nor others may think themselves imposed upon I shall represent his apprehensions of it in his own words Those Metaphors says he which describe the Relation and Union betwixt Christ and Christians do primarily refer to the Christian Church not to every individual Christian The Union of particular Christians to Christ is by means of their Union to the Christian Church The Church is the Body of Christ and every Christian by being United to this Body becomes a Member of Christ. The Union of particular Christians to Christ consists in their Union to the Christian Church and our Union with the Christian Church is the Medium of our Union to Christ. Those Phrases and Metaphors which represent our Union with Christ signify our visible Society with the Christian Church and our sincere practice of the Christian Religion Now this Union says he between Christ and the Christian Church is a Political Union that is such an Union as is between a Prince and his Subjects Christ is a Spiritual King and all Christians are his Subjects and our Union to Christ consists in our Belief of his Revelations Obedience to his Laws and Subjection to his Authority Fellowship and Communion with God according to the Scripture Notion signifies what we call a Political Union that is that to be in Fellowship with God and Christ signifies to be of that Society which puts us into a peculiar Relation to God This is the account that Mr. Sherlock is pleased to afford us concerning the Union of Believers to Christ and were this a true report and description of it it ceaseth to be Mysterious nor needs the perfect knowledge of it be reserved to the next world or the coming of Elias that I may again usurp our Authors phrase He seems very careful that there should be nothing left Mysteririous in the Christian Religion nor doth the Term Mystical please him being as he tells us a hard word Only I wish that under pretence of wariness and caution there be not any thing in the Gospel acknowledged of arduous conception he did not lay a foundation of going soberly to destroy Christianity Now in the examining Mr. Sherlocks Notion of the Union of Christ with Believers I reckon it necessary before I address to the disproof of what I dislike in his opinion to declare what I own to be true in the matter of a Political Union between Christ and Christians First then That Christ is the Political Head of his Church we readily grant nor is it denyed by any so far as I know that profess themselves Christians The very espousing the Profession of the Christian Religion includes an acknowledgment of Christs being our Supreme Legislatour and Governour and that we are to be subject to his Authority and obedient to his Commands A Right of Erecting Governing and protecting the Church is delegated to and vested in him And as he in the discharge of this Regal Office wherewithal he is entrusted hath enacted Laws appointed Ordinances and ordained Officers for the Government of his Church so we by our submission to them do acknowledg his Authority and make profession of our subjection to him as our Lord and King and therereupon may be said to be related to Him as our Political Head All that own the name of Christians are thus far agreed for though the Papists interpose another immediate ruling Head between Christ and the Catholick Church yet as they acknowledg Christ to be the only Head of Vital Influence to the Church Regenerate so they confess Him to be the only supreme Governing Head of the Universal Church But as their Notion of a Vicarious Political Head over the whole Church is both destitute of all countenance from the Scripture and repugnant to it so no one is capable of enacting Laws for the Universal Church nor of seeing them executed nor hath the Catholick Church ever acknowledged such a constitutive Imperant Head what ever some part of it may have done Upon this account especially we judge the Pope to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Antichrist and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Opposer who exalteth himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped so that he as God sitteth in the Temple of God shewing himself that he is God because he usurpeth the Headship over the Church of Christ as to Legislation Judgment and Execution dispensing with Christs Laws and enacting his own He challengeth a peerage with Jesus Christ as to Legislative Power and Headship over the Universal Church which is no less than to storm his Throne and Usurp his Scepter The claym of the Roman See is great but their Allegations to justifie it are wholly precatious And when Jesus Christ appears to vindicate his Supreme Authority from the invasions which Usurpers have made upon his Dignity the counterfeiting the broad Seal of Heaven and the suborning Scripture to supplant Christs Throne will prove a Crime unanswerable I shall only add in reference to this particular I have been discoursing that no verbal profession of being a Christian unless it be accompanied with a belief of the Revelations and an Obedience to the Laws of Christ can de Jure entitle us amongst his Subjects Secondly As a visible profession of subjection to Christ testified in the belief of what he hath revealed and in the obedience of what he hath commanded is the foundation of this political Union between Christ and his Church so we do hereby become politically united one to another and are denominated Members of Christs Catholick Visible Church For as the Profession of the Gospel in the belief of its Doctrines an avowed subjection to its Laws is the constituent form of the Church as Visible and the formal reason of its obtaining that appellation so all that profess the Invocation of the Name of the Lord Jesus their Lord and ours 1 Cor. 7.2 do hereby belong to Christs Catholick Church Visible and become Politically united as Subjects of the same Legislator and King In the profession of the same Lord Faith and Baptism doth the Union of the Church under the consideration of Catholick and Visible consist and as the Subjects of one and the same Temporal Prince become politically United together by their being in subjection to the Authority of the same supreme civil Ruler and governed by the same Laws so may all Christians be said upon a parallel account to be politically united one with another And here upon the one hand as Christ hath not made our Right to a room and membership in the Catholick Church to depend upon a formal belief of every thing that he hath revealed though every thing that Christ hath revealed ought to be believed when it appears that he hath revealed it so upon the other hand there are some Doctrines the explicite belief of which is necessary to the having a place in the Universal Church a Church being nothing else but
a company of men owning the Authority of Jesus Christ as Lord and King and agreeing in the faith of such Doctrines as he hath made Salvation dependent upon As we do not outwardly hold the Head nor declare our subjection to Christ as our Law-giver and Ruler but by a belief of those things which he hath made the Essentials and Fundamentals of the Christian Religion so we have no Right of Matriculation into the Church Catholick-visible nor have we any Union with the Members of it but through a belief of these common radical principles These are what we commonly call Fundamental Articles which as I shall not take upon me to enumerate being neither necessary nor may be convenient so they are in themselves both few and plain Only as the Romanists are injurious to Christ and uncharitable to men in confining Christianity within the Circle of their own communion and making the Roman and Catholick Church Terms Equipollent so they are both unreasonable and ridiculous in making the Unity of the Universal Church to consist in the belief of all that they have thought fit to determine necessary to be believed For besides many other things pleadable against this Romish Foundation of the Unity of the Universal Christian Church and the Relative Politick Union of one member with the rest it renders the Unity of the Church and the Union of Christians one with another first impossible secondly absurd Impossible in that most Men can neither allow time nor have they sufficient acquired intellectual abilities either to know what the Roman Church hath defined necessary to be believed nor in what sence she hath proposed and determined them to be assented to Absurd 1 Because a man must believe contradictions before he can be a member of the Catholick Church or have any Union or Communion with Christians That is he must renounce Reason before he is capable of having Faith and devest himself of Man before he can espouse Christian. And the reason is plain because the Romish Church hath defined things to be believed that are repugnant one to another 2. Because what serves to matriculate a person into the Church of Christ and to give him the Relation of an Oneness with all Christians this year may not be sufficient to secure and continue his Union and Relation the next but that without alteration or change in his belief he may cease to be a Member of the Catholick Church For the Church may in that compass of time determine something necessary to be believed concerning which before she had not pronounced But to resume what I was upon as there is through our subjection to Christ by the belief of his Doctrine and obedience of his Laws a Political Union betwixt Christ and Christians so I see nothing to the contrary but that all Christians may in the virtue of their common Faith and Obedience be accounted united amongst themselves I shall not here discourse the reciprocal and mutual duties which we come under the obligation of by this Relation but as they are many and great so were they attended to a check would be given to that wrath and bitterness which is amongst Christians a stop put to that war and persecution which one wageth against another Neither shall I here discourse the Nature and Measures of a particular Church with the foundation and media which ground the Relation of one to another in it but shall only say this that though admission into an instituted particular Church presupposeth whatsoever was necessary to entitle us to a Membership in the Church-Catholick yet there are both diverse things required in order to the latter which were not so in reference to the former and diverse fresh duties emerge from this posterior Relation beyond what we were obliged to by the precedent Having briefly treated these things which ought not to be denyed and shewed my self as liberal to our Author as without trespassing upon my light I can I come now to discourse those things wherein our Author differs from the general sense of Christians and the common opinion of the Universal Church And the first conclusion which I propose in opposition to the Hypothesis that Mr. Sherlock hath erected is this That were the Union of particular Believers with Christ only a Political Relation yet it were immediate to the Person of Christ. Let our Relation to Christ which is styled by the name of Union be whatsoever our Author pleaseth to make it yet it is not the Church that we are primarily united to nor doth our Union terminate there nor is it meerly by means thereof that we are brought into a cohesion with the Lord Jesus This if justified overthrows Mr. Sherlocks two first Conclusions which indeed are but one in import though obtruded upon us for two For to say that those Metaphors which describe the Relation and Union betwixt Christ and Christians do primarily refer to the Christian Church and not to every Individual Christian which is Mr. Sherlock's first conclusion and to say that the Union of particular Christians to Christ is by means of their Union to the Christian Church which is his second Conclusion are in my opinion things coincident The same Metaphors which describe the Relation and Union of Christ with Christians do also display the Relation and Union of Christians with Christ if the Union betwixt Christ and Christians doth primarily refer to the Christian Church the Union of particular Christians with Christ can result from no other Medium nor bear upon any other foundation but the Union with the Christian Church I should not bestow remarks upon the ridiculous and impertinent Battologies of our Author nor sally out into reflections upon what meerly favours of dulness and hebetude but that it may not be amiss to inform the World how undeservedly Mr. Sherlock hath obtain'd the name of an accurate Writer and if it be possible to give check to his briskness in Descanting upon the Writings of others For he may remember what a reflection he hath cast upon Dr. Jacomb meerly for converting a Proposition and saying That the person of the Believer is United to the Person of Christ having before said though not so as to make it a different conclusion That the Person of Christ is United to the person of the Believer But to return to the proof of the Assertion which I have advanced in contradiction to Mr. Sherlocks Notion of our being United to Christ only by our Union and Fellowship with the Christian Church 1. If particular Christians be United to Christ only by virtue of a previous Relation to the Church I would then fain know of Mr. Sherlock how the whole Church comes to be united to the Lord Jesus For I suppose it will not be denyed but that there is a Relation of Oneness between Him and the Church and if any should be so perverse and of so unreasonable a humour as to question it there are Media enough
to evince it though obstinate persons and such as maintain Tenets in despite of evidence to the contrary may not be convinced by them 'T is the Church in its full latitude and extent that is eminently Christs Body and his Spouse and 't is his Body and Spouse that he is conjoyned and marryed to Now for any one to say that he is united to the Church by the vincula that are between him and Individual Believers is to run himself into the absurdity which we commonly call a circle For if the copula of particular Christians to Christ be their Society and Fellowship with the Christian Church and if the vinculum between Christ and the Church be through the cohesion of particular Believers to Christ there is no remedy but that our Author must be entangled in a circle or else there is no such thing in the World as circular defining and discoursing And to say that Christ is united to the Church by the Churches belief of his Revelations and Obedience to his Laws is but instead of loosing the knot to tye it faster For the Church being an Aggregate Body of Believers she can no other ways embrace the Revelations of the Gospel or yield obedience to its commands but in the virtue of what her particular constituent Members do 2. That our Union with Christ even supposing it a meer Political Relation should be by the means of our Union with the Christian Church is repugnant to that conception and idea which we have of the Church For the Church Catholick-Visible and much more particular instituted Churches being nothing else but the Collective Body of Christians it naturally follows that they must in priority of Nature be Christians before they can any ways belong to the Church Now to suppose them Christians I speak of adult persons without their previous owning the Authority of Jesus Christ through a belief of his Doctrines and a professed subjection to his Laws is an absurd and self-contradictious Imagination 3. If the Apostles were immediately United to Christ without any Antecedent Relation to the Christian Church I see no cause why every Individual Christian ought not to be held united to Him in the same manner that they were For the Apostles being united to Christ under the formal consideration of their being Christians and not under the reduplication of their being Apostles it follows by a short and easie train of ratiocination that all who have a right to the denomination of Christians are united by the same Bond and stand in the same immediateness of conjunction with Christ that they were Yea Paul hath said enough to set this beyond all suspect in that speaking of the Body of Christ he reckons the Apostles in the classis of Members with other Believers 1 Cor. 12.27 28. Now that the Apostles were not united to Christ by the Mediation of any Antecedent Relation to the Christian Church but that their Relation of Oneness with Him was immediate there be unanswerable Arguments at hand to demonstrate But I shall only mention one namely there was no Christian Church pre-existent to them into whose Society and Fellowship they could be admitted I have thus far discoursed these things with Mr. Sherlock taking the church for the universal Catholick Visible Church which is the most favourable acceptation to befriend the Notion of our being united to Christ by the means of Union to the Christian Church that 't is capable of And this acceptation of the Church as our communion with it is the Medium and Bond of our Union with Christ Mr. Sherlock finds himself in some cases necessitated to retreat to If says he there be no Visible Society of Christians professing the Faith of â—hrist and living in Communion with each other as it may happen in times of persecution or some great degeneracy of the Church our Union to Christ then consists in an acknowledgment of his Authority and Subjection to his Laws which makes us Members of the Universal Church though there be no particular Church to communicate with Now if the Notion of Union with Christ by the Medium of a previous Interest in the Catholick Visible Church be not defensible much less is it maintainable on the Hypothesis of an Union with a particular Church as the Vinculum and Foundation of it And yet most of our Authors discourse is fram'd in countenance of this namely that Individual Christians are not united to Christ but by means of their Union to some particular Church Hence we are told that we cannot be United to Christ that is cannot own his Authority and Government till we unite our selves to the publick Societies of Christians and submit to the publick Instructions Authority and Discipline of the Church And this is made the motive and ground of our living in the Communion of the Church where Providence hath cast us so long as she submits to the Laws of Christ and acknowledgeth his Authority because as our Author saith this Unites us to Christ. Mr. Sherlock so far as I am able to conjecture was not at leisure to think what was most serviceable to the Hypothesis he had espoused or what was most disserviceable to it All Immediate Union of particular Christians with Christ save by means of their union with the Christian Church he was resolved to deny but in what sense the Church was to be taken by Communion with which we come to be copulated with Jesus Christ he durst not determine At one time 't is by our being Members of the Universal Church at another 't is by our Fellowship with such a Church as is under the conduct of Bishops and Pastors whose Members are in regular subjection to their spiritual Guides and Rulers and live in concord and Unity amongst themselves and in a mutual discharge of all Christian Offices But that Communion with a particular Church cannot be the Medium of a Christians Union with Christ I come under the influence and command of these Reasons to believe 1. There may be some Individual Christians where there is no particular Instituted Church of Christ into which they can be admitted Nor may this only be supposed but there are divers instances in Ecclesiastical story to evince it Yea there can be no particular Church without the pre-existence of Individual Believers seeing it is of such that every particular Church is constituted and formed We may as well build a House without pre-existent Materials as erect a particular Church without Believers to constitute it of There must be living stones of which this Temple of God is built and fram'd The being Saints through the effectual Vocation and renewing of the Holy Ghost is the first ground presupposed by the Apostles in their adscription of the Name and Title of Church to any Nor are the Duties required of those that stand in a particular Church Relation possible to be performed but by such as are sincere Christians 2. Christians in the very
No particular Christian is the Body of Christ but only a Member in his Body Christ is called a Husband but then the whole Church or Society of Christians not every particular Christian is his Spouse as St. Paul tells the Church of Corinth 2 Cor. 11.2 Christ is a Shepherd and the Christian Church is his Flock Joh. 10. For the Relation between a Shepherd and Sheep doth primarily concern the whole Flock Christ is the Rock upon which his Church is built the chief corner stone and the Christian Church a Holy Temple so that all those Metaphors in their first and proper use refer to the whole Society of Christians and are designed to represent the Union between Christ and his Church To this I answer 1. That were this discourse of our Author fram'd into a Syllogism the incongruity between the conclusion and the premises would easily appear For example Christ is the Head of his Church Ergo no particular Believer is united to him but by means of their Uinion with the Church I deny the consequent surely though the King be Immediate Head to the whole Kingdom yet he is also Immediate Head to every Individual person in it Mr. Sherlocks Logick is like that of Chrysippus which men were too dull to understand though they say the Gods would have used it 2. The Church and its Individual Members being of an homogeneous Nature whatsoever is predicated essentially of the whole is equally predicable of every part 3. The Holy Ghost plainly affirms that it is between Christ and the Church as it is between the Head and Members of the same Natural Body And therefore as not only the whole Body hath influence in the disposal of it self and in the discharge of its Functions from the Head but also every particular Member hath influences of life and strength from thence so Christ is not only an Immediate Head of Direction and Rule to the whole Church but to every Individual Believer in it Whatever the Habitude of Pastors Teachers be to their particular Churches to which they are related and to the Members of which these Churches are constituted yet it is to the Word of God as the Rule of conduct by which Christ under the Notion of a Political Head governs his Church that every Individual Believer is to attend 4. Though our Author informs us that he hath almost pored out his eyes in searching the Scripture in order to his being enlightned about this and some other Notions yet I must take leave either to question the matter of Fact or to suspect that his sight was not good before or that his visible Faculty was strangely tinctured For the Apostle whose Authority and Testimony may I hope be allowed to rival Mr. Sherlocks tells us that as the whole Church is Christs Body so we are all Members in particular of Christ 1 Cor. 12.27 and that the whole Body is joyned to Christ by the conjunction which every Member hath with him 1 Cor. 12.12 And that Christ is not only a Husband to the whole Church but that he is so to every Christian appears by this seeing not only the particular Church of Corinth is said to be Espoused to Him 2 Cor. 11.2 but every Individual Believer among the Romans is also represented as Married to him Rom. 7.4 Neither do they only report him to be the Foundation Rock and corner Stone of the Church taken Collectively but likewise in its distributive acceptation 1 Pet. 2.5 Eph. 2.19 20 21 22. Thus having not only defeated the strength and force of his first objection but improved the Medium from which he musters it to subvert the cause in whose defence it was brought I proceed now to the second That the Union of particular Christians with Christ consists in their Union with the Christian Church the Sacraments which our Saviour hath instituted as Symbols of our Union with him are says he a plain demonstration Our first undertaking of Christianity is represented in our Baptism wherein we make a publick profession of our Faith in Christ and it is sufficiently known that Baptism is the Sacrament of our admission into the Christian Church c. Thus the Lords Supper is a Sacrament of Union and signifies the near Conjunction that is between Christ and the Christian Church and the mutual Fellowship of one Christian with another c. For answer whether the Sacraments import any more than a Political Union between Christ and Believers I shall wave till anon and only consider them at present as brought in proof of Christians being united to Christ by means of their Union with the Christian Church And truly if these be the weapons with which Mr. Sherlock thinks to captivate and subdue the minds of men to espouse his Notion he must either only encounter those that court their own Bondage or there will be few found following the Chariot wheels of our Hero Instead of any slaughter he is like to make amongst the Non-conformists by these Forces he only wounds himself and overthrows his own cause by them And first as to the Argument drawn from Baptism I reply these four things 1. Baptism is neither the Medium of our Union with the Catholick Visible Church nor that by which we formally become Members of a particular Instituted Church Not the latter seeing it is not only possible that a Person may be Baptised where there are not enough to form an Instituted particular Church but it may be sometimes found necessary to deny the Priviledg of Membership in an Instituted even to such as have been Baptized Yea before any particular Churches were erected there were Baptised Christians it being of such that the first Christian Churches were constituted Not the Former forasmuch as a Person may be of the Universal Visible Church and yet not be Baptised Nor is this a Chimaerical Imagination for there have been many who partly through want of opportunity to enjoy the Ordinance of Baptism partly upon other Motives though they are not justifiable have denyed themselves the Mercy of the Baptismal Laver and yet to suppose that thereupon they are not Christians is to renounce all exercise of Charity and to involve our selves under the guilt of condemning those whom the Lord hath received 2. Were Baptism as well the Medium as the Symbol of our Union with the Christian Church yet it doth not follow that we are only United to Christ by means of our Union with the Church And the reason is plain seeing none ought to be admitted to Baptism I speak of adult persons but such who are antecedently judged to be Christians Act. 8.37 Now to reckon any one a Christian who doth not before-hand own the Authority of Jesus Christ in the belief of his Doctrines and an avowed subjection to his Laws which is the Bond of our Political Union is no less than a contradiction 3. Our owning the Authority of Christ which is the Vinculum of our Political Union with
Virtue and upon the alone Motive of their being Believers may be obliged and that upon no meaner inducements than their Loyalty to Christ to renounce Communion not only with the particular Church with which they have walked but to suspend Fellowship with any particular Church that lyes within the circle and compass of their knowledg If any Church shall so degenerate as to forsake the common Faith it becomes the duty of every honest Christian to forsake that Church and renounce all external communion with her And yet I hope it will not be said that the Person so acting ceaseth to be united to Christ there being no greater evidence of his Union with the Lord Jesus than his disclayming fellowship with those who had revolted from the Faith of the Gospel 3. Christians may be injuriously cast out of the Communion not only of one but of every particular Church and yet remain united to Christ and consequently their union with a particular Church cannot be the Bond of their cohesion to Him Our Blessed Lord hath predicted it to be the Fate sometimes of Believers to be so entertained and hath accordingly advised his Disciples to expect it as their lot and to resent it as their honour to be cast out and separated for the Son of mans sake Luk. 6.22 The Term 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rendred they shall separate you is of the same import with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joh. 16.2 Yea it may fall out that a person may be justly secluded for a time from communion with any particular Church and yet his union with Christ not be dissolved A scandalous sin in a Professor providing the party offending give not evidence of his sincere Repentance is foundation enough for the Church to proceed to such a censure yea the maintaining her own Dignity and Honour and the making Christianity appear to be a Doctrine of exact purity and that the Christian Religion as Celsus and Julian reproached it doth not allow impunity to Criminals obligeth her to it and yet it will be unsafe to pronounce of every person that is the Object of those censures that he ceaseth to be a Christian or that all his union with Christ is interrupted and dissolved 4. Our union with a particular Church being the Medium of our Union with Christ is an assertion so remote from all truth that on the contrary none are to be received under the Notion of Members into a particular Church but upon a presumption that Christ hath first received them Without previous grounds of judging men to be Believers we are not only destitute of all warranty to admit them but we are obliged by the Laws of the Gospel yea by principles of Reason considering the Nature of the Society not to do it A Church being a Spiritual Corporation wherein Priviledges are to be enjoyed upon Terms antecedently required and these Terms being at least the acknowledgment of Christs Authority through a belief of his Doctrines and a professed subjection to his Laws which is the Notion and Idea of a Political Union with him to suppose our Union with a particular Church to be the foundation and ground of the Relation of Oneness with Christ involveth no less than a Contradiction 5. 'T is a persons submitting himself to the Laws and Authority of Christ which is that wherein Mr. Sherlock himself stateth the Political Union of Christians with Christ to consist that swayeth and influenceth him to submit himself to Pastoâ—s and Teachers and to joyn with others in the Fellowship of the Gospel and by consequence our Union with a particular Church is so far from being the Bond of our Union with the Lord Jesus that on the contrary our Union with Him is the Motive inducement of our joyning into Fellowship with a particular Church which is that we mean by Union with it The account which the Apostle giveth us of the Churches of the Macedonians is that they first gave themselves to the Lord and then unto them by the Will of God 2 Cor. 8.5 It was by taking upon them the observance of Christs commands that they found themselves obliged to coalesce into Church-Societies 6. I shall only add in the last place for it is not number but strength of Arguments that men are prevail'd upon by that an Imagination of our being United to Christ by the Mediation of an Union with the Church seems to have been the foundation of the Papal Vicarious Political Head Nor is this my apprehension alone but 't is the sense also of Episcopius a Person whose Judgment Testimony Mr. Sherlock will not undervalue And to speak my inward thoughts 't is all he says to purpose upon this Theme though he undertake to treat it with some industry being in this as in most other particulars rather florid than nervous Besides a brisk air that displays it self in his manner of handling things there is little solid or beyond what is vulgar and common in him But to return into this supposition that Christ is not the immedidiate Political Head of his Church is the substitution of an Universal Vicarious Head resolved And to do the Papists right if Believers even in a Political sense be not immediately united to Christ 't is more congruous to Reason to establish one Vicarious Catholick Visible Head than five thousand And though upon the supposition that there is such a Head the Pope may fail in his claym to it yet I see not but that if the honour and priviledg of it be refused him some one or other must have the credit of it Thus admitting that were all the Union which intercedes between Christ and Believers meerly such a Political Relation as is between a Prince and his Subjects yet I hope I have proved that our Union with Christ is nevertheless immediate I am sure the King of England through his governing his Subjects by subordinate Officers delegated to Rule by his Authority doth not cease to be an Immediate Head to all his Subjects and to every Individual person amongst them There remains only before I advance to the second Conclusion some exceptions of our Author to be taken notice of And upon a survey of what he hath mustered in the behalf of his Hypothesis I cannot but ascribe to him a faculty of pressing any thing that comes in his way to fight for him Nor shall I here only rescue some Texts of Scripture and some received Doctrines from the rape which our Author hath committed upon them and from that involuntary service into which they are compelled but I shall endeavour to defeat his cause by them The 1st is drawn from the Metaphors which describe the Relation and Union between Christ and Christians which says he do primarily refer to the Christian Church and not to every Individual Christian. Thus Christ is called a Head but he is the Head of his Church which is his Body as the Husband is the head of the Wife Eph. 5.23 24.
Allegories and Metaphors as the Modern Conformable Clergy 8.9.10 CHAP. III. Of the Union of Believers with Christ THe Concernment of the Church of England in reference to some Discourses lately Published on this subject 1. What seems most especially to have influenced Mr. Sherlock to depart from the Doctrine of the Catholick Church in this matter 2. The Doctrine of the Nonconformists not fram'd to befriend men in a course of Vngodliness Mr. Sherlock's is 3.4 The Notion of Vnion in General stated with an account of the arduousness of resolving the Nature of Common Vnions 5. 'T is the Person of Christ that Believers are Vnited to 6. The Vnion we are enquiring after consists not in the specifical Oneness which is betwixt Christ and us through his having assumed Humane Nature 7. Nor doth it consist in any mixture of his Bodily substance with ours through a Carnal feeding on him 8. A personal Vnion disclaym'd 9. Not meerly a Legal Vnion and yet a Legal Vnion between Christ and those given to him of God justified 10. 'T is not barely a Love-Vnion 11. Christians not Vnited to Christ by means of a previous Vnion with the Church 12. What ever it be 't is more than a Political Union 13. An Intelligible Notion of it assigned and the whole shut up CHAP. I. Of the Interest and Use of Reason in RELIGION Sect. I. THe Interest which all Christians have in the Truths of the Gospel doth sufficiently Authorize a Concernedness in every Believer that they be neither directly Invaded nor secretly Supplanted And the more Important the Doctrines are either in themselves or with Respect to their Influence on the Hopes and Comforts of such as Believe and Profess Christianity the less chargeable as Importune is he who Engageth either in the Explication or Defence of them Besides the Name of William Sherlock and the Quality of Rector of St. George Buttolphâ—Lane London which the Author Characters himself by I understand nothing of the Person whose Writings I am now to Incounter and I wish for his own sake as well as the Truths that I had no further Occasion of knowing him than as his Interest lies in the Church of England But having vouchsafed the World a further Discovery and Manifestation of himself by a Stated Opposition of the Immediate Union of Believers to Christ and their being justified by the Imputation of his Righteousness Truths wherein the whole of our Concernment and Expectation consists He must not Resent it Amiss if while we are Examining what he would Obtrude upon us in these and some other things we Regulate our Conceptions of him in relation to what he Intimates to us of his Principles in those Matters The Prefixed Imprimatur of Doctor Parker would tempt one to Suspect that all this is done not only under the Connivance but with the Approbation of more than we are aware of I confess Men are filled with Surprizal and Amazement that it should be so considering the Manifest Repugnance of our Authors Principles not only to the Opinions of private Doctors of the Church of England but the Declared Articles of the â—aid Church Though it be Unjust to Ascribe the Sentiments of every private Writer to the Society whereof he is a Member yet when Errors are Vented under Allowance others besides the Authors become Accountable for them The Quality of the Licenser and the Relation he stands in to a greater Person in whose Behalf in all these things he is Reputed to Act would seem to Plead that the Fame and Dignity of the Church of England as well as the Interest of Truth bespeaks some Vindication from her Ecclesiastical Rulers or Dignified Members in these Matters Or it is easie to be imagined who will Suffer under the Imputation and Dishonour of them In the mean time a sober Inquiry into and Disquisition of these Points may I hope be pursued without Offence to any especially being managed without passionate Heats or Invidious Reflections Invectives and Satirs do not only disparage Religion in general but betray the Cause in whose Behalf they are used Nor are they Adapted to proselyte any but such who have forfeited the Use of their Judgments and Resigned themselves to the Conduct of Impudence Noise and Clamour For my self I profess such an Aversation to the Method some of our Modern Writers take in Treating their Adversaries that I shall not so much as insinuate Suspicions or raise Misprisions of the Tendency of the Notions here contended against further than the Unfolding and Pursuing them to their Springs necessitates me And if thereby any who wear the Livery of the Church of England shall be found to do the Work of the Assembly at Cracovia I cannot help it unless I should betray the Cause I am pleading for Yet I do hereby no ways intend to List even those among them whose Principles they have imbib'd Remembring what one said of the Milesians that may be they were no Fools though they did the same things which Fools are wont to do However 't is fit to be declared upon whose Foundations they Build and with whose Buttresses they support their Fabrick and withall that it falls too evidently under the Prospect of every discerning Person who are like to Reap the Harvest of these kind of Sowings Now though I might be thought sufficiently to acquit my self by continuing on the Defensive and only examining the Reasons which have swayed Mr. Sherlock to depart from the Common Judgments of other Men and though this would be the easiest Undertaking and in the Judgment of every indifferent Person enough both to Undeceive such as are already Misled and to pre-arm others against the Danger yet Designing the same universal Usefulness to the Reader as if I were not confined to Reply to anothers Book I shall together with an Answer to my Adversaries Exceptions endeavour to State and Establish the Doctrines in whose Defence I appear and withal Attaque him in the Opinions he Erects against them Nor am I without Hope that I shall find the Generality of those who are stiled Conformists as well as those who are termed Non-Conformists notwithstanding their Disciplinary Controversies Candid and Favourable The things here contended for are the Joynt-Concernment of both and the Opinions opposed are inconsistent with and Destructive to the Hitherto Received Doctrine of that Party as well as this If I receive no other Fruit of this Interposure but the Awakening others to more Matur'd Productions I shall not Repent my Labour the putting a Common Adversary to a stand till greater Forces Rally being of some account though the Victory be Reapt by other Hands Sect. 2. As to the Method here observed 't is such as I judge Rational being not only Adapted to the Discovery and Vindication of Truth the Unmasking and Conviction of Errour but accommodated to the Instruction and Benefit of the Reader which would be greatly obstructed by following our Author 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nor is it
dare affirm if all this be true that Justification as it is opposed to the accusation of the Law its charging us with Guilt and its passing sentence of Condemnation against us thereupon doth not admit a proper sense in the whole Scripture but must every where be construed Metaphorically and that the import of it is not that we are properly and in a Law-sense justified but that such benefits accrue to us by Remission of sin as if we were so According to the sentiments of our Author we are only pardoned but by reason of some Allusion betwixt the Advantages redounding to us by Forgiveness and the priviledges immunities and benefits which ensue upon a proper justification we are therefore Metaphorically said to be justified It were to bid defiance to the Scripture in a hundred places to say that we are not at all justified yet in effect their Principles imply no less For by stating the whole of our assoilment from the accusation of the Law in Remission they indeed say that we are not justified only we are improperly said to be so because of some Correspondence betwixt the one and the other in the exceeding great and excellent Benefits which by Forgiveness of sin redound to us Justified in a proper sense we are not only the Name of Justification is transferred to Remission of sin because of some Analogy in the Effects and Consequences of the one to the other This our Author is so ingenuous sometimes as to acknowledg for he tell 's us That to affirm that the Merit of Christs Death is ours to free us from the Guilt and Punishment of our sins and his Active Obedience to the Will of God his Righteousness is ours for our Justification consists in the wresting of Metaphorical Expressions to a proper Sense Let the Candid Reader now judg who they are that exercise their Wits in finding out Metaphorical Senses in the plainest Scriptures and in perverting the clearest Texts into Metaphors and Allegories and who not daring openly to decry and renounce the Gospel take a course to undermine it They proclaim us guilty when indeed they themselves are the chief Criminals And accuse their Brethren at adventure without ever considering that the Charge returns upon themselves CHAP. III. Of the Vnion of Believers with Christ. SECT I. I Am come at length to the ventilation of that which I principally designed and which in my undertaking to accost Mr. Sherlock I had chiefly in prospect And as I am not without hope that what hath been tendred upon the former Themes will not be altogether displeasing so I reckon that what is now to be discoursed will both receive Light and be sustained as well by treating as the arranging them in the order I have done Nor is it only Matter of complaint to find the received Doctrines of the whole Christian as well as Protestant Church publickly impeached and arraigned but 't is matter of wonder how by persons nor only living in the Communion of an Orthodox Church but enjoying great emoluments by virtue of their station and interest therein it comes both to be so and to be connived at by those whose Duty it is upon many accounts to express their resentment To suffer those principles which we not only believe but superstruct our hope and comfort upon to be publikely invaded because in the opposition given to them the reputations of those are endeavoured to be abated whom for other causes we think we have reason to dislike is not an allowable Apology before Men much less will it serve as a just plea before God To permit the Articles of our Belief not only to be questioned but contradicted and run down with all the Satyr and Contempt that can be imagined meerly because some of the Non-conformists are at the same time made the Triumph of their Derision and Drollery who do so is not wisely done to say no worse of it For by the publication of such Discourses under the stamp of their Authority who are entrusted with the Care Defence and Preservation of Religion and through the universal connivance of the Fathers and Dignitaries of the Church since their Publick venting it cannot be otherwise expected but that the Church of England in general will come to be reputed guilty of the Principles asserted and even such as are Innocent will be made to suffer in the esteem of the World amongst the Nocent Especially Forreigners who can take no other measure of the whole but what they draw from the approved Writings of particular and Individual members no whole having any existence but what it hath in its parts will be tempted to judg otherwise of the Church of England than is either for her Interest or Honour that they should And besides whilst these New Doctrines stand propagated under the countenance and security of an Imprimatur there is little likelyhood that the heats and ruptures between Them and dissenting Brethren should be extinguished or made up but that instead thereof they will grow to be further enflamed and widened There is no man how modest or zealous of peace soever he be who will much care to maintain Communion with that Church that hath both departed from her own established Doctrine and that of the whole Catholick Church also 'T is a very incongruous Method of promoting Unity and an odd way of providing for the safety of the Church to suffer persons of known Learning Holiness Gravity and Moderation and such as dissent from her only in matter of Formes of Ecclesiastical Government and Rites and Modes of Worship to be treated with all the Scorn Contempt and whatever else the Fall of Adam hath stained the World with and all this for any thing that yet appears meerly for maintaining her own anciently received and yet Legally estalished Doctrine Were the matter controverted only Scholastical niceties or enquiries of lesser Moment yet it were both for their own Honour who manage them the Interest of the Church where their concernment lyes that they should be debated with Candour and Modesty And that mutual esteem and Charity of affections might be preserved under different apprehensions of judgment And that though the Opinions were not Reconcileable yet there might no Variance arise through invidious representations of one another betwixt the persons differently sensing How much also the Church of England by suffering her publick Articles and established Doctrines to be assaulted by any of her Members who hath but the pride and boldness to do so exposeth her self to the clamour of the Papists is easy to be conjectured For hereby she retains no common standard of Religion by which it may be understood what she holds And this if I be not misinformed hath been mustered up by a Romanist urged in a private Discourse to a Person of Learning beyond the possibility of a satisfying Reply Did the Fathers and Dignitaries of the Church only resolve on this Neutrality till the Non-conformists were worded or
railed into silence yet this is not reconcileable to the Wisdom to omit the Zeal which we are willing to believe them to be endowed with For besides that the Trust reposed in them is not answered by their looking on so long 't is more than likely that if the minds of men come once to be tinctured with these Notions an interposure then will be like the applying a remedy when the Disease is incurable Unhappy Principles when once throughly imbib'd are not found so easy for men to devest themselves of Though persons esteem it no reflection upon their Parts nor disparagement to their Understandings to change their Opinions once especially if they obtained our Belief before we were in a capacity to examine them yet few are willing to proclaim their Weakness so far as to change their Judgments often particularly when the things again to be receded from did not solicite their Faith till they were of age and thought them selves of ability to enquire into them And if an implicite apprehension of the Concurrence of our chief Doctors collected from their Silence should be found to have influenced any to submit to these Notions beyond what the glosses with which their Authors varnish't them could do their declining so long to declare themselves is yet worse to be accounted for § 2. But waving the Interest of the Church of England in those Truths which our Author manageth an opposition to and Her Concernment more than Ours to appear in the Defence and Vindication of them from the rude and bold though weak assaults of Mr. Sherlock I shall rather enquire into what seems more especially to have given Birth to our Adversaries Notion of the Union of Believers with Christ and to have influenced him to denounce War against the Doctrine of the Catholick Church in this matter And not to insist upon what our Author is pleased to alledg as the Reason of it whereof cha 1. sect 2. seeing I do rather judg That a pretext than the true Motive It seems to me to derive its spring higher and to own its self to another Opinion espoused by some of our late Writers which however artificially glossed doth indeed damm up all the sources of Grace and Holiness and is no way defensible but by renouncing all Immediate Union betwixt Believers and Christ and disclaiming Him from being a Head of influence to any In brief then the Root and Stem from which our Authors Opinion in this matter hath shot forth and sprung is this namely That there is no infused Principle of Grace communicated to us from Christ as our Life and Head by the efficacious operation of the Spirit but that whatsoever is so stiled in vulgar Talk is only the result of our natural Abilities assisted and seconded by the Moral influences of the Gospel That Mr. Sherlock is throughly baptized into thâ—s Pelagian and Socinian Principle though he may sometimes mask himself in declaring it I shall endeavour to Demonstrate by presenting the Reader with some passages which occur in his Book When Dr. Owen had upon a certain occasion said That the Humane Nature of Christ if it could be conceived as separated from the Deity could afford no spiritual supply but only in a Moral way our Author is pleased to reply in way of Sarcasm and Irony that That is a very pittiful way indeed intimating in effect that there is no other way by which supplyes of Grace are communicated to us Nor doth he only Railly upon the foresaid Learned Person for styling Christ the Fountain of all Grace p. 213. but he plainly tells us that by Grace for Grace which we are said to receive out of Christs fulness there is no more to be understood but onely a clear and perspicuous Revelation of the Divine Will in the Gospel because it proclaims so many excellent Promises A gloss evidently borrowed from Socinus Schlichtingius and others of that Tribe which I thought fit to intimate not only to prevent his glorying in another mans line but that the world may know what copy he useth sometimes to write after Hence it is that he will have Christ to be styled our Life only because he hath preached the Word of Life and declared the true and only way to Life and Happiness And because he hath Power and Authority to bestow Immortal Life upon all his sincere followers Of kin and affinity to these is his affirming God to have by various ways attempted the recovery of mankind but with little success till at last he sent his Son into the World who by more plainly publishing the Word of Life and by his more easy directions and nobler Promises reformed the World after that long and sad experience had proved all those Ways ineffectual which the Divine Goodness out of a restless Zeal and concernment for the recovery of Mankind had fallen upon Hence not only the Methods of Divine Grace are denyed to consist in the production of any new Principles by an omnipotent irresistible Power But the asserting a necessity of infused Principles to regenerate our Natures relieve our Weakness and adapt us to live to God is represented by our Author a making us to be Acted like Machines by the Irresistible Power of the Grace and Spirit of God And to declare us passive in the reception of the first Grace is said to render all the Rules and Directions prescribed us by God vain and foolish P. 354. I purpose not here to discourse the nature of Regeneration nor the consistency of Efficacious Grace with humane Liberty nor how the producing Faith in us by a power infallible in its Effects and which is never actually defeated is so far from being subversive of our Rational Freedom that it promotes as well as preserves it Nor shall I urge how if Regeneration be nothing but the result of the exertion of our Faculties through an-application of Gospel-Precepts and Promises to our minds for influence and conduct that the Holy Ghost hath not only suggested things ordinary and obvious to us under an Embarass of lofty Hyperbolical and swelling words but instead of enlightning us in the Nature of the work of Conversion beyond what the Phlosophers have done he hath only envelopt it in thick Darkness and cast it into further obscurity the chief Terms declarative of it in the Scripture if that supposition be once admitted being only Rampant fulsome Metaphorical expressions of Amendment of Life Nor shall I debate what is required of us in way of Duty in order to our Regeneration and how that whatsoever so is exacted as to the Matter and substance of it lyes within the Sphere and Circle of our Natural Abilities As nothing but charming lusts false delusions Carnal Interests foolish prejudices indulging the appetites of the Animal life and attending to the titillations of the flesh can hinder men from the performance of what God in subserviency to his communicating of Grace at
least in his ordinary dispensing of it doth require so the being in the Exercise of those means and in the discharge of those Duties which God prescribes and enjoyn's doth not only take us from and prevent those sins which would render Conversion difficult if not impossible but they are further useful as means appointed and blessed of God unto such an end Though our Obedience hath neither any Physical Efficiency upon our Regeneration nor is Grace bestowed in the Consideration of any previous merit that is in our performances yet t is neither superfluous nor vain much less doth it lye in any repugnancy to our Conversions being only perfected by an Effectuall Subjective Work of the Spirit of God Neither shall I here declare with whom the Opinion of our Author in this matter coincident Though to do him right he is so far from being singular in it that he hath not only the Pelagians Socinians and the Writer of the Defence and Continuation of the Ecclesiastical Polity but the doughty Mr. Hobbs for his associates the last of whom I can very well allow to combate Gods Grace having first Listed himself in Opposition to his Being And as these are enough to secure him from the impeachment of Novelty so they may serve him to confront Austin Prosper c. the African Arausican and other Ancient Counsells as well as the Synod of Dort and Generality of Christian Writers with That which upon a most serious and Impartial survey and examination of the foregoing passages I have to offer is that from hence hath proceeded our Authors Notion of the Union betwixt Christ Believers Nor could he in congruity with those principles allow any other kind of Union betwixt them and Him but what is meerly Political or at most Moral Admitting once his premises his Conclusion is Good and Regular And allowing his Antecedent his Consequent is every way Logical nor is there the least Flaw in the coherence However bad and perverse his thoughts be in this Matter yet they are Harmonious and duely Ligu'd one to another Union importing a Relation differs not intrinsecally from the Subject Term and Foundation and therefore answerably to the Nature Genius and Quality of the ground and cause of the Habitude betwixt the Extremes Related must our Notion and Idea of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and respect between the Relate and the Correlate be Other Influences of Christ on Believers besides the giving them Laws attended with promises and threatnings being with Mr. Sherlock absurd and impossible all Union betwixt Christ and them save a Political is therefore to our Author obscure and Unintelligible Ignorance dislike of the Communication of the Spirit from Christ to us whose he is said to be Gal. 4.6 Rom. 8.9 and to be given by Him to be with us and to dwell in us Joh. 14.17 1 Cor. 3.16 together with an opposition and enmity to the Holy-Ghosts producing New Principles in us by a Physical and efficacious Operation though he be said to renew us T it 3.5 Sanctify us 1 Pet. 1.2 and regenerate us Joh. 13.5 6. is indeed the true spring and source of our Authors insurrection against and contempt of any Union betwixt Christ and his people but what is Political Whatever else is pretended 't is but the casting a mist before the eyes of men or rather the Hectoring them out of the Common Belief of the Catholick Church by a Noise Clamour of Riddle Unintelligible Mystery And whereas I intimated Chap. 1. § 2. that 't is mainly because of the Unintelligibleness of the Union commonly pleaded for that Mr. Sherlock renounceth and disclaimeth it my meaning was partly that this is the principal reason w ch he thought fit to alledg and partly that the obscurity which in reference to him 't is envelopt with is from that darkness that be-nights him in relation to the Nature of Regeneration and the indwelling of the Spirit The Immediate Communication of Grace from Christ by a powerful and Unresisted operation of the Holy Ghost being in his Opinion first Unaccountable for thence in the Second place comes all kind of Union betwixt Christ and Believers except a Political and Moral to be Unintelligible The obscurity of the Union contended for might indeed influence him to depart from the received Opinion about it but his Opposition to the Principles from which it results gave the Original rise to that abstruseness which made it an Unintelligible Riddle For otherwise the Notion of an Immediate Union betwixt Christ and Believers is not more Unintelligible on the Foundations which we proceed upon than Mr. Sherlocks Notion of it is on the Hypothesis which he hath erected § 3. One would think that the meaning of the Terms Christ and Believers should be so fully understood and universally agreed on amongst Professors of Religion especially Ministers of the Gospel that to spend time and words in stating and setling the import of them were not only needless but superfluous But through the misrepresentation which some have industriously and with respect to the serving a corrupt design given of their Brethren as to the fixing the import of these words the case is otherwise And therefore 't is necessary before we advance any further to settle and determine the Notion of these Terms as well as of Union and to set restraints upon their significations lest otherwise we be made to accept a sense of them which contradicts our own judgment as well as the Truth Mr. Sherlock in his arraigning the immediate Union of Believers with Christ is pleased to charge those whom upon that occasion he thinks fit to encounter for affirming men to be United to Christ while they continue in their sins and that the Union betwixt Christ and Believers is perfected while men continue as ugly deformed and vitious as may be And having represented our Union with Christ to be perfected we remaining in the mean time unholy he proceeds to inferr Our destroying all the necessary obligations to Holiness for the future Because then the merits and satisfaction of Christ become imputed to us to remove the guilt of sin and to deliver us from the punishment of it and his actual Obedience becomes imputed to us to make us Righteous and to give us an actual right to Glory Whether this account which gives of the Opinion of his Adversaries proceed from his ignorance or insincerity I shall not determine but false and slanderous it is and must accordingly be ascribed either to want of knowledg in these things or neglect of faithfulness in reporting what he knew of their Judgments about them whom he undertakes to oppose Having lost the Divine Image and our Integrity by the Fall we not only contend that there is the efficacy of an external Agent necessary for the recovering it and that he who imprinted the Image of God on Humane Nature in the first Creation of Man must restore it in his Regeneration but we
affirm withal that till the sanctifying Spirit effectually infallibly and by an unresisted Operation transform us into the Divine Nature and communicate to us a vital seed we remain polluted unholy and uncapable of doing any thing with all that dueness of circumstances as may commend us or our performances to Gods acceptance Not but that antecedently to the Holy Ghosts renewing us by a communication of Grace to us we may both Dogmatically believe the Doctrines of the Scripture and be found in a discharge of the material parts not only of natural Duties but of the Acts of Instituted Religion But to say that we ought thereupon to be denominated Holy is to remonstrate to the Scripture in a thousand places and to overthrow the very Tenour and design of the Gospel Now while we remain thus Un-holy we are so far from being actually united to Christ or capable Subjects of Justification and Forgiveness that till we be actually made partakers of the washing of Regeneration and the renuing of the Holy Ghost we cannot possibly have any Union with Him or have a right to Pardon of Sin or any thing that ensues or depends thereupon by Him I know not one amongst the Non-conformists who Affirmeth that wicked Men while They continue such are actually united to Christ and thereby have an actual Right to Pardon and Righteousness and Eternal Life yea that they must be united to Christ if ever they be United while they continue in sin as Mr. Sherlock is pleased without respect either to Modesty or Truth to brand them Nor do I know any Opinion maintained by them that draws such a pernicious Consequence after it But 't is no matter with some if the Deduction be odious and reproachful whether it be Rational and Coherent or not All that we plead for is this that as previously to our Union with Christ we are polluted and Un-holy so by that very Act whereby he Unites us to Himself He infuseth those Principles into us by which our Natures are cleansed and we come to be denominated Holy and Pure The Foundation of our Union and that by w ch we become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 6.17 ligu'd and cemented to the Lord is the matter of our inward Purity and the vital Seed and living principle of our following Obedience By the same Act that he assumes us into Union with Himself He transforms our Natures and by having made a Change in the Heart there infallibly follows a Change in the conversation Those very Principles by which we are regenerated are both the Ligaments which Knit and Unite us to him and the springs sources of all our Gospel Obedience 'T is a needless enquiry whether our renovation in order of Nature precede our Union with Christ or whether our Union go before our Renovation seeing in order of Time they are not only inseparable but that which is the New Creature the Seed of God and Divine Nature in us is the very Bond of our Cohesion And as none continuing Un-holy are united to Christ so neither doth our being united to Him Destroy our Obligation to Holiness and Obedience for the future of which Mr. Sherlock foolishly as well invidiously impeacheth it For besides that both the Consideration of Gods distinguishing mercy in the renewing our Natures will be a forcible Motive and Argument to Holiness and the principles already inlaid into our Hearts like a vital Form in the Soul turning it into an universal consent with Gods own Will adapt connaturalise and incline us to it The same Spirit which was the Author of our Regeneration continues both to watch over cherish foster excite and draw forth those principles and habits which he hath already infused into our souls and to communicate such farther supplies as upon our serving his promises God in his Soveraign infinite wisdom in order to his own glory thinks meet These we have described are the persons whose being united to Christ we plead for which I hope neither derives a dishonour upon the person of our Saviour nor offers any contradiction to his Gospel We disclaim being the Patrons and advocates of the Union of any Unholy person while he continues such to Christ Nor is our adversary able by any Rule of Argumentation to infer it from any of our Opinions How far he may be able to prejudice those against us who are led by Noise Clamour and Confidence instead of calm and sedate Reason I know not but amongst persons of a better figure who will not meerly be talkt into a contempt of us who hate us not out of Interest and so regulate their Faith concerning us by their Indignation I defie him a Proselyte I wish Mr. Sherlock were not in this very particular lyable to have that retorted upon himself which he hath as unjustly as invidiously fastened upon us For as I should be sorry that any thing in our own opinion should lye in such an inconsistency to the frame of the Gospel as to entitle Unholy persons to an actual Union with Christ so 't is no pleasure at all to me to find the Doctrine of an Adversary pregnant with consequences subversive of true Holiness But we must take things here as they are and he ought not to be offended to have his own Notions in this Matter modestly exposed having with so much Satyr and Contempt injuriously represented the Opinions of others And first he grants in so many words that in one sense we must be united to Christ before we can be Holy and he gives this reason for it Because the first lowest degree of our Union with Christ is a Belief of his Gospel and the belief of the Gospel being the great principle of Obedience it must needs go before it While Mr. Sherlock impeacheth us as disserving Holiness and Religion by our Notion of Union who yet allow no man to be in Christ who is not a new Creature and that Christ only dwells in us and we in him by the Spirit which he hath given us He is at the same time so unhappy and so little mindful of what he says as not only Consequentially but in Terminis to plead that men must be United to Christ before they can be Holy I know he adds That our Union is not perfected without actual obedience but if to be in Christ signify no more than being members of his visible Church which is made up of Hypocrites as well as sincere Christians as our Author tells us elsewhere I see not but that Union is compleated as well as begun without a Mans being Holy seeing to be united to Christ is no more in its full import than to be in Him Yea as if it had not been enough barely to assert that men whilest they continue in sin may be United to Christ the Scripture must be suborned to countenance it Christ sayes he speaks of such branches in him as bear no fruit and therefore
not now controvert whether by the Name Christ the Church may not sometimes be signified All I shall say is this that as the Phrases of Being in Christ engrafted into Christ and United to Christ being one Body with Christ and Brethren in Christ are to be otherwise Understood than meerly to imply Our belonging to that society whereof Christ is the Head and Governour which is the Paraphrase that Mr. Sherlock is pleased to put upon them but shall be afterwards disproved and overthrown so Gal. 3.16 and 1 Cor. 12.12 where of all other places the Church seems with the greatest probability to be signified by the Name Christ ought in my mind to be otherwise interpreted And were that my present business I should think it a matter encumbred with small difficulty to Demonstrate that 't is the Person of Christ not his Church that is immediately primarily intended by that Name in both places And truly even admitting the supposition that there is no other Union betwixt Christ and Believers but meerly a Political I do not see but that Mr. Sherlock might have allowed Christ himself to be intended wheresoever our Union with him is declared spoken of I am sure as his Hypothesis had thereby remained as consistent every way with it self so more reverence had been maintain'd towards the Scripture than there is by justling out Christ and substituting the Church in his room For example when Christ saith of himself I am the true Vine c. Our Author even in pursuance of his own Notion might have allowed him to be so and that Christ spake the Truth though in way of Paraphrase he had subjoyn'd that he was so no otherwise but by the Gospel and upon the account of his Authority over and influence upon the Church by his Doctrine and Laws I am sure the Socinians though through their denying the Divine Person of Christ they renounce all vital influences from him to Believers and disclaim his being other than a Political Head unanimously allow that where Christ says I am the true Vine he mean's himself Though the Honour of being the First-framers and erecters of the Hypothesis of Christs being meerly a Political Head to his Body be due to them yet I should be Injurious to Mr. Sherlock did I deny him the reputation of being the Contriver of this New Dresse and Trim with which he hath adorned it Only 't is attended with this Inconvenience that it is not shapen very agreeably to the place that lay before him and which should have been his measure with what handsomeness soever otherwise it be deckt and set out Whereas Christ saith Joh. 15.5 I am the vine ye are the Branches this must be expounded saith our Author to the same sense with what goes before where Christ speaking of himself saith I am the true Vine The meaning is that Church which is founded on my Gospel is the true Vine I signifies Christ together with his church which is his Body Concerning which Paraphrase I shall only recommend these things to the Consideration of the Reader 1. 'T is inconsistent with it self In one line he affirms the Church to be the true Vine and in the next he tells us that the I of which True Vine is predicated signifies Christ together with his Church yet a few lines after he contends that by I am the True Vine we can Rationally understand nothing but the Church which is founded on the Belief of the Gospel and her being the only True Church which God now owns And accordingly all the four Reasons brought in confirmation of his exposition are wholly calculated to shut Christ out from any share or claim in that Proposition I am the True Vine and to establish the Church for the alone Subject of that Enunciation Now I understand not how these things are reconcileable viz. When Christ speaks in the First Person I he cannot mean this of his own Person but of his Church and yet that I signifies Christ together with his Church pag. 145. 2 'T is altogether Novel For besides that no one Commentator who own 's the Divinity of Christ hath preceded him in it even the Socinians out of whose Mine he hath too frequently digged his Treasure do in this particular stand in opposition to him As to the Manner of our being in this Vine viz. through a Belief of and adhesion to Christs Doctrine our Author hath the Exposition of Schlichtingius to befriend him But I know none of the Socinians that have been so front-less or who have so far steeld their brow as to preclude Christ from being understood here by the True Vine 3. 'T is repugnant to the Universal Reason and sense of Mankind For though there may be Contrasts about the Subject of an Enunciation when the Expression is in the 2 d. or 3 d. Person yet it was never till Mr. Sherlock wrote so much as questioned but that when the Person speaking affirms any thing of himself in the 1 st person he himself is the Subject of that Proposition Christ therefore being the Person speaking saying of himself I am the True Vine 't is both to give him the lye and to contradict the Reason that Mankind is determined by in judging of the Subject of a Proposition to say he is not the True Vine but the Church is so 4. It offers violence to the Harmony of the Context For 1 Though we can easily conceive how a particular Believer may be in the Church yet 't is impossible to a apprehend how the Church can be in a particular Believer And therefore seeing 't is the same Identical I of whom the True Vine is predicated v 1. that in you and in them is affirmed of v. 4 5. either the whole Church must be allowed to be in every Individual Christian which is impossible or else the Church is not signified by the â—â—n either of the places which overthrow's Mr. Sherlocks paraphrase 2 Because no Christian severed from the Vine and its Influences 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is here intended either doth or can bring forth fruit to God but this a person severed or separated from any Visible Church may do and consequently 't is not the Church which by this Metaphorical Term Vine is here meant and understood Now that one living in the fellowship and communion of no Visible Church may yet be a Christian these following Reasons do demonstrate First Because when these words were spoken there was no Church of Christ founded on the belief of the Gospel and yet there were believers 2 ly Because 't is possible for a man to be a Christian where there is no visible Church for him to be united to And unless we should suppose a Number to be converted together we must grant this to have been the case at least for a time of such as first embraced the Faith of the Gospel in Heathen
Nations 3 dly Because a person may be cast out from actual Communion with the whole visible Church and yet remain a disciple of Christ and a true Believer And that this hath been the lot of some of the best servants of God might be made manifest in diverse Instances if it were either necessary or lay now before me 4 Because no adult person especially such as are not sprung of Christian and Covenant-parents either hath or can plead a right of admission into the visible Church of Christ who both doth not live to God and of whose so doing there is not some previous Moral Certainty and Evidence Interest in Christ by Faith is the Foundation of all that Interest which any Man rightfully hath in the Church as a Member of it It is through a Relation and habitude to Him as our Vital Head that we come to be knit together as Members of the same Body So far is our Communion with the Church from being the Fountain and spring of our Holiness that as it s our being Holy that entitles us to the Communion with the Church before God so it is our seeming to be so that entitles us to her communion before Men. So that upon the whole our Authors Gloss of the Churches being understood by the True Vine proving contradictious to it self repugnant to the Reason of Mankind in the measures by which they judg concerning the sense of a Proposition as well as inconsistent with and irreconcileable to the Context and withal Novel I hope he will find few Proselytes to it and fewer Advocates for it And as the Arguments upon which he hath built it are no other than vain and trifling Pretences so the most plausible of them have been already replyed to and the futilousness of the rest shall hereafter if necessity do so require be made manifest I shall shut up this with Dr. Hammonds Paraphrase of the Text whom I suppose none of the Conforming-Clergy will either upbraid with Ignorance or deny him to equal Mr. Sherlock both in the knowledg of Divinity and the Docttrine of the Church of England I am the True Vine and my Father is the Husband Man is thus Glossed by him I am the True Generous Fruit bearing Vine Jer. 22.1 my Blood as the blood of the Grape shall Rejoyce the Heart of God and Man Jud. 9.12 And my Father who hath thus planted me in this World here below hath the whole ordering of all that belong to me and every Branch every Believer every Member of my Mistical Body And accordingly he understands our abiding in the Vine ver 5. to be in the Virtue of Grace communicated from Christ to us Having discharged the Church and the Doctrine of the Gospel from being signified by the Name Christ as that Word and Name denotes the Term to which Believers are united it remains that we declare what is the true import and just meaning of it with respect to the room it hath in the present Question And here by the Name of Christ we understand the person of Christ nor is any thing else intended properly by it in the whole Gospel Supposing that secondarily and in way of Trope it occur sometimes used to imply the Doctrine of the Gospel and may be sometimes to signify the Christian Church yet that primarily and properly it doth not denote the Person of Christ is a blasphemous wild Imagination That Christ is a Person was never denied by any unless it be the Quakers who neither know what the Idea of Person is which they deny him to be nor what themselves intend in the acknowledgment they make of Him The Arrians and Socinians deny the Divinity of his Person the Manichees of old disclaimed the real Manhood of His Person The Nestorians asserted two Persons in him as well as two Natures but that he was a Person some one way or other hath been always granted till a Generation hath of late arisen who neither understand whereof they speak nor what they renounce But the Enquiry is What we mean by the person of Christ to which Believers must be united And this we are obliged the rather to declare our selves about seeing Mr. Sherlock is pleased to Character us as having here out-done all the Metaphysical subtilties of Suarez Pag. 200. First then By the Person of Christ we understand more than his being a meer Man There are a sort of Gentlemen who though they own the Personality of Christ yet they wholly renounce the Divinity of His Person And to give them their due 't is upon the supposition of his being a meer Man that they allow him to be only a Political Head to his Members Nor is this any thing but a just pursuance of their former Principle for not admitting Him to be God 't is impossible that he should be a Head in respect of Vital Influences to any And I wish that among the many Expositions of Scripture-Texts which our Author hath transcribed from them he had not in complyance with them perversely sensed even such places wherein their design is to undermine the Deity of the Son of God I would not be thought to impeach Mr. Sherlock of opposing the God-head of Christ but this I affirm that if his Glosses of Col. 1.19 Col. 2.3 and 2.8 Joh. 14.20 Joh. 1.14 which are the very same that the Socinians impose upon those places be admitted we have some of the main proofs of it wrested out of our hands Secondly Though by the Person of Christ to whom we are United we understand more than a meer man yet we also affirm that he is truly and properly a Man As we do not Un-God him with the Arians and Socinians so neither do we Un-man him with the Marcionites and Manichees As he is truly and Essentially God and not meerly styled so upon the account of his wonderful Conception the Sanctity of His Life His Power of working Miracles His Resurection from the Dead His Rule and Care over the Church and the like so He is as truly and essentially Man having assumed the whole and entire Humane Nature with whatsoever belongs to it as a necessary Affection or Adjunct He had both a true Organical Body and was not a meer Spectrum or Phantasm in the shape and form only of a Man as Marcion and Manes blasphemously imagined and had also a true Humane Rational Soul nor was the Deity meerly instead thereof supplying its Office to the Body as Apollinaris with equal folly and perversness asserted Thirdly We do by the Person of Christ to which we are United intend and understand more than his God-head and Man-hood abstractedly and separately considered And if this be The outdoing all the Metaphysical subtilties of Suarez which our Author Chargeth us with that we have found out a Person for Christ in this sense distinct from his God-head and Man-hood we think not to have done would have been as far from Wit as Truth A deep and mysterious Doctrine
their parts come to Multiply into many different species 2 Some purely Immaterial among whom whether there be any specifical difference is pro and con disputed 3 Man a Compositum of both having an Immaterial Intellectual Soul joyned to an Organical Body Now say they God having in his Soveraign pleasure thought Good to form Man such a Creature he hath not only by an Uncontroulable Law confined the Soul to an intimate presence with and constant residence in the Body while it remains a fit receptacle or till he give it a discharge but withall hath made them dependent upon one another in many of their operations And in this mutual dependence of the one upon the other with respect to many of their operations they state the Union betwixt the Soul and Body to consist For through the impressions that are made upon the Organs of Sense there result in the Soul certain perceptions and on the other hand through the Cogitations that arise in the Soul there ensue certain Emotions in the Animal Spirits And thus say they by the Action of each upon the other their passion from one another they are formally united But all this instead of loosing the knot serves only to tye it faster For 1 This mutual dependency as to operation of one upon the other cannot be apprehended but in posteriority of Nature to Union and consequently the Formal Reason of Union cannot consist in it 2 There are cases wherein neither the impressions of outward objects upon the Sensory Nerves beget or excite any perceptions in the Soul which whether it proceed from obstinacy of Mind or intense contemplation alike answers my drift and also cases wherein Cogitations of the Mind make not any sensible impressions upon the Body as in Ecstasies and yet the Union of the Soul and Body remains undissolved which argues that it imports more than either an intimous presence or a dependence between them in point of operation 3 'T is altogether unintelligible how either a Body can act upon a Spirit or a Spirit upon a Body I grant it may be demonstrated that they do so but the manner of doing it or indeed how it can be done is not intelligible That a Tremor begot in the Nerves by the Jogging of particles of Matter upon the sensory Organs should excite cogitations in the Soul or that the Soul by a meer thought should both beget a Motion in the Animal Spirits and determine through what meatus they are to steer their course is a Phaenomenon in the Theory of which we are perfectly non-plust How that which penetrates a Body without giving a Jog to or receiving a shove from it should either impress a Motion upon or receive an impression from it is unconceivable So that to state the Union of the Soul and Body in a reciprocal action upon and passion by and from one another is to fix it in that which surpasseth the Sagacity of our Faculties to conceive how it can be Now if Common Unions of whose reality and Existence we are so well assured be nevertheless with respect to their Nature not only so unknown but unconceivable we may lawfully presume if there lye nothing else against the Immediate Union of Believers with Christ save that it cannot be comprehended that this is no argument why we should immediately renounce the belief of it If we can but once justify that there is such an Union betwixt the blessed Jesus and sincere Christians the incomprehensibleness of the manner of it ought not to discourage our Faith If we can take up with the Evidence of Sense and Reason as to the reality of other Unions whose Modes are as little understood I see no cause why the Veracity of God providing we can produce the Authority of Divine Testimony should not satisfie us as to the reality of the Union though the manner How it is were a question we could not answer § 6. The import of Terms being fixed we are now to make a nearer approach to the matter it self And the first thing that the threed of Reason conducts us here to is this that be the Kind manner of our Union what it please yet it is the person of Christ which we are united to For suppose it to be Political and that the only Vinculum be our owning his Laws yet forasmuch as Christ only personally considered both doth enact them and exact Obedience to them and punish our Rebellion against them our Relation to Him as Subjects doth ultimately respect his Person All the reverence we pay his Laws under the Reduplication as His bears upon the Veneration we pay Himself However he come by his Soveraign Dominion over the Church 't is his Person that it is stated and vested in Whatever room either our Obedience on the one hand or the Gospel of Christ upon the other have in this Relation of Union the Extremes United they cannot be Whether it be by means of our Union only with the Christian Church or by what Copula soever else we are United to Him Yet 't is still to the person of Christ i. e. to Christ himself that we are United Or suppose it to be only a Moral Union an Union in Mind Love Design and Interest a being acted by the same Principles having the same temper and disposition of Spirit yet still 't is between the Person of Christ and the persons of Believers that this Union intercedes For as they through the guidance of sanctified Reason embrace cleave to and with the greatest complacency delight in him so He through their participating of his likeness and haveing his Image imprinted on them loveth and embraceth them In a word all Unions except Natural or Physical are the Relations of Persons to Persons 'T is the Husband and Wife themselves that are ligu'd together by the matrimonial Tie 'T is between the persons of Subjects and the Person of the Prince as clothed with Authority that the Political Nexus consists I cannot therefore but stand surprised to find Mr. Sherlock both endeavoring to disable such Texts of Scripture as are levied in proof of an Union between Believers and the Person of Christ whereof § 4. and impeaching his Brethren that they are not satisfied that Christ and Believers are united unless their Persons be united too For let the Union as to its Quality and manner be what it will suppose an Union by mutual Relations or Affections or common Interest yet it is the Person of Christ and the Persons of Believers that the Habitude and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lies between Yea this our Author acknowledgeth though all he reap by it is to contradict himself For this is a very plain case says he If Christ and Believers are United their Persons must be united too for the Person of Christ is Christ Himself the Persons of Believers are the Believers themselves and I cannot understand how they can be united without their Persons that is without themselves Nor
him being presupposed our submitting to the Ordinance and Institution of Baptism is a visible profession of it 'T is not enough that we are perswaded of the Truth of the Christian Religion and that we secretly embrace it but we are publickly to own it and to tell the World that we are of such a Belief As Baptism presupposeth Repentance which respects our turning to God as our End and Faith which implye's our owning Christ as our Way so our being Baptised into the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost is a solemn declaring to the world our coming to God by Jesus Christ through the Sanctification Influence and Conduct of the Spirit Nor is our naked promise so Authentick as when we publickly seal to the Articles required of us 'T is both a Badg and Symbol of our profession and a Bond Obligation upon us to discharge the Duties which our profession of Christianity calls us to Hence it is called an Answer towards God which as it supposeth the demands of the Covenant so it proclayms our undertaking to perform them 4. The Union of the Catholick Visible Church consisting in a joynt profession of the same Lord Faith and Baptism there doth therefore upon a Persons submitting to the Ordinance of Baptism such a Relation to the whole Catholick Visible Church emerge as that he is rendred a compleat Member of the Church under the consideration of Catholick Visible By this as by a solemn Rite we become visibly separated from the World and enrolled amongst those who have consigned over and consecrated themselves unto the service and obedience of Father Son and Holy Ghost So far is our Union with the Visible Church by means of Baptism from being the Medium of our Union with Christ that it is our dedicating our selves to Christ by this August ceremony which constitutes us compleat Members of the Church under the Notion of Visible Secondly As to the Argument Levied from the Lords Supper I reply these things 1. The Supper of the Lord though a Sacrament of Union yet it cannot be the first Medium of our Union with the Church seeing none have a right to it but such as are already Church-Members Men are first to approve themselves sincere Christians before they are to approach the Holy Table Only those that have Fellowship with God in Christ have a title of participating at this Christian Eucharistical Feast Much less is it the Medium of our Political Union with Christ it being only through a previous subjection of our Consciences to his Authority that we celebrate this Ordinance 2. As by Baptism we publickly avow our taking upon us the profession of Christianity so by the Lords Supper we ratify our perseverance and renew our engagements of being the Lords By coming to his Table we proclaym our selves of his Famimy and declare our resolution of continuing to be his Followers and Retainers 'T is a profession of our being in Covenant with him and that we will remain constant and faithful in it 3. Though as I have already said it can neither be the Medium of our Union with the Church nor with Christ yet it is both a Symbol of the one the other 'T is an eminent badge of that Union which is and ought to be among Christians Our eating at the same Table is an argument of our being of one and the same Family Forasmuch as we all eat of one Loaf that is the meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 10.17 we do thereby intimate that we are one Body and Members of the same Christ. Yet at such a distance doth this lye from evincing our Union with Christ to be by means of our union with the Church that indeed nothing else than an Antecedent union with Christ can give us a Right to partake of this Sacred Supper or of Fellowship and Communion with the Church in it Thus the Reader may see that even on the supposition that our Union with Christ is meerly a Political Union or such a Relation only as is between a Prince and his Subjects yet that it is immediate and not by the means of an Antecedent Relation to the Christian Church Having then dispatched the first thing which I laid down in opposition to Mr. Sherlocks Hypothesis That wherein my concernment next lyes is to prove that the Union between Christ and Christians is not meerly Political And if I be but able to acquit my self in this undertaking the whole of Mr. Sherlocks Notion in reference to the Union of Christ to Christians is subverted and overthrown And it being here that we have our Authors most Heroick Adventures and where especially he seems to speak as standing on his Tiptoes it is but fit that he should be the more peculiarly attended to In opposition therefore to his Assertion that the Union of Christians with Christ is only a Political Union that is such an Union as is between a Prince and his Subjects I Advance this Antithesis that a Political Relation doth not adequately express that Oneness which the Scripture so augustly celebrates as interceding betwixt Christ and Believers This directly contradicts Mr. Sherlocks third and fourth Conclusions which indeed are coincident For to affirm that the Union betwixt Christ and the Christian Church is a Political Union that is such an Union as is between a Prince and his Subjects which is his third proposition and to say that our Fellowship and Communion with God according to the Scripture-Notion signifies what we call a Potical Union which is his fourth are according to the best understanding of Enunciations I have coincident and equipollent propositions Now in discoursing this we are to take all our measures from the Scripture and to regulate our conceptions by it alone For this Union between Christ and Christians is one of those Mysteries which no Ideas congenite with us nor objective discoveries in the works of Creation and Providence could have conducted us to the knowledg of 'T is a Truth which our Intellectual Faculties in their Immediate exercise could never have discerned nor hath it any connexion with the things which we naturally know to be collected and deduced from them Though by attending to Revelation we may come to frame an intelligible Notion of it yet as it is considered in it self and with reference to other Doctrines of Faith on which it depends we could never have form'd any apprehensions of it if the Gospel had not previously declared and revealed it Now the first Argument in proof that our Union with Christ is more than Political shall be levied from those Symbolick Metaphors and Terrene Figures and Images by which the Holy Ghost is pleased to express it I have in the fore going Chapter assigned this as one Reason among others why God who doth all things in Infinite Wisdom declares the Mysteries of Faith under Earthly Parables and Symbols namely that Spiritual Things which lye remote from our Understandings may
q. 5. and they will satisfie them This is all that I shall offer at present in opposition to Mr. Sherlocks Hypothesis nor should I have said so much but that it is here where we have his most Heroick adventures and where he seems all along to speak as strutting and standing on his tiptoes 'T is here that he flings down the Gantlet to all the World and treads the Stage with no less state and majesty than as if he intended to erect lasting Trophies to himself for having baffled the received Opinion of the whole Christian Church And 't is here that most particularly I have accepted his Challenge and bid him battel on his ground and at his own weapons and as to the issue of the Encounter I leave it to the Reader to pronounce betwixt him and me This I do affirm that as I have not declined him in any thing where he seem'd to argue like a Man and a Schollar so I must beg his pardon if in some things I have forborn him and given back forasmuch as I was not willing to be under the temptation of exposing him too much And upon this very inducement I thought once to have overlookt his Argument taken from the Nature of the Sacraments which he brings in proof that all the Union between Christ and Christians is meerly political but upon second thoughts I am resolved to say something to it least by being left in the way it should put some to a stand though it should put none to a retreat We have already encountered the same forces in another field and being defeated there there is the less likelyhood of their standing it long out here As we have disabled this Medium from serving our Author against the Immediate Union of Christ with Believers so we will now venture to see what strength is in it against the common Opinion of the Christian Church about the Nature quality of the Union that is between Him and them Now I take it for granted says he that there can be no better way to understand the Nature of our Union with Christ than to consider the Nature of those Sacraments which were designed as the Instruments and signs of our Union with Him and if we will take that account the Scripture gives of them all the Union they signifie is a publick and visible profession of our Faith in Christ and subjection to Him as our Lord and Saviour and a sincere conformity of our hearts and lives to the Nature and Life of Christ. Thus Baptism is a publick profession of the Christian Religion that we believe the Gospel of Christ own his Authority and submit to his Government And the Lords Supper is a Federal Rite which answers to the Feasts or Sacrifices under the Law whereby we renew our Covenant with the Lord and vow obedience and subjection to him c. For answer Baptism and the Lords Supper being Ordinances instituted by Christ in a Habitude to the whole tenour of the New Covenant as it mutually obligeth both on Gods part and outs accordingly they may be considered either as they respect us or as they respect God who hath instituted and ordained them As they respect us they are both Symbols of our Profession and solemn engagements upon us to Duty As they respect God who hath appointed them they are representations of the mercies of the Covenant and Ratifying seals of it But to speak a little particularly to each of them First to Baptism Baptism as it is the outward way and means of our Initiation into the Lord Jesus Christ and of our matriculation into the Catholick Visible Church so it is the great representation of the inward washing of Regeneration and of our being renewed by the Holy Ghost The effusion of the Spirit being often likened to the pouring forth of water See Isa. 44.3 4 5. Ezek. 36.25 26 27. Joh. 3.5 Joh. 7.38 Heb. 10.22 So in Baptism it is most excellently signified and represented The Spirit saith Dr. Patrick is very well signified by water for as that cleanseth purifieth from filth so the Spirit of God is the sanctifier of Gods people purging and cleansing their hearts from all impurities Now the Spirit being no otherwise the spring and principle of all our Sanctification but as he is the Bond and Vinculum of our mystical Union with Christ out of whose fulness we receive all the Grace which we are made partakers of therefore Baptism being a representation of the effusion of the Spirit it is also an adumbration of the Union which we plead for 2ly As to the Lords Supper As the Lords Supper is a visible Symbol and Badg of our abiding in Christ into whom by Baptism we were Initiated and an obligation to all the Duties of growth and progress in Christianity so it is really exhibitive of Christ to us and a representation of our Spiritual Union with Him As the Bread and Wine could not in any congruity of speech be called the Body and Blood of Christ if they were not exhibitive of them so our eating his Flesh and drinking his Blood in a Sacramental sense can signifie no less than our being spiritually incorporated with him The Cup of Blessing saith the Apostle which we bless is it not the Communion of the Body of Christ 1 Cor. 10.16 And as by one Spirit we are Baptized into one Body so we are all made to drink into one spirit 1 Cor. 12.13 Our very Author tells us not aware that thereby he overthrows his whole Hypothesis that the Lords Supper is a spiritual feeding on Christ an eating his Flesh and drinking his Blood which signifies the most intimate Union with him that we are Flesh of his Flesh and Bone of his Bone Eph. 5.30 The Apostle in the place that Mr. Sherlock refers to doth in way of illustration of the Union between Christ and Christians allude to the Oneness which was between Adam and Eve Now that was greater than the Oneness between any other Husband or Wife in the World for she was not only of the same specifick Nature with Him and knit to him in a Matrimonial tye by God himself but she was extracted and formed out of his very Body and so is the fitter Symbol of the Intimate Union that is between Christ and Believers And thus I hope I have not only wrested this weapon out of Mr. Sherlocks hand but struck through his cause with it § 13. It being acknowledged on all sides that there is an Union between Christ and sincere Christians and it being now declared and made manifest what it is not I might here wind up without proceeding any further or undertaking to assign the true and just Notion of it Nor is Religion exposed by our affirming some of its Mysteries to be incomprehensible Our Reason fails us when we attempt to give an account of our selves and the obvious phaenomena of Nature and therefore we may well allow it unable to
by virtue of their being vested with an Office are obliged to yet to ascribe Actions to an Office as if it were the very Agent whereas it is meerly the Foundation from which an Obligation to the performance of such and such Actons in the due discharge of it results whatever Wit or profoundness his Friends may Imagine in it I cannot otherwise account of it than a piece of sublime Nonsense And Nonsence is not to be refuted but exposed For he betrayes the weakness of his own Reason who undertakes to encounter an absurd Phrase with Arguments Nor Secondly doth the Name Christ in the Question under Debate signifie the Gospel and Religion of Christ. 'T is indeed by the Doctrine of the Gospel as a Moral means that we come to be united to Christ but 't is not It that we are united to As the Gospel alone reveals our Union with Christ and as the Communication of the Spirit the repairing the Image of God in our Souls are only promised by it So God in his soveraign Wisdom hath ordained it to be the alone Vehiculum of the Spirit and the means of ingenerating Faith in our Hearts which are the Bonds of our Union Hence 't is called the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 3.8 in opposition to the Law which was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And as the purity of its Precepts and the nobleness of its Promises do admirably qualify and adapt it as an Objective Moral means of restoring the Image of God in us so through the Blessing of God attending it as His solemn Institution to this End we become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by it 2 Pet. 1.4 Though no Physical Efficiency is to be ascribed to it yet besides a Moral Efficacy which through its own frame and complexion it hath to reform Mankind beyond what any Declaration of God our selves that ever the World was made acquainted with had There is a Physical efficacious Operation of the Spirit of God accompanies it on the score of the Lords having in Infinite Sapience ordained it as a means for the communicating Grace But still 't is not the Doctrine of the Gospel that we are united to 'T is true that it is both by the Doctrine of the Gospel that we are brought to be united to Christ and 't is also true that whosoever are united to Him have the Doctrine of the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as an ingraffed and incorporated Word and are moulded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into the Form of its Doctrine But yet 't is not the Terminus of the Relation of Union which intervenes betwixt Christ and them nor is it That which they are united to Mr. Sherlock I confess tells us that when Christ Joh. 15. speaks of the First person I and in Me he cannot mean this of his own person but of his Church Doctrine and Religion and that by I in him v. 4. and I in you v 5. we are to understand the Christian Doctrine dwelling and abiding in us 'T is pretty to observe with what nimble removes from the Church to the Doctrine of Christ again from the Doctrine to the Church of Christ our Author paraphraseth the first five or Six verses of that Chapter The I and me in the first 2d verses are glossed as referring to the Church I am the true Vine the meaning is saith Mr. Sherlock that Church which is founded on the Belief of my Doctrine is the true Vine Every Branch in me i. e. saith he every Member of my visible Church But then the I in you and the I in him v. 4. and 5. are expounded of the Doctrine of Christ. His flying from one quarry to another argues some inconvenience and danger he foresaw his exposition of the place encumbred with or else that some vertigo troubled his pericranium I shall at present only examine so much of his paraphrase as respects those words where in stead of the person of Christ he will have the Doctrine and Religion of Christ to be understood That which he interprets as relating to the Church of Christ which can only be understood also of his person shall hereafter be taken into consideration And as to that which lyeth now before me 't is enough not only to prejudice Mr. Sherlocks exposition but to overthrow it with all Judicious persons that-Expressions of the same Nature are not allowed the same sense I know that one and the same Word is sometimes in one the same verse differently sensed when the subject Matter context scope of the Discourse do so require But to impose disagreeing and various meanings upon Expressions of one and the same Nature occurring together where one and the same sense may safely be admitted is to violate all Laws of Exposition and to make the Scripture pliable to what purposes we please The in you and the in him v. 4. and 5. are predicates referring to the same I affirmed of the same Subject that True Vine is predicated of v. 1. and 5. But it being as well absurd to style the Doctrine of the Gospel the true Vine as to assert concerning the Church that it is in us our Author hath therefore found it necessary to make the subjects of the Propositions different though there needs no more where the Judgment is not forestalled and the mind under a chosen Occecation than the meer inspection of the Paragraph to ascertain the contrary 2 Though the subject of a Proposition may be brought into Debate where it is expressed by a Relative Pronoun yet when one speak's of Himself in the First Person by a Pronoun Demonstrative as the Evangelist introduceth Christ here doing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to say that he speaks not of Himself is no less than to give him the Lie Words in the common acceptation and stated sense of them being infallible manifestative signs of the Conceptions of the Speaker when the Author is Veracious I would know of Mr. Sherlock that supposing it had been the design of Christ to have told us that by I in you and I in Him he meant himself how he could have done it otherwise or in Terms of a more determined signification What better Evidence can we have of the sense of a Place than that had an Author intended such a meaning he could have used no plainer Expression to declare it 3 The I in you v. 4. is the same with the I that had spoken to them and through whose Word they were made clean v. 3. Now to think that this could be the Doctrine of Christ or any other than Christ himself is a Non-sensical Imagination What friendship our Author hath for the Religion of Christ I cannot tell but that he expounds Scripture at a high rate of confidence to the derogation of his Person is by the Instance before us too plain evident Nor do we Thirdly in the Question under consideration understand by Christ the Church of Christ. I shall