VOL. II. 19
290 A VINDICATION OF
before, that it is impossible to understand any sacred truth savingly and clearly, without the knowledge of the person of Christ; and shall say so still, let this man and his companions say what they will to the contrary : but that in my so saying I exclude the consideration of the revelations which Christ hath made, or that God hath made of himself by Moses and the prophets, and Christ himself, the prin- cipal whereof concern his person, and whence alone we come to know hun, is an assertion becoming the modesty and ingemiity of this author. But hereon he proceeds, and says, that as to the first head he will take notice of those peculiar discoveries of the nature of God of which the world was ignorant before, and of which revelation is wholly silent, but are now clearly and savingly learned from an acquaintance with Christ's person. But what, in the meantime, is become of modesty, truth, and honesty? Do men reckon that there is no account to be given of such falsifications? Is there any one word or tittle in my discourse of any such knowledge of the nature or properties of God as whereof revelation is wholly silent? What doth this man intend? Doth he either not at all understand what I say ; or doth he not care what he says himself? What have I done to him? wherein have I injured him? how have I provoked him, that he should sacrifice his conscience and reputation unto such a revenge? Must he yet hear it again? I never thought, I never owned, I never wrote, that there was any acquaintance to be obtained with any property of the nature of God by the knowledge of the j^erson of Christ, but Aviiat is taught and revealed- in the gospel; from whence alone all knowledge of Christ, his person, and his doctrine, is to be learned. And yet I Avill say again, if we learn not thence to know the Lord Christ, — that is, his person, — we shall never know any thing of God, ourselves, or our duty, clearly and savingly (I use the words again, notwithstand- ing the reflections on them, as more proper in this matter than any used by our author in his eloquent discourse), and as we ought to do. From hence he proceeds unto weak and confused discourses about the knowledge of God and his properties without any knowledge of Christ ; for he not only tells us " what reason we had to believe such and such things of God, if Christ had never appeared in the world," (take care, I pray, that we be thought as little beholden to Him as may be), " but that God's readiness to pardon, and the like, are plainly revealed in the Scripture, without any farther acquaintance Avith the person of Christ," p. 43. What this farther accpaintance with the person of Christ should mean, I do not well understand : it may be, any more acquaintance with respect unto some that is necessary ; — it may be, without any more ado as to an acquaintance with him. And if this be his intention, — as it must be, if there be sense in his words, — that God's readiness to pardon sinners is revealed in the Scrip-
THE PRECEDING DISCOURSE. 291
ture without respect unto the person of Jesus Christ, it is a piece of dull Socinianism ; which, because I have sufficiently confuted else- where, I shall not here farther discover the folly of. [As] for a know- ledge of God's essential properties by the light of nature, it was never denied by me; yea, I have ^vritten and contended for it in another way than can be impeached by such trifling declamations. But yet, with his good leave, I do believe that there is no saving know- ledge of, or acquaintance with God or his properties, to be attained, but in and through Jesus Christ, as revealed unto us in the gospel. And this I can confirm Avith testimonies of the Scripture, fathers, schoolmen, and divines of all sorts, with reasons and arguments, such as I know this author cannot answer. And whatever great appre- hensions he may have of his skill and abilities to know God and his properties by the light of nature, now that he neither knows nor is able to distinguish what he learns from thence, and what he hath imbibed in his education from an emanation of divine revelation ; yet I be- lieve there were as wise men as himself amongst those ancient philo- sophers, concerning whom and their inquiries into the nature of God our apostle pronounces those censures, Eom. i. ; 1 Cor. i.
But on this goodly foundation he proceeds unto a particular infer- ence, p. 44, saying, " And is not this a confident man, to tell us that the love of God to sinners, and his pardoning mercy, could never have entered into the heart of man but by Christ, when the expe- rience of the whole world confutes him? For, whatever becomes of his new theories, both Jews and heathens, who understood nothing at all of what Christ was to do in order to our recovery, did believe God to be gracious and merciful to sinners, and had reason to do so ; because God himself had assured the Jews that he was a gracious and merciful God, pardoning iniquity, transgressions, and sins. And those natural notions heathens had of God, and all those discoveries God had made of himself in the works of creation and providence, did assure them that God is very good : and it is not possible to un- derstand what goodness is, without pardoning grace."