account with God than ignorance unless it be to aggravate their sins and their condemnation SECT II. Of acquaintance with the Person of Christ. AFter this plain account wherein the Knowledge of Christ consists the sum of which is that to know Christ is to understand his Gospel which contains all those revelations he made of God's will it will be necessary to examine another notion of the Knowledge of Christ very distinct from this which contains a greater secret than at first one would imagine and that is an acquaintance with the Person of Christ which if we will believe some men is the only fountain of saving knowledge I shall not envy the Author the glory of this discovery and therefore shall honestly confess where I had it viz. in a Book Entitled Communion with God the Father Son and Holy Ghost each Person distinctly Written by Iohn Owen D. D. And that I may not do this Author wrong I must tell you what he means by acquaintance with Christ's Person an account of which we have in digression 2. pag. 87. of the excellency of Christ Iesus Where he tells us that Christ is not only the Wisdom of God but made wisdom to us not only by teaching us wisdom that is by the Doctrines he preached and those revelations he hath made of God's will as he is the great Prophet of the Church but also because by the knowing of him we become acquainted with the wisdom of God which is our wisdom To which purpose he applies that Text which speaks of the Doctrines and Revelations of Christ to his Person Coll. 2. 3. For in him dwell all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge So that our acquaintance with Christ's Person in this man's Divinity signifies such a knowledge of what Christ is hath done and suffered for us from whence we may learn those greater deeper and more saving Mysteries of the Gospel which Christ hath not expresly revealed to us for so he adds soon after that these properties of God his pardoning mercy c. Christ hath revealed in his Doctrine in that revelation he hath made of God and his will but the life of this knowledge lies in an acquaintance with his Person wherein the express image and beams of this glory of his Father doth shine forth that is that these things are clearly eminently and savingly only to be discovered in Iesus Christ as he explains himself So that it seems the Gospel of Christ makes a very imperfect and obscure discovery of the nature and Attributes and will of God and the methods of our recovery we may thoroughly understand whatever is revealed in the Gospel and yet not have a clear and saving knowledge of these things unless we gain a more intimate acquaintance with the Person of Christ. This indeed advances the Person of Christ very much but is no great commendation of his Gospel and prophetick office It sets up a new rule of Faith above the Gospel viz. an acquaintance with Christ's Person in whom dwell all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge But that you may better understand the whole mystery of this Acquaintance with the Person of Christ I shall first show you what additions these men make to the Gospel of Christ from an acquaintance with his Person and secondly show you what an unsafe way of arguing this is and how prejudicial to the Christian Religion First to show you what additions these men make to the Gospel of Christ from an acquaintance with his Person And I confess I am very much beholden to this Author for acknowledging whence they fetch all their Orthodoxy and Gospel Mysteries for I had almost pored my eyes out with seeking for them in the Gospel and could never find them but I learn now that indeed they are not to be found there unless we be first acquainted with the Person of Christ. This is an argument well worth considering and if this discourse should prove long as I fear it will I doubt not but the usefulness of it will be a sufficient reward both to the Writer and Reader And since I owe this discovery to Dr. Iohn Owen I shall confine my self to his method who in the place above-mentioned tells us that the sum of all true wisdom and knowledge may be reduced to these three heads First The knowledge of God his nature and properties Secondly The knowledge of our selves with reference to the will of God concerning us Thirdly Skill to walk in Communion with God In these three is summed up all true wisdom and knowledge and not any of them is to any purpose to be obtained or is manifested but only in and by the Lord Christ. Where By is fallaciously added to include the Revelations Christ hath made whereas his first undertaking was to show how impossible it is to understand these things savingly and clearly notwithstanding all those Revelations God hath made of himself and his will by Moses and the Prophets and by Christ himself without an acquaintance with his Person But to let that pass I shall begin with the knowledge of God his nature and properties and I shall not particularly examine every thing he says but principally take notice of those peculiar discoveries of the nature of God which the World was ignorant of before and of which Revelation is wholly silent but are now clearly and savingly learnt from an Acquaintance with Christ's Person The light of nature and the works of Creation and Providence and those manifold Revelations God hath made of himself to the World especially that last and most perfect Revelation by Iesus Christ our Lord assure us that God is infinite in all perfections that he is so powerful that he can do whatever he pleases so wise that he knows how to order every thing for the best so good that he desires and designs the happiness of all his Creatures according to the capacity of their natures so holy that he hath a natural love for all good men and will not fail to reward them but hates all sin and wickedness and will as certainly punish all obstinate and incorrigible Sinners but yet that he is very patient and long-suffering towards the worst of men and uses various methods of kindness and severity to reclaim them and is as ready to pardon them when they return to their duty as a kind Father is to receive an humble and penitent Prodigal These properties of God are plainly revealed in the Scripture without any further acquaintance with the Person of Christ And had Christ never appeared in the World yet we had reason to believe that God is thus wise and good and holy and merciful because not only the works of Nature and Providence but the word of God assure us that he is so the Appearance of Christ did not first discover the nature of God to us but only gave us a greater expression of God's goodness than ever we had before confirms us in the belief of what we had
Righteousness of Faith 245 What Abrahams Faith was whereby he was justified 247. Phil. 3. 8 9. considered 260 What St. Pauls Righteousness was while a Pharisee 261 In what sense the Apostle opposes the righteousness of the Law to the righteousness of Faith 264. And his own righteousness to the Righteousness of God 274 Concerning the Conjugal Relation betwixt Christ and Believers and whether this can intitle us to his Personal Excellencies Righteousness c. 281 Concerning the Legal Union and Christ's being the Saints Surety 287 Whether Christ fulfilled all Righteousness for us as our Mediator 296 What influence the obedience of Christs life and the Sacrifice of his death have upon our acceptance with God 320 That some men place our Union to Christ before holiness of life as appears from the whole progress of the Soul as they represent it to a closure with Christ. 337 That according to these Principles there is no certain way to get into Christ. 353. Nor any certain evidence of our being in Christ. 364 The Evidence of Sanctification considered 366 Concerning the Love of Christ to Believers 392 Concerning the Saints Love to Christ. 408 Errata Pag. 17. lin 22. for which was imitated by read which was an imitation of p. 52. l. 5. for truckle r. truck p. 62. l. 28. r. sense p. 65. l. 24. for thou r. then p. 76. l. 24 25. p. 77. l. 1. for guest r. ghest l. 21. r. Counsel p. 87. l. 5. r. Counsels p. 89. in the Margent for p. 19. r. 29. p. 95. l. 29. r. workings p. 97. l. 9. for the r. that p. 114. l. 8. for Lydo r. Lyaeo p. 118. l. 5. r. non-sense p. 126 l. 27. r. ghess p. 139. l. 8. r. in the government of our lives l. 15 r. sense p. 189. l. 10. for and that the r. and that this is the p. 225. l. 11. dele the p. 337. l. 16. r. did not continue there p. 383. l. 11. for zeal for God r. zeal for God THE INTRODUCTION CHAP. I. ALL errour hath some appearance of truth it being impossible to believe a plain and undisguised falshood but yet most men are so easie and credulous so impatient of severe inquiries or by assed by so many corrupt passions and interests that they are too often imposed on by very slight appearances And commonly the first and fundamental mistake is in a confusion of names in a doubtful and ambiguous use of words especially in matters of Religion which depend upon Revelation and must be judged by the publick and authentick Records of inspired men for it happens too often in this Case that men consider nothing but the sound of words and from thence form such uncouth Idaeas of Religion as are fitted to the meanness of their understandings or gratifie their natural Genius and disposition or are calculated to serve an interest And thus the Gospel of our Saviour is defaced and obscured by affected Mysteries and Paradoxes and senseless propositions and Christ himself who was the brightness of his Fathers glory and the express image of his Person who in the most plain and perspicuous manner declared the will of God to us is represented with a thicker Vail upon his Face than Moses and the glory of the second Covenant is much more obscured with a mist of words than the first was with Types and Figures This will appear to any man who shall observe what strange interpretations are commonly made of those Texts of Scripture especially in St. Pauls Epistles wherein Christ is mentioned what absurd propositions are built on them what pernicious consequences drawn from them to defeat the great ends of Christs appearing in the flesh I always took it for granted that Christ and his Religion were very well agreed but if we believe some men there is as irreconcileable a difference between the Religion of Christs Person and of his Gospel as between the Law and Grace For the Gospel of Christ is as severe a despensation as the Law which dooms all men to Eternal misery who live not very innocent and vertuous Lives but the Person of Christ is all Grace a meer refuge and Sanctuary for the wicked and ungodly Surely here must be a mistake somewhere for I am still of the mind that the Person of Christ is not at odds with his Gospel and that the Person of Christ will save none whom his Gospel condemns or if Christ would save those whom his Gospel condemns viz. impenitent and incorrigible Sinners I cannot imagine how men should know this without a particular Revelation and I hope they do not mean this by the private testimony of the Spirit to work assurance in them And yet we can think of no other way since the Gospel is so silent in this matter But it is easie to observe where the mistake lies for some men where-ever they meet with the word Christ in Scripture always understand by it the Person of Christ and thus Faith in Christ and hope in Christ and the like Phrases are expounded of a siducial relyance and recumbency on the Person of Christ for Salvation in contra-distinction to obedience to his Laws which sets up a Religion of the Person of Christ in opposition to the Religion of his Gospel And therefore the best way of rectifying this mistake which sets the Person and the Gospel of Christ at such odds is to examine the various significations of this name Christ in Scripture which shall serve as an Introduction to what follows And first Christ is originally the name of an Office which the Jews call the Messias or one anointed by God for under the Law their Prophets Priests and Kings were invested in their several Offices by the Ceremony of anointing them with Oyl which was typical of that divine Unction the Holy Jesus received at his Baptism when the Spirit of God descended on him like a Dove All those legal Unctions were accomplisht in Iesus of Nazareth whom God anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power Acts 10. Verse 38. which was his Consecration to the Mediatory Function and vertually contained all those Offices of Prophet Priest and King which are not properly distinct Offices in Christ but the several parts and different administrations of his Mediatory Kingdom His Preaching the Gospel which we commonly call his Prophetical Office was the exercise of his Regal Power and Authority in publishing his Laws and the conditions of Eternal Life Hence the Gospel is so often called the Kingdom of Heaven and our Saviour tells Pilate that he was born to be a King and the principal exercise of his Kingly Power in this World consists in bearing witness to the truth Iohn 18. 37. that is it was an Act of his Regal Power to Conquer errour and ignorance to destroy the Kingdom of darkness by the brightness of his appearing and to erect his Throne in the hearts and Consciences of men by the power and evidence of truth which is a true spiritual Kingdom
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
Scripture is prest to serve every new-fangled conceit in Religion The wildest and most extravagant opinions that were ever yet vented under the name of Religion have pretended the authority of Scripture for their Patronage though any unprejudiced man would wonder how the reading such places of Scripture should suggest such notions to them but this is no wonder when we consider that men first contrive their Religion as these acquaintances of Christ do and possess their Fancies throughly with their private opinions and then read the Scripture with no other design than to find something there to stamp Divinity on their own conceits For it is easie to pervert the plainest sense and by the help of a strong imagination to make any thing of any thing such men dote upon words and phrases metaphors and allusions as best fitted for their purpose they found their Religion on obscure Texts or Mystical interpretations of plain Texts and by the help of some arbitrary distinctions and limitations glosses and paraphrases by curtailing of Texts or transplacing words and comma's or separating a single sentence from the body of the discourse make the Scripture speak their sense as plainly as the Bells ring what every boy will have them Which is to deal with the Scripture as Irenaeus observes as if a man should take a Picture of the King which consisted of an artificial composition of precious stones and transplace all these stones into another form as suppose of an Ape and then should perswade silly people that that was the Kings Picture At this rate we may find the Alcoran in the Bible as well as make so many Books so different and contrary to each other from the various compasition of twenty four Letters This is plain and evident at the first proposal to any intelligent Reader but to put it out of all doubt I shall give you some Instances of it and show you how these familiar acquaintances of Christ and who may better make bold with him than they take the liberty to pervert his Gospel to serve their opinion There are two ways of expounding Scripture in great vogue among them First by the sound and clink of words and phrases which is all some men understand by keeping a form of sound words Secondly when this will not do they reason about the sense of Scripture from their own pre-conceived notions and opinions and prove that this must be the meaning of Scripture because otherwise it is not reconcileable to their dreams which is called expounding Scripture by the Analogy of Faith First they expound Scripture by the sound of words and phrases that is if they can find any words in Scripture which chime to the tune of their private conceits without ever considering the use of the words in those places where they are found they clap their own sense on them and then they serve for very solid and substantial proofs I shall give you several instances of this way Thus when men are possest with the fancy of an acquaintance with Christs Person then to know Christ can signifie nothing else but to know his Person and all his personal excellencies and beauties fulness and preciousness c. and when Christ is said to be made Wisdom to us this is a plain proof that we must learn all our spiritual Wisdom from an acquaintance with his Person Though some duller men can understand no more by it than the Wisdom of those Revelations Christ hath made of Gods will to the World Thus when men have first learn't from an acquaintance with Christ to place all their hopes of Salvation in a Personal Union with Christ from whom they receive the free Communications of Pardon and Grace Righteousness and Salvation what more plain proof can any man who is resolved to believe this desire of it than first Ep. Iohn 5. 12. He that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Son hath not life For what can having the Son signifie but having an Interest in him being made one with him though some will be so perverse as to understand it of believing and obeying his Gospel but the phrase of Having the Son confutes that dull and moral interpretation especially when we remember that it is called being In Christ and abiding in him which must signifie a very near Union between Christs Person and us such as there is between two things which are within one another which makes all Christ ours and us Christs Now it is self evident that before we can thus be united to Christ we must go to him and therefore Faith which is the Instrument of this Union is very luckily called coming to Christ from whence it is very evident that to believe in Christ is to go to him for Salvation which Metaphors of coming and going are a very intelligible explication of believing But when the Soul is come to Christ is this enough no surely the Soul then must receive Christ as Saint Iohn tells us to as many as received him to them gave he power to become the Sons of God Iohn 1. 12. That Faith which serves us for legs to go to Christ must be a hand to receive him and to apply all his merits and fulness and righteousness to our Souls and now when we have received him we must embrace him in our arms too as good old Simeon did when he found him in the Temple which is a little nearer Union as plainly appears from the example of the Patriarchs who saw the promises afar of and embraced them Hebr. 11. 13. and now we have Christ we must trust and lean upon him as we are often commanded to trust in God which signifies that Act of Faith whereby finding and feeling our own weakness as unable to support our selves we do lean and rest on Christ and if leaning be not enough we may make a little more bold and rowl on him as appears from Psalne 37. 5. rowl thy ways on the Lord as the Original Gal signifies which is that Act of Faith whereby we being laden with sin and seeking ease we at last discharge our Load and cast it on Christ. And this is plain from the phrase of believing In Christ and On Him 1 Peter 2. 6. for what can that signifie but leaning and rowling on Him laying and building our selves on him as on a Foundation And now we have thus brought our Souls to Christ we must commit them to his trust to take charge of them and save them and if they perish it will be his fault and he must give account of it Thus Saint Paul did 2 Tim. 1. 12. I know whom I have believed and I am perswaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him against that day And now we must hide our selves in Christ from the fierce wrath and displeasure of God as the Dove hides in the Rocks Cant. 2. 14. O my Dove in the Clefts of the Rocks Christ's wounds are the
clefts of the rocks where this believing Soul Christs Dove hides it self And besides this a Rock is a Screne to shade off the heat so Christ is called Isai. 32. 2. a shadow from the heat he shades a poor Sinner from the scorchings of Gods wrath And then We must fetch comfort too from Christ as honey came out of the Rock Deut. 32. 13. he made him suck honey out of the Rock and oyl out of the stinty Rock the honey of the Promise and the oyl of gladness comes out of this blessed Rock But this is not enough yet for we must be cloathed with the Righteousness of Christ as appears from that expression that we must put-on Christ Rom. 13. 14. Gal. 3. 27. which can signifie nothing else but putting on Jesus Christ that is his righteousness as men put on a Garment to cover their nakedness and to adorn them And therefore Christ is resembled to a beautiful Robe Isai. 61. 10. He hath covered me with the Robe of Righteousness His righteousness is a lovely Robe no Robe of Gold or Ermin wherewith Kings are invested is so honourable as this In this Robe we shine as Angels in Gods Eye The High Priests glorious Vestments Exod. 28. 2. The Mytre the Robe the Ephod of gold and the Breast plate of precious stones did all but serve to set out the beautiful Robes of Christs righteousness wherewith a Believer is adorned thus if we would get the blessing we must go to God as Iacob did in the Robes of our Elder Brother though I confess this resemblance doth not very well please me for though Iacob was a good man yet this looks like a cunning trick to rob his elder Brother of the blessing and to cheat his blind Father and men must not think that God is thus to be impos'd upon But however that be this is plain that when we are thus united to Christ and made one with him then all Christ is ours as the Apostle tells us All is yours and you are Christs and Christ is Gods The merit of his Death is ours to free us from the guilt and punishment of our sins and his Active obedience to the will of God his Righteousness is ours for our justification as is plain in that he is called the Lord our Righteousness and is said to be made unto us of God Righteousness And as I. O. well observes we are reconciled to God by the Death of his Son and saved by his life that is by the Righteousness of his life which is made ours Rom. 5. 10. And now what better proof can you desire for all this if you will be contented with express words Though I am very much of the Doctors mind that we could never have discovered these mysteries clearly and savingly had it not been for an acquaintance with Christs Person No man would ever have dream't of such interpretations of Scripture who had not been prepossest with the mysterious notion of a fanciful Union to Christ and application of Christ to us for here is no other proof of this but words and phrases separated from the body of the Text and the design of the discourse and like straglers pickt up and listed into the service of their Hypothesis For indeed the whole mystery of this and a great deal more stuff of this nature consists in wresting metaphorical and allusive expressions to a proper sense When the Scripture describes the profession of Christianity a sincere belief and obedience to the Gospel by having Christ and being in Christ and coming to him and receiving him these men expound these phrases to a proper and natural sense to signifie I know not what unintelligible Union and spiritual progress and closure of the Soul with him An Union of Persons instead of an agreement in faith and manners As will appear more hereafter Thus when they talk of our spiritual impotency and inability to do any good thing for after all the noise they make about our coming to Christ they mean being carryed thither with an Omnipotent and irresistible power they prove it wonderfully from our being dead in trespasses and sins and therefore as a dead man can contribute nothing to his own Resurrection no more can we towards our Conversion which is true of natural Death but will be hard to prove of a moral Death which consists in the prevalency of vicious habits contracted by long custom which was the case of the Heathens whom the Apostle there speaks of which do so enslave the will that it is very difficult though not impossible for such persons to return to the love and practice of vertue another argument of the like nature is that we are said to be created to good works and to become new Creatures and therefore can contribute no more to it than we did to our first Creation and that we are born again which signifies that we are wholly passive in it which were true indeed if our being created to good works did signifie the manner and method of our Conversion and not the nature of the new Creature which is the true meaning of it that as in the first Creation we were created after the image of God so we are renewed after his image in the second which is therefore expresly called in other places the renewing and renovation of our minds When this way fails they take another course with metaphors and similitudes to make them serve their purpose and that is by considering all the properties and qualifications of those things Christ is compared to and applying all that will serve their turn to Christ without any regard to the end for which they are used Thus the Kingdom of Heaven that is the Gospel is compared to a pearl of great price Mathew 13. 46. This Pearl in some mens Divinity signifies Christ and the excellency of Christ appears plainly in this comparison For other Pearls add no real worth to them that wear them but Christ this Illustrious Pearl doth he makes us worthy with his worthiness Excellently turned to serve their purpose though all that the Parable means is that we should be as ready to part with all for the belief and profession of the Gospel as other men are to sell all they have to purchase a pearl of great value Thus Christ was prefigured by Mannah and this Mannah was of a circular figure and this Circle was a figure of Christs perfection this was meat cooked and drest in Heaven God himself prepared it and then served it in thus Iesus Christ was prepared and set apart of his Father to the blessed work of Mediatorship And Mannah suited it self to every ones Palate thus Iesus Christ suits himself to every Christians condition he is full of quickning strengthening comforting vertue That is he is what every man fancies him to be relishes according to the gusto of their own palates what precious discoveries are here of Christ and what irrefragable proofs
and the peculiar Moods of speaking in every language and in every age and to urge Metaphors no further than their first intention without which we may deal by all Authors as these men deal by the Scripture make them speak non-sence or as they use to call them venerable Mysteries and overthrow and contradict their own design And this is their first way of expounding otherwise called adulterating and debauching Scripture by the sound of words Secondly When this will not do then they argue and reason about the sense of Scripture from their own preconceived notions and opinions of Religion pretend to prove their own Scheme and fancies of Religion from the Scripture but in truth prove the sense of the Scripture by its agreement with their own opinions which is such a trick as the Papists have got to prove the Authority of the Church from the Scripture and the Scripture from the Church I might give Instances of this in abundance but I shall mention only some few lest I tire my self and my Reader Thus after all their talk of being justified by the imputation of Christs Righteousness there are a great many places of Scripture which expresly tell us that we are justified by Faith have Remission of sins by Faith have peace with God by Faith are sanctified by Faith are the Sons of God by Faith have Eternal Life and are saved by Faith now how do you think shall all these Scriptures be reconciled to their notion of being justified by the imputation of Christs Righteousness for Faith certainly is not the Righteousness of Christ in their notion of it why this is plain at first sight to these acquaintances of Christ. For when Faith is said to justifie and save c. we must not understand this absolutely that is we must not understand this of Faith considered as Faith but we must understand it relatively that Faith justifies as it brings us to Christ and makes us one with him by whom we are justified Faith apprehends the Righteousness of Christ and the Righteousness of Christ justifies now this distinction is plainly owing to their preconceived opinions without which no man could ever have stumbled on 't that when the Scripture saith that Faith justifies the meaning should be that it justifies and saves instrumentally and relatively words which the Scriptures are unacquainted with that is not as it is Faith but as it apprehends the Righteousness of Christ which in plain words signifies that Faith does not justifie though the Scripture so often says it does But now the Reason of this Interpretation is very plain for should Faith justifie as our own Act that is as Faith it would be as bad as good works and as perfectly irreconcileable with the free Grace of God For had justification been promised to any thing wrought in us or done by us it had been of desert not of Grace of wages not of mercy if God had promised justification upon any work of ours had said we must bring so much humiliation so much repentance so much breaking of Spirit so much Grace so many Prayers Alms-deeds or so much Faith as our own Act and then we should be justified it would not have been of Grace not of free mercy though modest men who are not so apt to dream of meriting by every thing they do would have thought that free Grace and Faith might have been easily reconciled though Faith had justified as our own Act since the reward and recompence does so infinitly exceed the work that there can be no suspition of merit and where there is no merit the Reward is of Grace and not of debt whatever the condition of the promise be But this is past all doubt when it is confirmed by a metaphor or two of which there is great variety some more apt than others as for Instance the vertue is not in Faith but in Christ as appears in this a Ring which hath a precious stone in it which will staunch blood we say the Ring stauncheth blood but the vertue doth not barely lye in the Ring but in the stone in the Ring so Faith is the Ring Christ the precious stone all that Faith does is to bring home Christs merits to the Soul and so it justifies so that if you can but find out an improper and absurd form of speech in use among the vulgar or if you can but invent one as this Gentleman does for I never met with this before it is a sufficient reason to expound Scripture as improperly as unlearned men talk or think or if you can but fancy Faith a Ring and Christ a precious Stone it is enough to answer all those places of Scripture which speak of that legal and meritorious way of justification by Faith And thus Faith justifies as it is a receptive Grace it is the receiving the Gold that enriches so Faith receiving of Christs merits and filling the Soul with all the fulness of God must needs be an enriching Grace In the body there are Veins that suck the nourishment that comes into the Stomach and turns it into blood and Spirits Faith is such a sucking Vein that draws vertue from Christ and therefore is called a precious Faith Is not this very plain now to him who understands the nature of our Union to Christ which is like that of the Members of a natural body and that we are saved by Christ just as the body is nourished by the Stomach And now to make all clear we may give a Philosophical account why God chose Faith to be the Instrument of our Justification because it is a humble Grace and gives the glory of all to free Grace If repentance should fetch justification from Christ a man would be ready to say this was for my tears strange deserving Creatures these who can dream of meriting Heaven with a few tears but Faith is humble it is an empty hand and what merit can there be in that doth a poor mans reaching out his hand merit an Alms yes just as much as a few tears merit Heaven Faith is only a golden Bucket that draws Water out of the well of life But why may not those who are so apt to be conceited of merit grow as proud that they have a golden Bucket as if the whole Well were their own Thus you see how these men deal with the Scripture and poor humble Faith make what they please of them to fit them to their purpose that Faith is sometimes feet to go to Christ sometimes a hand to receive him a mouth to feed on him an eye to look fiducially on him a Ring to hold this precious Stone a Vein to suck justification out of the Spiritual Stomach which by the way is a very new conceit for though Christ is called the head I never before read that he was the Stomach a Bucket to draw water out of this Well Christ though in this they are very civil to Faith in making it a
Scripture mentions whereby our fellowship with God and Christ in this World is exprest hence it is called the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Communion and fellowship 1 Cor. 10. 16. The Cup of blessing which we bless is it not the Communion of the blood of Christ The Bread which we break is it not the Communion of the body of Christ And why he calls it the Communion appears from the following verses First because it signifies the Communion and fellowship of Christians with each other that they are all Members of the Body of Christ that they are all the Children of the same Father as being entertained by him at the same Table vers 17. And Secondly It is a Communion also as it signifies our fellowship with God Vers. 18. Behold Israel after the flesh are not they which eat of the Sacrifice partakers of the Altar The meaning of which is that the Sacrifice which was offered upon the Altar was reckoned as Gods meat as the Temple was his house and therefore those that eat of the Sacrifice were entertained at Gods Table which was a signification of their fellowship with him that he was their God and they his people Thus the Lords Supper is a Feast upon a Sacrifice even that great and stupendious Sacrifice of the Body of Christ which was offered upon the Cross and therefore to eat the consecrated Bread and drink the Wine which are the figures of his Body and Blood is to eat of that Sacrifice that spiritual food God hath provided for us Thus God entertains us at his Table as his own Children who are of his houshold and family as the Members of Christ who have a right to all the blessings of the new Covenant which was sealed with his blood This is the true Interpretation of all Feasts upon Sacrifice such as the Lords Supper in an eminent manner is that it is to eat of Gods food and to be entertained at his Table which is such an argument of our fellowship with God as eating and drinking together is among men always allowing for that infinite distance which is between God and us This is the only Act of Religion which in Scripture signifies Communion and Fellowship because it is the most proper signification of our fellowship with God and with each other but prayer and meditation and such like Acts of Devotion are no where called Communion with God though a prevailing custom hath in our days almost wholly appropriated that name to them fellowship with God doth not consist in transient Acts but is a state of life that relation we stand in to God and Christ and there is no Act of Religion which doth properly signifie this fellowship with God but only eating at his Table for you will not say that a poor man enjoys communion and fellowship with his Prince when he puts up a Petition to him to beg his charity or praiseth him for his clemency and bounty to pray to God is an Act of Homage which we owe him as he is our Maker and Father it is a duty which results from our relation to and fellowship with God but it is not in its own nature an act of fellowship and communion which expression I purposely avoid not only because it is improper and hath thrust out the true notion of our fellowship with God and not only the notion but the practice of it too for certainly did men understand what our fellowship with God is they would not so much neglect the Lords Supper which is the only Act whereby our Communion is exprest but also because men have abused it to great irreverence and familiarity with God in their addresses to him while they fancy that they are now acting the part of Gods Fellows and therefore may talk to him with such freedom as they use in common conversation I have discoursed these things at large because they are too commonly mistaken our Union to Christ hath been represented as a Riddle and Mystery which no body can understand the perfect knowledge of which must be reserved for the next World or the coming of Elias and the mistakes about it have had a bad influence upon all Religion not only to confound the notions but to debauch the practice of it The sum of what I have already said is this that those Phrases and Metaphors which represent our Union to Christ signifie our visible Society with the Christian Church and our sincere practice of the Christian Religion when we joyn in Communion with the Church of Christ and live in a regular subjection to our spiritual Governours and a mutual discharge of all Christian offices when we profess to believe the Gospel and to obey the Laws of our common Saviour then we are visibly united to Christ as Subjects to their Prince and Members to their Head and when this profession is sincere and hearty when we really are what we pretend to be then our Union to Christ is real and spiritual too A visible and real Union to Christ differ as a visible Professor and sincere Christian the one is a Christian only in show the other is what he pretends to be and this Union to Christ entitles us to his peculiar care and providence to the influences of his Grace to the power of his Intercession transforms us into his nature and likeness and makes us the Temple of God wherein he delights to dwell All this may be understood on this side Heaven and without sending for Elias to unriddle it and this is all the Scripture tells us of our Union to Christ. SECT II. Of our Union to the Person of Christ. I Know not whence it comes to pass that men love to make plain things obscure and like nothing in Religion but Riddles and Mysteries God indeed was pleased to institute a great many Ceremonies and many of them of very obscure signification in the Jewish Worship to awe their childish minds into a greater veneration of his Divine Majesty But in these last days God hath sent his own Son into the World to make a plain and easie and perfect Revelation of his Will to publish such a Religion as may approve it self to our reason and captivate our affections by its natural charms and beauties and there cannot be a greater injury to the Christian Religion than to render it obscure and unintelligible and yet too many there are who despise every thing which they understand and think nothing a sufficient tryal of their Faith but what contradicts the sense and reason of mankind I might give you too many instances of this but our present Argument may serve instead of many There is nothing more easie to be understood than our Union and Communion with Christ and it had certainly continued so had not some men undertook to explain it who have now made it more than mystical that is an unintelligible Union though indeed that is the least fault that it cannot be understood for as they have
was all the Righteousness he had while he was a Pharisee and this he accounts dung and loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Iesus Christ our Lord i. e. for the sake of the Gospel which is the knowledge of Christ as you hear'd above which contains a more excellent and perfect Righteousness than the Law did and that he might win Christ i. e. that he might attain to an Evangelical Righteousness such as Christ was the Preacher and example of and that he might be found in him not having his own Righteousness which is of the law that at the last day he might appear to be a sound and sincere Christian whose righteousness does not consist only in some external observances or an external Conformity to Gods Law but that which is through the Faith of Christ the Righteousness which is of God by Faith i. e. that inward and vital principle of holiness that new nature which the Gospel of Christ requires of us and which this Christian Faith will work in us which is a Righteousness of Gods own chusing which he commands and which he will reward To confirm all this we must observe a double Antithesis in the words the Righteousness of the law is opposed to the Righteousness which is by the Faith of Christ and my own Righteousness opposed to the Righteousness of God now the surest way to understand the meaning of this is to consider how these phrases are used in Scripture The Righteousness of the law as you have already hear'd is an external Righteousness which consists in washings and purifications and Sacrifices or an external Conformity to the moral Law the Righteousness which is by the Faith of Christ is an Internal Righteousness which consists in the renovation of our minds and Spirits in the government of our thoughts and passions which is therefore called being born again and becoming new Creatures and rising again with Christ and putting off the old man and being renewed in the spirit of our minds and putting on the new man which after God is created in Righteousness and true Holiness The meaning of all which phrases is that that Righteousness which God requires of us under the Gospel must be an inward principle of love and obedience which changes our natures and transforms us into the image of God as much as if we were born again and made new Creatures Hence St. Paul tells us that the reason why God sent Christ into the World in our nature to die as a Sacrifice for our sins and to confirm and seal the new Covenant with his blood was that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit Rom. 8. 3 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the righteousness of the law that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Chrysostom expounds it that which the law was designed to work in them but was found too weak to effect it by reason of the greater power and prevalency of sin i. e. the inward holiness and purity of mind which was represented and signified by those external Ceremonies of Circumcision washing purifications and Sacrifices this was the design of the Gospel to work in us that internal holiness and purity which is the perfection and accomplishment of the Typical and Figurative Righteousness of the Law I know very well that this place is expounded of the imputation of Christs Righteousness that we fulfil the Righteousness of the Law not personally but imputatively but what reason can there be assigned for this besides that they will expound Scripture so which no man can help for is there any mention here of the Righteousness of Christ that he fulfilled all Righteousness for us and that his Righteousness is imputed to us and so we fulfil the Righteousness of the law in him And we ought to consider how consistent such an interpretation is with the Apostles design which is to show the great vertue and efficacy of the Gospel in delivering us from the power of sin which the law could not effect The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Iesus that divine and spiritual law which Christ hath given us which governs our minds and spirits and is the principal of a new spiritual life makes us free from the law of sin and death from the power and dominion of sin which is called a law and the law in our members warring against the law of our minds Rom. 7. 21 23. for what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh what the law could not do i. e. govern our minds and passions deliver us from the law of sin and death from the Power and Dominion of our lusts this God effected by sending Christ into the World to publish the Gospel to us and to confirm all those great promises and threatnings contained in it with his own blood That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit how can imputation come in here What pretty sense would this make of the Apostles Argument The Law was too weak to make men throughly good to conquer their love to sin and to reform their hearts and lives and therefore God sent his Son into the World What for To give them better laws and more excellent promises and more powerful assistances to do good No by no means but to fulfil all righteousness for them that they may fulfil the righteousness of the law not by doing any thing themselves but by having all done for them by having this perfect Righteousness of Christ imputed to them there was no reason surely to abrogate the law of Moses for this end it might have continued in full force still and have been as available to Salvation as the Gospel is with the supplemental Righteousness of Christ But the weakness of the law which the Apostle complains of was not the want of an imputed Righteousness which might have been had as well under the Law as under the Gospel if God had pleased but a want of strength and power to subdue the sinful appetites of men it was weak through the flesh by reason of the greater prevalency of sensual lusts which the law could not conquer and therefore the Gospel of our Saviour must supply this defect not by an imputed Righteousness but by an addition of greater power to enable men to do that which is good to fulfil the external righteousness of the law by a sincere and spiritual obedience Much to the same purpose the Apostle discourses in Rom. 7. Ver. 4 5 6. Wherefore my Brethren you also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ who put an end to that imperfect dispensation by his death that you should be marryed to another even to him who is raised from the dead that we should bring forth fruit unto God for when we were in the flesh under that carnal and fleshly dispensation of the
appears from Rom. 9. 30. Israel which followed after righteousness hath not attained to the law of righteousness wherefore because they sought it not by Faith but as it were by the works of the law that is the Israelites who pursued so earnestly after Righteousness are excluded from righteousness or forgiveness of sins and are under a Curse because they did not look for Righteousness and Justification in the way which God prescribed which is by Faith in Christ or by Christianity but by the observance of the law of Moses Now the most obvious Reason why this righteousness of the law is called their own righteousness and the Righteousness of Faith Gods Righteousness is because this legal righteousness was a way of justification not of Gods appointment but their own chusing God never designed that any man should be justified to eternal life by observing the law of Moses but yet they confidently expected justification by that Law and for that reason rejected the Gospel of Christ But the righteousness of Faith is a righteousness of Gods chusing this he approves and accepts of for the justification of a Sinner by this the Elders obtained a good report by this Enoch and Noah and Abraham were justified before God and therefore this may well be called the Righteousness of God because this he appointed and this he will owne and reward Thus you see that there is no foundation in Scripture for all this talk of a Personal Righteousness of Christ inherent in him and imputed to us but the righteousness of which the Scripture speaks is not the righteousness of Christs Person but of his Gospel that is that way of Righteousness and Justification which Christ hath revealed in his Gospel I have now considered all the Personal Graces of Christ as these men call them and upon inquiry it appears that what they appropriate to his Person belongs to his Gospel and is intended to describe the perfection and excellency of his Religion as being the most perfect Revelation of the will of God the most powerful method of his wisdom for the reforming the World the only way to life and immortality and which prescribes the only Righteousness which is acceptable to God There is indeed one metaphorical expression still behind which exercises mens wits and fancies viz the riches of Christ Eph. 3. 8. Which must needs be a personal Grace too or Personal Estate or what you will call it unto me who am the least of all Saints is this Grace given that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. Where by the unsearchable riches of Christ is meant the Gospel which St. Paul preached to the Gentiles as being ordained by Christ to be the Apostle of the Gentiles and he calls it unsearchable riches because the Grace of the Gospel is not a narrow and stinted thing is not confined to a particular Nation as the law was but is offer'd to all Mankind whether Jews or Gentiles bond or free the Gospel of Christ contains those glorious discoveries of Gods goodness to all Mankind as may well be called the riches of his Grace Eph. 1. 7. for riches signifie only an abundance And is it not a great violation of the Majesty of Scripture to sport and toy with words and metaphors as some men do with this riches of Christ that he is rich because he hath a rich dowry having all the World given to him as his proper Inheritance that he keeps open House and maintains all the Creation at his own charge and that he hath done this above 6000 years which would have broke him long since had he not been very rich and that he doth not only inrich all the Saints but all of the Saints their understandings with glorious light their Consciences with quickness pureness c. and that after all this vast expence he is never the poorer that he is not a penny the poorer for all that he hath laid out for the relief of those that have their dependance on him And that Iesus Christ is generally rich rich in Houses and Lands though he had not a place whereon to lay his head in gold in silver in Cattel in all temporals as well as spirituals and that he hath a great Tribute and Rent due to him that he is the great Landlord and Owner of all that Angels and men possess above and below These are fine things to perswade young Women to accept of Christ for their Husband since they can never expect so rich and advantageous a match any where else but I have something else to do than to pursue such follies and extravagancies as are so palpable that there is no need to expose them SECT III. Concerning the nature of our Union to Christ whereby we are intitled to all his fulness Righteousness c. HAving showed you what kind of Person these men make of Christ how they have fitted him to all the wants and necessities of a Sinner let us now consider wherein this Union they talk of between the Person of Christ and the Persons of Believers does consist Now the Union betwixt Christ and Christians is represented in Scripture by various metaphors which I have explained at large but these men instead of explaining these metaphors turn all Religion into an Allegory As for example Christ is called an Husband and the Church his Spouse and now all the invitations of the Gospel are Christs wooing and making love to his Spouse and what other men call believing the Gospel of Christ whereby we devote our selves to his service these men call that consent and contract which makes up the marriage betwixt Christ and Believers Christ takes us for his Spouse and we take Christ for our Husband and that with all the solemnities of marriage except the Ring which is left out as an Antichristian Ceremony Christ saying thus This is that we will consent unto that I will be for thee and thou shalt be for me and not for another Christ gives himself to the Soul with all his excellencies righteousness preciousness graces and eminencies to be its Saviour Head and Husband to dwell with it in this holy Relation and the Soul likes Christ for his excellencies Graces suitableness far above all other Beloveds whatever and accepts of Christ by the will for its Husband Lord and Saviour and thus the Marriage is compleated and this is the day of Christs Espousals of the gladness of his heart and now follow all mutual conjugal affections which on Christs part consist in delight valuation pity or compassion and bounty on the Saints part in delight valuation Chastity duty which is much like Mr. Hobs his Description of his Artificial Man the Common-wealth But I have already corrected this fooling with Scripture-Metaphors and Phrases and my business at present is to consider wherein they place the nature of this Union betwixt Christ and Believers namely in this that it is such an Union as makes all Christ ours
than the repeated Sacrifices of the Law he procures the pardon of our sins by his Death and dispenses this pardon to us by his Intercession he sealed that Covenant of Grace by his blood and intercedes for us in vertue of his blood but still according to the terms and conditions of that Covenant and this is all we must expect from him as our Mediator From what I have now discourst it appears how injurious those men are to the blood of Christ how much soever they pretend to magnifie it who attribute no more to it than a non-imputation of sin that by his Death Christ bearing and undergoing the punishment that was due to us paying the ransom that was due for us delivered us from this condition the wrath and Curse and whole displeasure of God and thus by the Death of Christ all cause of quarrel and rejection is taken away but then this will not compleat our acceptation the old quarrel may be laid aside and yet no new friendship begun we may be not Sinners and yet not so far righteous as to have a right to the Kingdom of Heaven So that the blood of Christ only makes us innocent delivers us from guilt and punishment but if we will take the Doctors word for it it can give us no title to glory this is owing to the imputation of Christs Righteousness to us to the obedience of his life but you see the Scripture gives a quite different account of it we are said to be justified and redeemed by the blood of Christ nay we have boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Iesus Hebr. 10. 19. which is an allusion to the High Priests entring into the Holy of Holies which was a Type of Heaven with the blood of the Sacrifice thus by the blood of Christ we have admission into Heaven it self though the Dr. says that the blood of Christ makes us Innocent but cannot give us a right to the Kingdom of Heaven The Scripture takes no notice of their artificial method that the guilt of sin is taken away by the Death of Christ and that we are made righteous by his Righteousness but the blood of Christ is said to justifie us and to give us admission into the holiest of all into Heaven it self nay we are made righteous by the Death of Christ too 2 Cor. 5. 21. For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the Righteousness of God by him that is though Christ was a very holy Person yet he died as a Sacrifice for our sins the just for the unjust that we might be reconciled to God So that our Righteousness as well as innocence is owing to the Death of Christ to that Sacrifice he offered for our sins his blood had a great vertue and efficacy in it to make us righteous to purge our Consciences from dead works that we might serve the living God and our Righteousness and acceptance with God is wholly owing to that Covenant which he purchast and sealed with his blood But though the pardon of our sins and our justification be attributed to the blood of Christ yet I could never perswade my self that this wholly excludes the perfect obedience and Righteousness of his life for the Apostle tells us that we are accepted in the beloved Eph. 1. 6. So that whatever rendred Christ beloved of God did contribute something to our acceptance for because he was beloved we are accepted for his sake and I think no man will deny that God was very highly pleased with the perfect obedience of our Saviours life We know how many blessings God bestowed upon the Children of Israel for the sake of their Fathers Abraham Isaac and Iacob who were great Examples of Faith and Obedience which made them very dear to God and there is no doubt but God was more pleased with the obedience of Christ than with the Faith of Abraham and therefore we ought not to think that we receive no benefit by the Righteousness of Christ when Abrahams posterity was so blessed for his sake but then the Righteousness of Christs life and the Sacrifice of his death do not serve two such different ends as these men fancy that the death of Christ removes the guilt of sin and his Righteousness is imputed to us to make us righteous but they both serve the same end to establish and confirm the Gospel-Covenant God was so well pleased with what Christ did and suffered with the obedience of his life and death that for his sake he entred into a Covenant of Grace with Mankind as Abrahams Faith was not imputed to his posterity as their act but for Abrahams sake God entred into Covenant with them and chose them for his peculiar people The Obedience and Righteousness of Christs life was one thing which made his Sacrifice so meritorious which was the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot And this is the most that can be made of Rom. 5. 18 19. Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to Condemnation even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men to justification of life for as by one mans disobedience many were made Sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous there is no necessity indeed of expounding this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 obedience of the Righteousness of Christs life or his active obedience for it may very well signifie no more than the obedience of his Death notwithstanding the Doctors distinction that doing is one thing and suffering is another for the Apostle tells us that he became obedient unto death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. 2. 8. and his offering himself in Sacrifice is called doing the will of God Hebr. 10. 9 10. and whether this be properly said or not I will leave the Doctor to dispute it with the Apostle it is plain that in this Chapter there is no express mention made of any other act of Obedience and Righteousness whereby we are reconciled to God but only his dying for us in Ver. 8. The Apostle tells us that Christ died for us while we were Sinners in Ver. 9. that we are justified by his blood in the 10. that we are reconciled to God by the Death of his Son which makes it more than probable that by his Righteousness and obedience here the Apostle understands his Death and Sufferings because this was the subject of his discourse but yet these expressions his Righteousness and Obedience seem to take in the whole compass of his obedience in doing and suffering the will of God and the meaning of the words is this that as God was so highly displeased with Adams Sin that he entailed a great many evils and miseries and death it self upon his Posterity for his sake so God was so well pleased with the Righteousness and Obedience of Christs Life and Death that he
he proves from 2 Pet. 2. 20. where the Apostle tells them That if they have escaped the pollutions of the World through the knowledge of Christ and are again intangled therein and overcome if they return to their old vices then their latter end is worse than the beginning which is point blank contrary to what he affirms That those who have escaped these pollutions and are not yet intangled again in them may notwithstanding that be Swine in Gods account for so he adds Thou mayst live a blameless innocent honest smooth life and yet be a miserable Creature But I pray says such a man and that often so thou mayst and yet never be saved Isa. 1. 11. To what purpose is the multitude of your Sacrifices To great purpose sure when they are offered by men of blameless innocent honest smooth lives the want of which made those Sacrifices abominable to God But I fast sometimes so did the Scribes und Pharisees twice a week but it was to devour Widows houses which was not the fast of an honest innocent man but I hear the Word of God and like the best Preachers So did the stony ground who heared the Word with joy and for a season believed and this had been well and a good sign of Grace if it had continued I read the Scripture often so did the Pharisees who were so perfect in the Bible that Christ needed but say It hath been said of old times for they knew the Text without intimation Men of prodigious memories certainly better than any Concordance but though Knaves may read the Scripture and be never the better for it yet good men may read it to good purpose and therefore I hope reading the Scripture is no argument that a man is a Hypocrite because the Pharisees were But I am grieved and am sorrowful and repent of my sins so did Judas but he hanged himself and that indeed is no repentance to life But I love good men and their company so did the foolish Virgins but they slept and suffered their lamps to go out which I hope all that love good men do not But God hath given me much knowledge That thou mayst have and never be saved yes and twenty good things more but if a blameless honest man have the keeping of this knowledge it is never the worse for him But I keep the Lords day strictly so did the Iews whom yet Christ condemned Had he been as well acquainted with the Scriptures as the Pharisees were he would not have said that the Jews kept the Lords day however this is one good thing which doth well in the company of more though it will not justifie a man when it is alone But I have many good desires and endeavours to get to Heaven these thou and thousands may have and miss of Heaven and yet when he was in a more gentle humour he told the poor doubting Soul that desire nay that a desire only to desire at two or three removes was enough But many do duties without life or zeal I am zealous so was Iehu to destroy the Worship of Baal and to retain Ieroboams Calves and so was Paul while a Pharisee in persecuting the Christian Church and therefore an universal and religious and well-governed zeal for God can be no sign of Grace But I am constant and persevere in godly courses so did the young man all these things have I kept from my youth only he left Christ for the sake of his riches and so did not persevere But some men are conscious to themselves of their own hypocrisie but I do all with a good heart for God So thou mayst think of thy self and be deceived and if this be an objection let a man have what marks he will the objection will still be good and so all evidences signifie nothing for after all it may be objected That a man may be deceived in it and think he hath these marks when he hath them not There is a way that seemeth right to a man but the end thereof is death thou mayst live so as to deceive thy self and others and yet prove an Hypocrite as if because some men may think themselves good who are in a bad way no man could ever be sure that he is in the right and thus farewel all evidences But after all this it would be worth the while to know how to distinguish a regenerate from an unregenerate man and that he tells us may be done thus An unregenerate man let him go never so far do never so much yet he lives in some one sin or other this now is very strange What go never so far and do never so much and yet live in some one sin or other What live a blameless innocent honest smooth life and yet live in some one sin or other and yet suppose he did a regenerate man may be in captivity to the law of sin and pray what 's the difference but then an unregenerate man cannot be poor in spirit and so carried out of all duties to Christ That is if an unregenerate man do good he is conscious to himself that he doth it if he have a good heart he feels a good heart in himself and in all he doth and therefore feels not a want of all good which is true poverty of spirit So that according to this discourse the surest mark of a regenerate man is either to have no good in himself or if he have any to be mistaken and think he hath none either of which I think is a very odd sign of Grace But then an unregenerate man comes unto Christ but he never gets into Christ never takes up his eternal rest and lodging in Iesus Christ only I thought coming had been believing and that believing would have done the business and if so God forbid that any man should be damned for want of that other Metaphor of taking up his eternal rest and lodging in Christ men in distress of Conscience that is all unregenerate men under such distress if they have comfort from Christ they are contented if they have Salvation from Hell by Christ they are contented and I think they have some reason then to be contented but Christ himself that is without comfort and without Salvation contents them not Now to be contented with Christ without comfort and without Salvation is so far from being the mark of an unregenerate man that I am not yet satisfied that it is the mark of an unreasonable man Now are not these men do you think great friends to sanctification who make all the parts of sanctification the reformation of our lives an innocent blameless Conversation Fasting Prayer hearing reading conversing with good men zeal for God perseverance in well doing honest and sincere intentions in all we do no more than the marks of Hypocrites and give no better marks of a regenerate man than to be sensible of no good in himself and then he must either have none or
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
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
for them Thus to proceed Christ was resembled to a Rock 1 Cor. 10. 3. That Rock was Christ. And then he is a Rock for defence and a Rock for offence and a Rock for Comfort to screne us from the wrath of God and to contain the honey of the promises Christ is resembled by the brazen Serpent now brass being an inferiour metal signifies the meanness of his humanity and it being a firm solid metal it signifies the power of his Godhead and though it shines it doth not dazle the eyes and so signifies the glory of the Godhead vailed with the Manhood thus the brazen Serpent was made like a Serpent but was no real Serpent so Christ was made in the likeness of sinful flesh but was no Sinner The Serpent was lift up so Christ was lift up in the acclamations of Angels in the preaching of the Gospel and upon the Cross which the Pole was a Type of and in our hearts by contemplating admiring loving him And the Serpent was lift up to be lookt upon by the stung Israelites which looking implyed a secret hope they had of Cure so if we do but look on Christ fiducially we shall be cured of our sins Never was there so happy a man in expounding Types never was any brazen Serpent half so subtil Thus as the same Author tells us Christ is compared to a Vine and that upon several accounts The Vine of its self is weak and must be supported and born up so the Humane Nature of Christ which it seems is represented by the Vine was of it self weak and was fain to be supported and underpropt by the Divine Nature The Vine grows in the Garden not in the Forest thus Christ grows in the Garden of the Church he is not known among the Heathen but I should have thought it more grand to have said that Christ this Spiritual Vine doth not find but make a Garden where ever he grows since the Church owes its Being to him not he to the Church thus the Vine communicates to the branches and Christ shoots up his sap of grace into Believers who are the branches of this Vine And the Vine hath rare delicious fruit growing on it and thus the promises are the Clusters of Grapes growing upon Christ the true Vine And whereas other Vines bear but one sort of fruit this spiritual Vine bears many the fruit of justification the fruit of sanctification and the fruit of consolation And the blood of Christ is the Wine of this Spiritual Vine which chears the heart of man as other Wine doth as he excellently proves from an old Latin Catch Curam metumque juvat dulci lydo solvere that is let us drink away care c. and now what fine work might a prophane wit make with Scripture at this rate of expounding metaphors But still they have a fetch beyond all this which consists in jumbling metaphors and Allegories and Types and Figures altogether and proving one thing from another in a most wonderful manner As suppose a man would prove that Christ is infinitely beautiful and lovely this is a most easie thing to do if you take the right method for first he is Lovely in his Titles he is the desire of all Nations the Prince of Peace the holy one of Israel Elect and precious these are most lovely Titles which argue him to be very beautiful And then he is lovely in his Types too he was typified by Persons most lovely by Moses and David and Solomon who were all lovely for one thing or other either upon account of Natural beauty or education or office or those great things done by them But then he was typified by lovely things As by the Pillar of Cloud and Fire which was most lovely to behold by the Mannah which was very lovely too because it was of a circular figure and extraordinary meat and suited to every ones Palate and by the mercy seat and brazen Serpent and Noahs Ark. Who can forbear being smitten with so lovely a Person Lovely as a Pillar of Cloud and fire lovely as Noahs Ark lovely as any Serpent yea as a brazen Serpent But besides all these Christ is resembled to a Rose the Rose of Sharon the Queen of flowers and how lovely is this Rose To a Vine the noblest of Plants and oh what lovely Clusters grow upon this Vine To a Corner stone and oh how lovely and precious is this Stone to a Rock and a River in a dry ground and a rich treasure and a beautiful Robe and all these are lovely and so should any thing have been that had come in his way at that time and who can doubt after all this but that Christ is the chiefest of ten thousands yea that he is altogether lovely Thus if I had a mind to imitate these men and prove that Christ is very powerful as well as lovely most of the same types and resemblances would serve the turn For he was prefigured by Moses who did wonders in Aegypt He was typified by David who killed Goliah by Solomon who was the most powerful Prince in his days by the Pillar of Cloud and Fire out of which God thundred upon the Host of Pharoah By the brazen Serpent which had power to Cure the stung Israelites by Noahs Ark which was certainly very strong that it could resist all the force and power of the general deluge He is resembled to a Corner stone which supports the whole building to a Rock which is for offence and defence to a rich treasure and riches all men know are the Nerves and Sinews of Power and he is most beautiful and beauty is stronger than all the rest and Conquers more than Sword or Fire Thus Christ is very rich for he is rich in Wisdom and rich in beauty and rich in strength and power rich in his Godhead and rich in his Manhood and then do but add Husband to all this and he is a rich and a powerful and a beautiful Husband thus Christ is Lovely because he is rich and powerful and he is powerful because he is rich and lovely and Rich because he is powerful and lovely and how is it possible these men should want proofs for any thing And is there any need now to prove that all this is the work of fancy and imagination that it is nothing but phrase and Religious tattle the fruit of precarious Hypotheses and of a pretended acquaintance with Christs Person for at this Rate it were easie to make any thing of any thing to find out some pretty words and phrases and allusions types or Metaphors to countenance all the feats of Enthusiasm and the more godly Romances of Popish Legends He who would be an honest Reader of Books who hath no mind to turn every thing into Burlesque ought carefully to distinguish between proper and allusive or metaphorical expressions to consider the use of words and phrases and the great variety of Dialects