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
Law of Moses the motions of sin which were by the Law which grew more boisterous and unruly by the prohibitions of the law v. 8. did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death i. e. did betray us to those wicked actions which end in Death but now we are delivered from the law that being dead in which we were held that we should serve in newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter So that the reason why the Law of Moses was abrogated was because it could not make men good It nursed them up in a ritual and external Religion taught them to serve God in the letter by Circumcision and Sacrifices or an external Conformity to the letter of the law But the Gospel of Christ alone teacheth us to worship God with the Spirit to offer a reasonable Sacrifice to him to fulfil the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all that internal Righteousness of which those legal Ceremonies were the Signs and Sacraments This is the plain meaning of the Apostle which can never be reconciled with an imputed Righteousness which would make his argument foolish and absurd and therefore in other places he tells us what little reason we have to be so zealous for the law of Moses since we have the perfection of it in the Gospel what need is there of the Circumcision of the flesh which the law required when in the Gospel we have that Circumcision made without hands in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the Circumcision of Christ which is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the perfection of that fleshly Circumcision What need is there of legal washings and purifications when they are all eminently fulfilled in the washing of Regeneration in the Gospel Baptism Thus we are compleat in Christ who hath perfectly instructed us in the will of God and instituted such a Religion as is the perfection of all external Ceremonies Col. 2. Ver. 10 11 12. We must now offer a nobler Sacrifice than the law of Moses commanded not the Sacrifices of dead Beasts but of a living and active Soul Rom. 12. 1. Hence Christ is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the end of the law i. e. the perfection and accomplishment of the law as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies for righteousness to them that believe Rom. 10. 4. That is the Gospel of Christ requires that righteousness of us which the law did only typifie and represent that holiness and purity of mind which is the perfection of all legal righteousness for that Christ should be made the end of the law for righteousness by the imputation of his righteousness to us hath no foundation in the Text. The Apostle explains what he means by this in the following Verses where he gives us a description of the righteousness of the law and the righteousness of Faith The righteousness of the law is an external Conformity to the letter of the Law The man that doth them shall live in them i. e. shall enjoy all those temporal blessings of the Land of Canaan which were promised to the observance of the Law but the righteousness of Faith is a firm and stedfast belief of the Divine Authority of Christ that he is the Lord and more particularly a belief of his Resurrection from the dead as the last and great confirmation which God gave to the Divinity of Christs Person and Doctrine This is that Faith that overcomes the World and purifies the heart and transforms us into the likeness of God which is the perfection of all the ritual righteousness of the Law Upon this account Christ is said to be made unto us righteousness 1 Cor. 1. 20. But of him are you in Christ who of God is made unto us Wisdom and Righteousness and Sanctification and Redemption i. e. he is the Author of all this to us He is our Wisdom as he is our great Prophet and Teacher who instructs us in true Wisdom Our Righteousness as we are justified by Faith in him by a sincere belief of his Gospel which is the only Righteousness acceptable to God Our Sanctification because the law of the spirit of life in Christ Iesus makes us free from the law of sin and death that Divine and Spiritual law of Faith conquers the Power and Dominion of sin which the law of Moses could not do and our Redemption as by these means he hath deliver'd us from the bondage and pedagogie of the Jewish Law from the Idolatrous Customs of the Heathens and the Tyranny of wicked Spirits and from the wrath of God which is the just merit and desert of sin Thus you see how the Apostle opposes the righteousness of the law to the righteousness of Faith not as an Inherent and Personal to an Imputed Righteousness but as an External and Ritual to an Inherent real and substantial Righteousness this is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the foundation of all other mistakes in this matter that by the righteousness of the law and the righteousness of works most men understand an internal holiness the Conformity of our hearts and lives to all moral Precepts and Rules of a good life and then conclude that if this Righteousness will not please God nothing but an Imputed Righteousness can though I should rather have concluded that nothing can but the truth is the Righteousness of the Law and of Works in the New Testament signifies only an external Righteousness which cannot please God and that internal holiness which they call the righteousness of the Law is that very Righteousness of Faith which the Gospel commands and which God approves and rewards and this Imputed Righteousness is no where to be found that I know of but in their own fancies Let us now consider in what sense the Apostle opposes his own Righteousness to the Righteousness of God not having mine own Righteousness but the Righteousness which is of God by Faith and there is no great difficulty in this for the Apostle himself tells us that by his own righteousness he means the righteousness of the law and by the Righteousness of God the Righteousness of Faith And be found in him not having mine own righteousness which is of the law but that which is through the Faith of Christ the Righteousness which is of God by Faith and what that is you have already heard thus in Rom. 10. 3. For they being ignorant of Gods Righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness have not submitted to the Righteousness of God where their own righteousness which the Jews so obstinately adhered to was the righteousness of the law and the Righteousness of God which they were ignorant of and would not submit to was the Righteousness of Faith for this was the great controversie between the Jews and Apostles which is the subject of this Epistle whether men were to be justified by the law of Moses or by the Gospel of Christ by a legal or Evangelical Righteousness as
And he was a Kingly Priest a Priest after the order of Melchizedec who was King of Salem the new Ierusalem which comes down from Heaven and Priest of the most high God Hebr. 7. Verse 1. when he offered himself a Sacrifice for sin he acted like a King No man took his life from him but he had power to lay it down and he had power to take it again in the 10th Chapter of St. Iohn's Gospel and 18. Verse Herein he differ'd from other Kings that he laid the Foundation of his Kingdom in his own blood purchas'd and redeem'd his Subjects by the Sacrifice of himself And that to which we commonly appropriate the name of Regal Power that authority he is invested with to Govern his Church to send his Spirit to forgive sins to dispense his Grace and supernatural assistances to answer Prayers to raise the dead and judge the World and bestow immortal life on all his sincere Disciples all this is the reward of his death and sufferings and is therefore called his intercession because like the intercession of the high Priest under the Law it is founded on his expiation and Sacrifice With his own blood he entred once into the holy place having obtained eternal redemption for us Hebrews 9. Verse 12. so that intercession signifies the Administration of his Mediatory Kingdom the Power of a Regal Priest to expiate and forgive sins This is a true account of the nature of Christs Kingdom and the method whereby it is erected He first conquers the minds of men by the power of his Word and Spirit and reduces them into subjection to God and then he pardons their sins and raiseth them into an immortal life by the expiation of his Sacrifice and that Power and Authority which is founded on it And this is the interpretation of the name Christ which signifies a Mediatory King immediately appointed by God to that Office and consecrated to it by a Divine and Supernatural Unction And thus the name Christ signifies in those places of Scripture where Iesus is said to be the Christ i. e. that Messias whom God promised to send Which are so many and so obvious that I need not name them Secondly Though Christ is originally the name of an Office yet it is used in Scripture to signifie the Person who is invested with this Office for the use of names being for distinction and the Office of a Mediator which is the first signification of the name Christ being appropriate to Him it might well serve for a proper name when once it was known who was the Christ. And therefore though before his designation to this Office was publickly owned he was only called Iesus the name given him by the Angel before he was born yet when by his resurrection from the dead He was declared with power to be the Son and the Christ of God Christ became as much his proper name as Iesus was before In the Gospels which contain the History of his Life and Death He is always called Iesus because all this time it was disputed whether he were the Christ or not but in the Epistles which are directed to the Christian Churches which were founded on this Faith that Iesus is the Christ he is as familiarly called Christ as Iesus and oftentimes by both Iesus Christ. For there can be no mistake in the Person by what name soever he be called whether it belong to his Office or Nature or circumstances of his Life and Fortune if there be but One to whom that name belongs Thirdly Christ signifies the Gospel and Religion of Christ as Moses signifies the Writings and Laws of Moses and the Prophets the Writings or Sermons of the Prophets in the 16. Ch. of St. Lukes Gospel 29. Verse They have Moses and the Prophets let them hear them and in the 31. Verse If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded though one rise from the dead And there is nothing more usual in common speech than to call any Laws or Religion or Philosophy by the name of the first Authors Thus in the 6. Chapter to the Galathians 15. Verse In Christ Iesus neither Circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision but a new Creature that is in the Gospel and Religion of Christ nothing is of any value to recommend us to the favour of God but a new Nature a holy and vertuous life The Law preferr'd Circumcision before Uncircumcision but the Gospel of Christ makes no such distinction but instead of those external signs requires the inward purity of heart Thus in the second Chapter of the Ep. to Coll. 8. Verse Beware lest men spoil you through Philosophy and vain deceit after the traditions of men after the Rudiments of the World and not after Christ. Where after Christ is opposed to the traditions of men and the Rudiments of the World and therefore must signifie not the Person but the Religion or Gospel of Christ i. e. have a care lest you be corrupted with the foolish opinions and superstitions of men which are inconsistent with the Christian Philosophy a plain contradiction to the Doctrine and Religion of Christ. And in the 6. Verse As you have therefore received Christ Iesus the Lord so walk in him i. e. obey the Doctrine of Christ as you have been taught it by us for so in the next Verse he calls it Being established in the Faith as you have been taught The like we may see in the 4. Chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians 20 21. Verses But you have not so learned Christ if so be you have heard him and been taught by him as the truth is in Iesus Now what can learning Christ signifie but learning the Gospel of Christ. And how could the Ephesians who never saw Christ in the flesh be said to hear him in any other sense than as they heard his Gospel preacht to them ver 8. and to be instructed in him as the truth is in Iesus for so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies not as our Translators render it being taught by him but instructed in him must be expounded of his Religion in its genuine and primitive simplicity so as Christ taught it his Disciples without the mixture of such corrupt and impure Doctrines as the Gnostick Hereticks had taught under the name of Christianity These I take to be very convincing allegations of the use of the name Christ for his Doctrine and Religion Fourthly It is acknowledg'd by all that Christ sometimes signifies the Church of Christ which is his body the fullness of him that filleth all in all And thus we must understand those Phrases of being in Christ engrafted into Christ and united to Christ which signifie no more than to be a Christian One who belongs to that Society whereof Christ is the Head and Governour thus it is used in the 12. Chapter of the Ep. to the Romans 5. Verse We being many are One Body in Christ i. e. we are all
else but to come for Gods call is out of free Grace and therefore he calls for no more than only to come up and possess the Lords fulness But not to insist upon some particular sayings let us consider the whole progress of the Soul as they represent it to a closure with Christ the several steps and degrees whereby men are brought at last to an Union with the Lord Iesus and they are Conviction Compunction Humiliation and Faith which is the uniting Grace now if there be nothing of forsaking sin included in all this then men must be united to Christ before they forsake their sins it were easie to produce the concurrent judgments of many Authors for what I shall now say but that would be too tedious and therefore I shall confine my self to Mr. Shephards Sound Believer as Orthodox a Book as ever was writ and which to this day is in too many peoples hands Now Conviction of sin according to this Author is a great sense of the evil of sin and the evil after sin of its abominable and accursed nature and those just judgments which follow sin that the Sinner must die and that eternally for sin if it remain in this state it is now in and no man can deny but that this is as it ought to be men must be awakened into a serious consideration of the evil which they have done and of the punishment which they have deserved before they will reform their lives reform nay now you are out this is not the end of Conviction to reform sin that is a legal way but compunction is the end of Conviction well then what is this Compunction why compunction is first a great fear of being damned when a man is thus convinced of sin he sees Death wrath Eternity near unto him and hence hath no hope to escape it as now he is and therefore does fear next to this succeeds a great sorrow and mourning for sin the Lord having smitten the Soul or shot the arrows of fear into the Soul it therefore grows exceeding sad and heavy and that which perfects this compunction is a separation from sin this is something like if they mean as they speak but if you would not mistake them by a separation from sin you must not understand a leaving and forsaking sin but such a separation from sin as is consistent with living in it for it is nothing else but a being willing or rather not unwilling that the Lord should take it away the Lord doth not wound the heart to this end that the Soul should first heal it self before it come to the Physician but that it might seek out or feeling its need be willing and desirous of a Physician the Lord Iesus to come and heal it it is the great fault of many Christians that either their wounds and sorrows are so little they desire not to be healed or if they do they labour to heal themselves first before they come to the Physician for it they will first make themselves holy and put on their Iewells and then believe in Christ so that all he means by a separation from sin is to be content that Christ by an irresistible power should take away our sins by this separation the Soul is cut off from the will to sin not from all no nor from any sin in the will for that must be mortified by a Spirit of Holiness after the Soul is implanted into Christ. Now this is down-right non-sense for he must be a very subtil man who can distinguish between a will to sin and sin in the will and all that can be made of it is this that this separation from sin is a willingness or rather a not unwillingness that Christ should take away our sins against our wills and therefore he does well to tell us that this separation from sin is no part of our sanctification as any man would easily have guest by his description of it the whole design of this compunction of this fear and sorrow and separation from sin is not that we might forsake sin but to work humiliation in us which is a third step towards an Union with Christ Now this humiliation is the work of the spirit whereby the Soul being broken off from self conceit and self-confidence in any good it hath or doth submitteth unto and lieth under God to be disposed of as he pleases this self confidence from which the Soul must be broke off is any hope of pleasing God by repentance or reformation or any thing he can do for when men feel this compunction of spirit for their sins the great danger is lest they should seek ease by repenting of their sins and reforming their lives that as their sins have provoked God to anger against them so now if they can reform and leave those sins or if they repent and be sorry for them if now they pray and hear and do as others do they have some hopes as well they may if they do all this that this will heal their wounds and pacifie the Lord towards them when they see there is no peace in a sinful course they will try if there be any to be found in a good course this indeed every man naturally would have thought to have been a very good way but it is a dangerous mistake for while it is thus with the Soul he is uncapable of Christ for he that trusts to other things to save him or makes himself his own Saviour or rests in his duties without a Saviour that is according to this Author all those who repent and reform upon the Convictions of their Consciences he can never have Christ to save him So that true humiliation is this when the Lord Christ hath made the Soul feel not only its inability to help it self but also it s own unworthiness that the Lord should help it that so it may lye down under God to be disposed of as he pleases that is to be contented to be saved or damned as shall best please God and when the Soul is brought to this pass then it is vas Capax a Vessel capable though unworthy of Grace and now they are made thus hollow and empty by compunction and humiliation they are capable of receiving and holding Christ as a hollow and empty Vessel is of receiving and holding any thing that is put into it this is a new notion of our Union to Christ that it is a receiving Christ into us as a hollow Vessel receives any liquor that is poured into it however this is a very Philosophical account of the nature of humiliation that it is to bring a man to such a thorough sense of his inability to please God that he shall never dare to be so prophane as to attempt it but must leave repentance and reformation of life to carnal and Christless men and then to make him so sensible of his own unworthiness and how just it is with
their obedience to their great Creator to restore them to the uprightness and integrity of their natures and thereby to a state of friendship with God This was the end of his holy Laws and precious Promises and exemplary Life and meritorious Death and glorious Resurrection and powerful Intercession for us to deliver us from the Power and Dominion of Sin to make us first holy as God is and then to receive us into that Blessed place where God dwells But now acquaintance with the Person of Christ makes just such a discovery of sin as it did of the naturalness of God's Justice to him i. e. that the desert and demerit of sin is such that it is impossible to make any atonement or satisfaction to the justice and wrath of God but only by the Death of Christ otherwise Christ had died in vain that is that God could not forgive it without full satisfaction which nothing but the Death of Christ could make Thus we learn our disability to answer the mind and will of God in all or any of the obedience he requireth that is that it is impossible for us to do any thing that is good but we must be acted like Machines by an external force by the irresistable power of the Grace and Spirit of God this I am sure is a new discovery we learn no such thing from the Gospel and I do not see how he proves it from an acquaintance with Christ. But still there is a more glorious discovery than this behind and that is the glorious end whereunto sin is appointed and ordained I suppose he means by God is discovered in Christ viz. for the demonstration of Gods vindictive justice in measuring out to it a meet recompence of reward and for the praise of God's glorious grace in the pardon and forgiveness of it That is it could not be known how just and severe God is but by punishing sin nor how good and gracious God is but by pardoning it and therefore lest his justice and mercy should never be known to the World he appoints and ordains sin to this end that is Decrees that men shall sin that he may make some of them the Vessels of his wrath and the examples of his fierce vengeance and displeasure and others the Vessels of his mercy to the praise and glory of his free Grace in Christ this indeed is such a discovery as nature and revelation could not make For nature would teach us that so infinitely a glorious Being as God is needs not sin and misery to recommend his glory and perfections and that so holy a God who so perfectly hates every thing that is wicked would not truckle and barter with Sin and the Devil for his glory And that so good a God had much rather be glorious in the happiness and perfection and obedience of his Creatures than in their sin and misery and Revelation tells us the same thing that as much as sin is for the glory of his vindictive justice yet God takes no pleasure in punishing delights not in the Death of a Sinner but rather that he should return and live that is he had rather there were no occasion for punishing than be made glorious by such acts of vengeance and therefore though God be so holy as to punish incorrigible Sinners and so merciful as to forgive all true Penitents through our Lord Jesus Christ yet he did not ordain and appoint and decree sin to this end for vindictive justice and pardoning mercy are but secondary Attributes of the Divine Nature and therefore God cannot primarily design the glorifying of them for that cannot be without primarily designing the sin and misery of his Creatures which would be inconsistent with the goodness and holiness of his Nature Thus Nature and Revelation teaches though these men pretend to have learn't otherwise from an acquaintance with Christ. Thus much for the knowledge of our selves with respect to sin which is hid only in the Lord Iesus But then we learn what our righteousness is wherewith we must appear before God from an acquaintance with Christ. We have already learnt how unable we are to make atonement for our sins without which they can never be forgiven and how unable we are to do any thing that is good and yet nothing can deliver us from the justice and wrath of God but a full satisfaction for our sins and nothing can give us a title to a reward but a perfect and unsinning righteousness what shall we do in this Case how shall we escape Hell or get to Heaven when we can neither expiate for our past sins nor do any good for the time to come why here we are relieved again by an acquaintance with Christ his Death expiates former iniquities and removes the whole guilt of sin but this is not enough that we are not guilty we must also be actually righteous not only all sin is to be answered for but all righteousness is to be fulfilled Now this righteousness we find only in Christ We are reconciled to God by his Death and saved by his life that actual obedience he yielded to the whole law of God is that righteousness whereby we are saved we are innocent by vertue of his Sacrifice and expiation and righteous with his righteousness Now this is a mighty comfortable discovery how we may be righteous without doing any thing that is good or righteous And I confess we could never have known this but by an acquaintance with his Person for his Gospel makes a different representation of it tells us expresly that he is righteous who doth righteousness that without holiness no man shall see God that the only way to obtain the pardon of our sins is to repent of them and forsake them and the only thing that gives a right to the promises of future glory is to obey the Laws and imitate the example of our Saviour and to be transformed into the nature and likeness of God and though our obedience be not in every thing exact and perfect if it be sincere we shall be accepted for the sake of Christ and by vertue of that Covenant of Grace which he hath sealed with his blood which admits of an Evangelical instead of a strict legal perfection such different discoveries doth an acquaintance with the Gospel and with the Person of Christ make The third part of our Wisdom is to walk with God and to that is required Agreement acquaintance a way strength boldness and aiming at the same end and all these with the Wisdom of them are hid in the Lord Iesus The sum of which in short is this that Christ having expiated our sins and fulfilled all righteousness for us though we have no personal righteousness of our own but are as contrary to God as darkness is to light and death to life and an universal pollution and defilement to an universal and glorious holiness and hatred to love yet the righteousness of Christ
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
were not reckon'd as done by us but because we do some things like them our dying to sin is a Conformity to the Death of Christ and our walking in newness of life is our Conformity to his Resurrection and the consideration of the Death and Resurrection of Christ is very powerful to engage us to die to sin and to rise into a new life and this is the true reason of these phrases not that Christ did all in our stead and therefore we are said to do it too but for a quite different reason because we must do something like it express the power and image of his Death and Resurrection in our lives To this purpose also he cites that Text in Gal. 4. 4 5. God sent forth his Son made of a Woman made under the Law to redeem them that were under the Law and here he stops but I shall take confidence to add that we might receive the adoption of Sons now by being made under the Law he tells us is meant being disposed of in such a condition that he must yield subjection and obedience to the Law well suppose this and this was all to redeem us and therefore our Redemption is by the obedience of Christ imputed to us fairly argued but can his obedience to the Law contribute no otherways to our redemption but by being reckon'd as done by us but the truth is this us is not in the Text it is not to redeem us but to redeem them that were under the Law that is the Iews who were in bondage under the Mosaical Law from which Christ redeemed them by abrogating that Law and introducing a better Covenant the adoption of Sons for in this Epistle nay in this Chapter the Law is called a state of Servants and of an Heir under Age but the Gospel is the adoption of Sons puts us into such a free and manly state as that of an Heir at Age and therefore is called the Spirit of adoption Rom. 8. 15. So that the meaning of this Text is this that God hath now put an end to the dispensation of the Law which is called redeeming them that were under the Law in a state of servitude and bondage and hath established a better Covenant in the room of it which as much excells the Law as the adoption of Sons does the state of Servants and this God brought to pass by sending his Son into the World made of a Woman made under the Law for the understanding of which words we must consider what influence Christs appearing in the world had on the abrogation of the Law and that was that he accomplished all the Types and Figures of the Law in his own Person and when all these Types were fulfilled they grew out of date so that his being made under the Law most probably signifies his being made such a Person as should exactly answer all the Types and Figures of the Law and so put an end to it as of no further use Thus the Temple was Gods House wherein he dwelt but now the Shecinah or Divine Glory rested on Christ and the fulness of the Godhead dwelt in him bodily so that now there was no longer any need of a material Temple as a pledge of Gods peculiar presence among them the Priests and Sacrifices of the Law were Types of Christ and when that great high Priest came and offered that perfect Sacrifice of himself all legal Priests and Sacrifices were of no use Thus by his being made under the Law and accomplishing all the Types and Figures of it he put an end to all those beggarly Rudiments and delivered the Jews from the bondage of the Law for though the Gentiles too are redeemed by Christ yet they were not redeemed from the Law of Moses under which they never were Several other places he alledges to the same purpose but I have either already considered them or shall do in what follows but what I have now discoursed is enough to satisfie any impartial Inquirer how vain and precarious this Principle is which too many make the very Foundation of their Faith that Christ as Mediator fulfilled all Righteousness in their stead whose Mediator he was And now had I no other design than to expose the mistakes of other men I should need add no more till I saw this answered but I have a greater and better design viz. to explain and confirm the true notions of Religion in opposition to such mistakes and therefore having shewed you that there is no foundation in Reason or Scripture to fancy such an Union between Christ and Believers whether we consider it as a Conjugal Relation or Legal Union as he is our Surety or Mediator as should entitle Believers to the Personal Righteousness of Christ lest any man should suspect that the design of all this is to lessen the Grace of God or to disparage the Merits and Righteousness of Christ which God forbid any Christian should be guilty of I shall secondly examine what influence the Sacrifice of Christs death and the Righteousness of his life have upon our acceptance with God and all that I can find in Scripture about this is that to this we owe the Covenant of Grace that God being well pleased with the obedience of Christs life and the Sacrifice of his death for his sake entred into a new Covenant with Mankind wherein he promises pardon of sin and eternal life to those who belief and obey the Gospel This is very plain with reference to the death of Christ hence the Blood of Christ is called the Blood of the Covenant Heb. 10 29. and Christ is called the great Shepherd and Bishop of Souls through the blood of the everlasting Covenant Heb. 13. 20. and the blood of Christ is called the blood of Sprinkling which speaks better things than the blood of Abel Heb. 12. 24. which is an allusion to Moses his sprinkling the blood of the Sacrifice whereby he confirmed and ratified the Covenant between God and the Children of Israel Heb. 9. 19 20 21. For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the Law when he had declared the terms of this Covenant to them he took the blood of Calves and Goats with water and Scarlet wooll and hysop and sprinkled both the book and all the people saying This is the blood of the Testament which God hath ordained to you Thus the blood of Christ is called the Blood of Sprinkling because by his blood God did seal and confirm the Covenant of Grace as the sprinkling the blood of beasts did confirm the Mosaical Covenant Hence we are said to be justified by the blood of Christ Rom. 5. 9. that is by the Gospel Covenant which was confirmed and ratified with his blood and Christ is called a Propitiation through faith in his blood that is by a belief of his Gospel Rom. 3. 25. Hence it is also that the Scripture uses these phrases promiscuously to be justified by