N00497:32
Blessed unions. An union with the son of God by faith. And, an union…
Blessed unions. An union with the son of God by faith. And, an union in the church of God by love, importunately pressed; in a discourse which makes divers offers, for those unions; together with a copy of those articles, where-upon a most happy union, has been lately made between those two eminent parties in England, which have now changed the names of Presbyterians, and Congregationals, for that of United Brethren. / By Cotton Mather ; [Six lines from Mead]
Boston: printed by B. Green for Samuel Phillips, 1692
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.
First, We must not propound unto our selves an Union so Remote, as what shall be Mental only. The Soul does in a manner Unite it self, with what i• Looks, or Thinks upon; Contemplation affords unto us a sort of Union with what is laid before it. But our thoughts on the Lord Jesus Christ, are not the Things, wherein does consist our Union with Him; tho' indeed the Union is cherished by those Holy Thoughts.
Nor may we, Secondly, propound unto our selves an Union so Confused; as what shall arise to be Personal: The Familist has counted himself so united unto our Lord, as to be, Christed with Christ; but our Union will afford no room for such Nonsensical and Blasphemous Gibberish. Our whole Persons are to have an Union with the whole Person of our Lord Jesus Christ; and yet our Union will not make our persons to become One Person with Him.
Nor may we, Secondly, propound unto our selves an Union so Confus'd; as what shall arise to be Personal: The Familist has counted himself so united unto our Lord, as to be, Christed with Christ; but our Union will afford no room for such Nonsensical and Blasphemous Gibberish. Our whole Persons are to have an Union with the whole Person of our Lord Jesus Christ; and yet our Union will not make our persons to become One Person with Him.
Let me add, Thirdly, That the Fundamental Heresy of Quakerism receives no Countenance from our Union with our Lord. There is a certain, Inward Excusing or Condemning Principle, which men are Born withal: and the Quaker (if I can understand him) holds This Principle to be, The Man Christ, Or as their Jargon for it is, A measure of that Man. 'The Visible and the tangible Flesh which hung upon the Cross without the Gates of Jerusalem, the Quaker calls, The Bodily Garment of that Man, Christ: and what is now become of that Flesh, he is loth to say; While he will fallaciously grant you the Man to be Ascended into Glory. The Quaker do's also Count his own Flesh to be such another Bodily Garment unto the Man Christ, and his having of that Man thus in Him, is that by which he Expounds, The Coming of Christ in the Flesh. You see what an Union this Heretic pretends to have with our Lord Jesus Christ; He not only has, The Man Christ, within himself; but he does in effect make himself to be, That Man.