Opposition to Errors of William Sherlock, Title page – Preface
ANTI-SOZZO, SIVE Sherlocismus Eneyvatus: IN VINDICATION OF SOME Great TRUTHS Opposed, AND OPPOSITION TO SOME Great ERRORS Maintained BY Mr. WILLIAM SHERLOCK.
1 Cor. 16. 22.
If any Man love not the Lord Iesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha.
LONDON, Printed for Nathaniel Ponder at the Sign of the Peacock in the Poultry near Corn-Hill, and in Chancery Lane near Fleetstreet, 1676.
The PREFACE.
Christian Reader,
SInce the Great Tyrant Custom, has made every one that shall dare to Write, a Debtor to every one that shall please to Read, and obliged him under no less penalty than the forfeiture of his Readers Candour, and falling foul upon his severe displeasure, … render a Reason of his Scripturiency; that I may not seem to stem the violent Current of this inveterate and prevailing Humour, by a sullen moroseness, I shall suffer my self silently to be carryed down with the stream, so far as to give thee this short Account of those Motives which won me over to this Undertaking.
In the Printed Catalogue of Books, 1674. I met with One, wearing the glorious Superscription of A Discourse concerning the Knowledge of Iesus Christ, and our Union and Communion with him: By W. S. And I did seriously rejoyce, to see those who are Adorned with the Honourable Name of Ministers of the Gospel, so profitably employ those Hours which they borrow from Publick Service, as to travel in so necessary a Subject. Now as this was the onelyonly Reason of my first Ambition to be found amongst his Readers; so perhaps I am not the first that has been decoyed by a specious glittering Title, to place out precious Time upon Disappointments; for I must freely confess, how ashamed I was of my ill-spent pains, when I found pro Thesauro, Carbones; not many Barley-Corns, but not one Iewel in all that Dunghill.
I was willing at first to suspect, that happily through some Oversight, either in the Collator, or Binder, a wrong Title-page had been praefixt to the Book; so irreconcileable did the Enmity seem between them; but second thoughts informed me, that the Title did not oblige the Book to Treat of the True Knowledge of Christ, nor to acquaint us wherein our Union to, and Communion with him, did really consist; for, provided, The Discourse was managed concerning these things, though in Reproach of them, or in Opposition to them, yet it was enough to justifie its Harmony with, and make good whatever was explicitly promised in The Bill of Fare.
But whatever my Apprehensions were about that, I found many difficulties to remove, and great discouragements to get over, before I could perswade my self, to give the Author the Contentment, or the World the Trouble, of this Answer.
The first and greatest that presented it self, was, from my own Inexperience and want of skill, dexterously to handle the Polemical Saw: But yet I was help'd over that Block by a temptation, that softly whisper'd, I must never hope for a more encouraging Piece to enter a Novice, or flesh a junior Disputant. For though it be not the Priviledge of every one, with the great Hercules, to strangle Serpents in his Cradle, yet a Child may serve to kill Flies, as well as the Mighty Domitian. But I was more daunted at that Huffing Confidence, wherewith he Hectors his low-spirited Readers into Obsequiousness, challenging the whole World, at all Weapons, from the Spanish Needle to the long Pike and upwards; and yet amongst them all, I felt not the weight of Goliah's Weavers Beam. His discourse indeed proceeds in Cavalcade, like the Ceremonious Train of Bernice, foreign, with glorious Pomp and Gallantry, but when I had rallyed up so much Courage, as might make me once dare to look his Arguments in the Face, truly I found nothing but a Gyants skin stuft with straw, or the Guts of an old Warr-Saddle; such as might well affright any, but would kill no living thing: Methought I saw how the poor terrified Frogs trembled at the first Appearance of Iupiters Viceroy Log, but when they had retrieved their scattered spirits, and came to examine the Reasons of their Consternation, they soon made that the Object of their Scorn, which had been so lately the Cause of their Terrour. It minded me too of that little Policy of the great Alexander, who, to impress the Dread of his Name and Arms upon the Indians, formed such a Camp, that none but the widestradling Rhodian Colossus could look over the Breast-works; and left such exalted Mangers behind him, as would have sterved his own Bucephalus, such as must presume every Horse in the Army to have been a Pegasus. But yet my poor Labours might well plead a Writ of Ease, from the weakness of his Reasonings, which would hardly proselyte any, but those who were half-curdled; nor infect any with that foreign, but such who were already in Latitudine Morbi: But I consider'd withall, that weak persons are mortally strong when they encounter weaker constitutions, and there are not many who (with Mithridates) carry Antidotes in their Complexion. This last Age has given us plain demonstration, that Noyse, Clamour and Confidence, with a small sprinckling of Rhetorick, are Charms able to over-sett ductile and sequacious Natures; and the Eagles complaint has taught us, that the Beetles enmity ought not to be despised. But I was superseded a while by a more weighty Consideration; That they who superintend Ecclesiastical Affairs, would doubtless interpose, and bestow a deserved Trimming upon the Book, and make it doe Penance in its own sheets, which had so openly defiled its own Mother, exposed her avowed Principles; but withall it was my Duty to consider, that Non vacat exiguis rebus adesse—Greatness and Smallness, are two Circumstances of Beings, which render them less Visible: Thus we cannot take a view of the World, because it's too Bulky; nor of an Atome, because it's too Minute an Object for the sight: And possibly from one of these Accidents it was, that his Book walks invisible, and (as under the Protection of Gyges his Ring) has hitherto escaped the Cognizance of Authority.
Such were my Remora's; but now whether those Inducements which lay before me, might out-weigh these Discouragements, and be sufficient to turn the scale of an aequipoiz'd Iudgement; I must leave to the better judgement of the impartial Reader.
And, (1) The Comprehensiveness of many of his Errours, called aloud for Preservatives: I saw the Offices of Christ, so confounded, ravelled, and mangled, that it was impossible to discern the Acts of the Prophetical, from those of the Regal; and the proper Employment of either of them, from that of the Sacerdotal; I saw the great and glorious Ends of the Death of Christ, vacated and cashiered; I saw the Work of the Holy Spirit in Regeneration scorned and denyed: Now the Historian tells us, There were in uno Caesare decem Marii; the Ambition of ten such as Marius in One Caesar: And others tell us, that Serpens cùm Serpentem devorat, sit Draco; when a Serpent swallows a Serpent, he becomes a Dragon: What then could we expect less than Legion from the Teeming Womb of such Big-bellied Monsters? For though in point of Argument, his Mountain is often delivered of a Mouse; yet in point of Errour, his Mouse alwayes brings forth a Mountain.
(2) It was a Spur to my duller Temper, to Observe how he had raked all the Kennels and common Sewers of Friendly Debates, Ecclesiastical Polities, (which, with Martial Law, and Civil War, make up the Four great Soloecismes of this last Age) and borrowed Auxiliaries from the Scavinger, to compose an Oleo, to throw in the Faces of the Innocent; some of the particulars the Reader will find wiped off by these Papers, and returned with that Correction and Chastisement, which it became me to give them, though not with what they deserved to Receive: but for fouling my fingers with them all, I must beg Excuse; it had been a work no less irksome and tedious, than the cleansing of Augaea's Stable, and no otherwise to be effected, than by Letting in the Thames from Billings-gate through Buttolph-lane. Yet one Instance of the Many omitted (and one is too much for a Taste) I shall here give the Reader, hoping it may not turn his stomach against the Rest: Dr. Owen, Com. p. 177. has said: By the Obedience of Christ, I intend the universal Conformity of the Lord Iesus Christ (as he was or is in his being Mediator) to the whole Will of God, &c. Now this Obedience of Christ, (N. B. as Mediator) may be considered two ways. 1. As to the habitual Root and Fountain of it. 2. As to the Actual parts and Duties of it. 1. The habitual Righteousness of Christ as Mediator, (N. B. p. 178.) in his Humane Nature, was the absolute, complete, exact Conformity of the Soul of Christ to the Will, Mind, or Law of God. 2. The Actual Obedience of Christ, was his willing, chearful, obediential Performance of every Thing, Duty or Command, that God by vertue of any Law whereto we were subject, did require; and, Moreover, to the Peculiar Law of the Mediator: Hereof there are two parts: 1. That whatever was required of us, by the Law of Nature, &c. He did it all. 2. There was the Peculiar Law of the Mediator, which respected himself Merely, and contained all those Acts and Duties which are not for our Imitation: Thus far the Doctor. But now what a world of wit has our Author shewn upon this Occasion, or rather no Occasion? Declaiming for four, five, or six pages together, upon the Trite and Common Theme of his own Ignorance; pag. 298, 299, 300, 301, 302, 303. So that by the Law of Mediation (sayes he) He understands whatever Christ was bound to doe as our Mediator, whatever was proper to his Mediatory Office; All this is not imputed to us, as though we had done it; I hope we shall find something at last to be imputed to us; but there's nothing left now, but (thirdly) that which concerns him in a Private Capacity, as a Man, subject to the Law. Now had this Gentleman been pleased to have understood the Doctor a little before he had pretended to Confute him, he might have seen, that He supposes, 1. A general Law of the Mediator, whereby he gave Obedience to the Law of Nature, &c. in our stead: 2. The peculiar Law of the Mediator, which respected himself merely; to this he gave not Obedience in our stead: But still, whatever Obedience he performed, 'twas as Mediator, though not according to the peculiar Law of the Mediator: But alas, this would have spoyled a great deal of excellent Wit, and dear Drollery, which no man, engaged in a Design of Raillery and Scolding, would willingly lose for a World; especially when he was practising (like the great Balsac, in some of his Letters,) to make an Experiment, what The Height of forced Fancy can produce out of a barren and dry Subject, or placing his Draining Engines to Recover the Boggs and Fenns upon New-Market Heath.
(3) His Subtle and Politick Method of venting Blasphemies, was that which mainly pressed me to this Service: For it's now grown the solemn Mode of this Tribe of Men, to vomit out the most opprobrious Language against the Lord and his Christ, and then to wash their hands in Pilate's Innocency, by saying, These are the Consequences of other Mens Opinions: And herein lies this Authors singular Excellency, and proper Talent. Thus when some affirm, That God is a Holy God, a Righteous Governour, a Iust Iudge, who will by no means clear the Guilty, one that will not fail to recompense to every man according to his Works; and yet in infinite Wisdom and Mercy has made Provision in the Death of his Son, for securing the Glory, both of his Essential and Rectoral Righteousness; that he may be (and appear to be) just, and the Iustifier of him that Believes in Iesus. You shall now guess at the Lyon by his Claw, and see what nasty, dirty, filthy stuffe, he can extract out of this Doctrine. Pag. 46. The Iustice of God hath glutted it self with Revenge in the Death of Christ, and so henceforward we may be sure he will be very kind, as a Revengefull man is, when his Passion is over. And pag. 47. The summe of which is this; That God is all Love and Patience, when he has taken his fill of Revenge, as others use to say, the Devil is very good when he is pleased. Again, whereas the Church of England, Art. 17. has express'd her Conceptions about Predestination, in these words: Predestination to life is the everlasting Purpose of God, whereby, before the Foundation of the World was laid, he hath constantly decreed by his Councel, secret to us, to deliver from Curse and Damnation, those whom he hath chosen in Christ out of Mankind, and to bring them by Christ to Everlasting Salvation: Our Author is pleased to droll upon this Tremendous Mystery at this pleasant Rate. Pag. 57. This falls hard upon those miserable Wretches, whose ill Fortune it was, without any fault of theirs, to be left out of the Roll of Election. Thus when one had ventured to say, by Warrant from Christs own Mouth, John 3. 14. That Christ was compared to the Brazen Serpent, &c. he comes in with this snearing Droll, p. 115. Who can forbear being smitten with so lovely a Person? In all which, and a hundred times more, we are bound to suppose, That there is, Nihil bonis moribus contrarium quò minùs cum publicâ. Utilitate Imprimatur. Now if no Reverence of the Majesty of God, no Regard to the Authority of the Holy Scriptures, no Respect to the Harmonious Confessions of Faith of All Protestant Churches, could oblige his Pen to observe a due Temperament, yet methinks, Civility to that Church whereof He is a Member, which has not been Uncivil to him, and may exercise more kindness to to him, might have commanded more becoming Language, about those things wherein she has declared her Judgement: And I will not conceal it, This was one thing that quickned me to undertake this Province; when I saw how readily some men could snatch the Pen to under-write, what with the same Hand, and Pen, and Breath, they intended to Confute; or if not to Confute, yet however to Deride. Upon a serious Reflection on these things, Remembring (somewhere) a Passage of Austin, That he would have every man that can hold a Pen, write against Pelagius, that sworn Enemy to the Free, Discriminating and Effectual Grace of God; and Remembring also the Command of the Apostle Iude, v. 3. To contend earnestly for the Faith once delivered to the Saints; I thought we had as good a License to plead for Christ, and his Truth, here at the Footstool, who pleads for us, according to his Truth, upon the Throne; as any man can pretend to plead against them. And therefore to deal Freely with my Reader, I judg'd it my Duty, rather to lament than imitate that Deep and Dead Silence of those who are equally concern'd with, and better qualified for the Work, than my self; to give some Check to this growing Petulancy, and sawcy Humour, of daily encroaching Prophaneness: A poor Man came once to a Learned Physician for Advice; but first he would know, Whether it was safe to take Physick in Dogdayes? His Physician replyed no more but this: If it be lawfull to be sick, it's lawfull to be well at any time of the Year. I shall apply it no further than this: If this Author be qualified to Oppose, every true Christian is qualified to Defend the Gospel of Jesus Christ: For the Dispute is not now about Decency and Order, about Fringes and Philacteries, about the tything of Mint, Anise, or Cummine; nor about a Pin or Peg in the Superstructure of the Churches Polity; nor about the three Innocent Ceremonies; but about The Influence of the Righteousness of Christs Life, and the Sacrifice of his Death upon our Acceptance with God; about the Interest of the Blessed Spirit in the glorious Work of the New Creation; Whether Christ be a proper Priest or no? Whether as a Priest he Offer'd himself as a proper Sacrifice to God or no? Whether God and Man are Reconciled, and we Redeemed from the Curse of the Law by the Blood of Iesus or no? Whether we are Iustified, before the Just and Holy God, by our own Righteousness, or by the Righteousness of a Mediator? And in a word, Whether the Death of Christ be the proper and immediate Cause of any one single Blessing, great or small, of the Covenant of Grace? In which, the Concerns, all the Eternal Hopes of every Christian, are wrapt up; and wherein that he may not mistake, and so Finally miscarry, as 'tis the unseigned Design of these Papers, so 'tis the Earnest Prayer of
READER, Thy Servant in the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour IESUS CHRIST, N. N.