Vindication of the Faithful Rebuke to a False Report, Supplement – Publishers advertisement
MANTISSA.
Reader,
LET it not make thee Proud, that thou art Caressed, Complemented, Courted and Addressed by the Scribling Tribe, and made the Judge of Life and Death to every Paper that shall dare to look abroad into the Publick; for it may serve to Humble thee, that what carries the Appearance of Great Honour, is if well consider'd a Real Burden, to be surcharged with the Common Titles of the Iudicious and Learned, the Courteous and Candid, the Impartial and Indifferent, and whatever other goodly Epithites a wretched Cause may need, or a fruitful Invention can produce, either to blind thy Judgment, or bribe thy Affections. It may serve for thy Mortification in some degree, that thou art Postponed, from the Preface to the Postscript, from the Van to the Rear; and that thou who hast commonly pretended to Ride in State on the Fore-Horse, art degraded to come behind with the Portmanteu. However, lay aside for a while thy Prejudice and Passion, thy Interest and Party, and consider seriously a few things before I give thee a long Farewell.
I. I will give thee the good News that our Author is at last become more Orthodox, than when he wrote his Report; for then he gave us his Substance of the Gospel, which had no Iustifying Faith in't, no Repentance in order to Pardon; no Regeneration, no Conversion, no Holiness, no new Heart, and therefore no new Obedience: Rejoyce therefore with us all, that he is now come home to himself, return'd to the Truth, p. 43. Our Sins being the Meritorious Cause of Christ's Sufferings, and his Sufferings a proper Punishment of our Sins, for the Satisfaction of Divine Iustice; that whoever believes on him, may be Acquitted and Saved: But it is not intended that the Filth of our Sins, which is distinct from the Guilt was upon Christ, or that he was any otherways Criminal in God's Account, than by the Imputation of our Sins to him.
Say not, Reader, this is utterly inconsistent with that Scheme of Religion the Report has given us; for I am willing to deal much more favourably than he will with Mr. W. and let his Words pass for his Meaning, however irreconcileable they are to other places.
But again: Appeal p. 8. We Reject the Opinion of those who hold, That upon transferring the Guilt of our Sins to Christ, he is to be esteemed the Person that committed all the Sins of those for whom he Died; or that the Turpitude and Filth of our Sins was transferred upon him, which is a Notion equally False, Blasphemous and Imposible—Besides, nothing can be Renounced by us with greater Indignation, than such a Change of Persons as implies that we are actually discharged from Punishment, whilst Unbelievers, or Impenitent. I rejoyce heartily that our Author is once more given to Change, and that for the better; and that we have at length heard some Tidings of Faith and Repentance, in order to our Discharge from Punishment, which were wholly lost in the Report: So much do we owe to the seasonable Deaths of two Antinomians, under whose Influences he then was; and to the Lives of two Sound Divines, under whose Awe he now is.
II. Reader thou maist observe that the Author, whether Defender or Appellant, has the oddest way of answering a pinching Objection that ever any Respondent in the World us'd; which is not by shewing the Weakness of it, but by lending more strength to it. One notable Instance I have already given in the Matter of Fact: When the Report had affirmed, the First Paper gave Satisfaction to the most Learned of both Parties. The Rebuke replyed, That it gave no Satisfaction at all to Mr. Cole and Mr. Mather: And those two surely might be reckon'd among the most Learned of one Party: To which he rejoyns, That for some other Reasons they declined Subscription; where instead of Answering, he confirms by Reasons (tho secret Reasons) that they declined Subscription; which is not to Answer, but Confess the Objection: The Objection was, that they did not Subscribe; and he very officiously, without my asking, gives an Account, why they did not Subscribe. But I shall now give an Instance or two more of this way of answering Objections from his Appeal.
1 Instance. Appeal p. 18. he tells us, That Iesus Christ as our Surety, entred into the same Bond with us, and that he by virtue of the Sanction of the Law of Works, was obliged to suffer for our Sins; and for the Proof of this mighty Assertion, he quotes Heb. 7. 22. Iesus was made the Surety of a better Testament: To this Mr. W. answers, Christ was called the Surety of the better Testament, and therefore not of the Law of Works, which in all probability was not the better Testament, but the worse of the two; that is, it was our less good. And to speak with impartiality, it sounds harshly to my Ears: That Christ being called the Surety of a better Testament, that is, of the Covenant of Grace, should prove him the Surety of a worse Covenant, that is, of the Covenant of Works. Now how does the Appellant take off the Objection? Why he brings in Curcellaeus making the same Objection, and that is all his Answer: But still the Objection is the same, whoever makes it, and stands where it did in its full strength, till he fairly removes it; when therefore (and not till then) he shall prove, that the Covenant of Works is the better Testament; he shall prove that Christ was the Surety of it: But if the Covenant of Grace be the better Covenant of the two, and Christ be made or constituted the Surety of that Covenant, he must bring other Texts to prove, that Christ is the Surety of the Covenant of Works, which will be the more difficult for him to do, because the Title of Surety applied to Christ, is not used in any other Text in the whole New Testament.
2. Instance. The Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity (says the Appeal, p. 37.) To the end he might more plausibly expose those parts of the Christian Faith, which relate to Iustification; insinuated as if they had been such abstruse Matters, that tho the Dissenters contended so fiercely about 'em, as to divide the Communion, and separate upon them; yet their Teachers confess, that they understand not what it is that our Differences are about: This is, I confess, a most sharp Weapon, and thrown with a strong Arm: It would rejoyce me to see a good Answer to it; and that I conceive is, that our Judgment about these Points of Satisfaction and Justification, are most clearly laid down in the Confessions of the Church of England, those of the Assembly of Divines at Westminster, and at the Savoy, and we know well what our Differences are about them: But the Appellant has written several Pieces, and this last among or above the rest, that has justified the Objection, which is his peculiar way of answering, and rendred these Doctrines unintelligible; and his poor Clients may now answer him, as they did their Advocates, Fecistis probe, incertior sum, multo quam dudum; He has misled his Followers first into the Wilderness, and then out of their Wits; so many Postulata, so many things begged, others borrowed, some supposed, others presupposed; and from these so many Deductions, Inferences, Consequences, or rather Pursuances, that few or none know where the Truth lies, where the Error: Causes, Impulsive Causes, Meritoaious Causes, near Meritorious Causes, tho how near they must be, he does not instruct us, and we must not dare to conjecture; whereas a Cause may be said to be near, in respect of another that lies further off; and yet Remote in respect of that which lies nearer
—Pudet, haec opprobria Nobis
Et Dici potuisse, & non Potuisse Refelli!
III. Reader, thou hast here a new Book, Conceived and brought forth in a few Moments; an evident proof he needed not a Man-Midwife to give him a quick Delivery: He's pleased to call it an Appeal, it's design is to instruct a couple of Learned Persons what they are to believe, and not to make them judge the Author graciously teaches them what they are to believe of themselves, and how they may believe in him: He informs them in the Meaning of their own words, which they never understood before; and in the Meaning of his Principles, which they understand not to this Hour. 'Tis a piece wherein he sticks close to them by Adulation, and to his old Friend by Persecution: 'Tis a piece that will damn all the World, for none can believe it, and yet it damns us all for Unbelief.
But the best of it is, the very Persons represented in greatest danger are left safe enough at an impartial Bar; because its Charge against them is notoriously false, after all the Authors tricks to force them to deny the Sufferings of Christ to be proper Punishments. For Mr. Baxter saith, Method. Theol. Part III. p. 4. Gods hatred of Sin, and also his Justice, are no less demonstrated in the Satisfaction of Christ, at least in a manner no less meet for obtaining the ends of Government, than if the Sinners themselves had been damned: And p. 53. God doth no less effectually shew his Punitive Justice in the Punishments of Christ, than if he had destroyed the World. Hence its manifest, All the objected Phrases do only come to that he accounted Christ no Sinner when he suffered. Mr. Williams in Manmade Righteous, saith, p. 41. Though Death was due to us as Sinners, yet Death was not due to Christ, but as it was to be satisfactory and meritorious. He was to bear it as a Punishment for the Satisfaction of governing Iustice, and to Merit the Pardon of Sinners. He was willing to bear the Punishment of our Crimes, that thereby he might Merit our forgiveness in a way consistent with the Perfections of God, and conducive to the Glory of Divine Government. Hence, Isa. 53. 5. The chastisement of our Peace was upon him. It was on him a Chastisement of Peace as its designed end: True, it was for Sin or it had not been necessary, nor yet a Punishment, &c. Christs Death must be satisfactory to God, or he would not have accounted it meritorious of Peace for us; provoked Iustice and the injury to Divine Government for Sin, stood in the Sinners way, yea stood in the way of all Merit for good to us; there must therefore be a Propitiation for Sin to God, and this must be made to God; its accepted as a Ransom and Price by him; and so it operates on the Sinner in a way of Merit consequential of that Satisfaction. Christs Blood was offered as an Atonement, &c. Reader, could one Page more expresly assert what Mr. L's tells thee is denied? I might Cite hundreds of Places expressing the same. And all Mr. L. objected Passages deny no more than that Christ was joynt Party with us in the Covenant of Works, and that Sinners suffered and satisfied in Christ.
Nor yet is this piece like to obtain with such whom he designed to ensnare, for after all, Mr. L. boasts of Dr. Edwards Letter to him, you have his Thoughts expressed in the ensuing Lines.
To the Respected Mr. D. Williams, &c.
SIR,
I Received yours by the last Post, and in Answer to it, I am to acquaint you, that I lately received a Letter indeed from Mr. S. Lobb, but no Sheets of any Book designed by him for the Press: In his Letter he desired to know my Opinion, in Relation to two Questions therein proposed; to which I did return him an Answer, in (which (if he thinks fit to Communicate the Contents to you) you will meet with nothing that will be any disadvantage to the Cause you are ingaged in with your Antinomian Adversaries, or your way of managing it, as I find it stated in your Writings. The same sense that I formerly declared to you, I had of your Opinion, and Explication of the Doctrine of our Saviour's Satisfaction, I continue in still, and have told Mr. L. so much, without which I could not be either Just to you, or Consistent with my self: If Mr. Lobb shall publish any thing as from me, (which I am far from thinking he will) which may seem to be contrary to what I have formerly declared to you, in my Letters, which since, with my permission, you have made publick, I do undertake to give you full satisfaction, and do assure you as to what shall concern my self, you shall have no just ground of Suspicion or Complaint. In the mean time, while the Matter depends only on Surmises and Conjectures, or uncertain Reports, I can say nothing in it, and have no more to add, but that I am,
Iesus Coll. Oxon. Febr. 11. 1698. SIR, Your very humble Servant, Jonath. Edwards.
IV. And now, Reader, I think I can discover Land; and shall most gladly leap a Shore, and quit my self of this angry raging Element, the Controversial Ocean, on which I have been so long tossed.
Thou remembrest I hope, how the Defence, p. 82. Objected to the Rebuke: That he charged the Congregational in the Bulk, without a Salvo to the Reputation of any one of them. And I hope too, thou wilt be so just to thy Self, and Me, as to refresh thy Memory with the Answer I have return'd in this my Vindication, p. 23 This unworthy Calumny had been sufficiently obviated in the Rebuke it self; it has been more fully removed among other heaps of Dung, I was obliged to remove e're I could come at him; I shall only add this one Thing, That I never thought, spoke, wrote, that the Congregational Brethren were either in the Bulk, or in any considerable number, tainted with, or inclined to the Antinomian Errors, no more than I thought that the other side was tainted with or inclined to the Socinian or Arminian: It is very true, that the Report had given some ground for such a Suspicion, who that his Story might look big, had talkt much of the Dissenting Brethren, and still had formed his style in the Plural Number, we, we, we! Yet I durst never entertain any jealousie of them, because I well knew they were clear in this Matter: And I lookt upon it as a meer Bravado, a pure Artifice to vapour and terrifie us with false Musters, whereas indeed 'twas Himself, and a few, a very few more, under whose immediate and powerful Influence he then was, that had espoused those dreadful Notions.
But I can now, Reader, give thee more Recent, and explicite Assurance, from Authentick warrant, that whatever he pretended or made shew of, very many of the Congregational Brethren have disowned him in his late Luxuriancy of Scribling: Some of those Orthodox Brethren were not Privy in the least to his design, others were not so much as Accessary, either before the Fact, or after the Fact, others are ready to disavow those Principles he advances in his Substance of the Gospel: They own Faith necessary to Iustification; and amongst other Reasons, I hope this is one that has Reclaimed him from his wild Notions, and Reduced him to Reason and Moderation; and I have their Warrant in Terminis, to declare The Congregational Brethren in and about the City, do all judge themselves unjustly charged as a Party with Mr. Lobb, in publishing his Report, they being wholly unconsulted and unconcerned in his publishing thereof.
I will dismis the Reader from farther Attendance, when I have observ'd, That our Modern Authors that would be accounted Schoolmen, do write, just as Men in Populous Cities build, where because they want Ground, to lay a wide Foundation, raise their Buiding 6 or 7 Stories high: Thus do our Towring School-Divines; they have narrow slender Ground for their Discourses, and therefore are obliged to soar up into the Clouds, where we lose 'em, and they are lost themselves: We are too prone to be gazing up into Heaven to view the Asterisms of Speculative Theology, whilst we stumble at a Stone, and tumble into the Ditch of Profaneness: 'Twas a Judicious and Moderate Saying of the Learned Dr. I. Owen, Diatrib. de Just. Divin. p. 165. Et sane quoniam de facto ita luculenter constat, &c. Seeing therefore that the Matter is so very clear in Fact; That Christ hath born our Sins, God having laid them upon him; and by that satisfaction hath procured Eternal Salvation; although it had pleased God to have kept secret in the Cabinet of his own Goodness and Wisdom, all the Causes and Reasons of that his most Wise Counsel and Design for ever, it had been our Duty to have acquiesced in his most Righteous, most Gracious, most Holy, most Wise Will and Pleasure; but yet so that no helps of our Faith are to be despised, nor any Discoveries of his Divine Nature and Will, are to be neglected, whereby our most Merciful Father shall lead us into the more inward and saving Knowledge of the Mystery of Godliness.
To shut up all therefore in one word; Let us all pray that our Gracious God would bless this present Age with Ministers and Teachers of that Subact Judgment, and of those Holy Condescentions, that know how to bring down Divinity from Heaven to Earth, and Accommodate the Sublime Mysteries of Religion to a Holy and Exemplary Conversation; assuring our selves, that that Doctrine is none of Christ's, which is not according to Godliness.
FINIS.
By the same Author:
A Faithful Rebuke to a False Report, lately Dispers'd in a Letter to a Friend in the Country: Concerning Differences in Doctrinals, between some Dissenting Ministers in London, in Octavo.
Printed for Iohn Lawrence at the Angel in the Poultry.
End of the text · Vincent Alsop, Vindication of the Faithful Rebuke to a False Report (1698)