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
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
Scripture are equally revealed both equally claim a share in Gods Veracity and till we can be resolved to Satisfaction how God may be such a one as pardons Iniquity and yet will by no means clear the Guilty till we can see how this seeming Contradiction may be Reconciled we shall either have none or but a faint and Dying knowledge of it But now Christ he is the very Life of this Knowledge for in his Death and Sufferings we see and know clearly that Gods Justice is satisfied upon Christ and his pardoning Mercy Magnified upon the Repenting and Believing sinner and thus to know God to be a Sin-pardoning God has indeed Life in 't For thus to use the words of the Learned Bishop Reynolds upon Psal. 110. A Way is found out that things may be all one in respect of Man as if the Law had been utterly Abrogated and that they may be all one in respect of God as if the Creature had been utterly Condemned pag. 500. This is all the Doctor here intends wherein though he should be mistaken yet has he not discovered a Fellonious Intention and so I hope it will not prove a Hanging Matter But yet our Author with his prying Eyes can see further into a Milstone than he that Pecks it And as our Critical Scholiasts upon the Poets discover Elegancies Figures and great Rarities which the poor man never Dreamt of so can our Author discover Errors multitudes of hideous Errors in the Doctor which he neither Sleeping nor Waking was ever aware of For says he He explains himself thus These things are Clearly Eminently and Savingly only to be discovered in Iesus Christ. Whether the Doctor say any such thing or no we shall take the Boldness to Catechise our Author by and by and make him produce his Chapter Paragraph and Page e're we have done or abide by the shame that is due to a Malicious Slanderer At present I only ask which of these Terms it is that he will Duel or will he throw down the Gantlet to them all that we may have Battle Royal 1 These things are only clearly to be discovered in Iesus Christ I see the most Innocent things may give Offence But who would have suspected that in this place For suppose that Sun Moon and Stars Gods general Goodness to his Patience with and Forbearance of Sinners might Intimate some such thing that there was Forgiveness with God yet surely there 's a more clear account given of it in Christs Person who was made sin for us 2 Cor. 5. 21. which the Prophet Isaiah Chap. 53. v. 10. calls making his Soul an Offering for sin And that methinks clears it up a little more than if we had been put to spell out the meaning of Patience and Forbearance with the Fescue of our own understanding And though the Scripture abundantly reveals Pardon of Sin yet the Manner how the Reason why which are the very Life and Soul of all Knowledge is revealed to be from the Mercy of God through the Blood of Christ Ephes. 1. 7. In whom we have Redemption through his Blood the Forgiveness of Sins according to the Riches of his Grace And the rather may we be bold to say that the pardon of Sin is cleared up in the Person of Christ because so Authentick so Infallible an Author as ours is has given us leave to believe pag. 20. that the Gospel-Covenant is sealed with the Blood of Christ and therefore we can desire no greater Security And this I am sure of from Heb. 8. 10. that the Summe and Substance of that Covenant is I will be their God and they shall be my People and a main Branch of that Covenant I will be Merciful to their Iniquities and Remember their Sins no more If then we could but clear this one Poynt that the Bliod which Sealed this Covenant was not the Blood of a Doctrine nor of an Office nor of the Church but the precious Blood of Iesus Christ the Son of God even the Blood of a Person it would then be clear also that God's pardoning Mercy is only clearly or so clearly however to be discovered in Iesus Christ. 2 For the Term Eminently if the Bluster be against that I shall not much trouble my self I am no great Friend to because poorly skilled in Metaphysical Notions but as it stands here in Conjunction with other honest words I see no harm in 't To me it denotes no more but that the Pardon of sin is Notably Chiefly Gloriously and in a most Special and Excellent manner discovered in the Personal Sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ But if our Author after all this be not satisfied but finds himself Aggrieved the Law is open I plead no Protection let him take his Course and the Remedy the Law has given him 3 Therefore it must needs be that last word Savingly that is guilty of all and therefore must bear the Charge brought in against the whole Sentence That pardon of sin is only savingly discovered in Iesus Christ. I cannot tell but I do shrewdly conjecture that our Author has spoken as dangerous a thing as this comes to and has given us sufficient warrant to distinguish between a vain empty Insignificant Knowledge and an Useful Profitable and Saving Knowledge pag. 36. There is says he a larger Notion of the Knowledge of Christ which includes the Vertue and Efficacy of this Knowledge For how true soever our Speculations be the Scripture brands all those as Ignorant of God who do not love Reverence and Obey Him Now if the Doctors Book had had but the Happiness to have seen the World after our Authors he might have Explained himself so as to come off with a dry Head Notwithstanding what I have said of Gods Sin-pardoning mercy and the Knowledge thereof as in Him yet there is another Knowledge thereof which Includes and takes in the knowledge of this God to be our God and pardoning our sins which God is only in and through the Lord Iesus Christ and therefore the Scripture brands all those as Ignorant of God and his pardoning Mercy who know him not as their God in a Covenant of Grace whereof Christ is the Mediator and therefore without Him we can have no Saving-knowledge of or Interest in God or his Sin-pardoning Goodness whatever our Speculations may be of Mercy and Grace and Pardon to be in God But after all this Trouble our Author has put me to and just as much that I have put the Reader to the Mischief on 't all is this The Doctor says not one Word Syllable Letter Jot or Tittle of all this but the contrary I am sure the Reader is startled and his Hair begins to stand an end What no Truth on Earth Is Astraea more than in a Fable gone to Heaven Well Reader when thou art come to thy self and art a little more Cool and Composed Consult the Doctors Book pag. 90. Sect. 6. There are some of the most eminent Properties
Transgressors and making Intercession for them Vers. 6. 10 11 12. By the Prophet Daniel was revealed his Death the precise Time of it and for what he dyed Dan. 9. 24 25 26. Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy Holy City to finish the Transgression to make an end of sin to make Reconciliation for Iniquity to bring in everlasting Righteousness And after sixty two weeks shall the Messiah be cut off but not for himself And is all this Nothing just Nothing in our Authors Arithmetick If this be his Nothing for Charities sake let him tell us what is one of his somethings No all this while the Iews knew nothing at all of what Christ was to doe in order to our Recovery But it became our Author who was to assign little work very little to Christ when he was come to allow just nothing to be known of him before he came But then it seems the Apostle Paul was besides the Book as well as the Doctor for he protests Acts 26. 22 23. That he spoke none other things than those which Moses and the Prophets did say should come that Christ should suffer and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead Upon our Authors Principles it were easie to prove that Paul never spoke one word of Truth in the whole Course of his Ministry and the Apostle Peter was as lamentably mistaken as he 1 Pet. 1. 10. Of which Salvation the Prophets have enquired and searched diligently who prophesied of the Grace that should come unto you searching what and what manner of time the Spirit of Christ that was in them did signifie when it testified before-hand the sufferings of Christ and the Glory that should follow And yet we have the testimony of Christ himself a witness greater than all Exception Luke 24. 25 26 27. O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the Prophets have spoken ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his Glory And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself No doubt many lazy and drowsie Iews not duely attending to the Concernment of their Souls in these matters knew little or to little purpose of what God spoke to them by Sacrifices and Types what that oeconomy pointed at they might not possibly regard the Prophesies or Promises of a Messiah nor is it any wonder when we consider how little sleepy Formalists dreaming Professors and sottish Hearers understand of him at this day who know no more of Christ his Person Office Work and Design than that ignorant Papist who being asked Who Christ was answer'd he believed he was as good a man as St. Patrick Or that other who concluded that Christ was something that was good or else they would never have put it into the Creed But then there were diligent Enquirers and Conscientious Searchers whose Faith engaged them in the pursuit of Eternal Life and these saw the day of Christ and rejoyced in the Sight But 2. It s an odde and perverse way to take the measure of the Jewish knowledge of Christ from our own clearer Light We see clearer than they yet will it not follow that they were stark blind though it be Mid-day with us it was not Mid-night with them and for my part I more wonder that they at the Break of day saw so much and we at Noon comparatively see so little and if some mens Designs take place we shall in a short time see less than they and what to the Jews was a difficulty must be to us a Crime viz. to have any Acquaintance with the Person of Christ. 2. And if indeed the Iews knew nothing at all of Christ they could not then mock the Gentiles who could not well be in a worse case nor come under a more dismal Character than to be without Christ. But to come a little nearer to our Author 1. What if some of the Gentiles also knew something and something very considerable of a Redeemer I take Iob to have been in that number and yet he knew that his Redeemer lived and that he should stand at the latter day upon the Earth Job 19. 25. Which place our Author cannot question referres to Christ seeing the Liturgy of the Church of England in the Office of Burial applies it so and I hope it shall never be said that as they Subscribe the Articles in Jest so they Worship God in Jest too But to purchase his Favour let it be supposed that the Gentiles knew nothing at all of Christ yet are we sure they knew God to be a sin-pardoning God For our Authors Discourse alwayes halts of one Leg at least and wears a Crutch if it be not like Homers Vulcan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 foundred of all four 2. The Iews they understood the Doctrine of the Pardon of sin to be in God but then they understood by Promises Prophecies Types Sacrifices and the Tenor of the Covenant of Grace that God had provided a Redeemer the Gentiles they knew Nothing of a Redeemer but then they knew as little of the Pardon of Sin But here our Author will knock the Matter Dead by an Argument Those Natural Notions the Heathens had of God and all those discoveries God made of himself in the works of Creation and Providence did assure them that God is very good and it 's not possible to understand what Goodness is without pardoning Grace Not possible that 's a thousand pities I have sometimes sat admiring our Authors singular Happiness in defining to an inch so precisely Necessaries and Impossibles which are the two extremes of the Modes of Being And yet our Author can at one stride or jump pass from Necessity to utter Impossibility Some did but venture to say that God could not pardon sin without some intervening security to his Iustice And there grew such a Hubbub and Out-cry upon 't as if the Turks and Tartars had over-run all Christendome and yet our Author who can climb up all the stairs from easie to difficult from difficult to impossible has resolved upon the Question that from henceforth all shall adjudge it impossible to understand what Goodness is without pardoning Grace But is there indeed such a close Connexion so inseparable a glewing together of these two that we cannot prescind them with the sharpest act of the Understanding Is it easier to cleave a Hair or divide an Indivisible than to part Goodness and pardoning Grace I question not when he shall be at leisure he can slit a thinner matter a great deal than this is But yet 1. The Apostle Paul Acts 14. 16 17. assures us That God left not himself without a witness in that he did good and gave them rain from Heaven and fruitfull Seasons It was more than he owed to Condemned Sinners to afford them any kind of Goodness he might have rained Fire from Heaven and showres of
than the Gofpel allows The Question then shall never be stated by me thus Whether we must Obey or no Keep the Commandments of Christ or no And that upon Peril of Eternal Damnation But whether out of this Obedience of ours may be gathered that righteousness in which we may safely venture to appear before the Iudge of all the Earth in the great day as that which we resolve to stand and abide by venturing our all upon it This is that the Doctor thinks the Apostle reproved Rom. 9. 31 32. Israel which followed after the Law of righteousness hath not attained to the Law of righteousness because they sought it not by Faith but as it were by the Works of the Law Where the Apostle Intimates that though we do not directly seek a righteousness by the Works of the Law yet to do it Obliquely and Indirectly is destructive and that the Doctor intends no more no other than this is evident from the words our Author calls in And though I would have walkt according to my own mind yet now I give up my self to be wholly guided by thy Spirit This Netled our Authors Conscience and he takes Sanctuary in the most wretched Subterfuge that ever betrayed it's Confider What a pretty Complement does the Soul make to Christ We are now sheer gone from the Truth of the Principle to the Truth of the Heart in receiving it If it proves a Complement in the Mouth of an Hypocrite yet in Thesi its a Truth That whoever receives Christ upon his own Terms does renouncing his own will and way give up himself wholly to be ruled by the Spirit speaking in the Scriptures At this wiâ—…d rate I have often heard a silly Quaker answer this Proposition Iesus Christ that Died at Jerusalem is the Saviour of the World Ay says he but doest thou witness that from the Light within 2. Others make Obedience necessary upon the account of Christs Fulness But this he says makes it no otherwise necessary then as we are necessarily passive in it However if it be necessary upon any account it 's enough to make him blush that flatly Charges it upon them to say it 's not necessary But to be passive in our Obedience is all the Soul means in giving up it self to be ruled by the Spirit of Christ. Then the Soul means Nonsence For to give it self to be ruled by the Spirit has something of Activity in it Our help and asistance to give up our selves is from the Spirit but the giving up is an an act of the Souls 'T is the Believer that obeys and yet the ability to obey is from the Holy Ghost It 's the Creature that works and yet its God that works in him to will and to do of his own good Pleasure Phil. 2. 13. It 's the man that believes and yet he believes according to the working of Gods mighty Power Ephes. 1. 19 20. What is it else that he prays to the Spirit for O God the Holy Ghost proceeding from the Father and the Son have Mercy upon us miserable sinners But all this might have been Superseded had our Author duly Recollected what he has Subscribed and openly given his Assent and Consent to in the 10th Art of the Church of England We have no power to do Good works acceptable to God without the Grace of God preventing us that we may have a good Will and Working with us when we have that good Will Allow but the Doctor the Benefit of the Clergie and he will need no more to bring him off though that very Article would prove our Authors Neck-verse In the Work of Grace the Spirit Acts according to the Nature of the Subject which is here the Rational Creature He gives not new Natural Powers but a new Moral ability to Exercise them he bestows not a new Will Physically but enlarges it from its Fetters discharges it from its Slavery and powerfully though Gently enclines it to Gods Testimonies not destroying its radical self-determining Power and hence I conclude our Author is but sorrily Skilled in the true meaning of souls when they Profess a subjection to Christ. The Soul meant honestly she had no Mental reservation none of these Quirks and Tricks but plainly and sincerely Designed to give up her self in all Obedience to her Lord and Saviour She in her Text intended very singly but our Author has Commented upon it Knavishly I said so indeed in haste another would have said perhaps Foolishly for what more Idle Chat could he have Learn't from the good Women his Neighbours at Billings-gate than a willingness to obey against ones Will. This is all our Author is willing to own of the Grounds of our Obedience but I shall help his weak and frail Memory a little though to his great Regret Doctor O. Com. pag. 212. Obedience says the Doctor is necessary as a Means to the End N. B. God hath appointed that Holiness shall be the Means the Way to that Eternal Life which as in it self and Originally is his Gift by Jesus Christ so with regard to his Constitution of our Obedience as the Means of attaining it is a Reward and God in bestowing of it a Rewarder though it be neither the Cause Matter nor Condition of our Justification yet it is the Way appointed of God for us to walk in for the obtaining of Salvation And therefore he that hath hope of Eternal Life Purifies himself as he is Pure and none shall ever come to that End who walketh not in that Way for without Holiness it is impossible to see God The bare Repitition of which words are as plain and full a Rebuke to all our Authors Dirty Nasty Reflections as a reasonable Creature can desire But these things we shall meet withall anon and therefore here they shall lie ready in Banco till our Authors Leisure shall call for them I had now eased my self and my Reader of any further Vexation in this Section had I not unhappily overseen one Passage in Mr. Watson from which our Author thinks he has some Advantage The words are these Evangelical Truths will not down with a Natural Heart such a one had rather hear some quaint Point of some Vertue or Vice stood upon than any thing in Christ c. Which he thus Canvasses Such sanctified Souls and Ears loath all Dull Insipid Moral Discourses which are perpetually Inculcating their Duty on them and Troubling them with a great many Rules and Directions for a good Life which he is pleased to call the Quaint Points of Vertue and Vice Good Sir be not angry have but a little Patience and all will be well to your Hearts Content Mr. Watson does not Inveigh against your Poynant Invictives against the one or your most Elaborate Encomiums of the other Run down sin at the highest rate of Zeal and Fervency you can render Prophaneness as Odious and expose her for a Fulsomè sâ—…urvy Baggage if you please Invent new Names for her
that Rhimes pretty well to your own Conceits But rather work up your Imagination to the prospect of some dreadful Dungeon where nothing but Ratling of Chains Blowing of Bellows Hissing of Serpents and the Yellings of Griesly-people strike a Horror into your Mind and then to be sure you shall purchase our Authors good word and never be Taxed for Interpreting by the Sound and Clink of words Thus if you meet with that Expression the Son of God be sure you do not understand a Person but a Thing and if at the long Run you should chance to Interpret it into No thing it will do best of all For then you may lay your Life on 't you have not Interpreted Scripture by the sound of words Now as much as our Author pleases himself with his Humour in this thing the truth is he did but Steal or to make the best on 't Borrow it from one of those he hopes to wound with it And well might the Eagle sigh to see her self shot through with a Dart which had borrowed its Feathers from her own Wing I will only burden him with one Passage The Papists having hatched that monstrous Figment of Transubstantiation upon the discovery of any Expressions amongst the Antients though made use of to another end cry out and Triumph as if they had found the whole Fardel of the Mass in its perfect Dress and their Breaden God in the midst of it Iust so says he it is in the case of Episcopacy Men of these latter Generations from what they saw in being and the usefulness of it to their Desires and Interests searching Antiquity not to Instruct them in the Truth but to Establish their Opinion whatever Expressions they find that fall in as to the sound of Words with what is now Insisted on instantly they cry out Vicimus Iö Poean And now either our Authors guilty Conscience or his Acumen will tell him to whom he stands Indebted for Observing to him the Danger of Interpreting by the sound of words And let him take this Caution along with him to forbear using that way of Reasoning which serves any mans turn as well as and most mens better than his own It will be now time to descend to Particulars that we may reduce his Rule into Practice And he has singled out these Expressions of knowing Christ Christ's being made Wisdom to us Having the Son To give us an Experiment what Wonders his Rule will work And 1. For the Knowing of Christ. They that Interpret Scripture by the sound of words Interpret the Phrase of Knowing his Person and all his Personal Excellencies and Beauties Fulness and Preciousness c. And so has the Expression been used Iohn 17. 3. This is Life eternal to know thee the only True God and Iesus Christ whom thou hast sent Where the Person of the Messiah under that Personal Excellency of being sent of God Anointed and Appointed by him to Reveal and procure Eternal Life is made the Object of our Knowledge Again Iohn 1. 33. I knew him not but he that sent me to Baptize with Water the same said unto me upon whom thoushalt see the Spirit descending the same is He and I saw and bare Record that this is the Son of God Where to Know Christ is Interpreted by knowing Him to be the Son of God And all the fault of this Interpretation is that it comes a little too near the sound of words But that Learned Doctors practical Interpretations who interpreted Iesus by Iudas would have pleased our Author infinitly because it was more modest and durst not come so near the sound of the word Well But how does the Man himself expound the Phrase Nay as to that he is in a brown study and says never a word and that I assure you is a safe way to avoid the Odium of Expounding it by the sound of words But 2. Christ is said 1 Cor. 1. 30. To be made Wisdom to us And amongst many others I find Beza thus expounding it Datus est nobis a Deo ut in ipso omnem sapientiam consequeremur quae quidem eo nomine verè digna sit quum in Uno possumus Deum ejus Arcana contemplari quae ne suspicari quidem unquam cautissimi homines potuerunt He is given to us of God that in him we might attain Wisdom that truly deserves the Name seeing that in Him alone we may behold God and his Secrets which the most discerning Men otherwise could never have Ghessed at Let this Interpretation because it comes too near the sound of words only serve for a Foyle to set off the Lustre of our Author Some duller men says he can understand no more by it than the Wisdom of those Revelations Christ hath made of Gods Will to the World But I fear it 's more their Sullenness than their Dulness that they can see no more of Wisdom in Christ than a meer Ravelation of Gods Will. For had they not worn Racovian Spectacles they might have seen Satisfaction to Divine Justice in his Death as well as a Declaration of Gods Will to us issuing from his Mouth But then 3. Here 's another great Controversie What having of the Son should signifie But before we fall upon that we must deliver our selves from an Ambuscado secretly laid for our utter Ruine When men have Learnt says he from an acquaintance with Christ to place all their hopes of Salvation in a Personal Union with Christ c. He might for his Credits-sake have produced his Vouchers to make good his Charge I do indeed believe that as the Person of the Husband is related to the Person of the Wife and yet there is no personal Union made though they are one Flesh yet they continue two distinct Persons or Subsistences so Christ and Believers are Personally related each to other in the Covenant of Grace and are one Mystical Body one Spirit and yet they are not taken into Personal Union with Christ. Nay our Authors Conscience was fast asleep when he wrote this Twang For pag. 198. He Quotes these words from Doctor Iacomb This Mystical Union is an Union of Persons but yet no Personal Union And if our Author know not how to Distinguish these two Expressions he 's sadly Accoutred to Manage this Controversie And being now freed from all Danger in the Rear let us Advance to the Question What this having of the Son should mean 1 Iohn 5. 12. He that hath the Son hath Life and he that hath not the Son hath not Life Now the clearest way to resolve this Doubt that I can think on at present is to Examine who or what is meant by the Son and when we have Settled and well Fixt the Notion of that to try what further Light we may get into the Phrase of Having the Son For the former Who or what the Son is I know no more Hopeful and Promising way than to look into the Chapter to see if peradventure
the Apostle has fixt the Notion for us And ver 5. we read Who is he that overcometh the World but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God And ver 6. This is he that came by Water and by Blood even Iesus Christ. Ver. 9. This is the Witness of God which he hath Testified of his Son And ver 10. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the Witness in himself And ver 11. This is the Record that God hath given to us Eternal Life and this Life is in his Son And then follows the words under Examination He that hath the Son hath Life I conclude then that if by Son ver 5 6 9 10. c. he meant the very Son of God our Lord Iesus Christ then by Son in ver 12. is meant the very self same Person And I am the more Confirm'd in my Opinion because our Author p. 101. will not allow any to separate a single Sentence from the Body of the Discourse to make the Scripture speak their own sence Though I confess he intended it as a Caution to others that they may avoid it but a Canon to himself that he might observe it What to others was set up for a Buoy to discover a Rock to himself is hung out for a Lanthorn to discover his way But I shall take his Caution and charitably believe so well of the Apostles sincerity and judiciousness in Discourse that he would not speak of one thing in one Verse and another in the next under the same words without sufficient intimation of his Intention But now for having the Son of God that is the remaining enquiry Now in this our Author speaks more Truth than he is aware of What can having the Son signifie says he but having an Interest in Him Being made one with Him especially when we remember that it is called being in Christ and abiding in him which must signifie a very near Union between Christs Person and ours It must so If the Son signifie the very Son of God we must have Him as he is capable of being had and that 's only by Interest and Propriety through Compact agreement and the Constitution of God in a Gospel Covenant Ay but says our Author Some will be so Perverse as to understand it of believing and Obeying his Gospel Well and if they will be so Perverse without a Reason we shall take the freedom to be as Perverse as they can be and believe no more than we have proof for But let us practise with his Gloss a little By the Son he understands the Gospel and then his Paraphrase of v. 5. will run thus smoothly Who is he that overcometh the World but he that believeth that Jesus is the Gospel that is he that believes a Lye he is the man that overcomes the World Ay but we must remember that by Iesus he has understood the Gosple also and then indeed you will have a Paraphrase compleat in all Points Who is he that overcomes the World but he that believeth that the Gospel is the Gospel And sure he must be a Dull thing indeed that cannot and a Perverse one too that will not believe and Subscribe so Self-evident a Proposition But the World is full of perverse People and therefore no wonder if some will so understand it And amongst many others one Volkelius lib. 3. de verâ Relig p. 37. in John 1. 4. In him was Life Hoc est Ipsi commissa est vitae Eternae viae ad eam ducentis Anunciatio quâ Hominum animos mirificè collustravit Ignorantiae tenebras quantum in ipsa fuit ab iis depulit quod idem alio in loco edisserit 1 Joh. 5. 10. dum ait Hoc est Testimonium quod Deus Testatus est de filio suo quod vitam Eternam nobis dedit Deus haec in filio ejus est That is to him was committed the Declaration of Eternal Life and of the Way that leads thither whereby he wonderfully enlightened the Minds of Men and scattered the Darkness of Ignorance from them as much as in him lay which he Discourses also in another place 1 Iohn 5. 10. c. The Reader cannot but observe the Parenthesis That Christ enlightned men as much as in him lay if he could have done more he would But what would they expect from a Man Now when I observe our Author in this very place Deriding the Hopes of them who expect to receive free Comunications of Pardon and Grace Righteousness and Salvation from our Lord Iesus Christ Methinks I see Quantum in ipso fuit and whether he filled his Vessel from that Cistern or no is not so clear but this is certain that all came from the same Fountain To conclude this Head the Gloss of this Text according to the Proportion and Analogy of our Authors Faith must be this He that believeth and obeyeth the Gospel believeth and obeyeth Life and he that believeth not and obeyeth not the Gospel believeth not obeyeth not Life But our Gloss is this He that hath an Interest in Christ hath an Interest in Life and he that hath not in the one hath not in the other but the Wrath of God abides on him there being no means discovered whereby we can escape it but by Jesus Christ. It would have been small Satisfaction to our Author to pervert the Sence unless he might be allowed also to pour Contempt upon the Phrase of the Scripture which he has carried on to that height of Daring-provocation that I am certain he never met with his Superiour and do hope he may never find an Equal He is at last grown almost weary of Reproaching the Expressions of Men too mean a Quarry for one of his Wing to stoop at and now the Expressions of the Holy Ghost must find him Game that he may appear truly Great by great Enmities Erostratus was resolved to Eternize his Name though by Firing the Temple of Diana at Ephesus And Nero conceived great hopes from the Burning of Rome and his unsampled Butcheries to Inoculate his Name into History that he might upon any Terms survive his Funeral It 's some Alleviation to them who Groan under the burden of Obloquy that they meet with no harder Measure than their Lord and Master And it might quiet the grieved Spirit of a righteous Lot when his words are wrested when the holy Spirit of God is grieved with the Affronts put upon his Expressions The Disciple is not ought not expect to be above his Master nor the Servant above his Lord It 's enough that the Disciple be as his Master and the Servant as his Lord If they have called the Master of the House Beelzebub how much more shall they call them of the Houshold Mat. 10. 24. Let them therefore possess their Souls in patience and comfort one another with these words And thus our Author enters upon his Business It 's Self-evident that before we can be United
walking in the ways of God An. Concerning Active and Passive righteousness I shall say little but never flatter your self without walking in the Ways of God you can never be saved For it 's plain That no Thieves nor Covetous nor Drunkards nor Revilers nor Extortioners shall Inherit the Kingdom of God Qu. But what then becomes of Free-Grace An. It 's quite shut out of some mens Principles but as to us we own it the great Spring of all our present enjoyments and future Expectations Qu. But is not this to Eke out the righteousness of Christ with our own An. I have told you our Holiness is no Patch to Christs Righteousness but has its Distinct concerns Peculiar uses and Proper employment in the Salvation of Believers Qu. Say you so I protest thou art the most Pertinacious Refractory and Obstinate Creature that ever I Catechised in my life But I let thee know I am resolved that they shall hold in spight of their teeth that Holiness and Obedience are not necessary to Salvation Now the short of all this long Discourse our Author gives us in these words That to know Christ is not to be thus acquainted with his Person but to understand his Gospel in its full Latitude and Extent It 's not the Person of Christ but the Gospel of Christ which is the Way the Truth and the Life To which I only say 1. It 's a strange Definition of the Knowledge of Christ that it is not to know Him To know is to be Ignorant to see is to be Blind 2. It 's impossible to understand the Gospel in its Latitude but we must thus know Christs Person he has Learnt little that has not Learnt the reconciliation made in the Blood of Christs Cross. 3. Though the Scriptures be the way and Means yet the Person of Christ is the way of Mediation whereby we come to the Father And though we have Direction Instruction Encouragements from the Scripture to walk in the way of Holiness yet we have Grace and Ability from the Lord Jesus Christ who is a Head of Influence as well as Authority to all that are in Covenant with him to walk in that Way At length the Gentleman having Discharged the Office of a Catechist will let us know how terrible he is for an Exorcist He falls a Raving and Conjuring at the acquaintance with Christ that the Candles seem to burn blew the Ground to tremble and in this Sulphureous Vehicle we shall see him Raise his Spirit Acquaintance with Christs Person is only a work of Fancy teaches the Arts of Hypocrisie undermines the Fundamental Design of the Gospel makes Men incurably Ignorant endless Talkers insolent Censurers and every Boy learns to Despise the Ignorance of his Teachers Our Author is Whistling over to himself his wild Notes just like a Black-Bird in the latter end of February that he may not be to seek in March So here he gives us a Synopsis of Scolding the brief Heads of things upon any of which he can Write a Book as long as this But what is the Matter Why Boys despise the Ignorance of their Teachers I had rather they should despise their Ignorance than their Knowledge Ay but they despise them for not knowing Christ and the Mystery of the Gospel Alas you do not pretend to know him but have described the Knowledge of Christ by Ignorance of him Oh! but the Laws of Christ will not down with them At this rate I believe they never will All Reverence to his Laws must cease when his Person is exposed to Contempt He that Teaches men to Mock at the Personal Excellencies Beauty Loveliness Fulness of the Law-giver does more surely though more slowly undermine the Foundation of Gospel-Obedience than he that brings his Mattocks to the Commandment itself The Reader perhaps is not aware what design our Author has upon him Why He hopes that good People will hereafter have better thoughts of him and his Fellows that they are not such Strangers to Christ as they may Imagine for he has a greater Reverence for him than to be so Rude and Unmannerly than to make bold with his Person and with his Laws I could heartily wish indeed our Author were no stranger to Christ but it 's better so than worse to be Ignorant of Him may perhaps prove his best Plea for Enmity against Him For his Boldness I cannot tell how more unmannerly he could well be he has divided his chiefest and most glorious Titles whereby the Spirit of God has Recommended him to our best Affections the Gospel Portraitures of Christs Loveliness c. he calls Romantick Descriptions he has Overthrown and Confounded all his Offices Cancel'd the main Ends of Christ's coming into the World turn'd all that 's Sacred into Drollery and yet he thinks he has not made bold enough with Christ. From hence he takes occasion to fall into some admiration of the Church Catechisme and the Wisdom of the Church in feeding her Children there with wholsome and substantial Food It will be long enough before he commends the Wisdom of the Church in her Articles put forth to be the Standard of the Faith of all that are to instruct the Churches Children I shall entreat our Author seeing he is so passionately in love with the Catechism to practise it more to keep his Hands from Picking and Stealing for Volkelius Shlictingius c. complain heavily of him and his Tongue from evil speaking lying and slandering and herein another sort of men make lamentable Complaints There is but one thing more whereof he will take Notice and I am heartily glad on 't for I feared when his hand was in there would have been no End of this rayling Humour But why he should call it one thing more I cannot imagine when 't is but the same strain of Prophane Scoffing at the Concerns of Religion But let us hear that one Thing When the Scripture speaks of the Knowledge of Christ it includes not onely the speculative part of Knowledge which consists in true Notions but the Virtue and Efficacy of it in the Government of our Lives Surely this is not the one thing he would speak to No no These men talk of an Experimental Knowledge of Christ Now he comes to it The meaning of which is that this Acquaintance with Christs Person warms and heats their Fancies moves their Passions sometimes they find great breakings of heart they melt and dissolve into tears for their sins when they remember their Lord suffered for them They see him hang upon the Cross c. It requires no great Wit to be Prophane common Abilities will serve to represent the Truth to disadvantage he that presumes his Tongue is his own may let it run ryot without Truth or Honesty 1. This Acquaintance with Christs Person says he heats their Fancies Thus he has told us before p. 95. That the workings of the Law the Offers of Christ and our entering into Covenant with him is
told us p. 157. That our Union to Christ is not an Union to his Person but confists in a sincere Union to his Church And so again p. 151. and yet now If Christ and Believers are united their Persons are united too for he cannot understand no not for his heart I warrant you how they should be united without their Persons 2. He charges the Doctor with owning an Adhesion nay a Natural Adhesion of Persons I confess I never admired any mans Confidence more that in the face of the Doctors words which he himself had quoted directly affirming the contrary should charge him with asserting a Natural Adhesion of Persons Thus he reports the Doctors words The Person of Christ and Believers are united and yet it 's no Personal Union Again the Doctor thus It 's a Spiritual and Supernatural Conjunction Our Author had need tell nothing but Truth for he is the poorliest qualified for a Lyar that I have met withal And now let it be referred to the Groom-Porter Whether Adhesion be not as like to choak narrow throats as Conjunction 3. He says Christ and Believers are united by mutual Relations And then makes a Quaere upon 't Whether all the Absurdities he would fasten upon the Doctors words will not recoyl upon his own For it signifies no more than if he had said Christ and Believers are united by their Union and related by their Relation and thus Christ is Christ and Believers are Believers and Union is Union The Truce is now expired and he is once again falling upon Dr. Owen For as the Serpents in Africa lay aside their Poyson whilest they drink and then presently suck it up again so I was pretty secure our Author would lick up that vomit again which he had cast in Dr. Iacomb's face that he might serve the other with the same sawce But whilst I am considering his Extravagances there comes to my hand an Answer from the Doctor wherein since he has condescended to chastise our Author in person it may justly supersede any further attempt of mine in his Vindication At p. 243. I meet again with our Author where he falls upon that weighty point of Justification In his exposing of which Truth he takes occasion from a passage in Dr. O. I see I must mention him again Com. p. 55. There is no man whatever that hath any wants in reference to the things of God but Christ will be to him that which he wants I speak of those N. B. who are given him of the Father Is he Dead Christ is Life Is he weak Christ is the Power of God! Hath he a Sense of Sin upon him Christ is Compleat Righteousness Jer. 23. 6. The Lord our Righteousness Which words being fortified with express Scripture it concerned our Author to take good advice and to go gingerly to work in perverting of them Two Artifices he uses which like Fire and Water will make the strongest Cloth shrink And 1. He lops off one whole Sentence p. 214. and then exclaims This sounds like Universal Redemption What down-right Arminianism Really I am sorry for 't Is the Doctor sheer gone over to the Remoustrants Come come Sir you have a Card in your Sleeve pray produce it I speak says the Doctor of those who are given him of the Father Now where are your ears Does this chink like Universal Redemption But so true is the old Observation He that is prepossest with an Opinion finds it in all he reads 2. If that way fails another will hit What Comfort is this to us says he that Christ was Righteous if we continue wilful and incorrigible sinners Yes says the Doctor hast thou a sense of sin upon thee Christ is Compleat Righteousness Fie upon it put on a Mask for shame Is the Soul that labours under the sense of some particular sin a wilful and incorrigible sinner It 's the repenting the broken and the sorrowful sinner that the Doctor directs to Christ. Our blessed Saviour has invited those that labour and are heavy-laden to come unto him promising that he will give them rest I wonder our Author could forbear twitting him that he encouraged wilful and incorrigible sinners But pray what would our Author say to a Soul that has the sense of sin upon him without peradventure Repent of thy sin forsake thy sin c. And does he think that Repentance will save a wilful and incorrigible sinner one that Repents and sins and sins and Repents again and goes on in a circle of sinning and halfrepentance Say but the same for the Doctor He Counsels the Soul under the sense of sin to believe but then it 's only the Repenting sinner that will that can that ought to make his Address to Christ that he may find rest to his Soul For our Author's Method in prosecuting this great Point I dare not warrant it Such as it is Reader shall have it as cheap as I had it my duty is to Follow and not to Dispute 1. His first enquiry will be In what sense Christ is called our Righteousness and what the Scripture intends by those Phrases of The Righteousness of God the Righteousness of Faith or The Righteousness of God by Faith He begins with that famous place Jer. 23. 6. where Christ is expresly called the Lord our Righteousness To which our Author returns three things A pitiful Scoff a woful Evasion and a wretched Answer worse than both 1. He begins with a Scoff A very express place to prove that Christ is our Righteousness that is that the only Righteousness wherewith we must appear before God is the Righteousness of Christ imputed to us Who these men should be that thus expound it I cannot Divine unless it be the first Reformers of this Church and they do indeed tell us Artic. 11. That we are accountted Righteous before God only for the Merit of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ and not for our own Works and Deservings Wherefore that we are justified by Faith only is a most wholesome Doctrine and full of comfort And I believe our Author experienced it to be a most sweet and comfortable Doctrine when he subscribed it for a fat Benefice But in the mean time these men whoever they be have a very hard task on t. For one while they must not draw one Conclusion from the Person of Christ which his Gospel has not expresly taught to use their own Reasons to deduce one single Inference from Gospel-premises is present Death But what now if they produce express Scripture that Christ is our Righteousness Why that 's as bad for this is to interpret Scripture by the sound of words 2. He retreats to a most woful Evasion Is there no other possible sense to be made of this Phrase If it be possible to procure another Sense for Love or Money it shall never go thus The Cause looks with a very desperate face when once it comes to this when men are ready to shoot the Pit
It was enough that God had firmly revealed that he had made sufficient provision for it by a Mediator Abraham believed stedfastly that the means God had chosen were proportionable to their end and the rest was to be left to God 4. And herein lay much of the Bondage that Believers were in Under the Old-Administration of the Covenant of Grace they had not so satisfactory an account of the particular means how the Redeemer should work out their Deliverance which way he should accomplish the great work of Propitiation and therefore when fresh guilt contracted by fresh sin lay upon the Conscience their faith was staggered and peace broken because they had a clear Objection against their pardon from their sins but not so clear a Solution from the promise of the pardon of it the Promise being encumbred with so many intricacies that the only refuge was a Retreat to the Faithfulness of God in general Which yet was no easie work under the Scruples and Cavils of present guilt and the Accusation of Conscience Ay! but says he this was more than the Apostles understood till after the Resurrection though Christ had expresly told them of it Was it so Then 1. They could never know it to the World's end For if telling and express telling will not make us know there 's no remedy we must be content to be ignorant But this is our Author's humour to reproach all the World for Soâ—… and Fools but himself and a few more Rational Heads The Jews were all Fools they had more particular Promises than Abraham and yet they looked only for a temporal Prince The Apostles they were all Naturals for they had been told and expresly told of it and yet understood no more than the wall I wonder what could have been done more to make them know it unless it had been beaten into their heads with a Beetle I suppose our Author has got this fancy from some such place as that Mark 9. 31. The Son of Man is delivered into the hands of Men and they shall kill him and after that he is killed he shall rise again but they understood not the saying But can we be so vain as once to imagine that they understood not the Grammar of those words that they knew not the literal sence of dying No! but they had not such clear satisfaction about some of the Consequents of it Perhaps they had not such a firm and stedfast belief of the truth of it as might bear up their hearts at an even rate of Tranquillity and Calmness under their temptations and tryals they might not improve the Truth to encourage in a patient waiting for the Resurrection of Christ And that this was it that pinch'd them is plain they declare it Luke 24. 19 20 21. Concerning Iesus of Nazareth how the chief Priests delivered him to be condemned to death and crucified him but we trusted that it had been be that should have redeemed Israel They believed his Crucifixion but were staggered about his Resurrection Hereupon Christ rebukes their slowness of heart to believe all that the Prophets had spoken how Christ ought to suffer and to enter into his glory ver 25 26. Besides it 's a common Rule That verba intellectus implicant affectiones words that in their bare sound only denote the understanding yet in their true intent and meaning take in the will and affections And again Negatives are often put for Comparatives I will have Mercy and not Sacrifice that is I will have Mercy rather than Sacrifice So here They understood not that is They understood not so much of it as such clear Expressions deserved 3. Another great Scruple for I see there 's no end of them is this He must understand the perfect holiness and innocency of Christ's life But that was the least thing of a thousand He needed no Elias to explain that a very Nullifidian would have believed that he whom God had designed to bless others must needs be perfectly blessed himself 'T is true had Christ's work been no other than what our Author has cut out for him he might have discharged it without an absolute sinless Perfection A Prophet might have revealed the whole will of God and afterwards confirmed his Doctrine by his death but to be a Propitiatory Sacrifice this required that Christ the Antitype should be holy harmless undefiled and separated from sinners And in this God was punctual and precise under the Law that the Sacrifice of Atonement should be without spot and without blemish And thus much Abraham might learn from his own Sacrifices and had he conceived the least suspicion that Christ would prove a sinner it had damped his joy and triumph in the foresight of his day Ay! but says he further he must understand that he fulfilled all Righteousness not for himself but for us Answ. 1. It 's a most wretched and unrighteous way of procedure to call things clear and evident into question for the sake of some that are obscure and disputable It becomes ingenuous persons to agree to what is clear and certain leaving them upon their own Basis and to reduce the doubtful to them It 's plain that Abraham was justified by Faith his Righteousness was the Righteousness of Christ If the measure of his knowledg herein be unknown to us yet that he had a knowledg is not so If God revealed this to Abraham's Faith I doubt not but he believed it That he did not is more than our Author can prove If he shall attempt it his Arguments may be considered in the mean time his Conceits and Crotchets ought not to prejudice the Truth But if God did not reveal it Abraham's Faith might live though not be so vigourous and strong without it 2. Abraham might know that what Christ suffered he suffered not for himself but in the stead of those for whom he suffered for he saw the Sacrifices die and yet not for their own sins And why he might not conclude That what a Redeemer did was for others too I cannot tell 3. There 's many a sincere and sound Believer that understands not all the Terms of Art that are used in the Explication of the Doctrine of Justification that perhaps cannot tell you which part of Christ's obedience answers this and which the other exigency of the sinner and yet believes the Thing that Christ is made to him Righteousness of God He is not so well versed in the Nomenclature of the Schools as to call every thing by its proper name but goes downright to work he renounces his own Righteousness sees the necessity of a Redeemer to make his peace with God accepts of life upon God's terms and leads a holy life suitable to his present mercies and future hopes and leaves the rest to the Learned World to wrangle about who may perhaps dispute themselves gravely and learnedly into Hell whilst the poor honest man believes his Soul into Glory 4. He must understand the great mystery
the Law only That all the World is not become guilty by the external deeds of the Moral Law and a failure therein he proves Rom. 5. 14. where he shews That death reigned over some who had not sinned after the similitude of Adam ' s transgression 5. Those deeds which David excluded from his Iustification the Apostle excludes from our Iustification for he quotes his Proposition from Psal. 143. 2. and therefore takes it in his sense or else he could not make use of his Authority But David excludes all his deeds whatsoever from Justification Enter not into judgment with thy servant for in thy sight shall no man be justified He durst not once think of God's entering into judgment with him upon the account of any thing he had attained From all which it appears that the Apostle exclâ—…es the Law the whole Law and the deeds thereof all the deeds thereof from having any concern in the Iustification of a sinner in the sight of God 2. We may observe hence That the Apostle opposes the Righteousness of God unto a Righteousness by the deeds of the Law But now says he the Righteousness of God without the Law is manifested vers 21. And as in vers 20. he says not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the deeds of the Law but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the deeds of Law of a Law of any Law So here he says not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without the Law as if he intended some singular Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without a Law without any Law And hence he fully silences and stops the mouth of our Authors Cavil that by the deeds of the Law is meant only an external Conformity of our Actions to it But the Apostles words leave no place for ambiguity For if the Righteousness of God without Law a Law any Law be manifested then without either Ceremonial or Moral Law then also without external or internal deeds of either But the Apostle shuts out Law simply and absolutely The Righteousness of God without Law is manifested As this term Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is more properly predicated of the Moral than of the Ceremonial Law so the deeds of Law are more properly predicated of internal than external deeds and Analogum per se stans stat pro famosior Analogato If then as our Author contends we are justified by the Moral though not by the Ceremonial Law or by internal Conformity to it though not by external Conformity to it only then the Apostles Doctrine is true in an improper or less proper sense but utterly false in the proper or more proper sense of the words For had 〈◊〉 words been inverted they had carried a clearer truth in them By the deeds the internal deeds of the Law the Moral Law shall all flesh be justified But now the Righteousness of God with the Law the Moral Law and it s internal as well as external deeds is manifested But this is not to interpret the Apostle but dictate a new Gospel to him But further Hence I have just occasion to complain of an unrighteous surmise with which our Author loads some men That because they exclude Law and Law-deeds from Iustification in the sight of God that therefore they exclude it from having any place in their Lives and Conversations The Apostle who is a zealous Vindicator of the interest of the Law as a Rule of our Obedience yet we see discharges it wholly from any from all use and service in the Justification of a sinner in the sight of God Therefore he adds Before God and the Psalmist In thy sight to teach us That though the Righteousness of God without Law is manifested as to the truth of the thing yet the Righteousness of God is not cannot be manifested to us without a sincere obedience to the Law There 's a Iustification before God to this the Law a Law any Law contributes nothing but there 's a Justification before Conscience before men and to this a sincere and evangelically universal obedience contributes much 3. The Apostle assures us That this Doctrine of his is no new fancy broached t'other day and set on foot lately in Gospel-times but the same way by which all the good men of old were justified v. 21. It 's witnessed by the Law and the Prophets Now as to the Prophets testimony though our Author approves not their Cryptick way of demonstrating but is all for plain Meridian demonstration yet they are full that Jesus Christ was the main consideration in the Justification of a sinner from of old Acts 3. 25 26. Ye are the Children of the Prophets and of the Covenant that God made with our Fathers saying to Abraham And in thy Seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed unto you first God having raised up his Son Iesus sent him to bless you in turning away every one of you from his iniquities Whence it appears God's raising up Christ in the World to bless his people with spiritual blessings was no more than what he had covenanted with Abraham and promised to him even in that very Promise which our Author thinks was fulfilled in the numerous Posterity of Isaac But now that this Righteousness of God without Law should be witnessed by Law this seems strange Does the Law witness against it self Is it false to it 's own interest But the Law is God's Law and when it witnesses to a sinner it witnesses home convinces him of the perfect holiness of that God who gave the Law of the peremptoriness of God in not abating one jot or tittle of the Law of the sinners utter inability to come up to the Demands of the Law and therefore the utter impossibility of being justified by the Law of the severity of God's Justice in punishing the violater of his Law and therefore unless he can find another Righteousness he must utterly perish 'T is true the Law speaks its old Language still Do this and live but then it speaks it only to those who are upon a bottom of Innocency for to a Transgressor its language is Cursed is very one that continues not in all things 4. The Apostle acquaints us what that Righteousness of God is which is manifested vers 22. Even the Righteousness of God which is by the Faith of Christ. Now hence it 's evident that the Righteousness of God and Righteousness by the Faith of Christ are both one and therefore Faith in God and Faith in Christ are both one As is the Righteousness such is the Faith as is the Faith such is the Righteousness which perfectly overthrows that Arbitrary distinction which our Author had studied for more need Of Faith in God and Faith in Christ on purpose to shut Abraham out of Christ and by Consequence out of Heaven and to lock him up in the Limbus Patrum 5. The Apostle concludes That there 's no difference in point of Justification all that are sinners by
in lege Mosis per se honesta sunt Grot. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is any thing that God hath thought meet to appoint or command his People Dr. Hammond And now for to divert his Reader he has sprung us new game but I shall adjourn the Consideration of what immediately follows that we may not be bewildred and lost in a wood and shall fall in with him at p. 273. where he reassumes the present Subject Thus yâ—…u see says he how the Apostle opposes the Righteousness of the Law and the Righteousness of Faith not as an Inherent and Personal Righteousness to an Imputed Righteousness but as an External and Ritual to an Inherent and Substantial Righteousness but we have seen no such matter as yet and do believe we are not like to see it And the rather because he has thrown in a very suspicious word that would make any one think that though he sets a good Face upon the Matter yet he has little confidence in the Truth of his own Notions The Truth is lays he The Righteousness of the Law and of Works in the New-Testament signifies only an External Righteousness which cannot please God Now I began to think thus with my self Does the Righteousness of the Law signifie one thing in the New-Testament and another in the Old-Testament Does it signifie a real Inherent Substantial Righteousness in the Old and a Ritual External Righteousness in the New Sincerity in the one and Hypocrisie and Ceremony in the other this is very unaccountable Surely thought I when the Apostle argues with Jews or Judaizing Christians he speaks in their Dialect speaks to their Capacity speaks that he may be understood speaks ad idem They that had read Ps. 119. 144. The Righteousness of thy Testimonies of thy Law is everlasting would wonder to hear the Apostle speak against the Righteousness of the Law but alas he only equivocated and had a mental Reservation in his Sleeve and understood all the while Ceremony and hypocrisie But this is a Riddle which because our Author has made of his own Mother-wit he is the fittest Man alive to interpret it 3 His Second Antithesis is between my own Righteousness and the Righteousness of God and he is considering with himself in what sense they are opposed But there 's no great difficulty in this says he for the Apostle himself tells us that by his own Righteousness he means the Righteousness of the Law and by the Righteousness of God the Righteousness of Faith and therefore he will give this the gentle wipe and away But now he has quite spoiled the Humour of the double Antithesis for if by his own Righteousness he means the Righteousness of the Law and by the Righteousness of God the Righteousness of Faith then there 's but one single Antithesis between his own Righteousness which is of the Law on the one part and the Righteousness by the Faith of Christ even the Righteousness which is of God by Faith on the other part but at these rates he might have given us a treble quadruple sextuple Antithesis and have rung as many changes when his hand was once in upon two Bells as others can do upon six The Apostles Words indeed were clear very clear till our Author found it necessary to obscure them to deprave the Truth conciliate some small reverence to errour to which two Heads I foresaw from the first his whole Discourse might be reduced And thus much we are secured of That the Apostle has repudiated his own Righteousness from any concern in justification and that we may not doubt what that was he tells us 't is that of the Law What the Righteousness of the Law signifies is evident that which always bore that Name that which the Law commands and prescribes viz. An exact Conformity to the Law of God in Spirit Soul and Body so far as 't is attainable or not attainable He assures us next what he owns and adheres to viz. The Righteousness of Christ which is also called The Righteousness of God He further acquaints us how we come to be interessed in this Righteousness and that is by Faith and that we may not ignorantly or wilfully mistake Faith for the Doctrine of Faith he assures us that it 's by Believing by which we obtain this Righteousness Rom. 3. 22. The Righteousness which is by Faith of Iesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe To shut up his learned Exercitation or scholastical Dissertation or Diatriba of Antitheses our Author will favour us with a Reason nay with an obvious and the most obvious Reason why this Righteousness of the Law is called their own Righteousness because forsooth this Legal Righteousness was a way of their own chusing not of God's Appointment Now here he most falsly supposes that by the Righteousness of the Law is only meant a Righteousness made up of the Works of the Ceremonial Law but I think something has been offered to dash that fancy out of countenance I am in haste and intreat our Author to accept of short answers 1. God has not appointed a Righteousnes made up out of any observances of the Moral Law to be that Righteousness wherein Sinners shall stand justified before him If any will demand Iustification thereby God will demand exact and perfect Conformity If therefore Sinners will chase this way 't is their own Righteousness and it 's time to give it a bill of divorce God has not appointed it 2. External Washings External Conformity c. were no Righteousness at all much less the Righteousness of the Law that which it required to form a Righteousness and therefore chuse it or not chuse it this is nothing to the purpose The Apostle renounces his own Righteousness which is the Righteousness of the Law And this is further evident from Rom. 10. 3. which our Author quotes but miserably perverts For they being ignorant of Gods Righteousness and going about to establish their own Righteousness have not submitted to the Righteousness of God Here is then the same Antithesis again between their own Righteousness that of the Law and the Righteousness of God which is by the Faith of Jesus Christ and the opposition is so direct and diametrical that 't was impossible to establish their own but they must shake off all subjection to Gods Righteousness The Question then will be Whether we are to be justified by a Legal or an Evangelical Righteousness And to this our Author agrees in words but his Words intend quite another thing from the Truth For by the Law he understands the Law of Moses and let that pass too for once But then by the Law of Moses he understands only the Ceremonial Law though sometimes he is content to take in External Acts of Conformity to the Moral Law and thus by a Legal Righteousness or the Righteousness of the Law he understands one made up of External Observations only wherein the Apostle has clearly
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.