Heb. 1.14 I say besides all this they are in a special manner cemented to him by pure flames and holy ardors Those blessed Spirits through that more perfect knowledg which they have of the attractive beauties and excellent perfections of Christ partly by the means of their more illuminated intellects partly through their immediate attendance upon his glorious person especially from their being above all temptations that may divert their minds from so amiable an object and being free from all impure Lusts that may damp their flames do cleave to him with a Love more defecated and pure as well as more intense elevated than we can who are so far beneath them in the quality of our Nature and whose Understandings are still so much benighted with ignorance and obnubilated with the vapours of Lust and whose residence is so remote from the place of perfection as well as happiness I do not determine whether their happiness be improved and their perseverance in holiness secured by Jesus Christ though if so there is a field of occasion and Motives to promote and exalt their love to him ariseth thence But declining to define any thing in that matter there are enforcements enough besides by which their sallies of Love to the Lord Jesus are allured charmed forth For 1st Whatsoever they do or have received from the exuberant goodness and pregnant fecundity of their Creator they have it all by from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Person of the Son as the immediate Operator and Dispenser of it For the order of operation in the blessed Trinity as to external works corresponds unto and followeth the order of subsistence Hence though the Fabrick and Creation of all things be ascribed to the Father as to Authority and Order Heb. 1.1 and to the Spirit as to disposition and ornament Joh. 26.13 yet they are peculiarly attributed to the Son as to immediate operation Col. 1.15 16 17. 2dly The Glory of God being the alone object of the desires of the Heavenly Host it cannot otherwise be but that the honour which ariseth to God by the restitution of man through the interposure of the Son as Mediator must enflame those pure Spirits with love to him through whose undertaking that Glory is compassed and effected Nor is the Mysterious contrivance of Mans recovery a Theme which with a Religious curiosity they only look into 1 Pet. 1.12 but they both celebrate this plot of Love and Wisedom with Hallelujahs and express their acknowledgments for the Glory which thereby redounds to their blessed Maker in affections resembling the description given us of their Nature Psal. 104.4 to the Person of the Mediator 3dly Man belonging to the same classis of Creatures though of a different species with the Angels the compassion which these Courtiers of the great King bear to the sublunary part of the Rational System whereof we have an evidence and instance in the joy that possesseth them upon the Conversion of a Sinner Luk. 5.10 may be lookt upon as another incentive of their love to Christ. We being separated from the Love of God through the loss of the Divine Image forfeited thereupon the kindness and friendship of the Angels but being restored to conformity and favour with God by Jesus Christ there immediately ensues an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a redintegration of friendship between them and us Nor do I question but that the consideration that it is by Christ that they and we are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reconciled and brought into Oneness together doth help to kindle their love to him And as there is an adhesion of the Angels to Christ by love so on the other hand he embraceth them with complacency and delight For as there is nothing to be found in them why he should look upon them with displeasure so the sanctity of their Nature and their ministring with readiness not only about his Throne but in the affairs wherein he employs them abroad in the World lead him to behold them with approbation and love And though none of their Homages equal his perfections whom they address their Services to yet their faileurs being no ways the results of an impotence contracted by sin but the inseparable appendants of the finiteness of their Natures he readily accepts them The covering their faces with their wings being in testimony of their infinite distance is as welcome to him and doth as much oblige his Love as their acclamations and celebration of his praise There being then a Love-Union betwixt Christ and the Holy Angels I hope that I may infer from hence that the Union between Christ and Christians is both something else and more sublime I cannot think that any who have read their Bible and believe it dare affirm but that besides the Oneness which we have with the Lord Jesus through his participating of our Nature which the Angels have no share in but that there is also a further Union between him and us of which as the Angels do no ways partake so neither are they capable 3dly That the Mystical Union between Christ and Christians consisteth not in a reciprocalness of Affections may be yet further demonstrated from this namely because according to that Notion of Union Believers are no less United to the Father than to the Son yea they are United first to the Father ere to the Son And I am apt to think that there needs not any more to be said against an Hypothesis but that t is pregnant with consequences of so mischievous a tendency Admit once Believers to be United after the same manner to the Father as they are to Christ and we immediately justle the Lord Jesus out of the place of Mediator That there is an Union of Love between the Father and Believers the Gospel doth every where display in most amiable and bright colours Hence that of the Apostle He that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God and God in him 1 Joh. 4.16 As Love is the only Attribute of the Divine Nature which is alone put to give us an Idea and Notion of God so to be Love is represented after a manner peculiar to God as the Father The Love of the Father was the first spring and source of our recovery and of all the means of accomplishing and bringing it about It was the Fathers Love that contrived a way to recover us when we had forfeited all right to Happiness and were neither careful nor in a condition to regain it When there were no Motives in us to invite his Love his Love it self was in their room And how great was his Love when he gave him whom he so dearly loved for a Ransom of those who were guilty of sin which he so greatly hated The transcendency of his Love is the greatest Obstacle to the belief of it After that his Love had travailed with plots of Mercy to poor Sinners in what noble and amusing effects did it exert it self See Joh. 3.16 Rom. 5.8
Scripture bears witness to it in a thousand places nor can the contrary Opinion be espoused and asserted without a Virtual renouncing the Gospel 6thly 'T is from by and through Jesus Christ as Mediator that the Spirit whether it be with respect to his Immediate seisure of us and dwelling in us or with reference to any of his saving operations is given to and bestowed upon us As God never dispensed any Grace to the Sons of Adam but in and by the person of Jesus Christ as the Mediator and Head of the Church so the Communion of the Spirit who is our Immediate Sanctifier is from and through Christ. His Spirit he is by Him he is promised His bodily absence He supplies and of His fulness He takes and communicates to us Ye have received an Unction from the Holy One saith the Apostle 1 Joh. 2.20 Though the giving the Spirit be ascribed to the Father as He with whom the Authoritative disposure and appointment of all Divine extrinsick operations lodg yet with respect to Immediate Mission his sending is attributed to Christ whose Spirit upon this account as well as others He is called Hence the Ancients style him Vicarium Christi the Vicar of Christ and Vis Vicaria the power by which he is present to our souls Spiritus nos Christo confibulat the Spirit buttons us to Christ that I may use Tertullian's phrase The Holy Ghost supplies Christ's place here in the World and through him the Lord Jesus Christ is present with his Church till the consummation of all things and by Him he dwells and walks in his People The Spirit is Christs purchase for his People and his Donative to them The Holy Spirit was given to Christ as a reward of his Obedience and Death to be by him communicated to men Jesus Christ as Mediator is Authorised by the Father to dispense Grace to whom he will 7ly Through the communication of the Spirit from Christ to us and immediately upon his taking the possession of us the Nature of Christ the Seed of God and a vital living principle comes to be formed in us For though the Donation of the Spirit to us and his possessing of us precede the Geniture of the New Man in priority of Nature forasmuch as the Cause must be conceived before the Effect yet the inhabitation of the Spirit and the production of a New Creature and spiritual Being in us are perfectly simultaneous as to time Now through the formation of this Seed of God in us we become partakers of the same spiritual Nature that Christ was We do hereby not only beat the Image of the Heavenly but are changed into the same Image This is Christ formed in us And this New Spiritual Being and Internal power becoming incorporated and made One with our souls it is as a Vital Form in us And as this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth by transforming the soul attemper it to universal Obedience so one of its first operations is an exercise of Faith upon Jesus Christ. And this being that which entitles us in a peculiar manner to fresh communications of Grace and supplies of the Spirit of Jesus as well as that which interests us in his meritorious Righteousness we are therefore not only said to live by Faith but Christ is said to dwell in our hearts by it Thus by the guidance and conduct of Scripture we are by short steps and Regular Ratiocinations arrived at such an Idea and Notion of Believers Union with Christ as is both plain in it self and easie to be understood providing that men be not obstinate against Evidence Nor have I wrested or suborned any Sacred passage to give Testimony in this cause all I have made use of being such as voluntarily offer themselves without any force or distortion put upon them And for such as are mustred against us I have either gain'd them back to our side or shewed that their Testimony doth no ways oppose what we plead for Were I now sure that my Reader would not tire I might draw out this discourse to a greater length but as I have not the confidence to entertain Guests longer than I can afford them entertainment worthy of them so I am not so disingenuous as to treat men with words when thoughts and material remarques fail If after all this which I have said any shall still be found quarrelling at the Unintelligibleness of Believers Union with Christ I think we may justly either complain of their perverseness or blame their Hebetude To such as are not refractory to Scripture-Light and to the easie deductions which our Intellectual Faculties in their Rational exercise do draw from Revelation there is enough said to make it understood as for others I leave them to the punishment of their own obstinacy Instead therefore of filling up pages by producing Testimonies of Ancient Modern Divines or of calling in the Authority of the Church of England I shall shut up all with a few passages out of Dr. Patrick's Mensa Mystica And this I the rather do being inform'd that the Opinion of this Dr. weighs more with Mr. Sherlock than either the Canon of a Convocation or the Decree of a General Council The Passages with which much of what I have delivered is not only coincident in sense but in words are these As the highest and closest Union is that which is made by one Spirit and Life moving in the whole so the Union between Christ and his Members is by one Life As things at the greatest distance may be United by one Spirit of Life actuating them both so may Christ and we though we enjoy not his bodily presence Although Christ in regard of his corporal presence be in the Heavens which must receive him untill the time of the restitution of all things Act. 3.21 Yet he is here with us always even to the end of the World Math. 28.20 in regard of his holy Spirit working in us By this he is sensible of all our needs and by the Vital Influences of it in every part he joynes the whole Body fitly together so that he and it make one Christ 1 Cor. 12.12 And that this Union is wrought by the Spirit which every true Christian hath dwelling in him 1 Cor. 6.17 Rom. 8.9 the next v. 13. will tell you we are Baptised into one Body by one Spirit This Spirit is always needful being that which maintains our life It is the very bond and ligament that tyes us to Christ. For our Union is not only such a Moral Union as is between Husband and Wife which is made by love or between King and Subjects which is made by Laws but such a Natural Union as is between Head and Members the Vine and Branches which is made by One Spirit or Life dwelling in the whole FINIS ERRATA I find upon a Review of these Sheets that several Errors and mistakes and those of divers kinds have crept into them Some
of the one is distinct from that which we have of the other appears 1 in that our Legal Union implyes a Relation to Christ as our High Priest and Sponsor interposing and acting in our behalf towards God whereas our Mystical Union respecteth Him as acting to us in the quality of a Vital Head 2 Because the vinculum of that is Christs susception of our sins upon him and the Fathers imputing them to him but the nexus of this is the Spirit of Christ dwelling in us and principles of Grace infused into us 3 Because the result of our Legal Union is the imputation of what Christ in our stead did and suffered for Righteousness to us and discharge from Wrath but the effect of our Spiritual Union is further communication of Grace together with quickning Influences whereby we grow up into a higher conformity with our Head and are more and more adapted to live to God 3dly Those things are different whereof the one is the meritorious fruit as well as the Consequent of the other and that this is the habitude which the things before us stand in might be easily demonstrated For though many of the formal benefits of a Legal Union such as Actual discharge from Wrath and Justification to Life do not arrive to us but through the intervention of a Spiritual conglutination to our Mediator it being not only in the power of the Father and Son to appoint in what order and upon what Terms we should have an Interest in the purchased Redemption but the very Nature of our deliverance which was not only a ransoming us from Wrath but a restoring us to the favour of God and an exalting us to a superadded blessedness required that it should be in such a Method and upon those conditions as that God might both exercise forgiveness in consistency with His Holiness and we be adapted for that to which we were advanced yet even our spiritual Union in the very vinculum bond of it is a purchased fruit of what Christ as substituted in our room and so one with us in conspectu curiae did and suffered Yea the Honour of being Heir of all things and Head of Influence to the Redeemed is a reward of what Christ underwent and performed as our Surety in the relation of which he stood Legally United to us § 11. I now proceed to the consideration of Moral Union which is all that some and those very considerable Persons will admit to intercede betwixt Christ and Believers By Moral Union we understand a Harmony of Wills an agreement in designs a confederation in affections in a word an Union by way of mutual and reciprocal love 'T is styled Moral from its band or ligature which is Love Love is not only â—he principal and chiefest but the source and fountain of all humane Affections All the Affections are but the several forms and shapes of Love Desire Fear Anger Hope Sorrow Delight c. are but the various Forms and Aspects of Love according as its Object is circumstantiated under the consideration of absent present easie or difficult to be enjoyed c. As the Object Beloved is affected with this or that Circumstance so Love receives a new Modification and becomes clothed with this or that Form And indeed Love is of a very Unitive Nature 't is the Marriage of one Intellectual Being to another 'T is the strongest bond of Alliance the most connexive cement All Love tends to Union to have the heart implanted and incorporated with the Object beloved It both unites the Lover to the Object which he loves and transform's him into it What and where our Love is that and there we are There is an assimilating efficacy in Love whereby it casts the mind into the Mould of the thing Beloved which made Austin say si terram amas terra es If thou lovest the Earth thou art Earth And the Philosopher to say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Friend is only another Self Friendship which is nothing but mutual endearedness or a confederacy in sincere affections save that it superadds conversation and society to Love is not only styled by Hierocles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the noblest efflorescence perfection of Virtue but Aristotle defines it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by one Soul in two Bodies Or as Horace calls Virgil whom he entirely loved dimidium animae the half of his Soul Now a Love-Union we readily acknowledg between Christ and Believers As it was infinite compassion which influenced Him not only without Motives but in despite of obstacles in us to become our Ransom so having Redeemed us by his Blood and engraven his Image upon us by his Spirit he doth with superlative delight behold his purchase and embrace his likeness 'T is in pursuance of his complacency in them that he Espouseth their concerns resents their troubles and ministreth opportune relief to them under their several exigencies Nor is his Love greater than it is lasting being as Unchangeable as it is free and superlative Upon the same Motives that he works such dispositions and qualifications in us as may render us fit objects of his Delight he takes care to prevent their being totally lost that so we may not cease to have a share in his complacency Admit that Christs complacential Love stands determined to Holiness and that he delights in none till they be good yet the Immutability of the Divine Counsels the Convention between the Father and Son in the Covenant of Redemption Gods Veracity in reference to the promises which he hath made in the Covenant of Grace the absolute compleatness of Christs Sacrifice for all those in whose behalf he gave himself a propitiation together with the prevalency of his Intercession and his design in purchasing and bestowing the Holy Ghost to reside in and watch over Believers may assure us that he will preserve those as meet objects of his Love upon whom he hath once engraven his Image to make them so And by the way this may serve as a reply to that of Mr. Sherlock p. 211. where he tells us that the Unchangeableness of Gods Love doth not consist in being always determined to the same Object but in that he always Loves for the same reason that is that he always loves true Virtue and Goodness where-ever he sees it and never ceaseth to love any Person till he ceaseth to be Good and then the Immutability of his love is the reason why he loves no longer For besides that our Author doth hereby preclude all Gods love of Benevolence and Compassion of which Persons abstracted from qualifications are the Objects Which as the Scripture doth every where celebrate as the highest love so there was nothing in us that could attract it but on the contrary there was every thing in us which might have rendred us the Objects of everlasting Indignation See Rom. 15.8 Joh. 3.16 1 Joh. 4.9 10. I say besides this the whole passage even taking it as refering
him being presupposed our submitting to the Ordinance and Institution of Baptism is a visible profession of it 'T is not enough that we are perswaded of the Truth of the Christian Religion and that we secretly embrace it but we are publickly to own it and to tell the World that we are of such a Belief As Baptism presupposeth Repentance which respects our turning to God as our End and Faith which implye's our owning Christ as our Way so our being Baptised into the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost is a solemn declaring to the world our coming to God by Jesus Christ through the Sanctification Influence and Conduct of the Spirit Nor is our naked promise so Authentick as when we publickly seal to the Articles required of us 'T is both a Badg and Symbol of our profession and a Bond Obligation upon us to discharge the Duties which our profession of Christianity calls us to Hence it is called an Answer towards God which as it supposeth the demands of the Covenant so it proclayms our undertaking to perform them 4. The Union of the Catholick Visible Church consisting in a joynt profession of the same Lord Faith and Baptism there doth therefore upon a Persons submitting to the Ordinance of Baptism such a Relation to the whole Catholick Visible Church emerge as that he is rendred a compleat Member of the Church under the consideration of Catholick Visible By this as by a solemn Rite we become visibly separated from the World and enrolled amongst those who have consigned over and consecrated themselves unto the service and obedience of Father Son and Holy Ghost So far is our Union with the Visible Church by means of Baptism from being the Medium of our Union with Christ that it is our dedicating our selves to Christ by this August ceremony which constitutes us compleat Members of the Church under the Notion of Visible Secondly As to the Argument Levied from the Lords Supper I reply these things 1. The Supper of the Lord though a Sacrament of Union yet it cannot be the first Medium of our Union with the Church seeing none have a right to it but such as are already Church-Members Men are first to approve themselves sincere Christians before they are to approach the Holy Table Only those that have Fellowship with God in Christ have a title of participating at this Christian Eucharistical Feast Much less is it the Medium of our Political Union with Christ it being only through a previous subjection of our Consciences to his Authority that we celebrate this Ordinance 2. As by Baptism we publickly avow our taking upon us the profession of Christianity so by the Lords Supper we ratify our perseverance and renew our engagements of being the Lords By coming to his Table we proclaym our selves of his Famimy and declare our resolution of continuing to be his Followers and Retainers 'T is a profession of our being in Covenant with him and that we will remain constant and faithful in it 3. Though as I have already said it can neither be the Medium of our Union with the Church nor with Christ yet it is both a Symbol of the one the other 'T is an eminent badge of that Union which is and ought to be among Christians Our eating at the same Table is an argument of our being of one and the same Family Forasmuch as we all eat of one Loaf that is the meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 10.17 we do thereby intimate that we are one Body and Members of the same Christ. Yet at such a distance doth this lye from evincing our Union with Christ to be by means of our union with the Church that indeed nothing else than an Antecedent union with Christ can give us a Right to partake of this Sacred Supper or of Fellowship and Communion with the Church in it Thus the Reader may see that even on the supposition that our Union with Christ is meerly a Political Union or such a Relation only as is between a Prince and his Subjects yet that it is immediate and not by the means of an Antecedent Relation to the Christian Church Having then dispatched the first thing which I laid down in opposition to Mr. Sherlocks Hypothesis That wherein my concernment next lyes is to prove that the Union between Christ and Christians is not meerly Political And if I be but able to acquit my self in this undertaking the whole of Mr. Sherlocks Notion in reference to the Union of Christ to Christians is subverted and overthrown And it being here that we have our Authors most Heroick Adventures and where especially he seems to speak as standing on his Tiptoes it is but fit that he should be the more peculiarly attended to In opposition therefore to his Assertion that the Union of Christians with Christ is only a Political Union that is such an Union as is between a Prince and his Subjects I Advance this Antithesis that a Political Relation doth not adequately express that Oneness which the Scripture so augustly celebrates as interceding betwixt Christ and Believers This directly contradicts Mr. Sherlocks third and fourth Conclusions which indeed are coincident For to affirm that the Union betwixt Christ and the Christian Church is a Political Union that is such an Union as is between a Prince and his Subjects which is his third proposition and to say that our Fellowship and Communion with God according to the Scripture-Notion signifies what we call a Potical Union which is his fourth are according to the best understanding of Enunciations I have coincident and equipollent propositions Now in discoursing this we are to take all our measures from the Scripture and to regulate our conceptions by it alone For this Union between Christ and Christians is one of those Mysteries which no Ideas congenite with us nor objective discoveries in the works of Creation and Providence could have conducted us to the knowledg of 'T is a Truth which our Intellectual Faculties in their Immediate exercise could never have discerned nor hath it any connexion with the things which we naturally know to be collected and deduced from them Though by attending to Revelation we may come to frame an intelligible Notion of it yet as it is considered in it self and with reference to other Doctrines of Faith on which it depends we could never have form'd any apprehensions of it if the Gospel had not previously declared and revealed it Now the first Argument in proof that our Union with Christ is more than Political shall be levied from those Symbolick Metaphors and Terrene Figures and Images by which the Holy Ghost is pleased to express it I have in the fore going Chapter assigned this as one Reason among others why God who doth all things in Infinite Wisdom declares the Mysteries of Faith under Earthly Parables and Symbols namely that Spiritual Things which lye remote from our Understandings may
we contend for he could not have chosen Terms more plain full and Emphatical to declare it than those by which he hath expressed it in the foregoing places And the same subtilties that are used to persuade the World that what we alledg is not the true meaning of them would equally serve to pervert their sense were that the intendment of the Holy Ghost in them which we affirm There are two passages which I reckon eminently manifestative of the Intimate Conjunction that is between Christ and Christians which I shall at this time borrow some Light from and reflect some upon in reference to the Matter before us The first is that of Paul Heb. 3.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For we are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of ou◠confidence stedfast unto the End I know that Modern Interpreters do generally suppose the name Christ to be taken here Metonymically viz. for the benefit of Christs Mediation but I judg that the Apostle intends a great deal more by our partaking of Christ than meerly so The Syriack renders it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We are mingled i. e. united to Christ. Chrysostom paraphraseth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What is it to be partakers of Christ He and we are made One He the Head we the Body Coheirs and Incorporated with Him And accordingly he makes the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the beginning of our confidence to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Faith by which says he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We are begotten and consubstantiated with him i. e. intimately and truly United to Him That an Union with Christ by some tye and ligature beyond what a bare owning of his Authority denotes is here intended in our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Being made partakers of Christ the use of the Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the same Apostle from whence the Noun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comes induceth me to believe When Paul would express Christs participating of the Humane Nature or of Flesh and Blood he doth it in this phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which seems clearly to conduct us to the meaning of the expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we are now upon As he became no otherwise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but by the assumption of our Nature into Union with his Divine person so we do no otherwise become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but by participation of the same spirit that inhabited the Humane Nature of Christ which is the Bond and Medium of that Union which we plead for between Christ and Christians The other expression which I judg declarative of a higher Union between Christ and us than what a Political Relation doth imply is his being styled our Life Life is said to be in Christ not only formally as in its subject but causally as in its fountain Nor is he only called the Word of Life and the Prince of Life but he is expresly said to be our Life Col. 3.4 And Paul witnesseth of himself that he lived through Christs living in Him Gal. 2.20 Now that he should be styled our Life meerly with reference to his bringing Life and Immortality to light in the Gospel is too jejune a sense to sustain the weight of the Phrase I do not deny but that the Gospel is the Word of Life and that it is so styled in the Scripture Nor do I bring into debate Christs being in a proper and eminent sense the alone Author as well as the Subject of it Only I affirm that the making his revealing the Gospel which discovers the Glad Tidings of Life and the Terms of it to be the only reason of the Appellation given to him which we are now discoursing is to impose a Notion upon the expression which is too scanty and narrow to answer the Majesty and Grandeur of it And as the Context even to any who do but superficially view it will not admit this to be its full import so the Apostles expression of Christs living in him which seems a commentary and paraphrase upon it doth plainly overthrow this from being the sense of it Nor will it suffice to say that he is our Life in a Moral sense because our Life of Grace here and of Glory hereafter are owing to the Sacrafice of his Death as their procuring cause 'T is true that both our Holiness and Happiness respect Christs Meritorious Life and Death as their price but yet this neither comes up to the Loftiness nor exhausts the fulness of that expression He is our Life much less is there any thing in this Gloss that bears affinity to his living in us The only sense which bears a proportion to the Words is this That as Natural life proceeds from and must be ascribed to the Soul as its spring principle so all spiritual Life is owing to Christ as immediately acting us by his quickning Spirit Of our selves saith the Learned Bishop Reynolds we are without strength without love without life no power no liking no possibility to do good nor any principle of Holiness or Obedience in us 'T is Christ that strengthens us that wins us that quickens us by his Spirit to his Service Christ is the Principle and Fountain of Holiness as the Head is of sense or motion And this he maketh to be one eminent part of the meaning of that place He that hath the Son hath Life 1 Joh. 5.12 though Mr. Sherlock is not only pleased to tell us that it signifies no such thing but treats those who do so paraphrase it with words full of contempt and scorn But to resume what I was upon forasmuch as no Vital Principle doth or can operate but as it is united to the subject that is to be quickned by it Christ being then the Principle of our spiritual life there must be an Union of Christ with us as the spring and foundation of his Influence upon us No one thing can be supposed the principle and source of life to another without admitting a previous Union between them The third and last Argument whereby Mr. Sherlocks Hypothesis of a Political Union may be combated and if I mistake not utterly defeated is levied from the Vinculum and Bond by which the Scripture reports Christ and Believers to be copulated and brought into cohesion one with another As every Union implies such a Relation in the virtue whereof there resulteth an Oneness between the connected Extremes so as the Nature and Quality of the Unitive Principle or Cement is such is the Genius of the Union it self and of the oneness that thereupon emergeth Now by consulting the Scripture which alone ought to regulate and bound our conceptions in the Matter before us we find the Spirit to be the Vital Ligature of the conjunction and coherence that is between Christ and Christians The very Spirit that resides in Christ being communicated to us we do thereby in a secret but sublime and real manner become knit and ligu'd
explain things which lye at a vaster distance from it and to which it bears less proportion If neither the Nature of God or of our Souls or of Matter of whose Existence we have the most scientifick evidence are to be comprehended by our narrow and shallow Intellects why may we not justifie the belief of such things of whose Truth and reality the Scripture instructs us though we cannot conceive the manner how they are or indeed how they can be And if men will not be talk'd and huff'd out of the persuasion of those things of whose Existence their Senses and Reasons ascertain them though they cannot answer all the difficulties they are accosted with in their enquiries about them much less will Christians be Hector'd out of the belief of the Doctrines of Faith because of the Entanglements which attend the conception of them 'T is the Nature of Faith to embrace things upon the alone Testimony of God though it understand nothing of the Mode and Manner how they are The highest assurance of the reality of any thing is Gods affirming it and what he asserts we are with all reverence to assent to its Truth though we can frame no adequate Idea of it nor fathom it in our conceptions To bring down the Doctrines of Religion to the Model of Reason is wholly to overthrow belief and to pay no more respect to the Authority and Testimony of God than we would to that of a Worm like our selves If there were no obscurity and difficulties in the Notions of Gospel-Truths where would our submission and Humility be which are the qualifications that do most recommend us to God and upon this account especially because they prepare the Mind for Faith and give check to all bold and curious enquiries 'T is enough that we can by rational proofs demonstrate the Bible to be the Word of that God whose Veracity is proportionate to his Sapience and both of them infinite nor is it needful that its Doctrines should further adjust themselves to our Understandings And indeed as to the Doctrine we have been discoursing not only the Apostle styles it a great Mystery but Christ himself seems to adjâ—rn the perfect knowledg of it till the glorified state At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father and you in in me and I in you Joh. 14.20 Yet seeing the Holy Ghost hath been pleased not only to assert an Intimate Union between Christ and Believers but hath condescended to illustrate it by so many similitudes and seeing many things that are Mysterious and unsearchable till God reveal them are afterwards of no difficult conception providing we regulate our apprehensions of them by the Word I shall therefore having arraign'd and overthrown the false Notions of this Spiritual Union venture to assign a true and I hope also an Intelligible Notion of it Now this I shall attempt by these several steps and degrees 1st The highest and closest Union is between those things that are actuated by one Spirit dwelling and moving in them Adhesion of parts is not so noble an Union as information by one and the same Spirit If the vegetative juice be precluded admission into any branch it is no longer in a proper sense United to the Root notwithstanding its Physical continuity to the other Branches When the Animal spirits forsake any Member in the Organick Body it is immediately as if it were not knit to the Head though it remain not only connected to the adjoyning parts by Muscles and Sinews but ligu'd to the Acropolis by Nerves and Arteries The strictest and most proper Union is that which emergeth from actuation by the same spirit 'T is this that renders the inferior Members as much coherent with the Head as the superior are because they are all acted by the same Animal spirits which as they are prepared in the Brain so they have their flux thence to all the Regions of the Body and their reflux back thither again Thus the soul though she keep her residence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is really joyned to all the Body because of the commerce that is between the Head where her Imperial Court is and the rest of the Members through the ministry of the Animal spirits 2dly Things at the greatest distance and between which there is no physical continuity may be acted by the same Spirit providing he be immense and infinite That Spirit who through the Infinite perfection of his Essence is every where may both inhabite and produce similar operations in those subjects that are locally distant the one from the other Though a Finite spirit cannot at the same time influence and act distinct and distant Subjects if there be not either a continuity or a contiguousness between them yet an Infinite Spirit may 3dly 'T is Christ as Mediator that Believers are United to The Mystical Union is between Him and Believers as he is a Middle Person between Them and his Father Our Moral Union with the Father in way of complacential love is through our Spiritual Union with the Son by the renovation of the Holy Ghost 4. The Holy Ghost did in a singular manner operate upon and reside in the Humane Nature of Christ. Though Christ was Holy by Essence in respect of his Divine Nature yet he was Holy by Consecration and Unction with the Spirit in respect of his Humane Though it was only the Son that did assume our Nature into subsistence with himself yet it was the Spirit that positively adorned and furnished that Nature with Grace 'T is true it is not of easie apprehension how the operation of the Holy Ghost should interpose in the same person between the one Nature and the other but it is as true that we have it plainly affirmed in the Scripture which is the highest assurance we can have of any thing 'T is one of the deep things of God which we ought to submit to with an humble Faith and not to enquire after it with a presumptuous boldness The Testimonies to this purpose are many but I shall only refer the Reader to two or three viz. Isa. 11.1 3. Joh. 3.34 Luk. 4.1 5thly The Holy Ghost is the Immediate Renewer and Sanctifier of the Elect. All the saving Illumination all the Gospel conviction all the Vital quickening all the Regenerating Virtue that we come under at any time have or are made the Subjects of they are from the Spirit of God and the Efficacious subjective operation of the Holy Ghost in and upon us Our birth and progress in Holiness are to be ascribed to Him as the Efficient Cause and Immediate Worker 'T is for this Reason that the Third Person in the Trinity is so frequently styled the Holy Spirit For that Title doth not so much refer to the Essential Purity of his Nature as to the sanctifying operations which are assigned to him in the Oeconomy of Mans Redemption This I shall not now divert to the proof of 't is enough that the