run very clear Streams from the Fountain of Israel and they as I quoted before out of the first part of the Sermon of Salvation are wonderful clear for such a Change as the Doctor affirms and Mr. Williams denies saying So that Christ is now the Righteousness of all them that truly do believe in him He for them paid their Ransom by his Death he for them fulfilled the Law in his Life so that now IN HIM and BY HIM every true Christian Man may be called a fulfiller of the Law This Golden Sentence which might be for an Ornament in Gold Letters in every House in England doth fully vindicate to a Tittle Dr. Crisp's Change of Persons Christ himself is their Righteousness he paid Ransom for them they were fulfillers of the Law in him and by him What can be more full to the Point I hope the Bishop will not charge these great Men the Composers of this Sermon as he has done the Doctor with an imaginary unproved Change §. CLI One word more to the Bishop's Argument to prove that it is but an imaginary Notion to think that we are compleatly Righteous by the Righteousness of Christ without any act of ours which Argument of his is in these words I could easily prove that in all the Transactions between God and Mankind some Conditions were required on our side in order to his favour So it was in the State of Innocency so it continued after Man's Fall as it appears by those words of God to Cain If thou dost well shalt thou not be accepted if thou dost not well Sin lyeth at the door Gen. 4.7 'T is strange so great a Man should offer so weak an Argument to argue from a state of Innocency or from the state of Reprobate Cain or from the Covenant of Works what belongs to the Elect under the Covenant of Grace and under the Gospel where Works and Grace are made opposite Terms If of Works then no more of Grace saith the Apostle Was not Abel first accepted and then his Offering Is not the first Promise all of Grace He Christ shall bruise thine the Devil's Head And is not the last Promise the like Whoever will let him take of the Water of Life freely But by the Bishop's Doctrine a clever way is made to overthrow the whole Gospel To you is born a Saviour and to subvert the Orthodox Doctrine of the Church of England at once by bringing from the Dead the Covenant of Works to be saved by our doing well and not by Christ's doing and dying for us Whereas Abel's Sacrifice was accepted he himself being first accepted and his Sacrifice being offered in Faith but Cain and his Sacrifice rejected being not offered in Faith not looking to Jesus alone for Salvation by him The Bishop seems to run counter diametrically against the Apostle who argues strenuously Not of Works of no sort kind or degree lest any boast and by the Deeds of the Law shall no Flesh he justified He sums it up in Eph. 2. By Grace ye are saved through Faith and that not of your selves it is the Gift of God Not of Works lest any boast And Christ is the end of the Law for Righteousness to every one that believeth Thus the Scripture is plain against this Argument of the Bishop That our performing of Conditions must be in order to gain God's Favour §. CLII. Then for the Doctrine of the Church see what that saith of Conditions or of any Works of ours to gain God's Favour In the second Sermon of Salvation the good Christians of those days that were singed by the Popish Fires in Queen Maries days they tell us So that the true understanding this Doctrine That we be justified by Faith freely without Works or that we be justified by Faith in Christ only is not that this our own Act to believe in Christ or this our Faith in Christ which is within us doth justifie us A Sentence fit to be ingraven in every Church in England in order to take Men from trusting to their Repentance or good Works The like again is in the same Sermon as followeth We must renounce the Merit of Faith Hope Charity and all other Vertues and good Deeds And we must trust only in God's Mercy and that Sacrifice which our High Priest and Saviour Christ Jesus once offered As great and as goodly a Vertue as lively Faith is yet it putteth us from it self and remitteth and appointeth us unto Christ for to have only by him Remission of our Sins Observe these Eminent Stars of the first Magnitude in the Heaven of that Church of Old they are so far from bringing in our Repentance Charity and good Deeds or any act of ours to obtain Favour with God which the Bishop pleads for that they exclude Faith it self as having any hand in justifying us any farther than as it remitteth us to Christ But alas how is our Gold become Dross How are our great Men fallen from the Pure Primitive Doctrines of the Church of England And though they live splendidly by subscribing to these Doctrines yet in their Preaching and Writing they miserably warp as here in part from them Witness the setting up some Acts of ours to be done in order to obtain God's Favour And because God treated with Adam on account of Do and live therefore 't is supposed monstrously that Men when dead in Sins must work for Life or as the Bishop The Ministry of Reconciliation in St. Paul is wholly founded on Conditions on our side which he calls Acts of ours and may as well be called our good Works And all this because the Apostle pray'd them to be reconciled to God which cannot well be construed to be more than to pray them to accept the Reconciliation which God had made of Sinners to himself by Christ at his Death For if as the Apostle saith God was in Christ reconciling the World to himself then the Work was done when Christ cryed out on the Cross It is finished And if the word of Reconciliation was committed to the Apostles to publish to the World the Reconciliation that God had made of Sinners to himself by Christ what could his Embassadors mean in praying Sinners to be reconciled to God but to accept of what he had mentioned before of the act done long before viz. That God had reconciled Sinners to himself by Christ and to let them know that they were some of the reconciled ones if they would accept thereof and take these Waters of Life freely and so accept the Exhortation as Titus did 2 Cor. 8.17 §. CLIII O! how sad is it to eclipse the glorious Gospel Truth That our Sins were laid by God on Christ as the Doctor insists on it while the Bishop is pleased to load it with such very bad Consequences as might deter the weak and unconsidering from believing the plainest Positions in the Scripture viz. That the Lord laid on him the Iniquity of us all and he bare
Faith in him or else we must feign that a Believer hath a Spiritual Life in him that is not from Christ if he have Faith before he is united to Christ as some pretend and so there would be two Spiritual Lives in a Believer one before Union to Christ which works Faith and the other from Christ upon acting our Faith But this Ass of our own Spiritual Life and the Oxe of Christ's Life in us will not draw well together So that I think I may safely conclude this is no Heresie to say that Union to Christ is before Faith much less is that which follows an Heresie to say that we partake of the Spirit by vertue of that Vnion This is brought in as part of the fifth Heresie Whence do the Branches partake of the Sap of the Vine but from the Root by Vertue of Union to the Vine 'T is strange to admiration that this should be question'd by those who like Peter seem to be Pillars in the Church to call it an Antinomian Heresie to say We partake of the Spirit by vertue of Vnion to Christ If the Spirit be not in us before Faith how can he convince of Sin in not believing and thereby work Faith Doth not the Scripture say plainly 1 Cor. 12.8 9. To one is given by the Spirit the word of Wisdom to another Faith by the same Spirit Doth the Spirit give Faith and is he not then in the Soul to work Faith before it is wrought Is not the Former before the Thing formed If so then sure my Dear Kratiste was in a great Mistake and has sadly imposed on those that profess Faith in our Lord Jesus to rank this for a Heresie That we partake of the Spirit by vertue of our Vnion to Christ which in Naturâ is before Faith The sixth as being much akin to the former I pass only with the naming of it 'T is Heresie he saith to say Justification in regard of Application must be before Believing Whose Saying this is or whence it is taken I know not If the meaning be that God applies it to us or reckons it to us before our Believing that we are Justified This is so far from Heresie that I think the contrary is a Contradiction Or 't is Nonsense for me to believe a Thing is mine before it is given me or applyed to me and so made mine And in that Sense the Application of Justification by God's Spirit to my Conscience that God hath loved me and given his Son for me this must first be applyed to me before I can believe it or else my Believing is but Presumption But if by Application of Justification before Believing he means that the Soul doth apply it to himself before his Believing I think he is to seek for any that hold that Tenet §. XXVII His seventh Heresie is this That the first Application ordine Naturae saltem is to an Vngodly Man eo nomine that he may believe That this is a blessed Gospel-Truth and no Heresie appears by what our Blessed Lord Jesus saith That he came not to call the Righteous but Sinners And his immediate Call made them follow him as Levi from being a Publican to be a believing Disciple Nay saith our Lord Publicans and Harlots enter into the Kingdom of God before you Ye believed not but the Publicans and Harlots believed Matth. 21.31 32. Here was Application to ungodly Wretches eo nomine that they might believe and when Publicans and Harlots they did believe and so came off from their Ungodliness Yea the Dog Syrophenaecian as Christ called her she had Faith given her while she was a Dog even to the Admiration of Christ himself who said O Woman great is thy Faith And saith the Apostle for a full Proof that the Application is to an ungodly Man eo nomine While we were Enemies we were reconciled to God by the Death of his Son Nay as God will have it the very word ungodly which they oppose as Heresie is asserted in the Scripture that the first Application of Christ is to an ungodly Man in Rom. 4.5 To him that believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his Faith is counted for Righteousness If the Blessed Apostle saith God justifieth the ungodly I trow this is no Heresie in him but if Heterodox Dr. Crisp say the same words then 't is an Antinomian Heterodoxy Now there 's a great out-cry what do you make God to be Is God such a Friend to Sin as to justifie the Vngodly Doth it become the Holiness of God to justifie an ungodly Man This is the way to vindicate all licentious Antinomianism That God justifies the Vngodly and that while he is an Enemy he is reconciled to God O out upon such profane Antinomians We can allow the Apostle Paul to use such Language because we can distinguish this into he doth not justifie the Vngodly that the Apostle means so whatever he saith but we cannot bear it that Apochryphal Tobias should say so nor that Mysterious Nonsense say so as Mr. Williams called Mr. Cole we cannot bear it in him for this is to open a gap to Profaneness to say God justifieth the Vngodly §. XXVIII The eighth Heresie is to assert That we believe that we may be justified declaratively The Case I take to be thus The Apostle saith in Gal. 2.16 We believe that we may be justified by the Faith of Jesus from whence the Neonomians conclude that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 credere our Act of Faith is that very Thing which justifies us or that we are justified by our Work of Faith if not by Works of Faith and Holiness which sometimes they joyn yet at least by a Work by our Act of Believing Whereas the Orthodox according to the Homilies and Doctrine of the Church of England from plain Scripture put Faith it self from us as that Act that justifies and say Faith justifies only declaratively as it manifests to the Conscience our being justified by Christ's Blood Rom. 5.9 and freely by his Grace not our Grace of Faith through the Redemption that is in Jesus Rom. 3.24 Titus 3.7 It is still ascribed to his Grace not any Grace in us our Grace of Faith being only the Instrument or Hand given us of God to receive Christ and all in him If Justification be as they would have it from any Act of ours as the Ground or Cause of it then we are not freely justified by his Grace but by our Work of Believing which if not a Popish is an Arminian Tenet to blemish the Free Grace of God in Jesus Christ So that it may be safely concluded that it is no Heresie to say our Justification by Faith is declarative in as much as the Essence of Justification is by the Blood of Jesus and the Grace of God imputing it to us is the form of our Justification which being received by Faith is thereby manifested or declared to the Conscience by the Illumination of the Holy
28.16 Is not that our Lord Jesus of whom the Apostle saith Other Foundation can no Man lay And Christ saith On this Rock I will build my Church And shall we now have this Egg laid That our good Works are the Foundation to the building us up unto Glory Sure this rotten Egg can never be endured in the Nostrils of any good Christian The first is like it as one Egg can be to another That our good Works have the same respect to Glory that the Seed hath to the Harvest Now every one knows that the Harvest grows immediately from the Seed and if we had no Harvest of Glory but what grows out of the Seed of our Works it would be a very dark dunghil Glory for our best Righteousness as to getting us Glory is but as menstruous Rags But for our Comfort the Scripture saith One sows and another reaps Christ hath in Infinite Grace sowed his Body as a grain of Wheat in the Earth John 12.24 out of which all our Glory must grow O how contrary is his Assertion to the whole Gospel which saith We are saved by Grace and not of Works lest any Man should boast Our Glory is so far from being the Harvest of our Works that the Apostle saith He hath saved us not according to our Works of Righteousness which we have done 2. Tim. 1.9 Neither for our Works nor according to them O how sad is it that my Dear Kratiste should by his Hand together with Forty Eight more midwife this rotten Egg into the World The third is of the same brood That Glory is the Wages of our Works which is diametrically opposite to the Apostle who wholly excludes Works saying in Rom. 11.6 If it be by Grace it is no more of Works otherwise Grace is no more Grace But if it be of Works it is no more of Grace And the Apostle concludes to the shame of self-justiciaries Rom. 3.27 Where is boasting then it is excluded By what Law of Works Nay but by the Law of Faith So that Mr. Williams must not lay this Egg at the Apostle's Gate it being as rotten an one as any in the whole Council of Trent But one dash of the Rebuker's Pen That he hath accounted for what he hath written by subscribing the Assemblies Confession shall cleanse him from all whereas his subscribing that without his recanting this is but like some of the Clergy in Antisozzo that snatch up the Pen to subscribe the Articles of the Church of England and to their shame immediately preach against some of them in advancing Man's Free-will in opposition to God's Free Irresistible Grace and denying particular Election and the like For which we may mourn and say Proh Dolor §. XCIX It is not to be unminded how the Rebuker slides off the three first Conditions on which Mr. Williams his acceptance was to be grounded which are these If he concur in the Doctrine of Justification and the Change of Persons between Christ and Believers and Christ's undergoing the Father's displeasure for our Sins These he saith in 58 I will not mention to save Time and Paper A great Husband of Time and Paper But would not Time and Paper have been better imployed by far in setting these three Points in a true Light than to talk of whaffling Whelps and rotten Eggs I fear there are greater Reasons than to save Time and Paper that he waves them It being judged by many from his Writings that he is not extraordinary tight in the Point of Justification and therefore being conscious thereof he might not be free to expose himself by declaring his Judgment therein as to the Conditionality of Faith and New Obedience and how far our Works have any concern in our Justification notwithstanding the Scripture saith We are justified freely by his Grace And it may justly be suspected that he who could say We did not sin Adam 's Sin so denying the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 might as well say That that Sin of his was not ours and so we not concerned in it so as to be condemned for it And thence might as well say that Christ's Righteousness which he performed in obeying and suffering the Law is not ours it was only wrought for our Good and so we not justified by God's imputing it to us but that we have only the Effects of it or this is the main viz. Pardon of our Sins if we repent and believe and walk in holy Obedience and so continue to the end of our Lives thereby denying assurance till the last breath and then for the sake of Christ's Righteousness on our sincere performance of our Duty we shall have Heaven and Happiness as his Gospel-Truth stated and before him Mr. R. B. But if this be current how can the Scripture be true that we are justified freely by his Grace and that we are justified by his Blood that he was raised for our Justification without one word of our Gospel-Obedience concurring thereto it being not according to Works of Righteousness which we have done And whereas the Word saith we are justified by Faith all sound Protestants the Assemblies Confession and the Doctrine of the Church of England do uno ore with one mouth agree that it is not the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 credere it is not our Act of Faith justifies us but the Object of Faith that Righteousness of Christ which he wrought out for us which we lay hold on and receive by Faith It is that Righteousness made ours given to us by God and reckoned by God to us which alone doth justifie us on which account it is said It is God that justifies Rom. 8. But this my Kratiste waves lest he should bewray it is feared some halting in this as the Reporter saith he has done in the Point of Christ's Satisfaction Or else if he be right in it himself and if he had declared it he must have left his Friend Mr. D. W. in the Ditch who is sadly tardy in this case §. C. As to his second Point that he waves The Change of Persons between Christ and Believers this he might be allowed for he had said enough and too much of that in ridiculing it before with Christ's wearing a Mask a Vizor c. when he bare the Persons of the Elect in himself For which I beseech the Lord to give him Repentance and Pardon §. CI. But as to the third of Christ's bearing the Father's displeasure for our Sins he having said little or nothing of that before it might have been expected he should have said somewhat of it now if it had been only to confirm his Friend Mr. Williams who had abused the Doctor when he took the Doctor to task about it But this is so fully handled by Dr. Chancy and such full Evidence brought in by him of our Lord Jesus his undergoing the displeasure of God and sustaining the Wrath of God for our Sins when by God himself they were laid upon him
from helping to wash away the Guilt or Fault that they need to be wash'd in the Blood of Christ to take away their own Guilt and Fault and the making one Debt for our Lord Jesus to satisfie even that of the Fault in our best Works is a strange way for our clearing our selves from a former Debt or Fault §. CXLV I would humbly recommend to all that stagger in this Point but especially to the Dignified Persons of the Church of England to look again and again into the Sound Fundamental Doctrines of the Church as they are exemplified in the Homilies appointed by several Acts of Parliament to be read in the Churches when there is no Sermon which Acts have never been yet repealed and I may say are as necessary in this Degenerate Age of the evacuating the great Truths of our Religion as when first made These Homilies speak home to the Point that the Bishop is upon of Christ's bearing our Sins Those Holy Servants of the Lord that composed them soon after the Nations coming out of the Blind Popish Religion they say in the second Sermon of Man's Misery thus He Christ paid our Ransom to God with his own Blood and with that he CLEANSED us from our Sin They don't say he bare the Punishment only but he by his Blood shed on the Cross then at that time he cleansed us from our Sins How could that be if our Sins our very Sins were not then translated to Christ as Dr Crisp from the Scripture and these Homilies saith So that for Mr. Williams or the Bishop or any Man to say it is near Blasphemy to say our very Sins were laid on Christ is to run a Dagger to the Heart of the Doctrine of the Church of England and to evade plain Scripture as well as to make Dr Crisp an Antinomian for it for the Doctor herein runs parallel to the Sound Orthodox Doctrine of the Church for which besides the main Bulwark of the Scripture he hath many Acts of Parliament to back him from the Slanders of the Despisers of the Free Grace of God §. CXLVI I being now perusing these Homilies and considering how the Reverend Bishop in his Letter insists so much on Conditions required by God of Man in order to God's Favour I make bold to make a little Remark how much the Bishop differs from those Antient Doctors of the Church and from himself if he be true to his Subscription to the Doctrines of the Church First let us see what the Bishop saith then what the Homilies say In Page 67 the Bishop saith I could easily prove that in all the Transactions between God and Mankind some Conditions on our side were required in order to his Favour So it was in the State of Innocency a tydy Argument so it continued after Man's Fall But I pass over these and come to the Terms of Salvation as declared by Christ himself The main Business of his Preaching was to put Men upon performing such Conditions as were necessary to their Salvation Promising Blessedness to the Humble Merciful Pure in heart Matt. 5.3 4 c. What do these things mean if they be not Conditions on our parts necessary in order to Happiness But God he still insists on our own endeavours by striving to enter c Do not these note the necessity of the Performance of Conditions on our side And therefore all Imaginary Notions of such a Change of Persons as hath no regard to any Act of ours is wholly repugnant to the main Scope and Design of the Gospel Thus the Bishop What is become here of the whole Tenor of the Gospel we are Saved by Grace being Justified freely by his Grace through the Redemption that is in Jesus not of Works lest any boast this is thrust quite out of doors for what are these Conditions and these Acts of ours but Works which though called for and necessary to glorifie God by way of Service and Thanks yet not any way to Justifie us or Save us For we are Saved by Grace and not of Works otherwise Grace is no more Grace 'T is for another end that all our Holiness is called for to Repent be Humble Pure of Heart and Merciful 'T is to magnifie God that hath saved us by Christ Saints shall be Holy Humble Pure of Heart in Heaven Is that in order to get God's Favour No but to serve and glorifie God for his Favour and we are to do the Will of God as near as we can on Earth as it is done in Heaven not to get Heaven which Christ alone hath bought for us but to magnifie God for giving himself Son and Spirit to us and for giving Heaven and all Spiritual Blessings with him begun in this Life and perfected above to make our Works Conditions on our parts to get Heaven is to Rob our Lord Jesus of his Crown and Glory and to set it on the Head of our sorry imperfect Works But besides the whole Current of the Gospel that we are saved by Grace let us see what the Bishop hath signed to and is dignified by even the Doctrines of the Church of England and they are clear for our Interest in Christ and Salvation to be all of Grace they drive us from all Works of our own and say in that second Sermon of Man's Misery No part of our Justification is of our selves no part not the least dram of our Works is to come in for any share in our Justification And in the next line they say Our Justification cometh only by Jesus Christ Here is not the least tittle of our Acts of Obedience insisted on or Gospel-Conditions to get Salvation 't is only by Christ all they insist on is to render Thanks to God for Free Salvation by Christ as it follows What Thanks worthy and sufficient can we render to him Let us burst forth with joyful Voice praising this Lord of Mercy Then they reiterate our not being able to do any thing of our selves wholly to renounce our selves and say very unlike the Bishop's Letter In our selves we may not glory which of our selves are NOTHING but Sinful neither may we rejoyce in any Works we do How nothing but Sinful and no rejoycing in any Works we do May we not Joy in performing the Conditions and doing Acts to obtain God's Favour No no there is no rejoycing in any thing for we are nothing but Sinful As for Conditions to get God's Favour they knew none but Jesus Christ he was the great Condition he being the great only compleat Saviour the Alpha and Omega first and last in our Salvation This Doctrine would be accounted Rank Antinomianâ—sm in Dr. Crisp a dangerous Error to take Men off from good Works to tell them we are nothing but Sinful and we may not rejoyce in any Works we do But this is honest good sound Orthodox yea glorious Doctrine in the Hearts of those that have tasted of Salvation by Free Grace and is establish'd as