Six sermons with a discourse annexed, concerning the true reason of the suffering of Christ, wherein Crellius his answer to Grotius is considered / by Edward Stillingfleet ... Stillingfleet, Edward, 1635-1699. 1669 Approx. 782 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 303 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2005-03 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A61628 Wing S5669 ESTC R19950 12443207 ocm 12443207 62152 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A61628) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 62152) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 948:16) Six sermons with a discourse annexed, concerning the true reason of the suffering of Christ, wherein Crellius his answer to Grotius is considered / by Edward Stillingfleet ... Stillingfleet, Edward, 1635-1699. [24], 571, [3] p. Printed by R. White, for Henry Mortlock, and are to be sold at his shop ..., London : 1669. Reproduction of original in Huntington Library. "A sermon preached before the Honourable House of Commons", "A sermon preached before the King", and "A discourse concerning the true reason of the sufferings of Christ" each has separate t.p. Table of contents: p. [11]-[22] Errata: p. [22] Advertisement: p. [2]-[3] at end. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. 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Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Crell, Johann, 1590-1633. -- Ad librum Hugonis Grotii quem de satisfactione Christi. Grotius, Hugo, 1583-1645. Church of England -- Sermons. Sermons, English -- 17th century. Atonement. 2004-02 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2004-03 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2004-10 John Latta Sampled and proofread 2004-10 John Latta Text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-01 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion Imprimatur , Tho. Grigg R. in Christo P. ac D no D no Humfr. Episc. Lond. Sacellanus . Jan. 22. 1668. SIX SERMONS : WITH A DISCOURSE ANNEXED , Concerning the TRUE REASON OF THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST . WHEREIN Crellius his Answer to Grotius Is Considered . By Edward Stillingfleet D. D. Rector of S. Andrews Holborn , and Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majestie . LONDON , Printed by R. White , for Henry Mortlock , and are to be sold at his Shop , at the Sign of the White Hart in Westminster Hall. 1669. TO THE READER . THE design of this Preface , is only to give thee an Account of the occasion of publishing both parts of the following Book : The first contains in it several Sermons , Two whereof were made publick before , which the Stationer intending to re-print , I was not unwilling upon his desire , that some others should be joyned with them . The substance of those I have added , either respects the Vindication of the Doctrine of Christianity in general ; or that part of it which relates to the Sufferings of Christ for us . The former I look upon as our great concernment in this Age , viz. to vindicate our Religion not only from the Assaults of Atheists , but of another sort of men who acknowledge a God and Providence , but have very mean thoughts of the Christian Religion : Against whom three Sermons are especially designed , wherein I have endeavoured to prove , that the three grand Attributes of God , his Wisdom , Power , and Goodness , are as clearly discover'd in the contrivance and management of the Christian Religion , as in the Works of Creation and Providence . The latter concerning the Sufferings of Christ is handled in a Sermon preached in this City upon a Solemn Occasion most suitable to the subject . The matter whereof , as it relates to the Reason of Christs Suffering for us , having met with some opposition from a busie promoter of the contrary Doctrine ; and that debate being with some heat of late broken forth among us ( not without unworthy reflections on the present Rulers of our Church , as giving too much Countenance and encouragement to it ) I thought my self obliged , so just an occasion being given , to vindicate the Honour of our Church , and the Truth of the Christian Doctrine in this important Controversie . In the management of which I have passed by the slighter Attempts of some meaner though later Adversaries ; but I have carefully considered , the utmost strength which hath been given to that Cause by the great Champion for it , I mean Crellius in his famous Answer to Grotius . Had I intended this at first , as a full Defence of Grotius against him , it must have appeared in another Language , and would have taken up more time , than I can at present allow . But as it is , I hope it may be usefull at this time to those of our own Nation , who dispute fiercely in this Controversie , without understanding it clearly on either side . It may be some will be dissatisfied , that I give our Adversaries no harder names ; but I never found any men convinced by ill Language ; and those we have to deal with , are too subtle not to distinguish between loud clamours , and demonstrations . I leave that method of confuting them to those who have greater Abilities in that way . It is enough for me to prove they are mistaken , others may call them what they please for being so . But I think it very incongruous for us , while we magnifie the patience and meekness of Christ in his Sufferings to discover our passion in disputing about them . I am not ignorant that there are two persons in the Roman Church , who have written something , wherein they would think me to be more concerned , than as yet I can think my self . Unless I had more leasure than meerly to kill Flies , viz. to run after them to make sport with them . When a just Answer shall be given me , ( which I have been long threatned withall ) I may then probably to give weight , throw in the small grains scattered in many leaves , which may deserve any consideration . But for those who think that these need a present Answer , they discover the weakness of their judgements too much for me ever to hope to do good upon them : And if I have any store of Ammunition left , as it is hard to want it in such a Cause , I am very loth to spend it upon Wooll-sacks . Reader , except the common civility of not charging the errors of the Press upon the Author , I have no other favour to request of thee , but that which thou wilt be sure to do without asking , viz. to believe me no farther , than thou seest reason for what I say . THE CONTENTS . PART I. Six SERMONS upon Amos 4. 11. I Have overthrown some of you , as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah , and ye were as a Firebrand pluckt out of the burning , yet have ye not returned unto me saith the Lord , page 1 Proverbs 14. 9. Fools make a mock at sin , 49 Luke 7. 35. But wisdom is justified of all her children , 89 Romans 1. 16. For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ ; for it is the power of God to salvation to every one that believes , to the Jew first , and also to the Gentile , p. 131 Heb. 2. 3. How shall we escape , if we neglect so great salvation , 167 Heb. 12. 3. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself , lest y●… be weary and faint in your minds , 207 PART II. A Discourse concerning the true Reason of the Sufferings of Christ. CHAP. I. OF the Socinian way of Interpreting Scripture . Of the uncertainty it leaves us in as to the main Articles of Faith , manifested by an Exposition of Gen. 1. suitable to that way . The state of the Controversie in general concerning the Sufferings of Christ 〈◊〉 us . He did not suffer the same we should have done . The grand mistake in making Punishments of the nature of Debts ; the difference between them at large discover'd , from the different reason and ends of them . The right of punishment in God , proved against Crellius , not to arise from meer Dominion . The end of Punishment not bare Compensation , as it is in debts ; what punishment d●● to an injured person by the right , of Nature ; proper punishment a result of Laws . Crellius his great mistake about the end of Punishments , Not designed for satisfaction of Anger as it is a desire of Revenge , Seneca and Lactantius vindicated against Crellius . The Magistrates interest in punishment distinct from that of private persons . Of the nature of Anger in God , and the satisfaction to be made to it . Crellius his great Arguments against Satisfaction depend on a false Notion of Gods anger . Of the ends of Divine Punishments , and the different nature of them in this and the future state . page 259 CHAP. II. The particular state of the Controversie , concerning the Sufferings of Christ. Th● Concessions of our Adversaries . The debate reduced to two heads : The first concerning Christs Sufferings , being a punishment for sin , entred upon . In what sense Crellius acknowledgeth the sins of men , to have been the impulsive cause of the death of Christ. The sufferings of Christ proved to be a punishment , from Scripture . The importance of the phrase of bearing sins . Of the Scape-Goats bearing the sins of the people into the Wilderness . Grotius his sense of 1 Pet. 2. 24. vindicated against Crellius and himself . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 never used for the taking away a thing by the destruction of it . Crellius his sense examined . Isa. 53. 11. vindicated . The Argument from Mat. 8. 17. answered . Grotius constant to himself in his notes on that place . Isa. 53. 5 , 6 , 7. cleared . Whether Christs death be a proper 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and whether that doth imply , that it was a punishment of sin ? How far the punishments of Children for their Fathers faults , are exemplary among men . The distinction of calamities and punishments , holds not here . That Gods hatred of sin could not be seen in the sufferings of Christ , unless they were a punishment of sin , proved against Crellius . Grotius his Arguments from Christ being made sin and a curse for us , defended . The liberty our Adversaries take in changing the sense of words . The particles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , being joyned to sins , and relating to sufferings , do imply those sufferings to be a punishment for sin . According to their way of interpreting Scripture , it had been impossible for our Doctrine to be clearly expressed therein . p. 314 CHAP. III. The words of Scripture being at last acknowledged by our Adversaries to make for us , the only pretence remaining is , that our Doctrine is repugnant to reason . The debate managed upon point of reason . The grand difficulty enquired into , and manifested by our Adversaries concessions , not to lye in the greatness of Christs sufferings , or that our sins were the impulsive cause of them , or that it is impossible that one should be punished for anothers faults : or in all cases unjust : the cases wherein Crellius allows it , instanced . From whence it is proved that he yields the main cause . The Arguments propounded , whereby he attempts to prove it unjust for Christ to be punished for our sins . Crellius his principles of the justice of punishments examined . Of the relation between desert and , punishment . That a person by his own consent may be punished beyond the desert of his own actions . An answer to Crellius his Objections . What it is to suffer undeservedly . Crellius his mistake in the state of the question . The instances of Scripture considered . In what sense Children are punished for their Parents sins . Ezek. 18. 20. explained at large . Whether the guilty being freed by the sufferings of an innocent person makes that punishment unjust or no ? Crellins his shifts and evasions in this matter discovered . Why among men the offenders are not freed in criminal matters , though the sureties be punished . The release of the party depends on the terms of the Sureties suffering , therefore deliverance not ipso facto . No necessity of such a translation in criminal , as is in pecuniary matters . p. 378 CHAP. IV. The Death of Christ considered as an Expiatory Sacrifice for sin . What the expiation of sin was by the Sacrifices under the Law ; twofold , Civil and Ritual . The Promises made to the Jews under the Law of Moses , respected them as a People , and therefore must be temporal . The typical nature of Sacrifices asserted . A substitution in the Expiatory Sacrifices under the Law , proved from Lev. 17. 11. and the Concession of Crellius about the signification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 joyned with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Levitic . 10. 17. explained . The expiation of uncertain murther proves a substitution . A substitution of Christ in our room proved , from Christs being said to dye for us ; the importance of that phrase considered . In what sense a Surrogation of Christ in our room is asserted by us . Our Redemption by Christ proves a Substitution . Of the true notion of Redemption : that explained and proved against Socinus and Crellius . No necessity of paying the price to him that detains captive , where the captivity is not by force , but by sentence of Law. Christs death a proper 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : and therefore the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 attributed to it , cannot be taken for meer deliverance . p. 419 CHAP. V. The notion of a sacrifice belongs to the death of Christ , because of the Oblation made therein to God. Crellius his sense of Christs Oblation proposed . Against him it is proved , that the Priestly Office of Christ had a primary respect to God , and not to us . Expiatory Sacrifices did divert the wrath of God. Christ not a bare Metaphorical High-Priest . Crellius destroys the Priesthood of Christ , by confounding it with the exercise of his Regal power . No proper Expiation of sin belongs to Christ in Heaven , if Crellius his Doctrine be true . Ephes. 5. 2. proves the death of Christ an Expiatory Sacrifice , and an Oblation to God. The Phrase of A sweet-smelling Savour , belongs to Expiatory Sacrifices ; Crellius his gross notion of it . His mistakes about the kinds of Sacrifices . Burnt-offerings were Expiatory Sacrifices both before and under the Law. A new distribution of Sacrifices proposed . What influence the mactation of the Sacrifice had on Expiation . The High-Priest only to slay the Sin-offering on the day o● Atonement ; from whence it is proved , tha● Christs Priesthood did not begin from his entrance into Heaven . The mactation in Expiatory Sacrifices , no bare preparation to a sacrifice , proved by the Jewish Laws , and the Customs of other Nations . Whether Christs Oblation of himself once to God , were in Heaven or on Earth ? Of the proper notion of Oblations under the Levitical Law. Several things observed from thence to our purpose . All things necessary to a Legal Oblation , concur in the death of Christ. His entrance into Heaven hath no correspondency with it ; if the blood of Christ were no Sacrifice for sin . In Sin-offerings for the People , the whole was consumed ; no eating of the Sacrifices allowed the Priests , but in those for private Persons . Christs exercise of Power in Heaven , in no sense an Oblation to God. Crellius , his sense repugnant to the circumstances of the places in dispute . Objections answered . p. 450 CHAP. VI. That the effects of proper Expiatory Sacrifices ●elong to the death of Christ , which either ●espect the sin or the person . Of the true ●otion of expiation of sin , as attributed to Sacrifices . Of the importance of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as applied to them . Socinus his proper sense of it examined . Crellius his Objections answered . The Jews notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The Sacrifices not bare conditions of pardon , nor expiated meerly as a slight part of obedience . Gods expiating sin , destroys not expiation by Sacrifice . The importance of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , relating to Sacrifices . Expiation attributed to the Sacrifice of Christ , in the same sense that it was to other Sacrifices : and from thence , and the places of Scripture which mention it , proved not to be meerly declarative . If it had been so , it had more properly belonged to his Resurrection than his death . The Death of Christ not taken Metonymically for all the Consequents of it ; because of the peculiar effects of the death of Christ in Scripture , and because Expiation is attributed to him antecedently to his entrance into Heaven . No distinction in Scripture of the effects of Christs entrance into He●… from his sitting at the right hand of G●… The effects of an Expiatory Sacrifice , respe●… ing the person , belong to the death of Chri●… which are Atonement and Reconciliation . Of 〈◊〉 signification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The Reconc● liation by Christs death , doth not meerly r● spect us , but God ; why the latter less us● in the New Testament . A twofold Reconciliation with God mentioned in Scriptur● Crellius his evasion answered . The Objectio● from Gods being reconciled in the sending 〈◊〉 Son , and the inconsistency of the Freeness 〈◊〉 Grace with the Doctrine of Satisfaction a● swered , and the whole concluded . p. 50● ERRATA . PAge 13. marg . for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , p. 191 l. 4. blot out : af●… to , p. 260. l. 23. for . make : p. 295. l. 21. for intemperace r. inte●… p●●ance , p. 302. marg . r. Cod. Leg. antiq . p. 303. l. 23. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , p. 311. l. 11. r. respect , p. 313. l. 5. r. future , p. 341. l. 13. for 〈◊〉 sin r. of , p. 347. l. 3. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . p. 349. l. 19. for express●… r. oppression , p. 362. l. 15. for by r. upon , p. 374. l. 22. blot out 〈◊〉 p. 375. l. 3. after expressed insert in , p. 427. l. 19. after must insert b●… p. 469. l. 13. for appeale r. appease , p. 474. l. 22 , for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 513. marg . for placendi r. placandi . A SERMON Preached before the Honourable House OF COMMONS , At St. MARGARETS WESTMINSTER Octob. 10. 1666. being the Fast-day appointed for the late dreadful Fire in the City of LONDON . By Edward Stillingfleet , B. D. Rector of St. Andrews Holborn , and one of his Majesties Chaplains in Ordinary . Published by Order of the said House . The Fourth Edition . LONDON , Printed by Robert White , for Henry Mortlock , and are to be sold at his Shop , at the Sign of the White Hart in Westminster Hall. 1669. Amos 4. 11. I have overthrown some of you , as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah , and ye were as a firebrand pluckt out of the burning : yet have ye not returned unto me , saith the Lord. IT is but a very little time since you met together in this place to lament the remainders of a raging pestilence , which the last year destroyed so many thousand ●nhabitants of the late great and famous City : and now God hath given us another ●●d occasion for our fasting and humiliation , by suffering a devouring fire to break forth and consume so many of her habitations . As though the infected air had been too kind and partial , and like Saul to the Amalekites , had only destroyed the vile and refuse , and spared the greatest of the people ; as ●hough the grave had surfeited with the bodies of the dead , and were loth to go o● in the execution of Gods displeasure ; h●… hath imployed a more furious Element which by its merciless and devouring flame might in a more lively manner represe●… unto us the kindling of his wrath again●… us . And that by a Fire , which began wit● that violence , and spread with that ho●… rour , and raged with that fury , and co● tinued for so long a time with that irre●… stible force ; that it might justly fill th●… beholders with confusion , the hearers o●… it with amazement , and all of us with a dee●… and humble sense of those sins which hav● brought down the judgements of God in s●… severe a manner in the midst of us . For whatever arguments or reasons w● can imagine that should compose the mind of men to a sense of their own or othe● calamities , or excite them to an appre●… hension of the wrath of God as the cause o● them , or quicken them to an earnest sup●… plication to him for mercy , they do a●… eminently concurr in the sad occasion o●… this dayes solemnity . For if either compassion would move , or fear awaken , o●… interest engage us to any of these , it i●… hard to conceive there should be an instance of a more efficacious nature , than that is which we this day bewail ; For who n behold the ruines of so great a City , ●nd not have his bowels of compassion ●oved towards it ? Who can have any ●ense of the anger of God discovered in it , ●nd not have his fear awakened by it ? Who can ( as we ought all ) look upon it as a judgement of universal influence on ●he whole Nation , and not think himself concerned to implore the mercy of Heaven towards us ? For certainly , howsoever we may vainly flatter and deceive our selves , these are no common indications of the frowns of Heaven ; nor are they meerly intended as the expressions of Gods severity towards that City which hath suffered so much by them ; but the stroaks which fall upon the head ( though they light upon that only ) are designed for the punishment of the whole body . Were there nothing else but a bare permission of Divine Providence as to these things , we could not reasonably think , but that God must needs be very angry with us , when he suffers two such dreadful calamities to tread almost upon each others heels ; that no sooner had death taken away such multitudes of our inhabitants , but a Fire follows it to consume our habitations . A Fire , so dreadful in its appearance , in its rage and fury , and in all the dismal consequences of it ( which we cannot yet be sufficiently apprehensive of ) that on that very account we may justly lie down in our shame , and our confusion cover us : because God hath covered the daughter of Sion with a cloud in his anger , and cast down from Heaven to earth the beauty of Israel , and remembred not his footstool in the day of his anger . For such was the violence and fury of the flames , that they have not only defaced the beauty of the City , and humbled the pride and grandeur of it ; not only stained its glory , and consumed its Palaces ; but have made the Houses of God themselves a heap of ruines , and a spectacle of desolation . And what then can we propose to our selves as arguments of Gods severe displeasure against us , which we have not either already felt , or have just cause to fear are coming upon us without a speedy and sincere amendment ? If a Sword abroad and Pestilence at home , if Fire in our Houses and Death in our Streets , if Forreign Wars and Domestick Factions , if a languishing State and a discontented People , if the ruines of the City and poverty of the Countrey , may make us sensible how sad our condition at present is , how much worse it may be ( if God in his mercy prevent it not ) we shall all surely think we have reason enough this day to lay to heart the evil of our doings which have brought all these things upon us , and abhor our selves , repenting in dust and ashes . That would seem indeed to bear some analogy with the present ruines of the City , and the calamities we lie under at this time ; but God will more easily dispense with the pompous shews , and solemn garbs of our humiliation ; if our hearts bleed within for our former impieties , and our repentance discovers its sincerity , by bringing us to that temper ; that , though we have done iniquity , we will do so no more . That is the true and proper end , which Almighty God aims at , in all his Judgements : he takes no delight in hurling the World into confusions , and turning Cities into ruinous heaps , and making whole Countreys a desolation : but when he sees it necessary to vindicate the honour of his Justice to the World , he doth it with that severity that may make us apprehend his displeasure , and yet with that mercy which may incourage us to repent and return unto the Lord. Thus we finde in the instances recorded in the Text , when some Cities were consumed by him ; so that as far as concerned them , they were made like to Sodom and Gomorrah : yet he doth it with that kindness to the Inhabitants , that they are pluckt as firebrands out of the burning : and therefore he looks upon it as a frustrating the design both of his Justice , and of his Mercy , when he is fain to conclude with that sad reflection on their incorrigibleness ; Yet have ye not returned unto me saith the Lord. Thus ye sec what the design and scope of the words is , which I have read unto you , wherein we may consider , 1. The severity of the Judgement which God was pleased to execute upon them . I have overthrown some of you , as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah . 2. The mixture of his mercy in the midst of his severity , and ye were as a firebrand pluckt out of the burning . 3. The incorrigibleness of the people notwithstanding both . Yet have ye not , &c. In the first we have Gods Rod lifted up to strike , in the second we have Gods Hand stretched out to save , yet neither of these would make them sensible of their disobedience ; though their Cities were overthrown for their sakes , though they themselves escaped not for their own sakes , but for his mercies sake only whom they had so highly provoked ; yet have ye not returned unto me , saith the Lord. I am sure I may say of the two former parts of the Text , as our Saviour doth in another case , This day hath this Scripture been fulfilled among you : we have seen a sad instance of Gods severity , a City almost wholly consumed as Sodom and Gomorrah , and a great expression of his kindness , the Inhabitants saved , as firebrands pluckt out of the burning : O let it never be said that the last part of the words is fulfilled too , Yet have ye not returned unto me , &c. which , that it may not be , I shall first consider the severity of God in his judgement this day , and then discover the mixture of his kindness with it , and the result of both will be the unreasonableness of obstinate disobedience after them . 1. The severity of the Judgement here expressed : which , though we take it not in reference to the persons of men , but to the Cities wherein they dwelt : as it seems to be understood not only by the Original , wherein the words relating to persons are left out : but by the following clause , expressing their preservation : yet we shall finde the Judgement to be severe enough , in regard 1. Of the nature and kind of it . 2. The series and order of it . 3. The causes moving to it . 4. The Author of it . I have overthrown some of you , as God overthrew , &c. 1. The nature and kind of it : We can imagine nothing more severe when we consider what it is set forth by , the most unparalleld Judgement we read of , viz. the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah by a fire from Heaven . Although in all circumstances the instance might not come up to the parallel , yet in several respects there might be so sad a desolation , that any other example but that might fall beneath the greatness and severity of it . And we may better understand of how sad and dreadfull a nature such a Judgement must be , if we consider it with relation to the suddenness and unexpectedness of it , to the force and violence of it , and to all that sad train of circumstances which attend and follow it . 1. The suddenness and unexpectedness of it ; as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah , i. e. when they least of all looked for such a desolation . For thus it was in the dayes of Lot ( as our Saviour tells us ) they did eat , they drank , they bought , they sold , they planted , they builded ; but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom , it rained fire and brimstone from Heaven , and destroyed them all . They were all immersed either in their pleasures or in their business , they little thought of destruction being so near them as it proved to be ; Thus it was with the Jews in their first and latter destruction both of their City and Countrey , they were as high and as confident of the contrary as might be to the very last ; nothing could perswade them that their Temple or their City should be burnt with Fire , till they saw them flaming before their eyes . Thus Josephus observes of his Countreymen , that in the midst of all their miseries they had no kind of sense at all of their sins , but were as proud , presumptuous and arrogant , as if all things went well with them ; and were like to do so . They thought God could not possibly punish such a people as they were in such a manner ; they could easily have believed it of any other people but themselves : but that God should punish his own people in Covenant with him , that Judgement should begin at the house of God , that they who had loved to be called by his Name , should be made examples to all other Nations ; this seemed so harsh and incredible that by no means could they entertain it . But God and Wise men too thought otherwise of them than they did of themselves : they could not but see an outward shew of Religion joyned with a deep and subtil hypocrisie ; there being among them an heap of pride and luxury , of fraud and injustice , of sedition and faction gilded over with a fair shew of greater zeal for God and his Glory : which that impartial Historian ( as one who knew them well ) hath described at large : and although they could not believe that such heavy Judgements should befall them , yet others did not only believe , but tremble at the apprehensions of them . Who among all the Citizens of London could have been perswaded , but the day before the Fire brake out , nay when they saw the Flames for near a day together , that ever in four dayes time , not a fourth part of the City should be left standing ? For when were they ever more secure and inapprehensive of their danger than at this time ? they had not been long returned to their Houses , which the Plague had driven them from , and now they hoped to make some amends for the loss of their Trade before ; but they returned home with the same sins they carried away with them ; like new Moons , they had a new face and appearance , but the same spots remained still : or it may be , increased by that scumm they had gathered in the Countreys where they had been . Like Beasts of prey that had been chained up so long till they were hunger-bitten , when they once got loose they ran with that violence and greediness , to their wayes of gain , as though nothing could ever satisfie them . But that which betrayed them to so much security , was their late deliverance from so sweeping a Judgement as the Plague had been to the City and Suburbs of it : they could by no means think , when they had all so lately escaped the Grave , that the City it self should be so near being buried in its own ruines ; that the Fire which had missed their blood , should seize upon their houses ; that there should be no other way to purge the infected air , but by the Flames of the whole City . Thus when the Mariners have newly escaped a wreck at Sea , the fears of which have a long time deprived them of their wonted rest , they think they may securely lye down and sleep , till it may be another storm overtake and sink them . We see then there is neither piety nor wisdom in so much security when a great danger is over , for we know not but that very security it self may provoke God to send a greater . And no kind of Judgements are so dreadful and amazing , as those which come most unexpectedly upon men ; for these betray the succours which reason offers , they infatuate mens councils , weaken their courage , and deprive them of that presence of mind which is necessary at such a time for their own and the publick interest . And there needs no more to let us know how severe such a Judgement must be , when it comes upon men in so sudden and unexpected a manner ; but that is not all , for the severity of it lyes further , 2. In the force and violence of it : and surely that was very great which consumed four Cities to nothing in so short a time , when God did pluere Gehennam de coelo as one expresses it , rained down hell-fire upon Sodom and Gomorrah . And this is that which some think is called the vengeance of eternal fire , which all those in Sodom and Gomorrah are said to suffer ; i. e. a Fire which consumed , till there was nothing left to be consumed by it . Not but that those wicked persons did justly suffer the vengeance of an eternal fire in another life , but the Apostle seems to set out and paint forth to us that in the life to come , by the force and violence of that fire which destroyed those Cities ; and it would be harsh to say , that all who were involved in that common calamity ( who yet were innocent as to the great abominations of those places , viz. the Infants there destroyed ) must be immediately sentenced to eternal misery . But although God since that perpetual monument of his justice in the destruction of those Cities hath not by such ●…n immediate fire from Heaven consumed and razed out the very foundations of other Cities ; yet at some times there are fires which break out and rage with a more than ordinary violence , and will not yield to those attempts for quenching them , which at other times may be attended with great success . Such might that great fire in Rome be in Nero's time , which whether begun casually , or by design ( which was disputed then , as it hath been about others since ) did presently spread it self with greater speed over the Cirque ( as the Historian tells us ) than the Wind it self , and never left burning , till of fourteen Regions in Rome , but four were left entire . Such might that be in the Emperour Titus his time , which lasted three dayes and nights , and was so irresistible in its fury , that the Historian tells us , it was certainly more than an ordinary fire . Such might that be in the same City in the time of Commodus , which though all the art and industry imaginable were used for the quenching it , yet it burnt , till it had consumed besides the Temple of Peace , the fairest Houses and Palaces of the City , which on that account , the Historians attribute to more than natural causes . Such might that be ( which comes the nearest of any I have met with , to that Fire we this day lament the effects of ) I mean that at Constantinople , which happened A. D. 465. in the beginning of September ; it brake forth by the water side , and raged with that horrible fury for four dayes together , that it burnt down the greatest part of the City , and was so little capable of resistance , that as Evagrius tells us , the strongest Houses were but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , like so much dryed stubble before it ; by which means the whole City was , as he calls it , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a most miserable and dolefull spectacle ; so that as Baronius expresses it , that City which before was accounted the wonder of the world , was made like to Sodom and Gomorrah . Such likewise might those two great Fires have been which have formerly burnt down great part of the then City of London ; but neither of them come near the dreadfulness of this , considering how much bigger the habitations of the City were now , and how much greater the riches of it then could be imagined at those times . How great must we conceive the force of this Fire to have been , which having at first gotten a head where there was little means of resisting it , and much fuel to increase it ; from thence it spread it self both with and against the wind ; till it had gained so considerable a force , that it despised all the resistance could be made by the strength of the buildings which stood in its way ; and when it had once subdued the strongest and the tallest of them , it then roared like the waves of the Sea , and made its way through all the lesser obstacles , and might have gone on so far , till it had laid this City level with the ruines of the other , had not he who sets the bounds to the Ocean , and saith , thus far shalt thou go and no farther , put a stop to it in those places which were as ready to have yielded up themselves to the rage of it , as any which had been consumed before . 3. The severity of it will yet more appear from all the dreadful circumstances which attend and follow it . Could you suppose your selves in the midst of those Cities which were consumed by Fire from heaven , when it had seized upon their dwellings , O what cryes and lamentations , what yellings and shriekings might ye then have heard among them ! We may well think how dreadful those were , when we do but consider how sad the circumstances were of the Fire we mourn for this day . When it began like Sampson to break in pieces all the means of resisting it , and carried before it not only the Gates , but the Churches and most magnificent structures of the City , what horrour and confusion may we then imagine had seized upon the spirits of the Citizens ; what distraction in their councils , what paleness in their countenances , what pantings at their hearts , what an universal consternation might have been then seen upon the minds of men ? But O the sighs and tears , the frights and amazements , the miscarriages , nay the deaths of some of the weaker Sex at the terrour and apprehension of it ! O the hurry and useless pains , the alarms and tumults , the mutual hinderances of each other that were among men at the beholding the rage and fury of it ! There we might have seen Women weeping for their children , for fear of their being trod down in the press , or lost in the crowd of people , or exposed to the violence of the flames ; Husbands more solicitous for the safety of their Wives and Children , than their own ; the Souldiers running to their Swords , when there was more need of Buckets ; the Tradesmen loading their backs with that which had gotten possession of their hearts before . Then we might have heard some complaining thus of themselves : O that I had been as carefull of laying up treasures in Heaven , as I have been upon Earth , I had not been under such fears of losing them as now I am ! If I had served God as faithfully as I have done the world , he would never have left me as now that is like to do . What a fool have I been which have spent all my precious time for the gaining of that which may be now lost in an hours time ! If these flames be so dreadful , what are those which are reserved for them who love the world more than God! If none can come near the heat of this Fire , who can dwell with everlasting burnings ! O what madness then will it be to sin any more wilfully against that God who is a consuming fire , infinitely more dreadful than this can be ! Farewell then all ye deceitful vanities : now I understand thee and my self better , O bewitching world , then to fix my happiness in thee any more . I will henceforth learn so much wisdom to lay up my treasures there where neither moths can corrupt them , nor Thieves steal them , nor Fire consume them . O how happy would London be , if this were the effect of her flames on the minds of all her inhabitants ! She might then rise with a greater glory , and her inward beauty would outshine her outward splendour , let it be as great as we can wish or imagine . But in the mean time who can behold her present ruines , without paying some tears as due to the sadness of the spectacle , and more to the sins which caused them ? If that City were able to speak out of its ruines , what sad complaints would it make of all those impieties which have made her so miserable . If it had not been ( might she say ) for the pride and luxury , the ease and delicacy of some of my inhabitants , the covetousness , the fraud , the injustice of others , the debaucheries of the prophane , the open factions and secret hypocrisie of too many pretending to greater sanctity , my beauty had not been thus turned into ashes , nor my glory into those ruines which make my enemies rejoyce , my friends to mourn , and all stand amazed at the beholding of them . Look now upon me , you who so lately admired the greatness of my Trade , the riches of my Merchants , the number of my people , the conveniency of my Churches , the multitude of my Streets , and see what desolations sin hath made in the earth . Look upon me , and then tell me whether it be nothing to dally with Heaven , to make a mock at sin , to slight the judgements of God , and abuse his mercies , and after all the attempts of Heaven to reclaim a people from their sins , to remain still the same that ever they were ? Was there no way to expiate your guilt but by my misery ? Had the Leprosie of your sins so fretted into my Walls , that there was no cleansing them , but by the slames which consume them ? Must I mourn in my dust and ashes for your iniquities , while you are so ready to return to the practice of them ? Have I suffered so much by reason of them , and do you think to escape your selves ? Can you then look upon my ruines with hearts as hard and unconcerned as the stones which lye in them ? If you have any kindness for me , or for your selves , if you ever hope to see my breaches repaired , my beauty restored , my glory advanced , look on Londons ruines and repent . Thus would she bid her inhabitants not weep for her miseries , but for their own sins ; for if never any sorrow were like to her sorrow , it is because never any sins were like to their sins . Not as though they were only the sins of the City , which have brought this evil upon her ; no , but as far as the judgement reaches , so great hath the compass of the sins been , which have provoked God to make her an example of his justice . And I fear the effects of Londons calamity will be felt all the Nation over . For , considering the present languishing condition of this Nation , it will be no easie matter to recover the blood and spirits which have been lost by this Fire . So that whether we consider the sadness of those circumstances which accompanied the rage of the fire , or those which respect the present miseries of the City , or the general influence those will have upon the Nation , we cannot easily conceive what judgement could in so critical a time have befallen us , which had been more severe for the kind and Nature of it , than this hath been . 2. We consider it in the series and order of it . We see by the Text , this comes in the last place , as a reserve , when nothing else would do any good upon them : It is extrema medicina , as St. Hierom saith , the last attempt that God uses to reclaim a people by , and if these Causticks will not do , it is to be feared he looks on the wounds as incurable . He had sent a famine before , v. 6. a drought , v. 7 , 8. blasting and mildew , v. 9. the Pestilence after the manner of Egypt , v. 10. the miseries of War in the same verse . And when none of these would work that effect upon them , which they were designed for , ●hen he comes to this last way of punishing before a final destruction , he overthrew some of their Cities as he had overthrown Sodom ●nd Gomorrah . God forbid , we should be so near a final subversion , and utter desolation , as the ten Tribes were , when none of these things would bring them to repentance ; but yet the method God hath used with us seems to bode very ill in case we do not at last return to the Lord. For it is not only agreeable to what is here delivered as the course God used to reclaim the Israelites , but to what is reported by the most faithfull Historian of those times of the degrees and steps that God made before the ruines of the British Nation . For Gildas tells us the decay of it began by Civil Wars among themselves , and high discontents remaining as the consequents of them , after this an universal decay and poverty among them ; after that , nay during the continuance of it , Wars with the Picts and Scots their inveterate enemies ; but no sooner had they a little breathing space , but they return to their luxury and other sins again ; then God sends among them a consuming Pestilence , which destroyed an incredible number of people . When all this would not do , those whom they trusted most to , betrayed them , and rebelled against them , by whose means , not only the Cities were burnt with Fire , but the whole Island was turned almost into one continued flame . The issue of all which at last was , that their Countrey was turned to a desolation , the ancient Inhabitants driven out , or destroyed , and their former servants , but now their bitter enemies , possessing their habitations . May God avert the Omen from us at this day . We have smarted by Civil Wars , and the dreadful effects of them ; we yet complain of great discontents and poverty as great as them , we have inveterate enemies combined abroad against us , we have very lately suffered under a Pestilence as great almost as any we read of , and now the great City of our Nation burnt down by a dreadful Fire . And what do all these things mean ? and what will the issue of them be ? though that be lockt up in the Councils of Heaven , yet we have just cause to fear , if it be not our speedy amendment , it may be our ruine . And they who think that incredible , let them tell me whether two years since , they did not think it altogether as improbable , that in the compass of the two succeeding years , above a hundred thousand persons should be destroyed by the Plague in London and other places , and the City it self should be burnt to the Ground ? And if our fears do not , I am sure our sins may tell us , that these are but the fore-runners of greater calamities , in case there be not a timely reformation of our selves . And although God may give us some intermissions of punishments , yet at last he may , as the Roman Consul expressed it , pay us intercalatae poenae usuram , that which may make amends for all his abatements , and give us full measure according to that of our sins , pressed down , shaken together , and running over . Which leads to the third particular . 3. The Causes moving God to so much severity in his Judgements , which are the greatness of the sins committed against him . So this Prophet tells us , that the true account of all Gods punishments is to be fetched from the sins of the people , Amos 1. 3. For three transgressions of Damascus , and for four I will not turn away the punishment thereof : so it is said of Gaza , v. 6. of Tyrus , v. 9. of Edom , v. 11. of Ammon , v. 13. Moab , ch . 2. 1. Judah , v. 4. and at last Israel , v. 6. And it is observable of every one of these , that when God threatens to punish them for the greatness of their iniquities , and the multitude of their transgressions , ( which is generally supposed to be meant by the three transgressions and the four ) he doth particularly threaten to send a fire among them to consume the Houses and the Palaces of their Cities . So to Damascus , chap. 1. 4. to Gaza , v. 7. to Tyrus , v. 10. to Edom , v. 12. to Ammon , v. 14. to Moab , ch . 2. v. 2. to Judah , v. 5. I will send a fire upon Judah , and it shall devour the Palaces of Jerusalem : and Israel in the words of the text . This is a judgement then , which when it comes in its fury , gives us notice to how great a height our sins are risen ; especially when it hath so many dreadfull fore-runners , as it had in Israel , and hath had among our selves . When the red horse hath marched furiously before it all bloody with the effects of a Civil War , and the pale horse hath followed after the other with Death upon his back , and the Grave at his heels , and after both these , those come , out of whose mouth issues fire , andsmoak , and brimstone , it is then time for the inhabitants of the earth , to repent of the work of their hands . But it is our great unhappiness , that we are apt to impute these great calamities to any thing rather than to our sins ; and thereby we hinder our selves from the true remedy , because we will not understand the cause of our distemper . Though God hath not sent Prophets among us , to tell us for such and such sins , I will send such and such judgements upon you , yet where ●…e observe the parallel between the sins●…d ●…d the punishments agreeable with what ●…e find recorded in Scripture , we have rea●…n to say , that those sins were not only the ●…tecedents , but the causes of those punish●…ents which followed after them . And ●…at because the reason of punishment was ●…ot built upon any particular relation be●ween God and the people of Israel , but ●pon reasons common to all mankind ; yet with this difference , that the greater the mercies were which any people enjoyed , the sooner was the measure of their iniquities filled up , and the severer were the judgements when they came upon them . This our Prophet gives an account of , Chap. 3. 2. You only have I known of all the Nations of the earth , therefore will I punish you for your iniquities . So did God punish Tyre and Damascus , as well as Israel and Judah ; but his meaning is , he would punish them sooner , he would punish them more severely . I wish we could be brought once to consider what influence piety and vertue hath upon the good of a Nation , if we did , we should not only live better our selves , but our Kingdom and Nation might flourish more than otherwise we are like to see it do . Which is a truth hath been so universally received among the wise Men of 〈◊〉 ages , that one of the Roman Historian , though of no very severe life himself , y●… imputes the decay of the Roman State , n●… to Chance or Fortune , or some unhidd●… causes ( which the Atheism of our Ag●… would presently do ) but to the gene●… loosness of mens lives , and corruption 〈◊〉 their manners . And it was the grave Observation of one of the bravest Captain ever the Roman State had , that it was i●… possible for any State to be happy , stantib●… moenibus , ruentibus moribus , though their wal●… were firm , if their manners were decayed . Bu● it is our misery , that our walls and ou● manners are fallen together , or rather the latter undermined the former . They are our sins which have drawn so much of our blood , and infected our air , and added the greatest fuel to our flames . But it is not enough in general to declaim against our sins , but we must search out particularly those predominant vices , which by their boldness and frequency have provoked God thus to punish us ; and as we have hitherto observed a parallel between the Judgements of Israel in this Chapter , and our own : So I am afraid we shall finde too sad a parallel between their sins and ours too . Three sorts of sins are here spoken of in a peculiar manner , as the causes ●f their severe punishments , Their luxury ●nd intemperance , their covetousness and op●ression , and their contempt of God and his Laws , and I doubt we need not make a ●ery exact scrutiny to finde out these in a ●igh degree among our selves : and I wish ●t were as easie to reform them , as to finde them out . 1. Luxury and intemperance ; that we meet with in the first verse , both in the compellation , Ye Kine of Bashan , and in their behaviour , which say to their Masters , bring , and let us drink . Ye Kine of Bashan , Loquitur ad Principes Israel & Optimates quosque decem Tribuum , saith St. Hierom , he speaks to the Princes of Israel , and the chief of all the ten Tribes ; Those which are fed in the richest pastures , such as those of Bashan were . Who are more fully described by the Prophet in this sixth chapter . They are the men who are at ease in Sion , v. 1. they put far away from them the evil day , v. 3. they lye upon beds of Ivory , and stretch themselves upon their Couches , and eat the Lambs out of the flock , and the Calves out of the midst of the stall , v. 4. they chaunt to the sound of the Viol , and invent to themselves instruments of Musick like David , v. 5. they drink Wine in bowls , and annoint themselves with the chief oyntments , but they are not grieved s●… the affliction of Joseph . The meaning of a●… which is , they minded nothing but ease●… softness , and pleasure , but could not endure to hear of the calamities which wer● so near them . Nothing but mirth , an● jollity , and riot , and feasting , and the evi●… consequences of these were to be seen o● heard among them . Their delicate soul●… were presently rufled and disturbed at the discourse of any thing but matters of Courtship , address and entertainment . Any thing that was grave and serious , though never so necessary , and of the greatest importance , was put off , as Felix put off St. Paul to a more convenient time : especially if it threatned miseries to them , and appeared with a countenance sadder than their own . These were the Kine of Bashan , who were full of ease and wantonness , and never thought of the day of slaughter , which the other were the certain fore-runners of . Symmachus renders it , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which others apply to the rich Citizens of Samaria , I am afraid we may take it in either sense without a Soloecism . Bring and let us drink , which as St. Hierom goes on , Ebrietatem significat in vino & luxuria quae statum mentis evertunt , it implies the height of their luxury and intemperance . It is observed by some , that our Prophet retains still the language of his education in the bluntness of his expressions , the great men that lived wholly at their ease , in wantonness and luxury , he styles like the heardsman of Tekoa , the Kine of Bashan . That he thought was title good enough for such who seemed to have souls for no other end , than the other had . And hath not that delicata insania , as St. Austin calls it , that soft and effeminate kinde of madness taken possession of too many among us , whose birth and education designed them for more manly imployments ? yea , what an age of Luxury do we live in , when instead of those noble characters of men from their vertue , and wisdom , and courage , it is looked on among some as a mighty character of a person , that he ea●s and drinks well : a character that becomes none so much as the Kine of Bashan in the literal sense , for surely they did so , or else they had never been in so much esteem among the heardsmen of Tekoa . A character which those Philosophers would have been ashamed of , who looked upon no other end of humane life but pleasure ; but in order to that , they thought nothing more necessary than temperance and sobriety ; but whatever esteem they had then , they have lost all their reputation among our modern Epicures , who know of no such things a●… pleasures of the mind , and would not mu●… value whether they had any faculties of th●… mind or no , unless it were for the contrivance of new Oaths and debaucheries But if this were only among some few persons , we hope the whole Nation would not suffer for their madness : for scarce any Age hath been so happy , but it hath ha●… some Monsters in Morality as well as Nature . But I am afraid these vices are grown too Epidemical ; not only in the City , but the Countreys too ; what mean else those frequent complaints ( and I hope more general than the causes of them ) that the houses of great men in too many places are so near being publick schools of debauchery , rather than of piety and vertue , where men shall not want instructers to teach them to forget both God and themselves ; wherein sobriety is so far from being accounted a matter of honour , that the rules of the Persian civility are quite forgotten , and men are forced to unman themselves . I know nothing would tend more to the honour of our Nation , or the advantage of it , then if once these publick excesses were severely restrained , I do not mean so much by making new Laws , ( for those generally do but exercise peoples Wits by finding out new evasions ) but by executing old ones . 2. Covetousness and oppression . You see what these great men in Samaria did when they had any respite from their excesses and intemperance , then woe be to the poor who come in their way ; Which oppress the poor , and crush the needy : v. 1. either by the hands of violence , or by those arts and devices which either their honesty or poverty have kept them from the knowledge of . And if there be not so much of open violence in our dayes , the thanks are due to the care of our Magistrates , and the severity of our Laws , but it is hard to say whether ever any Age produced more studious and skilfull to pervert the design of Laws , without breaking the letter of them , than this of ours hath done . Fraud and injustice is now managed with a great deal of artifice and cunning ; and he thinks himself no body in the understanding of the world , that cannot over-reach his Brother , and not be discovered : or however in the multiplicity and obscurity of our Laws cannot finde out something in pretence at least to justifie his actions by . But if appeal be made to the Courts of Judicature , what arts are then used either for concealing or hiring witnesses , so that if their Purses be not equal , the adverse party may overswear him by so much as his Purse is weightier than the others . I heartily wish it may never be said of us , what the Orator once said of the Greeks , Quibus jusjurandum jocus , testimonium ludus , they made it a matter of jest and drollery to forswear themselves , and give false testimonies . But supposing men keep within the bounds of justice and common honesty , yet how unsatiable are the desires of men ! they are for adding house to house , and land to land , never contented with what either their Ancestors have left them , or the bountiful hand of Heaven hath bestowed upon them . Till at last it may be in the Prophets expression for their covetousness , the stone cry out of the wall , and the beam out of the timber answer it ; i. e. provoke God to give a severe check to the exorbitant and boundless desires of men , as he hath done by this dayes calamity . Thus while the City thought with Babylon to sit as a Lady for ever , while she dwelt carelesly , and said I am , and there is none else besides me ; evil is come upon her , and she knows not from whence it comes , and mischief is fallen upon her , and she hath not been able to put it off , and desolation is come upon her suddenly , which she did not foresee . 3. Contempt of God and his Laws . That we read of v. 4. where the Prophet speaks by an Irony to them , Come to Bethel and transgress , &c. he knew well enough they were resolved to do it , let God or the Prophet say what they pleased . For these Kine of Bashan were all for the Calves of Dan and Bethel , and some think that is the reason of the title that is given them . These great men of Samaria thought it beneath them to own Religion any further than it was subservient to their civil interests . They were all of Jeroboams Religion , who looked on it as a meer politick thing , and fit to advance his own designs by . I am afraid there are too many at this day who are secretly of his minde , and think it a piece of wisdom to be so : Blessed God , that men should be so wise to deceive themselves , and go down with so much discretion to Hell ! These are the Grave and retired Atheists , who , though they secretly love not Religion , yet their caution hinders them from talking much against it . But there is a sort of men much more common than the other ; the faculties of whose minds are so thin and aiery , that they will not bear the consideration of any thing , much less of Religion ; these throw out their bitter scoffs , and prophane jests against it . A thing never permitted that I know of in any civilized Nation in the world ; whatsoever their Religion was , the reputation of Religion was always preserved sacred : God himself ( saith Josephus ) would not suffer the Jews to speak evil of other Gods , though they were to destroy all those who tempted them to the worship of them . And shall we suffer the most excellent and reasonable Religion in the world , viz. the Christian , to be profaned by the unhallowed mouths of any who will venture to be damned , to be accounted witty ? If their enquiries were deeper , their reason stronger , or their arguments more perswasive , than of those who have made it their utmost care and business to search into these things , they ought to be allowed a fair hearing ; but for men who pretend to none of these things , yet still to make Religion the object of their scoffs and raillery , doth not become the gravity of a Nation professing wisdom to permit it , much less the sobriety of a people professing Christianity . In the mean time such persons may know , that wise men may be argued out of a Religion they own , but none but Fools and mad men will be droll'd out of it . Let them first try whether they can laugh men out of their Estates , before they attempt to do it out of their hopes of an Eternal happiness . And I am sure it will be no comfort to them in another world , that they were accounted Wits for deriding those miseries which they then feel and smart under the severity of : it will be no mitigation of their flames that they go laughing into them ; nor will they endure them the better because they would not believe them . But while this is so prevailing a humour among the vain men of this Age and Nation , what can we expect but that God should by remarkable and severe judgements , seek to make men more serious in Religion , or else make their hearts to ake , and their joynts to tremble , as he did Belshazzars , when he could find nothing else to carouse in but the Vessels of the Temple . And when men said in the Prophet Zephany , chap. 1. 12. that God neither did good nor evil , presently it follows , therefore their goods shall become a booty , and their houses a desolation : the day of the Lord is near , a day of wrath , a day of trouble and distress , a day of wasteness and desolation ; as it is with us at this time . Thus we see how sad the parallel hath been not only in the judgements of Israel , but in the sins likewise which have made those judgements so severe . 4. The severity of the Judgement appears not only from the Causes , but from the Author of it . I have overthrown some of you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah . God challenges the execution of his Justice to himself , not only in the great day , but in his judgement here in the world . Shall there be evil in a City , and the Lord hath not done it ? When God is pleased to punish men for their sins , the execution of his justice is as agreeable to his nature now , as it will be at the end of the world . We all know that he may do it if he please , and he hath told us , that he doth and will do it ; and we know withall , that without such remarkable severities , the world will hardly be kept in any awe of him . We do not finde that Love doth so much in the World as Fear doth , there being so very few persons of tractable and ingenuous spirits . It is true of too many , what Lactantius observes of the Romans , Nunquam Dei meminerunt , nisi dum in malis sunt , they seldom think of God , but when they are afraid of him . And there is not only this reason as to particular persons why God should punish them , but there is a greater as to Communities , and Bodies of men ; for although God suffers wicked men to escape punishment here , as he often doth ; yet he is sure not to do it in the life to come ; but Communities of men can never be punished but in this World ; and therefore the Justice of God doth often discover it self in these common calamities , to keep the World in subjection to him , and to let men see that neither the multitude of their Associates , nor the depth of their designs , nor the subtilty of their Councils can secure them from the omnipotent arm of Divine Justice , when he hath determined to visit their transgressions with rods , and their iniquities with stripes . But when he doth all this , yet his loving kindness doth he not utterly take from them : for in the midst of all his Judgements he is pleased to remember mercy ; of which we have a remarkable instance in the Text , for when God was overthrowing Cities , yet he pluckt the Inhabitants as firebrands out of the burning : and so I come from the severity of God , 2. To the mixture of his mercy in it . And ye were as a fire-brand pluckt out of the burning . That notes two things , the nearness they were in to the danger , and the unexpectedness of their deliverance out of it . 1. The nearness they were in to the danger , quasi torris , cujus jam magna pars absumpta est , as some Paraphrase it ; like a brand , the greatest part of which is already consumed by Fire ; which shews the difficulty of their escaping . So Joshua is said to be a brand pluckt out of the fire , Zech. 3. 2. And to thi● St. Hierom upon this place , applyes tha● difficult passage , 1 Cor. 3. 15. they shall b● saved , but so as by Fire , noting the greatnes● of the danger they were in , and how hardly they should escape . And are not all the Inhabitants of this City , and all of us in the suburbs of the other , whose houses escaped so near the flames , as Firebrands pluckt out of the burning ? When the fire came on in its rage and fury , as though it would in a short time have devoured all before it , that not only this whole City , but so great a part of the Suburbs of the other should escape untouched , is ( all circumstances considered ) a wonderfull expression of the kindness of God to us in the midst of so much severity . If he had suffered the Fire to go on to have consumed the remainder of our Churches and Houses , and laid this City even with the other in one continued heap of ruines , we must have said , Just art thou O Lord , and righteous in all thy judgements . We ought rather to have admired his patience in sparing us so long ; than complain of this rigour of his Justice in punishing us at last ; but instead of that he hath given us occasion this day with the three Children in the fiery furnace to praise him in the midst of the flames . For even the Inhabitants of London themselves who have suffered most in this calamity , have cause to acknowledge the mercy of God towards them , that they are escaped themselves ; though it be ( as the Jews report of Joshua , the High Priest , when thrown into the fire by the Chaldaeans ) with their cloaths burnt about them . Though their habitations be consumed , and their losses otherwise may be too great , yet that in the midst of so much danger by the flames , and the press of people , so very few should suffer the loss of their lives , ought to be owned by them and us as a miraculous Providence of God towards them . And therefore not unto us , not unto us , but to his holy Name be the praise of so great a preservation in the midst of so heavy a Judgement . 2. The unexpectedness of such a deliverance ; they are not saved by their own skill and counsel , nor by their strength and industry , but by him who by his mighty hand did pluck them as firebrands out of the burning . Though we own the justice of God in the calamities of this day , let us not forget his mercy in what he hath unexpectedly rescued from the fury of the flames ; that the Royal Palaces of our Gracious Soveraign , the residence of the Nobility , the Houses of Parliament , the Courts of Judicature , the place where we are now assembled and several others of the same nature , with other places and habitations to receive those who were burnt out of their own , stand at this day untouched with the fire ( and long may they continue so ) ought chiefly to be ascribed to the power and goodness of that God , who not only commands the raging of the Sea , and the madness of the People , but whom the winds and the flames obey . Although enough in a due subordination to Divine Providence can never be attributed to the mighty care and industry of our most Gracious Soveraign , and his Royal Highness , who by their presence and incouragement inspired a new life and vigour into the sinking spirits of the Citizens , whereby God was pleased so far to succeed their endeavours , that a stop was put to the fury of the fire in such places where it was as likely to have prevailed , as in any parts of the City consumed by it . O let us not then frustrate the design of so much severity mixed with so great mercy : let it never be said , that neither Judgements nor Kindness will work upon us : that neither our deliverance from the Pestilence which walks in darkness , nor from the flames which shine as the noon-day , will waken us from that Lethargy and security ●…e are in by our sins : but let God take ●hat course he pleases with us , we are the ●ame incorrigible people still that ever we ●ere . For we have cause enough for our ●ourning and lamentation this day , ( if God●ad ●ad not sent new calamities upon us ) that we were no better for those we had undergone before . We have surfetted with mercies , and grown sick of the kindness of Heaven to us , and when God hath made us smart for our fulness and wantonness , then we grew sullen and murmured and disputed against Providence , and were willing to do any thing but repent of our sins , and reform our lives . It is not many years since God blessed us with great and undeserved blessings , which we then thought our selves very thankfull for ; but if we had been really so , we should never have provoked him who bestowed those favours upon us in so great a degree as we have done since . Was this our requital to him for restoring our Soveraign , to rebell the more against Heaven ? Was this our thankfulness , for removing the disorders of Church and State , to bring them into our lives ? Had we no other way of trying the continuance of Gods goodness to us , but by exercising his pa●… ence by our greater provocations ? 〈◊〉 though we had resolved to let the wor● see , there could be à more unthankful an● disobedient people than the Jews had bee● Thus we sinned with as much security an● confidence , as though we had blinded th●… eyes , or bribed the justice , or commande● the power of Heaven . When God of 〈◊〉 sudden like one highly provoked dre● forth the sword of his destroying Angel , and by it cut off so many thousands in th● midst of us : Then we fell upon our knees , and begg'd the mercy of Heaven , that our Lives might be spared , that we might have time to amend them : but no sooner did our fears abate , but our devotion did so too , we had soon forgotten the promises we made in the day of our distress , and I am afraid it is at this day too true of us which is said in the Revelations of those who had escaped the several plagues which so many had been destroyed by . And the rest of the men which were not killed by these Plagues , yet repented not of the work of their hands . For if we had not greedily suckt in again the poyson we had only laid down while we were begging for our lives , if we had not returned with as great fury and violence as ever to our former lusts , the removing of one judgement had not been as it were only to make way for the coming on of another . For the grave seemed to close up her mouth , and death by degrees to withdraw himself , that the Fire might come upon the Stage , to act its part too in the Tragoedy our sins have made among us : and I pray God this may be the last Act of it . Let us not then provoke God to finde out new methods of vengeance , and make experiments upon us of what other unheard of severities may do for our cure . But let us rather meet God now by our repentance , and returning to him , by our serious humiliation for our former sins , and our stedfast resolutions to return no more to the practice of them . That , that much more dangerous infection of our souls may be cured as well as that of our bodies , that the impure flames which burn within may be extinguished , that all our luxuries may be retrenched , our debaucheries punished , our vanities taken away , our careless indifferency in Religion turned into a greater seriousness both in the profession and the practice of it . So will God make us a happy and prosperous , when he finds us a more righteous and holy Nation . So will God succeed all your endeavours for the honour and interest of that people whom you represent . So may he add that other Title to the rest of those you have deserved for your Countreys good , to make you Repairers of the breaches of the City as well as of the Nation , and Restorers of paths to dwell in : So may that City which now sits solitary like a Widow , have her tears wiped off , and her beauty and comeliness restored unto her . Yea , so may her present ruines , in which she now lyes buried , be only the fore-runners of a more joyfull resurrection . In which , though the body may remain the same , the qualities may be so altered , that its present desolation may be only the putting off its former inconveniencies , weakness , and deformities , that it may rise with greater glory , strength and proportion : and to all her other qualities , may that of incorruption be added too , at least till the general Conflagration . And I know your great Wisdom and Justice will take care , that those who have suffered by the ruines , may not likewise suffer by the rising of it , that the glory of the City may not be laid upon the tears of the Orphans and Widows , but that its foundations may be setled upon Justice and Piety . That there be no complaining in the Streets for want of Righteousness , nor in the City for want of Churches , nor in the Churches for want of a settled maintenance . That those who attend upon the service of God in them may never be tempted to betray their Consciences to gain a livelihood , nor to comply with the factious humours of men , that they may be able to live among them . And thus when the City through the blessing of Heaven shall be built again , may it be a Habitation of Holiness towards God , of Loyalty towards our Gracious King and his Successors , of Justice and Righteousness towards Men , of Sobriety , and Peace , and Unity among all the Inhabitants , till not Cities and Countries only , but the World and Time it self shall be no more . Which God of his infinite mercy grant through the merits and mediation of his Son , to whom with the Father and Eternal Spirit , be all Honour and Glory for evermore . FINIS . A SERMON Preached before the KING , MARCH 13. 1666 / 7. By Edward Stillingfleet , B. D. Chaplain in Ordinary to his Majesty . Printed by His Majesties special Command . The Fourth Edition . LONDON , Printed by R. White , for Henry Mortlock , and are to be sold at his Shop , at the Sign of the White Hart in Westminster Hall. 1669. Proverbs 14. 9. Fools make a mock at Sin. WHEN God by his infinite Wisdom had contrived , and by a power and goodness , as infinite as his Wisdom , had perfected the creation of the visible world , there seemed to be nothing wanting to the glory of it , but a creature endued with reason and understanding , which might comprehend the design of his wisdom , enjoy the benefits of his goodness , and employ it self in the celebration of his power . The Beings purely intellectuall were too highly raised by their own order and creation , to be the Lords of this inferiour world : and those whose natures could reach no higher than the objects of sense , were not capable of discovering the glorious perfections of the great Creator : and therefore could not be the fit Instruments of his praise and service . But a conjunction of both these together was thought necessary to make up such a sort of beings , which might at once command this lower world , and be the servants of him who made it . Not as though this great fabrick of the world were meerly raised for man to please his fancy in the contemplation of it , or to exercise his dominion over the creatures designed for his use and service : but that by frequent reflections on the author of his being , and the effects of his power and goodness he might be brought to the greatest love and admiration of him . So that the most natural part of Religion lyes in the grateful acknowledgments we owe to that excellent and supream Being , who hath shewed so particular a kindness to man in the creation and Government of the world . Which was so great and unexpressible , that some have thought , it was not so much pride and affectation of a greater height , as envy at the felicity and power of mankind , which was the occasion of the fall of the Apostate Spirits . But whether or no the state of man were occasion enough for the envy of the Spirits above ; we are sure the kindness of Heaven was so great in it , as could not but lay an indispensable obligation on all mankind to perpetual gratitude and obedience . For it is as easie to suppose , that affronts and injuries are the most suitable returns for the most obliging favours , that the first duty of a Child should be to destroy his Parents ; that to be thankful for kindnesses received , were to commit the unpardonable sin ; as that man should receive his being and all the blessings which attend it from God , and not be bound to the most universal obedience to him . And as the reflection on the author of his being , leads him to the acknowledgement of his duty towards God , so the consideration of the design of it , will more easily acquaint him with the nature of that duty which is expected from him . Had man been designed only to act a short part here in the world , all that had been required of him , had been only to express his thankfulness to God for his being , and the comforts of it : the using all means for the due preservation of himself ; the doing nothing beneath the dignity of humane nature , nothing injurious to those who were of the same nature with himself ; but since he is designed for greater and nobler ends , and his present state , is but a state of tryal , in order to future happiness and misery ; the reason of good and evil is not to be taken meerly from his present , but from the respect , which things have to that eternal state he is designed for . From whence it follows , that the differences of good and evil are rooted in the nature of our beings , and are the necessary consequents of our relation to God , and each other , and our expectations of a future life . And therefore according to these measures , the estimation of men in the world hath been while they did preserve any veneration for God or themselves . Wisdom and folly was not measured so much by the subtilty and curiosity of mens speculations , by the fineness of their thoughts , or the depth of their designes , as by their endeavours to uphold the dignity of mankind ; by their piety and devotion towards God ; by their sobriety and due Government of their actions ; by the equality and justice , the charity and kindness of their dealings to one another . Wisdom was but another name for goodness , and folly for sin ; then it was a mans glory to be religious ; and to be prophane and vitious , was to be base and mean : then there were no Gods worshipped because they were bad , nor any men disgraced because they were good . Then there were no Temples erected to the meanest passions of humane nature , nor men became Idolaters to their own infirmities . Then to be betrayed into sin , was accounted weakness ; to contrive it , dishonour and baseness ; to justifie and defend it , infamy and reproach ; to make a mock at it , a mark of the highest folly and incorrigibleness . So the Wise man in the words of the Text assures us , that they are Fools , and those of the highest rank and degree of folly , who make a mock at sin . It is well for us in the Age we live in , that we have the judgement of former ages to appeal to , and of those persons in them whose reputation for wisdom is yet unquestionable . For otherwise we might be born down by that spightful enemy to all vertue and goodness , the impudence of such , who it is hard to say whether they shew it more in committing sin , or in defending it . Men whose manners are so bad , that scarce any thing can be imagined worse , unless it be the wit they use to excuse them with . Such who take the measure of mans perfections downwards , and the nearer they approach to beasts , the more they think themselves to act like men . No wonder then , if among such as these the differences of good and evil be laughed at , and no sin be thought so unpardonable , as the thinking that there is any at all . Nay the utmost they will allow in the description of Sin , is , that it is a thing that some live by declaiming against , and others cannot live without the practice of . But is the Chair of Scorners at last proved the only chair of Infallibility ? Must those be the standard of mankind , who seem to have little left of humane nature , but laughter and the shape of men ? Do they think that we are all become such fools to take scoffs for arguments , and raillery for demonstrations ? He knows nothing at all of goodness , that knows not that it is much more easie to laugh at it , than to practise it ; and it were worth the while to make a mock at sin , if the doing so would make nothing of it . But the nature of things does not vary with the humours of men ; sin becomes not at all the less dangerous because men have so little Wit to think it so ; nor Religion the less excellent and advantageous to the world , because the greatest enemies of that are so much to themselves too , that they have learnt to despise it . But although that scorns to be defended by such weapons whereby her enemies assault her , ( nothing more unbecoming the Majesty of Religion , than to make it self cheap , by making others laugh ) yet if they can but obtain so much of themselves to attend with patience to what is serious , there may be yet a possibility of perswading them , that no fools are so great as those who laugh themselves into misery , and none so certainly do so , as those who make a mock at sin . But if our authority be too mean and contemptible to be relyed on , in a matter wherein they think us so much concern'd ( and so I hope we are to prevent the ruine of mens souls ) we dare with confidence appeal to the general sense of mankind in the matter of our present debate . Let them name but any one person in all the monuments of former ages , to whom but the bare suspicion of Vice was not a diminution to an esteem that might otherwise have been great in the world . And if the bare suspicion would do so much among even the more rude and barbarous Nations , what would open and professed wickedness do among the more knowing and civil ? Humane nature retains an abhorrency of sin , so far that it is impossible for men to have the same esteem of those who are given over to all manner of wickedness , though otherwise of great sharpness of wit , and of such whose natural abilities may not exceed the other , but yet do govern their actions according to the strict rules of Religion and Vertue . And the general sense o●… mankind cannot be by any thing better known , than by an universal consent of men , as to the wayes whereby they express their value and esteem of others . What they all agree on as the best character of a person worthy to be loved and honoured , we may well think is the most agreeable to humane nature ; and what is universally thought a disparagement to the highest accomplishments , ought to be looked on as the disgrace and imperfection of it . Did ever any yet , though never so wicked and profane themselves , seriously commend another person for his rudeness and debaucheries ? Was any mans lust or intemperance ever reckoned among the Titles of his honour ? Who ever yet raised Trophies to his vices , or thought to perpetuate his memory by the glory of them ? Where was it ever known , that sobriety and temperance , justice and charity were thought the marks of reproach and infamy ? Who ever suffered in their reputation by being thought to be really good ? Nay , it is so far from it , that the most wicked persons do inwardly esteem them whether they will or no. By which we see , that even in this lapsed and degenerate condition of mankind , it is only goodness which gains true honour and esteem , and nothing doth so effectually blast a growing reputation , as wickedness & vice . But if it be thus with the generality of men , who were never yet thought to have too much partiality towards goodness , we may much more easily find it among those , who have had a better ground for the reputation of their wisdom , than the meer vogue of the people . He who was pronounced by the Heathen Oracle , to be the wisest among the Greeks , was the person who brought down Philosophy from the obscure and uncertain speculations of Nature , and in all his discourses recommended Vertue as the truest wisdom . And he among the Jews , whose soul was as large as the sand on the Sea shore , whose wisdom out-went that of all the persons of his own or future Ages , writes a Book on purpose to perswade men , that there is no real wisdom , but to fear God and keep his Commandments : that sin is the greatest folly , and the meaner apprehensions men have of it , the more they are infatuated by the temptations to it . But as there are degrees of sinning , so there are of folly in it . Some sin with a blushing countenance , and a trembling Conscience ; they sin , but yet they are afraid to sin , but in the act of it they condemn themselves for what they do ; they sin , but with confusion in their faces , with horror in their minds , and an earthquake in their Consciences : though the condition of such persons be dangerous , and their unquietness shews the greatness of their folly , yet because these twitches of Conscience argue there are some quick touches left of the sense of good and evil , their case is not desperate , nor their condition incurable : But there are others who despise these as the reproach of the School of Wickedness , because they are not yet attained to those heights of impiety which they glory in : such who have subdued their Consciences much easier than others do their sins ; who have almost worn out all the impressions of the work of the Law written in their hearts ; who not only make a practice , but a boast of sin , and defend it with as much greediness as they commit it : these are the men , whose folly is manifest to all men but themselves ; and surely , since these are the men , whom Solomon in the words of the Text describes , ( 1. ) By their character , as Fools , and , ( 2. ) By the instance of their folly , in making a mock at sin ; We may have not only the liberty to use , but ( 1. ) To prove , that Name of reproach to be due unto them ; and ( 2. ) To shew the reasonableness of ●astning it upon them , because they make a mock at sin . But before I come more closely to pursue that , it will be necessary to consider another sense of these words caused by the ambiguity of the Hebrew Verb , which sometimes signifies to deride and scorn , sometimes to plead for , and excuse a thing with all the arts of Rhetorick ( thence the word for Rhetorick is derived from the Verb here used ) according to which sense , it notes all the plausible pretences and subtle extenuations which wicked men use in defence of their evil actions . For as if men intended to make some recompence for the folly they betray in the acts of sin , by the wit they employ in the pleading for them , there is nothing they shew more industry and care in , than in endeavouring to baffle their own Consciences , and please themselves in their folly , till death and eternal flames awaken them . That we may not therefore seem to beg all wicked men for Fools , till we have heard what they have to say for themselves , we shall first examine the reasonableness of their fairest Pleas for their evil actions , before we make good the particular impeachment of folly against them . There are thre● wayes especially whereby they seek t●… justifie themselves ; by laying the bla● of all their evil actions , either upon th● fatal necessity of all events , the unavoidable frailty of humane nature , or the impossibility of keeping the Laws of Heaven . But that none of these will serve to excuse them from the just imputation of folly , is our present business to discover . 1. The fatall necessity of all humane actions . Those who upon any other terms are unwilling enough to own either God or Providence , yet if they can but make these serve their turn to justifie their sins by , their quarrell against them then ceaseth , as being much more willing that God should bear the blame of their sins , than themselves . But yet the very fears of a Deity suggest so many dreadful thoughts of his Majesty , Justice , and Power , that they are very well contented to have him wholly left out ; and then to suppose Man to be a meer Engine , that is necessarily moved by such a train and series of causes , that there is no action how bad soever that is done by him , which it was any more possible for him not to have done , than for the fire not to burn when it pleases . If this be true , farewell all the differences of good and evil in mens actions ; farewell all ●xpectations of future rewards and punishments ; Religion becomes but a meer name , and righteousness but an art to live by . But it is with this , as it is with the other arguments they use against Religion ; there ●s something within , which checks and controlls them in what they say : and that inward remorse of conscience , which such men sometimes feel in their evil actions ( when conscience is forced to recoil by the foulness of them ) doth effectually confute their own hypothesis ; and makes them not believe those actions to be necessary , for which they suffer so much in themselves because they knew they did them freely . Or is it as fatal for man to believe himself free when he is not so , as it is for him to act when his choice is determined ? but what series of causes is there that doth so necessarily impose upon the common sense of all mankind ; It seems very strange , that man should have so little sense of his own interest to be still necessitated to the worst of actions , and yet torment himself with the thoughts that he did them freely . Or is it only the freedom of action , and not of choice , that men have an experience of within themselves ? But surely , however men may subtilly dispute of the difference between these two , no man would ever believe himself to be free in what he does unless he first thought himself to be so , in what he determines ? And if we suppose man to have as great a freedom of choice i● all his evil actions ( which is the liberty we are now speaking of ) as any persons assert or contend for , we cannot suppose that he should have a greater experience of it , than now he hath . So that either it is impossible for man to know when his choice is free ; or if it may be known , the constant experience of all evil men in the world will testifie , that it is so now . Is it possible for the most intemperate person to believe , when the most pleasing temptations to lust or gluttony are presented to him , that no consideration whatever could restrain his appetite , or keep him from the satisfaction of his bruitish inclinations ? Will not the sudden , though groundless apprehension of poyson in the Cup , make the Drunkards heart to ake , and hand to tremble , and to let fall the supposed fatal mixture in the midst of all his jollity and excess ? How often have persons who have designed the greatest mischief to the lives and fortunes of others , when all opportunities have fallen out beyond their expectation for accomplishing their ends , through some sudden thoughts which have surprized them , almost in the very act , been diverted from their intended purposes ? Did ever any yet imagine that the charms of beauty and allurements of lust were so irresistible , that if men knew before hand they should surely dye in the embraces of an adulterous bed , they could not yet withstand the temptations to it ? If then some considerations , which are quite of another nature from all the objects which are presented to him , may quite hinder the force and efficacy of them upon the mind of man ( as we see in Josephs resisting the importunate Caresses of his Mistris ) what reason can there be to imagine that man is a meer machine moved only as outward objects determine him ? And if the considerations of present fear and danger may divert men from the practice of evil actions , shall not the far more weighty considerations of eternity have at least an equal , if not a far greater power and efficacy upon mens minds , to keep them from everlasting misery ? Is an immortal soul and the eternal happiness of it so mean a thing in our esteem and value , that we will not deny our selves those sensual pleasures for the sake of that which we would renounce for some present danger ? Are the flames of another world such painted fires , that they deserve only to be laughed at , and not seriously considered by us ? Fond man ! art thou only free to ruine and destroy thy self ? a strange fatality indeed , when nothing but what is mean and trivial shall determine thy choice ! when matters of the highest moment are therefore less regarded , because they are such . Hast thou no other plea for thy self , but that thy sins were fatal ? thou hast no reason then to believe but that thy misery shall be so too . But if thou ownest a God and Providence , assure thy self that justice and righteousness are not meer Titles of his Honour , but the real properties of his nature . And he who hath appointed the rewards and punishments of the great day , will then call the sinner to account , not only for all his other sins , but for offering to lay the imputation of them upon himself . For if the greatest abhorrency of mens evil wayes , the rigour of his Laws , the severity of his judgements , the exactness of his justice , the greatest care used to reclaim men from their sins , and the highest assurance , that he is not the cause of their ruine , may be any vindication of the holiness of God now , and his justice in the life to come ; we have the greatest reason to lay the blame of all our evil actions upon our selves , as to attribute the glory of all our good unto himself alone . 2. The frailty of humane Nature : those who finde themselves to be free enough to do their souls mischief , and yet continue still in the doing of it , find nothing more ready to plead for themselves , than the unhappiness of mans composition , and the degenerate state of the world . If God had designed ( they are ready to say ) that man should lead a life free from sin , why did he confine the soul of man to a body so apt to taint and pollute it ? But who art thou O man , that thus findest fault with thy Maker ? Was not his kindness the greater , in not only giving thee a soul capable of enjoying himself , but such an habitation for it here , which by the curiosity of its contrivance , the number and usefulness of its parts , might be a perpetual and domestick testimony of the wisdom of its Maker ? Was not such a conjunction of soul and body necessary for the exercise of that dominion which God designed man for , over the creatures endued only with sense and motion ? And if we suppose this life to be a state of tryall in order to a better , ( as in all reason we ought to do ) what can be imagined more proper to such a state , than to have the soul constantly employed in the government of those sensual inclinations which arise from the body ▪ In the doing of which , the proper exercise of that vertue consists , which is made th● condition of future happiness . Had it no● been for such a composition , the difference could never have been seen between goo● and bad men ; i. e. between those who maintain the Empire of reason , assisted by the motives of Religion , over all the inferiour faculties , and such who dethrone their souls and make them slaves to every lust that will , command them . And if men willingly subject themselves to that which they were born to rule , they have none to blame but themselves for it . Neither is it any excuse at all , that this , through the degeneracy of mankinde , is grown the common custom of the world ; unless that be in it self so great a Tyrant , that there is no resisting the power of it . If God had commanded us to comply with all the customs of the world , and at the same time to be sober , righteous , and good , we must have lived in another age than we live in , to have excused these two commands from a palpable contradiction . But instead of this , he hath forewarned us of the danger of being led aside by the soft and easie compliances of the world ; and if we are ●ensible of our own infirmities , ( as we have ●ll reason to be ) he hath offered us the ●ssistance of his Grace and of that Spirit of ●is , which is greater than the Spirit that is ●n the World. He hath promised us those weapons whereby we may withstand the ●orrent of wickedness in the world , with far greater success than the old Gauls were wont to do the inundations of their Countrey , whose custom was to be drowned with their arms in their hands . But it will be the greater folly in us to be so , because we have not only sufficient means of resistance , but we understand the danger before hand . If we once forsake the strict rules of Religion and goodness , and are ready to yield our selves to whatever hath got retainers enough to set up for a custom , we may know where we begin , but we cannot where we shall make an end . For every fresh assault makes the breach wider , at which more enemies may come in still ; so that when we finde our selves under their power , we are contented for our own ease to call them Friends . Which is the unhappy consequence of too easie yielding at first , till at last the greatest slavery to sin be accounted but good humour , and a gentile compliance with the fashions of the world . So that when men are pe● swaded , either through fear , or too gre●… easiness to disuse that strict eye which the● had before to their actions ; it oft-time falls out with them , as it did with the Soul dier in the Roman History , who blinded hi● eye so long in the time of the Civil Wan●… that when he would have used it agai●… he could not . And when custom hath b● degrees taken away the sense of sin fro● their Consciences , they grow as hard as H●… rodotus tells us the heads of the old Egypt● ans were by the heat of the Sun , that nothing would ever enter them . If men wil●… with Nebuchadnezzar herd with the beast● of the field , no wonder if their reason departs from them , and by degrees they grow as savage as the company they keep . So powerfull a thing is Custom to debauc● Mankinde , and so easily do the greatest vices by degrees obtain admission into the souls of men , under pretence of being retainers to the common infirmities of humane nature . Which is a phrase , through the power of self-flattery , and mens ignorance in the nature of moral actions , made to be of so large and comprehensive a sense that the most wilful violations of the Laws of Heaven , and such which the Scripture tells us do exclude from the Kingdom of it , do finde ( rather than make ) friends enough to shelter themselves under the protection of them . But such a protection it is , which is neither allowed in the Court of Heaven , nor will ever secure the souls of men without a hearty and sincere repentance , from the arrest of divine justice ; which when it comes to call the world to an account of their actions will make no defalcations at all for the power of custom , or common practice of the world . 3. The Impossibility of the Command , or rather of obedience to it . When neither of the former pleas will effect their design , but notwithstanding the pretended necessity of humane actions , and the more than pretended common practice of the World , their Consciences still fly in their faces , and rebuke them sharply for their sins , then in a a mighty rage and fury they charge God himself with Tyranny in laying impossible Laws upon the sons of men . But if we either consider the nature of the command , or the promises which accompany it , or the large experience of the world to the contrary , we shall easily discover that this pretence is altogether as unreasonable as either of the foregoing . For what is it that God requires of men as the condition of their future happiness which in its own nature is judged impossible ? Is it for men to live soberly , righteously and godly in this world ? for that was the end of Christian Religion to perswade men to do so : but who thinks it impossible to avoid the occasions of intemperance , not to defraud , or injure his neighbours , or to pay that reverence and sincere devotion to God which we owe unto him ? Is it to do as we would be done by ? yet that hath been judged by strangers to the Christian Religion a most exact measure of humane conversation ; Is it to maintain an universal kindness and good will to men ? that indeed is the great excellency of our Religion , that it so strictly requires it ; but if this be impossible , farewell all good nature in the world ; and I suppose few will own this charge , lest theirs be suspected . Is it to be patient under sufferings , moderate in our desires , circumspect in our actions , contented in all conditions ? yet these are things which those have pretended to who never owned Christianity , and therefore surely they never thought them impossible . Is it to be charitable to the poor , compassionate to those in misery ? is it to be frequent in Prayer , to love God above all things , to forgive our enemies as we hope God will forgive us , to believe the Gospel , and be ready to suffer for the sake of Christ ? There are very few among us but will say they do all these things already , and therefore surely they do not think them impossible . The like answer I might give to all the other precepts of the Gospel till we come to the denying ungodliness and worldly lusts , and as to these too , if we charge men with them , they either deny their committing them , and then say they have kept the command ; or if they confess it , they promise amendment for the future ; but in neither respect can they be said to think the command impossible . Thus we see their own mouths will condemn them when they charge God with laying impossible Laws on mankind . But if we enquire further then into the judgements of those ( who it may be never concerned themselves so much about the precepts of Christian Religion , as to try whether they had any power to observe them or not ) ; nay , if we yield them more ( than , it may be , they are willing to enquire after , though they ought to do it ) viz. that without the assistance of divine grace , they can never do it : yet such is the unlimited nature of divine goodness and the exceeding riches of Gods Grace , that ( knowing the weakness and degeneracy of humane Nature when he gave these commands to men ) he makes a large and free offer of assistance to all those who are so sensible of their own infirmity as to beg it of him . And can men then say the command is impossible when he hath promised an assistance suitable to the nature of the duty and the infirmities of men ? If it be acknowledged that some of the duties of Christianity are very difficult to us now ; let us consider by what means he hath sweetned the performance of them . Will not the proposal of so excellent a reward , make us swallow some more than ordinary hardships that we might enjoy it ? Hath he not made use of the most obliging motives to perswade us to the practice of what he requires , by the infinite discovery of his own love , the death of his Son , and the promise of his Spirit ? And what then is wanting , but only setting our selves to the serious obedience of them , to make his commands not only not impossible , but easie to us ? But our grand fault is , we make impossibilities our selves where we finde none , and then we complain of them : we are first resolved not to practise the commands , and then nothing more easie than to finde fault with them : we first pass sentence , and then examine evidences ; first condemn , and then enquire into the merits of the Cause . Yet surely none of these things can be accounted impossible , which have been done by all those who have been sincere and hearty Christians ; and God forbid we should think all guilty of hypocrisie , who have professed the Christian Religion from the beginning of it to this day . Nay more than so , they have not only done them , but professed to have that joy and satisfaction of minde in the doing of them , which they would not exchange for all the pleasures and delights of the world . These were the men , who not only were patient , but rejoyced in sufferings ; who accounted it their honour and glory to endure any thing for the sake of so excellent a Religion ; who were so assured of a future happiness by it , that they valued Martyrdoms above Crowns and Scepters . But God be thanked , we may hope to come to Heaven on easier terms than these , or else many others might never come thither , besides those who think to make this a pretence for their sin , that now when with encouragement and honour we may practise our Religion , the commands of it are thought impossible by them . Thus we have made good the general Charge here implyed against wicked men , in that they are called Fools , by examining the most plausible pretences they bring for themselves . I now come to the particular impeachment of their folly , because they make a mock at sin . And that I shall prove especially by two things : 1. Because this argues the highest degree of wickedness . 2. Because it betrayes the greatest weakness of judgement and want of consideration . 1. Because it argues the highest degree of wickedness . If to sin be tolly , to make a mock at it is little short of madness . It is such a height of impiety , that few but those who are of very profligate conscienences can attain to , without a long custom in sinning . For Conscience is at first modest , and starts and boggles at the appearance of a great wickedness , till it be used to it and grown familiar with it . It is no such easie matter for a man to get the mastery of his conscience ; a great deal of force and violence must be used to ones self before he does it . The natural impressions of good and evil , the fears of a Deity , and the apprehensions of a future state are such curbs and checks in a sinners way , that he must first sin himself beyond all feeling of these , before he can attain to the seat of the scorners . And we may justly wonder how any should ever come thither , when they must break through all that is ingenuous and modest , all that is vertuous and good , all that is tender and apprehensive in humane nature , before they can arrive at it . They must first deny a God , and despise an immortal soul , they must conquer their own reason , and cancell the Law written in their hearts , they must hate all that is serious , and yet soberly believe themselves to be no better than the beasts that perish , before men can come to make a scoff at religion , and a mock at sin . And who now could ever imagine that in a Nation professing Christianity , among a people whose genius enclines them to civility and religion , yea among those who have the greatest advantages of behaviour and education , and who are to give the Laws of civility to the rest of the Nation , there should any be found who should deride religion , make sport with their own profaneness , and make so light of nothing , as being damned ? I come not here to accuse any , and least of all those who shew so much regard of religion as to be present in the places devoted to sacred purposes ; but if there be any such here , whose consciences accuse themselves , for any degrees of so great impiety ; I beseech them by all that is dear and precious to them , by all that is sacred and serious , by the vows of their Baptism , and their Participation of the Holy Eucharist , by all the kindness of Heaven which they either enjoy or hope for , by the death and sufferings of the Son of God , that they would now consider how great folly and wickedness they betray in it , and what the dreadful consequence of it will be , if they do not timely repent of it . If it were a doubt ( as I hope it is not among any here ) whether the matters of Religion be true or no , they are surely things which ought to be seriously thought and spoken of . It is certainly no jesting matter to affront a God of infinite Majesty and Power , ( and he judges every wilfull sinner to do so ) nor can any one in his wits think it a thing not to be regarded , whether he be eternally happy or miserable . Methinks then among persons of civility and honour , above all others , Religion might at least be treated with the respect and reverence due to the concernments of it ; that it be not made the sport of Entertainments , nor the common subject of Playes and Comedies . For is there nothing to trifle with , but God and his service ? Is wit grown so schismatical and sacrilegious , that it can please it self with nothing but holy ground ? Are prophaneness and wit grown such inseparable companions , that none shall be allowed to pretend to the one , but such as dare be highly guilty of the other ? Far be it from those who have but the name of Christians , either to do these things themselves , or to be pleased with them that do them : especially in such times as ours of late have been , when God hath used so many wayes to make us serious if any thing would ever do it . If men had only slighted God and Religion , and made a mock at sin , when they had grown wanton through the abundance of peace and plenty , and saw no severities of Gods justice used upon such who did it ; yet the fault had been so great , as might have done enough to have interrupted their peace and destroyed that plenty , which made them out of the greatness of their pride and wantonness to kick against Heaven : but to do it in despight of all Gods judgements , to laugh in his face when his rod is upon our backs , when neither Pestilence nor Fire can make us more afraid of him , exceedingly aggravates the impiety , and makes it more unpardonable . When like the old Germans we dance among naked swords , when men shall desie and reproach Heaven in the midst of a Cities ruines , and over the graves of those whom the arrows of the Almighty have heaped together , what can be thought of such , but that nothing will make them serious , but eterna● misery ? And are they so sure there is n●… such thing to be feared , that they neve● think of it , but when by their execrabl● oaths they call upon God to damn them , fo● fear he should not do it time enough for them ? Thus while men abuse his patience , and provoke his justice , while they trample upon his kindness , and slight his severities , while they despise his Laws and mock at the breaches of them , what can be added more to their impiety ? or what can be expected by such who are guilty of it , but that God should quickly discover their mighty folly by letting them see how much they have deceived themselves , since God will not be mocked , but because of these things the wrath of God will most certainly come upon the children of disobedience . Which leads to the second thing wherein this folly is seen . 2. Which is in the weakness of judgement and want of consideration , which this betrayes in men . Folly is the great unsteadiness of the mind in the thoughts of what is good and fitting to be done . It were happy for many in the world , if none should suffer in their reputation for want of wisdom , but such whom nature or some violent distemper have wholly deprived of the use of their reason and understandings : But wisdom does not lye in the rambling imaginations of mens minds ( for fools may think of the same things which wise men practise ) but in a due consideration and choice of things which are most agreeable to the end they design , supposing the end in the first place to be worthy a wise mans choice ; for I cannot yet see why the end may not be chosen as well as the means , when there are many stand in competition for our choice , and men first deliberate , and then determine which is the fittest to be pursued . But when the actions of men discover , that either they understand or regard not the most excellent end of their beings , or do those things which directly cross and thwart their own designs , or else pursue those which are mean and ignoble in themselves , we need not any further evidence of their folly , than these things discover . Now that those who make a mock at sin are guilty of all these , will appear ; if we consider whom they provoke by doing so , whom they most injure , and upon what reasonable consideration they are moved to what they do . 1. Whom they provoke by their making a mock at sin ; Supposing that there is a Governour of the world , who hath established Laws for us to be guided by , we may easily understand , whose honour and authority is reflected on , when the violations of his Laws are made nothing of . For surely if they had a just esteem of his power and Soveraignty , they never durst make so bold with him , as all those do who not only commit sin themselves , but laugh at the scrupulosity of those who dare not . When Dionysius changed Apollos Cloak , and took off the Golden Beard of AEsculapius , with those solemn jeers of the unsuitableness of the one to the Son of a beardless Father ; and the much greater conveniency of a cheaper garment to the other ; it was a sign he stood not much in awe of the severity of their looks , nor had any dread at all of the greatness of their power . But although there be so infinite a disproportion between the artificial Deities of the Heathens , and the Majesty of him who made and governs the whole world ; yet as little reverence to his power and authority is shewed by all such who dare affront him with such a mighty confidence , and bid the greatest defiance to his Laws by scoffing at them . What is there , the Soveraigns and Princes of the earth do more justly resent , and express the highest indignation against , than to have their Laws despised , their persons affronted , and their authority contemned ? And can we then imagine , that a God of infinite Power and Majesty , the honour of whose Laws is as dear to him as his own is , should sit still unconcerned , when so many indignities are continually offered them , and never take any notice at all of them ? It is true , his patience is not to be measured by our fretfull and peevish natures , ( and it is happy for us all that it is not ) he knows the sinner can never escape his power , and therefore bears the longer with him : but yet his lenity is alwayes joyned with his wisdom and justice , and the time is coming when patience it self shall be no more . Is it not then the highest madness and folly to provoke one whose power is infinitely greater than our own is , and from the severity of whose wrath we cannot secure our selves one minute of an hour ? How knowest thou , O vain man , but that in the midst of all thy mirth and jollity , while thou art boasting of thy sins , and thinkest thou canst never fill up fast enough the measure of thy iniquities , a sudden fit of an Apoplexy , or the breaking of an Aposteme , or any of the innumerable instruments of death , may dispatch thee hence , and consign thee into the hands of divine Justice ? And wherewithall then wilt thou be able to dispute with God ? Wilt thou then charge his Providence with folly , and his Laws with unreasonableness ? when his greatness shall affright thee , his Majesty astonish thee , his Power disarm thee , and his Justice proceed against thee : when notwithstanding all thy bravado's here , thy own Conscience shall be not only thy accuser and witness , but thy judge and executioner too : when it shall revenge it self upon thee for all the rapes and violences thou hast committed upon it here : when horror and confusion shall be thy portion , and the unspeakable anguish of a racked and tormented minde shall too late convince thee of thy folly in making a mock at that which stings with an everlasting venom . Art thou then resolved to put all these things to the adventure , and live as securely as if the terrours of the Almighty were but the dreams of men awake , or the fancies of weak and distempered brains ? But I had rather believe that in the heat and fury of thy lusts thou wouldst seem to others to think so , than thou either doest or canst perswade thy self to such unreasonable folly . Is it not then far better to consult the tranquillity of thy mind here , ●nd the eternal happiness of it hereafter , by a serious repentance and speedy amendment of thy life , than to expose thy self for the sake of thy sensual pleasures to the fury of that God whose justice is infinite , and power irresistible ? Shall not the apprehension of his excellency make thee now afraid of him ? Never then make any mock at sin more , unless thou art able to contend with the Almighty , or to dwell with everlasting burnings . 2. The folly of it is seen in considering whom the injury redounds to by mens making themselves so pleasant with their sins . Do they think by their rude attempts to dethrone the Majesty of Heaven , or by standing at the greatest defiance , to make him willing to come to terms of composition with them ? Do they hope to slip beyond the bounds of his power , by falling into nothing when they dye , or to sue out prohibitions in the Court of Heaven , to hinder the effects of Justice there ? Do they design to out-wit infinite Wisdom , or to find such flaws in Gods government of the World , that he shall be contented to let them go unpunished ? All which imaginations are alike vain and foolish , and only shew how easily wickedness baffles the reason of mankind , and makes them rather hope or wish for the most impossibl● things , than believe they shall ever be punished for their impieties . If the Apostate Spirits can by reason of their presen● restraint and expectation of future punishments be as pleasant in beholding the folli●… of men as they are malicious to suggest them , it may be one of the greatest diversions of their misery , to see how active and witty men are in contriving their own ruine . To see with what greediness they catch at every bait that is offered them , and when they are swallowing the most deadly poyson , what arts they use to perswade themselves that it is a healthful potion . No doubt , nothing can more gratifie them than to see men sport themselves into their own destruction , and go down so pleasantly to Hell : when eternal flames become their first awakeners , and then men begin to be wise , when it is too late to be so : when nothing but insupportable torments can convince them that God was in earnest with them , that he would not alwayes bear the affronts of evil men , and that those who derided the miseries of another life , shall have leisure enough to repent their folly , when their repentance shall only increase their sorrow without hopes of pardon by it . 3. But if there were any present felicity , or any considerable advantage to be gained by this mocking at sin , and undervaluing Religion , there would seem to be some kind of pretence , though nothing of true reason for it . Yet that which heightens this folly to the highest degree in the last place is , that there can be no imaginable consideration thought on which might look like a plausible temptation to it . The covetous man , when he hath defrauded his neighbour , and used all kinds of arts to compass an Estate , hath the fulness of his baggs to answer for him ; and whatever they may do in another world , he is sure they will do much in this . The voluptuous man hath the strong propensities of his Nature , the force of temptation which lies in the charms of beauty , to excuse his unlawfull pleasures by . The ambitious man , hath the greatness of his mind , the advantage of authority , the examples of those who have been great before him , and the envy of those who condemn him , to plead for the heights he aims at . But what is it which the person who despises Religion , and laughs at every thing that is serious , proposes to himself as the reason of what he does ? But alas ! this were to suppose him to be much more serious than he is , if he did propound any thing to himself as the ground of his actions . But it may be a great kindness to others , though none to himself ; I cannot imagine any , unless it may be , to make them thankfull they are not arrived to that height of folly ; or out of perfect good nature , lest they should take him to be wiser than he is . The Psalmists fool despises him as much as he does Religion : for he only saith it in his heart , there is no God ; but this though he dares not think there is none , yet shews him not near so much outward respect and reverence as the other does . Even the Atheist himself thinks him a Fool , and the greatest of all other , who believes a God , and yet affronts him and trifles with him . And although the Atheists Folly be unaccountable , in resisting the clearest evidence of reason , yet so far he is to be commended for what he sayes , that if there be such a thing as Religion , men ought to be serious in it . So that of all hands the scoffer at Religion is looked on as one forsaken of that little reason , which might serve to uphold a slender reputation of being above the beasts that perish : nay , therein his condition is worse than theirs , that as they understand not Religion , they shall never be punished for despising it : which such a person can never secure himself from , considering the power , the justice , the severity of that God , whom he hath so highly provoked . God grant , that the apprehension of this danger may make us so serious in the profession and practice of our Religion , that we may not by slighting that , and mocking at sin , provoke him to laugh at our calamities , and mock when our fear comes ; but that by beholding the sincerity of our repentance , and the heartiness of our devotion to him , he may turn his anger away from us , and rejoyce over us to do us good . FINIS . Luke 7. 35. But Wisdom is justified of all her Children . OF all the Circumstances of our Blessed Saviours appearance and preaching in the World , there is none which , to our first view and apprehension of things , seems more strange and unaccountable , than that those persons who were then thought of all others to be most conversant in the Law and the Prophets , should be the most obstinate opposers of him . For since he came to fulfill all the Prophesies which had gone before concerning him , and was himself the great Prophet foretold by all the rest , none might in humane probability have been judged more likely to have received and honoured him , than those to whom the judgement of those things did peculiarly belong ; and who were as much concern'd in the truth of them as any else could be . Thus indeed it might have been reasonably expected ; and doubtless it had been so , if interest and prejudice had not had a far more absolute power and dominion over them , than they had over the rest of the people . If Miracles , and Prophesies , if Reason and Religion ; nay , if the interest of another World could have prevailed over the interest of this among them ; the Jewish Sanhedrin might have been some of the first Converts to Christianity , the Scribes and Pharisees had been all Proselytes to Christ , and the Temple at Jerusalem had been the first Christian Church . But to let us see with what a jealous eye Power and Interest looks on every thing that seems to offer at any disturbance of it , how much greater sway partiality and prejudice hath upon the mindes of men than true Reason and Religion ; and how hard a matter it is to convince those who have no minde to be convinced ; we finde none more furious in their opposition to the person of Christ , none more obstinate in their infidelity as to his Doctrine , than those who were at that time in the greatest reputation among them for their authority , wisdom , and knowledge . These are they , whom our Saviour , as often as he meets with , either checks for their ignorance , or rebukes for their pride , or denounces woes against for their malice and hypocrisie : These are they who instead of believing in Christ persecute him ; instead of following him seek to destroy him : and that they might the better compass it , they reproach and defame him , as if he had been really as bad as themselves . And although the people might not presently believe what they said concerning him , yet that they might at least be kept in suspence by it , they endeavour to fasten the blackest calumnies upon him ; and suit them with all imaginable arts to the tempers of those they had to deal with . If any appeared zealous for the present peace and prosperity of the Nation ; and for paying the duty and obedience they owed to the Roman Power , which then govern'd them : to them he is represented as a factious and seditious person , as an enemy to Caesar , as one that intended to set up a Kingdom of his own , though to the ruine of his Countrey : That it was nothing but ambition and vain-glory , which made him gather Disciples , and preach to multitudes ; that none could foretell what the dangerous consequences of such new Doctrines might be , if n●… timely suppressed , and the Author of the● severely punished . Thus to the prude●… and cautious , reason of State is pretende● as the ground of their enmity to Chris● But to those who were impatient of th● Roman yoke , and watched for any apportunity to cast it off ; they suggest th● mighty improbabilities of ever obtainin● any deliverance by a person so mean an● inconsiderable as our Saviour appeare● among them : and that surely God who●… delivered their Forefathers of old from a bondage not greater than theirs , by a mighty hand and out-stretched arm , did never intend the redemption of his people by one of obscure Parentage , mean Education , and of no interest in the world . To the great men , they need no more than bid them , behold the train of his followers , who being generally poor , the more numerous they were , the more mouths they might see open , and ready to devour the Estates of those who were above them . The Priests and Levites they bid consider what would become of them all , if the Law of Moses was abrogated , by which their interest was upheld ; for if the Temple fell , it was impossible for them to stand . But the grand difficulty was among the people , who began to be possessed with so high an opinion of him by the greatness of his Miracles , the excellency of his Doctrine , and the innocency of his Conversation , that unless they could insinuate into their mindes some effectual prejudices against these , all their other attempts were like to be vain and unsuccessefull . If therefore they meet with any who were surprized by his Miracles , as well as ravished by his Doctrine ; when they saw him raise the dead , restore sight to the blinde , cure the deaf and the lame , and cast out Devils out of possessed persons , they tell them presently that these were the common arts of Impostors , and the practice of those who go about to deceive the people ; that such things were easily done by the power of Magick , and assistance of the evil Spirits . If any were admirers of the Pharisaical rigours and austerities ( as the people generally were ) when mens Religion was measured by the sowerness of their countenances , the length of their Prayers , and the distance they kept from other persons ; these they bid especially beware of our Saviours Doctrine ; for he condemned all zeal and devotion , all mortification and strictness of life , under the pretence of Pharisaical hypocrisie ; that he sunk all Religion into short Prayers and dull morality ; th●… his conversation was not among the persons of any reputation for piety , bu● among Publicans and Sinners ; that nothing extraordinary appeared in his Life ; that his actions were like other mens , and his company none of the best , and his behaviour among them with too great a freedom for a person who pretended to so high a degree of holiness . Thus we see the most perfect innocency could not escape the venom of malicious tongues ; but the less it enter'd , the more they were enraged , and made up what wanted in the truth of their calumnies , by their diligence in spreading them . As though their mouths indeed had been open Sepulchres by the noysom vapours which came out of them ; and we may well think no less a poyson than that of Asps could be under their lips , which so secretly and yet so mischievously convey'd it self into the hearts of the people . The only advantage which malice hath against the greatest Virtue , is , that the greater it is , the less it takes notice of all the petty arts which are used against it ; and will not bring its own innocency so much into suspicion as to make any long Apologies for it self . For , to a noble and generous spirit , assaulted rather by noyse and clamour , than any solid reason or force of argument , neglect and disdain are the most proper weapons of defence : for where malice is only impertinent and troublesom , a punctual answer seems next to a confession . But although innocency needs no defence as to it self , yet it is necessary for all the advantages it hath of doing good to mankinde , that it appear to be what it really is ; which cannot be done , unless its reputation be cleared from the malicious aspersions which are cast upon it . And from hence it was that our blessed Saviour , though he thought it not worth the while to use the same diligence in the vindication of himself , which his enemies did in the defamation of him ; yet when he saw it necessary in order to the reception of his Doctrine among the more ingenuous and tractable part of his auditors , he sometimes by the quickness of his replyes , sometimes by the suddenness and sharpness of his questions , and sometimes by the plain force of argument and reason , baffles his adversaries , so that though they were resolved not to be convinced , they thought it best for the time to be quiet . This was to let them see how easie it was for him to throw off their reproaches as fast as their malice could invent them ; and that it was as impossible for them by such weak attempts to obscure the reputation of his innocency , as for the spots which Astronomers discern near the body of the Sun , ever to eclipse the light of it . So that all those thinner mists which envy and detraction raised at his first appearance , and those grosser vapors which arose from their open enmity when he came to a greater height , did but adde a brighter lustre to his glory , when it was seen that notwithstanding all the machinations of his enemies , his innocency brake forth like the light , which shineth more and more to the perfect day . But it pleaseth God , for the tryall of mens minds so to order the matters of our Religion , that as they are never so clear , but men of obstinate and perverse spirits will finde something to cavil at ; so they were never so dark and obscure in the most difficult circumstances of them , but men of unprejudiced and ingenuous minds might find enough to satisfie themselves about them . Which is the main scope of our Saviour in the words of the Text , ( and shall be of our present discourse upon them ) but Wisdom is justified of all her Children . Where without any further Explication , by Wisdom we understand the method which God useth in order to the salvation of mankinde ; by the Children of Wisdom , all those who were willing to attain the end by the means which God affordeth , and by justifying , not only the bare approving it , but the declaring of that approbation to the World by a just vindication of it from the cavils and exceptions of men . Although the words are capable of various senses ; yet this is the most natural , and agreeable to the scope of what goes before . For there our Saviour speaks of the different wayes wherein John Baptist and himself appeared among the Jews , in order to the same end , v. 32. For John Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine , and ye say , he hath a Devil . A very severe Devil surely , and one of the strictest orders among them , that was so far from being cast out by fasting and prayer , that these were his continual imployment ! But what could we have sooner thought than that those persons who made the Devil the author of so much mortification and severity of life , should presently have entertained Religion in a more free and pleasing humour ; but this would not take neither , for the Son of Man comes eating and drinking ; i. 〈◊〉 was remarkable for none of those rigou●… and austerities which they condemned i●… John , and applauded in the Pharisees ; and then presently they censure him , as a gluttonous man , and a Wine-bibber , a friend 〈◊〉 Publicans and sinners , v. 34. i. e. the utmos●… excess that any course of life was capabl● of they presently apply to those who had no other design in all their actions , than to recommend true piety and goodness to them . So impossible it was by any means which the wisdom of Heaven thought fit to use , to perswade them into any good opinion of the persons who brought the glad tidings of salvation to them : and therefore our Saviour , when he sees how refractory and perverse they were , in interpreting every thing to the worse , and censuring the wayes which infinite Wisdom thought fittest to reclaim them by , he tells them that it was nothing but malice and obstinacy which was the cause of it ; but if they were men of teachable spirits ( who by an usual Hebraisme are called the Children of Wisdom ) they would see reason enough to admire , approve and justifie all the methods of divine Providence for the good of Mankind . For Wisdom is justified of all her Children . That which I mainly design to speak to from hence is , That although the wisest Contrivances of Heaven for the good of Mankind are lyable to the unjust cavils and exceptions of unreasonable men , yet there is enough to satisfie any teachable and ingenuous Minds concerning the wisdom of them . Before I come more particularly to examine those which concern our present subject , viz. the life and appearance of our Lord and Saviour , it will take very much off from the force of them , if we consider , that thus it hath alwayes been , and supposing humane nature to be as it is , it is scarce conceivable that it should be otherwise . Not that it is necessary or reasonable it should be so at all , any more than it is necessary that men should act foolishly or inconsiderately ; but as long as we must never expect to see all men either wise or pious , either to have a true judgement of things , or a love of Religion ; so long we shall alwayes find there will be some , who will be quarrelling with Religion when they have no minde to practise it . I speak not now of those who make a meer jest and scoff at Religion ( of which our Age hath so many Instances ) but of a sort of men who are of a degree above the other , though farr enough short of any true and solid wisdom ; who yet are the more to be considered , because they seem to make a slender offer at reason in what they say . Some pretend they are not only unsatisfied with the particular wayes of instituted Religion , any further than they are subservient to their present interest ( which is the only God they worship ) but to make all sure , the foundations even of Natural Religion it self cannot escape their cavils and exceptions . They have found out an Index Expurgatorius for those impressions of a Deity which are in the hearts of men ; and use their utmost arts to obscure , since they cannot extinguish those lively characters of the power , wisdom and goodness of God , which are every where to be seen in the large volume of the Creation . Religion is no more to them but an unaccountable fear ; and the very notion of a spiritual substance ( even of that without which we could never know what a contradiction meant ) is said to imply one . But if for quietness sake , and it may be to content their own minds as well as the World , they are willing to admit of a Deity , ( which is a mighty concession from those who have so much cause to be afraid of him ) then to ease their minds of such troublesom companions as their fears are , they seek by all means to dispossess him of his Government of the World , by denying his Providence , and care of humane affairs . They are contented he should be cal'd an excellent Being , that should do nothing , and therefore signifie nothing in the World ; or rather , then he might be styled an Almighty Sardanapalus , that is so fond of ease and pleasure , that the least thought of business would quite spoyl his happiness . Or if the activity of their own spirits may make them think that such an excellent Being may sometimes draw the Curtains and look abroad into the World , then every advantage which another hath got above them , and every cross accident which befals themselves ( which by the power of self-flattery most men have learnt to call the Prosperity of the wicked , and the sufferings of good men ) serve them for mighty charges against the justice of divine Providence . Thus either God shall not govern the World at all , or if he do , it must be upon such terms as they please and approve of , or else they will erect an High Court of Justice upon him , and condemn the Sovereign of the World , because he could not please his discontented subjects . And as if he were indeed arraign'd at such a barr , every weak , and peevish exception shall be cryed up for evidence ; when the fullest and clearest vindications of him shall be scorn'd and contemned . But this doth not in the least argue the obnoxiousness of him who is so accused , but the great injustice of those who dare pass sentence ; where it is neither in their power to understand the reason of his actions , nor if it were , to call him in question for his proceedings with men . But so great is the pride and arrogance of humane Nature , that it loves to be condemning what it cannot comprehend ; and there needs be no greater reason given concerning the many disputes in the world about Divine Providence , than that God is wise , and we are not , but would fain seem to be so . While men are in the dark they will be alwayes quarrelling ; and those who contend the most , do it that they might seem to others to see , when they know themselves they do not . Nay , there is nothing so plain and evident , but the reason of some men is more apt to be imposed upon in it , than their senses are ; as it appeared in him who could not otherwise confute the Philosophers argument against motion , but by moving before him . So that we see the most certain things in the world are lyable to the cavils of men who imploy their wits to do it ; and certainly those ought not to stagger mens faith in matters of the highest nature and consequence , which would not at all move them in other things . But at last it is acknowledged by the men who love to be called the men of wit in this Age of ours , that there is a God and Providence , a future state , and the differences of good and evil , but the Christian Religion they will see no further reason to embrace than as it is the Religion of the State they live in . But if we demand what mighty reasons they are able to bring forth against a Religion so holy and innocent in its design , so agreeable to the Nature of God and Man , so well contrived for the advantages of this and another life , so fully attested to come from God by the Miracles wrought in confirmation of it , by the death of the Son of God , and of such multitudes of Martyrs , so certainly conveyed to us , by the unquestionable Tradition of all Ages since the first delivery of it ; the utmost they can pretend against it is , that it is built upon such an appearance of the Son of God which was too mean and contemptible , that the Doctrine of it is incosistent with the Civil Interests of men , and the design ineffectual for the Reformation of the World. For the removal therefore of these cavils against our Religion , I shall shew , 1. That there were no circumstances in our Saviours appearance or course of life , which were unbecoming the Son of God , and the design he came upon . 2. That the Doctrine delivered by him is so far from being contrary to the Civil Interests of the World , that it tends highly to the preservation of them . 3. That the design he came upon was very agreeable to the Infinite Wisdom of God , and most effectual for the reformation of Mankinde . For clearing the first of these , I shall consider , ( 1. ) The Manner of our Saviours appearance . ( 2. ) The Course of his Life ; and what it was which his enemies did most object against him . 1. The Manner of our Saviours Appearance ; which hath been alwayes the great offence to the admirers of the pomp and greatness of the World. For when they heard of the Son of God coming down from Heaven , and making his Progress into this lower world , they could imagine nothing less , than that an innumerable company of Angels must have been dispatched before , to have prepared a place for his reception ; that all the Soveraigns and Princes of the World must have been summon'd to give their attendance and pay their homage to him : that their Scepters must have been immediately laid at his feet , and all the Kingdoms of the earth been united into one universal Monarchy under the Empire of the Son of God : That the Heavens should how down at his presence to shew their obeysance to him , the Earth tremble and shake for fear at the near approaches of his Majesty ; that all the Clouds should clap together into one universal Thunder , to welcome his appearance , and tell the Inhabitants of the World what cause they had to fear him whom the Powers of the Heavens obey : that the Sea should run out of its wonted course with amazement and horror ; and if it were possible , hide it self in the hollow places of the earth : that the Mountains should shrink in their heads , to fill up the vast places of the deep ; so that all that should be fulfilled in a literal sense , which was foretold of the comeing of the Messias , That every Valley should be filled , and every Mountain and Hill brought low ; the crooked made straight , and the rough wayes smooth , and all flesh see the salvation of God. Yea , that the Sun for a time should be darken'd , and the Moon withdraw her light , to let the Nations of the Earth understand that a Glory infinitely greater than theirs did now appear to the World. In a word , they could not imagine the Son of God could be born without the pangs and throws of the whole Creation ; that it was as impossible for him to appear , as for the Sun in the Firmament to disappear , without the notice of the whole World. But when instead of all this pomp and grandeur he comes incognito into the World , instead of giving notice of his appearance to the Potentates of the Earth , he is only discovered to a few silly Shepheards and three wise men of the East ; instead of choosing either Rome or Hierusalem for the place of his Nativity , he is born at Bethleem a mean and obscure Village : instead of the glorious and magnificent Palaces of the East or West , which were at that time so famous ; he is brought forth in a Stable , where the Manger was his Cradle , and his Mother the only attendant about him : who was her self none of the great persons of the Court , nor of any fame in the Countrey ; but was only rich in her Genealogy , and honourable in her Pedigree . And according to the obscurity of his Birth was his Education too : his youth was not spent in the Imperial Court at Rome , nor in the Schools of Philosophers at Athens , nor at the feet of the great Rabbies at Jerusalem : but at Nazareth , a place of mean esteem among the Jews , where he was remarkable for nothing so much as the Vertues proper to his Age , Modesty , Humility and Obedience . All which he exercises to so high a degree , that his greatest Kindred and acquaintance were mightily surprized when at 30 years of age , he began to discover himself by the Miracles which he wrought , and the Authority which he spake with . And although the rayes of his Divinity began to break forth through the Clouds he had hitherto disguised himself in , yet he persisted still in the same course of humility and self-denyal ; taking care of others to the neglect of himself ; feeding others by a Miracle , and fasting himself , to one : shewing his power in working miraculous Cures , and his humility in concealing them : Conversing with the meanest of the people , and choosing such for his Apostles , who brought nothing to recommend them but innocency and simplicity . Who by their heats and ignorance were continual exercises of his Patience in bearing with them , and of his care and tenderness in instructing them . And after a life thus led with such unparallel'd humility , when he could adde nothing more to it by his actions , he doth it by his sufferings ; and compleats the sad Tragedy of his Life by a most shamefull and ignominious Death . This is the short and true account of all those things which the admirers of the greatness of this world think mean and contemptible in our Saviours appearance here on earth . But we are now to consider whether so great humility were not more agreeable with the design of his coming into the World , than all that pomp and state would have been which the Son of God might have more easily commanded than we can imagine . He came not upon so mean an errand , as to dazzle the eyes of Mankinde with the brightness of his Glory , to amaze them by the terribleness of his Majesty , much less to make a shew of the riches and gallantry of the World to them : But he came upon far more noble and excellent designs , to bring life and immortality to light , to give men the highest assurance of an eternal happiness and misery in the World to come , and the most certain directions for obtaining the one , and avoiding the other : and in order to that , nothing was judged more necessary by him , than to bring the vanities of this World out of that credit and reputation they had gained among foolish men . Which he could never have done , if he had declaimed never so much against the vanity of worldly greatness , riches and honours , if in the mean time himself had lived in the greatest splendour and bravery . For the enjoyning then the contempt of this world to his Disciples in hopes of a better , would have looked like the commendation of the excellency of fasting at a full meal , and of the conveniencies of Poverty by one who makes the greatest haste to be rich . That he might not therefore seem to offer so great a contradiction to his Doctrine by his own example ; he makes choice of a life so remote from all suspicion of designs upon this world , that though the foxes had holes , and the birds of the air had nests , yet the Son of Man , who was the Lord and Heir of all things , had not whereon to lay his head . And as he shewed by his life how little he valued the great things of the World , so he discovered by his death how little he feared the evil things of it : all which he did with a purpose and i●tention to rectifie the great mistakes 〈◊〉 men as to these things : That they mig●… no longer venture an eternal happiness f●… the splendid and glorious vanities of t●… present life ; nor expose themselves to t●… utmost miseries of another world , to avo●… the frowns of this . From hence procee●ed that generous contempt of the Worl● which not only our Saviour himself , b● all his true Disciples of the first Ages 〈◊〉 Christianity were so remarkable for ; 〈◊〉 let others see they had greater things i●… their eye than any here , the hopes of whi●● they would not part with for all that th● world thinks great or desirable . So th●… considering the great danger most men ar● in , by too passionate a love of these thing● and that universal and infinite kindne●… which our Saviour had to the Souls 〈◊〉 men ; there was nothing he could discover it more in as to his appearance in the world , than by putting such an affro●… upon the greatness and honour of it , as he did by so open a neglect of it in his life , and despising it in his death and sufferings . And who now upon any pretence of reason dare entertain the meaner apprehensious of our Blessed Saviour , because he appeared without the pomp and greatness of the world , when the reason of his doing so was , that by his own humility and self-denyal he might shew us the way to an eternal happiness ? Which he well knew how very hard it would be for men to attain to , who measure things not according to their inward worth and excellency , but the splendour and appearance which they make to the world : who think nothing great but what makes them gazed upon ; nothing desireable but what makes them flatter'd . But if they could be once perswaded how incomparably valuable the glories of the life to come are above all the gayeties and shews of this ; they would think no condition mean or contemptible , which led to so great an end ; none happy or honourable which must so soon end in the grave , or be changed to eternal misery . And that we might entertain such thoughts as these are , not as the melancholy effects of discontent and disappointments , but as the serious result of our most deliberate enquiry into the value of things , was the design of our Saviour in the humility of his appearance , and of that excellent Doctrine which he recommended to the World by it . Were I to argue the case with Philosophers , I might then at large shew from the free acknowledgements of the best and most experienced of them , that nothing becomes so much one who designs to recommend Vertue to the World , as a reall and hearty contempt of all the pomp of it , and that the meanest condition proceeding from such a principle is truely and in it self more honourable , than living in the greatest splendour imaginable . Were I to deal with the Jews , I might then prove , that as the Prophecyes concerning the Messia● speak of great and wonderfull effects of his coming , so that they should be accomplished in a way of suffering and humility . But since I speak to Christians , and therefore to those who are perswaded of the great kindness and love of our Saviour in coming into the World , to reform it , and that by convincing men of the truth and excellency of a future state , no more need be said to vindicate the appearance of him from that meanness and contempt , which the pride and ambition of vain men is apt to cast upon it . 2. But not onely our Saviours manner of Appearance , but the manner of his Conversation gave great offence to his enemies , viz. That it was too free and familiar among persons who had the meanest reputation , the Publicans and Sinners ; and in the mean time declaimed against the strictest observers of the greatest rigours and austerities of life . And this no doubt was one great cause of the mortal hatred of the Pharisees against him , though least pretended , that even thereby they might make good that charge of hypocrisie which our Saviour so often draws up against them . And no wonder , if such severe rebukes did highly provoke them , since they found this so gainfull and withall so easie a trade among the people , when with a demure look and a sowre countenance they could cheat and defraud their Brethren ; and under a specious shew of devotion could break their fasts by devouring Widows houses , and end their long Prayers to God with acts of the highest injustice to their Neighbours . As though all that while , they had been only begging leave of God to do all the mischief they could to their Brethren . It is true , such as these were , our Saviour upon all occasions speaks against with the greatest sharpness , as being the most dangerous enemies to true Religion : and that which made men whose passion was too strong for their reason abhorr the very name of Religion , when such baseness was practised under the profession of it . When they saw men offer to compound with Heaven for all their injustice and oppression , with not a twentieth part of what God challenged as his due ; they either thought Religion to be a meer device of men , or that these mens hypocrisie ought to be discovered to the World. And therefore our Blessed Saviour , who came with a design to retrieve a true spirit of Religion among men , findes it first of all necessary to unmask those notorious hypocrites , that their deformities being discovered , their wayes as well as their persons might be the better understood and avoided . And when he saw by the mighty opinion they had of themselves , and their uncharitableness towards all others , how little good was to be done upon them , he seldom vouchsafes them his presence ; but rather converses with those who being more openly wicked were more easily convinced of their wickedness , and perswaded to reform . For which end alone it was that he so freely conversed with them , to let them see there were none so bad , but his kindness was so great to them , that he was willing to do them all the good he could : And therefore this could be no more just a reproach to Christ , that he kept company sometimes with these , than it is to a Chyrurgeon to visit Hospitals , or to a Physician to converse with the sick . 2. But when they saw that his Greatness did appear in another way , by the authority of his Doctrine , and the power of his Miracles , then these wise and subtle men apprehend a further reach and design in all his actions : Viz. That his low condition was a piece of Popularity , and a meer disguise to ensnare the people , the better to make them in love with his Doctrine , and so by degrees to season them with Principles of Rebellion and disobedience : Hence came all the clamors of his being an Enemy to Caesar , and calling himself , the King of the Jewes , and of his design to erect a Kingdom of his own , all which they interpret in the most malicious though most unreasonable sense . For nothing is so politick as malice and ill will is ; for that findes designs in every thing ; and the more contrary they are to all the Protestations of the persons concerned , the deeper that suggests presently they are laid , and that there is the more cause to be afraid of them . Thus it was in our Blessed Saviours case ; it was not the greatest care used by him to shew his obedience to the Authority he lived under , it was not his most solemn disavowing having any thing to do with their civil Interests , not the severe checks he gave his own Disciples for any ambitious thoughts among them , not the recommending the doctrine of Obedience to them , nor the rebuke he gave one of his most forward Disciples for offering to draw his sword in the rescue of himself , could abate the fury and rage of his enemies , but at last they condemn the greatest Teacher of the duty of Obedience as a Traytor , and the most unparallel'd example of innocency as a Malefactor . But though there could be nothing objected against the life and actions of our Blessed Saviour , as tending to sedition and disturbance of the Civil Peace , yet that , these men ( who were inspired by malice , and prophesied according to their own interest ) would say , was because he was taken away in time , before his designs could be ripe for action , but if his doctrine tended that way , it was enough to justifie their proceedings against him . So then , it was not what he did , but what he might have done : not Treason but Convenience which made them take away the life of the most innocent person : but if there had been any taint in his doctrine that way , there had been reason enough in such an Age of faction and sedition to have used the utmost care to prevent the spreading it . But so far is this from the least ground of probability that it is not possible to imagine a Religion which aims less at the present particular interests of the embracers of it , and more at the publick interests of Princes than Christianity doth , as it was both preached and practised by our Saviour and his Apostles . And here we have cause to lament the unhappy fate of Religion when it falls under the censure of such who think themselves the Masters of all the little arts whereby this world is governed . If it teaches the duty of Subjects , and the authority of Princes , if it requires obedience to Laws , and makes mens happiness or misery in another life in any measure to depend upon it ; then Religion is suspected to be a meer trick of State , and an invention to keep the world in awe , whereby men might the better be moulded into Societies , and preserved in them . But if it appear to inforce any thing indispensably on the Consciences of men , though humane Laws require the contrary ; if they must not forswear their Religion , and deny him whom they hope to be saved by , when the Magistrate calls them to it , then such half-witted men think that Religion is nothing but a pretence to Rebellion , and Conscience only an obstinate plea for Disobedience . But this is to take it for granted that there is no such thing as Religion in the World ; for if there be , there must be some inviolable Rights of Divine Soveraignty acknowledged , which must not vary according to the diversity of the Edicts and Laws of men . But supposing the profession and practice of the Christian Religion to be allowed inviolable , there was never any Religion , nay , never any inventions of the greatest Politicians , which might compare with that for the preservation of civil Societies . For this in plain and express words tells all the owners of it , that they must live in subjection and obedience ; not only for wrath , but for Conscience sake ; that they who do resist receive unto themselves damnation , and that because whosoever resisteth the Power , resisteth the Ordinance of God. Than which it is impossible to conceive arguments of greater force to keep men in obedience to Authority ; for he that only obeys because it is his interest to do so , will have the same reason to disobey when there is an apprehension that may make more for his advantage . But when the reason of obedience is derived from the concernments of another life , no hopes of interest in this world can be thought to ballance the loss which may come by such a breach of duty in that to come . So that no persons do so dangerously undermine the foundations of civil Government , as those who magnifie that to the contempt of Religion ; none so effectually secure them as those who give to God the things that are Gods , and by doing so , are obliged to give to Caesar the things that are Caesars . This was the Doctrine of Christianity as it was delivered by the first author of it ; and the practice was agreeable , as long as Christianity preserved its primitive honour in the world . For , so far were men then from making their zeal for Religion a pretence to rebellion , that though Christianity were directly contrary to the Religions then in vogue in the world , yet they knew of no other way of promoting it , but by patience , humility , meekness , prayers for their persecutors , and tears when they saw them obstinate . So far were they then from fomenting suspicions and jealousies concerning the Princes and Governours they lived under , that though they were generally known to be some of the worst of men as well as of Princes , yet they charge all Christians in the strictest manner , as they loved their Religion and the honour of it , as they valued their souls and the salvation of them , that they should be subject to them . So far were they then from giving the least encouragement to the usurpations of the rights of Princes under the pretence of any power given to a head of the Church : that there is no way for any to think they meant it , unless we suppose the Apostles such mighty Politicians , that it is because they say nothing at all of it ; but on the contrary , bid every soul be subject to the higher powers ; though an Apostle , Evangelist , Prophet , whatever he be , as the Fathers interpret it . Yea so constant and uniform was the doctrine and practice of Obedience in all the first and purest ages of the Christian Church , that no one instance can be produced of any usurpation of the rights of Princes under the pretence of any title from Christ , or any disobedience to their authority , under the pretence of promoting Christianity , through all those times wherein Christianity the most flourished , or the Christians were the most persecuted . And happy had it been for us in these last ages of the World , if we had been Christians on the same terms which they were in the Primitive times ; then there had been no such scandals raised by the degeneracy of men upon the most excellent and peaceable Religion in the world , as though that were unquiet and troublesome , because so many have been so who have made shew of it . But let their pretences be never so great to infallibility on one side , and to the Spirit on the other , so far as men encourage faction and disobedience , so far they have not the Spirit of Christ and Christianity , and therefore are none of his . For he shewed his great wisdom in contriving such a method of saving mens souls in another world , as tended most to the preservation of the peace and quietness of this ; and though this wisdom may be evil spoken of by men of restless and unpeaceable minds , yet it will be still justified by all who have heartily embraced the Wisdom which is from above , who are pure and peaceable as that Wisdom is , and such , and only such are the Children of it . 3. I come to shew , That the design of Christs appearance was very agreeable to the infinite Wisdom of God ; and that the means were very suitable and effectual for carrying on of that design for the reformation of Mankind . 1. That the design it self was very agreeable to the infinite Wisdom of God. What could we imagine more becoming the Wisdom of God , than to contrive a way for the recovery of lapsed and degenerate Mankind ? who more fit to employ upon such a message as this , than the Son of God ? for his coming gives the greatest assurance to the minds of men , that God was serious in the management of this design , than which nothing could be of greater importance in order to the success of it . And how was it possible he should give a greater testimony of himself , and withall of the purpose he came about , than he did when he was in the world ? The accomplishment of Prophesies , and power of Miracles shewed who he was ; the nature of his Doctrine , the manner of his Conversation , the greatness of his Sufferings , shewed what his design was in appearing among men : for they were all managed with a peculiar respect to the convincing mankinde , that God was upon terms of mercy with them , and had therefore sent his Son into the world , that he might not only obtain the pardon of sin for those who repent , but eternal life for all them that obey him . And what is there now we can imagine so great and desireable as this , for God to manifest hi● wisdom in ? It is true , we see a great discovery of it in the works of Nature , and might do in the methods of Divine Providence if partiality and interest did not blinde our eyes ; but both these , though great in themselves , yet fall short of the contrivance of bringing to an eternal happiness man who had fallen from his Maker , and was perishing in his own folly . Yet this is that which men in the pride and vanity of their own imaginations either think not worth considering ; or consider as little as if they thought so ; and in the mean time think themselves very wise too . The Jews had the wisdom of their Traditions which they gloried in , and despised the Son of God himself when he came to alter them . The Greeks had the wisdom of their Philosophy which they so passionately admired , that whatever did not agree with that , though infinitely more certain and usefull , was on that account rejected by them . The Romans , after the conquest of so great a part of the World , were grown all such Politicians and Statesmen , that few of them could have leisure to think of another world , who were so busie in the management of this . And some of all these sorts do yet remain in the World , which ma●● so many so little think of , or admire t●…s infinite discovery of divine Wisdom : nay , there are some who can mix all these together , joyning a Jewis● obstinacy , with the pride and self-opinion of the Greeks , to a Roman unconcernedness about the matters of another life . And yet upon a true and just enquiry never any Religion could be found , which could more fully satisfie the expectation of the Jews , the reason of the Greeks , or the wisdom of the Romans , than that which was made known by Christ , who was the Wisdom of God , and the Power of God. Here the Jew might find his Messias come , and the Promises fulfilled which related to him , here the Greek might find his long and vainly looked for certainty of a life to come , and the way which leads to it , here the Roman might see a Religion serviceable to another world and this together . Here are Precepts more holy , Promises more certain , Rewards more desireable than ever the wit or invention of men could have attained to . Here are Institutions far more pious , usefull and serviceable to mankinde ; than the most admired Laws of the famous Legislators of Greece or Rome . Here are no popular designs carried on , no vices indulged for the publick interest , which Solon , Lyourgus and Plato are charged with . Here is no making Religion a meer trick of State , and a thing only usefull for governing the people , which Numa and the great men at Rome are lyable to the suspicion of . Here is no wrapping up Religion in strange figures and mysterious non-sense , which the AEgyptians were so much given to . Here is no inhumanity and cruelty in the sacrifices offer'd , no looseness and profaneness allowed in the most solemn mysteries , no worshipping of such for Gods who had not been fit to live if they had been men , which were all things so commonly practised in the Idolatries of the Heathens . But the nature of the Worship is such as the mindes of those who come to it ought to be , and as becomes that God whom we profess to serve , pure and holy , grave and serious , solemn and devout , without the mixtures of superstition , vanity or ostentation . The precepts of our Religion are plain and easie to be known , very suitable to the nature of Mankinde , and highly tending to the advantage of those who practise them , both in this and a better life . The arguments to perswade men are the most weighty and powerfull , and of as great importance as the love of God , the death of his Son , the hopes of happiness , and the fears of eternal misery can be to men . And wherein is the contrivance of our Religion defective , when the end is so desireable , the means so effectual for the obtaining of it ? 2. Which is the next thing to be considered . There are two things which in this degenerate estate of man are necessary in order to the recovery of his happiness ; and those are Repentance for sins past , and sincere Obedience for the future : now both these the Gospel gives men the greatest encouragements to , and therefore is the most likely to effect the design it was intended for . 1. For Repentance for sins past . What more powerfull motives can there be to perswade men to repent , than for God to let men know that he is willing to pardon their sins upon the sincerity of their Repentance , but without that , there remains nothing but a fearfull expectation of judgement , and fiery indignation ? that their sins are their follies , and therefore to repent is to grow wise : that he requires no more from men , but what every considerative man knows is fitting to be done whenever he reflects upon his actions : that there can be no greater ingratitude or disingenuity towards the Son of God than to stand at defiance with God when he hath shed his blood to reconcile God and Man to each other : that every step of his humiliation , every part of the Tragedy of his life , every wound at his death , every groan and sigh which he utter'd upon the Cross , were designed by him as the most prevailing Rhetorick to perswade men to forsake their sins , and be happy : that there cannot be a more unaccountable folly , than by impenitency to lose the hopes of a certain and eternal happiness for the sake of those pleasures which every wise man is ashamed to think of : that to continue in sin with the hopes to repent , is to stab a mans self with the hopes of a cure : that the sooner men do it , the sooner they will finde their minds at ease , and that the pleasures they enjoy in forsaking their sins , are far more noble and manly than ever they had in committing them : but if none of these arguments will prevail with them , perish they must , and that unavoidably , insupportably , and irrecoverably : And if such arguments as these will not prevail with men to leave their sins , it is impossible that any should . 2. For Holiness of Life : For Christ did not come into the World , and dye for us , meerly that we should repent of what is past , by denying ungodliness and worldly lusts , but that we should live soberly , righteously and godly in this present world . And what he doth expect , he hath given the greatest encouragements to perform : by the clearness of his precepts , the excellency of his own example , the promise of his Grace , and the proposition of eternal rewards and punishments , whereby he takes off all the objections men are apt to make against obedience to the Commands of Christ : the pretence of ignorance , because his Laws are so clear ; the pretence of impossibility by his own example ; the pretence of infirmity by the assistance of his Grace ; the pretence of the unnecessariness of so great care of our actions by making eternal rewards and punishments to depend upon it . Let us then reflect upon the whole design of the Gospel , and see how admirably it is suited to the end it was intended for , to the condition of those whose good was designed by it , and to the honour of the great contriver and manager of it . And let not us by our impenitency and the unholiness of our lives , dishonour God and our Saviour , reproach our Religion , and condemn that by our lives which we justifie by our words . For when we have said all we can , the best and most effectual vindication of Christian Religion is to live according to it : But oh then how unhappy are we that live in such an Age wherein it were hard to know that men were Christians , unless we are bound to believe their words against the tenour and course of their actions ! What is become of the purity , the innocency , the candour , the peaceableness , the sincerity and devotion of the Primitive Christians ! What is become of their zeal for the honour of Christ , and Christian Religion ! If it were the design of men , to make our Religion a dishonour and reproach to the Jewes , Mahumetans , and Heathens , could they do it by more effectual means than they have done ? Who is there that looks into the present state of the Christian World , could ever think that the Christian Religion was so incomparably beyond all others in the world ? Is the now Christian Rome so much beyond what it was while it was Heathen ? Nay , was it not then remarkable in its first times for justice , sincerity , contempt of riches , and a kind of generous honesty , and who does not ( though of the same Religion , if he hath any ingenuity left ) lament the want of all those things there now ? Will not the sobriety of the very Turks upbraid our excesses and debaucheries ? and the obstinacy of the Jewes in defence and practice of their Religion , condemn our coldness and indifferency in ours ? If we have then any tenderness for the honour of our Religion , or any kindness for our own Souls , let us not only have the Name , but let us lead the Lives of Christians ; let us make amends for all the reproaches which our Religion hath suffer'd by the faction and disobedience of some , by the Oaths and Blasphemies , the impieties and profaneness of others , by the too great negligence and carelesness of all , that if it be possible , Christianity may appear in its true glory , which will then only be , when those who name the Name of Christ depart from iniquity , and live in all manner of holy conversation and godliness . FINIS . Rom. 1. 16. For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ ; for it is the Power of God unto salvation to every one that believes , to the Jew first , and also to the Greek . THese words are utter'd by one who was himself a remarkable instance of the truth of the Doctrine contained in them , Viz. of that Divine Power which did accompany the Gospel of Christ. For what can we imagine else should make him now not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ , who not long before was not ashamed to persecute all those who professed it ? One , whose spirit was fermented with the leaven of the Pharisees , and inraged with fury against all who owned the name of Christ , is of a sudden turn'd quite into another temper , to the confusion of those who employ'd him , and the amazement of them whom he designed to persecute . Nay , so great was the change which was wrought in him , that from a Bigot of the Jewish Religion he becomes an Apostle of the Christian , and from breathing flames against the Christians , none more ready than he to undergo them for Christ. If he had only given over his persecution , it might have been thought , that he had meerly run himself out of breath , and grown weary of his former fury , ( as greater persons than he did afterwards ) but to retain the same fervour of spirit in preaching Christ , which he had before in opposing him , to have as great zeal for making Christians , as he had for destroying them , must needs proceed from some great and unusual cause . Whilest the Jews thought he had too much learning and interest to become their enemy , and the Christians found he had too much rage and fury to be their friend , even then when they least expected it , instead of continuing an Instrument of the Sanhedrin for punishing the Christians , he declared himself an Apostle and servant of Jesus Christ. And that no ordinary one neither ; for such was the efficacy of those divine words , Saul , Saul , why persecutest thou me , that they not only presently allay his former heat , but quicken and animate him to a greater zeal for the honour of him whom he had persecuted before . And the faster he had run when he was out of his way , the greater diligence he used when he found it , there being none of all the followers of Christ who out-stript him in his constant endeavours to advance the Christian Religion in the World. And if an unwearied diligence to promote it , an uncessant care for preserving it , an universal concern for all who owned it , and an undaunted spirit in bearing the affronts and injuries he underwent for it , be any perswasive arguments of the love a man bears to his Religion , there was never any person who made a clearer demonstration than S. Paul did of the truth of his Religion , and his sincerity in embracing it . For his endeavours were suitable to the greatness of his spirit , his care as large as the Horizon of the Sun of righteousness , his courage as great as the malice of his enemies . For he was neither afraid of the malice of the Jews , or of the Wisdom of the Greeks , or of the Power of the Romans , but he goes up and down preaching the Gospel in a sphere as large as his minde was , and with a zeal only parallel with his former fury . He encounter'd the Jews in their Synagogues , he disputed with the Greeks in their most famous Cities , at Athens , Corinth , Ephesus , and elsewhere , and every-where raising some Trophies to the honour of the Gospel ; nothing now remained but that he should do the same at Rome also . And for this he wants not spirit and resolution , for he even longed to be there , vers . 11. nay , he had often purposed to goe thither , but waited for a convenient opportunity , v. 13. But while God was pleased otherwise to dispose of him , he could not conceal the joy which he had for the ready entertainment of the Christian Religion by those to whom he writes , and that their faith was grown as famous as the City wherein they dwelt . v. 8. First , I thank my God through Jesus Christ , for you all , that your Faith is spoken of throughout the whole World : and he further manifests the greatness of his affection to them , that without ceasing he made mention of them alwayes in his Prayers , v. 9. And among the rest of the blessings he pray'd for , for himself and them ; he was sure not to forget his coming to them , v. 10. Not out of an ambitious and vain-glorious humour that he might be taken notice of in that great and Imperial City , but that he might be instrumental in doing them service as he had done others , v. 11 , 13. And to this end he tells them , what an obligation lay upon him to spread the Doctrine of Christ in all places and to all persons , v. 14. I am debtor both to the Greeks and to the Barbarians , to the wise and to the unwise . So that neither the wisdom of the Greeks , nor the ignorance of the Barbarians could hinder S. Paul from discovering to them the contrivances of infinite wisdom ; and the excellent methods of divine Goodness in order to mens eternal welfare . And although Rome now thought it self to be the seat of Wisdom , as well as Empire and Power , yet our Apostle declares his readiness to preach the Gospel there too , v. 15. for which he gives a sufficient reason in the words of the Text ; for I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ , for it is the Power of God to salvation , &c. Wherein we have considerable these two things , 1. The Apostles boldness and freeness in declaring the doctrine of Christ , For I am not ashamed , &c. 2. The ground of it in the following words , for it is the Power of God to salvation , &c. 1. The Apostles boldness and freeness in declaring the doctrine of Christ. It was neither the gallantry of the Roman Court , nor the splendor of the City , not the greatness of her Power , or wisdom of her Statesmen could make S. Paul entertain the meaner opinion of the doctrine he hoped to preach among them . Had Christ come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , with a great deal of pomp and state into the World , subduing Kingdoms and Nations under him ; had S. Paul been a Generall for the Gospel instead of being an Apostle of it , the great men of the World would then allow he had no cause to be ashamed either of his Master , or of his employment . But to preach a crucified Saviour among the glories and triumphs of Rome , and a Doctrine of so much simplicity and contempt of the world among those who were the Masters of it , and manag'd it with so much art and cunning ; to perswade them to be followers of Christ in a holy life , who could not be like the gods they worship'd , unless they were guilty of the greatest debaucheries , seems to be an employment so lyable to the greatest scorn and contempt , that none but a great and resolved spirit would ever undertake it . For when we consider after so many hundred years profession of Christianity , how apt the greatness of the world is to make men ashamed of the practice of it ; and that men aim at a reputation for wit by being able to abuse the Religion they own ; what entertainment might we then think our Religion met with among the great men of the Age it was first preached in , when it not only encounter'd those weaker weapons of scoffs and raillery , but the strong holds of interest and education ? If our Religion now can hardly escape the bitter scoffs , and profane jefts of men who pawn their souls to be accounted witty , what may we think it suffer'd then , when it was accounted a part of their own Religion to despise and reproach ours ? If in the Age we live in , a man may be reproached for his piety and virtue , that is , for being really a Christian , when all profess themselves to be so , what contempt did they undergo in the first Ages of the Christian World , when the very name of Christian was thought a sufficient brand of infamy ? And yet such was the courage and magnanimity of the Primitive Christians , that what was accounted most mean and contemptible in their Religion , viz. their believing in a crucified Saviour , was by them accounted the matter of their greatest honour and glory . For though S. Paul only saith here that he was not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ , yet elsewhere he explains that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is contained in these words , when he saith , God forbid that I should glory in any thing , save in the Cross of Christ , by whom the World is crucifyed to me , and I unto the World. Gal. 6. 14. i. e. Although he could not but be sensible how much the world despised him , and his Religion together , yet that was the great satisfaction of his minde , that his Religion had enabled him to despise the World as much . For neither the pomp and grandeur of the World , nor the smiles and flatteries of it , no nor its frowns and severities could abate any thing of that mighty esteem and value which he had for the Christian Religion . For in his own expression , he accounted all things else but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus his Lord , Phil. 3. 8. Which words are not spoken by one who was in despair of being taken notice of for any thing else , and therefore magnifies the Profession he was engaged in ; but by a person as considerable as most of the time and Nation he lived in both for his birth and education . So that his contempt of the World was no sullen and affected severity , but the issue of a sober and impartial judgement ; and the high esteem he professed of Christianity was no fanatick whimsey , but the effect of a diligent enquiry , and the most serious consideration . And that will appear , 2. By the grounds and reasons which S. Paul here gives why he was not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ , 1. From the excellent end it was designed for , and that is no less than salvation . 2. From the effectualness of it in order to that end , it is the Power of God to salvation . 3. From the necessity of believing the Gospel by all who would attain that end ; to every one that believes , the Jew first , and also to the Greek . 1. From the excellent End it was designed for , the recovery and happiness of the souls of men , both which are implyed in the term salvation . For , considering the present condition of humane Nature , as it is so far sunk beneath it self , and kept under the power of unruly passions ; whatever tends to make it happy , must do it by delivering it from all those things which are the occasions of its misery . So that whatever Religion should promise to make men happy , without first making them vertuous and good , might on that very account be justly suspected of imposture . For the same reasons which make the acts of any Religion necessary , viz. that we may please that God who commands and governs the World , must make it necessary for men to do it , in those things which are far more acceptable to him than all our sacrifices of what kind soever , which are the actions of true vertue and goodness . If then that accusation had been true , which Celsus and Julian . charged Christianity with , viz. That it indulged men in the practice of vice , with the promise of a future happiness notwithstanding ; I know nothing could have render'd it more suspicious to be a design to deceive Mankinde . But so far is it from having the least foundation of truth in it , that as there never was any Religion which gave men such certain hopes of a future felicity , and consequently more encouragement to be good , so there was none ever required it on those strict and severe terms which Christianity doth . For there being two grand duties of men in this world , either towards God in the holiness of their hearts and lives , or towards their Brethren , in a peaceable carriage among men ( which cannot be without justice and sobriety ) both these are enforced upon all Christians , upon no meaner terms than the unavoidable loss of all the happiness our Religion promises . Follow peace with all men , and holiness , without which no man shall see the Lord. Heb. 12. 14. This is then the grand design of Christianity , to make men happy in another world , by making them good and vertuous in this : It came to reform this world that it might people another ; so to purifie the souls of men , as to make them meet to enjoy the happiness designed for them . This is that great Salvation which the Gospel brings to the world , Heb. 2. 3. and thence it is cal'd the Word of salvation , Acts 13. 26. the way of salvation , Acts 16. 17. the Gospel of salvation , Ephes. 1. 13. So that though Christianity be of unspeakable advantage to this world , there being no Religion that tends so much to the peace of mens minds , and the preservation of civil Societies as this doth ; yet all this it doth by way of subordination to the great end of it , which is the promoting mens eternal happiness . And the more we consider the vast consequence and importance of this end to mankinde , the greater reason we shall finde that S. Paul had why he should not be ashamed of the Gospel of Christ. For can we imagine any end more noble that any doctrine can aim at than this ? Supposing the common principles of all Religion to be true , viz. the Being of God , and Immortality of our Souls , there can be nothing more becoming that God to discover , or those Souls to be imploy'd about , than the way to a blessed immortality . And if we admire those discourses of the Heathen Philosophers , wherein they speak more darkly and obscurely concerning those things , what admiration doth the Gospel deserve , which hath brought life and immortality to light ? If we commend the vertuous Heathens , who according to those short and obscure notices which they had of God and themselves , sought to make the world any thing the better for their being in it , what infinitely greater esteem do those blessed Apostles deserve , who accounted not their lives dear to them that they might make even their enemies happy ? If those mens memories be dear to us who sacrifice their lives and fortunes for the sake of the Countrey they belong to , shall not those be much more so who have done it for the good of the whole world ? Such who chearfully suffer'd death while they were teaching men the way to an eternal life , and who patiently endured the flames if they might but give the greater light to the world by them . Such who did as far out-goe any of the admired Heroes of the Heathens , as the purging the World from sin is of greater consequence than cleansing an Augaean Stable from the filth of it , and rescuing men from eternal flames is a more noble design than clearing a Countrey from pyrats and robbers . Nay , most of the Heathen Gods who were so solemnly worshipped in Greece and at Rome , owed their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to such slender benefits to mankinde ; that sure the world was very barbarous or hugely gratefull when they could think them no less than Gods who found out such things for men : If a Smiths forge , and a Womans distaffe , if teaching men the noble arts of fighting and cheating one another were such rare inventions , that they only became some of the most celebrated Deities which the grave and demure Romans thought fit to worship ; sure S. Paul had no cause to be ashamed of his Religion among them , who had so much reason to be ashamed of their own ; since his design was to perswade them out of all the vanities and fooleries of their Idolatrous Worship , and to bring them to the service of the true and ever living God , who had discovered so much goodness to the world in making his Son a propitiation for the sins of it . And was not this a discovery infinitely greater and more suitable to the nature of God , than any which the subtilty of the Greeks , or wisdom of the Romans could ever pretend to concerning any of their Deities ? Thus we see the excellent end of our Religion was that which made S. Paul so far from being ashamed of it ; and so it would do all us too , if we did understand and value it as S. Paul did . But it is the great dishonour of too many among us , that they are more ashamed of their Religion than they are of their sins . If to talk boldly against Heaven , to affront God in calling him to witness their great impieties by frequent oaths , to sin bravely and with the highest confidence , to mock at such who are yet more modest in their debaucheries , were not to be ashamed of the Gospel of Christ , we might finde S. Pauls enough in the Age we live in , and it would be a piece of gallantry to be Apostles . But this is rather the utmost endeavour to put Religion out of countenance , and make the Gospel it self blush and be ashamed , that ever such bold-faced impieties should be committed by men under the profession of it , as though they believed nothing so damnable as Repentance and a Holy life , and no sin so unpardonable as Modesty in committing it . But to use S. Pauls language when he had been describing such persons h●mself , Heb. 6. 9. We are perswaded better things of you , and things that accompany that salvation the Gospel was designed for , though we thus speak . For certainly nothing can argue a greater meanness of spirit , than while wicked and profane persons are not ashamed of that which unavoidably tends to their ruine , any should be shye of the profession and practice of that which conduces to their eternal happiness . What is become of all that magnanimity and generous spirit which the Primitive Christians were so remarkable for , if while some are impudent in sinning , others are ashamed of being or doing good ? If we have that value for our immortal souls , and a future life , which we ought to have , we shall not trouble our selves much with the Atheistical scoffs and drollery of prosane persons , who while they deride and despise Religion , do but laugh themselves into eternal misery . And thus much for the first ground of S. Pauls confidence , viz. The excellent end the Gospel was designed for . 2. The effectualness of it in order to that end . It is the Power of God to salvation . Wherein two things are implyed . 1. The inefficacy of any other doctrine for that end . 2. The effectualness of the Gospel in order to it . 1. The inefficacy of any other Doctrine for this end of promoting the eternal salvation of Mankinde . If the world had been acquainted with any doctrine before which had been sufficient for the purposes the Gospel was designed for , there would have been no such necessity of propagating it among men ; nor had there been reason enough to have justified the Apostles in exposing themselves to so great hazards for the preaching of it . If the notion of an eternal God and Providence , without the knowledge of a Saviour , had been sufficient to reform the World , and make men happy ; it had not been consistent with the wisdom or goodness of God to have imploy'd so many persons , with the loss of their lives , to declare the Doctrine of Christ to the World. So that if Christianity be true , it must be thought necessary to salvation , for the necessity of it was declared by those who were the instruments of confirming the truth of it . I meddle not with the case of those particular persons who had no means or opportunity to know Gods revealed will , and yet from the Principles of Natural Religion did reform their lives , in hopes of a future felicity ( if any such there were ) but whether there were not a necessity of such a Doctrine as the Gospel is to be discover'd to the world , in order to the reformation of it ? For some very few persons either through the goodness of their natures , the advantage of their education , or some cause of a higher nature , may have led more vertuous lives than others did ; but it is necessary , that what aims at the general good of Mankinde , must be suited to the capacities of all , and enforced with arguments which may prevail on any but the most obstinate and wilfull persons . But when we consider the state of the World at that time when Christianity was first made known to it , we may easily see how insufficient the common Principles of Religion were , from working a reformation in it , when notwithstanding them mankinde was so generally lapsed into Idolatry and Vice , that hardly any can be instanced in , in the Heathen World , who had escaped both of them . And there was so near an affinity between both these , that they who were ingaged in the rites of their Idolatry , could hardly keep themselves free from the intanglements of vice ; not only because many of their villanies were practised as part of their Religion , ( and there was little hopes certainly of their being good , who could not be Religious without being bad ) but because the very Gods they worship'd were represented to be as bad as themselves . And could they take any better measure of Vertue , than from the actions of those whom they supposed to have so divine an excellency in them , as to deserve their adoration ? So that if there were a design of planting wickedness in the world ( which need not be , for it grows fast enough without it ) it could not be done more successefully than by worshipping those for Gods , who did such things which good men would abhorr to think of . And yet this was the state of the world then , when the Gospel was preached , and not only of the more rude and barbarous Nations , but of the most civilized and knowing people , as the Romans themselves ; as our Apostle at large proves in the remainder of this chapter , wherein he shews , that though they had means enough of knowing the Eternal God and Providence , yet they were so fallen into Idolatry , and the most vicious practises , that there was no means of recovering them , but by a fuller discovery both of the justice and goodness of God. I know it will be here objected , that though the generality of men were bad then ( as when were they otherwise ) yet the Heathens had a kind of Apostles among them , viz. the Philosophers , who sought to amend the manners of men by the moral instructions they gave them , so that if men were bad , it was not for want of good counsel , but for not observing it , which is all ( they say ) we have to say for our selves , when we are charged with the great debaucheries of the Christian world . To which I answer , That our business is not now to enquire whether there hath not been an incomparably greater advantage to the world by Christianity , in the reforming mens lives , than ever was by any of the Heathen Morals ; but whether these , taking them in the fairest dress , were so sufficient for the bringing men to eternal happiness , that there needed not any such Doctrine as Christianity be published for that end ? And there are two great things we may charge the best of their discourses with an insufficiency in , for the accomplishment of this end , which are Certainty , and Motives , or the want of Arguments to believe , and Encouragements to practise . 1. They were destitute of sufficient Certainty ; for what a man ventures his eternal state upon , he ought to be well assured of the truth of it . But how was it possible for the World to be reformed by such wise Apostles ( if they must be call'd so ) who were perpetually disputing among themselves about those things which were the most necessary foundations of all Vertue and Religion ? As though the best Arguments they had to prove their Souls immortal , was because their disputes about them were so . And those seemed among them to gain the greatest reputation for wit , who were best able to dispute against common Principles ; and they managed their business with greatest advantage , who only shewed the weakness of others principles , but established none of their own ; which was an unavoidable consequence of the way they proceeded in , for offering at no such way of proof as Christianity doth , they rather taught men to dispute , than to live eternally . Besides , their discourses were too subtle and intricate for the common capacities of men ; how long might a man live before an Entelechia would make him know the nature of his Soul the better , or an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 perswade him to believe its immortality ? Insomuch that it is hard to determine , whether the arguments used by them , did not rather hinder assent , than perswade to it ; and it seems probable that the honest minded , illiterate Heathens believed those things more firmly than the greatest Philosophers . For plain truths lose much of their weight , when they are ratified into subtilties , and their strength is impaired when they are spun into too fine a thread . The arguments which must prevail with Mankinde , must be plain and evident , easie and yet powerfull . The natural sense of good and evil in men is oft-times dull'd by disputes , and only awaken'd by a powerfull representation of an infinite Being , and a future Judgement : and that by such a way of proof as all persons are equal Judges of the truth and validity of it ; such as the Resurrection of Christ is in the Gospel . 2. But let us suppose the arguments certain and suitable , yet what sufficient motives or encouragements could they give to lead a holy and vertuous life , who after all their endeavours to perswade others , remained so uncertain themselves as to a future happiness ? So Tully tells us of Socrates himself when he was just dying , That he told his friends , that only the Gods knew whether it was fitter for men to live or die , but he thought no man did . And although some would excuse this as his usual way of disputing , yet of all times one would think it was fittest for him then to declare his minde in the most express terms , not only for the full vindication of himself , but for the comfort and encouragement of his friends . We are sure , Christianity proceeds on those terms , that if a future happiness be supposed uncertain , it declares expresly there can be no sufficient reason given for men to part with the conveniencies of this present life ; nay , it supposes the best men to be the most miserable of all others , if there be not a future reward , 1 Cor. 15. 19. — 32. Again , what probability was there they should ever perswade the World to vertue and goodness , when the severest of the Philosophers , made it lye in things so repugnant to humane nature , as goodness is agreeable to it . As when they made it an equal fault for a man to be angry , and to murder his Soveraign ; and that all passions are to be destroy'd , that pain and grief are nothing , that vertue in all conditions is a sufficient reward to it self . Which are so contrary to the common sense of mankind , that the only way to perswade men to believe them , is first to perswade them they are not men . So that he was certainly the wisest man among the Heathens , who concluded , that we ought to expect a higher Master to teach us these things , and to acquaint us with the happiness of a future life . And hereby an answer may be given to Porphyries grand objection against Christian Religion , viz. If it were so necessary for the good of Mankinde , why was it so long before it was discovered ? Because God would thereby discover the insufficiency of all the means the wit of man could finde out to reform the world , without this . That not only the Jews might see the weakness of that dispensation they were under , but the Gentile world might groan with an expectation of some more powerfull means to goodness than were yet among them . For when Philosophy had been so long in its height , and had so little influence upon Mankinde , it was time for the Sun of righteousness to arise , and with the softening and healing influence of his beams to bring the World to a more vertuous temper . And that leads to the Second thing implyed , which is the peculiar efficacy of the Gospel for promoting mens salvation , for it is the Power of God to salvation , and that will appear , by considering how many wayes the power of God is engaged in it . These three especially . 1. In confirmation of the Truth of it . 2. In the admirable Effects of it in the World. 3. In the divine Assistance which is promised to those who embrace it . 1. In confirmation of the Truth of it . For the World was grown so uncertain , as to the grand foundations of Religion , that the same power was requisite now to settle the World , which was at first for the framing of it . For though the Precepts of Christian Religion be pure and easie , holy and suitable to the sense of mankind , though the Promises be great and excellent , proportionable to our wants and the weight of our business , though the reward be such that it is easier to desire than comprehend it , yet all these would but seem to baffle the more the expectations of men , unless they were built on some extraordinary evidence of divine power . And such we assert there was in the confirmation of these things to us , not only in the miraculous birth of our Saviour , and that continual series of unparallel'd miracles in his life , not only in the most obliging circumstances of his death ; nor only in the large effusion of divine gifts upon his Apostles , and the strange propagation of Christian Religion by them against all humane power ; but that which I shall particularly instance in , as the great effect of divine power , and confirmation of our Religion , was his Resurrection from the dead . For , as our Apostle saith , Rom. 1. 4. Christ was declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of Holiness , by the Resurrection from the dead . No way of evidence could be more suitable to the capacities of all , than this , it being a plain matter of fact ; none ever better attested than this was , not only by the unanimous consent of all the witnesses , but by their constant adhering to the truth of it , though it cost almost all of them their lives ; and no greater evidence could be given to the World of a divine power , since both Jews and Gentiles agreed in this , that such a thing could not be effected but by an immediate hand of God. So far were they then from thinking a resurrection possible by the juyce of herbs , or an infusion of warm blood into the veins , or by the breath of living Creatures , as the great martyr for Atheism would seem from Pliny to perswade us ; when yet certainly nothing can be of higher concernment to those who believe not another life , than to have try'd this experiment long ere now ; and since nothing of that nature hath ever happened since our Saviours resurrection , it only lets us know what credulous men in other things the greatest Infidels as to Religion are . But so far were they at that time from so fond an imagination , that they readily yielded , that none but God could do it , though they seem'd to question whether God himself could do it or no. As appears by the Apostles Interrogation , Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you , that God should raise the dead ? Acts 26. 8. This was therefore judged on both sides to be a matter of so great importance , that all the disputes concerning Christian Religion were resolved into this , Whether Christ were risen from the dead ? And this the Apostles urge and insist on , upon all occasions , as the great evidence of the truth of his Doctrine , and this was the main part of their Commission , for they were sent abroad to be witnesses of his Resurrection . Which was not designed by God as a thing strange and incredible to puzzle mankinde with , but to give the highest assurance imaginable to the World of the truth and importance of Christianity . Since God was pleased to imploy his power in so high a manner to confirm the certainty of it . 2. Gods power was seen in the admirable effects of Christian Religion upon the minds of men : which was most discernable by the strange alteration it soon made in the state of the world . In Judea soon after the death of Christ , some of his Crucifyers become Christians , 3000 Converts made at one Sermon of S. Peters , and great accessions made afterwards both in Hierusalem and other places . Yea in all parts of the Roman Empire , where the Christians came , they so increased and multiplyed , that thereby it appeared that God had given a Benediction to his new Creation suitable to what he gave to the first . So that within the compass of not a hundred years after our Saviours death , the World might admire to see it self so strangely changed from what it was . The Temple at Hierusalem destroy'd , and the Jews under a sadder dispersion than ever , and rendred uncapable of continuing their former Worship of God there : The Heathen Temples unfrequented , the Gods derided , the Oracles ceased , the Philosophers puzzled , the Magistrates disheartned by their fruitless cruelties , and all this done by a few Christians who came and preached to the World Righteousness , Temperance , and a Judgement to come , whereof God had given assurance to the World , by raising one Jesus from the dead . And all this effected not by the power of Wit and Eloquence , not by the force and violence of rebellious subjects , not by men of hot and giddy brains , but by men sober , just , humble and meek in all their carriages , but withall such as might never have been heard of in the world , had not this Doctrine made them famous . What could this then be imputed to less than a Divine Power , which by effectual and secret wayes carries on its own design against all the force and wit of men . So that the wise Gamaliel , at whose feet S. Paul was bred , seem'd to have the truest apprehensions of these things at that time , when he told the Sanhedrin , If this counsel , or this work be of men , it will come to nought , but if it be of God , ye cannot overthrow it , least haply ye be found to fight against God. Acts 5. 38 , 39. 3. In the Divine Assistance which is promised to those who embrace it : in which respect it is properly the power of God to salvation ; and therein far beyond what the Philosophers could promise to any who embraced their opinions . For , the Gospel doth not only discover the necessity of a Principle superiour to Nature , which we call Grace , in order to the fitting our Souls for their future happiness , but likewise shews on what terms God is pleased to bestow it on men , viz. on the consideration of the death and passion of our Lord and Saviour . Not by works of righteousness which we have done , but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration , and renewing of the Holy Ghost , which he shed on us abundantly through Christ our Saviour , Titus 3. 5. There being nothing in humane nature which could oblige God , to give to Mankinde that assistance of his grace whereby they are enabled to work out this salvation the Gospel is designed for , with fear and trembling . The whole tenor of the Gospel importing a divine power which doth accompany the preaching of it , which is designed on purpose to heal the wounds , and help the weakness of our depraved and degenerate nature . Through which we may be kept to salvation : but it must be through Faith , 1 Pet. 1. 5. 3. Which is the last particular of the words ; the necessity of believing the Gospel in order to the partaking of the salvation promised in it ; it is the power of God to salvation to every one that believes , to the Jew first , and also to the Greek . An easie way of salvation , if no more were required to mens happiness but a fancy and strong opinion which they will easily call Believing . So there were some in S. Augustin's time , I could wish there were none in ours , who thought nothing necessary to salvation but a strong Faith , let their lives be what they pleased . But this is so repugnant to the main design of Christian Religion , that they who think themselves the strongest Believers , are certainly the weakest , and most ungrounded . For they believe scarce any other proposition in the New Testament , but that Whosoever believeth shall be saved . If they did believe that Christ came into the world to reform it , and make it better , that the wrath of God is now revealed from Heaven against all unrighteousness , as well as that the just by Faith shall live , that the design of all that love of Christ , which is shewn to the World , is to deliver them from the hand of their enemies , that they might serve him in righteousness and holiness all the dayes of their lives , they could never imagine , that salvation is entailed by the Gospel on a mighty confidence or vehement perswasion of what Christ hath done and suffered for them . And so far is S. Paul from asserting this , that as far as I can see , he never meddles with a matter of that nicety , whether a single act of Faith be the condition of our justification as it is distinguished from Evangelical obedience , but his discourse runs upon this subject ; whether God will pardon the sins of men upon any other terms than those which are declared in the Christian Religion , the former he calls Works , and the latter Faith. I know , the subtilty of later times hath made S. Paul dispute in the matter of justification , not as one bred up at the feet of Gamaliel , but of the Master of the Sentences ; but men did not then understand their Religion at all the worse because it was plain and easie ; and , it may be , if others since had understood their Religion better , there would never have needed so much subtilty to explain it , nor so many distinctions to defend it . The Apostle makes the same terms of justification and of falvation , for as he saith elsewhere , We are justified by Faith , he saith here , the Gospel is the power of God to salvation to every one that believes ; if therefore a single act of Faith be sufficient for one , why not for the other also ? But if believing here be taken in a more large and comprehensive sense , as a complex act relating to our undertaking the conditions of the Gospel ; why should it not be taken so in the subsequent discourse of the Apostle ? For we are to observe , that S. Paul in this Epistle is not disputing against any sort of Christians that thought to be saved by their obedience to the Gospel from the assistance of divine grace ; but against those who thought the Grace and indulgence of the Gospel by no means necessary in order to the pardon of their sins , and their eternal happiness . Two things therefore the Apostle mainly designs to prove in the beginning of it : First , the insufficiency of any other way of salvation besides that offer'd by the Gospel ; whether it were the light of Nature which the Gentiles contended for , but were far from living according to it ; or that imaginary Covenant of Works , which the Jews fancyed to themselves ( for it will be a very hard matter to prove that ever God entred into a Covenant of Works with fallen Man , which he knew it was impossible for him to observe ) but they were so highly opinionated of themselves , and of those legal observations which were among them , that they thought by vertue of them they could merit so much favour at Gods hands , that there was no need of any other sacrifice , but what was among themselves to expiate the guilt of all their sins . And on that account they rejected the Gospel , as the Apostle tells us , that they being ignorant of Gods righteousness , and going about to establish their own righteousness , have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God. Against these therefore the Apostle proves , that if they hoped for happiness upon such strict terms , they laid only a foundation of boasting if they did all which God required , but of misery if they did not ; for then , Cursed is every one that continues not in every thing written in the Law to do it . i. e. if they failed in any one thing , then they must fail of all their hopes ; but such a state of perfection being impossible to humane Nature ; he shews , that either all mankind must unavoidably perish , or they must be saved by the Grace and Favour of God , which he proves to be discovered by the Gospel : and that God will now accept of a hearty and sincere obedience to his will declared by his Son ; so that all those who perform that , though they live not in the nice observance of the Law of Moses , shal not need to fear the penalty of their sins in another life . Which is the second thing he designs to prove , viz. That those who obeyed the Gospel , whether Jew or Greek , were equally capable of salvation by it . For , saith he , is God the God of the Jews only ? is he not also of the Gentiles ? Yes , of the Gentiles also : because both Jew and Gentile were to be justified upon the same terms , as he proves afterwards . So that , Gods justifying of us by the Gospel , is the solemn declaration of himself upon what terms he will pardon the sins of men ; that is , deliver them from the penalties they have deserved by them . For the actual discharge of the person is reserved to the great day ; all the justification we have here is only declarative from God , but so as to give a right to us , by vertue whereof we are assured , that God will not only not exercise his utmost rigour , but shew all favour and kindness to those who by belief of the Gospel do repent and obey . God doth now remit sin as he forbears to punish it ; he remits the sinner as he assures him by the death of Christ he will not punish upon his repentance ; but he fully remits both , when he delivers the person upon the tryall of the great day , from all the penalties which he hath deserved by his sins . So that our compleat justification and salvation go both upon the same terms , and the same Faith which is sufficient for one , must be sufficient for the other also . What care then ought men to take , lest by mis-understanding the notion of Believing , so much spoken of as the condition of our salvation , they live in a neglect of that holy obedience which the Gospel requires , and so believe themselves into eternal misery . But as long as men make their obedience necessary , though but as the fruit and effect of Faith , it shall not want its reward : for those , whose hearts are purified by Faith shall never be condemned for mistaking the notion of it ; and they who live as those that are to be judged according to their works , shall not miss their reward , though they do not think they shall receive it for them . But such who make no other condition of the Gospel but Believing , and will scarce allow that to be call'd a Condition , ought to have a great care to keep their hearts sounder than their heads , for their only security will lye in this , that they are good though they see no necessity of being so . And such of all others I grant have reason to acknowledge the irresistible power of Divine Grace , which enables them to obey the will of God against the dictates of their own judgements . But thanks be to God , who hath so abundantly provided for all the infirmities of humane Nature , by the large offers of his Grace , and assistance of his Spirit , that though we meet with so much opposition without , and so much weakness within , and so many discouragements on every side of us ; yet if we sincerely apply our selves to do the will of God , we have as great assurance as may be , that we shall be kept by the power of God through Faith unto Salvation . FINIS . Hebr. 2. 3. How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation ? WHen the wise and eternal Counsels of Heaven concerning the salvation of Mankinde by the death of the Son of God , were first declared to the World by his own appearance and preaching in it ; nothing could be more reasonably expected , than that the dignity of his Person , the authority of his Doctrine , and the excellency of his Life , should have perswaded those whom he appeared among , to such an admiration of his Person , and belief of his Doctrine , as might have led them to an imitation of him in the holiness of his life and conversation . For if either the worth of the Person , or the importance of the Message might prevail any thing towards a kinde and honourable reception among men ; there was never any person appeared in any degree comparable to him , never any Message declared which might challenge so welcome an entertainment from men , as that was which he came upon . If to give Mankinde the highest assurance of a state of life and immortality , if to offer the pardon of sin , and reconciliation with God upon the most easie and reasonable terms , if to purge the degenerate World from all its impurities by a Doctrine as holy as the Author of it ; were things as becoming the Son of God to reveal , as the Sons of men to receive : nothing can be more unaccountable than that his Person should be despised , his Authority slighted , and his Doctrine contemned . And that by those whose interest was more concerned in the consequence of these things , than himself could be in all the affronts and injuries he underwent from men : For the more the indignities , the greater the shame , the sharper the sufferings which he did undergo , the higher was the honour and glory which he was advanced to : but the more obliging the instances of his kindness were , the greater the salvation that was tendered by him , the more prevailing the motives were for the entertainment of his Doctrine , the more exemplary and severe will the punishment be of all those who reject it . For it is very agreeable to those eternal Laws of Justice by which God governs the world , that the punishment should arise proportionably to the greatness of the mercies despised : and therefore although the Scripture be very sparing in telling us what the state of those persons shall be in another life who never heard of the Gospel ; yet for those who do , and despise it , it tells us plainly , that an eternal misery is the just desert of those to whom an eternal happiness was offered , and yet neglected by them . And we are the rather told of it , that men may not think it a surprize in the life to come ; or that if they had known the danger , they would have escaped it ; and therefore our Blessed Saviour , who never mentioned punishment but with a design to keep men from it , declares it frequently , that the punishment of those persons and places would be most intolerable , who have received , but not improved the light of the Gospel : and that it would be more tolerable for the persons who had offer'd violence to Nature , and had Hell-fire burning in their hearts by their horrid impurities , than for those who heard the Doctrine , and saw the Miracles of Christ , and were much the worse , rather than any thing the better for it . But lest we should think that all this black scene of misery was only designed for those who were the Actors in that dolefull Tragedy of our Saviours sufferings : we are told by those who were best able to assure us of it , that the same dismal consequences will attend all the affronts of his Doctrine , as if they had been offer'd to his own person . For it is nothing but the common flattery and self-deceit of humane nature , which makes any imagine , that though they do not now either believe or obey the Gospel ; they should have done both , if they had heard our Saviour speak as never man spake , and seen him do what never man did : For the same disposition of minde which makes them now slight that Doctrine which is delivered to them by them that heard him , would have made them slight the Person as well as the Doctrine , if they had heard it from himself . And therefore it is but reasonable that the same punishment should belong to both ; especially since God hath provided so abundantly for the assurance of our Faith , by the miraculous and powerfull demonstration of that divine spirit which did accompany those who were the first publishers of this Doctrine to the world . And therefore the Author of this Epistle , after he hath in the words of the Text declared , that it is impossible to escape , if we neglect the great salvation offered us by the Gospel ; in the following words he gives us that account of it , that at first it began to be spoken by the Lord , and was confirmed to us by them that heard him : God also bearing them witness both with signs and wonders , and divers miracles , and gifts of the Holy Ghost , according to his own will. So that the miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost , falling upon the Apostles , and the many signs and wonders which were wrought by them , were the great testimony of God to the world , that these were the persons imploy'd by himself to declare that Doctrine whereon the eternal salvation of Mankinde did depend . And since we have so lately acknowledg'd the truth of this testimony which God gave to the Apostles , by the solemn celebration of that glorious descent of the Holy Ghost upon them on the day of Pentecost , that which naturally follows from it is , the great care we ought to take lest we be found guilty of neglecting that great salvation which is offered to us in that Doctrine which was attested in so eminent a manner by God himself ; and that from the consideration of our own danger ; for how shall we escape , if we neglect so great salvation ? wherein are three things considerable : 1. The care God hath taken to make us happy , by offering so great salvation to us . 2. The care we ought to take in order to our own happiness , not to neglect the offers which God hath made us . 3. The unavoidable punishment which those do incurre who are guilty of this neglect . How shall we escape ? I need not tell this Auditory how forcible the Negative is , which is expressed by such an interrogation which appeals to the judgement of all who hear it , and so relyes not upon the bare authority of the speaker , but upon the plain evidence of the thing , which others were judges of as well as himself . As though he had said , if you slight and disesteem the Gospel of Christ , upon whatever grounds ye do it , if either through too great an opinion of the wisdom of this world you despise it as vain and useless , if through too mean an opinion of the excellency of Christianity , you reject it either as uncertain in its Theory , or impossible in its practise ; or if through too great a love of the pleasures of sin , or a secure and careless temper of minde , you regard not the doing what Christianity requires to make you happy ; think with your selves , what way you can finde to escape the wrath of God ; for my part , I know of none ; for if God were so severe against the violation of a far meaner institution , viz. of the Law of Moses , insomuch that every contempt and disobedience did receive a just recompence of reward , how shall we escape who neglect so great salvation ? or as the Apostle elsewhere argues to the same purpose . He that despised Moses Law died without mercy , under two or three witnesses , of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy , who hath troden under foot the Son of God , and hath counted the blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing , and hath done despite unto the Spirit of Grace ? This is a sad subject , but I am afraid too necessary to be spoken to in the Age we live in ; wherein men seem to be inapprehensive of the danger of inwardly despising the Religion they profess to own , and the neglecting of that which they hope to be saved by . It is strange that it should be so ; but much more strange that men should think to do so , and not be call'd to an account for it . It is not only the gross and open sinner that desies Heaven , and by his oaths and blasphemies dares God to shew his Power and Justice upon him , but the slye and self-deceiving hypocrite that hates Religion while he thinks he loves it ; that in his heart contemns it , but is afraid to know that he does so , that ought to be possess'd with a truer sense of Religion , and a greater dread of the issue of the contempt or neglect of it . There is some appearance of ingenuity in an open enmity ; but none so dangerous as that which hides it self under the disguise of friendship . In our Saviours time there were several sorts of those who shewed their disesteem of him , some that were so enraged against him , that they contrive all wayes for his disgrace and punishment , others could hear him with patience , but the cares of this World , the deceitfulness of Riches , and the lust of other things choaked and stifled all good apprehensions of him , that they became weak and ineffectual . And those were guilty of making light of the marriage-feast because of other business which they had to minde , Matth. 22. 5. as well as those who offered all the injuries and affronts to his servants that invited them , v. 6. And as it was in the dayes of our Saviour , so it is now ; some were eating and drinking , minding nothing but the vain and sensual pleasures of the world ; some were buying and selling , so busie in this world , that they had no leisure to think of being happy in another , some were deriding and blaspheming ; but all these too wise , or too vain , or too profane to minde the offers of eternal salvation . I wish we could say it were otherwise now , that a sensual and voluptuous , an easie and a careless life in some , that ambition and the restless pursuit after the honour and riches of the world in others , that a profane wit , and a contempt of all that is serious in those that think themselves too great to be Religious , did not enervate the force of Christianity upon their minds , and make them all though upon different grounds agree in the neglect of their own salvation . But is the case of such men grown so desperate that no remedy can work upon them ? hath the love of sin and the world so far intoxicated them , that no reason or consideration whatever can awaken them ? have they hardened themselves against all the power of divine Truths with a resolution as strong as death , and as cruel as the grave whither they are going ? Will neither the love of happiness , nor the fear of misery , their own interest , and the wisdom of avoiding so great a danger , the dread of the Majesty and Power of God , and the horror of the great day , prevail at least so far on men to consider , whether these things be true or no ; and if they be , what unspeakable solly it is to neglect them ? And the better to make that appear , I shall prove these following things : 1. That God by the Gospel hath taken so great care of mens happiness , that nothing but a gross neglect can make them miserable . 2. That nothing can be more unreasonable , than when God hath taken so much care of it , men should neglect it themselves . 3. That it is very just for God to vindicate himself against so gross a neglect , by the severe punishments of the life to come . 1. That God by the Gospel hath taken so great care of mens salvation , that nothing but a gross neglect can make them miserable . For , whatever the minde of man can imagine necessary in order to its own happiness , in its present fallen and degenerate condition , is abundantly provided for by the Gospel of Christ. For , man was so wholly lost as to his own felicity , that among the ruins and decayes of his Nature , he could not pick up so much as the perfect image and Idea of his own happiness ; when he reflects upon himself , he finds himself such a confused mass of folly and weakness , that he can never imagine that so noble a design should have its ground-work laid upon so course a Being . And rather than believe the foundation of his happiness to be within himself , there is nothing so vain and trifling without him , but he is ready to fall down before it , and cry out , Here I place my felicity . Sometimes he admires the brave shews , and the Pomp and Gallantry of the World , and thinks nothing comparable to a glorious out-side , and a great train of attendants : sometimes he raises himself , and flutters upon the wings of a popular Air , till a cross blast comes and leaves him in the common rout : sometimes his eyes are dazzled with the glory of the more refined and solid pieces of that Earth out of which he was framed , and thinks it reasonable , that the softness of flesh and blood , should yield to the impressions of silver and gold ; sometimes he even envyes the pleasures of the Brutes , and if it were possible would out-doe them in their grossest sensualities : sometimes again he flatters himself , and then adores his own imperfections , and thinks his Passions , Honour ; and his Profaneness , Wit. So far is vain man from making himself happy , that the first step to it , is to make him understand what it is to be so . But supposing that the true image of his happiness should drop down from Heaven ; and by the place from whence it fell , should conclude where the thing it self is to be found ; yet this were only to make him more miserable , unless he withall knew how to come thither . He is sure not to climb up to it by the tops of the highest mountains , nor to be carried thither upon the wings of a mighty wind , he hath no fiery Chariots at his command to ascend with to the Glories above : but only he that maketh his Angels Spirits , and his Ministers a flame of fire , is able to preserve the souls of men from vanishing into the soft air , and to conduct them to the Mansions of eternal Bliss . It is he only that can make them capable of the Joyes of another life , by purging them from the stains and the pollutions of this . And therefore without his grace and favour ever to hope for the happiness of Heaven , must be by fancying a Heaven to be there , where there is no God. So that it is necessary , that the Proposals of this salvation must come from the Author of it , and that with such arguments as may perswade men of the truth of it , and with such motives as may encourage men to accept of them . Now the Gospel of Christ affords us all these things which are necessary to our happiness , there we have the most agreeable and settled notion and Idea of it , the most large and free offers of divine goodness in order to it , the greatest assurance that these things did immediately proceed from God , and the most encouraging motives to accept of these offers in order to that great salvation which is tender'd to us . 1. We have the most agreeable and setled notion of true happiness : not such a mean and uncertain thing which lyes at the mercy of the continual vicissitudes and contingencies of this present state , but that which is able to bear up the minde of man against all the troubles of this life , and to carry him to a Region beyond them all , where there is a fulness of joy without an allay of sadness after it , and ever-flowing rivers of pleasures that need no dams to make them rise higher , nor falls to make their motion perceived . Our Blessed Saviour never flatters his followers with the expectation of a felicity in this life ; Contentment is the most he hath promised them , and that they may enjoy , if they follow his directions , let this world be be what it will , and do what it pleases with them . He never tells his Disciples they may have satisfaction here if they lie upon their beds of down with their heads full of tormenting cares , that the pleasure of humane life lies in the gratifications of the senses , and in making what use they can of the world ; he never deceives them with the promise of so poor a happiness as that which depends upon health , friends , prosperity , and having our own wills . No , but he tells them of a more noble and generous felicity ; that will preserve its own stae and grandeur in spight of the world ; a happiness consistent with loss of Estate , loss of Friends , with affronts and injuries , with persecutions , and death it self . For , when our Saviour begins to discourse of happiness , what another kinde of strain doth he speak of it in , than any of those Philosophers who have so much obstructed the happiness of mans life by their voluminous writings and contentions about it . Here we meet with no Epicurean softness , which the sense of true Virtue carried the minds of the more noble Heathens above ; no rigid and incredible Stoical Paradoxes , that make men only happy by the change of names ; no Aristotelean supposition of a prosperous life for Vertue to shew its power in ; but here the only supposition made , is that which lyes in a mans own breast , viz. true goodness , and then let his condition be what it will , his happiness is consistent with it . For those above all other persons whom our Saviour calls Blessed , in the beginning of that excellent Abstract of Christianity , his Sermon on the Mount , are , not the rich and great men of the world , but those who , to the poverty of their condition adde that of their spirits too , by being contented with the state they are in ; not those , who are full of mirth and jollity , that laugh away one half of their time , and sleep the rest ; but they who are in a mournfull condition , either by reason of their own sorrows , or out of compassion to others , or out of a general sense of their own imperfections , or the inconstancy of our present state : Not those , who are ready enough to give , but unable to bear affronts , that think the lives of men a sacrifice small enough for any words of disgrace which they have given them ; but the meek and patient spirit , that is neither apt to provoke , nor in a rage and madness when it is ; that values the rules of Christianity above all the barbarous Punctilio's of Honour . Not those , who are as impetuous in the pursuit of their designs , and as eager of tasting the fruits of them , as the thirsty Traveller in the sands of Arabia is of drinking the waters of a pleasant Spring : but such who make righteousness and goodness their meat and drink , that which they hunger and thirst after , and take as much pleasure in as the most voluptuous Epicure in his greatest dainties : Not those , whose malice goes beyond their power , and want only enough of that to make the whole World a Slaughter-house , and account racks and torments among the necessary instruments of governing the World ; but such , who when their enemies are in their power , will not torment themselves by cruelty to them , but have such a sense of common humanity , as not only to commend pity and good nature to those above them , but to use it to those who are under them . Not those , whose hearts are as full of dissimulation and hypocrisie , as the others hands are of blood and violence , that care not what they are , so they may but seem to be good : but such whose inward integrity and purity of heart , far exceeds the outward shew and profession of it : who honour Goodness for it self , and not for the Glory which is about the head of it . Not those , who never think the breaches of the world wide enough , till there be a door large enough for their own interests to go in at by them ; that would rather see the world burning , than one peg be taken out of their Chariot-wheels : but such who would sacrifice themselves , like the brave Roman , to fill up the wide gulf which mens contentions have made in the world ; and think no Legacy ought to be preserved more inviolable than that of Peace , which our Saviour left to his Disciples . Lastly , not those , who will do any thing rather than suffer , or if they suffer it shall be for any thing rather than righteousness , to uphold a party , or maintain a discontented faction ; but such , who never complain of the hardness of their way , as long as they are sure it is that of Righteousness ; but if they meet with reproaches and persecutions in it , they welcome them , as the harbingers of their future reward , the expectation of which makes the worst condition not only tolerable but easie to them . Thus we see what kinde of happiness it is , which the Gospel promises ; not such a one as rises out of the dust , or is tost up and down with the motion of it ; but such whose never-failing fountain is above , and whither those small rivulets return , which fall down upon Earth to refresh the mindes of men in their passage thither ; but while they continue here , as the Jews say of the water that came out of the rock , it follows them while they travel through this wilderness below . So that the foundation of a Christians happiness is the expectation of a life to come , which expectation having so firm a bottom , as the assurance which Christ hath given us by his death and sufferings , it hath power and influence sufficient to bear up the mindes of men , against all the vicissitudes of this present state . 2. We have the most large and free offers of divine Goodness in order to it . Were it as easie for Man to govern his own passions , as to know that he ought to do it ; were the impressions of Reason and Religion as powerfull with Mankinde as those of Folly and Wickedness are , we should never need complain much of the misery of our present state , or have any cause to fear a worse to come . There would then be no condition here but what might be born with satisfaction to ones own minde ; and the life of one day led according to the principles of vertue and goodness , would be preferred before a sinning Immortality . But we have lost the command of our selves , and therefore our passions govern us ; and as long as such furies drive us , no wonder if our ease be little . When men began first to leave the uncertain speculations of Nature , and found themselves so out of order , that they thought the great care ought to be to regulate their own actions ; how soon did their passions discover themselves about the way to govern them ! And they all agreed in this , that there was great need to do it , and that it was impossible to do it without the principles of Vertue ; for never was there any Philosopher so bad , as to think any man could be happy without Vertue ; even the Epicureans themselves acknowledged it for one of their established Ma●… that no man could live a pleasant life w●…t being good : and supposing the multiplication of Sects of Philosophers about these things as far as Varro thought it possible to 288. ( although there never were so many , nor really could be upon his own grounds ) yet not one of all these but made it necessary to be vertuous , in order to being happy , and those who did not think vertue to be desired for it self , yet made it a necessary means for the true pleasure and happiness of our lives . But when they were agreed in this , that it was impossible for a vitious man to enjoy any true contentment of minde : they fell into nice and subtle disputes about the names and order of things to be chosen , and so lost the great effect of all their common principles . They pretended great cures for the disorders of mens lives , and excellent remedies against the common distempers of humane nature , but still the disease grew under the remedy , and their applications were too weak to allay the fury of their passions . It was neither the order and good of the Universe , nor the necessity of events , nor the things being out of our power , nor the common condition of humanity , no nor that comfort of ill natured men , as Carneades call'd it , the many companions ●…ave in misery , that could keep their ●…ons from breaking out when a great occasion was presented them . For he who had read all their discourses carefully , and was a great man himself , I mean Cicero , upon the death of his beloved daughter , was so far from being comforted by them , that he was fain to write a consolation for himself , in which the greatest cure ( it may be ) was the diversion he found in writing it . But supposing these things had gone much farther , and that all wise men could have governed their passions as to the troubles of this life ( and certainly the truest wisdom lies in that ) . Yet what had all this been to a preparation for an eternal state , which they knew little of , and minded less ? All their discourses about a happy life here , were vain , and contradicted by themselves ; when , after all their rants about their wise man being happy in the bull of Phalaris , &c. they yet allow'd him to dispatch himself if he saw cause , which a wise man would never do , if he thought himself happy when he did it . So that unless God himself had given assurance of a life to come , by the greatest demonstrations of it in the death and resurrection of his Son ; all the considerations whatever could never have made mankinde happy . But by the Gospel he hath taken away all suspicions and doubts concerning another state , and hath declared his own readiness to be reconciled to us upon our repentance , to pardon what hath been done amiss , and to give that divine assistance whereby our wills may be governed , and our passions subdued , and upon a submission of our selves to his wise Providence , and a sincere obedience to his Laws , he hath promised eternal salvation in the life to come . 3. God hath given us the greatest assurance that these offers came from himself ; which the Apostle gives an account of here , saying , that this salvation began at first to be spoken by our Lord , and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him ; God also bearing them witness by signs and wonders , &c. Wherein we have all the satisfaction which the mindes of reasonable men could desire as to these things : It might be justly expected , that the messenger of so great news to the World should be no mean and ordinary person ; neither was he , for the honour was as great in the person who brought it , as the importance was in the thing it self : No less than the Eternal Son of God came down from the Bosom of his Father , to rectifie the mistakes of Mankinde , and not only to shew them the way to be happy , but by the most powerfull arguments to perswade them to be so . Nay , we find all the three persons of the Trinity here engaged in the great work of mans salvation ; it was first spoken by our Lord , God also bearing them witness , and that with divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost . So that not only the first revelation was from God , but the testimony to confirm that it was so , was from him too ; there being never so clear an attestation of any divine truths as was of the Doctrine of the Gospel . From whence it follows , that the foundation whereon our Faith stands , is nothing short of a divine testimony , which God gave to the truth of that revelation of his will ; so vain are the cavils of those who say , we have nothing but meer probabilities for our Faith , and do interpret that manner of proof which matters of fact are capable of , in a sense derogatory to the firmness of our Christian Faith. As though we made the Spirit of God a Paraclete or Advocate in the worst sense , which might as well plead a bad as a good cause . No , we acknowledge , that God himself did bear witness to that doctrine deliver'd by our Lord , and that in a most signal and effectual manner , for the conviction of the world , by those demonstrations of a divine power which accompanyed the first Preachers of salvation by the Gospel of Christ. So that here the Apostle briefly and clearly resolves our Faith ; if you ask , Why we believe that great salvation which the Gospel offers ? the answer is , Because it was declared by our Lord , who neither could nor would deceive us : If it be asked , How we know that this was delivered by our Lord ? he answers , because this was the constant Doctrine of all his Disciples , of those who constantly heard him , and conversed with him . But if you ask again , how can we know , that their testimony was infallible , since they were but men , he then resolves all into that , that God bare witness to them by signs and wonders , and divers miracles , and gifts of the Holy Ghost . And those persons whom these arguments will not convince , none other will. Who are we , that should not think that sufficient which God himself thought so ! who are we , that dare question the certainty of that which hath had the Broad Seal of Heaven to attest it ! Can any thing make it surer than God himself hath done ? and can there be any other way more effectual for that end , than those demonstrations of a divine power and presence which the Apostles were acted by ? Those that cavil at this way of proof , would have done so at any other , if God had made choice of it : and those who will cavil at any thing , are resolved to be convinced by nothing ; and such are not fit to be discoursed with . 4. Here are the most prevailing motives to perswade them to accept of these offers of salvation . There are two passions , which are the great hinges of Government , viz. mens Hopes and Fears , and therefore all Laws have had their sanctions suitable to these two in Rewards and Punishments : now there was never any reward which gave greater encouragement to hope , never any punishment which made fear more reasonable than those are which the Gospel proposes . Will ever that man be good , whom the hopes of Heaven will not make so ? or will ever that man leave his sins whom the fears of Hell will not make to do it ? What other arguments can we imagine should ever have that power and influence on mankinde , which these may be reasonably supposed to have ? Would you have God alter the methods of his Providence , and give his rewards and punishments in this life ? but if so , what exercise would there be of the patience , forbearance and goodness of God towards wicked men ? must he do it as soon as ever men sin ? then he would never try whether they would repent and grow better ? or must he stay till they have come to such a height of sin ? then no persons would have cause to fear him , but such who are arrived at that pitch of wickedness : but how then should he punish them ? must it be by continuing their lives , and making them miserable ? but let them live , and they will sin yet further : must it be by utterly destroying them ? that to persons , who might have time to sin the mean while , ( supposing annihilation were all to be fear'd ) would never have power enough to deterr men from the height of their wickedness . So that nothing but the misery of a life to come , can be of force enough to make men fear God , and regard themselves ; and this is that which the Gospel threatens to those that neglect their salvation , which it sometimes calls everlasting fire , sometimes the Worm that never dies , sometimes the wrath to come , sometimes everlasting destruction , all enough to fill the minds of men with horror at the apprehension ; and what then will the undergoing it doe ? Thence our Saviour , reasonably bids men , not fear them that can only kill the body , but are not able to kill the soul ; but rather fear him which is able to destroy both body and soul in hell . Thus the Gospel suggests the most proper object of fear , to keep men from sin , and as it doth that , so it presents likewise the most desireable object of hope to encourage men to be good ; which is no less than a happiness that is easier to hope to enjoy than to comprehend ; a happiness infinitely above the most ambitious hopes and glories of this world ; wherein greatness is added to glory , weight to greatness , and eternity to them all ; therefore call'd a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory . Wherein the Joyes shall be full and constant , the perception clear and undisturbed , the fruition with continual delight and continual desire . Where there shall be no fears to disquiet , no enemies to allarm , no dangers to conquer ; nothing shall then be , but an uninterrupted peace , an unexpressible Joy , and pleasures for evermore . And what could be ever imagined more satisfactory to mindes tired out with the vanities of this world , than such a repose as that is ? What more agreeable to the minds and desires of good men , than to be eased of this clog of flesh , and to spend eternity with the fountain of all goodness , and the spirits of just men made perfect ? What more ravishing delight to the souls that are purged , and made glorious by the blood of the Lamb , than to be singing Hallelujahs to him that sits upon the Throne , and to the Lamb for ever and ever ? How poor and low things are those which men hope for in this world , compared with that great salvation , which the Gospel makes to free a tender of ? What a mean thing is it to be great in this world , to be honourable and rich , i. e. to be made the object of the envy of some , the malice of others , and at last it may be , an instance of this worlds vanity ; and after all this to be for ever miserable ? But O the wisdom of a well-chosen happiness , that carries a man with contentment and peace through this life , and at last rewards him with a Crown of everlasting felicity . Thus we see the Gospel proposes the most excellent means to make men happy , if they be not guilty of a gross neglect of it ; and if they be , that is their own act , and they must thank none but themselves if they be miserable . 2. But I pray , what reason can be given , since God is so tender of our happiness , that we should neglect it our selves ? which is the next thing to be spoken to . There are three sorts of things we think we have reason to neglect : Such as are too mean , and unworthy our care , such as are so uncertain , that they will not recompence it , such as our own Interest is not at all concerned in ; but I hope there are none who have an immortal soul , and the use of their understandings , can ever reckon their salvation under one of these . 1. Is it too mean an employment for you to minde the matters of your eternal welfare ? Is Religion a beggarly and contemptible thing , that it doth not become the greatness of your mindes to stoop to take any notice of it ? Hath God lost his honour so much with you , that his service should be the object of mens scorn and contempt ? But what is it which these brave spirits think a fit employment for themselves , while they despise God and his Worship ? Is it to be curiously dressed , and make a fine shew , to think the time better spent at the Glass than at their Devotions ? These indeed are weighty imployments , and fit in the first place to be minded , if we were made only to be gazed upon . Is it meerly to see Playes , and read Romances , and to be great admirers of that vain and frothy discourse which all persons account wit but those which have it ? This is such an end of mans life which no Philosopher ever thought of . Or is it to spend time in excesses and debaucheries , and to be slaves to as many lusts as will command them ? This were something indeed , if we had any other name given us but that of Men. Or lastly , is it to have their minds taken up with the great affairs of the World , to be wise in considering , carefull in managing the publick interest of a Nation ? This is an employment , I grant , fit for the greatest mindes , but not such which need at all to take them off from minding their eternal salvation . For the greatest wisdom is consistent with that , else Religion would be accounted folly , and I take it for granted , that it is never the truely wise man but the pretender that entertains any mean thoughts of Religion . And such a one uses the publick Interest no better than he doth Religion , only for a shew to the world , that he may carry on his own designs the better . And is this really such a valuable thing for a man to be contented to cheat himself of his eternal happiness , that he may be able to cheat the world , and abuse his trust ? I appeal then to the Consciences of all such who have any sense of humanity , and the common interest of mankinde , setting aside the considerations of a life to come , whether to be just and sober , vertuous and good , be not more suitable to the design of humane Nature , than all the vanities and excesses , all the little arts and designs which men are apt to please themselves with ? And if so , shall the eternal happiness which follows upon being good , make it less desireable to be so ? No surely , but if God had required any thing to make us happy , which had been as contrary to our present Interest as the Precepts of Christianity are agreeable to it ; yet the end would have made the severest commands easie , and those things pleasant which tend to make us happy . 2. Are these things so uncertain , that they are not fit for a wise man to be solicitous about them ? if they will come with a little care , they will say , they are desireable , but too much will unfit them for greater business ? But do men believe these things to be true or not , when they say thus ? if they be true , why need they fear their uncertainty ? if they be certain , what pains and care can be too great about them ? since a little will never serve to obtain them . Let but the care and diligence be proportionable to the greatness of the end , and the weight of the things , and you never need fear the want of a recompence for all your labour . But suppose you say , if you were fully convinced of their certainty , you would look more after them . What hinders you from being so convinced ? Is it not a bad disposition of minde which makes you unwilling to enquire into them ? examine things with a minde as free as you would have it , judge seriously according to the reason of things , and you will easily finde the interests of a life to come are far more certain , as well as more desireable than those of this present life . And yet the great uncertainty of all the honours and riches of this world , never hinder the covetous or ambitious person from their great earnestness in pursuit of them . And shall not then all the mighty arguments which God himself hath made use of to confirm to us , the certainty of a life to come , prevail upon us to look more seriously after it ? Shall the unexpressible love of the Father , the unconceivable sufferings of the Son of God , and the miraculous descent and powerfull assistance of the Holy Ghost have no more impression on our mindes , than to leave us uncertain of a future state ? What mighty doubts and suspicions of God , what distrusts of humane Nature , what unspeakable ingratitude , and unaccountable folly lies at the bottom of all this uncertainty ? O fools , and slow of heart to believe , not only what the Prophets have spoken , but what our Lord hath declared , God himself hath given testimony to , and the Holy Ghost hath confirmed ! 3. But is not your Interest concerned in these things ? Is it all one to you whether your souls , be immortal or no ? whether they live in eternal felicity , or unchangeable misery ? Is it no more to you , than to know what kind of Bables are in request at the Indies , or whether the customs of China or Japan are the wiser , i. e. than the most trifling things , and the remotest from our knowledge . But this is so absurd and unreasonable to suppose , that men should not think themselves concern'd in their own eternal happiness and misery , that I shall not shew so much distrust of their understandings to speak any longer to it . 3. But if notwithstanding all these things our neglect still continues , then there remains nothing but a fearfull looking for of judgement , and the fiery indignation of God. For there is no possibility of escaping if we continue to neglect so great salvation . All hopes of escaping are taken away , which are onely in that , which men neglect ; and those who neglect their only way to salvation , must needs be miserable . How can that man ever hope to be saved by him whose blood he despises and tramples under foot ? What grace and favour can he expect from God , who hath done despight unto the Spirit of Grace ? That hath cast away with reproach and contempt the greatest kindness and offers of Heaven . What can save him that resolves to be damned , and every one does so , who knows he shall be damned , if he lives in his sins , and yet continues to do so ? God himself , in whose only pity our hopes are , hath irreversibly decreed that he will have no pity upon those , who despise his goodness , slight his threatnings , abuse his patience , and sin the more because he offers to pardon . It is not any delight that God takes in the miseries of his Creatures , which makes him punish them ; but shall not God vindicate his own honour against obstinate and impenitent sinners ? He declares before-hand , that he is far from delighting in their ruine , and that is the reason he hath made such large offers , and used so many means to make them happy ; but if men resolve to despise his offers , and slight the means of their salvation , shall not God be just without being thought to be cruel ? And we may assure our selves , none shall ever suffer , beyond the just desert of their sins , for punishment as the Apostle tells us in the words before the Text , is nothing but a just recompence of reward . And if there were such a one proportionable to the violation of the Law delivered by Angels ; how shall we think to escape who neglect a more excellent means of happiness , which was delivered by our Lord himself ? If God did not hate sin , and there were not a punishment belonging to it , why did the Son of God die for the expiation of it ? and if his death were the onely means of expiation , how is it possible that those who neglect that , should escape the punishment not only of their other sins , but of that great contempt of the means of our salvation by him ? Let us not then think to trifle with God , as though it were impossible a Being so mercifull and kind , should ever punish his Creatures with the miseries of another life : For , however we may deceive our selves , God will not be mocked , for whatsoever a man soweth , that shall he reap ; for he that soweth to his flesh , shall of the flesh reap corruption : but he that soweth to the Spirit , shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting . I shall only propound some few Considerations , to prevent so great a neglect as that of your salvation is . 1. Consider , what it is you neglect , the offer of Eternal Happiness , the greatest kindness that ever was expressed to the World , the foundation of your present peace , the end of your beings , the stay of your mindes , the great desire of your Souls , the utmost felicity that humane Nature is capable of . Is it nothing to neglect the favour of a Prince , the kindness of Great Men , the offers of a large and plentifull Estate ? but these are nothing to the neglect of the favour of God , the love of his Son , and that salvation which he hath purchased for you . Nay , it is not a bare neglect , but it implyes in it a mighty contempt not only of the things offer'd , but of the kindness of him who offers them . If men had any due regard for God or themselves , if they had any esteem for his love , or their own welfare , they would be much more serious in Religion than they are . When I see a person wholly immersed in affairs of the World , or spending his time in luxury and vanity , can I possibly think that man hath any esteem of God or of his own Soul ? when I finde one very serious in the pursuit of his Designs in the World , thoughtfull and busie , subtle in contriving them , carefull in managing them ; but very formal , remiss and negligent in all affairs of Religion , neither inquisitive about them , nor serious in minding them ; what can we otherwise think , but that such a one doth really think the things of the World better worth looking after , than those which concern his eternal salvation . But consider , before it be too late , and repent of so great folly . Value an immortal Soul as you ought to doe , think what Reconciliation with God , and the Pardon of sin is worth , slight not the dear Purchase which was bought at no meaner a rate than the Blood of the Son of God , and then you cannot but minde the great salvation which God hath tender'd you . 2. Consider , on what terms you neglect it , or what the things are for whose sake you are so great enemies to your own salvation . Have you ever found that contentment in sin or the vanities of the World , that for the sake of them , you are willing to be for ever miserable ? What will you think of all your debaucheries , and your neglects of God and your selves , when you come to dye ? what would you give then ( if it were in your power to redeem your lost time ) that you had spent your time less to the satisfaction of your sensual desires , and more in seeking to please God ? How uncomfortable will the remembrance be of all your excesses , oaths , injustice and profaneness , when death approaches , and judgement follows it ? What peace of mind will there then be to those who have served God with faithfulness , and have endeavoured to work out their salvation , though it hath been with fear and trembling ? But what would it then profit a man to have gained the whole World , and to lose his own soul ? Nay , what unspeakable losers must they then be , that lose their Souls for that which hath no value at all , if compared with the World. 3. Consider , what follows upon this neglect , not only the loss of great salvation ; but the incurring as great damnation for it . The Scripture describes the miseries of the life to come , not meerly by negatives , but by the most sensible and painfull things . If destruction be dreadfull , that is everlasting destruction ; if the anguish of the soul , and the pains of the body be so troublesom , what will the destruction be both of Body and Soul in Hell ? If a Serpent gnawing in our bowels be a representation of an insupportable misery here , what will that be of the Worm that never dies ? if a raging and devouring fire ; which can last but till it hath consumed a fading substance , be in its appearance so amazing , and in its pain so violent , what then will the enduring be of that wrath of God , which shall burn like fire , and yet be everlasting ? Consider then of these things , while God gives you time to consider of them ; and think it an inestimable mercy that you have yet time to repent of your sins , to beg mercy at the hands of God , to redeem your time , to depart from iniquity , to be frequent in Prayer , carefull of your Actions , and in all things obedient to the will of God , and so God will pardon your former neglects , and grant you this great salvation . FINIS . Hebr. 12. 3. For , consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself , lest ye be weary , and faint in your minds . IT hath never yet been so well with the World , and we have no great reason to hope it ever will be so ; that the best of things , or of men , should meet with entertainment in it , suitable to their own worth and excellency . If it were once to be hoped , that all Mankinde would be wise and sober , that their judgements would be according to the truth of things , and their actions suitable to their judgements ; we might then reasonably expect that nothing would be valued so much as true goodness , nothing so much in contempt and disgrace as impiety and profaneness . But if we finde it much otherwise in the Age we live in ; we have so much the less cause to wonder at it ; because it hath been thus , in those times we might have thought would have been far better than our own . I mean those times and ages , wherein there were not only great things first spoken and delivered to Mankinde , but examples as great as the things themselves ; but these did so little prevail on the stupid and unthankfull world , that they among whom the Son of God did first manifest himself , seem'd only solicitous to make good one Prophesie concerning him , viz. That he should be despised and rejected of men . And they who suffer'd their malice to live as long as he did , were not contented to let it dye with him ; but their fury increases as the Gospel does : and wherever it had spread it self , they pursue it with all the rude clamors , and violent persecutions which themselves or their factors could raise against it . This we have a large testimony of , in those Jewish Christians to whom this Epistle was written ; who had no sooner embraced the Christian Religion , but they were set upon by a whole army of persecutions . Heb. 10. 32. But call to remembrance the former dayes , in which after ye were illuminated , ye endured a great fight of afflictions . As though the great enemy of souls , and therefore of Christians , had watched the first opportunity to make the strongest impression upon them , while they were yet young and unexperienced ; and therefore less able to resist so sharp an encounter . He had found how unsuccessfull the offer of the good things of this World had been with their Lord and Master ; and therefore was resolved to try what a severer course would do with all his followers . But the same spirit by which he despised all the Glories of the World , which the Tempter would have made him believe he was the disposer of ; enabled them with a mighty courage , and strange transports of joy , not only to bear their own share of reproaches and afflictions , but a part of theirs who suffer'd with them , v. 33 , 34. But least through continual duty , occasion'd by the hatred of their persecutors , and the multitude of their afflictions ; their courage should abate , and their spirits saint ; the Apostle finds it necessary , not only to put them in mind of their former magnanimity ; but to make use of all arguments that might be powerfull with them , to keep up the same vigour and constancy of mind in bearing their sufferings , which they had at first . For he well knew , how much it would tend to the dishonour of the Gospel , as well as to their own discomfort ; if after such an early proof of a great and undaunted spirit , it should be said of them , as was once of a great Roman Captain , Ultima Primis cedebant ; that they should decline in their reputation as they did in their years ; and at last sink under that weight of duty which they had born with so much honour before . Therefore , as a General in the Field , after a sharp and fierce encounter at first , with a mighty resolution by his Souldiers ; when he finds by the number and fresh recruits of the enemy , that his smaller forces are like to be born down before them ; and through meer weariness of fighting are ready to turn their backs , or yield themselves up to the enemies mercy ; he conjures them by the honour they have gain'd , and the courage they had already expressed , by their own interest , and the example of their Leaders , by the hopes of glory , and the fears of punishment , that they would bear the last shock of their enemies force , and rather be the Trophies of their Courage than of their Triumphs : so does our Apostle , when he finds some among them begin to debate , whether they had best to stand it out or no ; he conjures them , 1. By the remembrance of their own former courage , whereby they did bear as sharp tryals as these could be , with the greatest chearfulness and constancy ; and what could they gain by yielding at last , but great dishonour to themselves , that they had suffer'd so long to no purpose , unless it were to discover their own weakness and inconstancy . 2. By the hopes of a reward which would surely follow their faithfulness ; v. 35 , 36. Cast not away therefore your confidence , which hath great recompence of reward . For ye have need of patience , that after ye have done the will of God , ye might receive the promise : and the time will not be long ere ye come to enjoy it , v. 37. but if ye draw back , you lose all your former labours , for he who alone is able to recompence you , hath said , that if any man draw back , my soul shall have no pleasure in him , v. 38. and then from the example of himself , and all the genuine followers of Christ , but we are not of them who draw back unto perdition ; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul , v. 39. But least these examples should not be enough to perswade them ; he conjures them by the name of all those who were as eminent for the greatness of their minds as the strength of their Faith ; who have despised the frowns as well as the smiles of the world ; and were not discouraged by the severest tryals from placing their confidence in God , and their hopes in a life to come ; and all this done by persons who had not received the Promise : Heb. 11. 39. and could there be a greater disparagement to the clearness of that light we enjoy above them , if we only grew fainter by it ? And therefore in the begining of this Chapter he encourages them by that army of Martyrs which had gone before them , by that Cloud of witnesses which did both direct and refresh them , that they would lay aside every thing which was apt to oppress or dishearten them , but especially their sinfull fears , which they were so easily betray'd by , and so run with patience the race that was set before them , v. 1. But , saith he , if none of these will prevail with you , there is an example yet behinde , which ought above all others to heighten your courage , and that is , of the Captain of your salvation , the author and finisher of your faith , under whom you serve , and from whom you expect your reward ; and as Caesar once said to his Souldiers , when he saw them ready to retreat out of the field , Videte quem , & quo loco Imperatorem deserturi estis , Remember what kinde of Generall you forsake , and in what place you leave him : one whom you have vow'd your lives and your service to , one who hath thought nothing too dear , which was to be done for your good , one that will be ready to reward the least service you can do for him , one that is ready to assist you to the utmost in what you undertake , one that hath already undergone far more for your sakes , than ever you can do for his ; therefore , Consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself , lest ye be weary , and faint in your minds . In which words we have represented to us , the unparallel'd example of courage and patience under sufferings , in our Lord and Saviour ; and the great influence that it ought to have on all those who are call'd by his Name , that they would not dishonour so excellent a pattern of enduring sufferings , by weakness or dejection of mind . Christianity is a Religion which above all others does arm men against all the contingencies and miseries of the life of man : yea , it makes them serviceable to the most advantageous purposes that the greatest blessings can be designed for . It raises the minds of men higher than barely to consider , the common condition of humane nature , the unavoidableness of such things which are out of our own power , and the unreasonableness of tormenting our selves about the things which are so , and that most mens conditions in the world as to their contentment , depends more upon their minds , than their outward circumstances ; though these are things very fit for us as men to consider and make use of ; yet they do not reach to that height , which the consideration of a life to come , and the tendency of all our sufferings here to the inhancement of our future glory may raise us to . Especially considering not only the weight of the arguments in themselves , but the force they receive from the example of him , who for the joy that was set before him , endured the Cross , and despised the shame , and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. By which mighty instance we find , that the sufferings of this life are so far from being inconsistent with the joyes of another , that he who is the Captain of salvation , was made perfect through sufferings , and therefore none of his followers have cause to be dejected under them . But that we may the better understand the force of this argument , we shall consider , 1. What those things were which he endured . 2. From whom he suffer'd them , it was the contradiction of sinners against himself . 3. In that Way and manner he underwent them . 4. For what ends he did it . And when we have considered these , we shall see the influence this example of Christs sufferings ought to have upon our constancy and patience : which will be the most usefull improvement of it to us . 1. What those things were which Christ endured ; which are here comprehended under those words , the contradiction of sinners . It is agreed by the best Expositors , both Greek and Latin , that under this phrase of the contradiction of sinners , the whole history of our Saviours sufferings is comprehended . All the injuries , reproaches , false accusations , all the cruelties , indignities , and violence , which were offer'd him , from the time of his publick appearance to his expiring upon the Cross , being undergone by him , by the malice of unreasonable men , may be call'd the contradiction of sinners . For the sense of this word extends as well to actions as words ; and the summe of all that which our Saviour suffer'd from them , may be reduced under these heads . 1. The ill entertainment of his Doctrine . 2. The disparagement of his Miracles . 3. The violence offer'd to his Person . 1. The ill entertainment of his Doctrine ; which must needs seem very strange to these who do not consider what a difficult acc●…s the clearest reason hath to the minds of such who are governed by interest and prejudice . Though all the Prophesies concerning the Messias were fulfilled in him ; though the expectations of the people were great at that time concerning the appearance of him that was to redeem his people ; though all the characters of time , place , and person , did fully agree to what was foretold by the Prophets ; though his Doctrine were as becoming the Son of God to reveal , as the sons of men to receive ; though the unspotted innocency of his life were so great , as made him weary of his own that betray'd him : yet because he came not with the pomp and splendor which they expected , they despise his Person , revile his Doctrine , persecute his followers , and contrive his ruine . What could have been imagined more probable , than that the Jewish Nation , which had waited long in expectation of the Messias coming , should have welcom'd his approach with the greatest joy , and receiv'd the Message he brought with a kindness only short of that which he shewed in coming among them ? Was it nothing to be eased of that heavy burden of the Ceremonial Law , which neither they nor their Fathers were able to bear ? and that God was willing to exchange the chargeable and troublesome service of the Temple , for the more reasonable and spiritual Worship of himself ? Was it nothing to have the Promises of a Land which now groaned under the weight of its oppressions , turned into those of an eternal state of bliss and immortality ? and to change the Lamps of the Temple , for the glorious appearance of the Sun of Righteousness ? Was it nothing to have an offer of Peace and Reconciliation with God made them , after they had suffer'd so much under the fury of his displeasure ? Was a meer temporal deliverance by some mighty Conquerour from the subjection they were in to the Roman Power , so much more valuable a thing , than an eternal redemption from the powers of Hell and the Grave ? Are the pomps and vanities of this present life , such great things in Gods account , that it was not possible for his Son to appear without them ? Nay , how unsuitable had it been for one who came to preach humility , patience , self-denyall , and contempt of the world , to have made an ostentation of the State and Grandeur of it ? So that either he must have changed his Doctrine , or rendred himself lyable to the suspicion of seeking to get this world by the preaching of another . And if his Doctrine had been of another kinde , he might have been esteemed a great person among the Jews , but not the Son of God , or the promised Messias , in whom all Nations of the Earth should be blessed . Which surely they would never have thought themselves to have been , in one , who must have subdued the neighbour Nations to advance the honour of his own . But since the Son of God thought fit to appear in another manner than they expected him , they thought themselves too great to be saved by so mean a Saviour . If he had made all the Kingdoms of the Earth to have bowed under him , and the Nations about them to have been all tributaries to them ; if Jerusalem had been made the Seat of an Empire as great as the World it self , they would then have gloried in his Name , and entertained whatever he had said , whether true or false , with a wonderfull Veneration . But Truth in an humble dress meets with few admirers ; they could not imagine so much Power and Majesty could ever shroud it self under so plain a disguise . Thus Christ came to his own , and his own received him not . Yea , those that should have known him the best of all others ; those who frequently conversed with him , and heard him speak as never man spake , and saw him do what never man did , were yet so blinded by the meanness of his Parentage and Education , that they baffle their own Reason , and persist in their Infidelity , because they knew the place and manner of his breeding ; the names of his Mother and his Brethren and Sisters ; are they not all with us ? whence then hath this man all these things ? As though , Is not this the Carpenters Son , had been sufficient answer to all he could say or do . 2. The disparagement of his Miracles . Since the bare proposal of his Doctrine , though never so reasonable , could not prevail with them to believe him to be the Son of God , he offers them a further proof of it by the mighty works which were wrought by him . And though the more ingenuous among them were ready to acknowledge , that no man could do the things which he did , unless God were with him : yet they who were resolved to hear and see , and not understand ; when they found it not for their credit , to deny matters of fact so universally known and attested , they seek all the means to blast the reputation of them that may be . Sometimes raising popular insinuations against him , that he was a man of no austere life , a friend of Publicans and sinners , one that could choose no other day to do his works on , but that very day wherein God himself did rest from his ; and therefore no great regard was to be had to what such a one did . When these arts would not take , but the people found the benefit of his Miracles , in healing the sick , curing the blinde and the lame , feeding the hungry ; then they undervalue all these in comparison with the wonders that were wrought by Moses in the Wilderness . If he would have made the Earth to open her mouth , and swallow up the City and the power of Rome ; if he would have fed a mighty Army with bread from Heaven , in stead of feeding some few thousands with very small Provisions ; if in stead of raising one Lazarus from the Grave , he would have raised up their Sampsons , and their Davids , their men of spirit and conduct , whose very presence would have put a new life , into the hearts of the people ; if in stead of casting out Devils , he would have cast out the Romans , whom they hated the worse of the two : if he would have set himself to the cure of a distempered State , instead of healing the maladies of some few inconsiderable persons : if instead of being at the expense of a Miracle to pay tribute , he would have hinder'd them from paying any at all ; then a Second Moses would have been too mean a title for him , he could have been no less than the promised Messias , the Son of God. But while he imploy'd his power another way , the demonstration of it made them hate him the more ; since they thought with themselves what strange things they would have done with it for the benefit of their Countrey ; and therefore express the greatest malice against him , because he would not imploy it as they would have him . From thence , they condemn his Miracles as only some effects of a Magical skill ; and say , he dispossessed the lesser Devils by the power of him that was the Prince among them . So unworthy a requital did they make for all the mighty works which had been done among them ; Which , as our Saviour saith , if they had been done in Tyre and Sidon , they would have repented long ago in sack-cloth and ashes . 3. But although all this argued a strange spirit of contradiction in them to all the designs for their own good ; yet the malice from whence that rose , would not stop here ; for as they had long contrived his ruine , so they watched only an opportunity to effect it . Which his frequent presence at Jerusalem seemed to put into their hands , but his reputation with the people made them fearfull of embracing it . Therefore they imploy their Agents to deal privately with one of his Disciples who might be fittest for their design ; and to work upon his covetous humour by the promise of a reward , to bring him to betray his Master with the greatest privacy into their hands . This Judas undertakes , knowing the place and season of his Masters retirements , not far from the City , where they might with the greatest secrecy and safety seize upon his person . Which contrivance of theirs our Saviour was not at all ignorant of ; but prepares himself and his Disciples for this great encounter . He institutes his solemn Supper , to be perpetually observed in remembrance of his death and sufferings ; after which he discourses admirably with his Disciples , to arm them against their future sufferings ; and prays that most divine Prayer , S. John 17. which he had no sooner finished , but he goes with his Disciples to the usual place of his retirement in a Garden at the foot of the Mount of Olives . And now begins the blackest Scene of sufferings that ever was acted upon humane Nature . Which was so great , that the Son of God himself expresseth a more than usual apprehension of it ; which he discovered by the Agony he was in , in which he sweat drops of blood ; by the earnestness of his Prayer , falling upon his knees , and praying thrice , saying , O my Father , if it be possible , let this Cup pass from me ; nevertheless not as I will , but as thou wilt . Surely , this Cup must needs have a great deal of bitterness in it , which the Son of God was so earnest to be freed from . If there had been nothing in it but what is commonly incident to humane Nature , as to the apprehensions of death or pain , it seems strange , that he who had the greatest innocency , the most perfect charity , the freest resignation of himself , the fullest assurance of the reward to come , should express a greater sense of the horror of his sufferings , than thousands did , who suffer'd for his sake . But now was the hour come wherein the Son of God was to be made a Sacrifice for the sins of Men ; wherein he was to bear our griefs , and carry our sorrows ; when he was to be wounded for our transgressions , and bruised for our iniquities ; now his soul was exceeding sorrowfull even unto death ; for now the hour of his enemies was come , and the power of darkness . And accordingly they improve it ; they come out against him as a Malefactor , with swords and staves , and having seized his Person , being betray'd into their hands by one of his Disciples , they carry him to the High Priests house , where his professed enemies presently condemn him of Blasphemy , and not content with this , they express the greatest contempt of him , for they spit in his face , they buffet him , and smite him with the Palms of their hands , they mock him , and bid him prophesie who it was that smote him ; so insolent was their malice grown , and so spightfull was their indignation against him . And so fearfull were they , lest he should escape their hands , that the very next morning early , they send him bound to the Roman Governour , to have the sentence pronounced against him , to whom they accuse him of Sedition and Treason ; but Pilate upon examination of him declares , he found no fault in him ; which made them heap more unreasonable calumnies upon him , being resolved by what means soever to take away his life . Nay , the price of the blood of the Son of God was fallen so low with them , that they preferred the life of a known seditious person , and a Murtherer before him . And when Pilate being unsatisfied , asked still , what evil he had aone ? they continue their importunity without any other answer but Crucifie him , and making up what wanted in Justice and Reason in the loudness of their clamors . And at last seeing the fury and madness of the people , with the protestation of his own innocency as to his blood , he delivers him up to the people ; and now he is stripped , and scourged , and mock'd , with a Crown of Thorns , a Scarlet Robe , and a Reed in his hand : all the indignities they could think of , they put upon him . But though it pleased them , to have him exposed to all the ignominies imaginable , yet nothing would satisfie them but his blood ; and therefore he is led forth to be crucified , and though so lately scourged and weakened by his sorrows , yet he is made to carry his own Cross ( at least through the City ) for no other death could satisfie them , but the most ignominious , and painfull . And when he was brought to the place of Crucifixion , they nail his hands and feet to the Cross , and while he was hanging there , they deride and mock him still , they divide his garments before his face , give him Gall and Vinegar to drink , and the last act of violence committed upon him , was the piercing of his side , so that out of his Pericardium issued both water and blood . Thus did the Son of God suffer at the hands of unreasonable men ; thus was the blood of that immaculate Lamb spilt by the hands of violence ; and he who left the bosom of his Father , to bring us to glory , was here treated as if he had been unworthy to live upon the Earth . 2. But that which yet heightens these sufferings of Christ , is to consider , from whom he suffer'd these things , it was from sinners ; which is as much as to say , from men , if the word were taken in the largest sense of it ; for all have sinned ; but being taken by us in opposition to other men , so it implyes a greater height of wickedness in these than in other persons . But this is not here to be consider'd absolutely , as denoting what kinde of persons he suffer'd from , but with a particular respect to the nature of their proceedings with him , and the obligations that lay upon them to the contrary . So that the first shews the injustice and unreasonableness of them ; the second , their great ingratitude , considering the kindness and good will which he expressed towards them . 1. The Injustice and unreasonableness of their proceedings against him . It is true indeed , ( what Socrates said to his wife , when she complained that he suffer'd unjustly , What , saith he , and would you have me suffer justly ? ) it is much greater comfort to the person who does suffer , when he does it unjustly , but it is a far greater reflection on those who were the causes of it . And that our Blessed Saviour did suffer with the greatest injustice from these men , is apparent from the falseness and weakness of all the accusations which were brought against him . To accuse the Son of God for Blasphemy , in saying , he was so , is as unjust as to condemn a King for treason , because he saith he is a King : they ought to have examined the grounds on which he call'd himself so ; and if he had not given pregnant evidences of it , than to have passed sentence upon him as an Impostor and Blasphemer . If the thing were true , that he was what he said , the Son of God , what horrible guilt was it in them , to imbrue their hands in his blood ? and they found he alwayes attested it , and now was willing to lay down his life to confirm the truth of what he said . This surely ought at least to have made them more inquisitive into what he had affirmed ; but they allow him not the liberty of a fair tryall ; they hasten and precipitate the sentence , that they might do so the execution . If he were condemned as a false Prophet ; ( for that seems to be the occasion of the Sanhedrim meeting to do it , to whom the cognisance of that did particularly belong ) why do they not mention what it was he had foretold , which had not come to pass ; or what reason do they give why he had usurped such an Office to himself ? If no liberty were allowed under pain of death for any to say , that they were sent from God , how was it possible for the Messias ever to appear , and not be condemned ? for the expectation of him was , that he should be a great person immediately sent from God , for the delivery of his people . And should he be sent from God , and not say that he was so ? for how then could men know that he was ? So that their way of proceeding with him , discovers it self to be manifestly unjust , and contrary to their own avowed expectations . Neither were they more successefull in the accusation of him before Pilate ; why did not the witnesses appear to make good the charge of sedition and treason against him ? where were the proofs of any thing tending that way ? Nay , that which abundantly testified the innocency of our Saviour , as to all the matters he was accused of , was that the Roman Governour , after a full examination of the cause , declares him innocent , and that not only once but several times , and was fully satisfied in the Vindication he made of himself ; so that nothing but the fear of what the Jewes threatned , viz. accusing him to Caesar ( a thing he had cause enough otherwise to be afraid of ) which made him at last yield to their importunity . But there was one circumstance more which did highly discover the innocency of Christ , and the injustice of his sufferings , which was Judas's confession and end ; the man who had betray'd his Lord , and had receiv'd the wages of his iniquity ; but was so unquiet with it , that in the time when his other Disciples durst not own him , he with a great impetus returns to them with his Money , throws it among them with that sad farewell to them all , I have sinned , in that I have betrayed the innocent blood . What could have been said more for his Vindication at this time than this was , by such a person as Judas , one who had known our Saviour long , and had been the fittest instrument , if any guilt could have been fasten'd upon him , to have managed the accusation against him ; but the anxiety of his minde was too great for what he had done already , to live to do them any longer service ; for either his grief suffocated him , or his guilt made him hang himself ; for the words will signifie either . Neither can it be said by any modern Jews , that all the testimony we have of these things is from his own Disciples ; but that certainly they had some greater matter to accuse him of ; which we now have lost . For how is it possible to conceive , that a matter so important as that was , should be lost by those of their own Nation , who were so highly concerned to vindicate themselves in all places , as soon as the Gospel was spread abroad in the World ? For the guilt of this blood was every where by the Chri●●ans charged upon them ; and their pro●… sufferings afterwards were imputed wholly by them to the shedding of that blood of Christ , which by a most solemn imprecation they had said , should be upon them and their Children . Besides , how comes Celsus , who personates a Jew opposing Christianity , to mention no other accusations against him but those recorded in the Gospel ; and Origen challenges him or any other person to charge him with any action which might deserve punishment . And which is very observable , Porphyrie , one of the most inveterate enemies of Christianity , and that took as much pains to write against it as any , and had more learning to do it with ; yet in his Book of the Philosophy of Oracles , as S. Augustin tells us , quotes an Oracle wherein were these words concerning Christ , And what became of him after his death ? it saith , that his Soul was immortal , Viri pietate praestantissimi est illa anima , and that it was the soul of a most excellent person for piety ; and being then asked , Why he was condemned ? the answer only is , that the body ( of the best ) is exposed to weakning torments , but the Soul rests in heavenly habitations . So that on no account can this contradiction appear to be otherwise than an act of great injustice and cruelty , and therefore must needs be the contradiction of sinners . 2. This contradiction of theirs to Christ was an act of high Ingratitude . It was a sharp but very just rebuke which the Jews received from our Saviour , when they were once ready to stone him ; Many good works have I shewed you from my Father , for which of those works do you stone me ? The very same might have been applyed to his Judges and accusers , when they were about to crucifie him . For what was his whole Life after he appeared publickly , but a constant design of doing good ? His presence had far more vertue for the curing all bodily distempers , than the Pool of Bethesda among the Jews , or the Temples of AEsculapius among the Gentiles . What wonders were made of very small things done by other persons , as the cure of a blinde Man by Vespasian ! when such multitudes of far more certain and considerable cures , can hardly keep up the reputation of any thing extraordinary in him . But though his kindness was great to the bodies of men , where they were fit objects of pity and compassion ; yet it was far greater to their souls , that being more agreeable to the design of his coming into the World ; for the other tended to raise such an esteem of him as might ma●… him the more successefull in the cure of their Souls . And to shew , that this was his great business , wherever he comes , he discourses about these things , takes every opportunity that might be improved for that end , refuses no company he might do good upon , and converses not with them with the pride and arrogance of either the Pharisees or Philosophers , but with the greatest meekness , humility and patience . How admirable are his more solemn discourses , especially that upon the Mount , and that wherein he takes leave of his Disciples ! How dry and insipid are the most sublime discourses of the Philosophers compared with these ! how clearly doth he state our Duties , and what mighty encouragements does he give to practise them ! how forcibly does he perswade men to self-denyal and contempt of the world ! how excellent and holy are all his Precepts ! how serviceable to the best interest of men in this life and that to come ! how suitable and desireable to the souls of good men are the rewards he promises ! what exact rule of Righteousness hath he prescribed to men , in doing as they would be done by ! with what vehemency doth he rebuke all hypocrisie and Pharisaism ! with what tenderness and kindness does he treat those that have any reall inclinations to true goodness ! with what earnestness does he invite , and with what love doth he embrace all repenting sinners ! with what care doth he instruct , with what mildness doth he reprove , with what patience doth he bear with his own disciples ! Lastly , with what authority did he both speak and live , such as commanded a reverence , where it did not beget a love ! And yet after a life thus spent , all the requital he met with , was to be reproached , despised , and at last crucified . O the dreadfull effects of malice and hypocrisie ! for these were the two great enemies which he alwayes proclaimed open war with ; and these at first contrived , and at last effected his cruel death . What baseness , ingratitude , cruelty , injustice , ( and what not ? ) will those two sins betray men to , when they have once taken possession of the hearts of men ! for we can finde nothing else at the bottom of all that wretched conspiracy against our Saviour ; but that his doctrine and design was too pure and holy for them ; and therefore they study to take him away who was the author of them . 3. We consider , in what way and manner , our Saviour underwent all these sufferings ; and this as much as any thing is here propounded to our consideration . For it is not only who , or what , but in what manner he endured the contradiction of sinners , that we ought to consider , to prevent fainting and dejection of minde . So another Apostle tells us , that Christ suffered for us , leaving us an example , that we should follow his steps ; who did no sin , neither was guile found in his mouth ; who when he was reviled , reviled not again : when he suffered , be threatned not , but committed himself to him that judged righteously . He uses none of those ranting expressions which none of the patientest persons in the world were accustomed to ; of bidding them laugh in Phalaris his Bull ; and when they were racked with pains , to cry out , Nil agis dolor : he tells them not , that it is their duty to have no sense of torments , and to be jocund and pleasant when their flesh is torn from them , or nailed to a Cross ; if this be any kinde of fortitude , it is rather that of a Gladiator than of a wise man or a Christian. The worst of men either through a natural temper of body , or having hardned themselves by custom , have born the greatest torments with the least expression of grief under them . And Panaetius , one of the wisest of the Stoicks , is so far from making insensibleness of pain the property of a wise man , that he makes it not the property of a man. The inferiour Creatures are call'd Brutes from their dullness and insensibleness , and not meerly from want of reason , any further than that one follows from the other : bruta existimantur animalium quibus cor durum riget , saith Pliny , those animals are call'd Brutes which have the hardest hearts : and the nearer any of them approach to the nature of man , the more apprehensive they are of danger , and the more sensible of pain ; thence Scaliger saith of the Elephant , that it is maxima bellua , sed non maximè bruta , though it be the greatest beast , it is the least a Brute . Stupidity then under sufferings can be no part of the excellency of a man ; which in its greatest height is in the Beings the most beneath him . But when danger is understood , and pain felt , and Nature groans under it , then with patience and submission to undergo it , and to conquer all the strugglings of Nature against it , that is the duty and excellency of a Christian. If to express the least sense of grief and pain , be the highest excellency of suffering , the Macedonian boy that suffer'd his flesh to be burnt by a Coal , till it grew offensive to all about him , without altering the posture of his arm , lest he should disturb Alexanders sacrifice , out-did the greatest Philosophers of them all . Possidonius his pitifull rant over a fit of the Gout , so highly commended by Pompey and Tully ; O pain , it is to no purpose ; though thou beest troublesome , I will never confess thou art evil ; falls extremely short of the resolution of the Macedonian boy , or any of the Spartan Youths , who would not in the midst of torments so much as confess them troublesome . And what a mighty revenge was that , that he would not confess it to be evil , when his complaint that it was troublesome , was a plain argument that he thought it so . It is not then the example of Zeno or Cleanthes , or the rules of Stoicisme , which Dionysius Heracleotes , in a fit of the Stone complained of the folly of , that are to be the measures of patience , and courage in bearing sufferings ; but the example and Precepts of our Lord and Saviour , who expressed a great sense of his sufferings , but withall the greatest submission under them . When Lipsius lay a dying , and one of the by-standers knowing how conversant he had been in the Stoicks writings , began to suggest some of their Precepts to him , Vana sunt ista , said he , I find all those but vain things ; and beholding the Picture of our Saviour near his bed , he pointed to that , and cryed , haec vera est patientia : there is the true pattern of Patience . For , notwithstanding that Agony he was in , immediately before his being betray'd , when he sees the Officers coming towards him , he asks them whom they seek for ? and tells them , I am he ; which words so astonished them , that they went back , and fell upon the ground : thereby letting them understand how easie a matter it was for him to have escaped their hands ; and that it was his own free consent , that he went to suffer , for he knew certainly before hand , the utmost that he was to undergo , and therefore it was no unreasonable impetus , but a settled resolution of his minde to endure all the contradictions of sinners . When he was spi● upon , mocked , reproached and scourged , none of all these could draw one impatient expression from him . The malice and rage of his enemies did not at all provoke him ; unless it were to pity and pray for them . And that he did , with great earnestness in the midst of all his pains : and though he would not plead for himself to them , yet he pleads for them to God ; Father , forgive them , for they know not what they do . How much more divine was this , than the admired Theramenes among the Greeks , who being condemned to dye by the thirty Tyrants , when he was drinking off his cup of Poyson , said , he drank that to Critias , one of his most bitter enemies , and hoped he would pledge it shortly . Socrates seemed not to express seriousness enough at least , when he bid one of his friends , when he was dying , offer up a Cock to AEsculapius for his deliverance . Aristides and Phocion among the Greeks came the nearest to our Saviours temper , when one pray'd , that his Countrey might have no cause to remember him when he was gone , and the other charged his Son , to forget the injuries they had done him ; but yet by how much the greater the person and office was of our Blessed Saviour , than of either of them , by how much the cruelty and ignominy , as well as pain was greater which they exposed him to , by how much greater concernment there is to have such an offence pardon'd by one that can punish it with eternal misery , than not revenged by those , who though they may have will , have not alwayes power to execute ; so much greater was the kindness of our Saviour to his enemies , in his Prayer upon the Cross , than of either of the other , in their concernment for that ungratefull City , that had so ill requited their services to it . Thus when the Son of God was oppressed , and afflicted , he opened not his mouth , but only in Prayer for them , who were his bitter enemies ; and though nothing had been more easie than for him to have cleared himself from all their accusations , who had so often baffled them before ; yet he would not now give them that suspicion of his innocency , as to make any Apology for himself ; but committed himself to God that judges righteously , and was brought as a Lamb to the slaughter , and as a sheep before her shearers was dumb , so he opened not his mouth . And the reason thereof was , he knew what further design for the good of mankind was carrying on by the bitterness of his passion , and that all the cruel usage he underwent , was that he might be a sacrifice of atonement for the sins of the World. Which leads to the last thing propounded to our consideration . 4. Which is , the causes why God was pleased to suffer his Son to endure such contradiction of sinners against himself . I know it is an easie answer to say , that God had determin'd it should be so , and that we ought to enquire no further : but sure such an answer can satisfie none who consider , how much our salvation depends upon the knowledge of it , and how clear and express the Scripture is in assigning the causes of the sufferings of Christ. Which though as far as the instruments were concerned in it , we have given an account of already , yet considering the particular management of this grand affair by the care of divine Providence , a higher account must be given of it , why so divine and excellent a person should be exposed to all the contempt and reproach imaginable , and after being made a sacrifice to the tongues and rods of the people , than to dye a painfull and ignominious death ? So that allowing but that common care of divine Providence , which all sober Heathens acknowledged , so transcendent sufferings as these were , of so holy and innocent a person , ought to be accounted for , in a more than ordinary manner ; when they thought themselves concerned to vindicate the Justice of Gods Providence in the common calamities of those who are reputed to be better than the generality of Mankind . But the reasons assigned in that common case will not hold here , since this was a person immediately sent from God upon a particular message to the World , and therefore might plead an exemption by vertue of his Ambassage from the common Arrests and troubles of humane nature . But it was so far otherwise , as though God had designed him on purpose to let us see how much misery humane nature can undergo . Some think themselves to go as far as their reason will permit them ; when they tell us , that he suffer'd all these things to confirm the truth of what he had said , and particularly the Promise of Remission of sins , and that he might be an example to others , who should go to Heaven by suffering afterwards , and that he might , being touched with the feeling of our infirmities here , have the greater pity upon us now he is in Heaven . All these I grant to have been true and weighty reasons of the sufferings of Christ , in subordination ●o greater ends , but if there had been nothing beyond all this , I can neither understand why he should suffer so deeply as he did , nor why the Scripture should insist upon a far greater reason more than upon any of these ? I grant , the death of Christ did confirm the truth of his Doctrine , as far as it is unreasonable to believe that any one who knew his Doctrine to be false , would make himself miserable to make others believe it ; but if this had been all intended , why would not an easier and less ignominious death have served ? since he who would be willing to die to confirm a falshood , would not be thought to confirm a truth by his death , because it was painfull and shamefull . Why , if all his sufferings were designed as a testimony to others , of the truth of what he spake , were the greatest of his sufferings , such as none could know the anguish of them but himself , I mean his Agony in the Garden , and that which made him cry out upon the Cross , My God , my God , why hast thou forsaken me ? Why were not his Miracles enough to confirm the truth of his Doctrine ? since the Law of Moses was received without his death , by the evidence his Miracles gave that he was sent from God ; since the Doctrine of remission of sins had been already deliver'd by the Prophets , and received by the People of the Jews ; since those who would not believe for his Miracles sake , neither would they believe though they should have seen him rise from the Grave , and therefore not surely because they saw him put into it . But of all things , the manner of our Saviours sufferings seems least designed to bring the World to the belief of his Doctrine , which was the main obstacle to the entertainment of it among the men of greatest reputation for wisdom and knowledge . For it was Christ crucified , which was to the Jews a stumbling block , and to the Greeks foolishness . Had the Apostles only preached that the Son of God had appeared from Heaven , and discovered the only way to bring men thither , that he assumed our Nature for a time to render himself capable of conversing with us , and therein had wrought many strange and stupendious miracles , but after he had sufficiently acquainted the World with the nature of his doctrine , he was again assumed up into Heaven ; in all probability , the doctrine might have been so easily received by the world , as might have saved the lives of many thousand persons , who dyed as Martyrs for it . And if it had been necessary that some must have dyed to confirm it , why must the Son of God himself do it ? when he had so many Disciples who willingly sacrificed their lives for him , and whose death would on that account have been as great a confirmation of the truth of it as his own . But if it be alledged further , that God now entring into a Covenant with man for the pardon of sin , the sheding of the blood of Christ was necessary as a federal rite to confirm it . I answer , if only as a federal rite , why no cheaper blood would serve to confirm it but that of the Son of God ? We never read that any Covenant was confirmed by the death of one of the contracting parties ; and we cannot think that God was so prodigal of the blood of his Son , to have it shed only in allusion to some ancient customs . But if there were such a necessity of alluding to them , why might not the blood of any other person have done it ? when yet all that custom was no more , but that a sacrifice should be offer'd , and upon the parts of the sacrifice divided , they did solemnly swear and ratifie their Covenant . And if this be yielded them , it then follows from this custom , that Christ must be consider'd as a sacrifice in his death ; and so the ratification of the Covenant must be consequent to that oblation which he made of himself upon the Cross. Besides , how incongruous must this needs be , that the death of Christ the most innocent person in the World , without any respect to the guilt of sin , should suffer so much on purpose to assure us , that God will pardon those who are guilty of it ? May we not much rather infer the contrary , considering the holiness and justice of Gods nature ; if he dealt so severely with the green tree , how much more will he with the dry ? If one so innocent suffer'd so much , what then may the guilty expect ? If a Prince should suffer the best subject he hath , to be severely punished , could ever any imagine that it was with a design to assure them that he would pardon the most rebellious ? No ; but would it not rather make men afraid of being too innocent , for fear of suffering too much for it ? And those who seem very carefull to preserve the honour of Gods Justice , in not punishing one for anothers faults , ought likewise to maintain it in the punishing of one who had no fault at all to answer for . And to think to escape this by saying , that to such a person such things are calamities , but no punishments , is to revive the ancient exploded Stoicism , which thought to reform the diseases of Mankind by meer changeing the names of things , though never so contrary to the common sense of humane nature : which judges of the nature of punishments by the evils men undergo , and the ends they are designed for . And by the very same reason that God might exercise his dominion on so innocent a person as our Saviour was , without any respect to sin as the moving cause to it , he might lay eternal torments on a most innocent Creature ( for degrees and continuance do not alter the reason of things ) and then escape with the same evasion , that this was no act of injustice in God , because it was a meer exercise of Dominion . And when once a sinner comes to be perswaded by this that God will pardon him , it must be by the hopes that God will shew kindness to the guilty , because he shews so little to the innocent ; and if this be agreeable to the Justice and Holiness of Gods nature , it is hard to say what is repugnant to it . If to this it be said , that Christs consent made it no unjust exercise of dominion in God towards him : it is easily answer'd , that the same consent will make it less injustice in God to lay the punishment of our sins upon Christ , upon his undertaking to satisfie for us ; for then the consent supposes a meritorious cause of punishment ; but in this case the consent implyeth none at all . And we are now enquiring into the reasons of such sufferings , and consequently of such a consent ; which cannot be imagined but upon very weighty motives , such as might make it just in him to consent , as well as in God to inflict . Neither can it be thought that all the design of the sufferings of Christ , was to give us an example and an incouragement to suffer our selves ; though it does so in a very great measure , as appears by the Text it self . For the hopes of an eternal reward for these short and light afflictions , ought to be encouragement enough , to go through the miseries of this life in expectation of a better to come . And the Cloud of Witnesses , both under the Law and the Gospel , of those who have suffer'd for righteousness sake , ought to make no one think it strange , if he must endure that , which so many have done before him , and been crowned for it . And lastly , to question whether Christ could have pity enough upon us in our sufferings , unless he had suffer'd so deeply himself ; will lead men to distrust the pity and compassion of Almighty God , because he was never capable of suffering , as we do . But the Scripture is very plain and full ( to all those who rack not their minds to pervert it ) in assigning a higher reason than all these of the sufferings of Christ , viz. That Christ suffered for sins , the just for the unjust ; that his soul was made an offering for sin , and that the Lord therefore as on a sacrifice of atonement , laid on him the iniquities of us all : that , through the eternal Spirit , he offer'd himself without spot to God , and did appear to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself ; that he was made a propitiation for our sins ; that , he laid down his life as a price of Redemption for Mankinde ; that , through his blood we obtain Redemption , even the forgiveness of sins , which in a more particular manner is attributed to the blood of Christ , as the procuring cause of it . That he dyed to reconcile God and us together ; and that the Ministery of Reconciliation , is founded on Gods making him to be sin for us who knew no sin , that we might be made the righteousness of God in him : and that we may not think that all this Reconciliation respects us and not God ; he is said to offer up himself to God ; and for this cause to be a Mediator of the New Testament , and to be a faithfull high-Priest in things pertaining to God , to make reconciliation for the sins of the people : and every high-Priest , taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God ; not appointed by God in things meerly tending to the good of men ; which is rather the Office of a Prophet than a Priest. So that from all these places it may easily appear , that the blood of Christ is to be looked on as a sacrifice of Atonement for the sins of the World. Not as though Christ did suffer the very same which we should have suffer'd , for that was eternal death as the consequent of guilt in the person of the Offender , and then the discharge must have been immediately consequent upon the payment , and no room had been left for the freeness of remission , or for the conditions required on our parts ; But that God was pleased to accept of the death of his Son , as a full , perfect , sufficient sacrifice , oblation , and satisfaction for the sins of the World ; as our Church expresseth it ; and in consideration of the sufferings of his Son , is pleased to offer pardon of sin upon sincere repentance , and eternal life upon a holy obedience to his will. Thus much for the things we are to consider concerning the contradiction of sinners which Christ endured against himself . Nothing now remains , but the influence that ought to have upon us , lest we be weary and faint in our minds . For which end I shall suggest two things . 1. The vast disproportion between Christs sufferings and ours . 2. The great encouragement we have from his sufferings , to bear our own the better . 1. The vast Disproportion between Christs sufferings and our own . Our lot is fallen into suffering times ; and we are apt enough to complain of it . I will not say it is wholly true of us , what the Moralist saith generally of the complaints of men , Non quia dura sed quia molles patimur ; that it is not the hardness of our conditions so much as the softness of our spirits which makes us complain of them . For I must needs say , this City hath smarted by such a series and succession of judgements which few Cities in the world could parallel in so short a time . The Plague hath emptied its houses , and the fire consumed them ; the War exhausted our spirits , and it were well if Peace recovered them . But still these are but the common calamities of humane nature , things that we ought to make account of in the World ; and to grow the better by them . And it were happy for this City ; if our thankfulness and obedience were but answerable to the mercies we yet enjoy : let us not make our condition worse by our fears ; nor our fears greater than they need to be : for no enemy can be so bad as they . Thanks be to God our condition is much better at present than it hath been ; let us not make it worse by fearing it may be so . Complaints will never end till the World does ; and we may imagine that will not last much longer ; when the City thinks it hath trade enough , and the Countrey riches enough . But I will not go about to perswade you that your condition is better than it is , for I know it is to no purpose to do so ; all men will believe as they feel . But suppose our condition were much worse than it is ; yet what were all our sufferings compared with those of our Saviour for us ? the sins that make us smart , wounded him much deeper ; they pierced his side , which only touch our skin ; we have no cause to complain of the bitterness of that Cup which he hath drunk off the dreggs of already . We lament over the ruins of a City , and are revived with any hopes of seeing it rise out of the dust ; but Christ saw the ruins that sin caused in all mankind , he undertook the repairing them , and putting men into a better condition than before : And we may easily think what a difficult task he had of it ; when he came to restore them who were delighted in their ruins , and thought themselves too good to be mended . It is the comfort of our miseries , ( if they be only in this life ) that we know they cannot last long ; but that is the great aggravation of our Saviours sufferings , that the contradiction of sinners continues against him still . Witness , the Atheisme , I cannot so properly call it , as the Antichristianism of this present Age ; wherein so many profane persons act over again the part of the Scribes and Pharisees ; they slight his Doctrine , despise his Person , disparage his Miracles , contemn his Precepts , and undervalue his Sufferings . Men live as if it were in defiance to his holy Laws ; as though they feared not what God can do , so much as to need a Mediator between him and them . If ever men tread under foot the Son of God , it is when they think themselves to be above the need of him ; if ever they count the blood of the Covenant an unholy thing , it is not only when they do not value it as they ought , but when they exercise their profane wits upon it . Blessed Saviour ! was it not enough for thee to bear the contradiction of sinners upon Earth ; but thou must still suffer so much at the hands of those whom thou dyedst for , that thou mightest bring them to Heaven ? was it not enough for thee to be betrayed on Earth , but thou must be defied in Heaven ? Was it not enough for thee to stoop so low for our sakes , but that thou shouldest be trampled on because thou didst it ? was the ignominious death upon the Cross too small a thing for thee to suffer in thy Person , unless thy Religion be contemned , and exposed to as much shame and mockery as thy self was ? Unhappy we , that live to hear of such things ! but much more unhappy if any of our sins have been the occasion of them : If our unsuitable lives to the Gospel have open'd the mouths of any against so excellent a Religion . If any malice and revenge , any humour and peevishness , any pride or hypocrisie , any sensuality and voluptuousness , any injustice , or too much love of gain , have made others despise that Religion which so many pretend to , and so few practise . If we have been in any measure guilty of this , as we love our Religion , and the honour of our Saviour , let us endeavour by the holiness and meekness of our spirits , the temperance and justice of our actions , the patience and contentedness of our minds , to recover the honour of that Religion which only can make us happy , and our Posterity after us . 2. What Encouragement we have from the sufferings of Christ , to bear our own the better ; because we see by his example that God deals no more hardly with us , than he did with his own Son , if he layes heavy things upon us . Why should we think to escape , when his own Son underwent so much ? if we meet with reproaches , and ill usage , with hard measure , and a mean condition , with injuries and violence , with mockings and affronts , nay with a shamefull and a painfull death , what cause have we to complain , for did not the Son of God undergo all these things before us ? If any of your Habitations have been consumed , that you have been put to your shifts where to lodge your selves , or your Families ; consider , that though the Foxes have holes , and the Birds of the Air have nests , yet the Son of Man had not whereon to lay his head . If your condition be mean and low , think of him , who being in the form of God , took upon him the form of a servant ; and though he was rich , yet for your sakes he became poor , that through his poverty ye might be made rich . If you are unjustly defamed and reproached , consider what contumelies and disgraces the Son of God underwent for you . If you are in pain and trouble , think of his Agony and bloody sweat , the nailing of his hands and feet to the Cross , to be a sacrifice for the expiation of your sins . Never think much of undergoing any thing , whereby you may be conformable to the Image of the Son of God , knowing this , that if ye suffer with him , ye shall also be glorified together . And you have never yet set a true estimate and value upon things , if you reckon the sufferings of this present life worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed . Which Glory ought alwayes to bear up our minds under our greatest afflictions here ; and the thoughts of that , will easily bring us to the thoughts of his sufferings , who by his own blood purchased an eternal redemption for us . Therefore , consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself , lest ye be weary , and faint in your mindes . FINIS . A DISCOURSE Concerning the TRUE REASON OF THE Sufferings OF CHRIST . By Edward Stillingfleet , D. D. Chaplain in Ordinary to his Majesty . LONDON , Printed by R. White , for Henry Mortlock , and are to be sold at his Shop , at the Sign of the White Hart in Westminster Hall. 1669. A DISCOURSE concerning the true Reason of the Sufferings of Christ. CHAP. I. Of the Socinian way of interpreting Scripture . Of the uncertainty it leaves us in as to the main articles of Faith , manifested by an Exposition of Gen. 1. suitable to that way . The state of the Controversie in general concerning the sufferings of Christ for us . He did not suffer the same we should have done . The grand mistake in making Punishments of the nature of Debts ; the difference between them at large discover'd , from the different reason and ends of them . The right of punishment in God , proved against Crellius , not to arise from meer dominion . The end of Punishment not bare Compensation , as it is in debts ; what punishment due to an injured person by the right of Nature ; proper punishment a result of Laws . Crellius his great mistake about the end of Punishments . Not designed for satisfaction of Anger as it is a desire of Revenge . Seneca and Lactantius vindicated against Crellius . The Magistrates interest in Punishment distinct from that of private persons . Of the nature of Anger in God , and the satisfaction to be made to it . Crellius his great arguments against satisfaction depend on a false N●tion of Gods anger . Of the ends of divine Punishments , and the different nature of them in this and the future state . SIR , ALthough the Letter I receiv'd from your hands contained in it so many mistakes of my meaning and design , that it seemed to be the greatest civility to the Writer of it , to give no answer at all to it ; because that could not be done , without the discovery of far more weaknesses in him , than he pretends to finde in my discourse : Yet the weight and importance of the matter may require a further account from me , concerning the true reason of the sufferings of Christ. Wherein my design was so far from representing old Errors to the best advantage , or to rack my wits to defend them , as that person seems to suggest ; that I aimed at nothing more than to give a true account of what upon a serious enquiry , I judged to be the most natural and genuine meaning of the Christian Doctrine contained in the Writings of the New Testament . For finding therein such multitudes of expressions which to an unprejudiced mind attribute all the mighty effects of the Love of God to us , to the obedience and sufferings of Christ. I began to consider what reason there was why the plain and easie sense of those places must be forsaken , and a remote and Metaphorical meaning put upon them . Which I thought my self the more obliged to doe , because I could not conceive if it had been the design of the Scripture , to have delivered the received Doctrine of the Christian Church , concerning the reason of the sufferings of Christ , that it could have been more clearly and fully expressed than it is already . So that supposing that to have been the true meaning of the several places of Scripture which we contend for ; yet the same arts and subtilties might have been used to pervert it , which are imploy'd to perswade men that is not the true meaning of them . And what is equally serviceable to truth and falshood , can of it self , have no power on the minds of men to convince them it must be one , and not the other . Nay , if every unusual and improper acception of words in the Scripture , shall be thought sufficient to take away the natural and genuine sense , where the matter is capable of it ; I know scarce any article of Faith can be long secure ; and by these arts men may declare that they believe the Scriptures , and yet believe nothing of the Christian Faith. For if the improper , though unusual acception of those expressions of Christs dying for us , of redemption , propitiation , reconciliation by his blood , of his bearing our iniquities , and being made sin and a curse for us , shall be enough to invalidate all the arguments taken from them to prove that which the proper sense of them doth imply ; why may not the improper use of the terms of Creation and Resurrection , as well take away the natural sense of them in the great Articles of the Creation of the World , and Resurrection after death . For if it be enough to prove that Christs dying for us , doth not imply dying in our stead ; because sometimes dying for others imports no more than dying for some advantage to come to them ; if redemption being sometimes used for meer deliverance , shall make our redemption by Christ , wholly Metaphorical ; if the terms of propitiation , reconciliation , &c. shall lose their force because they are sometimes used where all things cannot be supposed parallel with the sense we contend for : why shall I be bound to believe that the World was ever created in a proper sense , since those persons against whom I argue , so earnestly contend that in those places in which it seems as proper as any , it is to be understood only in a metaphorical . If when the World and all things are said to be made by Christ , we are not to understand the production but the reformation of the World and all things in it , although the natural sense of the Words be quite otherwise ; what argument can make it necessary for me not to understand the Creation of the World in a metaphorical sense , when Moses delivers to us the history of it ? Why may not I understand in the beginning , Gen. 1. for the beginning of the Mosaical Dispensation , as well as Socinus doth in the beginning , John 1. for the beginning of the Evangelical ? and that from the very same argument used by him , viz. that in the beginning is to be understood of the main subject concerning which the author intends to write , and that I am as sure it was in Moses concerning the Law given by him , as it was in S. John , concerning the Gospel deliver'd by Christ. Why may not the Creation of the Heavens and the Earth , be no more than the erection of the Jewish Polity ? since it is acknowledged , that by New Heavens and new Earth wherein dwelleth righteousness , no more is understood than a new state of things under the Gospel ? Why may not the confused Chaos import no more than the state of Ignorance and darkness under which the World was before the Law of Moses ? since it is confessed that it signifies in the New Testament such a state of the World before the Gospel appeared ? and consequently , why may not the light which made the first day be the first tendencies to the Doctrine of Moses , which being at first divided and scattered , was united afterwards in one great Body of Laws , which was call'd the Sun , because it was the great Director of the Jewish Nation , and therefore said to rule the day ; as the less considerable Laws of other Nations are called the Moon , because they were to govern those who were yet under the night of Ignorance ? Why may not the Firmament being in the midst of the Waters , imply the erection of the Jewish State in the midst of a great deal of trouble , since it is confessed , that Waters are often taken in Scripture in a Metaphorical sense for troubles and afflictions ? and the Earth appearing out of the Waters , be no more but the settlement of that State after its troubles ; and particularly with great elegancy after their passage through the Red Sea ? And the production of Herbs and living Creatures , be the great encrease of the People of all sorts , as well those of a meaner rank ( and therefore call'd herbs ) as those of a higher , that were to live upon the other , and sometimes trample upon them , and therefore by way of excellency call'd the living Creatures ? And when these were multiplyed and brought into order , ( which being done by steps and degrees , is said to be finished in several dayes ) then the State and the Church flourished , and enjoy'd a great deal of pleasure , which was the production of Man and Woman , and their being placed in Paradise ( for a perfect Man , notes a high degree of perfection , and a Woman is taken for the Church in the Revelations ) : But when they followed the Customs of other Nations which were as a forbidden tree to them , than they lost all their happiness and pleasure , and were expelled out of their own Countrey , and lived in great slavery and misery , which was the Curse pronounced against them , for violating the rules of Policy established among them . Thus you see how small a measure of wit , by the advantage of those wayes of interpreting Scripture , which the subtilest of our adversaries make use of , will serve to pervert the clearest expressions of Scripture to quite another sense than was ever intended by the Writer of them . And I assure you , if that rule of interpreting Scripture be once allowed , that where words are ever used in a Metaphorical sense , there can be no necessity of understanding them in a proper ; there is scarce any thing which you look on as the most necessary to be believed in Scripture , but it may be made appear not to be so upon those terms : for by reason of the paucity and therefore the ambiguity of the Original words of the Hebrew language , the strange Idioms of it , the different senses of the same word in several Conjugations , the want of several modes of expression which are used in other Languages , and above all the lofty and Metaphorical way of speaking used in all Eastern Countreys , and the imitation of the Hebrew Idioms in the Greek translation of the Old Testament , and Original of the New , you can hardly affix a sense upon any words used therein , but a man who will be at the pains to search all possible significations and uses of those words , will put you hard to it , to make good that which you took to be the proper meaning of them . Wherefore although I will not deny to our adversaries the praise of subtilty and diligence , I cannot give them that , ( which is much more praise worthy ) viz. of discretion and sound judgement . For while they use their utmost industry to search all the most remote and Metaphorical senses of words , with a design to take off the genuine and proper meaning of them , they do not attend to the ill consequence that may be made of this to the overthrowing those things , the belief of which themselves make necessary to salvation . For by this way the whole Gospel may be made an Allegory , and the Resurrection of Christ be thought as metaphorical as the Redemption by his Death , and the force of all the Precepts of the Gospel avoided by some unusual signification of the words wherein they are delivered . So that nothing can be more unreasonable than such a method of proceeding , unless it be first sufficiently proved that the matter is not capable of the proper sense , and therefore of necessity the improper only is to be allowed . And this is that which Socinus seems after all his pains to pervert the meaning of the places in controversie , to rely on most ; viz. That the Doctrine of satisfaction doth imply an impossibility in the thing it self , and therefore must needs be false ; nay , he saith the infallibility of the Revealer had not been enough in this Case , supposing that Christ had said it , and risen from the dead , to declare his own Veracity ; unless he had declared it by its proper causes and effects , and so shewed the possibility of the thing it self . And the reason , he saith , why they believe their Doctrine true , is not barely because God hath said it , but they believe certainly that God hath said it , because they know it to be true ; by knowing the contrary Doctrine to be impossible . The controversie then , concerning the meaning of the places in dispute is to be resolved from the nature and reasonableness of the matter contained in them : for if Socinus his reason were answerable to his confidence , if the account we give of the sufferings of Christ , were repugnant not only to the Justice , Goodness and Grace of God , but to the nature of the thing ; if it appear impossible , that mankinde should be redeemed in a proper sense , or that God should be propitiated by the Death of his Son as a Sacrifice for sin ; if it enervate all the Precepts of Obedience , and tends rather to justifie sins than those who do repent of them , I shall then agree , that no industry can be too great in searching Authors , comparing places , examining Versions , to finde out such a sense as may be agreeable to the nature of things , the Attributes of God , and the design of Christian Religion . But if on the contrary , the Scripture doth plainly assert those things from whence our Doctrine follows , and without which no reasonable account can be given either of the expressions used therein , or of the sufferings of Christ ; if Christs death did immediately respect God as a sacrifice , and were paid as a price for our Redemption ; if such a design of his death be so far from being repugnant to the nature of God , that it highly manifests his Wisdom , Justice and Mercy ; if it assert nothing but what is so far from being impossible , that it is very reconcileable to the common principles of Reason , as well as the Free-Grace of God in the pardon of sin ; if , being truely understood , it is so far from enervating , that it advances highly all the purposes of Christian Religion , then it can be no less than a betraying one of the grand Truths of the Christian Doctrine , not to believe ours to be the true sense of the places in controversie . And this is that which I now take upon me to maintain . For our clearer proceeding herein , nothing will be more necessary , than to understand the true state of the Controversie ; which hath been rendred more obscure by the mistakes of some , who have managed it with greater zeal than judgement ; who have asserted more than they needed to have done , and made our Adversaries assert much less than they do : And by this means have shot over their Adversaries heads , and laid their own more open to assaults . It is easie to observe , that most of Socinus his Arguments are levell'd against an opinion , which few who have considered these things do maintain , and none need to think themselves obliged to do it ; which is , That Christ paid a proper and rigid satisfaction for the sins of men , considered under the notion of debts , and that he paid the very same , which we ought to have done ; which in the sense of the Law , is never call'd Satisfaction , but strict payment . Against this , Socinus disputes from the impossibility of Christs paying the very same that we were to have paid ; because our penalty was Eternal death , and that as the consequent of inherent guilt , which Christ neither did nor could undergo . Neither is it enough to say , That Christ had undergone Eternal death , unless he had been able to free himself from it ; for the admission of one to pay for another , who could discharge the debt in much less time than the offenders could , was not the same which the Law required . For that takes no notice of any other than the persons who had sinned ; and if a Mediator could have paid the same , the Original Law must have been disjunctive ; viz. That either the Offender must suffer , or another for him ; but then the Gospel had not been the bringing in of a better Covenant , but a performance of the old . But if there be a relaxation or dispensation of the first Law , then it necessarily follows , that what Christ paid , was not the very same which the first Law required ; for what need of that , when the very same was paid that was in the obligation ? But if it be said , That the Dignity of the person makes up , what wanted in the kind or degree of punishment : This is a plain confession that it is not the same , but some thing equivalent , which answers the ends of the Sanction , as much as the same would have done , which is the thing we contend for . Besides , if the very same had been paid in the strict sense , there would have followed a deliverance ipso facto ; for the release immediately follows the payment of the same : and it had been injustice to have required any thing further , in order to the discharge of the Offender , when strict and full payment had been made of what was in the obligation . But we see that Faith and Repentance , and the consequences of those two , are made conditions on our parts , in order to the enjoying the benefit of what Christ hath procured : So that the release is not immediate upon the payment , but depends on a new contract , made in consideration of what Christ hath done and suffered for us . If it be said , That by Christs payment we become his , and he requires these conditions of us ; besides the contrariety of it to the Scriptures , which make the conditions to be required by him to whom the payment was made ; we are to consider , that these very persons assert , that Christ paid all for us , and in our name and stead ; so that the payment by Christ , was by a substitution in our room ; and if he paid the same which the Law required , the benefit must immediately accrue to those in whose name the debt was paid : For what was done in the name of another , is all one to the Creditor , as if it had been done by the Debtor himself . But above all things , it is impossible to reconcile the freeness of remission , with the full payment of the very same which was in the obligation . Neither will it serve to say , That though it was not free to Christ , yet it was to us : For the satisfaction and remission must respect the same person ; for Christ did not pay for himself , but for us , neither could the remission be to him : Christ therefore is not considered in his own name , but as acting in our stead ; so that what was free to him , must be to us ; what was exactly paid by him , it is all one as if it had been done by us , so that it is impossible the same debt should be fully paid and freely forgiven . Much less will it avoid the difficulty in this case to say , That it was a refusable payment ; for it being supposed to be the very same , it was not in justice refusable ; and however not in equity , if it answer the intention of the Law , as much as the suffering of the offenders had done ; and the more it doth that , the less refusable it is . And although God himself found out the way , that doth not make the pardon free , but the designation of the person who was to pay the debt . Thus when our Adversaries dispute against this opinion , no wonder if they do it successfully ; but this whole opinion is built upon a mistake , that satisfaction must be the payment of the very same ; which while they contend for , they give our Adversaries too great an advantage , and make them think they triumph over the Faith of the Church , when they do it onely over the mistake of some particular persons . But the foundation of this mistake , lies in the consideration of punishment , under the notion of debts , and that satisfaction therefore must be by strict payment in rigor of Law ; but how great that mistake is , will appear in the subsequent discourse : but it cannot but be wondred at , that the very same persons who consider sins , as debts which must be strictly satisfied for , do withal contend for the absolute necessity of this satisfaction ; whereas Socinus his Arguments would hold good , if sins were onely considered as debts , and God as the meer Creditor of punishment , he might as freely part with his own right without satisfaction , as any Creditor may forgive what sum he pleases , to a person indebted to him ; and no reason can be brought to the contrary , from that notion of sins , why he may not do it . But if they be considered with a respect to Gods Government of the world , and the honour of his Laws , then some further account may be given , why it may not be consistent with that , to pass by the sins of men , without satisfaction made to them . And because the mistake in this matter , hath been the foundation of most of the subsequent mistakes on both sides , and the discovery of the cause of errours , doth far more to the cure of them , than any Arguments brought against them ; and withall , the true understanding of the whole Doctrine of satisfaction depends upon it , I shall endeavour to make clear the notion under which our sins are considered ; for upon that , depends the nature of the satisfaction which is to be made for them . For while our Adversaries suppose , that sins are to be looked on under the notion of debts in this debate , they assert it to be wholly free for God to remit them , without any satisfaction . They make the right of punishment meerly to depend on Gods absolute Dominion ; and that all satisfaction must be considered under the notion of compensation , for the injuries done to him , to whom it is to be made . But if we can clearly shew a considerable difference between the notion of debts and punishments , if the right of punishment doth not depend upon meer Dominion , and that satisfaction by way of punishment , is not primarily intended for compensation , but for other ends , we shall make not onely the state of the Controversie much clearer , but offer something considerable towards the resolution of it . The way I shall take for the proof of the difference between debts and punishments , shall be using the other for the Arguments for it . For besides , that those things are just in matter of debts , which are not so in the case of punishments ; as , that it is lawful for a man to forgive all the debts which are owing him by all persons , though they never so contumaciously refuse payment , but our Adversaries will not say so in the case of sins ; for although they assert , That the justice of God doth never require punishment in case of Repentance , but withall they assert , That in case of Impenitency , it is not onely agreeable , but due to the nature and decrees ; and therefore to the rectitude and equity of God not to give pardon . But if this be true , then there is an apparent difference between the notion of debts and punishments ; for the Impenitency doth but add to the greatness of the debt : And will they say , it is onely in Gods power to remit small debts , but he must punish the greatest ? what becomes then of Gods absolute liberty to part with his own right ? will not this shew more of his kindness to pardon the greater , rather than lesser offenders ? But if there be something in the nature of the thing , which makes it not onely just , but necessary for impenitent sinners to be punished , as Crellius after Socinus frequently acknowledges ; then it is plain , that sins are not to be considered meerly as debts ; for that obstinacy and impenitency is onely punished as a greater degree of sin , and therefore as a greater debt . And withall , those things are lawful in the remission of debts , which are unjust in the matter of punishments ; as it is lawful for a Creditor , when two persons are considered in equal circumstances , to remit one , and not the other ; nay , to remit the greater debt , without any satisfaction , and to exact the lesser to the greatest extremity ; but it is unjust in matter of punishments , where the reason and circumstances are the same , for a person who hath committed a crime of very dangerous consequence , to escape unpunished , and another who hath been guilty of far less to be severely executed . Besides these considerations , I say I shall now prove the difference of debts and punishments , from those two things whereby things are best differenced from each other ; viz. The different Reason , and the different End of them . The different Reason of debts and punishments : The reason of debts is dominion and property , and the obligation of of them , depends upon voluntary contracts between parties ; but the reason of punishments is Justice and Government , and depends not upon meer contracts , but the relation the person stands in to that Authority he is accountable for his actions to . For if the obligation to punishment , did depend upon meer contract , than none could justly be punished , but such who have consented to it by an antecedent contract : If it be said , That a contract is implied , by their being in society with others ; that is as much as I desire to make the difference appear , for in case of debts , the obligation depends upon the voluntary contract of the person ; but in case of punishments , the very relation to Government , and living under Laws doth imply it . And the right of punishment depends upon the obligation of Laws , where the reason of them holds , without any express contract , or superiority of one over another ; as in the case of violation of the Law of Nations , that gives right to another Nation to punish the infringers of it . Otherwise Wars could never be lawful between two Nations , and none could be warrantable , but those of a Prince against his rebellious subjects , who have broken the Laws themselves consented expresly to . Besides , in case of debts , every man is bound to pay , whether he be call'd upon or no ; but in case of punishments , no man is bound to betray or accuse himself . For the obligation to payment in case of debt , ariseth from the injury sustained by that particular person , if another detains what is his own from him ; but the obligation to punishment , arises from the injury the Publick sustains by the impunity of crimes , of which the Magistrates are to take care ; who by the dispensing of punishments , do shew that to be true which Grotius asserts , that if there be any Creditor to be assigned in punishment , it is the publick good : Which appears by this , that all punishments are proportioned , according to the influence the offences have upon the publick interest ; for the reason of punishment is not because a Law is broken , but because the breach of a Law tends to dissolve the community , by infringing the Authority of the Laws , and the honour of those who are to take care of them . For if we consider it , the measure of punishments is in a well ordered State , taken from the influence which crimes have upon the peace and interest of the community . No man questions ' , but that Malice , Pride and Avarice , are things really as bad as many faults , that are severely punished by humane Laws ; but the reason these are not punished is , because they do not so much injury to the publick interest , as Theft and Robbery do . Besides , in those things wherein the Laws of a Nation are concerned , the utmost rigor is not used in the preventing of crimes , or the execution of them when committed , if such an execution may endanger the publick more , than the impunity of the offenders may do . And there are some things which are thought fit to be forbidden , where the utmost means are not used to prevent them ; as Merchants are forbidden to steal customs , but they are not put under an Oath not to do it . And when penalties have been deserved , the execution of them hath been deferred , till it may be most for the advantage of the publick : as Joabs punishment till Solomons Reign , though he deserved it as much in Davids . So that the rule commonly talked of , Fiat justitia & pereat mundus , is a piece of Pedantry , rather than true Wisdom ; for whatever penalty inflicted , brings a far greater detriment to the publick , than the forbearance of it , is no piece of Justice to the State , but the contrary ; the greatest Law , being the safety and preservation of the whole body . By which it appears , that in humane Laws , the reason of punishment is not , that such an action is done , but because the impunity in doing it , may have a bad influence on the publick interest ; but in debts , the right of Restitution depends upon the injury received by a particular person , who looks at no more than the reparation of his loss by it . We are now to consider , how far these things will hold in Divine Laws , and what the right of punishment doth result from there . For Crellius , the subtillest of our Adversaries , knowing how great consequence the resolution of this is , in the whole Controversie of Satisfaction , vehemently contends , That the right of punishment doth result from Gods absolute Dominion , and therefore he is to be considered as the offended party , and not as Governor in the right of inflicting punishment ; for which his first Argument is , That our obedience is due to Gods Law , on the account of his Dominion ; but when that is not performed , the penalty succeeds in its room , and therefore that doth belong to God on the same account : His other Arguments are , from the compensation of injuries due to the offended party , and from Gods anger against sin , in which he is to be considered as the offended party : These two latter will be answered under the next head ; the first I am to examine here . He therefore tells us , that the right of punishment belongs to Gods Dominion , because the reason of his Government of mankind is , because he is the Lord of them . But , for our better understanding this , we are to consider , although the original right of Government doth result from Gods Dominion ; for therefore our obedience is due , because of his Soveraignty over us ; yet when God takes upon him the notion of a Governor , he enters into a new relation with his creatures , distinct from the first as meer Lord. For he is equally Lord of all to whom he gives a being , but he doth not require obedience upon equal terms , nor governs them by the same Laws : Dominion is properly shewed in the exercise of power ; but when God gives Laws according to which he will reward and punish , he so far restrains the exercise of his Dominion to a subserviency to the ends of Government . If we should suppose , that God governs the world meerly by his Dominion , we must take away all rewards and punishments ; for then the actions of men , would be the meer effects of irresistable power , and so not capable of rewards and punishments ; for there could be neither of these , where mens actions are not capable of the differences of good and evil , and that they cannot be , if they be the acts of Gods Dominion , and not of their own . But if God doth not exercise his full Dominion over rational creatures , it is apparent that he doth govern them under another notion than as meer Lord , and the reason of punishment is not to be taken from an absolute right which God doth not make use of , but from the ends and designs of Government , which are his own Honour , the Authority of his Laws , and the good of those whom he doth govern . And Crellius is greatly mistaken , when he makes punishment to succeed in the place of the right of obedience ; for it is onely the desert of punishment , which follows upon the violation of that right ; and as we assert , that the right of obedience is derived from Gods Soveraignty , so we deny not , but the desert of punishment is from the violation of it ; but withall we say , that the obligation to punishment depends upon the Laws , and Gods right to inflict punishment ( Laws being supposed ) is immediately from that Government which he hath over mankinde : For otherwise , if the whole right of punishment did still depend upon Gods Dominion , and the first right of Soveraignty , then all sins must have equal punishments , because they are all equal violations of the fundamental right of obedience ; then it were at liberty for God to punish a greater sin , with a less punishment ; and a lesser sin , with a greater : And lastly , this would make the punishment of sin , a meer Arbitrary thing in God ; for there would be no reason of punishment , but what depended upon Gods meer will ; whereas the reason of punishment in Scripture is drawn from a repugnancy of sin to the divine purity and holyness , and not meerly from Gods power or will to punish ; but if that were all the reason of it , there would be no repugnancy in the nature of the thing for the most vitious person to be rewarded , and the most pious to be made everlastingly miserable . But who ever yet durst say or think so ? From whence it appears that the relation between sin and punishment is no result of Gods arbitrary will ; but it is founded in the nature of the things , so that as it is just for God to punish offenders , so it would be unjust to punish the most innocent person without any respect to sin . But if the right of punishment depends meerly on Gods dominion , I cannot understand why God may not punish when , and whom , and in what manner he pleaseth ; without any impeachment of his Justice , and therefore it is to be wonder'd at , that the same persons who assert the right of punishment to be meerly in Gods dominion , should yet cry out of the unjustice of one person being punished for anothers faults ; for why may not God exercise his dominion in this case ? yes say they , he may his dominion , but he cannot punish , because punishment supposes guilt , and cannot be just without it ; how far that reaches , will be examined afterwards ; at present , we take notice of the contradiction to themselves which our Adversaries are guilty of , that they may serve their own hypothesis , for when we dispute with them , against absolute remission without satisfaction , then they contend that the right of punishment is a meer act of dominion , and God may part with his right , if he please ; but when they dispute with us against the translation of punishment from one to another , then they no longer say that the right of punishment is an act of dominion , but that it is a necessary consequent of inherent guilt , and cannot be removed from one to another . And then they utterly deny that punishment is of the nature of debts ; for one mans money , they say , may become anothers , but one mans punishment cannot become anothers : Thus they give and take , deny and grant , as it serves for their present purposes . The different end of debts and punishments , make it appear that there is a difference in the nature of them ; for the intention of the obligation to payment in case of debt , is the compensation of the damage which the Creditor sustains ; but the intention of punishment , is not bare compensation , but it is designed for greater and further ends . For which we are to consider the different nature of punishments , as they are inflicted by way of reparation of some injury done to private persons , and as they do respect the publick good . I grant , that private persons in case of injuries , seek for compensation of the damage they sustain , and so far they bear the nature of debts ; but if we consider them as inflicted by those who have a care of the publick , though they are to see that no private person suffers injury by another , yet the reason of that is not meerly that he might enjoy his own , but because the doing injuries to others tends to the subversion of the ends of Government . Therefore , I can by no means admit that Position of Crellius , that a Magistrate only punishes as he assumes the person of the particular men who have received injuries from others ; for he aims at other ends than meerly the compensation of those injured persons . Their great end is according to the old Roman Formula , nè quid Resp. detrimenti capiat : the reason of exacting penalties upon private men is still with a regard to the publick safety . Supposing men in a. state of nature no punishment is due to the injured person , but restitution of damage , and compensation of the loss that accrues to him by the injury sustained ; and whatever goes beyond this , is the effect of Government , which constitutes penalties for preservation of the Society which is under Laws . But herein Crellius is our adversary , but with no advantage at all to his Cause ; for he offers to prove against Grotius , that something more is due by an injury beyond bare compensation for what the other is supposed to lose by the right of nature ; for saith he , in every injury there is not only the reall damage which the person sustains , but there is a contempt of the person implyed in it , for which as well as the former , he ought to have compensation . To which I answer , 1. That this doth not prove what he designs , viz. that punishment doth belong to the injured person in a state of Nature , beyond bare restitution , but that it is necessary , that men should not continue in such a state , that so they may be vindicated from that contempt , and others compelled to restitution . Both which , as they are punishments , are not in the power of the offended party as such , but shew that it is very reasonable there should be Laws and Governours , that private persons may be preserved in their just rights , and offenders punished for the vindication not only of their honour , but of the Laws too . And Laws being established , the injured person hath right to no more , than the compensation of his loss ; for that being forced upon the offending party , is a sufficient vindication of his honour . 2. If the contempt of a private person makes a compensation necessary , how much more will this hold in a publick Magistrate ; whose contempt by disobedience is of far worse consequence than that of a private person . And by this argument Crellius overthrows his main hypothesis , viz. that God may pardon sin without satisfaction ; for if it be not only necessary , that the loss be compensated but the dishonour too ; then so much greater as the dishonour is ; so much higher as the person is ; so much more beneficial to the world as his Laws are ; so much more necessary is it that in order to pardon there must be a satisfaction made to him , for the affronts he hath received from men . And if the greatness of the injury be to be measured as Crellius asserts , from the worth and value of the thing , from the dignity and honour of the person , from the displicency of the fact to him , which he makes the measure of punishment ; this makes it still far more reasonable , that God should have satisfaction for the sins of men , than that men should have for the injuries done them by one another ; especially considering what the same Author doth assert afterwards , that it is sometime repugnant to justice , for one to part with his own right in case of injuries , and that either from the nature and circumstances of the things themselves , or a decree or determination to the contrary , for the first he instanceth in case of notorious defamation ; in which he saith , it is a dishonest and unlawfull thing for a man , not to make use of his own right for his vindication , and for the other , in case of great obstinacy and malice . By both which , it is most apparent , that Crellius puts a mighty difference between the nature of debts ; and punishments , since in all cases he allows it lawfull for a person free , to remit his debts ; but in some cases he makes it utterly unlawfull for a person not to make use of his right for punishment . And withall if a private person may not part with his own right in such cases , how unreasonable is it not to assert the same of the great Governour of the world ? and that there may be a necessity for him upon supposition of the contempt of himself and his Laws , to vindicate himself and his honour to the world , by some remarkable testimony of his severity against sin . But Crellius yet urgeth another end of punishment , which though the most unreasonable of all others , yet sufficiently proves from himself the difference of debts and punishments , which is , the delight which the injured person takes in seeing the offender punished . This he so much insists upon , as though he made it the most natural end of punishment , for , saith he , among the Punishments which a Prince or any other free Person can inflict , revenge is in the first place , and the more there is of that in any thing , the more properly it is call'd a punishment ; and he tells what he means by this ultio ; viz. solatium ex alieno dolore , the contentment taken in anothers pain . But saith he , no man must object , that this is a thing evil in it self ; for although it be forbidden us under the New Testament , yet in it self it is not unlawfull for one that hath suffered pain from another to seek for the ease of his own pain , by the miseries of him that injured him : and for this purpose , saith he , we have the Passion of Anger in us , which being a desire of returning injuries , is then satisfied when it apprehends it done . But how absurd and unreasonable this doctrine is , will be easily discovered , for this would make the primary intendment of punishment to be the evil of him that suffers it . Whereas the right of punishment is derived from an injury received , and therefore that which gives that right , is some damage sustained , the reparation of which is the first thing designed by the offended party : Though it take not up the whole nature of punishment . And on this account no man can justly propose any end to himself in anothers evil , but what comes under the notion of restitution . For the evil of another is only intended in punishment as it respects the good of him for whose sake that evil is undergone . When that good may be obtained without anothers evil , the desire of it is unjust and unreasonable : and therefore all that contentment that any one takes in the evil another undergoes , as it is evil to him , is a thing repugnant to humane nature , and which all persons condemn in others when they allow themselves in it . It will be hard for Crellius to make any difference between this end of punishment which he assigns , and the greatest cruelty ; for what can that be worse than taking delight in making others miserable , and seeing them so when he hath made them . If it be replyed , that cruelty is without any cause , but here a just cause is supposed , I answer , a just cause is only supposed for the punishment , but there can be no just cause for any to delight in the miseries of others , and to comfort themselves by inflicting or beholding them . For the evil of another is never intended , but when it is the only means left for compensation ; and he must be guilty of great inhumanity , who desires anothers evil any further than that tends to his own good , i. e. the reparation of the damage sustained ; which if it may be had without anothers evil , then that comes not by the right of nature within the reason of punishment ; and consequently where it doth not serve for that end , the comfort that men take in it is no part of justice , but cruelty . For there can be no reason at all assigned for it ; for that lenimentum doloris which Crellius insists on is meerly imaginary , and no other than the Dog hath in gnawing the stone that is thrown at him ; and for all that I know , that propension in nature to the retribution of evil for evil any further than it tends to our security , and preservation for the future , is one of the most unreasonable Passions in humane Nature . And if we examine the nature of Anger , either considered Naturally or Morally , the intention of it is , not the returning evil to another , for the evil received , but the security and preservation of our selves , which we should not have so great a care of , unless we had a quick sense of injuries , and our blood were apt to be heated at the apprehension of them . But when this passion vents it self , in doing others injury to alleviate its own grief , it is a violent and unreasonable perturbation ; but being governed by reason , it aims at no more , than the great end of our beings ; viz. Self-Preservation . But when that cannot be obtained without anothers evil , so far the intendment of it is lawful , but no further . And I cannot therefore think those Philosophers , who have defined Anger to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , by whose Authority Crellius defends himself , when he makes anger to be a desire of revenge , did throughly consider what was just and reasonable in it , but barely what was natural , and would be the effect of that passion , if not governed by reason . For otherwise Jul. Scaligers definition is much more true and justifiable , that it is appetitus depulsionis ; viz. that whereby we are stirred up to drive away from us , any thing that is injurious to us . But because Crellius alledgeth a saying of Seneca , that would make vindicta of the nature of punishment , duabus de causis punire princeps solet , si aut se vindicet aut alium : We shall oppose to this the sense of the same Author in this matter , which may sufficiently clear the other passage : For , saith he , Inhumanum verbum est , & quidem pro justo receptum , ultio , & à contumelia non differt nisi ordine : qui dolorem regerit , tantum excusatius peccat . And no man speaks with greater vehemency against the delight in others punishments than he doth ; for he always asserts , the onely reason of punishment , to be some advantage which is to come by it , and not meerly to satisfie anger , or to allay their own griefs , by seeing anothers : For , saith he , the punishment is inflicted , Non quia delectetur ullius poena ( procul est enim à sapiente tam inhumana feritas ) sed ut documentum omnium sint : So that it is onely the usefulness of punishment according to him , which makes it become any wise man ; and so far from a satisfaction of his grief by anothers punishment , that he makes that a piece of inhumanity , not incident to any who pretend to wisdom . Nay , he denies , that a just punishment doth flow from anger ; for he that inflicts that , doth it , non ipsius poenae avidus sed quia oportet , not as desiring the punishment , but because there are great reasons for it : And elsewhere , Exsequar quia oportet , non quia dolet : he is far enough then from approving , that imaginary compensation of one mans grief by anothers . And he shews at large , that the weakest natures , and the least guided by reason , are the most subject to this anger and revenge . And although other things be pretended , the general cause of it is , a great infirmity of humane nature ; and thence it is , that children , and old men , and sick persons , are the most subject to it ; and the better any are , the more they are freed from it : — quippe minuti Semper & infirmi est animi , exiguique voluptas Ultio — He makes Cruelty to be nothing else , but the intemperace of the mind in exacting punishment ; and the difference between a Prince and a Tyrant to lye in this , That one delights in punishing , the other never does it but in case of necessity , when the publick good requires it . And this throughout his discourse , he makes the measure of punishment ; who then could imagine , that he should speak so contradictory to himself , as to allow punishment for meer revenge , or the easing ones own griefs , by the pains of another ? In the places cited by Crellius , ( if taken in his sense ) he speaks what commonly is , not what ought to be in the world ; for he disputes against it in that very place , therefore that cannot be the meaning which he contends for . The common design of punishments by a Prince , saith he , is either to vindicate himself or others . I so render his words , because vindicare , when it is joyned with the person injured , as here , vindicare se aut alium , doth properly relate to the end of punishment , which is asserting the right of the injured person ; but when it is joyned with the persons who have done the injury , or the crimes whereby they did it , then it properly signifies to punish . Thus Salust useth , Vindicatum in eos ; and Cicero , In milites nostros vehementer vindicatum , and for the fact very frequently in him , maleficia vindicare : but when it relates to the injured person , as here it doth , it cannot signifie meerly to punish ; for then se vindicare would be to punish ones self , but to assert his own right in case of injury , though it be with the punishment of another : For Vindicatio , as Cicero defines it , est per quam vis & injuris & omnino quod obfuturum est defendendo aut ulciscendo propulsatur . So that the security of our selves in case of force or injury , is ●hat which is called Vindication ; which ●ometimes may be done by defence , and ●thertimes by punishment . And that Se●eca doth mean no more here , is apparent ●y what follows ; for in case of private in●uries , he saith , poenamsi tutò poterit donet , ●he would have the Prince forgive the punishment , if it may be done with safety ; so that he would not have any one punished , to satisfie anothers desire of revenge , but to preserve his own safety : And afterwards he saith , It is much beneath a Princes condition , to need that satisfaction which arises from anothers sufferings : But for the punishments of others , he saith , The Law hath established three ends , the amendment of the persons , or making others better by their punishments , or the publick security , by taking away such evil members out of the body : So that in publick punishments , he never so much as supposes , that contentment which revenge fancies in others punishments , but makes them wholly designed for the publick advantage . For the Laws in punishment do not look backward , but forward ; for as Plato saith , No wise man ever punished , meerly because men had offended , but least they should : For past things cannot be recall'd , but futu● are , therefore forbidden , that they may be prevented . So to the same purpose is the saying of Lactantius , produced by Grotius , Surgimus ad vindictam non quia laesi sumus sed ut disciplina servetur , mores corrigantur , licentia comprimatur : haec est ira justa . To which Crellius answers , That this signifies nothing , unless it can be proved , that no ma● may justly punish another , meerly because he is wronged . If he means of the right to punish , we deny not that to be , because the person is wronged ; but if he understands it of the design and end of punishment , then we deny , that it is an allowable end of punishments , any further than it can come under the notion of restitution , of which we have spoken already . When a Master ( which is the instance he produceth ) punisheth his servants , because they have disobey'd him : The reason of that punishment , is not the bare disobedience , but the injury which comes to him by it ; the reparation of which he seeks by punishment , either as to his authority , security or profit . But he addes , That where punishment is designed , for preservation of discipline , and amendment of manners , and keeping persons in order , which are the ends mentioned by Lactantius ) it is where the interest of the person lies , in the preservation of these , and is therefore offended at the neglect of them . To which I answer , That the interest of such a one , is not barely the interest of an offended party , as such , but the interest of a Governor ; and no body denies , but such a one may be an offended party : but the question is , Whether the design of punishment be meerly to satisfie him as the offended party , or to answer the ends of Government ? For Crellius hath already told us , what it is to satisfie one as an offended party , that is , to ease himself by the punishment of others ; but what ever is designed for the great ends of Government , is not to be considered under that notion , although the Governor may be justly offended at the neglect of them . And there is this considerable difference between the punishment made to an offended party , as such , and that which is for the ends of Government , that the former is a satisfaction to Anger , and the latter to Laws and the publick interest . For Crellius disputes much for the right of Anger in exacting punishments ; the satisfaction of which , in case of real injury , he never makes unlawful , but in case that it be prohibited us by one , whose power is above our own : nay he makes it otherwise the primary end of punishment . So that anger is the main thing upon these terms to be respected in punishment : but where it is designed for the ends before mention'd , there is no necessity of any such passion a● anger to be satisfied , the ends of punishment may be attained wholly without it : And publick punishment , according to Seneca , non ira sed ratio est , is no effect of anger , but reason ; for , saith he , nihil minus quam irasci punientem decet : nothing less becomes one that punisheth , than anger doth ; for all punishments being considered as Medicines , no man ought to give Physick in anger , or to let himself blood in a fury : A Magistrate , saith he , when he goes to punish , ought to appear only vultu legis quae non irascitur , sed constituit , with the countenance of the Law , which appoints punishments without passion : The reason of which is , because the Law aims not primarily at the evil of the man that suffers punishment , but at the good which comes to the publick by such sufferings . For the first design of the Law was to prevent any evil being done , and punishment coming in by way of Sanction to the force of the Law , must have the same primary end which the Law it self had ; which is not to satisfie barely the offended party for the breach , any further than that satisfaction tends to the security of the Law , and preventing the violation of it for the future . The substance of what I have said upon this subject , may be thus briefly comprized , That antecedently to Laws , the offended party hath right to no more than bare reparation of the damage sustained by the injury ; that the proper notion of punishment is consequent to Laws , and the inflicting of it is an act of Government , which is not designed for meer satisfaction of the anger of the injured person , but for the publick good , which lies in preserving the authority of the Laws , the preventing all injuries by the security of mens just rights , and the vindication of the dignity and honor of him , who is to take care of the publick good . For these Crellius himself acknowledgeth , to be the just ends of punishments , onely he would have the satisfaction a man takes in anothers evil , to come in the first place ; wherein how much he is mistaken , I hope we have already manifested . Because the proper nature of punishment depending upon Laws , the Laws do not primarily design the benefit of private persons ( supposing that were so ) but the advantage of that community which they are made for . And in those cases wherein the Magistrate doth right to particular persons in the punishment of those who have injured them , he doth it not as taking their person upon him , for he aims at other things than they doe ; they look at a bare compensation for the injury received ; but the Magistrate at the ill consequence the impunity of injuries may be of to the publick : they , it may be at the satisfaction of their displeasure ; but he at the satisfaction of the Laws ; they at their own private damage ; he at the violation of the publick peace . And from hence among those Nations who valued all crimes at a certain rate , in matters of injury between man and man , the injured person was not only to receive compensation for his wrong ; but a considerable fine was to be paid to the Exchequer for the violation of the publick peace . This Tacitus observes among the old Germans , Grotius of the old Gothick Laws , and from them ( as most of our modern Laws and Customs are derived ) Lindenbrogius of the Salick , Alemannick , Lombardick , Spelman of the Saxon , who tells us in case of murder there were three payments , one to the Kindred , which was call'd Megbote ; the second to the Lord , call'd Manbote , the third to the King , call'd Freda from the German Frid , which signifies peace , it being the consideration paid to the King for the breach of the publick peace . And this , saith he , in all actions , was ●neiciently paid to the King , because the peace was supposed to be broken , not by meer force , but by any injuries ; and if the action was unjust , the Plaintiffe paid it ; if just , the defendant . And the measure of it , saith Bignonius , was the tenth part of the value of the thing as estimated by Law ; which by the Customs of the ancient Romans was deposited at the commencing of a suit by both , and only taken up again by him who overcame ; and was by them call'd Sacramentum , as Varro tells us . And the same custome was observed among the Greeks too , as appears by Julius Pollux , who tells us it was call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 among them , and in publick actions was the fifth part , in private the tenth . But that which was paid to the publick in case of murder , was among the Greeks call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the same with poena , for Hesychius tells us that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and to the same purpose the Scholiast on Homer on those words Iliad . 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , by which the Original of the name poena , comes from a payment made to the publick , according to that known rule , interest reip . delicta puniri , that persons may see how much the publick safety is concerned , that crimes be punished . From which and many other things which might be insisted on , Crellius his Hypothesis will appear to be false , viz. that when the Magistrate doth judge in the affairs of particular men , he doth it only as assuming the person of those men ; whereas it appears from the reason of the thing , and the Custom of Nations , that the interest of the Magistrate is consider'd as distinct from that of private persons , when he doth most appear in vindication of injuries . But all this is managed with a respect to the grand hypothesis , viz. that the right of punishing doth belong only to the offended party as such , that the punishment is of the nature of debts , and the satisfaction by compensation to the anger of him who is offended . The falsity of which this discourse was designed to discover . Having thus considered the nature of punishments among men , we come more closely to our matter , by examining how far this will hold in the punishments which God inflicts on the account of sin . For which two things must be inquired into , 1. In what sense we attribute anger to God. 2. What are the great ends of those punishments God inflicts on men on the account of sin . For the first , though our Adversaries are very unwilling to allow the term of punitive justice , yet they contend for a punitive anger in God , and that in the worst sense as it is appetitus vindictae : for after Crellius hath contended that this is the proper notion of anger in general ; neither ought any one to say , he adds , that anger as other passions is attributed improperly to God ; for setting aside the imperfections , which those passions are subject to in us , all the rest is to be attributed to him ; taking away then that perturbation , and pain , and grief we find in our selves in anger , to which the abhorrency of sin answers in God , all the rest doth agree to him . I would he had a little more plainly told us what he means by all the rest , but we are to ghesse at his meaning by what went before , where he allows of Cicero , and Aristotles definition of Anger , whereof the one is , that it is libido , or ( as Crellius would rather have it , ) cupiditas puniendi , the other , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. and himself calls it poenae appetitio , and in another place , that it may be as properly defined cupiditas vindictae as cupiditas poenae , or affectus vindicandi , as well as puniendi : in all which places , he doth assert such an anger in God as supposes such a motion , or desire , or inclination to punish sin when it is committed , as there is in us when an injury is done us , only the perturbation and pain excluded . But he hath not thought fit to explain how such new motions or inclinations in the divine nature every time sin is committed , are consistent with the immutability and perfection of it ; nor what such a kind of desire to punish in God imports , whether a meer inclination without the effect , or an inclination with the effect following : if without the effect , than either because the sin was not great enough , or Gods honour was not concerned to do it , and in this case the same reasons which make the effect not to follow , make the desire of it inconsistent with the divine wisdom and perfection : or else because the effect is hindred by the repentance of the person , or some other way which may make it not necessary to do it ; than upon the same reason the effect is suspended , the inclination to do it should be so too ; for that must be supposed to be governed by an eternal reason and counsel as well as his actions ; unless some natural passions in God be supposed antecedent to his own wisdom and counsel , which is derogatory to the infinite perfection of God , since those are judged imperfections in our selves : If it be taken only with the effect following it , than God can never be said to be angry but when he doth punish , whereas his wrath is said to be kindled in Scripture , where the effect hath not followed ; which if it implyes any more than the high provocation of God to punish ( as I suppose it doth not ) then this inclination to punish is to be conceived distinct from the effect following it . But that conception of anger in God seems most agreeable to the divine nature , as well as to the Scriptures , which makes it either the punishment it self , as Crellius elsewhere acknowledges it is often taken so ; or Gods declaration of his will to punish , which is call'd the revelation of the wrath of God against all unrighteousness of men , God thereby discovering the just displeasure he hath against sin ; or the great provocation of God to punish , by the sins of men ; as when his wrath is said , to be kindled , &c. By this sense we may easily reconcile all that the Scripture saith concerning the wrath of God ; we make it agreeable to infinite perfection , we make no such alterations in God , as the appeasing of his anger must imply , if that imply any kinde of commotion in him . And thus the grand difficulty of Crellius appears to be none at all , against all those passages of Scripture which speak of appeasing God , of attonement , and reconciliation , viz. that if they prove satisfaction , they must prove that God being actually angry with mankind before the sufferings of his Son , he must be presently appeased upon his undergoing them . For no more need to be said , than that God being justly provoked to punish the sins of mankinde , was pleased to accept of the sufferings of his Son , as a sufficient sacrifice of Attonement for the sins of the world , on consideration of which he was pleased to offer those terms of pardon , which upon mens performance of the conditions required on their part , shall be sufficient to discharge them from that obligation to punishment which they were under by their sins . And what absurdity , or incongruity there is in this to any principle of reason , I cannot imagine . But our Adversaries first make opinions for us , and then shew they are unreasonable . They first suppose that anger in God is to be consider'd as a passion , and that passion a desire of revenge for satisfaction of it ; and then tell us , that if we do not prove , that this desire of revenge can be satisfied by the sufferings of Christ , then we can never prove the doctrine of satisfaction to be true ; whereas we do not mean by Gods anger any such passion , but the just declaration of Gods will to punish upon our provocation of him by our sins ; we do not make the design of satisfaction to be , that God may please himself in the revenging the sins of the guilty upon the most innocent person ; because we make the design of punishment , not to be the satisfaction of anger as a desire of revenge , but to be the vindication of the honour and rights of the injured person , by such a way as himself shall judge most satisfactory to the ends of his Government . 2. Which is the next thing we are to clear : For which end we shall make use of the Concession of Crellius , That God hath prefixed some ends to himself in the Government of mankind ; which being supposed , it is necessary , that impenitent sinners should be punished . What these ends of God are , he before tells us , when he enquires into the ends of Divine punishments , which he makes to be , security for the future , by mens avoding sins , and a kind of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or pleasure which God takes in the destruction of his implacable enemies , and the asserting and vindicating his own right by punishing , and shewing men thereby , with what care and fear they ought to serve him ; and so attains the ends of punishment proposed by Lactantius , and manifestation of the Divine Honor and Majestie , which hath been violated by the sins of men . All these we accept of , with this caution , That the delight which God takes in the punishing his implacable enemies , be not understood of any pleasure in their misery , as such , by way of meer revenge ; but as it tends to the vindication of his Right , and Honor , and Majestie ; which is an end suitable to the Divine Nature : but the other cannot in it self , have the notion of an end ; for an end doth suppose something desirable for it self ; which surely the miseries of others cannot have to us , much less to the Divine Nature . And that place which Crellius insists on to prove the contrary , Deut. 28. 63. The Lord will rejoyce over you , to destroy you ; imports no more , than the satisfaction God takes in the execution of his Justice , when it makes most for his honor , as certainly it doth in the punishment of his greatest enemies . And this is to be understood in a sense agreeable to those other places , where God is said not to delight in the death of sinners ; which doth not ( as Crellius would have it ) meerly express Gods benignity and mercy , but such an agreeableness of the exercise of those attributes to Gods nature , that he neither doth nor can delight in the miseries of his creatures in themselves , but as they are subservient to the ends of his Government ; and yet such is his kindness in that rspect too , that he useth all means agreeable thereto , to make them avoid being miserable , to advanee his own glory . And I cannot but wonder that Grotius , who had asserted the contrary in his book of Satisfaction , should in his books De Jure belli ac pacis , assert , That when God punisheth wicked men , he doth it for no other end , but that he might punish them : For which he makes use of no other arguments , than those which Crellius had objected against him ; viz. The delight God takes in punishing , and the judgements of the life to come , when no amendment can be expected ; the former hath been already answered , the latter is objected by Crellius against him , when he makes the ends of punishment , meerly to respect the community , which cannot be asserted of the punishments of another life , which must chiefly respect the vindication of Gods glory , in the punishment of unreclaimable sinners . And this we do not deny to be a just punishment , since our Adversaries themselves , as well as we , make it necessary . But we are not so to understand , that the end of Divine punishments doth so respect the community , as though God himself were to be excluded out of it ; for we are so to understand it , as made up of God as the Governor , and mankind as the persons governed ; whatever then tends to the vindication of the rights of Gods Honor and Soveraignty , tends to the good of the whole , because the manifestation of that end is so great an end of the whole . But withall , though we assert in the life to come , the ends of punishment not to be the reclaiming of sinners , who had never undergone them , unless they had been unreclaimable ; yet a vast difference must be made between the ends of punishments in that , and in this present state . For the other is the Reserve , when nothing else will do , and therefore was not primarily intended ; but the proper ends of punishment , as a part of Government , are to be taken from the design of them in this life . And here we assert , that Gods end in punishing , is the advancing his honor , not by the meer miseries of his creatures , but that men by beholding his severity against sin , should break off the practice of it , that they may escape the punishments of the furture state . So that the ends of punishment here , are quite of another kinde , from those of another life ; for those are inflicted , because persons have been unreclaimable by either the mercies or punishments of this life ; but these are intended , that men should so far take notice of this severity of God , as to avoid the sins which will expose them to the wrath to come . And from hence it follows , That whatsoever sufferings , do answer all these ends of Divine punishments , and are inflicted on the account of sin , have the proper notion of punishments in them , and God may accept of the undergoing them as a full satisfaction to his Law , if they be such as tend to break men off from sin , and assert Gods right , and vindicate his honor to the world ; which are the ends assigned by Crellius , and will be of great consequence to us in the following Discourse . CHAP. II. The particular state of the Controversie , concerning the sufferings of Christ. The Concessions of our Adversaries . The debate reduced to two heads : The first concerning Christs sufferings , being a punishment for sin , entred upon . In what sense Crellius acknowledgeth the sins of men , to have been the impulsive cause of the death of Christ. The sufferings of Christ proved to be a punishment , from Scripture . The importance of the phrase of bearing sins . Of the Scape-Goats bearing the sins of the people into the Wilderness . Grotius his sense of 1 Pet. 2. 24. vindicated against Crellius and himself . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 never used for the taking away a thing by the destruction of it . Crellius his sense examin'd . Isa. 53. 11. vindicated . The Argument from Mat. 8. 17. answered . Grotius constant to himself in his notes on that place . Isa. 53. 5 , 6 , 7. cleared . Whether Christs death be a proper 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and whether that doth imply , that it was a punishment of sin ? How far the punishments of Children for their Fathers faults , are exemplary among men . The distinction of calamities and punishments , holds not here . That Gods hatred of sin could not be seen in the sufferings of Christ , unless they were a punishment of sin , proved against Crellius . Grotius his Arguments from Christ being made sin and a curse for us , defended . The liberty our Adversaries take in changing the sense of words . The particles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , being joyned to sins and relating to sufferings do imply those sufferings to be a punishment for sin . According to their way of interpreting Scripture , it had been impossible for our doctrine to be clearly expressed therein . THese things being thus far cleared concerning the nature and ends of punishments , and how far they are of the nature of debts , and consequently what kind of satisfaction is due for them , the resolution of the grand Question concerning the sufferings of Christ will appear much more easie ; but that we may proceed with all possible cleerness in a debate of this consequence , we must yet a little more narrowly examine the difference between our Adversaries and us in this matter ; for their concessions are in terms sometimes so fair , as though the difference were meerly about words without any considerable difference in the thing it self . If we charge them with denying satisfaction , Crellius answers in the name of them , that we do it unjustly ; for they do acknowledge a satisfaction worthy of God , and agreeable to the Scriptures . If we charge them with denying that our salvation is obtained by the death of Christ , they assert the contrary , as appears by the same Authour . Nay , Ruarus attributes merit to the death of Christ too . They acknowledge , that Christ dyed for us , nay , that there was a commutation between Christ and us , both of one person for another , and of a price for a person ; and that the death of Christ may be said to move God to redeem us ; they acknowledge reconciliation , and expiation of sins to be by the death of Christ. Nay , they assert , that Christs death was by reason of our sins , and that God designed by that to shew his severity against sin . And what could we desire more , if they meant the same thing by these words , which we do ? They assert a satisfaction , but it is such a one as is meerly fulfilling the desire of another ; in which sense all that obey God may be said to satisfie him . They attribute our salvation to the death of Christ , but only as a condition intervening , upon the performance of which the Covenant was confirmed , and himself taken into Glory , that he might free men from the punishment of their sins . They attribute merit to Christs death but in the same sense that we may merit too , when we do what is pleasing to God. They acknowledge , that Christ dyed for us , but not in our stead , but for our advantage ; that there was a commutation ; but not such a one , as that the Son of God did lay down his blood as a proper price in order to our redemption as the purchase of it ; when they speak of a moving cause , they tell us , they mean no more than the performance of any condition may be said to move , or as our prayers and repentance do . The reconciliation they speak of , doth not at all respect God but us ; they assert an expiation of sins consequent upon the death of Christ , but not depending upon it any otherwise than as a condition necessary for his admission to the office of a High Priest in Heaven there to expiate our sins by his power , and not by his blood ; but they utterly deny , that the death of Christ is to be considered as a proper expiatory sacrifice for sin ; or that it hath any further influence upon it , than as it is considered as a means of the confirmation of the truth of his Doctrine , and particularly the promise of remission of sins , on which , and not on the death of Christ they say our remission depends ; but so far as the death of Christ may be an argument to us to believe his Doctrine , and that faith may incline us to obedience , and that obedience being the condition in order to pardon , at so many removes they make the death of Christ to have influence on the remission of our sins . They assert that God took occasion by the sins of men to exercise an act of dominion upon Christ in his sufferings , and that the sufferings of Christ were intended for the taking away the sins of men ; but they utterly deny , that the sufferings of Christ were to be considered as a punishment for sin , or that Christ did suffer in our place and stead ; nay , they contend with great vehemency , that it is wholly inconsistent with the justice of God to make one mans sins the meritorious cause of anothers punishment ; especially one wholly innocent , and so that the guilty shall be free●● on the account of his sufferings . Thus I have endeavoured to give the true state of the controversie with all clearness and brevity . And the substance of it will be reduced to these two debates . 1. Whether the sufferings of Christ in general are to be considered as a punishment of sin , or as a meer act of dominion ? 2. Whether the death of Christ in particular were a proper expiatory sacrifice for sin , or only an antecedent condition to his exercise of the Office of Priesthood in Heaven ? 1. Whether the sufferings of Christ in general are to be consider'd as a punishment of sin , or as a meer act of dominion ? for that it must be one or the other of these two , cannot be denyed by our Adversaries ; for the inflicting those sufferings upon Christ , must either proceed from an antecedent meritorious cause , or not . If they doe , they are then punishments ; if not , they are meer exercises of power and dominion ; whatever ends they are intended for , and whatever recom●…ce be made for them . So Crellius asserts , that God as absolute Lord of all , had a right of absolute dominion upon the life and body of Christ , and therefore might justly deliver him up to death , and give his body to the Crosse ; and although Christ by the ordinary force of the Law of Moses , had a right to escape so painfull and accursed death , yet God by the right of dominion had the power of disposal of him , because he intended to compensate his torments with a reward infinitely greater than they were : but because he saith , for great ends the consent of Christ was necessary , therefore God did not use his utmost dominion in delivering him up by force as he might have done , but he dealt with him by way of command , and rewards proposed for obedience , and in this sense he did act as a righteous Governour , and indulgent Father , who encouraged his Son to undergoe hard , but great things . In which we see , that he makes the sufferings of Christ an act of meer dominion in God , without any antecedent cause as the reason of them ; only he qualifies this act of dominion with the proposal of a reward for it . But we must yet fu●ther enquire into their meaning , for though here Crellius attributes the sufferings of Christ meerly to Gods dominion , without any respect to sin , yet elsewhere he will allow a respect that was had to 〈◊〉 antecedently to the sufferings of Christ , and that the sins of men were the impulsive cause of them . And although Socinus in one place utterly denyes any lawfull antecedent cause of the death of Christ , besides the will of God and Christ , yet Crellius in his Vindication saith , by lawfull cause , he meant meritorious , or such upon supposition of which he ought to dye ; for elsewhere he makes Christ to dye for the cause , or by the occasion of our sins ; which is the same that Crellius means by an impulsive , or procatartick cause . Which he thus explains , We are now to suppose a decree of God not only to give salvation to Mankinde , but to give us a firm hope of it in this present state , now our sins by deserving eternal punishment , do hinder the effect of that decree upon us , and therefore they were an impulsive cause of the death of Christ , by which it was effected , that this decree should obtain notwithstanding our sins . But we are not to understand as though this were done by any expiation of the guilt of sin by the death of Christ ; but this effect is hindred by three things , by taking away their sins , by assuring men that their former sins , and present infirmities upon their sincere obedience shall not be imputed to them , and that the effect of that decree shall obtain , all which , saith he , is effected morte Christi interveniente , the death of Christ interventing , but not as the procuring cause . So that after all these words he means no more by making our sins an impulsive cause of the death of Christ , but that the death of Christ was an argument to confirm to us the truth of his Doctrine , which doctrine of his doth give us assurance of these things : and that our sins when they are said to be the impulsive cause , are not to be considered with a respect to their guilt , but to that distrust of God which our sins do raise in us ; which distrust is in truth according to this sense of Crellius the impulsive cause , and not the sins which were the cause or occasion of it . For that was it which the doctrine was designed to remove , and our sins only as the causes of that . But if it be said , that he speaks not only of the distrust , but of the punishment of sin as an impediment which must be removed too , and therefore may be call'd an impulsive cause , we are to consider that the removal of this is not attributed to the death of Christ , but to the leaving of our sins by the belief of his Doctrine ; therefore the punishment of our sins cannot unless in a very remote sense be said to be an impulsive cause of that , which for all that we can observe by Crellius , might as well have been done without it ; if any other way could be thought sufficient to confirm his doctrine , and Christ , without dying , might have had power to save all them that obey him . But we understand not an impulsive cause in so remote a sense , as though our sins were a meer occasion of Christs dying , because the death of Christ was one argument among many others to believe his Doctrine , the belief of which would make men leave their sins ; but we contend for a neerer and more proper sense , viz. that the death of Christ was primarily intended for the expiation of our sins , with a respect to God and not to us , and therefore our sins as an impulsive cause are to be considered as they are so displeasing to God ; that it was necessary for the Vindication of Gods Honour , and the deterring the world from sin , that no less a Sacrifice of Attonement should be offered , than the blood of the Son of God. So that we understand an impulsive cause here in the same sense , that the sins of the people were , under the Law , the cause of the offering up those Sacrifices , which were appointed for the expiation of them . And as in those Sacrifices there were two things to be considered , viz. the mactation , and the oblation of them , the former as a punishment by a substitution of them in place of the persons who had offended ; the latter as the proper Sacrifice of attonement , although the mactation it self , considered with the design of it , was a Sacrificial act too : So we consider the sufferings of Christ with a twofold respect , either as to our sins , as the impulsive cause of them , so they are to be considered as a punishment , or as to God , with a design to expiate the guilt of them , so they are a Sacrifice of Attonement . The first consideration is , that we are now upon , and upon which the present debate depends , for if the sufferings of Christ be to be taken under the notion of punishment , then our Adversaries grant , that our sins must be an impulsive cause of them in another sense than they understand it . For the clearing of this , I shall prove these two things . 1. That no other sense ought to be admitted of the places of Scripture which speak of the sufferings of Christ with a respect to sin , but this . 2. That this Account of the sufferings of Christ , is no wayes repugnant to the Justice of God. That no other sense ought to be admitted of the places of Scripture , which speak of the sufferings of Christ with a respect to our sins , but that they are to be considered as a punishment for them . Such are those which speak of Christs bearing our sins , of our iniquities being laid upon him , of his making himself an offering for sin , and being made sin and a curse for us , and of his dying for our sins . All which I shall so far consider , as to vindicate them from all the exceptions which Socinus and Crellius have offered against them . 1. Those which speak of Christs bearing our sins . As to which we shall consider , First , . The importance of the phrase in general of bearing sin , and then the circumstances of the particular places in dispute . For the importance of the phrase , Socinus acknowledges , that it generally signifies bearing the punishment of sin in Scripture : but that sometimes it signifies taking away . The same is confessed by Crellius , but he saith , it doth not alwayes signifie bearing proper punishment , but it is enough ( he sayes ) that one bears something burdensome on the occasion of others sins : and so Christ by undergoing his sufferings by occasion of sins , may be said to bear our sins . And for this sense he quotes Numb . 14. 33. And your Children shall wander in the Wilderness forty years , and bear your whoredoms , untill your carcasses be wasted in the Wilderness . Whereby , saith he , it is not meant that God would punish the Children of the Israelites , but that by the occasion of their parents sins , they should undergoe that trouble , in wandering in the Wilderness , and being deprived of the possession of the promised Land. But could Crellius think that any thing else could have been imagined , ( setting aside a total destruction ) a greater instance of Gods severity , than that was to the Children of Israel all their circumstances being considered ? Is it not said , that God did swear in his wrath , they should not enter into his rest ? Surely then the debarring them so long of that rest , was an instance of Gods wrath , and so according to his own principles must have something of Vindicta in it , and therefore be a proper punishment . The truth is , our Adversaries allow themselves in speaking things most repugnant to Humane Nature in this matter of punishments , that they may justifie their own hypothesis . For a whole Nation to be for forty years debarred from the greatest blessings were ever promised them ; and instead of enjoying them , to endure the miseries and hardships of forty years travells in a barren wilderness , must not be thought a punishment , and only because occasioned by their Parents sins . But whatever is inflicted on the account of sin , and with a design to shew Gods severity against it , and thereby to deterr others from the practice of it , hath the proper notion of punishment in it ; and all these things did concurr in this instance , besides the general sense of mankind in the matter of their punishment , which was such , that supposing them preserved in their liberty , could not have been imagined greater . And therefore Vatablus , whom Socinus and Crellius highly commend , thus renders those words , dabunt poenas pro fornicationibus vestris quibus defecistis a Deo vestro : they shall suffer the punishment of your fornications . And that bearing the sins of Parents doth imply properly bearing the punishment of them , methinks they should not so earnestly deny , who contend that to be the meaning of the words in Ezekiel , The Son shall not bear the iniquity of the Father ; viz. that he shall not bear the punishment of his Fathers sins . Where in bearing iniquity with a respect to their Parents sins , by their own confession must be taken for the proper punishment ; for otherwise they do not deny , but Children notwithstanding that sentence , may undergo much affliction on the occasion of their Parents sins . But Socinus further objects , that bearing sins doth not imply the punishment of them , because the Scape-Goat under the Law , is said to bear upon him the iniquities of the people , and yet could not be said to be punished for them . To which Grotius answers , that Socinus takes it for granted without reason , that the Scape-Goat could not be said to be punished for the sins of the people ; for punishment in general , may fall upon beasts for the sins of men , Gen. 9. 5. Exod. 21. 28. Lev. 20. 15. Gen. 8. 21. and Socinus hath no cause to say , that the Scape-Goat was not slain ; for the Jewish Interpreters do all agree that he was , and however the sending him into the Wilderness was intended as a punishment , and most probably by an unnatural death . To which Crellius replies , That i● the general , he denyes not but punishment may fall upon beasts as well as men ; but ( that he might shew himself true to his principle , that one cannot be punished for anothe● faults , ) he falls into a very pleasant discourse , That the Beasts are not said to be punished for mens sins , but for their own , and therefore when it is said , before the flood , that all flesh had corrupted his way ; he will by n● means have it understood only of men , b●… that the sins of the beasts at that time , were greater than ordinary , as well as mens . But he hath not told us what they were , whether by eating some forbidden herbs , or entring into conspiracies against mankind their lawful Soveraigns , or unlawful mixtures ; and therefore we have yet reason to believe that when God saith , the ground was cursed for mans sake , that the beasts were punished for mans sin . And if all flesh , must comprehend beasts in this place , why shall not all flesh seeing the glory of the Lord , take in the beasts there too : for Vatablus parallels this place with the ●ther . But if , saith then●e ●e saith , that those though they were destroy●d by the flood , yet did not suffer punishment , ●ut only a calamity by occasion of the sins of ●en . I wonder he did not rather say , that the innocent beasts were taken into the Ark , for the propagation of a better kind afterwards . But by this solemn distiuction of calamities and punishments , there is nothing so miserable , that either men or beasts can undergo , but when it serves their turn , it shall be only a calamity and no punishment , though it be said to be on purpose to shew Gods severity against the sins of the world . And this excellent notion of the beasts being punished for their own sins , is improved by him to the vindication of the Scape-Goat from being punished ; because then , saith he , the most wicked and corrupt Goat should have been made choice off . As though all the design of that great day of expiation had been only to call the Children of Israel together with great solemnity , to let them see , how a poor Goat must be punished for breaking the Laws which we do not know were ever made for them . I had thought our Adversaries had maintained that the Sacrifices ( on the day of expiation 〈◊〉 least ) had represented and typified th●… Sacrifice which was to be offered up b●… Christ ; and so Socinus and Crellius else where contend : he need not therefor● have troubled himself concerning the si●… of the Goat , when it is expresly said , Th●… the sins of the people were put on the he●… of the Goat ; Whatever then the punishment were , it was on the account of the sins of the people , and not his own . Bu● Crellius urgeth against Grotius , that if the Scape-Goat had been punished for the expiation of the sins of the people , that should have bee● particularly expressed in Scripture , where●… nothing is said there at all of it , and that the throwing down the Scape-Goat from the top 〈◊〉 the rock , was no part of the Primitive Institution , but one of the superstitions taken up by the Jewes in after-times , because of the ominousness of the return of it ; and although we should suppose ( which is not probable ) that it should dye by famine in the Wilderness , yet this was not the death for expiation , which was to be by the shedding of blood . To this therefore I answer . 1. I do not insist on the customs of the later Jewes to prove from thence any punishment designed by the primitive institution . For I shall easily yield , that many superstitions obtained among them afterwards about the Scape-Goat ; as the stories of the red list turning white upon the head of it , the booths and he causey made on purpose , and several other things mentioned in the Rabbinical Writers do manifest . But yet it seems very probable from the Text it self , that the Scape-Goat was not carried into the Wilderness at large , but to a steep mountain there . For although we have commonly rendered Azazel by the Scape-Goat , yet according to the best of the Jewish Writers , as P. Fagius tells us , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not come from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Goat , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 abiit ; but is the name of a Mountain very steep and rocky near Mount Sinai , and therefore probably called by the later Jews , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the name of a Rock : and to this purpose , it is observable that where we render it , and let him go for a Scape-Goat into the Wilderness in the Hebrew it is , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to send him to Azazel in the Wilderness : as the joyning the preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth import , and the Arabick Version whereever Azazel is mentioned , renders it by Mount Azaz : and the Chaldee and Syriack to Azazel ; so that from hence , a carrying the Scape-Goat to a certain place may be inferred ; but I see no foundation in the Text for the throwing it down from the rock when it was there ; and therefore I cannot think , but that 〈…〉 the punishment intended did lye in tha● it would have been expresly mention●… in the solemnities of that day , which h●… so great an influence on the expiation 〈◊〉 the sins of the people . 2. I answer , th●… the Scape-Goat was to denote rather t●… effect of the expiation , than the mann●… of obtaining it . For the proper expiatio●… was by the shedding of blood , as the Apos●… tells us ; and thence the live Goat was no●… to have the sins of the people to bear aw●… into the desart , till the High Priest had made 〈◊〉 end of reconciling the Holy Place , and the T●… bernacle of the Congregation , and the Altar ; an● by the sprinkling of the blood of the other God which was the sin-offering for the people ; which being done , he was to bring the live Goat , and to lay his hands upon the head of it , and confess over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel , and all their transgressions in 〈◊〉 their sins , putting them upon the head of the Goat , and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the Wilderness ; and so the Go● shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited , and he shall let go the Goat in the Wilderness . So that the former Goat noted the way of expiation by the shedding of blood , and the latter the effect of it , viz. that the sins of the people were declared to be expiated by the sending the Goat charged with their sins into a desart place ; and that their sins would not appear in the presence of God against them , any more than they expected , that the Goat which was sent into the Wilderness should return among them . Which was the reason that afterwards they took so much care that it should not , by causing it to be thrown off from a steep rock ; which was no sooner done , but notice was given of it very suddenly by the sounding of horns all over the Land. But the force of Socinus his argument from the Scape-Goats bearing the sins of the people , that therefore that phrase doth not alwayes imply the bearing of punishment , is taken off by Crellius himself , who tells us that the Scape-Goat is not said to bear the sins of the people in the Wilderness ; but only that it carried the sins of the people into the Wilderness , which is a phrase of another importance from that we are now discoursing off . As will now further appear from the places where it is spoken of concerning our Saviour , which we now come particularly to examine . The first place insisted on by Grotius with a respect to Christ , is 1 Pet. 2. 24. Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree , which , saith Crellius , is so far from proving that Christ did bear the punishment of our sins , that it doth not imply any sufferings that he underwent on the occasion of them . He grants that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth signifie to carry up , but withall ( he saith ) it signifies to take away ; because that which is taken up , is taken away from the place where it was . Besides , he observes , that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth answer to the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he hath made to ascend , which is frequently rendred by it in the LXX . and sometimes by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; but that Hebrew word doth often signifie to take away , where it is rendred in the Greek by one of those two words , 2 Sam. 21. 13. Josh. 24. 32. Psal. 102. 25. Ezra 1. 11. To which I answer , 1. That the signification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this place , must not be taken from every sense the word is ever used for , but in that which the words out of which these are taken do imply ; and in Isa. 53. 11. it doth not answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word which by the confession of all is never properly used for taking away , but for bearing of a burden , and is used with a respect to the punishment of sin , Lament . 5. 7. Our fathers have sinned , and are not , and we have born their iniquities , where the same word is used ; so that the signification of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here , must depend upon that in Isaiah , of which more afterward . 2. Granting that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth answer sometimes to the Hebr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet it makes nothing to Crellius his purpose , unless he can prove that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth ever signifie the taking away a thing by the destruction of it ; for where it answers to that word , it is either for the offering up of a Sacrifice , in which sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is very frequently used , as is confessed by Crellius ; and in that sense it is no prejudice at all to our cause ; for then it must be granted , that Christ upon the Cross is to be considered as a sacrifice for the sins of men ; and so our sins were laid upon him as they were supposed to be on the Sacrifices under the Law , in order to the expiation of them , by the shedding their blood ; and if our Adversaries would acknowledge this , the difference would not be so great between us ; or else it is used for the removal of a thing from one place to another , the thing it self still remaining in being , as 2 Sam. 21. 13. And he made Sauls bones to ascend , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he took them away , saith Crellius ; true , but it is such a taking away , as is a bare removal ; the thing still remaining ; the same is to be said of Joseph's bones , Josh. 24. 32. which are all the places where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used ; and although 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be sometimes taken in another sense , as Psal. 102. 25. yet nothing can be more unreasonable than such a way of arguing as this is ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Crellius signifies taking away ; we demand his proof of it ; is it that the word signifies so much of it self ? No ; that he grants it doth not . Is it that it is frequently used in the Greek Version to render a word that properly doth signifie so ? No ; nor that neither . But how is it then ? Crellius tells us , that it sometimes answers to a word that signifies to make to ascend : well , but doth that word signifie taking away ? No ; not constantly , for it is frequently used for a sacrifice : but doth it at any time signifie so ? Yes ; it signifies the removal of a thing from one place to another . Is that the sense then he contends for here ? No , but how then ? why 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used to render the same word that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though it signifies too a bare removal , as Ezra 1. 11. yet Psal. 102. 25. it is used for cutting off , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Hebr. is , make me not to ascend in the midst of my dayes . But doth it here signifie utter destruction ? I suppose not ; but grant it , what is this to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , when the LXX . useth not that word here , which for all that we know was purposely alter'd ; so that at last 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is far enough from any such signification as Crellius would fix upon it , unless he will assert , that Christs taking away our sins , was only a removal of them from Earth to Heaven . But here Grotius comes in to the relief of Crellius against himself ; for in his Notes upon this place , though he had before said , that the word was never used in the New Testament in that sense , yet he there saith , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is abstulit , for which he referrs us to Heb. 9. 28. where he proceeds altogether as subtilly as Crellius had done before him , for he tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Numb . 14. 33. Deut. 14. 24. Isa. 53. 12. but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Lev. 10. 17. Numb . 14. 18. A most excellent way of interpreting Scripture ! considering the various significations of the Hebrew words ; and above all of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is here mention'd . For according to this way of arguing , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall signifie the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies all these , and is rendred by them in the Greek Version , so that by the same way that Grotius proves that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , we can prove that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not signifie to take away , but to bear punishment ; nay , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies the bearing punishment in the strictest sense , Ezek. 16. 52 , 54. and bearing sin in that sense , Ezek. 16. 58. Thou hast born thy lewdness , and thy abominations , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So that when 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is more frequently used in this than in the other sense , why shall its signifying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at any time make 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be taken in the same sense with that ? Nay , I do not remember in any place where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is joyned with sin , but it signifies the punishment of it , so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Levit. 19. 8. to bear his iniquity , Levit. 20. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , bearing their iniquity in one verse is explained by being cut off from among their people , in the next . And in the places cited by Grotius , that Numb . 14. 33. hath been already shewed to signifie bearing the punishment of sin , and that Deut. 14. 24. is plainly understood of a Sacrifice , the other , Isa. 53. 12. will be afterwards made appear by other places in the same Chapter , to signifie nothing to this purpose . So that for all we can yet see , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must be taken either for bearing our sins as a sacrifice did under the Law , or the punishment of them ; in either sense it serves our purpose , but is far enough from our Adversaries meaning . But supposing we should grant them , that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may signifie to take away , let us see what excellent sense they make of these words of S. Peter . Do they then say , that Christ did take away our sins upon the Cross ? No , they have a great care of that , for that would make the expiation of sins to have been performed there ; which they utterly deny , and say , that Christ only took the Cross in his way to his Ascension to Heaven , that there he might expiate sins . But doth not S. Peter say , that what was done by him here , was in his body on the tree : and they will not say , he carryed that with him to Heaven too . Well , but what then was the taking away of sin which belong'd to Christ upon the Cross ? is it only to perswade men to live vertuously , and leave off their sins ? This Socinus would have , and Crellius is contented that it should be understood barely of taking away sins , and not of the punishment of them , but only by way of accession and consequence : but if it be taken ( which he inclines more to ) for the punishment , then ( he saith ) it is to be understood not of the vertue and efficacy of the death of Christ , but of the effect : and yet a little after he saith , those words of Christs bearing our sins , are to be understood of the force and efficacy of Christs death to do it , not including the effect of it in us ; not as though Christ did deliver us from sins by his death , but that he did that by dying , upon which the taking away of sin would follow , or which had a great power for the doing it . So uncertain are our Adversaries , in affixing any sense upon these words , which may attribute any effect at all , to the death of Christ upon the Cross. For if they be understood of taking away sins , then they are onely to be meant of the power that was in the death of Christ , to perswade men to leave their sins ; which we must have a care of understanding so , as to attribute any effect to the death of Christ in order to it ; but onely that the death of Christ was an argument for us to believe what he said , and the believing what he said would incline us to obey him , and if we obey him , we shall leave off our sins , whether Christ had dyed or no : supposing his miracles had the same effect on us , which those of Moses had upon the Jews , which were sufficient to perswade them to believe and obey without his death . But if this be all that was meant by Christs bearing our sins in his body on the tree ; why might not S. Peter himself be said to bear them upon his cross too ? for his death was an excellent example of patience , and a great argument to perswade men he spake truth , and that doctrine which he preached , was repentance and remission of sins : So that by this sense , there is nothing peculiar attributed to the death of Christ. But taking the other sense for the taking away the punishment of sins , we must see how this belongs to the death of Christ : Do they then attribute our delivery from the punishment to sin , to the death of Christ on the Cross ? yes , just as we may attribute Caesars subduing Rome , to his passing over Rubicon , because he took that in his way to the doing of it : so they make the death of Christ onely as a passage , in order to expiation of sins , by taking away the punishment of them . For that shall not be actually perfected , they say , till his full deliverance of all those that obey him , from hell and the grave , which will not be till his second coming . So that if we onely take the body of Christ for his second coming , and the cross of Christ , or the tree , for his Throne of Glory , then they will acknowledge , that Christ may very well be said , to take away sins in his own body on the tree : but if you take it in any sense that doth imply any peculiar efficacy to the death of Christ , for all the plainness of S. Peters words , they by no means will admit of it . But because Crellius urgeth Grotius with the sense of that place , Isa. 53. 11. out of which he contends these words are taken , and Crellius conceives he can prove there , that bearing is the same with taking away sin : We now come to consider , what force he can find from thence , for the justifying his assertion , That the bearing of sins , when attributed to Christ , doth not imply the punishment of them , but the taking them away . The words are , for he shall bear their iniquities . As to which Grotius observes , that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies iniquity , is sometimes taken for the punishment of sin , 2 Kings 7. 9. and the verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to bear , and when ever it is joyned with sin or iniquity , in all Languages , and especially the Hebrew , it signifies to suffer punishment ; for although 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may sometimes signifie to take away , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 never does : so that this phrase can receive no other interpretation . Notwithstanding all which , Crellius attempts to prove , that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here , must be taken in a sense contrary to the natural and perpetual use of the word ; for which his first argument is very infirm , viz. because it is mentioned after the death of Christ , and is therefore to be considered as the reward of the other . Whereas it appears : 1. By the Prophets discourse , that he doth not insist on an exact methodical order , but dilates and amplifies things as he sees occasion : for Vers. 9. he saith , He made his grave with the wicked , and with the rich in his death ; and Vers. 10. he saith , Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him , he hath put him to grief : Will Crellius therefore say , that this must be consequent to his death and burial ? 2. The particle , may be here taken causally , as we render it , very agreeably to the sense ; and so it gives an account of the fore-going clause , By his knowledge , shall my righteous servant justifie many , for he shall bear their iniquities . And that this is no unusual acception of that particle , might be easily cleared from many places of Scripture if it were necessary ; and from this very Prophet , as Isa. 39. 1. where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 King. 20. 12. and Isa. 64. 5. Thou art wroth , for we have sinned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where the same particle is made the causal of what went before . But we need not insist upon this to answer Crellius , who elsewhere makes use of it himself , and says , They must be very ignorant of the Hebrew Tongue , who do not know , that the conjunction copulative is often taken causally ; and so much is confessed by Socinus also , where he explains , that particle in one sens●… in the beginning , and causally in the middl●… of the verse : And the Lords anger was kindle●… against Israel , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for he moved , &c. But i●… this will not do , he attempts to prove●… That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this very Chapter , hath the signification of taking away , v. 4. For he hath bor●… our griefs , and carried our sorrows , which i●… applied by S. Matth. 8. 17. to bodily diseases , which our Saviour did not bear , but took away , as it is said in the foregoing verse , he healed all that were sick on which those words come in , That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias , &c. To which I answer : 1. It is granted by our Adversaries , that S. Matthew in those words , doth not give the full sense of the Prophet , but onely applies that by way of accommodation , to bodily diseases , which was chiefly intended for the sins of men . And in a way of accommodation it is not unusual to strain words beyond their genuine and natural signification , or what was intended primarily by the person who spake them . Would it be reasonable for any to say that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to give , because that place Psal. 68. 18. where the word by all is acknowledged to signifie to receive , is rendred to give , Eph. 4. 8. so that admitting another sense of the word here , as applied to the cure of bodily diseases , it doth not from thence follow , that this should be ●he meaning of the word in the primary ●ense intended by the Prophet . 2. The word as used by S. Matthew , is very capable of the primary and natural sense ; for S. Matthew retains words of the same signification , with that which we contend for , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , neither of which doth signifie taking away , by causing a thing not to be . So that all that is implied hereby , is the pains and trouble which our Saviour took in the healing of the sick . For to that end , as Grotius well observes upon that place , the circumstances are mentioned , That it was at even , and multitudes were brought to him in S. Matthew , that after Sun-set all that were diseased were brought , and all the City was gathered together at the door ; in S. Mark , That he departed not till it was day , in S. Luke ; that we might the better understand how our Saviour did bear our griefs , because the pains he took in healing them were so great . And here I cannot but observe , that Grotius in his notes on that place , continued still in the same minde he was in , when he writ against Socinus ; for he saith , Those words may either refer to the diseases of the body , and so they note the pains he took in the cure of them ; or to our sins , and so they were fulfilled when Christ by suffering upon t●… cross , did obtain remission of sins for 〈◊〉 as S. Peter saith , 1 Pet. 2. 24. But upon what reason the Annotations on that pla●… come to be so different from his sense e●… pressed here , long after Crellius his answe●… I do not understand . But we are sure 〈◊〉 declared his mind , as to the main of th●… Controversie , to be the same , that it w●… when he writ his Book which Crellius answered ; as appears by two Letters of h●… to Vossius , not long since published ; an● he utterly disowns the charge of Socinianisa , as a calumny in his discussion , the last book he ever writ . But we are no further obliged to vindicate Grotius , than he did the truth ; which we are sure he did in the vindication of the 53 of Isaiah , from Socinus his interpretations , notwithstanding what Crellius hath objected against him . We therefore proceed to other Verses in the same Chapter insisted on by Grotius , to prove That Christ did bear the punishment of our sins , v. 6 , 7. The Lord hath laid on him the iniquities of us all : It is required , and he was afflicted , as Grotius renders those words . Socinus makes a twofold sense of the former clause ; the first is , That God by or with Christ did meet with our iniquities ; the latter , That God did make our iniquities to meet with Christ. The ●ords saith Grotius , will not bear the for●er interpretation ; for the verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be●…g in Hiphil , must import a double action , ●nd so it must not be , That God by him did ●…eet with our sins , but that God did make our ●…s to meet upon him . To which Crellius●…eplies ●…eplies , That words in Hiphil are somtimes ●…sed intransitively ; but can he produce any ●…nstance in Scripture , where this word ●…oyned with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is so taken ? for in the last verse of the Chapter , the construction is different : And what an uncertain way of interpreting Scripture will this be , if every Anomalous signification , and rare use of a word , shall be made use of to take away such a sense as is most agreeable to the design of the place . For that sense we contend for , is not onely enforced upon the most natural importance of these words , but upon the agreeableness of them with so many other expressions of this Chapter , that Christ did bear our iniquities , and was wounded for our transgressions , and that his soul was made an offering for sin : to which it is very suitable , that as the iniquities of the people were ( as it were ) laid upon the head of the Sacrifice ; so it should be said of Christ , who was to offer up himself for the sins of the world . And the Jews themselves by this phrase do understand the punishme●… either for the sins of the people , wh●… Josias underwent , or which the people the●… selves suffered , by those who interpret 〈◊〉 prophecy of them . To which purpos●… Aben Ezra observes , that iniquity is here 〈◊〉 for the punishment of it , as 1 Sam. 28. 10. Lam. 4. 6. But Socinus mistrusting the i●… congruity of this Interpretation , flies 〈◊〉 another ; viz. That God did make our i●… quities to meet with Christ : and this we 〈◊〉 willing to admit of , if by that they me●… That Christ underwent the punishment 〈◊〉 them ; as that phrase must naturally i●… port , for what otherwise can our iniqui●… meeting with him signifie ? For the word 〈◊〉 taken properly ( as Socinus acknowledg●… it ought to be , when he rejects Pagni●… Interpretation of making Christ to int●… cede for our iniquities ) signifies eith●… to meet with one by chance , or out 〈◊〉 kindeness , or else for an encounter , wi●… an intention to destroy that which it me●… with . So Judg. 8. 21. Rise thou 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LXX irrue in nos , fall upon 〈◊〉 i. e. run upon us with thy sword , and ki●… us , Judg. 15. 12. Swear unto me , that 〈◊〉 will not fall upon me your selves ; where th●… same word is used , and they explain th●… meaning of it in the next words , v. 1●… we will not kill thee , Amos 5. 19. as if a man ●…dia flee from a Lyon , and a Bear met him , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. with a design to kill him . Now I suppose they will not say that our sins met with Christ by chance , since it is said , that God laid on him , &c. nor out of kindness ; it must be therefore out of enmity , and with a design to destroy him , and so our sins cannot be understood as Socinus and Crellius would have them , as the meer occasions of Christs death : but as the proper impulsive cause of it . Whether the following word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be taken with a respect to sin , and so it properly signifies It is required , or with a respect to the person , and so it may signifie he was oppressed , is not a matter of that consequence , which we ought to contend about ; if it be proved that Christs expression had only a respect to sin , as the punishment of it . Which will yet further appear from another expression in the same Chapter , ver . 5. The chastisement of our peace was upon him , and by his stripes we are healed . In which Grotius saith the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not signifie any kind of affliction , but such as hath the nature of punishment , either for example or instruction ; but since the latter cannot be intended in Christ , the former must . Crellius thinks to escape from this , by acknowledging that the sufferings of Christ have some respect to sin ; but if it be such a respect to sin , which makes what Christ underwent a punishment ( which is only proper in this case ) it is as much as we contend for . This therefore he is loth to abide by ; and saith , that chastisement imports no more than bare affliction without any respect to sin , which he thinks to prove from St. Pauls words , 2 Cor. 6. 9. We are chastised , but not given over to death ; but how far this is from proving his purpose will easily appear , 1. Because those by whom they were said to be chastened , did not think they did it without any respect to a fault ; but they supposed them to be justly punished ; and this is that we plead for , that the chastisement considered with a respect to him that inflicts it , doth suppose some fault as the reason of inflicting it . 2. This is far from the present purpose , for the chastisement there mentioned is opposed to death , as chastened , but not killed ; whereas Grotius expresly speaks of such chastisements as include death , that these cannot be supposed to be meerly designed for instruction , and therefore must be conceived under the notion of punishment . The other place Psal. 73. 14. is yet more remote from the business ; for though the Psalmist accounts himself innocent in respect of the great enormities of others ; yet he could not account himself so innocent with a respect to God , as not to deserve chastisement from him . But Crellius offers further to prove that Christs death must be considered as a bare affliction , and not as a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or exemplary punishment , because in such a punishment the guilty themselves are to be punished , and the benefit comes to those who were not guilty , but in Christs sufferings it was quite contrary , for the innocent was punished , and the guilty have the benefit of it : and yet ( he saith ) if we should grant that Christs sufferings were a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that will not prove that his death was a proper punishment . To which I answer , That whatever answers to the ends of an exemplary punishment , may properly be called so : but supposing that Christ suffered the punishment of our sins , those sufferings will answer to all the ends of an exemplary punishment . For the ends of such a punishment assigned by Crellius himself , are , That others observing such a punishment , may abstain from those sins which have brought it upon the person who suffers . Now the question is , whether supposing Christ did suffer on the account of our sins , these sufferings of his may deterr us from the practice of sin or no ? And therefore in opposition to Crellius , I shall prove these two things : 1. That supposing Christ suffered for our sins , there was a sufficient argument to deterr us from the practice of sin . 2. Supposing that his sufferings had no respect to our sins , they could not have that force to deterr men from the practice of it : for he after asserts , That Christs sufferings might be a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to us , though they were no punishment of sin . 1. That the death of Christ considered as a punishment of sin , is a proper 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or hath a great force to deterr men from the practice of sin : and that because the same reason of punishment is supposed in Christ and in our selves , and because the example is much more considerable , than if we had suffered our selves . 1. The same reason of punishment is supposed . For why are men deterred from sin , by seeing others punished ; but because they look upon the sin as the reason of the punishment ; and therefore where the same reason holds , the same ends may be as properly obtained . If we said that Christ suffered death meerly as an innocent person out of Gods dominion over his life ; what imaginable force could this have to deterr men from sin , which is asserted to have no relation to it as the cause of it ? But when we say , that God laid our iniquities upon him , that he suffered not upon his own account but ours , that the sins we commit against God were the cause of all those bitter Agonies which the Son of God underwent , what argument can be more proper to deter men from sin than this is ? For hereby they see the great abhorrency of sin which is in God , that he will not pardon the sins of men without a compensation made to his Honour , and a demonstration to the world of his hatred of it . Hereby they see what a value God hath for his Laws , which he will not relax as to the punishment of offenders , without so valuable a consideration as the blood of his own Son. Hereby they see , that the punishment of sin is no meer arbitrary thing depending barely upon the will of God ; but that there is such a connexion between sin and punishment as to the ends of Government , that unless the Honor and Majesty of God , as to his Laws and Government may be preserved , the violation of his Laws must expect a just recompence of reward . Hereby they see what those are to expect who neglect or despise these sufferings of the Son of God for them ; for nothing can then remain , but a certain fearful looking for of judgement and fiery indignation which shall devour the Adversaries . So that , here all the weighty arguments concurr which may be most apt to prevail upon men to deterr them from their sins . For if God did thus by the green tree , what will he do by the dry ? If he who was so innocent in himself , so perfectly holy , suffered so much on the account of our sins ; what then may those expect to suffer , who have no innocency at all to plead , and add wilfulness and impenitency to their sins ? But if it be replyed by Crellius , that it is otherwise among men : I answer , that we do not pretend in all things to parallel the sufferings of Christ for us , with any sufferings of men for one another . But yet we add , that even among men the punishments inflicted on those who were themselves innocent as to the cause of them , may be as exemplary as any other . And the greater appearance of severity there is in them , the greater terror they strike into all offenders . As Childrens losing their estates and honors , or being banished for their Parents treasons in which they had no part themselves . Which is a proper punishment on them of their Fathers faults , whether they be guilty or no ; and if this may be just in men , why not in God ? If any say , that the Parents are only punished in the Children , he speaks that which is contradictory to the common sense of mankind ; for punishment doth suppose sense or feeling of it ; and in this case the Parents are said to be punished , who are supposed to be dead and past feeling of it , and the Children who undergo the smart of it must not be said to be punished ; though all things are so like it , that no person can imagine himself in that condition , but would think himself punished , and severely too . If it be said , that these are calamities indeed , but they are no proper punishments , it may easily be shewed that distinction will not hold here . Because these punishments were within the design of the Law , and were intended for all the ends of punishments , and therefore must have the nature of them . For therefore the Children are involved in the Fathers punishment on purpose to deterr others from the like actions . There are some things indeed that Children may fall into by occasion of their Fathers guilt , which may be only calamities to them , because they are necessary consequents in the nature of the thing , and not purposely designed as a punishment to them . Thus , being deprived of the comfort and assistance of their Parents , when the Law hath taken them off by the hand of justice : this was designed by the Law as a punishment to the Parents , and as to the Children it is only a necessary consequent of their punishment . For otherwise the Parents would have been punished for the Childrens faults , and not the Children only involved in that which unavoidably follows upon the Parents punishment . So that Crellius is very much mistaken either in the present case of our Saviours punishment , or in the general reason of exemplary punishments , as among men . But the case of our Saviour is more exemplary , when we consider the excellency of his person , though appearing in our nature , when no meaner sufferings would satisfie , than of so transcendent a nature as he underwent , though he were the Eternal Son of God , this must make the punishment much more exemplary , than if he were considered only as our Adversaries do , as a meer man. So that the dignity of his person under all his sufferings may justly add a greater consideration to deterr us from the practice of sin , which was so severely punished in him , when he was pleased to be a Sacrifice for our sins . From whence we see that the ends of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are very agreeable with the sufferings of Christ considered as a punishment for sin . We now consider whether as Crellius asserts , supposing Christs death were no punishment , it could have these effects upon mens minds or no ? Yes , he saith , it might , because by his sufferings we might see how severely God would punish wicked and obstinate persons . Which being a strange riddle at the first hearing it , viz. that by the sufferings of an innocent person without any respect to sin as the cause of them : we should discern Gods severity against those who are obstinate in sin ; we ought the more diligently to attend to what is said for the clearing of it . First , saith he , If God spared not his own most innocent and holy and only Son , than whom nothing was more dear to him in Heaven or Earth , but exposed him to so cruel and ignominious a death ; how great and severe sufferings may we think God will inflict on wicked men , who are at open defiance with him ? I confess my self not subtle enough to apprehend the force of this argument , viz. If God dealt so severely with him who had no sin either of his own or others to answer for 〈◊〉 therefore he will deal much more severely with those that have . For Gods severity consider'd without any respect t●… sin , gives rather encouragement to sinners , than any argument to deterre them from it . For the natural consequence of it is , that God doth act arbitrarily , without any regard to the good or evi● of mens actions ; and therefore it is to no purpose to be sollicitous about them . For upon the same account that the most innocent person suffers most severely from him , for all that we know , the more we strive to be innocent , the more severely we may be dealt with , and let men sin , they can be but dealt severely with , all the difference then is , one shall be call'd punishments , and the other calamities , but the severity may be the same in both . And who would leave off his sins meerly to change the name of punishments into that of calamities ? And from hence it will follow , that the differences of good and evil , and the respects of them to punishment and reward , are but aiery and empty things ; but that God really in the dispensation of things to men , hath no regard to what men are or do , but acts therein according to his own Dominion , whereby he may dispose of men how or which way he pleases . If a Prince had many of his Subjects in open rebellion against him , and he should at that time make his most obedient and beloved Son to be publickly exposed to all manner of indignities , and be dishonoured and put to death by the hands of those rebells ; could any one imagine that this was designed as an exemplary punishment to all rebels , to let them see the danger of rebellion ? No , but would it not rather make them think him a cruel Prince , one that would punish innocency as much as rebellion ; and that it was rather better to stand at defiance , and become desperate , for it was more dangerous to be beloved than hated by him , to be his Son than his declared Enemy ? So that insisting on the death of Christ as it is considered as a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ( for of that we speak now ) there is no comparison between our Adversaries hypothesis and ours ; but , saith Crellius , the consequence is not good on our side , if Christ suffered the punishment of our sins , therefore they shall suffer much more who continue in sin , for Christ suffered for the sins of the whole world ; but they suffer only for their own , and what they have deserved themselves . To which I answer , that the argument is of very good force upon our hypothesis , though it would not be upon theirs . For if we suppose him to be a meer man that suffer'd , then there could be no argument drawn from his sufferings to ours , but according to the exact proportion of sins and punishments : but supposing that he had a divine as well as humane nature , there may not be so great a proportion of the sins of the world to the sufferings of Christ , as of the sins of a particular person to his own sufferings ; and therefore the argument from one to the other doth still hold . For the measure of punishments must be taken with a proportion to the dignity of the person who suffers them . And Crellius himself confesseth elsewhere , that the dignity of the person is to be considered in exemplary punishment , and that a lesser punishment of one that is very great , may do much more to deterre men from sin , than a greater punishment of one much less . But he yet further urgeth , that the severity of God against sinners may be discovered in the sufferings of Christ , because Gods hatred against sin is discovered therein . But if we ask how Gods hatred against sin , is seen in the sufferings of one perfectly innocent and free from sin , and not rather his hatred of innocency , if no respect to sin were had therein ? he answers , that Gods hatred against sin was manifested , in that he would not spare his only Son to draw men off from sin . For answer to which , we are to consider the sufferings of Christ as an innocent person , designed as an exemplary cause to draw men off from sin ; and let any one tell me , what hatred of sin can possibly be discover'd , in proposing the sufferings of a most innocent person to them without any consideration of sin as the cause of those sufferings ? If it be said , that the doctrine of Christ was designed to draw men off from sin ; and that God suffered his Son to dye to confirm this doctrine , and thereby shewed his hatred to sin . I answer , 1. This is carrying the dispute off from the present business , for we are not now arguing about the design of Christs doctrine , nor the death of Christ as a means to confirm that , but as a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and what power that hath without respect to our sins as the cause of them , to draw us from sin , by discovering Gods hatred to it . 2. The doctrine of Christ according to their hypothesis , discovers much less of Gods hatred to sin than ours doth . For if God may pardon sin without any compensation made to his Laws or Honour , if repentance be in its own nature a sufficient satisfaction for all the sins past of our Lives ; if there be no such thing as such a Justice in God which requires punishment of sin committed ; if the punishment of sin depend barely upon Gods will ; and the most innocent person may suffer as much from God without respect to sin as the cause of suffering , as the most guilty ; let any rational man judge whether this Doctrine discovers as much Gods abhorrency of sin , as asserting the necessity of vindicating Gods honour to the World , by the breach of his Laws , if not by the suffering of the offenders themselves , yet of the Son of God as a Sacrifice for the expiation of sin , by undergoing the punishment of our iniquities , so as upon consideration of his sufferings , he is pleased to accept of repentance and sincere obedience , as the conditions upon which he will grant remission of sins , and eternal life . So that if the discovery of Gods hatred to sin be the means to reclaim men from it , we assert upon the former reasons , that much more is done upon our Doctrine concerning the sufferings of Christ , than can be upon theirs . So much shall suffice to manifest in what sense Christs death may be a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and that this doth imply , that his sufferings are to be considered as a punishment of sin . The next Series of places which makes Christs sufferings to be a punishment for sin , are those which assert Christ to be made sin and a curse for us : which we now design to make clear , ought to be understood in no other sense ; for as Grotius saith , As the Jews sometimes use sin , for the punishment of sin ; as appears , besides other places , by Zach. 14. 19. Gen. 4. 13. so they call him that suffers the punishment of sin , by the name of sin ; as the Latins use the word Piaculum , both for the fault , and for him that suffers for it . Thence under the Law , an expiatory Sacrifice for sin , was called sin , Levit. 4. 3 , 29 — 5. 6. Psal. 40. 7. Which way of speaking Esaias followed , speaking of Christ , Esai . 53. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he made his soul sin , i. e. liable to the punishment of it . To the same purpose S. Paul , 2 Cor. 5. 21. He made him to be sin for us , who knew no sin , that we might be made the righteousness of God in him . To which Crellius replies , That as there is no necessity , that by the name of sin , when applied to sufferings , any more should be implied , than that those sufferings were occasioned by sin , no more is there when it is applied to the person ; nay , much less , for he saith , No more is required to this , but that he should be handled as sinners use to be , and undergo the matter of punishment , without any respect to sin , either as the cause or occasion of it . So he saith , The name Sinner is used , 1 King. 1. 21. and in S. Paul , the name of sin in the first clause is to be understood , as of righteousness in the latter ; and as we are said to be righteousness in him , when God deals with us as with righteous persons , so Christ was said to be sin for us , when he was dealt with as a sinner . And the Sacrifices for sin under the Law were so call'd , not with a respect to the punishment of sin , but because they were offered upon the account of sin , and were used for taking away the guilt of it ; or because men were bound to offer them , so that they sinned if they neglected it . So that all that is meant by Esaias and S. Paul is , That Christ was made an expiatory Sacrifice , or that he exposed himself for those afflictions which sinners onely by right undergo . But let Crellius or any others of them tell me , if the Scripture had intended to express , that the sufferings of Christ were a punishment of our sins , how was it possible to do it more Emphatically than it is done by these expressions ( the custom of the Hebrew Language being considered ) not onely by saying , that Christ did bear our sins , but , that himself was made sin for us ? those phrases being so commonly used for the punishment of sin . Let them produce any one instance in Scripture , where those expressions are applied to any without the consideration of sin ? that place 1 King. 1. 21. is very far from it ; for in all probability , the design of Bathsheba in making Solomon King was already discovered , which was the reason that Adonijah his elder Brother declaring himself King , invited not him with the rest of the Kings sons : All that she had for Solomons succession , was a secret promise and oath of David ; and therefore she urgeth him now to declare the succession , v. ●0 . Otherwise , she saith , when David should dye , I and my son Solomon shall be accounted offenders ; i. e. saith Crel●… . We shall be handled as offenders , we shall be destroyed : But surely not without the supposition of a fault , by them which should inflict that punishment upon them : The plain meaning is , they should be accused of Tr●a ●n , and then punished accordingly . But we are to consider , that still with a respect to them , who were the inflicters , a fault or sin is supposed as the reason of their punishment , either of their own or others . But of our Saviour it is not said , That he should be counted as an offender by the Jews ; for although that doth not take away his innocency , yet it supposeth an accusation of something , which in it self deserves punishment . But in Esai . 53. 10. it is said , He made his soul sin ; and 2 Cor. 5. 21. That God made him sin for us , which must therefore imply , not being dealt with by men onely as a sinner , but that with a respect to him who inflicted the punishment , there was a consideration of sin as the reason of it . We do not deny but Gods suffering him to be dealt with as a sinner by men , is implied in it , for that was the method of his punishment designed ; but we say further , that the reason of that permission in God , doth suppose some antecedent cause of it : For God would never have suffered his onely Son , to be so dealt with by the hands of cruel men , unless he had made himself an offering for sin ; being willing to undergo those sufferings , that he might be an expiatory Sacrifice for the sins of the world . And although Socinus will not yield , That by being made sin for us , should be understood Christs being an Expiatory Sacrifice for sin ; yet Crellius is contented it should be so taken in both places : Which if he will grant , so as by virtue of that Sacrifice , the guilt of sin is expiated , we shall not contend with him about the reasons , why those Sacrifices were call'd sins , although the most proper and genuine must needs be that , which is assigned by the Law , that the sins of the people were supposed to be laid upon them , and therefore they were intended for the expiation of them : But it is very unreasonable to say , That Expiatory Sacrifices were called sins , because it would have been a sin to neglect them : For on the same account , all the other Sacrifices must have been call'd so too ; for it was a sin to neglect any where God required them , and so there had been no difference between Sacrifices for sin and others . To that reason of Crellius , from our being made righteous , because dealt with as such , to Christs being made sin onely , because dealt with as a sinner , we need no more than what this parallel will afford us ; For as Crellius would never say , that any are dealt with as righteous persons , who are not antecedently supposed to be so ; so by his own Argument , Christs being dealt with as a sinner , must suppose guilt antecedent to it ; and since the Apostle declares it was not his own , in those words , Who knew no sin , it follows that it must be the consideration of ours , which must make him be dealt with as a sinner by him , who made him to be sin for us . But to suppose that Christ should be said to be made sin , without any respect to sin , is as much as if the Latins should call any one Scelus , and mean thereby a very honest man ; or a Piaculum , without any supposition of his own or others guilt . But we are to consider , that the sufferings of Christ , seeming at first so inconsistent with that relation to God as his onely Son , which the Apostles assert concerning him , they were obliged to vindicate his innocency as to men , and yet withal to shew , that with a respect to God , there was sufficient reason for his permission of his undergoing these sufferings . That he knew no sin , was enough to clear his innocency as to men ; but then the question will be asked , If he were so innocent , why did God suffer all those things to come upon him ? Did not Abraham plead of old with God , That he would not slay the righteous with the wicked , because it was repugnant to the righteousness of his nature to do so ; That be far from thee to do after this manner , to slay the righteous with the wicked , and that the righteous should be as the wicked , that be far from thee ; shall not the Judge of all the earth do right ? How then comes God to suffer the most perfect innocency to be dealt with so , as the greatest sins could not have deserved worse from men ? Was not his righteousness the same still ? And Abraham did not think the distinction of calamities and punishments , enough to vindicate Gods proceedings , if the righteous should have been dealt withall as the wicked . And if that would hold for such a measure of righteousness as might be supposed in such who were not guilty of the great abominations of those places , that it should be enough , not onely to deliver themselves , but the wicked too ; how comes it that the most perfect obedience of the Son of God , is not sufficient to excuse him from the greatest sufferings of Malefactors ? But if his sufferings had been meerly from men , God been accountable onely for the bare permission ; but it is said , that he fore-ordained and determined these things to be , that Christ himself complained , that God had forsaken him ; and here , that he made him sin for us : and can we imagine all this to be without any respect to the guilt of sin , as the cause of it ? Why should such an expression be used of being made sin ? might not many others have served sufficiently to declare the indignities and sufferings he underwent , without such a phrase as seems to reflect upon Christs innocency ? If there had been no more in these expressions than our Adversaries imagine , the Apostles were so careful of Christs honour , they would have avoided such ill-sounding expressions as these were ; and not have affected Hebraisms , and uncouth forms of speech , to the disparagement of their Religion . But this is all which our Adversaries have to say , where words are used by them out of their proper sense , that the Prophets and Apostles affected tricks of wit , playing with words , using them sometimes in one sense , and presently quite in another . So Crellius saith of Esaiah , That he affects little elegancies of words and verbal allusions , which makes him use words sometimes out of their proper and natural sense ; thence he tells us , The sufferings of Christ are called chastisement , though they have nothing of the nature of chastisements in them : And from this liberty of interpreting , they make words ( without any other reason , than that they serve for their purpose ) be taken in several senses in the same verse : For Socinus in one verse of S. Johns Gospel , makes the World be taken in three several senses : He was in the world , there it is taken , saith he , for the men of the world in general : The world was made by him , there it must be understood onely of the reformation of things by the Gospel ; and , the world knew him not , there it must be taken in neither of the former senses , but for the wicked of the world : What may not one make of the Scripture , by such a way of interpreting it ? But by this we have the less reason to wonder , that Socinus should put such an Interpretation upon Gal. 3. 13. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law , being made a curse for us ; for it is written , Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree : In which he doth acknowledge by the curse , in the first clause to be meant , the punishment of sin , but not in the second : And the reason he gives for it is , amavit enim Paulus in execrationis verbo argutus esse . S. Paul affected playing with the word curse , understanding it first in a proper , and then a Metaphorical sense . But it is plain , that the design of S. Paul and Socinus are very different in these words : Socinus thinks he speaks onely Metaphorically , when he saith , that Christ was made a curse for us ; i. e. by a bare allusion of the name , without a correspondency in the thing it self ; and so that the death of Christ might be called a curse , but was not so : but S. Paul speaks of this not by way of extenuation , but to set forth the greatness and weight of the punishment he underwent for us . He therefore tells us , what it was which Christ did redeem us from , The curse of the Law ; and how he did it , by being not onely made a curse , but a curse for us ; i. e. not by being hateful to God , or undergoing the very same curse , which we should have done ; which are the two things objected by Crellius against our sense ; but that the death of Christ was to be considered , not as a bare separation of soul and body , but as properly poenal , being such a kind of death , which none but Malefactors by the Law were to suffer ; by the undergoing of which punishment in our stead , he redeemed us from that curse which we were liable to by the violation of the Law of God. And there can be no reason to appropriate this onely to the Jews , unless the death of Christ did extend onely to the deliverance of them from the punishment of their sins ; or because the curse of the Law did make that death poenal , therefore the intention of the punishment , could reach no further than the Law did ; but the Apostle in the very next words speaks of the farther extension of the great blessing promised to Abraham , That it should come upon the Gentiles also ; and withall those whom the Apostle speaks to , were not Jews , but such as thought they ought to joyn the Law & Gospel together : that St. Paul doth not mean as Crellius would have it , that Christ by his death did confirm the New Covenant , and so take away the obligation of the Law ; ( for to what end was the curse mentioned for that ? What did the accursedness of his death add to the confirmation of the truth of his Doctrine ? and when was ever the curse taken for the continuance of the Law of Moses ? ) but that Christ by the efficacy of his death as a punishment for sin hat redeemed all that believe and obey him from the curse deserved by their sins , whether inforced by the Law of Moses , or the Law written in their hearts , which tells the consciences of sinners , that such who violate the Laws of God are worthy of death , and therefore under the curse of the Law. We come now to the force of the particles which being joyned with our sins as referring to the death of Christ , do imply that his death is to be considered as a punishment of sin . Not that we insist on the force of those particles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as though of themselves they did imply this ( for we know they are of various significations according to the nature of the matter they are joyned with ) but that these being joyned with sins and sufferings together , do signifie that those sufferings are the punishment of those sins . Thus it is said of Christ , that he dyed , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for our sins , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that he suffered once 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he gave himself , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that he offered a Sacrifice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . To which Crellius replyes , That if the force of these particles not being joyned with sufferings , may be taken for the final and not for the impulsive cause , they may retain the same sense when joyned with sufferings , if those sufferings may be designed in order to an end ; but if it should be granted , that those phrases being joyned with sufferings , do alwayes imply a meritorious cause , yet it doth not follow , it should not be here so understood because the matter will not bear it . To this a short answer will at present serve : for , It is not possible a meritorious cause can be expressed more emphatically than by these words being joyned to sufferings : so that we have as clear a testimony from these expressions as words can give ; and by the same arts by which these may be avoided any other might ; so that it had not been possible for our Doctrine to have been expressed such a manner , but such kind of answers might have been given as our Adversaries now give . If it had been said in the plainest terms , that Christs death was a punishment for our sins , they would as easily have avoided the force of them as they do of these ; they would have told us the Apostles delighted in an Antanaclasis , and had expressed things different from the natural use of the words by them ; and though punishment were sometimes used properly , yet here it must be used only metaphorically because the matter would bear no other sense . And therefore I commend the ingenuity of Socinus after all the pains he had taken to enervate the force of those places which are brought against his Doctrine ; he tells us plainly , That if our Doctrine were not only once , but frequently mentioned in Scripture ; yet he would not therefore believe the thing to be so as we suppose . For , saith he , seeing the thing it self cannot be , I take the least inconvenient interpretation of the words ; and draw forth such a sense from them , as is most consistent with it self and the tenour of the Scripture . But for all his talking of the tenour of the Scripture , by the same reason he interprets one place upon these terms , he will do many , and so the tenour of the Scripture shall be never against him : and by this we find , that the main strength of our Adversaries is not pretended to lye in the Scriptures ; all the care they have of them is only to reconcile them if possible with their hypothesis ; for they do not deny but that the natural force of the words doth imply what we contend for ; but because they say the Doctrine we assert is inconsistent with reason , therefore all their design is to find out any other possible meaning , which they therefore assert to be true , because more agreeable to the common reason of mankind . This therefore is enough for our present purpose , that if it had been the design of Scripture to have expressed our sense , it could not have done it in plainer expressions than it hath done , that no expressions could have been used , but the same arts of our Adversaries might have been used to take off their force , which they have used to those we now urge against them , and that setting aside the possibility of the thing , the Scripture doth very fairly deliver the Doctrine we contend for ; or , supposing in point of reason there may be arguments enough to make it appear possible , there are Scriptures enough to make it appear true . CHAP. III. The words of Scripture being at last acknowledged by our Adversaries to make for us , the only pretence remaining is that our Doctrine is repugnant to reason . The debate managed upon point of reason . The grand difficulty enquired into , and manifested by our Adversaries concessions , not to lye in the greatness of Christs sufferings , or that our sins were the impulsive cause of them , or that it is impossible that one ●…uld be punished for anothers faults : or in all cases unjust : the cases wherein Crellius allows it , instanced . From whence it it proved that he yields the main cause . The arguments propounded whereby he attempts to prove it unjust for Christ to be punished for our sins . Crellius his principles of the justice of punishments examined . Of the relation between desert and punishment . That a person by his own consent may be punished beyond the desert of his own actions . An answer to Crellius his Objections . What it is to suffer undeservedly . Crellius his mistake in the state of the question . The instances of Scripture considered . In what sense Children are punished for their Parents sins . Ezek. 18. 20. explained at large . Whether the guilty being freed by the sufferings of an innocent person makes that punishment unjust or no ? Crellius his shifts and evasions in this matter discovered . Why among men the offenders are not freed in criminal matters though the sureties be punished . The release of the party depends on the terms of the sureties suffering , therefore deliverance not ipso facto . No necessity of such a translation in criminal , as is in pecuniary matters . HAving gained so considerable concessions from our Adversaries concerning the places of Scripture , we come now to debate the matter in point of reason . And if there appear to be nothing repugnant in the Nature of the thing , or to the justice of God , then all their loud clamours will come to nothing ; for on that they fix , when they talk the most of our Doctrine being contrary to reason . This therefore we now come more closely to examine , in order to which we must carefully enquire what it is , they lay the charge of injustice in God upon , according to our belief of Christs sufferings being a punishment for our sins . 1. It is not , That the offenders themselve● do not undergo the full punishment of the●… sins . For they assert , that there is no necessity at all that the offenders should be punished from any punitive justice in God : for they eagerly contend that God may freely pardon the sins of men : if so , then it can be no injustice in God not to punish the offenders according to the full desert of their sins . 2. It is not , that God upon the sufferings of Christ doth pardon the sins of men : for they yield that God may do this without any charge of injustice , and with the greatest demonstration of his kindness . For they acknowledge , that the sufferings of Christ are not to be considered as a bare antecedent condition to pardon , but that they were a moving cause as far as the obedience of Christ in suffering was very acceptable to God. 3. It is not , in the greatness or matter of the sufferings of Christ. For they assert the same which we do . And therefore I cannot but wonder to meet sometimes with those strange out-cries of our making God cruel in the punishing of his Son for us : for what do we assert that Christ suffered , which they do not assert too ? Nay doth it not look much more like cruelty in God to lay those sufferings upon him without any consideration of sin ? as upon their hypothesis he doth ; than to do it supposing he bears the punishment of our iniquities , which is the thing we plead for . They assert all those sufferings to be lawful on the account of Gods dominion , which according to them must cease to be so on the supposition of a meritorious cause . But however from this it appears , that it was not unjust that Christ should suffer those things which he did for us : the question then is , whether it were unjust that he should suffer the same things , which he might lawfully do on the account of dominion with a respect to our sins as the cause of them ? 4. As to this , they acknowledge , that it is not , that the sufferings of Christ were occasioned by our sins , or that our sins were the bare impulsive cause of those sufferings . For they both confess in general , that one mans sins may be the occasion of anothers punishment , so far that he might have escaped punishment , if the others sins had not been the impulsive cause of it . And therefore Crellius in t●… general state of this question , would no●… have it , whether it be unjust to punish o●… for anothers sins ; for that he acknowledge●… it is not , but whether , for any cause whatsoever it be just to punish an innocent person ? And likewise in particular of Christ , they confess , that our sins were the impulsive cause , and the occasion of his sufferings . 5. It is not , that there is so necessary 〈◊〉 relation , between guilt and punishment , that i● cannot be call'd a punishment which is inflicted on an innocent person . For Crellius , after a long discourse of the difference of afflictions and punishments , doth acknowledge , That it is not of the nature of punishment , that the person who is to be punished , should really deserve the punishment ; and afterwards when Grotius urgeth , that though it be essential to punishment , that it be inflicted for sin , yet it is not , that it be inflicted upon him who hath himself sinned , which he shews , by the similitude of rewards , which though necessary to be given in consideration of service , may yet be given to others besides the person himself upon his account . All this Crellius acknowledgeth ; who saith , They do not make it necessary to the nature , but to the justice of punishment , that it be inflicted upon none but the person who hath offended . So by his own Confession , it is not against the nature of punishment , that one man suffer for anothers faults . From whence it follows , that all Socinus his arguments signifie nothing , which are drawn from the impossibility of the thing , that one man should be punished for anothers faults ; for Crellius grants the thing to be possible , but denies it to be just ; yet not absolutely neither , but with some restrictions and limitations . For , 6. It is not , but that there may be sufficient causes assigned in some particular cases ; wherein it may be just for God to punish some for the sins of others . For Crellius himself hath assigned divers . When there is such a neer conjunction between them , that one may be said to be punished in the punishment of another : as Parents in their Children and Posterity , Kings in their Subjects , or the body of a State in its Members , either in the most , or the most principal , though the fewest : but we are to consider , how far he doth extend this way of punishment of some in others . 1. At the greatest distance of time , if they have been of the same Nation ; for he extends it to the utmost degree of Gods patience towards a people ; For , saith he , God doth not presently punish as soon as they have sin'd ; but spares for a great while , and forbears , in expectation of their repentance , in the mean while a great many guilty persons dye , and seem to have escaped punishment . But at last the time of Gods patience being past , he punisheth their Posterity by exacting the full punishment of their sins upon them , and by this means punisheth their Ancestors too , and punisheth their sins in their punishment ; for , saith he , all that people are reckon'd for one man of several Ages , and that punishment which is taken of the last , may be for the sins of the first , for the conjunction and succession of them : of which we have an example , saith he , in the destruction of Hierusalem . By which we see a very remote conjunction , and a meer similitude in comparing a succession of Ages in a people with those in a man , may ( when occasion serves ) be made use of to justifie Gods punishing one Generation of men for the sins of others that have been long before . 2. When sins are more secret , or less remarkable , which God might not punish , unless an occasion were given from others sins impelling him to it ; but because God would punish one very near them , he therefore punisheth them , that in their punishment he might punish the other : Or in case sins spread through a Family , or a people , or they are committed by divers persons at sundry times , which God doth not severally punish , but sometimes then , when the Head of a People or Family hath done something which remarkably deserves punishment , whom he will punish in those he is related to , and therefore generally punisheth the whole Family or people . 3. That which may be a meer exercise of dominion as to some , may be a proper punishment to others ; as in the case of Infants , being taken away for their Parents sins ; For God , as to the Children , he saith , useth only an act of dominion , but the punishment only redounds to the Parents , who loose them ; and though this be done for the very end of punishment , yet he denyes , that it hath the nature of Punishment in any but the Parents . 4. That Punishment may be intended for those who can have no sense at all of it ; as Crellius asserts in the case of Sauls sons , 2 Sam. 21. 8. 14. that the punishment was mainly intended for Saul , who was already dead . From these concessions of Crellius in this case , we may take notice , 1. That a remote conjunction may be sufficient for a translation of penalty , viz. from one Generation to another . 2. That sins may be truly said to be punished in others , when the offenders themselves may escape punishment , thus the sins of Parents in their Children , and Princes in their Subjects . 3. That an act of dominion in some may be designed as a proper punishment to others . 4. That the nature of punishment is not to be measured by the sense of it . Now upon these concessions , though our Adversaries will not grant , that Christ was properly punished for our sins , yet they cannot deny but that we may very properly be said to be punished for our sins in Christ , and if they will yield us this , the other may be a strife about words . For surely there may be easily imagined as great a conjunction between Christ and us , as between the several Generations of the Jews , and that last which was punished in the destruction of Hierusalem : and though we escape that punishment which Christ did undergo , yet we might have our sins punished in him , as well as Princes theirs in their Subjects , when they escape themselves ; or rather as Subjects in an innocent Prince , who may suffer for the faults of his people ; if it be said , that these are acts of meer dominion as to such a one , that nothing hinders but granting it , yet our sins may be said to be punished in him ; as well as Parents sins are punished properly in meer acts of dominion upon their Children ; if it be said , that can be no punishment where there is no sense at all of it , that is fully taken off by Crellius ; for surely we have as great a sense of the sufferings of Christ , as the first Generation of the Jews had of the suffering of the last , before the fatal destruction of the City , or as Saul had of the punishment of his Sons after his death . So that from Crellius his own concessions , we have proved , that our sins may very properly be said to be punished in Christ , although he will not say , that Christ could be properly punished for our sins ; nay he and the rest of our Adversaries not only deny it , but earnestly contend , that it is very unjust to suppose it , and repugnant to the rectitude of Gods nature to do it . And so we come to consider the mighty arguments that are insisted on for the proof of this , which may be reduced to these three ; viz. 1. That there can be no punishment but what is deserved , but no man can deserve that another should be punished . 2. That punishment flows from revenge , but there can be no revenge where there hath been no fault . 3. That the punishment of one , cannot any ways be made the punishment of another ; and in case it be supposed possible , then those in whose stead the other is punished , must be actually delivered upon the payment of that debt which was owing to God. 1. That one man cannot deserve anothers punishment , and therefore one cannot be punished for another ; for there is no just punishment , but what is deserved . This being the main Argument insisted on by Crellius , must be more carefully considered ; but before an answer be made to it , it is necessary that a clear account be given in what sense it is he understands it , which will be best done , by laying down his principles , as to the justice of punishments , in a more distinct method than himself hath done ; which are these following : 1. That no person can be justly punished , either for his own or anothers faults , but he that hath deserved to be punished by some sin , of his own : For he still asserts , That the justice of punishment ariseth from a mans own fault , though the actual punishment may be from anothers : But he that is punished without respect to his own guilt , is punished undeservedly ; and he that is punished undeservedly , is punished unjustly . 2. That personal guilt being , supposed one mans sin may be the impulsive cause of anothers punishment , but they cannot be the meritorious . The difference between them he thus explains , The cause , is that which makes a thing to be ; the impulsive , that which moves one to do a thing , without any consideration of right that one hath to do it : Merit , is that which makes a man worthy of a thing , either good or bad , and so gives a right to it ; if it be good , to himself ; if bad , to him at whose hands he hath deserved it . Now he tells us , that it is impossible , That one mans sins should make any other deserve punishment , but the person who committed them ; but they may impel one to punish another , and that justly , if the person hath otherwise deserved to be punished , unjustly if he hath not . The reason he gives of it is , That the vitiosity of the act , which is the proper cause of punishment , cannot go beyond the person of the offender ; and therefore can oblige none to punishment , but him that hath committed the fault . And therefore he asserts , That no man can be justly punished beyond the desert of his own sins , but there may sometimes be a double impulsive cause of that punishment ; viz. His own and other mens , whereof one made that they might be justly punished , the other that they should be actually : but the latter , he saith , always supposeth the former , as the foundation of just punishment ; so that no part of punishment could be executed upon him , wherein his own sins were not supposed as the meritorious cause of it . These are his two main principles which we must now throughly examine , the main force of his book lying in them . But if we can prove , that it hath been generally received by the consent of mankind , that a person may be punished beyond the desert of his own actions ; if God hath justly punished some for the sins of others , and there be no injustice in one mans suffering by his own consent for another , then these principles of Crellius will be found not so firm as he imagines them . 1. That it hath been generally received ●y the consent of mankind , that a person may be justly punished beyond the desert of his own actions . For which purpose Grotius objected against Socinus ( who appealed to the consent of Nations , about one being punished for anothers fault ) That the Heathens did agree , that Children might be punished for their Parents faults , and people for their Princes , and that corporal punishment might be born by one for another , did appear by the Persians punishing the whole family for the fault of one . The Macedonians the neer kindred in the case of Treason , some Cities of Greece , destroying the children of Tyrants together with them ; in all which , the meer conjunction was supposed a sufficient reason without consent ; but in case of consent , he saith , They all agreed in the justice of some being punished for the faults of others . Thence the right of killing hostages among the most civilized nations ; and of sureties being punished in capital matters , if the guilty appear not , who were thence caled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who were bound to answer body for body . In which cases , the punishment did extend beyond the desert of the person who suffered it ; for no other reason is assigned of these sufferings , besides the conjunction of the person , or h●… consent ; but no antecedent guilt is supposed as necessary , to make the punishment just . We are now to consider what Crellius doth answer to this : 1. As to their acknowledgements of Gods punishing children for their Parents faults , he gives the same answer which he doth to the examples recorded in Scripture to that purpose , That either they were punished for the sins 〈◊〉 others , but their own sins deserved the punishment ; or that the Parents were punished i●… the children , but the Children were not properly punished . 2. As to punishments among men , he answers two things ; 1. That such persons were truly punished , but not justly : for he acknowledges , That in such a case it is a proper punishment and that it is enough in order to that that any fault be charged upon a person , whether his own or anothers , whether true or false , on the account of which he is supposed worthy to be punished : And that such a conjunction is sufficient f●… cruel , angry , or imprudent men ; for wher● ever there is a place , saith he , for ange●… there is likewise for punishment . So that he confesseth , there may be a tr●… punishment , and that which answers all th●… reason and ends of punishment assigned by him , where there is no desert at all of it in the person who undergoes it . But then he adds , that this is an unjust punishment , to which I reply , That then the reason of punishment assigned by Crellius before is insufficient ; for if this answers all the ends of punishments assigned by him , and yet be unjust , then it necessarily follows , that those ends of punishment are consistent with the greatest injustice . For he before made punishment to have a natural respect to anger , and makes the ordinary end of punishment to be a satisfaction of the desire of revenge in men , yet now grants , that these may be in an unjust punishment . Neither can it be said , that he consider'd punishment only naturally , and not morally ; for he tells us , that this is the nature of divine punishments , which are therefore just , because designed for these ends ; but in case there be no supposal of a fault at all , then he denyes that it is a punishment , but only an affliction , and an exercise of dominion . So that according to him , where-ever there is a proper punishment , it must be just , when-ever God doth punish men : and the only difference between God and man supposable in this case is , that we have assurance God will never use his dominion unjustly ; but that men do so when they make one to suffer for anothers fault , notwithstanding a consent and conjunction between the man that committed the fault , and the person that suffers for him . But this is begging the thing in question , for we are debating , whether it be an unlawfull exercise of power or no ? for we have this presumption , that it is not unlawfull , because it may answer all the ends of punishments , and what way can we better judge , w●…ether a punishment be just or no , than by that ? But we are to consider , that we do not here take the person we speak of , abstractly as an innocent person , for then there is no question , but anger and punishment of one as such is unjust ; but of an innocent person as supposed under an obligation by his own consent to suffer for another . And in this case we assert , since according to Crellius the natural and proper ends of punishments may be obtained , and the consent of the person takes away the wrong done to him in the matter of his sufferings , so far as he hath power over himself , that such a punishment is not unjust . For if it be , it must suppose some injury to be done ; but in this case let them assign where the injury lyes ; it cannot be to the publick , if the ends of punishments may be obtained by such a suffering of one for another , by a valid consent of the suffering party ; it cannot be to the person in whose room the other suffers , for what injury is that to escape punishment by anothers suffering ; it cannot be to the suffering person , supposing that to be true , which the Heathens still supposed , viz. that every man had a power over his own life . If it be said still , that the unjustice lyes in this , that such a one suffers undeservedly , and therefore unjustly . I answer ; if be meant by undeservedly without sufficient cause or reason of punishment , then we deny that such a one doth suffer undeservedly . Immerito in the Greek Glosses is rendred by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and Merito by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and in Cicero , jure & merito are most commonly joyned together . So that where there is a right to punish , and sufficient reason for it , such a one doth not suffer immerito , i. e. undeservedly . If it be said , that such a one is not dignus poena , that implyes no more than the other , for dignus , or as the Ancients writ it dicnus , comes from the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 jus as Vossius tells us , ut dignus sit cui tribui aliquid aquum est : so that where there is an equity in the thing , there is a dignity in the person , or he may be said to be worthy to undergo it . But doth not this lay open the greatest innocency to as great a desert of sufferings , as the highest guilt ? By no means . For we make a lyableness to punishment , the natural consequent of guilt : and he that hath committed a fault , cannot but deserve to be punished , so that no sufferings of others can take away the natural consequence of a bad action , which is a desert of punishment ; So that as we say , a wicked action cannot but deserve to be punished , i. e. there is an agreeableness in reason and nature , that he who hath done ill , should suffer ill ; so we say likewise there is no necessity in nature and reason , that he that hath thus deserved it , must unavoidably suffer it . And on the other side , we say , no man by his innocency can deserve to be punished , i. e. no mans innocency makes him by vertue of that obnoxious to punishment ; but yet we add , that notwithstanding his innocency , the circumstances may be such that he may be justly punished , and in that sense deservedly . So that the Question is strangely mistaken , when it is thus put , Whether an innocent person consider'd as such , may be justly punished ; for no one asserts that , or is bound to do it ; but the true question is , whether a person notwithstanding his innocency may not by some act of his own will oblige himself to undergo that punishment which otherwise he did not deserve ? which punishment , in that case is just and agreeable to reason : And this is that which we assert and plead for . So that innocency here is not considered any other ways , than whether that alone makes it an unlawfull punishment , which otherwise would be lawfull , i. e. whether the Magistrate in such cases , where substitution is admittable by the Laws of Nations ( as in the cases we are now upon ) be bound to regard any more than that the obligation to punishment now lyes upon the person , who by his own act hath substituted himself in the others room ; and if he proceeds upon this , his action is justifyable and agreeable to reason . If it be said , that the substitution is unjust , unless the substituted person hath before hand deserved to be punished ; it is easily answered , that this makes not the matter at all clearer ; for either the person is punished for the former fault , and then there is no substitution ; or if he be punished by way of substitution , then there is no regard at all had to his former fault , and so it is all one as if he were perfectly innocent . And by this Crellius his answer to the instances both in Scripture and elsewhere concerning Childrens being punished for their Parents faults , will appear to be insufficient , Viz. That God doth never punish them for their Parents faults beyond the desert of their own sins , and therefore no argument can be drawn from thence , that God may punish an innocent person for the sins of others , because he hath punished some for what they were innocent : For the force of the argument doth not lye in the supposition of their innocency , as to the ground of punishment in general , for we do not deny , but that they may deserve to be punished for their own faults : but the argument lyes in this , whether their own guilt were then considered as the reason of punishment , when God did punish them for their fathers faults ? And whether they by their own sins did deserve to be punished not only with the punishment due to their own miscarriages , but with the punishment due to their fathers too ? If not , then some persons are justly punished , who have not deserved that punishment they undergo ; if they did deserve it , then one person may deserve to be punished for anothers sins . If it be said , as it is by Crellius , That his own sins make him capable of punishment , and God by occasion of others sins doth execute that punishment , which he might not have done for his own . I answer , we are not enquiring into the bare capacity of punishing , but into the reason of it : was the reason of punishment his own or his fathers sins ? If his own , then he was punished only for his own sins ; if his fathers , then the punishment may be just which is inflicted without consideration of proper desert of it ; for no man ( say they ) can deserve to be punished , but for his own sins . But it 's said , that the sins of Fathers are only an impulsive cause for God to punish the Children according to the desert of their own sins , which he might otherwise have forborn to punish . Then , the sins of the Fathers are no reason why the Children should be punished ; but their own sins are the reason , and their Fathers the bare occasion of being punished for them . But in Scripture , the reason of punishment is drawn from the Fathers sins : and not from the Childrens : For then the words would have run thus , if the Children sin , and deserve punishment by their own iniquities , then I will take occasion from their Fathers sins , to visit their own iniquities upon them : Whereas the words referre to the fathers sins as the reason of the Childrens punishment . So in the words of the Law , wherein the reason of punishment ought to be most expresly assigned , it is not , I will certainly punish the children , if they continue in the Idolatry of their Fathers ; but , I will visit the sins of the Fathers upon the children , unto the third and fourth Generation of them that hate me : If it were onely because of imitation of the Fathers sins by the Children , there could be no reason for the limitation to the third and fourth Generation ; for then the reason of punishment would be as long as the imitation continued , whether to the fourth or tenth Generation : And as Alphonsus à Castro observes , If the reason of punishment were the imitation of their Fathers sins , then the Children were not punished for their Fathers sins , but for their own ; for that imitation was a sin of their own , and not of their Fathers . Besides , if the proper reason of punishment were the sins of the children , and the Fathers sins onely the occasion of it , then where it is mentioned that children are punished for their Parents sins , the childrens sins should have been particularly expressed , as the proper cause of the punishment : But no other reason is assigned in the Law , but the sins of the Fathers , no other cause mentioned of Canaans punishment , but his Fathers sin ; nor of the punishment of the people in Davids time , but his own sin ; Lo , I have sinned , and I have done wickedly , but these sheep , what have they done ? Which is no hyperbolical expression , but the assigning the proper cause of that judgement to have been his own sin , as the whole Chapter declares : Nor , of the hanging up of Sauls sons by the Gibeonites , but , that Saul their Father had plotted their destruction . And in an instance more remarkable than any of those which Crellius answers ; viz. the punishment of the people of Judah , for the sins of Manasses in the time of Josias ; when a through Reformation was designed among them , the Prince being very good , and all the places of Idolatry destroyed , such a Passover kept as had not been kept before in the time of any King in Israel , yet it then follows , Notwithstanding the Lord turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath , wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah , because of all the provocations wherewith Manasses had provoked him withal . Who can say here , that the sins of Manasseh were only the occasion of Gods punishing the people in the time of Josias for their own sins , when their sins were much less in the time of Josias , than in any time mentioned before , after their lapse into Idolatry ? Nay , it is expresly said , That Josiah took away all the abominations out of all the countreys that pertained to the children of Israel , and made all that were present in Israel to serve , even to serve the Lord their God. And all his days they departed not from following the Lord God of their Fathers : To say , that this was done in hypocrisie , and bare outward compliance , is to speak without book ; and if the reason of so severe punishments had been their hypocrisie , that ought to have been mentioned ; but not onely here , but afterwards it is said , that the reason of Gods destroying Judah , was for the sins of Manasseh ; viz. his Idolatries and Murther , which it is said , the Lord will not pardon . And if he would not pardon , then he did punish for those sins , not barely as the occasion , but as the meritorious cause of that punishment . What shall we say then ? Did the people in Josiah's time , deserve to be punished for the sins of Manasseh , Grandfather to Josiah ? Or was God so highly provoked with those sins , that although he did not punish Manasseh himself upon his repentance , yet he would let the world see , how much he abhorred them , by punishing those sins upon the people afterwards ; although according to the usual proportion of sins and punishments , the sins of the people in that age did not exceed the sins of other ages , as much as the punishments they suffered , did exceed the punishments of other ages : which is necessary according to Crellius his Doctrine ; for if God never punisheth by occasion of their Fathers sins , the children beyond the desert of their own sins ; then it is necessary , that where judgements are remarkably greater , the sins must be so too ; the contrary to which is plain in this instance . By which we see , that it is not contrary to the Justice of God in punishing , to make the punishment of some on the account of others sins , to exceed the desert of their own ; measuring that desert , not in a way common to all sin , but when the desert of some sins is compared with the desert of others : For it is of this latter we speak of , and of the method which God useth in punishing sin here , for the demonstration of his hatred of it , according to which the greatest punishments must suppose the greatest sins , either of their own , or others which they suffer for . But hath not God declared , That he will never punish the children for the Fathers sins ? for the soul that sinneth it shall dye ; the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father , &c. To which I answer , These words are to be considered , as an answer to a complaint made by the Jews , soon after their going into Captivity , which they imputed to Gods severity in punishing them for their Fathers sins . Now the complaint was either true or false ; if it were true , then though this was looked upon as great severity in God , yet it was no injustice in him ; for though God may act severely , he cannot act unjustly : If it was false , then the answer had been an absolute denial of it , as a thing repugnant to the Justice of God. Which we do not find here , but that God saith unto them , v. 3. Ye shall not have occasion any more to use this Proverb in Israel : if the thing had been plainly unjust , which they complained of , he would have told them , they never had occasion to use it . But we finde the Prophets telling them before hand , that they should suffer for their Fathers sins , Jerem. 15. 3 , 4. where he threatens them with destruction and banishment , because of the sins of Manasseh in Jerusalem ; and in the beginning of the captivity they complain of this , Lam. 5. 7. Our Fathers have sinned , and are not , and we have born their iniquities . And Jerem. 31. 28. God saith by the Prophet , that he had watched over them to pluck up , and to pull down , and to destroy , and to afflict : but that he would watch over them to build , and to plant , and in those days they shall say no more , The Fathers have eaten sowre grapes , and the childrens teeth are set on edge ; but every one shall dye for his own iniquity . Which place is exactly parallel with this in Ezekiel , and gives us a clear account of it , which is , that now indeed God had dealt very severely with them , by making them suffer beyond , what in the ordinary course of his providence their sins had deserved ; but he punished them not onely for their own sins , but the sins of their Fathers : But lest they should think , they should be utterly consumed for their iniquities , and be no longer a people enjoying the Land which God had promised them , he tells them by the Prophets , though they had smarted so much , by reason of their Fathers sins , this severity should not always continue upon them ; but that God would visit them with his kindeness again , and would plant them in their own Land , then they should see no reason to continue this Proverb among them ; for they would then find , Though their fathers had eaten sowre grapes , their teeth should not be always set on edge with it . And if we observe it , the occasion of the Proverb , was concerning the Land of Israel , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 super terra Israel , as the Chaldee Paraphrast renders it more agreeable to the Hebrew , than the other Versions do . So that the Land of Israel was the occasion of the Proverb , by their being banished out of it for their Fathers sins : Now God tells them , they should have no more occasion to use this Proverb concerning the Land of Israel ; for they , notwithstanding their Fathers sins , should return into their own Land. And even during the continuance of their captivity , they should not undergo such great severities for the future , but they should find their condition much more tolerable than they imagined ; onely , if any were guilty of greater sins than others , they should themselves suffer for their own faults , but he would not punish the whole Nation for them , or their own posterity . This I take to be the genuine meaning of this place ; and I the rather embrace it , because I find such insuperable difficulties in other Interpretations that are given of it : For to say as our Adversaries do , That what God saith , should not be for the future , was repugnant to his nature and justice ever to do , is to charge God plainly with injustice in what he had done : For the Prophets told them they should suffer for the sins of their Fathers : Which sufferings were the ground of their complaint now , and the answer here given must relate to the occasion of the complaint ; for God saith , They should not have occasion to use that Proverb : Wherein is implied , they should not have the same reason to complain which they had then . I demand then , Do not these words imply , That God would not do for the future with them , what he had done before ? if not , the proper answer had been a plain denial , and not a promise for the future he would not ; if they do , then either God properly punished them for the sins of their Fathers , and then God must be unjust in doing so ; or it was just with God to do it , and so this place instead of overthrowing will prove , that some may be justly punished , beyond the desert of their own sins : or else , God did onely take occasion by their Fathers sins , to punish them according to the desert of their own iniquities : But then they had no cause to complain , that they were punished for any more than their own iniquities ; and withal , then God doth oblige himself by his promise here , never to punish men for the future by the occasion of others sins : which is not onely contrary to their own Doctrine , but to what is plainly seen afterwards in the punishment of the Jew● for their Fathers sins , mentioned by our Saviour after this : And if this be a certain rule of equity which God here saith , that he would never vary from , then the punishing of some on the occasion of others sins , would be as unjust , as our Adversaries suppose the punishing any beyond the desert of their own sins to be . But is it not implyed , that Gods ways would be unequal , if he ever did otherwise than he there said he would do ? No , it is not , if by equal he meant just , for his ways never were , or can be so unequal ; but here if it be taken with a respect to the main dispute of the Chapter , no more is implied in them , but that they judged amiss concerning Gods actions , and that they were just , when they thought them not to be so : or ifat least , they thought his ways very severe , though just , God by remitting of this severity , would shew that he was not onely just , but kinde ; and so they would finde his ways equal , that is , always agreeable to themselves , and ending in kindeness to them , though they hitherto were so severe towards them in their banishment and captivity . Or if they be taken with a respect to the immediate occasion of them both , Ezek. 18. — 33. They do not relate to this dispute about Childrens suffering for their Fathers sins ; but to another , which was concerning a righteous mans sinning and dying in his sins , and a wicked mans repenting , and living in his righteousness ; which were directly contrary to the common opinion of the Jews to this day , which is , that God will judge men according to the greatest number of their actions good or bad : as appears by Maimonides and others . Now they thought it a very hard case , for a man who had been righteous the far greatest part of his time , if he did at last commit iniquity , that his former righteousness should signifie nothing , but he must dye in his iniquity . To this therefore God answers , that it was only the inequality of their own ways , which made them think Gods ways in doing so unequal . This then doth not make it unequal , for God either to punish men , upon the occasion , or by the desert of other mens sins , supposing such a conjunction between them , as there is in the same body of people , to those who went before them . And Crellius himself grants , That Socinus never intended to prove , that one mans suffering for anothers sins was unjust in it self , from this place : no , not though we take it in the strictest sense , for one suffering in the stead of another . Having thus far cleared , how far it is agreeable to Gods Justice , to punish any persons either by reason of his dominion , or the conjunction of persons , for the sins of others , and consequently whether any punishment may be undergone justly beyond the proper desert of their own sins , I now return to the consent of Mankinde in it , on supposition either of a neer conjunction , or a valid consent which must make up the want of dominion in men without it . And the question still proceeds upon the supposition of those things , that there be a proper dominion in men over that which they part with for others sakes , and that they do it by their free consent ; and then we justifie it not to be repugnant to the principles of Reason and Justice for any to suffer beyond the desert of their own actions . And Crellius his saying , that such a punishment is true punishment , but not just ; is no answer at all to the consent of Nations that it is so . And therefore finding this answer insufficient ; he relyes upon another , viz. That it was never receiv'd by the consent of Nations , that one man should suffer in the stead of another , so as the guilty should be freed by the others suffering . For he saith , neither Socinus nor he do deny that one man may be punished for anothers sins ; but that which they deny is , that ever the innocent were punished so as the guilty were freed by it , and so he answers , in the case of Hostages and Sureties , their punishment did never excuse the offenders themselves . And to this purpose he saith , Socinus his argument doth hold good , that though one mans money may become anothers , yet one mans sufferings cannot become anothers : For , saith he , if it could , then it would be all one who suffered , as it is who pays the money due : And then the offender must be presently released , as the Debtor is upon payment of the debt . This is the substance of what is said by him upon this Argument . To which I reply ; 1. That this gives up the matter in dispute at present between us ; for the present question is , Whether it be unjust for any one to suffer beyond the desert of his own actions ? Yes , saith Crellius , it is , in case he suffers so , as that the guilty be freed by his sufferings . But we are not enquiring , Whether it be just for another person to be freed for a mans suffering for him ? but whether it be just for that man to suffer by his own consent , more than his own actions , without that consent deserved ? The release of another person by virtue of his sufferings , is a matter of another consideration . Doth the freeing or not freeing of another by suffering , add any thing to the desert of suffering ? He that being wholly innocent , and doth suffer on the account of anothers fault , doth he not suffer as undeservedly , though another be not freed , as if he were ? As in the case of Hostages or Sureties , doth it make them at all the more guilty , because the persons they are concerned for , will be punished notwithstanding , if they come under the power of those who exacted the punishment upon them , who suffered for them ? Nay , is not their desert of punishment so much the less , in as much as the guilty are still bound to answer for their own offences ? If we could suppose the guilty to be freed by the others sufferings , it would be by supposing their guilt more fully translated upon those who suffer , and consequently , a greater obligation to punishment following that guilt . From whence it follows , that if it be just to punish , when the person is not delivered from whom the other suffers , it is more just when he is ; for the translation of the penalty is much less in the former case , than in the latter ; and what is just upon less grounds of punishment , must be more just upon greater . I look on this therefore but as a shift of Crellius , hoping thereby to avoid the consent of mankind in one mans suffering for another , without attending to the main argument he was upon ; viz. The justice of one person suffering for another . 2. It is a very unreasonable thing , to make an action unjust for that , which of it self is acknowledged by our Adversaries to be very just ; viz. The pardoning the offenders themselves . If it were just to suffer , if the other were not pardoned , and it were just to pardon , whether the other were punished or no , how comes this suffering to be unjust , meerly by the others being pardoned by it : nay , is it not rather an Argument , that those sufferings are the most just , which do so fully answer all the ends of punishments ; that there is then no necessity that the offender should suffer ; but that the Supreme Governor having obtained the ends of Government , by the suffering of one for the rest , declares himself so well pleased with it , that he is willing to pardon the offenders themselves . 3. Many of those persons who have had their sins punished in others , have themselves escaped the punishment due to the desert of their sins . As is plain in the case of Ahab , whose punishment was not so great as his sins deserved , because the full punishment of them was reserved to his posterity . If it be said , as it is by Crellius , That Ahab was not wholly freed , his life being taken away , for his own sins : That gives no sufficient answer ; for if some part of the punishment was deferr'd , that part he was delivered from ; and the same reason in this case will hold for the whole as the part . As is plain in the case of Manasseh , and several others , the guilt of whose sins were punished on their posterity , themselves escaping it . 4. Our Adversaries confess , that in some cases it is lawful and just for some to suffer , with a design that others may be freed by their suffering for them . Thus they assert , That one Christian , not onely may , but ought to lay down his life for another , if there be any danger of his denying the truth , or he judges him far more useful and considerable than himself : so likewise a son for his Father , one Brother for another , or a Friend , or any , whose life he thinks more useful than his own . Now I ask , whether a man can be bound to a thing that is in its own nature unjust ? if not , as it is plain he cannot , then such an obligation of one man to suffer for the delivery of another cannot be unjust , and consequently the suffering it self cannot be so . But Crellius saith , The injustice in this case lyes wholly upon the Magistrate who admits it : but I ask wherefore is it unjust in the Magistrate to admit it ? is it because the thing is in it self unjust ? if so , there can be no obligation to do it ; and it would be as great a sin to undergo it , as in the Magistrate to permit it ; but if it be just in it self , we have obtained what we contend for ; viz. that it may be just for a man to suffer beyond the desert of his own actions ; for he that layes down his life for his Brethren , doth not deserve by his own actions that very punishment which he undergoes . And if the thing be in it self just , how comes it to be unjust in him that permits it ? 5. The reason why among men the offenders themselves are punished , is because those were not the terms , upon which the persons suffered . For if they had suffer'd upon these terms that the other might be freed , and their suffering was admitted of by the Magistrate on that consideration , then in all reason and justice the offenders ought to be freed on the account of the others suffering for them . But among men the chief reason of the obligation to punishment of one man for another , is not , that the other might be freed , but that there may be security given to the publick , that the offender shall be punish●… and the reason of the sureties suffering is not to deliver the offender , but to satisfie the Law , by declaring that all care is taken that the offender should be punished , when in case of his escape , the surety suffers for him . But it is quite another thing when the person suffers purposely that others might be freed by his suffering ; for then in case the suffering be admitted , the release of the other is not only not unjust , but becomes due to him that suffer'd , on his own terms . Not as though it follow'd ipso facto as Crellius fansies , but the manner of release doth depend upon the terms which he who suffer'd for them , shall make in order to it . For upon this suffering of one for another upon such terms , the immediate consequent of the suffering is not the actual discharge but the right to it which he hath purchased ; and which he may dispense upon what terms he shall judge most for his honour . 6. Although one persons sufferings cannot become anothers so as one mans Money may ; yet one mans sufferings may be a sufficient consideration on which a benefit may accrue to another . For to that end a donation , or such a transferring right from one to another as is in Money , is not necessary , but the acceptation which it hath from him who hath the power to pardon . If he declare that he is so well pleased with the sufferings of one for another , that in consideration of them , he will pardon those from whom he suffer'd ; where lies the impossibility or unreasonableness of the thing ? For Crellius grants , that rewards may be given to others than the persons who did the actions in consideration of those actions ; and why may not the sufferings of one for others , being purposely undertaken for this end , be available for the pardon of those whom he suffer'd for ? For a man can no more transferre the right of his good actions , than of his sufferings . From all which it follows , that one person may by his own consent , and being admitted thereto by him to whom the right of punishing belongs , suffer justly ; though it be beyond the desert of his own actions ; and the guilty may be pardoned on the account of his sufferings . Which was the first thing we designed to prove from Crellius , in order to the overthrowing his own hypothesis . For it being confessed by him that such sufferings have all that belongs to the nature of punishments , and since God hath justly punished some for the sins which they have not committed ; since all Nations have allowed it just for one man by his own consent to suffer for another ; since it cannot be unjust for the offender to be released by anothers sufferings , if he were admitted to suffer for that end , it evidently follows , contrary to Crellius his main Principle , that a person may be justly punished beyond the desert of his own actions : And so that first argument of Crellius cannot hold , that one man cannot by his own consent suffer for another , because no man can deserve anothers punishment , and no punishment is just but what is deserved . His second argument from the nature of anger and revenge hath been already answered in the first Discourse about the nature and ends of punishments , and his third argument , that one mans punishment cannot become anothers , immediately before . And so we have finished our first consideration of the sufferings of Christ in general , as a punishment of our sins , which we have shewed to be agreeable both to Scripture and Reason . CHAP. IV. The Death of Christ considered as an Expiatory Sacrifice for sin . What the expiation of sin was by the Sacrifices under the Law ; twofold , Civil and Ritual . The Promises made to the Jews under the Law of Moses , respected them as a People , and therefore must be temporal . The typical nature of Sacrifices asserted . A substitution in the Expiatory Sacrifices under the Law , proved from Lev. 17. 11. and the Concession of Crellius about the signification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 joyned with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Levit. 10. 17. explained . The expiation of uncertain murther proves a substitution . A substitution of Christ in our room proved , from Christs being said to dye for us ; the importance of that phrase considered . In what sense a Surrogation of Christ in our room is asserted by us . Our Redemption by Christ proves a substitution . Of the true notion of Redemption : that explained , and proved against Socinus and Crellius . No necessity of paying the price to him that detains captive , where the captivity is not by force , but by sentence of Law. Christs death a proper 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : and therefore the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 attributed to it , cannot be taken for meer deliverance . WE come now to consider the death of Christ , as an Expiatory Sacrifice for the sins of mankinde : Which is as much denied by our Adversaries , as that it was a punishment for our sins . For though they do not deny , That Christ as a Priest did offer up a Sacrifice of Expiation for the sins of men ; yet they utterly deny , That this was performed on earth , or that the Expiation of sins did respect God , but onely us ; or , that the death of Christ , had any proper efficacy towards the expiation of sin , any further than as it comprehends in it all the consequences of his death , by a strange Catechresis . I shall now therefore prove , that all things which do belong to a proper Expiatory Sacrifice , do agree to the death of Christ. There are three things especially considerable in it : 1. A Substitution in the place of the Offenders . 2. An Oblation of it to God. 3. An Expiation of sin consequent upon it . Now these three , I shall make appear to agree fully to the death of Christ for us . 1. A Substitution in the place of the Osfenders . That we are to prove , was designed in the Expiatory Sacrifices under the Law , and that Christ in his death for us , was substituted in our place . 1. That in the Expiatory Sacrifices under the Law , there was a Substitution of them in the place of the Offenders . This our Adversaries are not willing to yield us , because of the correspondency which is so plain in the Epistle to the Hebrews , between those Sacrifices , and that which was offered up by Christ. We now speak onely of those Sacrifices , which we are sure were appointed of old for the expiation of sin , by God himself . As to which the great rule assigned by the Apostle was , That without shedding of blood there was no remission . If we yield Crellius what he so often urgeth ; viz. That these words are to be understood , of what was done under the Law : They will not be the less serviceable to our purpose ; for thereby it will appear , that the means of Expiation lay in the shedding of blood : Which shews , that the very mactation of the beast to be sacrificed , was designed in order to the expiation of sin . To an inquisitive person , the reason of the slaying such multitudes of beasts in the Sacrifices appointed by God himself among the Jews , would have appeared far less evident than now it doth , since the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews hath given us so full an account of them . For it had been very unreasonable to have thought , that they had been meerly instituted out of compliance with the customs of other Nations , since the whole design of their Religion , was to separate them from them : and on such a supposition the great design of the Epistle to the Hebrews signifies very little ; which doth far more explain to us the nature and tendency of all the Sacrifices in use among them , that had any respect to the expiation of sins , than all the customs of the Egyptians , or the Commentaries of the latter Jews . But I intend not now to discourse at large , upon this subject of Sacrifices , either as to the nature and institution of them in general , or with a particular respect to the Sacrifice of Christ , since a learned person of our Church , hath already undertaken Crellius upon this Argument , and we hope ere long will oblige the world with the benefit of his pains . I shall therefore onely insist on those things which are necessary for our purpose , in order to the clearing the Substitution of Christ in our stead , for the expiation of our sins by his death ; and this we say was represented in the Expiatory Sacrifices , which were instituted among the Jews . If we yield Crellius what he after Socinus contends for ; viz. That the Sacrifice of Christ was onely represented in the ●ublick and solemn Expiatory Sacrifices for the ●eople , and especially those on the day of Atone●ent : We may have enough from them to indicate all that we assert , concerning ●he Expiatory Sacrifice of the blood of Christ. For that those were designed by way of ●…bstitution in the place of the offenders , will ●…pear from the circumstances and reason ●…f their Institution : But before we come 〈◊〉 that , it will be necessary to shew what ●…at Expiation was , which the Sacrifices ●…der the Law were designed for ; the ●…ot understanding of which , gives a greater ●…rce to our Adversaries Arguments , than ●therwise they would have . For while ●…en assert , that the expiation was wholly ●…pical , and of the same nature with that ●…piation which is really obtained by the ●…eath of Christ , they easily prove , That all ●…e expiation then , was onely declarative , and ●…d no more depend on the sacrifices offered , ●…an on a condition required by God , the neg●…t of which would be an act of disobedience in ●…em ; and by this means it could represent , ●…y they , no more than such an expiation to by Christ ; viz. Gods declaring that sins ●…e expiated by him , on the performance of such condition required in order thereto , as laying down his life was . But we assert anoth●… kind of expiation of sin , by virtue of t●… Sacrifice being slain and offered ; wh●… was real , and depended upon the Sacrifi●… And this was twofold , a Civil , and a Ri●… expiation , according to the double 〈◊〉 pacity in which the people of the I●… may be considered , either as members o●… Society , subsisting by a body of L●… which according to the strictest Sanction 〈…〉 it , makes death the penalty of disobed●… ence , Deut. 27. 26. but by the will of 〈◊〉 Legislator , did admit of a relaxation 〈◊〉 many cases , allowed by himself ; in whi●… he declares , That the death of the be●… designed for a sacrifice should be 〈…〉 cepted , instead of the death of the offe●… der ; and so the offence should be fu●… expiated , as to the execution of the pe●… Law upon him . And thus far , I freely 〈◊〉 mit what Grotius asserts upon this subje●… and do yield that no other offence co●… be expiated in this manner , but such whi●… God himself did particularly declare sho●… be so . And therefore no sin which 〈◊〉 to be punished by cutting off , was to 〈◊〉 expiated by Sacrifice ; as wilful Idola●… Murther , &c. Which it is impossible f●… those to give an account of , who make●… expiation wholly typical ; for why th●… should not the greatest sins much rather ●…ave had sacrifices of expiation appointed ●…or them : because the Consciences of ●…en would be more solicitous for the ●…ardon of greater than lesser sins ; and the ●…lood of Christ represented by them , was designed for the expiation of all . From whence it is evident , that it was not a meer typical expiation ; but it did relate ●o the civil constitution among them . But ●esides this , we are to consider the people with a respect to that mode of Divine Worship which was among them ; by reason of which , the people were to be purified from the legal impurities which they contracted , which hindred them from joyning with others in the publick Worship of God , and many Sacrifices were appointed purposely for the expiating this legal guilt , as particularly , the ashes of the red heifer , Numb . 19. 9. which is there call'd a purification for sin . And the Apostle puts the blood of Bulls and of Goats , and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean , together ; and the effect of both of them , he saith , was to sanctifie to the purifying of the flesh ; which implyes , that there was some proper and immediate effect of these sacrifices upon the people at that time ; though infinitely short of the effect of the blood of Christ upon the Conscien●… of men . By which it is plain , the Apost●… doth not speak of the same kind of expi●…tion in those sacrifices , which was in the S●crifice of Christ , and that the one w●… barely typical of the other ; but of a di●ferent kind of expiation , as far as purifying the flesh is from purging the Conscien●… But we do not deny , that the whole dispensation was typical , and that the Law 〈◊〉 a shadow of good things to come , and not 〈◊〉 very image of the things , i. e. a dark a●● obscure representation , and not the perfect resemblance of them . There are tw● things which the Apostle asserts conce●●ing the Sacrifices of the Law : First , th●… they had an effect upon the Bodies of m●… which he calls purifying the flesh ; the oth●… is , that they had no power to expiate fo● the sins of the Soul , considered with a respect to the punishment of another lif● which he calls purging the Conscience fr●● dead works ; and therefore he saith , that 〈◊〉 the gifts and sacrifices under the Law , co●… not make him that did the service perfect , 〈◊〉 pertaining to the Conscience , and that it 〈◊〉 impossible that the blood of Bulls and Go●● should take away sin . So that the prop●… expiation which was made by them , 〈◊〉 civil and ritual , relating either to corporal punishment , or to legal uncleanness , ●rom whence the Apostle well proves the ●ecessity of a higher Sacrifice to make ●xpiation for sins , as pertaining to the Con●●ience : But that expiation among the Jews●id ●id relate to that Polity which was esta●lished among them , as they were a Peo●le under the Government of a body of ●aws distinct from the rest of the world . ●nd they being consider'd as such , it is ●ain to enquire , whether they had only ●●mporal or eternal promises ; for it was im●ossible they should have any other than ●emporal , unless we imagine , that God●ould ●ould own them for a distinct people in ●●other World as he did in this . For what ●romises relate to a People as such , must ●onsider them as a People , and in that ●●pacity they must the blessings of a Socie●… , viz. peace , plenty , number of People , ●…ngth of dayes , &c. But we are far from ●enying that the general Principles of ●eligion did remain among them , viz. that ●…re is a God , and a rewarder of them that ●…k him ; and all the Promises God made 〈◊〉 the Patriarchs , did continue in force as another Countrey , and were continually ●…proved by the Prophetical instructions ●…ong them . But we are now speaking what did respect the people in general , by vertue of that Law which was giv● them by Moses , and in that respect 〈◊〉 punishment of faults being either death 〈◊〉 exclusion from the publick Worship , t●… expiation of them , was taking away t●… obligation to either of these , whi●● was the guilt of them in that consider●tion . But doth not this take away the typi●… nature of these sacrifices ? No , but it mu●… rather establisheth it . For as Socinus argues , If the expiation was only typi●… there must be something in the typ●… correspondent to that which is typif●… by it . As the Brazen Serpent typifi●… Christ , and the benefit which was to co●… by him , because as many as looked up●… it were healed . And Noahs Ark is s●… to be a type of Baptism , because as ●…ny as enter'd into that were saved fro● the deluge . So Corinth . 10. the Apost●… saith , that those things happen'd to th●… in types , v. 11. because the events whi●… happen'd to them , did represent tho●… which would fall upon disobedient Ch●●stians . So that to make good the the notion of a Type , we must assert an exp●…tion that was real then , and agreeable 〈◊〉 that dispensation , which doth repres●… an expiation of a far higher nature , whi●… was to be by the Sacrifice of the Blood of Christ. Which being premised , I now come to ●rove , that there was a substitution designed of the Beast to be slain and sacrificed 〈◊〉 stead of the offenders themselves . Which will appear from Leviticus 17. 11. For the life of the flesh is in the blood , and I have given it to you upon the Altar , to make an Atonement for your Souls ; for it is the blood that maketh an Atonement for the Soul. The utmost that Crellius would have meant by this place is , that there is a double reason assigned of the prohibition of eating blood , viz. that the life was in the blood , and that the blood was designed for expiation ; but he makes these wholly independent upon each other . But we say , that the proper reason assigned against the eating of the blood , is that which is elswhere given , when this Precept is mention'd , viz. that the blood was the life , as we may see Gen. 9. 4. Levit. 17. 14. but to confirm the reason given , that the blood was the life ; he addes , that God had given them that upon the Altar for an Atonement for their Souls ; So the Arabick Version renders it , and therefore have I given it you upon the Altar , viz. because the blood is the life . And hereby a sufficient reason is given , why God did make choice of the blood for atonement , for that is expre●… in the latter clause , for it is the blood 〈◊〉 maketh an atonement for the Soul ; w●… should this be mention'd here , if no 〈◊〉 were intended but to give barely anoth●… reason why they should not eat the bloo● what force is there more in this cla●… to that end , than in the foregoing ? 〈◊〉 therein God had said , that he had given them for an Atonement . If no more h●… been intended , but the bare prohibit●… of common use of the blood , on the 〈◊〉 count of its being consecrated to sac●… use , it had been enough to have said , th●… the blood was holy unto the Lord , as 〈◊〉 is in the other instances mention'd b●… Crellius , of the holy Oyntment and Perfu●… for no other reason is there given , why 〈◊〉 should not be profaned to common 〈◊〉 but that it should be holy for the Lord ; therefore the blood had been forbidd●… upon that account , there had been no ●…cessity at all of adding , that the blood 〈◊〉 it that made atonement for the Soul : whi●… gives no peculiar reason why they sho●… not eat the blood , beyond that of b●… consecration of it to a sacred use ; but we consider it as respecting the first claus● viz. For the life of the flesh is in the bloo● then there is a particular reason why th●… blood should be for atonement , viz. because the life was in that ; and therefore when the blood was offer'd , the life of the Beast was supposed to be given instead of the life of the offender . According to that of Ovid , Hanc animam vobis pro meliore damus . This will be yet made clearer by another instance produced by Crellius to explain this , which is the forbidding the eating of fat , which , saith he , is joyned with this of blood , Levit. 3. 17. It shall be a perpetual Statute for your Generations , throughout all your dwellings , that ye eat neither fat , nor blood . To the same purpose , Levit. 7. 23 , 25 , 26. Now no other reason is given of the prohibition of the fat , but this , All the fat is the Lords . Which was enough to keep them from eating it ; but we see here in the case of blood somewhat further is assigned , viz. that it was the life ; and therefore was the most proper for expiation , the life of the beast being substituted in the place of the offenders . Which was therefore call'd animalis hostia among the Romans , as Grotius observes upon this place , and was distinguished from those whose entrails were observed ; for in those Sacrifices as Servius saith , sola anima Deo sacratur , the main of the Sacrifice lay in shedding of the blood , which was call'd the Soul ; and so it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this place . From whence it appears that such a sacrifice was properly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the same word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used , both relating to the blood and the soul , that is expiated by it : and the LXX . do accordingly render it , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and in the last clause , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . From whence Eusebius calls these Sacrifices of living Creatures , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and afterwards saith they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . And Crellius elsewhere grants , that where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is joyned with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it doth imply , that one doth undergo the punishment which another was to have undergone , which is all we mean by substitution , it being done in the place of another . From whence it follows , that the Sacrifices under the Law being said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth necessarily inferr a substitution of them in the place of the offenders . And from hence may be understood , what is meant by the Goat of the Sin-offering , bearing the iniquity of the Congregation , to make atonement for them before the Lord , Levit. 10. 17. for Crellius his saying , That bearing is as much as taking away , or declaring that they are taken away , hath been already disproved : And his other answer hath as little weight in it ; viz. That it is not said , that the sacrifice did bear their iniquities , but the Priest : For , 1. The Chaldee Paraphrast , and the Syriack Version , understand it wholly of the Sacrifice . 2. Socinus himself grants , That if it were said , the Priest did expiate by the sacrifices , it were all one as if it were said , that the sacrifices themselves did expiate ; because the expiation of the Priest was by the sacrifice . Thus it is plain in the case of uncertain murther , mentioned Deut. 21. from the first to the tenth ; If a murther were committed in the Land , and the person not known who did it , a heifer was to have her head cut off by the Elders of the next City , and by this means they were to put away the guilt of innocent blood from among them : The reason of which was , because God had said before , That blood defiled the land , and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein , but by the blood of him that shed it . From whence it appears , that upon the shedding of blood , there was a guilt contracted upon the whole Land wherein it was shed , and in case the Murtherer was not found to expiate that guilt by his own blood , then it was to be done by the cutting off the head of a heifer instead of him : In which case , the death of the heifer was to do as much towards the expiating the Land , as the death of the Murtherer if he had been found : And we do not contend , that this was designed to expiate the Murtherers guilt ( which is the Objection of Crellius against this instance ) but that a substitution here was appointed by God himself , for the expiation of the people : For what Crellius adds , That the people did not deserve punishment , and therefore needed no expiation ; it is a flat contradiction to the Text : For the prayer appointed in that case is , Be merciful , O Lord , unto thy people Israel , whom thou hast redeemed , and lay not innocent blood unto thy people Israels charge ; and the blood shall be expiated ; for the same word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used here , which is in the other places where Expiation is spoken of . So that here must be some guilt supposed , where there was to be an expiation , and this expiation was performed by the substitution of a sacrifice in the place of the offender . Which may be enough at present to shew , that a substitution was admitted by the Law , of a sacrifice instead of the offender , in order to the expiation of guilt ; but whether the offender himself was to be freed by that Sacrifice , depends upon the terms on which the sacrifice was offered ; for we say still , that so much guilt was expiated , as the sacrifice was designed to expiate ; if the sacrifice was designed to expiate the guilt of the offender , his sin was expiated by it ; if not his , in case no sacrifice was allowed by the Law , as in that of murther , then the guilt which lay upon the Land was expiated , although the offender himself were never discovered . I now come to prove , that in correspondency to such a substitution of the sacrifices for sin under the Law , Christ was substituted in our room for the expiation of our guilt ; and that from his being said to dye for us , and his death being call'd a price of Redemption for us . 1. From Christs being said to dye for us . By S. Peter , For Christ hath also once suffered for sins , the just for the unjust ; by whom he is also said , to suffer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for us , and , for us in the flesh : By S. Paul , he is said to dye 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for all , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for the ungodly , and to give himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a ransome for all , and , to taste death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for every man : By Caiaphas , speaking by inspiration , he is said to dye 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for the people . So Christ himself instituting his last Supper said , This is my body which was given , and my blood which was shed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for you ; and before he had said , That the Son of man came to give his life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a ransome for many . We are now to consider , what arts our Adversaries have made use of to pervert the meaning of these places , so as not to imply a substitution of Christ in our room : 1. They say , That all these phrases do imply no more , than a final cause ; viz. That Christ died for the good of mankind ; for the Apostle tells us , We are bound to lay down our lives for the Brethren , and S. Paul is said to suffer for the Church . To which I answer ; 1. This doth not at all destroy that which we now plead for ; viz. That these phrases do imply a substitution of Christ in our room : For when we are bid to lay down our lives for our brethren , a substitution is implied therein ; and supposing that dying for another , doth signifie dying for some benefit to come to him , yet what doth this hinder substitution , unless it be proved , that one cannot obtain any benefit for another , by being substituted in his room . Nay , it is observable , that although we produce so many places of Scripture , implying such a substitution , they do not offer to produce one that is inconsistent with Christs suffering in our stead ; all that they say is , That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not always signifie so , which we never said it did , who say , that Christ suffered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not instead of our sins , but by reason of them ; but we assert , that when one person is said to dye for others , as in the places mentioned , no other sense can be so proper and agreeable , as dying in the stead of the other . 2. Socinus himself grants , That there is a peculiarity implied in those phrases , when attributed to Christ , above what they have when attributed to any other . And therefore he saith , It cannot be properly said , That one Brother dyes for another , or that Paul suffer'd for the Colossians , or for the Church , as Christ may truly and properly be said to suffer and to dye for us . And from hence , saith he , S. Paul saith , was Paul crucified for you ? implying thereby , that there never was , or could be any , who truely and properly could be said to dye for men but Christ alone . How unreasonable then is it , from the use of a particle as applyed to others , to inferr , that it ought to be so understood , when applyed to Christ ? when a peculiarity is acknowledged in the death of Christ for us , more than ever was or could be in one mans dying for another . 3. It is not the bare force of the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that we insist upon ; but that a substitution could not be more properly expressed , than it is in Scripture , by this and other particles , for not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used , but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too : which Socinus saith , Although it may signifie something else besides in the stead of another , yet in such places , where it is spoken of a ransom , or price , it signifies the payment of something which was owing before , as Mat. 17. 27. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and so he acknowledges , that where redemption is spoken of , there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth imply a commutation , because the price is given , and the person received , which , he saith , holds in Christ only metaphorical y : for the redemption according to him being only Metaphorical , the commutation must be supposed to be so too . And this mow leads us to the larger Answer of Crellius upon this argument . Wherein we shall consider , what he yields , what he denyes , and upon what reasons . 1. He yields , and so he saith , doth Socinus very freely , a commutation : but it is necessary that we should throughly understand what he means by it : to that end he tells us , That they acknowledge a twofold commutation ; one of the person suffering , the kind of suffering being changed , not actually but intentionally , because we were not actually freed by Christ dying for us , but only Christ dyed for that end , that we might be freed . And this commutation , he saith , that Socinus doth not deny to be implyed in the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in the places where Christ is said to dye for us . Another commutation , which he acknowledges , is , that which is between a price , and the thing or person which is bought or redeemed by it ; where the price is paid , and the thing or person is received upon it . And this kind of commutation , he saith , is to be understood in the places where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is mention'd ; which price , he saith , by accident may be a person ; and because the person is not presently delivered , he therefore saith , that the commutation is rather imperfect than metaphorical ; and although , he saith , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not of it self imply a commutation , yet he grants , that the circumstances of the places do imply it . 2. He denyes , that there is any proper surrogation in Christs dying for us , which , he saith , is such a commutation of persons , that the substituted person is in all respects to be in the same place and state wherein the other was ; and if it refers to sufferings ; then it is when one suffers the very same which the other was to suffer , he being immediately delivered by the others sufferings . And against this kind of surrogation , Crellius needed not to have produced any reasons ; for Grotius never asserted it ; neither do we say , that Christ suffer'd eternal death for us , or that we were immediately freed by his sufferings . But that which Grotius asserts that he meant by substitution was this , that unless Christ had ayed for us , we must have dyed our selves , and because Christ hath dyed , we shall not dye eternally . But if this be all , saith Crellius , he meant by it , we grant the whole thing , and he complains of it as an injury for any to think otherwise of them . If so , they cannot deny but that there was a sufficient capacity in the death of Christ to be made an expiatory Sacrifice for the sins of the world . But notwithstanding all these fair words , Crellius means no more than Socinus did ; and though he would allow the words which Grotius used , yet not in the sense he understood them in ; for Crellius means no more by all this , but that the death of Christ was an antecedent condition to the expiation of sins in Heaven , Grotius understands by them , that Christ did expiate sins by becoming a Sacrifice for them in his death . However , from hence it appears , that our Adversaries can have no plea against the death of Christs being an expiatory Sacrifice ( from want of a substitution in our room ) since they profess themselves so willing to own such a substitution . But if they say , that there could be no proper substitution , because the death of Christ was a bare condition , and no punishment , they then express their minds more freely ; and if these places be allowed to prove a substitution , I hope the former discourse will prove that it was by way of punishment . Neither is it necessary , that the very same kinde of punishment be undergone in order to surrogation , but that it be sufficient in order to the accomplishing the end for which it was designed . For this kind of substitution being in order to the delivery of another by it , whatever is sufficient for that end , doth make a proper surrogation . For no more is necessary to the delivery of another person than the satisfying the ends of the Law and Government , and if that may be done by an aequivalent suffering , though not the same in all respects , then it may be a proper surrogation . If David had obtained his wish , that he had dyed himself for his Son Absolom , it had not been necessary in order to his Sons escape , that he had hanged by the hair of his head , as his Son did ; but his death , though in other circumstances , had been sufficient . And therefore , when the Lawyers say , subrogatum , sapit naturam ejus in cujus locum subrogatur : Covarruvias tells us , it is to be understood secundum primordialem naturam non secundum accidentalem ; from whence it appears , that all circumstances are not necessary to be the same in surrogation ; but that the nature of the punishment remain the same . Thus Christ dying for us , to deliver us from death , and the curse of the Law , he underwent an accursed death for that end ; although not the very same which we were to have undergone , yet sufficient to shew , that he underwent the punishment of our iniquities in order to the delivering us from it . And if our Adversaries will yield us this , we shall not much contend with them about the name of a proper surrogation . But in the matter of Redemption , or where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used , Crellius will by no means yield that there was a commutation of persons between Christ and us , but all the commutation he will allow here is only a commutation between a thing , or a price , and a person . Which he therefore asserts , that so there may be no necessity of Christs undergoing the punishment of sin in order to redemption , because the price that is to be paid , is not supposed to undergo the condition of the person deliver'd by it . Which will evidently appear to have no force at all , in case we can prove , that a proper redemption may be obtained by the punishment of one in the room of another ; for that punishment then comes to be the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or price of redemption ; and he that payes this , must be supposed to undergo punishment for it . So that the commutation being between the punishment of one , and the other redeemed by it , here is a proper commutation of persons implyed in the payment of the price . But hereby we may see that the great subtilty of our Adversaries is designed on purpose to avoid the force of the places of Scripture , which are so plain against them : For when these places where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are joyned together , are so clear for a substitution , that they cannot deny it ; then they say , by it is meant only a commutation of a price for a person ; but when the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is urged to prove a redemption purchased by Christ , by the payment of a price for it , then they deny that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth signifie a proper price , but is only taken metaphorically ; and yet if it be so taken , then there can be no force in what Crellius saith , for a bare metaphorical price may be a real punishment . Two things I shall then prove against Crellius . 1. That the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as applyed to Christ , is to be taken in a proper sense . 2. That although it be taken in a proper sense , yet it doth not imply a bare commutation of a price and a person , but a substitution of one person in the room of another . Both these will be cleared from the right stating the notion of redemption between our Adversaries and us . For they will not by any means have any other proper notion of redemption but from captivity , and that by the payment of a price to him that did hold in captivity , and therefore because Christ did not pay the price to the Devil , there could be no proper sense either of the redemption , or the price which was payd for it . This is the main strength of all the arguments used by Socinus and Crellius , to enervate the force of those places of Scripture which speak of our redemption by Christ , and of the price which he payd in order to it . But how weak these exceptions are , will appear upon a true examination of the proper notion of Redemption , which in its primary importance signifies no more , than the obtaining of one thing by another as a valuable consideration for it . Thence redimere anciently among the Latins signified barely to purchase by a valuable price , for the thing which they had a right to by it ; and sometimes to purchase that which a man hath sold before , thence the pactum redimendi in contracts : still in whatever sense it was used by the Lawyers or others , the main regard was , to the consideration upon which the thing was obtained , thence redimere delatorem pecunia , h. e. eum à delatione deducere ; so redimere litem ; and redemptor litis was one that upon certain consideration took the whole charge of a suit upon himself : and those who undertook the farming of customs at certain rates , were call'd redemptores vectigalium , qui redempturis auxissent vectigalia , saith Livy . And all those who undertook any publick work at a certain price , redemptores antiquitus dicebantur , saith Festus and Ulpian . From hence it was applyed to the delivery of any person from any inconvenience that he lay under , by something which was supposed a valuable consideration for it . And that it doth not only relate to captivity , but to any other great calamity , the freedom from which is obtained by what another suffers ; is apparent from these two remarkable expressions of Cicero to this purpose . Quam quidem ego ( saith he , speaking of the sharpness of the time ) a rep . meis privat is & domesticis incommodis libentissimè redemissem . And more expresly elsewhere , Ego vitam omnium civium , statum orbis terrae , urbem hanc denique &c. quinque hominum amenti●… ac perditorum poena redemi . Where it i● plain , that redemption is used for th● delivery of some by the punishment o● others ; not from meer captivity , but from a great calamity which they might have fallen into , without such a punishment of those persons . So vain is that assertion of Socinus , redimere , nihil aliud proprie significat , quam eum captivum e manibus illius , qui eum detinet , pretio illi dato liberare . And yet supposing we should grant that redemption as used in sacred Authors doth properly relate to captivity , there is no necessity at all of that which our Adversaries contend so earnestly for , viz. That the price must be payd to him that detains captive . For we may very easily conceive a double sort of captivity , from whence a redemption may be obtained ; the one by force , when a Captive is detained purposely for advantage to be made by his redemption ; and the other in a judicial manner , when the Law condemns a person to captivity , and the thing designed by the Law is not a meer price , but satisfaction to be made to the Law , upon which a redemption may be obtained ; now in the former case it is necessary , that the price be paid to the person who detains , because the reason of his detaining , was the expectation of the price to be paid ; but in the latter , the detainer is meerly the instrument for execution of the Law , and the price of redemption is not to be paid to him ; but to those who are most concerned in the honour of the Law. But Crellius objects , that the price can never be said to be paid to God , because our redemption is attributed to God as the author of it , and because we are said to be redeemed for his use and service , now , saith he , the price can never be paid to him for whose service the person is redeemed . But all this depends upon the former mistake , as though we spake all this while of such a redemption , as that is of a Captive by force ; in whom the detainer is no further concerned , than for the advantage to be made by him ; and in that case the price must be paid to him who detains , because it would otherwise be unsuccessfull for his deliverance : but in case of captivity by Law , as the effect of disobedience , the Magistrate who is concerned in the life of the person , and his future obedience , may himself take care that satisfaction may be given to the Law for his redemption , in order to his future service ableness . From hence we see both that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is proper in this case of our redemption , and that it is not a meer commutation of a price for a person , but a commutation of one persons suffering for others , which suffering being a punishment in order to satisfaction , is a valuable consideration , and therefore a price for the redemption of others by it . Which price in this sense doth imply a proper substitution ; which was the thing to be proved . Which was the first thing to be made good concerning the death of Christ being a sacrifice for sin , viz. that there was a substitution of Christ in our stead as of the sacrifices of old under the Law ; and in this sense the death of Christ was a proper 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or price of redemption for us . Nothing then can be more vain , than the way of our Adversaries , to take away the force of all this , because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is sometimes taken for a meer deliverance without any price , which we deny not ; but the main force of our argument is from the importance of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , where the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is mention'd ; and then we say that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when applyed to sins , signifies expiation , ( as Heb. 9. . 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ) but when applyed to persons , it signifies the deliverance purchased by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which is not to be consider'd as a bare price , or a thing given , but as a thing undergone in order to that deliverance : and is therefore not only call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too , which Crellius confesseth doth imply a commutation , and we have shewed , doth prove a substitution of Christ in our place . CHAP. V. The notion of a sacrifice belongs to the death of Christ , because of the Oblation made therein to God. Crellius his sense of Christs Oblation proposed . Against him it is proved , that the Priestly Office of Christ had a primary respect to God , and not to us . Expiatory Sacrifices did divert the wrath of God. Christ not a bare Metaphorical High-Priest . Crellius destroyes the Priesthood of Christ by confounding it with the exercise of his Regal Power . No proper expiation of sin belongs to Christ in Heaven , if Crellius his Doctrine be true . Ephes. 5. 2. proves the death of Christ an expiatory Sacrifice , and an Oblation to God. The Phrase of a sweet-smelling savour , belongs to expiatory Sacrifices ; Crellius his gross notion of it . His mistakes about the kinds of Sacrifices . Burnt-offerings were expiatory sacrifices both before and under the Law. A new distribution of sacrifices proposed . What influence the mactation of the Sacrifice had on Expiation . The High-Priest only to slay the Sin-offering on the day of Atonement ; from whence it is proved , that Christs Priesthood did not begin from his entrance into Heaven . The mactation in expiatory sacrifices no bare preparation to a sacrifice , proved by the Jewish Laws , and the customs of other Nations . Whether Christs Oblation of himself once to God , were in Heaven , or on Earth ? Of the proper notion of Oblations under the Levitical Law. Several things observed from thence to our purpose . All things necessary to a legal Oblation , concurre in the death of Christ. His entrance into Heaven hath no correspondency with it ; if the blood of Christ were no sacrifice for sin . In Sin-offerings for the People , the whole was consumed ; no eating of the sacrifices allowed the Priests , but in those for private Persons . Christs exercise of Power in Heaven , in no sense an Oblation to God. Crellius , his sense repugnant to the circumstances of the places in dispute . Objections answered . THE Second thing to prove the death of Christ a Sacrifice for sin , is the Oblation of it to God for that end . Grotius towards the conclusion of his book , makes a twofold Oblation of Christ , parallel to that of the Sacrifices under the Law , the first of Mactation , the second of Representation ; whereof the first was done in the Temple , the second in the Holy of Holies ; so the first of Christ was on Earth , the second in Heaven ; the first is not a bare preparation to a Sacrifice , but a Sacrifice : the latter not so much a Sacrifice , as the commemoration of one already past . Wherefore , since appearing and interceding are not properly sacerdotal acts , any further than they depend on the efficacy of a sacrifice already offer'd , he that takes away that Sacrifice , doth not leave to Christ any proper Priesthood , against the plain authority of the Scripture , which assigns to Christ the office of a Priest distinct from that of a Prophet and a King. To which Crellius replyes : That the expiation of sin doth properly belong to what Christ doth in Heaven ; and may be applyed to the death of Christ onely , as the condition by which he was to enjoy that power in Heaven , whereby he doth expiate sins ; but the Priest was never said to expiate sins when he kill'd the beast , but when the blood was sprinkled or carried into the Holy of Holyes , to which the Oblation of Christ in Heaven doth answer : but the mactation , saith he , was not proper to the Priests , but did belong to the Levites also . And Christ was not truly a Priest , while he was on Earth , but only prepared by his sufferings to be one in Heaven , where by the perpetual care he takes of his People , and exercising his Power for them , he is said to offer up himself , and intercede for them , and by that means he dischargeth the Office of a High-Priest for them . For his Priestly Office , he saith , is never in Scripture mention'd as distinct from his Kingly , but is comprehended under it ; and the great difference between them is , that one is of a larger extension than the other is , the Kingly Office extending to punishing , and the Priestly only to expiation . This is the substance of what Crellius more at large discourseth upon this subject . Wherein he asserts these things . 1. That the Priestly Office of Christ doth not in reference to the expiation of sins respect God but us ; his Intercession and Oblation wherein he makes the sacerdotal function of Christ to consist , being the exercise of his power for the good of his People . 2. That Christ did offer up no Sacrifice of expiation to God upon Earth , because the mactation had no reference to expiation , any other than as a preparation for it ; and Christ not yet being constituted a High-Priest till after his Resurrection from the dead . Against these two assertions I shall direct my following discourse , by proving ; 1. That the Priestly Office of Christ had a primary respect to God , and not to us , 2. That Christ did exercise this Priestly Office in the Oblation of himself to God upon the Cross. 1. That the Priestly Office of Christ had a primary respect to God , and not to us ; which appears from the first Institution of a High-Priest , mentioned by the Apostle , Hebr. 5. 1. For every High-Priest taken from among men , is ordained for men in things pertaining to God , that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins : Id est , saith Crellius elsewhere , ut procuret & peragat ea quae ad colendum ac propitiandum numen pertinent ; i. e. That he may perform the things which appertain to the worshipping and propitiating God : We desire no more , but that the propitiating God , may as immediately be said to respect him , as the worshipping of God doth ; or let Crellius tell us , what sense the propitiating God will bear ; if all that the High-Priest had to do , did immediately respect the people : nay , he saith not long after , That it was the chief Office of a High-Priest , to plead the cause of sinners with God , and to take care , that they may find him kind and propitious , and not angry or displeased . In what sense God was said to be moved by the Expiatory Sacrifices , is not here our business to discuss ; it is sufficient for our purpose , that they were instituted with a respect to God , so as to procure his favour , and divert his wrath . In which sense , the Priest is so often in the Levitical Law said , by the offering up of Sacrifices , to expiate the sins of the people . But Crellius saith , This ought not so to be understood , as though God by Expiatory Sacrifices , were diverted from his anger , and inclined to pardon ; which is a plain contradiction , not onely to the words of the Law , but to the instances that are recorded therein ; as when Aaron was bid in the time of the Plague , to make an Atonement for the people , for there is wrath gone out from the Lord : and he stood between the living and the dead , and the plague was stayed . Was not Gods anger then diverted here , by the making this Atonement ? The like instance we read in Davids time , that by the offering burnt-offerings , &c. the Lord was intreated for the Land , and the plague was stayed from Israel : By which nothing can be more plain , than that the primary intention of such Sacrifices , and consequently of the Office of the Priest who offered them , did immediately respect the Atoning God : But yet Crellius urgeth , This cannot be said of all , or of the most proper Expiatory Sacrifices : but we see it said of more than the meer Sacrifices f●… sin , as appointed by the Law ; viz. of burnt-offerings , and peace-offerings , and incense , i● the examples mentioned . So that these Levitical Sacrifices did all respect the atoning God ; although in some particular cases , different Sacrifices were to be offered ; for it is said , the burnt-offering wa● to make atonement for them , as well as th● sin and trespass-offerings ( excepting those sacrifices which were instituted in acknowledgement of Gods Soveraignty over them and presence among them , as the daily Sacrifices , the meat and drink offerings , o● such as were meerly occasional , &c. ) Thus it is said , that Aaron and his sons wer● appointed to make an Atonement for Israel So that as Grotius observes out of Phil● The High-Priest was a Mediator betwee● God and man , by whom men might propitiate God , and God dispense his favours to men . But the means whereby he did procure favours to men , was by atoning God by the Sacrifices , which h●… was by his Office to offer to him . W●… are now to consider , how far this hol● in reference to Christ , for whose sake t●… Apostle brings in these words ; and su●… would not have mentioned this as the pr● mary Office of a High-Priest , in order to ●he proving Christ to be our High-Priest , ●fter a more excellent manner than the ●…ronical was , unless he had agreed with ●im in the nature of his Office , and ex●eeded him in the manner of perform●nce . For the Apostle both proves , that he was 〈◊〉 true and proper , and not a bare Meta●horical High-Priest , and that in such a capa●ity , he very far exceeded the Priests after the order of Aaron . But how could that possibly be , if he failed in the primary Office of a High-Priest ; viz. In offering up gifts and sacrifices to God ? If his Office as High-Priest did primarily respect men , when the Office of the Aaronical Priest did respect God ? To avoid this , Crellius makes these words to be onely an allusion to the Legal Priesthood , and some kinde of similitude between Christ and the Aaronical Priests ; but it is such a kinde of allusion , that the Apostle designs to prove , Christ to be an High-Priest by it ; and which is of the greatest force , he proves the necessity of Christs having somewhat to offer from hence : For every High-Priest is ordained to offer gifts , and sacrifices ; wherefore it is of necessity , that this man have somewhat also to offer . This is that which he looks at as the peculiar and distinguishi●… character of a High-Priest ; for intercedi●● for others , and having compassion upo● them , might be done by others besides th●… High-Priest ; but this was that , witho●● which he could not make good his name what order soever he were of . If Chri●… then had no proper sacrifice to offer upto God , to what purpose doth the Apostle s● industriously set himself to prove , that h● is our High-Priest ? when he must needs fai●… in the main thing , according to his own assertion ? How easie had it been for the Jews , to have answered all the Apostles Arguments concerning the Priesthood of Christ , if he had been such a Priest , and made no● other Oblation than Crellius allows him ? When the Apostle proves against the Jews , that there was no necessity , that they should still retain the Mosaical Dispensation , because now they had a more excellent High-Priest than the Aaronical were ; and makes use of that character of a High-Priest , that he was one taken out from among men , 〈◊〉 things pertaining to God to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins : Well , say the Jews , we accept of this character , but how do yo● prove concerning Christ , that he was such a one ? Did he offer up a sacrifice fo● sin to God upon earth , as our High-Priest do ? No , saith Crellius , his sufferings were ●…ely a preparation for his Priesthood in Hea●●n : But did he then offer up such a Sacrifice to God in Heaven ? Yes , saith Crellius , He made an Oblation there . But is that Oblation such a Sacrifice to God for sin , as our High-Priest offers ? Yes , ●aith Crellius , it may be called so by way of ●llusion . Well then , say they , you grant that your Jesus is onely a High-Priest by way of allusion , which was against your first design to prove ; viz. That he was a true High-Priest , and more excellent than ours . But suppose it be by way of allusion , doth he make any Oblation to God in Heaven or not ? No , saith Crellius , really and truly he doth not ; for all his Office doth respect us , but the benefits we enjoy coming ●●iginally from the kindness of God , you may all it an Oblation to God if you please . But how is it possible then , say the Jews , you can ever convince us , that he is any High-Priest , or Priest at all , much less , that he should ever exceed the Aaronical High-Priests in their Office ? for we are assured , that they do offer Sacrifices for sin , and that God is atoned by them : but if your High-Priest make no atonement for sin , he falls far short of ours , and therefore we will still hold to our Levitical Priesthood , and not forsake that for o●… barely Metaphorical , and having nothin● really answering the name of a High Priest. Thus the force of all the Apostl● Arguments is plainly taken away , by wh●● Crellius and his Brethren assert concernin● the Priesthood of Christ. But Crelli●… thinks to make it good by saying , Th●● things that are improper and figurative , ma● be far more excellent than the things that ar● proper , to which they are opposed ; so 〈◊〉 Christs Priesthood may be far more excelle●● than the Aaronical , although his be onely figurative , and the other proper . But the questio●… is not , Whether Christs Priesthood by any other adventitious considerations , as o● greater Power and Authority than the Aaronical Priests had , may be said to be far more excellent than theirs was ; but , Whether in the notion of Priesthood , it doth exceed theirs ? Which it is impossible to make good , unless he had some proper oblation to make unto God , which in it sel● did far exceed all the Sacrifices and Offerings under the Law. But what that oblation of Christ in Heaven was , which had any correspondency with the Sacrifices under the Law , our Adversaries can never assign ; nay , when they go about it , they speak of it in such a manner , as makes it very evident they could heartily have wished the Epistle to the Hebrews had said as little of the Priesthood of Christ , as they say , any other part of the New Testament doth . Thence Smalcius and Crellius insist so much upon the Priesthood of Christ , being distinctly mentioned by none but the Author to the Hebrews ; which , say they , had surely been done , if Christ had been a proper Priest , or that Office in him distinct from his Kingly . Which sufficiently discovers what they would be at ; viz. That the testimony of the Author to the Hebrews , is but a single testimony in this matter ; and in truth , they do ( as far as is consistent with not doing it in express words ) wholly take away the Priesthood of Christ : For what is there which they say his Priesthood implies , which he might not have had , supposing he had never been call'd a Priest ? His being in Heaven , doth not imply that he is a Priest , unless it be impossible for any but Priests ever to come there : His Power and Authority over the Church , doth not imply it ; for that power is by themselves confessed to be a Regal power : his readiness to use that power , cannot imply it , which is the thing Smalcius insists on ; for his being a King of the Church , doth necessarily imply his readiness to make use of his power for the good of his Church . H● receiving his power from God , doth not i●ply that he was a Priest , although Crelli●● insists on that , unless all the Kings of th● Earth are Priests by that means too , an● Christ could not have had a subordinat● power as King , as well as Priest. But hi● death is more implied , saith Crellius , in th● name of a Priest , than of a King ; true , if his death be considered as a Sacrifice , but not otherwise : For what is there of a Priest in bare dying , do not others so too ? But this represents greater tenderness and care in Christ , than the meer title of a King : What kind of King do they imagine Christ the mean while , if his being so , did not give the greatest encouragement to all his subjects ? nay , it is plain , the name of a King must yield greater comfort to his people , because that implies his power to defend them , which the bare name of a Priest doth not . So that there could be no reason at all given , why the name of a High-Priest should be at all given to Christ , if no more were implied in it , than the exercise of his power , with respect to us , without any proper oblation to God : For here is no proper Sacerdotal act at all attributed to him ; so that upon their hypothesis , the name of High-Priest , is a meer insignificant title used by the author to the Hebrews , without any foundation at all for it . By no means , saith Crellius , for his expiation of sin is implyed by it , which is not implyed in the name of King : True , if the expiation of sin were done by him in the way of a Priest by an oblation to God , which they deny ; but though they call it Expiation , they mean no more than the exercise of his divine power in the delivering his people . But what parallel was there to this in the expiation of sins by the Levitical Priesthood ? that was certainly done by a Sacrifice offered to God by the Priest , who was thereby said to expiate the sins of the people : how comes it now to be taken quite in another sense , and yet still call'd by the same name ? But this being the main thing insisted on by them , I shall prove from their own Principles , that no expiation of sin in their own sense can belong to Christ in Heaven , by vertue of his Oblation of himself there , and consequently that they must unavoidably overthrow the whole notion of the Priesthood of Christ. For this we are to consider , what their notion of the expiation of sins is , which is set down briefly by Crellius in the beginning of his discourse of Sacrifices , There is a twofold power , saith he , of the sacrifice of Christ towards the expiation of sin , one taking away the guilt and the punishment of sin , and that partly by declaring , that God will do it , and giving us a right to it , partly by actual deliverance from punishment ; the other is by beg●tting Faith in us , and so drawing us off from the practice of sin : Now the first and last Crellius and Socinus attribute to the death of Christ , as that was a confirmation of the Covenant God made for the remission of sin ; and as it was an argument to perswade us to believe the truth of his doctrine ; and the other , viz. the actual deliverance from punishment , is by themselves attributed to the second coming of Christ ; for then only , they say , the just shall be actually deliver'd from the punishment of sin , viz. eternal death ; and what expiation is there now left to the Oblation of Christ in Heaven ? Doth Christ in Heaven declare the pardon of sin any other way than it was declared by him upon Earth ? What efficacy hath his Oblation in Heaven upon perswading men to believe ? or is his second coming , when he shall sit as Judge , the main part of his Priesthood ; for then the expiation of sins in our Adversaries sense is most proper ? And yet nothing can be more remote from the notion of Christs Priesthood , than that is ; so that expiation of sins according to them can have no respect at all to the Oblation of Christ in Heaven , or ( which is all one in their sense ) his continuance in Heaven to his second coming . Yes , saith Crellius , his continuance there , is a condition in order to the expiation by actual deliverance , and therefore it may be said , that God is as it were moved by it to expiate sins . The utmost then , that is attributed to Christs being in Heaven , in order to the expiation of sins , is that he must continue there without doing any thing in order to it ; for if he does , it must either respect God or us : but they deny ( though contrary to the importance of the words , and the design of the places where they are used ) that the terms of Christs interceding for us , or being an Advocate with the Father for us , doth note any respect to God , but only to us ; if he does any thing with respect to us in expiation of sin , it must be either declaring , perswading , or actual deliverance ; but it is none of these by their own assertions ; and therefore that which they call Christs Oblation , or his being in Heaven , signifies nothing as to the expiation of sin : and it is unreasonable to suppose that a thing , which hath no influence at all upon it , should be looked on as a condition in order to it . From whence it appears , that while our Adversaries do make the exercise of Christs Priesthood to respect us and not God , they destroy the very nature of it , and leave Christ only an empty name without any thing answering to it : But if Christ be truly a High-Priest , as the Apostle asserts that he is , from thence it follows that he must have a respect to God in offering up gifts and sacrifices for sin : which was the thing to be proved . 2. That Christ did exercise this Priestly-Office in the Oblation of himself to God upon the Cross. Which I shall prove by two things , 1. Because the death of Christ is said in Scripture to be an Offering , and a Sacrifice to God. 2. Because Christ is said to offer up himself antecedently to his entrance into Heaven . 1. Because the death of Christ is said to be an offering , and a sacrifice to God , which is plain from the words of S. Paul , as Christ also hath loved us , and given himself for us , an offering and a sacrifice to God , for a sweet-smelling savour . Our Adversaries do not deny that the death of Christ is here call'd an Oblation , but they deny , That it is meant of an Expiatory Sacrifice , but of a free-will offering ; and the reason Crellius gives is , because that phrase of a sweet-smelling savour is generally and almost alwayes used of sacrifices which are not expiatory ; but if ever they be used of an Expiatory Sacrifice , they are not applyed to that which was properly expiatory in it , viz. the offering up of the blood , for no smell , saith he , went up from thence , but to the burning of the fat , and the kidneys , which although required to perfect the expiation , yet not being done till the High-Priest returned out of the Holy of Holies , hath nothing correspondent to the expiatory Sacrifice of Christ , where all things are perfected before Christ the High-Priest goes forth of his Sanctuary . How inconsistent these last words are with what they assert concerning the expiation of sin by actual deliverance at the great day , the former discourse hath already discover'd . For what can be more absurd , than to say , that all things which pertain to the expiation of sin are perfected before Christ goes forth from his Sanctuary , and yet to make the most proper expiation of sin to lye in that act of Christ which is consequent to his going forth of the Sanctuary , viz. when he proceeds to judge the quick and the dead . But of that already . We now come to a punctual and direct answer , as to which two things must be enquired into . 1. What the importance of the phrase of a sweet-smelling savour is ? 2. What the Sacrifices are to which that phrase is applyed . 1. For the importance of the phrase . The first time we read it used in Scripture was upon the occasion of Noahs sacrifice after the flood , of which it is said , that he offer'd burnt-offerings on the Altar , and the Lord smelled a savour of rest , or a sweet savour . Which we are not to imagine in a gross corporeal manner , as Crellius seems to understand it , when he saith , the blood could not make such a savour as the fat and the kidneys ; for surely , none ever thought the smell of flesh burnt was a sweet smelling savour of it self , and we must least of all imagine that of God , which Porphyry saith , was the property only of the worst of Daemons to be pleased , and as it were , to grow fat , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , with the smell and vapours of blood , and flesh , ( by which testimony , it withall appears , that the same steams in sacrifices were supposed to arise from the blood as the flesh : ) But we are to understand that phrase in a sense agreeable to the divine nature , which we may easily doe , if we take it in the sense the Syriack Version takes it in , when it calls it , Odorem placabilitatis , or the savour of rest , as the word properly signifies ; for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the word formed from the Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is used for the resting of the Ark , v. 4. of the same Chapter , and so it imports a rest after some commotion , and in that sense is very proper to Atonement , or that whereby God makes his anger to rest ; so Aben Ezra upon that place expounds the Savour of rest , to be such a one which makes God cease from his anger : Thence in Hiphil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to appeal , or to make peace ; in which sense it is used by R. Solom . upon Isa. 27. 5. Munster tells us the sense is , Deus nunc quievit ab ira & placatus suit , and to the same purpose Vatablus : which sense is most agreeable to the design of the following words , in which God expresseth his great kindness , and the Lord said in his heart , I will not again curse the ground any more for mans sake ; which are words highly expressing , how much God was propitiated by the Sacrifice which Noah offered , and therefore Josephus doth well interpret this to be a proper Expiatory Sacrifice ; that God would now be atoned , and send no more such a deluge upon the world ; which he saith , was the substance of Noahs prayer , when he offered this Burnt-offering , and that God would receive his Sacrifice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , That he would no more receive such displeasure against the earth : So that the first time ever this expression was used , it is taken in the proper sense of an Expiatory Sacrifice . And by that the second enquiry may be easily resolved ; viz. What kind of Sacrifices it doth belong to , which we see in the first place is , to expiatory ; which Crellius denies by a great mistake , of the sense of the phrase , and of the nature of the Offerings , concerning which this expression is most used ; viz. Holocausts , as though those were not Expiatory Sacrifices : But if we can make it appear , that the Holocausts were Expiatory Sacrifices , then it will follow , that this phrase doth most properly agree to a Sacrifice designed for expiation . But Crellius here speaks very confusedly concerning Sacrifices , opposing Holocausts and Freewil-offerings to Expiatory Sacrifices ; whereas the Freewill-offerings might be Expiatory , as well as Eucharistical ; that denomination not respecting the end the Sacrifices were designed for , but that the precise time of offering them was not determined by the Law , as in the stated and solemn Sacrifices . For the general distribution of Sacrifices , seems most proper into Propitiatory and Eucharistical ; which distinction is thought by some to ●old from the first time we read of Sacri●●ces in Scripture ; because the Sacrifice of ●●in was of the fruits of the ground , and of ●●bel , of the Firstlings of his flock . Although ●here seems to be nothing meant by this difference of Sacrifices , but the diversity of their imployments , either of them sacrificing according to them ; and I cannot ●ay what some do , that the reason of Gods rejecting Cains Sacrifice , was because it was not designed for expiation . But the practice of after ages , wherein we have a fuller account of the grounds of the several Sacrifices , makes it appear , that the Expiatory Sacrifices before the Law , were all Burnt-offerings ; and of all those who were not under the particular obligation of that Law : As is plain in the Expiatory Sacrifices of Job for his sons , and for his friends , which were Burnt-offerings ; and among the Jews , all the Sacrifices that were offered up before the Levitical Law , were , as the Jews themselves tell us , onely Burnt-offerings : And after the setling of their Worship among themselves , they did receive Burnt-offerings for expiation from strangers , as Mr. Selden at large proves from the Jewish Writers . It seems then very strange , that since Burnt-offerings before the Law were expiatory , and unde● the Law they continued so for strangers they should be of another nature for th● Jews themselves . But what reason is ther● for it in the text ? not the least that I ca● find , but expresly the contrary . For i● the beginning of Leviticus , where the La● for Burnt-offerings is delivered , the word● are , And he shall put his hand upon the hea● of the Burnt-offering , and it shall be accepte● for him , to make atonement for him ; which is as much as is ever said of any Expiatory Sacrifices : And in the Verse before , where we render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of his own voluntary will ; i● is by the vulgar Latin rendred , Ad plac●●dum sibi Dominum ; by the Syriack Version , Ad placationem sibi obtinendam a Domino ; and to the same purpose by the Chald●● Paraphrast ; but no one Version considerable that so renders it , as to make Burnt-offerings to be Freewill-offerings here , which are spoken of distinctly , and by themselves afterwards : And the Chald●● Paraphrast , Jonathan thus explains , This is the Law of the burnt-offering ; i. e. Quod ve●… ad expiandum pro cogitationibus cordis ; bu● although the Jews be not fully agreed what the Burnt-offerings were designed to expiate , yet they consent that they were of an expiatory nature . Which might make us the more wonder , that Crellius ●…d others should exclude them from it , ●…t the onely reason given by him is , be●…se they are distinguished from Sacrifices for 〈◊〉 , as though no Sacrifices were of an ●…piatory nature but they , and then the ●…spass-offerings must be excluded too , for ●…ey are distinguished from Sin-offerings as ●…ell as the other . The ignorance of the ●…s in the reason of their own customs , ●●th been an occasion of great mistakes ●●ong Christians , concerning the nature 〈◊〉 them ; when they judge of them according to the blind or uncertain conjectures ●hich they make concerning them : So that ●●e Text is oftimes far clearer than their Commentaries are . Setting aside then the ●●tricate and unsatisfactory niceties of the ●ewish Writers , about the several reasons ●f the Burnt-offerings and Sin and Trespass-●fferings , and the differences they make be●ween them , which are so various and in●oherent , I shall propose this conjecture ●oncerning the different reasons of them , ●iz . That some Sacrifices were assumed into ●he Jewish Religion , which had been long ●n use in the world before , and were common to them with the Patriarchs , and all those who in that age of the world did fear and serve God , and such were the Burnt-offerings for expiation of sin , and the frui●… of the earth by way of gratitude to Go●… Other Sacrifices were instituted amo●● them , with a particular respect to the● selves , as a people governed by the Law●… of God : And these were of several sorts 1. Symbolical , of Gods presence amo●● them , such was the daily Sacrifice , institute as a testimony of Gods presence , Exod. 29●… from v. 38. to the end . 2. Occasional , fo●… some great mercies vouchsafed to them , a●… the Passover and the Solemn Festivals , &c ▪ 3. Expiatory , for the sins ●●mmitted agains● their Law : And th●se were of three sorts 1. Such as were wholly consumed to th●… honor of God , which were the Burnt-offerings . 2. Such , of which some part wa●… consumed upon the Altar , and some par●… fell to the share of the Priests ; and thes● were either sins particularly enumerated by God himself , under the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or else generally comprehended under the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being allowed to be expiated , becaus● committed through inadvertency . 3. Such whereof a less part was consumed , as in th●… Peace-offerings of the Congregation , mentioned Levit. 23. 19. whereof the blood 〈◊〉 sprinkled , onely the inwards burnt , and 〈◊〉 flesh not eaten by the persons that offered them , 〈◊〉 it was in the Peace-offerings of particular persons ( of which as being private Sacrifices , have here no occasion to speak ) but ●…ely by the Priests in the Court ; and these ●…ad something of expiation in them : For ●…ence , saith Vatablus , the Peace-offering was ●…all'd by the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , i. e. Expiato●…m , and the LXX . commonly render it , ●…lae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and several of the Jews think ●…he reason of the name was , That it made ●…ace between God and him that offered it : ●ut the great reason I insist on , is , Because ●…ll the things which were used in an Expia●…ory Sacrifice , were in this too ; the slay●…ng of the Beast , the sprinkling of the blood , and the consumption of some part of it upon the Altar , as an Oblation to God , which are the three ingredients of ●…n Expiatory Sacrifice , for the shedding of ●…e blood , noted the bearing the punishment of our iniquity ; and , the sprinkling of 〈◊〉 on the Altar , and the consuming of the part ●…f the sacrifice , or the whole there , that it was designed for the expiation of sin . From whence it follows , that the phrase of a sweet-smelling savour , being applied under the Law to Expiatory Sacrifices , is very proper●y used by S. Paul , concerning Christs giving up himself for us : ●o that from this phrase , nothing can be inferred contrary ●o the Expiatory nature of the death of Christ , but rather it is fully agreea●… to it . But Crellius hath yet a further Argume●… to prove that Christs death cannot be 〈◊〉 meant as the Expiatory Sacrifice ; viz. 〈◊〉 the notion of a sacrifice , doth consist in the ●…lation whereby the thing is consecrated to 〈◊〉 honour and service of God , to which the ma●…tion is but a bare preparation ; which 〈◊〉 proves , Because the slaying the sacrifice 〈◊〉 belong to others besides the Priests , Ezek. 〈◊〉 10 , 11. but the oblation only to the Prie●… To this I answer , 1. The mactation may 〈◊〉 considered two ways , either with a resp●… to the bare instrument of taking away t●… life , or to the design of the Offerer of th●… which was to be sacrificed : As the mac●…tion hath a respect only to the instrume●● so it is no otherways to be considered th●… as a punishment ; but as it hath a respect 〈◊〉 him that designs it for a Sacrifice , so t●… shedding of the blood , hath an immedi●… influence on the expiation of sin . A●… that by this clear Argument , The blood 〈◊〉 said to make an Atonement for the soul ; 〈◊〉 the reason given is , because the life of 〈◊〉 flesh is in the blood : So that which was 〈◊〉 life , is the great thing which makes 〈◊〉 atonement ; and when the blood was sh●… the life was then given ; from whence follows , that the great efficacy of the sacrifice for atonement lay in the shedding of ●he blood for that end . Thence the Apostle●ttributes ●ttributes remission of sins to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the shedding of the blood ; and not to the bare Oblation of it on the Altar , or the carrying it into the Holy of Holies , both which seem to be nothing else but a more solemn representation of that blood before God , which was already shed for the expiation of sins , which was therefore necessary to be performed , that the concurrence of the Priest might be seen with the sacrifice in order to expiation . For if no more had been necessary but the bare slaying of the Beasts , which was the meanest part of the service , the people would never have thought the institution of the Priesthood necessary , and least of all that of the High-Priest , unless some solemn action of his had been performed , such as the entring into the Holy of Holies , on the day of expiation , and carrying it , and sprinkling the blood of the sin-offering in order to the expiation of the sins of the people . And it is observable , that although the Levitical Law be silent in the common Sacrifices , who were to kill them whether the Priests or the Levites ; yet on that day whereon the High-Priest was to appear himself for the expiation of sin , 〈◊〉 is expressely said , that he should not o●… kill , the bullock of the sin-offering , which 〈◊〉 for himself , but the goat of the sin-offeri●● which is for the people . And although th●… Talmudists dispute from their Traditio●… on both sides , whether any one else migh●… on the day of expiation , slay the sin-offerings besides the High-Priest ; yet it i●… no news for them to dispute against th●… Text : and the Talmud it self is clear , tha● the High-Priest did it . From whence i●… appears , there was something peculiar o●… that day as to the slaying of the sin-offerings ; and if our Adversaries opinion hold good , that the Sacrifices on the day of expiation did , if not alone , yet chiefly represent th●… sacrifice of Christ , no greater argument can be brought against themselves than this is , for the office of the High-Priest did not begin at his carrying the blood into the holy of holies , but the slaying the sacrifice did belong to him too : from whence it will unavoidably follow , that Christ did not enter upon his Office of High-Priest , when he enter'd into Heaven , but when the Sacrifice was to be slain which was designed for the expiation of sins . It is then to no purpose at all , if Crelli●… could prove that sometimes in ordinary Sacrifices , ( which he will not say , the Sacrifice of Christ was represented by ) the Levites might kill the beasts for sacrifice ; for it appears , that in those sacrifices , wherein themselves contend that Christs was represented , the office of the High-Priest did not begin with entring into the Sanctuary , but with the mactation of that Sacrifice whose blood was to be carried in thither . Therefore if we speak of the bare instruments of mactation in the death of Christ , those were the Jews , and we make not them Priests in it , for they aimed at no more than taking away his life ( as the Popae among the Romans , and those whose bare office it was to kill the beasts for Sacrifice among the Jews did : ) but if we consider it with a respect to him that offer'd up his life to God , then we say , that Christ was the High-Priest in doing it ; it being designed for the expiation of sin ; and by vertue of this blood-shed for that end , he enters into Heaven as the Holy of Holies , there ever living to make intercession for us . But the vertue of the consequent acts , depends upon the efficacy of the blood shed for expiation ; otherwise the High-Priest might have enter'd with the same effect into the Holy of Holies with any other blood besides that which was shed on purpose as a sin-offering , for expiation of the sins of the people ; which it was unlawfull for him to doe . And from hence it is , that the Apostle to the Hebrews insists so much on the comparison between the blood of Christ , and the blood of the legal sacrifices , and the efficacy of the one far above the other , in its power of expiation ; which he needed not to have done , if the shedding of his blood , had been only a preparation for his entrance on his Priesthood in Heaven . So that the proper notion of a Sacrifice for sin , as it notes the giving the life of one for the expiation of the sins of another , doth properly lye in the mactation , though other sacrificial acts may be consequent upon it . So it was in the animales hostiae among the Romans , in which , saith Macrobius , Sola anima Deo sacratur : of which he tells us Virgil properly speaks in those words , Hanc tibi Eryx meliorem animam pro morte Daretis . And that we may the better understand what he means by the anima here , he saith elsewhere ( as Macrobius and Servius observe out of his excellent skill and accuracy in the Pontifical rites ) Sanguine placastis ventos & virgine caesa , Cum primum Iliacas Danai venistis ad oras : Sanguine quaerendi reditus , animaque litandum Argolica . Which shews , that the expiation was supposed to lye in the blood which they call'd the Soul , as the Scripture doth . And the Persians as Strabo tells us , looked upon the bare mactation as the Sacrifice , for they did not porricere as the Romans call'd it , they laid none of the parts of the Sacrifice upon the Altar to be consumed there , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . for God regarded nothing but the Soul in the sacrifice : which words Eustathius likewise useth upon Homer , of the Sacrifices of the Magi. And Strabo affirms of the ancient Lusitani , that they cut off nothing of the Sacrifice : but consumed the entrails whole ; but though such sacrifices which were for divination were not thought expiatory , and therefore different from the animales hostiae , yet among the Persians , every sacrifice had a respect to expiation of the whole people . For Herodotus tells us , that every one that offers Sacrifice among them , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , prayes for good to all Persians and the King. But thus much may serve to prove against Crellius , that the mactation in an Expiatory Sacrifice , was not a meer preparation to a Sacrifice , but that it was a proper sacrificial act , and consequently that Christ acted as High-Priest , when he gave himself for us , an offering and a Sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour . But this will further appear from those places wherein Christ is said to offer up himself once to God : the places to this purpose are . Heb. 7. 27. Who needeth not daily as those High-Priests to offer up sacrifice , first for his own sins , and then for the Peoples , for this he did once , when he offer'd up himself . Heb. 9. 14. How much more shall the blood of Christ , who through the eternal Spirit offer'd himself without spot to God , purge your Conscience from dead works , to serve the living God. V. 25 , 26 , 27 , 28. Nor yet that he should offer himself often , as the High-Priest entreth into the holy place every year with the blood of others ; for then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the World : but now once in the end of the World hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself . And as it is appointed to men once to dye , but after this the Judgement : so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many , and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation . Heb. 10. 10 , 11 , 12. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the Body of Jesus Christ once for all . And every High-Priest , standeth daily ministring and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices , which can never take away sins : but this man after he had offer'd one sacrifice for sins for ever sate down on the right hand of God. To these places Crellius gives this answer , That the name of Oblation as applyed to Christ , primarily signifies Christs first entrance into Heaven , and appearance before the face of God there , but consequently the continuance of that appearance ; so that when a thing is once actually exhibited and presented , it is said to be once offer'd , although being offer'd , it alwayes remains in the same place , and so may be said to be a continual Oblation . But this first appearance , saith he , hath a peculiar agreement with the legal Oblation ; and therefore the name of Oblation doth most properly belong to that , because Christ by this means obtained that power on which the perfect remission of our sins depends : but although the continuance of that appearance , seems only consequentially to have the name of Oblation belonging to it , yet in its own nature , it hath a nearer conjunction with the effect of the Oblation , viz. the remission of sins , or deliverance from punishment , and doth of it self conferre more to it than the other doth . And therefore in regard of that , Christ is said most perfectly to exercise his Priesthood , and to offer and intercede for us , from the time he is said to sit down at the right hand of God. Against this answer , I shall prove these two things , 1. That it is incoherent , and repugnant to it self . 2. That it by no means agrees to the places before mention'd . 1. That it is incoherent and repugnant to it self in two things . 1. In making that to be the proper Oblation in correspondency to the Oblations of the Law , which hath no immediate respect to the expiation of sins . 2. In making that to have the most immediate respect to the expiation of sins , which can in no tolerable sense be call'd an Oblation . For the first , since Crellius saith , that the proper notion of Oblation is to be taken from the Oblations in the Levitical Law , we must consider what it was there , and whether Christs first entrance into Heaven can have any correspondency with it . An Oblation under the Law was in generall , any thing which was immediately dedicated to God , but in a more limited sense it was proper to what was dedicated to him by way of Sacrifice according to the appointments of the Levitical Law. We are not now enquiring what was properly call'd an Oblation in other Sacrifices , but in those which then were for expiation of sin ; And in the Oblation was , first of the persons for whom the Sacrifice was offer'd . So in the Burnt-offering , the person who brought it , was to offer it at the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation : i. e. as the Jewes expound it at the entrance of the Court of the Priests , and there he was to lay his hands upon the head of it , and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him . This Offering was made before the Beast was slain ; after the killing the beast , then the Priests were to make an Offering of the blood , by sprinkling it round about the Altar of Burnt-offerings , the rest of the blood , say the Jewes , was poured out by the Priests , at the South-side of the Altar upon the foundation , where the two holes were for the passage into the Channel which convey'd the blood into the valley of Kidron : thus the blood being offered , the parts of the beast , were by the Priests to be laid upon the Altar , and there they were all to be consumed by fire ; and then it was call'd an Offering made by fire , of a sweet savour unto the Lord. The same rites were used in the Peace-offerings , and Trespass-offerings , as to the laying on of hands , and the sprinkling the blood , and consuming some part by fire : and in the sin-offerings , there was to be the same imposition of hands : but concerning the sprinkling of the blood , and the way of consuming the remainders of the Sacrifice , there was this considerable difference ; that in the common sin-offerings for particular persons , the blood was sprinkled upon the horns of the Altar of burnt-offerings , but in the sin-offerings for the High-Priest and the Congregation , or all the People , he was to carry the blood within the Sanctuary , and to sprinkle of it seven times before the Vail of the Sanctuary ; and some of the blood was to be put upon the horns of the Altar of Incense ; but the remainder of the blood , and the same things ( which were offered by fire in Peace-Offerings ) were to be disposed of accordingly , on the Altar of Burnt-offerings . And withall , there was this great difference , that in other sin-offerings the Priests were to eat the remainder of the sacrifice in the Holy place ; but in these there was nothing to be eaten by them ; for the whole Bullock was to be carried forth without the Camp , and there he was to be burned till all were consumed . For it was an ex●ress Law , That no sin-offering , whereof any 〈◊〉 the blood is brought into the tabernacle of ●he Congregation , to reconcile withall in the Holy-place , shall be eaten : it shall be burnt in ●●e fire . All the difference that was on the great day of Atonement , was this , that the High-Priest himself was to slay the Sin-offerings , and then to carry the blood of them into the Holy of Holies , and there was to sprinkle ●he blood with his finger towards the Mercy●●at seven times : after which , and the sending away the scape-goat , the ceremonies were the same for the Atonement of the people , which were at other solemn sin-offerings , for the Priest or the people . From all which being thus laid together , we shall observe several things , which are very material to our purpose : 1. That in the oblations which were made for expiation of sins , the difference between the mactation and the oblation , did arise from the difference between the Priest and the Sacrifice . For the Priests Office was to atone , but he was to atone by the Sacrifice ; on which account , although the Priest were to offer the Sacrifice for himself , yet the oblation did not lie in the bare presenting himself before God , but in the presenting the blood of that Sacrifice , which was shed in order to expiation . If we coul● have supposed , that the High-Priest unde● the Law , instead of offering a Goat for 〈◊〉 Sin-offering for the people , on the day o●… Atonement , should have made an oblatio●… of himself to God , by dying for the expiation of their sins : In this case , his death being the Sacrifice , and himself the Priest , the mactation , as it relates to his own act , and his oblation had been one and the same thing . For his death had been nothing else , but the offering up himself to God , in order to the expiation of the sins of the people ; and there can be no reason , why the oblation must be of necessity something consequent to his death , since all things necessary to a perfect oblation do concur in it . For where there is something solemnly devoted to God , and in order to the expiation of sins , and by the hand of a Priest , there are all things concurring to a legal oblation ; but in this case , all these things do concur , and therefore there can be no imaginable necessity of making the oblation of Christ , onely consequent to his Ascension , since in his death all things concur to a proper oblation . In the Law , we grant that the oblation made by the Priest , was consequent to the death of the beast for Sacrifice ; but the reason of that was , because the beast could not offer up 〈◊〉 self to God , and God had made it neces●ry , that the Priest should expiate sins , ●ot by himself , but by those Sacrifices , ●nd therefore the oblation of the blood ●as after the Sacrifice was slain ; neither ●ould this have been solved barely by the ●riests slaying of the Sacrifices ; for this being 〈◊〉 act of violence towards the beasts that ●…ere thus kill'd , could not be a proper ob●ation , which must suppose a consent ante●edent to it . All which shewed the great imperfection of the Levitical Law , in which so many several things were to concur , to make up a sacrifice for sin ; viz. The first offering made by the party concerned , of what was under his dominion ; viz. The beast to be sacrificed at the door of the tabernacle of the Congregation : but the beast not being able to offer up it self , it was necessary for the offering up its blood , that it must be slain by others ; and for the better understanding , not onely of the efficacy of the blood , but the concurrence of the Priest for expiation , he was to take the blood , and sprinkle some of it on the Altar , and pour out the rest at the foundation of it . But since we assert a far more noble and excellent Sacrifice , by the Son of God freely offering up himself , to be made a Sacrifice for the sins of the world , why may not this b●… as proper an oblation made unto God , 〈◊〉 any was under the Law , and far more excellent , both in regard of the Priest and th●… Sacrifice : why should his oblation of himself then be made onely consequent to hi●… death and resurrection ? Which latter , being by our Adversaries made not his own act , but Gods upon him , and his entrance into Heaven , being given him ( as they assert ) as a reward of his sufferings , in what tolerable sense can that be call'd an oblation of himself , which was conferred upon him as a reward of his former sufferings ? From whence it follows , that upon our Adversaries own grounds , the death of Christ may far more properly be call'd the oblation of himself , than his entrance into Heaven ; and that there is no necessity of making the oblation of Christ consequent to his death , there being so great a difference between the Sacrifice of Christ , and that of the Sacrifices for sin under the Levitical Law. 2. We observe , That the oblation as performed by the Priest , did not depend upon his presenting himself before God , but upon the presenting the blood of a Sacrifice , which had been already slain for the expiation of sins . If the Priest had gone into the Holy of Holies , and there onely ●esented himself before the Mercy-seat , ●…d that had been all required in order 〈◊〉 the expiation of sins , there had been ●…me pretence for our Adversaries mak●g Christs presenting himself in Heaven , 〈◊〉 be the oblation of himself to God ; but ●…nder the Law , the efficacy of the High-●iests entrance into the Holy of Holies , did ●epend upon the blood which he carried in ●…ither , which was the blood of the Sin●…ring , which was already slain for the expiation of sins : And in correspondency ●…o this , Christs efficacy in his entrance in●… Heaven , as it respects our expiation , must ●ave a respect to that Sacrifice which was ●ffered up to God antecedent to it . And 〈◊〉 wonder our Adversaries do so much insist on the High Priests entring into the most ●…oly place once a year , as though all the ex●iation had depended upon that ; whereas all the promise of expiation , was not upon his bare entrance into it ; but upon the blood which he carried along with him , and sprinkled there : In correspondency to which , our Saviour is not barely said , to enter into Heaven , and present himself to God , but that he did this by his own blood , having obtained Eternal Redemption for 〈◊〉 . 3. We observe , That there was som●thing correspondent in the death of Chris●… to somewhat consequent to the oblatio●… under the Law , and therefore there c●… be no reason to suppose , that the oblatio●… of Christ must be consequent to his death for that destroys the correspondency between them . Now this appears in thi● particular , in the solemn sacrifices for sin●… after the sprinkling of the blood , which wa● carried into the Holy place to reconcile with all , all the remainder of the Sacrifice wa● to be burnt without the Camp , and this held on the day of Atonement , as well as in other Sin-offerings for the Congregation . Now the Author to the Hebrews tells us , That in correspondency to this , Jesus that h●… might sanctifie the people with his , own blood , suffered without the gate : What force i● there in this , unless the blood of Christ did answer to the Sin-offerings for the people , and his oblation was supposed to be made before ; and therefore that he might have all things agreeable to those Sin-offerings , the last part was to be compleated too ; viz. That he was to suffer without the gate ; which after the peoples settlement in Jerusalem , answered to the being burnt without the Camp in the Wilderness . 4. We observe , That the Oblation in Ex●iatory Sacrifices under the Law , by the Priest , had always relation to the consumption of what was offered : Thus the offering of ●he blood , in token of the destruction of the ●…ife of the beast , whose blood was offered ; for no blood was to be offered of a living creature , nor of one kill'd upon any other account , but for that end to be a sacrifice for sin , and after the sprinkling and pouring out of the blood , the inwards of some , and all of the other , were to be consumed by fire . And it is observable , that the greater the Sacrifice for sin was , always the more was consumed of it ; as appears plainly by the forementioned difference of the Sin-offerings for private persons , and for the people ; of the former , the Priests were allowed to eat , but not at all of the latter . And so it was observed among the Egyptians , in the most solemn Sacrifices for expiation , nothing was allowed to be eaten of that part which was designed for that end . For Herodotus gives us an account why the Egyptians never eat the head of any living Creature ; which is , That when they offer up a sacrifice , they make a solemn execration upon it , that if any evil were to fall upon the the persons who sacrificed , or upon all Egypt ▪ it might be turned upon the head of that beast And Plutarch addes , that after this sole●… execration , They cut off th● head , and of old , threw it i●to the River , but then g●… it to strangers . From which custom we observe , that in a solemn Sacrifice for expiation , the guilt of the offenders , was by this rite of execration supposed to be transferred upon the head of the Sacrifice , as it was in the Sacrifices among the Jews , by the laying on of hands ; and that nothing was to be eaten of what was supposed to have that guilt transferred upon it . From hence all Expiatory Sacrifices were at first whole Burnt-offerings , as appears by the Patriarchal Sacrifices , and the customs of other Nations , and among the Jews themselves , as we have already proved in all solemn offerings for the people . And although in the sacrifices of private persons , some parts were allowed to be eaten by the Priests ; yet those which were designed for expiation were consumed . So that the greater the offering was to God , the more it implied the Consumption of the thing which was so offered : How strangely improbable then is it , That the Oblation of Christ should not ( as under the Law ) have respect to his death and sufferings ; but to his entrance into Heaven , wherein nothing is supposed to be consumed , but all things given him with far greater power , as our Adversaries suppose , than ever he had before . But we see the Apostle parallels Christs suffering with the burning of the sacrifices , and his blood with the blood of them , and consequently his offering up himself , must relate not to his entrance into Heaven , but to that act of his whereby he suffer'd for sins , and offer'd up his blood as a Sacrifice for the sins of the world . From all which it appears ; how far more agreeably to the Oblations under the Law , Christ is said to offer up himself for the expiation of sins by his death and sufferings , than by his entrance into Heaven ; For it is apparent , that the Oblations in expiatory Sacrifices under the Law , were such upon which the expiation of sin did chiefly depend ; but by our Adversaries own confession , Christs oblation of himself by his entrance into Heaven , hath no immediate respect at all to the expiation of sin : only as the way whereby he was to enjoy that power by which he did expiate sins , as Crellius saith ; now , let us consider , what more propriety there is in making this presenting of Christ in Heaven to have a correspondency with the legal Oblations , than the offering up himself upon the Cross. For 1. on the very same reason that his entrance into Heaven is made an Oblation , his death is so too ; viz. Because it was the way whereby he obtained the power of expiation ; and far more properly so than the other , since they make Christs entrance and power the reward of his sufferings , but they never make his sitting at the right hand of God , the reward of his entrance into Heaven . 2. His offering up himself to God upon the Cross , was his own act , but his entrance into Heaven was Gods , as themselves acknowledge , and therefore could not in any propriety of speech be call'd Christs offering up himself . 3. If it were his own act , it could not have that respect to the expiation of sins , which his death had ; for our Adversaries say , that his death was by reason of our sins , and that he suffer'd to purge us from sin ; but his entrance into Heaven was upon his own account , to enjoy that power and authority , which he was to have at the right hand of God. 4. How could Christs entrance into Heaven , be the way for his enjoying that power which was necessary for the expiation of sin , when Christ before his entrance into Heaven , saith , that all power was given to him in Heaven and Earth : and the reason assigned in Scripture of that power and authority which God gave him is , because he humbled himself , and became obedient to death , even the death of 〈◊〉 Cross : So that the entrance of Christ in●● Heaven , could not be the means of obtaining that power which was conferred before ; but the death of Christ is mention'd on that account in Scripture . 5. If the death of Christ were no expiatory Sacrifice , the entrance of Christ into Heaven could be no Oblation proper to a High-Priest ; for his entrance into the Holy of Holies , was on the account of the blood of the ●●n-offering which he carried in with him . ●f there were then no Expiatory Sacrifice before , that was slain for the sins of men ; Christ could not be said to make any Obla●ion in Heaven , for the Oblation had respect to a Sacrifice already slain ; so that ●f men deny that Christs death was a pro●er Sacrifice for sin , he could make no Oblation at all in Heaven , and Christ ●ould not be said to enter thither , as ●he High-Priest entred into the Holy of Holies with the blood of the Sacri●●ce ; which is the thing which the Author to the Hebrews , asserts concerning Christ. 2. There is as great an inconsistency i● making the exercise of Christs power i● Heaven , an Oblation in any sense , as in making Christs entrance into Heaven , to 〈◊〉 the Oblation which had corresponde●●● with the Oblations of the Law. For what is there which hath the least resemblance with an Oblation in it ? Hath it any respect to God , as all the legal Oblations had ? no● for his intercession and power , Crellius , saith , respects us , and not God. Was there any Sacrifice at all in it for expiation ? how is it possible , that the meer exercise of power should be call'd a sacrifice ? What analogy is there at all between them ? And how could he be then said most perfectly to exercise his Priesthood , when there was no consideration at all of any sacrifice offer'd up to God ? so that upon these suppositions the Author to the Hebrews must argu●… upon strange similitudes , and fancy resemblances to himself , which it was impossible for the Jews to understand him in , who were to judge of the nature of Priesthoo● and Oblations in a way agreeable to t●● Institutions among themselves . But was●… possible for them to understand such Obl●tions and a Priesthood which had no respec● at all to God , but wholly to the People ; and such an Holies●ithout ●ithout the blood of an Sacrifice●or ●or the sins of the people ? But such abs●●dities do men betray themselves into , when they are forced to strain express pla●es of Scripture to serve an hypothesis , which they think themselves obliged to ●●intain . We now come to shew that this interpretation of Crellius doth not agree with the circumstances of the places before mention'd , which will easily appear by these brief considerations . 1. That the apostle alwayes speaks of the offering of Christ as a thing past and once done , so as not 〈◊〉 be done again ; which had been very improper , if by the Oblation of Christ , he had meant the continual appearance of Christ in Heaven for us , which yet is , and will never cease to be till all his enemies be made his foot-stool . 2. That he ●…ill speaks in allusion to the Sacrifices which were in use among the Jews , and ●herefore the Oblation of Christ must be 〈◊〉 such a way as was agreeable to what ●as used in the Levitical Sacrifices , which ●e have already at large proved he could ●ot do in our Adversaries sense . 3. That ●●e Apostle speaks of such a sacrifice for sins to which the sitting at the right hand of God was consequent ; so that the Oblation antecedent to it must be properly that Sacrifice for sins which he offer'd to God ; and therefore the exercise of his power for expiation of sins , which they say is meant by sitting at the right hand of God , cannot be that Sacrifice for sins : Neither can his entrance into Heaven be it , which in what sense it can be call'd a Sacrifice for sins , since themselves acknowledge it had no immediate relation to the expiation of them , I cannot understand . 4. The Apostle speaks of such an Offering of Christ once , which if it had been repeated , doth imply , that Christs sufferings must have been repeated too . For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the World : but the repeated exercise of Christs power in Heaven doth imply no necessity at all of Christs frequent suffering , nor his frequent entrance into Heaven ; which might have been done without suffering , therefore it must be meant of such an offering up himself as was implyed in his death and sufferings . 5. He speaks of the offering up of that body which God gave him wh●● he came into the World ; but our Adversaries deny , that he carried the same Body into Heaven , and therefore he must speak not of an offering of Christ in Heaven , but what was performed here on Earth . But here , our Adversaries have shewn us a tryal of their skill , when they tell us with much confidence that the World into which Christ is here said to come , is not to be understood of this World , but of that to come ; which is not only contrary to the general acceptation of the word when taken absolutely as it is here ; but to the whole scope and design of the place . For he speaks of that World , wherein Sacrifices and Burnt-offerings were ●…ed , and the Levitical Law was observed , although not sufficient for perfect expiation , and so rejected for that end , and withall he speaks of that World wherein the chearfull obedience of Christ to the will of his Father was seen , for he saith , Lo I come to do thy will O God , which is repeated afterwards ; but will they say , that this World was not the place into which Christ came to obey the Will of his Father ? and how could it he so properly said of the future World , Lo I come to do thy will ; when they make the design of his ascension to be the receiving the reward of his doing and suffering the will of God upon Earth ? But yet they attempt to prove from the same Author to the Hebrews , that Christs entrance into Heaven , was necessary to his being a perfect High-Priest ; for he was to be made higher then the heavens ; and if he were on earth , he should not be a Priest ; but he was a Priest after the power of an e●●lless life : Neither could he , say they , be a perfect High-Priest , till those words were spoken to him , Thou art my Son , this day have I begotten thee ; which as appears by other places , was after the Resurrection : But all the sufferings he underwent in the world , were onely to qualifie him for this Office in Heaven ; therefore it is said , That in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren , that he might be a merciful and faithful High-Priest , &c. This is the substance of what is produced by Crellius and his Brethren , to prove that Christ did not become a perfect High-Priest , till he entred into heaven : But it were worth the knowing , what they mean by a perfect High-Priest ; Is it that Christ did then begin the Office of a High-Priest , and that he made no offering at all before ? No , that they dare not assert at last , but that there was no perfect sacrifice offered for sin , otherwise Socinus contends , That Christ did offer upon earth , and that for himself too : So that all kind of offering is not excluded by themselves , before Christs entrance into Heaven : But if they mean by perfect High-Priest in Heaven , that his Office of High-Priest was not consummated by what he did on earth , but that a very considerable part of the Priesthood of Christ was still remaining to be performed in Heaven ; it is no more than we do freely acknowledge , and this is all we say is meant by those places : For the Apostles design is to prove , the excellency of the Priesthood of Christ above the Aaronical ; which he doth , not onely from the excellency of the Sacrifice which he offered , above the blood of Bulls and Goats ; but from the excellency of the Priest , who did excel the Aaronical Priests ; both in regard of his calling from God , which is all the Apostle designs , Heb. 5. 5. not at all intending to determine the time when he was made , but by whom he was made High-Priest , even by him that had said , Thou art my Son , &c. and in regard of the excellency of the Sanctuary which he entred into , which was not an earthly , but a heavenly Sanctuary ; and in regard of the perpetuity of his function there , Not going in once a year , as the High-Priests under the Law did , but there ever living to make intercession for us : Now this being the Apostles design , we may easily understand why he saith , That he was to be a heavenly High-Priest , and if he , had been on earth , he could not have been a Priest : The meaning of which is only this , that if Christs Office had ended in what he did on earth , he would not have had such an excellency as he was speaking of ; for then he had ceased to be at all such a High-Priest , having no Holy of holies to go into , which should as much transcend the earthly Sanctuary , as his Sacrifice did the blood of Bulls and Goats : Therefore in correspondency to that Priesthood , which he did so far excell in all the parts of it , he was not to end his Priesthood meerly with the blood which was shed for a Sacrifice , but he was to carry it into Heaven , and present it before God , and to be a perpetual Intercessor in the behalf of his people : And so was in regard of the perpetuity of his Office , a Priest after the Law of an endless life : But lest the people should imagine , that so great and excellent a High-Priest , being so far exalted above them , should have no sense or compassion upon the infirmities of his people , therefore to encourage them to adhere to him , he tells them , That he was made like to his Brethren ; and therefore they need not doubt , but by the sense which he had of the infirmities of humane nature , he will have pity on the weaknesses of his people ; which is all the Apostle means by those expressions . So that none of these places do destroy the Priesthood of Christ on earth , but only assert the excellency , and the continuance of it in heaven : Which latter , we are as far from denying , as our Adversaries are from granting the former . And thus much may suffice for the second thing , to prove the death of Christ a proper sacrifice for sin ; viz. The Oblation which Christ made of himself to God by it . CHAP. VI. That the effects of proper Expiatory Sacrifices belong to the death of Christ , which either respect the sin or the person . Of the true notion of expiation of sin , as attributed to Sacrifices . Of the importance of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as applied to them . Socinus his proper sense of it examined . Crellius his Objections answered . The Jews notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The Sacrifices not bare conditions of pardon , nor expiated meerly as a slight part of obedience . Gods expiating sin , destroys not expiation by Sacrifice . The importance of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , relating to Sacrifices . Expiation attributed to the Sacrifice of Christ , in the same sense that it was to other Sacrifices : and from thence , and the places of Scripture which mention it , proved not to be meerly declarative . If it had been so , it had more properly belonged to his Resurrection than his death . The Death of Christ not taken Metonymically for all the Consequents of it ; because of the peculiar effects of the death of Christ in Scripture , and because Expiation is attributed to him antecedently to his entrance into Heaven . No distinction in Scripture of the effects of Christs entrance into Heaven from his sitting at the right hand of God. The effects of an Expiatory Sacrifice , respecting the person , belong to the death of Christ , which are Atonement & Reconciliation . Of the signification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The Reconciliation by Christs death , doth not meerly respect us ; but God ; why the latter less used in the New Testament . A twofold Reconciliation with God mentioned in Scripture . Crellius his evasion answered . The Objections from Gods being reconciled in the sending his Son , and the inconsistency of the Freeness of Grace with the Doctrine of Satisfaction answered , and the whole concluded . THE last thing to prove the death of Christ a proper Expiatory Sacrifice , is , That the effects of a proper Sacrifice for sin are attributed to it . Which do either respect the sins committed , and are then call'd Expiation and Remission , or the persons who were guilty of them , as they stand obnoxious to the displeasure of God , and so the effect of them is Atonement and Reconciliation . Now these we shall prove do most properly and immediately refer to the death of Christ , and are attributed to it , as the procuring cause of them ; and not as a bare condition of Christs entrance into Heaven , or as comprehending in it the consequents of it . I begin with the Expiation and Remission of sins ; as to which Socinus doth acknowledge , That the great correspondency doth lie between Christs and the Legal Sacrifices . We are therefore to enquire : 1. What respect the Expiation of sins had to the Sacrifices under the Law. 2. In what sense the Expiation of sins is attributed to the Sacrifice of Christ : For the due explication of the respect which Expiation of sins had to the Legal Sacrifices , we are to consider in what sense Expiation is understood , and in what respect it is attributed to them . For this we are to enquire into the importance of the several phrases it is set forth by , which are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Old Testament , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the New ; all which are acknowledged by our Adversaries to have a peculiar respect to the Expiation made by a Sacrifice . We shall begin with the former , because Crellius objects this against Grotius , That he imployed his greatest diligence in the explication of the Greek and Latin words for Expiation of sin , and was contented only to say , that the Hebrew words would bear the same signification : Whereas , saith he , he ought to have proved , that the Hebrew words do require that sense which he takes them in . But by Crellius his leave , Grotius took the best course was to be taken in words , whose signification is so obscure as those are in the Hebrew Language . For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being so very rarely used in Scripture in that which Socinus , and Crellius contend to be the proper and natural signification of it ; viz. To hide or cover , and so frequently in the sense of Expiation , what better way could be taken for determining the sense of it , as applied to Sacrifices , than by insisting upon those words which are used in the New-Testament , to the very same purpose that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used in the old ? For they cannot pretend that which they say is the most proper sense , can be applied to this subject ; viz. To cover with pitch , or a bituminous matter , which is call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 6. 14. Therefore it must of necessity be taken in another sense here . But Socinus contends , That it ought to be taken in a sense most agreeable to that , which is , saith he , that the Expiation of sin be nothing else , but the covering of it , by Gods grace and benignity . Thence , saith he , David saith , Blessed is the man whose iniquity is covered . But how can this prove , that the proper signification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as applied to sin , is covering by Gods Grace , when neither the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is here used , nor is there any respect at all mentioned of an Expiation by Sacrifice , which is the thing we are discoursing of ? And is the covering of sin such an easie and intelligible phrase , that this should be made choice of to explain the difficulty of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by ? What is it that they would have us understand by the covering sin ? surely not to make it stronger and more lasting , as the ark was covered , with that bituminous matter for that end , and yet this would come the nearest to the proper sense of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . So that from their own interpretation it appears , that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as applied to the expiation of sin by Sacrifices , cannot be taken so much as in allusion to that other sense ; for their sense of Expiation , is either by the destruction of sin , or deliverance of the sinner from the punishment of it , but what resemblance is there between the covering of a thing , in order to its preservation , and the making it not to be , or at least destroying all the power of it ? But supposing we should grant that it hath some allusion to the sense of covering , why must it necessarily be supposed to be done by the meer Grace of God , as excluding all antecedent causes which should move to it ? would not the propriety of the sense remain as well , supposing a moving cause , as excluding it ? What should hinder , but that God may be said as well to cover sin upon a Sacrifice as to forgive it , and this is very frequently used upon a Sacrifice , That the sin shall be forgiven ? But yet themselves acknowledge , that the Sacrifices were conditions required in order to expiation ; if then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath an immediate respect to Gods immediate favour and benignity , how comes it to be used where a condition is necessarily supposed in order to it ? Had it not been more agreeable to this benignity of God to have pardon'd sin without requiring any sacrifice for it , than so strictly insisting upon the offering up Sacrifice in order to it , and then declaring that the sin is expiated , and it should be forgiven ? from hence we see that there is no necessity why 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should be used as applyed to sacrifices in a sense most agreeable to that of covering with pitch , nor that it is not possible it should have such a sense when applyed to sins ; and withall that it is very consistent with an antecedent condition to it , and therefore can by no means destroy satisfaction . Yes , saith Crellius , it doth , for expiation is explained in the Law by non-imputation , Deut. 21. 8. Be mercifull , O Lord unto thy people Israel whom thou hast redeemed , and lay not innocent blood unto thy people of Israels charge ; and the blood shall be forgiven them . But not to impute , saith he , and to receive true and full satisfaction overthrow each other : and so expiation being the same with that , will overthrow it too . To this I answer , 1. I grant that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is here used both as applyed to God , and to the sin , and that the sense of it is used as to the people , when the prayer is , that God would not lay it to their charge , which is the same with expiating of it . 2. We are to consider , what the foundation of this Prayer was , viz. the slaying of the Heifer for expiation of the uncertain murder ; and when the Elders had washed their hands over the head of the Heifer , then they were to protest their own innocency , and to use this prayer . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Expiate thy people Israel , &c. i. e. accept of this Sacrifice as an expiation for them , and so charge not on them the innocent blood , &c. and upon doing of this it is said , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the blood shall be expiated , i. e. as the Vulgar Latin explain it , the guilt of the blood shall be taken from them . But how then should the expiating sin upon a Sacrifice slain in order thereto , destroy that satisfaction which we assert by the blood of Christ being shed in order to the expiation of our sins ? Nay , it much rather sheweth the consistency and agreeableness of these one with another . For we have before proved , that the Sacrifice here did expiate the sin by a substitution , and bearing the guilt which could not have been expiated without it . But Crellius further urgeth , that God himself is here said to expiate , and therefore to expiate cannot signifie to atone or satisfie ; in which sense Christ may be said to expiate too , not by atoning or satisfying , but by not imputing sins , or taking away the punishment of them by his power . To which we need no other answer than what Crellius himself elsewhere gives , viz. that Socinus never denyes but that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth signifie to appease or atone ; which is most evidently proved from the place mention'd by Grotius , Gen. 32. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Expiabo faciem ejus in munere , saith the interlineary Version , placabo illum muneribus , the Vulg. Lat. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the LXX . and all the circumstances of the place make it appear to be meant in the proper sense of appeasing the anger of a person by something which may move him to shew favour . And if Crellius will yield this to be the sense of expiation as applyed to the Sacrifice of Christ , he need not quarrel with the word satisfaction . But why should he rather attribute that sense of expiation to Christ , which is alone given to God , wherein the expiation is attributed to him that receives the Sacrifice : rather than to him that offers the sacrifice in order to the atonement of another ? since it is acknowledged that Christ did offer a sacrifice ; and therefore there can be no reason why that sense of expiation should not belong to him , which was most peculiar to that ; which we shall now shew to be of the same kind with what is here mentioned , viz. an appeasing by a gift offered up to God. So we find the word used to the same sense , 2 Sam. 21. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and wherewith shall I make the Atonement , i. e. wherewith shall I satisfie you for all the wrong which Saul hath done unto you ? and we see afterwards it was by the death of Sauls sons . In which place it cannot be denyed but that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not only signifies to appease , but such a kind of satisfaction as is by the death of some for the faults of others ; and so comes home , not only to the importance of the expiation belonging to a Sacrifice in general ; but to such a kind of expiation as is by the suffering of some in the place of others . Which though it be more clear and distinct , where one man suffers for others , yet this was sufficiently represented in the sacrifices under the Law , in which we have already proved that there was a substitution of them in the place of the offenders . And in this sense the Jews themselves do understand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 viz. such an expiation as is made by the substitution of one in the place of another . Of which many instances are collected by Buxtorf , wherein 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is taken by the Rabbinical Writers for such an expiation , whereby one was to undergo a punishment in the place of another . So when in the title Sanhedrin the people say to the High-Priest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 simus nos expiatio tua , let us be for an expiation for you , the Glosse explains it thus , hoc est , in nobis fiat expiatio tua , nosque subeamus tuo loco quicquid tibi evenire debet . And when they tell us how Children ought to honour their Parents after their death , they say when they recite any memorable speech of their Fathers , they are not barely to say , My father said so : but my Lord and Father said so , would I had been the expiation of his death : i. e. as they explain it themselves , would I had undergone what he did , and they give this general rule , Where ever it is said , behold I am for expiation , it is to be understood , behold I am in the place of another to bear his iniquities . So that this signifies the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a price of redemption for others . Hence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is taken for a price of redemption of the life of another , and rendred by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Exod. 21. 30. — 30. 12. Numb . 35. 31 , 32. where we render it satisfaction , and by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Psal. 48. 7. and thereby we fully understand , what our Saviour meant when he said , that he gave his Soul , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a ransome for many , and to this day the Jews call the Cock which they kill for Expiation on the day of Atonement , by the name of Cappara ; and when they beat the Cock against their heads thrice , they every time use words to this purpose , Let this Cock be an exchange for me , let him be in my room , and be made an Expiation for me ; let death come to him , but to me and all Israel life and happiness . I insist on these things , only to let us understand , that the Jews never understood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the sense our Adversaries contend for , when applied to an Expiatory Sacrifice , but as implying a Commutation , and a Substitution of one in the place of another , so as by the punishment of that , the other in whose room he suffers , may obtain deliverance . Which is the sense we plead for . But the utmost which Socinus and Crellius will allow to the Sacrifices in order to Expiation , is barely this , That the offering of them is to be considered as a meer condition ( that hath no other respect to the expiation of sins , than the paring a mans nails would have had , if God had required it ) upon which slight obedience , the pardon of some light sins might be obtained . But can any one imagine , that this was all that was designed by the Sacrifices of old , who considers the antiquity and universality of them in the world in those elder times before the Law , the great severity by which they were required under the Law , the punctual prescriptions that were made in all circumstances for them , the vast and almost inestimable expence the people were at about them , but above all , the reason that God himself assigns in the Law , That the blood was given for expiation , because it was the life , and the correspondency so clearly expressed in the New Testament , between the Sacrifice of Christ and those Levitical Sacrifices ? Can any one , I say , imagine upon these considerations , that the Sacrifices had no other respect to the expiation of sin , than as they were a slight testimony of their obedience to God ? Why were not an inward sorrow for sin , and tears and prayers rather made the only conditions of Expiation , than such a burthensome and chargeable service imposed upon them , which at last signified nothing , but that a command being supposed , they would have sinned if they had broken it ? But upon our supposition , a reasonable account is given of all the expiatory Sacrifices ; viz. That God would have them see , how highly he esteemed his Laws , because an expiation was not to be made for the breach of them , but by the sacrificing of the life of some Creature which he should appoint in stead of the death of the Offender ; and if the breach of those Laws which he had given them must require such an expiation , what might they then think would the sins of the whole world do , which must be expiated by a Sacrifice infinitely greater than all those put together were ; viz. The death and sufferings of the Son of God for the sins of men ? But if the offering Sacrifice had been a bare condition required of the person who committed the fault , in order to expiation ; Why is it never said , That the person who offered it , did expiate his own fault thereby ? For that had been the most proper sense ; for if the expiation did depend on the offering the Sacrifice , as on the condition of it , then the performing the condition , gave him an immediate right to the benefit of the promise . If it be said , That his own act was , not only necessary in bringing the Sacrifice , but the Priests also in offering up the blood : This will not make it at all the more reasonable ; because the pardon of sin should not only depend upon a● 〈◊〉 mans own act , but upon the act of another , which he could not in reason be accountable for , if he miscarried in it . If the Priest should refuse to do his part , or be unfit to do it , or break some Law in the doing of it , how hard would it seem , that a mans sins could not be expiated , when he had done all that lay in his own power in order to the expiation of them , but that another person , whose actions he had no command over , neglected the doing his duty ? So that if the Sacrifice had no other influence on expiation , but as a part of obedience , in all reason the expiation ●hould have depended on no other conditions but such as were under the power of him , whose sins were to be expiated by 〈◊〉 . But Crellius urgeth against our sense of Expiation , That if it were by Substitution , ●hen the Expiation would be most properly attri●●ted to the Sacrifices themselves ; whereas it is ●…ly said , that by the Sacrifices the Expiation is ●btained , but that God or the Priest do expiate ; ●…d to God it belongs properly , because he takes ●ay the guilt and punishment of sin ; which is , ●aith he , all meant by expiation ; to the Priest ●…ly consequently , as doing what God requires 〈◊〉 order to it ; and to the Sacrifices only as the ●●nditions by which it was obtained . But if the Expiation doth properly belong to God , and implies no more than bare pardon , it is hard to conceive that it should have any necessary relation to the blood of the Sacrifice : but the Apostle to the Hebrews tells us , that Remission had a necessary respect to the shedding of blood , so that without that there was no remission . How improperly doth the Apostle discourse throughout that Chapter , wherein he speaks so much concerning the blood of the Sacrifices purifying , and in correspondency to that , the blood of Christ purging our Consciences ; and that all things under the Law , were purified with blood ; Had all this no other signification , but that this was a bare condition that had no other importance , but as a meer act of obedience when God had required it ? why doth not the Apostle rather say , without Gods favour there is no remission , than without the sheding of blood ; if all the expiation did properly belong to that , and only very remotely to the blood of the Sacrifice ? What imaginable necessity was there , that Christ must shed his blood in order to the expiation of our sins , if all that blood of the Legal Sacrifices did signifie no more than a bare condition of pardon , though a slight part of obedience in it self ? Why must Christ lay down his life in correspondency to these Levitical Sacrifices ? for that was surely no slight part of his obedience . Why might not this condition have been dispensed with in him , since our Adversaries say , that in it self it hath no proper efficacy on the expiation of sin ? And doth not this speak the greatest repugnancy to the kindness and Grace of God in the Gospel , that he would not dispense with the ignominious death of his Son , although he knew it could have no influence of it self on the expiation of the sins of the world ? But upon this supposition , that the blood of Sacrifices under the Law had no proper influence upon Expiation , the Apostles discourse proceeds upon weak and insufficient grounds . For what necessity in the thing was there , because the blood of the Sacrifices was made a condition of pardon under the Law , therefore the blood of Christ must be so now ; although in it self it hath no proper efficacy for that end ? But the Apostles words and way of Argumentation doth imply , that there was a peculiar efficacy both in the one and the other , in order to Expiation ; although a far greater in the blood of Christ , than could be in the other ; as the thing typified , ought to exceed that which was the representation of it . From hence we see , that the Apostle attributes what Expiation there was under the Law , not immediately to God , as belonging properly to him , but to the blood of bulls and goats , and the ashes of an heifer , sprinkling the unclean . Which he had very great reason to do , since God expresly saith to the Jews , that the blood was given them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad expiandum , to expiate for their souls , for the blood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall expiate the soul. Than which words , nothing could have been more plainly said to overthrow Crellius his assertion , that Expiation is not properly or chiefly attributed to the Sacrifices , but primarily to God , and consequentially to the Priest : who is never said to expiate , but by the Sacrifice which he offered , so that his Office was barely Ministerial in it . But from this we may easily understand , in what sense God is said to expiate sins , where it hath respect to a Sacrifice ( which is that we are now discoursing of , and not in any larger or more improper use of the word ) for since God himself hath declared , that the blood was given for Expiation , the Expiation which belongs to God , must imply his acceptance of it for that end , for which it was offered . For the execution or discharge of the punishment belonging to him , he may be said in that sense to expiate , because it is only in his power to discharge the sinner from that obligation to punishment he lies under by his sins . And we do not say , that where expiating is attributed to him that accepts the Atonement , that it doth imply his undergoing any punishment which is impossible to suppose ; but that where it is attributed to a Sacrifice , as the means of Atonement , there we say it doth not imply a bare condition , but such a Substitution of one in the place of another , that on the account of that , the fault of the offender himself is expiated thereby . And to this sense the other word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth very well agree ; for Socinus and Crellius cannot deny , but that Gen. 31. 39. it properly signifies Luere , or to bear punishment ; although they say , it no where else signifies so , and the reason is , because it is applied to the Altar , and such other things , which are not capable of it ; but doth it hence follow , that it should not retain that signification where the matter will bear it , as in the case of Sacrifices . And although it be frequently rendred by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , yet that will be no prejudice to the sense we plead for in respect of Sacrifices , because those words when used concerning them , do signifie Expiation too . Grotius proves , that they do from their own nature and constant use in Greek Authors , not only signifie an antecedency of order , but a peculiar efficacy in order to Expiation . Thence expiatory Sacrifices among the Greeks were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , frequently in Homer , applied to Sacrifices , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Plutarch , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used in the same sense ; an Expiatory Sacrifice in Herodotus is call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and to the same purpose it is used in Hermogenes , Plato and Plutarch : as among the Latins , placare , purgare , purificare , conciliare , lustrare in the same sense , and piare when used in Sacrifices , he proves to signifie Luere per successionem rei alterius in locum poenae debitae . Thence piaculum used for an Expiatory Sacrifice : and expiare is to appease by such a Sacrifice , so Cereris numen expiare is used in Cicero ; filium expiare in Livy . So that all these Sacrifices among them , were supposed still to pertain to the atoning the Deity , and obtaining a remission of sins committed by them . And from hence ( because where there was a greater equality and neerness , there might be the greater efficacy of the Sacrifice for expiation ) came the custom of sacrificing men , which Grotius at large shews to have almost universally obtained before the coming of Christ. We are now to consider what Crellius answers to this ; the substance of which lies in these two things , 1. He denies not but that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do in their proper use in the Greek Tongue signifie the purging of guilt , and the aversion of the wrath of God and punishment , but that those and such other words are attributed to Sacrifices , because those were supposed to be the effects of them among the Heathens ; but the attributing such effects to them , did arise from their superstition , whereby greater things were attributed to Sacrifices , than God would have given to them , either before or under the Law. 2. He denies not , but that those words , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , being used by the Author to the Hebrews more than once with respect to the Sacrifices and Priesthood of Christ , were taken in the same sense in which they are used in the Greek Tongue ; viz. For the purging of guilt , and the aversion of the wrath of God , and the punishment consequent upon it : But all that he contends for is , That there is a difference in the manner of effecting it , which he acknowledges the words themselves do not imply ; and the reasons he gives for it are , That the other were proper , but Christs an improper Sacrifice ; and that the other Sacrifices were offered by men to God , but the Sacrifice of Christ was given by God to men , and therefore he must be supposed to be reconciled before . From whence he would at least have other senses of these words joyned together with the former ; viz. Either for purging away the filth of sin , or for a delaration of a deliverance from guilt and punishment , in imitation of the Idiome of the Hebrew , in which many words are used in the New Testament . From hence it follows , that Crellius doth yield the main cause , if it appear , that Christ did offer up an Expiatory Sacrifice to God in his death , for then he grants that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being applied to the Sacrifice of Christ , are to be taken for the purging away of guilt , and the aversion of the wrath of God , and the punishment of sin . And it is to no purpose to say , that it is not a proper Sacrifice , for if the effects of a proper Sacrifice do belong to it , that proves that it is so ; for these words being acknowledged to be applied to the Sacrifice of Christ by the Author to the Hebrews , what could more evince that Christs was a proper Sacrifice , then that those things are attributed to it , which by the consent of all Nations , are said to belong to proper Sacrifices , and that in the very same sense in which they are used by those who understood them in the most proper sense . And what reason could Crellius have to say , that it was only the superstition of the Heathens , which made them attribute such effects to sacrifices ; when himself acknowledges that the very same sense doth belong to the Sacrifice of Christ under that notion ? and as to the Jews we have already proved that the sense of expiation among them was by vertue of the Law to be taken in as proper a sense as among the Heathens , for the purging of guilt , and the aversion of the wrath of God. And why should Crellius deny that effect of the Sacrifice of Christ as to the atonement of God , because Gods love was seen in giving him who was to offer the sacrifice ? since that effect is attributed to those sacrifices under the Law which God himself appointed to be offer'd , and shewed his great kindness to the people in the Institution of such a way , whereby their sins might be expiated , and they deliver'd from the punishment of them . But of the consistency of these two , I shall speak more afterwards , in the effect of the Sacrifices as relating to Persons . We now come to consider in what sense the expiation of sins is in Scripture attributed to the Sacrifice of Christ , and therein I shall prove these two things . 1. That the expiation is attributed to the Sacrifice of Christ in the same sense that is attributed to other Sacrifices , and as the words in themselves do signifie . 2. That what is so attributed doth belong to the Sacrifice of Christ in his death , antecedent to his entrance into Heaven . 1. That the expiation is to be taken in a proper sense , when it is attributed to the Sacrifice of Christ. Crellius tells us , the controversie is not about the thing , viz. whether expiation in the sense we take it in for purging away guilt , and aversion of the wrath of God , doth belong to the Sacrifice of Christ , for he acknowledges it doth ; but all the question is about the manner of it : which in the next Section he thus explains : There are three senses in which Christ may be said to expiate sins ; either by begetting Faith in us , whereby we are drawn off from the practice of sin , in which sense , he saith , it is a remoter antecedent to it ; or as it relates to the expiation by actual deliverance from punishment , so he saith , it is an immediate antecedent to it ; or as he declares that they are expiated , but this , he saith , doth not so properly relate to Christ as a Sacrifice , but as a Priest. But never a one of these senses comes near to that which Crellius grants to be the proper importance of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as applyed to a Sacrifice , viz. the purging away guilt , and the aversion of the wrath of God , and punishment , not any way , but by the means of the Sacrifice offer'd . For in the Legal Sacrifices nothing can be more plain than that the expiation was to be by the Sacrifice offer'd for Atonement : supposing then that in some other way ( which could be by no means proper to those Sacrifices ) Christ may be said to expiate sins , what doth this prove that there was an expiation belonging to his Sacrifice agreeable to the Sacrifices of old ? But as I urged before in the case of Christs being High-Priest , that by their assertions the Jews might utterly deny the force of any argument used by the author to the Hebrews to prove it : so I say as to the expiation by Christs Sacrifice , that it hath no analogy or correspondency at all with any Sacrifice that was ever offer'd for the expiation of sins . For by that they always understood something which was immediately offer'd to God for that end , upon which they obtained remission of sins ; but here is nothing answerable to it in their sense of Christs Sacrifice ; for here is no Oblation at all made unto God for this end ; all the efficacy of the Sacrifice of Christ , in order to expiation doth wholly and immediately respect us ; so that if it be a proper Sacrifice to any , it must be a sacrifice to us , and not to God : for a Sacrifice is always said to be made to him whom it doth immediately respect ; but Christ in the planting Faith , in actual deliverance , in declaring to us this deliverance , doth wholly respect us , and therefore his Sacrifice must be made to men , and not to God. Which is in it self a gross absurdity , and repugnant to the nature and design of Sacrifices from the first institution of them ; which were always esteemed such immediate parts of divine Worship , that they ought to respect none else but God , as the object to which they were directed , though for the benefit and advantage of Mankinde . As well then might Christ be said to pray for us , and by that no more be meant but that he doth teach us to understand our duty ; as be made an expiatory Sacrifice for us , and all the effect of it only respect us and not God. And this is so far from adding to the perfection of Christs Sacrifice above the Legal ( which is the thing pleaded by Crellius ) that it destroyes the very nature of a sacrifice , if such a way of expiation be attributed to it ( which though conceived to be more excellent in it self ) yet is wholly incongruous to the end and design of a sacrifice for expiation . And the excellency of the manner of expiation ought to be in the same kind , and not quite of another nature ; for , will any one say , that a General of an Army hath a more excellent conduct than all that went before him , because he can make finer speeches ; or that the Assomanaean Family discharged the Office of Priesthood best , because they had a greater power over the people ; or that Nero was the most excellent Emperour of Rome because he excelled the rest in Musick and Poetr●… by which we see that to assert an excellency of one above another , we must not go to another kind , but shew its excellency in that wherein the comparison lyes : So that this doth not prove the excellency of the Sacrifice of Christ , because he hath a greater power to perswade , deliver and govern , than any Sacrifice under the Law ; for these are things quite of another nature from the consideration of a sacrifice : But therein the excellency of a sacrifice is to be demonstrated , that it excells all other in the proper end and design of a Sacrifice , i. e. if it be more effectual towards God for obtaining the expiation of sin ; which was alwayes thought to be the proper end of all Sacrifices for expiation . Although then Christ may be allowed to excell all other sacrifices in all imaginable respects but that which is the proper intention of a Sacrifice ; it may prove far greater excellency in Christ , but it doth withall prove a greater imperfection in his Sacrifice , if it fail in that which is the proper end of it . So that if we should grant that the expiation attributed to Christs Sacrifice signified no more than reclaiming men from their sins , or their deliverance by his power , or a declara●●●n of Gods decree to pardon , this may prove that there are better arguments to believe the remission of sins now under the Gospel ; but they do not in the least prove that Christ is to be considered as a Sacrifice ; much less that he doth far excell in the notion of an Expiatory Sacrifice all those which were offered up to God for that end under the Law. But we must now further consider , whether this be all attributed to Christ in order to expiation in Scripture ; i. e. Whether those words which of themselves do imply the aversion of the wrath of God , when used concerning other Sacrifices , when applied to the Sacrifice of Christ , do only imply the begetting faith in us , or a declaration of pardon . The words which are used to this purpose , are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which are all applied to the blood of Christ , and the dispute is , whether they signifie no more but a declaration of pardon , or a means to beget faith in us . The first words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Crellius acknowledgeth do frequently signifie deliverance from guilt and punishment ; but , he saith , they may likewise signifie a declaration of that deliverance , as decreed by God , or a purging from the sins themselves , or from the custom of sinning . So that by Crellius his own confession , the sense we contend for is most proper and usual , the other are more remote , and onely possible ; why then should we forsake the former sense , which doth most perfectly agree to the nature of a Sacrifice , which the other senses have no such relation to , as that hath ? For these being the words made use of in the New Testament , to imply the force and efficacy of a Sacrifice , why should they not be understood in the same sense which the Hebrew words were taken in , when they are applied to the Sacrifices under the Law ? We are not enquiring into all possible senses of words , but into the most natural and agreeable to the scope of them that use them : and that we shall make it appear to be the same , we plead for in the places in dispute between us ; as , 1 John 1. 7. The blood of Jesus Christ his Son , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , purgeth us from all sin , Heb. 9. 13 , 14. If the blood of bulls , and of goats , and the ashes of an heifer , sprinkling the unclean , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh : How much more shall the blood of Christ purge your consciences from dead works , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Heb. 1. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , when he had by himself purged our sins . So , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are used with a respect to the blood of Christ , Heb. 10. 22. Apocalip . 1. 5. And because remission of sin was looked on as the consequent of expiation by Sacrifice under the Law ; therefore that is likewise attributed to the blood of Christ , Matth. 26. 28. This is the blood of the New Testament which was shed for many , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for the remission of sins , Eph. 1. 7. In whom we have redemption through his blood , the remission of sins , and to the same purpose , Coloss. 1. 14. And from hence we are said to be justified by his blood , Rom. 5. 9. and Christ is said to be a propitiation through faith in his blood , Rom. 3. 25. The substance of all that Crellius replies to these places is , That those words which do properly signifie the thing it self , may very conveniently be taken only for the declaration of it , when the performance of the thing doth follow by virtue of that declaration : which then happens , when the declaration is made of the thing decreed by another , and that in the name and by the command of him who did decree it . And in this sense , Christ by his blood may be said to deliver us from the punishment of our sins , by declaring or testifying to us the will and decree of God for that purpose . But this answer is by no means sufficient , upon these considerations ; 1. Because it doth not reach the proper and natural sense of the words , as Crellius himself confesseth ; and yet he assigns no reason at all , why we ought to depart from it , unless the bare possibility of another meaning be sufficient . But how had it been possible for the efficacy of the blood of Christ for purging away the guilt of our sins , to have been expressed in clearer and plainer terms than these , which are acknowledged of themselves to signifie as much as we assert ? If the most proper expressions for this purpose , are not of force enough to perswade our Adversaries , none else could ever do it ; so that it had been impossible for our Doctrine to have been delivered in such terms , but they would have found out ways to evade the meaning of them . It seems very strange , that so great an efficacy should not only once or twice , but so frequently be attributed to the blood of Christ for expiation of sin , if nothing else were meant by it , but that Christ by his death did only declare that God was willing to pardon sin ? If there were danger in understanding the words in their proper sense , why are they so frequently used to this purpose ? why are there no other places of Scripture that might help to undeceive us , and tell us plainly , that Christ dyed only to declare his Fathers will ? but what ever other words might signifie , this was the only true meaning of them . But what miserable shifts are these , when men are forced to put off such Texts which are confessed to express our Doctrine , only by saying that they may be otherwise understood ? which destroys all kind of certainty in words ; which by reason of the various use of them , may be interpreted to so many several senses , that if this liberty be allowed , upon no other pretence , but that another meaning is possible , men will never agree about the intention of any person in speaking . For upon the same reason , if it had been said , That Christ declared by his death Gods readiness to pardon , it might have been interpreted , That the blood of Christ was therefore the declaration of Gods readiness to pardon , because it was the consideration upon which God would do it : So that if the words had been as express for them , as they are now against them , according to their way of answering places , they would have been reconcileable to our opinion . 2. The Scripture in these expressions , doth attribute something peculiar to the blood of Christ ; but if all that were meant by it were no more , than the declaring Gods will to pardon , this could in no sense be said to be peculiar to it . For this was the design of the Doctrine of Christ , and all his miracles were wrought to confirm the truth of that part of his Doctrine , which concerned remission of sins as well as any other : but how absurd would it have been to say , that the miracles of Christ purge us from all sin , that through Christ healing the sick , raising the dead , &c. we have redemption , even the forgiveness of sins , which are attributed to the blood of Christ ? but if in no other respect , than as a testimony to the truth of the Doctrine of Remission of sins , they were equally applicable to one as to the other . Besides , if this had been all intended in these expressions , they were the most incongruously applied to the blood of Christ ; nothing seeming more repugnant to the Doctrine of the Remission of sins , which was declared by it , than that very thing by which it was declared , if no more were intended by it : For how unsuitable a way was it to declare the pardon of the guilty persons , by such severities used towards the most Innocent ! Who could believe , that God should declare his willingness to pardon others , by the death of his own Son ; unless that death of his be considered as the Meritorious cause for procuring it ? And in that sense we acknowledge , That the death of Christ was a declaration of Gods will and decree to pardon , but not meerly as it gave testimony to the truth of his Doctrine ( for in that sense the blood of the Apostles and Martyrs might be said to purge us from sin , as well as the blood of Christ ) but because it was the consideration upon which God had decreed to pardon . And so as the acceptance of the condition required , or the price paid , may be said to declare or manifest , the intention of a person to release or deliver a Captive : So Gods acceptance of what Christ did suffer for our sakes , may be said to declare his readiness to pardon us upon his account . But then this declaration doth not belong properly to the act of Christ in suffering ; but to the act of God in accepting : and it can be no other ways known , than Gods acceptance is known ; which was not by the Sufferings , but by the Resurrection of Christ. And therefore the declaring Gods will and decree to pardon , doth properly belong to that : and if that had been all which the Scripture had meant , by purging of sin by the blood of Christ , it had been very incongruously applied to that , but most properly to his Resurrection . But these phrases being never attributed to that which most properly might be said to declare the will of God ; and being peculiarly attributed to the death of Christ , which cannot be said properly to do it ; nothing can be more plain , than that these expressions ought to be taken in that which is confessed to be their proper sense ; viz. That Expiation of sin , which doth belong to the death of Christ , as a Sacrifice for the sins of the world . But yet Socinus and Crellius have another subterfuge . ( For therein lies their great art , in seeking rather by any means to escape their enemies , than to overcome them . ) For being sensible , that the main scope and design of the Scripture is against them , they seldom , and but very weakly assault : but shew all their subtilty in avoiding by all imaginable arts , the force of what is brought against them . And the Scripture being so plain in attributing such great effects to the death of Christ , when no other answer will serve turn , then they tell us , That the death of Christ is taken Metonymically for all the consequents of his death ; viz. His Resurrection , Exaltation , and the Power and Authority which he hath at the right hand of his Father . But how is it possible to convince those , who by death , can understand life ; by sufferings , can mean glory ; and by the shedding of blood , sitting at the right hand of God ? And that the Scripture is very far from giving any countenance to these bold Interpretations , will appear by these considerations ; 1. because the effect of Expiation of our sins , is attributed to the death of Christ , as distinct from his Resurrection ; viz. Our reconciliation with God , Rom. 5. 10. For if when we were enemies , we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son ; much more being reconciled , we shall be saved by his life . To which Crellius answers , That the Apostle doth not speak of the death of Christ alone , or as it is considered distinct from the consequences of it ; but only that our Reconciliation was effected● by the death of Christ intervening . But nothing can be more evident to any one , who considers the design of the Apostles discourse , than that he speaks of what was peculiar to the death of Christ : for therefore it is said , that Christ dyed for the ungodly . For scarcely for a righteous man will one dye : but God commendeth his love towards us , in that while we were yet sinners , Christ dyed for us . Much more then being now justified by his blood , we shall be saved through him ; upon which those words follow , For if when we were enemies , we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son , &c. The Reconciliation here mentioned , is attributed to the death of Christ in the same sense , that it is mentioned before ; but there it is not mentioned as a. bare condition intervening in order to some thing farther ; but as the great instance of the love both of God and Christ ; of God , in sending his Son ; of Christ , in laying down his life for sinners , in order to their being justified by his blood . But where is it that St. Paul saith , that the death of Christ had no other influence on the expiation of our sins , but as a bare condition intervening in order to that power and authority whereby he should expiate sins ? what makes him attribute so much to the death of Christ , if all the benefits we enjoy depend upon the consequences of it ; and no otherwise upon that , than meerly as a preparation for it ? what peculiar emphasis were there in Christs dying for sinners , and for the ungodly ; unless his death had a particular relation to the expiation of their sins ? Why are men said to be justified by his blood , and not much rather by his glorious resurrection , if the blood of Christ be only considered as an antecedent to the other ? And that would have been the great demonstration of the love of God which had the most immediate influence upon our advantage : which could not have been the death in this sense , but the life and glory of Christ. But nothing can be more absurd than what Crellius would have to be the meaning of this place , viz. that the Apostle doth not speak of the proper force of the death of Christ distinct from his life ; but that two things are opposed to each other for the effecting of one of which the death of Christ did intervene , but it should not intervene for the other ; viz. it did intervene for our reconciliation , but it should not for our life . For did not the death of Christ equally intervene for our life as for our reconciliation ? was not our eternal deliverance the great thing designed by Christ , and our reconciliation in order to that end ? what opposition then can be imagined , that it should be necessary for the death of Christ to intervene in order to the one than in order to the other ? But he means , that the death of Christ should not intervene any more ; what need that , when it is acknowledged by themselves , that Christ dyed only for this end before , that he might have power to bestow eternal life on them that obey him ? But the main force of the Apostles argument lyes in the comparison between the death of Christ having respect to us as enemies in order to reconciliation , and the life of Christ to us considered as reconciled ; so that if he had so much kindness for enemies , to dye for their reconciliation , we may much more presume that he now living in Heaven will accomplish the end of that reconciliation , in the eternal salvation of them that obey him . By which it is apparent that he speaks of the death of Christ in a notion proper to it self , having influence upon our reconciliation ; and doth not consider it metonymically as comprehending in it , the consequents of it . 2. Because the expiation of sins is attributed to Christ antecedently to the great consequents of his death , viz. his sitting at the right hand of God. Heb. 1. 3. When he had by himself purged our sins , sate down on the right hand of his Majesty on high . Heb. 9. 12. But by his own blood he entred in once into the Holy Place , having obtained eternal redemption for us . To these places Crellius gives a double answer . 1. That indefinite particles ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) being joyned with Verbs of the praeterperfect tense do not alwayes require that the action expressed by them , should precede that which is designed in the Verbs to which they are joyned ; but they have sometimes the force of particles of the present or imperfect tense ; which sometimes happens in particles of the praeter-perfect tense , as Matth. 10. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; and several other instances produced by him : according to which manner of interpretation the sense he puts upon those words , Heb. 9. 12. is , Christ by the shedding of his blood entred into the Holy of Holies , and in so doing he found eternal redemption , or the expiation of sins . But not to dispute with Crellius concerning the importance of the Aorist being joyned with a Verb of the praeterperfect tense , which in all reason and common acceptation doth imply the action past by him who writes the words antecedent to his writing of it , as is plain in the instances produced by Crellius ; but according to his sense of Christs expiation of sin , it was yet to come after Christs entrance into Heaven , and so it should have been more properly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; not I say to insist upon that , the Apostle manifests , that he had a respect to the death of Christ in the obtaining this eternal redemption , by his following discourse : for v. 14. he compares the blood of Christ in point of efficacy for expiation of sin , with the blood of the Legal Sacrifices : whereas if the expiation meant by him had been found by Christs Oblation of himself in Heaven , he would have compared Christs entrance into Heaven in order to it , with the entrance of the High-Priest into the Holy of Holies , and his argument had run thus . For if the High-Priest under the Law did expiate sins by entring into the Holy of Holies ; How much more shall the Son of God entring into Heaven expiate the sins of Mankind : but we see the Apostle had no sooner mention'd the redemption obtained for us ; but he presently speaks of the efficacy of the blood of Christ in order to it , and as plainly asserts the same , v. 15. And for this cause he is the Mediator of the New Testament that by means of death , for the redemption of the transgressions which were under the first Testament , they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance . Why doth the Apostle here speak of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the expiation of sins by the means of death ; if he had so lately asserted before that the redemption or expiation was found not by his death , but by his entrance into Heaven ? and withall the Apostle here doth not speak of such a kind of expiation as wholly respects the future , but of sins that were under the first Testament , not barely such as could not be expiated by vertue of it , but such as were committed during the time of it , although the Levitical Law allowed no expiation for them . And to confirm this sense , the Apostle doth not go on to prove the necessity of Christs entrance into Heaven ; but of his dying , v. 16 , 17 , 18. But granting that he doth allude to the High-Priests entring into the Holy of holies , yet that was but the representation of a Sacrifice already offer'd , and he could not be said to find expiation by his entrance ; but that was already found by the blood of the Sacrifice , and his entrance was only to accomplish the end for which the blood was offer'd up in sacrifice . And the benefit which came to men is attributed to the Sacrifice , and not to the sprinkling of the blood before the Mercy-seat : and whatever effect was consequent upon his entrance into the Sanctuary , was by vertue of the blood which he carried in with him , and was before shed at the Altar . Neither can it with any reason be said , that if the redemption were obtained by the blood of Christ , there could be no need of his entrance into Heaven ; since we do not make the Priesthood of Christ to expire at his death ; but that he is in Heaven a mercifull High-Priest in negotiating the affairs of his People with God , and there ever lives to make intercession for them . Crellius answers , That granting the Aorist being put before the Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should imply such an action which was antecedent to Christs sitting at the right hand of God , yet it is not there said , that the expiation of sins was made before Christs entrance into Heaven ; for those , saith he , are to be considered as two different things ; for a Prince first enters into his Palace , before he sits upon his throne . And therefore , saith he , Christ may be said to have made expiation of sins before he sate down at the right hand of his Father , not that it was done by his death , but by his entrance into Heaven , and offering himself to God there , by which means he obtained his sitting on the right hand of the Majesty on high , and thereby the full power of remission of sins , and giving eternal life . To which I answer , 1. That the Scripture never makes such a distinction between Christs entrance into Heaven , and sitting at the right hand of God ; which latter implying no more but the glorious state of Christ in Heaven , his entrance into Heaven doth imply it : For therefore God exalted him to be a Prince and a Saviour ; and the reason of the power and authority given him in Heaven is no where attributed to his entrance into it as the means of it ; but our Saviour before that tells us that all power and authority was committed to him ; and his very entrance into Heaven was a part of his glory ; and given him in consideration of his sufferings ; as the Apostle plainly asserts ; and he became obedient to death , even the death of the Cross , wherefore God hath highly exalted him , &c. There can be then no imaginable reason to make the entrance of Christ into Heaven , and presenting himself to God there , a condition or means of obtaining that power and authority which is implyed in his sitting at the right hand of God. 2. Supposing , we should look on these as distinct , there is as little reason to attribute the expiation of sin to his entrance , considered as distinct from the other : For the expiation of sins in Heaven being by Crellius himself confessed to be by the exercise of Christs power , and this being only the means to that power , how could Christ expiate sins by that power which he had not ? But of this I have spoken before , and shewed that in no sense allowed by themselves the expiation of sins can be attributed to the entrance of Christ into Heaven as distinct from his sitting at the right hand of God. Thus much may suffice to prove , that those effects of an Expiatory Sacrifice , which do respect the sins committed , do properly agree to the death of Christ. I now come to that which respects the person , considered as obnoxious to the wrath of God by reason of his sins ; and so the effect of an Expiatory Sacrifice is Atonement and Reconciliation . By the wrath of God , I mean , the reason which God hath from the holiness and justice of his nature , to punish sin in those who commit it : by the means of Atonement and Reconciliation , I mean , that in consideration of which , God is willing to release the sinner from the obligation to punishment he lies under by the Law of God , and to receive him into favour , upon the terms which are declared by the Doctrine of Christ. And that the death of Christ was such a means of Atonement and Reconciliation for us , I shall prove by those places of Scripture which speak of it . But Crellius would seem to acknowledge , That if Grotius seem to contend for no more , than that Christ did avert that wrath of God which men had deserved by their sins , they would willingly yield him all that he pleads for : but then he adds , That this deliverance from the wrath to come , is not by the death , but by the power of Christ. So that the question is , Whether the death of Christ were the means of Atonement and Reconciliation between God and us ? and yet Crellius would seem willing to yield too , that the death of Christ may be said to avert the wrath of God from us , as it was a condition in order to it ; for in that sense it had no more influence upon it than his birth had : but we have already seen , that the Scripture attributes much more to the death and blood of Christ , in order to the expiation of sin . We do not deny , that the death of Christ may be called a condition , as the performance of any thing in order to an end , may be called the condition upon which that thing is to be obtained ; but we say , that it is not a bare condition , but such a one as implies a consideration , upon which the thing is obtained , being such as answers the end of him that grants it : by which means it doth propitiate or atone him , who had before just reason to punish , but is now willing to forgive and be reconciled to them , who have so highly offended him . And in this sense we assert , that Christ is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a propitiation for our sins , 1 John 2. 2. — 4. 10. which we take in the same sense that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is saken for the Sin-offering for Atonement . Ezek. 44. 27. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , they shall offer a sin-offering ; for so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there signifies : and in the same sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is taken , Ezek. 45. 19. and the Ram for Atonement is call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Numb . 5. 8. And thence the High-Priest when he made an Atonement , is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 2 Maccab. 3. 33. which is of the greater consequence to us , because Crellius would not have the sense either of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to be taken from the common use of the word in the Greek Tongue ; but from that which some call the Hellenistical use of it ; viz. That which is used in the Greek of the New Testament , out of the LXX . and the Apocryphal Greek ; in both which we have found the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a sense fully correspondent to what we plead for . But he yet urges , and takes a great deal of pains to prove , that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do not always signifie to be appeased by another ; but sometimes signifies to be propitious and merciful in pardoning ; and sometimes to expiate , and then signifies the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : which if it be granted , proves nothing against us , having already proved , that those words do sig●ifie the aversion of the wrath of God by a ●●crifice , and that there is no reason to ●…cede from that signification , when they ●…e applied to the blood of Christ. And ●…e do not contend , that when the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is applied to him that ●…oth forgive , it doth imply appeasing ; ●…t the effect of it , which is pardoning ; ●…ut that which we assert , is , that when 〈◊〉 is applied to a third person , or a thing ●…ade use of in order to forgiveness , then ●…e say it signifies the propitiating him that as justly displeased : so as by what was ●…one or suffered for that end , he is wil●…g to pardon what he had just reason to ●…nish . So Moses is said , to make Atone●ent for the people by his prayers , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Exod. 34. 14. and we ●…ay see Vers. 11. how much God was ●●spleased before . And Moses besought the ●…ord his God , and said , Why doth thy wrath ●…x hot against thy people : and Vers. 12. ●…rn from thy fierce wrath , and repent of ●…is evil against thy people : and then it is ●…id , Vers. 14. The Lord was atoned for the ●…il which he thought to do unto his people . would therefore willingly know , why ●…oses might not here properly be said , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as it is said , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and therefore since it i●… so very often said in the Levitical Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and the accusative cas●… scarce ever put but in two cases ; ( viz When these words are applied to i●… animate things , as the Altar , &c. or whe●… to God himself , implying forgiveness ) wh●… reason can we assign more probable fo●… this different construction , then that whe●… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used , the verb hath a respect t●… the offended party as the accusative u● derstood ? as Christ is said in the place mentioned to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , whic● ought in reason to be understood as thos● words after Moses his intercession , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . But Crellius asks , W●… then do we never read once concerning t●… Priest , that he did , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but we read that he did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and God is sai●… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . To this I answer 1. That the reason why the person pr●… pitiated , is not expressed , is , because 〈◊〉 was so much taken for granted , that th●… whole Institution of Sacrifices did immediately respect God , and therefore the●… was no danger of mistaking , concernin● the person who was to be atoned . 2. I ●…onder Crellius can himself produce no ●…stance where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used ●…ith respect to the Sacrifices , and the person whose offences are remitted by the Atonement ; but where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath a ●elation to that , it is still joyned with a Preposition relating , either to the person 〈◊〉 to the offences ; if no more were understood when it is so used , then when God ●imself is said to do it , why is not the phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as well said of the Priest , as it is of God ? From whence Grotius his sense of Hebr. 2. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , is far more agreeable to the use of the phrase in the Old Testament , than that which Crellius would put upon it . Therefore since the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is attributed to Christ , we ought to take it in the sense proper to a Propitiatory Sacrifice : so it is said by Moses , where God is left out , but is necessarily understood , after the people had provoked God by their Idolatry ; Ye have sinned'a great sin : And now I will go up unto the Lord , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , That I may make an Atonement for your sin : What way could Moses be said to make this Atonement , but by propitiating God ; yet his name is not there expressed , but necessarily understood . So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used in the most proper sense for appeasing the anger of a person , Gen 32. 20. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 2 Sam. 21. 3 which places have been already insisted on , in the signification of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . And that those places wherein Christ is said to be a propitiation for our sins , are capable of no other sense , will appear from the consideration of Christ , as a middle person between God and us ; and therefore his being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , cannot be parallel with that phrase , where God himself is said , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for Christ is here considered as interposing between God and us , as Moses and the Priests under the Law did between God and the people , in order to the averting his wrath from them . And when one doth thus interpose in order to the Atonement of the offended party , something is always supposed to be done or suffered by him , as the means of that Atonement . As Jacob supposed the present he made to his Brother would propitiate him ; and David appeased the Gibeonites by the death of Sauls Sons , both which are said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . So the shedding of the blood of Sacrifices before and under the Law , was the means of atoning God for the sins they committed . What reason can there be then why so receiv'd a sense of Atonement , both among the Jews , and all other Nations at that time when these words were written , must be forsaken ; and any other sense be embraced , which neither agrees with the propriety of the expression , nor with so many other places of Scripture , which make the blood of Christ to be a Sacrifice for the Expiation of sin ? Neither is it only our Atonement , but our Reconciliation is attributed to Christ too , with a respect to his Death and Sufferings . As in the place before insisted on ; For if when we were enemies , we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son ; and more largely in the Second Epistle to the Corinthians . And all things are of God , who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ , and hath given to us the ministery of reconciliation : To wit , that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself , not imputing their trespasses unto them , and hath committed to us the word of reconciliation . For he hath made him to be sin for 〈◊〉 who knew no sin , that we might be made the righteousness of God in him . And to the Ephesians , And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by his Cross , having slain the enmity thereby . To the same purpose to the Colossians , And having made peace through the blood of his Cross , by him to reconcile all things to himself , by him I say whether they be things in Heaven or in Earth ; and you that were sometimes ●lienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works , yet now hath he reconciled , in the body of his flesh through death . Two things the substance of Crellius his answer may be reduced to concerning these places . 1. That it is no where said that God was reconciled to us , but that we are reconciled to God , and therefore this reconciliation doth not imply any averting of the anger of God. 2. That none of these places do assert any reconciliation with God antecedent to our conversion , and so that the Reconciliation mention'd implies only the laying aside our enmity to God by our sins . I begin with the first of these , concerning which we are to consider not barely the phrases used in Scripture , but what the nature of the thing implyes ; as to which a difference being supposed between God and Man on the account of sin , no reconciliation can be imagined but what is mutual . For did man only fall out with God , and had not God just reason to be displeased with men for their Apostasie from him ? If not , what made him so severely punish the first sin that ever was committed by man ? what made him punish the old World for their impieties by a deluge ? what made him leave such Monuments of his anger against the sins of the World in succeeding Ages ? what made him adde such severe sanctions to the Laws he made to the people of the Jews ? what made the most upright among them so vehemently to deprecate his wrath and displeasure upon the sense of their sins ? what makes him declare not only his hatred of the sins of men , but of the persons of those who commit them ; so far as to express the greatest abhorrency of them ? Nay , what makes our Adversaries themselves to say , that impiety is in its own nature hatefull to God , and stirrs him up to anger against all who commit it ? what means , I say , all this , if God be not angry with men on the account of sin ? Well then ; supposing God to be averse from men by reason of their sins , shall this displeasure alwayes continue or not ; if it alwayes continues , men must certainly suffer the desert of their sins ; if it doth not alwayes continue , then God may be said to be reconciled in the same sense that an offended party is capable of being reconciled to him who hath provoked him . Now there are two wayes whereby a party justly offended may be said to be reconciled to him that hath offended him . First , when he is not only willing to admit of terms of agreement , but doth declare his acceptance of the mediation of a third person , and that he is so well satisfied with what he hath done in order to it , that he appoints this to be published to the World to assure the offender , that if the breach continues , the fault wholly lyes upon himself . The second is , when the offender doth accept of the terms of agreement offer'd , and submits himself to him whom he hath provoked , and is upon that received into favour . And these two we assert must necessarily be distinguished in the reconciliation between God and us . For upon the death and sufferings of Christ , God declares to the World he is so well satisfied with what Christ hath done and suffer'd in order to the reconciliation between himself and us , that he now publishes remission of sins to the World upon those terms which the Mediator hath declared by his own doctrine , and the Apostles he sent to preach it : But because remission of sins doth not immediately follow upon the death of Christ , without supposition of any act on our part , therefore the state of favour doth commence from the performance of the conditions which are required from us . So that upon the death of Christ God declaring his acceptance of Christs mediation , and that the obstacle did not lye upon his part ; therefore those Messengers who were sent abroad into the world to perswade men to accept of these terms of agreement , do insist most upon that which was the remaining obstacle , viz. the sins of Mankind , that men by laying aside them , would be now reconciled to God , since there was nothing to hinder this reconciliation , their obstinacy in sin excepted . Which may be a very reasonable account why we read more frequently in the writings of the Apostles , of mens duty in being reconciled to God ; the other being supposed by them as the foundation of their preaching to the world , and is insisted on by them upon that account , as is clear in that place to the Corinthians , That God was in Christ reconciling the World to himself , not imputing unto men their trespasses , and hath committed to us the Word of Reconciliation ; and therefore addes , Now then we are Ambassadors for Christ , as though God did beseech you by us , me pray you in Christs stead be ye reconciled to God : And least these words should seem dubious , he declares that the reconciliation in Christ was distinct from that reconciliation he perswades them to ' for the reconciliation in Christ he supposeth past . v. 18. All things are of God , who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ , and v. 21. he shews us how this Reconciliation was wrought : For he hath made him to be sin for us who know no sin , that we might be made the righteousness of God in him . Crellius here finds it necessary to acknowledge a twofold Reconciliation , but hopes to escape the force of this place by a rare distinction of the Reconciliation as preached by Christ , and by his Apostles ; and so Gods having reconciled the World to himself by Jesus Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thing else but Christs preaching the Gospel himself , who afterwards 〈◊〉 that Office to his Apostles . But if such shifts as these will serve to baffle mens understandings , both they were made , and the Scriptures were written to very little purpose ; for if this had been all the Apostle had meant , that Christ preached the same Doctrine of Reconciliation before them , what mighty matter had this been to have solemnly told the World , that Christs Apostles preached no other Doctrine , but what their Master had preached before ? especially if no more were meant by it , but that men should leave their sins , and be reconciled to God. But besides , why is the Ministery of Reconciliation , then attributed only to the Apostles , and not to Christ , which ought in the first place have been given to him , since the Apostles did only receive it from him ? Why is that Ministery of Reconciliation said to be , viz. that God was in Christ reconciling the World to himself ? was this all the subject of the Apostles preaching , to tell the World , that Christ perswaded men to leave off their sins ? how comes God to reconcile the World to himself by the preaching of Christ , since Christ himself saith , he was not sent to preach to the world , but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel ? Was the World reconciled to God by the preaching of Christ before they had ever heard of him ? Why is God said not to impute to men their trespasses by the preaching of Christ , rather than his Apostles ; if the not imputing were no more than declaring Gods readiness to pardon ; which was equally done by the Apostles as by Christ himself ? Lastly , what force or dependance is there in the last words , For he made him to be sin for us , who knew no sin , &c. if all he had been speaking of before had only related to Christs preaching ? How was he made sin more than the Apostles , if he were only treated as a sinner upon the account of the same Doctrine which they preached equally with him ? and might not men be said to be made the righteousness of God in the Apostles , as well as in Christ , if no more be meant , but being perswaded to be righteous , by the Doctrine delivered to them ? In the two latter places , Eph. 2. 16. Coloss. 1. 20. &c. it is plain , that a twofold reconciliation is likewise mention'd , the one of the Jews and Gentiles to one another , the other of both of them to God. For nothing can be more ridiculous than the Exposition of Socinus , who would have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not to be joyned with the Verb , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but to stand by it self , and to signifie that this reconciliation of the Jews and Gentiles did tend to the glory of God. And Crellius , who stands out at nothing , hopes to bring off Socinus here too ; by saying , that it is very common , for the end to which a thing was appointed to be expressed by a Dative case following the Verb ; but he might have spared his pains in proving a thing no one questions ; the shorter answer had been to have produced but one place where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ever signifies any thing but to be reconciled to God as the offended party ; or where-ever the Dative of the person following the Verb importing reconciliation , did signifie any thing else but the party with whom the reconciliation was to be made . As for that objection concerning things in Heaven being reconciled ; that phrase doth not import such a Reconciliation of the Angels as of Men , but that Men and Angels upon the reconciliation of men to God , become one body under Christ , and are gathered together in him , as the Apostle expresseth it , Eph. 1. 10. Having thus far proved , that the effects of an Expiatory Sacrifice do belong to the death of Christ , nothing now remains but an answer to be made to two Objections , which are commonly insisted on by our Adversaries . The first is , That God was reconciled before he sent his Son , and therefore Christ could not dye to reconcile God to us . The second is , That the Doctrine of Satisfaction asserted by us , is inconsistent with the freeness of Gods grace in the remission of sins : Both which will admit of an easie Solution upon the principles of the foregoing discourse . To the first I answer , That we assert nothing inconsistent with that love of God , which was discovered in sending his Son into the world ; we do not say , That God hated mankind so much on the account of sin , that it was impossible he should ever admit of any terms of Reconciliation with them , which is the only thing inconsistent with the greatness of Gods love , in sending Christ into the world ; but we adore and magnifie the infiniteness and unexpressible , greatness of his love , that notwithstanding all the contempt of the former kindness and mercies of Heaven , he should be pleased to send his own Son to dye for sinners , that they might be reconciled to him . And herein was the great love of God manifested , that while we were enemies and sinners , Christ dyed for us , and that for this end , that we might be reconciled to God by his death . And therefore surely , not in the state of favour or Reconciliation with God then . But it were worth the while , to understand what it is our Adversaries mean , when they say , God was reconciled when he sent his son , and therefore he could not dye to reconcile God to us . Either they mean , that God had decreed to be reconciled upon the sending his son , or that he was actually reconciled when he sent him : if he only decreed to be reconciled , that was not at all inconsistent with Christs dying to reconcile God and us in pursuance of that decree : if they mean , he was actually reconciled , then there was no need for Christ to dye to reconcile God and us ; but withal , actual Reconciliation implies pardon of sin ; and if sin were actually pardoned before Christ came , there could be no need of his coming at all , and sins would have been pardon'd before committed ; if they were not pardoned , notwithstanding that love of God , then it can imply no more , but that God was willing to be reconciled . If therefore the not-remission of sins were consistent with that love of God , by which he sent Christ into the world , then notwithstanding that he was yet capable of being reconciled by his death . So that our Adversaries are bound to reconcile that love of God , with not presently pardoning the sins of the world , as we are to reconcile it with the ends of the death of Christ , which are asserted by us . To the other Objection , Concerning the inconsistency of the Freeness of Gods Grace , with the Doctrine of Satisfaction . I answer , Either Gods Grace is so free as to exclude all conditions , or not : If it be so free , as to exclude all conditions , than the highest Antinomianism is the truest Doctrine ; for that is the highest degree of the Freeness of Grace , which admits of no conditions at all . If our Adversaries say , That the Freeness of Grace is consistent with Conditions required on our part , Why shall it not admit of conditions on Gods part ? especially , when the condition required , tends so highly to the end of Gods governing the world , in the manifestation of his hatred against sin , and the vindication of the honour of his Laws by the Sufferings of the Son of God in our stead , as an Expiatory Sacrifice for our sins . There are two things to be considered in sin , the dishonor done to God , by the breach of his Laws , and the injury men do to themselves by it ; now remission of sins , that respects the injury which men bring upon themselves by it ; and that is Free , when the penalty is wholly forgiven , as we assert it is by the Gospell to all penitent sinners : but shall not God be free to vindicate his own Honor , and to declare his righteousness to the world , while he is the Justifier of them that believe ? Shall men in case of Defamation , be bound to vindicate themselves , though they freely forgive the Authors of the slander , by our Adversaries own Doctrine ? and must it be repugnant to Gods Grace , to admit of a Propitiatory Sacrifice , that the world may understand , that it is no such easie thing to obtain pardon of sin committed against God ; but that as often as they consider the bitter Sufferings of Christ , in order to the obtaining the forgiveness of our sins , that should be the greatest Argument to disswade them from the practice of them ? But why should it be more inconsistent with the Sacrifice of Christ , for God freely to pardon sin , than it was ever presumed to be in all the Sacrifices of either Jews of Gentiles ? who all supposed Sacrifices necessary in order to Atonement ; and yet thought themselves obliged to the goodness of God in the Remission of their sins ? Nay , we find that God himself , in the case of Abimelech , appointed Abraham to pray for him , in order to his pardon ; And will any one say , this was a derogation to the grace of God in his pardon ? Or to the pardon of Jobs Friends , because Job was appointed to sacrifice for them ? Or to the pardon of the Israelites , because God out of his kindness to them , directed them by the Prophets , and appointed the means in order to it ? But although God appointed our High-Priest for us , and out of his great love sent him into the world , yet his Sacrifice was not what was given him , but what he freely underwent himself ; he gave us Christ , but Christ offered up himself a full , perfect and sufficient Sacrifice , Oblation and Satisfaction for the sins of the world . Thus , Sir , I have now given you a larger account of what I then more briefly discoursed of , concerning the true Reason of the Sufferings of Christ ; and heartily wishing you a right understanding in all things , and requesting from you an impartial consideration of what I have written , I am , SIR , Your , &c. E. S. Jan. 6. 1668 / 9 , FINIS . Books printed for Henry Mortlock at the White-Hart in Westminster-Hall . A Rational account of the grounds of Protestant Religion , being a Vindication of the Lord Archbishop of Canterburies relation of a Conference , and from the pretended Answer by T. C. wherein the true grounds of Faith are cleared , and the false discovered ; the Church of England Vindicated from the Imputation of the Schism , and the most important Controversies between us and the Church of Rome throughly examined . Origines Sacrae , or a Rational account of the grounds of Christian Faith , as to the Truth and Divine Authority of the Scriptures , and the matters therein contained . Irenicum : A Weapon-Salve for the Churches wounds . All three by Edward Stillingfleet , D. D. Knowledge and Practice ; or a plain Discourse of the chief things necessary to be known , believed and practiced , in order to Salvation . By S. Cradoc● . The Being and Well-being of a Christian , in three Treatises : The first , setting forth the property of the Righteous . The second , the Excellency of Grace . The third , the Nature and Sweetness of Fellowship with Christ. By Edward Reyner . The Moral Philosophy of the Stoicks , Translated out of French into English. By Charles Cotton , Esq. Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A61628-e2380 Jam. 2. 1. Luke 17. 28 , 29. Hv 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 de bell . Jud. l. 7. c. 14. Jude 7. Tacit. An. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Xiphil . in Epit. Dion . in Tito . p. 227. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Herodian . in Com●od . hist. l. 1. p. 22. v. Xiphil . ad fin . Commodi . Niceph. l. 15. c. 21. Evagr. l. 2. cap. 13. 〈◊〉 Baron . Tom. 5. A. 465. 1. Hieron . in loc . Gildas de Excid . Brit. Scipio apud Aug. de Civ . D. l. 1. c. 33. Cicer. pro Flacco . Hab. 2. 11. Isa. 47. 7 , 8. 11. Zeph 1. 13 , 14 , 15. Amos 3. 6. Lact. l. 2. c. 11. Rev. 9. 20. Notes for div A61628-e9680 1 King. 4. 29 , 30 , 31. 1 Joh. 4. 4 Nicol. Damascen . de moribus gent. p. 9. Ed. Cragii . Geta in Appiano . Herod . Thal. v. Synes . de laude Calvitii , p. 77. Tit. 2. 12. Tacit. de moribus German . Gal. 6. 7. Eph. 5. 6. Notes for div A61628-e12570 Luke 3. 5 , 6. Rom. 13. 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5. Titus 2. 12. Notes for div A61628-e13640 Rom 5. 1. Rom. 10. 3. Rom. 3. 27. Gal. 3. 10. Rom. 3. 29. Notes for div A61628-e15550 Mat. 11. 23. Heb. 10. 28 , 29. Mark 4. 19. Matth. 5. 3. V. 4. V. 5. V. 6. V. 7. V. 8. V. 9. V. 10 , 11 , 12. V. Lud. Viv. ad S. Aug. de Civit. Dei , l. 19. c. 1. Mat. 25. 41. Mark 9 44. 1 Thess. 1. 10. 2 Thess. 1. 9. Matth. 10. 28. 2 Cor. 4. 17. Rev. 7. 14. Heb. 10. 27. Gal. 6. 7 , 8. Notes for div A61628-e17360 Heb. 2. 10. 1 John 11. Matth. 13. 55 , 56. John 3. 2. Mat. 11. 21. Luk. 22. 44. Mat. 26. 39. Isa. 53. 4. 5. Mat. 26. 38. Luk. 22 , 53. Mat. 26. 66 , 67. Luk. 23. 4. Mat. 27. 23. John 19. 34. Mat. 27. 4. Orig. c. Cels. l. 3. p. 123. August . de Civit. Dei , l. 19. c. 23. Cur ergo damnatus est ? respondit Dea : corpus quidem debilitantibus tormentis s●mper oppositum est , anima aut● piorum coelesti sedi insidet . John 10. 32 1 Pet. 2. 21 , 22 , 23. Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 11. 37. Scalig. hist. anim . l. 2. §. 133. Tull. Tusculan . l. 2. Aub. Miraeus in vita Lipsii p. 60. John 18. 6. Isa. 53. 7. 1 Cor. 1. 23. Quod caetera etiam foedera caeso animali aliquo sa●ciri , & sanguin● ejus confirmari solerent . Cr●ll . c. Grot. ad cap. 1. p. 29. V. Heins . not . ad Sil. p. 9 , 10. 1 Pet. 3. 18. Isa. 53. 10. V. 6. Heb. 9. 14. V. 27. 1 John 2. 2. 4. 10. 1 Tim. 2. 6. 1 Cor. 6. 20. Ephes. 1. 7. Col. 1. 14. Rom. 3. 24 , 25. Rom. 5. 10. 2 Cor. 5. 19 , 21. Heb. 9. 14 , 15. Heb. 2. 17. 5. 1. Mat. 8. 20. Phil. 2. 6 , 7. 2 Cor. 8 , 9. Rom. 8. 29. V. 17. V. 18. Heb. 9. 12. Notes for div A61628-e21140 §. 1. The Introduction , concerning the Socinian way of interpreting Scripture . Joh. 1. 3. 10. Socin . de Servat . Part 2. Cap. 4 §. 2. The state of the Controversie in general . §. 3. Of the difference of debts and punishments . Non resipiscentibus veniam non concedere , id d●mum naturae divinae , & dec●etis ejus & propterea rectitudini & aequitati debitum est ac consentaneum . Socin . de Servat . l. 1. c. 1. Non resipiscentes poenâ non liberare tum per se aequitati est admodum , consentaneum & positis quibusdam finibus quos Deus sibi in regendis hominibus praefixit , facto necessarium . Crell . c. Grot. c. 2. §. 29. §. 4. The reason of humane punishment is the publick interest . §. 5. The right of Divine punishment not meer Dominion . Crell . Respons . ad Grot. cap. 2 sect . 1. &c. p. 144. Soc. de Servat . l. 3. c. 3. Praelect . c. 18. §. 6. 2. The end of punishments not bare compensation as it is in debts . Crell . c. Grot. cap. 2. Sect. 2. p. 147. Sect. 17. p. 162. Crell . c. Grot. cap. 2. p. 174. Sect. 29. p. 198. §. 7. Of C●●llius his great m●stake about the end of punishments . Crell . cap 2. sect . 2. sect . 28. P. 191. §. 8. Of the nature of anger and revenge in men , and whether punishments are designed to satisfie them . Crell . c. 2. sect . 22. p. 177. Exerc. 313. Seneca de Clem. l 1. c. 20. De Irâ . l. 2. c 32. De Irâ . l. 1. c. 6. De Irâ . l. 1. c. 9. Cap. 12. Cap. 13. De Clem. l. 2. c. 4. De Clem. l. 1. c. 11 , 12. Salust . in Catilin . Cicero 7. v. Cicero de Invent. 2. De Irâ . l. 1. c. 21. Non praeterita sed futura intuebitur ; nam ut Plato ait , nemo prudens punit quia peccatum est , sed ne peccetur . Sen. de Irâ . l. 1. c. 16. Lact. de ira Dei , c. 17. Cap. 2. sect . ●3 . Cap. 2. sect . 1. p. 143. Sect. 13. p. 161. Sen. de ira , l. 1. c. 14. & 15. Cap. 16. Quibus ( sc. solatio & securitati ) addi possunt honoris ac dignitatis , per injuriam violatae , & aliquâ ratione imminutae vindiciae , ass●rtioque juris nostri . Crell . cap. 2. sect . 28. p. 191. §. 9. The Interest of the Magistrate in punishment distinct from that of private persons . De morib . German . c. 12. Grot. de leg . Goth. in Proleg . ad hist. Goth. p. 67. Lindenbrog . Gloss. ad Cod. Leo Antiq. v. Freda . Spelman . Gloss. v. Freda . Bignon . not . in Marculphi form . cap. 20. 〈◊〉 Varro de L. L. lib. 4. Jal . Pollux . l. 8. §. 10. Of the nature of Anger in God ; the satisfaction to be made to it . C●… ll . cap. 2. 〈◊〉 . 1. p. 145. 〈◊〉 . 177. Ci●r . Tasc●… l. 4. Arist. K●… 〈◊〉 . l. 2. c. 2. Crell . c. 2. sect . 22. p. 177. Crell . de 〈◊〉 Relig. l. 1. c. 30. 〈◊〉 . cap. ●…l . 3. p. 350. §. 11. Of the ends of divine punishments . Crell . c. 2. sect . 29. p. 129. P. 195. Ezek. 18. v. 23. 32. c. 33. 11. Grot. de satisfact . c. 2. p. 43. Ed. 1617. Grot. de ●ur● belli , &c. l. 2. c. 20. sect . 4. §. 12. The ends of Divine punishments different in this and the future state . §. 1. The particular state of the controversie concerning the sufferings of Christ for us . Crell . praes . p. 7. Rua●us in Epistol . Crell . cap. 9. sect . 2. Cap. 10. sect . 10. Cap. 7 , 8 , &c. Cap. 1. sect . 57. §. 2. Whether the sufferings of Christ are to be considered as a punishment of sin . Crell . cap. 2. sect . 1. p. 142. Crell . cap. 1. sect . 7. &c. Socin . de Christo servat . l. 3. 〈◊〉 . 10. Crell . cap. 1. sect . 16. Socin . l. 2. 〈◊〉 . 7. Crell . c. 1. §. 11. §. 3. The sufferings of Christ proved to be a punishment from Scripture . 1 Pet. 2. 24. Isa. 53. 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 10 , 11. 2 Cor. 5. 21. Gal. 3. 13. Rom. 4. 25. Soc. de servat . l. 2. cap. 4. Crell . cap. 1. Sect. 32. Psal. 95. 11. Heb. 3. 11. Doctissimè & elegantissi●● Vatablus ut f●rè soi●t . So● . deserv . l. 1. c. 8. Crell . cap. 1. Sect. 31. Ezekiel 18. 20. Crell . cap. 4. Sect. 15. §. 4. Of the Scape-Goats bearing away the sins of the people . Soc. l. 2. c. 4. Lev. 16. 22. Grot. de sat . c. 1. Crell . c. 1. Sect. 56. Gen. 6. 12. Gen. 8. 21. Isa. 40. 5. Lev. 16 21. Cod. Joma . tit . 6. Lev. 16. 10. Heb. 9. 22. Lev. 16. 20. V. 15. V. 21. V. 22. Crell . c. 1. Sect. 56. §. 5. Grotius his sense of 1 Pet. 2. 24. vindicated . Crell . c. 1. §. 35. §. 6. Crellius his se●… exam●n●d . Soc. deserv l. 2. c. 6. Crell . c. 1. §. 39. Sect. ●4 . §. 7. Isa. 53. 11. vindicated . Crell . c. 1. sect . 35. Crell . c. 1. sect . 44. Crell . c. 9. §. 7. p. 463. Soc. Prael . c. 14. sect . 6. 2 Sam. 24. 1. Mat. 8. 16. Mark 1. 32 , 33. Luke 4. 42. Epist. Eccl● . p. 747 , 748 Discuss . p. 16. 17. §. 8. Isa. 53. 5 , 6 , 7. vindicated . D● Servat . l. 2. c. 5. Crell . c. 1. sect . 52. Crell . c. 1. Sect. 57. §. 9. Whether Christs death be a proper 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and whether that doth imply that it was a punishment of sin ? §. 10. Gods hatred of sin could not be seen in the sufferings of Christ , if they were no punishment of sin . Crell . c. 1. p. 69. Crell . c. 8. Sect. 43. Crell . c. 1. sect . 57 , 70. §. 11. Grotius his arguments from Christs being made sin and a curse for us defined against Crellius . Crel . c. 1. §. 60. Soc. l. 1. c. 8. Gen. 18. 25. Crel . c. 1. §. 57. Socin . explicat . 1. cap. Joh. v. 10. Socin . de Christo servat . l. 2. c. 1. Cr●l . Annot in loc . §. 12. The particles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being joyned to sins , and relating to susterings , do imply those sufferings to be the punishment of sin . Rom. 4. 25. 1 Cor. 15. 3. 1 Pet. 3. 18. He. 10. 12. Crell . c. 1. Sect. 6. Sect. 1● . p. 17. Socin . de servat . l. 3. c. 6. §. 1. The matter debated in point of reason . Certum est Christum innocentissimum à Deo gravissimis cruciatibus , ipsaque morte fuissè affectum ; cum non in materiâ poenae absolute & per se considera● , ad●oque etiam in eâ afflictione à quâ poenae forma a●est , injuria residere à no●● dicatur . Crel . c. 4. Sect. 3. Potuit autem id Deus facere , atque adeo fecit , jure dominii , quod in Christi vitam ac corpus habebat ; a●●●dente praeserti● ipsius Christi consensu . Id. Ib. Sect. 4. Quod si ex thesi speciali facere velis generalem , ●a haec erit , injustum esse punire i●…ocentem , quacunque tandem de causâ id fiat ; non vero simplicit●r , punire quempiam ob ali●na d●lict● ; id enim concedi potest non semper esse injustum . Crell . c. 4. Sect. 3. Cum ne illud quidem ad naturam poenae requiratur , ut is ipse , qui puniendus est , poenam reverà fuerit commeritus . Id. Sect. 5. Poena quidem simpliciter in innocentem cadit , justae non cadit . Crell . c. 4. Sect. 28. §. 2. In what cases Crellius grants some may be lawfully punished for the sins of others . Quia Deus hunc puniendo illum quoque alterum ob cujus peccati eum dicitur punire , simul punire possit , ob arctiorem quae inter ill●s intercedat conjunctionem . Crell . ib. sect . 5. Crell . p. 242. Crell . ib. sect . 11. sect . 19. §. 3. Crellius his arguments propounded . Crell . c. 4. s●ct . 3. p. 239 , 240. Crell . ib. sect . 18. §. 4. That a person by his own consent may be punished beyond the desert of his own actions . Grot. de Satisf . c. 4. Crell . c. 4. sect . 5. p. 244. §. 5. Objections answered . Immerito quenquam punire est injustè punire . Crell . p. 240. §. 6. The instances of Scripture considered . Exod. 20. 3. Alph. à Castro de just â haeret . punit . l. 2. c. 10. Gen. 9. 25. 2 Sam. 24. 17. Sam. 21. 5. 2 Kings 23. v. 4. to v. 21 Vers. 22. Vers. 26. 2 Chron. 34. 33. 2 Sam. 24. 3 , 4. §. 7. E●●k . 18. 20 exp●ain●d E●●k . 18. 4 , 20. Jer. 31. 29 , 30. Ezek. 18. 2. Matth. 23. 35. Ezek. 18. 25. Ezek. 33. 20. Crell . c. 4. sect . 15. §. 8. The deliverance of the guilty by the sufferings of an innocent person by his own consent , makes not the punishment unjust . Crell . c. 4. sect . 30. 32 , 34 , &c. Crell . c. 4. sect . 25. 1 King. 21. 19. Crell . c. 6. sect . 39. Crell . ib. s●ct . 28. §. 1. The death of Christ considered as an Expiatory Sacrifice for sin . Heb. 9. 22. C●●ll . c. 10. sect . 14. Crell . c. 10. sect . 13. §. 2. What the expiation of sin was by the sacrifices under the Law. Grot. de Satus . c. 10. Heb. 9. 12 , 13. Heb. 10. 1. Heb. 9 9. 10. 4. Socin . de servat . l. 2. c. 10. Praelect . Th●olog . cap. 22. §. 3. A substitution proved from Levit. 17. 11. &c. Crell . c. 10. sect . 9. Exod. 30. 32 , 33. 37. 38. Ovid. Fast. l. 6. Lev. 3. 16. Servius ad AEneid . 4. Euseb. demoust . Evang. l. 1. c. 10. Crell . cap. 8. §. 23. Denotat enim vox 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 eos quorum alter pro altero animam ponat aut devov●at , & sic id malum quod alteri sub●●ndum erat ejus loco subire non d●treclet . Socia . de servat . l. 2. c. 〈◊〉 11. Numb . 35. 33. ●…ll . c. 10. sect . 9. Deut. 21. 8. §. 4. A substitution of Christ in our room proved by his dying for us . 1 Pet. 3. 18. 2. 21. 4. 1. 2 Cor. 5. 14. Rom. 5. 6. 1 Tim. 2. 6. Heb. 2. 9. Joh. 11. 50. Luke 22. 19 , 20. Math. 20. 28. 1 John 3. 16. Coloss. 1. 24. Soc. de servat . l. 2. c. 8. 1 Cor. 1. 13. Socin . ib. §. 5. In what sense a surrogation of Christ in our room is asserted by us . Crell . c. 9. sect . 3. I● . s●ct . 2. Ib. sect . 6. Ib. sect . 7. Ib. sect . 3. Covarru . To. 1. p. 1. sect . 4. 〈◊〉 . 3. §. 6. Our Redemption by Christ proves a substitution . Crell . c. 9. s●ct . 2. §. 7. Of the true notion of Redemption . Socin . de servat . l. 2. c. 1 , 2. Crell . c. 8. s●ct . 11. Ulpian . l. 29. D. de jure sisci . Budaeus ad Pa●dect . p. 189. Liv. l 23. Festus . v. red . Ulpian . l. 39. D. de rei vend . Cic●r . ep . famil . l. 2. ep . 16. Orat. pr● Syllâ . So● . de servat l. 2. c. 1. §. 8. No necessity of paying the price to him that detains captive . Cr●ll . c. 8. sect . 11. §. 1. Of the Oblation made by Christ unto God. Crell . c. 10. sect . 45. Ib. sect . 55. Ib. sect . 47. Ib. sect . 53. Ib. sect . 54. Sect. 56. §. 2. That the Priestly Office of Christ had a primary respect to God , and not us . Crell . in Heb. 5. 1. Crell . c. 10. sect . 3. Numb . 16. 46. Vers. 48. 2 Sam. 24. 25. Lev. 1. 4. 4. 20. 5. 7. 1 Chron. 6. 49. Grot. in Heb. 5. 1. § 3. Christ no barely metaphorical High-Priest . Crell . c. 10. s●ct . 3. Hebr. 8. 3. Crell . c. 10. sect . 3. Id. sect . 56. p. 547. §. 4. Crellius destroys the Priesthood of Christ. Smalc . c. Smiglec . Crell . c. 10. p. 544. Levit. 4. 26. v. 31. 35. §. 5. No proper expiation of sin belongs to Christ in Heaven , if Cr●… his doctrine be true . Crell . c. 10. sect . 2. Crell . c. 10. sect . 3. p. 476. Heb. 7. 25. Rom 8. 3 〈◊〉 1 John 2. 1. §. 6. Ephes. 5. 2. proves the death of Christ an Expiatory Sacrifice and an oblation to God. Ephes. 5. 2. Crell . c. 10. sect . 47. Gen. 8. 20. 21. Porphyr . de abstinent . l. 2. sect . 42. Joseph . Antiq . Jud. l. 1. c. 4. §. 7. Crellius his mistakes about the kinds of sacrifices . Gen. 4. 3 , 4. Job 1. 5. 42. 8. Selden . de jure nat . & gent. apud Ebrae . l. 3. c. 2. &c. 6. Levit. 1. 4. Levit. 7 16. 22. 18 , &c. Lev. 6. 7. Crell . ●c . 10. p. 530. §. 8. What influence the mactation of the sacrifice had on expiation . Crell . c. 10. p. 533. Levit. 17. 11. Heb. 9. 22. Levit. 16. 11 , 15. Codex Joma . cap. 4. sect . 3. c. 5. sect . 4. Heb. 9. 13 , 14. 10. 4 , 10. Ma●●●h . 〈◊〉 . l. 3. c. 5. Stra●o l. 15. 〈◊〉 . in Hom. Iliad . 1. St●●●o l. 3. Herod . l. 1. §. 9. Whether Christs Oblation of himself once to God , were in Heaven or on Earth . Crell . c. 10. sect . 54. Lev. 1. 3. V. 4. Lev. 4. 25. 30. V. 6. Lev. 6. 26. Lev. 4. 11 , 12. Levit. 6. 30. Levit. 16. 14 , 15. §. 10. All things necessary to a legal oblation concur in the death of Christ. Heb. 9. 12. Heb. 13. ●2 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Herodot . l. 2. c. 39. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Plutarch . de Fide. Xenoph. Cyropaed . l. 7 , 8. Strab. l. 4. Plutarch . Symp. l. 6. probl . 8. §. 11. Christs entrance into Heaven could not be the Oblation of himself mention'd . Matth. 28. 18. Phil. 2. 8 , 9. § 12. Christs exercise of power in Heaven in no sense an Oblation to God. §. 13. Crellius his sense repugnant to the circumstances of the places . Heb. 7. 27. 9. 26. 10. 10. Heb. 9. 12 , 13. 10. 4 , 5. Heb. 10. 12. Heb. 9. 26. Heb. 10. 5. 10. Crell . c. 10. sec● . 53. Heb. 10. 7 , 9. §. 14. Objections answered . Heb. 7. 26. 8. 4. 7. 16. 5. 5. 2. 17. Crell . c. 10. sect . 53. Socin . praelect . c. ●●t . §. 1. Of the true notion of Expiation , as attributed to Sacrifices . Socia . de Christo servat . p. 2. l. 13. Crell . c. 10. sect . 26. Crell . c. 10. sect . 38. Socia . de Servat . p. 2. c. 11. Psal. 32. 1. Lev. 4. 26. Ver. 31. 35. Crellius his Objections answered . §. 2. Crell . c. 10. sect . 9. C●●● n●… neget 〈◊〉 n●s ho●… b●m 〈◊〉 di sig●… tio●●m 〈◊〉 b●re . 〈◊〉 . c. 10. 〈◊〉 . 38. § 3. The Jews rotion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Buxtorf . Lexic . Talmud . v. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Socia . l. 2. c. 11. ●o●●t Soci●…s victi●…m ob●…●…tiam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ac●…●…quam l●vem continuisse , quam ex promisso Dei l●vi●● quorundam er●… ac peccatorum venia consequeretur . Crell . c. 10. sect . 10. §. 4. Gods expiating sin , destroys not expiation by sacrifices . Crell . ib. sect . 39. Heb. 9. 22. Ver. 13 , 14. Ver. 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 23. Jev. 17. 11. §. 5. The importance of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , relating to sacrifices . Crell . c. 10. sect . 23 , & 24. Itaque quod ad votes Graecas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 attinet , quibus in hoc argumento non semel utitur D. scriptor ad Heb. eae ad Christi Sacrificium & Sacerdotii functionem relatae to etiam sensu usurpantur , quem Graeca lingua receperat , h. e. de expurgatione rea●●s & aversione irae numinis aut poenae . Crell . c. 10. p. 499. §. 6. Expiation attributed to the Sacrifice of Christ in the same sense that it was to other Sacrifices . Crell . c. 10. sect . 24. Crell . c. 10. sect . 26. §. 7. Expiation by Christ not meerly declarative . Crell . c. 10. sect . 28. p. 506. Crell . c. 10. sect . 28. §. 8. The death of Christ not taken Metonymically for all the consequents of it . Crell . c. 1. sect . 103. Sect. 119. c. 10. Sect. 45. p. 527. Crell . c. 1. sect . 112. Rom. 5. v. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. § 9. Expiation attributed to Christ antecedently to his entrance into heaven . Crell . c. 10. sect . 50. §. 10. No distinction in Scripture of the effects of Christs entrance into Heaven from his sitting at the right hand of God. Crell . c. 10. sect . 50. p. 537. Matth. 28. 18. Phil. 2. 8 , 9. §. 11. Of the Atonement made by Christs death . Crell . c. 7. sect . 3. Crell 7. sect . 10. §. 12. Of Reconciliation by Christs death . Rom. 5. 10. 2 Cor. 18. 19 , 21. Eph. 2. 16. Col. 1. 20 , 21 , 22. Crell . c. 7. sect . 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , &c. Psal. 6. 1. 38. 1. Psal. 5. 5. 7. 11. 11. 5. Lev. 26. 30. Crell . de Deo & Attrib . l. 1. c. 30. 2 Cor. 5. 19 , 20. Crell . c. 1. sect . 114. c. 7. sect . 24. Crell . c. 7. sect . 30. §. 12. Objections answered . §. 13. The freeness of Grace asserted in Scripture , destroys not satisfaction . Gen. 20. 7. Job 42. 7.