4.90 The Condition of the Cho, fiel Covenant, Vol. lI. Children, thefe things write I unto you, that ye In not. Andif any Man (n, we have an Advocate with the Father, yefus Chri/l the ighteous : andhe is the Propitiationfor our Sins : and notfor ours only, but alto for theSins of the whole World. s Joh. 3, 16. Hereby perceive we the Love of God, heaufe he laid down his Life for us and wá 'Night to lay diwu our Lives for the Brethren. t John 4. r c. Herein is Love, not that we loved God ; bier that he loved us, andfeat his Son tobe the Propitiationfor our Sins. Rev. 1. g. veto him that lovedus, and wafted usfiom our Sins in his own Blood. Rev. ç. 9. Thou tva{l fiats and hall redeemed us to God by thy Blood,out of every Kindred, and Tongue, and People, andNation. From thefe and many other Texr, it feems to be very plain and evident, that Chrift died for our Sins, and /offered in our Stead, and by the Sacrifice of himfelf has made an Atonement for us, and reconciled us to God, and bath paid a Price and Ranfom forus, and by the Merit of his Death hath purchafed for us Forgivenefs of Sim, and Inheritance a. mong them that arefantlifyed. And I do not know any Do&rine of our Religion, that is founded and eflablilh'd upon more and plainer Texts, which cannot be underflood in any other Senfe, without offering great Violence to the firf' and molt obvious meaning of them. I know the Socinians have framed Evafions to all thefe Texts, which I have not time now to produce and examine; nor would it be worth the while. I Mall only fay this to them in general; that there is no Principle of Religion fo plainly laid down in the whole Scripture, but may be overthrown by the fame or the like Evafions. Suppofe Chrift had died in our ítead, and made Satisfa&ion for Sin, and God had intended to declare fo much ro us ; in what plainer and more exprefs and proper Words could he have done it, than the Scripture hath already done ? If God had faid in the Scripture exprelly, that Chrifi had died in oar Place and Stead, and had fatisfedfor our Sins; thefe very Expreflions, by the fame Arts of Interpretation, might have been (trained and wrefted ro fome other Senfe. So that if God did not intend to exprefs to us by thefe Texts, that Chrift fatisftedfar the Sins of Men, yet they are fo obvious to be interpreted to that Senfe, and fo hardly, if at all, capable of any other, that we cannot ima-, gine, without a great Refle&tion upon the Wifdom of God, that he lhould deli- ver his Mind to Men in Words and Expreftions fo exceedingly liable to a quite different Senfe from what he intended. Befides that there is nothing more un- reafonable than to deny that to be the meaning of Scripture, which it it had been the Meaning, could not have been expreft in plainer and more advantageous Words y efpecially when this is done, not in one or two Texts, but very many; and not by one Form of Expreflien. but feveral, and all inclining to the fame Senfe ; and which is worft of all, this Violence is offferd to Scripture in a Mat- ter which does neither conrradi& other Texts, nor the Realon of Mankind, viz. That one Man fhould fuller in another's Stead, and make Satista.fion for the Crimes and Faults which another bath committed ; fuppofing the Carty offended be willing to accept of the Commutation, and the Party that fullers in another's Stead do voluntarily do it. If. That Chrift only bath merited thefe Bleflings for us, and that he had no Partner with him in this; or there is no other bath merited thefe Bleflings for us, nor can we our felves merit them. t. No other hath merited thefe Bleflings for us. Not to take Notice of what the Papifls fay of the Meritorioufnefs of our Works of Supererogation, which go into the Treafury of the Church, and make up a publick Stockof Merit, to be dif- poled and dealt out by the Pope at his DEfcretion; they 'have by a molt unparal- lell'd Blafphemy joyned the Virgin Mary with Chrift in the Work of our Redemp- tion, and force of them been fo impioufly bold, as to parallel the Virtue of her Milk with the Efficacy of Chrift's Blood. And tho' Chrifl fay, that he trode the Wineprefs of his Father's Wrath alone, and of the People there was none with him; yet Bonaventure in his Meditations ventures to corrupt the Text, by this foolifh Glofs, Nullo: eras tecum. Retie Domine, fed trat tecum femina; right,Lard,tbere was no Man with thee, but there was a Woman, viz. thy Mother. 2. Nor
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