them and the only thing that gives a right to the promises of Future glory is to obey the Laws and imitate the Example of our Saviour and to be transformed into the Nature and Likeness of God We must crave his leave to take his words in pieces that we may the better deal with them 1. The Gospel says he makes a different Representation of it tells us expresly that he is righteous that doth righteousness But say I This is no representation of our justification different from what the Doctor has assigned And let the words be Interpreted how he will they make nothing against the Doctors assertions 1. Let these words He is Righteous signifie He is Inherently righteous or holy and then the plain Sence is that he that doth righteousness that practises an Uniform and Universal conformity in his Life to the Gospel may charitably be judged by others and certainly known by his own Conscience to be such a one as a Tree is known by its fruits For so are we warranted by our Saviour to make a Judgment Mat. 7. 16. And the same warrant we have from the Church of England Art 12. Insomuch that by them good Works that necessarily spring of a true and lively faith a lively Faith may be as evidently known as a Tree discerned by the Fruit. 2. Let the words be interpreted of that Righteousness by which in which and for which we stand accepted as Righteous before God yet it meets in the same point he that from an honest and good heart brings forth holy Fruit most certainly justified in the sight of God and is accepted of him we may argue â—… hope without Offence from the Effect to the Cause and yet the Cause and the Effect are two things He that is sanctified is justified and yet Sanctification is not Justification we may safely conclude an imputed Righteousness from an imparted Righteousness and yet that Righteousness which we have in Christ may be another thing from that Righteousness which we have by influence from Christ as our Head 2. Sayes he The Gospel tells us that without Holiness no man shall see God It does so indeed but does it tell us that Holiness is inconsistent with our Iustification by the Righteousness of Christ Or does it tell us that upon the account of our own Holiness we shall be justified before God 3. The onely way to obtain the Pardon of Sins is to repent of them and forsake them That without Repentance there 's no possibility of obtaining Pardon of Sin we freely grant they must be Sinners that need a Pardon and they must be penitent Sinners that are qualified to receive one The Gospel has annex'd by express Promise the Pardon of Sin to Repentance 1 Ioh. 1. 9. If we confess our sins he is faithfull and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness But what an absurd way of procedure is this to jumble and confound things together which ought to have their several Apartments and distinct Interests allotted to them in one and the same Effect The Grace of God as the great Spring and Fountain of all Mercy must have a place in the Pardon of a Sinner and the blood of Iesus Christ as the Meritorious Cause justly challenges a great room therein Eph. 1. 7. In whom we have redemption through his blood even the remission of sins according to the riches of his grace and Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ will come in for a share too as it gives us an Interest in what he has suffered by way of Atonement to God and Expiation of our sins and godly sorrow for hatred of and turning from sin in Purpose and Resolution at least must have its proper Concern therein too But to assert that Repentance is the onely way of procuring Pardon excluding Faith and the Propitiation made in the Blood of Christ needs more grains of Allowance than he will afford to any he deals with to make it justifiable But the vanity of this Fallacy lyes in this That he opposes the Righteousness of Christ and the Means whereby it 's applyed to our Persons As if one would stiffly contend that we are justified by Faith alone and therefore not by the Righteousness of Christ whereas we are therefore justified by Faith because we are justified by Christ we are justified by the Righteousness of Christ alone as that which God onely considers in the Justification of a Sinner to answer his Law his Justice and we are justified by Faith alone as that which makes Christ ours Say the same here Repentance is a Means to qualifie us for the receiving the pardon of Sin God will never give forth a Pardon to that Sinner that is not brought upon his knees throughly humbled for his Transgressions yet still that which God respects in the pardon of a Sinner is the Blood of his Son without shedding of which there is not there cannot be any Remission Hebr. 9. 22. But no man shall perswade our Author to distinguish betwixt Christs procurement of so great a Mercy and the Way of the Gospel appointment for the Applying it to our selves 4. The onely thing that gives us a right to the Promises of future Glory is to obey the Laws and imitate the Example of our Saviour and to be transformed into the Nature and Likeness of God For my part I conceive far otherwise That though our Holiness give us a Meetness and Fitness to partake of the Inheritance of the Saints in light yet it was the Lord Jesus Christ that procured our right and title to it and the Promise of it The Church of England was of the same Opinion when it decreed Art 13. That works done before the Grace of Christ and the Inspiration of the Spirit are not pleasant to God neither do they make men meet to receive Grace c. And then we may presume will not make us meet to receive Glory much less give us a right and title to the Promises of it And Art 12. That the works which follow after Iustistification are those that are pleasing and acceptable to God and I think we may equally take it for granted that upon our justification with God we have a right to the Promises of future Glory But if this be true that the onely thing that gives us this right be Obedience to Imitation of Christ and Conformity to the Nature of God we may have a Right to when we have actual Possession of Glory for till then it will hardly be true that we have obeyed all Christs Laws But our Author had Wit in his Anger and was aware of an Objection that was coming against him and wisely layes in for it as well as he could It might be returned to all that he had said How can so imperfect an Obedience as ours is so every wayes lame and defective and short of the exact Law of God ever give us a right to the Promises of future Glory Yes
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
of these two is more accepted of God He that performed equal Obedience upon more feeble encouragements or he that upon stronger Motives yet gave but equal Obedience If Reason might determine this Controversy it would clearly carry it for him that bore equal burden with less strength performed equal duty upon less inducements If then this be all the influence that the Obedience and death of Christ have upon our Acceptation with God that thereby we have got a greater help to obedience the best Answer to the Question had been that it has no influence upon our Acceptance with God § 2. His Answer signifies nothing or very near it For the Question was What Influence Christ's Active and Passive Obedience have upon our Acceptance with God And he has framed an Answer to another Question What Influence Christ's Active and Passive Obedience have upon our Obedience Which is quite another thing If Christ's Obedience have any influence upon our acceptation with God then God for Christ's sake must accept us and our Obedience for the sake of Christ which otherwise he had not would not have done and Christ must be supposed to have done and suffered something which had such an influence upon God as to procure the favour of God towards our persons and services which without that consideration had not been could not be procured But if this be all That God has made us a Promise to accept that Obedience for Christ's sake which without any respect to Christ would have accepted though not say be would accept then if our obedience be little Christ will not make it reputed much if imperfect Christ's Obedience will not render it perfect and thus in plain Terms The Sacrifice of his Death and Righteousness of his Life procure no acceptance at all no not the least of our Persons or Obedience with God 3. His Answer is so like nothing as cannot be discerned from nothing The Question was What influence Christ's Righteousness and Sacrifice have upon our acceptance with God The Answer is God for Christ's sake entred into a New-Covenant with Mankind c. which is to leave the Question just as he found it and if he leave it no worse it 's pardonable for it will be enquired still What influence the Righteousness of Christ's Life and the Sacrifice of his Death had upon God to move him to enter into such a Covenant Under what Notion did his Life and Death operate upon God Did Christ make a proper Reconciliation and Atonement with God Was his Death a proper Sacrifice Did it expiate the Guilt of Sin No! not a syllable of all this only for fashions sake it must be said to have had An influence though what it is or how it had that influence he cannot tell But he will speak to these things more distinctly 1. What influence the Death of Christ has upon our Acceptation with God But it is to be supposed that we have had our Answer and must sit down by it That God was so well pleased with the Sacrifice of Christ's Death that for his sake he entred into a New-Covenant with Mankind The Proof is all in all Why this is plain says he in reference to his Death Hence the Blood of Christ is called the Blood of the Covenant Heb. 10. 29. It 's plain that God for Christ's sake entred into this Covenant because his Blood is called the Blood of the new Covenant but yet it 's not so very plain neither A man may possibly mistake it for all that he has said to satisfy him well But then Christ is called the great Shepherd and Bishop of Souls through the blood of the everlasting Covenant Heb. 13. 20. but I can find no such Scripture well However The Blood of Christ is called the Blood of sprinkling which speaks better things than the Blood of Abel Heb. 12. 24. which is an Allusion to Moses his sprinkling the Blood of the Sacrifice wherewith he confirmed and ratified the Covenant between God and the Children of Israel c. I expected it would come to this at long run God entred into the Covenant for the sake of Christ's Death because his Death confirmed the Covenant A very trim Reason The confirming of a Covenant supposes a Covenant in being If then all the design of the Blood of Christ was to confirm and ratifie a Covenant it will not follow that therefore God did enter into such a Covenant for the sake of the Blood but therefore he did not I deny not that the Death of Christ was a great Confirmation of the true Covenant of Grace to our Faith For what stronger Confirmation could the most jealous Soul desire of the reality of free Grace promising to pardon sin and bestow Eternal Life upon believers than that the Son of God himself should first take upon him our Nature and in that Nature offer up himself to God to atone and reconcile him to us that he should make satisfaction to God's rectoral Iustice and pay the price of our Redemption thereby removing out of the way of our Faith the grand impediments of it the Justice of God and the Commination of the Law which stood in the way of our Pardon and Salvation But to obviate our Author's design I shall a little divert the Reader with the consideration of these Propositions 1. The Confirmation of such a Covenant as he has described viz. a Promise of the Pardon of sin and Eternal Life to those who believe and obey the Gospel was not the main end of the Death of Christ 1. Because there is such an end ascribed to his Death which the Death of no other person in the world could in any wise reach but now to confirm the Gospel and all the Promises thereof was an end which the Death of another might reach therefore this was not the main end of the Death of Christ. The crucifying of Peter the Martyrdom of Paul were a great Confirmation of the Doctrine which they Preached the Doctrine which they Preach't was the Gospel and all its Promises yet neither was the Death of the one or other able to reach the great Design of the Death of Christ 1 Cor. 1. 18. Was Paul Crucified for you Or were you Baptized into the Name of Paul None could be Crucified for Sinners in that way that Christ was Crucified for them into whose Name they might not be Baptized but into the Name of no mere Man might they be Baptized therefore no mere Man could be Crucified for sinners in that way and for those ends which Christ was Crucified for Paul suffered Death for the Churches good but not in the Churches stead He dyed to Confirm what he Preacht and he Preacht the Covenant of Grace with all its Promises yet he was not Crucified for the Church his Soul was not made an Offering for sin God laid not upon him all our Iniquities his Death was not a Sacrifice of Propitiation And yet all this may be said of Paul's
pardon humble and penitent sinners and not till then 3. In pardoning of these humble and penitent sinners Gods Dominion Sovereignty and the Authority of his Laws must be vindicated for God being the Righteous Iudge of all the Earth should he discover a facile Indulgence and indifferent connivence at Sin the Authority of his Lawes were gone in a moment and the sinews of Government cut asunder God then must be declared to be a Righteous God the Sanction of the Law as to Promise running thus Doe this and live Doe this personally doe this exactly doe this constantly and perpetually and then live and as to Threatning thus Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the Book of the Law to doe them Gal. 3. 10. And of the same mind with our Author is as I remember one Dr. I. O. who is very peremptory that the Iustice of God may have its actings assigned to the full which is not done by Any that ever yet was heard of but the Lord Jesus Christ Now whilest I see the sweet Agreement of these two at present I fancy my self with Aeneas in the Elysian fields pleasing himself with the Amicable correspondence held between Caesar and Pompey and yet his delight mixt with another passion even grief in the foresight of their Civil Wars and Friendly Debates Illae autem Paribus quas fulgere cernis in Armis Concordes Animae nunc dum nocte Premuntur Heu quantum inter se bellum si Lumina Vitae Attigerint quantas Acies stragémque ciebunt Aeneid lib. 6. 4. Jesus Christ having undertaken to be a Ransome and to make Attonement for Sinners and his blood being of Infinite value the oldest greatest and stubbornest Sinners through Faith may possibly come to be concern'd in Christs Ransome and Attonement and so may be saved with a Notwithstanding their sins for seeing Gods Dominion Sâ—…vereignty the Authority of his Laws the Wisdom and Iustice of his Providence are all vindicated by this Means and security given that none of his Attributes shall be reproached what can Now hinder repenting sinners from coming to God and what can hinder God from rewarding those that so come and diligently seek him Nay 5. God cannot but be well pleased when his own Son undertakes to be a Ransome and to make Attonement for sinners And the Reason is evident The price being of Infinite value and payd into Godâ—… hands he cannot but be satisfied with it Nay further We can Reasonably desire no greater security for the Performance of the Gospel-Covenant than that it was sealed with the Blood of Christ the surety of a better Testament Heb. 7. 22. who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one that undertakes for the Performance of it I could willingly lose my self my Reader and my Time in the Throng of these good words Say not This is only the Sealing of a Covenant on Gods part undertaking for him whose veracity needs none to undertake for it but not for us whose guilt and weakness needs an undertaker The Covenant being mutual the undertaking must be supposed Reciprocal also and so I hope our Author intends it that as Christ undertakes for God with Man so he undertakes with Man unto God Perhaps you will say A word or two might have been added to have put matters out of dispute why so there might in any bodies Writings besides his and as many spared hanc veniam petimúsque damúsque As 1. It 's likely you would have had him say The Vertue of Christs Sacrifice depends not onely very much on the Greatness of his Person but Altogether and the Acceptation thereof with God depends on the Compact between them both seeing that which depends altogether does depend very much on the Greatness of his Person and therefore pray let that break no squares 2. Whereas he sayes The Blood of the Son of God is such a Confirmation of the Covenant as the World never had before Perhaps you would add Actually because the World had it before Virtually exhibited in Sacrifices and accepted as already Performed But set your hearts at Rest whether he meant well or ill in this Chapter I 'le engage you shall not be prejudiced if he happens to discover an ill meaning in the next Chapter and in the mean time let us go seek all over Pauls Church-yard Little-Britain and Duk-lane for an old Treatise De modo tenendi Anguillam Aequivocationis per Caudam 5 The Person of Christ is of no other Consideration in the Christian Religion than as it has an influence upon the great Ends of his Undertaking I confess I had thought our Author had not been upon the Head What Consideration the Person of Christ is of but Of what Use the Consideration of his Person is but let that pass I had thought too that the former four particulars had shewn us What influence Christs Person has upon the great Ends of his Undertaking and therefore this seems not to be a fifth Particular but the total summe of the other four but I wave that too The Lord Jesus Christ undertook both with God and with Man for God and for Man and he had special Ends of his undertaking in both He undertook for God that he should be willing to pardoâ—… sinners and for man that he should return and come back to God He undertook to God that his Attributes should not be reproached but all secured his Righteousness cleared his Holiness vindicated he undertook to man that God should make every word and letter of the Promises good as they stand in the Covenant of Grace He undertook that Godâ—… Iustice should not break out upon the believing repenting creature to consume him and he undertook that Man should not break in upon Gods glory nor break away from Gods Wayes in a manner inconsistent with a New Covenant What a horrid Absurdity then must it be to imagine that his Person will destroy these Ends or to expect more from the excellency of his Person than his Gospel has promised Most wretchedly therefore doe they deceive themselves and wrong the Redeemer who Trusting to the goodness of his Nature Renounce his Mediation that trust in his Person without a Promise nay in contradiction to the Terms of that Covenant which he hath seal'd with his Blood that quit hiâ—… Promise to rely and rowl on his Person For should he acquit those men whom his Gospel condemns wilfull and incorrigible sinners this would flatly disannull the Covenant Though he may absolve such sinners as the Covenant of Works condemns through the Intervention of Christs Sacrifice But I perceive we are besides the Cushion all this while nay besides the Book for he knows none thaâ—… will in so many words own it nor does he dares he charge any man with it but yet it 's the natural Iâ—…terpretation of Trusting in the Person of Christ. That is It 's impossible to Trust in Christs Person but you doe ipso facto Renounce
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
encouraged nor the Common good damnified which was certainly done by Jesus Christ And God himself has declared how odious such an Indifferency of spirit is in a Magistrate Prov. 17. 15. They who justifie the wicked and condemn the Righteous are both an abomination to the Lord. 2. There 's a great suspition nay clear evidence of injustice in a private Persons departing from his right in some Cases we will suppose a summe of Money which is all the Livelyhood of a Personand his Numerous Family shall he not grievously sin who shall depart from his Right so far as to forgive this Debt and turn all his Family a grazing upon the bare Common of Charity which might have been plentifully provided for in a way of Righteousness and Justice But still he prosecutes the Comparison He is so far from being Iust that he is Cruel and Savage who will remit no offence till he hath satisfied his Revenge Which were true 1. If spoken of a private Person Vengeance belongs not to any in that state it 's a flowre of the Crown we are not to avenge our selves we may prosecute our own Right lawfully and yet even that managed with a revengefull Spirit is sinfull 2. A publick Person in punishing according to Law ought not to be called cruel and savage but just and righteous when the holy God executes the Penalty of his holy Law he does not satisfie his Revenge but vindicate his righteous Laws from Contempt he will not have them trodden under foot to please every sawcy and malapert Caviller that shall tax him with savage Cruelty And surely there are Terms more becoming the Majesty of a holy God which our Author might have bestow'd upon the righteous Iudge of all the Earth in his Process against Sinners That he is holy in all his wayes righteous in all his works that the same Law which is the Rule of Duty and Obedience is also the Rule of Punishing the Delinquent But still he will be importunate That part of Iustice which consists in punishing Offenders was alwayes look'd upon as an Instrument of Government and therefore the exacting or remitting Punishment was referred to the Wisdom of Governours c. What he means by an Instrument of Government I cannot well tell but this I know that Atheism will have God too to be an Instrument of Government a politick Engine to bridle the many-headed Multitude and keep the Herd of the Vulgar in some awe And I have learnt it from our Authors great Friend also that the Articles of the Church are an Instrument of Peace and no matter whether they be an Instrument of Truth but I would gladly be satisfied in a few things 1. Who they are that call Gods punitive Iustice an Instrument of Government and what warrant they have so to call it I have read indeed that the Law is an Instrument of Government but that the Righteousness and Justice of the Law-giver in giving to every one his due should be an Instrument of Government seems to me an Arbitrary Term onely invented that men might seem to say something when indeed they say just nothing 2. I would have a satisfactory Reason why That part of Iustice which consists in Punishing Offenders should be an Instrument of Government and yet the other part which consists in rewarding the Complyant and Tractable should not be such and why God may not as well choose whether he will reward the Righteous as whether he will punish the Wicked And then 3. Whether this will be an Instrument of Goverment or of Anarchy and Confusion for if after all Obedience and Disobedience the Law be not the Rule of dispensing Rewards and Punishments Good night to both If Laws be not executed both they and the Law-giver will be despised and this great Instrument of Government will be like Iupiters Log which made a noyse without execution and the wicked will be tempted to doe evil the Righteous discouraged in their Obedience But let his Antecedent sink or swim I am as little satisfied with his Consequent That therefore the exacting or remitting of Punishment was referred to the Wisdom of Governours who might spare or punish as they saw Reason without being unjust in either For 1. God has not left it to the Wisdom of Governours whether they shall secure the Ends of Government or no Nay we are assured that the Iews under their Theocracy were tyed up in many Cases especially and not left to their discretion Numb 35. 33. Thou shalt take no satisfaction for the Life of a Murderer he shall surely be put to death 2. What if God has obliged himself to the contrary that he will not remitt Punishment but has made his holy Law the Rule of his dealing with us as well as of our walking with him Numb 14. 6. 18. The Lord is long-suffering and of great Mercy and by no means clearing the guilty Nay what if this be the immediate result of Gods Nature supposing an Offender the Text makes this as essential to God as any of his other Attributes and if our Author can exclude one another when it shall serve the Scene will exclude all the rest and then we shall have a God to our Authors hearts desire In the Conclusion of this Point our Author unbosoms himself to us and ingenuously discovers the bottom of his heart namely that the Reason why he is so zealously engaged against the Vindicative Iustice of God is because he was well aware that it would put in strongly for the Necessity of Christs Death And he understood his Interest well enough for the Iustice of God once admitted enforces the Necessity of Christs Death if it be supposed that God will declare himself just in the pardoning of a Sinner and the Death of Christ also reciprocally will prove the holy peremptoriness of Gods Iustice against Transgressors For what else could call for the Death of the Lord Jesus Christ The Lord Jesus Christ was the onely begotten and dearly beloved of the Father free from Sin in whom no guile was found 1 Pet. 2. 22. and not onely voyd of Sin but full of Grace exact in his Obedience Matth. 3. 16. he fulfill'd all Righteousness and he durst avow it Iohn 8. 29. That he alwayes did those things that pleased his Father so that his Eternal Father in the view and Prospect of these things declares that he was well-pleased with him Math. 17. 5. Now let us consider how the Father dealt with this Dear this Holy this onely Son Isa. 53. 10. It pleased the Father to bruise him he hath put him to grief he laid upon him the Iniquities of us all what shall we say to these things the Father was well-pleased with his Person with his Obedience and yet well-pleased with his sufferings also he was made a Curse who was blessed for ever Gal. 3. 13. he dyed a poenal Death who had no Guilt Rom. 8. 32. God spared not his own Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
the Issue by male Administration and herein is Gods Wisdom seen that he carries on as well as layes the Design of saving Sinners with admirable Success maugre all the Counterminings Projects and Contrivances of Hell One way that reaches the End effectually is worth a thousand that prove addle and bring forth nothing but Wind and he might have learnt so much from the Fable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. Wisdom lyes in reconciling differing Interests in adjusting the various Pretensions and Claims of the concerned Parties these Contrasto's of bandying Parties clashing one with another render Healing designs difficult The Iustice of God demands Satisfaction the holy Law of God abetts that Demand the Truth of God backs both their Claims and before Grace and Mercy can be actually exercised towards the Sinner some Expedient must be found out to content those Demands and all this God hath done in Christ in whom Mercy and Truth have met together Righteousness and Peace have kissed each other Psal. 85. 10. 3. It s Wisdom to find out a Means to reach an End though there be but that one Mean to be found in the whole Circle and compass of Beings We should not much reproach that Physician that should discover to his dying Patient an effectual Remedy though it prove the onely one in the world and we will own him for an Aesculapius that will prescribe to our Author a good round dose of Hellebore and yet it 's more than probable it 's the onely Drug upon Earth that can purge out that frantick insulting petulant humour which in his Writings fills both Pages At length seeing there is no other Remedy our Author will allow some small Wisdom to appear in the Design but then the Knowledge of it all is owing to the Revelations of the Gospel and not to any fanciful Acquaintance with Christ. Still we are haunted with that old Fallacy which by this time I had hoped had been quite worn out at the Elbowes That because the knowledge of this Wisdom is owing to the Gospel Revelations therefore nothing is due to him who is the Reason and Ground of this wise and happy Contrivance And so this Bolt also is soon shot 2 The second Addition the Doctor is charged with is That a great part of our Wisdom lyes in the knowledge of our selves and that both in respect of Sin and Righteousness and that we cannot attain to these but in and by Christ. And 1 For Sin the Doctor had said p. 110. Com. That our disability to answer the Mind and Will of God in any of that Obedience which he requireth is in Christ onely to be discovered And the Doctor has herein asserted two things 1. That there is in every man a Natural Impotency to answer the Will of God And he seems not to be so peremptory in it as the Scripture 2 Cor. 3. 5. Not that we are sufficient of our selves to think any thing as of our selves all our sufficiency is of God It 's God that works in us to will and to doe of his own good pleasure and if we be deceived by these and many other such Testimonies the Church of England was misled by them as well as we Art 10. The Condition of Man after the Fall of Adam is such that he cannot turn and prepare himself by his own Natural strength Our Author durst once appeal to the Experience of the whole world will he stand before the same Tribunal and be judged in this Case There are such universal Complaints about this very thing and such dismal stories all men tell of their Impotency and disability to answer Gods Laws that that Man should labour under insupportable prejudices that will controle all mens Experiences I know They talk most of the Easiness of keeping Gods Law who never tryed it and perhaps if they were well pump'd they mean nothing but how easie it is to break it Let any man set himself in his own strength to discharge one single Command of God in its full extent and latitude keeping it with his whole heart laying out his whole strength and might therein which that holy Law challenges let him attend to the Purity and Perfection of that and severely compare himself thereby dress himself in that Glass and when he has made some fruitless Essayes and been foyled and baffled with vain attempts he may then perhaps see more need of Christ than before and may spare the Experience of the whole World for his own singly will convince him of his disability to answer the Law of God in all or any of that Obedience which he therein requireth 2. The Doctor conceives That this Impotency of ours is discovered clearly in the Death of Christ wherein he is warranted by the Apostle Rom. 5. 6. For when we were yet without strength in due time Christ dyed for the ungodly In his Divinity we see a Sinner and one without strength are convertible terms and that the Death of Christ supposed it All the difficulty here will be How our Author shall expose this Truth and represent it to its greatest disadvantage but he has a singular Talent that way and whereof we need never to despair That is sayes he It 's impossible for us to do any thing that is good but we must be Acted like Machines by an external Force by the irresistible Grace and Power of God And the business is done But 1. Our Author is hugely out in supposing the Doctor to assert that It 's impossible to doe any thing that 's good Some good thing a Man may do and yet not doe all that 's required in doing it the Material part of a Duty he may doe and yet not perform it in such a way that it may answer Gods Law or be acceptable to him Bonum oritur ex integris there must be a right Principle a right End and all circumstances must concurre to make it entirely good I think there are none that deserve the Name of Christians who do not pray to God for his Grace to enable them to do their Duty but if indeed they could perform it in their own strength I see not what that Prayer would signifie more than a Complement Quid foris quaeram cùm domi habeam Why should a rich Man turn a Beggar And indeed the Heathens Principles hung together with more Consistency who would not trouble their Gods for what they had in their own Power nor thank them for that which they had earned with their own fingers-ends Quia unusquisque sibi virtutem acquirit nemo sapientum de eâ gratias Deo egit Since every man is the Procurer of his own Vertue no wise man ever gave thanks to the Gods for it 2. He is no less mistaken if he presumes upon his Power to tye the Doctor to use what Expressions he pleases in signifying his own Thoughts it may be he will not use that term of irresistable it will satisfie him if Grace work efficaciously
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
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
so affected with all the Arguments to a New Life which are contained in Christs Incarnation and Life and Doctrine c. It seems there are not Arguments enough in his Person but we must run to his Doctrine for a Recruit and what 's become then of his specious Promise that he would out-throw all that ever tryed before him in making Schemes of Religion from Acquaintance with his Person The veriest Bungler on Earth could but have contradicted himself but I wish that were the worst onâ—…t For 1. Some cannot see any Method at all in it But to be recovered is the Method of being Recovered to be converted is the way to be converted and that 's a very sure way I promise you for Omne quod est in quantum est Necesse est esse But this one of his peculiar Excellencies p. 18. The way to be perfect is to live as Christ lived or which is all one The way to be perfect is to be perfect If any one can make any better of this he shall have my free leave When we are so affected with all the powerfull Arguments contained in Christs Incarnation c. as to be sensible of the shame and folly of sin and to be reconciled to the love and practice of true Piety and Holiness Then The English of which is this When we are once holy then we are holy And this is his New way or Method of a Sinners Recovery by Christ. But 2. We have been made to believe hitherto That Method is a convenient sorting and marshalling of Matters which relate each to other into such an Order as may tend best to the reaching the End in practical Disciplines and making out the Truth in Theories But herein our Author is wretchedly out of the way For first he tells us we must be so affected with all the powerfull Arguments contained in Christs Intercession c. and then we partake in the Merits of his Sacrifice and find the Benefit of his Intercession for us That is we must set the Cart before the Horses which is an excellent Method Seeing we cannot partake of the Fruit of Christs Intercession before we partake of the Fruits of his Sacrifice for it is unquestionable that the Intercession of Christ is available by virtue of and operates by his Sacrifice 3. His Method is very lame upon this Account that he tells us we must be affected with all the powerfull Arguments contained in Christs Incarnation c. and yet never tells us how these Arguments become effectual to affect us which is a main thing in this Method A Method he supposes and yet never informs us whether it be onely a way that God prescribes us to recover our selves by using the best of our own Natural strength or whether it be Gods Way and Method which he proceeds in for the effectual recovery of a Sinner to himself 4. Here 's a Method pretended how a Sinner is recovered and yet no Consideration had what part and share the Holy Spirit bears in it which must needs be marvellously ridiculous to him that considers Iohn 3. 5 6. Except a man be born again of Water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Our Saviour had said v. 3. Except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God but not contenting himself to have shew'd how absolutely necessary Regeneration is to Salvation v. 5. he shews the Spirits concernment in that work and that all other Endeavours after Conversion without his powerfull Operation will amount to no more than flesh The streams will not rise higher than the Spring V. 6. That which is born of the Flesh is Flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit But yet 5. It 's equally absurd to speak of a Sinners Recovery and never shew from what he is recovered As if he should promise to Open to us the Nature of Motion and yet never shew us from whence the Motion takes its rise nor whither it tends Sinners are here talk'd of to be recovered but whether there be a state of corrupt and sinfull Nature a state of Enmity against God a state of blindness and darkness of Mind from which this Recovery must move we are not honoured with half a word 6. Here 's a recovery to Acts of Obedience love and practice of Piety but nothing of a New Heart a New Nature which the Scripture makes the Vital Principle of all New Obedience Here we are told a little of the Fruit the Tree brings forth but nothing how the Tree was made good that it might bring forth good Fruit. 7. He assigns a sensibleness of the Shame and Folly of Sin as the Means to get a Title to the Promises of the Gospel and yet some of those Promises contain an Engagement of God to give that New heart new spirit which he makes the Condition of obtaining a Title to the Promises Ezek. 36. 26. I will take away the heart of Stone out of your flesh and I will give you a heart of Flesh. I am perswaded that if we should all study seven years to be Impertinent and Ridiculous there are not many that could reach or equallize our Authors Attainments Secondly The other part of his Task wherein he is always most Admirable is To pluck down those Methods which others have or are supposed to have Built And 't is certainly an easier province to find faults than to amend them Now first he enlightens us with this Doctrine That the design of Christs coming into the World was not to distract mens minds with the Terrors of the Law and the Inexorable Iustice of God not to bring us under a Legal Despensation of Fear and Bondage Now all the Colour of this trifling Sophistry lies in two things 1. In putting in the word Distract to make his Negative seem Tenable For though Christ came to Humble to Abase to Awaken the guilty Consciences of sinners yet it would be hard to say he came to fright men out of their Wits to prepare men for Bedlam and the slipping in such an useful word will make a Negative justifiable upon any of the Designs of Christ But can sinners be more Mad than they are who go on securely in a state of Impenitency and Rebellion against God No sure That which some call distracting of sinners is but really a step towards the helping of them to their Wits 2. The Design of Christs coming into the World is either Subordinate which relates still to some further end and design of Christ or Ultimate to which all others do submit and give deference Now 't is true To awaken guilty Consciences with the Terrors of Gods Iustice to bring the Soul into a spirit of Bondage were not that which Christ did aim at as his great End but that he aimed at these things also in the way to his farthest End That is he used the Law to rowse the sleepy sinner to see his danger and provide
for his safety He wounded men that they might seek after healing and laid load upon their guilty minds that they might be content to take his Yoke upon them And that this is so 1. We have an Argument which is Instar omnium a Thousand Reasons by it self That is what our Author says That we must be affected with all the Arguments of Christs Incarnation c. so as to be sensible of the shame and folly of our sins Now how a man should be ashamed of sin till he sees its vileness and baseness and how he should see its vileness and filthiness till it s brought to the Test of Gods Holy Law which is the Rule of righteousness the Measure of Good and Evil is past my Conjecture Nay further that shame which fills a Soul does not merely arise from a sence of the Souls vileness but as compared with Gods Holiness who is a God so Pure so Holy c. that the Soul may well be ashamed and filled with Confusion of face to appear before him Now shame upon the account of the filthiness and dread upon the account of the guilt of sin are very near Neighbours Shame expresses the Souls sence of its own unworthiness to appear before God upon the score of its baseness and deformity and Fear expresses but the sence of Gods Authority which he hath Impressed and Stampt upon his Holy Law with the Souls reflection upon it self that it has violated that Law and thereby become liable to that Penalty which his own guilt has bound him over to And this was clear in Adams case He was Naked and therefore ashamed he was guilty and therefore feared to appear before this Holy God and Iust Iudge Now our Author will allow it lawful to fetch Arguments from Christs Incarnation Life Doctrine Death and what you please to make us ashamed of sin but by no means to be afraid of the Great God But the very truth is none say that it is the duty of Men to be Distracted and Unhinged in mind with slavish fears and Hellish apprehensions of Gods Justice But that this Dread may possibly run up some poor Creatures so high as to a literal distraction when the apprehensions of the Curse due to the Transgression of a righteous Law of a Holy and Jealous God shall overset a weak Judgement and dark Mind that sees its danger but no way to escape sees its Disease but not its Cure its sin with the demerits thereof but not a Saviour with his Merits and at once considers that Wrath of God which it concludes to be unavoidable and knows to be Intollerable 3. That our Saviour did use the Law and it's Terrors to awaken the Souls of men to a due apprehension of their sin and their danger thereupon the whole Tenour of the New Testament prove It was the Method of his Precurser Iohn the Baptist he laid this Ax to the Root of the Tree Mat. 3. 10. denouncing against them That every Tree that brought not forth good Fruit should be hewen down and cast into the fire And where-ever the Pharisees got it yet a warning they had got to flie from wrath to come The Apostle Paul both felt it and Preacht the use of the Law for Conviction of sin with all its Consequents and leading the sinner to Christ He felt it Rom. 7. 9. When the Commandment came sin revived and I died he saw himself a dead and lost man He Preacht also the Use of the Law Gal. 3. 24. to be a Schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. What use our Saviour in his own Person made of the Law may be seen from Matth. 5. and also chap. 23. where he thunders upon the dead and secure Consciences of Sinners with Arguments taken from the Law of God and the dreadfull Curse annex'd to the violation of it And though our Author will allow no more than an Awfull regard and reverence for God who is a holy and righteous Iudge and an irreconcileable Enemy to all Sin yet when a Sinner shall be throughly convinc'd that he is so and shall know that the wages of Sin is Death and that he that gave forth this Law and must sit in Iudgement upon him is both a Holy and a Righteous Iudge and an Irreconcileable Enemy to all Sin there will be more than an awfull regard and reverence for this God unless he have the faculty to tell a Sinner how he may stand guilty before his Judgement-Seat and not be filled with horror and unspeakable amazement But I see our Author can be both more severe than Christ where his severity is not due and more mercifull too at other times when his Clemency will destroy He will dawb over the chinks of their Consciences with untemper'd Mortar and skin over their wounds very smoothly he will not have men feel the workings of the Law nor any amazing terrours of Gods wrath Though it be hard to conceive how a Soul should see Sin and not see Gods wrath or seeing it not be terrified and amazed with it But such was not the Way and Method nor such the End and Design of Christs coming He never preach'd Peace when Destruction was nigh he accommodated not his Doctrine to the Lusts and Tempers of Sinners but Acted according to his Commission Isa. 61. 1 2. Preaching the Acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God But our Author has imposed it upon himself as his constant Method to discourse pro re natâ to fit the present purpose for pag. 3. of this excellent Piece he had told us That the Gospel of Christ is as severe a Dispensation as the Law which dooms men to Eternal misery that live not very vertuous and innocent Lives And they must be very vertuous and innocent ones indeed who escape that doom for just now he assures us That God is a righteous Iudge and an irreconcileable Enemy to all sin After all this storm there are yet a few drops behind which we may do well to shelter our selves from if we can He falls into some heat against our having Christ offer'd to us to be our Saviour against the Beseechings of Christ against Covenanting with Christ which is well express'd by Contract and Espousal And for this there is good warrant 2 Cor. 5. 20. As though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christs stead be ye reconciled to God This was Scripture before he was born and will be so when he is gone and therefore he may speak his pleasure against Christ and his Gospel But he has a License and let him make the best on 't for our parts we hope we shall not be Scoffed out of the Concernments of our Souls and Salvation and if that must Anger him let him repeat over the Alphabet or which will do as well Turn the Knot of his Girdle behind him To conclude the Persons whom our Authors lot is fallen out to reproach Doe build their Faith
Doctrine and a wide Gap to all Rebellion What a pitiful plight were Princes in if the Foundations of Government the Essential reasons of the Peoples subjection were to be Discanted upon by every Churchman The Childs relation to his Father does not consist in his filial Obedience but is the reason of it The Subjects relation to his Prince does not consist in Subjection but is the true Ground of it The Wife her relation to her Husband does not consist in her submission to her Husband but is the Spring of it A disobedient Child is a Child still he cannot shake off the relation a rebellious person though he deserves not the honourable Title of a Subject yet he is a Subject and cannot put off that relation An untoward Wife is a Wife still and every act nay many acts of Disobedience cannot dissolve the Copula For otherwise the way to be rid of a relation would be to Violate the Duties of it and then all future Disobedience would be no sin Because when the union is once Null and the relation dissolved there 's no Foundation upon which the Superiour can build a claim to Duty and this would be a short Cut and save abundance of time and Charges in sueing out a Divorce For let but the Wife disobey and the union which consists in Obedience Vanishes A little Divertisment will now be seasonable both for our Author and his Readers and therefore he will give us a plain Account of the only cause that can justifie Separation In the mean time it seems there is a Cause though but one only Cause that will justifie it and separation will not always argue Sâ—…hism And now all you that would know the one the only one Cause in all the World that can justifie a Separation from a true Church draw near and give your attention 1. When any Church prevaricates in the Laws of Christ. Prevaricates How many thousands of Schismaticks will shrowd themselves under the Covert of that one Word He has opened a Gate at which three Coachful of Separatists may Drive all-a-Brest If then a Church shall pretend to give us the Laws of Christ in Scriptis such was the Knavery of a Cardinal in the Consistory before the Conventicle of Trent and yet by Preaching and Practice destroy those very Laws or the Ends of them if the Church of Rome shall talk Big words of Holy Mother Church and yet embrace in her arms as her Children the vilest Varlets and shut out none but the Good unless now and then an old Fornicator or some such like Vermine that want Money to Buy off or Commute for Penance this is an unworthy Prevarication and if it shall certainly appear will justifie a separation 2. When it corrupts Religion And this will go a great way I promise you in some particular Churches Corruption may be by Addition Substraction Multiplication or Division The end of the Keys may be perverted those shut out whom Christ would receive and they admitted whom Christ would exclude It may strike with the back of the spiritual Sword when it should use the edge and wound with the edge when it should sleep in the Scabbard Christs Religion may be corrupted by mingling our own inventions with this pure and plain institutions and then we have a cause or a piece of a cause that paves our way for separation as broad as that by which Israel departed out of Egypt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 five in a rank 3. When it undermines the fundamental design of Religion which is to make men good and vertuoùs So that though they do not openly assault it by battery and escalado yet if they shall secretly undermine Godliness by denying the office of the holy spirit in Creating men to good and vertuous works and teach men to trust to their own natural strength and shall craftily oppose the Doctrine of the Scriptures and the Church of England That the condition of man after the fall is such that he cannot turn by his own natural strength without the Grace of God preventing him that he may have a good will or if they shall disown the satisfaction of Christs death upon the cross to Gods holiness and his justice founded thereon which is the bottom of our return to God and of our holy walking with him why then farewell as far as the shooes of the Gospel will carry you 4. When we cannot obey our spiritual rulers without disobeying the Laws of Christ when Christs commands and they forbid when he forbids and they command then we have our pasport to be gone and travel to the utmost ends of the Earth These are those four things all in one that will justifie a separation from a particular society and if our Authour would preach this Doctrine to his Parishoners he might leave it to them to make the Application But now on the otherside if the Church we live in acknowledges the Authority and submits to the Laws of Christ we are bound to live in Communion with it Very true but not true for our Authors Reason because this Unites us to Christ which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but go on when nothing is made the condition of our Communion which is expressely forbidden by the Laws of the supreme Lord we acknowledge his Authority in our subjection to our spiritual guides Now here are many things might be opposed 1. Let it be considered whether an implicite prohibition from the supreme Lord be not sufficient to make a condition of Communion unlawful and I cannot but wonder that our Authour in this case is all for an expresse prohibition when perhaps that may signifie a Command if he follows but his own rule not to interpret phrases by the sound of words But 2. In submitting to such conditions of Communion as are not expressely forbidden the Question is whether herein we submit to Christs authority and this I confesse I stick at And the Reason of my doubtful hesitation is this Because it supposes an acknowledgment of Christs Authority where he has not interposed his Authority supposes him to speak where he is silent and to Command obedience where he commands nothing nay where he has forbidden though not expressely forbidden that condition Now as I am not bound to obey an inferiour Magistrate unlesse his particular command be warranted by his Commission though it be not forbidden in his Commission so it seems I am not bound to Obey a particular Church in a particular imposed condition if not authorised by Christs instructions though it be not forbidden there at least no such refusal of obedience can be interpreted to be a disowning of Christs Authority because he is supposed to have determined neither Pro nor Con. If we turn back to p. 164. Our Authour has these words No man can be said to submit himself to his prince who denies subjection to those subordinate Magistrates who act by his Commission so no man can be said to resist his Prince who
justified in the sight of God and methinks it looks like a mere whimsey to fancy a Notion of Iustification in his sight that has neither pardon of sin included in it nor eternal life attending of it It 's strange to me to hear of Iustification before God against Temporal Evils And if Abraham had no other I think he was never perfectly justified 2. The Determination of the Church of England is no light matter with me Artic. 7. They are not to be heard that feign the Fathers looked only for Transitory Promises But it seems that in this one particular the Church was not infallible for they are to be heard and read and licensed and advanced too who dare fâ—…ign and write and preach That the Patriarchs either looked for none or at the best but Transitory Promises 3. When I read that Abraham was so earnest to see Christ's day by Faith and when he got a sight of it he was glad I begin to think with my self what should be the ground of so great a joy at so great a distance Spiritual Promise he is allowed none and was it worth the while to rejoyce in the foresight of some temporal Advantages that should come to the Jews when he should be turn'd to dust and nothing especially seeing the coming of Christ either brought spiritual Mercies 〈◊〉 the Seed of Abraham or none at all So that he had more cause to sit down and lament that he had no promise of Love from or Life with God either for his Person or Posterity Ay! but says he the Promise was not so clear but men might mistake iâ—… That may be I confess And so may the clearest that ever God gave to the sons of men If men will set their wits on work and serue and torture and vex and wrest every letter and syllable and in all this forsake the Conduct of God's Spirit and scorn the Catholick Judgment of the Church in all Ages to gratifie their Airy Crotchets I do not remember a Promise of God to secure them against mistaking his Promises Ay! but says he we know that the whole Iewish Church did so for many Ages If he knows it he knows more than I do but that is no great wonder and than any man alive besides his own Knowing self And yet they had more particular Promises concerning Christ than that was and yet expected only a temporal Prince I will deal openly with him I do not believe that the whole Iewish Church for any Age much less for many Ages no not for any one day in any Age did expect a Messiah to deliver them only from temporal evils That there was great degeneracy in that Church in some Ages I deny not there is so amongst Christians especially towards the latter times of their Church-state But that ever the whole Church so far degenerated as to lose the expectation of a Redeemer to deliver them from sin and its consequents and to endow them with spiritual Blessings I demand better proofs than Confidence before I subscribe And 1. For Abraham it 's evident he sought a heavenly Country and therefore I conclude That the believing Jews who had says our Author more particular Promises concerning Christ sought a heavenly one too or their more express Promises were ill bestowed on them Heb. 11. 9. By Faith he Abraham dwelt in the promised Land as in a strange Country The promised Land was a strange Country to him that sought a heavenly one whereof that was but the figure the rind and bark for that Promise had greater excellencies underneath to his discerning Faith ver 10. For he looked for a City that had foundations whose builder and maker is God Vers. 13. All these died in the Faith Confessing that they were Strangers and Pilgrims for they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a Country Vers. 16. But now they desire a better that it a heavenly Country therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God 2. It 's evident that the Messiah was promised Isa. 53. 4. To bear their sins and carry their sorrows Vers. 5. To be wounded for their transgressions and bruised for their iniquities Ver. 6. To have all their iniquities laid upon him Ver. 8. To be stricken for the transgression of God's people Ver. 10. To have his Soul made an Offering for sin And now to assert That the whole Iewish Church expected only a temporal Monarch is to throw such dirt in the face of God's people as is very scandalous 3. If any of them at any time expected temporal Deliverances temporal Honours Revenues c. from the Messiah it was not inconsistent utterly with an expectation of better things from him for the Disciples themselves had been hammering some such conceit in their heads Acts 1. 6. perhaps mistaking in the Chronology and Antedating that Mercy which in its season they might have reason to expect and yet by our Author 's good leave I will be so charitable as to presume they looked for pardon of sin and eternal life from Christ Nay I could name instances nearer home of those that expect from the Gospel large in-comes and yet we may reasonably believe have nobler things in their eye and would scorn his Atheistical spirit who would not forgo his part in Paris for his share in Paradise 2. He must know that Christ was to die for our sins without which according to our Doctor it 's impossible God should forgive sins considering the Naturalness of his Vindictive Iustice to him Now to untie this knot in the Bulrush 1. I question not that Abraham understood clearly That God was essentially holy and that his Rectoral or Governing Iustice was founded therein Gen. 18. 25. Shall not the Iudg of all the Earth do right That it should be with the righteous as with the wicked or with the wicked as with the righteous were far from God Which Consideration might stagger his Faith about the pardon of his own sin and his only relief could be from the Faith of the Messiah's undertaking with God In which he had this satisfaction that however he found difficulties in the way of believing yet still he gave credit to God and his Testimony concerning a Redeemer leaving the Modes and Circumstances of the Mediatory Office as a secret in God's bosom 2. I am confident our Author cannot prove that Abraham knew nothing of Christ's death This I know he had Sacrifices which might sufficiently instruct him in the demerit of sin and what the sinner had deserved and in the necessity of Compensation to be made to God's Justice for his violated Law and reproached Government And whether Abraham might not once open his mouth to God to be instructed in their noblest signification and design I cannot tell 3. I do not know of any absolute necessity that Abraham should understand the Circumstances that should lead towards the fulfilling of the Mediator's work or in what particular way God would justifie a sinner
the Law only That all the World is not become guilty by the external deeds of the Moral Law and a failure therein he proves Rom. 5. 14. where he shews That death reigned over some who had not sinned after the similitude of Adam ' s transgression 5. Those deeds which David excluded from his Iustification the Apostle excludes from our Iustification for he quotes his Proposition from Psal. 143. 2. and therefore takes it in his sense or else he could not make use of his Authority But David excludes all his deeds whatsoever from Justification Enter not into judgment with thy servant for in thy sight shall no man be justified He durst not once think of God's entering into judgment with him upon the account of any thing he had attained From all which it appears that the Apostle exclâ—…es the Law the whole Law and the deeds thereof all the deeds thereof from having any concern in the Iustification of a sinner in the sight of God 2. We may observe hence That the Apostle opposes the Righteousness of God unto a Righteousness by the deeds of the Law But now says he the Righteousness of God without the Law is manifested vers 21. And as in vers 20. he says not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the deeds of the Law but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the deeds of Law of a Law of any Law So here he says not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without the Law as if he intended some singular Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without a Law without any Law And hence he fully silences and stops the mouth of our Authors Cavil that by the deeds of the Law is meant only an external Conformity of our Actions to it But the Apostles words leave no place for ambiguity For if the Righteousness of God without Law a Law any Law be manifested then without either Ceremonial or Moral Law then also without external or internal deeds of either But the Apostle shuts out Law simply and absolutely The Righteousness of God without Law is manifested As this term Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is more properly predicated of the Moral than of the Ceremonial Law so the deeds of Law are more properly predicated of internal than external deeds and Analogum per se stans stat pro famosior Analogato If then as our Author contends we are justified by the Moral though not by the Ceremonial Law or by internal Conformity to it though not by external Conformity to it only then the Apostles Doctrine is true in an improper or less proper sense but utterly false in the proper or more proper sense of the words For had 〈◊〉 words been inverted they had carried a clearer truth in them By the deeds the internal deeds of the Law the Moral Law shall all flesh be justified But now the Righteousness of God with the Law the Moral Law and it s internal as well as external deeds is manifested But this is not to interpret the Apostle but dictate a new Gospel to him But further Hence I have just occasion to complain of an unrighteous surmise with which our Author loads some men That because they exclude Law and Law-deeds from Iustification in the sight of God that therefore they exclude it from having any place in their Lives and Conversations The Apostle who is a zealous Vindicator of the interest of the Law as a Rule of our Obedience yet we see discharges it wholly from any from all use and service in the Justification of a sinner in the sight of God Therefore he adds Before God and the Psalmist In thy sight to teach us That though the Righteousness of God without Law is manifested as to the truth of the thing yet the Righteousness of God is not cannot be manifested to us without a sincere obedience to the Law There 's a Iustification before God to this the Law a Law any Law contributes nothing but there 's a Justification before Conscience before men and to this a sincere and evangelically universal obedience contributes much 3. The Apostle assures us That this Doctrine of his is no new fancy broached t'other day and set on foot lately in Gospel-times but the same way by which all the good men of old were justified v. 21. It 's witnessed by the Law and the Prophets Now as to the Prophets testimony though our Author approves not their Cryptick way of demonstrating but is all for plain Meridian demonstration yet they are full that Jesus Christ was the main consideration in the Justification of a sinner from of old Acts 3. 25 26. Ye are the Children of the Prophets and of the Covenant that God made with our Fathers saying to Abraham And in thy Seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed unto you first God having raised up his Son Iesus sent him to bless you in turning away every one of you from his iniquities Whence it appears God's raising up Christ in the World to bless his people with spiritual blessings was no more than what he had covenanted with Abraham and promised to him even in that very Promise which our Author thinks was fulfilled in the numerous Posterity of Isaac But now that this Righteousness of God without Law should be witnessed by Law this seems strange Does the Law witness against it self Is it false to it 's own interest But the Law is God's Law and when it witnesses to a sinner it witnesses home convinces him of the perfect holiness of that God who gave the Law of the peremptoriness of God in not abating one jot or tittle of the Law of the sinners utter inability to come up to the Demands of the Law and therefore the utter impossibility of being justified by the Law of the severity of God's Justice in punishing the violater of his Law and therefore unless he can find another Righteousness he must utterly perish 'T is true the Law speaks its old Language still Do this and live but then it speaks it only to those who are upon a bottom of Innocency for to a Transgressor its language is Cursed is very one that continues not in all things 4. The Apostle acquaints us what that Righteousness of God is which is manifested vers 22. Even the Righteousness of God which is by the Faith of Christ. Now hence it 's evident that the Righteousness of God and Righteousness by the Faith of Christ are both one and therefore Faith in God and Faith in Christ are both one As is the Righteousness such is the Faith as is the Faith such is the Righteousness which perfectly overthrows that Arbitrary distinction which our Author had studied for more need Of Faith in God and Faith in Christ on purpose to shut Abraham out of Christ and by Consequence out of Heaven and to lock him up in the Limbus Patrum 5. The Apostle concludes That there 's no difference in point of Justification all that are sinners by
determined against him to whom therefore from his partial Judgment-Seat I shall appeal v. 5 6. For Moses describeth the Righteousness of the Law that the Man that doth these things shall live in them from whence I argue against our Author That Law whose Righteousness Moses describes the Apostle excludes from having any place in Justification but it is the Moral Law whose Righteousness Moses describes therefore it is the Moral Law which the Apostle excludes from having any place in Iustification The Major is evident from the Connexion of the Apostle's Words v. 3. They have not submitted themselves to the Righteousness of God v. 4. For Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to every one that believeth for Moses describeth the Righteousness which is of the Law c. The Minor I prove thus That Law which saith He that doth these things shall live in them is that Law whose Righteousness Moses prescribeth but it is the Moral Law which saith He that doth these things shall live in them therefore it is the Moral Law whose Righteousness Moses describeth The Major is the Apostles own v. 5. the Minor I prove from Lev. 18. 5. You shall keep my Statutes and Iudgments which if a Man do he shall live in them v. 6. None of you shall approach to any that is near of kin to him 7. The nakedness of thy Father or of thy Mother thou shalt not uncover c. from whence I argue thus That Law which forbids incest is the Moral Law but that Law which saith He that doth these things shall live in them is the Law which forbids incest therefore that Law that saith He that doth these things shall live in them is the Moral Law Again I argue thus from Gal. 3. 10 11. That Law which hath the Curse annext to it for noncontinuance in all things commanded therein is the Law which the Apostle excludes from having any place in the Justification of a Sinner but it is the Moral Law which hath that Curse annext to it therefore it is the Moral Law which the Apostle excludes from having any place in the Justification of a Sinner The Major is evident from the place v. 10. As many as are of the Works of the Law are under the Curse for it is written Cursed is every one that continues not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them v. 11. But that no man is justified by the Law in the sight of God is evident The Minor I prove from Deut. 27. 26. from whence the Apostle quotes it Cursed be he that continueth not in all the Words of this Law to do them That Law which forbids making Images which forbids setting light by Father or Mother which forbids removing Land-marks which forbids causing the Blind to go out of his way which forbids perverting of judgment incest sodomy is the Law which hath the Curse annext to it but it is the Moral Law which forbids all these things Therefore it is the Moral Law which hath this Curse annext to it I cannot foresee what our Author will return to all this but his old tawdry Answer That indeed the Apostle does exclude the Moral Law but that is only with respect to External Obedience without Internal Conformity But it 's evident that the Apostle excludes the Law it self and therefore it must be highly impertinent to enquire what Deeds of the Law are excluded when the Law it self is excluded But yet for his further satisfaction I shall bestow an Argument upon that also Those Acts of Obedience to which the Promise of Life in the Covenant of Works originally was most directly made are excluded from Iustification but to inward acts of Obedience the Promise of Life was most directly made and therefore inward acts of Obedience are excluded from Iustification The Apostle has secured the Major Rom. 10. 3 5 6. They have not submitted themselves to the Righteousness of God For Moses describeth the Righteousness of the Law that he that doth these things shall live in them The Minor is evident for God never made a Promise of Life to External Acts of Obedience without inward Conformity of Soul to them and of both to the Law of God Again Those Acts the want whereof mainly exposes the Sinner to the Curse are excluded from Justification but the want of Internal Acts of Obedience mainly exposes the Sinner to the Curse therefore internal Acts are excluded from Justification And the true Reason why these inward Acts are excluded from Justification is not because they are not well-pleasing to God but because the case is thus with impotent fallen men that he cannot reach the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the utmost tittle of what the Law requires theresore must fall under the severe doom annext to the violation of the Law in the least punctilio unless God had provided a better Righteousness than that of his own Obedience After all that has or may be said in the Case If any one will be so civil and ingenuous as out of his pure good-nature to yield our Author a few small inconsiderable things As 1. That there is a double Antithesis where there is but one And 2. That a man 's own Righteousness is another thing than the Righteousness of the Law 3. That the Righteousness which is by the Faith of Christ is distinct from the Righteousness of God 4. That by the Righteousness of the Law no more is intended than Ceremony and Hypocrisie 5. That a mans own Righteousness is so called not because it is his own but because he places his Righteousness in it and 6thly one poor sorry triffle more That all he asserts is meer Gospel grant him but this and he will prove all the rest with ease but though I would go a great way to save his longing yet this is so large a boon that it deserves mature advice and serious deliberation There are yet a few odd things in arrear some notice whereof I promised to take and seeing we are a little at leisure I shall do him justice And first let us consider what work he has made with that Text Rom. 8. 3 4. For what the Law could not do in that it was weak-through the Flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful Flesh and for sin condemned sin in the Flesh that the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit Now our Authors Paraphrase as well as we can scramble it together from broken fragments and odd shreds of his Discourse is thus much The Ceremonial Law being designed of God to work in the Iews inward holiness and purity of Mind which was represented by Circumcision Washings Purifications and Sacrifices it was found too weak to effect this design and therefore God sent Christ into the World to die as a Sacrifice for our Sins to confirm and seal the New-Covenant with his Blood
Death if those expressions applyed to the Death of Christ signify no more than a Confirmation of the Gospel 2. The Scripture assigns greater ends to the Death of Christ than confirmation of Promises 1. His Death as a Sacrifice atoned God 2. His Death as a Price paid to God redeemed us 3. His Death as a Punishment exacted of God satisfied his Iustice. For the first Isa. 53. 10. his Soul was made an Offering for sin and therefore as on a Sacrifice of Atonement God laid on him the Iniquities of us all V. 6. For the second 1 Tim. 2. 6. He gave himself a Ransom or Price of Redemption for all For the third Rom. 3. 25 26. The Blood of Christ is said to be a Declaration of God's Righteousness that he might be just in justifying the Believer which Testimonies will call for clearing and vindication in due time And these indeed are such ends of the Death of Christ as will undeniably prove that his Death had an Influence upon our Acceptance with God 3. The Scripture owns Christ as a proper Priest and therefore his Work must be somewhat more than confirming a Doctrine A Prophet will abundantly answer that design But our Author prudently having cut out Christ some work to do has fitted him with an Office too which is proportionable to it for to what purpose should Christ be a Priest that has nothing to do with his Sacrifice but to confirm his Doctrine The direct and immediate Object of Christ's Sacerdotal Office was God Heb. 9. 14 15. How much more shall the Blood of Christ who through the Eternal Spirit offered himself to God purge your Consciences I know these Men will say that Christ offered up himself to God in Heâ—…ven but not upon the Cross whereas the Blood of Christ is here compared with though preferred to the Blood of Bulls and Goats and the Ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean some of which were never carried into the Holy Place and the Blood of those which were was first shed at the Altar before it could be sprinkled at the Mercy-Seat And the word here used 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a sacred and religious Word applied to the Sacrifices which were brought to and â—…ffered at the Altar Again Heb. 5. 1. Christ iâ—… ordained a Priest in things pertaining to God His Priestly Employment lay mainly with him to confirm promises that relate to us men but a Priest offers not Sacrifice to the People though for the People Christ's Business as our High-Priest was with God and in his Undertaking with him lyes the true Reason of the Acceptation of our Persons Services with God 4. The Scripture every-where expresses Christ's Innocency nay his perfect Holineâ—… the cheerfulness self-denyal constancy universality of his Obedience to his Fathers Will especially the Law of the Mediator He always did the Things that pleased his Father Joh. 8. 29. He fulfilled all Righteousness Mat. 3. 15. His Meat and Drink was to do the Will of him that sent him and to finish his Work Joh. 4. 34. He came not to do his own Will but the Will of him that sent him Joh. 6. 38. And the Father has witnessed it most solemnly by a Voice from Heaven That he was well-pleased with his beloved Son Mat 17. 5. and yet notwithstanding all this and much more that might be said It pleased the Father to bruise him and make his Soul an Offering for Sin Isa. 53. 10. He loved him and yet shewed all imaginable tokens of displeasure he was amazed sore troubled in Soul and as to the apprehension of his Soul in respect of comfort forsaken of God so that he cried out of it most bâ—…tterly My God my God why hast thou forsaken me And in the view of his approaching Sufferings was in such an Agony and conflict of Soul that it exprest Clods of Blood from his labouring Body Upon consideration of which unexpressible inconceivable Torments of the Lord Jesus the Ancient Church did use to pray 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By thy unknown Torments Lord deliver us In imitation whereof perhaps the Liturgy of the present Church of England uses the like By thy Agony and Bloody Sweat by thy Cross and Passion c. Now I would have it resolved to satisfaction without such pittyful dry evasions and paltry answers as we meet with from some kind of men 1. How God could at the same time be well-pleased with Christ and be so well-pleased to bruise him 2. How it could consist with the Iustice of God to punish a Person so Innocent so Holy so compleatly Righteous over whom the condemning Part of the Law had no power seeing he had never violated it in its preceptive Part unless he stood in the stâ—…ad of Sinners bore their Iniquities and was charged with their Guilt They will tell us that God used his Prerogative and Soveraignty over Jesus Christ and yet in other causes will not allow him an absolute and irrespective Soveraignty over the poorest Wâ—…etch in the World They will tell us too That all this was not proper penalty or punishment but here was the matter of punishment to purpose and still the difficulty remains Why an Innocent Person should suffer the same things materially which were only formally to be inflicted upon those who had deserved them Let none say If Christ bore the Punishment due to sin he must suffer Eternal Death seeing no less was due to our Transgressions For 1. The Eternity of punishment is only due to sin by accident as it is found in a finite Person who being not able to bear at once or in the longest time that Wrath which his Sins have demerited Divine Justice exacts of him an Eternity of suffering 2. Whereas sin is only infinite or of infinite demerit objectivè as committed against an infinite God The Sufferings of Christ are infinite also subjectivè being the Sufferings of that Person who is God though not as God and therefore Christ in a finite time was able to give infinite Satisfaction 3. Christ was such an High-Priest as being God and Man was able to give an infinite Value to his Sacrifice of himself as Man nor let any say that if Christ suffered in a way of Satisfaction to Divine Justice and bore what the Sinner should have born or that which was equivalent to it that then the Sinner ought immediately to be delivered from the Curse due to his sin for seeing that the Satisfaction was not made in the Person of the Offender but his Substitute it was necessary that the benefit of another's Satisfaction should be communicated in such a way as might best please that God whose Grace was the only Motive to his Acceptation of a Substitute It 's the undoubted priviledg of the Giver to dispose of his own Gift in his own Way and it was absolutely and indispensibly necessary that the Sinner should be duly qualified to receive so transcendent Favours purchased at so dear rates and
Truth for which end had there been nothing more in 't the Death of the Martyrs had clearly out-gone it But it 's high time to recollect our selves and return into the way again for those pittiful things which stand for proof that this was all the design of the Death of Christ call aloud for examination The Blood of Christ says he is called the Blood of Sprinkling which speaks better things than the Blood of Abel Heb. 12. 24. which is an allusion to Moses his Sprinkling the Blood of the Sacrifice whereby he confirmed the Covenant between God and the Children of Israel Heb. 9. 20 21. For when Moses had spoken every precept to the People according to the Law he took the Blood of Calves and Goats and sprinkled both the Book and all the People saying This is the Blood of the Testament which God hath ordained for you Thus the Blood of Christ is called the Blood of Sprinkling because by his Blood God did seal and confirm the Covenant of Grace as the sprinkling of Blood did confirm the Mosaical Covenant There are four things which I shall offer any one of which cleared up will shew the vanity of this Period § 1. The Blood of Christ is not called the Blood of Sprinkling which speaks better things than the Blood of Abel only in allusion to the Sprinkling of that Blood which confirmed the Mosaical Covenant There is a further a higher design in the Expression The Blood of Abel cried to God from the Earth for vengeance upon the Head of Cain and with the same importunity does the violation of every Law of God sollicite Divine Justice against the Transgressour and that with great justice For the same God who hath establisht his Holy Law in the Promise Do this and live hath bound and confirm'd it also with the threatning If thou sinnest thou shalt die Such dreadful things did the Blood of Abel shed in defiance of the Law speak to God But O what sweet how much better things does the Blood of Christ speak It speaks better things to the Justice of God than if the Sinner himself should suffer his utmost Indignation It speaks better things to the Law than if the Sinner had felt the weight of its severest Curse It speaks better things to the Conscience than if we had wrought out our inward Peace by our own Righteousness It satisfies God's Justice answers the Law and quiets the Conscience And in reference to this use of the Sprinkling of Blood viz. the Atoning and Reconciling of God is the Blood of Christ called the Blood of Sprinkling and to this the Apostle refers Heb. 11. 28. By Faith Moses kept the Passeover and the Sprinkling of Blood that he who destroyed the first-Born might not touch them The Apostle evidently points to Exod. 12. 14. The Blood shall be to you a token upon your Houses and when I see the Blood I will passe over you and the Plague shall not be upon you v. 21 22. Kill the Passeover and you shall take a Bunch of Hyssop and dip in the Blood and strike the Lintel and the two side-Posts and none of you shall go out of his House until the Morning Now here are several things observeable 1. That it was a respect to the Blood of the Paschal-Lamb duly used and applyed in consideration whereof God would not destroy them with the rest 2. That if they expected any benefit from that Blood they must abide under the shelter and protection of it 3. This Blood must be sprinkled upon the Lintel not upon the Threshold to mind them as the Jews observe that they ought not to trample it under their Feet And surely that Blood which turns away the deserved wrath of God from their head might claim more reverence than to be trampled under their feet 4. That this Blood thus sprinkled was considerable in God's eyes as it was the Blood of such a Lamb so chosen â—…t of the flock without any spot or blemish and so slain precisely according to God's appointment I just proportion the Lord Jesus Christ is called expresly our Passeover 1 Cor. 5. 7. Christ our Passeover is Sacrificed for you Now as the Blood of Christ has the same influence so it has the same plea It has the same Influence upon God it turns away his Anger he has a respect to the Blood of Jesus under this Blood do we take shelter and Sanctuary and therefore it pleads with us that we account it not a prophane and unholy thing for that will be interpreted a trampling under foot the Son of God himself Heb. 10. 29. which is to despise all the Grace and Mercy of God for what-ever Mercy we receive from God it is through the intervention of that Blood § 2. The whole concern of the Blood of Christ is 〈◊〉 exprest by the Blood of Sprinkling Sprinkling was one way and but one way of employing the Blood of the Sacrifices but it must be shed before it could be sprinkled and therefore sprinkled because it had been shed as a Sacrifice What-ever other use there was of the Blood of Sacrifices yet the efficacy of all was derived from this that that Blood had been once shed at the Altar Lev. 17. 11. It was Blood upon the Altar and that not merely as Blood but as it was the Life-Blood of the Sacrifice substituted in the room of the offender that made an Atonement for their Souls And this is evident in that the Blood of many of the Sacrifices for sin atoneing expiating Sacrifices were not sprinkled but only shed at the Altar What an unrighteous dealing is this then with the Blood of Christ to allot it no service but only the Confirmation of a Covenant because it 's called the Blood of sprinkling whereas the Blood of the Sacrifices of old as it was sprinkled did not express all the ends and uses of the Blood of Christ. § 3. That which comes home to our Author is this The whole design of the Blood of sprinkling 〈◊〉 not to confirm a Covenant As Blood was larger than sprinkling of Blood so sprinkling of Blood was larger than the confirming of a Covenant 1. The Blood of the Sacrifice was sometimes sprinkled 〈◊〉 turn away God's Anger thus in the Passeover and thus in that very place which our Author insists upon Heb. 9. 19. which the Apostle cites from Exod. 24. 5 6 7. where we read of a twofold Use of the Blood First one half of the Blood of the Burnt-Offering and the Peace-Offering which had been shed at the Altar Moses sprinkled upon the Altar Now all the use of Blood upon the Alâ—…r was Atonement Propitiation and Reconciliation of God Secondly With the other half of the Blood Moses consecrates and dedicates the People to the Lord to walk before him according to the Tenour of that Covenant whereas then he will argue that the Blood was sprinkled only to confirm a Covenant because one half of it was reserved for that
made sin for us that is he was constituted to be a sin-offering upon whom the Guilt and Punishment of our sin being laid the great obstructions to Reconciliation God's Justice and Holy Law being removed by being satisfied a way is cleared for a new Peace with God And the Apostle as hath been observed cites this from Isa. 53. 10. When he shall make his Soul an offering for sin the same word signifying both sin and sin-Offering 3. That the Preaching of this Reconciliation made with God to the World was committed to the Ministers of the Gospel that they as Ambassadors from God might treat with them also about their being reconciled to God which farther evinces a mutual Enmity and a mutual Reconciliation that God reconciled the World to himself by Iesus Christ whom God made to be sin for that great end and then establisht a Ministry to Preach the Doctrine to the Sons of Men and to deal with them in the Name of Christ that they would also lay aside their Malignity and accept of the Reconciliation procured by the Blood of Jesus Now this Reconciliation made with God respects the Gentiles and Iews equally for some might plead that it was the peculiar priviledge of the Iews as being the only Church of God to enjoy the benefit of propitiating Sacrifices others might think to do the Jews a kindness in pleading that Reconciliation only belonged to the Gentiles for they alone were Enemies to God and therefore they only needed it but the Apostle assures us that Iews as well as Gentiles had need of a Mediator of Reconciliation and that Gentiles as well as Jews had a share in the Grace and mercy of it God was in Christ reconciling the World to himself Thus the Apostle Eph. 2. 13. But now in Christ Iesus ye who sometimes were afar off are made nigh by the Blood of Christ. v. 16. And that he might reconcile both unto God in one Body by the Cross. Now here our Author meets us with a window open into his Soul that we may see the Pulse of his heart and what he understands by Christ's reconciling the World to God That is says he the Gentiles were received into the fellowship of God's Church and the Iews and Gentiles united in one Body or Society Some that were strangers to our Author's Sentiments would greedily ask what was that great quarrel between Jews and Gentiles that God must send his only begotten Son out of his Bosom to dye a most bitter violent painful lingering cursed Death to take it up That he must be made sin have Iniquities charged upon him to make them friends That there have been Wars and Contentions betwixt the Iews and their Neighbours Histories both sacred and prophane abundantly testify there are such amongst most Neighbouring Nations But shall we think that God will send his Son into the World to compose all the bickerings that ever were in the World But suppose there had been a Necessity of it was the feud so inveterate that nothing but the Death of him that came to make Peace could take it away must every Man dye a Cursed Death that comes to make up a breach between two wrangling Neighbours or Nations few would be ambitious to be Plenipotentiaries upon such Terms It is true there was a difference or distinction set up by God himself between the Jews and the rest of the World but no quarrel or enmity put between them But then 1. The Gentiles had Liberty to become Proselytes of Righteousness and then the union had been made the Ceremonial Law still standing in force 2. God could easily have taken down the Partition Wall and laid the Church open from the enclosure there was a Time when there was none of that discriminating Dispensation and he that set it up could have abrogated and repealed it without such a dreadful way of giving his only Son to be Made first Man and then Sin and then a Curse It seems strange that God should first Create a necessity of a quarrel and then put his Son upon a necessity to remove it at so dear a price as his own Blood 3. If our Author was once i' th' right there was no great need of removing these Ceremonies for says he p. 29. The rest of the World might when they pleased fetch the best Rules of Life and the most certain notices of the Divine Will from the Jews so long then as they might have a fairer Copy of their Moral-Law they needed not be beholden to them for their Ceremonies But the bottom of the business is this and no other The Scripture is most express that Christ is said to reconcile us to God by his Blood by his Death it would be a burning shame to deny it What is then to be done First it 's resolved on that it 's not to be endured that any of the Blessings of the Gospel be allowed the proper effects of his Death or Blood why then some wholsome expedient must be found out that the expression may be owned and yet the thing it self rejected And the best that can be thought on at present is this To imagine a most terrible War between Jews and Gentiles upon the Account of Ceremonies such as set the whole World on a Flame and involved all Mankind in the dreadful Combustion not a single Person in all the World but sided in with one of the parties And now if we could but be Masters of so much Confidence as to say that Christ came and dyed and was made a Curse to make these two Parties friends there would be something that might be called Reconciliation Now upon a serious view of the premises it was observed that the Jews had some marks of distinction whereby they were priviledged above and differenced from the rest of Mankind Now a difference you know sometimes signifies a Quarrel which fell out as luckily as heart could wish and therefore these tokens of difference shall be called Enmity and Christ's taking away this difference shall be called the removing of the Enmity and by Consequence Reconciliation yes there it must go if anywhere for I see and am glad to see it that our Author is willing to carry some fair Correspondency and not to fall out flat with the Death of Christ. Now says he This Union of Iews and Gentiles is owing to the Gospel which takes away all marks of distinction and gives them both equal right to the Blessings of the New-Covenant But 1. To what purpose was the Enmity removed between Iew and Gentile if the Enmity of God against both had not been removed all Union on Earth without Peace without Heaven is but a wicked confederacy 2. The Iews as well as Gentiles are said to be reconciled Now what-ever grudg the Gentiles might have against the Iews yet the Jews had no Cause of any against the poor Gentiles did they envy them their darkness and blindness and Alienation from their Common-Wealth 3. They must
both be reconciled to God and what did the removal of Ceremonies contribute to that end But says he This New-Covenant belongs to all Mankind to Gentiles as well as Iews there 's now no distinction of Persons no Man is ever the more or less accepâ—…able to God because he is a Iew or a Greek very true I wonder when ever it was otherwise Our Author could have Answered himself from p. 27. Those particular favours that God bestowed on Israel were not owing to any partial fondness and respect to that People but the design of all was to encourage the whole World to Worship the God of Israel And that the Jews were not accepted for their Ceremonial Services we may easily believe if we can but believe what he tells us Pag. 269. The Law of Moses 〈◊〉 them up in a ritual and external Religion taught them to Worship God in the Letter by Circumcision Sacrifices and an external Conformity to the Letter of the Law but the Gospel aloue teaches us to worship God with the Spirit to offer a reasonable Service to him And if he can but assure me that the Gentiles were never the less accepted of God because they were Gentiles I dare give him my Warrant that the Iews were never the more accepted of God for their Judaism according to those Measures which our Author has given of their Religion which it seems was mere Pageantry 2. Concerning Redemption he acquaints us what it signifies both to Iews and Gentiles 1. As to the Iews They says he are said to be redeemed from the Curse of the Law by the accursed Death of Christ upon the Cross Gal. 3. 13. Because the Death of Christ put an end to that legal Dispensation and sealed a New and better Covenant between God and Man It 's well he could find any thing small enough to be the proper and immediate effect of the Death of Christ but who shall reconcile the Apostle and our Author The Apostle says Christ redeemed them by being made a Curse for them Our Author says No he only put an end to that Legal Dispensation The Apostle says they were redeemed by a price paid 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He brought them out with a price which he expresses in words at length 1 Cor. 6. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ye are bought with a price No says he Christ's Death put an end to that legal Dispensation The Apostle says they were redeemed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from under the Curse No says he 't was only a freedom from the legal Dispensation Two suppositions he makes use of to give a Colour to his matters 1. Sect. That the Iews were under no other Curse but that of the Ceremonial Law Now 1. He should have been sure that the Ceremonial Law was a Curse It 's a wonder to me what grievous sins the Iews above all the World should commit that God should put them under such a Curse as should need the Death of Christ to redeem them from it especially what great Crimes had Abraham been guilty of that God should thus Curse and plague him with Circumcision which yet the Scripture calls the Seal of the Righteous Faith Rom. 4. 11. 2. It would be considered whether ever God gave a Law to any People in the World besides them that in its own Nature was a Curse Our Author once told us p. 196. That it pleased God to Institute a great many Ceremonies in the Iewish Worship to awe their Childish minds into a greater Veneration of the Divine Majesty And truly better so than worse better be frighted into Obedience than not at all Obedient But that ever God designed it for a Curse is past my apprehension 3. The Ceremonial Law in it's constitution end and design was a great Blessing there they had Pardon of sin Atonement Reconciliation exhibited and sealed to them Lev. 17 11. 2 Chron. 29. And all this could be no curse but to those who loved their sins better than the pardon of them and to such every Blessing of God would eventually prove a Curse 4. It will appear they were under a greater curse than what arose from the burden someness or their violation of the Ceremonial Law viz. That Condemnation which came upon all Men by the Fall of Adam Rom. 5. 12 13 14. 17 18 19. Such a Curse as was Common not only â—…o Iew and Gentile but to every individual under both capacities Rom. 3. 9. We have proved both Iews and Gentiles that they are all under sin ver 19. That every mouth may be stopped and all the World become guilty before God ver 23. For all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God And therefore all had need of free justification by Grace through the Redemption that is in Iesus Christ ver 24. 5. The Jews were under a curse upon the Account of their violation of the Moral Law and their not duly attending to the true ends of the Ceremonial Law but if the violation of a Law would make it become a curse then the Moral Law was become a curse too and then they had need of a Redeemer from the one as well as the other though both were blessings in themselves The Ceremonial Law in particular had this great blessing in it That as it discovered to them the demerit and Wages of sin in the slaying of the Sacrifices so it discovered a remedy two in the Sacrifices slain for them which directed them to look through them beyond them and above them to him who was the Lamb of God slain from the Foundation of the World All this was no curse 2. Sect. He supposes that the Text Gal. 3. 13. Christ hath Redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us relates onely to the Iews Whereas the Apostle adds to obviate that Cavil That the Blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles Christ is made a curse for them upon whom the Blessing of Abraham came by his Death but the Blessing of Abraham came upon the Gentiles by his Death therefore Christ is made a Curse for the Gentiles And that the Law from the curse whereof both Jews and Gentiles were Redeemed by Christs being made a Curse for them is the Moral Law I have endeavoured to evince in the last Section but whether to our Authors content or no I know not One thing more he supposes that Christs Sealing a New Covenant is Redemption But there must go more than the sealing of such a Covenant as he has described There must be the payment of a Price to Iustice or there can be no Redemption To Redeem is properly to buy back again that which was forfeited and such were Sinners Their Persons forfeited to Iustice their Mercies escheated into the hands of the Law Now comes a Redeemer and gives himself to God as a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Counter-price a valuable Consideration to Answer the demands of Justice and the claims of the Law and
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
they had of their own for which God might justly have dealt thus with them yet God Declares that this was the Impulsive cause of their Punishment even the sin of David with whom the People having a Political Union as our Author phrases it they made but one Body in the sight of Vengeance And when others say That this was but a temporal Punishment and therefore it will not hold that God should punish the Posterity of Adam spiritually for his Transgression they say they know not what For God will not be Unrighteous and Unjust in Punishing the Sons of Men for that sin which is none of their own in the smallest thing from a Thread to a Shooe-latchet and the Rule of Justice in this Case is the Law for if the Law was back'd by a Sanction of Spiritual and Eternal threatnings then 't is Just with the Law-giver to Inflict the Punishment upon all that are under the Law our Union with Adam was another a stricter Union than the Israelites had with David it was Spiritual the other Civil External only And therefore according to the Law of Union and Relation though the Israelites could only suffer for Davids sin temporally yet the Posterity of Adam may by Righteous Judgment of God for Adams sin suffer Eternally And now let us briefly see whether our Author comes up to any thing of the Apostle or no God says he was so highly displeased with Adams sin that for his sake he Entailed a great many Evils Miseries nay Death it self upon his Posterity Nay but says the Apostle they were constituted sinners Iudgment and Condemnation came upon them though they had not sinned after the Similitude of Adams transgression the same Iudgment which in the Sanction of the Law was threatned against Adams sin and now to Fob and Flam off this with Evils Miseries and never tell us what they were not how it could be Just with God to Entail the least Evil upon them or touch a Hair of their Heads for the sin of another with whom they had no privity of Interest is to Reduce the sin of Adam as near to Nothing as he has Reduced Christs Righteousness 2. May we enquire also VVhether that Influence which he allows to Christs Obedience reach the Mind of the Apostle The Apostle affirms that By the Obedience of one many were made Righteous and that by the Righteousness of one the Free-gift came upon all to Iustification of Life v. 18 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Many or the many of whom he Treats shall be constituted Righteous For as all that were in the first Adam all his Natural Seed were by vertue of a Legal Constitution Ordinance and Appointment of God made sinners in the Transgression of their common Head and Representative so all the Spiritual Seed and Posterity of Christ which the Father had promised to give him as the Reward of his Death and Sufferings are by vertue of a New a better Law-constitution made Righteous by the Righteousness of their spiritual Head and Representative And therefore the Apostle v. 14. tells us expresly That Adam was the Figure of Christ He did exactly represent the Headship of Christ towards all his spiritual Posterity in that Headship which he bore towards his own Posterity But the Apostle has said enough in this Chapter to stomack the Pride and Restifness of humane Wisdom nothing more grating upon the Spirit of a Gallant than that he should be made a sinner by the sin or owe his Righteousness to the Righteousness of another This is the summe of the Apostles Discourse As the Posterity of Adam were made sinners constituted such by a Law and dealt with as such by God so are the Posterity of Christ made Righteous by such another way of Justification But then I assume The Posterity of Adam could not be made sinners by the sin of Adam otherwise than by the Imputation of Adams sin therefore the Posterity of Christ could not be made Righteous otherwise in the sight of God than by the Imputation of Christs Righteousness The Posterity of Adam could not possibly be made sinners by Adams first sin any other way than by charging it upon them according to the Terms of that Law under which he and they stood nor are the Seed of Christ capable of being made Righteous in Gods sight by the Obedience of Christ otherwise than by Imputing it to them according to that New Covenant-constitution called the Law of Faith and Righteousness under which Christ and Believers do now stand But if the word Imputation do Disgust our Authors delicate Ears let him call it what he pleases provided the Apostles Argument be satisfied and his main Design secured let us now see how our Author comes up to the Apostle God says he was so well pleased with the Obedience and Righteousness of Christs Life and Death that for his sake he bestows the rewards of Righteousness on those who according to the Rigour of the Law are not Righteous Wherein our Author and our Apostle come not near one another by many Leagues 1. Our Author says God bestows the reward of Righteousness on them that are not Righteous But our Apostle says we are made Righteous by the Obedience of Christ before we can be accounted Righteous by God The Holy God will not account half Righteousness for a whole one sinners may mock themselves but they cannot mock God That which the Law requires must be had the Apostle tells us 't is to be had in Christ By his Obedience through the Intervention of the Law-constitution of Faith and Righteousness Believers are made Righteous 2. Whatever is Lurking under the darkness of these Expressions The Rewards of Righteousness the Rigour of the Law yet this we may be sure of that all come to this in the Up shot That God for Christs sake has made a New Covenant of Grace which Pardons our past Sins and Follies and rewards a Sincere though Imperfect Obedience I can compare our Authors Copia Verborum his Variegated Equipollent Phrases and Expressions to nothing so well as that of the Chymists when they endeavour to bind Hermes or in plain English their fixing of Quicksilver they can Model it into many accidental Forms and Shapes and yet the Cunning versute Creature will be Mercury again do what they can unless some will compare it to the Young-mans Mistress in the Fable that Brided it for a day or so but yet upon the sight of her old Game put off her Personated self and reassumed her real self again Such Feats of Activity have we shown us ever and anon by our Author he can turn his words into more Shapes than Proteus tell us of this and that but when he comes to himself All the Influence that Christs Obedience has upon our acceptance with God is that we owe such a Covenant to it as he has described to us and Contrived for us Tells us That God for Christs sake has entered into a