A53708:340
Meditations and Discourses on the Glory of Christ
Meditations and discourses on the glory of Christ, in his person, office, and grace with the differences between faith and sight applied unto the use of them that believe / by the late Reverend John Owen, D.D.
London: printed by B.A., 1691
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Chapter 9: The Glory of Christ in his intimate Conjunction with the Church.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
WHAT concerns the Glory of Christ in the Mission of the Holy Ghost unto the Church, with all the Divine truths that are branched from it, I have at large declared in my Discourse concerning the whole dispensation of the Holy Spirit. Here therefore it must have no place amongst those many other things which offer themselves unto our contemplation, as part of this Glory, or intimately belonging thereunto. I shall insist briefly on Three only, which cannot be reduced directly unto the former heads.
VVHAT concerns the Glory of Christ in the Mission of the Holy Ghost unto the Church, with all the Divine truths that are branched from it, I have at large declared in my Discourse concerning the whole dispensation of the Holy Spirit. Here therefore it must have no place amongst those many other things which offer themselves unto our centemplation, as part of this Glory, or intimately belonging thereunto. I shall insist briefly on Three only, which cannot be reduced directly unto the former heads.
AND the first of these is, That intimate Conjunction that is between Christ and the Church; whence it is just and equal in the sight of God, according unto the Rules of his Eternal Righteousness, that what he did and suffered in the Discharge of his Office, should be esteemed, reckoned, and imputed unto us, as unto all the fruits and benefits of it, as if we had done and suffered the same things our selves. For this conjunction of his with us, was an act of his own Mind and Will, wherein he is ineffably glorious.
THE Enemies of the glory of Christ and of his Cross, do take this for granted, That there ought to be such a conjunction between the guilty person and him that suffers for him, as that in him the guilty person may be said in some sense to undergo the punishment himself. But then they affirm on the other hand, That there was no such conjunction between Christ and sinners, none at all; but that he was a man, as they were men; and otherwise, that he was at the greatest distance from them all, as it is possible for one man to be from another, Socin. de Servat. lib. 3. cap. 3. The falseness of this latter Assertion, and the gross ignorance of the Scripture under a pretence of subtlety, in them that make it, will evidently appear in our ensuing Discourse.