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

The union of persons between Christ and Believers, ¹which gives them a propriety in all the personal graces of Christ is commonly explained by a conjugal relation, and legal union, that mutual relation which is betwixt Husband ⟨p. 399⟩and Wife; and that union, which is betwixt the surety and debtor: Now these men say, That the Wife hath an interest in her Husbands Estate, and is secured from all arrests of the Law; And therefore, Christ being our Husband, all his personal Excellencies, Righteousness, &c. are ours, and the Law cannot take hold of us, but our Husband must be responsible for our faults: A very hard Law truly; and I think a Husband is in a very ill case, when he has a bad Wife. Now suppose this were the case in some earthly Marriages, it were worth while to consider, whether this be essential to Marriage: Or whether it depends upon private contracts or public Laws, which are arbitrary and mutable; for if this be essential to Marriage, how can we be secure, that this is the Law of our Spiritual Marriage, unless our Spiritual Husband had told us so; especially considering that this Spiritual Marriage betwixt Christ and his Church, is of a different nature from earthly Marriages; and if they differ in any thing, we cannot be sure, but that they differ in this, unless we have some better proof of it, than this Analogy between earthly and Spiritual Marriages: Nay, and better proof too, than Dr. Owen giver us of it, ⟨p. 400⟩Cant. 1. Behold! thou art fair, thou hast Doves eyes: Cant. 3.14. O my Dove! thou art in the clefts of the rock: Or Cant. 4.8. Come with me from Lebanon; look from the top of Amana, from the top of Shenir and Hermon; from the lions dens, and the mountains of the leopards: Or Isai. 4.2. The branch of the Lord is beautiful and glorious: and the fruit of the earth is excellent and comely to them that are escaped of Israel: Which are all the proofs he can find for Christ's giving himself to the soul with all his excellencies: Now how any such consequence as this can be drawn from Doves eyes, or the clefts of the rock, or from Lebanon, Amana, Shenir, Hermon, or from the lions dens, or mountains of leopards, is past my understanding to make out: But let the Laws of Kingdoms and Nations be as they will, there can be no Law made to alter the nature of things;