their spiritual Guides and Rulers and in concord and unity among themselves For if our union to Christ consist in our subjection to him as our Lord and this authority is not immediately exercised by Christ but by Bishops and Pastors it follows that we cannot be united to Christ till we unite our selves to the publick societies of Christians and submit to the publick instructions Authority and Discipline of the Church Christ hath left the visible and external conduct of his Church to Bishops and Pastors Very well Answer But the internal Scepter and Rule over hearts is in his own hand only and therefore the Papists who make the Bishop of Rome Head of the Church secundum exteriorem gubernationem are yet so modest as to leave Christ to be the only Head secundum interiorem insluxum Our union to Christ is an internal spiritual one made by the Spirit and Faith such as cannot consist in any thing external such as subjection to Ecclesiastical Governours who have the visible conduct is Hence the Reverend Vsher tells us Without that quickning Spirit Serm. before the Commons 1620. no external communion with Christ or his Church can make a man a true member of his mystical body this being a most sure principle that he which hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of his Rom. 8.9 A wicked man may be subject to Ecclesiastical Government yet while such is not cannot be a member of Christ or his mystical body Bellarmine himself was so struck with the evidence of this truth that he confessed That wicked men are but membra mortua arida quae solum adhaerent reliquis externâ conjunctione non de Eeclesiâ nisi secundum apparentiam exteriorem putativè non verè that is they are no members at all which makes it clear that our union to Christ stands not in subjection to Ecclesiastical Governours and what for such a thing is possible if the Ecclesiastical Governour be a wicked man himself Is it imaginable that the union of one wicked man to another should produce an union to Christ Or what if such a case should fall out as once did when under the Emperour Basiliscus Evag. Hist L. 3. no less than five hundred Bishops condemned the Council of Chalcedon It would be very hard in such a dismal lapse to say that all the Christians under them had without any default in themselves lost their union with Christ and yet we must say so unless we allow that union to be made and supported by the internal bonds of the Spirit and Faith Schismaticks are in the Church Mr. Sherlock just as Rebels are in a Kingdom not as parts of it but enemies The Apostle tells us wherein the unity of the Church consists In Eph. 4.16 Christ is the Head from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth according to the effectual working in the measure of every part making increase of the body to the edifying it self in love That is The supreme power is invested in Christ as Head to whom the Church is obedient and subject but to make this union firm and lasting there must be a regular subordination of the several members and a mutual discharge of Christian offices which advances their growth in Grace and especially in love this supposes a visible society of Christians professing the Faith and living in communion with each other if there be no such visible Society as in persecution or degeneracy of the Church Our union to Christ consists in an acknowledgment of his Authority and Subjection to his Laws which makes us members of the universal Church but when there is a visible Church we are under an obligation of communion because herein our Subjection to the Authority of Christ and our Vnion to him consists Schism is the concern of visible Churches Answer but that place Eph. 4. speaks not of visible Churches which are made up of believers and unbelievers but of the Church Catholick made up of Believers and Saints only This is plain the Church Catholick is that whole body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fitly joined together all being Saints in it but in the visible Church there are believers and unbelievers who can no more stand in harmony than light and darkness Christ and Belial the Temple of God and Idols In the Church Catholick there is an effectual working in every part but in the Church visible there is no such energy in the wicked And so in that parallel place Eph. 2.20 The Church Catholick is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That whole Building fitly framed together which groweth unto an holy Temple in the Lord But in the Church visible the wicked grow not into a Temple nay there is not a stone of the spiritual Building laid in them And Eph. 1.23 The Church Catholick is not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not only the body but fulness of Christ Every member of it helps as it were to fill up the mystical body but in the Church visible the wicked do not complete the body but corrupt it they do not adorn but deform it I have before shewed that our union to Christ stands not in communion with a visible Church or its Rulers It is made by internal and spiritual ligatures and is invariably one and the same whether there be a Church visible or not But saith the Author We are under an obligation of Communion with a Church visible when there is one But it is one thing what our Duty is and another what constitutes our union with Christ it is our duty to be subject to civil Magistrates but I suppose our union to Christ consists not in it it is our duty to hear the Ministers of Christ Luke 10.16 But our union to Christ doth not consist in it indeed it is a sacred Ordinance which God is pleased to use to bring us to Christ but the only proper immediate bands of that union are the Spirit and Faith If any particular Church apostatize from the Faith of Christ Mr. Sherlock we are then under the same necessity of deserting their communion as we are of obeying the Laws and submitting to the Authority of our Lord and Master We must indeed desert an apostate Church Answer but if as our Author holds our union to Christ consists in communion with a visible Church then upon our departure from it though never so just our union to Christ must fail Which yet I think can never be the lot of a true believer he is part of that Church built on the Rock against which the gates of Hell shall not prevail Matth. 16.18 Part of that building which is an holy Temple an habitation of God through the Spirit Eph. 2.21.22 and that Spirit makes and maintains that union This Political Vnion betwixt Christ and his Church Mr. Sherlock may be either only external and visible and so hypocritical Professors may be said to be
are By our Marriage to Christ his personal excellencies cannot be ours though his person were In Marriages there are private contracts and the truth is Christ hath not made such an absolute settlement of himself upon us as these men dream he hath for the Gospel contains the Articles of this Marriage and there we must learn to what purposes and upon what conditions Christ gives himself to us and must challenge no more from Christ by vertue of our Marriage to him than what the Gospel the Marriage Covenant promises and we find nothing there of his personal Righteousness to be made ours And for what they tell us That a woman under covert is not liable to an arrest at Law but all must fall upon her Husband It is true as to matters of debt but does not extend to crimes if a woman kill or rob her being under covert secures her not from the Gallows How secure soever any man may fancy himself of his Marriage to Christ I would nâ—t advise him to venture too much upon it for if he be guilty of any gross wilful sin there is some danger that the Law or Gospel may condemn him unless he timely repent and reform When the Scriptures calls Christ our Husband and the Church his Spouse it means no more but that Christ is our Head and Governour who rules his Church with as great kindness tenderness and compassion as an Husband exerciseth towards his Wife and that we are to pay the same Love Duty and Obedience to Christ that Wives owe to their Husbands And here we must have done with the Metaphor unless we will turn Religion into a Romance Christ being our Husband his Righteousness is ours Answer the Law cannot take hold of us our Husband must be responsable for our faults But this is a very hard Law saith the Author and the Husband in a very ill case In truth our Husband though the eternal Son of God was made under the Law wounded bruised cast into a bloody sweat made a curse and as the Septuagint hath it Isai 55.3 he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man set in the stroke of Gods wrath But all this he was not by chance or fortune but out of choice and unparallelled Love to his Spouse The essentials of Marriage lie in a narrow room a consent per verba de praesenti does it but the just necessary consequents of it are as the Civilians tells us Consortium omnis vitae divini humani juris communicatio the Wife participates of his sacred and civil good things neither can it be otherwise where there is as there is in Marriage such an intimate union of minds and bodies there must needs be a communio bonorum nature and reason tells us that the Wife in so near an union must have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 alimentum indumentum food and raiment out of the Husbands estate Nay and all things in a decorum thereunto and can we think that Christ should do less for his Spouse when her necessities exceed all those in nature Will he who infinitely transcends all humane Relations leave his Spouse to the rags of her own Righteousness or suffer her to perish in an eternal prison for debt and that when he hath fulfilled the Righteousness and bore the curse of the Law on purpose to cloth her and satisfie for her The whole Book of Canticles is a divine Ditty which under the parable of Marriage streams all along as a full torrent of Spiritual Love interchangeably passing between Christ and his Church Well might the Doctor bring his proof from thence Christ calls his Spouse all fair and without spot Cant. 4.7 She was not so naturally but by Marriage neither is she so in this life by inherent Graces but by the Righteousness of Christ put upon her by a gracious imputation Christ calls her from Lebanon from the top of Amana Shenir and Hermon from the lyons dens from the mountains of the Leopards vers 8. That is from the brutish lusts and idolatries of the World and he calls her thus Come with me with me my Spouse as if he had said that he would provide for her as a Spouse and therefore she should come away with him But saith the Author Personal virtues in the Husband were never settled on the Wife for a Joynture by our Marriage to Christ his personal excellencies cannot be made over to us To which I answer the Righteousness of Christ cannot be made ours so as to inhere in us But it may be made ours by imputation or if not neither can his blood be imputed to us and by consequence there can be no such thing as satisfaction or redemption through his Blood But for the truth of imputed Righteousness these men desire to appeal no further than the Articles or Marriage Covenant contained in the Gospel beyond this they desire to claim nothing from Christ their Husband and Saviour But saith the Author A woman under covert is not liable to debts but she is to crimes I answer Our debts are crimes and that above Felonies they are High-treasons against the God of Heaven and if these fall not on our Husband Christ they must fall upon us and then who where is the man that can stand before the Divine Tribunal What room can there be for the least drop of mercy or forgiveness Remarkable is the form that in Anselms time was used in the Visitation of the sick the weak man is there directed thus Si Dominus Deus te voluerit judicare dic Domine mortem Domini nostri Jesu Christi objicio inter me tuum judicium alitèr tecum non condendo si tibi dixerit quia peccator es dic Domine mortem Domini nostri Jesu Christi pono inter me mea peccata He was not to contend with God but to put the death of our Lord Jesus Christ between himself and God's Tribunal and to put it between himself and his sins unless our Husband had undertaken to discharge our debts we could never have had any possibility of Salvation Christ and Believers are legally united Mr. Sherlock Dr. Jacomb tells us That Christ is the Saints 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Surety he struck hands with God as the words imports put himself into their stead took their debt upon himself and bound himself upon this account to make satisfaction to God Now in the Law the debtor and surety are but one person the Law looks on them as one and makes no difference between them and therefore both are equally liable to the debt and if the one pay it is as much in the eye of the Law as if the other had paid it Thus it is with Christ and us he is our Surety he took our debt upon himself engaged to pay what we owed upon this Christ and we are but one person before God and accordingly he deals with us for he makes over our sins to Christ and
gift of God hence it is called the fruit of the Spirit Gal. 5.22 and Faith of the operation of God Col. 2.12 It is not of our selves it is the gift of God Eph. 2.8 And such a gift it is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is freely gratuitously given Phil. 1.29 Seing then it is thus should we not submit to God for every crumb of bread drop of drink and moments patience because they are his gifts and must we not submit to him for Faith because it is such Had not God given a Jesus a Saviour to Men they could not have made a just complaint against him and now there being one that he is not known all the World over the Pagans may not open their lips against God and in the Church where Christ is known that all Men have no Faith no Man may question God about it Gifts are free and must be submitted for The Apostle asserts Gods Soveraignty clearly He will have mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he will he hardeneth Rom. 9.18 And if any dare repy or find fault the Apostle takes him up Nay but O Man who art thou that repliest against God If thou hadst but any sentiments of thy own nothingness or rayes of the Divine Majesty thou wouldest never dare to question or to implead thy Maker before whom thou art but a Worm a piece of Clay to be disposed of at his pleasures It is certain that God owes us nothing Though we are in the use of means earnestly to seek Christ Faith and not in a careless indifferent manner as without cause the Author would hint Mr. Shephards mind to be yet we must still adore Gods Soveraignty and lye at his feet for all his Gifts and particularly for Faith It was horrible insolence and presumption in him who prayed Redde mihi vitam aeternam quam debes And it would be no less for any one to pray Redde mihi fidem vivam quam debes Verbum debet venenum habet as Peter Lumbard hath it These things considered Mr. Shephards words need no more but only a candid Interpretation What then is to be done Mr Sherlock in order to our closing with Christ by Faith for hitherto there is no foundation for our Faith Why you must not catch at Christ but stay till God give him to you till God take you into his Arms that you may lean upon your Beloved you must stay till God give you a particular call to come to Christ and whether that will be ever or never no Man can tell Many a wounded Sinner will be scrambling from some general reports of him such as his Gospel makes before the day and hour of Gods glorious call Now for any Man to receive Christ before he is called is presumption I unpardonable presumption too to attempt impossibilities for no Body can come till he is called no man should come unless first called and therefore no crime to stay away as it is in calling to an Office so it is in our calling to special Grace No Man takes this honour but he that is called of God Heb. 5.4 It is a great presumption to usurp the Office of a Priest Prophet or King without a designation and so it is to be a good Man or Christian without a particular call For what hath any Man to do with Christ to make himself a Son of God and Heir of glory to take care to please God and to make himself happy but he that is called of God Well Sinner wait with patience till thou art called and so thy work is at an end for this time The Author laughs at Mr. Shephards particular call Answer let us therefore consider it there is a double call a general external call reaching to all in the Church and a particular internal call vouchsafed to some The first is a command a sufficient warrant to come to Christ The second is a special Act of Grace which infallibly produces Farth in those to whom it is given This distinction is clearly founded in Scripture all in the Church are called but all are not drawn of the Father all do not hear and learn of the Father Joh. 6.44 45. For these taught and drawn ones do all of them come to Christ which all Men in the Church do not all in the Church are called but all are not called according to purpose Rom. 8.28 for then all would love God as those called ones do and by consequence all would have that Faith which works by love We preach Christ crucified to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness but to them which are called both Jews and Greeks Christ the power of God and wisdom of God 1 Cor. 1.23 24. All of them had an external general call those to whom Christ was a stumbling block and foolishness had such a call for an unknown an unreveiled Christ could not be a stumbling block or foolishness But besides this call there is another an internal effectual call such as makes Christ the power and wisdom of God to Men such as works Faith and other Graces in Men Hence the Apostle saith That they are the called called with a more internal and efficacious call than other Men are These things laid down all things in Mr. Shephard are very easie all Men in the Church have an external call and so a sufficient warrant to believe in Christ it will be no presumption at all in them to do so The Object Jesus Christ is evidently set forth before their eyes but that they may believe in him indeed they must wait for a particular internal call for that Grace which works Faith in the heart if not the work of Faith must be their own they must believe of themselves And this I fear though the Object Christ be free for them would be presumption because the Scripture assures us that Faith is the gift of God All Men in the Church should come to Christ for the Evangelical command makes it their duty yet if we believe our Saviour there must be internal teachings and tractions from the Father to make us truly come to him All in the Church are by the Gospel called to be Believers so to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the Royal dignity to be Sons of God Joh. 1.12 to the Divine Offices to be Kings and Priests unto God Rev. 1.6 But this believing is produced by that internal efficacious call which calleth things that are not as though they were I mean which calleth Faith into being where it was not before But then saith Mr. Sherlock The Sinner must only wait till he is called and so his work is at an end for this time To which I answer His work is not at an end because he is still to wait if the Scripture which makes Faith the free-gift of God be true there is no nearer passage to Heaven then by waiting upon God for Faith in the use of means The Saints