Survey of the Spiritual Antichrist, Part 1 · Chapter 11 · Conclusion 5
5. Conclusion.Of the union between Christ and a beleever, holden by Luther, opposite to that fancied union of Familists and Antinomians.
In regard of the strict union between Christ and a beleever, Luther hath many pithy and hyperbolick expressions, that made Antinomians, as they pervert Scripture to their own distruction, to perverr Luthers doctrine, to say a beleever is Godded with God, and Christed with Christ, and that God is manned, and huma…ized by a beleever. Its necessary to set downe some of Luthers expressions and the reasons, why he speaketh so, and both out of his own writings.
aLuther tom 1 f 232.Luth. Re vera quicquid de Christo ipso dicitur, mox de quolibet ejus membro vivo & proprio dicitur.
bLuther tom. 1 f. 432.Luth. Vita Christiani non est ipsius, sed Christi in eo viventis.
cLuther tom. 1. fo. 106. some say tom 4.Christianus est filius Dei, heres regni, frater Christi, socius Angelo rum, dominus mundi, particeps divinae natura.
dLuther to. 4. 438.Luth. Christianus non vivit, non loquitur, non operatur, non patitur, sed Christus in eo, omnia opera ejus sunt opera Christi, tam inestimabilis est gratia fidei.
eLuther tom. 4 f 59.Luther. Tunc fiunt bona opera quando Deus ipse solus ac totaliter ea facit in nobis, ut operis nulla pars ad nos pertineat.
fLuther to. 4. f. 65.Christus ergo (inquit Paulus) sic inhaerens & conglutinatus mihi, hanc vitam, quam ego, vivit in m…; imo vita qua sic vivo, est Christus ipse: itaque Christus & ego jam unum in hac parte sumus.
gLuth. tom. 4. f. 35.Luther. Fide homo fit Deus. 2. Pet. 1.
hLuther tom. 1 f. 353.Verum est hominem Dei gratia adiutum plus quiddam & Augustiorem esse, quam hominem, atque adeo gratia Dei ipsum deiformem reddit, & quasi deificat, ut Scriptura ipsum dominum & Dei filium vocet.
aLuther tom 1 f 232.Luther. What ever is said of Christ, may be said of every living and true member of his; so every Christian is a Lambe, just, holy, a rocke, a foundation.
bLuther tom. 1 f. 432.The life of a Christian or a beleever, is not his owne, but the life of Christ living in him.
cLuther tom. 1. fo. 106. some say tom 4.A Christian is the Sonne of God, heire of the Kingdome, brother of Christ, a fellow of Angels, Lord of the world, pertaker of the divine nature.
dLuther to. 4. 438.Luth. The Christian man liveth not, speaketh not, acteth nothing, suffereth nothing, but Christ in him, all his workes are the works of Christ, so invaluable and incomparable is the grace of faith.
eLuther tom. 4 f 59.Then are good works done when God himselfe only, and wholly doth them in us, so that no part of them belongeth to us.
fLuther to. 4. f. 65.Christ therefore (saith paul) so remaining in, and glewed to me, liveth in me, the life that I live, yea the life by which I live, is Christ himselfe, therefore Christ and I am one in this part, or respect; then we are not one simply.
gLuth. tom. 4. f. 35.A man by beleeving becommeth God. 2 Pet 1.
hLuther tom. 1 … ▪ 353.It is true a man helped by the grace of God, is more, yea and more excellent then a man, and therefore the grace of God maketh him of the forme of God, and as it were Goddeth him, so as the Scripture calleth him, the Lord, and Sonne of God.
Such hyperbolick and Rhetoricall passages in Luther, Luthers expressions mistaken drew Antinomians into their heresie.which he softned with a (quasi) and a (ut ita loquar) that I may so speak, as Catachresticall and hard sounding speeches, have driven blasphemous Familists to think and say, as the Bright Starre, Theologia Germanica, Hen. Nicholas, Dav. Georgius say, Christ incarnate, or God manifested in the flesh, is nothing but a beleever doing by grace greater workes then Christ, and that the Saints have by love and faith communicated to them the being, essence, and nature of God, that H. Nicholas that so was Godded with the being of God. That every Saint hath a more excellent Spirit of grace then Christ, as is maintained of late in Oxford, by a Socinian Sectary, so the Familists of new England iRise reign, er. … er. 2.say the holy Ghost is turned in the place and stead of the naturall faculties of the soule, of understanding, conscience, will, memory. 2. That love ker, 3.is the Holy Ghost himself. 3. That ler. 7.the new creature, or new man, is Christ himself. That mer. 8.by love and the Armour of God is meant Christ. That ner. 11.Christ is made flesh in the Saints. That oer. 14. The light and life of a man in Christ.the living Christ worketh in a man in Christ, as in a dead passive creature, so speaketh a Familist, in a blasphemous pamphlet. That pRise er. 15. Town asser gr. 11.12.there is no inherent grace in the Saints, but Christ immediately worketh all in them, and grace is onelyonly in Christ, and therefore wee qRise reig er. 49are not to pray, but when the Spirit acteth in us. That r49.50, 51.we are meere patients in all wee doe, and God the immediate agent, and sCalv. adv. lib. c. 14, 15.that God (as say the Libertines) w is the author of sin and righteousnesse, no man is to be rebuked for sin, nor to bee touched in conscience for sin, x448, 449, 450. Archer ser. on Joh. 14.….because God is the Authour and worker thereof, and there is no letter of a command ySaltmarsh free gr. 146.of either Old or New Testament, that doth obleige a beleever, The Law is now (saith Saltmarsh) in the Spirit. There bee no Laws z…el serm. before the Commons, p. 26, 2….(saith Del) now in Gods Kingdome, but Gods Laws, and they are these three.
1. The Law of a new creature.
2. The Law of the Spirit of life, that is in Christ.
3. The Law of Love.
Farewell Scripture then. But Luther exponeth himself, in what sense he meaneth Christ and a beleever is one, and a beleever is God, and as it were Christed, to wit▪ in regard of the union of the grace of Faith, and the marriage between a beleever and Christ. and the legall interest that the broken man hath in Christ his surety. and of the new birth, so saith Luther, aLuther to. 4. f. 74.Fides est res omnipotens & virtus ejus inestimabilis, & infinita, Faith is an omnipotent thing, and the power thereof unvaluable and infinite. Now faith is not Christed, nor Godded with the infinite essence of God or Christ, no more is a beleever.
bLuth. tom 4.57.Luther, fides pure docenda est, quod scilicet per …am sic conglutineris, ut ex te & Christo quasi fiat una persona, quae non possit segregari, ut cum fiducia dicere possis: Ego sum Christus, hoc est, Christi justitia, victoria, vita est mea, & vicissim Christus dicat: Ego sum ille peccator, hoc est, ejus peccata et mors mea sunt: Quia adhaeret mihi, & ego illi. Conjuncti enim sumus per fidem in unam carnem & os. Ephe. 5. Ita ut haec fides Christum & me arctius copulet quam maritus uxori copulatus est.
cLuth. tom. 4. f. 91.Christus quod ad suam personam attinet, est innocens, ergo non debet suspendi in liguo. Quia vero omnis latro secundum legem suspendi debuit, debuit & Christus secundum legem Mosis suspendi, quia gessit personā peccatoris & latronis, non unius sed omnium peccata portat — non quod ipse commiserit ea.
Quaecunque peccata ego & tu, & nos omnes (clecti) fecimus & in futurum faciemus, tam propria sunt Christi, quam si ea ipse fecisset.
bLuth. tom 4.57.Luther, Faith is purely to bee taught, because by it thou art so glewed to Christ, that of thee and Christ, there is as it were quasi, made one person, which cannot be segregated, so that with confidence thou may say, I am Christ, that is, Christs righteousnesse, victory, and life is mine, and againe, Christ may say: I am that sinner, that is, his sin and death are mine, because he adhereth to me, and I to him. We are conjoyned by faith, in one flesh and bone, Ephes. 5. so that this faith does more neerly couple Christ and mee, then the husband to the wife.
cLuth. tom. 4. f. 91.Christ in his own person is innocent, then hee ought not to bee hanged on a tree, but because every robber ought to be hanged, Christ according to Moses Law, ought to be hanged, because he did beare the person, not of one sinner and robber, but of all sinners and robbers, — He behoved to be the robber— He beareth the sins of all, in his body, — not that he committed them.
What ever sins, I, or thou, or we all have done, or shall hereafter doe, are as proper Christs sinnes, as if he himselfe had done them.
Not that they were Christs intrinsecally, How our sins were Christs, not intrinsecally fundamentally, or personally, but legally.in the fundamentall guilt, and law-obligation to suffer for them, as Crisp saith, but legally the beleevers sins are Christs, the client and the advocate are in Law one law-person, they have but one cause, the surety and the broken man are one, the debt owed by both is one, therefore Christ is the sinner legally.
hLuth. tom. 4. f. 471. in ps. 117.Luther, The beleever in doing nothing, (but beleeving in his surety) doth all things. and in doing all things (in Christ) doth nothing.
iLuther to. 3. in Gen. in c. 12. f. 64.One Christian tempted, can doe more (by faith in him who doth all things for him) quam centum non tentati, than a hundred not tempted can doe.
kLuth. tom. 1. in Gen. 3▪ f. 55.A Christian by faith becommeth a conquerour of sin, Law, and death, so as the Ports of hell cannot prevaile against him.
lLuth. tom. 3▪ in Gen. 60. …. 27.Luther, Omnipotency is conjoyned with nothingnes and weaknesse, and causeth the weak to doe things unpossible and incredible.
mLuth. to. 1▪ f. 466.So incomparable is the grace of faith, that it conjoyneth the soule with Christ, as the Bride with the Bridegroome, by which mystery Christ and the Soule are made one flesh, and if they be one flesh, then are all things common, whether good or evill things, and what ever Christ hath, the beleeving soule may presume and glory in them, as its own, and what-ever things are the soules own, Christ may ascribe these to himself.
mLuther to. 2. f. 1…8.Luther, Faith in Christ causeth him live in me, and move, and work as a saving oyntment worketh on a diseased body, and is made with Christ one flesh, one body, by an intimate and unspeakable transmutation of our sin into his righteousnesse.
nLuther to. 2. … 15.Faith bringeth to us Christ, that is, makes us one flesh with him, bone of our bone, and makes all things common with him.
oLuther tom. 1. f. 178.A man in faith may glory in Christ, and say, it is mine that Christ lived, did, said, suffered, died, no otherwise then if I had lived, done, spoken, suffered, dyed, as the Bridegroom hath all the Brides, and the Bride all the Bridegroomes, for all are common to both, they are one flesh, so Christ and his Church are one Spirit.
hLuth. tom. 4. f. 471. in ps. 117.Pius nihil faciendo facit omnia, & faciendo omnia nihil facit.
iLuther to. 3. in Gen. in c. 27. f. 64.Luther, Vnus Christianus tentatus plus prodest, quam centum non tentati.
kLuth. tom. 1. in Gen. 3▪ f. 55.Christianus fide constituituitur victor p…ccati, legis, & mortis, ut ne quidem inferorum portae ei praevalere possint.
lLuth. tom. … in Gen. 60. …. 27.Luther, Omnipotentia conjungitur cum nihilitudine —eò perducit infirmum ut faciat impossibil…a et incredibilia.
mLuth. to. 1. f. 466.Luther, Fidei gratia incomparabilis hac est, quod animam copulat cum Christo, sicut sponsam cum sponso, quo sacramento Christus & anima efficiuntur una caro, quo…si una caro sint, sequitur & omnia eorum communia fieri, tam bona, quam mala, ut quaecunque Christus habet, de iis tanquam suis presumere & gloriari possit fidelis anima; et quaecunque animae sunt, ea sibi arrogat Christus tanquam sua.
mLuther to. 2. f. 1…8.Luth. Fides in Christum facit eum in me vivere, moveri, agere non secus atque salutare unguentum in aegrum corpus agit, efficiturque cum Christo una caro & unum corpus per intimam et ineffabilem transmutationem peccati nostri in illius justitiam.
nLuther to. 2. … 15.Fides nobis Christum affert, hoc est, unam carn…m, os ex ossibus nostris, & omnia communia cum illo facit.
oLuther tom. 1. f. 178.Luth. Homo eum fiducia possit gloriari in Christo & dicere. Meum est, quod Christus vixit, egit, dixit, passus est, mortuus est, non secus quam si ego illa vixissem, egissem, dixissem, passus essem, mortuus essem, sicut sponsus habet omnia quae sunt sponsae, & sponsa habet omnia, quae sunt sponsi, omnia enim sunt communia utriusque: sunt enim una caro: Ita Christus & ecclesia sunt unus spiritus.