by God appointed the Heir of all things Fourthly by his Resurrection thus He but our New Undertaker to render these things the more plausible has given us a new set or Division of the reasons why Christ is called the Son of God The title of the Son of God says he is in Scripture founded upon these Five things Two that are taken from his two-fold birth the one out of the Womb of the Virgin by the Operation of the Holy Ghost the other out of the Womb of the Earth by his Resurrection which makes him undoubtedly the Natural Son of God his only begotten Son Thoughts on Sherlock's vindication of the Trinity p. 4 5. his own or his proper Son Three other which are drawn from his Offices the First Because he is that Prophet whom his Father has sanctified and sent into the World with an extraordinary Commission Secondly Because he is the great High-Priest immediately called to that Office by God himself the Third Because He is the King whom God has exalted to a Supreme Power both in Heaven and in Earth Now these Reasons thus multiplied tho' we should allow them all True yet they come not up to the matter in hand It 's true Christ really is the Son of God by reason of his Conception by the Power of the Holy Ghost in the Womb of the Virgin but supposing with the Socinians that the Holy Ghost is not a Person but only the influence of Almighty God there is not enough in that Birth so miraculous as it is to give our Saviour the title of the Son of God distinctly and exclusively of all others Dr. Heylin tho' far enough from denying the eternal Deity of Christ yet seems very willing to rest in this Reason that He is called the only begotten Son of God purely upon it or because He 's the beloved Son in whom He is well pleased or his loved Son or the Son of his Love and approves of Maldonat's opinion that the beloved Son and the only begotten Son are terms Reciprocal but the mistake is apparent for tho' Isaac be called the only begotten Son of Abraham it does not argue that He was the sole engrosser of his love the contrary is apparent from Abraham's carriage in the case of Ishmael when he took the necessity of turning Him and his Mother out of doors so grievously Gen. 21.11 and when upon God's promising him a Son by Sarah who should be heir of his blessings the tender Father yet beg'd that Ishmael might also live in his sight Gen. 17.18 i. e. be partaker of God's Favours and extraordinary Blessings too Besides that Isaac is called Abraham's only begotten Son in contradistinction to Ishmael Isaac was the only begotten Son with respect to God's Promise and as being the only Son of the free Woman and properly enough yet we see by course of Nature Abraham had more Sons than Isaac therefore Isaac was not Abraham's only begotten Son in a sence so eminent as our Lord is called the Only begotten of the Father Heylin on the Creed p. 168. the Father having no other Son begotten by himself but Christ But tho' sometimes Men do love an Only Child at an extraordinary rate yet it 's not â—lways nor necessarily so for Love beâ—ng sometimes guided by Reason and Obeâ—ience being the only rational ground of â—aternal Affection several Children may â—e as obedient as One and therefore several may as rationally be loved as One in an exâ—raordinary manner But farther Neither is our Saviour's Conception by the Holy Ghost in the Womb of the Virgin so very great a Miracle as to set our Saviour on that account so far above every Creature for as Doctor Pearson well observes Pearson on the Creed p. 107. Adam the first Man was made immediately by the hand of God no humane faculty concurring at all and Adam is therefore called the Son of God by the Evangelist now there cannot be a Power so much greater requir'd to give a Man a being in the Womb of a Virgin than to frame him at first out of a Piece of Earth as to make so great a distance necessary as is between the First and the Second Adam for Jesus Christ our Second Adam must be the Son of God in so peculiar a manner as must make him infinitely Superiour to any other Creature he being design'd to exercise such a Power as no other Creature could possibly be capable of We allow then our Lord's Birth and Conception to have been one ground of his being the Son of God but not the first it 's no where called so in Scripture nor is it sufficient to fix him in that supereminent station wherein our Faith is fix'd upon him The second reason of his Filiation is yet much more Deficient viz. his Resurrection or raising from the Womb of the Earth for we find none called the Son of God in Scripture on that Reason that our Saviour was rais'd from the dead we know if we look upon him as rais'd from the Dead by his own Power as indeed He Joh. 2.19 John 10.17 18. and He only was as himself asserts that affords us a great difference between Him and all other Persons but utterly destroys the Socinian ground of his being called the Son of God But for such troublesom passages as these I find a remarkable saying of Smalcius which shews us the whole mystery of their avoiding the force of plain Scripture and it 's this speaking of Christ's being called God he proceeds When we find it declared in Scripture not only once or twice but very often and very plainly that God was made Man considering that this is a Proposition absurd wholly contrary to right Reason and full of Blasphemy against God we believe it must be a great deal better to find out some mode of speaking according to which one may say this concerning God than to interpret things simply and according to the Letter that is to say the Socinians have resolved not to regulate their Opinions by the Scripture but to reduce the Scripture to their Opinions this however is plain dealing and a sufficient warning to read their Discourses with the greater Caution and Intention of mind But if the Socinians make use of this Art by their own Confessions in matters of the clearest nature and so often repeated we cannot doubt but they 'l rather pitch on some unknown Figure to elude those Texts which imply our Saviour's raising himself from the Dead than own his Vnity with his Father in the same Essence or Nature whereby both the assertion that Christ rais'd himself and that He was rais'd by his Father from the dead are so easily reconcil'd But allowing them their own fancy if our Saviour was not rais'd from the Dead by any Power of his Own but only by that of his Father and yet was called the Son of God on account of his Resurrection then all those who shall rise from the
thine Altar Psal 26.6 therefore we find that during the whole force of the Ceremonial Law the outward Purifications might on an extraordinary Occasion as that of Hezekiah's Passover be dispensed with but the inward Purification of the Heart was a duty absolutely indispensible whence it was that when several of Ephraim and Manasseh and Issachar and Zabulun had not cleansed themselves Hezekiah put up that petition for them to God 2 Chron. 30.18 19 20. The good Lord pardon every one that prepareth his heart to seek God the Lord God of his fathers though he be not cleansed according to the purification of the Sanctuary and the Lord hearkened to Hezekiah and healed the people which additional Passage intimates that God inflicted some punishment on the People for participating of the Passover when legally unprepared so to teach them a Lesson of punctual Obedience but he healed them upon account of their inward and spiritual Preparation to satisfie them that he esteemed inward Holiness beyond all the ceremonial Purifications of the Sanctuary In the Law there were a great many Washings appointed and upon several occasions the Scribes and Pharisees by virtue of some Traditions of their own added more Mark 7.3 4. they would not eat except they washed their hands and when they came from their markets they wash'd and there were many other things which they had received to hold as the washing of Cups and Pots and of brazen Vessels and of Tables Now all these things might contribute to outward Purity and argued a great care of Cleanliness nor were the Jews to have been condemned for these practices if they had not laid too great a weight upon them and for the sake of such Purifications banish'd all thoughts of true inward Purity out of their minds and this our Saviour reproves them for not condemning their outward Neatness but their making void the Law of God by their Traditions and he carries the reproof yet further Matth. 23.25 Wo unto you Scribes Pharisees Hypocrites for you make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter but within they are full of extortion and excess c. But the Purity of the Soul was what God principally regarded and those outward Washings originally ordain'd in the Law were so many Types design'd to put Men in mind of that clean Hand and that pure Heart which every one was to endeavour after If we look into Circumcision it self that great initiating Ceremony in the Jewish Church it was really a preventive of natural Vncleanness yet though it were made by God the Seal of that Covenant between himself and the Seed of Abraham the Jews had a right notion of what that Ceremony was to put them in mind of given them by Moses himself Deut. 10.16 so he bids them to circumcise the fore-skin of their hearts and to be no more stiff-necked Stubbornness and Disobedience were the Vncleanness of the Heart therefore what care the Jews took to prevent that of Nature it was reasonable they should take to remove that accruing from Sin Moses therefore promises it as a great Blessing from Heaven on them in case of their sincere Repentance when under God's afflicting hand Deut. 30.6 the Lord thy God will circumcise thy heart and the heart of thy seed to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul that thou mayst live where the stubborn Heart is once mollified the Love of God is easily settled in it Now that this Circumcision could effect nothing ex opere operato or that it could contribute nothing to the Obedience of the Soul we see demonstrated by the case of the Jews at present who are careful enough in performing the outward Rite of Circumcision and yet obdurate and unmalleable by all the Tendries of the Gospel therefore the Apostle has furnisht us with an easie Distinction between a Jew by Nature or one descended lineally from Abraham and a Jew by Grace or one ally'd to Abraham spiritually as he was the Father of the Faithful for says He He is not a Jew that is one outwardly Rom. 2.28 29. neither is that Circumcision which is outward in the flesh but he is a Jew which is one inwardly and Circumcision is that of the Heart in the spirit whose praise is not of men but of God We see then that these Ceremonies to instance in no more have only a Typical Nature and can have no more because though they may serve to represent to our Memories the solid Duties of sincere Religion yet it 's impossible they should operate on the inward Man or in themselves make any one that is punctual in them acceptable in the sight of God Nor was there any need they should be more than Memorials or Representations of more important Good for those Ceremonial Vsages were from their first beginning whether among Adam's universal Race or the People of Israel intended only as comfortable supports to mens Spirits otherwise ready to droop under the various pressing calamities of a mortal Life God had given Adam the promise of the blessed Seed whose heel was to be bruised by the Serpent which bruise signified Death unless we can imagine Adam so weak as to draw any comfort from a literal Interpretation of the words but that sense could really afford none more than a promise that I should break the Head of some Snake and that should bite or wound my Heel could be a matter of consolation to all Mankind but Adam's case was this He saw how his Folly and Disobedience had made way to Sin and Death to tyrannize over all his own Posterity that the Sin committed was irrevocable the wages of Sin consequently inevitable these thoughts were enough to deject the most daring Spirits and Adam without the interposition of immense Goodness must have sunk irrecoverably beneath the dreadful weight of his own Misery What could prevent his despair could only be this an Assurance that the Powers of Sin and Death should not totally prevail but there should by some sufficient means be a stop effectually put to their Tyranny This Assurance God design'd to give him in that memorable Promise which though spoken to the Serpent was only a terrible Threatning to him but a precious Promise to Adam I will put enmity between thee and the Woman Gen. 3.15 and between thy seed and her seed it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel The bare settling an Enmity between Him who had tempted Adam by the Serpent and the Seed of the Woman could have signified little to Adam's satisfaction he had suffered too deeply in the first engagement with Him and therefore could not wish his Posterity engaged in a perpetual Warfare with so subtle an Adversary therefore the following words the seed of the Woman shall bruise the Serpent's head contain'd the Comfort long'd for To bruise the Head is to wound a vital part to crush it is to put an
habitual Obedience yet he stopt upon none of these Considerations but was for ought we can find by the Sacred Story as ready to be offered as his Parent was to offer him now such a kind of Obedience cannot reasonably be expected from any but a Son nor from any but the best of Sons such was Isaac but as the Burden the Son of God undertook was infinitely greater than what Isaac was concerned in the Eternal Determination of Heaven in respect of Man infinitely harder to comply with so it required a Son more Powerful more Obedient more united with his Father than any Earthly Son could be with the most obliging Earthly Parent therefore there being that Eternal Unity of Will between God the Father and God the Son it was impossible there should be the least Reluctance in the Son against what was resolv'd on for the rescue of Sinners from the Wrath to come and therefore that declining the terrible Hour which appears in his Prayer before his being seiz'd on by the Jews was purely the Effect of Humane Nature necessarily infirm but clearly understanding the Terror of the approaching Conflict and therefore shewing the result of the purest Flesh and Blood yet without Sin Again when we reflect on the Relation between a Father and a Son as it 's very close so their mutual Loves and Affections must needs be very extraordinary and tender this is observ'd and expected among earthly Parents and Children and it's what Nature commands and Religion so far as true obliges to this then must be much more eminent between God the Father and the Son and so our Lord himself teaches us The Father loveth the Son and as the greatest evidence of that intense Love John 3.35 he has given him all things into his hand he asserts the same again The Father loveth the Son and sheweth him all things that he doth 5.20 which is an Expression of the greatest Intimacy and Unity the same Jesus declares that his Father hears him always 11.42 and the Palmist in the Person of the Father speaking to the Son says Psal 2.8 Ask of me and I will give thee the Heathen for thine Inheritance and the uttermost parts of the Earth for thy Possession and on assurance of this Christ when he reproves St. Peter for using his Sword against those who came to take him tells him he could pray to his Father and he should presently send him more than twelve Legions of Angels from all which Circumstances we may be assured that the Interests of an infinitely Obedient Son with an infinitely Loving Father must be infinite therefore whereas Mens Sins were infinitely odious and that Vengeance infinite which was by consequence to fall upon Men for those Sins there was nothing but an infinite Interest that could possibly by any means whatsoever divert that Vengeance and this infinite Interest was proper to God the Son that is to such a Son as was at Unity nay was One with his Father from whence it is that we are taught by the Rules of Christianity and a Socinian himself will scarce contradict it to present all our Prayers to God in the Name of his Son Jesus Christ so whereas our Lord teaches his Disciples Whatsoever ye shall ask in my Name John 14.13 14. that will I do that the Father may be glorified in the Son if ye shall ask any thing in my Name I will do it 16.23 26. he afterwards varies thus In that day ye shall ask me nothing Verily verily I I say unto you whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my Name he will give it you Hitherto ye have askt nothing in my Name ask and ye shall receive that your Joy may be full which two Texts compared together shew the absolute Prevalency of the Name of the Son of God with our Heavenly Father and the absolute and indissoluble Union of the Father and the Son so that it may properly and without any thing like a Contradiction be asserted that what One does the Other does and what the Father grants for the Son's sake that the Son grants nor can any thing of an Heavenly Nature be granted to Mankind but by the Deity so united in it self by which Consideration all inferiour Intercessors between God and Man are excluded from being in themselves the Objects of our Religious Adorations because there can be no such adequate Unions of Persons between them nor any such absolute Power or immediate Interest in such inferiour Beings as there can be no reasonable Competition of Interests between a Son adopted out of Commiseration and an onely begotten and universally loving and obedient Heir as then the Interest of a Son with the Father was necessary for Humane Redemption so it was necessary that God the Son particularly should assume our Nature to do and suffer for us in such a measure as we might be redeem'd upon acceptance of the proper Conditions from Eternal Destruction Finally the Tenderness of the Son oft-times shews it self when the Gravity and just Severity of a Father seems inexorable to an Offender yet even then when the Father seems of himself and otherwise would be inflexible to the Criminal he is pleas'd to see the Tenderness of his Son and will frequently encourage and accept of his Intercession so if we may compare small things with great our Heavenly Father deals with us in respect of the Intercession of his Son and though Justice cry'd out for Vengeance against Sinners he was particularly well pleased when he saw Him cloth'd with Flesh for accomplishing that great Work of Mercy and Goodness he was pleas'd at his Interposition between the Criminals and impendent Punishment and since the Divine Nature was wholly incapable of flexible Affections nothing but unbounded Love Mercy Justice c. concentring in it the Apostle teaches us that our incarnate Lord our great High-priest was such an One as could be affected with our Infirmities Heb. 5.7 8 9. could have compassion on the Ignorant and of them that are out of the way who in the days of his flesh when he offer'd up Prayers and Supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death and was heard in that he feared Though he were a Son yet he learned Obedience by the things which he suffer'd and being made perfect he became the Author of eternal Salvation to all them that believe the Assumption of our Nature created in him a sympathetic Tenderness of Humane Infirmities as appear'd by his Tears over Jerusalem and at the Grave of Lazarus yet he was free from all Sin in those condescending Tears of his now he that had such extraordinary Compassion for miserable Sinners could not but exert the utmost of his sacred Interests on their behalf and make a free access for them to the Throne of Grace where such Obedience Interest and Compassion being indispensibly necessary for our Good and those Qualifications being naturally
is a Law-giver as a King on his Throne who has no superiour and therefore what he there decrees has the force and sanction of a Law the Lord is our Judge Isa 33.22 says the Prophet the Lord is our Law-giver the Lord is our King he will save us As our Saviour was Man he too tho' superiour to Moses and peculiarly faithful in all the house of God had no authority to make alterations in that original Moral Law and as he was one with his Father and so conscious of every determination of his it was impossible he should vary from himself i. e. from his blessed Father or should openly in the world act as if it were possible any thing imperfect should come out of the hand of God Hence we rationally believe that if salvation be a thing really attainable it must be attained by the same means by all persons whether Jews or Gentiles Of the Patriarchs several have that testimony given of them in Scripture that they pleas'd God now there being no variableness nor shadow of turning with God but he the same yesterday to day and for ever whatsoever pleas'd God in those the same and nothing else can please him now And whereas our blessed Saviour in the days of his flesh made it his business to please his Almighty Father and did so by performing every punctilio of the Mosaic Law so we who are to follow his example must perform the same but whereas the very circumstantial appendages of a Law tho' nothing essential to it but the meer evidences of the Sovereignty of the Lawgiver are not yet to be cancell'd but by a power equal to that which gave them their first obliging authority therefore it was necessary that Jesus Christ in and by whom the ceremonial sanctions of Moses's Law were vacated should be God and so have the same original Divine Authority in himself and his fulfilling and re-confirming all the substantial parts of that Law made it yet the more publickly authentick and taught his followers to have their due respect to him which was due to both an Almighty Lawgiver and an infallible Interpreter And whereas that insupportable burden of Ceremonies is taken off from the necks of Christians it being laid upon the Jews partly for the hardness of their hearts and partly for to shadow out to them their expectations of a Messiah who being himself come in the flesh has now no need of types and shadows to prefigure him so the old Natural Law is urged upon them with the greatest strength and reason in the world and the force and intent of it is more clearly shew'd them from whence the Apostle S. John who tells those he writes to that he gave them no new commandment but the old which they had heard from the beginning yet in the very next verse subjoins 1 John 2.7 8. Again a new commandment I write unto you the substance of which is that you love one another this was an old commandment in that Nature injoyn'd it and it was co-incident with that Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self it was a new Commandment in that it was re-inforced and inculcated so very often by our Saviour in that He gave so many powerful reasons why his followers should practise it and yet the result of all amounts only to this that the design of Religion being to restore Nature to its first happiness and that being rationally concluded to be the best and purest Religion which has the greatest effects in that design if those who were his Disciples would but take care to evidence their Discipleship by that mutual love and endearing charity they would at the same time convince the world that the Lord whom they follow'd was truly authoriz'd by Heaven that the Doctrine which He preach'd was really agreeable to the Will of God and that Love being the first intention of pure and uncorrupted Nature That which raised and encouraged men most powerfully to it must needs be the most suitable to that original purity of Nature And hence it is that we observe many are prejudiced against Christianity by those cursed feuds and animosities to be found among Christians they having an eye generally to the restauration of Nature but quarrels and contentions being wholly barbarous brutish and unnatural hence it appears farther too that whereas the Apostle seems to distinguish between the Gospel and the Mosaic dispensation as if the first were the Law of Faith the last the Law of Works and that such a Law as by which Salvation could never be obtain'd The works the Apostle reflects on are not the duties of the moral Law but the Ceremonial punctilio's of the Levitical Law which as the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews agreeably to what I asserted before assures us were not able to make any man perfect but for the Moral Law he 's so far from invalidating it that where ever he dehorts from any vices such as he calls the works of the flesh Gal. 5.19 24. which are these adultery fornication uncleanness lasciviousness idolatry witchcraft hatred variance emulations strife wrath seditions heresie envyings murders drunkenness revellings and such like of which he tells us that they who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God Again wheresoever he exhorts to any virtue such as Love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness temperance against which there is no Law Wheresoever he does thus He enforces the Moral Law with expressions as strong and reasons as weighty as the Holy Ghost could inspire him with and where the same Apostle assures us that in Jesus Christ neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision Gal. 5.6 he shews what works are excluded from any efficacy in our Salvation for Circumcision is put for the whole Ceremonial Law and where he adds that Faith working by Love is available he shews the inefficacy of all pretences to Faith without good works agreeing with S. James that Faith without works is dead James 2.26 and with his own severe reflection elsewhere upon those who profess they knew God while in their works they deny him Tit. 1.16 being abominable disobedient and to every good work reprobate Since then it was the great end and design of the Gospel to confirm the Moral and eternal Law of God and so by just degrees to reduce fallen Man again to the rules of perfect reason to make him sensible of the noble nature and spiritual inclinations of the Heaven-born Soul that so he might the more fully apprehend how much below himself he falls in yielding himself a slave to Sin and how much he retrenches his own true liberty by that unbridled exorbitancy he aims at the Gospel being intended to set Man's natural misery in a true light and withal to shew the sole remedy for that misery in the undertakings of a Saviour It remains an inquiry still whether Man could in the state he is in at present arrive
them For tho' they were of a more obscure and impenetrable kind yet Paganism in general had very considerable notices of the immense goodness of the Divine nature and those amongst them who oppos'd Atheism and asserted Providence took no small care to set off divine love or the necessary care God had of his Creatures good with the greatest Lustre and the Ancient Christian Doctors nay the Apostles themselves witness Saint Paul at Athens and St. Peter with Cornelius and the Ancienter Prophets and Holy Writers found God's Goodness exerted to his Creatures an excellent Argument to draw Pagans as well as others to Repentance and Obedience Among other apprehensions Pagans had of God that of his Purity and Holiness was very considerable they who ascribed Perfection to him and knew what Perfection meant look'd upon him as necessarily infinitely Pure for where they tell us of God's being impassible they prove he cannot be guilty of any thing ill that being contrary to the original nature of a Spiritual Being which therefore must be suppos'd to suffer when it is suppos'd to sin But as they had these notions of God's immense purity so they had as quick a sense of the depravation of Man's Nature and were ready to lament it with almost as great an Emphasis as St. Paul himself could lament his own corruption hence that ingenious Platonist Maximus Tyrius acknowledges Dissert 26. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. For the Soul of Man is too weak to extricate it self by force of Reason from all those perplexities it meets with especially being while in this life involv'd in many dark and gloomy Clouds and always miserably wearied and distracted with the noise and tumult of occurring mischiefs for what Man is there so good who can live without offence or without fault but Men might live easily enough without fault did not the general depravation of their natures prevent it for of what is Good nothing but Good can come But though this Purity in God and Corruption in Man must necessarily put God at a great distance from Man yet as God was Lord and Master at first both by right of Creation and Preservation he is so still as he that was owner of a Kingdom does not lose his right in it because it is visited with the Plague and the Infection it may be fatal and almost Universal so Man owes Obedience and Subjection to God still as he that was my Slave when perfect and in health is not therefore set free of course because he 's sickly or has lost an Arm or a Leg Or he that was so when in his wits does not cease to be so now because he 's distracted and does not understand his Duty The Relation between God and Man stands good and is believ'd to do so by Heathens as well as Christians as a Son owes a Duty to his Father when his Father 's angry as well as when he 's pleas'd and when himself has really offended him as well as when he has not and this relation is necessarily on man's part to be maintained to the utmost since by its failure he loses all hopes of Happiness and on God's part in vindication of his own Goodness He therefore that rightly understands Humane Pravity of Nature and yet believes he owes a duty to the supreme Being must conclude it necessary that he should have some Positive Rule or method whereby to manage himself nor is it enough in this case to fly to the Law of Nature as if that were sufficient That had been so indeed had Man continued in that rectitude of faculties which he had in the first beginnings of the world but Heathens have been very sensible there 's no such thing to depend on now For tho' the Laws of Nature are as Just as Reasonable as Necessary and as Obligatory now as ever yet if men have not Reason enough to understand it what does the excellency and compleatness of Natures Laws signifie to them as tho' I am blind the Sun shines at noon-day as bright and clear as ever it did but I see never the more for all that It was the Apostle's complaint that the good that he would that he did not Rom. 7.19 and the evil that he would not that he did the reason of which was that general Corruption of Mankind which He as one of them was partaker of fo◠He saw another Law in his members waring against the Law of his mind and bringing him into captivity to the Law of Sin which was in his members the same is the complaint of Medaea in the Poet when meditating upon a dreadful revenge she design'd on her husband Jason video meliora probóque Deteriora sequor Now let the Laws of Nature be never so admirable which way can a Man thus distracted within compose himself so as to take a fair view of that Law or be enough himself to practise upon it The Law of Nature is really obscure and mystical to be traced through a thousand dark and perplexing Labyrinths which require more than a Man as now fix'd to travel through therefore it cannot be enough to satisfie Man's want and to give him full and clear direction to do the Will of God which obedience to his Will is yet His Duty He again who has a just Idaea of immense Goodness in God will never be capable of reconciling His refusal to give Man a Law to walk by to such goodness For while no Man that acknowledges a God doubts but that he 'l punish sinners none can doubt but to clear his own Justice from all cavils he 'l punish them only as Sinners against some Law for sin is defin'd to Christians a Transgression of the Law but that Law must be some such Law as the Transgressor was really capable of knowing As our Justiciaries punish the most ignorant Clowns when they break our Laws tho' perhaps the suffering persons never knew of those Laws and yet very justly because there were such Laws really extant and in such a Language as they understood and it was their Duty and Interest to be acquainted with and to enquire after those Laws the breach of which might any way be penal to them It 's as little doubted that God will reward those who keep such Laws and will encourage them by the easiness of the Laws propounded to a ready and exact obedience These things were so strongly fix'd in the minds of antient Pagans that it set their Philosophers at work to read Lectures and to prescribe Laws concerning Virtue and Vice to all people declaring previously That there was an absolute necessity of such Laws for Men who indeed were ingaged in the dark and some of them could almost have pretended to Divine influences upon them tho' their Priests and Fortune-tellers did it with more applause But all this was to bring mens minds to a greater veneration of their Principles and Empedocles in particular thought it no ill Policy to Teach his
merciful and faithful High-priest in things pertaining to God to make reconciliation for the Sins of the People or to atone for them i. e. to reconcile God to People that had sinned for in that he himself hath suffered being tempted he is able to succour them that are tempted There remains nothing more on this Subject to be done but to draw a practical Inference or two from our Apostolical doctrine that God was manifest in the flesh or that He who really and eternally was God took upon him humane Nature for the Salvation of Mankind From hence we should learn a just Admiration of that transcendent Love and infinite Compassion extended to us by God the Father in sending by God the Son in being sent to and condescending to come among us Words are too weak to express the mighty debt of Gratitude we are engaged in to Heaven on that account only Actions may in some measure express our Acknowledgments let us not conceit our selves exempt from the Condition of the rest of Mankind We lost our original Innocence we were precluded from Paradise from tasting the Tree of Life by Cherubims and a flaming Sword whan could we then hope for We were created happy we forfeited it too too easily what could we afterwards pretend to But God however provok'd by the eternal Intercession of his Son had reserv'd Mercy for us therefore he allow'd Mankind a time and space of Repentance Repentance was the sole possible Condition of Eternal Happiness Repentance invalid yet and unfruitful in it self had it not been render'd acceptable by the Blood of the Lamb slain from the Foundation of the World the Truth of what I do assert in this particular appears from the Song of the four Beasts and the twenty four Elders when they adored this Lamb of God and prais'd him in the name of the Saints Thou wast slain Rev. 5.9 and hast redeemed us to God by thy Blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation those so redeemed from all parts include all Persons dying in the true Faith of God from the beginning of the World some of whom we find mentioned and prais'd for our Example in the Eleventh to the Hebrews and therefore when St. John afterwards gives us an account of those who received the Seal of God on their Foreheads he first reckons up 144000 of the Tribes of Israel a certain for an uncertain Number but after them he tells us he saw a great multitude 7.9 14. which no man could number of all nations and kindred and people and tongues who stood before the throne and before the Lamb clothed with white Robes and with Palms in their hands of whom and what they were when the Apostle enquired of one of the Elders he received this Answer these are they which came out of great Tribulation and have wash'd their Robes and have made them white in the Blood of the Lamb now this numberless Number of happy Souls mark'd by Heaven for its own represents all those walking and dying in the Fear of God through all Ages for Tribulation was the Characteristic of a pious Man before God was manifest in the Flesh as well as afterwards but they had all their Robes wash'd in the Blood of the same Lamb therefore that Blood was effectual for Man's Salvation and render'd all their Religious Performances of which Repentance was a chief acceptable in the sight of God before such time as it was actually and openly shed upon the Cross That Mankind might be apprehensive of their Duties and be as certain in their Repentance as they had been in their Miscarriages God who had given them all the Providential Encouragements possible to serve him faithfully and willingly was pleased to send his Messengers from time to time to call them to Repentance so Enoch by the transcendent Holiness of his Life which doubtless was accompanied with as edifying Instructions preach'd Repentance to a World even so early grown old in Sin so Noah for an Hundred Years together preach'd Repentance to a perishing Generation after the Renewal of the World again from that Stock purposely preserv'd in the Ark Prophets and Holy Men were frequently inspired by Heaven and sent through the World on the Reforming that too rarely successful Errand nor were they so wholly confin'd to Israel the Lot of God's own Inheritance but that they sometimes deliver'd Messages to the adjacent Gentiles so Obadiah to Edom Jonah and Nahum to Nineveh c. this was certainly an Effect of wonderful Compassion that a God so justly offended at Humane Crimes should have any respect to them or use so many Methods of bringing them to a Sense of their own Errors and that Misery attending them but what measure did those Messengers meet with the same with those Servants in the Parable whom their Lord sent to the Husbandmen to receive of the fruits of his Vineyard some were beaten some wounded some murder'd all slighted and disregarded Yet to evidence his Love further God when he observed how unsuccessful his Ambassadours had been He sent his Son the Conclusion was rational they will reverence my Son but the Event was contrary even that Son by foolish Husbandmen was cast out of his own Vineyard and cruelly murder'd And was not that senseless Barbarism too much was it not too much to affront Mercy so notoriously would we thus requite the Lord O foolish People and unwise that we are ill would it become those now who call themselves Christians to trample under foot the blood of the Gospel-Covenant to crucifie to themselves afresh the Lord of Life and to put him once more to an open shame Did he come down from Heaven to Earth from Glory to Misery to save us and shall we be so much Fools as having a Prize put into our Hands not to have Hearts to make use of it shall we refuse to be saved by him nay shall we not Love him shall we not Admire him shall we not Adore him shall we not obey him in all things shall we not be ready to suffer all that Hell and wicked Men can invent to our prejudice rather than forsake his Truth or dishonour his Gospel Reason would teach us these things for they who have received the greatest Favours ought to repay them with the greatest Gratitude but alas we generally discourse to senseless Walls or try our Charms on deaf Adders for who hath believed our Report and to whom is the Arm of the Lord revealed The Leopard may sooner change his Spots or the Negro his Skin than those who are inured to Wickedness be persuaded to relinquish it by the most cogent Arguments in the world but how base and ridiculous does it look that Holy Men of old could live upon God's Promises of redeeming them that in confidence of his Veracity in a full and strong Faith in his Goodness they could account themselves but Pilgrims and Strangers here on Earth and by religious Lives and
Actions prove to the World they were in quest of a better Countrey and yet We who have seen the Performance of those Promises they depended on their Obscurities all cleared their Certainty vindicated We who are beset with such a Cloud of Witnesses cannot cast aside every Sin and the Weight that does so easily oppress us and run with Joy the Race that 's set before us Were we Bond-slaves to Hell and has the Son of God struck off our Chains and Fetters and do we love them still is Light come into the World and can we love Darkness rather than Light were we all liable to eternal Vengeance and has our Lord redeemed us with his own most precious Blood from the dismal strokes of that Vengeance and shall we not believe in him that has alone trod the Wine-press of his Father's Wrath for us We were Sinners we were Enemies we were foolish and obstinate Enemies yet the Son of God that great Shepherd of the Sheep came to seek and to save that which was lost and can we be his Enemies still who was so much our Friend I 'm sure whatever corrupt Nature may tempt us to it would be wretched Policy in us to reject what he has done for us the wicked Husbandmen kill'd their Lord's Son indeed but it was to their own Confusion the rebellious Citizens refus'd to have their rightful King reign over them but it was to their Destruction the First or Primary End of our Saviour's Coming was that Men might be saved but if Men foolishly neglect that End there is a Secondary Design in it that those who still continue in Sin may be without Excuse that they may have nothing to plead for themselves at the great Day but that the Justice of his Wrath against Sin and Sinners may appear to Men and Angels Where an Ambassadour of Peace is sent and slighted the Dignity of the Ambassadour aggravates the Contempt the Apostle therefore having in the first Chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews demonstrated the Dignity of Christ and proved his pre-eminence to Men and Angels who yet after the several Methods God had formerly taken to reveal himself had in those latter days spoken himself to the World makes this rational Deduction from all Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we hear in the name of Christ Heb. 2.1 2 3. for if the word spoken by Angels was stedfast and every Transgression and Disobedience receiv'd a just Recompence of reward how shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirm'd to us by them that heard him If we repent not at his Call if we submit not to his Admonitions nor lay hold on his Grace we must not please our selves with empty Dreams of entring into his Rest there remains now no more Sacrifice for Sins His indeed is sufficient to those who believe in and obey him but for those who obey not the Truth there remains nothing but Indignation and Wrath Tribulation and Anguish to every Soul that doth Evil let his State and Condition be what it will this Wo I hope all those who profess Christianity will endeavour to avoid and that all those who name the Name of Christ that glorious saving Name will depart from Iniquity If our Saviour be the Son of God if he be God himself infinite and eternal and yet humbled himself and took upon him the Form of a Servant for our Redemption if it were absolutely necessary that he who undertook so great a Work should be real God as well as real Man or else must have sunk in that prodigious Attempt it behoves all those who expect Salvation by his Name to adhere to this Doctrine to believe in Christ as he is set forth to us in Sacred Writ that is as God co-equal and co-essential with his Father I would to God the Caution were needless There were some Hereticks in the Ancient Church who would needs maintain our Lord was not true Man had only a phantastical Body but not real Flesh and Blood as we have others as it were to ballance them would assert our Saviour was a meer Man and no more that he was not real God nor his Love to us nor his Undertakings for us so great as we are ready to conclude God's Blessing upon the Labours of the Governours of the Church in those days crusht the growing Heresies and they bequeath'd to us a Faith undeprav'd unchanged nor had the Trent-Conventicle an Opportunity to propound their additional Articles of Faith till besides the Eastern Churches God was pleased to raise up Men in these Western parts of the World of extraordinary Piety and Learning and Industry who had rescued the genuine Christian Faith from Fraud and Obscurity to give it us so as the Ancient Christians had left it without Additions or Alterations by which Cares they prevented the malignant Designs of the Roman Church but as the Devil will always be sowing his Tares of Heresies and Falshoods among the good Wheat of Divine Truths so with the Reformation of Religion besides the bloody Severities of Romish Bigots several of the ancient Heresies were reviv'd and particularly that which denied the Eternal Divinity of the Son of God which as it walk'd about formerly under several Names so it has of late though as the Presbyterians and Independents the other day in spite of former Feuds are pleased to give themselves the painted Title of Vnited Brethren so those wretched Hereticks however at odds among themselves agreed in the gay Name of Vnitarians under which Name Turks and Jews come as well and properly as they if they could be true to their own Principles They unite indeed all in that one impious Error in denying the Divinity of our Saviour a Heresie detestable to every sober and intelligent Christian a Heresie proper only to introduce Deism and Sadducism and to thrust true Evangelical Christianity out of doors This all those who love their Religion ought to oppose and declare against with as much Zeal and Care and more than they would against the foulest Errors of the Roman See for though there are so many Falsities and Absurdities propounded to us in that Communion yet there 's nothing flies so directly in the face of Almighty God as this it 's Folly enough to believe the Bishop of Rome Christ's universal Vicar upon Earth but it 's a greater Stupidity to believe that Christ himself is no more truly and originally God than that pretended Vicar it 's Idolatry to pray to Saints or Angels and to make them the ultimate Object of our Adorations it 's greater yet to make a meer Man the Object of the same Devotions and to suppose him a made God and capable of doing every thing for us we beg at his hands though he were no more but a Creature as others at his first existence it 's Madness to believe that