loath to repent and try him except she were sure She can't find in her heart to forgive her poor Debters Some-body or other has wrong'd her and she 's resolved to have Satisfaction it is but just So she thinks God must have Satisfaction for her Sins or he can't be just and tho' she has heard a Sin-sweetning-Story that Christ hath made Satisfaction for Sinners she can't believe she is of that number she is not sure she 's one of the small number predestinated Shall I tell her yet more plainly what 's her Disease She loves Sin too much Duty too little her Heart is not inflam'd with Love to God so as to influence all her Actions She has not had him represented to her so Good Merciful Loving Ready to Forgive all freely as indeed he is Besides that Witness for God the Conscience that testifies when Man hath done well or ill is not clear perhaps and according to the measure of Obedience or Disobedience in known Duty will the Comfort or Discomfort generally be to a convicted Soul and faith that there is Forgiveness with God is one Duty without which Comfort is seldom securely enjoy'd Now let us consider has God left or afflicted such Persons No they have left God and hid themselves from him let them but be perswaded to turn to God and believe his Infinite Love and Goodness and love him with all their Hearts and they will quickly find that Perfect Love casts out Fear their Troubles will cease with the restifying their Judgments and changing their Wills Now of all the Miserie 's sinful Creatures are lyable to the Eternal Torments as they are call'd of the Damned in Hell can I think with least reason be thought to come from the hand of the Best Being as the Inflicter or Executioner when these Miseries may well be thought chiefly to consist in the Exasperation and height of those uneasie Thoughts which are the very Acts of Sin as Wrath Envy Hate Despair Desire impossible to be satisfied c. Add unto these their Effects with whatsoever Devils and Immortal wicked Men may be able to inflict upon one another and the most uncharitable Soul can hardly desire a greater Hell for his greatest Enemy But what I have said already of Displeasure merely Mental and that which comes by the means of the Body may be easily applied here if well considered But yet farther methinks it is a very hard Thought to think that God who as the beloved Disciple tells us is Love should hate and take Pleasure or Delight in tormenting his poor foolish frail Creatures or that he should afflict willingly or from his Heart or affect with Grief the Children of Men and that for ever But he must be supposed either to do it willingly and take pleasure in so doing or he cannot properly be said to do it for God cannot with any reason be said to do any thing against his own Will or in which he has not pleasure that cannot be suppos'd of a Perfect or Self sufficient Being nor can any action of the Creature be thought to bring God under a necessity of doing any thing he delights not in and he swears he hath no pleasure in the Death of the Wicked Ezek. 33.11 chap. 18.32 It is the Sinner that will die or chooseth Death he seeks pleasure indeed but he hath it not because he seeks it where it is not to be had viz. in his own foolish disorderly Will distinct from God's Will when God cannot give it him that way it being impossible The Damned doubtless are exceeding uneasie why they have turned from God the Fountain of Pleasure They have lived and died in a course contrary to God's Will contrary to the only possible way of Happiness and God is just in suffering them to have their own choise in leaving them after innumerable Arguments to perswade them to real good to make the Experiment how happy they can be without being beholden to him and it is enough to shew that God approves not of their Sin if he continue their Being his Work under the greatest Misery they can bring themselves into and as they are no more sinful than they themselves and their fellow Sinners can make them so if they have no more Misery than what they can work in themselves and one another it will be proportionable to their Sins and both may be exceeding great God can't be thought to work or cause Despair Wrath Malice Hate and Envy at the greatest Good Extream Discontent at his Will and the Happiness of others fierce furious unsatisfied Desire c. in his Creatures he must not be thought to be the Cause or Agent of those sinful Passions they are all against his Will as he hath clearly manifested And we cannot suppose that God's Justice requires that Sinners for a short life of Rebellion against their Maker in this World should be bound to rebel against him for ever or believe that they can satisfie for some Sins here with a Continuance of all Sins they are capable of in a State of Immortality hereafter No there is no necessity of Unhappiness but what the Sinners own perverse Will brings upon him his disorderly Passions are let loose and to what extremity Passions may be carried out who knows These will be Tormenters if there were no Devils able to vex And where these evil Passions are in their extream how can it be thought that the Bodies such Anxious Souls would delight in can be other than the Occasions of far greater Misery than they were capable of being in this Life wherein some of the Passions disorder'd have brought the Bodies to be very uneasie Concomitants with this Aggravation that they have then no more Death to expect to rid them of that uncomfortable Companion unless we could suppose that Hell it self hath at least this Happiness to be a Remedy for the Diseases of the Body and a Safeguard from all those Evils Sinners could lay upon one another in this life or that their Folly could bring God under a necessity to disown his well-wrought Work their Being and to let them fall into nothing As for the Examples of external Judgments as they are call'd which we have especially in Scripture wherein some may think the immediate Act of God as inflicting is always required when they were more than Preventions of greater Evils the Persons would have run into they may easily be accounted for by supposing Men sometimes left to the power of the Devil the Prince of the power of the Air who seems eagerly covetous to enlarge the Dominion of Hell or to do any kind of Mischief Of this we have an Example in Job Or that God sometimes withdraws his Providential hand from protecting a People or a Person that leaves him and suffers them to fall into the hands of others that are wicked their Enemies As were the Judgments on Israel or others by Inimical Nations in which Instances we can't suppose God does
own foolish Will that captivates binds holds and concludes us in Slavery to Sin We are Slaves most properly to our own sinful Wills The Ransom or Price is therefore given to us God has given or sent his Beloved Son into the World and he hath done and suffered great things for us to purchase our Love The Father sent his Son to court our Good-will and it cost him his Life with a great deal of Labour and Pains We are God's own by Right and Christ's by Gift in one sense as he is ours in another but we have enslaved our selves in Sin and God does not only demand us again as his but even hires us to be his again that we may be willingly his and serve him whose Service is Liberty Christ hath given himself to redeem us to God not from God by his own Blood that is in perswading us to serve our Natural Lord our Maker he hath lost his Life and we shall be very ungrateful to God and to Christ if we don't surrender our selves when God hath done so much to purchase our Good-will that in loving him we may be happy The serving our own foolish Wills is the greatest Slavery and we serve not the Devil but in Subserviency to our own erring Wills The serving God is Liberty the only and greatest Liberty of a Creature God hath given Christ to do and left him to suffer whatever might tend to our Conviction Repentance and Happiness in Obedience God hath given him to teach and instruct us in his Mind and Will and if this be not enough also to give us an Exact Pattern and Example of so doing and that against the greatest Opposition and Suffering from Opposers and if the Malice and Blindness of any were so great as not to see a Conviction in so Clear Doctrine Fair Example and Great Love that was seen in his Life and lesser Sufferings Love of God in sending him and his Love in an entire Compliance with God's loving Purpose his patient persevering in Good-will to them under his greatest and last Sufferings he could suffer from them may be made the highest and last Argument to make their hard Hearts relent be convinced and and change Which Argument was farther confirmed by God's raising him from the dead and receiving him up to Heaven thereby declaring that though they erringly put him to Death as an Evil Doer yet he was not so in God's account but Just and Good in prosecuting God's Will for the Good of Men against and surmounting the highest Ingratitude If my Friend with admirable Wisdom and Argument councel and direct me how I shall get out of a sad and deplorable Condition he finds me in out of a way wherein I can never be happy shall I not hear him Shall I be so unreasonable as to slight his Councel If he give me a Pattern of himself in doing that wherein he is and I may be happy and farther if he prosecute my Good and seek to reclaim me to the denying of himself slighting and foregoing his own Happiness as much as he justly can or as much as may be an Argument to me to hear him if he undergo Reproach Pains and Sorrow for my Good Farther if he patiently suffer even my unkind and ungrateful Hands to be embrewed in his dear Blood while I count him my Enemy and an Evil Doer and end all with the height of Expressions of Good-will forgiving and desiring God to forgive me would not this be enough to soften or break a Heart of Adamant that should once seriously reflect and consider Christ as such a Friend that hath thus done and suffered and given the most high and admirable Instance of a Creatures Love to Creatures in Subserviency to that greater Love he had to God and ought to have and to manifest in doing the Will of him whose Love must yet be thought to be greatest and to transcend all created Love as much as an Infinite Being is above the Finite as much as the Cause of Christ's Being and Love is before the Effect 48. Another Point in which some Men perhaps as greatly err is that of Christ's Intercession the Manner of which as they suppose is thus Christ represents our Condition and Desires to God with what he hath done and suffered in our stead and so procures of God those good things we stand in need of But that this may appear to be a Mistake let it be considered that it cannot properly be said that Christ represents our Cases to God because God can have nothing made known to him being Omniscient nor has he any need to present his Obedience or mind God of his Sufferings who can never forget nor can we think that Christ has any need to intreat or any Capacity of procuring of God what he is not in himself as ready to give But Christ's Intercession is rather a procuring or perswading us to be willing to receive those good things God is ready if we are but desirous of them freely to give us And this Christ does in that Power and Authority God has given him as the Head and Ruler of the Church by all means suitable to perswade and reduce the disorderly Wills of Men since his Ascension by the Ministry of the Word and Spirit That Christ pray'd to God when on Earth was not to make known his Desires to God or to move him to fulfil them who heard him always even his most secret Desires and was as willing any good as he yea will'd it first which was the reason Christ will'd it but he pray'd for our sakes to shew what God's Will was and his compliance therewith to profess his Conformity to the Will of his Father and give us an Example of Worship in acknowledging God's Omniscience Nor do we pray when we pray aright to perswade God to our Wills but to profess our Conformity to his the Condition of our receiving to stir up and provoke one another thereto and to profess our Desires towards God and our Dependency on him And when we are said to pray to God in the Name or for the Sake of Christ or to come to God by Christ and when God is said to hear us for Christ's sake or do any thing for us for Christ's sake we are not to think that the bare saying for Christ's sake is rightly meant or that God will grant our Requests rather because of his respect to the Will and Pleasure of Christ than from his own Readiness to do us good We must not think it is with God as it is with Men in this Matter who do things for one to please another they more respect which they were not in themselves inclinable to do because God can have no greater Argument than from himself nor can he be put in mind of any thing he forgets or is not ready to give us But we come to God in and by Christ or in his Name on his account or Sake when we believe Christ's Message
themselves uncapable of Forgiveness and Happiness yet it is commonly blind to see God as he is and is more apt to fly from him than come to him measuring God by its own standard it having been very apt to account it Justice to revenge the crossing its Will on those it was able to affect thinks God like it self not considering that the perfect Good-will of God cannot take Pleasure or Satisfaction in the Miseries of his Creatures tho' they are Enemies much less in their Sin or continuing Enmity the formal Cause of their Unhappiness But tho' Man is so apt to look upon God as an inraged Enemy hardly to be appeas'd severe to reckon with the Sinner resolved that the Sinner shall never be happy unless something can be given him to purchase his favour that he values more than the Sinner's Repentance or new Obedience Yet I say tho' Man is so apt to look upon God as such like himself we must affirm that God is not nor can he properly be said to be an Enemy to Man or any of his Creatures as they are to him and to one another He hates or sets himself against nothing but their Sins their Unhappiness wills nothing but what is for their good nor can he but love whatsoever is his own Work as the Beings of all his Creatures are and their Good Order which is their Happiness therefore he cannot but will their Reconcilement to him or to their Duty 30. Now all that God hath done does or will do in order to Man's Recovery from Sin and Misery tends unto this one thing To bring Man again to will as God wills Where ever this is done it is done and the End of God's Dealing with Sinners is accomplished whatever the means were by which it was brought about and so far as we are come towards this so far we are in the way of Salvation or saved To will as God wills or to love our God with all our Heart Soul and Strength and our Fellow Creature as our self is the whole Law that God does so much to perswade Man to keep To will and n'ill the same is perfect Love and Love is manifested by doing the Will of the Beloved In doing the Will of God is Life I mean Happiness not only in this Present State but also in that which is to come 31. And that there is a Life to come and Immortality discoverable clearly even by Reason and divers Notices thereof implanted in Nature we shall a little attempt to shew That Men are mortal and live in this Life but a little while is the experience of the whole World That the Body is subject to decay or the Order of its Motions wherein its Life consists liable to be destroyed and cease and by another as to Life disorderly Motion to be separated and so its Organical Figure to be spoiled and changed all Men perceive by the least Observation But that Death is not a Termination or End of our Being I think will appear by these Considerations First We have no reason to conclude that the End or Design of our Being is fully accomplished in this Life The Manifestations of God's Perfections to Man and Man's Pleasure or Happiness in beholding them the End of Man by reason of Sin are not so clear and so great in this Life as they may be should be and are to be desired God is not seen and enjoy'd by any now as he may be by some but very little The desires of some I may say of all that desire God are not satisfied in this short and sinful State None have unerringly and sufficiently beheld the Divine Excellencies and acknowledged God as he ought to be acknowledged Some have lived and died and hardly ever truely confess'd and own'd their Maker few or none have loved and obeyed him to their capacity and been as pleas'd or happy in him as they may be Therefore it is reasonable to conclude nay we cannot well think otherwise that there is a Life to come wherein the Ends of the Creation shall be accomplished God cannot be thought to let his Works perish without fulfilling his or their true Ends in them The Good those that have been so far convicted of the Disorders of Sin as to repent and change their Minds from willing contrary to God's Will in some measure to will as God wills and to desire that they may do so more yea perfectly and always Those that have some-what beheld God lovely have not yet or in this Life been brought up to so great a degree of Obedience as they are convinced is their Duty nor seen so much of God's Excellence as they desire to see nor been satisfied with the sense of his Love as they would If these their Desires Duties and Happiness are good convenient suitable to the Natures of God and his Creatures as evidently they appear to be certainly God wills them sometime or other to be and that more than the Creature can will them because God is the Supreme Good-will So that it is altogether unlikely that the Good Man should perish and not attain the Good that he is capable of desires is convenient and God wills more than he Nor is it any more likely that the Bad Man he that hath seen no greater Delight than in contradicting the Will and Order of God by the disorderly Enjoyment of the Creatures should perish or cease under so great a Mistake as never to see and be convinced of the Absurdity and Evil of prosecuting his own proper Will as the chief Good as never to find that the way of Happiness is not in acting contrary to the Will of God That God should have an Intelligent Creature never to be made acknowledge his Maker is a thing hard to be thought It is more probable that even the Bad Man will remain one way or other to be convinced of his Disorders of his Rebellion against God Injustice and want of Goodness to his Fellow Creatures The Good Man in this Life seems often to be the Man of Sorrow the Son of Adversity that doth not gather the full-ripe Fruits of his Repentance and Obedience being among a world of unhappy and injurious Impenitents Therefore it is requisite there should be a Future State wherein he may reap in Joy what he has sowed in Tears The Evil Man seems often to be the Man of Joy and Pleasure in this Life he rejoyceth and even glorieth in his Disorders yea in that very great one of afflicting the Man that is better than he Now it is most equal and just that he should some time or other come to see the Good Man before-hand with him rejoycing and happy in God when he is sorowing to see he hath turn'd from the fountain of Joy and Blessedness These things are not accomplished in this Life therefore we must necessarily suppose a Future Again It is certain that no Creature can cause it self or another to cease Nothing but the withdrawing
less esteem of what is uncontroverted the Sum and Substance End and Design thereof Nor have we any reason since we may read the Book it self to look upon the Bible as it is most abused and deform'd by Expositors who if we were to take it from them have represented it to us but as a contradictory or confused Rule 41. For we find many things taught by them who take upon them to expound the Scripture as Doctrines clearly express'd as they say therein that have not only no apt Tendency to the Great End the Love of God and Man but some of them naturally tend or incline to the contrary Which Consideration bringeth me to the last thing I designed to speak to the last Stumbling block I shall endeavour to take out of the Deists way viz. The Consideration of divers Doctrines now confidently taught as Orthodox and main Points of Christian Faith which to render Christianity more reasonable more like it self I shall not only readily disown but endeavour to shew that they cannot reasonably be thought to be Doctrines of the Gospel necessary to Christianity or True That they cannot be accounted for or proved Points of a Rational Faith or truly deduced from the Bible But are Mistakes taken up through Prejudice from Tradition and confirm'd by mistaken Texts of Scripture It being an Evil but common Custom among Men to take up Opinions before they carefully read the Scripture or consider the Agreement or Disagreement of things and then to labour to make the Scripture prove and confirm them endeavouring to bring Scripture to their unreasonable Opinions when they should rather have brought their Opinions from Scripture and Reason Scripture so understood as to be reconcileable to it self and to Right Reason And as this word reconcileable brings into my Mind the notion of Reconciliation which I take to be misunderstood by many I shall first begin with that Point and endeavour to shew the Mistakes about it 42. It is the fancy of some that Christ has reconciled God to Sinners Let us a little consider the matter Reconciliation is a making Friends of some or other at variance When there is Disagreement Enmity or Hate in a Person that did agree love and was a Friend the taking away or changing these for Agreement Friendship and Love is properly Reconciliation Now to say that Christ hath reconciled God to us is as much as to say God was a Friend and did love Man but then became an Enemy and hated him and then was made a Friend and loved him again But this can with no good reason be said of God because he is unchangeable and these things imply a Change Foolish Men are very apt to look upon God to be such a one as themselves now willing one thing then another now angry then pleas'd because they find themselves so But such things are Imperfections incompatible with a Self-sufficient Being God has properly no Passions must be confess'd tho' Men do commonly speak of him as if he had and he is in Scripture so represented sometimes after the manner of Men. But he is the same still has the same Will the same Love to whatever is his own and cannot have less He represents himself as he is hating Sin or that unjust and unhappy Action of the Creatures willing contrary to its Maker's Will but he never hates the Creature his own Work but loves it He cannot be suppos'd to be reconciled to Sin he never loved or can love Injustice To suppose him so reconciled as to approve like or allow Sin in his Creature would be to suppose him to will Evil or contrary to his own Will And he is not reconciled to his Creature because he was never deconciled or an Enemy to it His Goodness and Bounty is over all his Works he is always ready to do Good to his Creatures and make them happy it is they that are Enemies to him and to themselves and to their own Happiness A Man that runs into a Cave and hides himself from the Light and Warmth of the Sun and is perswaded at length to come out and receive the Benefit of its Heat and Splendour may as well say the Sun was angry with him and his his Face and withheld his Beams but now is reconciled to him and shines on him again as to fancy that the Ever-overflowing-fountain of Good withholds his Streams from the Works of his hands He is the most loving Father that is always ready to do Good to his Children but they Rebellious will not always receive it Therefore we may boldly nay we must on good Consideration say that whatever Christ hath done and suffered does not make God any more willing Sinners should obey him or be saved than he was before If he could at any time will Sinners not to obey him he might be suppos'd not to will them to be saved but to will Sinners not to obey him is all one as to will his Will to be done and not done at the same time which is a Contradiction We find foollish Men commonly representing God as one full of Wrath Anger Hatred to his poor silly Fallen Creatures severe furious and hard to be appeas'd but Christ as one full of Love Mercy Pitty Good-will to Sinners but we must not think God to have less Love Goodness Mercy c. than Christ that would be unreasonable when there can be no less than an Infinite Distance between God and the most Perfect Creature in Goodness Mercy Kindness and all Perfections yea as much as God is above Man so much greater must we think is the Mercy Goodness and Love of the Father to Sinners than that of the Son who is but the Image of him that is greater than all God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life The Love of God was the Cause of Christ's both Sonship and Mission and the Cause must be greater than the Effect God could have no external Cause or Motive to love us but loveth us freely for he is Love which can be said of no Second No Man hath greater Love than Christ for he laid down his Life for us even while we were Enemies but he had a Motive to Love greater than from himself viz. his Duty to obey and imitate God his Father Moreover if God has commanded all Sinners to repent believe and be saved he must be supposed to will that they should do so or he deceives them which cannot be admitted If he wills them to repent and be saved he is not their Enemy but their Friend What then you will say did Christ come to reconcile I say with the Scripture to reconcile us to God who were Enemies to him by wicked Works to reconcile us to our best Friend and Father from whom we had gone astray and been prodigal Sons to reconcile us to our Duty yea to our own Happiness which can no way
the pleasing sight of as great pains as all his fallen Creatures can possibly suffer he will have it in the Innocent They represent God as one that taketh pleasure in the Death of him that dies in the Death of the Innocent for the Guilty as one much more pleas'd with the Punishment of the Just than of the Transgressor The most blameless Creature that ever was must not be abated one dram of Torment they can devise fancy due or wish to their most wicked Enemies They are not contented Christ should suffer those things merciless and unjust Sinners could lay upon him by means of his Body or what might come by the fear and apprehension thereof what he might suffer in his great Compassion to Sinners and Love to God on the Consideration of Man's Sin and Misery and God's leaving him for a time who loved him so greatly without more than common Assistance under these Sorrows or what he might possibly bear from attempts of Satan but they make God the Active Inflicter of more than all this of the greatest Torment even that of the Damned on that dear Soul who was the greatest Saint making God like a Tyrant like themselves or worse They tell strange Stories of Christ's bearing the weight of his Father's Wrath Burning Wrath Yea I have heard an ignorant but confident Preacher tell his inconsiderate Hearers that Christ was a Sacrifice and roasted in his Father's Wrath and his Agony was Certamen a Contest or Fight and that Christ fought not with Devils not with Men but with his Father But God himself testified the contrary to these bold Fancies by a Voice from Heaven that he was his beloved Son in whom he was well pleased and we can't suppose that God changed his Mind and became displeas'd with him who never sinn'd nor can he be suppos'd to contend fight or be displeas'd with his Father's Will while we grant him without Sin which is another Argument that God's Will was not the cause of his Sufferings for there is no Suffering but from some sort of Displeasure with the case we are in and if Christ were displeas'd with what God did he sinned But we believe God could not be displeas'd with Christ being without any fault at all so neither could Christ be displeas'd with God but he might be displeas'd and uneasie by means of Sinners It must be a hard Heart and impudent Tongue that can believe or affirm that God was wrath with the most Innocent Creature and tormented him when God calls him his Beloved Son God left him indeed to that Cup of the Sorrows of Death occasion'd by the Body inflicted by wicked hands he left him deeply to be sorry for and sympathize with miserable Sinners and to grieve for the breach of his Father's Laws but he never left him without the Knowledge of God's being his God and Father he never had the Misery of Despair Envy Malice Wrath Strong desire of Impossibilities Hate of God c. the chiefest Ingredients of the Damned's Misery Whatever was his fear of that Cup the painful and lingering Death of the Cross which was likely to be so tedious to one who in all probability had not been accustom'd to Sickness or Bodily Pains yet he was not left without the Heavenly Assistance of an Angel to strengthening him Whatever was God's forsaking him he was sure God was his loving Father and that that day he should be in Paradise If God left him to all the Pain and Anguish the cruel Death of Crucifixion or the Apprehension of it might produce in an Innocent Man as he has left many of his Followers to cruel Torments and did not interpose and prevent the Cup of Sufferings by some extraordinary means God can be thought to be no more but the Permitter of the Wicked so far to afflict the Righteous and to work no Miracle to separate Sorrows and Pains from their common Conditions in Humane Nature Christ's Patience under all praying for his Enemies submitting to Death tho' he deserved it not rather than omit his Duty may be of great use to us to set before us the greatest Pattern of Good-behaviour under Sufferings for Righteousness sake and to forewarn us what we must expect if we will be his Followers And whatever was the Cup Christ spake of in his Agony the Author to the Hebrews ch 5.7 8 9. tells us that when he had offered up Prayers and Supplications with strong Crying and Tears unto him that was able to save him from Death he was heard from his fear which may encourage us and tho' he were a Son he learned Obedience by the things that he suffered and being made perfect he became a cause of eternal Salvation To whom to all them that obey him So that if we should suppose Satisfaction possible to be made how full soever this Text tells us we could not be saved alone on the account of what Christ hath done or suffered because something else is yet necessary viz. our Obedience so Christ's doing and suffering is not indeed enough for us and so really no Satisfaction But that God does truely forgive Sinners that I think is so clearly and often declar'd in Scripture it needs not be farther demonstrated and Satisfaction cannot stand with Forgiveness any more than the Word can be found in Scripture 44. Having here discoursed somewhat concerning Sufferings I think it most proper to subjoin my Thoughts about the Common Opinion relating to the Evil call'd Punishment or the Miseries of the Creature consequent on Sin Wherein I think Men are generally mistaken while they look upon God as truely and properly the Inflicter as the sole Cause and Efficient of this Misery of the Sinner and obliged so to be It is no wonder indeed that those Men should be of this opinion who believe God was a Punisher and that a severe One of the Innocent Jesus they forgetting even the Oath of God That the Soul that sinneth shall die the Righteousness of the Righteous shall be upon him and the Wickedness of the Wicked shall be upon him one shall not bear anothers Wickedness as we read at large Ezek. 18. Nor is it strange that any who do not believe the Goodness of God greater than they can conceive or desire should esteem God the Author of some sort of Evil. But for my part I must confess I do not see cause to believe that God is properly and positively a Punisher or the cause of Unhappiness in any of his Creatures much less bound to be so or that any Evil can proceed from the Fountain of all Good or any thing but what 's good from Goodness it self but if God give any thing it must needs be good I would here be understood to speak properly for I know the Scripture Tropically and Figuratively after the manner of Men speaks often to the contrary I do not deny but affirm that the wicked that die impenitent shall be exceeding miserable and suffer Exquisite
needs all perish But they have not only been negligent in endeavouring the Information and Reformation of all Mankind but have been even Stumbling-blocks not only by teaching for the Oracles of God the unreasonable Traditions of Men but even by their wicked Lives and uncharitable Actions Yet God hath not left himself without a Witness in all Nations but his Goodness hath been an Argument to perswade to Obedience some of those who have seen the invisible things of God from the Creation of the World being understood by the things that are made even his External Power and Godhead The Light of Reason hath been universal to all Mankind and those who have acted according to that Light where through the fault of others no more hath been given doubtless no more will be required Nor dare we deny but that God may have sometimes acted graciously by his Spirit where the Letter of the Gospel hath been wanting So that many I am perswaded will come from the East and from the West and sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven that in the opinion of many Christians are excluded In whose Hearts perhaps hath been more of the Love of God and Man than in many of those Christians so ready to condemn them who I doubt are more likely to be themselves shut out I think it may be well said of the Christian and Christianity in this matter as the Apostle speaks of the Jew and Circumcision Rom. 2.29 He is not a Christian which is one outwardly neither is that Christianity which consists in outward things but he is a Christian who is one inwardly and Christianity or the Religion that Christ taught is that of the Heart in the Spirit and not in the Letter whose Praise is not of Men but of God The fruits of which Christian Spirit are Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness Temperance against such who are endued with these Vertues there is no Law Gal. 5.22 But the advantage of the visible Christians is much because unto them are committed the Oracles of God and where much is given much will be required The bare believing Christ to be the Messias yea the Faith of those who believe most concerning his Person will not be found enough or a Saving Faith but the believing his Doctrine so as to do the Will of his Father is that which will give a Title to the Promise of Admission into the Kingdom of Heaven Matth. 7.21 40. To perswade to Repentance or a turning from a Life of Sin to a Life of Obedience to God we find the chief End and Scope not only of the Gospel but of the other parts of the Old and New Testaments which Books the Divine Providence hath graciously given and preserved as a means to that End Many have undertaken to prove these Books to be the Word of God but they have not all gone the right way to do it Some think they do not enough unless they can perswade us that every word in them was given by Immediate Inspiration But there is no need of such a Belief if a considerate Person were capable of having it That they were given by the Good Providence of God none can well doubt But some part of them as the Historical needed no such thing as Inspiration Some part as the Prophetical could not come without it But a due esteem of the Scripture may be had and its End well accomplished taking it altogether as it is and as none can in reason deny it to be viz. considering the parts of it as some inspir'd some written according to the Knowledge of Faithful Men some deliver'd according to the Wisdom given the Writers thereof But the Affirmation that every Word of it is inspired is not only no Point of Faith necessary to Salvation or ever thought so as I can find by the Primitive Christians but has divers Inconveniences following it which are Grounds of Objection to Athiests and Deists As for Instance There are some little Difficulties in the Historical Part which are better attributed to some Mistake in the Writer or Coppier than to God Some few things in the Old Testament that seem dissonant to the Spirit of the Gospel which are better thought to be from the Spirit of the Writer than from the Spirit of God c. Some reckon by name so many Books of the Old and New Testaments and go about to prove them the Word of God first before they have well considered what they contain But I think we should begin there and see what we find written in them for we cannot well assert any thing to be of God till we know what it is To talk of believing this or that to be a Revelation or the Word of God before we know what it speaks is very inconsiderate But when we find things that are apparently good reasonable excellent and suitable to the Understanding Nature and Circumstances of Man a Design most profitable to Man and becoming God we may well nay cannot but think God the Supream or First Author however or by whomsoever they were given The Truths would have been the same had they never been written but as they are written the Way of their Delivery the Matters of Fact or Historical part appearing to have all the Marks of Truth a History can or at least needs have cannot in reason but be believed Whosoever for instance should deny the History of Jesus Christ may as well reject all History or question the Truth of every thing others declare as Witnesses which would be very foolish Nor could such a one reasonably desire any Man should believe him in any thing he relates tho' never so probable Now as God in his good Providence hath given us the Bible a Book if considerately read appearing to be more full of Instructions Precepts and Examples tending to bring Man who is turn'd aside to the exact way of his Natural Allegiance or Religion to God than any other Book it cannot but be acknowledged that the Bible is a great and estimable Gift of God not to be under-valued as an Ordinary Book nor yet to be idolized as the uncorruptible Word of God but to be duly used to our Benefit And I think I may be bold to say in relation to the Contents of this Book and all others whatsoever has not an Instruction in it to inform Man of his Duty to God and his Neighbour or cannot yield an Argument to perswade him to be reconciled thereto cannot rationally be thought a Dictate of God but is better suppos'd should there be found any such thing meerly from Man And I think tho' we grant that the Bible is not free from all manner of Corruptions but that some Mistakes have been therein made at least by Coppiers tho' we affirm many Faults to have been committed by Translators so that better Translations are not only to be desired but also wanted yet we cannot rationally have the
of the Field are mine V. 12. If I were hungry I would not tell thee for the World is mine and the Fulness thereof V. 13. Will I eat the flesh of Bulls or drink the blood of Goats V. 14. Offer unto God Thanksgiving and pay thy Vows unto the most High V. 15. And call upon me in the day of trouble I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorifie me Psal 51.16 Thou desiredst not Sacrifice else would I give it thou delightest not in Burnt-offerings V. 17. The Sacrifices of God are a broken Spirit c. Jer. 7.22 I spake not unto your Fathers nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the Land of Egypt concerning Burnt-offerings or Sacrifices V. 23. But this thing commanded I them saying obey my Voice and I will be your God and ye shall be my people c. 1 Sam. 15.22 To obey is better than sacrifice Hos 6.6 God will have mercy and not sacrifice Math. 9.13 If ye had known what this meaneth I will have mercy and not sacrifice Ye would not have condemned the guiltless Spoken to the Jews condemning his Disciples when they being hungry plucked the Ears of Corn but might have been said to them rather when they afterwards more unjustly condemned and slew him Is 1.11 To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me saith the Lord I am full of the Burnt-offerings of Rams and the fat of fed Beasts and I delight not in the blood of Bullocks or of Lambs or of He-goats c. And at the 16th Wash ye make you clean put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes cease to do evil Ver. 17. Learn to do well seek Judgment relieve the Oppressed judge the Fatherless plead for the Widow Mich. 6.6 7 8. Wherewith shall I come before the Lord and bow my self before the High God Shall I come before him with Burnt offerings with Calves of a year old Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of Rams or with ten thousands of rivers of Oil Shall I give my first-born for my Transgression or the fruit of my Body for the sin of my Soul He hath shewed thee O Man what is Good And what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and love mercy and walk humbly with thy God But the sacrifices of God Psal 107.22 are sacrifices of Thanksgiving Psal 4.5 Sacrifices of Righteousness 1 Pet. 2.5 Spiritual Sacrifices Ye also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house an holy Priesthood to offer up spiritual Sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ Sacrifices of praise and doing good Heb. 13.15 16. By him therefore let us offer up the sacrifice of praise to God continually that is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name But to do good and communicate forget not for with such sacrifices God is well pleased Sacrifices of love to God and our Neighbour Mark 12.33 And to love him with all the Heart and with all the Understanding and all the Soul and with all the Strength and to love his Neighbour as himself is more than all whole Burnt-offerings and Sacrifices Living Sacrifices Rom. 12.1 I beseech you therefore Brethren by the mercies of God that ye present your Bodies a living Sacrifice holy acceptable to God which is your reasonable service And the Author to the Hebrews chap. 10.5 brings Christ in from Psal 40.6 c. saying to God A Sacrifice and Offering thou wouldest not but a Body hast thou prepared me as the Septuagint reads it but the Hebrew hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my Ears hast thou digged viz. opened to hear thy Commands not to Sacrifice certainly for saith he in Burnt-offerings and Sacrifices for sin thou hadst no pleasure Then said I Lo I come to do thy Will O God Above when he said Sacrifices and Burnt-offerings for sin thou wouldest not neither hadst pleasure therein c. Then said I Lo I come to do thy Will O God He taketh away the first viz. Sacrifice that he may establish the second viz. doing the Will of God By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the Body of Jesus Christ once for all c. Ver. 16. This is the Covenant I will make with them after those days speaking Jer. 31.33 of the New Covenant saith the Lord I will put my Laws into their Hearts and in their Minds will I write them Ver. 17. And their Sins and Iniquities will I remember no more Ver. 18. Now where remission of these is there is no more offering for sin c. From all which places compared and many more that we might consider it appears that Christ is a Sacrifice or Offering acceptable to God as he does his Will in prosecuting the end of his Mission the bringing Sinners to Repentance and Obedience to God against all opposition even Death it self giving up his Body to Death rather than omit any thing he was to do And Sinners have the benefit of this Sacrifice not as God is appeas'd atton'd or reconciled to Sin or Sinners by any pleasure that can be added to him by beholding the Pain Bloodshed or Death of an innocent Man but rather as they are attoned or reconciled to God and their Duty to him by beholding Christ's Obedience in doing the Will of his Father even under the greatest Sufferings even to Death he could meet with from the opposition of Earth and Hell his Constancy being a convincing Argument that his Doctrine was good and his Life to be imitated a Perswasive to follow him in Gospel or exact Moral Obedience through whatsoever Persecution for Righteousness sake leaving all those external and childish things of the Levitical Priesthood as useless Wherefore as a better Covenant God saith He will put his Laws into their Hearts What Laws The Laws of Offerings and Ceremonies might possibly be put into their Hearts no such Laws as readily come into the Hearts of considering Persons such as we have ver 24. viz. Love and good Works So that the Obedience of Christ is the Christian Sacrifice but not ours by its pacifying God for us Sinners but by our following it as it is an Example in offering up all we are and have in love to God which is our reasonable Duty Christ may also be said to be sacrificed for us as he dedicated and offered up his Life in prosecuting the Good of Sinners by teaching them and perswading them to be reconciled to God He may also be said to be a Sacrifice to the Wrath and Malice of the wicked Jews as they devoted him and gave him up to Death according to the Councel of Caiaphas to prevent the Romans coming upon them on the noise of his being said to be the King of the Jews they supposing as also his Disciples for some time did that he meant then to set up an earthly Kingdom thinking it was better that one Man should die than that the whole Nation should perish
but his own he can receive no advantage or have any thing purchased of him from Beings that have nothing but what he lent them Whatever God wills the Creature to do becomes presently its bounden Duty what God does not will it may not do There can be no Works of Supererogation as Men foolishly fancy when none can do more than his Duty Adam could not have merited tho' he had not sinn'd nor could have been properly said to have been saved by Works nor can any Man since be said to be so saved for to work Righteousness is that unto which a Man saved from Sin is brought and Perfect Obedience to God is Salvation So that to say a Person is saved by Works is all one as to say he is saved by Salvation or by being saved or that Salvation is the Cause of Salvation We read indeed of being justified by Works which is no more than this a Man that doth such Works as God wills him to do is just or in so doing is become just and so accounted but such a Man hath not to glory before God nor can God be brought in debt to Man or reckon the Reward he gives him that works a Debt tho' Men may reckon it so Man that owes all he hath or can do of good to his Maker who cannot be profited hath nothing to oblige God with or whereby to merit of him Christ himself could not in a proper sense merit of God for himself much less for others he was made under the Law and whatever God will'd him to do was his Duty and he did it and no more if he had done what God did not will he had done more than was right and if he did but just so much he did but just what he ought He was obliged to do the Will of God against all the opposition he met with from Men and Devils he could not without Sin omit any part of his Embassy tho' the People God first sent him to were so rude as to evilly intreat him persecute him and slay him If Christ cannot offer or bring any thing to God that he had not from God or do more than his Duty and so merit for himself much less can he merit for others For were it possible he could love or obey God more than he ought yet his doing could never become anothers doing or so be reckon'd by God There can be no lending of Actions or any thing that will pass for a purchase in Heaven tho' Men may spare and lend things on Earth It is God that most highly merits he from whom the Creatures have all they have and are and can do of good merits a return of all in Love Thankfulness and Obedience but he merits of the Creatures not for them he merits for himself only for his doing is not the Creatures doing and can never be truly so thought God merits of Christ all he has or can do in Obedience to him consequently Christ cannot merit of him having nothing but what he hath received from his God and Father Christ indeed merits of us tho' not for us Love Faith Obedience c. God hath set him over us and made him our Lord and Master and he hath freely done and suffer'd the greatest things a Created Friend could for us when he was no way obliged by us and we are in debt to him so much that we cannot easily be thought to merit of him Men may merit of one another when they may be profited by one another and do some things they are not obliged to by one another Now to conclude this point I confess if the Consideration of Christ's Merits viz. what he merits of us or what we are indebted to him shall prevail with us to repent and obey God as he hath taught us is our Duty we may possibly be said to be saved by Christ's Merits as an instrumental Cause but this is not the common notion of the Merits of Christ or the bottom on which most Christians embark and the greatest Villains sail boldly out into the other World on even from the Gallows if Mr. Ordinary can but teach them to say like Parrots that they hope to be saved by the Merits of Christ tho' they have spent all their time in Wickedness and would return to the same course could they scape the Halter Christ hath been righteous enough for himself and them too and they are thought safe if they can but believe that is have a strong fancy that God accepts of Christ's Obedience and Sufferings instead of theirs The Papists are said to believe a Man may Merit of God by his good Works and we count them erronious for their Opinion never considering that we Protestants believe as much tho' not that you or I can merit of him for our selves yet that another Man which is more strange can merit for us and so fall in with them even in the foolish opinion of Works of Supererogation 47. Another Opinion as groundlesly held among us and near a kin to the former is the common Fancy about Redemption viz. That Christ laid down his Life as a Randsome or Price paid to God to purchase Life and Salvation for us Let us consider the matter Redemption is a buying a thing again that is lost sold and enslaved As for instance a Captive In which Action there are these things to be considered The Redeemer The Redeemed The Price of Redemption And the Person to whom the Price is paid Now as to the Redemption of Sinners the Redeemer in the first and highest Sense is God to wit the Father who has given us his Son Christ the Ransom Christ in a second Sense is call'd our Redeemer because he freely gave himself to set us free from the Slavery of Sin To whom did he give himself a Ransom Not to the Father because First He is the Father 's own and so cannot be given as a Price to him Secondly Because it is the Father that gives him Thirdly Because it is not God that holds us in Slavery or he that is to be hired by something he values as much as our Bondage to let us go free from Sin and become obedient to him No he commands all to obey him and not to serve Sin and does nothing less than hold us in captivity to Iniquity he wills our liberty more than we can yea more than Christ can for as the Father is greater so must his Love necessarily be greater Christ is the Price or Instrumental Redeemer Sinners are the Redeemed but who is it holds us captive in Sin to whom the Price is paid Not God as I have said that would be the greatest Contradiction not Christ he is the Price and wills our Liberty not the Devil as some have thought he has not absolute Power over our Wills Christ was not given to him as a Ransom or he ever on that account agreed to let us go free It can be nothing therefore but our Selves our