God hath not life I am the Vine and you are the Branches he which abideth in Me and I in him the same bringeth forth much Fruit but the Branch severed from the Vine withereth We are therefore adopted Sons of God to Eternal Life by Participation of the only begotten Son of God whose Life is the well-Spring and Cause of ours It is too cold an Interpretation whereby some Men expound our being in Christ to import nothing else but only that the self-same Nature which maketh Us to be Men is in him and maketh him Man as We are For what Man is there in the World which hath not so far forth Communion with Jesus Christ. It is not this can sustain the weight of such sentences as speak of the Mystery of our Coherence with Jesus Christ. The Church is in Christ as Eve was in Adam Yea by Grace we are every of Us in Christ and in his Church as by Nature we are in those our first Parents God made Eve of the Rib of Adam and his Church he formed out of the very flesh the very wound and bleeding side of the Son of Man His Body crucified and his Blood shed for the Life of the World were the true Elements of that Heavenly being which maketh Us such as himself is of whom we come For which cause the words of Adam may be fitly the Words of Christ concerning his Church Flesh of my flesh and Bone of my Bones a true Native Extract out of mine own Body So that in him even according to his Manhood we according to our Heavenly being are as Branches in that Root out of which they grow To all things he is Life and to Men Light as the Son of God to the Church both Life and Light Eternal by being made the Son of Man for Us and by being in Us a Saviour whether we respect him as God or as Man Adam is in us as an original Cause of our Nature and of that Corruption of Nature which causeth Death Christ as the Cause Original of Restauration to Life The Person of Adam is not in us but his Nature and the Corruption of his nature derived into all Men by Propagation Christ having Adam's Nature as we have but incorrupt deriveth not Nature but incorruption and that immediately from his own Person into all that belong unto him As therefore we are really partakers of the Body of Sin and Death received from Adam so except we be truly partakers of Christ and as really possessed of his Spirit all we speak of Eternal Life is but a Dream That which quickneth us is the Spirit of the Second Adam and his Flesh that wherewith he quickneth That which in him made our Nature uncorrupt was the Union of his Deity with our Nature And in that respect the Sentence of Death and Condemnation which only taketh hold upon sinful flesh could no way possibly extend unto him This caused his Voluntary Death for others to prevail with God and to have the force of an Expiatory Sacrifice The Blood of Christ as the Apostle witnesseth doth therefore take away Sin because through the Eternal Spirit he offered himself unto God without spot as that which sanctifyed our nature in Christ that which made it a Sacrifice available to take away sin is the same which quickneth it raised it out of the Grave after Death and exalted it unto Glory Seeing therefore Christ is in Us as a quickning Spirit the first degree of Communion with Christ must needs consist in the participation of his Spirit which Cyprian in that respect well termeth germanissimam Societatem the highest and truest Society that can be between Man and him which is both God and Man in One. These things Saint Cyril duly considering reproveth their Speeches which taught that only the Deity of Christ is the Vine whereupon we by Faith do depend as Branches and that neither his Flesh nor our Body are comprised in this Resemblance For doth any Man doubt but that even from the flesh of Christ our very Bodies do receive that Life which shall make them Glorious at the Latter Day and for which they are already accounted parts of his Blessed Body Our Corruptible Bodies could never live the Life they shall live were it not that here they were joyned with his Body which is incorruptible and that his is in ours as a Cause of Immortality a cause by removing through the Death and Merit of his own flesh that which hindred the Life of Ours Christ is therefore both as God and as Man that true Vine whereof we both Spiritually and Corporeally are Branches The Mixture of his Bodily Sâ—bstance with ours is a thing which the Ancient Fathers disclaim Yet the Mixture of his Flesh with ours they speak of to signify what our very Bodies through Mystical Conjunction do receive from that Vital Efficacy which we know to be in his and from Bodily Mixtures they borrow divers similitudes rather to declare the Truth than the manner of Coherence between his sacred and the sanctâ—fyed Bodies of Saints Thus much no Christian Man will deny that when Chrâ—st sanctifyed his own flesh giving as God and taking as Man the Holy Ghost he did not this for himself only but for our sakes that the Grace of Sanctification and Life which was first received in him might pass from him to his whole Race as Malediction came from Adam unto all Mankind Howbeit because the work of his Spirit to those Effects is in us prevented by Sin and Death possessing us before it is of necessity that as well our present Sanctification unto neâ—ness of Life as the future restauration of our Bodies should presuppose a participation of the Grace Efficacy Merit or Vertue of his Body and Blood without which Foundation first laid there is no Place for those other operations of the Spirit of Christ to ensue So that Christ imparteth plainly himself by degrees It pleaseth him in Mercy to account himself incompleat and maimed without us But most assured we are that we all receive of his fulness because he is in Us as a Moving and Working Cause from which many blessed Effects are really found to ensue And that in Sundry both kinds and Degrees all tending to Eternal Happiness It must be confessed that of Christ working as Creator and as Governour of the World by Providence all are Partakers not all Partakers of that Grace whereby he inhabiteth whom he Saveth Again as he dwelleth not by Grace in all so neither doth he equally work in all them in whom he dwelleth Whence is it saith Saint Augustin that some be Holier than others are but because God doth dwell in some more plentifully than in others And because the Divine substance of Christ is equally in all his Human Substance equally distinct from all it appeareth that the participation of Christ wherein there are many Degrees and Differences must needs consist in such Effects as being derived from both Natures of Christ
trifling Declamations But yet with his good leave I do yet belâ—eve that there is no saving Knowledge of or acquaintance with God or his Properties to be attained but in and through Jesus Christ as revealed unto us in the Gospel And this I can confirm with Testimonies of the Scripture Fathers Schoolmen and Divines of all sorts with Reasons and Arguments such as I know this Author cannot Answer And whatever great apprehensions he may have of his Skill and Abilities to know God and his Properties by the Light of Nature now he neither knowes nor is able to distinguish what he Learns from thence and what he hath imbibed in his Education from an Emanation of Divine Rvelation yet I believe there were as wise men as himself amongst those Ancient Philosophers concerning whom and their enquiries into the Nature of God our Apostle pronounces those censures Rom. 1. 1 Cor. 1. But on this goodly Foundation he proceeds unto a particular Inference pag. 44. saying And is not this a Confident Man to tell us that the Love of God to Sinners and his Pardoning Mercy could never have entred into the Heart of Man but by Christ when the experience of the whole World confutes him For whatever becomes of his new Theories both Jews and Heathens who understood nothing at all of what Christ was to do in order to our Recovery did believe God to be Gracious and Merciful to Sinners and had reason to do so because God himself had assured the Jewes that he was a Gracious and Merciful God pardoning Iniquity Transgressions and Sins And those natural Notions Heathens had of God and all those Discoveries God had made of himself in the works of Creation and Providence did assure them that God is very Good and it is not possible to understand what Goodness is without pardoning Grace I beg his Excuse Truth and good Company will give a modest Man a little Confidence sometimes And against his Experience of the whole World falsly pretended I can oppose the Testimonies of the Scripture and all the Ancient writers of the Church very few excepted We can know of God only what he hath one way or other revealed of himself and nothing else And I say again that God hath not revealed his Love unto Sinners and his Pardoning Mercy any other way but in and by Jesus Christ. For what he adds as to the knowledge which the Jews had of these things by Gods Revelation in the Scripture when he can prove that all those Revelations or any of them had not respect unto the Promised Seed the Son of God to be exhibited in the Flesh to destroy the works of the Devil he will speak somewhat unto his Purpose In the mean time this insertion of the consideration of them who enjoyed that Revelation of Christ which God was pleased to build his Church upon under the old Testament is weak and impertinent Their apprehensions I acknowledge concerning the Person of Christ and the specialty of the work of his Mediation were dark and obscure but so also proportionably was their Knowledge of all other Sacred Truths which yet with all Diligence they enquired into That whicâ— I intended is expressed by the Apostle 1 Cor. 2.9 It is written Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard neither have entred into the Heart of Man the things which God hath prepared for them that Love him but God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit What a Confident Man was this Apostle as to affirm that the things of the Grace and Mercy of God did never enter into the heart of Man to conceive nor would so have done had they not been revealed by the Spirit of God in the Gospel through Jesus Christ. But this is only a Transient Charge there insues that which is much more severe pag. 45. As for Instance he tells us that in Christ that is in his Death and Sufferings for our sins God hath manifested the Naturalness of this Righteousness i. e. Vindictive Justice in punishing Sin that it was impossible that it should be diverted from Sinners without the interposing of a Propitiation that is that God is so Just and Righteous that he cannot pardon sin without satisfaction to his Justice Now this indeed is such a Notion of Justice as is perfectly New which neither Scripture nor Nature acquaints us with For all Mankind have accounted it an Act of Goodness without the least suspicion of injustice in it to remit injuries and offences without exacting any punishment that he is so far from being Just that he is cruel and savage who will remit no offence till he hath satisfied his Revenge The Reader who is in any measure or degree acquainted with these things knows full well what is intended by that which I have asserted It is no more but this that such is the Essential Holiness and Righteousness of the Nature of God that considering him as the Supreme Governour and Ruler of all Mankind it was inconsistent with the Holiness and Rectitude of his Rule and the Glory of his Government to pass by sin absolutely or to pardon it without Satisfaction Propitiation or Atonement This I said was made Evident in the Death and Sufferings of Christ wherein God made all our Iniquities to meet upon him and spared him not that we might obtain Mercy and Grace This is here now called out by our Author as a very dangerous or Foolish Passage in my Discourse which he thought he might highly advantage his Reputation by Reflecting upon But as the Orator said to his Adversary Equidem vehementer laetor eum esse me in quem tu cumcuperes nullam contumeliam jacere potueris quae non ad maximam partem civium conveniret So it is here fallen out If this man knows not that this is the Judgment of the generality of the most Learned Divines of Europe upon the matter of all who have engaged with any success against the Socinians one or two only excepted I can pitty him but not relieve him in his unhappiness unless he will be pleased to take more pains in reading good Books than as yet he appeareth to have done But for the thing it self and his Reflections upon it I shall observe yet some few things and so pass on As first the opposition that he makes unto my Position is nothing but a crude Assertion of one of the meanest and most absurd Sophisms which the Socinians use in this Cause Namely that every one may remit injuries and offences as he pleaseth without exacting any Punishment Which as it is true in most Cases of Injuries and offences against Private Persons wherein no others are concerned but themselves nor are they obliged by any Law of the Community to pursue their own Right so with respect unto Publick Rulers of the Community unto such Injuries and offences as are done against supreme Rule tending directly unto the Dissolution of the Society centring in it to suppose that such Rulers
are not obliged to inflict those punishments which Justice and the preservation of the Community doth require is a fond and ridiculous Imagination destructive if pursued unto all Humane Society and rendring Government an useless thing in the World Therefore what this Author who seems to understand very little of these things adds that Governours may spare or punish as they see Reason for it if the Rule of that Reason and Judgment be not that Justice which respects the Good and Benefit of the Society or Community they do amiss and sin in sparing and punishing which I suppose he will not ascribe unto the Government of God But I have fully debated these things in sundry writings against the Socinians so that I will not again enlarge upon them without a more important occasion It is not improbable but he knows where to find those Discourses and he may when he pleases exercise his skill upon them Again I cannot but remarque upon the Consequences that he chargeth this Position withal and yet I cannot do it without begging pardon for repeating such horrid and desperate Blasphemies pag. 46. The Account saith he of this is very plain because the Justice of God hath glutted it self with Revenge on sin in the Death of Christ and so henceforward we may be sure he will be very kind as a Revengful man is when his Passion is over pag. 47 The sum of which is that God is all Love and Patience when he hath taken his fill of Revenge as others use to say that the Devil is very good when he is pleased pag. 59 The Justice and Vengeance of God having their Actings assigned them to the full being glutted and satiated with the Blood of Christ God may c. I desire the Reader to remember that the Supposition whereon all these inferences are built is only that of the Necessity of the Satisfaction of Christ with respect unto the Holiness and Righteousness of God as the Author of the Law and the supream Governour of Mankind And is this Language becoming a Son of the Church of England Might it not be more justly expected from a Jew or a Mahumetan from Servetus or Socinus from whom it is borrowed than from a Son of this Church in a Book published by Licence and Authority But it is to no purpose to complain those who are pleased with these things let them be so But what if after all these impious Blasphemous consequences do follow as much upon this Author's opinion as upon mine and that with a greater shew of Probability And what if forgetting himself within a few Leaves he says the very same thing that I do and casts himself under his own severest Condemnation For the first I presume he owns the Satisfaction of Christ and I will suppose it until he directly denies it therefore also he owns and grants that God would not pardon any sin but upon a supposition of a previous satisfaction made by Jesus Christ. Here then lies all the difference between us that I say God could not with respect unto his Holiness and Justice as the Author of the Law and Governour of the World pardon sin absolutely without Satisfaction he says that although he might have done so without the least diminution of his Glory yet he would not but would have his Son by his Death and suffering to make Satisfaction for Sin I leave it now not only to every learned and impartial Reader but to every Man in his Wits who understands common sense whether the Blasphemous Consequences which I will not again defile Ink and Paper with the Expression of do not seem to follow more directly upon his Opinion than mine For whereas I say not that God requireth any thing unto the Exercise of Grace and Mercy but what he grants that he doth so also Only I say he doth it because requisite unto his Justice he because he chose it by a free Act of his Will and Wisdom when he might have done otherwise without the least disadvantage unto his Righteousness or Rule or the least Impeachment to the Glory of his Holiness the odious Blasphemies mentioned do apparently seem to make a nearer approach unto his Assertion than unto mine I cannot proceed unto a farther Declaration of it because I abhor the Rehearsal of such horrid Prophaneness The Truth is they follow not in the Least if there be any thing in them but odious Satanical Exprobrations of the Truth of the Satisfaction of Christ on either Opinion though I say this Author knows not well how to discharge himfelf of them But what if he be all this while â—â—ly roving in his Discourse about the things that he hath no due comprehension of merely out of a transporting desire to gratifie himself and others in traducing and making Exceptions against my Writings What if when he comes a little to himself and expresseth the Notions that have been instilled into him he saith expresly as much as I do or have done in any place of my writings It is plain he doth so pag. 49. in these words As for sin the Gospel assures us that God is an irreconcileable Enemy to all Wickedness it being so contrary to his own most Holy Nature that if he have any love for Himself and any esteem for his own Perfections and Works he must hate Sin which is so unlike himself and which destroys the beauty and perfection of his Workmanship For this End he sent his Son into the World to destroy the works of the Devil c. Here is the Substance of what at any time in this Subject I have pleaded for God is an irreconcileable Enemy to all wickedness that it is contrary to his Holy Nature so that he must â—ate it and therefore sends his Son c. If Sin be contrary to Gods Holy Nature if he must hate it unless he will not Love himself nor value his own perfections and therefore sent his Son to make Satisfaction we are absolutely agreed in this matteâ— and our Author hath lost operam oleum in his attempt But for the matter it self if he be able to come unto any consistency in his thoughts or to know what is his own mind therein I do hereby acquaint him that I have written one intire Discourse on that Subject and have lately reinforced the same Argument in my Exerâ—itations on the Epistle to the Hebrews wherein my Judgment in this Point is declared and maintained Let him attempt an Answer if he please unto them or do it if he can What he farther discourseth on this Subject pag. 46 47. consisteth only in odious Representations and vile Reflections on the Principal Doctrines of the Gospel not to be mentioned without offence and Horrour But as to me he proceeds to except after his Scoffing manner against another Passage pag. 47 48. But however sinners have great Reasons to rejoyce in it when they consider the Nature and End of God's Patience and forbearance towards them viz. That it
is God's taking a Course in his Infinite Wisdom and Goodness that we should not be destroyed notwithstanding our Sins that as before the least Sin could not escape without Punishment Justice being so natural to God that he cannot forgive without Punishing So the Justice of God being now satisfied by the Death of Christ the greatest Sins can do us no hurt but we shall escape with a notwithstanding our Sins this it seems we learn from an Acquaintance with Christ's Person though his Gospel instructs us otherwise that without Holiness no Man shall see God But he is here again at a Loss understands not what he is about That whereof he was discoursing is the necessity of the Satisfaction of Christ and that must be it which he maketh his Inference from But the Passage he insists on he layes down as expressive of the End of God's Patience and forbearance towards Sinners which here is of no Place nor Consideration But so it falls out that he is seldom at any agreement with himself in any Parts of his Discourse the Reason whereof I do somewhat more than guess at However for the Passage which he cites out of my Discourse I like it so well as that I shall not trouble my self to inquire whether it be there or no or on what occasion it is introduced The Words are that God hath in his Justice Wisdome and Goodness taken a Course that we should not be destroyed notwithstanding our Sins that is to save Sinners for he that believeth although he be a Sinner shall be saved and he that believeth not shall be damned as one hath assured us whom I desire to believe and trust unto If this be not so what will become of this Man and my self with all our Writings for I know that we are both Sinners and if God will not save us or deliver us from destruction notwithstanding our Sins that is pardon them through the bloodshedding of Jesus Christ wherein we have Redemption even the forgiveness of Sins it had been better for us that we had never been born And I do yet again say that God doth not that he will not pardon the least Sin without respect unto the Satisfaction of Christ according as the Apostle declares 2 Cor. 5.18 19 20 21. And the Expression which must be set on the other side on the supposition thereof the greatest Sin can do us no harm is this Mans addition which his usual respect unto Truth hath produced But withal I never said I never wrote that the only supposition of the Satisfaction of Christ is sufficient of it self to free us from Destruction by Sin There is moreover required on our Part Faith and Repentance without which we can have no Advantage by it or Interest in it But he seems to understand by that Expression notwithstanding our Sins though we should live and dye in our Sins without Faith Repentance or New-Obedience For he supposeth it sufficient to manifest the Folly of this Assertion to mention that Declaration oâ— the mind of Christ in the Gospel that without Holiness no Man shall see God I wonder whetâ—er he thinks that those who believe the Satisfaction of Christ and the Necessiâ—y thereof wherein God made him to be Sin who knew no Sin that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him do believe that tâ—e Personal Holiness of Men is indispensibly necessary unto the pleasing and enjoyment of God If he suppose that the Satisfaction oâ— Christ and the necessity of oâ—r Personal Holiness are really inconsistent he mâ—st be treated in another manner If he suppose that although they are consistent yet those whom he opposeth do so trust to the Satisfaction of Christ as to judge that Faith Repentance and Holiness are not indispensibly necessary to salvation he manifests how well skilled he is in their Principles and Practices I have always looked on it as a piece of the highest disingenuity among the Quakers that when any one pleads for the Satisfaction of Christ or the Imputation of his Righteousness they will clamorously cry out and hear nothing to the contrary yea you are for the Saving of polluted defiled Sinners let men live in their Sins and be all foul within it is no matter so long as they have a Righteousness and a Christ without them I have I say always looked upon it as a most disingenuous procedure in them seeing no one is Catechised amongst us who knoweth not that we press a necessity of Sanctification and Holiness equal with that of Justification and Righteousness And yet this very course is here steered by this Author Contrary to the constant Declaration of the Judgments of them with whom he hath to do contrary to the common evidence of their Writings Preaching Praying Dâ—sputing unto another purpose and that without relieving or counâ—enancing himself by any one Word or Expression used or utterred by them he chargeth as though they made Holiness a very indifferent thing and such as it doth not much concern any Man whether he have an Interest in or no. And I know not whether is more marvelous unto me that some Men can so far concoct all Principles of Conscience and Modesty as to publish such slaunderous Untruths or that others can take contentment and satisfaction therein who cannot but understand their Disingenuity and Falshood His proceed in the same Page is to Except against that Revelation of the Wisedom of God which I affirm to have been made in the Person and Sufferings of Christ which I thought I might have asserted without offence But this Man will have it that there is no Wisdome therein if Justice be so Natural to God that nothing could satisfy him but the Death of his own Son That any thing else could satisfy Divine Justice but the sufferings and Death of the Son of God so far as I know he is the first that found out or discovered if he hath yet found it out Some have imagined that God will pardon Sin and doth so without any satisfaction at all And some have thought that other ways of the Reparation of Lost Mankind were possible without this Satisfaction of Divine Justice which yet God in his Wisdome determined on But that Satisfaction could be any otherwise made to Divine Justice but by the Death of the Son of God Incarnate none have used to say who know what they say in these things But Wisdom he saith consists in the choice of the best and fittest means to attain an End when there were more ways than one of doing it but it requires no great Wisdom to chuse when there is but one possible way Yea this it is to measure God things Infinite and Divine by our selves Doth this Man think that God's Ends as ours have an Existence in themselves out of him antecedent unto any Acts of his Divine Wisdom Doth he imagine that he ballanceth Probable means for the attaining of an end chusing some and rejecting others Doth he
and Ridiculous For every one who is not wilfully blind must see that by Ordained I intended not any Ordination as to the Futurition of Sin but the Disposal of Sin to its Proper End being Committed or to ordain it unto its End upon a Supposition of its Being which quite spoils this Authors ensuing Harangue But my Judgment in this matter is better expressed by another than I am able to do it my self and therefore in his words I shall represent it It is Augustine Saith he Saluberrime confitemur quod rectissime credimus Deum Dominumque rerum omnium qui creavit omnia bona valde mala ex bonis exortura esse praescivit scivit magis ad suam omnipotentissimam bonitatem pertinere etiam de malis benefacere quam mala esse non sinere sic ordinâsse Angelorum hominum vitam ut in ea prius ostenderet quid posset eorum liberum Arbitrinm deinde quid posset suae Gratiae beneficium Justitiaeque judicium This our Author would have to be God's bartering with Sin the Devil for his Glory the bold impiety of which expression among many others for whose necessary expression I crave pardon manifests with what frame of Spirit with what Reverence of God himself and all holy things this Discourse is managed But it seems I add that the Demonstration of God's Justice in Measuring out unto Sin a meet Recompence of Reward is Discovered in Christ as this Author says Let him read again The Comminations and Threatnings of God in the Law c. If this Man were acquainted with Christ he could not but Learn somewhat more of Truth and Modesty unless he be wilfully stupid But what is the Crime of this Paragraph That which it teacheth is that Sin in its own Nature hath no End but the dishonour of God and the Eternal Ruine of the Sinner That by the Sentence and Curse of the Law God hath manifested that he will Glorify his Justice in the Punishing of it as also that in and through Jesus Christ he will Glorify Grace and Mercy in its Pardon on the Terms of the Gospel What would he be at If he have a mind to quarrel the Bible and to conflict the Fundamental Principles of Christianity to what purpose doth he cavil at my obscure Discourses when the proper Object of his Displeasure lies plainly before him Let us proceed yet a little farther with our Author although I confess my self to be already utterly wearied with the Perusal of such Vain and Frivolous Imaginations Yet thus he goes on pag. 53. Thus much for the Knowledge of our selves with respect to Sin which is hid only in the Lord Christ. But then we Learn what our Righteousness is wherewith we must appear before God from an Acquaintance with Christ. We have already Learned how unable we are to make atonement for our Sins without which they can never be forgiven and how unable we are to do any thing that is Good and yet nothing can deliver us from the Justice and Wrath of God but a full satisfaction for our sins and nothing can give us a Title to a Reward but a perfect and unsinning Righteousness What should we do in this Case how shall we escape Hell or get to Heaven when we can neither Expiate for our part Sins or do any Good for the Time to come Why here we are relieved again by an Acquaintance with Christ. His death Expiates former Iniquities and removes the whole guilt of Sin But this is not enough that we are not Guilty we must also be actually Righteous not only all Sin is to be answered for but all Righteousness is to be fulfilled Now this Righteousness we find only in Christ we are reconciled to God by his Death and saved by his Life That actual Obedience he yielded to the whole Law of God is that Righteousness whereby we are saved we are Innocent by Vertue of his Sacrifice and Expiation and righteous with his Righteousness What is here interposed that we cannot do any Good for the Time to come must be interpreted of our selves without the Ayd or Assistance of the Grace of God And the Things here reported by this Author are so expressed and represented to expose them to Reproach and Scorn to have them esteemed not only false but ridiculous But whether he be in his Wits or no or what he intends so to traduce and scoff at the Fundamental Doctrines of the Gospel I profess I know not What is it he would deny What is it he would assert Are we able to make an Atonement for our Sins Can we be forgiven without an Atonement Can we of our selves do any good without the Aid and Assistance of Grace Can any Thing we do be a full Satisfaction for our Sins or deliver us from the wrath of God that is the Punishment due to our Sins Doth not the Death of Christ expiate former Iniquities and remove the whole Guilt of Sin Is the contrary to these things the Doctrine of the Church of England Is this the Religion which is Authorised to be Preached and are these the Opinions that are Licensed to be publshed unto all the World But as I observed before these things are other Mens Concernment more than mine and with them I leave them But I have said as he quotes the Place that we are reconciled to God by the Death of Christ and saved by his Life that actual Obedience which he yielded to the whole Law of God As the former part of these words are expresly the Apostles Rom. 5.10 and so produced by me so the next words I add are these of the same Apostle if so be we are found in him not having on our own Righteousness which is of the Law but the Righteousness which is of God by Faith which he may do well to consider and answer when he can Once more and I shall be beholding to this Author for a little respite of severity whilst he diverts to the Magisterial Reproof of some other persons Thus then he proceeds pag. 55. The third part of our Wisdom is to walk with God and to that is required Agreement Acquaintance a Way Strength Boldness and aiming at the same End and all these with the Wisdom of them are hid in Jesus Christ. So far are my words to which he adds The sum of which in short is this that Christ having expiated our Sins and fulfilled all Righteousness for us though we have no personal Righteousness of our own but are as contrary unto God as Darkness is to Light and Death to Life and an Universal Pollution and Defilement to an Universal and Glorious Holiness and Hatred to Love yet the Righteousness of Christ is a sufficient nay the only Foundation of our Agreement and upon that of our walking with God though St. John tells us if we say we have fellowship with him and walk in Darkness we lye and do not the Truth but if we walk in the
therein But that there is not Grace and Mercy declared and tendred in the Gospel also unto all sorts of sinners under any qualifications whatever who upon its Invitation will come to God through Christ by Faith and Repentance is an impious Imagination A Discourse much of the same Nature followes concerning the Love of Christ after he hath treated his Person and Grace at his pleasure And this he takes occasion for from some Passages in my Book as formerly scraped together from several places so as he thought fit and convenient unto his Purpose Page 209. Thus the Love of Christ is an Eternal Love because his Divine Nature is Eternal and it is an Unchangeable Love because his Divine Nature is Unchangeable and his Love is Fruitfull for it being the Love of God it must be effectual and fruitfull in producing all the things which he willeth unto his Beloved He loves Life Grace Holiness into us loves us into Covenant loves us into Heaven This is an Excellent Love indeed which doth all for us and leaves nothing for us to do We owe this Discovery to an Aquaintance with Christ's Person or rather with his Divine Nature for the Gospel is very silent in this matter All that the Gospel tells us is that Christ Loveth Sinners so as to die for them that he Loves Good men who believe and obey his Gospel so as to save them that he continues to Love them while they contitinue to be good but hates them when they return to their old Vices and therefore I say there is great Reason for Sinners to fetch their Comforts not from the Gospel but from the Person of Christ which as far excells the Gospel as the Gospel excells the Law I do suppose the Expressions mentioned are for the substance of them in my Book and shall therefore only enquire what it is in them which he excepteth against and for which I am reproachched as one that hath an Acquaintance with Christ's person which is now grown so Common and Trite an Expression that were it not condited unto some Mens Pallats by its Prophaneness it would argue a great barrenness in this Author's Invention that can vary no more in the Topick of Reviling It had been well if his Licenser had accommodated him with some part of his Talent herein But what is it that is excepted against Is it that the love of Christ as he is God is Eternal or is it that it is Unchangeable or is it that it is Fruitful or effective of Good things unto the persons Beloved The Philosopher tells us that to Love for any one is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is this Efficacy of the Love of Christ which must bear all the present Charge The meaning of my words therefore is that the Love of Christ is unto us the Cause of Life Grace Holiness and the Reward of Heaven And because it is in the Nature of Love to be effective according unto the Ability of the person Loving of the Good which it wills unto the Object beloved I expressed it as I thought meet by Loving these things to us And I am so far on this occasion and the severe Reflection on me for an Acquaintance with Christ from altering my thoughts that I say still with Confidence he who is otherwise minded is no Christian. And if this Man knows not how the Love of Christ is the Cause of Grace and Glory how it is effective of them and that in a perfect consistency with all other Causes and means of them and the Necessity of our Obedience he may do well to abstain a little from Writing until he is better informed But saith he this is an Excellent Love indeed which doth all for us and leaves us nothing to do But who told him so who ever said so Doth he think that if our Life Grace Holiness Glory be from the Love of Christ Originally Causally by vertue of his Divine Gracious operations in us and towards us that there is no Duty incumbent on them who would be made partakers of them or use or improve them unto their proper ends Shall we then to please him say that we have neither Life nor Grace nor Holiness nor Glory from the Love of Christ but whereas most of them are our own Duties we have them wholly from our selves Let them do so who have a mind to renounce Christ and his Gospel I shall coâ—e into no Partnership with them For what he adds all that the Gospel teaches us c. He should have done well to have said as far as he knows which is a Limitation with a witness If this be all the Gospel which the Man knows and Preaches I pity them whom he hath taken under his Instruction Doth Christ in his Love do nothing unto the quickning and Conversion of Men Nothing to the Purification and Sanctification of Believers Nothing as to their Consolation and Establishment Nothing as to the Administration of strength against Temptations Nothing as to Supplies of Grace in the increase of Faith Love and Obedience c. This Ignorance or Prophaneness is greatly to be bewailed as his ensuing Scoff repeated now usque ad Nauseam about an opposition between Christ and his Gospel is to be despised And if the Lord Christ hath no other Love but what this man will allow the state of the Church in this world depends on a very slender thread But attempts of this Nature will fall short enough of prevailing with sober Christians to foregoe their Faith and Perswasion that it is from the Love of Christ that Believers are preserved in that condition wherein he doth and will approve of them Yea to suppose that this is all the Grace of the Gospel that whilest me are good Christ loves them and when they are bad he hates them both which are true and farther that he doth by his Grace neither make them Good nor preserve them that are so made is to renounce all that is properly so called He yet proceeds first to evert this Love which I asserted and then to declare his own Apprehensions concerning the Love of Christ. The first in the ensuing words Pag. 210. But methinks this is a very odd way of arguing from the Divine Nature For if the Love of Christ as God be so Infinite Eternal Unchangeable Fruitfull I would willingly understand how Sin Death and Misery came into the World For if this Love be so Eternal and Unchangeable because the Divine Nature is so then it was alwayes so For God alwayes was what he is and that which is Eternal could never be other than it is now and why could not this Eternal and Unchangeable and Fruitfull Love as well preserve us from falling into Sin and Misery and Death as love Life and Holiness into us For it is a little odd first to love us into Sin and Death that then he may love us into Life and Holiness which indeed could not be if this Love of God were alwayes
almost nothing that Christ hath done but we are said to do it with him we are Crucifyed with him we are Dead with him Buried with him Quickned together with him In the actings of Christ there is by Vertue of the Compact between him as Mediator and the Father such an assured Foundation laid that by Communication of the Fruit of these Actings unto those in whose stead he performed them they are said in the participation of these Fruits to have done the same things with him But he is quite out in the reason of these Expressions which is not that we are accounted to do the same things which Christ did for the things here mentioned belong to the peculiar Office of his Mediation which he told us before were not reckoned as done by us but because we do somethings like them our dying to Sin is a Conformity to the Death of Christ and our walking in newness of Life is our Conformity to his Resurrection and the consideration of the Death and Resurrection of Christ is very powerful to engage us to dye to Sin and to rise unto a new Life and this is the true Reason of these Phrases Any man may perceive from what he is pleased here himself to report of my words that I was not treating about the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ which he is now inveighing against And it will be much more evident unto every one that shall cast an eye on that discourse but the design of this confused rambling I have been forc'd now frequently to give an account of and shall if it be possible trouble the Reader with it no more The present difference between us which he was ambitious to represent is only this that whereas it seems he will allow that those expressions of our being crucified with Christ dead with him buried with him quickned with him doe intend nothing but only our doing of something like unto that which Christ did I doe adde moreover that we doe those things by the vertue and efficacy of the Grace which is communicated unto us from what the Lord Christ so did and acted for us as the Mediator of the New Covenant whereby alone we partake of their power communicate in their vertue and are conformed unto him as our Head wherein I know I have as the Testimony of the Scripture so the Judgement of the Catholick Church of Christ on my side and am very little concerned in the censure of this person that I am quite out in the reason of those expressions For what remains of his Discourse so far as I am concerned in it it is made up of such Expositions of some Texts of Scripture as issue for the most part in a direct contradiction to the Text it self or some express passages of the Context So doth that of Gal. 4.4 5. which he first undertakes to speak unto giving us nothing but what was first invented by Crellius in his Book against Grotius and is almost translated Verbatim out of the Comment of Schlicting upon the place the remainder of them corruptly Socinianising against the sence of the Church of God Hereunto are added such pitifull Mistakes with Reflexions on me for distinguishing between Obeying and Suffering which Conceit he most profoundly disproves by shewing that one may Obey in Suffering and that Christ did so against him who hath written more about the Obedience of Christ in Dying or laying down his Life for us than he seems to have read on the same subject as also concerning the Ends and Uses of his Death which I challenge him and all his Companions to answer and disprove if they can as I cannot satisfie my self in the farther Consideration of no not with that speed and haste of Writing now used which nothing could give countenance unto but the meanness of the Occasion and unprofitableness of the Argument in hand Wherefore this being the manner of the Man I am not able to give an Account unto my self or the Reader of the mispence of more Time in the Review of such Impertinencies I shall adde a few things and conclude First I desire to know whether this Author will abide by what he asserts as his own Judgement in opposition unto what he puts in his Exception against in my Discourse pag. 320. All the Influence which the Sacrifice of Christs Death and the Righteousness of his Life that I can find in the Scripture is that to this we owe the Covenant of Grace that is as he afterwards explains himself That God would for the sake of Christ enter into a New Covenant with Mankind wherein he promiseth Pardon of Sin and Eternal Life to them that Believe and Obey the Gospel I leave him herein to his second thoughts for as he hath now express'd himself there is no Reconciliation of his Assertion to common sence or the fundamental Principles of Christian Religion That God entred into the New Covenant Originally only for the sake of those things whereby that Covenant was ratified and confirmed and that Christ was so the Mediator of the New Covenant that he dyed not for the Redemption of Transgressions under the first Covenant whereby the whole Consideration of his Satisfaction and of Redemption properly so called is excluded that there is no Consideration to be had of his Purchase of the Inheritance of Grace and Glory with many other things of the same importance and that the Gospel or the Doctrine of the Gospel is the New Covenant which is only a perspicuous Declaration of it are things that may become these New Sons of the Church of England which the Elder Church would not have borne withall Secondly The Reader may take notice that in some other Discourses of mine now published which were all of them finished before I had the Advantage to peruse the Friendly and Judicious Animadversions of this Author he will find most of the Matters which he excepts against both cleared proved and vindicated And that those Principles which he directs his Opposition against are so established as that I neither expect nor fear any such Assault upon them from this sort of Men as becometh a serious Debate on things of this Nature Thirdly That I have confined my self in the Consideration of this Authors Discourse unto what I was Personally concerned in without looking at or accepting of the Advantages which offered themselves of reflecting upon him either as unto the Matter of his Discourses or unto the Manner of Expressing himself in its Delivery For besides that I have no mind and that for many Reasons to enter voluntarily into any Contest with this man the Mistakes which he hath apparently been led unto by Ignorance or Prejudice his fulsome Errors against the Scripture the Doctrine of the Ancient Church and the Church of England are so multiplyed and scattered throughout the whole that a Discovery and Confutation of them will scarce deserve the expence of Time that must be wasted therein untill a more plausible Countenance or strenuous Defence be given unto them And as for what he aimeth at I know well enough where to find the whole of it handled with more Civility and appearance of Reason and therefore when I am free or resolved to treat concerning them I shall doe so in the Consideration of what is taught by his Authors and Masters and not of what he hath borrowed from them Fourthly I shall assure the Reader that as a Thousand of such trifling Cavillers or Revilers as I have had some to deal withall shall neither discourage nor hinder me in the remaining service which I may have yet to fulfill in the Patience of God for the Church of Christ and Truth of the Gospel nor it may be occasion me any more to divert in the least unto the Consideration of what they whisper or clamour unless they are able to betake themselves unto a more sober and Christian way of handling things in Controversie so if they will not or dare not foregoe this supposed Advantage of Reproaching the Doctrine of Nonconformists under which Pretence they openly and as yet securely scorn and deride them when they are all of them the avowed Doctrines of all the Reformed Churches and of this of England in particular and if they think it not meet to oppose themselves and Endeavours unto those Writings which have been composed and published professedly in the Declaration and Defence of the Truth scoffed at and impugned by them but choose rather to exercise their Skill and Anger on Passages rent out of Practical Discourses accommodated in the Manner of their Delivery unto the Capacity of the Community of Believers as it is fit they should be I doe suppose that at one time or other from one hand or another they may meet with some such Discourse concerning Justification and the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ as may give them Occasion to be quiet or to Exercise the best of their Skill and Industry in an Opposition unto it As many such there are already extant which they wisely take no Notice of but only rave against Occasional Passages in Discourses of another Nature unless they Resolve on no Occasion to foregoe the Shelter they have betaken themselves unto FINIS Gen. 18.32 33. Rom. 6.23 Heb. 11.6 Gen. 15.1 Psal. 19.11.58 11. Mat. 5.12 Chap. 10.14 Ro. 4.4 Col. 2.18 Chap. 3.24 Heb. 10.35 Ch. 11.26 2. Pet. 2.51