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
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
also the Love Honour and Admiration of them for whom he endured it And if some few Holy men be a little Transported with the Love of Christ methinks it 's easily pardonable very few die of that Disease no danger this Age should be Hot in the fourth Degree of Love to a Redeemer that our Author should be necessitated to Write a Book for fear it should Poyson us For my part I meet with no such Paroxisms of Divine Love that his Iulip should be so much cry'd up but I would fain please my self with this that whilst he seems Frigidam suffundere his Real Design is to make us all more in Love with Christ by a Spiritual Antiperistasis 2. This gives great Reverence and Authority to his Gospel that it was Preacht by so Great a Person as the Son of God And therefore whilst he is in the good Humour let him Retract those Severe and Toothed Satyrs wherewith he has Torn and Lasht those poor Honest Men for loving his Person but Neglecting his Laws when he tells us here The greater Reverence we have for his Person the more sacred Regard we have for his Laws Perhaps he was then under an Accession of Gout Stone or Cholick or some of the peevish Distempers which made him so Testy and Teachy with his best Friends but now he 's a little come home to himself he 's in as Sweet Treatable and Debonaire a Humour as one could wish if it would but last I confess some may think that All this is nothing but a Complement which he passes upon Christ's Person or a little Holy-water he sprinkles in his Face and that there Lurks a Snake under these fair Flowers For he plainly makes Laws and Gospel Edaequate and Commensurate Terms This gives Reverence to the Gospel for Laws always partake of the Fate and condition of the Law-giver The Gospel as Contradistinguisht to the Covenant of Works denotes the glad Tidings of Salvation by a Mediatour or the joyful News that there was Forgiveness with God that He might be feared As contradistinguisht to the Old Testament-state it is the glad Tidings of the Son of God sent into the World that taking upon him our Nature he might therein become a Curse for us and by his perfect Obedience to the Law might Purchase and Procure Eternal Life And are Christs Laws and His Gospel become Convertible Is there no Revelation No Promise Nothing done for us which cannot come under the Nature of a Law The Laws of Christ then are Holy and Just and Good that the Greatness of his Person Consiliates Reverence and due Regard to them we acknowledge that Law and Gospel are words of equal Extent we deny and do think our Author will be harder put to it to prove Christ to signifie Law than to signifie Gospel Much less are we satisfied in his Comparison Numa pretended he received his Laws from the Goddess Aegeria to procure a greater Veneration to them Thus God c. Say you so Did God procure Veneration for his Laws with such a cunning Trick a Pia fraus as Politick Numa did Or is Christ grown an Instrument of Government as he tells us hereafter Gods Justice is Well I hope he Meant honestly or else it will be somewhat hard to be tied to Mean just as he Means 3. The Greatness of his Person gives great Authority to his Example for he came to be our Prophet and our Guide to Teach us by his Precepts and his Life Believe it this is something like The World is well amended since pag. 5. For then Preaching the Gospel was the Exercise of his Regal Power And now here he has brought it into Decorum again and at present is under a Pang of Modern Orthodoxy But his Example gives us an Evident Demonstration wherein the Perfection of Humane Nature consists for he lived up to the Perfection of Humane Nature and the only way to be Perfect is to Live as he Lived Why then I doubt we must never be in any sence Perfect all the days of our Lives for in the very next Page he proves That Christs becoming Poor though he was Rich a Servant though he was Lord of Life are such Expressions of Love as we can never fully Imitate and so Adieu to all Perfection to the Worlds end It was indeed Prudently done to Imitate the Wisdome of Nature to Plant his Antidote so near his Poyson that if he scatter'd Infection in one Page to fortifie our feeble Spirits against the Impressions of it in another A little Observation will Dismiss this Period And 1. One would think that to live as Christ lived was not so much the way to Perfection as Perfection it self Your dull Syntagmatical Divines use to distinguish between the Means and the End or the way to the Wood and the Wood it self but great Spirits are above Pedantick Laws and therefore to please all Parties for once let the way to be Perfect be to be Perfect 2. I observe that the Scripture owns some to be Perfect who never lived all out nay nothing near so well as Christ lived 1 Chron. 15. 17. The heart of Asa was perfect all his days and yet we read that In his Disease he sought not to the Lord but to the Physitian he took not away the High places he was wroth with the Prophet Hanani and put him in Prison and yet perhaps our Author can Evade That notwithstanding this he might come up to his Pattern for Christ himself once or twice put on the Person of a Iewish Zealot There was then a time when a man might have been perfect and yet not Live up to the absolute Perfection of Christ but I perceive it s lost and is to be numbered amongst the Resperditae of Pancirol To conclude How far Christ is to be Imitated is a Question of greater Difficulty than at first sight may be Imagined Some Works he performed as God others as Mediatour and others as a Man Those which he performed as God the Miraculous Operations of the Deity none need be disswaded from Imitation of for no stronger a Reason than because 't is Impossible To Raise the Dead cast out Devils Cure Diseases with a Word or Touch are Matter of our Admiration not Imitation I know indeed some of our Modern Schoolmen will tell us That though we cannot Imitate Christ herein to the height yet we may imitate him as far as we can Thus though Raising the Dead be a little too Many for you yet you may come to the Grave of your dead Friend command him to come forth but if he be Sullen and will not stir hand nor foot let him take his Course and lie there still like his Grace in cold Clay clad You have done your Duty and may satisfie your Conscience that you have Imitated Christ as far as you can by as Useful a Figure as any is in Rhethorick called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Works which Christ performed as Mediatour though
Gospel and Salvation by Christ when time should serve 3. It would be cleared what he means by as well as since aequè but not aequaliter sure not so much as since but as truely and really as since But because his Reason is to be the Measure of his Assertion let us attend to it with diligence This Respect is founded on that Natural Relation God owns to Mankind To which I answer Whatever respect God had to the Gentiles so as to afford them at any time the Means of Salvation it was not founded on Natural Relation as their Creator but on a Relation Voluntary and of pure and mere Grace and we will joyn issue with him upon this point when he pleases But I shall endeavour to set the Apostles Argument upon its own Legs What he drove at he shews you v. 28. That a Man is justifi'd by Faith without the deeds of the Law he had proved this in the foregoing Verse thus The way that God takes in the Iustifying of a Person is such a one as shuts out of dores Boasting But Justification by Faith onely excludes Boasting and the way of Justifying by works would not exclude it and therefore God takes that way to justifie the Sons of Men In this 29th verse he proceeds to another Argument to evince the same Thing If Justification come by the works of the Law then never any Gentile could be justifi'd but some Gentiles have been justifi'd Therefore Justification comes not by the works of the Law That some Gentiles had been justified he proves in the Instance of Abraham who was justifi'd not in Circumcision but in Uncircumcision as he sayes ch 4. v. 10. Now it 's evident that Circumcision and Uncircumcision are Terms of equal wideness with Iew and Gentile For that which he calls v. 29. of the third Chapter Iew and Gentile Verse the 30th he expresses by Circumcision and Uncircumcision It is one God that shall justifie the Circumcision the Jews by Faith and the Uncircumcision the Gentiles â—…hrough Faith and this he brings as a proof of his foregoing Assertion Seeing it is one God c. And therefore Abraham though he were an Hebrew by Birth whether so denominated as coming from the Race of Heber or from his passing over Euphrates as some will have it it makes no matter yet being uncircumcised he fills the room in Gods account of a Gentile or one of the Nations Now for the proof of the sequel of the first Proposition That if Iustification comes by the works of the Law then never any Gentile could be justified he takes special care to put that out of Question v. 30. Seeing it is one God that justifies There is but one God that justifies and therefore but one way of Justification as he is alwayes the same so is his Method alwayes the same One God one Christ one Faith and therefore if ever any Gentile were justifi'd without the works of the Law never any Jew could be justifi'd by it for that would be to suppose two wayes of justifying sinners and such were Jews and Gentiles both under sin both guilty before God and then that would prove that God were not the same one God which the Apostle throws out of dores Let our Author now cast up his Accounts and see what he has gain'd by this place God is the God of the Gentiles Such a God as has justified Gentiles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for instance Abraham and that as his God in a Covenant of Grace I will be thy God and therefore it follows that Jews are not were not could not be justified by the works of the Law and then no such thing will be inferred that God as a Creator had such a respect to every Individual Person in the World being fallen sinners 〈◊〉 to give them the Means of Salvation But to proceed This plainly evinces saith he that all those particular favours which God bestowed on Israel were not owing to any partial fondness and respect to that People Methinks I hear our Author speak like the Great Pompey when he had got Caesar into Lobs-pound Non recusare se quin nullius usûs Imperator existimaretur si sine maximo detrimento Legiones Caesaris sese recepissent inde quo temerè essent progressae De Bell. Civ lib. 3. Let our Author never be reputed a Man at Arms more if he has not got us into such a Cramp and Purse-nett that we shall never escape without loss of Bag and Baggage For thus he assaults us Had God a Partial Fondness and respect for Israel Answer Yea or No. I see we are quite undone If we say No he has us on the Hip and comes over us with a Why not what no respect for Israel no favour for his Beloved People Why Psal. 147. 20. He has not dealt so with any Nation he shew'd his Word unto Iacob his Statutes and his Iudgements unto Israel and where are we now If we say Yes Then he fetches us over the Coles What partial fondness in God! one Law for Titius another for Sempronius Fish of one and Flesh of another I see we must fall upon one of the horns of this Dilemma and both are equally mortal And never was there more need of the Curat 's Collect to be deliver'd from the great Pain and Peril of Cowgoring We have got a Wolf by the Ears and dare neither keep nor slip our hold for our own When I read this and some other like passages in his Book surely thought I this man takes us all for Widgeons and Woodcocks and that to Scrible with him is 〈◊〉 thing but the Recreation of catching Dottrels hâ—… could never else hope to Impose upon us with so Childish and obvious a Sophism In short 't is nothing but Fallacia plurium interrogationum As 〈◊〉 you should ask our Author Whether he were 〈◊〉 London with a Feather in 's Cap He would not scruple to answer He is indeed at London in the Parish of St. George but he has no Feather in'â—… Cap Well Good for one good for another God had a respect for Israel but no partial Fondness Two things then would be a little cleared that God had and upon wh at account he had a particular respect to Israel 1. God had a special respect to Israel above all the People in the World Rom. 3. 1. What advantage then hath the Iew and what profit is there of Circumcision Much every way 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Upon all accounts they carried it But chiefly that unto them were committed the Oracles of God Rom. 9. 4. To whom pertaineth the Adoption and the Glory and the Covenants and the giving of the Law and the Services of God and the Promises whose are the Fathers and of whom as concerning the Flesh Christ came As whereas God chose Abrahams Posterity and committed His Laws to them from whence as our Author thinks all the rest of the World might when they please fetch the Rules of
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
to us in the true Covenant Ioh. 6. 37. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me and him that cometh to me I will in no-wise cast out Eph. 2. 8. By Grace ye are saved through Faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God And lest it should be Answered that Faith is indeed God's gift as all other things are wherein the Common Providence of God concurs with Humane industry The Apostle as if aware of such a petty Answer has laid in a Reply ready ch 1. v. 19. That they who believe do so by the exceeding greatness of God's power even according to the working of his Mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead Secondly we have a direct and express Promise too of that New-heart from which we give to God New-obedience nay of that New-obedience it self which proceeds from the New-heart or renewed Nature Ezek. 36. A new heart also will I give you and a new Spirit will I put within you and I will take away the heart of Stone out of your Flesh and will give you a heart of Flesh there 's the new Heart and v. 27. I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my Statutes and ye shall keep my Iudgments and do them there is new obedience thus also Heb. 8. 10. This is the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days saith the Lord I will put my Laws into their minds and write them in their hearts c. wherein it 's easy to observe 1. That this New-Covenant was founded upon God's free Grace v. 9. They continued not in my Covenant the old Covenant and I regarded them not saith the Lord They were a Covenant-breaking people deserved utter rejection yet God will make another a better a New-Covenant with them 2 That the promises of this Covenant were purely Spiritual writing his Laws in their minds and hearts 3. The parties Covenanting God and his Israel not all and every individual Son of Adam But 2. This Description gives us very little of the true Covenant of Grace here 's a Promise of Pardon and Life to them who believe and obey but perseverance in Faith and Obedience is left to the desultory and lubricous power of free-will whereas in the true Covenant of Grace there 's an undertaking that the Covenant shall be immutable both on God's part and the Believers Jer. 32. 38 40. They shall be my people and I will be their God and I will make an everlasting Covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do them good but I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me There are but two things that we can possibly Imagine should make the Covenant fall short of perpetuity either God's turning away from his people or which is only to be suspected their turning away from their God Against both of these God has made sufficient Provision 1. God has promised that he will not turn away from them to do them good 2. He has promised that they shall not depart from him and to fix and determine their backsliding Natures he has promised to put his fear into their hearts which is the great preservative against Apostacy § 2. As it describes not the whole of the Covenant so it describes not the Nature of a new-New-Covenant The gospel-Gospel-Covenant may be called a New Covenant either in opposition to the Old Covenant of Works or the old Administration of the Covenant of Grace Now 1. This Covenant which he has here described is no new Covenant in opposition to the old-Old-Covenant of works The Covenant which God made with Adam promised Life upon condition of Obedience Now the Commands which God gave to Adam were as easy as those which are now given to all Mankind and much easier too if we consider first That he had more natural strength to obey and keep them and as for supernatural strength our Author will allow us none unless by a desperate Catachresis we will call Moral Arguments so which to a Creature dead in trespasses and sins signify just nothing without special power from on high to render them efficacious which neither will be allowed us And Secondly we are told that Christ has added to the Moral Law which is to lay more Load on those who were before overcharged so that as he makes Covenants Adam's was much the better Covenant of the two But he has wisely shuffled in a Promise of the Pardon of Sin which may seem to give his Covenant a preheminence above that of Adam But that will not mend the matter both because it 's better to have no sin in our Natures than such a Remedy better to have no Wound than such a Plaister and also because the Promise of Pardon is suspended upon the condition of Faith and Obedience which without supernaturally real influx of immediate Divine Power reduces the promise to an impossibility of performance 2. This Covenant which he has here described is no New-Covenant in opposition to the old Administration of the Covenant of Grace There were the same promises then that we have now the same moral precepts to observe that we have now and though the word Gospel comes in for a blind yet the Apostle assures us Gal. 3. 8. That Abraham had the Gospel Preached to him § 3. Upon the matter it 's no Covenant of Grace at all For 1. A Promise of Pardon and Life upon Condition of Believing and Obeying is neither better nor worse than a threatning of Condemnation and Death to them who Believe not and Obey not It may with equal right be called a threatning of Death as a Promise of Life It 's no more a Covenant of Grace than a Covenant of Wrath and therefore 2. if it be lawful to consider Man as the Word of God describes him as dead in Sins and Trespasses as one that of himself cannot think a good thought that can do nothing at all without Christ It 's no Covenant at all to him under his present circumstances for what is the nice difference between a Promise of Life to him that obeys when it 's certain before-hand he cannot obey and no Promise at all 3. This Covenant which he calls New and well he may for it 's of his own making or however of his own new-vamping assigns the same conditions of Pardon and Eternal Life but the Scripture requires other qualifications for Eternal Life than for the Pardon of Sin A Believer may be justified without a sinless perfection but without such a sinless perfection none shall enter into Glory He may be actually justified that has not persevered in Holy Obedience to the Death but without such perseverance he can never be made partaker of Eternal Life 4. This Covenant of his is supposed to be made with all Mankind and yet all Mankind never heard of it Now is it not very
Man and as Sacrifice was the Sacrifice of him that was Personally United with God but I am not concerned to insist upon that at present All I say is that it 's no Answer to the Question for to the best of my remembrance and it 's not a full Twelve-moneth since the Question came before us the Question was What influence the Righteousness of Christs Life hath upon our Acceptance and now we have got an Answer to another Question What influence the Righteousness of Christs Life has upon his own Acceptance with God As if we were at the Old Childish Game of cross Questions It was asked me How many Miles it is to London and it was answered me Thirteen shillings and a groat make a Noble For what is this Meritoriousness of Christs Obedience did he Merit for himself or for us If for himself onely then it 's out of the Olives If for us then that which he has Merited is ours Merit denotes a proportion between the Work done and the Reward received and it 's strict Justice in God to bestow upon us that which another has Merited for us if then Christ has Merited our Acceptance we cannot but be accepted it 's Iustice we should be so Again what is it that Christ has Merited Is it acceptauce Our Author will not say it what then Why a promise of acceptance that is that we shall be pardoned and saved upon Faith and Obedience And this is the bottom of the bag when he has turned his discourse into a thousand shapes and forms and varied his expressions infinitely yet all amounts to no more than this Christ has confirmed a promise procured a promise merited a promise that if we believe and obey we shall be pardoned and saved and yet the answer to the Question is to come For 1. There must be a better Reason assigned than the Righteousness of Christs Life why the Sacrifice of his Death should merit any thing for if his active obedience was due to Gods Law upon his own Personal account it could merit nothing for another The payment of a Debt will not merit a reward and if the Righteousness of Christs Life did not merit any thing it self it can never make his Death meritorious 2. To Merit for us a reward upon a condition and never to merit for us that condition is next to nothing as the Case stands with us For both Christ and we shall lose that which he has Merited if our Obedience be left to the desultoriness of our own will and the imbecillity of corrupt Nature Upon the whole Matter I conclude that according to his Principles our Author canot shew any one thing in all the Life and Death of Christ that may render our Persons and Services more acceptable to God than they would otherwise have been upon equal Holiness and Obedience and therefore we must make our Application to Persons of other apprehensions in Religion if we would have an honest satisfactory Answer to this Question What influence the Righteousness of Christs Life and the Sacrifice of his Death have upon our Acceptance with God There is a Text which some think will shew us more of that True influence that the Righteousness of Christ hath upon our Acceptance with God than all this tedious rambling Discourse of our Authors It is Rom. 5. 18 19. Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all Men to Condemnation even so by the Righteousness of one the free gift came upon all Men to Iustification of Life For as by one mans disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made Righteous From whence I have heard some Argue In the same sense that all are made sinners in the first Adam all that are righteous are made righteous in the second Adam but in the first Adam all are made sinners by the imputation of his Disobedience therefore all that are righteous are made so in the second Adam by the imputation of his Obedience Again If it was the Active Disobedience of the first Adam whereby many even all that were in him were made sinners then it is the active obedience of the second Adam whereby Many even all that are in him are made righteous but the former is true therefore so is the latter But says our Author This is the most that can be made of that place This What Why this something or this nothing which he had said before That God was so well pleased with the Obedience of Christs Life that for his sake he entred into a Covenant of Grace with Mankind And if this be all that can be made of that Text the Opposition must run thus As God was so ill pleased with the Disobedience of Adams Life that for the sake of it he entred into a Covenant of Works with Mankind So he was so well pleased with the Obedience of Christs Life that for the sake of it he entred into a Covenant of Grace with Mankind Really it must be so Reader take it or leave it for look what influence Adams Disobedience had upon God to provoke him to condemn the World the same influence had Christs obedience upon God to please him to save the World And will not this be a rare contrivance to fancy a Covenant of Works instituted after the Fall of Adam when we are certain it was established before his Disobedience And so was the Covenant of Grace before the Active and Actual obedience of Christ However let us consider the most he can make of it First says he there 's no necessity of expounding this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Righteousness of Christs Life or his active obedience This Answer of our Authors is like the Ariere banne it 's never raised but in a case of extreme urgency an Answer that will serve the turn of all the Atheists Hereticks and Miscreants upon Earth If you tell them that Eternal Salvation is promised in the Gospel they have it at their fingers ends that there is no necessity that Eternal should signifie a duration beyond the Horizon of time it 's used in other places for the lengthning out the existence of a thing to it 's own allotted period Thus the Aaronical Priesthood was an everlasting Priesthood it was to continue for the Ever of the Iewish World And as for that word Salvation there 's no necessity it should signifie a deliverance from Spiritual Evils for besides that there were no promises of any such Salvation in the old Testament the word is often used in the New for temporal deliverance As when the Apostle said Except these abide in the Ship ye cannot be saved Acts 27. But why is there no necessity of it It may well signifie no more than his Death because the Apostle tells us Phil. 2. 8. That Christ became obedient unto Death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but by his leave the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does indeed signifie obedient in general and
pardon humble and penitent sinners and not till then 3. In pardoning of these humble and penitent sinners Gods Dominion Sovereignty and the Authority of his Laws must be vindicated for God being the Righteous Iudge of all the Earth should he discover a facile Indulgence and indifferent connivence at Sin the Authority of his Lawes were gone in a moment and the sinews of Government cut asunder God then must be declared to be a Righteous God the Sanction of the Law as to Promise running thus Doe this and live Doe this personally doe this exactly doe this constantly and perpetually and then live and as to Threatning thus Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the Book of the Law to doe them Gal. 3. 10. And of the same mind with our Author is as I remember one Dr. I. O. who is very peremptory that the Iustice of God may have its actings assigned to the full which is not done by Any that ever yet was heard of but the Lord Jesus Christ Now whilest I see the sweet Agreement of these two at present I fancy my self with Aeneas in the Elysian fields pleasing himself with the Amicable correspondence held between Caesar and Pompey and yet his delight mixt with another passion even grief in the foresight of their Civil Wars and Friendly Debates Illae autem Paribus quas fulgere cernis in Armis Concordes Animae nunc dum nocte Premuntur Heu quantum inter se bellum si Lumina Vitae Attigerint quantas Acies stragémque ciebunt Aeneid lib. 6. 4. Jesus Christ having undertaken to be a Ransome and to make Attonement for Sinners and his blood being of Infinite value the oldest greatest and stubbornest Sinners through Faith may possibly come to be concern'd in Christs Ransome and Attonement and so may be saved with a Notwithstanding their sins for seeing Gods Dominion Sâ—…vereignty the Authority of his Laws the Wisdom and Iustice of his Providence are all vindicated by this Means and security given that none of his Attributes shall be reproached what can Now hinder repenting sinners from coming to God and what can hinder God from rewarding those that so come and diligently seek him Nay 5. God cannot but be well pleased when his own Son undertakes to be a Ransome and to make Attonement for sinners And the Reason is evident The price being of Infinite value and payd into Godâ—… hands he cannot but be satisfied with it Nay further We can Reasonably desire no greater security for the Performance of the Gospel-Covenant than that it was sealed with the Blood of Christ the surety of a better Testament Heb. 7. 22. who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one that undertakes for the Performance of it I could willingly lose my self my Reader and my Time in the Throng of these good words Say not This is only the Sealing of a Covenant on Gods part undertaking for him whose veracity needs none to undertake for it but not for us whose guilt and weakness needs an undertaker The Covenant being mutual the undertaking must be supposed Reciprocal also and so I hope our Author intends it that as Christ undertakes for God with Man so he undertakes with Man unto God Perhaps you will say A word or two might have been added to have put matters out of dispute why so there might in any bodies Writings besides his and as many spared hanc veniam petimúsque damúsque As 1. It 's likely you would have had him say The Vertue of Christs Sacrifice depends not onely very much on the Greatness of his Person but Altogether and the Acceptation thereof with God depends on the Compact between them both seeing that which depends altogether does depend very much on the Greatness of his Person and therefore pray let that break no squares 2. Whereas he sayes The Blood of the Son of God is such a Confirmation of the Covenant as the World never had before Perhaps you would add Actually because the World had it before Virtually exhibited in Sacrifices and accepted as already Performed But set your hearts at Rest whether he meant well or ill in this Chapter I 'le engage you shall not be prejudiced if he happens to discover an ill meaning in the next Chapter and in the mean time let us go seek all over Pauls Church-yard Little-Britain and Duk-lane for an old Treatise De modo tenendi Anguillam Aequivocationis per Caudam 5 The Person of Christ is of no other Consideration in the Christian Religion than as it has an influence upon the great Ends of his Undertaking I confess I had thought our Author had not been upon the Head What Consideration the Person of Christ is of but Of what Use the Consideration of his Person is but let that pass I had thought too that the former four particulars had shewn us What influence Christs Person has upon the great Ends of his Undertaking and therefore this seems not to be a fifth Particular but the total summe of the other four but I wave that too The Lord Jesus Christ undertook both with God and with Man for God and for Man and he had special Ends of his undertaking in both He undertook for God that he should be willing to pardoâ—… sinners and for man that he should return and come back to God He undertook to God that his Attributes should not be reproached but all secured his Righteousness cleared his Holiness vindicated he undertook to man that God should make every word and letter of the Promises good as they stand in the Covenant of Grace He undertook that Godâ—… Iustice should not break out upon the believing repenting creature to consume him and he undertook that Man should not break in upon Gods glory nor break away from Gods Wayes in a manner inconsistent with a New Covenant What a horrid Absurdity then must it be to imagine that his Person will destroy these Ends or to expect more from the excellency of his Person than his Gospel has promised Most wretchedly therefore doe they deceive themselves and wrong the Redeemer who Trusting to the goodness of his Nature Renounce his Mediation that trust in his Person without a Promise nay in contradiction to the Terms of that Covenant which he hath seal'd with his Blood that quit hiâ—… Promise to rely and rowl on his Person For should he acquit those men whom his Gospel condemns wilfull and incorrigible sinners this would flatly disannull the Covenant Though he may absolve such sinners as the Covenant of Works condemns through the Intervention of Christs Sacrifice But I perceive we are besides the Cushion all this while nay besides the Book for he knows none thaâ—… will in so many words own it nor does he dares he charge any man with it but yet it 's the natural Iâ—…terpretation of Trusting in the Person of Christ. That is It 's impossible to Trust in Christs Person but you doe ipso facto Renounce
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
Ambiguous for who can prophesie whether he means an entire perfect and universal return to Duty according to the first Covenant or no And Vain for admitting that God is ready to pardon Sinners upon their Return Man is but where he was till he be enabled by Grace to return And as False as Vain and Ambiguous for we find no Revelation that God will pardon past sins upon our Return for the future without reference to that Compensation which he has provided for his wronged Governing Iustice by Jesus Christ. 5. There 's a great Cheat put upon us in those words The Light of Nature the works of Creation and Providence those manifold Revelations God hath made of himself especially that last and most perfect Revelation by Iesus Christ assure us c. If he supposes that any one of these singly considered will assure us of all that followes especially that God is thus ready to pardon Sinners i'ts the very thing in Question and ought to have been strongly proved and not weakly supposed but if he take them joyntly including the Revelation made by and through Jesus Christ we grant it but then the misery on 't is this is the thing he should have fought against the Doctors own Assertion at which he has such an aking tooth That Gods pardoning Mercy could never have entred into the Heart of Man but by Iesus Christ but now see how neatly he would shuffle off the business These Properties of God are plainly revealed in the Scripture without any further acquaintance with the Person of Christ. But this will not doe his work For 1. What 's now become of the Light of Nature if after all we must be beholden to the Light of Scripture But thus the poor Gentiles after all his zealous stickle in their Cause are left in the lurch to shift for themselves as well as they can 2. That these Properties of God are plainly revealed in the Scripture is very true but then the plainness of their Revelation lyes in this that God will pardon Sinners upon the Account of a Mediator Perhaps he would put a trick upon us by that word Further and therefore to content him let him understand that we own all these Properties of God to be plainly revealed in Scripture without any further Acquaintance with Christs Person than what is therein Revealed But our Author joggs on still Had Christ never appeared in the World yet we had Reason to believe that God is thus wise and good viz. to pardon Sinners and holy and mercifull not onely because the Works of Nature and Providence but the Word of God assures us he is so but let me wedge in a word for all his Haste 1. The Word of God assures us not he is so without reference to a Mediator And if Christ had never appeared in the World first or last perhaps we had had no Word of God and if we had there would not have been one syllable in that Word of the Pardon of Sin but of the Wrath and just Vengeance of God due to it 2. Jesus Christ was once to appear in the World to reconcile God and Man and as without Revelation we had never known so without his Interposition we had never enjoy'd the Pardon of Sin The truth is Christ was a Teacher and a Prophet to reveal the Nature and Will of God before his Appearance in the flesh The Spirit of Christ signified before-hand the Sufferings of Christ and the Glory that should follow 1 Pet. 1. 11. and those Sufferings had a Virtue and Efficacy to procure the Pardon of Sin long before they were actually undergone for in Gods Acceptation he was a Lamb slain from the Foundation of the World yet still our Authors Larum is not run down The appearance of Christ did not first discover the Nature of God to us No sure God had revealed himself to be such a God long before yet still upon the Account of that Propitiation and Atonement which in infinite Wisdom and Grace he had provided Acts 10. 43 To him give all the Prophets witness that through his Name whosoever believeth on him shall receive Remission of sins It 's much to a little that our Author will flam off all this with a fine Tale of a Tub that it 's not the Person of Christ but a Doctrine a Gospel a Church an Office or something or nothing provided it be not Christ himself that is here intended but the Apostle has hedged out that Evasion v. 39. It 's he that was slain and hang'd on a Tree he that was raised again the third day and v. 42. he that is ordained of God to judge the quick and the dead And yet perhaps our Author with one Cast of his Office can make it out how a Doctrine a Church may be stain and hanged on a Tree too and if they be no better than some that have troubled the world as no great matter if they were however I shall not concern my self in its Confutation For ought then that I can see the Doctor may keep his Principles to himself and his Confidence too that Gods pardoning Grace could never have enter'd into the heart of man but by Christ that is that none could have had any security whatever God is in his own Nature that ever God would or could have pardoned Sinners without some Provision made for the vindicating the Honour of his Justice as Ruler of the World by a Mediator which onely could be the Lord Jesus Christ. And to shut up this matter we will stand to the Determination of the Church of England Art 7. The Old Testament is not contrary to the New for both in the Old and the New Testament everlasting Life is offer'd to Mankind by Christ who is the onely Mediator between God and Man wherefore they are not to be heard which feign that the Old Fathers did look onely for transitory Promises Again Art 18. They are also to be held Accursed that presume to say that every man shall be saved by the Law or Sect that he professeth provided he be diligent to frame his Life according to the Light and Law of Nature for Holy Scripture doth set out unto us onely the Name of Jesus whereby men must be saved But this Anathema is become to our young Fry Brutum Fulmen Now after all this Lirry of our Authors he finds it seems that he and his Antagonists have not discoursed ad idem The Question has been about the Sun in the Firmament and the Answer was concerning the Staffe that stood in the Chimney-corner For says he considering what these men make of Gods Love pardoning Mercy Iustice Patience c. these Properties could never have been discover'd but by a too familiar Acquaintance with Christ's Person for Nature and Revelation say Nothing of them But why then did he not fix the true Notions of these things in the first place and never torment his Reader with a wild rambling impertinent Story
Nature and the Rules that he shall prescribe to him and therefore 3. Agreeable to his holy Nature and holy Law it shall not be with the Righteous after the way of the Wicked nor with the Wicked after the way of the Righteous for the Iudge of the whole Earth must do right This God has revealed and we believe and as much more as shall be made known to us to be of his Revelation But that God is so indifferent about Sin as these men would perswade us that those Scoffers Zeph. 1. 12. The Lord will not doe good neither will he doe evil did charge God wisely we do not believe but that he insists upon the Honour of his Attributes the Credit of his Laws the Vindication of his Authority which Ends if they may be otherwise attained than by Christ and his Sacrifice yet our Author has not yet discover'd to us the Way and however he has confessed that Christ is the best and most effectual Means of attaining them There are a few drops which follow this Storm yet behind The Doctor had said p. 96 97. That God does sometimes bear with Sinners and forbear them long and yet there may be no special design of Mercy in it neither But now evidently and directly the End of the Patience and Forbearance of God which is exercised in Christ and discovered in him to us is the saving and bringing unto God those towards whom he is pleased to exercise them God is now taking a Course in his infinite Wisdom and Goodness that we may not be destroyed notwithstanding our sins which a little before p. 97. sect 15. he explains to be by leading us to Repentance Now I knew it would be no difficult task to a willing Mind to put an ugly Vizor upon the fairest Face which thus he has done As before the least Sin could not escape without a just Punishment c. so now the Iustice of God being satisfied by the Death of Christ the greatest Sins can do us no harm but we shall be saved notwithstanding our sins But I doubt our Author will be miserably disappointed in his Markets and lose Money by his dirty Ware 1. The least Sin cannot escape without Punishment Very true we own it The wages of Sin is Death the Threatning is level'd at Sin as Sin and therefore against all sin A quatenus ad Omne valet Consequentia and therefore go scold with the Apostle that which will bring him off will bring off the Doctor 2. The Justice of God is Natural and Essential to him Well let him mend himself how he can we are of the same mind still and are like to be so 3. He cannot forgive sin without punishing it Goe on somewhere or other the Punishment must lye which amounts to no more but this that God cannot forgive sin but in such a way as may secure his Glory 4. The Iustice of God is satisfied by the Death of Christ It is so but that Satisfaction is applyed to particular persons in that way that God has appointed that no other of his Attributes may be damnified 5. Now the greatest sins can doe us no hurt Nay there our Author is quite out For Unbelief Impenitency Unregeneracy obstruct the Sinners having any share in the Satisfaction of Christ or the Benefits procured by it But 6. The Doctor had said We shall be saved notwithstanding our sins He does say we shall not be destroyed and let that amount if he pleases to We shall be saved That is 1. Former Sins repented of shall not be charged upon the Sinner to Condemnation 2. Such sins as are consistent with the state of Grace the Power and Predominancy of Godliness shall not eventually ruine the repenting Sinner and for those that are inconsistent with that state he that undertook to satisfie for them will also take care they shall not commit them that he may not lose the Fruit of his Death and Sufferings and therefore he has promised that he will put his Fear into their hearts that they shall never depart from him And now I think our Author has either lost Money by his Discourse or got it over the Shoulders All his hopes were to perswade us That the Doctor design'd to assert that the satisfaction of Christ would save sinners notwithstanding their sins lived in continued in delighted in and dyed in in sensu composito but let an ordinary Understanding with ordinary diligence read over that Paragraph and he shall find all conspiring with that great Truth Without Holiness no man shall see God And thus he has talk'd his pleasure about Mercy and Iustice. As to Gods Wisdom which most gloriously appears in this design of Saving sinners by Christ the Doctor had said Com. 98. That Gods Wisdom in managing things for his own Glory is clearly discovered in Christ And if Wisdom display it self in the works of Creation and Providence and in his holy Law yet still Wisdom is most eminently revealed in a Mediator and he was the more emboldened thus to speak because he had encouragement from the Apostle 1 Cor. 1. 24. We preach Christ crucified to the Iews a stumbling-block and to the Greeks foolishness but to them who are saved both Iews and Greeks the Power of God and the Wisdom of God And here I confess our Author had just Cause of Complaint That the Apostle should so unluckily place this Wisdom in a crucifyed Christ to the utter undoing that laudable Invention of Christ for an Office a Church a Doctrine and this might well vex every vein of his heart But still the Doctor proceeds and for ought I can see minds our Author no more than you would be concern'd about that peevish thing that infests your skins as you walk the streets with impotent Noyse shewing That this Wisdom of God is such a Mystery such hidden Wisdom such manyfold variegated curiously wrought Wisdom that the Angels desire to pry into it and the Wisdom thereof lyes much in this That by Christ things are recovered into such a state after the Confusion wherein they were involved by the Curse as shall be exceedingly to the advantage of Gods glory P. 98 99. This indeed was pungent and galled that tender part which cannot endure to hear too much Good spoken at once of Christs Person For says he if Justice be so Natural to God that Nothing could satisfie him but the Death of his own Son this may discover his Justice but not his Wisdom Why so Oh the Reason is plain Wisdom consists in the choyce of the best and fittest Means to attain an End where there are more wayes than one of doing it but it requires no great wisdom where there is but one possible Way Where I am stumbled at our Authors Philosophy as much as at his Divinity For 1. Saving to our Author his good Learning Wisdom lyes also in Managing fit Means in such a Way as may reach their Ends effectually that there be no disappointment in
Gospel the same Faith the same Blessing with Christians he was justified the same way but so had our Father Abraham But what is our Author's judgment in the case I confess that 's hard to discover p. 243. he gives us The Righteousness of God the Righteousness of Faith and the Righteousness of God which is by the Faith of Iesus Christ as Synonima's And again expresly p. 245. he observes it to us for a choice discovery That the Righteousness of God is the Righteousness of Faith or Righteousness by the Faith of Christ. And now p. 246. he is peremptory That this Righteousness of Faith and this alone can recommend us to God Which says he the Apostle proves from the example of Abraham and adds That Abraham who was the Father of the faithful was set forth for a patern of our Iustification Now scarce one of his Readers in a thousand but would have been trying Conclusions out of his premises Abraham's Righteousness was the Righteousness of Faith But the Righteousness of Faith is the Righteousness of Faith in Christ therefore Abraham's Righteousness was the Righteousness of Faith in Christ. Again says he the Apostle proves that this Righteousness of Faith and this alone can recommend us to God If then there be but one only Righteousness that can recommend us to God either Abraham and Christians have one and the same Righteousness or else one of them must needs want a Righteousness that can recommend them to God But now from these premises our Author concludes that Abraham's Faith was not a Faith in Christ. Then say I His Righteousness was not the Righteousness by Faith in Christ And then it was not neither the Righteousness of Faith no nor the Righteousness of God for our Author has warranted us p. 243 and 245. That the Righteousness of Faith the Righteousness of God and the Righteousness by the Faith of Christ are but all one Righteousness But here we have the Quintessence and Elixir of our Author 's rational Abilities To this purpose he argues The Father of the faithful and his believing Children are justified both one way But Abraham the Father of the faithful was justified one way and therefore Believers who are his Children are justified another Now I like our Author's Conclusions dearly when they are together by the ears with their premises Again Thus he reasons Abraham was set forth for a patern of our Iustification But nothing ought to be like its patern and therefore you may be sure if Abraham was justified one way Believers are justified another Again The Apostle proves what way Believers are justified from the example of Abraham But now the Apostle you know always argues from one sort of things to another his way of concluding is by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And therefore if Abraham was justified by Faith you may conclude from thence then Christians are justified by Works and if Believers are justified by Faith in Christ then to be sure Abraham was justified some other way The plain truth is our Author is got into a Cramp and has so hamper'd and bangled his matters that I am very confident none of his Readers do understand him and it were well if he understood himself There are two Enquiries he will make to enlighten us in this Mystery 1. What that Faith was whereby Abraham was justified 2. What Agreement there is between the Faith of Abraham and the Faith in Christ. 1. What that Faith was whereby Abraham was justified To which he answers 1. Negatively It was not a Faith in Christ. Which Determination might have better become any mans mouth than hiâ—… whose hand has subscribed the Seventh Article of the Church of England Both in the Old-Testament and the New Everlasting Life is offered to Mankind by Iesus Christ who is the only Mediator between God and man being both God and man And I do the rather urge him with this Article because it speaks not only what respect God might have to Christ in bestowing Eternal Life but that there was an offer to Mankind of Eternal Life through Christ which speaks that respect which Believers had to a Mediator in their Faith But perhaps these Articles are but matter of course and form and therefore I shall press him with what has more weight than a sorry Subscription The Righteousness of God says he p. 245. is the Righteousness of Faith or Righteousness by the Faith of Christ But Abraham's Righteousness was the Righteousness of God and therefore it was the Righteousness of Faith or the Righteousness by the Faith of Iesus Christ Yea says our Author Christ was the material Object of Abraham ' s Faith that is he believed the promise of God's sending Christ into the World John 8. 56. Your Father Abraham rejoyced to see my day and he saw it and was glad Hence it 's evident that Abraham had a great and personal concern in Christ's coming into the World which made his heart leap within him The same which the Apostle expresseth Rom. 5. 11. We joy in God through our Lord Iesus Christ through whom we have received the Atonement For what cause of all this triumph all this joy that Christ should come into the World some thousands of years after he should be dead and buried and rotten in his grave to preach a Gospel in which he had no concern and for which he should not be one pin the better But our Author will prove that Abraham's Faith was not a Faith in Christ because no man could believe in Christ till he came But I prosess my self otherwise perswaded and that the actual exhibition of Christ in the flesh was not at all times absolutely necessary to a believing in him Abraham believed that testimony which God gave of his son that in him all the Nations of the earth should be blessed He believed that God would bless him for the sake of Christ. He saw Christ slain from the Foundation of the World in Sacrifices He saw a Redeemer as that way which God had chosen to bruise the head of the Serpent which St. Iohn expounds 1 Epist. 3. 8. by destroying the works of the Devil and Paul Heb. 2. 14. by destroying the Devil that is so far as he had got the power of Death into his hands by sin and in that security which he received from the promise of God and from Christ who was the Reason of its being made good Yea and Amen His Soul did rejoyce with exceeding great joy for so much 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do import But our Author has a Notion of Believing that is worth two of this and will do his work To believe any thing upon the Authority of Christ is the true Notion of believing in him To which I answer 1. Supposing this to be the true Notion of believing yet might Abraham receive a Doctrine upon the Authority of Christ before his Manifestation in the Flesh Christ was Mediator before his
determined against him to whom therefore from his partial Judgment-Seat I shall appeal v. 5 6. For Moses describeth the Righteousness of the Law that the Man that doth these things shall live in them from whence I argue against our Author That Law whose Righteousness Moses describes the Apostle excludes from having any place in Justification but it is the Moral Law whose Righteousness Moses describes therefore it is the Moral Law which the Apostle excludes from having any place in Iustification The Major is evident from the Connexion of the Apostle's Words v. 3. They have not submitted themselves to the Righteousness of God v. 4. For Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to every one that believeth for Moses describeth the Righteousness which is of the Law c. The Minor I prove thus That Law which saith He that doth these things shall live in them is that Law whose Righteousness Moses prescribeth but it is the Moral Law which saith He that doth these things shall live in them therefore it is the Moral Law whose Righteousness Moses describeth The Major is the Apostles own v. 5. the Minor I prove from Lev. 18. 5. You shall keep my Statutes and Iudgments which if a Man do he shall live in them v. 6. None of you shall approach to any that is near of kin to him 7. The nakedness of thy Father or of thy Mother thou shalt not uncover c. from whence I argue thus That Law which forbids incest is the Moral Law but that Law which saith He that doth these things shall live in them is the Law which forbids incest therefore that Law that saith He that doth these things shall live in them is the Moral Law Again I argue thus from Gal. 3. 10 11. That Law which hath the Curse annext to it for noncontinuance in all things commanded therein is the Law which the Apostle excludes from having any place in the Justification of a Sinner but it is the Moral Law which hath that Curse annext to it therefore it is the Moral Law which the Apostle excludes from having any place in the Justification of a Sinner The Major is evident from the place v. 10. As many as are of the Works of the Law are under the Curse for it is written Cursed is every one that continues not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them v. 11. But that no man is justified by the Law in the sight of God is evident The Minor I prove from Deut. 27. 26. from whence the Apostle quotes it Cursed be he that continueth not in all the Words of this Law to do them That Law which forbids making Images which forbids setting light by Father or Mother which forbids removing Land-marks which forbids causing the Blind to go out of his way which forbids perverting of judgment incest sodomy is the Law which hath the Curse annext to it but it is the Moral Law which forbids all these things Therefore it is the Moral Law which hath this Curse annext to it I cannot foresee what our Author will return to all this but his old tawdry Answer That indeed the Apostle does exclude the Moral Law but that is only with respect to External Obedience without Internal Conformity But it 's evident that the Apostle excludes the Law it self and therefore it must be highly impertinent to enquire what Deeds of the Law are excluded when the Law it self is excluded But yet for his further satisfaction I shall bestow an Argument upon that also Those Acts of Obedience to which the Promise of Life in the Covenant of Works originally was most directly made are excluded from Iustification but to inward acts of Obedience the Promise of Life was most directly made and therefore inward acts of Obedience are excluded from Iustification The Apostle has secured the Major Rom. 10. 3 5 6. They have not submitted themselves to the Righteousness of God For Moses describeth the Righteousness of the Law that he that doth these things shall live in them The Minor is evident for God never made a Promise of Life to External Acts of Obedience without inward Conformity of Soul to them and of both to the Law of God Again Those Acts the want whereof mainly exposes the Sinner to the Curse are excluded from Justification but the want of Internal Acts of Obedience mainly exposes the Sinner to the Curse therefore internal Acts are excluded from Justification And the true Reason why these inward Acts are excluded from Justification is not because they are not well-pleasing to God but because the case is thus with impotent fallen men that he cannot reach the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the utmost tittle of what the Law requires theresore must fall under the severe doom annext to the violation of the Law in the least punctilio unless God had provided a better Righteousness than that of his own Obedience After all that has or may be said in the Case If any one will be so civil and ingenuous as out of his pure good-nature to yield our Author a few small inconsiderable things As 1. That there is a double Antithesis where there is but one And 2. That a man 's own Righteousness is another thing than the Righteousness of the Law 3. That the Righteousness which is by the Faith of Christ is distinct from the Righteousness of God 4. That by the Righteousness of the Law no more is intended than Ceremony and Hypocrisie 5. That a mans own Righteousness is so called not because it is his own but because he places his Righteousness in it and 6thly one poor sorry triffle more That all he asserts is meer Gospel grant him but this and he will prove all the rest with ease but though I would go a great way to save his longing yet this is so large a boon that it deserves mature advice and serious deliberation There are yet a few odd things in arrear some notice whereof I promised to take and seeing we are a little at leisure I shall do him justice And first let us consider what work he has made with that Text Rom. 8. 3 4. For what the Law could not do in that it was weak-through the Flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful Flesh and for sin condemned sin in the Flesh that the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit Now our Authors Paraphrase as well as we can scramble it together from broken fragments and odd shreds of his Discourse is thus much The Ceremonial Law being designed of God to work in the Iews inward holiness and purity of Mind which was represented by Circumcision Washings Purifications and Sacrifices it was found too weak to effect this design and therefore God sent Christ into the World to die as a Sacrifice for our Sins to confirm and seal the New-Covenant with his Blood
immediate Effects of the Covenant and not of the Blood of Christ What should move the Apostles always to speak improperly to affix Reconciliation Atonement Redemption c. to the Blood of Christ and never to our Obedience when yet we are neither properly reconciled properly redeemed nor God properly atoned by Christ's Blood but all these are the proper Effects of our Obedience And now one word to the Therefore And therefore says he All the Blessings of the Gospel are owing to the Blood of Christ because the Gospel-Covenant it self was procured and confirmed by the Blood of Christ A very learned Argument that is to say We owe the Blessings of the Gospel to that which is no true and proper cause of them The Blood of Christ is not the proper Cause of our Justification therefore we owe our Iustification to it His Blood is not the proper Cause of our Reconciliation and therefore we are indebted to his Blood for our Reconciliation All Effects are owing to their proper Causes whatsoever therefore is the proper Cause of our Iustification to that we are indebted for it But how naturally would this Conclusion follow from his Premise The Blood of Christ is not the proper Cause of Iustification Reconciliation and Redemption and therefore we do not owe our Justification Reconciliation and Redemption to the Blood of Christ Or thus We owe all the Blessings of the Gospel to the Blood of Christ and therefore the Blood of Christ is the proper Cause of those Blessings And now let the Reader observe how his Reason brought up in the Rear has routed his Reason that marched in the Van. The Blood of Christ is not the proper Cause of the Blessings of the Gospel there 's your Reason in the Front why we do not owe the Blessings of the Gospel to it And again The Gospel-Covenant was procured and confirmed by it There 's your Reason in the Rear why we do owe the Blessings of the Gospel to it But to do our Author justice I shall look over these things more severely The Gospel-Covenant it self says he was procured by the Blood of Christ. And does not this sound more honourably for the Blood of Christ than to say it only confirm'd a Covenant To procure if we might measure the import of the Word by its sound implies that the Blood of Christ had some Influence upon God that moved him to enter into such a Covenant with Mankind which without that Consideration he had never done but to confirm a Covenant that supposes there was such a Covenant in being only the Blood of Christ gave security to Men that it should be made good So that if we know when we are well we had best keep our selves so and sit down contented with this NewHonour and Efficiency ascribed to the Blood of Christ that it procured as well as confirmed the Gospel-Covenant lest whilst we labour to engross more than is due we lose what the Charity of our Author has given us But they who think they have right to All will hardly be perswaded to be put off with half and therefore I must a little further enquire into this new-start-up Notion of procuring the Covenant What this Gospel-Covenant is which our Author so frankly attributes to the Procurement of Christ's Blood he has told us p. 320. A Promise of the Pardon of Sin and Eternal Life to those who believe and obey the Gospel I confess a clear and distinct Notion of what he calls Gospel would very much befriend us in our Enquiry The best I can find and it 's but a half-faced one neither is p. 34. To preach Christ says he is to preach his Gospel that is to expound all those Rules of Life and Articles of Faith which are contained in it Whether this be Gospel or no I shall not enquire or whether this be the Covenant of the Gospel I shall not torment him with but this is that which Christ has procured for us with his Blood A Promise of Pardon and Life to those who believe and obey all that 's revealed and commanded either in the Scriptures or the New-Testament or the Four Evangelists or in one of Christ's Sermons I think that must be it Now I must here entreat the Reader to open his Eyes and see how he has been cheated all this while 1. It 's very well known he propounded a Question at first What Influence the Righteousness of Christ's Life and the Sacrifice of his Death have upon our Acceptance with God To this he answers separately concerning the Death of Christ and its Influence and will come all in good time to shew us What Influence the Righteousness of his Life hath upon God for that End Concerning the Influence of his Death he has been perswading us that it confirms the Covenant and now in the Close he has stollen-in a Word we never dreamt of that i procures this Covenant Now I suspect some fraud for what Influence has the Death of Christ upon God to procure us such a Govenant Had he shew'd us that he had deserved better of his Readers than by all this Amusing Sophistry 2. He has told us p. 42. That the Light of Nature the Works of Creation and Providence do assure us that God designs the Happiness of all his Creatures according to their Capacities and they are capable of being justified and saved And that God is so Holy that he has a Natural Love for all good Men and is as ready to pardon them when they return to their Duty as a kind Father is to receive a Humble and Penitent Prodigal And p. 43. Had Christ never appeared in the World yet we had reason to believe that God is thus good and merciful Now having such good security from the Light of Nature Reason being clear in the Point and the thing so natural and essential to God that he will pardon and is ready to it upon Repentance and Obedience though Christ had never appear'd what has the Death of Christ done to procure this Favour or more Favour from God We will grant that the Death of Christ has confirmed the Truth of it more but what has it added to the Procurement of the thing If it be said that Christ's Death did not procure a Willingness in God to Pardon but only a Confirmation of his Willingness I would ask what greater Confirmation a rational Creature could well desire than an Assurance from the Light of Nature that this was Natural and Essential to God And I would further know what the Procuring of a Confirmation amounts to more than a Confirmation 3. The Scripture has assured us Gen. 17. That God gave an explicite Promise to Abraham that he would be his God or a God to him that is that whatever Abraham should want and yet could not want but he must be eternally miserable that thing God would be to him For 't is an uncouth Interpretation of the Promises I will be thy God that
If then the penalty of sin may be inflicted there 's a necessity that the guilt of the sin be imputed It 's impossible indeed that we should Personally have committed Adams sin or performed that very Obedience which Christ performed but not impossible according to the Constitution of the Law of the two Covenants made with the first and second Adam that the Disobedience of the one or Obedience of the other should be â—…eckoned as committed or performed by us And when the Apostle shall expressely tell us That by one mans Offence we are made Sinners Death is passed upon us judgement come upon all to condemnation and therefore and in the same way by the Obedience of one many are made righteous I shall see very good Reason before I quit my Faith and renounce the Apostle upon an idle Tale of I know not what impossibilities Secondly Affirmatively Because we are made righteous both in a proper and a Forensick sence by the Gospel Covenant which is wholly owing to the Grace of God and to the Merits and Righteousness of Christ. I see now how hard it is to get our Authors Mind out of him P. 320. The Covenant of Grace was then Owing to the Sacrifice of Christs Death and the Righteousness of his Life And p. 334. God for Christs sake made a New Covenant of Grace But now it 's Wholly owing to the Grace of God and the Merits and Righteousness of Christ So that 1. If the Grace of God and the Righteousness of Christ be Con-causes of the Covenant and yet their proper concerns are not distinctly meted and bounded out he may allow as small a share to the Righteousness of Chhrist in procuring the Covenant as he allows the Power of God in Conversion Righteousness is not owing solely to Humane Endeavours well it may not be wholly and solely owing and yet within a very small trifle it may be wholly and solely owing to them so here This Covenant is wholly owing to Gods Grace and the Merits and Righteousness of Christ but how small a little singer Christ may have in it is a Secret and till an admeasurement be made will be so 2. This Covenant is wholly owing to the Grace of God c. Now what he understands by the Grace of God he has often told us Pag. 322. The Grace of God is the Gospel And pag. 334. The Gospel is the Grace and abundant Grace of God And the summe of this Gospel in words at length and not in Figures is A Promise of Pardon and Life to them that believe and obey the Gospel and then the short and long of this Business is That the Covenant is owing to the Covenant or the Gospel is owing to the Gospel or the Grace of God is owing to the Grace of God 3. The Grace of God and the Merits of Christ are here assigned as Con-causes of this Covenant Now if it be of Merit how is it of Grace if of Grace how is it of Merit I can easily understand how Christ should merit Pardon and Life for me and yet that this should be of mere Grace from God to admit anothers Merits to procure those Blessings for me which I cannot procure to my self But I acknowledge my own weakness I cannot understand How this Covenant of his should be owing both to Merit and Free-grace that is How God should make a Promise to pardon freely without any Consideration of making the Promise and yet Christ should merit it at Gods hands which implies a valuable consideration But thus it must be when men to save the Lives of two or three sorry Crotchets will forsake the Conduct of the Scriptures and lean to their own Understandings for the Scripture assures us that Free-grace is the only Foundation of the Covenant of Grace and that Christ himself is the Gift of God Joh. 4. 10. who by the Righteousness of his Life the Sacrifice of his Death the Power and Prevalency of his Intercession admits us into all the Grace and Mercy and Benefits of that Covenant with Security to Gods Honour and the Repute of all his Attributes But 4. This is no fair or tolerable Account How we may be said to be made righteous by the righteousness of Christ because the Covenant is owing to his Righteousness if it had been owing to it for as fair an Account may be given How we may be said to be made righteous by the Virgin Mary If we may be said to be made righteous by any thing to which that thing is owing by which we are really made righteous then we may be said to be made righteous by the Virgin Mary We are properly made righteous according to our Author by our own Obedience that this Obedience makes us so is owing to the Covenant that Covenant is owing to the Obedience of Christ his Obedience is owing to his Nativity his Nativity to his Mother and that may be run up in the Genealogical Scale as high as Adam and thus at this rate we may be said to be justified by Adam And for this he has wisely made a reserve A fair Account how we may be said that 's All. Not that we are so but that we may be said to be so and the Mystery of it lyes here The Scripture has said that we are made righteous by Christs Obedience and we take it for granted that the Scripture had not said it unless it had been really true but there are some who doe not believe it to be really true and therefore they must set their wits awork to find out how it may possibly be said to be true and yet not really be so that so they may neither throw the Lye directly in the face of the Apostles nor yet be compelled to wave their own Unbelief But it seems there is a two-fold sence in which we may be said to be made righteous by the Gospel-Covenant 1. Sect. A Proper Sence which is this The great Arguments and Motives and powerfull Assistances of the Gospel form our Minds to the love and practice of Holiness and so make us inherently righteous What needed all this pother and stir to no purpose The Righteousness of Christ contributes something though he cannot tell what to the Gospel-Covenant this Gospel-Covenant contains Promises and Duties or Motives Arguments Reasons to Obedience now when these Promises prevail with us to love and practise those Duties to perform that Obedience then we become inherently righteous in a proper sence and so that none may take it ill they shall have liberty to say that we are made righteous by the righteousness of Christ His Righteousness or Obedience was an excellent Pattern of a strong Motive to our being righteous Two things I shall oppose to this 1. That to be made inherently righteous is not the proper sence of being made righteous This was indeed the proper sence of being Righteous under the Covenant of Works when a perfect exact compleat inherent Holiness was the
Infallible Spirit laid claim to an Eternal Reward therefore to that Reward they might justly lay claim Psal. 73. 24. Thou shalt guide me with thy Counsel here below in my Passage and Pilgrimage and afterwards when I have run my Race and finisht my Course receive me to Glory The Epilogue to the whole is this The Righteousness of Christ is our Righteousness when we speak of the Foundation of the Covenant by which we are accepted but if we speak of the Termes of the Covenant then we must have a Righteousness of our own The Righteousness of Christ will not serve the turn Christs Righteousness and our own are both necessary to Salvation The first as the Foundation of the Covenant the other as the Condition of it Two things are here asserted First that Christs Righteousness is the Foundation of the Covenant Secondly that our Righteousness is the Condition of the Covenant A brief Examination of which things shall ease the Reader of any further attendance upon these Discourses 1. The Righteousness of Christ is the Foundation of the Covenant of Grace Let us hear his Proofs not a word Peracta est haec Fabula Spectatores valete plaudite We have heard of Procuring Meriting Founding a Covenant but not a syllable of Evidence Methinks I see the Reader filled with shame and wonder wonder that he who could so pleasantly scoff at the Scripture Expressions of building upon Christ as on a Foundation p. 105. and so merrily inveigh against Dr. Owen for asserting Christ to be the only Foundation of our Communion with God should now so zealously talk for Christs being the Foundation of the Covenant and shame that after such expectations of Proof he should find himself bilk'd in the stock That the Reader may not wholly therefore lose his pains I shall entertain him with my own apprehensions in this matter The Covenant of Grace may be considered either in iâ—…'s Constitution or Execution The Constitution of the Covenant is Gods firm and unchangeable purpose of saving his Elect to the praise of his glorious Grace For the word Covenant which in the English Notion has seduced our Understandings in the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by which the Spirit of God expresses those things to us signifie a disposition appointment or ordering of Matters whether there be restipulation or no Thus the fixed purpose the determinate Counsel of God in Scripture is called a Covenant though the things about which that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Counsel of God is conversant be not capable of re-promising any thing and have onely an Obediental Capacity in them answering the absolute extraordinary Power of God Thus Ier. 33. 20. If you can break my Covenant of the day and my Covenant of the night that there should not be day and night in their Season ver 25. Thus saith the Lord If my Covenant be not with day and night and if I have not appointed the Ordinances of Heaven where Gods fixed Law concerning the Succession of Day and Night to the period of all time is called his Covenant and which is still more to our purpose by the stability of this grand Law of Nature he is pleased to instruct us in the fixedness of his better Covenant that of Grace ver 21. Then may also my Covenant be broken with David my Servant ver 26. Then will I cast away the Seed of Jacob and David my Servant This purpose of God this disposition of Grace is immutable Rom. 9. 11. That the purpose of God according to Election might stand The Execution of this fixed Constitution follows which is Gods wise and gracious managing of all things for the accomplishment of that glorious design which he had in the prospect of his Eternal Counsel which he steddily and regularly pursues through all the vicissitudes that his mutable Creature was obnoxious to whilst man stood God pursued his Counsel in giving him a Holy Law to guide him Seconded and back'd with promises and threatnings when Man with drew from God yet God could not deny himself but devolves this great Affair into the hand of a Mediator who with equal readiness and satisfaction in that Seed that should be given him as the purchase of his undertaking addresses himself to this glorious work of Recovering them back again to God and when the fulness of time was come took upon him our Nature partook of our Flesh and Blood because the Children whom God had committed to him were partakers of it This Redeeming Mediator undertakes with God as a Righteous Iudge that he may not lose the glory of any of his Attributes and unto God as a Father that he shall not lose any of the Children that he had given him and therefore he becomes a Priest a Sacrifice a price of Ransom a Curse to satisfie the Judge and his Law and a Prophet and King to recover us Actually in our state to God Thus is he the onely Foundation 1 Cor. 3. 12. The Foundation not of the Constitution but of the Execution of the Covenant 1. On Gods part whatever grace and mercy was in his eternal purpose that is given out to us by Jesus Christ The Promises are made by free-grace as their Reason but made good by Jesus Christ as the means of procuring the promised Mercy which had been forfeited for all the promises of God in him are yea and Amen 2 Cor. 1. 20. He accepts us in the beloved Eph. 1. 6. Forgives us through him ver 7. Iustifies us by Christ Rom. 3. 24. Sanctifies and saves us by Christ Tit. 3. 4 5 6. And 2. On our part through him we approach to God John 14. 6. Heb. 10. 19 20. By him we believe in God 1 Pet. 1. 21. He is our hope of Glory Col. 1. 27. He is the ground of our Faith the Foundation upon which our Souls are laid 1 Pet. 2. 5. To whom coming as to a living stone we also as lively stones are built up a Spiritual house Thus is he the Foundation of conveying all the blessings of the Covenant to us Eph. 1. God blesseth us with all Spiritual blessings in Christ but that Christ is the Foundation of the Covenant it self that I crave leave to deny and to render the Reasons of my denial 1. Sect. Christ cannot be the Foundation of the Covenant because Christ himself is promised in the Covenant as the great Comprehensive Blessing of the Covenant Isa. 49. 8 9. I will give thee for a Covenant that thou maist say to the Prisoners go forth to them that are in darkness shew your selves Whence it 's evident first that the free-love of the Father is the Reason of his giving his Son to be our Deliverer Secondly that Christ is the great undertaker to Execute that Counsel of God in our actual Deliverance Luke 1. 68. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel who hath Visited and Redeemed his People and hath raised up a Horn of
Salvation in the House of his Servant David as he spake by the mouth of his Holy Prophets which have been since the world began ver 72. To perform the Mercy promised to our Fathers and to remember his holy Covenant the Oath which he sware to our Father Abraham where the firm Oath and Covenant of God to Redeem his People is assigned as the Reason of his giving Christ to be a Redeemer The places are too many to be insisted on that confirm this Truth Iohn 3. 16. 1 Iohn 4. 9 10. 2. Sect. Free grace is given as the true Reason of the Covenant of Grace Heb. 8. 8. For finding fault with them he saith behold the days come saith the Lord that I will make a New Covenant with the House of Israel c. They were a faulty an undeserving an ill-deserving People yet Free grace will make a Covenant with them Nor is there any opposition between Free-grace and Christs Merits in this Case if we consider that Free-grace is the Original Reason of Gods designation and purpose to bestow the good things of the Covenant and the Righteousness of Christs Life and the Sacrifice of his Death the way of recovering these Mercies which by sin had been forfeited and lost 3. Sect. The Scriptures give us no intimation that Christ is the Foundation of Gods making this Covenant or the Original Reason of Gods design to bestow the Mercies of the Covenant though it abounds with Testimonies that Christ is the way of procuring for us and conveying to us these intended mercies and in those things which depend upon mere good pleasure Revelation must be our onely guide In this case we may conclude Negatively Non credimus quia non legimus And we may shrewdly conjecture that there is no pretence from Scripture for this Figment of our Authors because it 's the Foundation of all his mistakes and yet he has not so much as attempted the perverting of one Scripture to give colour to it which may be reckoned amongst the Admiranda Nili 2. His other Assertion is this Our own Righteousness is the condition of the Covenant which with his former Assertion is obtruded upon us without proof and therefore I suppose he intends they must both be maintained at the Charges of the Parish Now 1 It is agreed for ought I know that an inherent righteousness is a necessary condition of eternal Salvation Heb. 12. 14. Without Holiness no man shall see God It is a Condition in the Covenant though not of the Covenant such a Condition as is due to every Person in a Covenant-state it doth necessarily attend that state though it be not allowed as antecedent to a Covenant-state 2. As to the Constitution of the Covenant in Gods purpose and Counsel I know no condition at all They that talk of the right use of free-will future Faith or good works fore-seen as the Reason of that purpose talk without book and onely intimate what a rare Covenant they would have made for us had they had the modelling and Contrivance of it like him that boasted that if he had stood by God when he formed Man he could have told him how to have made him more commodiously Rom. 9. 11. The Children being not yet born neither having done any good or evil Where those words neither having done any good or evil must necessarily exclude all respect to the future good or evil they should do as the Reason of the purpose of God according to Election because it 's evident by the form of speech That they deny something more concerning the Children than the former words being not yet born and yet even they exclude Having done good or evil Actually 3. The Question then is whether An inherent Righteousness be the Condition required of us and in us antecedent to our first Covenant-state And I durst leave this Matter to be determined by the Church of England if our Author would do so too Art 17. Predestination to Life is the everlasting purpose of God whereby before the Foundation of the World was laid he hath constantly decreed by his Counsel secret to us to deliver from Curse and Damnation those whom he hath chosen out of Mankind in Christ and to bring them by Christ to everlasting Salvation whence we are taught 1. That Election is not of all Mankind but of some out of Mankind 2. That this purpose of God was from everlasting 3. That it is a fixed constant decree 4. That the Design of it is to deliver those chosen out of Mankind from the curse under which Mankind was fallen and to bring them to everlasting Salvation 5. That the Reason of this eternal Election was his own counsel 6. That the Execution of this Decree is in and by Iesus Christ and the manner of it follows Wherefore they which be endued with so excellent a benefit be called according to the purpose of God working in due season by his Spirit They through Grace obey the calling they be justified freely they be made the Sons of God by Adoption they be made like the Image of his onely begotten Son they walk Religiously in good works and at length by Gods mercy they attain everlasting felicity Whence we are Instructed 1. That the calling of the Elect to a Covenant-state is from Grace as the reason and by Grace as it's efficient 2. Their obeying that call of God is by Grace 3. Good works necessarily follow effectual calling See also Art 10. 12 13. 4. Religious walking with God in good works is a necessary condition of eternal Felicity 5. That there is such a firm connexion in this golden chain of Salvation that no one linck can possibly be broken They are Elected freely called effectually justified freely Adopted graciously Sanctified gradually walk Religiously and at length by the mercy of God are saved eternally which the Apostle gives us more concisely Rom. 8. 30. Moreover whom he did Predestinate them he a so called and whom he called them he also justified and whom he justified them he also Glorified I conclude then that our own righteousness is not the condition of the Covenant of Grace neither of the designment of the Father nor the procurement of the Son nor of the effectual Operation of the Holy Spirit nor of our Covenant-state nor of our Covenant-right nor of the first Covenant-mercy but of many after-mercies and of Eternal Salvation it is the condition 1. Sect. That is not the Condition of the Covenant required of us on our part which God promises to work in us on His part but God has promised to work in us Inherent-righteousness both Root and Fruit Ezek. 36. 26 27. A new Heart also will I give you and I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my Statutes and ye shall keep my Iudgments and do them 2. Sect. That which God in Covenant bestows cannot be the Condition of a Covenant-state but God in Covenant bestows the new Heart for
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
but the working of heated Fancy and Religious Distraction that to speak of Christs beauty loveliness fulness and preciousness are but Romantick Descriptions of him That is All is Fancy that comports not with his own extravagant Whimsâ—…y The Knowledge of Christ informs our Judgements affects our Hearts reforms our Lives and it will argue little love to our Redeemer if we entertain meaner thoughts of him by loud Clamour and impotent Reflections upon him 2. It moves their Passions and if we be a little passionately affected with the love of our Redeemer it 's a pardonable Errour When our Author would curry favour with his Reader and perswade him that for all his scandalous Expressions he was no Enemy to Christ he could say as much as that came to p. 184 185. This is a Sacrament wherein we celebrate the Love of our dying Lord and express our most passionate Love to him Here is Love passionate and most passionate Love and yet others Passions must not be moved for fear they set the Town on fire 3. They find great breakings of heart I would we experienc'd them more upon Condition we were ten times more reviled for them but I cannot well conceive how the Heart should be broken from sin that is not broken for sin and though this is grown so despicable a Matter in his eyes yet we have this Relief that a broken and contrite heart God will not despise 4. But they melt and dissolve into Tears when they remember what their Lord suffer'd for them They are content he should be called their Lord if others renounce him they are willing to own him It 's better to be reproached in this World that they have a Saviour than condemned in the next World because they have none and let it be their and all our Cares that Men may not hate us for professing Christ and God too because we do but profess him But is it so heynous a Crime to weep at the remembrance of what Christ suffer'd for us We pray that God would fulfill upon us that Promise Zech. 12. 10. That he would pour out his Spirit upon us that we may look upon him whom we have pierced and mourn over him and for him as one mourns for an onely Son and we say with Holy Herbert If thou hast no Sighs nor Tears Would thou hadst no Sins nor Fears Who hath These Those ill forbears But 5. They see him hang upon the Cross and have all his Agonies and dying groans in their ears Well if Faith represents to us a crucifyed Christ the Galatians were not called foolish upon that Account When we read that Christ was amazed and sore troubled that his Soul was exceeding sorrowfull even to death that it express'd from his Body clods of Blood all the Question is whether we ought to Read these things between sleeping and waking or get the most lively and powerfull Impressions of them upon our Souls The Primitive Church used to pray 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 libera nos Domine And the Present Church of England By thine Agony and bloody Sweat by thy Cross and Passion good Lord deliver us 6. They Curse their Sins that nayled him there The truth is they do not bless their Sins for crucifying Christ though he was a Person above our Authors scorn that used that Hyperbole Foelix Peccatum quod peperit Christum But sin has proved so dishonourable to our God so wounding to Christ so grievous to the Spirit so bitter to the Conscience that we would say the worst by it we can on this side Cursing And this we have good Authority for pag. 185. The Memory of what Christ has done and suffered excites in us a just Hatred of our sins So that were we but Masters of his Regular Proportions could we but find the just Measure of the Hatred of sin and Nick it exactly betwixt too much and too little hatred of sin we might escape the severity of his Censure Hitherto we have been taught That the just Measure of loving Christ is to love him without Measure and the just Measure of the Hatred of sin is to hate it without Measure but our Author good Man is very solicitous least we should over-love Christ or over-hate our iniquities 7. They tremble at the Thoughts of the Naturalness of Gods vindictive Iustice to him And if they doe consider God as one of purer eyes than to behold Iniquity if they do view his Holiness and in the sense of their own vileness cry out Woe is me for I am undone because I am a Man of unclean lips As good as they or he have trembled at 〈◊〉 sight of this Glorious Holy and Righteous Judge 8. But they feel all the Horrors and Agonies of damned Spirits I knew we should have a Rapper before we had done Is this the Fruit of Acquaintance with Christ I question not but a Cain a Iudas a Spira may have felt in this Life something of the horrours of the Damned The Apostle denounces some such dreadfull vengeance against Renegadoes from the Christian Faith Heb. 10. That there remains no more Sacrifice for sin but a certain fearfull looking for of Iudgement and fiery Indignation to devour the Adversaries v. 26 27. But these despairing horrours proceed not from an experimental Knowledge of Christ as our Author either ignorantly dreams or maliciously calumniates but from an Ignorance of him the true design of his Death in Reconciling God and Man This is one of their Extreams for at other times they are ravish'd with his Love charm'd and captivated with his Beauty refresht and ravisht with his Comforts c. It is easie to observe that our Author alwayes writes pro re natâ just as the present occasion invites him for he will tell you p. 396. That the Soul many times feels such great and Ravishing delights in all the Acts of Religion as infinitely excell all the pleasures of Sense they relish great Pleasure and Satisfaction in the sense of Gods Goodness P. 397. They must needs feel sometimes such divine Touches and Impressions as are the Effects if I may so speak of a mutual Love and Sympathy And had these men but the Happiness to have express'd themselves in his very words and Syllables they might have said either the worst or best of Religion they had pleased without Rebuke But all this he tells us may be no more than the working of a warm and Enthusiastick Fancy but then if it should prove the work of the Holy and Blessed Spirit which he ascribes to Fancy and Conceit how near it may come to the sin of those who ascribed that to Beelzebub which was effected by the Finger of God I must leave to his serious Consideration Enthusiasm is much reproached and little understood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Enthusiasme is when the Mind is wholly enlightned by God In which sence I pray God make us all Enthusiasts And let the End of all that Ioy and Satisfaction that we have
justified in the sight of God and methinks it looks like a mere whimsey to fancy a Notion of Iustification in his sight that has neither pardon of sin included in it nor eternal life attending of it It 's strange to me to hear of Iustification before God against Temporal Evils And if Abraham had no other I think he was never perfectly justified 2. The Determination of the Church of England is no light matter with me Artic. 7. They are not to be heard that feign the Fathers looked only for Transitory Promises But it seems that in this one particular the Church was not infallible for they are to be heard and read and licensed and advanced too who dare fâ—…ign and write and preach That the Patriarchs either looked for none or at the best but Transitory Promises 3. When I read that Abraham was so earnest to see Christ's day by Faith and when he got a sight of it he was glad I begin to think with my self what should be the ground of so great a joy at so great a distance Spiritual Promise he is allowed none and was it worth the while to rejoyce in the foresight of some temporal Advantages that should come to the Jews when he should be turn'd to dust and nothing especially seeing the coming of Christ either brought spiritual Mercies 〈◊〉 the Seed of Abraham or none at all So that he had more cause to sit down and lament that he had no promise of Love from or Life with God either for his Person or Posterity Ay! but says he the Promise was not so clear but men might mistake iâ—… That may be I confess And so may the clearest that ever God gave to the sons of men If men will set their wits on work and serue and torture and vex and wrest every letter and syllable and in all this forsake the Conduct of God's Spirit and scorn the Catholick Judgment of the Church in all Ages to gratifie their Airy Crotchets I do not remember a Promise of God to secure them against mistaking his Promises Ay! but says he we know that the whole Iewish Church did so for many Ages If he knows it he knows more than I do but that is no great wonder and than any man alive besides his own Knowing self And yet they had more particular Promises concerning Christ than that was and yet expected only a temporal Prince I will deal openly with him I do not believe that the whole Iewish Church for any Age much less for many Ages no not for any one day in any Age did expect a Messiah to deliver them only from temporal evils That there was great degeneracy in that Church in some Ages I deny not there is so amongst Christians especially towards the latter times of their Church-state But that ever the whole Church so far degenerated as to lose the expectation of a Redeemer to deliver them from sin and its consequents and to endow them with spiritual Blessings I demand better proofs than Confidence before I subscribe And 1. For Abraham it 's evident he sought a heavenly Country and therefore I conclude That the believing Jews who had says our Author more particular Promises concerning Christ sought a heavenly one too or their more express Promises were ill bestowed on them Heb. 11. 9. By Faith he Abraham dwelt in the promised Land as in a strange Country The promised Land was a strange Country to him that sought a heavenly one whereof that was but the figure the rind and bark for that Promise had greater excellencies underneath to his discerning Faith ver 10. For he looked for a City that had foundations whose builder and maker is God Vers. 13. All these died in the Faith Confessing that they were Strangers and Pilgrims for they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a Country Vers. 16. But now they desire a better that it a heavenly Country therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God 2. It 's evident that the Messiah was promised Isa. 53. 4. To bear their sins and carry their sorrows Vers. 5. To be wounded for their transgressions and bruised for their iniquities Ver. 6. To have all their iniquities laid upon him Ver. 8. To be stricken for the transgression of God's people Ver. 10. To have his Soul made an Offering for sin And now to assert That the whole Iewish Church expected only a temporal Monarch is to throw such dirt in the face of God's people as is very scandalous 3. If any of them at any time expected temporal Deliverances temporal Honours Revenues c. from the Messiah it was not inconsistent utterly with an expectation of better things from him for the Disciples themselves had been hammering some such conceit in their heads Acts 1. 6. perhaps mistaking in the Chronology and Antedating that Mercy which in its season they might have reason to expect and yet by our Author 's good leave I will be so charitable as to presume they looked for pardon of sin and eternal life from Christ Nay I could name instances nearer home of those that expect from the Gospel large in-comes and yet we may reasonably believe have nobler things in their eye and would scorn his Atheistical spirit who would not forgo his part in Paris for his share in Paradise 2. He must know that Christ was to die for our sins without which according to our Doctor it 's impossible God should forgive sins considering the Naturalness of his Vindictive Iustice to him Now to untie this knot in the Bulrush 1. I question not that Abraham understood clearly That God was essentially holy and that his Rectoral or Governing Iustice was founded therein Gen. 18. 25. Shall not the Iudg of all the Earth do right That it should be with the righteous as with the wicked or with the wicked as with the righteous were far from God Which Consideration might stagger his Faith about the pardon of his own sin and his only relief could be from the Faith of the Messiah's undertaking with God In which he had this satisfaction that however he found difficulties in the way of believing yet still he gave credit to God and his Testimony concerning a Redeemer leaving the Modes and Circumstances of the Mediatory Office as a secret in God's bosom 2. I am confident our Author cannot prove that Abraham knew nothing of Christ's death This I know he had Sacrifices which might sufficiently instruct him in the demerit of sin and what the sinner had deserved and in the necessity of Compensation to be made to God's Justice for his violated Law and reproached Government And whether Abraham might not once open his mouth to God to be instructed in their noblest signification and design I cannot tell 3. I do not know of any absolute necessity that Abraham should understand the Circumstances that should lead towards the fulfilling of the Mediator's work or in what particular way God would justifie a sinner