〈◊〉 〈◊〉 excellently De baptism cont Donat. lib. 2 cap 6. Let us not say's he bring our deceitful balances where we weigh what would and do as we would saying according to our fancy Behold this is heavy or behold this is light but let us bring the Divine Balances of the Scriptures and weigh things or rather not weigh them but learn and take notice what the Lord himself hath weighed I rather chuse to fix the import of Religion thus by its reference to its Rule than by an enumeration of particulars First that it may appear that whatever be the concernment of Reason in Religion yet it is not to invent or introduce any new Doctrine nor to propose or institute any new Media of Worship nor to obtrude and force upon us any new moral Duty Nothing Magisterial doth here belong to it its highest preferment is to minister Secondly Because there is nothing in the Scripture but what we are under the Sanction of and as it is occasionally made known we are to pay a rational subjection to it Though every thing in the Bible be not alike Necessary yet every thing in it is alike True and our concernment lie's more or less in it There is no other Rule by which we are to be regulated in matters of Religion but the Bible and therfore the import and meaning of those Terms can be no otherwayes decided but by their habitude to their measure For this end did God give forth the Scripture that it might be the foundation and standard of Religion and thence therefore are we to learn its Laws and constitutions The instructing mankind in whatsoever is necessary to his present or future Happiness was the design of God in his vouchsafeing the World a supernatural Revelation and foreseeing all things that are necessary to such an End the respect and veneration which we pay to his Sapience Goodness oblige us to believe that he hath adapted and proportion'd the means thereunto Now the Doctrines of the Bible are of two sorts 1. Such as besides their being made known by revelation and believed on the account of Divine Testimony have also a foundation in the light of Nature and there are natural Mediums by which they may be prov'd These are commonly called Mixt but I think amiss seeing they are not made up of dissimilar parts nor have they objects complicated of different natures are only discovered by different Lights proved by different Media and assented to as well upon Motives of Reason as Divine Authority of this kind are the Being and Attributes of God the Immortality of the Soul the certainty of Providence the Existence of a Future State and Moral Good and Evil 2 dly Such as have no Foundation at all in Nature by which they could have been found out or known but we are solely indebted to Supernatural Revelation for the Discovery of them Their Objects having their Source and Rise only from the Will of God a Supernatural Revelation was absolutely expedient to promulge them And these also are of two Sorts 1. There are some Doctrines which though our Understandings by Natural Mediums could never have discovered yet being once revealed our Minds can by Arguments drawn from Reason facilitate the Apprehension of them and confirm it self in their Belief Of this kind are the Resurrection of the Body and Satisfaction to Divine Justice in order to the Exercising of Forgiveness to penitent Sinners 2. There are others which as Reason could never have discovered so when revealed it can neither comprehend them nor produce any Medium in Nature by which either the Existence of their Objects can be Demonstrated or their Truth Illustrated Of this kind are the Doctrines of the Trinity and the Incarnation of the Son of God I know that there are many Divines who though they confess that the Doctrine of the Trinity could never at first have been discovered by Reason yet being once Revealed they contend that Reason cannot only Illustrate but Demonstrate it But upon the best Inquiry into their Arguments I find most of them palpably Fallacious and others of them so Disproportionate to what they are brought that they do not so much as afford some saint Adumbrations of it I readily grant that this and the other Mystery are by a clear and necessary Connexion united with other Doctrines of Faith which Reason enlightned by Revelation can give a rational Account of For the Mystery of the Trinity hath a necessary Connexion with the Work of our Redemption by the Incarnation of the Son of God and the Work of our Redemption by the Incarnation of an infinite Person hath the like Connexion with the necessity of satâ—sfying Divine Justice in oâ—der to the Dispensing of Pardon to repenting Offenders and the necessity of satisfying Divine Justice for the End aforesaid hath a necessary Connexion with the Doctrine of the Corruption of Mankind and the Corruption of Humane Nature is both fully confessed and can be demonstrated by Reason Thus though all the Objects of Faith have not an immediate Correspondence with the Objects of Reason yet these very Doctrines of Faith which lye remotest from the Territories of Reason and seem to have least Affinity with its Light are necessarily and clearly connected with those other Principles of Faith which when once discovered Reason both approves of and can rationally confirm it self in As two Neighbouring Kingdoms are joyned together though some of their Provinces touch not one another So by those Objects of Faith which have a clear Connexion with Objects of Reason there is a mediate Connexion between Reason and those Objects of Faith that lye farther off I need not add that the most Mysterious Doctrines of Religion are necessarily connected with the Belief of the Bibles being the Word of God and that is a Truth which Reason is so far from rejecting that it can demonstrate it § 5 Having setled the meaning of the Terms namely what we understand both by Reason and Religion We are next particularly to enquire of what Significancy and Use Reason is in Religion that so we may give to Reason the things that are Reasons and yet reserve to Faith the things that are Faiths And whereas we have said that there are some Principles of Religion which besides the Evidence that they have in Revelation have Foundation also in the Light of Nature it may be easily apprehended that more is to be allowed to Reason in and about those than about these the Knowledge of which we are Debters only to Revelation for As to the Latter Reason acquits it self in all that belongs to it by considering what Doctrines are revealed to us in the Scriptures and deduceâ—ng Consequences which by clear Connexions proceed from them leaving Faith to assent to them upon the Authority and Veracity of the Revealer But as to the former Reason doth not sufficiently discharge it self by discovering that they are Revealed and thereupon committing it to Faith to Embrace
precede our being Crown'd with Blessedness is traduced by not a few of our modern Divines as repugnant to Reason But when they should demonstrate it to be so they betake themselves to mis-representing their Adversaries Some of them alledge us affirming God to make Heaven our Fate not our Recompence and Bliss our destiny not our Reward Others report us asserting a Predestination to the end without regard to the means And that being Elected we may indulge our selves in a course of sin for nothing shall obstruct our Felicity There is no opinion so innocent which these men will not substitute a perverse Gloss upon nor any Doctrines so far from being either absur'd or blasphemous but they will improve them till they become so I reckon that ignorance of Books together with an unhappy education hath led many to undue thoughts of the sentiments of their Brethren But that some are influenced to these sinistrous representations by worse causes I fear there is too much ground to suspect However should any of our opinions either concerning the subjects before mentioned or any other be found to involve any thing in them reflexive on the Holiness and Goodness of God or to draw along with them consequences repugnant to principles of Reason I dare say it is to be ascribed to our ignorance and not to our Design And the evincing of this was one main thing which influenced me to the writing of this Exercitation Whatever can be made appear to lie in a contradiction to Reason we profess our selves ready to disclaim it But we are apt to believe that a great deal which only crosseth some false and lubricous Principles that Dogmatists have baptized with that Name falls under the imputation of disagreement with Reason The repugnancy to Reason fastned upon some Tenets is rather the result of Ignorance prepossession and sometimes Lust than their contrariety to universal Reason or any genuine Maximes of it And as diverse Doctrines which men of late are come to be in a dislike of for from the beginning of the English Reformation it was not so are endeavoured to be discredited upon a pretended inconsistency that is in them to Reason So there are some others which are attempted to be run down because supposed unintelligible And a loud cry is raised against whole societies of Men as if they never imagine themselves Christians till they have transubstantiated the common Creeds into unaccountable and inexplicable Problems and never believe themselves to be good men till they have brought their Bodies and Minds into that Fame that they can with ease be ecstatical in all their devotions expressions of Religion and that they do therefore disbelieve propositions because they may be understood Or as another chargeth them with holding things then fit to be believed when they are impossible to be proved or understood It hath been hitherto judged that the incomprehensibleness of a Doctrine through the Sublimity and extension of its object is no just Bar to the Truth of it Nor can I but wonder that any who have studied the weakness of their discursive Capacity the feebleness of intellectual Light how soon it is dazled with too bright a splendor the confinement and boundaries our understandings are subject to together with the Majesty of Gospel Truth the immensity of the objects of the Christian Faith should think the arduousness of framing distinct and adequate conceptions of them a sufficient ground for their being renounced and disclaimed And yet this seems to be the Standard that some men regulate their belief by And if I mistake not had no small influence on M. Sherlock in the carrying him off from the received opinion of the immediate Union of Beleivers to Christ. For as himself informs us any other Union save a political is a Riddle and Mystery which no body can understand the perfect knowledge of which must be reserved for the next world or the coming of Elias p. 194. And that whosoever asserteth any other Union doth make it more than a mystical Union that is an unintelligible union p. 197. That the Immediate union of Believers to Christ is to be reckoned among things Unintelligible p. 147. And to do him Right as he describes it it is so but I hope to make it appear ere we have done that he both injure's the Truth and those whom he there personates in his account of it However it is mainly because of the Unintelligibleness of an immediate Union that it is disclaym'd For as the same Person tells us He cannot understand how our Union to Christ can be an Argument to unity and concord among our selves if we are united immediately to the person of Christ without being first united to his Church p. 152. We shall enquire hereafter whether our Author hath in this point justly enter'd his charge or not But because we can neither distinctly understand what it is to be above the grasp and fathom of Reason nor duly judg of Objects that are so nor arrive at any solid resolution how we are to demean our selves towards Doctrines of such a Genius and Complexion without enquiring into the whole use and concernment of Reason in matters of Religion I have therefore upon this account as well as the former undertaken this disquisition § 3. In the pursuing this great Enquiry we are first to fix and settle the sense and meaning of the Terms The neglect of this would expose us to confusion and impertinent wrangling in all that we are to say Reason then is first taken properly for the faculty of Reason or the Soul as it falls under the denomination of Mind and Understanding And in this acceptation it may be considered either as it ought to be and originally was or as it exists subjectively in us weakned darkned and tainted by the Fall The rational Faculty as it exists in us since the ingress of sin differs much from what it was in its primitive Creation It was then like the Sun in his Meridian exaltation when without the interposure of a cloud to envelope and obscure it Knowledge then inhabited our minds in no less plenty than light doth the universal Luminary Besides what the Soul consider'd in it self as it came out of the hands of God under the stamp and impress of his Image lay's claim to it was wonderfully advantaged by a delicate and apt disposure of bodily Organs and due proportion and temperament of the Animal Spirits as well as by an excellent Harmony that appeared in all the parts of the visible Creation There was no jarring in our Humors no blemish in our material Organs no defect in our vehicular Spirits no obstruction in their meatus or passages no disorder in the world nor fallacious medium in the Universe till the Fall caused them But alass Now the mind is not only weakned and rendred groveling by the loss of its primitive Sanctity and Rectitude but is infected with Lusts biassed by Passions brib'd by the
in a Book or a few unsensed Characters And yet at this rate do the Papists frequently talk It is of the essence of words properly taken to be significative For this end were they invented and appointed and it is this that gives them their Form Brute Animals though they may be taught to utter many Words yet because they understand not truly really any thing they say therefore they cannot be said be said properly to Speak To affirm that by the Scriptures we cannot mean the sense of them but only a Book of such and such unsensed Characters is to degrade God below a Man and to treat a writing endited by Him more opprobriously than we will allow our own Scribes to be dealt withall Do we not judg and account other Books to be Interpreters of their thoughts and judgments that wrote them and shall this be denied to God If there be not a sense intrinsecally included in every Word and sentence of the Scripture he was ill employed that gave it forth In brief if words be devoid of sense when they are Written they are also devoid of it when they are spoken Speech writing no otherwise differing but that the one is the Register Substitute and Vicarious of the other If the Scripture have not a Sense Originally in it self and essentially belonging to it it can never have any seeing for the Church to affix a sense to it is only to declare her own sense not its and indeed to impose both upon God and Man Now God in giving forth the Revelation of his will not only inspired the Penmen of the Bible as to the Doctrines and things they delivered but as to the Words Terms and Expressions in which they declared them It was God himself that spake in the Prophets Heb. 1.1 The very Words they used were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Words which the Holy Ghost put into their hearts and Mouths 1 Cor. 2.13 The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Writing or Word written was by Inspiration from God 2 Tim. 3.16 And surely God if he please can speak in as plain Words as any of hâ—s Creatures can do Men many times through some defect in their Judgment or through a penuâ—y of Words or through an incongruous disposition and texture of them are at a loss to express themselves intelligibly but to none of these imperfections is God incident and therefore if he please he may declare himself so as that men may understand him Now Words that are Intelligible when they are spoken are as Intelligible when they are Written Yea there are advantages of understanding them better in the one case than in the other We can better observe the Restriction and Ampliation of Terms the quality of every particular proposition the connexion of an Enunciation that is obscure with what is more clear going before and following after the light that it receive's from expressions to the same purpose in other parts of the Book the Genius of the Stile in general the nature of the several periods the manner and Form of Argumentation and a hundred things more which we can better search into in the perusal of a written Book than we can do by the swift transitory hearing of an Oral Discourse Now as God can speak as plainly as any of his Creatures can and as Words are at least as easie to be understood when they are written as when they are Spoken So we have no Reason to think that God affects obscurity or envies that men should understand him Men being influenced by Pride may endeavour not to be understood that they may be admired may seek estimation by studying to be obscure And many of the Ancient Philosophers are justly arraigned upon this account Heraclitus grew famous by the only obscurity of his Wriâ—â—â—gs The Platonick and Pythagorick numbers grew into a proverb for their Darkness It is said even of Aristotle that being reproved by Alexander for publishing his Acroamaticks he should make this reply that though they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 made publick yet they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not Published There is nothing more notorious than that there have been some writers in all Ages who have endeavoured not to be understood But this is every way as much repugnant to the Nature of God as Pride or envy are It is Inconsistent with his Wisdome to give out the Bible for the end which he did and yet to do it in such a manner as that it cannot be understood Nor is it agreeable to his Holiness Justice or Goodness to leave the Doctrines of the Bible Unintelligible when he hath made it our Duty to know them Having made appear that the Scripture hath a sense and that this Sense may be known that it is the main thing which we are to look after It is now time that we should intimate what we mean by the sense of the Scripture By the sense of the Scripture then we Understand that which the Words according to the Intention of the Holy Ghost do signifie We are not to bring senses to the Scripture but to receive them from it It is his Mind and Will we are to learn who endited the Bible and therefore are not to impose Minds and thoughts upon it And when I speak of Scripture Words I do not mean letters nor syllables nay nor Words apart but entire propositions Sentences Enunciations paragraphs yea Chapters and Books Nor can we judg rightly of the sense of Words but by considering them as they lie in propositions nor ought we to determine of the sense of a proposition but in relation to the verse Chapter and Book where it occurres yea nor without having a respect to the whole and entire Systeme of the Bible There is but one sense of Scripture which we may call Literal Dogmatical or Historical I call that sense Literal which God doth intend in the Words whether the Words be taken properly or tropically That which ariseth from a figurative acceptation of the Word is as truly a Literal sense as that which flows from their proper acceptation In texts of Scripture where Types are lay'd down in which other things typified are intended there is not a twofold sense of the Words but there is one only of the Words and the other is of the Types themselves which being designed to prefigure other things do accordingly carry a key along with them by which they may be unlocked I do not deny but that of one Sense of a Text there maybe two parts namely when those things which are immediately signified do denote or at least lead us to somthing more Sublime Though even in this case there be but one proper sense of the Words namely the Literal the Mystical being not so much the sense of the Words as occasioned by and built upon the things signified Or if you will there is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and habitude between the Literal
what they please without running the hazard of being contradicted 2. Because finding themselves unable to justifie what they would obtrude upon the World unless it be in a Dramatick Drolling way they think it fit under the plea of dislike to a pugnacious disputing humour to except against all Logical and Scholastical Methods of treating things as knowing the weapons they are sure to be foiled at Did they only disallow quarrelling about Opinions which neither serve to render us sounder Christians nor better men and which were both at first commenced and are still maintain'd out of interest or did they only impeach the fetching of Topicks from Aristotle or Aquinas and the arguing with the same confidence from the Decretals as from the four Evangelists I should highly commend both their Wisdom and Zeal But while what-ever crosseth Socinus or Pelagius is immediatly branded as vain and empty speculations and Pauls Epistles are censured with little less modesty than they arraign the Writings of the School-men I must suppose them engaged in a design against the Gospel which they are not willing as yet publickly to own If they account that I impose upon them in this matter I shall upon the least intimation direct them to the Authors I aim at and the places whence I derived my information But in the mean time out of respect both to the interest of Religion and their Reputation I shall forbear The second is their arraigning Words Phrases and modes of speech wherein what they dislike is intended Hence are their Clamours concerning Metaphors even against such as the Holy Ghost condescendeth to use in order to the instructing us as well of our State as Duty Where the authority and credit of Men is meerly concerned I love not to quarrel with any about Terms and expressions further than as they have an Influence upon things and providing I were at an agreement with them in the latter I should as well give as claym a great liberty in the former But when both the Wisdom of God stands impeached and under the palliation of quarrelling with Terms Phrases the chief Doctrines of the Gospel are supplanted it then becomes the Duty of those who have a Zeal for his Honour and the Truth once delivered to the Saints to declare their resentment The unfolding the Nature Import and Use of Scripture Metaphors as it is in it self a laudable undertaking so there are two things which at present render it needful and expedient 1. The vindication of the Non-Conformists who are publickly charged for turning Religion into unaccountable Phansies and Enthusiasm's drest up with empty Schemes of speech and for embracing a few gawdy Metaphors Allegories instead of the substance of true and real Righteousness So that if you will believe a late Authour herein lyes the Material difference between the sober Christians of the Church of England and the Modern Sectaries that while those express the precepts Duties of the Gospel in plain and intelligible Terms these trifle them away by childish Metaphors and Allegories and will not talk of Religion but in barbarous and uncouth Similitudes And as another expresseth it That the mystery of Phanaticism consists in the wresting Metaphorical and Allusive expressions to a proper sense And as the former person phraseth it Abusing Scripture expressions not only without but in contradiction to their sense 2. The defence and vindication of the Doctrines of the Gospel many of which are undermined under the pretence of renouncing luscious and fulsome Metaphors Thus the Immediat Union of Believers to Christ is disclaimed as being built only upon Metaphors perversely sensed our spiritual impotency and inability to Good is contended against as being inferred from a Mis-understanding of that Metaphorical expression viz. Our being dead in Trespasses and Sins Our being meerly passive in the first communication of grace to us or Regeneration is likewise indicted as a falsity built upon a mistake of the meaning of our being Created to good Works which is a Metaphorical phrase It were endless to recount the many Doctrines which the Church of Christ hath in all ages been in the persuasion and belief of that are by this new artifice of crying out Luscious and rampant Metaphors subverted and overthrown The due stating therefore the Nature and import of Metaphors is become not only a seasonable but a necessary piece of Service I can very well allow that in Philosophy where the Quality and Nature of things do not transcend and over-match words the less Rhetorical ornaments especially the fewer Metaphors providing still that the phrase be pure and easie the better But in Divinity where no expressions come fully up to Mysteries of Faith and where the things themselves are not capable of being declared in Logical and Metaphysical Terms Metaphors may not only be allowed but are most accommodated to the assisting us in our conceptions of Gospel-mysteries § 2. But before I proceed further on this subject there are some few things which I desire to premise whereof the first is this The Holy Ghost in giving forth the Scripture hath usurped no Words Tropes Phrases Figures or Modes of speech but what are proportioned to his End namely the instructing us in Faith and Obedience To think otherwise is either to impeach his Wisdom as if he knew not what forms of speech in order to such an End were best to declare himself in or else his Goodness in not vouchsafing to speak to us in those terms which he knew to be most adapted to promote our knowledge of the Things which he had made it our duty to be acquainted with The Scripture stile can neither in the whole nor in any part of it be reflected upon without offering reproach to God who as well guided the sacred Amanuenses in the words and expressions they revealed things in as in the things themselves they did reveal The 2 d. is this that the Bible is replenished and adorned with all sort of figurative expressions There are hardly any Tropes or Figures in Rhetorick of which numerous Examples do not occurr in the Holy Writ Some Tropes confer a grandeur others an elegancy to the stile where they are met with and some reconcile an easiness to the things that are treated of Now among other Rhetorical Tropes to be found in the Bible I hardly know any of which we have more examples than of Metaphors in which God by similitudes borrowed from known and obvious things intimates to us the usefullest and sublimest Truths In such kind of phrases he condescends to lisp those Mysteries to us which would never be so well understood by any other way of expressing them Now though in this case we not only may but ought to call such to an account who abuse Scripture-Metaphors to a perverse sense yet we must always preserve the reputation of the Metaphor it self How tender in this Matter some late Authors have been we shall afterwards more largely declare I shall at
more learnedly and gentilely than others do chuse to express themselves in a Parabolick Metaphorick way carry's so much self-evidence that it need not be proved The Egyptian Hieroglyphicks which were one of the most ancient Methods of expressing things were nothing else but a shadowing forth their Sacred Mysteries and Philosophical contemplations by Earthly Images and sensible Forms The very Origination of the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. from Sacred Sculpture intimates that a Hieroglyphick was nothing but a Symbol of a Sacred thing engraven on a stone Nor stood the Egyptian Hieroglyphicks for baâ—e Letters or single Words but somtimes for entire sentences and compleat discourses Yea there is not any thing more certain than that both the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Manners and Passions of men were figured and shadowed forth by the shapes of Animals and other Creatures Now as Aristotle says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Metaphor is the Image or Shadow of a thing For therefore is one thing Metaphorically misnam'd by another because there is some resemblance proportion or parallel between them in some property Adjunct or the like Now this consideration is the more worthy of our notice in that though the Holy Ghost inspired the Sacred Amanuenses as well with respect to words as matter yet the words that he suggested to them were such as they had a familiarity with and to which they were accustomed 3. A third and main Reason of the Scriptures being so replenished with Metaphorical expressions is this namely that Objects which lye remote from our Understandings as all Spiritual Objects do may by being represented under some obvious and sensible Image be the better attempered to our Minds to contemplate and rendred the more facile to our Understandings to conceive I grant that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every thing spoken Metaphorically is spoken obscurely with respect to expressing the Nature of things And accordingly in assigning the Definitions of things Metaphorical Terms are to be avoided because as Aristotle says they do not declare 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what a thing is but only what it is like to When any thing is manifested by a Metaphor the thing it self is not fully expressed but only some similitude betwixt it and another But yet on the other hand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Metaphor carries along in it somthing of perspicuity and sweetness as well as it imports something that is strange It renders things clear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. by a resemblance taken from some sensible and common thing it accommodates them to our Senses and gives some umbrage and shadow of them though as to the full manifesting their Nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to our Reasons it falls short Now as there is not any thing relating to Doctrine or Manners delivered in the Scripture Metaphorically which is not somewhere or other either explicitely or implicitely expressed in Terms that are proper one place being a key to the unlocking another So neither doth the Scripture use Metaphorical Terms to manifest so much the Existence and Nature of things simply considered as to illustrate the Mode of their Existence and the manner of their operations The deep things of God do so far over-match our Reasons and Understandings that in order to their being expressed to our Capacities they are forced to be cloathed with as much external sensibility as may be that so the disproportion between them and our faculties being qualified and reduced we may the better and more familiarly converse with them Where things are of a sublime Nature and such as neither words are able to express unto perfection nor we capable of framing commensurate Notions of them Logical and Metaphysicall Terms are of all others the most inept to declare them in nor are there any so accommodated to display and unvail them as Metaphorical expressions wherein by variety of resemblances they are brought down to our Reasons which they could not have been had they been discoursed of in proper Terms or in a dialect fully answering their Nature For men to discourse in Metaphorical Terms of things whose Nature and Properties they are wholly ignorant of is plainly to trifle seeing while we know not the true ideas of things we can only imagine some resemblances in other things to them but whether they do really resemble them or not 't is impossible that we should be able to tell But while 't is only the sublimity of the Subject discoursed of its remoteness from the Understandings of men the Insufficiency of proper Terms adequately to declare it and not ignorance of and unacquaintedness with the subject it self that occasions Gods usage of Metaphors they are not only justifiable but the Wisdom and Compassion of God in condescending thus to accommodate himself to us in the Revelation of his Counsels and Will doth call for the highest thankfulness and adoration For as we are more affected when the things of God are brought down to us under sensible representations so likewise the things themselves become more intelligible And as this Method of manifesting Divine things is not without its Use even in reference to those Doctrines that lye in a greater approximation and are more exposed unto our Understandings and Capacities so especially 't is of eminent advantage to us in Relation to those Things that are Sublime and Mysterious and which exceed our comprehension He is little acquainted with Scripture who doth not know that there are many Things Truths in it which are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beyond all expression conception and comprehension and which have therefore a peculiar Character and Mark affixed on them of being deep and mysterious Now though the declaration of these in the Word be never so plain and perspicuous yet the Things themselves through the quality of their Nature do remain hidden and obscure and beyond what our weak Understandings can duely conceive or frame adequate Notions of nor can there be a better Method and course steered in relieving and assisting our minds in the Apprehension of them than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to illustrate them by things sensible and of ocular knowledg Horat. Segnius irritant animos demissa per aures Quam quae sunt oculis subjecta fidelibus quae Ipse sibi tradit spectator 4. The Scripture being intended for the benefit of the Illiterate as well as the Learned it was necessary that it should be written in such a familiar Method as that in things necessary for all to believe and understand it might suit and befit even those of Vulgar and Common Capacities 'T is the fault of some men that they look upon their own Abilities Understandings as the Measure that should regulate all discourses and whatsoever is not adapted to their apprehension they thereupon arraign and find fault with if they be above it they condemn it for Obscure and Unintelligible if below it for trifling flat and trivial It being no small part
those expressions only by alluding to that incomprehensible Identity which is between the Persons of the Blessed Trinity through a Numericalness of Nature he would instruct us that the Union between Christ and those that are born of God is intimate great and mysterious as well as True Real Before we dismiss this we will take a brief survey of our Authors exceptions against the conclusion deduced from the fore-going allusive Metaphors Christ says he is styled the Head of his Body the Church because he hath the command and rule over and is invested with Authority to Govern her and the Church is styled the Body of Christ because she must be obedient to his Laws and subject to his Government Now to this I reply 1st The Head in reference to the Natural Body having not only an Influence upon the Members by way of Communication of Animal Spirits but by way of conduct and Government accordingly I deny not but that the Term as applyed to Christ may somtimes refer only to the last property There are some Texts of Scripture where the subject Matter doth plainly determine the signification of Head as predicated of Christ to refer meerly to Eminence and Rule Particularly the 1 Cor. 11.3 is so to be understood But that Christ is never styled Head save in Allusion to the property and affection of Government which belongs to the Head in the Natural Body over the Members is a bold Imagination and which never any espoused before Mr. Sherlock except the Socinians All pretending to the Name of Christians the Enemies of the Godhead of Christ only secluded have besides their acknowledging the Lord Jesus Christ to be the Political Head of the Church in respect of Authority and Rule owned him likewise to be a Spiritual Head in respect of quickning Influences 2dly 'T is received as an Universal Measure by which all Expositors are to Regulate their Glosses upon the sacred Text that whensoever any thing is represented by a Metaphorick Term all that bears any proportion or analogy to the affections and properties of the Thing which the Word in its Original signification doth denote ought to be understood Every Scripture whether it be proper or Tropical is to be expounded in the greatest Latitude which the Word will bear as we have demonstrated cap. 1. § 10. Christ being therefore to the Church what the Head is to the Members of the Natural Body and the Head not only giving Direction and Guidance to the Bodily Members but having also a vital Influx upon them it naturally follows that Christ is as well Head to the Church in regard of actual Influences of Spiritual strength and life as in respect of Guidance by Laws and Rules Nor is there any way to avoid this inference and sequel unless it can be made appear that the attribution of spiritual Influences to Christ in reference to his Body doth contradict some principle of Reason or supplant some sacred Truth which I 'm sure our Author hath not hitherto done 3dly Suppose that Christs having the Rule and Government over the Church were all that by attendance to the Allusive Metaphor of his being to the Church what the Head is to the Natural Body could be established and inforced yet the Holy Ghost having besides the accommodation of himself to our instruction in the bare and naked usurpation of the Metaphor extended the import of it so far as we pretend by a comment and paraphrase of his own which he hath left us upon it we may reckon our selves secure in the application which we make of it For as if it had not been enough through the naked and bare use of that Allusive and Metaphorick Term to have intimated that it is between Christ Christians as between the Head and Members he hath expresly informed us as there are communications of Spirits from the Head unto all the Members of the Body through the subserviency of these parts which by the great wise Architect of the Humane Fabrick are thereunto designed that there are in like manner supplies of spiritual life strength from Christ to every Believe◠through the Moral subserviency of one Christian to another in the Duties and Offices which he hath appointed Thus the Apostle Eph. 4.15 16. having styled Christ our Head he adds by way of defining the sense in which he is so from whom the whole Body fitly joyned together and compacted by that which every joynt supplyeth according to the effectual working in the measure of every part maketh inerease of the Body unto the edifying it self in love And to the same purpose only more emphatically speaks the same Apostle Col. 2.18 And not holding the Head i. e. Christ from which all the Body by joynts and bands having nourishment ministred and knit together increaseth with the increase of God If these Testimonies be not sufficient to silence the Sophistry of men and to level the Objections whereby our Author endeavours to supplant Christs being a Head of Influence I will not say that we may despair of Understanding the Bible but this I will say that by the same art that Mr. Sherlock avoyds those he may retain a belief of such Scripture expressions as are declarative of any Fundamentals of Faith and yet renounce the Truths they are designed to reveal I shall only here subjoyn Bishop Davenants paraphrase upon the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joynts and Bands which the Apostle speaks of By 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joynts we are to understand saith he those Vincula and ligatures by which we are copulated to Christ and by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bonds we are to understand those Media by which we are concatenated to one another Now says he the Ligatures by which we are knit to Christ as our Vital Head and by which we receive quickning Influences from him are the Spirit and the Graces thereof especially Faith The second Argument in opposition to our Authors Hypothesis shall be raised from such Scripture Texts as are not allusive to any Pattern Union but yet are manifestative of such an Intimate conjunction between Christ and Christians as a Political Relation is so far from giving us an adequate Notion of that indeed it bears no proportion nor Analogy to it Nor shall I insist on such places at this time as express Christs Abiding in us and our Abiding in Him His Dwelling in us and our Dwelling in Him His Being in us and our Being in Him Though a Political Relation be too mean and low to answer the Grandeur of these phrases He that without prepossession and prejudice consulteth these following Texts viz. Joh. 15.4 Joh. 6.56 1 Joh. 4.13 2 Cor. 13.5 Col. 1.27 Rom. 8.10 1 Joh. 5.20 2 Cor. 5.17 will soon find that such an Union as intercedes between a Prince and his Subjects is too flat jejune and cold an Interpretation to sustain the weight of those sentences Had the Holy Ghost designed the delivering the Doctrine which
we contend for he could not have chosen Terms more plain full and Emphatical to declare it than those by which he hath expressed it in the foregoing places And the same subtilties that are used to persuade the World that what we alledg is not the true meaning of them would equally serve to pervert their sense were that the intendment of the Holy Ghost in them which we affirm There are two passages which I reckon eminently manifestative of the Intimate Conjunction that is between Christ and Christians which I shall at this time borrow some Light from and reflect some upon in reference to the Matter before us The first is that of Paul Heb. 3.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For we are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of ou◠confidence stedfast unto the End I know that Modern Interpreters do generally suppose the name Christ to be taken here Metonymically viz. for the benefit of Christs Mediation but I judg that the Apostle intends a great deal more by our partaking of Christ than meerly so The Syriack renders it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We are mingled i. e. united to Christ. Chrysostom paraphraseth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What is it to be partakers of Christ He and we are made One He the Head we the Body Coheirs and Incorporated with Him And accordingly he makes the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the beginning of our confidence to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Faith by which says he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We are begotten and consubstantiated with him i. e. intimately and truly United to Him That an Union with Christ by some tye and ligature beyond what a bare owning of his Authority denotes is here intended in our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Being made partakers of Christ the use of the Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the same Apostle from whence the Noun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comes induceth me to believe When Paul would express Christs participating of the Humane Nature or of Flesh and Blood he doth it in this phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which seems clearly to conduct us to the meaning of the expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we are now upon As he became no otherwise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but by the assumption of our Nature into Union with his Divine person so we do no otherwise become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but by participation of the same spirit that inhabited the Humane Nature of Christ which is the Bond and Medium of that Union which we plead for between Christ and Christians The other expression which I judg declarative of a higher Union between Christ and us than what a Political Relation doth imply is his being styled our Life Life is said to be in Christ not only formally as in its subject but causally as in its fountain Nor is he only called the Word of Life and the Prince of Life but he is expresly said to be our Life Col. 3.4 And Paul witnesseth of himself that he lived through Christs living in Him Gal. 2.20 Now that he should be styled our Life meerly with reference to his bringing Life and Immortality to light in the Gospel is too jejune a sense to sustain the weight of the Phrase I do not deny but that the Gospel is the Word of Life and that it is so styled in the Scripture Nor do I bring into debate Christs being in a proper and eminent sense the alone Author as well as the Subject of it Only I affirm that the making his revealing the Gospel which discovers the Glad Tidings of Life and the Terms of it to be the only reason of the Appellation given to him which we are now discoursing is to impose a Notion upon the expression which is too scanty and narrow to answer the Majesty and Grandeur of it And as the Context even to any who do but superficially view it will not admit this to be its full import so the Apostles expression of Christs living in him which seems a commentary and paraphrase upon it doth plainly overthrow this from being the sense of it Nor will it suffice to say that he is our Life in a Moral sense because our Life of Grace here and of Glory hereafter are owing to the Sacrafice of his Death as their procuring cause 'T is true that both our Holiness and Happiness respect Christs Meritorious Life and Death as their price but yet this neither comes up to the Loftiness nor exhausts the fulness of that expression He is our Life much less is there any thing in this Gloss that bears affinity to his living in us The only sense which bears a proportion to the Words is this That as Natural life proceeds from and must be ascribed to the Soul as its spring principle so all spiritual Life is owing to Christ as immediately acting us by his quickning Spirit Of our selves saith the Learned Bishop Reynolds we are without strength without love without life no power no liking no possibility to do good nor any principle of Holiness or Obedience in us 'T is Christ that strengthens us that wins us that quickens us by his Spirit to his Service Christ is the Principle and Fountain of Holiness as the Head is of sense or motion And this he maketh to be one eminent part of the meaning of that place He that hath the Son hath Life 1 Joh. 5.12 though Mr. Sherlock is not only pleased to tell us that it signifies no such thing but treats those who do so paraphrase it with words full of contempt and scorn But to resume what I was upon forasmuch as no Vital Principle doth or can operate but as it is united to the subject that is to be quickned by it Christ being then the Principle of our spiritual life there must be an Union of Christ with us as the spring and foundation of his Influence upon us No one thing can be supposed the principle and source of life to another without admitting a previous Union between them The third and last Argument whereby Mr. Sherlocks Hypothesis of a Political Union may be combated and if I mistake not utterly defeated is levied from the Vinculum and Bond by which the Scripture reports Christ and Believers to be copulated and brought into cohesion one with another As every Union implies such a Relation in the virtue whereof there resulteth an Oneness between the connected Extremes so as the Nature and Quality of the Unitive Principle or Cement is such is the Genius of the Union it self and of the oneness that thereupon emergeth Now by consulting the Scripture which alone ought to regulate and bound our conceptions in the Matter before us we find the Spirit to be the Vital Ligature of the conjunction and coherence that is between Christ and Christians The very Spirit that resides in Christ being communicated to us we do thereby in a secret but sublime and real manner become knit and ligu'd