But he will now discover the design of all these things,
and afterward make it good by quotations out of my book. The first he
doth, p. 203, and onwards: “But whatever becomes of the sense of the
distinction, there is a very deep fetch in it, the observing of which will
discover the whole mystery of the person of Christ and our union to him.
For these men consider that Christ saves us as he is our mediator, and not
merely considered as God or man; and they imagine that we receive grace and
salvation from Christ’s person just as we do water out of a conduit, or a
gift and largess from a prince, — that it flows to us from our union to his
person; and therefore they dress up the person of the Mediator with all
those personal excellencies and graces which may make him a fit Saviour,
that those who are thus united to his person (of which more in the next
section) need not fear missing of salvation. Hence they ransack all the
boundless perfections of the Deity, and whatever they can find or fancy
speaks any comfort to sinners, this is presently a personal grace of the
Mediator; — they consider all the glorious effects of his mediation; and
whatever great things are spoken of his gospel, or religion, or
intercession for us, these serve as personal graces: so that all our hopes
may be built, not on the gospel covenant, but on the person of Christ. So
that the dispute now lies between the person of Christ and his gospel, —
which must be the foundation of our hope, — which is the way to life and
happiness.”