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A36515
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A friendly debate between Satan and Sherlock containing a discovery of the unsoundness of Mr. William Sherlocks principles in a late book entituled A discourse concerning the knowledge of Jesus Christ &c., by this only medium, that they afford the Devil the same grounds for his hope of salvation that they do mankind, and so subvert the Gospel and transform Christianity into Mahumetanism / by an hearty enemy of Mahumetanism.
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Danson, Thomas, d. 1694.
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1676
(1676)
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Wing D213; ESTC R24867
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29,839
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72
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says unawares Sherlock Never fear that but hear me out And I think no man will deny that God was very highly pleased with the perfect obedience of our Saviours life p. 330 331. Satan No I dare say not Socinus himself Enough enough I see what you would be at Christ by his obedience satisfecit voluntati divinae non justitiae i. e. satisfied Gods will not his justice I am past doubt now that J.O. and W.S. are not like to be very good friends in haste Sherlock Verbum sat sapienti A word is enough to the wise Now to answer your Queries which too hastily you concluded you were prevented in I will tell you what Faith is not requisite to the participation of the benefits of Christs Righteousness There is not a plainer Argument how apt men are to pervert the Scriptures to reconcile them to their own prejudices and preconceived Opinions than to observe what work they make with Abrahams Faith as if that Faith which was imputed to him for righteousness were a fiducial reliance and recumbency on Christ for salvation upon which the righteousness of Christ apprehended by Faith was imputed to him p. 247. Satan If Abrahams Faith was not a fiducial reliance and recumbency on Christ for Salvation then to be sure nor any of his Childrens For they walk in his steps and imitate his Example But pray what Faith is requisite to make Christ our Saviour seeing a Saviour you will have him to be I care not if I hear you out Sherlock Our Faith in Christ must signifie such a stedfast belief of all those revelations which Christ both made to the World as governs our lives and actions p. 255. Satan Then I perceive I am one half of a Believer already for I stedfastly believe all those Revelations which Christ hath made to the World and I am not without hopes of being the other half in good time of having my life and actions governed by my Belief Sherlock You have no cause of despair for besides what I have told you already that God produces not what he loves by an Omnipotent Power but does good to his Creatures in such a way as is suitable to their natures Righteousness is called a gift because it is not owing solely to humane endeavours but is wrought in us by supernatural means by those powerful arguments and motives and divine assistances which God in infinite love and goodness has afforded the world by Jesus Christ p. 335. Satan I understand you right well That Righteousness or the good government of life and actions is called Gods gift because he gives one half but hardly the better half would a Fanatick say the arguments and motives which are very powerful in genere morali to induce the world to make it self-righteous and them you call divine assistances because God assists the World by them that is by those Arguments and Motives perswades men to use the power they have for to give them any power they wanted were for God to produce what he loves by an Omnipotent Power in genere Physico Sherlock There 's no need of any Omnipotent Power in the Fanatick sense For that righteousness which Goâ—â—equires under the Gospel must be an inward principle of love and obedience which changes our natures and transforms us into the Image of God as much as if we were born again and made new creatures p. 265. Satan You mean Sir that a stedfast Belief of Gods revelations does excite that love and obedience which changes our natures c. and so makes a new Birth needless but Mr. Sherlock some cavelling Fanatick would bâ— so perverse I dare say were you discoursing with him as to tell you that our natures are changed before they can put forth a Belief stedfast enough to excite love and obedience And as they will be fooling with Scripture-metaphors though you have corrected them for it p. 281. they would tell you that the Childs motion does not give it life but its life gives it motion Sherlock And as for that union that you mentioned between Christ and Believers the Fanaticks commonly explain it by first a Legal union such as is between the surety and debtor p. 281. some insist most upon the notion of a Surety others of a Mediator which come much to one but yet have some peculiar absurdities belonging to each of them p. 287. As first for the notion of a Surety Satan You need not tire your self with the repetition of them I can easily guess at them the imparity between Christs being a Surety and sureties among men As to that you know the Rule Similitudo non currit quatuor pedibus Similitudes do not hold in every thing It will be thought enough that they agree in the main that as the Debtor and Surety are so far one person in the eye of humane law that the payment of the Surety is the Debtors discharge so Christ and a Believer are so far one person in the eye of the Divine Law that Christs undergoing the punishment of the Law discharges the Believer from it and Christs active obedience to the Law disobliges the Believer from obeying it to that end for which it was originally intended and for which Christ obeyed it viz. that it might be the material and meritorious cause of our justification Sherlock Let us now try whether the notion of a Mediator can do any better service than the notion of a Surety p. 296. The notion of a Mediator includes no such thing as the fulfilling of all righteousness for them whom one is Mediator to p. 296 297. Satan Sir Your Antagonists answer will be the same in effect that though a Mediator is one who interposes between two differing parties and his Office is not to perform the conditions himself as you well observe p. 297 yet the difference between God and man could not be accommodated you will be told by this Mediator but by performing the conditions himself For the reason why God would not enter into a Covenant with sinners without the intervention of a sacrifice p. 297 was because his Law being broken till the penalty due to that breach was undergone and his honour thereby vindicated he could not right his Mercy without wronging his Justice Sherlock I have done with the Legal Vnion There is secondly a Mystical Vnion by vertue of which they imagine that we receive Grace from Christs person just as we do water out of a Conduit p. 197 204. Whereas a Mediator as Mediator ought not to be considered as the Fountain but as the Minister of Grace p. 209. Satan I have always understood that they mean no more by their Mystical Vnion than an union Analogical to natural union such as that of Vine and Branches Head and Members by vertue of which they suppose they are passive in receiving grace from Christ as the Branches in receiving sap from the Root and the Members spirits from the Head But this I perceive is an imagination
mans Salvation by a Saviour the wisdom of God I had thought the reason had been because there was no other means of Salvation but this which he alone did and could find out Sherlock You are grosly mistaken For if justice be so natural to God that nothing can satisfie him but the death of his Son the Redemption of the World by Christ may discover his justice or goodness but not his wisdom for wisdom consists in the choice of the best and fittest means to attain an end when there are more ways than one of doing it p. 48. I grant indeed that no doubt but the Gospel of Christ makes great and glorious discoveries of the wisdom of God Ib. and I have told you wherein before In that he sent his own son c. when he had attempted various ways before with little success for the recovery of mankind p. 89. Satan I pray proceed to your second head Sherlock That supposing a Saviour of absolute necessity to your salvation you need not absolutely despair of one When we consider that this Heavenly Embassador and Mediator is no less than the eternal Son of God by whom the Worlds were made we may reasanably conclude that he came upon no less design than of universal goodness for he can have no temptation to partiality as being equally concerned in the happiness of all men and we cannot imagin why he should lay a narrower design of love in the Redemption than in the Creation of Mankind that when in the first he designed all men for happiness in this new and second Creation he should design and intend the happiness only of some few p. 82 83. Satan I see the force of your Argumentation That the eternal Son of God being my Creator as well as mans I may reasonably conclude he came upon no less design than of universal goodness to me as well as men For seeing he designed me for happiness as well as mankind in the first Creation why should he design their happiness only and not mine in the new and second Creation For he as our common Creator can have no temptation to partiality as being equally concerned in the happiness of all his reasonable Creatures Angels and Men. The smaller Exceptions against this Argumentation must give way to a greater That you told me before that none could believe in Christ till he came p. 247. Now I understand not why they could not if he was the eternal Son of God by whom the World was made For then he was pre-existent and being God they that lived before he came in the flesh wanted not the Ratio Formalis of Divine Faith the Authorety of God revealing But I presume you mean that Christ was from eternity decreed to be the Son of God in time non Deus natus sed factitius not God by nature but deputation as you know who says and who added in a scoff mirum quod non substituisset fictitius I wonder he did not say an imaginary God Prid. Lect. 18. And that the World made by him was non quem videmus sed quem expectamus not the world which we see but a settlement of the Gospel-Dispensation And now I think on it it comes much to one for my comfort seeing he was sent by our common Creator who can have no temptation to partiality in sending Christ for men only and not for Angels as being equally concerned in all our happiness To dismiss this There is one obvious Objection against my inference of your own suggestion The Son of God was made a man as we are which argues a good will and kindness to humane nature p. 81 82. But I think I can answer it my self that the Son of Gods admitting an innumerable company of my fellow-Angels to attend upon him as Mediator argues a good will and kindness to Angelical nature There is another too which I will not now put you to answer having given you so great a trouble already but will consider of it by my self The Objection is this that 't is no partiality for the Son of God though he hath taken the nature common to mankind to save as few as he please for partiality or respect of persons hath no place in granting largesses or bestowing donatives And if so 't is no partiality to save mankind and leave me to the ruin I have brought upon my self It is the Calvinists answer to your great Argument for universal Redemption and it leaves some scruple upon my mind Upon the whole of your discourse I perceive I slipt my time for want of due information of regaining the love of God without a Saviour for that I might have done any time before he came in the flesh for no man nor Angel could believe in Christ till he came But that time is gone and past and cannot be recall'd I must now for my comfort consider what he hath done and suffer'd and how the benefit of both may redound to me First then I consider that his active righteousness must be imputed to me so far as it is a conformity to that law of Nature which is common to me and mankind Sherlock This makes Christ suitable to the wants of a sinner indeed that he haâ—â— a righteousness for him which God infinitely prefers before any home-spun righteousness of his own This is a very comfortable notion for bad men and such as I would not part with for all the world did I resolve to live wickedly and yet intend to get to heaven p. 234. Satan What Sir do you jeer Sherlock I tell you that Abraham and all the good men of old never heard of the righteousness of Christ imputed to us p. 256. Satan No I see St. Paul is a man of no credit with you He says that Abraham had a righteousness without works imputed to him That could not be his own righteousness for that were contradictio in adjecto to say he had a righteousness of his own without works of his own as your Schools say righteousness resulting from the conformity of works to a Law It must therefore be the righteousness of another and who that other should be but Christ I cannot tell but I would be glad to learn Sherlock The great dispute in the Epistle to the Romans is whether we must be justified by the Law of Moses or by the faith of Christ i. e. whether the observation of all the external rites and ceremonies of the Law and an external conformity of our actions to the moral precepts of it will justifie a man before God or that fincere and universal obedience which the Law requires p. 245. Satan One would think that it had been unquestionable that Abrahaus could not have had whereof to glory if he had been justified by an external conformity to the Ceremonial and Moral precepts of the Law But I perceive one may live and learn But though there is no need of a Saviour as to any active righteousness of his to be