Incarnation nor was his Assumption of our Nature absolutely necessary to the discharge of his Prophetical but of his Priestly Office A Body was prepared him that he might have what to offer in Sacrifice to God Hebr. 10. 7 8. It was the Spirit of Christ that spake in the Prophets 1 Pet. 1. 11. and to deny this is to deny something more than all the Thirty nine Articles namely the Nicene Creed I believe in the Holy Ghost who spake by the Prophets But 2. I deny that to receive a Doctrine upon the Authority of Christ is the true and full Notion of believing on him Faith in general implies an assent to a Truth upon the Authority of the Revealer but to make this a saving a justifying Faith the assent of the Understanding must draw along with it the Consent of the Will A true Faith is described by such terms as include the Concurrent Acts both of the Will and the Understanding and therefore that which the Apostles Creed expresses I believe the Resurrection of the Body the Nicene Creed renders I look for the Resurrection of the Dead Taking in that Act of the Soul whereby it waits and stedfastly hopes for the goodness of the thing promised as well as credits the Veracity of God in the truth of the Proposition And thus Abraham believed in Christ he looked and waited for that rich Mercy wrap'd up in that promise of the Messiah and all those spiritual Blessings that were to come through him 3. The Reason of the Promise is the Object of Faith as well as the Truth of the Promiser Abraham believed the Promise to be true upon the Authority of him who gave it forth but he saw also that it was upon the account of Christ a Mediator that God would communicate to him the Blessings of the Covenant opitomized in that I will be thy God And this was that Gospel or Glad-tidings which was preached to Abraham Gal. 3. 8. But our Author threatens we shall hear more of this presently And I promise him when we do it shall be fully considered 2. He answers Affirmatively Abraham believed God To which I say Subordinat a non pugnant To believe God and to believe in Christ are very well consistent That Abraham believed in God and therefore he believed in Christ seems to me to carry as fair Reason as that other of his Abraham believed God and therefore he did not believe in Christ for the Scripture represents them as well agreed 1 Pet. 1. 21. Through Christ we believe in God 4. Our next Task must be to Combate with our Author's scruples and certainly never did man so snithe with prejudices against Truth It 's hard to conceive how Abraham should learn this Mystery from that general Promise In thy Seed shall all the Nations of the Earth be blessed Prejudice will I confess make an easier matter than this very hard and unbelief impossible to be conceived And yet were there not something worse than Prejudice at the bottom the difficulty could not be insuperable For 1. Abraham had one Promise that we know of to clear up the meaning of this Several Promises give Reciprocal light to one another The first Promise assured him That the Seed of the Woman should bruise the Serpents head This shews to Abraham the necessity of having that Enmity removed which the Devil by sin had sowen between God and his Creature the removing of this Enmity could not be whilst Satan had the Dominion over the Creature A Seed is therefore promised to heal all that misery which sin brought into the World This Promise was committed to the Church of God which was a faithful Guardian to keep so precious a Iewel committed to its trust In this Seed which God had now revealed should come out of the Loyns of Abraham God promises Blessedness which mutually sends light to the other Promise that God would not only by the Promised Seed Deliver from evil but bestow all good 2. Abraham might have other and better Comments upon both these Promises than we are concerned to know it 's enough for us that we are taught in general that Abraham was justified the same way that we are and what that is the New-Testament abundantly declares And therefore it 's more ingenuous to conclude That Abraham was justified by a Faith in Christ because we are so than That we are not justified by the Righteousness of Christ because Abraham was not so 3. Abraham understood the true use of Sacrifices which are a clear Paraphrase upon the Promise in what manner God would reconcile the World to himself namely by laying the sins of the Offender upon the head of that Sacrifice which in the fulness of time should be offered for a Propitiation to God In the Faith of which grand Propitiation all true Believers lived and died And when at length he was exhibited to the World Iohn the Baptist points to him as the Accomplishment of all their former Sacrifiees and the Answer of all their Prayers and Hopes This is that Lamb of God which takes away the sins of the World John 1. 29. But 4. The Promise it self is not so obscure neither but that upon this single Supposition That God would bless the World with spiritual Blessings in the promised Seed they might easily conclude they could not be blessed in themselves and therefore not in their own works and deservings but in the Righteousness of another who must be more acceptable to God than themselves 5. We ought to entertain charitable thoughts of God of his Goodness and Mercy that he would not preach to Abraham the Gospel in an unknown tongue that is would not give him a Promise without the full latitude and extent of its meaning And 6. We are assured of the matter of fact that God did because he had the same Gospel preached to him That God would justifie the Heathen through Faith Gal. 3. 8. Now as it 's a strange way of Preaching to speak in a Language not understood so it 's as strange a Gospel that knows no Mediator no Redeemer Whatever then was the Object of a Gospel-Faith was the Object of Abraham's Faith for substance and whatever did constitute a Gospel-Righteousness made up his Righteousness And yet after all this our Author has muster'd up more self-created Prejudices to stumble his own belief of the way of Abraham's Justification For he supposes that Abraham must believe many things incredible and know many things not knowable before he could come to the knowledg of the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness As 1. He must be well assured that the Blessings here meant are spiritual Blessings c. But if this be the worst on 't it would stumble me more to believe how he could believe Blessedness without pardon of sin and eternal life I cannot tell whether I shall satisfie another but I have satisfied my self in this matter from these Considerations 1. That Abraham upon his believing was
Caution to Declare his Righteousness to Clear and Vindicate it that God might be Iust and the Iustifier of them that should believe in Him Rom. 3. 25 26. These things would have had their Use but alas this Head was brought in by the Shoulders only to make way for more of our Authors excellent Theology Religion is the Theam he has singled out to practise upon and he considers it first in General and then in its particular Species 1. For Religion in General 'T is founded says he on a belief that God is and that he is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him Heb. 11. 6. That this is a Postulatum somewhat to be presupposed in all Religion is easily granted and and no more can be necessarily inferred from the Place All Religion does suppose the Existence of God and that it is not in vain to seek Him But if hence our Author would conclude that nothing more is required as a Foundation for Sinners to Build their hopes of Acceptation with God in their Approaches to him and Service of him he gathers what the Apostle strewed not and Reaps what c. where he Sowed not There are no Infidels in Hell the Devils believe God to Be and Tremble at their own Belief wishing they could perswade themselves what they have perswaded others that there is no God They know too that God is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him and yet they have no Foundation to come to God A despairing Cain a self-condemned Iudas may know this to be a Truth and yet not seeing a Mediator through whom they may securely come and find Acceptation in their seeking of Him they dare not they have no ground to come but if this be in very Deed the Foundation of all Religion why durst not our Author Trust to it but flie as Bellarmine to his Tutissimum est to the Lord Jesus Christ For pag. 15. He freely tells us That the Foundation of his Hope is that which is the Foundation of the Christian Religion the Sacrifice and Intercession of our Lord Iesus Christ. 2. For the Sorts and particular Kinds of Religion he is pleas'd to Instance only in three but he might as well would he have Created himself the trouble have named Threescore A various Mode or Circumstance does not Constitute a new Religion It may appear in various Garbs and Dresses be represented under other Oeconomies and Forms and yet continue the same for Substance The Ocean as it salutes differing Shoars falls under divers Denominations yet is but the same vast Body of the Sea There may be many false Religions Errour is Multiform Truth is Uniform but as to any that can plead for acceptance with God there never were but Two That of Integrous and upright Innocent Persons in Paradice and that other of Sinners retrieved and brought back to God by a Mediatour But I attend his Motions First Natural Religion as he says is founded on the natural Evidences of the Divine Bounty and goodness in making and Governing the World I now see my Errour and it 's well it is not too late He had told us pag. 14. That Religion in its first Natural Estate knew no Priest nor Sacrifice nor Mediatour Whence I innocently concluded that he spoke of a State of Pure and uncorrupt Nature which indeed knew none of these but I see I was but Choust for here we have a Natural state of Religion on this side the general Revolt from God below the common Apostacy of Mankind a Sublapsarian Posture of Affairs which yet is a meer stranger to Priest Sacrifice and Mediatour founded on Natural Evidences of Divine Bounty and Goodness To which I humbly offer That these Natural Evidences were not could not be a Foundation firm enough to bear the weight of the Religion of sinners in their Return to God so as to render them secure of Acceptation with him For 1. Those natural Evidences could not assure the guilty World that God would enter into a new Covenant with them nor Treat with them upon other Terms or upon another Account and as to the old Terms they were Lost as to any hope by them This we see plainly in Adam Who when he had sinned and Guilt Recoyled upon his Conscience in stead of Returning to God he became Vain in his Imaginations thinking to flie from him that is Omnipresent or to Abscond from him that is Omniscient he takes Covert in the Trees of the Garden and he gives this Reason He heard the Voice of God and was afraid And yet I see not but 't was as Rational acourse as to think of Returning to God when in that Covenant wherein he had stood and now had broken there was no provision for an After-game or salving Matters by Repentance The Law he had Violated in the Sanction thereof tells him he must Die Natural Evidences from Creation or Providence or present Patience and Reprieve spoke nothing till Supernatural Evidence came in in that Protevangelium the Oare and Bullion of Evangelical Discoveries The Seed of the Woman shall break the Serpents Head Gen. 3. 8 9 10. 15. But 2. I say that Natural Evidence would discover only common Goodness and general Bounty which God might afford the sinner without any security that he should not Perish eternally 3. Whatever Evidences man might have that God made the World which were Pregnant enough yet the Evidences that God did Govern the World would afford him but cold comfort Seeing that the Righteous Governour of the World could not be supposed by any other Laws or Rules to Administer it than those he had given at first which being now broken and the Creature withdrawn from Gods Order by Disobedience what could Natural Light discover but that God would Reduce the Creature again into Order by Punishment 4. Nor could the Evidences of Gods making the World give any Glimps of Assurance that first or last he would not destroy it though at present he suspended the Execution upon a Secret Design of Grace lodged in his own Bosom unless a Mediatour had Interpos'd and that Interposition Accepted and both Revealed to those Consciences which were fill'd with hideous Apprehensions about the Holiness of God Secondly The Mosaick Religion was founded on those Miraculous deliverances which God wrought for Israel and that particular Providence which watched over them To which I return 1. The Mosaick and the Christian are not different Religions but one and the same for Substance differing in Ceremony and Circumstance What they foresaw that we enjoy They had Christ in Sacrifices and we have all their Sacrifices in Christ What they had at sundry times and in divers manners that have we in one Uniform way by Christ They had scattered Particulars we have them all summ'd up in one Heb. 13. 8. Iesus Christ yesterday to day and the same for ever 2. The Miraculous deliverances which God wrought for Israel were indeed Cogent Motives super-added to those many others
his Mediation or to Trust in his Blood but you must â—…o Nomine doe it in Contradiction to the Terms of the Covenant sealed therewith or which is all one it 's impossible but that things subordinate should be opposite The blood of Christ and the Covenant of Christ are perfectly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Person of the Mediator and his Mediatory work cannot be conceived but they involve the thoughts in a thousand Contradictions Positio unius est Remotio Alterius Nay soft sayes he I onely mean in case they understand any more by these things than expecting to be saved according to the Terms of the Gospel-Covenant I do not think they doe And as our Author gave his word for those that are suspected to make Christs Person useless if my word would go as far as his I would readily engage it for them who are suspected to make his Laws useless And so once again all is Husht and still and the fearfull skirmish that was towards is at present stinted Pulveris exigui jactû Let me therefore in the Close give our Author one wholsome Caution That he would not be too rash and peremptory in drawing or wracking Conclusions from other mens Expressions Some will think he has mistaken in his own and may with more ease in others Principles and the Conclusions from thence A Ladder of Deductions and Inferences forty Rounds long is not easily master'd A Sorites or Climax may quickly impose upon us we are never sooner cheated than in a Chain of many links the smallest interruption may secrâ—…tly and insensibly discompose the whole series and concatenation of Dependencies wherein we fancy an infallible Connexion I would not anticipate 〈◊〉 Hericano ill weather comes unsent for and is alwayes too soon and unwelcome when it comes the latest let us therefore keep our selves well whilest we are well Thus smoothly we conclude and say Here ends your Worships Chapter for the Day CHAP. III. Section 1. Of the Knowledge of Christ. THis Section allures the Eye of the Reader with the specious Frontispiece of the knowledge of Christ but proves a mere MockBeggar-Hall and Fools Expectation like a Fair Porch to no House or a great Mountain without a Mouse just like the Guilded Titles of Apothecaries Boxes which pretend to Lodge the rich Drugs of Pontus and both the Indies but are Inhabited often by the Poysonous Spider and Hung with Cobweb-Tapistry Spun out of her own Bowels and Woven with her curious Fingers Or like those gawdy Signs which Encounter us upon the Road whose promising Motto first Invites the Traveller with Hopes of Horse-meat and Mans-meat and then Baffles his hopes with Entertainment that would sterve a Dog To see our Author heaving for a far-fetcht Blow you would verily think he Design'd to Knock the Business stone-dead for ever whilst he does but Imitate the Black-smith that would needs Use the great Sledge Hammer to Kill a Flie on his Childs Fore-head and very Discreetly dasht out the poor Infants Brains Leave we him therefore to the Satisfaction of his own private Thoughts a while and let ours give the Readers Patience a small Exercise The Happiness of Man consists in the Knowing and Enjoying the True God blessed for ever and therefore He who is never wanting to his own Glory nor to His Creatures Happiness in such ways as best Comply with His own Unsearchable Wisdom first Created Man and then gave him an Understanding to Know a Heart to Love and Enjoy His Creator Admirably proportioning his Faculties to his Employment and as he made it his Work and Wages to Love and Serve he furnisht him with a Soul qualifi'd to Love and Serve his God But when Man had sinned and thereby lost his Fitness for that blessed Service it pleas'd God to enter into a New and better Covenant with him Establisht upon that Promise Gen. 3. 15. The Seed of the Woman shall bruise the Serpents Head God would not suffer Satan to rejoyce too much in his success and glory in his greater hopes that he should sweep the World before him and draw the rational Creation into the same Ruine into which he found himself Irrecoverably Plunged The Father had Divided to the Redeemer a Portion with the Great and Promised He should Divide the Spoyl with the strong and Wrest out of his hands that Advantage he had gotten over Man by sin and the Curse inseparably annext to it In the Faith of this Promise had guilty Man encouragement to Return to God and not sinck down in black Despaire to which the Reflexions he must needs make upon that Cursed state he had so cheaply brought himself into could not but Expose him And though the Generality of the Sons of Men through their own sinful Negâ—…ect Lost the Faith of that first and precious Promise yet the Gracious God took Effectual Care that his Service and Worship should be carried down in a chosen Seed and holy Line from our first Parents by righteous Abel heavenly Enoch upright Noah and others to believing Abraham to whom he was Graciously pleas'd to vouchsafe a more Distinct and Explicit Revelation of the Promised Seed And whereas before all Families of the Earth might equally pretend to the hopes of it Now God Clears and Secures it to his Faith that in his Seed by the Line of Isaac should all the Nations of the Earth be Blessed In pursuance of this Promise and the glorious Design managed thereupon he Renews in a more Solemn Ample and full Manner the Covenant of Grace with him the Epitome and Abstract whereof was this Gen. 17. 7. I will be thy God And for the greater Security adds Circumcision a Seal of the Righteousness of Faith Rom. 4. 11. As the Family of Abraham was branched out into two so we observe how the vigilant Eye of Providence Traces that Line by which He had fore-appointed to Conveigh so Rich a Mercy as a Redeemer down to the following Generations And accordingly he Hedges it about with special Care Waters it with extraordinary Blessings Impales it from the Common and Wild of the World by distinguishing Ordinances that it might get a fixed Root in the Earth Hence was Ishmael waved and Isaac taken into special Protection Esau excluded and Jacob comes under the peculiar Cognizance of God just as the Stream and Current of the Promise found its proper Channel and the other Old ones grew either Shallow and Inconsiderable or quite Dried up For the better Securing and more prosperous Managing this great Project God was also pleased to cast the Posterity of Iacob into a visible Church-frame and Political Model appointing to them a Ceremonial Law as an Appendice to the former and the Iudicial Law as an Appendice to the latter Table of the Moral Law accommodating so the whole that all might lead to Him who was indeed the whole life and Soul of that Administration An High-priest and other inferiour ones he also instituted with great variety of
God excluded the World from all possible Means of Salvation is an Idâ—…e Dream when indeed they excluded themselves When God gave the Promise to the Common Parent of Mankind there was a Possibility in the Thing that that Means of Salvation might have been derived to all those Rivulets into which his Posterity should be subdivided and if it was not I conceive the fault was theirs not Gods and all that I know will be proved hence is That it 's marvellous dangerous to venture the Concerns of another World upon the Credit of Oral Tradition for if it proved treacherous when the Lives of men were drawn out to such a length what may We expect from it whose dayes are but as a shadow But if indeed the World lost that Promise its Encouragement and Warrant in drawing nigh to God I doe not cannot see that God was bound to repeat and renew it every Thirty or Forty years to every particular Kingdom Nation Countrey and the Individuals therein for fear of being wanting to his Creatures happiness and I have some hopes that our Authour will shew himself friendly in this business for he tells us p. 33. That Now the only true Medium of knowing God is the Knowledge of Christ who came into the World to declare God to us Has God then excluded the rest of the World from all possible means of Salvation or Did the Gospel of Christ come into every Nation in every Age and to every individual Man and Woman of that Age or else must we say that God is wanting to his Creatures in not affording to them but excluding them from all possible Means of Salvation But further God hath maintain'd a Church in all Ages of the World where the Means of Salvation have been enjoy'd and there was a possibility of being interessed in the Priviledges and Advantages of that Church for so sayes our Author p. 29. The rest of the world when they pleased might fetch the best Rules of Life from Israel And in all probability if it was possible to fetch any thing from them it was as easie to come to and joyn with them and then again it was as easie every jot to fetch other means of Salvation as the best Rules of Life But I am afraid we do not discourse ad idem all this while perhaps he may reckon upon those to be sufficient Means of Salvation which we think insufficient to Man under his present Circumstances Let him therefore set up for himself and prove if he be Able That the knowledge of so much of the will of God as may be known from the works of Creation and Providence is a sufficient means for the saving of Mankind in any Age he will pick out considered as represented by the Church of England in her Ninth Article and he shall either have a just Confutation or a speedy Recantation One Text of Scripture he judges will doe his work Rom. 3. 29. Is he the God of the Iews onely is he not also of the Gentiles Yes of the Gentiles also It will be convenient to remember here what he is proving least his Argument should be sick of an old Disease which some call Ignoratio Elenchi And that was That God did not design by choosing Abrahams Posterity to exclude the rest of the world from all possible means of Salvation much less from his Care and Providence And we will readily own that all that the Apostle had been excluding from Iustification and Salvation was onely an importunate Thing which has ever giveâ—… the world trouble in this matter call'd Boasting So that shut out but that and take in what you will or can God is resolved to justifie none Iew or Gentile but in such a way as shall solidly ascribe all the Glory to Himself So that our Author may sleep on both ears in this matter The Gentiles were never excluded all possibility of Salvation if they excluded not themselves by Neglecting that Justification by Faith which he had proclaimed for so saith the Apostle v. 30. It is one God which shall justifie the Circumcision by Faith and the Uncircumcision through Faith There is one God alwayes the same and one Faith ever uniform and what need had our Author then to fancy That Enoch and Noah were justifi'd one way Abraham another and Believers since the coming of Christ a third way For the same Apostle Hebr. 4. 2. proves that the Gospel was preached to the Iews from of Old as well as unto others since his Appearing in the flesh the same Gospel For unto us was the Gospel preached as well as unto them and he proves also that the same Gospel was also preached to Abraham that was preached to the Iews Galat. 3. 8. The Scripture foreseeing that God would justifie the Heathen through Faith preached before the Gospel unto Abraham To Abraham in the state of Uncircumcision and therefore under the Notion of a Gentile and not a Circumcised Iew. But I would not hinder our Author from making the very best improvement he can of the Text. Which Argument saith he if it have any force in it must prove Gods respect to the Gentiles before the preaching of the Gospel as well as since because it is founded on that Natural Relation God owns to all Mankind as their mercifull Creator and Governour If it have any force in it why do you Question that He speaks of St. Paul's way of Arguing sometimes as if a man might draw Cutts whether it should have any strength in it or no or as if it were an even lay one way or t'other No but that If is not dubitantis but arguentis If it have as undoubtedly it hath what then Why it must prove Must There 's the singular Happiness of the Man who is one of Pauls familiar Acquaintances and privy to all the Cryptick wayes of his Argumentation but what must it prove why that before the preaching of the Gospel God had respect to the Gentiles as well as since Have a little Patience 1. I would fain know when that time was before the preaching of the Gospel for we have heard that the Gospel was preached to Abraham to the Iews in the Wilderness and I think that was Gospel too that was preached to Adam That the seed of the Woman should bruise the Serpents head Indeed there was a time when the Gospel was more clearly publickly and eminently preached call'd therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the times of the Gospel but I do not know of any of which it could be said simply and absolutely the Gospel was not preached 2. I would very gladly learn also what that respect was God had for the Gentiles A respect there might be upon Common Accounts he was their mercifull Creator and Governour but that respect is short of what our Author designs And he might have a respect for the future there being good Evidences of Gods intentions to bring in the Gentiles more universally to the knowledge of the
Divinity but here I want that Candor For not content to glean amongst Volkelius his Sheaves which an honest man may doe he steals the very Shocks and never so much as once owns his Benefactor Lib. 3. de verâ Relig. p. 173. Deus non nisi per Christum cognosci potest ut qui Dei inconspicui Imago est 2 Cor. 4. 4. eúmque id est ejus voluntatem nobis enarravit Now will you have our Authors Translation in Masquerade Christ hath made a True representation of the Divine Nature and Will and it 's plain that in this Sence Christ is called the Image of God 2 Cor. 4. 4 It 's Plain yes wondrous plain that Volkelius is of that Opinion and for any other plainness we are to seek For so he Ibid. Quâ de causâ splendor gloriae Dei character substantiae ejus appellatur Hebr. 1. 3. utpote clarissimè perfectissiméque Divinam voluntatem nobis explanans But here I perceive our Author will compound willingly with him and fairly part stakes with him Upon which account sayes he as well as with respect to his Divine Nature he is call'd The Brightness of his Fathers Glory and the express Image of his Person And when our Author has yielded him The May be so we remember his Excellency in concluding it Must be so I confess I have neither list nor leisure to follow our Author through the tedious Ramble of his Repetitions because I see he loves no bodies Tautologies but his own nor shall I be much concern'd to enquire after that odd generation of Men who if our Author may be believed clamour most unmercifully that Christ is never Preach'd unless he be Named in every Sentence For I know well it 's easie to make a Man of Clouts and then to arraign condemn and execute in Effigie the Creature oâ—… our own Making Thus did the Barbarous Heathens cloath the Primitive Christians in Bears-skins and then expose them to be torn in pieces by the Dogs And thus are Christians dress'd up by the bloody Papists in the Sambenit or Devils-Coat and then committed as Hereticks to the greater Mercy of the devouring flames I know it 's an easie thing with our Author to Name Christ a hundred times and yet to speak as very little of Gospel as he has done But one thing I must and desire the Reader that he will not fail to take special Notice of I find our Author over the shooes in Love and most desperately doting upon his own Critical Learning for having observed to us Ch. 1. that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. 4. 20. signifies not Taught as our English Translation jejunely renders it but instructed emphatically Instructed And suspecting least by this time in a dust of words and hurry of Business we might have quite forgot it he very charitably rubs up our Memory and referrs us to the place of its Birth where that happy Criticisme first drew its breath and appeared in the World 'T is Chapter the First Reader Oh! never forget Chapter the First Happy Chapter the First that first teem'd so precious a Notion for the Benefit of succeeding Ages Now because these Papers of mine and his are like to be long-lived and perhaps not to survive the year of their Birth and yet to be deprived of the Observation would be a loss Irreparable let me begg of our Author to send this enclosed Note to Mr. P. which I have left open that he may have the Honour of Letters Patents TO THE Reverend Author of the Synopsis Criticorum aliorumque S. S. Interpretum SIR BEing a great Admirer of and a small subscriber to your learned Labours I was also Ambitious to contribute something to their Intrinsick Value Be pleased therefore when Ephes. 4. 20. shall call for your Industry to take special Notice of the latâ—… Observation of Mr. W. S. and instead of Taught to read Instructed and as you will thereby enrich your Work and doe right to the Author so will you Oblige Posterity and particularly Your humble Servant N. N. Having thus fairly rid my hands of the Encumbrance of our Author I might honestly wind up this Section did I not think it might be acceptable to the Reader to receive a Bâ—…eviate of some of the True Reasons why it was Necessary Christ should come into the world the main Work he had to do here and the special Design of that Work in reference to God and Man 1. The Causes rendering it Necessary that the Son of God should once appear in this lower World are such as these 1. The first Cause lay deep 〈◊〉 the Bosom Counsel and Decree of God who 〈◊〉 he viewed the Fall and Revolt of Man from 〈◊〉 the world was so did he purpose effectually to recover again to himself his Elect by Christ Therefore is God said 1 Tit. 1. 2. to promise 〈◊〉 Life before the World began that the Faith of 〈◊〉 Elect eyes this Promise that the Ministers of 〈◊〉 Gospel do preach this Promise all of which 〈◊〉 onely Yea and Amen in Christ 2. The Complyance of the Son of God in pursuance of this Eternal Purpose is very considerable who was autâ—…ritatively sent and voluntarily came to speed the Decree and Counsel of God Heb. 10. 7. Lo I 〈◊〉 to do thy Will O God 3. The Early Promise of a Redeemer almost from the Foundation of the World made God a Debtor not to Man buâ—… to his own Truth to send him in the Fulness of tiâ—… into the World who before all Time was purposeâ—… and in the first dawnings of Time was promised Heb. 10. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iâ—… the Beginning of the Scripture in the Head of the Book it is written viz. Gen. 3. 15. That the seed of the Woman should bruise the Serpents head 4. The renewed and frequently repeated and gradually â—…nlarged Promises and Propheâ—…ies of a Redeemer once to be actually exhibited whereby God kept alive the drooping Hope and languishing Faith of his Church as Candidates in a state of Expectancy superadded another Cause of the Necessity of Christs coming in the Flesh Gen. 49. 10. The Scepter shall not depart from Judah nor a Law-giver from between his feet till Shiloh come Isa. 9. 6. Unto us a Child is born unto us a Son is given and his Name shall be called Wonderfull Counsellor the Mighty God the Everlasting Father the Prince of Peace 5. The Types and Shadowes which from the Beginning represented him to the Faith of Believers had all their Strength Vertue and Efficacy from Him and that also made it Necessary that Christ the Substance should come to answer them for what could the blood of Bulls and Goats signifie to the appeasing of Gods Anger the removing of Guilt and the making peace betwixt God and Man which the Scripture frequently assures us they did doe and yet the same Scripture as clearly assures us in their own Nature they could not doe otherwise than with respect to
without considering either Antecedents or Consequents to Nibble at some Expression that seems most lyable to Exception but herein we begge not his favour onely demand Iustice That he may not Usurp a Liberty to suppose that the Doctor asserts Revelation to be wholly silent in this Matter Revelatition silent Alas it rings loud with the continual sound of Gods pardoning Mercy to Sinners onely the Doctor judges that Revelation directs us to this Mercy of God through a Mediator for the obtaining of it When therefore our Author asks fo pertly whether the Doctor be not a confident Man to lay down such a Position I onely teturn that I have known our Author far more confident upon far less Grounds when the Doctor has a Foundation for his Confidence let him be so and spare not A great deal less Confidence may be sinfull when it wants a Basis proportionable to beare its weight and a great deal more Justifiable when it 's born up with sufficient Warrant Tell not me of the Doctors Confidence but examine his Reasons for it and let us see what our Author can do to dismount it Truely he offers us but one thing but I assure you it 's a knocker The Experence says he of the whole World confutes him Never was Man so confuted and confounded as he that stems the Experience of the whole World for though I ever look'd upon Experience as a very ticklish way of Confutation and the best way of employing them is to Experience in our own Souls the Virtue and Efficacy of certainly revealed Truths and not to make them the Umpires of questionable Doctrines yet I should be loth to run counter to the universal Sentiments of Mankind and the Experience of the whole World shall carry a mighty stroke in my Judgement but has our Author taken their Experiences by the Pole and do they one and all give in their Suffrages against the Doctor Yes Both Iews and Gentiles who knew nothing of what Christ was to doe in order to our Recovery did believe God to be gracious and mercifull to sinners I must own it That Jews and Gentiles are a sufficient enumeration of particulars they did once divide the World betwixt them and if they both agree in their Verdict against the Doctor Nemine contradicente he is gone for ever being over-born with Epidemical Experience 1. For the Iews the Day is like to goe for our Author if it be true what he tells us That God assured them he was a Gracious and Mercifull God pardoning iniquity transgression and sin which certainly he is and then that They knew nothing at all of what Christ was to doe for our Recovery but all the stick lyes there and we must enter a Friendly Debate with him upon the issue For 1. Whatever Manifestation of Gods Sin-pardoning Mercy was given to the Church of Old it had reference to the Blood of Christ who was as really sacrificed to their Faith as he was crucified to the Faith of the 〈◊〉 Galat. 3. 1. The Jewish Sacrifices were Types designed and appointed by God to represent that one Sacrifice which Christ should once offer upon the Cross to God and without reference to the Expiation of Sin Atonement and Propitiation of God made by him and manifested by them it would have puzzled the Faith of any particular person that God would pardon sin notwithstanding that Revelation Exod. 34. 6. for is it not immediately added And that will by no means clear the guilty God in that place reveals to Moses his Name that is his Nature and if we consult particulars we shall find that it 's as fair a Letter in Gods Name not to clear the Guilty under which Character all the world stand before God Rom. 3. 19. as to pardon iniquity but all this was cleared up and made easie by a believing attendance to those bloody Sacrifices which though weak in themselves yet receivâ—…d a Sacrament al strength from Him who travelled in the greatness of his to reconcile God and Man by the Blood of his Croâ—…s 2. There 's nothing more vain and idle than to 〈◊〉 that the Iews knew nothing at all of what Christ was to doe in order to our Recovery For 1. It was sufficient for that Dispensation that God had Revealed a Mediator who should take up the Controversie between God and sinners and this he did when it was early day with the world to Adam when received into a Covenant of Grace T is true the more minute Circumstances of when and how He should come in what manner he should accomplish his work might be veyled with some Obscurities and perplexed with some difficulties at the first yet still they had a Promise in the Lump that the Seed of the Woman should bruise the Head of the Serpent which the Apostle interprets Heb. 2. 14. by destroying him that had the Power of Death even the Devil And as it seemed good to the Wisdom of God to give forth the Promise at first in gross so in process of time to graduate and heighten the discovery of the Messias That there should come a deliverer out of Sion to turn away ungodliness from Iacob Isa. 59. 20. was evidently laid before their Faith to these Revelations did true Believers attend and by this Key did they open the difficultie how God should be a God pardoning Iniquity and yet by no means clear the Guilty And as the prefixed time of Christs appearing in the World drew nearer so the Prophesies and Promises of his Person Nature Work and Design thereof with the Circumstances attending it were multiplyed and more explicitely made out to them that so as they were growing up out of the State of Childhood and emerging from under their Bondage the discoveries of a Saviour might enlarge their Hearts and Minds in Knowledge Joy Love and Peace By Isaiah it was revealed that he should be born of a Virgin Isa. 7. 14. that he should be Immanuel God with us therein discovering both his Natures in one Person and his design to bring God and Man into one Covenant By the fame Prophet was it distinctly revealed what should be his Work and Employment his Dignity and Authority and the Success of all Isa. 9. 6. For unto us a Child is born unto us a Son is given and the Government shall be upon his shoulders and his Name shall be called Wonderfull Counsellor the Mighty God the Everlasting Father the Prince of Peace of the encrease of his Government and Peace there shall be no end By the fame Prophet it was revealed Chap. 53. by what means mainly he should accomplish the Ends of his coming into the World by being wounded for our Transgressions bruised for our Iniquities healing us by his stripes by Gods laying upon him the Iniquities of us all that it pleased the Father to bruise him to make his Soul an Offering for sin by the travel of his Soul by pouring it out to death being numbred amongst the