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A53736
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A vindication of some passages in a discourse concerning communion with God from the exceptions of William Sherlock, rector of St. George Buttolph-Lane / by the author of the said discourse, John Owen.
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Owen, John, 1616-1683.
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1674
(1674)
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Wing O821; ESTC R7728
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91,516
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238
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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
fixed on as the Subject of his Reflections which is truely mine but that as it is used by me and with respect unto its End I will defend it against him and all his Co-partners whilst the Scripture may be allowed to be the Rule and Measure of our Conceptions and Expressions about Sacred things And although at present I am utterly wearied with the consideration of such sad Triflings I shall accept from him the kindness of an Obligation to so much Patience as is necessary unto the perusal of the ensuing Leaves wherein I am concerned First Pag. 202. He would pick something if he knew what out of my Quotations of Cant. 5.9 to express or illustrate the Excellency of Christ which first he calls an Excellent Proof by way of scorn But as it is far from being the only Proof produced in the Confirmation of the same Truth and is applyed rather to illustrate what was spoken then to prove it yet by his favour I shall make bold to continue my apprehensions of the occasional Exposition of the words which I have given in that Place until he is pleased to acquaint me with a better which I suppose will be long enough For what he adds But however White and Ruddy belong to his Divine and Humane Nature and that without regard to his Mediatory Office for he had been White in the Glory of his Deity and Ruddy with the Red Earth of his Humanity whether he had been considered as Mediator or not it comes from the same spring of skill and Benevolence with those afore For what wise talk is it of Christ's being God Man without the Consideration of his being Mediator as though he were ever or ever should have been God and Man but with respect unto his Mediation His Scoff at the red Earth of Christ's Humanity represented as my words is grounded upon a palpable falsification For my words are He was also ruddy in the Beauty of his Humanity Man was called Adam from the red Earth whereof he was made The word here used points him out as the second Adam partaker of Flesh and Blood because the Children also partook of the same And if he be displeased with these Expressions let him take his own time to be pleased again it is that wherein I am not concerned But my fault which so highly deserved his Correction is that I apply that to the person of Christ which belongs unto his Natures But what if I say no such thing or had no such Design in that place For although I do maintain a distinct Consideration of the Excellency of Christ's person as comprising both his Natures united though every real thing in his person belongs formally and radically unto one of the Natures those other Excellencies being the Exurgency of their Union whereby his person was fitted and suited unto his Mediatory operations which in neither nature singly considered he could have performed and shall continue to maintain it against whosoever dares directly to oppose it yet in this place I intended it not which this man knew well enough the very next words unto what he pretends to prove it being The beauty and comeliness of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Vnion of both these in one Person shall afterwards be declared And so we have an equality in Judgement and Ingenuity throughout this Censure Hence he leaps to pag. 64. of my Book thence backwards to 53. and then up and down I know not how nor whither He begins with pag. 64. And in his first Digression concerning the Excellency of Christ Jesus to invite us to Communion with him in a Conjugal Relation he tells us that Christ is exceeding Excellent and Desirable in his Deity and the Glory thereof He is Desirable and Worthy our Acceptation as considered in his Humanity in his Freedom from Sin Fulness of Grace c. Now though this look very like a Contradiction that by the Graces of his Person he meant neither the Excellencies of his Divine nor Humane Nature yet he hath a Salvo which will deliver him both from Contradiction and from Sense that he doth not consider these Excellencies of his Deity or Humanity as abstracted from his Office of Mediator though he might if he pleased For he considers those Excellencies which are not peculiar to the Office of Mediation but which would have belonged unto him as God and Man whether he had been Mediator or not But what becomes of his Distinction of the Graces of Christ's Person as Mediator from the Graces of his Person as God and Man when there are no personal Graces in Christ but what belong to his Deity or his Humanity I am sufficiently satisfyed that he neither knows where he is nor what he doth or hath no due comprehension of the things he treats about That which he opposeth if he intend to oppose any thing by me asserted is that whereas Christ is God the Essential properties of his Divine Nature are to be considered as the formal Motive unto and Object of Faith Love and Obedience and whereas he is Man also his Excellencies in the Glorious Endowment of his Humane Nature with his Alliance unto us therein and his Furniture of Grace for the Discharge of his Office are proposed unto our Faith and Love in the Scripture And of these things we ought to take a distinct Consideration our Faith concerning them being not only Taught in the Scripture but fully confirmed in the Confessions and Determinations of the Primitive Church But the Person of Christ wherein these two Natures are united is of another distinct Consideration and such things are spoken thereof as cannot under any single Enunciation be ascribed unto either Nature though nothing be so but what formally belongs unto one of them or is the necessary consequent Exurgency of their Union See Isa. 9.6 2 Tim. 3.16 John 1.14 It is of the Glory of the Word of God made Flesh that I discourse But this Man talks of what would have belonged to Christ as God-Man whether he had been Mediator or not as though the Son of God either was or was ever designed to be or can be considered as God-Man and not as Mediator And thence he would releive himself by the Calumny of assigning a Distinction unto me between the Graces of Christ's person as Mediator the Graces of his person as God Man that is one person which is a meer figment of his own misunderstanding Upon the whole he comes to that accurate Thesis of his own that there are no personal Graces in Christ but what belong to his Deity or Humanity Personal Graces belonging unto the Humanity or Humane Nature of Christ that Nature being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or such as hath no personal subsistence of its own is a Notion that those may thank him for who have a mind to do it And he may do well to consider what his thoughts are of the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ mentioned Phill. 2.7