trifling Declamations But yet with his good leave I do yet belâ—eve that there is no saving Knowledge of or acquaintance with God or his Properties to be attained but in and through Jesus Christ as revealed unto us in the Gospel And this I can confirm with Testimonies of the Scripture Fathers Schoolmen and Divines of all sorts with Reasons and Arguments such as I know this Author cannot Answer And whatever great apprehensions he may have of his Skill and Abilities to know God and his Properties by the Light of Nature now he neither knowes nor is able to distinguish what he Learns from thence and what he hath imbibed in his Education from an Emanation of Divine Rvelation yet I believe there were as wise men as himself amongst those Ancient Philosophers concerning whom and their enquiries into the Nature of God our Apostle pronounces those censures Rom. 1. 1 Cor. 1. But on this goodly Foundation he proceeds unto a particular Inference pag. 44. saying And is not this a Confident Man to tell us that the Love of God to Sinners and his Pardoning Mercy could never have entred into the Heart of Man but by Christ when the experience of the whole World confutes him For whatever becomes of his new Theories both Jews and Heathens who understood nothing at all of what Christ was to do in order to our Recovery did believe God to be Gracious and Merciful to Sinners and had reason to do so because God himself had assured the Jewes that he was a Gracious and Merciful God pardoning Iniquity Transgressions and Sins And those natural Notions Heathens had of God and all those Discoveries God had made of himself in the works of Creation and Providence did assure them that God is very Good and it is not possible to understand what Goodness is without pardoning Grace I beg his Excuse Truth and good Company will give a modest Man a little Confidence sometimes And against his Experience of the whole World falsly pretended I can oppose the Testimonies of the Scripture and all the Ancient writers of the Church very few excepted We can know of God only what he hath one way or other revealed of himself and nothing else And I say again that God hath not revealed his Love unto Sinners and his Pardoning Mercy any other way but in and by Jesus Christ. For what he adds as to the knowledge which the Jews had of these things by Gods Revelation in the Scripture when he can prove that all those Revelations or any of them had not respect unto the Promised Seed the Son of God to be exhibited in the Flesh to destroy the works of the Devil he will speak somewhat unto his Purpose In the mean time this insertion of the consideration of them who enjoyed that Revelation of Christ which God was pleased to build his Church upon under the old Testament is weak and impertinent Their apprehensions I acknowledge concerning the Person of Christ and the specialty of the work of his Mediation were dark and obscure but so also proportionably was their Knowledge of all other Sacred Truths which yet with all Diligence they enquired into That whicâ— I intended is expressed by the Apostle 1 Cor. 2.9 It is written Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard neither have entred into the Heart of Man the things which God hath prepared for them that Love him but God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit What a Confident Man was this Apostle as to affirm that the things of the Grace and Mercy of God did never enter into the heart of Man to conceive nor would so have done had they not been revealed by the Spirit of God in the Gospel through Jesus Christ. But this is only a Transient Charge there insues that which is much more severe pag. 45. As for Instance he tells us that in Christ that is in his Death and Sufferings for our sins God hath manifested the Naturalness of this Righteousness i. e. Vindictive Justice in punishing Sin that it was impossible that it should be diverted from Sinners without the interposing of a Propitiation that is that God is so Just and Righteous that he cannot pardon sin without satisfaction to his Justice Now this indeed is such a Notion of Justice as is perfectly New which neither Scripture nor Nature acquaints us with For all Mankind have accounted it an Act of Goodness without the least suspicion of injustice in it to remit injuries and offences without exacting any punishment that he is so far from being Just that he is cruel and savage who will remit no offence till he hath satisfied his Revenge The Reader who is in any measure or degree acquainted with these things knows full well what is intended by that which I have asserted It is no more but this that such is the Essential Holiness and Righteousness of the Nature of God that considering him as the Supreme Governour and Ruler of all Mankind it was inconsistent with the Holiness and Rectitude of his Rule and the Glory of his Government to pass by sin absolutely or to pardon it without Satisfaction Propitiation or Atonement This I said was made Evident in the Death and Sufferings of Christ wherein God made all our Iniquities to meet upon him and spared him not that we might obtain Mercy and Grace This is here now called out by our Author as a very dangerous or Foolish Passage in my Discourse which he thought he might highly advantage his Reputation by Reflecting upon But as the Orator said to his Adversary Equidem vehementer laetor eum esse me in quem tu cumcuperes nullam contumeliam jacere potueris quae non ad maximam partem civium conveniret So it is here fallen out If this man knows not that this is the Judgment of the generality of the most Learned Divines of Europe upon the matter of all who have engaged with any success against the Socinians one or two only excepted I can pitty him but not relieve him in his unhappiness unless he will be pleased to take more pains in reading good Books than as yet he appeareth to have done But for the thing it self and his Reflections upon it I shall observe yet some few things and so pass on As first the opposition that he makes unto my Position is nothing but a crude Assertion of one of the meanest and most absurd Sophisms which the Socinians use in this Cause Namely that every one may remit injuries and offences as he pleaseth without exacting any Punishment Which as it is true in most Cases of Injuries and offences against Private Persons wherein no others are concerned but themselves nor are they obliged by any Law of the Community to pursue their own Right so with respect unto Publick Rulers of the Community unto such Injuries and offences as are done against supreme Rule tending directly unto the Dissolution of the Society centring in it to suppose that such Rulers
God hath not life I am the Vine and you are the Branches he which abideth in Me and I in him the same bringeth forth much Fruit but the Branch severed from the Vine withereth We are therefore adopted Sons of God to Eternal Life by Participation of the only begotten Son of God whose Life is the well-Spring and Cause of ours It is too cold an Interpretation whereby some Men expound our being in Christ to import nothing else but only that the self-same Nature which maketh Us to be Men is in him and maketh him Man as We are For what Man is there in the World which hath not so far forth Communion with Jesus Christ. It is not this can sustain the weight of such sentences as speak of the Mystery of our Coherence with Jesus Christ. The Church is in Christ as Eve was in Adam Yea by Grace we are every of Us in Christ and in his Church as by Nature we are in those our first Parents God made Eve of the Rib of Adam and his Church he formed out of the very flesh the very wound and bleeding side of the Son of Man His Body crucified and his Blood shed for the Life of the World were the true Elements of that Heavenly being which maketh Us such as himself is of whom we come For which cause the words of Adam may be fitly the Words of Christ concerning his Church Flesh of my flesh and Bone of my Bones a true Native Extract out of mine own Body So that in him even according to his Manhood we according to our Heavenly being are as Branches in that Root out of which they grow To all things he is Life and to Men Light as the Son of God to the Church both Life and Light Eternal by being made the Son of Man for Us and by being in Us a Saviour whether we respect him as God or as Man Adam is in us as an original Cause of our Nature and of that Corruption of Nature which causeth Death Christ as the Cause Original of Restauration to Life The Person of Adam is not in us but his Nature and the Corruption of his nature derived into all Men by Propagation Christ having Adam's Nature as we have but incorrupt deriveth not Nature but incorruption and that immediately from his own Person into all that belong unto him As therefore we are really partakers of the Body of Sin and Death received from Adam so except we be truly partakers of Christ and as really possessed of his Spirit all we speak of Eternal Life is but a Dream That which quickneth us is the Spirit of the Second Adam and his Flesh that wherewith he quickneth That which in him made our Nature uncorrupt was the Union of his Deity with our Nature And in that respect the Sentence of Death and Condemnation which only taketh hold upon sinful flesh could no way possibly extend unto him This caused his Voluntary Death for others to prevail with God and to have the force of an Expiatory Sacrifice The Blood of Christ as the Apostle witnesseth doth therefore take away Sin because through the Eternal Spirit he offered himself unto God without spot as that which sanctifyed our nature in Christ that which made it a Sacrifice available to take away sin is the same which quickneth it raised it out of the Grave after Death and exalted it unto Glory Seeing therefore Christ is in Us as a quickning Spirit the first degree of Communion with Christ must needs consist in the participation of his Spirit which Cyprian in that respect well termeth germanissimam Societatem the highest and truest Society that can be between Man and him which is both God and Man in One. These things Saint Cyril duly considering reproveth their Speeches which taught that only the Deity of Christ is the Vine whereupon we by Faith do depend as Branches and that neither his Flesh nor our Body are comprised in this Resemblance For doth any Man doubt but that even from the flesh of Christ our very Bodies do receive that Life which shall make them Glorious at the Latter Day and for which they are already accounted parts of his Blessed Body Our Corruptible Bodies could never live the Life they shall live were it not that here they were joyned with his Body which is incorruptible and that his is in ours as a Cause of Immortality a cause by removing through the Death and Merit of his own flesh that which hindred the Life of Ours Christ is therefore both as God and as Man that true Vine whereof we both Spiritually and Corporeally are Branches The Mixture of his Bodily Sâ—bstance with ours is a thing which the Ancient Fathers disclaim Yet the Mixture of his Flesh with ours they speak of to signify what our very Bodies through Mystical Conjunction do receive from that Vital Efficacy which we know to be in his and from Bodily Mixtures they borrow divers similitudes rather to declare the Truth than the manner of Coherence between his sacred and the sanctâ—fyed Bodies of Saints Thus much no Christian Man will deny that when Chrâ—st sanctifyed his own flesh giving as God and taking as Man the Holy Ghost he did not this for himself only but for our sakes that the Grace of Sanctification and Life which was first received in him might pass from him to his whole Race as Malediction came from Adam unto all Mankind Howbeit because the work of his Spirit to those Effects is in us prevented by Sin and Death possessing us before it is of necessity that as well our present Sanctification unto neâ—ness of Life as the future restauration of our Bodies should presuppose a participation of the Grace Efficacy Merit or Vertue of his Body and Blood without which Foundation first laid there is no Place for those other operations of the Spirit of Christ to ensue So that Christ imparteth plainly himself by degrees It pleaseth him in Mercy to account himself incompleat and maimed without us But most assured we are that we all receive of his fulness because he is in Us as a Moving and Working Cause from which many blessed Effects are really found to ensue And that in Sundry both kinds and Degrees all tending to Eternal Happiness It must be confessed that of Christ working as Creator and as Governour of the World by Providence all are Partakers not all Partakers of that Grace whereby he inhabiteth whom he Saveth Again as he dwelleth not by Grace in all so neither doth he equally work in all them in whom he dwelleth Whence is it saith Saint Augustin that some be Holier than others are but because God doth dwell in some more plentifully than in others And because the Divine substance of Christ is equally in all his Human Substance equally distinct from all it appeareth that the participation of Christ wherein there are many Degrees and Differences must needs consist in such Effects as being derived from both Natures of Christ
to express the Mind and actings of those who being ignorant ignorant of the Righteousness of God go about to establish their own Righteousness as He farther explains himself Rom. 10.3 4. That I could not intend Obedience unto the Laws of the Gospel is so evident that nothing but abominable Prejudice or ignorance could hinder any Man from discerning it For that Faith which I expressed by the Soul's consent to take Christ as a Saviour and a Ruler is the very first Act of Obedience unto the Gospel So that therein or thereon to exclude Obedience unto the Gospel is to deny what I assert which under the favour of this Author I understand my self better than to do And as to all other Acts of Obedience unto the Laws of the Gospel following and proceeding from sincere Believing it is openly evident that I could not understand them when I spake only of what was antecedent unto them And if this Man knowes not what transactions are in the Minds of many before they do come unto the Acceptance of Christ on his own Terms or believe in him according to the Tenour of the Gospel there is Reason to pitty the People that are committed unto his Care and Instruction what regard soever ought to be had unto himself And his Pittiful trifling in the Exposition he adds of this Passage to be saved without doing any thing without obeying Thee and the Law do but increase the Guilt of his Prevarications For the words immediately added in my Discourse are and although I have walked according unto mine own Mind yet now I wholly give up my self to be ruled by thy Spirit which unto the Understanding of all Men who understand any thing in these Matters signify no less than an Engagement unto the Universal relinquishment of Sin and entire Obedience unto Jesus Christ in all things But this faith He is a pretty Complement that the Soul makes to Christ after all But why is this to be esteemed only a pretty Complement It is spoken at the same Time and as it were with the same Breath there being in the Discourse no Period between this Passage and that before And why must it be esteemed quite of another Nature so that herein the Soul should only Complement and be real in what is before expressed what if one should say it was real only in this latter Expression and Engagement that the former was only a Pretty Complement May it not with respect unto my sence and intention from any thing in my words or that can be gathered from them or any Circumstances of the Place be spoken with as much regard unto Truth and Honesty What Religion these Men are of I know not if it be such as teacheth them these Practices and Countenanceth them in them I openly declare that I am not of it nor would be so for all that this World can afford I shall have done when I have desired him to take notice that I not only believe and maintain the necessity of Obedience unto all the Laws Precepts Commands and Institutions of the Gospel of Universal Holiness the Mortification of all Sin Fruitfulness in good Works in all that intend or design Salvation by Jesus Christ but also have proved and confirmed my Perswasion and Assertions by better and more Cogent Arguments than any which by his Writings he seems as yet to be acquainted withal And unless he can prove that I have spoken or written any thing to the contrary or he can disprove the Arguments whereby I have confirmed it I do here declare him a person altogether unfit to be dealt withal about things of this Nature his Ignorance or Malice being Invincible nor shall I on any Provocation ever hereafter take notice of him untill he hath mended his Manners His third Section pag. 76. consists of three parts First that some wherein it is apparent that I am chiefly if not only intended do found a Religion upon a pretended acquaintance with Christ s Person without and besides the Gospel whereunto he opposeth his running Title of no Acquaintance with Christ but by Revelation Secondly a Supposition of a Scheme of Religion drawn from the Knowledge of Christs Person whereunto he opposeth another which he he judgeth better Thirdly an Essay to draw up the whole Plot and Design of Christianity with the method of the Recovery of Sinners unto God In the first of these I suppose that I am if not solely yet principally intended especially considering what he affiâ—ms pag. 98 99 Namely that I plainly confess our Religion is wholly owing unto acquaintance with the Person of Christ could never have been clearly and savingly Learned from the Gospel had we not first grown acquainted with his Person Now herein there is an especial Instance of that Truth and Honesty wherewith my Writings are entertained by this sort of Men. It is true I have asserted that it is necessary for Christians to know Jesus Christ to be acquainted with his Person that is as I have fully and largely declared it in the Discourse excepted against the Glory of his Divine Nature the Purity of his Humane the Infinite Condescention of his Person in the Assumption of our Nature his Love and Grace c. as is at large there declared And now I add that he by whom this is denied is no Christian. Secondly I have taught that by this Knowledge of the Person of Christ or an Understanding of the great Mystery of Godliness God Manifested in the Flesh which we ought to pray for and labour after we come more fully and clearly to understand sundry other important Mysteries of Heavenly Truth which without the Knowledge of Christ we cannot attain unto And how impertinent this Man's Exceptions are against this Assertion we have seen already But Thirdly that this Knowledge of Christ or Acquaintance with him is to be attained before we come to know the Gospel or by any other Means than the Gospel or is any other but the Declaration that is made thereof in and by the Gospel was never thought spoken or written by me and is here falsly supposed by this Author as elsewhere falsly charged on me And I again challenge him to produce any one Letter or Tittle out of any of my Writings to give Countenance unto this frontless Calumny And therefore although I do not like his Expression pag. 77. Whoever would understand the Religion of our Saviour must learn it from his Doctrine and not from his Person for many Reasons I could give yet I believe no less than he that the efficacy of Christ's Mediation depending on God's Appointment can be known only by Revelation and that no Man can draw any one Conlusion from the Person of Christ which the Gospel hath not expresly taught because we can know no more of its excellency worth and works than what is there revealed whereby he may see how â—iserably Ill-Will Malice or Ignorance have betrayed him into the futilous pains of writing
and Ridiculous For every one who is not wilfully blind must see that by Ordained I intended not any Ordination as to the Futurition of Sin but the Disposal of Sin to its Proper End being Committed or to ordain it unto its End upon a Supposition of its Being which quite spoils this Authors ensuing Harangue But my Judgment in this matter is better expressed by another than I am able to do it my self and therefore in his words I shall represent it It is Augustine Saith he Saluberrime confitemur quod rectissime credimus Deum Dominumque rerum omnium qui creavit omnia bona valde mala ex bonis exortura esse praescivit scivit magis ad suam omnipotentissimam bonitatem pertinere etiam de malis benefacere quam mala esse non sinere sic ordinâsse Angelorum hominum vitam ut in ea prius ostenderet quid posset eorum liberum Arbitrinm deinde quid posset suae Gratiae beneficium Justitiaeque judicium This our Author would have to be God's bartering with Sin the Devil for his Glory the bold impiety of which expression among many others for whose necessary expression I crave pardon manifests with what frame of Spirit with what Reverence of God himself and all holy things this Discourse is managed But it seems I add that the Demonstration of God's Justice in Measuring out unto Sin a meet Recompence of Reward is Discovered in Christ as this Author says Let him read again The Comminations and Threatnings of God in the Law c. If this Man were acquainted with Christ he could not but Learn somewhat more of Truth and Modesty unless he be wilfully stupid But what is the Crime of this Paragraph That which it teacheth is that Sin in its own Nature hath no End but the dishonour of God and the Eternal Ruine of the Sinner That by the Sentence and Curse of the Law God hath manifested that he will Glorify his Justice in the Punishing of it as also that in and through Jesus Christ he will Glorify Grace and Mercy in its Pardon on the Terms of the Gospel What would he be at If he have a mind to quarrel the Bible and to conflict the Fundamental Principles of Christianity to what purpose doth he cavil at my obscure Discourses when the proper Object of his Displeasure lies plainly before him Let us proceed yet a little farther with our Author although I confess my self to be already utterly wearied with the Perusal of such Vain and Frivolous Imaginations Yet thus he goes on pag. 53. Thus much for the Knowledge of our selves with respect to Sin which is hid only in the Lord Christ. But then we Learn what our Righteousness is wherewith we must appear before God from an Acquaintance with Christ. We have already Learned how unable we are to make atonement for our Sins without which they can never be forgiven and how unable we are to do any thing that is Good and yet nothing can deliver us from the Justice and Wrath of God but a full satisfaction for our sins and nothing can give us a Title to a Reward but a perfect and unsinning Righteousness What should we do in this Case how shall we escape Hell or get to Heaven when we can neither Expiate for our part Sins or do any Good for the Time to come Why here we are relieved again by an Acquaintance with Christ. His death Expiates former Iniquities and removes the whole guilt of Sin But this is not enough that we are not Guilty we must also be actually Righteous not only all Sin is to be answered for but all Righteousness is to be fulfilled Now this Righteousness we find only in Christ we are reconciled to God by his Death and saved by his Life That actual Obedience he yielded to the whole Law of God is that Righteousness whereby we are saved we are Innocent by Vertue of his Sacrifice and Expiation and righteous with his Righteousness What is here interposed that we cannot do any Good for the Time to come must be interpreted of our selves without the Ayd or Assistance of the Grace of God And the Things here reported by this Author are so expressed and represented to expose them to Reproach and Scorn to have them esteemed not only false but ridiculous But whether he be in his Wits or no or what he intends so to traduce and scoff at the Fundamental Doctrines of the Gospel I profess I know not What is it he would deny What is it he would assert Are we able to make an Atonement for our Sins Can we be forgiven without an Atonement Can we of our selves do any good without the Aid and Assistance of Grace Can any Thing we do be a full Satisfaction for our Sins or deliver us from the wrath of God that is the Punishment due to our Sins Doth not the Death of Christ expiate former Iniquities and remove the whole Guilt of Sin Is the contrary to these things the Doctrine of the Church of England Is this the Religion which is Authorised to be Preached and are these the Opinions that are Licensed to be publshed unto all the World But as I observed before these things are other Mens Concernment more than mine and with them I leave them But I have said as he quotes the Place that we are reconciled to God by the Death of Christ and saved by his Life that actual Obedience which he yielded to the whole Law of God As the former part of these words are expresly the Apostles Rom. 5.10 and so produced by me so the next words I add are these of the same Apostle if so be we are found in him not having on our own Righteousness which is of the Law but the Righteousness which is of God by Faith which he may do well to consider and answer when he can Once more and I shall be beholding to this Author for a little respite of severity whilst he diverts to the Magisterial Reproof of some other persons Thus then he proceeds pag. 55. The third part of our Wisdom is to walk with God and to that is required Agreement Acquaintance a Way Strength Boldness and aiming at the same End and all these with the Wisdom of them are hid in Jesus Christ. So far are my words to which he adds The sum of which in short is this that Christ having expiated our Sins and fulfilled all Righteousness for us though we have no personal Righteousness of our own but are as contrary unto God as Darkness is to Light and Death to Life and an Universal Pollution and Defilement to an Universal and Glorious Holiness and Hatred to Love yet the Righteousness of Christ is a sufficient nay the only Foundation of our Agreement and upon that of our walking with God though St. John tells us if we say we have fellowship with him and walk in Darkness we lye and do not the Truth but if we walk in the