In this latter God looks on Men as final Sinners and reveils his Justice in their Condemnation In the former he doth not look on men as final Sinners but pass them by and leave them to themselves to become such and in this he shews forth his infinite Sovereignty in dispensing Grace as he pleaseth This made the Divine Goodness so restlesly zealous Mr. Sherlock and concerned for the recovery of mankind various ways he attempted in former ages but with little success but at last God sent his own Son our Lord Jesus Christ into the world to be the great Shepherd and Bishop of Souls to seek and to save that which was lost Various ways attempted Answer what distinct and separate from Christ Was not Christ in the first plot and design of our recovery Was not he the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world Immediately after the Fall he was promised in the Seed of the woman and after that first Gospel the light was still a breaking out in a succession of Promises and Sacrifices Various ways saith the Author were attempted to little Success what was it to any success at all Was ever any one lost son of Adam saved without a Christ without a Satisfaction No Christian ears will endure such an opinion however God having a design in those ways as the Author imports why did not those plots take effect and save Christ the labour of coming in the flesh May it become his infinite wisdom to attempt this and that and at last light upon the right way Or may it comport with his infinite power to be posed and nonplust and that in so great a concern as Man's recovery To think so is as S. Austin saith To hazard the first Article of our Creed Euchir cap. 96. Credo in Deum Patrem omnipotentem And if in those various ways there could be an obstacle to the Almighty what might it be Was it for want of a satisfaction No according to our Author that was not necessary God might have pardoned without it or was it because the corrupt obstinate Will of man did frustrate those designs Very well after that last greatest design by Christ may it not do the same According to our Author God as passionately desirous and restlesly jealous as he is in this matter affords yet no higher than suasory resistible Grace and let any judge how reconcileable such opinions are with infinite wisdom or power or indeed with the Scripture which tells us That he doth whatsoever he pleases Psal 115.3 It 's true the great Grotius glosses on that place thus Ideò homo libertatem habet quia Deus voluit which is true within the Text but if that liberty be of so vast a latitude that it may frustrate so great a design as that of Salvation by Christ the truth of the Text cannot possibly consist Those sins which are not expiated by the Sacrifice of Christ as none are Mr. Sherlock till we repent and reform shall certainly be expiated by the death of the sinner I conceive that Christ expiated our sins upon the Cross Answer but that expiation avails us not till it be applied by faith He gave himself a ransom for all 2 Tim. 2.6 But all do not repent and believe such as continue in their hardness and unbelief cannot have the benefit of that ransom but fall into death eternal ever suffering but never able to satisfie or expiate their sins If our Faith in Christ have reformed our lives Mr. Sherlock and rectified the temper of our minds and made us sincere lovers of God and goodness though we are not acquainted with those artificial methods of repentance have not felt the workings of the Law nor the amazing terrors of Gods wrath nor the raging despair of damned Spirits and then all on a sudden as if we had never heard any such thing before have had Christ offered heard his woings and made a formal contract and espousal with Christ and such like workings of a heated fancy and religious distraction though our Conversion be not managed with so much art and method we are never the worse Christians for want of it Certainly it is very sad Answer saith a worthy Divine That scoffing at the doctrines of repentance and humiliation which was wont to be a badge of prophaness should be adopted into religion The Author tells us a little before Christ and his appearance were not designed to cause tempests and earthquakes in our minds without such artificial methods of repentance saith the Author our lives may be reformed and minds rectified but what saith the Scripture Our Saviour preached up repentance S. Paul tells us of a spirit of bondage going before the spirit of Adoption S. James would have sinners be afflicted and mourn and weep and to turn their laughter into mourning and their joy to heaviness and to humble themselves in the sight of the Lord that they may be lifted up And what saith Reason Sin of all things in the world calls for sorrow sorrow was made for sin if for any thing at all sin is so intimately in us that it will not easily come out being contracted with joy it must be dissolved with sorrow The hard heart unless melted by the fiery Law will not run into the Gospel-mould nor will the proud heart unless bowed down under the weight of sin and wrath ever stoop under the Divine command the new creature is not born without pangs nor the inward Circumcision which cuts off the dear but corrupt flesh of the heart done without some anguish self-judging ushers in justification before God and despair in our selves a lively hope in our Saviour On all hands we are summoned to methods of repentance the groaning Creation shames us into that posture and the indwelling sin presses us into it the broken Law calls for a broken heart and the storm of wrath black in the threatning for a trembling one a crucified Christ asks a mourning eye and an exalted one gives it Why the Author should call these penitential acts artifices or effects of ignorance or think them unnecessary or improper under the Gospel I see no just reason at all for it SECT IV. THese men abound in Scripture Mr. Sherlock but they accomodate Scripture-expressions to their own dreams and fancies being possest with Schemes and Ideas of Religion whatever they look on appears of the same shape and colour wherewith their minds are tinctured if any word sound like the tinkling of their own fancy it is no less than a demonstration that that is the meaning of the spirit of God every little shadow confirms them in their preconceived opinions As Irenaeus observes of the Valentinians that they used one artifice or other to adopt all the speeches of our Saviour and Allegories of Scripture malè composito phantasmati to the contrived figment of their own brain These acquaintances of Christ first contrive their religion and possess
their fancies with their private opinions and then read the Scripture with no other design than to find something there to stamp Divinity on their own conceits they dote upon words and Metaphors and Allusions they found their Religion on obscure Texts or mystical interpretations of plain Texts and by the help of distinctions and glosses curtailing of Texts transplacing of words and Comma's or separating a single sentence from the body of the discourse make the Scripture speak their sence as plainly as the Bells ring what every boy will have them which is to deal with Scripture as Irenaeus observes as if a man should take a picture of a King which consisted of an artificial composition of precious stones and transplace all those stones into another form as suppose of an Ape and then should perswade silly people that that was the Kings picture At this rate we may find the Alcoran in the Bible as well as make so many Books different and contrary to each other from the various composition of twenty four letters These acquaintances of Christ And who may better make bold with him than they pervert the Gospel to serve their opinion there are two wayes of expounding Scripture in great vogue among them First By the sound and clink of words which is all some men understand by a form of sound words Secondly When this will not do they reason about the sence of Scripture from their own preconceived notions and prove that this must be the meaning of Scripture because otherwise it is not reconcileable to their dreams which is called expounding Scripture by the Analogy of Faith It is the observation of that excellent man Answer Jerome of Prague in his defence before the Council of Constance That many worthy men have been unjustly condemned such as Socrates among Pagans Isaiah and other Prophets nay Christ and his Apostles The Author hath put in a long grievous charge against these good men but the Reader will observe that it is a general one and I suppose he will hang by his belief till proof be made by the after-instances As for the Valentinians these men have nothing to do with them or their Aeones they were very high flyers in their knowledge and perfections And as I find in the Magdeburgenses they held That men Cant. 2. cap. 5. especially those of their own Sect naturâ salvos fieri were saved by nature Which whether it may have any affinity with the natural faith allowed by the Author I know not But now let us hear out Authors instances and first for their expounding Scripture by the sound of words If they find any words saith the Author which chime to the tune of their private conceits they clap their own sence on them Thus when Christ is said to be made wisdom to us this is a plain proof Mr. Sherlock that we must learn all our spiritual wisdom from an acquaintance with his Person though some duller men can understand no more by it than the wisdom of those Revelations Christ hath made to us of Gods will External Revelation was never excluded by those whom the Author opposes Christ is made wisdom to us Answer as I have answered before because all true Wisdom that is external Revelation and internal Illumination are derived from him who is the Mirrour of divine Perfections Thus when men have learn'd Mr. Sherlock from an Acquaintance with Christ to place all their hopes of salvation in a personal Vnion with Christ from whom they receive Pardon Grace Righteousness and Salvation what more plain proof can any man who is resolved to believe this desire of it than 1 Joh. 5.12 He that hath the Son hath life What can having the Son signifie but having an interest in him being made one with him though some will be so perverse as to understand it of believing and obeying his Gospel Personal Union with Christ Answer who owns it that is of different Natures in the same Person such as is not between Christ and us Mystical the Author should have said that I own and from thence are derived all spiritual good things to us And so much is proved by that of St. John Having the Son imports Union with him or else we may have all at a distance from him Hear the Learned Bishop Reynolds on that Text Life of Christ fol. 461. One thing cannot be the Principle of Life to another except there be some Vnion which may be the ground of that conveyance and this is that the Text calls the having of Christ And what this Union is he afterwards explains It is that whereby we and he are spiritually united to the making up of one mystical body Fol. 468. the formal Reason or Bond of it is the Spirit of Christ from it doth immediatly arise a Communion with him in all good things Hear the Glory of our Church Archbishop Vsher Serm. before the Commons An. 1620 No man participates of the benefits arising from Christ to his spiritual relief except he first have Communion with him we must have the Son before we have life eat him we must that is as truly be partakers of him as we are of our ordinary food and a little after This is that great Mystery of our Vnion with Christ whereby we are made members of his body of his flesh and of his bone Hear the Learned Hooker Eecles Pol. Lib. 5. By vertue of this mystical Conjunction we are of him and in him even as though our flesh and bones should be continuate with his No man is actually in him but they in whom he actually is for he which hath not the Son hath not life And may we say or think that such Pillars and Luminaries of the Church should follow the sound and clink of words and phrases chiming to the tune of their own Conceits One might rather take the Author to be out he understands that place of obeying and believing the Gospel Believing the Gospel is but a dogmatical Faith which entitles not to Christ Obedience follows after Union with him and may be rather called walking in him than having of him Before we can be united to Christ we must go to him Mr. Sherlock and therefore Faith which is the Instrument of this Vnion is very luckily called Coming to Christ But this is not enough we must receive Christ Joh. 1.12 that Faith which serves us for Legs to go to Christ must be an Hand to receive him when we have received him we must embrace him in our Arms as old Simeon did when he found him in the Temple which is a little nearer Vnion as plainly appears from the example of the Patriarchs who embraced the Promises And now we have Christ we must trust and lean upon him as we are often commanded and if leaning be not enough we may make a little more bold and rowl on him as appears from the Original Gal. Psal 37. We may
Gen. 22.18 That is with all spiritual and eternal blessings in Christ It is not imaginable that God should suffer the Faith of so great a Believer as Abraham to hang in the thickets of carnal things when he had such spiritual Promises before his eyes our Saviour saith Abraham saw his day and rejoyced Joh. 8.56 He saw the day of his Incarnation and as some the day of his Passion How far God carried the eyes of his Faith I know not however he saw so much as put him into those joys and triumphs of Faith which pointed beyond this World to that Salvation which is the end and center of Faith To me it suffices to say that Abraham rested upon Christ for Salvation and then Christ's Righteousness though unknown to Abraham was imputed to him The Author saith That from in thy seed shall all nations be blessed to imputed righteousness is a train of thoughts beyond Mr. Hobs and yet Abraham discerning the Messiah in that Promise it may be absolved in two short words that the Messiah shall merit Spiritual Blessings for us and that that merit shall be applyed to us there being no other way of applying of what is anothers but by Faith on our part and Imputation on Gods The Author ask's the question Is there no possible way for God to bless the world but by imputed Righteousness I answer had not Christ dyed for us which involves an imputation nothing of blessing could have been expected the wrath of God would no more have spared us than it did lapsed Angels The Jews about Christ's coming thought only of a temporal Messiah the very Apostles for a time thought not of Christ's death but this was because they then lived in the dregs and darkness of the Jewish Church I suppose in former ages the Jews had another manner of Prospect of Christ and above others Abraham whose Faith stands in Scripture with a more than ordinary crown on it probably had so Now if you would know what the Faith of Abraham and if all good men in ancient times was Mr. Sherlock the Apostle to the Hebrews gives us a full account of it Heb. 11. that he discourses there of a justifying Faith that is such a Faith as renders men approved of God and which he will count for Highteousness appears from the tenour of this Chapter in the second verse he tells us That by this the elders obtained a good report that is the Fathers were approved and rewarded by God for the sake of this Faith as he shews particularly That Abel obtained witness that he was righteous ver 4. That Enoch had the testimony that he pleased God ver 5. That Noah became heir of righteousness which is by Faith ver 7. Now this justifying Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A firm and confident expectation of those things hoped for and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an argument of the being of those things which we do not see Faith is such a firm and stedfast perswasion of the truth of those things which are not evident to sense as makes us confidently hope for them the object of Faith must be unseen things and the nature of it consists in such a firm assent to those unseen things as produces some answerable effects in our lives This is the general notion of Faith by which the elders obtained a good report Faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen Answer Heb. 11. This saith Erasmus is encomium fidei rather than definitio Dialectica However be it that justifying Faith is here meant Christ the marrow and center of the Covenant must be included in it Faith is the substance of things hoped for that is hoped for by vertue of the Promises and in a special signal way by vertue of the prime fundamental promise touching the Messiah which as we see Gen. 3.15 was delivered to Adam as an heavenly treasure more worth than a world and by him was no doubt handed down to his posterity not meerly in the bare words and letters of it for that protevangelium or first Promise of the Gospel was ministerium spiritûs but with such Divine Commentaries upon it as the illuminating spirit was pleased to give in to the heart of believing Adam Faith such is its excellent nature presentiates and makes to subsist the good things hoped for in such a lively manner as if they were actually at hand and before our eyes Nay as learned Pareus observes on the place it makes them subsist not only speculatively and assentively in the mind but fiducially in the heart Now by Faith in the Messiah the Elders had their divine Testimony Abel was righteous before God Enoch pleased God Noah was an heir of Righteousness all of them were Justified and accepted in their persons and holy walking The Author makes Faith to consist in a firm assent only without any thing more in the nature of it Thus the Romanists Thus Bellarmine proves it to be only assensum firmum 〈◊〉 certum ad ea omnia quae Deus credendae proponit And to that purpose among others quotes this Text Heb. 11. But I cannot find that this will down with Protestants Faith is set forth by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 confidence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a firm perswasion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fiducial liberty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a perswasion with full sails 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fiducial subsistence of things hoped for which expressions speak more than a naked assent Faith receives Christ puts on Christ feeds upon Christ such an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it was to the Fathers in the days of Moses that they did eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of God even before his Incarnation 1 Cor. 10.3 4. Meer assent cannot do this Through faith we are justified and have peace with God Rom. 5.1 We have our hearts purified Act. 15.9 We have the Spirit of all grace Joh. 7.38 We quench the fiery darts of the Devil Eph. 6.16 We have a victory over the world 1 Joh. 5.4 We rejoyce in the hope of the glory of God Rom. 5.2 Nay not only in the hope of it but with joy unspeakable and full of glory 1 Pet. 1.8 as if we had a piece of heaven here below meer assent cannot reach such admirable effects Nay it may be in wicked men who have not the least mite of those Graces or Comforts Our Saviour hath excellently expressed the nature of true Faith Every one which seeth the Son and believeth on him hath eternal life Joh. 6.40 Here are two acts the one is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to see the Son to assent that he is the Redeemer of the World the other is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to believe on him by fiducial recumbency by which saith Bishop Davenant Dav. Det. 165. Vitam à vitae fonte haurimus in
that it stands faster than the Pillars of Heaven and Earth and must be so as long as God is God and Man Man The Reason of Man must be bound in duty to point to God as the Primum Verum and the Will of Man to resign to him as the Primum Amabile these are Foundations never to be shaken The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Law amounts to so much more than the inherent Righteousness of all Saints put together that it is no were to be found but in the perfect spotless obedience of Christ neither can that be made ours but by imputation Hence Christ is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mr. Sher-Jock the end of the Law the perfection and accomplishment of it for Righteousness to them that believe Rom. 10.4 That is the Gospel of Christ requires that Rightcousness of us which the Law did only typifie and represent that holiness and purity of mind which is the perfection of all legal Righteousness For that Christ should be the end of the Law by imputation of his Righteousness to us hath no foundation in the Text. The Apostle explains what he means by this in the following verses where he gives us a description of the righteousness of the Law and the righteousness of Faith The righteousness of the Law is an external conformity to the letter of the Law the man that doth them shall live in them that is shall enjoy all the Temporal Blessings of Canaan which were promised to the observance of the Law But the Righteousness of Faith is a firm and stedfast belief of the Divine Authority of Christ that he is the Lord and more particularly a belief of his Resurrection from the dead as the last and great confirmation which God gave to the divinity of Christ's Person and Doctrine This is that Faith that overcometh the world and purifies the heart and transforms us into the likeness of God which is the perfection of all the ritual righteousness of the Law Vpon this account Christ is said to be made to us Righteousness 1 Cor. 1.20 He of God is made to us Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption He is our Wisdom as he is our great Prophet who instructs us in true Wisdom our Righteousness as we are justified by Faith in him by a sincere belief of his Gospel which is the only Righteousness acceptable to God our Sanctification because the law of the spirit of life in him makes us free from the law of sin and death our Redemption as by these means he bath delivered us from the bondage of the Jewish Law from the idolatrous Customs of the Heathens and the tyranny of wicked Spirits and the wrath of God which is the merit of sin Christ is the end of the Law Answer even of the Moral Law and what did that call for Not external Conformisty only but all Holiness and Righteousness and that in pure sinless perfection this our Faith or inherent Graces because imperfect can never amount to The Law therefore hath its end only in the perfect spotless Righteousness of Christ and that being made over to Believers by Imputation Christ is truly said to be the end of the Law for righteousness to the believer The man that doth them shall live in them Rom. 10.5 that is saith the Author shall enjoy the temporal blessings of Canaan Indeed the Racovian Catechist will go no further Nusquam in Lege Mosis reperies vitam aeternam promissam saith he But we find the Saints in the Old Testament fixing their Faith upon eternal Life My Redeemer liveth and I shall see him saith Job Job 19.25 and 27. Abraham desireth a better country that is an heavenly Heb. 11.16 The just shall live by his faith Hab. 2.4 which is interpreted of eternal Life Rom. 1.17 Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved Joel 2.32 that is with eternal Life as it is applied Rom. 10.13 Paul said no other things than the Prophets and Moses did Act. 26.22 and yet surely he spake of eternal Life Moses and the Prophets are frequent in promising the Messiah and in him all the Promises are contained Do this and live is meant of eternal Life a Curse that is eternal Death is threatned to the violaters of the Law Gal. 3.10 therefore Life and that eternal is promised to the keepers of it When the Lawyer asked What shall I do to inherit eternal life our Saviour answered him that he must keep the Law Luk. 10.25 28. If the Law did not promise eternal Life then it did not threaten eternal Death and by consequence Christ who redeemed us from the Curse of the Law redeemed us only from a temporal one But to pass on Christ of God is made unto us righteousness 1 Cor. 1.30 that is saith the Author we are justified by Faith in him by a sincere belief of his Gospel That we are justified by Faith in Christ I acknowledge but not in the Authors sence he makes Faith properly and as an Act to justifie he makes the nature of Faith to consist only in a firm assent But I have before proved that Faith justifies as it receives Christ and his Righteousness and that justifying Faith over and above assent includes in it a fiducial Recumbency Christ is made to us righteousness one of these two ways either by the Graces of his holy Spirit imparted to us or else by his perfect Obedience imputed to us He is not made Righteousness to us by the Graces of his Spirit imparted to us for with respect to these he is made Sanctification to us and Sanctification and Justification must not be confounded As we have holy Graces from him to sanctifie us so we have Righteousness from him to justifie us He is therefore our Righteousness because his perfect Righteousness by Imputation becomes ours Bellarmine speaking of this place at sâ—â—â—interprets it of the inherent Righteousness in us which comes from Christ but afterwards as convicted of the truth De Jusiâ—â— 11.2 cip 10. he saith Nobis imputari Christi justitiam merita cùm nobis donentur applicentur ac si nosipsi Deo satisfecissemus That the Righteousness and Morits of Christ are imputed to us when they are given and applied to us as if we our selves had satisfied God Further our Author upon this Text saith That Christ is our wisdom as he is cur Prophet our Righteousness as we are justified by believing the Gospel our Sanctification as we have the Law of the Spirit of life and our Redemption as by these means he hath delivered us I see not what room is left here for the redeeming Blood of Christ nevertheless I suppose the Author meant to include the same This is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mr. Sherlock the foundation of all other mistakes that by the Righteousness of the Law and the Righteousness of Works most men understand an internal Holiness and then conclude That if this Righteousness will
the Mystical Union let Bishop Davenant say Exp. in Col. Quicquid de obtentâ Gratiâ sanctificatione de obtinendâ vitâ aeternâ homines sperant merum ludibrium insomnium est si non sint in Christo Christus in illis jam verò Christus in nobis nos in illo sumus cùm vinculo Spiritûs Fidei per Spiritum impressae in cordibus nostris unimur huic capiti nostro What in denying Imputed Righteousness the Church of England tells at large in the Homily touching the Salvation of Man I shall quote but one passage Christ is now the Righteousness of all them that truly believe in him he for them paid the Ransom by his Death he for them fulfilled the Law in his Life so that now in him and by him every true Christian man may be called a fulfiller of the Law forasmuch as that which their infirmity lacked Christ's Justice hath supplied Which plainly implies a necessity of Imputed Righteousness What in bringing in internal Holiness into Justification the reverend Hooker saith The Church of Rome in teaching Justification by inherent Grace doth pervert the Truth of Christ There are other things but I leave them to the Reader 's observation in the After-discourse All Religion is founded on a belief of God's Goodness Mr. Sherlock Natural Religion was founded on those natural Evidences of the divine Bounty and Goodness in making and governing the World The Mosaick Religion on those miraculous Deliverances God wrought for Israel and that particular Providence which watched over them The Christian Religion on the Incarnation death and Resurrection of the Son of God The Christian Religion is founded so but dated much sooner than the Incarnation Answer it was in Essence though not in Name under the old Testament all along there hath been but one Faith one Mediator one Name under Heaven one Foundation of Salvation The Gospel was preached to us as well as unto them Heb. 4.2 Through the grace of the Lord Jesus we shall be saved even as they Act. 15.11 They all drank of that spiritual rock that followed them and that rook was Christ 1 Cor. 10.4 He is that Petra vnde omnes credentes salutem hauriunt as one glosses on those words Salvation streams from him yesterday to day and for ever he that will seek any other Fountain of Life must be saved Platonicè or Catonicè which to say is to depreciate the Christian Religion and render it as cheap as any other He is our Saviour in no other sence than as he is our Mediator Mr. Sherlock and he mediates for us as our Priest that is in vertue of that Covenant which he sealed with his blood He sealed the Covenant with his Blood Answer but did not turn over his Mediatory Office to it he mediates in vertue of his Blood and Merits being not as Socinus would have it a meer Internuncial Mediator but a Redeeming atoning and Reconciling one He ratified the Covenant by his Blood but so that we have redemption through his blood Eph. 1.7 peace through his blood Col. 1.20 and cleansing from sin in his blood 1 Joh. 1.7 Hence as the learned Lubbertus hath observed the Blood of Christ differs from other in a way of transcendent excellency other blood hath been used in confirming Covenants but Christ's confirms the Covenant and besides expiates and purges away sin There is one Mediator between God and men the man Christ Jesus saith the Apostle 1 Tim. 2.5 and how he mediates the next Verse tells us Who gave himself a ransom for all The blood of Christ purges the Conscience saith the Apostle Heb. 9.14 and then adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For this cause he is the Mediator of the New Testament that he might purge away our sins What the Author afterwards subjoyns These men trust in the person of Christ without any Promise nay in contradiction to it they quit his Promise and rely and roll upon his Person is utterly denied till proof be made of it The good men opposed are far from believing that they shall have any thing without a Promise neither do they quit his Promise when they rely upon his Person and Blood And yet that Reliance is as I have before shewed a Faith far higher than that dogmatical one which believes the Gospel and is distinct from Obedience When the Author summs up the Terms of the Gospel only in believing and obeying he falls short in omitting that Faith of Recumbency required therein under the Command of Faith which is more than a dogmatical Faith and distinct from Obedience which is the fruit but no part thereof CHAP. III. Sect. 1. WHen God chose Abraham 's Posterity Mr. Sherlock to be his peculiar People he did not design to exclude the rest of the World from his care and Providence and all possible means of Salvation as the Apostle argues in Rom. 3.29 Is he the God of the Jews only is he not also of the Gentiles Yes of the Gentiles also Which Argument if it have any force in it must prove Gods respect to the Gentiles before the preaching of the Gospel as well as since because it is founded on that Natural Relation God owns to all Mankind as their merciful Creator and Governour which gives the Gentiles as well as Jews an Interest in his Care and Providence This plainly evinces that all those particular favours which God bestowed on Israel were not owing to any partial fondness and respect to that People but the Design of all was to encourage the whole World to worship the God of Israel What the Author means by all possible Means of Salvation Answer I know not Surely God could have given as great Means to all other Nations as he did to Israel who was exalted above them all in Laws Revelations Miracles Protections Symbols of the Divine Presence in so signal a manner that the Jews doubt not to say That the seventy Souls that went down with Jacob into Egypt were worth as much as the seventy Nations of the World As for that of the Apostle Rom. 3.29 Is he the God of the Jews only Is he not also of the Gentiles Yes of the Gentiles also The Apostle in the precedent Verse concludes that the only way of Justification is Faith in this he shews that the one way of Justification was open to Gentiles as well as Jews in the next Verse he infers that it is one God who justifies both of them in a way of Faith He speaks not of being the Gentiles God in respect of Care and common Providence but in respect of extending this way of Justification to them upon their coming in to Christ who was that blessed Seed of Abraham in whom all Nations were to be blessed However till the Gospel came to them they sate in darkness and in the shadow of death aliens from Israel strangers from the Covenant without God without Christ without hope seeing no
Glory of them all from our Likeness to God from the Peace of Conscience from the Conviction and Conversion of others from the aversion of Judgments from the State of justified Persons from the Work of Sanctification are but poor insignificant things with the Author which yet with me are of great Moment This is all pertinent saith the Author but it contradicts it self and overthrows their Darling-opinion What the necessary way to eternal Life and yet neither Cause Matter nor Condition At least it might be Causa sine qua non and so a Condition But the Author might have observed that the Doctor did not speak ad idem to one and the same thing his words are Holiness is neither the Cause Matter nor Condition of Justification yet it is the way to Salvation both stand well together without any shadow of Contradiction Obedience is subsequent to Justification and so neither Cause Matter nor Condition of it but it is antecedent to Salvation and the way thereunto Well the Author is content that it only be a necessary way to eternal Life but what then becomes of Christ the only way What of Christ's Righteousness and of free Grace I hope there is no matter of fear our Holiness unless it be lifted up above it self into the room and Throne of Christ very well comports with Christ and Grace it is a way but not as Christ an Expiatory Meritorious one it stands as necessary in Sanctification but eeks not out Christ's Righteousness in Justification It flows from free Grace and doth not overturn but magnifie its Fountain Afterwards our Author draws up a long Charge against these men That they prepossess their Fancies with arbitrary Notions pervert the Scriptures to justifie their Darling-opinions and that sometimes with so ill success as to break some stubborn Truths into palpable absurdities and contradictions their Fancies and Scripture agree no better than the Church of Rome and Scripture do They add such limitations distinctions glosses to Scripture as are necessary to make them orthodox Their Acquaintance with Christs Person is only a work of Fancy teaches men Hypocrisie undermines the Design of the Gospel makes men incurably ignorant yet conceited of knowledge impertinent talkers and censurers of Mankind despisers of their Teachers as if ignorant and meer Moral Preachers Their Acquaintance with Christ's Person warms their Fancies moves their Passions sometimes they find breakings of heart and feel the horrors of damned Spirits sometimes they are ravish'd with his love and Beauty refresh'd with the sweet caresses of his love All which may be no more than the working of a warm Enthusiastick Fancy the transportation of frantick Raptures and Extasies of Love Unto all which I say two things only the one is this In general Charges which may be drawn up against the most innocent Souls under Heaven the intelligent Reader must measure the truth of them only by the Instances which before have been examined The other is this that the Author tells us That their breakings for sin and ravishments in Christ may be but the working of a warm Enthusiastick fancy In which Censure I suppose there is no over-measure of Charity There are yet Two things behind which because interwoven with the general Charge I have hitherto omitted but shall now recite them the one is this Prepossessed Fancies force men saith the Author to pervert the Scriptures to make them speak the Orthodox Language to this we owe all those nice and subtil Distinctions which constitute the Body of Systematical Divinity which commonly have no other design than to evade the force of Scripture or to bribe it to speak on their side I will now wonder no longer that the Author treats a few Nonconformists with such rough hands Behold an universal blast put on those excellent Divines which have stood in the Protestant World like burning and shining Lights and have set forth so many learned and worthy Systems of Divinity for the Churches use But this is All-a-mode with the Remonstrants who as Vedelius tells us De Arcan Armind have poured forth convitia atrocissima in Formulas not being afraid to say Ista ars est Sathanae calling them humanam tyrannidem and proceeding so far as to say That that Preface in Athanasius his Creed Qui vult salvus esse ante omnia credat c. was a proud one Systems of Divinity are to them as Bonds and Fetters which they would willingly break off that they might have the better Scope to introduce their unsound and novel Opinions The other is this It is not saith the Authour the Person but the Gospel of Christ which is the way the truth and the life It seems the new and living Way through his Flesh may be stop'd up the great Prophet may want the Title of Truth the vital Influences of Grace from Christ may be intercepted and all this after Christ himself hath told us expresly I am the Way the Truth and the Life These things I suppose will hardly be passable with Christian Ears or Hearts If he be not the Way there is no approach for us to the Father if not the Truth we are not bound to believe him or his Gospel if not the Life to quicken our dead and unbelieving Hearts we should never believe in him though he were both the former CHAP. IV. Sect. I. NExt to the Knowledge of Christ Mr. Sherlock there is not a greater Mystery than our Vnion to him and Communion with him on which as these men represent it are built all those wild and fanciful Conclusions which directly oppose the Doctrine and Practice of Christianity Therefore it is of great concernment to state this matter and to examine what is meant in Scripture by Vnion to Christ and Communion with him for the Scripture mentioneth such a Relation between Christ and Christians as may be expressed by an Vnion and the phrases of being in Christ abiding in Christ can signifie no less The Author owns some kind of Union Answer but our enquiry is after a spiritual mystical union between Christ and believers who are knit together by the Divine Ligatures of the holy Spirit and Faith The quickning Spirit as the right Reverend Vsher hath it descending downward from the Head Serm. before the Commons 1620. to be in us a Fountain of supernatural Life and a lively Faith wrought by the same Spirit ascending from us upward to lay fast hold upon him This Union is fully set forth in Scripture We are called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 1.9 Our fellowship is with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ 1 Joh. 1.3 And this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Communion cannot but import Union We are said to have the Son and to have life by him 1 Joh. 5.12 To eat his flesh and drink his blood so as to live by him Joh. 6.56 57. And unless we dream of an oral Manducation what can this be but a Mystical
only Name Jesus is not named the holy Spirit the Fountain of all Grace is not heard of the holy Ordinances the Chariot of the Spirit are wanting and how can we think of the Influences of Grace there The Fathers in the fourth Council of Carthage would have every Bishop believe Crab. Concil Tom 1. that Extra Ecclesiam Catholicam nullus salvetur I therefore conclude with Camero Vult Apostolus omnem plenitudinem esse à Christo non vult omnes participes esse hujus plenitudinis Thus saith the Author the fulness of Christ Eph. 4.13 signifies the fulness of the Church the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ is the explication of the perfect man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies the age and stature of a man the fulness is to be understood of the Christian Church I confess this Text may well be construed as Eph. 1.23 ought to be of the Church only whereas there the Apostle speaks of the Churches being the Body of Christ here he speaks of its growing to ripeness and full perfection which is chiefly accomplished above in Glory But we must still remember that the Churches being Christ's Fulness doth not deny but suppose a personal fontal Fulness in Christ who silleth all in all Let us now consider in what sence Christ is called our Life Mr Sherlock he is called Life with respect to his Doctrine he preached the Word of Life and brought life and immortality to light by the Gospel In him was life and the life was the light of men Joh. 14.6 that is he preached the Word of Life which enlightneth the dark Minds of men it is not imaginable how Life should be Light in any other sence Christ tells his Disciples I am the way the truth and the Life Joh. 14.6 that is I declare the true way to Life Thus he calls himself the bread of life Joh. 6. with respect to the Doctrine he preached ver 33. and with respect to that Sacrifice he offered for the Life of the World The bread I will give is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world ver 51. Christ is also our Life because he hath power to bestow immortal Life upon all his sincere followers Joh. 11.25 I am the Refurrection and the Life Joh. 5.25 The hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live He first raises those who are dead in sin to a new spiritual Life by the power of his Doctrine and then hath Authority to raise them to an immortal life Thus Col. 3.3 4. Ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God When Christ who is our life shall appear then shall ye also appear with him in glory That is you profess your selves dead to the world in conformity to Christ's Death and though that immortal Life which you expect to enjoy with Christ who is now risen again from the dead be at present concealed from your view yet when Christ who is the Author of Eternal Life and hath power to raise us up from the dead shall appear the second time to judge the world then shall ye appear with him in glory We must not dream of fetching Life from the Person of Christ as we draw water out of a Fountain but we must stedfastly believe and obey his Gospel which is a Principle of divine Life in us and then we may expect a Resurrection and immortal Life Christ preached the Word of Life Answer he brought Life and Immortality to light that is in a more illustrious manifestation of it Immortality which did but dawn and glimmer under the Law breaks forth in Lustre and Glory under the Gospel That Joh. 1.4 The life was the light of men speaks not of Christ's Doctrinal Word but of his Creative which lighted up an excellent Reason in Man This is clear from the Series of the Evangelist's speech which in this place makes its progress from a state of Creation unto Darkness or the amission of Light and from thence to the instauration of it Christ is the life Joh. 14.6 not only declaring the Way to Life but inspiring that Spiritual Life which is a Seed of Eternal He is our Life with respect to his Sacrifice Joh. 6. but then that Sacrifice must be applied to us by the quickening Spirit which unites to Christ and by Faith which feeds on him He raises up those that are dead in sins to a new spiritual Life Joh. 5.25 Not by his Doctrine only but by his Regenerating Spirit and when he hath raised them up he is their Life still by the supplies of the Spirit and influences of Grace Hence St. Austin upon the 26. Verse As the Father hath life in himself so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself observes That Christ hath Life in himself but the Believer hath not Life in himself but in Christ living but as a part or piece of Christ and ever in dependence on him Christ is called our life Col. 3.4 that is he is the Fountain of the glorious Life in Heaven and withal of those Graces which are the first-fruits and buddings of it After all this the Author concludes thus We must not dream of fetching Life from the Person of Christ as we draw water out of a fountain This is durus sermo indeed we must not fetch Life from Christ he calls us to come to him nay charges the unbelieving Jews for not coming to him for Life Joh. 5.40 yet we must not fetch life from him St. Paul did all things through Christ strengthening him Phil. 4. 13. and did not live himself but Christ lived in him Gal. 2.20 yet we must not Christ is in Scripture an Head who gives all vital Influences to his Members 2. Hom. of Mans misery and in our Church-Homily a flowing and most plenteous Fountain of whose fulness we all receive yet we must not And what then must we do We must believe and obey the Gospel which is a Principle of divine Life in us so the Author But is Christ and his Gospel at odds indeed If we fetch Life from Christ may we not believe and obey the Gospel Or if we believe and obey the Gospel may we not fetch Life from Christ What strange inconsistencies are these The Ephesians tusted in Christ and yet heard the Gospel of Salvation Eph. 1.13 they were for the great Purchaser and Fountain of Life and yet cast not away the Charter The Jews searched the Scriptures and yet should have gone to Christ for Life they thought they had Eternal Life in the Scriptures and which was their folly they thought they had it there in a way separate from Christ but he told them that the Scriptures if they had digged deep enough in them would have testified of him unto them and so have pointed out unto them the Fountain of Life in Christ Joh. 5.39 40.
Nay believing and obeying the Gospel are so far from being inconsistent with fetching Life from Christ that they cannot be without it Without Life from Christ how or which way should a man believe or obey the Gospel May Nature lapsed Nature do it No surely that which of it self is not sufficient so much as to raise up an holy thought or to say Jesus is the Lord cannot of it self believe or obey the Gospel Or may Nature and Doctrine do it To place all Grace in outward Doctrine is meer Pelagianism It is a saying of St. Austin Solet dicere humana superbia De Grat. Liber Arb. c. 2. si seissem fecissem ideò non feci quia nescivi Humane pride is wont to say had I known I had done it asking only a Rule and presuming upon its own power for performance But the Scripture tells us of an internal Work of inward Teachings Drawings Quickenings and New-creatings in the Heart where these things are there the Gospel is a Principle of Divine Life in us There the Gospel comes not in word only but in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance as the Apostle hath it 1 Thess 1.5 Believing and obeying the Gospel suppose internal operations of Grace and these must come from Christ the fountain of life In him we are created unto good works and without him we can do nothing Thus to proceed Mr Sherlock Christ is the Power of God and the wisdom of God and the Gospel is the wisdom and power of God 1 Cor. 1.24 Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God that is the Doctrine of a crucified Christ as appears by the verses before The Jews require a Sign and the Greeks seek after Wisdom but we preach Christ crucified to the Jews a stumbling-block and to the Greeks foolishness but to them who are called both Jews and Greeks Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God The Jews were all for Signs and Miracles the Greeks for curious Philosophical Speculations neither of them could relish the plain simple Doctrine of a crucified Christ But the Apostle tells us that this Doctrine is the power and wisdom of God the most powerful method which was ever used by God for the reforming of the world and the contrivance of excellent wisdom thus the Gospel is called the power of God to them that believe Rom. 1.16 And by this foolishness of preaching that is by preaching this foolish Doctrine as it was accounted by the world of a crucified Christ it pleased God to save them that believe Christ being exalted to the right hand of Majesty may in a proper sence be called the power of God because all power is given to him in Heaven and earth and he hath the supreme Government of all the affairs of this spiritual Kingdom and this is a personal power inherent in him but the exercise of it is confined to the Rules of the Gospel he hath power to save those that believe and obey and to destrey his enemies this power cannot save any man whom the Gospel condemns we have no reason to trust to his personal power unless we first obey his Gospel however omnipotent he be his Gospel is the measure of his actings if that condemn us his omnipotent power will not save us Christ is the power and wisdom of God and so is the Gospel Answer but are they both in equal degree such No surely the Gospel is such organically and in a way of subordination to Christ and he is such principally and in a way of excellency above the Gospel The Gospel is the wisdom of God a Glass of it and a Divine Medium to illuminate and make us wise but all this under Christ the brightness of his Fathers Glory and great illuminator from whom the unction or teaching anointing of the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation descends down upon us to open our eyes hearts upon the glorious things in the Gospel The Gospel is the power of God a Divine Scepter to subdue and overcome the wills and hearts of men but this is under Christ the eternal word and power of God who by that Scepter produces that great and supernatural effect The Apostles though earthen Vessels carried about the Evangelical treasure with them but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the excellency of the power was of God and not of them 2 Cor. 4.7 The believing Corinthians were the Apostles Epistle and Christ's too 2 Cor. 3.2 3. but not in equal degree They were saith the Text Christ's Epistle ministred by the Apostles the Apostles were but as the pen which the Almighty Fingers of the Spirit used to make the Impression or Divine Inscription upon their hearts Hence the Text saith That the same was written not with Ink but with the Spirit of the living God The Text quoted by the Author The Jews require a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom but we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling-block and unto the Greeks foolishness but unto them which are called both Jews and Greeks Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God 1 Cor. 1.22 23 and 24. is a very remarkable one they all had the Gospel the external call yet to shew that all was in the Royal hand of Christ the dispensation is very different Those to whom Christ preached was a Stumbling block or Foolishness had not so much as any internal illumination For it is not at all imaginable that Christ the power of God if truly understood could be a stumbling-block to the Jews who looked after signs or that Christ the wisdom of God if truly understood could be Foolishness to the Greeks who sought after wisdom but those called ones among them to whom Christ was the power of God and wisdom of God had internal illuminations and operations of Grace The Gospel then is the power and wisdom of God but organically and in subserviency to Christ who hath all the power in Heaven and earth and illuminates and subdues hearts by the Gospel as he pleases he hath power to save such as believe and obey but that is not all he hath power to make them believing and obedient and to save them not contrary to the Gospel-rules but according to them But the chief personal Grace is still bebind Mr. Sherlock viz. the Righteousness of Christ Now no Christian will deny that Christ was very righteous a great example of universal holiness and purity and it must be confessed that his Righteousness was not an imaginary imputed Righteousness but inherent and personal but what comfort is this to us if we continue wilful incorrigible sinners Yes saith the Doctor Hast thou the sence of guilt upon thee Christ is complete Righteousness the Lord our Righteousness this makes Christ sutable to the wants of a sinner indeed that he hath a Righteousness for him which God infinitely prefers before any home-spun Righteousness of his own This is
imputation and who ever heard of a Mediator made such by imputation or by that Righteousness which another performed for him The Righteousness of Christ is imputed to us but what Secundum totam latitudinem to all intents and purposes whatsoever Oh no it is not imputed to us to do that which is impossible to make us Mediators or the Efficients of it but so far only as to make us Righteous before God by the imputation of it we are justified and saved but we are not Mediators and Saviours The Righteousness is formally Christ's the one Mediators but materially it becomes ours by imputation so far forth as to justifie us The Righteousness it self is one thing and the manner of application another Bellarmine himself who made the objection can say in another place passiones Christi quae sunt infiniti pretii De Indulgent l. ◠cap. 4. applicari per indulgentias finiso modo So say I the Righteousness of Christ is imputed to us not to all intents and purposes not to translate a Mediatorship upon us but in a limited manner to justifie and save us who are the receivers of it It is imputed to every Believer but it makes never an one of them God-man and no man that is a meer man or less than God-man can be an expiating and saving Mediator or if he could he could not be such without a Divine Call or Ordination which no Believer can pretend to The Mediatorship is totally solely Christ's but the Righteousness which he performed is so far imputed to us as to justifie and save us The satisfaction of Christ's death is made ours and that by imputation or else we must be pardoned without a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and yet that imputation doth not make us satisfying Mediators Our Church tells us 1. Hoim of Salvation Christ is the Righteousness of them that believe he for them paid the ransom by his death he for them fulfilled the Law in his life So that now in him and by him every true Christian may be called a fulfiller of the Law And yet our Church never dreamed of any such thing as that such an imputation would turn a Believer into a Mediator there is therefore no ill consequence but an infinite comfort in this assertion that the Righteousness of Christ our Mediator is imputed to us The Doctor tells us Mr. Sherlock That Christ was under no obligation to obey these Laws himself And to make this appear he discourses particularly of the Law of our Creation and the Ceremonial Law given to the Jews And for the first the Law of Creation that comprehends those eternal Laws which result from the essential difference of good and evil which all mankind are bound to observe by the very frame of their natures Now he dares not deny that Christ was bound to obey this Law for himself but then his obedience was voluntary And what of that For so the obedience of every good man is for by voluntary he tells us he doth not mean That it was meerly arbitrary and at his choice whether he would obey or not but on supposition of his undertaking to be Mediator it was necessary it should be so but he voluntarily and willingly submitted to it and so became really subject to the commands of it And is it not very plain now that Christ was not obliged to obey those Laws because he willingly submitted to them but he means somewhat more by this voluntary than he could tell how to express and all that I can guess is that whereas we are bound to obey these Laws antecedently to our choice it was not so with him for his obligation was consequential upon his being born and becoming man which was his own choice and yet even then as he tells us As he was Mediator God-man he was not by the institution of that Law obliged to it being as it were lifted up above that Law by the hypostatical Union Now this is very profound reasoning for the meaning of it is this That Christ had not been bound to live like a man unless he had become man and yet I can grant something more that it was impossible that he should have lived like a man without being man But when he chose to be man he was bound to discharge all the duties of a man for himself But how could he be exempted from this Law by being Mediator God and Man When the Doctor acknowledges that upon supposition of his being Mediator it was necessary it should be so that is that he should obey now not to be obliged by the Institution of the Law as Mediator and that it should be necessary for him to obey as Mediator are at so great a distance that it may serve for another trial of skill to reconcile them Christ Answer when he assumed the humane Nature was as man subject to the Law of Creation for his humane Nature was but a Creature and its will not being Supreme in it self was under the Divine Will but Christ freely and voluntarily became man and so put himself of his own accord into the state of subjection and as he was not made man for himself but for us So neither was he made under the Law for himself but for us Hence the Apostle joyning both these together He was made of a woman made under the Law Gal. 4. 4 5. Superadds as the end common to both that he might redeem us he assumed humanity and with it duty neither for himself but both for us that he might 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fulfil the Law Matth. 5.17 for us not only doctrinally by opening the pure Spirituality of it but practically too by fulfilling all the Righteousness thereof Christ as man was bound by the Law but this hinders not but that his obedience may be for us and may be imputed to us in justification No sooner was that Divine Decree which put a must upon Christ's sufferings made known to him as man but he was bound to dye and yet his death was a sweet Sacrifice for us and a propitiation for our sins And as the Blood of Christ was the Blood of God so the obedience of Christ was the obedience of God being stamped with his Deity it amounted to an infinite summ enough for himself and a world besides Christ was in some sence as it were exempted and lifted up above the Law by the hypostatical Union he might have carried up the Humane Nature into heaven in the very first instant of its assumption he need not have performed the Law in such a debased manner for such a space of time and in such a place as earth he was not simply and absolutely bound to it in himself but upon supposition that he took upon him the Mediatory Office he was bound to fulfil the Law for us as he did Though we suppose Mr. Sherlock that Christ as man was bound to yield obedience to the Law of Creation yet the
Moses under which they never were God sent forth his Son made of a woman Answer made under the Law to redeem them that were under the Law that we might receive the adoption of sons Thus the Apostle Gal. 4. 4 5. The Son of God was made of a woman in his Incarnation made under the Law under the rule of it in his active obedience under the curse of it in his passive and the end of all was that he might redeem us that we who were captives under the wrath of God might be redeemed ones And further that we might receive the adoption of sons that we who were children of wrath might be sons of God and so heirs of eternal life and that it may be thus indeed that Christ's being under the Law his active and passive obedience may procure such a redemption and adoption such an exemption from wrath and title to heaven for us His obedience must be applyed to us and become ours which cannot be but by imputation But saith the Author This us is not in the Text it is not to redeem us but to redeem them that were under the Law that is the Jews But was not Christ a Redeemer of the Gentiles also Or is he not their Redeemer within this Text Yes surely observe the words of the Apostle To redeem them that were under the Law that we might receive the adoption of sons The Apostle alters his phrase and turns them into we which takes in the Galatians into the adoption and by consequence into the redemption too and to make it more clear he alters his phrase again and turns we into ye in the next verse which hangs upon the former And because ye are sons vers 6. ye Galatians ye Gentiles are sons and ye Galatians ye Gentiles are redeemed ones within the Text Otherwise which is very strange the Apostle should argue from the Redemption of the Jews only to the Adoption of the Gentiles But to go on Christ saith the Author redeemed the Jews from the bondage of the Mosaical Law that is I suppose the Ceremonial Law and introduced a better Covenant the adoption of sons To which I answer Christ did indeed redeem from the bondage of Mosaical Rites and Ceremonies But is this all the Redemption within the Text If we stop here we fall in with the gloss of Socinus who understands only a freedom A jugo legis De servat part 2. cap. 24. ut Spiritûs servilis loeo filialem spiritum adipiscerentur The Redemption here is not to be restrained to a freedom from Mosaical Ceremonies only Christ was made under the whole Law and the Redemption which must be parallel to his being under the Law must not only be a Redemption from the Bondage of the Ceremonial Law but a Redemption from the curse of the Moral of which the Apostle had discoursed but a little before Gal. 3.13 Our Saviour was never made under the whole Law to redeem from a part of it only Again Redemption from the Ceremonial Law was peculiar to the Jews But the Redemption here spoken of reaches as far as the Gentiles also who as I before noted have a share in the Adoption of Sons as well as the Jews The Redemption here spoken of is not a part or piece of Redemption but Redemption in its fulness and excellency Christ by coming into the flesh introduceth a better Covenant that is the beams of Evangelical Light were purer and the effusions of the holy Spirit larger than before But still we must remember that the Covenant of Grace was for substance one and the same under both Testaments Under the Old Testament true Believers had the Law in their heart the Adoption of Sons the free Spirit and a true title to eternal Life And on the other hand under the New Testament unbelievers have the Law and Gospel too but in the Letter their bondage is far greater than that of beggarly Elements The unclean spirit dwells and works in them and the dreadful wrath of God abideth on them Christ's being under the Law saith the Author is his being such a person as should exactly answer all the Types and Figures of the Law Unto which I add His being under the Law is his being such a person as should exactly answer all the demands of the Moral Law in its mandatory and minatory parts I shall now examine what influence the Sacrifice of Christ's Death Mr. Sherlock and the Righteousness of his life have upon our acceptance with God And all that I can find in Scripture about this is that to this we owe the Covenant of Grace that God being well pleased with the obedience of Christ's Life and the sacrifice of his Death for his sake entred into a new Covenant with mankind wherein he promses pardon of sin and eternal life to those who believe and obey the Gospel This is very plain with reference to Christ's death Hence the Blood of Christ is called the blood of the covenant Heb. 10.29 And Christ is called the great Shepherd and Bishop of souls through the blood of the everlasting covenant Heb. 13.20 And the Blood of Christ is called the blood of sprinkling which speaks better things than the blood of Abel Heb. 12.24 which is an allusion to Moses his sprinkling the blood of the Sacrifice whereby he confirmed the Covenant between God and the children of Israel Heb. 9.19 20 21. For when Moses had spoken every Precept to all the people according to the Law when he had declared the terms of this Covenant to them he took the Blood of Calves and Goats with Water and scarlet Wool and Hysop and sprinkled both the Book and all the People saying This is the blood of the testament which God hath ordained to you Thus the Blood of Christ is called the blood of sprinkling Because by his Blood God did seal and confirm the Covenant of Grace as the sprinkling of the blood of beasts did confirm the Mosaical Covenant Hence we are said to be justified by the blood of Christ Rom. 5.9 that is by the Gospel-Covenant which was confirmed with his Blood Christ is called a propitiation through faith in his blood Rom. 3.25 that is by a belief of his Gospel Hence the Scripture uses these phrases promiscuously To be justified by Faith and to be justified by the faith of Christ and to be justified by Christ and to be justified through Faith in his blood to be justified and saved by grace Nay by believing that Christ is the Son of God Joh. 20.31 And that God raised him from the dead Rom. 10.9 All which signifie the same thing that we are justified by believing and obeying the Gospel for faith or faith in Christ signifies such a firm belief of the Gospel as brings forth all fruits of obedience and the Grace of God is the Gospel of Christ expresly so called Tit. 2.11 As being the effect of Gods Grace and Faith in the Blood of Christ
The plowing of the wicked is sin Prov. 21.4 Take him in sacred or Devotional affairs His Sacrifice is an abomination Prov. 15.8 And so is his Prayer too Prov. 28.9 Whatever his outward work or posture be To the unbelieving there is nothing pure Tit. 1.15 The very mind and conscience is defiled and will be so till it be purified by Faith Mr. Shephard places Justification before Sanctification and what doth the Church of England do It tells us in the 12. Article That good works are the fruits of Faith and follow after Justification that they spring necessarily of a true and lively Faith And in the 13. Article That works done before the Grace of Christ and the inspiration of his Spirit are not pleasant to God forasmuch as they spring not of Faith in Jesus Christ Nay in the close of that Article our Church saith of such works We doubt not but they have the nature of sin As for Mr. Shephards speech for Christ come in a sense that they have in some measure resisted his Spirit refused his Grace and wearied him with their iniquities the inviting of such is no more than that of our Saviour which calls the weary and heavy laden to come to him for rest in which all are concerned except such as can without Christ earn a sanctity or holyness at the fingers ends of Nature and take a nap at home in a presumption of their own worthiness and self made righteousness But let us consider Mr. Sherlock the whole progress of the Soul to a closure with Christ the several steps to this are Conviction Compunction Humiliation and Faith which is the uniting Grace Now if there be nothing of forjaking of sin included in all this then Men must be united to Christ before they forsake their sins Now Conviction is a great sense of the evil of sin and the evil after it of its abominable accursed Nature and the Judgments which follow it and this is as it ought to be Men must be awakened to see these evils before they will reform their lives Reform nay you are out this is not the end of Conviction to reform sin that is a legal way but Compunction is the end of it well then what is this Compunction Why Compunction is first a great fear of being damned he sees death wrath eternity near to him next to this succeeds a great sorrow and mourning for sin and that which perfects this Compunction is a separation from sin this is something like but by a separation from sin you must not understand a leaving sin but such a separation as consists with living in it For it is nothing but a being willing or rather not unwilling that the Lord should take it away the Lord doth not wound the heart that the Soul should first heal it self but that it may desire the Physician the Lord Jesus to come and heal it So that all he means by separation from sin is to be content that Christ by an irresistible power should take away our sins By this Separation the Soul is cut off from the will to sin not from all no nor from any sin in the will for that must be mortified by a Spirit of holyness after the Soul is implanted into Christ Now this is down right non-sense for he must be a subtil Man who can distinguish between a will to sin and sin in the will and all that can be made of it is this that this separation is a willingness or rather not unwillingness that Christ should take away our sins against our wills and therefore he tells us That this Separation is no part of our Sanctification The whole design of this Compunction is to work humiliation in us which is the work of the Spirit whereby the Soul broken off from self-conceit and confidence submitteth and lieth under God to be disposed as he pleaseth this self-confidence is any hope of pleasing God by Reformation or Repentance or any thing he can do When Men feel this Compunction the great danger is lest they should seck ease by Repentance and Reformation if they can repent and reform they have some hopes as well they may if they do so that this will heal their wounds and pacify the Lord towards them when they see no peace in a sinful course they will try a good one But this is a dangerous mistake for while it is thus with the Soul he is uncapable of Christ For he that trusts to other things to save him or makes himself his own Saviour or rests in his duties without a Saviour that is according to this Author all those who repent and reform he can never have Christ to save him So that true Humiliation is this when the Soul feels its own inability and unworthiness that it may lye under God to be disposed of that is contented to be saved or damned as shall please God and when the Soul is at this pass it is vas capax a vessel capable of Grace And now they are made thus hollow and empty by Humiliation they are capable of receiving Christ as an hollow vessel is of receiving any thing This is a new notion of our union to Christ that it is a receiving Christ into us as an hollow vessel receives any liquor poured into it This is a Philosophical account of the nature of Humiliation that a man must have such a sense of his inability to please God that he shall never dare to be so prophane as to attempt it but must leave repentance and reformation to carnal christless men and that he may be so sensible of his unworthiness that he shall contentedly submit to God to be damned or saved as he pleases And now the Soul being thus hollow is fit to receive Christ and being grown careless of its Salvation and indifferent whether it be saved or damned for it is impossible thus to submit without being indifferent in some measure which God shall chuse it is a fit object for mercy certainly it is a very hard thing to bring any man in his wits to this and I find by this Author that God is very hard put to it to humhle the Soul thus For he is forced to irritate and stir up original corruption to stir the dunghil a very unfit office for an Holy Being that so men finding themselves sensibly grow worse and worse may despair of growing better and leave off such vain attempts and sit down humble under God Nay the Lord loads and tires and wearies the Soul by its own endeavours till it can stir no more That is when the Soul labours to repent and reform the Spirit of God which should assist such pious endeavours withdraws it self because it knows the Soul would rest therein without Christ Now I know not who suffers most by this The sinner who is thus humbled or God who thus humbles him for it must needs be as contrary to the holy merciful nature of God to use such
sin we lye and do not the truth but if we walk in the light as God is in the light then have we fellowship one with another 1 Joh. 1.5 6 7. This doctrine doth not only take away the necessity of Holiness in order to our Vnion to Christ but destroys the necessary obligations to Holiness and Obedience for the suture and so thrusts Holiness quite out of the Christian Religion Our Vnion to Christ is perfected while we are unholy and when we are united to Christ there is less need of Holiness than before For now the merit of Christs death is imputed to us to remove the guilt and punishment of sin and his actual obedience is imputed to us to make us righteous and to give us an actual right to glory So that if men will obey Christ out of a principle of good nature and thank fulness they may but according to this notion there is no necessity of it because they are delivered from wrath and have a right to eternal life without it Still the Author goes on with this charge Answer That wicked men who live in sin may be united to Christ Mr. Shephard holds that we are united to Christ by Faith And are Believers wicked men they receive Christ whole Christ as their Prophet to teach them their Priest to satisfie for them their King to rule them and upon account of this receiving they are the sons of God Joh. 1.12 And are they wicked men for all this they have the promise of pardon and justification Act. 13.39 The promise of the Spirit Joh. 7.38.39 The promise of eternal life Joh. 3.16 And may we call them wicked men If wicked men may be intitled to such promises there is no need at all of Holiness or Obedience But saith the Author an holy life must not only follow our Vnion to Christ But at least in order of nature go before it because by this we are united to Christ To which I answer Without doubt that Faith which in Scripture phrase doth come to Christ receive Christ put on Christ and feed upon Christ must needs unite to him and of this Faith Obedience or an holy Life is not a part but a fruit all those worthies Heb. 11. First believed and then by that Faith produced all those acts of Obedience there recorded First We are married to Christ by Faith and then we bring forth fruit unto God Rom. 7.4 And in that fifth Chapter of John quoted by the Author First there are branches in Christ by Faith and then there is holy Fruit brought forth An holy Life must needs presuppose Faith it flows out of a pure heart and the heart cannot be such without Faith It is a conformity to the Divine Rule and that Rule cannot be assured to be such but by Faith It is levelled at the Glory of God and the single eye which looks at that great end is Faith without which the whole Body of our Works is full of darkness Now if Faith unite to Christ and precede Obedience or an holy Life then it is evident that Obedience or an holy Life do not go before our Union to Christ but follow after it But saith the Author our Vnion to Christ is not perfected without Obedience Hence our Saviour saith Herein is my Father glorified that you bear much Fruit so shall ye be my Disciples Joh. 15.8 To which I answer Our Union to Christ is not indeed perfect before Obedience as to its Fruit and Consequences but it is as to its essentials for the Believer in the very instant of believing hath a true title to the promises of pardon of the Spirit and of eternal Life So that should he immediately and before any one act of Obedience depart this Life he should undoubtedly and without any scruple enter that blessed Region where are the spirits of just men made perfect as for that place Joh. 15.8 where our Saviour tells them That bearing of fruit they should be his Disciples it is parallel to that place If ye continue in my word then are ye my Disciples Joh. 8.31 In both they were Disciples before In that Joh. 8.31 they were Disciples before that period of life unto which their continuance in the word extends it self or else their discipleship must have been adjourned to the other World And in that Joh. 15.8 they were Disciples before their bearing of fruit for they could not bear fruit without being branches in Christ and Branches they could not be without being Disciples when there fore our Saviour saith so shall ye be my Disciples the meaning only is that by their fruitfulness they should give a real proof and demonstration that they are indeed true Disciples and Branches of Christ But saith the Author This Doctrine destroys the obligations to holyness and thrusts holyness out of the Christian Religion our union to Christ is perfected while we are unholy and when we are united to Christ there is less need of holyness than before for now the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us To which I answer As to that that our union to Christ is perfected while we are unholy If by unholy be meant only before a holy life Believers before that are so perfectly united to Christ as to have a true title to the promises of Pardon the Spirit and Salvation If by unholy is meant a wicked Man no wicked Man is united unto Christ this would be a dishonour to our Saviour a contradiction to the Gospel such a one walks in darkness and cannot have fellowship with God who is Light as St. John speaks But a Believer who before an holy life is united to Christ is not must not be called a wicked Man As to the other That when we are united to Christ there is no need of holyness because of the righteousness of Christ imputed to us I answer That before I have proved that this assertion that imputed righteousness makes holyness needless is but a Popish calumny and without any ground at all SECT V ACcording to these principles Mr. Sherlock there is no certain way to get into Christ the method prescribed is Conviction Compunction Humiliation and Faith which is the uniting Grace Now I observe first that a Man is passive in all this and can contribute nothing to it himself any otherwise than as he is acted by an irresistible power and it is a vain thing to give such rules and directions as no man can follow this only tells us by what methods God unites us to Christ not what we must do but what we must suffer in order to this union A Sinner may stir up in himself some natural Conviction of sin some natural fear sorrow c. And in a sense of this may set upon the work of Reformation of leaving his sins and performing duties But all this they tell us is to no purpose for unless this Conviction Compunction Humiliation be wrought in us by the irresistible power of the
Grace is consistent with taking all fair opportunities of sinning so we do not design it before hand Secondly When the temptation easily prevails then it is the Law of sin in the unregenerate This is an Argument indeed that a Man is a willing Slave but when a Man is conquered by a temptation though he make some resistance it is an Argument that sin is his Master which rules and governs especially if this be often such a Man surely is none of Christs freemen and therefore not to fail Thirdly When sin carries it in spite of all opposition against all external discouragements threatnings of the Law the Scepter of the Gospel the Love of God and his Wrath the Death and Wounds of Christ Reproofs Resolutions Vowes Promises c. then it is the Law of sin So that it seems when sin carries it in despite of all external oppositions only it is the mark of an unregenerate Man but when it carries it against internal and external oppositions that is a sign of a regenerate Man for a regenerate Man has the same external oppositions to preserve him from sin that an unregenerate Man hath and besides these he hath internal oppositions the checks of his own conscience which he says the unregenerate Man has not And Fourthly When it is sinning and no sense of sin no after Repentance for it then it is the Law of sin Now what bad Man is there who does not at one time or other repent of his sins complain of them And how many are there that repent of their sins and make large Confessions of them and return to them again There are no Men but do at one time or other express some sorrow for their sins which he calls Repentance and there are a great many who pretend thus to be sorry for their sins who it is to be feared are never the better Men for it and yet were there any such who sin without any sense of it they would be much better then those regenerate Men who feel the gripes of conscience for sin and yet return to it This working of the Law of sin in Gods People is an ill thing Answer Oh! that we had perfection But while we are here sin will be in us and whilest it is in us it will work in some measure Concupiscere nolo concupisco saith St. Austin De Temp. Serm. 45. The first mark in the Doctor is sinning industriously and designedly and this is a sure one and found in all the unregenerate although all of them are not alike cunning and Artists at the Trade of sin all more or less make provision for the Flesh the frame of their Heart stream of their Thoughts run this way The Flesh as the Doctor speaks hath the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the projecting and forecasting ability at command in them thus it is not with the regenerate The Second is The temptation easily prevails in the unregenerate and what more certain The old heart is as dry tinder ready to take fire upon every little spark thus it is not with the regenerate who hath a higher and a better Spirit than his own to guard him against the temptatation If he be overcome in a particular Act of sin sin is not yet his Master because it cannot gain the bent of his heart and the course of his life The third is When sin carries it against all external Discouragements against the threatnings of the Law the Scepter of the Gospel the Love and Wrath of God the Wounds of Christ Reproofs Resolutions Vowes c. then it is the Law of sin Upon which the Author inferrs thus It seems when sin carries it against external oppositions only it is a mark of an unregenerate Man but when it carries it against internal and external oppositions that is a sign of a regenerate Man To which I answer It is true when sin carries it in a regenerate Man it carries it against such internal helps and principles of Grace as are not in the unregenerate but then it carries it only in a single Act But in the unregenerate it carries it in a course of life too against Law Gospel Wrath Love the Blood of Christ the smitings of Conscience Reproofs Promises Judgments still he will sin on whilest he is unregenerate thus the regenerate doth not The Fourth is When 't is sinning and no sense of sin no after Repentance for it then it is the Law of sin But saith the Author What bad Man is there who does not at one time or other repent of his sins and yet were there any such they would be better than those regenerate Men who feel the gripes of conscience for sin and yet return to it Unto which I answer Surely all bad Men do not repent of their sins such as God gives up to a reprobate mind to a fat heart to a spirit of slumber to a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a brawny hardness which feels nothing do not do so and yet I suppose these are the worst of Men Sinning against gripes of Conscience is a great aggravation but an hard senseless heart is the worst state imaginable on Earth But suppose bad Men have some kind of Repentance is it such as the regenerate have after their falls No surely the regenerate as the Doctor hath it are greatly humbled they recover again by true Repentance they rise after their falls thus unregenerate Men do not It is wonderful to consider Mr. Sherlock how little a matter will serve for an evidence of Grace after all their talk of Sanctification when they come to administer comfort to distressed consciences Oh saith the Soul I find sin prevail Sheph. Sts Jewel and how can I be comforted not by Sanctification sure Answ I will subdue your iniquities and cast your sins into the midst of the Sea Obj. But the Devil will be busie with me Ans God will tread him down Obj. But I cannot go to God by Prayer to fetch comfort Comfort what hast thou to do with comfort get quit of thy sins first and then it is time enough for comfort Ans Though it be so yet believe and thou shall have thy desire But I doubt the Soul that cannot pray cannot believe neither Obj. But I am afraid I shall fall away from God Afraid of it thou art fallen from God already if sin prevail so much for sin is the great Apostacy from God Answer None can pluck thee out of Christs hands neither sin nor the Devil But how if they be not in Christs hands yet sin I doubt may keep them out if God cut off barren Branches there is some danger of putrid ones God hath said I have made an everlasting Covenant with thee I will not turn away from thee Obj. This is good news had I a right to the promise but alas I cannot believe and take a naked promise Ans Doest thou desire to believe and to have Christ and say thus If it
were possible for Christ and Heaven to be separated I would rather desire Christ without Heaven than Heaven without Christ Obj. But this is a hard matter I cannot say I desire Christ on such terms as I should This saying is the best sign of Grace I have met with he is an honest Man who will not contradict the natural sense of his mind and say he can do that which is impossible to be done It is an odd proposal in order to comfort a poor Soul that he must be willing to be damned with Christ before he must take comfort in hopes of being saved by him Ans But is it the grief of thy heart that thou canst not deny thy self Desirest thou to close with Christ upon any terms Obj. Alas I cannot grieve and mourn for sin Certainly they are at cross purposes their Objections and Answers do so ill agree Ans Hast thou any will to it Art thou willing to part with thy sins But the poor Soul saith I fear I shall never do this But art thou willing that Christ should make thee willing against thy will and pitch thee upon a promise and hold thee there for shame poor Soul refuse not this then comfort thy self thou hast a right to Gods promises Thus this evidence of Sanctification is dwindled away into a desire to be willing Nay into a desire to be made willing and he is a strange Man who cannot go so far When a Minister comes to comfort poor afflicted souls Answer he doth not offer them the Altitudes the highest Statures of Holiness to measure themselves by that would be horrid cruelty but he sets before them that immense mercy which stoops down in its acceptance to the least seeds or sparks of Grace to grace latent in a desire or willing mind Nay to that poverty of the spirit which though it seem to it self to have nothing at all of Grace hath yet a blessedness entailed on it a broken heart which hath some truth of Grace may complain of the prevalency of sin in some sence The pressure of inherent corruption may make him cry out O wretched man the flesh may so lust against the spirit that he cannot do the things that he would Gal. 5.17 Yet comfort may and doth belong to him those promises of subduing iniquity of treading down Satan may without straining them beyond their scope let out their sweetness to him When he thinks that he cannot pray God may find and accept of a prayer in his sighs and groans when he fears by reason of the stirring lusts that he shall fall from God Grace is sufficient and able to make him stand he may be in Christs hands and yet not know it to his comfort He saith he cannot believe and yet his Faith though little and as the smoaking Flax may be true The deep sense which he hath of the power of sin and want of Faith argues somewhat of Faith and a Divine Life in him which struggles against sin and aspires after more Grace He saith that he cannot desire Christ as he should And this sense of his want may speak him not an honest man only but a pious such as indeed breaths after Grace He saith he cannot grieve or mourn for sin yet that very saying argues a kind of mourning and lamentation over his hardness and speaks his heart not to be totally hard or senseless He complains his will is not such as it should be and this shews that in some measure he looks up to that Grace which is able to make him willing not as if he were to be made willing against his will but that Grace can change an unwilling will into a willing one In such dealings as these with broken hearts Sanctification is not dwindled away but comfort is administred from the lowest measure of true Grace Mr. Sherlock But when they have a mind to take down the confidence of men who are apt to presume too soon that their condition is good they do so magnifie the attainments of hypocrites who shall never go to Heaven that it is impossible for any sanctified man to do more than an hypocrite may do So that notwithstanding any evidences of Sanctification he may be a hypocrite still which quite spoils the evidences of Sanctification because we cannot distinguish a sanctified man from a hypocrite Thus for example one may plead I have left my sins I once lived in I am no Drunkard Swearer Lyer I answer Shep. Sinc. convert Thou mayst be washed from the mire the pollution of the World and yet be a Swine in Gods account which he proves from 2 Pet. 2.20 Where the Apostle tells them That if they have escaped the pollutions of the World through the knowledge of Christ and are again entangled therein and overcome if they return to their old vices then their latter end is worse than the beginning Which is point blank contrary to what he affirms that those who have escaped these pollutions and are not yet entangled again in them may notwithstanding that be Swine in Gods account For so he adds Thou mayst live a blameless innocent honest smooth life and yet be a miserable creature But I pray says such a man and that often so thou mayst and yet never be saved Isai 1.11 To what purpose is the multitude of your Sacrifices To great purpose sure when they are offered by men of blameless innocent honest smooth lives the want of which made those sacrifices abominable to God But I fast sometimes so did the Scribes and Pharisees But it was to devour widows houses which was not the fast of an honest innocent man But I hear the word so did the stony ground who for a season believed And it had been well and a good sign of Grace if it had continued I read the Scripture so did the Pharisees who were perfect in the Bible But though knaves read the Scriptures and be never the better for it yet good men may read it to good purpose reading of Scripture is no argument that a man is an hypocrite because the Pharisees were But I am grieved and repent of my sins so did Judas but he hanged himself and that indeed is no repentance to life But I love good men and their company so did the foolish Virgins But they slept and suffered their Lamps to go out which all that love good men do not But God hath given me much knowledge that thou mayst have and never be saved Yes and twenty good things more but if a blameless honest man hath the keeping of this knowledge it is never the worse for him But I keep the Lords day so did the Jews had he been as well acquainted with the Scriptures as the Pharisees were he would not have said that the Jews kept the Lords day however this is one good thing which doth well in the company of more But I have good desires and endeavours to get to Heaven these thou mayst have
ipsum quasi totos nos immergimus We draw life from the fountain of life and wholly drown our selves in him It was well said of the School-man Nullus potest justificari nisi per unionem ad Christum prima autem unio ad Christum fit per fidem None can be justified but by an union with Christ and the first union is by faith Faith doth not only look upon Christ but it unites to him and rests on him It is not a meer intellectual thing but as Philip said Act. 8.37 It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of the whole heart the whole not a Plece only of the heart is resigned up to Christ in believing meer assent therefore is not the all of Faith but there is fiducial recumbency in it Thus our Church 3. Hom. of Salvation The articles of our faith the devils believe they believe all things written in the New and Old Testament to be true and for all this faith they be but devils remaining still in their damnable estate lacking the very true Christian faith For the right and true Christian faith is not only to believe that holy Scripture and all the Articles of our faith are true but also to have a sure trust and confidence in Gods merciful promises to be saved from everlasting damnation by Christ whereof doth follow a loving heart to obey his commandments And again 1. Hom. of Faith our Church sets forth faith to be a true trust and confidence of the mercy of God through our Lord Jesus Christ a trusting in God committing our selves wholly unto him hanging only upon him and calling upon him But it may be said that the Author places Faith in such a firm assent as produces some effects in our lives and so not in meer assent To which I answer according to our Author The nature of Faith stands only in assent Obedience indeed is an effect of Faith but it is not Faith it self it is not an essential ingredient in the nature of Faith neither is it indeed the effect of any Faith but such an one as is total and genuine that is which is assentive and fiducial also The different sorts of Faith result from the different Objects and Motives of it Mr. Sherlock the Apostle takes notice of two kinds of Faith in this Chapter and Faith in Christ makes a third which are all the kinds of Faith the Scripture is acquainted with The first we may call a natural Faith that is a belief of the principles of natural Religion which is founded upon natural Demonstrations or Moral Arguments as that God is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him Which was the Faith of Abel and Enoch whereby they pleased God for there being no mention made of the Faith of Abel and Enoch in the Old Testament The Apostle proves that they were true believers because they had this Testimony that they pleased God Now it is impossible to be sincerely religious or do any acceptable service to God without the belief of his being and providence and care of good men These are the first principles of all Religion And God required no more of those good men who had no other particular Revelation of his Will Secondly There is a Faith in God or a belief of those particular Revelations which God made to the Fathers of the Old Testament Thus Noah believed God being warned of the deluge and in obedience to him provided an Ark and this was imputed to him for Righteousness Thus Abraham in obedience to the divine Revelation left his Country and Father's house and went into a strange Land Thus Sarah by believing the promise of God received strength to conceive seed and was delivered of a child when she was past age because she judged him faithful who had promised Thus Abraham in obedience to God offered up Isaac which was as heroical an act of Faith as was ever done by man The like examples we have of the Faith of Isaac and Jacob and Joseph and Moses c. Who firmly believed all the particular Revelations God made to them and confidently expected the performance of all his promises how unlikely soever they appear'd to be This is that Faith whereby Abraham and all the good men in these days were justified viz. Such a firm belief of the being and providence of God and all those particular Revelations God made to them as made them careful in all things to please God and to obey him It is the observation of the Learned Dr. Prideaux Answer That in the dark age of the School-men Paulus cessit Aristoteli gratia naturae St. Paul was fain to yield to Aristotle and grace to nature And I fear it will be so again we have here set before our eyes natural Faith Faith natural in its believing principle and natural in its Object Reason of it self and without any elevation of Grace may nay I suppose must admit the things of natural Theology as being within its own Sphere and shall we call this faith justifying faith which is nature nothing but nature Justifying Faith if we believe Scripture is every way supernatural supernatural in its Principle supernatural in its Object Supernatural in its Principle it is called faith of the operation of God Gal. 2.12 It is not of our selves but it is the gift of God Eph. 2.8 Not a natural gift but a gift of meer Grace unto you it is given to believe saith the Apostle Phil. 1.29 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is freely graciously given to you to believe it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a good grace divinely given Hence the second Arausican Council expresly tells us that our believing is per infusionem inspirationem spiritûs Sancti Can. 6. Nay the very Council of Trent pronounces an Anathema on those that say that a man may believe without the inspiration of the holy Spirit And Faith is also supernatural in its Object it is a thing above the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 above meer natural Theology It is fixed in a God in Covenant and in his free Grace it hangs upon Christ and his sweet-smelling Sacrifice it embraces the promises of Grace and Remission and all these are supernatural only As in the Authors Natural Faith there is nothing but Nature So in the true justifying Faith there is nothing but supernatural Grace But the Author gives us an instance of natural Faith in Abel and Enoch who believed the principles of natural Religion who believed that God is and that he is the rewarder of them that seek him And had Abel and Enoch only a natural Faith Did they not believe in a Messiah Was that first precious promise Gen. 3. Given to be hid and buried in oblivion Or was it not handed down to Abel and Enoch Surely it was and they believed in the Messiah How could they come to God without a Mediator No man cometh to the Father but by me saith