An answer to the discourse of Mr. William Sherlock, touching the knowledge of Christ,…

If thou objectest (saith Mr. Shepherd) what have I to do with Christ?¹ who have such an unholy, vile, hard, blind, and most wicked heart; O dishonour not the Grace of Christ, thou canst not come to Christ, till laden and separated from sin, but no more sorrow for sin, no more separation from sin is necessary to this closing with ⟨p. 88⟩Christ, than so much as makes thee willing, or rather not unwilling, that the Lord should take it away; know if thou seekest for a greater measure of humiliation, thou showest the more pride, who will rather go into thy self, to make thy self holy and humble; than go out of thy self unto the Lord Jesus to take away thy sin; thou thinkest Christ cannot love thee, until thou makest thy self fair, upon which serious words, the Author after his merry way tells us, The reason of all this is very plain from our acquaintance with Christ; he is our Physician, and we must go to him with all our diseases and sores about us; he a fountain, and we must go to him with all our filthiness, to be cleansed; he is all fullness, it is not fit to carry any thing to him, he is our righteousness, and we must leave our own behind us, he is all beauty, we must not carry any to him, all we have to do, is to go to Christ weary and sick, and filthy, and naked, stripped of every thing but our sins and impurities, to receive ease and health, and fullness and beauty from him.

If thou objectest (saith Mr. Shepherd) what have I to do with Christ?¹ who have such an unholy, vile, hard, blind, and most wicked heart; O dishonour not the Grace of Christ, thou canst not come to Christ, till laden and separated from sin, but no more sorrow for sin, no more separation from sin is necessary to this closing with ⟨p. 88⟩Christ, than so much as makes thee willing, or rather not unwilling, that the Lord should take it away; know if thou seekest for a greater measure of humiliation, thou shewest the more pride, who will rather go into thy self, to make thy self holy and humble; than go out of thy self unto the Lord Jesus to take away thy sin; thou thinkest Christ cannot love thee, until thou makest thy self fair, upon which serious words, the Author after his merry way tells us, The reason of all this is very plain from our acquaitance with Christ; he is our Physician, and we must go to him with all our diseases and sores about us; he a fountain, and we must go to him with all our filthiness, to be cleansed; he is all fulness, it is not fit to carry any thing to him, he is our righteousness, and we must leave our own behind us, he is all beauty, we must not carry any to him, all we have to do, is to go to Christ weary and sick, and filthy, and naked, stript of every thing but our sins and impurities, to receive ease and health, and fulness and beauty from him.