Countenance from Antiquity or the least from the Passages quoted out of Chrysostom by himself That his Glosses upon many Texts of Scripture which have an admirable Coincidence with those of two other persons whom I shall name when Occasion requires it are sufficient to affix upon them the sence which he pleads for with many other things of an Equal Falshood and Impertinency wherewith this Section is stuffed shall without any farther trouble from me be left to follow their own Inclinations But yet notwithstanding all the great Pains he hath taken to Instruct us in the Nature of the Union between Christ and Believers I shall take leave to prefer that given by Mr. Hooker before it not only as more true and agreeable unto the Scripture but also as better expressing the Doctrine of the Church of England in this matter And if these things please the present Rulers of the Church wherein upon the matter Christ is shuffled off and the whole of our Spiritual Union is resolved into the Doctrine of the Gospel and the Rule of the Church by Bishops and Pastors let it imply what Contradiction it will as it doth the Highest seeing it is by the Doctrine of the Gospel that we are taught our Union with Christ and his Rule of the Church by his Laws and Spirit I have only the the Advantage to know somewhat more than I did formerly though not much to my Satisfaction But he that shall consider what reflections are cast in this Discourse on the necessity of Satisfaction to be made unto Divine Justice and from whom they are borrowed the miserable weak Attempt that is made therein to reduce all Christ's mediatory Actings unto his Kingly Office and in particular his Intercession the faint mention that is made of the Satisfaction of Christ clogged with the addition of Ignorance of the Philosophy of it as it is called well enough complying with them who grant that the Lord Christ did what God was satisfied withal with sundry other things of the like nature will not be to seek whence these things come nor whither they are going nor to whom our Author is beholden for most of his rare Notions which it is an easie thing at any time to acquaint him withal The second Section of this Chapter is filled principally with Exceptions against my Discourse about the Personal Excellencies of Christ as Mediator if I may not rather say with the Reflections on the Glory of Christ himself For my own Discourse upon it I acknowledge to be weak and not only inconceiveably beneath the Dignity and Merit of the Subject but also far short of what is taught and delivered by many Ancient Writers of the Church unto that purpose And for his Exceptions they are such a Composition of ignorance and spite as is hardly to be paralel'd His Entrance upon his Work is pag 200. as followeth Secondly Let us enquire what they mean by the Person of Christ to which Believers must be united And here they have outdone all the Metaphysical Subtilties of Suarez and have found out a Person for Christ distinct from his God-head and Man-hood for there can be no other Sense made of what Dr. Owen tells us that by the Graces of his Person he doth not mean the Glorious Excellencies of his Deity considered in it self abstracting from the Office which for us as God and Man be undertook nor the outward appearance of his Humane Nature when he conversed here on Earth nor yet as now Exalted in Glory but the Graces of the Person of Christ as he is vested with the Office of Mediation his Spiritual Eminency Comeliness Beauty as appointed and anointed by the Father unto that Great Work of bringing home all his Elect into his Bosom Now unless the Person of Christ as Mediator be distinct from his Person as God-Man all this is Idle talk For what Personal Graces are there in Christ as Mediator which do not belong to him either as God or Man There are some things indeed which our Saviour did and suffered which he was not obliged to either as God or Man but as Mediator but surely he will not call the Peculiar Duties and Actions of an Office Personal Graces I have now learned not to trust unto the Honesty and Ingenuity of our Author as to his Quotations out of my Book which I find that he hath here mangled and altered as in other Places and shall therefore transcribe the whole Passage in my own Words Pag. 51. It is Christ as Mediator of whom we speak and therefore by the Grace of his Person I understand not First the Glorious Excellencies of his Deity considered in it self abstracting from the Office which for us as God and Man be undertook 2. Nor the outward appearance of his humane Nature neither when he conversed here on Earth bearing our Infirmities whereof by reason of the Charge that was laid upon him the Prophet gives quite another Character Isa. 52 14. Concerning which some of the Ancients are very Poetical in their Expressions nor yet as now exalted in Glory a Vain Imagination whereof makes many bear a false a Corrupted respect unto Christ even upon Carnal Apprehensions of the mighty Exaltation of the Humane Nature which is but to know Christ after the Flesh a Mischief much improved by the Abomination of Foolish Imagery But this is that which I intend the Graces of the Person of Christ as he is vested with the office of Mediation his Spiritual Eminency Comelyness and Beauty c. Now in this respect the Scripture describes him as exceeding Excellent Comely and Desirable far above comparison with the choycest Chiefest Created Good or any Endowment imaginable which I prove at large from Psal. 45.2 Isa. 4.2 Cant. 5.9 adding on Explanation of the whole In the Digression some Passages whereof he carps at in this Section my Design was to declare as was said somewhat of the Glory of the Person of Christ To this End I considered both the Glory of his Divine and the many Excellencies of his humane Nature But that which I principally insisted on was the Excellency of Person as God and Man in one whereby he was meet and able to be the Mediator between God and Man and to effect all the great and blessed Ends of his Mediation That our Lord Jesus Christ was God and that there were on that account in his Person the Essential Excellencies and Properties of the Divine Nature I suppose he will not deny Nor will he do so that he was truly Man and that his Humane Nature was endowed with many Glorious Graces and Excellencies which are Peculiar thereunto That theâ—e is a distinct Consideration of his Person as both these Natures are united therein is that which he seems to have a mind to except against And is it meet that any one who hath ought else to do should spend any moments of that Time which he knows how better to improve in the pursuit of a Mans
Impertinencies who is so bewildred in his own Ignorance and Confidence that he knowes neither where he is nor what he says Did not the Son of God by assuming our Humane Nature continuing what he was become what he was not Was not the Person of Christ by the Communication of the Properties of each Nature in it and to it a Principle of such operations as he could not have wrought either as God or Man separately considered How else did God Redeem his Church with his own Blood Or how is that true which he says John 3.13 And no Man hath ascended up to Heaven but he that came down from Heaven even the Son of Man which is in Heaven Was not the Union of the two Natures in the same Person which was a Property neither of the Divine nor Humane Nature but a distinct ineffable Effect of Divine Condescention Wisdom and Grace which the Antients Unanimously call the Grace of Union whose Subject is the Person of Christ that whereby he was fit mee◠and able for all the Works of his Mediation Doth not the Scripture moreover propose unto our Faith and Consolation the Glory Power and Grace of the Person of Christ as he is God over all blessed for ever and his Love Sympathy Care and Compassion as Man yet all acting themselves in the one and self same Person of the Son of God Let him read the first Chap. of the Epistle to the Hebrews and see what account he can give thereof And are not these such Principles of Christian Religion as no Man ought to be ignorant of or can deny without the Guilt of the Heresies condemned in the first General Councils And they are no other Principles which my whole Discourse excepted against doth proceed upon But saith our Author unless the Person of Christ as Mediator be distinct from his Person as God Man all this is idle Talk Very Good and why so Why what Personal Graces are there in Christ as Mediator which do not belong unto him either as God or Man But is he not ashamed of this Ignorance Is it not a Personal Grace and Excellency that he is God and Man in one Person which belongs not to him either as God or Man And are there not Personal Operations innumerable depending hereon which could not have been wrought by him either as God or Man as raising himself from the Dead by his own Power and Redeeming the Church with his Blood Are not most of the Descriptions that are given us of Christ in the Scripture most of the Operations which are assigned unto him such as neither belong unto nor proceed from the Divine or Humane Nature separately considered but from the Person of Christ as both these Natures are united in it That which seems to have led him into the Maze wherein he is bewildred in his ensuing Discourse is that considering there are but two Natures in Christ the Divine and the Humane Nature is the Principle of all Operations he supposed that nothing could be said of Christ nothing ascribed to his Person but what was directly formally predicated of one of his Natures distinctly considered But he might have easily enquired of himself that seeing all the Properties and Acts of the Divine Nature are absolutely Divine and all those of the Humane Nature absolutely Humane whence it came to pass that all the Operations and Works of Christ as Mediator are Theandrical Although there be nothing in the Person of Christ but his Divine and Humane Nature yet the Person of Christ is neither his Divine Nature nor his Humane For the Humane Nature is and ever was of it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Divine to the compleat Constitution of the Person of the Mediator in and unto its own Hypostasis assumed the Humane so that although every Energy or Operation be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so the distinct Natures are distinct Principles of Christ's operations yet his Person is the Principal or only Agent which being God-Man all the Actions thereof by vertue of the Communication of Properties of both Natures therein are Theandrical And the Excellency of this Person of Christ wherein he was every way fitted for the work of Mediation I call sometimes his Personal Grace and will not go to him to Learn to speak and express my self in these things And it is most false which he affirms pag. 203. That I distinguish the Graces of Christ's Person as Mediator from the Graces of his Person as God and Man Neither could any Man have run into such an Imagination who had competently understood the things which he speaks about And the bare proposal of these things is enough to defeat the Design of all his ensuing Cavils and Exceptions And as to what he closeth withal that Surely I will not call the peculiar Duties and Actions of an office Personal Graces I suppose that he knoweth not well what he intends thereby Whatever he hath fancied about Christ being the Name of an Office Jesus Christ of whom we speak is an Person and not an Office And there are no such things in rerum natura as the actions of an Office And if by them he intends the Actions of a Person in the discharge of an Office whatever he calls them I will call the Habits in Christ from whence all his Actions in the performance of his Office do proceed Personal Graces and that whether he will or no. So he is a merciful faithful and compassionate High-Priest Heb. 2.17 4.15 5.2 And all his Actions in the discharge of his Office of Priesthood being principled and regulated by those Qualifications I do call them his Personal Graces and do hope that for the future I may obtain his leave so to do The like may be said of his other Offices The Discourse which he thus raves against is Didactical and accommodated unto a Popular way of Instruction and it hath been hitherto the common Ingenuity of all Learned Men to give an Allowance unto such Discourses so as not to exact from them an accuracy and propriety in Expressions such as is required in those that are Scholastical or Polemical It is that which by common consent is allowed to the Tractates of the Ancients of that Nature especially where nothing is taught but what for the substance of it is consonant unto the Truth But this Man attempts not only a Severity in nibling at all Expressions which he fancyeth liable unto his Censures but with a disingenuous Artifice waving the Tenour and Process of the Discourse which I presume he found not himself able to oppose he takes out sometimes here sometimes there up and down backward and forward at his Pleasure what he will to put if it be possible an ill Sence upon the whole And if he have not hereby given a sufficient Discovery of his good will towards the doing of somewhat to my disadvantage he hath failed in his whole Endeavour For there is no Expression which he hath
fixed on as the Subject of his Reflections which is truely mine but that as it is used by me and with respect unto its End I will defend it against him and all his Co-partners whilst the Scripture may be allowed to be the Rule and Measure of our Conceptions and Expressions about Sacred things And although at present I am utterly wearied with the consideration of such sad Triflings I shall accept from him the kindness of an Obligation to so much Patience as is necessary unto the perusal of the ensuing Leaves wherein I am concerned First Pag. 202. He would pick something if he knew what out of my Quotations of Cant. 5.9 to express or illustrate the Excellency of Christ which first he calls an Excellent Proof by way of scorn But as it is far from being the only Proof produced in the Confirmation of the same Truth and is applyed rather to illustrate what was spoken then to prove it yet by his favour I shall make bold to continue my apprehensions of the occasional Exposition of the words which I have given in that Place until he is pleased to acquaint me with a better which I suppose will be long enough For what he adds But however White and Ruddy belong to his Divine and Humane Nature and that without regard to his Mediatory Office for he had been White in the Glory of his Deity and Ruddy with the Red Earth of his Humanity whether he had been considered as Mediator or not it comes from the same spring of skill and Benevolence with those afore For what wise talk is it of Christ's being God Man without the Consideration of his being Mediator as though he were ever or ever should have been God and Man but with respect unto his Mediation His Scoff at the red Earth of Christ's Humanity represented as my words is grounded upon a palpable falsification For my words are He was also ruddy in the Beauty of his Humanity Man was called Adam from the red Earth whereof he was made The word here used points him out as the second Adam partaker of Flesh and Blood because the Children also partook of the same And if he be displeased with these Expressions let him take his own time to be pleased again it is that wherein I am not concerned But my fault which so highly deserved his Correction is that I apply that to the person of Christ which belongs unto his Natures But what if I say no such thing or had no such Design in that place For although I do maintain a distinct Consideration of the Excellency of Christ's person as comprising both his Natures united though every real thing in his person belongs formally and radically unto one of the Natures those other Excellencies being the Exurgency of their Union whereby his person was fitted and suited unto his Mediatory operations which in neither nature singly considered he could have performed and shall continue to maintain it against whosoever dares directly to oppose it yet in this place I intended it not which this man knew well enough the very next words unto what he pretends to prove it being The beauty and comeliness of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Vnion of both these in one Person shall afterwards be declared And so we have an equality in Judgement and Ingenuity throughout this Censure Hence he leaps to pag. 64. of my Book thence backwards to 53. and then up and down I know not how nor whither He begins with pag. 64. And in his first Digression concerning the Excellency of Christ Jesus to invite us to Communion with him in a Conjugal Relation he tells us that Christ is exceeding Excellent and Desirable in his Deity and the Glory thereof He is Desirable and Worthy our Acceptation as considered in his Humanity in his Freedom from Sin Fulness of Grace c. Now though this look very like a Contradiction that by the Graces of his Person he meant neither the Excellencies of his Divine nor Humane Nature yet he hath a Salvo which will deliver him both from Contradiction and from Sense that he doth not consider these Excellencies of his Deity or Humanity as abstracted from his Office of Mediator though he might if he pleased For he considers those Excellencies which are not peculiar to the Office of Mediation but which would have belonged unto him as God and Man whether he had been Mediator or not But what becomes of his Distinction of the Graces of Christ's Person as Mediator from the Graces of his Person as God and Man when there are no personal Graces in Christ but what belong to his Deity or his Humanity I am sufficiently satisfyed that he neither knows where he is nor what he doth or hath no due comprehension of the things he treats about That which he opposeth if he intend to oppose any thing by me asserted is that whereas Christ is God the Essential properties of his Divine Nature are to be considered as the formal Motive unto and Object of Faith Love and Obedience and whereas he is Man also his Excellencies in the Glorious Endowment of his Humane Nature with his Alliance unto us therein and his Furniture of Grace for the Discharge of his Office are proposed unto our Faith and Love in the Scripture And of these things we ought to take a distinct Consideration our Faith concerning them being not only Taught in the Scripture but fully confirmed in the Confessions and Determinations of the Primitive Church But the Person of Christ wherein these two Natures are united is of another distinct Consideration and such things are spoken thereof as cannot under any single Enunciation be ascribed unto either Nature though nothing be so but what formally belongs unto one of them or is the necessary consequent Exurgency of their Union See Isa. 9.6 2 Tim. 3.16 John 1.14 It is of the Glory of the Word of God made Flesh that I discourse But this Man talks of what would have belonged to Christ as God-Man whether he had been Mediator or not as though the Son of God either was or was ever designed to be or can be considered as God-Man and not as Mediator And thence he would releive himself by the Calumny of assigning a Distinction unto me between the Graces of Christ's person as Mediator the Graces of his person as God Man that is one person which is a meer figment of his own misunderstanding Upon the whole he comes to that accurate Thesis of his own that there are no personal Graces in Christ but what belong to his Deity or Humanity Personal Graces belonging unto the Humanity or Humane Nature of Christ that Nature being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or such as hath no personal subsistence of its own is a Notion that those may thank him for who have a mind to do it And he may do well to consider what his thoughts are of the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ mentioned Phill. 2.7
already that I will not come to him nor any of his Companions to learn to Express my self in these things and moreover that I despise their Censures The Discourses he is carping at in particular in this place are neither Doctrinal nor Argumentative but consist in the Application of Truths before proved unto the Minds and Affections of men And as I said I will not come to him nor his Fraternity to learn how to manage such a subject much less a Logical and Argumentative way of Reasoning nor have any inducement thereunto from any thing that as yet I have seen in their Writings It also troubles him pag. 208. That whereas I know how unsuited the best and most accurate of our Expressions are unto the true Nature and Being of Divine things as they are in themselves and what need we have to make use of Allusions and sometimes less proper Expressions to convey a sence of them unto the Minds and Affections of men I had once or twice used that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if I may so say which yet if he had not known used in other good Authors treating of things of the same Nature he knew I could take protection against his severity under the Example of the Apostle using words to the same Purpose upon an alike Occasion Heb. 7. But at length he intends to be serious and from those words of mine Here is Mercy enough for the greatest the oldest the stubbornest Transgressor he addes Enough in all Reason this what a Comfort is it to Sinners to have such a God for their Saviour whose Grace is boundless and bottomless and exceeds the largest Dimensions of their Sins though there be a world of sin in them But what now if the Divine Nature it self have not such an endless boundless bottomless Grace and Compassion as the Doctor now talks of For at other times when it serves his turn better we can hear nothing from him but the Naturalness of Gods Vindictive Justice Though God be rich in Mercy he never told us that his Mercy was so boundless and bottomless he had given a great many Demonstrations of the severity of his Anger against sinners who could not be much worse than the Greatest the Oldest and stubbornest Transgressors Let the Reader take notice that I propose no Grace in Christ unto or for such Sinners but only that which may invite all sorts of them though under the most discouraging Qualifications to come unto him for Grace and Mercy by Faith and Repentance And on supposition that this was my sence as he cannot deny it to be I adde only in Answer that this his prophane scoffing at it is that which reflects on Christ and his Gospel and God himself and his Word which must be accounted for See Isa. 55.7 2 dly For the Opposition which he childishly frames between Gods Vindictive Justice and his Mercy and Grace it is answered already 3 dly It is false that God hath not told us that his Grace is boundless and bottomless in the sence wherein I use those words sufficient to pardon the greatest the oldest the stubbornest of sinners namely that turn unto him by Faith and Repentance And he who knowes not how this consists with Severity and Anger against impenitent sinners is yet to Learn his Catechism But yet he addes further pag. 208 209. Supposing the Divine Nature were such a bottomless Fountain of Grace how comes this to be a Personal Grace of the Mediator For a Mediator as Mediator ought not to be considered as the Fountain but as the Minister of Grace God the Father certainly ought to come in for a share at least in being the Fountain of Grace though the Doctor is pleased to take no notice of him But how excellent is the Grace of Christs Person above the Grace of the Gospel for that is a bounded and limited thing a straight Gate and narrow Way that leadeth unto Life There is no such Boundless Mercy as all the sins in the World cannot equal its Dimensions as will save the Greatest the Oldest and the stubbornest Transgressors I begg the Reader to believe that I am now so utterly weary with the Repetition of these impertinencies that I can hardly prevail with my self to fill my Pen once more with Ink about them And I see no reason now to goe on but only that I have begun And on all accounts I shall be as brief as possible I say then First I did not consider this boundless Grace in Christ as Mediator but considered it as in him who is Mediator and so the Divine Nature with all its Properties are greatly to be considered in him if the Gospel be true But 2 dly It is untrue that Christ as Mediator is only the Minister of Grace and not the Fountain of it for he is Mediator as God and Man in one Person 3 dly To suppose an exemption of the Person of the Father from being the Fountain of Grace absolutely in the Order of the Divine Subsistence of the Persons in the Trinity and of their Operations suited thereunto upon the Ascription of it unto the Son is a fond Imagination which could befall no man who understands any thing of things of this Nature It doth as well follow that if the Son created the World the Father did not if the Son uphold all things by the Word of his Power the Father doth not that is that the Son is not in the Father nor the Father in the Son The Acts indeed of Christs Mediation respect the Ministration of Grace being the procuring and communicating Causes thereof but the Person of Christ the Mediator is the Fountain of Grace So they thought who beheld his Glory the Glory as of the only begotten of the Father full of Grace and Truth But the especial Relation of Grace unto the Father as sending the Son unto the Son as sent by him and incarnate and unto the Holy Spirit as proceeding from and sent by them both I have elsewhere fully declared and shall not in this place which indeed will scarce give Admittance unto any thing of so serious a nature again insist thereon 4 thly The Opposition which he would again set between Christ and the Gospel is impious in it self and if he thinks to charge it on me openly false I challenge him and all his Complices to produce any one word out of any Writing of mine that from a Plea or pretence of Grace in Christ should give Countenance unto any in the neglect of the least Precept given or Duty required in the Gospel And notwithstanding all that I have said or taught concerning the Boundless Bottomless Grace and Mercy of Christ towards believing humble penitent Sinners I doe believe the Way of Gospel Obedience indispensibly required to be walked in by all that will come to the Enjoyment of God to be so narrow that no Revilers nor false Accusers nor Scoffers nor Despisers of Gospel Mysteries continuing so to be can walk
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
the Person of Christ is a Frontless and Impudent Falshood I own no other never taught other knowledge of Christ or acquaintance with his Person but what is revealed and declared in the Gospel and therefore no Mysteries of Religion can be thence known and received before we are acquainted with the Gospel it self Yet I will mind this Author of that whereof if he be ignorant he is unfit to be a Teacher of others and which if he deny he is unworthy the Name of a Christian Namely that by the Knowledge of the Person of Christ the great Mystery of God manifest in the Flesh as revealed and declared in the Gospel we are led into a clear and full understanding of many other Mysteries of Grace and Truth which are all centred in his Person and without which we can have no true nor sound understanding of them I shall speak it yet again that this Author if it be possible may understand it or however that he and his Co-partners in Design may know that I neither am nor ever will be ashamed of it that without the Knowledge of the Person of Christ which is our Acquaintance with him as we are commanded to acquaint our selves with God as he is the Eternal Son of God Incarnate the Mediator between God and Man with the Mystery of the Love Grace and Truth of God therein as revealed and declared in the Scripture there is no true useful Saving Knowledge of any other Mysteries or Truths of the Gospel to be attained This being the substance of what is asserted in my Discourse I challenge this Man or any to whose pleasure and Favour his endeavours in this kind are Sacrificed to assert and maintain the contrary if so be they are indeed armed with such a Confidence as to impugne the Foundations of Christianity But to evince his Intention he transcribeth the ensuing passages out of my Discourse pag. 41. The sum of all true Wisdom and Knowledge may be reduced to these three Heads 1 The Knowledge of God his Nature and Properties 2 The Knowledge of our selves with reference to the will of God concerning us 3 Skill to walk in Communion with God In these three is summed up all True Wisdome and Knowledge and not any of them is to any purpose to be obtained or is manifested but only in and by the Lord Christ. This whole passage I am far from disliking upon this Representation of it or any Expression in it Those who are not pleased with this distribution of spiritual Wisdom may make use of any such of their own wherewith they are better satisfied This of mine was sufficient unto my purpose Hereon this censure is passed by him Where By is fallaciously added to include the Revelations Christ hath made whereas his first undertaking was to show how impossible it is to understand these things savingly and clearly notwithstanding all these Revelations God hath made of himself and his will by Moses and the Prophets and by Christ himself without an acquaintance with his person The fallacy pretended is merely of his own coyningâ— my words are plain and sâ—ited unto my own purpose and to declare my mind in what I intend which he openly corrupting or not at all understanding frames an end never thought of by me and then feigns fallacious means of attaining it The knowledge I mean is to be learned by Christ neither is any thing to be learned in him but what is learned by him I do say indeed now whatever I have said before that it is impossible to understand any sacred Truth savingly and clearly without the knowledge of the Person of Christ and shall say so still let this Man and his Companions say what they will to the contrary but that in my so saying I exclude the consideration of the Revelations which Christ hath made or that God hath made of himself by Moses and the Prophets and Christ himself the principal whereof concern his Person and whence alone we come to know him is an Assertion becoming the modesty and Ingenuity of this Author But hereon he proceeds and says that as to the first head he will take notice of those peculiar Discoveries of the Nature of God of which the world was ignorant before and of which Revelation is wholly silent but are now clearly and savingly Learned from an Acquaintance with Christs Person But what in the mean time is become of Modesty Truth and Honesty Do men reckon that there is no Accompt to be given of such falsifications Is there any one Word or Tittle in my discourse of any such knowledge of the Nature or Properties of God as whereof Revelation is wholly silent What doth this Man intend Doth he either not at all understand what I say or doth he not care what he says himself What have I done to him wherein have I injured him how have I provoked him that he should sacrifice his Conscience and Reputation unto such a Revenge must he yet hear it again I never thought I never owned I never wrote that there was any Acquaintance to be obtained with any property of the Nature of God by the knowledge of the Person of Christ but what is Taught and Revealed in the Gospel from whence alone all knowledge of Christ his Person and his Doctrine is to be Learned And yet I will say again if we Learn not thence to know the Lord Christ that is his Person we shall never know any thing of God our Selves or our Duty clearly and savingly I use the words again notwithstanding the Reflections on them as more proper in this Matter than any used by our Author in his Eloquent Discourse and as we ought to do From hence he proceeds unto weak and confused Discourses about the Knowledge of God and his Properties without any Knowledge of Christ. For he not only tells us what reason we had to believe such and such things of God if Christ had never appeared in the World take care I pray that we be thought as little beholding to him as may be but that Gods readiness to Pardon and the like are plainly revealed in the Scripture without any farther Acquaintance with the Person of Christ. Pag. 43. What this farther Acquaintance with the person of Christ should mean I do not well understand It may be any more Acquaintance with respect unto some that is necessary It may be without any more adoe as to an acquaintance with him And if this be his Intention as it must be if there be sense in his words that God's readâ—ness to pardon Sinners is revealed in the Scripture without respect unto the Person of Jesus Christ it is a piece of dull Socinâ—anism which because I have sufficiently confuted else where I shall not here farther discover the folly of For a Knowledge of God's Essential Properties by the Light of Nature it was never denyed by me yea I have written and contended for it in another way than can be impeached by such
trifling Declamations But yet with his good leave I do yet belâ—eve that there is no saving Knowledge of or acquaintance with God or his Properties to be attained but in and through Jesus Christ as revealed unto us in the Gospel And this I can confirm with Testimonies of the Scripture Fathers Schoolmen and Divines of all sorts with Reasons and Arguments such as I know this Author cannot Answer And whatever great apprehensions he may have of his Skill and Abilities to know God and his Properties by the Light of Nature now he neither knowes nor is able to distinguish what he Learns from thence and what he hath imbibed in his Education from an Emanation of Divine Rvelation yet I believe there were as wise men as himself amongst those Ancient Philosophers concerning whom and their enquiries into the Nature of God our Apostle pronounces those censures Rom. 1. 1 Cor. 1. But on this goodly Foundation he proceeds unto a particular Inference pag. 44. saying And is not this a Confident Man to tell us that the Love of God to Sinners and his Pardoning Mercy could never have entred into the Heart of Man but by Christ when the experience of the whole World confutes him For whatever becomes of his new Theories both Jews and Heathens who understood nothing at all of what Christ was to do in order to our Recovery did believe God to be Gracious and Merciful to Sinners and had reason to do so because God himself had assured the Jewes that he was a Gracious and Merciful God pardoning Iniquity Transgressions and Sins And those natural Notions Heathens had of God and all those Discoveries God had made of himself in the works of Creation and Providence did assure them that God is very Good and it is not possible to understand what Goodness is without pardoning Grace I beg his Excuse Truth and good Company will give a modest Man a little Confidence sometimes And against his Experience of the whole World falsly pretended I can oppose the Testimonies of the Scripture and all the Ancient writers of the Church very few excepted We can know of God only what he hath one way or other revealed of himself and nothing else And I say again that God hath not revealed his Love unto Sinners and his Pardoning Mercy any other way but in and by Jesus Christ. For what he adds as to the knowledge which the Jews had of these things by Gods Revelation in the Scripture when he can prove that all those Revelations or any of them had not respect unto the Promised Seed the Son of God to be exhibited in the Flesh to destroy the works of the Devil he will speak somewhat unto his Purpose In the mean time this insertion of the consideration of them who enjoyed that Revelation of Christ which God was pleased to build his Church upon under the old Testament is weak and impertinent Their apprehensions I acknowledge concerning the Person of Christ and the specialty of the work of his Mediation were dark and obscure but so also proportionably was their Knowledge of all other Sacred Truths which yet with all Diligence they enquired into That whicâ— I intended is expressed by the Apostle 1 Cor. 2.9 It is written Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard neither have entred into the Heart of Man the things which God hath prepared for them that Love him but God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit What a Confident Man was this Apostle as to affirm that the things of the Grace and Mercy of God did never enter into the heart of Man to conceive nor would so have done had they not been revealed by the Spirit of God in the Gospel through Jesus Christ. But this is only a Transient Charge there insues that which is much more severe pag. 45. As for Instance he tells us that in Christ that is in his Death and Sufferings for our sins God hath manifested the Naturalness of this Righteousness i. e. Vindictive Justice in punishing Sin that it was impossible that it should be diverted from Sinners without the interposing of a Propitiation that is that God is so Just and Righteous that he cannot pardon sin without satisfaction to his Justice Now this indeed is such a Notion of Justice as is perfectly New which neither Scripture nor Nature acquaints us with For all Mankind have accounted it an Act of Goodness without the least suspicion of injustice in it to remit injuries and offences without exacting any punishment that he is so far from being Just that he is cruel and savage who will remit no offence till he hath satisfied his Revenge The Reader who is in any measure or degree acquainted with these things knows full well what is intended by that which I have asserted It is no more but this that such is the Essential Holiness and Righteousness of the Nature of God that considering him as the Supreme Governour and Ruler of all Mankind it was inconsistent with the Holiness and Rectitude of his Rule and the Glory of his Government to pass by sin absolutely or to pardon it without Satisfaction Propitiation or Atonement This I said was made Evident in the Death and Sufferings of Christ wherein God made all our Iniquities to meet upon him and spared him not that we might obtain Mercy and Grace This is here now called out by our Author as a very dangerous or Foolish Passage in my Discourse which he thought he might highly advantage his Reputation by Reflecting upon But as the Orator said to his Adversary Equidem vehementer laetor eum esse me in quem tu cumcuperes nullam contumeliam jacere potueris quae non ad maximam partem civium conveniret So it is here fallen out If this man knows not that this is the Judgment of the generality of the most Learned Divines of Europe upon the matter of all who have engaged with any success against the Socinians one or two only excepted I can pitty him but not relieve him in his unhappiness unless he will be pleased to take more pains in reading good Books than as yet he appeareth to have done But for the thing it self and his Reflections upon it I shall observe yet some few things and so pass on As first the opposition that he makes unto my Position is nothing but a crude Assertion of one of the meanest and most absurd Sophisms which the Socinians use in this Cause Namely that every one may remit injuries and offences as he pleaseth without exacting any Punishment Which as it is true in most Cases of Injuries and offences against Private Persons wherein no others are concerned but themselves nor are they obliged by any Law of the Community to pursue their own Right so with respect unto Publick Rulers of the Community unto such Injuries and offences as are done against supreme Rule tending directly unto the Dissolution of the Society centring in it to suppose that such Rulers