than the Gofpel allows The Question then shall never be stated by me thus Whether we must Obey or no Keep the Commandments of Christ or no And that upon Peril of Eternal Damnation But whether out of this Obedience of ours may be gathered that righteousness in which we may safely venture to appear before the Iudge of all the Earth in the great day as that which we resolve to stand and abide by venturing our all upon it This is that the Doctor thinks the Apostle reproved Rom. 9. 31 32. Israel which followed after the Law of righteousness hath not attained to the Law of righteousness because they sought it not by Faith but as it were by the Works of the Law Where the Apostle Intimates that though we do not directly seek a righteousness by the Works of the Law yet to do it Obliquely and Indirectly is destructive and that the Doctor intends no more no other than this is evident from the words our Author calls in And though I would have walkt according to my own mind yet now I give up my self to be wholly guided by thy Spirit This Netled our Authors Conscience and he takes Sanctuary in the most wretched Subterfuge that ever betrayed it's Confider What a pretty Complement does the Soul make to Christ We are now sheer gone from the Truth of the Principle to the Truth of the Heart in receiving it If it proves a Complement in the Mouth of an Hypocrite yet in Thesi its a Truth That whoever receives Christ upon his own Terms does renouncing his own will and way give up himself wholly to be ruled by the Spirit speaking in the Scriptures At this wiâ—…d rate I have often heard a silly Quaker answer this Proposition Iesus Christ that Died at Jerusalem is the Saviour of the World Ay says he but doest thou witness that from the Light within 2. Others make Obedience necessary upon the account of Christs Fulness But this he says makes it no otherwise necessary then as we are necessarily passive in it However if it be necessary upon any account it 's enough to make him blush that flatly Charges it upon them to say it 's not necessary But to be passive in our Obedience is all the Soul means in giving up it self to be ruled by the Spirit of Christ. Then the Soul means Nonsence For to give it self to be ruled by the Spirit has something of Activity in it Our help and asistance to give up our selves is from the Spirit but the giving up is an an act of the Souls 'T is the Believer that obeys and yet the ability to obey is from the Holy Ghost It 's the Creature that works and yet its God that works in him to will and to do of his own good Pleasure Phil. 2. 13. It 's the man that believes and yet he believes according to the working of Gods mighty Power Ephes. 1. 19 20. What is it else that he prays to the Spirit for O God the Holy Ghost proceeding from the Father and the Son have Mercy upon us miserable sinners But all this might have been Superseded had our Author duly Recollected what he has Subscribed and openly given his Assent and Consent to in the 10th Art of the Church of England We have no power to do Good works acceptable to God without the Grace of God preventing us that we may have a good Will and Working with us when we have that good Will Allow but the Doctor the Benefit of the Clergie and he will need no more to bring him off though that very Article would prove our Authors Neck-verse In the Work of Grace the Spirit Acts according to the Nature of the Subject which is here the Rational Creature He gives not new Natural Powers but a new Moral ability to Exercise them he bestows not a new Will Physically but enlarges it from its Fetters discharges it from its Slavery and powerfully though Gently enclines it to Gods Testimonies not destroying its radical self-determining Power and hence I conclude our Author is but sorrily Skilled in the true meaning of souls when they Profess a subjection to Christ. The Soul meant honestly she had no Mental reservation none of these Quirks and Tricks but plainly and sincerely Designed to give up her self in all Obedience to her Lord and Saviour She in her Text intended very singly but our Author has Commented upon it Knavishly I said so indeed in haste another would have said perhaps Foolishly for what more Idle Chat could he have Learn't from the good Women his Neighbours at Billings-gate than a willingness to obey against ones Will. This is all our Author is willing to own of the Grounds of our Obedience but I shall help his weak and frail Memory a little though to his great Regret Doctor O. Com. pag. 212. Obedience says the Doctor is necessary as a Means to the End N. B. God hath appointed that Holiness shall be the Means the Way to that Eternal Life which as in it self and Originally is his Gift by Jesus Christ so with regard to his Constitution of our Obedience as the Means of attaining it is a Reward and God in bestowing of it a Rewarder though it be neither the Cause Matter nor Condition of our Justification yet it is the Way appointed of God for us to walk in for the obtaining of Salvation And therefore he that hath hope of Eternal Life Purifies himself as he is Pure and none shall ever come to that End who walketh not in that Way for without Holiness it is impossible to see God The bare Repitition of which words are as plain and full a Rebuke to all our Authors Dirty Nasty Reflections as a reasonable Creature can desire But these things we shall meet withall anon and therefore here they shall lie ready in Banco till our Authors Leisure shall call for them I had now eased my self and my Reader of any further Vexation in this Section had I not unhappily overseen one Passage in Mr. Watson from which our Author thinks he has some Advantage The words are these Evangelical Truths will not down with a Natural Heart such a one had rather hear some quaint Point of some Vertue or Vice stood upon than any thing in Christ c. Which he thus Canvasses Such sanctified Souls and Ears loath all Dull Insipid Moral Discourses which are perpetually Inculcating their Duty on them and Troubling them with a great many Rules and Directions for a good Life which he is pleased to call the Quaint Points of Vertue and Vice Good Sir be not angry have but a little Patience and all will be well to your Hearts Content Mr. Watson does not Inveigh against your Poynant Invictives against the one or your most Elaborate Encomiums of the other Run down sin at the highest rate of Zeal and Fervency you can render Prophaneness as Odious and expose her for a Fulsomè sâ—…urvy Baggage if you please Invent new Names for her
Salvation in the House of his Servant David as he spake by the mouth of his Holy Prophets which have been since the world began ver 72. To perform the Mercy promised to our Fathers and to remember his holy Covenant the Oath which he sware to our Father Abraham where the firm Oath and Covenant of God to Redeem his People is assigned as the Reason of his giving Christ to be a Redeemer The places are too many to be insisted on that confirm this Truth Iohn 3. 16. 1 Iohn 4. 9 10. 2. Sect. Free grace is given as the true Reason of the Covenant of Grace Heb. 8. 8. For finding fault with them he saith behold the days come saith the Lord that I will make a New Covenant with the House of Israel c. They were a faulty an undeserving an ill-deserving People yet Free grace will make a Covenant with them Nor is there any opposition between Free-grace and Christs Merits in this Case if we consider that Free-grace is the Original Reason of Gods designation and purpose to bestow the good things of the Covenant and the Righteousness of Christs Life and the Sacrifice of his Death the way of recovering these Mercies which by sin had been forfeited and lost 3. Sect. The Scriptures give us no intimation that Christ is the Foundation of Gods making this Covenant or the Original Reason of Gods design to bestow the Mercies of the Covenant though it abounds with Testimonies that Christ is the way of procuring for us and conveying to us these intended mercies and in those things which depend upon mere good pleasure Revelation must be our onely guide In this case we may conclude Negatively Non credimus quia non legimus And we may shrewdly conjecture that there is no pretence from Scripture for this Figment of our Authors because it 's the Foundation of all his mistakes and yet he has not so much as attempted the perverting of one Scripture to give colour to it which may be reckoned amongst the Admiranda Nili 2. His other Assertion is this Our own Righteousness is the condition of the Covenant which with his former Assertion is obtruded upon us without proof and therefore I suppose he intends they must both be maintained at the Charges of the Parish Now 1 It is agreed for ought I know that an inherent righteousness is a necessary condition of eternal Salvation Heb. 12. 14. Without Holiness no man shall see God It is a Condition in the Covenant though not of the Covenant such a Condition as is due to every Person in a Covenant-state it doth necessarily attend that state though it be not allowed as antecedent to a Covenant-state 2. As to the Constitution of the Covenant in Gods purpose and Counsel I know no condition at all They that talk of the right use of free-will future Faith or good works fore-seen as the Reason of that purpose talk without book and onely intimate what a rare Covenant they would have made for us had they had the modelling and Contrivance of it like him that boasted that if he had stood by God when he formed Man he could have told him how to have made him more commodiously Rom. 9. 11. The Children being not yet born neither having done any good or evil Where those words neither having done any good or evil must necessarily exclude all respect to the future good or evil they should do as the Reason of the purpose of God according to Election because it 's evident by the form of speech That they deny something more concerning the Children than the former words being not yet born and yet even they exclude Having done good or evil Actually 3. The Question then is whether An inherent Righteousness be the Condition required of us and in us antecedent to our first Covenant-state And I durst leave this Matter to be determined by the Church of England if our Author would do so too Art 17. Predestination to Life is the everlasting purpose of God whereby before the Foundation of the World was laid he hath constantly decreed by his Counsel secret to us to deliver from Curse and Damnation those whom he hath chosen out of Mankind in Christ and to bring them by Christ to everlasting Salvation whence we are taught 1. That Election is not of all Mankind but of some out of Mankind 2. That this purpose of God was from everlasting 3. That it is a fixed constant decree 4. That the Design of it is to deliver those chosen out of Mankind from the curse under which Mankind was fallen and to bring them to everlasting Salvation 5. That the Reason of this eternal Election was his own counsel 6. That the Execution of this Decree is in and by Iesus Christ and the manner of it follows Wherefore they which be endued with so excellent a benefit be called according to the purpose of God working in due season by his Spirit They through Grace obey the calling they be justified freely they be made the Sons of God by Adoption they be made like the Image of his onely begotten Son they walk Religiously in good works and at length by Gods mercy they attain everlasting felicity Whence we are Instructed 1. That the calling of the Elect to a Covenant-state is from Grace as the reason and by Grace as it's efficient 2. Their obeying that call of God is by Grace 3. Good works necessarily follow effectual calling See also Art 10. 12 13. 4. Religious walking with God in good works is a necessary condition of eternal Felicity 5. That there is such a firm connexion in this golden chain of Salvation that no one linck can possibly be broken They are Elected freely called effectually justified freely Adopted graciously Sanctified gradually walk Religiously and at length by the mercy of God are saved eternally which the Apostle gives us more concisely Rom. 8. 30. Moreover whom he did Predestinate them he a so called and whom he called them he also justified and whom he justified them he also Glorified I conclude then that our own righteousness is not the condition of the Covenant of Grace neither of the designment of the Father nor the procurement of the Son nor of the effectual Operation of the Holy Spirit nor of our Covenant-state nor of our Covenant-right nor of the first Covenant-mercy but of many after-mercies and of Eternal Salvation it is the condition 1. Sect. That is not the Condition of the Covenant required of us on our part which God promises to work in us on His part but God has promised to work in us Inherent-righteousness both Root and Fruit Ezek. 36. 26 27. A new Heart also will I give you and I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my Statutes and ye shall keep my Iudgments and do them 2. Sect. That which God in Covenant bestows cannot be the Condition of a Covenant-state but God in Covenant bestows the new Heart for
recommend his Glory and Perfections What Nature will teach us so great a Darling of hers the Privado to all her Mysteries cannot be Ignorant of but in my Judgment he fetches a huge Blow to do Nothing We believe God was perfectly happy from all Eternity in the Enjoyment of his own Self and Infinite Perfections and needed not have recommended his Glory to his Creatures he made not the World because he needed it but by our Authors good leave or without it supposing that God will recommend his Glory he must have something out of himself to which he may recommend it And on like Supposition that He will Manifest his pardoning Grace and Mercy there must be a fit Object capable of that Grace and Mercy unless our Author from his too much familiarity with Nature can tell us how God can Pardon one that is no sinner or forgive him that is not guilty Though every sinner be not an Object qualified to receive Mercy yet he must be a sinner upon whom pardoning Mercy is exercised though all Misery be not a fit Object of pity yet Pity supposes Misery some of Gods Attributes create their Objects as Omnipotency but others do suppose them as Sin pardoning Grace and so God may be said to need Sins and Misery to recommend some of his Perfections I am sure supposing sin and misery to exist God has recommended his Son to us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us Rom. 5. 8. Of the same bran is that which follows God would not Truckle and Barter with the Devil and Sin for his Glory It 's like he would not but when the Devil and Sin had confederated against God I know not why God might not Over-reach them in their Designs and as he has made the wrath of Man so he might also the policy of Satan to serve and praise Him and thus he fixes a New end upon sin which the Devil never dreamt on or however did not design But I perceive our Author is wondrously pleased with the fine Notion of Trucking and Bartering and that we might not loose the beauty of it he warns us amongst the Errata I would there were no worse that for Truckle we read Truck Oh be sure Courteous Readers you do not mistake for there 's some weighty Controversie depends upon it which the Coffee-house and the Inch of Candle must determine But further Nature teaches him That God had much rather be Glorious in the Happiness and Perfection and Obedience of his Creatures than in their sin and misery Nature is an excellent School Mistress I see and this is one of her highest Mysteries that God delights in Obedience more than Sin But what now if Sin and Disobedience have got in for my part I question whether Nature will teach him that God had rather much rather or however how much rather he had be more Glorious in exacting one Attribute than another or whether God may not equally glorifie himself in the Execution of his just Displeasure against Sin obstinately pursued as in the glorifying the Penitent and Reformed sinner but this I know that the former has more deserved Eternal Punishment than the other can pretend to merit Eternal Life But perhaps he has Ballances that will turn with the Twentieth part of a Grain and in these he knows how to weigh which of Gods Attributes weigh heaviest And that he can do for he tells us That pardoning Mercy and vindictive Iustice are but secondary Attributes What warrant he has to marshal Gods Attributes in this order I dare not enquire which are first rate which second rate Attributes is a Nice enquiry but I expected a Dish of Coleworts before he had done for these have been served up to us in the Racovian Catechism Let these things be as they will I observe 1. That vindictive Justice and pardoning Mercy are both equally Gods Attributes 2. They are not the less Essential and primary Attributes because they were not Eternally exercised for then neither would Omnipotency be such God was Eternally Omnipotent though he Created not the World from Eternity and he was also Eternally a God of pardoning Mercy and a God of punitive Justice though to the Exerting the outward Acts proper to those Eternal excellencies there was required an Object capable of receiving them This Nature and Scripture teaches us and we are not much concern'd in our Authors Theologie but to close up all he gives us an Inference from his Doctrine and a Reason of that Inference His Doctrine was this Vindictive Iustice and Pardoning Mercy are not Primary but Secondary Attributes His Inference is this Therefore God cannot Primarily design the glorifying of them His Reason is this For that cannot be without Primarily designing the sin and misery of his Creatures That is God cannot Primarily design one thing except he Primarily designs another and so we shall have two Firsts without a Second This is very thin Stuff it shines through 2. The Reader has heard to his great Contentment how admirably he has acquitted himself in the Matter of sin if he can but play his part as well in the Matter of our Righteousness too he will deserve the Whetstone and that may save him the Labour of going to the Counter-door As it is with your Artificial Fencers that never knew further than the Discipline of the School they have all the Terms of Art know their Postures and with good Credit can play a Prize upon the Stage yet when these men come to Sharpe when the Point of a real Enemies Sword is ready prest at the heart it puts them often out of their forms their School-play and Systematical skill Thus possibly it may fare with our confident Bravo's who can talk very confidently of appearing before God in their own Duties and a Righteousness finely Composed out of those Materials yet possibly their Blood may freeze in their Veins and the Colour forsake their bold Cheeks when God shews himself in his glorious Majesty and they must be in a moment as they must be for ever None ever Ranted higher than Bellarmin nor Hector'd the World with Arguments against Imputed Righteousness yet when he saw Death was in good Earnest he was glad to Lower his Top-sail and cry out Precor ut inter sanctos suos non estimator meriti sed veniae largitor me admittat And in his very Ruff against that Doctrine retreated to his Tutissimum est liâ—… 5. de justificatione What Doctor Owen asserts herein is briefly thus much Com. pag. 113. All men are perswaded that God is a most Righteous God Hab. 1. 13. and therefore the Ungodly cannot stand in the Judgment Hence the enquiry of every one convinc't of Immortality and the Judgment to come is concerning the Righteousness to appear before this Righteous God The first thing that offers it self for Direction and Assistance is the Law which hath many fair Pleas to prevail with a Soul to close with it for a
without Gods respect to Christ for herein the Scripture is Peremptory and God is at a point with all the World Acts 4. 12. There 's no other Name under Heaven given by which we must be saved neither is there Salvation in any other 2. It 's evident from those very Places where the Concerns of Christ and of Faith are joyntly mentioned not only that they have really distinct Interests but that Christ carries the Supremacy and that Faith has only a subservient Concernment therein Rom. 5. 1. Therefore being justified by Faith we have peace with God through our Lord Iesus Christ. Whence it 's plain that whatever Faith contributes to our peace with God yet even that Operates through Jesus Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So Gal. 3. 16. Ye are all the Children of God by Faith in Iesus Christ It 's the Redeemer as made a Curse for us ver 13. that gives Faith all it 's Vertue and Efficacy And Gal. 2. 20. The life which I now live in the Flesh I live by the Faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me Where such a Concernment is ascribed to Christ in the Soùls life that Faith is not at all Capable of He loved me and gave himself for me 3. It 's no loss evident that Christ by his Death and Sufferings has removed those insuperable Impediments which lay in the way of a sinners Justification Reconciliation with God Expiation of sin which Faith could not possibly Undertake and Atchieve 4. That what ever Parts Christ and Faith have in this Glorious work yet no more must be Ascribed to either than can consist with a Free and Gratuitous Iustification Rom. 3. 24. Being justified freely by his Grace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And 5. It 's evident that the Sacrifice Sufferings c. of Christ and that Reconciliation and Atonement procured by them do not in the least Enterfere with Justification by Free-Grace for Christ himself is Free-gift and that God would admit a Mediator to Interpose on our behalf that he would accept a Propitiation for us is all due to Free-Grace and therefore Free-Grace and Jesus Christ are joyned together Rom. 3. 24. Being justified freely by his Grace through the Redemption that is in Iesus Christ. 6. It is also as evident that to ascribe Justification to Faith as it is our Work or Act will take off just so much from the freedom of Grace as is ascribed to it as a work in us or done by us and therefore Faith must needs Justifie us by vertue of that respect that it carries towards a Redeemer and to assign it any other Interest is to Entrench upon that free Justification which the Gospel does so abundantly Preach Now what Title to give to Faith as it Justifies whether that of an Instrument or a Condition I dispute not let the proper Concerns of Faith and Christ be secured and their distinct Actings kept Inviolable and Sacred and if any can find more apposite and significant Terms than Protestants have used I shall be very well content But now our Author will favour us with a Reason why Iustification by Faith as it is our own Act may consist with Iustification by Free-Grace Modest men says he who dream not of Meriting by every thing they do would have thought that Free-Grace and Faith might have been easily reconciled though 〈◊〉 had justified as our own Act since the Reward and Recompence does so infinitely exceed the Work that there can be no suspition of Merit and where there is no Merit the reward is of Grace and not of Debt what ever the Condition of the Promise be But 1. Gods Free-Grace will not be beholden to nor stand to the Courtesie of Mans Modesty and besides all men are not so Modest as our Author is and if they were it would be hard Trusting them Man is indeed a very Proud and Haughty Creature till Free Grace tames him loth to stoop to those Methods of Gods Wisdom for the abasing the Creature that Grace may be magnified in his Mercies And I see plainly that God has Contrived the way of shewing favour to a lost Sinner in such Wisdom that every Mouth shall be stopped that Boasting shall be excluded and that no Flesh shall glory in his presence 1 Cor. 1. 29. 2. It 's not what men will do out of their sweet Natures that comes here into Consideration but what they may do God has taken a Course they shall not cannot have cause to Glory but if the sinner be justified by his own Act as 't is his he has whereof to boast Rom. 4. 2. If Abraham were justified by Works he hath whereof to boast though it may be some Virtuoso's would be so Modest and Civil as not to lay it in the Dish of Free-Grace 3. It 's precariously supposed that Grace in the justification of a sinner is only opposed to Merit The Scripture has opposed it to Works and set them as Inconsistent in the dealings out of Mercy from God to men whether there be such a proportion between the Work and the Reward or no Rom. 11. 6. And if by Grace then it 's no more of Works otherwise Grace is no more Grace 4. They may be very Immodest men and yet want the Confidence to dream of Merit by every thing they do and yet there are those that dream to this day of Meriting Heaven by that for which they a thousand times better merit a Halter Protestant Divines in the explicating the Concerns of Faith in our Justification that they might Accommodate their Discourses to the Capacity of them with whom they deal have found out certain Similitudes which do well express their own Intentions when they say Faith justifies us not as our own Act but by vertue of its Relation to Christ who is our Righteousness Thus we say the Ring stanches Blood and yet we intend no more than that the Haematites set in it has that Vertue That our Hand relieves us and yet perhaps it contributes no more towards it than that it receives the Charity of another That a Bucket quenches our Thirst yet all it does is to bring us the Water from the Fountain which quenches it And many others they have Invented the best they could find none so mean but is above Contempt yet none so excellent to be above Malice The use they make of them is as I said to cloath their Conceptions and give some Light into the Thing but by no means to prove the Truth when it is drawn into Controversie But from hence our Author is taking another Ramble and going to run his old Wild-Goose Chase of Prophaneness and Scurrility the easiest way of Confutation certainly that ever was Invented But let his own Folly chastise him or if not delight him and in the mean time excuse me from bearing him Company 2. Another Instance and but another he will give us How Men argue from their preconceived Notions and that is
Infallible Spirit laid claim to an Eternal Reward therefore to that Reward they might justly lay claim Psal. 73. 24. Thou shalt guide me with thy Counsel here below in my Passage and Pilgrimage and afterwards when I have run my Race and finisht my Course receive me to Glory The Epilogue to the whole is this The Righteousness of Christ is our Righteousness when we speak of the Foundation of the Covenant by which we are accepted but if we speak of the Termes of the Covenant then we must have a Righteousness of our own The Righteousness of Christ will not serve the turn Christs Righteousness and our own are both necessary to Salvation The first as the Foundation of the Covenant the other as the Condition of it Two things are here asserted First that Christs Righteousness is the Foundation of the Covenant Secondly that our Righteousness is the Condition of the Covenant A brief Examination of which things shall ease the Reader of any further attendance upon these Discourses 1. The Righteousness of Christ is the Foundation of the Covenant of Grace Let us hear his Proofs not a word Peracta est haec Fabula Spectatores valete plaudite We have heard of Procuring Meriting Founding a Covenant but not a syllable of Evidence Methinks I see the Reader filled with shame and wonder wonder that he who could so pleasantly scoff at the Scripture Expressions of building upon Christ as on a Foundation p. 105. and so merrily inveigh against Dr. Owen for asserting Christ to be the only Foundation of our Communion with God should now so zealously talk for Christs being the Foundation of the Covenant and shame that after such expectations of Proof he should find himself bilk'd in the stock That the Reader may not wholly therefore lose his pains I shall entertain him with my own apprehensions in this matter The Covenant of Grace may be considered either in iâ—…'s Constitution or Execution The Constitution of the Covenant is Gods firm and unchangeable purpose of saving his Elect to the praise of his glorious Grace For the word Covenant which in the English Notion has seduced our Understandings in the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by which the Spirit of God expresses those things to us signifie a disposition appointment or ordering of Matters whether there be restipulation or no Thus the fixed purpose the determinate Counsel of God in Scripture is called a Covenant though the things about which that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Counsel of God is conversant be not capable of re-promising any thing and have onely an Obediental Capacity in them answering the absolute extraordinary Power of God Thus Ier. 33. 20. If you can break my Covenant of the day and my Covenant of the night that there should not be day and night in their Season ver 25. Thus saith the Lord If my Covenant be not with day and night and if I have not appointed the Ordinances of Heaven where Gods fixed Law concerning the Succession of Day and Night to the period of all time is called his Covenant and which is still more to our purpose by the stability of this grand Law of Nature he is pleased to instruct us in the fixedness of his better Covenant that of Grace ver 21. Then may also my Covenant be broken with David my Servant ver 26. Then will I cast away the Seed of Jacob and David my Servant This purpose of God this disposition of Grace is immutable Rom. 9. 11. That the purpose of God according to Election might stand The Execution of this fixed Constitution follows which is Gods wise and gracious managing of all things for the accomplishment of that glorious design which he had in the prospect of his Eternal Counsel which he steddily and regularly pursues through all the vicissitudes that his mutable Creature was obnoxious to whilst man stood God pursued his Counsel in giving him a Holy Law to guide him Seconded and back'd with promises and threatnings when Man with drew from God yet God could not deny himself but devolves this great Affair into the hand of a Mediator who with equal readiness and satisfaction in that Seed that should be given him as the purchase of his undertaking addresses himself to this glorious work of Recovering them back again to God and when the fulness of time was come took upon him our Nature partook of our Flesh and Blood because the Children whom God had committed to him were partakers of it This Redeeming Mediator undertakes with God as a Righteous Iudge that he may not lose the glory of any of his Attributes and unto God as a Father that he shall not lose any of the Children that he had given him and therefore he becomes a Priest a Sacrifice a price of Ransom a Curse to satisfie the Judge and his Law and a Prophet and King to recover us Actually in our state to God Thus is he the onely Foundation 1 Cor. 3. 12. The Foundation not of the Constitution but of the Execution of the Covenant 1. On Gods part whatever grace and mercy was in his eternal purpose that is given out to us by Jesus Christ The Promises are made by free-grace as their Reason but made good by Jesus Christ as the means of procuring the promised Mercy which had been forfeited for all the promises of God in him are yea and Amen 2 Cor. 1. 20. He accepts us in the beloved Eph. 1. 6. Forgives us through him ver 7. Iustifies us by Christ Rom. 3. 24. Sanctifies and saves us by Christ Tit. 3. 4 5 6. And 2. On our part through him we approach to God John 14. 6. Heb. 10. 19 20. By him we believe in God 1 Pet. 1. 21. He is our hope of Glory Col. 1. 27. He is the ground of our Faith the Foundation upon which our Souls are laid 1 Pet. 2. 5. To whom coming as to a living stone we also as lively stones are built up a Spiritual house Thus is he the Foundation of conveying all the blessings of the Covenant to us Eph. 1. God blesseth us with all Spiritual blessings in Christ but that Christ is the Foundation of the Covenant it self that I crave leave to deny and to render the Reasons of my denial 1. Sect. Christ cannot be the Foundation of the Covenant because Christ himself is promised in the Covenant as the great Comprehensive Blessing of the Covenant Isa. 49. 8 9. I will give thee for a Covenant that thou maist say to the Prisoners go forth to them that are in darkness shew your selves Whence it 's evident first that the free-love of the Father is the Reason of his giving his Son to be our Deliverer Secondly that Christ is the great undertaker to Execute that Counsel of God in our actual Deliverance Luke 1. 68. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel who hath Visited and Redeemed his People and hath raised up a Horn of
mere tenderness of Conscience lest you should do him an Injury Our acquaintance with Christs Person teaches us no new Doctrine but only acquaints us with the Reason of the Old ones We learn from the Gospel that God pardons Iniquity Transgression and Sin and from the same Gospel we understand what Influence the Personal Sufferings of Christ have upon our forgiveness with God We learn from the Scriptures That God heareth the Prayers of his People offer'd in the Name of Christ And from the same Gospel we learn what the Intercession of Christ at the right Hand of the Father does contribute to the answer of our prayers The Person of Christ reveals no other much less greater and deeper Mysteries than are revealed in the Gospel only that upon the account of Christs Person his Offices his Undertaking we have a satisfactory account how those things which the Gospel reveals should be Possible and Feasible Thus Rom. 3. 26. we find that God is the Iustifier of him that believes And Faith that Resolves all its acts into the Veracity and Authority of the Revealer is ready to assent to and acquiesce in that Revelation But suppose God will gratifie the Inquisitiveness of our Spirits and clear up Matters to the satisfaction of our Trembling because guilty Souls the Gospel reveals all this to be in Christ He is set forâ—…h to be a Propitiation through Faith in his Blood Rom. 3. 25. In him is the Righteousness of God declared Upon His account God appears to be Iust even then when He is the most Gracious free and soveraign Iustifier of a Sinner If then at any time our Faith shall stagger how the Blood of Christ could be a Propitiation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Pacification with God for us we are presently Relieved from the Consideration of that Person whose Blood it was viz. The Blood of Him that is God Acts 20. 28. and therefore of infinite Value But because this will hardly pass when we tender it in Payment we have one to be our Voucher whose Word will go further than the Doctors Bond and it is our Authors own dear self Pag. 19. This assures us of the Infinite value of Christs Sacrifice God cannot but be well pleased when his Son undertakes to be a Ransome The clear and full account therefore of the deep Mysteries and great Difficulties in our Religion are to be Salved from a due Consideration of the Person Natures Offices Undertaking Active and Passive Obedience of Christ but the Revelations of all these things are Wholly Only and Entirely due to the Gospel There is one thing which I shall touch upon by the way That for any Doctrine or Proposition which his Adversaries do Abett he exacts Rigorously and they are bound to produce express Revelations Scripture to a Letter a Tittle but for any of his own phancies A feeble Conjecture some far-fetcht Consequence shall serve the turn well enough Such Laws did his Master Volkelius Lib. 3. de ver â Relig. Cap. 11. p. 62 once Impose upon the world That whosoever should bring a Text to prove that the Church of Old had the Promises of Eternal Life must bring one that did assert it Apertis Luculentissimisque verbis In plain express Terms Ay no doubt it must be written with a Sun-beam that will enlighten their minds who have no mind to see but if it be drawn with a Charcoal it will do when it s pressed to serve their Hypothesis Now though I much Question whether we be Obliged to abide by these new Laws of Disputation yet thus much is out of Question that our Blessed Saviour thought he quoted Scripture when he only drew an Inference from it Iohn 7. 38. He that believeth on me as the Scripture hath said out of his Belly shall flow Rivers of Living Waters But 3. As I am dissatisfied with our Authors Inference from the Doctors words so I am much more with the Reason that he assigns to make good his Inference His Inference is That the Doctor from Christs Person learns greater deeper Mysteries than Christ hath Revealed in his Gospel The Proof is this For so he adds soon after That these properties of God his pardoning Mercy Christ hath revealed in his Doctrin in that revelation he hath made of God and his Will The Sinews and Nerves of which Argument lie visible The Doctor asserts That these properties of God are revealed in the Gospel Ergo It 's plain that He asserts they are not revealed in the Gospel That is in broad English he denies because he affirms Or he says the Snow is Black because he proves as well as he can that it 's White Let none ever hereafter despair of the greatest Impossibilities this is one of the most hopeful Essays towards the Squaring of the Circle the Doubling of the Cube and setting on Foot a perpetual Motion And what cannot that Wit be able to do that can prove the Doctor affirms these Mysteries are not because he says they are in the Gospel I confess when first I read this Passage in our Author I examin'd the Doctors words with all possible care nay I wrested them almost in pieces and wrackt them most cruelly to try if with my weak strength I could extort any such conclusion from them and when I had tired my self was forced to sit down by this Determination that either our Author or all his Readers are certainly Frighted out of their Wits But yet there 's something follows in the Doctors that will yield matter of Cavil But the Life of this Knowledge lies in an acquaintance with Ghrists Person wherein the express Image and Beams of this Glory of his Father doth shine forth That is as our Author pretends to Gloss it from the Doctor These things are clearly eminently and savingly only to be discovered in Jesus Christ. I was apt to think at first sight that he might have some dreadful Pick at those words In his Person the express Image and Beams of this Glory of his Father shine forth But I soon Cured my self of that Suspition by remembring that pag. 32. Our Author himself was pretty well contented Christ should be so called upon the account of his Divine Nature although to please all Parties he had found out a Temper that he should be so called in respect of his Doctrines and Revelations And therefore without more ado I was satisfied that the Grudge lay against those other words The Life of this Knowledge lies in an acquaintance with Christs Person Now if I might presume so far upon my Acquaintance with the Doctors meaning as I think any one may it 's no more but this That whereas the Scripture every where reveals to us that God is a God pardoning Iniquity Transgression and Sin Exod. 34. 6. Yet the Matter is Clog'd with considerable Difficulties and attended with great Objections for the same Text assures us that He will by no means clear the Guilty Both the parts of this
he will Confound us all with First by shewing what Additions This Dr. O. and some others make to the Gospel And then Secondly what an unsafe way of Arguing they use And 1 He will shew us What Additions these men make to the Gospel from an Acquaintance with Christs Person I must needs say I was extremely startled to hear a Charge of Additions to the Gospel brought in against any Man I presently expected either unwritten Traditions or immediate Revelations or I know not what African Monster should stare me in the face And I know nothing at which my Nature more recoyls nothing more abhorring to my Temper than such sawcy Additions and the rather because I presently remembred that dreadfull Curse Rev. 22. 18. If any one shall adde unto these things God shall adde to him all the Plagues that are written in this Book If Men will be Adding God will be Adding if Men will adde their whimsical Inventions God will adde his Righteous Iudgements And for that Reason I never liked either the Addition of Officers to those Christ has commanded to govern his Church nor the Addition of Canons to those by which he has appointed his Church to be governed I alwayes thought it safest to leave the Doctrine Worship and Government of Christ as we found them we may be chidden for adding or substracting but never for being no wiser than the Gospel and when we have done our Best and chopt and changed we shall hardly ever make better than those Christ made for us If therefore our Author can but prove his Declaration as he has layd it I am his absolute Creature his prepared Man and shall be sure to find for him against the Doctor and a thousand more Innovators But at last I perceive all this is but the old stratagem of his Neighbours of Billings-gate where the crafty Slut calls her Opponent Whore first lest she should be prevented with as bad language and better Proof But there are no less than Three Additions that this one single Doctor has made to the Gospel In which as he sayes is summ'd up all true Wisdom and Knowledge and not any one of them to any purpose to be obtained or is manifested but only in and by the Lord Christ Now though our Author had almost pored his eyes out with seeking for these things in the Gospel to no purpose yet still he was so perspicacious as to espy one sorry single little word by which the Doctor had fallaciously added to include the Revelations made by the Gospel Whether that little word was added fallaciously or no I shall not at present determine but this I will say that it was as mischievously and enviously added as ever any word of that Bigness was added in the world of set purpose no doubt and propense Malice to spight our Authors design and most inhumanely and barbarously to cross all his Projects For it 's plain that the Particle in referres to obtaining and this other Particle by to Manifesting which by resolving the Doctors words into their distinct Propositions is more than evident 1. The things mentioned are not to be Obtained but In Christ. And 2. The things mentioned are not Manifested but By Christ. Obtained in him that is Through his Merit Mediation Intercession or Procurement And Manifested by him that is By his Preaching and the Preachings and Writings of his Evangelists and Apostles Now had but the Doctor left out that one word by as a good Natur'd man would have done our Author would have had a fair Ear of advantage to lay hold on for reviling him as excluding the Revelations of the Gospel and therefore I must say it again it was not so Civilly done of the Doctor nor so like a Gentleman as might have been expected from him to insert that one word to the apparent prejudice hazard if not utter disherison of our Author his Cause Learning Rhetorick and Reputation But yet he thinks it was fallaciously Added because his first undertaking was to shew how impossible it is to understand these things savingly and clearly notwithstanding all those Revelations God hath made of himself and his Will by Moses and the Prophets and by Christ himself without an Acquaintance with Christs Person He that cheats me once proves himself a Knave but if he over-reaches me a second time he proves me a Fool Remembring therefore how Matters stood between our Author and my self and that I was under bond never to trust him more I took down the Doctors Book and with the best Eyes and Spectacles I had viewed the place and what I find there the Reader shall have as cheap as I had it P. 87. Com. All true wisdom is laid up in and onely to be obtained from and by the Lord Iesus Christ. So thought I hitherto we are safe and the Person of Christ and his Gospel are very good Friends Again p. 88. All that wisdom which God layeth out for the discovery and Manifestation of himself is in Christ crucified held out in him by him and onely to be obtained from him Very good there we have by again and Gospel Revelations are not shut out of dores Yet again p. 90. There are some Properties of God as pardoning Mercy the least glympse whereof is not to be obtaineâ—… out of the Lord Iesus Christ but onely In him and By him Hitherto we are alive and alive's like Once more p. 98. The Riches of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God are onely hid in and revealed by Christ And to give our Author his full Dose p. 88. God is not known upon any other Account to Salvation but onely the Revelation of the Son And now instead of disparaging the Doctor I doubt we shall erre on the other hand and too much magnifie him as having written by Revelation who twenty years before could foresee the Objections that would be levell'd against his Writings Well sayes our Author let that pass Oh the Charity of the Man that will not ruine his Enemy all at once and indeed it 's not good Husbandry to eat up a Man at one Meal Polyphemus himself would reserve Ulysses for a Breakfast when he supped so liberally over night with picking the Bones of his Mates and yet there was as much Discretion in the Case as Frugality not to shew his Teeth when he could not Bite or however not to fasten them where it might break his Fangs But it will be seasonable to examine the particular Additions 1 The first is concerning the knowledge of God his Nature and Properties And here the Doctor has made a great Addition viz. that The Love of God to sinners could never have entred into the heart of Man but by Christ p. 90. Now our Author promises us that he will not examine particularly every thing the Doctor sayes Of which we have had good proof all along for 't is not his Genius to trouble himself with any more than what may conveniently serve his purpose but
Brimstone upon their heads and it was goodness that he did it not in stead of those fruitfull seasons he might have sent Famine and Cleanness of Teeth and there was much Goodness in that yet whether they could from hence bless themselves with a well-grounded Hope that he would pardon their Iniquities I much question And 2. The Servant in the Parable Math. 18. 26. could understand the difference between forbearance and acquittance Have patience with me and I will pay thee all Time and Day were considerable Favours in his Judgement though his Master did not throw him in the Bond. 3. I am sure God himself understood the difference between a Reprieve and a Pardon between that Goodness which he shews in forbearing and that which he manifests in forgiving Rom. 9. 22. He endured with much long-suffering the Vessels of Wrath fitted to destruction A presumptuous Conclusion therefore had it been from Gods general Goodness and indulgent Patience to argue his Forgiveness and pardoning-Grace 4. Adam in the state of Integrity understood very well God to be good he could not look besides a Demonstration of it and yet no Notion of Gods Pardoning Grace was concreated with him whereof he could have no use in his worship of and walking with God A threatning against sin he had but not the least intimation that God would pardon it till it was revealed upon another Account We are not here enquiring what presumptuous and vain hopes secure sinners might form to themselves of Indempnity nor how their hearts might be fully set in them to do evil because judgement against an evil work was not speedily executed nor what flattering thoughts might tickle their breasts that God was such a one as themselves because he kept silence at their proceedings and spoke not his Fury in Thunder and Lightning nor do we enquire what Natural earnest desires they might express to obtain the Favour of God what projects plotts and contrivances they invented to relieve their guilty Consciences wounded with apprehensions of wrath how they skin'd over their Sores with some Services and lickt themselves whole with their Sacrifices and Oblations But the Enquiry is this What solid Ground they had from Gods common and general Goodness his Governing the World his Patience Forbearance and long-sufferance with his Bounty to Sinners to conclude from thence that he was a Sin-pardoning God When I seriously consider into what inextricable Labyrinths and Mazes those poor Heathens did run themselves how they were bewildred in their own Inventions how they tyred themselves off their Leggs in their own wayes and spent themselves to their skins with Sacrifices if by any means it might be possible to purchase the good will of a Deity I presently conclude they had no settled fixed Apprehension of any such thing in God For though they might hear a rumour that there were a people in the World towards whom God shew'd himself propitious and favourable and that the way of the peoples part to reconcile this God to them was by killing of Beasts and offering up them to him in Sacrifice and might therefore hence fall upon this practice of Sacrifices yet not understanding the true use of them what reference they had to a promised Mediator they must needs fluctuate and toss up and down in uncertainties about so weighty a Concern Hence was it that least they should not hit upon the True God in that Crowd and Throng of Deities wherewith they had overstockt the Commons they set up an Altar To the unknown God and least they should miss the right Sacrifice and most acceptable Offering sometimes they Sacrificed the worst sometimes the best of Men and sometimes to please their God the better they would let him choose by Lot which he would have They tryed Conclusions with almost all sorts of Creatures and all to answer the demands of an importunate Conscience which as Gods Officer was alwayes haling and dragging them before the Barr of Gods Justice to answer for their Delinquencies Either then they had no Notices of Sin-pardoning Mercy or what they had came not in from the Works of Creation and Providence but were some scattered Beams and broken Splinters of Traditional Knowledge derived Originally to them from the People of God who themselves had received it by pure Revelation in and through a Redeemer All this while our Author sits fretting himself like Gumm'd-Taffata that when he has been for two whole pages together preparing his Reader to swallow his Pills yet we should cunningly pass it over with a dry Foot and never bestow the least Consideration of it That he may not therefore think himself neglected we shall give him a full and a fair hearing The Light of Nature says he and the Works of Creation and Providence and those manifold Revelations God hath made of himself to the World especially that last and most perfect Revelation by Iesus Christ assure us that God is infinite in all his Perfections They do so let him make his best of that And therefore that he is Powerfull and can doe whatever he pleases Very good goe on So Wife that he knows how to order every thing for the best Better and better and yet p. 30. he tells us Long and sad Experience proved that all the Means he used to reform the World proved ineffectual So Good that he designs and desires the Happiness of all his Creatures according to the Capacity of their Natures Stick a Pin there So Holy that he hath a Natural Love to all good Men And so Gracious too that he made them Good else they never had been so but he hates all Sin and Wickedness It 's well Gods Hatred of Sin is as Natural to him as his Love of Good Men. And will as certainly punish all Obstinate and Incorrigible Sinners but yet that he is patient and long-suffering towards the worst of Men and uses various Methods to reclaim them and is as ready to pardon them when they return to their Duty as a kind Father is to receive an humble and penitent Prodigal Where there are some things that wound our Authors Cause to the Heart and nothing prejudicial to the Truth which he opposes For 1. He grants that Gods Love to good Men and his Hatred of Sin are both equally Natural and therefore I suppose Essential to him 2. That Gods punishing obstinate Sinners is equally Natural to him with his rewarding Good men But 3. The Fallacy of all is that lapsed Man stands related to God as a Father whereas he should have proved and not supposed that the Light of Nature of Scripture discovers any other Relation of a Revolted Sinner unto God than that of a Creature to his Creator and a Subject to his Governour before he be taken into that special Relation of a Son to a Father by Adoption in Christ. 4. A Supposition that God is ready to pardon Sinners when they return to their Duty is ambiguous vain and as he takes it false
Ambiguous for who can prophesie whether he means an entire perfect and universal return to Duty according to the first Covenant or no And Vain for admitting that God is ready to pardon Sinners upon their Return Man is but where he was till he be enabled by Grace to return And as False as Vain and Ambiguous for we find no Revelation that God will pardon past sins upon our Return for the future without reference to that Compensation which he has provided for his wronged Governing Iustice by Jesus Christ. 5. There 's a great Cheat put upon us in those words The Light of Nature the works of Creation and Providence those manifold Revelations God hath made of himself especially that last and most perfect Revelation by Iesus Christ assure us c. If he supposes that any one of these singly considered will assure us of all that followes especially that God is thus ready to pardon Sinners i'ts the very thing in Question and ought to have been strongly proved and not weakly supposed but if he take them joyntly including the Revelation made by and through Jesus Christ we grant it but then the misery on 't is this is the thing he should have fought against the Doctors own Assertion at which he has such an aking tooth That Gods pardoning Mercy could never have entred into the Heart of Man but by Iesus Christ but now see how neatly he would shuffle off the business These Properties of God are plainly revealed in the Scripture without any further acquaintance with the Person of Christ. But this will not doe his work For 1. What 's now become of the Light of Nature if after all we must be beholden to the Light of Scripture But thus the poor Gentiles after all his zealous stickle in their Cause are left in the lurch to shift for themselves as well as they can 2. That these Properties of God are plainly revealed in the Scripture is very true but then the plainness of their Revelation lyes in this that God will pardon Sinners upon the Account of a Mediator Perhaps he would put a trick upon us by that word Further and therefore to content him let him understand that we own all these Properties of God to be plainly revealed in Scripture without any further Acquaintance with Christs Person than what is therein Revealed But our Author joggs on still Had Christ never appeared in the World yet we had Reason to believe that God is thus wise and good viz. to pardon Sinners and holy and mercifull not onely because the Works of Nature and Providence but the Word of God assures us he is so but let me wedge in a word for all his Haste 1. The Word of God assures us not he is so without reference to a Mediator And if Christ had never appeared in the World first or last perhaps we had had no Word of God and if we had there would not have been one syllable in that Word of the Pardon of Sin but of the Wrath and just Vengeance of God due to it 2. Jesus Christ was once to appear in the World to reconcile God and Man and as without Revelation we had never known so without his Interposition we had never enjoy'd the Pardon of Sin The truth is Christ was a Teacher and a Prophet to reveal the Nature and Will of God before his Appearance in the flesh The Spirit of Christ signified before-hand the Sufferings of Christ and the Glory that should follow 1 Pet. 1. 11. and those Sufferings had a Virtue and Efficacy to procure the Pardon of Sin long before they were actually undergone for in Gods Acceptation he was a Lamb slain from the Foundation of the World yet still our Authors Larum is not run down The appearance of Christ did not first discover the Nature of God to us No sure God had revealed himself to be such a God long before yet still upon the Account of that Propitiation and Atonement which in infinite Wisdom and Grace he had provided Acts 10. 43 To him give all the Prophets witness that through his Name whosoever believeth on him shall receive Remission of sins It 's much to a little that our Author will flam off all this with a fine Tale of a Tub that it 's not the Person of Christ but a Doctrine a Gospel a Church an Office or something or nothing provided it be not Christ himself that is here intended but the Apostle has hedged out that Evasion v. 39. It 's he that was slain and hang'd on a Tree he that was raised again the third day and v. 42. he that is ordained of God to judge the quick and the dead And yet perhaps our Author with one Cast of his Office can make it out how a Doctrine a Church may be stain and hanged on a Tree too and if they be no better than some that have troubled the world as no great matter if they were however I shall not concern my self in its Confutation For ought then that I can see the Doctor may keep his Principles to himself and his Confidence too that Gods pardoning Grace could never have enter'd into the heart of man but by Christ that is that none could have had any security whatever God is in his own Nature that ever God would or could have pardoned Sinners without some Provision made for the vindicating the Honour of his Justice as Ruler of the World by a Mediator which onely could be the Lord Jesus Christ. And to shut up this matter we will stand to the Determination of the Church of England Art 7. The Old Testament is not contrary to the New for both in the Old and the New Testament everlasting Life is offer'd to Mankind by Christ who is the onely Mediator between God and Man wherefore they are not to be heard which feign that the Old Fathers did look onely for transitory Promises Again Art 18. They are also to be held Accursed that presume to say that every man shall be saved by the Law or Sect that he professeth provided he be diligent to frame his Life according to the Light and Law of Nature for Holy Scripture doth set out unto us onely the Name of Jesus whereby men must be saved But this Anathema is become to our young Fry Brutum Fulmen Now after all this Lirry of our Authors he finds it seems that he and his Antagonists have not discoursed ad idem The Question has been about the Sun in the Firmament and the Answer was concerning the Staffe that stood in the Chimney-corner For says he considering what these men make of Gods Love pardoning Mercy Iustice Patience c. these Properties could never have been discover'd but by a too familiar Acquaintance with Christ's Person for Nature and Revelation say Nothing of them But why then did he not fix the true Notions of these things in the first place and never torment his Reader with a wild rambling impertinent Story
Nature and the Rules that he shall prescribe to him and therefore 3. Agreeable to his holy Nature and holy Law it shall not be with the Righteous after the way of the Wicked nor with the Wicked after the way of the Righteous for the Iudge of the whole Earth must do right This God has revealed and we believe and as much more as shall be made known to us to be of his Revelation But that God is so indifferent about Sin as these men would perswade us that those Scoffers Zeph. 1. 12. The Lord will not doe good neither will he doe evil did charge God wisely we do not believe but that he insists upon the Honour of his Attributes the Credit of his Laws the Vindication of his Authority which Ends if they may be otherwise attained than by Christ and his Sacrifice yet our Author has not yet discover'd to us the Way and however he has confessed that Christ is the best and most effectual Means of attaining them There are a few drops which follow this Storm yet behind The Doctor had said p. 96 97. That God does sometimes bear with Sinners and forbear them long and yet there may be no special design of Mercy in it neither But now evidently and directly the End of the Patience and Forbearance of God which is exercised in Christ and discovered in him to us is the saving and bringing unto God those towards whom he is pleased to exercise them God is now taking a Course in his infinite Wisdom and Goodness that we may not be destroyed notwithstanding our sins which a little before p. 97. sect 15. he explains to be by leading us to Repentance Now I knew it would be no difficult task to a willing Mind to put an ugly Vizor upon the fairest Face which thus he has done As before the least Sin could not escape without a just Punishment c. so now the Iustice of God being satisfied by the Death of Christ the greatest Sins can do us no harm but we shall be saved notwithstanding our sins But I doubt our Author will be miserably disappointed in his Markets and lose Money by his dirty Ware 1. The least Sin cannot escape without Punishment Very true we own it The wages of Sin is Death the Threatning is level'd at Sin as Sin and therefore against all sin A quatenus ad Omne valet Consequentia and therefore go scold with the Apostle that which will bring him off will bring off the Doctor 2. The Justice of God is Natural and Essential to him Well let him mend himself how he can we are of the same mind still and are like to be so 3. He cannot forgive sin without punishing it Goe on somewhere or other the Punishment must lye which amounts to no more but this that God cannot forgive sin but in such a way as may secure his Glory 4. The Iustice of God is satisfied by the Death of Christ It is so but that Satisfaction is applyed to particular persons in that way that God has appointed that no other of his Attributes may be damnified 5. Now the greatest sins can doe us no hurt Nay there our Author is quite out For Unbelief Impenitency Unregeneracy obstruct the Sinners having any share in the Satisfaction of Christ or the Benefits procured by it But 6. The Doctor had said We shall be saved notwithstanding our sins He does say we shall not be destroyed and let that amount if he pleases to We shall be saved That is 1. Former Sins repented of shall not be charged upon the Sinner to Condemnation 2. Such sins as are consistent with the state of Grace the Power and Predominancy of Godliness shall not eventually ruine the repenting Sinner and for those that are inconsistent with that state he that undertook to satisfie for them will also take care they shall not commit them that he may not lose the Fruit of his Death and Sufferings and therefore he has promised that he will put his Fear into their hearts that they shall never depart from him And now I think our Author has either lost Money by his Discourse or got it over the Shoulders All his hopes were to perswade us That the Doctor design'd to assert that the satisfaction of Christ would save sinners notwithstanding their sins lived in continued in delighted in and dyed in in sensu composito but let an ordinary Understanding with ordinary diligence read over that Paragraph and he shall find all conspiring with that great Truth Without Holiness no man shall see God And thus he has talk'd his pleasure about Mercy and Iustice. As to Gods Wisdom which most gloriously appears in this design of Saving sinners by Christ the Doctor had said Com. 98. That Gods Wisdom in managing things for his own Glory is clearly discovered in Christ And if Wisdom display it self in the works of Creation and Providence and in his holy Law yet still Wisdom is most eminently revealed in a Mediator and he was the more emboldened thus to speak because he had encouragement from the Apostle 1 Cor. 1. 24. We preach Christ crucified to the Iews a stumbling-block and to the Greeks foolishness but to them who are saved both Iews and Greeks the Power of God and the Wisdom of God And here I confess our Author had just Cause of Complaint That the Apostle should so unluckily place this Wisdom in a crucifyed Christ to the utter undoing that laudable Invention of Christ for an Office a Church a Doctrine and this might well vex every vein of his heart But still the Doctor proceeds and for ought I can see minds our Author no more than you would be concern'd about that peevish thing that infests your skins as you walk the streets with impotent Noyse shewing That this Wisdom of God is such a Mystery such hidden Wisdom such manyfold variegated curiously wrought Wisdom that the Angels desire to pry into it and the Wisdom thereof lyes much in this That by Christ things are recovered into such a state after the Confusion wherein they were involved by the Curse as shall be exceedingly to the advantage of Gods glory P. 98 99. This indeed was pungent and galled that tender part which cannot endure to hear too much Good spoken at once of Christs Person For says he if Justice be so Natural to God that Nothing could satisfie him but the Death of his own Son this may discover his Justice but not his Wisdom Why so Oh the Reason is plain Wisdom consists in the choyce of the best and fittest Means to attain an End where there are more wayes than one of doing it but it requires no great wisdom where there is but one possible Way Where I am stumbled at our Authors Philosophy as much as at his Divinity For 1. Saving to our Author his good Learning Wisdom lyes also in Managing fit Means in such a Way as may reach their Ends effectually that there be no disappointment in
in determining the Will And if by irresistable Grace no more be meant than a powerfull and effectual production of the principle of Grace in the Soul it 's no more than what God has promised in the New Covenant Ezek. 36. 26. A new heart also will I give them and I will take away the heart of Stone out of their flesh and I will give them an heart of Flesh And he that removes the onely resisting Principle in the Soul the Heart of Stone may be said well enough to act irresistably in the working of Grace Nor can I see any danger in ascribing such a way of working to the Holy Spirit nor did the Apostle Eph. 1. 19 20. who believe according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him up from the dead where the Apostle is not afraid nor ashamed to ascribe the working of Faith to the same Power that raised up Christ from the dead and he that had a mind to make a fluster with Greek like our Author could take a fair Opportunity to tell him what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doe signifie and then to rub him up with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And whether these denote not the Creatures Impotency and Gods Efficacious Power let the Reader judge 3. Our Author is much mistaken if he thinks that the work of Gods Grace and Spirit in Conversion of a Soul to God may be compared to the moveing of a Machine Perhaps he had seen about Billingsgate the Maugeing of a Crane where a lusty Fellow with a Mastiffe-Dog in a Wheel will take you up an incredible weight otherwise unmanagable and he being taken with the Omnipotency of the Engine knew not how to bestow his pleasure better than upon the Operation of the Holy Spirit But Gods Spirit knows how to act effectually and yet not offer violence to any of the Faculties of the Soul He can lead the Creature powerfully and yet in a way agreeable to its Frame and Constitution He that has engaged Ioh. 6. 37. That all that the Father has given him shall come unto him knows well how to bring them in without committing a rape upon their own wills he can make them willing and yield by surrender and not need to take them by storm he can powerfully and yet gently and sweetly lead his Creature he makes no Assault and Battery upon it When then the Psalmist prayes and we with him Psal. 119. 36. That God would encline his heart to his Statutes there 's enough in his Prayer to imply his own disability and Gods Power and yet enough in the Souls Inclination to exclude all Force and Violence But still he presseth upon the Doctor who p. 106. had said There are Four things in sin that clearly shine forth in the Death of Christ 1. The Desert of it 2. Mans Impotency by reason of it 3 The Death of it 4. A New end put unto it Against the two former he has sufficiently Discovered his feeble Passion the third he waves and now against the fourth he Rises up with incredible Zeal and Fury For says the Doctor Sin in its own Nature tends merely to the Dishonour of God the Ruine of the Creature but now in the Lord Iesus Christ there is the Manifestation of another and more Glorious end viz. The praise of Gods glorious Grace in the pardon and forgiveness of it God having taken order in Christ that that thing which tended merely to his Dishonour should be managed to his Infinite Glory And here our Author has need of all his Machines and Engines that he may disorder things so as to serve his turn of them and therefore upon good advise no doubt reserved them all for this place 1. One Machine which he plies is that old Rotten Engine called Invidious Representation and this will do good Service still for want of a better That is says he lest Gods Iustice and Mercy should never be known to the World he appoints and Ordains sins to this end that is Decrees that Men shall sin that he may make some of them Vessels of Wrath and others the Vessels of his Mercy to the praise of his Grace in Christ. It 's a sad Drudgery to satisfie wilfully blind Malice For what more plain from the Doctors words than that he speaks not Hot or Cold of Gods Ordaining men to sin but of his putting a New end to sin upon supposition that it is already in the World Cannot God bring Good out of Evil but our Author must go Mad It 's a very Ruful cause that needs such Subsidies to maintain it Let any one Read the Doctor again pag. 112. Sin in its own Nature tends merely to Gods Dishonour In the Lord Iesus Christ there is the Manifestation of another end And as he said before pag. 106. There 's a New end put to it of Gods Ordaining and Appointing and Decreeing men to sin not a word not a syllable only he says that supposing sin to be already in the World carrying on its fatal Designs of Dishonouring God Damning Souls God has in Infinite Wisdom Curb'd and Restrained its Natural Tendency Over-rul'd its native malice against and thirst after the blood of souls and made it Comply with his own Glory So said Austin God is so Good that He would never suffer sin to be in the World if He were not also Omnipotent to bring Good out of the Evil. 2. Another Machine which our Author plies upon those words is That famous Engine of Archimedes of which he used to boast that Give him but a place out of the World where to fix his Engine and he would undertake to Unhinge the Earth from its Center The same Confidence has our Author in this Machine which indeed never failed him And no less truly than commonly called a Down-right falsehood Let the Reader mark it well he charges the Doctor for saying pag. 112. Com. That the glorious end whereunto sin is appointed and ordained is discovered in Christ for the Demonstration of Gods Vindictive Iustice in Measuring out to it a meet recompence of Reward Now remember the old Caveat Hic nervus est sapientiae nihil fidere Take the Book and read with all the Eyes you have and can borrow and there you shall find the clear contrary The Comminations and Threatnings of the Law do manifest one other end of sin even the Demonstration of Gods Vindictive Iustice in measuring out to it a meet recompence of Reward but here the Law stays with it all other Light and discovers no other use or end of it at all but in the Lord Iesus Christ there is the Manifestation of another and more Glorious end c. And now after all this sorrow we shall have a fine Scene of Mirth for our Divertisment Nature says he would teach us that so Infinitely glorious a Being as God is needs not sin and misery to
106. And was God ever denied the Liberty before t'other day to bring Good out of Evil 2. He lays it down as their Doctrine It pleased God that man should sin but when he hath sinned He is displeased with it This seems to be a piece of Wit designed to make the Devil Merry but all the Humour of it lies in the Ambiguity of one poor word It pleased God to permit sin and yet when man had sinned he was justly displeased with it Gods permission had no Influence upon mans Transgression But how would he have Insulted over that man that should openly Preach and Write That against the Holy Child Iesus whom God anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate and the People of Israel were gathered together for to do whatsoever Gods Hand and Gods Counsel determined before to be done and yet when it was done according to the Determination of his own Hand and Counsel he was extreamly displeased with it And yet I could tell him of one that has so said who Scorns his most scornful Censure It may please God that a thing may be done and take no pleasure in the thing done nor in the Instruments that did it It pleased him to suffer his own People to be afflicted by the Heathen and yet he was sore displeased with the Heathen that helped forward the Affliction Zech. 1. 15. It pleased the Father to bruise his Son and yet he was displeased with the Instruments that bruised him God can do the same thing Righteously which Men and Devils do unrighteously Judas delivered up Christ out of Covetousness the Iews out of Envie Pilate out of Fear or to pick a Thank from Caesar but God Delivered him for our Offences 3. He charges them with this Doctrine That nothing can withstand the Decrees of God We have scarce another Instance wherein he has Candidly represented their Judgment and was not able to throw some Dirt upon it 4. He proceeds to play the Lucian and Scoff at Gods Justice It 's impossible says he for God to forgive the least sin without a compleat and perfect Satisfaction Let him but grant that God cannot forgive the greatest sin without compleat and perfect Satisfaction and they will undertake to prove from thence that none is so small but needs a Satisfaction 5. He proceeds This falls hard upon those miserable Wretches whose ill fortune it was to be left out of the Roll of Election without any fault of theirs To be left out of the Roâ—…l of Election by Fortune is a piece of prophane Nonsence which at once discovers the depth of his Intellectuals and the height of his Boldness What more Desultory than that which Heathens call Fortune What more stable and fixed than that which the Word of God calls Election The Old Church of England would have Taught him to have Spoken otherwise of that Tremendous Mysterie Art 17â—… Election to Life is the everlasting purpose of God whereby before the Foundation of the World was laid He hath constantly Decreed by his Counsel secret to us to deliver from Curse and Damnation those whom He hath chosen in Christ out of Mankind and to bring them by Christ to everlasting Salvation c. Now though he believes little of all this yet he might remember he had Subscribed the whole and considered also t is the Doctrine of that Church whereof he is a Member and therefore might have Covered their Nakedness and at least Perfum'd them with a few good Cheap words against their Burial It were tedious to pursue the particulars I only say If this Scheme of Religion as it stands here upon Record be the Subject of his Scorn and Reproach I hope we may read it backwards and then 't will be his own Creed some few Slanders indeed which were inserted as a Haut goust to giue it the better Grace we may Omit but for the rest no doubt he will own it to be the Standard of his Belief God from the Beginning never Designed to Glorifie either his Iustice or Mercy and because there would have been Occasion abundantly Administred both to Punish and Pardon too though man had never sinned therefore he never concern'd himself how things would go And indeed it had been to no purpose for God to Decree any thing since if he had all his Decrees and Appointments had been easiâ—…y withstood And therefore man sinned whether God would or no and full sore against his Will for if he could have prevented it we may be sure he would but when man had sinned God was not much displeased with it for you must know that his Justice is so Facile and Easie an Attribute and if it be one at all it 's but a Secondary one that he can easily forgive the greatest sin without Satisfaction made to it This is very good News if it be true to all the World especially seeing there 's no such thing as the Roll of Election and by Consequence no preterition neither but all men stand upon even Ground and every one upon his own Legs which they may the better do because they have many ways left if need were to pacifie Gods anger in case he should happen to be a little displeased with sin viz. By their own Temporal sufferings Repentance and Obedience which though they answer not Gods Law yet being sincere it s well enough By this it appears that God is not Essentially Just and Righteous seeing He can Pardon the greatest sin and serve his own Glory without any regard to the Death of Christ or Inflicting upon sinners Eternal Sufferings But now this is but one part of the Glory of God that He can pardon sin without Propitiation made by Christ the other is that he can reward the sinner too without the Righteousness of Christ And therefore there 's more ado than needs about a pretended Difficulty how to Reconcile Gods Iustice and Mercy For neither is Iustice so severe as to require Satisfaction and the Merit of our own Obedience is so Considerable that we need not much be beholden to Mercy And to speak in a word the Demerit of sin is short of Infinite and therefore the Creature may Expiate its own sins by enduring Finite that is Temporary Torments whereas then men Talk that to Unite these two Extreams and reconcile such Contradictions was a work of Infinite Wisdome as well as Goodness they Talk Idly for as I said before whatever there was of Goodness in it there could be no great Wisdom and therefore it 's vainly said that to Effect it God should send his Son into the World to satisfie all Righteousness in his Life and to make a full satisfaction for sin by his Death for neither could his Blood be of Infinite value though for Fashion sake we call it the Blood of the Son of God nor Expiate an Infinite guilt or make satisfaction to Gods Justice if so be he had stood upon 't And therefore to Instruct you aright in these Matters sin
that he hath appointed an Atonement for us and given no less Person than his own Son for our Ransome The Reader cannot but observe that he is there giving us Another Scheme of Religion from an Acquaintance with Christs Person without Scripture and then when he comes to take the Matter in hand he can from the Person of Christ demonstrate Gods good Will his pardoning Mercy and what not when others indeed venture upon Conclusions without Scripture they give some uncertain conjectures get some feeble hints some dim appearances and smattering Iâ—…cklings of the Matter but to Us it speaks nothing less than Apodictical and great Demonstration 2. The Reader will observe how perfectly he Overthrows the very design he would exalt for undertaking to prove How unsafe it is to found Religion upon a Pretended acquaintance with Christs Person and assigning this for a Reason that this is to build Religion upon uncertain Conjectures which we acknowledge to be Cogent When he comes to wind up his bottomes he tells us Though we had seen Christ in the flesh we could never have ghess'd at the End and Design of it had not he Christ Acquainted us with it So that the short and long of this great Demonstration is this That it 's uncertain to found our Religion upon Christ's Person because we could have known nothing of Religion unless we had been Acquainted with him He will lift himself off this flatt by replying that he means nothing but Christs acquainting us in and from his Gospel and we rejoyn that that which will bring him off will bring off his Neighbours for who ever affirm'd any more 3. He has herein at unawares stabb'd his main Cause to the heart For if there be no necessary connexion between the Person of Christ his Death and Suffering and the Salvation of Mankind but that as he assures us the End and Design of Christ in dying must be known onely by Revelation then it will unavoidably follow that Christ dyed for some greater Ends than to give us an Example of Patience and Submission to the Will of God to Confirm what he Preach'd seeing we needed no Revelation to acquaint us that a holy man is to be imitated in all holy things living or dying and that he thought at least his Doctrine was true or else he would never have exposed and layd down his Life to justifie it Now it 's plain however our Author does now and then humour us with Propitiation Ransom Atonement Expiation these are all reducible by his Engine to Christs confirming what he preach'd Pag. 320. All that I can find in Scripture concerning the Influence that the Sacrifice of Christ's Death hath upon our Acceptation with God is that to this we owe the Covenant of Grace which is Nothing else in his sence but God's Promise of saving us if we obey his Laws 4. He is slipt into the very same guilt with which he loads though unjustly his Adversaries viz. The Dividing the Person and Gospel of Christ. He was of a good Mind once p. 3. if he could have kept him in 't That the Person of Christ is not at oddes with his Gospel and that Christ and his Religion were well agreed but he has quitted his Post and dogmatically asserts That whosoever would understand the Religion of our Saviour must learn it from his Doctrine and not from his Person And why not from his Person in or by his Doctrine It 's a harder matter than our Author is aware to hear a Sermon preach'd without a Preacher and almost as difficult to believe it without good warranty that the Preacher has good Authority for what he delivers All the Authority of the Scripture is resolved into the Authority of Christ and therefore it concerns us to fetch our Religion from Christ by his Word 5. I must needs observe to the Reader one piece of cleanly conveyance and Legerdemain which our Author is forced frequently at a standing pull to serve himself of to draw Dun out o' th' Mire and that is to shew you a fair round Tester and then fob you off with a Counter to shew you a Horse in the Premises and pass to an Asse in the Conclusion He has pasted and posted it up in the Title of this Section How unsafe it is to found Religion upon a Pretended acquaintance with Christs Person but when he addresses himself to prove his Thesis he falls a persecuting the old thing of Learning Religion from an Acquaintance with Christs Person He who has the famous Art of Arguing from the essential Differences of things can he find no accidental difference at least betwixt Principium essendi and Cognoscendi Betwixt the Foundation of our Religion and the Means of conveying the Knowledge thereof unto us A thing may be first in Knowledge which is last in Being there has been some such Distinction in former Ages There was a time when the old World learnt it's Religion from Angels as our Author thinks from Prophets from the Government of the World will he say that the Religion of those dayes was founded upon any thing short of God upon Angels Men Sun Moon Stars Say the same in our Case Jesus Christ has revealed what we are to know and believe of the Father Son and Spirit in his Word he has reveal'd it yet our Faith Hope Love Obedience is founded on and ultimately terminated in God alone by Christ He that believes a Promise obeyes a Precept does believe the veracity of Christ in that Promise and obey the Authority of Christ in that Precept That Credit we give to Letters Patents praemunited with the Royal Seal is resolved ultimately into the Kings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Obedience we give to a Law is founded upon the Authority of the Legislator We learn our Duty from a printed Act of Parliament from a Proclamation but that which is the formal Reason of our Duty is the Relation wherein we stand to our Prince So childish is our Author in his Reasonings he begins to make a Cauldron and tinckers up a sorry kettle Amphora coepit institui currente rotâ cur urceus exit He undertook to prove the unsafeness of the Foundation of our Religion but he 's glad to come down a button-hole lower and prove onely the danger of learning of our Religion from a pretended acquaintance with Christs Person without Scripture-Revelation 6. He tells us there is not a Natural and Necessary connexion between the Person of Christ his Death c. and the Salvation of Mankind Very discreetly worded Not a natural and necessary connexion What 's matter if it be not Natural if it be Necessary Let it be owned Necessary any way that 's fair and honest and let him choose whether it shall be necessary by Nature or no. If our Author understands himself here it 's very well I am sure some others do not Does he mean therefore of all Mankind that there 's no natural connexion betwixt Christs Person
and only watch for the Creep-hole of a bare Possibility If they intended honestly they would lay things together as well as they can labour to find out the meaning of God's Spirit with Sobriety and Humility and never strain their Wits and vex and torture the Scripture with utmost Possibilities The Text tells us that the namâ—… whereby Christ shall be called is the Lord our Righteousness Now it 's granted that this was not designed to be his Praenomen or Cognomen that which should distinguish him in Common Discourse from other persons and therefore He shall be called is no less than He shall Really be our Righteousness Thus 1 Iohn 3. 1. Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called that is that we should become the sons of God Isa. 9. 6. His name shall be called i. e. he shall Really be Wonderful Counsellor The Mighty God the Everlasting Father The Prince of Peace The true intent and meaning of which place I know how some have attempted to elude by this fine device of the Possibility of another meaning and whether our Author sharpned his weapon at their forge he knows best But 3. He returns an Answer worse than both the other Righteousness in Scripture is a word of a very large sense and sometimes signifies no more than Mercy Kindness Beneficence and so the Lord our Righteousness is the Lord who does us good But 1. Is it not vainly supposed That for Christ to do us good is inconsistent with being our Righteousness 2. Though Christ be a Redeemer of Mercy Kindness and Beneficence yet he is no-where called The Lord our Mercy The Lord our Kindness The Lord our Beneficence Which clearly proves that when he is called and really is The Lord our Righteousness the expression implies more than an Imparting or Communication of good things to us Hence some would say That if our Author's Conscience were not larger than the sense of this word he had never given so stretching an Answer But says he Righteousness signifies that part of Iustice which consists in relieving the oppressed Isa. 54. 17. Their Righteousness is of me saith the Lord which is a parallel expression to The Lord our Righteousness and signifies no more than that the Lord would avenge their Cause and deliver them from all their Enemies So that all the benefit we are to expect from Christ is Temporal Salvation and Deliverance To which I answer 2. That the Reason of Christ's glorious Name The Lord our Righteousness assigned by the Prophet that in his days Iudah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely is interpreted by the Angel Matth. 1. 21. to be this He shall be called Iesus for he shall save his people from their sins And the end why God raised up his Son Jesus in the World is expresly assigned to be To bless his people in turning away every one of them from their iniquities Acts 3. 26. Thus Rom. 11. 26. Out of Zion shall come the Deliverer and he shall turn away ungodliness from Iacob To turn away iniquity from us and to turn us away from iniquity is I hope something of a more useful import than to relieve the injured and oppressed and deliver them from their Enemies I do not at all envy our Author therefore the glory of his discovery that for God to justifie good men is to deliver them from the violence and injuries of their Enemies And I would gladly hope that all good men have something better wherein to glory In Ier. 33. 16. the Church is called The Lord our Righteousness because she only glories in the Righteousness of Christ her Head and Husband to whom being so nearly related and with whom being so closely united his Righteousness is her Righteousness and therefore she who upon the account of the imperfection of her Inherent Righteousness can find no not the least matter of boasting before God yet has whereof to Triumph in Christ her Saviour Isa. 45. 24. Surely shall one say In the Lord have I Righteousness In the Lord shall all the seed of Iacob be justified and shall glory Now the Apostle whom I take to be a competent Interpreter of Scripture assures us that God has taken special care that in his dispensing of Grace to sinners No flesh shall glory in his presence 1 Cor. 1. 29. which he has well provided for ver 30. since Christ is made unto us of God for Righteousness and therefore he that glorieth let him glory in the Lord Which is exactly parallel to that of Isa. 45. 24. In the Lord shall all the seed of Iacob be justified and shall glory Come we now to our Author's Interpretation of Isa. 61. 11. which is of the same leaven with the former I will greatly rejoyce in the Lord my soul shall be joyful in my God For he hath clothed me with the garments of Salvation and covered me with the robe of Righteousness c. This Text one may perceive struck cold to his heart and he gives us as cold an Answer that 's ready to freeze between his lips The Garments of Salvation says he and the Robe of Righteousness signifie those great Deliverances God promised to Israel Signifie I would our Author would write a Dictionary of the Signification of words We use to say A bad Answer is better than none Reform the Proverb for shame for such an one is worse than none 1. It 's evident that the Triumph of the Church was upon the view of Jesus Christ vers 1. Anointed to preach Good-Tidings to the meek to bind up the broken-hearted to proclaim liberty to the Captives and the opening of the Prison to them that are bound To proclaim the acceptable Year of the Lord Which our Saviour Christ applies to himself Luk. 4. 18 19. when he was far from working out for the Iews those great Deliverances by improbable means which should make them glorious in the eyes of men 2. The Virgin Mary quotes this very place Luke 1. 46 47. My soul doth magnifie the Lord and my spirit hath rejoyced in God my Saviour where the joy of her heart broke out at her lips in Contemplation of that Eternal Redemption wrought out by him in whom she could more seriously glory as her Saviour than as her Son And it 's a wonder to me then men can patter over their Magnificat every day and not observe it 3. It 's observable that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render Decketh signifies to Adorn as a Priest and implies that Christ as our High-Priest shall present us acceptable to God upon his Account 4. There 's nothing more familiar with the Spirit of God than to clothe Evangelical Mercies in a Mosaical Dress and to express New-Testament Salvation in Old-Testament Phrase Thus Gospel-Believers are understood by Israel the Church by the Temple Evangelical Ministers by the Legal Priests and the covering of Sin by the covering of Nakedness and by
of the Incarnation of the Son of God Understand the mystery of the Incarnation I assure you it 's fair if it be well believed I have not met with many not with any that understand the mystery of it to this day It 's more adviseable for our Author to secure his own Faith in this point than Abraham's Understanding Abraham was a Believer and received his Religion upon the Authority of the Revealer but our Author will own none but what approves it self to his Reason and whether the Incarnation of Christ have had that happiness with him I cannot tell and therefore to deal plainly with him I have some Conjectures that may weigh against his Prejudices which incline me to choose Abraham's Faith even in this particular before his own But however that be the Scripture assures us that Abraham was justified the same way that New-Testament-Believers are One God one Lord Iesus Christ one Holy Spirit yesterday to day and the same for ever and if his poor prejudices must controul divine Revelations I cannot help it An Atheist would believe there iâ—… a God but that he cannot get over all Objections and our Author would believe the Gospel-report of the way of Abraham's Justification but that he cannot weather all the Prejudices which he first creates and then pleads 5. He must understand the nature of Faith and of rowling the Soul on Christ for Salvation and renouncing all Righteousness of his own Answ. I question not but the Father of the Faithful one so much in the exercise of Faith understood very well the nature of it and that he would hardly have lighted his Candle at our Author's Torch but it 's grown the Mode for junior Understandings to vilifie the grey Heads of the Fathers and to count them all Blâ—…ck heads that think not to a hairs breadth with them Abraham knew that Faith consisted in a firm belief that what God had promised was true and that the things of the Promise were exceeding good and so to him He gave a full assent and consent to both with their special Reasons he embraced the mercy of the Promise with thankfulness and joy and credited the veracity of him that made the Promise with security of mind and he felt by experience that quiet and satisfaction of Soul that arises from an interest in him that gave and that Redeemer that was given in the Promise And if he must be jeered for rowling himself on God and on his Christ for ought I know he must bear his burden 5. And now conformable to his old awkward humour our Author will attempt the deciding the Controversie Which way Abraham was justified from Heb. 11. And this I say is a perverse and awkward way of proceeding to wave the proper places Rom. 4. Gal. 3. where the Apostle professedly disputes the point and fix upon one where he disputes it not Two things he would perswade us to believe him in 1. That the Apostle in this Chapter discourses of a justifying Faith To which I answer That the Apostle does indeed Treat of a Faith that justifies but not of Faith as it justifies A justifying Faith has many excellent and admirable uses does a Christian noble service besides that of justifying him before God It teaches him to trust God in all the ways and methods of his Providences to depend on him for all the good things of this life as well as those of a better It deals with the Promises of the life that now is and those of that to come It encourages us to pray Give us this day our daily bread as well as Forgive us our trespasses It instructs us to commit our concerns to his fatherly love and care to wrestle vigourously with all the oppositions we meet with in the Profession of Christianity to walk comfortably chearfully conscientiously in our particular Callings to despise the things that are seen which are but temponal in comparison of those which are not seen and are eternal It taught Abel to offer Sacrifice to God whereby he had the witness that he was righteous God testifying of his gifts And if our Author can see no difference between being made Righteous and having the witness of it in his Conscience he needs a Collyrium which I cannot help him to It taught Enoch also to walk with God from whence he had the same testimony that he pleased God The same Faith that justified him procured him a testimony of his Justification but not as it justified him The Direct Act of Faith is one thing and the Reflecting Act of Faith another It taught Noah also to take Gods warning of the approaching Deluge and to prepare an Ark to escape the danger Whereby he condemned the World and became heir of the Righteousness which is by Faith that is he had more full assurance of his Acceptation with God According to a common Rule Multa tunâ—… fieri dicuntur quando facta esse manifestantur 2. He would perswade us into his Notion of a justifying Faith This justifying Faith says he is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen But the Apostle does not here intend to give us a strict Definition of a justifying Faith but a Description of its most noble effects A justifying Faith produces these effects but not at all times nor in all persons justified it 's Faith in its vigour not in its essence that is here described By this Faith the Elders obtained a good report before men and their own Consciences yet was it not this Act of Faith that justified them before God though it was the same Faith that produced this Act by which they were justified Whereas therefore he would oblige us yet more by his critical skill in the Gr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a firm and confident expectation of those things we hope forâ—… and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Argument of the Being of those things we do not see For my part I am not much edified and therefore let him make merry with his own Talents That which follows will be more for our Information for he will now speak to the Act the Object and the several kinds of Faith 1. For the Act of Faith It is as he says such a firm and stedfast perswasion of the truth of those things that are not evident to sense as makes us confidently hope for them But this seems to me to be a hungry description of the Act of justifying Faith The Scripture has other apprehensions of this matter which describes the Act of faith by receiving John 1. 12. To as many as received him to them he gave power to become the sons of God even to them that believe on his name Where if the Evangelist may be trusted to make his own Exegesis Receiving of Christ and Believing on his name do mutually interpret each other It 's not enough that the Understanding be engaged in this work which may be found in the worst of men and
the First must be justified if ever they be justified by the Second Adam v. 22. The Righteousness of God which is by Faith of Iesus Christ unto all and upon all that believe for there 's no difference for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God As all men that ever were are or shall be are sinners under Condemnation so all that ever were are or shall be righteous in the sight of God are so by that righteousness which is by Faith of Iesus So that every pardoned accepted justified sinner must own that he is justified freely by the Grace of God through the Redemption that is in Christ. From these and such-like Scriptures it is that Christians ascribe their Iustification before God not to their own good Works but to the Free Grace of God through Iesus Christ but our Author has a way of proving his Sentiments worth a thousand of these Could men says he be reconciled to plain sence it would need no other Confirmation but the Natural evidence of naked and simple Truth It has been observed of the great Bellarmine from whom our Author has borrowed some things that he never comes in with a Procui dubio but the next words are a Rapper the same I observe in our Author that when he has done just nothing he always makes the loudest cackle It was a handsom Come-of if you did but mind it that when he had pester'd us with his prejudices surfeited us with Arbitrary distinctions filled our heads with empty Notions and when we looked to have been attack'd with one of his old plain kill-cow demonstrations he faces about and pops us off with this It needs no other proof than the Natural evidence of simple and naked Truth But now let the Reader take something warm next his heart let him use his phial of Essences for our Author is just now a-coming to examine those Texts of Scripture which are abused by these men to set up the personal Righteousness of Christ as the only formal Cause of our justification And must not those Texts of Scripture be miserably abused indeed that are thus prest in for such a service What the personal Righteousness of Christ the formal Cause of our justification I have heard some say it was the Meritorious Cause some the Impulsive Cause others the Material Cause and some that it is no Cause but our Author is the first that ever I heard this expression from There was once a good Orthodox Bishop as Orthodoxy past in that Age his Name Downham he has Written many a long page upon this Subject and he acquaints us with the sence of Protestants Lib. 1. Cap. 3. Sect. 1. That the matter of our justification is Christ's Righteousness and the form is God's Imputing it and this way go most of your Systematical Divines but from hence I learn it 's the Mode now-a-days for these Gentlemen to Confute that is to Rail at those long-winded Authors they never had the patience to read nor the Brains to understand but let this pass amongst our Authors Negligences or Ignorances till I understand better where to marshal it In examining the Texts which they abuse he will begin and end with Phil. 3. 8 9. Yea doubtless and I account all things loss for the excellency of the Knowledg of Iesus Christ my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things that I may win Christ and be found in him not having my own Righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the Faith of Christ the Righteousness which is of God by Faith The main Question here will be What was that Righteousness which the Apostle renounces from having any place in his Justification before God Upon this one hinge turns all the Controversie betwixt our Author and his Antagonists They say it was what-ever inherent Righteousness he had attained or could attain what-ever Obedience he had performed or could perform to the Commands of God Ay but says our Author what proof have they for this he can learn none but that they take it for granted that My Righteousness signifies Inherent Righteousness And really they are to be pittied if not pardoned that by His own Righteousness understand his own Righteousness for if Inherent Righteousness be not His own Righteousness it 's plain he could have none at all for an External Conformity of Actions to the Law alone is not Righteousness at all but Hypocrisie and Vnrighteousness but I shall inform him of some other proofs why they take His own Righteousness for Inherent Righteousness 1. That which he calls his own Righteousness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he tells you in the next words is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which is from Law from a Law from any Law indefinitely now a Righteousness which is from a Law is such a one as the Law urges presses upon and prescribes to the Conscience but that without question is an Internal Conformity of soul to the holiness of the Law but this the Apostle rejects therefore he rejects Internal and Inherent Righteousness 2. The true Notion of My Righteousness is not to be fetcht from some sorry Conjectures from precarious Hypotheses which men when they are in streights invent to avoid present ruine but from the stable fixed constant use thereof in Scripture but so is this expression My own Righteousness and My own or your own Works used in Scripture viz. for real sineere Conformity of heart and life to a Law therefore so ought we to take it here till we see cogent Reason to the contrary That this is the fixed use of the expression in Scripture we shall see Gen. 30. 33. My Righteousness shall answer for me in time to come which our Author would paraphrase thus My Righteousness that is My Roguery Iob 27. 6. My Righteousness I hold fast my heart shall not reproach me as long as I live My Righteousness that is would he say My Hypocrisie Matth. 5. 16. That men may see your good works that is in the New Glossary Your Complement Dan. 9. 18. we present not our supplications before thee not for our Righteousnesses but for thy great Mercies The Prophet in the Name of the Church must be supposed here not to renounce real Righteousness but the Sceleton of Obedience Now had the Apostle designed only to reject his own Hypocrisie he was not so barren in expressions but he could have fitted it with its Proper Name 3. The Apostle expresly renounces both what-ever he had attained before or after his Conversion v. 7. These things that were gain to me whilst I was a Pharisee those I accounted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 loss for Christ But is that all No! Yea doubtless v. 8. and I do now account 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all things but loss I have accounted all things attained in my Iudaism loss when I was first convinced and I do now account all things even my own Righteousness loss and dung for Christ
Covenant made a Covenant his Righteousness and Obedience have procured a Covenant are the Meritorious cause of a Covenant when the total Summe of all is no more than this That God has promised to Pardon and Save us if we Believe and Obey the Gospel though we Obey not perfectly So that at last it 's our own Obedience that Recommends us to God our own Righteousness for which we are Iustified Whereas the Apostle is Peremptory That by the Obedience of Christ we are constituted Righteous His Conclusion is therefore this That the Righteousness of Christ is not the formal Cause of our Iustification but the Meritorious cause of that Covenant whereby we are declared Righteous and rewarded as Righteous I perceive the Righteousness of Christs Life and the Obedience of his Death are like to prove something ere long One while they Confirm and Seal another while they Procure and at last they Merit a Covenant I cannot but Examine particulars though I have often done it 1. The Righteousness of Christ is not the Formal cause of our Iustification Indeed I think it is not Never any Man in his Wits affirmed it so Give but us leave to call it the Material cause or the Meritorious cause immediately and properly of Justification and he shall take Formal cause and deal with it at his pleasure I think I have a Commission from all the Systematical Divines of Germany the Voluminous Tigurines and Bulky Low-Dutch with those few that are left in England to make a Bargain with him Hard and Fast That the Righteousness of Christ is not the Formal cause of our Iustification 2. Says he It is the Meritorious cause of that Covenant whereby we are declared Righteous A Meritorious cause sounds very high if it had an honest Meaning But what has it Merited Iustification By no means What then Any particular Mercy or Priviledge or Blessing By no means for then it would be a proper cause of it there 's an Exact and Severe proportion betwixt the Reward and the Work in all Merit What is it then the Meritorious cause of Why of a Covenant But are we made Righteous by the Covenant Not at all only we are declared Righteous But how does the Righteousness of Christs Life and the Obedience of his Death Merit such a Covenant at Gods Hands Nay That he will not tell us God was well pleased with them but why he should be so is a Secret which must be reserved for the coming of Elias 3. The last thing I shall Exmine is his Exceptions against our Interpretation of the Apostle 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shall be made Righteous says he is the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shall be Iustified Well I agree to him But then I say the former Expression explains the way of our being Iustified that it is by Vertue of a Gospel-Law-Constitution or Appointment of God who considering all Believers as one with their Redeemer does Constitute them Just and Righteous there 's the Formal Cause in the Righteousness of Christ there 's the Material Cause of Justification as all the Posterity of Adam are constituted Sinners and liable to Condemnation by the Constitution of the old Law as Represented by him their Common Head 2. He excepts That the Apostle tells us ver 17. Who they are that are Iustified by Christ and shall Reign with him in Life not those who are Righteous by the Imputation of Christs Righteousness to them But I do not hear the Apostle telling me one such word whatever he has told our Author privately by way of Cabala I hear him saying plainly That as by one Mans offence many were made sinners so by one Mans Obedience many were made Righteous And because I cannot devise how possibly one Man should be made a sinner dealt with as a sinner Condemned and Judged as and for a sinner by another mans sin unless he be some ways or other guilty of sin and because it is not the making of that one mans sin their own by Immitation and Example that the Apostle speaks of but by a constitution of a Covenant or Law Therefore till I can find a better Term to express the Doctrine by I shall call Gods charging Adams sin upon his Posterity to their Condemnation his Imputing it to them And then because I cannot neither devise with my self how one man should possibly be made Righteous by the Obedience of another but that others Obedience must some way or other become his own and because to say Christs Obedience is ours by Imitation of his Example is to cross the Apostles paralel and to cross the Truth for we Imitate it but in part and very Imperfectly therefore I shall take the Freedom also to call Gods constituting Believers righteous by the Obedience of Christ his Imputing that Obedience to them for their Justification provided always that when more convenient and expressive Terms shall be found out to satisfie the Apostle this of Imputation be left indifferent Well but if not these who are then Why those who have received the abundance of Grace and of the Gift of Righteousness these are justified by Christ these shall Reign with him in Life It 's very true the Apostle does tell us no less And I cannot imagine how he should more fitly describe a justified person that others may know him and he should know himself than by the Fruits and Effects of Justification such as abundance of Grace are For whatever our Author thinks of the Apostle he does not use to describe a thing by it self or something equally obscure but by that which is more known and Obvious than the thing described and therefore the Apostle seems not to describe Justification but a justified Person by Sanctification They that have received abundance of Grace and the Gift of Righteousness these are justified Persons not that Justification is from any Inherent work but that the justified Person is only known to himself to be such by an Inherent work and to others by the fruits of it This answer I will deal truly with my Reader came next to hand I had it from our Author and I presumed he would accept a bad one of his own before a better of another mans The Apostle says he tells who those are that are thus justified by Christ Nay then thought I that will kill no body for a justified Person may be described by his Qualifications and yet his Righteousness wherein he stands accepted before God not consist in those Qualifications But to deal plainly with him I do humbly conceive that the Apostle describes an Imputed Righteousness by that expression They which receive the abundance of Grace and the Gift of Righteousness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It was the over-flowing and Redundancy of Divine Love to accept a Surety to fulfill all Righteousness and Suffer for us and abundance of Grace too to let us in by Faith into the Righteousness of Christ's Life and the Sacrifice of Christs Death