I shall not absolutely accept of the tenns of this controversy as to the state of it on our part, proposed by hhn; and yet I shall not much vary from them. We say, therefore, that "Jesus Christ bebff full of all grace, excellencies, and perfections, he communicates them unto
348 A VINDICATION OF
US in that degree as is necessary for us, and in proportion unto his abundant charity and goodness towards us; and we Christians, as his body, or fellow -members of his human nature, receive grace and mercy, flowing from him to us." This state of the controversy on our side I suppose he will not refuse, nor the terms of it ; but will own them to be ours, though he will not, it may be, allow some of them to be proper or convenient. And that he may know who his " they" are, who are at this end of the difference, he may be pleased to take notice that these words are the whole and entire paraphrase of Dr Hammond on John i. 1 6 ; the first testimony he undertakes to answer. And when this author hath replied to Mr Hooker, Dr Jackson, and him, and such other pillars of the church of England as concur with them, it will be time enough for me to consider how I shall defend myself against him. Or, if he will take the controversy on our part in terms more directly expressive of my mind, it is the person of Christ is the fountain of all grace to the church (as he well observes my judgment to be), and that from him all gTace and mercy is de- rived unto us; and then I do maintain, that the "they" whom he opposeth, are not only the church of England, but the whole catholic church in all ages. Who the " we" are, on the other hand, who reject this assertion, and believe that all the testimonies concerning the fulness of grace in Christ, and the communication thereof unto us, do only declare the excellency of his religion, is not easy to be conjectured; — for unless it be the people of Racow, I know not who are his associates. And let him but name three divines of any repu- tation in the church of England since the Reformation, who have given the least countenance unto his assertions, negative or positive, and I will acknowledge that he hath better associates in his profession than as yet I believe he hath. But that Jesus Christ himself, God and man in one person, the mediator between God and man, is not a fountain of grace and mercy to his church ; that there is no real internal grace communicated by him, or derived from him unto his mystical body ; that the fulness which is in him, or said to be in him, of grace and truth, of unsearchable riches of grace, etc., is nothing but the doctrine which he taught, as the most complete and perfect declaration of the will of God, — are opinions that cannot be divulged, under pretence of authority, without the most pernicious scandal to the present church of England. And if this be the man's religion, that this is all the fulness we receive from Christ, — " a perfect revela- tion of the divine will concerning the salvation of mankind ; which contains so many excellent promises that it may well be called ' grace;' and prescribes such a plain and simple religion, so agreeable to the natural notions of good and evil, that it may well be called ' truth;'" — and complying with its doctrine, or yielding obedience unto its pre-
THE PRECEDING DISCOURSE. 349
cepts and believing the promises which it gives, in onr own strength, without an}' real aid, assistance, or communication of internal saving grace from the person of Jesus Christ, is our righteousness before God, whereon and for which we are justified, — I know as well as he whence it came, and perhaps better than lie whither it will go.
The remainmg discourse of this chapter consisteth of two parts : — First, An attempt to disprove any communication of real internal grace from the Lord Christ unto believers for their sanctification ; Secondly, An endeavour to refute the imputation of his righteousness unto us for our justification. In the first he contends that all the fulness of gTace and truth said to be in Christ consists either in the doctrine of the gospel or in the largeness of his church. In the latter, that faith in Christ is nothing but believing the gospel, and the authority of Christ who revealed it ; and by yielding obedience whereunto, we are justified before God, on the account of an internal inherent righteous- ness in ourselves. Now, these are no small undertakings ; the first of them being expressly conti^ary to the sense of the catholic church in all ages (for the Pelagians and the Socinians are by common agree- ment excluded from an interest therein); and the latter of them, con- trary to the plain confessions of all the reformed churches, with the constant doctrine of this church of England : and therefore w^e may justly expect that they should be managed with much strength of alignment, and evident demonstration. But the unhappiness of it is (I will not say his, but ours), that these are not things which our au- thor as yet hath accustomed himself unto ; and I cannot but say, that to my knowledge I never read a more weak, loose, and impertinent discourse, upon so weighty subjects, in my whole life before : he must have little to do, who can afford to spend his time in a parti- cular examination of it, unless it be in the exposition of those places which are almost verhati'in transcribed out of Schlichtingius.^ Be- sides, for the first truth which he opposeth, I have confirmed it in a discourse which I suppose may be made public before this come to view, beyond what I expect any sober reply unto from hun. Some texts of Scripture that mention a fulness in Christ he chooseth out, to manifest (to speak a word by the way) that indeed they do not intend any such fulness in Christ himself. And the first is John i. 16 ; the exposition whereof which he gives is that of Schlichtingius, who yet extends the import of the words beyond what he will allow. The enforcement which he gives unto his exposition, by comparing the 1-ith and l7th verses with the 16th, is both weak and contradictory