Gospel Truth Stated and Vindicated, Chapter 11
CHAP. XI. Of Union with Christ before Faith.
Truth. EVery Man is without Christ, or not united to Christ, untill he be effectually called; but when by this Call the Spirit of God enclineth, and enableth him willingly to accept of Christ, as a Head and Saviour; a Man becomes united to him, and Partaker of those Influences and Privileges which are peculiar to the Members of the Lord Jesus.
Errour. All the Elect are actually united to Christ, before they have the Spirit of Christ, or at all believe in him, even before they are born; yea, and against their Will.
Proved that this is Dr. Crisp's Opinion.
The Title of Serm. 14. is, Christ is ours before we have gracious Qualifications, P. 430. But sure the Doctor intends only to exclude Works and not Faith. A. No, he tells us of dangerous Consequences that must follow on it, if Persons are not united to Christ, and partake not of Justification before they believe. And addeth, There is not, I say, such a thing as an uniting, and cementing or knitting Power in Faith, as that Faith doth, or should become the Instrument to unite a Soul to Christ, P. 6…. Obj. But he may intend only to exclude the Merit or Efficiency of Faith; but not the Presence of it, or the Divine Ordination of it to that end. A. No, he denies the Presence of Faith; to this end he spends much time, P. 614. &c. to prove, That Christ is ours before we come to him, and that our not coming to Christ, doth not import a State of Disunion with Christ. And P. 104. He tells us▪ You may as soon conceive, that a Man is able to see whiles he hath no head, as think a Man can have spiritual Eyes; whether the Eye of Faith to behold Christ, or the Eye of Mourning to lament ones Wretchedness, before there be actually the Presence and Conjunction of Christ, the Head, to such a Body. Obj. But must not the Spirit be given before we are united to Christ. A. The Doctor saith, We partake of the Spirit, only by Virtue of this Union; which he attempts to prove from the too gross use of the Metaphor of a Vine, P. 599. and sundry other Places. Obj. Sure he meaneth only this Union is decreed before Faith. A. To prevent this, his Words are, P. …. I do not mean as some do, that God did actually decree, that Christ should be Christ unto such and such Persons, before he did put any Qualifications into them. But I say farther, that God gives actual Possession of this Christ, and this Christ takes Possession of that Person, before there be any Qualification. Obj. When are the Elect united to Christ? A. The Doctor tells you, Before they are born, P. 617. See P. 597, 609, 611, &c. Of coming to Christ against your Wills: See the end of this Chapter.
Wherein the Difference is not.
1. It is not, whether God hath decreed that all the Elect shall be united to Christ.
2. Nor whether God hath appointed, and Christ agreed in the Covenant of Redemption, to be in time the Saviour of the Elect; and that whatChrist did and suffered, pursuant to that Covenant, was intended for the saving Good of the Elect.
3. Nor whether all the Power, by which we believe, and the Spirit, who works Faith in us, be purchased and given by Christ.
4. Nor whether Christ's giving us the Spirit of Grace, do begin this Union, and the Spirit given in order to saving Operations, produceth this Faith, whereby the Union is consummated.
5. Nor whether Faith unites to Christ by Divine Ordination, and not by its own Power or Merit, or as a Physical Act. All these I affirm.
The Real Difference.
1. Whether the Elect are actually united to Christ before they are born? This the Doctor affirms, and I deny.
2. Whether the Elect are united to Christ till they are effectually called, and truly believe? This the Doctor denies and I affirm.
The Truth Confirmed.
1. The Scriptures expresly affirm all uncalled, unregenerate Unbelievers, to be united to Christ, and in a State of Separation from him. The believing Ephesians were before Conversion, without Christ, Eph. 2. 12. Were they always united to Christ, of whom Paul saith, Rom. 16. 7. They were in Christ before me? Or was Paul himself always in Christ? Were not the Romans out of Christ, while a wild Olive-Tree, and untill they were grafted into the true Olive-Tree? w ich they were upon their Conversion, Rom. 11. 17, 19.
2. The Spirit of Christ, and Faith in him, are the things whereby God hath ordained us to be united with Christ; By one Spirit we are all baptized into one Body, 1 Cor. 12. 12, 13. Christ dwells in our Hearts by Faith Eph. 3. 17. on which account we are said to receive Christ, Col. 2. 8. And are Children of God by Faith, Gal. 3. 26.
3. The want of this Union is denounced against all such as have not the Spirit, and are Unbelievers, Rom. 8. 9. If any Man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his, i. e. Let the Man be elect or not, be the Man who he will, if he hath not the Spirit, he is not Christ's in this Union. And it's the Design of that Parable, Mat. 22. 3. to 13. that they who accept not of the Invitation, or do not sincerely and spiritually consent to Christ's Offer, shall not be united to Christ, or partake of the Marriage Supper.
4. The necessary immediate Effects of Union are plainly wanting in all such as have not the Spirit, and want Faith. He that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit, 1 Cor. 6. 17. Can any unbelieving Wretch pretend to have one Spirit with Christ whiles his Inclinations, Purposes, and Carriage are so contrary? Again, If any Man be in Christ, he is a new Creature, 2 Cor. 5. 17. q. d. Let the Man be who he will, he is not united to Christ, if he be not a new Creature. I hope none will doubt, he is no new Creature, who is carnal, who is a Stranger to the New Man, which after God is created in Righteousness and true Holiness, Eph. 4 24. When the Scriptures describe any Person in Christ Jesus, they tell us, they (at least in purpose) have crucified the Flesh with the Affections thereof, Gal. 5. 24 and they walk not after the Flesh, but after the Spirit, Rom 8 1. It's not they that have crucified the Flesh, are in Chr…st, which some might say, would render it only a manifesting Sign of their In-being in Christ; but these Texts do exclude all others from a present Share in this Union. The like Places might be multiplied: As many of you as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ, Gal. 3. 27. If Christ be in you, the Body is dead, because of Sin, &c. Rom 8 9, 10 But alas, these and the like are not only wanting in Unbelievers; but the direct contrary thereto prevalently reign in them, and each of these Contraries, do by a Gospel Rule subject Men to those Miseries as are inconsistent with the Members of Christ: As If ye live after the Flesh, ye shall die; to be carnally minded, is Death, &c. Rom. 3. 8. 6, 14.
5. Union with Christ is determined to our effectual Calling: This is the Means and Season of that Blessing; God is faithful, by whom ye are called into the Fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ, 1 Cor. 1. 9. Hence the Instruments of our Vocation are said to espouse us to Christ, 2 Cor. 11. 2. To beget them for him. 1 Cor. 4. 15. This Privilege is peculiar to Christ's regenerate Seed, and impossible to any that are not so.
6. Unbelievers are not Members of the Catholick invisible Church, which is the Body of Christ: By one Spirit you are all baptized into one Body, and have been all made to drink into one Spirit, 1 Cor. 12. 13. There is a present effectual Working in every Part of this Body, Eph. 4. 16. It's by the Spirit's Operation we are Parts of this Holy Temple, and fellow Citizens with the Saints, Eph. 2. from 18. to 22. Every Member hath a Measure of Faith and Grace, Rom. 12. 3, 4, 5. None of these can be true of Men dead in Sin: Nor can they be Members of Christ, that are not Members of his Body, 1 Cor. 12. 27.
7. Should they that are united to Christ, apostatize from Faith, they would thereby forfeit and lose this Union. If any cease to be Believers they would cease to be Members of Christ. This is the Scope of Joh. 15. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. If a Man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a Branch, and is withered: Every Branch in me that beareth not Fruit, he taketh away. And is it not apparent, that Apostacy sinks a Man into no more Unbelief, than what prevailed before he believed at all?
8. The opposite Errour would reconcile what the Spirit of God declares inconsistent. The Apostle in vain asketh, What Concord hath Christ with Belial? or what Part hath he that believeth with an Infidel? and what Agreement hath the Temple of God with Idols, &c. 2 Cor. 6. 15, 16, 17. By this Opinion, Christ and Belial can be, and dwell quietly in one Man for many Years; and he that believeth, and an Infidel, have the same part in the highest Privilege, viz. Union with Christ. In Uncleanness, God receives all alike, and is their Father, though they resolve against being Separate, Men can (though God saith they cannot) partake of the Table of the Lord, and of the Table of Devils, 1 Cor. 10. 21. For Union, and Communion with Christ be the Heart of the Benefits included in partaking of the Lord's Table.
Reader, Weigh these things, and thou canst hardly conceive, what Act of God an Union before Faith can be ascribed to. It's not to the Decree, for that only resolveth it shall be in future. It's not to God's appointing, or Christ's engaging to be a Mediator; for thereby he undertook in time to raise a Seed, which, in the fulness of Time, God would gather in one in him, Eph. 1. 10. It's not in Christ's assuming the humane Nature, for that admits all Mankind to be united to him, as well as the Elect. And what Mr Sterry and others talk of a radical Union with Christ, as he is the top Branch, or the universal Spirit of the Creation, in a Nature distinct from his Divine and Humane; it's fordid to such who know of but two Natures in Christ; and if granted would not prove the Doctor's Notion of actual Union.
TESTIMONIES.
The Assembly, Confess. Ca. 26. a. 1. and the Elders at the Savoy, Chap. 27. a. 1. affirm, That we are united to Jesus Christ by-his Spirit, and by Faith. A. 5. Only the Elders add, We are not thereby made one Person with Christ. The Lesser Catechism hath this Question, How doth the Spirit apply to us the Redemption purchased by Christ? A. By working Faith in us, and thereby uniting us to Christ in our effectual Calling.
The New England Synod confute this as Errour 37. We are compleatly united to Christ before, or without any Faith wrought in us by the Spirit. They sum up their Confutation of this in these VVords, If there be no Dwelling of Christ in us, no coming to him, no receiving him, no being married to him, before and without Faith. But the former is true. Errour 16. which Boston Church charged Mr. Hutcheson with, was, That Union to Christ is not by Faith. Errour 38. The Synod Confutes, is, There can be no true closing with Christ in a Promise that hath a Condition expressed. Errour 69. Though a Man can prove a gracious VVork in himself, and Christ to be the Author of it, if thereby he will prove Christ to be his, this is but a sandy Foundation. He never read Doctor Owen, who did not find him as express in this as any Man can be. Norton, Orthod. Evang. P. 291. Union in order of Nature, though not of Time, followeth Vocation. P. 181. Union, not without the Act of Faith. P. 222. It's by the Spirit and Faith.
The Grounds of the Dr's. Mistake.
Because Christ is appointed, and given to raise a Body eternally elected thereto; therefore he thinks, they are this Body before they be raised. Because all After-Grace is from Christ as our actual Head; therefore he thinks, Christ cannot, by his Spirit, work the first Grace, as our designed Head. VVhereas the Spirit makes us an Habitation to God, Eph. 2. 22. And it's a strange conceit, that Christ can exert no Act of Power on a dead Soul, in order to Union, but Men must infer that Union prior to it. Because the natural Body cannot see without a Head; therefore Christ cannot convert a Sinner to bring him into his mystical Body. One might better infer, the Head cannot see without the Body, and the Body sees as much as the Head, and the Head sees no better than the Body; and so conclude, Christ can see nothing, till every elect Person be a Member, and every Member seeth as well as Christ, and the dim Sight of every Member, makes the Sight of Christ as blind as his. Because Christ received Gifts for the Rebellious, that God might dwell among them; therefore God dwells among them, before those Gifts operate, or be communicated to them. Whereas the Apostle, Eph. 4. 10, 11, 12. tells us, how these Gifts are the Means by which the Elect are converted, and made Believers, and so come to partake of Union with its peculiar Effects. Because, from the Parable of the Vine, the Gardiner puts the Graff into the Tree before there's Sap or Fruit; therefore he thinks a Man is in Christ, before God puts him in Christ by the Spirit and Faith, which is the only ingraffing the VVord tells us of, besides external Church Privileges, Rom. 11. 17, 19. I may as well argue, a Member of Christ must always do wicked VVorks, because the Graff bears always Fruit of its own Kind, and not after the Kind of the Stock into which it is ingrafted. How sad is it to strain and abuse Parables or Metaphors against the Scope of the Gospel, because God condescends to explain some Truths thereby? as if all that belongs to the Metaphor, teach and prove any Doctrine, because that one Point, for which the Lord useth it, is illustrated thereby. VVhat VVork may soon be made by fond People, if this be true? Because we are chosen in Christ from eternity; that is, elected to obtain Life by him as Mediator; therefore we are one with him before any uniting Bonds.
Reader, I forbear to represent the Nature of this Union as he seems to state it, P. 104, 105, 648, 649, 615. hoping he meant better than many of his VVords do import; but for thy own Good, know, that upon believing we are made Partakers of Gospel-Benefits; we are related to him for all the Advantages which the Metaphors of this Union express. He loveth, enricheth, and honoureth us, as a Man doth his Wife: He directs, rules, and quickens us, as a Head doth the Members: He ministers Grace for Fruit and Exercise, as the Root doth to the Branches. Yea, This Relation he'll keep undissolved; and yet more, the very Spirit that his Humane Nature received in Fulness, abides in, and worketh a Conformity to the Life and Temper of Christ in all his Members; which at last he will perfect to the utmost of our Capacity. But yet fansie not, that we are deified with God, or christified with Christ, or one natural Person with him, as if he had a superangelick Nature, which was a sort of a commen Soul, or that our distinct Personality shall ever cease; with other Notions destructive of God's Government, and of all Judgment. Beware of confounding God and the Creature, or making Christ the Subject of our Graces, because he is the Author of them.
Obj. But you said in the Errour, that Men are said to receive Christ against their VVills. A. The Doctor tells us, Our first receiving of Christ, is when Christ comes by the Gift of the Father, to a Person while he is in the Stubbornness of his own Heart, and the Father doth force open the Spirit of that Person, and pours in his Son in spight of the Receiver, P. 99. In P. 98. It's as a Physician poureth Physick down the Patient's Throat, and so it works against his Will. And tells us, P. 612. Our first coming to Christ, is as a Coach is said to come to Town, when it is but drawn to Town.
I shall make no further Remark on this, than tell thee, the Doctor distinguisheth not between what we are abstracted from the Spirit's Influence, and what we are by the Spirit's Influence. VVe are passive in effectual Vocation, as that is God's Act on us; but even then no Violence is offered to the VVill, for the Mind dictates what it chooseth freely Under this healing VVork and that passiveness, is not our coming to Christ; but by the Effect of God's Act on the Mind and VVill, we consent to the Call, and that is our first coming, and thereby we receive Christ, and not before. He is not forced on us, but accepted from a Light that commends, and a VVill that desires him. VVhereas we come not a step, whiles we do refuse and reject him. Though I wonder why he speaks of any first coming against our VVills, when his Principle is, that we are united to Christ at latest, in the Moment of Conception in the VVomb.