loves God who delights in Holiness and he only shall be happy who loves God 3. Since it has appeared that our most consummate Happiness does come from our perfect Love of Holiness and since perfect and unmixed Happiness is most certainly our Aim we do from thence conclude That Holiness ought in Prudence to be our Practice For as it is a Short-sightedness and at least a Degree of Folly not to seek our Happiness there where it may be found so not to seek it there where we are truly because rationally informed that it may be found is Madness For that Man may well be taxed of Frenzie who will not take that Way to Happiness to which he is directed by such Advice which is inculcated by the joint Suggestions of Revelation and Reason that is by the ordinary and extraordinary Light that God holds out to direct him in such Way Now to set home this Exhortation by convincing Men that the true and rational Way to their Happiness is by Holiness besides all that has hitherto been offered I would propose to their serious Consideration these Things following 1. That that Religion which has been confirmed by Prophecies from the Foundation of the World before it was revealed and which when and after it was revealed was confirmed by Multitudes of other Miracles and by the Resurrection of him from the Dead who did reveal it must as certainly have God for its Author as it is certain that such Miracles and such Predictions could only come from God 2. The Christian Religion and no other Religion either truly or falsely so called is the Religion which has this Character and therefore has God for its Author 3. That Religion which has God for its Author must needs be a true Religion 4. That Religion which has God for its Author must needs be an holy Religion 5. Since it is one of the greatest Businesses of Religion to instruct Men how to serve God the true Religion must even because it is true instruct Men how to serve God truly 6. He who truly serves God who is most holy must do so by living holily 7. He who lives holily pleases God For he complies with the Instructions of that Religion of which God is the Author 8. He who pleases God by complying with the Instructions of that Religion of which God is the Author shall not fall short of the End that God intended in his Institution of Religion Now it is most certain that God instituted Religion for the Sake and Benefit of Man and it as certain that God wills the Happiness of Man And therefore it is rational to infer That God instituted Religion to direct Man in the true Way to Happiness and that Way we have seen is Holiness 1. From all which I would infer First that which is to my present Design That the only Way for us to obtain Happiness is by our Practice of Holiness And what is not indeed so direct to my purpose but yet of good use 2. That the best and surest Way of guiding our Enquiries after the True Religion will be to keep our Eye all the while we are so employed stedfaitly fixed upon Holiness For we can much better tell what is good and honest than we can tell what is true Our Knowledge of the first therefore may prove a very good Guide to us in our Search after the last To which I would add 3. That to talk of Truth and Certainty and much more of Infallibility in Religion when the Determinations and Resolutions of such Certainty or Infallibility are mischievous or pernicious to the real Happiness of Mankind or any other ways wicked is Nonsense and Banter and is in deed and truth an Imposition upon Mens Understandings in order to damnifie the honest and real Interests and true Happiness of Mankind But to return to our Design That Men may be the more heartily engaged to believe what has been said and to practise what they shall so believe I shall still go on to press the present Exhortation more home by advising them to try the Experiment whether the Doctrine now delivered which is That our Happiness must come from our Practice and Love of Holiness be true or no. The Proposal is fair and reasonable and there is no Man who has not one way or other made a great many Experiments in the Case For our constant Desire of Happiness will always be putting us upon such Experiments And I dare be bold to say before we proceed any farther that if any Man's Trial has succeeded his Success does fall in with my Proposal and back the present Exhortation Now because our Happiness cannot as we have seen so much as be supposed to be lodged abroad but if it be our Happiness it must for that Reason be lodged within us at home and in our own possession therefore to engage Men to entertain our present Exhortation the more heartily and by confequence to make the Trial of the proposed Experiment the more willingly I would desire them by a serious Reflection to consider whether all Wickedness does not constantly bring Misery along with it into that Breast where it self is entertained For if we suppose a Man to be wicked we must at the same time for the most part for there is but one excepted Case suppose that he knows that he is so And when that is once supposed such a Supposition will acquaint us with these following Truths That he will have one Thought employed upon God's Law which commands his Duty and another Thought upon his own Actions which transgress that Law and a third Thought which shall by comparing the one with the other discover the Disagreement nay the Contrariety that is between the Law and such his Actions Now here are already Thoughts disagreeing and fighting with each other and by that Means a Civil War raised in his Breast the Effects of which in all Cases are sure to be not only mischievous but calamitous Let us then see a little farther and let us suppose what will yet be more than supposed for it will be certain But I say let us suppose that when by one Thought the Man has discovered the Contrariety between his own Actions and the Directive Part of the Law that thereupon he bestows another Thought upon the Vindictive Part of the Law and such a Chain of Thoughts is very natural and that by another Thought he applies such Vindictive Part of the Law that is the Threat of the Law to his own Actions and by consequence to his own dear Self And when this is once done then we may begin to be satissied that Multitudes of other Thoughts will presently rise in his Breast and those too filled with Doubt and Fear and Shame and Grief and all those other troublesom vexatious and tormenting Passions which are the natural Effects that follow upon the Contemplation of our own Guilt Now when all these boysterous and vexatious Thoughts do oppose themselves against
may deny the Doctrine delivered are the Vicious and Profane For they who professedly renounce Christianity in their Practice are easily brought over to renounce it in their Belief Because it is hard to conceive that they will allow Salvation to be his Purchase and at his Disposal who has avowedly declared that such as themselves shall not be made Partakers of it And therefore where profligate Wickedness and Debauchery does abound it is the less to be wondred tho' it be the more to be lamented that Infidelity does so too Irreligious Practices do naturally produce Irreligious Opinions And a plausible Cavil against any material Truth in Religion is by too many thought a sufficient Vindication of a profligate Life Now it is notorious at first View that such Men as these do therefore refuse to believe the Truths of Revealed because they have first broke through the Obligations of Natural Religion and that having forsaken their God they do therefore reject his Christ Whether they have not been assisted and encouraged so to do by the Zeal and Abilities of those whom we have treated as the Sober and the Serious it concerns them to consider as it does also Whether their Attempts to depreciate Revealed Religion has not proved a great Occasion of those Immoralities which have over-run the Nation and which equally contradict both Revealed and Natural Religion too For it will be found true that as Immorality does incline Men to contemn God's Revelations so a Contempt of such Revelations does and that too in its own Nature lead Men into Immorality For both are indeed a Contempt of God's Word And I must leave it a Doubt which of the Two mocks God most whether he who pretends to believe a God but yet will not obey his Word or he who pretends to believe Revelation but yet will not allow such Revelation to acquaint him with any Thing but what his Reason can comprehend The first puts a Slight upon his Authority the last upon his Omniscience but both upon his Honour And then we may be sure that both are pernicious to the Welfare of Mens Souls And indeed for these Reasons chiefly I have engaged my self in the present Argument For it is a very melancholy Contemplation to consider how many Men in the present Age who yet call themselves Christians do professedly renounce that very Faith into which they were baptized and that too by their Saviour's express Institution exhibited to us in Revelation And he must shut his Eyes who does not take notice that the Manners of the Age are no better than its Faith And in such a Case I cannot but think it Treachery in a Minister of Jesus Christ not to interpose in one wayâ—or other For not to do it at all is in effect to betray his Master to betray his Trust and to betray the Souls of Men. The other sort of Readers whom I would bespeak and that only in a Word or two are Those who tho' they agree with me in the main and principal Conclusions may yet perhaps differ from me in some subordinate Propositions which I lay down in my Way to such Conclusions Now to such Readers I have this small Request That they would not think because I hold the same Articles of Faith with them that therefore I stand bound to take them by the same Philosophical Handle I believe the Scripture because I take it to be the Word of God I believe an Article of Faith because it is in the Scripture But when I come to accommodate such Article to Right Reason I do no more think my self tied up to other Mens Measures than I think that they are to be tied up to mine We may go different Ways and yet meet in the same Truth And which is more perhaps the Divine Wisdom may make use of such our Differences to take in more Souls whose Conceptions of Things do so differ as ours do And tho' I can say nothing for my Skill yet I can say thus much for my Sincerity that I have in all Cases whatsoever followed That which at present I take to be Truth One Thing more I have to add and that is That it has been objected and may be again That my Zeal in the Cause appears too late and that it would have been more seasonable had it shewed it self when Things of this Nature and at least relating to this Subject were lately and hotly debated from the Press And That the Business I undertake has already been and that several Times discussed by Learned Men and Great Names But all this and more must not weigh with one who is persuaded that notwithstanding all past Endeavours Infidelity and Immorality do still go on and gain Ground and that we ought in Honesty still to apply Remedies as we find the Contagion spread and that according to the various Constitutions of the Patients a less promising sort of Physick may sometimes work a Cure where a more likely and that too from a more celebrated Hand has fallen short Something more might be said and that Something true But I think what is said in short enough in the Case To conclude then I would desire every Reader to lay aside all Prejudice by whatsoever Means contracted Whether from an Opinion of other Mens great Worth or a Conceit of their own Whether from a Security that they are already in the Right or a Shame to retreat tho' they find themselves in the Wrong Whether from Vice or Carelesness or from any other Cause whatsoever And I do solemnly profess that what I desire them to do in the Reading that I have all along endeavoured to do in the Writing of the following Discourse For I have as far as my slender Talent goes had my Eye all along directed to Truth to the Honour of my Great Lord and Master and to the Good of Souls And may his Grace which is alone able to do it make it effectual for those Great and Holy Purposes That so Men may be persuaded not to be so foolishly wicked as to entertain cheap Thoughts of and much less to revile and blaspheme Him in whose Hand is lodged all Power in Heaven and Earth who shall be their Judge and who alone must be their Saviour And it is this Last Proposition which the following Discourse attempts to make good THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. THE Scriptures do most expresly assert That Mankind are redeemed by the Blood of Jesus Christ It is not agreeable to the Divine Wisdom or to the Method of his Proceedings in the like Cases to employ greater Means to bring his Purposes to pass where less may be sufficient Punishment is the necessary Wages of Sin An Objection to this Position answered Page 13 CHAP. II. The Gospel holds forth no such thing as an Absolute or Unconditional Pardon no nor yet an Arbitrary Pardon Page 32 CHAP. III. A Gospel-Salvation contains in it 1. Pardon of Sin 2. The Gift of Eternal Happiness To these Two other
of Sin Let us first hear what the Spirit saith who in the Fourth to the Ephesians the Fourth and Fifth Verses tells us That when the Fulness of Time was come God sent forth his Son made of a Woman made under the Law that is his Son was Incarnate and was under the Law and therefore made so as to be obliged to be obedient to it to redeem them that were under the Law that we might receive the Adoption of Sons And when we are told in one place That the Son of God was manifested for this very purpose that he might destroy the Works of the Devil and in another That he was manifest to take away Sin And when to answer to and explain the Meaning of these Places we are assured from other Places that at least one Way of his taking away Sins was by the Sacrifice of himself as in the Twenty sixth Verse of the Ninth to the Hebrews and that he appeared for that very purpose in the same Place And when we add to all this what we find in the Fifth Verse of the following Chapter that God had prepared him a Body and in the Tenth Verse that we are sanctified that is our Sins are put away through the offering of the Body of Jesus Christ once for all who as St. Peter speaks his own self bare our Sins in his own Body on a Tree I say when the Spirit of God does all along in the Scriptures expresly and categorically tell us That our Saviour suffered in his Body shed his Blood lost his Humane Life for our Sins for the Remission of Sin for the Redemption of Sinners when it does in several Places compare his Death to the Expiatory Sacrifices under the Law when it calls him the Lamb of God alluding to the Paschal Lamb that taketh away the Sins of the World when it tells us that he is the Propitiation for our Sins and the like It does by these and such like Expressions as much as Words can do it acquaint us at the same time that he suffered in his Body and died to atone for and to expiate our Sins And therefore all the uncouth and forced Interpretations of these and such like Texts which yet are a multitude that attempt to evacuate their plain Meaning may as soon persuade an honest and sincere Man that the Scriptures both of the Old and New Testament are a Book full of Collusion and Prevarication as they may that Jesus Christ our Saviour did not die to expiate the Sins of Mankind And were I not assured of God's Providence I should be apt to fear that the Devil might in time so bring Things about that if he could upon Pretences of Reason wipe away that Part of the Bible that concerns our Saviour's Incarnation and the Relation which that has to Man's Redemption that he might at last raise his Hopes of blotting out the whole Christian Religion For to tell us that our Saviour is only such a Man as other Men are but only conceived in a different and therefore more wonderful manner to tell us that he died patiently tho' wrongfully only that he might give us an Example of an exact Patience and of an entire Submission to God's Providence to tell us that he was slain a Sacrifice only to confirm the Covenant of Grace but that there was no such Design in his Death as to suffer for or to expiate our Sins as it is a notorious Contradiction to and not an Exposition of the Scriptures so for that very Reason it will appear to have a direct Tendency towards the overthrowing the Grand Design of the whole Book of God All which to them who shall scan the Scriptures exactly is directed to and does center in the Saviour and that Redemption which he purchased for Mankind by his Death and Merits Having therefore thus in short taken notice of what the Scripture tells us concerning the Expiation of Sin by the Susserings of our Saviour and having already made it out 1. That no Creature can by any means expiate the Sin of Mankind and 2. That our Saviour is God Incarnate or God and Man united in One Person we do in pursuit of our main Design lay it down in the 3. Third place That the Way and Method of Man's Salvation as it is expresly and frequently laid down in the Scriptures which is by the Sufferings and Death of the Son of God manifested in the Flesh is agreeable to right Reason and exactly congruous to the Measures of Truth and to the Rules of Justice And in order to our making this plain and clear we take notice 1. That that Law about the Transgression of which and the Release from the Penalty of such Transgression the Gospel-Forgiveness is only concerned was given to Man For the Scriptures give us no Account of the Forgiveness of the Breach of any other Law but only of that Law which God had prescribed to Mankind And therefore tho' in the Scriptures we have several broad Hints of the Fall of the Angels and tho' our Reason tells us that that which put them under the Displeasure of God must needs be Sin in the general yet we are therefore ignorant what their Sin was because we are ignorant what that Law was against which they sinned 2. We take notice That as that Law about which alone the Gospel-Forgiveness is concerned was the Law given by God to Man so the Gospel takes no other or farther notice of the Transgression of that Law than as that Law is broke by Man From whence we infer in the 3. Third place That that Punishment which the Law threatens against those who transgress it can only in Justice belong to those to whom the Law was given and directed For they can never transgress a Law who have no Law assigned them and they can never be justly punished for the Transgression of the Law who can never transgress the Law The Law therefore about which alone a Gospel-Forgiveness is concerned being the Law given to Man and transgressed by Man Man alone can justly suffer the Penalty of such Transgression From whence we infer in the 4. Fourth place That if any Penalty can ever justly expiate that Guilt which is contracted by the Breach of the Law that Penalty that must make such Expiation must be a Penalty laid upon Man And therefore our Common Sense of Justice will not allow us to think that either Angels which are ranked above Mankind nor Beasts which are ranked below them can by any Sufferings whatsoever expiate or atone for the Breach of such Law which being given by God to Man does so far forth concern Man alone And tho' we have before made it out that neither Angels on the one Hand nor brute Beasts on the other can expiate the Sin of Mankind as both the one and the other are Creatures yet what we now say is that they cannot do it as they are different Creatures For it seems necessary and that
inseparably by Law belong to one that it cannot but do so without Breach of the Law yet even such a Thing shall by Act of Law be so imputed to another that that other shall receive the Benefits or suffer the Mischiefs which legally flow from such Thing as if the Thing it self which was the Cause of such Benefits or Mischiefs had been his own And such are the Actions of some Persons when they stand in some sorts of Relations to other Persons And to come up a little closer to our present Design it is a known Practice in our own Law the Law of England that in some if not many Cases the Actions of the Wife shall be so reckoned the Actions of the Husband and in some Cases the Actions of the Husband shall be so reckoned the Actions of the Wise that they shall and that too by Law receive the Advantages and suffer the Disadvantages of each others Actions And I do the rather instance in this Case tho' several others might be offered because we know that the Scriptures do expresly tell us that the Saviour is so the Head of his Body the Church as the Husband is the Head of the Wife These Things being laid down in order to make plain what is now to follow 1. It is to be observed in the first place That the whole Transaction of Man's Salvation is managed by way of Covenant that is it is managed in a judicial or legal not in a natural way This is as notorious as it is that the Transaction is carried on by mutual Obligations of the respective Parties engaged by Promises by Rewards by Punishments and the like It appears likewise by the Sacraments which are legal not natural Conveyances of those Graces or Blessings of which they are the Pledges For Water in Baptism does not naturally wash away Sin nor are the Bread and Wine natural Seals or Ratification of the Covenant in the Sacrament They only give us a Title to the Benefits of it as the Delivery of a Deed a Turf or a Wand do to an Estate That is they are only legal Ways of Conveyance and therefore do loudly proclaim a Covenant 2. The Transaction of Man's Salvation being managed by way of Covenant that is in a legal or judicial not in a natural way tho' it be granted that the Obedience of one Man cannot naturally be made over to another yet it will not from thence follow that it may not therefore be made over judicially or in a legal way Nay by what has been said already it is notorious that it may be so made over And therefore besides the Instance already offered between an Husband and Wife which will in the Scripture-Account as well belong to our Saviour and Believers it is in some Cases the agreed Sense of Mankind that he who does not hinder the bad Action of another when it is in his Power at least when it is his Business and so ought to be his Care so to do by not hindring it does in Law make such bad Action his own That is the Action in Law shall be so imputed to him as if he himself had done it and he shall accordingly be obnoxious to the just and legal Consequences of it And then if the ill Action of one Man may in a judicial way be justly imputed to another and so be rated as that others then there can be no good Reason why the good Actions of one Man may not be justly so rated and imputed likewise All therefore that the Objection offers is That one Man's Action be that Action Obedience or what it will cannot naturally become or be made the Action of any other Man But that it may not legally or judicially become so to all Intents and Purposes of Law whether of Rewards or Punishments as it does not affirm it so should it do so it may for the Reasons offered be truly denied because in deed and truth it is false But we shall have occasion to speak more to this Matter hereafter and therefore shall not pursue it any further here Only one Remark I would leave upon it and that is this That it is too frequent a Practice when Men discourse upon Points of Christian Doctrine to treat of such Points rather as Natural Philosophers than as Lawyers or Divines That is that I may speak my Meaning as plain as I can they fall upon the Nature of the Things of which they discourse and so argue from their Natural Properties Qualities and Powers and from thence draw such Conclusions which tho' they call them Theological yet have nothing to do with Divinity or indeed with the Christian Religion Whereas they should treat of those Things which are concerned in Religion in a legal and judicial way They should examine what Relation and Regard they have to that Holy Covenant how far they agree with or differ from the Design and Purport of it and by consequence what Share they have or what Influence they may or may not have for the hindring or promoting or accomplishing its Designs The Case under our present Consideration will make my Meaning still plainer For they who tell us that our Saviour's Obedience cannot be made over to Man because it consists in Action and because one Man's Action cannot in the Nature of the Thing be made over to another do only discourse of his Obedience in a natural Sense that is as Natural-Philosophers but do not discourse of it in a moral or judicial Sense that is as Divines or Lawyers And because they do not therefore they start from the Business of Religion and so instead of discoursing of the Christian Covenant they give us a Lecture concerning the Nature and Properties of Animal Motions and Powers And in the mean time overlook that that is or at least should be their Business which is the legal or judicial Consideration of such Obedience as what Relation it has to the Law what Influence it has by Law upon the Person whose Obedience it is or upon others how far the Merit and Desert of it may go and the like And to come close to the Business we have been all this while upon Because Imputation is an Act of Law and not of Nature to undertake to overthrow the Possibility of it by the Laws and Rules of natural Motions or Actions is much the same thing as to attempt to open a difficult Place of Scripture with a Knife or a Saw The Things are of different Natures and there is no Congruity in the Application of the one for the Resolution of the other And I am very well satisfied that the Church of Christ had never been troubled with the Doctrine of Transubstantiation if the Romish Priests had never heard of nor read either Aristotle or his Commentators concerning Substance and Accident It was the jumbling of his Natural Philosophy and Religion together that produced the Monster Nay which is yet something more had they been trained up in any
other sort of Natural Philosophy they had been very well satisfied and contented without that new and uncouth Article of their Christian Faith Other Instances might be produced to shew that gross Fooleries and Corruptions have crept into Religion at this Door Whereas a due Consideration that the Christian Religion is a Covenant and the treating of it as such would acquaint us much better with the Nature and engage us more effectually to the Duties of it But this useful Remark being left in this place we proceed 2. The second Objection therefore against the Imputation of our Saviour's Obedience to Believers in order to their obtaining the promised Reward of the Covenant stands thus That supposing that our Saviour did provide for the Directive Part of the Law by his Obedience and that he did also fulfil the Vindictive Part by his Death In such Case there does therefore seem to be a Superfluity in his Provision because should his Obedience alone be imputed to us we should by that Means be entitled to a perfect Righteousness and then there had been no need of his Death to expiate our Sins because then we should have had no Sins to be expiated And that which may add some Strength to what is thus alledged is this That our Saviour paying that Obedience to the Law while he was in the Flesh the Obedience so paid was paid before his Death and therefore in the Course of Things it should seem that it might be imputed before his Death and in the Course of Justice without it For when by such Imputation we were once entitled to his Righteousness the Plea of his Death in order to qualifie us for Happiness must needs be useless and superfluous Now tho' it may seem indeed that Things might have gone so if we only have a Regard to the Order of Time yet if we look to the Order of Reason and Justice we shall easily perceive that they could not For we cannot by any Estimation of Justice whatsoever be reckoned Righteous so long as our Guilt lies upon us and when once by our Sins we have made our selves guilty such Guilt must needs lie upon us till it be one way or other expiated Now because we have already and fully made it out that it neither is nor can be expiated any other way than by the Death of our Saviour therefore the Death of such Saviour must in the Order of Justice first expiate such our Guilt before we can possibly be entitled to a perfect Righteousness For who can put a clean thing into an unclean It is neither agreeable to the Methods of Wisdom or Justice so to do And therefore we may be sure that it cannot be the Practice of the most Wise and Just God No! we know well enough because we are told so by the Spirit of God that our Saviour first died for our Sins and after that rose again for our Justification And we know moreover that when God had once given forth his Law tho' had an exact Obedience been paid to it the Vengeance of it which was only Conditionally threatned had never been executed for the Justice and Execution of such Vengeance does entirely depend upon our Transgression yet after we had transgressed the Law the Execution of such Vengeance was as necessary as was the Happiness promised if we had not transgressed it For Vengeance does by the Tenor of the Law stand in the same Relation to Sin as Happiness does to Obedience The first becomes our Due in case we neglect our Duty the last in case we perform it And the Distribution both of the one and the other must as necessarily follow upon our Performance or Non-performance of those Conditions to which each of them do stand respectively engaged as it is necessary for God to love Holiness and hate Wickedness One Part of the Law therefore is in Justice to be provided for as well as the other And then if neither the Punishment of Man could fulfil the Law on the one Hand nor the imperfect Obedience of Man on the other and if our Saviour undertook for Man's sake to supply Man's Defects then there was the same Necessity in Justice that he should fulfil the Vindictive Part of it by his Death that there was that he should fulfil the Directive Part of it by his Obedience And therefore as neither his Obedience not his Death had been necessary no nor his Incarnation neither upon which such his Death and such his Obedience do depend But I say as neither his Obedience nor his Death had been necessary if Man had obeyed the Law himself so upon Man's Transgression of the Law they both became necessary Because as we have already seen Man's Punishment is in Justice as necessary upon his Breach of the Law as his Obedience was upon God's Promulgation of the Law And therefore when our Saviour undertook to save sinful Man that is Man who had transgressed the Directions of the Law and Man who lay exposed to the Vengeance of the Law it was necessary in order to his doing so justly that he should have a Regard to one Part of the Law as well as to the other that is that he should fulfil the Vindictive by his Death and the Directive by his Obedience And had he not done both one Part of the Law at least had been neglected and so the Redemption had not been just By which we may by this time understand that there is no Superfluity in his providing for Man's Salvation both by the Obedience of his Life and by the Sufferings of his Death For that cannot in Reason be accounted Superfluous in the doing of any Thing whatsoever without which such Thing cannot be done justly Now as in our Answer to the former Objection we made good not only the Possibility but the Legality too of the Imputation of our Saviour's Righteousness so in our Answer to this we have shewed the conjunct Necessity both of the Imputation and of his Death in order to Man's Salvation By all which we may at last come to understand that God in his Counsel for Man's Salvation as he consulted his Mercy so did not lay aside the Care of his Justice For the whole Transaction as we have largely seen was in him Justice as it was to us Mercy Justice as it fulfilled the whole Law Mercy as it redeemed us from the Curse and invested us in the Promise of the Law A strange Mixture and had it not been discovered to us by Revelation by our Natural Reason not to be fathomed But as it is revealed agreeable as we have seen to such Reason so assisted 1. By which we may in the first place understand That tho' Christ crucified be to the Jews a Stumbling-block and to the Greeks foolishness yet to us he is and that notoriously the Wisdom of God and the Power of God For his Wisdom and his Power can we see bring Things to pass beyond the reach of Angels and
Devils and therefore much more beyond the reach of short-sighted Man And yet by his Light he can because he has instructed us that such Things are not only the Effects of an Almighty Power but of an Almighty Wisdom of an Almighty Justice and of an Almighty Mercy too For in the Business of Man's Salvation as in all Things else he does so display his Attributes as that they never clash nor interfere His Mercy does not fight against his Justice nor his Justice against his Mercy and neither fights against his Wisdom By the Revelation therefore of the Christian Religion God has admitted us to a nearer View of his Dealings with the Children of Men and has at least communicated so much of his Counsel to us as may assist us if we be not wanting to our selves to provide for our own everlasting Happiness and Security and to vindicate and assert his Justice and Mercy Let us therefore thankfully receive the Mercy as it is graciously offered and not pretend to regulate his Revelations by our feeble Reason but guide our Reason by his Revelations For we know that he can do more than we can and therefore also we may know that he can guide us better than we can guide our selves And because he has vouchsafed in Mercy so to do it will but very ill sort with that Deference we owe him to do as too many now-a-days do that is to return from Revealed to Natural Religion and so to walk in Paths not only of our own chusing but many times of our own making too For since the Day-Star from on High hath visited us it is our Duty as to guide our Lives so to guide our Faith by that Light which it affords us 2. Since we can only be saved in Consideration of our Obedience to the Law and since none of us have paid such Obedience and so if we stand the Award of our own Deserts we must needs fall short of Salvation I say since Things are so we ought with Heart and Voice to praise our Saviour who by an Infinite Condescension both obliged himself to obey the Law and so intimately united us to himself as to entitle us to his Obedience by which we may be saved For as there is no other way of obtaining Salvation but by Obedience so there is no other Name given but his whereby we must be saved and therefore we may safely conclude that that Obedience by which we must be saved is his His Love to Righteousness then made his Obedience perfect and his Love to us made his Obedience ours and Both if we be not wanting to our selves will make our Condition happy and secure And then surely our Security and Happiness as they do very well deserve so they do require a Thanksgiving For we therefore stand bound to be grateful to and to love the Author of our Happiness because we find that we cannot but love our selves 3. As we cannot be saved without our Saviour's Righteousness so as we desire our own Safety we should heartily endeavour to qualifie our selves to be made Partakers of such his Righteousness And we may be sure that our Desire at least after Righteousness and our Good-will to entertain it are necessary even for our obtaining the Imputation of it because it cannot in any Sense be ours if we be not willing that it should be so We must be therefore disabled to receive it if we be unwilling to entertain it So much Righteousness God requires of us in order to our being entitled to a perfect Righteousness I know that some Divines do speak of Irresistible Grace and that some few do defend it That is in a few Words they make God by the arbitrary Determinations of his own Pleasure to bestow Grace upon some Men whether they will or no and even against their Inclinations And to make good what they so maintain they instance in the Conversion of St. Paul and such like Cases But tho' St. Paul and some others have been converted by Miracle yet we know well enough that Miracles wrought for the self-same purpose have not always been attended with Success and that the Miracles even of our Saviour himself and those too wrought before their Eyes did fail of their designed Effect and that in a manner upon the whole Nation of the Jews And we know not the Hearts of Men nor the inward but real Preparations of Soul that may duely qualifie them to admit God's Grace But we do know that St. Paul thought verily that he ought to do as he did And then tho' he was defective in his Knowledge yet because he acted according to such Knowledge he was therefore honest and sincere in his Practice And then if God in pity to his Ignorance and in approbation of his Sincerity did reward that Sincerity with an extraordinary Direction for the guidance of his Practice we may from thence be taught that his Grace was suited to St. Paul's Will For he willed that after the Miracle which he willed before it that is he willed that which he took to be good And indeed we may as well think any other Creature to be capable of Righteousness as we may think Man to be so without his own Will and Consent Let us therefore take care that we will and endeavour to obey God's Law that is to be righteous if we design that God our Saviour should make us so For we cannot be like him unless we are willing to be so He therefore who would appear at the Wedding Supper of the Lamb must take care to wash and cleanse himself from all Filthiness of Flesh and Spirit in order to his putting on the Wedding-Garment For as they only shall be pronounced Blessed who shall be found Righteous so they only shall be found so who do sincerely desire and endeavour to be so CHAP. XI The First and General Proposition asserted from all that has been said That the whole Doctrine of a Gospel-Salvation as laid down in the Scriptures is agreeable to the allowed Practices of Mankind in their Legal or Judicial Proceedings and is worded in the Scriptures accordingly AND now having gone so far before we proceed any farther we shall bring all that we have hitherto spoken to our Design at the Beginning and by so doing shall endeavour to make it out That there is not Salvation in any other but in Jesus Christ alone and That there is no other Name under Heaven given among Men whereby we must be saved 1. And to do this we shall first shew That no other but our Saviour alone could so suffer for Sin as to obtain a Release from the Penalty which the Law had threatned against it Or which is much one and the same Thing That no one but our Saviour alone could make an Expiation for the Sin of Man 2. And secondly That no one but our Saviour alone could by an exact Obedience to the Law purchase that Reward the Gift of Eternal Life which
Christianity for without the Belief of Jesus Christ there can no more be any such thing as Christianity than without the Belief of a God there can be such a Thing as Religion yet for all that it will be true that as a Religion grounded upon the Belief of the true God may however be a false Religion so a Christianity grounded upon the Belief of the true Christ may however be a false Christianity For as notwithstanding a Belief or which may be something more the Knowledge of the True God Men may fall into Idolatry See Rom. chap. 1. ver 21 22 23. So notwithstanding the Belief not only of the true Christ but of his Resurrection also Men may have no other Expectations from him but Wealth Power and Grandeur in this World See Acts ch 1. ver 6. And yet I do hardly think that a Faith either in the one Case or in the other will by that Author be thought a Saving Faith And if it be not then it will appear a good Conclusion That in the last Case that is in the Case of Christianity something more is necessary to be believed in order to our Salvation than barely that Jesus is the Christ But as I said before this by the bye That which is directly to our present Purpose is That if it be true that none shall be saved who do not believe in Jesus Christ the Saviour then how shall we account for the future Condition of those who in this Life never heard of Jesus Christ For tho' we may out of the Scriptures be taught That he who believeth shall be saved and that he who believeth not shall be damned Yet still we cannot but know that that Disbelief to which Damnation is allotted must be as contrary to that Belief to which Salvation is allotted as Damnation and Salvation are to each other Now because that Belief to which Salvation is allotted is an Act of the Will whatever the Schools teach of Faith being lodged only in the Understanding therefore we do conclude That that Disbelief to which Damnation is allotted must be an Act of the Will too And indeed since Damnation is confessedly the Reward of Unbelief and since this Reward is to come from the Hand of such Justice which cannot err we may from thence be assured that the Unbelief to which it is allotted must be Criminal and we are moreover assured that nothing can be so in which the Will is not at all concerned Now because it is most certain that those who in this World never heard of Jesus Christ do not therefore not believe in him because they will not but only because they cannot I say for that Reason it will be unjust to asign that Damnation to their Unbelief that is by them unavoidable which is by the Scriptures assigned only to that Unbelief which is therefore Criminal because it is Voluntary Tho' therefore Damnation be by the Scriptures pronounced against that Unbelief which refuses the Saviour made known and offered to Men yet we cannot from thence conclude that it shall be the Portion of that Unbelief which is only a Consequence of an unavoidable Ignorance of the same Saviour And as we cannot from the Scriptures conclude that they who never heard of the Saviour shall be damned for their Unbelief So neither can we from them conclude that they shall be saved notwithstanding their Unbelief For if a Faith in Jesus Christ be according to the Scriptures necessary to Salvation it will from thence follow that they who want that Faith must go without that Salvation to which it is necessary Now it may be presumed that far the greater Part of Mankind if not in all yet in most Ages and that therefore much the greater Part of Mankind in general never had the Saviour made known to them which if it be true as we have no reason to doubt the truth of it then it will follow That tho' God has provided a Saviour for all Men yet by making a Faith in that Saviour a necessary Condition for Man's obraining the provided Salvation he has thereby excluded the greater Part of Mankind from such Salvation because by having determined the Times before appointed and the Bounds of their Habitation he has by his Providence so placed them in the World that it is to them impossible to come to so much Knowledge of the Saviour as is necessary to their Belief in him And if this Conclusion be true it will afford us another which is That notwithstanding God has in a Saviour made sufficient Provision for the Salvation of all Men yet the greater Part of Men shall fall short of such Salvation and that too without their own Default Now it is freely confessed that our Lord Jesus Christ the Saviour laid the Design of extending that Salvation which he purchased as wide as was the Merit of his Purchase that is his Purchase was sufficient for the Salvation of all Men and he gave such Directions and Injunctions for the Propagating to all Men so much Knowledge of such his Purchase as might be sufficient to bring them to that Faith which might intitle them to the Benefit of it And therefore we find that he commanded his Apostles to go into all the World and to preach the Gospel to every Creature and that he gave them Abilities to obey such his Command by bestowing on them and many of those who should be instructed by them the Gift of Tongues and the Power of working Miracles By which Means there was Provision made for the Faith of all as well as for the Salvation of all for the Means as well as for the End But yet because 1. The Propagating the Means of Faith that is because the Propagating the Gospel to all Mankind was left in the Hand of Man and for that Reason was not likely to be performed according to the Will and Command of God insomuch that he who is both the Author and Finisher of our Faith does before his departure out of this World make it a Question Whether upon his Return he should find Faith in it Shall the son of man when he cometh find faith upon the earth And because 2. As it was likely that those Men who had the Means of Faith and Salvation themselves would not so it has been found by Experience that they have not at least they have not so industriously propagated such Means as that they should reach to all others And because 3. Tho' any Man may defeat the Counsel of God for his own Salvation and if he do so his Damnation will not only be just but necessary yet it is not agreeable to the Equity of the Divine Justice that it should be in the Power of any Man to defeat the Counsel of God for the Salvation of any other Man I say from these Things laid together it may seem no improbable Conclusion That God will by some way or other make known his Counsel to all Men for their