already that I will not come to him nor any of his Companions to learn to Express my self in these things and moreover that I despise their Censures The Discourses he is carping at in particular in this place are neither Doctrinal nor Argumentative but consist in the Application of Truths before proved unto the Minds and Affections of men And as I said I will not come to him nor his Fraternity to learn how to manage such a subject much less a Logical and Argumentative way of Reasoning nor have any inducement thereunto from any thing that as yet I have seen in their Writings It also troubles him pag. 208. That whereas I know how unsuited the best and most accurate of our Expressions are unto the true Nature and Being of Divine things as they are in themselves and what need we have to make use of Allusions and sometimes less proper Expressions to convey a sence of them unto the Minds and Affections of men I had once or twice used that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if I may so say which yet if he had not known used in other good Authors treating of things of the same Nature he knew I could take protection against his severity under the Example of the Apostle using words to the same Purpose upon an alike Occasion Heb. 7. But at length he intends to be serious and from those words of mine Here is Mercy enough for the greatest the oldest the stubbornest Transgressor he addes Enough in all Reason this what a Comfort is it to Sinners to have such a God for their Saviour whose Grace is boundless and bottomless and exceeds the largest Dimensions of their Sins though there be a world of sin in them But what now if the Divine Nature it self have not such an endless boundless bottomless Grace and Compassion as the Doctor now talks of For at other times when it serves his turn better we can hear nothing from him but the Naturalness of Gods Vindictive Justice Though God be rich in Mercy he never told us that his Mercy was so boundless and bottomless he had given a great many Demonstrations of the severity of his Anger against sinners who could not be much worse than the Greatest the Oldest and stubbornest Transgressors Let the Reader take notice that I propose no Grace in Christ unto or for such Sinners but only that which may invite all sorts of them though under the most discouraging Qualifications to come unto him for Grace and Mercy by Faith and Repentance And on supposition that this was my sence as he cannot deny it to be I adde only in Answer that this his prophane scoffing at it is that which reflects on Christ and his Gospel and God himself and his Word which must be accounted for See Isa. 55.7 2 dly For the Opposition which he childishly frames between Gods Vindictive Justice and his Mercy and Grace it is answered already 3 dly It is false that God hath not told us that his Grace is boundless and bottomless in the sence wherein I use those words sufficient to pardon the greatest the oldest the stubbornest of sinners namely that turn unto him by Faith and Repentance And he who knowes not how this consists with Severity and Anger against impenitent sinners is yet to Learn his Catechism But yet he addes further pag. 208 209. Supposing the Divine Nature were such a bottomless Fountain of Grace how comes this to be a Personal Grace of the Mediator For a Mediator as Mediator ought not to be considered as the Fountain but as the Minister of Grace God the Father certainly ought to come in for a share at least in being the Fountain of Grace though the Doctor is pleased to take no notice of him But how excellent is the Grace of Christs Person above the Grace of the Gospel for that is a bounded and limited thing a straight Gate and narrow Way that leadeth unto Life There is no such Boundless Mercy as all the sins in the World cannot equal its Dimensions as will save the Greatest the Oldest and the stubbornest Transgressors I begg the Reader to believe that I am now so utterly weary with the Repetition of these impertinencies that I can hardly prevail with my self to fill my Pen once more with Ink about them And I see no reason now to goe on but only that I have begun And on all accounts I shall be as brief as possible I say then First I did not consider this boundless Grace in Christ as Mediator but considered it as in him who is Mediator and so the Divine Nature with all its Properties are greatly to be considered in him if the Gospel be true But 2 dly It is untrue that Christ as Mediator is only the Minister of Grace and not the Fountain of it for he is Mediator as God and Man in one Person 3 dly To suppose an exemption of the Person of the Father from being the Fountain of Grace absolutely in the Order of the Divine Subsistence of the Persons in the Trinity and of their Operations suited thereunto upon the Ascription of it unto the Son is a fond Imagination which could befall no man who understands any thing of things of this Nature It doth as well follow that if the Son created the World the Father did not if the Son uphold all things by the Word of his Power the Father doth not that is that the Son is not in the Father nor the Father in the Son The Acts indeed of Christs Mediation respect the Ministration of Grace being the procuring and communicating Causes thereof but the Person of Christ the Mediator is the Fountain of Grace So they thought who beheld his Glory the Glory as of the only begotten of the Father full of Grace and Truth But the especial Relation of Grace unto the Father as sending the Son unto the Son as sent by him and incarnate and unto the Holy Spirit as proceeding from and sent by them both I have elsewhere fully declared and shall not in this place which indeed will scarce give Admittance unto any thing of so serious a nature again insist thereon 4 thly The Opposition which he would again set between Christ and the Gospel is impious in it self and if he thinks to charge it on me openly false I challenge him and all his Complices to produce any one word out of any Writing of mine that from a Plea or pretence of Grace in Christ should give Countenance unto any in the neglect of the least Precept given or Duty required in the Gospel And notwithstanding all that I have said or taught concerning the Boundless Bottomless Grace and Mercy of Christ towards believing humble penitent Sinners I doe believe the Way of Gospel Obedience indispensibly required to be walked in by all that will come to the Enjoyment of God to be so narrow that no Revilers nor false Accusers nor Scoffers nor Despisers of Gospel Mysteries continuing so to be can walk
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
Love of the Holy Ghost his whole work upon us in us for us consists in preparing of us for Obedience enabling of us thereunto and bringing forth the fruits of it in us and this he doth in opposition to a Righteousness of our own either before it or to be made up by it Tit. 3.5 I need not insist on this The fruits of the Spirit in us are known Gal. 5.22 And thus have we a twofold bottom of the Necessity of our Obedience and personal Holiness God hath appointed it He requires it And it is an eminent immediate End of the distinct Dispensation of Father Son and Holy Ghost in the Work of our Salvation If God's Soveraignty over us is to be owned if his Love towards us be to be regarded if the whole Work of the ever-blessed Trinity for us in us be of any Moment our Obedience is necessary 3. It is Necessary in respect of the End thereof and that whether you consider God our Selves or the World 1. The End of our obedience in respect of God is his Glory and Honour Mal. 1.6 This is God's Honour all that we give him It is true he will take his Honour from the Stoutest and Proudest Rebel in the World but all we give him is in our Obedience The Glorifying of God by our Obedience is all that we are or can be Particularly 1. It is the Glory of the Father Mat. 5.16 Let your Light so shine before Men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in Heaven By our walking in the Light of Faith doth Glory arise to the Father The Fruits of his Love of his Grace of his Kindness are seen upon us and God is Glorified in our Behalf And 2. The Son is Glorified thereby It is the Will of God that as all Men Honour the Father so should they Honour the Son John 5.23 and how is this done by believing in him John 14.1 obeying of him Hence John 17.10 He says he is Glorified in Believers and prays for an increase of Grace and Union for them that he may yet be more Glorified and all might know that as Mediator he was sent of God 3. The Spirit is Glorified also by it He is grieved by our Disobedience Eph. 4.30 And therefore his Glory is in our bringing forth Fruit. He dwells in us as in his Temple which is not to be defiled Holiness becometh his Habitation for ever Now if this that hath been said be not sufficient to evince a necessity of our Obedience we must suppose our selves to speak with a sort of Men who regard neither the Soveraignty nor Love nor Glory of God Father Son or Holy Ghost Let Men say what they please though our Obedience should be all lost and never regarded which is impossible for God is not unjust to forget our Labour of Love yet here is a sufficient bottom ground and Reason of yielding more Obedience unto God than ever we shall do whilst we live in this World I speak also only of Gospel-Grounds of Obedience and not of those that are Natural and Legal which are indispensible to all Mankind 2. The End in respect of our selves immediately is threefold 1. Honour 2. Peace 3. Usefulness 1. Honour It is by Holiness that we are made like unto God and his Image is renewed again in us This was our Honour at our Creation this exalted us above all our Fellow-Creatures here below we were made in the Image of God This we lost by Sin and became like the Beasts that perish To this Honour of Conformity to God of bearing his Image are we exalted again by Holiness alone Be ye Holy says God because I am Holy 1 Pet. 1.16 And be you perfect that is in doing good as your Heavenly Father is Perfect Math. 5.48 in a Likeness and Conformity to him And herein is the Image of God renewed Ephes. 4.23 24. Therein we put on the New Man which after God is created in Righteousness and Holiness of Truth This was that which originally was attended with Power and Dominion is still all that is Beautiful or Comely in the World How it makes Men Honourable and Precious in the sight of God of Angels of Men how alone it is that which is not despised which is of Price before the Lord what contempt and Scorn He hath of them in whom it is not in what Abomination he hath them and all their ways might easily be evinced 2. Peace by it we have Communion with God wherein Peace alone is to be enjoyed The wicked are like a troubled Sea that cannot rest and there is no Peace to them saith my God Isa. 48.21 There is no Peace Rest or Quietness in a Distance Separation or Alienation from God He is the Rest of our Souls In the Light of his Countenance is Life and Peace Now if we walk in the Light as he is Light we have Fellowship one with another 1 Joh. 1.7 and verily our Fellowship is with the Father and with the Son Jesus Christ v. 3. He that walks in the Light of new Obedience he hath Communion with God and in his Presence is fulness of Joy for ever without is there nothing but darkness and wandring and Confusion 3. Usefulness a man without Holiness is good for nothing Ephraim says the Propbet is an empty Vine that brings forth Fruit to it self And what is such a Vine good for Nothing saith another Prophet a man cannot make a pin of it so much as to hang a Vessel on A barren tree is good for nothing but to be cut down for the Fire Notwithstanding the seeming Usefulness of men who serve the Providence of God in their Generations I could easily manifest that the World and the Church might want them and that indeed in themselves they are Good for nothing only the Holy man is commune bonum 3. The End of it in respect of others in the world is manifold 1. It serves to the Conviction and stopping the mouths of some of the Enemies of God both here and hereafter Here 1. Pet. 3.16 Keeping a good Conscience that wherein they speak against you as Evil Doers they may be ashamed beholding your good Conversation in Christ. By our keeping of a good Conscience Men will be made ashamed of their false Accusations That whereas their Malice and Hatred of the ways of God hath provoked them to speak all manner of evil of the Profession of them by the Holiness and Righteousness of the Saints they are convinced and made ashamed as a Thief is when he is taken and driven to acknowledge that God is amongst them and that they are wicked themselves Joh. 17.23.2 Hereafter it is said that the Saints shall judg the World It is on this as well as upon other Considerations Their Good Works their Righteousness their Holiness shall be brought forth and manifested to all the World and the Righteousness of God's Judgments against Wicked Men be thence evinced See says
its full Latitude and Extent It is not the Person but the Gospel of Christ which is the Way the Truth and the Life which directs us in the way to Life and Happiness And again this acquaintance with Christs Person which these Men pretend to is only a work of Fancy and teaches Men the Arts of Hypocrisie c. I do not know that ever I met with any thing thus crudely asserted among the Quakers in contempt of the Person of Christ. For whereas he says of himself expresly I am the Way the Truth and the Life to say he is not so for Jesus Christ is his Person and nothing else carries in it a bold Contradiction both parts of which cannot be true When the Subject of a Proposition is owned there may be great Controversy about the sense of the Predicate as when Christ says he is the Vine There may be so also about the Subject of a Proposition when the Expression is of a third Thing and dubious as where Christ says this is my Body But when the person speaking is the Subject and speaks of himself to deny what he says is to give him the Lye I am the Way and the Truth and the Life saith Christ He is not saith our Author but the Gospel is so If he had allowed our Lord Jesus Christ to have spoken the Truth but only to have added though he was so yet he was so no otherwise but by the Gospel there had been somewhat of modesty in the Expression But this saying that the Person of Christ is not the Gospel is so is intolerable It is so however that this young Man without consulting or despising the Exposition of all Divines Ancient or Modern and the Common sence of all Christians should dare to obtrude his crude and indigested Conceptions upon so great a Word of Christ himself countenanced only by the corrupt and false glosses of some obscure Socinians which some or other may possibly in due time mind him of I have other work to do But according to his Exposition of this Heavenly Oracle what shall any one imagine to be the sence of the Context where I and Me spoken of Christ do so often occur Suppose that the words of that whole Verse I am the Way the Truth and the Life no Man cometh to the Father but by me have this sence not Christ himself is the Way Truth and the Life but the Gospel No man cometh to the Father but by Me that is not by me but by the Gospel must not all the Expressions of the same nature in the Context have the same Exposition as namely Vers 1. Ye believe in God believe also in me that is not in me but in the Gospel I go to prepare a place for you That is not I do so but the Gospel Ver. 3. I will come again and receive you to my self That is not I but the Gospel will do so And so of all other things which Christ in that place seems to speak of himself If this be his way of Interpreting Scripture I wonder not that he blames others for their Defect and miscarriages therein When I first considered these two last Sections I did not suspect but that he had at least truely represented my Words which he thought meet to reflect upon and Scoff at as knowing how easie it was for any one whose Conscience would give him a Dispensation for such an undertaking to pick out sayings and Expressions from the most Innocent Discourse and odiously to propose them as cut off from their proper Coherence and under a Concealment of the End and the Principal Sence designed in them Wherefore I did not so much as read over the Discourse excepted against only once or twice observing my words as quoted by him not directly to comply with what I knew to be my sence and intention I turned unto the particular Places to discover his Prevarication But having gon through this ungrateful task I took the Pains to read over the whole Digression in my Book which his Exceptions are Levelled against And upon my review of it my Admiration of his dealing was not a little increased I cannot therefore but desire of the most Partial Adherers unto this Censurer of other Mens Labours Judgments and Expressions but once to read over that Discourse and if they own themselves to be Christians I shall submit the whole of it with the consideration of his Reflections upon it unto their Judgments If they refuse so to do I let them know I despise their Censures and do look on the satisfaction they take in this Mans scoffing Reflections as the Laughter of Fools or the Crackling of Thorns under a Pot. For those who will be at so much pains to undeceive themselves they will find that that Expression of the Person of Christ is but once or twice used in all that long Discourse and that occasionally which by the outcrys here made against it any one would suppose to have filled up almost all the Pages of it He will find also that I have owned and declared the Revelation that God hath made of himself the properties of his Nature and his Will in his works of Creation and Providence in its full Extent and Efficacy and that by the Knowledge of God in Christ which I so much insist upon I openly plainly and declaredly intend nothing but the Declaration that God hath made of himself in Jesus Christ by the Gospel whereof the Knowledge of his Person the Great Mystery of Godliness God manifested in the Flesh with what he did suffered as the Mediator between God Man is the chiefest Instance in which Knowledg consisteth all our Wisdom of Living unto God Hereon I have no more to add but that he by whom these things are denied or derided doth openly renounce his Christianity And that I do not lay this unto the Charge of this doughty Writer is because I am satisfied that he hath not done it out of any such design but partly out of Ignorance of the things which he undertakes to write about and partly to satisfy the malevolence of himself and some others against my Person which sort of depraved Affections where Men give up themselves unto their prevalency will blind the Eyes and pervert the Judgments of Persons as wise as he In the First Section of his fourth Chapter I am not particularly concerned and whilst he only vents his own conceits be they never so idle or Atheological I shall never trouble my self either with their Examination or Confutation So many as he can perswade to be of his Mind That we have no Union with Christ but by Vertue of Union with the Church the contrary whereof is absolutely true That Christ is so an Head of Rule and Government unto the Church as that he is not an Head of Influence and supplies of Spiritual Life contrary to the Faith of the Catholick Church in all Ages That these assertions of his have any
of Grace and Truth said to be in Christ consists either in the Doctrine of the Gospel or in the Largeness of his Church In the latter that Faith in Christ is nothing but Believing the Gospel and the Authority of Christ who revealed it and by yielding Obedience whereunto we are justified before God on the account of an internal inherent Righteousness in our selves Now these are no small Undertakings the first of them being expressely contrary to the sence of the Catholick Church in all Ages For the Pelagians and the Socinians are by common Agreement excluded from an Interest therein And the latter of them contrary to the plain Confessions of all the Reformed Churches with the constant Doctrine of this Church of England and therefore we may justly expect that they should be managed with much strength of Argument and evident Demonstration But the Unhappiness of it is I will not say his but ours that these are not things which our Author as yet hath accustomed himself unto and I cannot but say that to my knowledge I never read a more weak loose and impertinent Discourse upon so weighty Subjects in my whole Life before He must have little to doe who can afford to spend his Time in a particular Examination of it unless it be in the Exposition of those places which are almost Verbatim transcribed out of Schlictingius Besides for the first Truth which he opposeth I have confirmed it in a Discourse which I suppose may be made publick before this come to View beyond what I expect any sober Reply unto from him Some Texts of Scripture that mention a Fulness in Christ he chooseth out to manifest to speak a Word by the way that indeed they do not intend any such Fulness in Christ himself And the first is Joh. 1.16 The Exposition whereof which he gives is that of Schlictingius who yet extends the import of the words beyond what he will allow The Enforcement which he gives unto his Exposition by comparing the 14 and 17 Verses with the 16. is both weak and contradictory of it self For the words of the 14 Verse are The Word was made Flesh and dwelt amongst us and we beheld his Glory the Glory as of the only begotten of the Father full of Grace and Truth It is evident beyond contradiction that the Expression full of Grace and Truth is Exegetical of his Glory as the only begotten of the Father which was the Glory of his Person and not the Doctrine of the Gospel And for the opposition that is made between the Law given by Moses and the Grace and Truth which came by Jesus Christ I shall yet rather adhere to the sense of the Ancient Church and the most Eminent Doctors of it which if he knows not it to be concerning the Effectual Communication of real renewing sanctifying Grace by Jesus Christ there are â—now who can inform him rather than that woeful gloss upon them his Doctrine is called Grace because accompanyed with such Excellent Promises and may well be called Truth because so agreeable to the Natural Notions of Good and Evil which is the Confession of the Pelagian unbelief but these things are not my present concernment For the latter part of his Discourse in his opposition unto the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ as he doth not go about once to state or declare the sense wherein it is pleaded for nor produceth any one of the Arguments wherewith it is confirmed and omitteth the mention of most of the particular Testimonies which declare and establish it so as unto those few which he takes notice of he expresly founds his Answers unto them in that woful Subterfuge that if they are capable of another Interpretation or having another sense given unto them then nothing can be concluded from them to that purpose by which the Socinians seek to shelter themselves from all the Testimonies that are given to his Deity and Satisfaction But I have no concernment as I said either in his Opinions or his way of Reasoning and do know that those who have so need not desire a better Cause nor an easier Adversary to deal withall In his third Section pag. 279. he enters upon his exceptions unto the Union of Believers unto Jesus Christ and with great modesty at the entrance of his Discourse tells us First how these men with whom he hath to doe have fittted the Person of Christ unto all the wants and necessities of the sinner which yet if he denies God himself to have done he is openly injurious unto his Wisdom and Grace The very first Promise that was given concerning him was that he should save sinners from all their wants evils and miseries that might did or could befall them by the entrance of sin But thus it falls out when men will be talking of what they doe not understand Again he adds how he hath Explained the Scripture Metaphors whereby the Union between Christ and Christians is represented but that these men in stead of explaining of those Metaphors turn all Religion into an Allegory But what if one should now tell him that his Explanation of these Metaphors is the most absurd and irrational and argues the most fulsome ignorance of the Mystery of the Gospel that can be imagined and that on the other side those whom he traduceth doe explain them unto the understanding and experience of all that believe and that in a way suited and directed unto by the Holy Ghost himself to farther their Faith Obedience and Consolation as far as I perceive he would be at no small loss how to relieve himself under this censure The first thing he begins withal and wherein in the first place I fall under his Displeasure is about the Conjugal Relation between Christ and Believers which he treats of pag. 280. As for Example saith he Christ is called an Husband the Church his Spouse and now all the invitations of the Gospel are Christ's wooing and making love to his Spouse and what other men call believing the Gospel of Christ whereby we devote our selves to his Service these men call that consent and contract which makes up the Marriage betwixt Christ and Believers Christ takes us for his Spouse and we take Christ for our Husband and that with all the Solemnities of Marriage except the Ring which is left out as an Antichristian Ceremony Christ saying thus This is that we will consent unto that I will be for thee and thou shalt be for me and not for another Christ gives himself to the Soul with all his Excellencies Righteousness Preciousness Graces and Eminencies to be its Saviour Head and Husband to dwell with it in this Holy Relation and the Soul likes Christ for his Excellencies Graces Suitableness farr above all other Beloveds whatsoever and accepts of Christ by the Will for its Husband Lord and Saviour And thus the Marriage is compleated and this is the Day of Christs Espousals and of the Gladness of his Heart