Blood if he were found out of the City of Refuge it was only the City of Refuge which conferr'd and established his Preservation and Safety So the Sinner cannot be saved from Wrath to come without Faith in Christ But the Propitiation according to the Will of God by the Blood of the Everlasting Covenant can only make a Sinner perfect before the Tribunal of God's infinite Justice Therefore to assign any degree of Ability to any Act of Faith as meritorious of Justification is to usurp upon Christ and to incur the severe Animadversion of the Almighty Then will I confess unto thee that thine own Right-hand can save thee The everlasting Covenant of Grace is ordered in all things and sure For the Foundation of God standeth sure having this Seal The Lord knoweth them that are his And let every one that nameth the Name of Christ depart from Iniquity But unto the wicked God saith What hast thou to do to declare my Statutes or that thou shouldst take my Covenant into thy Mouth These Scriptures fully evidence that altho the Covenant of Mercy to Sinners is established only in the free Grace of God and the meritorious Satisfaction and Righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ yet there remains an utter Incapacity in any Person to partake actually of the Benefit thereof until by the Spirit of Christ without which not any can be Christ's he be born again and made a new Creature For the State of every Man since the Fall is a Complication of Misery under Condemuation Dementation and mortal Corruption Accordingly the necessary Remedies are distinct Justification to take away Condemnation and Sanctification to free from Corruption by a new Principle of Life by a renewed Faculty of Life acted by a new Rule the Word of God written in the Heart directed to and aiming at a new End and Mark the Glory of God and the Prize of our high Calling in Christ Jesus our Eternal Salvation Accordingly the Tenour of the New Covenant is both promised and expressed in the Old and New Testament Then will I sprinkle clean Water upon you and ye shall be clean This imports that washing throughly and cleansing from Iniquity and Sin so as to be whiter than Snow which is supplicated by David and promised by God to Sins of the deepest Stain being effected by the Blood of Sprinkling the Blood of the Everlasting Covenant which makes us perfect to do his Will For the End why the Blood of Christ who by the Eternal Spirit offered himself without Spot to God purges the Conscience from dead Works is to serve the Living God But God is the God of the Living not of the Dead Therefore as the Condemnation of Death is to be taken away in Christ Jesus so the Corruption of Death is to be abolished which cannot be without a new Principle and Faculties of Life and being made a new Creature Accordingly the Covenant of Grace proceeds to promise A new Heart also will I give you and a new Spirit will I put within you This is that renewing of the Holy Ghost vouchsased unto the foolish and disobedient who are unperswadable by any Moral Argumentation being deceived serving divers Lusts and Pleasures because the Heart of Man is full of Evil and Madness is in his Heart while he lives and after that he goes to the Dead This is the native Misery of every one and the Recovery is as wonderful as to restore the Habit and Exercise of Reason into a Person depraved with Idiotism or Madness Now as they who are such tho they are sometimes capable of uttering some words sensible and rational yet they are utterly unable to perform or maintain the Tenour of reasonable Discourse or Conversation So neither can any meer animal Man dead in Sins and Trespasses before he be made a new Creature by being born again live to the Glory of God the End of Being or in Communion with God the highest Felicity of every Intelligent Being This is the Gift of God as our Lord saith to the Jews No Man can come to me except it were given him of my Father Judas indeed came to our Lord as many do in Profession but not in Heart He did believe with a Faith of general Assent and of particular Fiducial Assiance in the Power of Christ for miraculous Operation but not with a Faith of vital Union with Christ so as to dwell in Christ and Christ in them so as to live by Christ which cannot be without having the Spirit of Christ Also our Lord saith I have chosen you and ordained you to bring forth Fruit that should remain and persevere even much Fruit to the Glory of God Election Vocation Justification and Sanctification are inseparable Eternal Election is unto Holiness and Justification of Life is universally and necessarily conjoin'd with Renovation of Life The End of which is Activity Operation Fruitfulness without which there is Death Burning Destruction for good Works are ordained by God to be the Walk and Conversation of every Child of God For this is the Covenant God makes with every Israelite to put his Laws into their Minds and write them in their Hearts as both the Rule and Inclination of Life which is indeed to be taught of God to know God without which it is impossible that God shall be to any a God Covenant-Relation or that any can be a People to God Now as the Principle of Life and the Operation of Life so Justification and Sanctification are not confoundable yet always inseparable For of God are we in Christ Jesus who of God is made unto us Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption That no Flesh should glory in his sight but according as it is written Let him that glorieth glory in the Lord. From the beginning of Apostacy the Devil was a Murderer and a Liar When he speaketh a Lie he speaketh of his own for he is a Liar and the Father of it He envenomed the old World with the evil Imaginations of continual Contempt of God and profane Irreligion which broke out in all the Acts of Wickedness and Violence justly provoking the Vengeance of God to destroy that World of Atheistical Rebels When through infinite Mercy a small Remnant of eight Persons were not only spared to survive the Deluge that had swept away the World of the Ungodly but much more a Covenant of Grace and the Blessing thereof was renewed to them and to their Seed confirmed unto Noah by the Acceptance of instituted Sacrifice Then again the great Adversary and Deceiver of Mankind tempted the new World to distrust Safety in the Promise of the living and true God and to attempt Self preservation in a Structure of Babel or Confusion in the Land of Shinar the proper Base upon which was to be built and established the House of Wickedness that is the
of the Devil and more evidently by the Institution of Sacrifices For it is a most absurd Derogation from the Soveraignty of a Creator and Contradiction to the Duty of a Creature to impose upon God the necessity of accepting the groundless Fancy of a guilty Malefactor in the highest degree of desperate Wickedness to be a Price of Redemption from everlasting Wrath Considering also that Man had no Title of Interest or rightful Power over any of his Follow-Creatures to substitute any of them a Sacrifice for his Sin Indeed It was an early and due Apprehension that every Sin was of capital Guilt and Forfeiture of Life But it could never have entered into the Heart of Man to conceive how God could be just and the Justifier of Sinners until God had revealed it by his Spirit and the Word of his Grace The Apprehension of Propitiation attainable by Sanguinary Sacrifices could not be a Primary Notion in any Human Mind but consequent and derivative from the Institution of Sacrifices by the express Command and Appointment of God without which it was impossible to please God For Faith cannot be or subsist without a word of Command and Promise But to fancy a Religious Worship to appease the just Wrath and to conciliate the Favour of the Majesty of the Great and Terrible God the Creator of all Beings by any performance of Offering not instituted expresly by God is a presumption becoming a dumb Idol or some precarious Superstition and is an effectual practical Denial of the insinite Perfections of God obtruding and imposing the Blood and Carcass of a wretched Calf or Sheep to expiate the Guilt of most nefandous Crimes and satisfy infinite Justce Neither can there be any possible ground of Reason to imagine that the Ceremonial Ordinances of Sacrifices and other Rites of Divine Worship and Service were instituted by God with respect to or Motive from the superstitious Practice or Expectation of profane Sinners who offered their Devotion to Devils as the Word of God expresly testifies That the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to Devils and not to God But Sacrifices and all other Typical Services and Ordinances were by God appointed until the time of Reformation when Christ came an High Priest of good things to come that is everlasting who by the eternal Spirit offer'd himself without Spot to God by his own Blood to purge our Consciences from dead Works that is from Sins deserving Death to serve the living God The Ceremonial Law had a Shadow of good things to come but not Virtue to make the Comers thereunto perfect For it is not possible that the Blood of Bulls and of Goats should take away Sin Therefore because in Sacrifices and Offerings for Sin God could not take Pleasure as therein receiving any Satisfaction to Justice When Jesus Christ came into the World he faith A Body hast thou prepared me Lo I come to do thy Will O God by the which Will we are sanctisied through the offering of the Body of Jesus Christ once But this Will of God was not induced by any Temporary Consideration it was from everlasting God hath chosen us in Christ before the Foundation of the World God hath saved us and called us with an holy Calling not according to our Works but according to his own Purpose and Grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the World began In hope of Eternal Life which God that cannot lie promised before the World began Who verily was fore-ordained before the Foundation of the World but was manifested in these last Times It could not then be in Compliance with any Human Apprehension of Expiation of Sin by any Sacrifice of any Creature that Jesus Christ was constitued and given by God to be the Propitiation and Redemption for Sinners But contrariwise God having according to the Counsel of his own free Will made known to our first Parents in their dismal Fall the Mystery of his Will in the Promise of the Seed of the Woman to break the Serpent's Head And then for the Confirmation of that Promise and for the support of Faith instituted Sacrifices revealed first to Adam then to Noah and consequently in them to the whole World of Mankind Noah builded an Altar unto the Lord and took of every clean Beast and of every clean Fowl and offered Burnt-offerings upon the Altar And the Lord smelled a sweet Savour or a Savour of Rest and Satisfaction Now this could not he affirmed or believed unless such Sacrifices had been according to the express Institution of God who as was before observed only could appoint the Discrimination of Beasts clean and unclean All which also was performed and accepted with respect to and in virtue of the Offering and Sacrifice of Christ himself to God for a sweet smelling Savour Immediately upon Noah's Sacrifice God established his Covenant with Noah and his Seed after him Thus all Mankind was by Divine Institution initiated in the Religion of Propitiatory Sacrifices all in reference to and deriving Virtue and Acceptance from the Merits of Jesus Christ the Lamb of God which taketh away the Sins of the World But as it is charged upon Israel both by David and Moses so all Nations soon forgot God's Works they forgot God their Saviour which had done great things for their Preservation they corrupted themselves their Spot was not the Spot of his People they for sook God which made them and lightly esteemed the Rock of their Salvation they provoked him to Jealousy with strange Gods they sacrificed to Devils not to God So that the offering of Propitiatory Sacrifices by the Universality of Mankind was not a Human Invention but a Derivation from Divine Institution tho wretchedly corrupted by Satanical Suggestion Neither was there any Rite of Religious Worship among the Heathen but what was pretended to be a Direction and Command from Heaven so deeply engraven was the Impression in every Rational Mind that Divine Worship could not be acceptable unto God unless commanded by God The whole Work of Redemption and Salvation of Mankind by Jesus Christ was in every part and respect proceeding originally from and effectually to fulfil the Will of God Salvation by Christ was promised before the World began In the fulness of Time he was made of a Woman his Sufferings in every particular Circumstance was to fulfil the Scriptures Our Lord died according to the Scriptures and rose again according to the Scriptures that is for the End appointed by the Word of God to make full Satisfaction to the infinite Justice of God so as to make perfect the Comers unto God by Jesus Christ by Faith in whom the Heart is sprinkled from an evil Conscience that is from the Conscience of the Guilt of Evil To obtain the Answer of a good Conscience towards God by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ
God can be well-pleased with sinners even through the Blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God who purgethi'geth our Consciences from the dead Works of Sin to serve the Living God For by one Offering he hath perfected ever them that are sanctisied Therefore to imagine any Possibility of the Pardon of Sin without out the atoning Propitiation and Satisfaction only obtained by the Blood of Christ is an evil Figment to palliate the desperate Wickedness and Sinfulness of Sin to make void the Law of perpetual Righteousness which is the inâ—sible Rule and Judg of all Affections and Actions and doth indeed effectually contemn and blaspheme the infinite Majesty Holiness and Justice of God the Creator and Preserver of all Beings and consequently miserably deprives a Sinner of that strong Consolation given by God to those that fly for Refuge unto Christ to obtain by his Resurrection the Evidence of his compleat Satisfaction to Divine Justice the Answer of a good Conscience The Worshippers thus purged as the Scripture saith having no more Conscience of Sins the Lord having laid on him the Iniquities of us all who do the Work of God to believe on him whom he hath sent For this is the true Cabala the faithful Saying and worthy of all Acceptation That Christ Jesus came into the World to save even chief Sinners In the Cases of Life and Death according to universal Justice in the World it is fatal not only to be an Outlaw flying from Justice Mute in refusing to answer Justice but it proves no less mortal to suggest a Plea which the Law will not allow If a Criminal condemned to die be favoured with some Reprieve and then by the Soveraign's Commission intrusted with an important Imployment the faithful Discharge of that Trust is meer Duty but not Merit and he remains still a condemned Malefactor liable to the former Sentence by the Law of Attaint and Death from which not any thing can deliver but a Pardon from the Soveraign laid hold on and legally pleaded by the Criminal It is thus according to the Rule of Righteousness between the Judg of all the World and every Mortal Creature that God might be just and the Justifier of him which believeth in Jesus Therefore we must not be ignorant of Saton's Devices the Popish Doctrine of Merit by Works sprinkled as they say by the Blood of Christ available to Justification and Salvation is an Antichristian Departure from the Faith and the teaching of Lies in Hypocrisy For there cannot be any Work possible to be accepted by Divine Justice but what is an Act of Obedience to the Law and the best Performances of such is but as our Saviour saith that of an unprofitable Servant When we shall have done all those things which are commanded us we must say We have done that which was our Duty to do Therefore the Observance of a present Duty the Neglect or Male-performance whereof would be criminal Guilt cannot in any just Construction be assumed or imputed to expiate a precedent Transgression guilty of Felony and Treason Yet this Truth doth not in any degree exempt from the Obedience of Faith which is the inseparable and indispensable Obligation and Duty annexed to the Covenant of Grace So that there is not in the least degree any Pretence for Antinomian Libertinism For the Grace of God that bringeth Salvation hath appeared to all Men teaching us that denying Vngodliness and Worldly Lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present World Because Faith unites us to the Principle of Life and works in us by Love which is the Operation or Activity of Life in the fulfilling of the Law There is also another Method of the Depths of Satan to cloud the Glory of God's free Grace and the compleat Merit of Christ's Satisfaction and Righteousness and also to shake the Confidence of a Sinner's Hope to obtain Remission and Acceptance by suborning the Act of Faith to share in the Merits of Christ Now how weak and unreasonable this Supposition is will appear by the Consideration of parallel Cases of Civil and Natural Instances in Judicature Tho the guilty Person cannot have Benefit unless he plead the Royal Pardon yet there is no Virtue in the Plea and humble Claim but only in the extensive Validity of the Pardon Likewise in desperate Sickness or deadly Wound the healing Virtue is not in the meer Application or receiving the Sovereign Balm or Elixir not withstanding the Patient cannot be healed without the Reception or Application of the Remedy Thus it is with a Sinner before the Divine Tribunal Faith believes the Truth and Goodness of the Promise and embraces and relies upon it that is upon the Redemption purchased by Jesus Christ for compleat Salvation from the Condemnation and Corruption of sinful Death for Reconciliation and Acceptance with God and for Participation of Eternal Life which is in Christ Jesus to be communicated to all those who by Faith receive Christ and so have an Union of Life with Christ Now as in the Body the Artery and Nerve is the Ligament the Vessel and Conveyance for vital Union and Motion unto all the Members by the Blood and Animal Spirits So Faith to the Soul is a Means of vital Union with Christ and of the Application and Merits of Christ All which is effected by the Spirit of Christ without which we are none of Christ's and Faith it self is dead The Look of one stung with the deadly fiery Serpent to the Brazen Serpent had no share in the healing Virtue of that Divine Ordinance yet without looking up to the Brazen Serpent the Person stung could receive no Benefit but must die So Faith hath no justifying Virtue inherent in it self For what may prevail to justify must make the Conscience perfect Consequently the Efficient of Perfection must of it self be perfect but Faith cannot be such for it is not of our selves it is the Gift of God Now whatsoever is received is received according to the Measure and Capacity of the Recipient which 〈…〉 and frail 〈…〉 it cannot be 〈…〉 the Law was weak and 〈…〉 through the Flesh so even the Gift of Faith is not able through the remainder of Corruption to perform any perfect Work Therefore the Scripture represents the Lord Jesus Christ under the Notion of the most tender Compassion to the weak in Faith that he will not break the bruised Reed nor quench the smoaking Flax but will bring forth Judgment unto Victory which proceeds not from any Virtue and Power inherent in the Work of Faith but from the Righteousness and Strength which only is to be found in the Lord Jesus by perishing Sinners who sly for Refuge unto the Hope that is set before them Jesus Christ the Son of God Even as the Man-slayer under the Law could not be secure from the Avenger of
A Scriptural and Rational ACCOUNT OF THE Christian RELIGION PARTICULARLY Concerning Justification only by the Propitiation and Redemption of the Lord Jesus Christ Rom. 5.1 2. Therefore being justified by Faith we have Peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ By whom also we have Access by Faith into this Grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the Glory of God Psal 14.1 2. The Fool hath said in his Heart There is no God they are corrupt they have done abominable Works there is none that doth good The Lord looked down from Heaven upon the Children of Men to see if there were any that did understand and seek God Deut. 32.6 Do ye thus requite the Lord O foolish and unwise Is not he thy Father that hath bought 〈◊〉 Hath he not made thee and established thee London Printed for Jonas Lumley at the Bird in Hand near the Maypole in the Strand 1695. THE PREFACE IT was the usual Saying of an excellent Person That variety of Books tho upon the same Subject concerning the Principles of Religion was very advantagious that every one might be furnished with a Weapon fitted to his Hand For as in Water Face answereth to Face so the Heart of Man to Man As in general so in particular respects Therefore it may be hoped that in the perusing of the following Discourse some also may be gratified with the Agreeableness of a plain Representation of so great a Truth An Interest in Redemption by the Satisfaction of the Death of our Lord Jesus Christ is that by which every Christian must stand or fall before the dreadful Tribunal of the Justice of God Accordingly the Principle of Justification by the Sufferings Death Resurrection and Righteousness of Jesus Christ is the Article of Faith by which every Church must stand or fall It being the Pillar and Ground of Truth the Rock upon which our Lord hath built his Church against which the Gates of Hell cannot prevail This is the Rock upon which the Reformed Churches were recovered from Antichristian Apostacy For other Foundation can no Man lay than that is laid which is Jesus Christ But instead of building upon this precious Corner-Stone with precious Stones to bring up the head-Stone with Praise to Divine Grace many unhappily have not taken heed how they build with Wood Hay Stubble Materials for fewel of Contention to make Jerusalem Babylon and defeat the glorious Things spoken of the City of God That Jerusalem might be a Praise and the Joy of the whole Earth For Peace is the Fruit of Righteousness But this must be for a Lamentation and Prognostick of Desolation if not prevented by infinite Grace and Mercy that after so many Years Gospel-Light there should be regard to false Teachers privily bringing in damnable Heresies even denying the Lord that bought them Privily indeed pretending an Inquiry after sensible Ideas of spiritual and supernatural Truths of Eternal Life Whereas they are not able to give an Idea of the Breath of Natural Life Suborning also a Spectre of Rational Demonstration to determine and judg Things invisible which can only be the Objects of Faith in the Word of God Whereas the use of right Reason is miserably lost and overwhelmed in the Ruins of Apostacy from God Vanity now possessing the Mind the Understanding being darkned and alienated from the Life of God through the Ignorance that is in them because of the Blindness and Hardness of their Hearts Thus being past feeling they give themselves over to Lasciviousness and to work all Uncleanness with Greediness For the Heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked even in these pretended Rationalists as well as others That this is the true State and Temper of the universality of Mankind is undeniably evinced by the continual Practice and Conversation of all the World in all Ages and Countries Therefore Natural right Reason is no where to be found directing the Tenor and entire Compass of Human Affections and Actions But those baptized Epicures as they are termed by the most Worthy and Honourable Mr. Boyle that strut under the Name of Deists but are indeed Atheists without God in the World renouncing the Providence of God rejecting the Justice of God denying the Immortality of the Soul and the Future State of Rewards and Punishments Thus Mankind is subjected to a Baseness and Wretchedness inferior to the worst of Brutes And thereby also rescinding the Bond of Security and Peace among all Human Societies and Relations which can only consist in the Fear of God Such happy Infects who desire to live apace may receive their own Idea from Mr. Cowley After Death I nothing crave Let me alive my Pleasures have Happy Insect happy thou Dost neither Age nor Winter know But when thou 'st drunk and danc'd and sung Thy fill thy flow'ry Leaves among Voluptuous and wise withal Epicurean Animal Satiated with thy Summer's Feast Thou retir'st to endless Rest But this is the certain Conviction and inevitable Doom of such Men That the Heart of the Sons of Men is full of Evil and Madness is in their Heart while they live and after that they go to the Dead But as it is appointed unto Men once to die so after this the Judgment A Scriptural and Rational Account of the Christian Religion The invisible Things of God from the Creation of the World are clearly seen being understood by the Things that are made even his Eternal Power and Godhead so that all Men are without Excuse Consequently there is implanted in every intellectual Mind a Conscience of Good and Evil accusing or excusing according to the Work of the Law written in their Hearts so that there cannot but be Trembling at the Apprehension of Judgment to come For the Elements of a Rational Creature are dependent upon the Creator for Life God is our Life and the Length of our Days and for a Rule of Action which can be no other than the Will of God the only Eternal Reason of Good and Evil Not any thing being antecedently good to the Unchangable Eternal Holy Will of God Also for the End and Felicity of Being which is the Glory of God including the Salvation of the Immortal Creature God made Man upright in his Image engraved his Mind with a Law holy just and good a Rule of perpetual Righteousness to direct and judg all Human Affections and Actions But Sin which is the Transgression of the Law alienated Man from the Eise of God who thereby becoming vapid and unprofitable fell miserably short of the Glory of God subjected the Creature to Vanity Vexation and Death renounced the all-sufficient Goodness Truth and Soveraignty of the Infinite Almighty Creator God blessed for ever Shall not then the Judg of all the World do right For according to his Fear due to his Infinite Perfections and Absolute Dominions