312 A VINDICATION OF
the mediator between God and man. To know Christ in the language of the Scripture, [of J the whole church of God ancient and present, in common sense and understanding, is to know the person of Christ as revealed and declared in the gospel, with respect unto the ends for which he is proposed and made known therein. And this knowledge of him, as it is accompanied with, and cannot be Avithout, the know- ledge of his mind and will, declared in his precepts, promises, and institutions, is effectual to work and produce, in the souls of them who so know him, that faith in him, and obedience unto him, whidi he doth require. And what would this man have? He who is other- wise minded hath renounced his Christianity, if ever he had any; and if he be thus persuaded, to what purpose is it to set up and combat the mormos and chimeras of his own imagination? Well, then, I do maintain, that to know Christ according to the gospel, is to know the person of Christ; for Christ and his person are the same. Would he now have me to j^rove this by testimonies or argu- ments, or the consent of the ancient church? I must beg his excuse at present ; and so for the future, unless I have occasion to deal with Gnostics, Familists, or Quakers. And as for the latter clause, wherein Christ is said to be made wisdom unto us, he says, " Some duller men can understand no more by it than the wisdom of those revela- tions Christ hath made of God's will to the world," — who are dull men indeed, and so let them pass.
His ensuing discourses, in pp. 103-105, contain the boldest reflec- tions on, and openest derisions of, the expressions and way of teaching spiritual things warranted in and by the Scripture, that to my know- ledge I ever read in a book licensed to be printed by public authority : as, in particular, the expressions of faith in Christ, by " coming unto him," and " receiving of him," — which are the words of the Holy Ghost, and used by him in his wisdom to instruct us in the nature of this duty, — are, amongst others, the subjects of his scorn. The first part of it, though I remember not to have given any occasion to be particularly concerned in it, I shall briefly consider. P. 103, " Thus when men have first learned, from an acquaintance Avith Christ, to place all their hopes of salvation in a personal union Avith Christ, from whom they receive the free communications of pardon and grace, righteousness and salvation, what more plain proof can any man Avho is resolved to belicive this, desire of it, than 1 John v. 12, ' He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son hath not life?' And what can having the Son signify, but having an interest in him, being made one Avith him? though some Avill be so perverse as to understand it of believing, and having his gospel. But the phrase of ' having the Son,' confutes that dull and moral inter- pretation, especially Avhen Ave remember it is called, ' being in Christ,
THE PRECEDING DISCOURSE. 313
and abiding in him ;' which must signify a very near union between Christ's person and us/'
I suppose that expression of " personal union" sprung out of de- sign, and not out of ignorance ; for, if I mistake not, he doth some- where in his book take notice that it is disclaimed, and only a union of believers with or unto the person of Christ asserted; or, if it be his mistake, all comes to the same issue. Personal, or hypostatical union, is that of different natures in the same person, giving them the same singular subsistence. This none pretend unto with Jesus Christ. But it is the union of believers unto the person of Christ which is spiritual and mystical, Avhereby they are in him and he in them, and so are one with him, then' head, as members of his mysti- cal body, which is pleaded for herein, with the free communications of grace, righteousness, and salvation, in the several and distinct ways whereby we are capable to receive them from him, or be made par- takers of them ; [in this] we place all hopes of salvation. And we do judge, moreover, that he who is otherwise minded must betake himself unto another gospel ; for he completely renounceth that in our Bibles. Is this our crime, — that which we are thus charged with, and traduced for ? Is the contrary hereunto the doctrine that the present church of England approveth and instructs her children in ? Or doth any man think that we will be scared from our faith and hope by such weak and frivolous attempts against them ? Yea, but it may be it is not so much the thing itself, as the miserable proof which we pro- duce from the Scripture in the confirmation of it ; for we do it from that of the apostle, 1 John v. 12. If he think that we prove these things only by this testimony, he is mistaken at his wonted rate. Our faith herein is built upon innumerable express testimonies of the Scrip- ture,— indeed the whole revelation of the will of God and the way of salvation by Jesus Christ in the gospel. Those who prove it, also, from this text, have sufficient ground and reason for what they j^lead. And, notwithstanding the pleasant scoffing humour of this author, we yet say that it is perverse folly for any one to say that the having of the Son or Christ expressed in the text, doth intend either the ha'vdng an interest in him and union with him, or the obeying of his gospel, exclusively to the other, — these being inseparable, and included in the same expression. And as to what he adds about being in Christ, and abiding in him, — which are the greatest privileges of be- lievers, and that as expressed in words taught by the Holy Ghost, — it is of the same strain of profaneness with much of what ensues; which I shall not farther inquire into.