that Sacrifice once for all to be offer'd up to God for that end 6. And it was Necessary that the gracious God who had trusted the World so long with Pardon Peace and Life should at last be satisfied and not alwayes be put off without due Compensation to his Justice and Truth 7. The Case and Condition of the Elect of God made by the common Apostacy Enemies to God and under the Curse annex'd to the Violation of the Law upon this one Supposition that God would pursue his Original Love and Purposes of Grace to them that a due Compensation should be provided for his wronged Justice Sin had perplexed matters and involved things in such Intricacies that Humane Wisdom could not find out an Expedient How God might be Just and yet the Justifier of him that believes how Mercy and Truth should meet together how Righteousness and Peace should kiss each other Many Salvo's have been propounded to the World many Expedients set on foot but upon severer scrutiny have been found Physicians of no value not able to heal the wounds of an inquisitive Conscience awaken'd with the sense of the Souls worth and Gods wrath in the Judgement to come All these things does the Lord Christ alone compromise adjust all these Accounts and reconcile these Intrests The Justice of God is satisfied the Law fulfilled the Truth of God secured his Holiness vindicated and all his Attributes unreproached 'T is true indeed God is a free Agent and absolutely consider'd might have left the world to perish under the Curse but seeing it pleased him to carry on his design of Love still notwithstanding the intervention of sin what others may pretend I know not but to our Apprehensions as there is but one God the Father of whom are all things and we in him so there is one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things and we by him 2 Cor. 8. 6. 2. The Work of Christ whilest in the World was the discharge of his whole Mediatory Undertaking as Prophet Priest and King To divide Christ is to destroy him As half a Heart is no Heart in Gods Acceptation so half a Christ is no Christ as to any saving advantage the Soul can possibly reap from him He was therefore 1. A Prophet to acquaint us fully with the Preceptive will of God in which rank we must place that great Command of Faith in Christ 1 John 3. 23. And this is his Commandement that we should believe on the Name of his Son Jesus Christ. He acquainted us also with the Promissory Will of God as the great Encouragement of our Souls in walking resolvedly with God in wayes of New Obedience He acquainted us also with the Purposes of God which should follow his Promises and Precepts to invigorate them with Efficacy and Success And this he does by the Ministry of his Word but more especially by the Holy Spirit inwardly and powerfully and yet sweetly not offering violence to our Faculties but making us a willing People in the day of his Power 2. He was a Priest and as such he offer'd himself a true and proper Sacrifice to God thereby answering the Sacrifices of the Old Testament which though they were Typical yet in their way were true and Real Sacrifices and all this in pursuit of the Fathers Love and his own 1 Joh. 4. 10. Herein is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the Propitiation for our sins what Intercessions as a Priest he made for those the Father had given him we need no other pattern of than that Prayer John 17. per totum 3. His Kingly Office he exercised in gathering governing defending protecting his Church abolishing those Laws which were accommodated to that other Dispensation and would not fit its present posture and instituting New Ordinances of Worship agreeable to the oeconomy of the New Testament which Office yet he exercised in such a way that little of Glory and Majesty appeared therein to a Carnal Eye the Grandeur thereof being vailed under the form of a Servant 3. The general Design of this Work we may assure our selves was exceeding Glorious nothing but admirable could be the Product of such an undertaking with what Joy and Triumph was it entertain'd by the Angels who were less concern'd therein than poor fallen Man Luke 2. Glory be to God on high on Earth peace good will towards men 1 Tim. 1. 15. This is a faithfull saying and worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the World to save sinners the chiefest of Sinners Which Great End that he might attain he dealt with God as a Priest to reconcile him to us with Us he dealt as a Prophet enlightning our Minds in the Knowledge of God and our selves and as a King subduing our hearts by his Spirit of Grace to accept of those Terms which might secure the Glory of God in our Eternal Salvation But the main Design I shall express no otherwise than in the words of the Church of England Art 2. who suffered and was crucified dead and buried to reconcile his Father to us and to be a Sacrifice not only for Original but all Actual sins of Men. From whence we learn 1. That Reconciling and Sacrificing Work is onely proper for a state of Humiliation it 's annex'd to his Death Sufferings Sacrifice 2. That the Death of Christ according to the mind of this Article supposes God to be incensed against and angry with Sinners and therefore he suffered to Reconcile God to us 3. That the Death and Sufferings of Christ are of sufficient value to secure Gods Honour and appease his Anger 4. That Original Sin how small a mote soever it may seem in some mens eyes is yet such a troublesome Beam in Gods eyes that it requires the same Blood of Christ to be a Sacrifice for it 5. That all Actual sins even the smallest if any may be called small need the Blood of Christ to reconcile God to the Sinner without which they will infallibly destroy the Soul Thus far the Church of England of whose Doctrine our Author has great Reason to be very tender if not for the Truths sake yet for his Credits sake having subscribed it and above all for St. Georges sake Buttolphs-lane for otherwise it may be easie for some poching prolling Fellows to dismount George-a-horse-bâ—…k and get into our Authors Saddle CHAP. III. Sect. 2. Of Acquaintance with the Person of Christ. INterest is beholden to the Eagle for two of its greatest Excellencies a quick Eye to discover and sharp Pounces to seize the Quarry When once it had appeared in some pregnant Instances that the High-road to Preferment lay in the way of exposing Religion under the Persons of the Non-Conformists it 's incredible how soon sagacious Interest discern'd and made her advantage The old dull Methods of Marrying the Chamber-maid or Trucking with the young Gentleman grew as Obsolete as Systematical Divinity An unhappy happy
Brimstone upon their heads and it was goodness that he did it not in stead of those fruitfull seasons he might have sent Famine and Cleanness of Teeth and there was much Goodness in that yet whether they could from hence bless themselves with a well-grounded Hope that he would pardon their Iniquities I much question And 2. The Servant in the Parable Math. 18. 26. could understand the difference between forbearance and acquittance Have patience with me and I will pay thee all Time and Day were considerable Favours in his Judgement though his Master did not throw him in the Bond. 3. I am sure God himself understood the difference between a Reprieve and a Pardon between that Goodness which he shews in forbearing and that which he manifests in forgiving Rom. 9. 22. He endured with much long-suffering the Vessels of Wrath fitted to destruction A presumptuous Conclusion therefore had it been from Gods general Goodness and indulgent Patience to argue his Forgiveness and pardoning-Grace 4. Adam in the state of Integrity understood very well God to be good he could not look besides a Demonstration of it and yet no Notion of Gods Pardoning Grace was concreated with him whereof he could have no use in his worship of and walking with God A threatning against sin he had but not the least intimation that God would pardon it till it was revealed upon another Account We are not here enquiring what presumptuous and vain hopes secure sinners might form to themselves of Indempnity nor how their hearts might be fully set in them to do evil because judgement against an evil work was not speedily executed nor what flattering thoughts might tickle their breasts that God was such a one as themselves because he kept silence at their proceedings and spoke not his Fury in Thunder and Lightning nor do we enquire what Natural earnest desires they might express to obtain the Favour of God what projects plotts and contrivances they invented to relieve their guilty Consciences wounded with apprehensions of wrath how they skin'd over their Sores with some Services and lickt themselves whole with their Sacrifices and Oblations But the Enquiry is this What solid Ground they had from Gods common and general Goodness his Governing the World his Patience Forbearance and long-sufferance with his Bounty to Sinners to conclude from thence that he was a Sin-pardoning God When I seriously consider into what inextricable Labyrinths and Mazes those poor Heathens did run themselves how they were bewildred in their own Inventions how they tyred themselves off their Leggs in their own wayes and spent themselves to their skins with Sacrifices if by any means it might be possible to purchase the good will of a Deity I presently conclude they had no settled fixed Apprehension of any such thing in God For though they might hear a rumour that there were a people in the World towards whom God shew'd himself propitious and favourable and that the way of the peoples part to reconcile this God to them was by killing of Beasts and offering up them to him in Sacrifice and might therefore hence fall upon this practice of Sacrifices yet not understanding the true use of them what reference they had to a promised Mediator they must needs fluctuate and toss up and down in uncertainties about so weighty a Concern Hence was it that least they should not hit upon the True God in that Crowd and Throng of Deities wherewith they had overstockt the Commons they set up an Altar To the unknown God and least they should miss the right Sacrifice and most acceptable Offering sometimes they Sacrificed the worst sometimes the best of Men and sometimes to please their God the better they would let him choose by Lot which he would have They tryed Conclusions with almost all sorts of Creatures and all to answer the demands of an importunate Conscience which as Gods Officer was alwayes haling and dragging them before the Barr of Gods Justice to answer for their Delinquencies Either then they had no Notices of Sin-pardoning Mercy or what they had came not in from the Works of Creation and Providence but were some scattered Beams and broken Splinters of Traditional Knowledge derived Originally to them from the People of God who themselves had received it by pure Revelation in and through a Redeemer All this while our Author sits fretting himself like Gumm'd-Taffata that when he has been for two whole pages together preparing his Reader to swallow his Pills yet we should cunningly pass it over with a dry Foot and never bestow the least Consideration of it That he may not therefore think himself neglected we shall give him a full and a fair hearing The Light of Nature says he and the Works of Creation and Providence and those manifold Revelations God hath made of himself to the World especially that last and most perfect Revelation by Iesus Christ assure us that God is infinite in all his Perfections They do so let him make his best of that And therefore that he is Powerfull and can doe whatever he pleases Very good goe on So Wife that he knows how to order every thing for the best Better and better and yet p. 30. he tells us Long and sad Experience proved that all the Means he used to reform the World proved ineffectual So Good that he designs and desires the Happiness of all his Creatures according to the Capacity of their Natures Stick a Pin there So Holy that he hath a Natural Love to all good Men And so Gracious too that he made them Good else they never had been so but he hates all Sin and Wickedness It 's well Gods Hatred of Sin is as Natural to him as his Love of Good Men. And will as certainly punish all Obstinate and Incorrigible Sinners but yet that he is patient and long-suffering towards the worst of Men and uses various Methods to reclaim them and is as ready to pardon them when they return to their Duty as a kind Father is to receive an humble and penitent Prodigal Where there are some things that wound our Authors Cause to the Heart and nothing prejudicial to the Truth which he opposes For 1. He grants that Gods Love to good Men and his Hatred of Sin are both equally Natural and therefore I suppose Essential to him 2. That Gods punishing obstinate Sinners is equally Natural to him with his rewarding Good men But 3. The Fallacy of all is that lapsed Man stands related to God as a Father whereas he should have proved and not supposed that the Light of Nature of Scripture discovers any other Relation of a Revolted Sinner unto God than that of a Creature to his Creator and a Subject to his Governour before he be taken into that special Relation of a Son to a Father by Adoption in Christ. 4. A Supposition that God is ready to pardon Sinners when they return to their Duty is ambiguous vain and as he takes it false
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
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
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
the Matter is in these and the following lines I observe our Author falls short of his wonted Accuracy and Confidence He hesitates and staggers and goes backwards and forwards and strangely bewilders himself in Contradictions Pag. 30. he tells us The secret Purposes of Gods Counsels were conceal'd from Ages and yet before he takes off his Pen he tells us The Prophets did not so fully understand them Understand them then it seems they did and fully understand them too but not so fully understand them It would tempt one to turn Questionist and humbly ask If they were conceal'd before how were they understood And if the Prophets did understand them how were they conceal'd Again p. 29. he had let us know that the Israelites had the best Rules of Life and yet p. 30. That God sent his Son into the World to give us the best Rules of Life Whence we see how easily our Author could have saved him that perilous Journey into this mischievous World Again p. 30. he supposes That before Christ's coming the World had Promises and express Promises too of a blessed Immortality though indeed not so express And yet for all that p. 34. That Christ onely brought to light Immortality which has a greater Truth in 't than perhaps our Author is aware of Again p. 33. he acquaints us That God was formerly known by the Light of Nature the Works of Creation and Providence and occasional Revelations and p. 44. That those Natural Notions the Heathens had of God and the discoveries God made of himself in the works of Creation and Providence did assure them that God is very good and that it is impossible to understand what Goodness is without pardoning Grace and yet p. 33. he would fain perswade us That NOW since Christs coming The onely true Medium of knowing God is the Knowledge of Christ who came to declare God to us A discovery indeed very surprizing For if Natural Light without Christ could reveal it then why can it not doe it still how comes it to pass that Creation and Providence cannot perform the same Office now If Christ be the onely true Medium now it would make one suspect he was so then The Light of Christ has not weakned the Light of Nature but improved and sublimated it he came not to be an Extinguisher to the Candle of the Lord but a Candlestick not to put out the Eye of Reason but to provide an Eye-salve for it Did Creation and Providence preach God to be a sin-pardoning God then and are they suspended ab officio beneficio in the Court-Christian and become silenc'd Ministers And yet he seems to Retract this p. 30. Nor have we any other certain way of knowing this the secret Purposes of Gods Counsel concerning the Salvation of Mankind but by the Revelation Christ hath made to us Other wayes there may be still if any will run the Risque and venture upon them but none so certain as this And here comes in the fine Expedient for the Salvation of the Terra incognita without the Revelation of Christ. And yet once again p. 30. he assigns the work of Christ coming in the flesh to be To make a full and perfect Declaration of Gods Will and yet by and by as if he had forgot or over shot himself he confesses it was but One main end of Christs appearing in the World to reveal God to us And so there may yet be some little room left for his Priestly Office his Sacrifice and Interposition with God on the behalf of Sinners And lastly as I remember p. 5. he tells us that Christs Preaching the Gospel was the Exercise of his Regal Power and indeed all along through that Chapter the Kingly Office carried it hard-born from the rest and ran them sheer out of distance and yet the wind is vered about p. 34. When we speak of the knowledge of Christ we must consider him as our Prophet But really if this be all the work Christ had to doe in the world Two third parts of Christs Mediatory Employment are cashiered and the other lyes at mercy whenever he shall please to revive the Commission of Natural Light to reveal God's sin-pardoning Mercy and the best Rules of Life unto the World Now that he may give the better countenance to his Sentiments herein he thought it meet to lay violent hands upon some Texts of Scripture which else would have frowardly and perversly hung back from abetting his Fancies and so might have spoyled the Game A taste of his Excellencies in perswading or forceing Scripture to warrant his Notions he will give us in his Learned Gloss upon Joh. 14. 6. I am the Way the Truth and the Life no man cometh unto the Father but by me But never was Comment so pestered so thwack'd with a Lirry of id est's one clambring on the back of another a third mounted o' th top of that a fourth bestriding that a fifth in the neck of that and so on I am the Way id est I declare the way No man comes to the Father but by me id est None can throughly understand the will of God but by learning of me Whoever knows me id est is acquainted with the Doctrine I preach Knowes my Father id est Is Instructed in Gods Mind and VVill. Gods Will id est the Gospel Caetera desiderantur Now the very truth is all this is nothing but a trifling Imitation of his old Friend Volkelius de verâ Relig. lib. 4. c. 2. p. 173. Et hoc quidem illud est quod ipse Christus ait Joh. 14. 6. Neminem nisi per ipsum ad patrem pervenire id est Neminem Dei Patris Cognitionem assequi nisi per Christum posse Which shall never be spoyled by my bungling English our Author having saved me the labour and so clearly translated it to my hands But is it so indeed Does Coming to God imply and import no more than the bare knowing of God Surely there 's some other some more excellent Act of the Soul denoted by it God may be known by and yet the Soul never come to God The Devils know him and yet fly away from him It supposes indeed the knowledge of God none can come to an unknown God but yet it further denotes the Souls address to God in Faith and Love by Jesus Christ for though it were revealed that God is a sin-pardoning God in himself yet still the Sinner has need of an Advocate with him even Jesus Christ the Righteous who is a Propitiation for its sins 1 Joh. 2. 1. In whose Name and through the Power of whose prevailing Blood the guilty Creature may come and treat with God about his Pardon and Acceptation In the next Section we shall find our Author as ingenuous and plain-hearted as one could almost wish he opens a Casement in his Breast and lets us see how the pulse of his Soul beats freely owns where he borrowed his
of God that there is not the least Glimps to be attained of out of the Lord Jesus Christ but only by and in Him and some that comparatively we have no Light of but in Him and of all the rest no true Light but by Him In which words the Doctor evidently sorts all Gods Properties under three Heads 1. Such whereof there is not the least glimps to be attained out of Christ and under this Head he reckons Gods Love his pardoning Mercy or Grace to sinners 2. Such whereof we have comparatively no Light but in Christ and to this Head he refers Gods Vindictive Justice in punishing Sin c. 3. Of all the rest he affirms we have no true Light but by Him Now concerning the second sort he says pag. 92. Sect. 10. Secondly There are other Properties of God which though also otherways discovered yet are so clearly eminently and savingly only in Iesus Christ. Now Reader for a tolerable pair of Eyes Our Author would make the Doctor say that Gods pardoning Mercy is clearly eminently and savingly only discovered in Christ But the Doctor himself says Sin-pardoning-mercy is not at all known there 's not the least glimps of it but in Christ. So pag. 91. Out of Christ there 's not the least Conjecture of it not the least Morsel to be tasted of it out of Christ That is God has not any way any where at any time discovered that he will pardon a Sinner but upon the Account of his Son And now Reader I hope I may fairly protest against our Authors Bills for the future or however carry a very suspicious Eye over him as being in his Quotations either sick of sapine Negligence thick Ignorance or transparent Malice and let all men know by these presents that henceforwards I shall not take his Word for a single Farthing But how false or impertinent soever this be I knew he did not raise all this dust and make such a heavy adoe for Nothing whatever the Doctors Principles and Assertions were he was resolved to pay him home and load him soundly with ill-favour'd Inferences and mishapen Conclusions and in that one Knack lies our Authors Master-piece So that sayes he it seems the Gospel of Christ makes a very imperfect and obscure Discovery of the Nature Attributes and Will of God and the Methods of our Recovery we may throughly understand whatever is revealed in the Gospel and yet not have a clear and saving knowledge of these things untill we get a more intimate Acquaintance with Christs Person There was never any Man that made better use of est's and that 's than our Authour So that The Doctor had said That Christ hath revealed the Properties of God in his Doctrine c. and what would you now think follows from hence Why surely one would think That therefore the Gospel of Christ makes a perfect and clear discovery of the Nature Attributes and Will of God Nay there you are out sayes our Author for hence it followes that the Gospel makes a very imperfect and obscure discovery of them But what Necessity may there be to draw such a Conclusion from such a Doctrine I will tell thee Reader in thy Ear Sub Sigillo Concessionis as a great Secret Otherwise as excellent a piece as ever blessed the World with New Divinity had got a knock in its Cradle and would have retain'd a soft place in its head all the dayes of its life Now that which he would fain fasten upon the Doctor is a piece of the greatest Foolery Imaginable As if he made the Person of Christ no part of Gospel-Revelation whereas 't is indeed his great Principle that Christ is the summe and substance of it He could never once fancy it possible to have a through understanding of the Gospel but we must ipso facto have also a through understanding of Christs Person nor to have a through understanding of the Gospel and Christ the Subject of it but we must have also a through understanding of Gods Nature Attributes and Will and of the Methods of our Recovery by Iesus Christ But this is the Product of our Authors So that which alwayes agrees with his Premises just like Brains and Stairs Harp and Harrow If therefore any one will do the Doctor Justice he must read our Authors words backwards with a pair of Hebrew Spectacles and that will give him a truer Account of the Doctors Sentiments The Gospel of Christ makes a very perfect and clear discovery of the Nature Attributes and Will of God and of the Methods of our Recovery but we can never throughly understand what is there revealed unless we understand the Person of Christ who is so considerable a part and indeed the whole of Gospel Revelation And by such a knowledge of Christ revealed in the Gospel will the Person of Christ be justly advanced and the Gospel which reveals him greatly recommended Shall we then smile at or lament our Authors simple Conclusion This sets up a New Rule of Faith viz. Acquaintance with Christs Person in whom dwells all the Treasures of wisdom and knowledge And here a vein of his old thredbare Fallacy discovers it self which I now perceive like the poysonous string in the Lamprey he resolves shall run through his whole Discourse Dividing those things which God has joyned and supposing those things inconsistent which are indeed subservient one to the other Christs Person is Revealed by the Doctrine of the Gospel and not opposed to it Christ as a Prophet reveals himself to our Faith as God-man as Mediator and Redeemer and as vested with all those Offices for the discharge of his whole Mediatory Employment To advance his Person is not to degrade his Gospel the Magnifying of a Prophet is no disparagement to his Prophesie The Honouring of a King is no reproach to his Law The Gospel is therefore Excellent because it reveals to us so Excellent a Person as the Word made flesh the Person of Redeemer New Rule of Faith therefore we own none and wish heartily that they who condemn us whilest they pretend to abhorre Idols did not commit downright Sacriledge that they set not up New Rules of Faith upon a pretence that the Scripture is not sufficient to direct our Faith and Obedience in things pertaining to God but it 's Common for some to exclaim against feeding on the Devils flesh who yet will sup soundly of the Broth that he is boyl'd in But these things our Author has been told so often of that I see it to no purpose to tell him a story unless I could find him Ears But these are but Velitations and light Skirmishes our Author is preparing for a most terrible Charge upon the Doctor These whiffling Slanders do but make way for the Show like the Turkish Spabi good for nothing but to fill up the Trenches or blunt the edge of his Enemies Weapons we are now waiting to receive the formidable Impression of his Ianizaries Two things
without considering either Antecedents or Consequents to Nibble at some Expression that seems most lyable to Exception but herein we begge not his favour onely demand Iustice That he may not Usurp a Liberty to suppose that the Doctor asserts Revelation to be wholly silent in this Matter Revelatition silent Alas it rings loud with the continual sound of Gods pardoning Mercy to Sinners onely the Doctor judges that Revelation directs us to this Mercy of God through a Mediator for the obtaining of it When therefore our Author asks fo pertly whether the Doctor be not a confident Man to lay down such a Position I onely teturn that I have known our Author far more confident upon far less Grounds when the Doctor has a Foundation for his Confidence let him be so and spare not A great deal less Confidence may be sinfull when it wants a Basis proportionable to beare its weight and a great deal more Justifiable when it 's born up with sufficient Warrant Tell not me of the Doctors Confidence but examine his Reasons for it and let us see what our Author can do to dismount it Truely he offers us but one thing but I assure you it 's a knocker The Experence says he of the whole World confutes him Never was Man so confuted and confounded as he that stems the Experience of the whole World for though I ever look'd upon Experience as a very ticklish way of Confutation and the best way of employing them is to Experience in our own Souls the Virtue and Efficacy of certainly revealed Truths and not to make them the Umpires of questionable Doctrines yet I should be loth to run counter to the universal Sentiments of Mankind and the Experience of the whole World shall carry a mighty stroke in my Judgement but has our Author taken their Experiences by the Pole and do they one and all give in their Suffrages against the Doctor Yes Both Iews and Gentiles who knew nothing of what Christ was to doe in order to our Recovery did believe God to be gracious and mercifull to sinners I must own it That Jews and Gentiles are a sufficient enumeration of particulars they did once divide the World betwixt them and if they both agree in their Verdict against the Doctor Nemine contradicente he is gone for ever being over-born with Epidemical Experience 1. For the Iews the Day is like to goe for our Author if it be true what he tells us That God assured them he was a Gracious and Mercifull God pardoning iniquity transgression and sin which certainly he is and then that They knew nothing at all of what Christ was to doe for our Recovery but all the stick lyes there and we must enter a Friendly Debate with him upon the issue For 1. Whatever Manifestation of Gods Sin-pardoning Mercy was given to the Church of Old it had reference to the Blood of Christ who was as really sacrificed to their Faith as he was crucified to the Faith of the 〈◊〉 Galat. 3. 1. The Jewish Sacrifices were Types designed and appointed by God to represent that one Sacrifice which Christ should once offer upon the Cross to God and without reference to the Expiation of Sin Atonement and Propitiation of God made by him and manifested by them it would have puzzled the Faith of any particular person that God would pardon sin notwithstanding that Revelation Exod. 34. 6. for is it not immediately added And that will by no means clear the guilty God in that place reveals to Moses his Name that is his Nature and if we consult particulars we shall find that it 's as fair a Letter in Gods Name not to clear the Guilty under which Character all the world stand before God Rom. 3. 19. as to pardon iniquity but all this was cleared up and made easie by a believing attendance to those bloody Sacrifices which though weak in themselves yet receivâ—…d a Sacrament al strength from Him who travelled in the greatness of his to reconcile God and Man by the Blood of his Croâ—…s 2. There 's nothing more vain and idle than to 〈◊〉 that the Iews knew nothing at all of what Christ was to doe in order to our Recovery For 1. It was sufficient for that Dispensation that God had Revealed a Mediator who should take up the Controversie between God and sinners and this he did when it was early day with the world to Adam when received into a Covenant of Grace T is true the more minute Circumstances of when and how He should come in what manner he should accomplish his work might be veyled with some Obscurities and perplexed with some difficulties at the first yet still they had a Promise in the Lump that the Seed of the Woman should bruise the Head of the Serpent which the Apostle interprets Heb. 2. 14. by destroying him that had the Power of Death even the Devil And as it seemed good to the Wisdom of God to give forth the Promise at first in gross so in process of time to graduate and heighten the discovery of the Messias That there should come a deliverer out of Sion to turn away ungodliness from Iacob Isa. 59. 20. was evidently laid before their Faith to these Revelations did true Believers attend and by this Key did they open the difficultie how God should be a God pardoning Iniquity and yet by no means clear the Guilty And as the prefixed time of Christs appearing in the World drew nearer so the Prophesies and Promises of his Person Nature Work and Design thereof with the Circumstances attending it were multiplyed and more explicitely made out to them that so as they were growing up out of the State of Childhood and emerging from under their Bondage the discoveries of a Saviour might enlarge their Hearts and Minds in Knowledge Joy Love and Peace By Isaiah it was revealed that he should be born of a Virgin Isa. 7. 14. that he should be Immanuel God with us therein discovering both his Natures in one Person and his design to bring God and Man into one Covenant By the fame Prophet was it distinctly revealed what should be his Work and Employment his Dignity and Authority and the Success of all Isa. 9. 6. For unto us a Child is born unto us a Son is given and the Government shall be upon his shoulders and his Name shall be called Wonderfull Counsellor the Mighty God the Everlasting Father the Prince of Peace of the encrease of his Government and Peace there shall be no end By the fame Prophet it was revealed Chap. 53. by what means mainly he should accomplish the Ends of his coming into the World by being wounded for our Transgressions bruised for our Iniquities healing us by his stripes by Gods laying upon him the Iniquities of us all that it pleased the Father to bruise him to make his Soul an Offering for sin by the travel of his Soul by pouring it out to death being numbred amongst the
which he now confesses was not one word to the purpose For that which they call pardoning Mercy he sayes is not to be seen in Scripture-Revelation and perhaps that which he calls so may be seen in the Discoveries of Nature and found growing upon every Hedge We shall go near to entertain more Charitable thoughts of the Schoolmen and the old Systematical Divines hereafter for they would have set the Terms of a Question to rights and stated the due bounds of the Meaning of words before they had made a noyse and blunder about the Confutation of their Adversaries what our Author means by these things we must leave in the Clouds as we found it what others mean we are pretty well secured But we are not so secure of our Authors Honesty in this matter who jumbles together those things which the Doctor had separated and puts them all Pell Mell into the common Box as if he had asserted That the Love of God to Sinners his Justice against Sinners his Patience with and Long-suffering of Sinners were none of them discoverable but by Christ whereas the Doctor plainly and in terms asserts that Gods Iustice Patience Long-sufferance may be otherwise known as we have heard before and shall see again by and by The Rise of our Authors Fury and Indignation against the Doctor is from these words p. 93. Com. God hath manifested the Naturalness of his Righteousness unto him in that it was impossible that it should be diverted from Sinners without the interposing of a Propitiation Now says he this is such a Notion of Iustice as is perfectly New which neither Scripture nor Nature acquaint us with And if it be so I could heartily wish it underwent the Deleatur of an Expurgatory Index but how strangely is our Author wheel'd about it was but p. 42. that he deliver'd it with as much Confidence as most men are guilty of That the Light of Nature the Works of Creation and Providence besides Revelation doe assure us that God hath a Natural Love for all good men but that he hates sin and will certainly punish incorrigible sinners from whence we might have been prone enough to have dropt into such an Error that if Hatred of Sin be as Natural to God as his Love to good Men he cannot but hate the one and love the other for God cannot act against his Nature and must act according to his Nature Nay we should have concluded that it holds more strongly a great deal for his hatred of the one than for his love of the other seeing there 's something of sin in good men in the best of Men which may allay his Love towards them consider'd in their single and Personal Capacities but there 's nothing at all in sin not the least that may qualifie his Indignation against sin And had we not been snib'd we should have ventur'd further to say that as God has a Natural Love to good Men and will not fail to reward them so he has a Natural displicency against sin and therefore will not fail to reward it according to its demerits And then because we are assured from a surer hand Rom. 6. 23. That the wages of sin is death which by the opposition clearly intends eternal death we could not much doubt that a righteous and holy God will give to every one their wages without the interposition of that Propitiation whereof our Author makes so light Thus I say we had concluded but that our Author limits the Certainty of punishment to incorrigible and obstinate Sinners but this is but a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and will not much mend the matter both because those corrigible ones are not so wholly corrected but that still some remaining sins lodge in them which are the Object of Divine abhorrency and also because those Corrigible ones are onely pardoned and received to Grace through the Interest which they have in the Sufferings of Christ hence 1 Iohn 1. 9. If we confess our sins he is faithfull and just to forgive us our sins which Faithfulness of God has the Foundation of its Exercise in the satisfaction of his Vindictive Iustice which being once answer'd God that cannot lye promises the pardon of Sin through Christ which because he is faithfull and just he will make it good to the truely penitent Sinner But what Reason will our Author favour us with of his Blunt Negative Why All Mankind have accounted it an act of Goodness without the least suspicion of Injustice in it to remit Injuries and Offences without exacting any punishment I much doubt whether our Author was ever Principal Secretary of State to all Mankind that he should be so privy to their Sentiments his own daring Fancies and crude Conceptions are no just Standard of their Apprehensions and I am well assured that some of Mankind and such whose Learning and Judgement may vye with his and may be supposed to know Mankind as well as himself yet think not with him in this business but I shall lay a few things in his way let him remove them 1. The Strength of his Argument lyes in a most gross and palpable Absurdity viz. That there is the same Reason for Gods pardoning sin against his most holy Law that there is for a private Persons charitable remitting a trespass against himself That God as he is the Governour of the World may wave the Execution of the Sentence threatned against and due to the violation of his Rules of Government because a private Person may depart from his Right in a Six-penny matter but these things are wonderfully mistaken For 1. Our Author confesses that God will certainly punish all obstinate and incorrigible Offenders but if sin be consider'd onely as an injury against a private Person God may pardon even Impenitency and Incorrigibility it self And if it be an act of Goodness to remitt such an Injury without the least suspition of Injustice the greater the Offence is the greater will that Goodness triumph in remitting the greater Injury The degree of sin alters not the Case He that can pardon a Penny justly may also a pound who shall set limits to him how far he shall depart from his Right 2. That the Case is not the same between God and Man is evident from hence Man may depart from his Right to his Servant may Manumitt him and release him from all dependance on him from performance of all duty to him as his Master but it 's impossible to suppose that God should discharge and acquitt a Creature from its dependance on and its subjection to himself 3. God is to be considered not only as our Proprietor and Owner but as our Governour and Ruler Now the end of Government being the good and welfare of the Community every violation of the Law claims either that Judgement and Execution pass upon the Offender according to it or if not that good Security be put in that neither the Honour of the Legislator suffer Offenders be
he spared him not in exacting Punishment Death came into the World by sin and yet Christ dyed who never sinned Rom. 5. 12. The Law in its Penalty had nothing to do with him who had not offended the Law in its Rule So that I profess I know no greater wonder in the world than that the Father would have him suffer and that he should be Capable of Sufferings till the wonder be removed by viewing Christ in the stead of others and thus the Scripture assoyls the difficulty Isa. 53. 10. His Soul was made an Offering for sin Nay he was made sin for us though he knew no sin that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5. 21. He so loved the Church that he gave himself for it And appearing in this Quality Death the Officer of Gods violated Law might justly arrest him and the Father be pleased to bruise him delighted in his Sufferings upon one account who was so infinitely satisfied in his Person upon another And yet all this while our Author can see no necessity of Christs Death I should rather have thought sayes he that Gods requiring such a Sacrifice as the Death of Christ was not because he could not do otherwise but because his infinite Wisdom judged it the most effectual way of dispensing his Grace Then 1. It seems though Gods infinite Wisdom saw this the best way yet it might have consisted with his Wisdom to have pitch'd upon a worse and then it will be a Question whether that had been Wisdom or no For we are told p. 48. That Wisdom consists in the choyce of the fittest and best Means to attain an End when there are more wayes than one of doing it If then Wisdom consist in choosing the fittest and best Means and the Death of Christ was the best Means for dispensing of Gods Grace either it was impossible for God to choose any other way than this or it is possible for God to act in a way not consisting with Wisdom But 2. Our Author had highly obliged the World had he discovered how sin might otherwise have been expiated than by the Sacrifice of Christs Death The Iews have pitch'd upon a Cock and at last upon their own Death But it 's twenty to one when our Author shall substitute any in the room of the perfect Sacrifice of Christ we shall find as many real Inconveniences in it as he has found imaginary absurdities in the Necessity of Gods requiring satisfaction to his Justice and Christs Tendring it upon the Cross. But 3. Who ever asserted simply that God could doe no otherwise than to require the Sacrifice of Christs Death Alas our Author is wide the whole Heavens in this Matter It must first be supposed that God will treat with the sinner and that Christ will accept the Terms of being a Mediator between God and Man The Necessity proceeds upon a presupposed Voluntariness both in the Father and in the Son and when you have supposed them there are who will dispute it with our Author when he pleases that upon supposition God will accept and justifie a sinner a just Compensation must be made to wronged Iustice. I find our Author and his Confederates now and then speaking a good word of Mr. R. B. and I doe the more wonder at it because I did not think they had had a good word for any man but themselves I shall therefore give him a taste out of his learned Labours and if he likes it he may have more at the same rate 'T is in his Reasons of the Christian Religion Part 2. Chap. 4. Sect. 6. No Religion doth so wonderfully open and magnifie and reconcile Gods Iustice and Mercy to Mankind as Christianity doth It sheweth how his Iustice is founded in his Holiness and his Governing Relation It justifieth it by opening the Purity of his Nature the Evil of Sin and the use of Punishment to the right Government of the World and it magnifieth it by opening the Dreadfulness and Certainty of his Penalties and the Sufferings of our Redeemer when he made himself a Sacrifice for our Sins But the storm is not yet over nor our Authors Fury quite spent Dr. O. had said Com. pag. 94 95. That there are many Glympses of the Patience of God towards Sinners shining out in the Works of his Providence but all exceedingly beneath that discovery which we have of it in Christ for in him the very Nature of God is discovered to be Love and Kindness whatever discoveries were made of the Patience and Lenity of God to us yet if it were not withall revealed that his other Attributes his Iustice and Revenge for Sin had their actings assigned them to the full there could be little Consolation gather'd from his Patience and Lenity It were very hard if a Spider could suck no poyson out of these words and I should conclude she had renounced her Nature but what was there in all this that could exasperate a sweet natur'd Gentleman Whilest a sinner hangs by the meer forbearance of God he hangs but over Hell-fire by a single Thread and if that breaks he falls irrecoverably into Everlasting Burnings and it can be little Consolation the Doctor was gentle he might have used a harsher word and said just none at all to an awakened Conscience to have a place in Gods forbearance when he has none in his Forgiveness or to depend upon mere patience without an interest in Gods pardoning Mercy God may have patience with when he has no pardon for a sinner he had so for the Old World for Sodom for Ierusalem which yet perisht under his just displeasure A sensible Soul will be apt to argue thus I am reprieved but is my Pardon sealed God visits not my Iniquities upon me but will he remember them no more Those that are the familiar Acquaintances of Nature and of the Cabal to Common Reason have told me that Forbearance is no Acquittance that Patience abused turns into Fury Nay perhaps it may be in Judgement that a Sinner is forborn for God hath sometimes suffered the Nations to walk in their own wayes Acts 14. 16. And endured with much long-sufferance the Vessels of Wrath fitted to destruction But now through Christ the Nature of God is discover'd to be Love and Kindness for seeing Provision is made for and regard had of all his other Attributes and Essential Perfections God can secure to himself the Glory of them all and yet the Sinner escape wrath to come And indeed it 's altogether as unaccountable why God should be mercifull to the reproach of his Holiness as why he should be severe to the disparagement of his Mercy As the Goodness of God naturally discovers it self in doing good where all due requisites are found so does Justice as readily exert it self upon the Sinner where a Propitiation doth not interpose And if Conscience were rightly instructed in its Office from the Word it would mind the Sinner
thee worship but the Liturgy teaches the Man to use those words to his Spouse With my Body I thee worship So that I see no great Danger that ever Christ and a Believer should be marryed by the Liturgy Again he cites Mr. Watson A Soul in Christ is actually united to him and one with him and being so no sentence can fall on him but the same must light upon Christ himself That true Believers are one with Christ is very clear from the Gospel and it would be much our Concern to clear up this one point that we are true Believers for the other is clear 1 Cor. 12. 12. As the Body is one and hath many members even so is Christ and therefore there 's no condemnation to them that aâ—…e in Christ Iesus who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit Rom. 8. 1. A silly Jerk he has at this too And who would desire to be more secure than Christ is Why none that I know of And so a short Horse is soon curried What Mr. Watson had said before in the Apostles words that there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ that he illustrates by this similitude As a Woman in Marriage though she owe never so many Debts yet the Arrest doth not light upon her but upon her Husband And it has been owned as a Maxim in the Law Uxoâ—…i lis non intenditur But let that be as it will If the Main Fort hold out we can spare him the Out-works let it be acknowledged a Truth that There is no C ondemnation to them that are in Christ and let the Metaphor scape as well as it can O blessed Priviledge says he who would be afraid of running into debt with God when he hath such a kind Husband to discharge all Any one surely that has an ingenuous spirit as they all have who stand in that Relation to Christ Jesus Christ does not onely take the Soul into a Conjugal Relation but qualifies it that it may fill up the Dutyes of that Relation with Love desire to please fâ—…ar to offend readiness to obey with a spirit of thankefulness and fruitfulness with a Heart studying What shall I render to the Lord for all his Benefits Who would be afraid O vile and abominable heart that could form such a Conclusion of Sin out of the premises of abounding Grace Who would be afraid Nay who would not tremble at the heart to think least it should be drawn into sin to the wounding of him afresh that was wounded for me on the Cross How shall I doe this wickedness and sin against my Redeemer Shall he be crucifyed by me that was crucified for me There 's no such Argument in all the world against sin as the Consideration of what I owe to him who loved me and gave himself for me I deny not but the Doctrine of Grace may be turned into lasciviousness by them that never came under the Authority and soul-subduing Power of it but when a self-condemned self-abhorred Sinner comes to see what Christ has done and suffered for him what he is to him what he has wrought in him the Result whereof is Justification before a holy God and Sanctification of Soul such a one will retort upon the Tempter his own Temptation with the greatest Abhorrency Shall I continue in sin that Grâ—…ce may abound God forbid Rom. 6. 1 2. Still Mr. Watson prosecutes the Priviledges of the Saints This is their glorious Priviledge Christs beauty and loveliness shall be put upon them Ay says our Author snearing How vile and impure soever they are The old Crambe again They shall have Christs beauty put upon them and yet continue ugly still they shall have Christs whiteness on them and yet be as sooty and swarthy as before but this is none of Mr. Watsons sence but our Authors Non-sence who durst tell the World as the Purport of these mens Expressions That upon receiving Christ there 's a blessed Change made and yet we continue as we were But Mr. W. proceeds in the Priviledges of those that are engraffed into Christ and made members of his Body Nothing that ever was a member of Christ can be lost to Eternity Can he lose a Member of his Body then his Body is not perfect No fear not ye Saints neither Sin nor Satan can dissolve your Union with Christ. Our Author is now turning Catechist and asks this wise Question But what if Sin should make them no Saints would not that endanger the dissolving the Union Yes indeed it would endanger it as much as a Man is in danger of dying when his Head is chopt off but I hope we may ask one Question for another What if Christ will preserve them so effectually that they shall not sin to that height as to become no Saints why then the Union is not dissolved and so there 's a Pot-lid for our Authors Pot. But Mr. Watson Reasons further our Author says sweetly but I say it 's no great matter for that if he does it but strongly If any branch be pluckt away from Christ it 's either because Christ is not able to keep it or because he is willing to lose it And our Author Queries again Why not because it will not stay And I will tell him why Because he has given it a will and desire above all things in the world to stay with Christ. All Mr. Watsons unhappiness is that he had a good Cause but not the Luck to hit upon our Authors convincing Argument who p. 184. assures us That this New Life wherein our Conformity to the Resurrection of Christ consists is an immortal Principle of Life which can no more die then Christ can die again now he is risen from the dead And to shut up all Mr. Shepheards Sincere Convert is brought upon the Stage p. 77. though I could not meet with it till p. 113. Weaknesses do not debarre us from God's Mercy The Husband is bound to bear with the Wife as the weaker vessel and can we think that God will exempt himself from his own Rule and not bear with his weak Spouse It would have been something difficult to have made sport with such Innocent Expressions but he had an id est left in his Budget that never fails him Weakness says he that is no strength no grace no nor so much as a sense of Poverty How false this is Mr. Shepheard will satisfie any one that will but consult the next Question p. 116. Upon what Conditions may Christ be had and he answers Give away thy self to him give away thy Sins to him give away thy Honour Pleasure Profit Life to him give away thy Rags thy own Righteousness You will say you will have Christ with all your heart but will you have him upon these Tearms upon these four Conditions And now the total summe the result of all that these men mean by Accepting of Christ our Author gives us with his wonted Candour It is
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
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
admirable and to be placed amongst the wonders of the New-Divinity that God should enter into a Covenant with all the World to Pardon and save them upon condition of Faith Obedience and yet not let many of them know a syllable of it Nay that he should expresly countermand the promulgating of the Gospel to them And yet so has God done even by the preaching of the true Covenant of Grace Acts 16. 6 7. Now when they had gone throughout all Phrygia and the Region of Galatia and were forbidden by the Holy Ghost to Preach the word in Asia After they were come to Mylia they assayed to go into Bithynia but the Spirit suffered them not 2. Let us now briefly consider his Assertion That the Covenant of Grace such a one as he has made for us is owing to the Sacrifice of Christ's death and the Righteousness of his Life That God being pleased with these for Christ's sake entred into a New Covenant with Mankind I must tell the Reader that I have narrowly pryed into this Section wherein I find frequent assertions of this Doctrine That the Covenant of Grace is owing to procured by founded on the Obedience of Christ's Life and the Sacrifice of his Death and yet so unhappy have I been in my search that I cannot find any Proof or any attempt to prove it and therefore till I see evidence to the contrary I shall take it for granted that the Covenant of Grace is owing to founded on and given forth by that free Grace of God from whence it is justly denominated A Covenant of Grace though the intervention of a Mediator such a Mediator was absolutely necessary to put us into the Actual possession of those rich mercies designed for us by God in that Covevenant which Mediator himself is owing to founded on that Covenant of Grace and therefore the Covenant of Grace is not founded upon him but indeed for that Covenant which he is pleased to call a New-Covenant and a Covenant of Grace it 's no great matter where 't is founded and therefore let him dispose of his own Creature as he pleases 3. He supposes that Christ's Obedience and Sacrifice had no other influence upon our acceptance with God but that for his sake he entred into such a Covevenant with Mankind This is all however that he can find But this is a most miserable All and either is just nothing or very near it For § 1. Let him of Courtesy Answer one Question more since he is so good at it Whether God was ever at any time unwilling to pardon sin and give Eternal Life to those who did believe his Promises and obey his Precepts If he was unwilling Then let him shew how Christ's Obedience and Sacrifice did operate upon God to alter his will and of unwilling to make him willing what could there be in the Sacrifice of Christ's Death or the Righteousness of his Life that should make God more in Love with Faith and Obedience than he had been before But if God was willing and that without respect to Christ then how does he give the Pardon of sin and Eternal Life to them who Believe and Obey for Christ's sake I am sure of our Authors good-Nature in this point he will say he has said it That some that many were saved without respect to Christ The mercy and Grace of God it seems accepting their Belief of particular Revelations and their sincere Obedience to his Commands Repentance supplying the defects and shortness of their Conformity to the Law Now if God did all this without regard to Christ how does he do it for the sake of Christ But there 's an Answer to this that lies Dormant in the word Promise God did indeed Pardon sin and give Eternal Life to those who believed his Revelations and obeyed his Commandements but he never promised he would do it But now he has drawn out his Grace and good-will into a Promise to pardon sin and give Eternal Life upon the terms aforesaid and this he has done for Christ's sake And let us Audit the Account and all the influence that Christ's Obedience and Sacrifice bath upon our acceptation with God is that we have got a promise from God to do that which he would have done before to give us that he would have given us before only he would not promise to do it for us to give it to us Two things I shall briefly return 1. That God under the Old-Testament made explicite promises of the pardon of Sin and Eternal Life and if under that Dispensation I am sure our Author will say without respect to Christ that this was the Doctrine of the Old-Testament the Apostle asserts Act. 13. 40. To him give all the Prophets witness that through his Name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins 2 Sam. 7. 14. I will be his Father and he shall be my Son and there 's enough in that to secure a promise of pardon to a repenting Child Mal. 3. 17. They shall be mine and I will spare them as a Father spares his own son that serves him but it it is added If he sin against me I will chasten him with the Rod of Men but my Mercy shall not depart from him Ps. 99. 8. Thou answeredst them O Lord our God thou wast a God that forgavest them though thou tookest vengeance on their inventions And as the pardoning Grace that was in God's Nature was revealed to them as the foundation of their Faith and obedience Ps. 130. 4. There is forgiveness with thee that thou mayst be feared So it is drawn out into a promise v. 8. He shall redeem Israel from all his Iniquities which without the pardon of them is simply impossible As for the Promises of Eternal Lise we find good old Iacob now giving up the Ghost and having no hope in this Life expressing his Faith thus Gen. 49. 18. I have waited for thy Salvation O Lord Which doubtless was Eternal Salvation beyond the Verge of that short time of his Life which he knew was expired Ps. 73. 24. Thou shalt guide me with thy Counsel in my pilgrimage and afterwards receive me to glory but a more convenient place will offer it self for the discussing of this matter 2. If then this be all that the Obedience of Christ's Life and the Sacrifice of his Death do contribute to our acceptance with God that for Christ's sake we have got a Promise or a more explicite Promise of the pardon of sin and Eternal Life than before then I must be of the same mind still that it contributes just nothing to the acceptance of our Obedience with God Let me have Liberty to put the Case of two Persons v. g. David and Paul let us suppose these two equally obedient to God's commands the former without such an express and explicite promise of Reward the other encouraged by stronger Arguments of clear and numerous Promises of Pardon and Eternal Life Which
fitted to return the Glory due to a Redeemer which an unhumbled unbelieving unconverted unsanctified Sinner could not possibly be 2 The Death of Christ devested of those its proper respects of a Sacrifice offered to God to atone and reconcile him a price paid to ransom and redeem us and a Punishment born to satisfie Divine Iustice was no infallible proof of the Doctrine which he preached For 1. Many have laid down their lives to Abett and endured extremity of Tortures rather than renege the Doctrine they have openly preached their Confidence the mean while supported either by a mistaken Conscience or perhaps some sinister respects All that it can prove in the largest judgment of Charity is That they suppose their Doctrine to be true or else would hardly lose their All rather than lose a Principle but not that therefore the Doctrine is true because the Preacher dies for it That which is false in it self will not become true by laying down our life for it In the Memory of the last Age there were some who sacrificed their lives to the Flames in defence of Contradictory Doctrines So that to say that the Death of Christ has no other use but To confirm the Truth of that Doctrine which he preacht is but a more modest civil and gentle way of saying it has no use at all 2. To whom should the Death of Christ confirm the Truth of his Doctrine to his Enemies or his Friends For his Enemies Many of his Sufferings the very greatest and sorest of his Sufferings were out of their notice either privately in the Garden or more privately in his Soul such as whereof they could take no cognizance and for these which were visible they looked on them as the just rewards of his violation of the Law As for his Friends his Death considered singly in it self without respect to its proper Ends was so far from confirming of their Faith or Belief of his Doctrine that it was that which shook their hopes and dasht their expectations out of countenance their Hearts died in his Death and those two expressed the Sense of more than their own diffidence Luk. 24. We trusted that it had been he that should have redeemed Israel But whether to Friends or Enemies the Death of Christ considered without his antecedent Miracles and subsequent Resurrection and concomitant Sacrifice was so improper a means to confirm that it had proved the clearest Confutation of his Doctrine that malice could have desired 3. The Death of Christ was so far from confirming this Doctrine That God would pardon Sinners that separate this one Consideration of it as satisfactory to Divine Iustice from his Death and it quite overthrows the credibility of the Doctrine and runs all the World down into utter despair For our Author must have a happy dexterity if he can conclude that because God dealt so severely with an innocent holy Person that therefore he will not fail to pardon repenting Sinners We must despair that ever repentance should make us personally equal with Christ If then God did these things in the green Tree what will be done in the Dry If Iudgment begun at God's own House where shall the Ungodly and Sinner appear He that spared not his own Son how much less will he spare the Sinner It could not be expected that any should believe Christ telling them God would pitty and pardon others who found him so severe to himself But that indeed the true Reason why God deals so graciously with the repenâ—…ing Sinner is because he had dealt so justly with his own Son voluntarily becoming his Surety and Substitute 4. There were proper proofs designed by God for the Confirmation of the Doctrine of Christ and no need at all to take sanctuary in that which nakedly considered was not so Those frequent clear stupendious Miracles wrought by Christ were fully adequate and commensurate to that End Reason will teach us to believe that God will not alter the course of Nature nor reverse its standing Laws to confirm a Lye to bear witness to a grand Imposture And surely they who would not believe Christ to be sent of God upon his Testimony to him in those Extraordinary Works would never believe it for his Death which was no wonder at all otherwise than as the fruit of his ineffable Love offering himself to God as a Sacrifice for Sin and so indeed it was the greatest Wonder of them all The Enemies of Christ triumpht in his Death that they had nailed his Cause with his Person to the Cross and that which they feared was his Resurrection A Miracle so far beyond all exception to confirm that he was sent of God and therefore his Doctrine must needs be true that their greatest care was to have prevented it by sealing the Stone and setting a Watch. 5. But supposing that the Death of Christ had confirmed his Doctrine and particularly this That God would pardon and save the Believing and Obedient Sinner Yet still what influence has this upon our Acceptance with God Will God accept our Obedience the more because we have greater helps to obey May our duty expect a greater Reward because we come easier by it But when all is said that our Author can say it 's our Obedience that hath the Influence upon our Acceptance with God and Christ's Death has only an Influence upon our Obedience The same Obedience given to the Commands of the Gospel without the motive of his Death had found equal if not greater Acceptance from him than when drawn from us by so cogent an Argument But if the Death of Christ may be said to have any influence upon our Acceptance with God because he thereby confirmed his Doctrine then the Death of the Martyrs also may be said to have an Influence upon our Acceptance with him for they by their Death 's confirmed the Truth which they preacht which Truth was the true Covenant of Grace And whereas many of them laid down their Lives with that Heroical Magnanimity with that gallantry of Spirit with more than that boasted Stoical valour kissing the Stake embracing the Flames triumphantly singing in the midst of their Torments professing they felt no more pain than in a Bed of Roses as if they were to ascend Heaven in that fiery Chariot to the Confutation of their Enemies the encouraging of their Friends and the credit of that Gospel they died for evidently assuring all that they were immediately supported from above to bear with patience nay with exultation those extremities which to Flesh and Blood were intolerable We see our Blessed Saviour on the contrary in his Sufferings strangely dejected amazed troubled in Soul earnestly begging that if it were possible that Cup might pass from him and crying out in the bitterness of his Soul That he was forsaken of God which consideration is enough to satisfy an impartial Enquirer That the Sufferings of Christ were fitted for some higher design than the confirming of