ability to do good works Rom. 7.15,18 and pointed at the same impotency in the believing Galathians Gal. 5.17 And me thinks to affirm that a Christian as naturally and necessarily doth the works of God as the fire burneth and the Sun shineth which creatures we know have no seeds of opposition against their native operations in them is plainly to make a Christian perfectly spiritual and holy free from all reliques of native corruption opposing in him the willings of grace And if any such Christian be to be found according to Mr Dels doctrine he must needs exceed the measure of the Apostle Pauls holinesse which I think no true humble Christian will pretend unto SECT XVIII BY all which we may perceive that true faith is a greater matter then the most are aware of A For men usually think that when they hear the Gospel in the outward Ministry and assent to it that it is true that this is Faith and that then they do believe but the true faith of Gods elect is a greater matter then so for through that we are truly made one with the Son of the living God and do abide and live in him for ever B And so this right faith is a most high and precious grace and is the first manifestation of the Fathers eternal love to the Soul and the first grace whereby we have entrance into the Kingdom of God it is the Sabbath of Sabbaths it is the greatest and highest worship of God C it is infinite and everlasting righteousnesse it is the mortification of the flesh the quickening of the spirit our mighty victory over the Law Sin Death Hell the World and Devil it is the first and last and all in all in the Kingdom of the Son And he that believes as the Scriptures have said is already truly passed from sin to righteousnesse from death to life and from Satan to God So that right faith is a most precious grace and is found in very few of the common Professours of the worldly Church So that Christ himself makes this question The Son of man when he comes shall he finde faith upon earth And therefore it concerns all to inquire and try Whether we partake of this Faith or no And whether the life we live in the flesh be in the Faith of the Son of God otherwise we must know that as he that believes shall be saved so he that believes not shall be damned It follows ANIMADVERSION 18. A MAster Dell I suppose whatever he intimateth in these words cannot but know that the generality of Protestant Divines place the nature of saving faith not in a bare assent to the Gospel but in an act of the whole heart receiving Jesus Christ according to the Gospel John 1.12 And as for such men who wrest the nature of saving faith short of the receiving of Jesus Christ with their whole heart their doctrine is as unsatisfactory to the generallity of understanding Protestants as to Mr Dell. B If true faith be a most high and precious grace as is here affirmed by Mr Dell How then is Christ in believers truly all grace which is asserted by him Sect. 14. B Is Christ a believers right faith too That were very strange C The praise of a right faith is very great in the book of God But to say of faith that it is infinite and everlasting righteousnesse and again that it is the first and the last and all in all in the kingdom of the Son is no Scripture expression and these positions seem to trench very far upon the glory of the Lord Jesus of whom alone these high things are and can be truly affirmed Jer. 23.6 Rev. 1.11 Colos 3.11 SECT XIX Who loved me and gave himself for me THe Apostle having shewed that all true Christians are truly crucified with Christ and are also truly quickned with him by the same living Word and Spirit of life which crucified them and so do receive a Spiritual and Divine life instead of their humane and carnal life and having also shewed the Means by which they attain to this blessed death and blessed life and that it is by faith in the Son of God A Here he proceeds to shew us two main and chief things which faith regards and apprehends in Christ to wit his infinite love and the incomparable fruit of it saying who loved me and gave himself for me And so in these words I shall take notice of these three things 1. Of Christs special and peculiar Love to his Elect from these words who loved me 2. Of his special and peculiar Redemption being the fruit of his special love in these words and gave himself for me 3. Of Faiths particular Application of both these speciall Graces to a Believer The first thing here considerable is Christs special love to some above others Who loved me Most certain it is from the word of the Gospel which is the truest and clearest light that ever shone in the Church of the faithful that Christ doth not love all Mankinde alike but he loves some and not others There is indeed a general and common love of Christ wherein he comprehends all Mankinde alike which he manifests to them in making as he himself saith Matth. 5.24 his sun to rise on the evil and on the good and sending his rain on the just and on the unjust and as Paul saith Acts 14.17 He doth good to all Nations though they walk in their own wayes giving them rain from heaven and fruitful seasons filling their bodies with food and their hearts with gladnesse and supplying them with the common things of this life sutable to their Humanity But he hath a special love to his Elect to the Church which is his Body these he loves as his own flesh yea as partakers of the same Divine Nature with himself and according to this love he communicateth to these of all that very fulnesse of God which he hath received from his Father Now with this special love he loves not all Mankinde alike but onely some passing by the rest The Grounds and Reasons of which special love of his to some and not to others are these 1. Because the Son as he is of the same Nature with his Father so he is also of the same operation with him and so he only doth that which his Father doth first as Christ himself testifieth of himself John 5.19 saying Verily verily I say unto you the Son can do nothing of himself but whatsoever he sees the Father do For whatsoever things he doth these doth the Son likewise For the Father loveth the Son and sheweth him all things that himself doth So that the Father sheweth to the Son all those whom he loves and whom the Son sees the Father loves those also doth He love and whom the Father doth not love neither doth the Son love them because he can do nothing of himself but what he sees the Father do So that the Sons love is full
Tongues People and Nations but some out of every Kindred and Tongue and People and Nation which he hath loved and redeemed to God by his blood And now to make some Vse of both these Truths together Vse 1. And first The World as Christ terms Vnbelievers and Reprobates will certainly be grievously offended at this Doctrine when they shall hear that they have no part nor lot neither in the special Love nor in the special Redemption of Christ But this we cannot help nor be false witnesses of the minde of God which he hath so clearly revealed in his Word For they are not of God neither hath Christ loved or redeemed them neither do they much prize this Special Love and Redemption But the Sins they have they love them and live in them and do alwayes resist and oppose Christ and his Spirit and so as they are rejected of God so also they perish in their own sin and obstinacie Vse 2. 2. The faithful may learn hence that our Happinesse and Salvation in the first cause of it doth far surmount the utmost capacitie of the highest reason of all men and Angels seeing it is builded on no reason or ground of reason in any Creature but upon the meer will and good pleasure of the Creator which is not moved directed or ruled by any thing that is in the Creature but by it self alone and that freely fully and unchangably Which good pleasure of his as it is the Rule of all his works towards the Creature so this also is to be the Rule of all reason in the Creature and with this the Creature is to rest satisfied without farther questions and demands otherwise it blasphemes at the highest rate when it will needs be replying against God and not rest satisfied with his good pleasure Wherefore Christ himself speaking of this special Grace of God to the Elect gives him thanks for his good pleasure which was the first Fountain of all saying Matth. 11.25.26 I thank thee Father Lord of Heaven and Earth because thou hast hid these things from the wise and men of understanding and hast opened them to babes Even so Father because thy good pleasure was such Which shews us that the good will of the Father is the Fountain and first Original of our Salvation unto which the will and pleasure of the Son is fully conformed and the Reason and Prudence and Knowledge and Understanding of man have no Place nor Vse here Vse 3. 3. The free and special Love and Redemption of Christ apprehended and felt by Faith tends to the great Refreshing and Comfort of the Faithful and that in the midst of the greatest sense of sin and wrath That the Lord even the Father and Son should by the Spirit thus single them out of all mankind and that the Father should freely set his love on them and give them Christ to give himself for them and should manifest the truth and certainty of all this to them by the Spirit which only is the Faithful witness of the mind and counsel of God to all his people I say the true and Spiritual sense of this Special Love and Redemption of God and Christ to them cannot chuse but fill their hearts with joy unspeakable and glorious So that the Soul cannot chuse but say Lord what is thy poor servant that thou shouldest deal thus with me That thou shouldst in thy deep and unsearchable counsel and in thy most hidden but most righteous Judgements passe by so many thousands and millions of people in every age and generation and should set thy love on me together with Christ and all his Saints being in my self so wretched and unworthy a Creature And this choiceness and speciality of thy love the more endears it to me and hath ravished and overcome my heart After this manner yea and beyond all expression must the Soul needs be affected that is truly sensible of the Special love and redemption of Christ ANIMADVERSION 19. A THese words speak of Faith as an act of Believers towards Christ regarding and apprehending in him his infinite love and the incomparable fruit of it according to the old Protestant doctrine agreeing with the Scriptures which I think cannot be brought into any good accord with the description of the nature of Faith set down by Mr Dell Sect. 17. A B This is old good and acknowledged doctrine firmly believed by those who are wholly unsatisfied in much of Mr Dels former doctrine as having no affinity with what is here delivered SECT XX. ANd this for Vse Object Now if any say If Christs Love and Redemption belong but to a few why is the Gospel commanded to be preached to all Nations in the World Answ I answer That in all the world among all Nations it may find out the Elect of God and bring them to the true knowledge and enjoyment of what God of his free grace hath done for them in Jesus Christ and when that word cometh they hear the Joyful Sound and believe and according to their Faith so is it to them And so I proceed to the third point which is Faith 's particular application of this special love and redemption of Christ to believers who loved me and gave himself for me A It is the nature of true Faith to apply Christ and all his Works to the believer and to make them his own for faith puts on Christ and cloaths us with Christ yea it eats and drinks him who is the Son of the living God and so makes Christ its own indeed Through faith Christ is formed in us and we again are formed in him and Christ and we are so made one another through faith that Christ Appropriates us to himself and we again appropriate Christ to us Other men content themselves with a General conceit that Christ loved them but a Christian hath a Particular faith Other men believe that he loved Paul and Peter and John such eminent Saints but true faith saith in our hearts he loved Me even Me together with them and that with the self same love and gave himself for Me as he did for them Quest But some will say Had not Paul a special Revelation of this love of Christ besides faith Answ I Answer Paul had a special Revelation of this love but yet no other then all believers have who have received the Spirit as the same Apostle shews 1 Cor. 2.12 where he saith We have not received the spirit of the world but the spirit that is of God that we may know the things that are freely given to us of God So that the Spirit of God within us shews us the things that God hath freely given us among which Christs Love and Redemption are the chief And the same Apostle prayes for the Ephesians that God would give them the spirit of wisdom and Revelation to know Christ. Now this spirit of Revelation doth not only shew us that there is a Christ and what he is but also that
That Paul was crucified with Christ because his sins were subdued and his nature conquered through the spirit of Christ dwelling in him is a very sure truth generally acknowledged yet is not this all the truth but Paul further intended in saying that he was crucified with Christ that his sins were subdued through the redeeming vertue of the outward crosse or suffering of Christ both as to the condemning and commanding power of them of which here is altum silentium though the Scriptures speak much of it 2 Cor. 5.15 Tit. 2.14 Heb. 9.14 1 Pet. 1.18.19 F Mr Dell here professeth to prove both these things by plain Scripture By both these things he meaneth both that Christ was crucified by the being of the eternal word and spirit in him and also that believers are crucified by the same word spirit dwelling in them But he faileth evidently of his word for the Scriptures produced may seem to speak something towards the proof of the second position yet they say nothing towards the confirmation of the first And as to the second position they only prove that the spirit of Christ or Christ by his spirit doth work to the mortifying of the flesh in believers which is a well known and acknowledged truth But that the living Word or Godhead of our Saviour otherwise then as in and by the Spirit dwelleth in beleevers as a root of mortification not one of the Scriptures produced do affirm That by Christ in us Rom. 8.10 we must understand the living Word within us as Mr Dell glosseth those words I cannot believe since the Apostle in the verses immediately before and after that text doth plainly expound the being of Christ in us by the being of the Spirit of God in us in full consent with all the other Scriptures here produced by Mr Dell. G This use which Mr Dell makes of his doctrine if the words be taken in Scripture sence is sound and consonant to the sence of all true believers and needs no new doctrine to enforce it SECT VII NOw if any desire to know how we may attain to be thus Crucified with Christ I answer that the true faith of Gods Elect is the only way through which we can attain to this crucifying A For through faith we receive the living Word of God to dwell in us and in this Word we partake of the Spirit and this Word and Spirit dwelling in us do as hath been declared crucifie us with Christ B Indeed Hypocrites and carnal Christians receive and professe a word that will not crucifie them with Christ but do receive a word and doctrine that will still suffer them to live their own lives and after their own lusts For the word they receive is only an outward word consisting of divers questions opinions and Doctrines and is also without the Spirit and so it leaves them as it found them in reference to their Natures and corruptions C But the word that faith receives is the Word of righteousnesse and life a word that is alwayes accompanied with the Spirit and when this is ingrafted into the soul and abides in it it presently mortifies and crucifies it and destroyes a mans self out of himself D And therefore in 1 Cor. 1.18 it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The word of the crosse and that not only because it exposes us to afflictions in the world but also because it dwelling in our hearts by faith doth crucifie us And this crucifying word in the same verse is called also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the power of God for that Word that crucifies our flesh subdues and destroyes the whole strength of corruption out of us must be such a Word as is also the Power of God and so it is not only in tseâ—f but also because the Spirit of God dwels in it And this Word thus appreheâ—dâ—d will crucifie us with Christ Now this word of faith which is the word near us even in our hearts will crucifie us 1. Throughly It will crucifie the whole man throughout and that according to his mind will and affectâ—oâ—s E for this Word of God is quick and powerful and sharper then any two edged sword and is piercing to the dividing asunder both of the soul and spirit and of the joynts and marrow and is a curious discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart c. And all the Tribulations and Torments in the world yea all the sorrows and pains of Hell cannot so crucifie and subdue our evil natures and lives as this Living Word in our hearts with whom we have to do This will crucifie us till we be dead with Christ as Christ was dead which was the fullest and compleatest death that ever was that is till our outward and inward man be wholly and fully subject to the only Will of God 2. F This word of faith will crucifie us daily and constantly as Paul witnesses 1 Cor. 15.31 saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I die daily for the word of righteousnesse dwelling in us is clean contrary to our corrupt nature and all the operations of it and doth without intermission put forth its strength and efficacy against both That as in the first break of day the light is still mortifying the darknesse till it have wholly dispelled it so the Word of righteousnesse deals with our corruptions till their place shall be no more found Now because this our crucifying with Christ is so contrary to the flesh that the flesh is alwayes mourning under it and murmuring against it therefore for our encouragement in so difficult a work as this I shal propound some choice and excellent advantages that believers have by being truly crucified with Christ For by this means 1. We are freed from the Law G For as the humanity of Christ being crucified by the Word and Spirit by this means became dead to the Law and the Law lost all its power over him H so all the faithful that are thus crucified with him are through this crucifying set free from the Law I for their own life being extinguished by the living Word and Spirit and they living in that word and spirit a life not their own but Christs are as truly freed from the Law as Christ himself was K And this Paul doth plainly teach us Rom. 7.1 saying that the Law hath Lordship over a man all the time he lives and no longer But when he is once crucified with Christ and dead with Christ the Law hath no more Dominion over him So then as long as we live our own life the Law hath power over us but when we are dead to our selves through the Life of Christ we are set quite without the reach of the Law and the Law hath no more to do with us the Members then with Christ the Head 2. L By being crucified with Christ we are freed of sin For one of the chief ends of the indwelling of the Word Spirit in Believers is to free them
through faith we are carried into the Son of God to have all that He hath and He again comes and fills us with all that he is and hath 5 True faith carries us into Christ and makes us one with him as the Author and Original of all our good works For through this God dwels in us and works his own works in us and we again dwell in him and work his own works in him and those only are true good works which God that dwels in us works in us and which we dwelling in God work in him G Yea a Believer who is one with Christ not only doth good works but doth them continually for Christ in him is alwayes active and whilst he is in Christ he must be alwayes active and therefore saith Christ Joh. 15. He that abideth in me and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit For through this mutual abiding of Christ and a Christian in each other a Christian as naturally and as necessarily doth the works of God as the fire burns or the Sun shines And these are some of the Advantages a Christian hath through faith in the Son of God ANIMADVERSION 17. A THat that only is true faith which doth apprehend and receive the true God in Jesus Christ And also that true faith is not of our selves but is wrought in us by the Father through the Spirit is very true and certaine But to define faith or describe it as Mr Dell here doth only and wholly by acts of God the Father is plainly to make God not only the authour but the sole actor of faith and so to deny any acting of the hearts of believers to Christ-ward by faith which as I conceive is doctrine very new and strange from the truth of the Gospel Gal. 2.16 Eph. 1.13 Rom. 10.10 It is true that here is mention made by Mr Dell of believers receiving of Christ but he saith not as he might that therein stands the nature of faith but in Gods inabling a man to receive Christ which is wholly and solely Gods act as is also his making us one with the Son to live and abide in him for ever which being one with and abiding in the Son though it be an effect yet containeth nothing in it of the nature of faith B That by faith through Christ believers are adopted to be the Sons of God is certainly true But that as the Word or Son of God coming into the humanity of Christ gave it authority to become the Son of God so the same Word coming into us through Christ gives us power to become the Sons of God in him as the fire gives the iron power to be light and hot is plainly to take off believers son-ship in relation to God from the ground of adoption through grace and to found it upon the communication of the Divine nature to them in the same manner though not so immediately nor in the same measure as to the humanity of our Saviour which is a doctrine of such ill consequence that still me thinks Mr Dell should tremble and abhor to own it nakedly For if the Son of God coming into believers as into the humanity of our Saviour give them power to become the sons of God as it gave him power to be the Son of God as the fire gives the iron in which it dwels power to be light and hot then it follows that though believers have the Son of God in them through Christ yet having the Son of God in them they have power to be the Sons of God immediately and in themselves as the iron hath immediate power from the fire to be light and hot which being granted overthrows the doctrine of believers adoption by Christ and putteth all believers into the peculiar honour of the immediate Sonship of our Lord Christ C Do believers in whatsoever they do stil carry themselves in all things in some demonstration of the divine nature as Mr Dell here peremptorily affirmeth I do believe the Apostle that in many things we offend all and that the best of believers have their sad miscarriages as the Apostle Peter had Gal. 2. and give too often demonstration of the reliques of corrupt nature in them If Mr Dell can reconcile these things together I shall leave that labour to him D Believers no doubt through faith in the Son of God are made heirs of God and joynt heirs with Christ of all things But that as our Lord Christ according to his humane nature was made heir of all things by being made one with the Son of God so believers likewise receive the Son understanding thereby the Godhead of our Saviour and so are made heirs with Christ of all things though it consent will with Mr Dels former doctrine yet I find no Scripture doctrine agreeing thereunto The scripture doctrine in this point as I apprehend is this that all true believers through faith in Christ are gratiously adopted to be the sons of God and if sons then are they heirs of God and joynt heirs with Christ of all things and specially of the eternal heavenly glory which is to come E That true faith uniting us as members to the Lord Jesus doth carry us out of the reach of the law sin death and hell so far that none of them shall prevail against us being believers unto destruction is doubtlesse a sweet Gospel truth But that faith putteth us out of the reach of these evils by putting us into the Son of God or Godhead of our Saviour is barely Mr Dels assertion without the Scripture which teacheth that believers are carried out of the destroying reach of the law sin death and hel through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus not through any such union into the Son of God as he here drives at F That right faith carrieth believers into the Son of God into all his perfections and excellencies into his nature life wisdom and glory and into all the fulnesse of the Son of the living God is a position which before this time I think never dropped from the tongue or pen of any Christian Mr Del seems not to have arrived to the height of such an apprehension by what we read Sect. 16. F sc So that the life of the Son of God is communicated truly to all the faithful and is to be seen in their flesh in some measure as wel as in his in all fulnesse But it is here plainly and peremptorily affirmed that believers are carried into all the fulness of the Son of the living God the necessary consequences whereof how dreadful they are I leave to him to consider I trust he doth not believe that in believers dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily which the Apostle pointed at as the peculiar incommunicable honour and excellency of our Lord Jesus the Son of the living God Col. 2.9 G Where is that believer that doth good works continually The Apostle Paul found not in himself a continual
receiving righteousnesse out of which afterwards we work And so the Law that commands Righteousnesse but doth not communicate Righteousnesse can never justifie us But faith that makes us righteous before we can work righteousnesse it is that which justifies us in the sight of God Now to this Doctrine Paul adds his own Experience to make all clear which kind of arguing though it will not satisfie the reason of the World yet it will satisfie the faith of the Saints Now saith Paul for mine own part I must professe to the Jews themselves and to all the world besides F that I am so far from seeking Righteousnesse by the Law that I am wholly dead to the Law and as a dead man have no more to do with the Law as that hath no more to do with me I through the Law am dead to the Law that I might live unto God verse 19. ANIMADVERSION I. A ANd had not Peter too a very clear knowledge in the mystery of Christ He stands indeed charged with dissimulation in the Text Gal. 2.13 but not with ignorance or errour in any degree which yet Mr. Dell seems closely to fasten upon him in this place B No such thing appears to me in the text as is here affirmed by Mr. Dell. The Apostle Gal. 2.17,18 shewed that if professed believers give way to themselves in sin or are by the light of the Gospel discovered to be sinners their sins are not to be charged on Christ as the minister of sin or upon his Gospel but on themselves as transgressours in conformity to his own doctrine Rom. 6.1,2,3,4 This hath nothing to do with any personal errour of Peter greater or lesse whereby he made Christ the minister of sin whereof Mr. Dell causlesly yet confidently proclaims himself guilty C I read of no grosse mistake but of a sad miscarriage of Peter of a dangerous consequence indeed Christians should be tender of casting the reproach of a grosse mistake upon an Apostle without clear evidence In suam ipsius conscientiam peccabat aliud intus sentiens aliud foris simulans Pareus ad Gal. 2.12 He sinned against his own conscience apprehending one thing inwardly feigning another thing outwardly D Let this then stand and be held for a truth that they who are first made righteous can do aright the works of the Law which I think is enough to prove that righteous believers are in some sence alive to the Law since they and they only can do aright the works of the Law yet Mr. Dell afterwards seems very unwillingly to allow so much for truth E Do we work out our justifying righteousness as these words import Is not this to confound justification with sanctification The righteousnesse of God whereby were are justified is in Christ for us Rom. 3.24,25 The righteousnesse out of which we work is from Christ in us through his spirit Eph. 4.24 These two kinds of righteousnesse are inseparably joyned together yet not to be confounded as they are here by Mr. Dell And of the two it is evident that believers work not out of justifying but sanctifying righteousnesse Phil. 1.11 F Wholly is not in the text and were it there it would only shew that the Apostle was excluded wholly from seeking righteousnesse by the Law Gal. 2.21 and 3.21 And this is the acknowledged doctrine of Protestants who generally professe that as to the seeking of righteousnesse by the Law we are wholly dead to it through the faith of the Gospel which holdeth forth Christ as the end of the Law for righteousnesse to every one that believeth Rom. 10.4 In this sense there is no question but every believer may say with the Apostle I through the Law am dead to the Law that I may live unto God But Mr. Dells wholly in this place is of a much larger extent transcending as I conceive the limits of the Scripture SECT II. I Saith Paul through the Law am dead to the Law that is The Law it self makes me dead to the Law For the Law with its wrath and curse and punishments hath slain me it hath through my sin delivered me up to death and hell A without shewing me any way of escape or deliverance it hath done against me what ever it could do it hath fully kill'd and slain me And therefore how can the Law any more give Laws and Commands B to a dead man yea to one whom it self hath slain or how can it expect obedience from such an one And this sense Chrysostom gives of these words But secondly C we conceive these words in another sense after this manner I through the Law am dead to the Law that is I through a new Law am dead to the old Law I am dead to the old Law which was the Law of the Letter written in Tables of stone by a new Law which God hath written in my heart and inwardparts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And this is the Law of Grace or the Law of the Spirjt of Life that is in Christ Jesus which is not a Law consisting of Letters words and sentences but is the living word of God written in our hearts by the living spirit of God according to that of Paul touching Believers 2 Cor. 3.3 Ye are the epistle of Christ written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God and the living Spirit writes a living Law D And this Law makes us dead to the Law and a man is never truly dead to the Law of the letter till the Law of the Spirit of life be writ in his heart by the finger of God But when we have the Law of Grace which is a living and almighty Law in our hearts we are then safely dead to the Law of the letter The Law commands all flesh that hath not the living Word or Law of life within it self E but when a Believer hath in him the Law of the Spirit the Law of the letter hath no more power over him that is so far as he is taken up into that other Law of the Spirit F but no further And there is no danger at all in this Doctrine That the new Law makes us dead to or delivers us from the old as ignorant and carnal Christians think there is inasmuch as this new Law imprints in our souls the love of righteousnesse and hatred of iniquity G And he that is thus freed from the Law is the only man that keeps it and fulfils it through the law of love put into his heart by the Spirit And this Law of love doth fulfil the other Law but never break and violate it Wherefore saith Paul I through the Law am dead to the Law ANIMADVERSION 2. A THe Law taken comprehensively for the whole Law of Moses or strictly for the legal Covenant of works sheweth a sinner no way of escape from death and hell in it self without Christ But the Law in the Ceremonial part of it did shew the true way of escape from death
that the law of grace and of the spirit within us is infinitely more powerful to keep us from sin then the Law of Moses without us and that the love of righteousnesse put into our hearts by the spirit is infinitly more able to make us to do righteousnesse and avoid sin then any outward commands or threatnings whatsoever which yet have their subordinate place in this work If this be all Mr Dell contends for he will not find an enemy amongst his despised brethren But if by saying that the coming of the new law is a sufficient discharge from the old he intend that all who receive the spirit to be in them the root of obedience are sufficiently discharged from taking the outwardly revealed Law of God to be unto them the rule of obedience It is true that the brethren whom he glanceth at do not understand or at least do not believe that but are very confident that when the Law of the Spirit comes into the heart the heart is brought to delight in the outward Law of God and to chuse it for a light to a mans feet and a lamp to his path Psal 119.97 and 105. F Our Lord Christ in his humanity did know and acknowledge the written Law of God for a law and â—ule unto him and did fulfil it Mat. 4.4,7,10 and 5.17 how confident soever Mr Dell â—e of the contrary G That is not the tenour of the Covenant according to Mr Dells words I will be in their hearts for their law but I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts Jer. 31.33 It is dangerous tampering with the Covenant of God when the words thereof are plain That the Lord is the Law-giver I have often read Esay 32.22 but that he is the law of his people I never saw affirmed in Scripture SECT IV. I am Crucified with Christ c. I Am crucified with Christ who through this new Law was dead to the old For Christ our brother of the same flesh and bloud with us having the living word and law of God within him A he owed nothing to the law of Moses by way of debt neither was he justified by the works of the Law but by the righteousnesse of the eternal Son or Word of God that dwelt and wrought in him and he again in it B And this living Word and Spirit of God that dwelt in the flesh of Christ was the true crucifying of his flesh and in this crucifying of Christs flesh all his Saints partake with him as Paul here saith I am crucified with Christ. C Now this cannot be understood of Christs outward crucifying upon the material Cross for thus Paul was not crucified with him neither are all the Saints But this is to be understood of Christs inward and spiritual crucifying through the Word of righteousness and life that dwelt in him and according to this all the faithful through all ages are crucified with him indeed And now here it wil be needful to speak something more fully both touching Christs own crucifying and the crucifying of all his Saints with him on the same crosse And the rather because as men generally in the outward Church have a carnal understanding of all the things of Christ so also of his Crosse and Death And not the Papists only but many among our selves who greatly adore the outward cross and crucifying of Christ are yetignorant of the true cross and crucifying of Christ and his Christians with him whereby they are truly crucified and dead to themselves to sin to the world D and to whatever is not God himself And so under the open profession of the outward crosse and death of Christ do live in all manner of sin and wickednesse equally with the very heathen amongst whom the Name of Christ hath not been named Wherefore to remove this gross ignorance from all that love the light I shall speak something first of Christs own crucifying and then of our crucifying together with Christ ANIMADVERSION 4. A VVHat did not Christ owe something to the Law so much as for us How then was he made under the Law Gal. 4.4 Did not his submitting of himself to Circumcision make him a debter to do the whole Law Gal. 5.3 Did not our Lord Christ by submitting himself to the state of a servant in relation to his Father become obliged to fulfil all his righteous commands It seems to me that those two Scriptures joyned together prove so much Esay 42.1 Mat. 3.15 Again did not we owe to God perfect obedience to his Law and full satisfaction for our disobedience against his Law And did not our Saviour as our surety transfer and take upon himself our whole debt It would be ill with us if he had not done so me thinks Dr. Vshers words in his Sermon of the Incarnation hath much light and strength in them namely Our Mediator took upon him the part of an advocate to plead full satisfaction made by himself as our surety unto all the debt wherewith we any way stood chargeable Now the satisfaction which our surety bound himself to perform in our behalf was of a double debt the principal and the accessary The principal debt is obedience to Gods most holy Law if this stand true as I believe it will then Christ did owe the debt of obedience to the Law at least in our stead B Where doth the Scripture speak this language Doth not that Scripture speak otherwise 1 Pet. 3.18 which ascribeth not the crucifying but quickning of Christ to the spirit C Why may not the Apostle when he wrote that he was crucified with Christ be understood of Christs outward crucifying on his material crosse Is not the vertue of Christs outward crucifying applyed to all believing Saints is not the flesh in the Saints crucified through the power of that redemption which our Saviour finished on his material crosse and by participation of that redemption finished on the Crosse are not all believers crucified and dead with him what else do those Scriptures teach Rom. 6.5,6,7,8,9,10,11 1 Pet. 2.24 and 4.1,2 Tit. 2.14 It is very strange to me that Mr Dell should here so peremptorily deny that Pauls crucifying with Christ could be understood in relation to his outward crucifying since in Sect. 5. K he confesseth very truly that there was an infinite worth excellency and efficacy in our Saviours outward crucifying which unquestionably is imparted to those who believe and was imparted to the Apostle Paul who might therefore truly write as he did that he was crucified with Christ in reference to Christs outward crucifying on his material crosse D Are Christians dead to the Scriptures both to the Law and Gospel and to all Gods outward ordinances of none of which it can be affirmed that they are God himself I hope Mr Dell hath some limitations in store to make this strange assertion of his that believers are dead to whatsoever is not God himself passable or else SECT
Christian that is most dead and crucified to these things he it is that shines most gloriously in the Kingdom of Christ Z Lastly this crucified flesh is the only subject of the glorious Resurrection For as the living Word and Spirit that crucified Christs flesh did again raise up that crucified flesh of his from death and set it at the right hand of God and thereby did plainly manifest him to be the Son of God so the same Word and Spirit that crucifie our flesh shall as certainly raise it up with Christ into the fulness of the life and glory of God And this time the Apostle cals the day of the manifestation of the sons of God For the Word and Spirit whilest they dwel in us and crucifie us they make it only known to us and to them that live in the same faith spirit with us that we are the children of God but when they shal raise up this flesh of ours which they have first crucified from death and the grave into the life glory and eternity of God then it shall be manifest to all the world that we are his children And so our crucifying with Christ is a certain pledge of our Resurrection with him and this the Apostle testifies Rom. 8.11 saying He that raised up Christ from the dead shall quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwels in you and Rom. 6.8 If we be dead with him we believe we shall also live with him If we be dead with him that is through the Word and Spirit first crucifying our flesh and then offering it up to death A We believe we shall live with him that very life which the Word and Spirit of God did communicate to his flesh when it raised him from the grave and fully translated him into the immediate Kingdom of God And for this cause Col. 1.18 Christ is called the first born from the dead that is the first whom the Word and Spirit did raise from death and the grave and did carry into the Immediate presence of God as the first fruits and pledge of their Resurrection who have the same word and spirit dwelling in them ANIMADVERSION VII A I Find no such thing affirmed in the Scripture that through Faith we receive the living Word to dwel in us understanding thereby precisely the Godhead of our Saviour But it is plain that through Faith we receive Christ the Son to dwell in us and the Father also by the Spirit Ephes 2.22 1 John 4.12,13 John 14.23 B Indeed the word of God in the Scriptures and the Gospel preached according to the Scriptures is an outward word consisting in doctrines which hypocrites and carnal christians may have and professionally receive and stil live their own lives and after their own lusts But that this word is without the spirit unto believers not now to dispute how far the Spirit may work in the word to the coÌ„viction of unbelievers to deny that it is a means whereby they receive the Spirit and whereby the spirit crucifieth the flesh in them is plainly to deny the Scriptures Gal. 3.2 Eph. 6.17 2 Cor. 10.4,5 And to give up those who by faith receive and make use of this outward word of God to dwel in them for the crucifying of their flesh for hypocrites and carnal christians is certainly to condemn the generation of Gods children Psal 119.11 Col. 3.16 C It is as clear as light from the text that by the ergrafted word James 1.21 where this phrase is only found is meant the word of the Gospel outwardly dispensed In these words therefore Mr Dell seems unwarrantably to confound the Godhead of our Saviour with the Gospel outwardly dispensed or to put one for another which is a very strange mistake And certain it is that the word which faith receiveth is the Gospel outwaâ—dly preached which is not alwayes accompanied with the spirit in those that hear it Mark 16.16 Heb. 4.2 Rom. 10.8 D If here be not a president of racking the Scripture to purpose I am much mistaken The Apostle 1 Cor. 1.18 called the word which he preached which Mr Dell nameth an outward word the word of the crosse not for either of the two reasons here mentioned because it exposeth men to afflictions or because it doth crucifie us but plainly because it held forth Christ crucified to the world as is most apparent verse 23. of that chapter and 1 Cor. 2.2,3,4 And yet Mr Dell with much confidence brings forth the words of the Apostle as if they had been undoubtedly written not of the word preached by him but of the living word or Godhead of our Saviour to which for certain the Apostle had no eye in that place E The words found Heb. 4.12 are here by Mr Dell confidently applied to the living word of God or Godhead of our Saviour which by the general consent of almost all interpreters and by the argument of that place appears to concern the word of God outwardly administred which though Mr Dell maketh light of it yet as it is made effectually by the spirit of God hath all that testified of it in the Scripture which Mr Dell here affirmeth of the word of God in his sence 1 Cor. 14.24,25 2 Cor. 10.4,5 John 17.17 F If the word of the crosse be as it is and is here called by Mr Dell the word of faith then it is the word of the Gospel preached Rom. 10.17 which Mr Dell sleightingly calleth an outward word and leaveth to hypocrites and carnal christians And to as those words 1 Cor. 15,31 here alledged I find no expositor understanding them of an inward dying to sin The context plainly importeth that the Apostle by dying dayly intended a daily apprehension and expectation of death together with a daily exposure of himself to deadly afflictions for Christ and his Gospel sake 2 Cor. 4.10,11 The dying therefore mentioned in this Scripture is altogether different from the dying which Mr Dell here speaks of G The Law had a regulating power over our Lord Christ in the dayes of his flesh Mat. 5.17 Mat. 3.15 and therefore lost not all its power over him at that time as is here peremptorily asserted by Mr Dell. H So also how boldly soever Mr Dell affirms the contrary the Law hath a regulating power over all the faithful who keep it and fulfil it through love wrought in their hearts by the spirit Psal 119.1 1 John 5.3 I Believers own life if that be their humane life is not extinguished by the living word and spirit Mr Dell being judge whose words very soon after are these though sin hath its ful power in our humane life But in this case there needs no appeal Res ipsa loquitur All the world sees and knows that believers retain their own humane life the faculties and actings thereof after they live the life of Christ through the Spirit I would gladly therefore understand Mr Dell in this place of the extinguishing only of the life
we believe we shall also live with him spiritually in this life gloriously in that which is to come Rom. 6.8 But that believers shall live with Christ that very life which the word and spirit of God did communicate to his flesh when it raised him from the grave and fully translated him into the immediate kingdom of God is a position raised by Mr Dell to a very high pitch wherein yet I shall not oppose him if he admit as I hope he will a preheminency of life unto our Saviour as being the head of the Church anointed with the oyl of gladnesse above his fellows Heb. 1.8,9 For whilst our Saviour hath his peculiar preheminence of degree allowed him as the head I take it we may safely believe that his members shall be sharers with him in that very life of blessednesse and glory which is communicated to his flesh or humane nature since the Apostle teacheth us that God hath raised us up together and made us sit togother in heavenly places in Christ Jesus Ephes 2.6 and again that if whilst we live we are delivered to death for Jesus sake the life also of Jesus shall be made manifest in our mortal body 2 Cor 4.11 for when Christ who is our life shall appear we also shall appear with him in glory Colos 3.4 SECT VIII WHence it is evident that all that flesh which the Word and Spirit do crucifie with Christ they shall also rise up together with him and sit in the same heavenly places in him which is the sure hope of all Believers Now seeing all these things are truth and are no lye let us willingly give up our selves to be thus crucified how bitter and grievous soever it be to the flesh Quest A Now if any man shall say How shall I know that I am thus crucified with Christ that I may have interest in all these advantages Answ I answer There are many Trials of this some of which I wil name very briefly and so conclude this matter As First If though findest thine own Nature truly subdued and changed by another Nature that is from God and if thou findest thy own life put to an end by another life that is from God then art thou crucified with Christ indeed 2. If thou canst deny thy self in all things of flesh and bloud and findest a new self within thee to have power over thy old self which is daily withering and decaying at the presence of the new creature then art thou crucified through the Word 3. If thou art dead to sin even to all those corruptions and lusts which have delighted themselves in thee and thou again in them if thou findest thy self dead to them and they killed in thee then art thou crucified by the Word 4. If thou art dead to the world and to the things of it which are the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life then art thou crucified by the Word 5. If thou dost not mind the praise and applause of men on the one hand nor their reproaches and indignities on the other hand but art truly dead to both then art thou crucified by the Word 6. If thou at deceased and departed from thine own will and works and canst do and delight to do the will and works of God then is his Law within thy heart and thou art crucified by the Word 7. If thou art ready prepared to bear and endure any sufferings and persecutions for Christ with patience and over and above with willingnesse and joy and dost not draw back for any evils but doest stand to them and overcome them then also art thou crucified by the Word and that is crucified with Christ B Now this our crucifying with Christ is the chief and greatest matter that we are to mind in this world wherefore Paul saith to the Corinthians 1 Cor. 2.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I did not judg it worth the while to know any thing among you or to behold any thing in you but Jesus Christ and him crucified Seeing in this present state of ours this is our chief businesse to be crucified with Christ and to be taken out of our selves and all our own things till we be altogether reduced to nothing that we may receive our selves and all things anew in Jesus Christ This is the chief work of God by his Word and Spirit upon the faithful here in this world as it was also his chief work upon Christ in the dayes of his flesh For though there were in Christ many clear Demonstrations of the presence of God through which he wrought many of the great works of God C yet our main businesse that concerned Christs life in the flesh was daily and throughly to crucifie him by the Word and Spirit which dwelt in him and thereby to prepare him and make him fit for the outward crosse and for that sad hour and power of darknesse that was to overtake him D And so this also is to be the chief businesse of our lives after we do believe even to be daily crucified and mortified and killed by the Word and Spirit of Christ till our will be perfectly subdued to Gods and by this means we be fitted and prepared for that tribulation and crosse whatever it is that the Lord shall please to appoint unto us either in life or in death And thus having spoken something of the Crucified Christian we proceed to speak in the next place of the Quickned Christian from the following words ANIMADVERSION VIII A ALl these notes of trial whether a man be crucified with Christ laid down by Mr Dell are very good and found and fully to be discovered in those who are crucified with Christ through the Word of the Gospel and the Spirit of Christ according to the old Scripture doctrine of Protestant teachers Great pitty it is that so good words as these wherein Mr Dell hath laid down these notes of trial should ever be misplaced B The Apostle in the words here alledged spake of Christs being crucified for us as the main subject of his Gospel doctrine which he preached amongst the Corinthians as appeareth by comparing the 23. verse of the former chapter with this text Here is therefore no intimation of that our crucifying which Mr Dell speaks of for all his admirable confidence in the strange allegation and interpretation of the place now before us C If the Printer have done his part in these words they are extreamly obscure if at all intelligable otherwise then by guesse D These words of Mr Dell I understand and in plain Scripture sence yield full assent to them as to their main intent praying that the Lord would pour out more abundantly the spirit of mortification and self denial on his people that we may indeed live the rest of our time in the flesh not to the lusts of men but to the will of God both by doing and suffering with cheerfulnesse according to his good pleasure The
old Protestant doctrine of mortification teacheth men freely to say Amen to this prayer SECT IX Nevertheless I live EVery true Believer is as well quickned with Christ as crucified with him I am crucified with Christ neverthelesse I live A So that as the humanity of Christ which is the first Example and Pattern to which the whole Church is conformed being deprived of its own proper life through the Word and Spirit that dwelt in it had instead thereof the life of the Son of God communicated to it and that Son of man having parted with his own proper life out of himself did yet truly live in the same soul and body the life of the Eternal Word and was so crucified that neverthelesse he lived so also it is with all Christians And therefore Paul saith out of his own experience I am crucified with Christ neverthelesse I live as if he had said I am not crucified to death but to life my crucifying with Christ is my quickning for by this means I am so killed that I live the more yea now onely I do truly live being formerly dead My own proper life in my self was my death but Christs life in me is my true life For I was dead with the worst death to wit in trespasses and sins but now I live in the best life even the life of righteousnesse B Whence it is manifest that the living Word and Spirit of Christ in a Christian do so kill the life of his flesh which is a life of sin and sorrow and darknesse and death that at the same time they communicate to the same man to the same soul and body a true and spiritual and holy and heavenly and eternal life C For no man is crucified with Christ but he also lives with him seeing the same Word that kils our life communicates Christs and Christ crucifies us with himself not that he may kill us but that he may quicken us and our quickning is the end of our crucifying and our crucifying is the way to our quickening D Indeed the killing of the flesh by the sword or famine or the Law or any way else is death indeed or death unto death but the killing of the flesh by the living Word and Spirit which is its crucifying with Christ is death unto life And here again we may note this also That the true life of a Christian begins from his crucifying and dying with Christ and also the true crucifying and dying of a Christian begins from his life in Christ For both these inseparably go together to wit our crucifying and our quickening with Christ But our crucifying with Christ is named first in order because it is first in manifestation seeing after we believe Christs death is first manifested in us before Christs life though Christs life be first in us in order of nature the crucifying of our flesh flowing from the life of his Spirit This then is the sum of this matter E That the living Word dwelling in us destroyes the proper life of the flesh and takes up the flesh into the life of it self and the Spirit And so a man in union with Christ hath his own life destroyed out of him and Christs own life communicated to him So that in the true Believer the soul and body of man live in the life of the Son of God as was done in the flesh of Christ our elder Brother And thus the flesh lives a life that is not of the flesh yea thus the creature lives in it self the life of God For as that eternal life that was with the Father was manifested in the Son that is in his flesh or humanity and all Believers have seen and known it so also that very life of the Father and the Son is both communicated to the Saints and also manifest in them as faith very well knows F And this is the great mystery of the Gospel let them receive it that can receive it ANIMADVERSION 9. A IN these words Mr Dell hath couched together six strange positions to which I would say more in this place but that the matter of them is discussed and the errour of them as I conceive discovered in my Animadversions on other passages of this book 1. That the humanity of Christ was deprived of its own proper life through the word and spirit that dwelt in it 2. That in stead thereof it had the life of the Son of God communicated to it 3. That the son of man parted with his own proper life out of himself 4. That he did yet live truly in the same soul and body the life of the eternal word 5. That the whole church is conformed to the pattern of the humanity of Christ in point of living the life of the eternal word 6. That the Son of man was so crucified that neverthelesse he lived whilst he was crucified If Mr Dell can produce one Scripture in proof of any one of these Positions I am utterly unacquainted with it I think it may be truly said of them recitasse est refutasse the reciting is a sufficient refuting of them B That the spirit of Christ in a Christian doth so kil the life of his flesh that is of his body of sin that at the same time it doth communicate to the same man to the same soul and body a true spiritual holy heavenly and eternal life is a known truth acknowledged by those whose souls have not entred into Mr Dels secrets If this be all he meaneth and mindeth he should but use old plain words and he should find consent of judgement in all his brethren Me thinks the words of the Lord to Job should sound loudly in the ears of some men in our dayes who are of a deeper language in matters of Religion then that their brethren can well understand them Who is this that darkens counsel with words without knowledge Job 38.2 It is the glory of the Ministers of the Gospel not to be vail'd like Moses but to use much plainnesse of speech in their doctrine seeing the Lord shineth in their hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ C All this in a sound sence is sound doctrine If the words be not put upon new tentors they do not outreach the old apprehensions of Gods servants amongst us D Is it the same flesh as these words import which is killed by the sword or famine and which is killed by the Law and Spirit of Christ and so crucified with him Me thinks no Christian which ever looked into the Scriptures should upon second thoughts say so The one is evidently the material body and the other the body of sin which are things vastly different E That Christ by his Spirit in believers destroyeth the proper life of the flesh understanding thereby the old man is very true but then it is utterly false that Christ takes up that flesh into the life of the Spirit of God And
touched by his Word make it their business to seek from God in Christ another life then their own a life infinitely better and stronger then their own and a life which at the will of God will offer up their own that we may say in our experience as Paul in his We are crucified with Christ yet neverthelesse we live Now the Apostle having named this blessed life doth further enlarge himself on this matter in the words following saying ANIMADVERSION 10. A THat a Christian is by faith really knit to Christ and engraffed into him and made one with him and so hath eternal life from him as the sience from the stock is old scripture doctrine acknowledged by all Protestant Divines But that this life which is received through union unto Christ is the life of justification as Mr Dell here affirmeth by way of eminence at least if not exclusion and doth not equally carry in it the life of sanctification also out of which a believer bringeth forth fruits of righteousnesse to the glory of God seemeth not to hold accordance with John 15.4,5,8 or if Mr Dell in his notion confound Justification and Sanctification me thinks the Apostle plainly teacheth another doctrine ascribing Justification to Faith in the Name of the Lord Jesus and Sanctification to the Spirit of our God 1 Cor. 6.11 B If by Union with God in Christ the righteousnesse of God be made ours truly and everlastingly and therein we be justified How then are we made righteous through the obedience of our one mediator Jesus Christ Rom. 5.19 yea how are we justified freely by Gods grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus Rom. 3.24 I fear this passage of Mr Dell inclineth too much towards the preaching of another gospel For the Lords acquitting of a sinner from his sins through the forgivenesse of them is plainly laid down by the Apostle as an act of justification Rom. 4.5,6.7,8 which according to the Gospel the Lord who justifieth doth not passe upon men in relation to their being one with God in Christ or the communication of his righteousnesse everlastingly to them or as he afterwards speaks Christ living his own life in them but in relation to the ransoming death of Christ for them only and wholly This is the Gospel which the Apostles have preached to us which also we have received and wherein we stand by which also we shal be saved how that Christ died for our sins 1 Cor. 15. 1,2,3 and in him we have redemption through his bloud the forgivenesse of our sins Ephes 1.7 and by him all that believe are justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the Law of Moses Acts 13.39 Seeing our Lord Christ was delivered for our offences and raised again for our justification Rom. 4.25 Christians should have their hearts and ears closly stopt up against the hearing and receiving of any other Gospel or Doctrine of Justification whatsoever yea though brought by an Angel from heaven Gal. 1.8,9 C How can they which have the divine holiness the same holines of the divine nature in the same manner though not in the same degree as Christ had and hath not be in their degree God as he is I professe my present inability to answer this question and absolve Mr Dels words from being very dangerous and derogative from the peculiar honour of our Saviour Was not the holinesse of the divine nature or which is all one the holy divine nature by personal union so communicated to the humane nature in our Saviour that though he was man yet in his holy divine nature he was also God blessed for ever Will he affirm so much of any believer I hope not D These words of Mr Dell are so pure and precious that every believer cannot but imbrace them for truth And methinks they do so plainly shew that the wil of God which a believer doth obey that is to say his revealed will is the law of God within his heart put into his inward parts by the spirit as to the knowledge and love of it and strength in some degree to fulfil it that I can hardly believe that such words should proceed from him as we find in the 3. Section of this book viz. God himself which dwelleth in them is the new Law according to which they live For is the will of God which a believer hath some strength to do God himself It is very strange if any understanding man should so apprehend seeing the will of God which believers are strengthened to observe and obey is only his will of command made known to men as the rule of their sanctification which is a different thing from God himself as a Lord and his law differ 1 Thes 4.2,3 E The former words in this paragraph I conceive in a sound sence may be admitted But these words seem to carry in them an incredible mistake for if by this and that life in these words be meant the life of the first Adam which is crucified in believers and the life of the second Adam imparted to believers according to what immediately goeth before they then speak thus much to wit that the life of the first Adam crucified in believers is the natural life of man of which he is deprived in corporal death and with which a man may part ere he partake of the life of Christ whereas there is nothing more clear in the Scriptures then that the life of the first Adam crucified in believers is the life of sin with which no man can possibly part ere he partake of the life of Christ and which is a very different thing from that life with which a man parteth at the hour of death in relation to which life alone it is true according to Mr Dels words that if we part with it ere we partake of the life of Christ the second death must needs swallow us up SECT XI Yet not I but Christ lives in me A ANd this he speaks lest any one should think that the life he lived after his crucifying with Christ was onely his own humane life purisied and refined I say lest any one should think he lived now the life of his own refined spiritualized reason and judgement and prudence and will c. distinct and apart from Christ therefore he adds yet not I but Christ lives in me And each of these Clauses are very considerable Yet not I. B I live yet not I. By which words it may appear that a Christian is so crucified with Christ that in this crucifying he loses not onely his own proper life but which must needs follow his personality also For through faith his soul and body live no more any proper life of their own as before but are taken up into the nature and person of the Son of God and in him he subsists lives and acts as a Member in the Man and as a Branch in the Vine and so can truly say after faith
and the faithful in all Ages are filling up the remainders of the sufferings of Christ in his body For believers have all along suffered and do still suffer from the World because God is in them of a truth and the evil done to them is against God himself who dwells in them And against this Rock have all the unbelievers dash'd themselves in pieces all along 4. Christ who lives in believers lives in them like himself that is like the Son of the living God and so those in whom he lives 1. He frees them from their own evil things and 2. He confers upon them all his own good things 1. He frees them from their evil things And in reference to these he lives in them as their Redeemer and Saviour and so Christ within them abolishes the Law takes away sin and destroyes death for none of these things can dwell in his presence in that soul wherein he lives F For he is our new Law to make void the Old and he is our new Righteousnesse to take away sin and our new life to destroy death and the Law Sin and Death can have no place nor power where Christ our new Law Righteousnesse and Life dwels and lives 2. Christ living in believers confers upon them his own good things G For Christ the Son of God hath nothing in himself that is in his Divine nature which he will not communicate to our flesh as he hath done to his own according to our place and use in his body and so he communicates to all those in whom he dwells of all the things of God till at last he fill them with all the fulnesse of God And thus is Christ glorified in his Saints and admired in them that believe 5. H If it be Christ the true God that lives in believers then we learn hence what true justification is and that is to be so one with Christ by faith that Christ himself may live in us and we in him that he may communicate his nature to us and our nature may be taken up into his for we cannot be Justified before God by our own living but by Christs living in us his own life and his righteousnesse which is the righteousnesse of God must dwell in us e're we can be Justified before God I Lastly seeing Christ himself lives in all true believers let us all who professe our selves to be such so live that Christ may be seen to live in us more then our selves that they that have known us may know us no more but may know Christ in us and that they that have communion with us may acknowledge Christ himself speaking working and living his whole life in us in all self-denyall humility holinesse love resignation of our selves to the will of God and in all diligence to do the work of God and readinesse to suffer the will of God for thus Christ lived in his own flesh and thus also he will certainly live in ours if he live there at all and when Christ lives in our flesh as he did in his own something of his glory will be seen upon us Now such a Christian in whom Christ lives and he lives not himself how amiable would he be in the spiritual Church but how unlike would he be to all the men in the world yea to the most Professors in that which is called the visible Church but I proceed to that which follows ANIMADVERSION 14. A MAster Dell should do well to name the men who look for all the life of Christ in his humanity and do not acknowledge that Christ lived truly in Paul and doth live in all the faithful by his spirit If none such appear as I am confident there will not amongst knowing Protestants he might have saved his use of rectification at least wise in respect of them B That Christ the true God is instead of all created habits of grace yea that he is truly all grace unto believers seems to be a position very dissonant from Scripture doctrine and which to my best remembrance I never saw Printed nor heard uttered until now Paul fully distinguished the spirit in believers from the sanctifying graces of believers which he calleth the fruits of the spirit Gal. 5.22,23 and in divers places he teacheth that the graces flow by way of creation from Christ through his spirit 2 Cor. 5.17 Ephes 2.10 and 4.24 Might the Scriptures be heard I think created graces and Christ in believers would not be opposed or confounded but Christ dwelling in believers by his spirit be acknowledged not to be all grace but the fountain of all created graces in them for of his fulnesse have we all received and unto every one of us is grace given according to the measure of the gift of Christ Ephes 4.7 That the Godhead which dwelt in our Saviour was in him instead of all grace as Mr Dell confidently affirmeth needs proof before it be believed The fear of the Lord fiducial hope in God and other holy graces seem plainly according to Scripture doctrine to have been wrought habitually in our Saviours humane nature by the Spirit which was given him without measure Esay 11.2 and 61.1 Acts 10.38 It is quickly affirmed that created habits of grace in a Christian are empty notions and vaine speculations of School-men and of carnal and unbelieving hearts But doubtlesse men of holy and believing hearts have conceived that God in the Scripture makes mention of the habitual grace of righteousnesse wrought by the Lord Christ in his people Phil. 1.11 Eph. 4.24 as also the habitual graces of faith and love 1 Tim. 1.14 Acts 18.27 and of patience James 1.4 and the like flowing all from the Lord Christ as the vine which hath the sap of all grace originally in himself But that the Lord Christ is all grace to a believer I never yet read in any Scripture As to the place here produced by Mr Dell as expresly teaching the same sc 1 Cor. 1.30 I find it not there said that Christ is all grace to a believer nor do I imagine how it should be convincingly argued from that text which as far as I yet see only setteth forth our Saviour as made by God to his believing people the author and object of saving wisdom the treasure of Gods righteousnesse unto justification the root of sanctification through his spirit and the worker of the ful redemption of his people All which may be granted and is believed of those who yet believe that there is habitual operative grace wrought by â—hrist through his Spirit in his believing people enabling them in some measure unto every good work acording to 1 Cor. 15.10 C It is certain that our Lord Christ is the only ground of acceptation with God unto believers but that he is the only acceptable grace to God as Mr Dell here affirmeth is never as I know said in Scripture Love acting towards the Saints is pointed at as acceptable to God Heb. 6.10 and
in these words if Mr Dell understand by flesh the nature or natural body of man then they carry in them a falshood throughout for neither doth Christ dwelling in us by his Spirit destroy the proper life of our humane nature or natural body neither is our humane nature or natural body taken up into the life of the Word and Spirit as is here confidently affirmed And to say that in the true believer the soul and body of man live in the life of the Son of God as was done in the flesh of Christ our elder brother is to make believers the sons of God and partakers of the divine nature in the same manner as our Lord Jesus was which cannot be mentioned without trembling and me thinks should not be the judgement of any Christian Doubtlesse the Apostle Paul understood that God was manifested in the flesh in the person of our Saviour in a special peculiar and incommunicable manner when describing the mysterie of Godlinesse relating to our Saviour he made the first branch of it God manifested in the flesh 1 Tim. 3.16 F This is the great mystery of the Gospel for certain would it be a degree of infidelity to doubt or deny that this is Gospel It seems Mr Dell thinks so by adding Let them receive it who can receive it But who gave him warrant with such absolute peremptorinesse to impose his notions upon others as Gospel the great mysterie of the Gospel I cannot but stand amazed at the strange confidence of some men who dare assume unto themselves our Saviours authority or at least the boldnesse to make use of his authoritative words without any preface in pressing of their new and strange doctrines to say no worse upon others as high points and great mysteries of the Gospel Such high confidence in points wherein men may possibly be brought to an after conviction of their errour I take to be one of the most dangerous pinacles upon which men are liable to be tempted to cast themselves down through the medium of scepticisme into the bottome of Atheism wherein we have many sad examples before our eyes Who can but love and reverence the learned Christian modesty of aged Austin who wrote thus of himself Lib. de bono perseverantiae cap. 21. Quamvis neminem velim sic amplecti omnia mea ut me sequatur nisi in t is in quibus me non errare perspexerit Though I would have no man so to imbrace all that I affirm as to follow me in any other points but such only wherein he perceiveth that I do not go astray And again in the same chapter Quandoquidem arrogantiùs loquor quam veriùs si vel nunc dico me ad perfectionem ut sine ullo errore scriberem jam in istâ aetaete venisse I shall speak more arrogantly then truly if I shall even now say that I am at this age arriv'd to that perfection that I do write without all errour How happy would it be if such a spirit were more commonly to be discerned in our dayes SECT X. NOw this new and Spiritual life which a crucified Christian partakes of He hath it 1. In Vnion 2. In Manifestation First A A Christian hath this life in Vnion when through Faith of the operation of God he is really knit unto Christ and ingraffed into him and made one with him For before we are united to Christ we are without life but as soon as we are united to him we have life from him as John saith in his Epistle He that hath the Son hath life even that life which the Son hath and he that hath not the Son hath not life Now this life and union which a Christian hath through faith is more hidden and secret as that life is that proceeds from the first real union and complyance between the Stock and sience or graft and this is the life of Justification B For as soon as ever we are by faith made one with God in Christ the righteousnesse of God is made ours truly and everlastingly and in this we are justified even before God 2. A true Christian hath this life of Christ not onely in Vnion but also in Manifestation For when a Christian partakes of Christs life by faith this life will not be idle in him which is against the nature of all life but especially of this but most active and operative and it will manifest it self especially two wayes viz. Both in Holinesse and Comfort 1. C This life will manifest it self in Holinesse in the very holinesse of Christ which is the holiness of the Divine Nature communicated to the Humane Nature the Spirit it self which is given to a Believer as the outgoing of the life of God within him worketh its own works of grace and sanctification in him and communicates the same holiness to him a Member as to Christ the Head though in a far different degree 2. This life of Christ in a Christian will manifest it self in comfort as well as in holinesse And this is the life of our life and the next and necessary result of holinesse wherefore it is said that the Kingdom of God stands first in righteousnesse and then presently in peace and joy and the same Spirit that is given for a Sanctifier is also given for a Comforter and Paul saith Rom. 8. That to be spiritually minded is not only life but life and peace D For when a Believer findes in himself a new nature through a new birth and the Law of God within his heart and some strength to obey God and to do his will then he begins to finde also a sweet and heavenly peace within him and many times joy unspeakable and glorious And thus is a crucified Christians new life manifested both in holiness and also in Spiritual peace and joy And now to speak one word by way of Application let us each one seriously consider whether he do indeed partake of such a life as is risen to him out of death whether he finde that he hath parted with his own life and gotten another life then his own in his own soul and body and whether the life of the first Adam be crucified in him he live the life of the second Adam that is not a natural but a spiritual life not a humane but a divine life not an earthly but a heavenly life not a temporal but an eternal life for thus do all live that are truly crucified with Christ E And I desire we all would the rather minde this because if we part with this life ere we partake of that the second death which is everlasting death in sin and the wrath of God must needs swallow us up and because if we do not partake of Christs life here we can never live with him in his Kingdom and also because we can never have true and immediate communion with the Father but in the life of his Eternal Son Wherefore let all such whose hearts God hath