be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the Breadth and Length and Depth and Height And to know the Love of Christ which passeth knowledge that thus ye may be filled with all the fulness of God Observe how the Inspir'd Apostle Rejoyces even to Extasie upon this Subject The fulness of God that is all we or any Creature can hold of Him consist's in what we Understand of the Nature of Love And then to our Eternal Comfort the Love of Christ passes all Knowledge that is no Knowledge can comprehend it all and therefore it can afford still new Matter of Joy and Rapture to all Created Understandings for Ever and Ever And may not this Contemplation raise us to the Courage of an Apostle it will certainly if we let this Good Seed stay in our hearts till it take Root if we do not choke it with the foolish Principles of Pride or make it give place to Cares and Riches and Pleasures of this Life it will bring our hearts to the firmness of an Angel and make Us see nothing that can Terrifie Us We will be ready to joyn with St. Paul in his holy Exultation and say Who shall seperate Vs from the Love of Christ shall Tribulation or Distress or Persecution or Famine or Nakedness or Peril or Sword as it is Written for thy sake are we kill'd all the day Long we are counted as Sheep for the Slaughter nevertheless in all these things we are more then Conquerors through Him who Loved us for I am perswaded that neither Death nor Life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor Height nor Depth Rom. viii 35. nor any other Creature shall be able to Seperate Vs from the Love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. And now as a Conclusion to all that has been said we may learn this that the best Guard we can have against falling into Heresie is to Watch carefully against all the Inroads and Temptations of Pride which I have shewn to lie at the bottom of all Heresies as the Source from whence they Spring It Corrupts the Will and by that Viciates the Vnderstanding and Inclines them by a strong Byass to the side of Error and in Prejudice of the Truth which is always Founded upon and Accompany'd with the opposit of Pride that is Love and Goodness which is Naturally Productive of a Sweetness and Humility of Temper that Renders us Docible and Vn-prejudic'd without which Truth cannot be Duly Discern'd but is Clouded from Perverse and Obstinate Minds And as the Humility of Love is the best Preservative against Error and Heresie so is it the surest Defence against most sort of Sins in our Private Conversation especially it Enables us most Effectually to Perseverance in the Faith against that Fiery Tryal of Persecution which in one sort or other 2 Tim. 3.12 comes to most Mens share that will live Godly in Christ Jesus But there is an higher Pitch of Perfection even than this And that which I wou'd raise Men to and desire to Imitate my self is that whereof the Dayly Exercise and Improvement is by Gods great Mercy and Goodness afforded to every one of us which is not only to bear the Persecution or the Pride of others which some may do even out of Pride Obstinacy or other Vicious Principle But chiefly to banish Pride out of your selves to look upon the meanest Man in the World as a Member of Christ and so equal to your self And therefore to Condescend to the Lowest Offices that may do him Good to bear his Infirmities and Injuries with Patience which is the true Magnanimity as Christ also did bear ours And that you think this so far from being Dishonorable as that you may esteem it the Greatest Glory and Praise of Love wherein the Happiness of Heaven does consist And if Angels were thrown out of Heaven for Despising Man and Christ Died to Redeem Man and is Himself a Man and Loves and Values the meanest Man what is that Man that Despises another And if even in Heaven there was War and Folly and Blasphemy among the Angels there and misunderstanding the Nature of God how shou'd this make us Patient to one anothers Infirmities How Solicitous and careful to Secure our selves How Reasonable will it hence appear to keep a watchful Eye upon the least progress of Pride or Self-conceit which was Potent to Disturb the Seat of the Blessed and overthrow Spirits which were Heavenly-Born That therefore you shou'd justly abhor the Pride of this World to see a Man Despise not only his Inferiors which was the Sin of Angels but his Equals and Superiors To think himself beyond every Man he meets and that it is below his Greatness Forsooth to receive an Injury from any this is the Character of a Hero so much courted in Romances and Plays the Gospel of this Worlds Honor a Fool swell'd with Pride even to Blasphemy Is it not Nauseous to see Him brave Thunder whose Scull is not proof against the sliding of a Tyle from a House top a weak piece of Flesh whose Foundation is in the Dust the food of Worms that is crushed before the Moth A man that is not able to Encounter a Disease to hear him Railly against God! and to think this either Wit or Courage that Men of Spirit as they call themselves shou'd be fond of a Vice which proceeds Meerly from want of Sense And not rather to follow the Advice and Example of a God which is that you wou'd think it your Greatest Honour to become Innocent and Harmless Loving and free from Pride as little Children are which is taught in the Gospel for this Day and that with such Courage that you wou'd rather Choose to Pluck out your Eyes and Cut off your Hands than to Offend the Least the most Inconsiderable of Mankind who are Created by God after His own Image and are the Price of the Blood of Christ That you wou'd believe the Argument of Honour to be Decided which has been Bandy'd by the Angels of Heaven and Determin'd there by God Himself that it Consist's in Love and not in Pride but more sensibly by the Incarnation and Sufferings of Christ which makes it as it were Visible to our Eyes That you wou'd therefore suffer your selves to be perswaded by your own Reason which will shew you the restless Miseries which attend upon Pride and the Beauties and Great Glory of Love in the which if â—â—u can 〈…〉 selves you have already tasted of Heâ—â—â—â— and are Heirs of Immortal Honour Amen And let this Comfort us in our Faint Longings Languid Attempts and many Failings in our Spiritual Warfare And let this silence all our weak Murmurings at the Providence of God which has for Infinitly wise Ends not Fathomable by us Permitted the Fall of Man and Wars and Divisions upon Earth since for this End no Doubt among many others He has made known to us that There was war in Heaven And that as the Conquest can be only by His Strength and Grace in us so it will End in Infinit and Eternal Victory and Triumph to those who Trust wholly in Him by Faith in Christ Humbled and Crucifi'd for us and who follow him Manfully to the end of that Race which He our Great Prophet and Guide has not only Pointed out to us but as our Captain has Led us and Run before us and Fought the same Fight which He wou'd have us to Fight and wherein he will Assist us and Protect us that the Gates of Hell shall never Prevail against us And has already in Our Cause and in in our Name and Nature Triumphed over every Power of the Enemy and taken Possession of Heaven for us as our Head the Soul and Life of that Body whereof we are Members And as the Soul do's Actuate all the Members of the Body consequently it must Raise all the Members with the Body So that all who Partake of the Spirit of Christ are sure that that Spirit must Raise up their Bodies as Certainly as it did Raise up the Body of Christ Rom. viii 9.11 Now if any Man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of His But if the Spirit of Him who Raised up Jesus from the Dead dwell in you He that Raised up Christ from the Dead shall also Quicken your Mortal Bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you Amen FINIS
oppose it self out of the excess of Madness and Folly Of which even our present case is not a plainer Instance than what happen'd in the Matter of Korah our Parallel case For we find that the very next day after that Terrible and unexampl'd Destruction of Korah Dathan Abiram and and their Confederates the rest of the Congregation mutiny'd against Moses and Aaron for that very Reason and ran themselves into the same Sin which they had but the day before frightfully bemoaned in the Judgment of their Brethren and fled at the Cry of them for they said least the Earth swallow us up also and yet they made that very swallowing up the Argument of their Rebellion for which 14700 died by a new Plague Many the like Examples are to be found in the History of the Jews and is daily Experimented in our selves who remain Unperswaded by their judgments and Gods dayly Providences over our selves nor want we our Miracles too And may not we allow as great Perversness in the Devil as we have learn'd from him and Improve daily by his Instigation This I think is sufficient to clear the matter of Fact of Lucifer's Discontent and Murmuring even against that Sentence of God to which he had at first Appeal'd And this we have learn'd from the Experience of our selves And from the same we may like wise search out a farther Reason of this so seemingly an unreasonable a Procedure that should make one Act contrary even to what appears to be his own Reason And that as I conjecture is this That Error do's not beget Truth but Encreases to more Error and some men will obstinatly adhere to their Principle and what seems to make against it tho' never so Reasonable if they cannot satisfie it directly they will frame Distinctions and subterfuges to Evade what they are notable absolutly to Deny And this temper is still to be supposed where the Mind is not Vnprejudiced and Equal to the Truth on what side soever it shall appear for that is a Preparative indispensible to the obtaining of any Truth and from the want of which alone were there no other obstruction all Error maintains its Ground against the the most demonstrative Truths From hence it is I conclude that Pride being the Principle of the Rebel Angels contest they cou'd never from thence infer the Incarnation of God tho' inforced upon them with undeniable Arguments unless they should first abandon their Principle because it was the greatest contradiction to their Principle that cou'd possibly be and they would not suffer themselves to be perswaded into that Docible temper which our Saviour requires when he so often repeats that most material Caution Take heed how ye hear for to him that hath more shall be given and he that hath not from him shall be taken even that which he hath Abstinancy will confirm its self into more Abstinancy and a good Disposition will still take in more of Truth and still grow more and more Capable And the Devil not thinking of forsaking his Principle but to Adapt to it the Reasons which were offer'd against it he cou'd nor understand the Incarnation literally as it was Reveal'd but Invented Distinctions and Salvo's to Reconcile it with his Principle at least to make it Militat against his Principle as little as he cou'd As that the Person Incarnated was some Holy Creature begotten by God in an Extraordinary manner and therefore called the Son of God but that it was not very God Himself Or if it must be God himself that it was not Real Flesh and Blood which he Assum'd but only in Appearance and Shew It is said indeed in Scripture that the Devils knew Him but not that they knew Him to be God They call'd Him the Son of God and the Holy one of God and they adjur'd Him by God but I do not find that ever they own'd Him to be God as His Disciples did they gave no such Confession to Him Now as the former Conclusions which I have made of this whole Warfare of the Devils are I confess cheifly drawn a posteriori from consideration of the Effects which it has produc'd especially upon us here Below who are taken Captive by him at his will so in this present Instance I am not a little confirm'd from the prospect of those many-headed Heresies which the Devil has sent into the Christian Church to the Disparagement of her Greatest Fundamental the Incarnation of God Arius and his Bastard Socinus are Generals of the greatest Name in this War they deny the Divinity of Christ tho' upon Different and very Contradictory Pretences Simon Magus was first in Commission among those falsly call'd Vnitarians after him the Ebionites said that Christ was God but not from Everlasting the Nestorians that He became God by Merit but was not the Son of God before the Incarnation the Macedonians that He was not of one Substance with the Father The Alcoran calls Him the Messiah and the word of God but not the Son of God and they allow not that He was Crucified as the Theopaschites not supposing it forsooth consistant with the Justice and Greatness of God but that another man suffer'd in His place others said that Christ did not really hang upon the Cross but that His Passion was Only in Shew such were the Cordonites the Eutychians and Manicheans that His whole Passion is to be understood Allegorically and not according to the Letter which is maintain'd by the Family of Love who likewise make an Allegory of His Incarnation the Manichees Eutychians Marcionites and Saturnians held that He had neither Human Body nor Soul but was Man in Appearance only the Eunomians Arians Apollinarians and Theopaschites that He had a Body without a Human Soul And these Ancient and Pestilent Heresies are still kept alive amongst us they are Gather'd together and Improv'd by the Quakers who Deny the Humanity of Christ and the Divinity of Jesus They will not allow the Incarnation of Christ that is that He took the Nature of Man into His own Person only as the Socinians speak that He Dwelt in or did Inspire the Person of that Man Jesus as the Prophets of old and other Good-Men Now tho' not in so High a Degree as He did Inspire Jesus Thence they take the Name of Christ to Themselves and say that it belongs to Them as well as to Jesus to every Member as well as unto the Head And in this sense they allow Jesus Christ to be the Son of God not Properly but in a Large Sense as we are call'd the Sons of God They allow that the Body of Jesus was that Prepared Body in which Christ or the Light within as they call Him did for a time Reside and therefore that it might be call'd the Body of Christ as a Man's House Garment or Vaile is call'd his who owns or Possesses it But not as a Man's Body which is Part of himself Some Principles of the Elect
the Soul Dies And in this is the Great and Absolute Victory over all the Devils and Powers of Hell Here the Devil finds himself out-witted as well as Over-Power'd and that Love is Superiour to Pride as much in Wisdom as in Strength But his Malice never fails him He sets all his Engins on work to Prejudice Men from Receiving this Doctrin of Satisfaction and from believing in Christ as their surety or Propitiation Which only is the Saving Faith The Mahumetans believe Christ to be a Prophet The Alcoran calls Him the Messiah and the Word of God and our Intercessor with God Yet are they not Christians which Denomination Properly belongs to none who do not Believe the Divinity Incarnation and Satisfaction of Christ for our Sins Who deny any of these may Flatter themselves with the Name of Christians but they are Really tho' may be themselves Perceive it not Inlisted under the Devil's Banner and Fight his Battles And he has Gain'd Followers in nothing more than in this He has Perswaded Men to Dispute against their own Salvation He has put such Arguments as these in the Mouths of Socinians and Quakers what need has God of any Satisfaction May He not do what a Man can to forgive a Debt we call it Mercy in a Man and can it be Vnjustice in God But when a Man forgives a Debt do we call it Mercy or Justice in him you say it is Mercy In Man Mercy and Justice are Mixt in proportions but in God they are both in their Utmost God is not only a Just being that is who has a great deal of Justice in Him but He is Justice it self the Highest Notion possible of Justice and since Justice cannot acquit without full Satisfaction no more can He. How then do His Attributes fight against one another No that is Impossible but as the Vulgar renders Jam. 2.13 Misericordia Superexaltat Judicium Mercy does Exalt Justice Gods Mercy in sending Christ does Exalt His Justice which cou'd not be exact Justice if it did not require full Satisfaction God is all Justice He is all Love and Mercy too They are the same thing in God They are the same in Love for God is Love Every Sin is a Debt to Love or an offence against it which is against God Now a Debt of Love is not to be reckon'd as a Debt of Money A Man may forgive his Money as he pleases but Love cannot forgive an Ingratitude but upon Repentance Love cannot allow of Hypocrisie or Envy or Malice or any thing contrary to its self Love is so much the Essence so the All of Christ's Religion that all other Gifts and Graces are valu'd only in so far as they Administer to the Ends and Purposes of Love Without this the Greatest Excellencies and Performances Imaginable are Reputed as nothing in the sight of God that is of Love Faith even to Remove Mountains and Zeal to give all my Goods among the Poor 1 Cor. xiii 3. and my very Body to be Burnt and all Prophesie and all Knowledge all will signify nothing if they be not done out of a Principle of Love if Charity be wanting all these and all other things Possible all are nothing Love regards them not Nothing can Charme Love but Love All the whole Earth in one Sacrifice and all the Pains of Hell cannot Bribe Love into a Friendship or Reconciliation with Pride or Ill Nature It must Hate these by the same Necessity that it is its self Behold the Iustice and Severity of Love Behold the reason why our Love can never be accepted with God Because it is mixt with what God hates by the necessity of His Nature with Insincerity and Affections to Vice we love not God for His own sake for the native Beauty of Love but to serve our own Ends pittiful selfish designs vain foolish wicked The Heavens are not Clean in His sight and He chargeth His Angels with folly and our Righteousness is as filthy Rags and that which is highly Esteem'd among men is Abomination before God Now what hopes of Atoneing for our Faults when our Best Performances are fresh Provocations And this Inexorable Justice of Love is the Greatest Mercy too if we consider it For there being no Happiness but in Love and no Atonement to Love but by Returning to Love again consequently this seeming Severity is really but an Invitation to our Happiness But all our Love is Polluted and therefore Hateful to Purity which is God So that we can never perform this Condition tho' the most Merciful as well as Just And here Satan wou'd Stop all our Hopes by perswading Us That our Debt cannot be paid by Another That the Most Perfect Love will not be accepted for that which is Defficient And this is so far True that where the Imperfect Love does not go as far as it can it can receive no help from that which is more Perfect For being willing to remain Insensible of any Offence I have committed against Love is the Greatest Contempt of Love and Love can hear nothing in its Defence But where I am as Sensible as I can and wish to be more and do all that is in my Power and Repent with my whole Heart tho' all this be very Vnproportionable to my Offence and full of Imperfections there Love will rejoyce to accept the Interceeding of a Perfect Love and it 's full Satisfaction and Atonement for the weak but willing Love And this manner of Paying the Debts of Love is perfectly agreeable to the Nature of Love It is agreeable to the Common Conversation of the World Was it ever made an Objection that the Surety shou'd pay the Debt or that it was unjust to be a Surety Yet this Enemy of Mankind wou'd make Us think it against Reason that Christ shou'd be our Surety or that He shou'd pay our Debt And this being the main Hinge or indeed the whole of Christianity as to Us many Batteries are rais'd against this to Destroy Us all at once for if we loose this what good can Christianity do Us we are yet in our Sins There are several Parties and from several Arts which attacque Us in this most Essential Point Some say that Christ came into the World only as an Example But then they are put to it to find a Reason for his Death It will not bear an Argument That His Death was only intended as a Confirmation of His Doctrine for that shews it neither to be True nor False but only that He was fully Perswaded of the Truth of it Yet this is all that Cause can afford Others say that He came to Teach a new Condition for the Remission of Sin which was Repentance To this it is Answer'd That that was no new Condition What time soever a Sinner Repents he shall save his Soul This was in the Old Testament Rent your Heart and not your Garments and many other places to the same purpose Secondly Repentance was
Hypocritical Pride and Ostentation I have Endeavour'd to Trace this Pride from its first Rise in Heaven and shewn its Progress upon Earth and that it is the Mother and Nurse of all the Heresies in the Church And as it was the first Sin so is it a Principal Ingredient in all our Sins The Jews had a saying that there was a Grain of the Golden Calf in all their after Judgments And we may truly say that there is a Spice of the first Sin that is Pride in all our Sins and Delusions And if we search Impartially we shall find it This Corrupts both our Practice and our Principles and hinders us as much to Work as to Believe aright The Devil is Equally Concern'd against Both. And let me here Instance in two Particulars which have Rais'd Great Contest in the World The First is the Dispute about Grace The Devil knowing our Weakness and that we are not able of our selves to help our selves has endeavour'd to Disarm us of the assistance of God's Grace without which we are not able so much as to think a good Thought by this Suggestion of Pride That we have strength enough of our own to Perform all that is Requir'd of us and therefore need ask no Assistance of extraordinary Grace That there is no other Grace given to Man but that Reason with which God Endows Each Man and therefore which is Natural to him That nothing Supernatural is to be Expected in this World That it is a Tempting of God to Ask for or Expect any such thing That it Hinders our own Endeavours while we look for Supernatural Assistance And other such like Arguments as these Pelagius our Country-Man was a Great General upon this Head of the War And he has not a Few or Inconsiderable Part of this Nation and elsewhere of his Followers The Libertines every where are Inlisted under his Banner And they think themselves no mean Men. They Command Wit and Raillery and Mighty Numbers They call it a Reflection upon God to say that He has not made Man Perfect and with sufficient Powers to Perform what God has Requir'd of him But they forget that Man is Fallen from that State in which God at first did Create him and therefore as a Man who has Lam'd himself he needs more Help then his own Leggs But besides this suppose Man in his utmost Perfection is it any Reflection upon the Power Goodness or Wisdom of God to make him still Dependent upon God and to need the Assistance of His Grace as the Earth do's the Influence of the Sun and yet the Earth is Perfect in its Kind Man in his Fallen Estate has Powers still left him to Begg and sue to God for His Assistance and to Attend those Means of Grace which he has Commanded the Prayers and Sacraments of His Church which whosoever do's Sincerely and Diligently God has given them His Promise to Bestow His Grace upon them sufficient for their Need. And they who will not be at this Pains but Trust to the Plea of the Vn-profitable servant that they serve a severe Master who Reaps where he did not Sow and Exacts more than he gave them Abilities to Perform will with him who Hid his Talent be Condemn'd out of their own Mouths because that Consideration if it were true shou'd make them Double their Diligence and not Neglect those Means which their Lord has Appointed They are loath to Share with Him the Glory of their Salvation they wou'd do all themselves But He will not Share with them He will have all the Whole Glory of it for to Him only it does Appertain And they whose Pride will not suffer them to submit Absolutely and without Reserve to Him must have their Portion with those who Rebel against Him The other snare of the Devil which I mention'd is the Dispute about Faith and Works which has made a Great Bustle in the World and this is near of Kin to the last for some are Perswaded to Lean wholly upon their own Works and to esteem of Faith only as an Empty Notion and mere Imagination of no Vertue or Efficacy at all That there is no Trust in any other tho' in Christ Himself That we shall be Reckon'd with only according to the Works that we have done and not according to what we Believe Another has done for Us which can no ways be Imputed unto Us. Others again are Tempted wholly to Neglect Works and Lean all upon Faith They think the Doctrine of Works to be Great Arrogance and Pride in Assuming to our selves the merit of our Salvation which is Due only to God That because He ought to have the whole Glory therefore we ought not to Intermix any of our Works at all but to Live only by Faith in Him That our Righteousness is Filthy Raggs and therefore cannot be Accepted by Him nor are worthy to be Accepted And Therefore can Add or Help nothing no not in the least Tittle to our Salvation But on the Contrary that we ought to Renounce them and Divest our selves wholly of them and Trust to God's Mercy without them which they suppose has no Consideration at all of them But Justifies the Elect without any Respect to them And therefore Loves the Saints in all their Sins That they are not the less Beloved while wallowing in their Sins because Gods Love is Free and without Regard to our Performances That therefore there ought to be no Sorrow for Sin that this is contrary to a true Godly Frame This the Antimonians who are set up on High now in London have Preach'd and Printed in their Books Particularly the Famous Dr. Crisp Nay they go farther they make neither Faith nor Works necessary for that they say wou'd hinder the Freedom of God's Love and make it Conditional which they Abhor to think and to depend upon any thing that is in Us to do They call Faith therefore only an Eccho of the Soul answering to the Call of God and saying I come without any Change in the Man But that the Soul which has not that Eccho is not the less safe For they Resolve all into the Absolute Decree of God without Respect either to Faith or Works on our Part. This is the Plea of Lucifer for himself that he was Over-Rul'd in Heaven by Absolute Power without Respect to Justice for that he had Merit beyond many of those Angels who Stood tho' he and others Better than they Fell. And the same Argument is taken up by many of His Followers at this Day who have Bewildred their Understandings in the Intricate Mazes of Absolute Decrees Un-Conditionate Election and Reprobation so as to Confound themselves and stop their Endeavours from working out their own Salvation as they are Commanded The Anti-Nomians say that Christ has wrought All for us so that we need not Work And that to offer to Add our Works to His is Presumption and an Under-Valuing of His as if His were not
People of God in Scorn call'd Quakers p. 126. for say they we can never call the Bodily Garment Christ They deny that Christ had Properly any thing Human either Soul or Body That the outward Person which suffer'd upon the Cross was Properly the Son of God we utterly Deny says their Serious Apology wrote by Will. Penn p. 146. They Dream that Christ had a Spiritual Body before the Creation and that He has the same now in Heaven but not that Body of Jesus of Nazareth which He took of the B. Virgin and which suffer'd upon the Cross The Eutychians held that the Humanity of Christ was Absorpt or swallow'd up in His Divinity so that there Remain'd not now any Human Nature in Christ Agreeable to this the Quakers allow not Christ to have now any thing that is Human about Him But to have Divested Himself of all that when he Ascended into Heaven where they say He now is only as he was before the Creation In short they make what they call their Light within to be not only a Ray Influence or Inspiration sent from Christ but to be the very Essential and Personal Christ as well Body as Spirit and that He has no other Body or Spirit but what is within them For a further account of these men I Refer the Reader to a Book call'd The Snake in the Grass and to another wrote by the same Author Intitul'd Satan Dis-Rob'd And so Proceed to another less Famous Sect amongst us call'd the Muggletonians These with the Quakers deny any Distinction of Persons in the God-Head and Consequently they run into the the old Heresie of the Patri-passians thence so call'd because they held that it was God the Father who was Incarnate and did Suffer upon the Cross To this the Quakers agree and George Fox the Father and Founder of them in his Great Mystery p. 246. Disputes against those who said that it was not God the Father who was Incarnate Lodowick Muggleton who Arose the same Year with G. Fox An. 1650. And his Followers say that the God-head Dy'd upon the Cross and that there was then no God But that God before He was Incarnate Deputed Elijah to Govern in His Absence that Elijah Rais'd Him again from the Dead and Restor'd Him to His Throne That Christ who was God the Father did not know Himself to be God or any more than Elijah pleas'd to let Him know That Elijah was the Father to whom He pray'd upon the Cross They strick in likewise with the Anthropomorphits as John Bidle the late Celebrated Socinian and say that God from all Eternity had a Body and of the same Shape as Man's Body and that being made after the Image of God referr'd to the Shape of His Body They pretend to Discribe His Shape a Middle-siz'd Handsom Man and such like most Vile and Ridiculous stuff These Batteries the Devil has Rais'd of several Shapes and Sizes against the Truth of the Incarnation of Christ This he is not able to Digest or Understand aright and Seduces his Weak but Envy'd Rival Man by such Multiplicity of Subterfuges as he has Invented This is the Great and Fundamental Head of that War which the Devil now carrys on upon Earth And there is another which is Like unto it and Depends upon it Namely The Doctrin of Satisfaction which the Devil opposes upon the same foot with the Incarnation for they are Both so closely Link'd together as that the Doctrin of Satisfaction supposes the Incarnation and Death of Christ without which no Adequat Satisfaction that is No Satisfaction cou'd have been made to Justice for the Sin of Man And on the other hand no Rational Account can be given for the Incarnation and Sufferings of our Saviour but to Satisfie the Justice of God for our Sin For all other Considerations of Christ as a Prophet a Teacher a Mediator or Intercessor might have been Executed either by an Angel or Holy Man thereunto Commissionated by God And that without any Necessity of the Death of such a Messenger But to make Adequat Satisfaction to the utmost Demand of Infinit Justice for all the Sins of the World to Pay this Infinit Debt Exceeded all Created Sufficiency and cou'd be Perform'd by none but God alone And the Doom of Sin being Death without shedding of Blood there cou'd be no Remission Which Infers the Necessity not only of Christ's Incarnation but His Death And it was not Possible the Cup should pass from Him if He wou'd Redeem lost Mankind If it had been Possible sure His Father wou'd not have Refus'd what He so Passionatly and in so Bitter an Agony Three times Requested His Father wou'd not Causlesly Luk. xxiv 46 26. Mat. xxvi 54. have so Exposed His Beloved Son in whom He was well Pleased No. But as Christ Himself has told us It thus Behooved Him to suffer That He Ought to have suffer'd these things And That Thus it Must be When God in His All-wise Providence had so far Permitted the Spirit of Pride and Malice as to seduce Mankind into Disobedience the Devil then thought he had in some sort even Conquer'd at least over-reach'd the Almighty For thus He Argu'd with himself If God's Justice be Exact by which I Suffer then must Man be Eternally Miserable with me for He is less able than I am to make any Satisfaction for his Sin And thus have I Ruin'd my Hatred and Dispis'd Rival and even by the Necessity of God's Nature which is Justice I have forc'd Him to Damn that Base Human Nature which He wou'd joyn into His own Person Post-poning the more Noble Angelick Nature which is thus Reveng'd And the Devil thought himself Secure and Impregnable in this his Pride and Malice For if the Nature of Justice which is God cannot Acquit without Full Satisfaction and that the Satisfaction for Sin must be Proportionable to the Person against whom the Sin is Committed which is Infinit And that the Penalty must be Death And that God only is Infinit and that God cannot Dye And again That the same Nature which Offended must make the Satisfaction And that Human Nature was far from Infinit and so cou'd make no Satisfaction I say upon all these Accounts the Devil thought Man's Cause to be Irremediable and Desperate and that in this he had Prevail'd against God for Ever But God thus far Permitted His Enemy thereby to shew forth more Gloriously the Riches of His Grace and the In-Exhaustibility of His Wisdom For by the Ever-Adorable Mistery of God Manifest in the Flesh and suffering Death for us upon the Cross all the above seemingly Insuperable Difficulties are Dissolved like Ice before the Fire For Here is Satisfaction made by the same Nature which Offended and the Satisfaction is Full and Adequat because the same Person is God And tho' the God-Head cannot Dye yet the Person which is God may Dye As the Soul of Man does not Die but the Man who has