and the peculiar Moods of speaking in every language and in every age and to urge Metaphors no further than their first intention without which we may deal by all Authors as these men deal by the Scripture make them speak non-sence or as they use to call them venerable Mysteries and overthrow and contradict their own design And this is their first way of expounding otherwise called adulterating and debauching Scripture by the sound of words Secondly When this will not do then they argue and reason about the sense of Scripture from their own preconceived notions and opinions of Religion pretend to prove their own Scheme and fancies of Religion from the Scripture but in truth prove the sense of the Scripture by its agreement with their own opinions which is such a trick as the Papists have got to prove the Authority of the Church from the Scripture and the Scripture from the Church I might give Instances of this in abundance but I shall mention only some few lest I tire my self and my Reader Thus after all their talk of being justified by the imputation of Christs Righteousness there are a great many places of Scripture which expresly tell us that we are justified by Faith have Remission of sins by Faith have peace with God by Faith are sanctified by Faith are the Sons of God by Faith have Eternal Life and are saved by Faith now how do you think shall all these Scriptures be reconciled to their notion of being justified by the imputation of Christs Righteousness for Faith certainly is not the Righteousness of Christ in their notion of it why this is plain at first sight to these acquaintances of Christ. For when Faith is said to justifie and save c. we must not understand this absolutely that is we must not understand this of Faith considered as Faith but we must understand it relatively that Faith justifies as it brings us to Christ and makes us one with him by whom we are justified Faith apprehends the Righteousness of Christ and the Righteousness of Christ justifies now this distinction is plainly owing to their preconceived opinions without which no man could ever have stumbled on 't that when the Scripture saith that Faith justifies the meaning should be that it justifies and saves instrumentally and relatively words which the Scriptures are unacquainted with that is not as it is Faith but as it apprehends the Righteousness of Christ which in plain words signifies that Faith does not justifie though the Scripture so often says it does But now the Reason of this Interpretation is very plain for should Faith justifie as our own Act that is as Faith it would be as bad as good works and as perfectly irreconcileable with the free Grace of God For had justification been promised to any thing wrought in us or done by us it had been of desert not of Grace of wages not of mercy if God had promised justification upon any work of ours had said we must bring so much humiliation so much repentance so much breaking of Spirit so much Grace so many Prayers Alms-deeds or so much Faith as our own Act and then we should be justified it would not have been of Grace not of free mercy though modest men who are not so apt to dream of meriting by every thing they do would have thought that free Grace and Faith might have been easily reconciled though Faith had justified as our own Act since the reward and recompence does so infinitly exceed the work that there can be no suspition of merit and where there is no merit the Reward is of Grace and not of debt whatever the condition of the promise be But this is past all doubt when it is confirmed by a metaphor or two of which there is great variety some more apt than others as for Instance the vertue is not in Faith but in Christ as appears in this a Ring which hath a precious stone in it which will staunch blood we say the Ring stauncheth blood but the vertue doth not barely lye in the Ring but in the stone in the Ring so Faith is the Ring Christ the precious stone all that Faith does is to bring home Christs merits to the Soul and so it justifies so that if you can but find out an improper and absurd form of speech in use among the vulgar or if you can but invent one as this Gentleman does for I never met with this before it is a sufficient reason to expound Scripture as improperly as unlearned men talk or think or if you can but fancy Faith a Ring and Christ a precious Stone it is enough to answer all those places of Scripture which speak of that legal and meritorious way of justification by Faith And thus Faith justifies as it is a receptive Grace it is the receiving the Gold that enriches so Faith receiving of Christs merits and filling the Soul with all the fulness of God must needs be an enriching Grace In the body there are Veins that suck the nourishment that comes into the Stomach and turns it into blood and Spirits Faith is such a sucking Vein that draws vertue from Christ and therefore is called a precious Faith Is not this very plain now to him who understands the nature of our Union to Christ which is like that of the Members of a natural body and that we are saved by Christ just as the body is nourished by the Stomach And now to make all clear we may give a Philosophical account why God chose Faith to be the Instrument of our Justification because it is a humble Grace and gives the glory of all to free Grace If repentance should fetch justification from Christ a man would be ready to say this was for my tears strange deserving Creatures these who can dream of meriting Heaven with a few tears but Faith is humble it is an empty hand and what merit can there be in that doth a poor mans reaching out his hand merit an Alms yes just as much as a few tears merit Heaven Faith is only a golden Bucket that draws Water out of the well of life But why may not those who are so apt to be conceited of merit grow as proud that they have a golden Bucket as if the whole Well were their own Thus you see how these men deal with the Scripture and poor humble Faith make what they please of them to fit them to their purpose that Faith is sometimes feet to go to Christ sometimes a hand to receive him a mouth to feed on him an eye to look fiducially on him a Ring to hold this precious Stone a Vein to suck justification out of the Spiritual Stomach which by the way is a very new conceit for though Christ is called the head I never before read that he was the Stomach a Bucket to draw water out of this Well Christ though in this they are very civil to Faith in making it a
God by our own righteousness why doth not all our Wisdom of walking with God consist in our Acquaintance with Christ God is light and in him is no darkness at all we are darkness and in us no light at all He is life a living God we are dead dead Sinners dead in trespasses and sins He is holiness and glorious in it we wholly defiled an abominable thing He is love we full of hatred hating and being hated Surely this is no foundation of agreement or upon that of walking that is of Communion together nothing can be more remote than this frame from such a condition The foundation then of this peace that is of agreement and Communion with God is laid in Christ hid in Christ he saith the Apostle is our peace he hath made peace for us he is the new and living way into the holy of holies I am the way saith Christ and no man cometh to the Father but by me he is the Medium of all Communication between God and us in him we meet in him we walk So that if this Gentlemans memory had not failed him he would never have told us in the 8. Chap. that holiness is necessary to our Peace and Communion with God when a little before he had disclaimed this as wholly useless to that purpose But however holiness is very useful to all the purposes of life that it may be and not necessary to Salvation It serves for the Conviction of the Enemies of God How so When it is not essentially necessary to his Friends And it is for the Conversion of others Why so When men may be converted without it It keeps the judgments of God from other men as Ten good men would have preserved Sodom But why cannot the righteousness of Christ do this more effectually than the holiness of men But It is necessary in respect of the state and condition of justified Persons for they are accepted and received into Friendship with an holy God a God of purer eyes than to behold iniquity c. and therefore they must cleanse and purifie themselves What need of this When they are Cloathed with the Robes of Christs Righteousness which is the only foundation of our Communion with God as you heard before But however holiness is necessary with respect to sanctification We have in us a new Creature 2 Cor. 5. 17. this new Creature is fed cherisht nourisht kept alive by the fruits of holiness to what end hath God given us new hearts and new Natures is it that we should kill them stifle the Creature that is found in us in the Womb that we should give him to the old man to be devoured The phrase of this is admirable and the reasoning unanswerable for if men be new Creatures they will certainly live new lives and this makes holiness absolutely necessary by the same Reason that every thing necessarily is what it is when it is but still we enquire after a necessary obligation to the practice of holiness and that we cannot discover yet Well! But Holiness is necessary as the means to the end This indeed is something to the purpose but let us hear how Though it be neither the cause matter nor condition of our justification mark the Hypothesis yet it is the way appointed of God for us to walk in for the obtaining Salvation and therefore he that hath hope of Eternal Life purifies himself as he is pure and none shall ever come to the end who walketh not in the way for without holiness it is impossible to see God This I confess is all pertinent and home to the purpose but yet there are two little faults in it that it contradicts it self and overthrows their darling opinions which I can very well pardon if he can What the necessary way to Eternal Life and yet neither the cause matter nor condition at least you might allow the way to Eternal life to be the causa sine qua non without which we shall never get thither and that in spight of all your distinctions will entitle it to the nature of a condition But not to dispute about words I am content it should only be a necessary way to Eternal Life but what becomes of Christ then who is the only way the truth and the life is not the righteousness of Christ able to save us without an additional righteousness of our own doth the Active and Passive Righteousness of Christ both free us from guilt and punishment and give us an actual right and title to glory and yet can we not be saved without walking in the ways of holiness what becomes of free Grace then is not this to eke out the righteousness of Christ with our own to make Christ our justifier and our works our Saviour Thus you see how men wrest and pervert the Scripture to make it speak their sense and justifie their darling opinions and fancies though not always with the same success for some truths are so plain and stubborn that they will not bend but must be broke into the most palpable absurdities and contradictions before they can be fitted to their opinions and then they agree like new Cloath in an old Garment which makes the rent the wider It were easie to produce many more instances of this nature but this is enough to show you how dangerous it is to pre-possess our fancies with some arbitrary notions in Religion which naturally force men to pervert the Scriptures to make them speak the Orthodox language To this we owe all those nice and subtle distinctions which constitute the body of Systematical Divinity which commonly have no other design than to evade the force of Scripture or to bribe it to speak on their side The Authority of Scripture is sacred and inviolable and it is dangerous to call that into question whatever acquaintance men have with the Person of Christ but as Mr. Chillingworth observes of the Church of Rome that to establish her Tyranny over mens Consciences she need not either abolish or corrupt the holy Scripture which in regard of the numerous multitude of Copies dispersed through all places translated into almost all languages guarded with all solicitous care and industry had been an impossible attempt but the more expedite way and therefore the more likely to be successful was to gain the opinion and esteem of the publick and authorized Interpreter of them and the Authority of adding to them what Doctrines she pleased under the title of traditions or definitions Thus though their fancies and the Scripture agree no better than the Church of Rome and the Scripture do yet they may be both retained so their opinions may but expound the Scriptures and add such limitations distinctions glosses c. as are necessary to make them Orthodox The sum of all is that to know Christ is not to be thus acquainted with his Person but to understand his Gospel in its full latitude and extent It is not the Person but
And he was a Kingly Priest a Priest after the order of Melchizedec who was King of Salem the new Ierusalem which comes down from Heaven and Priest of the most high God Hebr. 7. Verse 1. when he offered himself a Sacrifice for sin he acted like a King No man took his life from him but he had power to lay it down and he had power to take it again in the 10th Chapter of St. Iohn's Gospel and 18. Verse Herein he differ'd from other Kings that he laid the Foundation of his Kingdom in his own blood purchas'd and redeem'd his Subjects by the Sacrifice of himself And that to which we commonly appropriate the name of Regal Power that authority he is invested with to Govern his Church to send his Spirit to forgive sins to dispense his Grace and supernatural assistances to answer Prayers to raise the dead and judge the World and bestow immortal life on all his sincere Disciples all this is the reward of his death and sufferings and is therefore called his intercession because like the intercession of the high Priest under the Law it is founded on his expiation and Sacrifice With his own blood he entred once into the holy place having obtained eternal redemption for us Hebrews 9. Verse 12. so that intercession signifies the Administration of his Mediatory Kingdom the Power of a Regal Priest to expiate and forgive sins This is a true account of the nature of Christs Kingdom and the method whereby it is erected He first conquers the minds of men by the power of his Word and Spirit and reduces them into subjection to God and then he pardons their sins and raiseth them into an immortal life by the expiation of his Sacrifice and that Power and Authority which is founded on it And this is the interpretation of the name Christ which signifies a Mediatory King immediately appointed by God to that Office and consecrated to it by a Divine and Supernatural Unction And thus the name Christ signifies in those places of Scripture where Iesus is said to be the Christ i. e. that Messias whom God promised to send Which are so many and so obvious that I need not name them Secondly Though Christ is originally the name of an Office yet it is used in Scripture to signifie the Person who is invested with this Office for the use of names being for distinction and the Office of a Mediator which is the first signification of the name Christ being appropriate to Him it might well serve for a proper name when once it was known who was the Christ. And therefore though before his designation to this Office was publickly owned he was only called Iesus the name given him by the Angel before he was born yet when by his resurrection from the dead He was declared with power to be the Son and the Christ of God Christ became as much his proper name as Iesus was before In the Gospels which contain the History of his Life and Death He is always called Iesus because all this time it was disputed whether he were the Christ or not but in the Epistles which are directed to the Christian Churches which were founded on this Faith that Iesus is the Christ he is as familiarly called Christ as Iesus and oftentimes by both Iesus Christ. For there can be no mistake in the Person by what name soever he be called whether it belong to his Office or Nature or circumstances of his Life and Fortune if there be but One to whom that name belongs Thirdly Christ signifies the Gospel and Religion of Christ as Moses signifies the Writings and Laws of Moses and the Prophets the Writings or Sermons of the Prophets in the 16. Ch. of St. Lukes Gospel 29. Verse They have Moses and the Prophets let them hear them and in the 31. Verse If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded though one rise from the dead And there is nothing more usual in common speech than to call any Laws or Religion or Philosophy by the name of the first Authors Thus in the 6. Chapter to the Galathians 15. Verse In Christ Iesus neither Circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision but a new Creature that is in the Gospel and Religion of Christ nothing is of any value to recommend us to the favour of God but a new Nature a holy and vertuous life The Law preferr'd Circumcision before Uncircumcision but the Gospel of Christ makes no such distinction but instead of those external signs requires the inward purity of heart Thus in the second Chapter of the Ep. to Coll. 8. Verse Beware lest men spoil you through Philosophy and vain deceit after the traditions of men after the Rudiments of the World and not after Christ. Where after Christ is opposed to the traditions of men and the Rudiments of the World and therefore must signifie not the Person but the Religion or Gospel of Christ i. e. have a care lest you be corrupted with the foolish opinions and superstitions of men which are inconsistent with the Christian Philosophy a plain contradiction to the Doctrine and Religion of Christ. And in the 6. Verse As you have therefore received Christ Iesus the Lord so walk in him i. e. obey the Doctrine of Christ as you have been taught it by us for so in the next Verse he calls it Being established in the Faith as you have been taught The like we may see in the 4. Chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians 20 21. Verses But you have not so learned Christ if so be you have heard him and been taught by him as the truth is in Iesus Now what can learning Christ signifie but learning the Gospel of Christ. And how could the Ephesians who never saw Christ in the flesh be said to hear him in any other sense than as they heard his Gospel preacht to them ver 8. and to be instructed in him as the truth is in Iesus for so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies not as our Translators render it being taught by him but instructed in him must be expounded of his Religion in its genuine and primitive simplicity so as Christ taught it his Disciples without the mixture of such corrupt and impure Doctrines as the Gnostick Hereticks had taught under the name of Christianity These I take to be very convincing allegations of the use of the name Christ for his Doctrine and Religion Fourthly It is acknowledg'd by all that Christ sometimes signifies the Church of Christ which is his body the fullness of him that filleth all in all And thus we must understand those Phrases of being in Christ engrafted into Christ and united to Christ which signifie no more than to be a Christian One who belongs to that Society whereof Christ is the Head and Governour thus it is used in the 12. Chapter of the Ep. to the Romans 5. Verse We being many are One Body in Christ i. e. we are all
Scripture is prest to serve every new-fangled conceit in Religion The wildest and most extravagant opinions that were ever yet vented under the name of Religion have pretended the authority of Scripture for their Patronage though any unprejudiced man would wonder how the reading such places of Scripture should suggest such notions to them but this is no wonder when we consider that men first contrive their Religion as these acquaintances of Christ do and possess their Fancies throughly with their private opinions and then read the Scripture with no other design than to find something there to stamp Divinity on their own conceits For it is easie to pervert the plainest sense and by the help of a strong imagination to make any thing of any thing such men dote upon words and phrases metaphors and allusions as best fitted for their purpose they found their Religion on obscure Texts or Mystical interpretations of plain Texts and by the help of some arbitrary distinctions and limitations glosses and paraphrases by curtailing of Texts or transplacing words and comma's or separating a single sentence from the body of the discourse make the Scripture speak their sense as plainly as the Bells ring what every boy will have them Which is to deal with the Scripture as Irenaeus observes as if a man should take a Picture of the King which consisted of an artificial composition of precious stones and transplace all these stones into another form as suppose of an Ape and then should perswade silly people that that was the Kings Picture At this rate we may find the Alcoran in the Bible as well as make so many Books so different and contrary to each other from the various compasition of twenty four Letters This is plain and evident at the first proposal to any intelligent Reader but to put it out of all doubt I shall give you some Instances of it and show you how these familiar acquaintances of Christ and who may better make bold with him than they take the liberty to pervert his Gospel to serve their opinion There are two ways of expounding Scripture in great vogue among them First by the sound and clink of words and phrases which is all some men understand by keeping a form of sound words Secondly when this will not do they reason about the sense of Scripture from their own pre-conceived 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 First they expound Scripture by the sound of words and phrases that is if they can find any words in Scripture which chime to the tune of their private conceits without ever considering the use of the words in those places where they are found they clap their own sense on them and then they serve for very solid and substantial proofs I shall give you several instances of this way Thus when men are possest with the fancy of an acquaintance with Christs Person then to know Christ can signifie nothing else but to know his Person and all his personal excellencies and beauties fulness and preciousness 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 Gods will to the World Thus when men have first learn't 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 first Ep. Iohn 5. 12. He that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Son hath not life For what can having the Son signifie but having an Interest in him being made one with him though some will be so perverse as to understand it of believing and obeying his Gospel but the phrase of Having the Son confutes that dull and moral interpretation especially when we remember that it is called being In Christ and abiding in him which must signifie a very near Union between Christs Person and us such as there is between two things which are within one another which makes all Christ ours and us Christs Now it is self evident that before we can thus be united to Christ we must go to him and therefore Faith which is the Instrument of this Union is very luckily called coming to Christ from whence it is very evident that to believe in Christ is to go to him for Salvation which Metaphors of coming and going are a very intelligible explication of believing But when the Soul is come to Christ is this enough no surely the Soul then must receive Christ as Saint Iohn tells us to as many as received him to them gave he power to become the Sons of God Iohn 1. 12. That Faith which serves us for legs to go to Christ must be a hand to receive him and to apply all his merits and fulness and righteousness to our Souls and now when we have received him we must embrace him in our arms too as good old Simeon did when he found him in the Temple which is a little nearer Union as plainly appears from the example of the Patriarchs who saw the promises afar of and embraced them Hebr. 11. 13. and now we have Christ we must trust and lean upon him as we are often commanded to trust in God which signifies that Act of Faith whereby finding and feeling our own weakness as unable to support our selves we do lean and rest on Christ and if leaning be not enough we may make a little more bold and rowl on him as appears from Psalne 37. 5. rowl thy ways on the Lord as the Original Gal signifies which is that Act of Faith whereby we being laden with sin and seeking ease we at last discharge our Load and cast it on Christ. And this is plain from the phrase of believing In Christ and On Him 1 Peter 2. 6. for what can that signifie but leaning and rowling on Him laying and building our selves on him as on a Foundation And now we have thus brought our Souls to Christ we must commit them to his trust to take charge of them and save them and if they perish it will be his fault and he must give account of it Thus Saint Paul did 2 Tim. 1. 12. I know whom I have believed and I am perswaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him against that day And now we must hide our selves in Christ from the fierce wrath and displeasure of God as the Dove hides in the Rocks Cant. 2. 14. O my Dove in the Clefts of the Rocks Christ's wounds are the
Gospel prescribes which is contained in the Sermons and Parables of Christ and consists in a sincere and universal obedience to the Commands of God That we may the better understand this we must observe farther that this Righteousness of God that which he commands and rewards is the Righteousness of Faith or Righteousness by the Faith of Christ Now Faith and Faith in Christ is often used objectively for the Gospel of Christ which is the object of our Faith or contains those matters which are to be believed and so the Righteousness of Faith or by the Faith of Christ is that Righteousness which the Gospel commands Thus in Acts 24. 24. Felix sent for Paul and heard him concerning the Faith of Christ that is concerning Righteousness Temperance and the judgment to come Ver. 25. which are the principal matters of the Gospel thus obedience to the Faith is obedience to the Gospel Rom. 1. 5. In this sense Faith and Works are opposed to each other in St. Pauls Epistles as hath been abundantly proved by others the great dispute in the Epistle to the Romans is whether we must be justified by the Law of Moses or by the Faith of Christ that is whether the observation of all the external Rites and Ceremonies of the Law and an external conformity of our Actions to the moral Precepts of it will justifie a man before God or that sincere and universal obedience which the Gospel of Christ requires which transforms our minds into the likeness of God and makes us new Creatures And that this Righteousness of Faith and this alone can recommend us to God the Apostle proves from the example of Abraham in the 4. Chapter who was accounted Righteous for the sake of his sincere and stedfast belief of Gods promises Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for Righteousness Ver. 3. and this while he was uncricumcised which is a convincing argument against the Jews that Circumcision and the observance of the Law of Moses is not necessary to justification because Abraham who was the Father of the faithful and is set forth for the Pattern of our justification was justified without it But that we may understand what this justification by Faith is and how the Apostle argues from Abrahams being justified by Faith to prove that we must now be justified by the Faith of Christ it is necessary to enquire what that Faith was whereby Abraham was justified and what agreement there is between the Faith of Abraham and Faith in Christ. For Abrahams Faith was not a Faith in Christ but Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for Righteousness Christ indeed was the Material object of Abrahams Faith that is he believed that promise which God made of sending Christ into the World upon which account our Saviour tells the Jews your Father Abraham rejoiced to see my day and he saw it and was glad Iohn 8 5 6. But no man could believe in Christ till he came that is could not believe any thing upon his Authority which is the true notion of believing in him as you shall hear more presently There is not a plainer argument how apt men are to pervert the Scriptures to reconcile them to their own prejudices and preconceived opinions than to observe what work they make with Abrahams Faith as if that Faith which was imputed to him for Righteousness were a fiducial reliance and recumbency on Christ for Salvation upon which the Righteousness of Christ apprehended by Faith was imputed to him for suppose this imputation of Christs Righteousness were revealed in the most plain and express words in the New Testament yet it is hard to conceive how Abraham should learn this great Mystery from that general and obscure promise In thy seed shall all the Nations of the Earth be blessed which is all that was ever revealed to Abraham concerning Christ This is such a train of thoughts from in thy seed shall all the Nations of the Earth be blessed to the imputation of Christs Righteousness as Mr. Hobs himself could never have hit on for is there no possible way for God to bless the World but by the imputation of Christs Righteousness or is there such a natural and necessary connexion between this blessing and the imputation of Christs Righteousness that we cannot understand the one without the other Pray let us consider how many things Abraham must distinctly know according to these mens own principles before he could come to the knowledge of the imputation of Christs Righteousness and he would be a wonderful man indeed who could learn all this from that general promise without some more particular revelation As first he must be well assured that the Blessings here meant are spiritual blessings pardon of sin and eternal life and that Christ should be a spiritual King and Saviour and though this be the least difficulty of all yet the promise is not so clear and express in this matter but that men might mistake it and so we know the whole Iewish Nation for many Ages did who had more particular promises concerning Christ than this was and yet expected only a Temporal Prince who should sit on the Throne of David and subdue their Enemies under their feet and this was the great prejudice which the Iews had against Christ and his Religion that he so much deceived their expectations by his mean appearance And secondly Abraham must know too that Christ was to die for the sins of the World without which according to the Doctor it is impossible God should forgive sin considering the naturalness of his vindictive Iustice to him and this was more than the Apostles of Christ themselves understood till after his Resurrection though Christ had expresly told them of it And Thirdly He must understand also the perfect Holiness and Innocency of Christs life and that he fulfilled all righteousness not for himself but for us Nay Fourthly He must understand that great Mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God for without this it is impossible to understand the vertue and efficacy of his expiation and Sacrifice and Righteousness since the sufferings of a meer man could never expiate sin nor his Righteousness serve any more than himself And Fifthly He must understand also that intimate oneness and Conjunction which is betwixt Christ and his Church by vertue of which Union believers may challenge a right to all that Christ did and suffer'd which is such a riddle as these men explain it as is not understood to this day And Sixthly He must understand too the nature of Faith of rowling the Soul on Christ for Salvation and renouncing all Righteousness of his own and then possibly he might without any more ado understand this great Mystery of the imputation of Christs Righteousness and he that can believe that Abraham could learn all this from that general promise In thy seed shall all the Nations of the Earth be blessed may believe what he will and