"Preach the Doctrine of Simple Repentance to "Sinners: But in all this thefe Reafoners have "determined, that He did no more than was "His Duty in Thofe Circumstances to do; And, "confequently could Perform no Works of Super-errogation, could have no Over-plus of "Merit to Transfer upon Others, even fuppo"fing there is fuch Transfer poffible in Nature, "which, They fay, there is not; there being "no fort of Relation or Connexion betwixt the "Performances and Sufferings of Chrift and those "of any other Agent, fo as that the One may, "on any Account be Imputed or Applied to "the Other." To this they add,

Thirdly, That "Propitiousness, or a Difpofi"tion to fhew Mercy, is one of the Moral At"tributes of the Deity, and is, like the reft, "What it is in Itfelf; Neither does, or Can It "admit of any Addition or Diminution from any "thing External or Adventitious to It; And, "confequently, the Deity cannot be made more "or lefs Propitious by any thing External to "Him, as, for the Purpofe, by the Righteouf"nefs, Interceffion, Merits of Chrift, &c."

They have alfo fome other Imaginations about the Reason and End of Sacrifices, both the Real one of Chrift, and the Typical ones under the former Difpenfation; about the Lofty and Figurative Expreffions of the other Scriptures of the New Teftament following the Four Gospels, particularly about Those of St. Paul in his Epiftle to the Hebrews; about our Lord's own Account of the Design and End of His Miniftry, to be, as they pretend, a Preacher,

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of Simple Repentance; about the Imagined Excellency and Efficacy of Their precious Doctrine of Simple Repentance to reform the Lives of vicious and evil Men, &c.

To all which it might be fufficient to Answer, by only Denying, every One of thefe Romantic and Profane Affertions, and telling their Forgers or Venders, that, as they have been All taken up upon Truft, fo are they All: Due, and must be repaid upon Demand; and, in a General and Summary Way to return. That,

Whatfoever Abilities Man has given Him as to Thofe Social Duties, It is neither Only, nor Chiefly, the Abuse of Thofe Abilities which does make Him, as is prefumed, Vicious, or Wicked, and the Object of God's Difplea fure; and that, confequently, neither will Repenting or Changing merely from the faid Abuse render Him, on any Occafion, the Object of His Mercy and Forgiveness; That the Suppofition of a Man's rendering Himself the proper Object of God's Mercy and Forgiveness by fimply Undoing, as far as in Him lies, what He has done Wrong, is a vain and prefumptuous Conceit of their own, contrary to all the Rules of Reafon and Justice known and allowed by Mankind: That

God is indeed our common Creator and Father; but not in the Order, nor with the Refpects, which these Men imagine; for that, as we are Fallen Creatures, though He is our Father, yet is He not fo properly and immediately, as He is our Creator, but as He is fince become our Redeemer and Saviour: However, for the prefent, be This as it will, It is not Sophiftically

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flurring in the Term Father under that of Creator, that can Diminish the abfolute Property and fovereign Rights which the Deity hath in us, and over us, by Virtue of those Relations; much less does it prove, that He has nothing to do with us but to Exercife certain Offices of Munificence and Bounty towards us; to diftri bute Portions, and to keep Order among us as Brethren; and that He has no Right to demand any Offices and Duties properly and immediately from us to Himfelf: Leaft of all does it prove, that (if we have committed Crimes properly and immediately against the Deity) He mult Forgive us for Repenting only of our Breach of This, or That, Social or Moral Duty in regard of Men, our Brethren. So, bus

Is it not Their Afferting, that each Man I what He Is in Himself, and the Repentance of cach what It is in Itself; that Propitioufne for a Difpofition to fhew Mercy is one of the Moral Attributes of the Deity, and is, like the Reft, what It is in Itfelf; Nor can This, or Either of the Particulars above, be made other than they are in Themselves by any Thing External or Adventitious to Them: Ifay, It is not Af ferting any of Thefe Points,wthat can prové the leaft Tittle of them; much lefs can fuch Affertions prove, that Simple Repentance must be the only proper Ground for God to pardon Sin ners upon; that God must respect what is Perfo nally Worthy, or Unworthy in Each of His Creatures, nor can be Pleafed, or Displeased with One, for what is Aleafing, or Displeasing, in the Perfon and Actions of Another; And, that for

God

God to be otherwife Pleafed than Thus, for Him to be Propitious to One Agent for the Merits of Another, would be to Cross Nature, to Act upon improper Motives, and would therefore be a Moral Imperfection in the Deity. All this can only prove, that Thefe Difputers do attempt to Limit the Infinite and Omnipotent; that they Talk of God as of one of Themselves; give Him Powers and Rules of Acting taken from Their Powers and Their Rules; and treat of Nature and the Attributes of the Deity, without understanding what That Nature and Thofe Attributes are: Or whether, after all, the Deity has any fuch Moral Attributes as They imagine to be in Him, or not: Nay, whether it be not a moft Impious Derogation from His Real Attributes, to afcribe fuch Imaginary ones to Him. Certainly,

What they say of Chrift being fent to Preach the Doctrine of Repentance; Of His doing no more in Preaching and fetting forward This DoArine, than was His Duty in thofe Circumstances to do: and fo of His having done no Works of Super-erogation, of His having no Over-plus of Merits to Transfer upon Others; and of the Impoffibility in Nature of any fuch Transfer ; All this is both void of Reason, and Borders hard upon Blafphemy: For, what though One of Us cannot make any fuch Transfer of Merits on his Fellow? What fhould hinder but that One of the Divine Persons that Made Us, Taking upon him our Nature, and fo Communicating to Us of His Holy Spirit, may?

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But, Let us confider a little more particularly and fully fome of the Chief of these tended Arguments, from which the Reft will, for the moft Part, be found to follow, and upon them to depend. And,

;

Firft, With Refpect of the Deity, and of His Relation to us as our Creator and Father It is to be faid, as above, that He is not our Creator and Father in the Order, nor with the Refpects which these Men imagine. For, as we are Fallen Creatures, He is indeed our Father, but not properly and immediately as He is our Creator, but as He had Covenanted to be, and is fince become our Gracious Redeemer and Saviour. For, had not the Deity had This Mercy for Man, in the State we had brought ourselves into, through Sin; God, confidered only as our Creator, had not been to us a Father, but an Avenging Judge, and a Confuming Fire. It is of His Covenanted Mercy in Chrift intervening, that He is become our Father that His Mercy is above all His Works; and that He is become chiefly Benevolence and Propitioufnefs to Man, even by Communicating to us the Spirit of His Son, whereby we have now a right to cry---Abba, Father; and not as Propitioufnefs fimply confidered, Propitiousness to His Creatures according to the Perfonal Worthinefs of Each, is one of His Moral Attributes. This kind of Propitioufnefs is neither one of His Moral, nor any other, Attributes. So far from it, that were not the Deity on fome other Account Propitious to Man, than for the Perfonal Worthiness of Each, He fhould in Re

ality