about the Necessity of Good Works For says he when they are pressed with those Scriptures that urge the Necessity of Good Works What do they then Nay that he could not tell but carries on a suspended Sence for almost two whole Pages and in the end leaves it unintelligible Nonsence But however let us hear those Texts that are so pressing for Good works and a holy Life Why VVithout Holiness no Man shall see God The wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all Unrighteousness and Ungodliness of Men. Truly these Scriptures do press upon our Consciences and Practices but not upon our Principles Well then there are others that assert Our Acceptation with God depends upon a Holy and Vertuous life I promise you that presses indeed But it does not press me Our Acceptation with God depends upon a Holy life as the Qualification but it depends upon Christ for Procurement But the places are Acts 10. 35. God is no Respecter of Persons but in every Nation he that feareth God and worketh Righteousness is accepted of him Well let us examine whom this Text does press most The Apostle Peter in that excellent Discourse ver 43. tells us To him Christ give all the Prophets witness that through his Name whosoever believeth in Him should receive Remission of sins Whatsoever of acceptation with God then they that fear God and work Righteousness do obtain still it 's through the Name of Christ. The Text then presses not us he must call for more weight if he designs to Press us to Death But as I remember pag. 44. our Author with much Confidence would bear us down that the Iews who knew nothing at all of Christ yet undeâ—…stood God to be a Sin-pardoning God And yet the Apostle assures us 1. That all the Prophets gave witness to Christ. 2. That their Testimony was this That they were to expect Remission of sins through the Name of Christ. 3. That the Means of acquiring the Remission of sins through Christ was by believing in Him And now let him ask his own Shoulders whether this Text does not press him But there is another Scripture that will break their bones Mat. 5. 20. Except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven And what was their Righteousness Why he tells us They were a company of Immoral Hypocrites who placed all their Righteousness in observing the Ceremonies of the Law without the purity of their Hearts and Lives Well and we think a Man may Travel a great many Leagues beyond such Debauches and never come near the Kingdom of Heaven Let them then Groan under the weight of it who place their Religion in Ceremony and prophane Drollery it presses not them who professing Faith in our Lord Iesus Christ and Repentance from Dead works subject themselves to his Gospel Well but there is one more that will Grind them to Powder ver 19. He that breaks the least of these Commandments and teaches men so shall be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven And this will certainly press them who Renouncing their part in the Satisfaction given to God by Christ trust to their own Imperfect repentance wherein there are so many Flaws as will amount to the breach of some Commandment and then our Author has quite shut them out of the Kingdom of Heaven To conclude this Section our Author has one round Fling at Doctor Owen and it is ex Officio no doubt I suppose he may hold some fair Estate by this Tenure That he Persecute the Doctor with Fire and Faggot as far as a pair of Shooes of a great price will carry him The Question is What necessity there is of Obedience The Doctor had said That Universal Obedience and good Works are Indispensibly necessary to Salvation by the sovereign appointment and Will of God To this our Author answers This is not one syllable to the purpose Why then It 's the end of the Fathers electing Love That 's not one syllable to the purpose It 's the end of the Sons redeeming Love That 's not one syllable to the purpose It 's the end of the Spirits sanctifying Love That 's not one syllable to the purpose Well but it 's necessary to the Glory of the Father Son and Holy Ghost That 's not one syllable to the purpose neither If neither the Sovereignty of God over us the Love of God to us nor the Glorifying of God by Us be to the purpose of Obedience let our Author speak to the purpose So he will God hath commanded Obedience but where 's the Sanction of the Law Will he Damn all that will not Obey for their Disobedience Where 's the Sanction of the Law I am sure that Question is very little to the purpose It 's the Command it self that makes a Duty that creates a necessity The Authority of the Law-giver lays the Obligation upon the Subject It 's our Interest to Obey upon the account of the Sanction but it 's our duty to Obey upon the Command it self But not to hold him in suspense God will Damn all those that will not Obey for their Disobedience Our Author has now quite run himself a Ground and is Pumpt dry of his Drollery and therefore turns Catechist and Persecutes us with Impertinent Queries I have heard some say that an Ideot may tye more Knots in an Hour than a Wise-man can untye in a day But however though we might plead it's Coram non Iudice yet for once let him suppose himself in his Desk and his poor Catechumens humbly waiting upon his Foot-stool Quest. Will God Damn those who do not Obey for their disobedience Answ. Yes and it please you Sir Qu. But will he save and reward those who do Obey for their Obedience An. He will reward their Obedience but not save them for their Obedience Qu. But will the Father Elect none but those that are Holy An. Yes and it like your good Learning he Elects them that they may be Holy but not because they are Holy Ephes. 1. 4. Ephes. 2. 10. Qu. But wil the Son Redeem none but those that are holy An. Yes indeed Sir a great many for a Redeemer supposes them to be sinners and Captives under sin Qu. But will he reject and Reprobate all that are not Holy An. God has not Reprobated all that were or are not holy for then he had Reprobated all the World but he will reject all that continue unholy to the Death Qu. But tell me Doth this Election and Redemption suppose Holiness in us or is it without any regard to it An. Neither the one nor the other It 's Fallacia plurium Interrogationum They neither presuppose Holiness in us nor are they without all regard to Holiness it is a necessary Effect but not a Cause of Election and Redemption Qu. Dost thou stand chopping Logick with thy Betters If we be Elected and Redeemed without regard
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
is I will be nothing to thee do nothing for thee of what thou mainly wantest but for all my Promise to be thy God I will suffer thee to lye under the guilt of Sin at present and to fall under eternal Condemnation here-after though thou walkest before me and art perfect If then there was such an Implicite and Virtual Promise in God's Nature revealed by the works of Creation and Providence to Reason and an Explicite one too in the particular Revelation that God would bestow Pardon of Sin and Eternal Life to those who walkt before God inuprightness The Question is How did Christ procure such an Engagement from God when it was procured before But supposing that there was never any such Promise made by God till Christ by his Death procured it then how did the Death of Christ prevail with God to make such a Promise which otherwise he had never made 4. But I suspect more than ever that we are merely gulled for he tells us That the Blessings of the Gospel are the proper Effects of the Covenant but not of that Blood of Christ so that we are justified by the Blood of Christ is properly false but improperly true that we are Redeemed by the Blood of Christ in an improper Sense may be said to be true but in a proper Sense is utterly false and then if the Apostles had penn'd their Epistles clean backward they would have been properly true whereas now they are properly false And now who can tell but when he says The Blood of Christ procured this Covenant he may not mean in some improper odd Sense that is not worth a Button But yet our Author seems to go higher than all this p. 330. Our Righteousness and acceptation with God it wholly owing to the Covenant which he hath purchased sealed with his Blood To Purchase is a very good word when applied to the Blood of Christ therefore because we meet with so few I shall make as much of it as I can It denotes procurement in a special way by a valuable price paid The Covenant of Grace then Christ has purchased that Covenant is a Promise of Pardon and Life to those who believe and obey the Gospel In this Covenant there are three things First the Material part the pardon of sin and eternal Life Secondly the conditional part Faith and Obedience Thirdly The form of the Covenant A Promise of the Material part upon performance of the Conditional part Now when he owns the Blood of Christ to have purchased this Covenant the question is whether the whole or some part of it only If not the whole then what part is the purchase of his Blood 1. For the Conditional part Faith and Obedience I may secure my self our Author will not put them into the particular of the purchase for then it would be scarce worth the while to mingle Heaven and Earth with Tragedies what the conditions of the Covenant should be if Christ had purchased the conditions themselves and therefore as to these let every man trust to himself 2. As for the Material part Pardon and Life I doubt our Author will not yield us neither that Christ has purchased them because he denies that the Blessings of the Gospel are the proper effects of Christ's Blood whereas had he purchased them with his Blood they would have been the proper effects of it 3. Then it remains that Christ has purchased a Promise of bestowing the Material part upon our performance of the Conditional part And thus we are just where we were two miles ago and these great words of purchasing and procuring are shrivel'd up to Confirmation of a Promise but if he will say that the Blood of Christ his Death and dreadful sufferings were a proper price paid to God to procure or purchase a word from God that he would do that which was natural and essential to him then we shall thank him that he has such honourable thoughts of it as to judg it worth a good word The Scripture every-where ascribes the Blessings of the Gospel to the purchase and procurement of the Blood of Christ but if this be all that he has got a word from God it supposes the the Scripture to swell with Scenical Language and high Tragical Phrase which seems to carry sublime matters in it but when it comes to be stript of Metaphor and Allegory is a mere Anatomy From this precarious Hypothesis that the Apostles always write like himself that is improperly and impertinently and attribute such things to the Blood of Christ which are the proper and immediate effects of the Gospel-Covenant he will unriddle to us many Mysteries which are vulgarly reputed matters of weight and worth but if we can spare him a little Patience he will so uncase them that we shall confess they contain nothing that may deserve or need the Blood of Christ or any great matter to be made about them 1. Concerning Reconciliation The Apostle had said 2 Cor. 5. 18 19. All things are of God who hath reconciled us to himself by Iesus Christ and hath committed to us the Ministry of reconciliation to wit that God was in Christ reconciling the World unto himself not imputing their Trespasses and hath committed to us the word of reconciliation v. 21. For he hath made him to be sin for us what the import of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reconciliation and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to reconcile is will not create us any great trouble because our Author allowing a reconciliation to be made between Iew and Gentile secretly confesses that Reconciliation implies the taking away of an enmity and bringing the differing parties into a state of Peace and Friendship But the Apostle in this place instructs us further 1. That the proper effect of this Reconciliation is not-imputing Trespasses God is by Nature a Holy God as he is Governour of the World he is a Righteous Iudg sin is both Contrary to his holy Nature and his Holy Law And therefore as a Holy God he cannot but hate sin as a Righteous Iudg he cannot but punish sin And because this sin is inherent in and committed by Man God hates the sinner upon the Account of his sin his Person and his best services are an abomination to the Lord. From hence it follows that sin being a transgression of the Law in its preceptive part renders the sinner Guilty that is obnoxious and lyable to the Law in its Sanction to the punishment Now this Righteous Iudg will certainly charge the guilty sinner with the penalty due to his sin but there is a way found out that he may be reconciled and not impute to sinners their Trespasses and this clearly shews that the Reconciliation here spoken of is a reconciliation of God to the Sinner such a one as makes provision that God shall not impute iniquity 2. The Apostle instructs us further in the way whereby Christ made this Reconciliation of God v. 21. He was
10. 38. How God Anoynted Iesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with Power which proves indeed that he was Anoynted and that with the Holy Ghost but not the Time when he was Anoynted onely we are Assured that after the Baptism of Iohn it was openly Preach'd and Published v. 37. I have met with some of your systematical Divines that would have scorn'd to talk so crudely and loosely of these matters and they tell us 1. That Christ was Anoynted by the Holy Ghost with an All-fulness of Gifts and Graces from his Incarnation and that there was no Moment wherein Christ was and yet was not anoynted with the Oyl of gladness above his fellowes 2. That he was declaratively Anoynted at his Baptism when the Spirit descended on him like a Dove And therefore they can grant that Christ was then Anoynted according to that known Rule Multa tunc fieri dicuntur quando facta esse manifestantur Thus the Resurrection of Christ is said to be a fulfilling of the Psalmist Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee Act. 13. 33. when yet the same Apostle understood well his own meaning that Christ was then Declared to be the Son of God with power by the Resurrection from the dead Rom. 1. 3 4. But because our Authors Mistake herein seems to be more speculative and notional to carry a more innocent Aspect with it than some others of his which like blazing Comets dart their malignant Influences upon the very Vitals and Essentials of Christianity it may plead for a more gentle Treatment and accordingly I shall dismiss it without more severe Animadversions than what it carries along with it 2 He proceeds in the next place to inform us in the true Nature of Christs Offices and that first in General p. 5. His Consecration to the Mediatory Function Virtually contained all those Offices of the Prophet Priest and King which are not properly distinct Offices in Christ but the several parts and different Administrations of his Mediatory Kingdom I shall take little notice what Poyson may lurk under that fair word Virtually it sounds somewhat oddely that Christ should be Actually consecrated to a Mediatory Function and yet his Offices reside in him onely Virtually a Function in Act without an Office in Act is â—…ust like an Office in Act without a Function I know no difference nor they that are wiser than I Christs Offices it seems lay dormant in his Function till time should serve for them to emerge into Act They were in Abeyance that is when he should ascend to Heaven he should then become a Priest We know very well in what Shop this Tool was forged Nor shall I stay upon that Expression wherein he so much delights of Christs Mediatory Kingdom as if all the Offices of Christ were to be reduced to that of the Regal Power that which he plainly speaks out is That the Offices of King Priest and Prophet are not properly distinct Offices in Christ. It has been the Interest and therefore the unwearied endeavour of the Socinians to confound the Offices of Christ which else they were well aware would confound their Heterodoxies so Volkelius lib. 3. de verâ Relig. cap. 37. de Sacerdotio Christi Iam ut de Pontificio Christi munere explicemus primo loco animadvertendum est illud ab ejusdem officio Regio si in rem ipsam mentem intendas non multum differre Now that we may speak of the Priestly Office of Christ we must in the first place observe that it differs not much from his Kingly Office if we narrowly attend the Nature of the Thing and his fellow Crellius to the same purpose Duo ista Munera Regium nempe Pontificium in sacris Literis apertè a se invicem disjuncta ut in Scholis loquuntur contradistincta nuspiam cernas sed potiùs alterum in altero quodammodò comprehensum videas Those two Offices viz. the Kingly and the Sacerdotal you shall never observe in the Scriptures to be separated or as the School men speak contradistinguished but rather the one included after a sort in the other And our Authors Notion is the very Pallas hammer'd out of their Brains the Falshood whereof we shall endeavour to lay open in a few words And 1. The Names which express the Offices of Christ signifie things properly distinct amongst men and yet these very Names by which God knew we understand properly distinct Offices was he pleased to Use to express the Offices of Christ by They were not Names or Terms coyned by the Holy Ghost and then a signification stampt upon them by Divine Authority but they were first used in common speech and past currant in the world never any question'd but a Priest a Prophet a King were distinct Officers and it were more than strange the Spirit of God should translate the words to signifie Religious matters and never give us the least intimation that the Significations of the words were changed 2. They were Properly distinct Persons who Typified our Lord Jesus Christ in his Offices Aaron was onely a Priest had a Priesthood in him distinct from the Kingly and Prophetical Office and it were really an astonishing thing that Aaron should be a real proper High-priest and bear that Office distinct from all others to typifie him who had the Office but in an improper and that a confused manner in himself Nay those Persons in whom two of these Offices did meet yet kept the Offices in them distinct Melchizedek acted otherwise when he enacted Laws at Salem than he did when he stood besides the Altar though both those Offices center'd in his Person yet they remained really and truly distinct 3. The special Acts of all these Offices are properly distinct in Christ. As the Kings Crown is really another thing from the Bishops Mitre the Scepter really distinct from the Censor so are Teaching Governing Sacrificing Properly distinct things As I cannot imagine how to drag foretelling things to come into the Kingly Office nor conquering of Enemies and trampling them under his feet to the Prophetical Office so neither how to force offering up a Sacrifice to God upon an Altar to be an Act of either of the other two offices 4. The Objects of these Offices are distinct For as the Kingly and Prophetical have Men for their Objects Men are to be governed and instructed so the Sacerdotal hath God for its Object Sacrifices are for Men but unto God Heb. 5. 1. For every High-Priest taken from amongst men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God that he may offer both Gifts and Sacrifices for sins And we may admire the wisdom of God in ordering matters with such exactness in every punctilio that our Lord Jesus should so exactly and closely answer this description that no room for cavil might be left nor any creep-hole for a witty evasion He was taken from amongst men ordained for men in things pertaining to God he
draw with him towards a Conclusion Our Author is beginning to make an end but he must first discharge his stomach of a little froth and gall and spit up some venome that lies in his chest in the face of his Adversaries without which he could not possibly conclude his Chapter He tells you summarily what great feats he has done and what greater Atchievements he will adventure on What he has done amounts to this he has discovered great Mistakes in other mens Divinity but cannot espy any in his own he can spy a Mote in his Neighbours eye but considers not his own Beam He has also discover'd the rise of these Mistakes to be from the various usage of the Name Christ in the Writingâ—… of the Apostles The more excusable it seems they are if they had occasion from thence to erre which they might the more easily doe because as he observes well the Writings of Paul are obscure He has also discover'd to us the temper and humour of those Mistaken men They are zealous to advance Christs Person to the prejudice and reproach of his Religion which yet our Author himself when a Qualm of sweet Nature comes over his Heart thinks to be Impossible p. 17. The greater Opinion we have of his Wisdom and Reverence for his Person the more sacred Regard we have for his Lawes He has also discovered a horrid Plot to introduce a fancifull Application of Christ to our selves instead of the substantial Duties of the love of God and Men and an universal Holiness of Life But this is but a plot of his own making unless he had some supernatural Assistances from Beneath He has also for ever discharged the world upon his Blessing from closing with Christ getting into Christ and above all from overloving Christ and admiring his Excellencies and Perfections his Fulness Beauty Loveliness and Riches Wherein if he prevail to his mind he has for ever Obliged the Prince of Darkness to him and done more service to his black Kingdom than he with his Legions hath been able to effect these Sixteen hundred years What he intends further to doe he has reduced to four heads to which I referre the Reader and upon the whole Matter doe onely make this one Observation That through this whole Chapter he has cheated and tormented us with a sorry old Threadbare fallacy A benè compositis ad malè divisa The Persons whom he reviles dare not put asunder those things which God hath joyned together They love the Person of Christ and not therefore break but keep his Commandements They think that Faith in our Lord Iesus Christ and Repentance from dead works are very consistent may and must sweetly meet together and Kiss each other They would be glad to see those who revile them to love and admire Christs Person and shall be content to be reproved so far as they neglect and undervalue his Precepts but they are not to be frighted out of their Love to Him who loved them and gave himself for them They do freely confess that they admire at the Love of the Father in sending his onely begotten Son into the World upon such a design as to save Sinners and they do equally admire the Love of the Lord Jesus Christ that he was so willing to come into the world to be tempted persecuted reproached and at last to dye and give his Life a Ransome for many And though they have heard many Reproaches and Blasphemies uttered against their Saviour yet they have not met with one solid concluding Argument why they should not love him And therefore if they must be vile upon these Accounts they resolve in the strength of Christ to be vile more vile still and shall bind all the Ignominy that is cast upon them for Christs sake unto their Temples as a Crown and Diadem For indeed they do persist in that perswasion with some Obstinacy that it was the Person of Christ who dyed for them it was He upon whom the Chastisement of their Peace did lye it was He whose Soul was made an Offering for sin and upon whom God laid the Iniquities of us All. And therefore our Author must bear with them if they love him as much as they can because they have reason to fear they shall not love him as much as He has deserved They remember a Dreadfull word If any man love not the Lord Iesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha and would not for all the world fall under the weight of it Their love to his person makes them studious to please him fearfull to offend him zealous to glorifie him and if the will of God be so humbly content to suffer for him They have not met with any Author that has till of late endeavoured a Confutation of Christs personal Excellencies perfections fulness beauty loveliness and riches and they that have made the Attempt have exposed themselves to the universal censure of all that wear the Name of Christian and therefore they do ingenuously acknowledge that they doe admire and honour them and do humbly hope Christ at his coming will not rebuke them for it And when they are invidiously traduced as setting the Person of Christ at oddes with his Gospel they are satisfied that they have not done it in Principle and lament that they have in any the least degree done it in Practice And as they know that the Charge as apply'd to them is a pure impure slander so they conceive it 's vey difficult if not impossible in it self nor can they apprehend how any can really and truely maintain a due esteem of Christ in their hearts but they must have a proportionable value and regard for all his Commandments and Injunctions That these things are become Riddles to any professing the Name of Christ they tremble at as a sad symptome that the Gospel is hid to them and from them They do also in the general approve of any Labours managed with a due regard to the Majesty of God and the Lord Jesus Christ in order to the discovery of any Expressions in their Writings or Discourses which might in the least be misinterpreted to degrade and thrust down Holiness from its Throne but withall they are unwilling to be railed out of a good Opinion of Christs Person seeing that however they may have sinned in breaking his Laws it will not mend the matter to lessen the honour they justly have for Himself and had rather be severely chidden for their sin than scoffed out of their Duty But of these Matters thus far CHAP. II. Of what use the Consideration of Christs Person is in the Christian Religion IN the Entrance of this Chapter I observe our Author is feelingly concern'd to amove from himself the sinister suspition of a Design to render Christ useless And he makes a solemn Protestation not onely of his own Innocency but is ready to become Surety and Compurgator for all his Accomplices A design sayes he which I confess I
am wholly a stranger to as I believe all those are who are so much charged with it When we hear a man zealously purging himself of some Notorious Crime noysed abroad onely in the general without praevious Accusation it 's apt to fly-blow our Heads with jealousie he may be Tardy an over-forward Vindication being reputed more than half an Accusation But I dare be one of his Twelve-Godfathers in this matter that he does not make Christ useless but will allow him to be of some use that is to say that Christ is good for something and in effect a little Better than though next to Nothing and I can with more security become Bound for Him because he has given me good Counter-security that I shall not forfeit my Recognizance P. 330. I could never perswade my self no not for your heart though you had attempted it that the perfect Obèdience and Righteousness of His Life was wholly excluded So that whatever rendred Christ beloved of God contributed something to our Acceptation P. 331. We ought not to think that we receive No Benefit by the Righteousness of Christ. And I hope something is better than Nothing Nay such is his Charity he can be content to Allow that God was somewhat more pleased with the Obedience of Christ than the Faith of Abraham ibid. And that his Sacrifice was of greater value than the Blood of Bulls and Goats p. 19. Naughty men are they then that wrong Him and Them so as to insinuate that they design'd to make Christ useless the rather because they proceed upon so bad a Ground We are charg'd with making Christ useless onely because we dare not make his Laws so And thus it seems they have unhandsomely payd him in his own Coyn who charges them with making his Laws Useless onely because they dare not make his Person so And yet to deal plainly with Him for all this I find a Double charge upon the File against him 1 That though he has not made Christ altogether Useless yet he has made him Needless Though he can use Him yet he could have spared him though he can make a shift with him he could have made a Rubbing shift without Him Ut tecum possum vivere sic sine te So p. 46. I should rather have thought that Gods requiring such a sacrifice as the Death of Christ was not because he could not do otherwise And if Gods Iustice could be contented without that sacrifice I may presume it shall not stick at our Authors good Nature p. 43. 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 as he labours to Prove Enoch Noah Iews and Gentiles who knew nothing at all of Christ p. 44. yet understood God to be a God pardoning iniquity without him And surely if the World jogg'd on for four thousand years without Christ it might have worn out the Remainder without him too 2 I find a second Charge against him That though he make not Christ useless as to some common ordinary and general Ends which might have been attain'd and reach'd without him yet he renders him wholly Useless as to those special those main and glorious purposes for which he came into the World The making satisfaction to Divine Iustice the Imputation of his Righteousness to Believers his powerfull and effectual sanctifying them by his Spirit for whom he undertook Whereof we shall meet with abundant Evidence in the progress of his Discourse So that a Declaration contrary to the Fact is of small weight with considering Readers and sinks it self below all consideration But to return Two things fill up this Chapter First That the Person of Christ is of some Consideration and Secondly That the consideration of his Person is of some use onely the difficulty to be assoyled by His Abilities is Of what use the consideration of his Person should be 1. Then the Person of Christ is of some consideration but e're he ventures upon that Province he bethought Himself it would be a Task worthy his great Parts to indoctrinate our Plumbeous Cerebrosities in the Nice Point What the Person of Christ is P. 15. By the Person of Christ I mean what all men ought to mean nay there 's no doubt of that All men at their utmost Peril ought to mean to a hairs breadth just as our Author means Christ Himself Had it not been a Prodigy as great as ever was in the World if by Christs Person had been meant any body else Such then is Christ's Person The Consideration thereof follows And as he assures us the onely proper consideration here is the Greatness of his Person This is the onely or however The onely Proper or at least the onely Proper consideration here whatever other improper considerations of it there may be in other places or cases upon other accounts or occasions at other times it skills not for Here at this Time and in this place the onely Proper Consideration is the Greatness of his Person And yet methinks the exceeding loveliness of his Person standing betwixt God and lost Sinners his laying down his Life as a Ransome payd to God his standing as a Surety in our stead his bearing our sins in his Body on the Cross might have claimed a Place and come in for a share in our consideration of his Person But thus much for that 2 The Use of this consideration follows And some good Use he has assign'd it 1 And first it 's a plain demonstration of Gods love to Mankind that he sent so dear and so great a Person into the World as his onely begotten Son to save Sinners It is so indeed but a very weak demonstration of Gods Love to his own Son to send him into the World to grapple with all those Miseries he met withall in his Soul in his Body from Enemies from Friends from Men from Devils nay from himself whom it pleased to bruise him and lay upon him the Iniquities of us all to make his soul an Offering for sin nay to be made sin for them who himself knew none to Die a cursed Death and all this without any Absolute or Indispensible necessity Contrary to all the Rules of Decorum Nec Deus intersit nisi dignus vindice Nodus inciderit And it would be of use to consider also the Love of Christ his Willingness to Accept the Terms of being a Redeemer though He knew well they were severe and would cost him Sweat and Blood and yet He cheerfully Undertook Underwent and went through with them He voluntarily assumed a Body that He might become a Sacrifice Heb. 10. He was willingly for a little while made lower than the Angels by Dispensation who was above them by Nature for the suffering of Death Heb. 2. 9. He understood well the Debtor was Insolvent and yet he became Surety He knew well the Righteousness of God and yet He was ready to put in sufficient
vouchsafed them but not the Foundation of their Religion under any Notion When God gave the Law upon Mount Sinai He Prefaces it with this strong Inducement I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the Land of Egypt out of the House of Bondage Thou shalt have no other Gods before me May we now upon our Authors Warrant say That Gods delivering them out of Egypt was the Foundation of their Religion in Worshipping the true God and none besides Him or rather that it was an Additional Enforcement to command Obedience to that Law which yet Antecedent to such particular Obligation approved its Authority to their Consciences But that these Deliverances and Providences were no Foundation for the Mosaick Religion I shall endeavour to prove 1. In that God himself declares that he had laid another Foundation Isa. 28. 16. Behold I lay in Zion a sure Foundation And this is not constitutive of what was New but declarative of what was Old not only a Prophesie of what he would do but a clearer Discovery of what he had done that he might lead them into stronger Expectations of that Messiah which from time to time was promised would come and in fulness of Time should come and this Foundation God laid in Zion Which though it may express the Gospel-Church yet surely must not exclude the Iewish to which the Name Primarily appertains 2. In that God had actually laid another Foundation from the Foundation of the World for sinners to Build their Hopes upon in their addresses to God Thus was Christ the Lamb slain from the Foundation of the World Apoc. 13. 8. Slain particularly in the Sacrifices which commencing with the New Covenant ran a Line parallel with the Old World to the one great Sacrifice of Christ our High Priest upon the Cross. In that first Promise then made to our first Parents and afterwards Amplified to Abraham was the Foundation of all acceptable Religion and Worship Gen. 12. 2 3. God promises to Abraham In thee shall all the Families of the Earth be blessed which promise that it contained Christ the Apostle assures us Gal. 3. 8â—… The Scripture fore-seeing that God would justifie tâ—… Heathen through Faith Preacht before the Gospâ—… to Abraham In thee shall all the Nations of tâ—… Earth be blessed ver 16. Now to Abraham aâ—… his Seed were the Promises made he saith not tâ—… Seeds as of many but as of one and to thy Seeâ—… which is Christ. Now unless we will find out â—… Quintum Evangelium that has nothing of Chriâ—… in it Abraham had Christ for he had the Gospâ—… Preacht to him and I do not understand what Gospâ—… signifies without Christ. Our Author I me sure of all the Men under Heaven has Reason to alloâ—… it for he would have Christ signifie Gospel anâ—… therefore cannot blame us who would have Gospâ—… to include Christ because we are loth his Persoâ—… should be quite shut out of it And again Thâ—… Promises were made to Abraham And is it not strange that Promises should be made to him and he not understand one word of them What waâ—… the Foundation of Abraham's was the Foundation of the Iewish Religion Nothing at all in their Service or Worship could plead for Acceptation bâ—… as it came under the Influence of those Types which were of no value in themselves but upon the Account of Christ. In Levit. 6. 1 2 3 4. If â—… Soul sin and commit a Trespass against the Lord c. I cannot but give the Reader a Breviate of some Remarkables in this Scripture 1. That the Sins here mention'd were not ceremonial Pollutions legal Defilements but such Wickednesses as were discoverable by the Light and condemned by the Law of Nature Lying Cozening False-swearing Unfaithfulness in Trust c. 2. That these sins did bring a proper Guilt upon the Conscience as being committed against the Lord and therefore the Sinner was guilty before God that is Obnoxious and liable to his Displeasure and bound over in conscience to answer it at Gods Tribunal ver 1. If a Soul sin and commit a Trespass against the Lord ver 4. Then it shall be because he hath sinned and is guilty 3. That for that part of his Fact which was Injurious to his Neighbour that which he violently took away or the thing he hath deceitfully gotten or that which was delivered him to keep or the lost thing which he found he was to restore the principal in Specie and to add a fifth part more because of the Damnum emergens 4. That notwithstanding he had thus compounded with man he must bring his Trespass-offering to the Lord a Ram without blemish ver 6. 5. The Priest was to receive the Trespass-offering at his hand and offer it up to the Lord. 6. The design of this Offering was Attonement procuring Favour from God 7. Here 's a Promise of the full Pardon of sin annexed unto this Sacrifice ver 7. It shall be forgiven him for any thing of all that he hath done in Trespassing therein Now upon the whole Matter we observe here was Pardon of sin annext to a Sacrifice and yet their Reasons could tell them as Paul has told us Heb. 10. 4. It 's not possible that the blood of Bulls and Goats should take away sin And I think we may venture to say the same of the blood of Rams too How shall these then be Reconciled I know no other way but by owning the Respect which they bore to the Lord Iesus Christ who was from the Foundation of and all along the World the only Lamb slain of value for these ends in Gods Account Thirdly The Christian Religion is founded on the Incarnation Death and Resurrection of the Son of God Our Author had founded his own and the Christian Religion on the Sacrifice and Intercession of Christ p. 15. But perhaps fearing or finding the Foundation too narrow has here widened it at the bottome and taken in the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. But I hope now the Storm will blow over and the Indignation conceived against those Persons who Love Honour and admire Christs Person a little Slake for if their Religion the Acceptation of their Persons and Services be built upon Him as Sacrificed for them on the Cross and Interceding for them on the Throne they do judge it their duty to love him against the World Nay what will you say if our Author himself should become a Convert his own Hope and that 's his All he says is Built on the Sacrifice and Intercession of Christ And can you imagine but he should Admire and Adore his Person And then may there not arise a danger that he should set up a Religion of Christs Person However that goes This I know it was Christs blessed Person that endured the Shock and abode the Storm of that Displeasure which was due to our sin and no Reason can be assigned why a Person should endure all the Sorrow and not have
Sacrifices and operose services arising from the beggarliness and poverty of all Types fully to represent the Messiah in whom they did more abundantly meet yet herein might they as in a Glass eye a Redeemer and in him God appeased sin pardoned and their Persons justified and accepted The satisfactory Reason whereof lay onely in him who was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the World in Gods Acceptation and representation to the Faith of Believers Now whilest God did thus Train up the Jewish Church in the hopes and expectation of a Deliverer he offered also to others of the World though forfeiting Gods especial Notice by the general revolt and common Apostacy a joynt Interest in those priviledges stated and settled upon the Iudaical Church as her Dowry provided they would come under the bond of the Covenant and joyn themselves to the people of God and thereby attend the great Ends and reach of Divine Grace to save sinners by the Intervention of the seed of the Woman And further to leave some standing hints upon Record that in due time he intended to throw open the bedge and let the Gentiles into the Priviledges of the Iews who seem'd the Monopolizers of all true Religion and Worship it has graciously pleas'd the same God to reveal to some few others out of the Purlieus of that Body as to Iob the Doctrine of a Redeemer as early pledges to the World that those favours should not alwayes lye under Sequestration How miraculously God preserved this Church and State is needless to insist on but remarkable was his Care over Iudah that though she had justifi'd her sister Samaria and out-done those in sin whom she had out-gone in Mercy yet when the ten Tribes were hurried away into Captivity God remembred that ancient Promise that Scepter and Law-giver were not to depart from Iudah till he that should come was come and therefore notwithstanding as heynous provocations all Circumstances considered and proportionable dangers as ever yet exposed a people to utter ruine still Iudah lived And though the Holy God in Vindication of his wronged Honour before the world was concern'd to visit their Iniquities with a Seventy years Captivity in Babylon yet still he kept a fixed Eye upon the Tribe of Iudah and especially the Family of David to which e're this the producing of the Messiah had been entaiâ—…ed And it was not for Nothing that after their Return they were so precise and punctual in their Genealogies that there might no scruple arise in after-times when Christ should come but that he was of the Stock of Abraham of the Tribe of Iudah of the seed of David according to the flesh In contemplation of which stupendious design the wisdom of its management his Arm made bare to second and back the work how the Great God preserved the Iewish Polity from utter dissolution till it had done its work and teem'd the Messiah into the World and when that was done how all things conspired for its dissolution how the greatest Convulsions and Earthquakes which would have unhinged other Kingdoms and have thrown them from their Consistency yet made that Common-wealth take deeper root whilest God would serve himself thereof and when he had no more service for that Tribe how it was scatter'd How Providence marvellously secured the Vessel in the midst of those waves which the Malice of Hell endeavoured to lift up as high as Heaven wherein the Salvation of the World was embarqued and when it had once safely landed a Saviour in the habitable parts of the Earth where his delights had been how the Ship sprung a leak and sunk of it self These things make me with the Divine Herbert pause and say How dear to me O God thy Councels are Who may with thee compare But our Authors lips doe not like these Lettuces Two things he industriously sweats at in this Section First To shew us Wherein Happiness consists and then to inform us in the Way and Means to reach that Happiness A glorious Undertaking indeed wherein though he should founder yet an Attempt has its praise and may at least plead for Phaëtons Epitaph Quem si non tenuit Magnis tamen excidit Ausis It was Austins Censure of the Platonists Patriam viderunt Viam ignorârunt They were convinc'd that true Happiness must needs consist in enjoying the True God The chiefest Good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Being Self-being Essential being but they were wretchedly bewildred in finding out the way to the enjoyment of him and for all their skill could never double the Cape of good Hope Where Plato ended our Author begins Ubi desinit Philosophus incipit Theologus and wherein he fail'd he undertakes to write his Supplement 1 Then though there be less need of that would you know wherein true happiness consists you are answer'd In the Knowledge and Love of God who is the greatest and best Being If he means the utmost happiness Mans Nature is capable of it wants a word or two This Knowledge must be a perfect Knowledge and this Love a perfect Love and to this Knowledge and Love of Man to God you must adde the Sense of Gods Love to and delight in Man and Mans reciprocal satisfaction and complacency in God as his Portion It 's a tedious Question bandyed amongst the School-men wherein the Formale of Blessedness lyes some contend for the Vision others for the Love of God but he seems to me to have determin'd best who has joyn'd both Faelicitas hominis consistit quidem in Visione sed Charitativâ in Amore sed Oculatissimo The Happiness of Man consists in the most Loving Sight and in the most Seeing Love of God but the Controversie will not lye here 2 For the Means of Reaching this Happiness he assigns this God hath made known himself and will to the World Our Author is now obliging Posterity with a Discovery of the North-east Passage to China and the Indies the old way round about Africa is tedious and dangerous and therefore let him not want the Trade-wind of your Prayers that he meet not with Sir Hugh Willoughbies Fate whilest he attempts to make out a shorter Cutt. Now concerning this you must understand That God who is never wanting to his own Glory and the Happiness of his Creatures hath taken care in all Ages by one Means or other to make known himself and his Will to the World Our Author presumes he has penn'd this Discourse with much Artifice and laid a train of fallacies for us which if not timely discovered and prevented will irrecoverably blow us and our Cause up into the Aire in the next Section But indeed the best part of his Policy is the confounding of things and involving them in such Intricacies and Perplexities that it 's much harder to discover his Errors than to confute them being once discovered like what Physicians tell us of the Hectick Fever that in its first Rise it 's hardly discerned but otherwise
Frustra fit per plura quod fieri potest per pauciora 2 What Righteousness was it that these Men preach'd Surely it would have been a hard Venture to have preached to them Their own for if Mans Nature be Corrupted and he lyable to Gods Wrath and Damnation as the Church of England determines it will be very difficult at least to bring such a Righteousness to God out of so vitiated a Nature by its own mere strength as may plead acceptance with him That Righteousness which is the Result of our utmost Obedience has some flaws in it that make it very improbable to justifie any person in the world under our Circumstances that is Sinners 1. That Obedience which we may plead and abide by before God for Justification and Eternal Life must be entirely our own performed in our own strength it were idle presumption to come to God for Acceptation and a Reward for that which we are beholden to his Grace and strength to help us to perform 2. That which is not absolutely perfect cannot justifie in the face of a perfectly holy Law and an infinitely perfect holy God For if any thing short of Gods demands would serve to justifie a Sinner what should hinder but that seeing God is infinite and absolute in Mercy he might abate the whole Nay indeed if God can abate and come down from his first Terms who shall set the Dice upon his Grace and goodness and say Thus far shall Mercy goe in Abating and no further And in a little while no doubt this Doctrine will be so well improved that we shall have it made as plain to us How God may justifie all the Debauches of the World as a Repenting Sinner if no respect be had to the Satisfaction and Interpoposition of Another But of these things abundant occasion will be administred for Debate in the following Papers But then Secondly there 's another Expedient which God used to reclaim the more Degenerate part of Mankind and that he tells us was the good Examples of good men how they lived and how well they sped by Holy Living and how they were rewarded and how happily they dyed and how much God delighted in them All this is True in it self Enoch's Translation Noah's Preservation Abraham's Exaltation and Lott's Ereption were convincing Arguments how dear these good Men were to God But first I would say it was a more Convincing Argument to me that God was Good to them who made them so who call'd Abraham from Ur of the Chaldees from the Idols which his Family had worshipt on the other side the Flood It was Gods Grace that raised up the Righteous Man from the East and call'd him to his foot Isa. 41. 2. And then secondly I would say too that there wanted something more than outward Examples to make that Age happy even an inward Operation of Gods Grace for the Church of England has excellently resolved Art 10. The Condition of Man is such after the Fall of Adam that he cannot turn without the Grace of God preventing him that he may have a Good Will 3. We are now arrived at a third Division of Time stretching it self from Abraham untill Christ came in the Flesh. For when the World would not be reformed by single Examples as ye know one Swallow will not make a Summer what did God doe then why he chose the Posterity of Abraham to be a publick and constant demonstration of his Power and Providence and Care of Good Men. Our Author fancies that God had been trying Conclusions and casting matters in his thoughts how he might reform the rugged World and that he might be sure to hit o' th' right way at last he ventur'd first upon single Experiments and then upon Experiments in Consort just like my Lord Verulams and yet none of them would come up to the designed End I have heard of one that would needs trye how to make a dead body stand upright he set him upon his feet and placed him iâ—… his true perpendicular yet still he crinckled i' th â—…ams or one mischief or another he would not stand at last tyred out with his fruitless labour he gave it over concluding all was not right within there was some wheel or pulley some spring or string broken Just such a process does our Author modestly ascribe to the great and wise God He supposes God was not wanting to his Creatures Happiness and I may suppose God knew well what would serve to answer his Creatures Happiness in the present posture he was in and yet all came to little or nothing surely there 's something wanting somewhere or other But there never comes better on 't when men will proceed upon a false ground and tyle over one Absurdity with another that their Errours may not rain through Therefore 1. God was never disappointed in the Counsels and purposes of his heart whatever he undertakes according to the good pleasure of his will he goes through with it If he will work none shall let If he sayes it he will doe it and his word shall not return to him in vain but accomplish the thing for which he sent it Thus Enoch's Noah's Abraham's Ministry atchieved whatever his hand and Counsel fore-ordained by them should be done And if any be angry hereat without a Cause they must be pleas'd again without amends 2. Gods varying the dispensation was not because he found it ineffectual contrary to his hopes but because he would make all these Providences comply with his grand Purpose of conveying the Messiah to the World at last He takes this Family the Posterity of Abraham to be his Peculiar and as any braâ—…ch of that Family lay out of the Road of Christ he left it to take its lott in his more general oversight and cure of his Creatures That branch of this Root which was to bear the Messiah alwayes was kept alive and the rest in process of time wither'd and fell off of themselves But there was an odde word dropt from his Pen at unawares that had like infinitely to have ravel'd all his Affairs and to have quite marred the Musick of this Paragraph had he not been aware of it in due time He had said That God chose the Posterity of Abraham Now you know that the World is wide enough and Choosing in its first Notion implies the taking of one and leaving another and how to make that fadge with some other Cross-Capers he has in s Head was a Matter worthy his thoughts and timously to be reconciled which he has thus done When God chose the Posterity of Abraham he did not design to exclude the rest of the World from his Care and Providence and all possible Means of Salvation That God did exclude the rest or any part of the World from his Care and Providence I suppose none are concern'd to affirm but they who are for God's governing the World by his Courtiers onely and great Ministers of State That
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
the thing Practicable and Feasible And besides the Jews were so Superstitiously exact in Examining every Copy of the Law so many Ordels and Examinations it must pass through before it could pass Muster that I do not think that the rest of the VVorld could when they pleas'd fetch the best Rules of Life And yet there may be a cunning Truth in 't too They might fetch it when they pleas'd because they never pleas'd to fetch it But 3. As the Noise of the Jews Deliverances and Miraculous preservations might reach the Neighbour Countries though that also with much uncertainty and mixture so a general Rumour also might Ring in their Ears about their Ceremonial Typical VVorship their Feasts Jubilees Temple High Priest which were things that made a Noise but that the World ever believed they had a better Law in Stone than they had in their Hearts I cannot conceive though I am loath to make my narrow ones the Measure of our Authors Conceptions 4. After a tedious Maze in the Labyrinths of former Ages we are at length safely Conducted to the more happy Times of the Gospel For When long and sad Experience had proved all those former ways Ineffectual to reform the World at last God sent his Son c. Two things we are here Instructed in First Upon what necessity God sent his Son into the World Secondly What was his Employment when He was come into the World And 1 It may seem that the Son of God had never exchanged the Throne for the Footstool nor the King of Glory taken on Him the form of a Servant nor He that was Rich to a Miracle have become Poor to a Proverb without some Cogent Reason and pressing Necessity which our Author will just now favour us withal And here I sorely suspected it would go very hard with him For whereas at other times no necessity of Christ at all could be found for both Iews and Gentiles who knew nothing at all of what Christ was to do in Order to their Recovery did believe God to be Gracious and Merciful to sinners pag. 44. And what could they desire more Yet now when it will better serve the Turn and subserve the present Occasion that Christ may be brought into the World with some Pomp and State there must be an indispensible necessity of his coming for all other means that had been tried proved ineffectual What our Author supposes may I hope without offence admit a modest Examination Two things are here by our Author supposed 1 That the means which God had formerly used proved Ineffectual to Reform the World To which I shall Calmly return 1. That he had done much better to have proved that they were Designed by God to reform the World before he asserted that they were Ineffectual for that end For it seems strange that God so Wise to know what Means would reach the end and to Choose such as would do it should pitch upon Means that he knew would never reach their Designed ends 2. If the end of Christs coming into the World was to reform it upon an Experiment that all other Means proved Ineffectual Must not God be forced to Try another Conclusion at least and once more to Venture upon other means because even now the World is unreformed 3. The Means that God then used he will confess were sufficient for that end Or else how were they Means And the Means which God now uses proves not Effectual to Reform the World And what have we got by the Bargain 4. I hope our Author will be better advised than to talk of Effectual Means of Grace which shall Infallibly reach their ends for that would bear the Face of Irresistable Grace 5. The ways and means which God now uses to reform the World are Effectual to reform as far as He in his wise Counsels did Bless them and so were they then And the ways and means He formerly used for the reforming the World reacht not every Individual person then nor have they any higher effect now The Purpose and Counsel of God then are the true Measure of the Success and Efficacy of the Means of Grace before and since the coming of Jesus Christ. 2 He supposes that God had tried other Means to reform the World but upon proof found them Ineffectual A supposition extremely Scandalous to those apprehensions which both Natural Light and Scripture teach us to entertain of the Blessed and Glorious Majesty 1. They are Reproachful and Scandalous to that which may be known of God by Natural Reason VVhich if ever it taught us one Letter of Gods Name will teach us this That God must needs foreknow what will be the Issues of things seeing nothing can be supposed Contingent to him without another Supposition that he is Ignorant of what is so Eventual and Contingent to him If we know any thing of God it is that he knows all things but according to our Authors Notions of things we have God drest up like an Emperick that must try his prescriptions upon his patients before he can tell how they will work And yet it s some comfort they purchase their Skill only at the peril of mens Lives which yet are too precious to be so cheaply prostituted to blind Experiment but God who in our Authors Divinity had been practising upon the World for Four thousand years before he saw his mistake bought his skill with the Blood of many millions of Souls who perished under his hands by ineffectual Remedies and now he must be forced either to study and find out some more effectual Means or else give up the World as desperate and irrecoverable And now whether his Expressions do not more than squint that way let the impartial Reader determine 2. Scandalous even to Blasphemy to the general Current of Scripture-Revelation which fully and frequently assures us that God well knew what success his Methods and Wayes of Reformation would have and what entertainment they would meet with in the World from Sinners where he pleased not to second and back them with his effectual Power and yet still he used them as Means to reach his own Ends. Exod. 3. 19. I am sure the King of Egypt will not let you goe no not with a strong hand Exod. 7. 3. I will multiply my Signs and my wonders in Egypt but Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you 2 For the Employment and Work which our Author is pleased to assign unto Christ upon his Coming into the World he tells us that was To make a full and perfect Declaration of Gods will to give us the best Rules of Life and to encourage our Obedience with the most express Promises of a blessed Immortality And if this be all the Business our Author has shaped out for him I shall the less wonder that he can see no Necessity of Christs Coming into the World and as little that others can see no Necessity that he should be the Eternal Son of God But whatever
the Matter is in these and the following lines I observe our Author falls short of his wonted Accuracy and Confidence He hesitates and staggers and goes backwards and forwards and strangely bewilders himself in Contradictions Pag. 30. he tells us The secret Purposes of Gods Counsels were conceal'd from Ages and yet before he takes off his Pen he tells us The Prophets did not so fully understand them Understand them then it seems they did and fully understand them too but not so fully understand them It would tempt one to turn Questionist and humbly ask If they were conceal'd before how were they understood And if the Prophets did understand them how were they conceal'd Again p. 29. he had let us know that the Israelites had the best Rules of Life and yet p. 30. That God sent his Son into the World to give us the best Rules of Life Whence we see how easily our Author could have saved him that perilous Journey into this mischievous World Again p. 30. he supposes That before Christ's coming the World had Promises and express Promises too of a blessed Immortality though indeed not so express And yet for all that p. 34. That Christ onely brought to light Immortality which has a greater Truth in 't than perhaps our Author is aware of Again p. 33. he acquaints us That God was formerly known by the Light of Nature the Works of Creation and Providence and occasional Revelations and p. 44. That those Natural Notions the Heathens had of God and the discoveries God made of himself in the works of Creation and Providence did assure them that God is very good and that it is impossible to understand what Goodness is without pardoning Grace and yet p. 33. he would fain perswade us That NOW since Christs coming The onely true Medium of knowing God is the Knowledge of Christ who came to declare God to us A discovery indeed very surprizing For if Natural Light without Christ could reveal it then why can it not doe it still how comes it to pass that Creation and Providence cannot perform the same Office now If Christ be the onely true Medium now it would make one suspect he was so then The Light of Christ has not weakned the Light of Nature but improved and sublimated it he came not to be an Extinguisher to the Candle of the Lord but a Candlestick not to put out the Eye of Reason but to provide an Eye-salve for it Did Creation and Providence preach God to be a sin-pardoning God then and are they suspended ab officio beneficio in the Court-Christian and become silenc'd Ministers And yet he seems to Retract this p. 30. Nor have we any other certain way of knowing this the secret Purposes of Gods Counsel concerning the Salvation of Mankind but by the Revelation Christ hath made to us Other wayes there may be still if any will run the Risque and venture upon them but none so certain as this And here comes in the fine Expedient for the Salvation of the Terra incognita without the Revelation of Christ. And yet once again p. 30. he assigns the work of Christ coming in the flesh to be To make a full and perfect Declaration of Gods Will and yet by and by as if he had forgot or over shot himself he confesses it was but One main end of Christs appearing in the World to reveal God to us And so there may yet be some little room left for his Priestly Office his Sacrifice and Interposition with God on the behalf of Sinners And lastly as I remember p. 5. he tells us that Christs Preaching the Gospel was the Exercise of his Regal Power and indeed all along through that Chapter the Kingly Office carried it hard-born from the rest and ran them sheer out of distance and yet the wind is vered about p. 34. When we speak of the knowledge of Christ we must consider him as our Prophet But really if this be all the work Christ had to doe in the world Two third parts of Christs Mediatory Employment are cashiered and the other lyes at mercy whenever he shall please to revive the Commission of Natural Light to reveal God's sin-pardoning Mercy and the best Rules of Life unto the World Now that he may give the better countenance to his Sentiments herein he thought it meet to lay violent hands upon some Texts of Scripture which else would have frowardly and perversly hung back from abetting his Fancies and so might have spoyled the Game A taste of his Excellencies in perswading or forceing Scripture to warrant his Notions he will give us in his Learned Gloss upon Joh. 14. 6. I am the Way the Truth and the Life no man cometh unto the Father but by me But never was Comment so pestered so thwack'd with a Lirry of id est's one clambring on the back of another a third mounted o' th top of that a fourth bestriding that a fifth in the neck of that and so on I am the Way id est I declare the way No man comes to the Father but by me id est None can throughly understand the will of God but by learning of me Whoever knows me id est is acquainted with the Doctrine I preach Knowes my Father id est Is Instructed in Gods Mind and VVill. Gods Will id est the Gospel Caetera desiderantur Now the very truth is all this is nothing but a trifling Imitation of his old Friend Volkelius de verâ Relig. lib. 4. c. 2. p. 173. Et hoc quidem illud est quod ipse Christus ait Joh. 14. 6. Neminem nisi per ipsum ad patrem pervenire id est Neminem Dei Patris Cognitionem assequi nisi per Christum posse Which shall never be spoyled by my bungling English our Author having saved me the labour and so clearly translated it to my hands But is it so indeed Does Coming to God imply and import no more than the bare knowing of God Surely there 's some other some more excellent Act of the Soul denoted by it God may be known by and yet the Soul never come to God The Devils know him and yet fly away from him It supposes indeed the knowledge of God none can come to an unknown God but yet it further denotes the Souls address to God in Faith and Love by Jesus Christ for though it were revealed that God is a sin-pardoning God in himself yet still the Sinner has need of an Advocate with him even Jesus Christ the Righteous who is a Propitiation for its sins 1 Joh. 2. 1. In whose Name and through the Power of whose prevailing Blood the guilty Creature may come and treat with God about his Pardon and Acceptation In the next Section we shall find our Author as ingenuous and plain-hearted as one could almost wish he opens a Casement in his Breast and lets us see how the pulse of his Soul beats freely owns where he borrowed his
that Sacrifice once for all to be offer'd up to God for that end 6. And it was Necessary that the gracious God who had trusted the World so long with Pardon Peace and Life should at last be satisfied and not alwayes be put off without due Compensation to his Justice and Truth 7. The Case and Condition of the Elect of God made by the common Apostacy Enemies to God and under the Curse annex'd to the Violation of the Law upon this one Supposition that God would pursue his Original Love and Purposes of Grace to them that a due Compensation should be provided for his wronged Justice Sin had perplexed matters and involved things in such Intricacies that Humane Wisdom could not find out an Expedient How God might be Just and yet the Justifier of him that believes how Mercy and Truth should meet together how Righteousness and Peace should kiss each other Many Salvo's have been propounded to the World many Expedients set on foot but upon severer scrutiny have been found Physicians of no value not able to heal the wounds of an inquisitive Conscience awaken'd with the sense of the Souls worth and Gods wrath in the Judgement to come All these things does the Lord Christ alone compromise adjust all these Accounts and reconcile these Intrests The Justice of God is satisfied the Law fulfilled the Truth of God secured his Holiness vindicated and all his Attributes unreproached 'T is true indeed God is a free Agent and absolutely consider'd might have left the world to perish under the Curse but seeing it pleased him to carry on his design of Love still notwithstanding the intervention of sin what others may pretend I know not but to our Apprehensions as there is but one God the Father of whom are all things and we in him so there is one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things and we by him 2 Cor. 8. 6. 2. The Work of Christ whilest in the World was the discharge of his whole Mediatory Undertaking as Prophet Priest and King To divide Christ is to destroy him As half a Heart is no Heart in Gods Acceptation so half a Christ is no Christ as to any saving advantage the Soul can possibly reap from him He was therefore 1. A Prophet to acquaint us fully with the Preceptive will of God in which rank we must place that great Command of Faith in Christ 1 John 3. 23. And this is his Commandement that we should believe on the Name of his Son Jesus Christ. He acquainted us also with the Promissory Will of God as the great Encouragement of our Souls in walking resolvedly with God in wayes of New Obedience He acquainted us also with the Purposes of God which should follow his Promises and Precepts to invigorate them with Efficacy and Success And this he does by the Ministry of his Word but more especially by the Holy Spirit inwardly and powerfully and yet sweetly not offering violence to our Faculties but making us a willing People in the day of his Power 2. He was a Priest and as such he offer'd himself a true and proper Sacrifice to God thereby answering the Sacrifices of the Old Testament which though they were Typical yet in their way were true and Real Sacrifices and all this in pursuit of the Fathers Love and his own 1 Joh. 4. 10. Herein is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the Propitiation for our sins what Intercessions as a Priest he made for those the Father had given him we need no other pattern of than that Prayer John 17. per totum 3. His Kingly Office he exercised in gathering governing defending protecting his Church abolishing those Laws which were accommodated to that other Dispensation and would not fit its present posture and instituting New Ordinances of Worship agreeable to the oeconomy of the New Testament which Office yet he exercised in such a way that little of Glory and Majesty appeared therein to a Carnal Eye the Grandeur thereof being vailed under the form of a Servant 3. The general Design of this Work we may assure our selves was exceeding Glorious nothing but admirable could be the Product of such an undertaking with what Joy and Triumph was it entertain'd by the Angels who were less concern'd therein than poor fallen Man Luke 2. Glory be to God on high on Earth peace good will towards men 1 Tim. 1. 15. This is a faithfull saying and worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the World to save sinners the chiefest of Sinners Which Great End that he might attain he dealt with God as a Priest to reconcile him to us with Us he dealt as a Prophet enlightning our Minds in the Knowledge of God and our selves and as a King subduing our hearts by his Spirit of Grace to accept of those Terms which might secure the Glory of God in our Eternal Salvation But the main Design I shall express no otherwise than in the words of the Church of England Art 2. who suffered and was crucified dead and buried to reconcile his Father to us and to be a Sacrifice not only for Original but all Actual sins of Men. From whence we learn 1. That Reconciling and Sacrificing Work is onely proper for a state of Humiliation it 's annex'd to his Death Sufferings Sacrifice 2. That the Death of Christ according to the mind of this Article supposes God to be incensed against and angry with Sinners and therefore he suffered to Reconcile God to us 3. That the Death and Sufferings of Christ are of sufficient value to secure Gods Honour and appease his Anger 4. That Original Sin how small a mote soever it may seem in some mens eyes is yet such a troublesome Beam in Gods eyes that it requires the same Blood of Christ to be a Sacrifice for it 5. That all Actual sins even the smallest if any may be called small need the Blood of Christ to reconcile God to the Sinner without which they will infallibly destroy the Soul Thus far the Church of England of whose Doctrine our Author has great Reason to be very tender if not for the Truths sake yet for his Credits sake having subscribed it and above all for St. Georges sake Buttolphs-lane for otherwise it may be easie for some poching prolling Fellows to dismount George-a-horse-bâ—…k and get into our Authors Saddle CHAP. III. Sect. 2. Of Acquaintance with the Person of Christ. INterest is beholden to the Eagle for two of its greatest Excellencies a quick Eye to discover and sharp Pounces to seize the Quarry When once it had appeared in some pregnant Instances that the High-road to Preferment lay in the way of exposing Religion under the Persons of the Non-Conformists it 's incredible how soon sagacious Interest discern'd and made her advantage The old dull Methods of Marrying the Chamber-maid or Trucking with the young Gentleman grew as Obsolete as Systematical Divinity An unhappy happy
Brimstone upon their heads and it was goodness that he did it not in stead of those fruitfull seasons he might have sent Famine and Cleanness of Teeth and there was much Goodness in that yet whether they could from hence bless themselves with a well-grounded Hope that he would pardon their Iniquities I much question And 2. The Servant in the Parable Math. 18. 26. could understand the difference between forbearance and acquittance Have patience with me and I will pay thee all Time and Day were considerable Favours in his Judgement though his Master did not throw him in the Bond. 3. I am sure God himself understood the difference between a Reprieve and a Pardon between that Goodness which he shews in forbearing and that which he manifests in forgiving Rom. 9. 22. He endured with much long-suffering the Vessels of Wrath fitted to destruction A presumptuous Conclusion therefore had it been from Gods general Goodness and indulgent Patience to argue his Forgiveness and pardoning-Grace 4. Adam in the state of Integrity understood very well God to be good he could not look besides a Demonstration of it and yet no Notion of Gods Pardoning Grace was concreated with him whereof he could have no use in his worship of and walking with God A threatning against sin he had but not the least intimation that God would pardon it till it was revealed upon another Account We are not here enquiring what presumptuous and vain hopes secure sinners might form to themselves of Indempnity nor how their hearts might be fully set in them to do evil because judgement against an evil work was not speedily executed nor what flattering thoughts might tickle their breasts that God was such a one as themselves because he kept silence at their proceedings and spoke not his Fury in Thunder and Lightning nor do we enquire what Natural earnest desires they might express to obtain the Favour of God what projects plotts and contrivances they invented to relieve their guilty Consciences wounded with apprehensions of wrath how they skin'd over their Sores with some Services and lickt themselves whole with their Sacrifices and Oblations But the Enquiry is this What solid Ground they had from Gods common and general Goodness his Governing the World his Patience Forbearance and long-sufferance with his Bounty to Sinners to conclude from thence that he was a Sin-pardoning God When I seriously consider into what inextricable Labyrinths and Mazes those poor Heathens did run themselves how they were bewildred in their own Inventions how they tyred themselves off their Leggs in their own wayes and spent themselves to their skins with Sacrifices if by any means it might be possible to purchase the good will of a Deity I presently conclude they had no settled fixed Apprehension of any such thing in God For though they might hear a rumour that there were a people in the World towards whom God shew'd himself propitious and favourable and that the way of the peoples part to reconcile this God to them was by killing of Beasts and offering up them to him in Sacrifice and might therefore hence fall upon this practice of Sacrifices yet not understanding the true use of them what reference they had to a promised Mediator they must needs fluctuate and toss up and down in uncertainties about so weighty a Concern Hence was it that least they should not hit upon the True God in that Crowd and Throng of Deities wherewith they had overstockt the Commons they set up an Altar To the unknown God and least they should miss the right Sacrifice and most acceptable Offering sometimes they Sacrificed the worst sometimes the best of Men and sometimes to please their God the better they would let him choose by Lot which he would have They tryed Conclusions with almost all sorts of Creatures and all to answer the demands of an importunate Conscience which as Gods Officer was alwayes haling and dragging them before the Barr of Gods Justice to answer for their Delinquencies Either then they had no Notices of Sin-pardoning Mercy or what they had came not in from the Works of Creation and Providence but were some scattered Beams and broken Splinters of Traditional Knowledge derived Originally to them from the People of God who themselves had received it by pure Revelation in and through a Redeemer All this while our Author sits fretting himself like Gumm'd-Taffata that when he has been for two whole pages together preparing his Reader to swallow his Pills yet we should cunningly pass it over with a dry Foot and never bestow the least Consideration of it That he may not therefore think himself neglected we shall give him a full and a fair hearing The Light of Nature says he and the Works of Creation and Providence and those manifold Revelations God hath made of himself to the World especially that last and most perfect Revelation by Iesus Christ assure us that God is infinite in all his Perfections They do so let him make his best of that And therefore that he is Powerfull and can doe whatever he pleases Very good goe on So Wife that he knows how to order every thing for the best Better and better and yet p. 30. he tells us Long and sad Experience proved that all the Means he used to reform the World proved ineffectual So Good that he designs and desires the Happiness of all his Creatures according to the Capacity of their Natures Stick a Pin there So Holy that he hath a Natural Love to all good Men And so Gracious too that he made them Good else they never had been so but he hates all Sin and Wickedness It 's well Gods Hatred of Sin is as Natural to him as his Love of Good Men. And will as certainly punish all Obstinate and Incorrigible Sinners but yet that he is patient and long-suffering towards the worst of Men and uses various Methods to reclaim them and is as ready to pardon them when they return to their Duty as a kind Father is to receive an humble and penitent Prodigal Where there are some things that wound our Authors Cause to the Heart and nothing prejudicial to the Truth which he opposes For 1. He grants that Gods Love to good Men and his Hatred of Sin are both equally Natural and therefore I suppose Essential to him 2. That Gods punishing obstinate Sinners is equally Natural to him with his rewarding Good men But 3. The Fallacy of all is that lapsed Man stands related to God as a Father whereas he should have proved and not supposed that the Light of Nature of Scripture discovers any other Relation of a Revolted Sinner unto God than that of a Creature to his Creator and a Subject to his Governour before he be taken into that special Relation of a Son to a Father by Adoption in Christ. 4. A Supposition that God is ready to pardon Sinners when they return to their Duty is ambiguous vain and as he takes it false
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
which he now confesses was not one word to the purpose For that which they call pardoning Mercy he sayes is not to be seen in Scripture-Revelation and perhaps that which he calls so may be seen in the Discoveries of Nature and found growing upon every Hedge We shall go near to entertain more Charitable thoughts of the Schoolmen and the old Systematical Divines hereafter for they would have set the Terms of a Question to rights and stated the due bounds of the Meaning of words before they had made a noyse and blunder about the Confutation of their Adversaries what our Author means by these things we must leave in the Clouds as we found it what others mean we are pretty well secured But we are not so secure of our Authors Honesty in this matter who jumbles together those things which the Doctor had separated and puts them all Pell Mell into the common Box as if he had asserted That the Love of God to Sinners his Justice against Sinners his Patience with and Long-suffering of Sinners were none of them discoverable but by Christ whereas the Doctor plainly and in terms asserts that Gods Iustice Patience Long-sufferance may be otherwise known as we have heard before and shall see again by and by The Rise of our Authors Fury and Indignation against the Doctor is from these words p. 93. Com. God hath manifested the Naturalness of his Righteousness unto him in that it was impossible that it should be diverted from Sinners without the interposing of a Propitiation Now says he this is such a Notion of Iustice as is perfectly New which neither Scripture nor Nature acquaint us with And if it be so I could heartily wish it underwent the Deleatur of an Expurgatory Index but how strangely is our Author wheel'd about it was but p. 42. that he deliver'd it with as much Confidence as most men are guilty of That the Light of Nature the Works of Creation and Providence besides Revelation doe assure us that God hath a Natural Love for all good men but that he hates sin and will certainly punish incorrigible sinners from whence we might have been prone enough to have dropt into such an Error that if Hatred of Sin be as Natural to God as his Love to good Men he cannot but hate the one and love the other for God cannot act against his Nature and must act according to his Nature Nay we should have concluded that it holds more strongly a great deal for his hatred of the one than for his love of the other seeing there 's something of sin in good men in the best of Men which may allay his Love towards them consider'd in their single and Personal Capacities but there 's nothing at all in sin not the least that may qualifie his Indignation against sin And had we not been snib'd we should have ventur'd further to say that as God has a Natural Love to good Men and will not fail to reward them so he has a Natural displicency against sin and therefore will not fail to reward it according to its demerits And then because we are assured from a surer hand Rom. 6. 23. That the wages of sin is death which by the opposition clearly intends eternal death we could not much doubt that a righteous and holy God will give to every one their wages without the interposition of that Propitiation whereof our Author makes so light Thus I say we had concluded but that our Author limits the Certainty of punishment to incorrigible and obstinate Sinners but this is but a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and will not much mend the matter both because those corrigible ones are not so wholly corrected but that still some remaining sins lodge in them which are the Object of Divine abhorrency and also because those Corrigible ones are onely pardoned and received to Grace through the Interest which they have in the Sufferings of Christ hence 1 Iohn 1. 9. If we confess our sins he is faithfull and just to forgive us our sins which Faithfulness of God has the Foundation of its Exercise in the satisfaction of his Vindictive Iustice which being once answer'd God that cannot lye promises the pardon of Sin through Christ which because he is faithfull and just he will make it good to the truely penitent Sinner But what Reason will our Author favour us with of his Blunt Negative Why All Mankind have accounted it an act of Goodness without the least suspicion of Injustice in it to remit Injuries and Offences without exacting any punishment I much doubt whether our Author was ever Principal Secretary of State to all Mankind that he should be so privy to their Sentiments his own daring Fancies and crude Conceptions are no just Standard of their Apprehensions and I am well assured that some of Mankind and such whose Learning and Judgement may vye with his and may be supposed to know Mankind as well as himself yet think not with him in this business but I shall lay a few things in his way let him remove them 1. The Strength of his Argument lyes in a most gross and palpable Absurdity viz. That there is the same Reason for Gods pardoning sin against his most holy Law that there is for a private Persons charitable remitting a trespass against himself That God as he is the Governour of the World may wave the Execution of the Sentence threatned against and due to the violation of his Rules of Government because a private Person may depart from his Right in a Six-penny matter but these things are wonderfully mistaken For 1. Our Author confesses that God will certainly punish all obstinate and incorrigible Offenders but if sin be consider'd onely as an injury against a private Person God may pardon even Impenitency and Incorrigibility it self And if it be an act of Goodness to remitt such an Injury without the least suspition of Injustice the greater the Offence is the greater will that Goodness triumph in remitting the greater Injury The degree of sin alters not the Case He that can pardon a Penny justly may also a pound who shall set limits to him how far he shall depart from his Right 2. That the Case is not the same between God and Man is evident from hence Man may depart from his Right to his Servant may Manumitt him and release him from all dependance on him from performance of all duty to him as his Master but it 's impossible to suppose that God should discharge and acquitt a Creature from its dependance on and its subjection to himself 3. God is to be considered not only as our Proprietor and Owner but as our Governour and Ruler Now the end of Government being the good and welfare of the Community every violation of the Law claims either that Judgement and Execution pass upon the Offender according to it or if not that good Security be put in that neither the Honour of the Legislator suffer Offenders be
had no such Infinite guilt in 't as Christians speak of nor did Gods Justice exact such Satisfaction For he is more Glorified by Conniving at and Indulging of sin at cheap Rates for the Naturalness of Gods Iustice to him is a Position to be abhorred without any Security given or Compensation made to it that is he is so Merciful that whereas sin may possibly have some Grains of Evil in it yet in God there are not only Drams but Ounces of such Mercy which he will freely dispense without regarding what becomes of his other Attributes which you will confess to be a glorious kind of Mercy and such as Impenitent sinners cannot wish for a better And since as I have often said and must Inculcate it again the Justice and Vengeance of God if they should prove more than Names yet require no Consideration to be had of them but that their Claims may be easily waved or slighted or slubber'd over by general Mercy without reference to Christ his Death or Sufferings and God can Pardon as many and as great sins as He pleases without fear of being reputed a Remiss Governor Hereupon a most glorious and comfortable Scene of Affairs appears to sinners for now God can embrace sinners as a kind Father and account them Righteous without any Adoption through Christ nay as we told you above though Christ had never appeared in the World And this is enough in all Reason to make sinners Transported with Joy But yet I have better News than this For as God never required that his Iustice should be satisfied so he is not so Punctual and Strict that his Laws should be Obeyed For if we be but Innocent once by Pardon what 's matter for a Righteousness by keeping the Law or any other way to make us accepted with God for the former will deliver us from Hell and that 's all that we need care for But indeed you cannot well conceive what 't is to be Pardoned but must presently be flusht up with a Conceit of Eternal reward There is one thing I would acquaint you with but 't is a great Secret If Christ has Satisfied at all it s for sins of Omission as well as Commission that is though we never Repent Believe Turn from sin to God yet if there be any thing at all in 't I 'me enclin'd to this that the very Neglect of the Terms of the Covenant shall not hurt us but we may be Reputed by God to have done all and never regarded to keep any And now God and sinners may very well agree together for though Communion be an ill favoured word yet I allow they may Converse For what should hinder them Original sin they have none and for Actual sin there 's no such Demerit in it as should necessarily enforce Gods Justice to Insist upon a Reparation of its Honour and therefore let none trouble themselves with those Mormo's some have made of Iustice to affright Children nor on the other hand make such a doe to be cloathed with the white and spotless Robes of Christs Righteousness for though I cannot deny God to be Holy yet his Iustice sleeps like a Sword of State in a Velvet Scabbard Let all therefore set their hearts at rest do but repent as well as you can and you shall be Saved with a notwithstanding Gods Iustice and notwithstanding you have no Interest in the Satisfaction of Christ. These may reasonably be supposed some of our Authors Fundamental Doctrines seeing he so vehemently Persecutes their Contraries which for Distinction-sake may well be called The Religion of his own Itching Noddle Our Author had promised â—…s a Discovery of what Additions some men had made to the Gospel and he has now saved his Recognizance and shew'd himself Master of his word at as wild a Rate as ever was Indited from Bedlam There is but one thing more calls for his Abilities and that is to Render the Practice of it as ridiculous as he has done the Principles and then perhaps we may obtain a short Cessation from this hot Service Now the Practice hereof he says consists in accepting of Christ and coming to Him and applying his Merits and Satisfaction and Righteousness to our selves for Pardon and Iustification and in those Duties which are consequent upon such an Union and closure with Christ. And is it possible that these things should hear ill with them who would pass for Christians Or must we Renounce the Scriptures to Gratisie a few Raving Men who are fallen out with all the World and their own Understandings Accepting of Christ must be Reviled and yet to this are we directed that we may become the Sons of God John 1. 12. As many as received him to them he gave power to become the Sons of God Coming to Christ must be loaded with Scorn and yet our Saviour has expresly encouraged All that labour and are heavy laden to come to him that he may give them rest Mat. 11. 28. If these Phrases be not rightly understood let us be Instructed in the Spirit of Meekness but by no means let the very Expressions of Scripture be the Theam for every conceited Buffoon to exercise his Railing Faculties upon The first thing that offers it self is a gross Self-contradiction For whereas he had Confessed that The Practice of these mens Religion consists in accepting of Christ c. And in those Duties which are consequent upon such an Union and closure with Christ yet in the very next words before he had finisht his Period or made a Pause he represents it thus Christ having satisfied for our sins it 's a plain and necessary Consequence that we have nothing to do but to get an Interest in the Satisfaction and Righteousness of Christ that they may be Imputed to us for he is very Ignorant of Christ that hopes any thing else will avail him to Salvation Nothing to do Yes We have those consequential Duties to do which follow upon our Union and closing with Christ. Nothing to do Why we have enough to do for Time and Eternity enough to fill up every corner of our Hearts every Moment of our Time with Service and Obedience to Him who hath Reconciled us to God by the Blood of his Cross If Malice were not sometimes blind there would be no Living by it in the World Now says he that we may thus come to Christ it s absolutely necessary that we be sensible of our Lost and Undone condition And dares he prescribe it as a safer way to keep up an Insensibility of it A sensless regard to our Sin and Misery thereupon is no very hopeful way to put a sinner upon a serious enquiry after the proper Remedy I wish we were sure of our Authors Thoughts herein and whether he does indeed own that All men are by Nature in such a Lost and Undone condition The Church of Englands Thoughts are Evident Art 9. Of Original or Birth-sin Original sin standeth not in the
following of Adam as the Pelagians vainly talk but it is the corruption of the Nature of every Man whereby Man is very faâ—… gone from Original Righteousness and is enclined to Evil. So that in every Person born into the World it deserveth Gods Wrath and Damnation Surely here 's something that deserves our most serious Thoughts That which deserves Damnation at Gods Hands deserves consideration at ours He that can carry about with him daily a depraved Nature enclined to evil running counter to Gods Will and not lament it with a bitter Lamentation has taken some of our Authors Hypnoticks and how to bewail it without being sensible of it is a Mysterie perhaps as deep as any of those we owe to his Discovery And is not this to Reproach Christ himself Mat. 9. 12 13. They that be whole have no need of the Physitian but they that are sick Ay says he these are Metaphors and I will Rail them out of Credit and Countenance immediately Well you shall not fall out with Christ for a Metaphor if I can help it Read the Next words I come not to call the Righteous but Sinners to Repentance And they must be sensible sinners that will regard the Call of Christ or think they need Repentance Another Quarrel he has against the Practice of their Religion is That they hold it absolutely necessary that we be sensible how Impossible it is for us to Attone the Wrath of God to have any righteousness of our own that can bear the severe Scrutiny of his Iustice. Be it so if there be no Remedy It seems then if we could work up our Imagination into a Presumption that Gods Anger against sin is very small and our Righteousness very great so great as to endure the severe Scrutiny of Gods Iustice we might purchase this Gentlemans favour But the Gospel has taught us otherwise Rom. 3. 10. That there is none righteous no not one That by the deeds of the Law shall no flesh be justified in Gods sight ver 20. But he lays about him and Reproaches the Spirit of Bondage the Spirit of Adoption and at last falls a Reviling Christs own Words We shall says he in his fleering way never Value and Prize Christ and go to him for Salvation till we are Convinc'd of the necessity of him and driven to him by the Threatnings of the Law and the Promise of Ease and Rest is made only to the weary and heavy Laden and those only shall be satisfied who Hunger and Thirst after Righteousness Really this Doctor Owen and his Fellows are dangerous Persons I wonder not now that some think it not fit they should live a day That ever they should be so bold to read or quote Matth. 5. 6. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after Righteousness for they shall be filled or that other place Matth. 11. 28. Come unto me all you that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest or to mention Galat. 3. 24. Wherefore the Law was our School-master to bring us unto Christ But did they make the Scriptures or coin and invent these words of their own heads or has our Author a License to expose the Expressions of the Holy Spirit as well as the Doctors Surely an awfull regard to the Authority of Jesus Christ speaking in them might have commanded some Reverence to them and controlled this unbridled liberty of prostituting Sacred Matters But thus much and too much of what they make of Conviction And now says he being thus stung with Sin it is time for us to look up to Christ as the Israelites did on the Brazen Serpent that we may be healed But is this Gentleman indeed a Minister a Teacher of others the Rector of St. George Buttolphs-lane and knows not that he reproaches Christ himself Ioh. 3. 15. And as Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness even so must the Son of Man be lifted up that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have Eternal Life And does not Christ himself authorize the Parallel That as none were healed in the Wilderness but those onely who sensible of pain looked up to the Brazen Serpent as Gods own Institution to which a Promise of healing was annexed so neither can we receive any benefit by Christ till under a deep sense of our sin and misery we accept of and close with a Redeemer whom the Father has held forth to be a Propitiation through Faith in his Blood for the Remission of sins But this is not all Now we must begin to see his fulness and perfection and suitableness to the wants and necessities of our Souls that he is our Attonement our Wisdom our Righteousness and all that we can desire or need Well and if they do conceive Christ to have both fulness and suitableness of all Grace and Mercy in him I hope it 's neither Felony nor Treason neither We have an Assurance Heb. 4. 15. That Christ is such a Priest as is touched with a feeling of our Infirmities and was in all points tempted like unto us yet without sin there 's great suitableness and we are encouraged to come boldly to the throne of Grace that we may obtain Mercy and find Grace to help in time of need and there 's fulness And surely our Author does sometimes pray to Christ at least he is enjoyn'd by the Litany to say O God the Son Redeemer of the World have mercy upon us miserable Sinners Now if he can indeed discover no suitableness no fulness of Grace in Christ to answer the needs and wants of those miserable Sinners he had better save his Breath to cool his Pottage It is further charged upon them That when the sense of their sins and unworthiness makes them afraid to come to Christ they have recourse to their Acquaintance with Christs Person to answer their Doubts and quiet their Consciences Which charge though it has a Tincture and dash of our Authors good Nature in it they can easily bear and do confess that when the sense of their sins and Unworworthiness at any time discourages them from Comeing to God for the Pardon of sins they do relieve themselves from the Gospel which has spoken great things of the Ability and Readiness of a Mediator to save humble and repenting Sinners that are willing to receive him as God has offer'd him in the Covenant of Grace They do there find that Christ came into the World to save the chiefest of Sinners such as had been Blasphemers Persecutors and Injurious and yet have obtained Mercy that Christ in them might shew forth all long-suffering for a Pattern to them that should afterwards believe on him to Everlasting Life 1 Tim. 1. 15 16 17. And do further believe that to deny this is at once to renounce the whole Gospel and if it be not a Fruit of down-right Infidelity and Atheisme yet most apparently leads thither Our Author having destroy'd the Living begins to prey upon the Dead
his Death c. and the Salvation of all Mankind I presume the man 's either unborn or long agoe dead that ever asserted that there was any Connexion either Natural or Necessary between Christs Death and the Salvation of every individual Person that should be upon the Earth Does he mean any one of all Mankind I then do affirm and will abide by it that upon supposition the Son of God was incarnate took our Nature upon him and in that Nature dyed a cursed Death there is a Necessary connexion betwixt the Death of the Son of God and the Salvation of some at least of Mankind It 's very unconceivable that Christ should submit to such a Dispensation and have no fruit of his Labour But to put him out of fear that he may sleep at hearts ease we do not fancy any natural connexion of these things that Bond that tyes them together is the compact betwixt the Father and the Son that upon his Souls being made an Offering for Sin he should see his seed and the pleasure of the Lord should prosper in his hand Isa. 53. 10. The Total is this The Concurrence of the Sons Will with the Fathers good Pleasure gave the Death of Christ a necessary Connexion with the Salvation of some at least of Mankind But to talk at this loose Rambling rate is tedious All this while you see but very little into our Authors Design For as your great Politicians have their Causae justificae which they Hang out to view but the Causae suasoriae lie deep and are not to be Exposed to and Prophan'd by common Eyes Thus however our Author makes a Flourish and Vapour about the Connexion of Necessary causes and Necessary effects as if we see Fire we know it burns something and if we see Smoak we may safely conclude there is some Fire Which poor Reynards Experiment would have Confuted Notwithstanding I say all this Ostentation of Mysterious Philosophy there was something lay nearer his heart than this Bombaste and how to bring it upon the Stage handsomely required good Deliberation In plain Terms it was nothing but to state a Parallel betwixt the Rational and your Systematical Divine and to Demonstrate the excellency of himself and those of his exalted Intellectuals above those low Spirited Phlegmatick Tigurine Doctors who Trade all in gross Bodies and unweildy Systems of Divinity For these latter they Dull-men shape all Religion according to their Phancies and Humours and stuff it with an infinite Number of Orthodox Propositions such as the 39 Articles But now for your Rational Men They Argue the Nature of God his Works and Providences from the Nature of Mankind and those eternal Notions of Good and Evil from the Essential differences of Things from plain Principles which have an Immutable and unchangeable Nature and so can bear the weight and stress of a just Consequence Which singular Happiness may sooner be Envyed than Mistated Indeed it would do any man good at Heart to hear with what Nerves and Sinews of Brawny Reason they will Argue how they Drive all before them how they will Trounce a poor amazed Auditor into As. and Con. and force the most Obstinate herds of Contumacious Animals into good Behiavour by Duress In a word all their Discourses are Muscle and Cartilage And in one of these you shall have the Marrow and Pith the Quintessence and Elixir of your Profound Irrefragable Subtile Angelical Seraphical Doctors But I Chide my self for comparing them to the School-men who are Systematical Theölogues Let the Reader content himself with a short Specimen of their Abilities And 1. They argue from the Nature of God How Facile is he to Pardon sin all sin without any Compensation or Satisfaction made to his Justice For seeing Justice is but a secondary Attribute a mere Instrument or Tool of Government He may spare or punish as he sees Reason for it without being unjust in either For though the Scripture has told us Iosh 24. 19. That God is a jealous God who will not forgive Transgression nor sin and that He is of purer Eyes than to behold Evil and cannot look upon Iniquity Hab. 1. 13. And also that the wages of sin is Death which is the Religion of the Scripture yet now one of these familiar acquaintance of Gods Nature can inform you better that there was there was no necessity of Christs Death to declare the Righteousness of God that he might be Iust but that as he Pardoned the Old World for Four Thousand Years together who knew nothing of Christ 〈◊〉 he might have done for one poor Sixteen Hundred Years more and as much longer as it shall continue That Caution which he Hints to others pag. 76. he has as much need of himself That we be wary in drawing conclusions from Gods Nature since 't is so seldom we have any good Assurance those Inferences are Genuine Thus when he argues pag. 43 from Gods Long-suffering and Patience towards the World and the various Methods God uses to reclaim them that therefore he is as ready to Pardon sinners as a kind Father is to receive a penitent Prodigal I would have him Cautious lest he should over-run the Constable for God stands not related to sinners in the state of lapsed Nature as a Father but as an Enemy and our Son-ship and Adoption comes in by Jesus Christ and this may perhaps a little disturbe the Connexion of his Antecedents and Consequents And this for distinction-sake may be called his New Religion of Gods Nature from whence we learn those greater and deeper Mysteries whereof the Scripture is so silent And then 2. They argue with marvellous Success from the Works and Providence of God As how pag. 44. Those Natural Notions the Heathens had of God and the Discoveries God made of Himself in the Works of Creation and Providence did assure them that God is very Good and that 't is not possible to understand what Goodness is without Pardoning-Grace For you may be sure they cloud not see the Sun shine but presently they must conclude that the Light of Gods Countenance would shine upon them also nor have a showre of Rain but it did Demonstrate that God would wash away their sins nor forbear them a day but He would acquit them for ever But then 3. From the Nature of Mankind they Reason with incomparable Judgment As for Instance That because Man was Created upright therefore he is so still how Vegete Sprightly and active mans Nature is that without the Subsidiary assistance of effectual Grace working both to will and to do it can fulfil all Gods Commandments and that to talk of our own Impotency to Spiritual performances is to suppose us to be acted like Machines by an External force and the irresistable Grace and Spirit of God And further 4. They make admirable work from the eternal Notions of Good and Evil That God may punish sin if he pleases and if he sees good he may
the decking with Ornaments and aâ—…dorning with Iewels the representing true Believers accepted with God through a better Righteousness than their own 2. The Reader would admire to hear these glorious Gospel-Promises recorded in the Old-Testament thus interpreted to bare skin and bone But our Author confesses he swarms with prejudices against the Doctrine of Imputed Righteousness When Prejudice sits upon the Bench it 's like to go very ill with poor Truth that stands at the Bar. As a Bribed Fancy will admit the most feeble Appearances for plain Demonstrations of what it longs should be True so a mind fore-stalled with prejudice will despise the clearest evidence for what it desires to be false And we need no other instance of all this than our Author 's great Indisposition and Averseness to receive the present Truth And 1. I perceive he is very much stumbled at one thing That in all our Saâ—…iour's Sermons there 's no mention of his Imputed Righteousness Now because the same Charity that commands me not to lay a stumbling-block in the way of my Neighbour enjoyns me also to remoâ—…e it out of his way or however to help him over it the ensuing Considerations will afford him that Civility if he please to accept it 1. If our Saviour had mentioned the Imputation of his Righteousness a thousand times over he could easily have evaded it at his rate of answering for he might have said This is but to interpret Scripture by the sound of words or if that had been too frigid that it 's sufficient to say The words may possibly have another meaning though he could not tell what that should be or that by the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness no more is meant but the Accepting of our own Righteousness which Christ has commanded in the Gospel 2. It may be of good use to him to consider Whether Christ's Silence raised his prejudice against the Doctrine or his own prejudice against the Doctrine raised the conceit that Christ was silent in it Whether it was the want of an Object to be seen or the want of eyes to see the Object For most men are deaf when they have no mind to hear and blind when they have no will to see For 3. Christ in his Sermons has plainly revealed the case to be such between God and man that without a better Righteousness than their own they are all lost for ever Matth. 5. 19. He that breaks the least of these Commandments shall be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven that is shall never come there Now the universal Suffrage of all mens Consciences is That there is no man that lives and sins not and therefore Christ has determined upon him that he shall never enter into the Kingdom of Heaven I never yet heard that God has dispenced with one jot or tittle of the Moral Law but Do this and live is as strictly exacted as ever So that unless a Surety be admitted and the Righteousness of another owned the case of all the Sons of Adam is deplorable and desperate To deny then the Righteousness where in the believing sinner may stand before this Righteous and Holy God is to affirm the Eternal Damnation of all the World 4. Christ has plainly discovered to us such ends of his Death and Sufferings as evidently prove the impossibility of being justified by our own Righteousness Matth. 20. 28. He gave 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Life or Soul a Ransome a Redeâ—…ption-price for instead of many Which is no whit less than that of the Apostle 2 Cor. 5. 21. He was made sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him And the same with Isa. 53. 10. It pleased the Lord to bruise him when he shall make his Soul an Offering for sin c. Again Matth. 26. 28. This is the Blood of the New-Testament which is shed for the Remission of the sins of many Whence it 's plain that God in pardoning sin in justifying and accepting the sinner has such a respect to the Satisfaction of Christ in our stead as may properly be called the Imputation thereof to us 5. Though Christ mention not the Imputation of his Righteousness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet has he mentioned that Righteousness which it's certain from the Scriptures must be imputed to Believers or they can have none of that benefit by it which they are said to have Matth. 3. 15. Christ fulfilled all Righteousness and vers 17. In him or upon his account God is well pleased comes to delight in Believers whom he accepts in the Beloved Ephes. 1. 6. ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He hath graciously accepted us in his Beloved one Hence it is the Holy Ambition of all the Saints 2 Cor. 5. 9. to be accepted of him or in him ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That regard then which God has to the Obedience of Christ as the Reason for which he accounts a Believer righteous we judg may commodiously be called the Imputing of Christ's Righteousness to them without the Leave License or Faculty of our Author A second Prejudice that is deep-rooted in our Author's breast against this Doctrine is That Christ exacts from men a Righteousness of their own if they would find mercy with God A Righteousness of their own Ay but let them be sure they come honestly by it The Righteousness of Christ must be made ours or else we shall never find mercy with God We must also have another Righteousness of our own an Inherent Righteousness if ever we expect to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven and find mercy with God in his great Day But what is that Righteousness for which we are just and accepted with God But for the removing of this small prejudice may he please to consider 1. How easie it is to vapour and make a flourish with those Texts that require an Inherent Righteousness as a necessary Qualification for Eternal Salvation and yet how hard to produce one place that mentions our own Inherent Righteousness as that which answers God's holy Law makes Reconciliation with God and constistutes the sinner spotless and blameless before God the Holy Righteous Judg yet such a Righteousness we want and such a one we must have 2. Our own Righteousness is very pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ being the fruit of Faith and following after Iustification So says the Church of England Artic. 12. But says She Works done before the Grace of God and the Inspiration of the Spirit are not pleasing to God for as much as they spring not out of Faith in Christ Artic. 13. Which two Articles I shall leave to our Author to confute at his best leisure A third Block which I perceive lies in his way is That our Saviour should never once warn his Hearers to beware of trusting to their own Righteousness But 1. Christ preach'd to the Iews who had had warnings â—…now to beware
of splitting upon that Rock They might have taken warning from the Churches Confession Isa. 64. 6. We are all as an unclean thing and all our Righteousnesses are as filthy rags All the warning in the World signifies nothing to them that are resolved to interpret Our own Righteousness by Ceremony and Hypocrisie Had Christ inculcated the danger even to Tautology all may be evaded by that happy Gloss which he keeps Leiger by him True indeed he warns us to beware of our own Righteousness but he intends no more hereby than the works of the Ceremonial and external acts of the Moral Law 3. Christ had indeed given them fair warning but if they will not take it the sin must lie at their own doors and the Condemnation upon their own heads Luke 18. 9. He spake a Parable to them that trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others c. Now it may seasonably be here remembred 1. What was the design of this Parable And that the Evangelist tells us was to meet with them that trusted in themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 men that presumed very highly upon their own Abilities to answer the Law of God and therefore despised others who made such a stir about their own Impotency to keep it and kept such a coyl about the shortness of their obedience to it like the poor Publican who being conscious to himself of both makes his retreat to and shelters himself in the free Grace and rich Mercy of God to miserable sinners 2. It will be seasonable to enquire What that Righteousness was upon which the Pharisee in the Parable so stiffly insisted as that in which he durst adventure to appear before God And that as our Saviour puts the case was a Righteousness made up of obedience to Gods Commands And those both Prohibitory he was no Extortioner no Adulterer no Unjust Person and Affirmatively he paid his Tythes exactly which will go a great way and fasted twice a-week 3. Let it be considered that however many of the Pharisees of those days were Hypocrites yet our Saviour frames his Parable of a Pharisee not according to what many of them were but what they seemed to be and were reputed for amongst men who admired their Sanctity and reverenced their Devotions and therefore he describes not a Person acting his part well upon the Stage but living up to very high Attainments of Nature For 1. The duties instanced in are only some particulars in the name of all the rest He instances in his praying to and praising of God which comprehend all the duties of the First Table His freedom from Adultery Extortion and in a word from Injustice which is the whole of the Second Table Again He instances in duties of the Iudicial Law paying Tythes and of the Ceremonial Fasting with a little touch perhaps of Supereragation Twice in the week 2. When Christ introduces a person saying he was no Adulterer we may reasonably suppose he taught him to speak in the proper sense of the word which Christ himself allows Now in Christ's Dialect to be no Adulterer is not to commit it with the heart Mat. 5. still abating for Humane Frailties And 3. This is evident because our Savióur describes not this Pharisee as praying in the corners of the streets or in the Synagogues to be seen of men but in obedience to God's Command Going up to the Temple to pray and there praying to God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his own heart between God and his own Soul All which evidently prove that our Saviour puts not the case of a stinking Hypocrite but of one who went as far as Natures legs would carry him But 4. The miscarriage of this Pharisee lay not in this that he was what he pretended he was not or was not what he pretended he was but that he trusted to himself for a Righteousness to be compounded out of all these Ingredients wherein he would dare to stand before God and in despising others which is the natural Product of Self-Righteousness And yet upon our Author's Principles I see not why he might not trust to himself that he was Righteous if Righteousness be to be made out of Obedience and despise others too since his own free-will exerted and natural strength improved had made him differ from another even from that Publican But yet 4. There 's one Prejudice more remaining which perhaps may stick more with him than all the rest He is apt to admire our Saviour's Sermons in the first place before the Writings of the Apostles though inspired men I should be loth to weaken his Admiration of our Saviours Sermons But he may do well to examine Whether his Aptness to admire them before other Sermons given forth by the same Spirit may not proceed from great Ignorance or a worse Principle For though our Saviour's Person had more Authority than the Persons of the Apostles yet the Writings of the Apostles are of equal Authority with those of the Evangelists to command our Faith and Obedience The Epistles of S. Iohn are indited by the same Spirit by which hepenned the Gospel 'T is the Authority of Christ in both the Infallible Spirit speaking in both which are the Reason of our Belief of both All Scripture is given by Divine Inspiration 2 Tim. 3. 18. The same Spirit of Christ that spake in the Prophets of the Old-Testament and the Apostles in the New 1 Pet. 1. 11. And such Comparisons must needs be very odious where the Spirit of God has made none But the total sum of all these Prejudices we shall have in one Dilemma Did not our Saviour instruct his Hearers in all things necessary to Salvation or have the Evangelists given us an imperfect account of his Doctrine If the first then our Saviour was not faithful in the discharge of his Prophetical Office If the latter you overthrow the Credit of the Gospel Well! I hope we may out-live this horned-Argument for all the terrour of its looks 1. Christ was faithful in his Prophetical Office he instructed his Hearers in all things necessary to Salvation But then there are some great and weighty Doctrines which it was necessary to the Salvation of the Gentile World to know wherein the Iewish Church had been sufficiently instructed already The Doctrine of Atoning God making Reconciliation for sin expiating Transgressions was abundantly clear from their Sacrifices The Theory of God's justifying a sinner was evident from thence they knew what Imputation signified by the transferring of the guilt of the sinner upon the head of the Sacrifice And therefore when Christ came his main business with the Jews was to convince them that he was the Messiah promised of old and typified in their Sacrifices His Work they knew all the Question was Whether he was the Person Matth. 11. 3. Art thou he that should come or do we look for another Joh. 10. 24. If thou beest the Christ tell us plainly Christ's Sermons
fitted to return the Glory due to a Redeemer which an unhumbled unbelieving unconverted unsanctified Sinner could not possibly be 2 The Death of Christ devested of those its proper respects of a Sacrifice offered to God to atone and reconcile him a price paid to ransom and redeem us and a Punishment born to satisfie Divine Iustice was no infallible proof of the Doctrine which he preached For 1. Many have laid down their lives to Abett and endured extremity of Tortures rather than renege the Doctrine they have openly preached their Confidence the mean while supported either by a mistaken Conscience or perhaps some sinister respects All that it can prove in the largest judgment of Charity is That they suppose their Doctrine to be true or else would hardly lose their All rather than lose a Principle but not that therefore the Doctrine is true because the Preacher dies for it That which is false in it self will not become true by laying down our life for it In the Memory of the last Age there were some who sacrificed their lives to the Flames in defence of Contradictory Doctrines So that to say that the Death of Christ has no other use but To confirm the Truth of that Doctrine which he preacht is but a more modest civil and gentle way of saying it has no use at all 2. To whom should the Death of Christ confirm the Truth of his Doctrine to his Enemies or his Friends For his Enemies Many of his Sufferings the very greatest and sorest of his Sufferings were out of their notice either privately in the Garden or more privately in his Soul such as whereof they could take no cognizance and for these which were visible they looked on them as the just rewards of his violation of the Law As for his Friends his Death considered singly in it self without respect to its proper Ends was so far from confirming of their Faith or Belief of his Doctrine that it was that which shook their hopes and dasht their expectations out of countenance their Hearts died in his Death and those two expressed the Sense of more than their own diffidence Luk. 24. We trusted that it had been he that should have redeemed Israel But whether to Friends or Enemies the Death of Christ considered without his antecedent Miracles and subsequent Resurrection and concomitant Sacrifice was so improper a means to confirm that it had proved the clearest Confutation of his Doctrine that malice could have desired 3. The Death of Christ was so far from confirming this Doctrine That God would pardon Sinners that separate this one Consideration of it as satisfactory to Divine Iustice from his Death and it quite overthrows the credibility of the Doctrine and runs all the World down into utter despair For our Author must have a happy dexterity if he can conclude that because God dealt so severely with an innocent holy Person that therefore he will not fail to pardon repenting Sinners We must despair that ever repentance should make us personally equal with Christ If then God did these things in the green Tree what will be done in the Dry If Iudgment begun at God's own House where shall the Ungodly and Sinner appear He that spared not his own Son how much less will he spare the Sinner It could not be expected that any should believe Christ telling them God would pitty and pardon others who found him so severe to himself But that indeed the true Reason why God deals so graciously with the repenâ—…ing Sinner is because he had dealt so justly with his own Son voluntarily becoming his Surety and Substitute 4. There were proper proofs designed by God for the Confirmation of the Doctrine of Christ and no need at all to take sanctuary in that which nakedly considered was not so Those frequent clear stupendious Miracles wrought by Christ were fully adequate and commensurate to that End Reason will teach us to believe that God will not alter the course of Nature nor reverse its standing Laws to confirm a Lye to bear witness to a grand Imposture And surely they who would not believe Christ to be sent of God upon his Testimony to him in those Extraordinary Works would never believe it for his Death which was no wonder at all otherwise than as the fruit of his ineffable Love offering himself to God as a Sacrifice for Sin and so indeed it was the greatest Wonder of them all The Enemies of Christ triumpht in his Death that they had nailed his Cause with his Person to the Cross and that which they feared was his Resurrection A Miracle so far beyond all exception to confirm that he was sent of God and therefore his Doctrine must needs be true that their greatest care was to have prevented it by sealing the Stone and setting a Watch. 5. But supposing that the Death of Christ had confirmed his Doctrine and particularly this That God would pardon and save the Believing and Obedient Sinner Yet still what influence has this upon our Acceptance with God Will God accept our Obedience the more because we have greater helps to obey May our duty expect a greater Reward because we come easier by it But when all is said that our Author can say it 's our Obedience that hath the Influence upon our Acceptance with God and Christ's Death has only an Influence upon our Obedience The same Obedience given to the Commands of the Gospel without the motive of his Death had found equal if not greater Acceptance from him than when drawn from us by so cogent an Argument But if the Death of Christ may be said to have any influence upon our Acceptance with God because he thereby confirmed his Doctrine then the Death of the Martyrs also may be said to have an Influence upon our Acceptance with him for they by their Death 's confirmed the Truth which they preacht which Truth was the true Covenant of Grace And whereas many of them laid down their Lives with that Heroical Magnanimity with that gallantry of Spirit with more than that boasted Stoical valour kissing the Stake embracing the Flames triumphantly singing in the midst of their Torments professing they felt no more pain than in a Bed of Roses as if they were to ascend Heaven in that fiery Chariot to the Confutation of their Enemies the encouraging of their Friends and the credit of that Gospel they died for evidently assuring all that they were immediately supported from above to bear with patience nay with exultation those extremities which to Flesh and Blood were intolerable We see our Blessed Saviour on the contrary in his Sufferings strangely dejected amazed troubled in Soul earnestly begging that if it were possible that Cup might pass from him and crying out in the bitterness of his Soul That he was forsaken of God which consideration is enough to satisfy an impartial Enquirer That the Sufferings of Christ were fitted for some higher design than the confirming of
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
this is something more than abolishing Ceremonies or Sealing a Covenant but if our Author can contrive a way of Redeeming and Purchasing by Paper Parchment and Wax by Sealing Covenants without paying down a valuable consideration he will highly oblige this present Age to read his Book which is more studious to purchase this world than about the deliverance of their Souls from present Curse and future wrath by the blood of a Redeemer 2 As for the Gentiles he acquaints us next from 1 Pet. 1. 18. how they were Redeemed Ye were not Redeemed with corruptible things as Silver and Gold from your vain Conversation received by Tradition from your Fathers but with the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot In which words the Apostle evidently shews That look what place Silver and Gold do hold in the Redemption of Persons or things that are Legally under seizure the same does the blood of Christ obtain in the Redemption of sinners Christs blood was not indeed a corruptible price like Silver and Gold yet it was a price a proper price though not a corruptible price and has the same Office with another price if we may compare small things and great and in that he excepts the corruptibility of this price he establishes the parallel in the other particulars Exceptio in non exceptis firmat regulam And he gives us further light into this Affair from that expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the precious blood of Christ or that blood which is a price So the Apostle Paul 1 Cor. 6. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ye are bought with a Price And yet further That the blood of Christ that is Christ by dying is this Price which is evident in that he compares Christ himself to the Sacrifices of Atonement and Expiation where the Lamb chosen out for that Service was to be without spot and blemish And thus the Apostle Paul conspires with his beloved Brother Peter 1 Tim. 2. 6. Who gave himself a Ransom for all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will not evince a proper price paid by way of Ransom for another we must despair of ever expressing Truth with that clearnes but it shall be lyable to mis-construction by the possibility of another meaning and it 's in vain to seek a Remedy against that evil for which there 's no Help in Nature But let us now hear our Authors Apprehensions about these things The Gentiles says he were delivered from Idolatry by the Preaching of the Gospel which is called their being Redeemed by the blood of Christ because we owe this unspeakable Blessing to his Death Here are several things which he asserts and takes for granted 1. Sect. That the Apostle speaks here only of the Redemption of the Gentiles not of the Iews A Fancy so idle that nothing but an absolute necessity to preserve the Life of his Cause could justifie it Hunger we say will break through stone walls extremity taught Mariners that use of Jury-Masts and such pinching Scriptures have made men rack their wits for evasions That this Epistle was primarily written to the Jews of the Asian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we need not vouch Scaliger to prove c. 1. v. 1. puts it out of doubt To the strangers scattered through Pontus c. which the Apostle Iames Chap. 1. ver 1. expresses To the twelve Tribes scattered abroad His pressing them with the Authority of the Prophets his alluding to Old Testament-worship Ordinances Customes His urging them with the example of Sarah do clearly prove it besides his Exhortation Ch. 2. 12. To have their conversation honest amongst the Gentiles evidently distinguishes them to whom he wrote from the Gentiles amongst whom they dwelt and yet because of the Communion that was between the believing Iews and believing Gentiles there are some passages in this Epistle that respect them also But still the primary intendment of the Epistle was to the Jews which one thing destroys all that goodly superstructure that he has raised upon this supposition that the Apostle here speaks of the Redemption of the Gentiles onely 2. Sect. He supposes that Redemption signifies no more than deliverance in general whereas the Redemption here mentioned is a special way of deliverance by a price paid As silver and gold are used in the Redemption of Captives so is the blood of Christ in the Redemption of Sinners but Silver and Gold are paid as a Price for the Redemption of Captives therefore so is the Blood of Christ. Now what is that which in our Authors New Model of Redemption by Christ Answers the Silver and Gold in the Redemption of Captives As the Redemption by Price is always Seconded with deliverance by Power so deliverance by Power presupposes Antecedent Redemption by Price But here it is commonly Objected That if the Blood of Christ be a proper Price then it ought to be paid to the Devil the world or Sin for these held the Sinner in Captivity To which I Answer true if Satan detained the Sinner Prisoner in his own right if Souls were his own proper spoyls acquired by right of War or otherwise but the Devil is onely an Officer of Divine Iustice a Goaler and Executioner of the Sentence of the Law The World may pass for one of his Under-Keepers As for sin that 's the bondage and slavery it self If then God be satisfied in whose right as the great Law-giver and Governour these Sinners are held in bondage though Satan repine and gnash his Teeth he must quit his Prey and Prisoners It is said again that then upon the payment of the price to God the sinner is immediately set free But no Reason compels us to Argue so for the Price of Redemption being not paid to God by Man himself but a third Person a Mediator between them both It 's not onely convenient but absolutely necessary that he submit to such Terms as shall be agreed upon between God and the Mediator that he may actually enter upon the benefits of that Price paid Besides it 's necessary he should be so qualified as to Glorifie both the Redeemer and the free-grace of that God that accepted a Redeemer and there are many of the greatest benefits of Redemption that would signifie nothing to the sinner if it were possible to imagine him invested with them without a previous change in his Nature enabling him to enjoy them But yet it will be said and is said by others of our Authors Judgment who have managed these things with a greater appearance of cunning than himself That however then this Price should have been paid to God which say they it was not but we are confident that it was 1 Tim. 1. 5 6. There is one God and one Mediator between God and Man the Man Christ Iesus who gave himself a price of Redemption for all Now if Christ gave himself as a price of Redemption
interpretation of himself He sealed the Covenant of Grace by his blood and intercedes for us in the virtue of his blood So that he wheels about again and Procuration is turned into Confirmation Christs procuring the pardon of sin is no more than that he has scaled this Doctrine that whosoever believes and obeyes shall be pardoned Expiation that 's owing to Christs intercession in heaven and reconciliation is nothing but making the Iews and Gentiles friends and preaching the Gospel to reclaim men from their debaucheries Notwithstanding all this our Author will not be beaten out of it but that he and his principles are better friends to the blood of Christ than those men that pretend to magnifie it for they attribute no more to it than the non-imputation of sin that Christ by his death bearing and undergoing the punishment that was due to us paying the ransom that was due for us delivered us from this condition the wrath and curse of God and his whole displeasure c. But now our Author ascribes much more than all this comes to For says he the Scripture gives us a different account of it we are said to be justified and redeemed by the blood of Christ nay we have boldness to enter into the Holiest by the Blood of Iesus we have admission into Heaven it self but the Doctor Owen says that the Blood of Christ makes us innocent but cannot give us a right to the Kingdom of Heaven And now what comparison is there between these two The summe of the business is this Our Author attributes perhaps more to the Blood of Christ in wordy complement but what the Doctor ascribes to the Death of Christ he does in reality Our Author will confess that we are redeemed by the Blood of Christ but when you come as all that are not Children will come to examine what he means by it then it shrinks into this Christ by his Death confirmed the Promise of Pardon and Life to them that Believe and Obey and this Promise he has appointed to be declared to the world and when men believe it and obey the Gospel themselves they are then Redeemed Christs death is no immediate no proper Cause of Redemption no price pay'd to God accepted by him for poor Captive Sinners Nay our Author will not stick to say We are justified by the Blood of Christ too but when you come to sift his Notion it 's all bran he confirmed the Promise which when we believe and obey the Gospel Commands we are justified so that in my weak Judgement it had beeen commendable in our Author to have been very sure that he attributes any thing at all to the Death of Christ as the proper Cause of that Mercy before he enter'd into Degrees of Comparison with others something I do perceive indeed he would attribute to Christs Death Viz. The confirming of a certain Covenant but so feebly asserted so weakly proved that it needs the Candour of the Reader But now what doe these other men attribute to the blood of Christ Why Nothing but Non-Imputation of Sin bearing and undergoing the Punishment that was due to us paying the Price that was due for us delivering us from this Condition The Wrath Curse and whole displeasure of God and that by the Death of Christ all Cause of Quarrel and Rejection is taken away And if this be Nothing in our Authors Arithmetick we desire he will ascribe more to it if he can justifie it when he has done But the truth is our Author is most grievously gulled in this business He reads their Writings who are too crafty for him and smile to see how little he understands of them Though these men attribute no more to the blood of Christ as shed on the Cross yet they are willing to let him know that they attribute more to the Blood of Christ than as it was shed on the Cross The Blood of Christ and the Death of Christ are not Expressions of equal latitude All the Concerns of Christs Blood are not comprehended in his Death for they consider it as that in the virtue whereof he intercedes for them upon the Throne of Grace as that which gives them a holy and humble boldness to draw nigh to God the Quarrel being removed by his Death And that our Author may see his own delusion herein I shall give him a short Collation from that person whom he contends with Exercit. on Heb. Vol. 2. p. 99. There are Two general Ends of Christs Interposition 1. Averruncatio Mali the turning away of all Evil hurt dammage or punishment on the Account of our sins and Apostacy from God 2. Acquisitio Boni or the procuring and obtaining for us every thing that is good with respect to our Reconciliation to him Peace with him and Enjoyment of him and these are intended in the general parts of his Office For 1. His Oblation principally respects the making Atonement for sins and the turning away Gods wrath which is due to Sinners wherein he was Jesus the Deliverer who saves us from wrath to come And this is all that is included in the Nature of Oblation as absolutely considered but it had a farther Prospect for with respect to that Obedience which he yielded to God therein according to the Terms of that Covenant betwixt the Father and Christ it was not onely Satisfactory but Meritorious that is by the Sacrifice of himself he not onely turned away the wrath of God that was due to us but also obtained for us Eternal Redemption with all the Grace and Glory thereto belonging And now if our Author will but ascribe any of all these things to the blood of Christ as its proper and immediate Cause he may hope to perswade the world that he is willing to ascribe something to the Blood of Christ I know well he will say That the Blood of Christ is said to Redeem us is said to Iustifie us these are Scripture Phrases indeed the sound of words carries it thus but when he comes to open the Meaning of things the Blood of Christ does neither redeem nor justifie us but after multitudes of Deductions and great windings of Inferences and Conclusions one upon the Neck of another it does that which does another thing which procures a third which leads to a fourth which brings us to believe that Belief may possibly bring us to Obedience and when all is done it 's our Obedience that justifies us And we owe our Acceptation with God to our own Obedience and he is more inclined to think that nothing can justifie us rather than to own it due to the Righteousness of Christ imputed as he expresses himself p. 272. And now at length he once more casts up his Reckonings Our Righteousness and Acceptance with God is wholly owing to the Covenant which he has purchased and sealed with his own blood What a rare sound does that word purchase carry with it But 1. He has purchased no more than that we
Matter of Justification before God and when it was attainable and it shall be once more the proper sence of being made righteous in Heaven where the spirits of just men are made perfectly perfect but to us in the way it 's not the proper sence of being made righteous but a Figurative sence as we may call an Aethiopian white because his teeth are so and it must be a stretching Synechdoche that will denominate a Christian Righteous by inherent Righteousness if he shall compare the Attainments of a Pilgrim with the perfect Law of God but the proper sence of being made righteous is that of the Apostle Rom. 5. 20. By the Obedience of one Man many shall be made righteous made so perfectly and compleatly by the Constitution of the Law of Righteousness and Faith for thus we are compleat in Christ Coloss. 2. 10. through whom we are presented to God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unblameable and unreproveable in Gods sight so pure that there is not a spot or blemish to be found in a Believer in the sight of God himself which upon the Account of inherent Righteousness is impossible Inherent Righteousness is properly Righteousness for so much as there is of it but it is so imperfect that it will not denominate any man properly righteous in the sight of God 2 There is another thing which mightily discomposes this kind of Argumentation We may be said to be made righteous by the Righteousness of Christ in a proper sence Why so Oh! Because the Righteousness of Christ is one of those great Arguments of the Gospel that forms our Minds to the Love and practice of Holiness and so makes us inherently righteous Which is this The Righteousness of Christ and our Righteousness hang so loosely and contingently together that it seems very absurd to ascribe the Effect of the latter to the former If indeed the Righteousness of Christ did properly necessarily and infallibly produce an inherent Righteousness in us it were warrantable to say we were made righteous by it but when the Connexion is so accidental so uncertain that the Effect depends upon our own Free-will as in the New Theology it does we cannot properly be said to be made righteous in this sence by his Righteousness For when all these Arguments and Motives have done their best That which does the work is Free-will and Humane Endeavour and therefore properly are we said to be made Righteous by them 2. Sect. A Forensick sence which is this The Grace of the Gospel accepts and rewards that sincere and Evangelical Obedience which according to the Rigour and Severity of the Law could deserve no reward This Forensick is a hard word and if I might presume to soften it a little with Interpretation it should be thus A Forensick sence of Justification is a sence borrowed from Courts of Judicature where the Judge absolving or acquitting a Prisoner of those Crimes wherewith he stood charged does not doe it by making him innocent or honest by infusing into him the Habits of Vertue but onely declares That according to the Evidence he is found Innocent Righteous Just and therefore as the Law acquits him so the Judge as the Minister of the Law declares him to be acquitted Now the Question is Whether our Author has given us a true Forensick sence of Iustification or no His Sence is this The Grace of the Gospel accepts and rewards that sincere and Evangelical Obedience which according to the Severity and Rigour of the Law deserves no reward which seems to me so far from a Forensick sence that it 's the Forensick Non-sence of Justification for does a Judge pronounce and declare him righteous whom the Law says is unrighteous Can he justifie him whom the Law condemns The Judge sits not there as a good Natur'd Man with a Chancery of Charity in his own breast but as a Righteous Governour to render to every man according to his works weighed in the Ballance of that Law by which he is to judge And shall we dare to fancy that the Grace of the Gospel will pronounce that Man righteous reward that Man as righteous who is not righteous by the Law of God if that be the Law by which he must be Condemned or Acquitted I will grant that in a Criminal Cause which by the Law deserves Bodily Punishment if the Constitution of the Law will Allow it the Judge may lay the Punishment of the Guilty Person upon another who will freely undergoe it or that which is equivalent in the eye of the Law to it and acquit him that in the first Consideration of the Law was not innocent Let us apply it God is the righteous Iudge of all the World and by his Eternal Holy Law he will Judge the Sons of Men so true is God to his own Law that he will not acquit and justifie him whom the Law condemns nor Condemn him whom his Law Acquits nor is it possible he should To say the Sinner is righteous by the Verdict of his Law when by the Verdict of the Law he is not righteous is not consistent with the Veracity of that God who cannot lye But there is another Law the Law of Righteousnesse and Faith which Sovereign Grace has set up and this admits the satisfaction of Another admits a Sacrifice a Surety even Jesus Christ the righteous whom God hath set forth to be a Propitiation through Faith in his Blood to declare his Righteousness that he may be just and the Iustifier of him that believes in Iesus If now according to the Terms of this New Law of Grace the Righteousness and Sufferings of this Jesus may be accepted for the Delinquents then will there a genuine sence of a Forensick Iustification be found out Yet let us examine these things further 1 The Grace of the Gospel says he accepts and rewards that sincere Obedience Let it be supposed he means the Grace of God declared in the Gospel yet this is so far from being Grace that it is not good Moral Vertue Is that Grace or something that deserves Another Name to declare an Offender to be righteous when he is not so to pronounce he has kept the Law when he has broken it and yet thus must the Grace of the Gospel speak if it declares him righteous in a Forensick sence who is a Violator of the Law and yet has no Substitute to keep it for him Here is some Provision made for an Imaginary Grace to the destruction of real Iustice whereas in the true Covenant of Grace there is a blessed Accord of all Gods Attributes Mercy and Truth have met together Righteousness and Peace have kissed each other 2 If it be the Grace of God or the Gospel that accepts this sincere Obedience then how do we owe this to the Righteousness of Christ what Influence has that upon God to move him to accept and reward that sincere yet imperfect Obedience which his Law will not accept This is the thing
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