Sacrifices and operose services arising from the beggarliness and poverty of all Types fully to represent the Messiah in whom they did more abundantly meet yet herein might they as in a Glass eye a Redeemer and in him God appeased sin pardoned and their Persons justified and accepted The satisfactory Reason whereof lay onely in him who was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the World in Gods Acceptation and representation to the Faith of Believers Now whilest God did thus Train up the Jewish Church in the hopes and expectation of a Deliverer he offered also to others of the World though forfeiting Gods especial Notice by the general revolt and common Apostacy a joynt Interest in those priviledges stated and settled upon the Iudaical Church as her Dowry provided they would come under the bond of the Covenant and joyn themselves to the people of God and thereby attend the great Ends and reach of Divine Grace to save sinners by the Intervention of the seed of the Woman And further to leave some standing hints upon Record that in due time he intended to throw open the bedge and let the Gentiles into the Priviledges of the Iews who seem'd the Monopolizers of all true Religion and Worship it has graciously pleas'd the same God to reveal to some few others out of the Purlieus of that Body as to Iob the Doctrine of a Redeemer as early pledges to the World that those favours should not alwayes lye under Sequestration How miraculously God preserved this Church and State is needless to insist on but remarkable was his Care over Iudah that though she had justifi'd her sister Samaria and out-done those in sin whom she had out-gone in Mercy yet when the ten Tribes were hurried away into Captivity God remembred that ancient Promise that Scepter and Law-giver were not to depart from Iudah till he that should come was come and therefore notwithstanding as heynous provocations all Circumstances considered and proportionable dangers as ever yet exposed a people to utter ruine still Iudah lived And though the Holy God in Vindication of his wronged Honour before the world was concern'd to visit their Iniquities with a Seventy years Captivity in Babylon yet still he kept a fixed Eye upon the Tribe of Iudah and especially the Family of David to which e're this the producing of the Messiah had been entaiâ—…ed And it was not for Nothing that after their Return they were so precise and punctual in their Genealogies that there might no scruple arise in after-times when Christ should come but that he was of the Stock of Abraham of the Tribe of Iudah of the seed of David according to the flesh In contemplation of which stupendious design the wisdom of its management his Arm made bare to second and back the work how the Great God preserved the Iewish Polity from utter dissolution till it had done its work and teem'd the Messiah into the World and when that was done how all things conspired for its dissolution how the greatest Convulsions and Earthquakes which would have unhinged other Kingdoms and have thrown them from their Consistency yet made that Common-wealth take deeper root whilest God would serve himself thereof and when he had no more service for that Tribe how it was scatter'd How Providence marvellously secured the Vessel in the midst of those waves which the Malice of Hell endeavoured to lift up as high as Heaven wherein the Salvation of the World was embarqued and when it had once safely landed a Saviour in the habitable parts of the Earth where his delights had been how the Ship sprung a leak and sunk of it self These things make me with the Divine Herbert pause and say How dear to me O God thy Councels are Who may with thee compare But our Authors lips doe not like these Lettuces Two things he industriously sweats at in this Section First To shew us Wherein Happiness consists and then to inform us in the Way and Means to reach that Happiness A glorious Undertaking indeed wherein though he should founder yet an Attempt has its praise and may at least plead for Phaëtons Epitaph Quem si non tenuit Magnis tamen excidit Ausis It was Austins Censure of the Platonists Patriam viderunt Viam ignorârunt They were convinc'd that true Happiness must needs consist in enjoying the True God The chiefest Good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Being Self-being Essential being but they were wretchedly bewildred in finding out the way to the enjoyment of him and for all their skill could never double the Cape of good Hope Where Plato ended our Author begins Ubi desinit Philosophus incipit Theologus and wherein he fail'd he undertakes to write his Supplement 1 Then though there be less need of that would you know wherein true happiness consists you are answer'd In the Knowledge and Love of God who is the greatest and best Being If he means the utmost happiness Mans Nature is capable of it wants a word or two This Knowledge must be a perfect Knowledge and this Love a perfect Love and to this Knowledge and Love of Man to God you must adde the Sense of Gods Love to and delight in Man and Mans reciprocal satisfaction and complacency in God as his Portion It 's a tedious Question bandyed amongst the School-men wherein the Formale of Blessedness lyes some contend for the Vision others for the Love of God but he seems to me to have determin'd best who has joyn'd both Faelicitas hominis consistit quidem in Visione sed Charitativâ in Amore sed Oculatissimo The Happiness of Man consists in the most Loving Sight and in the most Seeing Love of God but the Controversie will not lye here 2 For the Means of Reaching this Happiness he assigns this God hath made known himself and will to the World Our Author is now obliging Posterity with a Discovery of the North-east Passage to China and the Indies the old way round about Africa is tedious and dangerous and therefore let him not want the Trade-wind of your Prayers that he meet not with Sir Hugh Willoughbies Fate whilest he attempts to make out a shorter Cutt. Now concerning this you must understand That God who is never wanting to his own Glory and the Happiness of his Creatures hath taken care in all Ages by one Means or other to make known himself and his Will to the World Our Author presumes he has penn'd this Discourse with much Artifice and laid a train of fallacies for us which if not timely discovered and prevented will irrecoverably blow us and our Cause up into the Aire in the next Section But indeed the best part of his Policy is the confounding of things and involving them in such Intricacies and Perplexities that it 's much harder to discover his Errors than to confute them being once discovered like what Physicians tell us of the Hectick Fever that in its first Rise it 's hardly discerned but otherwise
Wit or two had successefully managed the grand Project of Self-Advancement by these Artifices and this new and blessed mode of Simony had Wealth and Honour came Trolling in amain and then Interest which ever spies peep of day at a Narrow Cranny soon struck into the practice of it But there was a small inconvenience which attended the Design and may possibly if not timously prevented spoyl its Expectations For when every Pedlingwit would be pecking at the Trade the Commodity stuck most miserably upon their hands became a very Drug and even scoffing at Religion turn'd to as little Account as the more common and trite way of Whipping and Spurring for the first Occupancy of a Presentation It 's usually and easily observed that the first Authors of great Inventions commonly grow Rich by their Novel Discoveries but when ordinary Abilities will be tampering and dabling with what they want Brains to manage they fall wondrously short of their wide Hopes and hugeous Expectancies And just so has it proved in the Case before us They who first taught this too docile Age to Travesteere serious matters had indeed the Vogue and engross'd the Benefit of their Inventions to their own proper Use and Behoof but Pretenders soon clapt in as you know if one Dog has a Bone all the rest will be about his Ears and now the multitude of Candidates has so brought down the Market that it will quit for Cost little better than the plain Dunstable high-way of Favour Alliance and Bribery The best Advice therefore I shall ever be capable of giving our Author and his Co-partners in this Trade will be That they improve their Friends to procure a special Priviledge or golden Bull from his Holiness That none presume to Preach Print or otherwise to publish any Invectives Sarcasms Satyrs Drollery or Raillery whatsoever whether with Wit or without Wit against J. O. T. J. W. B. and the rest of the Nonconformists nor against the Christian Religion under their Names during the space of One and Twenty Years now next and immediately ensuing the date hereof without the special Leave and express Licence of them the said S. P. and W. S. or their Assigns Some I perceive who are less knowing in this Mystery have given themselves causeless trouble to enquire Why our Author should single out these Persons and their Writings for his Enemies when he might with the same Ease and Modesty have combated the first Reformers of our Church reproached the Reverend Bishops and most eminent Divines and above all duelled the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of Eugland and either with Franciscus à S. Clarâ have reconciled them to his own Notions or if they were stomackfull and stubborn and would not bend most stoutly have confuted them But these Persons do not consider that such a Procedure had been both Dangerous and Scandalous Dangerous because that Doctrine is Armed with Law and fenced with Secular Power and Scandalous because it would have looked with an ugly face first to subscribe them to gratifie a mans Convenience and then to confute them to satisfie his Conscience And therefore this other way was judged more eligible which might secure if not reward the Author and yet as effectually destroy the Doctrine That he fixt upon this Course therefore as more adviseable never created my wonder but one thing I confess did That the Governours of the Church should appear so tender in a Ceremony and yet seem so little concern'd for the Substance of the established Religion that they should so severely Animadvert upon them who meddle with a Pin and yet take so little notice of those who are digging up the Foundation of the Building But hence we may learn That some may with more safety steal a Horse than others look over the Hedge so strangely does the same thing vary from its self when done by differing hands that as one informs us from Livy Papyrius slighted the Pullarii handsomely and was well rewarded when Appius Pulcher for doing the same thing slovenly and rudely was disgraced But it 's high time to consider our Author There are Two Praeliminaries which usher in the Body of his Discourse in this Section First an Account what notable Feats he has done in the former and Secondly a modest account of his own Ingenuity in this Section What he has atchieved in the former he summes up in few words After this plain Account wherein the Knowledge of Christ consists the summe of which is this that to understand Christ is to understand his Gospel which contains all those Revelations he made of Gods Will. I must needs say I could have been content he had called it a learned Account an unparallel'd Account a witty gentile or indeed almost any other Account in the world besides a Plain one for though there be but little of Truth yet there 's nothing at all of Plainness in it I had alwayes thought and Thoughts are as free for me as another that the Formale of the Knowledge of Christ lay in knowing his Person that he is God and Man two Natures united in one Person his Offices that he is our Prophet our King our High-Priest and that the understanding of the Gospel is the onely proper Means to come to the understanding and knowledge of Christ Who he is What he is in Himself and to us But that the knowledge of Christ should consist in understanding the Gospel is an uncouth way of Praedication wherewith I am not yet acquainted Jesus Christ is understood in and by the Gospel True he that understands the Gospel must needs understand Jesus Christ Very good but still as a Means leading to that End and not the very thing it self Much less is it true That the Knowledge of Christ consists in understanding the Gospel as it contains all the Revelations of Gods will For this was but a part and the least part too of Christs Employment and Undertaking Christ had something more to doe than revealing to us Gods Will Suffering the Displeasure was a harder task than Revealing the Will of God It was one thing to Preach a Sermon and another to sweat drops of Blood to have his Soul made an Offering for sin to have the Iniquities of us all to meet upon him Christ had many things to doe and command as our Lord and Governour many things to suffer as our Sacrifice many to offer as our Priest and what he had thus done and suffer'd to Reveal to us as our Prophet and Teacher But supposing all this to be true That the knowledge of Christ consists in the knowledge of the Gospel and suppose also further that the Gospel contains no more than a Revelation of Gods Will concerning us and our Obedience what use can he make of it Why hence he will take a happy occasion to reproach some body or other who have formed Another Notion of the Knowledge of Christ very distinct from this which contains a greater secret than one
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
whole Churches otherwise than by the Individuals is unconceivable They are single Persons that are Justified Sanctified Adopted Pardoned and Saved and not a Complex Notion which is only an Operation of the Mind conceiving of singular things as they relate one to another There is yet one Text of Scripture which our Author has reserved as the Triarij to the main Battle and though his Jelites be Cut off and his Body shaken yet so long as his Reserves are entire and unbroken he cannot be totally Routed The place is Iohn 15. 1 2 3 4 5. I am the true Vine and my Father is the Husbandman Abide in me and I in you As the Branch cannot bear Fruit except it abide in the Vine no more can ye except ye abide in me Now because he lays such a Stress upon and places all his Hopes and Confidence in this place I shall particularly Examine 1. His Interpretation 2. His Reasons for that Interpretation 3. The Use he makes of this Interpretation 1. For his Interpretation it has more Faces than Ianus and more Colours than the Rainbow I am the true Vine Where I signifies Christ together with his Church There 's one Face But pag. 146. He repents that ever he took the Person of Christ into the Paraphrase for fear some ill disposed persons should make an ill use on t and therefore he Glosses it thus I am the true Vine that is the Church So I is grown a Church But yet that neither will not answer all his Occasions nor stop all Gaps and therefore it must put on another shape pag. 147. When Christ speaks in the first Person I he cannot mean this of his own Person but of his Church Doctrine and Religion And yet for all this it will not do the Feat but it must pass through one Metamorphosis more and it signifies a sincere and hearty Belief of the Gospel So here we have got the Act and the Object Married together in this one word I A man would conclude he had found at last Aristotles Materia Prima it 's Omnium formarum capax Nothing in Act but every thing in Power a piece of soft Wax that 's plyable to any Impression a mere blanck Paper you may Write down your own Conditions But what is meant by the Vine Why that 's the Church too pag. 146. That is the Church which is founded on the belief of my Gospel is the only true Church Or I am the Vine that is the Church is the Church but let us proceed He that abideth in me In me that is the Christian Church I in him that is the Christian Doctrine For without me you can do uothing That is without a sincere belief of my Gospel And now he presumes he has laid his Matters so Closely Evenly and Regularly together that he may defie the Cunning of the most expert Caviller to disturb them And yet to deal openly with him he has not lead me Captive by his fair Colours and regular Proportions For 1. I find his way of Interpretation meerly Arbitrary such as has no other Foundation but the Soveraign will of the Commentator he deals with Scripture as if it were his perfect Vassal and he the absolute Monarch of the Word of God and that his Paraphrase knew no other Language than his Car tel est nostre plaisir For such is our Will and Pleasure Let the Reader take but a taste He that abideth in me and I in him Where Me must signifie the Christian Church and I the Christian Doctrine For we must know for our Learning that Me in the Ablative case must always signifie a Church but I in the Nominative case that 's the Christian Doctrine And if any peevish Fellow shall Object that it 's a huge Wonder that such a slight Variation of the Case should alter the Signification Every puisny Shool-Boy will inform him that the varying the Case does wonderfully alter the Case Now had it been Referred to a Hundred Systematical Heavy-headed Divines they would have concluded One and All that if I signifie a Doctrine Me will signifie the same And if Me signifie a Church I will signifie neither better nor worse but a Church too but when a Zaphnath Paaneah a Revealer of Secrets shall take the Matter in hand he will shew you the difference 2. Another Exception I have against this Interpretation is That Christ has often spoke in the first Person He has compared himself to many other things and yet never intended any thing by I but his own Self Iohn 10. 11. I am the good Shepherd And besides that we have had our Authours Suffrage to it the thing it self makes it evident that Christ speakes there neither of Church nor Doctrine The Fold must signifie the Church The Pasture will answer the Doctrine and Christians they are the Sheep but Christ himself is the Shepherd And yet one signification more for this poor I will do the business let it signifie the Pastors and Bishops and that will heal all And I do not doubt when he has need of them he can fiâ—…d a Dozen more significations of that one word that one Letter I. Again Iohn 10. 7. Christ says I am the Door Now the Church is evidently the House or Temple and so I will not do very well for Church in that place And the Doctrine is the Orders and Rules for Government of the House and therefore we had not best make I signifie Doctrine neither in this place Oh! but then and it was well thought on Baptism is a Sacrament of Admission into the Church and then it will run as Glib upon the Tongue as may be I am the Door that is Baptism is the Door But what shall we say to Iohn 6. 48. I am the Bread of Life Oh! that is wondrous easie and the Interpretation natural and without straining that is My Doctrine is the Bread of Life which answers the Manna But then Christ tells us ver 51. That the Bread which he will give is his Flesh which he will give for the Life of the World What shall become of us now Why our Author must take advice with his Pillow about this Difficulty and let it signifie any thing in the World Black or Blew provided it do not signifie the Person of Christ and the Interpretation is authentick and by to Morrow-morning shall shine with it's own Light 3. This Interpretation avows false Doctrine He had told us That by He that abideth in me is meant he that abideth in the Christian Church And our Saviour assures us ver 5. That without Me ye can do nothing Now in just proportion to his Interpretation the sence must run thus Without you be in the Christian Church it 's impossible ye should do any thâ—…ng that is good And how notoriously false this is of a particular Church is evident how many particular Churches have been dissolved The Shepheard smitten and the Sheep scattered and yet the Indiviâ—…uals have
prevent Objections It 's evident says he from the Chapter that Christ when he speaks in the First Person I and in Me cannot mean this of his own Person but of his Church Doctrine and Religion But where lies the Evidence of this great Demonstration Why Christ says I am the true Vine and ye are the Branches He that abideth in me and I in him bringeth forth much Fruit for without me you can do nothing Well what of all this Why our Author would willingly Learn what sence can be made of all this if we understand it of the Person of Christ And I will as willingly Teach him if he be not too proud to Learn I Iesus Christ the Mediator of the New Covenant am very fitly compared to a Vine and ye my Disciples are as fitly compared to the Branches of a Vine Now he that really abideth in me by a true lively faith and I in him by the Quickening Operations of my Spirit the same bringeth forth much Fruit of holy Obedience for without derivation of Grace from Me your Root you can do nothing that is truly good and acceptable to God Oh! but he has two or three formidable Objections against this Interpretation 1. It 's not very Intelligible How we can be or abide in Christs Person No more it is If we bring Capernaitical understandings along with us who Puzled their Heads with a gross Notion of Carnal eating the Flesh and drinking the Blood of Christ. If by being in Christ were understood a Local Physical or Natural being in Him it were somewhat Unintelligible but when no more is meant by it but that every true Believer is by Constitution of the Covenant of Grace one Person morally with Christ so considered and dealt with by God there 's no more insuperable Difficulty than what unbelief will create in the clearest Truths of the Gospel But 2. It 's more unintelligible still How we can be in the Person of Christ and the Person of Christ at the same time be in us Which is a new piece of Philosophy called Penetration of Dimensions But there 's no great danger in that Christ may dwell in us by his Spirit and we in him by Faith and yet Faith and the Spirit never disturb each other in their Motions but what the Dimensions of the Soul in its actings of Faith or of the Spirit in it's working of Grace are this I confess is to me unintelligible And that a Christian should be in the Church and the Church at the same time be in a Christian had been equally Unintelligible and as much danger of the Penetration of Dimensions But that our Author stumbled upon a happy Expedient that I should signifie a Doctrine and Me a Church to heal the Contradiction 3. That our Fruitfulness should depend on our Union to Christ is as hard to my understanding Truly I cannot help that I have no Medicine to cure Crazed Intellectuals He that cannot understand that Believers do receive Actual assistance from Christ by his Spirit to help them in the way of their Duty and to encourage them against the Difficulties they meet withal in their Duties cannot I presume understand very many Lines in the Gospel 3. Our last Task is to Examine what improvement he has made of this Interpretation and in short it is this That the Union of particular Christians to Christ consists in their Union to the Christian Church And now I am abundantly satisfied that our Author is a very Philomel Vox praeterea nihil One whose Volubility of Tongue and Pen supplies the place of Argument and Demonstration I hope our Author will not meet with many Readers who have so far parted with their Memories as not to remember what that was he Propounded to himself to Evince viz. That the Union of particular Christians to Christ is by means of their Union with the Christian Church And yet now when he comes to cast up his Accounts we have gotten another Conclusion That the Union of particular Christians to Christ consists in their Union to the Christian Church Surely the Purblind will espie some small difference Eating is a means to Living yet none but a Swine of Epicurus his Stye will say that Living consists in Eating The High-road is a means to bring the Traveller Home yet it will be hard to perswade us that being at Home consists in Travelling Trading is a mean to Riches yet Riches do not formally consist in Trading The end may possibly be separated from the Means but nothing can be separated from that thing wherein it consists But let that pass If he has proved either the one or the other I am content he be reputed an Artist The thing he has a good will to prove is That the Union of particular Christians to Christ is either by means of their Union to the Christian Church or else that it consists in it Now for the Proof of this He has told us That the Church is the Body of Christ The Church is the Temple of Christ The Church is the Spouse of Christ The Church is the Flock of Christ. And had it been referred to a thousand Persons not one but would have thought that that Christ who is the Head of that Body is a Person He that is the Husband of that Spouse is a Person He that is the Shepheard of the Flock is a Person and He that Dwells in that Temple is a Person But things are not so far gone but our Author shall have his Opinion and choose what he will abide by for my part I am much unconcern'd let him please himself he shall not displease me at all Say then Shall it be Christs Doctrinal or Christs Ecclesiastical that is the Head of this Body The Husband of this Spouse The Shepheard of this Flock I can rest satisfied But then the Sence runs thus A Doctrine or a Church is the Head of the Church A Doctrine or a Church is the Husband of the Church A Doctrine or a Church is the Shepheard of the Church If this does not please him let him try the other way and allow it to be a Person that is all these A Person that is the Head Husband and Shepheard of the Church And now I must plainly acquaint him That he has Entangled his Affairs in such confusion that he will never be able to Extricate them For 1. If the Person of Christ be here intended then it seems at last whatever the means be of that Union yet there is an Union to the Person of Christ and whereinsoever that Union consists yet such an Uunion there is How absurd would it be to enquire whether our Union to Christ's Person consists in our Union with a particular Church If Union to Christs Person be a Non-entity Or Whether our Union with a particular Church be the means to our Union with Christ If there be no such thing And then 2. He is as much concern'd as his poor Neighbours to salve the
and a new Spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart out of your Flesh and give you an heart of Flesh and I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my Statutes and ye shall keep my judgments and do them where the order and method of God in this great work is laid down with such a convincing evidence that he must have no eyes or shut those he has who does not see it And 1. God promises that he will remove the great principle of resistance that which makes head and opposition to the Commands of God the stony hard inflexible-Heart 2 That he will bestow another a better a new heart a soft Spirit a heart of Flesh that may comply and close in with Gods Commands 3. That from this new heart all new obedience all service acceptable to God must proceed as from its spring or root I will put my Spirit into you and cause you to walk in my Statutes and ye shall keep my judgments 4. That all obedience inward and outward obedience keeping the Commandements of God with the heart and doing them in the practice of our lives yet all must proceed from this new heart this new Spirit which God promised to put within them But he comes to close Argument we are exhorted that the same mind be in us that was in Christ Phil. 2. 5. And to be his disciples is to learn of him who was meek and lowly in spirit Math. 11. 29. We question not that it s our duty to imitate Christ to copy out all his imitable excellencies and if he can prove that we can do this viz. imitate Christ in Acts of self denyal taking up the Crosse bearing reproach forgiving enemies without a better heart and Nature than we brought into the world with us he will then begin to speak to the purpose But says our Authour Christ transcribed his own nature into his Laws and therefore a sincere obedience to his Laws is a conformity to his Nature To which I answer 1. He that transcribed his Nature into his own Laws must yet transcribe it once more even into the heart of a son of Adam e're he can give to him that new Obedience which is acceptable to him It was not enough that God wrote his Lawes in Stone unless they be written upon the Tables of the heart with the finger of God 2. Obedience to the Laws of Christ does increase our conformity to the Nature of Christ but still there must be a renewed heart and Nature upon which all progressive conformity to Christ in obedience must proceed 3. Transcribing of Christs Nature into his Lawes is a Metaphorical expression which our Authour may explain how he pleases but I observe alwayes when he can cloath an Argument with Metaphors he is then secure yet still he presses upon us from Rom. 8. 9. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his That is says he Unlesse he have the same Temper and disposition of mind that Christ had Now let the Reader look well about him and he shall see rare sights we do all remember that to be United to Christ or to be one of Christs signifie to be United to a particular Church And now we are told That by having the Spirit of Christ is meant being of the same temper and disposition and now from hence we have these consectaries 1. That if any man be not of the same Temper with Christ that is be not holy as he is holy he cannot be United to a particular Church And our Saviour has vouched for it John 3. 5. Except a man be regenerate and born again he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God We must be like minded with Christ and thereby become one of his and what is now become of the great Proposition that has filled so many pages That the only means of Uniting as to Christ is by our Union with a particular Church 2. He tells us that Union to Christ is described by having the Spirit and then having the Spirit is interpreted by being of the same Temper with Christ so now we have got another Doctrine That our Union to Christ consists in being of the same Temper and disposition with him But 3. We have here an excellent expedient to discharge the World both of the Person of Christ and of the Spirit too For as he can interpret Christs Person into Doctrine office Church Religion Bishops Baptism so he has interpreted the Spirit into Temper disposition and when an exigency calls for it he may explicate it by a strong wind or a vapour and then his work is done But 3. For the explicating of the new Nature he tells us there is a closer Union which results from this which consists in a mutual and reciprocal love which I am glad of amongst other Reasons for this that now it will be lawfull to Love Christ without persecution provided alwayes we do not over love him nor be passionately in love with him but yet there are a few inconveniences which attend this explication For 1. If we be United and closely United to Christ by Love then a Political Union is not the onely one betwixt Christ and Christians And 2. Then it seems for all the sorrow a Christian may be United to Christ without being United to a particular Church for we therefore love Christians because we love Christ and are taken with the imperfect holiness which is copied out into their Natures and lives because we are surprized first with a delightful admiration of Him who is the grand exemplar of all perfect Holinesse 1 John 5. 1. He that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him 3. Why may not this Union with Christ signifie an Union with the Church as well as the other and then to love Christ signifies no more than to love his Church and so we are but where we were 4. It s very strange that our Love should result from our obedience and subjection whereas its hard to conceive how the soul should give subjection without Love and if it should give any a forced subjection without its principle of Love would find as cold a well-come in Christs heart as that cold heart it came from our Saviour had described obedience as the result of love John 14. 15. If ye Love me keep my Commandements No says our Authour keep my Commandements and then you will fall in Love with me but let him give light to his own Notions when we are transformed into the Image of Christ he loves Us as being like him and we love him too as partaking of his Nature He loves us as the price of his blood as his own workmanship created to good works and we love him as our Saviour and Redeemer now love is the great Cement of Union which unites interest and thereby does more firmly unite hearts It is not then quite so bad as was
vouchsafed them but not the Foundation of their Religion under any Notion When God gave the Law upon Mount Sinai He Prefaces it with this strong Inducement I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the Land of Egypt out of the House of Bondage Thou shalt have no other Gods before me May we now upon our Authors Warrant say That Gods delivering them out of Egypt was the Foundation of their Religion in Worshipping the true God and none besides Him or rather that it was an Additional Enforcement to command Obedience to that Law which yet Antecedent to such particular Obligation approved its Authority to their Consciences But that these Deliverances and Providences were no Foundation for the Mosaick Religion I shall endeavour to prove 1. In that God himself declares that he had laid another Foundation Isa. 28. 16. Behold I lay in Zion a sure Foundation And this is not constitutive of what was New but declarative of what was Old not only a Prophesie of what he would do but a clearer Discovery of what he had done that he might lead them into stronger Expectations of that Messiah which from time to time was promised would come and in fulness of Time should come and this Foundation God laid in Zion Which though it may express the Gospel-Church yet surely must not exclude the Iewish to which the Name Primarily appertains 2. In that God had actually laid another Foundation from the Foundation of the World for sinners to Build their Hopes upon in their addresses to God Thus was Christ the Lamb slain from the Foundation of the World Apoc. 13. 8. Slain particularly in the Sacrifices which commencing with the New Covenant ran a Line parallel with the Old World to the one great Sacrifice of Christ our High Priest upon the Cross. In that first Promise then made to our first Parents and afterwards Amplified to Abraham was the Foundation of all acceptable Religion and Worship Gen. 12. 2 3. God promises to Abraham In thee shall all the Families of the Earth be blessed which promise that it contained Christ the Apostle assures us Gal. 3. 8â—… The Scripture fore-seeing that God would justifie tâ—… Heathen through Faith Preacht before the Gospâ—… to Abraham In thee shall all the Nations of tâ—… Earth be blessed ver 16. Now to Abraham aâ—… his Seed were the Promises made he saith not tâ—… Seeds as of many but as of one and to thy Seeâ—… which is Christ. Now unless we will find out â—… Quintum Evangelium that has nothing of Chriâ—… in it Abraham had Christ for he had the Gospâ—… Preacht to him and I do not understand what Gospâ—… signifies without Christ. Our Author I me sure of all the Men under Heaven has Reason to alloâ—… it for he would have Christ signifie Gospel anâ—… therefore cannot blame us who would have Gospâ—… to include Christ because we are loth his Persoâ—… should be quite shut out of it And again Thâ—… Promises were made to Abraham And is it not strange that Promises should be made to him and he not understand one word of them What waâ—… the Foundation of Abraham's was the Foundation of the Iewish Religion Nothing at all in their Service or Worship could plead for Acceptation bâ—… as it came under the Influence of those Types which were of no value in themselves but upon the Account of Christ. In Levit. 6. 1 2 3 4. If â—… Soul sin and commit a Trespass against the Lord c. I cannot but give the Reader a Breviate of some Remarkables in this Scripture 1. That the Sins here mention'd were not ceremonial Pollutions legal Defilements but such Wickednesses as were discoverable by the Light and condemned by the Law of Nature Lying Cozening False-swearing Unfaithfulness in Trust c. 2. That these sins did bring a proper Guilt upon the Conscience as being committed against the Lord and therefore the Sinner was guilty before God that is Obnoxious and liable to his Displeasure and bound over in conscience to answer it at Gods Tribunal ver 1. If a Soul sin and commit a Trespass against the Lord ver 4. Then it shall be because he hath sinned and is guilty 3. That for that part of his Fact which was Injurious to his Neighbour that which he violently took away or the thing he hath deceitfully gotten or that which was delivered him to keep or the lost thing which he found he was to restore the principal in Specie and to add a fifth part more because of the Damnum emergens 4. That notwithstanding he had thus compounded with man he must bring his Trespass-offering to the Lord a Ram without blemish ver 6. 5. The Priest was to receive the Trespass-offering at his hand and offer it up to the Lord. 6. The design of this Offering was Attonement procuring Favour from God 7. Here 's a Promise of the full Pardon of sin annexed unto this Sacrifice ver 7. It shall be forgiven him for any thing of all that he hath done in Trespassing therein Now upon the whole Matter we observe here was Pardon of sin annext to a Sacrifice and yet their Reasons could tell them as Paul has told us Heb. 10. 4. It 's not possible that the blood of Bulls and Goats should take away sin And I think we may venture to say the same of the blood of Rams too How shall these then be Reconciled I know no other way but by owning the Respect which they bore to the Lord Iesus Christ who was from the Foundation of and all along the World the only Lamb slain of value for these ends in Gods Account Thirdly The Christian Religion is founded on the Incarnation Death and Resurrection of the Son of God Our Author had founded his own and the Christian Religion on the Sacrifice and Intercession of Christ p. 15. But perhaps fearing or finding the Foundation too narrow has here widened it at the bottome and taken in the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. But I hope now the Storm will blow over and the Indignation conceived against those Persons who Love Honour and admire Christs Person a little Slake for if their Religion the Acceptation of their Persons and Services be built upon Him as Sacrificed for them on the Cross and Interceding for them on the Throne they do judge it their duty to love him against the World Nay what will you say if our Author himself should become a Convert his own Hope and that 's his All he says is Built on the Sacrifice and Intercession of Christ And can you imagine but he should Admire and Adore his Person And then may there not arise a danger that he should set up a Religion of Christs Person However that goes This I know it was Christs blessed Person that endured the Shock and abode the Storm of that Displeasure which was due to our sin and no Reason can be assigned why a Person should endure all the Sorrow and not have
gives subjection to all inferiour officers in all things wherein they act by his Commission for he may passe for a very tolerable good Subject who does all things that are commanded him so in this case no man can be said to Obey Christ who denies subjection to the Pastors of the Church who act according to their instructions from the supreme Lord of the Church nor any be said to resist Christs authority though they refuse complyance in those things to the Officers of the Church wherein they act besides their Commission But let us a while wholly set aside the consideration of the lawfulness or unlawfullness of these new conditions of Communion yet still me thinks there 's a great deal of disingenuity in the Pastors of a Church to make new Terms of Communion with them for if it be so necessary as is pretended to our Union with Christ that we be United to the Church and then again so necessary to our Salvation to be United to Christ and then further so necessary to our Union with the Church to submit to those conditions that the Pastors shall appoint every new condition is a Bar to and a Clog upon our Salvation We must come up to the condition e're we can be United to the Church and we must be United to the Church e're we can be United to Christ and we must be United to Christ e're we can be saved That condition therefore how small soever it be in it self how indifferent soever in its own Nature is thereby made necessary to Salvation because indispensably required to that which is so Now I will not clamour and make a noise at this as an evil thing but yet methinks it does not look as if it had over much good Nature in 't for a Church to deal thus with the people The Church received a Religion from Christ at first that had no incumbrance upon it and that the Church should leave it deeplyer engaged than she found it I think is not very handsome if the Church found the door wide open why does shee set it on half-charrs when she could march in with a full body why should others be forced to crowd in and wedge themselves through a narrow wicket sidelings why should the Pastors bind heavy burdens on others fhoulders when Christ laid none upon theirs or why should they raise the Markets so high in the latter age when they had it so cheap in the primitive times It was a good plain saying of King Iames to the pragmatical Spalatensis when he would be new modelling affairs at Winsor Extraneus es Relinque res sicut eas invenisti Come Reader there 's no false Latine in 't had former Ages heard and taken the advice we could have been content with the Primitive light though we had wanted sumptuous Candlesticks the power of Religion had made amends for its plainnesse and golden Officers recompensed woodden chalices Thus far at our Authors invitation we have step't out of the way and are now ready to return with him into it The next thing considerable wherein he ingages is a description of the New nature whereof the Holy Ghost makes frequent mention as that from which all new Obedience must proceed This New Nature says he the Scripture represents under several Notions 1. By the subjection of our minds and Spirits to Christ. 2. By a participation of the same Nature which is the necessary effect of the subjection of our minds to him If a man would study to be cross all his days and resolve to trade in no figure but Hysteron Proteron he might hardly hope to equalize our Author in this discourse For 1. What subjection of mind and Spirit can be given to Christ without a new Nature from whence that Act of subjection should proceed the most inward Acts of Obedience are yet but Acts the most spiritual and refined workings of the soul are still but works and have alwayes for their root and principal a good and an honest a new and a renewed heart and Nature Thus we see 't is in Nature there must be a principle of motion before there can be natural motion all the rest is violent and against the hair And this order our Saviour has described in the most plain and familiar way to gratifie our understandings that they could desire Math. 12. 33. Either make the tree good and the fruit good or the evil and the fruit evil and Math. 7. 17. 18. Do men gather Grapes of thornes or Figs of Thistles Even so every good Tree bringeth forth good Fruit and a corrupt Tree brings forth evil fruit But our Authour has found out a way called Transmutation of species to make a Thorn become a Vine and to Transubstantiate a Thistle into a Figtree I know the Reader has a grudging of the old curiosity to see the experiment The operation therefore is this teach a Thistle to produce Figs for one seven years and you shall see it become as very a Fig-tree as any is in the world thus let the natural and unregenerate man perform multiplyed Acts of the best obedience he can and without any efficacious working of the Holy Ghost he shal acquire a new heart which I shall believe at the same time when I see a thousand Cyphers give themselves the significancy of one figure Our Blessed Saviour has long ago determined this to our hand John 3. 6. That which is born of the flesh is flesh Let the Egyptian Pollinctors practise upon it let them sweeten perfume and season it with the spicery of India and all the balm of Gilead it will be but flesh still all its operations carnal 2. It will be of good use in this matter to enquire wherein lay the Image of God in Adam what relation it had to his obedience and thence perhaps we may get some light what order the Image of God in us observes That it mainly consists in righteousness and true holinesse no man can doubt that reads the Apostles description Eph. 4. 24. but now it is evident that Adam did not procure this Image of God by repeated Acts of obedience it was not the result of many particular duties it was no acquired habit but it was concreated with him as a condition due and meet for a Creature made to such sublime and glorious ends as the enjoyment of his God and from this Nature this Image of God proceeded all that Obedience which he payed all that which God required and accepted And if this be so it 's evident that all who are renewed who are born again who are Created unto good works go through the same method So the Apostle Col. 3. 10. And have put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the Image of him that Created him The order of Gods working is conformable to his promise we may be sure he will do both what and how he has promised Ezek. 36. 26. A new heart also will I give you
are by the Bread and Wine And the Liturgy in the Office of the Supper expresses not onely a Communication of reall Nourishment from Christ to our Souls but a mutual communication of our Praise and Thanksgiving to God for Christ and to Christ for his Flesh and Blood which compleats the Communion The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ which was given for Thee preserve thy Body and Soul into Everlasting Life and Take and Eat this in remembrance that Christ dyed for thee and feed on him in thy Heart by Faith and be Thankfull But to put this out of doubt That all Communion is grounded upon Union I will quote our Author to our Author for Nothing cuts the Diamond like it self God says he entertains us at his Table as his own children Why then let it be referred to the Man that comes next Whether sitting at Gods Table does not presuppose us to be Children Surely we are not therefore Children because we sit at the Table but we therefore sit at the Table because we are Children Again p. 152. Our Author whose word ought to go far with himself assures us That Baptism is the Sacrament of our Admission into the Church There 's our Union then however and the Lords Supper finding us already united affords us a communion or a participation of those Priviledges which flow from that Union So that whether our Union to Christ consist in our Union to the Church or no yet still there must be an Union to the Church before we can hold Communion with it in those Mercies and Blessings which Christ has entailed upon it And thus has our Author made a quick dispatch of Communion with Christ in the Lords Supper could he but as fairly dispatch it out of all other Exercises of Religion he might seriously Triumph that he had cut off the Neck of all Religion at one Blow Well success waits upon the Bold Undertaker and there 's no hurt in a daring Attempt Prayer says he and Meditation and such like Acts of Devotion are no where called Communion with God Our Author is just now turning Quaker Thou man where dost thou read that the People of God put off their Hats or wore Ribbands and Lace But to satisfie him Prayer and Meditation are not called nor are they Communion with God but Means whereby and Wayes of Gods appointment wherein we hold Communion with him In these and other Ordinances we communicate to him the Actings of our Faith Fear Love delight Praise c. and by these he communicates to us of his Grace Strength Favour Mercy to help us in the time of our Need. In Prayer we pour out our hearts before him Psal. 62. 8. In Prayer and Meditation We lift up our Souls to the Lord Psal. 25. 1. Hence that frequent Expression of the Ancient Christians Sursum Corda continued in the Liturgy Lift up your hearts Ans. We lift them up to the Lord But a few dribling Objections he has against this also 1 Object Communion does not consist in Transient Acts. Ans. 1. Communion does consist in those permanent Effects conveyed by transient Acts the Effect of Prayer abides when the Act is over 2. The Lords Supper is a Transient Act both in opposition to Permanent and Immanent and yet there is a real Communion between Christ and Believers therein 2 Object You will not say a poor Man has Communion with his Prince when he puts up a Petition to him to begg his Charity Ans. It 's more than our Author can tell whether we will say so or no. If a Prince commands his Subjects to make their Addresses to him in all their streights promising that the great distance between them shall not prejudice their Supplications and shall appoint a Person near and dear to himself to receive from them and present to him all their Petitions that in his Name they may find Acceptation and Answer if now his poor Subjects shall give faith to his Promises make use of his Indulgence own their Relation to him and improve the Mediation of that Master of Requests and upon the Relief of their Wants Redress of their Grievances shall return their humble and hearty thanks and learn to love their Prince more to serve him better to become more loyal Subjects methinks here 's that which may be called Communion grounded upon Union 3 Obj. To Pray to God is an Act of Homage which we owe to him as our Creator and Father Ans. I looked every moment when he should Confute himself for now he will not deny that Relation to God as our Creator and Father precedes this Communion It 's a Duty says he that results from Relation Therefore say I It 's not the Relation it self And therefore I shall still conclude that Communion does properly denote the Communication of good things bottom'd upon that Union and Relation we have to and with each other and that our Author has most wretchedly abused his Time and his Reader in a weak Endeavour to prove That Communion consists in Union and has merited the Character of Hanno the Carthaginian given him by the great Historian That he was a Person very skilfull in the Art of seeming Reverend SECT 2. Of our Union to the Person of Christ. THis Section may well be called Our Author's Lamentations wherein he most passionately bewails how some men have obscured Plain things to his no small trouble I assure you to vindicate them to their Primitive Clearness We who are not privy to his Nocturnal Elucubrations do little think what pains it cost him to scowre off all that Rust which in so long a tract of time as Sixteen hundred years through the Sleepinâ—…ss of the Ancient Fathers and the Sluttishness of all the Christian Churches Religion had contracted to the day of the date of his Reformation But there are others too that whisper out their Complaints How Christ in the beginning of his Gospel bequeathed to us a Religion Decent but not Gawdy Plain but yet Powerful not courting Proselytes with Meretricious Gallantry but Matron-like Modesty Whose Attire was indeed more coarse and home-spun yet withall very warm and fitted to its end But now-a-days all is trim'd up with Ribbands and Lace and set off with Fan and Feather It was a Complaint as old as Austin That men loaded Religion with servile Burdens which God in mercy would have left free So that the condition of the Jews was mâ—…re tolrable that were subject to Legal Sacraments and n t to the Presumptions of men Thus evâ—…ry one coâ—…plains of faults but very few that I can fee will mond ny I suppose our Author will be content that the Reformation of Worship be committed to the Churches care but for reducing the Doctrine that 's a Burden he has reserved for his own shoulders And methinks I see him like the sign of the Atlas supporting the Globe chearfully heaving at the weight and yet never so much as once crinkle in the Hams God says
both be reconciled to God and what did the removal of Ceremonies contribute to that end But says he This New-Covenant belongs to all Mankind to Gentiles as well as Iews there 's now no distinction of Persons no Man is ever the more or less accepâ—…able to God because he is a Iew or a Greek very true I wonder when ever it was otherwise Our Author could have Answered himself from p. 27. Those particular favours that God bestowed on Israel were not owing to any partial fondness and respect to that People but the design of all was to encourage the whole World to Worship the God of Israel And that the Jews were not accepted for their Ceremonial Services we may easily believe if we can but believe what he tells us Pag. 269. The Law of Moses 〈◊〉 them up in a ritual and external Religion taught them to Worship God in the Letter by Circumcision Sacrifices and an external Conformity to the Letter of the Law but the Gospel aloue teaches us to worship God with the Spirit to offer a reasonable Service to him And if he can but assure me that the Gentiles were never the less accepted of God because they were Gentiles I dare give him my Warrant that the Iews were never the more accepted of God for their Judaism according to those Measures which our Author has given of their Religion which it seems was mere Pageantry 2. Concerning Redemption he acquaints us what it signifies both to Iews and Gentiles 1. As to the Iews They says he are said to be redeemed from the Curse of the Law by the accursed Death of Christ upon the Cross Gal. 3. 13. Because the Death of Christ put an end to that legal Dispensation and sealed a New and better Covenant between God and Man It 's well he could find any thing small enough to be the proper and immediate effect of the Death of Christ but who shall reconcile the Apostle and our Author The Apostle says Christ redeemed them by being made a Curse for them Our Author says No he only put an end to that Legal Dispensation The Apostle says they were redeemed by a price paid 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He brought them out with a price which he expresses in words at length 1 Cor. 6. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ye are bought with a price No says he Christ's Death put an end to that legal Dispensation The Apostle says they were redeemed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from under the Curse No says he 't was only a freedom from the legal Dispensation Two suppositions he makes use of to give a Colour to his matters 1. Sect. That the Iews were under no other Curse but that of the Ceremonial Law Now 1. He should have been sure that the Ceremonial Law was a Curse It 's a wonder to me what grievous sins the Iews above all the World should commit that God should put them under such a Curse as should need the Death of Christ to redeem them from it especially what great Crimes had Abraham been guilty of that God should thus Curse and plague him with Circumcision which yet the Scripture calls the Seal of the Righteous Faith Rom. 4. 11. 2. It would be considered whether ever God gave a Law to any People in the World besides them that in its own Nature was a Curse Our Author once told us p. 196. That it pleased God to Institute a great many Ceremonies in the Iewish Worship to awe their Childish minds into a greater Veneration of the Divine Majesty And truly better so than worse better be frighted into Obedience than not at all Obedient But that ever God designed it for a Curse is past my apprehension 3. The Ceremonial Law in it's constitution end and design was a great Blessing there they had Pardon of sin Atonement Reconciliation exhibited and sealed to them Lev. 17 11. 2 Chron. 29. And all this could be no curse but to those who loved their sins better than the pardon of them and to such every Blessing of God would eventually prove a Curse 4. It will appear they were under a greater curse than what arose from the burden someness or their violation of the Ceremonial Law viz. That Condemnation which came upon all Men by the Fall of Adam Rom. 5. 12 13 14. 17 18 19. Such a Curse as was Common not only â—…o Iew and Gentile but to every individual under both capacities Rom. 3. 9. We have proved both Iews and Gentiles that they are all under sin ver 19. That every mouth may be stopped and all the World become guilty before God ver 23. For all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God And therefore all had need of free justification by Grace through the Redemption that is in Iesus Christ ver 24. 5. The Jews were under a curse upon the Account of their violation of the Moral Law and their not duly attending to the true ends of the Ceremonial Law but if the violation of a Law would make it become a curse then the Moral Law was become a curse too and then they had need of a Redeemer from the one as well as the other though both were blessings in themselves The Ceremonial Law in particular had this great blessing in it That as it discovered to them the demerit and Wages of sin in the slaying of the Sacrifices so it discovered a remedy two in the Sacrifices slain for them which directed them to look through them beyond them and above them to him who was the Lamb of God slain from the Foundation of the World All this was no curse 2. Sect. He supposes that the Text Gal. 3. 13. Christ hath Redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us relates onely to the Iews Whereas the Apostle adds to obviate that Cavil That the Blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles Christ is made a curse for them upon whom the Blessing of Abraham came by his Death but the Blessing of Abraham came upon the Gentiles by his Death therefore Christ is made a Curse for the Gentiles And that the Law from the curse whereof both Jews and Gentiles were Redeemed by Christs being made a Curse for them is the Moral Law I have endeavoured to evince in the last Section but whether to our Authors content or no I know not One thing more he supposes that Christs Sealing a New Covenant is Redemption But there must go more than the sealing of such a Covenant as he has described There must be the payment of a Price to Iustice or there can be no Redemption To Redeem is properly to buy back again that which was forfeited and such were Sinners Their Persons forfeited to Iustice their Mercies escheated into the hands of the Law Now comes a Redeemer and gives himself to God as a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Counter-price a valuable Consideration to Answer the demands of Justice and the claims of the Law and