and turning the stories of the genealogy of Christ, recorded to manifest the faithfulness of God in his promises, into fables, must be exalted in the room and place of that truth which is so fully, so frequently asserted in the gospel, and which is the prime foundation of all our profession. All these oppositions unto, and apostasies from the gospel sprang from this especial cause; or the dislike of unbelief against this principle of its mystery and doctrine. But I shall particularly instance in two sorts of persons, that are of nearer concernment unto us than any of these.

And the first is of them whom they call Quakers. It is strange to think into how many forms and shapes they have turned themselves to darken the counsel of God in this matter, and to hide their own apprehension from the light. At their beginning in the world, they made (many of them) no scruple plainly to affirm, that all that is spoken concerning Christ, was a mere dispensation of God, and an appearance of the light; but as for such a man as we have described, they had no regard of him. This at first served their turns, and they intended no more by Christ, but that which they call the light of God within them. But what shall we say unto these things? If all the testimonies that we have given unto the man Christ Jesus, if all that is spoken of him in the gospel, all that he did, all that he suffered, all that he now doth in heaven by intercession, what he shall do at the day of judgment, all that is required of us towards him, in faith, love and obedience, be not enough to prove him a real individual man, we may certainly be all of us in a mistake as to what we ourselves are in this world, we may all be dispensations, who have hitherto taken ourselves to be the sons and daughters of men. But it is somewhile since they seem to have forsaken this imagination, being driven from it by the common expostulations of every ordinary Christian. What do you think of Jesus that died at Jerusalem? They have begun in words to acknowledge his person, but yet continue strangely to obscure their thoughts concerning him, and to confound it or the presence of God in and with him, with their own pretended light. And whence doth this arise? It is merely from the secret dislike that unbelief hath of this mystery of God. Hence they cannot see that form and comeliness in him, for which he should be desired.

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Again, Others there are who grant, that all we have spoken concerning the human nature of Christ is true. That he was so born, that he so died, that he was so a man as we have declared. And this man, say they, was justly called and is so, the Son of God, because God employed and exalted him unto all power in heaven and earth. But that he should be the eternal Son of God, that the eternal Word should be made flesh; that a divine person should receive the human nature into subsis

tence with itself, this they utterly reject. This is the way of the Socinians. The testimonies being so many, so plain, so uncontroulable that are given in the Scripture unto this truth, what is it that can carry men to advance a contradiction unto them, to their own ruin? Why, unbelief doth not like this mystery of God manifested in the flesh; this insensibly alienates the soul from it; and what men pretend to receive by the conduct of reason and argument, is indeed nothing but prejudices imposed on their minds by the power of unbelief.

Secondly, Another main fundamental principle of the gospel is, that by the obedience unto God, death and blood-shedding of this same Jesus, who was crucified and slain, is redemption, forgiveness of sins, deliverance from the wrath to come, righteousness and acceptance with God to be obtained, and by him only.

The other proposition respected the person of Christ, this doth his mediation; and this in the second place was insisted on in the first preaching of the gospel. That this was the sum of the doctrine of the Scriptures concerning him, himself taught his disciples, Luke xxiv. 45-47. "Then opened he their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures; and said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and, remission of sins should be preached in his name.” And this the apostles jointly express, exclusively unto all other mediums as to the end proposed. Acts iv. 12. "There is no salvation in any other, for there is none other name under hea-' ven given amongst men whereby we must be saved."

The great inquiry of men in the world, convinced of an immortal condition, is that which we have expressed, Acts xvi. 30. "What must we do to be saved ?" This lies in their thoughts more or less all their days, and is rolled in their hearts under that severe notion, Isa. xxxiii. 14. "Who among us shall dwell with that devouring fire? Who amongst us shall inhabit with everlasting burnings ?" And of this inquiry there are two parts.

1. How they may obtain forgiveness of sin; Micah vi. 6. "Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, and calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my first born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?" When a real sense of the guilt of sin is by any means brought upon the soul, it is vehement and urgent, and will give them in whom it is, no rest until they can fix on some way of relief.

2. What they shall do for a righteousness, upon the account

whereof they may obtain acceptance with God. For it is not enough that men be one way or other acquitted from sin, but they must be made righteous also. In this case, the Jews sought for righteousness, as it were by the works of the law, Rom. ix. 32. For a righteousness they knew they must have, and being ignorant of the righteousness of God, they went about to establish their own righteousness, Rom. x. 3.

Now this head of the gospel that we mentioned, is a direct answer unto these two questions. For, in answer unto the first, it declares, that by this Jesus Christ alone, is forgiveness and remission of sins to be obtained. "In him we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins," Eph. i. 7. See Heb. ix. 12-14. This was, as the apostle declares, the design of God the Father, Rom. iii. 24, 25; and of his own love and good will, Rev. i. 5. And this the apostles preached, & eos, amongst the chiefest things' of their message to the world, 1 Cor. xv. 3. And to the second, it answers, that by the obedience and sufferings of Christ alone, is the righteousness inquired after, to be obtained. For, by his obedience, the obedience of one, are many made righteous, Rom. v. 19. For, not only by him is preached unto us the forgiveness of sins, but by him all that believe are justified, Acts xiii. 38, 39. See Phil. iii. 8, 9. 1 Cor. i. 30.

This is another important part of the mystery of the gospel, and that which unbelief greatly dislikes; that is, it is apt to beget in the soul a dislike of it. And a great instance we have in the world, of its power and efficacy to draw men off from the gospel. For unbelief in this matter is the real foundation of the whole papacy. They cannot rest in Christ alone for righteousness and forgiveness of sins. Hence hath sprung their sacrifice of the mass for the quick and dead; hence their indulgences from the treasures of the church; hence their penances and works satisfactory for sin; hence their purgatory," religious houses, pilgrimages, intercession of saints and angels, confessions and absolutions, with the remainder of their abominations. All these things spring from no other root but this; namely, that from the power of their unbelief, men think it a foolish thing to look for pardon and righteousness solely from another, and not to trust to themselves in any thing. And the reason why they have multiplied instances to the same purpose is, because they can indeed find rest and satifaction in none other, and do therefore please and deceive their souls with this variety. And what is it that hath driven a company of poor deluded souls amongst ourselves, to trust unto a fancied light within them, and a feigned perfection in their ways? they cannot think it wise, prudent, safe, they like it not, to rest, to trust for their all, upon one who lived and died so long ago. Men make sun

dry pretences, use divers arguings and pleas for their turning aside unto their crooked paths, endeavour by all means possible to justify themselves; but the bottom of all lies here, that this doctrine of the cross is foolishness unto them; and they are under the power of their unbelief which dislikes the mysteries of it.

Thirdly, Another principle of the same mystery is, That the way and means whereby forgiveness of sin, righteousness, and acceptance with God for sinners, is attained by this Jesus. Christ, is, that by the sacrifice of himself, his death and bloodshedding, with the punishment for sin which he voluntarily underwent, God was atoned, his justice satisfied, and his law fulfilled; and that because he had ordered in his infinite wisdom and sovereignty, with the will and consent of Christ himself, to charge all the sins of all the elect upon him, and to accept of his obedience for them, he undertaking to be their surety and Redeemer. To clear this principle, the gospel teacheth,

(1.) That notwithstanding all that was visibly done to Jesus, by the Jews and others, yet the hand and counsel of God was in the whole business, designing him thereunto. See Acts ii. 22, 23. Rom. iii. 25.

(2.) That his own merciful and gracious goodness concurred herein. Although the Jews seemed to hale him up and down as a malefactor, and violently to slay him; yet if his own will had not been in the work, unto another end than what they had in design, they had had no power over him, John x. 18. But he came on set purpose to lay down his life a ransom, Matt. xx. 28. and to offer himself a sacrifice for sinners, which he performed accordingly, Eph. v. 2. Gal. ii. 20. Rev. i. 5. Heb. i. 3.

(3.) That the end of all this, was that which we before laid down, namely; that "he might be made sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him," 2 Cor. v. 21. So also, Gal. iii. 13. Isa. liii. 4-6. 10. 1 Pet. i. 18, 19.

And this principle also unbelief riseth up with great power and efficacy against in many; and that on sundry accounts: For,

1. That God should comply as it were, and have a hand in that work for any end of his, wherein Satan and men as wicked as ever the sun shone upon, did execute the fulness of their rage and villany, and for which he afterwards utterly and miserably destroyed those murderers, is folly to some. Hence were a thousand fables raised of old about the passion of Christ. Some turned the whole story into an allegory; some said, it was acted only in shew and appearance, and not in reality and truth. Some, that he was conveyed away, and Barabbas cru

eified in his stead, with sundry other such foolish abomina

tions.

2. Some of late refusing to see the wisdom, holiness, and righteousness of God in this matter, in bringing about his own counsels, and doing his own work, notwithstanding the interposition of the sins of the worst of men, deny that God determined any thing herein; but left it wholly unto the liberty of the Jews, on the determination of whose wills the whole work of salvation was suspended.

3. Some reject the whole matter itself. That the Just should suffer for the unjust; the innocent undergo the punishment due to the guilty; that one should sin, and another suffer; that he whom God loved above all, should undergo his wrath for them and their deliverance, whom he had grounds of righteousness to hate and destroy, is a foolish thing unto them. This all the Socinians in the world despise. And it is rejected by the Quakers amongst ourselves, and variously corrupted by the Papists and others. And there is none of all these, but will plead reasons and arguments for their opinions. But this that we insist on, is the true and real ground of their miscarriages. They are under the power of that unbelief, which exerts itself by a dislike of the mysteries of the gospel. Pretend what they will, it is unbelief alone that is the cause of their apostasy. I might instance in other principles of the like nature and importance, but I should dwell too long on this digression.

Thirdly,Unbelief works by, and consists in, a growing diffidence of the promises and threatenings of the gospel. The great work and duty of faith is to influence the soul unto universal obedience, and an abstinence from all sin, out of a regard unto the promises and threatenings of God. So our apostle directs in 2 Cor. vii. 1. And when the efficacy of this influence begins to wear off and decay, it is from the prevalency of unbelief. And there are many ways whereby it works and produceth this effect, to take off the soul from a due regard to the promises and threatenings of the gospel. A sense, liking, love of, and satisfaction in present things, with carnal wisdom, arising from an observation of strange promiscuous events in the world, give a principal contribution hereunto; but these things are not here to be insisted on.

And these things have been spoken, to discover the nature and the work of that unbelief, which the apostle here warns and cautions all professors concerning; and we have especially considered it, as to its entrance towards a departure from God. And hence we may observe, that;

Obs. IV. The root of all backsliding, of all apostasy, whether it be notional or practical, gradual or total, lies in unbelief.