A55299:284
An answer to the discourse of Mr. William Sherlock, touching the knowledge of Christ,…
An answer to the discourse of Mr. William Sherlock, touching the knowledge of Christ, and our union and communion with him by Edward Polhill ..., Esquire.
London: printed for Ben. Foster, 1675
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.
Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, which is the explication, of, to a ⟨p. 273⟩perfect man, that is, to that perfection of Faith and Knowledge, which becomes the Christian Church; for [Greek or Hebrew] signifying the age, and growth and stature of a Man, the fullness of Christ cannot so properly be understood of any thing, as of the Christian Church: This is all I can find in Scripture concerning the Fullness of Christ, which either signifies the Perfection of his Gospel, or the Universality of his Church; which is a plain Demonstration of those mens skill in expounding Scripture, who make this Fullness a Personal Grace in Christ.
Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ, which is the explication, of, to a ⟨p. 273⟩perfect man, that is, to that perfection of Faith and Knowledge, which becomes the Christian Church; for 〈non-Latin alphabet〉 signifying the age, and growth and stature of a Man, the fulness of Christ cannot so properly be understood of any thing, as of the Christian Church: This is all I can find in Scripture concerning the Fulness of Christ, which either signifies the Perfection of his Gospel, or the Ʋniversality of his Church; which is a plain Demonstration of those mens skill in expounding Scripture, who make this Fulness a Personal Grace in Christ.
Eph. 1.22, 23.1 The Church is called Christ's body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all: But this is not the Church Visible, which is made up of Believers and Unbelievers (these latter being dead and putrid Members, do not as, Bishop Davenant hath observed, complere Corpus Christi, sed corrumpere & deformare;) but it is the Church Catholic which is made up only of Saints; these make up the Mystical Body of Christ, and without them Christ as Head accounts not himself complete: The Church is Christ's Fullness, but is there not a personal fontal Fullness in Christ? No doubt there is; the Text tells us, That he filleth all in all, and