Part 13
[Sidenote: _Conseq. 5._] Fifthly, _It exalts above all the Grace of God_, to which it attributeth all Good, even the least and smallest Actions that are so; ascribing thereunto not only the first Beginnings and Motions of Good, but also the whole Conversion and Salvation of the Soul.
[Sidenote: _Conseq. 6._] Sixthly, _It contradicts, overturns, and enervates the false Doctrine of the_ Pelagians, Semi-Pelagians, Socinians, _and others_, who exalt the Light of Nature, the Liberty of Man’s Will, in that it wholly excludes the natural Man from having any Place or Portion in his own Salvation, by any acting, moving, or working of his own, until he be first quickened, raised up, and actuated by God’s Spirit.
[Sidenote: _Conseq. 7._] Seventhly, _As it makes the whole Salvation of Man solely and alone to depend upon God, so it makes his Condemnation wholly and in every Respect to be of himself_, in that he refused and resisted somewhat that from God wrestled and strove in his Heart, and forces him to acknowledge God’s just judgment in rejecting and forsaking of him.
[Sidenote: _Conseq. 8._] Eighthly, _It takes away all Ground of Despair_, in that it gives every one Cause of Hope and certain Assurance that they may be saved; _neither doth feed any in Security_, in that none are certain how soon their Day may expire: And therefore it is a constant Incitement and Provocation, and lively Encouragement to every Man, to forsake Evil, and close with that which is Good.
[Sidenote: _Conseq. 9._] Ninthly, _It wonderfully commends as well the Certainty of the Christian Religion among _Infidels_, as it manifests its own Verity to all_, in that it is confirmed and established by the Experience of all Men; seeing there was never yet a Man found in any Place of the Earth, however barbarous and wild, but hath acknowledged that at some Time or other, less or more, he hath found _somewhat_ in his Heart reproving him for some Things evil which he hath done, threatening a certain Horror if he continued in them, as also promising and communicating a certain Peace and Sweetness, as he has given Way to it, and not resisted it.
[Sidenote: _Conseq. 10._] Tenthly, _It wonderfully sheweth the excellent Wisdom of God_, by which he hath made the Means of Salvation so universal and comprehensive, that it is not needful to recur to those miraculous and strange Ways; seeing, according to this most true Doctrine, the Gospel reacheth all, of whatsoever Condition, Age, or Nation.
[Sidenote: _Conseq. 11._] Eleventhly, _It is really and effectively, _though not in so many Words, yet by Deeds,_ established and confirmed by all the Preachers, Promulgators, and Doctors of the _Christian Religion_ that ever were, or now are, even by those that otherways in their Judgment oppose this Doctrine_, in that they all, whatever they have been or are, or whatsoever People, Place, or Country they come to, do preach to the People, and to every Individual among them, that they may be saved; intreating and desiring them to believe in Christ, who hath died for them. So that what they deny in the general, they acknowledge of every Particular; there being no Man to whom they do not preach in order to Salvation, telling him _Jesus Christ calls and wills him to believe and be saved_; and that if he refuse, he shall therefore be condemned, and that his Condemnation is of himself. Such is the Evidence and Virtue of Truth, that it constrains its Adversaries, even against their Wills, to plead for it.
[Sidenote: _Conseq. 12._] Lastly, According to this Doctrine the former Argument used by the _Arminians_, and evited by the _Calvinists_, concerning every Man’s being bound to believe that _Christ died for him_, is, by altering the Assumption, _rendered invincible_; thus,
_That which every Man is bound to believe, is true_:
_But every man is bound to believe that God is merciful unto him_:
_Therefore_, &c.
This Assumption no Man can deny, seeing _his Mercies_ are said to be _over all his Works_. And herein the Scripture every Way declares the _Mercy of God_ to be, in that he invites and calls Sinners to Repentance, and hath opened a Way of Salvation for them: So that though those Men be not bound to believe the _History of Christ’s Death and Passion_ who never came to know of it, yet they are bound to believe that God will be merciful to them, if they follow his Ways, and that he is merciful unto them, in that he reproves them for Evil, and encourages them to Good. [Sidenote: _Our Adversaries unmerciful Assertion of God._] Neither ought any Man to believe that God is unmerciful to him, or that he hath from the Beginning, ordained him to come into the World that he might be left to his own evil Inclinations, and so do wickedly as a Means appointed by God to bring him to eternal Damnation; which, were it true, as our Adversaries affirm it to be of many Thousands, I see no Reason why a Man might not believe; for certainly a Man may believe the Truth.
As it manifestly appears from the Thing itself, that these good and excellent Consequences follow from the Belief of this Doctrine, so from the Proof of them it will yet more evidently appear; to which before I come, it is requisite to speak somewhat concerning the State of the Controversy, which will bring great Light to the Matter: For from the not right understanding of a Matter under Debate, sometimes both Arguments on the one Hand, and Objections on the other, are brought, which do no Way hit the Case; and hereby also our Sense and Judgment therein will be more fully understood and opened.
§. XII. [Sidenote: Quest. 1.] [Sidenote: _The stating of the Question._] First then, by this _Day and Time of Visitation_, which we say God gives unto all, during which they may be saved, _we do not understand the whole Time of every Man’s Life_; though to some it may be extended even to the very Hour of Death, as we see in the Example of the Thief converted upon the Cross: But _such a Season at least as sufficiently exonerateth God of every Man’s Condemnation_, which to some may be sooner, and to others later, according as the Lord in his Wisdom sees meet. [Sidenote: _That many may out-live the Day of God’s Visitation._] So that many Men may out-live this Day, after which there may be no Possibility of Salvation to them, and God justly suffers them to be hardened, as a just Punishment of their Unbelief, and even raises them up as Instruments of Wrath, and makes them a Scourge one against another. Whence to Men in this Condition may be fitly applied those Scriptures which are abused to prove _that God incites Men necessarily to sin_: This is notably expressed by the Apostle, _Rom._ i. from Ver. 17. to the End, but especially Ver. 28. _And even as they did not like to retain God in their Knowledge, God gave them up to a Reprobate Mind, to do those Things which are not convenient._ That many may out-live this Day of God’s gracious Visitation unto them, is shewn by the Example of _Esau_, _Heb._ xii. 16, 17. who _sold his Birthright_ So he had it once, and was capable to have kept it; but afterwards when he would have inherited the Blessing, he was rejected. This appears also by Christ’s weeping over _Jerusalem_, _Luke_ xix. 42. saying, _If thou hadst known in this thy Day the Things that belong unto thy Peace; but now they are hid from thine Eyes_. Which plainly imports a Time when they might have known them, which now was removed from them, though they were yet alive; but of this more shall be said hereafter.
§. XIII. [Sidenote: Quest. 2.] Secondly, _By this Seed, Grace, and Word of God, and Light wherewith, _we say,_ every one is enlightened_, and hath a Measure of it, which strives with him in order to save him, and which may, by the Stubbornness and Wickedness of Man’s Will, be quenched, bruised, wounded, pressed down, slain and crucified, _we understand not the proper Essence and Nature of God precisely taken, which is not divisible into Parts and Measures, _as being a_ most pure, simple Being, void of all Composition or Division_, and therefore can neither be resisted, hurt, wounded, crucified, or slain by all the Efforts and Strength of Men; [Sidenote: _The Light what it is, and its Properties described._] _but we understand a spiritual, heavenly, and invisible Principle, in which God, as Father, Son, and Spirit, dwells_; a Measure of which divine and glorious Life is _in all Men, _as a_ Seed_, [66]which of its own Nature draws, invites, and inclines to God; and this some call _Vehiculum Dei_, or the _spiritual Body of Christ, the Flesh and Blood of Christ, which came down from Heaven_, of which all the Saints do feed, and are thereby nourished unto eternal Life. And as every unrighteous Action is witnessed against and reproved by this _Light_ and _Seed_, so by such Actions it is hurt, wounded, and slain, and flees from them even as the Flesh of Man flees from that which is of a contrary Nature to it. Now because it is never separated from God nor Christ, [67]but wherever it is, God and Christ are as wrapped up therein, therefore and in that Respect as it is resisted, God is said to be resisted; and where it is borne down, God is said to be pressed _as a Cart under Sheaves_, and Christ is said to be slain and crucified. And on the contrary, as this Seed is received in the Heart, and suffered to bring forth its natural and proper Effect, Christ comes to be formed and raised, of which the Scripture makes so much Mention, calling it _the new Man_, _Christ within, the Hope of Glory_. This is that _Christ within_, which we are heard so much to speak and declare of, every where preaching him up, and exhorting People to believe in the _Light_, and obey it, that they may come to know _Christ in them_, to deliver them from all Sin.
[66] _Cant. 3. 9._
[67] 1 Tim. vi. 16.
But by this, as we do not at all intend to _equal ourselves_ to that Holy Man the _Lord Jesus Christ_, who was born of the Virgin _Mary_, in whom all the Fulness of the Godhead dwelt bodily, [Sidenote: _That the Fulness of the Godhead dwells in Christ bodily_, &c.] so neither do we _destroy the Reality of his present Existence_, as some have falsely calumniated us. For though we affirm that Christ dwells in us, yet not immediately, but mediately as he is in that _Seed_ which is _in us_; whereas he, to wit, the _Eternal Word_, which was with God, and was God, dwelt immediately in that Holy Man. He then is as the Head, and we as the Members; he the Vine, and we the Branches. Now as the Soul of Man dwells otherwise and in a far more immediate Manner in the Head and in the Heart than in the Hands or Legs, and as the Sap, Virtue, and Life of the Vine lodgeth far otherwise in the Stock and Root than in the Branches, so God dwelleth otherwise in the Man _Jesus_ than in us. We also freely reject the Heresy of _Apollinarius_, who denied him to have any Soul, but said the Body was only actuated by the Godhead. As also the Error of _Eutyches_, who made the Manhood to be wholly swallowed up of the Godhead. Wherefore, as we believe he was a true and real Man, so we also believe that he continues so to be glorified in the Heavens in Soul and Body, by whom God shall judge the World, in the great and general Day of Judgment.
§. XIV. [Sidenote: Quest. 3.] [Sidenote: _That the Light is a Spiritual Substance, which may be felt in the Soul and apprehended._] Thirdly, _We understand not this Seed, Light, or Grace to be an Accident, as most Men ignorantly do, but a real spiritual Substance_, which the Soul of Man is capable to feel and apprehend, from which that real, spiritual, inward Birth in Believers arises, called _the New Creature_, the _New Man in the Heart_. This seems strange to Carnal-minded Men, because they are not acquainted with it; but we know it, and are sensible of it, by a true and certain Experience. Though it be hard for Man in his natural Wisdom to comprehend it until he come to feel it in himself, and if he should, holding it in the mere Notion it would avail him little, yet we are able to make it appear to be true, and that our Faith concerning it is not without a solid Ground: For it is in and by this inward and substantial Seed in our Hearts as it comes to receive Nourishment, and to have a Birth or Geniture _in_ us, that we come to have those spiritual Senses raised by which we are made capable of _tasting_, _smelling_, _seeing_, and _handling_ the Things of God: For a Man cannot reach unto those Things by his natural Spirit and Senses, as is above declared.
Next, We know it to be a _Substance_, because it subsists _in_ the Hearts of wicked Men, even while they are in their Wickedness, as shall be hereafter proved more at large. Now no _Accident_ can be in a _Subject_ without it give the Subject its own Denomination; as where _Whiteness_ is in a Subject, there the Subject is called _White_. [Sidenote: _The Degrees of its Operation in the Soul of Man._] So we distinguish betwixt _Holiness_, as it is an _Accident_, which denominates Man so, as the Seed receives a Place _in him_, and betwixt the _holy substantial Seed_, which many Times lies _in Man’s Heart_ as a naked Grain in the stony Ground. So also as we may distinguish betwixt _Health_ and _Medicine_; _Health_ cannot be in a Body without the Body be called _Healthful_, because _Health_ is an Accident; but _Medicine_ may be in a Body that is most unhealthful, for that it is a Substance. And as when a _Medicine_ begins to work, the Body may in some Respect be called _Healthful_, and in some Respect _Unhealthful_, so we acknowledge as this _divine Medicine_ receives Place in _Man’s Heart_, it may denominate him in some Part Holy and Good, though there remain yet a corrupted unmortified Part, or some Part of the evil Humours unpurged out; for where two contrary Accidents are in one Subject, as _Health_ and _Sickness_ in a Body, the Subject receives its Denomination from the Accident which prevails most. So many Men are called Saints, good and holy Men, and that truly, when this holy Seed hath wrought _in them_ in a good Measure, and hath somewhat leavened them into its Nature, though they may be yet liable to many Infirmities and Weaknesses, yea, and to some Iniquities; for as the Seed of Sin and Ground of Corruption, yea, and the Capacity of yielding thereunto, and sometimes actually falling, doth not denominate a good and holy Man _impious_; so neither doth the Seed of Righteousness in evil Men, and the Possibility of their becoming one with it, denominate them _good_ or _holy_.
§. XV. [Sidenote: Quest. 4.] Fourthly, _We do not hereby intend any ways to lessen or derogate from the Atonement and Sacrifice of Jesus Christ_; but on the contrary do magnify and exalt it. For as we believe all those Things to have been certainly transacted which are recorded in the Holy Scriptures concerning the _Birth_, _Life_, _Miracles_, _Sufferings_, _Resurrection and Ascension of Christ_; so we do also believe that it is the Duty of every one to believe it to whom it pleases God to reveal the same, and to bring to them the Knowledge of it; yea, we believe it were _damnable Unbelief_ not to believe it, when so declared; but to resist that holy Seed, which as minded would lead and incline every one to believe it as it is offered unto them, though it revealeth not in every one the outward and explicit Knowledge of it, nevertheless it always assenteth to it, _ubi declaratur_, where it is declared. Nevertheless as we firmly believe it was necessary that Christ should come, that by his Death and Sufferings he might offer up himself a Sacrifice to God for our Sins, who his own self _bare our Sins in his own Body on the Tree_; so we believe that the Remission of Sins which any partake of, is only in and by Virtue of that most satisfactory Sacrifice, and no otherwise. [Sidenote: _That Remission of Sins is only and alone by Christ._] For it is _by the Obedience of that One that the Free-gift is come upon all to Justification_. For we affirm, that as all Men partake of the Fruit of _Adam_’s Fall, in that by Reason of that evil Seed, which through him is communicated unto them, they are prone and inclined unto Evil, though Thousands of Thousands be ignorant of _Adam_’s Fall, neither ever knew of the Eating of the Forbidden Fruit; so also many may come to feel the Influence of this Holy and Divine _Seed_ and _Light_, and be turned from Evil to Good by it, though they knew nothing of Christ’s coming in the Flesh, through whose Obedience and Sufferings it is purchased unto them. And as we affirm it is absolutely needful that those do believe the History of Christ’s outward Appearance, whom it pleased God to bring to the Knowledge of it; so we do freely confess, that even that outward Knowledge is very comfortable to such as are subject to and led by the inward _Seed_ and _Light_. For not only doth the Sense of Christ’s Love and Sufferings tend to humble them, but they are thereby also strengthened in their Faith, and encouraged to follow that excellent Pattern which he hath left us, _who suffered for us_, as saith the Apostle _Peter_, 1 _Pet._ ii. 21: _Leaving us an Example that we should follow his Steps_: And many Times we are greatly edified and refreshed with the gracious Sayings which proceed out of his Mouth. [Sidenote: _The History is profitable with the Mystery._] The _History_ then is profitable and comfortable with the _Mystery_, and never without it; but the _Mystery_ is and may be profitable without the explicit and outward Knowledge of the History.
[Sidenote: Quest. 5. _How Christ is in all Men._] But _Fifthly_, This brings us to another Question, to wit, _Whether Christ be in all Men or no?_ Which sometimes hath been asked us, and Arguments brought against it; because indeed it is to be found in some of our Writings that _Christ is in all Men_; and we often are heard, in our publick _Meetings_ and _Declarations_, to desire every Man to know and be acquainted with _Christ in them_, telling them that _Christ is in them_; it is fit therefore, for removing of all Mistakes, to say something in this Place concerning this Matter. We have said before, how that _a divine, spiritual, and supernatural Light is in all Men_; how that _that divine supernatural Light or Seed is_ Vehiculum Dei; how that _God and Christ dwelleth in it, and is never separated from it_; also how that, _as it is received and closed with in the Heart, Christ comes to be formed and brought forth_: But we are far from ever having said, _That Christ is thus formed in all Men, _or_ in the Wicked_: For that is a great Attainment, which the Apostle travailed that it might be brought forth in the _Galatians_. Neither is _Christ in all Men_ by Way of _Union_, or indeed, to speak strictly, by Way of _Inhabitation_; because this _Inhabitation_, as it is generally taken, imports _Union_, or _the Manner of Christ’s being in the Saints_: As it is written, _I will dwell in them, and walk in them_, 2 _Cor._ vi. 16. But in regard, _Christ is in all Men_ as in a _Seed_, yea, and that he never is nor can be separate from that _holy pure Seed_ and _Light_ which is _in all Men_; therefore may it be said in a larger Sense, that he is _in all_, even as we observed before. The Scripture saith, _Amos_ ii. 13. God _is pressed down as a Cart under Sheaves_, and _Christ crucified in the Ungodly_; though to speak properly and strictly, neither can _God be pressed down_, nor _Christ_, as _God_, be _crucified_. In this Respect then, as he is _in the Seed_ which is in _all Men_, we have said _Christ is in all Men_, and have preached and directed all Men to _Christ in them_, [Sidenote: _Christ crucified in Man by Iniquities._] who lies crucified in them by their Sins and Iniquities, that they may _look upon him whom they have pierced_, and repent: Whereby he that now lies as it were slain and buried _in them_, may come to be raised, and have Dominion in their Hearts over all. And thus also the Apostle _Paul_ preached to the _Corinthians_ and _Galatians_, 1 _Cor._ ii. 2. _Christ crucified in them_, [Greek: en hymin: εν ὑμιν], as the _Greek_ hath it. This _Jesus Christ_ was that which the Apostle desired to know _in them_, and make known _unto them_, that they might come to be sensible how they had thus been _crucifying Christ_, that so they might repent and be saved. And forasmuch as Christ is called that _Light that enlightens every Man, the Light of the World_, therefore the _Light_ is taken for _Christ_, who truly is the Fountain of _Light_, and hath his Habitation in it for ever. Thus the _Light of Christ_ is sometimes called _Christ_, i. e. that in which Christ is, and from which he is never separated.