that very Question which they alone have made a Question viz. Whether Jesus Christ died for the Sins of Men I say they would alter it into another Question neither fit to be disputed nor possible to be determined by short-sighted Men viz. What God can do and what God cannot do Whereas it is sufficient for us to take Things as we find them and if we find that Things in the present Case are so ordered by God and that he tells us that they are so as that sinful Man shall not obtain Redemption but only by the Merits and Death of Jesus Christ their Saviour I say if God tells us and that too by repeated Declarations that Things in the present Case are so ordered we ought to acquiesce in such his Declarations and not employ our Vanity or Curiosity for it can in no sober Sense be call'd our Reason in enquiring Whether much less in determining that they might or might not have been better ordered But of this more hereafter At present therefore and in the first place we shall take the Matter of Fact to be just as the Scriptures have in most plain and express Words told us it is That Jesus Christ died for our Sins that he died to save Sinners c. And then by comparing this Matter of Fact with other the Methods of the Divine Proceedings in the like Cases see if it will not afford us a very plausible Argument of the Truth laid down That there is not Salvation in any other Now if we carry our Observation through any other the Transactions of the Divine Love and Mercy that do design to entitle Men to the same Salvation we shall find that God does never make use of extraordinary Means where the ordinary are sufficient And therefore when the Lord himself appeared to Saul in his Journey to Damascus we find that the Design and Effect of that Vision was to refer him to Ananias for Instructions in his Duty And so when the Angel appeared to Cornelius the Business of his Message was only to direct him to Peter that so Peter might by the ordinary Means of Grace direct him into the Way of Salvation And when Men have Moses and the Prophets it will therefore concern them in Duty and Interest to hear them because in such Case God will not convince them by raising one from the Dead In short as it is not the Method of the Divine Proceedings so neither is it of Wisdom it self to let the Measure of the Means exceed in their Proportion to the designed End And in any Case whatsoever where less Cost or Labour is sufficient there common Prudence will by no means allow and much less approve our Drudgery or Profuseness Now to bring what we have said to our present purpose Since our Saviour for the Establishment of the Gospel-Covenant did actually take upon him Our Flesh and in that Flesh suffer it will afford us no slight Argument that That Covenant could not have been established upon more easie Conditions because our common Reason does assure us that all Excess of Performance in the Case would have been Superfluity And our Religion and Modesty does forbid us to fasten any such Imputation upon the Divine Counsels and Actions And here we may well put Abraham's Question Shall not the Judge of all the Earth do right And when by the purpose of his Mercy he determined to rescue faln Man from Sin and Misery shall he reject the Son of his Bosom and expose him to all sorts of Misery in this World and to Violence and Barbarity in his Departure out of it when the Ransom might have been made at a cheaper Rate Certainly the Love of God is not so narrow and stinted but that he both could and would have extended it to his lost Creatures and yet at the same time not have removed it from his only and beloved Son if Justice and Wisdom had allowed him so to do But then because he himself tells us that he did otherwise and because we know that what he tells us must be true as well as that what he does is just and holy therefore the Conclusion that fairly offers it self is That nothing less than the Incarnation and Death of the Son of God could in Wisdom and Justice have brought about the designed Redemption To which we shall in short add That it is one of the certain Characters of the True God that he brings his Purposes to pass by the best wisest and most proper Means And now having thus opened our Way to our main Design by these few Reflexions on the Matter of Fact as it is laid down most expresly in the Scriptures We shall in what follows go on to consider the Merits of the Cause and that we shall do by examining Whether or no Mankind had not brought themselves into so forlorn a Condition by their Sin that there does not appear in Justice any probable or indeed any possible Way for their Salvation but only by the Incarnation and Death of the Son of God And that there did not will I presume appear when we have considered and confirmed the following Propositions whereof the First is That Misery and Death or in one word that Vengeance is as the Just so also the Necessary Wages of Sin And here before we begin to prevent as much as possible all Objections that may be started against what we shall deliver we must desire the Reader to take notice that we do at present only make it our Business to measure the Equity of the Punishment of Sin by the exact and rigorous Laws of Justice That is we do as we must if we will do right conceive Things in that State in which they had stood had the Son of God never been designed for the Saviour of the World For because our Business at present is to enquire what would have become of sinful Man if the Son of God had not interposed for his Rescue therefore we stand obliged at present to take other Measures in accounting for the Proceedings of the Divine Justice than what our Experience acquaints us with in this World For while we live here we come within the Compass and so enjoy the Benefit of that Relaxation of the Law which was the Purchase of our Saviour's Merits and therefore we cannot truly pass a Judgment upon the exact Proceedings of the Divine Justice from the Contemplations of those Proceedings of Justice which we see in this World and which upon that account come within the compass of that Relaxation To know therefore whether the Incarnation Life and Death of our Saviour were necessary for Man's Redemption we must enquire what had become of sinful Man if the Son of God had not become his Saviour And if upon that Enquiry it shall appear that Vengeance without any Remedy had been his Portion then it will also appear at least a probable Conclusion for we shall adventure no farther because we are utter Strangers to the
may deny the Doctrine delivered are the Vicious and Profane For they who professedly renounce Christianity in their Practice are easily brought over to renounce it in their Belief Because it is hard to conceive that they will allow Salvation to be his Purchase and at his Disposal who has avowedly declared that such as themselves shall not be made Partakers of it And therefore where profligate Wickedness and Debauchery does abound it is the less to be wondred tho' it be the more to be lamented that Infidelity does so too Irreligious Practices do naturally produce Irreligious Opinions And a plausible Cavil against any material Truth in Religion is by too many thought a sufficient Vindication of a profligate Life Now it is notorious at first View that such Men as these do therefore refuse to believe the Truths of Revealed because they have first broke through the Obligations of Natural Religion and that having forsaken their God they do therefore reject his Christ Whether they have not been assisted and encouraged so to do by the Zeal and Abilities of those whom we have treated as the Sober and the Serious it concerns them to consider as it does also Whether their Attempts to depreciate Revealed Religion has not proved a great Occasion of those Immoralities which have over-run the Nation and which equally contradict both Revealed and Natural Religion too For it will be found true that as Immorality does incline Men to contemn God's Revelations so a Contempt of such Revelations does and that too in its own Nature lead Men into Immorality For both are indeed a Contempt of God's Word And I must leave it a Doubt which of the Two mocks God most whether he who pretends to believe a God but yet will not obey his Word or he who pretends to believe Revelation but yet will not allow such Revelation to acquaint him with any Thing but what his Reason can comprehend The first puts a Slight upon his Authority the last upon his Omniscience but both upon his Honour And then we may be sure that both are pernicious to the Welfare of Mens Souls And indeed for these Reasons chiefly I have engaged my self in the present Argument For it is a very melancholy Contemplation to consider how many Men in the present Age who yet call themselves Christians do professedly renounce that very Faith into which they were baptized and that too by their Saviour's express Institution exhibited to us in Revelation And he must shut his Eyes who does not take notice that the Manners of the Age are no better than its Faith And in such a Case I cannot but think it Treachery in a Minister of Jesus Christ not to interpose in one wayâ—or other For not to do it at all is in effect to betray his Master to betray his Trust and to betray the Souls of Men. The other sort of Readers whom I would bespeak and that only in a Word or two are Those who tho' they agree with me in the main and principal Conclusions may yet perhaps differ from me in some subordinate Propositions which I lay down in my Way to such Conclusions Now to such Readers I have this small Request That they would not think because I hold the same Articles of Faith with them that therefore I stand bound to take them by the same Philosophical Handle I believe the Scripture because I take it to be the Word of God I believe an Article of Faith because it is in the Scripture But when I come to accommodate such Article to Right Reason I do no more think my self tied up to other Mens Measures than I think that they are to be tied up to mine We may go different Ways and yet meet in the same Truth And which is more perhaps the Divine Wisdom may make use of such our Differences to take in more Souls whose Conceptions of Things do so differ as ours do And tho' I can say nothing for my Skill yet I can say thus much for my Sincerity that I have in all Cases whatsoever followed That which at present I take to be Truth One Thing more I have to add and that is That it has been objected and may be again That my Zeal in the Cause appears too late and that it would have been more seasonable had it shewed it self when Things of this Nature and at least relating to this Subject were lately and hotly debated from the Press And That the Business I undertake has already been and that several Times discussed by Learned Men and Great Names But all this and more must not weigh with one who is persuaded that notwithstanding all past Endeavours Infidelity and Immorality do still go on and gain Ground and that we ought in Honesty still to apply Remedies as we find the Contagion spread and that according to the various Constitutions of the Patients a less promising sort of Physick may sometimes work a Cure where a more likely and that too from a more celebrated Hand has fallen short Something more might be said and that Something true But I think what is said in short enough in the Case To conclude then I would desire every Reader to lay aside all Prejudice by whatsoever Means contracted Whether from an Opinion of other Mens great Worth or a Conceit of their own Whether from a Security that they are already in the Right or a Shame to retreat tho' they find themselves in the Wrong Whether from Vice or Carelesness or from any other Cause whatsoever And I do solemnly profess that what I desire them to do in the Reading that I have all along endeavoured to do in the Writing of the following Discourse For I have as far as my slender Talent goes had my Eye all along directed to Truth to the Honour of my Great Lord and Master and to the Good of Souls And may his Grace which is alone able to do it make it effectual for those Great and Holy Purposes That so Men may be persuaded not to be so foolishly wicked as to entertain cheap Thoughts of and much less to revile and blaspheme Him in whose Hand is lodged all Power in Heaven and Earth who shall be their Judge and who alone must be their Saviour And it is this Last Proposition which the following Discourse attempts to make good THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. THE Scriptures do most expresly assert That Mankind are redeemed by the Blood of Jesus Christ It is not agreeable to the Divine Wisdom or to the Method of his Proceedings in the like Cases to employ greater Means to bring his Purposes to pass where less may be sufficient Punishment is the necessary Wages of Sin An Objection to this Position answered Page 13 CHAP. II. The Gospel holds forth no such thing as an Absolute or Unconditional Pardon no nor yet an Arbitrary Pardon Page 32 CHAP. III. A Gospel-Salvation contains in it 1. Pardon of Sin 2. The Gift of Eternal Happiness To these Two other
Things required 1. An Expiation of Sin 2. A Restitution to Holiness Negatively the several Ways how such Expiation cannot be made from whence an Inference of the Doctrine asserted with some Practical Inferences Page 36 CHAP. IV. That Person to whom the Expiation of Sin is by the Scriptures ascribed is by the same Scriptures set forth to us 1. As God 2. As Man 3. As God and Man united in one Person or God Incarnate No Man a competent Judge of all possible Unions The Incarnation agreeable to the Sentiments of Mankind and variously foretold prefigured and suggested in the Scriptures Some Practical Inferences somewhat enlarged Pag. 57 CHAP. V. The Son of God by his Incarnation accommodated his Condition for the making good the Expiation of Man's Sin Pag. 96 CHAP. VI. The Divinity of the Son of God necessary for the Expiation of Man's Sin as well as his Humanity Some Doctrinal Inferences A general Proof That as our Saviour did actually die so that he might justly die for the Expiation of Sin Pag. 113 CHAP. VII Answers to Three Objections 1. The Punishment was in Justice only due to us not to him This Objection retorted upon the Socinians 2. That his Death was but a Temporal Punishment but the Expiation pretended to be made was of an Eternal Punishment 3. The Absurdity that God should suffer for the Satisfaction of his own Justice Pag. 134 CHAP. VIII Bare Pardon of Sin not sufficient for a Gospel-Salvation Some Reasons offered for it They who are entitled to the Reward of the Law must be entitled to the Obedience paid to the Law Such Obedience must be perfect Some Practical Reflections Pag. 160 CHAP. IX Whos 's that Perfect Obedience is in Consideration of which Eternal Happiness is given to Man That it is our Saviour's Some Objections answered and the Doctrine of the Imputation asserted 1. Against those who acknowledge the Expiation 2. Against those who deny it This Doctrine agreeable to the Scriptures Pag. 179 CHAP. X. Some Objections answered and some Practical Inferences made Pag. 216 CHAP. XI The First and General Proposition asserted from all that has been said That the whole Doctrine of a Gospel-Salvation as laid down in the Scriptures is agreeable to the allowed Practices of Mankind in their Legal or Judicial Proceedings and is worded in the Scriptures accordingly Pag. 233 CHAP. XII That besides the Saviour's Righteousness imputed God will after their Resurrection endow Believers with a perfect inherent and eternal Holiness How the Saviour did fit and prepare Men for such an Holiness Pag. 254 CHAP. XIII By what Means Men shall be put into the Actual Possession of Eternal Life Pag. 277 CHAP. XIV Wherein the Happiness of Eternal Life does consist Several Reflections and Considerations on what has been said tending to promote an Holy Life Pag. 297 ERRATA Page Line For Read 50 2 their Sons them Son 118 10 naturally actually SALVATION BY JESUS CHRIST ALONE The INTRODUCTION I. SAlvation implies in the very Notion of it either the Prevention of some Mischief to which we are obnoxious or a Deliverance from some Mischief which we actually suffer Now because it is our professed Design and Business at present to discourse of the Salvation of Mankind by our Saviour therefore in order to our so doing it will be proper first to consider what Mischief it is from which they are saved For the true Knowledge of the Occasion and Nature of the Mischief will very much assist us in our Enquiries into the Nature and Justice of such Salvation We must know therefore That when God who made Man and all Things beside had placed Man in this lower World as he did provide for his Well-being by his Bounty so he did provide for his greater Happiness by his Law For by the first he only put all Creatures here in subjection to Man but by the last he acquainted Man with his own Subjection to Himself For it is an undoubted Truth That it is a greater Happiness to be a true Subject to God than it is to be Tenant of the whole Earth and a deputed Lord over all the Creatures in it Now in order to some few Remarks which we shall make upon God's first Law given to Man and which will open a Way to our main Design it will be convenient that we lay down the Law as it was given forth Thus therefore it stands Of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil thou shalt not eat of it For in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die or as it is in the Original dying thou shalt die The Reduplication in that Language being equivalent to an Asseveration in ours It has been a Doubt among Learned Men whether this first Law be a Moral or only a Positive Law Now for the Resolution of such Doubt it may not be improper to consider apart First What is expresly contained in the Law and Secondly What is implied under such Expression And first If we only consider the express Words of the Law which forbid the eating of the Fruit of the Tree specified the Law in such Case is therefore Positive not Moral because before the Prohibition there was no more Immorality in eating of that Tree than of any other But then secondly If we farther consider that tho' the Law as to the particular Thing prohibited was purely Arbitrary and therefore so far forth only Positive yet that the Prohibition did imply in it a Moral Duty grounded upon very equitable Considerations we may conclude that under this express and Positive Law there is implied and couched a Moral Law For First God gave Man not only his Being but also all Things for the necessary and convenient Support of such Being and from thence we may by our Natural Reason inform our selves that his so doing was a very equitable Consideration why Man should be bound up in Gratitude and that is as much as being bound up in Morality to acknowledge the Kindness and Bounty of his Great Benefactor Secondly Man being bound in Gratitude to acknowledge the Kindness and Bounty we may truly add that he was farther bound to acknowledge such Kindness and Bounty in such Way as such his Benefactor should appoint Thirdly God having made the Earth and all Things in it he might grant as many or as few of the Things so made to Man as he himself pleased And therefore might except any one or more of them out of such Grant Fourthly God having an undoubted Power of Reserving to himself what he pleased out of those Things which he had made he might in Justice and Equity require that Man should give one Testimony of his Gratitude by abstaining from what he should please so to reserve Fifthly God by singling out the Forbidden Tree from all the rest and by so doing reserving it to himself had made that a standing Mark and Signal of his own rightful and supreme Dominion over the Whole as also for the same
as Means of Preventing Grace Whereas otherwise the Prevention of Sin by a Death without a Reprieve that is a Death without a Saviour and so without a Resurrection had been no Means of Grace at all but only pure and mere Punishment 4. Lastly From what has been said I take notice that our Saviour by his Expiation of Sin did not purchase for us an Absolute Freedom from Death so that by vertue of such his Expiation we should not die at all but only a Release from Death so that after our Death we should be raised to Life again This I spake to before and the thing is as certain as it is certain that all Men do die and therefore I shall speak no farther to it at present Only one Quaere I would make upon it and that is this Whether because the Law required Death as the Punishment of Sin and because our Saviour for the Purchase of our Redemption and for the fulfilling of the Law was necessitated in his own Person to undergo Death I say Whether upon this Account God by a Mixture of Mercy and Severity might allow his Expiation to extend no farther than only to release us from Death after we had suffered it but not to prevent us from suffering it at all But as I said before I leave this as a Quaere because the Scripture speaks nothing to it and so the Resolution of it lies in the dark Only I thought it not amiss to mention it because it may help to instruct us in the very great Malignity of Sin As most undoubtedly that must be very pernicious to God's Creatures which is downright Enmity to him who made them and which is not wholly expiated by our Saviour himself However the Wisdom and Harmony of God's Truth Justice and Mercy do seem to me from what has been said to shine forth very conspicuously in his Counsel for the Redemption of Mankind For tho' God executes that Death upon Man fatally which upon his Transgression of the Law he threatned peremptorily and so notwithstanding the Death of our Saviour makes good the Truth of his Threat by the Execution of the Penalty Yet for all that he does not so execute such Penalty but that he first allows Man a Reprieve for a time to make himself a fit Subject for his Saviour's Purchase and secondly he grants him a Release from Death by a Resurrection to capacitate him to be put into the actual Possession of such Purchase Again tho' the Life of Man continued in Consideration of his Saviour's Merits be ever and anon overcast with Afflictions and tho' such Afflictions are a Punishment for his Sins and so a Proof of God's Justice Yet still those very Afflictions are in Consideration of his Saviour turned into Means of Grace and so are a merciful Discipline to secure him from those Mischiefs which otherwise might retard or defeat his Pursuit after the purchased Pardon and Inheritance These Remarks being left by the way we proceed to the next thing proposed and that is Whether our Saviour as he did in Fact so also might in Justice and Right die for the Sins of Mankind For because the Scriptures do lay down the Matter of Fact not only in express Terms but also in great variety of Expressions and because those who deny the Doctrine of the Expiation do in this Case as they do in most others oppose Reason to Revelation Therefore as by what has been said already we have made it out that our Saviour did die for our Sins so in what is to follow we shall endeavour to make it out also that he might so die For if the Matter of Fact be found to be the Declaration of God we may be sure that it will have the Approbation of Justice For Justice and Truth can never clash nor interfere But however before we begin I cannot but take notice in the 1. First place That the Redemption of Mankind by our Saviour is one of those Things of God which no Man knoweth but the Spirit of God and that upon that Account it is not so proper a Subject for the Deliberations of Humane that is of short-sighted Reason And my Warrant for so judging I therefore take to be good because it was a Thing as the Scriptures themselves tell us that was hid from Principalities and Powers from Ages and Generations till it was made known by God to his Church that is to those who were chiefly and as to their own Persons only concerned in it And therefore we are very sure that no Man by the Sagacity of his own Reason could ever have made any Discoveries of it 2. I cannot but be satisfied in the second place that any Man of an ordinary or of an extraordinary Understanding who is willing in honesty and sincerity of Heart to receive the Scriptures as the Revelations of God I say I cannot but persuade my self that such a Man and that too by the bare Conduct of his Common Sense would readily acknowledge and accept it for a Truth in those Scriptures revealed that our Saviour suffered and died to expiate the Sins of Mankind For the Texts that assert it are so often repeated and when compared do so mutually not only confirm each others Truth but also explain each others Meaning and the Management of the whole Thing is so exactly accounted for and that through all the Stages and Periods of it till our Saviour comes to offer his Sacrifice to God in the Heavens the Place of his more peculiar Residence and Abode as the High-Priest did typically in the like Case do in the Holy of Holies the more peculiar Discovery of God's Residence among the Jews under the Law I say all these Things are so categorically asserted and explained and so critically accounted for in the Revelations of God that I cannot as yet persuade my self that Common Sense and Common Sincerity will not oblige those to receive and believe them who are willing to receive those Books in which they are so laid down for the Word of God 3. Neither can I persuade my self that Reason if it be not spun too fine and what is so may easily break but I say I cannot persuade my self that Reason upon a sober Examination of the Matter as it is laid down in the Scriptures can in any wise call in question the Justice of it For as it is there laid down there are only three Persons more especially concerned in it and those are God our Saviour and Man Let us therefore take the Sum of the Business in these Three Propositions and then see if our honest and natural Reason can discover any Injustice in it And First God does forgive our Sins in Consideration of our Saviour's Sufferings Secondly Our Saviour did suffer in our stead in order to the obtaining of such Forgiveness Thirdly We do obtain such Forgiveness in Consideration of such his Suffering Now if we set our plain and honest Reason on work to examine
Happiness begins when our Holiness does and that it is then perfected when our Holiness is so That Holiness is the Perfection of God's Nature and of our own That where Holiness is in its most exalted Excellence and Perfection it is the same Thing with Wisdom and Truth with Omniscience and Omnipotence and that it is the true and only Fountain of all real and rational Happiness And then that which is the Fountain of all Happiness and by consequence of our own Happiness must when once it appears so to us be the Object of our greatest Love as sure as it is that we do love our selves best 2. Where we find such Holiness which we shall be better acquainted with by our Glorification and compleat Sanctification in its greatest and most exalted Perfection and Excellence there our Love of such Holiness must in Nature and Reason and our Reason will then be exactly refined and discerning I say that where we find Holiness in its greatest and most exalted Perfection and Excellence there our greatest and most intense Love of Holiness will be lodged For when we come to love Holiness for its own Excellence and Perfection then we shall be sure to love that Holiness most which has the greatest and most exalted Excellence and Perfection 3. This our greatest and most intense Love of the greatest and most perfect Holiness will as we may rationally conceive be still augmented and increased when we apprehend it as lodged in an Intelligent Being For our Love and that too in Nature to such a Being is caeteris paribus greater than our Love of Things because such a Being is if I may so speak more congenerous and cognate to us than Things are and we find the Harmony and Sympathy to be in Nature always greater there where there is the nearest Cognation The further Use which we make of this Proposition besides that already laid down is to unite our Love of God and our Love of Holiness together and so to exhibit them under one View as indeed in God they are but one and the same Thing And therefore in what follows we must alter our Phrase and what hitherto we have called our Love of Holiness must hereafter be styled our Love of God 4. Our Love of our most Holy God will still receive a considerable Addition of Increase when we shall come to know that his Holiness is not only most perfect and exalted but that it is also accompanied with all other Excellencies and Perfections and that too in the highest and most perfect Degree For tho' God be One with his Holiness and all other his Attributes yet it may be doubted at least whether the Capacities even of glorified Creatures shall ever be so enlarged as to apprehend his Beauties and Excellencies any otherwise than by distinct and separate Conceptions Nay it may be more than doubted whether those their Conceptions shall be adequate to those his to them several Beauties and Excellencies which shall be the Objects of such their Conceptions For it is hard to conceive that the glorified Capacities of Creatures shall be made Infinite by their Glorification and unless they be so we are sure that the most Seraphick Conceptions must needs fall short of the Dignity of their Object And we know that it is sufficient for any Creature to have its Creature-capacities when most enlarged and refined filled and satiated by Happiness For no Creature is capable of and no Creature can desire more than a full and compleat Happiness And that Happiness is most certainly full and compleat which is as much as he can contain 5. The Increase of our Love to our most Holy God will still grow greater by our Assurance that he loves us again For it is a Truth in Nature That as Love slighted or refused does by that Means grow cold and so in time languishes and expires so if it be kindly received and answered by Love again it therefore grows the warmer because then its Hopes begin to turn into Happiness And as Love for Love between Mankind carries in it Gratitude and Requital so the Love of God for the Love of Man carries in it Recompence and Reward And in both Cases it increases the Happiness and Delight And then certainly it must be Infinite Happiness to be blessed with the Love of him who is Infinitely Happy in himself and the undoubted Author and Fountain of all possible Happiness to all others For all Love wishes well to the Party beloved at least and where its Power answers to its Wishes does well too And then when once we are in possession of God's Love we are therefore secure of our own Happiness because we are secure that all possible Happiness is within the Reach of his Power And indeed to suppose the glorified Saints love of God and by consequence their Holiness to be perfect and to suppose their Happiness not to be so would be in effect to suppose the Creature in its Love to God to outdo God in his Love to the Creature No! Perfect Holiness where-ever it is is a Ray of his leading and most beloved Attribute And we can in Reason no more conceive that God will not love such an Holiness than we can conceive that he does not love himself And then we may be sure that the Happiness of the Creature will in the final Issue and of that only we speak at present bear a Proportion to its Holiness 6. The Increase of our Love to God will still grow greater and greater when we come to find as most certainly we shall so find it that his Love of us will engage him to unite us more intimately to himself The Union of the glorified Saints with God is it must be confessed a great Mystery for so that must needs be which neither Eye hath seen nor Ear heard nor can it enter into Man's Heart to conceive and which therefore he can much less express with his Tongue But yet that such a Thing there will be we may be satisfied by those Discoveries that Revelation has afforded us of it in the general For it is most certain by such Discoveries that we shall at least so enjoy God as we do our Friend we shall appear in his Presence in that Presence where there is fulness of Joy and at his Right-hand where there are Pleasures for evermore It is true indeed that the Nature and infinite Variety of all sorts of Unions and among the rest undoubtedly of those which God has reserved for future Accomplishments and for future Discovery are laid out of the Reach of all mortal Understandings And therefore we shall rest our selves satisfied with what is certain or at least with what by the help of Revelation we may easily believe to be so That the Union of the Blessed with God in Heaven will be such as shall be sufficient for the mutual Communications of each others Love of the Love of the Creature in Duties and Praises offered up to God
Christianity for without the Belief of Jesus Christ there can no more be any such thing as Christianity than without the Belief of a God there can be such a Thing as Religion yet for all that it will be true that as a Religion grounded upon the Belief of the true God may however be a false Religion so a Christianity grounded upon the Belief of the true Christ may however be a false Christianity For as notwithstanding a Belief or which may be something more the Knowledge of the True God Men may fall into Idolatry See Rom. chap. 1. ver 21 22 23. So notwithstanding the Belief not only of the true Christ but of his Resurrection also Men may have no other Expectations from him but Wealth Power and Grandeur in this World See Acts ch 1. ver 6. And yet I do hardly think that a Faith either in the one Case or in the other will by that Author be thought a Saving Faith And if it be not then it will appear a good Conclusion That in the last Case that is in the Case of Christianity something more is necessary to be believed in order to our Salvation than barely that Jesus is the Christ But as I said before this by the bye That which is directly to our present Purpose is That if it be true that none shall be saved who do not believe in Jesus Christ the Saviour then how shall we account for the future Condition of those who in this Life never heard of Jesus Christ For tho' we may out of the Scriptures be taught That he who believeth shall be saved and that he who believeth not shall be damned Yet still we cannot but know that that Disbelief to which Damnation is allotted must be as contrary to that Belief to which Salvation is allotted as Damnation and Salvation are to each other Now because that Belief to which Salvation is allotted is an Act of the Will whatever the Schools teach of Faith being lodged only in the Understanding therefore we do conclude That that Disbelief to which Damnation is allotted must be an Act of the Will too And indeed since Damnation is confessedly the Reward of Unbelief and since this Reward is to come from the Hand of such Justice which cannot err we may from thence be assured that the Unbelief to which it is allotted must be Criminal and we are moreover assured that nothing can be so in which the Will is not at all concerned Now because it is most certain that those who in this World never heard of Jesus Christ do not therefore not believe in him because they will not but only because they cannot I say for that Reason it will be unjust to asign that Damnation to their Unbelief that is by them unavoidable which is by the Scriptures assigned only to that Unbelief which is therefore Criminal because it is Voluntary Tho' therefore Damnation be by the Scriptures pronounced against that Unbelief which refuses the Saviour made known and offered to Men yet we cannot from thence conclude that it shall be the Portion of that Unbelief which is only a Consequence of an unavoidable Ignorance of the same Saviour And as we cannot from the Scriptures conclude that they who never heard of the Saviour shall be damned for their Unbelief So neither can we from them conclude that they shall be saved notwithstanding their Unbelief For if a Faith in Jesus Christ be according to the Scriptures necessary to Salvation it will from thence follow that they who want that Faith must go without that Salvation to which it is necessary Now it may be presumed that far the greater Part of Mankind if not in all yet in most Ages and that therefore much the greater Part of Mankind in general never had the Saviour made known to them which if it be true as we have no reason to doubt the truth of it then it will follow That tho' God has provided a Saviour for all Men yet by making a Faith in that Saviour a necessary Condition for Man's obraining the provided Salvation he has thereby excluded the greater Part of Mankind from such Salvation because by having determined the Times before appointed and the Bounds of their Habitation he has by his Providence so placed them in the World that it is to them impossible to come to so much Knowledge of the Saviour as is necessary to their Belief in him And if this Conclusion be true it will afford us another which is That notwithstanding God has in a Saviour made sufficient Provision for the Salvation of all Men yet the greater Part of Men shall fall short of such Salvation and that too without their own Default Now it is freely confessed that our Lord Jesus Christ the Saviour laid the Design of extending that Salvation which he purchased as wide as was the Merit of his Purchase that is his Purchase was sufficient for the Salvation of all Men and he gave such Directions and Injunctions for the Propagating to all Men so much Knowledge of such his Purchase as might be sufficient to bring them to that Faith which might intitle them to the Benefit of it And therefore we find that he commanded his Apostles to go into all the World and to preach the Gospel to every Creature and that he gave them Abilities to obey such his Command by bestowing on them and many of those who should be instructed by them the Gift of Tongues and the Power of working Miracles By which Means there was Provision made for the Faith of all as well as for the Salvation of all for the Means as well as for the End But yet because 1. The Propagating the Means of Faith that is because the Propagating the Gospel to all Mankind was left in the Hand of Man and for that Reason was not likely to be performed according to the Will and Command of God insomuch that he who is both the Author and Finisher of our Faith does before his departure out of this World make it a Question Whether upon his Return he should find Faith in it Shall the son of man when he cometh find faith upon the earth And because 2. As it was likely that those Men who had the Means of Faith and Salvation themselves would not so it has been found by Experience that they have not at least they have not so industriously propagated such Means as that they should reach to all others And because 3. Tho' any Man may defeat the Counsel of God for his own Salvation and if he do so his Damnation will not only be just but necessary yet it is not agreeable to the Equity of the Divine Justice that it should be in the Power of any Man to defeat the Counsel of God for the Salvation of any other Man I say from these Things laid together it may seem no improbable Conclusion That God will by some way or other make known his Counsel to all Men for their