the Son of God Incarnate the Mediator between God and Man For because the Name Christ is sometimes used Metonymically to conclude thence that Jesus Christ is not Jesus Christ or that it is not the Person of Christ that is firstly and properly intended by that name in the Gospel is a lewd and impious Imagination And we may as well make Christ to be only a Light within Us as to be the Doctrine of the Gospel without Us. This Knowledg of Jesus Christ I aver to be the only Fountain of all Saving Knowledg which is farther reflected on by this Author And he adds no doubt out of respect unto Me that he will not envy the Glory of this discovery unto its Author and therefore honestly confesseth that he met with it in my Book But what doth he intend whither will Prejudice and Corrupt Designs carry and transport the Minds of Men Is it possible that he should be ignorant that it is the Duty of all Christians to know Jesus Christ to be acquainted with the person of Christ and that this is the Fountain of all Saving Knowledg until he met with it in my Book about Communion with God which I dare say he looked not into but only to find what he might except against It is the Holy Ghost himself that is the Author of this Discovery and it is the great Fundamental Principle of the Gospel Wherefore surely this cannot be the Man's intention and therefore we must look a little further to see what it is that he aimeth at After then the Repetition of some Words of mine he adds as his sence upon them pag. 39. So that it seems the Gospel of Christ makes a very imperfect and obscure Discovery of the Nature Attributes and the Will of God and the Methods of our Recovery We may throughly understand whatever is revealed in the Gospel and yet not have a clear and Saving Knowledg of these things until we get a more intimate Acquaintance with the Person of Christ. And again pag. 40. I shall shew you what additions these Men make to the Gospel of Christ by an Acquaintance with his Person and I confess I am very much beholding to this Author for acknowledging whence they fetch all their Orthodox and Gospel-Mysteries for I had almost pored my Eyes out with seeking for them in the Gospel but could never find them but I learn now that indeed they are not to be found there unless we be first acquainted with the Person of Christ. So far as I can gather up the sence of these loose Expressions it is that I assert a knowledg of the Person of Jesus Christ which is not revealed in the Gospel which is not taught Us in the Writings of Moses the Prophets or Apostles but must be had some other way He tells me afterwards pag. 41. That I put in a Word fallaciously which expresseth the contrary as though I intended another Knowledg of Christ than what is declared in the Gospel Now he either thought that this was not my Design or Intention but would make use of a pretence of it for his Advantage unto an end aimed at which what it was I know well enough or he thought indeed that I did assert and maintain such a knowledg of the Person of Christ as was not received by scripture-Scripture-Revelation If it was the first we have an Instance of that new Morality which these new Doctrines are accompanied withal if the latter he discovers how meet a person he is to treat of things of this Nature Wherefore to prevent such scandalous Miscarriages or futilous Imaginations for the future I here tell him that if he can find in that Book or any other of my Writings any Expression or Word or Syllable intimating any Knowledg of Christ or any Acquaintance with the Person of Christ but what is revealed and declared in the Gospel in the Writings of Moses the Prophets and Apostles and as it is so revealed and declared and learned from thence I will publiquely burn that Book with my own hands to give him and all the World Satisfaction Nay I say more if an Angel from Heaven pretend to give any other knowledg of the Person of Christ but what is revealed in the Gospel let him be accursed And here I leave this Author to consider with himsef what was the true occasion why he should first thus represent himself unto the World in Print by the avowing of so unworthy and Notorious a Calumny Whereas therefore by an Acquaintance with the Person of Christ it is undeniably evident that I intended nothing but that Knowledg of Christ which it is the Duty of every Christian to labour after no other but what is revealed declared and delivered in the Scripture as almost every Page of my Book doth manifest where I treat of these things I do here again with the good Leave of this Author assert that this knowledge of Christ is very necessary unto Christians and the Fountain of all Saving Knowledg whatever And as he may if he please review the Honesty and Truth of that Passage pag. 38. So that our Acquaintance with Christ's Person in this Mans Divinity signifies such a Knowledg of what Christ is hath done and suffered for Us from whence we may learn those greater deeper and more Saving Mysteries of the Gospel which Christ hath not expresly revealed to Us So I will not so far suspect the Christianity of them with whom we have to do as to think it necessary to confirm by Texts of Scripture either of these assertions which whoever denies is an open Apostate from the Gospel Having laid this Foundation in an equal Mixture of that Truth and Sobriety wherewith Sundry late Writings of this Nature and to the same Purpose have been stuffed he proceeds to declare what desperate Consequences ensue upon the Necessity of that Knowledg of Jesus Christ which I have asserted addressing himself thereunto pag. 40. Many Instances of such dealings will make me apt to think that some Men whatever they pretend to the contrary have but little Knowledg of Jesus Christ indeed But whatever this Man thinks of him an Accouut must one Day be given before and unto him of such false Calumnies as his Lines are stuffed withal Those who will believe him that he hath almost pored out his Eyes in reading the Gospel with a Design to find out Mysteries that are not in it are left by me to their Liberty Only I cannot but say that his way of Expressing the study of the Scripture is such as becometh a Man of his Wisdom Gravity and Principles He will I hope one day be better acquainted with what belongs unto the due Investigation of sacred Truth in the Scripture than to suppose it represented by such Childish expressions What he hath Learned from me I know not but that I have any where taught that there are Mysteries of Religion that are not to be found in the Gospel unless we are first acquainted with
the Person of Christ is a Frontless and Impudent Falshood I own no other never taught other knowledge of Christ or acquaintance with his Person but what is revealed and declared in the Gospel and therefore no Mysteries of Religion can be thence known and received before we are acquainted with the Gospel it self Yet I will mind this Author of that whereof if he be ignorant he is unfit to be a Teacher of others and which if he deny he is unworthy the Name of a Christian Namely that by the Knowledge of the Person of Christ the great Mystery of God manifest in the Flesh as revealed and declared in the Gospel we are led into a clear and full understanding of many other Mysteries of Grace and Truth which are all centred in his Person and without which we can have no true nor sound understanding of them I shall speak it yet again that this Author if it be possible may understand it or however that he and his Co-partners in Design may know that I neither am nor ever will be ashamed of it that without the Knowledge of the Person of Christ which is our Acquaintance with him as we are commanded to acquaint our selves with God as he is the Eternal Son of God Incarnate the Mediator between God and Man with the Mystery of the Love Grace and Truth of God therein as revealed and declared in the Scripture there is no true useful Saving Knowledge of any other Mysteries or Truths of the Gospel to be attained This being the substance of what is asserted in my Discourse I challenge this Man or any to whose pleasure and Favour his endeavours in this kind are Sacrificed to assert and maintain the contrary if so be they are indeed armed with such a Confidence as to impugne the Foundations of Christianity But to evince his Intention he transcribeth the ensuing passages out of my Discourse pag. 41. The sum of all true Wisdom and Knowledge may be reduced to these three Heads 1 The Knowledge of God his Nature and Properties 2 The Knowledge of our selves with reference to the will of God concerning us 3 Skill to walk in Communion with God In these three is summed up all True Wisdome and Knowledge and not any of them is to any purpose to be obtained or is manifested but only in and by the Lord Christ. This whole passage I am far from disliking upon this Representation of it or any Expression in it Those who are not pleased with this distribution of spiritual Wisdom may make use of any such of their own wherewith they are better satisfied This of mine was sufficient unto my purpose Hereon this censure is passed by him Where By is fallaciously added to include the Revelations Christ hath made whereas his first undertaking was to show how impossible it is to understand these things savingly and clearly notwithstanding all these Revelations God hath made of himself and his will by Moses and the Prophets and by Christ himself without an acquaintance with his person The fallacy pretended is merely of his own coyningâ— my words are plain and sâ—ited unto my own purpose and to declare my mind in what I intend which he openly corrupting or not at all understanding frames an end never thought of by me and then feigns fallacious means of attaining it The knowledge I mean is to be learned by Christ neither is any thing to be learned in him but what is learned by him I do say indeed now whatever I have said before that it is impossible to understand any sacred Truth savingly and clearly without the knowledge of the Person of Christ and shall say so still let this Man and his Companions say what they will to the contrary but that in my so saying I exclude the consideration of the Revelations which Christ hath made or that God hath made of himself by Moses and the Prophets and Christ himself the principal whereof concern his Person and whence alone we come to know him is an Assertion becoming the modesty and Ingenuity of this Author But hereon he proceeds and says that as to the first head he will take notice of those peculiar Discoveries of the Nature of God of which the world was ignorant before and of which Revelation is wholly silent but are now clearly and savingly Learned from an Acquaintance with Christs Person But what in the mean time is become of Modesty Truth and Honesty Do men reckon that there is no Accompt to be given of such falsifications Is there any one Word or Tittle in my discourse of any such knowledge of the Nature or Properties of God as whereof Revelation is wholly silent What doth this Man intend Doth he either not at all understand what I say or doth he not care what he says himself What have I done to him wherein have I injured him how have I provoked him that he should sacrifice his Conscience and Reputation unto such a Revenge must he yet hear it again I never thought I never owned I never wrote that there was any Acquaintance to be obtained with any property of the Nature of God by the knowledge of the Person of Christ but what is Taught and Revealed in the Gospel from whence alone all knowledge of Christ his Person and his Doctrine is to be Learned And yet I will say again if we Learn not thence to know the Lord Christ that is his Person we shall never know any thing of God our Selves or our Duty clearly and savingly I use the words again notwithstanding the Reflections on them as more proper in this Matter than any used by our Author in his Eloquent Discourse and as we ought to do From hence he proceeds unto weak and confused Discourses about the Knowledge of God and his Properties without any Knowledge of Christ. For he not only tells us what reason we had to believe such and such things of God if Christ had never appeared in the World take care I pray that we be thought as little beholding to him as may be but that Gods readiness to Pardon and the like are plainly revealed in the Scripture without any farther Acquaintance with the Person of Christ. Pag. 43. What this farther Acquaintance with the person of Christ should mean I do not well understand It may be any more Acquaintance with respect unto some that is necessary It may be without any more adoe as to an acquaintance with him And if this be his Intention as it must be if there be sense in his words that God's readâ—ness to pardon Sinners is revealed in the Scripture without respect unto the Person of Jesus Christ it is a piece of dull Socinâ—anism which because I have sufficiently confuted else where I shall not here farther discover the folly of For a Knowledge of God's Essential Properties by the Light of Nature it was never denyed by me yea I have written and contended for it in another way than can be impeached by such
trifling Declamations But yet with his good leave I do yet belâ—eve that there is no saving Knowledge of or acquaintance with God or his Properties to be attained but in and through Jesus Christ as revealed unto us in the Gospel And this I can confirm with Testimonies of the Scripture Fathers Schoolmen and Divines of all sorts with Reasons and Arguments such as I know this Author cannot Answer And whatever great apprehensions he may have of his Skill and Abilities to know God and his Properties by the Light of Nature now he neither knowes nor is able to distinguish what he Learns from thence and what he hath imbibed in his Education from an Emanation of Divine Rvelation yet I believe there were as wise men as himself amongst those Ancient Philosophers concerning whom and their enquiries into the Nature of God our Apostle pronounces those censures Rom. 1. 1 Cor. 1. But on this goodly Foundation he proceeds unto a particular Inference pag. 44. saying And is not this a Confident Man to tell us that the Love of God to Sinners and his Pardoning Mercy could never have entred into the Heart of Man but by Christ when the experience of the whole World confutes him For whatever becomes of his new Theories both Jews and Heathens who understood nothing at all of what Christ was to do in order to our Recovery did believe God to be Gracious and Merciful to Sinners and had reason to do so because God himself had assured the Jewes that he was a Gracious and Merciful God pardoning Iniquity Transgressions and Sins And those natural Notions Heathens had of God and all those Discoveries God had made of himself in the works of Creation and Providence did assure them that God is very Good and it is not possible to understand what Goodness is without pardoning Grace I beg his Excuse Truth and good Company will give a modest Man a little Confidence sometimes And against his Experience of the whole World falsly pretended I can oppose the Testimonies of the Scripture and all the Ancient writers of the Church very few excepted We can know of God only what he hath one way or other revealed of himself and nothing else And I say again that God hath not revealed his Love unto Sinners and his Pardoning Mercy any other way but in and by Jesus Christ. For what he adds as to the knowledge which the Jews had of these things by Gods Revelation in the Scripture when he can prove that all those Revelations or any of them had not respect unto the Promised Seed the Son of God to be exhibited in the Flesh to destroy the works of the Devil he will speak somewhat unto his Purpose In the mean time this insertion of the consideration of them who enjoyed that Revelation of Christ which God was pleased to build his Church upon under the old Testament is weak and impertinent Their apprehensions I acknowledge concerning the Person of Christ and the specialty of the work of his Mediation were dark and obscure but so also proportionably was their Knowledge of all other Sacred Truths which yet with all Diligence they enquired into That whicâ— I intended is expressed by the Apostle 1 Cor. 2.9 It is written Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard neither have entred into the Heart of Man the things which God hath prepared for them that Love him but God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit What a Confident Man was this Apostle as to affirm that the things of the Grace and Mercy of God did never enter into the heart of Man to conceive nor would so have done had they not been revealed by the Spirit of God in the Gospel through Jesus Christ. But this is only a Transient Charge there insues that which is much more severe pag. 45. As for Instance he tells us that in Christ that is in his Death and Sufferings for our sins God hath manifested the Naturalness of this Righteousness i. e. Vindictive Justice in punishing Sin that it was impossible that it should be diverted from Sinners without the interposing of a Propitiation that is that God is so Just and Righteous that he cannot pardon sin without satisfaction to his Justice Now this indeed is such a Notion of Justice as is perfectly New which neither Scripture nor Nature acquaints us with For all Mankind have accounted it an Act of Goodness without the least suspicion of injustice in it to remit injuries and offences without exacting any punishment that he is so far from being Just that he is cruel and savage who will remit no offence till he hath satisfied his Revenge The Reader who is in any measure or degree acquainted with these things knows full well what is intended by that which I have asserted It is no more but this that such is the Essential Holiness and Righteousness of the Nature of God that considering him as the Supreme Governour and Ruler of all Mankind it was inconsistent with the Holiness and Rectitude of his Rule and the Glory of his Government to pass by sin absolutely or to pardon it without Satisfaction Propitiation or Atonement This I said was made Evident in the Death and Sufferings of Christ wherein God made all our Iniquities to meet upon him and spared him not that we might obtain Mercy and Grace This is here now called out by our Author as a very dangerous or Foolish Passage in my Discourse which he thought he might highly advantage his Reputation by Reflecting upon But as the Orator said to his Adversary Equidem vehementer laetor eum esse me in quem tu cumcuperes nullam contumeliam jacere potueris quae non ad maximam partem civium conveniret So it is here fallen out If this man knows not that this is the Judgment of the generality of the most Learned Divines of Europe upon the matter of all who have engaged with any success against the Socinians one or two only excepted I can pitty him but not relieve him in his unhappiness unless he will be pleased to take more pains in reading good Books than as yet he appeareth to have done But for the thing it self and his Reflections upon it I shall observe yet some few things and so pass on As first the opposition that he makes unto my Position is nothing but a crude Assertion of one of the meanest and most absurd Sophisms which the Socinians use in this Cause Namely that every one may remit injuries and offences as he pleaseth without exacting any Punishment Which as it is true in most Cases of Injuries and offences against Private Persons wherein no others are concerned but themselves nor are they obliged by any Law of the Community to pursue their own Right so with respect unto Publick Rulers of the Community unto such Injuries and offences as are done against supreme Rule tending directly unto the Dissolution of the Society centring in it to suppose that such Rulers
all Chritians believe Jesus Christ is Jesus Christ the Eternal Son of God Incarnate The Person of Christ is Christ himself and nothing else His personal Excellencies are the properties of his Person as his two Natures are united therein and as he was thereby made Meet to be the Mediator between God and Man To know Christ in the Language of the Scripture the whole Church of God antient and present in Common Sense and Understanding is to know the Person of Christ as revealed and declared in the Gospel with respect unto the Ends for which he is proposed and made known therein And this Knowledge of him as it is accompanied with and cannot be without the Knowledge of his Mind and Will declared in his Precepts Promises and Institutions is effectual to work produce in the Souls of them who so know him that Faith in him and Obedience unto him which he doth require And what would this Man have He who is otherwise minded hath renounced his Christianity if ever he had any And if he be thus perswaded to what purpose is it to set up and combate the Mormoes and Chimaeras of his own Imagination well then I do maintain that to know Christ according to the Gospel is to know the Person of Christ for Christ and his Person are the same Would he now have me to prove this by Testimonies or Arguments or the consent of the Ancient Church I must beg his Excuse at present and so for the future unless I have occasion to deal with Gnosticks Familists or Quakers And as for the latter Clause wherein Christ is said to be made Wisdom unto us he says some Duller Men can understand no more by it than the Wisdom of those Revelations Christ hath made of God's will to the World who are dull Men indeed and so let them pass His ensuing Discourses in pag. 103 104 105. contain the Boldest Reflections on and openest Derisions of the Expressions and way of Teaching spiritual things warranted in and by the Scripture that to my Knowledge I ever read in a Book Licensed to be Printed by publick Authority As in particular the Expressions oâ— Faith in Christ by coming unto him and receiving of him which are the Words of the Holy-Ghost and used by him in his Wisdom to instruct us in the Nature of this Duty are amongst others the Subjects of his Scorn The First part of it though I remember not to have given any occasion to be particularly concerned in it I shall briefly consider pag. 103. Thus when Men have first Learned from an acquaintance with Christ to place all their hopes of Salvation in a personal Union with Christ from whom they receive the free Communications of Pardon and Grace Righteousness and Salvation what more plain Proof can any Man who is resolved to believe this desire of it than 1 John 5.12 He that hath the Son hath Life and he that hath not the Son hath not Life And what can having the Son signify but having an Interest in him being made one with him though some will be so perverse as to understand it of believing and having his Gospel But the Phrase of having the Son confutes that dull Moral Interpretation especially when we remember it is called being in Christ and abiding in him which must signify a very near Union between Christs Person and Us. I suppose that Expression of Personal Union sprung out of Design and not out of Ignorance for if I mistake not he doth somewhere in his Book take notice that it is disclaimed and only an Union of Believers with or unto the Person of Christ asserted Or if it be his mistake all comes to the same Issue Personal or Hypostatical Union is that of different Natures in the same Person giving them the same singular subsistence This none Pretend unto with Jesus Christ but it is the Union of Bevers unto the Person of Christ which is spiritual and Mystical whereby they are in him and he in them and so are one with him their Head as Members of his Mystical Body which is pleaded for herein with the free Communications of Grace Righteousness and Salvation in the several and distinct ways whereby we are capable to receive them from him or be made partakers of them we place all hopes of Salvation And we do Judge moreover that he who is otherwise minded must betake himself unto another Gospel for he compleatly renounceth that in our Bibles Is this our Crime that which we are thus charged with and tradâ—ced for Is the Contrary hereunto the Doctrine that the present Church of England approveth and instructs her Children in Or doth any Man think that we will be scared from our Faith and Hope by such weak and frivolous Attempts against them Yea but it may be it is not so much the thing it self as the miserable Proof which we produce from the Scripture in the Confirmation of it for we do it from that of the Apostle 1 John 5.12 If he think that we prove these things only by this Testimony he is mistaken at his wonted rate Our Faith herein is built upon innumerable express Testimonies of the Scripture indeed the whole Revelation of the Will of God and the way of Salvation by Jesus Christ in the Gospel Those who prove it also from this Text have sufficient Ground and Reason for what they plead And notwithstanding the pleasant scoffing humour of this Author we yet say that it is Perverse Folly for any one to say that the having of the Son or Christ expressed in the Text doth intend either the having an Interest in him and Union with him or the obeying of his Gospel exclusively to the other these being inseparable and included in the same Expression And as to what he adds about being in Christ and abiding in him which are the greatest Priviledges of Believers and that as expressed in words taught by the Holy Ghost it is of the same strain of prophaneness with much of what ensues which I shall not farther enquire into I find not my self concerned in his ensuing Talk but only in one Reflection on the words of the Scripture and the Repetition of his old Putid and shameless Calumny pag. 108. untill we come to pag. 126. Where he arraigns an Occasional Discourse of mine about the Necessity of Holiness and good works wherein he hath only filched out of the whole what he thought be could wrest unto his End and scoffingly descant upon I shall therefore for once transcribe the whole Passage as it lies in my Book and refer it to the Judgment of the Reader pag. 206. The second Objection is that if the Righteousness and Obedience of Christ to the Law be imputed unto us then what need we yield obedience our selves To this also I shall return answer as briefly as I can in the ensuing observations Then 1. The placeing of our Gospel-Obedienceon the right foot of account that it may neithr be exalted