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
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
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
this Section upon a contrary supposition falsly imputed unto me And as for his drawing Schemes of Religion I must tell him and let him disprove it if he be able I own no Religion no Article of Faith but what are taught expresly in the Scripture mostly confirmed by the ancient General Councils of the Primitive Church and the Writings of the most Learned Fathers against all sorts of Heretâ—cks especially the Gnosticks Photinians and Pelagians consonant to the Articles of the Church of England and the Doctrine of all the Reformed Châ—rches of Europe And if in the Exposition of any place of Scripture I dissent from any that for the Substance of it own the Religion I do I do it not wiâ—hout Cogent Reasons from the Scripture it self and where in any opinions which Learned Men have and it may be always had different Apprehensions about which hath not been thought to prejudice the Unity of Faith amongst them I hope I do endeavour to manage that dissent with that Modesty and Sobriety which becometh me And as for the Schemes Plots or Designs of Religion or Christianity given us by this Author and owned by him it being taken pretendedly from the Person of Christ when it is hoped that he may have a better to give us from the Gospel seeing he hath told us we must Learn our Religion from his Doctrine and not from his Person besides that it is liable unto Innumerable Exceptions in particular which may easily be given in against it by such as have nothing else to do wâ—ereas it makes no mention of the effectual Grace of Christ and the Gospel for the Conversion and Sanctification of Sinners and the necessity thereof unto all Acts of Holy Obedience it is merely Pelagian and stands Anathematised by sundry Councils of the Antient Church I shall not therefore concern my self farther in any Passages of this Section most of them wherein it reflects on others standing in competition for Truth and Ingenuity with the Foundation and Design of the whole Only I shall say that the Passage of 88 89. This made the Divine Goodness so restlesly zealous and concerned for the Recovery of Mankind various ways be attempted in former Ages but with little success as I observed before but at last God sent his own Son our Lord Jesus Christ into the World without a very Cautious Explanation and Charitable Construction is false scandalous and blasphemous For allow this Author who contends so severely for Propriety of Expressions against Allusions and Metaphors to say that the Divine Goodness was restlesly Zealous and Concerned for indeed such is our Weakness that whether we will or no we must sometimes learn and teach Divine things in such words as are suited to convey an Apprehension of them unto our Minds though in their Application unto the Divine Nature they are incapable of being understood in the Propriety of their Signification though this be as untowardly expressed as any thing I have of late met withal yet what colour can be put upon what excuse can be made for this Doctrine That God in former Ages by various ways attempted the Recovery of mankind but with little success I know not Various attempts in God for any End without Success do not lead the Mind into right Notions of his Infinite Wisdom and Omnipotency And that God by any way at any time attempted the Recovery of Mankind distinctly and separately from the sending of his Son is lewdly false In the greatest part of his fourth Section entituled how Men pervert the Scripture to make it comply with their fancy I am not much concerned save that the Foundation of the whole and that which animates his Discourse from first to last is laid in an Impudent Calumny namely that I declare that our Religion is wholly owing to an acquaintance with the Person of Christ could never have been clearly savingly Learned from his Gospel had we not first grown acquainted with his Person This shameless Falshood is that alone whence he takes occasion and confidence to reproach my self and others to condemn the Doctrine of all the Reformed Churches and openly to traduce and vilify the Scripture it self I shall only briefly touch on some of the impotent dictates of this great Corrector of Divinity and Religion His Discourse of accommodating Scripture-Expressions to Mens own Dreamns pag. 99 100.101 being such as any Man may use concerning any other men on the like occasion if they have a mind unto it and intend to have no more regard to their Consciences than some others seem to have may be passed by pag. 102. He falls upon the ways of expounding Scripture among those whom he sets himself against and positively affirms that there are two ways of it in great Vogue among them First by the sound and Clink of the words and Phrases which as he says is all some Men understand by keeping a Form of Sound words 2 When this will not do they reason about the sence of them from their own preconceived Notions and Opinions and prove that this must be the meaning of Scripture because otherwise it is not reconcileable to their Dreams which is called expounding Scripture by the Analogy of Faith Thus far he and yet we shall have the same Man not long hence pleading for the Necessity of Holiness But I wish for my part he would take notice that I despise that Holiness and the Principles of it which will allow Men to Coin Invent and publish such notorious untruths against any sort of Men whatever And whereas by what immediately follows I seem to be principally intended in this Charge as I know the Untruth of it so I have published some Expositions on some Parts of the Scripture to the Judgment of the Christian World to which I appeal from the Censures of this Man and his Companions as also for those which if I Live and God will I shall yet publish and do declare that for Reasons very satisfactory to my Mind I will not come to him nor them to learn how to expound the Scripture But he will Justify his Charge by particular Instances telling us pag. 102. Thus when Men are possessed with a Fancy of an acquaintance with Christ's Person then to know Christ can signify nothing else but to know his Person and all his Personal Excellencies and Beauties Fullness and Pretiousness c. And when Christ is said to be made Wisdom to us this is a plain proof that we must Learn all our spiritual Wisdom from an acquaintance with his Person though some duller Men can understand no more by it than the Wisdom of those Revelations Christ hath made of God's Will to the World I would beg of this Man that if he hath any regard unto the Honour of Christian Religion or Care of his own Soul he would be tender in this matter and not reflect with his usual disdain upon the Knowledge of the Person of Christ. I must tell him again what
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
Good Works and Justification by them which is a ready way to instruct men to Atheism or the scorn of every thing that is professed in Religion But yet 2. He shews how impotent and impertinent our Arguments are for the Proof of the Necessity of Holiness And as to the first of them from the Commands of God he saith that if after all these Commands God hath left it indifferent whether we obey him or no I hope such Commands cannot make Obedience Necessary Wonderful Divinity A Man must needs be well acquainted with God and himself who can suppose that any of his Commands shall leave it indifferent whether we will obey them or no. Yea but will he damn Men if they do not obey his Commands for Holiness Yes yes no doubt he will do so Yea but we may be notwithstanding this Command Justified and Saved without this Holiness False and Impertinent We are neither Justified nor saved without them though we are not Justified by them nor saved for them Unto my Inforcement of the Necessity of Holiness from the Ends of God in Election and Redemption he Replies page 127. The Father hath Elected us to be Holy and the Son Redeemed us to be Holy But will the Father Elect and the Son Redeem none but those who are Holy and Reject and Reprobate all others Doth this Election and Redemption suppose Holiness in us or is it without any regard to it For if we be Elected and Redeemed without any regard unto our own being Holy our Election and Redemption is secure whether we be Holy or not Wonderful Divinity again Election and Redemption suppose Holiness in us We are Elected and Redeemed with regard unto our own Holiness that is antecedently unto our Election and Redemption For Holiness being the Effect and Fruit of them is that which he opposeth Not many Pages after this he falls into a great Admiration of the Catechism of the Church of England which none blamed that I know of as to what is contained in it But it were to be wished that he had been well instructed in some others that he might not have divulged obtruded on the World such Crude and Palpable Mistakes For this Respect of Redemption at least unto an Antecedent Holiness in us that is antecedent unto it is such a piece of Foppery in Religion as a Man would wonder how any one could be guilty of who hath almost pored out his Eyes in Reading the Scripture All the remaining Cavils of this Chapter are but the Effects of the like fulsom Ignorance For out of some Passages scraped together from several parts of my Discourse and those not only cut off from their proper scope and End which is not mentioned by him at all but also mangled in their Representation he would frame the Appearance of a Contradiction between what I say on the one hand that there is no Peace with God to be obtained by and for Sinners but by the Atonement that is made for them in the Blood of Jesus Christ with the Remission of Sin and Justification by Faith which ensue thereon which I hope I shall not live to hear denyed by the Church of England and the Necessity of Holiness and Fruitfulness in Obedience to maintain in our own Souls a sence of that Peace with God which we have being Justified by Faith And he who understands not the Consistency of those things hath little Reason to despise good Catechisms what-ever thoughts he hath had of his own Sufficiency The whole Design of what remains of this Section is to insinuate that there can be no Necessity of Holiness or Obedience unto God unless we are Justified and saved thereby which I knew not before to to have been nor indeed do yet know it to be the Doctrine of the Church of England But be it whose it will I am sure it is not that of the Scripture and I have so disproved it in other Discourses which this Man may now see if he please as that I shall not here again reassume the same Argument And although I am weary of consulting this woful mixture of Disingenuity and Ignorance yet I shall mark somewhat on one or two Passages more and leave him if he please unto a due Apprehension that what remains is unanswerable Scoffing The First is that of Page 131. But however Holiness is Necessary with respect to Sanctification we have in us a New Creature 2. Cor. 5.17 This new Creature is fed Cherished Nourished and kept alive by the Fruits of Holiness To what End hath God given us new Hearts and New Natures Is it that we should Kill them stifle the Creature that is formed in us in the Womb That we should give him to the old Man to be devoured The Phrase of this is admirable and the Reasoning unanswerable For if Men be New Creatures they will certainly live new Lives and this makes Holiness absolutely necessary by the same Reason that every thing necessarily is what it is but still we enquire after a Necessary Obligation to the Practice of Holiness and that we cannot yet discover The Reader will see easily how this is pickt out of the whole Discourse as that which he imagined would yield some Advantage to reflect upon For let him pretend what he please to the Contrary he hath laid this End too open to be denied and I am no way solicitous what will be his success therein Had he aimed at the Discovery of Truth he ought to have examined the whole of the Discourse and not thus have rent one piece of it from the another As to the Phrase of Speech which I use it is I acknowledge Metaphorical but yet being used only in a Popular way of Instruction is sufficiently warranted from the Scripture which administers occasion and gives Countenance unto every Expression in it the whole being full well understood by those who are Exercised in the Life of God And for the Reasoning of it it is such as I know this man cannot Answer For the New Creature whatever he may fancy is not a new Conversation nor a Living Holily but it is the Principle and Spiritual Ability produced in Believers by the Power and Grace of the Holy Ghost enabling them to walk in newness of Life and Holiness of Conversation And this Principle being bestowed on us wrought in us for that very End it is necessary for us unless we will neglect and despise the Grace which we have received that we walk in Holiness and abound in the Fruits of Righteousness whereunto it leads and tends Let him answer this if he can and when he hath done so answer the Apostle in like manner or scoff not only at me but at him also The last passage I shall remarque upon in this Section is what he gives us as the sum of the whole Pag. 135. The sum of all is that to know Christ is not to be thus acquainted with his Person but to understand his Gospel in
Nature in the Person of Christ See Isa. 6.1 2 3. Joh. 12.41 Isa. 9.6 Joh. 1.14 Phil. 2.6 c. or shall think that the Grace or Excellencies of his Person do not principally consist in them as the Humane Nature is united thereunto 5 ly They consider all the Glorious Effects of his Mediation All the Effects of Christs Mediation all the Things that are spoken of the Gospel c. do all of them declare the Excellency of the Person of Christ as Effects declare their Cause and may and ought to be considered unto that end as Occasion doth require And no otherwise are they considered by those whom he doth oppose 6 ly But the End of these strange Principles and Practices he tells us is that all our hopes may be built not on the Gospel Covenant but on the Person of Christ. But I say again what is it that this Man intends What is become of a common Regard to God and Man who do so build their hopes on Christ as to reject or despise the Gospel-Covenant as he calls it though I am afraid should he come to explain himself he will be at a loss about the true Nature of the Gospel-Covenant as I find him to be about the Person and Grace of Christ. He telleth us indeed that not the Person of Christ but the Gospel is the Way did we ever say not the Covenant of Grace but the Person of Christ is all we regard But whence comes this causeless Fear and Jealousie or rather this evil Surmise that if any endeavour to exalt the Person of Christ immediately the Covenant of the Gospel that is in truth the Covenant which is declared in the Gospel must be discarded Is there an inconsistency between Christ and the Covenant I never met with any who was so fearfull and jealous least too much should be ascribed in the matter of our Salvation to Jesus Christ and when there is no more so but what the Scripture doth expressely and in words assign unto him and affirm of him instantly we have an Outcry that the Gospel and the Covenant are rejected and that a Dispute lyes between the Person of Christ and his Gospel But let him not trouble himself for as he cannot and as he knowes he cannot produce any one word or one syllable out of any Writings of mine that should derogate any thing from the Excellency Nature Necessity or Use of the New Covenant so though it may be he do not and doth therefore fancy and dream of Disputes between Christ and the Gospel we do know how to respect both the Person of Christ and the Covenant both Jesus Christ and the Gospel in their proper places And in particular we do know that as it is the Person of Christ who is the Author of the Gospel and who as Mediator in his Work of Mediation gives Life and Efficacy and Establishment unto the Covenant of Grace so both the Gospel and that Covenant do declare the Glory and design the Exaltation of Jesus Christ himself Speaking therefore comparatively all our hopes are built on Jesus Christ who alone filleth all things yet also we have our hopes in God through the Covenant declared in the Gospel as the way designing the Rule of our Obedience securing our Acceptance and Reward And to deal as gently as I can warrant my self to do with this Writer the Dispute he mentions between the Person of Christ the Gospel which shall be the Foundation of our Hope is only in his own fond imagination distempered by Disingenuity and Malevolence For if I should charge what the appearrance of his Expressions will well bare what he sayes seems to be out of a Design influenced by Ignorance or Heresie to exclude Jesus Christ God and Man from being the principal Foundation of the Church and which all its hopes are built upon This being the summe of his Charge I hope he will fully prove it in the Quotations from my Discourse which he now sets himself to produce assuring him that if he do not but come short therein setting aside his odious and foppish prophane Deductions I doe averre them all in plain terms that he may on his next occasion of Writing save his labour in searching after what he may oppose Thus therefore he proceeds pag. 205. To make this appear I shall consider that account which D r. Owen gives us of the personal Graces and Excellencies of Christ which in general consist in three things First his Fitness to save from the Grace of Vnion and the proper and necessary Effects thereof Secondly his Fulness to save from the Grace of Communion or the free Consequences of the Grace of Vnion and Thirdly his Excellency to endear from his compleat suitableness to all the wants of the Souls of men First That he is fit to be a Saviour from the Grace of Vnion and if you will understand what this strange Grace of Vnion is it is the uniting the Nature of God and Man in one Person which makes him fit to be a Saviour to the uttermost He layes his hand upon God by partaking of his Nature and he layes his hand on us by partaking of our Nature and so becomes a Dayes-man or Vmpire between both Now though this be a great Truth that the Vnion of the Divine and Humane Nature in Christ did excellently qualifie him for the Office of a Mediator yet this is the Vnhappiest man in Expressing and proving it that I have met with For what an untoward Representation is this of Christs Mediation That he came to make Peace by laying his hands on God and Men as if he came to part a Fray or Scuffle and he might as well have named Gen. 1.1 or Matth. 1.1 or any other place of Scripture for the proof of it as those he mentions To what End it is that he cites these Passages out of my Discourse is somewhat difficult to divine Himself confesseth that what is asserted at least in one of them is a great Truth only I am the unhappiest man in expressing and proving it that ever he met with It is evident enough to me that he hath not met with many who have treated of this Subject or hath little understood those he hath met withall so that there may be yet some behind as unhappy as my self And seeing he hath so good a Leisure from other Occasions as to spend his Time in telling the world how unhappy I am in my Proving and Expressing of what himself acknowledgeth to be true he may be pleased to take notice that I am now sensible of my own unhappiness also in having fallen under a Diversion from better Employments by such sad and wofull Impertinencies But being at once charged with both these misadventures untowardness in Expression and weakness in the Proof of a plain Truth I shall willingly admit of Information to mend my way of writing for the future And the first Reflection he casts on my Expressions is my
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
pages with seeing it is but little in them which he excepteth against and whoever pleaseth may consult them at large in the places from whence they are taken Or because it is not easie to find them out singly they are so picked up and down backwards and forwards curtailed and added to at pleasure any one may in a very little space of time read over the whole unto his full satisfaction I shall therefore only consider his exceptions and hast unto an end of this fruitless trouble wherein I am most unwillingly engaged by this man's unsuspected Disingenuity and Ignorance After the Citation of some Passages he adds pag. 301. This methinks is very strange that what he did as Mediator is not imputed unto us but what he did not as our Mediator but as a Man subject to the Law that is imputed to us and reckoned as if we had done it by reason of his being our Mediator And it is as strange to the full that Christ should do whatever was required of us by vertue of any Law when he was neither Husband nor Wife nor Father Merchant nor Tradesman Sea-man nor Soldier Captain or Lieutenant much less a Temporal Prince and Monarch And how he should discharge the Duties of these Relations for us which are required of us by certain Laws when he never was in any of these Relations and could not possibly be in all is an Argument which may Exercise the subtilty of Schoolmen and to them I leave it It were greatly to be desired that he would be a little more heedful and with attention read the Writings of other Men that he might understand them before he comes to make such a bluster in his opposition to them For I had told him plainly That though there was a peculiar Law of Mediation whose Acts and Duties we had no obligation unto yet the Lord Christ even as Mediator was obliged unto and did personally perform all Duties of Obedience unto the Law of God whereunto we were subject and obliged pag. 181. Sec. 14. And it is strange to apprehend how he came to imagine that I said he did it not as our Mediator but as a Private Man That which possibly might cast his thoughts into this disorder was that he knew not that Christ was made a Private Man as Mediator which yet the Scripture is sufficiently express in For the following Objections that the Lord Christ was neither Husband nor Wife Father nor Tradesman c. wherein yet possibly he is out in his Account I have frequently smiled at it when I have met with it in the Socinians who are perking with it at every turn but here it ought to be admired But yet without troubling those Bugbears the School-men he may be pleased to take notice that the Grace of Duty and Obedience in all Relations is the same the Relations administring only an External Occasion unto its Peculiar Exercise And what our Lord Jesus Christ did in the fulfilling of all Righteousness in the Circumstances and Relations wherein he stood may be imputed to us for our Righteousness in all our Relations every Act of Duty and Sin in them respecting the same Law and Principle And hereon all his following Exceptions for sundry pages wherein he seems much to have pleased himself do fall to nothing as being resolved into his own Mistakes if he doth not prevaricate against his Science and Conscience For the summe of them all he gives us in these words pag. 304. That Christ did those things as Mediator which did not belong to the Laws of his Mediation which in what sence he did so is fully explained in my Discourse And I am apt to guess that either he is deceived or doth design to deceive in expressing it by the Laws of his Mediation which may comprize all the Laws which as Mediator he was subject unto and so it is most true that he did nothing as Mediator but what belonged unto the Laws of his Mediation But most false that I have affirmed that he did For I did distinguish between that peculiar Law which required the publick Acts of his Mediation and those other Laws which as Mediator he was made subject unto And if he neither doth nor will understand these things when he is told them and they are proved unto him beyond what he can contradict I know no reason why I should trouble my self with one that contends with his own Mormoes though he never so lewdly or loudly call my Name upon them And whereas I know my self sufficiently subject unto Mistakes and Slips so when I actually fall into them as I shall not desire this mans Forgiveness but leave him to exercise the utmost of his severity so I despise his ridiculous attempts to represent Contradictions in my Discourse pag. 306. All pretences whereunto are taken from his own Ignorance or feigned in his Imagination Of the like Nature are all his ensuing Cavils I desire no more of any Reader but to peruse the places in my Discourse which he carpeth at and if he be a Person of ordinary understanding in these things I declare that I will stand to his Censure and Judgement without giving him the least farther Intimation of the sence and Intendment of what I have written or Vindication of its Truth Thus whereas I had plainly declared that the way whereby the Lord Christ in his own Person became obnoxious and subject unto the Law of Creation was by his own voluntary antecedent Choyce otherwise than it is with those who are inevitably subject unto it by Natural Generation under it as also that the Hypostatical Union in the first instant whereof the Humane Nature was fitted for Glory might have exempted him from the Oblgation of any outward Law whatever whence it appears that his consequential Obedience though Necessary to himself when he had submitted himself unto the Law as Loe I come to doe thy Will O God was designedly for us he miserably perplexeth himself to abuse his credulous Readers with an Apprehension that I had talked like himself at such a rate of Nonsence as any one in his Wits must needs despise The meaning and summe of my Discourse he would have to be this Pag. 308. That Christ had not been bound to live like a man had he not been a Man with I know not what futulous Cavils of the like nature when all that I insisted on was the Reason why Christ would be a Man and live like a Man which was that we might receive the Benefit and Profit of his Obedience as he was our Mediator So in the close of the same wise Harangue from my saying That the Lord Christ by vertue of the Hypostatical Union might be exempted as it were and lifted above the Law which yet he willingly submitted unto and in the same instant wherein he was made of a Woman was made also under the Law whence Obedience unto it became Necessary unto him the man feigns I know not what
Contradictions in his Fancy whereof there is not the least Appearance in the words unto any one who understands the Matter expressed in them And that the Assumption of the Humane Nature into Union with the Son of God with submission unto the Law thereon to be performed in that Nature are distinct parts of the Humiliation of Christ I shall prove when more serious Occasion is administered unto me In like manner he proceeds to put in his Exceptions unto what I discoursed about the Laws that an innocent man is liable unto For I said that God never gave any other Law to an Innocent person but onely the Law of his Creation with such Symbolical precepts as might be instances of his obedience thereunto Something he would find fault with but well knows not what and therefore turmoiles himself to give countenance unto a putid Cavil He tells us That it is a great favour that I acknowledge pag. 310. that God might adde what Symbolls he pleased unto the Law of Creation But the childishness of these impertinencies is shamefull To whom I pray is it a favour or what doth the man intend by such a senseless scoff Is there any word in my whole discourse intimating that God might not in a state of Innocency give what positive Laws he pleased unto innocent persons as means and wayes to express that obedience which they owed unto the Law of Creation The task wherein I am engaged is so fruitless so barren of any good use in contending with such impertinent effects of malice and ignorance that I am weary of every word I am forced to add in the pursuit of it but he will yet have it that an Innocent person such as Christ was absolutely may be obliged for his own sake to the observation of such Laws and institutions as were introduced by the occasion of sin and respected all of them the personal sins of them that were obliged by them which if he can believe he is at Liberty for me to perswade as many as he can to be of his mind whil'st I may be left unto my own Liberty and Choice yea to the necessity of my mind in not believing contradictions And for what he adds that I know those who conceit themselves above all forms of External Worship I must say to him that at present personally I know none that doe so but fear that some such there are as also others who despising not only the ways of External Worship appointed by God himself but also the Laws of internal Faith and Grace doe satisfie themselves in a Customary observance of Forms of Worship of their own devising In his next attempt he had been singular and had spoken something which had looked like an Answer to an Argument had he well laid the Foundation of his procedure For that Position which he designeth the Confutation of is thus laid down by him as mine There can be no reason assigned of Christ's Obedience unto the Law but only this that he did it in our stead whereas my words are That the end of the Active Obedience of Christ cannot be assigned to be that he might be fit for his Death and Oblation And hereon what is afterwards said against this particular End he interprets as spoken against all other Ends whatever instancing in such as are every way consistent with the Imputation of his Obedience unto us which could not be had the only End of it been for himself to fit him for his Death and Oblation And this wilful mistake is sufficient to give occasion to combat his own Imaginations for two or three pages together pag. 314. He pretends unto the recital of an Argument of mine for the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ with the like pretence of attempting an answer unto it But his design is not to mannage any controversie with me or against me but as he phraseth it to expose my mistakes I cannot therefore justly expect from him so much as common Honesty will require in case the real handling of a Controversie in Religion had been intended But his way of procedure so far as I know and understand may be best suited unto his design In this place he doth neither fairly nor truly report my words nor take the least notice of the Confirmation of my Argument by the removal of Objections whereunto it seemed liable nor of the Reasons and Testimonies whereby it is farther proved but taking out of my Discourse what expressions he pleaseth putting them together with the same Rule he thinks he hath sufficiently exposed my mistakes the thing he aimed at I have no more concernment in this matter but to refer both him and the Reader to the places in my Discourse reflected on Him truly to report and Answer my Arguments if he be able and the Reader to judge as he pleaseth between us And I would for this once desire of him that if he indeed be concerned in these things he would peruse my Discourse here raved at and determine in his own Mind whether I confidently affirm what is in Dispute that is what I had then in Dispute for who could divine so long agoe what a Doughty Disputant this Author would by this time sprout up into and that this goes for an Argument or that he impudently affirms me so to do contrary unto his Science and Conscience if he had not quite pored out his Eyes before he came to the End of a page or two in my Book And for the state of the Question here proposed by him let none expect that upon so slight an occasion I shall divert unto the discussion of it When this Author or any of his Consorts in design shall Soberly and Candidly without scoffing or railing in a way of Argument or Reasoning becoming Divines and Men of Learning answer any of those many Writings which are extant against that Socinian Justification which he here approves and contends for or those written by the Divines of the Church of England on the same subject in the proof of what he denyes and confutation of what he affirms they may deserve to be taken notice of in the same Rank and Order with those with whom they associate themselves And yet I will not say but that these cavilling Exceptions giving a sufficient Intimation of what some Men would be at if Ability and Opportunity did occurr may give occasion also unto a renewed Vindication of the Truths opposed by them in a way suited unto the Use and Edification of the Church in due time and Season From pag. 185. of my Book he retires upon his new Triumph unto pag. 176. as hoping to hook something from thence that might contribute unto the fartherance of his Ingenious Design although my Discourse in that place have no Concernment in what he treateth about But let him be heard to what purpose he pleaseth Thus therefore he proceeds pag. 315. The Dr. makes a great flourish with some Scripture Phrases that there is
almost nothing that Christ hath done but we are said to do it with him we are Crucifyed with him we are Dead with him Buried with him Quickned together with him In the actings of Christ there is by Vertue of the Compact between him as Mediator and the Father such an assured Foundation laid that by Communication of the Fruit of these Actings unto those in whose stead he performed them they are said in the participation of these Fruits to have done the same things with him But he is quite out in the reason of these Expressions which is not that we are accounted to do the same things which Christ did for the things here mentioned belong to the peculiar Office of his Mediation which he told us before were not reckoned as done by us but because we do somethings like them our dying to Sin is a Conformity to the Death of Christ and our walking in newness of Life is our Conformity to his Resurrection and the consideration of the Death and Resurrection of Christ is very powerful to engage us to dye to Sin and to rise unto a new Life and this is the true Reason of these Phrases Any man may perceive from what he is pleased here himself to report of my words that I was not treating about the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ which he is now inveighing against And it will be much more evident unto every one that shall cast an eye on that discourse but the design of this confused rambling I have been forc'd now frequently to give an account of and shall if it be possible trouble the Reader with it no more The present difference between us which he was ambitious to represent is only this that whereas it seems he will allow that those expressions of our being crucified with Christ dead with him buried with him quickned with him doe intend nothing but only our doing of something like unto that which Christ did I doe adde moreover that we doe those things by the vertue and efficacy of the Grace which is communicated unto us from what the Lord Christ so did and acted for us as the Mediator of the New Covenant whereby alone we partake of their power communicate in their vertue and are conformed unto him as our Head wherein I know I have as the Testimony of the Scripture so the Judgement of the Catholick Church of Christ on my side and am very little concerned in the censure of this person that I am quite out in the reason of those expressions For what remains of his Discourse so far as I am concerned in it it is made up of such Expositions of some Texts of Scripture as issue for the most part in a direct contradiction to the Text it self or some express passages of the Context So doth that of Gal. 4.4 5. which he first undertakes to speak unto giving us nothing but what was first invented by Crellius in his Book against Grotius and is almost translated Verbatim out of the Comment of Schlicting upon the place the remainder of them corruptly Socinianising against the sence of the Church of God Hereunto are added such pitifull Mistakes with Reflexions on me for distinguishing between Obeying and Suffering which Conceit he most profoundly disproves by shewing that one may Obey in Suffering and that Christ did so against him who hath written more about the Obedience of Christ in Dying or laying down his Life for us than he seems to have read on the same subject as also concerning the Ends and Uses of his Death which I challenge him and all his Companions to answer and disprove if they can as I cannot satisfie my self in the farther Consideration of no not with that speed and haste of Writing now used which nothing could give countenance unto but the meanness of the Occasion and unprofitableness of the Argument in hand Wherefore this being the manner of the Man I am not able to give an Account unto my self or the Reader of the mispence of more Time in the Review of such Impertinencies I shall adde a few things and conclude First I desire to know whether this Author will abide by what he asserts as his own Judgement in opposition unto what he puts in his Exception against in my Discourse pag. 320. All the Influence which the Sacrifice of Christs Death and the Righteousness of his Life that I can find in the Scripture is that to this we owe the Covenant of Grace that is as he afterwards explains himself That God would for the sake of Christ enter into a New Covenant with Mankind wherein he promiseth Pardon of Sin and Eternal Life to them that Believe and Obey the Gospel I leave him herein to his second thoughts for as he hath now express'd himself there is no Reconciliation of his Assertion to common sence or the fundamental Principles of Christian Religion That God entred into the New Covenant Originally only for the sake of those things whereby that Covenant was ratified and confirmed and that Christ was so the Mediator of the New Covenant that he dyed not for the Redemption of Transgressions under the first Covenant whereby the whole Consideration of his Satisfaction and of Redemption properly so called is excluded that there is no Consideration to be had of his Purchase of the Inheritance of Grace and Glory with many other things of the same importance and that the Gospel or the Doctrine of the Gospel is the New Covenant which is only a perspicuous Declaration of it are things that may become these New Sons of the Church of England which the Elder Church would not have borne withall Secondly The Reader may take notice that in some other Discourses of mine now published which were all of them finished before I had the Advantage to peruse the Friendly and Judicious Animadversions of this Author he will find most of the Matters which he excepts against both cleared proved and vindicated And that those Principles which he directs his Opposition against are so established as that I neither expect nor fear any such Assault upon them from this sort of Men as becometh a serious Debate on things of this Nature Thirdly That I have confined my self in the Consideration of this Authors Discourse unto what I was Personally concerned in without looking at or accepting of the Advantages which offered themselves of reflecting upon him either as unto the Matter of his Discourses or unto the Manner of Expressing himself in its Delivery For besides that I have no mind and that for many Reasons to enter voluntarily into any Contest with this man the Mistakes which he hath apparently been led unto by Ignorance or Prejudice his fulsome Errors against the Scripture the Doctrine of the Ancient Church and the Church of England are so multiplyed and scattered throughout the whole that a Discovery and Confutation of them will scarce deserve the expence of Time that must be wasted therein untill a more plausible Countenance or strenuous Defence be given unto them And as for what he aimeth at I know well enough where to find the whole of it handled with more Civility and appearance of Reason and therefore when I am free or resolved to treat concerning them I shall doe so in the Consideration of what is taught by his Authors and Masters and not of what he hath borrowed from them Fourthly I shall assure the Reader that as a Thousand of such trifling Cavillers or Revilers as I have had some to deal withall shall neither discourage nor hinder me in the remaining service which I may have yet to fulfill in the Patience of God for the Church of Christ and Truth of the Gospel nor it may be occasion me any more to divert in the least unto the Consideration of what they whisper or clamour unless they are able to betake themselves unto a more sober and Christian way of handling things in Controversie so if they will not or dare not foregoe this supposed Advantage of Reproaching the Doctrine of Nonconformists under which Pretence they openly and as yet securely scorn and deride them when they are all of them the avowed Doctrines of all the Reformed Churches and of this of England in particular and if they think it not meet to oppose themselves and Endeavours unto those Writings which have been composed and published professedly in the Declaration and Defence of the Truth scoffed at and impugned by them but choose rather to exercise their Skill and Anger on Passages rent out of Practical Discourses accommodated in the Manner of their Delivery unto the Capacity of the Community of Believers as it is fit they should be I doe suppose that at one time or other from one hand or another they may meet with some such Discourse concerning Justification and the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ as may give them Occasion to be quiet or to Exercise the best of their Skill and Industry in an Opposition unto it As many such there are already extant which they wisely take no Notice of but only rave against Occasional Passages in Discourses of another Nature unless they Resolve on no Occasion to foregoe the Shelter they have betaken themselves unto FINIS Gen. 18.32 33. Rom. 6.23 Heb. 11.6 Gen. 15.1 Psal. 19.11.58 11. Mat. 5.12 Chap. 10.14 Ro. 4.4 Col. 2.18 Chap. 3.24 Heb. 10.35 Ch. 11.26 2. Pet. 2.51