and save them from sin M and though sin hath its ful power in our own humane life yet it hath no power over Christs life in us which we live through Faith Wherefore saith Paul Rom. 6.6 Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin and verse 12. saith he Let not sin therefore reign 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in your mortal or dead body which he cals dead not in reference to the common mortality of the world but in reference to our crucifying with Christ and in the body that is crucified with Christ sin is not to reign And so you see that through our crucifying with Christ we are dead to sin also N For it is impossible that Christ and sin should live together in strength in the same flesh but if sin live in our flesh it will crucifie us to Christ and if Christ live in our flesh he will crucifie us to sin 3. By being crucified with Christ we are freed from death that death that arises of sin and carries the wrath of God in it For through the death of the second Adam we are set free from the death of the first Adam and through that death to die unto life Vnbelieving flesh is the fuel of death as wood is of fire and death reigns and hath its full Dominion in the flesh of all unbelievers O but when we by faith are made members of Christs body of his flesh and bones then life reigns in Christs flesh as death in ours And so being crucified with Christ death hath no more dominion over us 4. By being crucified with Christ we are also freed from the power of the Devil The Devil haâ—h power over our flesh or humanity whilest it is our own and under the Law sin and death But when our flesh is united to Christ and is crucified by the Word and Spirit then Satan comes and hath nothing in it as he came to Christ and had nothing in him P The devil then can finde nothing in us to do us harm or whereby he may prevail against us when we are truly crucified with Christ 5. Q The flesh that is crucified with Christ is only Christs own flesh For whilest we live our own lives in unbelief we are only the flesh of the first Adam R but when the living Word and Spirit dwell in us and crucifie us then our flesh becomes the flesh of the second Adam and so far as it is crucified through the Word it is Christs flesh more then ours 6. S This crucified flesh is the only temple and habitation of God wherein he dwels and manifests himself in this world For as God dwelt in Christs flesh which was thus crucified and made it his temple so he dwels in the crucified flesh of Believers and makes that his Temple as Paul saith to Believers Ye are the temples of the living God as God hath said I will dwell in them and walk in them And God dwels in none of the flesh of all the sons of men but only in that which is crucified with Christ and that flesh that is not thus crucified is not Gods Habitation but the Devils 7. T This crucified flesh only keeps the true Christian Sabbath or the everlasting rest of the new World which is to cease from our own works and to do the works of God Whereas that flesh that is alive to it self and lives its own life in it self and the creatures never enters into the true rest nor keeps the true Sabbath but it alwayes works its own works and doth all things from it self and for it self and so long God will not use it V But when the flesh is crucified through the Word then God doth all in it and takes it out of its own life and works into his life and his works And the more any flesh is crucified with Christ the more doth God delight to use it and to work his own excellent works by it for such flesh will render no resistance to God in his working and also it will do the works of God meerly for the glory of God and good of his brother being dead to all self ends and interests 8. W This crucified flesh only is able to endure the will of God and to suffer for his Name For till the flesh be crucified with Christ and killed by the Word it will suffer nothing for God but will by all possible means avoid the crosse but when it is truly crucified it will endure the greatest evils that can be inflicted on it either by men or devils or by the Lord himself and that with much willingnesse and cheerfulnesse As we have seen in Christ the Head and Believers the Members what grievous things they have suffered for the name and truth of God in their crucified flesh And as this crucified flesh will suffer any thing for God so it wil suffer it aright that is First In obedience to God as Christ laid down his life not by necessity but willingly Secondly In meekness and patience as Christ who when he was reviled reviled not again when he suffered he threatened not but committed his cause to him that judgeth righteously And thirdly In Love and that to very persecutors so as to pitty them pray for them This is glorious suffering indeed and no flesh can suffer thus but this crucified flesh 9. X This crucified flesh as it is able to suffer all things so also to overcome all things That flesh that lives its own life is soon certainly conquered by all the evils that assault it but when it is crucified with Christ it is also quickened with him to overcome all things So Christ who was thus crucified by the Word though he seemed to the world in his death and cross to be quite vanquished yet even then he spoiled Principalities and Powers and triumphed openly over them yea and overcame all things in that crucified flesh of his For that flesh that is crucified by the Word and Spirit is thereby made Superiour to all things in that exaltation and might which the Word and Spirit communicate to it 10 Y This crucified flesh hath the very glory of Jesus Christ upon it and no flesh is so glorious in the Church as that which is most crucified with Christ for in that you shall see little of it self and most of Christ little of the first Adam and most of the second Look among all the sons of God and you shall see them that were most crucified with the Word most glorious the clear beauty of holiness being seen upon them whereas that flesh that lives much in it self in its own wit will reason prudence mind affections and the things of its first nature though there may be something of Christ in it yet all these things are so much uncomeliness and deformity upon it and are nothing but a thick vail and covering to obscure Christ himself But that
is come Vivo ego non amplius ego I live yet no more I but it is another that lives in me and I in him so that a true Christian through true faith doth lose his personality not his humanity for his nature lives but not in his own person but in the person of Christ C Indeed every man by nature and according to his first birth is a distinct person by himself and lives a proper life of his own in and by himself till faith comes and knits him unto Christ and then he subsists in Christs person and is no more a person distinct by himself so far as he is gathered up into Christ through faith and the Spirit and lives and acts in him For then Christ is made so one with a Christian and a Christian with Christ that there is no more distinction between them in this Vnity then there is between the head and a member Now the knowledge of this point through the Experience of faith is of excellent use to a Christian in the matter of his salvation D In as much as each man as he is a distinct person by himself is under the Law and appertains to the Kingdom of the Devil and is within the reach and power of death and hell but as he is taken into Jesus Christ by faith that is as he is taken into his Person as his member and loseth his own person so he is free from the law sin and death as Christ is free So that if the law sin death or the devil come to a believer to accuse terrifie or condemn him he because of this most real and near union with Christ may reply in truth and say It is not I I am not I I am through faith become a member of Christ and I am he and he is I and if you have any thing to say say it to the Person himself for I am but a Member and do live in his person The clear and spiritual knowledge of this matter would be a great support to us in all times of temptation and in all deep sense of sin and wrath seeing we commonly in such sad and painful hours do look upon our selves as persons by our selves and distinct from Christ and then we do truly both fear and feel sin and death and hell within us and then also the Devil and our own evil consciences are too mighty for us when we consider our selves in our selves Wherefore at such times we must needs prevail by faith and know that we through faith are not persons by our selves but that we are Parts and Members of Christ and live in his Person and consequently in so near union with him that Christ cannot be saved without us nor we perish without him And so none can lay any thing to our charge but what Christ hath taken upon himself and overcome for us and so the Law Sin Death Hell and Devil can as soon prevail against Christ as against us who are so joyned to him that we are one flesh and Spirit with him E It is true if we were persons by our selves these evils and enemies would be too hard for us but being drawn unto Christ by the Father and being by him also implanted in Christ and made Branches of that Vine and Members of that Person we thus become one with him who is conquerour of all things and we our selves also are more then Conquerours in him Wherefore let us all know that in the matter of our Adoption Justification Sanctification and of our whole Salvation F Prorsus abjicienda est persona as Luther saith We must wholly cast away our own person and be united into one person with Christ yea and lose our person in his seeing out of this union Christ profits no body either to the escaping sin and death or to the obtaining righteousnesse and life G Wherefore for the escaping these eternal evil things and for the obtaining these eternal good things we must necessarily be so taken up into Christ that we must say with Paul It is no more I. ANIMADVERSION XI A IT is such plain Scripture doctrine that our humane reason judgement prudence wil c. is refined and spiritualized in us through the spirit of Christ and that in the strength of that renovation through the spirit we live unto God in our humane life and native faculties refin'd and spiritualliz'd that to indeavour to take men off from thinking so is a very anti-scriptural attempt See Rom. 12.2 Ephes 4.23 1 Thes 5.23 If Mr Dell thinks he hath left himself a starting hole in these words distinct and apart from Christ He may know that all understanding Christians acknowledge that the refining and spiritualizing of our humane faculties to a heavenly disposition and life proceedeth only and wholly from union to Christ through his spirit and cannot possibly be enjoyed distinct and apart from him These words therefore distinct and apart from Christ are not of sufficient vertue to secure Mr Dels present Paradox from appearing very heterodox to judicious observers If Paul had but one humane life in him and were but one and the self same man as to his native faculties before and after Christ lived in him which I think is undeniable then it will necessarily follow or I am much mistaken that the life he lived after Christ lived in him was onely his own life purified and refined the life of his own reason judgement prudence and will c. refined and spirituallized through the spirit of life in Christ Jesus the Apostles writing of such in whom Christ lives set them forth as the self-same persons in respect of their humane life and faculties but purified and refined to be very different persons from what they were formerly God be thanked that you were the servants of sin but you the self-same you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you Rom. 6.17 And again seeing you have purified not any other but your souls by obeying the truth through the spirit 1 Pet. 1.22 And again Every man that hath this hope in him purifies himself not any other as he is pure 1 John 3.3 It seems to me most evident that the nature of regeneration renovation vivification and sanctification necessarily require that the subject of them the man which is begotten again renewed quickned from the dead and sanctified be the self-same as to his humane life and faculties before and after this blessed change be wrought in him for if the subject in this change be not identically the same what can be imaginably said to be chang'd The words of Zanchius on the 23. verse of the 4. chapter to the Ephesians seems to me to carry much light and reason in them who shewing why the Apostle expressed the renovation of beleevers by the putting off of the old and putting on the new man writeth thus ut significaret sicut vestis res est diversa ab eo qui eam induit c.
and the faithful in all Ages are filling up the remainders of the sufferings of Christ in his body For believers have all along suffered and do still suffer from the World because God is in them of a truth and the evil done to them is against God himself who dwells in them And against this Rock have all the unbelievers dash'd themselves in pieces all along 4. Christ who lives in believers lives in them like himself that is like the Son of the living God and so those in whom he lives 1. He frees them from their own evil things and 2. He confers upon them all his own good things 1. He frees them from their evil things And in reference to these he lives in them as their Redeemer and Saviour and so Christ within them abolishes the Law takes away sin and destroyes death for none of these things can dwell in his presence in that soul wherein he lives F For he is our new Law to make void the Old and he is our new Righteousnesse to take away sin and our new life to destroy death and the Law Sin and Death can have no place nor power where Christ our new Law Righteousnesse and Life dwels and lives 2. Christ living in believers confers upon them his own good things G For Christ the Son of God hath nothing in himself that is in his Divine nature which he will not communicate to our flesh as he hath done to his own according to our place and use in his body and so he communicates to all those in whom he dwells of all the things of God till at last he fill them with all the fulnesse of God And thus is Christ glorified in his Saints and admired in them that believe 5. H If it be Christ the true God that lives in believers then we learn hence what true justification is and that is to be so one with Christ by faith that Christ himself may live in us and we in him that he may communicate his nature to us and our nature may be taken up into his for we cannot be Justified before God by our own living but by Christs living in us his own life and his righteousnesse which is the righteousnesse of God must dwell in us e're we can be Justified before God I Lastly seeing Christ himself lives in all true believers let us all who professe our selves to be such so live that Christ may be seen to live in us more then our selves that they that have known us may know us no more but may know Christ in us and that they that have communion with us may acknowledge Christ himself speaking working and living his whole life in us in all self-denyall humility holinesse love resignation of our selves to the will of God and in all diligence to do the work of God and readinesse to suffer the will of God for thus Christ lived in his own flesh and thus also he will certainly live in ours if he live there at all and when Christ lives in our flesh as he did in his own something of his glory will be seen upon us Now such a Christian in whom Christ lives and he lives not himself how amiable would he be in the spiritual Church but how unlike would he be to all the men in the world yea to the most Professors in that which is called the visible Church but I proceed to that which follows ANIMADVERSION 14. A MAster Dell should do well to name the men who look for all the life of Christ in his humanity and do not acknowledge that Christ lived truly in Paul and doth live in all the faithful by his spirit If none such appear as I am confident there will not amongst knowing Protestants he might have saved his use of rectification at least wise in respect of them B That Christ the true God is instead of all created habits of grace yea that he is truly all grace unto believers seems to be a position very dissonant from Scripture doctrine and which to my best remembrance I never saw Printed nor heard uttered until now Paul fully distinguished the spirit in believers from the sanctifying graces of believers which he calleth the fruits of the spirit Gal. 5.22,23 and in divers places he teacheth that the graces flow by way of creation from Christ through his spirit 2 Cor. 5.17 Ephes 2.10 and 4.24 Might the Scriptures be heard I think created graces and Christ in believers would not be opposed or confounded but Christ dwelling in believers by his spirit be acknowledged not to be all grace but the fountain of all created graces in them for of his fulnesse have we all received and unto every one of us is grace given according to the measure of the gift of Christ Ephes 4.7 That the Godhead which dwelt in our Saviour was in him instead of all grace as Mr Dell confidently affirmeth needs proof before it be believed The fear of the Lord fiducial hope in God and other holy graces seem plainly according to Scripture doctrine to have been wrought habitually in our Saviours humane nature by the Spirit which was given him without measure Esay 11.2 and 61.1 Acts 10.38 It is quickly affirmed that created habits of grace in a Christian are empty notions and vaine speculations of School-men and of carnal and unbelieving hearts But doubtlesse men of holy and believing hearts have conceived that God in the Scripture makes mention of the habitual grace of righteousnesse wrought by the Lord Christ in his people Phil. 1.11 Eph. 4.24 as also the habitual graces of faith and love 1 Tim. 1.14 Acts 18.27 and of patience James 1.4 and the like flowing all from the Lord Christ as the vine which hath the sap of all grace originally in himself But that the Lord Christ is all grace to a believer I never yet read in any Scripture As to the place here produced by Mr Dell as expresly teaching the same sc 1 Cor. 1.30 I find it not there said that Christ is all grace to a believer nor do I imagine how it should be convincingly argued from that text which as far as I yet see only setteth forth our Saviour as made by God to his believing people the author and object of saving wisdom the treasure of Gods righteousnesse unto justification the root of sanctification through his spirit and the worker of the ful redemption of his people All which may be granted and is believed of those who yet believe that there is habitual operative grace wrought by â—hrist through his Spirit in his believing people enabling them in some measure unto every good work acording to 1 Cor. 15.10 C It is certain that our Lord Christ is the only ground of acceptation with God unto believers but that he is the only acceptable grace to God as Mr Dell here affirmeth is never as I know said in Scripture Love acting towards the Saints is pointed at as acceptable to God Heb. 6.10 and
life of the soul in a man is not confined to the Head but disperseth it self to all the members and is truly manifest in them ANIMADVERSION 16. A SEeing there are such a sort of people as Mr Dell here describeth How careful should the servants of God be not to take away old and sure foundations and give them new grounds to build upon He should do well to consider how far he is from saying that believers live the life of Christ and that they live immediately in God who saith that Christ liveth in believers as in his own flesh and that the life of the Son of God was communicated to Christs flesh instead of his proper humane life and is likewise to be seen in all believers as the life of the soul in a man is not confined to the heart but disperseth it self to all the members and is truly manifest in them Is not the self same life of the soul in head and members doth not every member live immediately in the life of the soul If Mr Dell say that he disliketh not the profession of the men he pointeth at for affirming according to his own doctrine that they live the life of Christ and that they live immediately in God but only for some higher notions wherein they soar above the pitch of his discoveries and for walking unanswerably in regard of what they teach in common with himself then he should do well to lay this seriously to his heart whether it can possibly be said of any creature whatsoever in truth that it lives immediately in God It is true that every man even the worst of men do live and move and have their being in God Acts 17.28 in this regard that through the acting of Gods Almighty power in them and towards them they are acted unto life motion and being yet so that they live move and be not immediately in God but in those natural principles which God works and whereby he works in them to live and move and be And again it is true that the humanity of our Saviour through the grace of personal union was immediately joyned unto God yea so far into God that by communication of properties his humane bloud was the bloud of God Acts 20.28 and his humane life the life of God 1 John 3.16 yet had the humanity of our Saviour a proper life of its own distinct from the life of the Eternal Word which humane life he laid down for us our Saviour had not been in all things made like to us his brethren which is affirmed Heb. 2.17 if he had not in his humane nature lived an humane life immediately resulting from the union of his humane soul and body as all other children of men do If his humane nature had lived immediately in God and so necessarily the life of God it would have been not only as it was the nature of God but the divine nature which certainly it was not being both passible and mortal Now if it be not true of our blessed Saviours manhood or humane nature that it lived immediately in God how much lesse can this be truly affirmed of any other man or creature whatsoever And when men are so far besotted with ignorance and puffed up with spiritual pride as to vaunt that they live the life of Christ even the life of the eternal Word and Son of the living God and so live immediately in God the life of God it is no strange thing to me to see such lofty ones who if they be true to their most false principles must needs own themselves as divers of them have done to be God though they have been professors of the Gospel left by God in a way of righteous judgement under hellish dotage and delusion to live the life of sin and Satan in the flesh in all manner of filthinesse and uncleannesse and loosnesse and abominable profanenesse for the meek God will guide in judgement and the meek he will teach his way Psal 25.9 Though the Lord be high yet hath he respect to the lowly but the proud he knoweth afar off Psal 138.6 B Can Mr Dell make this to consist with his own words in the former part of this book sc Sin hath its ful power in our humane life And again when he saith that when we are made members of Christs body then life reigns in Christs flesh as death in ours If sin and death have full power and do reign in our own flesh how then as Mr Dell here affirms do we live Christs life in our own flesh Is it not true that it is impossible that Christ and sin should live together in strength in the same flesh that is elsewhere and I think very justly laid down by Mr Del for an unquestionable position C If the life of Christ be first communicated to the spirit of our mind as Mr Del here affirmeth and I believe then I conceive that it will necessarily follow that our reason judgement prudence c. is refined and spiritualized unto new life in which believers live unto God which he seems unwilling to have men think to be so in the former part of this Treatise Sect. 11. A For doth not the minde of man denote his reason and rational faculties which have not only an influential but regulative power also over the whole man And how can the life of Christ be communicated first to the reason and rational faculties but by purifying refining and spiritualizing of them that they may act under the spirit of Christ for the dispersing of holinesse through the whole man and so subjecting every inferiour faculty in man unto the holy will of God I like his doctrine in this place very well if he can make it consist with what he hath before affirmed I should be glad to see it effected in consistency with Scripture doctrine D As our present natural life by Mr Dels own confession doth not hinder but that we may live a spiritual and heavenly life or the very life of Christ in our flesh if we be true believers no more doth our natural personality which is founded in this our natural life hinder but that believers according to the Apostle may be quickned together with Christ and raised up together with him and seated in him in heavenly places There seems therefore no cause in relation to their union unto Christ to deny their personality as is done by Mr Del. Sect. 11. B C E This in a sound Scripture sence is no new or strange doctrine for it is certain that God hath given to his people eternal life and this life is in his Son He that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Son hath not life 1 John 5.11,12 Believers have eternal life begun in them through Jesus Christ the Son of God in this life and shall receive the perfection of it for ever when Christ who is their life shall appear and they shall also appear with him in glory
old Protestant doctrine of mortification teacheth men freely to say Amen to this prayer SECT IX Nevertheless I live EVery true Believer is as well quickned with Christ as crucified with him I am crucified with Christ neverthelesse I live A So that as the humanity of Christ which is the first Example and Pattern to which the whole Church is conformed being deprived of its own proper life through the Word and Spirit that dwelt in it had instead thereof the life of the Son of God communicated to it and that Son of man having parted with his own proper life out of himself did yet truly live in the same soul and body the life of the Eternal Word and was so crucified that neverthelesse he lived so also it is with all Christians And therefore Paul saith out of his own experience I am crucified with Christ neverthelesse I live as if he had said I am not crucified to death but to life my crucifying with Christ is my quickning for by this means I am so killed that I live the more yea now onely I do truly live being formerly dead My own proper life in my self was my death but Christs life in me is my true life For I was dead with the worst death to wit in trespasses and sins but now I live in the best life even the life of righteousnesse B Whence it is manifest that the living Word and Spirit of Christ in a Christian do so kill the life of his flesh which is a life of sin and sorrow and darknesse and death that at the same time they communicate to the same man to the same soul and body a true and spiritual and holy and heavenly and eternal life C For no man is crucified with Christ but he also lives with him seeing the same Word that kils our life communicates Christs and Christ crucifies us with himself not that he may kill us but that he may quicken us and our quickning is the end of our crucifying and our crucifying is the way to our quickening D Indeed the killing of the flesh by the sword or famine or the Law or any way else is death indeed or death unto death but the killing of the flesh by the living Word and Spirit which is its crucifying with Christ is death unto life And here again we may note this also That the true life of a Christian begins from his crucifying and dying with Christ and also the true crucifying and dying of a Christian begins from his life in Christ For both these inseparably go together to wit our crucifying and our quickening with Christ But our crucifying with Christ is named first in order because it is first in manifestation seeing after we believe Christs death is first manifested in us before Christs life though Christs life be first in us in order of nature the crucifying of our flesh flowing from the life of his Spirit This then is the sum of this matter E That the living Word dwelling in us destroyes the proper life of the flesh and takes up the flesh into the life of it self and the Spirit And so a man in union with Christ hath his own life destroyed out of him and Christs own life communicated to him So that in the true Believer the soul and body of man live in the life of the Son of God as was done in the flesh of Christ our elder Brother And thus the flesh lives a life that is not of the flesh yea thus the creature lives in it self the life of God For as that eternal life that was with the Father was manifested in the Son that is in his flesh or humanity and all Believers have seen and known it so also that very life of the Father and the Son is both communicated to the Saints and also manifest in them as faith very well knows F And this is the great mystery of the Gospel let them receive it that can receive it ANIMADVERSION 9. A IN these words Mr Dell hath couched together six strange positions to which I would say more in this place but that the matter of them is discussed and the errour of them as I conceive discovered in my Animadversions on other passages of this book 1. That the humanity of Christ was deprived of its own proper life through the word and spirit that dwelt in it 2. That in stead thereof it had the life of the Son of God communicated to it 3. That the son of man parted with his own proper life out of himself 4. That he did yet live truly in the same soul and body the life of the eternal word 5. That the whole church is conformed to the pattern of the humanity of Christ in point of living the life of the eternal word 6. That the Son of man was so crucified that neverthelesse he lived whilst he was crucified If Mr Dell can produce one Scripture in proof of any one of these Positions I am utterly unacquainted with it I think it may be truly said of them recitasse est refutasse the reciting is a sufficient refuting of them B That the spirit of Christ in a Christian doth so kil the life of his flesh that is of his body of sin that at the same time it doth communicate to the same man to the same soul and body a true spiritual holy heavenly and eternal life is a known truth acknowledged by those whose souls have not entred into Mr Dels secrets If this be all he meaneth and mindeth he should but use old plain words and he should find consent of judgement in all his brethren Me thinks the words of the Lord to Job should sound loudly in the ears of some men in our dayes who are of a deeper language in matters of Religion then that their brethren can well understand them Who is this that darkens counsel with words without knowledge Job 38.2 It is the glory of the Ministers of the Gospel not to be vail'd like Moses but to use much plainnesse of speech in their doctrine seeing the Lord shineth in their hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ C All this in a sound sence is sound doctrine If the words be not put upon new tentors they do not outreach the old apprehensions of Gods servants amongst us D Is it the same flesh as these words import which is killed by the sword or famine and which is killed by the Law and Spirit of Christ and so crucified with him Me thinks no Christian which ever looked into the Scriptures should upon second thoughts say so The one is evidently the material body and the other the body of sin which are things vastly different E That Christ by his Spirit in believers destroyeth the proper life of the flesh understanding thereby the old man is very true but then it is utterly false that Christ takes up that flesh into the life of the Spirit of God And
in these words if Mr Dell understand by flesh the nature or natural body of man then they carry in them a falshood throughout for neither doth Christ dwelling in us by his Spirit destroy the proper life of our humane nature or natural body neither is our humane nature or natural body taken up into the life of the Word and Spirit as is here confidently affirmed And to say that in the true believer the soul and body of man live in the life of the Son of God as was done in the flesh of Christ our elder brother is to make believers the sons of God and partakers of the divine nature in the same manner as our Lord Jesus was which cannot be mentioned without trembling and me thinks should not be the judgement of any Christian Doubtlesse the Apostle Paul understood that God was manifested in the flesh in the person of our Saviour in a special peculiar and incommunicable manner when describing the mysterie of Godlinesse relating to our Saviour he made the first branch of it God manifested in the flesh 1 Tim. 3.16 F This is the great mystery of the Gospel for certain would it be a degree of infidelity to doubt or deny that this is Gospel It seems Mr Dell thinks so by adding Let them receive it who can receive it But who gave him warrant with such absolute peremptorinesse to impose his notions upon others as Gospel the great mysterie of the Gospel I cannot but stand amazed at the strange confidence of some men who dare assume unto themselves our Saviours authority or at least the boldnesse to make use of his authoritative words without any preface in pressing of their new and strange doctrines to say no worse upon others as high points and great mysteries of the Gospel Such high confidence in points wherein men may possibly be brought to an after conviction of their errour I take to be one of the most dangerous pinacles upon which men are liable to be tempted to cast themselves down through the medium of scepticisme into the bottome of Atheism wherein we have many sad examples before our eyes Who can but love and reverence the learned Christian modesty of aged Austin who wrote thus of himself Lib. de bono perseverantiae cap. 21. Quamvis neminem velim sic amplecti omnia mea ut me sequatur nisi in t is in quibus me non errare perspexerit Though I would have no man so to imbrace all that I affirm as to follow me in any other points but such only wherein he perceiveth that I do not go astray And again in the same chapter Quandoquidem arrogantiùs loquor quam veriùs si vel nunc dico me ad perfectionem ut sine ullo errore scriberem jam in istâ aetaete venisse I shall speak more arrogantly then truly if I shall even now say that I am at this age arriv'd to that perfection that I do write without all errour How happy would it be if such a spirit were more commonly to be discerned in our dayes SECT X. NOw this new and Spiritual life which a crucified Christian partakes of He hath it 1. In Vnion 2. In Manifestation First A A Christian hath this life in Vnion when through Faith of the operation of God he is really knit unto Christ and ingraffed into him and made one with him For before we are united to Christ we are without life but as soon as we are united to him we have life from him as John saith in his Epistle He that hath the Son hath life even that life which the Son hath and he that hath not the Son hath not life Now this life and union which a Christian hath through faith is more hidden and secret as that life is that proceeds from the first real union and complyance between the Stock and sience or graft and this is the life of Justification B For as soon as ever we are by faith made one with God in Christ the righteousnesse of God is made ours truly and everlastingly and in this we are justified even before God 2. A true Christian hath this life of Christ not onely in Vnion but also in Manifestation For when a Christian partakes of Christs life by faith this life will not be idle in him which is against the nature of all life but especially of this but most active and operative and it will manifest it self especially two wayes viz. Both in Holinesse and Comfort 1. C This life will manifest it self in Holinesse in the very holinesse of Christ which is the holiness of the Divine Nature communicated to the Humane Nature the Spirit it self which is given to a Believer as the outgoing of the life of God within him worketh its own works of grace and sanctification in him and communicates the same holiness to him a Member as to Christ the Head though in a far different degree 2. This life of Christ in a Christian will manifest it self in comfort as well as in holinesse And this is the life of our life and the next and necessary result of holinesse wherefore it is said that the Kingdom of God stands first in righteousnesse and then presently in peace and joy and the same Spirit that is given for a Sanctifier is also given for a Comforter and Paul saith Rom. 8. That to be spiritually minded is not only life but life and peace D For when a Believer findes in himself a new nature through a new birth and the Law of God within his heart and some strength to obey God and to do his will then he begins to finde also a sweet and heavenly peace within him and many times joy unspeakable and glorious And thus is a crucified Christians new life manifested both in holiness and also in Spiritual peace and joy And now to speak one word by way of Application let us each one seriously consider whether he do indeed partake of such a life as is risen to him out of death whether he finde that he hath parted with his own life and gotten another life then his own in his own soul and body and whether the life of the first Adam be crucified in him he live the life of the second Adam that is not a natural but a spiritual life not a humane but a divine life not an earthly but a heavenly life not a temporal but an eternal life for thus do all live that are truly crucified with Christ E And I desire we all would the rather minde this because if we part with this life ere we partake of that the second death which is everlasting death in sin and the wrath of God must needs swallow us up and because if we do not partake of Christs life here we can never live with him in his Kingdom and also because we can never have true and immediate communion with the Father but in the life of his Eternal Son Wherefore let all such whose hearts God hath
The Apostle used this form of speech that he might shew that as a garment is a different thing from him that putteth it on so also the old and new man are different things from us who put off one wherewith we were clothed and again put on the other which before we had not upon us I take it that Austins words are fully consonant to Scripture doctrine Sit igitur in primis positum atque firmatum virtutem quâ rectè vivitur ab animi sede membris corporis imperare sanctumque corpus usu fieri sanctae voluntatis Let this be in the first place laid down and firmly held unto that the vertue whereby a man lives well commandeth over the members of the body from the throne of the minde and that the body is made holy by the use of a holy will Aug. de civ dei lib. 1. cap. 16. B By the words of the Apostle it doth appear that a Christian crucified with Christ as to the life of the old man liveth not unto God from a principle of life which is properly his own or from himself but from a principle of life which he hath from Christ and in Christ namely from the spirit of Christ which dwelleth in all his But that a believer loseth his personality by being crucified with Christ it appeareth not from this or any other Scripture that I know That through faith a believers soul and body live no more any proper life of their own but are taken up into the nature and person of the Son of God understanding these words according to Mr Dels explication Sect. 13. D that Christ in a believer is not the flesh of Christ for that being a creature can be but in one place at a time but this Christ is the Eternal Word and Son of the living God the power wisdom and righteousnesse of God and the true God and eternal life seems to me a very dreadful position For if a believers soul and body be taken up into the nature and person of Christ the Son of God in distinction from his flesh then he must needs in nature and person be the Son of God and the true God as our Lord Jesus Christ is which I am not willing to believe that Mr Dell will positively and plainly affirm though his words evidently speak so much Whereas it is here further asserted by Mr Dell that in Christ a believer subsists lives and acts as a member in the man the branch in the Vine that is acknowledged in a Scripture sence sc that a believer hath his spiritual life wholly in Christ and from Christ as his head and mediatour through his spirit as a member hath its life from a man and a branch from the Vine but from hence to conclude that a believer through faith doth lose his personality and lives in the person personality of the Son of God is utterly inconsequent for though a believer doth retain his humane nature and personality and doth truly live and subsist in the same yet is it likewise true that that person subsists lives and acts in Christ as to the life of God in him as a member in the man or as a branch in the Vine C This assertion here reiterated by Mr Dell that a believer after faith comes is no more a person distinct from Christ needs not again to be proposed peremptorily but to be proved sufficiently by Scripture and me thinks those words so far as he is gathered up into Christ do utterly overthrow the former assertion and prove that a believer in some degree or respect is not gathered up into Christ and therefore must needs be a person distinct from Christ If here be not contradictio in adjecto a contrariety in the end to the beginning of this sentence I am much mistaken D I utterly deny and doubt not but the Scripture will bear me out in it that a believer though admitted to be a distinct person from Christ is within the reach and power of death and hell for the humane person of a believer being by faith and the Spirit united unto Christ as his member truly and yet mystically is through Christ as his head and mediatour fully put out of the reach of death and hell and of the Law and sin as binding over thereunto so that if the law sin death or the Devil come to a believer to accuse terrifie or condemn him he by reason of his most real and near union into Christ may reply in truth and say It is not I I am not I I am through faith a member of Christ I am in him and of him If you have any thing to say say it to Christ my head and mediatour for I am a member of his and do live in him And this doctrine I doubt not is as full and effectual as what Mr Dell here suggests to bring on that conclusion in regard of believers that none can lay any thing to their charge but what Christ hath taken upon himself and overcome for them and so the law sin hell and the Devil can as soon prevail against Christ as against them who are so nearly joyned to him as to be one flesh and spirit with him in a Scripture sence much different from the mind and meaning of Mr Dell in this point E Those words being not overstrained beyond Scripture meaning are very true and good and conformable to the judgment of those who judg Mr Dels doctrine of a believers having no personality but in the person of the Son of God to be very unsound and dangerous Indeed if we were persons by our selves that is persons not united unto Christ as our head and mediatour we should be very miserable but blessed be the Lord though we know believers to be distinct persons from Christ yet we also know them to be persons spiritually and mystically united unto and even into Christ as their head being made parts of that body which is his fulnesse who filleth all in all Eph. 1.23 and that is unto them matter of everlasting and invincible rejoycing F Where to look this place in Luthers works I know not but upon what I know of the general tenour of Luthers doctrine I dare adventure the reproach of a grosse mistake if the words being duly weighed do import more then this that all personal works worth merit and righteousnesse is to be wholly disclaimed by those who partake of the spiritual benefits of Christ And this is very sweet Gospel doctrine assuredly which hath no affinity with Mr Dels new paradox G Agreed if these words be taken in the plain Scripture sence of them there is no doubt but for the escaping of eternal evils and obtaining eternal good things believers must be taken up into Christ and found in him not having their own righteousness but that which is through the faith of Christ the righteousnesse which is of God by faith Phil. 3.9 at what time they may in their particulars
comfortably and confidently say with the Apostle It is no more I. SECT XII Yet not I. ANd here I must needs note one thing more e're I conclude this matter and that is this Note A That a believer must be so much taken up into Christ by faith that as Christ must work all in him so he must attribute all Christs works unto Christ and none to himself still saying in the midst and exercise of all Graces and Vertues It is not I It is not I that live but Christ himself that lives in me this life of Grace Righteousnesse Wisdom Meeknesse Goodnesse Humility Patience Power Love c. It is not I that live it in my self but Christ that lives it in me as he saith elsewhere I laboured more abundantly then they all yet not I but the Grace of God that dwelleth in me After the same manner as every Christian must keep his Rest in Christ and must suffer Christ to work all his own works in him so he must still attribute all Christs works unto Christ and be still saying It is not I but Christ in me that hath done these works that hath endured and overcome these evils B And thus we must keep our Sabbath in Christ as Christ kept his Sabbath in God For Christ was so taken up into God and filled with him that he said of his humanity I can do nothing of my self and again the Father within me he doth the works and again the words that I speak are not mine but his that sent me and so Christ in all great works said not I but the Father in me so we in all our works that are truly spiritual must say not we but Christ in us C And this onely a mortified Christian can truely perform for others will be attributing the works of Christ to themselves rather then to Christ and be glorying in themselves more then in him It follows ANIMADVERSION 12. A A Greed agreed if as Mr Dell speaks Scripture language so he will hold to the plain Scripture meaning of the words Christ by his spirit is questionlesse the fountain of all good in his members and they must and will attribute all Christs works unto Christ and none to themselves still saying in the midst of the exercise of all graces and vertues It is not I but Christ himself that lives in me this life of grace B Though this be besides the main point now in hand yet I would see a Scripture which calleth our Saviours universal submission to his Fathers will or if Mr Dell likes not this explication then to use his own words his being taken up into God and filled with God his sabbatisme or sabbath-keeping If Mr Dell do here glance at the conscionable observation of the weekly sabbath as unnecessary as it is doubtful likewise whether he doth under the name of the sabbath Sect. 7. T and under the name of the Lords day Sect. 15. C he should do well to speak out that his minde may be known and his judgement in this point considered of by the word of God C To my certain knowledge very many who find no sweetnesse in Mr Dels new doctrine of no distinct personality in believers from the Son of God are by this mark which he makes infallible to be judged mortified Christians for they dare not attribute the works of Christ unto themselves and therefore glorie not in themselves but in Christ acknowledging that without him they can do nothing and joying in this with the Apostle that they can do all things through Christ who strengthneth them Phil. 4.13 SECT XIII But Christ lives in me A FOr least any should think that Paul had a new habit of life created in him he adds this that we must know it was Christ himself within him that was his life even that Word of life and Son of God that made the world and no created habit of life That as that Word that was with God and was God and dwelt in the humanity of Christ was that very life of his humanity So the same Word of God dwelling in us through Christ is also our life as it was his And as the body hath no habit of life in it self distinct and apart from the reasonable soul but the soul it self that dwels in the body is the life of the body and when the soul withdraws the body is dead and hath no habit of life in it self afterwards so the life of a Christian doth as immediately flow from Christ as the life of the body from the soul and if Christ should withdraw all Spiritual life would leave him and the Second death would swallow him up And as the very presence of the soul in each member is the Life of it so is Christs presence in all his Members their true and very life Wherefore saith Paul here Christ lives in me as God lived in Christ and as the Soul lives in the Body And so as Paul had affirmed before That it was not he that lived so here he shows Who it was that did live in him and that is Christ Christ lives in me B Indeed the Soul and Body were Pauls but Paul did not live in his own Soul and Body but Christ himself did live in them and so Paul lived the life of another in himself the life of Christ in his own soul and body and the soul and body of Paul were but a Temple in which Christ lived more then himself as the humanity of Christ was but a Temple in which God lived more then himself C So that it is Christ himself that lives in a true believer and he is and doth and suffers and overcomes all in him D Now that we may not mistake in this great matter we must rightly understand What this Christ is that lives in a believer now this is not the flesh of Christ for that being a Creature and in all things like unto our flesh sin excepted can be but in one place at a time but this Christ is the Eternal Word and Son of the living God the Power Wisdom and Righteousnesse of God and the true God and Eternal life This is the Christ that lived in Paul and lives in every believer ANIMADVERSION 13. A HOw Mr Dell will expound these words of his sc That as that word that was with God and was God and dwelt in the humanity of Christ was that very life of his humanity So the same word of God dwelling in us through Christ is also our life as it was his How I say he will expound these words and not confesse that the Godhead dwelleth in us as it doth in Christ and so that we are God as he is I see not Yet I am willing to hope that he doth not so apprehend although his words as far as I can judge import so much But I very much doubt that in this paragraph he puts asunder those things which God hath inseparably put together sc A new habit of life created in