stood into him as our Creator Preserver and Benefactor There was in mankind an ability of soul of ascending unto the knowledg of the invisible Being and First cause by the effects of his Power Wisdome and Goodness of knowing as much of God as was needful for our living to him and our dependance on him in that state and under that Covenant that we then stood From which there could not but have resulted a clearer and more distinct knowledg than we can now imagine of that love Gratitude Reverence which we owed to him and these would have been attended with a recognition of our own nothingness a dependant frame of spirit and a resignation of our selves and all things to his will The Second was the consideration of our selves that amphibious kind of Nature we are made with it is Hierocles's expression being allied in our constitution and make to several Species of creatures And the observing the Subordinations of the parts of our Composition one to another That the Animal and sensitive powers are to be governed by the Intellectual and Rational From which would have arisen a plenary and steady knowledg of the unsuitableness of earthly things to constitute us happy That our Blessedness lay not in the pleasing of our senses and gratification of our Animal part In a word that the Soul was to be principally regarded and that Reason was to be our only conductor which I suppose was enough to have precluded all intemperance incontinence and the subjecting of our selves to the Animal life c. A third way was an ability of penetrating more fully than now we can into the natures of the several creatures their fabricks orderly operations various instincts relations both to us and one an other in all which as in a glass much of our duty had we abode in the state of integrity would have become plain and evident to us If notwithstanding the fall and all that darkness and confusion which hath ensued thereupon We abide still directed to the creatures for the learning many parts of our duty See Iob. 12.7 Prov. 6.6 Jer. 8.7 Deut. 32.11 Should we not have been capable of learning more from them and that more clearly and distinctly when there was no tincture of sin or shadow of darkness on the mind nor fallacious medium in the whole Creation A Fourth was an ability of mind of knowing the Relation which we stood in one to another How that we were not self-sufficient but brought forth under a necessity of mutual assistances and that we could not subsist without the mutual aids of love and friendship That we arose not like mushromes out of the earth nor were digged out of parsly-beds neither came into the World by a fortuitous Original That we sprung not Originally from diverse Stocks much less were created at first multitude of us together But that the whole race of mankind was propagated from one single Root That each of us was intended as a part of the Rational System and made for society and fellowship From all which we should have been able by easy deductions and short dependencies to have argued out the whole of those duties we are under the Sanction of either to parents children or neigbours In a word doing as we would be done by which epitomiseth the whole duty that one man oweth to another would have proved the natural issue of the foregoing considerations The Fifth and last way was through observing Gods order and method in the Works of Creation As the works of God themselves were to be instructive unto man not only of the Being Power Wisdome and Goodness of God but of the Moral duties that God expected from us Psal. 19.1 Rom. 1.20 21. So God's Order and Method in the Production and Disposal of his Works into their several Relations and Subordinations was likewise intended to be instructive to mankind and it was the will of God that we should learn our duty thereby Thus the Preeminence of the man over the Woman is confirmed by the Apostle from the order of the Creation I suffer not saith he the Woman to usurp over the man for Adam was first formed then Eve 1 Tim. 2.12 13. Christ himself establisheth Monogâ—my upon the same foundation namely God's Method of Creation at first From the beginning of the Creation he made them Male Female for this cause shall a Man cleave to his Wife and they two shall be one flesh Marc. 10.6 38. Thus also with respect to God's order in the Creation did the observation of the Sabbath become a part of the Law of Nature And on the seventh Day God ended his Work which he had made and he rested on the Seventh Day from all his Work which he had made and God blessed the Seventh Day sanctified it because that in it he had rested from all his work See Dr. Owen of Sacred Rest Exâ—â—cit â— which he had created and made Gen. 2 2 3. All these instances do fully evidence that there was both a sufficiency of objective light in the things themselves to instruct man into his duty and of Subjective light in man to discern improve it to the ends aforesaid Nor doth it at all weaken what is said that the Light of Reason as it reside's in us now seems defective and insufficient to direct us unto the knowledg and observance of these things For it is enough that we have proved them to have been originally designed by God for these ends and that there is ground and evidence in the things themselves to conduct to them Nor is the exâ—ent and effects of Primitive light to be measured by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Ruines of it which remain in us since the fall Alas our present light is faint Languid Scant Superficial Distracted leaving us under uncertain guesses dubious hallucinations exposing us to fallacious and delusive appearances unable to minister due indications of vertue and vice even in such things as according to All come under the Sanction of the Law of Creation Witness the Idolatry Uncleanness Rapine c. that Nations and Persons pretending to the greatest improvement of Reason and natural Light have lived in But Original Light was pure clear certain not tinctur'd with false images and colours nor darkness by lust and sensuality capable if it had been exercised and attended to of preserving us secure as well from Doubt as Error § 5. God having thus prescribed a Law to man the Notices of which lay sufficiently plain in the exercising of his faculties He also endowed him with a proportionate strength for the observance of the precepts of that Law That a law be obligatory it is necessary that it enjoyn nothing but what is possible to be performed That none can be bound to impossibilities is an indubitable axiom It is not consistent with the Wisdome Justice Righteousness and Goodness of God to command that which we never had strength for the performance of nor can he
or services The other is the consideration of the Divine Goodness But the consideration of his Justice being as ponderous to the contrary this is as inept to beget an assurance of our acceptance with God as the former Conscience through being guilty being also suspicious will hinder us in our expecting any thing from the Divine Goodness by continually objecting his justice to us But supposing we were sufficiently furnished with Notices of the Divine placability and that he will accept a Homage from us yet it still remains to be proved that precluding a supernatural Revelation we have any rational ground of belief that he will approve our manner of approach to him by Sacrifices I know no perfection in the Divine Being to which they are Naturally suited It is true I find a Late Author insinuating that the Religion of Sacrifices flows from the Nature and the Attributes of God requiring no other discovery than the Light and no other determination than the choice of natural Reason def and continuat p. 427 428. But I would fain know what property in the Divine Nature the Religion of Sacrifices flows from God is not capable of being fed or refreshed by the scent and smoke of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lib. 2. Sect. 24. Indeed Porphyry tells us that a great many thought so but I am sure it was a most foolish thought And besides what-ever flows from the Divine Nature and the Attributes of God the obligation to it is indissoluble nor can we be superceded the performance of it And by consequence the Worshipping of God by Sacrifices should both have obliged mankind in the state of innocencie and doth still indispensably oblige us Nor can the Christian Institution vacate any Duty that flows from the Nature of God Indeed the mysterious and gracious Counsels of Gods will in reference to our recovery from Wrath by the Sacrifice of his Son which he designed the bringing into light and the giving the world instruction about by this Medium render our being found in this Method of address to God while the end proposed in it continued very rational and justifiable but abstracting from that the mind of man can not entertain a more silly and ludicrous thought than that we should thereby honour God in a due and suitable way That we should adore and magnifie the Goodness and bounty of God in all the benefits we partake of and that we should use them soberly and discreetly improving them into motives of cheerfulness humility and advantages of service both in communicating to the wants of others and being the more alacrous in obedience our selves hath the authorisation of Reason for it and becomes that habitude we stand in to God as Rational Creatures But to reckon that the presenting God with slaughtered Animals is the most natural Symptome of Homage that Rational Creatures can express their thankfulness to him by Naturalis Ratio si recta esset sciret Deâ—â— tâ—libus non indigere neque ea à nobis requirere Râ—vet in cap. 4. Gen. Exercit. 22. Def. contin p. 431 I account it a sentiment only fit for them who never duly meditated what God is And in my conceit the missing of such an invention would have been so far from being flat stupidity that it would have argued a mind pregnant with generous thoughts of God The Second thing produced in proof that Sacrifices took their beginning from Humane Agreement is because there appears not any shadow of command for them when they were first practised and to say that the expression of worship by Sacrifices was commanded though â— is no where Recorded is to take the liberty of saying any thing without proof or evidence Eccl. Polit. p. 101. v. def contin p. 428. To this I reply that 't is not needful that every command relating to institutions be expresly and in terminis recorded 't is enough that it be colligible from the Scripture I know no Logick that will allow the sequel That because the command of a thing is not registred in so many words that therefore the thing it self is not of Divine Original The Reverend Person who reviewed and animadverted on the Ecclesiastical Polity told him that there was an Institution for the offering and burning Incense only with sacred fire taken from the Altar and that the Priests were consumed with fire from before the Lord for the neglect of it Yet there is no express command in the whole Scripture where that Institution is in terminis Recorded p. 272. This our late Author takes no Notice of in his Def. Contin but passeth it in deep silence as he doth all the most material things in the said Reply I shall only subjoyn one instance more to the same purpose The Observation of the Christian or First day-Sabbath will be allowed I suppose to have a Warrant in the Revelation of the Word yet there is not in the whole Gospel a Command in express Terms for the keeping of it There is indeed a precept in the Decalogue for the observance of one day in Seven as a Holy Sabbath to the Lord and there is an express determination founded on Gods Resting from his Works for the keeping the last day of the Hebdomadal Revolution during the Old Testament Oeconomy as a day of Sacred Rest. There are also various Arguments taken from the Creation of all things in and by Christ his Finishing and Resting from all the Works of the New Creation in and by his Resurrection his declaring that a Day of Rest accommodated to his own ceasing from his Works remains now for Believers Together with the Apostolical observation of the First Day of the week as a Sabbath to the Lord God's blessing his People in their attendance on him from time to time on that Day John Baptising it with the Name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lord's Day c. All which do evince the change of the Day from the Seventh unto the First to be of Heavenly Original and founded in Divine Authority Yet there is not a Command 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the whole Sacred Code and Register for it In a matter of so great antiquity as Sacrifices when the Lord instructed his Church by Dreams Visions mental Impressions audible voice c. To affirm that there was no Divine Command for the Religion of Sacrifices because the Command is not expresly delivered is a very unwary and bold assertion It is enough for us if we can demonstrate that they acted not herein without a Divine Warrant though we cannot assign the manner in which it was prescribed and this we hope to make good to the satisfaction of all sober inquirers but to satisfie Scepticks and prejudic'd persons who have no mind to be convinced is more than any man can undertake The third Opinion then concerning the Original of Sacrifices is theirs who deduce them from the Institution of God himself And as this is the common sentiment
Law of Faith is that which bespeaks our next enquiry The present existence of neither of them can be called into question for without the overthrowing the Nature of God the Nature of Man and the Decalogue of Moses we cannot suspect the Being and Obligation of the first Nor can the existence of the second fall under debate without disclaiming the Gospel not only in all the conditions of it but our hopes by it A consistency betwixt them must also be granted it being unbecoming and repugnant to the Wisdom of God to keep in establishment two several Laws whereof the one is wholly subversive of the other nor can Subjects in justice and equity be at one and the same time obliged to Laws which neither in their demands nor designs are consistent one with another The Apostle hath long agoe determined this Do we then make voyd the Law through Faith God forbid yea we establish the Law Rom. 3.31 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 make voyd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies inutilem inanem ignavam omnibus viribus destitutam reddere to render idle fruitless destitute of all binding power to evacuate the obligation of a thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That through death he might destroy him that had the power of death Heb. 2.15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we establish legem statuimus vulg stabilimus i. e. firmam efficacem reddimus Bez. We fix and settle it in its Sanction and force Think not that I am come to destroy the Law saith Christ I am not come to destroy but to fulfil Mat. 5.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to dissolve the obligation of the Law to abolish and abrogate it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to overthrow the Democratie or popular Government Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 leges tollere to evacuate or cancel Laws often in Greek Authors So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being put in opposition to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to maintain the obligation of the Law consistent then they are Yet coordinate they can not be their terms being not only different but opposite It is true each of them in their own kind sense and way requires perfect obedience For no Law can remit what it self exacts but then it is only perfect obedience to its own demands And with respect to its own terms the Gospel is as strict as the Law As the one denounceth Eternal death to all those who transgress its terms so doth the other to all those who violate its He that â—ailes in Repentance from dead works Faith towards Jesus Christ and sincere obedience to the Moral Law is left as remediless by the Covenant of grace as he that fails in obedience to the Law of Creation is brought and left under the curse by the Covenant of Works Only the terms of the one are not so severe and strict as the terms of the other The Remedying Law being purposely introduced for the pardoning our trespasses against the Original Law The Law threatens death absolutely repent or not repent The Gospel threatens that the legal curse shall be executed except we repent And herein they are not only so distinct and different but distant and opposite in their demands the one to the other that whoever pleads on a personal fulfilling the terms of the one is not at all capable of pleading on the terms of the other The Subject of justification by the Original Law must be one perfectly innocent The man that doth these things shall live by them Rom 10.5 Whereas the Subject of justification by the Remedying Law must be supposed a sinner and a criminal They that be whole need not a Physician but they that are sick I am not come to call the Righteous but sinners to repentance Mat. 9.12.13 The Original Law both as it was first Subjective in our natures and as it is now Objective in the Decalogue to our natures requires perfect obedience Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine Heart and with all thy Soul and with all thy Strength Deut. 6.5 Moses describeth the Righteousness which is of the Law that the man which doth those things shall live by them Rom. 10.5 And accordingly in case of the least faileur it denounceth eternal death Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the Law to do them Gal. 3.10 Nor can sincere obedience give any title to life by the Law of Creation all the Right that it states us in to happiness is by the Law of Faith The obedience which gives a claim to life by the Original Law must be perfect and perpetual as well as sincere Seeing then none of the sons of Adam even in their best state doth good and sinneth not Eccl. 7.20 1 Kings 8.46 But in many things we offend all Jam. 3.2 And if we should say that we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us 1 John 1.8 It Naturally follow 's that by the Deeds of the Law there shall no flesh be justified in God's sight Rom. 3.20 But that as many as are under the works of the Law are under the curse Gal. 3.10 The Papists do here grosly erre by affirming that Mankind is still able perfectly to keep the Original Law But in order to this they are necessitated to hold that some sins are in their own Nature venial and that they are not contra sed praeter legem against but besides the Law Bellarmin lib. 4. de justif cap. 14. The whole of which as it is false so it is absurd and non-sensical For if they be against no Law they are not at all sins but acts in themselves indifferent and Lawful And if they be violations of any Law of God i. e. if they be at all sins they demerit eternal death That being the penalty annexed by God to the breach of every command Rom. 6.23 Gal. 3.10 Deut 27.26 Rom. 2.9 Besides did we remain able to fulfil observe the Law of Creation perfectly there could be no place nor room for the Law of Grace For as the Apostle saith if there had been a Law given which could have given life verily Righteousness should have been by the Law Gal. 3.21 It being then impossible that they should be Coordinate it remains that the one lye in a subordination to the other And seeing that the Gospel in all its super-structions supposeth the Original Law still in Being though not Universally to the same ends that it first served and for as much as the Law of Faith is provided and introduced of God to minister relief against the Law of Nature it likewise appears that the Original Law is now brought into a subserviency and subordination to the Remedial-Law How and wherein this is shall be farther laid open First then Our Lord Jesus hath in the Gospel adapted the Decalogue which is a compleat transcript of the Natural Law to be the alone measure of
of all Moral Duties be laid in the Law of Nature yet the practice of every Duty with respect to acceptance with God since the fall is regulated by that great positive Law of the New Covenant which enjoyns the tendring of all things through the Messiah Now the manner of performance being an essential ingredient into the determination of the Moral quality of an action and the New Covenant determining this as the manner in which every Moral action ought to be performed it naturally follows that Faith in Jesus Christ is become an ingredient into and a part of every Moral Duty § 14. Having intimated the introduction of a Remedying-Law and the subordination of the Original Law thereunto That which we are next to address to is the unfolding our impotency and inability for the performance of the Duties and Conditions of this Law of Grace We here suppose that the New Covenant hath its terms and conditions as well as the Old Every Covenant of God made with us as with parties Covenanting doth by vertue of the Nature of the thing require some performance or other of us antecedently to our having an interest in and benefit by the promises of that stipulation We take likewise for granted that Repentance towards God and Faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ Act. 20.21 are the terms and conditions of the New Covenant The state and condition of Weakness Alienation and Enmity that we are in to these great Duties of the Gospel is what I intend a little farther to treat First then The terms of the Gospel together with the foundations on which they bear were not discernable by Natural Light They take their alone Rise in the soveraign will and pleasure of God nor is there any medium by which we can know the free determinations of the Divine Will but his own Declaration These things have no foundation in the imagination of any Creature They are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things not possible to be found out by sense or reason It is only Faith on the Word of God that gives 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 evidence and convincing demonstration of them and that begets an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or confidence and full assurance concerning them Heb. 11.1 Hence it is that the Gospel is so often stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a mystery see Math. 13.11 Rom. 16.25 Eph. 1.9 6.19 1 Cor. 4.1 c. Some take the word to be of a Hebrew Original and to be equivalent to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a secret or a thing hidden others derive it from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nicto clausos oculos habeo Whencesoever we fetch it the unsearchableness and hiddenness of the Gospel is intended in it The New Covenant both in the Doctrines and Duties of it lies in a higher Region than humane Reason in its most daring flight can mount to The matters and concerns of it are omni ingenio altiora out of the reach of Reason to discern till brought nigh by the Revelation of them in the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The world by all their Natural and Metaphysical Wisdom knew not God viz. as reconciling Sinners to himself by Christ till by the Gospel and the Preaching of it he made it known 1 Cor. 1.21 How should it come under the Apprehensions of men when it lay out of the reach of the Angelical Understanding Eph. 3.10 Unto Principalities and Powers in Heavenly places is made known by the Church the manifold Wisdom of God Had it not been for God's revealing it to the Church the Angels themselves had abode in everlasting ignorance of it There are no footsteps of it in the whole Creation nor evidence of it in the works of Providence The Placability of God through Christ is no part of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of that which maybe known of God by the things that are made Alas How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard Rom. 10.14 That sin is pardonable we can only learn it there where we are taught how it is actually pardoned Before we can be sure of the Reconcileableness of God or the remissableness of Sin upon Faith and Repentance We must first be perswaded of one of these three 1. Either that God both can will forgive Sin without any satisfaction But this according to the Amyraldians themselves contradicts that idea of Righteousness Holiness and Justice which we have of God Or 2. That the Sinner himself can make satisfaction but that is repugnant to Natural light as much if not more than the former Or 3. That God hath found out a way of satisfying himself and that either by the death of his Son or by some other means not the first for as much as there is not one Iota of the incarnation death satisfaction c. of Christ in the whole book of Creation and Providence neither the second because notwithstanding the advantages which we through the enjoyments of the Scripture have beyond the Heathen of knowing what could have been and what could not have been we are yet so far from any clear certain grounds of believing the possibility of Salvation in any other way that we are furnished with very momentous arguments to the contrary Besides if I should not not be counted Young Raw Petulant c. I would ask the Disciples of Amyrald whether the works of God do naturally and by a vertue intrinsecal to them declare this Placability of God and Pardonableness of Sin on Faith and Repentance or whether they do it by vertue of a Divine Institution If they affirm the last pray how come the Heathens without a Revelation acquainted with that Institution Where and by whom had God told the world so much If they assert the first which alone carries probability in it Then 1. Adam from his own and his Wifes not being instantly destroyed upon the commission of Sin had sufficient assurance of the Placability of God and pardonableness of Sin previously unto and abstracting from all promulgation of the Covenant of Grace 2. How is it that seeing there are in the Government of the World as manifest instances of God's severity as his Lenity that forgetting all thoughts of the Wrath and Anger of God they should only possess a perswasion of his Mercy and Kindness 3. Suppose that God had preserved the Creation in Being without transacting with Sinners in a Covenant of Grace which I think implies no Contradiction pray what then of the Placableness and Compassion of God could it have taught us In a word all the Notices which the Heathen have or at any time had of the Reconcileableness of God they had it by Tradition from the Church nor do they resolve themselves into any other Original Shall I add in the last place that I never understood the consistency of the Amyraldian Hypothesis either with the Wisdom or Goodness of God A Reconcileableness on terms which according to those we are dealing