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

That we are highly to prize Christ,¹ can be no question with Christians; when he comes in his Glory, he shall be admired of all them that believe, 2 Thess. 1.10. And before that coming, we are, as far as our Faith will carry us, to admire him, who is indeed an Object, in whom Heaven and Earth are so admirably blended together, that humane reason may well ⟨p. 618⟩lose it self, and stand in a maze at such an Union: That Christ is to be highly prized by us; we need go no further, than the raptures and extatical passions of the Spouse in the Canticles, which are a kind of Commentary on that Admiration, which is the genius and communis sensus of Christians: Nature it self reveals God to be the great Object of Worship; but the Gospel assures us that there is no access, no coming to God but by Christ; That there is no Righteousness able to cover our persons and duties with the defects thereof but Christ's Righteousness; That there is no doing Duties in a right and spiritual way acceptable unto God, but by the Spirit and Grace of Christ; and upon these strong important Reasons, the Gospel calls and presses upon men to come to Christ; and therefore all Evangelical Duties (because they are by infinite Wisdom framed in a perfect Symmetry to the Gospel) must needs be, not to say Cock-boats and Scullers, but Divine Mediums and Conveyances to have us over to Christ; without whom we cannot have any access to God, or standing before him, or power to do any thing in a spiritual and acceptable manner. Sermons ⟨p. 619⟩are to instruct us in our Duty, not as if we could do any thing truly and spiritually as of our selves: But that in the sense of our own weakness and impotency, we may be drawn to Christ, the Wisdom and Power of God; who can teach us inwardly, and impower us by his Grace to do the Will of God: In Prayer we are to have a sense of the Divine Majesty, to worship him, and express our trust in him: But a true sense of the Divine Majesty tells us, that we must not approach immediately thither without Christ our Mediator, that our trust and other acts of Worship must find their acceptance only in and through Christ: Sorrow for sin without coming to Christ and prizing him, is so far from being repentance unto life, that it drives a man down into the Black Gulf of horror and desperation.