one thing from another in a wonderful manner as thus Christ is lovely that is as Mr. Watson hath it he is lovely in his Titles being the desire of all nations the Prince of Peace the holy one lovely in his Types typified by Moses David Solomon who were lovely persons and typified by lovely things as the Pillar of Cloud the Manna the Mercy-seat brazen Serpent and Noah's Ark Who can forbear being smitten with so lovely a Person Besides all these Christ is resembled to the Rose of Sharon the Queen of Flowers to a Vine the noblest of Plants to a Corner-stone a Rock a rich Treasure a beautiful Robe and all these are lovely and so should any thing have been that had come in his way at that time thus Christ is altogether lovely The Author tells us Answer pag. 75. That he had done enough to expose these men to scorn Yet we have here a very long Harangue serving to very little use unless that ill one which I presume the Author never intended to gratifie that ugly scoffing humour at Religion which runs about the prophane world God himself by using similitudes hath sanctified them to us the Song of Solomon is an entire Allegory full of sacred mysteries the writings of the ancient Fathers are in a great measure like pieces of Arras or Tapestry beautified with Allegorical Flowers and Images of Divine things to give a little tast S. Cyril of Alexandria saith Comment in Aron That Christ is inserted into us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As if he were the Diamond of the heart S. Hilary tells us That Christ is Margarita quia nihil illo pretiosius invenitur Thesaurus ut in ipso omnes divitiae regnorum coelestium reconditae agnoscantur De Patris Filiunitate all riches and pretionsness being in him S. Austin touching Manna saith Panem Angelorum manducavit homo Tract 13. in Johan quis est panis Angelorum In principio erat verbum quomodo manducavit homo Verbum caro factum est habitavit in nobis And in another place De Coelo Manna veniebat that is in Mr. Watson's phrase De â—tilit Poenitent It was meat dressed in Heaven attende quem figurabat ego sum inquit panis vivus qui de Coelo descendi For the Rock let S. Ambrose come in Christus petra dicitur De fide centra Ar. cap. 6. quia credentibus fortitudinem incredulis duritiem praestat that is in Mr. Watson's language A Rock for defence and a Rock for offence and for the Honey in the Rock our Church thinks it no disparagement to say 1. Hom. of the Sacrament That from this Rock we may suck the sweetness of everlasting Salvation As for the brazen Serpent let us hear Theophylact Vide figuram confer cum veritate illic Serpentis similitudo Comment in Joh. 3. formam habet bestiae venenum non habet that is in Mr. Watson's words It was like a Serpent but no real one Ita ex hoc loco homo Dominus sed à peccati veneno liber in similitudine carnis peccati venit that is in Mr. Watson's words Christ was in the likeness of sinful flesh but no sinner Tunc videntesevadebant mortem corporis nunc autem qui vident mortem animae that is in Mr. Watson's words The Serpent was lifted up to be looked on and so was Christ to be fiducially looked on Touching the Vine I must make bold to vouch in St. Bernard who not seeing all things never dream'd such things should be ridiculous he brings in Christ speaking thus De Coena Dom. Ser. 10. Ego sum vitis dans botrum dulcissimum cunctis palmitibus that is in Mr. Watson I give the sap of Grace to all believers Generans vinum quod laetificat cor hominis that is in Mr. Watson My Blood is the Wine which chears Man's heart And a little after Christus est vitis in quo est totus humor id est omnis plenitudo Spiritùs sancti The divine Spirit fills or as Mr. Watson saith supports his Humane nature And now I might bring the same Author for the Rose of Sharon and other things but this may suffice to shew that Mr. Watson's words may carry a fair Sence before a candid Interpreter The Author might have made no less pretty sport with those ancient Fathers those excellent devout Souls who spiritualize every thing and reduce every thing to the great Center of Scripture Jesus Christ I shall only add on Mr. Watson's behalf that he never thought that Christ the Manna should be accommodated to Mens Fancy nor imagined the Church unplanted by Christ neither did he dream that his Discourses of Christ's Loveliness should be traduced into carnal Expressions such as that Who would not be smitten with such an one To what the Author adds as his own imitation of these Men being no other than the playing of his Fancy with it self I shall return just nothing as seeing nothing considerable therein When this will not do Mr Sherlock they argue from their own preconceived Notions and pretend to prove their own Scheme from Scripture but in truth prove the sence of Scripture by its agreement with their Opinions which is just such a trick as the Papists have got to prove the Church from Scripture and the Scripture from the Church Thus after all their talk of being justified by the Imputation of Christs Righteousness the Scripture tells us that we are justified by Faith have remission by Faith have peace with God by Faith are sanctified by Faith are the sons of God by Faith are saved by Faith Now how is this reconcilable with being justified by imputed Righteousness Why thus Faith doth not justifie absolutely as Faith but relatively as it brings us to Christ and apprehends his Righteousness This is their own preconceived opinion or else no man could have stumbled on this Distinction But their Reason is plain Should Faith justifie as Faith as our own Act it would be as bad as good Works and irreconcilable with the Grace of God though modest men dream not of meriting though Faith had justified as our Act since the Reward doth so infinitely exceed the Work that there can be no suspicion of Merit and where there is no Merit the Reward is of Grace I shall at present wave Answer who symbolizes most with the Papists and how Justification Sanctification Adoption and Salvation are here jumbled together as if they were one thing The General Charge having had so many I say nothing to but I come to the Instance The Scripture saith that we are justified by Faith very well but what by Faith exclusively of its Object Christ's Blood and Righteousness No surely then the Scripture which tells us That we are justified by Faith in his blood Rom. 3.25 and made righteous by his obedience Rom. 5.19 must contradict it self or what exclusively to the imputation of these No
as the Apostle mentions That I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable to his death Phil. 3.10 And whence had they this Learning they heard him and were taught by or in him not from the personal Preaching of Christ in the flesh but in and by his Ministers and holy Spirit I add his holy Spirit because the Gospel alone cannot do it which made St. Austin say De Praed Sanct. cap. 8. Cùm Evangelium praedicatur quidam credunt quidam non credunt sed qui credunt praedicatore forinsecùs sonante intùs à Patre audiunt atque discunt qui autem non credunt foris audiunt intùs non audiunt neque discunt that such is the Learning meant here appears from the after words As the truth is in Jesus Truth is in the Gospel notionally but in Christ practically all Graces being exemplified in him and the true learners are conformed to his Image and as the Apostle hath it in the next Verses they put off the old man and put on the new and so are assimilated to his Death and Resurrection It is acknowledged by all Mr. Sherlock that Christ sometimes signifies the Church which is his Body Thus we must understand those Phrases of being in Christ engrafted into Christ and united to Christ It is acknowledged by all Answer that Christ sometimes signifies the Church how then can he charge those whom he opposes that where-ever they meet with the word Christ in Scripture they always understand by it the Person of Christ pag. 4 As for the Phrases of being in Christ c. I shall reserve them till I come to the Mystical Union To what the Author infers from the various significations of the Name Christ That such mistakes have been occasioned thereby that some are very zealous to advance Christ's Person to the prejudice and reproach of his Religion I shall only say It is not so Instead of the substantial Duties of the Love of God and Men Mr. Sherlock and an universal Holiness of Life they have introduced a fanciful Application of Christ to our selves and Vnion to him set off with those choice Phrases of closing with Christ and embracing Christ and getting an interest in Christ and trusting and relying and rolling our selves on Christ Fanciful Answer alas that a Christian a Divine should let drop such a reproachful word on so sacred a thing as the Application of Christ Without this the excellent Scripture must I fear labour under very odd Glosses such as these A Believer may be in Christ and out of him he may put him on and off at the same time he may have Communion with him without Union and feed on him without so much as reception Christ may dwell in the Believer at a Distance and abide in him without the least approach Which are such kind of Absurdities as a man would hardly name for fear of grating pious Ears and Hearts But this is not all Without this true Faith which as Learned Dr Ward observes is uppropriativa Christi must forfeit its Nature unless it can appropriate without Application and Christ its precious Object must lose the Vertue of his Blood and Merits unless they can heal at a distance For what shall we say May an unapplied Christ be in us the hope of Glory or may his unapplied Obedience make us righteous or his unapplied Blood justifie us or his unapplied Death reconcile us to God It is not for ordinary Capacities to apprehend it However if Application fail may the Universal Holiness of Life which the Author speaks of consist Our Saviour tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 separate from me ye can do nothing Joh. 15.5 In which words the Melevitan Fathers observe a great Emphasis Non dicitur sine me difficiliùs potestis facere sed sine me nihil potestis facere And how any man should either not be separate from an unapplied Christ or lead a Life of Universal Holiness in such a statu separato I cannot imagine But what speak I of Universal Holiness Never any man off from that divine Root of Grace hath since the Fall bore so much as a Blossom of true Sanctity Instead of Obedience to the Gospel and Laws of Christ Mr. Sherlock they have advanced a kind of Amorous and Enthusiastick Devotion which consists in a passionate love to the Person of Christ in admiring his personal Excellencies Fulness Beauty Loveliness Riches c. the foundation of all which Riddles and Mysteries is that they may make the Person of Christ almost the sole Object of the Christian Religion To slight the Fulness Answer Beauty Loveliness Riches of Christ is very hardly tolerable among Christians and to question why they so passionately love such an one is as the Philosopher told him who asked why men were so taken with outward Beauty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a blind man's question none but the spiritually blind can wonder at the loving of one altogether lovely But these men are for an Amorous and Enthusiastick Love Amorous all Love is so but what in a gross and carnal way No it is far from those Men who are not at all a kin to Castalio who as is said called the Song of Solomon an obscene Ballad not relishing that divine Love between Christ and the Church which all along is pourtraied therein in Allegories and beautiful colours Enthusiastick why so possibly because it is a thing inspired from the Spirit it is so Scriptures and Fathers will own such a blessed Enthusiasm Ipse nobis fidem amorem sui inspirat saith the Arausican Council But which is the fundamental mistake they make the Person of Christ almost the sole Object of the Christian Religion I confess and it is no shame to say so they esteem themselves compleat only in Christ they trust in him they love and obey him their acceptance is in his Merits therir assistance from his Spirit their Graces hang on him as Beams on the Sun their good Works are perfumed with his sweet-smelling Sacrifice they look on him as their great All and do all they do in him and for him Quicquid oratur docetur vivitur extrà Christum est Idololatria coram Deo peccatum said Luther CHAP. II. THose men who talk so much of the Person of Christ Mr. Sherlock frequently without any Sense and Generally without any just Ground from Reason or Scripture are very clamorous and alarm the world with strange jealousies and fears as if there were a Party of men started up who design to make Christ useless What! without Sense Reason Answer and Scripture too Alas poor inconsiderable Creatures What need such strong impetuous opposition be made against them or how are such men likely to alarm the World with fears But for the thing it self I hope the Author designs not to make Christ useless but what he doth towards it in denying
of a Church After he hath laid the Foundation of his Kingdom in his own blood must he enter precariously and at the Nod of his Subjects After the Authour hath gathered up all the Offices of Christ into his Royalty and proclaimed him Conqueror over minds and wills must all depend on the will of man It is a very hard case if any thing could be so to the Almighty Should such a thing be that of St. Austin must fall out fallitur Deus De Corrept cap. 7. vincitur Deus the Conquest and Royalty too must fail Christ signifies the Person invested with this Office and Mr. Sherlock which I take for a new Notion he saith in the Gospels he is alwayes called Jesus in the Epistles he is as familiarly called Christ I suppose this Notion cannot be made good Answer In the Gospels he is sometimes called Christ without Jesus Thus in the accounting of the Generations from Abraham Matth. 1.11 Thus in the enquiry touching his Birth Matth. 2.4 Thus in John's bearing of hi Works Matth. 11.2 and to name no more Thus it is in Peter's Confession Matth. 16.16 The matter is not great I suppose him in all the Offices to which he was anointed as Christ to be really a Jesus There can be no mistake in the Person as the Authour adds by what name he be called whether it belong to his Office or Nature or circumstances of his Life and Fortune if there be but one to whom that name belongs Fortune I wonder at that word St. Austin repented that ever he had used it Retract l. 1. cap. 1. Where Providence is Fortune is not Were Fortune tolerable among the little Gnats and Flies sure it cannot be so in the Great Concerns of Jesus Christ however it may be proper enough if the result of his Merits and Conquests finally hang on the Lottery of man's will Christ signifies the Gospel and Religion of Christ Mr. Sherlock as Moses signifies the Writings and Laws of Moses and the Prophets the Writings or Sermons of the Prophets Luke 16.29 and 31. and then he gives some Scripture-instances for it Possibly sometimes Christ may signifie the Gospel or Doctrine of Christ Answer but I shall a little consider the instances the first is that Gal. 6.15 In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but a new creature that is saith the Authour in the Gospel and Religion of Christ nothing is of any value to recommend us to the favour of God but a new creature a holy and virtuous life unto which I answer those words in Christ Jesus may be fairly construed to a man in Christ one who as it is in the former Verse is crucified to the World Thus judicious Calvin upon the Words Ratio est cur sit mundo crucifixus mundus illi quia in Christo cui insitus est solùm nova valet creatura and upon the parallel place in this Epistle In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but faith which worketh by love St. Jerome hath it His qui in Christo Jesu vivere volunt and St. Chrysostome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he that puts on Christ need not be curious in such things When the Author in his way saith Nothing recommends to God but a new creature I hope he doth not exclude the Merits and Righteousness of Christ and when afterwards he contradistinguishes the Gospel from the Law I hope under the latter the new Creature was requisite The next instance is Col. 2.8 After the traditions of men after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ where saith the Author after Christ is opposed to traditions and rudiments and so must signifie not the Person but the Gospel that is Have a care lest ye be corrupted with the opinions and superstitions of men which are inconsistent with the Christian Philosophy unto which I shall only say After Christ is as I take it after Christ himself the great Doctor of the Church in whom as the Apostle tells us are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge ver 3. and in whom as he speaks dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily ver 9. Quid igitur opus est extra hunc alia aut documenta aut adjumenta salutis quaerere saith the excellent Davenant such an admirable Teacher may well be opposed to all the Philosophers in the world Neither is the Author's Reason That Christ is here opposed to traditions and rudiments and so must signifie the Gospel of any value for if we observe what the Apostle saith ver 4. This I say lest any man should beguile you and what he saith in the beginning of this 8. vers Beware lest any man spoil you through Philosophy it is as clear as the light that the opposition is between Persons between the Persons of seducing Philosophers and the Person of Christ the great Teacher We may further observe That the Author who honours the Gospel with the Title of Christ doth somewhat degrade it by calling it Philosophy which I ever took to be but of natural Extraction and not as the Gospel of supernatural Revelation however it is more tolerable to call than make it so by introducing into the Christian Religion those Dogmata Philosophica touching Free Will and inherent Righteousness which as B p Davenant notes are drawn ex Ethicis Philosophi non ex Epistolis Pauli The next Instance is that in the 6. Verse of the same Chapter As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk in him By receiving of Christ is meant believing on him as appears Joh. 1.12 Bishop Davenant observes a great Emphasis in the words Non dicit accepistis Doctrinam Christi sed Christum Expos in Epist ad Col. per fidem enim non modò percipimus Doctrinam Christi sed vivificum nostrum Salvatorem recipimus in corda recondimus ad salutem By walking in Christ I understand with the same Author living juxta hanc fidem juxta ductum Spiritus Christi but saith the Author It is only to obey the Doctrine of Christ as you have been taught for the next Verse saith being established in the faith as ye have been taught I answer The next Verse saith not only established in the faith but rooted and built up in him that is in Christ and the teaching which is inward as well as outward was that they might adhere to Christ as well as to his Doctrine The last Instance is Eph. 4.20 21. But ye have not so learned Christ if so be ye have heard him and been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus Now what saith the Author can learning Christ signifie but learning the Gospel and how could they hear him in any other sence or be instructed in him as the Original carries it To which I answer Learning of Christ here is not a meer Notion but a Practical Knowledge of him such
all the Dispensation of Grace to it self But if we may not have acquaintance with Christ himself may we have one with the Gospel No I doubt not the Gospel tells us That the Spirit reveils the things of God 1 Cor. 2.10 and by necessary consequence the Gospel will lead us unto Christ for that Spirit and to communion with him which is the thing opposed by the Author but to me so pretious that before I would open my lips against it I would put my self under the penance of Severus Sulpitius who having sullied himself with Pelagianism afterwards repented and devoted himself to perpetual silence ut peccatum Spond Ann. An. 430. quod loquendo contraxerat tacendo emendaret But now we must see the Pious Learned Dr. Owen brought upon the Stage The Dr. tells us Mr. Sherlock that Christ is not only the Wisdom of God but made Wisdom to us not only by teaching us wisdom by his Doctrine as he is the great Prophet of his Church but also because by knowing of him we become acquainted with the Wisdom of God which is our Wisdom To which purpose he applies that Text which speaks of the Doctrines of Christ to his Person Col. 2.3 For in him dwell all the treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge A little before those words Answer the Doctor 's Design by which in all Candor his After-discourse should be construed appears to be that all Wisdom is laid up in Christ and that from him alone it is to be obtained who is so hardy as to deny it He that knows him becomes acquainted with one in whom dwell all the treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge and from whom are derived all the Riches of Understanding in the Saints As in the corporal vision of an Object there is requisite a Light in the Air and another in the Eye so in this intellectual Vision there is external Revelation and internal Illumination and both are from Christ Cui Veritas comperta sine Deo De Anima cap. 1. cui Deus cognitus sine Christo cui Christus exploratus sine Spiritu sancto cui Spiritus sanctus accommodatus sine Fidei Sacramento saith Tertullian By that Col. 2.3 In him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge is as I take it meant the Person of Christ the very same which is pointed out Ver. 9. In him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead Ver. 10. in him ye are complete Ver. 11. In him ye are circumcised and Ver. 12. With him ye are buried in Baptism and with him ye are risen through the faith of the operation of God who hath raised him from the dead I can very hardly understand all these of the Gospel neither did I ever find that it was raised from the dead But now let us hear the Author's Inference So that our acquaintance with Christ's Person signifies such a knowledge of what Christ is hath done and suffered for us Mr. Sherlock from whence we may learn those greater deeper and more saving Mysteries of the Gospel which Christ hath not expresly reveiled to us for so the Doctor adds That these Properties of God Christ hath reveiled in his Doctrine in that Revelation he hath made of God and his Will but the Life of this Knowledge lies in an acquaintance with his Person whereby the express Image and Beams of this Glory of his Father doth shine forth that is that these things are clearly eminently and savingly only to be discovered in Christ So that it seems the Gospel of Christ makes a very imperfect and obscure discovery of the Nature Attributes and Will of God and a little after This sets up a new Rule of Faith above the Gospel acquaintance with Christ Doth our Acquaintance with Christ teach us Mysteries not reveiled in the Gospel No by no means neither doth the Doctor say so Redde verba mea vanescet calumnia tua saith St. Austin to Julian The Doctor saith those Properties are reveiled in the Doctrine And in a Sentence interposed by the Doctor but omitted by the Author he saith The knowledge of them is exposed to all but saith the Dr. The life of this knowledge lies in acquaintance with Christ So it is he is God manifest in the Flesh and so a rare Mirrour of the divine Perfections and withall he is the Great Illuminator by his Spirit and so opens our eyes to see the Mysteries in Christ and the Gospel Without this Illumination the outward Revelation gives not a saving Knowledge It may be the Author will smile at me but hear St. Austin De Praed Sanct. c. 8. Valdè remota est à sensibus carnis haec Schola in quâ Deus auditur docet gratia ista secreta est gratiam verò esse quis ambigit Hear Bishop Davenant Exp. in Col. cap. 2. Tales illuminationes fieri talem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imprimi fidelium animis non credunt mundani experiuntur tamen pii The Gospel is a perfect outward Revelation and Rule of Faith yet our blindness needs an inward Illumination that we may spiritually discern the Mysteries therein But now the Author will shew us what Additions these men make to the Gospel from an Acquaintance with Christ's Person and first upon the doctors words That the knowledge of God the knowledge of our selves and skill to walk in Communion with God in which three is the sum of all true Wisdom are obtained and manifested in and by the Lord Christ. The Author observes that by is fallaciously added to include the Revelations Christ hath made To which I answer The Dr. never excluded outward Revelation but this alone cannot give saving knowledge All Wisdom is in Christ as the Mirrour of divine Perfections and by Christ as the great Illuminator by his Spirit We should use outward Revelation in the very same posture as Zuinglius did who understanding from St. Peter that the Scripture was not of private Interpretation Mel. Ad. in vit Zuing. In coelum suspexit doctorem quaerens Spiritum looked up to heaven seeking the the Spirit for his great teacher Had Christ never appeared in the World Mr. Sherlock yet we had reason to believe that God is Wise and Good and Holy and Merciful because not only the works of Nature and Providence but the Word of God assure us that he is so And a little after he adds And is not this a confident Man to tell us That the love of God to sinners and his pardoning Mercy could never enter 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 understand nothing at all what Christ was to do in order to our recovery did believe God gracious and merciful to sinners The Jews knew God to be gracious and merciful Answer very true but through the promised Messiah whom the Believers among them saw slain
Glory in Heaven though it cannot but be more estimable than all the Providences in Nature must be a meer Pendant on the fickle Will of Man But the Author urges upon the Doctor That it is impossible for us according to his Principles to do any thing that is good that is I suppose without Faith in Christ without which our Church in her Homily of good Works declares that no good work can be done I take it for a very Truth That from the first good Thought to the last Act of an holy Life all that is truly good must come from Grace But saith the Author This turns us into meer Machins and pag. 379. he glosses upon one of his Opposites as if Christ were to make us willing against our will Unto which I answer The very same was cast into St. Austin's dish by the Pelagians Sub nomine inquiunt Ad Bonisacdib 2. cap. 5. Gratiae it a satum asserunt ut dicant quia nisi Deus invito reluct anti homini inspir averit boni ipsius imperfecti cupiditatem nec à malo declinare nec bonum posset arripere To which as a meer Calumny St. Austin returns That a man may as well call St. Paul fati assertorem for saying It is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth but of God that sheweth mercy Indeed it is a very strange charge doth Grace destroy Nature or may we be willing against our Will It is impossible That of the Schoolman may reconcile the matter Voluntas humana induci potest ab agente creato mutari ab agente increato Bonaâ—â—â—â— in 〈◊〉 2.25 cogi à nullo The Will without ceasing to be it self cannot be compelled but Grace changes it without Coaction breaks off its Chains without destroying its Liberty and per suavissimam omnipotentiam makes the unwilling Will willing But still there is a more glorious Discovery behind that is Mr. Sherlock The glorious end whereunto Sin is appointed and ordained I suppose the Dr. means by God is discovered in Christ viz. for the demonstration of God's Vindictive Justice in measuring out to it a just recompense of reward and for the praise of Gods glorious Grace in the pardon and forgiveness of it that is It could not be known how just and severe God is but by punishing sin nor how good and gracious God is but by pardoning it And therefore lest his Justice and Mercy should never be known to the World he appoints and ordains Sin to this edd that is Decrees that men shall sin that he may make some vessels of wrath and others vessels of mercy This is a Discovery which Nature and Revelation could not make for Nature would teach us that so infinitely a glorious Being as God is needs not sin and misery to recommend his Glory and Perfections and that so holy a God who so perfectly hates every thing that is wicked would not truckle with Sin and the Devil for his glory and that so good a God had much rather be glorious in the happiness and perfection and obedience of his Creatures than in their sin and misery And Revelation tells us the same thing That God delights not in the death of a sinner but rather that he should return and live that is He had rather there were no occasion for punishing than be made glorious by such acts of vengeance Vindictive Justice and pardoning Mercy are but secondary Attributes of the Divine Nature and therefore God cannot primarily design the glorifying of them for that cannot be without designing the sin and misery of his Creatures which would be inconsistent with the goodness and holiness of his Nature And afterwards pag. 57. He appointed sin for the glory of his Justice and Grace and since nothing can withstand the Decrees of God it pleased God that Man should sin but when he hath sinned he is extremely displeased with it and now his Justice must be satisfied This falls hard on those miserable Wretches whose ill fortune it was without any fault of theirs to be left out of the Roll of Election and who have no way to satisfie divine Justice but by their eternal torments It is I suppose agreed by all that God did willingly permit the entry of sin upon the World of Angels and Men he could have kept all the Angels up in their primitive Station and then there would have been no Tempter to Man or had their been one he could have sent the holy Angels to warn him from the late downcast of their fellows against his own and to tell him that the poyson would come from the Serpent or if not that he could have sent him such strong auxiliaries of Grace as should have out wrestled the temptation he could no doubt as easily as he confirms the Saints and Angels in Heaven he could for ever have barred out sin but he would not he freely suffered it to come in only the question is How he did it Whether there be only a nude Permission such as leaves the event pendulous and uncertain till Man's Will hath determined or whether there be a Preordination of the Event so that it falls out infallibly Deo permittente and Creatura liberè agente Two things constrain me to believe the latter The one is this That without a Preordination the Event of sinful Actions must be casual and what then shall become of Providence The Moments which hang upon those Events are great and weighty Multitudes of Angels Courtiers of Heaven turn Apostates out of their Fall comes a Tempter who at one blow draws Man and all his Posterity into sin that entring into the world makes way for a glorious Redemption by Christ The Four first Monarchies rowl about upon the Lusts and Ambitions of Men The poor Church like the Ark floats upon the waters and now and then a storm of persecution comes dashing down upon it Errors and Heresies successively break forth as so many Torrents ready to carry away every Article of our Creed and what mighty Concerns are these Admirable are the Methods and Mysteries of Providence in and about such Events Joseph's Brethren sell him into Egypt and the Church is provided for in the famine Absolon goes in to his Fathers Concubines and David is visited for his Adultery Judah and Tamar commit Incest and this way came the holy One into the flesh The wicked Jews crucifie the Son of God and out comes the great Work of Redemption Persecutors scatter the Church and God by this means scatters the Gospel Act. 8. In such Actions as these the Light shines out of Darkness God's Mercy Justice Wisdom Holiness Power break forth out of Man's Cruelty Injustice Folly Filthiness and Weakness In every Ataxy God hath a secret Order either an Order of Penalty Sin punishing Sin or an Order of Conducibility Good coming out of Evil. Nullum est malum in mundo saith profound Bradwardine quod non est propter aliquod magnum
liberum esse ut agant quaecunque velint seriò abhorremus à Basilidis blasphemiâ qui finxit ita nos fide salvari ut universa libido indifferenter usurpari possit But why one Protestant should draw up such a charge against another I cannot but wonder however the Author triumphantly concludes These are those fundamental doctrines with which these men have blessed the world from a pretended acquaintance with Christs person which ought to be called the Religion of Christs person in opposition to the Religion of his Gospel To which I shall only say that I leave others to judge whether any such thing as that opposition hath been made good hitherto Christ having satisfied and fulfilled the Law we have nothing to do Mr. Sherlock but to get an interest in his satisfaction and righteousness he is very ignorant of Christ who hopes that any thing else will avail him to salvation All which the Author speaks as the sence of his Opposites Is there nothing to do after getting into Christ Who ever said Answer or meant so Is there no walking in Christ Are there no fruits of Holiness and Righteousness to be brought forth Or are those meer unprofitable things and of no avail None of the Opposites ever owned any such thing however I confess none of our good works must take Christs Prerogative or sit down in the room of his merits and righteousness Now that we may come to Christ Mr. Sherlock saith the Author pointing at his Opposites It is absolutely necessary that we be sensible of our lost condition we must work our fancy into great terrors and agonies and a dismal fear of the wrath of God and his natural justice the spirit of bondage must go before the spirit of adoption without this we shall never value Christ the promise of ease is made to the weary those only shall be satisfied who hunger and thirst after imputed righteousness now being stung with sin it is time to look up to Christ to see his fulness and perfection All this in a Drollery Answer and are we come to that pass that we can sport our selves at such things as these Need we prove that there are such things as broken hearts or repentant tears or sorrow for sin Are these the workings of fancy or imagination When Genesius was mocking on the Stage at the Christian mysteries Spond Ann. Domini 303. he was on a sudden so wrought on by the Grace of God that he did seriò agere quod jocis actitabat May the Author speed no worse while he makes himself merry with this and other Divine things Let us seriously consider doth sin hang so loose on us that we can shake it off easily without so much sence or sorrow Are we so propense to Christ that we will go to him without a feeling of our wants Why or wherefore should we do so Will we go to him for righteousness who can work out one at our fingers ends or for regenerating grace who can dispatch the matter our selves or for a supply of our wants who feel no such matter Our Saviour spake indeed of the weary and heavy laden Such as Grotius saith Peccati onere suspirant ad libertatem aspirant But according to our Author it seems to signifie little the Apostle speaks of a spirit of bondage but some it seems never felt any such thing Afterwards the Author speaking of their comforting Souls afraid to come to Christ thus Doth not God justifie the ungodly Did Christ take our flesh and not our sins upon him Compare your distress and Christs compassion your wants and Christs fulness your unworthiness and Christs freeness c. He adds And now if Christ do not prevail above thy fears thou art not worthy to be acquainted with him But now let Mr. Shepherd that excellent practical Divine come upon the Stage If thou objectest saith Mr. Shepherd what have I to do with Christ Mr. Sherlock who have such an unholy vile hard blind and most wicked heart O dishonour not the Grace of Christ thou canst not come to Christ till laden and separated from sin but no more sorrow for sin no more separation from sin is necessary to this closing with Christ than so much as makes thee willing or rather not unwilling that the Lord should take it away know if thou seekest for a greater measure of humiliation thou shewest the more pride who will rather go into thy self to make thy self holy and humble than go out of thy self unto the Lord Jesus to take away thy sin thou thinkest Christ cannot love thee until thou makest thy self fair upon which serious words the Author after his merry way tells us The reason of all this is very plain from our acquaitance with Christ he is our Physician and we must go to him with all our diseases and sores about us he a fountain and we must go to him with all our filthiness to be cleansed he is all fulness it is not fit to carry any thing to him he is our righteousness and we must leave our own behind us he is all beauty we must not carry any to him all we have to do is to go to Christ weary and sick and filthy and naked stript of every thing but our sins and impurities to receive ease and health and fulness and beauty from him The Author hints as if according to Mr. Shepherd Answer a man must go to Christ indulging his Lusts and wallowing in them with all his sores running and filthiness allowed but how untrue is this Mr. Shepherd saith expresly Thou canst not come to Christ till thou art loaden and separated from thy sins thou canst not be ingraffed into this Olive unless thou beest cut off from thy old root thou must be made willing or rather not unwilling that the Lord should take away thy sin To come weary and sick and naked to Christ is not to come indulging our sins but groaning under them if there be no wants or sence of them how or why should we come to Christ Should we come to him to shew him the garments which nature made the innate or acquisite vertue and excellency which is in us Should we open our treasures and tell him that we are rich and increased in Goods and have need of nothing this is the way to be spued out of his mouth The Philosopher being asked what God was a doing could say that he was busie in elevatione humilium superborum dejectione We must go to Christ weary and heavy laden under our sins but surely not strip'd of them altogether could we strip off the guilt and power of these without Christ we might be our own Saviours and Sanctisiers Christ would have little or nothing to do for us But saith the Author We must receive Christ by Faith and then what a blessed change is there in us For though we continue as we were we have all in Christ What!
for we must bring nothing to Christ with us the marriage is consummated without it and then we have less need of it than before for then we are adorned with Christs Beauty holy with his holiness delivered by his expiation righteous with his righteousness which gives us an actual right to Glory we need no righteousness of our own to save us which were to suppose a defect in the righteousness of Christ unto which I answer Though a man with his arms of rebellion in his hands cannot possibly whilest in that posture close with Christ yet I take it Faith which espouses Christ doth precede true Obedience Without faith saith the Apostle it is impossible to please God Heb. 11.6 Without saith saith our Church in the Homily of good works All that is done of us is but dead before God although the work seem never so gay and glorious before man even as the picture graven or painted is but a dead representation of the thing it self so be the works of all unfaithful persons before God they do appear to be lively works and indeed they be but dead not availing to the everlasting life they be but shadows and shews of lively and good things and not good and lively things indeed thus our Church excellently which tells us what manner of Obedience we can bring to Christ After our espousals to Christ by faith Obedience follows as a fruit and effect of Faith though the Author fasten this opinion expresly on those whom he opposes calling them in sport intimate acquaintances of Christ yet our Church tells us in the twelfth Article That good works do spring necessarily out of a true and lively Faith Christs righteousness makes us righteous in Justification but doth it thence follow that Obedience is needless No sure It is a thing noted in the Papists that they confound Justification and Sanctification together but we must not do so if it be necessary to do Gods will or promote his Glory or to give evidences of our Faith in and gratitude to Christ or to walk in the way to Heaven and Salvation then such is Obedience but the Author cannot understand this gratitude unless our Righteousness and Obedience be due to Christ in thankfulness to him for saving us without Obedience and Righteousness which is just as broad as long and we get nothing by the bargain To which I answer our Obedience is a due gratitude to Christ who saves us by his Blood and Righteousness and and that without a perfect personal sinless Obedience in our selves and withal it is necessary as a proof of our faith and as the way to Heaven which our Saviour hath chalked out to us The Soul saith Dr. Owen consents to take Christ on his own terms Mr. Sherlock to save him in his own way and saith Lord I would have had thee and salvation in my way that it might have been partly of mine endeavours and as it were by the works of the Law but I am now willing to receive thee and to be saved in thy way meerly by Grace that is Without doing any thing without obeying of thee as the Author doth interpret him Without doing any thing Answer without obeying of thee Is this the Doctors meaning Do his words import so Nothing more remote from him he shews how the Soul closes with Christ and takes him on his own terms it will not now be justified by its own works or legal righteousness but by Christ and his righteousness it will not now endeavour in its own strength but under the duct of Grace this is his plain meaning For before the words quoted he speaks of accepting Christ as Lord and Saviour and after them of giving up our selves to be ruled by the Spirit which cannot be without Obedience It s true the Author calls this a pretty complement but the Doctor speaks it as his serious judgment In the eighth Chapter of the book quoted he tells us Obedience is indispensibly necessary if Gods Sovereignty is to be owned if his Love to be regarded if the whole work of the ever blessed Trinity for us in us be of any moment our Obedience is necessary Thus fully the Doctor who yet is here construed by the Author to exclude Obedience what measure this is let others judge The Soul gives up it self to be ruled by the Spirit of Christ to be passively Mr. Sherlock not actively good to submit as needs it must to the irresistible working of the Divine Spirit and to obey when it can rebel no longer Thus the Author sports with his Opposites Touching irresistible Grace Answer I have spoken before the Soul in the first act of Conversion is meerly passive but after the Divine Principles infused acta agit it moves under the sweet influences of the Spirit without whose inspiration as our Church tells us in the thirteenth Article Works done are not pleasant to God yet that inspiration doth not as the Author hints force the will of man but sweetly lead it in a way congruous to its liberty And now the Author shuts up this Section thus I have given thee Reader an entire scheme of a new Religion resulting from an acquaintance with Christs person in all its principles and practices I think there needs no more to expose it to the scorn of every considering man who cannot but discover how inconsistent the religion of Christs Person and of his Gospel are To which I shall only say the Author hath done his endeavour to expose his Opposites to scorn but how new their Religion is how inconsistent with the Gospel and how just the scorn I leave to considering men to determine SECT III. THese men pretend to learn a Religion from Christs Person Mr. Sherlock but this is at best to build Religion upon uncertain conjectures or ambiguous reasons suppose them to be cautions yet what assurance can they have that their inferences are true and as a reason of this the Author afterwards adds There is not a natural and necessary connexion between the person of Christ and what he did and suffered and the salvation of Mankind the Incarnation Life Death Resurrection of Christ were available to those ends for which God designed them but the vertue and efficacy of them doth depend upon God's Institution and Appointment and therefore can be known only by Revelation We cannot draw a Conclusion from the Person of Christ which his Gospel hath not expresly taught because we can know no more of the design of it than what is there revealed They learn from Christ's Person Answer but what without the Gospel No by no means without this they cannot pretend not to know whether there be such a Person as Christ or no or what are the Ends of his Incarnation Life Death and Resurrection These depend upon God's appointment and that is set forth in the Gospel But having the Gospel as an outward Medium they see Christ and many Mysteries in him
Answer who is acquainted with himself may learn his own impotency to good from the inward pressure of corruption which is in him However the Apostle in that 2 to the Ephesians doth notably decypher it out to us there he speaks not so much of a spiritual Death in actual customary sins as of such a Death in Original corruption for he opposes it to quickning Grace which by divine Principles infused heals the same and a little after tells us that we are by nature the children of wrath Hoc uno verbo quasi fulmine totus homo quantus quantus est prosternitur saith Beza on the place this shews him dead indeed It 's true the Pelagians Contra Julian l. 6. c. 4. as St. Austin tells us would have omitted the word Nature and in stead thereof have read Prorsùs altogether children of wrath but the Church would not suffer it This spiritual Death in Sin is a total one it runs over all the Soul there are saith the Apostle lusts or desires of the Flesh the sensitive Faculties and of the Mind the rational Powers nothing is left in Man but what is dead in sin not a drop or a spark of Spiritual Life or true Grace For then a man should be naturally regenerate and under a Promise of that Evangelical Mercy which is indulged to the least measure of Grace though it be but as a smoking flax or bruised reed Man is wholly void of spiritual Life by Nature and hence it evidently appears that he is not able to reach so high as any spiritual Act such as Conversion is unless he be elevated above his own Line by supernatural Grace This is fully the Doctrine of our Church who tells us Man of his own nature is fleshly 1. Hom. for Whitsunday carnal corrupt naught sinful disobedient without any spark of goodness in him And in another place The condition of Man Article the 10th after the Fall of Adam is such that he cannot turn and prepare himself by his own natural strength and good works to Faith and calling upon God Wherefore we have no power to do good Works pleasant and acceptable to God without the Grace of God preventing us that we may have a good Will and working with us when we have that good Will We are said to be created to good works Mr. Sherlock and to become new Creatures and therefore we can contribute no more to it than to our first Creation and we are born again which signifies that we are wholly passive in it Which were true indeed if our being created unto good works did signifie the Manner and Method of our Conversion and not the Nature of the new Creature which is the true meaning of it That as in the first Creation we are created after the Image of God so we are renewed after the Image of God in the second which is therefore expresly called in other places the renewing of our minds The new Creature is indeed after God and his Image Answer but it is also from him and his glorious Power in a way of Creation He takes it upon himself A new heart will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you Ezek. 36.26 His great Power is put forth in it Eph. 1.17 and it is brought forth in a way of Creation even as God commanded the light to shine out of darkness 2 Cor. 4.6 May there be a new Creature without a Creator Or may poor dead impotent Man without any spark of Goodness in himself be such Or if he cannot do it alone may he be a Co-creator with his Maker and put in for a share in so great a work No surely all must be ascribed to the Grace of God alone Non est devotionis dedisse prope totum sed fraudis retinuisse vel minimum saith Prosper We must not rob God of the least Atom in Nature For my own part were I as I am not under a necessity to do one I should rather think it tolerable to steal away the old World as the Manichees did than with the Pelagians to take away the new from him But suppose a man could indeeed as some have presumed new-make his own Heart after God's Image might it be called a Creation Is not that Title too high for any Creature and where doth the Scripture give such an one to Man 'T is God's Royal Prerogative to new-make the Heart Of his own will begat he us saith the Apostle Jam. 1.18 To this our Church agrees It is the holy Ghost 1. Hom. for Whitsunday and no other thing that doth quiken the Minds of Men and a little after He is the only worker of Sanctification and maketh us new men in Christ Jesus When this fails they take another course with Metaphors to make them serve their purpose that is by considering all the properties of those things Christ is compared to and applying all that will serve their turn to Christ without regarding the end to which they are used thus the Kingdom of Heaven is compared to a Pearl of great price Mat. 13. This Pearl signifies Christ who as Mr. Watson saith makes us worthy with his worthiness Though all the Parable means is that we should part with all for the Gospel Thus Christ was prefigured by the Manna this was circular and so a figure of Christs perfection it was meat dressed in Heaven and Christ was prepared of his Father it suited every ones palate and Christ suits every Christians condition he is full of quickning strengthning comforting virtue that is He is what every man fancies him to be relishes to their gusto what precious discoveries are here of Christ What irrefragable proofs for them Thus Christ is a Rock 1 Cor. 10. A rock for defence and for offence and for comfort to screen us from Gods wrath and contein the honey of the promises Christ is resembled by the brazen Serpent Brass as inferiour metal signifies his humanity and as solid metal the power of his Godhead it shines but doth not dazle the eyes and so signifies the Godhead veiled with Manhood thus the brazen Serpent was like a Serpent but no reall one so Christ was in the likeness of sinful flesh but no sinner the Serpent was lifted up to be looked on and so was Christ to be looked fiducially upon Never man so happy in expounding types never Serpent so subtil Thus Christ is a Vine a Vine is weak Christs humane nature was fain to be supported by the Divine the Vine grows in the Garden Christ in the Church not known amon the Heathen It had been more grand to have said that Christ made the Garden where he grows The Vine communicates to the Branches Christ to Believers the Vine hath rare fruit and the promises grow upon Christ the Blood of Christ is the wine which chears mans heart What fine work might a prophane wit make at this rate but further they jumble all together and prove
those who are so apt to be conceited of Merit grow as proud of a golden Bucket as if the Well were their own They are civil to Faith to make it a golden Bucket but at other times they tell us That Faith may be a sore and blear-eyed Leah a shaking and a palsie hand weak and bending Legs and have all the infirmities that may be and be never the worse neither as to the purpose of Justification so that Faith had need be a very humble Grace else it would take such language very ill from them What need all this sport with Faiths Humility or Infirmity Answer An humble Grace Faith is it empties the Soul of it self gives all Glory to God hangs upon Christ and free Grace and hath all in a way of receiving and dependence and seeing its Nature and aptitude to Evangelical purposes is such it is no wonder at all that God set his stamp upon it and marked it out for an Evangelical Medium to receive Christ and his Righteousness unto Justification Therefore it is of faith that it might be by grace saith the Apostle Rom. 4.16 Fides Gratia commeant mutuò se ponunt tollunt Fides sola Gratiâ nititur Gratia tantùm credenti promittitur saith the Learned Paraeus on the place Let us hear our Church in this matter 2. Hom. of salvation This saying that we be justified by Faith only freely and without Works is spoken to take away clearly all merit of our Works as being unable to deserve Justification at Gods hands and thereby most plainly to express the weakness of Man and goodness of God the great infirmity of our selves and the might and power of God the imperfectness of our own works and the most abundant Grace of our Saviour Christ. But to go on infirm Faith is because of the adherent Corruption which is apt to blear its eyes and give it a palsie hand and trembling legs however if it be true it entitles to Christ and his Righteousness Invoco te Domine languidâ imbecillâ fide sed fide tamen said Cruciger the German Divine Those men whom the Author opposes hold no such thing as meriting by Tears or any thing else of our own but caution against it Indeed the Author thinks there is no danger in repentant Tears but Humane pride such is its venomous Nature is ready to swell at any small matter which hath but any shadow of excellency in it The heart of good Hezekiah was lifted up over his Silver and Gold and Treasures and precious things which yet were of a much lower value than his devotional Tears which shews the proneness of our Nature to that sin Those Scriptures Without holiness no man shall see God Mr. Sherlock The wrath of God is reveiled against all unrighteousness In every Nation he that worketh righteousness is accepted of God Except your righteousness exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no wise enter into Heaven He that breaketh the least of these Commandements and teacheth men so shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven and he that doth and teacheth them shall be called great there assert the absolute necessity of an holy life to entitle us to Gods Love and the Rewards of the next Life and perfectly overthrow their fundamental Notion of Justification by the righteousness of Christ imputed to us Doth the necessity of an holy Life overthrow the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness Answer No surely it 's a very gross mistake a holy Life is so far from overthrowing Imputed Righteousness that it presupposes it We are married to Christ that we might bring forth fruit unto God Rom. 7.4 And our Church in the 12. Article tells us That good Works follow after Justification Those who are true Believers and have Christ's Righteousness imputed to them do above all other men obey God's Commands glorifie his Name and walk in holy Obedience towards the Crown of Glory above Obedience is necessary but not in that sence as if the least breach of a Command should finally exclude from Heaven for then it were Wo wo to us Nor yet so absolutely as that a Believer dying in the first instant of Faith and before actual Obedience should be shut out of Heaven Our Church hath taught us better 1. Hom. of good works quoting St. Chrysost sor it I can shew a man that by Faith without Works lived and came to heaven but without Faith never man had life the Thief that was hanged when Christ suffered did believe only and the merciful God justified him If any say that he lacked time truth it is and I will not contend therein but this I will surely affirm That Faith only saved him But these men defie you Mr. Sherlock if you charge them with destroying the necessity of an holy life for they tell us Tat this universal Obedience and good Works a suspicious word are indispensibly necessary from the sovereign appointment and Will of God this is the Will of God even our Sanctification It is the Will of the Father Son and holy Ghost it is the end of their Dispensation in the business of Salvation it is the end of the Father's electing Love Eph. 1.2 of the Son 's redeeming Love Tit. 2. and of the Spirit 's sanctifying Love it is necessary to the glory of them all And are not these men mightily injured Is it not great pity they should be so abused But the truth is all this is not one syllable to the purpose for the Question was about its necessity to salvation and if we be justified and saved without it all this cannot prove any necessary obligation on us to the practice of it God hath commanded Obedience but where is the Sanction of this Law Will he damn those who do not obey for their disobedience and save those who do for their obedience Not a word of this for this destroys our Justification by Christ's Righteousness only if after all those commands God hath left it indifferent whether we obey or not Obedience is not necessary And will the Father elect and the Son redeem none but those who are holy and reprobate all others If we be elected and redeemed without any regard to our being holy our Election and Redemption is secure whether we be holy or not and so this cannot make holiness necessary on our part though it may be necessary on God's to make us holy but that is not our care and how is Obedience for the glory of the Father Son and holy Spirit when the necessity of holiness is destructive to free Grace which is the only glory God designs by Christ I suppose them injured and abused to some tune Answer after they have in terminis asserted the Necessity of Obedience from strong invincible Scriptural Arguments they are yet charged with destroying the Necessity of an holy Life But saith the Author All this is not one syllable to the purpose
for the Question was about its necessity to salvation if we be justified and saved without it it is not necessary I answer Here we have Justification and Salvation confounded Obedience follows after Justification as we heard but now from our Church but precedes Salvation But to pass that Is nothing necessary to Salvation but what justifies Is not Sanctification necessary to Salvation and yet distinct from Justification and how then are we saved without Obedience But saith the Author Where is the Sanction of this Law Will he damn those that obey not and save those that do obey If after all those Commands God hath left it indifferent Obedience is not necessary But what a strange Supposition is this Commanded and yet left indifferent It is utterly impossible no man will say so so much as of an Humane Command No doubt at all but God will damn the rebellious and save the obedient yet our Obedience no way clashes with Christ's Righteousness neither is Eternal Life given us for Obedience as if it merited the same What follows in the Author Will the Father elect and the Son redeem none but those who are holy is a very strange Question Will they as if the Book of Life were yet unwritten and the Blood of Atonement yet unshed The Father hath elected us that we should be holy Eph. 1.4 and how can he elect us being such The Son gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Tit. 2.14 and how could we be holy before However no disregard is cast upon Holiness which though it do not antecede Election and Redemption yet it sweetly streams and issues from thence and Believers are obliged to follow after it as they will answer the End of Election and Redemption And whilest they are passing on in that pure way I dare be their Bondsman that they shall not be met with any such monstrous Conceit as if Holiness which is exaltative of free Grace were destructive of it Yet Holiness is necessary to our honour Mr. Sherlock for it makes us like to God Prophane men that they are as if the perfect Righteousness of Christ were not much more for our honour and did not make us more like to God than the rags and patches of our own Righteousness A very hard case Answer they must be profane for proving the Necessity of Holiness and likeness to God but the reason is this disparages the Righteousness of Christ A sad story but it will be proved much about the time when Christ's justifying Righteousness and sanctifying Spirit shall fall at odds and variance among themselves So horrid a thing cannot be neither let any Christian Mind start a thought of it But it is for Peace what Mr. Sherlock Peace of Conscience Must we fetch our peace from Duties and Graces Is not this to renounce Christ Miserable men must we set about correcting our Lives amending our Ways performing Duties following after Righteousness according to the prescript of the Law Why this is the course wherein many continue long with much perplexity hoping fearing tiring themselves in their way Afterwards they come to the Apostle's Conclusion By the works of the Law no man is justified and is this the way to Peace Is this the way to Communion with God by our own Righteousness Doth not all our wisdom of walking with God consist in our acquaintance with Christ God is Light we darkness he Life we dead he Holiness we defiled he Love we hatred surely this is no foundation of Agreement or Communion the foundation then of this Peace is laid and hid in Christ who is our peace and the Medium of all Communications between God and us So that if this Gentleman's that is Dr. Owen's memory had not failed him he would never have told us that Holiness is necessary to our peace and Communion with God All this is but a mistake Answ for want of distinguishing between the Foundation of our peace with God and the Sense of it The Foundation of our peace is not laid in our Works or Legal Righteousness but in the atoning and satisfying blood of Jesus Christ which speaks peace to all believers Melch. Adam in vit Jureconsult A notable instance whereof we have in that German John à Berg Father of Joachim who in all his life was a zealous Papist standing on his works and legal righteousness but upon his death-bed cast away those fig-leaves and poor coverings and reposed himself in the merit and expiation of Christ as the only foundation of peace But the sence of this peace is found in a way of holiness whilest the believer is there the love of God coming down in the witness of the spirit and ecchoing in conscience makes such a pure serenity in the heart as outrelishes all things in nature Now whether there be any inconsistency between the foundation of our peace and the sence of it I leave to the Reader these may as well stand together as Christs attonement and our Obedience However Holiness serves for the conviction of enemies Mr. Sherlock how so when it is not essentially necessary to his Friends and it is for the conversion of others why so when men may be converted without it It keeps off the Judgments of God from men But why cannot Christs Righteousness do this more effectually than the holiness of men Holiness casts forth a convictive Ray and Glory into the dark world Answ yet it is not essential to Believers to justifie but to sanctifie them It hath a Divine tendency to convert others yet the first act of conversion precedes in habitual Grace and actual Holiness or Obedience follows after Christs righteousness without which there would be nothing but wrath and judgments is the great fundamental reason of keeping them off but Holiness ministers under it to the same end But it is necessary in respect of the state and condition of justified persons Mr. Sherlock for they are accepted and received into friendship with an holy God therefore they must cleanse and purify themselves what need of this when they are cloathed with the Robes of Christs Righteousness which is the only foundation of our Commuuion with God And pag. 267. They fulfill the Righteousness of the Law not by doing any thing themselves but by having all done for them by having this perfect righteousness of Christ imputed to them And pag. 423. The Doctor places Christs righteousness in the room of ours to be not only the foundation but condition of the Covenant And then makes it an expression of our chast affections to Christ quite to thrust out our own righteousness and to allow it no place in our Religion And pag. 427. The foundation of their love to Christ Is a fond imagination that he will save them by his righteousness without any righteousness of their own What! Answer Doth imputed righteousness
make holiness needless Under pardon this is neither better nor worse than an old Popish calumny such as hath been cast into the face of Protestants over and over Chemnitius asserting justification by imputed Righteousness tells us Exam. Conc. Trid. de Justif Inde verò Pontificii texunt calumniam omnia decreta Tridentina ita condita sunt de justificatione ut obliquè nos insimulent quasi doceamus credentes non renovari quasi charitatem obedientiam ita excludamus ut nec adsit nec sequatur in reconciliatis And what return doth that learned man make thereunto Sed tantùm Syeophanticae impudentes calumniae sunt quibus strepitum excitant The learned Chamier brings in Sapeins Cham. de Sanctif cap. 2. charging the Protestants thus Non esse nos justos nist solû imputatione justitiae Christi non autem ullâ inhaerente qualitate And Costerus thus Christus est nostra justitia nulla est ergo alia justitia in nobis And Bozius thus Vt salutem consequaris sis sanctus aiunt omnes Protestantes nihil est necesse boni aliquid velis moliaris aut facias Christo fidas impunè quidvis audeas ad exitum perducas and then expresses himself thus Immanem ita me Deus amet calumniam The excellent Davenant De Hâ—tuali cap. â— ushering in Bellarmine and Campian and Becanus as casting the same dirt into the face of Protestants saith plainly to the two first quot verba tot serè mendacia and to the third calumnia est apertè falsa The Papists you see have cast out these calumnies but should a Protestant do so No surely the Author I confess hath done a great honour to these few Nonconformists in casting upon them that reproach of Christ for so as a Protestant I must call it which many a son of the Church of England would willingly bear hoping to have the spirit of Glory rest upon him but I suppose he hath done no great right to the Protestant cause therein How vain this calumny is doth assoon appear as we can open our eyes upon the common distinction between Justification and Sanctification Justification is an Action of God without us Sanctification an Action of the Spirit within us the one is by the perfect Righteousness of Christ imputed the other by the holy Graces of the Spirit infused and inherent in us In the one we are freed from the Guilt of Sin in the other from the Corruption and Pollution of it By the one we have a Title to God's Kingdom by the other a Meetness for it it being such as no unclean thing can enter into the same And what colour of Repugnancy is there between these two and how doth the one make the other useless Both are useful to the Believer and both in Harmony between themselves Obedience is so far from being needless that it is a necessary consequent upon Justification by Christ's Righteousness St. Paul in the Epistle to the Romans first treats of Justification and then of Sanctification as a consequent thereupon Good works as our Church tells us in the 12th Article are the Fruits of Faith and follow after Justification To me it is unimaginable that the holy Spirit which is procured by Christ's Righteousness and before whose inspiration as our Church tells us in the 13th Article works done are not pleasant unto God should inspire unjustified persons to Obedience nay had it not been for Christ's Righteousness the holy Spirit I verily believe would no more have touched in the least holy motion upon Men than upon Devils I shall close this Point with the Authors own words Christ's Satisfaction was for sins of Omission and Commission and by it we are reputed by God as having done nothing amiss and as perfectly righteous to have done all to have kept the whole Law pag. 60. and yet I hope the Author doth not esteem Holiness needless though I cannot tell how Christ's imputed Righteousness whereof his Satisfaction is a part should make any man more than perfectly righteous However Holiness is necessary with respect to Sanctification Mr. Sherlock We have in us a New Creature which is fed cherish'd nourish'd kept alive by the fruits of Holiness God hath not given us new Hearts to kill them in the womb or to give them to the Old Man to be devoured as Dr. Owen hath it The phrase of this is admirable and the reasoning unanswerable if men be new Creatures they will certainly live new Lives And this makes Holiness necessary by the same reason that every thing necessarily is what it is when it is The new Creature is fed with fruits of of Holiness Answer so Dr. Owen Upon which the Author tells us in sport that the phrase is admirable I suppose it is so Hear our Church As Men that be very Men indeed 1. Hom. of good works quoting St. Chrysost for it first have life and after be nourished so must our Faith in Christ go before and after be nourished with good works But for the reason I think it cannot be answered Exercise is necessary for the Body and is it not necessary for the Body and is it not necessary for the Soul It is necessary for the Soul in meer Moral Virtues and is it not necessary for it in spiriritual Graces too Reason though a natural Talent only necessarily obliges us to walk sutably to it and how much more do Divine Graces which are altogether supernatural bind us to live in a Decorum thereunto These things to me are very cogent Well! Mr. Sherlock but holiness is necessary as the means to the end but how Though it neither be the Cause Matter nor Condition of our Justification yet it is the Way appointed by God for us to walk in for the obtaining Salvation he that hopeth purifieth himself none shall come to the End who walk not in the Way without Holiness it is impossible to see God This is all pertinent and home to the purpose but it hath two little faults in it that it contradicts it self and overthrows their darling Opinions which I can pardon if he can What the necessary way to eternal Life and yet neither Cause Matter nor Condition At least it might be the Causa sine qua non and that will make it a Condition But not to dispute about words I am content it should be only a way to life but what becomes of Christ then who is the only way Cannot Christ's Righteousness save us without our own Doth Christ's Righteousness free us from guilt and entitle us to Glory and yet can we not be saved without Holiness What becomes of free Grace then Is not this to eek out the Righteousness of Christ with our own To make Christ our Justifier and our Works our Saviour This is all pertinent Answer It seems the former Arguments drawn from the sovereign Will of God from the End of the Love of the blessed Trinity from the
the Church Catholick and a little after of the visible Church which the Church Catholick is not but that I doth not here signifie the Church is apparent The same I runs throughout the whole Chapter I have loved you vers 9. I have kept my Fathers Commandments vers 10. I have spoken to you vers 11. I have heard of my Father vers 15. I have chosen you vers 16. I came vers 22. I did the works vers 24. I will send the comforter vers 26. In none of these I's is the Church meant no more is it meant in that first I when he saith I am the true Vine however the Author offers some reasons for it The first is this The Church in the old Testament is compared to a Vine Esay 5. Jer. 2. Hosea 10. and so John 15. The Church is the Vine Christ applies the parable of the Vineyard to the state of the Gospel Matth. 21.33 And the Christian Church is called an Olive and the members of it branches Rom. 11. But I fancy not this arguing In some places the Vine is the Church therefore it is so in all this is the very same with that which the Author would charge upon his adversaries pag. 4. Christ sometimes signifies the person of Christ therefore it must do so alwayes after the same rate the Author In some places the Vine is the Church therefore it is so in all But in the 15. of John the context will not bear it one and the same I runs through the whole Chapter and in many passages no way sutes to the Church The Vine in this Chapter differs from those quoted out of the Old Testament in those the Ghurch is the Vine no mention at all is made of branches but in this the branches are set distinct from the Vine as appears verse 5. I am the Vine ye are the branches The Branches and the Vine are distinguished by I and ye the Church is included in the branches as the branches taken asunder signifie particular Christians so put together they import the Church The second reason is God is called the Husbandman but he dresses not Christ but the Church which is Gods Husbandry To which the Answer is easie God is the Husbandman with reference to both planting the Vine Christ and dressing the Branches Christians The third reason is Christ speaks of branches in him which bear no fruit and there can be no such branches in the person of Christ But as the Learned Whitaker hath observed against Stapleton that place Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away Joh. 15.2 May be read thus Every branch which beareth not fruit in me he taketh away The words in me being referred not to the Branch but to the Fruit But being read as is usual the answer is obvious our Saviour in this Verse speaks not of true real Branches which are always fruitful but of seeming ones which are barren they seem to be in Christ but are not When Christ speaks in the first Person Mr. Sherlock I and in me he cannot mean this of his Person but of his Church and Doctrine according as the circumstances require Thus Ver. 5. I am the true vine ye are the branches he that abideth in me and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit for without me ye can do nothing I would willingly learn what sence can be made of this if we understand it of the Person of Christ for it is not very intelligible how we can be in the Person of Christ and it is more unintelligible how we can be in the Person of Christ and the Person of Christ in us at the same time which is a new piece of Philosophy called Penetration of Dimensions and that our fruitfulness should depend upon such an Vnion is as hard as all the rest How various is the Author on this Vine First I Answer is Christ together with the Church then the Church only and now the Doctrine is usher'd in to eek out the Interpretation and after this rate we may come to the seventy Faces which the Jews talk of in Scripture But that 5. Verse in the 15. of John cannot be meant of Christ's Person why not The Milevitan Council Can. 5. and afterwards the Arausican Council Can. 24. did so interpret it the words of the last are remarkable Vitis sic est in palmitibus ut vitale subministret eis non sumat ab eis ae per hoc manentem in se habere Christum manere in Christo discipulis prodest non Christo 1. Hom. of good works Our Church interprets it of no other but Christ but it is not intelligible How we can be in the Person of Christ and the Person of Christ in us Luther in his Conference at Marpurg with Zuinglius about the Eucharist told him Mel. Ad. in vita Brentii that he must not Mathematica huic negotio admiscere nec carnem Christi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so will I say to the Author Physicks and Mathematicks must here lie by here is no room for Penetrations or Dimensions all is spi itual and divine The Union between Christ and Believers though a new piece of Philosophy or rather no part of it at all is old Divinity and though a very great Mystery not altogether unintelligible Our Divines express it plainly according to Scripture to be made by the Spirit and Faith The most Reverend Vsher tells us Scrm. before the Commons 1620. That it is altogether spiritual and supernatural no Physical nor Mathematical Continuity or Contiguity is any way requisite thereunto it is sufficient for the making of this Vnion that Christ and we be knit together by those spiritual Ligatures the quickning Spirit and a lively Faith If by he that abideth in me Mr. Sherlock we understand the Christian Church he who makes a profelsion of Faith in me and continues in society with those who do so and by I in him the Christian Doctrine the Sence and Reason of it is very ovident Why in me Answer should signisie one thing and I another why in me should be construed in the Church and I the Christian Doctrine there is no reason in the Text however the Author had some reason to interpret it so For if in those words I in him I should fignifie the Church as those words in me are made to do then every particular Believer should have a Church in him which would be as unintelligible as that of Christ's being in us Mr. Sherlock To abide in Christ is to make a publick and visible Profession of Faith in Christ to be Members of his visible Church but because many are so who do not credit their Profession hence to distinguish true Christians from hypocritical Professors he adds And I in you that is my words abide in you Ver. 7. Thus you see that the Vnion of particular Christians to Christ consists in their Vnion to the
visible Church is external and our union to Christ internal and spititual our excision from the Church is one thing and our separation from Christ another a man may be united to the visible Church and yet not really united to Christ for so is the hypocrite a man may be cut off from the visible Church and yet not cut off from Christ for so is the unjustly excommunicate Mr. Sherlock The union between Christ and the Church is not a natural but a political union Christ is a King and all Christians his Subjects and our union to Christ consists in our belief of his Revelations Obedience to his Laws and subjection to his Authority If you continue in my words then are ye my Disciples indeed John 8.31 Which is the same thing with being in Christ And by keeping his Commandments we abide in his love John 15.10 and 14.21 And to have his word abide in us Is a description of the closest and fir mest union to him John 15.7 Thus Christ is a Shepherd and Christians his Sheep To signifie the Authority he hath over his Church Shepherd is used as a name of power thus Christ is a head and the Church his body a Husband and the Church his Spouse which are names of power Eph. 5.23 Christ is called an Head an Husband because he hath the Rule and Government of us Head is a name for Princes and Governours Deut. 28.13 The Apostles alwayes expound the Metaphor of Christs being a head by power Eph. 1.20.21 Col. 1.18 So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that place signifies one that hath Authority Christ is the head of all principalities Col. 10. He is an head and husband because he is invested with authority to govern the Church is the body and Spouse because it must obey also these Metaphors signifie the mildness and gentleness of his Government as a good Shepherd he lays down his life for his Sheep John 10. He loves his Church with the natural kindness of an head and husband his Government is only for the good of his Church and therefore his yoke is easie he gave himself for his Church that he might sanctifie it Eph. 5.25 26. Upon which account we may be called members of his body of his flesh and bone verse 30. The Church being taken out of his crucified body as woman out of man Christ hath reconciled the Gentiles that is taken them into his Church in the body of his flesh through death because the Covenant which was the foundation of the Church was sealed with his blood Christ owns himself our friend John 15. Ye are my friends if ye do what I command you which shews the tenderness of his Government He exercises his authority in methods of Love hence he is called a Father Our union to Christ Answer consists in a belief of his Revelations Obedience to his Laws and Subjection to his Authority Thus the Author To whom I answer A belief of Revelations is only a dogmatical faith which is found in many not united to Christ Obedience is not our mystical union to Christ but a fruit of it Christ and the Soul being once espoused out-comes a blessed progeny of good works as so many reall proofs of that Divine conjunction which is made by the Spirit and Faith and shews forth it self in such effects as the dead womb of nature could never have produced Subjection to Christ's Authority is either a formal actual one standing in doing his commands and that is the same with Obedience a fruit of our union to Christ or a virtual one consisting in accepting Christ as our Lord and this is part of that Faith which is a bond of that Union Those words If ye continue in my words then are ye my Disciples indeed John 8.31 Were spoken to Believers to men in union with Christ to exhort them to perseverance as a reall proof of their Discipleship and Union to Christ If ye keep my Commandments ye shall abide in my Love John 15.10 They were in his love before Verse 9. But Obedience will shew it forth Thus St. Austin on the place Ostendit non unde dilectio generetur sed unde monstretur hinc apparebit quod in dilectione meâ manebitis si precepta mea servaveritis Christs promise to the Obedieut is That he will love him and manifest himself to him Joh. 14.21 Christ loved him before but now he will manifest it Thus St. Austin on the place Quid est diligam tanquam dilecturus sit nunc non diligat Absit diligam manifestabo id est ad hoc diligam ut manifestem Our abiding in Christ and Christ's words abiding in us are very well joyned together Joh. 15.7 To shew us that where the Soul and Christ are in union there the holy words will have a mansion in the heart Christ is a King a Shepherd an Head an Husband and all in a superlative transcendency above all others in those relations He is a King who hath his Laws without us and an inward Scepter in our hearts making the unwilling will to become a willing one in the day of his power A Shepherd who speaks to his Sheep nay and brings them into the Fold John 10.16 who before were not in it A Head who stands above all in eminency and influences spiritual life and motion into the lowest meanest Believer on the earth An Husband who espouses us unto himself and invests us with a rich Dowry out of his incomparable Graces and Perfections The Church was taken out of the crucified body of Christ But that place We are members of his body of his flesh and of his bones Eph. 5.30 plainly declares the mystical union as man and wife are one flesh so Christ and Christians are one spirit One thing more may be observed Christ saith the Author hath reconciled the Gentiles that is taken them into his Church in the body of his flesh through death Col. 1.21.22 This is a little strange reconciled that is taken them into his Church Socinus on this place De Servat pars 1. cap. 8. saith That the reconciliation here is Omnium rerum non cum Deo sed secum ipsis per Christum parta concordia And a little after Vniversi tà m Gentes quà m Judaei unus Dei populus sunt facti But I hope our Author doth not exclude reconciliation to God Christ doth not govern us immediately by himself Mr. Sherlock for he is ascended up into Heaven where he powerfully intercedes for his Church and by a vigilant providence superintends all the affairs of it but hath left the visible and external conduct and Government of his Church to Bishops and Pastors who preside in his name and by his authority He governs his Church by men who are invested with his authority which is a plain demonstration that the union of particular Christians to Christ is by their union with the Christian Church which consists in their regular subjection to
Laws which the Author after mentions calling it a conformity to his nature the new creature is not the effect of Subjection or Obedience but the cause of it true Obedience is too pure a thing to issue out of an unregenerate heart before it can come forth Enchir. cap. 106. Ipsum liberum arbitrium liberandum est As St. Austin speaks Lapsed nature must be new-natured and its deadly wound healed by regenerating Grace First according to Scripture there must be a good tree and then good fruit De Eccles Hierar cap. 2. First a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Divine state or being as Dionysius calls it and then Divine operations issuing forth in a sweet connaturalness to the Heavenly principles within To this purpose let us hear our Church 2. Hom. of Almes As the good fruit is not the cause that the tree is good but the tree must first be good before it can bring forth good fruit so the good Deeds of men are not the Cause that maketh men good but he is first made good by the Spirit and Grace of God that effectually worketh in him and afterwards he bringeth forth good fruit As for such as are regenerate and new Creatures I acknowledge them to have the same temper of Mind with Christ and that every Grace in the new Man answers to that in Christ and morally unites to him but the Mystical Union is made by the holy Spirit and Faith which hath this above other Graces to receive Christ and incorporate us into him That place Phil. 2. of having the same mind with Christ holds out the same temper in both that in Matt. 4.11 calls us to an imitation of him that Gal. 4.19 expresses the State of the new Creature which is moulded after the Image of Christ But the other two places quoted by the Author prove the Mystical Union the one is that Rom. 8.9 If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his By Spirit is not meant an holy temper of Mind but the Spirit it self the very same which just before the words is called The Spirit of God and ver 11. The spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead and by which our mortal bodies shall be quickned This is that Spirit which unites us to Christ in such an admirable manner that Christ is said to be in us ver 10. St. Chrysostome on the words saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that hath the holy Spirit hath Christ himself the Spirit being present Christ nay the whole Trinity must be so The other is that 1 Cor. 6.17 He that is joyned unto the Lord is one Spirit that is one and the same holy Spirit is in Christ and Believers mystically uniting them together This appears as well by the opposition of one spirit in this 17. Verse to one flesh in the 16. Verse For as the Learned Beza notes on the place Vt constet expositio exterioris corporum copulae nostrae cum Christo interoris spiritûs nomen usurpavit Apostolus as also by the after-words What know ye not that your body is the Temple of the holy Ghost which is in you ver 19. The holy Ghost is that one Spirit which unites Christ and Believers Hence the Reverend Vsher quoting this place among others concludes That the Mystery of our Vnion with Christ consists mainly in this that the self same Spirit which is in him as in the Head is derived from him into every one of his true Members There is yet a closer Vnion Mr. Sherlock which consists in a mutual reciprocal Love when we are transformed into the image of Christ he loves us as being like to him and we love him as partaking of his Nature he loves us as the price of his Blood as his own workmanship created to good Works and we love him as our Redeemer and Saviour I acknowledge there is a Moral Union between Christ and Christians by holy Love Answer but this Moral Union supposes a Mystical one made by the Spirit and Faith Where these are not there can be no such thing as Love to Christ Hence the Apostle Eph. 3.16 17. first lays down the Mystical Union with its two Bands the Spirit in the inner man and Faith whereby Christ dwells in the heart and immediately after adds the Moral one That ye may be rooted and grounded in Love Where-ever the Mystical Union is there is holy Love to Christ What the Author afterwards adds touching God's dwelling in the Church as his Temple is so far from opposing that it points out the Mystical Union especially seeing as the Author confesses Particular Christians are in Scripture stiled the Temple of the living God That place quoted by the Author Know ye not that ye are the Temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you 1 Cor. 3.16 is very emphatical Christians are the Temple of God and made so by the indwelling Spirit which is the bond of the Mystical Union Indeed the Author saith That the indwelling of the Spirit primarily refers to the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit which God in that Age bestowed on the Church this was the true Shechinah or divine Glory resting on them But I conceive the holy Spirit hath been in Believers in all Ages God dwelt in the Jewish Temple in Types and Symbols of his Presence but which was far more excellent than those outward shadows and appearances of Glory he dwelt even then by his Spirit in all true Believers The sweet strains of Devotion in David did plainly evidence that the holy Spirit was in him the spiritual Imbroidery or Needle-work in every Psalm tells us that the Finger of God was there The believing Israelites in Mannâ Christum intellexerunt saw Christ in their Manna and fed on the same spiritual Meat as believing Christians do which is a clear proof that the holy Spirit was in them The Son of God coming in the Flesh the holy Spirit was poured down in extraordinary Gifts and though those Epiphanies of divine Glory went off yet the same Spirit hath been and ever will be in Believers This our Church acknowledges 1. Hom. for Whitsunday Neither doth the holy Spirit think it sufficient inwardly to work the spiritual and new Birth of Man unless he do also dwell and abide in him And a little after our Church breaks out in an holy admiration O what comfort is this to the heart of a true Christian to think that the holy Ghost dwelleth in him The Apostle tells the Ephesians that they are builded for an habitation of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 through the Spirit Eph. 2.22 Indeed the Author interprets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a spiritual Temple in opposition to the material one which St. Peter calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a spiritual house but I take it the Spirit it self is meant Thus Grotius as I have him quoted in the Criticks saith Non tantùm tota fidelium
mercy enough in him and in very deed this is a comfort for sinners too high and sacred to be entertained with any other laugh than that of the joy of Faith But what now if the Divine Nature it self have not such an endless Mr. Sherlock boundless bottomless Grace At other times the Dr. tells us of the Naturalness of Vindictive Justice Though God be rich in Mercy he never told us yet that his Mercy was so boundless and bottomless He hath given a great many demonstrations of the severity of his Anger against sinners who could not be much worse than the greatest oldest stubbornest Transgressors But 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 ought to come in for a share at least in being the Fountain of Grace though the Dr. 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 limited thing it is a strait 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 oldest stubbornest Transgressors Smalcius denies God's Mercy to be infinite and immense Answer and the Author seems to hint some such thing But Christ is God and in his Divine Nature there can be no finite Attribute and what if Divine Justice be natural and infinite too Infinite Justice and Infinite Mercy may stand very well together or what if Divine Justice break out against sinners yet is Divine Mercy infinite for all that nay what if Divine Mercy had shewed it self in gracious Effects to no one man in the World yet still would it have been infinite 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the divine Essence And what if the Author will not call this a personal Grace in the Mediator It is doubtless a Grace in the Person of the Mediator and what if Christ as Mediator be God's Servant yet is he really God and a Fountain of Grace and that without the least exclusion of his Father being such The Son made and upholds all things and yet I hope the Father did and doth the same and what if in the Gospel the Gate be strait and Way narrow yet the Grace is never the less infinite because it is dispensed in a way decorous to the Holiness of God infinite Grace stands open to the greatest Sinners and yet none shall partake of it but upon the holy Terms of the Gospel Thus the Love of Christ is an Eternal Love Mr. Sherlock because his Divine Nature is Eternal an unchangeable Love because his Nature is so a fruitful Love producing all things which he willeth to his beloved he loves Life Grace Holiness into us he loves us into Covenant loves us into Heaven This is an excellent Love indeed which doth all for us and leaves nothing for us to do we owe this discovery to an Acquvintance with Christ's Person or rather with his Divine Nature for the Gospel is very silent in this matter all that the Gospel tells us is that Christ loved Sinners so as to die for them and that he loves good men who believe and obey his Gospel so as to save them and that he continues to love them while they continue to be good but hates them when they return to their old Vices And therefore sinners have reason to fetch their comforts not from the Gospel but from the Person of Christ which as far excels the Gospel as the Gospel excels the Law The Dr. discourses of the Love of Christ as he is God Answer There is in God Amor Complacentiae a Love of Complacence whereby he delights in good men but is there not Amor Benevolentiae too a gracious purpose of bestowing good things on us All the good things Temporal in the World and Spiritual in the Church know no other Spring or Origen than this our Repentance Faith Grace Holiness unless we will blaspheme the great Donor and deny them to be Gifts are so many pregnant proofs of it Hence the Apostle tells us That God worketh in us to will and to do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of his good pleasure Phil. 2.13 And is not this Love or gracious Purpose an Eternal one It can be no other all the divine Decrees are so His Works are in Time but his Decrees in the same Eternity with himself as being no other than Deus Volens Should his Decrees be made in time the Divine Will though it ever had an infinite Reason and Wisdom standing by it must yet hang in suspence and float in uncertainties touching things to come till its own Creature Time came forth into Being and then upon passing those Decrees a new Generation of Futures must start up which were never before and withal a new Prescience in God to look upon those novel Objects both which are impossible But this is a Love which doth all for us and leaves nothing for us to do Thus the Author Vsser de Cottesch The Semipelagians to blast the Doctrine of St. Austin touching God's Free Grace formed out of their own Brain a Story of the Praedestinatiani an odious Sect which as was pretended held such a Notion as rendred an holy Life altogether unnecessary But why the Author should charge the Dr. with any such thing I know not he never said or thought any such thing nay he hath again and again urged the Necessity of Obedience Neither do I see how there can be a more unnatural Consequence framed than this Christ loved us and therefore we need do nothing our selves Our Love to Christ is an excellent Principle of Obedience to him and to set it a working his Love to us is a divine Inflammative to ours But saith the Author All that the Gospel tells us is That Christ loved Sinners so as to die for them and that he loves good men who believe and obey the Gospel But sure this is not all Christ in his Love doth something to the Quickning and Conversion of men and something to the sanctifying and establishing of them This Last I suppose the Author allows not for he tells us That he loves them while they continue good and hates them when they return to their old vices But this is much after the rate of the Remonstrants who tell us That as soon as men believe there is a kind of incomplete Election such as rises and falls with their Faith and when they arrive at the full point of Perseverance it becomes complete and peremptory The Divine Will according to them must be successive and make its progress from an incomplete Election to a complete one and in its passage to that Completure it must all the way vary and turn about to every point
Nay believing and obeying the Gospel are so far from being inconsistent with fetching Life from Christ that they cannot be without it Without Life from Christ how or which way should a man believe or obey the Gospel May Nature lapsed Nature do it No surely that which of it self is not sufficient so much as to raise up an holy thought or to say Jesus is the Lord cannot of it self believe or obey the Gospel Or may Nature and Doctrine do it To place all Grace in outward Doctrine is meer Pelagianism It is a saying of St. Austin Solet dicere humana superbia De Grat. Liber Arb. c. 2. si seissem fecissem ideò non feci quia nescivi Humane pride is wont to say had I known I had done it asking only a Rule and presuming upon its own power for performance But the Scripture tells us of an internal Work of inward Teachings Drawings Quickenings and New-creatings in the Heart where these things are there the Gospel is a Principle of Divine Life in us There the Gospel comes not in word only but in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance as the Apostle hath it 1 Thess 1.5 Believing and obeying the Gospel suppose internal operations of Grace and these must come from Christ the fountain of life In him we are created unto good works and without him we can do nothing Thus to proceed Mr Sherlock Christ is the Power of God and the wisdom of God and the Gospel is the wisdom and power of God 1 Cor. 1.24 Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God that is the Doctrine of a crucified Christ as appears by the verses before The Jews require a Sign and the Greeks seek after Wisdom but we preach Christ crucified to the Jews a stumbling-block and to the Greeks foolishness but to them who are called both Jews and Greeks Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God The Jews were all for Signs and Miracles the Greeks for curious Philosophical Speculations neither of them could relish the plain simple Doctrine of a crucified Christ But the Apostle tells us that this Doctrine is the power and wisdom of God the most powerful method which was ever used by God for the reforming of the world and the contrivance of excellent wisdom thus the Gospel is called the power of God to them that believe Rom. 1.16 And by this foolishness of preaching that is by preaching this foolish Doctrine as it was accounted by the world of a crucified Christ it pleased God to save them that believe Christ being exalted to the right hand of Majesty may in a proper sence be called the power of God because all power is given to him in Heaven and earth and he hath the supreme Government of all the affairs of this spiritual Kingdom and this is a personal power inherent in him but the exercise of it is confined to the Rules of the Gospel he hath power to save those that believe and obey and to destrey his enemies this power cannot save any man whom the Gospel condemns we have no reason to trust to his personal power unless we first obey his Gospel however omnipotent he be his Gospel is the measure of his actings if that condemn us his omnipotent power will not save us Christ is the power and wisdom of God and so is the Gospel Answer but are they both in equal degree such No surely the Gospel is such organically and in a way of subordination to Christ and he is such principally and in a way of excellency above the Gospel The Gospel is the wisdom of God a Glass of it and a Divine Medium to illuminate and make us wise but all this under Christ the brightness of his Fathers Glory and great illuminator from whom the unction or teaching anointing of the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation descends down upon us to open our eyes hearts upon the glorious things in the Gospel The Gospel is the power of God a Divine Scepter to subdue and overcome the wills and hearts of men but this is under Christ the eternal word and power of God who by that Scepter produces that great and supernatural effect The Apostles though earthen Vessels carried about the Evangelical treasure with them but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the excellency of the power was of God and not of them 2 Cor. 4.7 The believing Corinthians were the Apostles Epistle and Christ's too 2 Cor. 3.2 3. but not in equal degree They were saith the Text Christ's Epistle ministred by the Apostles the Apostles were but as the pen which the Almighty Fingers of the Spirit used to make the Impression or Divine Inscription upon their hearts Hence the Text saith That the same was written not with Ink but with the Spirit of the living God The Text quoted by the Author The Jews require a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom but we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling-block and unto the Greeks foolishness but unto them which are called both Jews and Greeks Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God 1 Cor. 1.22 23 and 24. is a very remarkable one they all had the Gospel the external call yet to shew that all was in the Royal hand of Christ the dispensation is very different Those to whom Christ preached was a Stumbling block or Foolishness had not so much as any internal illumination For it is not at all imaginable that Christ the power of God if truly understood could be a stumbling-block to the Jews who looked after signs or that Christ the wisdom of God if truly understood could be Foolishness to the Greeks who sought after wisdom but those called ones among them to whom Christ was the power of God and wisdom of God had internal illuminations and operations of Grace The Gospel then is the power and wisdom of God but organically and in subserviency to Christ who hath all the power in Heaven and earth and illuminates and subdues hearts by the Gospel as he pleases he hath power to save such as believe and obey but that is not all he hath power to make them believing and obedient and to save them not contrary to the Gospel-rules but according to them But the chief personal Grace is still bebind Mr. Sherlock viz. the Righteousness of Christ Now no Christian will deny that Christ was very righteous a great example of universal holiness and purity and it must be confessed that his Righteousness was not an imaginary imputed Righteousness but inherent and personal but what comfort is this to us if we continue wilful incorrigible sinners Yes saith the Doctor Hast thou the sence of guilt upon thee Christ is complete Righteousness the Lord our Righteousness this makes Christ sutable to the wants of a sinner indeed that he hath a Righteousness for him which God infinitely prefers before any home-spun Righteousness of his own This is
Commandements shall be the Least in the Kingdom of Heaven if taken in rigore juris were enough to shut all men out of heaven it imports therefore that sincere Obedience is necessary to those who will go thither Again the Evangelicall Light brake out as it pleased the Father of Lights gradually and successively In Math. 16. Peter makes that famous Confession Thou art Christ and was by Christ called Blessed for it and a little after Peter as ignorant of Christ's Passion would have diverted him from it and for that was called Satan Christ's Passion was sure a most necessary thing vet he knew it not Further our Saviour tells the Apostles that It was expedient for them that he should go away why so Then the spirit should come which should guide them into all truth which should glorifie Christ which should take of Christs and should shew it unto them Joh. 16.7 13 14 15. Observe the Spirit was to open and display the things of Christ amongst others his blood and righteousness in their glory and true use to be made ours and now it is no wonder at all if imputed Righteousness be more fully laid down in the Epistles than in the Sermons of our Saviour Christ himself the wisdom of heaven reserved that fuller light till the descent of the holy Ghost Moreover we must distinguish between the necessity of Christs imputed righteousness in it self and the necessity of the knowledge of it Imputed Righteousness since the fall hath ever been necessary in it self no man was ever justisied without Christ's blood applyed to him and that application is made upon believing by way of imputation but the knowledge of it hath been more or less necessary as the Evangelical light hath more or less reveiled it St. Peter at that time of his confession was no doubt justified by Christ's blood and yet he then had not the knowledge of his passion Lastly it appears plainly that our Saviour warned his hearers not to trust in their own Righteousness Thus the Pharisee and the Publican are in the Parable set forth to those that trusted in themselves that they were righteous Luk. 18.19 The Pharisee boasts of his Justice Purity Sanctity The Publican cries out of his sins and begs for mercy and as our Saviour tells us went away jestified rather than the other So true is that of Prosper Melior est in malis factis humilis confessio quà m in bonis superbagloriatio To conclude I hope by these things it appears that neither our Saviour was unfaithful in his prophetical Office nor the Evangelists in giving us an account of our Saviours Doctrine It is worth the observing Mr. Sherlock that in all the New Testament there is no such expression as the Righteousness of Christ or the imputation of Christ's Righteousness we there only find 〈◊〉 righteousness of God and the righteousness of Faith and the righteousness of God which is by the faith of Jesus Christ which is 〈◊〉 strange Did the whole Mystery of the Gospel consist in the imputation of Christ's Righteousness that neither Christ nor his Apostles should once tell us so in express terms This is Bellarmine's own Argument Answer Hactenùs nullum omninò locum invenire potuerunt De just l. 2. cap. 7. ubi legeretur Christi justitiam nobis imputari ad justitiam But I hope our Author will not follow the sound and tinkling of words what if it be not in Scripture syllabically and literally May it not suffice to be there in Sence just Consequence Ratio divina non in superficie est sed in medullà The Author saith That there is no such Expression as the Righteousness of Christ but St. Peter tells us of the righteousness of God our Saviour Jesus Christ 2. Pet. 11 1 Again he saith That there is no such Expression as the Imputation of Christs Righteousness But St. Paul tells us That we are made righteous by Christs obedience Rom. 5.19 But I will say no more to this Objection because I have before proved Imputed Righteousness by Scripture That phrase Mr. Sherlock the Righteousness of God sometimes signifies his Justice Veracity or Goodness Rom. 3.5 but most commonly in the new Testament it signifies that Righteousness which God approves commands and which he will accept for the Justification of a sinner which is contained in the Terms of the Gospel Rom 1.17 For therein is the Righteousness of God reveiled Thus it is called the Righteousness of God Math. 6.33 Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness which is the same with the righteousness of his Kingdome Now the Kingdom of God signifies the State of the Gospel and the Righteousness of God or of his Kingdom that Righteousness which the Gospel prescribes which is conteined in the Sermons and Parables of Christ and consists in a sincere and universal Obedience to the Commands of God Answer The Righteousness of God is indeed that which he approves and accepts of in Justification but not that which he commands us to do no then we should not be justified by Christs blood Rom. 5.9 nor made righteous by his obedience Rom. 5.19 then the Apostle would not tell us of a righteousness imputed without works Rom. 4.6 Neither would he as he doth in that place exclude the Works of converted Abraham from Justification I say of converted Abraham for those words Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness Rom. 4.3 were spoken of Abraham divers years after his Conversion as Dr. Ward hath observed Our Obedience is an Evidence of our Justification 〈◊〉 22. but till it can expiate sin and reach the top and apex of the pure Law it cannot be the Matter of our Righteousness before God Our Church places good Works after Justification and most exellently states Justification in three things Vpon Gods part his great mercy and grace 〈◊〉 of Salvation upon Christs part Justice that is the satisfaction of Gods Justice or the price of our Redemption by the offering of his Body shedding of his Blood with fulfilling of the Law perfectly thoroughly and upon our part true and lively Faith in the Merits of Jesus Christ which is not ours but by God's working in us Thus our Church leaving no room at all for Obedience In the point of Justification The Righteousness of God that which he commands and rewards is the Righteousness of Faith Mr. Sherlock or Righteousness by the Faith of Christ Now Faith in Christ is often ujed objectively for the Gospel of Christ which is the Object of our Faith and so the Righteousness of Faith or by the Faith of Christ is that Righteousness which the Gospel commands Thus Acts. 24. Felix sent for Paul and heard him concerning the Faith of Christ that is concerning righteousness temperance and the judgment to come vers 25. which are the principal Matters of the Gospel Thus obedience to the Faith is obedience to
righteousness of one vers 18. and the obedience of one vers 19. The Apostle is so far from speaking of our own inherent righteousness that the great scope of the Chapter is not of Sanctification but Justification and that not by a righteousness of our own but of another that is of Christ But now let us hear the Authors conclusion Christs righteousness and our own are both necessary to our salvation the first as the foundation of the Covenant the other as the condition of it Very well Faith in Christ is indeed the condition of the Covenant and in us inherent but I had thought the Author had been treating of that righteousness which is the matter of our justification and not only of the condition of the Covenant To understand what that righteousness is which is the matter of our justification we must consider what it is which we are to answer unto in the point of justification if we are only to answer unto the terms of the Gospel Covenant then indeed Faith answers thereunto but what will be the consequences of this If we are only to answer unto the terms of the Gospel Covenant then our Saviour contrary to his words came 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to dissolve the Law to untye all the Bonds of it to loosen the very Foundation of it then Justification is not in such a way as establishes the Law as the Apostle tells us Rom. 3.31 But in such a way as voides and abrogates it then all true Believers must be in a state of perfection the defect of their Graces must be no sins for they have that true Faith which answers the terms of the Gospel and to more then these they are not to answer then the Gospel the great Charter of Grace hath no pardon in it for no more is required of us but the truth of Faith and other Graces and the want of true Faith and other Graces the Gospel doth not pardon Then Christ dyed not to obtain the pardon of those sins which are consistent with Gospel-sincerity but dyed to prevent them from being sins which otherwise would have been sins and to prevent them from being pardoned by his Blood and to name but one thing more Then all the Pagans must be in a justified state for the Gospel Covenant being founded for them also they are only to answer to the terms of the Gospel and to these they have a very easie full answer that they knew them not By these things it appears that in the point of Justification we must answer not to the terms of the Gospel only but to the pure perfect Law also and to that nothing of our own imperfect Graces can respond nothing less can answer but the perfect Righteousness and Obedience of Christ which is made ours by imputation Hence the Apostle tells us That by the righteousness of one we have justification of life and by the obedience of one we are made or constituted righteous SECT IV. According to the notion of these Men Mr. Sherlock men may nay must be united to Christ while they continue in their sins Mr. Shephard tells us expresly That Obedience doth not make us Gods People or God our God but he is first our God which is only by the Covenant of Grace and hence it is that he being ours and we his we of all others are most bound to obey him We are Gods People and that by vertue of the Covenant before we obey him The same Author tells us That we are united to Christ our life not by Obedience as Adam was to God by it but by Faith that is by such a Faith of which Obedience is no part and therefore as all actions in living things come from union so all our acts of Obedience are to come by Faith from the Spirit on Christs part and Faith on ours which make the union The meaning is this We must first be united to Christ by Faith before we can do any thing that is good before this union the best actions we can do are sins which is a plain demonstration of the truth of this charge because according to this principle we can do nothing but sin before we be united to Christ hence these Men constantly place our Justification before our Sanctification that we are first accounted holy by God before we are made so now our Justification follows our union to Christ and our Sanctification follows our Justification and therefore we must first be united to Christ before we are sanctified that is before we are made holy Hence we are told that holyness is a remote end of vocation but the next end is to come to Christ And the same Author makes a speech for Christ to a Sinner more gracious than all the Gospel invitations though thou hast resisted my Spirit refused my grace wearied me with thy iniquities yet come to me this will make me amends I require nothing of thee else but to come We cannot indeed be united to Christ whilest we continue in our sins Answer in the wilful Indulgence of them neither can we be holy whilest we are separated from Christ and the influence of his Holy Spirit Mr. Shephard sets Faith in the first place and then Obedience after it as a fruit thereof and well he may do so Ye are all the Children of God by Faith in Christ Jesus Gal. 3.26 Faith makes us Gods People Obedience which comes after proves us such Without Faith it is impossible to please to God Heb. 11.6 and therefore without Faith it must be impossible to obey him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Faith is the beginning of life saith Ignatius Fides principium Christiani est Faith is the first principle Epist ad Eph. or mover in the new Creature saith St. Ambrose Laudo fructum boni operis In Psal 118. Ser. 20. sed in Fide agnosco radicem I praise the fruit of a good work but I acknowledge the root of it to be in Faith So St. Austin And a little after he saith In Psal 31 That works before Faith are but inania cursus ceberrimus praeter viam Vain things and a swift running beside the way Hence our Church in the 1. Homily of good works assures us That Faith giveth life to the Soul and that they be as much dead to God that lack Faith as they be to the World whose Bodies lack Souls that without Faith all that is done of us is but dead before God all good works are but shadows and shews of good things that out of Faith come good works that be good works indeed and without Faith no work is good before God I suppose Mr. Shephard cannot speak more fully it may seem harsh to some that before Faith in Christ there should be nothing good in us that our best actions should be sins but if we look on a wicked Man that is a Man without Faith in the Scripture-glass nothing can be plainer take him at an honest calling
The plowing of the wicked is sin Prov. 21.4 Take him in sacred or Devotional affairs His Sacrifice is an abomination Prov. 15.8 And so is his Prayer too Prov. 28.9 Whatever his outward work or posture be To the unbelieving there is nothing pure Tit. 1.15 The very mind and conscience is defiled and will be so till it be purified by Faith Mr. Shephard places Justification before Sanctification and what doth the Church of England do It tells us in the 12. Article That good works are the fruits of Faith and follow after Justification that they spring necessarily of a true and lively Faith And in the 13. Article That works done before the Grace of Christ and the inspiration of his Spirit are not pleasant to God forasmuch as they spring not of Faith in Jesus Christ Nay in the close of that Article our Church saith of such works We doubt not but they have the nature of sin As for Mr. Shephards speech for Christ come in a sense that they have in some measure resisted his Spirit refused his Grace and wearied him with their iniquities the inviting of such is no more than that of our Saviour which calls the weary and heavy laden to come to him for rest in which all are concerned except such as can without Christ earn a sanctity or holyness at the fingers ends of Nature and take a nap at home in a presumption of their own worthiness and self made righteousness But let us consider Mr. Sherlock the whole progress of the Soul to a closure with Christ the several steps to this are Conviction Compunction Humiliation and Faith which is the uniting Grace Now if there be nothing of forjaking of sin included in all this then Men must be united to Christ before they forsake their sins Now Conviction is a great sense of the evil of sin and the evil after it of its abominable accursed Nature and the Judgments which follow it and this is as it ought to be Men must be awakened to see these evils before they will reform their lives Reform nay you are out this is not the end of Conviction to reform sin that is a legal way but Compunction is the end of it well then what is this Compunction Why Compunction is first a great fear of being damned he sees death wrath eternity near to him next to this succeeds a great sorrow and mourning for sin and that which perfects this Compunction is a separation from sin this is something like but by a separation from sin you must not understand a leaving sin but such a separation as consists with living in it For it is nothing but a being willing or rather not unwilling that the Lord should take it away the Lord doth not wound the heart that the Soul should first heal it self but that it may desire the Physician the Lord Jesus to come and heal it So that all he means by separation from sin is to be content that Christ by an irresistible power should take away our sins By this Separation the Soul is cut off from the will to sin not from all no nor from any sin in the will for that must be mortified by a Spirit of holyness after the Soul is implanted into Christ Now this is down right non-sense for he must be a subtil Man who can distinguish between a will to sin and sin in the will and all that can be made of it is this that this separation is a willingness or rather not unwillingness that Christ should take away our sins against our wills and therefore he tells us That this Separation is no part of our Sanctification The whole design of this Compunction is to work humiliation in us which is the work of the Spirit whereby the Soul broken off from self-conceit and confidence submitteth and lieth under God to be disposed as he pleaseth this self-confidence is any hope of pleasing God by Reformation or Repentance or any thing he can do When Men feel this Compunction the great danger is lest they should seck ease by Repentance and Reformation if they can repent and reform they have some hopes as well they may if they do so that this will heal their wounds and pacify the Lord towards them when they see no peace in a sinful course they will try a good one But this is a dangerous mistake for while it is thus with the Soul he is uncapable of Christ For he that trusts to other things to save him or makes himself his own Saviour or rests in his duties without a Saviour that is according to this Author all those who repent and reform he can never have Christ to save him So that true Humiliation is this when the Soul feels its own inability and unworthiness that it may lye under God to be disposed of that is contented to be saved or damned as shall please God and when the Soul is at this pass it is vas capax a vessel capable of Grace And now they are made thus hollow and empty by Humiliation they are capable of receiving Christ as an hollow vessel is of receiving any thing This is a new notion of our union to Christ that it is a receiving Christ into us as an hollow vessel receives any liquor poured into it This is a Philosophical account of the nature of Humiliation that a man must have such a sense of his inability to please God that he shall never dare to be so prophane as to attempt it but must leave repentance and reformation to carnal christless men and that he may be so sensible of his unworthiness that he shall contentedly submit to God to be damned or saved as he pleases And now the Soul being thus hollow is fit to receive Christ and being grown careless of its Salvation and indifferent whether it be saved or damned for it is impossible thus to submit without being indifferent in some measure which God shall chuse it is a fit object for mercy certainly it is a very hard thing to bring any man in his wits to this and I find by this Author that God is very hard put to it to humhle the Soul thus For he is forced to irritate and stir up original corruption to stir the dunghil a very unfit office for an Holy Being that so men finding themselves sensibly grow worse and worse may despair of growing better and leave off such vain attempts and sit down humble under God Nay the Lord loads and tires and wearies the Soul by its own endeavours till it can stir no more That is when the Soul labours to repent and reform the Spirit of God which should assist such pious endeavours withdraws it self because it knows the Soul would rest therein without Christ Now I know not who suffers most by this The sinner who is thus humbled or God who thus humbles him for it must needs be as contrary to the holy merciful nature of God to use such
to wait for the Sun to have all Grace come down to us in the healing Beams of the true Sun of Righteousness Jesus Christ And as for the second thing a sense of our unworthiness so as to submit to God whether he will save or damn us it is no such strange thing to me that poor finners should lye prostrate at Gods feet acknowledging their worthiness to be for ever condemned and Gods Soveraignty in dispenfing Grace as he pleases it is no more but only to subscribe to that of the Apostle He will have mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he will he hardneth Rom. 9.8 Theodorus Cornhertus though in his life he had writ against Calvin and Beza in the point of Predestination yet at his death professed to God Se animam suam à Deo possidere quam Deo integrum sit pro suo beneplacito servare vellet an reprobare sibi nil esse quod conqueratur Either we have power in our hands to work true Faith in our selves to regenerate our own hearts or not 5 if we say we have such a power in our selves how shall those Scriptures be salved which tell us That God begets us of his own will James 1.18 That he worketh the will of his own good pleasure Phil. 2.13 That the regenerating spirit bloweth where it listeth Joh. 3.8 That faith is not of our selves but the gift of God Eph. 2.8 How shall Gods Royal Prerogative which is to make a new heart to take away the stone of it to sprinkle the clean water to put his Spirit into men as we have it Ezeck 36. ever be preserved inviolate It cannot be but if as becoms us we fay that God is the great Worker of regenerating Graces in us how can we do less than lye prostrate at his feet and pleasure for it The case is very short either Gods will must depend on Mans or Mans will must depend on Gods and one would think it very reasonable that Man a Creature a meer Receiver should depend on him who is a God and great Donor of all The Fathers in the second Arausican Council Can. 4. determine thus Si quis ut à peccato purgemur voluntatem nostram Deum expectare contendit non autem ut etiam purgari velimus per Sancti Spiritus infusionem operationem in nos fieri confitetur resistit ipsi Spiritûi Sancto You see they make Mans will hang upon Gods and not è contrà This submission to Gods will is not as if we might be indifferent whether we were saved or damned but that we must lye at Gods feet humbly confessing our desert of eternal damnation on the one hand and the Soveraignty of Gods free Grace on the other And that such a man is in his wits hear the judgement of learned Bishop Reynolds Sinful of sin 262. That man who can in secret and truth of heart willingly and uncompulsorily stand on Gods side against sin and against himself for it giving God the glory of his Righteousness if he should condemn him and of his unsearchable and rich mercy that he doth offer to forgive him I dare pronounce that man to have the Spirit of Christ for no man by nature can willingly and uprightly own damnation and charge himself with it as his due portion Thus he But saith the Author I find God is very hard put to it to humble the Soul thus For he is forced to stir up original corruption which is a very unfit office for an holy Being To which I answer God is too high to be put into an office and too wise to do that which is unfit yet in Scripture we find him withdrawing from and hardening of men The Church cries out O Lord why hast thou made us to err from thy way and hardened our hearts from thy fear Isai 63.17 Nevertheless God doth what he doth in a just decorum in a way congruous to himself so that his Holiness or any other Attribute suffers not thereby and withall in a way profitable to men When God left good Hezekiah to fall I doubt not but it was so far profitable to him as it did humble him for the pride of his heart when he withdraws and leaves the humbled sinner to the stirrings of inward corruption it hath a very merciful issue if it carry him out of himself to Christ The very withdrawings of the Spirit are by it self made use of to make the sinner hasten out of himself to Christ Mr. Shephard saith Mr. Sherlock That true Faith is the coming of the Soul not unto duties of Holiness which is obedience properly but unto Christ Which notion of our union to Christ is such that according to it wicked men who live in sin may be united to Christ But the Scripture places the formal nature of our union to Christ in a subjection to his Authority and obedience to his Laws an holy life must not only follow our union to Christ as an effect of it but must at least in order of nature go before it because by this we are united to Christ We are not real members of Christ till we sincerely obey him till our minds are transformed into his Image Our union to Christ is more or less perfect according to our attainments in true Piety and Virtue The first and lowest degree of Vnion to Christ is a belief of his Gospel which in order of Nature must go before Obedience to it But yet it includes a purpose of obeying it and in this sence we must be united to Christ before we can be holy because this belief of his Gospel is the great principle of Obedience as our Saviour tells his Disciples Abide in me and I in you as the branch cannot bring forth fruit of it self except it abide in the vine no more can ye except ye abide in me Joh. 15.4 But then our Vnion is not perfected without Obedience This makes us the true Disciples of Christ when we are fruitful in good works as he adds in vers 8. Herein is my Father glorified that you bring forth much fruit so shall you be my Disciples A belief of the Gospel and a purpose of Obedience is all can be expected from beginners but this doth not give an actual title to all the promises of the Gospel unless we actually obey it But when in the strength of this Faith we conquer the world and the flesh and improve all opportunities of doing good This makes us the Disciples of Christ indeed and heirs of Glory Nothing can be a greater dishonour to our Saviour nor a greater contradiction to his Gospel than to affirm that wicked men while they continue such are actually united to Christ and thereby have an actual right to pardon and eternal life St. John understood not this Doctrine when he told us God is light and in him is no darkness at all If we say we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness live in any
to say that which he cannot know and that against his own Soul and eternal Salvation Is there any such reprobation in Scripture as barrs out of Heaven such as by Faith venture upon Christ No surely Christ hath so far dyed for all men as to found for them that general promise whosoever believeth shall be saved This is a plain sure foundation for men to venture upon none that by Faith venture upon Christ shall be barred out of Heaven by any Decree of God because his Decree cannot clash with his Promise It is very irregular arguing to say I know not Gods Decree therefore I 'll neglect my duty St. Paul exhorts the Philippians to work out their Salvation with fear and trembling for it is God which worketh in you to will and to do of his good pleasure Phil. 2.12 13. Might the Philippians have said how do we know what Gods pleasure is or what he will work in us Why should we work at such a venture or at the pleasure of another No the fear and trembling in the Text was enough to keep them back from arguing at that rate Suppose now that there were no such thing as Election will there not be a paucity and an hard venture still Our Saviour tells us that few find the way to life Matth. 7.14 And God whose prescience is immutable eternally foresaw that it would be so and what must we do now May we deny the truth of Christs words or of Gods prescience Surely we ought not or may we argue thus Few enter into life why should I venture It s an hard venture and great odds against me May I now cry out Good God what Merchant adventurers are poor sinners Surely it doth not at all become me I must look upon the Rule in the Word and endeavour to do my duty Duties belong to us and issues to God But to pass on according to Mr. Shephard it seems assurance it self cannot secure us to which the bare recital of Mr. Shephards words will be answer enough they are these The Call of Christ is the ground by which we first believe It is a constant ground of Faith For if you come to Christ because you have assurance or because you feel such and such Graces and heavenly Impressions of Gods Spirit in you you may then many a day and year keep at a distance from Christ and lye without Christ for the feeling of Graces and assurance of favour are not constant His meaning is very plain the Call of Christ is the ground of our first believing and it is a constant ground if by after renewed acts of Faith we come to Christ because we have assurance we may many a day live without Christ for assurance is no constant thing as the Call is The Author I suppose took out a little out of Mr. Shephard not to interpret him but to sport with him Afterwards we have the Author concluding from Mr. Shephards particular Call That the general Call signifies nothing that there is no foundation for our Faith in Christ but this particular Call To which I answer The general promises of the Gospel signifie Gods will to save Believers and therefore are a sufficient foundation for a man to believe in Christ for Salvation a greater warrant we cannot have for it then Gods own Charter sealed with the Blood of his Son Jesus Christ But that which works this Faith in us is a special Call or internal Grace which shines into the heart and calls forth Faith into being But though we know not how to get into Christ Mr. Sherlock it would be some comfort to know that we are in him But this is as impossible as the other As the only foundation of our Faith in coming to Christ aocording to these mens notions is a special call of the Spirit So the only infallible assurance that we are in Christ is the testimony of the Spirit The spirit of adoption which teaches us to cry Abba Father And yet God doth not afford this Testimony to all but suffers many good Christians to walk in darkness and hides his face from them for no other reason but because they are desirous of it and would be quiet if they should know it this is somewhat hard measure But suppose you have or think you have this testimony of the Spirit how can you be sure that it is not a cheat and delusion the imposture of the Devil or of your own self-flattering imagination to satisfie this we are directed to marks Thus this infallible assurance from the testimony of the Spirit must in its last resolve be founded upon some Moral evidence As it is with the Church of Rome who after a great noise and cry of infallibility are at last forc'd to resolve their Faith into some Motives of credibility or to dance round in an endless circle Well what are the marks of our being in Christ You must enquire whether you have the Spirit of Christ And it is just as easie to know this as whether you be in Christ But are you true Believers Is your Faith of the right stamp is it wrought by the Almighty Power of God Or is it such an easie common presumptuous false faith as that which is in the generality of men This is as easie to know as any of the former For if there be such a false presumptuous faith as takes Christ when he does not belong to us and rests and relies on Christ only for pardon and salvation and yet shall never have Christ How shall we know whether our Faith be true and genuine such as will make Christ ours and the answer to this brings us to that great mark of Sanctification You must consider the effects of Faith Dr. Jacomb pag. 65. doth it purifie the Heart overcome the World work by Love are you new Creatures Is the state of your person changed from a Child of wrath to an Heir of Grace which is the thing to be proved Or is your nature changed Do you walk in newness of life Have you crucified the flesh with its lusts Do you bring forth fruit That is you must prove your justification by your sanctification your Faith by your Works I am glad it is no worse that good works and an holy life may at least put in for marks and evidences of a justified state though the truth is this is a meer complement to Holiness and as they order the matter an holy life can no more be a sign of a justified state than it can justifie us It would be some comfort to know Answer that we are in Christ But this is impossible Thus the Author Impossible Nothing plainer in Scripture we read of the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts 2 Cor. 1.12 The sealing of the holy Spirit of promise Eph. 1.13 The witness of the Spirit with our spirits that we are the children of God Rom. 8.16 But God doth not afford this testimony of the Spirit to all
good men Very true he doth not a Saint of God may walk in darkness The face of God may be hid from him And that saith Mr. Shephard because there is in many an one an heart desirous of his Love and this would quiet them if they were sure of it The Author thinks this hard measure But Mr. Shephard goes on they never came to be quieted with Gods will in case they think they shall never partake of Gods love but are above that opposite resist quarrel with that the Lord therefore intending his favour for humbled sinners hides his face till they lye low And now I suppose the measure is fair it is very fit we should know our selves to be but receivers and withall unworthy of the Mercies we receive But how do we know that it is the testimony of the Spirit indeed and not a cheat or imposture To satisfie this we are directed to marks Thus this infallible testimony of the Spirit must in its lastiresolve be founded upon moral evidence So the Author To which I answer When the Spirit witnesseth with our spirit when Gods Spirit and Mans concurr and so heaven and earth agree in it one would think it might pass without further examination The Testimony of the Spirit is such that he to whom it made certainly knows that it is the Spirit of Truth it self which bears the Testimony otherwise the Spirit it self testifies and would not be believed by him to whom the Testimony is made that is he testifies and doth not testifie if he do not make a man sure who it is that testifies The Testimony is to make us sure that we are the children of God it is to make us with confidence cry out Abba Father It is to be an earnest and seal of our Salvation and how can this be if we know not who testifies Hence St. Chrystom upon the place saith The Spirit beareth witness and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What doubt can remain Hence reverend Dr. Ward saith Parum abest à blasphemiâ dicere De certitud Grat. 221. non esse certum illum cui testimonium perhibet Spiritus Sanctus utrum testimonium illud a Spiritu Sancto sit an à diabolo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By this it appears that the Testimony of the Spirit is not such as gives only a conjectural certainty but an infallible one But to proceed What are the marks of our being in Christ Have you the Spirit of Christ This saith the Author is just as easie to know as whether you be in Christ Yet this is a mark in the Apostle If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his Rom. 8.9 Is your faith of the right stamp wrought by the Almighty Power of God This saith the Author is as easie to know as the former Yet the Apostle would have us examine our selves whether we be in the Faith that is whether we have a true genuine Faith 2 Cor. 13.5 True Faith where ever it is makes Christ to belong to him that hath it Doth Faith purifie the heart overcome the world work by love bring forth holy fruit These are as the Author confesses true marks but these men do but complement Holiness And now we must hear his reasons for it For first Holiness is not necessary to our Vnion to Christ Mr Sherlock and therefore can be no necâ—ssary sign of it We are united to Christ 〈◊〉 we are holy an unholy man may be united to Christ and how can Holiness be the only sure mark of our Vnion to Christ They tell us That Holiness doth necessarily follow Union But no man knows how long it may be before it follows yet all this while such a person is united to Christ at least this gives evidence but to one part of the question an holy life is an evidence of a man in Christ but the want of it is no evidence that a man is not in him This mark may be rejected by any one who hath no mind to it Nay secondly according to these mens principles we cannot tell whether we be holy or not till we know whether we be in Christ or not our Vnion to Christ must be an evidence of our Holiness not our Holiness an evidence of our Vnion till we are united to Christ we can do nothing to please God The best actions of christless men are but Splendida peccata glittering impieties appearing fair but odious to God because the person who does them is out of Christ Our persons must be first accepted in Christ and then our services we cannot judge of Holiness by the external performance of any duties nor by the inward sense of our minds but must first know whether we be in Christ whether our persons be accepted in him before we can tell whether any thing we do be good And this is a plain demonstration that Holiness cannot be an evidence of our Vnion to Christ because we must first know our Vnion before we can know that we are holy So much Holiness Mr. Sherlock as is included in true Faith is necessary to our Union to Christ an unholy man that is a wicked man cannot be united to Christ believers are not such but an unholy man that is one who yet hath not lead an holy life may be united to Christ and his after holy life is a sure mark of that Union because a necessary essect thereof But when doth the holy life follow that Vnion I answer immediately Thus our Church tells us in the twelfth Article That good works do spring necessarily out of a true and lively Faith insomuch that by them a lively Faith may be as evidently known as a tree discerned by the fruit The want of an holy life in the very instant of believing is not an evidence that a man is not is Christ but soon after the want of it will tell him that his Faith was but a fancy and his being in Christ but a dream The best actions of christless men are I confess as our Church tells us in the thirteenth Article not pleasant to God nay they have the nature of sin without Faith it is impossible to please God in our persons or actions our persons must first be accepted in Christ and then our services the best actions of a man not in Christ are not acceptable to God Those actions cannot be acceptable to him whose defects are unpardoned and the defects of those actions are unpardoned whilst their Agent is so But the Author from hence concludes That Holiness cannot be an evidence of our Vnion to Christ because we must first know our Vnion before we can know that we are holy To which I answer Our Union to Christ cannot be known to be so without a knowledge of Faith nor an holy life cannot be known to be so without a knowledge of Faith because without Faith neither can be in reality when we see our Faith flowing out in an holy life we see
never so much yet as long as he is in his old Sphere in corrupt unregenerate nature he lives in some one sin or other in an unregenerate heart while such Gods throne is not cannot be and therefore sins must be there Such an heart as yet not elevated by Grace to the true and immense goodness which is above hunts after an happiness in the lower Sphere of its self and the world embracing some vain Image or Shadow instead of a Deity The young man in the Gospel for all his smooth innocent life had yet a regnant World within Trajan and Antoninus the Philosopher as fair Moralists as they were were yet enemies to Christianity But a regenerate man however he groan under the indwelling sin doth not indulge his lusts his heart having found out God the true center of Blessedness rests no where else But saith Mr. Shephard an unregenerate man cannot be poor in spirit and so carried out of all duties to Christ Upon which saith the Author if an unregenerate man do good he is conscious to himself that he doth it if he have a good heart he feels it And is it so indeed If an unregenerate man may have a good heart and do that which is truly spiritually good Regeneration is altogether useless internal and supernatural principles of Grace are to no purpose Nature though lame and lapsed may do its own work But I suppose rather that all this in the unregenerate is but pride and presumption his feeling a good heart in himself but a lye and imposture But saith the Author the regenerate man is either to have no good in himself or to think he hath none either of which is an odd sign of Grace To which I answer To be a regenerate Man and to have no good in himself is not possible to think he hath none if he know he hath some is as little possible as the other The regenerated man hath a Divine Life and Principle in him yet by reason of inherent corruptneâ—s sees little or nothing in himself and is ever in dependance upon the treasures of Grace in Christ An unregenerate man may come to Christ in Profession or Ordinances but not in believing He takes not up his rest in Christ He would saith Mr. Shephard like Judas have Christ and the bag too Or as the young man have Christ and the world too He would live in his Lusts and if at last Christ would save him from Hell it would be enough But the regenerate are in love with Christ himself Epist ad Rom. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 My Love Christ was crucified and with him my love to all other things sait Ignatius and the Reverend Vsher as Mr. Baxter relates was of opinion That by the first act of Faith we receive Christs person and by a second his benefits Mr. Shephard Jaith Mr. Sherlock That men tyred and weary in themselves go to Christ to remove their sins If they get these sins subdued and removed if they find power to do better they hope to be saved here is the evidence of Sanctification whereas thou mayst be damned and go to the Devil at last though thou dost escape all the pollutions of the World and that not from thy self and thine own strength but from the knowledge of Christ Woe to you if you dye in this state with your sins mortified and subdued by Christ and the reason is because this is to come to Christ to suck juyce from him to maintain his own Berries his own stock of Graces Alas he is but the Ivy he is no Member nor Branch in this Tree And hence he never grows to be one with Christ So that Holiness and Obedience is no evidence of our Vnion to Christ though we fetch strength from Christ to do his will we may only grasp about Christ all this while as the Ivy about the Oak but never be united to him and become one with him Mr. Shephard's plain scope is no more but this Answer that poor sinners tyred with their sins should not rest in any thing no not in some power to subdue sin and do better without Union to Christ And the Scripture-Method calls for this that we should have our being in Christ put on Christ and receive Christ that we may have all benefits from him 1. Hom. of the Sacrament Hence our Church tells us That we must make Christ our own and apply his merits to our selves Thus the Learned Zanchy Tota verae justitiae De verâ dispensat vitae salutis participatio ex hâc pernecessariâ cum Christo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pendet The whole participation of Righteousness Life Salvation depends on our Vnion with Christ which is most necessary A man through the knowledge of Christ may escape the pollutions of the World that is gross sins he may learn to do better in his life but true mrtification of sins flows from our Union to Christ and is effected by the holy Spirit in Believers Holiness and Obedience such as indeed is true and spiritual doth not go before Faith and Union to Christ but follow after it and so evidence it as the Fruit doth the Root As for the Authors subjoyned exclamation Good God! into what mazes and labyrinths do these men lead poor distressed souls I must leave it to the Reader to determine whether there be any just cause for it or not The testimony of the Spirit concerns the general adoption of Christians for the sons of God Mr. Sherlock not to testifie to any particular man that he is a good Christian or in the estate of Grace It is not a private but a publick testimony given to the whole Christian Church That holy Spirit which God bestowed upon the Apostles and Primitive Christians which enabled them to work Miracles speak Languages and Prophesie was a plain argument to all the World that God now owned the Christians not the Jews for his chosen and elect people for his sons and children For this was the great dispute of those days whether Jews or Christians were the sons of God whether God now owned the Jewish or Christian Religion and the Apostles decide this Controversie by the Testimony of the Spirit for God could not give a greater Testimony to the Christian Church than the gift of the holy Spirit for it was a plain argument that he owned them for his sons when he bestowed the Spirit of his Son on them as the Apostle argues Galat. 3.2 Received ye the Spirit by the Works of the Law or by the hearing of Faith that is did God bestow his Spirit on you while you were Jews or upon your conversion to Christianity For if God bestowed his spirit on Christians This is a sufficient seal to the Christian Religion This is plain and intelligible the Testimony of the Spirit assures us that all Christians are the Sons of God and Heirs of the Promises and every mans conscience will tell him whether
other qualifications than that he is such an individual person that is the excellency of Christs love consiss in this that he loves for no reason Now I confess this is a wonderful love but wherein the excellency of it consists I cannot see I am sure we account that Man a Fool who loves at this rate we who are reasonable Creatures think that we are bound to govern all our actions and the passions of our mind too by reason and we accouut it a reproach to a Man to act either against reason or without it to do any thing of which he cannot give a reasonable account And how that should come to be the perfection of the Love of God which is a reproach to Men is above my apprehension Indeed were this true it would undermine the very foundations of Religion For the great end of Religion is to please God and to procure his love and favour but if God and Christ love for no reason then it is a vain thing for us to think of pleasing God or procuring his love by any thing we can do Whether we obey him or disobey him it is all one in this case for if he please to love us without any reason our sins cannot hinder it and if it does not please him to love us our Holyness and Obedience cannot alter him When our Acceptation with God depends wholly upon a soveraign and unaccountable will nothing we can do can hinder or promote it and therefore all Religion is in vain The foundation of this mistake is a Philosophical nicety that God must act wholly from himself and therefore must not be moved by any external cause whereas should he love us because we are holy or hate us because we are wicked his love or hatred would depend upon an external cause viz. The holyness or wickedness of Creatures which unbecomes an independent Being to depend upon any thing else The sum of which reasoning is this that because God is the first cause of all things on whom all things depend and he on nothing therefore he must love or hate his Creature without any reason but his own unaccountable will For this is all the inconvenience they can Object that when God loves or hates rewards or punishes his Creatures the reason of this difference he makes between his Creatures must be fetched from the persons themselves whom he thus loves or hates and so it must of necessity be if he have any reason at all for the reason of love or hatred ought to be in the Object not in the Person who loves or hates and yet in propriety of speech God cannot be said to depend on his Creatures or any thing without himself for the reason of his love or hatred but his own Nature is the reason of it He is infinitely Holy and therefore loves holyness and hates sin and his natural love to holyness is the reason why he loves holy Men and his natural hatred to sin is the reason why he hates wicked Men his own holyness is the reason why he loves holy Men but the holyness of the Creature is the reason why he determines his love to any particular person And if they will call this a depending on creatures we must acknowledge that God does thus depend on his Creatures in the administration of his Providence in distributions of rewards and punishments and he should not be wise holy and just good if he did not that is if he did not put such a difference between things persons as their Natures require It is a strange notion of an independent Being that he must have no other reason for what he does but his own Arbitrary will which is so far from being a perfection that it destroys all the other perfections of the Divine Nature There is a double love in God Answer A love of complacence whereby he delights in his own Holy Image in the Creature where ever he finds it And a love of Benevolence whereby he designs to bestow good things on his Creatures The first points at goodness in the Creature the other is the great origen of all good things in the Creature The first Issues out of the perfect sanctity of his Nature The other proceeds according to his Soveraign will and pleasure But then saith the Author God loves for no reason or without reason To which I answer Gods love of Benevolence is no Caecus impetus there is summa ratio in it it is irradiated with infinite wisdom but the reason of it is not in the Creature but in himself only God would redeem fallen Men not Angels but surely the reason was not in the Creature for then all the Grace Mercy and Freedom of God in that work vanishes The whole of it must proceed from the Nature of God as it respects something in the Creature and by consequence it could not fall out otherwise because God cannot deny his Nature After the Fall it is strange how God did sever and pick out some to himself out of the rest of Mankind De Pâ—pâ—â—â— Hebr. 〈◊〉 Ex Adami liberis tantùm Sethus ex hujus stirpe Noachus ex Nochi Filiis Semus ex illius posteritate Abramus ac postremò ex numerosâ Abrami sobole unus Isacus placuit electusque est Cujus Familia Ecclesiae nomen at que dignitatem ineffabili ratione velut per successionem sibi vindicaret caeterae gentes tanquam prophanae spretaeque à numine sunt So the learned Cunaeus And it will be an hard thing to find a reason in the Creature for such a strange separation God chose and set his love upon his Children of Israel above all People in the Earth he severed them from all other Nations unto himself and was the reason in the Creature No surely they must not so much as say or mutter in their heart That they had the Land for their righteousness Deut. 9.4 No God tells them that they were a stiff-necked People vers 6. but he chose and loved them because he loved them Deut. 7.7 and 8. What he did was meerly out of his good pleasure and without any reason on their part God gives the Gospel to some Nations not to others and is the reason in the Creature No the Apostle tells us That God calls us not according to our works but according to his own purpose and Grace 2 Tim. 1.9 Christ was manifested to a Thief and not to a Socrates or Plato Impenitent Corazin and Bethsaida had a visible Deity before them in Christs Miracles when poor Tyre and Sidon much nearer to Repentance had it not Matth. 11.21 Here the reason cannot be in the Creature unless we will say with Pelagius Gratiam dari secundum merita That Grace is given according to works But to come to the Church there God gives Faith and Repentance to one Man not to another and is the reason in the Creature Faith and Repentance are the very first Graces in Men
do or may receive from Christ what he hath done or suffered for us but we must love his Person purely for himself without any other considerations to endear him to us This matter is gravely stated and determined by W.B. who tells us 1. That it is a good and lawful thing to love Christ in reference to his benefits This is a very liberal grant that Gratitude which hath hitherto been accounted a great and excellent Virtue is now owned as a lawful thing 2. It is our duty to love Christ's Person This is so true that those men who love Christ for his benefits love his Person 3. The Excellency of Christ's Person is not the Object of my Faith but Christ crucified 4. Though Christ crucified be the Object of my Faith yet the personal Excellencies of Christ are the Object of my Love yea it is a more excellent thing yet to love the Person of Christ than the Benefits of Christ to have my heart drawn out in love to the Person of Christ than to have it drawn out in love to him for his Benefits Now what can be the meaning of all this but that the Excellency and Perfection of our Love to Christ consists in loving him for no reason The proper object and reason of Love is Goodness to love that which is good for nothing is the folly and degeneracy of Love and it is as foolish and impossible a task to love a person who hath been good to us not because he hath been good but for no reason Now this is the case here for if you separate the Person and personal Excellencies of Christ from the consideration of his benefits his personal Goodness from the expressions of his Love and Goodness to our selves and others it can be no Object or reason of our Love for a Goodness which doth no good or never did any or which is all one is considered as doing none is so far from being the Object of our Love that it is not the Object of our Vnderstanding For we cannot understand what that Goodness means which never did any good God challenges our Love not upon account of an imaginary Goodness of Nature which never did any good but for the real and sensible Effects of his Goodness in the works of Creation and Providence and Redemption by Christ And Christ challenges our love for the like reasons because he hath loved us and died for us and now intercedes for us and will at the last day bestow a Crown of Glory and Immortality on us but never as I can observe requires such an abstracted and Metaphysical Love to his Person without any respect to his benefits We love Christ for his Benefits Answer these are the first impulsives of our Love but our love once kindled is afterwards blown up into a purer flame by those attractive Excellencies and ravishing Beauties which are in the Person of Christ we come to love Christ for himself The Spouse in the Canticles did not only love Christ for his Shadow and sweet fruits for the Graces and Benefits communicated from him but for himself his incomparable Person who is the chiefest among ten thousand and altogether lovely Neither is this Love to Christ for himself what the Author would have it to be a Love for no reason or a Love in its folly and degeneracy But it is a Love for the greatest Reason and a Love in perfection There is a greater worthiness and so an higher attractive of our Love in the Person of Christ than in his Benefits and therefore in all reason Love is in a more high and superlative measure due to the one than to the other All the Benefits of Christ are but as so many Mediums to draw up and attract our Love to the Person of Christ and our Love in its ascent up thither must not stay or take up its final rest in Means for this would be to pervert the nature of Means and transform them into Ends but it must terminate in Christ the great End and Center Should we love the Benefits more than the Person of Christ we should be lovers of our selves more than lovers of Christ our Love would then return and circulate into our selves and there rest and center ut in ultimo termino which is no less than Idolatry If we are truly espoused to Christ we will not love the Rings and Jewels more than himself nay nor so much The true noble Lover doth not acquiesce in other gifts but in Christ the Gift above all other gifts But saith the Author A Goodness which doth no good or never did any is so far from being the object of our Love that it is not the object of our Vnderstanding To which I answer It 's true if God had never done good that is had never created a Creature he could not have been the Object of any created Love or Understanding for there being no Creation there could have been no such thing as any created Love or Understanding however he had been an Object for a greater Love and Understanding than any created one even for his own infinite Love and Understanding Had he never created a Creature he would have been for ever happy by amatorious and intellectual Reflections upon himself and his own Perfections It is true that God calls for our Love upon account of Creation Providence and Redemption but it is due to him for himself for his Divine Excellency and All-sufficiency Could we imagine what is impossible that there were a rational Creature who never received any good from God upon such a supposal that Creature would be bound to love God for his intrinsecal Goodness and Excellency or else the Will of that Creature might which is very strange pass by the Supreme Good unsaluted But to leave that Supposition now we have God and many blessings before our eyes we are bound to love God above all as the complete and adequate Object of our Love Should we love any Blessings without or above him it would be Cupiditas Lust which is the formale of every sin and not Love I conclude with that of Bonaventure Li. 3. distinct 29. quest 2. Secundùm Charitatis legem impossibile est aliquid plus vel aequaliter Deo amare Charitas enim quia diligit Deum ut summum bonum diligit eum super omnia quia diligit Deum ut finem ultimum diligit eum propter se Blessings may be motives to us to love God but they are not to be loved as the supreme End or Good that is God only in his infinite Goodness and Excellency upon account of these all Worship and among the rest Love is due to him Indeed these men seem not to understand themselves Mr. Sherlock for when you enquire what this Person of Christ is which is the Object of our Love then they describe his Beauty and perfections the Comeliness of his Person the sweetness of his Disposition his great Riches that he