as Mediator could not be imputed to us as though we had done it though the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or fruits of it are because we were never designed to be Mediators and the Righteousness of a Mediator is as improper to be imputed to those who are not Mediators as it is to impute the Righteousness of a Prince to a Beggar The righteousness of every man consists in the discharge of those duties and offices which belong to his state condition and relatious of life not in doing those things which he is not concerned to do and therefore that the Righteousness of Christ might be fit to be imputed to us as our Righteousness he was forced to consider him not as Mediator but as a private person made subject to the Law who did whatever was required of us by vertue of any Law though this too was impossible for he could not at the same time act so many different and opposite parts as there are relations and conditions of men in the World and yet when he thought on 't again he found that it was not the Righteousness of a private person that would avail us though it were never so perfect because we have no way to come at it to make it ours but only the Righteousness of a Mediator who did whatever he did for us and in our stead and so he wheels about again and tells us that though what Christ did as a man subject to the Law did not belong to the Law of his Mediation yet he did it as Mediator because he was a Mediator who did it and thus he is caught in the Net and Labyrinth of his own making and the more he turns and windes himself the faster it holds him A Mediator who acts as a Mediator in a private capacity as a man subject to the Law I shall certainly believe as they say some Country-people do that Logick is Conjuring if it can reconcile such palpable contradictions It is very ominous thus to stumble at the threshold but though Mediator and not a Mediator be contradictory terms which Learned men say cannot be reconciled yet let us forgive him that slip and see how he proves that whatever Christ did is reckoned to us as done in our stead and all the reason I can find in his Discourse may be reduced to three Heads first that Christ was under no obligation to do it himself secondly that there r can be no other reason assigned why he did it at all but that he did it for us and thirdly that this was absolutely necessary it should be so First That Christ was under no obligation to obey these Laws himself and to make this appear he discourses particularly both of the Law of our Creation and the Ceremonial Law given to the Iews As for the first the Law of Creation that comprehends those eternal Laws which result from the essential differences of good and evil which all Mankind are bound to observe by the very frame and constitution of their natures now he dares not deny that Christ was bound to obey this Law for himself but then his obedience he says was voluntary and what of that for so the obedience of every good man is for by voluntary he tells us he doth not mean that it was meerly arbitrary and at his choice whether he would yield obedience to it or not but on supposition of his undertaking to be a Mediator it was necessary it should be so but he voluntarily and willingly submitted unto it and so became really subject to the commands of it and is it not very plain now that Christ was not obliged to obey these Laws because he willingly submitted to them But certainly he means something more by this voluntary than he could tell how to express and all that I can guess is that whereas we are bound to obey these Laws antecedentally to our own choice it was not so with him for his obligation was only consequential upon his being born and becoming Man which was his own choice and yet even then as he tells us as he was Mediator God and Man he was not by the Institution of that Law obliged to it being as it were exempted and lifted above that Law by the Hypostatical Union Now this is very profound reasoning for the meaning of it is this that Christ had not been bound to live like a man unless he had become man and yet I can grant something more that it was impossible he should have lived like a man discharged all the duties of a man without being man but when he chose to be a man there was no need to chuse any more for then he was bound by the Laws of his Nature to discharge all the duties of a man for himself But how could he be exempted from this Law though it be but as it were and raised above it by being Mediator God and Man when the Doctor himself acknowledges two lines after that upon supposition of his being Mediator it was necessary it should be so that is that he should yield obedience to the Law now not to be obliged by the Institution of the Law as Mediator and that it should be necessary for him to obey the Law as Mediator are at so great a distance that it may serve for another tryal of skill to reconcile them But Secondly Though we suppose that Christ as Man was bound to yield obedience to the Laws of the Creation yet the Doctor observes that this is the only Law he could be liable to as a Man for an innocent man in a Covenant of works as he was needed no other Law nor did God ever give any other Law to such persons the Law of Creation is the only Law that an innocent Creature is liable to with what Symbols of the Law God is pleased to add But now Iesus Christ yielded perfect obedience to all those Laws which came upon us by the occasion of sin as the Ceremonial Law yea those very Institutions that signified the washing away of sin and repentance from sin as the Baptism of John which he had no need of himself this therefore must needs be for us This now looks something like though I fear it will prove like all the rest that is to no purpose for though the Doctor takes it for granted yet I would willingly have had some proof of it that an innocent man can be bound by no other Law than the Law of Creation especially since he acknowledges which is a great favour that God might add what Symbols he pleased to that Law for I suppose he remembred the Tree of Life and the Tree of knowledge of good and evil now I know not what these Symbols are but positive Laws and such the Ceremonial Laws were and if God may require the obedience of an innocent man to one positive Law I see no reason why he may not if he please enjoyn twenty such Laws by the same Authority But they are
account with God than ignorance unless it be to aggravate their sins and their condemnation SECT II. Of acquaintance with the Person of Christ. AFter this plain account wherein the Knowledge of Christ consists the sum of which is that to know Christ is to understand his Gospel which contains all those revelations he made of God's will it will be necessary to examine another notion of the Knowledge of Christ very distinct from this which contains a greater secret than at first one would imagine and that is an acquaintance with the Person of Christ which if we will believe some men is the only fountain of saving knowledge I shall not envy the Author the glory of this discovery and therefore shall honestly confess where I had it viz. in a Book Entitled Communion with God the Father Son and Holy Ghost each Person distinctly Written by Iohn Owen D. D. And that I may not do this Author wrong I must tell you what he means by acquaintance with Christ's Person an account of which we have in digression 2. pag. 87. of the excellency of Christ Iesus Where he tells us that Christ is not only the Wisdom of God but made wisdom to us not only by teaching us wisdom that is by the Doctrines he preached and those revelations he hath made of God's will as he is the great Prophet of the Church but also because by the 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 and Revelations of Christ to his Person Coll. 2. 3. For in him dwell all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge So that our acquaintance with Christ's Person in this man's Divinity signifies such a knowledge of what Christ is hath done and suffered for us from whence we may learn those greater deeper and more saving Mysteries of the Gospel which Christ hath not expresly revealed to us for so he adds soon after that these properties of God his pardoning mercy c. Christ hath revealed 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 wherein 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 Iesus Christ as he explains himself So that it seems the Gospel of Christ makes a very imperfect and obscure discovery of the nature and Attributes and will of God and the methods of our recovery we may thoroughly understand whatever is revealed in the Gospel and yet not have a clear and saving knowledge of these things unless we gain a more intimate acquaintance with the Person of Christ. This indeed advances the Person of Christ very much but is no great commendation of his Gospel and prophetick office It sets up a new rule of Faith above the Gospel viz. an acquaintance with Christ's Person in whom dwell all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge But that you may better understand the whole mystery of this Acquaintance with the Person of Christ I shall first show you what additions these men make to the Gospel of Christ from an acquaintance with his Person and secondly show you what an unsafe way of arguing this is and how prejudicial to the Christian Religion First to show you what additions these men make to the Gospel of Christ from an acquaintance with his Person And I confess I am very much beholden to this Author for acknowledging whence they fetch all their Orthodoxy and Gospel Mysteries for I had almost pored my eyes out with seeking for them in the Gospel and could never find them but I learn now that indeed they are not to be found there unless we be first acquainted with the Person of Christ. This is an argument well worth considering and if this discourse should prove long as I fear it will I doubt not but the usefulness of it will be a sufficient reward both to the Writer and Reader And since I owe this discovery to Dr. Iohn Owen I shall confine my self to his method who in the place above-mentioned tells us that the sum of all true wisdom and knowledge may be reduced to these three heads First The knowledge of God his nature and properties Secondly The knowledge of our selves with reference to the will of God concerning us Thirdly Skill to walk in Communion with God In these three is summed up all true wisdom and knowledge and not any of them is to any purpose to be obtained or is manifested but only in and by the Lord Christ. Where By is fallaciously added to include the Revelations Christ hath made whereas his first undertaking was to show how impossible it is to understand these things savingly and clearly notwithstanding all those Revelations God hath made of himself and his will by Moses and the Prophets and by Christ himself without an acquaintance with his Person But to let that pass I shall begin with the knowledge of God his nature and properties and I shall not particularly examine every thing he says but principally take notice of those peculiar discoveries of the nature of God which the World was ignorant of before and of which Revelation is wholly silent but are now clearly and savingly learnt from an Acquaintance with Christ's Person The light of nature and the works of Creation and Providence and those manifold Revelations God hath made of himself to the World especially that last and most perfect Revelation by Iesus Christ our Lord assure us that God is infinite in all perfections that he is so powerful that he can do whatever he pleases so wise that he knows how to order every thing for the best so good that he desires and designs the happiness of all his Creatures according to the capacity of their natures so holy that he hath a natural love for all good men and will not fail to reward them but hates all sin and wickedness and will as certainly punish all obstinate and incorrigible Sinners but yet that he is very patient and long-suffering towards the worst of men and uses various methods of kindness and severity to reclaim them and is as ready to pardon them when they return to their duty as a kind Father is to receive an humble and penitent Prodigal These properties of God are plainly revealed in the Scripture without any further acquaintance with the Person of Christ And had Christ never appeared in the World yet we had reason to believe that God is thus 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 the Appearance of Christ did not first discover the nature of God to us but only gave us a greater expression of God's goodness than ever we had before confirms us in the belief of what we had
of his body they are secure to Eternity For nothing that ever was a Member can be lost to Eternity for is Christ divided can he lose a Member of his body then his body is not perfect No no fear not O ye Saints neither sin nor Satan can dissolve your Union with Christ but what if sin should make them no Saints would not that endanger the dissolveing of this Union For as the same Author sweetly reasons if any branch be pluckt away from Christ it is either because Christ is not able to keep it or because he is willing to lose it and why not because it will not stay he is able surely to keep it for he is strengthned with the Godhead and he is not willing to lose it for why then should he shed his bloud for it And as another great acquaintance of Christs speaks Weakness that is no strength no Grace no nor so much as sense of poverty do not debar us from God's mercy and the reason is very precious and convincing for the Husband is bound to bear with the Wife as the weaker Vessel and shall we think God will exempt himself from his own Rules and not bear with his weak Spouse Christ hath taken upon him to purge his Spouse and make her fit for himself so that if she be not purged and cleansed and made fair and lovely whose fault can it be but his own and surely that can be no just reason for a divorce Thus you see what it is to come to Christ and accept of him and close with him the result of which is so far as I can understand it to be content to be saved by Christ without being either humble or holy fair or beautiful any otherwise than as he is pleased to make us so by his satisfaction for our sins and the imputation of his righteousness to us Let us now consider what duties are consequent upon such a union and closure of the Soul with Christ and they are consequential conjugal affections As first a mighty love for her Saviour and head and Husband the Soul must be enamoured with the beauty and loveliness and preciousness of Christ must form pleasant and charming ideas of him and feel great ravishments and transports of passion for him You must be sick of love to Christ O ye Saints and let him lye as a bundle of Myrrhe always between your Breasts Christ is maximè diligibilis as the Schoolmen speak he is the very abstract and Quintessence of beauty he is a whole Paradise of delight he is the flower of Sharon enriched with orient Colours and perfumed with the sweetest savour O wear this flower not in your bosoms but in your hearts and be always smelling to it and show your love to this lovely Saviour You must delight in his embraces and thirst after a more intimate acquaintance with him you must never be satisfied one moment without him but must follow him from one Ordinance to another and never be satisfied unless you meet with Christ and enjoy Communion with him in Ordinances this is the Foundation of the Saints love to Ordinances that there they meet with the beloved of their Souls and enjoy the sweet caresses and endearments of his love there they hear of his beauty and loveliness and riches and fulness and alsufficiency and though Evangelical truths will not down with a natural heart such an one had rather hear some quaint point of some vertue or vice stood upon than any thing in Christ yet when the Grace of God hath altered him than of all truths the truths of Christ savour best those truths that come out of the mouth of Christ and out of the Ministry concerning Christ they are most sweet of all Such sanctified Souls and Ears loath all dull insipid moral discourses which are perpetually inculcating their duty on them and troubling them with a great many rules and directions for a good life which he is pleas'd to call the quaint Points of Vertue and Vice for this is not to enjoy Christ in Ordinances they go away from such entertainment without having met with the beloved of their Soul without hearing any news from him or having the least glympse of his beauty and perfections which is a plain contradiction to the nature and design of Ordinances which are only for our enjoyment of Communion with Jesus Christ. That is to unload our Consciences and disburden our sins on him in our Confessions and to beg of him the imputation of his righteousness to make us lovely and to put our Souls into some raptures and amorous passions to him and to hear some good news from him by his Ministers how much he loves us and longs after us how pittiful he is to us ready to overlook all our miscarriages and cover all our deformities with his own beauty and loveliness and to take us to the enjoyment of himself that where he is we also may be perpetually to behold his glory and solace our selves in his love Secondly another consequential conjugal Act is obedience to our spiritual Husband a duty which few Wives care for and the truth is though the Gospel of Christ be very plain and express in exacting this from them and inculcates it so much that it savours too strong of a legal spirit and dispensation yet it is very hard to find a proper place for it in this new Religion or to deduce it from an acquaintance with Christs Person For this is not necessary at all to our coming to Christ and closing with him nay it is a great hindrance to it 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 the beauty of Christ are holy with his holiness we are delivered from the guilt of sin by his expiation he must look to it to see the debt discharged which he hath now taken upon himself and we are righteous with his righteousness which gives us an actual right to glory and we need no righteousness of our own to save us which were to suppose a defect in the righteousness of Christ so that how obedience should come in is hard to say It is concluded on all hands by those who are most intimately acquainted with the Person of Christ that it is but a consequential duty that which ought to follow our Espousals with Christ and Justification by him as a fruit and effect of it but yet the reason of it is not evident Some tell us that it is due upon account of gratitude and thankfulness to our Saviour which I cannot so well understand 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 Especially considering that this is hardly reconcileable with that essential condition of accepting Christ
Humane nature in Christ and that the Relation which this Righteousness of Christ hath to the Grace we receive from him is this that thereby he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fit to do all that he had to do for us for without this he could not have actually fulfilled that Righteousness which was required at his hand nor have been a compleat and perfect Sacrifice c. So that this habitual inherent Righteousness of Christ is not imputed to us but was his own proper Righteousness But secondly There is the actual obedience of Christ which was his willing chearful obediential performance of every thing duty and command that God by vertue of any Law whereto we were subject and obnoxious did require and moreover to the peculiar Law of the Mediator Let us then first consider the peculiar Law of the Mediator which he tells us respected himself meerly so that we have nothing to do with this neither and contains all those acts and duties of his which were not for our imitation he instances in his obedience which he showed in dying though St. Iohn the Divine and I think the greater of the two tells us that we must imitate him in this also must lay down our lives for the Brethren as Christ died for us Iohn 1. 3. 16. and S. Paul tells us that we must be conformed to the Death and Resurrection of Christ Rom. 6. which sounds very like an imitation though in the next page he excepts the Case of dying of his passive obedience and tells us that all the rest of his obedience to the Law of mediation is not imputed to us as though we had done it So that by the Law of Mediation he understands whatever Christ was bound to do as our Mediator whatever was proper to his Mediatory Office all this though sometimes when he better thinks of it he excepts dying is not imputed to us as though we had done it I hope we shall find something at last to be imputed to us and yet there is nothing left now But thirdly That which concerns him in a private capacity as a man subject to the Law and now whatever was required of us by vertue of any Law that he did and fulfilled and this is that actual obedience of Christ which he performed for us This methinks is very strange that what he did as Mediator is not imputed to us but what he did not as our Mediator but as a man subject to the law that is imputed to us and reckoned as if we had done it by reason of his being our Mediator and it is as strange to the full that Christ should do whatever was required of us by vertue of any law when he was neither Husband nor Wife nor Father Merchant or Tradesman Seaman or Souldier Captain or Lieutenant much less a temporal Prince or Monarch and how he should discharge the duties of these several relations for us which are required of us by certain Laws when he never was in any of these relations and could not possibly be in all is an argument which may exercise the subtilty of Schoolmen and to them I leave it Having now discovered what that Righteousness is which Christ was to fulfil for us as our Mediator viz. whatever was required of us by vertue of any law whether it concerned us in general as men or had respect to the various relations conditions and circumstances of our lives for each of these have their proper duties belonging to them setting aside that difficulty of proving that Christ did what he never did let us consider how the Dr. proves that what Christ did he did for us and in our stead and here he makes use of a little reason and a great deal of Scripture to as little purpose And to prepare the way for his reasons I find the Dr. much puzled and I do not wonder at it to prove that Christ acted as Mediator in those things which did not concern the law of his Mediation which he did as a private man subject to the law for he tells us that of this expression as Mediator there is a double sense It may be taken strictly as relating solely to the law of the Mediator and so Christ may be said to do as Mediator only what he did in obedience to that law that is only what he did as Mediator which is a pretty observation but in the sense now insisted on that is not strictly as Mediator but as not Mediator whatever Christ did as a man subject to the Law he did as Mediator because he did it as part of the duty incumbent on him who undertook so to be the meaning of which is that he who was Mediator being bound to do such things though not as Mediator but as a man subject to the law yet he did them as Mediator because he was a Mediator who did them which is just as good an argument as it would be to prove that every Embassadour eats and drinks and sleeps as an Embassadour because though this be no part of his Embassy yet he is an Embassadour who does it which is such an exposition of Quâ as the subtilest Schoolman of them all never yet thought of But there is another objection which troubles the Doctors Head for since it is the actual obedience of Christ which is imputed to us he finds it difficult to distinguish the Active and Passive obedience of Christ for every Act almost of Christs obedience from the blood of his Circumcision to the blood of his Cross was attended with sufferings so that his whole life in that regard might be called a death this is a very subtil objection but observe the answer that looking upon his willingness and obedience in it it may be distinguished from his sufferings peculiarly so called and termed his active obedience this is a strange solution of it for now it will be as hard to find out what the passive obedience of Christ was for as I remember the Scripture tells us that he was as willing and chearful in submitting to Death as in any other Act of obedience and I am sure our Saviour himself tells us that he laid down his life and no man took it from him which argues some good degree of willingness what he said in the page before is a much better answer that doing is one thing and suffering another they are in divers Predicaments and cannot be coincident As for this last scruple the Dr. might very well have spared it but that a man so well furnished with the knowledge of Predicaments may venture upon any thing but the former difficulty of Christs doing those things as Mediator which did not belong to the Laws of his Mediation is a very material one and requires great skill in Logick to get rid of it but however it is wisely done to make a show of saying something to that which cannot be answer'd for he was sensible that what Christ did purely
the more you use it the more you prize it and the more you prize it the more you love it if you have a good friend the more you use him the more you prize him and the more you prize him the more you love him if you have a good Horse the more you use him the more you prize him c. if you have a good Knife the more you use it c. if you would love Christ use him much and then the more you will prize him and the more you will love him Now to let pass the rudeness of the Comparisons this using Christ must signifie his benefits and to prize and love Christ much because we use him much is to love him because we make great advantage of him and receive many benefits from him which is neither better nor worse than to love him for his benefits The occasion of all this contradiction and confusion in these mens discourses is that they do not distinguish between loving the benefit and loving the person upon account of his benefits It must indeed be acknowledged to be very bruitish and barbarous to delight in the gift and to take no notice of the giver to solace our selves in the effects of the divine bounty and goodness and to make no returns of love and thankfulness and duty to God this is to love the benefit but not the person who bestows this benefit but those blessings and benefits we receive from God and Christ are the true reasons why we are bound to love them and could we be supposed to love God and Christ for no reason or as these men phrase it purely for themselves without respect to those many blessings we have received from them it would not be accepted because this is not a reasonable love but an unaccountable and foolish passion The love we owe to God and Christ is no other than gratitude because God loved us first and our love is only a return of his now thankfulness and gratitude includes a necessary respect to those blessings and benefits we have received it is peculiar to God who wants nothing and can receive nothing from his Creatures to love without any respect to benefits but the love of indigent and dependent Creatures is a love of thankfulness is a grateful acknowledgment of those many blessings we receive from God Secondly These men oppose our love to the person of Christ to our love to our selves the first destroys the reason and the object of our love and this destroys the principle of it it is made the Character of a wicked man who wants an inward principle of love to God and Christ that though he seeks to honour God never so much yet all that he doth is done out of love to himself and therefore God abhors all that he performs All the good things such a wicked man doth are for himself either for self credit or self-ease or self content or self-safety he sleeps prays hears speaks professeth for himself alone hence acting always for himself he committeth the highest degree of Idolatry makes himself a God c. Hence the same Author thus exhorts Sinners away then out of your selves to the Lord Iesus go to him and take hold on him not with the hand of presumption and love to thy self to save thy self but with the hand of Faith and love to him to honour him and a little after describing the easie ways to Heaven all which lead to Hell he reckons among the rest the way of self-love whereby a man fearing terribly he shall be damned useth diligently all means whereby he shall be saved Here is the strongest difficulty of all to row against the stream to hate a mans self our own Souls and eternal Salvation and then to follow Christ fully now is not this a hard case that before we can love God and Christ as we ought we must root out the very principle of all love that we must learn to hate Salvation and eternal happiness before we can close with Christ for Salvation he might well say that this is the strongest difficulty of all for indeed it is impossible love to our selves is the foundation of our love to all other things even to God himself he that does not love himself will love nothing else he that hates himself and his own Soul and despises eternal Salvation will not care for Christ nor Salvation by him all the motives and arguments of the Gospel to perswade us to love and fear and obey God are founded on self-love for how is it possible that we should be affected with a due sense of Gods goodness to us that we should be excited and quickned by the hopes of such great rewards that we should be restrain'd and govern'd by the fears of punishment if we did not love our selves if we did not care what became of us whether we were happy or miserable for ever It is a vain thing to perswade a man not to love himself for this is as natural and necessary as it is for the fire to burn or Sun to shine it is not matter of our choice it is not in our power to do otherwise and all that such discourses as these can do is either to make men Hypocrites to pretend to do that which they cannot do or to make honest men who cannot thus cheat and delude themselves despair of their Salvation because they cannot find themselves contented without Salvation that Christ without Comfort and without Salvation cannot satisfie them It is true when men set up self in opposition to God when self-love tempts them to disobey God to despise his Counsels to renounce their Faith and Religion this is a very vicious and mistaken self-love such men neither love themselves nor God in a proper sense because it is our interest as well as duty to obey God such men are Idolaters as our Author speaks because they set up self above God and in opposition to him but when our love to our selves teaches us to love God and in all things to submit our selves to his will and pleasure we do as we ought to do and they who separate our love to God from our love to our selves from the care of our own happiness and Salvation do plainly declare that they neither understand the nature of man nor the Gospel of Christ. Thirdly They oppose our love to Christ to our own duties that is they oppose our love to Christ to the most proper and natural expression of our love to him herein Dr. Owen places the chastity of our affections to Christ which you know is a great marriage duty in not taking any thing as our own righteousness into our affections and esteem for those ends and purposes for which we have received Christ and God forbid that any Christian should for our own righteousness and duties cannot be our Mediators and Advocates cannot expiate for our past sins nor merit Heaven for us which Christ hath