that it 's as possible for the Black-Moore to wash himself white which is the Embleme of Labour in Vain or the Leopard to rub out his Dapples as for such a one so enslaved to doe good And if difficulty onely be designed in the Comparison there 's great danger of seduction to have the Case of habituated sinners thus described 3 Our Author is much mistaken to say That the Apostle speaks of the Case of the Heathens The place is Eph. 2. 1. And you hath he quickened who were Dead in Trespasses and Sins c. And these things are exceeding clear 1. That to be dead in Trespasses and Sins let it signifie what it will is a Condition common to Iew and Gentile v. 3. Amongst whom also we all had our Conversation in times past in the lusts of the flesh fulfilling the desires of the Mind and of the Flesh and were by Nature the Children of wrath even as others v. 5. When we were dead in sins 2. That the same Power and Grace was required to Quickening of the one as the other v. 4. God who is rich in Mercy for his great Love wherewith he loved us quickned us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 4 It 's very ridiculous to express some strength by None As if you should say A dead man will hardly walk above five miles a day and then he must rest himself too at every miles end It 's true a Natural Death does not deny a Resurrection by Divine Power nor a Moral Death exclude the efficacious Power of him that raised up Iesus from the dead yet both exclude all Ability in the subject or we must despair of ever understanding one Syllable of Scripture to the Worlds end 2. There is Another Doctrine he will examine by this Rule viz. the Manner of Gods Working in Regeneration Concerning which the Apostle Eph. 2. 10. when he had before shewed all to be dead in Trespasses and Sins thus expresses himself For we are his workmanship created in Christ Iesus unto good works and 2 Cor. 5. 17. He that is in Christ is a New Creature Wherein the Apostle does instruct us in three very material points 1. Here is the Product of Gods Grace A real Effect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Something brought forth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a New Creature a New Creation Another a better though a lesser World 2. The End of this Work or Product of Gods powerfull Grace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it was to good works which God ordained they should walk in The End of the New Heart New Creature and New Nature is New Obedience 3. The Manner of Gods producing this work 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ye were Created to that End so that as God at the first by his Creating Power exerted brought forth the Creature and gave it power to bring forth fruit after its Kind So in this New Creation there is something that Answers both the created Effect the Creating Power and the End of this Creation This would have done pretty well had it not chimed too near the words and therefore our Author shall expound it himself and then if ever he will be in the good Humour This were true says he if our being created to good works did signifie the Manner and Method of our Conversion and not the Nature of the New Creature But what if it signifies both Here 's a Workmanship and here 's the Manner of working We are his Workmanship created The work called a New Creature shews the Thing and its being said to be done by Creation shews the Manner All the Apostles Metaphor will else be very lame The Manner of Gods producing the Old Creation expressed but Nothing to answer it in the New Creation and yet this was the Main of his design v. 5. Even when we were dead in sins and trespasses he hath quickened us v. 8. By Grace ye are saved not of your selves it 's the Gift of God But let us hear his Paraphrase That as in the first Creation we were created after the Image of God so we are renewed after his Image in the second which is therefore expressely called Renewing and Renovation An excellent Similitude just as God wrought All in the first Creation so for all the world he does Nothing in the second That is in plain Terms The New Creation is no Creation and the Apostle could not more unluckily have express'd the Doctrine of our own Ability to good Works than by saying we were created by God in Christ Iesus to the Performance of them To conclude That the Image of God restored should answer the Image in which God created Man at first I can be content onely to fill up the Pà rallel What is that act of God in the New which answers to Gods creating Act in the first Creation And that the New Creation should be called a Renovation I can very well digest but then we must take in Gods Renewing Power as well as the Renewed Effect but that this is called so expressely in other places I do not very well approve nor will our Author when he thinks better upon 't for that will discredit the whole Paraphrase because it chimes too harmoniously to the sound of words Hitherto we have heard a very learned Declamation against interpreting Scripture by the sound of words and now we shall have another Oration against Metaphors Similitudes Allegories Types Figures and all this under the same Head If they say Christ is our Righteousness our Wisdom c. then they interpret all by the sound of words and if they say the Pearl the Manna the Rock c. signified Christ which seems to be very remote from yet that is interpreting Scripture by the sound of words also so that we are in a Fork Snick or Snee and both wayes equally undone Mr. Watson thinks that The Pearl in the Parable Math. 13. 46. may be accommodated to Christ for as the Pearl is there said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so Christ is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 2. 7. That he was praefigured by the Manna upon the onely Credit of Christs own Interpretation Joh. 6. 48. I am the Bread of Life your Fathers did eat Manna in the Wilderness and are dead This is the bread that cometh down from Heaven that a man may eat thereof and not dye That the Rock also did typifie Christ from the Apostles warrant 1 Cor. 10. 3. They drank of the Rock that followed them and that Rock was Christ That Christ was also Resembled by the Brazen Serpent upon Christs own Authority Ioh. 3. 14 15. As Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness even so must the Son of Man be lifted up and that Christ is compared to a Vine Joh. 15. 1. I am the True Vine He proves also or thinks he proves That Christ has very lovely and excellent Titles given him in the Scriptures He is the Desire of all Nations Hag. 2. 7. The Prince of Peace Isa. 9.
Caution to Declare his Righteousness to Clear and Vindicate it that God might be Iust and the Iustifier of them that should believe in Him Rom. 3. 25 26. These things would have had their Use but alas this Head was brought in by the Shoulders only to make way for more of our Authors excellent Theology Religion is the Theam he has singled out to practise upon and he considers it first in General and then in its particular Species 1. For Religion in General 'T is founded says he on a belief that God is and that he is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him Heb. 11. 6. That this is a Postulatum somewhat to be presupposed in all Religion is easily granted and and no more can be necessarily inferred from the Place All Religion does suppose the Existence of God and that it is not in vain to seek Him But if hence our Author would conclude that nothing more is required as a Foundation for Sinners to Build their hopes of Acceptation with God in their Approaches to him and Service of him he gathers what the Apostle strewed not and Reaps what c. where he Sowed not There are no Infidels in Hell the Devils believe God to Be and Tremble at their own Belief wishing they could perswade themselves what they have perswaded others that there is no God They know too that God is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him and yet they have no Foundation to come to God A despairing Cain a self-condemned Iudas may know this to be a Truth and yet not seeing a Mediator through whom they may securely come and find Acceptation in their seeking of Him they dare not they have no ground to come but if this be in very Deed the Foundation of all Religion why durst not our Author Trust to it but flie as Bellarmine to his Tutissimum est to the Lord Jesus Christ For pag. 15. He freely tells us That the Foundation of his Hope is that which is the Foundation of the Christian Religion the Sacrifice and Intercession of our Lord Iesus Christ. 2. For the Sorts and particular Kinds of Religion he is pleas'd to Instance only in three but he might as well would he have Created himself the trouble have named Threescore A various Mode or Circumstance does not Constitute a new Religion It may appear in various Garbs and Dresses be represented under other Oeconomies and Forms and yet continue the same for Substance The Ocean as it salutes differing Shoars falls under divers Denominations yet is but the same vast Body of the Sea There may be many false Religions Errour is Multiform Truth is Uniform but as to any that can plead for acceptance with God there never were but Two That of Integrous and upright Innocent Persons in Paradice and that other of Sinners retrieved and brought back to God by a Mediatour But I attend his Motions First Natural Religion as he says is founded on the natural Evidences of the Divine Bounty and goodness in making and Governing the World I now see my Errour and it 's well it is not too late He had told us pag. 14. That Religion in its first Natural Estate knew no Priest nor Sacrifice nor Mediatour Whence I innocently concluded that he spoke of a State of Pure and uncorrupt Nature which indeed knew none of these but I see I was but Choust for here we have a Natural state of Religion on this side the general Revolt from God below the common Apostacy of Mankind a Sublapsarian Posture of Affairs which yet is a meer stranger to Priest Sacrifice and Mediatour founded on Natural Evidences of Divine Bounty and Goodness To which I humbly offer That these Natural Evidences were not could not be a Foundation firm enough to bear the weight of the Religion of sinners in their Return to God so as to render them secure of Acceptation with him For 1. Those natural Evidences could not assure the guilty World that God would enter into a new Covenant with them nor Treat with them upon other Terms or upon another Account and as to the old Terms they were Lost as to any hope by them This we see plainly in Adam Who when he had sinned and Guilt Recoyled upon his Conscience in stead of Returning to God he became Vain in his Imaginations thinking to flie from him that is Omnipresent or to Abscond from him that is Omniscient he takes Covert in the Trees of the Garden and he gives this Reason He heard the Voice of God and was afraid And yet I see not but 't was as Rational acourse as to think of Returning to God when in that Covenant wherein he had stood and now had broken there was no provision for an After-game or salving Matters by Repentance The Law he had Violated in the Sanction thereof tells him he must Die Natural Evidences from Creation or Providence or present Patience and Reprieve spoke nothing till Supernatural Evidence came in in that Protevangelium the Oare and Bullion of Evangelical Discoveries The Seed of the Woman shall break the Serpents Head Gen. 3. 8 9 10. 15. But 2. I say that Natural Evidence would discover only common Goodness and general Bounty which God might afford the sinner without any security that he should not Perish eternally 3. Whatever Evidences man might have that God made the World which were Pregnant enough yet the Evidences that God did Govern the World would afford him but cold comfort Seeing that the Righteous Governour of the World could not be supposed by any other Laws or Rules to Administer it than those he had given at first which being now broken and the Creature withdrawn from Gods Order by Disobedience what could Natural Light discover but that God would Reduce the Creature again into Order by Punishment 4. Nor could the Evidences of Gods making the World give any Glimps of Assurance that first or last he would not destroy it though at present he suspended the Execution upon a Secret Design of Grace lodged in his own Bosom unless a Mediatour had Interpos'd and that Interposition Accepted and both Revealed to those Consciences which were fill'd with hideous Apprehensions about the Holiness of God Secondly The Mosaick Religion was founded on those Miraculous deliverances which God wrought for Israel and that particular Providence which watched over them To which I return 1. The Mosaick and the Christian are not different Religions but one and the same for Substance differing in Ceremony and Circumstance What they foresaw that we enjoy They had Christ in Sacrifices and we have all their Sacrifices in Christ What they had at sundry times and in divers manners that have we in one Uniform way by Christ They had scattered Particulars we have them all summ'd up in one Heb. 13. 8. Iesus Christ yesterday to day and the same for ever 2. The Miraculous deliverances which God wrought for Israel were indeed Cogent Motives super-added to those many others
Good Life this very thing argues a particular respect otherwise God might have made them fetch the Rules of Good Life from others He might have made them the Borrowers and others the Lenders some respect above others God then had undoubtedly for them 2. Upon what account had God this particular respect for them And here we agree with our Author in the Negative It was not out of partial Fondness We would deliver him from that fear that he may sleep the better and that for these Reasons 1. Partiallity and Fondness are words of a harsh sound they grate upon our Ears with such unpleasingness that they can be no ways ascribed to the Glorious God For God stands not in that Place or Relation to his Creatures that he can be Partial In matters of mere Grace and Favour due to neither and therefore without Injustice may be denied to either or both as we please Partiality has no place If two Persons be equally worthy I may give that to one which I will not to the other In two Persons justly condemned the pardoning of the one is no Impeachment of Royal Justice though the other suffer under his Sentence If God gave any thing more to the Iew than the Gentile The former could not boast it was Grace the latter could not murmur they had no wrong If God denied the Gentiles his Gospel He was not their Debtor they owed him more for their Beings than they could ever pay and it might have been expected they should have cleared their old Obligations before they desired to be Trusted for more and run into new Arrears 2. Then it was upon a most glorious Project that he might secure to the World the Promised Seed and have him forth-coming in the fulness of time Hence is it that when that People seem'd to be at the brink of final Ruine to be swallowed up of Destruction Gods great Cordial was the Reminding them of this That the Messiah was not yet come but he must assuredly come and therefore no possibility of Internecion and utter Extirpation of that Nation Root and Branch to which Design of God had they attended by Faith they had Lived more above slavish fears than they did Isa. 7. 1 2. VVhen Rezin King of Syria and Pekah King of Israel were in Confederacy against Iudah the News discomposed them The Heart of Ahaz was moved as the Trees of the Wood are moved with the Wind and what way Does the Lord take to calm his Tumultnating Spirit ver 14. A Virgin shall Conceive and Bear a Son and shall call his Name Immanuel VVhy but may not we be all Dead and Rotten by that time No if Christ must come of the Tribe of Iudah of the Family of David That Tribe that Family cannot perish till they have served Gods Design and Glorious Ends in handing down a Messiah and then they shall be thrown into the Common Box and retreat to the Gross of the World under the ordinary Care of Gods general Providence Till then they might say with Him Fear not Caesarem vehis fortunam Caesaris Christ and the Concerns of Christ are all Ventured in this Bottome But our Author I perceive does by no means like this Reason But The Design of all was to Encourage the whole World to Worship the God of Israel This was a Design indeed but not the only Design He himself assures us of that p. 28. It was one great and principal Design And then we must not strain things too far for fear they break Our Author must have it Encouraging the whole World or Nothing every Nation upon the face of the Earth But I doubt the sound of the Jewish Deliverances did not reach the whole Creation and Habitable World we see Sounds grow faint and languish by degrees and at last Expire It 's evident that the Gentiles had Inoculated what they heard of the Iews great Salvations into their own Stock and all was involved in Fables and Superstitions VVhat they heard of Moses and Mount Sinai some turn'd into their Bacchus and his Mount Nysa Sampson was grown Hercules and Noah became Deucalion so that Converts to God upon the account of the Fame of these things were very rare one Naaman in an Age or so perhaps an Urijaâ—… or a few more Totidem tibi sunt Numero quot Thebarum Portae vel divitis Ostia Nili VVhat then our Author Quotes Psal. 98. 2. for I cannot tell unless to prove that Jesus Christ should come into the VVorld to the unspeakable Rejoycing and Reviving of the rational Creature Of which this Psalm is a plain Prophesie And so is Psal. 102. 15. The Heathen shall fear the Name of the Lord and all the Kings of the Earth thy Glory And his Practice upon the place is Visible turning shall into might which needs no trouble to discover The 96. Psal. 4 5. shews the Excellency of Jacobs God above all the Idols of the Heathen and all within the Call of this Psalm are Invited to come to Joyn themselves to Gods People and Church ver 8. Bring an Offering and come into his Courts and both this Psalm and the 98th very evidently have their Completion in the Saviour of the VVorld both concluding thus For he cometh for he cometh to Judge the Earth Verified in Him whose Title was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and who affirms of Himself John 9.39 For Judgment am I come into the World But let us hear more As God set up the People of Israel as a visible Demonstration to all the VVorld of his Power and Providence so he committed his Laws and Oracles to them from whence the rest of the VVorld when they pleas d might fetch the best Rules of Life and the most certain Notices of the Divine VVill. Fair and softly 1. These other Nations are supposed by our Author to have had already good Rules of Life though not the very best and certain Notices of the Divine Will though not the most certain He tells us p. 29. God instructed them by the Light of Nature and then Quid quaeram foris cum domi habeam No need to look out if they had sufficient at Home they might save Shooe-leather and spare their pains 2. But what if these best Rules of Life were not so easily fetcht as he imagines It was a huge way for men to Travel from the Remotest parts of the Habitable world to Traverse from the Tropicks and beyond to Ierusalem and when they came there had no assurance they should not come of a Sleeveless Errand and lose their Labour or at best have nothing but their Labour for their Pains For I do not find that they were under any Command of God to deliver a Copy of the Law to every one that would Whistle for it or hold up the finger It Border'd pretty near upon Christs Time e're the Pentateuch was Translated into Greek by the Septuagint and Ptolomy with all his Interest had enough to do to make
that God can be just in destroying without the least Impeachment of his Mercy and Goodness since Mercy it self is not obliged to plead for the Sinner without respect had to the other Properties of that God who is Essentially what he is But has our Author never a Stone to throw at the head of this Truth Two things he offers most lamentable Ignorance and horrid Blasphemy 1 Here 's most wretched Ignorance A happy Change sayes he this from all Iustice to all Love No Sir don't trouble your self here 's no Change at all happy or unhappy God is the same holy just righteous gracious and loving God that ever he was onely sayes the Doctor he 's otherwise discovered Justice and Mercy are not contrary things in God he can be all Love and Mercy and yet punish the Sinner that cannot plead the Death of Christ for his Discharge and he can be all Iustice too and yet pardon the believing repenting Sinner through Jesus Christ The Change is not made in God with whom is no variableness nor shadow of turning but the Change is made in the State and Condition of the Creature who once standing upon his own bottom and so considered by a holy and righteous God was the Object of just displeasure but now being found in Christ and so eyed by God is in another Capacity and meet to enjoy the benefit of that Grace and Love to which before such Qualification he had no right and whereof he was utterly incapable 2 I wish Ignorance had been the worst that might be charg'd upon his Discourse for certainly here 's a vein of the most unparallel'd Blasphemous Drollery that ever faced the World with an Imprimatur except Friendly Debates Ecclesiastical Policies and some few others of the same Kidney And first he will represent the Holy God in his taking Vengeance or requiring Satisfaction like an angry passionate Man and the Grace of God upon the Account of Christ's Death and Sufferings to the Kindness of a revengefull Man when he has glutted himself with Revenge and his Passion is over I think it might become our Author or the proudest Worm on Earth to have spoken more reverently of the way of Gods dealing with repenting Sinners through our Lord Jesus Christ That discomposure and perturbation of Mind to which frail man is obnoxious falls not upon the great God he can turn the wicked into Hell and all those that forget God without Passion Fury is not in me saith God Isa. 27. 4. An earthly Judge in his private Capacity may weep when he pronounces Sentence of Death against a Malefactor and yet remember that he is a Iudge and cut off from the City of God the wicked of the Land Nihil minùs quam irasci punientem decet Nothing is more uncomely in him that punisheth than Passion And though we read of Gods Anger Wrath and Fury yet it becomes us to conceive of God according to his Dignity even when he represents himself to our Capacity Though God humble himself we have no warrant to abase him whatever things are attributed to God which are common to Men it 's our Duty to garble out all the Imperfections and Frailties that those Qualities are mixed and attended with in Men before we ascribe them to God But this is not the worst he will strain his impious Drollery a few Notes higher The summe of which is that God is all Love and Patience when he has taken his fill of Revenge as others use to say the Devil is good when he is pleased This is indeed the summe of all our Authors blasphemous Froth but neither the total summe nor any particular of what the Doctor has ever asserted The summe of the Doctors words is this That God is the righteous Iudge of all the Earth and that it 's a righteous thing with him to render to every Man according to his Works and yet he has pleased to admit of Satisfaction to be made by his Son Iesus Christ who most willingly offer'd himself a Propitiatory Sacrifice to God In which Son of his whoever shall believe God is ready to pardon and forgive him And now must the plain Truth of the Gospel be thus muffled up and disguised in ugly Expressions to render it lyable to scorn and contempt Thus have the Papists array'd the Martyrs of Jesus in the Sambenit or Devils-Coat first shewing them as Hereticks and then sacrificing them to the flames I see he has furnish'd himself with a Creep-hole It 's not as he but as others say Sed malè dum recitas incipit esse tuus As 't is applyed it 's his own and yet it hits not neither For the Devil is never so pleased as to become Good nor God ever so displeased as to become Evil Nay the Devil is then worst when he is pleas'd for the greatest evil pleaseth him best and God is gloriously excellent when he is displeased for the greatest Evil is the Cause of his displeasure But let this pass for an Ornament of our Authors style which is indeed embellished with Figures but none more beautifies it than this which we may well call a Satanismus He has not yet done he has not loaded the Truth with Reproach to his mind and therefore one id est will doe it That is he would not believe God himself should he make never so many Promises of being good and gracious to Sinners unless he were sure he had first satisfi'd his Revenge But let him not be angry We believe every Promise that God has made of being gracious to Sinners but we say we cannot find one such without Provision first made for the securing Gods Righteousness Shew us a Promise that is Yea and Amen and not in Christ. Produce that Promise wherein God is engaged to justifie a Sinner and not be just himself quote us the place from whence we may flatter our selves that God will destroy any of his Attributes to save a Sinner However therefore our Author has represented God he has thus represented himself 1. That he is a Holy God A God of purer eyes than to behold evil and that he cannot which is the Word so displeases the Man look on iniquity he cannot but see it wherever it is as he is omniscient and yet he cannot see it cannot look on it wherever it is without Abhorrency He is a holy God and from his Natural and Essential Holiness does it arise that he cannot behold sin with Approbation and therefore must and will punish it Thus has he represented himself Psal. 5. 4 5 6. Thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness neither shall evil dwell with thee The foolish shall not stand in thy sight thou hatest all the workers of Iniquity 2. God further testifies of himself that he is the righteous Iudge of all the Earth Governing and Judging the World according to his own holy Nature and the Rules of his holy Law and not according to our Authors good
in determining the Will And if by irresistable Grace no more be meant than a powerfull and effectual production of the principle of Grace in the Soul it 's no more than what God has promised in the New Covenant Ezek. 36. 26. A new heart also will I give them and I will take away the heart of Stone out of their flesh and I will give them an heart of Flesh And he that removes the onely resisting Principle in the Soul the Heart of Stone may be said well enough to act irresistably in the working of Grace Nor can I see any danger in ascribing such a way of working to the Holy Spirit nor did the Apostle Eph. 1. 19 20. who believe according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him up from the dead where the Apostle is not afraid nor ashamed to ascribe the working of Faith to the same Power that raised up Christ from the dead and he that had a mind to make a fluster with Greek like our Author could take a fair Opportunity to tell him what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doe signifie and then to rub him up with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And whether these denote not the Creatures Impotency and Gods Efficacious Power let the Reader judge 3. Our Author is much mistaken if he thinks that the work of Gods Grace and Spirit in Conversion of a Soul to God may be compared to the moveing of a Machine Perhaps he had seen about Billingsgate the Maugeing of a Crane where a lusty Fellow with a Mastiffe-Dog in a Wheel will take you up an incredible weight otherwise unmanagable and he being taken with the Omnipotency of the Engine knew not how to bestow his pleasure better than upon the Operation of the Holy Spirit But Gods Spirit knows how to act effectually and yet not offer violence to any of the Faculties of the Soul He can lead the Creature powerfully and yet in a way agreeable to its Frame and Constitution He that has engaged Ioh. 6. 37. That all that the Father has given him shall come unto him knows well how to bring them in without committing a rape upon their own wills he can make them willing and yield by surrender and not need to take them by storm he can powerfully and yet gently and sweetly lead his Creature he makes no Assault and Battery upon it When then the Psalmist prayes and we with him Psal. 119. 36. That God would encline his heart to his Statutes there 's enough in his Prayer to imply his own disability and Gods Power and yet enough in the Souls Inclination to exclude all Force and Violence But still he presseth upon the Doctor who p. 106. had said There are Four things in sin that clearly shine forth in the Death of Christ 1. The Desert of it 2. Mans Impotency by reason of it 3 The Death of it 4. A New end put unto it Against the two former he has sufficiently Discovered his feeble Passion the third he waves and now against the fourth he Rises up with incredible Zeal and Fury For says the Doctor Sin in its own Nature tends merely to the Dishonour of God the Ruine of the Creature but now in the Lord Iesus Christ there is the Manifestation of another and more Glorious end viz. The praise of Gods glorious Grace in the pardon and forgiveness of it God having taken order in Christ that that thing which tended merely to his Dishonour should be managed to his Infinite Glory And here our Author has need of all his Machines and Engines that he may disorder things so as to serve his turn of them and therefore upon good advise no doubt reserved them all for this place 1. One Machine which he plies is that old Rotten Engine called Invidious Representation and this will do good Service still for want of a better That is says he lest Gods Iustice and Mercy should never be known to the World he appoints and Ordains sins to this end that is Decrees that Men shall sin that he may make some of them Vessels of Wrath and others the Vessels of his Mercy to the praise of his Grace in Christ. It 's a sad Drudgery to satisfie wilfully blind Malice For what more plain from the Doctors words than that he speaks not Hot or Cold of Gods Ordaining men to sin but of his putting a New end to sin upon supposition that it is already in the World Cannot God bring Good out of Evil but our Author must go Mad It 's a very Ruful cause that needs such Subsidies to maintain it Let any one Read the Doctor again pag. 112. Sin in its own Nature tends merely to Gods Dishonour In the Lord Iesus Christ there is the Manifestation of another end And as he said before pag. 106. There 's a New end put to it of Gods Ordaining and Appointing and Decreeing men to sin not a word not a syllable only he says that supposing sin to be already in the World carrying on its fatal Designs of Dishonouring God Damning Souls God has in Infinite Wisdom Curb'd and Restrained its Natural Tendency Over-rul'd its native malice against and thirst after the blood of souls and made it Comply with his own Glory So said Austin God is so Good that He would never suffer sin to be in the World if He were not also Omnipotent to bring Good out of the Evil. 2. Another Machine which our Author plies upon those words is That famous Engine of Archimedes of which he used to boast that Give him but a place out of the World where to fix his Engine and he would undertake to Unhinge the Earth from its Center The same Confidence has our Author in this Machine which indeed never failed him And no less truly than commonly called a Down-right falsehood Let the Reader mark it well he charges the Doctor for saying pag. 112. Com. That the glorious end whereunto sin is appointed and ordained is discovered in Christ for the Demonstration of Gods Vindictive Iustice in Measuring out to it a meet recompence of Reward Now remember the old Caveat Hic nervus est sapientiae nihil fidere Take the Book and read with all the Eyes you have and can borrow and there you shall find the clear contrary The Comminations and Threatnings of the Law do manifest one other end of sin even the Demonstration of Gods Vindictive Iustice in measuring out to it a meet recompence of Reward but here the Law stays with it all other Light and discovers no other use or end of it at all but in the Lord Iesus Christ there is the Manifestation of another and more Glorious end c. And now after all this sorrow we shall have a fine Scene of Mirth for our Divertisment Nature says he would teach us that so Infinitely glorious a Being as God is needs not sin and misery to
recommend his Glory and Perfections What Nature will teach us so great a Darling of hers the Privado to all her Mysteries cannot be Ignorant of but in my Judgment he fetches a huge Blow to do Nothing We believe God was perfectly happy from all Eternity in the Enjoyment of his own Self and Infinite Perfections and needed not have recommended his Glory to his Creatures he made not the World because he needed it but by our Authors good leave or without it supposing that God will recommend his Glory he must have something out of himself to which he may recommend it And on like Supposition that He will Manifest his pardoning Grace and Mercy there must be a fit Object capable of that Grace and Mercy unless our Author from his too much familiarity with Nature can tell us how God can Pardon one that is no sinner or forgive him that is not guilty Though every sinner be not an Object qualified to receive Mercy yet he must be a sinner upon whom pardoning Mercy is exercised though all Misery be not a fit Object of pity yet Pity supposes Misery some of Gods Attributes create their Objects as Omnipotency but others do suppose them as Sin pardoning Grace and so God may be said to need Sins and Misery to recommend some of his Perfections I am sure supposing sin and misery to exist God has recommended his Son to us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us Rom. 5. 8. Of the same bran is that which follows God would not Truckle and Barter with the Devil and Sin for his Glory It 's like he would not but when the Devil and Sin had confederated against God I know not why God might not Over-reach them in their Designs and as he has made the wrath of Man so he might also the policy of Satan to serve and praise Him and thus he fixes a New end upon sin which the Devil never dreamt on or however did not design But I perceive our Author is wondrously pleased with the fine Notion of Trucking and Bartering and that we might not loose the beauty of it he warns us amongst the Errata I would there were no worse that for Truckle we read Truck Oh be sure Courteous Readers you do not mistake for there 's some weighty Controversie depends upon it which the Coffee-house and the Inch of Candle must determine But further Nature teaches him That God had much rather be Glorious in the Happiness and Perfection and Obedience of his Creatures than in their sin and misery Nature is an excellent School Mistress I see and this is one of her highest Mysteries that God delights in Obedience more than Sin But what now if Sin and Disobedience have got in for my part I question whether Nature will teach him that God had rather much rather or however how much rather he had be more Glorious in exacting one Attribute than another or whether God may not equally glorifie himself in the Execution of his just Displeasure against Sin obstinately pursued as in the glorifying the Penitent and Reformed sinner but this I know that the former has more deserved Eternal Punishment than the other can pretend to merit Eternal Life But perhaps he has Ballances that will turn with the Twentieth part of a Grain and in these he knows how to weigh which of Gods Attributes weigh heaviest And that he can do for he tells us That pardoning Mercy and vindictive Iustice are but secondary Attributes What warrant he has to marshal Gods Attributes in this order I dare not enquire which are first rate which second rate Attributes is a Nice enquiry but I expected a Dish of Coleworts before he had done for these have been served up to us in the Racovian Catechism Let these things be as they will I observe 1. That vindictive Justice and pardoning Mercy are both equally Gods Attributes 2. They are not the less Essential and primary Attributes because they were not Eternally exercised for then neither would Omnipotency be such God was Eternally Omnipotent though he Created not the World from Eternity and he was also Eternally a God of pardoning Mercy and a God of punitive Justice though to the Exerting the outward Acts proper to those Eternal excellencies there was required an Object capable of receiving them This Nature and Scripture teaches us and we are not much concern'd in our Authors Theologie but to close up all he gives us an Inference from his Doctrine and a Reason of that Inference His Doctrine was this Vindictive Iustice and Pardoning Mercy are not Primary but Secondary Attributes His Inference is this Therefore God cannot Primarily design the glorifying of them His Reason is this For that cannot be without Primarily designing the sin and misery of his Creatures That is God cannot Primarily design one thing except he Primarily designs another and so we shall have two Firsts without a Second This is very thin Stuff it shines through 2. The Reader has heard to his great Contentment how admirably he has acquitted himself in the Matter of sin if he can but play his part as well in the Matter of our Righteousness too he will deserve the Whetstone and that may save him the Labour of going to the Counter-door As it is with your Artificial Fencers that never knew further than the Discipline of the School they have all the Terms of Art know their Postures and with good Credit can play a Prize upon the Stage yet when these men come to Sharpe when the Point of a real Enemies Sword is ready prest at the heart it puts them often out of their forms their School-play and Systematical skill Thus possibly it may fare with our confident Bravo's who can talk very confidently of appearing before God in their own Duties and a Righteousness finely Composed out of those Materials yet possibly their Blood may freeze in their Veins and the Colour forsake their bold Cheeks when God shews himself in his glorious Majesty and they must be in a moment as they must be for ever None ever Ranted higher than Bellarmin nor Hector'd the World with Arguments against Imputed Righteousness yet when he saw Death was in good Earnest he was glad to Lower his Top-sail and cry out Precor ut inter sanctos suos non estimator meriti sed veniae largitor me admittat And in his very Ruff against that Doctrine retreated to his Tutissimum est liâ—… 5. de justificatione What Doctor Owen asserts herein is briefly thus much Com. pag. 113. All men are perswaded that God is a most Righteous God Hab. 1. 13. and therefore the Ungodly cannot stand in the Judgment Hence the enquiry of every one convinc't of Immortality and the Judgment to come is concerning the Righteousness to appear before this Righteous God The first thing that offers it self for Direction and Assistance is the Law which hath many fair Pleas to prevail with a Soul to close with it for a
without Gods respect to Christ for herein the Scripture is Peremptory and God is at a point with all the World Acts 4. 12. There 's no other Name under Heaven given by which we must be saved neither is there Salvation in any other 2. It 's evident from those very Places where the Concerns of Christ and of Faith are joyntly mentioned not only that they have really distinct Interests but that Christ carries the Supremacy and that Faith has only a subservient Concernment therein Rom. 5. 1. Therefore being justified by Faith we have peace with God through our Lord Iesus Christ. Whence it 's plain that whatever Faith contributes to our peace with God yet even that Operates through Jesus Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So Gal. 3. 16. Ye are all the Children of God by Faith in Iesus Christ It 's the Redeemer as made a Curse for us ver 13. that gives Faith all it 's Vertue and Efficacy And Gal. 2. 20. The life which I now live in the Flesh I live by the Faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me Where such a Concernment is ascribed to Christ in the Soùls life that Faith is not at all Capable of He loved me and gave himself for me 3. It 's no loss evident that Christ by his Death and Sufferings has removed those insuperable Impediments which lay in the way of a sinners Justification Reconciliation with God Expiation of sin which Faith could not possibly Undertake and Atchieve 4. That what ever Parts Christ and Faith have in this Glorious work yet no more must be Ascribed to either than can consist with a Free and Gratuitous Iustification Rom. 3. 24. Being justified freely by his Grace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And 5. It 's evident that the Sacrifice Sufferings c. of Christ and that Reconciliation and Atonement procured by them do not in the least Enterfere with Justification by Free-Grace for Christ himself is Free-gift and that God would admit a Mediator to Interpose on our behalf that he would accept a Propitiation for us is all due to Free-Grace and therefore Free-Grace and Jesus Christ are joyned together Rom. 3. 24. Being justified freely by his Grace through the Redemption that is in Iesus Christ. 6. It is also as evident that to ascribe Justification to Faith as it is our Work or Act will take off just so much from the freedom of Grace as is ascribed to it as a work in us or done by us and therefore Faith must needs Justifie us by vertue of that respect that it carries towards a Redeemer and to assign it any other Interest is to Entrench upon that free Justification which the Gospel does so abundantly Preach Now what Title to give to Faith as it Justifies whether that of an Instrument or a Condition I dispute not let the proper Concerns of Faith and Christ be secured and their distinct Actings kept Inviolable and Sacred and if any can find more apposite and significant Terms than Protestants have used I shall be very well content But now our Author will favour us with a Reason why Iustification by Faith as it is our own Act may consist with Iustification by Free-Grace Modest men says he who dream not of Meriting by every thing they do would have thought that Free-Grace and Faith might have been easily reconciled though 〈◊〉 had justified as our own Act since the Reward and Recompence does so infinitely exceed the Work that there can be no suspition of Merit and where there is no Merit the reward is of Grace and not of Debt what ever the Condition of the Promise be But 1. Gods Free-Grace will not be beholden to nor stand to the Courtesie of Mans Modesty and besides all men are not so Modest as our Author is and if they were it would be hard Trusting them Man is indeed a very Proud and Haughty Creature till Free Grace tames him loth to stoop to those Methods of Gods Wisdom for the abasing the Creature that Grace may be magnified in his Mercies And I see plainly that God has Contrived the way of shewing favour to a lost Sinner in such Wisdom that every Mouth shall be stopped that Boasting shall be excluded and that no Flesh shall glory in his presence 1 Cor. 1. 29. 2. It 's not what men will do out of their sweet Natures that comes here into Consideration but what they may do God has taken a Course they shall not cannot have cause to Glory but if the sinner be justified by his own Act as 't is his he has whereof to boast Rom. 4. 2. If Abraham were justified by Works he hath whereof to boast though it may be some Virtuoso's would be so Modest and Civil as not to lay it in the Dish of Free-Grace 3. It 's precariously supposed that Grace in the justification of a sinner is only opposed to Merit The Scripture has opposed it to Works and set them as Inconsistent in the dealings out of Mercy from God to men whether there be such a proportion between the Work and the Reward or no Rom. 11. 6. And if by Grace then it 's no more of Works otherwise Grace is no more Grace 4. They may be very Immodest men and yet want the Confidence to dream of Merit by every thing they do and yet there are those that dream to this day of Meriting Heaven by that for which they a thousand times better merit a Halter Protestant Divines in the explicating the Concerns of Faith in our Justification that they might Accommodate their Discourses to the Capacity of them with whom they deal have found out certain Similitudes which do well express their own Intentions when they say Faith justifies us not as our own Act but by vertue of its Relation to Christ who is our Righteousness Thus we say the Ring stanches Blood and yet we intend no more than that the Haematites set in it has that Vertue That our Hand relieves us and yet perhaps it contributes no more towards it than that it receives the Charity of another That a Bucket quenches our Thirst yet all it does is to bring us the Water from the Fountain which quenches it And many others they have Invented the best they could find none so mean but is above Contempt yet none so excellent to be above Malice The use they make of them is as I said to cloath their Conceptions and give some Light into the Thing but by no means to prove the Truth when it is drawn into Controversie But from hence our Author is taking another Ramble and going to run his old Wild-Goose Chase of Prophaneness and Scurrility the easiest way of Confutation certainly that ever was Invented But let his own Folly chastise him or if not delight him and in the mean time excuse me from bearing him Company 2. Another Instance and but another he will give us How Men argue from their preconceived Notions and that is
to us in the true Covenant Ioh. 6. 37. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me and him that cometh to me I will in no-wise cast out Eph. 2. 8. By Grace ye are saved through Faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God And lest it should be Answered that Faith is indeed God's gift as all other things are wherein the Common Providence of God concurs with Humane industry The Apostle as if aware of such a petty Answer has laid in a Reply ready ch 1. v. 19. That they who believe do so by the exceeding greatness of God's power even according to the working of his Mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead Secondly we have a direct and express Promise too of that New-heart from which we give to God New-obedience nay of that New-obedience it self which proceeds from the New-heart or renewed Nature Ezek. 36. A new heart also will I give you and a new Spirit will I put within you and I will take away the heart of Stone out of your Flesh and will give you a heart of Flesh there 's the new Heart and v. 27. I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my Statutes and ye shall keep my Iudgments and do them there is new obedience thus also Heb. 8. 10. This is the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days saith the Lord I will put my Laws into their minds and write them in their hearts c. wherein it 's easy to observe 1. That this New-Covenant was founded upon God's free Grace v. 9. They continued not in my Covenant the old Covenant and I regarded them not saith the Lord They were a Covenant-breaking people deserved utter rejection yet God will make another a better a New-Covenant with them 2 That the promises of this Covenant were purely Spiritual writing his Laws in their minds and hearts 3. The parties Covenanting God and his Israel not all and every individual Son of Adam But 2. This Description gives us very little of the true Covenant of Grace here 's a Promise of Pardon and Life to them who believe and obey but perseverance in Faith and Obedience is left to the desultory and lubricous power of free-will whereas in the true Covenant of Grace there 's an undertaking that the Covenant shall be immutable both on God's part and the Believers Jer. 32. 38 40. They shall be my people and I will be their God and I will make an everlasting Covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do them good but I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me There are but two things that we can possibly Imagine should make the Covenant fall short of perpetuity either God's turning away from his people or which is only to be suspected their turning away from their God Against both of these God has made sufficient Provision 1. God has promised that he will not turn away from them to do them good 2. He has promised that they shall not depart from him and to fix and determine their backsliding Natures he has promised to put his fear into their hearts which is the great preservative against Apostacy § 2. As it describes not the whole of the Covenant so it describes not the Nature of a New-Covenant The Gospel-Covenant may be called a New Covenant either in opposition to the Old Covenant of Works or the old Administration of the Covenant of Grace Now 1. This Covenant which he has here described is no new Covenant in opposition to the Old-Covenant of works The Covenant which God made with Adam promised Life upon condition of Obedience Now the Commands which God gave to Adam were as easy as those which are now given to all Mankind and much easier too if we consider first That he had more natural strength to obey and keep them and as for supernatural strength our Author will allow us none unless by a desperate Catachresis we will call Moral Arguments so which to a Creature dead in trespasses and sins signify just nothing without special power from on high to render them efficacious which neither will be allowed us And Secondly we are told that Christ has added to the Moral Law which is to lay more Load on those who were before overcharged so that as he makes Covenants Adam's was much the better Covenant of the two But he has wisely shuffled in a Promise of the Pardon of Sin which may seem to give his Covenant a preheminence above that of Adam But that will not mend the matter both because it 's better to have no sin in our Natures than such a Remedy better to have no Wound than such a Plaister and also because the Promise of Pardon is suspended upon the condition of Faith and Obedience which without supernaturally real influx of immediate Divine Power reduces the promise to an impossibility of performance 2. This Covenant which he has here described is no New-Covenant in opposition to the old Administration of the Covenant of Grace There were the same promises then that we have now the same moral precepts to observe that we have now and though the word Gospel comes in for a blind yet the Apostle assures us Gal. 3. 8. That Abraham had the Gospel Preached to him § 3. Upon the matter it 's no Covenant of Grace at all For 1. A Promise of Pardon and Life upon Condition of Believing and Obeying is neither better nor worse than a threatning of Condemnation and Death to them who Believe not and Obey not It may with equal right be called a threatning of Death as a Promise of Life It 's no more a Covenant of Grace than a Covenant of Wrath and therefore 2. if it be lawful to consider Man as the Word of God describes him as dead in Sins and Trespasses as one that of himself cannot think a good thought that can do nothing at all without Christ It 's no Covenant at all to him under his present circumstances for what is the nice difference between a Promise of Life to him that obeys when it 's certain before-hand he cannot obey and no Promise at all 3. This Covenant which he calls New and well he may for it 's of his own making or however of his own new-vamping assigns the same conditions of Pardon and Eternal Life but the Scripture requires other qualifications for Eternal Life than for the Pardon of Sin A Believer may be justified without a sinless perfection but without such a sinless perfection none shall enter into Glory He may be actually justified that has not persevered in Holy Obedience to the Death but without such perseverance he can never be made partaker of Eternal Life 4. This Covenant of his is supposed to be made with all Mankind and yet all Mankind never heard of it Now is it not very
our Righteousness a third may particularly point at the influence of his Blood in this matter another the evidence of all this But by this Argument he may fancy and that may stand for Proof that all things under Heaven signify one and the same thing for I know no two things so perfect strangers but have some cognation some common and general agreement and meet in some Latudinarian Third that will clasp their Interests They must be related either as Cause and effect or Concauses of the same effect or as joynt-effects of the same universal Cause c. but now to say that all these signify the same thing formally because of some general coherence is no more to my edification than if our Author would prove himself a-kin to the great Mogul because they have two Elbows a-piece A way of Reasoning very much unbecoming a Rational Divine especially one who trades so much in the essential differences of things But suppose that all these expressions do signify one and the same thing what is that one thing which they signify The Answer is ready That we are justified by believing and obeying the Gospel This is the one thing and this is the one thing that should have been proved for if by Gospel he understand no more than the commands of the Gospel and all the rest as Promises and confirmations of Promises thrown in as Motives and Arguments to that Obedience then I say we are justified by something else than the Gospel that which he cal's Gospel even by the Blood of Christ which is more than a Motive to Faith or an Argument to Obedience though a most excellent Motive and Argument to both being a proper propitiatory expiatory Sacrifice to remove God's just displeasure procure his favour and take away Guilt But I shall willingly hear him practise upon the particâ—…lars 1. Faith or Faith in Christ signifies such a firm stedfast belief of the Gospel as brings forth all the fruits of Odience Therefore what Why therefâ—…re to be justified by Faith or by the Faith of Christ or by Christ signify to be justified by believing and obeying the Gospel Here 's nothing but evidence wanting for we have confidence enough But then 1. If a justifying Faith be such a firm and stedfast belief of the Gospel as brings forth all the fruits of obedience then no Man can be justified till he be in Heaven or at least within one step of the actual possession of glory One of the fruits of obedience is final perseverance now Faith may produce one or two or twenty of the fruits of obedience but yet if it fail before it has brought forth all the rest it falls shorts of a justifying Faith 2. If this be the true Notion of a justifying Faith I doubt not to affirm that the Devils have as true a justifying Faith as far as the essence of Faith reaches as the best Saint on earth It 's true their Faith does not bring forth the fruits of obedience but that 's only to say they want a saving obedience a justifying obedience for all that is of the essence of Faith as 't is Faith they have they firmly and stedfastly believe the Gospel to be true though their Faith produces not the fruits of obedience That Faith which justifies will in due season produce all the fruits of obedience yet a justifying Faith as it justifies does not include all the fruits of obedience We read 1 Ioh. 3. 2. He that hath this Hope in him God purifies himself as God is pure whence it 's plain that a well-grounded hope will purify the heart but if from thence any will infer that the Grace of hope and the effects of hope are formally the same he will miserably expose his own ignorance 2. To be justified by the grace of God that signifies the same thing too viz. That we are justified by believing and obeying the Gospel Now this is truly wonderful but how does he prove it why thus The Grace of God is the Gospel of Christ expresly so called in Tit. 2. 11. as being the Effect of the free Grace and Goodness of God to Mankind To which I return 1. It is very true that the Gospel of Christ is called Grace as being the product of mere Grace and contains the Methods of God's Grace in the justifying and recovering of Sinners The word Grace signifies either the free Love and Favour of God towards us or the effects of that Grace for us or upon us and thus the Revelation of God's Mind and Will being one of the Effects of Grace may be called Grace But now that the Grace of God is the Gospel that is the Revelation of God's Mind and Will is not true Grace is larger than Gospel-Revelation The Gospel reveals more Grace than what consists in Revelation But he argues thus The Gospel of Christ is called Grace therefore the Grace of God is called the Gospel as if he would conclude that because every man is a living Creature therefore every living Creature is a Man But I wonder why any should pray so earnestly for true Repentance and the Holy Spirit if Grace signifie nothing but the Revelation of the Gospel which a Man may purchase filleted and guilded for five Shillings And all the Supplications of Christians for Grace signifie no more but that we may have the Scriptures which is Grace indeed but not all the Grace promised in the Scriptures 2. To be justified by Grace is quite another thing Rom. 3. 24. Being justified freely by his Grace through the Redemption that is in Iesus Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 justified in a way of free Gift which excludes the consideration of any thing inherent in us for though to be saved by Grace might allow some consideration of Obedience and yet such is the infinite Disproportion between the Obedience and the Reward that it may be called Grace yet that will not satisfy the Expression To be justified 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gratis without any consideration at all on the part of the Person justified for which he is so justified 3. Faith in the Blood of Christ is a belief of the Gospel which was confirm'd by his Blood Then farewel for ever all discourse and writing The Builders of Babel might â—…ooner have guest at one anothers meaning after that the Curse of God had cleft their Tongues into seventy two Dialects than here-after we shall understand the Conceptions of Men's Minds by the expressions of their Mouths For if when the Apostle says we are justified through Faith in his Blood he designs no more than that we are justified by believing and obeying the Gospel then for ought I know our Author may intend as Orthodoxly as any Man living and when he says we are justified by believing and obeying the Gospel he may intend it only by way of evidence but that we are really justified through Faith in the Blood of Christ. 4. To be justified by believing that Christ