Vindication of the Faithful Rebuke to a False Report, Letter 7
LETTER VII. Of Christ's Suffering and Dying in the Person of Sinners.
SIR, That Correspondence which the Importunity of a Friend interrupted for a Return or two, I shall now gladly reassume, and let the Matter be about another Phrase. Since Theology is now adays turned into Phraseology; Christ's dying in the Person of Sinners, or sustaining the Person of Sinners in his Sufferings; for the Author's Phrase Book speaks with some variety: You may please to take the Matter thus.
The Rebuke had said, p. 11. We ought in the first place to Inquire what they mean by the Person of Sinners? And then to enquire about Christ's taking it up? Does it import that all Sinners are United, and are to be suppos'd, conceiv'd, consider'd as one Person? And so Christ died, suffered, satisfied for that one Person. Very good! Then I perceive we are tackt about to the Tents of the Arminians, and do suppose that Christ died for all equally: For if all Sinners be one, and are to be reputed as one Person, and Christ took on him that one Person, it will be difficult for all their dividing and prescinding skill, to make it out, how he died for one, and not for another; seeing all these Sinners, as in Christ's Eye, are but one single Person.
Now to this Reason assigned against the Phrase, our Author returns not one word; only tells us, That Christ and Sinners are here considered as one Moral Person. Very right! And so did the Rebuke consider them, and that Consideration gave the strength to the Objection against the Phrase; for if all Sinners be considered as one Moral Person, and Christ be considered as dying in that Moral Person; he must be considered as dying equally for the Moral Person; and then how one Limb of that Person should be an Elect Limb, another a Reprobate Limb; and how we shall avoid Universal Redemption, it is his Duty to take care: How odly will the Elect and Reprobate look, when he has thus kneaded 'em into one Lump? What a Monster will that Person seem, made up of such Integrals; and such a Person as Mr. Hobbs represents his Commonwealth to be, an Aggregate of Copper-Farthings, or Guinea's.
Of this Objection our Antagonist is so civil as to take no notice; the wisest way in the World, unless he could have given an Answer: What does he then? For a noise must be made! Why, he multiplies Quotation upon Quotation, Author upon Author, and such a Lumber of Modern Testimonies, as if the Cause were to be press'd to Death with number, not with weight; but this was the Logick of Iob's Friends, who proceeded eternally upon an Ignoratio Elenchi, Job 6. 25. what doth your Arguing Reprove? Thus all his Learned Divines are of this Faith, That Christ dyed in our stead: But that this Phrase, Christ dyed in the Person of Sinners, was necessary to the Explication or Confirmation of that Truth, they prove not: But let us hear him speak; Defence, p. 11. The Phrases of a change of Persons between Christ and us, and of Christs taking on him the Person of Sinners; and suffering in their Person, room and stead, are most apt to convey unto our Understanding the True, the Orthodox, the genuine Sense of those Texts: Christ dyed for our Sins, and for us: This he asserts with great Bravery and Confidence enough, I hope we may have leave to wedge in a few Words.
(1.) As for one of these Phrases, viz. That Christs suffering in the room and stead of Sinners, is apt to convey to our Understanding the true, and for ought I know, the genuine Sense too of Christ's dying for us, and for our Sins; I agree with him perfectly, because every Expression in the World, is apt to convey its own self to a humane Understanding.
(2.) And yet perhaps it had been more properly said, that Christs dying for us and for our Sins, is apt to convey to our Understanding this Truth, that Christ dyed in our room and stead: For when all is said that can be said; 'tis the Holy Scripture divinely inspired, that must convey to our Understanding whatsoever we are to believe and build our Faith upon; nor ought we from Terms of humane Contrivance to conceive of the Scriptures, but by, and from the Scriptures of Truth to judge of, and to Measure those Terms and Phrases; and from thence to form such other Terms as there is really need of, and occasion for, which must clearly and adequately express the Mind of God therein contained, and from hence they receive all their Value and Authority.
(3) I must nevertheless enter my peremptory Dissent to what he says; That those Phrases, A Commutation of Persons between Christ and Sinners, and Christ's suffering and dying in the Person of Sinners, are most apt to convey to our Understanding the sense of those Scriptures, Christ died for our Sins, and for us. And I advance these opposite Positions, That these Phrases are not apt, nor more apt, nor most apt to convey to our Understanding, the aforesaid Truths.
1. They are not apt in themselves, but inept and unproper to convey to our Understanding those Truths; for that Christ dyed for us, and for our sins, conveys to our Understanding, That there was a Change of Christ's Person for others; but the phrase, A Commutation of Persons between Christ and Sinners, conveys to my Understanding this Falshood, That there were two persons exchanged mutually each for the other; They are inept and improper to convey to my Understanding the import of those Scripture Expressions, because they are less known, less understood than those Scriptures which they pretend to illustrate.
2. Nor are they more, but less apt to convey to our Understanding the sense of those Scripture Expressions, Christ suffered for us, for our Sins, than the other Phrase so well known and approved, Christ suff…red, dyed in our room, place and stead, [loco nostro, vice nostra.]
3. Nor can they be most apt, to do this Service, because Scripture Expressions and Phrases are more apt, much more apt for that end than they, unless we should be so vain as to fancy that the Spirit of God was not able to chuse the most apt and proper Phrases, to convey to our Understandings, whatever it was his Will we should believe with our Hearts to Salvation: At this rate the Apostle spoke, and taught, and argued, 1 Cor. 2. 13. Which things we speak, not in the Words which Man's Wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing things Spiritual with Spiritual: Nor did St. Paul fear he should vent Pestilent Heresies so long as he kept close to the Words of the Canon dictated by the Holy Ghost.
But it seems these Persons, whom our Author has Dubb'd to be the Godly Learned, have a priviledge to render their Terms of Art more expressive, more signisicant than the Canoniz'd Expressions of the Holy Ghost. I must beg their pardon! Men may deceive, and be deceived: What the Psalmist spoke in his haste, the Apostle spoke in cool Blood, that all Men are Lyars; that is, we can have no infallible certain…y, no good security to rest our Faith upon them, further than as they propose to our Belief, what is conformable to the Word of God
Sir, I need not give my self or you any further trouble in this matter. 'Tis a Phrase, and but a Phrase that all this pother is about, and a Phrase none of the best that ever was invented, and a Phrase that has been, and may easily be interpreted to an evil sense; and the World has been troubled about some fruitless, barren Controversies about it; and if any has occasion for it, let 'em use it, and for my self, I will use my own liberty.
But yet, Sir, because I am no Hider, but open-hearted, I will therefore deal frankly with you, and give you what satisfaction I am able in this phrase.
1. I firmly believe that Christ took on him our Nature, the Nature of Sinners, but not their sinful Natures: He was made like unto us in all things, yet without sin, Heb. 4. 15. I believe the Word was made Flesh, and dwelt among us, John. 1. 14. foreign. The Eternal foreign condescended to dwell in the Humane Nature as in his Tabernacle: That this Assumption of the Humane Nature into personal Union with himself, was a Foundation laid in the Counsel between the Father and the Son for his suffering in his Holy and Sinless person, for and in the stead of Man.
2. I believe also, that according to the Compact and Counsel that was between them both, the Father and the Son, Jesus Christ did take on him our sins; that is, he bore the punishment due to them, and therefore in some sense bore the Guilt too, as the R. R. B. B. of Norwich and Worcester have explained the Term, from Isa. 53. 5. He bore our Sins, and carried our Sorrows.
3. I have read, and probable 'twas true; There was once a Crew of lewd Hereticks, who affirmed, That Christ took on him the person of sinners; and these from the first Author and Founder of their Sect, were call'd Nestorians; who maintain'd that Christ was constituted of two persons; the one the Eternal foreign, who did assume, the other a Humane Person, who was assumed▪ And I confess my self prejudiced against the phrase of Christ's taking on him our Person, because it carries an odd sound that syncretizeth with the Nestorian Gibberish.
4. Let any Man use the phrase that is fond of it, he shall not offend me, but none shall assume to himself the power to impose upon my Faith or Conscience those Arbitrary Terms; for with the same ease that they propose or impose them, I can reject them, and stand fast in the Liberty wherewith Christ has made me free, nor will I be intangled in, and with that Yoak of Bondage; for since there are choice of phrases, whose signisication is clear, and not so obnoxious to Misinterpretation, which convey to my Mind the Import of the fundamental Truth: I will chuse, while I am at my own liberty to chuse, some other, and will never gratisie, never humour these Tyrants over, and Usurpers on Consciences.
5. And because the Publick Confessions of all the Reformed Churches, have not thought fit to use this Phrase of Christ's dying in the Person of Sinners: Its a strong Argument to me, that they neither judg'd it necessary to the Explication or Confirmation of that Doctrine of Christs dying in our stead; and that either they were Strangers to it, and it to them, or at least had more Discretion, than to vex and torment the Faith of Believers, with a Term borrow'd from the Civillians, or the Stage-Players.
6. And its safe to govern our selves in all such Matters, by the Rule and Reason of the Apostle, 1 Cor. 10. where he assigns one and the same Reason, for his Advice to a clear contrary Practice; ver. 25, 26. Eat (says he) making no question for Conscience-sake: For the Earth is the Lords, and the fullness thereof: And yet ver. 28. Eat not for Conscience sake; for the Earth is the Lords and the fulness th…reof: This has been, and shall be the Rubrick of my Behaviour, where 'tis reasonably applicable: If any Phrase be dubious, i'le take the safer side and forbear it, and leave it to them who have greater clearness: It may possibly be Innocent, therefore i'le not Iudge another: But it may be dangerous, therefore I will judge for my Self; there are other Phrases of better Credit: The Earth is the Lords, and the fulness thereof.
I have heard of a plain honest Man that Address'd himself to a Learned Casuist: With this Question, Pray good Sir! Is it lawful for me to Marry my Cousin Germain? Ay, said the Dr. I would have you Marry her, if there was never another Woman in the World: Implying that Necessity may justifie some Actions, which yet a wise Man would not venture upon where there's variety of Choice; if there were never another Phrase in the World to express that Truth: I would, I must use it; but seeing we have good store, I will chuse elsewhere, till I be satisfied that a competent Power has determined me, and my indifferency about it.
7. Though I am not averse to the Phrase, yet I am really afraid of it; ever since I observed Dr. Crisp, and his Disciples are so enamour'd of it, we must reckon our selves, if we will reckon Right, to be in Christs Person and Christ in our Person: Now, what can he mean less, than that Christ dying in our Person, had all our Personal filth upon him; and that we suffering in Christs Person, must needs be pardoned, acquitted, justisied from the Moment of his Death without more ado? But he that reckons without God, and the Scripture, makes a very unconscionable reckoning.
8. And I will add this further, which is common to all the suspected Phrases, that as they have been made subservient to Antinomianism, an Engine of Division, so have they been introduced into the first Paper to persecute, and run down Mr. D. W's. and I am abundantly confirmed in my former Suspicions from Defence, p. 42. If Mr. Williams had taken this Phrase [in our place and stead] in the ancient and genuine Sense it would have argued that he was sound in the Faith: Would it so? Why then (say I) prove it, and prove it like a Schollar, as you would be thought to be; without Tricks, Quibbles and bare Suspicions that he has taken it in any other Sense than the ancient and genuine, and for my Part I will throw up Mr. W's and your Self, and all the World besides, that shall be found equally guilty.
When some Years ago I heard a general Clamour from one sort of People, against Mr. Ws his Book of Gospel Truth; I was tempted to think, there could not be such a loud out-cry, but there must be some Wooll; nor such a Smoak and Smoother, but there must be some Fire, and therefore I confess I came with no small prejudice to the Reading it, and upon my Impartial Perusal I found this Noise, was only the shearing of Hoggs.
But they have found an Art to render Mr. W. or any Man alive, guilty of whatsoever Heresies they shall please to clap upon them in spight of their Teeths: He was charged once by the six Brethren, to deny the Imputation of Christs Righteousness, otherwise than in the Effects: To this he answered, that besides the Effects of Christ's Righteousness made ours, he had expresly affirmed, that the very Righteousness of Christ it self is imputed to True Believers. Shall he be sound in the Faith …? No! never while he Lives and Breaths! for they can draw and wire-draw some Consequences from some of his Words, in some place or other, that shall evince that he believes otherwise than he intends; and this Art is the Sheet … that never yet fail'd the Defender at a dead lift: I could wish it might be seriously considered, 1. Whether these Men may not possibly be mistaken in the Inferences they draw from other Mens Words? Especially when they are not direct and immediate; and more especially when the Eye that pretends to discover them has the Glaucoma, and is all over tinctured with the Jaundice, which makes all the World of the same Complection. 2. Whether any Man as well as He, may not be mistaken in the Consequences of his own Words? Which may perhaps be such as the Author could not foresee, and which if he could have foreseen, would have abhorred and retracted, what he had before asserted? 3. Whether there is not a great Allowance to be made to humane Frailty, whose acutest Eye cannot always see to the end of a long Train of Words, and Thoughts?
The first Paper expresses a good Temper (if the Authors had seen it meet to govern themselves by their own Canon.) Not thinking it reasonable or Iust, to charge upon any Brother such Consequences of any Expression or Opinion of his, which he shall disown. O Sincerity! Whether art thou fled! Mr W. owns Christs Righteousness it self imputed to us: He disowns the contrary, and yet contrary to Reason and Iustice, they charge him with, persecute him for some imaginary Consequences: But of this I suppose the intelligent Reader has by this Time received Satisfaction from Mr. W's himself.
I have sometimes wondered with my Self, what should inflame all this Indignation against Mr. Williams? I know its easie to assign justifying Reasons for Malice, when yet there are Motives that lie deeper and feed the Flames: After all the Observations I can make, I am forced to resolve all into Envy, Prov. 27. 4. Wrath is cruel, and anger is outragious; but who is able to stand before Eavy? If God has given him, an useful, prefitable way of I reaching the Gospel: He may be maligned on that account: If Providence has indulg'd him a plentiful Estate; some may look upon him with an Envious Eye on that Account: If he has made too great a Figure, and born too great a Port; that might easily draw upon him the evil Eye: Against all which, I know no other Remedy under the Sun, but to intreat him that he would Preach indifferently like his Neighbours, and that they would endeavour to Preach better, that so both may stand upon the same Level: And then, that he would make over one half of his Estate to the Defender; and lastly, that he would be Content to Draw in the Thillers Place, in the Team; and let another walk gravely before him, with the high Foretop, and the melodious Collar of Bells, and all the gawdy Trappings; and this may probably asswage the high Ferment of Passion, and suffer him to live in a more temperate Climate.
Sir! I must now strip and prepare for the fiery Furnace: Which he has heated for me seven times hotter than ever in Smithfield; and you see how I am encompassed with Multitudes of Faggots: Thus he [The Phrase of Christs sustaining the Person of Sinners Rejected]
But, 1. The Phrase was not Rejected: Only suspended, not excommunicated; and that only till they who have invented it, shall Interpret it: First, Then he produces Du Moulin; Christ sustained the Person of the Elect upon the Cross: Tis well! and thus I had rather have it worded, than that he sustained the Person of Sinners: Because I know not how to make the Elect and Reprobate unite and coalesce into one Person: Dr. B. next, The Surety and the Person for whom he is Surety are in the estimate of the Law but one Person: So then they are both but one Person: And if so, to what purpose do they talk of the Person of Christ suffering in the Person of others, when indeed they are but one Person? And again if this be so, That they are both but one Person; and it was but one Person that suffered; these Sinners may as well be said to dye and suffer for Christ, as he for them.
We have next Rutherford, Noells Catechism, Grotius, Hoornbeck, and a whole Regiment poured in upon us, and yet when they are all put together. 1. They are but Private Persons, all of 'em cannot make a single Church. 2. 'Tis in their Polemicks they talk thus, not in Articles of Faith. 3. They talk at this rate, when they are fighting, not uniting; 4. They none of 'em give any Reason for their using of the Phrase, but run away with it, as a word of Course: To all of them, and as many more I return.
1. That as the Ancient Fathers, ante mota certamina Pelagiana minus cautè locuti sunt: Spoke less warily about Original Sin, and Effectual Grace, before the Pelagian Heresies were started: So might some of our Protestant Divines overlash a little in some Phrases, before the Antinomian Heresies were Broached amongst us: Alas! these good Men never Dreamed of Saltmarsh, Crisp, or our Reporters Substance of the Gospel, where Faith is left out from any concern in Justification; they never read Mr. C's Coalescing into one Person with Christ upon believing: Nor of the Eternal Life of God communicated to Believers in Time, which contains all the Fopperies of Familistical Fancies. So true is the Observation, that the Atheists Heaven has no God in it; the Socinians Hell has no Devil in't; and the Antinomians Gospel no justifying Faith in't.
2. I must repeat it, and will abide by it; that this Phrase its not being found in the Confessions of Faith of any of the Reformed Churches, is a greater Prejudice to its Currency; than its being used, if it had been used, by ten Thousand single Persons: We have carefully inspected all the Creeds, Confessions, Articles of England, France, those at Westminster and the Savoy, to which as we can cordially subscribe, so in none of them, or any other can we meet with those Idoliz'd Expressions: Nor are they adapted either to the Explication or Confirmation of the great Doctrines of Satisfaction or Iustification; which thing was nevertheless pretended to in the first Paper, but I suppose I have sufficiently dismounted that Presumption.
3. This Gentleman, when he has run through his endless Tautologies, and lost himself (and as he hopes his Reader too) in a thousand Mazes, and intricate Labyrinths, comes at last, as I have shewed, to this, that all his Phrases are virtually included, in that one Phrase of Christ's suffering… and satisfying in our stead; and as there he is forced to rest at last, he might as well have suffered us, without disturbance, to have rested at first.
4. We dare own no Writings absolutely for the Reason and Rule of our Faith, besides the Holy Scriptures, where his Phrases never yet shewed their Faces. And for the Antinomian Sense we cannot meet with that either in the Old or New Testament: We have learnt to be wise unto Sobriety, not above what is written, lest we become Learned Fools: And shall rather chuse with the Poor to receive the Gospel with meekness, than to descend Learnedly to Hell.
Sir, I will give you a welcome Intermission from this tedious Scribble, what remains, if any thing remains worthy your Notice, you may expect by the next, from Sir,
Your Faithful Servant, &c.