Love of the Holy Ghost his whole work upon us in us for us consists in preparing of us for Obedience enabling of us thereunto and bringing forth the fruits of it in us and this he doth in opposition to a Righteousness of our own either before it or to be made up by it Tit. 3.5 I need not insist on this The fruits of the Spirit in us are known Gal. 5.22 And thus have we a twofold bottom of the Necessity of our Obedience and personal Holiness God hath appointed it He requires it And it is an eminent immediate End of the distinct Dispensation of Father Son and Holy Ghost in the Work of our Salvation If God's Soveraignty over us is to be owned if his Love towards us be to be regarded if the whole Work of the ever-blessed Trinity for us in us be of any Moment our Obedience is necessary 3. It is Necessary in respect of the End thereof and that whether you consider God our Selves or the World 1. The End of our obedience in respect of God is his Glory and Honour Mal. 1.6 This is God's Honour all that we give him It is true he will take his Honour from the Stoutest and Proudest Rebel in the World but all we give him is in our Obedience The Glorifying of God by our Obedience is all that we are or can be Particularly 1. It is the Glory of the Father Mat. 5.16 Let your Light so shine before Men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in Heaven By our walking in the Light of Faith doth Glory arise to the Father The Fruits of his Love of his Grace of his Kindness are seen upon us and God is Glorified in our Behalf And 2. The Son is Glorified thereby It is the Will of God that as all Men Honour the Father so should they Honour the Son John 5.23 and how is this done by believing in him John 14.1 obeying of him Hence John 17.10 He says he is Glorified in Believers and prays for an increase of Grace and Union for them that he may yet be more Glorified and all might know that as Mediator he was sent of God 3. The Spirit is Glorified also by it He is grieved by our Disobedience Eph. 4.30 And therefore his Glory is in our bringing forth Fruit. He dwells in us as in his Temple which is not to be defiled Holiness becometh his Habitation for ever Now if this that hath been said be not sufficient to evince a necessity of our Obedience we must suppose our selves to speak with a sort of Men who regard neither the Soveraignty nor Love nor Glory of God Father Son or Holy Ghost Let Men say what they please though our Obedience should be all lost and never regarded which is impossible for God is not unjust to forget our Labour of Love yet here is a sufficient bottom ground and Reason of yielding more Obedience unto God than ever we shall do whilst we live in this World I speak also only of Gospel-Grounds of Obedience and not of those that are Natural and Legal which are indispensible to all Mankind 2. The End in respect of our selves immediately is threefold 1. Honour 2. Peace 3. Usefulness 1. Honour It is by Holiness that we are made like unto God and his Image is renewed again in us This was our Honour at our Creation this exalted us above all our Fellow-Creatures here below we were made in the Image of God This we lost by Sin and became like the Beasts that perish To this Honour of Conformity to God of bearing his Image are we exalted again by Holiness alone Be ye Holy says God because I am Holy 1 Pet. 1.16 And be you perfect that is in doing good as your Heavenly Father is Perfect Math. 5.48 in a Likeness and Conformity to him And herein is the Image of God renewed Ephes. 4.23 24. Therein we put on the New Man which after God is created in Righteousness and Holiness of Truth This was that which originally was attended with Power and Dominion is still all that is Beautiful or Comely in the World How it makes Men Honourable and Precious in the sight of God of Angels of Men how alone it is that which is not despised which is of Price before the Lord what contempt and Scorn He hath of them in whom it is not in what Abomination he hath them and all their ways might easily be evinced 2. Peace by it we have Communion with God wherein Peace alone is to be enjoyed The wicked are like a troubled Sea that cannot rest and there is no Peace to them saith my God Isa. 48.21 There is no Peace Rest or Quietness in a Distance Separation or Alienation from God He is the Rest of our Souls In the Light of his Countenance is Life and Peace Now if we walk in the Light as he is Light we have Fellowship one with another 1 Joh. 1.7 and verily our Fellowship is with the Father and with the Son Jesus Christ v. 3. He that walks in the Light of new Obedience he hath Communion with God and in his Presence is fulness of Joy for ever without is there nothing but darkness and wandring and Confusion 3. Usefulness a man without Holiness is good for nothing Ephraim says the Propbet is an empty Vine that brings forth Fruit to it self And what is such a Vine good for Nothing saith another Prophet a man cannot make a pin of it so much as to hang a Vessel on A barren tree is good for nothing but to be cut down for the Fire Notwithstanding the seeming Usefulness of men who serve the Providence of God in their Generations I could easily manifest that the World and the Church might want them and that indeed in themselves they are Good for nothing only the Holy man is commune bonum 3. The End of it in respect of others in the world is manifold 1. It serves to the Conviction and stopping the mouths of some of the Enemies of God both here and hereafter Here 1. Pet. 3.16 Keeping a good Conscience that wherein they speak against you as Evil Doers they may be ashamed beholding your good Conversation in Christ. By our keeping of a good Conscience Men will be made ashamed of their false Accusations That whereas their Malice and Hatred of the ways of God hath provoked them to speak all manner of evil of the Profession of them by the Holiness and Righteousness of the Saints they are convinced and made ashamed as a Thief is when he is taken and driven to acknowledge that God is amongst them and that they are wicked themselves Joh. 17.23.2 Hereafter it is said that the Saints shall judg the World It is on this as well as upon other Considerations Their Good Works their Righteousness their Holiness shall be brought forth and manifested to all the World and the Righteousness of God's Judgments against Wicked Men be thence evinced See says
contrary and declared those Resolutions as I had occasion Neither was it until very lately that my second Thoughts came to a compliance with the desires of some others to consider my own peculiar concernment therein And this is all which I now design for the examination of the Opinions which this Author hath veuted under the countenance of publick License whatever they may think I know to be more the concernment of other Men than mine Nor yet do I enter into the Consideration of what is written by this Author with the least respect unto my self or my own reputation which I have the satisfaction to conceive not to be prejudiced by such pittiful Attempts nor have I the least desire to preserve it in the minds of such Persons as wherein it can suffer on this occasion But the Vindication of some sacred Truths petulantly traduced by this Author seems to be cast on me in an especial manner because he hath opposed them and endeavoured to expose them to scorn as declared in my Book whence others more meet for this work might think themselves discharged from taking notice of them Setting aside this consideration I can freely give this sort of Men leave to go on with their Revilings and Scoffings until they are weary or ashamed which as far as I can discern upon Consideration of their Ability for such a Work and their Confidence therein is not like to be in haste At least they can change their course and when they are out of breath in pursuit of one sort of calumnies betake themselves unto another Witness the late malicious and yet withal ridiculous Reports that they have divulged concerning me even with respect unto Civil Affairs and their industry therein For although they were such as had not any thing of the least probability or likelihood to give them countenance yet were they so impetuously divulged and so readily entertained by many as made me think there was more than the common artifices of Calumny employed in their raising and improvement especially considering what Persons I can justly charge those Reports upon But in this course they may proceed whilst they please and think convenient I find my self no more concerned in what they Write or say of this Nature than if it were no more But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is the Doctrine traduced only that I am concerned about and that as it hath been the Doctrine of the Church of England It may be it will be said for there is no security against Confidence and Imodesty backed with secular Advantages that the Doctrinal Principles asserted in this Book are agreeable with the Doctrine of the Church in former Times and therefore those opposed in it such as are condemned thereby Hereabout I shall make no long contest with them who once discover that their Minds are by any means emboldned to undertake the Defence of such shameless Untruths Nor shall I multiply Testimonies to prove the Contrary which others are more concerned to do if they intend not to betray the Religion of that Church with whose Preservation and Defence they are intrusted Only because there are Ancient Divines of this Church who I am perswaded will be allowed with the most to have known as well the Doctrine of it and as firmly to have adhered thereunto as this Author who have particularly spoken unto most of the Things which he hath opposed or rather reproached I shall transcribe the Words of one of them whereby he and those who employ him may be minded with whom they have to do in those things For as to the Writers of the Antient Church there is herein no regard had unto them He whom I shall Name is Mr. Hooker and that in his Famous Book of Ecclesiastical Policy who in the 5th Book thereof and 56 Paragraph thus discourseth We have hitherto spoken of the Person and of the presence of Christ. Participation is that mutual inward hold which Christ hath of us and we of him in such sort that each possesseth other by way of special Interest Property and Inherent Copulation And after the interposition of some things concerning the mutual in-being and Love of the Father and the Son he thus proceedeth We are by Nature the Sons of Adam When God Created Adam he Created us and as many as are descended from Adam have in themselves the Root out of which they Spring The Sons of God we neither are all nor any of Us otherwise than only by Grace and Favour The Sons of God have Gods own Natural Son as a second Adam from Heaven whose Race and Progeny they are by Spiritual and Heavenly Birth God therefore loving Eternally his Son he must needs Eternally in him have loved and preferred before all others them which are Spiritually sithence descended and sprung out of him These are in God as in their Saviour and not as in their Creator only It was the Purpose of his saving Goodness his Saving Power and his Saving Wisdom which inclined it self towards them They which thus are in God eternally by their intended admission to Life have by Vocation or Adoption God actually now in them as the Artificer is in that Work which his hand doth presently frame Life as all other Gifts and Benefits groweth originally from the Father and cometh not to Us but by the Son nor by the Son to any of Us in particular but through the Spirit For this cause the Apostle wisheth to the Church of Corinth the Grace our Lord Jesus Christ and the Love of God and the Fellowship of the Holy Ghost which three Saint Peter comprehendeth in one the Participation of the Divine Nature We are therefore in God through Christ Eternally according to that intent and purpose whereby we are chosen to be made his in this present World before the World it self was made We were in God through the knowledg which is had of Us and the Love which is born towards Us from Everlasting But in God we actually are no longer than only from the Time of our Actual Adoption into the Body of his true Church into the Fellowship of his Children For his Church he knoweth and loveth so that they that are in the Church are thereby known to be in him Our being in Christ by Eternal foreknowledg Saveth Us not without our actual and real Adoption into the Fellowship of his Saints in this present World For in him we actually are by our actual incorporation into that society which hath him for their head and doth make together with him one Body He and they in that respect having one Name For which cause by vertue of this Mystical conjunction we are of him and in him even as though our very flesh and bones should be made continuate with his We are in Christ because he knoweth and Loveth Us even as parts of himself No Man is actually in him but they in whom he actually is For he which hath not the Son of
Impertinencies who is so bewildred in his own Ignorance and Confidence that he knowes neither where he is nor what he says Did not the Son of God by assuming our Humane Nature continuing what he was become what he was not Was not the Person of Christ by the Communication of the Properties of each Nature in it and to it a Principle of such operations as he could not have wrought either as God or Man separately considered How else did God Redeem his Church with his own Blood Or how is that true which he says John 3.13 And no Man hath ascended up to Heaven but he that came down from Heaven even the Son of Man which is in Heaven Was not the Union of the two Natures in the same Person which was a Property neither of the Divine nor Humane Nature but a distinct ineffable Effect of Divine Condescention Wisdom and Grace which the Antients Unanimously call the Grace of Union whose Subject is the Person of Christ that whereby he was fit mee◠and able for all the Works of his Mediation Doth not the Scripture moreover propose unto our Faith and Consolation the Glory Power and Grace of the Person of Christ as he is God over all blessed for ever and his Love Sympathy Care and Compassion as Man yet all acting themselves in the one and self same Person of the Son of God Let him read the first Chap. of the Epistle to the Hebrews and see what account he can give thereof And are not these such Principles of Christian Religion as no Man ought to be ignorant of or can deny without the Guilt of the Heresies condemned in the first General Councils And they are no other Principles which my whole Discourse excepted against doth proceed upon But saith our Author unless the Person of Christ as Mediator be distinct from his Person as God Man all this is idle Talk Very Good and why so Why what Personal Graces are there in Christ as Mediator which do not belong unto him either as God or Man But is he not ashamed of this Ignorance Is it not a Personal Grace and Excellency that he is God and Man in one Person which belongs not to him either as God or Man And are there not Personal Operations innumerable depending hereon which could not have been wrought by him either as God or Man as raising himself from the Dead by his own Power and Redeeming the Church with his Blood Are not most of the Descriptions that are given us of Christ in the Scripture most of the Operations which are assigned unto him such as neither belong unto nor proceed from the Divine or Humane Nature separately considered but from the Person of Christ as both these Natures are united in it That which seems to have led him into the Maze wherein he is bewildred in his ensuing Discourse is that considering there are but two Natures in Christ the Divine and the Humane Nature is the Principle of all Operations he supposed that nothing could be said of Christ nothing ascribed to his Person but what was directly formally predicated of one of his Natures distinctly considered But he might have easily enquired of himself that seeing all the Properties and Acts of the Divine Nature are absolutely Divine and all those of the Humane Nature absolutely Humane whence it came to pass that all the Operations and Works of Christ as Mediator are Theandrical Although there be nothing in the Person of Christ but his Divine and Humane Nature yet the Person of Christ is neither his Divine Nature nor his Humane For the Humane Nature is and ever was of it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Divine to the compleat Constitution of the Person of the Mediator in and unto its own Hypostasis assumed the Humane so that although every Energy or Operation be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so the distinct Natures are distinct Principles of Christ's operations yet his Person is the Principal or only Agent which being God-Man all the Actions thereof by vertue of the Communication of Properties of both Natures therein are Theandrical And the Excellency of this Person of Christ wherein he was every way fitted for the work of Mediation I call sometimes his Personal Grace and will not go to him to Learn to speak and express my self in these things And it is most false which he affirms pag. 203. That I distinguish the Graces of Christ's Person as Mediator from the Graces of his Person as God and Man Neither could any Man have run into such an Imagination who had competently understood the things which he speaks about And the bare proposal of these things is enough to defeat the Design of all his ensuing Cavils and Exceptions And as to what he closeth withal that Surely I will not call the peculiar Duties and Actions of an office Personal Graces I suppose that he knoweth not well what he intends thereby Whatever he hath fancied about Christ being the Name of an Office Jesus Christ of whom we speak is an Person and not an Office And there are no such things in rerum natura as the actions of an Office And if by them he intends the Actions of a Person in the discharge of an Office whatever he calls them I will call the Habits in Christ from whence all his Actions in the performance of his Office do proceed Personal Graces and that whether he will or no. So he is a merciful faithful and compassionate High-Priest Heb. 2.17 4.15 5.2 And all his Actions in the discharge of his Office of Priesthood being principled and regulated by those Qualifications I do call them his Personal Graces and do hope that for the future I may obtain his leave so to do The like may be said of his other Offices The Discourse which he thus raves against is Didactical and accommodated unto a Popular way of Instruction and it hath been hitherto the common Ingenuity of all Learned Men to give an Allowance unto such Discourses so as not to exact from them an accuracy and propriety in Expressions such as is required in those that are Scholastical or Polemical It is that which by common consent is allowed to the Tractates of the Ancients of that Nature especially where nothing is taught but what for the substance of it is consonant unto the Truth But this Man attempts not only a Severity in nibling at all Expressions which he fancyeth liable unto his Censures but with a disingenuous Artifice waving the Tenour and Process of the Discourse which I presume he found not himself able to oppose he takes out sometimes here sometimes there up and down backward and forward at his Pleasure what he will to put if it be possible an ill Sence upon the whole And if he have not hereby given a sufficient Discovery of his good will towards the doing of somewhat to my disadvantage he hath failed in his whole Endeavour For there is no Expression which he hath