all Chritians believe Jesus Christ is Jesus Christ the Eternal Son of God Incarnate The Person of Christ is Christ himself and nothing else His personal Excellencies are the properties of his Person as his two Natures are united therein and as he was thereby made Meet to be the Mediator between God and Man To know Christ in the Language of the Scripture the whole Church of God antient and present in Common Sense and Understanding is to know the Person of Christ as revealed and declared in the Gospel with respect unto the Ends for which he is proposed and made known therein And this Knowledge of him as it is accompanied with and cannot be without the Knowledge of his Mind and Will declared in his Precepts Promises and Institutions is effectual to work produce in the Souls of them who so know him that Faith in him and Obedience unto him which he doth require And what would this Man have He who is otherwise minded hath renounced his Christianity if ever he had any And if he be thus perswaded to what purpose is it to set up and combate the Mormoes and Chimaeras of his own Imagination well then I do maintain that to know Christ according to the Gospel is to know the Person of Christ for Christ and his Person are the same Would he now have me to prove this by Testimonies or Arguments or the consent of the Ancient Church I must beg his Excuse at present and so for the future unless I have occasion to deal with Gnosticks Familists or Quakers And as for the latter Clause wherein Christ is said to be made Wisdom unto us he says some Duller Men can understand no more by it than the Wisdom of those Revelations Christ hath made of God's will to the World who are dull Men indeed and so let them pass His ensuing Discourses in pag. 103 104 105. contain the Boldest Reflections on and openest Derisions of the Expressions and way of Teaching spiritual things warranted in and by the Scripture that to my Knowledge I ever read in a Book Licensed to be Printed by publick Authority As in particular the Expressions oâ— Faith in Christ by coming unto him and receiving of him which are the Words of the Holy-Ghost and used by him in his Wisdom to instruct us in the Nature of this Duty are amongst others the Subjects of his Scorn The First part of it though I remember not to have given any occasion to be particularly concerned in it I shall briefly consider pag. 103. Thus when Men have first Learned from an acquaintance with Christ to place all their hopes of Salvation in a personal Union with Christ from whom they receive the free Communications of Pardon and Grace Righteousness and Salvation what more plain Proof can any Man who is resolved to believe this desire of it than 1 John 5.12 He that hath the Son hath Life and he that hath not the Son hath not Life And what can having the Son signify but having an Interest in him being made one with him though some will be so perverse as to understand it of believing and having his Gospel But the Phrase of having the Son confutes that dull Moral Interpretation especially when we remember it is called being in Christ and abiding in him which must signify a very near Union between Christs Person and Us. I suppose that Expression of Personal Union sprung out of Design and not out of Ignorance for if I mistake not he doth somewhere in his Book take notice that it is disclaimed and only an Union of Believers with or unto the Person of Christ asserted Or if it be his mistake all comes to the same Issue Personal or Hypostatical Union is that of different Natures in the same Person giving them the same singular subsistence This none Pretend unto with Jesus Christ but it is the Union of Bevers unto the Person of Christ which is spiritual and Mystical whereby they are in him and he in them and so are one with him their Head as Members of his Mystical Body which is pleaded for herein with the free Communications of Grace Righteousness and Salvation in the several and distinct ways whereby we are capable to receive them from him or be made partakers of them we place all hopes of Salvation And we do Judge moreover that he who is otherwise minded must betake himself unto another Gospel for he compleatly renounceth that in our Bibles Is this our Crime that which we are thus charged with and tradâ—ced for Is the Contrary hereunto the Doctrine that the present Church of England approveth and instructs her Children in Or doth any Man think that we will be scared from our Faith and Hope by such weak and frivolous Attempts against them Yea but it may be it is not so much the thing it self as the miserable Proof which we produce from the Scripture in the Confirmation of it for we do it from that of the Apostle 1 John 5.12 If he think that we prove these things only by this Testimony he is mistaken at his wonted rate Our Faith herein is built upon innumerable express Testimonies of the Scripture indeed the whole Revelation of the Will of God and the way of Salvation by Jesus Christ in the Gospel Those who prove it also from this Text have sufficient Ground and Reason for what they plead And notwithstanding the pleasant scoffing humour of this Author we yet say that it is Perverse Folly for any one to say that the having of the Son or Christ expressed in the Text doth intend either the having an Interest in him and Union with him or the obeying of his Gospel exclusively to the other these being inseparable and included in the same Expression And as to what he adds about being in Christ and abiding in him which are the greatest Priviledges of Believers and that as expressed in words taught by the Holy Ghost it is of the same strain of prophaneness with much of what ensues which I shall not farther enquire into I find not my self concerned in his ensuing Talk but only in one Reflection on the words of the Scripture and the Repetition of his old Putid and shameless Calumny pag. 108. untill we come to pag. 126. Where he arraigns an Occasional Discourse of mine about the Necessity of Holiness and good works wherein he hath only filched out of the whole what he thought be could wrest unto his End and scoffingly descant upon I shall therefore for once transcribe the whole Passage as it lies in my Book and refer it to the Judgment of the Reader pag. 206. The second Objection is that if the Righteousness and Obedience of Christ to the Law be imputed unto us then what need we yield obedience our selves To this also I shall return answer as briefly as I can in the ensuing observations Then 1. The placeing of our Gospel-Obedienceon the right foot of account that it may neithr be exalted
Impertinencies who is so bewildred in his own Ignorance and Confidence that he knowes neither where he is nor what he says Did not the Son of God by assuming our Humane Nature continuing what he was become what he was not Was not the Person of Christ by the Communication of the Properties of each Nature in it and to it a Principle of such operations as he could not have wrought either as God or Man separately considered How else did God Redeem his Church with his own Blood Or how is that true which he says John 3.13 And no Man hath ascended up to Heaven but he that came down from Heaven even the Son of Man which is in Heaven Was not the Union of the two Natures in the same Person which was a Property neither of the Divine nor Humane Nature but a distinct ineffable Effect of Divine Condescention Wisdom and Grace which the Antients Unanimously call the Grace of Union whose Subject is the Person of Christ that whereby he was fit mee◠and able for all the Works of his Mediation Doth not the Scripture moreover propose unto our Faith and Consolation the Glory Power and Grace of the Person of Christ as he is God over all blessed for ever and his Love Sympathy Care and Compassion as Man yet all acting themselves in the one and self same Person of the Son of God Let him read the first Chap. of the Epistle to the Hebrews and see what account he can give thereof And are not these such Principles of Christian Religion as no Man ought to be ignorant of or can deny without the Guilt of the Heresies condemned in the first General Councils And they are no other Principles which my whole Discourse excepted against doth proceed upon But saith our Author unless the Person of Christ as Mediator be distinct from his Person as God Man all this is idle Talk Very Good and why so Why what Personal Graces are there in Christ as Mediator which do not belong unto him either as God or Man But is he not ashamed of this Ignorance Is it not a Personal Grace and Excellency that he is God and Man in one Person which belongs not to him either as God or Man And are there not Personal Operations innumerable depending hereon which could not have been wrought by him either as God or Man as raising himself from the Dead by his own Power and Redeeming the Church with his Blood Are not most of the Descriptions that are given us of Christ in the Scripture most of the Operations which are assigned unto him such as neither belong unto nor proceed from the Divine or Humane Nature separately considered but from the Person of Christ as both these Natures are united in it That which seems to have led him into the Maze wherein he is bewildred in his ensuing Discourse is that considering there are but two Natures in Christ the Divine and the Humane Nature is the Principle of all Operations he supposed that nothing could be said of Christ nothing ascribed to his Person but what was directly formally predicated of one of his Natures distinctly considered But he might have easily enquired of himself that seeing all the Properties and Acts of the Divine Nature are absolutely Divine and all those of the Humane Nature absolutely Humane whence it came to pass that all the Operations and Works of Christ as Mediator are Theandrical Although there be nothing in the Person of Christ but his Divine and Humane Nature yet the Person of Christ is neither his Divine Nature nor his Humane For the Humane Nature is and ever was of it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Divine to the compleat Constitution of the Person of the Mediator in and unto its own Hypostasis assumed the Humane so that although every Energy or Operation be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so the distinct Natures are distinct Principles of Christ's operations yet his Person is the Principal or only Agent which being God-Man all the Actions thereof by vertue of the Communication of Properties of both Natures therein are Theandrical And the Excellency of this Person of Christ wherein he was every way fitted for the work of Mediation I call sometimes his Personal Grace and will not go to him to Learn to speak and express my self in these things And it is most false which he affirms pag. 203. That I distinguish the Graces of Christ's Person as Mediator from the Graces of his Person as God and Man Neither could any Man have run into such an Imagination who had competently understood the things which he speaks about And the bare proposal of these things is enough to defeat the Design of all his ensuing Cavils and Exceptions And as to what he closeth withal that Surely I will not call the peculiar Duties and Actions of an office Personal Graces I suppose that he knoweth not well what he intends thereby Whatever he hath fancied about Christ being the Name of an Office Jesus Christ of whom we speak is an Person and not an Office And there are no such things in rerum natura as the actions of an Office And if by them he intends the Actions of a Person in the discharge of an Office whatever he calls them I will call the Habits in Christ from whence all his Actions in the performance of his Office do proceed Personal Graces and that whether he will or no. So he is a merciful faithful and compassionate High-Priest Heb. 2.17 4.15 5.2 And all his Actions in the discharge of his Office of Priesthood being principled and regulated by those Qualifications I do call them his Personal Graces and do hope that for the future I may obtain his leave so to do The like may be said of his other Offices The Discourse which he thus raves against is Didactical and accommodated unto a Popular way of Instruction and it hath been hitherto the common Ingenuity of all Learned Men to give an Allowance unto such Discourses so as not to exact from them an accuracy and propriety in Expressions such as is required in those that are Scholastical or Polemical It is that which by common consent is allowed to the Tractates of the Ancients of that Nature especially where nothing is taught but what for the substance of it is consonant unto the Truth But this Man attempts not only a Severity in nibling at all Expressions which he fancyeth liable unto his Censures but with a disingenuous Artifice waving the Tenour and Process of the Discourse which I presume he found not himself able to oppose he takes out sometimes here sometimes there up and down backward and forward at his Pleasure what he will to put if it be possible an ill Sence upon the whole And if he have not hereby given a sufficient Discovery of his good will towards the doing of somewhat to my disadvantage he hath failed in his whole Endeavour For there is no Expression which he hath
fixed on as the Subject of his Reflections which is truely mine but that as it is used by me and with respect unto its End I will defend it against him and all his Co-partners whilst the Scripture may be allowed to be the Rule and Measure of our Conceptions and Expressions about Sacred things And although at present I am utterly wearied with the consideration of such sad Triflings I shall accept from him the kindness of an Obligation to so much Patience as is necessary unto the perusal of the ensuing Leaves wherein I am concerned First Pag. 202. He would pick something if he knew what out of my Quotations of Cant. 5.9 to express or illustrate the Excellency of Christ which first he calls an Excellent Proof by way of scorn But as it is far from being the only Proof produced in the Confirmation of the same Truth and is applyed rather to illustrate what was spoken then to prove it yet by his favour I shall make bold to continue my apprehensions of the occasional Exposition of the words which I have given in that Place until he is pleased to acquaint me with a better which I suppose will be long enough For what he adds But however White and Ruddy belong to his Divine and Humane Nature and that without regard to his Mediatory Office for he had been White in the Glory of his Deity and Ruddy with the Red Earth of his Humanity whether he had been considered as Mediator or not it comes from the same spring of skill and Benevolence with those afore For what wise talk is it of Christ's being God Man without the Consideration of his being Mediator as though he were ever or ever should have been God and Man but with respect unto his Mediation His Scoff at the red Earth of Christ's Humanity represented as my words is grounded upon a palpable falsification For my words are He was also ruddy in the Beauty of his Humanity Man was called Adam from the red Earth whereof he was made The word here used points him out as the second Adam partaker of Flesh and Blood because the Children also partook of the same And if he be displeased with these Expressions let him take his own time to be pleased again it is that wherein I am not concerned But my fault which so highly deserved his Correction is that I apply that to the person of Christ which belongs unto his Natures But what if I say no such thing or had no such Design in that place For although I do maintain a distinct Consideration of the Excellency of Christ's person as comprising both his Natures united though every real thing in his person belongs formally and radically unto one of the Natures those other Excellencies being the Exurgency of their Union whereby his person was fitted and suited unto his Mediatory operations which in neither nature singly considered he could have performed and shall continue to maintain it against whosoever dares directly to oppose it yet in this place I intended it not which this man knew well enough the very next words unto what he pretends to prove it being The beauty and comeliness of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Vnion of both these in one Person shall afterwards be declared And so we have an equality in Judgement and Ingenuity throughout this Censure Hence he leaps to pag. 64. of my Book thence backwards to 53. and then up and down I know not how nor whither He begins with pag. 64. And in his first Digression concerning the Excellency of Christ Jesus to invite us to Communion with him in a Conjugal Relation he tells us that Christ is exceeding Excellent and Desirable in his Deity and the Glory thereof He is Desirable and Worthy our Acceptation as considered in his Humanity in his Freedom from Sin Fulness of Grace c. Now though this look very like a Contradiction that by the Graces of his Person he meant neither the Excellencies of his Divine nor Humane Nature yet he hath a Salvo which will deliver him both from Contradiction and from Sense that he doth not consider these Excellencies of his Deity or Humanity as abstracted from his Office of Mediator though he might if he pleased For he considers those Excellencies which are not peculiar to the Office of Mediation but which would have belonged unto him as God and Man whether he had been Mediator or not But what becomes of his Distinction of the Graces of Christ's Person as Mediator from the Graces of his Person as God and Man when there are no personal Graces in Christ but what belong to his Deity or his Humanity I am sufficiently satisfyed that he neither knows where he is nor what he doth or hath no due comprehension of the things he treats about That which he opposeth if he intend to oppose any thing by me asserted is that whereas Christ is God the Essential properties of his Divine Nature are to be considered as the formal Motive unto and Object of Faith Love and Obedience and whereas he is Man also his Excellencies in the Glorious Endowment of his Humane Nature with his Alliance unto us therein and his Furniture of Grace for the Discharge of his Office are proposed unto our Faith and Love in the Scripture And of these things we ought to take a distinct Consideration our Faith concerning them being not only Taught in the Scripture but fully confirmed in the Confessions and Determinations of the Primitive Church But the Person of Christ wherein these two Natures are united is of another distinct Consideration and such things are spoken thereof as cannot under any single Enunciation be ascribed unto either Nature though nothing be so but what formally belongs unto one of them or is the necessary consequent Exurgency of their Union See Isa. 9.6 2 Tim. 3.16 John 1.14 It is of the Glory of the Word of God made Flesh that I discourse But this Man talks of what would have belonged to Christ as God-Man whether he had been Mediator or not as though the Son of God either was or was ever designed to be or can be considered as God-Man and not as Mediator And thence he would releive himself by the Calumny of assigning a Distinction unto me between the Graces of Christ's person as Mediator the Graces of his person as God Man that is one person which is a meer figment of his own misunderstanding Upon the whole he comes to that accurate Thesis of his own that there are no personal Graces in Christ but what belong to his Deity or Humanity Personal Graces belonging unto the Humanity or Humane Nature of Christ that Nature being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or such as hath no personal subsistence of its own is a Notion that those may thank him for who have a mind to do it And he may do well to consider what his thoughts are of the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ mentioned Phill. 2.7
Nature in the Person of Christ See Isa. 6.1 2 3. Joh. 12.41 Isa. 9.6 Joh. 1.14 Phil. 2.6 c. or shall think that the Grace or Excellencies of his Person do not principally consist in them as the Humane Nature is united thereunto 5 ly They consider all the Glorious Effects of his Mediation All the Effects of Christs Mediation all the Things that are spoken of the Gospel c. do all of them declare the Excellency of the Person of Christ as Effects declare their Cause and may and ought to be considered unto that end as Occasion doth require And no otherwise are they considered by those whom he doth oppose 6 ly But the End of these strange Principles and Practices he tells us is that all our hopes may be built not on the Gospel Covenant but on the Person of Christ. But I say again what is it that this Man intends What is become of a common Regard to God and Man who do so build their hopes on Christ as to reject or despise the Gospel-Covenant as he calls it though I am afraid should he come to explain himself he will be at a loss about the true Nature of the Gospel-Covenant as I find him to be about the Person and Grace of Christ. He telleth us indeed that not the Person of Christ but the Gospel is the Way did we ever say not the Covenant of Grace but the Person of Christ is all we regard But whence comes this causeless Fear and Jealousie or rather this evil Surmise that if any endeavour to exalt the Person of Christ immediately the Covenant of the Gospel that is in truth the Covenant which is declared in the Gospel must be discarded Is there an inconsistency between Christ and the Covenant I never met with any who was so fearfull and jealous least too much should be ascribed in the matter of our Salvation to Jesus Christ and when there is no more so but what the Scripture doth expressely and in words assign unto him and affirm of him instantly we have an Outcry that the Gospel and the Covenant are rejected and that a Dispute lyes between the Person of Christ and his Gospel But let him not trouble himself for as he cannot and as he knowes he cannot produce any one word or one syllable out of any Writings of mine that should derogate any thing from the Excellency Nature Necessity or Use of the New Covenant so though it may be he do not and doth therefore fancy and dream of Disputes between Christ and the Gospel we do know how to respect both the Person of Christ and the Covenant both Jesus Christ and the Gospel in their proper places And in particular we do know that as it is the Person of Christ who is the Author of the Gospel and who as Mediator in his Work of Mediation gives Life and Efficacy and Establishment unto the Covenant of Grace so both the Gospel and that Covenant do declare the Glory and design the Exaltation of Jesus Christ himself Speaking therefore comparatively all our hopes are built on Jesus Christ who alone filleth all things yet also we have our hopes in God through the Covenant declared in the Gospel as the way designing the Rule of our Obedience securing our Acceptance and Reward And to deal as gently as I can warrant my self to do with this Writer the Dispute he mentions between the Person of Christ the Gospel which shall be the Foundation of our Hope is only in his own fond imagination distempered by Disingenuity and Malevolence For if I should charge what the appearrance of his Expressions will well bare what he sayes seems to be out of a Design influenced by Ignorance or Heresie to exclude Jesus Christ God and Man from being the principal Foundation of the Church and which all its hopes are built upon This being the summe of his Charge I hope he will fully prove it in the Quotations from my Discourse which he now sets himself to produce assuring him that if he do not but come short therein setting aside his odious and foppish prophane Deductions I doe averre them all in plain terms that he may on his next occasion of Writing save his labour in searching after what he may oppose Thus therefore he proceeds pag. 205. To make this appear I shall consider that account which D r. Owen gives us of the personal Graces and Excellencies of Christ which in general consist in three things First his Fitness to save from the Grace of Vnion and the proper and necessary Effects thereof Secondly his Fulness to save from the Grace of Communion or the free Consequences of the Grace of Vnion and Thirdly his Excellency to endear from his compleat suitableness to all the wants of the Souls of men First That he is fit to be a Saviour from the Grace of Vnion and if you will understand what this strange Grace of Vnion is it is the uniting the Nature of God and Man in one Person which makes him fit to be a Saviour to the uttermost He layes his hand upon God by partaking of his Nature and he layes his hand on us by partaking of our Nature and so becomes a Dayes-man or Vmpire between both Now though this be a great Truth that the Vnion of the Divine and Humane Nature in Christ did excellently qualifie him for the Office of a Mediator yet this is the Vnhappiest man in Expressing and proving it that I have met with For what an untoward Representation is this of Christs Mediation That he came to make Peace by laying his hands on God and Men as if he came to part a Fray or Scuffle and he might as well have named Gen. 1.1 or Matth. 1.1 or any other place of Scripture for the proof of it as those he mentions To what End it is that he cites these Passages out of my Discourse is somewhat difficult to divine Himself confesseth that what is asserted at least in one of them is a great Truth only I am the unhappiest man in expressing and proving it that ever he met with It is evident enough to me that he hath not met with many who have treated of this Subject or hath little understood those he hath met withall so that there may be yet some behind as unhappy as my self And seeing he hath so good a Leisure from other Occasions as to spend his Time in telling the world how unhappy I am in my Proving and Expressing of what himself acknowledgeth to be true he may be pleased to take notice that I am now sensible of my own unhappiness also in having fallen under a Diversion from better Employments by such sad and wofull Impertinencies But being at once charged with both these misadventures untowardness in Expression and weakness in the Proof of a plain Truth I shall willingly admit of Information to mend my way of writing for the future And the first Reflection he casts on my Expressions is my
the Doctrines they Professed is somewhat remote from that Christian Humility which he ought not only to exercise in himself but to give an Example of unto Others But if this be the Fruit of despising the Knowledge of the Person of Chrst of the Necessity of his Satisfaction of the Imputation of his Righteousness of Union unto his Person as our Head of a sense of the Displeasure of God due to Sin of the Spirit of Bondage and Adoption of the Corruption of Nature and our Disability to do any thing that is spiritually Good without the effectual Ayds of Grace If these I say and the like Issues of appearing Pride and Elation of Mind be the Fruit and Consequent of rejecting these Principles of the Doctrine of the Gospel it manifests that there is and will be a proportion between the Errours of Mens Minds and the depravation of their Affections It were a most easy task to go over all the particulars mentioned by him and to manifest how foully he hath prevaricated in their Representation how he hath cast contempt on some Duties of Religion indispensibly necessary unto Salvation and brought in the very words of the Scripture that in the true proper sence and intendment of them according to the Judgment of all Christians Ancient Modern as that of Looking to Christ as the Israelites looked to the Brasen Serpent in the Wilderness to bear a share and part in his Scorn and Contempt as also to defend and vindicate not his odious disingenious Expressions but what he invidiously designeth to Expose beyond his Ability to gainsay or with any pretence of sober Learning to reply unto But I give it up into the hands of those who are more concerned in the Chastisment of such Imaginations Only I cannot but tell this Author what I have Learned by long Observation Namely that those who in opposing others make it their Design to and place their Confidence in false Representations and invidions Expressions of their Judgments and Opinions waving a true Stating of the things in Difference and weighing of the Arguments wherewith they are confirmed whatever pretence they may make of Confidence and Contempt of them with whom they have to do Yet this way of writing proceeds from a secret sense of their disability to maintain their own Opinions or to reply to the Reasonings of their Adversaries in a fair and lawful Disputation or from such depraved Affections as are sufficient to deter any sober Person from the least Communication in those Principles which are so pleaded for And the same I must say of that kind of Writing which in some late Authors fills up almost every Page in their Books which beyond a Design to load the persons of Men with Reproaches and Calumnies consist only in the Collecting of passages here and there up and down out of the writings of others which as cut off from the Body of their Discourses and Design of the Places which they belong unto may with a little Artifice either of Addition or Detraction with some false Glosses whereof we shall have an immediate Instance be represented weak or untrue or improper or some way or other obnoxious to Censure When Diligence Modesty Love of Truth Sobriety true use of Learning shall again visit the World in a more plentiful manner though Differences should continue amongst us yet men will be enabled to manage them honestly without contracting so much Guilt on themselves or giving such fearful Offence Scandal unto others But I return That wherein I am particularly concerned is the Close wherewith he winds up this Candid Ingenious Discourse pag. 74. He quotes my Words That the Soul consents to take Christ on his own Terms to save him in his own way and saith Lord I would have had thee and Salvation in my way that it might have been partly of mine Endeavours and as it were by the works of the Law that is by obeying the Laws of the Gospel but I am now willing to receive Thee and to be saved in thy way meerly by Grace that is without doing any thing without obeying Thee The most contented Spouse certainly that ever was in the World to submâ—t to such hard conditions as to be saved for nothing But what a pretty Complement doth the Soul make to Christ after all this when she adds And though I would have walked according to my own mind yet now I wholly give up my self to be ruled by the Spirit If the Reader will be at the pains to look on the Discourse whence these passages are taken I shall desire no more of his favour but that he profess himself to be a Christian and then let him freely pronounce whether he find any thing in it obnoxious to Censure Or I desire that any Man who hath not forfeited all Reason and Ingenuity unto Faction and Party if he differ from me truly to state wherein and oppose what I have said with an Answer unto the Testimonies wherewith it is confirmed referred unto in the Margent of my Discourse But the way of this Authors proceeding if there be no plea to be made for it from his Ignorance and unacquaintedness not only with the Person of Christ but with most of the other things he undertakes to write about is altogether unexcusable The way whereby I have expressed the consent of the Soul in the receiving of Jesus Christ to be Justifyed Sanctifyed Saved by him I still avow as suited unto the mind of the Holy Ghost and the Experience of them that really believe And whereas I added that before Believing the Soul did seek for Salvation by the works of the Law as it is natural unto all and as the Holy-Ghost affirms of some whose words alone I used and expresly quoted that Place from whence I took them namely Rom. 9.31 32. This Man adds as an Exposition of that Expression that is by obeying of the Laws of the Gospel But he knew that these were the words of the Apostle or he did not If he did not nor would take notice of them so to be although directed to the place from whence they are taken it is evident how meet he is to debate matters of this Nature and Concernment and how far he is yet from being in danger to Pore out his Eyes in reading the Scripture as he pretends If he did know them to be his words why doth he put such a sense upon them as in his own Apprehension is derogatory to Gospel-obedience What-ever he thught of before and it is likely he will now say that it is my sense and not the Apostles which he intends But how will he prove that I intended any other sence than that of the Apostle How should this appear Let him if he can produce any Word in my whole Discourse intimating any other sence Nay it is evident that I had no other intention but only to refer unto that Place of the Apostle and the proper sence of it which is
Countenance from Antiquity or the least from the Passages quoted out of Chrysostom by himself That his Glosses upon many Texts of Scripture which have an admirable Coincidence with those of two other persons whom I shall name when Occasion requires it are sufficient to affix upon them the sence which he pleads for with many other things of an Equal Falshood and Impertinency wherewith this Section is stuffed shall without any farther trouble from me be left to follow their own Inclinations But yet notwithstanding all the great Pains he hath taken to Instruct us in the Nature of the Union between Christ and Believers I shall take leave to prefer that given by Mr. Hooker before it not only as more true and agreeable unto the Scripture but also as better expressing the Doctrine of the Church of England in this matter And if these things please the present Rulers of the Church wherein upon the matter Christ is shuffled off and the whole of our Spiritual Union is resolved into the Doctrine of the Gospel and the Rule of the Church by Bishops and Pastors let it imply what Contradiction it will as it doth the Highest seeing it is by the Doctrine of the Gospel that we are taught our Union with Christ and his Rule of the Church by his Laws and Spirit I have only the the Advantage to know somewhat more than I did formerly though not much to my Satisfaction But he that shall consider what reflections are cast in this Discourse on the necessity of Satisfaction to be made unto Divine Justice and from whom they are borrowed the miserable weak Attempt that is made therein to reduce all Christ's mediatory Actings unto his Kingly Office and in particular his Intercession the faint mention that is made of the Satisfaction of Christ clogged with the addition of Ignorance of the Philosophy of it as it is called well enough complying with them who grant that the Lord Christ did what God was satisfied withal with sundry other things of the like nature will not be to seek whence these things come nor whither they are going nor to whom our Author is beholden for most of his rare Notions which it is an easie thing at any time to acquaint him withal The second Section of this Chapter is filled principally with Exceptions against my Discourse about the Personal Excellencies of Christ as Mediator if I may not rather say with the Reflections on the Glory of Christ himself For my own Discourse upon it I acknowledge to be weak and not only inconceiveably beneath the Dignity and Merit of the Subject but also far short of what is taught and delivered by many Ancient Writers of the Church unto that purpose And for his Exceptions they are such a Composition of ignorance and spite as is hardly to be paralel'd His Entrance upon his Work is pag 200. as followeth Secondly Let us enquire what they mean by the Person of Christ to which Believers must be united And here they have outdone all the Metaphysical Subtilties of Suarez and have found out a Person for Christ distinct from his God-head and Man-hood for there can be no other Sense made of what Dr. Owen tells us that by the Graces of his Person he doth not mean the Glorious Excellencies of his Deity considered in it self abstracting from the Office which for us as God and Man be undertook nor the outward appearance of his Humane Nature when he conversed here on Earth nor yet as now Exalted in Glory but the Graces of the Person of Christ as he is vested with the Office of Mediation his Spiritual Eminency Comeliness Beauty as appointed and anointed by the Father unto that Great Work of bringing home all his Elect into his Bosom Now unless the Person of Christ as Mediator be distinct from his Person as God-Man all this is Idle talk For what Personal Graces are there in Christ as Mediator which do not belong to him either as God or Man There are some things indeed which our Saviour did and suffered which he was not obliged to either as God or Man but as Mediator but surely he will not call the Peculiar Duties and Actions of an Office Personal Graces I have now learned not to trust unto the Honesty and Ingenuity of our Author as to his Quotations out of my Book which I find that he hath here mangled and altered as in other Places and shall therefore transcribe the whole Passage in my own Words Pag. 51. It is Christ as Mediator of whom we speak and therefore by the Grace of his Person I understand not First the Glorious Excellencies of his Deity considered in it self abstracting from the Office which for us as God and Man be undertook 2. Nor the outward appearance of his humane Nature neither when he conversed here on Earth bearing our Infirmities whereof by reason of the Charge that was laid upon him the Prophet gives quite another Character Isa. 52 14. Concerning which some of the Ancients are very Poetical in their Expressions nor yet as now exalted in Glory a Vain Imagination whereof makes many bear a false a Corrupted respect unto Christ even upon Carnal Apprehensions of the mighty Exaltation of the Humane Nature which is but to know Christ after the Flesh a Mischief much improved by the Abomination of Foolish Imagery But this is that which I intend the Graces of the Person of Christ as he is vested with the office of Mediation his Spiritual Eminency Comelyness and Beauty c. Now in this respect the Scripture describes him as exceeding Excellent Comely and Desirable far above comparison with the choycest Chiefest Created Good or any Endowment imaginable which I prove at large from Psal. 45.2 Isa. 4.2 Cant. 5.9 adding on Explanation of the whole In the Digression some Passages whereof he carps at in this Section my Design was to declare as was said somewhat of the Glory of the Person of Christ To this End I considered both the Glory of his Divine and the many Excellencies of his humane Nature But that which I principally insisted on was the Excellency of Person as God and Man in one whereby he was meet and able to be the Mediator between God and Man and to effect all the great and blessed Ends of his Mediation That our Lord Jesus Christ was God and that there were on that account in his Person the Essential Excellencies and Properties of the Divine Nature I suppose he will not deny Nor will he do so that he was truly Man and that his Humane Nature was endowed with many Glorious Graces and Excellencies which are Peculiar thereunto That theâ—e is a distinct Consideration of his Person as both these Natures are united therein is that which he seems to have a mind to except against And is it meet that any one who hath ought else to do should spend any moments of that Time which he knows how better to improve in the pursuit of a Mans
pages with seeing it is but little in them which he excepteth against and whoever pleaseth may consult them at large in the places from whence they are taken Or because it is not easie to find them out singly they are so picked up and down backwards and forwards curtailed and added to at pleasure any one may in a very little space of time read over the whole unto his full satisfaction I shall therefore only consider his exceptions and hast unto an end of this fruitless trouble wherein I am most unwillingly engaged by this man's unsuspected Disingenuity and Ignorance After the Citation of some Passages he adds pag. 301. This methinks is very strange that what he did as Mediator is not imputed unto us but what he did not as our Mediator but as a Man subject to the Law that is imputed to us and reckoned as if we had done it by reason of his being our Mediator And it is as strange to the full that Christ should do whatever was required of us by vertue of any Law when he was neither Husband nor Wife nor Father Merchant nor Tradesman Sea-man nor Soldier Captain or Lieutenant much less a Temporal Prince and Monarch And how he should discharge the Duties of these Relations for us which are required of us by certain Laws when he never was in any of these Relations and could not possibly be in all is an Argument which may Exercise the subtilty of Schoolmen and to them I leave it It were greatly to be desired that he would be a little more heedful and with attention read the Writings of other Men that he might understand them before he comes to make such a bluster in his opposition to them For I had told him plainly That though there was a peculiar Law of Mediation whose Acts and Duties we had no obligation unto yet the Lord Christ even as Mediator was obliged unto and did personally perform all Duties of Obedience unto the Law of God whereunto we were subject and obliged pag. 181. Sec. 14. And it is strange to apprehend how he came to imagine that I said he did it not as our Mediator but as a Private Man That which possibly might cast his thoughts into this disorder was that he knew not that Christ was made a Private Man as Mediator which yet the Scripture is sufficiently express in For the following Objections that the Lord Christ was neither Husband nor Wife Father nor Tradesman c. wherein yet possibly he is out in his Account I have frequently smiled at it when I have met with it in the Socinians who are perking with it at every turn but here it ought to be admired But yet without troubling those Bugbears the School-men he may be pleased to take notice that the Grace of Duty and Obedience in all Relations is the same the Relations administring only an External Occasion unto its Peculiar Exercise And what our Lord Jesus Christ did in the fulfilling of all Righteousness in the Circumstances and Relations wherein he stood may be imputed to us for our Righteousness in all our Relations every Act of Duty and Sin in them respecting the same Law and Principle And hereon all his following Exceptions for sundry pages wherein he seems much to have pleased himself do fall to nothing as being resolved into his own Mistakes if he doth not prevaricate against his Science and Conscience For the summe of them all he gives us in these words pag. 304. That Christ did those things as Mediator which did not belong to the Laws of his Mediation which in what sence he did so is fully explained in my Discourse And I am apt to guess that either he is deceived or doth design to deceive in expressing it by the Laws of his Mediation which may comprize all the Laws which as Mediator he was subject unto and so it is most true that he did nothing as Mediator but what belonged unto the Laws of his Mediation But most false that I have affirmed that he did For I did distinguish between that peculiar Law which required the publick Acts of his Mediation and those other Laws which as Mediator he was made subject unto And if he neither doth nor will understand these things when he is told them and they are proved unto him beyond what he can contradict I know no reason why I should trouble my self with one that contends with his own Mormoes though he never so lewdly or loudly call my Name upon them And whereas I know my self sufficiently subject unto Mistakes and Slips so when I actually fall into them as I shall not desire this mans Forgiveness but leave him to exercise the utmost of his severity so I despise his ridiculous attempts to represent Contradictions in my Discourse pag. 306. All pretences whereunto are taken from his own Ignorance or feigned in his Imagination Of the like Nature are all his ensuing Cavils I desire no more of any Reader but to peruse the places in my Discourse which he carpeth at and if he be a Person of ordinary understanding in these things I declare that I will stand to his Censure and Judgement without giving him the least farther Intimation of the sence and Intendment of what I have written or Vindication of its Truth Thus whereas I had plainly declared that the way whereby the Lord Christ in his own Person became obnoxious and subject unto the Law of Creation was by his own voluntary antecedent Choyce otherwise than it is with those who are inevitably subject unto it by Natural Generation under it as also that the Hypostatical Union in the first instant whereof the Humane Nature was fitted for Glory might have exempted him from the Oblgation of any outward Law whatever whence it appears that his consequential Obedience though Necessary to himself when he had submitted himself unto the Law as Loe I come to doe thy Will O God was designedly for us he miserably perplexeth himself to abuse his credulous Readers with an Apprehension that I had talked like himself at such a rate of Nonsence as any one in his Wits must needs despise The meaning and summe of my Discourse he would have to be this Pag. 308. That Christ had not been bound to live like a man had he not been a Man with I know not what futulous Cavils of the like nature when all that I insisted on was the Reason why Christ would be a Man and live like a Man which was that we might receive the Benefit and Profit of his Obedience as he was our Mediator So in the close of the same wise Harangue from my saying That the Lord Christ by vertue of the Hypostatical Union might be exempted as it were and lifted above the Law which yet he willingly submitted unto and in the same instant wherein he was made of a Woman was made also under the Law whence Obedience unto it became Necessary unto him the man feigns I know not what
A Vindication OF SOME PASSAGES IN A DISCOURSE Concerning Communion with GOD From the Exceptions of WILLIAM SHERLOCK Rector of St. George Buttolph-Lane By the Author of the said Discourse John Owen D D London Printed for N. Ponder at the Peacock in Chancery-Lane 1674. A VINDICATION Of some PASSAGES IN A DISCOURSE Concerning Communion with GOD. IT is now near twenty years since I wrote and published a Discourse concerning Communion with God Of what Use and Advantage it hath been to any as to their furtherance in the design aimed at therein is left unto them to judge by whom it hath been peâ—â—â—d with any candid diligence And I do know that multitudes of Persons fearing God and desiring to walk before him in sincerity are ready if occasion require to give Testimony unto the benefit which they have received thereby as I can also at any time produce the Testimonies of Learned and Holy Persons it may be as any I know living both in England and out of it who owning the Truth contained in it have highly avowed its usefulness and are ready yet so to do With all other Persons so far as ever I heard it passed at the rate of a tolerable acceptation with Discourses of the same kind and nature And however any thing or passage in it might not possibly suit the Apprehensions of some yet being wholly practical designed for popular edification without any direct ingagement into things controversial I looked for no opposition unto it or exception against it but that it would at least be suffered to pass at that rate of allowance which is universally granted unto that sort of Writings both of Ancient and Modern Authors Accordingly it so fell out and continued for many years until some Persons began to judge it their Interest and to make it their business to cavil at my Writings and to load my Person with Reproaches With what little success as to their avowed designs they have laboured therein how openly their endeavours are sunk into contempt with all sorts of Persons pretending unto the least Sobriety or modesty I suppose they are not themselves altogether unsensible Among the things which this sort of Men sought to make an Advantage of against me I found that two or three of them began to reflect on that Discourse though it appeared they had not satisfied themselves what as yet to fix upon their nibling Cavils being exceedingly ridiculous But yet from those Intimations of some Mens good will towards it sufficient to provoke the Industry of such as either needed their Assistance or valued their Favour I was in expectation that one or other would possess that Province and attempt the whole Discourse or some parts of it Nor was I dissatisfied in my Apprehensions of that design For being earnestly solicited to suffer it to be Reprinted I was very willing to see what either could or would be objected against it before it received another Impression For whereas it was Written now near twenty years ago when there was the deepest Peace in the minds of all Men about the Things treated of therein and when I had no Apprehension of any dissent from the Principal Design Scope and Parts of it by any called Christians in the World the Socinians only excepted whom I had therein no regard unto I thought it highly probable that some things might have been so expressed as to render a Review and Amendment of them more than ordinarily necessary And I reckoned it not improbable but that from one malevolent Adversary I might receive a more instructive Information of such escapes of Diligence than I could do in so long a Time from all the more impartial Readers of it for as unto the substance of the Doctrine declared in it I was sufficiently secure not only of its Truth but that it would immoveably endure the rudest assaults of such oppositions as I did expect I was therefore very well satisfied when I heard of the publishing of this Treatise of Mr. Sherlock's which as I was informed and since have found true was principally intended against my self and that Discourse that is that Book because I was the Author of it which will at last prove to be its only Guilt and Crime For I thought I should be at once now satisfied both what it was which was so long contriving against it whereof I could give no conjecture as also be directed unto any such mistakes as might have befallen me in matter or manner of Expression which I would or might rectify before the Book received another Edition But upon a View and Perusal of this Discourse I found my self under a double surprisal For first in reference to my own I could not find any thing any Doctrine any Expressions any Words reflected on which the Exceptions of this Man do give me the least occasion to alter or to desire that they had been otherwise either expressed or delivered not any thing which now after near twenty years which I do not still equally approve of and which I am not yet ready to justifie The other part of my Surprisal was somewhat particular though in Truth it ought to have been none at all And this was with respect unto those Doctrinal Principles which he manageth his oppositions upon A surprisal they were unto me because Wild Uncouth Extravagant and contrary to the common Faith of Christians being all of them traduced and some of them transcribed from the Writings of the Socinians yet ought not to have been so because I was assured that an opposition unto that Discourse could be managed on no other But however the Doctrine maintained by this Man and those opposed or scorned by him are not my special concernment For what is it to me what the Rector of c. Preacheth or Publisheth beyond my Common Interest in the Truths of the Gospel with other Men as great strangers unto him as my self who to my knowledg never saw him nor heard of his Name till infamed by his Book Only I shall take leave to say that the Doctrine here published and Licensed so to be is either the Doctrine of the present Church of England or it is not If it be so I shall be forced to declare that I neither have nor will have any Communion therein and that as for other Reasons so in particular because I will not renounce or depart from that which I know to be the True Ancient and Catholick Doctrine of this Church if it be not so as I am assured with respect unto many Bishops and other Learned Men that it is not it is certainly the concernment of them who preside therein to take care that such kind of Discourses be not countenanced with the stamp of their publick Authority lest they and the Church be represented unto a great disadvantage with many It was some Months after the publishing of this Discourse before I entertained any thoughts of taking the least notice of it yea I was resolved to the
contrary and declared those Resolutions as I had occasion Neither was it until very lately that my second Thoughts came to a compliance with the desires of some others to consider my own peculiar concernment therein And this is all which I now design for the examination of the Opinions which this Author hath veuted under the countenance of publick License whatever they may think I know to be more the concernment of other Men than mine Nor yet do I enter into the Consideration of what is written by this Author with the least respect unto my self or my own reputation which I have the satisfaction to conceive not to be prejudiced by such pittiful Attempts nor have I the least desire to preserve it in the minds of such Persons as wherein it can suffer on this occasion But the Vindication of some sacred Truths petulantly traduced by this Author seems to be cast on me in an especial manner because he hath opposed them and endeavoured to expose them to scorn as declared in my Book whence others more meet for this work might think themselves discharged from taking notice of them Setting aside this consideration I can freely give this sort of Men leave to go on with their Revilings and Scoffings until they are weary or ashamed which as far as I can discern upon Consideration of their Ability for such a Work and their Confidence therein is not like to be in haste At least they can change their course and when they are out of breath in pursuit of one sort of calumnies betake themselves unto another Witness the late malicious and yet withal ridiculous Reports that they have divulged concerning me even with respect unto Civil Affairs and their industry therein For although they were such as had not any thing of the least probability or likelihood to give them countenance yet were they so impetuously divulged and so readily entertained by many as made me think there was more than the common artifices of Calumny employed in their raising and improvement especially considering what Persons I can justly charge those Reports upon But in this course they may proceed whilst they please and think convenient I find my self no more concerned in what they Write or say of this Nature than if it were no more But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is the Doctrine traduced only that I am concerned about and that as it hath been the Doctrine of the Church of England It may be it will be said for there is no security against Confidence and Imodesty backed with secular Advantages that the Doctrinal Principles asserted in this Book are agreeable with the Doctrine of the Church in former Times and therefore those opposed in it such as are condemned thereby Hereabout I shall make no long contest with them who once discover that their Minds are by any means emboldned to undertake the Defence of such shameless Untruths Nor shall I multiply Testimonies to prove the Contrary which others are more concerned to do if they intend not to betray the Religion of that Church with whose Preservation and Defence they are intrusted Only because there are Ancient Divines of this Church who I am perswaded will be allowed with the most to have known as well the Doctrine of it and as firmly to have adhered thereunto as this Author who have particularly spoken unto most of the Things which he hath opposed or rather reproached I shall transcribe the Words of one of them whereby he and those who employ him may be minded with whom they have to do in those things For as to the Writers of the Antient Church there is herein no regard had unto them He whom I shall Name is Mr. Hooker and that in his Famous Book of Ecclesiastical Policy who in the 5th Book thereof and 56 Paragraph thus discourseth We have hitherto spoken of the Person and of the presence of Christ. Participation is that mutual inward hold which Christ hath of us and we of him in such sort that each possesseth other by way of special Interest Property and Inherent Copulation And after the interposition of some things concerning the mutual in-being and Love of the Father and the Son he thus proceedeth We are by Nature the Sons of Adam When God Created Adam he Created us and as many as are descended from Adam have in themselves the Root out of which they Spring The Sons of God we neither are all nor any of Us otherwise than only by Grace and Favour The Sons of God have Gods own Natural Son as a second Adam from Heaven whose Race and Progeny they are by Spiritual and Heavenly Birth God therefore loving Eternally his Son he must needs Eternally in him have loved and preferred before all others them which are Spiritually sithence descended and sprung out of him These are in God as in their Saviour and not as in their Creator only It was the Purpose of his saving Goodness his Saving Power and his Saving Wisdom which inclined it self towards them They which thus are in God eternally by their intended admission to Life have by Vocation or Adoption God actually now in them as the Artificer is in that Work which his hand doth presently frame Life as all other Gifts and Benefits groweth originally from the Father and cometh not to Us but by the Son nor by the Son to any of Us in particular but through the Spirit For this cause the Apostle wisheth to the Church of Corinth the Grace our Lord Jesus Christ and the Love of God and the Fellowship of the Holy Ghost which three Saint Peter comprehendeth in one the Participation of the Divine Nature We are therefore in God through Christ Eternally according to that intent and purpose whereby we are chosen to be made his in this present World before the World it self was made We were in God through the knowledg which is had of Us and the Love which is born towards Us from Everlasting But in God we actually are no longer than only from the Time of our Actual Adoption into the Body of his true Church into the Fellowship of his Children For his Church he knoweth and loveth so that they that are in the Church are thereby known to be in him Our being in Christ by Eternal foreknowledg Saveth Us not without our actual and real Adoption into the Fellowship of his Saints in this present World For in him we actually are by our actual incorporation into that society which hath him for their head and doth make together with him one Body He and they in that respect having one Name For which cause by vertue of this Mystical conjunction we are of him and in him even as though our very flesh and bones should be made continuate with his We are in Christ because he knoweth and Loveth Us even as parts of himself No Man is actually in him but they in whom he actually is For he which hath not the Son of
God hath not life I am the Vine and you are the Branches he which abideth in Me and I in him the same bringeth forth much Fruit but the Branch severed from the Vine withereth We are therefore adopted Sons of God to Eternal Life by Participation of the only begotten Son of God whose Life is the well-Spring and Cause of ours It is too cold an Interpretation whereby some Men expound our being in Christ to import nothing else but only that the self-same Nature which maketh Us to be Men is in him and maketh him Man as We are For what Man is there in the World which hath not so far forth Communion with Jesus Christ. It is not this can sustain the weight of such sentences as speak of the Mystery of our Coherence with Jesus Christ. The Church is in Christ as Eve was in Adam Yea by Grace we are every of Us in Christ and in his Church as by Nature we are in those our first Parents God made Eve of the Rib of Adam and his Church he formed out of the very flesh the very wound and bleeding side of the Son of Man His Body crucified and his Blood shed for the Life of the World were the true Elements of that Heavenly being which maketh Us such as himself is of whom we come For which cause the words of Adam may be fitly the Words of Christ concerning his Church Flesh of my flesh and Bone of my Bones a true Native Extract out of mine own Body So that in him even according to his Manhood we according to our Heavenly being are as Branches in that Root out of which they grow To all things he is Life and to Men Light as the Son of God to the Church both Life and Light Eternal by being made the Son of Man for Us and by being in Us a Saviour whether we respect him as God or as Man Adam is in us as an original Cause of our Nature and of that Corruption of Nature which causeth Death Christ as the Cause Original of Restauration to Life The Person of Adam is not in us but his Nature and the Corruption of his nature derived into all Men by Propagation Christ having Adam's Nature as we have but incorrupt deriveth not Nature but incorruption and that immediately from his own Person into all that belong unto him As therefore we are really partakers of the Body of Sin and Death received from Adam so except we be truly partakers of Christ and as really possessed of his Spirit all we speak of Eternal Life is but a Dream That which quickneth us is the Spirit of the Second Adam and his Flesh that wherewith he quickneth That which in him made our Nature uncorrupt was the Union of his Deity with our Nature And in that respect the Sentence of Death and Condemnation which only taketh hold upon sinful flesh could no way possibly extend unto him This caused his Voluntary Death for others to prevail with God and to have the force of an Expiatory Sacrifice The Blood of Christ as the Apostle witnesseth doth therefore take away Sin because through the Eternal Spirit he offered himself unto God without spot as that which sanctifyed our nature in Christ that which made it a Sacrifice available to take away sin is the same which quickneth it raised it out of the Grave after Death and exalted it unto Glory Seeing therefore Christ is in Us as a quickning Spirit the first degree of Communion with Christ must needs consist in the participation of his Spirit which Cyprian in that respect well termeth germanissimam Societatem the highest and truest Society that can be between Man and him which is both God and Man in One. These things Saint Cyril duly considering reproveth their Speeches which taught that only the Deity of Christ is the Vine whereupon we by Faith do depend as Branches and that neither his Flesh nor our Body are comprised in this Resemblance For doth any Man doubt but that even from the flesh of Christ our very Bodies do receive that Life which shall make them Glorious at the Latter Day and for which they are already accounted parts of his Blessed Body Our Corruptible Bodies could never live the Life they shall live were it not that here they were joyned with his Body which is incorruptible and that his is in ours as a Cause of Immortality a cause by removing through the Death and Merit of his own flesh that which hindred the Life of Ours Christ is therefore both as God and as Man that true Vine whereof we both Spiritually and Corporeally are Branches The Mixture of his Bodily Sâ—bstance with ours is a thing which the Ancient Fathers disclaim Yet the Mixture of his Flesh with ours they speak of to signify what our very Bodies through Mystical Conjunction do receive from that Vital Efficacy which we know to be in his and from Bodily Mixtures they borrow divers similitudes rather to declare the Truth than the manner of Coherence between his sacred and the sanctâ—fyed Bodies of Saints Thus much no Christian Man will deny that when Chrâ—st sanctifyed his own flesh giving as God and taking as Man the Holy Ghost he did not this for himself only but for our sakes that the Grace of Sanctification and Life which was first received in him might pass from him to his whole Race as Malediction came from Adam unto all Mankind Howbeit because the work of his Spirit to those Effects is in us prevented by Sin and Death possessing us before it is of necessity that as well our present Sanctification unto neâ—ness of Life as the future restauration of our Bodies should presuppose a participation of the Grace Efficacy Merit or Vertue of his Body and Blood without which Foundation first laid there is no Place for those other operations of the Spirit of Christ to ensue So that Christ imparteth plainly himself by degrees It pleaseth him in Mercy to account himself incompleat and maimed without us But most assured we are that we all receive of his fulness because he is in Us as a Moving and Working Cause from which many blessed Effects are really found to ensue And that in Sundry both kinds and Degrees all tending to Eternal Happiness It must be confessed that of Christ working as Creator and as Governour of the World by Providence all are Partakers not all Partakers of that Grace whereby he inhabiteth whom he Saveth Again as he dwelleth not by Grace in all so neither doth he equally work in all them in whom he dwelleth Whence is it saith Saint Augustin that some be Holier than others are but because God doth dwell in some more plentifully than in others And because the Divine substance of Christ is equally in all his Human Substance equally distinct from all it appeareth that the participation of Christ wherein there are many Degrees and Differences must needs consist in such Effects as being derived from both Natures of Christ
the Son of God Incarnate the Mediator between God and Man For because the Name Christ is sometimes used Metonymically to conclude thence that Jesus Christ is not Jesus Christ or that it is not the Person of Christ that is firstly and properly intended by that name in the Gospel is a lewd and impious Imagination And we may as well make Christ to be only a Light within Us as to be the Doctrine of the Gospel without Us. This Knowledg of Jesus Christ I aver to be the only Fountain of all Saving Knowledg which is farther reflected on by this Author And he adds no doubt out of respect unto Me that he will not envy the Glory of this discovery unto its Author and therefore honestly confesseth that he met with it in my Book But what doth he intend whither will Prejudice and Corrupt Designs carry and transport the Minds of Men Is it possible that he should be ignorant that it is the Duty of all Christians to know Jesus Christ to be acquainted with the person of Christ and that this is the Fountain of all Saving Knowledg until he met with it in my Book about Communion with God which I dare say he looked not into but only to find what he might except against It is the Holy Ghost himself that is the Author of this Discovery and it is the great Fundamental Principle of the Gospel Wherefore surely this cannot be the Man's intention and therefore we must look a little further to see what it is that he aimeth at After then the Repetition of some Words of mine he adds as his sence upon them pag. 39. So that it seems the Gospel of Christ makes a very imperfect and obscure Discovery of the Nature Attributes and the Will of God and the Methods of our Recovery We may throughly understand whatever is revealed in the Gospel and yet not have a clear and Saving Knowledg of these things until we get a more intimate Acquaintance with the Person of Christ. And again pag. 40. I shall shew you what additions these Men make to the Gospel of Christ by an Acquaintance with his Person and I confess I am very much beholding to this Author for acknowledging whence they fetch all their Orthodox and Gospel-Mysteries for I had almost pored my Eyes out with seeking for them in the Gospel but could never find them but I learn now that indeed they are not to be found there unless we be first acquainted with the Person of Christ. So far as I can gather up the sence of these loose Expressions it is that I assert a knowledg of the Person of Jesus Christ which is not revealed in the Gospel which is not taught Us in the Writings of Moses the Prophets or Apostles but must be had some other way He tells me afterwards pag. 41. That I put in a Word fallaciously which expresseth the contrary as though I intended another Knowledg of Christ than what is declared in the Gospel Now he either thought that this was not my Design or Intention but would make use of a pretence of it for his Advantage unto an end aimed at which what it was I know well enough or he thought indeed that I did assert and maintain such a knowledg of the Person of Christ as was not received by Scripture-Revelation If it was the first we have an Instance of that new Morality which these new Doctrines are accompanied withal if the latter he discovers how meet a person he is to treat of things of this Nature Wherefore to prevent such scandalous Miscarriages or futilous Imaginations for the future I here tell him that if he can find in that Book or any other of my Writings any Expression or Word or Syllable intimating any Knowledg of Christ or any Acquaintance with the Person of Christ but what is revealed and declared in the Gospel in the Writings of Moses the Prophets and Apostles and as it is so revealed and declared and learned from thence I will publiquely burn that Book with my own hands to give him and all the World Satisfaction Nay I say more if an Angel from Heaven pretend to give any other knowledg of the Person of Christ but what is revealed in the Gospel let him be accursed And here I leave this Author to consider with himsef what was the true occasion why he should first thus represent himself unto the World in Print by the avowing of so unworthy and Notorious a Calumny Whereas therefore by an Acquaintance with the Person of Christ it is undeniably evident that I intended nothing but that Knowledg of Christ which it is the Duty of every Christian to labour after no other but what is revealed declared and delivered in the Scripture as almost every Page of my Book doth manifest where I treat of these things I do here again with the good Leave of this Author assert that this knowledge of Christ is very necessary unto Christians and the Fountain of all Saving Knowledg whatever And as he may if he please review the Honesty and Truth of that Passage pag. 38. So that our Acquaintance with Christ's Person in this Mans Divinity signifies such a Knowledg of what Christ is hath done and suffered for Us from whence we may learn those greater deeper and more Saving Mysteries of the Gospel which Christ hath not expresly revealed to Us So I will not so far suspect the Christianity of them with whom we have to do as to think it necessary to confirm by Texts of Scripture either of these assertions which whoever denies is an open Apostate from the Gospel Having laid this Foundation in an equal Mixture of that Truth and Sobriety wherewith Sundry late Writings of this Nature and to the same Purpose have been stuffed he proceeds to declare what desperate Consequences ensue upon the Necessity of that Knowledg of Jesus Christ which I have asserted addressing himself thereunto pag. 40. Many Instances of such dealings will make me apt to think that some Men whatever they pretend to the contrary have but little Knowledg of Jesus Christ indeed But whatever this Man thinks of him an Accouut must one Day be given before and unto him of such false Calumnies as his Lines are stuffed withal Those who will believe him that he hath almost pored out his Eyes in reading the Gospel with a Design to find out Mysteries that are not in it are left by me to their Liberty Only I cannot but say that his way of Expressing the study of the Scripture is such as becometh a Man of his Wisdom Gravity and Principles He will I hope one day be better acquainted with what belongs unto the due Investigation of sacred Truth in the Scripture than to suppose it represented by such Childish expressions What he hath Learned from me I know not but that I have any where taught that there are Mysteries of Religion that are not to be found in the Gospel unless we are first acquainted with
the Person of Christ is a Frontless and Impudent Falshood I own no other never taught other knowledge of Christ or acquaintance with his Person but what is revealed and declared in the Gospel and therefore no Mysteries of Religion can be thence known and received before we are acquainted with the Gospel it self Yet I will mind this Author of that whereof if he be ignorant he is unfit to be a Teacher of others and which if he deny he is unworthy the Name of a Christian Namely that by the Knowledge of the Person of Christ the great Mystery of God manifest in the Flesh as revealed and declared in the Gospel we are led into a clear and full understanding of many other Mysteries of Grace and Truth which are all centred in his Person and without which we can have no true nor sound understanding of them I shall speak it yet again that this Author if it be possible may understand it or however that he and his Co-partners in Design may know that I neither am nor ever will be ashamed of it that without the Knowledge of the Person of Christ which is our Acquaintance with him as we are commanded to acquaint our selves with God as he is the Eternal Son of God Incarnate the Mediator between God and Man with the Mystery of the Love Grace and Truth of God therein as revealed and declared in the Scripture there is no true useful Saving Knowledge of any other Mysteries or Truths of the Gospel to be attained This being the substance of what is asserted in my Discourse I challenge this Man or any to whose pleasure and Favour his endeavours in this kind are Sacrificed to assert and maintain the contrary if so be they are indeed armed with such a Confidence as to impugne the Foundations of Christianity But to evince his Intention he transcribeth the ensuing passages out of my Discourse pag. 41. The sum of all true Wisdom and Knowledge may be reduced to these three Heads 1 The Knowledge of God his Nature and Properties 2 The Knowledge of our selves with reference to the will of God concerning us 3 Skill to walk in Communion with God In these three is summed up all True Wisdome and Knowledge and not any of them is to any purpose to be obtained or is manifested but only in and by the Lord Christ. This whole passage I am far from disliking upon this Representation of it or any Expression in it Those who are not pleased with this distribution of spiritual Wisdom may make use of any such of their own wherewith they are better satisfied This of mine was sufficient unto my purpose Hereon this censure is passed by him Where By is fallaciously added to include the Revelations Christ hath made whereas his first undertaking was to show how impossible it is to understand these things savingly and clearly notwithstanding all these Revelations God hath made of himself and his will by Moses and the Prophets and by Christ himself without an acquaintance with his person The fallacy pretended is merely of his own coyningâ— my words are plain and sâ—ited unto my own purpose and to declare my mind in what I intend which he openly corrupting or not at all understanding frames an end never thought of by me and then feigns fallacious means of attaining it The knowledge I mean is to be learned by Christ neither is any thing to be learned in him but what is learned by him I do say indeed now whatever I have said before that it is impossible to understand any sacred Truth savingly and clearly without the knowledge of the Person of Christ and shall say so still let this Man and his Companions say what they will to the contrary but that in my so saying I exclude the consideration of the Revelations which Christ hath made or that God hath made of himself by Moses and the Prophets and Christ himself the principal whereof concern his Person and whence alone we come to know him is an Assertion becoming the modesty and Ingenuity of this Author But hereon he proceeds and says that as to the first head he will take notice of those peculiar Discoveries of the Nature of God of which the world was ignorant before and of which Revelation is wholly silent but are now clearly and savingly Learned from an Acquaintance with Christs Person But what in the mean time is become of Modesty Truth and Honesty Do men reckon that there is no Accompt to be given of such falsifications Is there any one Word or Tittle in my discourse of any such knowledge of the Nature or Properties of God as whereof Revelation is wholly silent What doth this Man intend Doth he either not at all understand what I say or doth he not care what he says himself What have I done to him wherein have I injured him how have I provoked him that he should sacrifice his Conscience and Reputation unto such a Revenge must he yet hear it again I never thought I never owned I never wrote that there was any Acquaintance to be obtained with any property of the Nature of God by the knowledge of the Person of Christ but what is Taught and Revealed in the Gospel from whence alone all knowledge of Christ his Person and his Doctrine is to be Learned And yet I will say again if we Learn not thence to know the Lord Christ that is his Person we shall never know any thing of God our Selves or our Duty clearly and savingly I use the words again notwithstanding the Reflections on them as more proper in this Matter than any used by our Author in his Eloquent Discourse and as we ought to do From hence he proceeds unto weak and confused Discourses about the Knowledge of God and his Properties without any Knowledge of Christ. For he not only tells us what reason we had to believe such and such things of God if Christ had never appeared in the World take care I pray that we be thought as little beholding to him as may be but that Gods readiness to Pardon and the like are plainly revealed in the Scripture without any farther Acquaintance with the Person of Christ. Pag. 43. What this farther Acquaintance with the person of Christ should mean I do not well understand It may be any more Acquaintance with respect unto some that is necessary It may be without any more adoe as to an acquaintance with him And if this be his Intention as it must be if there be sense in his words that God's readâ—ness to pardon Sinners is revealed in the Scripture without respect unto the Person of Jesus Christ it is a piece of dull Socinâ—anism which because I have sufficiently confuted else where I shall not here farther discover the folly of For a Knowledge of God's Essential Properties by the Light of Nature it was never denyed by me yea I have written and contended for it in another way than can be impeached by such
to express the Mind and actings of those who being ignorant ignorant of the Righteousness of God go about to establish their own Righteousness as He farther explains himself Rom. 10.3 4. That I could not intend Obedience unto the Laws of the Gospel is so evident that nothing but abominable Prejudice or ignorance could hinder any Man from discerning it For that Faith which I expressed by the Soul's consent to take Christ as a Saviour and a Ruler is the very first Act of Obedience unto the Gospel So that therein or thereon to exclude Obedience unto the Gospel is to deny what I assert which under the favour of this Author I understand my self better than to do And as to all other Acts of Obedience unto the Laws of the Gospel following and proceeding from sincere Believing it is openly evident that I could not understand them when I spake only of what was antecedent unto them And if this Man knowes not what transactions are in the Minds of many before they do come unto the Acceptance of Christ on his own Terms or believe in him according to the Tenour of the Gospel there is Reason to pitty the People that are committed unto his Care and Instruction what regard soever ought to be had unto himself And his Pittiful trifling in the Exposition he adds of this Passage to be saved without doing any thing without obeying Thee and the Law do but increase the Guilt of his Prevarications For the words immediately added in my Discourse are and although I have walked according unto mine own Mind yet now I wholly give up my self to be ruled by thy Spirit which unto the Understanding of all Men who understand any thing in these Matters signify no less than an Engagement unto the Universal relinquishment of Sin and entire Obedience unto Jesus Christ in all things But this faith He is a pretty Complement that the Soul makes to Christ after all But why is this to be esteemed only a pretty Complement It is spoken at the same Time and as it were with the same Breath there being in the Discourse no Period between this Passage and that before And why must it be esteemed quite of another Nature so that herein the Soul should only Complement and be real in what is before expressed what if one should say it was real only in this latter Expression and Engagement that the former was only a Pretty Complement May it not with respect unto my sence and intention from any thing in my words or that can be gathered from them or any Circumstances of the Place be spoken with as much regard unto Truth and Honesty What Religion these Men are of I know not if it be such as teacheth them these Practices and Countenanceth them in them I openly declare that I am not of it nor would be so for all that this World can afford I shall have done when I have desired him to take notice that I not only believe and maintain the necessity of Obedience unto all the Laws Precepts Commands and Institutions of the Gospel of Universal Holiness the Mortification of all Sin Fruitfulness in good Works in all that intend or design Salvation by Jesus Christ but also have proved and confirmed my Perswasion and Assertions by better and more Cogent Arguments than any which by his Writings he seems as yet to be acquainted withal And unless he can prove that I have spoken or written any thing to the contrary or he can disprove the Arguments whereby I have confirmed it I do here declare him a person altogether unfit to be dealt withal about things of this Nature his Ignorance or Malice being Invincible nor shall I on any Provocation ever hereafter take notice of him untill he hath mended his Manners His third Section pag. 76. consists of three parts First that some wherein it is apparent that I am chiefly if not only intended do found a Religion upon a pretended acquaintance with Christ s Person without and besides the Gospel whereunto he opposeth his running Title of no Acquaintance with Christ but by Revelation Secondly a Supposition of a Scheme of Religion drawn from the Knowledge of Christs Person whereunto he opposeth another which he he judgeth better Thirdly an Essay to draw up the whole Plot and Design of Christianity with the method of the Recovery of Sinners unto God In the first of these I suppose that I am if not solely yet principally intended especially considering what he affiâ—ms pag. 98 99 Namely that I plainly confess our Religion is wholly owing unto acquaintance with the Person of Christ could never have been clearly and savingly Learned from the Gospel had we not first grown acquainted with his Person Now herein there is an especial Instance of that Truth and Honesty wherewith my Writings are entertained by this sort of Men. It is true I have asserted that it is necessary for Christians to know Jesus Christ to be acquainted with his Person that is as I have fully and largely declared it in the Discourse excepted against the Glory of his Divine Nature the Purity of his Humane the Infinite Condescention of his Person in the Assumption of our Nature his Love and Grace c. as is at large there declared And now I add that he by whom this is denied is no Christian. Secondly I have taught that by this Knowledge of the Person of Christ or an Understanding of the great Mystery of Godliness God Manifested in the Flesh which we ought to pray for and labour after we come more fully and clearly to understand sundry other important Mysteries of Heavenly Truth which without the Knowledge of Christ we cannot attain unto And how impertinent this Man's Exceptions are against this Assertion we have seen already But Thirdly that this Knowledge of Christ or Acquaintance with him is to be attained before we come to know the Gospel or by any other Means than the Gospel or is any other but the Declaration that is made thereof in and by the Gospel was never thought spoken or written by me and is here falsly supposed by this Author as elsewhere falsly charged on me And I again challenge him to produce any one Letter or Tittle out of any of my Writings to give Countenance unto this frontless Calumny And therefore although I do not like his Expression pag. 77. Whoever would understand the Religion of our Saviour must learn it from his Doctrine and not from his Person for many Reasons I could give yet I believe no less than he that the efficacy of Christ's Mediation depending on God's Appointment can be known only by Revelation and that no Man can draw any one Conlusion from the Person of Christ which the Gospel hath not expresly taught because we can know no more of its excellency worth and works than what is there revealed whereby he may see how â—iserably Ill-Will Malice or Ignorance have betrayed him into the futilous pains of writing
calling the Union of the two Natures in Christ in the same Person the Grace of Vnion for so he sayes If you would understand what this strange Grace of Vnion is But I crave his Pardon in not complying with his Directions for my Companyes sake No man who hath once consulted the Writings of the Ancients on this Subject can be a stranger unto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Gratia Vnionis they so continually occurre in the Writings of all sorts of Divines both Ancient and Modern Yea but there is yet worse behind for what an untoward Representation is this of Christs Mediation that he came to make Peace by laying his hands on God and Men as if he came to part a fray or scuffle My words are the Uniting of the Natures of God and Man in one Person made him fit to be a Saviour to the uttermost he layd his hand upon God by partaking of his Nature Zach. 13.7 And he layes his hand upon us by partaking of our Nature Heb. 2.14 16. and so becomes a Dayes-man or Vmpire between both See what it is to be adventurous I doubt not but that he thought that I had invented that Expression or at least that I was the first who ever applyed it unto this Interposition of Christ between God and Man But as I took the words and so my warranty for the Expression from the Scripture Job 9.33 So it hath commonly been applyed by Divines in the same manner particularly by Bishop Vsher in his Immanuel p. 8 9. as I remember whose Unhappiness in expressing himself in Divinity this man needs not much to bewayl But let my Expressions be what they will I shall not escape the unhappiness of weakness in my Proofs for I might he sayes as well have quoted Gen. 1.1 and Matth. 1.1 for the Proof of the Unity of the Divine and Humane Nature in the Person of Christ and his Fitness thence to be a Saviour as those I named viz. Zach. 13.7 Heb. 2.14 16. Say you so why then I do here undertake to maintain the Personal Vnion and the fitness of Christ from thence to be a Saviour from these two Texts against this Man and all his Fraternity in Design And at present I cannot but wonder at his Confidence seeing I am sure be cannot be ignorant that one of these Places at least namely that of Heb. 2.16 is as much as frequently as vehemently pleaded by all sorts of Divines Ancient and Modern to prove the Assumption of our Humane Nature into Personal subsistence with the Son of God that so he might be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fit and able to save us as any one Testimony in the whole Scripture And the same Truth is as evidently contained and expressed in the former seeing no man could be the Fellow of the Lord of Hosts but he that was partaker of the same Nature with him and no one could have the sword of God upon him to smite him which was needfull unto our Salvation but he that was partaker of our Nature or Man also And the meer recital of these Testimonies was sufficient unto my purpose in that place where I designed onely to declare and not dispute the Truth If he yet think that I cannot prove what I assert from these Testimonies let him consult my Vindiciae Evangelicae where according as that work required I have directly pleaded these Scriptures to the same purpose insisting at large on the Vindication of one of them and let him answer what I have there pleaded if he be able And I shall allow him to make his Advantage unto that purpose if he please of whatever Evasions the Socinians have found out to escape the force of that Testimony For there is none of them of any note but have attempted by various Artifices to shield their Opinion in denying the Assumption of our Humane Nature into personal Union with the Son of God and therewithal his Praeexistence unto his Nativity of the blessed Virgin from the Divine Evidence given against it in that place of Heb. 2.16 which yet if this Author may be believed doth make no more against them than Gen. 1.1 Wherefore this severe Censure together with the Modesty of the Expression wherein Christ making Peace between God and Man is compared to the Parting of a Fray or Scuffle may pass at the same Rate and Value with those which are gone before His ensuing Pages are taken up for the most part with the transcription of Passages out of my Discourse raked together from several Places at his pleasure I shall not impose the needless Labour on the reader of a third Perusal of them nor shall I take the pains to restore the several Passages to their proper Place and Coherence which he hath rent them from to trye his skill and strength upon them separately and apart For I see not that they stand in need of using the least of their own circumstantial Evidence in their Vindication I shall therefore only take notice of his Exceptions against them And pag. 207. whereas I had said on some Occasion that in such a supposition we could have supplyes of Grace only in a moral Way it falls under his Derision in his Parenthesis and that is a very pitifull way indeed But I must yet tell him by the way that if he allow of no supplies of Grace but in a Moral way he is a Pelagian and as such stands condemned by the Catholick Church And when his Occasions will permit it I desire he would answer what is written by my self in another Discourse in the Refutation of this Sole Moral Operation of Grace and the Assertion of another way of the Communication of it unto us Leave fooling and the Vnhappiest man in expressing himself that ever I met with will not doe it He must betake himself to another Course if he intend to engage into the handling of things of this Nature He addes whereas I had said the Grace of the Promises of the Person of Christ you mean I know well enough what I mean but the Truth is I know not well what he means nor whether it be out of ignorance that he doth indeed fancy an Opposition between Christ and the Promises that what is ascribed unto the one must needs be derogated from the other when the Promise is but the Means and Instrument of conveying the Grace of Christ unto us or whether it proceed from a real Dislike that the Person of Christ that is Jesus Christ himself should be esteemed of any Use or Consideration in Religion that he talks at this rate But from whence ever it proceeds this cavilling Humour is unworthy of any Man of Ingenuity or Learning By his following Parenthesis a World of Sin is something I suppose I have somewhere used that Expression whence it is reflected on but he quotes not the place and I cannot find it I shall therefore only at present tell him as if I remember aright I have done
already that I will not come to him nor any of his Companions to learn to Express my self in these things and moreover that I despise their Censures The Discourses he is carping at in particular in this place are neither Doctrinal nor Argumentative but consist in the Application of Truths before proved unto the Minds and Affections of men And as I said I will not come to him nor his Fraternity to learn how to manage such a subject much less a Logical and Argumentative way of Reasoning nor have any inducement thereunto from any thing that as yet I have seen in their Writings It also troubles him pag. 208. That whereas I know how unsuited the best and most accurate of our Expressions are unto the true Nature and Being of Divine things as they are in themselves and what need we have to make use of Allusions and sometimes less proper Expressions to convey a sence of them unto the Minds and Affections of men I had once or twice used that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if I may so say which yet if he had not known used in other good Authors treating of things of the same Nature he knew I could take protection against his severity under the Example of the Apostle using words to the same Purpose upon an alike Occasion Heb. 7. But at length he intends to be serious and from those words of mine Here is Mercy enough for the greatest the oldest the stubbornest Transgressor he addes Enough in all Reason this what a Comfort is it to Sinners to have such a God for their Saviour whose Grace is boundless and bottomless and exceeds the largest Dimensions of their Sins though there be a world of sin in them But what now if the Divine Nature it self have not such an endless boundless bottomless Grace and Compassion as the Doctor now talks of For at other times when it serves his turn better we can hear nothing from him but the Naturalness of Gods Vindictive Justice Though God be rich in Mercy he never told us that his Mercy was so boundless and bottomless he had given a great many Demonstrations of the severity of his Anger against sinners who could not be much worse than the Greatest the Oldest and stubbornest Transgressors Let the Reader take notice that I propose no Grace in Christ unto or for such Sinners but only that which may invite all sorts of them though under the most discouraging Qualifications to come unto him for Grace and Mercy by Faith and Repentance And on supposition that this was my sence as he cannot deny it to be I adde only in Answer that this his prophane scoffing at it is that which reflects on Christ and his Gospel and God himself and his Word which must be accounted for See Isa. 55.7 2 dly For the Opposition which he childishly frames between Gods Vindictive Justice and his Mercy and Grace it is answered already 3 dly It is false that God hath not told us that his Grace is boundless and bottomless in the sence wherein I use those words sufficient to pardon the greatest the oldest the stubbornest of sinners namely that turn unto him by Faith and Repentance And he who knowes not how this consists with Severity and Anger against impenitent sinners is yet to Learn his Catechism But yet he addes further pag. 208 209. Supposing the Divine Nature were such a bottomless Fountain of Grace how comes this to be a Personal Grace of the Mediator For a Mediator as Mediator ought not to be considered as the Fountain but as the Minister of Grace God the Father certainly ought to come in for a share at least in being the Fountain of Grace though the Doctor is pleased to take no notice of him But how excellent is the Grace of Christs Person above the Grace of the Gospel for that is a bounded and limited thing a straight Gate and narrow Way that leadeth unto Life There is no such Boundless Mercy as all the sins in the World cannot equal its Dimensions as will save the Greatest the Oldest and the stubbornest Transgressors I begg the Reader to believe that I am now so utterly weary with the Repetition of these impertinencies that I can hardly prevail with my self to fill my Pen once more with Ink about them And I see no reason now to goe on but only that I have begun And on all accounts I shall be as brief as possible I say then First I did not consider this boundless Grace in Christ as Mediator but considered it as in him who is Mediator and so the Divine Nature with all its Properties are greatly to be considered in him if the Gospel be true But 2 dly It is untrue that Christ as Mediator is only the Minister of Grace and not the Fountain of it for he is Mediator as God and Man in one Person 3 dly To suppose an exemption of the Person of the Father from being the Fountain of Grace absolutely in the Order of the Divine Subsistence of the Persons in the Trinity and of their Operations suited thereunto upon the Ascription of it unto the Son is a fond Imagination which could befall no man who understands any thing of things of this Nature It doth as well follow that if the Son created the World the Father did not if the Son uphold all things by the Word of his Power the Father doth not that is that the Son is not in the Father nor the Father in the Son The Acts indeed of Christs Mediation respect the Ministration of Grace being the procuring and communicating Causes thereof but the Person of Christ the Mediator is the Fountain of Grace So they thought who beheld his Glory the Glory as of the only begotten of the Father full of Grace and Truth But the especial Relation of Grace unto the Father as sending the Son unto the Son as sent by him and incarnate and unto the Holy Spirit as proceeding from and sent by them both I have elsewhere fully declared and shall not in this place which indeed will scarce give Admittance unto any thing of so serious a nature again insist thereon 4 thly The Opposition which he would again set between Christ and the Gospel is impious in it self and if he thinks to charge it on me openly false I challenge him and all his Complices to produce any one word out of any Writing of mine that from a Plea or pretence of Grace in Christ should give Countenance unto any in the neglect of the least Precept given or Duty required in the Gospel And notwithstanding all that I have said or taught concerning the Boundless Bottomless Grace and Mercy of Christ towards believing humble penitent Sinners I doe believe the Way of Gospel Obedience indispensibly required to be walked in by all that will come to the Enjoyment of God to be so narrow that no Revilers nor false Accusers nor Scoffers nor Despisers of Gospel Mysteries continuing so to be can walk
therein But that there is not Grace and Mercy declared and tendred in the Gospel also unto all sorts of sinners under any qualifications whatever who upon its Invitation will come to God through Christ by Faith and Repentance is an impious Imagination A Discourse much of the same Nature followes concerning the Love of Christ after he hath treated his Person and Grace at his pleasure And this he takes occasion for from some Passages in my Book as formerly scraped together from several places so as he thought fit and convenient unto his Purpose Page 209. Thus the Love of Christ is an Eternal Love because his Divine Nature is Eternal and it is an Unchangeable Love because his Divine Nature is Unchangeable and his Love is Fruitfull for it being the Love of God it must be effectual and fruitfull in producing all the things which he willeth unto his Beloved He loves Life Grace Holiness into us loves us into Covenant loves us into Heaven This is an Excellent Love indeed which doth all for us and leaves nothing for us to do We owe this Discovery to an Aquaintance with Christ's Person or rather with his Divine Nature for the Gospel is very silent in this matter All that the Gospel tells us is that Christ Loveth Sinners so as to die for them that he Loves Good men who believe and obey his Gospel so as to save them that he continues to Love them while they contitinue to be good but hates them when they return to their old Vices and therefore I say there is great Reason for Sinners to fetch their Comforts not from the Gospel but from the Person of Christ which as far excells the Gospel as the Gospel excells the Law I do suppose the Expressions mentioned are for the substance of them in my Book and shall therefore only enquire what it is in them which he excepteth against and for which I am reproachched as one that hath an Acquaintance with Christ's person which is now grown so Common and Trite an Expression that were it not condited unto some Mens Pallats by its Prophaneness it would argue a great barrenness in this Author's Invention that can vary no more in the Topick of Reviling It had been well if his Licenser had accommodated him with some part of his Talent herein But what is it that is excepted against Is it that the love of Christ as he is God is Eternal or is it that it is Unchangeable or is it that it is Fruitful or effective of Good things unto the persons Beloved The Philosopher tells us that to Love for any one is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is this Efficacy of the Love of Christ which must bear all the present Charge The meaning of my words therefore is that the Love of Christ is unto us the Cause of Life Grace Holiness and the Reward of Heaven And because it is in the Nature of Love to be effective according unto the Ability of the person Loving of the Good which it wills unto the Object beloved I expressed it as I thought meet by Loving these things to us And I am so far on this occasion and the severe Reflection on me for an Acquaintance with Christ from altering my thoughts that I say still with Confidence he who is otherwise minded is no Christian. And if this Man knows not how the Love of Christ is the Cause of Grace and Glory how it is effective of them and that in a perfect consistency with all other Causes and means of them and the Necessity of our Obedience he may do well to abstain a little from Writing until he is better informed But saith he this is an Excellent Love indeed which doth all for us and leaves us nothing to do But who told him so who ever said so Doth he think that if our Life Grace Holiness Glory be from the Love of Christ Originally Causally by vertue of his Divine Gracious operations in us and towards us that there is no Duty incumbent on them who would be made partakers of them or use or improve them unto their proper ends Shall we then to please him say that we have neither Life nor Grace nor Holiness nor Glory from the Love of Christ but whereas most of them are our own Duties we have them wholly from our selves Let them do so who have a mind to renounce Christ and his Gospel I shall coâ—e into no Partnership with them For what he adds all that the Gospel teaches us c. He should have done well to have said as far as he knows which is a Limitation with a witness If this be all the Gospel which the Man knows and Preaches I pity them whom he hath taken under his Instruction Doth Christ in his Love do nothing unto the quickning and Conversion of Men Nothing to the Purification and Sanctification of Believers Nothing as to their Consolation and Establishment Nothing as to the Administration of strength against Temptations Nothing as to Supplies of Grace in the increase of Faith Love and Obedience c. This Ignorance or Prophaneness is greatly to be bewailed as his ensuing Scoff repeated now usque ad Nauseam about an opposition between Christ and his Gospel is to be despised And if the Lord Christ hath no other Love but what this man will allow the state of the Church in this world depends on a very slender thread But attempts of this Nature will fall short enough of prevailing with sober Christians to foregoe their Faith and Perswasion that it is from the Love of Christ that Believers are preserved in that condition wherein he doth and will approve of them Yea to suppose that this is all the Grace of the Gospel that whilest me are good Christ loves them and when they are bad he hates them both which are true and farther that he doth by his Grace neither make them Good nor preserve them that are so made is to renounce all that is properly so called He yet proceeds first to evert this Love which I asserted and then to declare his own Apprehensions concerning the Love of Christ. The first in the ensuing words Pag. 210. But methinks this is a very odd way of arguing from the Divine Nature For if the Love of Christ as God be so Infinite Eternal Unchangeable Fruitfull I would willingly understand how Sin Death and Misery came into the World For if this Love be so Eternal and Unchangeable because the Divine Nature is so then it was alwayes so For God alwayes was what he is and that which is Eternal could never be other than it is now and why could not this Eternal and Unchangeable and Fruitfull Love as well preserve us from falling into Sin and Misery and Death as love Life and Holiness into us For it is a little odd first to love us into Sin and Death that then he may love us into Life and Holiness which indeed could not be if this Love of God were alwayes
so unchangeable and Fruitfull as this Author perswades us it is now For if this Love had alwayes loved Life and and Holiness into us I cannot conceive how it should happen that we should sin and dye It is well if he know what it is that he aims at in these Words I am sure what he sayes doth not in the least impeach the Truth which he designs to oppose The Name and Nature of God are every where in the Scripture proposed unto us as the Object of and Encouragement unto our Faith and his Love in particular is therein represented unchangeable because he himself is so But it doth not hence follow that God loveth any one Naturally or Necessarily His Love is a free Act of his Will and therefore though it be like himself such as becomes his Nature yet it is not necessarily determined on any Object nor limited as unto the Nature Degrees and Effects of it He Loves whom he pleaseth and as unto what End he pleaseth Jacob he loved and Esau he hated and those Effects which from his Love or out of it he will communicate unto them are various according to the Councel of his Will Some he Loves only as to Temporal and Common Mercies some as to spiritual Grace and Glory for he hath Mercy on whom he will have Mercy Wherefore it is no way contrary unto and inconsistent with the Eternity the Immutability and Fruitfulness of the Love of God that he suffered Sin to enter into the World or that he doth dispense more Grace in Jesus Christ under the New Testament than he did under the Old God is alwayes the same that he was Love in God is alwayes of the same Nature that it was But the Objects Acts and Effects of this Love with the Measures and Degrees of them are the Issues of the Councel or free Purposes of his Will Want of the understanding hereof makes this man imagine that if Gods Love in Christ wherewith he loveth us be Eternal and Fruitfull then must God necessarily alwayes in or out of Christ under the Old or New Covenant love all Persons Elect or not Elect with the same Love as to the Effects and Fruits of it which is a wondrous profound Apprehension The Reader therefore if he please may take notice that the Love which I intend and whereunto I ascribe those Properties is the especial Love of God in Christ unto the Elect. Concerning this himself sayes that he loves them with an everlasting Love and therefore drawes them with loving Kindness Jerem. 31.3 which Love I shall be bold to say is Eternal and Fruitfull And hence as he changeth not whereon the Sons of Jacob are not consumed Mal. 3.6 there being with him neither variableness nor shadow of turning Jam. 1.17 so accordingly he hath in this matter by his Promise and Oath declared the Immutability of his Councel Heb. 6.17 18. which seems to intimate that his Love is unchangeable And whereas this Eternal Love is in Christ Jesus as the Way and Means of making it certain in all its Effects and with respect unto its whole Design it is fruitfull in all Grace and Glory Ephes. 1.3 4 5. And if he cannot understand how notwithstanding all this Sin so entred into the World under the Law of Creation and the first Covenant as to defeat in us all the Benefits thereof at present I cannot help him For as I am sure enough he would scorn to learn any thing of me so I am not at leasure to put it to the trial His own Account of the Love of God succeeds pag. 211. Not that I deny that the Love of God is Eternal Unchangeable Fruitfull that is that God was alwayes Good and alwayes continues Good and manifesteth his Love and Goodness in such wayes as are suitable to his Nature which is the Fruitfulness of it But then the Unchangeableness of Gods Love doth not consist in being alwayes determined to the same Object but that he alwayes loves for the same Reason that is that he alwayes loves true Vertue and Goodness wherever he sees it and never ceases to love any Person till he ceases to be Good and then the Immutability of his Love is the Reason why he loves no longer For should he love a Wicked man the Reason and Nature of his Love would change and the Fruitfulness of Gods Love with respect to the Methods of his Grace and Providence doth not consist in producing what he loves by an Omnipotent and Irrisistble Power for then Sin and Death could never have entred into the World but he Governs and doth good to his Creatures in such Wayes as are most suitable to their Natures He governs Reasonable Creatures by Principles of Reason as he doth the Material World by the necessary Laws of Matter and Brute Creatures by the Instincts and Propensities of Nature This may pass for a Systeme of his Divinity which how he will reconcile unto the Doctrine of the Church of England in her Articles she and he may do well to consider But whatever he means by the Love of God alwayes determined unto the same Object it were an easie thing to prove beyond the reach of his Contradiction that Persons are the Objects of Gods Eternal Love as well as Things and Qualifications are of his Approbation or that he loves some Persons with an Everlasting and Unchangeable Love so as to preserve them from all ruining Evils and so as they may be alwayes meet Objects of his approving Love unto his Glory And whereas these things have been debated and disputed on all hands with much Learning and Diligence our Author is a very happy man if with a few such loose Expressions as these repeated he thinks to determine all the Controversies about Election and Effectual Grace with Perseverance on the Pelagian side The Hypothesis here maintained that because God alwayes and unchangeably approves of what is Good in any or of the Obedience of his Creatures and disapproves or hates sin condemning it in his Law that therefore he may love the same Person one day and hate him another notwithstanding his Pretences that he is constant unto the Reason of his Love will inevitably fall into one of these Conclusions ether that God indeed never loveth any Man be he who he will or that he is changeable in his Love upon outward external Reasons as we are and let him choose which he will own In the mean time such a Love of God towards Believers as shall alwayes effectually preserve them meet Objects of his Love and Approbation is not to be baffled by such trifling impertinencies His next Reflection is on the Manner of Gods Operations in the Communication of Grace and Holiness which he sayes is not by an omnipotent and Irresistible Power confirming his Assertion by that Consideration that then Sin and Death could never have entred into the World which is resolved into another sweet supposition That God must needs act the same Power
this Section upon a contrary supposition falsly imputed unto me And as for his drawing Schemes of Religion I must tell him and let him disprove it if he be able I own no Religion no Article of Faith but what are taught expresly in the Scripture mostly confirmed by the ancient General Councils of the Primitive Church and the Writings of the most Learned Fathers against all sorts of Heretâ—cks especially the Gnosticks Photinians and Pelagians consonant to the Articles of the Church of England and the Doctrine of all the Reformed Châ—rches of Europe And if in the Exposition of any place of Scripture I dissent from any that for the Substance of it own the Religion I do I do it not wiâ—hout Cogent Reasons from the Scripture it self and where in any opinions which Learned Men have and it may be always had different Apprehensions about which hath not been thought to prejudice the Unity of Faith amongst them I hope I do endeavour to manage that dissent with that Modesty and Sobriety which becometh me And as for the Schemes Plots or Designs of Religion or Christianity given us by this Author and owned by him it being taken pretendedly from the Person of Christ when it is hoped that he may have a better to give us from the Gospel seeing he hath told us we must Learn our Religion from his Doctrine and not from his Person besides that it is liable unto Innumerable Exceptions in particular which may easily be given in against it by such as have nothing else to do wâ—ereas it makes no mention of the effectual Grace of Christ and the Gospel for the Conversion and Sanctification of Sinners and the necessity thereof unto all Acts of Holy Obedience it is merely Pelagian and stands Anathematised by sundry Councils of the Antient Church I shall not therefore concern my self farther in any Passages of this Section most of them wherein it reflects on others standing in competition for Truth and Ingenuity with the Foundation and Design of the whole Only I shall say that the Passage of 88 89. This made the Divine Goodness so restlesly zealous and concerned for the Recovery of Mankind various ways be attempted in former Ages but with little success as I observed before but at last God sent his own Son our Lord Jesus Christ into the World without a very Cautious Explanation and Charitable Construction is false scandalous and blasphemous For allow this Author who contends so severely for Propriety of Expressions against Allusions and Metaphors to say that the Divine Goodness was restlesly Zealous and Concerned for indeed such is our Weakness that whether we will or no we must sometimes learn and teach Divine things in such words as are suited to convey an Apprehension of them unto our Minds though in their Application unto the Divine Nature they are incapable of being understood in the Propriety of their Signification though this be as untowardly expressed as any thing I have of late met withal yet what colour can be put upon what excuse can be made for this Doctrine That God in former Ages by various ways attempted the Recovery of mankind but with little success I know not Various attempts in God for any End without Success do not lead the Mind into right Notions of his Infinite Wisdom and Omnipotency And that God by any way at any time attempted the Recovery of Mankind distinctly and separately from the sending of his Son is lewdly false In the greatest part of his fourth Section entituled how Men pervert the Scripture to make it comply with their fancy I am not much concerned save that the Foundation of the whole and that which animates his Discourse from first to last is laid in an Impudent Calumny namely that I declare that our Religion is wholly owing to an acquaintance with the Person of Christ could never have been clearly savingly Learned from his Gospel had we not first grown acquainted with his Person This shameless Falshood is that alone whence he takes occasion and confidence to reproach my self and others to condemn the Doctrine of all the Reformed Churches and openly to traduce and vilify the Scripture it self I shall only briefly touch on some of the impotent dictates of this great Corrector of Divinity and Religion His Discourse of accommodating Scripture-Expressions to Mens own Dreamns pag. 99 100.101 being such as any Man may use concerning any other men on the like occasion if they have a mind unto it and intend to have no more regard to their Consciences than some others seem to have may be passed by pag. 102. He falls upon the ways of expounding Scripture among those whom he sets himself against and positively affirms that there are two ways of it in great Vogue among them First by the sound and Clink of the words and Phrases which as he says is all some Men understand by keeping a Form of Sound words 2 When this will not do they reason about the sence of them from their own preconceived Notions and Opinions and prove that this must be the meaning of Scripture because otherwise it is not reconcileable to their Dreams which is called expounding Scripture by the Analogy of Faith Thus far he and yet we shall have the same Man not long hence pleading for the Necessity of Holiness But I wish for my part he would take notice that I despise that Holiness and the Principles of it which will allow Men to Coin Invent and publish such notorious untruths against any sort of Men whatever And whereas by what immediately follows I seem to be principally intended in this Charge as I know the Untruth of it so I have published some Expositions on some Parts of the Scripture to the Judgment of the Christian World to which I appeal from the Censures of this Man and his Companions as also for those which if I Live and God will I shall yet publish and do declare that for Reasons very satisfactory to my Mind I will not come to him nor them to learn how to expound the Scripture But he will Justify his Charge by particular Instances telling us pag. 102. Thus when Men are possessed with a Fancy of an acquaintance with Christ's Person then to know Christ can signify nothing else but to know his Person and all his Personal Excellencies and Beauties Fullness and Pretiousness c. And when Christ is said to be made Wisdom to us this is a plain proof that we must Learn all our spiritual Wisdom from an acquaintance with his Person though some duller Men can understand no more by it than the Wisdom of those Revelations Christ hath made of God's Will to the World I would beg of this Man that if he hath any regard unto the Honour of Christian Religion or Care of his own Soul he would be tender in this matter and not reflect with his usual disdain upon the Knowledge of the Person of Christ. I must tell him again what
8 9 10 11. But he will now discover the Design of all these things and afterward make it good by Quotations out of my Book The first he doth pag. 203. and onwards But whatever becomes of the sense of the Distinction there is a very deep fetch in it the observing of which will discover the whole mystery of the Person of Christ and our Vnion to him For these men consider that Christ saves us as he is our Mediator and not meerly considered as God or Man and they imagine that we receive Grace and Salvation from Christ's Person just as we do water out of a Conduit or a Gift and Largess from a Prince that it flows to us from our Vnion to his person and therefore they dress up the Person of the Mediator with all those personal Excellencies and Graces which may make him a fit Saviour that those who are thus united to his Person of which more in the next Section need not fear missing of Salvation Hence they ransack all the boundless perfections of the Deity and whatever they can find or fancy speaks any Comfort to Sinners this is presently a personal Grace of the Mediator They consider all the Glorious effects of his Mediation and whatever Great things are spoken of his Gospel or Religion or Intercession for us these serve as personal Graces so that all our hopes may be built not on the Gospel Covenant but on the Person of Christ so that the Dispute now lyes between the Person of Christ and his Gospel which must be the Foundation of our Hope which is the way to life and happiness First We do consider and Believe that Christ saves us as a Mediator that is as God and Man in one person exercising the Office of a Mediator and not meerly as God or Man This we believe with all the Catholick Church of Christ and can with boldness say he that doth not so let him be Anathema Maranatha Secondly We do not imagine but believe from the Scripture and with the whole Church of God that we receive Grace and Salvation from the Person of Christ in those distinct wayes wherein they are capable of being received and let him be anathema who believes otherwise Only whether his putting of Grace and Salvation into the same way of Reception belong unto his Accuracy in expressing his own Sentiments or his Ingenuity in the representation of other Mens words I leave undetermined The Similitudes he useth to express our Faith in these things shew his good will towards Scoffing and Prophaneness We say there is real Communication of Grace from the person of Christ as the Head of the Church unto all the Members of his Mystical Body by his Spirit whereby they are quickened sanctifyed and enabled unto all Holy Obedience and if it be denyed by him he stands anathematized by sundry Counsels of the Ancient Church We say not that we receive it as water out of a Conduit which is of a limited determined Capacity whereas we say the person of Christ by reason of his Deity is an immense Eternal living Spring or Fountain of all Grace And when God calls himself a Fountain of living water and the Lord Christ calls his Spirit communicated to Believers living Water under which Apellations he was frequently promised in the Old Testament as also the Grace and Mercy of the Gospel the waters of Life inviting us to receive them and to drink of them this Author may be advised to take heed of Prophane Scoffing at these things Whether any have said that we receive Grace and Salvation from Christ as a Guift or Largess from a Prince I know not if they have the sole defect therein is that the Allusion doth no way sufficiently set forth the freedom and bounty of Christ in the Communication of them unto Sinners and wherein else it offends let him soberly declare if he can This is the Charge upon us in point of Faith and Judgement which in one word amounts to no more but this that we are Christians and so by the Grace of God we intend to continue let this man deride us whilst he pleaseth His next Charge concerns our Practice in the pursuit of these dreadful Principles which by their Repetition he hath exposed to scorn And therefore they dress up c. What doth this poor man intend What is the Design of all this Prophaneness The Declaration of the Natures and Person of Christ of his Grace and work the ascribing unto him what is directly and expressly in terms ascribed unto him in the Scripture or relating as we are able the Description it gives of him is here called dressing up the person of the Mediator with all those personal Graces that may make him a fit Saviour The Preparation of the Person of Christ to be a fit and meet Saviour for Sinners which he prophanely compares to the Dressing up of is the Greatest most Glorious and Admirable Effect that ever Infinite Wisdom Goodness Power and Love wrought and produced or will do so unto Eternity And those on whom he reflects design nothing doe nothing in this Matter but only endeavour according to the Measure of the Gift of Christ which they have received to declare and explain what is revealed and taught in the Scripture thereof and those who exceed the bounds of Scripture Revelation herein if any do so we do abhorr And as for those who are united unto Christ although we say not that they need not fear missing of Salvation seeing they are to be brought unto it not only through the Exercise of all Graces whereof Fear is one but also through such Tryals and Temptations as will alwayes give them a Fear of heed and Diligence and sometimes such a Fear of the Event of things as shall combate their Faith and shake its firmest Resolves yet we fear not to say that those who are really united unto Jesus Christ shall be assuredly saved which I have proved elsewhere beyond the fear of any Opposition from this Author or others like minded 4 ly He addes hence They ransack c. But what is the meaning of these Expressions Doth not the Scripture declare that Christ is God as well as Man Doth it not build all our Faith Obedience and Salvation on that Consideration Are not the Properties of the Divine Nature every where in the Scripture declared and proposed unto us for the ingenerating and establishing Faith in us and to be the Object of and Exercise of all Grace and Obedience And is it now become a Crime that any should seek to declare and instruct others in these things from the Scripture and to the same End for which they are therein revealed Is this with any Evidence of Sobriety to be traduced as a ransacking the boundless Perfections of the Divine Nature to dress up the Person of the Mediator Is he a Christian or doth he deserve that Name who contemns or despiseth the Consideration of the Propertyes of the Divine