draw with him towards a Conclusion Our Author is beginning to make an end but he must first discharge his stomach of a little froth and gall and spit up some venome that lies in his chest in the face of his Adversaries without which he could not possibly conclude his Chapter He tells you summarily what great feats he has done and what greater Atchievements he will adventure on What he has done amounts to this he has discovered great Mistakes in other mens Divinity but cannot espy any in his own he can spy a Mote in his Neighbours eye but considers not his own Beam He has also discover'd the rise of these Mistakes to be from the various usage of the Name Christ in the Writingâ—… of the Apostles The more excusable it seems they are if they had occasion from thence to erre which they might the more easily doe because as he observes well the Writings of Paul are obscure He has also discover'd to us the temper and humour of those Mistaken men They are zealous to advance Christs Person to the prejudice and reproach of his Religion which yet our Author himself when a Qualm of sweet Nature comes over his Heart thinks to be Impossible p. 17. The greater Opinion we have of his Wisdom and Reverence for his Person the more sacred Regard we have for his Lawes He has also discovered a horrid Plot to introduce a fancifull Application of Christ to our selves instead of the substantial Duties of the love of God and Men and an universal Holiness of Life But this is but a plot of his own making unless he had some supernatural Assistances from Beneath He has also for ever discharged the world upon his Blessing from closing with Christ getting into Christ and above all from overloving Christ and admiring his Excellencies and Perfections his Fulness Beauty Loveliness and Riches Wherein if he prevail to his mind he has for ever Obliged the Prince of Darkness to him and done more service to his black Kingdom than he with his Legions hath been able to effect these Sixteen hundred years What he intends further to doe he has reduced to four heads to which I referre the Reader and upon the whole Matter doe onely make this one Observation That through this whole Chapter he has cheated and tormented us with a sorry old Threadbare fallacy A benè compositis ad malè divisa The Persons whom he reviles dare not put asunder those things which God hath joyned together They love the Person of Christ and not therefore break but keep his Commandements They think that Faith in our Lord Iesus Christ and Repentance from dead works are very consistent may and must sweetly meet together and Kiss each other They would be glad to see those who revile them to love and admire Christs Person and shall be content to be reproved so far as they neglect and undervalue his Precepts but they are not to be frighted out of their Love to Him who loved them and gave himself for them They do freely confess that they admire at the Love of the Father in sending his onely begotten Son into the World upon such a design as to save Sinners and they do equally admire the Love of the Lord Jesus Christ that he was so willing to come into the world to be tempted persecuted reproached and at last to dye and give his Life a Ransome for many And though they have heard many Reproaches and Blasphemies uttered against their Saviour yet they have not met with one solid concluding Argument why they should not love him And therefore if they must be vile upon these Accounts they resolve in the strength of Christ to be vile more vile still and shall bind all the Ignominy that is cast upon them for Christs sake unto their Temples as a Crown and Diadem For indeed they do persist in that perswasion with some Obstinacy that it was the Person of Christ who dyed for them it was He upon whom the Chastisement of their Peace did lye it was He whose Soul was made an Offering for sin and upon whom God laid the Iniquities of us All. And therefore our Author must bear with them if they love him as much as they can because they have reason to fear they shall not love him as much as He has deserved They remember a Dreadfull word If any man love not the Lord Iesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha and would not for all the world fall under the weight of it Their love to his person makes them studious to please him fearfull to offend him zealous to glorifie him and if the will of God be so humbly content to suffer for him They have not met with any Author that has till of late endeavoured a Confutation of Christs personal Excellencies perfections fulness beauty loveliness and riches and they that have made the Attempt have exposed themselves to the universal censure of all that wear the Name of Christian and therefore they do ingenuously acknowledge that they doe admire and honour them and do humbly hope Christ at his coming will not rebuke them for it And when they are invidiously traduced as setting the Person of Christ at oddes with his Gospel they are satisfied that they have not done it in Principle and lament that they have in any the least degree done it in Practice And as they know that the Charge as apply'd to them is a pure impure slander so they conceive it 's vey difficult if not impossible in it self nor can they apprehend how any can really and truely maintain a due esteem of Christ in their hearts but they must have a proportionable value and regard for all his Commandments and Injunctions That these things are become Riddles to any professing the Name of Christ they tremble at as a sad symptome that the Gospel is hid to them and from them They do also in the general approve of any Labours managed with a due regard to the Majesty of God and the Lord Jesus Christ in order to the discovery of any Expressions in their Writings or Discourses which might in the least be misinterpreted to degrade and thrust down Holiness from its Throne but withall they are unwilling to be railed out of a good Opinion of Christs Person seeing that however they may have sinned in breaking his Laws it will not mend the matter to lessen the honour they justly have for Himself and had rather be severely chidden for their sin than scoffed out of their Duty But of these Matters thus far CHAP. II. Of what use the Consideration of Christs Person is in the Christian Religion IN the Entrance of this Chapter I observe our Author is feelingly concern'd to amove from himself the sinister suspition of a Design to render Christ useless And he makes a solemn Protestation not onely of his own Innocency but is ready to become Surety and Compurgator for all his Accomplices A design sayes he which I confess I
10. 38. How God Anoynted Iesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with Power which proves indeed that he was Anoynted and that with the Holy Ghost but not the Time when he was Anoynted onely we are Assured that after the Baptism of Iohn it was openly Preach'd and Published v. 37. I have met with some of your systematical Divines that would have scorn'd to talk so crudely and loosely of these matters and they tell us 1. That Christ was Anoynted by the Holy Ghost with an All-fulness of Gifts and Graces from his Incarnation and that there was no Moment wherein Christ was and yet was not anoynted with the Oyl of gladness above his fellowes 2. That he was declaratively Anoynted at his Baptism when the Spirit descended on him like a Dove And therefore they can grant that Christ was then Anoynted according to that known Rule Multa tunc fieri dicuntur quando facta esse manifestantur Thus the Resurrection of Christ is said to be a fulfilling of the Psalmist Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee Act. 13. 33. when yet the same Apostle understood well his own meaning that Christ was then Declared to be the Son of God with power by the Resurrection from the dead Rom. 1. 3 4. But because our Authors Mistake herein seems to be more speculative and notional to carry a more innocent Aspect with it than some others of his which like blazing Comets dart their malignant Influences upon the very Vitals and Essentials of Christianity it may plead for a more gentle Treatment and accordingly I shall dismiss it without more severe Animadversions than what it carries along with it 2 He proceeds in the next place to inform us in the true Nature of Christs Offices and that first in General p. 5. His Consecration to the Mediatory Function Virtually contained all those Offices of the Prophet Priest and King which are not properly distinct Offices in Christ but the several parts and different Administrations of his Mediatory Kingdom I shall take little notice what Poyson may lurk under that fair word Virtually it sounds somewhat oddely that Christ should be Actually consecrated to a Mediatory Function and yet his Offices reside in him onely Virtually a Function in Act without an Office in Act is â—…ust like an Office in Act without a Function I know no difference nor they that are wiser than I Christs Offices it seems lay dormant in his Function till time should serve for them to emerge into Act They were in Abeyance that is when he should ascend to Heaven he should then become a Priest We know very well in what Shop this Tool was forged Nor shall I stay upon that Expression wherein he so much delights of Christs Mediatory Kingdom as if all the Offices of Christ were to be reduced to that of the Regal Power that which he plainly speaks out is That the Offices of King Priest and Prophet are not properly distinct Offices in Christ. It has been the Interest and therefore the unwearied endeavour of the Socinians to confound the Offices of Christ which else they were well aware would confound their Heterodoxies so Volkelius lib. 3. de verâ Relig. cap. 37. de Sacerdotio Christi Iam ut de Pontificio Christi munere explicemus primo loco animadvertendum est illud ab ejusdem officio Regio si in rem ipsam mentem intendas non multum differre Now that we may speak of the Priestly Office of Christ we must in the first place observe that it differs not much from his Kingly Office if we narrowly attend the Nature of the Thing and his fellow Crellius to the same purpose Duo ista Munera Regium nempe Pontificium in sacris Literis apertè a se invicem disjuncta ut in Scholis loquuntur contradistincta nuspiam cernas sed potiùs alterum in altero quodammodò comprehensum videas Those two Offices viz. the Kingly and the Sacerdotal you shall never observe in the Scriptures to be separated or as the School men speak contradistinguished but rather the one included after a sort in the other And our Authors Notion is the very Pallas hammer'd out of their Brains the Falshood whereof we shall endeavour to lay open in a few words And 1. The Names which express the Offices of Christ signifie things properly distinct amongst men and yet these very Names by which God knew we understand properly distinct Offices was he pleased to Use to express the Offices of Christ by They were not Names or Terms coyned by the Holy Ghost and then a signification stampt upon them by Divine Authority but they were first used in common speech and past currant in the world never any question'd but a Priest a Prophet a King were distinct Officers and it were more than strange the Spirit of God should translate the words to signifie Religious matters and never give us the least intimation that the Significations of the words were changed 2. They were Properly distinct Persons who Typified our Lord Jesus Christ in his Offices Aaron was onely a Priest had a Priesthood in him distinct from the Kingly and Prophetical Office and it were really an astonishing thing that Aaron should be a real proper High-priest and bear that Office distinct from all others to typifie him who had the Office but in an improper and that a confused manner in himself Nay those Persons in whom two of these Offices did meet yet kept the Offices in them distinct Melchizedek acted otherwise when he enacted Laws at Salem than he did when he stood besides the Altar though both those Offices center'd in his Person yet they remained really and truly distinct 3. The special Acts of all these Offices are properly distinct in Christ. As the Kings Crown is really another thing from the Bishops Mitre the Scepter really distinct from the Censor so are Teaching Governing Sacrificing Properly distinct things As I cannot imagine how to drag foretelling things to come into the Kingly Office nor conquering of Enemies and trampling them under his feet to the Prophetical Office so neither how to force offering up a Sacrifice to God upon an Altar to be an Act of either of the other two offices 4. The Objects of these Offices are distinct For as the Kingly and Prophetical have Men for their Objects Men are to be governed and instructed so the Sacerdotal hath God for its Object Sacrifices are for Men but unto God Heb. 5. 1. For every High-Priest taken from amongst men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God that he may offer both Gifts and Sacrifices for sins And we may admire the wisdom of God in ordering matters with such exactness in every punctilio that our Lord Jesus should so exactly and closely answer this description that no room for cavil might be left nor any creep-hole for a witty evasion He was taken from amongst men ordained for men in things pertaining to God he
findeth his own Brother Simon and saith unto him we have found the Messiah which is being Interpreted the Christ. A Person then there was who under the Title of Christ was alwayes laid before the Faith and Expectancies of the People of God And of so great Concernment was this Name that Peter joyns it with the Son of God Matth. 16. 15. Whom do ye say that I am Simon Peter answered in the Name of the rest Thou art Christ the Son of the Living God I shall not urge the Testimony of the Devils Luke 5. 41. Thou art Christ the Son of the Living God For he is a Lyar from the Beginning and would not have owned the Truth but to Disparage it by his Testimony yet it s somewhat sad there should be greater Heresies on Earth than in Hell Nor shall I insist upon that of the Souldiers who took it for granted that he was commonly Distinguisht by the Name Christ Mat. 16. 68. Prophesie unto us thou Christ who it is that smote thee But Christs own Testimony must pass Matth. 23. 8. 10. Be not ye called Rabbi for one is your Master even Christ and all ye are Brethren neither be ye called Master for one is your Master even Christ. A huge Bussle there has been about this place and our Authors Evidence had it been Subpoened in would have struck the Business dead One is your Master even an Office And now will you hear a Facetious and Merry Reason why He is alwayes called Iesus in the Gospels which contain the History of his Life and Death p. 8. Because forsooth all this time it was Disputed whether He were the Christ or not Great Disputes indeed the Devil has raised about the Lord Jesus some will dare to Dispute it whether He be very God or not others whether He be the Christ of God or not And not a few whether he offered himself a Propitiatory Sacrifice upon the Cross to an offended God for sin so that if Christ must never be owned till all Disputes be ended we must Prorogue his Naming till the coming of Elias The World was then as 't is now which would alwayes be Disputing things in themselves Indisputable Disputed then his Name was before his Resurrection and so has been ever since by Infidels and by those who Believed neither Disputed before nor after I have heard of a great Dispute of late amongst Persons of great Learning about the Reason of an Appearance in Philosophy when one of the Company wiser it seems than his Neighbours gravely Counselled them to Examine more Narrowly whether indeed the Thing were so in Fact or no before they did beat their Brains about giving a Reason why it should be so His Advice was hearkned to and upon severe Scrutiny they had been Arguing about a Non-entity Thus it had become our Authors Excellencie to have shewn that it is before he came to flie so high at the Why it is But it seems the Matter was not weighty whether he were the Christ or not it being determined by our Authors own Licenser that whatever is Disputable is inconsiderable Thirdly Christ signifies the Gospel and Religion of Christ As Moses signifies the Writings and Law of Moses and the Prophets the Writings of the Prophets Hold good Sir Create your self no further Trouble we will grant you more than you con Prove even as much as you Demand that we may purchase our Peace And that in Common Speech Christ may signifie his Laws by much stronger Reasons than Moses can signifie his Laws For Moses was but a Servant in His Masters House but Christ a Son in and over his own House Christ was the Law Maker Moses only an Instrument for their Promulgation and Execution But then it must be Remembred withal 1. That the Name Moses signifies Originally Properly and Primarily the Person of Moses the very Man Moses and only Obliquely Secondarily Figuratively or as your great Friend Vol. has it Analogico Figuratoque dicendi genere the Doctrine Writings Laws of Moses 2. That when we meet with a word that has a Proper and an Improper a First and a Second a Plain and a Tropical signification we always let that Proper Plain and Primary signification take the Wall and have the Upper hand of the Improper Tropical and Second-hand sence all ways provided that no Cogent Inexorable Reason taken from the Circumstances of the Place do Oblige to the Contrary 3. We must well understand what our Author Claims and what we Grant That it's usual nothing more usual in Common Speech than to call any Laws or Religion by the Name of the first Authors In Common Speech then this holds for if he will lay the Weight or Stress of any Disputable Point upon it that the word is so used in Scripture we must beg his Pardon and desire him to hold us Excused unless he can Prove it by Convincing Arguments and we lay down this Protestation before-hand that we shall not take High mounted Confidence nor Imperious Dictates nor Hungry jejune Glosses for Apodictick in the Case The rather because we are ascertained that the Name Christ does Properly Primarily Frequently nay Generally express a Person in Office and if our Author will needs have it signifie or Office or Church or Gospel or any Living thing else in all the Worldâ—… merely to evade the force of Truth or to hedge in any Whimsical Notions of his own he shall get his Ground by Inches and force his Way through the main Rocks for we shall part with nothing that we can Fairly and Honestly keep But we attend his Evidence Gal. 6. 15. In Christ Jesus neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor Uncircumcision but a new Creature That is in the Gospel and Religion of Christ nothing is of any Value to Recommend as to the favour of God but a new Nature a Holy and vertuous Life p. 9. To which Gloss I oppose two small Incoveniencies First The Uncertainty Secondly The Apparent falshood of it First If there were nothing else to Disparage it its Uncertainty is enough for its merely Precarious that Christ must signifie so here If any has the Confidence to deny it though never so faintly the Cause is utterly blown up our Negative upon him puts him to Eternal silence When our Author is hard beset at any time he has one Answer ready Cut and Dried which serves for every Text in the Scripture as pag. 261. It is a sufficient Answer to this to say they need not signifie so If that will suffice him which others must be glad to be sufficed with he 's Answer'd But why not the Common Gloss In the Account of Jesus Christ Circumcision nor Uncircumcision avail nothing but c. And the strongest Probabilities lie on this side First The foregoing words whereof this Verse is rendred as a Reason do unquestionably speak of a Person ver 14. The Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. And now comes in this Verse as a Reason or
Proof thereof For in Christ Jesus c. Did the Apostles Premises speak of one thing and his Conclusion of another 2. Here 's this lies in the way that no Cogent Reason can be assigned why we should depart from the Plain Ordinary Primary acceptation of the Word Christ for a Figurative Improper and Secondary acceptation but only to humour our Author for which at present I am not in the Mood 3. He is miserably short in his Foundation for after all his pains to prove that Christ signifies an Office a Doctrine a Church he must go over with all this again and prove that Jesus signifies a Doctrine and Jesus a Church or else he 's just in Statu quo For he had told us before that though Christ was an Homonymous word a Name of Desuetory Lubricous and Versatile sound Jesus was his Proper Name given him by the Angel before he was Born and therefore surely that has not been Warped and Twisted and Scrued at that Rate that this other poor Name has been for as it falls out unhappily Here 's Jesus joyned with Christ and that perswades us almost that a very Person is intended But yet secondly The apparent Falshood of it sticks more with me than all this I could easily down with a few Absurdities For I think and believe according to the Scripture That there is something besides a Vertuous Life of value to Recommend us to the Favour of God nay something more of Value and I shall not be Hector'd out of it by Blustering words 'T is the Righteousness of Jesus which I mean and we have the Apostles Warrant for it Ephes. 1. 6. He hath made us accepted in the Beloved If God should enter into Judgment with us according to the Exactest of our Obedience perhaps we should be willing to accept of Christ's Recommendation to the favour of God notwithstanding our most vertuous Lives but secondly I indite it of Falshood that he makes a new Creature and a vertuous Life equivalent Expressions For I had thought that a vertuous Life is but the Fruit that Grows on the Tree but the Tree must be made good e're the Fruit can be so A vertuous Life the Streams that flow from the Spring of the new Creature and the Fountain must be cleansed e're the Streams will be so In plain Terms the vertuous Life is but the Result of a new Heart the product of a Renewed Nature without which Principle of a vertuous Life and without Christ to Recommend both to God there is no hope to find favour in his sight His second place is Col. 2. 8. Beware lest any man spoil you through Philosophy and vain Deceit after the Traditions of Men after the Rudiments of the World and not after Christ. Where says he after Christ is oppos'd to the Traditions of Men and Rudiments of the World and therefore must signifie not the Person but the Religion or Gospel of Christ. Must And what necessity of that I can see none from the Text But if our Author has impos'd upon himself an absolute and indispensible necessity of being Baptiz'd into Volkelius then indeed it must be so Interpreted no remedy Lib. 5. c. 10. p. 437 438. Divinitatis Nomine nec Dei nec Christi Natura sed Divinae voluntatis notitia Deique colendi ratio Intelligi porest atque ideo debet By the name Deity not the Nature of God or of Christ but the knowledge of the Divine Will and the manner of Worshipping God May be and therefore Must be understood The Reader is now satisfi'd why it must be so 1. It may be so and therefore necessarily it must be so 2. Volkelius says it must be and therefore it must But let us be Judg'd by the words following Not after Christ for in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily ver 9. Does the fulness the all fulness of the Godhead dwell bodily in the Doctrine or in the Person of Christ ver 10. And ye are compleat in him who is the Head of Principality and Powerâ—… Is iâ—… Christs Person that is that Head of Angels or his Doctrine and so the Apostle runs it on till he comes to the Cross of Christ ver 14. Must we now to Gratifie these Gentlemen renounce our Reasons and say that a Doctrine is the Head of â—…roncipality and Power A Doctrine is rais'd from the Dead That we are Buried in a Doctrine That the Hand-writing of Ordinances was Nailed to the Cross of a Doctrine I confess I would go as far as another for Peace-sake but here I must fairly shake hands and leave my Author and his Masters to their own ways But though the words following the Text do frown severely upon them and their Cause yet they promise themselves much from the foregoing ver 6. As you have therefore received Iesus Christ the Lord so walk ye in him i. e. Obey the Doctrine of Christ as you have been taught it by us It must be remembred what our Author is endeavouring to prove still I hope he has not forgot it and I hope we shall not viz. That the Name Christ signifies the Gospel Now it is easily granted that though the Name Christ do Immediately signifie the Person of Christ yet Mediarely it may imply the Doctrine and yet all this while the Name or Word Christ stand in its Original posture and Purport As the name King does primarily signifie the Person of a Supreme Magistrate and yet that Treason which is committed against the Person of a King is against his Law and yet none will say that because Treason against the King is Treason against the Law that therefore the name King signifies Law To violate the Commands of the Gospel reflects upon Christs Person and he that sins against the one sins against the other because of that Privity of Interest that is betwixt a King and his Laws a Prophet and his Revelations a Priest and his Sacrifice yet it were harsh to say that Prophet does signifie Revelation or Priest Sacrifice or King signifie Laws Those things may have Relation one to another one be Inferred from another and not the one signifie the other As 1 Cor. 7. 12. When ye sin against the Brethren and wound their weak consciences ye sin against Christ To sin against the Brethren is by consequence to sin against Christ. Yet none will say that the Name Christ signifies Brethren But more particularly I answer 1. That Christ Jesus the Lord does signifie in the first place a Person And secondly That consequently it Includes the Promises the Precepts the Revelations the Death Sufferings the Intercession and the whole of Jesus But his main strength lies here That after Christ is opposed to the Traditions of Men and the Rudiments of the World and therefore must not signifie the Person but the Religion or Gospel of Christ. So argues Volk Lib. 3. de verâ Relig. p. 125. His mundi Rudimentis omnem Divinitatis Plenitudinem in Christo
Scripture are equally revealed both equally claim a share in Gods Veracity and till we can be resolved to Satisfaction how God may be such a one as pardons Iniquity and yet will by no means clear the Guilty till we can see how this seeming Contradiction may be Reconciled we shall either have none or but a faint and Dying knowledge of it But now Christ he is the very Life of this Knowledge for in his Death and Sufferings we see and know clearly that Gods Justice is satisfied upon Christ and his pardoning Mercy Magnified upon the Repenting and Believing sinner and thus to know God to be a Sin-pardoning God has indeed Life in 't For thus to use the words of the Learned Bishop Reynolds upon Psal. 110. A Way is found out that things may be all one in respect of Man as if the Law had been utterly Abrogated and that they may be all one in respect of God as if the Creature had been utterly Condemned pag. 500. This is all the Doctor here intends wherein though he should be mistaken yet has he not discovered a Fellonious Intention and so I hope it will not prove a Hanging Matter But yet our Author with his prying Eyes can see further into a Milstone than he that Pecks it And as our Critical Scholiasts upon the Poets discover Elegancies Figures and great Rarities which the poor man never Dreamt of so can our Author discover Errors multitudes of hideous Errors in the Doctor which he neither Sleeping nor Waking was ever aware of For says he He explains himself thus These things are Clearly Eminently and Savingly only to be discovered in Iesus Christ. Whether the Doctor say any such thing or no we shall take the Boldness to Catechise our Author by and by and make him produce his Chapter Paragraph and Page e're we have done or abide by the shame that is due to a Malicious Slanderer At present I only ask which of these Terms it is that he will Duel or will he throw down the Gantlet to them all that we may have Battle Royal 1 These things are only clearly to be discovered in Iesus Christ I see the most Innocent things may give Offence But who would have suspected that in this place For suppose that Sun Moon and Stars Gods general Goodness to his Patience with and Forbearance of Sinners might Intimate some such thing that there was Forgiveness with God yet surely there 's a more clear account given of it in Christs Person who was made sin for us 2 Cor. 5. 21. which the Prophet Isaiah Chap. 53. v. 10. calls making his Soul an Offering for sin And that methinks clears it up a little more than if we had been put to spell out the meaning of Patience and Forbearance with the Fescue of our own understanding And though the Scripture abundantly reveals Pardon of Sin yet the Manner how the Reason why which are the very Life and Soul of all Knowledge is revealed to be from the Mercy of God through the Blood of Christ Ephes. 1. 7. In whom we have Redemption through his Blood the Forgiveness of Sins according to the Riches of his Grace And the rather may we be bold to say that the pardon of Sin is cleared up in the Person of Christ because so Authentick so Infallible an Author as ours is has given us leave to believe pag. 20. that the Gospel-Covenant is sealed with the Blood of Christ and therefore we can desire no greater Security And this I am sure of from Heb. 8. 10. that the Summe and Substance of that Covenant is I will be their God and they shall be my People and a main Branch of that Covenant I will be Merciful to their Iniquities and Remember their Sins no more If then we could but clear this one Poynt that the Bliod which Sealed this Covenant was not the Blood of a Doctrine nor of an Office nor of the Church but the precious Blood of Iesus Christ the Son of God even the Blood of a Person it would then be clear also that God's pardoning Mercy is only clearly or so clearly however to be discovered in Iesus Christ. 2 For the Term Eminently if the Bluster be against that I shall not much trouble my self I am no great Friend to because poorly skilled in Metaphysical Notions but as it stands here in Conjunction with other honest words I see no harm in 't To me it denotes no more but that the Pardon of sin is Notably Chiefly Gloriously and in a most Special and Excellent manner discovered in the Personal Sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ But if our Author after all this be not satisfied but finds himself Aggrieved the Law is open I plead no Protection let him take his Course and the Remedy the Law has given him 3 Therefore it must needs be that last word Savingly that is guilty of all and therefore must bear the Charge brought in against the whole Sentence That pardon of sin is only savingly discovered in Iesus Christ. I cannot tell but I do shrewdly conjecture that our Author has spoken as dangerous a thing as this comes to and has given us sufficient warrant to distinguish between a vain empty Insignificant Knowledge and an Useful Profitable and Saving Knowledge pag. 36. There is says he a larger Notion of the Knowledge of Christ which includes the Vertue and Efficacy of this Knowledge For how true soever our Speculations be the Scripture brands all those as Ignorant of God who do not love Reverence and Obey Him Now if the Doctors Book had had but the Happiness to have seen the World after our Authors he might have Explained himself so as to come off with a dry Head Notwithstanding what I have said of Gods Sin-pardoning mercy and the Knowledge thereof as in Him yet there is another Knowledge thereof which Includes and takes in the knowledge of this God to be our God and pardoning our sins which God is only in and through the Lord Iesus Christ and therefore the Scripture brands all those as Ignorant of God and his pardoning Mercy who know him not as their God in a Covenant of Grace whereof Christ is the Mediator and therefore without Him we can have no Saving-knowledge of or Interest in God or his Sin-pardoning Goodness whatever our Speculations may be of Mercy and Grace and Pardon to be in God But after all this Trouble our Author has put me to and just as much that I have put the Reader to the Mischief on 't all is this The Doctor says not one Word Syllable Letter Jot or Tittle of all this but the contrary I am sure the Reader is startled and his Hair begins to stand an end What no Truth on Earth Is Astraea more than in a Fable gone to Heaven Well Reader when thou art come to thy self and art a little more Cool and Composed Consult the Doctors Book pag. 90. Sect. 6. There are some of the most eminent Properties
the Apostle has fixt the Notion for us And ver 5. we read Who is he that overcometh the World but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God And ver 6. This is he that came by Water and by Blood even Iesus Christ. Ver. 9. This is the Witness of God which he hath Testified of his Son And ver 10. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the Witness in himself And ver 11. This is the Record that God hath given to us Eternal Life and this Life is in his Son And then follows the words under Examination He that hath the Son hath Life I conclude then that if by Son ver 5 6 9 10. c. he meant the very Son of God our Lord Iesus Christ then by Son in ver 12. is meant the very self same Person And I am the more Confirm'd in my Opinion because our Author p. 101. will not allow any to separate a single Sentence from the Body of the Discourse to make the Scripture speak their own sence Though I confess he intended it as a Caution to others that they may avoid it but a Canon to himself that he might observe it What to others was set up for a Buoy to discover a Rock to himself is hung out for a Lanthorn to discover his way But I shall take his Caution and charitably believe so well of the Apostles sincerity and judiciousness in Discourse that he would not speak of one thing in one Verse and another in the next under the same words without sufficient intimation of his Intention But now for having the Son of God that is the remaining enquiry Now in this our Author speaks more Truth than he is aware of What can having the Son signifie says he but having an Interest in Him Being made one with Him especially when we remember that it is called being in Christ and abiding in him which must signifie a very near Union between Christs Person and ours It must so If the Son signifie the very Son of God we must have Him as he is capable of being had and that 's only by Interest and Propriety through Compact agreement and the Constitution of God in a Gospel Covenant Ay but says our Author Some will be so Perverse as to understand it of believing and Obeying his Gospel Well and if they will be so Perverse without a Reason we shall take the freedom to be as Perverse as they can be and believe no more than we have proof for But let us practise with his Gloss a little By the Son he understands the Gospel and then his Paraphrase of v. 5. will run thus smoothly Who is he that overcometh the World but he that believeth that Jesus is the Gospel that is he that believes a Lye he is the man that overcomes the World Ay but we must remember that by Iesus he has understood the Gosple also and then indeed you will have a Paraphrase compleat in all Points Who is he that overcomes the World but he that believeth that the Gospel is the Gospel And sure he must be a Dull thing indeed that cannot and a Perverse one too that will not believe and Subscribe so Self-evident a Proposition But the World is full of perverse People and therefore no wonder if some will so understand it And amongst many others one Volkelius lib. 3. de verâ Relig p. 37. in John 1. 4. In him was Life Hoc est Ipsi commissa est vitae Eternae viae ad eam ducentis Anunciatio quâ Hominum animos mirificè collustravit Ignorantiae tenebras quantum in ipsa fuit ab iis depulit quod idem alio in loco edisserit 1 Joh. 5. 10. dum ait Hoc est Testimonium quod Deus Testatus est de filio suo quod vitam Eternam nobis dedit Deus haec in filio ejus est That is to him was committed the Declaration of Eternal Life and of the Way that leads thither whereby he wonderfully enlightened the Minds of Men and scattered the Darkness of Ignorance from them as much as in him lay which he Discourses also in another place 1 Iohn 5. 10. c. The Reader cannot but observe the Parenthesis That Christ enlightned men as much as in him lay if he could have done more he would But what would they expect from a Man Now when I observe our Author in this very place Deriding the Hopes of them who expect to receive free Comunications of Pardon and Grace Righteousness and Salvation from our Lord Iesus Christ Methinks I see Quantum in ipso fuit and whether he filled his Vessel from that Cistern or no is not so clear but this is certain that all came from the same Fountain To conclude this Head the Gloss of this Text according to the Proportion and Analogy of our Authors Faith must be this He that believeth and obeyeth the Gospel believeth and obeyeth Life and he that believeth not and obeyeth not the Gospel believeth not obeyeth not Life But our Gloss is this He that hath an Interest in Christ hath an Interest in Life and he that hath not in the one hath not in the other but the Wrath of God abides on him there being no means discovered whereby we can escape it but by Jesus Christ. It would have been small Satisfaction to our Author to pervert the Sence unless he might be allowed also to pour Contempt upon the Phrase of the Scripture which he has carried on to that height of Daring-provocation that I am certain he never met with his Superiour and do hope he may never find an Equal He is at last grown almost weary of Reproaching the Expressions of Men too mean a Quarry for one of his Wing to stoop at and now the Expressions of the Holy Ghost must find him Game that he may appear truly Great by great Enmities Erostratus was resolved to Eternize his Name though by Firing the Temple of Diana at Ephesus And Nero conceived great hopes from the Burning of Rome and his unsampled Butcheries to Inoculate his Name into History that he might upon any Terms survive his Funeral It 's some Alleviation to them who Groan under the burden of Obloquy that they meet with no harder Measure than their Lord and Master And it might quiet the grieved Spirit of a righteous Lot when his words are wrested when the holy Spirit of God is grieved with the Affronts put upon his Expressions The Disciple is not ought not expect to be above his Master nor the Servant above his Lord It 's enough that the Disciple be as his Master and the Servant as his Lord If they have called the Master of the House Beelzebub how much more shall they call them of the Houshold Mat. 10. 24. Let them therefore possess their Souls in patience and comfort one another with these words And thus our Author enters upon his Business It 's Self-evident that before we can be United
are by the Bread and Wine And the Liturgy in the Office of the Supper expresses not onely a Communication of reall Nourishment from Christ to our Souls but a mutual communication of our Praise and Thanksgiving to God for Christ and to Christ for his Flesh and Blood which compleats the Communion The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ which was given for Thee preserve thy Body and Soul into Everlasting Life and Take and Eat this in remembrance that Christ dyed for thee and feed on him in thy Heart by Faith and be Thankfull But to put this out of doubt That all Communion is grounded upon Union I will quote our Author to our Author for Nothing cuts the Diamond like it self God says he entertains us at his Table as his own children Why then let it be referred to the Man that comes next Whether sitting at Gods Table does not presuppose us to be Children Surely we are not therefore Children because we sit at the Table but we therefore sit at the Table because we are Children Again p. 152. Our Author whose word ought to go far with himself assures us That Baptism is the Sacrament of our Admission into the Church There 's our Union then however and the Lords Supper finding us already united affords us a communion or a participation of those Priviledges which flow from that Union So that whether our Union to Christ consist in our Union to the Church or no yet still there must be an Union to the Church before we can hold Communion with it in those Mercies and Blessings which Christ has entailed upon it And thus has our Author made a quick dispatch of Communion with Christ in the Lords Supper could he but as fairly dispatch it out of all other Exercises of Religion he might seriously Triumph that he had cut off the Neck of all Religion at one Blow Well success waits upon the Bold Undertaker and there 's no hurt in a daring Attempt Prayer says he and Meditation and such like Acts of Devotion are no where called Communion with God Our Author is just now turning Quaker Thou man where dost thou read that the People of God put off their Hats or wore Ribbands and Lace But to satisfie him Prayer and Meditation are not called nor are they Communion with God but Means whereby and Wayes of Gods appointment wherein we hold Communion with him In these and other Ordinances we communicate to him the Actings of our Faith Fear Love delight Praise c. and by these he communicates to us of his Grace Strength Favour Mercy to help us in the time of our Need. In Prayer we pour out our hearts before him Psal. 62. 8. In Prayer and Meditation We lift up our Souls to the Lord Psal. 25. 1. Hence that frequent Expression of the Ancient Christians Sursum Corda continued in the Liturgy Lift up your hearts Ans. We lift them up to the Lord But a few dribling Objections he has against this also 1 Object Communion does not consist in Transient Acts. Ans. 1. Communion does consist in those permanent Effects conveyed by transient Acts the Effect of Prayer abides when the Act is over 2. The Lords Supper is a Transient Act both in opposition to Permanent and Immanent and yet there is a real Communion between Christ and Believers therein 2 Object You will not say a poor Man has Communion with his Prince when he puts up a Petition to him to begg his Charity Ans. It 's more than our Author can tell whether we will say so or no. If a Prince commands his Subjects to make their Addresses to him in all their streights promising that the great distance between them shall not prejudice their Supplications and shall appoint a Person near and dear to himself to receive from them and present to him all their Petitions that in his Name they may find Acceptation and Answer if now his poor Subjects shall give faith to his Promises make use of his Indulgence own their Relation to him and improve the Mediation of that Master of Requests and upon the Relief of their Wants Redress of their Grievances shall return their humble and hearty thanks and learn to love their Prince more to serve him better to become more loyal Subjects methinks here 's that which may be called Communion grounded upon Union 3 Obj. To Pray to God is an Act of Homage which we owe to him as our Creator and Father Ans. I looked every moment when he should Confute himself for now he will not deny that Relation to God as our Creator and Father precedes this Communion It 's a Duty says he that results from Relation Therefore say I It 's not the Relation it self And therefore I shall still conclude that Communion does properly denote the Communication of good things bottom'd upon that Union and Relation we have to and with each other and that our Author has most wretchedly abused his Time and his Reader in a weak Endeavour to prove That Communion consists in Union and has merited the Character of Hanno the Carthaginian given him by the great Historian That he was a Person very skilfull in the Art of seeming Reverend SECT 2. Of our Union to the Person of Christ. THis Section may well be called Our Author's Lamentations wherein he most passionately bewails how some men have obscured Plain things to his no small trouble I assure you to vindicate them to their Primitive Clearness We who are not privy to his Nocturnal Elucubrations do little think what pains it cost him to scowre off all that Rust which in so long a tract of time as Sixteen hundred years through the Sleepinâ—…ss of the Ancient Fathers and the Sluttishness of all the Christian Churches Religion had contracted to the day of the date of his Reformation But there are others too that whisper out their Complaints How Christ in the beginning of his Gospel bequeathed to us a Religion Decent but not Gawdy Plain but yet Powerful not courting Proselytes with Meretricious Gallantry but Matron-like Modesty Whose Attire was indeed more coarse and home-spun yet withall very warm and fitted to its end But now-a-days all is trim'd up with Ribbands and Lace and set off with Fan and Feather It was a Complaint as old as Austin That men loaded Religion with servile Burdens which God in mercy would have left free So that the condition of the Jews was mâ—…re tolrable that were subject to Legal Sacraments and n t to the Presumptions of men Thus evâ—…ry one coâ—…plains of faults but very few that I can fee will mond ny I suppose our Author will be content that the Reformation of Worship be committed to the Churches care but for reducing the Doctrine that 's a Burden he has reserved for his own shoulders And methinks I see him like the sign of the Atlas supporting the Globe chearfully heaving at the weight and yet never so much as once crinkle in the Hams God says
and only watch for the Creep-hole of a bare Possibility If they intended honestly they would lay things together as well as they can labour to find out the meaning of God's Spirit with Sobriety and Humility and never strain their Wits and vex and torture the Scripture with utmost Possibilities The Text tells us that the namâ—… whereby Christ shall be called is the Lord our Righteousness Now it 's granted that this was not designed to be his Praenomen or Cognomen that which should distinguish him in Common Discourse from other persons and therefore He shall be called is no less than He shall Really be our Righteousness Thus 1 Iohn 3. 1. Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called that is that we should become the sons of God Isa. 9. 6. His name shall be called i. e. he shall Really be Wonderful Counsellor The Mighty God the Everlasting Father The Prince of Peace The true intent and meaning of which place I know how some have attempted to elude by this fine device of the Possibility of another meaning and whether our Author sharpned his weapon at their forge he knows best But 3. He returns an Answer worse than both the other Righteousness in Scripture is a word of a very large sense and sometimes signifies no more than Mercy Kindness Beneficence and so the Lord our Righteousness is the Lord who does us good But 1. Is it not vainly supposed That for Christ to do us good is inconsistent with being our Righteousness 2. Though Christ be a Redeemer of Mercy Kindness and Beneficence yet he is no-where called The Lord our Mercy The Lord our Kindness The Lord our Beneficence Which clearly proves that when he is called and really is The Lord our Righteousness the expression implies more than an Imparting or Communication of good things to us Hence some would say That if our Author's Conscience were not larger than the sense of this word he had never given so stretching an Answer But says he Righteousness signifies that part of Iustice which consists in relieving the oppressed Isa. 54. 17. Their Righteousness is of me saith the Lord which is a parallel expression to The Lord our Righteousness and signifies no more than that the Lord would avenge their Cause and deliver them from all their Enemies So that all the benefit we are to expect from Christ is Temporal Salvation and Deliverance To which I answer 2. That the Reason of Christ's glorious Name The Lord our Righteousness assigned by the Prophet that in his days Iudah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely is interpreted by the Angel Matth. 1. 21. to be this He shall be called Iesus for he shall save his people from their sins And the end why God raised up his Son Jesus in the World is expresly assigned to be To bless his people in turning away every one of them from their iniquities Acts 3. 26. Thus Rom. 11. 26. Out of Zion shall come the Deliverer and he shall turn away ungodliness from Iacob To turn away iniquity from us and to turn us away from iniquity is I hope something of a more useful import than to relieve the injured and oppressed and deliver them from their Enemies I do not at all envy our Author therefore the glory of his discovery that for God to justifie good men is to deliver them from the violence and injuries of their Enemies And I would gladly hope that all good men have something better wherein to glory In Ier. 33. 16. the Church is called The Lord our Righteousness because she only glories in the Righteousness of Christ her Head and Husband to whom being so nearly related and with whom being so closely united his Righteousness is her Righteousness and therefore she who upon the account of the imperfection of her Inherent Righteousness can find no not the least matter of boasting before God yet has whereof to Triumph in Christ her Saviour Isa. 45. 24. Surely shall one say In the Lord have I Righteousness In the Lord shall all the seed of Iacob be justified and shall glory Now the Apostle whom I take to be a competent Interpreter of Scripture assures us that God has taken special care that in his dispensing of Grace to sinners No flesh shall glory in his presence 1 Cor. 1. 29. which he has well provided for ver 30. since Christ is made unto us of God for Righteousness and therefore he that glorieth let him glory in the Lord Which is exactly parallel to that of Isa. 45. 24. In the Lord shall all the seed of Iacob be justified and shall glory Come we now to our Author's Interpretation of Isa. 61. 11. which is of the same leaven with the former I will greatly rejoyce in the Lord my soul shall be joyful in my God For he hath clothed me with the garments of Salvation and covered me with the robe of Righteousness c. This Text one may perceive struck cold to his heart and he gives us as cold an Answer that 's ready to freeze between his lips The Garments of Salvation says he and the Robe of Righteousness signifie those great Deliverances God promised to Israel Signifie I would our Author would write a Dictionary of the Signification of words We use to say A bad Answer is better than none Reform the Proverb for shame for such an one is worse than none 1. It 's evident that the Triumph of the Church was upon the view of Jesus Christ vers 1. Anointed to preach Good-Tidings to the meek to bind up the broken-hearted to proclaim liberty to the Captives and the opening of the Prison to them that are bound To proclaim the acceptable Year of the Lord Which our Saviour Christ applies to himself Luk. 4. 18 19. when he was far from working out for the Iews those great Deliverances by improbable means which should make them glorious in the eyes of men 2. The Virgin Mary quotes this very place Luke 1. 46 47. My soul doth magnifie the Lord and my spirit hath rejoyced in God my Saviour where the joy of her heart broke out at her lips in Contemplation of that Eternal Redemption wrought out by him in whom she could more seriously glory as her Saviour than as her Son And it 's a wonder to me then men can patter over their Magnificat every day and not observe it 3. It 's observable that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render Decketh signifies to Adorn as a Priest and implies that Christ as our High-Priest shall present us acceptable to God upon his Account 4. There 's nothing more familiar with the Spirit of God than to clothe Evangelical Mercies in a Mosaical Dress and to express New-Testament Salvation in Old-Testament Phrase Thus Gospel-Believers are understood by Israel the Church by the Temple Evangelical Ministers by the Legal Priests and the covering of Sin by the covering of Nakedness and by
is the Son of God signifies the same thing too Joh. 20. 31. But here our Author has relieved himself from his old Artifice which never failed him the forceing Scripture over to him when he is lazy and will not stir a step to go to the Scripture The Text speaks its own Language thus These things are written that ye might believe that Iesus is the Son of God and believing ye may have life through his Name where the Evangelist says not They are justified by believing that Iesus is the Son of God but that having first satisfied their Faith from Scripture that Jesus is the Son of God which Truth being well studied well digested and improved will give us a marvelous light into the Mystery of the Gospel and without which the whole of the Gospel is involved in eternal Night and then believing they have eternal Life through his Name by his satisfactory Blood and Righteousness and the Authority which he has thereby with the Father But believe it here is harder work than all this behind for our Author will propound several Questions and when he has done answer them 1. Quest. What is it to believe that Christ is the Son of God Ans. That is says he That Messiah and Prophet whom God sent into the World Very good Now as I remember p. 4. he told us That Christ was anointed to be the Messiah at his Baptism let the Reader examine it Now if to be the Son of God be to be the Messiah and that he was not the Messiah till his Baptism then he was not the Son of God till his Baptism and then for about 30 years he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a mere Man and yet this is a great favour I assure you for his Baptism was about three or four years before his Resurrection and then they are to blame who will suspect this Principle to be Socinian well But yet to believe Christ to be the Son of God is to believe him to be the Messiah Ay But there 's one odd misadventure more in the thing that is that Hebrew is easier than Greek for if Messiah explain Christ any better I am very much out in my reckoning Some from hence will pretend to give us a Scheme of our Author's Faith about the Deity of Christ and perhaps should they deal with him as he has dealt with others or half so uncharitably it would be found dissonant to what he professedly owns in subscribing the three Symbols of Faith but I see no reason to fix an Opinion upon any Man that he will not openly avow 2. Quest. But what is the Messiah Ans. Why The Prophet whom God sent into the World to reveal his Will to us To believe him to be the Son of God is to believe him to be the Messiah and to believe him to be the Messiah is to believe him to be a Prophet and that is as near as I can measure it just one third part of his Mediatory Employment Surely he has mean thoughts of his Reader 's Intellectuals or great presumptions upon their good-Natures or a high esteem of the persuasiveness of his own Rhetorick that can hope to proselyte them into a belief without one Argument That the Son of God signifies no other than Messiah Messiah no more than Prophet and that the Prophetical-Office of this Messiah is the just compleat Object of our Faith 3. Quest. But what does this Belief of Christ to be the Messiah the Prophet include Ans. A general Belief of the Gospel which he preacht most rare Divinity I suppose we may be saved upon very cheap terms by and by For 1. A general Belief of the Gospel will serve the turn to justify 〈◊〉 well enough that is as far as Faith has ought to do in Justification If Faith believes Christ to be the Messiah that is a Prophet whom God sent to reveal his Will to us it has got a general Belief of the Gospel which may be without understanding in particular one syllable of what Christ has revealed of his Father's Will and then I suppose a general Obedience will serve well enough for a general Faith 2. We may believe Christ to be the Messiah yet if we believe not also what that Person is in whom the Office of Mediator resides we shall understand very little of its Nature Dignity and Efficacy To believe Christ to be Anointed signifies very little unless we understand also who it is that is so Anointed 5. To believe that God raised Christ from the Dead doth the same Doth the same the same what Why it includes a general Belief of the Gospel because his Resurrection was the last and great Confirmation of the Gospel Let us now put all this together We are said to be justified by believing that God raised up Christ from the Dead and that signifies the same with being justified by the Blood of Christ and both these signify to be justified by believing and obeying the Gospel and yet to believe that God raised up Christ from the Dead includes only a general belief of the Gospel In all which there is nothing but what is rotten at the Core 1. Let us examine in what sense we are said to be justified by believing that God raised up Christ from the Dead The place assigned is Rom. 10. v. 9. If thou shalt confess with thy Mouth the Lord Iesus Christ and shalt believe in thine Heart that God â—…ath raised up him from the Dead thou shalt be saved Where Salvation is not promised to a Belief of this Proposition That God raised Christ from the Dead but to a Believing it with the Heart such a Faith as closes with the Redeemer included in that Proposition as is evident from the Faith of Thomas Joh. 20. 28. Our Lord Jesus willing to satisfy his doubts and scruples about the Truth of his Resurrection shews him his Hands and Feet gives him leave to put his Hâ—…nd into the Print of the Nails and the Hole of his Side upon this he is satisfied and expresses the Belief of his Heart in these words My Lord and my God When therefore the Apostle tells us That by believing with the Heart that God has raised Iesus from the Dead we shall be saved he intends such a Faith as accepts of and gives up the Soul mutually to a Redeemer as its own God and Lord and not a general Belief that Christ must needs be the Messiah because he was raised from the Dead and if the Messiah his Doctrine must needs be true be it what it will though we know nothing of it 2. It may be enquired whether such a general Belief that God raised up Iesus from the Dead be a true justifying Faith If it be An Implicite Faith will serve tum for all the Particulars of the Gospel and this would save abundance of needless pains that men take in reading of meditating upon the Scriptures and now instead of the Colliers Faith who believed as the