A55299:509
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.
SECT. II.
Some men tell us, That as Christ falls in love with our Persons,1 so we must in requital to him love the Person of Christ: This is as certain as any Demonstration in Euclid, that if we love Christ, we must love his Person; for the Person of Christ is Christ himself, and if we love Christ, we must love him: But this will not serve their turn; they oppose our love to the Person of Christ to our ⟨p. 596⟩love to him upon account of his benefits, to our love to our selves, and to our duties. First, we must love the Person of Christ in opposition to his Benefits; that is, we must not consider what advantages we do or may receive from Christ, what he hath done or suffered for us, but we must love his Person purely for himself without any other considerations to endear him to us. This matter is gravely stated and determined by W.B. who tells us, 1. That it is a good and lawful thing to love Christ in reference to his benefits: This is a very liberal grant,; that Gratitude, which hath hitherto been accounted a great and excellent Virtue, is now owned as a lawful thing. 2. It is our duty to love Christ's Person: This is so true, that those men, who love Christ for his benefits, love his Person: 3. The Excellency of Christ's Person is not the Object of my Faith, but Christ crucified: 4. Though Christ crucified be the Object of my Faith, yet the personal Excellencies of Christ are the Object of my Love; yea, it is a more excellent thing yet to love the Person of Christ, than the Benefits of Christ; to have my heart drawn out in love to the Person of Christ, than to have it drawn ⟨p. 597⟩out in love to him for his Benefits. Now what can be the meaning of all this, but that the Excellency and Perfection of our Love to Christ consists in loving him for no reason: The proper object and reason of Love is Goodness; to love that which is good for nothing is the folly and degeneracy of Love; and it is as foolish and impossible a task to love a person, who hath been good to us, not because he hath been good, but for no reason. Now this is the case here; for if you separate the Person and personal Excellencies of Christ from the consideration of his benefits, his personal Goodness from the expressions of his Love and Goodness to our selves and others, it can be no Object or reason of our Love: