pretended to Love the Lord Jesus Christ provided we have but our Authours license to love him but now the Question will be this whether our Union to Christ consists in a mutual and reciprocal love And if our Authour had been judge a little while since he would have resolved it in the Negative That our Union to Christ consists in our Union to a particular Church and that it is a political union such a one as is between Prince and Subject and consists in a belief of his revelations obedience to his Laws and subjection to his Authority I shall only note a few things and dismisse it 1. That there is a love of Benevolence and good Will a designing purposing love in Christ towards us before we bear his Image and Superscription this love he bears towards those that are unlike him Rom. 5 8. God Commendeth his love to us that when we were yet sinners Christ dyed for us verse 10. When we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son 2. There must of necessity be the intervention of an Union a likenesse a Conformity of Natures before there can be supposed a love of mutual complacency and reciprocal delight in each other for this love this delight must have something to work upon As there must be a Conjugal Relation before the Husband can take delight in his Wife as his Wife and the Wife in her Husband as her Husband 3. That this love of good will in Christ is the Original Reason of our transformation into the Image of Christ whereby we become meet objects for that other love of Complacency 4. It s true that we love him as partaking of his Nature but then it s also as true that those Acts of love to and delight in Christ proceed from that New Nature which we derive from him 5. The Love wherewith Christ Loves us as the price of his blood is a differing love from that wherewith he loves us as his workmanship created in Christ Jesus to good works 6. I rejoyce however that we are owned to be Christs workmanship Created to good works which it were not so we had more reason to love our selves to admire and deifie our own natural Abilities which effected that glorious workmanship And I see of late our Authour takes to the Church Catechism which had he attended to in time had saved him half the Labour of his Book My good Child know that thou art not able to do these things of thy self to love God to believe in him to fear him with all thy heart with all thy mind withal thy strength to worship him to give him thankes to put thy whole Trust in him c. nor to walk in the Commandements of God and serve him without his special Grace which thou must learn at all times to call for by diligent prayer 7. The more we exercise our selves in the Love of Christ the more like him we grow and the stronger bonds are layd upon our Souls to maintain the Union inviolable but still there must precede an Union which is the true Foundation of the Exercise of this Love of Delight and mutual Complacency Ay but says he Love is the great Cement of Union which unites Interests and thereby more firmly unites hearts Let him call it the Cement or the Soder or the Glew it 's all one to me I conceive that Interest is the Cement of Love and not Love the Cement of Interest Men love because it 's their Interest so to doe but whether that Love that flutters up and down the world a thing so unstable and desultory that we cannot tell where to have it be a fit Pattern for the heigths and lengths and depths and breadth of the Love of Christ ora just Measure of it I very much question Many things we meet with that are full of delight but one may take a Surfeit of Sweet-meats and therefore I shall onely trouble the Reader with his Concluding Argument taken from the Sacraments Which are says he the Instruments and Symbols of our Union with Christ. And if by Christ he understands the Church it 's not worth the while to make a Controversie on 't we will grant That Union with the Church consists in Union with it and the surest Means to be United to the Church is to be United to it and this way seldom fails But if he had a mind to conclude something else he had done like a Neighbour to have informed us for I must needs confess I am in the dark But yet we shall not lose all our labour For these Sacraments represent both our external and real Union with him And it 's worth all our pains and patience to hear one of his Lectures upon this Subject First for our External Union Baptism is a publick Profession of the Christian Religion that we believe the Gospel own his Authority and submit to his Government Secondly These Sacraments signifie our Reall Union to Christ Thus Baptism signifies our Profession of becoming New men our profession of Conformity to Christ in his Death and Resurrection Now look how much Conformity to Christs Death and Resurrection is better than owning his Authority and submitting to his Government just so much is our Real Union better than our external which if one so exactly versed in the essential differences of things as our Author had not told us other wise ordinary Capacities had judged to be both one That little advantage there is the External Union carries it For as to our External Union Baptism he tells us is a Profession of it but as to our Real Union Baptism onely signifies a profession of it and then it will be somewhat better to make a Profession of submission to Christs Government than to make a signification of a Profession of Conformity to his Death I shall therefore rather acquiesce in the Judgement of the Catechism about the Signification of Baptism than in our Authors which makes this Question What is the inward and spiritual Grace Ans. A death unto sin and a New Birth unto Righteousness for being by Nature born in sin and the children of wrath we are hereby made the children of Grace 4 His last and most famous Observation is That Fellowship and Communion with God signifies what he calls a Political Union And would we knew what that was why it is this To be in fellowship with God and Christ signifies to be of that Society which puts us into a peculiar Relation to God that God is our Father and we his Children that Christ is our Head and Husband and Lord and Master and we his Disciples and followers his Spouse and Body It 's below the generosity of the Eagle to catch Flies an Employment more suitable to the impertinent humour of Domitian and therefore it may be expected that our Author should scorn to play so mean a Game as to impose upon our weakness with the Ambiguity of a poor word To be in Fellowship
that it 's as possible for the Black-Moore to wash himself white which is the Embleme of Labour in Vain or the Leopard to rub out his Dapples as for such a one so enslaved to doe good And if difficulty onely be designed in the Comparison there 's great danger of seduction to have the Case of habituated sinners thus described 3 Our Author is much mistaken to say That the Apostle speaks of the Case of the Heathens The place is Eph. 2. 1. And you hath he quickened who were Dead in Trespasses and Sins c. And these things are exceeding clear 1. That to be dead in Trespasses and Sins let it signifie what it will is a Condition common to Iew and Gentile v. 3. Amongst whom also we all had our Conversation in times past in the lusts of the flesh fulfilling the desires of the Mind and of the Flesh and were by Nature the Children of wrath even as others v. 5. When we were dead in sins 2. That the same Power and Grace was required to Quickening of the one as the other v. 4. God who is rich in Mercy for his great Love wherewith he loved us quickned us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 4 It 's very ridiculous to express some strength by None As if you should say A dead man will hardly walk above five miles a day and then he must rest himself too at every miles end It 's true a Natural Death does not deny a Resurrection by Divine Power nor a Moral Death exclude the efficacious Power of him that raised up Iesus from the dead yet both exclude all Ability in the subject or we must despair of ever understanding one Syllable of Scripture to the Worlds end 2. There is Another Doctrine he will examine by this Rule viz. the Manner of Gods Working in Regeneration Concerning which the Apostle Eph. 2. 10. when he had before shewed all to be dead in Trespasses and Sins thus expresses himself For we are his workmanship created in Christ Iesus unto good works and 2 Cor. 5. 17. He that is in Christ is a New Creature Wherein the Apostle does instruct us in three very material points 1. Here is the Product of Gods Grace A real Effect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Something brought forth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a New Creature a New Creation Another a better though a lesser World 2. The End of this Work or Product of Gods powerfull Grace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it was to good works which God ordained they should walk in The End of the New Heart New Creature and New Nature is New Obedience 3. The Manner of Gods producing this work 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ye were Created to that End so that as God at the first by his Creating Power exerted brought forth the Creature and gave it power to bring forth fruit after its Kind So in this New Creation there is something that Answers both the created Effect the Creating Power and the End of this Creation This would have done pretty well had it not chimed too near the words and therefore our Author shall expound it himself and then if ever he will be in the good Humour This were true says he if our being created to good works did signifie the Manner and Method of our Conversion and not the Nature of the New Creature But what if it signifies both Here 's a Workmanship and here 's the Manner of working We are his Workmanship created The work called a New Creature shews the Thing and its being said to be done by Creation shews the Manner All the Apostles Metaphor will else be very lame The Manner of Gods producing the Old Creation expressed but Nothing to answer it in the New Creation and yet this was the Main of his design v. 5. Even when we were dead in sins and trespasses he hath quickened us v. 8. By Grace ye are saved not of your selves it 's the Gift of God But let us hear his Paraphrase That as in the first Creation we were created after the Image of God so we are renewed after his Image in the second which is therefore expressely called Renewing and Renovation An excellent Similitude just as God wrought All in the first Creation so for all the world he does Nothing in the second That is in plain Terms The New Creation is no Creation and the Apostle could not more unluckily have express'd the Doctrine of our own Ability to good Works than by saying we were created by God in Christ Iesus to the Performance of them To conclude That the Image of God restored should answer the Image in which God created Man at first I can be content onely to fill up the Pà rallel What is that act of God in the New which answers to Gods creating Act in the first Creation And that the New Creation should be called a Renovation I can very well digest but then we must take in Gods Renewing Power as well as the Renewed Effect but that this is called so expressely in other places I do not very well approve nor will our Author when he thinks better upon 't for that will discredit the whole Paraphrase because it chimes too harmoniously to the sound of words Hitherto we have heard a very learned Declamation against interpreting Scripture by the sound of words and now we shall have another Oration against Metaphors Similitudes Allegories Types Figures and all this under the same Head If they say Christ is our Righteousness our Wisdom c. then they interpret all by the sound of words and if they say the Pearl the Manna the Rock c. signified Christ which seems to be very remote from yet that is interpreting Scripture by the sound of words also so that we are in a Fork Snick or Snee and both wayes equally undone Mr. Watson thinks that The Pearl in the Parable Math. 13. 46. may be accommodated to Christ for as the Pearl is there said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so Christ is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 2. 7. That he was praefigured by the Manna upon the onely Credit of Christs own Interpretation Joh. 6. 48. I am the Bread of Life your Fathers did eat Manna in the Wilderness and are dead This is the bread that cometh down from Heaven that a man may eat thereof and not dye That the Rock also did typifie Christ from the Apostles warrant 1 Cor. 10. 3. They drank of the Rock that followed them and that Rock was Christ That Christ was also Resembled by the Brazen Serpent upon Christs own Authority Ioh. 3. 14 15. As Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness even so must the Son of Man be lifted up and that Christ is compared to a Vine Joh. 15. 1. I am the True Vine He proves also or thinks he proves That Christ has very lovely and excellent Titles given him in the Scriptures He is the Desire of all Nations Hag. 2. 7. The Prince of Peace Isa. 9.
his Death His Death confirmed his Doctrine His Doctrine was he that believes and obeys shall be justified and saved Hereupon we believe it to be true and in process of time come to obey it our obedience justifies us and therefore the Blood of Christ may be said to justifie us And whereas Iudas his Covetousness the Jews Herod's Cruelty Pilates Flattery had a direct tendency to the Death of Christ why we may not be properly said to be justified by them also at this rate I profess I cannot apprehend Religion is fallen into most cruel and unmerciful hands in this latter Age who to give a â—…aint colour to any little sorry fancies of their own care not to interpret Scripture in such ways as shall certainly open a dore to elude the plainest Truths God is said to have made the World Now if any has a mind to eternize his Name which without some rare discovery cannot be let him take our Author's Course and he is secure of a Monument That is indeed a Scripture phrase but if you examine it throughly it signifies no more than that God made a company of Atoms and put them in Motion and then let them alone they will dance you so long in infinite spaces till they jostle themselves into that form wherein you see things at this day And thus here 's a fair Account how God may be said to have made the World because he made that which made the World and the Cause of the Cause you know may be said to be a Grand-Father-Cause of the thing Caused But this is infinitely beyond what our Author will allow the Blood of Christ of Causality in our justification for it 's only a Confirming Cause of the Promise and that in Commission with other things and they have a greater stroke in the business than it self then when we come to believe that Promise and that belief proves strong enough to perswade us into Obedience then we are justified for the sake of that Obedience But 5. The Consideration of the Text it self Rom. 5. 9. is enough to discredit this idle conceit for ever for Christ is said to dye for us and in order to our justification in the same sence that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of old 〈◊〉 who laid down Life for Life Blood for Blood Body for Body v. 6. Christ dyed for the â—…ngodly v. 7. For scarcely for a righteous Man will one dye yet peradventure for a good Man some one would even dare to dye v. 8. But God commendeth his love to us that while we were yet sinners Christ dyed for us v. 9. Much more then being now justified by his Blood c. 2. Christ says he is called a Propitiation through Faith in his Blood that is by a belief of the Gospel Covenant Rom. 3. 25. But how short this comes of the Apostle's design is obvious from the place Christ is set forth by God to be a propitiation through faith in his Blood to declare his Righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him that believes in Iesus But is God ever the more declared to be a just God demonstrated to be a Righteous God because Christ has confirmed his Doctrine and we believe and obey it The obedience of most men is so imperfect that when they have done all they will need mercy and that will declare one of God's attributes But what provision is here made that God may be declared Righteous and Iust All that he has assigned to the Blood of Christ turns not away the least of God's displeasure against sin or the sinner Christ dyed to confirm the Doctriâ—…e Well but still God is displeased with sinners for what Reason is there why God should be less displeased with them because Christ dyed to confirm his Doctrine Well but hereupon Man believes this Doctrine to be true but yet God's Anger is never the more turned away from the sinner because he believes what God says is true For what Reason is there why God should be less displeased with him who believes the Truth and yet will not obey his Commands So that neither the Blood of Christ nor Faith neither do reconcile God to us or propitiate him for us well at last Man gives obedience to the Commands and then God is propitiated and reconciled So that the true Scripture should have been had our Author had the pâ—…nning of it God hath set forth Man to be his own propitiation through his own obedience And why might it not have been said that God set forth the Martyrs to be a propitiation through Faith in their Blood For they willingly and chearfully shed their dearest Blood to confirm the Truth of the Gospel and upon their Confirmation of it some have believed it and upon their believing it have obeyed it and then by that obedience are reconciled to God And thus may Paul be said to have dyed for our sins and Peter to have been Crucified for us and both of them to have been set forth by God to be a propitiation through Faith in their Blood Nor let any say that the Death of the Martyrs was not so strong a confirmation of the Gospel as the Death of Christ For if we believe the Truth and obey it upon more infirm Evidence yet if that evidence produce a strong Faith and that a vigorous obedience such an obedience will not find less acceptance with God because it was begotten by weaker Motives 3 The Scripture says he uses these Phrases promiscuously to be justified by Faith and to be justified by the Faith of Christ and to be justified by Christ and to be justified through Faith in his Blood and to be justified and saved by Grace Nay by believing that Christ is the Son of God John 20. 31. And that God raised him up from the dead When our Author has a design upon any great Truth of the Gospel then the clearest expressions the wisdom of God's Spirit shall use are Phrases allusive figurative metaphorical tropical forms of Speech But the Scripture uses not these expressions promiscuously only our Author confounds them craftily Each of them have indeed something in common with the rest and no wonder all the Offices the Active and Passive Obedience of Christ the whole work of the Spirit the actings of Faith and every saving-saving-Grace meet in this one great Project the glorifying of God the Electing love of the Father the Redeeming Love of the Son and the Sanctifying love of the Holy Spirit in the Iustification and Salvation of a Believer But yet each of these expressions carries in it something peculiar to it self for the Scripture abhors to speak at his dull and cloudy rate who by diversifying one and the same thing in twenty several shapes can vend it for so many several things when 't is but the same notion disguised in a new-fashioned expression One denotes the interest of Faith another speaks the concern of him who is Iehovah
am wholly a stranger to as I believe all those are who are so much charged with it When we hear a man zealously purging himself of some Notorious Crime noysed abroad onely in the general without praevious Accusation it 's apt to fly-blow our Heads with jealousie he may be Tardy an over-forward Vindication being reputed more than half an Accusation But I dare be one of his Twelve-Godfathers in this matter that he does not make Christ useless but will allow him to be of some use that is to say that Christ is good for something and in effect a little Better than though next to Nothing and I can with more security become Bound for Him because he has given me good Counter-security that I shall not forfeit my Recognizance P. 330. I could never perswade my self no not for your heart though you had attempted it that the perfect Obèdience and Righteousness of His Life was wholly excluded So that whatever rendred Christ beloved of God contributed something to our Acceptation P. 331. We ought not to think that we receive No Benefit by the Righteousness of Christ. And I hope something is better than Nothing Nay such is his Charity he can be content to Allow that God was somewhat more pleased with the Obedience of Christ than the Faith of Abraham ibid. And that his Sacrifice was of greater value than the Blood of Bulls and Goats p. 19. Naughty men are they then that wrong Him and Them so as to insinuate that they design'd to make Christ useless the rather because they proceed upon so bad a Ground We are charg'd with making Christ useless onely because we dare not make his Laws so And thus it seems they have unhandsomely payd him in his own Coyn who charges them with making his Laws Useless onely because they dare not make his Person so And yet to deal plainly with Him for all this I find a Double charge upon the File against him 1 That though he has not made Christ altogether Useless yet he has made him Needless Though he can use Him yet he could have spared him though he can make a shift with him he could have made a Rubbing shift without Him Ut tecum possum vivere sic sine te So p. 46. I should rather have thought that Gods requiring such a sacrifice as the Death of Christ was not because he could not do otherwise And if Gods Iustice could be contented without that sacrifice I may presume it shall not stick at our Authors good Nature p. 43. Had Christ never appeared in the World yet we had Reason to believe that God is thus Wise and Good viz. to Pardon sinners And as he labours to Prove Enoch Noah Iews and Gentiles who knew nothing at all of Christ p. 44. yet understood God to be a God pardoning iniquity without him And surely if the World jogg'd on for four thousand years without Christ it might have worn out the Remainder without him too 2 I find a second Charge against him That though he make not Christ useless as to some common ordinary and general Ends which might have been attain'd and reach'd without him yet he renders him wholly Useless as to those special those main and glorious purposes for which he came into the World The making satisfaction to Divine Iustice the Imputation of his Righteousness to Believers his powerfull and effectual sanctifying them by his Spirit for whom he undertook Whereof we shall meet with abundant Evidence in the progress of his Discourse So that a Declaration contrary to the Fact is of small weight with considering Readers and sinks it self below all consideration But to return Two things fill up this Chapter First That the Person of Christ is of some Consideration and Secondly That the consideration of his Person is of some use onely the difficulty to be assoyled by His Abilities is Of what use the consideration of his Person should be 1. Then the Person of Christ is of some consideration but e're he ventures upon that Province he bethought Himself it would be a Task worthy his great Parts to indoctrinate our Plumbeous Cerebrosities in the Nice Point What the Person of Christ is P. 15. By the Person of Christ I mean what all men ought to mean nay there 's no doubt of that All men at their utmost Peril ought to mean to a hairs breadth just as our Author means Christ Himself Had it not been a Prodigy as great as ever was in the World if by Christs Person had been meant any body else Such then is Christ's Person The Consideration thereof follows And as he assures us the onely proper consideration here is the Greatness of his Person This is the onely or however The onely Proper or at least the onely Proper consideration here whatever other improper considerations of it there may be in other places or cases upon other accounts or occasions at other times it skills not for Here at this Time and in this place the onely Proper Consideration is the Greatness of his Person And yet methinks the exceeding loveliness of his Person standing betwixt God and lost Sinners his laying down his Life as a Ransome payd to God his standing as a Surety in our stead his bearing our sins in his Body on the Cross might have claimed a Place and come in for a share in our consideration of his Person But thus much for that 2 The Use of this consideration follows And some good Use he has assign'd it 1 And first it 's a plain demonstration of Gods love to Mankind that he sent so dear and so great a Person into the World as his onely begotten Son to save Sinners It is so indeed but a very weak demonstration of Gods Love to his own Son to send him into the World to grapple with all those Miseries he met withall in his Soul in his Body from Enemies from Friends from Men from Devils nay from himself whom it pleased to bruise him and lay upon him the Iniquities of us all to make his soul an Offering for sin nay to be made sin for them who himself knew none to Die a cursed Death and all this without any Absolute or Indispensible necessity Contrary to all the Rules of Decorum Nec Deus intersit nisi dignus vindice Nodus inciderit And it would be of use to consider also the Love of Christ his Willingness to Accept the Terms of being a Redeemer though He knew well they were severe and would cost him Sweat and Blood and yet He cheerfully Undertook Underwent and went through with them He voluntarily assumed a Body that He might become a Sacrifice Heb. 10. He was willingly for a little while made lower than the Angels by Dispensation who was above them by Nature for the suffering of Death Heb. 2. 9. He understood well the Debtor was Insolvent and yet he became Surety He knew well the Righteousness of God and yet He was ready to put in sufficient
his Mediation or to Trust in his Blood but you must â—…o Nomine doe it in Contradiction to the Terms of the Covenant sealed therewith or which is all one it 's impossible but that things subordinate should be opposite The blood of Christ and the Covenant of Christ are perfectly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Person of the Mediator and his Mediatory work cannot be conceived but they involve the thoughts in a thousand Contradictions Positio unius est Remotio Alterius Nay soft sayes he I onely mean in case they understand any more by these things than expecting to be saved according to the Terms of the Gospel-Covenant I do not think they doe And as our Author gave his word for those that are suspected to make Christs Person useless if my word would go as far as his I would readily engage it for them who are suspected to make his Laws useless And so once again all is Husht and still and the fearfull skirmish that was towards is at present stinted Pulveris exigui jactû Let me therefore in the Close give our Author one wholsome Caution That he would not be too rash and peremptory in drawing or wracking Conclusions from other mens Expressions Some will think he has mistaken in his own and may with more ease in others Principles and the Conclusions from thence A Ladder of Deductions and Inferences forty Rounds long is not easily master'd A Sorites or Climax may quickly impose upon us we are never sooner cheated than in a Chain of many links the smallest interruption may secrâ—…tly and insensibly discompose the whole series and concatenation of Dependencies wherein we fancy an infallible Connexion I would not anticipate 〈◊〉 Hericano ill weather comes unsent for and is alwayes too soon and unwelcome when it comes the latest let us therefore keep our selves well whilest we are well Thus smoothly we conclude and say Here ends your Worships Chapter for the Day CHAP. III. Section 1. Of the Knowledge of Christ. THis Section allures the Eye of the Reader with the specious Frontispiece of the knowledge of Christ but proves a mere MockBeggar-Hall and Fools Expectation like a Fair Porch to no House or a great Mountain without a Mouse just like the Guilded Titles of Apothecaries Boxes which pretend to Lodge the rich Drugs of Pontus and both the Indies but are Inhabited often by the Poysonous Spider and Hung with Cobweb-Tapistry Spun out of her own Bowels and Woven with her curious Fingers Or like those gawdy Signs which Encounter us upon the Road whose promising Motto first Invites the Traveller with Hopes of Horse-meat and Mans-meat and then Baffles his hopes with Entertainment that would sterve a Dog To see our Author heaving for a far-fetcht Blow you would verily think he Design'd to Knock the Business stone-dead for ever whilst he does but Imitate the Black-smith that would needs Use the great Sledge Hammer to Kill a Flie on his Childs Fore-head and very Discreetly dasht out the poor Infants Brains Leave we him therefore to the Satisfaction of his own private Thoughts a while and let ours give the Readers Patience a small Exercise The Happiness of Man consists in the Knowing and Enjoying the True God blessed for ever and therefore He who is never wanting to his own Glory nor to His Creatures Happiness in such ways as best Comply with His own Unsearchable Wisdom first Created Man and then gave him an Understanding to Know a Heart to Love and Enjoy His Creator Admirably proportioning his Faculties to his Employment and as he made it his Work and Wages to Love and Serve he furnisht him with a Soul qualifi'd to Love and Serve his God But when Man had sinned and thereby lost his Fitness for that blessed Service it pleas'd God to enter into a New and better Covenant with him Establisht upon that Promise Gen. 3. 15. The Seed of the Woman shall bruise the Serpents Head God would not suffer Satan to rejoyce too much in his success and glory in his greater hopes that he should sweep the World before him and draw the rational Creation into the same Ruine into which he found himself Irrecoverably Plunged The Father had Divided to the Redeemer a Portion with the Great and Promised He should Divide the Spoyl with the strong and Wrest out of his hands that Advantage he had gotten over Man by sin and the Curse inseparably annext to it In the Faith of this Promise had guilty Man encouragement to Return to God and not sinck down in black Despaire to which the Reflexions he must needs make upon that Cursed state he had so cheaply brought himself into could not but Expose him And though the Generality of the Sons of Men through their own sinful Negâ—…ect Lost the Faith of that first and precious Promise yet the Gracious God took Effectual Care that his Service and Worship should be carried down in a chosen Seed and holy Line from our first Parents by righteous Abel heavenly Enoch upright Noah and others to believing Abraham to whom he was Graciously pleas'd to vouchsafe a more Distinct and Explicit Revelation of the Promised Seed And whereas before all Families of the Earth might equally pretend to the hopes of it Now God Clears and Secures it to his Faith that in his Seed by the Line of Isaac should all the Nations of the Earth be Blessed In pursuance of this Promise and the glorious Design managed thereupon he Renews in a more Solemn Ample and full Manner the Covenant of Grace with him the Epitome and Abstract whereof was this Gen. 17. 7. I will be thy God And for the greater Security adds Circumcision a Seal of the Righteousness of Faith Rom. 4. 11. As the Family of Abraham was branched out into two so we observe how the vigilant Eye of Providence Traces that Line by which He had fore-appointed to Conveigh so Rich a Mercy as a Redeemer down to the following Generations And accordingly he Hedges it about with special Care Waters it with extraordinary Blessings Impales it from the Common and Wild of the World by distinguishing Ordinances that it might get a fixed Root in the Earth Hence was Ishmael waved and Isaac taken into special Protection Esau excluded and Jacob comes under the peculiar Cognizance of God just as the Stream and Current of the Promise found its proper Channel and the other Old ones grew either Shallow and Inconsiderable or quite Dried up For the better Securing and more prosperous Managing this great Project God was also pleased to cast the Posterity of Iacob into a visible Church-frame and Political Model appointing to them a Ceremonial Law as an Appendice to the former and the Iudicial Law as an Appendice to the latter Table of the Moral Law accommodating so the whole that all might lead to Him who was indeed the whole life and Soul of that Administration An High-priest and other inferiour ones he also instituted with great variety of
that God can be just in destroying without the least Impeachment of his Mercy and Goodness since Mercy it self is not obliged to plead for the Sinner without respect had to the other Properties of that God who is Essentially what he is But has our Author never a Stone to throw at the head of this Truth Two things he offers most lamentable Ignorance and horrid Blasphemy 1 Here 's most wretched Ignorance A happy Change sayes he this from all Iustice to all Love No Sir don't trouble your self here 's no Change at all happy or unhappy God is the same holy just righteous gracious and loving God that ever he was onely sayes the Doctor he 's otherwise discovered Justice and Mercy are not contrary things in God he can be all Love and Mercy and yet punish the Sinner that cannot plead the Death of Christ for his Discharge and he can be all Iustice too and yet pardon the believing repenting Sinner through Jesus Christ The Change is not made in God with whom is no variableness nor shadow of turning but the Change is made in the State and Condition of the Creature who once standing upon his own bottom and so considered by a holy and righteous God was the Object of just displeasure but now being found in Christ and so eyed by God is in another Capacity and meet to enjoy the benefit of that Grace and Love to which before such Qualification he had no right and whereof he was utterly incapable 2 I wish Ignorance had been the worst that might be charg'd upon his Discourse for certainly here 's a vein of the most unparallel'd Blasphemous Drollery that ever faced the World with an Imprimatur except Friendly Debates Ecclesiastical Policies and some few others of the same Kidney And first he will represent the Holy God in his taking Vengeance or requiring Satisfaction like an angry passionate Man and the Grace of God upon the Account of Christ's Death and Sufferings to the Kindness of a revengefull Man when he has glutted himself with Revenge and his Passion is over I think it might become our Author or the proudest Worm on Earth to have spoken more reverently of the way of Gods dealing with repenting Sinners through our Lord Jesus Christ That discomposure and perturbation of Mind to which frail man is obnoxious falls not upon the great God he can turn the wicked into Hell and all those that forget God without Passion Fury is not in me saith God Isa. 27. 4. An earthly Judge in his private Capacity may weep when he pronounces Sentence of Death against a Malefactor and yet remember that he is a Iudge and cut off from the City of God the wicked of the Land Nihil minùs quam irasci punientem decet Nothing is more uncomely in him that punisheth than Passion And though we read of Gods Anger Wrath and Fury yet it becomes us to conceive of God according to his Dignity even when he represents himself to our Capacity Though God humble himself we have no warrant to abase him whatever things are attributed to God which are common to Men it 's our Duty to garble out all the Imperfections and Frailties that those Qualities are mixed and attended with in Men before we ascribe them to God But this is not the worst he will strain his impious Drollery a few Notes higher The summe of which is that God is all Love and Patience when he has taken his fill of Revenge as others use to say the Devil is good when he is pleased This is indeed the summe of all our Authors blasphemous Froth but neither the total summe nor any particular of what the Doctor has ever asserted The summe of the Doctors words is this That God is the righteous Iudge of all the Earth and that it 's a righteous thing with him to render to every Man according to his Works and yet he has pleased to admit of Satisfaction to be made by his Son Iesus Christ who most willingly offer'd himself a Propitiatory Sacrifice to God In which Son of his whoever shall believe God is ready to pardon and forgive him And now must the plain Truth of the Gospel be thus muffled up and disguised in ugly Expressions to render it lyable to scorn and contempt Thus have the Papists array'd the Martyrs of Jesus in the Sambenit or Devils-Coat first shewing them as Hereticks and then sacrificing them to the flames I see he has furnish'd himself with a Creep-hole It 's not as he but as others say Sed malè dum recitas incipit esse tuus As 't is applyed it 's his own and yet it hits not neither For the Devil is never so pleased as to become Good nor God ever so displeased as to become Evil Nay the Devil is then worst when he is pleas'd for the greatest evil pleaseth him best and God is gloriously excellent when he is displeased for the greatest Evil is the Cause of his displeasure But let this pass for an Ornament of our Authors style which is indeed embellished with Figures but none more beautifies it than this which we may well call a Satanismus He has not yet done he has not loaded the Truth with Reproach to his mind and therefore one id est will doe it That is he would not believe God himself should he make never so many Promises of being good and gracious to Sinners unless he were sure he had first satisfi'd his Revenge But let him not be angry We believe every Promise that God has made of being gracious to Sinners but we say we cannot find one such without Provision first made for the securing Gods Righteousness Shew us a Promise that is Yea and Amen and not in Christ. Produce that Promise wherein God is engaged to justifie a Sinner and not be just himself quote us the place from whence we may flatter our selves that God will destroy any of his Attributes to save a Sinner However therefore our Author has represented God he has thus represented himself 1. That he is a Holy God A God of purer eyes than to behold evil and that he cannot which is the Word so displeases the Man look on iniquity he cannot but see it wherever it is as he is omniscient and yet he cannot see it cannot look on it wherever it is without Abhorrency He is a holy God and from his Natural and Essential Holiness does it arise that he cannot behold sin with Approbation and therefore must and will punish it Thus has he represented himself Psal. 5. 4 5 6. Thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness neither shall evil dwell with thee The foolish shall not stand in thy sight thou hatest all the workers of Iniquity 2. God further testifies of himself that he is the righteous Iudge of all the Earth Governing and Judging the World according to his own holy Nature and the Rules of his holy Law and not according to our Authors good
to be content to be saved by Christ without being either humble or holy or fair or beautifull any otherwise than as he is pleased to make us so by his Satisfaction for our Sins and the Imputation of his Righteousness to us Nay that 's a Rapper let him but look up to what he quoted from Mr. Shepheard Christ hath tâ—…ken upon him to purge his Spouse and make her fit for himself and that she can never be without being holy humble beautifull by inherent Grace Shall I but entreat the Readers patience a very little to lay his finger upon these words The result of all that they mean by coming to Christ is to be content to be saved by him without being holy humble or beautifull c. and I will promise him for his Patience and Pains he shall within a Page or two hear our Author most effectually confute his own Slander and raise a Mighty Blister upon his own forgetfull Clapper And now our Author comes to consider what Duties are consequent upon such an Union and closure with Christ. As first A mighty love of the Soul for her Saviour Head and Husband and Another is Obedience to our spiritual Husband And now Reader where didst thou lay thy finger Are these the Men that are content to be saved by Christ without being holy humble c Are these they that were charged p. 56. with trusting to the Expiation of Christ for Salvation without doing any thing themselves Or are they the same men that were reproached p. 62. as saying They had Nothing to â—…oe but to get an Interest in the Satisfaction and Righteousness of Christ and yet now are so hot for loving of Christ that their great Crime is that they over-love him and are sick of love for him and are all for Obedience to Christ too resigning up themselves to his Will to be govern'd by his Laws and in all things to glorifie him in New Obedience Yes but then it 's very hard to find a proper place for Obedience in this New Religion Well but if we can find a proper place for it in the Old Religion it 's no great matter what place it has in the New And indeed I would not have it Controverted what place in Religion they will allow to Obedience who are of no Religion who are open Scoffers at Christ the Holy Spirit the Scriptures and all Religion Ay but it 's very hard to deduce it from an Acquaintance with Christ's Person Very Hard what a word was that why it 's simply impossible to deduce any Religion at all from an Acquaintance with his Person for all the acquaintance we have with him is by an acquaintance with his Gospel from whence we understand him to be God and Man from thence we learn him to be King Priest and Prophet thence we learn what he has done and suffer'd for us and what he is now doing for us at the Right hand of the Father But why should it be so very hard to find a proper place for Obedience in these mens Religion Why Reason will tell you that if there be any room at all for it it must be either before our closing with Christ or after it Now indeed he argues close and home and pursues his business as snug as you can desire 1. Then this Obedience is not necessary at all to our coming to Christ and closing with him Not necessary that 's very strange Coming to Christ is with them a Main part of Obedience and to Obey without Obedience is not so easie as he imagines He that answers that Call of Christ Come unto me therein obeyes him and believing in Christ has been reputed a considerabe part of Gospel-Duty 1 Ioh. 3. 23. This is his Commandement that we should believe on the Name of his Son Iesus Christ That there are several Duties which flow from Faith the Scripture Church of England and all men living doe acknwowledge but that this Believing is also a Duty they must equally acknowledge So that here 's one proper place or at least a Corner of a place where he may wedge in Obedience if he pleases 2. Sayes he When the Marriage is consummated there 's less need of it than before Nay there his Non-sence is too open He supposes them to own consequential Duties such as follow the Marriage-covenant and yet now he would perswade us that there 's less need of them than before the Marriage-Covenant If he can invent a way how consequential Duties should goe before the Marriage Covenant by my consent he shall have the sole honour of the Discovery In my poor Judgment and I am perswaded most men are of my Judgement consequential Duties doe follow or to humour him following Duties ought to be consequential There was once a Learned and Friendly Debate betwixt a Mayor and his Brethren what the Question was I am not very certain but one wiser than the rest had reduced the Matter to this Head That if they could but make it out that Edward the third reigned before Edward the first they should carry the Cause And if our Author can find any place proper or improper for consequential Duties before that thing to which they are consequential he shall be Registred amongst the great Benefactors to our understandings But yet in spight of Fate he will not allow any place for Consequential Duties after Marriage for then we have less need of them than before A fine Argument if well Improved to satisfie men in the Lawfulness of committing Adultery But why not 1. Then we are adorned with the Beauty of Christ Ergo we need no Inherent beauty Then we are Iustified Ergo we need not be Sanctified 2. Then we are Holy with Christs Holiness Ergo we need not be Holy 3. Then we are delivered from the Guilt of sin by his Expiation Ergo we need not be delivered from the filth of sin 4. Christ must look to see the Debt discharged to God which he hath taken upon him Ergo we owe no Debt of Gratitude to the Father for his Son to the Son for his Love 5. We are then righteous with his Righteousness which gives us an actual right to Glory Ergo we need no Inherent righteousness to make us meet for Glory and to partake of the Inheritance of the Saints in Light All I shall say is this If men may Argue at this Rate they are the most formidable Disputants we may cast our Caps at them and it 's as safe to handle the Torpedo as to touch them with a long Pole But such Merriment he is pleased to Divert his we aried Reader withal and sometimes for Variety it may be Grateful but really too much Nonsence in a Discourse is very odious For the Place or rather no Place of Obedience thus far An enquiry in the Reasons of it seems also necessary And for that he says It 's concluded on all hands that this Obedience is but a Consequential Duty that which ought to
follow the Espousals But the Reason of it is not Evident The Reason of the thing not Evident Why the thing it self is not evident Would he have an evident Reason of Nothing A Foundation for a Castle in the Air Can he find no place for Obedience and yet would he have a Reason for it But for all this Ranting his Conscience tells him that they do allow a place for it and can produce a Reason for it too and perhaps a more proper place and stronger Reason than our Author is able to show 1. Some tell us says he it 's due upon the account of Gratitude and thankfulness to our Saviour And methinks a great deal of Obedience will rest upon that Basis Has he come into this World whither none that loved his ease would come Has he taken our Nature upon him and as if that were a light Matter our sins Has he endured the Displeasure of men and as if that were little did it please God himself to put him to Grief Did he Die for sinners Does he Intercede for them Has he revealed the whole Counsel of God to them concerning their Salvation Has he given them the Holiest Laws and the best Encouragement to Obey them Did he Promise and has he sent his Holy Spirit to dwell in their Hearts Is it he through whom their Duties are accepted and shall not these Obey Here 's enough and yet there 's much more to Engage all the Love Service Obedience of Redeemed ones for ever And so the thing is at least a hairs breadth longer than 't is broad But here our Author is at a Loss he cannot so well understand this But whose fault is that Must the Truth suffer because he cannot see it The truth is he has Puzzled and Perpâ—…exed himself with an Idle scruple in his Head and Vulcan must come with the great Hammer to deliver his Brain of a Minerva though I know no Obligation lies upon me to cut the Rope as often as he will Snickle himself Yet hower let 's here the Difficulty Unless our Obedience be due to Christ in thankfulness to him for saving us without Obedience This is a Knot becoming the Sword of Alexder Christ never engaged to save us without Obedience and therefore he might have spared his pains to enquire how it should be due upon that Account We therefore owe him all our Obedience because 't is through him that such Imperfect Obedience may find acceptance with God Which is nothing more difficult than this We live to him because he Died for us and rose again Yet there is a more fomidable Objection in the reare against the grounding Obedience upon the bottom of Gratitude This is says he Hardly reconcileable with that Essential Condition of accepting Christ wherein those Spiritual espousals consists Well though it be hardly yet if it be reconcileable at all we shall not create him the Trouble of being a Conciliator There are rational Divines enough in the World for whose Heads this Province may be reserved Two things we must here find out if we can 1. What is the Essential condition of our accepting Christ. 2. How Obedience due upon the account of Gratitude comes to be so hardly reconcilable to that Essential condition 〈◊〉 What is the Essential condition of our 〈◊〉 Christ. For here lies the Intrigue and hâ—… 〈◊〉 so disguised Matters and Inck't himself like 〈◊〉 in Confusion that it will be hard to 〈◊〉 Now for that he quotes plain I. O. Com. pag. 63. viz. That the Soul consents to take Christ on his own Terms This is the Essential condition that has Created all the Pother The Souls consenting to take Christ is the Essential condition of taking But now 2. How is Obedience upon the account of Gratitude irreconcileable to its consent to take Christ on his own Terms Davus has made a diffity but where 's an Oedipus to resolve it Christs Terms are that the Soul shall give it self in Love and Obidence for ever He requires that the Soul should be wholly and entirely his and not for another and this is so far from being Irreconcileable to what he calls ridiculously the Essential condition of accepting Christ that it 's directly Included in it And this he might have been Taught from the Doctor had he not been too Proud to Learn Ibid. This accepting Christ by the will as the Souls only Husband Lord and Saviour is called receiving Christ John 1. 12. and is not intended for that Solemn Act only whereby at first entrance we close with him but also for that constant frame of abiding with him and owning him as such So that it would have been an Impossible task to part them but very easie to reconcile them Obedience is so far from being excluded by the Souls accepting Christ upon his Terms that its simply impossible to accept him upon his own Terms but we must Cordially and with an Evangelical Universality obey him all our days It 's something late I confess yet let us hear what he further quotes from the Doctor The Soul consents to take Christ on his own Terms to save save him in his own way and saith Lord I would have had Thee and Salvation in my way that it might have been partly of my Endeavours and as it were by the Works of the Law but I am now willing to receive Thee and to be saved in thy Way merely by Grace We have already seen that what he has Quoted and Summon'd in these words for was marvellously Impertinent to the pretended purpose But that which will not make á Shaft will make a Bolt Never did our Author meet that thing but he could make some use on 't As they that study the Philosophers Stone though they miss of the main Design yet stumble upon some pretty Experiments by the way that makes them flatter themselves they have not quite lost their Oyl and Labour Thus however our Author may be Frustrated in his primary Project which was Confuting the Truth yet probably he may find or make some advantage to slur the Doctor You may see him here like the great Hanibal making his way over the Alps with Fire and Vinegar If there be Matter for a Slander above Ground he will have it and if not Acheronta movebit That is says he without doing any thing without obeying thee If to receive Christ upon his own Terms as a King and abiding with him in that relation giving up it self to Christ as a King to obey him be doing nothing I cannot help it but let our Author do but thus much and he shall receive a Testimony from God that he has done all 'T is true the Doctor excludes all his own Obedience for those ends to which a proud Ignorant Iew might have abused them viz. To exclude the Free-Grace of God and the reconciliation made by Christ And this we ought to be Jealous of lest we ascribe any more Interest and concern to our own Duties
before And here 's a long stride made from one of the Poles of Impossibility to the other of Certainty and Necessity 2. And when we consider that this Heavenly Ambassadour and Mediator is no less than the Eternal Son of God by whom the worlds were made we may reasonably conclude that he came upon no less Design than of universal Goodness for he can have no temptation to partiality as being equally concern'd in the Happiness of all men And we cannot imagine why he should lay a narrower Design of Love in the Redemption than in the Creation of Mankind c. Here are proportions indeed but whether justifiable by the Rules of Vitruvius or the Propositions of Euclide is more dubious The proportion fancied here is betwixt Christs coming his manner of coming and universal Redemption Now to justifie the regularity of his Superstructure upon its Foundation he offers us several things As 1. That Christ came upon a design of Universal Goodness Well but it must be equal Goodness to do his Business 2. He says Christ can have no temptation to Partiality True but differing Kindnesses where none are due may consist very well with Impartiality That he shewed Kindness to any was more than he owed them that he vouchsafed more to some than others was no wrong to the rest They who have the benefit must ascribe all to his Grace they who are left in the same plight their own sins had brought them into have no cause to complain 3. He goes a step higher in his Proportions Christ was equally concerned in the Happiness of all men And this he gathers reasonably from the Behaviour of Christ towards the World But I doubt he has taken false measures of Christs concernment for mens Happiness The best way I should think would be to view how he carried it towards them with whom he did converse and there are some shrewd suspitions that he was not so equally concern'd for we read Ioh. 17. 9 that there were some he prayed for and others for whom he prayed not some to whom he immediately dispatcht his saving Gospel others to whom he at present suspended that Favour Matth. 10. 5. Goe not into the way of the Gentiles and into any City of the Samaritans enter ye not but goe rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel Nay in Fact it 's clear 〈◊〉 not his Gospel to all places of the habitable World equally to some sooner to others later with some it continued longer with other Nations less while to some it was preach'd in more purity clearness and power to others with less And if he sent it not at the same minute to every individual Person it will not argue an equal Concernment in the Salvation of all men for it 's possible thousands might and certain thousands and ten thousands dyed in Ignorance or as our Author expresses it pag. 30. under Gods ineffectual Wayes before the Gospel came unto them and if this Gospel stayed a day longer in one Nation than another still here 's no equal concernment for the Salvation of all for what becomes then of those poor Wretches who without any fault of theirs let me borrow an Expression from our Author were left out of Gospel times because their Fathers had eaten sowre Grapes and now the childrens teeth are set on edge 4. But he assigns a Reason of all this wherein we hope to find more exact Proportions We cannot imagine why he should lay a Narrower design of Love in the Redemption than in the Creation of Mankind That when in the first Creation he design'd all men for Happiness in this New and Second Creation he should design onely the Happiness of some few which is to make him less good in Redeeming than in Creating Mankind The summe of it is thus much Christ Redeemed all that he Created but he Created all men therefore he Redeemed all men And he cannot Imagine how it should be otherwise But 1. Leave out that one word Mankind and let the Proposition reach all rational and intellectual Creatures made capable of Everlasting Happiness and then let him try how his Proportions will fadge We cannot Imagine how Creating Love and Redeeming Love should be of different Latitudes why in the first Creation he should design the Happiness of all his Creatures capable thereof and yet in the Second and New Creation leave out some and take others into his favour The Creating Love of Christ was extended to Angels he made them glorious Spirits and had Christ been tempted to Partiality was he less concerned for their Happiness than that of poor men Did he lay a Narrower design of Love in Redeeming his capable Creatures than in their Creation Or why in the first and Old Creation did he design Angels for Happiness and yet in the Second and New Creation design the Happiness only of Mankind One Angel might have done Christ more Service brought him more glory than a thousand such wretched Worms as Man And yet not one Angel recovered not one fallen Spirit raised redeem'd and brought back to its Original Happiness 2. What he therefore addes is most Vain that this would make him less good in Redeeming than in Creating though Creation cost him no more than the Exercise of his Power but Redemption the Expence of his Blood For 1. One Soul redeemed argues more Love than many created which is proved by that very Reason which our Author has brought to overthrow it because to Redeem one Soul cost more than to create many But 2. What warrant he has to measure betwixt Redeeming Love and Creating Love I cannot tell This I know they are both beyond our reach yet I think that the Blood of Christ as a Man separated from that consideration of it as satisfactory to Gods Iustice cannot be said to be of more worth or dignity than the Creating Power of God But to conclude God made Man righteous there was his Creating Love he qualified him thus made for the Service and Enjoyment of his Maker If now he shall voluntarily loose his fitness and leave his relation to God and thereby make himself lyable to the Curse whenever this Creator shall please to undertake a Recovery I suppose he may without impeachment of Partiality do with his own Grace what he pleases and bestow it where he pleases and not fear to be called to Account by every Malapert Caviller And Now he clenches the Nayl with a sure stroke No sure his Goodness did not become less infinite and boundless when he became Man This is indeed somewhat Amazing for how to find out the Proportion the exact and regular proportion betwixt a greater and lesser Infinite may puzzle our brains as much as to find out the just proportion betwixt finite and infinite which when it shall be made out will doubtless equal the invention of that Prosipotion in Euclide which deserved a Hecatombe In pag. 208. he tells us Though God be rich in Mercy yet he
but the working of heated Fancy and Religious Distraction that to speak of Christs beauty loveliness fulness and preciousness are but Romantick Descriptions of him That is All is Fancy that comports not with his own extravagant Whimsâ—…y The Knowledge of Christ informs our Judgements affects our Hearts reforms our Lives and it will argue little love to our Redeemer if we entertain meaner thoughts of him by loud Clamour and impotent Reflections upon him 2. It moves their Passions and if we be a little passionately affected with the love of our Redeemer it 's a pardonable Errour When our Author would curry favour with his Reader and perswade him that for all his scandalous Expressions he was no Enemy to Christ he could say as much as that came to p. 184 185. This is a Sacrament wherein we celebrate the Love of our dying Lord and express our most passionate Love to him Here is Love passionate and most passionate Love and yet others Passions must not be moved for fear they set the Town on fire 3. They find great breakings of heart I would we experienc'd them more upon Condition we were ten times more reviled for them but I cannot well conceive how the Heart should be broken from sin that is not broken for sin and though this is grown so despicable a Matter in his eyes yet we have this Relief that a broken and contrite heart God will not despise 4. But they melt and dissolve into Tears when they remember what their Lord suffer'd for them They are content he should be called their Lord if others renounce him they are willing to own him It 's better to be reproached in this World that they have a Saviour than condemned in the next World because they have none and let it be their and all our Cares that Men may not hate us for professing Christ and God too because we do but profess him But is it so heynous a Crime to weep at the remembrance of what Christ suffer'd for us We pray that God would fulfill upon us that Promise Zech. 12. 10. That he would pour out his Spirit upon us that we may look upon him whom we have pierced and mourn over him and for him as one mourns for an onely Son and we say with Holy Herbert If thou hast no Sighs nor Tears Would thou hadst no Sins nor Fears Who hath These Those ill forbears But 5. They see him hang upon the Cross and have all his Agonies and dying groans in their ears Well if Faith represents to us a crucifyed Christ the Galatians were not called foolish upon that Account When we read that Christ was amazed and sore troubled that his Soul was exceeding sorrowfull even to death that it express'd from his Body clods of Blood all the Question is whether we ought to Read these things between sleeping and waking or get the most lively and powerfull Impressions of them upon our Souls The Primitive Church used to pray 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 libera nos Domine And the Present Church of England By thine Agony and bloody Sweat by thy Cross and Passion good Lord deliver us 6. They Curse their Sins that nayled him there The truth is they do not bless their Sins for crucifying Christ though he was a Person above our Authors scorn that used that Hyperbole Foelix Peccatum quod peperit Christum But sin has proved so dishonourable to our God so wounding to Christ so grievous to the Spirit so bitter to the Conscience that we would say the worst by it we can on this side Cursing And this we have good Authority for pag. 185. The Memory of what Christ has done and suffered excites in us a just Hatred of our sins So that were we but Masters of his Regular Proportions could we but find the just Measure of the Hatred of sin and Nick it exactly betwixt too much and too little hatred of sin we might escape the severity of his Censure Hitherto we have been taught That the just Measure of loving Christ is to love him without Measure and the just Measure of the Hatred of sin is to hate it without Measure but our Author good Man is very solicitous least we should over-love Christ or over-hate our iniquities 7. They tremble at the Thoughts of the Naturalness of Gods vindictive Iustice to him And if they doe consider God as one of purer eyes than to behold Iniquity if they do view his Holiness and in the sense of their own vileness cry out Woe is me for I am undone because I am a Man of unclean lips As good as they or he have trembled at 〈◊〉 sight of this Glorious Holy and Righteous Judge 8. But they feel all the Horrors and Agonies of damned Spirits I knew we should have a Rapper before we had done Is this the Fruit of Acquaintance with Christ I question not but a Cain a Iudas a Spira may have felt in this Life something of the horrours of the Damned The Apostle denounces some such dreadfull vengeance against Renegadoes from the Christian Faith Heb. 10. That there remains no more Sacrifice for sin but a certain fearfull looking for of Iudgement and fiery Indignation to devour the Adversaries v. 26 27. But these despairing horrours proceed not from an experimental Knowledge of Christ as our Author either ignorantly dreams or maliciously calumniates but from an Ignorance of him the true design of his Death in Reconciling God and Man This is one of their Extreams for at other times they are ravish'd with his Love charm'd and captivated with his Beauty refresht and ravisht with his Comforts c. It is easie to observe that our Author alwayes writes pro re natâ just as the present occasion invites him for he will tell you p. 396. That the Soul many times feels such great and Ravishing delights in all the Acts of Religion as infinitely excell all the pleasures of Sense they relish great Pleasure and Satisfaction in the sense of Gods Goodness P. 397. They must needs feel sometimes such divine Touches and Impressions as are the Effects if I may so speak of a mutual Love and Sympathy And had these men but the Happiness to have express'd themselves in his very words and Syllables they might have said either the worst or best of Religion they had pleased without Rebuke But all this he tells us may be no more than the working of a warm and Enthusiastick Fancy but then if it should prove the work of the Holy and Blessed Spirit which he ascribes to Fancy and Conceit how near it may come to the sin of those who ascribed that to Beelzebub which was effected by the Finger of God I must leave to his serious Consideration Enthusiasm is much reproached and little understood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Enthusiasme is when the Mind is wholly enlightned by God In which sence I pray God make us all Enthusiasts And let the End of all that Ioy and Satisfaction that we have
in Christ be improved for Obedience That his Love to us may so powerfully constrain our hearts that we may wholly live to him that dyed for us and rose again who is also at the right hand of God making Intercession for us To him be Glory Amen CHAP. IV. Sect. 1. Of our Union to Christ and Communion with him OUR Author will not in Courtesie or cannot for Shame deny that the Scripture does mention such a Relation between Christ and Christians as may be express'd by an Union and that these Phrases of Being in Christ and Abiding in Christ can signifie no less Now this Union to Christ being a very suspicious Phrase he is deeply concern'd to mollifie it with some such Healing Explication that it may not prejudice or however not utterly destroy his main design To interpret it according to the sound of words is to blow up himsels with his whole Cause and therefore it is judg'd a safer way to accommodate the Expression if it will be tractable or to force it if it proves obstinate to a Complyance with his own espoused Notions and preconceived Opinions And now we see that the True Reason why he so zealously declaimed against that way of Interpreting Scripture in the last Section was that he might without suspition serve himself of it in this Some do not like his Tottering and Staggering way of wording his Matters It may be express'd by an Union and it can signifie no less than an Union A form of speech invented doubtless to let us know how unable he is to deny and yet how loath he is to confess the plainest Truth I have not forgot that he told us p. 108. That the Scripture describes the Profession of Christianity a sincere Belief and Obedience to the Gospel by Having Christ and Being in Christ but now he is graciously pleased to Mount them a little higher and is gently content that they should signifie no less than an Union with Christ. Four Notable Observations he makes to us in this one Section 1 That those Metaphors which describe the Relation between Christ and Christians do primarily referre to the Christian Church and not to every Individual Christian. I am sorry that it must still be my great unhappiness to dissent from him but seeing all Accommodation is desperate we must bear the shock of his Reasonings as well as we can Christ says he is called a Head but he is the Head of his Church which is his Body as the Husband is the Head of his Wife No particular Christian is the Body of Christ but onely a Member in this Body This indeed would do pretty well but that it wants two small Circumstances Truth and Pertinency which being so inconsiderable we may well spare in any of His Writings And 1. Methinks I want that sorry circumstance of Truth in his Argument Christ is the Head of his Church as the Husband is Head of his Wife but the Headship of the Husband over the Wife will not exactly measure the Headship of Christ over Believers we must call in assistance from another Similitude that of the Head in the Natural Body over the Members Christ is a Head of Influence as well as Authority he communicates Grace to Obey as well as commands Obedience And this is that the Apostle would teach us Eph. 4. 15 16. The head even Christ from whom all the Body fitly joyned together and compact by that which every joynt supplyeth according to the effectual working in the measure of every part maketh increase of the Body to the edifying of it selâ—… in love Here 's an effectual Operation in every part the Growth and Increase of every individual Member by virtue of that Influence which the Head communicates to it And now to make the Husbands headship over the Wife to represent the whole of Christs Headship is craftily to seduce us from the Consideration of that Grace which from Christ we receive to help us in time of need The Holy Ghost has singled out the most per and perspicuous Metaphors that outward things would afford to instruct us in the Nature of that Union and Relation that Believers have to Christ the Priviledges and Advantages which they receive thereby and those Duties which indispensably arise from thence and yet such is the incorrigible and untractable Nature of all outward things such is their shortness poverty and narrowness that they do not yield a Similitude that will adaequately and commensurately express the total of Christs Grace Mercy and Authority or of our mutual Obligations and Duty Much of the Poverty and Beggarliness of the Mosaical Types lay in this those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gal. 4. 9. that they could not represent Jesus Christ to the life whom yet it was their design in some measure to shadow out And when I have named a shadow I have given a sufficient Reason of my Assertion for though a shadow may describe the general Lineaments of its Body yet it will not paraphrase upon the Complexion To supply this defect it has pleased the Wisdom of God to institute that numerous train of Types that so what could not be express'd by any one might yet in parcels be described by Another Hence is it that one Type represents the Death of Christ as a Sacrifice for Sin as the Goat of the Sin-offering Lev. 16. 15. Another the Intercession of Christ at the right hand of the Father as Aarons appearing in the Most Holy place upon the Feast of Expiation The same Wisdom has it pleased the Spirit of God to exeâ—…cise in describing to us the Union and Relation betwixt Christ and Believers for seeing that no one single Metaphor however borrowed from the nearest and most intimous Relation upon Earth could possibly convey to our understandings all that Mercy Grace and Love which from Christ issues to all that are in Covenant with him nor all that Reverence Love and Duty which from Believers is due to a Redeemer therefore has he chosen out many that so by putting together the Mercy and Duty which is comprehended in each we might spell out the Meaning of what is wrapt up in that Relation wherein we stand to him But 2. It wants Pertinency as well as Truth For what if no particular Christian be the Body of Christ. yet is he a Member of that Body and Christ as Head of that Body is related in particular to him without the Intervention of the Body A Body is nothing else but the result of all the Integral parts put together in their due Scite and proper Order and the Church is nothing else but the aggregate of many Christians united under their proper Pastor And as the Head in the Natural Body is immediately related to all the parts so is Christ immediately related to every true Christian. If then he will argue thus No particular Christian is the Body therefore Christ is primarily related to the Body any one with as much honesty may inferre
and a new Spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart out of your Flesh and give you an heart of Flesh and I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my Statutes and ye shall keep my judgments and do them where the order and method of God in this great work is laid down with such a convincing evidence that he must have no eyes or shut those he has who does not see it And 1. God promises that he will remove the great principle of resistance that which makes head and opposition to the Commands of God the stony hard inflexible-Heart 2 That he will bestow another a better a new heart a soft Spirit a heart of Flesh that may comply and close in with Gods Commands 3. That from this new heart all new obedience all service acceptable to God must proceed as from its spring or root I will put my Spirit into you and cause you to walk in my Statutes and ye shall keep my judgments 4. That all obedience inward and outward obedience keeping the Commandements of God with the heart and doing them in the practice of our lives yet all must proceed from this new heart this new Spirit which God promised to put within them But he comes to close Argument we are exhorted that the same mind be in us that was in Christ Phil. 2. 5. And to be his disciples is to learn of him who was meek and lowly in spirit Math. 11. 29. We question not that it s our duty to imitate Christ to copy out all his imitable excellencies and if he can prove that we can do this viz. imitate Christ in Acts of self denyal taking up the Crosse bearing reproach forgiving enemies without a better heart and Nature than we brought into the world with us he will then begin to speak to the purpose But says our Authour Christ transcribed his own nature into his Laws and therefore a sincere obedience to his Laws is a conformity to his Nature To which I answer 1. He that transcribed his Nature into his own Laws must yet transcribe it once more even into the heart of a son of Adam e're he can give to him that new Obedience which is acceptable to him It was not enough that God wrote his Lawes in Stone unless they be written upon the Tables of the heart with the finger of God 2. Obedience to the Laws of Christ does increase our conformity to the Nature of Christ but still there must be a renewed heart and Nature upon which all progressive conformity to Christ in obedience must proceed 3. Transcribing of Christs Nature into his Lawes is a Metaphorical expression which our Authour may explain how he pleases but I observe alwayes when he can cloath an Argument with Metaphors he is then secure yet still he presses upon us from Rom. 8. 9. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his That is says he Unlesse he have the same Temper and disposition of mind that Christ had Now let the Reader look well about him and he shall see rare sights we do all remember that to be United to Christ or to be one of Christs signifie to be United to a particular Church And now we are told That by having the Spirit of Christ is meant being of the same temper and disposition and now from hence we have these consectaries 1. That if any man be not of the same Temper with Christ that is be not holy as he is holy he cannot be United to a particular Church And our Saviour has vouched for it John 3. 5. Except a man be regenerate and born again he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God We must be like minded with Christ and thereby become one of his and what is now become of the great Proposition that has filled so many pages That the only means of Uniting as to Christ is by our Union with a particular Church 2. He tells us that Union to Christ is described by having the Spirit and then having the Spirit is interpreted by being of the same Temper with Christ so now we have got another Doctrine That our Union to Christ consists in being of the same Temper and disposition with him But 3. We have here an excellent expedient to discharge the World both of the Person of Christ and of the Spirit too For as he can interpret Christs Person into Doctrine office Church Religion Bishops Baptism so he has interpreted the Spirit into Temper disposition and when an exigency calls for it he may explicate it by a strong wind or a vapour and then his work is done But 3. For the explicating of the new Nature he tells us there is a closer Union which results from this which consists in a mutual and reciprocal love which I am glad of amongst other Reasons for this that now it will be lawfull to Love Christ without persecution provided alwayes we do not over love him nor be passionately in love with him but yet there are a few inconveniences which attend this explication For 1. If we be United and closely United to Christ by Love then a Political Union is not the onely one betwixt Christ and Christians And 2. Then it seems for all the sorrow a Christian may be United to Christ without being United to a particular Church for we therefore love Christians because we love Christ and are taken with the imperfect holiness which is copied out into their Natures and lives because we are surprized first with a delightful admiration of Him who is the grand exemplar of all perfect Holinesse 1 John 5. 1. He that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him 3. Why may not this Union with Christ signifie an Union with the Church as well as the other and then to love Christ signifies no more than to love his Church and so we are but where we were 4. It s very strange that our Love should result from our obedience and subjection whereas its hard to conceive how the soul should give subjection without Love and if it should give any a forced subjection without its principle of Love would find as cold a well-come in Christs heart as that cold heart it came from our Saviour had described obedience as the result of love John 14. 15. If ye Love me keep my Commandements No says our Authour keep my Commandements and then you will fall in Love with me but let him give light to his own Notions when we are transformed into the Image of Christ he loves Us as being like him and we love him too as partaking of his Nature He loves us as the price of his blood as his own workmanship created to good works and we love him as our Saviour and Redeemer now love is the great Cement of Union which unites interest and thereby does more firmly unite hearts It is not then quite so bad as was
he will improve it Where says he the Fellowship of Christ can signifie no more than fellowship with the Church because the Apostle addes in the next Verse I beseech you brethren that you all speak the same thing that there be no Divisions among you I confess he has a heavy hand at Reasoning and it goes hard with us that must continually feel the weight of it But yet 1. The Apostles Argument will conclude as strongly from the Communications of Grace from Christ unto Peace among our selves as from Union q. d. You have all been made partakers of the Communications of Grace and Peace from Christ you have many mercies in hand and more in hope much in possession but infinitely more in Reversion and will you run into Factions among your selves But 2. The very plain Truth is The Apostle argues neither the one way nor the other Verse 9. has no such Influence upon Verse 10. but the Rise of his Discourse is from Verse 3. Grace be unto you and Peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Where you have First The Union and Relation God our Father Our Lord and Saviour Secondly The Communion that flows from that Relation 〈◊〉 and Peace i. e. All new Covenant-Mercies And because whatever Grace or Peace comes from the Father as the Fountain and Spring from the Son in a way of Purchase and Procurement comes also from the Holy Ghost by way of Immediate Efficiency therefore it 's called also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 13. 14. The Grace of our Lord Jesus the Love of God and the Communion or Communication of the Holy Ghost be with you all You all that is The Church of God at Corinth with all the Saints in Achaia Chap. 1. ver 1. who are supposed to be already United to Christ both in our Authors false Notion and in the true Now this Communication he calls The Grace of God given them or Communicated to them by Jesus Christ Verse 4. And shews the Measure of it Verse 5. Ye are enriched in every thing by Him And Verse 8. He shews that God would confirm them in as well as enrich them with his Grace to the end And for a Proof of this he minds them of the Faithfulness and Steddiness of God in his Covenant Verse 9. God is Faithful by whom ye are called unto the Communication of our Lord Jesus Christ. The end of your Effectual calling to an Union with Christ is a Communication of this Grace and Peace from Christ. And then Thirdly Our Authors Memory is very Treacherous For first he observes That Communion with God signifies a Political Union and that Political Union was such a one as is between a Prince and his Subjects pag. 156. And that certainly has the Persons of both for the Terms of the Relation And pag. 185. He observes That our Fellowship with the Father and the Son is founded on our Fellowship with the Christian Church and therefore fellowship with the Father and the Son and fellowship with the Christian Church are two things really distinct for it would be harsh to say a thing is founded on it self And yet after all this Fellowship with Christ can signifie no more than Fellowship with the Church And thus the short and long of the Business is this Union with Christ is Union with the Church And Communion with Christ is Communion with the Church And Union with the Church is Communion with the Church Quod erat Demonstrandum But we are terribly Threatned with an Argument from 2 Cor. 6. 14. Be ye not unequally Yoaked together with Unbelievers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where the Apostle refers to a Levitical Ordinance Deut. 22. 10. Thou shalt not Plow with an Ox and an Ass. In proportion to which the Apostle forbids Believers to joyn in the same special League and Covenant with Unbelievers Now the Reason why he disswades them from such an unequal union is because the end of all union is a Communion or Communication each to and with other in that Union But to be sure where there are such Contrarieties of Interests and Inclinations in the Persons joyned together there can be no assistance to the same common VVork The Cedar in Lebanon and the Thistle in Lebanon are not qualified for a Match for they will never serve and accommodate each other in the Duties of the Relation When the Wise God chose a VVife for Adam he provided one that was Homogeneous with him Bone of his Bone and Flesh of his Flesh that she might be a Meet-help for him But now says the Apostle If you joyn your selves with Unbelievers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 VVhat participation of good things can you expect from them whose Religion is as contrary to yours as Righteousness is to Unrighteousness And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 VVhat Communication can there be between Light and Darkness Pagans can Communicate nothing to you but their uncleanness and I would not have you communicate with the unfruitful Works of Darkness Ephes. 5. 11. Again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 VVhat Concord hath Christ with Belial VVhat Symphony or Harmony can there be in your Conversations You will be always Jarring There will be no Melody or Musick in your Converses VVhen you would be praising to their Idols so that never was there greater Confusion of Tongues at Babel than there will be in your Society And then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what Portion can a Believer have with an Unbeliever He will not ought not partake of the Lords Table with you and you will not ought not partake of the Table of Devils with him For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what Consent or Suffrage will the one give to the other The living God will not vote for dead and dumb Idols The Arke will never endure Dagon How absurd therefore must it be to enter into a Relation with them with whom you can enjoy no Fellowship in that Relation One Reserve he has still left from the Lords Supper whereby our Fellowship with God and Christ are expressed 1 Cor. 10. 16. The Cup of Blessing which we bless is it not the Communion of the Blood of Christ Now says he it 's called a Communion because it signifies 1. A Communion of Christians with each other 2. A Fellowship with God That is it 's called a Communion because it 's no Communion but onely the sign of a Communion There is indeed an outward and visible sign and there is also an inward and invisible Grace really exhibited and communicated from Christ by the Ordinance to the worthy Receiver And thus much he might have learn'd from the Church Catechism Qu. What is the inward part or thing signified Ans. The Body and Blood of Christ which are verily and indeed taken and received of the Faithfull in the Lords Supper Qu. What are the Benefits whereof we are partakers Thereby Ans. The strengthning and refreshing of our Souls by the Body and Blood of Christ As our Bodies
our Righteousness a third may particularly point at the influence of his Blood in this matter another the evidence of all this But by this Argument he may fancy and that may stand for Proof that all things under Heaven signify one and the same thing for I know no two things so perfect strangers but have some cognation some common and general agreement and meet in some Latudinarian Third that will clasp their Interests They must be related either as Cause and effect or Concauses of the same effect or as joynt-effects of the same universal Cause c. but now to say that all these signify the same thing formally because of some general coherence is no more to my edification than if our Author would prove himself a-kin to the great Mogul because they have two Elbows a-piece A way of Reasoning very much unbecoming a Rational Divine especially one who trades so much in the essential differences of things But suppose that all these expressions do signify one and the same thing what is that one thing which they signify The Answer is ready That we are justified by believing and obeying the Gospel This is the one thing and this is the one thing that should have been proved for if by Gospel he understand no more than the commands of the Gospel and all the rest as Promises and confirmations of Promises thrown in as Motives and Arguments to that Obedience then I say we are justified by something else than the Gospel that which he cal's Gospel even by the Blood of Christ which is more than a Motive to Faith or an Argument to Obedience though a most excellent Motive and Argument to both being a proper propitiatory expiatory Sacrifice to remove God's just displeasure procure his favour and take away Guilt But I shall willingly hear him practise upon the particâ—…lars 1. Faith or Faith in Christ signifies such a firm stedfast belief of the Gospel as brings forth all the fruits of Odience Therefore what Why therefâ—…re to be justified by Faith or by the Faith of Christ or by Christ signify to be justified by believing and obeying the Gospel Here 's nothing but evidence wanting for we have confidence enough But then 1. If a justifying Faith be such a firm and stedfast belief of the Gospel as brings forth all the fruits of obedience then no Man can be justified till he be in Heaven or at least within one step of the actual possession of glory One of the fruits of obedience is final perseverance now Faith may produce one or two or twenty of the fruits of obedience but yet if it fail before it has brought forth all the rest it falls shorts of a justifying Faith 2. If this be the true Notion of a justifying Faith I doubt not to affirm that the Devils have as true a justifying Faith as far as the essence of Faith reaches as the best Saint on earth It 's true their Faith does not bring forth the fruits of obedience but that 's only to say they want a saving obedience a justifying obedience for all that is of the essence of Faith as 't is Faith they have they firmly and stedfastly believe the Gospel to be true though their Faith produces not the fruits of obedience That Faith which justifies will in due season produce all the fruits of obedience yet a justifying Faith as it justifies does not include all the fruits of obedience We read 1 Ioh. 3. 2. He that hath this Hope in him God purifies himself as God is pure whence it 's plain that a well-grounded hope will purify the heart but if from thence any will infer that the Grace of hope and the effects of hope are formally the same he will miserably expose his own ignorance 2. To be justified by the grace of God that signifies the same thing too viz. That we are justified by believing and obeying the Gospel Now this is truly wonderful but how does he prove it why thus The Grace of God is the Gospel of Christ expresly so called in Tit. 2. 11. as being the Effect of the free Grace and Goodness of God to Mankind To which I return 1. It is very true that the Gospel of Christ is called Grace as being the product of mere Grace and contains the Methods of God's Grace in the justifying and recovering of Sinners The word Grace signifies either the free Love and Favour of God towards us or the effects of that Grace for us or upon us and thus the Revelation of God's Mind and Will being one of the Effects of Grace may be called Grace But now that the Grace of God is the Gospel that is the Revelation of God's Mind and Will is not true Grace is larger than Gospel-Revelation The Gospel reveals more Grace than what consists in Revelation But he argues thus The Gospel of Christ is called Grace therefore the Grace of God is called the Gospel as if he would conclude that because every man is a living Creature therefore every living Creature is a Man But I wonder why any should pray so earnestly for true Repentance and the Holy Spirit if Grace signifie nothing but the Revelation of the Gospel which a Man may purchase filleted and guilded for five Shillings And all the Supplications of Christians for Grace signifie no more but that we may have the Scriptures which is Grace indeed but not all the Grace promised in the Scriptures 2. To be justified by Grace is quite another thing Rom. 3. 24. Being justified freely by his Grace through the Redemption that is in Iesus Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 justified in a way of free Gift which excludes the consideration of any thing inherent in us for though to be saved by Grace might allow some consideration of Obedience and yet such is the infinite Disproportion between the Obedience and the Reward that it may be called Grace yet that will not satisfy the Expression To be justified 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gratis without any consideration at all on the part of the Person justified for which he is so justified 3. Faith in the Blood of Christ is a belief of the Gospel which was confirm'd by his Blood Then farewel for ever all discourse and writing The Builders of Babel might â—…ooner have guest at one anothers meaning after that the Curse of God had cleft their Tongues into seventy two Dialects than here-after we shall understand the Conceptions of Men's Minds by the expressions of their Mouths For if when the Apostle says we are justified through Faith in his Blood he designs no more than that we are justified by believing and obeying the Gospel then for ought I know our Author may intend as Orthodoxly as any Man living and when he says we are justified by believing and obeying the Gospel he may intend it only by way of evidence but that we are really justified through Faith in the Blood of Christ. 4. To be justified by believing that Christ
reputed the onely Children of God He removes that small Objection telling them Christ had already removed them in his Flesh in his Person he was the summe and substance of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Having already in his Flesh or Person made void the Law of Ordinances and already dissolved that Partition Wall He that has Reconciled you to one God has also brought you into one Church which he repeats again ver 16. That he might Reconcile both unto God in one Body by the Cross having slain the Enemy thereby or in himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Here are first the Parties Reconciled Jews and Gentles Secondly to whom they are Reconciled to God Thirdly the Fruit of this Reconciliation to God They are brought into one Church amongst themselves Fourthly The Means whereby they are Reconciled to God that so they might be capable of being United into one Church and that is by the Cross of Christ or by himself on the Cross who bare our sins on the Tree 4. The Apostle shews the way and means of promulgating this Peace which he had made with God and that was by the publick Preaching of the Gospel ver 17. He Preached Peace he made Peace with God and then Preached it to the Gentile World He that had procured good will towards men Preaches Peace on Earth How little ground now had our Author to say That we are said to be Redeemed by the Preaching of the Gospel when the Preaching of the Gospel is nothing but a Declaration of that Redemption which Christ has made of Jew and Gentile with God and the way and Method to be partakers of the benefit of it And now to draw to a close of this Matter let us re-view our Authors Doctrine of Redemption The Redemption of Iew and Gentile he makes to differ as much as the Faith of Abraham and that of Christians 1. They differ in the matter of Redemption that which they were Redeemed from The Jews they were Redeemed from the Ceremonial Law the Gentiles they were Redemed from Idolatry and impure practises 2. They differ in the manner of procurement for the Jews Christ says he by his Death put an end to that Legal Dispensation and so their turn is served that little Redemption that they needed which is all our Author can afford them was Actually accomplisht by the Death of Christ which was a proper and immediate cause of their Redemption such a one as it was but then the Gentiles they were Redemed after another fashion by the Preaching of the Gospel whereby they were turned from Idolatry and impure practises And this shall be called Redemption because it were dangerous to ascribe it to the blood of Christ for an Obvious Reason that he knows of but because the Scripture says we are Redeemed by the Blood of Christ and gives that Blood a concernment therein therefore to stop the â—…uth of the Scripture it shall be said we owe the Preaching of the Gospel to the blood of Christ. 3. There is one thing more from whence our Author flatters himself with hopes of great success and that is by mis-representing the Analogy between the Iewish Sacrifices and the Sacrifices of Christ Two things he attempts 1. To shew what it is under the Law to which the Death of Christ his Ascention into Heaven and presenting his Blood to God does Answer 2. What it is under the Law to which his Intercession Answers Which project of our Authors has been contrived and managed with a great deal more subtilty by those who would storm or blush to see their Arguments thus miserably abased 1. To the former of these he expresses himself thus Now as the Death of Christ upon the Cross and his Ascention into Heaven and presenting his Blood to God in that most Holy place did answer to the first sprinkling of the Blood under the Law which confirmed the Mosaical Covenant as the Apostle Discourses in Heb. 9. c. In which few words he has heaped up more absurdities and follies than another must hope to bring into twice as many For 1. Here is a supposition of Christs presenting his Blood to God in Heaven distinct from his Intercession which when he shall offer to prove it may be time to consider it 2. He supposes that Christs Ascention into Heaven answered the first sprinkling of blood under the Law A most ridiculous supposition For what is there in sprinkling that answers to Ascention or bears the least Analogy to it Surely these Gentlemen that create such parallels and fancy such uncouth resemblances must have some mad design in their Heads which nothing will subserve but such forced allusions And I do not now wonder that he should so tediously rail at the use of Allusions in others for they will deserve the most of scorn that can be thrown upon them if they be all like his own 3. That the Death of Christ upon the Cross did Answer the sprinkling of Blood under the Law which confirmed the Covenant is very true but then 1. It must be remembred in what respect it confirmed the Covenant not meerly as a witnessing to the Truth of what he has preach'd but as Answering the demands and claims of the Governing Iustice of God as we have before shewed 2. It must be remembred also that it was not such a Covenant as he has imposed upon us but the true Covenant of Grace wherein God promises to give that which our Author will not own the New Heart New Spirit and New Obedience 3. That to confirm a Covenant was not all the design of it's sprinkling but diverting of the wrath of God procuring his favour c. So the Blood of Christ has greater ends than confirming of the Truth he taught viz. the appeasing Gods just displeasure procuring his Actual Love pacifying of the Conscience cleansing the Soul 4. He supposes also that the Apostle Discourses to this purpose Rom. 9. which is to make the Apostle accessory to his own groundless fopperies who is indeed perfectly innocent of these crimes For 1. The sprinkling of the blood which the Apostle mentions Heb. 9. 9. in that mentioned Exod. 24. 6. Now there was another sprinkling of blood Antecedent to that which we read of Exod. 12. to which the blood of Christ did Answer and to which the Apostle refers as is evident from Heb. 11. 28. Heb. 12. 24. 2. The sprinkling of Blood Heb. 9. 19. being the same with that Exod. 24. 6. shews evidently that as the whole concern of the blood sprinkled at that time was not confirming a Covenant but Atoning God So the whole concern of the blood of Christ is not taken up in confirming a Covenant much less such a thing as he will mis-call a Covenant but in Reconciling God to Man paying a price of Redemption to God c. 3. That the Apostle carries another Argument is evident For 1. The Typical Interest which those Sacrifices had in Redemption were accomplish'd before the
Covenant made a Covenant his Righteousness and Obedience have procured a Covenant are the Meritorious cause of a Covenant when the total Summe of all is no more than this That God has promised to Pardon and Save us if we Believe and Obey the Gospel though we Obey not perfectly So that at last it 's our own Obedience that Recommends us to God our own Righteousness for which we are Iustified Whereas the Apostle is Peremptory That by the Obedience of Christ we are constituted Righteous His Conclusion is therefore this That the Righteousness of Christ is not the formal Cause of our Iustification but the Meritorious cause of that Covenant whereby we are declared Righteous and rewarded as Righteous I perceive the Righteousness of Christs Life and the Obedience of his Death are like to prove something ere long One while they Confirm and Seal another while they Procure and at last they Merit a Covenant I cannot but Examine particulars though I have often done it 1. The Righteousness of Christ is not the Formal cause of our Iustification Indeed I think it is not Never any Man in his Wits affirmed it so Give but us leave to call it the Material cause or the Meritorious cause immediately and properly of Justification and he shall take Formal cause and deal with it at his pleasure I think I have a Commission from all the Systematical Divines of Germany the Voluminous Tigurines and Bulky Low-Dutch with those few that are left in England to make a Bargain with him Hard and Fast That the Righteousness of Christ is not the Formal cause of our Iustification 2. Says he It is the Meritorious cause of that Covenant whereby we are declared Righteous A Meritorious cause sounds very high if it had an honest Meaning But what has it Merited Iustification By no means What then Any particular Mercy or Priviledge or Blessing By no means for then it would be a proper cause of it there 's an Exact and Severe proportion betwixt the Reward and the Work in all Merit What is it then the Meritorious cause of Why of a Covenant But are we made Righteous by the Covenant Not at all only we are declared Righteous But how does the Righteousness of Christs Life and the Obedience of his Death Merit such a Covenant at Gods Hands Nay That he will not tell us God was well pleased with them but why he should be so is a Secret which must be reserved for the coming of Elias 3. The last thing I shall Exmine is his Exceptions against our Interpretation of the Apostle 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shall be made Righteous says he is the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shall be Iustified Well I agree to him But then I say the former Expression explains the way of our being Iustified that it is by Vertue of a Gospel-Law-Constitution or Appointment of God who considering all Believers as one with their Redeemer does Constitute them Just and Righteous there 's the Formal Cause in the Righteousness of Christ there 's the Material Cause of Justification as all the Posterity of Adam are constituted Sinners and liable to Condemnation by the Constitution of the old Law as Represented by him their Common Head 2. He excepts That the Apostle tells us ver 17. Who they are that are Iustified by Christ and shall Reign with him in Life not those who are Righteous by the Imputation of Christs Righteousness to them But I do not hear the Apostle telling me one such word whatever he has told our Author privately by way of Cabala I hear him saying plainly That as by one Mans offence many were made sinners so by one Mans Obedience many were made Righteous And because I cannot devise how possibly one Man should be made a sinner dealt with as a sinner Condemned and Judged as and for a sinner by another mans sin unless he be some ways or other guilty of sin and because it is not the making of that one mans sin their own by Immitation and Example that the Apostle speaks of but by a constitution of a Covenant or Law Therefore till I can find a better Term to express the Doctrine by I shall call Gods charging Adams sin upon his Posterity to their Condemnation his Imputing it to them And then because I cannot neither devise with my self how one man should possibly be made Righteous by the Obedience of another but that others Obedience must some way or other become his own and because to say Christs Obedience is ours by Imitation of his Example is to cross the Apostles paralel and to cross the Truth for we Imitate it but in part and very Imperfectly therefore I shall take the Freedom also to call Gods constituting Believers righteous by the Obedience of Christ his Imputing that Obedience to them for their Justification provided always that when more convenient and expressive Terms shall be found out to satisfie the Apostle this of Imputation be left indifferent Well but if not these who are then Why those who have received the abundance of Grace and of the Gift of Righteousness these are justified by Christ these shall Reign with him in Life It 's very true the Apostle does tell us no less And I cannot imagine how he should more fitly describe a justified person that others may know him and he should know himself than by the Fruits and Effects of Justification such as abundance of Grace are For whatever our Author thinks of the Apostle he does not use to describe a thing by it self or something equally obscure but by that which is more known and Obvious than the thing described and therefore the Apostle seems not to describe Justification but a justified Person by Sanctification They that have received abundance of Grace and the Gift of Righteousness these are justified Persons not that Justification is from any Inherent work but that the justified Person is only known to himself to be such by an Inherent work and to others by the fruits of it This answer I will deal truly with my Reader came next to hand I had it from our Author and I presumed he would accept a bad one of his own before a better of another mans The Apostle says he tells who those are that are thus justified by Christ Nay then thought I that will kill no body for a justified Person may be described by his Qualifications and yet his Righteousness wherein he stands accepted before God not consist in those Qualifications But to deal plainly with him I do humbly conceive that the Apostle describes an Imputed Righteousness by that expression They which receive the abundance of Grace and the Gift of Righteousness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It was the over-flowing and Redundancy of Divine Love to accept a Surety to fulfill all Righteousness and Suffer for us and abundance of Grace too to let us in by Faith into the Righteousness of Christ's Life and the Sacrifice of Christs Death