An answer to the discourse of Mr. William Sherlock, touching the knowledge of Christ, and our union and communion with him by Edward Polhill ..., Esquire.

TO THE READER.

IN that excellent Piece the Soul of Man (which is too great for this lower World, and in the very Frame of it aspires after an Infinite Good) the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 or upper∣most Room is the Ʋnderstanding; and among all the Truths, which are the Furniture thereof, none are so rich, as those Theological ones, which are drawn out of the Gol∣den Mines of Scripture. Arts and Sciences are in comparison but the Poor of the Mind, the Riches and Treasures of Knowledge lie in

Evangelical Mysteries; these out∣shine the Sun, and out-weigh the Earth: They have the highest Certainty, as coming down imme∣diately from heaven; and with∣all the noblest Tendency, as leading us thither: Infinite Truth is the Fountain, and infinite Goodness the Center of them. These, when in their Lustre, make a spiritual Day, and derive such a pure In∣fluence upon the Hearts and Lives of Men, as moulds them into the Divine Image, and thereby makes them meet for the bliss-making Vision in Heaven. No sooner can these be under an Eclipse, but there will be a Night and a Chaos of confusions; the Path of Life and Happiness will be wrapt up in darkness; black Legions of Er∣rors and Corruptions will creep forth, and pious Souls will wish for the day, I mean, for a fresh

Illustration of Truths from that sacred Spirit, which at first breah∣ed them out into the World; and, after all the Clouds and dark Veils put upon them, can bring them forth in their Oriency and true Glory. These to Believers are as Pearls and sacred Jewels, dearer than the Apple of their Eye, nay, than their own Souls: They build upon them by Faith, espouse them by divine Love, lay them up in a pure Conscience, distil the Vertue of them into a holy Life; and, if it were possible, they would have none of the sacred Light put out, nor the least Jot or Tittle of those Truths fall to the ground. O what a rate did the famous St. Austin and others set upon God's special Effectual Grace! How highly did the heroical Luther value the Point of Justi∣fication! Jacente articulo Ju∣stificationis

jacent omnia, saith he, as if a Christians All were in it. When such Truths are violated, Christians, how meek soever in other things, must earnestly con∣tend, and not give place, no, not for an hour; here, if ever, Lu∣ther's pia & sancta pertinacia is in season.

Not to stay any longer on the ex∣cellencies and great Concerns of E∣vangelical Truths, which no tongue of Men or Angels is able fully to express. I shall now speak a little touching Mr. Sherlock's Book. When I read it, I thought my self in a new Theological World; Be∣lievers appearing without their Head for want of a Mystical Ʋni∣on, strip'd and naked for lack of imputed Righteousness; the full treasures of Grace in Christ, which have supplied all the vessels of faith, emptied out of sacred his per∣son,

& transfused into the doctrine of the Gospel; as if according to Pelagius all Grace were in doctrine only: The holy Spirit, the great Origen of Graces and Comforts, in its Illumination seems to be su∣perfluous, in its Testimony to Believers an Enthusiastical Fan∣cy, and in the work of Rege∣neration, if any, at most but a partial Co-cause, parting stakes with the Will of Man: Faith in Abel and Enoch lying as low as Natural Principles; in Noah and Abraham raised up a little to particular Revelations, but not so high as the Messiah: In Christians standing off and at a distance from Christ its dear Object, not daring to lay hold on, or so much as touch him, to draw any Vertue from thence. As if Socinus had hit it right, when he said,

Christi apprehensio merum com∣mentum & inanissimum somnium est. The immutable Love of God, the only Cement of the Church, seems to be turned off from Persons to Qualities, and towards Persons to be as variable as the fickle Will of Man is; and yet he is immu∣table still, he loves for the same Reason, or, as Socinus saith, Non sine causa mutat. The Pon∣tifician Thesis touching Justifica∣tion by inherent Righteousness, seems to be revived a fresh, and that in a way less tolerable than among the Romanists: They, though they would have inherent Righteousness come in for a share, yet allow the Imputation of Christs passive Obedience; but in the New Scheme, inherent Righteousness takes up all the room, and leaves none for imputed. The Drollery and sarcastical Reflections in the

Book are but the Cover of it; with∣in there is a dark Eclipse upon many excellent Truths which hi∣therto have been owned in the Churches of Christ, and particular∣ly in our own. Among other Truths none have had a greater share of suffering than those two, touching our Mystical Ʋnion with Christ, and the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness to us; both which are to me very momentous. The Mystical Ʋnion hath I suppose, been generally received in the Church. Indeed Gregory de Va∣lentia once cavilled at it, as if it were Mysterium Calvinisticum; and yet he seems to own it, when he saith, Animum nostrum posse per fidem corpus Christi, etiam ut in coelo existens, atque adeo ut est extra Sacramentum mandu∣care. He that denies the Mysti∣cal Ʋnion, cannot hold the head

Jesus Christ, from which all the body by joynts and bands hath nourishment ministred, Col. 2.19. Take away that Ʋnion, and Christ is a Head of no Influence, the Joynts and the Bands, which were made to convey divine Nutriture from him, are but empty Titles, and signifie no more than those Conduit-pipes do, which are se∣vered from the Fountain. Again, he that denies the Mystical Ʋnion, must lose that piece of his Creed, the Communion of Saints; their Communion among themselves pri∣marily depends on their Ʋnion with Christ the Head, from whom the whole body is fitly joyned together and compacted, as the Apostle tells us, Eph. 4.16. All the Harmonies in the Body Mysti∣cal hang on its Ʋnion with the Head; without this Believers could have no Communion one with

another, save in this only, that they must all die one common death, hy being severed from their Head: The living Stones, once off from their Foundation, can hang no longer together in the spiritual Building, but must totter down into a Chaos of Confusion. More∣over, he that denies the mystical Ʋnion, must turn off the Believer from his true standing: according to the Gospel, the Believer is a man in Christ; he is built on him, as on a Foundation; he subsists in him, as the Branches do in the Vine; he hath vital Influences from him, as the Members have from the Head; he is acted by his divine Spirit in all the pure ways to heaven, and all this is his se∣curity, his preservation in Jesus Christ: But take away the Mysti∣cal Ʋnion, he is a man out of Christ, he stands upon his own

bottom, he subsists by himself a∣lone, he receives no influences from Christ the Head, nor is acted by a∣ny higher Spirit than his own; and in such a case, the next news we hear of him must be an utter downfall. But to say no more of the Mystical Ʋnion; that other Point touching the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness to us, hath also been ever owned in the Church; he that denies it, must, I fear, in the consequent, overturn the Law, the Gospel, and the Satisfaction of Christ. He must overturn the Law; for he must own a Justification without a Righteousness answer∣ing thereunto; inherent Righteous∣ness being imperfect, and imputed a Nullity, there is nothing to an∣swer the Law, and yet we are ju∣stified, which is as much as to say, the Law is no Law: If it be a Law, none can be justified without

a Righteousness adequate to it; if we may be justified without such a Righteousness, the Law is no Law, which is what the Antinomians would have: That a Law should be in force, and a man should be justified without an adequate Righ∣teousness, and that before a most righteous Judge, who judgeth ac∣cording to truth, is utterly impos∣sible. Again he must overturn the Gospel, and that upon a double ac∣count: The one is this: He must subvert the Promises of Justifica∣tion made in the Gospel; the Pro∣mises run thus; That we shall be justified by Christ's blood, made righteous by his obedience; that his blood shall cleanse away sin, and purge our consciences from dead works; and how can these be fulfilled without an Imputation? To say, that Christ's Blood found∣ed the Covenant, will not serve the

turn; these are Promises of a Co∣venant founded already, and a founded Covenant doth not promise the founding of it self. Christs blood as it founded the Covenant, is pre∣cedent to the Promises, and by it as such the Promises cannot be fulfill∣ed; for then they should be fulfilled before they were made, or at least in the making of them: It remains therefore that Christs righteousness must be made ours by imputation, & thereby the promises may be made good to us. If the Promises mean as they speak, then we must be justified by Christs blood & obedience, which infers Imputation; if the Promises (how plain, how emphatical soever the words be) mean not, that we shall be justified by Christ's Blood or Righteousness, then Christ shed his Blood for us, that we might be justified without it; he satisfied for us, that we might be pardoned

without a satisfaction, which is an odd reflection on his satisfacti∣on, if not a total evacuation of it. The other is this; he must pervert the Conditions of the Gospel from their true end and scope: These Conditions were in infinite Wis∣dom accommodated and attemper∣ed to the death of Christ which founded them, they were made to be subordinate and subservient to Christ's satisfaction and the glory of it: The Faith required in them was not intended to be the matter of our Justification, and in that notion to discharge and justifie us; the main scope and end of those con∣ditions was to shew upon what terms Christ's righteosness and sa∣tisfaction should discharge and ju∣stifie us. Now as long as these con∣ditions are made but conditions, as long as Faith keeps its proper sta∣tion, all is well and as it ought to be; but if those conditions be ad∣vanced

above their own station, if our inherent righteousness be made the very matter of our Justificati∣on, as indeed it must if imputed Righteousness be denied, then the conditions of the Gospel are corrup∣ted and perverted from their true end, they are no longer subordina∣ted to Christ's satisfaction, but made to set up our inherent Righ∣teousness in the room of it, they shew no longer upon what terms Christs satisfaction shall discharge us, but how our own Righteousness may do it, which is plainly to per∣vert the conditions of the Gospel. Moreover he must overturn the sa∣tisfaction of Christ: Touching this three things are considerable, viz. Christ's surrogation in our room, Gods acceptation of the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 on our behalf, and the operation of that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 in our discharge; none of which can stand without an impu∣tation. The first thing is Christ's

surrogation, he suffered 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Matth. 20.28. in stead of many; he was our 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, putting his Soul in the room of ours, or else he could not have satisfied for us. Now that Christ should suffer in our room and stead, and his sufferings should not be accounted or imputed to us, is a contradiction; take a∣way Imputation, and you take away Surrogation; take away Surroga∣tion, and you take away Satisfa∣ction. The second thing is Gods acceptation of the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 on our be∣half: Christs Sacrifice was a sweet-smelling savour unto God, Eph. 5.2. God accepted it on our behalf, or else Christ could not have satis∣fied for us. Now that Christs suf∣ferings should be accepted by God as on our behalf, and yet that they should not be accounted or imputed is utterly impossible; so far as Christs Satisfaction was accepted by God for us, so far it must be imputed to

us; if it was accepted only for a remissibility, then it is imputed no further; but then remission will be without satisfaction, which is what the Socinians would have; but if (as the truth is) it was ac∣cepted for Remission and Justifica∣tion to be dispensed upon believ∣ing, then it is imputed to that end, actually to justifie and discharge us: Take away Imputation, and you take away Acceptation, and with it Satisfaction. The third thing is the operation of Christ's sa∣tisfaction in our discharge. Satis∣faction is destructio obligationis, it doth really and properly dis∣charge him for whom it is made: accepted absolutely, it discharges him immediately; accepted on terms it discharges upon the performance, and that as properly and really, though not so soon as in the other case; its vertue and efficacy, which was suspended by the condition,

breaks forth into effect upon the performance; this is the nature and property of Satisfaction: A Satisfaction which doth not dis∣charge, doth not satisfie, that is, in plain terms, it is no Satisfaction. Now the satisfaction of Christ doth no discharge us immediatly, but upon believing, which is the Evan∣gelical Condition; and how doth it do it? Surely one of these two ways, either it discharges us meer∣ly as it founded the Covenant, or else as it is made ours by Imputati∣on; the former cannot be, it found∣ed the Covenant before our believ∣ing, & if it do no more after, it dis∣charges us not, for it doth as much before believing (before which it discharges not) as after: It founded the Covenant for those that perish, at least so far, that upon believing they might have been justified; & if it do no more for those that are saved, it discharges us not; for it

doth operate as much and as far to∣wards the discharge of those that perish, who are never discharged, as of those that are discharged and saved; which plainly shews, that it properly discharges none at all: and if it discharge not, it satisfies not, that is, it is no satisfaction. It re∣mains therefore, that Christ's Sa∣tisfaction is made ours by Imputa∣tion, and so doth discharge us: If it discharge us, it must be made ours by Imputation, and if it discharge us not, it is no Satisfaction. Soci∣nus, who denied Christ's Satisfa∣ction, had reason to deny imputed Righteousness; and he, who de∣nies imputed Righteousness, must in the consequent deny Christ's Sa∣tisfaction, nay, he must set up an∣other satisfaction in stead of it. In Justification there must be some Righteousness or other, to be the matter of our Justification, and to discharge us before God; if the im∣puted

Righteousness of Christ be not such, then our own inherent Righ∣teousness must be the very thing, that must discharge us and satisfie for us; that indeed must be the satisfaction much rather than Christs, because it properly actu∣ally discharges us, which Christs doth not: Ʋnless we say with the Socinians, that there is Remission without Satisfaction, there must be somewhat to be a Satisfaction, and what that is very obvious: That which is the matter of our Justification, that which doth pro∣perly discharge us, that is the Sa∣tisfaction: if Christs Righteous∣ness imputed be not it, our inherent Righteousness must be such; and yet alas! what a poor thing is it to be so advanced? Its own defects call for a pardon, and how should it justif••e or discharge us? May that, which wants a pardon it self, ju∣stifie; or may it first be pardoned it

self, and then justifie its Subject in which it is? Both are absurd: Before it is pardoned it self, it cannot justifie; and after it is pardoned, it is very odd, that it should give that which it self once wanted. Not to be tedious; I have endeavoured to return an Answer to Mr. Sherlock's Book, not out of Passi∣on or disrespect to his Person, who is my acquaintance, and for whom I have re∣spects; but meerly out of love to the Truth, which is dearer to me than all Relations. I have for the most part set forth his words at length; and where sometimes for brevities sake I have con∣tracted them, it hath been my care to be just to every thing of Emphasis or Argument. The Lapses in this my An∣swer beg the Readers pardon, and the Truths in it call for his consent: If any thing in it tend towards the clear∣ing or establishing of sacred Truth, it is enough for him, who is

A Well-wisher to the Truth, EDWARD POLHILL.