by God appointed the Heir of all things Fourthly by his Resurrection thus He but our New Undertaker to render these things the more plausible has given us a new set or Division of the reasons why Christ is called the Son of God The title of the Son of God says he is in Scripture founded upon these Five things Two that are taken from his two-fold birth the one out of the Womb of the Virgin by the Operation of the Holy Ghost the other out of the Womb of the Earth by his Resurrection which makes him undoubtedly the Natural Son of God his only begotten Son Thoughts on Sherlock's vindication of the Trinity p. 4 5. his own or his proper Son Three other which are drawn from his Offices the First Because he is that Prophet whom his Father has sanctified and sent into the World with an extraordinary Commission Secondly Because he is the great High-Priest immediately called to that Office by God himself the Third Because He is the King whom God has exalted to a Supreme Power both in Heaven and in Earth Now these Reasons thus multiplied tho' we should allow them all True yet they come not up to the matter in hand It 's true Christ really is the Son of God by reason of his Conception by the Power of the Holy Ghost in the Womb of the Virgin but supposing with the Socinians that the Holy Ghost is not a Person but only the influence of Almighty God there is not enough in that Birth so miraculous as it is to give our Saviour the title of the Son of God distinctly and exclusively of all others Dr. Heylin tho' far enough from denying the eternal Deity of Christ yet seems very willing to rest in this Reason that He is called the only begotten Son of God purely upon it or because He 's the beloved Son in whom He is well pleased or his loved Son or the Son of his Love and approves of Maldonat's opinion that the beloved Son and the only begotten Son are terms Reciprocal but the mistake is apparent for tho' Isaac be called the only begotten Son of Abraham it does not argue that He was the sole engrosser of his love the contrary is apparent from Abraham's carriage in the case of Ishmael when he took the necessity of turning Him and his Mother out of doors so grievously Gen. 21.11 and when upon God's promising him a Son by Sarah who should be heir of his blessings the tender Father yet beg'd that Ishmael might also live in his sight Gen. 17.18 i. e. be partaker of God's Favours and extraordinary Blessings too Besides that Isaac is called Abraham's only begotten Son in contradistinction to Ishmael Isaac was the only begotten Son with respect to God's Promise and as being the only Son of the free Woman and properly enough yet we see by course of Nature Abraham had more Sons than Isaac therefore Isaac was not Abraham's only begotten Son in a sence so eminent as our Lord is called the Only begotten of the Father Heylin on the Creed p. 168. the Father having no other Son begotten by himself but Christ But tho' sometimes Men do love an Only Child at an extraordinary rate yet it 's not â—lways nor necessarily so for Love beâ—ng sometimes guided by Reason and Obeâ—ience being the only rational ground of â—aternal Affection several Children may â—e as obedient as One and therefore several may as rationally be loved as One in an exâ—raordinary manner But farther Neither is our Saviour's Conception by the Holy Ghost in the Womb of the Virgin so very great a Miracle as to set our Saviour on that account so far above every Creature for as Doctor Pearson well observes Pearson on the Creed p. 107. Adam the first Man was made immediately by the hand of God no humane faculty concurring at all and Adam is therefore called the Son of God by the Evangelist now there cannot be a Power so much greater requir'd to give a Man a being in the Womb of a Virgin than to frame him at first out of a Piece of Earth as to make so great a distance necessary as is between the First and the Second Adam for Jesus Christ our Second Adam must be the Son of God in so peculiar a manner as must make him infinitely Superiour to any other Creature he being design'd to exercise such a Power as no other Creature could possibly be capable of We allow then our Lord's Birth and Conception to have been one ground of his being the Son of God but not the first it 's no where called so in Scripture nor is it sufficient to fix him in that supereminent station wherein our Faith is fix'd upon him The second reason of his Filiation is yet much more Deficient viz. his Resurrection or raising from the Womb of the Earth for we find none called the Son of God in Scripture on that Reason that our Saviour was rais'd from the dead we know if we look upon him as rais'd from the Dead by his own Power as indeed He Joh. 2.19 John 10.17 18. and He only was as himself asserts that affords us a great difference between Him and all other Persons but utterly destroys the Socinian ground of his being called the Son of God But for such troublesom passages as these I find a remarkable saying of Smalcius which shews us the whole mystery of their avoiding the force of plain Scripture and it 's this speaking of Christ's being called God he proceeds When we find it declared in Scripture not only once or twice but very often and very plainly that God was made Man considering that this is a Proposition absurd wholly contrary to right Reason and full of Blasphemy against God we believe it must be a great deal better to find out some mode of speaking according to which one may say this concerning God than to interpret things simply and according to the Letter that is to say the Socinians have resolved not to regulate their Opinions by the Scripture but to reduce the Scripture to their Opinions this however is plain dealing and a sufficient warning to read their Discourses with the greater Caution and Intention of mind But if the Socinians make use of this Art by their own Confessions in matters of the clearest nature and so often repeated we cannot doubt but they 'l rather pitch on some unknown Figure to elude those Texts which imply our Saviour's raising himself from the Dead than own his Vnity with his Father in the same Essence or Nature whereby both the assertion that Christ rais'd himself and that He was rais'd by his Father from the dead are so easily reconcil'd But allowing them their own fancy if our Saviour was not rais'd from the Dead by any Power of his Own but only by that of his Father and yet was called the Son of God on account of his Resurrection then all those who shall rise from the
return to their Obedience to him and he is said to reconcile the World to himself in his Son because He in concert with his Son determined on that means of Pardon and Remission to be granted to Sinners which Sinners themselves could never have pitched on and because Man was naturally backward to his own good but God ever seeking it Yet when we consider 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a word of Ecclesiastical use and signifying particularly such a Reconciliation as is of Penitents to the Church by which for their Crimes they had been before excommunicated We look upon our Saviour as our great High-priest making that Peace for us and as Penitents are not required to forgive the Church which they have offended but the Church kindly forgives them though Offenders so the World reconciled to God do not forgive God or restore God to their Favour but God by the Sacrifice and Intercession of their High-priest forgives them and restores them to his Favour to which end the Doctrine of Reconciliation i.e. the Doctrine of Repentance is committed to God's Ministers and we 2 Cor. 5.19 20. as Ambassadours from Christ entreat Men that they would be reconciled to God that is that they would turn every one from the Wickedness of their Ways and so be re-instated in his Favour It might seem not very easie to pervert the meaning of Scripture when it calls our Saviour a Propitiation for our sins so St. John 1 Joh. 2.1 2. If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and he is the Propitiation or the propitiatory or atoning Sacrifice for our Sins and again In this is Love not that we loved God 4.10 but that he loved us and sent his Son a Propitiation for our sins and so St. Paul Rom. 3.25 God hath set forth Christ to be a Propitiation through Faith in his Blood c. Now would I fain be satisfied what is the Benefit of our Faith in the Blood of Christ a Faith peculiar extraordinary and indispensibly necessary to Salvation if the shedding of that precious Blood had no effect with relation to atoning or satisfying God's Displeasure justly exprest against our Sins That Christ's Blood had a real intrinsic Value it would look somewhat harshly to deny yet it was not necessary it should have any such Worth to render it capable of confirming the new Covenant mutual Compacts made among the Ancients with the Solemnity of a Sacrifice depended not at all on any inherent worth in the Blood of that Sacrifice nay Cataline's Conspiracy though confirm'd with Humane Blood was not so confirm'd because Humane Blood was of a greater value in it self than that of other Creatures but that by joining at first in so horrid an Action they might desperately conclude it to no purpose to stand out at any Wickedness whatsoever but our Saviour's Blood is particularly preferred in its Worth to Silver and Gold and any corruptible Riches whatsoever therefore must be in it self of infinite or transcendent Worth and that infinite Worth could not but effect some mighty good for us on account of which we were to depend on that Blood nor could the Blood of our Redeemer or his Sufferings be less Satisfactory because God is said to have given him for so he might though our Lord's Humiliation was voluntary the perfect agreement of the Divine Will in the Father and the Son neither detracting from the Father's Bounty nor the Son's Willingness or Freedom so Isaac who was a Type of our Saviour must have been able to have resisted his aged Father when he was preparing to sacrifice him but he did not imitating the Antitype in that very particular of being led as a Lamb to the slaughter yet Isaac's Willingness did not hinder but that had the Solemnity gone on as begun he would have been his Father Abraham's Sacrifice or his Gift to Almighty God as would Jephtha's Daughter too notwithstanding her ready complyance with the Import of her Father's Vow But it 's objected That the Covering of God's Ark appointed to be made by Moses according to the Pattern in the Mount is called the Propitiatory Exod. 23.22 which we translate the Mercy-seat the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same Title by St. Paul affixt to our Blessed Saviour the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was certainly in its original Signification no more than what answered to its position about the Ark that is a Covering or that which clos'd it up on the Top translated by the Word which signifies a Propitiatory on account of that immediate Residence which God promised to keep there from the Cherubims placed on which Covering he gave Answers to the Petitions of his Supplicants thence called emphatically That God who dwelt between the Cherubims from whence it may appear that when the Apostle applies that Word to our Lord of whom that Propitiatory or Mercy-seat was always accounted a Type he means that the Man Christ Jesus was the peculiar Residence of the Deity or as he expresses himself that Person in whom dwelt the fulness of the Godhead bodily from which Body of his God himself gave his answers of Mercy and Compassion to Mankind and this must necessarily have been if he inform'd his Disciples rightly when he told them He and his Father were One and that whosoever had seen Him had seen his Father also The Socinians seem very willing to own that our Saviour's Passion serv'd to expiate our Sins Cat. Rac. §. 6. c. 8. p. 153. Cum Joannes eum Propitiationem pro Peccatis nostris appellat significat per eum Peccata nostra expiari when St. John calls him the Propitiation for our Sins he means that our Sins are expiated by him but nothing can expiate Sins but what is satisfactory for Sins or what bears that Punishment for Sinners which Sinners themselves should have born hence Expiation is often explained by Satisfying so the Beasts offer'd in Sacrifice were put to death to intimate the Demerits of the Offerers who ought to have died for their own Transgressions hence those Offerings made for the Sins of Men were stiled Expiatory or Purging not as if the Beasts offer'd by Men to Almighty God had any thing expiatory in themselves but they were call'd so on account of that relation they had to the great Sacrifice of our Saviour which really did what they only shadowed out i. e. made a sufficient Satisfaction for the Sins of the World otherwise why should the Apostle tell us that it 's impossible the Blood of Bulls and of Goats should put away Sin since they were appointed by God himself to be sacrificed as expiatory for Sin but that their whole Effect depended on their relative Nature and their Praesignification of that glorious Offering to be made for Men at last it had been only to put a Sham upon miserable Wretches to tell of expiating their Sins by those Means by
obscure to contend with But here learning and study a strict familiarity with God's Word and an exercised experience carry the Christian Priest thro' a great many vexatious enquiries and a modest consultation with others who are blest with such qualifications tends much to the settlement of dubious minds but after all these are properly no mysteries for the rules of Scripture by which such inquiries are ultimately determined are very plain and obvious to every understanding their nature being like that of a Light in a dark place which serves to guide and direct Travellers in the way they should go but the occasion of these doubts is the misapplication of rules to matter of fact the misapprehension or misrepresentation of circumstances c. wherein the distempers of the Soul are much like the diseases of the body if the Patient can give a just and rational account of those parts about him which are griev'd and how he finds himself the Physician easily understands the disease and is able to apply the proper medicines but if the Patient gives a broken and uncertain account of his condition even a skilful Physician may grosly mistake the disease and its remedy to the Patient's ruine so when doubting Christians understand not the state of their own Souls nor the first motives or occasions of their fears or where they are afraid or ashamed to lay open themselves with all sincerity to him from whom they expect relief it 's not to be wondred at if excellent advices fail of their proper effect whereas a true insight into a Man's self makes the greatest seeming difficulties easily and certainly determinable As for matters of Faith they are of another nature and tho' matters of practice so far as practice is religious depend upon what the Christian believes altogether and are so very plain as I shew'd before yet those objects of faith are so far beyond the reach of reason as it is from Earth to Heaven nay that very faith without which as we are sufficiently assur'd it 's impossible to please God though it be inherent in the pious Soul is absolutely mysterious and inexplicable We feel the prodigious force of it in those acts whereby it raises the Soul to a contemplation of Divine things but it is as the Prophets of old felt the inspiring energy of the sacred Spirit when they spoke what it dictated but could give no account of the methods of its operation in them the Apostle when he tells us of it that it's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 11.1 the substance of things hoped for and that it 's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the argumental evidence of things not seen tho' he gives us doubtless an authentick description of that necessary grace yet shows the unintelligible nature of it by his very expressions for what difference is there among Learned Men and how much pains taken to clear the meaning of this description It imports indeed that true faith is of so efficacious a nature that tho' it have respect onely to things which are at a distance yet it represents them to the Soul so plainly and so powerfully that the Soul reaps equal satisfaction from that distant view as it would from an immediate possession Meginhardus the German Monk writes well of it when he says Faith is called the substance of things hoped for by a figure not that it 's really their proper substance but because that faith which works by love by which the just live and by which power is given to us that we should be call'd and really be the Sons of God that faith in the troublesome pilgrimage of this life meditates on the reward of eternal happiness with so firm and certain an hope Vt in corum cordibus qui charitate quae per spiritum sanctum in eis diffusa est dilatantur Vid. Dictericum in voce jam nunc per ineffabile desiderium ea faciat subsistere that even at this time by that ineffable ardency of desire they are possest with it makes them subsist in their hearts who have hearts enlarged with that charity or Love which is pour'd into them by the holy Spirit and Jaeobus Capellus in our Criticks explains the same Apostolical expression thus Fiducia est velut in statione manens ac rem promissam expectans cum animi submissione habénsque simul vim statuminandi sperantem sistendi rem speratam i. e. This faith is a confidence well fixt and setled waiting for the thing promised with a due submission of mind and having a force in it self sufficient to support him that hopes and to bring to hand the thing hoped for Again it 's the evidence of things not seen therefore out-going humane reason in this life for if humane reason were clear enough to prove to us those things undeniably which we expect in a future state there would then be no need of any other evidence at least we should not by the Apostle be referr'd to an evidence naturally more obscure when reason that by which we do or should most commonly act could give us what was much more plain and obvious but our reason being notoriously defective in the case our firm belief that there is an Heaven of joys and an Hell of woes to be met with hereafter is an argument not to be answer'd that there are really such things for the Soul of Man is not easily carried out of it self into violent longings after a meer phantastical good nor is it ordinarily terrified with apprehensions of Mormoes or bug-bears but where it runs out most into fabulous or figurative expressions of its expectations there 's somewhat real and sound in the bottom so those that talk of infernal Judges in Hell and various kinds of sensible pains to be there felt and of Furies torturing Souls c. all agree certainly in that that vengeance does certainly attend ill actions and that tho' Men may escape plausibly in this world they shall certainly suffer terribly in the next tho' they cannot make a tolerable conjecture how a guilty Spirit should suffer to such extremity In the same manner those that tell us of Elysian fields adorn'd with variety of beautiful Flowers blest with a serene Air and a continual Spring where those that have done well happy in each others society shall live in undisturb'd pleasures beyond the reach of fates malice or times consumption All such prove their certain belief that there is and shall be a reward for the righteous that is an unallay'd felicity to be attain'd but what a kind of felicity that is which is infinite and eternal who can tell nay who would value them as the Saints do if they could possibly comprehend them No it is because eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor has it entred into the heart of man to conceive how great those things are which God has prepared for those that love him Therefore the holy and the wise are always panting after those enjoyments
may retort their question and ask Is it possible two should be exactly of one mind and yet not both of one nature I fear they 'l find no instances of that Friends may be said to be One Husband and Wife to be One Two People to be One but are they not all of a mortal nature and consequently capable of equal thoughts and apprehensions of things if therefore God the Father and Jesus Christ be One in their sence it must be by Identity of Vnderstanding and Will and Intention which cannot be but between Persons of equal nature therefore Christ must be partaker of the Divine Nature and therefore he must be God and so what he farther adds in his discourse with the Jews is easily intelligible and a strong confirmation of what we have laid down If I do the works of my Father believe not Me but believe the Works that ye may know and believe that the Father is in me and I in him this passage if interpreted of unity of Will can be no where parallel'd and indeed it intimates a yet closer conjunction than that agreement This Union takes as much of the Subject on one part as on the other therefore if the father be every where and more peculiarly in the Son the Son is every where too and as peculiarly in the Father and therefore when Enjedine would make a shew of some parallel expressions of Christ's being in good Men and they in him he unluckily among other places hits on that of S. Paul where he speaks of Christ's dwelling in the heart by Faith Eph. 3.17 which indeed explains all the rest for Christ being a Meer Man as the Socinians say cannot any otherwise be united so to men as to be said to be in them but by Faith nor can good Men pious and holy Persons be in Christ otherwise than by Faith but sure it was never thought of that the Son of God was in his Father or his Father in him by Faith yet that must be said be it never so absurd or blasphemous if their appeal to that of our Saviour stand good That they all may be one as thou Father art in me Joh 17 21 22 23. and I in thee that they also may be one in us that they may be one even as we are one I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one here the unity between Christians or those who should believe in Christ must be that unity of mind consisting in mutual Love and Charity that Unity must be maintain'd by the vigour of their Faith but cannot that Unity between the Father and the Son be maintain'd without the same Faith If the expressions must be explain'd all one way it will then follow That God loves those who believe in his Son as well as he loves his Son for so it follows in the forecited place That they may be made perfect in one ver 23. and that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast lov'd them as thou hast loved me but this would quite ruine all their pretences to an extraordinary reverence of the Person of Christ whom they pretend to prefer in all privileges infinitely before the Holiest of other men Indeed the Prayer of Christ imports only this He begs of his Father that Christians might be as closely united with respect to their mortal state and in proportion to it as he and his Father were in their immortal Nature and that believers should enjoy his presence as effectually to their advantage by their Faith in him as he enjoy'd the infinite glory and happiness of his Father by his Identity or Coessentiality with him and this is the greatest happiness they could wish for themselves or Christ for them The Jews then were not mistaken in the meaning of our Saviour when in saying He and his Father were one they thought he made himself God nor did they mistake him when they sought to kill him before because he said God was his Father Joh. 3.18 making himself equal with God For Christ's permission of any to worship him was a better interpretation of his words than all the glosses of the Socinians put together and as reason commonly teaches us to understand that the begetting Father and the begotten Son are both of one and the same Nature here so the same reason taught the Jews to apprehend that if Christ were the Son of God he then must be of the same nature with his Father which they who saw him in the form of a servant only thought as absurd and impossible as the Socinians do now if the Jews committed a mistake in their apprehensions of Christ's words nothing can possibly excuse either Christ himself or his Apostles from extreme unkindness since they would take no pains to rectifie a Mistake in all appearance involuntary a Care which might in probability have cured them of their unbelieving humour Let us then proceed farther to that Confession of the Apostle S. Thomas when he called our Saviour his Lord and his God Joh. 20.28 Where we may take some notice of the occasion of those words which was this Our Saviour to satisfie the world of his Resurrection and more particularly to satisfie his own Disciples in that point had appear'd to them in that body in which he suffer'd for them and all the World when the Disciples were assembled together their doors shut with a great deal of privacy for fear of the Jews there he blessed them his presence gave them an extraordinary occasion of joy the transports of which being over he blest them again breathed upon them so effectually as by that breath they received the Holy Ghost and with that that Commission and power which afterwards they were more particularly authorised to exert for the management of the Church During this gracious visit of his Master Thomas one of the twelve was absent afterwards returning to his company they joyfully assure him they had seen the Lord their words carry somewhat extraordinary in them they tell him not We have seen our Lord or thy Lord they use no limiting particle but speak positively and generally We have seen the Lord so giving him that title by which the Septuagint translate the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so that it seems here given to Christ as elsewhere it is to him who by all is acknowledged to be the most high God emphatically and exclusively of all other Lords whatsoever But not to insist on this The report of his brethren to Thomas seem'd extremely incredible the Doctrine of the Resurrection tho' it was a thing which Jews had no reason to stumble at in general nor had the Disciples in particular for they had seen their Master raise Lazarus and the Son of the Widow of Naim and they had doubtless seen those holy bodies which arose from their graves upon the dreadful convulsion of nature when Jesus gave up the Ghost upon the Cross yet the
as well as Man all the difficulty vanishes at once his Person was more august his Power and Authority greater his Will uncontroulable his Holiness and Dignity incomparable Moses was but the Servant he the Lord and therefore without any Impeachment to the Fidelity and Honour of Moses he might reverse every Institution of his as he pleas'd since he as God was able of himself without any circumstantial Delay to give the World a more compleat and perfect Rule whereby humane Happiness and God's Glory the great ends of all divine Institutions might be more directly promoted the great work he undertook was proper to the Deity it self but superiour to any humbler Being this requiring so much the Satisfaction of God's Anger rais'd against a stupid sinful World cannot be suppos'd more easily brought about for the weight of God's Anger against Sin being insupportable to meer Flesh and Blood Help must of necessity be laid upon One mighty to save or else Mankind who had so long subsisted upon the lively Hope of a glorious Deliverance must have perish'd without Remedy at last and finally the Justification of our Faith Pardoning of our Sins and the bestowing upon us Everlasting Life are things compatible only with God yet really and properly ascribed to our Saviour therefore He must be God therefore He that was incarnate or made Flesh for our Salvation must be God But now if we observe the Nature of this great Work for which God was manifested in the Flesh we shall find it was wholly the effect of Immense Love and Pity to Mankind and of extraordinary Interest and Power with the great Father of all things therefore an Undertaking more peculiarly proper to God the Son than to any other Person in the Trinity Man's Redemption was an Effect of the Father's Love the Deity it self is Love the Design of saving such Sinners as should make use of Means to be offer'd in due time to that purpose was an Effect of Love the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost were all consenting in the Design from the Father as the beginning of Order must the first motions of Eternal Love and Goodness and Will take its Original not as if there were any Interstice of time between the Actions of Eternal Minds for Time can have no place or consideration in Eternity but we must speak of such things suitably to Humane Apprehensions by which kind of Expressions tho' our Idea's of God's Acts cannot be adequate or proportionable yet they may be true and safe so we speak of God the Father as propounding of God the Son as declaring his readiness to execute what 's propounded of God the Holy Ghost as consenting so to influence the Objects of Love and Mercy that neither the Proposal nor its Prosecution should be frustrated all these though the distinct Acts of Three distinct Substances are yet all one uninterrupted Act and Determination of one Infinite and Eternal God for where Infinity or Eternity or any other Attributes peculiar only to God are given to Three distinct Substances yet those Substances which are infinite howsoever really distinct must of necessity be inseparable therefore they must of necessity be One for be the Substances never so much distinct and never so perfect in themselves yet Vnity must follow upon Inseparability But according to our common way of speaking God the Father designing the greatest Goodness to Men could shew that Love and Pity to them by no other effectual Means than by giving them his onely Son the very relative Term of Father and Son implies the greatest Nearness and Love in the World and the kinder and more loving a Father is to his Son the greater of necessity must that Favour and Love be which can be content to part with a Relation so dear for the Advantage or Satisfaction of another hence God accepted it as an Effort of compleat Love and Obedience in Abraham that he had not with-held his Son his onely Son from him but was ready without any murmuring to sacrifice him at his Creator's Command and if our blessed Redeemer was the Son of God the Son of his Love the Son in whom he was well pleased the Apostle urges it home and excellently He that spared not his own Son but deliver'd him up for us all Rom. 8.32 how shall he not with him give us all things the Gift of his Son was the greatest Effort of Tenderness that was possible therefore when Men had receiv'd that Gift from the Father's hand there could be no reason of doubting whether they should receive any thing else that was fit for God to bestow or for Man to receive Indeed when the Father had determined to express the greatest Love and Pity to his Creatures there did remain nothing else to be done but to send his Son into the World upon that Occasion for he was still to move so as not to impeach his Justice Justice could not be free and universal without Satisfaction in every respect Man was so soon as fallen a continual Criminal therefore Man was the Object of that irresistable Justice the acquitting him from the stroke of Justice was the effect of the greatest Love yet Justice not being perverted must be and was satisfied on that particular account therefore it must be and was satisfied by the grant of God the Son to put himself into a passible state and to suffer a Punishment equivalent to that due to Sinners and this could be effectually performed by none other but the only Son of God for The Redemption of trespassing Mankind from the stroke of Justice according to the Father's Intention required the most absolute Obedience the greatest Interest and the most extraordinary Compassion and Tenderness towards Mankind Now these things were all most naturally to be expected from the Son for Identity or Sameness of Will in God the Father is Command and Determination in God the Son is Submission and Obedience in God the Holy Ghost is Concurrence and Assistance Now if we consider the Severity of the Condition on which Man was to be redeem'd from sinking under Wrath to the utmost and without which it was impossible Man should be redeem'd at all if we reflect upon the weight of God's Displeasure due to Sin the infinite Power of the Being displeas'd the extream Provocations whereby it 's continually exasperated these Considerations must convince us that it required the greatest Obedience possible in the Undertaker such an Obedience as could be startled by no Difficulty diverted by no Temptation nor conquered by any Extremity it could engage with Of such an Obedience Isaac was a considerable Type who though so dear to his Father so vigorous and strong as he might have been able enough to have secured himself from the violent Zeal of his Aged Father though Nature must have had some Reluctance against Death against Death by the hand of his own Father by his hand from whom he had deserv'd all Kindness and Love by his
habitual Obedience yet he stopt upon none of these Considerations but was for ought we can find by the Sacred Story as ready to be offered as his Parent was to offer him now such a kind of Obedience cannot reasonably be expected from any but a Son nor from any but the best of Sons such was Isaac but as the Burden the Son of God undertook was infinitely greater than what Isaac was concerned in the Eternal Determination of Heaven in respect of Man infinitely harder to comply with so it required a Son more Powerful more Obedient more united with his Father than any Earthly Son could be with the most obliging Earthly Parent therefore there being that Eternal Unity of Will between God the Father and God the Son it was impossible there should be the least Reluctance in the Son against what was resolv'd on for the rescue of Sinners from the Wrath to come and therefore that declining the terrible Hour which appears in his Prayer before his being seiz'd on by the Jews was purely the Effect of Humane Nature necessarily infirm but clearly understanding the Terror of the approaching Conflict and therefore shewing the result of the purest Flesh and Blood yet without Sin Again when we reflect on the Relation between a Father and a Son as it 's very close so their mutual Loves and Affections must needs be very extraordinary and tender this is observ'd and expected among earthly Parents and Children and it's what Nature commands and Religion so far as true obliges to this then must be much more eminent between God the Father and the Son and so our Lord himself teaches us The Father loveth the Son and as the greatest evidence of that intense Love John 3.35 he has given him all things into his hand he asserts the same again The Father loveth the Son and sheweth him all things that he doth 5.20 which is an Expression of the greatest Intimacy and Unity the same Jesus declares that his Father hears him always 11.42 and the Palmist in the Person of the Father speaking to the Son says Psal 2.8 Ask of me and I will give thee the Heathen for thine Inheritance and the uttermost parts of the Earth for thy Possession and on assurance of this Christ when he reproves St. Peter for using his Sword against those who came to take him tells him he could pray to his Father and he should presently send him more than twelve Legions of Angels from all which Circumstances we may be assured that the Interests of an infinitely Obedient Son with an infinitely Loving Father must be infinite therefore whereas Mens Sins were infinitely odious and that Vengeance infinite which was by consequence to fall upon Men for those Sins there was nothing but an infinite Interest that could possibly by any means whatsoever divert that Vengeance and this infinite Interest was proper to God the Son that is to such a Son as was at Unity nay was One with his Father from whence it is that we are taught by the Rules of Christianity and a Socinian himself will scarce contradict it to present all our Prayers to God in the Name of his Son Jesus Christ so whereas our Lord teaches his Disciples Whatsoever ye shall ask in my Name John 14.13 14. that will I do that the Father may be glorified in the Son if ye shall ask any thing in my Name I will do it 16.23 26. he afterwards varies thus In that day ye shall ask me nothing Verily verily I I say unto you whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my Name he will give it you Hitherto ye have askt nothing in my Name ask and ye shall receive that your Joy may be full which two Texts compared together shew the absolute Prevalency of the Name of the Son of God with our Heavenly Father and the absolute and indissoluble Union of the Father and the Son so that it may properly and without any thing like a Contradiction be asserted that what One does the Other does and what the Father grants for the Son's sake that the Son grants nor can any thing of an Heavenly Nature be granted to Mankind but by the Deity so united in it self by which Consideration all inferiour Intercessors between God and Man are excluded from being in themselves the Objects of our Religious Adorations because there can be no such adequate Unions of Persons between them nor any such absolute Power or immediate Interest in such inferiour Beings as there can be no reasonable Competition of Interests between a Son adopted out of Commiseration and an onely begotten and universally loving and obedient Heir as then the Interest of a Son with the Father was necessary for Humane Redemption so it was necessary that God the Son particularly should assume our Nature to do and suffer for us in such a measure as we might be redeem'd upon acceptance of the proper Conditions from Eternal Destruction Finally the Tenderness of the Son oft-times shews it self when the Gravity and just Severity of a Father seems inexorable to an Offender yet even then when the Father seems of himself and otherwise would be inflexible to the Criminal he is pleas'd to see the Tenderness of his Son and will frequently encourage and accept of his Intercession so if we may compare small things with great our Heavenly Father deals with us in respect of the Intercession of his Son and though Justice cry'd out for Vengeance against Sinners he was particularly well pleased when he saw Him cloth'd with Flesh for accomplishing that great Work of Mercy and Goodness he was pleas'd at his Interposition between the Criminals and impendent Punishment and since the Divine Nature was wholly incapable of flexible Affections nothing but unbounded Love Mercy Justice c. concentring in it the Apostle teaches us that our incarnate Lord our great High-priest was such an One as could be affected with our Infirmities Heb. 5.7 8 9. could have compassion on the Ignorant and of them that are out of the way who in the days of his flesh when he offer'd up Prayers and Supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death and was heard in that he feared Though he were a Son yet he learned Obedience by the things which he suffer'd and being made perfect he became the Author of eternal Salvation to all them that believe the Assumption of our Nature created in him a sympathetic Tenderness of Humane Infirmities as appear'd by his Tears over Jerusalem and at the Grave of Lazarus yet he was free from all Sin in those condescending Tears of his now he that had such extraordinary Compassion for miserable Sinners could not but exert the utmost of his sacred Interests on their behalf and make a free access for them to the Throne of Grace where such Obedience Interest and Compassion being indispensibly necessary for our Good and those Qualifications being naturally
on the Apostles and their companions enabled them to prove that Christ was the Son of God and to confirm their rational arguments and deductions from the Old Testament by a thousand signs and miracles such as made the most stubborn of mankind bow their necks to the yoke of Christ and own that He was truly what he call'd himself the Son of God and the Saviour of the World If we proceed according to the Apostles method Jesus Christ God Incarnate was seen of Angels seen with the greatest admiration since even Angelic intellectuals could never have reach'd so far as to imagine God's love to mankind which yet they knew to be extraordinary should shew it self in so prodigious a condescension Yet when he was pleas'd to stoop so low the Angels saw and knew and prais'd him tho' wrapt in swadling clothes and lying in a manger they ador'd him and administred to him tho' tempted forty days and forty nights by the Devil in the wilderness they attended him with their ministerial comforts when in that bitter agony in the garden when praying more earnestly his sweat was as it had been great drops of blood falling down to the ground Luke 22.43 44. They attended his sepulchre when he shook off the fetters of Death Matt. 28.2 3 4. Acts 1.10 and broke through the confinement of the grave striking terror on the trembling Watch but bringing comfort to the women whose early zeal brought them first to the sacred Sepulchre and they waited as diligently on his ascent into Heaven so that they saw him and admired that immense love which appeared so glorious in his humble and so powerful in his exalted state This Saviour of the world that he might really be so was preach'd unto the Gentiles the Word of God was now confin'd no longer to the Jewish nation that vail of the Temple rent in twain when he gave up the ghost upon the Cross took away that wall of separation which was between those Jews and the rest of mankind and through him both Jews and Gentiles have access by one Spirit unto Eph. 2.28 the father Now of himself in this case He taught his disciples after his resurrection That thus it behoved Christ to suffer Luke 24.46 47. and to rise from the dead the third day and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations beginning at Jerusalem Thus Philip preached Christ in Samaria Paul preached him every where in the Synagogues Paul declares to the Corinthians We preach Christ crucified 1 Cor. 1.23 24. to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness but unto them which are call'd both Jews and Greeks Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God And many Texts we meet with declaring the same thing and teaching us that it 's the great incumbent duty on all those who call themselves Pastors of the flock of Christ to preach him and him only to the world For he who was so preach'd to the Gentiles was indeed believed on in the world The three Eastern Sages who adored our Saviour in his infant age were the first fruits of the Gentile world and even Samaritans were profelyted to his Doctrine while he converst with the world to believe in him was that condition without which Salvation could not be attained So he teaches Nicodemus John 3.16 God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life v. 18. He that believeth on him is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God It was a just sense of the indispensible nature of this condition that made men submit so readily to the first preaching of the Apostles and fly out so eagerly and so early into that Question What shall we do to be saved 'T was that which in Judaea brought multitudes daily into the Church of such as should be saved and enabled S. Paul to preach the Gospel fully from Jerusalem and round about unto Illyricum and that with extraordinary success and gave Tertullian in the Second Century a just ground to boast of the vast multitudes of Christians in every quarter of the Roman Empire And to this day the same blessed Jesus is the only rational hope of all that dwell on the earth and of those that remain on the broad Sea To conclude this explication of the Text this same Jesus after he had done and suffered so much for our sakes while he converst with and blest his Disciples Luke 24.51 he was parted from them and carried up into heaven He had at last that Petition answered which in the days of his flesh he put up to his Father Now O Father glorifie thou me with thine own self John 17.5 with the glory which I had with thee before the world was And if it was glorious for Elijah to be carried up to Heaven in his fiery chariot while Elisha was a spectator of his translation how much more glorious was it when our Saviour in the open view of all his followers had the clouds themselves humbly bowing to his feet to raise him thither where he sits continually at the right hand of his Father making intercession for us miserable sinners Having thus given the true interpretation of the Text take its full meaning together in this Paraphrase S. Paul still speaking to and instructing Timothy as in this Verse he does It 's not without great Reason that I have given thee who art thy self a Bishop in it such directions about those whom thou art to admit as Ministers in the Church of God That Religion our blessed Master has bequeathed to us has nothing in it but what is Holy and Pure too pure to be touch'd with unclean hands and not fit for every unlearned and presuming Novice to meddle with The whole Body of our Faith is founded upon such things as are infinitely true but of so sublime and surprising a Nature that the strongest Humane Reason can never wholly comprehend them all let me but name them as reveal'd and all mankind will soon agree that the most soaring and capacious Soul must falter in its enquiries after them The eternal Son of God God equal with his Father the great Creator of all things rather than perishing man should be eternally lost resolv'd to atone divine vengeance with his own sufferings and since without blood there could be no remission and the immense Divinity could not suffer so He took flesh and blood our weak and passible nature upon himself and in our nature offered himself a sacrifice to his Father for us This glorious Sacrifice produc'd the great effect and reconciled our angry Judge but that undertaking was too great for man tho' so deeply concern'd to believe the chasm between an holy God and polluted man too wide and hideous
deep ever to be made up It 's true when God himself was mention'd as the undertaker of so great a work even despairing man might entertain some dawning hopes but when they saw a poor Carpenter's Son one who had not so much as where to lay his head assume yet the glorious title of the world's Redeemer and Saviour their hopes slagg'd their almost grasped joys seem'd just vanishing into empty air When the Holy Ghost God too infinitely good and powerful and wise interpos'd and attended that humble Man with so much vigour and constancy that He by a thousand glorious actions and by a close and perpetual correspondence with Heaven visible even to vulgar eyes prov'd the entire Union that was between himself and his Father and that Sacred Spirit and justified himself in the thoughts of very aliens themselves who could not but acknowledge of a truth that for all his mean appearance and his scandalous Passion on the Cross He was the Son of God But could men have doubted still the happy Angels those purer and more discerning Spirits saw him too they saw him and knew him and ador'd him they saw their mighty Lord tho' veil'd in all the rags of poor mortality And tho' sin might have made a former breach between those blessed Spirits and polluted man yet now where their Lord loved they lov'd too and always look'd and always waited on him while he wrought the worlds redemption while he was so justified and so attended on divers gave up themselves absolutely to his service whom he lov'd and taught and protected and endued with miraculous knowledge eloquence and courage and sent them on that blessed errand to preach to the Gentiles the glad tydings of Salvation in his name They boldly undertook the work and tho' they had ignorance and prejudice and malice and cunning to contend with meer men contemn'd before but then inspired broke through all opposition and the forsaken Gentiles heard the gladsome sounds of peace and tho' there were too many enemies to their own good yet those laborious messengers of Heaven preached with that power and efficacy that men began every where to call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ Nay the more men of perverse minds cross'd the designs of that Gospel preach'd in the name of the Son of God the more those who believed in him were multiplied As for himself when he had finished that stupendous work and by his own Death had conquered Hell and Death He broke those fatal chains and rose again no more lyable to humane rage His Almighty Father who had viewed all the prodigious efforts of his Love to mankind with an ineffable complacency reach'd out his holy arm to receive that very humane Nature in which his beloved Son had done and suffered so much from him the chearful clouds were sent for a Chariot and he went upwards flying upon the wings of the wind while jâ—cund Angels those ministerial flames waited on his triumphs and taught his wondring followers what they were afterwards to expect from their Redeemer These are those mighty mysteries on which our most holy faith is built their truth however unintelligible to us is our security and the sincerity of our faith will necessarily show it self in an holy conversation and godliness The Verse I have explain'd then imports That without Controversie the Mystery of Godliness is great or in more words That the Basis or foundation of that Religion introduced into the World by the Doctrine of Christ's Gospel is indisputably and agreeably to the nature of Religion to Humane reason extremely profound and unintelligible To prove this we shall enquire Into the Vniversal agreement of all persons of what Religion soever That Mysteries are essential to Religion Whether our Saviour intended the entire abolition of all other Religions for the settlement of his own or rather to unite what was good in every distinct Religion into one and to sublime or perfect that so as it might tend most to God's glory and Man's happiness and whether that could be effected Men standing in their present corrupt state without the retaining of old or instituting of new Mysteries in his Religion What considerable advantages can accrue to Religion from those Mysteries it 's founded upon Then we must enquire into that Vniversal agreement of all persons whatsoever that Mysteries or some principles or circumstances of a more secret and abstruse nature are essential to all Religion But here to prevent all mistakes it must be remember'd That so much as concerns the practical part of Religion as contain'd in the Word of God is so clear and evident that the words of St. Paul are justly apply'd to them If they be hid they are hid to those that are lost whose eyes the God of this World hath blinded that the light of the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ should not shine upon them 2 Cor. 4.3 4. The words whereby all things necessary to be done toward the attainment of eternal life are exprest are such and so plain that the simplest Christian may understand them And that person who goes about to involve the practical duty of a Christian whether in respect of his communication with God or man in obscure and mysterious terms crosses the end of the Gospel which is to instruct the weakest understanding in an easie and intelligible way how to live godly righteously and soberly in this present evil world yet it must be acknowledged that even in relation to practice there are some apparent difficulties and notwithstanding all that plainness apparent in God's word a Man has a very hard task sometimes to distinguish between what 's lawful and what 's unlawful such cases are commonly known by the name of Cases of Conscience or such matters wherein so many arguments seemingly strong and plausible appear on both sides to the understanding that it knows not which way to act and all that hesitancy or doubtfulness arises onely from a fear of offending God These generally respecting Christian practice create a great deal of trouble frequently to very good Men for others are seldom troubled with such religious fears and these are sometimes by various and unusual circumstances rendred so very intricate that the wisest and most discerning Men are often at a loss to clear and resolve them to the Querent's satisfaction Here the Jews were order'd to have recourse to their Priests whose lips were suppos'd to preserve knowledge and the Priests when there was any thing of a more inextricable nature had the Vrim and Thummim to appeal to The Heathens had some emergent doubts as to matter of publick management of themselves which sometimes perplex'd them too and they had their imaginary wise Men the Priests attending their desecrated altars who would assume as if they had the art of resolving doubts those who profess Christianity have still a severer task in these matters as having no Oracle immediately to consult and having doubts more numerous and
For those rites continued will move the world to belive that the Messias is not yet come that the Faith so long profest in him as if he were come is vain that He who once pretended to that name only impos'd upon the world and was no better than a cheat and that therefore the Jewish Religion is and ought to be still in its full force Now this will appear very absurd and unreasonable to any one who has seriously weighed all those arguments brought to prove that Jesus Christ was the Son of the living God and therefore could be no Impostor and therefore must be that Messias he declar'd himself to be which being true it will follow that our Saviours coming must of necessity put an end to so much of the Jewish Law as was not co-incident with that of Nature and consequently not perpetually obliging That many of the Jews themselves ever look'd upon their Law as of a mutable nature in it self is proved sufficiently by Raymundus Martini in his Pugio fidei against the Jews and that it could never be more properly actually chang'd than by the Messias appears in him who proves from Jewish writers themselves that the Messias the King shall be greater than Moses nay greater than the ministring Angels and therefore the fittest for such a work and as he shews their own gloss in the Midrasch Koheleth upon that of Solomon Eccles 11.8 Pugionis fidei p. 3. dist 3. c. 20 tells us That every Law of all people whatsoever every Law that a man can learn in this world is all but vanity in comparison of the Law of the Messias Things of a less perfect and lasting nature must then vanish when that appears which is more perfect and eternal Whatsoever therefore crosses that end for which God sent his Son into the world and retains mysteries now altogether insignificant as being fully accomplished that cannot be pleasing to God and consequently the present Religion of the Jews cannot be the true Religion There are indeed some mysterious truths in which all Religions agree viz. The existence of a God his spirituality invisibility incomprehensibility c. they all agree That his Providence governs all things in the world however trifling and inconsiderable they may appear in the eyes of the world that He hears sees knows understands every thing tho' they know not how according to the objection of Atheists to reconcile such things to his want of eyes ears soul or any other parts which are all inconsistent with a spiritual being All agree together in granting the present state of Man very wretched and deplorable in looking upon him yet as capable of happiness provided a sutable mean for its procurement could be found out and in expectation of some proper help for that purpose These things being agreeable to the general sence of mankind and being the original reasons of mens putting themselves into a religious course must still be approved by every one and every one of these that Religion setled in the world by our Saviour and his Apostles does advance yet more plainly and confirm more strongly to the world And whatsoever mysterious truths it farther propounds they are all so far intelligible by every one as may serve sufficiently to confirm those first principles whatsoever is farther to be seen in them is what moves mankind to lay aside all brutish malicious and unmanly humour as the meditation upon that extraordinary love of God to mankind of God the Father in sending his only Son into the world to dy for it of God the Son in leaving the bosom of his blessed Father and in our nature and for our sake suffering that bitter and scandalous death upon the Cross of God the Holy Ghost in pursuing us continually with his influences and assistances and so working in us to will and to do according to God's good pleasure this meditation naturally runs into that Apostolical conclusion Joh. 4.11 if God thus loved us then ought we also to love one another If we contemplate our own monstrous demerits our aversion to every thing that is good our inclination to every thing that is evil and so offensive to God our ingratitude for mercies receiv'd our unfruitfulness under the means of grace and Salvation presented to us our natural enmity to God and goodness And if withal we seriously consider that all those forementioned favours are conferr'd on us in a state of obstinate enmity the inference is easie as our Lord has laid it down Matth. 5.44 That we should love our enemies bless them that curse us do good to them that hate us and pray for them that despitefully use us and persecute us If again we think on that wonderful mercy of God whereby for the merits of the blessed Jesus he 's pleased to forgive us our sins those natural bars between us and heaven the consequence we must of course draw from thence is that of the Apostle That we should be kind Eph. 4.32 tender hearted forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven us Thus we see what excellent influence these very truths the nature and reasons of which are above the reach of our groveling minds may have upon us If we proceed and reflect upon the purity and holiness of that God with whom we have to do that he 's a Being who cannot endure sin who punishes it for its odious nature even in his dearest children all those mysteries reveal'd to us in the Gospel are so far by any fair consequence from perverting our minds that they give us all the motives imaginable 1 Pet. 1.15 that as he who has called us is holy so should we be holy in all manner of conversation A man may be a good heathen and yet a filthy Sodomite a through-pac'd Jew and yet be blind hard-hearted carnal but a man cannot be a true Christian but he 'l endeavour to avoid all appearance of evil Jude 2â— and to keep himself unspotted from the world he 'l live in a continual abhorrence of whatsoever may prejudice his soul or pollute his body and knowing that he is not his own James â—â— but that he 's bought with a price he 'l follow that advice he 'l endeavour to glorifie God in his body and in his spirit which are gods 1 Cor. 6. â—â— and to go no farther than what I had instanced in before a man that meditates on that account the Apostles and Evangelists have given us of the appearance of the Son of God in the flesh and on the ends and designs of such his appearance he 'l never spend his time idly about types and shadows when he is invited to embrace the substance he 'l study to conform himself to the Doctrine of the Gospel to be so far as belongs to a meer man a perfect imitator of all those excellent virtues so apparent in our Saviour during his converse with the world he 'l carefully avoid all
Dead before that great day must be called the Sons of God in the same sence as our Saviour is and consequently our Savour cannot on account of such Resurrection be so the Son of God as to be his only begotten Son exclusively of all others tho' that title be so exclusive in it's own nature As for the three Reasons of his being called the Son of God derived from his Offices it 's true in the first place that God has sanctifyed our Saviour and sent him into the World but so he sanctified Jeremy and so he sanctified John the Baptist and the last in particular he sent into the World with an extraordinary Commission i. e. to Preach the glad tidings of Salvation and to prepare the way of the Lord against his publick appearance which Employs were both wholly extraordinary but as for that descent of the Holy Ghost upon him whereby say they he was anointed to his Office without measure there was no particularity eminently distinguishing Him in that from his own Apostles upon whom the Spirit descended in a visible manner at the feast of Pentecost and fitted them so for the same Office of Preaching and every way promoting the Salvation of Mankind Indeed we no where find the Apostles called the Sons of God on account of their being baptised with the Holy Ghost and with fire but we see our Saviour is declared the Son of God in whom he is well pleased on that occasion but he was own'd by the same title at his Transfiguration too when there was no effusion of the Holy Ghost therefore there was some peculiarly eminent reason for giving our Lord this Title which could not be applied on any account to any other Person If we reflect on the second ground of Christ's being called the Son of God which is because He is our Great High-Priest and so constituted by God himself our Author's proof of it is very strange viz. from that passage of the Psalmist Thou art my Son Heb. 5.5 this day have I begotten thee quoted by the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews for tho' those Words are there repeated as well as in the first Chapter of that Epistle yet it 's not in a different Sence or to a new purpose but the Apostle there speaking of our Saviour's Priesthood and the greatness and excellency of that Office undertaken by him tells us no Man takes this Honour to himself but He that is called of God as was Aaron Now the Apostle shews that our Saviour had such a Call as well as Aaron for his Father who said to him Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee shewed his Propriety in his Son and his Love to him by those words so that it could not be strange that his Father should lay so great an Honour upon him But then his title to the Priesthood it self is founded on that Thou art a Priest for ever ver 6. after the order of Melchisedec so then the Son-ship of Christ is antecedent to his Priestly Office and He was made a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec because He was the Son of God and not called the Son of God because He was our High-Priest As for the last reason why our Saviour is called the Son of God viz. Because he is exalted to the Supreme Power over all things and so is our King Hab. 1.5 which he proves again from the same words as quoted in the same Epistle to the Hebrews There yet again the same truth occurs that Christ was the Son of God before He entred upon his Kingly Office for by Him God made the worlds and our Saviour never had a being but that at the same time he was the Son of God but if God by Him made the Worlds ver 2. as the Apostle says and he could not be our King before the Worlds were made We who are a part of these Worlds being those Creatures over whom he was to be King then he was the Son of God before he was our King and therefore could not be his Son on that account Besides if we should allow all these things the whole grant would be useless for Christ is called as before we observed the only begotten Son of God in an eminent and distinguishing manner above all others but if upon account of his Offices Prophetical Priestly or Regal Christ be called the Son of God then all those who exercise the same Functions in the world may upon the same reason lay claim to the same title for of some of them we know the Psalmist says They are Gods and they are all the children of the most high but if they can all justly lay claim to the same Title then there 's nothing peculiar to our Saviour included in that being the Son the only begotten Son of God which yet the very Title it self imports All these Reasons then not being sufficient to give our Saviour the Title of the only begotten Son of God in a manner so super-eminent to all other Creatures and their Originals particularly to Angels who are of a Spiritual Nature and are called the Sons of God There must remain some other ground for our Saviour's being so called and that is his eternal generation of the Father which puts him into such a Relation to his Father as no other creature can possibly pretend to We have prov'd that the whole of his Five Precedent Reasons do not fill up the Idea or make good the full meaning of those terms wherein Christ is called the only Begotten Son of God his Beloved Son or his own Son for if I am Born of my Mother but not Begotten in his own Image by my reputed Father tho' my reputed Father were able after Death to raise me to Life again tho' he were able to confer upon me all the Authority in the Universe yet all this will be so far from giving Me justly the Title of my Father's only-begotten Son tho' perhaps he never had any other that by all these Reasons together I should be a putative Son but really no more related to my supposed Father than our Saviour was to Joseph the Husband of the blessed Virgin when before her Espousals he was begotten in her by the Power of the Holy Ghost Nay should we admit of the very unphilosophical Hypothesis of Ruarus Quid in eo absurdi si spiritum Dei venas in virginis uterum descendentes emulsisse atque ex sanguine coagulato Embryonem formasse dicam non aliter atque id fit spiritu in masculo semine latente Ruarus ad Mersennum Epistola Centur. 1. Num. 56. p. 262. the most modest of the Socinian tribe all would be too little to make good this glorious Idea of the only begotten Son of God But his eternal Generation answers all and makes our Saviour as properly the Only Begotten Son of his Heavenly Father as I or any other Lawful Son is the only begotten of his
equal value to those Injuries done by that Prisoner to him to whom that Redemption-Price is paid down as if I take up Goods or Silver Coin of any one for which I my self am wholly insolvent and another undertakes for me to discharge the Debt the Creditor will scarce take it ill if he paid to the full in Gold or Jewels for that Silver or those Goods he had given credit for though the Debt be not paid in kind Cat. Rac. §. 6. c. 8. p. 146. But say They it 's ordinary to say That one Dâ—â—p of Christ's Blood was enough to wash away the Sins of the whole World therefore God must be very unjust to exact so extraordinary Sufferings at the hand of his Son that he should shed so much of his Blood and die at last and so pay a Price for Man's Sin so much greater than necessary We might easily answer this Cavil by saying that an Argument drawn against an Article of Faith meerly from an Hyperbolical Expression is altogether invalid nor is the Christian Church in general bound to answer for every passionate Expression which one of her Sons may use But we may consider further that whereas the reason of the Bloody Sacrifices offer'd by Men in former Ages was to signifie to the World that an Expiation was to be made for the World's Sins and to keep up their hopes and expectations of it and whereas we are assured in God's Word that without Blood there is no Remission though the shedding one Drop of the Blood of the intended Sacrifice be as real Blood-shedding as the drawing out of all is and though one Drop of that Blood of the Sacrifice had as much Virtue and Efficacy in it as the whole Mass could be thought to have yet that was not all that was aim'd at for the Blood of the Sacrifice was so to be shed as that Death might naturally follow on that Action which was not likely to follow on the shedding one or only a few Drops and without this Death the Beast was not fit for Sacrifice so much Blood being required as was necessary to sprinkle on several things in agreeance with which the Blood of Christ too is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 12.24 the Blood of sprinkling The Blood then shed of old represented somewhat Expiatory but not as it was the Blood of an Animal but as it was the Blood of such a Creature sacrificed on the Altar to that God who was to be atoned so though the Blood of our Saviour in every Drop of it as shed for us was of an infinite Worth yet the Worth of that Blood with respect to us depended on his being Sacrificed or made an Offering for Sin which he could not have been had not his Life been taken away by the pouring out of his Blood before for as we easily apprehend that the fairest Beast design'd for Sacrifice by Men if yet it dy'd alone or accidentally was no Sacrifice but that to make it such it was necessary the Priests should make it bleed to Death So had our Saviour's Humane Nature submitted only to the common Rules of Mortality or fallen by a natural Death he had been no Offering no Sacrifice to God but he really was a Sacrifice and is own'd as such in Scripture therefore his Blood too was to be shed and that so far as to put an end to his Humane Life or the Union between his Rational Soul and his Mortal Body so that the extraordinary Sufferings of our Saviour take not away from the Worth of his Blood in it self but his Blood could have had no effect upon us for the washing away of our Sins had it not been the Blood of our Sacrifice our Propitiation as well as it was the Blood of the Son of God and therefore we own with all Humility and Thankfulness the Goodness of our Lord in offering up himself a Sacrifice for Sin on our account by permitting those Powers to kill him which he could have destroy'd with one revenging Word Nor can we less acknowledge the Goodness of his and our Father who was pleased to accept of that Propitiation for our Sins his Son's Satisfaction for our Debts which he was no way oblig'd to but by the Concurrence of the Divine Love and Goodness of the Father and the Son from all Eternity But from this Doctrine of Christ's making Satisfaction to his Father for our Sins they draw a very unhappy Consequence for they tell us Quod Hominibus fenestram ad peccandi licentiam aperiat aut certè ad socordiam in pietate colenda invitet c. That it gives Men an open Liberty to sin or at least gives them great encouragement to Slothfulness in the Duties of Religion for if Christ has satisfied for all our Sins then we are free from all obligation to any punishment for Sin and therefore there can be no Conditions reasonably propounded to us by virtue of which we should be free from those Punishments or it 's unreasonable that God should still make Practical Holiness a Condition of our Salvation when Christ by his Death has fully satisfied his Fathers Wrath with respect to all our Sins past present and to come This Charge would be very heavy if it were true but would they consider those very Texts they endeavour to confirm this Objection by they would easily see how they confound themselves and slander that Holy Doctrine The Apostle tells us of Jesus Christ Tit. 2.14 That he gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works All this we stedfastly believe 2 Cor. 5.15 And that Christ died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which died for them and rose again We believe that our Lord Jesus Christ gave himself for our Sins Gal. 1.4 that he might deliver us from this present evil World Eph. 5.27 That he might present his Church to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish We believe Heb. 9.14 that our Lord offer'd himself without spot to God that he might purge our Consciences from dead works to serve the living God 1 Pet. 1.18 19. and that we are redeemed from our vain conversation not with corruptible things but with the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot and from all these things we conclude That our Saviour's Sufferings for us were originally design'd to free us both from the Punishment and Guilt of Sin and therefore as we look up to our Saviour as our Priest and our Sacrifice so we acknowledge him to be our Prophet and our King our Instructer and our Governour that he has been our Instructer in all Ages by his Messengers Prophetical and Apostolical and those to this day lawfully entrusted with the
Righteousness that he might be just and the Justifier of him which believeth in Jesus the last Verse teaches us that Care taken to vindicate Divine Justice in the World's Eye by the Death of Christ which could scarce have been done had not Christ laid down his Life for us and in our room so satisfying the Justice of his Father and so the Justice of accepting as righteous every Believer in Christ is apparent too for if he have paid an entire Satisfaction a full Redemption-Price to his Father for our Sins on that Condition that those who believe on him should be Partakers of the Advantages flowing from thence God then could not be just should he refuse to justifie such Believers so that God's Justice is as deeply concerned in the Pardon of Believers as in the Punishment of Infidels Again St. Paul tells the Elders at Miletum Acts 20.28 that God had made them Overseers of that Church which he had redeemed with his own most precious Blood Now whereas God is said to have redeem'd his People Israel from their Aegyptian Bondage that Redemption being really effected by Jesus Christ who was that great and powerful Agent in that mighty Work what was done for Israel then was but the pre-signification of what he intended in due time for all Mankind so that he is called their Redeemer especially with respect to that future Design though the rescue of them from the Power of their Enemies be a Metaphorical Redemption and applicable in such a figurative sense to all those who even by an unjust Violence set open the Prison-doors and make a way for the escape of the most notorious Criminals Again Acts 7.35 it 's true Moses is stiled a Redeemer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and a Leader to Israel God making use of him as his Instrument to execute Vengeance upon rebellious Aegypt and to lead out Israel from thence with a mighty Hand and a stretched out Arm but we no where find that the Israelites were redeem'd by the Blood of Moses from their Slavery We find not that the Sins of the Israelites were forgiven on account of that deliverance God indeed sometimes heard the Intercessions of Moses for those ingrateful Wanderers and for his own Name 's sake was pleased to pass by their Offences and to glorifie his own Name in that constant protection he afforded them among their observing Enemies but the deliverance it self was no cause of God's remitting the Punishment due to their Trespasses nay their Ingratitude for that Mercy was a frequent reason of their Sufferings and amongst the rest of the total Destruction of that Generation of People who came out of Aegypt it 's further observable that that God who convers'd with Israel in their passage to Canaan calls them his Son his First-born and threatens Pharaoh that if he would not let them go He would destroy his Son his First-born Exod. 4.22 besides He required the Sanctification of the First-born of all Israel to himself which requiry of his obey'd together with the exact execution of his former Menace was a kind of Redemption-Price accepted by God on account of which he gave them deliverance from their Enemies Nor was the Blood of the Paschal Lamb insignificant in the case that Blood prefiguring the Blood of the Lamb of God which did really atone for the Sins of the World Upon the whole howsoever we may allow others besides our Saviour to be called Redeemers yet so long as there is no Parallelism between the Circumstances of those Redemptions they have wrought and the Circumstances of Christ's we must of necessity conclude that Scripture means a great deal more by naming Christ a Redeemer than by giving Moses or any other eminent Person the same Character that Name is figurative as applied to all others it is proper as applied to Christ we may illustrate the Case by such an Instance as this A Soveraign Prince blest with One onely and infinitely beloved Son having in his power a Capital Offender against his Laws in concert with that Son determines that such Punishment as is proportionable to his Crimes ought to be inflicted on him yet pitying the Weakness and deplorable Condition of the Criminal and designing to make his Clemency towards the Offender evident He in concert with his own Son orders it to be proclaim'd every where that if any Person not obnoxious to the same Punishment by reason of personal Guilt loves the Condemn'd so well as to offer himself freely to undergo proportionable Penalties to what the Law would have inflicted upon him the Criminal acknowledging the Kindness offer'd and his mighty engagements to his Deliverer shall be free this Condition once propos'd the Prince's Son lays hold on the Opportunity to express his Love to the Offender offers himself to die for him and since the Law requires it and must be satisfi'd really does so the Prince according to his Proclamation accepts of his Son 's vicarious Punishment the Law and Justice have their Course and the grateful Criminal obtains his Freedom thus are Believing Sinners redeemed from that Punishment they are obnoxious to with respect to infinite Justice The Socinians tell us indeed That Christ's Obedience to his Father even to Death was no more than was due on his own account and that though it was perfect and blameless yet he received Rewards for it infinitely beyond what he could merit by such Obedience This is to put our Saviour into the State and Condition of the common World for all those Glories promis'd to repenting Sinners are infinitely greater than they by any personal merit can pretend to but it seems very unreasonable that he should take upon him as a Mediator between God and man or that his Name should be so powerfully influential for the advantage of others who had just cause to be wholly employ'd in expressions of Gratitude for his Father's Kindness to himself or to be wholly ecstasi'd with Admirations of that unbounded Goodness which had confer'd such mighty Blessings on him beyond his deserts this we rationally suppose will be the Employ of beatified Souls and ought to be Christ's too upon the Socinian Hypothesis we own Christ's Obedience as he was Man to his Father's Will to have been most perfect and absolute his Original Divine Nature never knew any thing of dissent with his Eternal Father therefore that Humane Nature he assum'd could not be liable to Disobedience 2 Cor. 5.21 It 's observed of him that He knew no sin he neither had nor could have so much as a deprav'd Inclination he had no strugglings within himself between the Law of his Members and the Law of his Mind which yet he could not have been without had he been a meer Man a Partaker of Flesh and Blood at the same rate as the rest of Mankind were but the Deity assuming Humanity and so being naturally incapable of Sin we are not wont to assign Merit to his Life and Conversation any
and Gentiles the glad Tydings of Salvation they assisted by the Influences of the Holy Spirit did a great many Miracles among them both yet where they were most venerable for their Miracles where most zealous to spend and to be spent for the propagation of the Gospel they met with very unkind Returns and commonly seal'd those saving Truths deliver'd with their own Blood so that when we have turn'd our selves which way soever we can we must of necessity conclude either that the Martyrs were abundantly more exemplary in their Deaths than Christ himself their Lord and Master which is either Blasphemy or very like it or else we must conclude there was somewhat distinct from any thing yet mentioned in the Death of that Lamb of God which made it more terrible and heavy than all those exquisite Tortures expiring Martyrs underwent for is it possible that without any such Circumstances He who was emphatically stiled the Son of God the Son of his Love that Son in whom he was well pleased He who was One with his eternal Father should be afraid of Death of Humane Cruelties or complain of Dereliction is it possible he should be able at any time to send such Assistances to those who believed on him as should make them despise all the Terrors and Furies of a malicious World and yet himself be weak and timid start at the sting of that Death which dying Martyrs smiled at is it possible that He who knew no sin nor had any guile found in his Mouth should tremble before that King of Terrors over whom his own Followers and only by Faith in him so gloriously triumph'd these things are incredible But let us again consider our Dearest Lord as appearing as our Pledge and Surety before his Father as paying in his Death a satisfactory Price to his incensed Father for the Transgressions of Mankind let us consider him as dying for our Sins as being made a Curse for us therefore apprehensive of Divine Displeasure on our behalf as being made Sin for us as being made by God Justification and Redemption for us as having redeem'd us by his most precious Blood as having reconciled us to God by his Death let us remember that he is a Propitiation for us through Faith in his Blood that He bore our Sins in his Body upon the Cross that he was sacrificed for us to take away our Sins for all which Considerations we have the undeniable Warrants of Scripture in short let us consider our Saviour as undergoing those bitter Pains in his last Sufferings which for the Quality of him the Sufferer and for the Immensity of the Sufferings themselves being internal as well as external were equivalent to those eternal Punishments prepared for Impenitent Sinners let us but seriously weigh these things and that the Humane Nature of him who was the Son of God himself should startle and recoil can never be incredible if we look'd upon him as engaged in this dismal work how prodigious was his Patience how inexpressible inconceivable his Charity for him that was originally undefiled to be made Sin him that was the well-beloved Son to be made a Curse him whom an ungrateful World rejected to become an expiatory Sacrifice for that World for him who had never done any Sin nor deserv'd any Punishment to undergo the severest Agonies and Death it self for the sake of obdurate and unconsidering Sinners these are the stupendous Effects of inscrutably mysterious Love such as the more a pious Man meditates on the more he is rapt into Amazement and the more closely he reflects on Humane Demerits his Astonishment grows the more profound that Man so miserable should be consider'd that the Son of Man should be so mercifully visited these things observ'd the sufferings of Martyrs were not worth the naming on the same day with the Sufferings of the Son of God their Agonies were sports compared with his and he dearly purchas'd by taking off that bitter Cup all those Comforts and Joys and Triumphs which they afterwards pretended to He in his own Person conquer'd first those gigantic Monsters Sin and Death and Hell in open field he triumph'd over them upon the Cross He led Captivity captive and how easie was it then for the Sons of Faith to follow the Captain of their Salvation and to wear those Crowns of Righteousness which he had purchas'd for them with his own most precious Blood when they knew God's Anger was aton'd that they had One able to save continually sitting on the Right-hand of God as an Intercessor for them when they were infallibly assur'd those Persons were blessed who were persecuted for Righteousness sake for that theirs was the Kingdom of Heaven it was no wonder that they rejoiced and were exceeding glad nor was it strange that those who suffer'd for the sake of Truth before the Incarnation of our Saviour should express the same Courage they being Partakers of the same Faith and depending as unmoveably upon God's Promises made to them as if they liv'd upon Earth to see their utmost accomplishment so that they too had the same Mediator the same Redeemer the same Saviour the same glorious Hopes and Expectations Having thus largely insisted upon some reasons why it was necessary that God and particularly God the Son should be incarnate and consequently suffer for the Salvation of Mankind we are now to consider the Force and Import of those Arguments as laid together That a Messias was to be sent and on such a saving Errand is a Truth questioned by none but that in a meer Man such things should be made good as were foretold concerning him was impossible for in a meer Man all the Families of the earth could never have been blest though they were all ruin'd in one that was no more for the Repairer of Breaches the Restorer of Ruines the Raiser to Life ought to be greater and more powerful than the ordinary Instruments of procuring one or taking away the other for we see how every little Creature can do mischief where it requires a greater Care and extraordinary Industry to repair that Mischief when once done it was no meer Man who should reign for ever and of whose Kingdom there should be no end for such a Kingdom requires Eternity in the Administration the story of Scripture tells us that when Solomon had finished and dedicated his Temple and the Ark was carried into the Holy of holies upon the Priests coming out from thence 1 King 8.10 11. the Cloud filled the House of the Lord so that the Priests could not stand to minister because of the Cloud for the Glory of the Lord had filled the House of the Lord We meet with no account of any such Glory filling the Second Temple built after the return from Babylon yet the Comfort given by the Prophets to the mournful Elders of Israel when they were dejected on account of the Meanness of that Second Building was that the Glory of the
most incident to the Person who stands in the Relation of a Son therefore it was necessary that the Son of God should take upon him our Nature and pity us and plead for us that how deplorable soever our Condition might be in it self we might be in a Capacity of Eternal Salvation It was proper that He who first gave a Being to all things by his Power should when the Work of his hands was decay'd if he design'd Mercy for them rectifie their Disorders and resettle them in such a state as might in some measure answer the original Design of the Creation that our Saviour the Eternal Word of God was the Maker of all things we have formerly prov'd at large from the beginning of St. John's Gospel and several other Scripture Passages and it 's a Truth which even Arians themselves acknowledge In that first Creation as the wise Man observes Man was made upright Eccles 7.29 but he has now sought out to himself many Inventions were he but left a little to himself he would need no other Vengeance to be poured upon him but what he 'd soon draw down on his own Head but God in pity to him was pleased to determine otherwise but as we observ'd before though an inferiour Creature was able to bring one in a happy state before into a ruinous Condition as any little mischievous Agent may yet those Ruines so easily procured could not be so easily repair'd again We are taught in the History of the Creation that Man was created at first in the Image of God that was his Glory and Excellence beyond the other Members of the visible Creation but that Image of his Maker was miserably defaced in him by Sin the Blessed Jesus the Eradiation of God's Glory Heb. 1.3 and the express Image of his Person therefore the most proper to renew in Obedient Man the blotted Image he had at first created him in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Athanasius whom we may justly alledge now in a matter little controverted Athan. de Incar T. 1. p. 72. It was not in the power of any other but him who was the Image of the Father to create again or resettle that Image in Men. It 's true the Socinians would persuade us the original Image of God consisted in nothing but Dominion over his Fellow-Creatures but that Dominion over the Creatures could not answer that Perfection the Wise Man adverts to in Man's first Creation no more than we can prove Kings and Princes the more Perfect because of that Dominion God entrusts them with or that among Princes those who command the largest Empires should be the best and most compleat Men but the original Image of God in Man consisted in that Purity and Holiness which Man was adorned with in his first Creation and in that vast Wisdom and capacious Understanding whereby he knew every thing that was necessary to his own Happiness this Purity and Wisdom was ruined by his Fall and this our Saviour came effectually to restore by making such as believe in him new Creatures by which they are again renewed in Knowledge and in Righteousness Col. 3.10 Eph. 4.24 and true Holiness after the Image of that God who created them now when we speak of an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a Renewal of any thing we refer to somewhat that was before for that cannot be renewed now that never was formerly but if the Knowledge and Righteousness and Holiness in the new Man be the Image of God at present and there was such Knowledge and Righteousness and Holiness in Man before his Fall without which it could not be renewed by him who came to repair the ruines of that Fall then that Knowledge and Righteousness and Holiness was originally the Image of God in which Man was created and we need not fly to Dominion as the sole Instance of God's Image in Man especially since his Dominion was no more an Image of God's Soveraignty than the Government of all Princes since has been an Image of that for God was Lord of all things Man was not and yet Princes as well as others have had their shares in the Mischiefs arising from Man's Fall though their Governments be as absolute as ever To this we may add that Regenerate Persons being ordain'd to that Title of the Sons of God it was most proper that he who was the Son of God by Nature should be their great Guide and Conducter to that Honour this we learn from St. Paul who laying down that mysterious Doctrine of God's Prescience and Predetermination as to the future state of Men Rom 8.29 tells us that whom God did foreknow he did also determine beforehand that they should be conform'd to the Image of his Son that he might be the First-born of many Brethren where by the way we may observe that those Persons who by this very Apostle are elsewhere said to be renewed according to the Image of God are here said to be conformed to the Image of his Son therefore the Image of God the Father and of God the Son are the same thing and those whose Image is the same must be One not metaphorically but really One our Lord became our Brother by assuming our Nature by submitting to all the Infirmities of Humanity Sin onely excepted and he was the kindest and the tenderest Brother who laid down his own sacred Life to restore a crue of wretched Prodigals to the embraces of their Father he envied not that where there were many Mansions repenting Sinners should be admitted to them but after his Death and Resurrection he ascended to his Father and our Father to his God and our God that he might prepare those very Mansions for those who believe in him Behold what manner of Love the Father hath bestowed on us that we through the Mediation of his onely begotten Son should be called the Sons of God that I insert that on good reason will appear to any one who considers with the Apostle That Gal. 4.4 5. when the fulness of time was come God sent forth his Son made of a Woman made under the Law to redeem them that were in Bondage in general and that they might receive the Adoption of Sons this then was the reason of the incarnation of God the Son and the reason of his Sufferings we have from an equally authentic hand the Blessed Jesus by the grace of God Heb. 2.9 18. tasted death for every Man He was the Captain of our Salvation being made perfect thro' Sufferings is not ashamed to call us Brethren Forasmuch then as the Children are Partakers of flesh and blood he also himself took part of the same that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the Devil And deliver them who through fear of death were all their life subject to Bondage wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his Brethren that he might be a
merciful and faithful High-priest in things pertaining to God to make reconciliation for the Sins of the People or to atone for them i. e. to reconcile God to People that had sinned for in that he himself hath suffered being tempted he is able to succour them that are tempted There remains nothing more on this Subject to be done but to draw a practical Inference or two from our Apostolical doctrine that God was manifest in the flesh or that He who really and eternally was God took upon him humane Nature for the Salvation of Mankind From hence we should learn a just Admiration of that transcendent Love and infinite Compassion extended to us by God the Father in sending by God the Son in being sent to and condescending to come among us Words are too weak to express the mighty debt of Gratitude we are engaged in to Heaven on that account only Actions may in some measure express our Acknowledgments let us not conceit our selves exempt from the Condition of the rest of Mankind We lost our original Innocence we were precluded from Paradise from tasting the Tree of Life by Cherubims and a flaming Sword whan could we then hope for We were created happy we forfeited it too too easily what could we afterwards pretend to But God however provok'd by the eternal Intercession of his Son had reserv'd Mercy for us therefore he allow'd Mankind a time and space of Repentance Repentance was the sole possible Condition of Eternal Happiness Repentance invalid yet and unfruitful in it self had it not been render'd acceptable by the Blood of the Lamb slain from the Foundation of the World the Truth of what I do assert in this particular appears from the Song of the four Beasts and the twenty four Elders when they adored this Lamb of God and prais'd him in the name of the Saints Thou wast slain Rev. 5.9 and hast redeemed us to God by thy Blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation those so redeemed from all parts include all Persons dying in the true Faith of God from the beginning of the World some of whom we find mentioned and prais'd for our Example in the Eleventh to the Hebrews and therefore when St. John afterwards gives us an account of those who received the Seal of God on their Foreheads he first reckons up 144000 of the Tribes of Israel a certain for an uncertain Number but after them he tells us he saw a great multitude 7.9 14. which no man could number of all nations and kindred and people and tongues who stood before the throne and before the Lamb clothed with white Robes and with Palms in their hands of whom and what they were when the Apostle enquired of one of the Elders he received this Answer these are they which came out of great Tribulation and have wash'd their Robes and have made them white in the Blood of the Lamb now this numberless Number of happy Souls mark'd by Heaven for its own represents all those walking and dying in the Fear of God through all Ages for Tribulation was the Characteristic of a pious Man before God was manifest in the Flesh as well as afterwards but they had all their Robes wash'd in the Blood of the same Lamb therefore that Blood was effectual for Man's Salvation and render'd all their Religious Performances of which Repentance was a chief acceptable in the sight of God before such time as it was actually and openly shed upon the Cross That Mankind might be apprehensive of their Duties and be as certain in their Repentance as they had been in their Miscarriages God who had given them all the Providential Encouragements possible to serve him faithfully and willingly was pleased to send his Messengers from time to time to call them to Repentance so Enoch by the transcendent Holiness of his Life which doubtless was accompanied with as edifying Instructions preach'd Repentance to a World even so early grown old in Sin so Noah for an Hundred Years together preach'd Repentance to a perishing Generation after the Renewal of the World again from that Stock purposely preserv'd in the Ark Prophets and Holy Men were frequently inspired by Heaven and sent through the World on the Reforming that too rarely successful Errand nor were they so wholly confin'd to Israel the Lot of God's own Inheritance but that they sometimes deliver'd Messages to the adjacent Gentiles so Obadiah to Edom Jonah and Nahum to Nineveh c. this was certainly an Effect of wonderful Compassion that a God so justly offended at Humane Crimes should have any respect to them or use so many Methods of bringing them to a Sense of their own Errors and that Misery attending them but what measure did those Messengers meet with the same with those Servants in the Parable whom their Lord sent to the Husbandmen to receive of the fruits of his Vineyard some were beaten some wounded some murder'd all slighted and disregarded Yet to evidence his Love further God when he observed how unsuccessful his Ambassadours had been He sent his Son the Conclusion was rational they will reverence my Son but the Event was contrary even that Son by foolish Husbandmen was cast out of his own Vineyard and cruelly murder'd And was not that senseless Barbarism too much was it not too much to affront Mercy so notoriously would we thus requite the Lord O foolish People and unwise that we are ill would it become those now who call themselves Christians to trample under foot the blood of the Gospel-Covenant to crucifie to themselves afresh the Lord of Life and to put him once more to an open shame Did he come down from Heaven to Earth from Glory to Misery to save us and shall we be so much Fools as having a Prize put into our Hands not to have Hearts to make use of it shall we refuse to be saved by him nay shall we not Love him shall we not Admire him shall we not Adore him shall we not obey him in all things shall we not be ready to suffer all that Hell and wicked Men can invent to our prejudice rather than forsake his Truth or dishonour his Gospel Reason would teach us these things for they who have received the greatest Favours ought to repay them with the greatest Gratitude but alas we generally discourse to senseless Walls or try our Charms on deaf Adders for who hath believed our Report and to whom is the Arm of the Lord revealed The Leopard may sooner change his Spots or the Negro his Skin than those who are inured to Wickedness be persuaded to relinquish it by the most cogent Arguments in the world but how base and ridiculous does it look that Holy Men of old could live upon God's Promises of redeeming them that in confidence of his Veracity in a full and strong Faith in his Goodness they could account themselves but Pilgrims and Strangers here on Earth and by religious Lives and
how depraved By the Jews Page 127 Sadducees what and their Opinions Page 129 Essenes what Page 131 Pharisees what and how character'd by Jews Page 133 By the Gentiles Page 140 Their Philosophers what Ibid. Things essential to Religion unchangeable Page 145 Therefore the Law of Regular Nature neither changed by Moses nor our Saviour nor any thing as essential added to them Page 148 And therefore Mysteries not taken away either in Faith's Foundation or Symbolical Rites Ibid. Advantages of Religion founded on Mysteries 1. From them Men learn the Imperfection of their own Reason Page 160 2. Fundamental Mysterious Truths the distinguishing Characters between several Religions Page 168 3. Mysteries in Religion create a due Reverence for it Page 177 The Conclusion from all That Mysteries are essential to Christianity as well as to any other Religion Page 190 It 's then Essential to Salvation to know Christ is God Page 193 Scripture conclusive of it Page 201 II. Jesus Christ was truly and properly the Son of God Page 209 This prov'd 1. By the Promises and Predictions concerning his Birth c. Page 219 Several instanced in Page 221 c. Christ expected by the Gentiles Page 234 2. By the Manner and Circumstances of his Birth Page 237 3. By the Doctrines of himself and his Minister Page 259 The gentle and peaceful yet prevailing Nature of his Doctrine Page 267 Scripture prov'd the Word of God to Deists Page 283 God necessarily perfect in all his Attributes Page 287 His Love in particular Page 289 Which obliges him to reveal his Will to those intelligent Creatures from whom he expects Obedience to it Page 294 Scripture such a Revelation of his Will and has all requisites in it Page 299 III. Jesus Christ the Son of God was God equal with his Father Page 309 Prov'd 1. By the Old Testament Page 311 The first Chapter to the Hebrews occasionally cleared Page 315 2. By the New Testament Page 324 3. By Actions done by himself in Person or in his Name Page 381 By himself while on Earth Ibid. By his Apostles in his Name Page 400 4. By the Faith of the Ancient Ante Nicene Church Page 409 Fathers alledged Greek Clemens Romanus Page 411 Ignatius Antiochenus Page 415 Justine Martyr Page 420 Irenaeus Lugdunensis Page 425 Clemens Alexandrinus Page 427 Origen Page 430 Latin Tertullian Page 439 St. Cyprian Page 447 Arnobius Page 452 Lactantius Page 457 Zwicker alledges Socinus rejects the Ante Nicene Fathers Page 462 Why the Fathers suppose a Difference between God the Father and God the Son Page 466 The Confessions of the Ante Nicene Councils Page 470 The Judgments of Eusebius and Constantine the Great Page 477 5. By the generally allowed Practice of Praying to our Saviour he is prov'd true God Page 481 Vnder this Head is prov'd 1. That all Worship terminating on any but the One True God is Idolatry Page 483 The Ancient Notion of Idolatry Page 486 Vnitarians divided about Worshipping our Lord. Page 496 Their Vindication reflected on Page 515 2. That Christians worshipping our Lord are no Idolaters Page 518 Therefore our Lord is True God Page 536 The Summary of the precedent Discourse Ibid. The Filiation of the Son of God enquired into Page 541 The Racovian Lushington's Account and that of Thoughts on Sherlock c. prov'd insufficient Page 542 Therefore a Necessity of Eternal Generation Page 550 IV. It was necessary that God the Son should be Incarnate Page 562 1. That he might destroy the Works of the Devil Page 563 He was Tyrannical over Mankind 1. With respect to their Bodies Page 566 Possessions by the Devil not bodily Diseases Page 567 The Devil permitted to possess Bodies 1. For Tryal of Faith and Patience and to excite the greater Longings for a Messias Page 573 2. For the Glory of the Incarnate Son Page 577 2. He was Tyrannical over Mens Souls corrupting them 1. With false Interests Page 583 2. Violent and unreasonable Prejudices Page 588 3. Prodigious and unaccountable Laziness Page 592 A Second Reason why the Son of God was Incarnate 2. That he might repeal the Mosaic Law by a just Authority Page 595 The Law of Moses though Divine yet repealable prov'd 1. By its general Import it being wholly Typical and referring to somewhat Future Page 601 2. The Ceremonial Law was not essential to the Being or Well-being of a Church Page 610 3. God always put a great Difference between the Ceremonial and the Moral Law Page 617 Hence necessary that the Repealer should be equal with the first Maker of that Law Page 625 3. The Son of God was Incarnate that in our Nature He might fulfil the whole Law for us and give us a compleat Example of Holiness and Obedience Page 632 God's Mercy not diminished by what Christ merited or suffered on our behalf Page 639 Crellius his Notion of Infinite Justice considered Ibid. Justice in God no hindrance to his Mercy and vice versâ Page 645 Christ's Sufferings Proportionable or Equivalent to our Demerits necessary Page 646 Satisfaction consistent with free Remission Page 652 Christ not necessarily to suffer Death Eternal his Temporary Sufferings sufficient and equivalent to what was our Due Page 658 Why so much of Christ's Blood shed as to procure his Death Page 666 Our Lord's Satisfaction no Encouragement to Sinners Page 668 But a greater Encouragement and Obligation to Holiness than the Socinian Hypothesis Page 674 Confest by the Defender of the Unitarians Page 676 Christ a Real and Effectual Sacrifice for us Page 688 Christ's Obedience in his Exinanition not necessary but on our account Page 707 His Sacrifice Expiatory Page 722 Compleated before his Ascension Page 724 His Dying for our Sins prov'd positively Page 731 From the Circumstances of that Death Page 738 Otherwise His inferiour to the Sufferings of Martyrs Page 739 God the Son therefore necessarily the World's Redeemer because that Redemption was 1. An Effect of the greatest and Divinest Love Page 758 2. It required the greatest Interest in God the Father and the greatest Tenderness toward Mankind Page 761 3. He who made all things was fittest to restore them Page 767 The Image of God not founded in Dominion of Man over his Fellow Creatures Page 768 The Conclusion of all in two Practical Inferences 1. We learn from the whole to admire God's wonderful Love and Compassion in condescending so far to us as to be Incarnate and to die for us Page 772 2. We ought to adhere constantly to that Faith by which we believe Jesus Christ our Lord to be the Eternal Son of God true God himself and the Propitiation for our Sins Page 778 Places of Scripture more particularly Explained and Vindicated GEnesis 3.1 2 3 4. Cain and Abel's Sacrifice Page 98 3.15 I will put Enmity between thee and the Woman Page 607 18.2 Abraham stood still before the Lord. Page 311 32.28 Jacob wrestling with the Angel called Israel Page 313 49.10 The Sceptre