Scripture which is not as the foresaid Faith idle unfruitful and dead but worketh by Charity as St. Paul declareth Gal. v. which as the other vain Faith is called a dead Faith so this may be called a quick or lively Faith This is the true lively and unfeigned Christian Faith and is not in the mouth and outward Profession only but it liveth and stirreth inwardly in the heart And this Faith is not without hope and trust in God nor without the love of God and of our Neighbours nor without the fear of God nor without the desire to hear Gods Word and to follow the same in eschewing evil and doing gladly all good works This Faith as St. Paul describes it is the sure ground and foundation of the benefits which we ought to look for and trust â—o receive of God a certificate and sure looking for them although they yet sensibly appear not unto us c. This I think is as plain as words can make it that the only Foundation of our Hope and Trust in God and of our expectation of all temporal and spiritual good things from him is a lively and working Faith and upon these terms I will dispute with no man I never asserted more my self nor desire any other man should But to make it more evident what the sense of our Church is concerning the necessity of Good Works we are taught in these Homilies three things concerning Faith First That it is essential to true Faith to be fruitful in good Works when it hath the Opportunities of Action This Faith doth not lie dead in the heart but is lively and fruitful in bringing forth good Works That as the Light cannot be hid but will shew forth it self at one place or other so a true Faith cannot be kept secret but when occasion is offered it will break out and shew it self by Good Works And as the living Body of a Man ever exerciseth such things as belong to a natural and living Body for nourishment and preservation of the same as it hath need opportunity and occasion even so the Soul that hath a lively Faith in it will be doing alway some good Work which shall declare that it is living and will not be unoccupied Therefore when men hear in the Scriptures so high commendation of Faith that it maketh us to please God to live with God and to be the Children of God If then they phantasie that they be set at liberty from doing all good Works and may live as they lust they trifle with God and deceive themselves and it is a manifest token that they be far from having the true lively Faith also far from knowledge what true Faith meaneth And then follows that excellent Description of Faith which I have transcribed above From this it is very plain that our Church accounts a holy Life as essential to a true Faith as Action is to Life and that true Faith is discovered by a holy Life just as an inward Principle of Life is discovered by external and visible Actions This is farther proved in the Homily from the examples of all good men in former Ages whose Faith was fruitful in good Works such as Abel Noah Abraham Isaac Iacob c. and from the Testimony of the holy Scripture especially of the 1 Epist. of S. Iohn where there are so many express testimonies to this Truth and by refuting the several pretences of those men who fancy that they believe in God and love him though they either live in sin or neglect to obey his Laws the conclusion of all is in these words So they that be Christians and have received the knowledge of God and of Christs Merits and yet of a set purpose do live idly without good works thinking the name of a naked faith to be either sufficient for them or else setting their minds upon vain pleasures of this World do live in sin without repentance not uttering the Fruits that do belong to such an high Profession upon such presumptuous Persons and wilful Sinners must needs remain the great vengeance of God and eternal punishment in Hell prepared for the unjust and wicked Livers The second thing which we are taught of Faith is That Faith is the only Principle of Good Works acceptable and pleasing to God that without it can no good Work be done accepted and pleasant unto God for as a Branch cannot bear Fruit of it self saith our Saviour Christ except it abide in the Vine so cannot you except you abide in me And without Faith it is impossible to please God And whatever work is done without Faith is sin Faith giveth life to the Soul and they be as much dead to God who lack Faith as they be to the World whose Bodies lack Souls This is a true account why no Works though they may appear never so good can be acceptable to God without Faith because Faith is the only Principle of a new and spiritual Life which makes us alive to God which gives us such a sense of God and reverence for his Authority as makes us careful in all things to please him which is the very life and soul of Religion and all Vertue and as it is observed in that Homily from St. Chrysostom As men that be very men indeed first have life and after be nourished so must our Faith in Christ go before and after be nourished with good Works A Life may be without Nourishment that is for some short time but Nourishment cannot be without Life A man must needs be nourished by good Works but first he must have Faith He that doth good Deeds yet without Faith he hath no Life Much to the same purpose it is observed from St. Augustine That the intent maketh the Works good but Faith must guide and order the intent of Man So that he which doth not his good Works with a godly intent a true Faith that worketh by Love the whole Body besides that is to say all the whole number of his Works is dark and hath no light in them for good Deeds be not measured by the facts themselves and so discerned from Vices but by the ends and intents for which they were done The meaning then of our Church is no more but this That whereas without Faith no man can love and reverence God or design to please him in all things whatever materially Good Works such men may do yet they are not properly Acts of Religion as not being referred to God and therefore cannot be acceptable to God as such nor avail any man to eternal Life Upon this account it is that God so much prizes Faith because it is the Seed and Principle of Universal Obedience that when there is such a sincere Principle in us and wants an opportunity of exerting it self it is accepted by God without Works as is observed in the same place from St. Chrysostom I can shew a man that by Faith without Works
respect of that New Creature Divine Nature and spiritual being which he hath wrought in them but immediately also I would fain learn of him what he means by this immediate presence of the Spirit for if the Holy Spirit be a divine and infinite being which is present every where how can he be more immediately present in one place or in one person than in another but only by a more peculiar manifestation of himself in his effects and operations As God who fills all places with his presence is said to dwell in Heaven because there he manifests his glory in a more peculiar manner But I cannot without some indignation observe how our Author has prophaned this holy Union between Christ and Believers by comparing it with the impure mixtures of a man with a Harlot and representing the Apostle to argue at this rate The Apostle tells us That he who is joyned to the Lord is one spirit 1 Cor. 6. 17. Which I thus explained That herein consists our Union to Christ that we have the same temper of mind which he had wrought in us by the same Holy Spirit which animates both the Head and the Body and every member of it as I acknowledged before for there can be no Union between Souls and Spirits without this that they are acted by the same principles and love and chuse the same things c. Mr. Ferguson disproves this from that opposition which the Apostle as he says makes between the Union of a man to a Harlot and our Union to Christ Know ye not that he which is joyned to a Harlot is one body but he that is joyned to the Lord is one spirit From whence he argues If the Union betwixt a man and a Harlot in the virtue of which they are one body import more than meerly a likeness of temper and moral disposition as surely it doth for asmuch as there may be a similitude in sensual propensions and inclinations where the becoming one flesh through carnal conjunction interposeth not much more doth a Believer's being one spirit with the Lord imply a higher kind of Union than an affinity of dispositions What fine work might a prophane Wit make of this And indeed I would not have defiled my Paper with it but only to have vindicated our Apostle and Christianity together from such sordid and impure abuses And any one who consults the place will easily perceive that this prophane comparison is owing wholly to our Author and that the Apostle has nothing to do with it For in the fifteenth verse he disswades them from Fornication by this Argument Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ shall I take then the members of Christ and make them members of an Harlot God forbid The undecency of this is very evident that the members of Christ should be made the members of an Harlot and therefore the Apostle distinctly proves these two Propositions that our bodies as we are Christians are the members of Christ and that that body which is joyned to the Harlot becomes one flesh and body with her This last he proves from the primitive institution of Marriage Two saith he shall be one flesh For an Harlot is an uxor usuraria who unlawfully supplies the place of Wife and he proves the latter that our bodies also are the members of Christ from that intimate Union of Souls and Spirits betwixt Christ and Believers He that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit and therefore his body too is a member of Christ for that intimate Union between the body and the soul will not admit a separation Christ first takes possession of our souls and then challenges an interest and propriety in our bodies which must be preserved holy and pure as the Temples of God But then thirdly I observed That there is a closer Union still which results from this which consists in a mutual and reciprocal love when we are transformed into the Image of Christ he loves us as being like to him and we love him too as partaking of his nature He loves us as the price of his bloud as his own workmanship created unto good works and we love him as our Redeemer and Saviour for which I produced Ioh. 14. 20. At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you Where by day Mr. Ferguson very wisely understands the glorified state this Union being such a Mystery as cannot be understood in this world whereas the Circumstances of the place determine it to our Saviours Resurrection and the descent of the Holy Spirit and he himself explains the meaning of this Union Vers. 21. He that hath my Commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and manifest my self to him To the same purpose Christ prays for his Disciples Ioh. 17. 21. That they may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us These Scriptures are alleadged by Mr. Ferguson too but to prove he knows not what He acknowledges That it is not an oneness of Essence betwixt Christ and Believers that is here to be understood nor yet is it meerly an oneness of will and affection between the Father and the Son but it is an Essential Unity here meant Well Is there an Essential Unity then here meant betwixt Christ and Believers No that he rejected before What then Why though we plead not for the same kind of oneness between Christ and Believers as is between the Father and the Son yet we affirm that something more sublime than barely a Political Relation is adumbrated and shadowed forth to us Something more than External-Political Union I believe is intended by them but what sublime thing is that which is adumbrated and shadowed forth to us in these words which expressions argue that our Author is not very clear in it that he tells us that by alluding to that incomprehensible Idendity which is between the persons of the blessed Trinity through a numericalness of nature he would instruct us that the Union between Christ and those that are born of God is intimate great and Mysterious as well as true and real But Mr. Ferguson else-where tells us that all Unions are Mysterious and there are several sorts of intimate and great and true and real Unions so that we are never the wiser for this account of our Union to Christ. But our Saviours plain and obvious meaning is this that as there is a perfect harmony of will and affections and design and a perfect agreement in Doctrine between the Father and himself founded on the unity of nature so he prays that his Disciples may be one also among themselves and with God from their agreement in the same belief and participation of the same nature and a unity and harmony of Affections But then I observed
to us and our being united to him that is our being reckoned to him because the Holy Spirit which works faith in us is bestowed on us for Christ's sake and upon account of our Union to him And then certainly the Holy Spirit does not primarily unite us to Christ but is an effect and consequent of our Union to him And this I expresly asserted in my former Discourse that this Union to Christ entitles us to his peculiar care and providence to the influences of his grace to the power of his Intercession c. And thirdly for the same reason I did not so largely and particularly discourse of Christ's being an Influential Head though I expresly own those influences of grace which we receive from Christ because he is so only as he is a Political Head That is as Temporal Princes govern their Subjects by external Arts and Methods of Discipline So Christ who is a Spiritual Prince governs his Subjects and dwells in them by his Spirit The gift of the Spirit is an Act of his Regal Power is bestowed only on his Subjects and is dispensed in such regular ways as he has prescribed for the external Conduct and Government of his Church Thus the Spirit is at first conferred on us in Baptism and the daily supplies of it are administred upon our constant and devout Prayers as our Saviour has promised that God will give his Spirit to them who ask him And we must expect the constant illuminations of the Spirit and the supplies of Grace in the administration of the Word and Sacrament of the Lords Supper By these means Christ as our Prince and Saviour conveighs his Grace to us which requires our Communion with his Church in all Sacred Institutions and is the true basis and security of Ecclesiastical Authority Thus St. Paul tells us That Christ is the Head from whom the whole body fitly joyned together and compacted by that which every joynt supplieth according to the effectual working in the measure of every part maketh increase of the body to the edifying it self in love Eph. 4. 15 16. and Col. 2. 18. And not holding the Head from which all the body with joynts and bands having nourishment ministred and knit together increaseth with the increase of God In which places the Apostle represents the nourishment and increase of the Christian Church and of every member in it by the growth of the natural body in which every member does not receive its influences and nourishment immediately from the Head but one member communicates to another in such just and equal proportions and regular ways as may be most for the good of the whole body Thus every Christian who is a member of the Church and body of Christ does receive the influences of Grace from Christ for his increase and nourishment but he does not receive these influences immediately but they are bestowed on him by the Ministry of men in the regular administration of those holy Institutions which our Saviour has appointed for that end and this is for the publick benefit and advantage of the Christian Church to secure the Authority of Church Governours and to preserve the Unity of Christians among themselves This gives a plain account why I would not call the Person of Christ the Fountain of Grace nor send Persons immediately to Christ for life and power and all spiritual supplies because though Christ be the great Minister of Grace yet we must not derive it immediately from his Person but he dispenses his Grace in the Preaching of the Word or the administration of Sacraments and such other regular Methods as he has appointed for the Government of his Church and the increase and growth of his spiritual body Whereas Dr. Owen and Dr. Crisp and the rest of the Antinomians represent Christ as such a Person who has not only done all for us but has undertaken to do all in us and that by such natural conveyances of Grace from his Person as there is of the animal spirits from the head to the rest of the members and that men must first be united to Christ before they can be capable of any spiritual motion So Dr. Crisp very agreeably to what Dr. Owen asserts tells us That Christ is the Head now the Head is the Fountain of all animal Spirits and of all motion without a Head a man cannot hear see walk feel stir nor do any thing seeing all these operations come from the Head Christ is the Head of his Church he is the Fountain of all spiritual sense and motion you may as soon conceive that a man is able to see whilst he hath not a Head as to think a man may have spiritual eyes whether the eye of Faith to behold Christ or the eyes of mourning to lament his wretchedness before there be actually the conjunction of Christ the Head to such a Body Thus Christ is called Life and can any one be an active Creature before there be life breathed into him As a Body without a Soul is dead so every Person in spiritual Actions is wholly dead till Christ the Soul of that Soul be infused into him to animate and enliven him For these men as I observed before having destroyed all the Arguments to a good life and all the regular and ordinary Methods of Grace are forced to resolve the renovation of our minds into a Natural and Physical and Immediate operation of Christ upon our minds which makes all his Institutions very insipid and useless things and destroys the Authority and Necessity of Christian Societies if all Grace be so immediately derived from the Person of Christ. These things deserve a larger discourse but I am now a hastening towards a conclusion and this is sufficient to vindicate my self and my notions from that unjust and scandalous Imputation of Pelagianism which can be attributed only either to the ignorance of my Adversaries or to their want of better Arguments or possibly to both CHAP. VI. Containing an Answer to the charge of Socinianism and the Conclusion of the whole IAm now come to the last part of my Task which may be dispatched in a few words Dr. Owen and Mr. Ferguson and the rest of my Adversaries do at every turn especially when they have nothing else to answer charge me with Socinianizing A charge which was as much unexpected as undeserved but is now grown a very familiar Art among these accusers of the Brethren to blast the Reputation of those men who make it their design to vindicate Christianity from those absurd and sensless and pernicious Doctrines which they have broached under the name of Gospel Mysteries and to reduce people to the Communion of the Church of England from which they have been seduced through the Witchcraft and Enchantments of sublime and Seraphical non-sense and if ever it be just to express some indignation it is in this case for as the Father observes In causa haereseos neminem decet esse
the Church his Spouse a Shepherd and the Church his Flock a Rock whereon his Church is built the chief corner Stone and the Church a holy Temple But as for particular Christians their Union to Christ is by means of their Union to the Christian Church that is no man can be united to Christ till he be a Christian and no man is in the Scripture account a Christian till he make a public profession of his Faith and be solemnly admitted into the Christian Church which is the Body of Christ for which he died and to which all the Promises of the Gospel are made A secret and private Faith in Christ is not ordinarily enough to make any man a Christian but Faith in the Heart and the Confession of the Mouth are both necessary Rom. x. 9 10. Christ himself hath appointed the publick Sacrament of our Initiation and our Church teacheth her Children that in their Baptism which is their solemn admission into the Christian Church They are made Members of Christ the Children of God and Inheritors of the Kingdom of Heaven But I have abundantly confirmed this Notion in my former Discourse and those who would be more fully satisfied in it may have recourse thither The next thing to be considered is what is the true nature of this Union betwixt Christ and his Church and the most general and comprehensive notion is that it is a Political not a natural Union the Union between Christ and his Church consists in their mutual Relations to each other now those Relations whereby the Scripture represents this Union signifie Power and Authority on Christs part and Inferiority and Subjection in the Church Christ is the Head and Husband which signifies Rule and Government and the Church is his Spouse and Body and therefore as the Wife is subject to the Husband and the Body to the Head so the Church must be subject to Christ and the like may be said of all those other Relations whereby this Union is described Only when I call it a Political Union you must not imagine that it is only such an external Relation as is between a Prince and his Subjects because Christ is a spiritual King and his Authority reaches to the Heart and Spirit which no Humane Power can no man is in a proper sence a Subject of Christs Kingdom but he who governs his Heart and Spirit as well as his external Actions by the Laws of the Gospel and though an external and visible profession of the Gospel entitles men to an external Communion with the Christian Church because the external Government of the Church is committed to men who cannot discern hearts and thoughts yet whoever does not heartily obey Christ is not really united to him for the subjection of the Mind and Spirit is the principal thing which denominates us the Subjects of a spiritual King and therefore this may be called a Spiritual-Political Union which principally respects the Subjection of our Minds and Spirits to Christ and does necessarily include a participation of the same nature with him and a mutual reciprocal love It is a Political Union because it consists in the Authority and Government of Christ as a Head and Husband and in the Subjection and Obedience of the Church as his Body and Spouse and it is Spiritual because the Authority of Christ does not only reach our Outward Actions as the Government of Earthly Princes does but extends it self to our Minds and Spirits and if you will put it into other words our Union to Christ consists in a hearty belief of his Revelations in obedience to his Laws and subjection to his Authority this makes us the Church the Temple of God wherein he dwells as he formerly did in the Temple at Ierusalem this is that which the Scripture calls having Fellowship and Communion with God and Christ which signifies being of that Society which puts us into a peculiar relation to God that God is our Father and we his Children that Christ is our Head and Husband our Lord and Master we his Disciples and Followers his Spouse and his Body this entitles us to his Merits and Righteousness to his peculiar Care and Providence to the Influences of his Grace to the Power of his Intercession to all those blessings which he hath purchased for and promised to his Church Now besides that this Notion is plain and intelligible and very aptly agrees with all those Metaphors and Forms of Speech whereby the Scripture represents our Union to Christ there are these two great advantages we gain by it first that this is a plain demonstration of the evil and danger of Schism a sin which very few men have any sense of in these days for if our Union to Christ as our Head necessarily requires our Union to the Christian Church which is his Body then to divide from the Christian Church or any true and sound part of it does not only make a Rent in the Body of Christ which is a very great evil but divides us from Christ as a Member which is separated from the Body is separated from the Head too this makes the Sentence of Excommunication so dreadful because it cuts us off from the Body of Christ and this Sentence every Schismatick executes upon himself and that more infallibly too than Church-Governours can for they may be mistaken in the Justice of the Cause and may separate those from the external Communion of the Church who are spiritually united to Christ and then their Sentence is reverst by a superior Tribunal But whoever causlesly separates from the Christian Church or any part of it does infallibly divide himself from Christ unless it be through such invincible mistakes as may mitigate the crime and plead his excuse for Schism is a work of the flesh the effect of Pride and Passion or Interest or some other carnal Lust and it concerns those men who make so light of Schism to consider how they expect to be saved by Christ who is only the Saviour of the Body when they have divided themselves from his Body and are no longer any part or member of it A second advantage which we gain by this notion is this that it gives a plain account of the necessity of Holiness and Obedience to entitle us to the Merits of Christ and Justification by him and to all those Promises which Christ hath made to his Body and Members whoever is in Christ and united to him shall certainly be saved by him for he is the Saviour of the Body and our Justification is not owing to our own Merits and Deserts but to the Merits of Christ for whose sake alone God hath promised to justifie and reward those who are united to him but since our Union to Christ consists in the subjection of our Souls and Bodies to him Holiness and Obedience is as necessary a condition of our Justification by Christ as it is essential to our Union to him We cannot be justified