AN ANSWER TO THE Discourse OF Mr. WILLIAM SHERLOCK TOUCHING The Knowledge of Christ and our Union and Communion with Him By EDWARD POLHILL of Burwash in Sussex Esquire LONDON Printed for Ben. Foster and are to be sold by most Book-sellers in London MDCLXXV TO THE READER IN that excellent Piece the Soul of Man which is too great for this lower World and in the very Frame of it aspires after an Infinite Good the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or uppermost Room is the Vnderstanding and among all the Truths which are the Furniture thereof none are so rich as those Theological ones which are drawn out of the Golden Mines of Scripture Arts and Sciences are in comparison but the Poor of the Mind the Riches and Treasures of Knowledge lie in Evangelical Mysteries these out-shine the Sun and out-weigh the Earth They have the highest Certainty as coming down immediately from heaven and withall the noblest Tendency as leading us thither Infinite Truth is the Fountain and infinite Goodness the Center of them These when in their Lustre make a spiritual Day and derive such a pure Influence upon the Hearts and Lives of Men as moulds them into the Divine Image and thereby makes them meet for the bliss-making Vision in Heaven No sooner can these be under an Eclipse but there will be a Night and a Chaos of confusions the Path of Life and Happiness will be wrapt up in darkness black Legions of Errors and Corruptions will creep forth and pious Souls will wish for the day I mean for a fresh Illustration of Truths from that sacred Spirit which at first breahed them out into the World and after all the Clouds and dark Veils put upon them can bring them forth in their Oriency and true Glory These to Believers are as Pearls and sacred Jewels dearer than the Apple of their Eye nay than their own Souls They build upon them by Faith espouse them by divine Love lay them up in a pure Conscience distil the Vertue of them into a holy Life and if it were possible they would have none of the sacred Light put out nor the least Jot or Tittle of those Truths fall to the ground O what a rate did the famous St. Austin and others set upon God's special Effectual Grace How highly did the heroical Luther value the Point of Justification Jacente articulo Justificationis jacent omnia saith he as if a Christians All were in it When such Truths are violated Christians how meek soever in other things must earnestly contend and not give place no not for an hour here if ever Luther's pia sancta pertinacia is in season Not to stay any longer on the excellencies and great Concerns of Evangelical Truths which no tongue of Men or Angels is able fully to express I shall now speak a little touching Mr. Sherlock's Book When I read it I thought my self in a new Theological World Believers appearing without their Head for want of a Mystical Vnion strip'd and naked for lack of imputed Righteousness the full treasures of Grace in Christ which have supplied all the vessels of faith emptied out of sacred his person transfused into the doctrine of the Gospel as if according to Pelagius all Grace were in doctrine only The holy Spirit the great Origen of Graces and Comforts in its Illumination seems to be superfluous in its Testimony to Believers an Enthusiastical Fancy and in the work of Regeneration if any at most but a partial co-Co-cause parting stakes with the Will of Man Faith in Abel and Enoch lying as low as Natural Principles in Noah and Abraham raised up a little to particular Revelations but not so high as the Messiah In Christians standing off and at a distance from Christ its dear Object not daring to lay hold on or so much as touch him to draw any Vertue from thence As if Socinus had hit it right when he said Christi apprehensio merum commentum inanissimum somnium est The immutable Love of God the only Cement of the Church seems to be turned off from Persons to Qualities and towards Persons to be as variable as the fickle Will of Man is and yet he is immutable still he loves for the same Reason or as Socinus saith Non sine causa mutat The Pontifician Thesis touching Justification by inherent Righteousness seems to be revived a fresh and that in a way less tolerable than among the Romanists They though they would have inherent Righteousness come in for a share yet allow the Imputation of Christs passive Obedience but in the New Scheme inherent Righteousness takes up all the room and leaves none for imputed The Drollery and sarcastical Reflections in the Book are but the Cover of it within there is a dark Eclipse upon many excellent Truths which hitherto have been owned in the Churches of Christ and particularly in our own Among other Truths none have had a greater share of suffering than those two touching our Mystical Vnion with Christ and the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness to us both which are to me very momentous The Mystical Vnion hath I suppose been generally received in the Church Indeed Gregory de Valentia once cavilled at it as if it were Mysterium Calvinisticum and yet he seems to own it when he saith Animum nostrum posse per fidem corpus Christi etiam ut in coelo existens atque adeo ut est extra Sacramentum manducare He that denies the Mystical Vnion cannot hold the head Jesus Christ from which all the body by joynts and bands hath nourishment ministred Col. 2.19 Take away that Vnion and Christ is a Head of no Influence the Joynts and the Bands which were made to convey divine Nutriture from him are but empty Titles and signifie no more than those Conduit-pipes do which are severed from the Fountain Again he that denies the Mystical Vnion must lose that piece of his Creed the Communion of Saints their Communion among themselves primarily depends on their Vnion with Christ the Head from whom the whole body is fitly joyned together and compacted as the Apostle tells us Eph. 4.16 All the Harmonies in the Body Mystical hang on its Vnion with the Head without this Believers could have no Communion one with another save in this only that they must all die one common death hy being severed from their Head The living Stones once off from their Foundation can hang no longer together in the spiritual Building but must totter down into a Chaos of Confusion Moreover he that denies the mystical Vnion must turn off the Believer from his true standing according to the Gospel the Believer is a man in Christ he is built on him as on a Foundation he subsists in him as the Branches do in the Vine he hath vital Influences from him as the Members have from the Head he is acted by his divine Spirit in all the pure ways to heaven and all this is his security his
neither without the imputation of these we cannot be entitled to them to our Justification Now that Faith justifies not absolutely and as our Act may appear In Justification there is a judicial proceeding and we must answer to something to the Gospel only or to the Law also if to the Gospel only then Evangelical Justification is in a way frustrative and not perfective of the Law there needeth only Faith to answer the Gospel and not perfect Righteousness to answer the Law But what saith the Apostle to this Having concluded Justification to be by Faith Rom. 3.30 he immediatly adds Do we then make void the Law through faith God forbid yea we establish the Law ver 31. And how is this That Faith which answers to the Gospel receives that perfect Righteousness of Christ which answers the Law in every point Christ being the end of the Law for righteousness to every one that believeth as we have it Rom. 10. Without this it is not at all imaginable how Faith or Justification by it should establish or complete the Law our sincere Obedience which flows from Faith can no more do it than imperfection can reach perfection Again if to the Gospel only then all the Pagans must needs be justified for they have nothing to answer unto not to the Gospel that is not reveiled to them not to the Law of Nature that is but the relicts and broken pieces of the Moral Law And if Christians who have the Moral Law in its entire perfection are not to answer to it then surely Pagans who have only some little Fragments of it need not answer thereunto and by consequence they must be recti in Curia before God But if as of necessity we must we must answer to the Law also then Faith as it is in it self and our Act cannot possibly justifie it being but a piece of the Law and that imperfect God who judgeth according to truth will not esteem those perfectly righteous who are not so indeed nor accept of a partial Righteousness for a total one If reply be made This is true when God judgeth Judicio Justitiae but not when he judges Judicio Misericordiae he in his condescending Mercy accepts of Faith in the room of total perfect Righteousness I answer this cannot possibly stand God's Mercy and Truth are never at variance his Truth will not esteem us righteous upon account of a partial imperfect righteousness and his Mercy will not condescend so far as to interfere with his Truth But when he esteems us righteous upon account of a perfect Righteousness which is not our own but Christ's then Truth and Mercy both shine forth Truth in that there is a perfect Righteousness to answer the Law and Mercy in that it is not our own but our Sureties But further If Faith be taken for a perfect Righteousness then it is lifted up into the room of Christ and his Righteousness If you say no Christ's Righteousness is the foundation of this acceptance of Faith I answer Then will it follow that Christ died not so much for Persons to justifie them as for Graces to elevate Faith above it self into the estimation of a perfect Righteousness and withal that Faith is our proper Righteousness in an immediate formal way and Christ but a remote Cause only much after the same rate as the Papists say Bona opera tincta sanguine Christi justificant Works are made the immediate Cause of Justification and Christ the remote Moreover it is to be remembred that nothing can be Instrumentum instrumentatum the Artificers Tools are not the House he makes the Hysops sprinkling of Blood in the Jewish Sacrifices was not the Blood of Christ Faith is not our Righteousness but the Medium to it Hence Phil. 3.9 we read of righteousness by faith it is not it self our Righteousness but a means to it Thus it appears that Faith in it self and as our Act justifies not therefore it justifies as it is that Evangelical Medium which receives Christ and his perfect Righteousness Thus the Reverend Hooker Faith is the only hand which putteth on Christ to Justification and Christ the only Garment which being so put on covereth the shame of our defiled Natures hideth the imperfection of our Works preserveth us blameless in the sight of God before whom otherwise the weakness of our Faith were cause sufficient to make us culpable yea to shut us from the Kingdom of Heaven where nothing that is not absolute can enter Thus our Church 2. Hom. of salvation The true understanding of this Doctrine That we are justified by Faith in Christ is not that this our own Act to believe in Christ which is within us doth justifie us and deserve our Justification for that were to count our selves justified by some Act or Vertue that is in our selves And in another place This Righteousness 1. Hom. of salvation which we receive of Gods Mercy and Christs Merits embraced by Faith is accepted by God for our perfect Justification But this is past all doubt Mr. Sherlock when it is confirmed by a Metaphor or two A Ring which hath a precious Stone in it which will stanch blood may be said to stanch it but the Virtue lies in the Stone Faith is the Ring Christ the precious stone all that Faith doth is to bring home Christs Merits to the Soul and so it justifies an invention I never met with before And again In the Body are Veins that suck nourishment from the Stomach Faith is a sucking Vein that draws Virtue from Christ Is not this plain that we are saved by Christ as the Body is nourished by the Stomach That of the Ring is no new or absurd invention Answer it was many years since used by Dr. Pomeran Melch. Ad. in Vita Georg. Anhalt in these words Vt Annulus magnò estimatur amatur propter gemmam non propter aurum sic dicitur fide justificari homines propter gemmam Filium Dei hanc autem gemmam fide amplectimur With this Similitude George Prince of Anhalt was much delighted Neither need the Author have found fault with that other Similitude of a sucking Vein all spiritual nourishment is drawn from Christ and that by Faith Now to make all clear Mr. Sherlock we may give a Philosophical Account why God chose Faith to be the Instrument of our Justification Because it is an humble Grace and gives the Glory of all to Free Grace If Repentance should fetch Justification from Christ a man would be ready to say This was for my Tears strange deserving Creatures these who can dream of meriting Heaven with a few tears But Faith is humble it is an empty Hand and what merit can there be in that Doth the poor man's reaching out his hand merit an Alms yes just as much as a few tears merit Heaven Faith is only a golden Bucket that draws water out of the Well of Salvation But why may not
absurdius aut iniquius dici potuerit quà mjure alicui posse aliena peccata imputari I see nothing saith he more absurd or unequal than that the sins of one man should be imputed to another Yet for all this our Divines do maintain that our sins were imputed to Christ and indeed there can be no Satisfaction without it The Author here complains that Christ should be a Surety to fulfil all Righteousness for us and so that Righteousness should be imputed to us but if the sin of one man may be imputed to another why not his Righteousness The Apostle argues from the Imputation of Adam's Sin to the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness As by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men to justification of life As by one mans disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous Rom. 5.18 19. What can be more express if our Reason would submit to it Bishop Davenant tells us that De justit habit cap. 28. Christus Sponsor pro nobis factus nostro nomine non modò subivit perpessionem Crucis sed impletionem Legis Christ not as our Proxy but as our Surety did in our name not only undergo the sufferings of the Cross but took on him the impletion of the Law But saith the Author Righteousness is a personal thing to be performed by our selves I answer What Christ performed for us was not performable by our selves in our lapsed estate he fulfilled all Righteousness for us to the very highest pitch of the Law in order to our Justification and that we could not reach in our own persons and that sincere Obedience which we pay in our own persons doth not fully answer the Law and so appertains not to our Justification but Sanctification And this I take to be the Method of Salvation which God hath chalked out to us It 's true the Author urges That the Righteousness of another can never be our personal Righteousness But though it cannot be ours by Inhesion yet it may by Imputation it was only in Christ's Person yet may be reckoned or accounted to us in Justification or else I cannot tell how the Blood of Christ which cleanses away all sin should ever be ours that was not inherent in us and if it become ours it must be by Imputation If we own not the Imputation of Christs Passive Obedience we cannot own that Christ gave himself for us as a Ransom or a Sacrifice and if we own the Imputation of his Passive Obedience we must also own the Imputation of his Active for there was not to say a tincture but a great and high measure of Active Obedience in his Passion and if his Passion in its entirety and complete perfection be imputed to us his Active Obedience must be imputed to us also But now let us consider Mr. Sherlock whether in Law the Debtor and Surety are one person no considering man can think it indifferent who pays the debt the Surety or the Debtor or that they are both equally obliged to it the Debtor is the immediate Debtor still and the Surety only obliged in case of default the Law doth not account it indifferent which of them pay it For though it permit the payment to be exacted from the Surety in case the Debtor refuse yet it will look back again and allow the surety an action against the debtor for such a refusal which is an Argument that the Law doth not judge them one person Thus it is in bail the Law doth not judge them one person for if the prisoner escape the bail or surety shall be punished according to the nature of the fact and yet the prisoner is not quitted by this means but liable either to the arrest of the Surety or in Criminal Causes to the Sentence of the Law if ever he be retaken Thus in Sureties for good behaviour which sounds as if it were nearest a kin to the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness as our Surety though the Surety be never so innocent and virtuous this will not serve him for whom he is Surety but if he prove a Villain they shall be both punish'd So that humane Laws are strangers to this Mystery of imputing the Righteousness of a Surety to a bad man Suretiship doth not so unite their Persons that whatever one doth is always and to all purposes imputed to the other And if this will not hold good among men it is a very sorry foundation for this bargain and exchange betwixt Christ and Believers that he should take their sins upon himself and impute his Righteousness to them All this runs upon a mistake Answer that Christ cannot be a Surety unless he be such after the manner of men the Suretyship of Christ is not to be measured by humane Laws unto which because variant among themselves no less I suppose in points of Suretyship than in other things it cannot possibly correspond but it is to be measured by the holy Scriptures which set forth his undertaking and satisfying our debts in a way of superlative Excellency above all the Sureties in the world Among men notwithstanding the Surety the Debtor is Debtor still But Christ hath as our Surety made such a plenary Satisfaction on our behalf that if we receive him by Faith we are Debtors no longer all our debts are crossed and blotted out of Gods Book Among men the Surety having made payment may have his Action against the Debtor and ordinarily he seeks to reimburse himself But our heavenly Surety seeks no such matter he knows that all the Creatures in Heaven and Earth are not able to repay him what he hath laid down for us neither if they could doth he desire it but on the contrary he woes and beseechs men to come in to him that their Debts may not be charged on them by the Law for want of imbracing the Gospel If upon the escape of the Prisoner the Bail be punished yet is not the Prisoner quitted But our Surety Christ did not suffer as a Bail doth upon escape upon accident or contingency but upon absolute and irrevocable certainty such as could not be avoided and he suffered so in our room and stead and his Satisfaction is so far reckoned or imputed to us that upon our believing there is not there cannot be any condemnation to us or satisfaction required of us for ever In Suretiship for the Behaviour the Virtues of the Surety are not accounted to him for whom he is Surety But the Payment and Satisfaction of Christ our Surety is upon Gospel-terms so imputed and made over to us that the Law or Justice of God cannot demand a second Payment and Satisfaction from us Hence it appears that Christ and we are one person in Law that his Payment and Satisfaction is reckoned as ours And what matters it if humane Laws are strangers to imputed