touched by his Word make it their business to seek from God in Christ another life then their own a life infinitely better and stronger then their own and a life which at the will of God will offer up their own that we may say in our experience as Paul in his We are crucified with Christ yet neverthelesse we live Now the Apostle having named this blessed life doth further enlarge himself on this matter in the words following saying ANIMADVERSION 10. A THat a Christian is by faith really knit to Christ and engraffed into him and made one with him and so hath eternal life from him as the sience from the stock is old scripture doctrine acknowledged by all Protestant Divines But that this life which is received through union unto Christ is the life of justification as Mr Dell here affirmeth by way of eminence at least if not exclusion and doth not equally carry in it the life of sanctification also out of which a believer bringeth forth fruits of righteousnesse to the glory of God seemeth not to hold accordance with John 15.4,5,8 or if Mr Dell in his notion confound Justification and Sanctification me thinks the Apostle plainly teacheth another doctrine ascribing Justification to Faith in the Name of the Lord Jesus and Sanctification to the Spirit of our God 1 Cor. 6.11 B If by Union with God in Christ the righteousnesse of God be made ours truly and everlastingly and therein we be justified How then are we made righteous through the obedience of our one mediator Jesus Christ Rom. 5.19 yea how are we justified freely by Gods grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus Rom. 3.24 I fear this passage of Mr Dell inclineth too much towards the preaching of another gospel For the Lords acquitting of a sinner from his sins through the forgivenesse of them is plainly laid down by the Apostle as an act of justification Rom. 4.5,6.7,8 which according to the Gospel the Lord who justifieth doth not passe upon men in relation to their being one with God in Christ or the communication of his righteousnesse everlastingly to them or as he afterwards speaks Christ living his own life in them but in relation to the ransoming death of Christ for them only and wholly This is the Gospel which the Apostles have preached to us which also we have received and wherein we stand by which also we shal be saved how that Christ died for our sins 1 Cor. 15. 1,2,3 and in him we have redemption through his bloud the forgivenesse of our sins Ephes 1.7 and by him all that believe are justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the Law of Moses Acts 13.39 Seeing our Lord Christ was delivered for our offences and raised again for our justification Rom. 4.25 Christians should have their hearts and ears closly stopt up against the hearing and receiving of any other Gospel or Doctrine of Justification whatsoever yea though brought by an Angel from heaven Gal. 1.8,9 C How can they which have the divine holiness the same holines of the divine nature in the same manner though not in the same degree as Christ had and hath not be in their degree God as he is I professe my present inability to answer this question and absolve Mr Dels words from being very dangerous and derogative from the peculiar honour of our Saviour Was not the holinesse of the divine nature or which is all one the holy divine nature by personal union so communicated to the humane nature in our Saviour that though he was man yet in his holy divine nature he was also God blessed for ever Will he affirm so much of any believer I hope not D These words of Mr Dell are so pure and precious that every believer cannot but imbrace them for truth And methinks they do so plainly shew that the wil of God which a believer doth obey that is to say his revealed will is the law of God within his heart put into his inward parts by the spirit as to the knowledge and love of it and strength in some degree to fulfil it that I can hardly believe that such words should proceed from him as we find in the 3. Section of this book viz. God himself which dwelleth in them is the new Law according to which they live For is the will of God which a believer hath some strength to do God himself It is very strange if any understanding man should so apprehend seeing the will of God which believers are strengthened to observe and obey is only his will of command made known to men as the rule of their sanctification which is a different thing from God himself as a Lord and his law differ 1 Thes 4.2,3 E The former words in this paragraph I conceive in a sound sence may be admitted But these words seem to carry in them an incredible mistake for if by this and that life in these words be meant the life of the first Adam which is crucified in believers and the life of the second Adam imparted to believers according to what immediately goeth before they then speak thus much to wit that the life of the first Adam crucified in believers is the natural life of man of which he is deprived in corporal death and with which a man may part ere he partake of the life of Christ whereas there is nothing more clear in the Scriptures then that the life of the first Adam crucified in believers is the life of sin with which no man can possibly part ere he partake of the life of Christ and which is a very different thing from that life with which a man parteth at the hour of death in relation to which life alone it is true according to Mr Dels words that if we part with it ere we partake of the life of Christ the second death must needs swallow us up SECT XI Yet not I but Christ lives in me A ANd this he speaks lest any one should think that the life he lived after his crucifying with Christ was onely his own humane life purisied and refined I say lest any one should think he lived now the life of his own refined spiritualized reason and judgement and prudence and will c. distinct and apart from Christ therefore he adds yet not I but Christ lives in me And each of these Clauses are very considerable Yet not I. B I live yet not I. By which words it may appear that a Christian is so crucified with Christ that in this crucifying he loses not onely his own proper life but which must needs follow his personality also For through faith his soul and body live no more any proper life of their own as before but are taken up into the nature and person of the Son of God and in him he subsists lives and acts as a Member in the Man and as a Branch in the Vine and so can truly say after faith
and the faithful in all Ages are filling up the remainders of the sufferings of Christ in his body For believers have all along suffered and do still suffer from the World because God is in them of a truth and the evil done to them is against God himself who dwells in them And against this Rock have all the unbelievers dash'd themselves in pieces all along 4. Christ who lives in believers lives in them like himself that is like the Son of the living God and so those in whom he lives 1. He frees them from their own evil things and 2. He confers upon them all his own good things 1. He frees them from their evil things And in reference to these he lives in them as their Redeemer and Saviour and so Christ within them abolishes the Law takes away sin and destroyes death for none of these things can dwell in his presence in that soul wherein he lives F For he is our new Law to make void the Old and he is our new Righteousnesse to take away sin and our new life to destroy death and the Law Sin and Death can have no place nor power where Christ our new Law Righteousnesse and Life dwels and lives 2. Christ living in believers confers upon them his own good things G For Christ the Son of God hath nothing in himself that is in his Divine nature which he will not communicate to our flesh as he hath done to his own according to our place and use in his body and so he communicates to all those in whom he dwells of all the things of God till at last he fill them with all the fulnesse of God And thus is Christ glorified in his Saints and admired in them that believe 5. H If it be Christ the true God that lives in believers then we learn hence what true justification is and that is to be so one with Christ by faith that Christ himself may live in us and we in him that he may communicate his nature to us and our nature may be taken up into his for we cannot be Justified before God by our own living but by Christs living in us his own life and his righteousnesse which is the righteousnesse of God must dwell in us e're we can be Justified before God I Lastly seeing Christ himself lives in all true believers let us all who professe our selves to be such so live that Christ may be seen to live in us more then our selves that they that have known us may know us no more but may know Christ in us and that they that have communion with us may acknowledge Christ himself speaking working and living his whole life in us in all self-denyall humility holinesse love resignation of our selves to the will of God and in all diligence to do the work of God and readinesse to suffer the will of God for thus Christ lived in his own flesh and thus also he will certainly live in ours if he live there at all and when Christ lives in our flesh as he did in his own something of his glory will be seen upon us Now such a Christian in whom Christ lives and he lives not himself how amiable would he be in the spiritual Church but how unlike would he be to all the men in the world yea to the most Professors in that which is called the visible Church but I proceed to that which follows ANIMADVERSION 14. A MAster Dell should do well to name the men who look for all the life of Christ in his humanity and do not acknowledge that Christ lived truly in Paul and doth live in all the faithful by his spirit If none such appear as I am confident there will not amongst knowing Protestants he might have saved his use of rectification at least wise in respect of them B That Christ the true God is instead of all created habits of grace yea that he is truly all grace unto believers seems to be a position very dissonant from Scripture doctrine and which to my best remembrance I never saw Printed nor heard uttered until now Paul fully distinguished the spirit in believers from the sanctifying graces of believers which he calleth the fruits of the spirit Gal. 5.22,23 and in divers places he teacheth that the graces flow by way of creation from Christ through his spirit 2 Cor. 5.17 Ephes 2.10 and 4.24 Might the Scriptures be heard I think created graces and Christ in believers would not be opposed or confounded but Christ dwelling in believers by his spirit be acknowledged not to be all grace but the fountain of all created graces in them for of his fulnesse have we all received and unto every one of us is grace given according to the measure of the gift of Christ Ephes 4.7 That the Godhead which dwelt in our Saviour was in him instead of all grace as Mr Dell confidently affirmeth needs proof before it be believed The fear of the Lord fiducial hope in God and other holy graces seem plainly according to Scripture doctrine to have been wrought habitually in our Saviours humane nature by the Spirit which was given him without measure Esay 11.2 and 61.1 Acts 10.38 It is quickly affirmed that created habits of grace in a Christian are empty notions and vaine speculations of School-men and of carnal and unbelieving hearts But doubtlesse men of holy and believing hearts have conceived that God in the Scripture makes mention of the habitual grace of righteousnesse wrought by the Lord Christ in his people Phil. 1.11 Eph. 4.24 as also the habitual graces of faith and love 1 Tim. 1.14 Acts 18.27 and of patience James 1.4 and the like flowing all from the Lord Christ as the vine which hath the sap of all grace originally in himself But that the Lord Christ is all grace to a believer I never yet read in any Scripture As to the place here produced by Mr Dell as expresly teaching the same sc 1 Cor. 1.30 I find it not there said that Christ is all grace to a believer nor do I imagine how it should be convincingly argued from that text which as far as I yet see only setteth forth our Saviour as made by God to his believing people the author and object of saving wisdom the treasure of Gods righteousnesse unto justification the root of sanctification through his spirit and the worker of the ful redemption of his people All which may be granted and is believed of those who yet believe that there is habitual operative grace wrought by â—hrist through his Spirit in his believing people enabling them in some measure unto every good work acording to 1 Cor. 15.10 C It is certain that our Lord Christ is the only ground of acceptation with God unto believers but that he is the only acceptable grace to God as Mr Dell here affirmeth is never as I know said in Scripture Love acting towards the Saints is pointed at as acceptable to God Heb. 6.10 and
Christian that is most dead and crucified to these things he it is that shines most gloriously in the Kingdom of Christ Z Lastly this crucified flesh is the only subject of the glorious Resurrection For as the living Word and Spirit that crucified Christs flesh did again raise up that crucified flesh of his from death and set it at the right hand of God and thereby did plainly manifest him to be the Son of God so the same Word and Spirit that crucifie our flesh shall as certainly raise it up with Christ into the fulness of the life and glory of God And this time the Apostle cals the day of the manifestation of the sons of God For the Word and Spirit whilest they dwel in us and crucifie us they make it only known to us and to them that live in the same faith spirit with us that we are the children of God but when they shal raise up this flesh of ours which they have first crucified from death and the grave into the life glory and eternity of God then it shall be manifest to all the world that we are his children And so our crucifying with Christ is a certain pledge of our Resurrection with him and this the Apostle testifies Rom. 8.11 saying He that raised up Christ from the dead shall quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwels in you and Rom. 6.8 If we be dead with him we believe we shall also live with him If we be dead with him that is through the Word and Spirit first crucifying our flesh and then offering it up to death A We believe we shall live with him that very life which the Word and Spirit of God did communicate to his flesh when it raised him from the grave and fully translated him into the immediate Kingdom of God And for this cause Col. 1.18 Christ is called the first born from the dead that is the first whom the Word and Spirit did raise from death and the grave and did carry into the Immediate presence of God as the first fruits and pledge of their Resurrection who have the same word and spirit dwelling in them ANIMADVERSION VII A I Find no such thing affirmed in the Scripture that through Faith we receive the living Word to dwel in us understanding thereby precisely the Godhead of our Saviour But it is plain that through Faith we receive Christ the Son to dwell in us and the Father also by the Spirit Ephes 2.22 1 John 4.12,13 John 14.23 B Indeed the word of God in the Scriptures and the Gospel preached according to the Scriptures is an outward word consisting in doctrines which hypocrites and carnal christians may have and professionally receive and stil live their own lives and after their own lusts But that this word is without the spirit unto believers not now to dispute how far the Spirit may work in the word to the coÌ„viction of unbelievers to deny that it is a means whereby they receive the Spirit and whereby the spirit crucifieth the flesh in them is plainly to deny the Scriptures Gal. 3.2 Eph. 6.17 2 Cor. 10.4,5 And to give up those who by faith receive and make use of this outward word of God to dwel in them for the crucifying of their flesh for hypocrites and carnal christians is certainly to condemn the generation of Gods children Psal 119.11 Col. 3.16 C It is as clear as light from the text that by the ergrafted word James 1.21 where this phrase is only found is meant the word of the Gospel outwardly dispensed In these words therefore Mr Dell seems unwarrantably to confound the Godhead of our Saviour with the Gospel outwardly dispensed or to put one for another which is a very strange mistake And certain it is that the word which faith receiveth is the Gospel outwaâ—dly preached which is not alwayes accompanied with the spirit in those that hear it Mark 16.16 Heb. 4.2 Rom. 10.8 D If here be not a president of racking the Scripture to purpose I am much mistaken The Apostle 1 Cor. 1.18 called the word which he preached which Mr Dell nameth an outward word the word of the crosse not for either of the two reasons here mentioned because it exposeth men to afflictions or because it doth crucifie us but plainly because it held forth Christ crucified to the world as is most apparent verse 23. of that chapter and 1 Cor. 2.2,3,4 And yet Mr Dell with much confidence brings forth the words of the Apostle as if they had been undoubtedly written not of the word preached by him but of the living word or Godhead of our Saviour to which for certain the Apostle had no eye in that place E The words found Heb. 4.12 are here by Mr Dell confidently applied to the living word of God or Godhead of our Saviour which by the general consent of almost all interpreters and by the argument of that place appears to concern the word of God outwardly administred which though Mr Dell maketh light of it yet as it is made effectually by the spirit of God hath all that testified of it in the Scripture which Mr Dell here affirmeth of the word of God in his sence 1 Cor. 14.24,25 2 Cor. 10.4,5 John 17.17 F If the word of the crosse be as it is and is here called by Mr Dell the word of faith then it is the word of the Gospel preached Rom. 10.17 which Mr Dell sleightingly calleth an outward word and leaveth to hypocrites and carnal christians And to as those words 1 Cor. 15,31 here alledged I find no expositor understanding them of an inward dying to sin The context plainly importeth that the Apostle by dying dayly intended a daily apprehension and expectation of death together with a daily exposure of himself to deadly afflictions for Christ and his Gospel sake 2 Cor. 4.10,11 The dying therefore mentioned in this Scripture is altogether different from the dying which Mr Dell here speaks of G The Law had a regulating power over our Lord Christ in the dayes of his flesh Mat. 5.17 Mat. 3.15 and therefore lost not all its power over him at that time as is here peremptorily asserted by Mr Dell. H So also how boldly soever Mr Dell affirms the contrary the Law hath a regulating power over all the faithful who keep it and fulfil it through love wrought in their hearts by the spirit Psal 119.1 1 John 5.3 I Believers own life if that be their humane life is not extinguished by the living word and spirit Mr Dell being judge whose words very soon after are these though sin hath its ful power in our humane life But in this case there needs no appeal Res ipsa loquitur All the world sees and knows that believers retain their own humane life the faculties and actings thereof after they live the life of Christ through the Spirit I would gladly therefore understand Mr Dell in this place of the extinguishing only of the life
The Apostle used this form of speech that he might shew that as a garment is a different thing from him that putteth it on so also the old and new man are different things from us who put off one wherewith we were clothed and again put on the other which before we had not upon us I take it that Austins words are fully consonant to Scripture doctrine Sit igitur in primis positum atque firmatum virtutem quâ rectè vivitur ab animi sede membris corporis imperare sanctumque corpus usu fieri sanctae voluntatis Let this be in the first place laid down and firmly held unto that the vertue whereby a man lives well commandeth over the members of the body from the throne of the minde and that the body is made holy by the use of a holy will Aug. de civ dei lib. 1. cap. 16. B By the words of the Apostle it doth appear that a Christian crucified with Christ as to the life of the old man liveth not unto God from a principle of life which is properly his own or from himself but from a principle of life which he hath from Christ and in Christ namely from the spirit of Christ which dwelleth in all his But that a believer loseth his personality by being crucified with Christ it appeareth not from this or any other Scripture that I know That through faith a believers soul and body live no more any proper life of their own but are taken up into the nature and person of the Son of God understanding these words according to Mr Dels explication Sect. 13. D that Christ in a believer is not the flesh of Christ for that being a creature can be but in one place at a time but this Christ is the Eternal Word and Son of the living God the power wisdom and righteousnesse of God and the true God and eternal life seems to me a very dreadful position For if a believers soul and body be taken up into the nature and person of Christ the Son of God in distinction from his flesh then he must needs in nature and person be the Son of God and the true God as our Lord Jesus Christ is which I am not willing to believe that Mr Dell will positively and plainly affirm though his words evidently speak so much Whereas it is here further asserted by Mr Dell that in Christ a believer subsists lives and acts as a member in the man the branch in the Vine that is acknowledged in a Scripture sence sc that a believer hath his spiritual life wholly in Christ and from Christ as his head and mediatour through his spirit as a member hath its life from a man and a branch from the Vine but from hence to conclude that a believer through faith doth lose his personality and lives in the person personality of the Son of God is utterly inconsequent for though a believer doth retain his humane nature and personality and doth truly live and subsist in the same yet is it likewise true that that person subsists lives and acts in Christ as to the life of God in him as a member in the man or as a branch in the Vine C This assertion here reiterated by Mr Dell that a believer after faith comes is no more a person distinct from Christ needs not again to be proposed peremptorily but to be proved sufficiently by Scripture and me thinks those words so far as he is gathered up into Christ do utterly overthrow the former assertion and prove that a believer in some degree or respect is not gathered up into Christ and therefore must needs be a person distinct from Christ If here be not contradictio in adjecto a contrariety in the end to the beginning of this sentence I am much mistaken D I utterly deny and doubt not but the Scripture will bear me out in it that a believer though admitted to be a distinct person from Christ is within the reach and power of death and hell for the humane person of a believer being by faith and the Spirit united unto Christ as his member truly and yet mystically is through Christ as his head and mediatour fully put out of the reach of death and hell and of the Law and sin as binding over thereunto so that if the law sin death or the Devil come to a believer to accuse terrifie or condemn him he by reason of his most real and near union into Christ may reply in truth and say It is not I I am not I I am through faith a member of Christ I am in him and of him If you have any thing to say say it to Christ my head and mediatour for I am a member of his and do live in him And this doctrine I doubt not is as full and effectual as what Mr Dell here suggests to bring on that conclusion in regard of believers that none can lay any thing to their charge but what Christ hath taken upon himself and overcome for them and so the law sin hell and the Devil can as soon prevail against Christ as against them who are so nearly joyned to him as to be one flesh and spirit with him in a Scripture sence much different from the mind and meaning of Mr Dell in this point E Those words being not overstrained beyond Scripture meaning are very true and good and conformable to the judgment of those who judg Mr Dels doctrine of a believers having no personality but in the person of the Son of God to be very unsound and dangerous Indeed if we were persons by our selves that is persons not united unto Christ as our head and mediatour we should be very miserable but blessed be the Lord though we know believers to be distinct persons from Christ yet we also know them to be persons spiritually and mystically united unto and even into Christ as their head being made parts of that body which is his fulnesse who filleth all in all Eph. 1.23 and that is unto them matter of everlasting and invincible rejoycing F Where to look this place in Luthers works I know not but upon what I know of the general tenour of Luthers doctrine I dare adventure the reproach of a grosse mistake if the words being duly weighed do import more then this that all personal works worth merit and righteousnesse is to be wholly disclaimed by those who partake of the spiritual benefits of Christ And this is very sweet Gospel doctrine assuredly which hath no affinity with Mr Dels new paradox G Agreed if these words be taken in the plain Scripture sence of them there is no doubt but for the escaping of eternal evils and obtaining eternal good things believers must be taken up into Christ and found in him not having their own righteousness but that which is through the faith of Christ the righteousnesse which is of God by faith Phil. 3.9 at what time they may in their particulars
called a grace 2 Cor. 8.7 which yet certainly is not Christ D Questionlesse there is the grace of Gods eternal love whereby we are saved against which the gates of hell cannot prevail which though believers are partakers of in Christ yet is not the Lord Christ this grace but the chief gift of it John 3.16 and the 4th 10. E The third use made here by Mr Dell of his doctrine standeth in full force for the comfort of believers upon the ground of the doctrine of Christs living in his people by his spirit as it is taught by those who see no footing for his doctrine in the Word of God for they all know that Christ is afflicted in his members according to the Scriptures F If Christ being himself our new law within us makes void the law of God without us as old as Mr Dels words in this place seem to import then both the law of works and faith too as it is outwardly dispensed yea the whole Scripture as to the mandatory legislative part of it is made void to believers which whether Mr Dell will nakedly affirm I know not If he do I doubt not but it will appear an anti-scriptural affirmation and an open road to a state beyond ordinances and above duties in which men are apt in a mist of imaginary perfection to lose their way to that real perfection of righteousnesse and blessednesse which believers enjoy in Christ Jesus according to the Gospel Col. 1.28 G These words as I conceive in a sound Scripture sence may be admitted for it is certain that our Lord Christ doth communicate himself wholly to believers according to their place and use in his body and will do so till at the last he fill them with all the fulnesse of God yet is it not to be admitted for truth that the divine nature is communicated to our flesh as it was to his own that is to say after the self same manner If Mr Dell decline this sence of his words I will not presse it or the dangerous consequences of it upon him If he own it I see not how he can avoid the avowing of believers to be God even as our Lord Christ is God which I hope he will not affirm H It seems to me by these words that Mr Dell either hath not learned or which I rather think doth not like the Protestant doctrine of justification justified by so many of our worthies against Popish advocates Protestant Divines generally having learned from the Apostle Paul that Justification is verbum forense a word taken from humane judicatories and opposed to comdemnation Rom. 8.33,34 Do teach that we are justified freely by Gods grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus But Mr Dell here teacheth that we are justified by Christs living in us his own life and by his righteousnesse even the righteousnesse of God dwelling in us which as I know it not to be down-right Popery so I am sure it coasteth much nearer upon Popish then upon Protestant which I trust I may call Scripture doctrine since it acknowledgeth the righteousnesse whereby believers are justified to be resident in their own persons which is a position very wide from the apprehension of Protestants who believe that we are justified freely by Gods grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus I This exhortation directed to believers as to the matter of it is very sound and good But I would ask to what persons Mr Dell intends to give this exhortation If to the persons of believers he would perswade us that there are none such for he teacheth that believers have lost their own personality and are taken up into the nature and person of the Son of God Sect. 11. B C And I believe M Dell doth not look upon the person of the Son of God as one that needs his exhortation SECT XV. And the life I live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God A ANd here note in the first place That Paul sometimes saith Christ lives in him and sometimes that He lives I live saith he yet not I but Christ lives in me and again The life I live The life I live saith he of that very life which Christ lived in him All which shows the near Vnion and Communion betwixt Christ and a believer Christ and a true Christian being so much one that what the one doth the other may be truly said to do B So that as God and Christ were so united that the very works of God in Christ sometimes were attributed to God and sometimes to Christ as is manifest in divers places in the Gospel and it made no difference whether they were attributed to God in Christ or to Christ in God Just so it is betwixt Christ and believers who are as nearly united as God and Christ as Christ himself whom we may safely believe affirms in Joh. 14.20 saying In that day ye shall know that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you C In that day that is when the Spirit is given and comes into the heart which makes the true Lords-day in a believer in that day when the Spirit is the light whereby we see and know aright all the things of God in that Day Ye shall know this great mystery which the World and the Worldly Church cannot know but will be greatly offended at it when they hear it to wit that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you D And in John 17.21 Christ who was heard in all things in his last solemn prayer for his elect Church in the dayes of his flesh intreats his Father that this may be accomplished in all the Believers praying that they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us From which Scriptures we may see and perceive that as Christ is in the Father and the Father in Him so Believers are in Christ and Christ in Them And hereupon the works of Believers are sometimes attributed to Christ and sometimes to Them And it is no matter whether they be attributed to Christ in them or to Them in Christ seeing it is Christ in believers that is all and doth all and hath the Glory of all E Now this Vse we who are believers may make of this to wit that it is our Dutie so to live in Christ that every part of our life may be attributed to Him and may be such that Christ may not be ashamed to own it but that it may be a praise to Christ He doing all in us and we doing nothing but in him and of him and for him ANIMADVERSION 15. A THe former part of this paragraph in a sound sence is true but that Christ and a Christian are made so much one that what the one doth the other may be said to do being laid down by Mr Dell as universally and without all limitation true is an
through faith we are carried into the Son of God to have all that He hath and He again comes and fills us with all that he is and hath 5 True faith carries us into Christ and makes us one with him as the Author and Original of all our good works For through this God dwels in us and works his own works in us and we again dwell in him and work his own works in him and those only are true good works which God that dwels in us works in us and which we dwelling in God work in him G Yea a Believer who is one with Christ not only doth good works but doth them continually for Christ in him is alwayes active and whilst he is in Christ he must be alwayes active and therefore saith Christ Joh. 15. He that abideth in me and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit For through this mutual abiding of Christ and a Christian in each other a Christian as naturally and as necessarily doth the works of God as the fire burns or the Sun shines And these are some of the Advantages a Christian hath through faith in the Son of God ANIMADVERSION 17. A THat that only is true faith which doth apprehend and receive the true God in Jesus Christ And also that true faith is not of our selves but is wrought in us by the Father through the Spirit is very true and certaine But to define faith or describe it as Mr Dell here doth only and wholly by acts of God the Father is plainly to make God not only the authour but the sole actor of faith and so to deny any acting of the hearts of believers to Christ-ward by faith which as I conceive is doctrine very new and strange from the truth of the Gospel Gal. 2.16 Eph. 1.13 Rom. 10.10 It is true that here is mention made by Mr Dell of believers receiving of Christ but he saith not as he might that therein stands the nature of faith but in Gods inabling a man to receive Christ which is wholly and solely Gods act as is also his making us one with the Son to live and abide in him for ever which being one with and abiding in the Son though it be an effect yet containeth nothing in it of the nature of faith B That by faith through Christ believers are adopted to be the Sons of God is certainly true But that as the Word or Son of God coming into the humanity of Christ gave it authority to become the Son of God so the same Word coming into us through Christ gives us power to become the Sons of God in him as the fire gives the iron power to be light and hot is plainly to take off believers son-ship in relation to God from the ground of adoption through grace and to found it upon the communication of the Divine nature to them in the same manner though not so immediately nor in the same measure as to the humanity of our Saviour which is a doctrine of such ill consequence that still me thinks Mr Dell should tremble and abhor to own it nakedly For if the Son of God coming into believers as into the humanity of our Saviour give them power to become the sons of God as it gave him power to be the Son of God as the fire gives the iron in which it dwels power to be light and hot then it follows that though believers have the Son of God in them through Christ yet having the Son of God in them they have power to be the Sons of God immediately and in themselves as the iron hath immediate power from the fire to be light and hot which being granted overthrows the doctrine of believers adoption by Christ and putteth all believers into the peculiar honour of the immediate Sonship of our Lord Christ C Do believers in whatsoever they do stil carry themselves in all things in some demonstration of the divine nature as Mr Dell here peremptorily affirmeth I do believe the Apostle that in many things we offend all and that the best of believers have their sad miscarriages as the Apostle Peter had Gal. 2. and give too often demonstration of the reliques of corrupt nature in them If Mr Dell can reconcile these things together I shall leave that labour to him D Believers no doubt through faith in the Son of God are made heirs of God and joynt heirs with Christ of all things But that as our Lord Christ according to his humane nature was made heir of all things by being made one with the Son of God so believers likewise receive the Son understanding thereby the Godhead of our Saviour and so are made heirs with Christ of all things though it consent will with Mr Dels former doctrine yet I find no Scripture doctrine agreeing thereunto The scripture doctrine in this point as I apprehend is this that all true believers through faith in Christ are gratiously adopted to be the sons of God and if sons then are they heirs of God and joynt heirs with Christ of all things and specially of the eternal heavenly glory which is to come E That true faith uniting us as members to the Lord Jesus doth carry us out of the reach of the law sin death and hell so far that none of them shall prevail against us being believers unto destruction is doubtlesse a sweet Gospel truth But that faith putteth us out of the reach of these evils by putting us into the Son of God or Godhead of our Saviour is barely Mr Dels assertion without the Scripture which teacheth that believers are carried out of the destroying reach of the law sin death and hel through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus not through any such union into the Son of God as he here drives at F That right faith carrieth believers into the Son of God into all his perfections and excellencies into his nature life wisdom and glory and into all the fulnesse of the Son of the living God is a position which before this time I think never dropped from the tongue or pen of any Christian Mr Del seems not to have arrived to the height of such an apprehension by what we read Sect. 16. F sc So that the life of the Son of God is communicated truly to all the faithful and is to be seen in their flesh in some measure as wel as in his in all fulnesse But it is here plainly and peremptorily affirmed that believers are carried into all the fulness of the Son of the living God the necessary consequences whereof how dreadful they are I leave to him to consider I trust he doth not believe that in believers dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily which the Apostle pointed at as the peculiar incommunicable honour and excellency of our Lord Jesus the Son of the living God Col. 2.9 G Where is that believer that doth good works continually The Apostle Paul found not in himself a continual
ability to do good works Rom. 7.15,18 and pointed at the same impotency in the believing Galathians Gal. 5.17 And me thinks to affirm that a Christian as naturally and necessarily doth the works of God as the fire burneth and the Sun shineth which creatures we know have no seeds of opposition against their native operations in them is plainly to make a Christian perfectly spiritual and holy free from all reliques of native corruption opposing in him the willings of grace And if any such Christian be to be found according to Mr Dels doctrine he must needs exceed the measure of the Apostle Pauls holinesse which I think no true humble Christian will pretend unto SECT XVIII BY all which we may perceive that true faith is a greater matter then the most are aware of A For men usually think that when they hear the Gospel in the outward Ministry and assent to it that it is true that this is Faith and that then they do believe but the true faith of Gods elect is a greater matter then so for through that we are truly made one with the Son of the living God and do abide and live in him for ever B And so this right faith is a most high and precious grace and is the first manifestation of the Fathers eternal love to the Soul and the first grace whereby we have entrance into the Kingdom of God it is the Sabbath of Sabbaths it is the greatest and highest worship of God C it is infinite and everlasting righteousnesse it is the mortification of the flesh the quickening of the spirit our mighty victory over the Law Sin Death Hell the World and Devil it is the first and last and all in all in the Kingdom of the Son And he that believes as the Scriptures have said is already truly passed from sin to righteousnesse from death to life and from Satan to God So that right faith is a most precious grace and is found in very few of the common Professours of the worldly Church So that Christ himself makes this question The Son of man when he comes shall he finde faith upon earth And therefore it concerns all to inquire and try Whether we partake of this Faith or no And whether the life we live in the flesh be in the Faith of the Son of God otherwise we must know that as he that believes shall be saved so he that believes not shall be damned It follows ANIMADVERSION 18. A MAster Dell I suppose whatever he intimateth in these words cannot but know that the generality of Protestant Divines place the nature of saving faith not in a bare assent to the Gospel but in an act of the whole heart receiving Jesus Christ according to the Gospel John 1.12 And as for such men who wrest the nature of saving faith short of the receiving of Jesus Christ with their whole heart their doctrine is as unsatisfactory to the generallity of understanding Protestants as to Mr Dell. B If true faith be a most high and precious grace as is here affirmed by Mr Dell How then is Christ in believers truly all grace which is asserted by him Sect. 14. B Is Christ a believers right faith too That were very strange C The praise of a right faith is very great in the book of God But to say of faith that it is infinite and everlasting righteousnesse and again that it is the first and the last and all in all in the kingdom of the Son is no Scripture expression and these positions seem to trench very far upon the glory of the Lord Jesus of whom alone these high things are and can be truly affirmed Jer. 23.6 Rev. 1.11 Colos 3.11 SECT XIX Who loved me and gave himself for me THe Apostle having shewed that all true Christians are truly crucified with Christ and are also truly quickned with him by the same living Word and Spirit of life which crucified them and so do receive a Spiritual and Divine life instead of their humane and carnal life and having also shewed the Means by which they attain to this blessed death and blessed life and that it is by faith in the Son of God A Here he proceeds to shew us two main and chief things which faith regards and apprehends in Christ to wit his infinite love and the incomparable fruit of it saying who loved me and gave himself for me And so in these words I shall take notice of these three things 1. Of Christs special and peculiar Love to his Elect from these words who loved me 2. Of his special and peculiar Redemption being the fruit of his special love in these words and gave himself for me 3. Of Faiths particular Application of both these speciall Graces to a Believer The first thing here considerable is Christs special love to some above others Who loved me Most certain it is from the word of the Gospel which is the truest and clearest light that ever shone in the Church of the faithful that Christ doth not love all Mankinde alike but he loves some and not others There is indeed a general and common love of Christ wherein he comprehends all Mankinde alike which he manifests to them in making as he himself saith Matth. 5.24 his sun to rise on the evil and on the good and sending his rain on the just and on the unjust and as Paul saith Acts 14.17 He doth good to all Nations though they walk in their own wayes giving them rain from heaven and fruitful seasons filling their bodies with food and their hearts with gladnesse and supplying them with the common things of this life sutable to their Humanity But he hath a special love to his Elect to the Church which is his Body these he loves as his own flesh yea as partakers of the same Divine Nature with himself and according to this love he communicateth to these of all that very fulnesse of God which he hath received from his Father Now with this special love he loves not all Mankinde alike but onely some passing by the rest The Grounds and Reasons of which special love of his to some and not to others are these 1. Because the Son as he is of the same Nature with his Father so he is also of the same operation with him and so he only doth that which his Father doth first as Christ himself testifieth of himself John 5.19 saying Verily verily I say unto you the Son can do nothing of himself but whatsoever he sees the Father do For whatsoever things he doth these doth the Son likewise For the Father loveth the Son and sheweth him all things that himself doth So that the Father sheweth to the Son all those whom he loves and whom the Son sees the Father loves those also doth He love and whom the Father doth not love neither doth the Son love them because he can do nothing of himself but what he sees the Father do So that the Sons love is full
Tongues People and Nations but some out of every Kindred and Tongue and People and Nation which he hath loved and redeemed to God by his blood And now to make some Vse of both these Truths together Vse 1. And first The World as Christ terms Vnbelievers and Reprobates will certainly be grievously offended at this Doctrine when they shall hear that they have no part nor lot neither in the special Love nor in the special Redemption of Christ But this we cannot help nor be false witnesses of the minde of God which he hath so clearly revealed in his Word For they are not of God neither hath Christ loved or redeemed them neither do they much prize this Special Love and Redemption But the Sins they have they love them and live in them and do alwayes resist and oppose Christ and his Spirit and so as they are rejected of God so also they perish in their own sin and obstinacie Vse 2. 2. The faithful may learn hence that our Happinesse and Salvation in the first cause of it doth far surmount the utmost capacitie of the highest reason of all men and Angels seeing it is builded on no reason or ground of reason in any Creature but upon the meer will and good pleasure of the Creator which is not moved directed or ruled by any thing that is in the Creature but by it self alone and that freely fully and unchangably Which good pleasure of his as it is the Rule of all his works towards the Creature so this also is to be the Rule of all reason in the Creature and with this the Creature is to rest satisfied without farther questions and demands otherwise it blasphemes at the highest rate when it will needs be replying against God and not rest satisfied with his good pleasure Wherefore Christ himself speaking of this special Grace of God to the Elect gives him thanks for his good pleasure which was the first Fountain of all saying Matth. 11.25.26 I thank thee Father Lord of Heaven and Earth because thou hast hid these things from the wise and men of understanding and hast opened them to babes Even so Father because thy good pleasure was such Which shews us that the good will of the Father is the Fountain and first Original of our Salvation unto which the will and pleasure of the Son is fully conformed and the Reason and Prudence and Knowledge and Understanding of man have no Place nor Vse here Vse 3. 3. The free and special Love and Redemption of Christ apprehended and felt by Faith tends to the great Refreshing and Comfort of the Faithful and that in the midst of the greatest sense of sin and wrath That the Lord even the Father and Son should by the Spirit thus single them out of all mankind and that the Father should freely set his love on them and give them Christ to give himself for them and should manifest the truth and certainty of all this to them by the Spirit which only is the Faithful witness of the mind and counsel of God to all his people I say the true and Spiritual sense of this Special Love and Redemption of God and Christ to them cannot chuse but fill their hearts with joy unspeakable and glorious So that the Soul cannot chuse but say Lord what is thy poor servant that thou shouldest deal thus with me That thou shouldst in thy deep and unsearchable counsel and in thy most hidden but most righteous Judgements passe by so many thousands and millions of people in every age and generation and should set thy love on me together with Christ and all his Saints being in my self so wretched and unworthy a Creature And this choiceness and speciality of thy love the more endears it to me and hath ravished and overcome my heart After this manner yea and beyond all expression must the Soul needs be affected that is truly sensible of the Special love and redemption of Christ ANIMADVERSION 19. A THese words speak of Faith as an act of Believers towards Christ regarding and apprehending in him his infinite love and the incomparable fruit of it according to the old Protestant doctrine agreeing with the Scriptures which I think cannot be brought into any good accord with the description of the nature of Faith set down by Mr Dell Sect. 17. A B This is old good and acknowledged doctrine firmly believed by those who are wholly unsatisfied in much of Mr Dels former doctrine as having no affinity with what is here delivered SECT XX. ANd this for Vse Object Now if any say If Christs Love and Redemption belong but to a few why is the Gospel commanded to be preached to all Nations in the World Answ I answer That in all the world among all Nations it may find out the Elect of God and bring them to the true knowledge and enjoyment of what God of his free grace hath done for them in Jesus Christ and when that word cometh they hear the Joyful Sound and believe and according to their Faith so is it to them And so I proceed to the third point which is Faith 's particular application of this special love and redemption of Christ to believers who loved me and gave himself for me A It is the nature of true Faith to apply Christ and all his Works to the believer and to make them his own for faith puts on Christ and cloaths us with Christ yea it eats and drinks him who is the Son of the living God and so makes Christ its own indeed Through faith Christ is formed in us and we again are formed in him and Christ and we are so made one another through faith that Christ Appropriates us to himself and we again appropriate Christ to us Other men content themselves with a General conceit that Christ loved them but a Christian hath a Particular faith Other men believe that he loved Paul and Peter and John such eminent Saints but true faith saith in our hearts he loved Me even Me together with them and that with the self same love and gave himself for Me as he did for them Quest But some will say Had not Paul a special Revelation of this love of Christ besides faith Answ I Answer Paul had a special Revelation of this love but yet no other then all believers have who have received the Spirit as the same Apostle shews 1 Cor. 2.12 where he saith We have not received the spirit of the world but the spirit that is of God that we may know the things that are freely given to us of God So that the Spirit of God within us shews us the things that God hath freely given us among which Christs Love and Redemption are the chief And the same Apostle prayes for the Ephesians that God would give them the spirit of wisdom and Revelation to know Christ. Now this spirit of Revelation doth not only shew us that there is a Christ and what he is but also that