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

He did not only confirm the Covenant, but sprinkled the People too; this was the Type or Figure; but Christ, who is the Substance, not only confirms the Covenant, but sprinkles the hearts of Believers by his Blood: Hence their hearts are sprinkled from an evil conscience, Heb. 10.22. and they have the sprinkling of the blood of Christ, 1 Pet. 1.2. But to go on; The Scripture, saith the Author, uses these phrases promiscuously, to be justified by Faith, by Christ, by Grace; nay, by believing that Christ is the Son of God, or risen from the dead: To which I answer, All these concur to the same Justification, but not in the same manner: Grace, which is the inward impulsive Cause of Justification, is not Christ or his Blood; the Blood of Christ, which is the Matter of our Righteousness, is not Faith; Faith, which is the Hand to receive Christ and Grace, is not the Gospel, the Charter of Justification, which contains the Evangelical Axioms, such as those, touching Christ's being the Son of God or touching his Resurrection from the ⟨p. 464⟩dead, are: These are distinct things and not to be confounded. As for that place, Eph. 2.14, 15, 16. the Apostle speaks indeed of reconciling Jews and Gentiles, but that is not all, he speaks too of reconciling both to God, ver. 16. and of making them one new man in himself, ver. 15. which notes a further reconciliation than that among themselves, even a conjunction with God and Christ, according to our Saviours Prayer, That they maybe one in us, Joh. 17.21. Christ, saith the Author, abrogated the Mosaical Law: I answer, He did so as to Types and Ceremonials; but the Moral Law, which is immortalized by its intrinsical Sanctity, stands to this day, and the Grace, which was under the Old Testament, was not abrogated, but made more illustrious than it was before. The Gentiles, saith the Author, were at a distance from God; But if they had natural Faith, and could by it please God, the distance was less and more tolerable; though they were but in the outward Court of the Temple, nay, though they were a thousand miles off from it, they would do well enough in the other world.