Ralph Erskine

Mr. Robe owns again, “It is impossible to have any true imaginary idea of God.” But he says, “That to assert that we cannot receive Christ, as offered in the gospel, without an imaginary conception of Him as man, hath a tendency to lead people off from the true Christ in the Word to a false Christ upon the imagination—this is what you, [Mr. Fisher], have not made the least essay¹⁵ to prove, and what you shall never be able to do.”

Remark: One would think it is very easy to prove what Mr. Robe so boldly thinks can never be done. This I do by the following argument in common form: To assert that a man cannot believe in Christ without that which necessarily presents a false Christ to his imagination hath a native tendency to lead people off from the true Christ in the Word to a false Christ in the imagination. But to assert that a man cannot believe in Christ, without an imaginary conception or idea of Him as man, is to assert that we cannot believe without that which necessarily presents a false Christ to the imagination. Therefore, it follows that to assert [that] we cannot believe in Christ as offered in the Gospel without an imaginary idea of Him as man hath a native tendency to lead people off from the true Christ in the Word to a false Christ in the imagination. I know nothing Mr. Robe can deny here, but that…his imaginary idea of Christ as man necessarily presents a false Christ to the imagination and consequently hath a tendency to lead people off from the true Christ in the Word to a false Christ in the imagination. Therefore I prove this by the following arguments:

(1.) The true Christ in the Word is some other thing than a corporeal object: But an imaginary conception of Christ as man hath no other thing but a corporeal object. Therefore, an imaginary conception of Christ as man hath a native tendency to lead people off from the true Christ in the Word to a false Christ in the imagination.

(2.) The true Christ in the Word is the…God-man. But Christ represented in the imaginary conception as man is not the…God-man. Therefore, it follows as above, that it leads to a false Christ in the imagination.

(3.) The true Christ held forth in the Word is exhibited there as a Prophet, Priest, and King. But no imaginary conception can have any offices or relations whatsoever for its object. Therefore it leads to a false Christ in the imagination.

(4.) The true Christ can be seen by faith nowhere but in the Word. But an imaginary idea or conception cannot see Him in the Word, which is spirit and truth, the object only of rational knowledge and faith. Therefore, that idea leads to a false Christ in the imagination.

(5.) The true Christ in the Word is a whole Christ. The imaginary conception of Him as man is not a conceiving of a whole Christ, but of a mere human body. Therefore, it leads to a false Christ in the imagination.

(6.) The true humanity of Christ in the Word is a divine humanity as Augustine expresses it because the Word was made flesh and is God in our nature. But the imaginary conception of Christ as man can include nothing divine. Therefore an imaginary conception of Christ as man hath a tendency to lead people off from the true Christ and the true humanity of Christ in the Word to a false Christ and a false humanity in the imagination.

Arguments to this purpose might be multiplied. But any one of these is sufficient to prove what Mr. Robe says is impossible…

Again, there follows a master-piece of dreadful doctrine: “It is possible,” says he, “to have an imaginary idea of Christ in His human nature, and it is not possible that we can think of the human nature of the true Christ in the Word without a conception of Him or an idea of Him in the mind by the help and assistance of that faculty called the imagination; which is what is all along called an ‘imaginary idea.’ And this is as true a Christ as Christ in the Word, if it be an idea of Him as held forth in the Word. For instance: the true Christ is held forth to us in that Word, ‘For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus’” (1Ti 2:5)…

To what is said above I answer: here is very strange language and two very absurd and abominable suppositions.

The first is that we may have an imaginary idea of Christ as held forth in the Word. [This] is impossible according to Mr. Robe’s own explication¹⁶ of that idea unless Christ held forth in the Word were nothing else but a corporeal object. If the words of Christ are spirit and life (Joh 6:65), then His Word is a spiritual object, and cannot be apprehended by corporeal, but spiritual powers…The Word is the object of that knowledge and faith that can perceive truths, which are all spiritual things, but cannot be the object of that fancy that can perceive nothing but the images of things which are all corporeal.

2ndly, he supposes, yea, plainly asserts, that the Christ perceived by an imaginary idea is as true a Christ as Christ in the Word, if it be an idea of Him as held forth in the Word. I have showed that an imaginary idea of Christ as held forth in the Word is absurd and impossible. And now I am to show that the other expression is vile and abominable. And I have scarce patience to read such horrible doctrine, importing that a representation of Christ by an image of Him in the brain of a man is as true a Christ as the Christ represented in the Word of God. How strangely must the man be attached to his imaginary notions, which makes the representation of Christ therein as true as the representation of Him in the divine Word? He makes his imaginary idea to give us as true a picture of Christ in the fancy as the infallible truth of God gives us in the Word. If so, then a corporeal Christ in the imagination is as truly the object of faith as the true Christ, Immanuel, God with us, is in the Word. And so a Christ within us is as good as a Christ without us. Here is a wide door opened to dreadful enthusiasm¹⁷ and damnable Quakerism.¹⁸ For if the Christ we may see in the fancy be as true a Christ as the Christ we read of in the Word, then He is reckoned no other but a fantastical¹⁹ Christ according to the dream of the old heretics Marcion²⁰ and Valentinus²¹….

We are sure, that Christ is the very same thing the Word of faith declares Him to be. But if Christ, as represented in whatever nature by any idea and in His human nature by an imaginary idea be as true a Christ, then…(1.) Christ and the imaginary idea of Him are one and the same; or…Christ is an imaginary idea, which is dreadful; (2.) According to the number of imaginary ideas, such the number of Christs— that is, consequently there is no Christ at all;…(3.) The imaginary idea or image of Christ in the head is the object of faith and worship and is to be deified and adored, which is the grossest idolatry; (4.) Every one can make a Christ to himself out of his own head, whenever he pleases…

Christ dwells in the heart by faith (Eph 3:17), that is, by faith in His Word, where alone by that faith the believer sees the true Christ. But he cannot see Him in his heart or affections, far less in his head or imaginations. Indeed a true believer may sometimes feel Christ joyfully in his heart after he hath believed (Eph 1:13), but he can never see Him believingly there. For faith can see His perfect picture nowhere but in His Word. Nowhere else is the true Christ to be seen as the object of faith: “The righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.) But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach” (Rom 10:6-8). On which words…the author of the sermon entitled How Is the Practical Love of Truth the Best Preservative against Popery hath these words following: “The inquiry is, How we may be made partakers of Christ and righteousness by Him? Or how we may have Him present with us? This, says the apostle, is done by the word of the gospel, which is preached, which is nigh unto us, in our mouths, and in our hearts. ‘No’, say these men; ‘we cannot understand how it should be so; we do not find that it is so, that Christ is made nigh unto us, present to us by this Word: Wherefore we will ascend into heaven, to bring Christ down from above; for we will make images of Him in His glorious state in heaven, and thereby He will be present to us or nigh unto us; and we will descend into the deep, to bring Christ up again from the dead: And we will do it, by making first crucifixes, and then images of His glorious resurrection, bringing Him again unto us from the dead. This shall be in the place and room of that Word of the gospel, which you pretend to be alone useful and effectual unto these ends.’”²² And a little above are these words: “Their minds being dark, carnal, and prone to superstition, as are the minds of all men by nature, they would see nothing in the spiritual representation of Him (namely, Christ) in the gospel, that had any power on them, or did in any measure affect them. In these images, by the means of sight and imagination, they found that which did really work upon the affections, and, as they thought, did excite them unto the love of Christ.”

Here is the spring and root of all image-worship in the world, whether mental or external; none of which can give the representation of the true Christ of Whom we have only the true and spiritual representation in the Word of the gospel…

May this generation be delivered from an imaginary faith, religion, and conversion, which will neither unite them to the true Christ, nor bring them to the true heaven, nor keep them out of the true hell! And may the Lord deliver all His people from the influence of gross delusion, instead of gospel-doctrine; from carnal trash, instead of spiritual truth; and from the truth as it is in men’s fancy and imagination, instead of the truth as it is in Jesus and in His blessed Word, the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy God.

Notes:

15. essay – try; attempt.
16. explication – explanation.
17. enthusiasm – the Greek from which this word derives means “possession by a divine spirit.” Came to mean the belief that someone receives direct, personal revelation from God.
18. Quakerism –founded by George Fox in 1668. Their primary feature is a belief in Inner Light, direct illumination from God, which they elevate to a place of spiritual authority, superior even to Scripture.
19. fantastical – imaginary; not real; produced only in the imagination.
20. Marcion (d. c. 160) – 2nd century heretic and founder of churches that rivaled orthodox Christianity. According to Marcion, Christ was not born but simply appeared; did not have a real body; only seemed to suffer; and raised Himself from the dead.
21. Valentinus (c. 100-c. 175) – 2nd century Gnostic leader in Alexandria, Egypt, and author
of the most influential Gnostic system. His Christ only had an apparent body.
22. John Owen, “How Is the Practical Love of Truth the Best Preservative against Popery?”, Puritan Sermons 1659-1689, Being the Morning Exercises at Cripplegate, Vol. 3, p. 217.

From Faith No Fancy: or, A Treatise of Mental Images, W. & T. Ruddimans, Edinburgh.

Ralph Erskine (1685-1752): one of the most popular preachers in the Church of Scotland in his day. A participant with Thomas Boston in the Marrow Controversy; his sermons were full of the love of God and the calls of Christ in the gospel. His most extensive publication was Faith No Fancy: or, A Treatise of Mental Images. Born in Monilaws, Scotland.

Published with permission of Chapel Library.