the more you use it the more you prize it and the more you prize it the more you love it if you have a good friend the more you use him the more you prize him and the more you prize him the more you love him if you have a good Horse the more you use him the more you prize him c. if you have a good Knife the more you use it c. if you would love Christ use him much and then the more you will prize him and the more you will love him Now to let pass the rudeness of the Comparisons this using Christ must signifie his benefits and to prize and love Christ much because we use him much is to love him because we make great advantage of him and receive many benefits from him which is neither better nor worse than to love him for his benefits The occasion of all this contradiction and confusion in these mens discourses is that they do not distinguish between loving the benefit and loving the person upon account of his benefits It must indeed be acknowledged to be very bruitish and barbarous to delight in the gift and to take no notice of the giver to solace our selves in the effects of the divine bounty and goodness and to make no returns of love and thankfulness and duty to God this is to love the benefit but not the person who bestows this benefit but those blessings and benefits we receive from God and Christ are the true reasons why we are bound to love them and could we be supposed to love God and Christ for no reason or as these men phrase it purely for themselves without respect to those many blessings we have received from them it would not be accepted because this is not a reasonable love but an unaccountable and foolish passion The love we owe to God and Christ is no other than gratitude because God loved us first and our love is only a return of his now thankfulness and gratitude includes a necessary respect to those blessings and benefits we have received it is peculiar to God who wants nothing and can receive nothing from his Creatures to love without any respect to benefits but the love of indigent and dependent Creatures is a love of thankfulness is a grateful acknowledgment of those many blessings we receive from God Secondly These men oppose our love to the person of Christ to our love to our selves the first destroys the reason and the object of our love and this destroys the principle of it it is made the Character of a wicked man who wants an inward principle of love to God and Christ that though he seeks to honour God never so much yet all that he doth is done out of love to himself and therefore God abhors all that he performs All the good things such a wicked man doth are for himself either for self credit or self-ease or self content or self-safety he sleeps prays hears speaks professeth for himself alone hence acting always for himself he committeth the highest degree of Idolatry makes himself a God c. Hence the same Author thus exhorts Sinners away then out of your selves to the Lord Iesus go to him and take hold on him not with the hand of presumption and love to thy self to save thy self but with the hand of Faith and love to him to honour him and a little after describing the easie ways to Heaven all which lead to Hell he reckons among the rest the way of self-love whereby a man fearing terribly he shall be damned useth diligently all means whereby he shall be saved Here is the strongest difficulty of all to row against the stream to hate a mans self our own Souls and eternal Salvation and then to follow Christ fully now is not this a hard case that before we can love God and Christ as we ought we must root out the very principle of all love that we must learn to hate Salvation and eternal happiness before we can close with Christ for Salvation he might well say that this is the strongest difficulty of all for indeed it is impossible love to our selves is the foundation of our love to all other things even to God himself he that does not love himself will love nothing else he that hates himself and his own Soul and despises eternal Salvation will not care for Christ nor Salvation by him all the motives and arguments of the Gospel to perswade us to love and fear and obey God are founded on self-self-love for how is it possible that we should be affected with a due sense of Gods goodness to us that we should be excited and quickned by the hopes of such great rewards that we should be restrain'd and govern'd by the fears of punishment if we did not love our selves if we did not care what became of us whether we were happy or miserable for ever It is a vain thing to perswade a man not to love himself for this is as natural and necessary as it is for the fire to burn or Sun to shine it is not matter of our choice it is not in our power to do otherwise and all that such discourses as these can do is either to make men Hypocrites to pretend to do that which they cannot do or to make honest men who cannot thus cheat and delude themselves despair of their Salvation because they cannot find themselves contented without Salvation that Christ without Comfort and without Salvation cannot satisfie them It is true when men set up self in opposition to God when self-love tempts them to disobey God to despise his Counsels to renounce their Faith and Religion this is a very vicious and mistaken self-love such men neither love themselves nor God in a proper sense because it is our interest as well as duty to obey God such men are Idolaters as our Author speaks because they set up self above God and in opposition to him but when our love to our selves teaches us to love God and in all things to submit our selves to his will and pleasure we do as we ought to do and they who separate our love to God from our love to our selves from the care of our own happiness and Salvation do plainly declare that they neither understand the nature of man nor the Gospel of Christ. Thirdly They oppose our love to Christ to our own duties that is they oppose our love to Christ to the most proper and natural expression of our love to him herein Dr. Owen places the chastity of our affections to Christ which you know is a great marriage duty in not taking any thing as our own righteousness into our affections and esteem for those ends and purposes for which we have received Christ and God forbid that any Christian should for our own righteousness and duties cannot be our Mediators and Advocates cannot expiate for our past sins nor merit Heaven for us which Christ hath
IMPRIMATUR May 30. 1673. Sam. Parker A DISCOURSE Concerning the KNOWLEDGE OF JESUS CHRIST AND Our Union and Communion with him c. By William Sherlock Rector of S t George Buttolph lane London LONDON Printed by I. M. for Walter Kettilby at the Bishops-Head in St Paul's Church-Yard MDCLXXIV THE PREFACE Christian Reader I Am conscious to my self of so honest a design in writing this Discourse that I am very very well armed against those various censures which are the usual reward of such Attempts for there is no such Sanctuary against the rudest clamours and the most unjust reproaches as a good Conscience I was heartily grieved to see so many well-disposed Persons abused with words and phrases which either signifie nothing or have a very ambiguous and doubtful or a very bad sense when I have observed that great zeal which some men have for the Worship of God I have often thought what great Instruments they might be of Gods glory were their zeal directed and governed with Knowledge and Iudgment and when I have observed how innocently and vertuously some of those men live who have espoused such Principles as naturally tend to make them bad I have thought what excellent Persons they might prove did they rightly understand so excellent a Religion as is published to the World in the Gospel of Christ such thoughts as these at first engaged me in this Work to rectifie those mistakes which will either make men bad or hinder and retard their progress in true goodness which is so pious and charitable a design as may at least plead my excuse though it should appear to be a mistaken zeal In the management of this Discourse I have carefully avoided all personal reflexions have not medled with the lives and actions of men which I am so charitable as to hope may be more orthodox than their judgments I have represented their opinions in their own words and am not conscious to my self that I have put any other sense upon their words than they intended and I cannot see what reason any man hath to take it ill that I repeat that which he himself thought fit to publish where they pretend to argue gravely I have examined their Arguments with all possible gravity and solemnity where they plainly toy and trifle I have so far complied with their humour as to smile sometimes though as modestly as any man can desire I have taken care not only to unteach men what was amiss but to explain and consirm the true notions of Religion lest any man should suspect that under a pretence of rectifying mistakes I designed to expose all Religion what men will account severe I cannot tell because the gentlest Arguments will appear severe to any man who is pinch't by them but I have given no hard words and have sometimes called things by softer names than they deserve on purpose to avoid the imputation of severity which is now the common artifice to teach men to despise and reproach what they cannot answer and if after all this I cannot escape without some hard names and hard censures I must be contented with my portion and indeed no man ought to expect better usage who considers that Mr. Baxter himself who hath deserved so well for his pious labours could not escape when he touch't upon their Darling Notions And now Christian Reader I shall beg no more of thee than to read this Discourse with an honest and unprejudiced mind and as I did not compose it without imploring the guidance and direction of God so I recommend it to thee with my hearty prayers that it may prove as useful as my intentions were honest and charitable Farewel THE CONTENTS THE Introduction concerning the various significations of the Name Christ in Scripture that it originally is the name of an Office but is used also to signifie the Person invested with this Office and the Gospel of Christ and the Church of Christ. Pag. 1. Of what use the consideration of Christs Person is in the Christian Religion 14 As first the greatness of his Person is a plain demonstration of Gods love to Mankind in that he gave his own Son for us 15 2. It gives great Reverence and Authority to his Gospel 17 3. It gives great Authority to his Example 18 4. This assures us of the infinite value of his Sacrifice and of the power of his Intercession 19 5. The Person of Christ is of no other consideration in the Christian Religion than as it hath an influence upon the great Ends of his Undertaking 21 Of the knowledge of Christ and the various ways whereby God hath manifested himself to the World 25 Dr. Owen's Notion of an acquaintance with Christs Person considered 38 How the Nature and Attributes of God may be learn't from an acquaintance with the Person of Christ. 42. And how we learn the knowledge of our selves with respect to sin 49. And to Righteousness 53. And our wisdom to walk with God 55 A new Scheme of Religion deduced from this acquaintance with Christs Person 57 How unsafe it is to found Religion on a pretended acquaintance with Christs Person which at most amounts to no more than uncertain conjectures or ambiguous and doubtful Reasonings 76 This way will serve other men as well as themselves and another Scheme of Religion from an acquaintance with Christ. 80 Of expounding Scripture by the sound of words 102 And by the Analogie of Faith 118 What is meant by our Union to Christ. 142 Those Metaphors which describe the Union betwixt Christ and Christians do primarily refer to the Christian Church 142 The Union of particular Christians to Christ is by means of their Union to the Christian Church 143 In what sense Christ calls himself a Vine 145 The Union betwixt Christ and the Christian Church is not natural but political 156 In what sense Christ is called a Shepherd Head and Husband 157. The reason of these Metaphors 159 This political Union is either only external and visible or true and real and what this external Union is 168 Wherein the real Union consists and concerning the subjection of our Souls and Spirits to Christ. 171 We are united to Christ by a participation of his Nature 172. And by a mutual and reciprocal Love 174 In what sense the Christian Church is called Gods Temple 175 This Union to Christ represented in the Sacraments of the New Testament 181 Fellowship and Communion with God and Christ in the Scripture-phrase signifie this political Union 186 The Lords Supper the only Act whereby our fellowship with God in this World is expressed 192 Of our Union to the Person of Christ 196 What is meant by the Person of Christ. 200 The Personal Excellencies of Christ considered 206 What is meant by the Fulness of Christ. 216 In what sense Christ is called our Life 228 Concerning the Personal Righteousness of Christ. 234 What is meant by the Lord our Righteousness 235 What is meant by the
but one Christian Society which is the One Body of Christ. Thus Brethren in Christ i. e. Christian Brethren 1 Colossians 2. Verse And if any man be in Christ he is a new Creature 2. Ep. to the Corinthians 5. Chapter 17. v. i. e. every sincere Christian is a new Creature or whoever professeth the Faith of Christ and lives in Society with the Christian Church hath obliged himself to live a new life but of this more in its proper place Thus variously is the name Christ used in the Writings of the Apostles which hath occasioned very great mistakes in some mens Divinity who are very zealous to advance Christs Person to the prejudice and reproach of his Religion Who instead of those substantial duties of the love of God and men and an universal holiness of life have introduced a fanciful application of Christ to our selves and Union to him set off with all those choice Phrases of closing with Christ and embracing Christ and getting into Christ and getting an interest in Christ and trusting and relying and rowling our Souls on Christ And instead of obedience to the Gospel and the Laws of Christ have advanced a kind of Amorous and Enthusiastick devotion which consists in a passionate love to the Person of Christ in admiring his Personal excellencies and perfections fulness beauty loveliness riches c. The Foundation of all which Riddles and Mysteries is that these men make the Person of Christ almost the sole object of the Christian Religion and whatever is spoken of Christ with respect to his Offices his Laws and his Religion they understand of his Person and personal excellencies And therefore the design of this discourse is to reconcile the Person of Christ with his Religion that men may not abuse themselves with a pretended devotion to our Saviour while they contemn his Laws and purposely defeat the great end of his coming into the World And to that end I shall discourse on these following Arguments First Of what use the consideration of Christs person is in the Christian Religion Secondly What the Knowledge of Christ is Thirdly Wherein our Union to Christ and Communion with him consists Fourthly Christs love to us and our love to Christ. CHAP. II. Of what use the consideration of Christs Person is in the Christian Religion THE first thing to be stated is of what use the consideration of Christs Person is in the Christian Religion For those men who talk so much of the Person and Personal excellencies of Christ frequently without any sense and generally without any just ground from Reason or Scripture are very clamorous and alarm the World with strange jealousies and fears as if there were a party of men started up who design to make Christ useless and to reduce Religion to its first Natural State which knew no Priest nor Sacrifice nor Mediator A design which I profess I am wholly a stranger to as I believe all those are who are so much charged with it The Foundation of my hope is that which is the Foundation of the Christian Religion the Sacrifice and Intercession of our Lord Iesus Christ. But I doubt not it will appear in the Sequel what the ground of these calumnies are viz. that we are charged with making Christ useless only because we dare not make his Laws and Religion so And to prevent such scandals for the future I shall lay the Foundation of all in this inquiry of what use the consideration of Christs Person is in the Christian Religion By the Person of Christ I mean what all men ought to mean who talk of Christs Person viz. Christ himself as every mans Person is himself and the only proper consideration here is the greatness of his Person who is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or God man the Son of God in whom his Soul was well pleased who left the glories of an Eternal Throne to undertake the work of mans redemption and this suggests many useful considerations which have a great influence upon Religion As first This is a plain demonstration of Gods love to Mankind that he sent so great and so dear a Person as his only begotten Son into the World to save Sinners All Religion is founded on a belief of Gods Goodness He that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him Hebr. 11. 6. that is must believe his Being and his Providence that he loves and takes care of good men for no man will serve God who does not hope to be the better by it And therefore every Religion had its proper demonstrations of Gods Goodness Natural Religion was founded on those natural evidences of the Divine bounty and goodness in making and governing the World the Mosaick Religion on those miraculous deliverances God wrought for Israel and that particular providence which watched over them the Christian Religion on the Incarnation Death and Resurrection of the Son of God a work of such stupendious love that it is the wonder of Angels and the astonishment as well as praise of men No man can doubt of Gods good will to Sinners who sees the Son of God cloathed with our flesh and dying as a Sacrifice for our sins this gives relief to our guilty fears and does encourage us to retrieve our past follies by new obedience that we have so great an assurance of God's goodness for he had nothing greater to bestow on us than his Son And he that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things 8 Rom. 32. Secondly This gives great reverence and authority to the Gospel that it was preached by so great a Person as the Son of God Laws always partake of the fate and condition of the Law-giver the greater opinion we have of his Wisdom and Reverence for his Person the more sacred regard have we for his Laws and therefore Numa pretended that he received his Laws from the Goddess Aegeria to procure a greater veneration for them which was imitated by Lycurgus and other Law-givers thus God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past to the Fathers by the Prophets hath in these last days spoken to us by his Son whom he appointed Heir of all things by whom also he made the Worlds 1 Hebr. 1. 2. And his greatness and Authority gives an inviolable sanction and just reverence to his Laws Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard lest at any time we should let them slip for if the word spoken by Angels was stedfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward how shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation which at first began to be spoken by the Lord 2. Hebr. 1. 2 3. To the same purpose is that Parable in Luke 20. 9. c. Thirdly The greatness of his Person gives
great authority to his example He came to be our Prophet and our guide to teach us by his Precepts and his life now we love to imitate great Persons and none so great as he who was the brightness of his Fathers Glory and the express image of his Person His example secures the honour and reputation of vertue and gives us an evident demonstration wherein the perfection of our nature consists for he lived up to the perfection of humane nature and the only way to be perfect is to live as he lived Nay the greatness of his Person makes all the expressions of his love and goodness the more wonderful That the Son of God should become man that when he was rich for our sakes he should become poor that the great Lord of the Creation should become a Minister and Servant that the Lord of life and glory should suffer and die These are such expressions of love and goodness as we can never fully imitate because we can never be so great as he was but yet they powerfully convince us how reasonable it is for us to stoop to the meanest offices of kindness since we can never stoop so low as the Son of God did when he came down from Heaven and took up his Lodging in the grave Fourthly This assures us of the infinite value of his Sacrifice and the power of his intercession He was a Priest of a higher order than that of Aaron and his Sacrifice of a greater value than the bloud of Bulls and Goats God cannot but be pleased when his own Son undertakes to be a ransom and to make atonement for Sinners which is so great a vindication of Gods Dominion and Soveraignty of the authority of his Laws and the Wisdom and Justice of his Providence that he may securely pardon humble and penitent Sinners without reproaching any of his Attributes And we can reasonably desire no greater security for the performance of this Gospel Covenant than that it was sealed with the bloud of the Son of God which is such a confirmation of God's Covenant and Promise as the World never had before Christ is the surety of a better Testament Hebr. 7. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one who undertakes for the performance of it and the security he gives us depends on thè vertue of his Priesthood and Sacrifice and the power of his Intercession for so in Verse 21. the Apostle tells us that God had confirmed the Priesthood of Christ by Oath The Lord hath sworn and will not repent Thou art a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchisedec And whereas other Priests died and left their Priesthood to their Successors He continueth for ever and therefore hath an unchangeable Priesthood and is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them Verse 23 24 25. And who can desire a more powerful Mediator than the Son of God to whom God hath given such signal demonstrations of his favour and acceptance by a voice from Heaven and by the glory of his Miracles and his Resurrection from the Dead And that the vertue of Christs Sacrifice and Intercession depends very much on the greatness of his Person is plain from the Epistle to the Hebrews the design of which is to show how much the Priesthood and Sacrifice of Christ excels that of the Law and the Foundation of all is laid in the first Chapter where the Apostle discourses of his greatness and excellency that he was the brightness of his Fathers glory and the express Image of his Person the Heir of all things by whom he made the Worlds exalted above all Angels who hath an everlasting Throne and Scepter and shall continue when all other things moulder and vanish away But Fifthly The Person of Christ is of no other consideration in the Christian Religion than as it hath an influence upon the great ends of his undertaking i. e. we must expect no more from Christ upon account of his Personal excellencies and perfections than what he hath promised in his Gospel He hath told us there whatever he intends to do for us and hath charged us to expect no more from him Math. 7. 21. Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven That is you must not expect that I will be better to you than my word and receive you into the Kingdom of Heaven upon easier terms than I have promised I shall be moved with none of your flattering speeches but how good and kind soever you may fancy me unless you obey those Laws I publish in my Fathers name I declare before hand that I will disown you when I come to judgment For indeed should he absolve and justifie those men whom the Gospel condemns that is wilful and incorrigible Sinners this were to disanul that Covenant which he had sealed with his bloud Christ is the object of our Faith and Hope only as he is our Saviour and he is our Saviour in no other sense than as he is our Mediator and he mediates for us as our Priest that is in vertue of that Covenant which he hath sealed with his bloud and therefore we have no reason to expect any thing from the Person of Christ which is not contained in his Covenant much less which contradicts it for that would be in effect to renounce his Mediation and to trust to the goodness of his nature And let any man judg whether this be not to set up a new Religion which hath no Covenant and no Promise for whatever we can expect from Christ by vertue of a Promise is contained in the Gospel and if we expect any thing else from him upon his Personal account it is without a promise which at best reduces us to the same state in which the World was before God had made an express revelation of his will when all their hopes were founded on that natural perswasion they had of the divine Goodness that Faith which is the Foundation of Natural Religion that God is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him Hebr. 11. 6. thus these men trust in the Person of Christ without any Promise nay which makes the case much worse in contradiction to the terms of that Covenant which he sealed with his bloud they quit his Promise and his Covenant to rely and rowl upon his Person This is so very absurd at first sight that I know no man will be so senseless as to owne it in so many words nor do I charge any man with it but I say this is the natural interpretation of trusting in the Person of Christ in his blood and merits and satisfaction fulness and alsufficiency and of relying and rowling the Soul on Christ for Salvation and the like Phrases of a late date in which some men place the whole mystery
of the Gospel if they understand any thing more by them than expecting to be saved according to the terms of the Gospel Covenant that is by believing and obeying the Gospel of Christ And certainly they must mean something more than this or else they raise a great noise and clamour in the World and confound mens minds with obscure and unscriptural phrases to no purpose as will appear more in what follows CHAP. III. Of the Knowledge of Christ. SECT I. THE happiness of Mankind consists in the Knowledge and Love of God who is the greatest and the best Being and therefore our good God who is never wanting to his own glory and the happiness of his Creatures hath taken care in all Ages by one means or other to make known himself and his will to the World In the first Creation of all things he left such visible impresses of his own Divine Wisdom and Power on the works of Nature and planted in the mind of man such a natural knowledge of himself that it was as easie to discover the first Author of all things as it is now for a well disposed eye to see the Sun when it shines And while man preserved his innocence God himself did not disdain to converse with him and to give him very present and sensible demonstrations of his Power and Providence In after Ages as Mankind grew more corrupt and declined to Idolatry God afforded good men the frequent apparitions of Angels who were the great Ministers of his Providence and to instruct the more degenerate part of Mankind he raised up some great examples and Preachers of Righteousness such as Enoch and Noah and Abraham and gave such plain and undeniable proofs of his acceptance of these men as might reasonably incourage others to imitate their examples He translated Enoch immediately to Heaven and preserved Noah and his Family in the Ark when he destroyed the rest of the World by a deluge of Waters which was a signal warning to that corrupt Generation while the Ark was preparing and a great example to Posterity he sent Lot out of the ruins of Sodom and made Abraham the Father of a great Nation which was a convincing argument how dear these good men were to God and what others might expect from him who would worship and fear him as they did But when the World would not be reformed by these single Examples God chose the Posterity of Abraham to be a publick and constant demonstration of his Power and Providence and care of good men For when God chose the Posterity of Abraham to be his peculiar people he did not design to exclude the rest of the World from his care and providence and all possible means of Salvation as the Apostle argues in Rom. 3. 29. Is he the God of the Iews only Is he not also of the Gentiles Yes of the Gentiles also which argument if it have any force in it must prove Gods respect to the Gentiles before the preaching of the Gospel as well as since because it is founded on that natural relation God owns to all Mankind as their merciful Creator and Governour which gives the Gentiles as well as Jews an intrest in his care and providence This plainly evinces that all those particular favours which God bestowed on Israel were not owing to any partial fondness and respect to that people but the design of all was to encourage the whole World to worship the God of Israel who gave so many demonstrations of his power and providence For this reason God brought Israel out of Aegypt with great signs and wonders and a mighty hand when he could have done it with less noise and observation that he might the more gloriously triumph over the numerous Gods of Aegypt and all their enchantments and divinations and that he might be honoured on Pharoah and all his Host. For this reason he maintained them in the Wilderness at the constant expence of miracles fought all their Battles for them and many times by weak and contemptible means overthrew great and puissant Armies drove out the Inhabitants of Canaan and gave them possession of that good land I say one great and principal design of all this was to convince the World of the Majesty and Power of the God of Israel that they might renounce their foolish Idolatries and Country Gods and consent in the worship of that One God who alone doth wondrous things this account the Psalmist gives of it that God wrought such visible and miraculous deliverances for Israel to make his glory and his power known among the Heathen The Lord hath made known his Salvation his righteousness hath he openly shewed in the sight of the Heathen Psalm 98. 2. That the Heathen might fear the name of the Lord and all the Kings of the Earth his glory i. e. that all Nations might worship God and all Kings submit their Crowns and Scepters to him Psal. 102. 15. that by this means they might be instructed in that important truth That the Lord is great and greatly to be praised that he is to be feared above all Gods for all the Gods of the Nations are Idols but he made the Heavens Psal. 96. 4 5. And as God set up the people of Israel as a visible demonstration to all the World of his power and providence so he committed his Laws and Oracles to them from whence the rest of the World when they pleased might fetch the best rules of life and the most certain notices of the divine will In such ways God instructed the World in former Ages by the light of Nature and the examples of good men and the Sermons of the Prophets and the publick example of a whole Nation which God chose for that very purpose But when long and sad experience had proved all these ways ineffectual to reform the World at last God sent his own Son into the World to make a full and perfect Declaration of his will to give the best rules of life and to encourage our obedience by the most express promises of a blessed Immortality This was one great design of Christ's appearing in the World to reveal and declare God to us Iohn 1. 18. No man hath seen God at any time the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father he hath declared him and in Math. 11. 27. All things are delivered unto me of my Father no man knoweth the Son but the Father neither knoweth any man the Father but the Son and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him That is God hath now committed unto Christ all the secret purposes of his Counsel concerning the Salvation of Mankind which were concealed from Ages None of the Prophets which lived before did so fully understand it nor have we any other certain way of knowing this but by the Revelation Christ hath made to us Thus in Iohn 14. 6 7. Iesus saith unto him I am the way the truth and the life no man
learnt before from nature and Revelation just as his Resurrection which is an ocular demonstration of another life confirms us in the belief of that blessed Immortality he had promised and yet we could not have learnt this neither from the Person of Christ had he not told us for what ends he came into the World as will appear more anon And is not this a confident man to tell us that the love of God to Sinners and his pardoning mercy could never have entred into the heart of man but by Christ when the experience of the whole World confutes him for whatever becomes of his new Theories both Jews and Heathens who understood nothing at all of what Christ was to do in order to our recovery did believe God to be gracious and merciful to Sinners and had reason to do so because God himself had assured the Jews that he was a gracious and merciful God pardoning iniquitiy transgressions and sins And those natural notions the Heathens had of God and all those discoveries God had made of himself in the works of Creation and Providence did assure them that God is very good and it is not possible to understand what goodness is without pardoning Grace But yet the truth is considering what these men mean by the love and pardoning Grace and Justice and Patience and Long-suffering of God I must acknowledge that these properties could never have been discovered but by a too familiar acquaintance with Christ's Person for Nature and Revelation say nothing of them As for Instance he tells us that in Christ that is in his death and sufferings for our sins God hath manifested the naturalness of this Righteousness i. e. vindictive justice in punishing sin unto him in that it was impossible that it should be diverted from Sinners without the interposing of a propitiation That is that God is so just and righteous that he cannot pardon sin without satisfaction to his justice now this indeed is such a notion of justice as is perfectly new which neither Scripture nor nature acquaints us with for all mankind have accounted it an Act of goodness without the least suspition of injustice in it to remit injuries and offences without exacting any punishment And that he is so far from being just that he is cruel and savage who will remit no offence till he hath satisfied his revenge That part of justice which consists in punishing offenders was always lookt on as an Instrument of Government and therefore the exacting or remitting punishment was referred to the wisdom of Governours who might spare or punish as they saw reason for it without being unjust in either and therefore had not one who pretends to so great and personal an Acquaintance with Christ said so I should rather have thought that God's requiring such a Sacrifice as the death of Christ for the expiation of our sins was not because he could not do otherwise but because his Infinite Wisdom judged this the best and most effectual way of dispencing his Grace But though this be a very terrible discovery of the naturalness of Gods righteousness or vindictive justice yet he makes some amends for it in that comfortable discovery of his patience and long-suffering towards Sinners for now in Christ the very nature of God is discovered to be love and kindness a happy change this from all justice to all love but how comes this to pass why the account of that is very plain because the justice of God hath glutted its self with revenge on sin in the death of Christ and so hence forward we may be sure he will be very kind as a revengful man is when his passion is over for so he speaks very honourably of God whatever discoveries were made of the Patience and lenity of God unto us yet if it were not withal revealed that the other properties of God as his Iustice and Revenge for sin had their actings also assigned them to the full there could be little consolation gathered from the former That is he would not believe God himself though he should make never so many promises of being good and gracious to Sinners unless he were sure that he had first satisfied his revenge which indeed is such a Character of the Love and Patience of God as we could never have understood but from an intimate acquaintance with the Person of Christ. The sum of which is that God is all love and Patience when he hath taken his fill of revenge as others use to say that the Devil is very good when he is pleased But however sinners have great reason to rejoice in it when they consider the nature and end of God's Patience and forbearance towards them viz. That it is Gods taking a course in his infinite wisdom and goodness that we should not be destroyed notwithstanding our sins That as before the least sin could not escape without a just punishment justice being so natural to God that he cannot forgive without punishing so the justice of God being now satisfied by the death of Christ the greatest sins can do us no hurt but we shall escape with a Notwithstanding our sins This it seems we learn from an acquaintance with the Person of Christ though his Gospel instructs us otherwise that without holiness no man shall see God As for the Wisdom of God which is another property he instanceth in no doubt but the Gospel of Christ makes great and glorious discoveries of it but then this is not very consistent with those other discoveries of the nature of God for if justice be so natural to God that nothing could satisfie him but the death of his own Son the redemption of the World by Christ may discover his justice or his goodness but not his Wisdom for Wisdom consists in the choice of the best and fittest means to attain an end when there are more ways than one of doing it But it requires no great Wisdom to chuse when there is but one possible way and whatever Wisdom there is in Gods redeeming the World by his own Son the knowledge of it is wholly owing to the Revelations of the Gospel not to such a fanciful acquaintance with Christ as these men talk of Thus you see what excellent discoveries of the Nature of God are owing to an acquaintance with the Person of Christ And the second thing we learn from hence is the knowledge of our selves and that in respect of Sin and in respect of Righteousness As for sin the Gospel assures us that God is an irreconcileable Enemy to all wickedness it being so contrary to his own most holy Nature that if he have any love for himself and any esteem and value for his own perfections and works he must hate sin which is so unlike himself and which destroys the beauty and perfection of his Workmanship For this end he sent his Son into the World to destroy the works of the Devil and to reduce Mankind to
of his body they are secure to Eternity For nothing that ever was a Member can be lost to Eternity for is Christ divided can he lose a Member of his body then his body is not perfect No no fear not O ye Saints neither sin nor Satan can dissolve your Union with Christ but what if sin should make them no Saints would not that endanger the dissolveing of this Union For as the same Author sweetly reasons if any branch be pluckt away from Christ it is either because Christ is not able to keep it or because he is willing to lose it and why not because it will not stay he is able surely to keep it for he is strengthned with the Godhead and he is not willing to lose it for why then should he shed his bloud for it And as another great acquaintance of Christs speaks Weakness that is no strength no Grace no nor so much as sense of poverty do not debar us from God's mercy and the reason is very precious and convincing for the Husband is bound to bear with the Wife as the weaker Vessel and shall we think God will exempt himself from his own Rules and not bear with his weak Spouse Christ hath taken upon him to purge his Spouse and make her fit for himself so that if she be not purged and cleansed and made fair and lovely whose fault can it be but his own and surely that can be no just reason for a divorce Thus you see what it is to come to Christ and accept of him and close with him the result of which is so far as I can understand it to be content to be saved by Christ without being either humble or holy fair or beautiful any otherwise than as he is pleased to make us so by his satisfaction for our sins and the imputation of his righteousness to us Let us now consider what duties are consequent upon such a union and closure of the Soul with Christ and they are consequential conjugal affections As first a mighty love for her Saviour and head and Husband the Soul must be enamoured with the beauty and loveliness and preciousness of Christ must form pleasant and charming ideas of him and feel great ravishments and transports of passion for him You must be sick of love to Christ O ye Saints and let him lye as a bundle of Myrrhe always between your Breasts Christ is maximè diligibilis as the Schoolmen speak he is the very abstract and Quintessence of beauty he is a whole Paradise of delight he is the flower of Sharon enriched with orient Colours and perfumed with the sweetest savour O wear this flower not in your bosoms but in your hearts and be always smelling to it and show your love to this lovely Saviour You must delight in his embraces and thirst after a more intimate acquaintance with him you must never be satisfied one moment without him but must follow him from one Ordinance to another and never be satisfied unless you meet with Christ and enjoy Communion with him in Ordinances this is the Foundation of the Saints love to Ordinances that there they meet with the beloved of their Souls and enjoy the sweet caresses and endearments of his love there they hear of his beauty and loveliness and riches and fulness and alsufficiency and though Evangelical truths will not down with a natural heart such an one had rather hear some quaint point of some vertue or vice stood upon than any thing in Christ yet when the Grace of God hath altered him than of all truths the truths of Christ savour best those truths that come out of the mouth of Christ and out of the Ministry concerning Christ they are most sweet of all Such sanctified Souls and Ears loath all dull insipid moral discourses which are perpetually inculcating their duty on them and troubling them with a great many rules and directions for a good life which he is pleas'd to call the quaint Points of Vertue and Vice for this is not to enjoy Christ in Ordinances they go away from such entertainment without having met with the beloved of their Soul without hearing any news from him or having the least glympse of his beauty and perfections which is a plain contradiction to the nature and design of Ordinances which are only for our enjoyment of Communion with Jesus Christ. That is to unload our Consciences and disburden our sins on him in our Confessions and to beg of him the imputation of his righteousness to make us lovely and to put our Souls into some raptures and amorous passions to him and to hear some good news from him by his Ministers how much he loves us and longs after us how pittiful he is to us ready to overlook all our miscarriages and cover all our deformities with his own beauty and loveliness and to take us to the enjoyment of himself that where he is we also may be perpetually to behold his glory and solace our selves in his love Secondly another consequential conjugal Act is obedience to our spiritual Husband a duty which few Wives care for and the truth is though the Gospel of Christ be very plain and express in exacting this from them and inculcates it so much that it savours too strong of a legal spirit and dispensation yet it is very hard to find a proper place for it in this new Religion or to deduce it from an acquaintance with Christs Person For this is not necessary at all to our coming to Christ and closing with him nay it is a great hindrance to it for we must bring nothing to Christ with us the marriage is consummated without it and then we have less need of it than before for then we are adorned with the beauty of Christ are holy with his holiness we are delivered from the guilt of sin by his expiation he must look to it to see the debt discharged which he hath now taken upon himself and we are righteous with his righteousness which gives us an actual right to glory and we need no righteousness of our own to save us which were to suppose a defect in the righteousness of Christ so that how obedience should come in is hard to say It is concluded on all hands by those who are most intimately acquainted with the Person of Christ that it is but a consequential duty that which ought to follow our Espousals with Christ and Justification by him as a fruit and effect of it but yet the reason of it is not evident Some tell us that it is due upon account of gratitude and thankfulness to our Saviour which I cannot so well understand unless our righteousness and obedience be due to Christ in thankfulness to him for saving us without obedience and righteousness which is just as broad as long and we get nothing by the bargain Especially considering that this is hardly reconcileable with that essential condition of accepting Christ
his constant care and providence over his Church of the influences of his Grace and the supply of all our spiritual wants and of that glory and happiness to which he will advance us at the last day All this we learn from an acquaintance with Christ's Person as these men call it and it were easie now to draw the whole plot and design of Christianity to search into the deep Councils of God and to discover those principles and motives he was acted by and the infinite Wisdom of the contrivance and the true methods of a Sinners recovery by Christ and what that homage and worship is which we owe our Saviour As to make some short Essay of it Those natural notions which we have of God acquaint us that he is infinitely good and the History of the Creation assures us that God made the World to be an image and representation of his own glory and perfections but especially Man who was made after the image of God and endowed with that Wisdom and Knowledge and all those Principles of Piety and Vertue which would have made him a living and active image of the Divine perfections This was the glory and the happiness of his nature to know God and to be like him to praise and adore his great Benefactor and to be inseperably united to him by those natural tyes of love and obedience For nothing else can be the happiness of a reasonable Creature but Conformity to the Divine Nature which is the pattern and measure of all rational perfections and happiness And therefore when Mankind apostatized from God they miserably defeated the end of their Creation and intercepted those natural Communications of the divine goodness by making themselves unworthy and uncapable of them and now we may easily imagine how much a good God was grieved and offended with this not as a haughty and Imperious Prince would be with the miscarriages and rebellion of his Subjects but as a kind Father is displeased and grieved for the disobedience of his Children for their refractory and unmanageable temper not so much as an affront and contempt of his own Authority but as it is a necessary cause of the ruine and misery of his Children whose happiness he so passionately desires and designs This made the divine goodness so restlesly zealous and concerned for the recovery of Mankind various ways he attempted in former Ages but with little success as I observed before but at last God sent his own Son our Lord Jesus Christ into the World to be the great Shepherd and Bishop of Souls to seek and to save that which was lost And that we may be able in some measure to comprehend the infinite Wisdom and goodness of this contrivance and how well the means is fitted to the end we must consider that the whole Mystery of the recovery of mankind consists only in repairing the Divine Image which was defaced by sin that is in making all men truly good and vertuous Sin is our apostasie from God and doth as naturally make us miserable as it makes us unlike the most happy Being But holiness restores us to our Primitive State to the perfect constitution of our Natures and makes us good and therefore happy as God is And this was the great difficulty to perswade men to be good to work upon the different tempers and inclinations and passions of mankind and to reduce them to the forsaken and untrodden paths of vertue and though the laws and precepts the great promises and threatnings of the Gospel confirmed by so many stupendious miracles and by the resurrection of Christ from the Dead have in themselves a mighty power to reform the World yet the consideration of Christ's Person of what he did and suffered for us gives a peculiar force and energy to them Sin and guilt makes men fearful and it makes them disingenuous they are apt to distrust goodness or to abuse it will either believe God implacable which makes them desperate because there is no hope of pardon or believe him to be fond and indulgent which makes them saucy and presumptuous and to prevent both these extreams of superstition which are such profest Enemies to a sincere and unaffected Religion God sent his own Son into the World and by the greatness of his Person and the manner and circumstances of his appearance did confute them both If guilt make us afraid of God as an angry and severe judge behold here the distance taken in the Incarnation of the Son of God who condescended to come down to us cloathed with our nature as a mild and a gentle Prince by all the methods of love and sweetness to reduce us to our Allegiance and subjection to God in him we see the good will of God to Sinners here is a demonstration of condescending goodness which stooped as low as earth and did not disdain the nature and appearance of a man nor the Conversation of Sinners nor the shame of the Cross nor the pale terrours and agonies of Death and the Grave And to remove all possible suspition concerning Gods love to Sinners the Son of God dies as a Sacrifice for our sins to make atonement for us and with his blood Seals the Covenant of Grace and Pardon and all the promises of Eternal life And still to give us the greater security of the performance of all this our dying and suffering Lord is raised again from the dead and advanced to the right hand of power and Majesty to intercede for us Thus God deals with us after the manner of men and to encourage us to return to our duty hath given us all the security of our acceptance that guilt it self though infinitely jealous and suspicious could desire for what could we wish for more than that God should send so great and so beloved a Person to us on an Embassy of Peace than that the Son of God should be our propitiation and Advocate our Lord and Judge he who took our nature and our infirmities on him who knows our weakness and our temptations who died to expiate our sins and is entred into the Holy of Holies to intercede for us in the vertue of his blood and in the power of his glory and the triumphs of his Conquests and with a tender and compassionate sense of our infirmities But then on the other hand to cure our presumption that we may not think God to be so easie as to be reconciled to Sinners and to their vices together the death of Christ upon the Cross assures us what the merit is and what the portion of sin shall be that all Sinners deserve to die and shall certainly have their deserts without a sincere repentance and reformation of their lives for to expiate sin by death can signifie no less than this that death is the proper recompence of sin and therefore that those sins which are not expiated by the Sacrifice of Christ as none are till we repent and reform shall
certainly be expiated by the Death of the Sinner Especially considering how holy our Priest and Sacrifice was we cannot reasonably conceive that he died or that he intercedes for incorrigible Sinners The Sacrifice of his Death extends no farther than the example of his life he was made manifest to destroy sin and in him was no sin Now though I dare not be so bold as to say what infinite Wisdom can do yet it is not imaginable how God could have contrived a more effectual way to reform the World which contains so many powerful obligations such forceable endearments such ravishing charms which makes such a pleasant and inviting representation of God to the World which so confirms our Faith and encourages our hopes and enflames our love and awakens our fears and excites our emulation which doth even affect our senses with the arguments of Religion and storm the lower and more bruitish faculties of our Souls and captivate them to the love and obedience of Christ. From hence it is easie to understand what is the true method of a Sinners recovery by Christ and what returns of love and gratitude we owe our Lord and Saviour When we are so affected with all the powerful arguments to a new life which are contained in his Incarnation and life and doctrine and example and miracles and death and resurrection and Ascension into Heaven and his Intercession for us as to be sensible of the shame and folly of sin and to be reconciled to the love and practice of true piety and holiness then we partake in the merits of his Sacrifice and find the benefit of his Intercession and have a title to all the blessings and promises of his Gospel this was the design of Christ's coming into the World not to distract our guilty minds with the terrours of the Law and the inexorable justice of God not to bring us under a Legal dispensation of fear and bondage but to encourage us to forsake our sins and reform our lives by all the endearments of love and goodness and the lively hopes of a blessed Immortality mixt with an awful regard and Reverence for God who is a holy and righteous Judge and an irreconcileable Enemy to all sin This is such a method of converting Sinners as is proper to the Person of Christ and the manner of his appearance which was not designed to cause tempests and Earthquakes in our minds like the Thunder and Lightning from Mount Sinai but to work a reformation in the World by more silent and gentle methods and in more humane ways If our Faith in Christ have reformed our lives and rectified the temper and disposition of our minds and made us sincere Lovers of God and goodness Though we are not acquainted with these artificial methods of repentance have not felt the workings of the Law nor the amazing terrours of Gods wrath nor the raging despair of damned Spirits and then all on a sudden as if we had never heard of any such thing before have had Christ offered to us to be our Saviour and heard the woings and beseechings of Christ to accept of him and upon this have made a formal contract and espousal with Christ and such like working of a heated fancy and religious distraction though our conversion be not managed with so much art and method and by so many steps and gradations we are never the worse Christians for want of it For indeed this must needs be the effect of ignorance not of an acquaintance with Christ which suggests so many encouraging considerations to return to God as to a merciful and compassionate Father and not to tremble at his presence as a severe and inexorable judge And hence we learn that the truest expression of love to our Saviour is not some fond and amorous passions but obedience to his Laws and the greatest honour we can do him is to imitate his example and to express the power of his death and resurrection in the exemplary holiness of our lives for this best answers the end of his coming into the World is the fruit of his intercession for us and the greatest glory and ornament of his spiritual Kingdom Thus I have given you a brief Scheme and Hypothesis of Religion from an acquaintance with Christs Person and if they will owne this a safe way to build Religion on an acquaintance with Christs Person they must owne what I have now discoursed which is much more agreeable to the Person of Christ and the design of his appearing and more easily and naturally deduced from it than their own wild and fantastical conceits If they do not like this I must advise them to quit this way as the which will serve others as well as themselves and let us all fetch our Religion from the plain Doctrines and Precepts of the Gospel of Christ not from any pretended Personal Acquaintance with him SECT IV. How men pervert the Scripture to make it comply with their fancies THere is a very obvious objection against this whole discourse the answering of which will further discover the ill consequences of frameing such fanciful Idaeas of Religion from an acquaintance with Christ's Person And that is this that though these men deduce their Religion from an acquaintance with Christ yet there are no men that so abound in Scripture proofs to confirm what they say and therefore they do not lay the Foundation of their Religion on such uncertain conjectures and the truth is if you consult these mens Writings you shall find their Books stuffed with Scripture or if you talk with them their whole discourse is little else but Scripture phrase but that Reverend Doctor confessed the plain truth that their Religion is wholly owing to an acquaintance with the Person of Christ and could never have been clearly and savingly learn't from his Gospel had they not first grown acquainted with his Person And then it is no wonder if they can accommodate Scripture expressions to their own dreams and fancies For when mens fancies are so posfest with Schemes and Idaeas of Religion whatever they look on appears of the same shape and colour wherewith their minds are already tinctured like a man sick of the Jaundies or that looks through a painted Glass who seeth every thing of the same colour that his eye or Glass gives it all the Metaphors and Similitudes and Allegories of Scripture are easily applyed to their purpose and if any word sound like the tinkling of their own sancies It is no less than a demonstration that that is the meaning of the Spirit of God and every little shadow and appearance doth mightily confirm them in their pre-conceived opinions As Inenaeus observes of the Valentinians that they used one Artifice or other to adapt all the speeches of our Saviour and all the Allegories of Scripture male composito phantasmati to the ill contrived sigment of their own brain and thus the minds of men are abused with words and phrases and the
the Gospel of Christ which is the way the truth and the life which directs us in the true way to life and happiness Which instructs us in our duty and furnishes us with all the motives and arguments to a good life and gives us the greatest assurance of our reward This Acquaintance with Christs Person which these men pretend to is only a work of fancy and teaches men the Arts of Hypocrisie it undermines the fundamental design of the Gospel makes men incurably ignorant and yet conceited of their own knowledge impertinent and endless talkers and insolent Censurers of all Mankind every Boy who is acquainted with these notions learns to despise the ignorance of his teachers as if they knew nothing of Christ and of the Mystery of the Gospel and now the Laws of Christ will not down with them this is moral and legal Preaching nothing appears wholesom and savoury to their palates but some Romantick descriptions of the beauty loveliness fulness and preciousness of Christ. But I hope hereafter they will see reason to believe that we are not such Strangers to Christ as they imagine but have a greater Reverence for him than to be so rude and unmannerly than to make so bold with his Person and with his Laws and are too honest to abuse the people with such dreams and fruitless speculations The wildness and distraction of these men makes me so much the more admire the Wisdom and the Honesty of our Church who in her publick Catechism hath been careful to prevent these cheats and delusions of fancy feeds her Children with wholesom and substantial food hath taught them a Religion without Art or Subtilty hath instructed them in the nature of their Baptismal Vow and those obligations it lays on them to a vertuous life hath taught them the Apostles Creed which contains those great and essential Articles of Religion which are the necessary Principles of Action hath given them a plain and easie explication of the Ten Commandments which are the rules of a good life hath taught them to pray to God and what the true design of our Saviours Institutions is without filling their heads with notions and Artificial Theories of Religion which serve only to make them giddy with a vain conceit of knowledge to talk ill and to live worse And now it is time to dismiss these acquaintances of Christ and if nothing will make them wiser to leave them to their own dreams and dotage only advising them that however they may indulge themselves in these choice speculations they would have a care of pretending any acquaintance with Christs Person for the neglect or contempt of his Laws lest they fare as ill as another of his acquaintance did Luke 19. 21. who argued from the severity of his temper and disposition to apologize for his own sloath and idleness for I feared Thee because thou art an austere man who takest up that thou layedst not down and reapest that thou didst not sow But it seems as great an acquaintance as he was he drew a very false conclusion when he hid his Talent in a Napkin as his Lord convinct him to his cost and it will be the same case though we argue from other Principles not from the severity but from the fondness and Indulgence of our Saviour from the merits of his Death or the Imputation of his Righteousness The safest way is to do what he bids us lest he be too hard for us at Reasoning and making Hypothesis But yet there is one thing more which I must take notice of that as when the Scripture speaks of the knowledge of Christ it includes not only the speculative part of knowledge which consists in true notions and opinions but the vertue and efficacy of this knowledge in the government of lives in transforming us into the likeness of our Lord and Saviour and and making us obedient to his Laws without which all our knowledge is but like a curious piece of painting an accurate Image and Picture without life or sence so these men talk also of an experimental knowledge of Christ the meaning of which is that this acquaintance with the Person of Christ warms and heats their fancies and moves their passions sometimes they find great breakings of heart they melt and dissolve into tears for their sins when they remember what their Lord suffer'd for them they see him hang upon the Cross and have all his agonies and dying groans in their Ears and then they Curse their sins that nailed him there and tremble at the thoughts of the Naturalness of Gods vindictive justice to him and feel all the horrours and agonies of damned Spirits at other times they are mightily ravisht with his love and charm'd and captivated with his beauty fancy they have him in their arms in the closest embraces they hear Christ call them by name and say to them as he did to that Woman in the Gospel thy sins are forgiven thee They are refresht and ravisht with his Comforts and the sweet Caresses of his love they see Christ adorning them with the beautiful Robes of his Righteousness owning them for his dearest Spouse and expressing all Conjugal affections to them now they tast and relish the sweetness of Christ which other men only talk of and have an experimental sense of his fulness to supply their wants of his Love in chearing their Souls of his beauty in adorning them they are all life and spirit which is a plain argument that now Christ hath taken up his abode with them This will fall under consideration in what follows at present I shall only say this that all this may be no more than the working of a warm and Enthusiastick fancy and no man ought to think himself ever the more experimentally acquainted with Christ unless he find the power of it in governing his life It is very desireable to have always such a quick and vigorous sense of the love of our dying Lord as may constrain us to live to him who dyed for us but without this we are still ignorant of him however we may be transported with these frantick raptures and exstasies of love and joy CHAP. IV. Of our Union to Christ and Communion with him SECT I. NExt to the knowledge of Christ there is not a greater Mystery than our Union to him and Communion with him on which as these men represent it are built all those wild and fanciful conclusions which so directly oppose both the Doctrines and practice of Christianity And therefore it is of great concernment to state this matter and to examine what is meant in Scripture by our Union to Christ and Communion with him for the Scripture does mention such a relation between Christ and Christians as may be exprest by an Union and those phrases of being in Christ and abiding in him can signifie no less And first I observe that those metaphors which describe the Relation and Union betwixt Christ and Christians do
that he gave himself for it that he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word Eph. 5. 25 26. Upon which account we may well be called the Members of his Body of his Flesh and of his Bones vers 30. the Church being as it were taken out of his crucified Body as the Woman was taken out of the Man as Christ is said to have reconciled the Gentiles that is taken them into his Church in the body of his flesh through death Col. 1. 21 22. because the Covenant of Grace which is the Foundation of the Christian Church and receives Gentiles as well as Jews was sealed with the blood of Christ so that the Church is taken out of the crucified body of Christ which in the mystical sense answers to the Womans being taken out of the Man which seems to be the Apostles meaning in that place For the same reason Christ ownes himself our Friend Ioh. 15. 14. Ye are my friends if you do what soever I command you which does not signifie such an equality betwixt Christ and us as there is betwixt friends nor encourage any rudeness and unbecoming familiarity in our addresses to him but acquaints us with the nature of his government that he will rule his Church with the same care and tenderness which one friend expresseth to another So that all this is a description of the state of the Gospel in which our Lord and Master is our Shepherd our Head and Husband our Friend and Saviour who hath redeemed and purchased us with his own blood who laid the Foundation of his spiritual Kingdom in the most surprising and astonishing goodness and exerciseth his authority in all the methods of love and compassion Upon which account God also hath now laid aside in a great measure that severe name of a King and calls himself our Father to assure us of his fatherly care and government and to signifie that liberty of Sons we now enjoy under the Gospel in opposition to the bondage and servitude of the Law of Moses But then we must observe farther that though Christ be our Lord and Governour he doth not govern us immediately by himself for He is ascended up into Heaven where he powerfully intercedes for his Church and by a vigilant Providence superintends all the affairs of it but hath left the visible and external conduct and government of his Church to Bishops and Pastors who preside in his name and by his authority in the first Ages of Christianity Christ conferred such extraordinary gifts on men as qualified them for so great an office Eph. 4. 8. c. But though these miraculous gifts ceased when the Gospel was fully published and sufficiently confirmed yet the offices still continue for the instruction and government of the Church though managed in more ordinary and humane ways Christ now governs his Church by men who are invested with his authority which is a plain demonstration of what I discoursed above that the Union of particular Christians to Christ is by their Union with the Christian Church which consists in their regular subjection to their spiritual Guides and Rulers and in concord and unity among themselves For if our Union to Christ consists in our subjection to him as our Lord and Master our Head and Husband and this authority is not immediately exercised by Christ himself but by the Bishops and Pastors of the Church it necessarily follows that we cannot be united to Christ that is cannot owne his authority and government till we unite our selves to the publick Societies of Christians and submit to the publick Instructions Authority and Discipline of the Church as no man can be said to submit himself to his Prince who denies subjection to those subordinate Magistrates who act by his Princes Commission for the Union of Bodies Politick such as the Christian Church is consists in Order and Government when all the Members keep their proper places and are knit to each other by a faithful discharge of their several offices and trusts Schismaticks are in the Church just as Rebels are in the Kingdom not as part of it but as open and profest Enemies but the Apostle tells us wherein the Unity of the Church consists in Eph. 4. 16. Christ is the Head from whom the whole body fitly joyned together and compacted by that which every joynt supplieth according to the effectual working in the measure of every part maketh increase of the body to the edifying of it self in love That is the supreme power is invested in Christ as Head to whom the Church is obedient and subject but to make this Union firm and lasting there must be a regular subordination of the several Members and a mutual discharge of all Christian offices which is the most effectual way to advance their spiritual growth in all Christian graces and especially to increase that love and friendship which is the very life and soul of the Church This indeed supposes a visible Society of Christians professing the Faith of Christ and living in communion with each other for if there be no such visible Society as it may happen in times of persecution or some great degeneracy of the Church it must of necessity alter the case our Union to Christ then consists in an acknowledgment of his Authority and Subjection to his Laws which makes us Members of the Universal Church though there be no particular Church to communicate with but when there is a visible Church we are under the necessary obligations of a visible Communion because herein our subjection to the Authority of Christ and consequently our Union to him consists And this by the way gives a plain account of the only cause that can justifie our separation from any Society of Christians for our Union with the Christian Church being the Medium of our Union to Christ while the Church we live in acknowledges the Authority and submits to the Laws of Christ we are bound to live in Communion with it because this unites us to Christ. When nothing is made the condition of our Communion which is expresly forbid by the Laws of our supreme Lord we acknowledge his Authority in our subjection to our spiritual Guides and we disowne his Authority in disowning and affronting theirs as our Saviour tells his Apostles He that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me Luk. 10. 16. But when any Church prevaricates in the Laws of Christ corrupts his Religion and undermines the fundamental design of it which is to make men good and vertuous when we cannot obey our spiritual Rulers without disobeying the express Laws of Christ the reason of our Communion with such a Church ceases because it doth not answer nay contradicts the end of Christian Society which is to have fellâ—wship with the Father and with his Son Iesus Christ. For in this case we cannot owne their authority but we must
be possest with the same love of vertue and goodness which appeared so eminently in him which is much to the same sense with that expression of Christs being formed in you Gal. 4. 19. My little Children of whom I travel in birth again till Christ be formed in you that is till you be thoroughly instructed in the Doctrine and Religion of Christ and are thereby moulded into his likeness and image Hence in the 1 Cor. 6. 17. the Apostle tells us He that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit that is herein consists our Union to Christ that we have the same temper of mind which he had for there can be no Union betwixt Souls and Spirits without this that they are acted by the same Principles and love and chuse the same things bodies are united by an external adhesion of parts but Souls by an harmony and consent of wills This makes two one Spirit when there is a perfect likeness of disposition when they agree in the same designs as much as if the same Soul animated them both when we love God and men as our Saviour did when we are meek and humble and patient and contented as he was we are as closely united to him as if he dwelt in us and we in him as if we had but one Spirit in us both But Thirdly there is a closer Union still which results from this which consists in a mutual and reciprocal love When we are transformed into the image of Christ he loves us as being like to him and we love him too as partaking of his nature He loves us as the price of his blood as his own workmanship created to good works and we love him as our Redeemer and Saviour Now love is the great Cement of Union which unites interests and thereby does more firmly unite hearts hence when our Saviour had told his Disciples At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you Joh. 14. 20. he explains the meaning of it in v. 21. He that hath my Commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and manifest my self unto him That is God and Christ and Christians are all united by a mutual and reciprocal love founded on a likeness of dispositions and actions on obedience to those Laws which are but a Copy of the Original Holiness of God and of the life of Christ. To the same purpose Christ prays for his Disciples Ioh. 17. 21. that they may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us Which refers to their agreement in doctrine and love Thus according to the Scripture phrase love makes us one with God and Christ and with each other Fourthly This Union is exprest in Scripture by resembling the Christian Church to Gods Temple wherein he dwells as formerly he did in the Temple at Ierusalem while that typical and ceremonial Worship was in force God was pleased to dwell in a Temple made with hands there he placed the Symbols of his Presence from thence he gave forth his Oracles there he received their Sacrifices and Oblations and returned an answer to their prayers But since Christ hath introduced a more manly and spiritual Worship God dwells no longer in a Temple of wood and stones by such visible signs of his presence as formerly he did but hath chosen the society of devout minds and pure souls for the place of his residence and abode Thus in the 1 Cor. 3. 16. Know you not that ye are the Temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you and Chap. 6. vers 19. Know you not that your body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you which ye have of God and 2 Cor. 6. 16. Ye are the Temple of the living God as God hath said I will dwell in them and walk in or among them and I will be their God and they shall be my people To the same purpose we find in Rev. 21. 3. that after the description of the Holy City the New Ierusalem coming down from God out of Heaven which signifies the state of the Christian Church there was heard a great voice out of Heaven saying Behold the Tabernacle of God is with men and he will dwell with them and they shall be his people and God himself shall be with them and be their God Now all this must be expounded in allusion to the Temple at Ierusalem that as the Temple was the place of Gods peculiar presence with that people signifying that he was always ready at hand to assist them in their distress to supply their wants to defend them from their enemies to hear all the pious prayers they put up to him that is that he would be their God and they should be his people as the Apostle expounds it thus it is now with the Christian Church they are the only society of men whom God hath a peculiar regard for with whom he is always present whom he protects and defends by a vigilant and more particular providence whom he hath chosen for his peculiar people to dwell among them And as in the Temple God placed the Mercy-seat and the Cherubims as Emblems of his Majesty and Presence for which reason he is so often said to dwell betwixt the Cherubims so he hath now bestowed his holy Spirit on the Christian Church which is a surer pledge of his dwelling among them than those Types and Shadows were as the Apostle speaks Know ye not that ye are the Temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you or among you that is this is a sufficient evidence that ye are the Temple of God in that God hath given his Spirit to dwell with you which primarily refers to those extraordinary gifts of the Spirit which God in that Age bestowed on the Christian Church this was the true Shecinah or divine glory resting on them for which reason he is called the Spirit of Glory 1 Pet. 4. 14 The Spirit of Glory and of God resteth on you that is that Spirit of God which is the visible manifestation of his glory in the Christian Church of which that visible glory which sometimes filled the Jewish Tabernacle was an Emblem Hence S. Paul tells us that the glory of the new Covevant which is the ministration of the Spirit which was confirmed by such miraculous and plentiful effusions of the holy Spirit did far exceed the glory of the first Covenant written and engraven in stones though that was so glorious that the Children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance 2 Cor. 3. 7 8. for this was a glorious manifestation of a divine Presence with the Church that God did indeed dwell with them and walk among them and though these extraordinary gifts are now ceased yet
be a Fool though having none is the surest way not to be sensible of it and to take up his eternal rest in Christ and to be contented with Christ without Comfort and without Salvation And now I shall conclude this Section with a remarkable passage in the Sincere Convert whereby it will evidently appear what these men think of sanctification there we have an account what course some men take to secure their eternal happiness that when they find themselves tired and weary of themselves and hearing that only Christ can save them they go to Christ to remove those sins which tired and loaded them that he would enable them to do better than formerly if they get these sins subdued and removed and if they find power to do better then they hope to be saved here is the evidence of sanctification whereas as he adds thou maist be damned and go to the Devil at last though thou dost escape all the pollutions of the World and that not from thy self and thy own own strength but from the knowledge of Iesus Christ wo to you for ever if you die in this state with your sins mortified and subdued by Christ and the reason is because this is to come to Christ to suck juice from him to maintain his own Berries his own stock of Graces alas he is but the Ivy he is no member nor branch in this Tree and hence he never grows to be one with Christ. So that holiness and obedience is no evidence of our Union to Christ though we fetch strength from Christ to do his will we may only grasp about Christ all this while as the Ivy doth about the Oak but never be united to him and become one with him so that now we must return where we began and stick to the testimony of the Spirit without any external evidence that is to private Enthusiasms for sanctification can be no evidence of our Union to Christ. Good God! Into what mazes and Labyrinths do these men lead poor distressed Souls they can direct them to no certain way of getting into Christ nor how to know whether they are in Christ or not and now we may plainly see what friends these men are to a holy life they all agree that holiness is not antecedently necessary to our Union with Christ but they only pretend to make it a necessary mark and evidence of our Union and yet they will not allow it this priviledge neither to be a certain evidence of our Union to Christ it may prove us united to Christ as the Ivy is to the Oak not as a branch is united to the Vine and I hope this will justifie any mans zeal against such opinions as undermine the very foundations of Christianity The Gospel method of Salvation is very plain and easie those great Miracles our Saviour wrought and his Resurrection from the Dead are the foundation of our Faith a sufficient reason to believe that he came from God and declared his will to the World a publick profession of this Faith in our Baptism makes us the visible members of his body which is his Church and a sincere obedience to his Gospel makes a real Union between Christ and us and entitles us to all the promises of the Gospel and every man may as certainly know whether he be thus united to Christ as he can feel the motions of his own mind as he can know what he loves and hates and chuses and what the course of his life and actions are and there is no need of any revelation of any private testimony of the spirit to assure men of this no more than there is to assure them of any thing which is evident to their outward or inward senses The testimony of the Spirit concerns the general adoption of Christians for the Sons of God not to testifie to any particular man that he is a good Christian or in a state of Grace that is it is not a private but a publick testimony given to the whole Christian Church that Holy Spirit which God bestowed upon the Apostles and Primitive Christians which enabled them to work miracles and to speak Languages which they had never learnt and to Prophesie was a plain argument to all the World that God now owned the Christians not the Jews for his chosen and elect people for his Sons and Children for this was the great dispute of those days whether Jews or Christians were the Sons of God whether God now owned the Jewish or the Christian Religion and the Apostles decide this controversie by the testimony of the Spirit for God could not give a greater testimony to the Christian Church than the gift of the Holy Spirit for it was a plain argument that he owned them for his Sons when he bestowed the Spirit of his Son on them as the Apostle argues Gal. 3. 2. Received ye the Spirit by the works of the Law or by the hearing of Faith That is did God bestow his Spirit on you while ye were Jews or upon your Conversion to Christianity for if God bestowed his Spirit only on Christians this is a sufficient seal to the Christian Religion This is very plain and intelligible the testimony of the Spirit assures us that all Christians are the Sons of God and Heirs of his Promises and every mans own Conscience will tell him whether he be a Christian that is whether he heartily believe and obey the Gospel of Christ and herein consists our Union to Christ and fellowship with him let us then leave those other dim notions to men who can believe what no man can understand who despise every thing that can be understood as if it were no better than carnal reason CHAP. V. Concerning the Love of Christ to Believers SECT 1. I Have now finisht the greatest part of my design and shall discourse more briefly of what remains Next to our Union with Christ follows our Communion with him for though Communion and fellowship in the Scripture notion of those words signifie no more than what we call Union as I have already proved yet in these mens Divinity they are very different our Union to Christ is represented by our marriage to him our Communion with him by consequential conjugal affections the only thing I shall at present take notice of for a Conclusion of all is that mutual and reciprocal love which is betwixt Christ and Believers Christs love to Believers and the Believers love to Christ. First Christs love to Believers the Scripture doth very justly magnifie the love of Christ as the greatest example of goodness that was ever known in the World and the greatest expression of the love of Christ was his dying for us he is that good Shepherd who giveth his life for his Sheep Iohn 10. 11. and our Saviour himself tells us greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friend and therefore when the Apostle designed to mention the greatest
expression of Christs Love he instances in this Eph. 5. 25. Husbands love your Wives even as Christ also loved the Church and gave himself for it and when the same Apostle represents the constraining power of Christs love to captivate our affections and to engage us to live to him he argues from his love in dying for us 2 Cor. 5. 14 15. For the love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that if one died for all then were all dead and that he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which died for them and rose again and the most surprizing circumstance of all which gives a new luster to the love of Christ is that he died for us while we were Enemies Rom. 5. 6 7 8. For when we were yet without strength in due time Christ died for the ungodly for scarcely for a righteous man will one die yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die but God commendeth his love towards us that while we were yet Sinners Christ died for us But though this be the greatest it is not the only expression of Christs love herein indeed was the love of Christ perfected that he died for us but he expresses the same good will in all the methods of his Grace and Providence for Christ being our Lord and Master the most proper expression of his love to us is in an easie and gentle Government and a kind and watchful Providence not in such a fondness of passion as is sometimes seen among equals this I told you was exprest by those metaphors of his being a Shepherd a Husband a Head a Friend and our Saviour assures us that his yoke is easie and his burden light that he is a mild and gentle Governour meek and lowly in mind that he hath declared to us the secrets of Gods Counsel concerning our Salvation with the same freedom and plainness that a man useth to his friend henceforth I call you not Servants for the Servant knoweth not what his Lord doth but I have called you Friends for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you Iohn 15. 15. He pities our weakness and infirmities and is ready to help and succour us he is now ascended up into Heaven where he personally intercedes for us and with his own hand dispenses all those blessings to us which we want and pray for in his name he is a gracious and merciful High Priest who is touched with a feeling of our infirmities being in all things tempted like as we are yet without sin Hebr. 4. 15. And now it is no wonder if he who died and who intercedes for us take pleasure in good men and dwell with them as one friend dwells with another Iohn 14. 21. He that hath my Commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and will manifest my self unto him and in Ver. 23. If a man love me he will keep my words and my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him That is Christ will in a more peculiar manner be present with such good men who are careful in all things to obey him and will give very sensible demonstrations of his presence with them not that he will make any new revelations to them for he hath already revealed the whole mind and will of God in such a plain and familiar manner that every one may understand it who will but exercise the same reason in it that he does to understand the Laws of his Prince but yet when a Soul is transformed into the likeness and image of Christ it many times feels such strong and vigorous motions to that which is good and such great and ravishing delights in all the acts of Religion as infinitely excel all the pleasures of sense and are a plain demonstration of a more peculiar presence of God in such a Soul these divine joys are by the Psalmist compared to the Feasts upon Sacrifices Psalm 36. 8 They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy House and thou shall make them drink of the Rivers of thâ— pleasures that is they shall relish aâ— great pleasure and satisfaction in thâ— sense of thy goodness and in paying their just praises and acknowledgment to thee as those do who Feast upon thâ— Sacrifices which are offered in the Temple for it is very reasonable to think that a Soul which is made one with God by a participation of his nature should feel such divine impressions from God as may both quicken its motions and sweeten its work there is a secret sympathy between things which are alike two unisons will move when either of them is toucht and two Souls which are of the same make and united by a strong and intimate friendship do many times feel each others passions at a distance by a secret and unaccountable power of nature and can we think then but that a Soul which heartily loves God and passionately breaths after a greater likeness to him and fuller enjoyment of him must needs sometimes feel such divine touches and impressions as are the effects if I may so speak of a mutual love and sympathy of natures some such thing our Saviour hath promised and good men experience not in equal degrees indeed nor equally at all times but in proportion to their attainments in true Piety and vertue and to the present frame and disposition of their own minds This is a short and true account of the love of Christ which deserves forever to be admired and adored and it must needs be a very hearty trouble to all good men to see so great and so generous a love so miserably abused and misrepresented by childish and romantick descriptions too many there are who cloath our Saviour with all the passions and follies of mortal men and think they honour him very much the more extravagant they make him in his love It were easie to expatiate in this argument and to give such a character of the love of Christ as I believe these very men will think prophane when they find it in any Books but their own and possibly it might do good service to Religion and tend much to the honour of our Lord and Master to put them out of conceit with it but I fear the Reader would think me prophane in doing it though in their own words and therefore I shall chuse rather only to take notice of two things which these men much insist on in their discourses of the love of Christ and so dismiss them First then the love of Christ is a love to the Person of a Believer without considering any other qualifications than that he is such an individual Person that is the excellency of Christs love consists in this that he loves for no reason now I confess
this is a wonderful love but wherein the excellency of it consists I cannot see I am sure we account that man a Fool who loves at this rate we who are reasonable Creatures think that we are bound to govern all our actions and the passions of our mind too by reason and we account it a reproach to a man to act either against reason or without it to do any thing of which he cannot give a reasonable account and how that should come to be the perfection of the love of God which is a reproach to men is above my apprehension Indeed were this true it would undermine the very foundations of Religion for the great end of Religion is to please God and to procure his love and favour but if God and Christ love for no reason then it is a vain thing for us to think of pleasing God or procuring his love by any thing we can do whether we obey him or disobey him it is all one as to this Case for if he please to love us without any reason our sins cannot hinder it and if it does not please him to love us our Holiness and Obedience cannot alter him when our acceptation with God depends wholly upon a Soveraign and unaccountable will nothing we can do can either hinder or promote it and therefore all Religion is in vain The foundation of this mistake is a Philosophical nicety that God must act wholly from himself and therefore must not be moved by any external cause whereas should he love us because we are holy and obedient to him or hate us because we are wicked his love and hatred would depend upon an external cause viz. the holiness or wickedness of Creatures which unbecomes an Independant being to depend upon any thing else the sum of which reasoning is this that because God is the first cause of all things on whom all other things depend and he on nothing therefore he must love and hate his Creatures without any reason but his own unaccountable will for this is all the inconvenience they can object that when God loves or hates rewards or punishes his Creatures the reason of this difference he makes between his Creatures must be fetcht from the persons themselves whom he thus loves or hates and so it must of necessity be if he have any reason at all for the reason of love or hatred ought to be in the object not in the person who loves or hates and yet in propriety of speech God cannot be said to depend on his Creatures or any thing without himself for the reason of his love or hatred but his own nature is the reason of it he is infinitely holy and therefore loves holiness and hates sin and his natural love to holiness is the reason why he loves holy men and his natural hatred to sin is the reason why he hates wicked men his own holiness is the reason why he loves holy men but the holiness of a Creature is the reason why he determines his love to any particular person and if they will call this a depending on Creatures we must acknowledge that God does thus depend on his Creatures in the administration of his Providence in the distributions of rewards and punishments and he should not be wise and holy and just and good if he did not that is if he did not put such a difference between things and persons as their natures require It is a strange notion of an Independant Being that he must have no other reason for what he does but his own arbitrary will which is so far from being a perfection that it destroys all the other perfections of the divine nature Secondly These men tell us too that the love of Christ is immutable that having once fixt his love upon us though without any reason he can never alter that sin it self cannot separate us from the love of Christ as there was nothing in us that was the ground of his planting his love on us so there is nothing that shall be able to overturn the thoughts of his love when once they are fixt on us though this is no certain demonstration for he who loves for no reason may give over loving for none if sin fore-seen were not able to hinder him from planting his heart on us how then shall it that is sin committed be able to overturn the thoughts of his heart when once they are fixed on us this is a strong and fixed love indeed which sin it self cannot alter but how wise and holy a love it is let any man judg herein Dr. Owen tells us the depth of Christs love is to be contemplated that whereas his holy Soul hates every sin it is a burden an abomination a new wound to him and his poor Spouse that is sinful Believers are full of sin failings infirmities he hides all covers all bears with all rather than he will loose them He adds indeed by his power preserving them from such sins as a remedy is not provided for in the Covenant of grace I suppose he means the sin against the Holy Ghost for there is a remedy provided for all other sins in the Covenant of Grace and all other sins a Believer it seems may be guilty of and Christ will hide all cover all rather than lose him now this is as down right Antinomianism as ever Dr. Crisp or Saltmarsh vented There have been and are to this day a great many wise and learned men who contend earnestly for the perseverance of the Saints that those who are once in a state of Grace shall always continue so but then they found this not on such an immutable love as sin it self cannot alter for this is not reconcileable with the holiness of the divine nature nor with those threatnings in the Scripture against such back-sliders when the righteous man turneth away from his righteousness and committeth iniquity and doth according to all the abominations that a wicked man doth shall he live all the righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned in his trespass that he hath trespassed and in his sin that he hath sinned in them shall he die Ezek. 18. 24. And if any man turn back my Soul shall have no pleasure in him which is a plain demonstration the truth of which is acknowledged by all sober Writers that if such men can be supposed to relapse into a sinful state God also will cease to love them and therefore they found the immutability of Gods love to them on their perseverance in doing good God loves all good men but if they cease to be good he also must cease to love and herein the immutability and unchangeableness of Gods love consists not that he always loves the same Person but that he always loves for the same Reason for it is no perfection to be so fixt in our kindness that where we love once we will always love whatever reason there may be to alter our affection for
by this means we may love undeserving objects which is the greatest degeneracy of love but the perfection of love consists in loving deserving objects and in loving upon honourable reasons and the immutability of love consists in loving always for the same reason which is the only foundation of a vertuous immutability The reason of Christs love to any Person is his Holiness and Obedience if any man love me he will keep my words and my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him Iohn 14. 23. and the unchangeableness of his love is seen in this that he will continue to love while we continue to obey him if ye shall keep my Commandments that is continue to do so ye shall abide in my love I will continue to love you as I have kept my Fathers Commandments and abide in his love Iohn 15. 10. This is the immutability of the divine nature that God always acts upon steddy and constant principles that whatever changes there are in the World which may occasion very different administrations in his providence yet he is the same still and never changes whereas should God always love the same Person however he changed and alter'd God must change and alter too because though he still loves the same Person yet he must love for different or contrary reasons or for none at all and that is the much greater change of the two to alter the reason than the object of love if God love a good man because he is good and continue to love him when he is wicked his love is a mutable thing which can love goodness or wickedness which can love for none or for contrary reasons but if God always love true goodness and good men and never loves any other whatever change there be in Creatures God is the same still and unchangeable in his love Thus you see while these men pretend to admire and magnifie the love of God and Christ they make it a despicable and worthless thing such as a wise man would be ashamed of and such as a good man cannot be guilty of to love for no reason and to continue to love contrary to reason And as this is a great reproach to God and to our Saviour so is it a great injury to men too for it must of necessity make them careless of pleasing God and secure in their sins when they are perswaded that sin cannot hinder God from loving them nor alter his love towards them that if ever he love them it is for no reason but because he will and when once he is resolved upon it the immutability of his nature makes it necessary for him to continue to love that now sin it self cannot separate us from the love of God if this were true the worst man living would have as much reason to be secure of Gods love as the best men have nay if the depth and mystery and glory of the love of Christ consists in loving for no reason or contrary to reason the worse men are the fitter objects are they of the love of Christ. SECT II. Concerning the Believers love to Christ. HAving showed you wherein the Love of Christ consists I shall now consider what are those returns of love which we owe to our Lord and Saviour I take it for granted that all men who believe that Christ came into the World to save Sinners are of the Apostles mind if any man love not the Lord Iesus let him be Anathema Maranatha the only dispute is how we are to express our love to Christ now love primarily signifies the inward affection of the mind but is made visible by outward actions as for the affection of the mind we must consider that Christ is our Superiour our Lord and Master and therefore our love to Christ ought not to express it self in a fond and familiar passion such as we have for our friends and equals but in a great reverence and devotion Superiours must be treated with honour and respect which requires that we keep our distance and therefore our love to our Parents and Superiours is called honour in the fifth Commandment Honour thy Father and thy Mother and the same religious affection to God which is sometimes called love is at other times called fear which signifies a reverential love or a love of honour and reverence and devotion which includes a great delight in the thoughts of God a devout sense of his greatness and Majesty a great admiration of his Excellencies and perfections a religious awe and reverence for him and all those affections of the Soul which are expressive of love and honour As for the external expressions of our love they are as various as the expressions of honour are and herein we must have a peculiar regard to the nature and condition of the Person and that relation we stand in to him thus Christ being the only begotten Son of God we must have regard to the greatness and excellency of his Person that our returns may bear some proportion to it Christ having condescended to come into the World in our nature to suffer and die for us it becomes us to admire his love and goodness to extol and praise him to celebrate the memorials of his Death and Passion in that holy Feast which he hath on purpose instituted to be a thankful remembrance of our Crucified Lord since he is our Mediator and Advocate the truest expression of our love and honour is to confide and trust in him to depend on his intercession for us to offer up all our Prayers to God in his name and to expect an answer to our Prayers for his sake and when we consider him as our Prophet and Law-giver we must express our love to him in a stedfast belief of his Gospel and in a sincere and hearty obedience to all his Laws love to equals who have no authority over each other but what love gives them makes them very flexible and obsequious to each others desires and requests but our love to Superiours to our Prince or Parents includes obedience in its own nature and therefore this our Saviour makes the principal tryal of our love to him if you love me keep my Commandments and he that hath my Commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me but he that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings you are my friends if you do whatsoever I command you Joh. 14. 15. 23 24. and in Chap. 15. vers 14. for there cannot be a more proper expression of our love and honour to a Law-giver than to obey his Laws And when we consider our Saviour as our Guide and Example the truest expression of our love and honour is to imitate him to live as he lived in the World For there is nothing more natural than to imitate what we love and reverence which is the plainest demonstration of the greatest honour in that we think it our perfection and happiness
to be like our Saviour And that which perfects our love is an undaunted courage and resolution in professing the Faith of Christ whatever dangers and miseries it may expose us to in this World as St. Iohn tells us There is no fear in love but perfect love casteth out fear 1 Joh. 5. 18. when we can hate Father and Mother Wife and Children Brethren and Sisters for the sake of Christ and sacrifice our lives also for him rather than abjure his Gospel or violate his Laws These are the proper expressions of our love to Christ which are summarily comprehended in believing his Gospel and obeying it for to be a true Lover of Christ signifies neither more nor less than to be a good Christian one who diligently obeys all the Laws of the Gospel This is a short account of the Nature of our Love to Christ which deserves a larger Discourse but I am now hastening to a conclusion and what I have already said is so plain and easie that it may be understood without a larger explication Our love to Christ is not such a subtil airy and metaphysical notion as some men represent it to be but is a vital Principle of Action which governs our lives and makes us fruitful in good works And indeed of all mistakes there is none more fatal and dangerous than to mistake the nature of our love to Christ because this is a practical Errour which hath an immediate influence upon our lives and one mistake in the Principles or Rules of Action is of greater consequence than a great many false Opinions which end in speculation And therefore for a conclusion of all I shall briefly take notice of those mistakes some men have been guilty of concerning the nature and expressions of our love to Christ. And first as they tell us that Christ falls in love with our Persons without considering any qualifications in us which may make us fit objects of his love so in requital to him we must love the Person of Christ. This I confess is as certain and evident as any demonstration in Euclide that if we love Christ we must love his Person for the Person of Christ is Christ himself and if we love Christ we must love him and if they would be satisfied with this the dispute would be at an end but this will not serve their turn and therefore we must examine what they mean by loving the Person of Christ Now they oppose our love to the Person of Christ to our love to him upon account of his benefits to our love to our selves and to our duties First we must love the Person of Christ in opposition to his benefits that is we must not consider what advantages we do or may receive from Christ what he haâ—h done or suffered for us but we must love his person purely for himself without any other considerations to endear him to us This matter is very gravely stated and determined by * W. B. who tells us 1. That it is a good and lawful thing to love Christ in reference to his benefits This is a very liberal grant that gratitude which hath hitherto been accounted a great and excellent vertue is now owned to be a lawful thing 2. It is our duty to love Christs Person to have our hearts drawn out with love to the very Person of Christ. This is so certainly true that even those men who love Christ for his benefits love his Person But 3. The excellency of Christs Person is not the object of my Faith but Christ crucified 4. Though Christ crucified be the object of my Faith yet the personal excellencies of Christ are the object of my Love yea it is a more excellent thing yet to love the Person of Christ than the benefits of Christ a more excellent thing to have my heart drawn out in love to the Person of Christ than to have my heart drawn out in love to him for his benefits Now what can be the meaning of all this but that the excellency and perfection of our love to Christ consists in loving him for no reason the proper object and reason of love is Goodness to love that which is good for nothing is the folly and degeneracy of love and it is as foolish and impossible a task to love a Person who hath been good to us not because he hath been good but for no reason Now this is the case here for if you separate the Person and Personal Excellencies of Christ from the consideration of his benefits his personal goodness from the expressions of his love and goodness to our selves and others it can be no object nor reason of our love for a goodness which doth no good or never did any or which is all one is considered as doing none is so far from being the object of our love that it is not the object of our understanding for we cannot understand what that goodness means which never did any good God challenges our love not upon account of an imaginary goodness of Nature which never did any good but for the real and sensible effects of his goodness in the works of Creation and Providence and the Redemption of Mankind by our Lord Jesus Christ and Christ himself challenges our love for the like reasons because he hath loved us and dyed for us and now intercedes for us and will at the last day bestow a Crown of Glory and Immortality on us but never as I can observe requires such an abstracted and metaphysical love to his Person without any respect to his benefits Indeed these men seem not to understand themselves when they oppose our love to the Person of Christ to our love to him upon account of his benefits for when you inquire what this Person of Christ is which is the object of our love then they describe his beauty and perfections the comeliness of his Person the sweetness of his disposition his great riches that he is a good suitable to all our wants that in him we shall find whatever we need if you be poor he is rich if you be foolish he is wise if you be out of the way I am the way saith he if you want a Director in the way I am the Truth if you be in the dark I am light if you be wicked and sinful he is Righteousness the Lord our Righteousness Now either all this signifies the benefits we receive by Christ or it signifies nothing and how then do these personal Excellencies of Christ differ from his benefits nay when they direct us how to attain to this love to the Person of Christ they bid us behold how Christ hath loved us and our persons how many impediments his love hath broken thorough how free it is so free that there was no reason for his love to us neither likeness benefit nor love c. and they teach us to use Christ much if we would love his person in any good thing you have
done what then is the difference why it is only this that the Dr. places the Righteousness of Christ in the room of our righteousness to be not only the foundation but the condition of the Covenant of Grace and then makes it an expression of our chast affections to Christ quite to thrust out our own righteousness and to allow it no place in our Religion he first makes Christ all to us more than ever Christ intended to make himself and leaves no room for any thing else and then warns us upon our vow of Chastity not to take any thing into Christs place whereas as he has ordered the matter we must take our own righteousness into Christs place or else cast it quite away for there is no other place left for it what he alledges for this I have sufficiently considered already and shall not now repeat it but is it not very strange that when our Saviour hath made our obedience the great and principal expression of our love to him these men should make such a competition between our love to Christ and our obedience should put such jealousies into peoples heads what great danger there is of their own duties and righteousness lest they should prove like foolish lovers who when they are to wooe for the Lady fall in love with the Handmaid that is only to lead them to her So men fall in love with and dote upon their own duties and rest contented with the naked performance of them that is with doing good which are only Hand-maids to lead the Soul unto the Lord Iesus Christ is not this the ready way to perswade people that our love to Christ consists in something more refined and spiritual than obedience which will quickly teach them to love Christ without obeying him and not run the hazard of doting and resting on duties No man that understands the Gospel of Christ can think that his own righteousness and obedience can merit Heaven when we have done the best we can we must acknowledge our selves to be unprofitable Servants who have done but our duty and must ascribe the praise and glory of all to the Grace of God in and through our Lord Jesus Christ who pardons our past sins and our present infirmities and bestows such great rewards on us as we could never deserve and if this will not preserve us from doting and resting on duties there is no other remedy but to let them quite alone since it is so dangerous to meddle with them and yet if we believe Mr. Shephard this will not secure us for it is one thing to trust to be saved by duties another thing to rest in duties a man trusts unto them when he is of this opinion that only good duties can save him a man rests in duties when he is of this opinion that only Christ can save him but in his practice he goes about to save himself that is does all the good he can with as much vigour and earnestness as if we were to merit Heaven by it and then thinks to make amends for this ungodly resting in duties by acknowledging when he hath done all that he is an unprofitable servant But the mystery of this will appear more in what follows Thus you see what the object of the Saints love is the very person of Christ in opposition to his benefits in opposition to self-love in opposition to duties let us now inquire Secondly How they express their love to the person of Christ and that consists in preferring Christ above all in admiring his beauty and excellencies and perfections the Soul takes a view of all that is in the World the lusts of the flesh c. and sees it all to be vanity It views also legal righteousness blamelessness before men uprightness of conversation duties upon conviction and counts them all to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ. Beloved peace beloved natural relations beloved wisdom and learning beloved righteousness duties all loss compared with Christ. * They value him above all other things and persons they value him above their lives they value him above all spiritual excellencies and all other righteousness whatever * He is their joy their Crown their rejoicing their life food health strength desire righteousness salvation blessedness now who can desire more than this and yet if we examine the meaning of it it will appear to be a mistaken and useless passion such as our Saviour will not approve nor accept I have * already showed you what these men mean by the person and personal excellencies of Christ that whatever is spoken of Christ whether in respect of his Gospel and Revelations or his propitiation and Sacrifice or his mediation and intercession for us these men convert into personal Graces his personal fulness and righteousness and wisdom c. which we must immediately derive from the person of Christ and this is the person of Christ which these men so much admire and prize and value above all other things in the World a Person in whom there is all fulness righteousness life power beauty and every thing that a Sinner wants this is the person whom they prefer before all legal righteousness spiritual excellencies duties obedience before the love of God himself which is by these men accounted no better than a legal righteousness the meaning of all which is that they prefer the person of Christ which hath such a perfect righteousness for them and will save them without requiring any legal conditions of them infinitely before the Religion and Gospel of Christ before obedience to his commands before the love and fear of God so that the foundation of their love to Christ is a fond imagination that he will save them by his righteousness without any righteousness and holiness of their own this makes them so fond of the person of Christ to call him their joy and their Crown their life food health strength righteousness because they look upon him as a refuge and Sanctuary for the wicked and ungodly where the greatest the oldest the stubbornest transgressor may shelter himself from the wrath of God and I have some reason to think that Christ will not much prize and value such devoto's as these nor their obsequious flatteries or praise And yet herein the devotion of these men consists in admiring prizing valuing the person of Christ this is that * Evangelical Righteousness we must gain by duties more prizing of acquaintance with desire after loving and delighting in Union with the Lord Iesus Christ a moral man who rests in duties that is who does what God commands him and expects to be saved by Christ may grow in legal righteousness that is in true holiness and piety but this will not avail unless we grow in this Evangelical Righteousness this is the great end of duties to carry us to the Lord Iesus Christ the only Saviour hear a Sermon to carry thee to
the vertue and glory of them still remains they are a lasting demonstration of Gods peculiar presence with his Church in all Ages as they are of the truth of the Christian Religion for the Christian Church in all Ages since Christ and his Apostles is but one and therefore still inherits the glory as well as the Religion of former Ages In allusion to this the Christian Church is called Gods Building 1 Cor. 3. 9. and Eph. 2. 20 21 22. and are built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Iesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth into an holy Temple in the Lord in whom ye are also built together for an habitation of God through the Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is a Spiritual Temple in opposition to the material Temple at Ierusalem which S. Peter calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a spiritual House or Temple 1 Pet. 2. 5. all which refers to this notion that the Christian Church is Gods Temple wherein he dwells Now though all this do most properly belong to the Christian Church as a spiritual Society that they are the Temple of the living God yet it is accommodated in Scripture to particular Christians and Philo also alludes to it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the mind of a wise and good man is in truth and reality the Palace and Temple of God every devout Soul is Gods Temple wherein he dwells an enlightned mind which is stored with all the treasures of divine wisdom and knowledge is his Debir or Oracle a pure heart is his Altar and devout prayers are spiritual incense and sweet perfumes the body it self is a consecrated place and is also called the Temple of God which must therefore be preserved pure and undefiled 1 Cor. 6. 19. nay our bodies are Sacrifices too which we must offer up to God by devoting them to his service Rom. 12. 1. for the Scripture loves to allude to the Temple and Aliar and Sacrifices of the Law which in a moral sense may very well be accommodated to the Christian Worship and Service as in their Typical signification they prefigured Christ whose Body was the true Temple where the Divine Glory dwelt who was both Priest and Sacrifice and by his death put an end to that Typical Dispensation only we may observe that when the Scripture mentions Gods or Christs dwelling with particular Christians it uses a more familiar style and seems rather to allude to a private house than a publick Temple Thus in Ioh 14. 23. If any man love me he will keep my words and my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him and Rev. 3. 20. Behold I stand at the door and knock if any man hear my voice and open the door I will come in to him and sup with him and he with me This is all I can find in Scripture concerning the Union betwixt Christ and Christians and that this is the true account of it besides what hath been already urged will evidently appear from those Institutions of our Saviour which are the Instruments and Symbols of our Union to him which we commonly call Sacraments Baptism and the Lords Supper which represent and signifie both our external and real Union with him First our external Union Thus Baptism is a publick profession of the Christian Religion that we believe the Gospel of Christ owne his Authority and submit to his Government We are baptized in the Name of Christ that is we publickly owne him for our Instructor and Governour to believe whatever he hath taught and to do whatever he hath commanded And the Lords Supper is a foederal Rite which answers to the Feasts on Sacrifices under the Law whereby we renew our Covenant with our Lord and vow obedience and subjection to him hence these Institutions were by the Ancients called Sacraments in allusion to that Oath which Souldiers took to be true and faithful to their Prince when they were listed into his Army which was called Sacramentum Militiae or the Military Oath of this nature are Baptism and the Lords Supper a Vow and Covenant to be subject to Christ as our Head and Husband wherein our external and visible Union consists Secondly They signifie also our real Union to Christ thus Baptism signifies our profession of becoming new men our profession of conformity to Christ in his Death and Resurrection We are buried with Christ by Baptism into death that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life Rom. 6. 4. that is Baptism or our immersion under water according to the ancient Rite of administring it is a figure of our burial with Christ and of our conformity to his death and so signifies our dying to sin and walking in newness of life for the death of Christ must be considered not barely as a natural death a separation of soul and body but as a Sacrifice for sin to destroy the power and dominion of it and so our dying to sin that is ceasing from the practice of it is the truest conformity to the death of Christ and we must consider his Resurrection not only as his returning to life again but as his living to God his advancement into his spiritual Kingdom the design of which is to promote the interest of Religion and a divine life and so our walking in newness of life a vertuous and religious life is our conformity to his Resurrection makes us the true Subjects of his spiritual Kingdom which the Apostle tells us gives us an abundant assurance of a glorious resurrection that we shall in a proper sense rise with him because this new life wherein our spiritual Conformity to the resurrection of Christ consists is an immortal principle of life which can no more die than Christ can die again now he is risen from the dead Thus Baptism is called putting on Christ Gal. 3. 27. He that is baptized into Christ hath put on Christ that is hath engaged himself to be conformed to his image and likeness to adorn his mind with all those vertues and Graces which appeared in our Saviours life Thus the Lords Supper is a spiritual feeding on Christ eating his flesh and drinking his blood which signifies the most intimate Union with him that we are flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone Eph. 5. 30. That as we are redeemed by his Death and sufferings are the purchase of his blood and so as it were taken out of his Crucifyed body as the Woman was taken out of the Man so by this spiritual feeding on Christ we are transformed into the same nature with him as much as if we were of his flesh and bones This is a Sacrament wherein we celebrate the love of our dying Lord and express our most passionate love and devotion to him The memory of what he hath done
and suffer'd for us excites a just hatred of our sins sincere purposes and resolutions of a new life to live to him who died for us a great hope in God who hath provided such a Sacrifice and Atonement such a Mediator and Advocate for us and a stedfast expectation of a future reward This is eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Christ when these visible figures of his Death and Sufferings affect our minds with such a strong and passionate sense of his love to us and excite in us such a firm hope in God as transforms us into a divine Nature and this is our real Union to Christ as you heard above Now I take it for granted that there can be no better way to understand the nature of our Union to Christ than to consider the nature of those Sacraments which were designed as the Instruments and signs of our Union to him and if we will take that account the Scripture gives of them all the Union they signifie is only a publick and visible profession of our Faith in Christ and subjection to him as our Lord and Saviour and a sincere conformity of our hearts and lives to the nature and life of Christ. Fourthly I observe further that fellowship and Communion with God according to the Scripture notion signifies what we call a Political Union that is that to be in fellowship with God and Christ signifies to be of that Society which puts us into a peculiar relation to God that God is our Father and we his Children that Christ is our head and Husband our Lord and Master we his Disciples and followers his Spouse and his body thus in Iohn 1. 1. 3. That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you that you also may have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Iesus Christ where I observe that our fellowship with the Father and Son is first founded on our fellowship with the Christian Church that is on our profession of the Faith of Christ obedience to his Laws subjection to his Government and Discipline which he now visibly exerciseth by the Bishops and Pastors of the Church this unites us into one Society and body politick and now by vertue of our fellowship with the Christian Church we have fellowship with Christ who is the supreme Head and Governour of his Church which is a plain argument that all the Apostle means by fellowship with God and Christ is such a Political Union as is between a Prince and his Subjects between Superiours and Inferiours in the same Society Now as you heard before if this profession be only external and visible without the conformity of our hearts and lives to the laws of Christ it gives us only an external fellowship or relation to God and Christ that is such men only appear to be in fellowship with Christ maintaining a visible fellowship with his Church when in truth they are perfect strangers to him such as Christ will not owne for his Disciples as the Apostle adds in Ver. 6. 7. If we say we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness we lye and do not the truth but if we walk in the light as God is in the light then have we fellowship one with another c. That is we abuse our selves if we hope that God will owne himself our Father and bestow the inheritance of Children on us while we live in sin but when we join the practice of real righteousness with the visible profession of Christianity then God will owne us for his Children and Christ for the true members of his body So that this fellowship with God and Christ is such a state and condition as we are put into by a visible profession and sincere practice of Christianity and that in short is that we are united to God as his Sons and Children and are united to Christ as his Disciples and members of his body which intitles us to the Inheritance of Children and all the blessings of the Gospel Thus in the 1 Cor. 1. 9. God is faithful by whom ye are called into the fellowship of his Son Iesus Christ our Lord where the fellowship of Christ can signifie no more than the fellowship of the Christian Church whereof Christ is Lord and Head and therefore the Apostle immediately adds in the next Verse Now I beseech you Brethren by the name of our Lord Iesus Christ for the honour and reputation of Christ and his Religion that you all speak the same thing that there be no divisions nor Schisms among you but that you be perfectly joyned together in the same mind and in the same judgment Where he argues from the nature of their Faith in Christ to the obligations of Peace and Unity which plainly evinces that this fellowship with Christ is that relation we stand in to him as Members of the Christian Church whereof he is Head And that the true notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render sometimes by Fellowship sometimes by Communion is as plain as we can wish in 2 Cor. 6. 14. where the Apostle disswades them from having any fellowship with Heathen Idolaters from eating of their Sacrifices c. Be ye not unequally yoked with unbelievers that is have no society with those men whose Religion is so contrary to yours that you will be as uneasie to each other as two Heifers in the same yoke which draw different ways For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what is there common between them which they both alike partake of as a foundation of union and concord What communion hath light with darkness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies the same thing what is there common to them both What concord hath Christ with Belial 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what consent and harmony of mind to unite them into one fellowship What part hath he that believeth with an unbeliever 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which seems to refer to those portions of Sacrifices which were distributed among them as a Symbol of their Union to each other and to the same God How can a Believer and Unbeliever a Christian and an Idolater have right to a part of the same Sacrifice What agreement hath the Temple of God with Idols 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what is there to unite them together in the same place to reconcile the Temple of God with the Worship of Idols All these expressions decypher to us the nature and foundation of fellowship the nature of it consists in the union of things which in rational Beings consists in mutual relations and common interests and the foundation of it is a likeness of nature and consent and harmony of wills and therefore the Apostle explains our fellowship with God by our being the Temple of God and that God dwells in us and walks in us Vers. 16. 18. Now because the Lords Supper is the only Act which the