be sealed but the vigour and quickness of our Authors Fancy is incredible and so at length those poor wretches whose hard Fortune it was in our Authors phrase to be left out of the Roll of Election without any fault of theirs are in the same Predicament they were in before Our Author has reserved one thing for the shutting up of this Section which being a matter of very great importance and yet so easie and accountable we may not doubt but he has handled it with much Exactness It is the True Method of a Sinners Recovery by Christ. From hence says he it 's easie to understand what is the True Method of a Sinners Recovery by Christ. And there are two parts of his Undertaking 1. The Erecting of his own regular and exact Method 2. The demolishing the confused Method of others And First For his own Method for so he is pleas'd to Nick-name it for divers good and valuable Considerations him thereunto especially moving it is no more but this When we are so affected with all the powerfull Arguments to a New Life which are contained in his Christs Incarnation and Life and Doctrine and Example and Miracles and Death and Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven and his Intercession for us as to be sensible of the Shame and Folly of Sin and to be reconciled to the Love and Practice of true Piety and Holiness Then What then O then we partake in the Merits of His Sacrifice and find the benefit of his Intercession and have A Title to all the Blessings and Promises of the Gospel This is the True Method of a Sinners Recovery But still I doe not see the Regular Proportion of it to his Design for as has been oft observed he pretends to give us a Scheme of Religion from the Person of Christ never medling with his Doctrine and yet now when he thinks it so easie to give us from thence a Method of a Sinners Recovery he is glad to be beholden to the Doctrine of Christ for he sayes When we are
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
prevent Objections It 's evident says he from the Chapter that Christ when he speaks in the First Person I and in Me cannot mean this of his own Person but of his Church Doctrine and Religion But where lies the Evidence of this great Demonstration Why Christ says I am the true Vine and ye are the Branches He that abideth in me and I in him bringeth forth much Fruit for without me you can do nothing Well what of all this Why our Author would willingly Learn what sence can be made of all this if we understand it of the Person of Christ And I will as willingly Teach him if he be not too proud to Learn I Iesus Christ the Mediator of the New Covenant am very fitly compared to a Vine and ye my Disciples are as fitly compared to the Branches of a Vine Now he that really abideth in me by a true lively faith and I in him by the Quickening Operations of my Spirit the same bringeth forth much Fruit of holy Obedience for without derivation of Grace from Me your Root you can do nothing that is truly good and acceptable to God Oh! but he has two or three formidable Objections against this Interpretation 1. It 's not very Intelligible How we can be or abide in Christs Person No more it is If we bring Capernaitical understandings along with us who Puzled their Heads with a gross Notion of Carnal eating the Flesh and drinking the Blood of Christ. If by being in Christ were understood a Local Physical or Natural being in Him it were somewhat Unintelligible but when no more is meant by it but that every true Believer is by Constitution of the Covenant of Grace one Person morally with Christ so considered and dealt with by God there 's no more insuperable Difficulty than what unbelief will create in the clearest Truths of the Gospel But 2. It 's more unintelligible still How we can be in the Person of Christ and the Person of Christ at the same time be in us Which is a new piece of Philosophy called Penetration of Dimensions But there 's no great danger in that Christ may dwell in us by his Spirit and we in him by Faith and yet Faith and the Spirit never disturb each other in their Motions but what the Dimensions of the Soul in its actings of Faith or of the Spirit in it's working of Grace are this I confess is to me unintelligible And that a Christian should be in the Church and the Church at the same time be in a Christian had been equally Unintelligible and as much danger of the Penetration of Dimensions But that our Author stumbled upon a happy Expedient that I should signifie a Doctrine and Me a Church to heal the Contradiction 3. That our Fruitfulness should depend on our Union to Christ is as hard to my understanding Truly I cannot help that I have no Medicine to cure Crazed Intellectuals He that cannot understand that Believers do receive Actual assistance from Christ by his Spirit to help them in the way of their Duty and to encourage them against the Difficulties they meet withal in their Duties cannot I presume understand very many Lines in the Gospel 3. Our last Task is to Examine what improvement he has made of this Interpretation and in short it is this That the Union of particular Christians to Christ consists in their Union to the Christian Church And now I am abundantly satisfied that our Author is a very Philomel Vox praeterea nihil One whose Volubility of Tongue and Pen supplies the place of Argument and Demonstration I hope our Author will not meet with many Readers who have so far parted with their Memories as not to remember what that was he Propounded to himself to Evince viz. That the Union of particular Christians to Christ is by means of their Union with the Christian Church And yet now when he comes to cast up his Accounts we have gotten another Conclusion That the Union of particular Christians to Christ consists in their Union to the Christian Church Surely the Purblind will espie some small difference Eating is a means to Living yet none but a Swine of Epicurus his Stye will say that Living consists in Eating The High-road is a means to bring the Traveller Home yet it will be hard to perswade us that being at Home consists in Travelling Trading is a mean to Riches yet Riches do not formally consist in Trading The end may possibly be separated from the Means but nothing can be separated from that thing wherein it consists But let that pass If he has proved either the one or the other I am content he be reputed an Artist The thing he has a good will to prove is That the Union of particular Christians to Christ is either by means of their Union to the Christian Church or else that it consists in it Now for the Proof of this He has told us That the Church is the Body of Christ The Church is the Temple of Christ The Church is the Spouse of Christ The Church is the Flock of Christ. And had it been referred to a thousand Persons not one but would have thought that that Christ who is the Head of that Body is a Person He that is the Husband of that Spouse is a Person He that is the Shepheard of the Flock is a Person and He that Dwells in that Temple is a Person But things are not so far gone but our Author shall have his Opinion and choose what he will abide by for my part I am much unconcern'd let him please himself he shall not displease me at all Say then Shall it be Christs Doctrinal or Christs Ecclesiastical that is the Head of this Body The Husband of this Spouse The Shepheard of this Flock I can rest satisfied But then the Sence runs thus A Doctrine or a Church is the Head of the Church A Doctrine or a Church is the Husband of the Church A Doctrine or a Church is the Shepheard of the Church If this does not please him let him try the other way and allow it to be a Person that is all these A Person that is the Head Husband and Shepheard of the Church And now I must plainly acquaint him That he has Entangled his Affairs in such confusion that he will never be able to Extricate them For 1. If the Person of Christ be here intended then it seems at last whatever the means be of that Union yet there is an Union to the Person of Christ and whereinsoever that Union consists yet such an Uunion there is How absurd would it be to enquire whether our Union to Christ's Person consists in our Union with a particular Church If Union to Christs Person be a Non-entity Or Whether our Union with a particular Church be the means to our Union with Christ If there be no such thing And then 2. He is as much concern'd as his poor Neighbours to salve the
the First must be justified if ever they be justified by the Second Adam v. 22. The Righteousness of God which is by Faith of Iesus Christ unto all and upon all that believe for there 's no difference for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God As all men that ever were are or shall be are sinners under Condemnation so all that ever were are or shall be righteous in the sight of God are so by that righteousness which is by Faith of Iesus So that every pardoned accepted justified sinner must own that he is justified freely by the Grace of God through the Redemption that is in Christ. From these and such-like Scriptures it is that Christians ascribe their Iustification before God not to their own good Works but to the Free Grace of God through Iesus Christ but our Author has a way of proving his Sentiments worth a thousand of these Could men says he be reconciled to plain sence it would need no other Confirmation but the Natural evidence of naked and simple Truth It has been observed of the great Bellarmine from whom our Author has borrowed some things that he never comes in with a Procui dubio but the next words are a Rapper the same I observe in our Author that when he has done just nothing he always makes the loudest cackle It was a handsom Come-of if you did but mind it that when he had pester'd us with his prejudices surfeited us with Arbitrary distinctions filled our heads with empty Notions and when we looked to have been attack'd with one of his old plain kill-cow demonstrations he faces about and pops us off with this It needs no other proof than the Natural evidence of simple and naked Truth But now let the Reader take something warm next his heart let him use his phial of Essences for our Author is just now a-coming to examine those Texts of Scripture which are abused by these men to set up the personal Righteousness of Christ as the only formal Cause of our justification And must not those Texts of Scripture be miserably abused indeed that are thus prest in for such a service What the personal Righteousness of Christ the formal Cause of our justification I have heard some say it was the Meritorious Cause some the Impulsive Cause others the Material Cause and some that it is no Cause but our Author is the first that ever I heard this expression from There was once a good Orthodox Bishop as Orthodoxy past in that Age his Name Downham he has Written many a long page upon this Subject and he acquaints us with the sence of Protestants Lib. 1. Cap. 3. Sect. 1. That the matter of our justification is Christ's Righteousness and the form is God's Imputing it and this way go most of your Systematical Divines but from hence I learn it 's the Mode now-a-days for these Gentlemen to Confute that is to Rail at those long-winded Authors they never had the patience to read nor the Brains to understand but let this pass amongst our Authors Negligences or Ignorances till I understand better where to marshal it In examining the Texts which they abuse he will begin and end with Phil. 3. 8 9. Yea doubtless and I account all things loss for the excellency of the Knowledg of Iesus Christ my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things that I may win Christ and be found in him not having my own Righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the Faith of Christ the Righteousness which is of God by Faith The main Question here will be What was that Righteousness which the Apostle renounces from having any place in his Justification before God Upon this one hinge turns all the Controversie betwixt our Author and his Antagonists They say it was what-ever inherent Righteousness he had attained or could attain what-ever Obedience he had performed or could perform to the Commands of God Ay but says our Author what proof have they for this he can learn none but that they take it for granted that My Righteousness signifies Inherent Righteousness And really they are to be pittied if not pardoned that by His own Righteousness understand his own Righteousness for if Inherent Righteousness be not His own Righteousness it 's plain he could have none at all for an External Conformity of Actions to the Law alone is not Righteousness at all but Hypocrisie and Vnrighteousness but I shall inform him of some other proofs why they take His own Righteousness for Inherent Righteousness 1. That which he calls his own Righteousness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he tells you in the next words is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which is from Law from a Law from any Law indefinitely now a Righteousness which is from a Law is such a one as the Law urges presses upon and prescribes to the Conscience but that without question is an Internal Conformity of soul to the holiness of the Law but this the Apostle rejects therefore he rejects Internal and Inherent Righteousness 2. The true Notion of My Righteousness is not to be fetcht from some sorry Conjectures from precarious Hypotheses which men when they are in streights invent to avoid present ruine but from the stable fixed constant use thereof in Scripture but so is this expression My own Righteousness and My own or your own Works used in Scripture viz. for real sineere Conformity of heart and life to a Law therefore so ought we to take it here till we see cogent Reason to the contrary That this is the fixed use of the expression in Scripture we shall see Gen. 30. 33. My Righteousness shall answer for me in time to come which our Author would paraphrase thus My Righteousness that is My Roguery Iob 27. 6. My Righteousness I hold fast my heart shall not reproach me as long as I live My Righteousness that is would he say My Hypocrisie Matth. 5. 16. That men may see your good works that is in the New Glossary Your Complement Dan. 9. 18. we present not our supplications before thee not for our Righteousnesses but for thy great Mercies The Prophet in the Name of the Church must be supposed here not to renounce real Righteousness but the Sceleton of Obedience Now had the Apostle designed only to reject his own Hypocrisie he was not so barren in expressions but he could have fitted it with its Proper Name 3. The Apostle expresly renounces both what-ever he had attained before or after his Conversion v. 7. These things that were gain to me whilst I was a Pharisee those I accounted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 loss for Christ But is that all No! Yea doubtless v. 8. and I do now account 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all things but loss I have accounted all things attained in my Iudaism loss when I was first convinced and I do now account all things even my own Righteousness loss and dung for Christ
to work in us that Internal Holiness and Purity which is the Perfection and Accomplishment of the Figurative and Typical Righteousness of the Law which he gives us in other words p. 267. What the Law could not do i. e. govern our Minds and Passions this God effected by sending Christ into the World to publish the Gospel to us and to confirm all those great Promises and Threatnings contained in it with his own Blood This is indeed a parcel of excellent Divinity but that it 's wholly destitute of truth For 1. he supposes That that Law whose weakness the Apostle assigns as the Reason of Gods sending his Son was only the Ceremonial Law the Falshood whereof I shall demonstrate if that be not too great a word for any mans Mouth besides his own by and by 2. He insinuates that the whole of Christs being a Sacrifice for our Sins lay in confirming the New-Covenant the Falshood whereof the next Section will give us direct occasion to evince 3. He makes the whole business of the Ceremonial Law to represent inward purity and perhaps to effect it whereas though some of the Ceremonies did represent inward purity yet the main of their design was to lead to Jesus Christ and particularly Sacrifices which represented that Atonement and Reconciliation which Christ in due time should make with God on the behalf of Sinners Col. 2. 17. The Law had a shadow of good things to come but the Body is of Christ. 4. He scandalously charges it upon God that he appointed a means to an end which was found too weak to reach his End As if God must try conclusions and make experiments before he could be certain whether his design would take and his appointments reach their End 5. He renders Christ's Coming into the World unnecessary for what though the Ceremonial Law could not effect that inward Purity yet I hope God had means to effect it unless he will say all the World till Christ's Coming were whited-Walls and painted-Sepulchres For what was become of the Moral Law all this while had it no power to effect that End 6. He tells us p. 269. That the Reason why the Law of Moses was abrogated was because it could not make men good But then the Moral Law was either able to make men good or it was not If it was not why was not that abrogated also If it was able and had its effect then what need of Christ to come into the World to effect that which the Moral Law was able to effect without him But the true Reason why the Ceremonial Law is expired is because the Lord Jesus Christ has answered and fulfilled all that is represented When the Sun is risen the Shadows fly away there was no formal abrogation either made or necessary to be made it expired of course when Christ had made good what-ever the Ceremonies had exhibited to their Faith 7. He tells that Christ came to work in us that inward Purity represented by the Ceremonial Law but for all his good-morrows when he is throughly catechifed Christ's working is no more than those sufficient arguments and motives to excite their own wits whereby they might work it themselves and I cannot tell whether he will deny that the Jews had sufficient motives and arguments for that end under their Law 8. He contradicts himself which is no news for whereas he had said p. 265. That the Law was designed to work in them inward purity He says p. 269. That the Law nursed them up in a ritual and external Religion and taught them to serve God in the Letter by Circumcision and Sacrifices or an external Conformity to the Letter of the Law And then I hope God could not justly blame them much less damn them for being Hypocrites if they did as well as and no better than his own Law taught them Nay he adds That the Gospel of Christ alone teaches us to worship God with the Spirit and to offer a reasonable Sacrifice to him This is strange Doctrine but it 's less matter for that if it be but true But was not God always a Spirit and did he not always teach his People to worship him with their Spirits How osten does God complain that they drew nigh him with their Lips when their Hearts were far from him which he could not well do if he taught them no better It 's a Riddle to me that these Ceremonies should represent inward purity and yet not teach it when they had no way to teach that Purity but by representing it 'T is true the Gospel teaches us to worship God in the Spirit in opposition to Ceremonies but God always taught his People to worship him with their Spirits in opposition to Hypocrisie Psal. 51. 6. Thou desirest truth in the inward parts Did God institute a Law a Law so chargeable and burdensome and all to teach his People to worship like Parrots to mumble over their Mattens and like Puppets to make an outward noise without a rational Principle to guide it If they had no reasonable Service why were they reasonable Creatures But a little more reverence of the Divine Majesty would confute a great deal of such blasphemy Let us now seriously consider the Text and 1. It will be necessary to enquire what that Law is whose weakness the Apostle assigns as the reason of God's sending his own Son And for all the Authors presumptions I am well satisfied it was not the Ceremonial Law for what if the Ceremonial had proved weak what if it had been resolved into its first nothing the Moral stood still where it always did and what need of Christ's Coming into the World upon that account There was a time when the Ceremonial Law was not created and what if it had been again repealed and annihilated things had been but in statu quo But that the Law here mentioned is the Moral Law the Connexion of the Apostle's Words his Premises out of which he draws his Conclusion will abundantly manifest In Chap. 7. v. 7 He tells us he had not known sin except the Law had said Thou shalt not covet But sin taking occasion from that Law wrought in him all manner of Concupiscence v. 8. Nevertheless he clears the Law v. 12. The Commandment was holy and just and good had an intrinsick goodness righteousness in it and this he calls v. 25. The Law of God Now the Apostle having said v. 10. That this Commandment of the Moral Law which was unto life in God's Original Institution he found to be unto death Nevertheless Chap. 8. v. 1. he assures us That there is no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Iesus and he shews how Sinners are brought from under that Condemnation v. 3. What the Law could not do in that it was weak through the Flesh God sending his own Son c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That impossible thing of the Law where the Apostle adding the Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
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
and then our Authors Argument will hold though his Cause break If God for the sake of Abrahams imperfect Obedience yet as he was the Head of the League gave so many temporal Mercie to Israel surely then God for the sake of Christ the Head of all that the Father hath given him will bestow Spiritual and Eternal Mercies for the Head and Members making but one Body the Obedience of the Head is reputed the Obedience of the Members And as the Blessings which God bestows for Christs sake are Transcendently gâ—…eater than those bestowed on Israel for Abrahams sake so is the Obedience which Christ performed upon it's own account and the Dignity of the Person infinitely beyond the imperfect Obedience of Abraham and the Union which Faith makes with Christ is a stricter Union than any Natural Civil Political Union that could possibly be between Abraham and his Posterity Thus I have endeavoured to Vindicate our Authors Argument but I am sure he had rather it should perish than be thus justified But is it not strange our Author should tell us That he knows how many Blessings God bestowed upon the Children of Israel for their Fathers sakes and yet not acquaint us with one single Blessing that God bestows on us for Christs sake For the sake of Christs Personal Obedience I wish I had so much Interest in any Friend of his that had that Interest in him to perswade him to acquaint us freely and open-heartedly what those blessings are and how procured Why just now he comes to it The Righteousness of his Life and the Sacrifice of his Death both serve to the same end to establish and confirm the Gospel-Covenant God was so well pleased with what Christ did and suffered with the obedience of his Life and Death that for his sake he entred into a Covenant of Grace with Mankind Very good what needed all this Circumlocution and Periphrase To beat about and about the Bush Had it not been more Civil to have given us our doom in plain English than to Tantalize us with sugared hopes and expectations of some great matter from Abraham Isaac and Iacob Some would say 1. That this ascribes more Influence to Abrahams Obedience than thus to Christs for God for the sake of Abraham's Active Obedience entred into a Covenant with Israel and chose them to be his peculiar People without the Death of Abraham but the Obedience of Christs Life and Death must both concur to procure this Covenant and yet it is such a one as I suppose God would not refuse upon as small an account as the sake of Abraham 2. Some will say this is not to Answer the Question but perplex it The Question at first was what influence the Righteousness of Christs Life and the Sacrifice of his Death have upon our acceptation with God He Answers They serve to establish the Covenant they confirm to us that God will pardon and save us if we believe and Obey but what if I Obey without such confirmation shall my Obedience be rejected without it be performed upon that Confirmation Ay but God entred into this Covenant of Grace for Christs sake Still I say that 's not an answer but the bandying the Question upon us again a hundred times over Why should his Life and Death have such an influence upon God to make that Covenant Why should they Operate that way What connexion is there between Christs active and passive Obedience and such a Covenant But sure we forget our selves for we are enquiring into the influence of Christs Active Obedience And 1. For Confirming a Covenant let any rational Man satisfie me how The Obedience of a Person perfectly holy pure spotless sinless being accepted of God should prove this promise That therefore God will accept them whos 's best Obedience is imperfect and defective This is so far from confirming it that God will accept me who am a Sinner that it leads to utter dispair of acceptance with him seeing I came so infinitely short of my pattern What hope can a sinner have of acceptance from a consideration that God has accepted Christ who was no sinner If Faith was ready to believe that God would accept him that believes and obeys yet had it seen Christs Faith and Obedience and his acceptance thereon it might have stagger'd him that ever such pitiful things as his Faith and Obedience should find favour with God And if Faith was so strong as to overcome that difficulty as to believe the Promise notwithstanding this staggering Example yet it 's far enough from Truth that a sinner should believe the promise ever the more that his imperfect Service should be accepted and rewarded because Christs entire obedience was so Nay without question it had been a greater confirmation of that promise to have had assurance that God had pardoned some hainous Offender some flagitious wretch who deserved Condemnation than to behold him accepting a Person not obnoxious to Condemnation So says the Apostle 1 Tim. 1. 16. Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy that in me first Iesus Christ might shew forth all long-suffering for a pattern to them who hereafter should believe on him to Life everlasting The Pardon of a Blasphemer one injurious a Persecutor is a stronger confirmation that God will pardon a sinner than the acceptance of Him that had done no wrong neither was guile found in his mouth 2. But now for Gods making such a promise for Christs sake or entring into a Covenant to pardon accept for Christs sake this answers not the Question in the least for 1. It onely asserts that God has declared openly that he will do it Now a Declaration of Pardon is not a Pardon a promise of acceptance is not acceptance and therefore a Reason of or Motive to such a Promise such a Declaration is not a Reason of or Motive to Pardon and acceptance Christs Obedience was so well pleasing to God that for his sake he made such a Promise Well but if my Obedience be little Christs Obedience will not make it accepted as if it were great if imperfect it will not render it accepted as if it were perfect 2. That God has made such a promise for Christs sake answers not the Question for it s but turning the Question into an Assertion As if we should enquire what Reason is there that God should accept me for Christs obedience And he should Answer there is a Reason why God should accept me for it but never shew the Reason Or thus What Cause is Christs Obedience of the Acceptance of our Obedience And he should say it is a Cause but not shew the Cause But then further The Obedience and Righteousness of Christs Life was one thing which made his Sacrifice so Meritorious I confess I question the Truth of the Proposition had Christ Sacrificed himself as soon as he came into the World his Sacrifice had been as Meritorious being the Sacrifice of him that as Priest was God and
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 obedience in it's common Nature without determining it's signification either to active or passive obedience but do they argue from the Nature and purport of the Word that because Christs obedience is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore it must needs be active obedience No such matter but they argue from another hard word Yeleped Antithesis from the opposition that is there made between Adams disobedience and Christs obedience Thus the Dr. argued if our Author durst have read him Com. p. 185. It 's opposed to the disobedience of Adam which was Active The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is opposed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Righteousness to the Fault The Fault was an active transgression of the Law and the obedience opposed to it must be an active accomplishment of it If the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Adam was active then the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Christ must be active But our Author will have the other bout with him Christs offering himself in Sacrifice is called doing the will of God Heb. 10. 9 10. And whether this be properly said or not I will leave the Dr. to dispute it with the Apostle But I do not perceive the Doctor has any contraversie with though he has maintained many for the Apostle They are very well agreed for ought I perceive nor shall they Quarrel if I can help it The Doctor will not contend that Christs assuming a body in order to the offering a Sacrifice to God was not doing his will no he pleads for it to the cost of somebody But this is that which he disputes that in Rom. 5. 18 19. The Opposition between Adams Disobedience and Christs Obedience will prove them both of the same kind It 's acknowledged that Christ did actively obey in suffering his sufferings were Activo passiva But yet the Obedience mentioned in the place before us was an Active Obedience because Adams Disobedience was so One blow more and then our Author will yield us the Cause There is no express mention says he made in this Chapter of any other Act of Obedience whereby we are reconciled to God but onely his dying for us which makes it more than probable that by his Righteousness and Obedience the Apostle understands his Death and Sufferings I assure you I like it well when Men argue from the Context provided they do not destroy the Text and had our Author Religiously observed this Rule he had not turned his Readers stomacks so often with nauseous Interpretations but yet I have a few things to offer to him 1. That though there be no other act of Obedience mentioned whereby we are reconciled yet there may be another act of Obedience mentioned whereby we may be compleatly justified 2. Though there be no other act of Obedience mentioned in the fore-going verses yet there may be one in this No Laws of Cohaerence or Contexture ever obliged an Author that he might not pass to new matter and so has the Apostle done in this place and Case as the Opposition most undeniably proves 3. All that he says makes it but more than probable Now had there been any colour for Truth of his Conceit his confidence does not use to dwindle away into probabilities but he had fetcht the Great Commander and knock'd us all dead with irrefragable Demonstration for do you understand the Mystery of this more than probable when you hear him confess that Matters seem to be against him and but probably or a little more than probably for him You need not lay your Ear to listen in what quarter the wind â—…its But then 4. Nay hold Our Author yields Good Nature begins to work But yet says he these Expressions his Righteousness and Obedience seem to take in the whole compass of his Obedience in doing and Suffering the will of God All is well then and Dr. Owen is a very honest Man again And we will not vex our selves how to reconcile more than probable Con with seeming Pro. I have made some attempts formerly and once more whilst our Author is in the tractable vein I le try whether the Doctor and he may not be made good Friends for since our Author is coming towards a willingness to take in Active Obedience it 's but attempting however to prevail with the Doctor not to exclude the Passive Well look once more Com. p. 185. That the Passive Obedience of Christ is here Onely intended is false so that all that the Doctor contends for is that the Passive Obedience is not solely intended to the exclusion of the Active We are all agreed then in the meaning of the simple Terms and it 's well if we do not fall out again about the Propositions that result from them Let us now hear his Comment upon the words The meaning of the words says he is this That as God was so highly displeased with Adams sin that he entail'd a great many evils and miseries and death it self upon his Posterity for his sake So God was so well pleased with the Righteousness and Obedience of Christs Life and Death that he bestows the Rewards of Righteousness on those who according to the strictness and rigour of the Law are not Righteous that for Christs sake he he hath made a New Covenant of Grace which pardons our past sins and follies and rewards a sincere though imperfect Obedience There are two Questions which he here undertakes to Answer First What Influence Adams sin hath upon his Posterity and Secondly it is to be hoped that from thence we may at last know What Influence Christs Righteousness and Obedience have upon our acceptance with God 1 Quest. What Influence hath Adams sin upon his Posterity To this he returns God was so highly displeased with Adams sin that he entailed a great many evils and miseries and death it self upon his Posterity for his sake Now all this is true very true but whether it be the whole Truth that which will satisfie the design of the Text I shall examine by and by At present I shall onely make some short Notes upon it 1. God says he was so highly displeased with Adams sin that for his sake he entailed a great many evils Now had it not been fair to have shewn the Iustice as well as the Highness of Gods Displeasure in such a proceeding with his Posterity That God was justly as well as highly displeased with Adams Sin never created a Doubt to any man but that he should be so highly displeased with the Sin of one single Man to entail Evils upon Millions upon all his Posterity this would invite us to examine the Righteousness of the Entail The Posterity of Adam knew nothing of Adams Sin were not conscious nor consenting to it and yet God involves them in the Consequences of Adams Sin 2. God says he entail'd those Evils upon his Posterity for Adams sake Now here 's the old Blind again For to say that God did it for
new Obedience Deut. 30. 6. The Lord thy God will Circumcise thy Heart to love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart and with all thy Soul 3. Sect. That which presupposes other Covenant-mercies antecedent to it cannot be the condition of the first Covenant-Blessing and therefore not the condition of a Covenant-state but our own righteousness presupposes other Covenant-blessings antecedent to it Ezek. 36. 26. I will take away the Heart of stone out of your Flesh and give you an Heart of Flesh the Natural Heart must be Circumcised the hard heart removed a soft heart bestowed before we can perform new Obedience out of which our own righteousness results When therefore our Author says That Christs righteousness and our own are both necessary to Salvation He says true and which is necessary to all Truth that which overthrows his main design For if Christs righteousness be necessary to our Salvation not onely to the promise of it then no Salvation can be had without that righteousness but if it be onely necessary to a promise of that Salvation then it is not necessary to Salvation for Salvation according to his Principles has been obtained without a promise of Salvation otherwise the Patriarchs before Christ could not be eternally saved whom he supposes to have had no such promise and so it may still for Obedience performed will save though it want that great promise for it's encouragement And whereas he says That Christs Righteousness is the Foundation but not the Condition of the Covenant what policy there may be in using the Metaphor of a Foundation I cannot tell but this I know A Foundation is a necessary Condition to the superstructure raised upon it I have now attended him through all the Labyrinths of this tedious Discourse whence the Reader will learn at least how impossible it is for Error to be Consonant to it self As the two Milstones grind one another as well as the grain and as the extreme Vices oppose each other as well as the intermediate vertue that lies between them So have all Errors this fate and 't is the best quality they are guilty of that they Duel one another with the same heat that they oppose the Truth The Remainder of his Book is so full of falshoods in matter of fact reproaches of the Truth and immerited bitterness against the Living and the Dead that I could not perswade my self to give the Reader any further trouble with them at present but a small invitation will draw out the second Part In the mean time I do solemnly protest that as I have no Personal Quarrel with this Gentleman so I have not willingly wronged his Discourse in the smallest instance The worst I wish him is that he may seasonably repent of his injurious dealing with the Scriptures and his unworthy treatment of those Persons who have deserved well of Religion and the Common-wealth of Learning and not ill of himself I cannot deny but that his provoking way of writing his unjust censures of the Innocent and above all his Drolling faculty exercised upon sacred things have sometimes tempted me to a return not so agreeable to my Natural inclinations I hope the Reader will consider not onely how but what I have written nor onely what but upon what provocations it has been written Let Cause be compared with Cause the moments of Reasons with Reasons let the little Vagaries and impertinces be brusht off and then let the indifferent and impartial Reader moderate between us And if he shall meet with any Truth of the Gospel cleared or vindicated let him give God the more praise who by such improbable means as Clay and Spittle can open his Eyes to the acknowledgment of the Truth and secure him against the Impostures and Apostacy of these latter times and what ever of Vanity and Folly he meets with in these Papers let him be assured that's my own and that it may not prejudice the concerns of Christ let him freely trample it under his Feet FINIS A Catalogue of some Books printed and sold by Nath. Ponder at the Peacock in Chancery Lane near Fleetstreet First EXercitations on the Epistle to the Hebrews also concerning the Messiah Wherein the Promises concerning Him to be a Spiritual Redeemer of Mankind are explained and vindicated c. With an Exposition of and Discourses on the two first Chapters of the said Epistle to the Hebrews By Iohn Owen D. D. in Folio 2. Exercitations on the Epistle to the Hebrews concerning the Priesthood of Christ wherein the original Causes Nature Prefigurations and Discharge of that holy Office are explained and vindicated The Nature of the Covenant of the Redeemer with the Call of the Lord Christ unto his Office are declared And the Opinions of the Socinians about it are fully examined and their Oppositions unto it refuted With a Continuation of the Exposition on the third fourth and fifth Chapters of the said Epistle to the Hebrews being the second Volumn By Iohn Owen D. D. in Folio 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Or A Discourse concerning the Holy Spirit Wherein an Account is given of his Name Nature Personality Dispensation Operations and Effects His whole Work in the Old and New Creation is explained the Doctrine concerning it vindicated from Oppositions and Reproaches The Nature also and Necessity of Gospel-Holiness the difference between Grace and Morality or a Spiritual Life unto God in Evangelical Obedience and a course of Moral Vertues are stated and declared By Iohn Owen D. D. in Folio 4. A Practical Exposition on the 130 Psalm wherein the Nature of the Forgiveness of Sin is declared the Truth and Reality of it asserted and the Case of a Soul distressed with the Guilt of Sin and relieved by a Discovery of Forgiveness with God is at large discoursed By Io. Owen D. D. in Quarto 5. Londons Lamentations or a sober serious Discourse concerning the late Fiery Dispensation By Mr. Thomas Brooks late Preacher of the Word at St. Margarets NewFisâ—…street London in Quarto 6. Liberty of Conscience upon its true and proper grounds asserted and vindicated c. To which is added the Second Part viz. Liberty of Conscience the Magistrates Interest By a Protestant a Lover of Truth and the Peace and Prosperity of the Nation in Quarto The second Edition Large Octavo's 7. A Discourse of the Nature Power Deceit and Prevalency of the Remainders of Indwelling-Sin in Believers Together with the ways of its working and means of prevention By Iohn Owen D. D. in Octavo 8. Truth and Innocency vindicated in a Survey of a Discourse concerning Ecclesiastical Polity and the Authority of the Civil Magistrate over the Consciences of Subjects in matters of Religion By Iohn Owen D. D. in Octavo 9. Exercitations concerning the Name Original Nature Use and Continuance of a Sacred Day of Rest wherein the Original of the Sabbath from the foundation of the World the Morality of the fourth Commandment with the change of the Sabbath-Day are enquired into Together with an Assertion of the Divine Institution of the Lord's Day By Iohn Owen D. D. in Octavo The second Impression 10. Evangelical Love Church-Peace and Unity By. Io. Owen D. D. 11. The Unreasonableness of Atheism made manifest in a Discourse to a Person of Honour By Sir Charles Wolselay Baronet Third Impression 12. The Reasonableness of Scripture-Belief A Discourse giving some Account of those Rational Grounds upon which the Bible is received as the Word of God Written by Sir Charles Wolseley Baronet 13. The Rehearsal transpres'd or Animadversions upon a late Book intituled A Preface shewing what Grounds there are of fears and jealousies of Popery The first Part. By Andrew Marvel Esq. 14. The Rehearsal transpros'd the second Part. Occasioned by two Letters the first printed by a nameless Author intituled A Reproof c. the second A Letter left at a friends house dated Nov. 3. 1673. subscribed I. G. and concluding with these words If thou darest to print or publish any Lye or Libel against Dr. Parker by the Eternal God I will cut thy throat Answered by Andrew Marvel 15. Theopolis or the City of God New Ierusalem in opposition to the City of the Nations Great Babylon By Henry D'anvers in Octavo 16. A Guide for the Practical Gauger with a Compendium of Decimal Arithmetick Shewing briefly the whole Art of Gauging of Brewers Tuns Coppers Backs c. also the Mash or Oyl-Cask and Sybrant Hantz his Table of Area's of Segments of a Circle the Mensuration of all manner of Superficies By William Hunt Student in the Mathematicks in Octavo 17. Anti-Sozzo sive Sherlocismus Enervatus In Vindication of some Great Truths Opposed and Opposition to some Great Errors Maintained by Mr. William Sherlock 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hoc est Domus Mosaicae Clavis sive Legis Sepimentum Authore Iosepho Cooper Anglo in Octavo A Vindication of some Passages in a Discourse concerning Communion with God from the Exceptions of William Sherlock Rector of St. George Buttolph-Lane By Iohn Owen D. D. in Octavo A brief Declaration and Vindication of the Doctrine of the Trinity By Iohn Owen D. D. in 12.