God hath not life I am the Vine and you are the Branches he which abideth in Me and I in him the same bringeth forth much Fruit but the Branch severed from the Vine withereth We are therefore adopted Sons of God to Eternal Life by Participation of the only begotten Son of God whose Life is the well-Spring and Cause of ours It is too cold an Interpretation whereby some Men expound our being in Christ to import nothing else but only that the self-same Nature which maketh Us to be Men is in him and maketh him Man as We are For what Man is there in the World which hath not so far forth Communion with Jesus Christ. It is not this can sustain the weight of such sentences as speak of the Mystery of our Coherence with Jesus Christ. The Church is in Christ as Eve was in Adam Yea by Grace we are every of Us in Christ and in his Church as by Nature we are in those our first Parents God made Eve of the Rib of Adam and his Church he formed out of the very flesh the very wound and bleeding side of the Son of Man His Body crucified and his Blood shed for the Life of the World were the true Elements of that Heavenly being which maketh Us such as himself is of whom we come For which cause the words of Adam may be fitly the Words of Christ concerning his Church Flesh of my flesh and Bone of my Bones a true Native Extract out of mine own Body So that in him even according to his Manhood we according to our Heavenly being are as Branches in that Root out of which they grow To all things he is Life and to Men Light as the Son of God to the Church both Life and Light Eternal by being made the Son of Man for Us and by being in Us a Saviour whether we respect him as God or as Man Adam is in us as an original Cause of our Nature and of that Corruption of Nature which causeth Death Christ as the Cause Original of Restauration to Life The Person of Adam is not in us but his Nature and the Corruption of his nature derived into all Men by Propagation Christ having Adam's Nature as we have but incorrupt deriveth not Nature but incorruption and that immediately from his own Person into all that belong unto him As therefore we are really partakers of the Body of Sin and Death received from Adam so except we be truly partakers of Christ and as really possessed of his Spirit all we speak of Eternal Life is but a Dream That which quickneth us is the Spirit of the Second Adam and his Flesh that wherewith he quickneth That which in him made our Nature uncorrupt was the Union of his Deity with our Nature And in that respect the Sentence of Death and Condemnation which only taketh hold upon sinful flesh could no way possibly extend unto him This caused his Voluntary Death for others to prevail with God and to have the force of an Expiatory Sacrifice The Blood of Christ as the Apostle witnesseth doth therefore take away Sin because through the Eternal Spirit he offered himself unto God without spot as that which sanctifyed our nature in Christ that which made it a Sacrifice available to take away sin is the same which quickneth it raised it out of the Grave after Death and exalted it unto Glory Seeing therefore Christ is in Us as a quickning Spirit the first degree of Communion with Christ must needs consist in the participation of his Spirit which Cyprian in that respect well termeth germanissimam Societatem the highest and truest Society that can be between Man and him which is both God and Man in One. These things Saint Cyril duly considering reproveth their Speeches which taught that only the Deity of Christ is the Vine whereupon we by Faith do depend as Branches and that neither his Flesh nor our Body are comprised in this Resemblance For doth any Man doubt but that even from the flesh of Christ our very Bodies do receive that Life which shall make them Glorious at the Latter Day and for which they are already accounted parts of his Blessed Body Our Corruptible Bodies could never live the Life they shall live were it not that here they were joyned with his Body which is incorruptible and that his is in ours as a Cause of Immortality a cause by removing through the Death and Merit of his own flesh that which hindred the Life of Ours Christ is therefore both as God and as Man that true Vine whereof we both Spiritually and Corporeally are Branches The Mixture of his Bodily Sâ—bstance with ours is a thing which the Ancient Fathers disclaim Yet the Mixture of his Flesh with ours they speak of to signify what our very Bodies through Mystical Conjunction do receive from that Vital Efficacy which we know to be in his and from Bodily Mixtures they borrow divers similitudes rather to declare the Truth than the manner of Coherence between his sacred and the sanctâ—fyed Bodies of Saints Thus much no Christian Man will deny that when Chrâ—st sanctifyed his own flesh giving as God and taking as Man the Holy Ghost he did not this for himself only but for our sakes that the Grace of Sanctification and Life which was first received in him might pass from him to his whole Race as Malediction came from Adam unto all Mankind Howbeit because the work of his Spirit to those Effects is in us prevented by Sin and Death possessing us before it is of necessity that as well our present Sanctification unto neâ—ness of Life as the future restauration of our Bodies should presuppose a participation of the Grace Efficacy Merit or Vertue of his Body and Blood without which Foundation first laid there is no Place for those other operations of the Spirit of Christ to ensue So that Christ imparteth plainly himself by degrees It pleaseth him in Mercy to account himself incompleat and maimed without us But most assured we are that we all receive of his fulness because he is in Us as a Moving and Working Cause from which many blessed Effects are really found to ensue And that in Sundry both kinds and Degrees all tending to Eternal Happiness It must be confessed that of Christ working as Creator and as Governour of the World by Providence all are Partakers not all Partakers of that Grace whereby he inhabiteth whom he Saveth Again as he dwelleth not by Grace in all so neither doth he equally work in all them in whom he dwelleth Whence is it saith Saint Augustin that some be Holier than others are but because God doth dwell in some more plentifully than in others And because the Divine substance of Christ is equally in all his Human Substance equally distinct from all it appeareth that the participation of Christ wherein there are many Degrees and Differences must needs consist in such Effects as being derived from both Natures of Christ
and Ridiculous For every one who is not wilfully blind must see that by Ordained I intended not any Ordination as to the Futurition of Sin but the Disposal of Sin to its Proper End being Committed or to ordain it unto its End upon a Supposition of its Being which quite spoils this Authors ensuing Harangue But my Judgment in this matter is better expressed by another than I am able to do it my self and therefore in his words I shall represent it It is Augustine Saith he Saluberrime confitemur quod rectissime credimus Deum Dominumque rerum omnium qui creavit omnia bona valde mala ex bonis exortura esse praescivit scivit magis ad suam omnipotentissimam bonitatem pertinere etiam de malis benefacere quam mala esse non sinere sic ordinâsse Angelorum hominum vitam ut in ea prius ostenderet quid posset eorum liberum Arbitrinm deinde quid posset suae Gratiae beneficium Justitiaeque judicium This our Author would have to be God's bartering with Sin the Devil for his Glory the bold impiety of which expression among many others for whose necessary expression I crave pardon manifests with what frame of Spirit with what Reverence of God himself and all holy things this Discourse is managed But it seems I add that the Demonstration of God's Justice in Measuring out unto Sin a meet Recompence of Reward is Discovered in Christ as this Author says Let him read again The Comminations and Threatnings of God in the Law c. If this Man were acquainted with Christ he could not but Learn somewhat more of Truth and Modesty unless he be wilfully stupid But what is the Crime of this Paragraph That which it teacheth is that Sin in its own Nature hath no End but the dishonour of God and the Eternal Ruine of the Sinner That by the Sentence and Curse of the Law God hath manifested that he will Glorify his Justice in the Punishing of it as also that in and through Jesus Christ he will Glorify Grace and Mercy in its Pardon on the Terms of the Gospel What would he be at If he have a mind to quarrel the Bible and to conflict the Fundamental Principles of Christianity to what purpose doth he cavil at my obscure Discourses when the proper Object of his Displeasure lies plainly before him Let us proceed yet a little farther with our Author although I confess my self to be already utterly wearied with the Perusal of such Vain and Frivolous Imaginations Yet thus he goes on pag. 53. Thus much for the Knowledge of our selves with respect to Sin which is hid only in the Lord Christ. But then we Learn what our Righteousness is wherewith we must appear before God from an Acquaintance with Christ. We have already Learned how unable we are to make atonement for our Sins without which they can never be forgiven and how unable we are to do any thing that is Good and yet nothing can deliver us from the Justice and Wrath of God but a full satisfaction for our sins and nothing can give us a Title to a Reward but a perfect and unsinning Righteousness What should we do in this Case how shall we escape Hell or get to Heaven when we can neither Expiate for our part Sins or do any Good for the Time to come Why here we are relieved again by an Acquaintance with Christ. His death Expiates former Iniquities and removes the whole guilt of Sin But this is not enough that we are not Guilty we must also be actually Righteous not only all Sin is to be answered for but all Righteousness is to be fulfilled Now this Righteousness we find only in Christ we are reconciled to God by his Death and saved by his Life That actual Obedience he yielded to the whole Law of God is that Righteousness whereby we are saved we are Innocent by Vertue of his Sacrifice and Expiation and righteous with his Righteousness What is here interposed that we cannot do any Good for the Time to come must be interpreted of our selves without the Ayd or Assistance of the Grace of God And the Things here reported by this Author are so expressed and represented to expose them to Reproach and Scorn to have them esteemed not only false but ridiculous But whether he be in his Wits or no or what he intends so to traduce and scoff at the Fundamental Doctrines of the Gospel I profess I know not What is it he would deny What is it he would assert Are we able to make an Atonement for our Sins Can we be forgiven without an Atonement Can we of our selves do any good without the Aid and Assistance of Grace Can any Thing we do be a full Satisfaction for our Sins or deliver us from the wrath of God that is the Punishment due to our Sins Doth not the Death of Christ expiate former Iniquities and remove the whole Guilt of Sin Is the contrary to these things the Doctrine of the Church of England Is this the Religion which is Authorised to be Preached and are these the Opinions that are Licensed to be publshed unto all the World But as I observed before these things are other Mens Concernment more than mine and with them I leave them But I have said as he quotes the Place that we are reconciled to God by the Death of Christ and saved by his Life that actual Obedience which he yielded to the whole Law of God As the former part of these words are expresly the Apostles Rom. 5.10 and so produced by me so the next words I add are these of the same Apostle if so be we are found in him not having on our own Righteousness which is of the Law but the Righteousness which is of God by Faith which he may do well to consider and answer when he can Once more and I shall be beholding to this Author for a little respite of severity whilst he diverts to the Magisterial Reproof of some other persons Thus then he proceeds pag. 55. The third part of our Wisdom is to walk with God and to that is required Agreement Acquaintance a Way Strength Boldness and aiming at the same End and all these with the Wisdom of them are hid in Jesus Christ. So far are my words to which he adds The sum of which in short is this that Christ having expiated our Sins and fulfilled all Righteousness for us though we have no personal Righteousness of our own but are as contrary unto God as Darkness is to Light and Death to Life and an Universal Pollution and Defilement to an Universal and Glorious Holiness and Hatred to Love yet the Righteousness of Christ is a sufficient nay the only Foundation of our Agreement and upon that of our walking with God though St. John tells us if we say we have fellowship with him and walk in Darkness we lye and do not the Truth but if we walk in the
therein But that there is not Grace and Mercy declared and tendred in the Gospel also unto all sorts of sinners under any qualifications whatever who upon its Invitation will come to God through Christ by Faith and Repentance is an impious Imagination A Discourse much of the same Nature followes concerning the Love of Christ after he hath treated his Person and Grace at his pleasure And this he takes occasion for from some Passages in my Book as formerly scraped together from several places so as he thought fit and convenient unto his Purpose Page 209. Thus the Love of Christ is an Eternal Love because his Divine Nature is Eternal and it is an Unchangeable Love because his Divine Nature is Unchangeable and his Love is Fruitfull for it being the Love of God it must be effectual and fruitfull in producing all the things which he willeth unto his Beloved He loves Life Grace Holiness into us loves us into Covenant loves us into Heaven This is an Excellent Love indeed which doth all for us and leaves nothing for us to do We owe this Discovery to an Aquaintance with Christ's Person or rather with his Divine Nature for the Gospel is very silent in this matter All that the Gospel tells us is that Christ Loveth Sinners so as to die for them that he Loves Good men who believe and obey his Gospel so as to save them that he continues to Love them while they contitinue to be good but hates them when they return to their old Vices and therefore I say there is great Reason for Sinners to fetch their Comforts not from the Gospel but from the Person of Christ which as far excells the Gospel as the Gospel excells the Law I do suppose the Expressions mentioned are for the substance of them in my Book and shall therefore only enquire what it is in them which he excepteth against and for which I am reproachched as one that hath an Acquaintance with Christ's person which is now grown so Common and Trite an Expression that were it not condited unto some Mens Pallats by its Prophaneness it would argue a great barrenness in this Author's Invention that can vary no more in the Topick of Reviling It had been well if his Licenser had accommodated him with some part of his Talent herein But what is it that is excepted against Is it that the love of Christ as he is God is Eternal or is it that it is Unchangeable or is it that it is Fruitful or effective of Good things unto the persons Beloved The Philosopher tells us that to Love for any one is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is this Efficacy of the Love of Christ which must bear all the present Charge The meaning of my words therefore is that the Love of Christ is unto us the Cause of Life Grace Holiness and the Reward of Heaven And because it is in the Nature of Love to be effective according unto the Ability of the person Loving of the Good which it wills unto the Object beloved I expressed it as I thought meet by Loving these things to us And I am so far on this occasion and the severe Reflection on me for an Acquaintance with Christ from altering my thoughts that I say still with Confidence he who is otherwise minded is no Christian. And if this Man knows not how the Love of Christ is the Cause of Grace and Glory how it is effective of them and that in a perfect consistency with all other Causes and means of them and the Necessity of our Obedience he may do well to abstain a little from Writing until he is better informed But saith he this is an Excellent Love indeed which doth all for us and leaves us nothing to do But who told him so who ever said so Doth he think that if our Life Grace Holiness Glory be from the Love of Christ Originally Causally by vertue of his Divine Gracious operations in us and towards us that there is no Duty incumbent on them who would be made partakers of them or use or improve them unto their proper ends Shall we then to please him say that we have neither Life nor Grace nor Holiness nor Glory from the Love of Christ but whereas most of them are our own Duties we have them wholly from our selves Let them do so who have a mind to renounce Christ and his Gospel I shall coâ—e into no Partnership with them For what he adds all that the Gospel teaches us c. He should have done well to have said as far as he knows which is a Limitation with a witness If this be all the Gospel which the Man knows and Preaches I pity them whom he hath taken under his Instruction Doth Christ in his Love do nothing unto the quickning and Conversion of Men Nothing to the Purification and Sanctification of Believers Nothing as to their Consolation and Establishment Nothing as to the Administration of strength against Temptations Nothing as to Supplies of Grace in the increase of Faith Love and Obedience c. This Ignorance or Prophaneness is greatly to be bewailed as his ensuing Scoff repeated now usque ad Nauseam about an opposition between Christ and his Gospel is to be despised And if the Lord Christ hath no other Love but what this man will allow the state of the Church in this world depends on a very slender thread But attempts of this Nature will fall short enough of prevailing with sober Christians to foregoe their Faith and Perswasion that it is from the Love of Christ that Believers are preserved in that condition wherein he doth and will approve of them Yea to suppose that this is all the Grace of the Gospel that whilest me are good Christ loves them and when they are bad he hates them both which are true and farther that he doth by his Grace neither make them Good nor preserve them that are so made is to renounce all that is properly so called He yet proceeds first to evert this Love which I asserted and then to declare his own Apprehensions concerning the Love of Christ. The first in the ensuing words Pag. 210. But methinks this is a very odd way of arguing from the Divine Nature For if the Love of Christ as God be so Infinite Eternal Unchangeable Fruitfull I would willingly understand how Sin Death and Misery came into the World For if this Love be so Eternal and Unchangeable because the Divine Nature is so then it was alwayes so For God alwayes was what he is and that which is Eternal could never be other than it is now and why could not this Eternal and Unchangeable and Fruitfull Love as well preserve us from falling into Sin and Misery and Death as love Life and Holiness into us For it is a little odd first to love us into Sin and Death that then he may love us into Life and Holiness which indeed could not be if this Love of God were alwayes
almost nothing that Christ hath done but we are said to do it with him we are Crucifyed with him we are Dead with him Buried with him Quickned together with him In the actings of Christ there is by Vertue of the Compact between him as Mediator and the Father such an assured Foundation laid that by Communication of the Fruit of these Actings unto those in whose stead he performed them they are said in the participation of these Fruits to have done the same things with him But he is quite out in the reason of these Expressions which is not that we are accounted to do the same things which Christ did for the things here mentioned belong to the peculiar Office of his Mediation which he told us before were not reckoned as done by us but because we do somethings like them our dying to Sin is a Conformity to the Death of Christ and our walking in newness of Life is our Conformity to his Resurrection and the consideration of the Death and Resurrection of Christ is very powerful to engage us to dye to Sin and to rise unto a new Life and this is the true Reason of these Phrases Any man may perceive from what he is pleased here himself to report of my words that I was not treating about the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ which he is now inveighing against And it will be much more evident unto every one that shall cast an eye on that discourse but the design of this confused rambling I have been forc'd now frequently to give an account of and shall if it be possible trouble the Reader with it no more The present difference between us which he was ambitious to represent is only this that whereas it seems he will allow that those expressions of our being crucified with Christ dead with him buried with him quickned with him doe intend nothing but only our doing of something like unto that which Christ did I doe adde moreover that we doe those things by the vertue and efficacy of the Grace which is communicated unto us from what the Lord Christ so did and acted for us as the Mediator of the New Covenant whereby alone we partake of their power communicate in their vertue and are conformed unto him as our Head wherein I know I have as the Testimony of the Scripture so the Judgement of the Catholick Church of Christ on my side and am very little concerned in the censure of this person that I am quite out in the reason of those expressions For what remains of his Discourse so far as I am concerned in it it is made up of such Expositions of some Texts of Scripture as issue for the most part in a direct contradiction to the Text it self or some express passages of the Context So doth that of Gal. 4.4 5. which he first undertakes to speak unto giving us nothing but what was first invented by Crellius in his Book against Grotius and is almost translated Verbatim out of the Comment of Schlicting upon the place the remainder of them corruptly Socinianising against the sence of the Church of God Hereunto are added such pitifull Mistakes with Reflexions on me for distinguishing between Obeying and Suffering which Conceit he most profoundly disproves by shewing that one may Obey in Suffering and that Christ did so against him who hath written more about the Obedience of Christ in Dying or laying down his Life for us than he seems to have read on the same subject as also concerning the Ends and Uses of his Death which I challenge him and all his Companions to answer and disprove if they can as I cannot satisfie my self in the farther Consideration of no not with that speed and haste of Writing now used which nothing could give countenance unto but the meanness of the Occasion and unprofitableness of the Argument in hand Wherefore this being the manner of the Man I am not able to give an Account unto my self or the Reader of the mispence of more Time in the Review of such Impertinencies I shall adde a few things and conclude First I desire to know whether this Author will abide by what he asserts as his own Judgement in opposition unto what he puts in his Exception against in my Discourse pag. 320. All the Influence which the Sacrifice of Christs Death and the Righteousness of his Life that I can find in the Scripture is that to this we owe the Covenant of Grace that is as he afterwards explains himself That God would for the sake of Christ enter into a New Covenant with Mankind wherein he promiseth Pardon of Sin and Eternal Life to them that Believe and Obey the Gospel I leave him herein to his second thoughts for as he hath now express'd himself there is no Reconciliation of his Assertion to common sence or the fundamental Principles of Christian Religion That God entred into the New Covenant Originally only for the sake of those things whereby that Covenant was ratified and confirmed and that Christ was so the Mediator of the New Covenant that he dyed not for the Redemption of Transgressions under the first Covenant whereby the whole Consideration of his Satisfaction and of Redemption properly so called is excluded that there is no Consideration to be had of his Purchase of the Inheritance of Grace and Glory with many other things of the same importance and that the Gospel or the Doctrine of the Gospel is the New Covenant which is only a perspicuous Declaration of it are things that may become these New Sons of the Church of England which the Elder Church would not have borne withall Secondly The Reader may take notice that in some other Discourses of mine now published which were all of them finished before I had the Advantage to peruse the Friendly and Judicious Animadversions of this Author he will find most of the Matters which he excepts against both cleared proved and vindicated And that those Principles which he directs his Opposition against are so established as that I neither expect nor fear any such Assault upon them from this sort of Men as becometh a serious Debate on things of this Nature Thirdly That I have confined my self in the Consideration of this Authors Discourse unto what I was Personally concerned in without looking at or accepting of the Advantages which offered themselves of reflecting upon him either as unto the Matter of his Discourses or unto the Manner of Expressing himself in its Delivery For besides that I have no mind and that for many Reasons to enter voluntarily into any Contest with this man the Mistakes which he hath apparently been led unto by Ignorance or Prejudice his fulsome Errors against the Scripture the Doctrine of the Ancient Church and the Church of England are so multiplyed and scattered throughout the whole that a Discovery and Confutation of them will scarce deserve the expence of Time that must be wasted therein untill a more plausible Countenance or strenuous Defence be given unto them And as for what he aimeth at I know well enough where to find the whole of it handled with more Civility and appearance of Reason and therefore when I am free or resolved to treat concerning them I shall doe so in the Consideration of what is taught by his Authors and Masters and not of what he hath borrowed from them Fourthly I shall assure the Reader that as a Thousand of such trifling Cavillers or Revilers as I have had some to deal withall shall neither discourage nor hinder me in the remaining service which I may have yet to fulfill in the Patience of God for the Church of Christ and Truth of the Gospel nor it may be occasion me any more to divert in the least unto the Consideration of what they whisper or clamour unless they are able to betake themselves unto a more sober and Christian way of handling things in Controversie so if they will not or dare not foregoe this supposed Advantage of Reproaching the Doctrine of Nonconformists under which Pretence they openly and as yet securely scorn and deride them when they are all of them the avowed Doctrines of all the Reformed Churches and of this of England in particular and if they think it not meet to oppose themselves and Endeavours unto those Writings which have been composed and published professedly in the Declaration and Defence of the Truth scoffed at and impugned by them but choose rather to exercise their Skill and Anger on Passages rent out of Practical Discourses accommodated in the Manner of their Delivery unto the Capacity of the Community of Believers as it is fit they should be I doe suppose that at one time or other from one hand or another they may meet with some such Discourse concerning Justification and the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ as may give them Occasion to be quiet or to Exercise the best of their Skill and Industry in an Opposition unto it As many such there are already extant which they wisely take no Notice of but only rave against Occasional Passages in Discourses of another Nature unless they Resolve on no Occasion to foregoe the Shelter they have betaken themselves unto FINIS Gen. 18.32 33. Rom. 6.23 Heb. 11.6 Gen. 15.1 Psal. 19.11.58 11. Mat. 5.12 Chap. 10.14 Ro. 4.4 Col. 2.18 Chap. 3.24 Heb. 10.35 Ch. 11.26 2. Pet. 2.51
Light as God is in the Light then have we fellowship one with another and then the Blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all Sins 1 John Chap. 1. v. 6 7. And our only Acquaintance with God and Knowledge of him is hid in Christ which his Word and Works could not discover as you heard above And he is the only way wherein we must walk with God and we receive all our strength from him and he makes us bold and confident too having removed the Guilt of Sin that now we may look Justice in the Face and whet our Knife at the Counter-Door all our Debts being discharged by Christ as these bold Acquaintances and Familiars of Christ use to speak And in Christ we design the same End that God doth which is the Advancement of his own Glory that is I suppose by trusting unto the Expiation and Righteousness of Christ for Salvation without doing any thing our selves we take Care that God shall not be wronged of the Glory of his free Grace by a Competition of any Merits and Deserts of our own What the Author affiâ—ms to be the sum of my Discourse in that Place which indeed he doth not transcribe is as to his Affirmation of it as contrary to God as Darkness is to Light or Death to Life or Falshood to the Truth that is it is Flagitiously false That there is any Agreement with God or walking with God for any Men who have no Personal Righteousness of their own but are contrary to God c. I never thought I never wrote nor any thing that should give the least Countenance unto a suspicion to that Purpose The necessity of an Habitual and Actual Personal Inherent Righteousness of Sanctification and Holiness of Gospel-Obedience of Fruitfulness in Good Works unto all who intend to walk with God or come to the Enjoyment of him I have asserted and proved with other manner of Arguments than this Author is acquainted withal The Remainder of his Discourse in this Place is composed of Immorality and Profaneness To the First I must refer his Charge that our only Acquaintance with God and Knowledge of him is hid in Christ which his Word could not discover as he again expresseth it pag. 98 99. But that the Reverend Doctor confessed the plain Truth that their Religion is wholly owing to an Acquaintance with the Person of Christ and could never have been clearly and savingly Learned from his Gospel had they not first grown acquainted with his Person which is plainly false I own no Knowledge of God nor of Christ but what is revealed in the Word as was before declared And unto the other Head belongs the most of what ensues For what is the intendment of those Reproaches which are cast on my supposed Assertions Christ is the only way wherein or whereby we must walk with God Yes so he says I am the way there is no coming to God but by me he having consecrated for us in himself a New and Living Way of drawing nigh to God We receive all our strength from him Yes For he says without me ye can do nothing He makes us bold and confident also having removed the Guilt of Sin So the Apostle tells us Heb. 10.19 20 21 22. What then What followes upon these plain Positive Divine Assertions of the Scripture Why then we may look Jâ—stice in the Face and whet our Knife at the Counter-Door Goodly Son of the Church of England Not that I impuâ—e these Profane Scoffings unto the Church iâ—self which I shall never do untill it be discovered that the Rulers of it do give approbation to such Abominations But I would mind the Man of his Relation to that Church which to my Knowledge teacheth better Learning and Manners From pag. 57. to the End of his second Section pag. 75. he giveth us a Scheme of Religion which in his Scoffing Language he says Men Learn from an Acquaintance with the Person of Christ and affirms that there needs no more to Expose it to Scorn with considering Men than his proposal of it which therein he owns to be his Design I know not any peculiar concernment of mine therein until he comes towards the Close of it which I shall particularly consider But the Substance of the Religion which he thus avowedly attempts to expose to scorn is the Doctrine of God's Eternal Election of his Infinite Wisdom in sending his Son to declare his Righteousness for the forgiveness of Sins or in satisfying his Justice that Sin might be pardoned to the praise of the Glory of his Grace of the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ unto them thaâ— do believe of a sence of Sin Humiliation for it looking unto Christ for Life and Salvation as the Israelites looked up to the Brasen Serpent in the Wilderness of going to Christ by Faith for healing our Natures and cleansing our sins with some other Doctrines of the same Importance These are the Principles which according to his Ability he Sarcastically traduceth and endeavoureth to reflect Scorn upon by the false Representation of some of them and debasing others with an intermixture of Vile and Profane Expressions It is not impossible but that some or other may judge it their Duty to rebuke this horrible and yet were it not for the Ignorance and Profaneness of some men's minds every way contemptible Petulancy For my part I have other things to do and shall only add that I know no other Christian State in the World wherein such Discourses would be allowed to pass under the signature of Publick Authority Only I wish the Author more Modesty and Sobriety than to attempt or suppose he shall succeed in exposing to Scorn the avowed Doctrine in general of the Church wherein he Lives and which hath in the parts of it been asserted and defended by the Greatest and most Learned Prelates thereof in the foregoing Ages such as Jewel Whitgift Abbot Morton Usher Hall Davenant Prideaux c. With the most Learned Persons of its Communion as Reynolds Whittaker Hooker Sutcliff c. and others innumerable testified unto in the Name of this Church by the Divines sent by Publick Authority to the Synod of Dort taught by the Principal Practical Divines of this Nation and maintained by the most Learned of the Dignified Clergy at this Day He is no doubt at Liberty to dissent from the Doctrine of the Church and of all the Learned Men thereof But for a young Man to suppose that with a few loose idle words he shall expose to Scorn that Doctrine which the persons mentioned and others innumerable have not only explained confirmed and defended with pains indefatigable all kind of Learning and Skill Ecclesiastical Philosophical and Theological in Books and Volumes which the Christian World as yet knoweth peruseth and prizeth but also lived long in fervent Prayers to God for the Revelation of his Mind and Truth unto them and in the Holy Practice of Obedience suited unto
so unchangeable and Fruitfull as this Author perswades us it is now For if this Love had alwayes loved Life and and Holiness into us I cannot conceive how it should happen that we should sin and dye It is well if he know what it is that he aims at in these Words I am sure what he sayes doth not in the least impeach the Truth which he designs to oppose The Name and Nature of God are every where in the Scripture proposed unto us as the Object of and Encouragement unto our Faith and his Love in particular is therein represented unchangeable because he himself is so But it doth not hence follow that God loveth any one Naturally or Necessarily His Love is a free Act of his Will and therefore though it be like himself such as becomes his Nature yet it is not necessarily determined on any Object nor limited as unto the Nature Degrees and Effects of it He Loves whom he pleaseth and as unto what End he pleaseth Jacob he loved and Esau he hated and those Effects which from his Love or out of it he will communicate unto them are various according to the Councel of his Will Some he Loves only as to Temporal and Common Mercies some as to spiritual Grace and Glory for he hath Mercy on whom he will have Mercy Wherefore it is no way contrary unto and inconsistent with the Eternity the Immutability and Fruitfulness of the Love of God that he suffered Sin to enter into the World or that he doth dispense more Grace in Jesus Christ under the New Testament than he did under the Old God is alwayes the same that he was Love in God is alwayes of the same Nature that it was But the Objects Acts and Effects of this Love with the Measures and Degrees of them are the Issues of the Councel or free Purposes of his Will Want of the understanding hereof makes this man imagine that if Gods Love in Christ wherewith he loveth us be Eternal and Fruitfull then must God necessarily alwayes in or out of Christ under the Old or New Covenant love all Persons Elect or not Elect with the same Love as to the Effects and Fruits of it which is a wondrous profound Apprehension The Reader therefore if he please may take notice that the Love which I intend and whereunto I ascribe those Properties is the especial Love of God in Christ unto the Elect. Concerning this himself sayes that he loves them with an everlasting Love and therefore drawes them with loving Kindness Jerem. 31.3 which Love I shall be bold to say is Eternal and Fruitfull And hence as he changeth not whereon the Sons of Jacob are not consumed Mal. 3.6 there being with him neither variableness nor shadow of turning Jam. 1.17 so accordingly he hath in this matter by his Promise and Oath declared the Immutability of his Councel Heb. 6.17 18. which seems to intimate that his Love is unchangeable And whereas this Eternal Love is in Christ Jesus as the Way and Means of making it certain in all its Effects and with respect unto its whole Design it is fruitfull in all Grace and Glory Ephes. 1.3 4 5. And if he cannot understand how notwithstanding all this Sin so entred into the World under the Law of Creation and the first Covenant as to defeat in us all the Benefits thereof at present I cannot help him For as I am sure enough he would scorn to learn any thing of me so I am not at leasure to put it to the trial His own Account of the Love of God succeeds pag. 211. Not that I deny that the Love of God is Eternal Unchangeable Fruitfull that is that God was alwayes Good and alwayes continues Good and manifesteth his Love and Goodness in such wayes as are suitable to his Nature which is the Fruitfulness of it But then the Unchangeableness of Gods Love doth not consist in being alwayes determined to the same Object but that he alwayes loves for the same Reason that is that he alwayes loves true Vertue and Goodness wherever he sees it and never ceases to love any Person till he ceases to be Good and then the Immutability of his Love is the Reason why he loves no longer For should he love a Wicked man the Reason and Nature of his Love would change and the Fruitfulness of Gods Love with respect to the Methods of his Grace and Providence doth not consist in producing what he loves by an Omnipotent and Irrisistble Power for then Sin and Death could never have entred into the World but he Governs and doth good to his Creatures in such Wayes as are most suitable to their Natures He governs Reasonable Creatures by Principles of Reason as he doth the Material World by the necessary Laws of Matter and Brute Creatures by the Instincts and Propensities of Nature This may pass for a Systeme of his Divinity which how he will reconcile unto the Doctrine of the Church of England in her Articles she and he may do well to consider But whatever he means by the Love of God alwayes determined unto the same Object it were an easie thing to prove beyond the reach of his Contradiction that Persons are the Objects of Gods Eternal Love as well as Things and Qualifications are of his Approbation or that he loves some Persons with an Everlasting and Unchangeable Love so as to preserve them from all ruining Evils and so as they may be alwayes meet Objects of his approving Love unto his Glory And whereas these things have been debated and disputed on all hands with much Learning and Diligence our Author is a very happy man if with a few such loose Expressions as these repeated he thinks to determine all the Controversies about Election and Effectual Grace with Perseverance on the Pelagian side The Hypothesis here maintained that because God alwayes and unchangeably approves of what is Good in any or of the Obedience of his Creatures and disapproves or hates sin condemning it in his Law that therefore he may love the same Person one day and hate him another notwithstanding his Pretences that he is constant unto the Reason of his Love will inevitably fall into one of these Conclusions ether that God indeed never loveth any Man be he who he will or that he is changeable in his Love upon outward external Reasons as we are and let him choose which he will own In the mean time such a Love of God towards Believers as shall alwayes effectually preserve them meet Objects of his Love and Approbation is not to be baffled by such trifling impertinencies His next Reflection is on the Manner of Gods Operations in the Communication of Grace and Holiness which he sayes is not by an omnipotent and Irresistible Power confirming his Assertion by that Consideration that then Sin and Death could never have entred into the World which is resolved into another sweet supposition That God must needs act the same Power