for them Thus to proceed Christ was resembled to a Rock 1 Cor. 10. 3. That Rock was Christ. And then he is a Rock for defence and a Rock for offence and a Rock for Comfort to screne us from the wrath of God and to contain the honey of the promises Christ is resembled by the brazen Serpent now brass being an inferiour metal signifies the meanness of his humanity and it being a firm solid metal it signifies the power of his Godhead and though it shines it doth not dazle the eyes and so signifies the glory of the Godhead vailed with the Manhood thus the brazen Serpent was made like a Serpent but was no real Serpent so Christ was made in the likeness of sinful flesh but was no Sinner The Serpent was lift up so Christ was lift up in the acclamations of Angels in the preaching of the Gospel and upon the Cross which the Pole was a Type of and in our hearts by contemplating admiring loving him And the Serpent was lift up to be lookt upon by the stung Israelites which looking implyed a secret hope they had of Cure so if we do but look on Christ fiducially we shall be cured of our sins Never was there so happy a man in expounding Types never was any brazen Serpent half so subtil Thus as the same Author tells us Christ is compared to a Vine and that upon several accounts The Vine of its self is weak and must be supported and born up so the Humane Nature of Christ which it seems is represented by the Vine was of it self weak and was fain to be supported and underpropt by the Divine Nature The Vine grows in the Garden not in the Forest thus Christ grows in the Garden of the Church he is not known among the Heathen but I should have thought it more grand to have said that Christ this Spiritual Vine doth not find but make a Garden where ever he grows since the Church owes its Being to him not he to the Church thus the Vine communicates to the branches and Christ shoots up his sap of grace into Believers who are the branches of this Vine And the Vine hath rare delicious fruit growing on it and thus the promises are the Clusters of Grapes growing upon Christ the true Vine And whereas other Vines bear but one sort of fruit this spiritual Vine bears many the fruit of justification the fruit of sanctification and the fruit of consolation And the blood of Christ is the Wine of this Spiritual Vine which chears the heart of man as other Wine doth as he excellently proves from an old Latin Catch Curam metumque juvat dulci lydo solvere that is let us drink away care c. and now what fine work might a prophane wit make with Scripture at this rate of expounding metaphors But still they have a fetch beyond all this which consists in jumbling metaphors and Allegories and Types and Figures altogether and proving one thing from another in a most wonderful manner As suppose a man would prove that Christ is infinitely beautiful and lovely this is a most easie thing to do if you take the right method for first he is Lovely in his Titles he is the desire of all Nations the Prince of Peace the holy one of Israel Elect and precious these are most lovely Titles which argue him to be very beautiful And then he is lovely in his Types too he was typified by Persons most lovely by Moses and David and Solomon who were all lovely for one thing or other either upon account of Natural beauty or education or office or those great things done by them But then he was typified by lovely things As by the Pillar of Cloud and Fire which was most lovely to behold by the Mannah which was very lovely too because it was of a circular figure and extraordinary meat and suited to every ones Palate and by the mercy seat and brazen Serpent and Noahs Ark. Who can forbear being smitten with so lovely a Person Lovely as a Pillar of Cloud and fire lovely as Noahs Ark lovely as any Serpent yea as a brazen Serpent But besides all these Christ is resembled to a Rose the Rose of Sharon the Queen of flowers and how lovely is this Rose To a Vine the noblest of Plants and oh what lovely Clusters grow upon this Vine To a Corner stone and oh how lovely and precious is this Stone to a Rock and a River in a dry ground and a rich treasure and a beautiful Robe and all these are lovely and so should any thing have been that had come in his way at that time and who can doubt after all this but that Christ is the chiefest of ten thousands yea that he is altogether lovely Thus if I had a mind to imitate these men and prove that Christ is very powerful as well as lovely most of the same types and resemblances would serve the turn For he was prefigured by Moses who did wonders in Aegypt He was typified by David who killed Goliah by Solomon who was the most powerful Prince in his days by the Pillar of Cloud and Fire out of which God thundred upon the Host of Pharoah By the brazen Serpent which had power to Cure the stung Israelites by Noahs Ark which was certainly very strong that it could resist all the force and power of the general deluge He is resembled to a Corner stone which supports the whole building to a Rock which is for offence and defence to a rich treasure and riches all men know are the Nerves and Sinews of Power and he is most beautiful and beauty is stronger than all the rest and Conquers more than Sword or Fire Thus Christ is very rich for he is rich in Wisdom and rich in beauty and rich in strength and power rich in his Godhead and rich in his Manhood and then do but add Husband to all this and he is a rich and a powerful and a beautiful Husband thus Christ is Lovely because he is rich and powerful and he is powerful because he is rich and lovely and Rich because he is powerful and lovely and how is it possible these men should want proofs for any thing And is there any need now to prove that all this is the work of fancy and imagination that it is nothing but phrase and Religious tattle the fruit of precarious Hypotheses and of a pretended acquaintance with Christs Person for at this Rate it were easie to make any thing of any thing to find out some pretty words and phrases and allusions types or Metaphors to countenance all the feats of Enthusiasm and the more godly Romances of Popish Legends He who would be an honest Reader of Books who hath no mind to turn every thing into Burlesque ought carefully to distinguish between proper and allusive or metaphorical expressions to consider the use of words and phrases and the great variety of Dialects
ordered the matter it is made to serve a great many evil purposes and to overthrow the main Designs of Christianity And to make this appear I shall as briefly and plainly as the matter will bear represent to you those other opinions concerning our Union to Christ which are now in great vogue in the World and do very unjustly challenge to themselves the name of Gospel-Mysteries As first when we inquire what this Union betwixt Christ and Believers is they answer in general that it is a mystical Union through the Spirit and Faith This Mystical is a hard word and therefore to explain it they tell us that this mystical Union is an Union of Persons where yet Persons and Natures are distinct As there is an Union of three Persons in one Nature in the Trinity and of two Natures in one Person in Christ which is the Hypostatical Union so the mystical Union is an Union of Persons where both Persons and Natures are distinct and it is an Union of Persons but no Personal Union The Person of Christ is united to the person of the Believer and the person of the Believer is united to the Person of Christ as it must needs be where the Person of Christ is united to the person of the Believer which Union is made by Faith which receives the Person of Christ and therefore must unite to the Person of Christ I doubt that consequence is not good for men are not united to every thing they receive but yet what follows may help it out as it is in the Marriage-Union which joyns person to person This is not very clear yet and therefore as a fuller explication of it the same Author describes it thus This mystical Union is that supernatural spiritual intimous Oneness and Conjunction which is betwixt the Person of Christ and the person of Believers through the bonds of the Spirit and Faith upon which there follows mutual and reciprocal Communion with each other This Oneness and Conjunction are hard words still and therefore to explain them you must observe that Christ and Saints are united how why in respect of that Oneness and Conjunction that is between them This now is as plain as one could wish they are one by their Oneness Union is Union and Christ is Christ and Believers are Believers and Oneness is Oneness and thus Christ and Believers are united by their Oneness But what are the bonds of this Union though it had been convenient first to have understood the Union better why they are the Spirit and Faith the Spirit unites Christ to us and Faith unites us to Christ and who can deny this to be a very mystical Union But besides this mystical Union there is a Legal or Law-Union betwixt Christ and Believers as he is their surety and a moral Union the foundation of which is Love of which more in its proper place and thus the Person of Christ and the person of Believers are united mystically legally morally The design of all these distinctions is to prove the Union of Persons betwixt Christ and Believers and because I find this Author hath bewildred himself I will endeavour to help him out for it is a very plain case if Christ and believers are united their Persons must be united too for the Person of Christ is Christ himself and the Persons of believers are the believers themselves and I cannot understand how they can be united without their Persons that is without themselves but then they are united by mutual relations as the Persons of a Prince and his Subjects of a Husband and his Wife are united or by mutual affections or common Interest not by a natural adhesion of Persons but because I find it doth not satisfie these men that Christ and believers are united unless their Persons be united too it makes me suspect that there is a greater Mystery in this Union of Persons than every one apprehends and therefore Secondly Let us inquire what they mean by the Person of Christ to which believers must be united And here they have out-done all the metaphysical subtilties of Suarez and have found out a Person for Christ distinct from his Godhead and Manhood 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 he undertook nor the outward appearance of his humane nature neither when he converst 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 suffer'd 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 His Personal Graces fitted him for the discharge of his Mediatory office but whatever Personal Graces are in Christ belong to his Person still are seated either in his Divine or Humane Nature and he hath no Personal Graces as Mediator which he hath not either as God or Man And the Doctor himself when he accommodates the Description the Spouse gives of her Beloved to Christ tells us That he is white in the glory of his Deity and ruddy in the preciousness of his humanity because white is the complexion of glory and ruddy is very applicable to his humanity because man was called Adam from the red Earth whereof he was made which are excellent proofs but however white and ruddy belong to his divine and humane nature and that without any 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 consider'd as Mediator or not And in his first digression concerning the excellency of Christ Iesus to invite us to Communion with him in a Conjugal relation he tells us that Christ is exceeding excellent and desireable in his Deity and the glory thereof He is desireable and worthy our acceptation as consider'd in his Humanity in his freedom from sin and fulness of Grace c. Now though this look very like a contradiction to what he said before 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 belong'd to him as God and Man whether he had been Mediator or not but what becomes of his distinction of the Graces of Christs 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 Humanity and then you can find no other Person to be the subject of these Personal excellencies unless his office of Mediation must go for a distinct Person which is a new kind of heresie But whatever becomes of the sense of the distinction there is a very deep fetch in it the observing of which will discover the whole Mystery of the Person of Christ and our Union to him for these men consider that Christ saves us as he is our Mediator and not meerly consider'd as God or Man and they imagine that we receive Grace and Salvation from Christs Person just as we do water out of a Conduit or a gift and largess from a Prince that it flows to us from our Union to his Person And therefore they dress up the Person of the Mediator with all those personal graces and excellencies which may make him a fit Saviour that those who are thus united to his Person of which more in the next Section need not fear missing of Salvation Hence they ransack all the boundless perfections of the Deity and whatever they can find or fancy which speaks any comfort to Sinners this is presently a Personal Grace of the Mediator they consider all the glorious effects of his Mediation and whatever great things are spoken of his Gospel or Religion or Intercession for us these serve as Personal Graces too that all our hopes may be built not on the Gospel Covenant but on the Person of Christ so that the dispute now lies between the Person of Christ and his Gospel which must be the foundation of our hope which is the way to life and happiness To make this appear I shall consider that account which Dr. Owen gives us of the Personal graces and excellencies of Christ which in general consist in three things First His fitness to save from the grace of Union and the proper and necessary effects thereof Secondly His fulness to save from the Grace of Communion or the free consequences of the Grace of Union and Thirdly His excellency to endear from his compleat sutableness to all the wants of the Souls of men First That he is fit to be a Saviour from the Grace of Union and if you would understand what this strange Grace of Union is it is the uniting the nature of God and Man in one Person which makes him fit to be a Saviour to the uttermost He lays his hands upon God by partaking of his nature Zachar. 13. 7. and he lays his hands on us by partaking of our nature Hebr. 2. 14. 16. and so becomes a days-man or Umpire between both now though this be a great truth that the Union of the Divine and Humane Nature in Christ did excellently qualifie him for the Office of a Mediator yet this is the unhappiest man in expressing and proving it that I have met with for what an untoward representation is this of Christs Mediation that he came to make peace by laying his hands on God and men as if he came to part a Fray or Scuffle and he might as well have named Gen. 1. 1. or Matth. 1. 1. or any other place of Scripture for the proof it as those he mentions but to let that pass in his Chap. 3. he discourses this more at large and thither I shall follow him Where he tells us how glorious Christ is in his Deity and how desirable in his Humanity and what are the glorious effects of the Union of the Divine and Humane Nature As for the first how excellent and desirable Christ is in his Deity From the Deity of Christ he observes the endless bottomless boundless grace and compassion that is in him It is not the grace of a Creature no not of the humane Nature it self that can serve our turn if it could be conceived as separate from the Deity surely so many thirsty guilty Souls as every day drink deep and large draughts of grace and mercy from him would if I may so speak sink him to the very bottom nay it could afford no supply at all but only in a moral way and that is a very pitiful way indeed But when the Conduit of his Humanity is inseparably united to the infinite inexhaustible Fountain of the Deity who can look into the depths thereof If now there be grace enough for sinners in an alsufficient God it is in Christ On this ground it is That if all the World should if I may so say set themselves to drink free grace and mercy and pardon drawing waters continually from the Wells of Salvation if they should set themselves to draw from one single promise an Angel standing by and crying Drink O my Friends yea drink abundantly take as much grace and pardon as shall be abundantly sufficient for the World of sin which is in every one of you they would not be able to sink the grace of the promise of the Person of Christ you mean one hairs breadth The infiniteness of Grace with respect to its Spring or Fountain the Deity of Christ will answer all objections What is our finite guilt before it a World of sin is something though it hear no proportion indeed to infinite Grace shew me the Sinner that can spread his iniquity to the dimensions if I may so say no man ever had more need nor made better use of so says of this grace here is mercy enough for the greatest the oldest the stubbornest transgressor c. 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 Dr. 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 Iustice. Though God be rich in mercy he never told us yet that his mercy was so boundless and bottomless he hath 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 But 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 Dr. 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 it is a strait 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 Thus the Love of Christ is an eternal Love because his Divine Nature is eternal and it is an unchangeable Love because his Divine Nature is unchangeable and his love is fruitful for it being the love of God it must be effectual and fruitful in producing all the things which he willeth unto his Beloved he loves Life Grace Holiness into us he loves us into Covenant loves us into Heaven This is an excellent Love indeed which doth all for us and leaves nothing for us to do we owe this discovery see you to an Acquaintance with Christs Person or rather with his Divine Nature for the Gospel is very silent in this matter All that the Gospel tells us is that Christ loved sinners so as to dye for them and that he loves good men who believe and obey his Gospel so as to save them and that he continues to love them while they continue to be good but hates them when they return to their old vices and therefore I see there is great reason for sinners to fetch their comforts not from the Gospel but from the Person of Christ which as far excels the Gospel as the Gospel excels the Law But methinks this is a very odd way of arguing from the Divine Nature for if the love of Christ as God be so infinite eternal unchangeable fruitful I would willingly understand how sin and death and misery came into the World For if this Love be so eternal and unchangeable c. because the Divine Nature is so then it was always so for God always was what he is and that which is eternal could never be other than it is now and why could not this eternal and unchangeable and fruitful love as well preserve us from falling into sin and misery and death as Love Life and Holiness into us for it is a little odd first to love us into sin and death that then he may love us into Life and Holiness which indeed could not be if this Love of God were always so unchangeable and fruitful as this Author perswades us it is now for if this Love had always loved Life and Holiness into us I cannot conceive how it should happen that we should sin and dye Not that I deny that the Love of God is eternal unchangeable fruitful that is that God was always good and always continues good and manifesteth his love and goodness in such ways as are suitable to his Nature which is the fruitfulness of it but then the unchangeableness of Gods love doth not consist in being always determined to the same object but in that he always loves for the same reason that is that he always loves true vertue and goodness where-ever he sees it and never ceases to love any person till he ceases to be good and then the immutability of his Love is the reason why he loves no longer for should he love a wicked man the reason and nature of his Love would change And the fruitfulness of God's Love with respect to the Methods of his Grace and Providence doth not consist in producing what he loves by an omnipotent and irresistible power for then sin and death could never have entred into the World but he governs and doth good to his Creatures in such ways as are most suitable to their natures He governs reasonable Creatures by Principles of Reason as he doth the material World by the necessary Laws of Matter and bruit Creatures by the Instincts and Propensities of Nature From hence he proceeds to shew how desirable Christ is in his Humanity by reason of his freedom from all sin both Original and Actual and his fulness of Grace that all Grace was in him for the kinds thereof and all degrees of Grace for its perfection This indeed doth represent him as a very excellent Person a spotless Sacrifice and a great Example to the World but these personal perfections cannot pass out of his Person to become ours But then Thirdly you must consider That all these perfections of the Divine and Humane Nature are united in one Person and this made him fit to suffer and able to bear whaetever was due unto us which no Creature could do for if the weight of our sins had been laid upon a meer innocent Creature how would they have overwhelmed him and buried him for ever out of the presence of God No doubt the Sacrifice of Christ who was God-Man was of greater value than the Sacrifice of any meer Creature could be but I know not what this is to his purpose and do as little admire his Philosophy But his being God and Man made him an endless bottomless Fountain of Grace to all that believe This he was as God as we were told before and his Grace was never the more bottomless for becoming Man The design you see of all this is to make the Person of Christ the Fountain of all Grace from whence we must drink pardon and mercy as long as we need any and such mercy too as his Gospel is unacquainted with he hath a fulness of all Grace in himself and from thence we must receive the communications of it And this brings me to the second sort of the Personal Graces and Excellencies of Christ his fulness to save from the Grace of Communion or the free consequences of the Grace of Union As for this Grace of Communion as he is pleased to call it though it sounds a little harsh to be a Personal Grace and yet communicated whereby Christ communicates his fulness to Believers I shall reserve it for its proper place and shall at present only consider what this Personal fulness in Christ is which he calls all the furniture he received from the Father by the Unction of the Spirit for the work of our Salvation and near of kin to this is his third Personal Grace his Excellency to endear from his compleat suitableness to all the wants of the souls of men There is no man whatever this sounds like universal Redemption that hath any want in reference to the things of God but Christ will be unto him that which he wanteth is he dead Christ is life is he weak Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God hath he the sense of guilt upon him Christ is compleat Righteousness the Lord our Righteousness many poor Creatures are sensible of their wants but know not where their remedy lies Indeed whether it be life or light power or joy all is wrapt up in him Now
Body that whereas in former Ages the Church of God seemed to be confined to the Iewish Nation now it pleased the Father that Christ should be the Universal Shepherd and Bishop of Souls by him to reconcile all things to himself and this too is the meaning of that Phrase The fulness of him who filleth all in all therefore the Church is called his Fulness because he filleth all in all that is doth not confine his care and providence and the influences of his Grace to any one Nation or People but extends it to the whole World Thus the fulness of Christ signifies in Eph. 4. 13. Till we all come in the Unity of the Faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the explication of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to a perfect man That is to that perfection of faith and knowledge which becomes the Christian Church For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying the age and growth and stature of a man the fulness of Christ cannot so properly be understood of any thing as of the Christian Church This is all that I can find in Scripture concerning the fulness of Christ which either signifies the perfection of his Gospel or the Universality of his Church which is a plain demonstration of those mens skill in expounding Scripture who make this fulness a Personal Grace in Christ and apply it to every thing they can find or fancy in him All the furniture that he received from the Father by the Unction of the Spirit for the work of our Salvation The fulness of his Divine and Humane Nature the fulness of Love in Christ the fulness of habitual Grace fulness of Satisfaction fulness of Merit fulness of Power and Vertue a fulness of Iustification and a fulness of Sanctification which fulness I am sure hath confounded mens notions of Religion and made them look upon Christ only as a Fountain from whence they must drink grace and mercy and pardon justification and eternal life Let us now consider in what sense Christ is called our life and he is so called with respect to his Doctrine his Sacrifice and that Power he is invested with to raise us from the dead He is called Life with respect to his Doctrine because he preached the Word of Life and hath brought Life and Immortality to light by the Gospel hence in Ioh. 1. 4. the Evangelist tells us In him was life and the life was the light of men That is he preached the Word of Life which enlightned the dark minds of men for it is not imaginable how Life should be light in any other sense than as this Word of Life which Christ preached enlightned their minds and dispelled all the Mists of Errour and Ignorance hence Christ tells his Disciples I am the way the truth and the life no man cometh to the Father but by me Ioh. 14. 6. that is I declare the true and only way to life and happiness and no man can throughly understand the will of God nor consequently be a true Worshipper of him without learning of me thus he calls himself the Bread of life Ioh. 6. with respect to the Doctrine he preached Vers. 33. and with respect to that Sacrifice he offered for the life of the World Vers. 51. I am the living Bread which came down from Heaven if any man eat of this bread he shall live for ever and the bread that I will give is my flesh which I will give for the life of the World Thus Christ is called our Life because he hath power and authority to bestow immortal life upon all his sincere Followers Ioh. 11. 26 27. I am the Resurrection and the Life he that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live and he that liveth and believeth in me shall never dye That is he hath power to raise the dead and will actually raise all those who believe in him and reward them with eternal life To the same purpose our Saviour speaks in Ioh. 5. 25 26. The hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live for as the Father hath life in himself so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself That is he first raises those who are dead in sin to a new spiritual life by the power of his Doctrine then hath Authority to raise them to an immortal life This is the meaning too of that expression in Col. 3. 3 4. You are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God when Christ who is our life shall appear then shall ye also appear with him in glory That is you profess your selves to be dead to this World in conformity to the death of Christ and though that immortal life which you expect to enjoy with Christ who is now risen again from the dead be at present concealed from your view yet when Christ who is the Author of eternal life and hath power to raise us from the dead shall appear the second time to judge the World then shall ye appear with him in glory So that when Christ is called our Life the meaning is that he hath published the Word of Life to us which contains the most express promises of a blessed Immortality and the most plain and easie directions how to attain it and that by his death he hath expiated our sins and confirmed all these promises to us and being risen from the dead himself hath now power to raise us We must not dream of fetching life from the Person of Christ as we draw water out of a Fountain but if we would live for ever with Christ we must stedfastly believe and obey his Gospel which is a Principle of a Divine life in us and then we may joyfully expect that when our Lord and Saviour comes again to judge the World he will raise us from the dead and reward our Faith and Patience and Obedience with Immortal Life Thus to proceed Christ is the Power of God and the Wisdom of God which these men call Personal Graces too But I have already shewed you at large that Christ is the Wisdom of God with respect to those Revelations he made of Gods will The Gospel of Christ is the Wisdom and Power of God 1 Cor. 1. 24. Christ the Power of God and the Wisdom of God that is the Doctrine of a crucified Christ as will appear from the verses before The Iews require a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom but we preach Christ crucified to the Iews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness but to them who are called both Iews and Greeks Christ the Power of God and the Wisdom of God The Jews were all for Signs and Miracles the Greeks were for curious Philosophical Speculations which might gratifie their inquisitive minds and therefore
of the Gospel if they understand any thing more by them than expecting to be saved according to the terms of the Gospel Covenant that is by believing and obeying the Gospel of Christ And certainly they must mean something more than this or else they raise a great noise and clamour in the World and confound mens minds with obscure and unscriptural phrases to no purpose as will appear more in what follows CHAP. III. Of the Knowledge of Christ. SECT I. THE happiness of Mankind consists in the Knowledge and Love of God who is the greatest and the best Being and therefore our good God who is never wanting to his own glory and the happiness of his Creatures hath taken care in all Ages by one means or other to make known himself and his will to the World In the first Creation of all things he left such visible impresses of his own Divine Wisdom and Power on the works of Nature and planted in the mind of man such a natural knowledge of himself that it was as easie to discover the first Author of all things as it is now for a well disposed eye to see the Sun when it shines And while man preserved his innocence God himself did not disdain to converse with him and to give him very present and sensible demonstrations of his Power and Providence In after Ages as Mankind grew more corrupt and declined to Idolatry God afforded good men the frequent apparitions of Angels who were the great Ministers of his Providence and to instruct the more degenerate part of Mankind he raised up some great examples and Preachers of Righteousness such as Enoch and Noah and Abraham and gave such plain and undeniable proofs of his acceptance of these men as might reasonably incourage others to imitate their examples He translated Enoch immediately to Heaven and preserved Noah and his Family in the Ark when he destroyed the rest of the World by a deluge of Waters which was a signal warning to that corrupt Generation while the Ark was preparing and a great example to Posterity he sent Lot out of the ruins of Sodom and made Abraham the Father of a great Nation which was a convincing argument how dear these good men were to God and what others might expect from him who would worship and fear him as they did But when the World would not be reformed by these single Examples God chose the Posterity of Abraham to be a publick and constant demonstration of his Power and Providence and care of good men For when God chose the Posterity of Abraham to be his peculiar people he did not design to exclude the rest of the World from his care and providence and all possible means of Salvation as the Apostle argues in Rom. 3. 29. Is he the God of the Iews only Is he not also of the Gentiles Yes of the Gentiles also which argument if it have any force in it must prove Gods respect to the Gentiles before the preaching of the Gospel as well as since because it is founded on that natural relation God owns to all Mankind as their merciful Creator and Governour which gives the Gentiles as well as Jews an intrest in his care and providence This plainly evinces that all those particular favours which God bestowed on Israel were not owing to any partial fondness and respect to that people but the design of all was to encourage the whole World to worship the God of Israel who gave so many demonstrations of his power and providence For this reason God brought Israel out of Aegypt with great signs and wonders and a mighty hand when he could have done it with less noise and observation that he might the more gloriously triumph over the numerous Gods of Aegypt and all their enchantments and divinations and that he might be honoured on Pharoah and all his Host. For this reason he maintained them in the Wilderness at the constant expence of miracles fought all their Battles for them and many times by weak and contemptible means overthrew great and puissant Armies drove out the Inhabitants of Canaan and gave them possession of that good land I say one great and principal design of all this was to convince the World of the Majesty and Power of the God of Israel that they might renounce their foolish Idolatries and Country Gods and consent in the worship of that One God who alone doth wondrous things this account the Psalmist gives of it that God wrought such visible and miraculous deliverances for Israel to make his glory and his power known among the Heathen The Lord hath made known his Salvation his righteousness hath he openly shewed in the sight of the Heathen Psalm 98. 2. That the Heathen might fear the name of the Lord and all the Kings of the Earth his glory i. e. that all Nations might worship God and all Kings submit their Crowns and Scepters to him Psal. 102. 15. that by this means they might be instructed in that important truth That the Lord is great and greatly to be praised that he is to be feared above all Gods for all the Gods of the Nations are Idols but he made the Heavens Psal. 96. 4 5. And as God set up the people of Israel as a visible demonstration to all the World of his power and providence so he committed his Laws and Oracles to them from whence the rest of the World when they pleased might fetch the best rules of life and the most certain notices of the divine will In such ways God instructed the World in former Ages by the light of Nature and the examples of good men and the Sermons of the Prophets and the publick example of a whole Nation which God chose for that very purpose But when long and sad experience had proved all these ways ineffectual to reform the World at last God sent his own Son into the World to make a full and perfect Declaration of his will to give the best rules of life and to encourage our obedience by the most express promises of a blessed Immortality This was one great design of Christ's appearing in the World to reveal and declare God to us Iohn 1. 18. No man hath seen God at any time the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father he hath declared him and in Math. 11. 27. All things are delivered unto me of my Father no man knoweth the Son but the Father neither knoweth any man the Father but the Son and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him That is God hath now committed unto Christ all the secret purposes of his Counsel concerning the Salvation of Mankind which were concealed from Ages None of the Prophets which lived before did so fully understand it nor have we any other certain way of knowing this but by the Revelation Christ hath made to us Thus in Iohn 14. 6 7. Iesus saith unto him I am the way the truth and the life no man
cometh unto the Father but by me if you had known me you should have known my Father also and henceforth you have known him and have seen him That is I alone declare the true way to life and happiness and no man can thoroughly understand the will of God but by learning of me and therefore whoever knows me i. e. whoever is acquainted with the Doctrine and Religion I preach knows my Father also that is is thoroughly instructed in God's mind and will as he proves in the following Verses So that to know God is to understand the will of God concerning the Salvation of Mankind and to know Christ is to understand that Declaration he hath made of Gods will to the World i. e. the Gospel which he Preached which is therefore called the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Iesus Christ. 2 Cor. 4. 6. That is that glorious manifestation God hath made of himself to the World by Christ for the face of Christ signifies all that whereby he made himself known as a man is known by his face that is his Laws and Religion and Miracles whereby it appeared that he was the Son of God the great Prophet and Saviour of the World by all this the glory of God was manifested in which the Apostle alludes to that shining glory which appeared on the face of Moses when he came down from the Mount which was but typical of that bright and glorious manifestation God would make of himself by Christ. God was seen in Christ he that hath seen me hath seen my Father that is in plain words the will of God was fully declared to the World by Christ upon which account too as well as with respect to his divine Nature he is called the brightness of his Fathers glory and the express image of his Person Hebr. 1. 1. those discoveries Christ hath made of God being a bright and glorious reflexion of the Nature and Attributes of God of his Eternal Wisdom and truth and holiness as true a representation of the divine nature and will as any Picture is of the person it represents It is plain that in this sense Christ is called the image of God 2 Cor. 4. 4. Lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ which is the image of God should shine unto them Where Christ's being the Image of God comes in very abruptly unless we understand it in this sense that he is the Image of God with respect to the glorious Revelations of the Gospel which contain a true and faithful account of God's Nature and Will The result of all is this that God is the last and highest object of Religious and saving Knowledge i. e. that the only Knowledge necessary to the purposes of Religion is such a knowledge of God's Nature and Will as is sufficient to direct our actions and encourage our obedience and whereas God was formerly known by the light of nature and the works of Creation and Providence and those partial and occasional revelations of his will which he made to the World now the only true medium of knowing God is the Knowledge of Christ who came into the World to declare God to us He knows God best who is best acquainted with those Revelations Christ hath made of God's will i. e. who understands the Gospel in its full extent and latitude This is the meaning of that expression in Iohn 17. 3. This is life Eternal that they might know thee the only true God and Iesus Christ whom thou hast sent i. e. the only way to Eternal Life is to know the nature and will of God and the only certain way of attaining to the knowledg of God is by knowing Christ whom God sent into the World to publish the Everlasting Gospel who hath made more perfect revelations of Gods will than ever the World had before and who alone hath brought life and immortality to light so that to know Christ is not meerly to know his Person which we can have no other knowledge of than what he hath been pleased to reveal to us but to be acquainted with the whole Doctrine of the Gospel in its native simplicity as he published it to the World which I observed before The Apostle calls this learning Christ and being instructed in him as the truth is in Iesus For when we speak of the Knowledge of Christ we must consider him as our Prophet and so to know Christ signifies to know his Gospel and to preach Christ is to preach his Gospel to expound all those rules of life and Articles of Faith which are contained in it whether they are concerning the nature of God or a future State or his own Nature and Office and Mediation Thus Philip preached Christ to the Samaritanes Acts 8. 5. which in Verse 12. is called preaching the things concerning the Kingdom of God and the name of Iesus Christ. That is the whole Doctrine of the Gospel This should make all considering men ashamed of those unreasonable and groundless clamours that Christ is not preached unless he be named in every sentence whether the argument require it or not as if preaching Christ were to be understood in a literal sense of preaching nothing but the name of Christ those preach Christ most who are careful to confirm men in the belief of the Gospel and of that great promise of immortal life who expound his Laws and the true nature and design of his Mediation for every part of the Gospel is part of the Knowledge of Christ and his Laws as principal a part as any because the design of the whole Gospel is to make us obedient to these Eternal Rules of Righteousness whereby we are transformed into the nature and Image of God and qualified for the happiness of Heaven There is indeed a larger notion of the Knowledge of God and Christ which includes the vertue and efficacy of this knowledge for the design of all Religious knowledge being the Government of our lives and actions how true soever our speculations are the Scripture brands all those as ignorant of God who do not love and reverence and obey him and though we be acquainted with the whole Doctrine of the Gospel unless we heartily believe it and obey all those Revelations Christ hath made we know him not Iohn 1. 2 3. Hereby we know that we know him if we keep his Commandments And Verse 4. He that saith I know him and keepeth not his Commandments is a lyar and the truth is not in him And 1 Iohn 3. 6. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not whosoever sinneth hath not seen him neither known him Not but that bad men may have as true a speculative knowledge of the nature and design of the Gospel as good men have but the meaning is that this is a knowledge which serves no end which wants life and sense and makes men no better than if they were perfectly ignorant and therefore is of no other
learnt before from nature and Revelation just as his Resurrection which is an ocular demonstration of another life confirms us in the belief of that blessed Immortality he had promised and yet we could not have learnt this neither from the Person of Christ had he not told us for what ends he came into the World as will appear more anon 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 Jews that he was a gracious and merciful God pardoning iniquitiy transgressions and sins And those natural notions the 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 But yet the truth is considering what these men mean by the love and pardoning Grace and Justice and Patience and Long-suffering of God I must acknowledge that these properties could never have been discovered but by a too familiar acquaintance with Christ's Person for Nature and Revelation say nothing of them 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 unto him in 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 suspition of injustice in it to remit injuries and offences without exacting any punishment And 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 That part of justice which consists in punishing offenders was always lookt on as an Instrument of Government and therefore the exacting or remitting punishment was referred to the wisdom of Governours who might spare or punish as they saw reason for it without being unjust in either and therefore had not one who pretends to so great and personal an Acquaintance with Christ said so I should rather have thought that God's requiring such a Sacrifice as the death of Christ for the expiation of our sins was not because he could not do otherwise but because his Infinite Wisdom judged this the best and most effectual way of dispencing his Grace But though this be a very terrible discovery of the naturalness of Gods righteousness or vindictive justice yet he makes some amends for it in that comfortable discovery of his patience and long-suffering towards Sinners for now in Christ the very nature of God is discovered to be love and kindness a happy change this from all justice to all love but how comes this to pass why the account of that is very plain because the justice of God hath glutted its self with revenge on sin in the death of Christ and so hence forward we may be sure he will be very kind as a revengful man is when his passion is over for so he speaks very honourably of God whatever discoveries were made of the Patience and lenity of God unto us yet if it were not withal revealed that the other properties of God as his Iustice and Revenge for sin had their actings also assigned them to the full there could be little consolation gathered from the former That is he would not believe God himself though he should make never so many promises of being good and gracious to Sinners unless he were sure that he had first satisfied his revenge which indeed is such a Character of the Love and Patience of God as we could never have understood but from an intimate acquaintance with the Person of Christ. The sum of which is that God is all love and Patience when he hath taken his fill of revenge as others use to say that the Devil is very good when he is pleased But however sinners have great reason to rejoice in it when they consider the nature and end of God's Patience and forbearance towards them viz. That it is Gods taking a course in his infinite wisdom and goodness that we should not be destroyed notwithstanding our sins That as before the least sin could not escape without a just punishment justice being so natural to God that he cannot forgive without punishing so the justice of God being now satisfied by the death of Christ the greatest sins can do us no hurt but we shall escape with a Notwithstanding our sins This it seems we learn from an acquaintance with the Person of Christ though his Gospel instructs us otherwise that without holiness no man shall see God As for the Wisdom of God which is another property he instanceth in no doubt but the Gospel of Christ makes great and glorious discoveries of it but then this is not very consistent with those other discoveries of the nature of God for if justice be so natural to God that nothing could satisfie him but the death of his own Son the redemption of the World by Christ may discover his justice or his goodness but not his Wisdom for Wisdom consists in the choice of the best and fittest means to attain an end when there are more ways than one of doing it But it requires no great Wisdom to chuse when there is but one possible way and whatever Wisdom there is in Gods redeeming the World by his own Son the knowledge of it is wholly owing to the Revelations of the Gospel not to such a fanciful acquaintance with Christ as these men talk of Thus you see what excellent discoveries of the Nature of God are owing to an acquaintance with the Person of Christ And the second thing we learn from hence is the knowledge of our selves and that in respect of Sin and in respect of Righteousness As for sin the Gospel assures us that God is an irreconcileable Enemy to all wickedness it being so contrary to his own most holy Nature that if he have any love for himself and any esteem and value for his own perfections and works he must hate sin which is so unlike himself and which destroys the beauty and perfection of his Workmanship For this end he sent his Son into the World to destroy the works of the Devil and to reduce Mankind to
their obedience to their great Creator to restore them to the uprightness and integrity of their natures and thereby to a state of friendship with God This was the end of his holy Laws and precious Promises and exemplary Life and meritorious Death and glorious Resurrection and powerful Intercession for us to deliver us from the Power and Dominion of Sin to make us first holy as God is and then to receive us into that Blessed place where God dwells But now acquaintance with the Person of Christ makes just such a discovery of sin as it did of the naturalness of God's Justice to him i. e. that the desert and demerit of sin is such that it is impossible to make any atonement or satisfaction to the justice and wrath of God but only by the Death of Christ otherwise Christ had died in vain that is that God could not forgive it without full satisfaction which nothing but the Death of Christ could make Thus we learn our disability to answer the mind and will of God in all or any of the obedience he requireth that is that it is impossible for us to do any thing that is good but we must be acted like Machines by an external force by the irresistable power of the Grace and Spirit of God this I am sure is a new discovery we learn no such thing from the Gospel and I do not see how he proves it from an acquaintance with Christ. But still there is a more glorious discovery than this behind and that is the glorious end whereunto sin is appointed and ordained I suppose he means by God is discovered in Christ viz. for the demonstration of Gods vindictive justice in measuring out to it a meet recompence of reward and for the praise of God's glorious grace in the pardon and forgiveness of it That is it could not be known how just and severe God is but by punishing sin nor how good and gracious God is but by pardoning it and therefore lest his justice and mercy should never be known to the World he appoints and ordains sin to this end that is Decrees that men shall sin that he may make some of them the Vessels of his wrath and the examples of his fierce vengeance and displeasure and others the Vessels of his mercy to the praise and glory of his free Grace in Christ this indeed is such a discovery as nature and revelation could not make For nature would teach us that so infinitely a glorious Being as God is needs not sin and misery to recommend his glory and perfections and that so holy a God who so perfectly hates every thing that is wicked would not truckle and barter with Sin and the Devil for his glory And that so good a God had much rather be glorious in the happiness and perfection and obedience of his Creatures than in their sin and misery and Revelation tells us the same thing that as much as sin is for the glory of his vindictive justice yet God takes no pleasure in punishing delights not in the Death of a Sinner but rather that he should return and live that is he had rather there were no occasion for punishing than be made glorious by such acts of vengeance and therefore though God be so holy as to punish incorrigible Sinners and so merciful as to forgive all true Penitents through our Lord Jesus Christ yet he did not ordain and appoint and decree sin to this end for vindictive justice and pardoning mercy are but secondary Attributes of the Divine Nature and therefore God cannot primarily design the glorifying of them for that cannot be without primarily designing the sin and misery of his Creatures which would be inconsistent with the goodness and holiness of his Nature Thus Nature and Revelation teaches though these men pretend to have learn't otherwise from an acquaintance with Christ. Thus much for the knowledge of our selves with respect to sin which is hid only in the Lord Iesus But then we learn what our righteousness is wherewith we must appear before God from an acquaintance with Christ. We have already learnt how unable we are to make atonement for our sins without which they can never be forgiven and how unable we are to do any thing that is good and yet nothing can deliver us from the justice and wrath of God but a full satisfaction for our sins and nothing can give us a title to a reward but a perfect and unsinning righteousness what shall we do in this Case how shall we escape Hell or get to Heaven when we can neither expiate for our past sins nor do any good for the time to come why here we are relieved again by an acquaintance with Christ his Death expiates former iniquities and removes the whole guilt of sin but this is not enough that we are not guilty we must also be actually righteous not only all sin is to be answered for but all righteousness is to be fulfilled Now this righteousness we find only in Christ We are reconciled to God by his Death and saved by his life that actual obedience he yielded to the whole law of God is that righteousness whereby we are saved we are innocent by vertue of his Sacrifice and expiation and righteous with his righteousness Now this is a mighty comfortable discovery how we may be righteous without doing any thing that is good or righteous And I confess we could never have known this but by an acquaintance with his Person for his Gospel makes a different representation of it tells us expresly that he is righteous who doth righteousness that without holiness no man shall see God that the only way to obtain the pardon of our sins is to repent of them and forsake them and the only thing that gives a right to the promises of future glory is to obey the Laws and imitate the example of our Saviour and to be transformed into the nature and likeness of God and though our obedience be not in every thing exact and perfect if it be sincere we shall be accepted for the sake of Christ and by vertue of that Covenant of Grace which he hath sealed with his blood which admits of an Evangelical instead of a strict legal perfection such different discoveries doth an acquaintance with the Gospel and with the Person of Christ make The third part of our Wisdom is to walk with God and to that is required Agreement acquaintance a way strength boldness and aiming at the same end and all these with the Wisdom of them are hid in the Lord Iesus The sum of which in short is this that Christ having expiated our sins and fulfilled all righteousness for us though we have no personal righteousness of our own but are as contrary to God as darkness is to light and death to life and an universal pollution and defilement to an universal and glorious holiness and hatred to love yet the righteousness of Christ
his constant care and providence over his Church of the influences of his Grace and the supply of all our spiritual wants and of that glory and happiness to which he will advance us at the last day All this we learn from an acquaintance with Christ's Person as these men call it and it were easie now to draw the whole plot and design of Christianity to search into the deep Councils of God and to discover those principles and motives he was acted by and the infinite Wisdom of the contrivance and the true methods of a Sinners recovery by Christ and what that homage and worship is which we owe our Saviour As to make some short Essay of it Those natural notions which we have of God acquaint us that he is infinitely good and the History of the Creation assures us that God made the World to be an image and representation of his own glory and perfections but especially Man who was made after the image of God and endowed with that Wisdom and Knowledge and all those Principles of Piety and Vertue which would have made him a living and active image of the Divine perfections This was the glory and the happiness of his nature to know God and to be like him to praise and adore his great Benefactor and to be inseperably united to him by those natural tyes of love and obedience For nothing else can be the happiness of a reasonable Creature but Conformity to the Divine Nature which is the pattern and measure of all rational perfections and happiness And therefore when Mankind apostatized from God they miserably defeated the end of their Creation and intercepted those natural Communications of the divine goodness by making themselves unworthy and uncapable of them and now we may easily imagine how much a good God was grieved and offended with this not as a haughty and Imperious Prince would be with the miscarriages and rebellion of his Subjects but as a kind Father is displeased and grieved for the disobedience of his Children for their refractory and unmanageable temper not so much as an affront and contempt of his own Authority but as it is a necessary cause of the ruine and misery of his Children whose happiness he so passionately desires and designs This made the divine goodness so restlesly zealous and concerned for the recovery of Mankind various ways he attempted in former Ages but with little success as I observed before but at last God sent his own Son our Lord Jesus Christ into the World to be the great Shepherd and Bishop of Souls to seek and to save that which was lost And that we may be able in some measure to comprehend the infinite Wisdom and goodness of this contrivance and how well the means is fitted to the end we must consider that the whole Mystery of the recovery of mankind consists only in repairing the Divine Image which was defaced by sin that is in making all men truly good and vertuous Sin is our apostasie from God and doth as naturally make us miserable as it makes us unlike the most happy Being But holiness restores us to our Primitive State to the perfect constitution of our Natures and makes us good and therefore happy as God is And this was the great difficulty to perswade men to be good to work upon the different tempers and inclinations and passions of mankind and to reduce them to the forsaken and untrodden paths of vertue and though the laws and precepts the great promises and threatnings of the Gospel confirmed by so many stupendious miracles and by the resurrection of Christ from the Dead have in themselves a mighty power to reform the World yet the consideration of Christ's Person of what he did and suffered for us gives a peculiar force and energy to them Sin and guilt makes men fearful and it makes them disingenuous they are apt to distrust goodness or to abuse it will either believe God implacable which makes them desperate because there is no hope of pardon or believe him to be fond and indulgent which makes them saucy and presumptuous and to prevent both these extreams of superstition which are such profest Enemies to a sincere and unaffected Religion God sent his own Son into the World and by the greatness of his Person and the manner and circumstances of his appearance did confute them both If guilt make us afraid of God as an angry and severe judge behold here the distance taken in the Incarnation of the Son of God who condescended to come down to us cloathed with our nature as a mild and a gentle Prince by all the methods of love and sweetness to reduce us to our Allegiance and subjection to God in him we see the good will of God to Sinners here is a demonstration of condescending goodness which stooped as low as earth and did not disdain the nature and appearance of a man nor the Conversation of Sinners nor the shame of the Cross nor the pale terrours and agonies of Death and the Grave And to remove all possible suspition concerning Gods love to Sinners the Son of God dies as a Sacrifice for our sins to make atonement for us and with his blood Seals the Covenant of Grace and Pardon and all the promises of Eternal life And still to give us the greater security of the performance of all this our dying and suffering Lord is raised again from the dead and advanced to the right hand of power and Majesty to intercede for us Thus God deals with us after the manner of men and to encourage us to return to our duty hath given us all the security of our acceptance that guilt it self though infinitely jealous and suspicious could desire for what could we wish for more than that God should send so great and so beloved a Person to us on an Embassy of Peace than that the Son of God should be our propitiation and Advocate our Lord and Judge he who took our nature and our infirmities on him who knows our weakness and our temptations who died to expiate our sins and is entred into the Holy of Holies to intercede for us in the vertue of his blood and in the power of his glory and the triumphs of his Conquests and with a tender and compassionate sense of our infirmities But then on the other hand to cure our presumption that we may not think God to be so easie as to be reconciled to Sinners and to their vices together the death of Christ upon the Cross assures us what the merit is and what the portion of sin shall be that all Sinners deserve to die and shall certainly have their deserts without a sincere repentance and reformation of their lives for to expiate sin by death can signifie no less than this that death is the proper recompence of sin and therefore that those sins which are not expiated by the Sacrifice of Christ as none are till we repent and reform shall
and suffer'd for us excites a just hatred of our sins sincere purposes and resolutions of a new life to live to him who died for us a great hope in God who hath provided such a Sacrifice and Atonement such a Mediator and Advocate for us and a stedfast expectation of a future reward This is eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Christ when these visible figures of his Death and Sufferings affect our minds with such a strong and passionate sense of his love to us and excite in us such a firm hope in God as transforms us into a divine Nature and this is our real Union to Christ as you heard above Now I take it for granted that there can be no better way to understand the nature of our Union to Christ than to consider the nature of those Sacraments which were designed as the Instruments and signs of our Union to him and if we will take that account the Scripture gives of them all the Union they signifie is only a publick and visible profession of our Faith in Christ and subjection to him as our Lord and Saviour and a sincere conformity of our hearts and lives to the nature and life of Christ. Fourthly I observe further that fellowship and Communion with God according to the Scripture notion signifies what we call a Political Union that is that to be in fellowship with God and Christ signifies to be of that Society which puts us into a peculiar relation to God that God is our Father and we his Children that Christ is our head and Husband our Lord and Master we his Disciples and followers his Spouse and his body thus in Iohn 1. 1. 3. That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you that you also may have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Iesus Christ where I observe that our fellowship with the Father and Son is first founded on our fellowship with the Christian Church that is on our profession of the Faith of Christ obedience to his Laws subjection to his Government and Discipline which he now visibly exerciseth by the Bishops and Pastors of the Church this unites us into one Society and body politick and now by vertue of our fellowship with the Christian Church we have fellowship with Christ who is the supreme Head and Governour of his Church which is a plain argument that all the Apostle means by fellowship with God and Christ is such a Political Union as is between a Prince and his Subjects between Superiours and Inferiours in the same Society Now as you heard before if this profession be only external and visible without the conformity of our hearts and lives to the laws of Christ it gives us only an external fellowship or relation to God and Christ that is such men only appear to be in fellowship with Christ maintaining a visible fellowship with his Church when in truth they are perfect strangers to him such as Christ will not owne for his Disciples as the Apostle adds in Ver. 6. 7. If we say we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness we lye and do not the truth but if we walk in the light as God is in the light then have we fellowship one with another c. That is we abuse our selves if we hope that God will owne himself our Father and bestow the inheritance of Children on us while we live in sin but when we join the practice of real righteousness with the visible profession of Christianity then God will owne us for his Children and Christ for the true members of his body So that this fellowship with God and Christ is such a state and condition as we are put into by a visible profession and sincere practice of Christianity and that in short is that we are united to God as his Sons and Children and are united to Christ as his Disciples and members of his body which intitles us to the Inheritance of Children and all the blessings of the Gospel Thus in the 1 Cor. 1. 9. God is faithful by whom ye are called into the fellowship of his Son Iesus Christ our Lord where the fellowship of Christ can signifie no more than the fellowship of the Christian Church whereof Christ is Lord and Head and therefore the Apostle immediately adds in the next Verse Now I beseech you Brethren by the name of our Lord Iesus Christ for the honour and reputation of Christ and his Religion that you all speak the same thing that there be no divisions nor Schisms among you but that you be perfectly joyned together in the same mind and in the same judgment Where he argues from the nature of their Faith in Christ to the obligations of Peace and Unity which plainly evinces that this fellowship with Christ is that relation we stand in to him as Members of the Christian Church whereof he is Head And that the true notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render sometimes by Fellowship sometimes by Communion is as plain as we can wish in 2 Cor. 6. 14. where the Apostle disswades them from having any fellowship with Heathen Idolaters from eating of their Sacrifices c. Be ye not unequally yoked with unbelievers that is have no society with those men whose Religion is so contrary to yours that you will be as uneasie to each other as two Heifers in the same yoke which draw different ways For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what is there common between them which they both alike partake of as a foundation of union and concord What communion hath light with darkness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies the same thing what is there common to them both What concord hath Christ with Belial 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what consent and harmony of mind to unite them into one fellowship What part hath he that believeth with an unbeliever 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which seems to refer to those portions of Sacrifices which were distributed among them as a Symbol of their Union to each other and to the same God How can a Believer and Unbeliever a Christian and an Idolater have right to a part of the same Sacrifice What agreement hath the Temple of God with Idols 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what is there to unite them together in the same place to reconcile the Temple of God with the Worship of Idols All these expressions decypher to us the nature and foundation of fellowship the nature of it consists in the union of things which in rational Beings consists in mutual relations and common interests and the foundation of it is a likeness of nature and consent and harmony of wills and therefore the Apostle explains our fellowship with God by our being the Temple of God and that God dwells in us and walks in us Vers. 16. 18. Now because the Lords Supper is the only Act which the
out of the Earth which should make it appear to all Nations That they are the Seed whom the Lord hath blessed Vers. 9. And what hath this to do with the Imputation of Christs Personal Righteousness to us But it is time now to proceed to the New Testament for indeed we cannot reasonably expect that so great a Gospel Mystery as this of the Imputation of Christs Righteousness is should be so clearly discovered in the Old Testament where the Gospel was wrapt up in Types and Figures Now it is very observable that in all the Histories of the Gospel which give us an account of our Saviours Sermons and Parables whereby he instructed the people in all necessary Truths he makes no mention at all of the Imputation of his Righteousness to them but exacts from them a Righteousness of their own if they would find mercy with God now it is very strange if the Imputation of Christs Righteousness for our Iustification be the great Gospel Mystery and the only way to find favour with God that our Saviour in all his Sermons should not once mention this that he should not once warn his Hearers as the Gospel Preachers of our days do to beware of trusting to their own Righteousness or of expecting Salvation by their own Works but that instead of this he should so severely enjoyn them the practice of an Universal Righteousness as the only thing that pleases God and so severely threaten those who continue in any sin who break the least of his Commandments that they shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but shall be banished from the presence of God into outer darkness This I confess to me who am apt in the first place to admire our Saviours Sermons who was the first Author of our Religion before the Writings of the Apostles themselves though inspired men is a very great prejudice against such notions as are set up for the Fundamentals of Christianity without the belief of which we cannot be saved when there is not the least footsteps of them to be seen in the Gospel of our Saviour for did not our Saviour instruct his Hearers in all things necessary to Salvation Or have the Evangelists given us an imperfect account of our Saviours Doctrine and omitted so essential a part of it as the Imputation of his Righteousness Chuse which side you please and the consequence is very bad if the first then Christ was not faithful in the discharge of his Prophetical Office did not instruct his Hearers in all things necessary to Salvation if the latter you overthrow the Credit of the Gospel and by both destroy the Foundation of our Faith There were some things indeed which the Apostles themselves by reason of their Jewish prejudices could not understand while Christ was with them and therefore he reserved the more perfect Revelation of those Truths till the descent of the Holy Ghost as he tells his Disciples in Ioh. 16. 12 13. Such was that Doctrine of the Nature of his spiritual Kingdom which should commence with sufferings and death whereas they expected a Temporal Messias as the rest of the Jews did and the receiving the Gentiles into his Church which S. Peter himself did not understand till he was instructed by a Vision in Act. 10. which is so frequently in the Epistles called that Mystery which was hid from Ages but now the knowledge of these things was not absolutely necessary to eternal life and therefore the perfect revelation of them might be deferr'd till the most convenient season It was necessary indeed that the Apostles should understand the full extent of their Commission to preach the Gospel to all Nations Gentiles as well as Jews but it was not necessary to know this till they were sent to preach but we cannot imagine that our Saviour would neglect to acquaint them with the necessary terms and conditions of Salvation for his Sermons were to be the Rule of theirs and had the Apostles taught any thing as necessary to Salvation which our Saviour had not taught especially any thing that did so plainly contradict the Doctrine of our Saviour as this imputed Righteousness doth it would very much have weakned their credit with me for this had been to preach another Gospel than our Saviour did and we have S. Paul's command to reject such Preachers though they were Apostles or an Angel from Heaven Gal 1. 8 9. I do not speak this to evacuate the Authority of the Apostles or of their Writings for they do not make any thing necessary to Salvation but what Christ did nor contradict any thing which Christ hath taught But to awaken those men who take little notice of the Gospel of our Saviour while they fetch all their Mysterious Divinity out of some obscure passages of S. Pauls Epistles Though S. Peter long since told us That there were many things in them hard to be understood which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest as they do also the other Scripture to their own destruction 2 Pet. 3. 16. and yet if they can meet with any obscure Phrases which will serve their turn without considering how their sense agrees with the Gospel of our Saviour they make it the Foundation of their Faith and a standing Rule to expound the Doctrine of our Saviour and to measure the Orthodoxy of all Opinions whereas on the contrary this ought to be a sufficient reason to reject such Interpretations that the Gospel of our Saviour is perfectly silent in a matter pretended to be of such absolute necessity to Salvation Having premised this it is time now to consider those Texts of Scripture whereon they found this notion of the Imputation of Christs Righteousness And it is worth observing that in all the New Testament there is no such expression as the Righteousness of Christ or the Imputation of Christs Righteousness we there only find the Righteousness of God and the Righteousness of Faith and the Righteousness of God which is by the Faith of Iesus Christ which is very strange did the whole Mystery of the Gospel consist in the Imputation of Christs Righteousness that neither Christ nor his Apostles should once tell us so in express words But to consider particular places I shall begin with that Phrase of the Righteousness of God which sometimes signifies his Iustice Veracity or Goodness Rom. 3. 5. but most commonly in the New Testament it signifies that Righteousness which God approves and commands and which he will accept for the Iustification of a Sinner which is contained in the Terms of the Gospel Rom. 1. 17. For therein is the Righteousness of God revealed from Faith to Faith Thus it is called the Righteousness of God Matth. 6. 33. Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness which is the same with the Righteousness of his Kingdom now the Kingdom of God signifies the state of the Gospel and the Righteousness of God or of his Kingdom that Righteousness which the
Humane nature in Christ and that the Relation which this Righteousness of Christ hath to the Grace we receive from him is this that thereby he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fit to do all that he had to do for us for without this he could not have actually fulfilled that Righteousness which was required at his hand nor have been a compleat and perfect Sacrifice c. So that this habitual inherent Righteousness of Christ is not imputed to us but was his own proper Righteousness But secondly There is the actual obedience of Christ which was his willing chearful obediential performance of every thing duty and command that God by vertue of any Law whereto we were subject and obnoxious did require and moreover to the peculiar Law of the Mediator Let us then first consider the peculiar Law of the Mediator which he tells us respected himself meerly so that we have nothing to do with this neither and contains all those acts and duties of his which were not for our imitation he instances in his obedience which he showed in dying though St. Iohn the Divine and I think the greater of the two tells us that we must imitate him in this also must lay down our lives for the Brethren as Christ died for us Iohn 1. 3. 16. and S. Paul tells us that we must be conformed to the Death and Resurrection of Christ Rom. 6. which sounds very like an imitation though in the next page he excepts the Case of dying of his passive obedience and tells us that all the rest of his obedience to the Law of mediation is not imputed to us as though we had done it So that by the Law of Mediation he understands whatever Christ was bound to do as our Mediator whatever was proper to his Mediatory Office all this though sometimes when he better thinks of it he excepts dying is not imputed to us as though we had done it I hope we shall find something at last to be imputed to us and yet there is nothing left now But thirdly That which concerns him in a private capacity as a man subject to the Law and now whatever was required of us by vertue of any Law that he did and fulfilled and this is that actual obedience of Christ which he performed for us This methinks is very strange that what he did as Mediator is not imputed to us but what he did not as our Mediator but as a man subject to the law that is imputed to us and reckoned as if we had done it by reason of his being our Mediator and it is as strange to the full that Christ should do whatever was required of us by vertue of any law when he was neither Husband nor Wife nor Father Merchant or Tradesman Seaman or Souldier Captain or Lieutenant much less a temporal Prince or Monarch and how he should discharge the duties of these several relations for us which are required of us by certain Laws when he never was in any of these relations and could not possibly be in all is an argument which may exercise the subtilty of Schoolmen and to them I leave it Having now discovered what that Righteousness is which Christ was to fulfil for us as our Mediator viz. whatever was required of us by vertue of any law whether it concerned us in general as men or had respect to the various relations conditions and circumstances of our lives for each of these have their proper duties belonging to them setting aside that difficulty of proving that Christ did what he never did let us consider how the Dr. proves that what Christ did he did for us and in our stead and here he makes use of a little reason and a great deal of Scripture to as little purpose And to prepare the way for his reasons I find the Dr. much puzled and I do not wonder at it to prove that Christ acted as Mediator in those things which did not concern the law of his Mediation which he did as a private man subject to the law for he tells us that of this expression as Mediator there is a double sense It may be taken strictly as relating solely to the law of the Mediator and so Christ may be said to do as Mediator only what he did in obedience to that law that is only what he did as Mediator which is a pretty observation but in the sense now insisted on that is not strictly as Mediator but as not Mediator whatever Christ did as a man subject to the Law he did as Mediator because he did it as part of the duty incumbent on him who undertook so to be the meaning of which is that he who was Mediator being bound to do such things though not as Mediator but as a man subject to the law yet he did them as Mediator because he was a Mediator who did them which is just as good an argument as it would be to prove that every Embassadour eats and drinks and sleeps as an Embassadour because though this be no part of his Embassy yet he is an Embassadour who does it which is such an exposition of Quâ as the subtilest Schoolman of them all never yet thought of But there is another objection which troubles the Doctors Head for since it is the actual obedience of Christ which is imputed to us he finds it difficult to distinguish the Active and Passive obedience of Christ for every Act almost of Christs obedience from the blood of his Circumcision to the blood of his Cross was attended with sufferings so that his whole life in that regard might be called a death this is a very subtil objection but observe the answer that looking upon his willingness and obedience in it it may be distinguished from his sufferings peculiarly so called and termed his active obedience this is a strange solution of it for now it will be as hard to find out what the passive obedience of Christ was for as I remember the Scripture tells us that he was as willing and chearful in submitting to Death as in any other Act of obedience and I am sure our Saviour himself tells us that he laid down his life and no man took it from him which argues some good degree of willingness what he said in the page before is a much better answer that doing is one thing and suffering another they are in divers Predicaments and cannot be coincident As for this last scruple the Dr. might very well have spared it but that a man so well furnished with the knowledge of Predicaments may venture upon any thing but the former difficulty of Christs doing those things as Mediator which did not belong to the Laws of his Mediation is a very material one and requires great skill in Logick to get rid of it but however it is wisely done to make a show of saying something to that which cannot be answer'd for he was sensible that what Christ did purely
expression of Christs Love he instances in this Eph. 5. 25. Husbands love your Wives even as Christ also loved the Church and gave himself for it and when the same Apostle represents the constraining power of Christs love to captivate our affections and to engage us to live to him he argues from his love in dying for us 2 Cor. 5. 14 15. For the love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that if one died for all then were all dead and that he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which died for them and rose again and the most surprizing circumstance of all which gives a new luster to the love of Christ is that he died for us while we were Enemies Rom. 5. 6 7 8. For when we were yet without strength in due time Christ died for the ungodly for scarcely for a righteous man will one die yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die but God commendeth his love towards us that while we were yet Sinners Christ died for us But though this be the greatest it is not the only expression of Christs love herein indeed was the love of Christ perfected that he died for us but he expresses the same good will in all the methods of his Grace and Providence for Christ being our Lord and Master the most proper expression of his love to us is in an easie and gentle Government and a kind and watchful Providence not in such a fondness of passion as is sometimes seen among equals this I told you was exprest by those metaphors of his being a Shepherd a Husband a Head a Friend and our Saviour assures us that his yoke is easie and his burden light that he is a mild and gentle Governour meek and lowly in mind that he hath declared to us the secrets of Gods Counsel concerning our Salvation with the same freedom and plainness that a man useth to his friend henceforth I call you not Servants for the Servant knoweth not what his Lord doth but I have called you Friends for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you Iohn 15. 15. He pities our weakness and infirmities and is ready to help and succour us he is now ascended up into Heaven where he personally intercedes for us and with his own hand dispenses all those blessings to us which we want and pray for in his name he is a gracious and merciful High Priest who is touched with a feeling of our infirmities being in all things tempted like as we are yet without sin Hebr. 4. 15. And now it is no wonder if he who died and who intercedes for us take pleasure in good men and dwell with them as one friend dwells with another Iohn 14. 21. He that hath my Commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and will manifest my self unto him and in Ver. 23. If a man love me he will keep my words and my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him That is Christ will in a more peculiar manner be present with such good men who are careful in all things to obey him and will give very sensible demonstrations of his presence with them not that he will make any new revelations to them for he hath already revealed the whole mind and will of God in such a plain and familiar manner that every one may understand it who will but exercise the same reason in it that he does to understand the Laws of his Prince but yet when a Soul is transformed into the likeness and image of Christ it many times feels such strong and vigorous motions to that which is good and such great and ravishing delights in all the acts of Religion as infinitely excel all the pleasures of sense and are a plain demonstration of a more peculiar presence of God in such a Soul these divine joys are by the Psalmist compared to the Feasts upon Sacrifices Psalm 36. 8 They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy House and thou shall make them drink of the Rivers of thâ— pleasures that is they shall relish aâ— great pleasure and satisfaction in thâ— sense of thy goodness and in paying their just praises and acknowledgment to thee as those do who Feast upon thâ— Sacrifices which are offered in the Temple for it is very reasonable to think that a Soul which is made one with God by a participation of his nature should feel such divine impressions from God as may both quicken its motions and sweeten its work there is a secret sympathy between things which are alike two unisons will move when either of them is toucht and two Souls which are of the same make and united by a strong and intimate friendship do many times feel each others passions at a distance by a secret and unaccountable power of nature and can we think then but that a Soul which heartily loves God and passionately breaths after a greater likeness to him and fuller enjoyment of him must needs sometimes feel such divine touches and impressions as are the effects if I may so speak of a mutual love and sympathy of natures some such thing our Saviour hath promised and good men experience not in equal degrees indeed nor equally at all times but in proportion to their attainments in true Piety and vertue and to the present frame and disposition of their own minds This is a short and true account of the love of Christ which deserves forever to be admired and adored and it must needs be a very hearty trouble to all good men to see so great and so generous a love so miserably abused and misrepresented by childish and romantick descriptions too many there are who cloath our Saviour with all the passions and follies of mortal men and think they honour him very much the more extravagant they make him in his love It were easie to expatiate in this argument and to give such a character of the love of Christ as I believe these very men will think prophane when they find it in any Books but their own and possibly it might do good service to Religion and tend much to the honour of our Lord and Master to put them out of conceit with it but I fear the Reader would think me prophane in doing it though in their own words and therefore I shall chuse rather only to take notice of two things which these men much insist on in their discourses of the love of Christ and so dismiss them First then the love of Christ is a love to the Person of a Believer without considering any other qualifications than that he is such an individual Person that is the excellency of Christs love consists in this that he loves for no reason now I confess
this is a wonderful love but wherein the excellency of it consists I cannot see I am sure we account that man a Fool who loves at this rate we who are reasonable Creatures think that we are bound to govern all our actions and the passions of our mind too by reason and we account it a reproach to a man to act either against reason or without it to do any thing of which he cannot give a reasonable account and how that should come to be the perfection of the love of God which is a reproach to men is above my apprehension Indeed were this true it would undermine the very foundations of Religion for the great end of Religion is to please God and to procure his love and favour but if God and Christ love for no reason then it is a vain thing for us to think of pleasing God or procuring his love by any thing we can do whether we obey him or disobey him it is all one as to this Case for if he please to love us without any reason our sins cannot hinder it and if it does not please him to love us our Holiness and Obedience cannot alter him when our acceptation with God depends wholly upon a Soveraign and unaccountable will nothing we can do can either hinder or promote it and therefore all Religion is in vain The foundation of this mistake is a Philosophical nicety that God must act wholly from himself and therefore must not be moved by any external cause whereas should he love us because we are holy and obedient to him or hate us because we are wicked his love and hatred would depend upon an external cause viz. the holiness or wickedness of Creatures which unbecomes an Independant being to depend upon any thing else the sum of which reasoning is this that because God is the first cause of all things on whom all other things depend and he on nothing therefore he must love and hate his Creatures without any reason but his own unaccountable will for this is all the inconvenience they can object that when God loves or hates rewards or punishes his Creatures the reason of this difference he makes between his Creatures must be fetcht from the persons themselves whom he thus loves or hates and so it must of necessity be if he have any reason at all for the reason of love or hatred ought to be in the object not in the person who loves or hates and yet in propriety of speech God cannot be said to depend on his Creatures or any thing without himself for the reason of his love or hatred but his own nature is the reason of it he is infinitely holy and therefore loves holiness and hates sin and his natural love to holiness is the reason why he loves holy men and his natural hatred to sin is the reason why he hates wicked men his own holiness is the reason why he loves holy men but the holiness of a Creature is the reason why he determines his love to any particular person and if they will call this a depending on Creatures we must acknowledge that God does thus depend on his Creatures in the administration of his Providence in the distributions of rewards and punishments and he should not be wise and holy and just and good if he did not that is if he did not put such a difference between things and persons as their natures require It is a strange notion of an Independant Being that he must have no other reason for what he does but his own arbitrary will which is so far from being a perfection that it destroys all the other perfections of the divine nature Secondly These men tell us too that the love of Christ is immutable that having once fixt his love upon us though without any reason he can never alter that sin it self cannot separate us from the love of Christ as there was nothing in us that was the ground of his planting his love on us so there is nothing that shall be able to overturn the thoughts of his love when once they are fixt on us though this is no certain demonstration for he who loves for no reason may give over loving for none if sin fore-seen were not able to hinder him from planting his heart on us how then shall it that is sin committed be able to overturn the thoughts of his heart when once they are fixed on us this is a strong and fixed love indeed which sin it self cannot alter but how wise and holy a love it is let any man judg herein Dr. Owen tells us the depth of Christs love is to be contemplated that whereas his holy Soul hates every sin it is a burden an abomination a new wound to him and his poor Spouse that is sinful Believers are full of sin failings infirmities he hides all covers all bears with all rather than he will loose them He adds indeed by his power preserving them from such sins as a remedy is not provided for in the Covenant of grace I suppose he means the sin against the Holy Ghost for there is a remedy provided for all other sins in the Covenant of Grace and all other sins a Believer it seems may be guilty of and Christ will hide all cover all rather than lose him now this is as down right Antinomianism as ever Dr. Crisp or Saltmarsh vented There have been and are to this day a great many wise and learned men who contend earnestly for the perseverance of the Saints that those who are once in a state of Grace shall always continue so but then they found this not on such an immutable love as sin it self cannot alter for this is not reconcileable with the holiness of the divine nature nor with those threatnings in the Scripture against such back-sliders when the righteous man turneth away from his righteousness and committeth iniquity and doth according to all the abominations that a wicked man doth shall he live all the righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned in his trespass that he hath trespassed and in his sin that he hath sinned in them shall he die Ezek. 18. 24. And if any man turn back my Soul shall have no pleasure in him which is a plain demonstration the truth of which is acknowledged by all sober Writers that if such men can be supposed to relapse into a sinful state God also will cease to love them and therefore they found the immutability of Gods love to them on their perseverance in doing good God loves all good men but if they cease to be good he also must cease to love and herein the immutability and unchangeableness of Gods love consists not that he always loves the same Person but that he always loves for the same Reason for it is no perfection to be so fixt in our kindness that where we love once we will always love whatever reason there may be to alter our affection for
by this means we may love undeserving objects which is the greatest degeneracy of love but the perfection of love consists in loving deserving objects and in loving upon honourable reasons and the immutability of love consists in loving always for the same reason which is the only foundation of a vertuous immutability The reason of Christs love to any Person is his Holiness and Obedience if any man love me he will keep my words and my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him Iohn 14. 23. and the unchangeableness of his love is seen in this that he will continue to love while we continue to obey him if ye shall keep my Commandments that is continue to do so ye shall abide in my love I will continue to love you as I have kept my Fathers Commandments and abide in his love Iohn 15. 10. This is the immutability of the divine nature that God always acts upon steddy and constant principles that whatever changes there are in the World which may occasion very different administrations in his providence yet he is the same still and never changes whereas should God always love the same Person however he changed and alter'd God must change and alter too because though he still loves the same Person yet he must love for different or contrary reasons or for none at all and that is the much greater change of the two to alter the reason than the object of love if God love a good man because he is good and continue to love him when he is wicked his love is a mutable thing which can love goodness or wickedness which can love for none or for contrary reasons but if God always love true goodness and good men and never loves any other whatever change there be in Creatures God is the same still and unchangeable in his love Thus you see while these men pretend to admire and magnifie the love of God and Christ they make it a despicable and worthless thing such as a wise man would be ashamed of and such as a good man cannot be guilty of to love for no reason and to continue to love contrary to reason And as this is a great reproach to God and to our Saviour so is it a great injury to men too for it must of necessity make them careless of pleasing God and secure in their sins when they are perswaded that sin cannot hinder God from loving them nor alter his love towards them that if ever he love them it is for no reason but because he will and when once he is resolved upon it the immutability of his nature makes it necessary for him to continue to love that now sin it self cannot separate us from the love of God if this were true the worst man living would have as much reason to be secure of Gods love as the best men have nay if the depth and mystery and glory of the love of Christ consists in loving for no reason or contrary to reason the worse men are the fitter objects are they of the love of Christ. SECT II. Concerning the Believers love to Christ. HAving showed you wherein the Love of Christ consists I shall now consider what are those returns of love which we owe to our Lord and Saviour I take it for granted that all men who believe that Christ came into the World to save Sinners are of the Apostles mind if any man love not the Lord Iesus let him be Anathema Maranatha the only dispute is how we are to express our love to Christ now love primarily signifies the inward affection of the mind but is made visible by outward actions as for the affection of the mind we must consider that Christ is our Superiour our Lord and Master and therefore our love to Christ ought not to express it self in a fond and familiar passion such as we have for our friends and equals but in a great reverence and devotion Superiours must be treated with honour and respect which requires that we keep our distance and therefore our love to our Parents and Superiours is called honour in the fifth Commandment Honour thy Father and thy Mother and the same religious affection to God which is sometimes called love is at other times called fear which signifies a reverential love or a love of honour and reverence and devotion which includes a great delight in the thoughts of God a devout sense of his greatness and Majesty a great admiration of his Excellencies and perfections a religious awe and reverence for him and all those affections of the Soul which are expressive of love and honour As for the external expressions of our love they are as various as the expressions of honour are and herein we must have a peculiar regard to the nature and condition of the Person and that relation we stand in to him thus Christ being the only begotten Son of God we must have regard to the greatness and excellency of his Person that our returns may bear some proportion to it Christ having condescended to come into the World in our nature to suffer and die for us it becomes us to admire his love and goodness to extol and praise him to celebrate the memorials of his Death and Passion in that holy Feast which he hath on purpose instituted to be a thankful remembrance of our Crucified Lord since he is our Mediator and Advocate the truest expression of our love and honour is to confide and trust in him to depend on his intercession for us to offer up all our Prayers to God in his name and to expect an answer to our Prayers for his sake and when we consider him as our Prophet and Law-giver we must express our love to him in a stedfast belief of his Gospel and in a sincere and hearty obedience to all his Laws love to equals who have no authority over each other but what love gives them makes them very flexible and obsequious to each others desires and requests but our love to Superiours to our Prince or Parents includes obedience in its own nature and therefore this our Saviour makes the principal tryal of our love to him if you love me keep my Commandments and he that hath my Commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me but he that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings you are my friends if you do whatsoever I command you Joh. 14. 15. 23 24. and in Chap. 15. vers 14. for there cannot be a more proper expression of our love and honour to a Law-giver than to obey his Laws And when we consider our Saviour as our Guide and Example the truest expression of our love and honour is to imitate him to live as he lived in the World For there is nothing more natural than to imitate what we love and reverence which is the plainest demonstration of the greatest honour in that we think it our perfection and happiness
unless we become one person with him and therefore though the Doctor be so careful to tell us that our Union to Christ is an Union of Persons but no Personal Union that we are not transformed into the Essence and Being of Christ so as to be Christed with Christ yet indeed there is no other way to make the Personal Righteousness of Christ our personal righteousness which is the righteousness required of us but by a Personal Union to Christ by being Christed with Christ as some speak how boldly soever yet very agreeably to these Principles But Thirdly Let us consider what truth there is in what he asserts That in the Law the debtor and the surety are but one person the Law looks upon them but as one and therefore both are equally liable to the debt and if the one pay it it is as much in the eye of the Law as if the other had paid it which he makes the Foundation of the Imputation of Christs Righteousness and Satisfaction to us because he being our surety we are but one person with him that is legally not personally one person as he warily distinguishes Now there needs no great skill in the Law to discover the weakness and Sophistry of this Discourse for no considering man can think it indifferent who pays the debt the surety or the debtor or that they are both equally obliged to it the debtor is the immediate debtor still and the surety only is obliged in case the other refuse or be unable to pay the debt and that is some little difference but then though the creditor be satisfied whether the debt be paid by the debtor or his surety and the Law will allow him no farther Action against either of them yet the Law doth not account it indifferent which of them pay it for though it permit the payment to be exacted from the surety in case the debtor refuse yet it will look back again and allow the surety an Action against the debtor for such a refusal which is an Argument that the Law doth not judge them one Person nor think it indifferent which of them pays the debt Thus it is in other cases if a man be surety for the appearance of another which is called giving Bail and is sometimes admitted in Criminal Causes the Law doth not judge them one Person for if the Prisoner escape the Bail or Surety shall be punisht according to the nature of the Fact and yet the Prisoner is not quitted by this means but liable either to the Arrest of the Surety or in Criminal Causes to the Sentence of the Law if ever he be re-taken Thus in Sureties for good Behaviour which sounds as if it were nearest of kin to the Imputation of Christs Righteousness as our surety though the surety be never so innocent and vertuous a person himself this will not serve him for whom he is surety but if he prove a Villain they shall be both punisht So that humane Laws are strangers to this Mystery of imputing the Righteousness of a Surety to a bad man Suretiship doth not so unite their persons that whatever one doth is always and to all purposes imputed to the other and if this will not hold good among mâ—n it is a very sorry foundation for this bargain and exchange betwixt Christ and Believers That he should take their sins upon himself and impute his Righteousness to them Let us now try whether the notion of a Mediator can do any better service than the notion of a Surety which is the second way of explaining this legal Union betwixt Christ and Believers which entitles them to all that Christ hath done or suffered and what this means we may learn from Dr. Owen who gives us this account of it That Christ fulfilled all Righteousness as he was Mediator and that whatever he did as Mediator he did it for them whose Mediator he was or in whose stead and for whose good he executed the office of a Mediator before God and hence it is that his compleat and perfect obedience to the Law is reckoned to us This is well said if it were as well proved and because this is a matter of great consequence I shall first examine those reasons the Dr. alledges to prove That Christ fulfilled all Righteousness as he was Mediator in their stead whose Mediator he was Secondly to avoid calumnies and objections I shall shew you briefly what influence the Righteoeusness of Christs life and the Sacrifice of his death have upon our acceptance with God As for the first we have some reason to require good proof of this since the notion of a Mediator includes no such thing A Mediator is one who interposes between two differing parties to accommodate the difference but it was never heard of yet that it was the office of a Mediator to perform the terms and conditions himself Moses was the Mediator of the first Covenant Gal. 3. 9. and his office was to receive the Law from God and to deliver it to the people and to command them to observe those Rites and Sacrifices and Expiations which God had ordained but he was not to fulfil the Righteousness of the Law for the whole Congregation thus Christ is now the Mediator of a better Covenant and his Office required that he should preach the Gospel which contains the terms of peace and reconciliation between God and men and since God would not enter into Covenant with sinners without the intervention of a Sacrifice he dyes too as a Sacrifice and Propitiation for the sins of the world and confirms and seals this new Covenant with his own blood and being risen again from the dead he executes this Office of Mediator with power and glory that is he intercedes for us according to the terms and conditions of this new Covenant to obtain the pardon of our sins and the assistance of the divine Grace to do the will of God and all those other blessings which are promised but the Office of Mediator doth not oblige him to fulfil the Righteousness of the Covenant for us this I am sure doth not so exactly fall in with the case and notion of Mediatorship among men But before we examine their proofs it is necessary to consider what it is they would prove that is what that Righteousness is which they say Christ as our Mediator fulfilled for us and Dr. Owen is very exact and curious in stating this matter and distinguishes between the several sorts of Righteousness in Christ that we may know what belongs to us and what is peculiar to himself First he tells us of an habitual Righteousness of Christ as Mediator in his humane Nature which was the absolute compleat exact conformity of the Soul of Christ to the mind will or law of God or his perfect habitual Inherent Righteousness now he tells us that this Righteousness was the necessary effect of the Grace of Union that is of the Union of the Divine and