Section 2

1. This Doctrine, which I have now mentioned, of the Restoration of Believers in Jesus Christ to the Favour of God, by the atoning Sacrifice and Obedience of Christ, and the renewing of sinful Men to God's Image by the Work of the Holy Spirit, and thereby bringing them to eternal Life, is the very Gospel of Christ, because it is the very Labour and Business, the chief Scope, Aim and Design of the great Apostle of the Gentiles, in those of his Epistles where he sets himself professedly to explain the Gospel; and this is what he takes frequent Occasion also to bring into all his Writings. It is his perpetual Labour to instruct the Jews and Gentiles in these glorious and unknown Truths: He uses various Forms of Speech to explain them to their Understandings; for I desire, saith he, and determine to know nothing among you but Jesus Christ, and him crucified, that is nothing like it; nothing in Comparison with it. It is the Cross of Christ, that is and must be the great Subject of my Ministry; this is what I am sent to preach, for it is the Power of God, and the Wisdom of God, for the Salvation of Men. Romans 1:16. 1 Corinthians 1:24. and 2:2.

You find his Letters to the Churches full of such Expressions as these, Christ died for our Sins. He gave himself for us to redeem us from all Iniquity. We have Redemption through his Blood. God was in Christ reconciling the World to himself, not imputing their Trespasses to them. He was made Sin, and a Curse for us. He is our Propitiation, and Atonement. He appeared to put away Sin by the Sacrifice of himself. When we were Enemies we were reconciled to God by his Death. He made Peace by the Blood of his Cross. He was delivered for our Offences, and raised again for our Justification. By the Righteousness of one Man the free Gift came upon all Men to Justification of Life. By the Obedience of one, shall many be made Righteous; and we are justified by Faith in him. He teaches us also the Offices of the Holy Spirit. We have Access to God through his Spirit. We are purified and sanctified by the Spirit. It is by the Spirit of Christ that we are to mortify the Deeds of the Flesh. We are led by the Spirit; and we are taught to understand this Gospel by the Spirit which he hath given us. We are sealed by this Spirit unto the Day of Redemption. The Spirit dwelling in us is a Pledge and Earnest of our Inheritance in Heaven. Romans 8:13. Ephesians 2:18. and 3:16. and 4:23. 2 Thessalonians 2:13, et cetera.

Now these Expressions of his are to be understood in the common Sense and Meaning of the Words, and not as far-fetched Metaphors; for it is evident, that in all this he does not affect the Arts of Oratory, nor assume a magnificent Air, of Writing, nor does he raise himself into Sublimities of Style, nor rove in an Enthusiastic Way, when he treats of these Subjects; but while he is explaining to us these great Things of the Gospel, he avoids the Wisdom of Words and Oratory, and he talks in a plain, rational, and argumentative Method to inform the Minds of Men, and give them the clearest Knowledge of the Truth.

Surely a Person that was sent of God to preach and write the Gospel for the Use of all Nations and future Ages, and even for the ignorant and uninstructed Barbarians, would not have expressed himself in this sort of Language, if he meant no more by it than the Socinians do by the Gospel of Christ; that is, that the Lord Jesus Christ was a very great Man, but a mere Man still; he was a Prophet ordained of God to preach up Holiness in greater Degrees than it had been before preached, to settle some Points which were left a little doubtful by the Light of Nature, to assure us that God would be reconciled to Man, and forgive him, if Man repented and was sorry for his Sins, and lived as well as he could for time to come; and that for the Sake of the Prayers of Christ, who was so very pious, so very religious and so very heavenly a Person, and so submissive in his Sufferings to the Will of God, he would favour the Penitent among Mankind with some Blessings and Comforts in this World, and eternal Life in the World above. Then when he had preached this Doctrine to the World, he suffered the Death of the Cross, to bear witness to the Truth of it, and sealed it with his Blood, and rose again for a further Confirmation of the same Doctrine. Now if this were all the meaning of the Gospel of Christ, Saint Paul would never have preached it in such Language as he did. We must suppose him to be a very inaccurate Writer, a most unintelligible Preacher and a most unfit Man to be made an Apostle, and be sent to instruct the ignorant World, if he had expressed himself in such mysterious, figurative, and strange Phrases, and all this while had meant no more by them than what the Socinians mean by their Gospel.

Can we think God would have employed such an Instrument as this was, whose Way of Talking would have rather deceived Multitudes than informed them of the Truth, would have led them into the Dark rather than have given them Light, would have filled their Heads with mysterious Words without Ideas, and instead of leading them into the Way of Salvation, would have left them in bewildered Thoughts about the Doctrines and Duties of it with so much Entanglement and Confusion?

Here I might add also, that the holy Apostle not only instructs his own Countrymen the Jews, and the Gentile Strangers in this divine Doctrine, and teaches them to build their Hopes of Salvation upon it; but he ventures his own Soul, his immortal Concerns, and his everlasting Hopes upon the same Foundation. He glories in the Cross of Christ, he has committed his All into his Hands till the great Judgment Day; he lives by the Faith of the Son of God, who loved me, saith he, and gave himself for me, Galatians 6:14. 2 Timothy 1:12. Galatians 2:20. It is the Pleasure of his Tongue, it is the Joy of his Pen, it is the Delight and the Life of his Spirit to talk of those Things: He hangs upon this Subject, and knows not how to leave it; his very Heart and Soul is in it, and he abandons all Things for the Sake of this Knowledge. He despises the former Privileges of his Birth, of his Learning, of the Jewish Prerogatives and Rites. He renounces all his Legal and Ceremonial Perfection, and all his Honour amongst the Priests and the Pharisees in Comparison of this. What Things were Gain to me, says he, those I count Loss for Christ: Yea, doubtless, and I count all Things but Loss for the Excellency of the Knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the Loss of all Things, and do count them but Dung that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having mine own Righteousness, which is of the Law, but that which is through the Faith of Christ, the Righteousness which is of God by Faith; that I may know him and the Power of his Resurrection, and the Fellowship of his Sufferings, being made conformable unto his Death, Philippians 3:7, et cetera.

Nor is the Apostle Paul singular in this Respect, or different in his Sentiments from the other Apostles. You find Peter and John saying the same Things in their Epistles; and they take every Occasion to publish the same Gospel and the same Promises and Hopes of Salvation by the Death and Sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the enlightening and sanctifying Operations of the same Spirit. It would be endless to cite all the Proofs of this. Now, it is not to be supposed that the three chief Writers among the Apostles should all conspire to talk in the same mysterious and unintelligible Language, so widely different from the common and obvious Sense and Meaning of their Words, if they intended no more by them than the Socinians mean by their Gospel, which is very little different from the Way of Salvation that the Deist proposes, while they deny the Satisfaction of Christ, and his real and proper Atonement for Sin, and the powerful sanctifying Influences of the Holy Spirit.

2. As this Gospel of Christ which we have described, was the Labour of the Apostle's Ministry, and the Design of the Revelation of the New Testament, so it is this Gospel which is often hinted and prophesied in the Old Testament also, and typified by the Ceremonies of the Jewish Religion. Now these Prophecies could not have been fulfilled, nor these Types answered and accomplished without such a Gospel as I have explained.

The Prophecies of the Old Testament are various and many: Some of the clearest of those which relate to the Sufferings and Atonement of Christ, and to our Justification by him, are expressed by Daniel, Isaiah and Jeremiah. By Daniel we are told that the Messiah shall be cut off, but not for himself, and the Design of this is to finish Transgression, to make an End of Sin, to make Reconciliation for Iniquities, and to bring in everlasting Righteousness, Daniel 9:24, 26. Isaiah speaks the same thing more largely, Christ was wounded for our Transgressions. He was bruised for our Iniquities. The Chastisement of our Peace was upon him, and by his Stripes we are healed. We like Sheep have gone astray, and the Lord hath laid on him the Iniquity of us all. It pleased the Lord to bruise him and put him to Grief, and to make his Soul an Offering for Sin. By the Knowledge of him shall he justify many, for he shall bear their Iniquities. How exceeding plain and strong is this Language to support this Doctrine. Isaiah 53:5, 6, 10, 11. In the Lord shall we have Righteousness and Strength: In the Lord shall all the Seed of Israel be justified and shall glory, Isaiah 45:24, 25. And the Prophet Jeremiah expressly calls Christ the Lord our Righteousness, Jeremiah 23:6.

The Promise of Sanctification by the Spirit of God, is given us in Ezekiel 36:26, 27. A new Heart will I give you, and a new Spirit will I put within you; I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my Statutes, and ye shall be my People and I will be your God.

This sort of Language is repeated Chapter 11:19. and Jeremiah 32:39, 40. Jeremiah 31:31, 32, et cetera, which is cited by the Apostle Paul in his Epistles to the Hebrews, and to the Corinthians, as the Language of the Gospel, or the new Covenant. Now it is manifest enough, that all these Expressions of glorious Grace, and of the Method of our Reconciliation to God, our Sanctification and Salvation could never be answered and accomplished without such a Gospel of Christ as we have described.

The Rites and Ceremonies of the Jewish Church speak the same thing, if we consider them as Types and Figures of the Gospel-state. I will grant indeed that many of those Ceremonies had also some other Intendments (namely) to distinguish the Nation of Israel and their Religion, from the Gentile World, and the fantastical Inventions of Pagan Worship: To keep them in Subjection to God as their political Head or King: Several of their Sacrifices and Methods of Purification were appointed to cleanse them from ceremonial Defilements, and to atone for Civil or Political Crimes, whereby they were admitted to their Civil Rights again, and their Place in the Congregation, when they had done any thing to forfeit them.

But it is evident by the Writings of the Apostle Paul, in 2 Corinthians Chapter 3. Galatians Chapter 4. Colossians Chapter 2. Hebrews Chapter 7, 8, 9, 10. that the great End of these Jewish ceremonial Appointments was to stand as Types and Figures of things under the Gospel, and Emblems of the various Offices and Benefits of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now in this figurative or Emblematical Sense, what did all the Sacrifices and the Blood mean, the burning Beasts and the smoking Altars, whereby the Jews made a typical Atonement for their Sins? What were they Types of, what did they represent, if not the Sacrifice of Christ? And what means the sprinkling all the People with the Blood of Animals, if these things did not typify and represent our being cleansed by the Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is therefore called the Blood of sprinkling, and which is the only real and substantial Atonement for Sin? What meant their laying the Hand upon the Goat that was to bear their Iniquities, and the Confession of the Sins of all Israel over his Head, if they did not design to foretell the transferring of the Sins of Men upon the Head of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Surety and the Sacrifice for Sinners? What did the Washings of Water imply, but the pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon sinful Men, and the Purification of their Natures by Divine Grace? Why did that glorious and divine Light dwell in the Tabernacle and in the Temple, and between the Cherubims in the Holy of Holies, if it were not an Emblem of the Fullness of the Godhead dwelling bodily in the Man Christ Jesus, in and by whom God was to converse visibly with the Children of Men? Can any Man be so absurd as to believe, in Opposition to so many Expressions of the Apostle in his Letters, that these Sprinklings of Water and of Blood, these bleeding Lambs and burning Goats and Bullocks, these Veils, Curtains and Tabernacles served for nothing else but to wrap up the Duties of the Light of Nature in them, and to explain (or rather to darken) the common Truths of natural Religion? And yet the Apostle tells us in several Places, that these were Types or Figures of the Gospel of Christ. Surely every Shadow bore the Shape and Figure of the Substance: Every Veil and Covering was fitted to the Body. All these were but Shadows, but Christ is the Substance or the Body, and the Shape of the Body appeared therein to those that had divine Light to discern it, and especially to us, whom Saint Paul has taught to understand many of these Mysteries.

Those therefore who impoverish the Gospel of Christ, as some Writers have done, and deny those glorious Doctrines that are included in it, they deny that Gospel which was foretold by the Prophets, that Gospel which was hidden in the Jewish Shadows, and they refuse to see it, though it be now broken forth into open Light.

3. The Gospel of Christ must needs be such a Doctrine as we have before described, it must needs be so far superior to all the Dictates of the Light of Nature, and to deserve those glorious Characters which the Apostle frequently gives it, (namely) That it is the Wisdom of God in a Mystery, 1 Corinthians 2:7. The great Mystery of Godliness, 1 Timothy 3:16. Colossians 1:26. A Mystery hidden from Ages and Generations, Ephesians 3:3, 5. The Mystery which in other Ages was not made known unto the Sons of Men. Romans 16:25. The Mystery that was kept secret since the World began, hidden in God himself, Ephesians 3:9. And is hid from the Wise and Prudent of this World, Matthew 11:25. It is made up of the deep things of God, 1 Corinthians 2 last verse. And derived from the Depths of his Wisdom and Knowledge, Romans 11:33. It is the manifold Wisdom of God, which was made known to Principalities and Powers by the Church, Ephesians 3:10. which things the Angels desire to pry into, 1 Peter 1:12. In this he hath abounded toward us in all Wisdom and Prudence, Ephesians 1:8. And it contains the unsearchable Riches of Christ, Ephesians 3:8. And Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge, Colossians 2:3.

Now such sort of Descriptions as these are very applicable to the Doctrine of the Son of God, who is also one with the Father, and who is God blessed for evermore, coming down to join himself to Flesh and Blood that he might be able to die in the room and stead of sinful Men, and that this glorious Person, by whom the Worlds were made, and all the Hosts of Men and Angels, Colossians 1:15. That he should be made a Sacrifice for our Sins, that God might declare his unspotted Holiness, or Righteousness, his terrible Justice, and his unchangeable hatred of Sin, even while he forgives Sinners, and justifies those that believe in Jesus, Romans 3:24, 25. And that this Lord Jesus in human Nature should rise from the Dead, ascend to Heaven, be exalted to the Government of all things visible and invisible, Ephesians 1:22, 23. Should send his Spirit down to work Faith, Repentance and Holiness in all his chosen and redeemed ones, and carry them through a thousand Temptations and Difficulties, and through Death itself to Heaven and Glory. This is the Doctrine that human Reason could never have found out, and has much ado to be persuaded to receive it now it is manifested in the New Testament. These are Wonders of unsearchable Wisdom, and an Entertainment for prying Angels.

But if the Gospel of Christ signify no more than the mere Promise of Pardon to those that Repent of their Sins, and believe Jesus Christ to be a true Prophet, and follow the Example and Commands of Christ, who has explained and confirmed the Light of Nature, what is there in this that deserves such a Catalogue of glorious Titles as the Apostle bestows upon this Gospel? There is no such great and deep Contrivance, such astonishing Wisdom in such a Covenant of Grace, as does nothing else but abate the severe and rigid Terms of the Covenant of Works, and make Repentance and imperfect Obedience to serve instead of perfect Obedience, in order to obtain Pardon and Happiness.

I confess there was need of some divine Revelation to assure us that God would accept of our Repentances and our honest Endeavors, when in his Law he demands Perfection. But this any common Prophet might have done, being sent of God and supported by Miracles, as Elijah and Elisha were. And when once this Doctrine was thus plainly revealed, there would be no great Difficulty to persuade Men to receive it, there are no such sublime Mysteries and Depths of Wisdom and Knowledge contained in it; nor does it need any extraordinary Genius, much less Divine Wisdom itself, to have been the Inventor of it.

But far be it from us to have such a diminishing Thought of the glorious Gospel of Christ.

4. Another Reason that I shall give to prove that the Gospel of Christ is such a Doctrine as I have before described, is the Opinion both of the Jews and Gentiles concerning it, and the Treatment that it met with both in Judea and amongst the Nations.

It was counted Foolishness by the Greeks, or the learned Heathens, and it was a Stone of stumbling to the Jews. We preach Christ crucified to the Jews a stumbling Block, and to the Greeks Foolishness, 1 Corinthians 1:23. Whereas if the Doctrine of Christ crucified had implied no more in it than this, that Jesus by his Death and Martyrdom on the Cross, bore a Testimony to the Truth of the Doctrine which he preached, and that Doctrine was nothing else but a Discovery of God's Readiness to accept of Sinners that repented and obeyed him, as well as they could, out of his mere Mercy; the Jews could never have been so much shocked or offended at it, for they believed as much as this long before Saint Paul ever preached: Nor could the learned Greeks have counted that Doctrine Folly which the wisest of their Philosophers seemed to understand and teach. This sort of Gospel would have been so little different from what the Light of Nature might lead them probably to expect and hope for, that surely they would not have endeavored to expose it and ridicule it, but rather they would have fallen in with Saint Paul's Sermons, as being agreeable to many of their Sentiments. That Gospel therefore which both the Jews and the Greeks were so much offended with, that they reproached it as Madness and Folly, must be something strange to their Ears, and exceedingly different from their own Opinions.

5. I may add also at last, that if Saint Paul had meant no more by the Gospel of Christ than this, that God was willing to be reconciled to Mankind, if they would repent of their Sins, and be sorry for them, and lived as well as they could for Time to come, there had been very little Reason for him to speak of his Courage in preaching it so often as he does, and that with such an Emphasis, Romans 1:16. I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the Power of God unto Salvation; and he repeats it again. 2 Timothy 1:12. and encourages young Timothy to preach the same Gospel, with Boldness, and not be ashamed of Christ, nor his Ministers. He counts it a great thing, that he could glory in the Cross of Christ, Galatians 6:14. and in his Doctrine of Christ crucified, and is resolved to spread the Savor of it round the World. I am not ashamed of this Gospel, I am ready to preach it among the Jews or the Barbarians, or in the City of Rome itself. Romans 1:15. Now if he had preached nothing but the Socinian Gospel, there was nothing in it that would have exposed him to much Shame and Reproach for the Hopes of Forgiveness, upon mere Repentance; and the Enforcement of the Duties of Natural Religion, with a little Illustration and Advance upon them, was much like the Gospel or Doctrine of the wisest of the Heathen Philosophers, that he had almost been esteemed one of those wise Men, and rather treated with Honor amongst them at Athens, and in other Gentile Cities, and not been reproached as a setter forth of strange Gods, and called a Babbler for his Preaching of such sort of Doctrines.

But when the Apostle preaches the Son of God in the Likeness of Man, that came down from Heaven, not to set up a Throne in the World, and rule personally over the Nations, but to be exposed to Shame and Pain, to be nailed to a Cross, and have a Crown of Thorns put upon him, and endure all these Sufferings for the Sins of Mankind: When he tells the Heathen World of a Man that was hanged upon a Tree at Jerusalem, and assures them, that his Death is the Foundation and Spring of Eternal Life, to all that believe on him; when he preaches, that the Lord of Glory was crucified, 1 Corinthians 2:8. That so the worst sort of Sinners might be saved, and that he who knew no Sin was made a Sacrifice for our Sins, that we might stand Righteous in the Sight of God through his Righteousness, 2 Corinthians 5:21. This was something that sounded so strange in the Ears of the Heathens, and the blinded Jews too, that they multiplied Reproaches upon the Sermons and the Preacher. And Saint Paul thought it a considerable Point gained, when he could assume such a Degree of Courage as to be able to say, I dare preach amongst the Gentiles, the Jews, the Pharisees and the Philosophers at Jerusalem, and at Rome such a Gospel as this is; for I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ. This is an Argument which, in my Opinion, carries much Evidence with it, that the Gospel of Christ is such a Doctrine as I have before described.

But here is a considerable Objection arises against this Description of the Gospel. How can the Atonement for Sin by the Death of Christ be so considerable a Part of the Gospel, when Christ himself, the great Prophet of his Church spoke so seldom and so very little of it during the whole Course of his Ministry? Surely one would think so important a Part of the Christian Doctrine should not have been neglected by Christ himself.