express and explicite Authority of God upon it For whosoever explicitely reveal's the thing defined reveals in effect all those things which we have enumerated concerning it While the Scripture for example assureth us that Christ is a man it doth at the same time assure us that he is a Rational Creature and by telling us that he is a man it doth in effect tell us that he is not an Angel And however some late Papists talk in this Matter not to speak of others that they may shift the Protestant Arguments which they cannot Answer Yet I am sure the most learned that ever espoused the Romane Cause are at an agreement with us in this point That is an Article of Faith says Bellarmine which God hath either revealed by the Prophets and Apostles or which may be evidently inferred from thence Smiglesius against Mascorovius proclaims it ridiculous to think otherwise That is not only a part of the Christian Doctrine which is expressly revealed by the Apostles but whatsoever can be evidently deduced thence though one of the propositions going to the deducement of it have its certainty only in Natural Light saith Canus And whereas they say that Conclusio sequitur debiliorem partem the Conclusion receives it specification and is denominated from the weakest proposition I reply 1 Were that Logical Maxime to be taken in the universal Latitude which they affix to it they are yet so far from gaining any thing thereby that their whole Cause in this Matter is supplanted For if both Propositions be evidently true their Dogm's must be evidently false seeing the Conclusions that lye in repugnancy to them are our Enemies being Judges deduced from true propositions God is as much the Author of the Rational Faculty in its Regular Exercise as of Scripture and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be persuaded by God and to be persuaded by Right Reason is one and the same thing 2. That proposition in a Philosophical sense is the weakest which is remotest from self evidence and therefore where there are two premisses whereof the one hath no other Evidence but what it borrows from the Authority of the Infallible Revealer the other in the mean time havâ—ng â—ts Evidence from a light residing in it self and from its Congruity to the Essential Rectitude of our Intellectual Faculties if the Conclusion follow the fortune of the weaker proposition it must be a Conclusion of Faith and not of Science For though the Certitude of Faith be not only equal but transcendent to the Certitude of Reason Sense and Experience 2 Pet. 1.16 17 18 19. Yet the Evidence of Reason and Sense is with respect to the Object assented to the habitude it stands in to us beyond the Evidence of Faith 2 Cor. 5. â— 1 1 Cor. 13.12 Nor do the School men only allow a proposition grounded on an Axiome of Reason to be more evident than a proposition founded only on Revelation but withal not a few of the Learned'st Romanists both School-men and others will have the former to be also more Certain at least quo ad nos than the latter See Bellarm lib. 3. de justifiâ— cap. 2. Durand in 3. d. 23. quest 7. Compt. Tom. poster disp 9. 3. The forementioned Logical Axiome referrs only to the Quantity and Quality of the premisses and not to any other affections incident to them If one of the Premisses be Negative the Conclusion in the virtue of the alledged Maxâ—me must be Negative also or if one of the propositions be a particular nothing beyond a particular can be concluded though the other be an Universal And howsoever in some cases it may hold further yet this and no more was the intendment of the first establishers of it Nor indeed is it admittable in the full Latitude which the Terms seem to bear seeing of two propositions whereof the one only is true there may follow sometimes a Conclusion that is true though the other proposition be in the mean time palpably false But ere I undertake the probation of the thing it self two or three things must be necessarily premised 1. That all Fundamental Articles are contained 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in so many letters and syllables in the Scripture Nor is there any thing necessary in order to our assent to them but that we understand the Terms of the Enunciations in which they are delivered 'T is true there are Terms and Phrases made use of to declare them unto the edification of Believers to secure the Minds of men from undue apprehensions of them that are not in the Scripture but this is no more than what is needful in the explaining of all Divine Truths yea all Moral Duties For example That there is One God and that the Father is this one God and that the Son is so also and the Holy Ghost likewise is declared in many express Testimonies in the Bible but in the Explication of this Doctrine and in the application of it to the Faith and Edification of Believers namely how God is One in respect of his Nature and Essence how being Father Son and Holy Ghost He subsists in these three distinct Persons what are their mutual respects to each other and what are the incommunicable Properties in the manner of their subsistence by which they are distinguished the One from the other there are such woâ—ds and phrases made use of as are not literally and syllabically contained in the Scripture but teach no other thing but what is there revealed 2. That these very Fundamental Articles may be also confirmed by consequences and logical deductions from express literal Testimonies nor do probations of this nature alter or enervate the quality of them The thing is in it self the same though the method of proof be varied For example the Doctrine of the Trinity is equally a Fundamental whether we prove it from express Texts or by consequences from literal Testimonies or by its connexion with the whole Systeme of the Gospel the Incarnation of the Son of God the Oeconomy of Redemption c. 3. That though all Fundamentals be in Terminis expressed in the Scripture that yet these very Truths do include others in them which cannot be proved but by Consequences For instance That God is a Spâ—rit is revealed in so many letters and syllables in the Bible but that therefore he hath not hands nor feet nor any corporeal members can only be concluded by way of Consequence In lâ—ke manner the Incarnation of the Son of God that the Word was made Flesh is expresly taught in the Scripture but yet there are many things predicable of the Word Incarnate which cannot be otherwise demonstrated but by Consequences and by borrowing some proposition or other from principles of Natural light Now these things being premised the lawfulness of arguing from express Scripture-Truths by deduction of Conclusions which though they be not mentioned in the Bible in letters and syllables are
can any one else understand it that I know of only I wonder why then it is imputed to us as a Crime That we are not satisfied that Christ and Believers are United unless their Persons be United too But as Mr. Sherlocks Book is pregnant with Contradictions so perhaps he hath found out an Art of justifying the Truth of Repugnant Propositions And though hereby he subvert the Foundations of Science and thwart the Universal Reason of Mankind yet I will not say that he is herein singular For besides those mentioned by Aristotle who maintain'd that one and the same thing might at the same time be and not be and besides that Burgersdicius Schulerus and some others have fancied a Medium betwixt Ens and Non ens There is a certain Carmelite stiled Franciscus Bonae Spei who will have both the parts of a contradiction if it be only in reference to matters of Faith to be susceptive of Truth And indeed if our Author be not acquainted with him 't is pitty but that he should as well upon the account already mentioned as divers others I could suggest particularly because he will find him a man of confidence hugely addicted to novelty one who loves to be invalidating the Evidences which the prime Articles of Faith are built upon § 7. Having established this General viz. that 't is the Person of Christ to which we are United the next enquiry is concerning the Nature quality and manner of the Union of Christians to him And it being here as in most cases which relate not simply to the Existence of things but to the Modes how they exist easier to refute false notions than to establish true I shall therefore observe the Method of declaring First what it is not wherein if I prove successfull I shall either obtain further light to the defining what it is or else manifest the unnecessariness of determining positively about it First then it consists not meerly in Christ's assuming our Nature A specifical oneness there is betwixt Him and us upon that account but all Mankind being equally thus related to him it cannot import the whole of that special Oneness which intercedes between him sincere Christians Now when I say that Christ did partake of our Nature I do not mean that he possessed the Individual Nature of this or that Man much less that he assumed any Universal Nature that is Identically the same in all and every Man for that as Damascenus says would not have been assumptio but fictio but what I aim at is this that as man consists of two essential constituent parts a Rational Soul and a Body thus and thus Organized so the son of God assumed both a Reasonable Soul and a true Organical Body fram'd and made of the substance of the Virgin who was lineally sprung from Adam the first and common original of all Mankind So that there is an oneness of Similitude which is all that intervenes amongst men between Christ and us but as for an Oneness of Identity it imply's a contradiction and should any assert it they are to be reckoned for obtruders of repugnancies under the pretence of sacred Mysteries upon the Faith of Mankind The Son of God through the designation and Authoritative disposal of the Father by the Immediate Efficiency of the Holy Ghost having assumed our intire Nature into Union with his Divine Person became thereby related to us in a cognation and alliance which he is not to the Angels And upon this affinity doth the whole of his Mediatory Interposure and our Interest in what he hath done and suffered bear God in order to the reconciling Man to himself by the obedience and Sacrifice of a Mediatour did first espouse our Nature to the Person of his So that was to be so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greg. Nyss. i. contra Eun. Hereby he became adapted to his Office and qualified for his Work Without this conjunction by the espousing our Nature he could neither have been a Priest ordained for men Heb. 5.1 Nor have atoned God by the Oblation of himself as an expiatory Sacrifice Heb. 8.3 Heb. 10.5 6 7 8 9 10. He behoved to partake of the Humane Nature in common with men before he could either be capable of the Sacerdotal Office wherein he was to act for men with and towards God or before he could be provided of a Sacrifice to offer His agreement with us in one common Nature is the basis of all his fitness to undertake on our behalf of the equity of the accruement of the benefits derived to us thereby 'T is this cognation alliance and propinquity of Nature that qualified Christ to be our Surrogate and to have our sins imputed to Him and which gives us our first capacity of having the Obedience of his Life and Sacrifice of his death either formally or in the effects of them imputed to us Precluding this God could not in consistency with his Wisedom Holiness Justice and Truth have exalted the glory of his Mercy in our Justification and Forgiveness nor could the Son of God have been Inaugurated unto the Mediatory Kingdome or had a right to those Dignities Priviledges and Honours which emerge and result from thence Now although upon the assuming our Nature into Union with the Person of the Son of God the Essences Properties and Operations of both Natures be preserved distinct and entire being united as the Ancients speak 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without confusion conversion division or separation Yet through that conjunction which they are brought into Christ becomes as it were a Compositum of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Humane Nature And accordingly the Ancients style the Person of Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 say the Fathers of the Second Constantinopolitan Council Maximus the Martyr doth not scruple the calling the Divine and Humane Natures parts of which Christ consists 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And as our Nature is highly dignified and exalted by its being taken into Union with the Second Person of the Trinity so a certain Relation of Oneness results thereupon between Christ and us The Apostle himself Heb. 2.11 say's that we are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of one i. e. as I suppose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of one Blood or partakers of the same common Nature which is the foundation of that Alliance of Brother-hood he speaks of in the next Words And so the 14. v. which seems to be exegetical of this plainly carrie's it forasmuch then as the Children are partakers of flesh and Blood he also himself likewise took part of the same The Ancients as well as Moderns style this a Natural Union And indeed Christ thus is so far one with us as the participating of the same com-Nature amounts to He is both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of one and the same Mass of Humane Nature with us and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of one and the same Blood being sprung from one and the same
be rendred more easie and familiar for our minds to contemplate and that our Faith concerning them may be promoted and assisted by their being represented to us under obvious and sensible Images We have also elsewhere intimated that where the Terms are Metaphorick yet the Truths intended and expressed by them are Real And as to that which we are now upon 't is highly remarkable that there being no one kind of Union in Nature which serveth fully to illustrate the Union betwixt Christ and Christians that therefore the Holy Ghost hath sought to enlighten it by Similitudes and Resemblances transferred and borrowed from all sorts of Unions For as Chrysostom well observes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ Unites us to himself by many paterns And it is worth taking notice of that having given us a List and Collection of some of them he shuts up the whole with this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all these things declare an Union between Christ Believers such an one as will not admit the least thing to come between them Had our Oneness with Christ been only represented by the Relation between a Shepherd and Sheep the Conjunction between a Husband Wife or the habitude between a Prince and his Subjects there might have been some probability in Mr. Sherlocks Notion but being also represented by resemblances drawn from Natural and Artificial Union as the Insition of branches into their root the copulation of Members to their Vital Head the incorporation of concocted Food with our pre-existent Flesh the cohesion of a building by a strong cement to its Foundation and the confederation of the Vital Soul with the Organick Body There must be a sublimer kind of Union between Christ and Christians than meerly what a Political Relation doth import Christ is the Vine we are the Branches He is the Vital Head we the enlivened Members He is the Living Foundation Stone to whom we as lively Stones are cemented I may confidently say that there is not any Analogy between what is originally signified by these Metaphors and the thing aimed at and designed by them if only a Political Relation between Christ and Christians is to be understood The Gospel-Method and Form is the most obscure and improper way in the World of teaching the Truth of things if all these Tropical phrases imply no more but that Christians acknowledg Christ for their Legislator and obey him as their Soveraign Grand expressions and magnificent Terms in Subjects that require Low are an argument of no great discretion in a common Author And to imagine that in the Scripture petty things should be declared in Forms that are august lofty and Emphatical is to think diminutively of the divine Wisdom In a word if there be no more intended under all those Symbolick expressions which we have mentioned but that Believers own the Authority of Jesus Christ by believing his Doctrines and submitting to his Laws then we wonderfully expose the Gospel to contempt by telling the World that under a grandeur of words and Hyperbolical expressions things of a mean and low sense are to be apprehended and conceived I shall only urge this from two other Pattern Unions to which the Scripture in the shadowing forth and illustrating the Oneness between Christ and Christians signally alludes The first of these Symbolical Unions is that of the association and adhesion of the component particles corpuscles of Meal of which a Loaf is kneaded and compacted For as the Apostle says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Seeing 't is one Loaf of which we partake we are therefore one Body viz. in Christ who participate of that one Loaf 1 Cor. 10.17 Picherellus well observes that Paul doth not say we are One Loaf or Bread though our Translation render it so but that he argues from the coalition of the clusters of the small corpuscles of Meal of which a Loaf is kneaded and contexed to the identity and Oneness that intervenes between Christ and Believers And accordingly Beza translates it As the Loaf of which we all eat is one so we partaking of that One Loaf although we be many are but One Body to Christ. Thus also Chrysostom paraphraseth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. What is that Loaf It is the Body of Christ viz. Sacramentally what are those who partake of it They are the Body of Christ not many Bodies but One. For as the many grains of which a Loaf is form'd are so conven'd into one Mass that the distinction and diversity of one from another doth not appear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the same manner are we conjoyned to Christ and one another in 1 Cor. Hom. 24. The cohesion of the many little parts of Flour of which one and the same Individual Loaf is kneaded and compacted being that which the Apostle declares and illustrates our conjunction with Christ by it plainly follows that our Conjunction to him must be of another kind than what a bare Political Relation doth import The second Pattern Union I shall at present argue from is the Oneness betwixt the Father and Son in the blessed Trinity At that day ye shall know saith Christ to his Disciples that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you Joh 1.14 20. I pray that they all be One as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be One in us c. Joh. 17.21 I readily grant that 't is not an Oneness of Essence betwixt Christ and Christians an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Weigelians wildly and blasphemously imagine that is here to be understood Nor doth the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 always signifie sameness but is often used to denote similitude and likeness as Matth. 9.48 Luk. 6.36 But yet upon the other hand I deny that 't is meerly an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or an Oneness of Will and affection between the Father and Son as the Arians and Socinians pretend that is here meant Nor indeed can there be an Oneness of Will and an universal Consent and Agreement in Design and Affections where there is not previously either a Specifick or a Numerical Oneness of Nature An attendance to other Texts such as Joh. 10.30 Joh. 14. 9 10. 1 Joh. 5.9 where the same phrases occurr will best resolve us what kind of Oneness between the Father and Son we are here to understand And certainly unless we will betray the Gospel and the Faith of Christians into the hands of their worst Enemies 't is an Essential Unity that is there meant Now though we plead not for the same kind of Oneness between Christ and Believers as is between the Father and Son yet we affirm that somthing more sublime than barely a Political Relation between Him and Them is adumbrated and shadowed forth to us 'T is not a sameness of Union between Christ and Christians with that betwixt the Father and Son which the Holy Ghost intends by
explain things which lye at a vaster distance from it and to which it bears less proportion If neither the Nature of God or of our Souls or of Matter of whose Existence we have the most scientifick evidence are to be comprehended by our narrow and shallow Intellects why may we not justifie the belief of such things of whose Truth and reality the Scripture instructs us though we cannot conceive the manner how they are or indeed how they can be And if men will not be talk'd and huff'd out of the persuasion of those things of whose Existence their Senses and Reasons ascertain them though they cannot answer all the difficulties they are accosted with in their enquiries about them much less will Christians be Hector'd out of the belief of the Doctrines of Faith because of the Entanglements which attend the conception of them 'T is the Nature of Faith to embrace things upon the alone Testimony of God though it understand nothing of the Mode and Manner how they are The highest assurance of the reality of any thing is Gods affirming it and what he asserts we are with all reverence to assent to its Truth though we can frame no adequate Idea of it nor fathom it in our conceptions To bring down the Doctrines of Religion to the Model of Reason is wholly to overthrow belief and to pay no more respect to the Authority and Testimony of God than we would to that of a Worm like our selves If there were no obscurity and difficulties in the Notions of Gospel-Truths where would our submission and Humility be which are the qualifications that do most recommend us to God and upon this account especially because they prepare the Mind for Faith and give check to all bold and curious enquiries 'T is enough that we can by rational proofs demonstrate the Bible to be the Word of that God whose Veracity is proportionate to his Sapience and both of them infinite nor is it needful that its Doctrines should further adjust themselves to our Understandings And indeed as to the Doctrine we have been discoursing not only the Apostle styles it a great Mystery but Christ himself seems to adjâ—rn the perfect knowledg of it till the glorified state At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father and you in in me and I in you Joh. 14.20 Yet seeing the Holy Ghost hath been pleased not only to assert an Intimate Union between Christ and Believers but hath condescended to illustrate it by so many similitudes and seeing many things that are Mysterious and unsearchable till God reveal them are afterwards of no difficult conception providing we regulate our apprehensions of them by the Word I shall therefore having arraign'd and overthrown the false Notions of this Spiritual Union venture to assign a true and I hope also an Intelligible Notion of it Now this I shall attempt by these several steps and degrees 1st The highest and closest Union is between those things that are actuated by one Spirit dwelling and moving in them Adhesion of parts is not so noble an Union as information by one and the same Spirit If the vegetative juice be precluded admission into any branch it is no longer in a proper sense United to the Root notwithstanding its Physical continuity to the other Branches When the Animal spirits forsake any Member in the Organick Body it is immediately as if it were not knit to the Head though it remain not only connected to the adjoyning parts by Muscles and Sinews but ligu'd to the Acropolis by Nerves and Arteries The strictest and most proper Union is that which emergeth from actuation by the same spirit 'T is this that renders the inferior Members as much coherent with the Head as the superior are because they are all acted by the same Animal spirits which as they are prepared in the Brain so they have their flux thence to all the Regions of the Body and their reflux back thither again Thus the soul though she keep her residence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is really joyned to all the Body because of the commerce that is between the Head where her Imperial Court is and the rest of the Members through the ministry of the Animal spirits 2dly Things at the greatest distance and between which there is no physical continuity may be acted by the same Spirit providing he be immense and infinite That Spirit who through the Infinite perfection of his Essence is every where may both inhabite and produce similar operations in those subjects that are locally distant the one from the other Though a Finite spirit cannot at the same time influence and act distinct and distant Subjects if there be not either a continuity or a contiguousness between them yet an Infinite Spirit may 3dly 'T is Christ as Mediator that Believers are United to The Mystical Union is between Him and Believers as he is a Middle Person between Them and his Father Our Moral Union with the Father in way of complacential love is through our Spiritual Union with the Son by the renovation of the Holy Ghost 4. The Holy Ghost did in a singular manner operate upon and reside in the Humane Nature of Christ. Though Christ was Holy by Essence in respect of his Divine Nature yet he was Holy by Consecration and Unction with the Spirit in respect of his Humane Though it was only the Son that did assume our Nature into subsistence with himself yet it was the Spirit that positively adorned and furnished that Nature with Grace 'T is true it is not of easie apprehension how the operation of the Holy Ghost should interpose in the same person between the one Nature and the other but it is as true that we have it plainly affirmed in the Scripture which is the highest assurance we can have of any thing 'T is one of the deep things of God which we ought to submit to with an humble Faith and not to enquire after it with a presumptuous boldness The Testimonies to this purpose are many but I shall only refer the Reader to two or three viz. Isa. 11.1 3. Joh. 3.34 Luk. 4.1 5thly The Holy Ghost is the Immediate Renewer and Sanctifier of the Elect. All the saving Illumination all the Gospel conviction all the Vital quickening all the Regenerating Virtue that we come under at any time have or are made the Subjects of they are from the Spirit of God and the Efficacious subjective operation of the Holy Ghost in and upon us Our birth and progress in Holiness are to be ascribed to Him as the Efficient Cause and Immediate Worker 'T is for this Reason that the Third Person in the Trinity is so frequently styled the Holy Spirit For that Title doth not so much refer to the Essential Purity of his Nature as to the sanctifying operations which are assigned to him in the Oeconomy of Mans Redemption This I shall not now divert to the proof of 't is enough that the
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 excellently De baptism cont Donat. lib. 2 cap 6. Let us not say's he bring our deceitful balances where we weigh what would and do as we would saying according to our fancy Behold this is heavy or behold this is light but let us bring the Divine Balances of the Scriptures and weigh things or rather not weigh them but learn and take notice what the Lord himself hath weighed I rather chuse to fix the import of Religion thus by its reference to its Rule than by an enumeration of particulars First that it may appear that whatever be the concernment of Reason in Religion yet it is not to invent or introduce any new Doctrine nor to propose or institute any new Media of Worship nor to obtrude and force upon us any new moral Duty Nothing Magisterial doth here belong to it its highest preferment is to minister Secondly Because there is nothing in the Scripture but what we are under the Sanction of and as it is occasionally made known we are to pay a rational subjection to it Though every thing in the Bible be not alike Necessary yet every thing in it is alike True and our concernment lie's more or less in it There is no other Rule by which we are to be regulated in matters of Religion but the Bible and therfore the import and meaning of those Terms can be no otherwayes decided but by their habitude to their measure For this end did God give forth the Scripture that it might be the foundation and standard of Religion and thence therefore are we to learn its Laws and constitutions The instructing mankind in whatsoever is necessary to his present or future Happiness was the design of God in his vouchsafeing the World a supernatural Revelation and foreseeing all things that are necessary to such an End the respect and veneration which we pay to his Sapience Goodness oblige us to believe that he hath adapted and proportion'd the means thereunto Now the Doctrines of the Bible are of two sorts 1. Such as besides their being made known by revelation and believed on the account of Divine Testimony have also a foundation in the light of Nature and there are natural Mediums by which they may be prov'd These are commonly called Mixt but I think amiss seeing they are not made up of dissimilar parts nor have they objects complicated of different natures are only discovered by different Lights proved by different Media and assented to as well upon Motives of Reason as Divine Authority of this kind are the Being and Attributes of God the Immortality of the Soul the certainty of Providence the Existence of a Future State and Moral Good and Evil 2 dly Such as have no Foundation at all in Nature by which they could have been found out or known but we are solely indebted to Supernatural Revelation for the Discovery of them Their Objects having their Source and Rise only from the Will of God a Supernatural Revelation was absolutely expedient to promulge them And these also are of two Sorts 1. There are some Doctrines which though our Understandings by Natural Mediums could never have discovered yet being once revealed our Minds can by Arguments drawn from Reason facilitate the Apprehension of them and confirm it self in their Belief Of this kind are the Resurrection of the Body and Satisfaction to Divine Justice in order to the Exercising of Forgiveness to penitent Sinners 2. There are others which as Reason could never have discovered so when revealed it can neither comprehend them nor produce any Medium in Nature by which either the Existence of their Objects can be Demonstrated or their Truth Illustrated Of this kind are the Doctrines of the Trinity and the Incarnation of the Son of God I know that there are many Divines who though they confess that the Doctrine of the Trinity could never at first have been discovered by Reason yet being once Revealed they contend that Reason cannot only Illustrate but Demonstrate it But upon the best Inquiry into their Arguments I find most of them palpably Fallacious and others of them so Disproportionate to what they are brought that they do not so much as afford some saint Adumbrations of it I readily grant that this and the other Mystery are by a clear and necessary Connexion united with other Doctrines of Faith which Reason enlightned by Revelation can give a rational Account of For the Mystery of the Trinity hath a necessary Connexion with the Work of our Redemption by the Incarnation of the Son of God and the Work of our Redemption by the Incarnation of an infinite Person hath the like Connexion with the necessity of satâ—sfying Divine Justice in oâ—der to the Dispensing of Pardon to repenting Offenders and the necessity of satisfying Divine Justice for the End aforesaid hath a necessary Connexion with the Doctrine of the Corruption of Mankind and the Corruption of Humane Nature is both fully confessed and can be demonstrated by Reason Thus though all the Objects of Faith have not an immediate Correspondence with the Objects of Reason yet these very Doctrines of Faith which lye remotest from the Territories of Reason and seem to have least Affinity with its Light are necessarily and clearly connected with those other Principles of Faith which when once discovered Reason both approves of and can rationally confirm it self in As two Neighbouring Kingdoms are joyned together though some of their Provinces touch not one another So by those Objects of Faith which have a clear Connexion with Objects of Reason there is a mediate Connexion between Reason and those Objects of Faith that lye farther off I need not add that the most Mysterious Doctrines of Religion are necessarily connected with the Belief of the Bibles being the Word of God and that is a Truth which Reason is so far from rejecting that it can demonstrate it § 5 Having setled the meaning of the Terms namely what we understand both by Reason and Religion We are next particularly to enquire of what Significancy and Use Reason is in Religion that so we may give to Reason the things that are Reasons and yet reserve to Faith the things that are Faiths And whereas we have said that there are some Principles of Religion which besides the Evidence that they have in Revelation have Foundation also in the Light of Nature it may be easily apprehended that more is to be allowed to Reason in and about those than about these the Knowledge of which we are Debters only to Revelation for As to the Latter Reason acquits it self in all that belongs to it by considering what Doctrines are revealed to us in the Scriptures and deduceâ—ng Consequences which by clear Connexions proceed from them leaving Faith to assent to them upon the Authority and Veracity of the Revealer But as to the former Reason doth not sufficiently discharge it self by discovering that they are Revealed and thereupon committing it to Faith to Embrace
faileur in one of these both most of the Arguments against the Doctrine of the Trinity and for Communication of Omnipresence to the Humane Nature of Christ because it agrees to the Person of the son of God not to instance in more particulars may be easily avoided and answered 2 by shewing that if it be an universal and true Maxime of Reason that the Objection is grounded on how that there is not any thing in Revelation that doth contradict it There is an excellent Harmony betwixt Truth and Truth and though they be distinct and different yet they are not contrary and repugnant the one to the other They who reject Gospel Mysteries on supposition of a Repugnancy they lye in to Reason have not been able to this day to justifie their Charge 'T is true the more we adventure too neerly to look into them the more we find our selves dazled with their Fulgor but yet we find no thing in them that implye's a Contradiction to our Faculties or that is repugnant to the Nature and Attributes of God Nor is there any one Argument produced to this day in proof of the repugnancy of the Mysteries of the Trinity the Incarnation of the Son of God his satisfying Divine Justice in the Room and behalf of Sinners the Eternal Decrees c. Which hath not received an answer and the Authors of it been shamefully baffled § 14. Having unfolded the Interest and concernment of Reason in and about Religion it will be necessary ere we shut up this Discourse more particularly to state and fix the Bounds betwixt these two and to offer some Measures by which Reason may have allotted all that belongs to it and yet nothing in the mean time be detracted from Faith First then Reason is the Negative Measure in Matters of Religion Nothing contradictory to right Reason is to be admitted as a Mystery of Faith What Right Reason say's cannot be done we must not father it upon God to do If Reason be objected against any Scripture Testimony how plausible and subtile soever it seems yet Right Reason it cannot be but only deceives through an Unbrage and shew of it And if Scripture Authority be urged against an undoubted and evident Principle of Reason he that doth so presseth not the true meaning of the Scripture for that he doth not reach but only imposeth his own Sense and urgeth what himself phancieth to be there instead of what indeed is so saith Austin These two lights though different yet they do not destroy one another God is the Author of natural as well as Supernatural Light nor can he bely himself We have no greater Certainty than that of our Faculties for by that alone are we inabled to discern a Divine Revelation from Humane or Diabolical Delusions Should God reveal such Doctrines as contradict Natural Truths and Principles of Right Reason He would thereby eradicate what himself hath planted in our Souls The Law of Reason being the first declaration of the Will of God originally annexed to and communicated with our Natures 't is not to be imagined that by any after declaration he should thwart his first Besides all Revelation is to instruct us in a reasonable though supernatural way and therefore though in many things it may exceed our Reason fully to comprehend it yet in all things it must be consistent with our Reasons To admit Religion to contain any Dogm's Repugnant to Right Reason is at once to tempt Men to look upon all Revelation as a Romance or rather as the invention of distracted men withall to open a Door for filling the World with figments and lyes under the palliation of Divine Mysteries We cannot gratifie the Atheist and Infidel more than to tell them that the prime Articles of our Belief imply a contradiction to our Faculties In a word this Hypothesis were it received would make us renounce Man espouse Brute in matters of the chiefest greatest concernment for without debasing our selves into a lower species we cannot embrace any thing that is formally impossible Nothing but mens entertaining opinions which they cannot defend from being absurd and irrational could have sway'd them to reproach Reason in the manner they do but they do only decline the weapons they are sure to be wounded by When men have filled Religion with Opinions that are contrary to common Sense and Natural Light they are forced to introduce a suitable Faith namely such a one that commends it self from believing Doctrines repugnant to the evidence and principles of both And thus under a respect that is pleaded to be due to sacred Mysteries do the wildest fancies take Sanctuary And meerly out of fear of violating that regard which ought to be paid to Objects of Faith we must believe that to be true which the Universal Reason of Man-kind gives the lye to Thus the first Hereticks that troubled the Christian Church under pretence of teaching Mysteries overthrew common sense and did violence to the Universal Uniform and perpetual Light of Mankind Some of them having taught that all Creatures are naturally Evil Others of them having established two Soveraign Gods one Good and another Bad Others having affirmed the Soul to be a part of the Divine Substance not to mention a thousand falsities more all these they defended against the assaults of the Orthodox by pretending that they were Mysteries about which Reason was not to be hearkened to Thus do others to this day who being resolved to obtrude their fancies upon the World and being neither able to prove nor defend what they say they pretend the Spirit of God to be the Author of all their Theorem's Nor can I assign a better reason for the antipathy of the Turks to Philosophy than that it overthrows the follies and absurdities of their Religion This themselves confess by devoting Almansor to the vengeance of Heaven because he hath weakned the Faith of Mussul-men in the Alcoran through introducing Learning and Philosophy amongst them There is no Combating of the Valentinians Marcionites Eutychians and others but by shewing the repugnance of their Opinions to first principles of Reason We do not make Natural Light the positive Measure of things Divine do only allow it a Negative voyce We place it not in the Chair in Councels of Faith but do only permit it to keep the door and hinder the entring of Contradictions and Irrational Fancies disguised under the Name of Sacred Mysteries This I thought fit to propose in the first place and have the more largely insisted on it because of its serviceableness against the Corporal presence of Christ in the Eucharist and the ubiquity of Christs Body and divers other Articles both of the Romane and Lutheran Creeds What the Universal Reason of Man-kind tells us is finite commensurable and impenetrable c. they would have us believe it to be Infinite Immense and subject to penetration The great Article of the Roman Faith viz. Transubstantiation must needs be
apprehend things to be as indeed they are as I may affirm one thing of another as indeed it is However though I wave this Medium yet my first Argument shall be drawn from acts of simple Apprehension but built upon another Medium and it is this whatsoever I can clearly apprehend separate and apart I can apprehend the same with the same clearness united and Conjunct for example as I can clearly and distinctly apprehend a River and Wine apart I can with the same clearness apprehend them conjunct and united and yet I should be loath to trust this Cartesian principle so far as to assert that there is really a River runs Wine meerly because I can frame a complex apprehension of these two together 2. It interferes with what the Cartesians else-where and upon other occasions affirm For according to them when possibles offer themselves to our Rational Natures by a clear and distinct perception we do not otherwise perceive them than as actually existent and yet they themselves will not say that they do actually exist 3. The Objective Verity of Things is the Rule and Measure of the verity of perception for therefore are our perceptions true because consonant to the Nature of things and consequently clearness and distinctness of perception is not the Test by which we are to judge of the Natures Qualities and Modes of Beings 4. We are bound to pay an assent to many Doctrines and believe not a few things whereof we can have no clear and distinct perception such for example are the Mysteries of the Trinity and Incarnation of the Son of God c. If we could distinctly and clearly perceive them they were no longer Mysteries and if we do not assent to and belâ—eve them notwithstanding that we do not distinctly and clearly perceive them we are hardly yea I may say not at all Christians This is so indubitable that we may yea ought to assent to many things which we have no clear and distinct perception of that Des-Cartes himself is forced to subscribe to it his words are that multis possumus assentiri quae non nisi perobscure confuse cognoscimus which as it is most true so he could have said nothing more contradictory to and subversive of his own principles 5. Experience not only tells us that Men do often err and mistake but that they do so in things about which they suppose themselves to have clear and distinct perceptions Yea if we will believe Des-Cartes impetrare a nobis non possismus ut obscure confuse cognitis quamdiâ— talia nobis apparent assensum praebeamus We cannot obtain of our selves to assent to any thing so long as we only obscurely and confusedly know it Now though this be egregiously false yet nothing could be said more to the overthrow of this great and fundamental principle of his For if men can assent to nothing but what they have a clear and distinct cognizance of and if daily experience assure that one or other is always embracing venting and justifying Errour then farewell to this principle of the Cartesians that whatsoever presents it self to us by a clear and distinct perception is really and in it self so as we do perceive it 6. Were it most true that it is impossible for any thing to be otherwise than what we clearly and distinctly perceive it yet this can be no first principle of Science because we are still at a loss how we shall know whether we have a clear and distinct perception of things yea or not Let us suppose two men imbued with Opinions whereof those of the one are repugnant with those of the other and each of them pleading a clearness and distinctness of perception in reference to his own Now I would enquire of the Cartesians by what means these two men shall be satisfied that their knowledge is clear and distinct for clearness and distinctness of perception can no more be ascribed to both of them than truth can be predicated of the two parts of a contradiction 7. The Cartesians in the justifying of this principle involve themselves in a most shameful Circle For if it be enquired how we shall know but that God hath fram'd us with such Faculties as may in the most clear and distinct perceptions we have abuse and delude us They reply that we know it from the idea which we have of Gods being perfect i e. infinitely Good and True and if they be again asked what assurance they have that this is a true idea of God they recurr to their Canon of clear and distinct perception for the justifying of it Thus they prove the truth of their Rule and Measure from the perfection of God and the perfection of God from the truth of their Rule which if I mistake not is to argue circularly Shall I add in the eighth and last place that it is nothing but Socinianism new furbished and seems indeed shapen to justify them in their most detestable Errours For it is remarkable that when they are in a sober mood they tell us that they do not renounce the Articles of the Trinity Incarnation of the Son of God c. because they are above our reason but because they judge them repugnant to the distinct and clear perceptions which they of things The words of Smalcius are We readily acknowledge many things in the Christian Religion which are above our Reason and we know that Religion transcends Reason Their quarrel with these mysteries is this that there are many things which they clearly and distinctly perceive to which these Doctrines are contradictious This I thought convenient to discourse a little the more largely because though nothing in Religion be repugnant to any true principle of Reason yet there are many things voted for principles of Reason which indeed are not so and it is no disparagement to Articles of Faith to interfere with such The Mind is so darkned by the Fall and Eclipsed by habitual Lusts that there is but little right Reason in reference to spiritual things in the World Thirdly Reason is not the positive Measure of things Divine As there are many Doctrines of Faith which Reason in its highest exaltation could never have disdiscovered so being made known it cannot in its clearest light fully comprehend them Though Revelation presupposeth Reason and doth in no one thing contradict it yet the very End of Revelation is both to certifie Reason in such things wherein through its contracted darkness it doth mistake and to inform it in those which through the essential quality of its Nature it could never have discovered Accordingly men in all ages have not only been listning after some supernatural Revelation or other but whatever they took for such they always without more ado resigned themselves to the conduct of it 'T is true they disparaged their Reason in admitting that to be a Divine Revelation which indeed was not so but on supposition that it had been such they acted most
present only observe that many Scriptural expressions abstracting from any corrupt Gloss put upon them meerly upon the account of their being Rhetorical Tropes have been traduced as Fulsom Metaphors Were they only the paraphrases which the Non-Conformists affix to them which they make the subject of their scorn the business were more tollerable Nor should we be offended with their mockeries and derisions till we had justified the expositions fathered upon them but when the very words which the Holy Ghost in his care and wisdom condescendeth to use are also opprobriously reflected on they must pardon us if we know not how to digest such blasphemous and prophane boldness Instances of this Nature I shall afterwards give and hope to make it appear that many of the Rampant and Luscious Metaphors we are charged with are no other but the declaring Gospel-Mysteries in words which the Holy Ghost teacheth comparing Spiritual things with Spiritual 3. Though there be many Rhetorical Tropes and Figurative expressions in the Scripture yet it cannot be denyed but that some either out of ignorance or wantonness have made many more than there ever were There have been and yet are a sort of men in the World who affect to turn every thing into an Allegory and to transform the plainest expressions into Metaphors Besides the Jewish Rabbies who are monstrously guilty in this particular the miscarriage of the Ancients in this matter is both too evident to be denyed and too gross to be justified Their Expositions of Scripture are often light and ridiculous and somtimes perverse and dangerous Origen especially seems to have made it his business to find out Mystical and Cabalistical Senses in the plainest parts of Scripture which made one of the Ancients themselves say of him Ingenii lusus pro Dei Mysteriis venditat he obtrudes the sportings of his fancy for Religious and Sacred Mysteries And as another expresseth it Ingenii sui acumina putat esse Ecclesiae Sacramenta This practice of some Primitive Writers in and about the Scripture influenced Porphyrius to deride the Gospel as containing nothing certain in it How well or rather how unhappily many of the Popish Fryers have imitated them in this I need not tell I shall rather observe that the Socinians who though they impose a proper sense on some Texts of Scripture where it is both absurd and blasphemous to admit it yet they disguise and transform into Metaphors other Texts that have a plain and proper meaning But at the rate of making the Priesthood of Christ his Sacrifice Redemption through his death Metaphorical as they do the whole Gospel both in the Doctrines and precepts of it may be turned into an Allegory Shall I add that these very Authors who of late among our selves have assumed a liberty of censuring their Brethren for Undermining the Gospel by trifling it into Metaphors are themselves so unhappy in paraphrasing Scripture as to make Tropes where few else in the world do In proof of this I shall produce an instance or two out of Mr. Sherlock Whereas other Expositors of Scripture have expounded Christs being called the Brightness of his Fathers Glory and the express Image of his person Heb. 1.3 in a plain and proper sense and have accordingly argued from it for the Deity of Christ against the Socinians Mr. Sherlock by Christs being stiled the Brightness of his Fathers Glory c. Understands no more but those discoveries which Christ hath made of God being a true representation of the Divine Nature and Will as any picture is of the person it represents Which as he hath borrowed word for word from the Socinians who hereby understand only his revealing and declaring the will of God unto us fully and plainly which was done before only darkly in shadows so he declares himself guilty of abusing the Scripture to a Metaphorical sense where the words according to all Rules of Exposition will admit a proper one and therefore both Grotius and Hammond persons to whom I suppose he pay's a respect do vouchsafe us a much better paraphrase And according to Mr. Sherlocks exposition of the words I see not but what is here predicated of Christ may be predicated of the Prophets at lest of the Apostles A second instance shall be that of the 2 Cor. 4.4 where Christ is stiled the Image of God Where Nonconformists see no necessity of admitting a Metonymie no more than a Metaphore but that he who was absolutely and antecedently to his Incarnation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the form of God Phil. 2.6 is in a proper sense in his person Incarnate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Image of God in which exposition of the words they are countenanced by Col. 1.15 where Christ in a proper sense is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the image of the invisible God The places seem parallel the one to the other especially if as all Copies have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the last we admit the reading of those Copies which have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 also in the first But now Mr. Sherlock is pleased to tell us that Christs 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 Gods Nature Will Which is plainly to fancy a Trope where there is not the least reason of imagining any the deriving upon himself the guilt which he so liberally chargeth others with And whereas he alledgeth that without allowing a Metonâ—mie in the words Christs being the Image of God comes very abruptly in I see not how the Apostle could better shew how the Father expresseth and declareth himself unto us by his Son in the Gospel than by manifesting what the Son is in himself and with reference to the Father And whereas all Interpreters Ancient as well as Modern except the Socinians alone expound Joh. 1.16 Of his Fulness we have all received Grace for Grace of a participation of renewing Sanctifying Grace by Jesus Christ according to the plain and proper import of the Words Mr. Sherlock groundlesly imagines a Trope in them and accordingly paraphraseth the Fulness which we receive from Christ to signifie no more than a perfect Revelation of the Divine Will concerning the Salvation of Man-kind which Exposition as I have told him else-where whence he hath transcribed it so I shall only say at this time that it is a turning plain Scripture-Testimonies into Tropes Figures where there is not the least reason of supposing any More examples of his Paraphrasing the Scripture by substituting Tropes where other men in whom this humour is supposed to be predominant do see no cause for allowing any shall afterwards be assigned I shall only further observe at present that in several Scripture Passages where other Expositors can see no more but an easie and elegant Metonymie at the most he frames
of the Gospel we acknowledg it to be but to style it a metaphysical subtilty is to betray high Irreverence towards the great Mysteries of Faith as well as shameful Ignorance in the Fundamentals of Religion The Notions of Suppositum Person Hypostasis personality as distinct from the Idea of Nature or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are so far from having their first rise in the Schools of Philosophers or being Originally ow'd to Metaphysicks that they sprung from the Mystery of the Incarnation which both gave occasion of framing distinct and different Conceptions of them and by the account which the Scripture gives of the Mystery did illuminate us concerning them Though the person of Christ do not at all differ from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Humane Nature as they are considered united yet as we conceive of God-head and Man-hood in the abstract there is an inadequate difference betwixt them and the Person of Christ. And although there be no third Nature in the Person of Christ besides his Divine his Humane yet His Person is neither his Divine Nature nor his Humane And had Mr. Sherlock been either acquainted with Metaphysicks or conversant in the Canons of the Ancient Councils not to mention his being familiar with the Fathers he would never have charged the maintaining of that upon his Adversaries as a Reproach and Crime the not holding whereof would have justly exposed them to the Imputation of Heresy But when men are under the conduct of Passion and their Ignorance is answerable to their Rage what less can be expected than the throwing out accusations at adventure and the listing the most momentous Truths of Christians either in the Roll of subtil Querks or pernicious Errors rather than such whom out of prejudice they oppose should escape being blazon'd for Fools or Hereticks Fourthly By the Person of Christ then we mean the Humane Nature assum'd into Union with the Person of the Word and subsisting by the Hypostasis and personality of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or second Person in the Trinity As the Humane Nature of Christ is of it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so 't is assumed into Union not precisely the with Divine Nature but with the second Person of the Trinity which connotate's somthing more than barely the Divine Nature though what that is be beyond the Territories of Reason to conceive or declare Now with respect to the operations communications fruits and effects which proceed from the person of Christ constituted and consisting of the second Person of the Trinity and the Humane Nature we are to consider these four things 1. The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Agent or Cause and that is the Person of Christ. The effective Principle of the whole Mediatorial Work is Christ personally considered and the things done wrought bestowed or any effected are all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the works and operations of God-Man 'T is not this or that nature simply considered but the Person of Christ that is the Fountain and Causal Principle of Actions and denominated from them Though we cannot conceive any operation to proceed from Christ but what belongs either to his God-head or Man hood as its Formal principle yet as there are many things predicated of the person of Christ wherein the Humane Nature is united to the Divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which cannot in any single proposition be affirmed of or ascribed to either of them So whatsoever is attributed to him as the Christ He is as a Person the efficient Principle and cause of it 2. The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Formal Principle of all his operations and that is either the Humane Nature or the Word Though the Man-hood be brought into conjunction with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet as both retain what is proper and essential to themselves so they remain distinct Formal Principles of operation Agit utraque forma cum alterius communione quod suum est Verbo operante quod Verbi est Carne exequente quod Carnis est 3. The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Action which ceeds either from the Humane Nature or from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as its Formal Principle And as This or That is its Formal Principle it is of such a Specificate Nature i. e. a Divine Action or a Humane Though the things wrought for us communicated to us and effected in us be all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and though Divines use to style the Actions themselves so as proceeding from the same Effective Personal Principle yet I think it better to forbear that appellation of them seeing no Action proceeds both from the Humane Nature and from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as its Formal Principle 4. The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The thing wrought or effected by the concurrence of the Humane Nature and the Word as they are united in constitute the Person of Christ. And here the distinct 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Formal Principles occurring in the person of Christ do in their influence meet and center each of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by an Action congruous and peculiar to its own respective Nature And though the God-head and Man-hood in Christ remain distinct Formal Principles of Operations yet through the Union of the Humane Nature to the second Person of the Trinity in Him those things come to be effected by Him personally considered which he could not have wrought either as God or Man separately conceived Now Christ being our Mediator only considered as God and Man in one Person and not meerly as God or as Man And it being from Christ as Mediator though in ways congruous and proportionate that we receive Grace Life and all vital Influences Therefore we contend and plead that the Union of Believers with Christ is through their being united to his Person § 5. The last Term whose import and meaning we are to state and fix is Union And being a Transcendental Term 't is not easy to assign such an uncontroulable and clear Notion of it as may adequately agree to and univocally express it wheresoever it occurs But though Union be one of the greatest secrets of Nature and that which affronts our Understandings when we enquire into the Quality and Mode of this or that Union in particular yet so much Light may be reflected upon it in general as may serve to declare the value and meaning of the Term. Union then is either taken for Unition or for the Effect Modification or Mode caused by the â—â—itive action in the Extremes or at least one of them that come to be copulated or Thirdly For the Relation exsurging between the extremes knit and ligu'd one to another In the First acceptation 't is to be conceived of Efficiently in the Second Formally and in the Third as a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Habitude resulting from arising upon the two former In the First usurpation it
of the one is distinct from that which we have of the other appears 1 in that our Legal Union implyes a Relation to Christ as our High Priest and Sponsor interposing and acting in our behalf towards God whereas our Mystical Union respecteth Him as acting to us in the quality of a Vital Head 2 Because the vinculum of that is Christs susception of our sins upon him and the Fathers imputing them to him but the nexus of this is the Spirit of Christ dwelling in us and principles of Grace infused into us 3 Because the result of our Legal Union is the imputation of what Christ in our stead did and suffered for Righteousness to us and discharge from Wrath but the effect of our Spiritual Union is further communication of Grace together with quickning Influences whereby we grow up into a higher conformity with our Head and are more and more adapted to live to God 3dly Those things are different whereof the one is the meritorious fruit as well as the Consequent of the other and that this is the habitude which the things before us stand in might be easily demonstrated For though many of the formal benefits of a Legal Union such as Actual discharge from Wrath and Justification to Life do not arrive to us but through the intervention of a Spiritual conglutination to our Mediator it being not only in the power of the Father and Son to appoint in what order and upon what Terms we should have an Interest in the purchased Redemption but the very Nature of our deliverance which was not only a ransoming us from Wrath but a restoring us to the favour of God and an exalting us to a superadded blessedness required that it should be in such a Method and upon those conditions as that God might both exercise forgiveness in consistency with His Holiness and we be adapted for that to which we were advanced yet even our spiritual Union in the very vinculum bond of it is a purchased fruit of what Christ as substituted in our room and so one with us in conspectu curiae did and suffered Yea the Honour of being Heir of all things and Head of Influence to the Redeemed is a reward of what Christ underwent and performed as our Surety in the relation of which he stood Legally United to us § 11. I now proceed to the consideration of Moral Union which is all that some and those very considerable Persons will admit to intercede betwixt Christ and Believers By Moral Union we understand a Harmony of Wills an agreement in designs a confederation in affections in a word an Union by way of mutual and reciprocal love 'T is styled Moral from its band or ligature which is Love Love is not only â—he principal and chiefest but the source and fountain of all humane Affections All the Affections are but the several forms and shapes of Love Desire Fear Anger Hope Sorrow Delight c. are but the various Forms and Aspects of Love according as its Object is circumstantiated under the consideration of absent present easie or difficult to be enjoyed c. As the Object Beloved is affected with this or that Circumstance so Love receives a new Modification and becomes clothed with this or that Form And indeed Love is of a very Unitive Nature 't is the Marriage of one Intellectual Being to another 'T is the strongest bond of Alliance the most connexive cement All Love tends to Union to have the heart implanted and incorporated with the Object beloved It both unites the Lover to the Object which he loves and transform's him into it What and where our Love is that and there we are There is an assimilating efficacy in Love whereby it casts the mind into the Mould of the thing Beloved which made Austin say si terram amas terra es If thou lovest the Earth thou art Earth And the Philosopher to say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Friend is only another Self Friendship which is nothing but mutual endearedness or a confederacy in sincere affections save that it superadds conversation and society to Love is not only styled by Hierocles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the noblest efflorescence perfection of Virtue but Aristotle defines it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by one Soul in two Bodies Or as Horace calls Virgil whom he entirely loved dimidium animae the half of his Soul Now a Love-Union we readily acknowledg between Christ and Believers As it was infinite compassion which influenced Him not only without Motives but in despite of obstacles in us to become our Ransom so having Redeemed us by his Blood and engraven his Image upon us by his Spirit he doth with superlative delight behold his purchase and embrace his likeness 'T is in pursuance of his complacency in them that he Espouseth their concerns resents their troubles and ministreth opportune relief to them under their several exigencies Nor is his Love greater than it is lasting being as Unchangeable as it is free and superlative Upon the same Motives that he works such dispositions and qualifications in us as may render us fit objects of his Delight he takes care to prevent their being totally lost that so we may not cease to have a share in his complacency Admit that Christs complacential Love stands determined to Holiness and that he delights in none till they be good yet the Immutability of the Divine Counsels the Convention between the Father and Son in the Covenant of Redemption Gods Veracity in reference to the promises which he hath made in the Covenant of Grace the absolute compleatness of Christs Sacrifice for all those in whose behalf he gave himself a propitiation together with the prevalency of his Intercession and his design in purchasing and bestowing the Holy Ghost to reside in and watch over Believers may assure us that he will preserve those as meet objects of his Love upon whom he hath once engraven his Image to make them so And by the way this may serve as a reply to that of Mr. Sherlock p. 211. where he tells us that 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 Virtue and Goodness where-ever he sees it and never ceaseth to love any Person till he ceaseth to be Good and then the Immutability of his love is the reason why he loves no longer For besides that our Author doth hereby preclude all Gods love of Benevolence and Compassion of which Persons abstracted from qualifications are the Objects Which as the Scripture doth every where celebrate as the highest love so there was nothing in us that could attract it but on the contrary there was every thing in us which might have rendred us the Objects of everlasting Indignation See Rom. 15.8 Joh. 3.16 1 Joh. 4.9 10. I say besides this the whole passage even taking it as refering
Heb. 1.14 I say besides all this they are in a special manner cemented to him by pure flames and holy ardors Those blessed Spirits through that more perfect knowledg which they have of the attractive beauties and excellent perfections of Christ partly by the means of their more illuminated intellects partly through their immediate attendance upon his glorious person especially from their being above all temptations that may divert their minds from so amiable an object and being free from all impure Lusts that may damp their flames do cleave to him with a Love more defecated and pure as well as more intense elevated than we can who are so far beneath them in the quality of our Nature and whose Understandings are still so much benighted with ignorance and obnubilated with the vapours of Lust and whose residence is so remote from the place of perfection as well as happiness I do not determine whether their happiness be improved and their perseverance in holiness secured by Jesus Christ though if so there is a field of occasion and Motives to promote and exalt their love to him ariseth thence But declining to define any thing in that matter there are enforcements enough besides by which their sallies of Love to the Lord Jesus are allured charmed forth For 1st Whatsoever they do or have received from the exuberant goodness and pregnant fecundity of their Creator they have it all by from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Person of the Son as the immediate Operator and Dispenser of it For the order of operation in the blessed Trinity as to external works corresponds unto and followeth the order of subsistence Hence though the Fabrick and Creation of all things be ascribed to the Father as to Authority and Order Heb. 1.1 and to the Spirit as to disposition and ornament Joh. 26.13 yet they are peculiarly attributed to the Son as to immediate operation Col. 1.15 16 17. 2dly The Glory of God being the alone object of the desires of the Heavenly Host it cannot otherwise be but that the honour which ariseth to God by the restitution of man through the interposure of the Son as Mediator must enflame those pure Spirits with love to him through whose undertaking that Glory is compassed and effected Nor is the Mysterious contrivance of Mans recovery a Theme which with a Religious curiosity they only look into 1 Pet. 1.12 but they both celebrate this plot of Love and Wisedom with Hallelujahs and express their acknowledgments for the Glory which thereby redounds to their blessed Maker in affections resembling the description given us of their Nature Psal. 104.4 to the Person of the Mediator 3dly Man belonging to the same classis of Creatures though of a different species with the Angels the compassion which these Courtiers of the great King bear to the sublunary part of the Rational System whereof we have an evidence and instance in the joy that possesseth them upon the Conversion of a Sinner Luk. 5.10 may be lookt upon as another incentive of their love to Christ. We being separated from the Love of God through the loss of the Divine Image forfeited thereupon the kindness and friendship of the Angels but being restored to conformity and favour with God by Jesus Christ there immediately ensues an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a redintegration of friendship between them and us Nor do I question but that the consideration that it is by Christ that they and we are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reconciled and brought into Oneness together doth help to kindle their love to him And as there is an adhesion of the Angels to Christ by love so on the other hand he embraceth them with complacency and delight For as there is nothing to be found in them why he should look upon them with displeasure so the sanctity of their Nature and their ministring with readiness not only about his Throne but in the affairs wherein he employs them abroad in the World lead him to behold them with approbation and love And though none of their Homages equal his perfections whom they address their Services to yet their faileurs being no ways the results of an impotence contracted by sin but the inseparable appendants of the finiteness of their Natures he readily accepts them The covering their faces with their wings being in testimony of their infinite distance is as welcome to him and doth as much oblige his Love as their acclamations and celebration of his praise There being then a Love-Union betwixt Christ and the Holy Angels I hope that I may infer from hence that the Union between Christ and Christians is both something else and more sublime I cannot think that any who have read their Bible and believe it dare affirm but that besides the Oneness which we have with the Lord Jesus through his participating of our Nature which the Angels have no share in but that there is also a further Union between him and us of which as the Angels do no ways partake so neither are they capable 3dly That the Mystical Union between Christ and Christians consisteth not in a reciprocalness of Affections may be yet further demonstrated from this namely because according to that Notion of Union Believers are no less United to the Father than to the Son yea they are United first to the Father ere to the Son And I am apt to think that there needs not any more to be said against an Hypothesis but that t is pregnant with consequences of so mischievous a tendency Admit once Believers to be United after the same manner to the Father as they are to Christ and we immediately justle the Lord Jesus out of the place of Mediator That there is an Union of Love between the Father and Believers the Gospel doth every where display in most amiable and bright colours Hence that of the Apostle He that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God and God in him 1 Joh. 4.16 As Love is the only Attribute of the Divine Nature which is alone put to give us an Idea and Notion of God so to be Love is represented after a manner peculiar to God as the Father The Love of the Father was the first spring and source of our recovery and of all the means of accomplishing and bringing it about It was the Fathers Love that contrived a way to recover us when we had forfeited all right to Happiness and were neither careful nor in a condition to regain it When there were no Motives in us to invite his Love his Love it self was in their room And how great was his Love when he gave him whom he so dearly loved for a Ransom of those who were guilty of sin which he so greatly hated The transcendency of his Love is the greatest Obstacle to the belief of it After that his Love had travailed with plots of Mercy to poor Sinners in what noble and amusing effects did it exert it self See Joh. 3.16 Rom. 5.8
1 Joh. 4.9 10. In a word it is Love which is eminently ascribed to the Father in the Oeconomy of the Blessed Trinity about the Work of Mans Salvation And this property of his Nature which he chose to display in the work of Redemption he hath acted to the uttermost whereas he did not so by his Power which he manifested in the Works of Creation it being within the compass of his Omnipotence and Exuberant Bounty to produce a World more glorious than this And though all this respects Gods Love of Compassion to the Elect yet we may hereby guess what his Love of Delight in Believers is on whom his Love of Goodness hath compassed its designs When his Love of Benevolence hath attained so much of its End as the renewing us in part to his Image and the recovering us back to our obedience He views over with delight the births that his compassion went with and beholds the effects of his good Will with unspeakable complacence That similitude which his Love in its first consideration designed anâ—â—ntended his Love in the second Notion of it embraceth and settles its delight upon And that Believers do embrace the Father with a Love equal and proportionate to that which they have for Jesus Christ I hope I need not spend time to prove Besides the Allective and attractive perfections which the illuminated Understanding discovers in both as they partake of the same Divine Nature and Essence it meets with enforcing Motives of Love in the Oeconomical actings of each as they are represented in the Scripture operating towards about our Redemption with different peculiarities in the manner of their acting How doth the Father's Love in being the Author and Fountain of our recovery in his contriving the means of it in giving his Son to be our Ransom and Propitiation in order to the effecting it and in pursuance of his accepting the Sacrifice of his Death as an Atonement for sin and a meritorious price of sanctification his being the Original disposer in way of Authority and Order of all that Grace by which we are rendred meet objects of Gods delight inflame the souls of renewed Ones with Love to him 4. This Love-Union as it terminates upon Christ from us or as it implies our Affections being set upon him is so far from being the formal Reason of our Mystical Union that it doth suppose us already cemented to him There can be no true Love to Christ without a previous conformity seeing all love includes a supposition of likeness Now to imagine either a resemblance between us and Christ without a New Nature previously form'd and wrought in us or to conceive that there are any principles communicated to us as the ground and matter of similitude and yet we remain unconnected to Christ are fancies that the Gospel obligeth us to account absurd To apprehend a Person renewed by Grace and not implanted into Christ is to bid defiance to the Gospel and to conceive a soul cleaving to Christ by a Love that is sincere without an Antecedent Principle of Grace adapting and connaturalizing it is not only to contradict the Scripture but to denounce War against Metaphysicks which tell us that every Effect presupposeth a cause proportion'd to it In brief As we are not naturally imbued with a Love to Christ so no man will by a prevalent Love embrace him till he be first connaturalized attempered brought into a suitable habitude of mind to him Every act supposeth a Power nor is there hopes of Fruit where there is not a Root that can communicate sap to the branches that are to bear it Though the soul be the Vital Principle of all actions and Affections yet it is Grace that gives holy actions and affections their constituent form The Union which we have with Christ by love saith the Reverend Bishop Reynolds presupposeth an Unity we have in him by Faith Faith is the immediate tye between Christ and a Christian but Love a secondary Union following upon and grounded on the former By Nature we are all Enemies to Christ and his Kingdom of the Jews mind we will not have this Man to raign over us therefore till by Faith we are throughly perswaded of Christs love to us we can never repay love to him again Herein is love saith the Apostle not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son 1 Joh. 4.10 Now between Gods Love and ours comes Faith to make us one with Christ. § 12. That there ought to be nothing in Religion which is incomprehensible or of which we are not able to form adequate Notions is a fancy espoused by the Socinians Hence it is that though they do not wholly renounce the Gospel yet by designing to accommodate the mysteries of it to the Level of Humane apprehensions they supplant the prime Articles of it That there are Doctrines in the Christian Religion which our Understandings cannot fathom seems to have been the chief thing that influenced Celsus Hierocles Porphyrius Lucian and other Heathen Philosophers of old in their opposition of it This their upbraiding the primitive Believers for receiving things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with an Irrational Faith and their styling them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 persons of easie belief that had no reason for the things which they embraced abundantly declare And truly admitting the Principle which they proceeded upon namely that there ought not to be any thing in Religion but what our Intellects bear a proportion to they seem to me to have acted more rationally in refusing the Gospel altogether than those do who embrace it and yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Model the Oracles of God to their private fancies that so they may level the Mysteries of Christianity to our weak and shallow capacities That there are Mysterious Doctrines in the Gospel and particularly that our Union with Christ is of that Number the Holy Ghost who should best know the complexion of every truth in it hath plainly informed us We are Members of his Body of his Flesh and of his Bones This is a great Mystery says the Apostle Eph. 5.30.32 Mr. Sherlock who seems to judg all such things foolish and fanciful Notions which men cannot fully conceive comprehend is pleased to tell us that there is nothing more easie to be understood than our Union and Communion with Christ but how he can reconcile himself to Paul unless great Mysteries be of easie conception and comprehension I know not 'T is true he hath taken care to present us with such a Notion of Believers Union with Christ as may be understood on this side Heaven and without sending for Elias to unriddle it that I may use his own expression Now what that Notion is and whether it fully answer the account which the Scripture gives us in the Matter of Christians Union with the Lord Jesus is that which we are now addressing to the ventilation of And that neither he
those expressions only by alluding to that incomprehensible Identity which is between the Persons of the Blessed Trinity through a Numericalness of Nature he would instruct us that the Union between Christ and those that are born of God is intimate great and mysterious as well as True Real Before we dismiss this we will take a brief survey of our Authors exceptions against the conclusion deduced from the fore-going allusive Metaphors Christ says he is styled the Head of his Body the Church because he hath the command and rule over and is invested with Authority to Govern her and the Church is styled the Body of Christ because she must be obedient to his Laws and subject to his Government Now to this I reply 1st The Head in reference to the Natural Body having not only an Influence upon the Members by way of Communication of Animal Spirits but by way of conduct and Government accordingly I deny not but that the Term as applyed to Christ may somtimes refer only to the last property There are some Texts of Scripture where the subject Matter doth plainly determine the signification of Head as predicated of Christ to refer meerly to Eminence and Rule Particularly the 1 Cor. 11.3 is so to be understood But that Christ is never styled Head save in Allusion to the property and affection of Government which belongs to the Head in the Natural Body over the Members is a bold Imagination and which never any espoused before Mr. Sherlock except the Socinians All pretending to the Name of Christians the Enemies of the Godhead of Christ only secluded have besides their acknowledging the Lord Jesus Christ to be the Political Head of the Church in respect of Authority and Rule owned him likewise to be a Spiritual Head in respect of quickning Influences 2dly 'T is received as an Universal Measure by which all Expositors are to Regulate their Glosses upon the sacred Text that whensoever any thing is represented by a Metaphorick Term all that bears any proportion or analogy to the affections and properties of the Thing which the Word in its Original signification doth denote ought to be understood Every Scripture whether it be proper or Tropical is to be expounded in the greatest Latitude which the Word will bear as we have demonstrated cap. 1. § 10. Christ being therefore to the Church what the Head is to the Members of the Natural Body and the Head not only giving Direction and Guidance to the Bodily Members but having also a vital Influx upon them it naturally follows that Christ is as well Head to the Church in regard of actual Influences of Spiritual strength and life as in respect of Guidance by Laws and Rules Nor is there any way to avoid this inference and sequel unless it can be made appear that the attribution of spiritual Influences to Christ in reference to his Body doth contradict some principle of Reason or supplant some sacred Truth which I 'm sure our Author hath not hitherto done 3dly Suppose that Christs having the Rule and Government over the Church were all that by attendance to the Allusive Metaphor of his being to the Church what the Head is to the Natural Body could be established and inforced yet the Holy Ghost having besides the accommodation of himself to our instruction in the bare and naked usurpation of the Metaphor extended the import of it so far as we pretend by a comment and paraphrase of his own which he hath left us upon it we may reckon our selves secure in the application which we make of it For as if it had not been enough through the naked and bare use of that Allusive and Metaphorick Term to have intimated that it is between Christ Christians as between the Head and Members he hath expresly informed us as there are communications of Spirits from the Head unto all the Members of the Body through the subserviency of these parts which by the great wise Architect of the Humane Fabrick are thereunto designed that there are in like manner supplies of spiritual life strength from Christ to every Believe◠through the Moral subserviency of one Christian to another in the Duties and Offices which he hath appointed Thus the Apostle Eph. 4.15 16. having styled Christ our Head he adds by way of defining the sense in which he is so from whom the whole Body fitly joyned together and compacted by that which every joynt supplyeth according to the effectual working in the measure of every part maketh inerease of the Body unto the edifying it self in love And to the same purpose only more emphatically speaks the same Apostle Col. 2.18 And not holding the Head i. e. Christ from which all the Body by joynts and bands having nourishment ministred and knit together increaseth with the increase of God If these Testimonies be not sufficient to silence the Sophistry of men and to level the Objections whereby our Author endeavours to supplant Christs being a Head of Influence I will not say that we may despair of Understanding the Bible but this I will say that by the same art that Mr. Sherlock avoyds those he may retain a belief of such Scripture expressions as are declarative of any Fundamentals of Faith and yet renounce the Truths they are designed to reveal I shall only here subjoyn Bishop Davenants paraphrase upon the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joynts and Bands which the Apostle speaks of By 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joynts we are to understand saith he those Vincula and ligatures by which we are copulated to Christ and by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bonds we are to understand those Media by which we are concatenated to one another Now says he the Ligatures by which we are knit to Christ as our Vital Head and by which we receive quickning Influences from him are the Spirit and the Graces thereof especially Faith The second Argument in opposition to our Authors Hypothesis shall be raised from such Scripture Texts as are not allusive to any Pattern Union but yet are manifestative of such an Intimate conjunction between Christ and Christians as a Political Relation is so far from giving us an adequate Notion of that indeed it bears no proportion nor Analogy to it Nor shall I insist on such places at this time as express Christs Abiding in us and our Abiding in Him His Dwelling in us and our Dwelling in Him His Being in us and our Being in Him Though a Political Relation be too mean and low to answer the Grandeur of these phrases He that without prepossession and prejudice consulteth these following Texts viz. Joh. 15.4 Joh. 6.56 1 Joh. 4.13 2 Cor. 13.5 Col. 1.27 Rom. 8.10 1 Joh. 5.20 2 Cor. 5.17 will soon find that such an Union as intercedes between a Prince and his Subjects is too flat jejune and cold an Interpretation to sustain the weight of those sentences Had the Holy Ghost designed the delivering the Doctrine which
Scripture bears witness to it in a thousand places nor can the contrary Opinion be espoused and asserted without a Virtual renouncing the Gospel 6thly 'T is from by and through Jesus Christ as Mediator that the Spirit whether it be with respect to his Immediate seisure of us and dwelling in us or with reference to any of his saving operations is given to and bestowed upon us As God never dispensed any Grace to the Sons of Adam but in and by the person of Jesus Christ as the Mediator and Head of the Church so the Communion of the Spirit who is our Immediate Sanctifier is from and through Christ. His Spirit he is by Him he is promised His bodily absence He supplies and of His fulness He takes and communicates to us Ye have received an Unction from the Holy One saith the Apostle 1 Joh. 2.20 Though the giving the Spirit be ascribed to the Father as He with whom the Authoritative disposure and appointment of all Divine extrinsick operations lodg yet with respect to Immediate Mission his sending is attributed to Christ whose Spirit upon this account as well as others He is called Hence the Ancients style him Vicarium Christi the Vicar of Christ and Vis Vicaria the power by which he is present to our souls Spiritus nos Christo confibulat the Spirit buttons us to Christ that I may use Tertullian's phrase The Holy Ghost supplies Christ's place here in the World and through him the Lord Jesus Christ is present with his Church till the consummation of all things and by Him he dwells and walks in his People The Spirit is Christs purchase for his People and his Donative to them The Holy Spirit was given to Christ as a reward of his Obedience and Death to be by him communicated to men Jesus Christ as Mediator is Authorised by the Father to dispense Grace to whom he will 7ly Through the communication of the Spirit from Christ to us and immediately upon his taking the possession of us the Nature of Christ the Seed of God and a vital living principle comes to be formed in us For though the Donation of the Spirit to us and his possessing of us precede the Geniture of the New Man in priority of Nature forasmuch as the Cause must be conceived before the Effect yet the inhabitation of the Spirit and the production of a New Creature and spiritual Being in us are perfectly simultaneous as to time Now through the formation of this Seed of God in us we become partakers of the same spiritual Nature that Christ was We do hereby not only beat the Image of the Heavenly but are changed into the same Image This is Christ formed in us And this New Spiritual Being and Internal power becoming incorporated and made One with our souls it is as a Vital Form in us And as this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth by transforming the soul attemper it to universal Obedience so one of its first operations is an exercise of Faith upon Jesus Christ. And this being that which entitles us in a peculiar manner to fresh communications of Grace and supplies of the Spirit of Jesus as well as that which interests us in his meritorious Righteousness we are therefore not only said to live by Faith but Christ is said to dwell in our hearts by it Thus by the guidance and conduct of Scripture we are by short steps and Regular Ratiocinations arrived at such an Idea and Notion of Believers Union with Christ as is both plain in it self and easie to be understood providing that men be not obstinate against Evidence Nor have I wrested or suborned any Sacred passage to give Testimony in this cause all I have made use of being such as voluntarily offer themselves without any force or distortion put upon them And for such as are mustred against us I have either gain'd them back to our side or shewed that their Testimony doth no ways oppose what we plead for Were I now sure that my Reader would not tire I might draw out this discourse to a greater length but as I have not the confidence to entertain Guests longer than I can afford them entertainment worthy of them so I am not so disingenuous as to treat men with words when thoughts and material remarques fail If after all this which I have said any shall still be found quarrelling at the Unintelligibleness of Believers Union with Christ I think we may justly either complain of their perverseness or blame their Hebetude To such as are not refractory to Scripture-Light and to the easie deductions which our Intellectual Faculties in their Rational exercise do draw from Revelation there is enough said to make it understood as for others I leave them to the punishment of their own obstinacy Instead therefore of filling up pages by producing Testimonies of Ancient Modern Divines or of calling in the Authority of the Church of England I shall shut up all with a few passages out of Dr. Patrick's Mensa Mystica And this I the rather do being inform'd that the Opinion of this Dr. weighs more with Mr. Sherlock than either the Canon of a Convocation or the Decree of a General Council The Passages with which much of what I have delivered is not only coincident in sense but in words are these As the highest and closest Union is that which is made by one Spirit and Life moving in the whole so the Union between Christ and his Members is by one Life As things at the greatest distance may be United by one Spirit of Life actuating them both so may Christ and we though we enjoy not his bodily presence Although Christ in regard of his corporal presence be in the Heavens which must receive him untill the time of the restitution of all things Act. 3.21 Yet he is here with us always even to the end of the World Math. 28.20 in regard of his holy Spirit working in us By this he is sensible of all our needs and by the Vital Influences of it in every part he joynes the whole Body fitly together so that he and it make one Christ 1 Cor. 12.12 And that this Union is wrought by the Spirit which every true Christian hath dwelling in him 1 Cor. 6.17 Rom. 8.9 the next v. 13. will tell you we are Baptised into one Body by one Spirit This Spirit is always needful being that which maintains our life It is the very bond and ligament that tyes us to Christ. For our Union is not only such a Moral Union as is between Husband and Wife which is made by love or between King and Subjects which is made by Laws but such a Natural Union as is between Head and Members the Vine and Branches which is made by One Spirit or Life dwelling in the whole FINIS ERRATA I find upon a Review of these Sheets that several Errors and mistakes and those of divers kinds have crept into them Some