tells us it is a propitiation to cover our sins which in no case can bee properly said of faith As for his words wherein he affirmes that there is more comfort in faith imputed then in the righteousnesse of Christ imputed they are most wicked and more hatefull then any poperie yea blasphemous in exalting mans faith into the royall Throne of Christs righteousnesse and calling the teaching of the imputation thereof the laying of a stumbling block in our way It is to be feared that he who thus speakes and writes hath stumbled at Christ the precious stone which GOD hath laid in his Zion as the Apostle intimates speaking of them who make the righteousnes of Christ a stumbling block and stone of offence Rom. 9.33 In the next place after these frivolous arguments hee takes upon him to answer some places of the Apostle which are produced by us and objected against him wherein faith and hope are used to signifie their obiects that is the things beleeved and hoped for as Gal. 1 22· and 3.23 and Colos. 1.5 And here he doth use notable trifling and most absurd tergiversation First hee grants the Apostle doth use in his writings such tropes of speech which is a thing so manifest that impudency it selfe is ashamed to deny it And by granting this he contradicts what hee hath before affirmed to wit that in all the Apostles writings such a trope is not to be found Secondly hee opposeth what before hee granted by a forged and false distinction affirming that the habit of faith may bee used to signifie the obiect but not the act Cujus contrarium est verissimum For in the places obiected the act as well as the habit and especially the act of faith and hope are to be understood for the habit is ordained to be exercised about the proper obiect but it never is exercised about it nor reacheth to it but by the act faith by believing comprehends Christ and his righteousnes and so doth hope by the acts of it reach that within the vaile And indeed if wee observe it we shall see in this discourse that faith which signifies the habit as well as believing which is the act is here said to be imputed for righteousnes as ver 5. and 9. and therefore this distinction helpes him nothing at all Thirdly hee contradicts himselfe againe and grants that the act may be used to expresse the object but then he flees to his old shift saying that Christs righteousnesse is not the object of justifying faith or of faith as justifying which error I have before confuted and indeed it is contrary to all reason for the proper object of faith as it is an instrument of justification is nothing else but righteousnes Fourthly he utters a notable untruth when he saith that the Scripture where it speakes of faith as justifying makes not the least mention of Christs righteousnes and fulfilling of the Law Let him read Rom. 3.24 and 10.4 and tell me whether the believing of the man to whom Christ is the end or fulfilling of the Law for righteousnes be not justifying faith when we are said to be justified by the redemption which is in Jesus Christ whether our beleeving of that our redemption be not a true justifying faith Lastly he argues without reason that though Christs righteousnes be a thing which is to be belived so is a partial object of faith yet it is not the object of justifying faith because creation of the world Christs being born of a virgin and his ascention are partiall objects and yet not of faith as it is justifying but either Christ himselfe or the promies of God concerning the redemption and salvation of the world by him To which I answere 1 that his sylogism is without mood or figure it is as if I should thus reason That Master Goodwin though he be a living creature yet because some living creatures as Asses and Apes are not reasonable creatures therefore he is not a reasonable creature 2. I must tell him there is but one true saving faith and that is iustifying faith and he who can by true holy faith beleeve aright the creation or the nativity of Christ borne of a virgin or his ascention he hath iustifying faith though when faith is acting about iustification the proper obiect is righteousnes even Christs full satisfaction for our redemption and salvation and the iustifying act is beleeving that Christ is made unto us of God righteousnes and we are made the righteousnes of God in him And faith imputed for righteousnes ver 3. is righteousnes imputed ver 6. and 11. Thus you see all circumstances in the context stand up in contestation with his exposition which by faith here said to be imputed understands faith in a proper sense and per se not faith in respect to Christs righteousnes But that I may not seeme to conceale any thing nor give any thing for his upon trust I will set downe these tergiversations in his owne words Socinianisme IF it be obiected that faith is sometimes put for the obiect of faith as Gal. 3.23 before faith came and Gal. 1.22 he preacheth the faith c. And may be so used with a good propriety of speech marke this bull that faith put for the obiect of it is a proper speech as hope is put for the thing hoped for which is an expression usuall in Scripture To this I answere first by concession it is true the name of the faculty is sometimes put for the obiect appropriated to it neither is there any hardnes or cause of offence or mistake in such an expression but it rather addes a grace and countenance to the sentence wherein it is used seasonably and with iudgement as might be exemplified by severall Scripture instances if it were pertinent But 2. by way of opposition I answer Here observe how he playes Jack a both sides First though the faculty bee sometimes put for the obiect yet the act is seldome or never to my remembrance the act or exercise of hope is never put for the things hoped for but hope it selfe is sometimes found in that signification as Col. 1.5 for the hope which is laid up in heaven so Tit. 2.13 looking for the blessed hope Now that which is here said to bee imputed to Abraham for righteousnesse was not the habit of his faith but Abraham beleeved GOD that is exercised or put forth an act of faith and it was imputed to him for righteousnesse Secondly though it should bee granted that as well the act as the habit or faculty may be sometimes put for the object yet when the act and object have beene named together and the act expressed and specified by an object proper to it and somewhat immediately ascribed to the act under that consideration all which is plainely seene in this clause Abraham beleeved GOD and it was imputed to him for righteousnesse in this case to conceive or to affirme that what is so ascribed
was in the first covenant and under the Law So all Divines hold both ancient and moderne The Conclusion THerefore upon mens beleeving GOD shall bee as countable to them to give them the same favour rewards and privileges that should have beene given unto them in regard of the perfect righteousnesse of workes and of the Law if they had fulfilled it First for his negatives heaped up in the proposition wherein wee have a narration of what he holds not if we lay them altogether they will conclude that faith is no way at all imputed for righteousnes for neither in respect of the subject in which the habit of it resteth nor in respect of the actes which man performes by it nor in respect of any thing which GOD by his spirit gives it in the production of it that is for no quantity quality or vertue in it nor in respect of the object Christ nor in respect of the life soule or forme which gives it the specificall being and subsistence so hee plainely professeth and besides these there is no other respect in which it may bee imputed as al reasonable men do know Therefore the conclusion is that it is not imputed at all But yet in affirming nothing but denying all respects which reason can conceive in faith and in roming from himselfe and us he kicks at us and by the way snarls and bytes at the truth For it is most certaine that faith is said to be imputed in respect of GODS production of it by his spirit and in respect of the object Christ and his righteousnes which it doth lay hold on and apply For the spirit of regenerarion being shed on us through Christ dwelling in us and making us one body with Christ partakers of his whole satisfaction doth worke iustifying faith in us and this union and conjunction which in order of nature goeth before faith and concurres to the production of it is the ground and reason of the imputation of it If Christ were not made ours and his satisfaction communicated to us faith could not truely believe in Christ nor truely apply his righteousnesse therefore the two last of his negatives are false and haereticall Besides it is not to be passed over in silence that here againe he contradicts himselfe and grants that Christ with his righteousnesse is the object of faith and laying hold on him is the life and soule of faith which hee utterly denyeth and disputes to the contrary in the next Chapter as I have touched before As for his assumption the sum whereof is that faith is imputed and accepted of GOD for righteousnesse upon the same termes that perfect righteousnes of works should have beene in the first Covenant This is Socinian haeresie in the highest degree so grosse and palpable and so openly and expressely affirmed by him that no salt of interpretation can keepe it from stinking in the nostrills of any true Christian. Here also wee may note his ignorance absurdity and nonsense for instead of shewing in what respect faith is imputed hee affirmes that hee holds it to be imputed instead of perfect righteousnesse of our owne workes and that it is in the new Covenant a condition answerable and every way as sufficient and availeable to procure all favours rewards and priviledges to us from GOD as the righteousnesse of workes was in the Covenant of workes and both here and in the conclusion hee makes faith as meritorious and as strong a bond to tye GOD and make him countable for all favours rewards and priviledges under paine of being counted a covenant breaker as the perfect fulfilling of the Law by every man in his owne person was in the covenant of workes and here doth more then give the right hand of fellowship to Popish justification for hee transcends them and makes GOD more obliged to men for them and more countable then any Papists ever did As for the testimonies which hee brings out of Ambrose and Calvin they are nothing to his purpose they onely affirme that as the Law was mans onely guide to salvation and the rule of righteousnesse in the old covenant So faith in the Gospel is the onely way to salvation in the new covenant and the meanes by which we receive the grace of GOD and the righteousnesse of Christ offered to us for justification and salvation Socinianisme SEcondly when we deny the imputation of Christs righteousnes in justification we neither deny the righteousnesse of Christ in it selfe we rather suppose and establish it neither 2º doe wee deny the absolute necessity of it both to the justification and salvation of a sinner neither 3º do wee deny a meritorious efficiencie and causalitie in that righteousnes in respect of the justification of a sinner but verily believe and conceive that GOD justifieth all that are justified not simply or barely for Christs sake or for his righteousnes sake for a man may doe a thing for his sake whom he much loves and respects though he hath not otherwise deserved it at his hands but for the righteousnesse of Christ his death being taken into the consideration with it why GOD should justifie those that believe in him But 4º and lastly that which we deny in denying the imputation of Christs righteousnesse is this that GOD should looke upon a believing sinner and account of him as one that hath done in his owne person all that Christ did in obedience to the morall Law and hereupon pronounce him righteous or which is the same that GOD should impute unto him those particular acts of obedience which Christ performed in that nature and property of them so that hee should stand as righteous before GOD as Christ himselfe or which is the same righteous with the selfe same righteousnesse wherewith Christ was righteous and so GOD make himselfe countable to him for such obedience imputed in as great matters of rewards as he would have beene for the like obedience personally performed by himselfe in a word this is that which we deny and this is that which we affirme concerning the righteousnesse of Christ in the justification of a sinner that GOD cloathes none with the letter of it but every man that believes with the spirit of it 1. that this righteousnes of Christ is not that that is imputed unto any man for his righteousnesse but is that for which righteousnes is imputed to every man that believeth a justified person may in such a sense be said to be cloathed with Christs righteousnesse as Pauls necessities were relieved and supplied by his hands Act. 20.24 these hands saith hee have ministred to my necessities Paul neither eate his fingers nor spun out the flesh of his hands into cloathing and yet was both fed and cloathed with them So may a believer be said to be cloathed with the righteousnesse of Christ and yet the righteousnes of Christ it selfe not to be his cloathing but onely that which procureth his cloathing unto him and so Calvin calls that
the Scripture where any thing besides faith and believing is said to be counted to man for righteousnes is that place of the Psalmist Psal. 106. and 31. where the godly zealous act of Phinees in executing just judgement on Zamri and Cosbi is said to be counted to him for righteousnes Now the meaning of the wordes there cannot be that this act of Phinees was accepted of GOD and counted to him for righteousnes to justification For then it will follow that a man may bee justified before GOD by one act or worke of his owne Which the Apostle here utterly condemneth as a grosse errour and bends his whole discourse against it The true sense and meaning of the phrase is no more but this that Phinees performing such an act of godly zeale as is proper onely to a faithfull righteous man who by the spirit of regeneration dwelling in him is so united unto Christ that by faith he was a true partaker of his righteousnes GOD upon this act gave him the testimony of righteousnes and declared and judged him to bee a righteous man truly justified Therefore the Apostles phrase of counting faith to the beleever for righteousnes which he often useth in this Chapter signifieth after the same manner GODS counting a true beleever for a righteous man and giving him the testimony of righteousnes because he is righteous indeed by communion of Christs righteousnesse which hee hath apprehended applied and enjoyeth by faith The confutation of the false hereticall exposition of the Apostles wordes maintained by the Socinian faction FIrst whereas they hold that faith considered by it selfe in a proper literall sense without consideration of the object or laying hold on Christ and his righteousnes is counted to the beleever for righteousnes to justification and GOD requires in and of us no other thing for righteousnes neither our owne workes performed in our owne persons according to the Law nor Christs perfect righteousnes and fulfilling of the Law made ours by spirituall union and communion with Christ and accepted of GOD for us This I prove to bee false hereticall and blasphemous by these arguments following First faith taken in a proper sense is a part of our conformity and argument 1 obedience to the Law of GOD which above all things requires that wee give honour to GOD by beleeving him and his word and by trusting in him as our onely rock the GOD of our strength and salvation They therefore teaching that faith in a proper sense is counted for righteousnes doe teach that wee are iustified by a worke of obedience to the Law performed in our owne persons and GOD requires on our behalfe no other righteousnes for justification which Doctrine the Apostle utterly condemnes Therefore their opinion and exposition is hereticall and more impious then the Pelagian and Popish heresies concerning iustification Secondly that which was properly argument 2 imputed to Abraham and is so imputed to true beleevers is righteousnes so the Apostle in plaine wordes expresseth verse 6. and 11. but faith in a proper sense is not righteousnes For righteousnes is perfect conformity to the Law as sinne is transgression of the Law yea humane righteousnes is a mans keeping of the whole Law and his observing to doe all GODS commandements with his whole heart all the dayes of his life as wee read Deuteronomie 8. Thirdly that which chargeth argument 3 GOD with errour and falshood in his iudgement is blasphemous This opinion that GOD counts faith for righteousnes that is thinketh iudgeth and esteemeth it to bee righteousnes in a proper sense chargeth GOD with errour and falshood in his iudgement For faith is not any true righteousnes properly Therefore this opinion is blasphemy If they plead that GOD by his absolute soveraignty of power may accept and repute that for righteousnes which is not true righteousnes This doth but more entangle them and involve them in errour For GOD and his soveraigne power are all one as GOD cannot lye nor make contradictories true so his sovereignty of power cannot either make that to bee righteousnes which is not or truely iudge it so to bee Neither can his infinite iustice bee satisfied without perfect fulfilling of his Law nor allow any man to bee iustified without righteousnes nor will his truth suffer him to count any iust who is not iust Therefore by this base shift and wicked pretence devised to hide and cover their blasphemy they do runne further into blasphemy and make his soveraigne power a tyrant and oppressour of his iustice and truth argument 4 Fourthly that opinion which taketh away and denyeth the meanes by which GOD is revealed to be infinitely iust mercifull and wise and makes the satisfaction of Christ and his perfect fulfilling the Law a vaine and needlesse thing is most hereticall impious and blasphemous This opinion that GOD by his sovereigne power can and doth accept and count imperfect faith for perfect righteousnes takes away the meanes by which GODS iustice mercy and wisdome are revealed to be infinit yea it extenuates and vilifies GODS iustice mercy bounty and wisdom and makes Christs full satisfaction a vaine superfluous and needlesse thing Therefore it is an impious and blasphemous opinion First that which reveales GOD to be infinitly iust is that he cannot be reconciled to men that have sinned without execution of iustice to the full and a full satisfaction made according to his iust Law if not by men in their owne persons which is impossible yet by their mediator and surety in their behalfe and by him communicated to them and made theirs as truly as if they had fulfilled the Law in their owne persons And though this satisfaction be of infinit value yet it cannot profit them nor actually merit for them till they be partakers of it truely and really by spirituall communion This is that meanes by which GOD is known to be infinitly iust Secondly when GODS infinite iustice was so strict that nothing could satisfie it nor redeeme mankind but a satisfaction of infinite value made for them And when all the world was not able to find such a satisfaction that his wisedome should finde one out and have it ready before hand in her eternall treasures even a full satisfaction performed in mans nature by GOD the eternall son and also the meanes to make it truely and really the satisfaction of every man truely beleeving that is by the Holy Ghost shed on them through the Sonne Christ and making them one spirituall body with him This reveales GOD to be infinite in wisedome Thirdly in that GOD the Father would in this case give his onely begotten sonne to be humbled in our nature and to obey suffer and make such a satisfaction for poore miserable men in that the sonne would willingly take all this upon him to doe and suffer whatsoever iustice could require and in that the holy Ghost when this satisfaction could not otherwise profit men nor bee made theirs doth not
SOCINIANISME in the Fundamentall point of Justification discovered and confuted Or an Answer to a written Pamphlet maintaining that faith is in a proper sense without a trope imputed to Beleevers in justification Wherein The Socinian fallacies are discovered and confuted and the true Christian Doctrine maintained viz. That the righteousnesse by which true beleevers are justified before God is the perfect righteousnesse and obedience which the Lord Iesus Christ God and man did performe to the Law of God both in his life and death By George Walker B of Divinity and Pastor of S. Iohn the Euangelists Church in Watling-street London A man that is an Hereticke after the first and second admonition reiect knowing that he that is such is subverted and sinneth being condemned of himselfe Tit. 3.10 11. LONDON Printed by R. O. for Iohn Bartlet at the Signe of the gilt Cup in Pauls Church-yard neare S. Augustins Gate 1641. To his Reverend Brethren the Godly Orthodox Pastors and Preachers of Gods Word in and about the City of London the Author of this brief discovery and confutation wisheth all increase of Grace peace and happinesse with the abundance of blessings from God on their faithfull labours MY Reverend and dearely beloved Brethren it is not unknown to divers of you what great conflicts I have had with the adversaries of this Socinian Faction about this main fundamentall point of Justification what pains I have taken to vindicate the truth above six and twenty yeares agoe from the opposition and subtile Sophistry of a cunning adversary who by the fame and opinion which men had of his great Learning and no lesse Piety had drawn many zealous Professors of Religion into some liking of his Errours His written Pamphlets went currently through the City and were to be found in the hands of many men in which he First utterly renounced the Law in whole and part performed by our selves or any other in our stead for the justifying of us in the sight of God Secondly rejected as a meere device of our late Divines the imputation of Christs righteousnesse and satisfaction not onely his habituall righteousnesse but also his whole obedience both active and passive and affirmed it to be a thing wherof there was no testimony or proof in Scripture nor any necessary end or use thereof Thirdly he professed and undertook to prove thot Faith even the act of beleeving and trusting in Christ for salvation after a generall and confused manner as a favourite of God and not as a perfect satisfyer of his justice and just Law is that which God accounts and accepts for righteousnesse to justification in stead of righteousnesse and perfect obedience performed to the will and Law of God either by Christ or our selves These and divers other errors which were here and there interlaced I did at the first discover in some sermons to be no Doctrines of sacred Truth by him digged out of the deep mines of holy Scripture and newly brought to light as his seduced Disciples proclaymed them to be for the inlightning of the blind world in these last dayes of darknesse and perillous times but the old errors and Heresies of Servetus and Socinus newly revived and raked out of hell by Arminius Bertius and others of their Faction Divers of his Friends who had begun to imbrace his opinion were not a little terrified at the hearing of these things and earnestly besought me to give him a meeting who at that time was to me unknown by face I condescended to their desire but wheras I came with an heart full of tender compassion and with Prayers in my mouth and teares in mine eyes layd open before him the danger of his errors and the evill and mischiefe which by meanes of his obstinate persisting in them might accrue to himselfe and those who were by him seduced and misled he on the contrary hardened his heart to maintain per fas et nefas and dolo malo his foresaid erroneous opinions shewing out of Luther on the Galatians some words which seemed to favour his error and to exclude the righteousnesse of the Law from justification which words he applyed to the righteousnesse of the Law performed by Christ for us and did most stiffly so urge them but the words which immediately followed to wit that God justifies us by the righteousnesse of his Son Jesus Christ and by his fulfilling of the Law for us he covered with his fingers till I pluckt the Book out of his hands and read them to those that were present whereby he was much confounded Now the issue of my fair and Christian dealing with him and of my modest and mild opposing of him without such sharpnesse as the cause and his carriage did require was the same which the gentle behaviour of Orthodox Divines towards perverse Hereticks hath commonly had in all former ages For his Factious disciples did impute it to the weaknesse of my Cause and to his arguments convincing my Conscience that his opinions were not so dangerous as I had censured them to be but rather unreprovable yea and laudable And upon my departure out of the City immediately after to Cambridge whither my occasions called me in my absence they reported that at our meeting he did so convince and confound me with strong arguments that I humbled my selfe to him confessed my ignorance imbraced his opinions and promised to hold and maintaine them till death This wicked and Jesuiticall policy which they used to retaine divers of his disciples who wer ready to fall off from him to recall those who were fallen off already did produce a quite contrary effect For when I returned again to the City and was saluted as a Socinian onvert and informed of their false reports lying forgeries I was inflamed with a double desire to vindicate both the truth of God and mine own reputation from their slanderous aspersions and hereupon I betook my selfe to handle and expound that place of Scripture Rom. 5.17 18 19. which doth most pithily and plainly set forth the Doctrine of Justification by the communion of Christs righteousnes and obedience And because I discerned in mine Adversaries a perverse Hereticall spirit and that they had made lyes their refuge and did sinne being condemned of themselves I did with all zeale confute their errours lay open the deadly poyson and malignity of them and cloath them with such reproachfull titles as divers grave and learned Divines of the best reformed Churches had before shaped and fitted to them I proved them to be profane and abominable Doctrine even the damned Heresie of Servetus and Socinus as Sibrandus Lubertus had before stiled them And that their denying of the reciprocall imputation of Christs righteousnesse and satisfaction to the faithfull and of their sinnes to Christ was impiety and blasphemy as learned Beza calls it Though by this meanes my adversaries were enraged and did suggest into the eares and minds of many godly people in the
City to whom as yet I was unknown that I was a green headed novice carryed away with anger and passion rather then zeal yet divers of you my learned Brethren did judge otherwise of me and my labours and God blessed them and made them and your assistance of me therein powerfull and effectuall to the quelling of those errors and to the suppressing of them at that time by putting the Author of them to silence And now for 20. yeares and more they have been buryed in oblivion untill this new Adversary hath raked them up as coales out of ashes and out of a surreptitious Booke which the First Adversary had composed Printed beyond the Seas and procured to be brought in by stealth and sold underhand did bring them into the pulpit and from thence with a tumultuous noyse proclaymed them most confidently Now because I have sufficiently acted my part heretofore in opposing these errors and also divers of you have entered into the lists and with zeale and courage have begun to fight against the reviver of them I should have refrayned my selfe from further medling but because this common adversary hath singled me out and provoked me by a proud challenge to answere his writings I have once more undertaken to answer his challenge which Answer being sent to him privately might there have restâ—d if his most reproachfull and rayling reply full of lyes absurdities contradictions blasphemies and intollerable scoffes and reproaches had not forced me to send it abroad into the world to justifie it selfe from the rayling and slanderous clamours which he and his disciples and factious followers have raised against it I here commend it to your grave censure in hope that the goodnesse of the cause which herein I maintaine will cover mine infirmities and will stirre you up to perfect and finish what I have begun The Truth for which you shall fight is strong and will prevaile all power might glory and victory is Gods for whose cause you stand and our Lord Jesus Christ on whose perfect rigteousnesse you strive to keep the Crown hath all power given him in heaven and in earth To this God eternall and omnipotent and to his eternall Sonne our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and to the most holy and blessed Spirit three persons in one God I commend you and your holy and faithfull labours in my dayly Prayers humbly supplicating to his Majesty for this Grace that I may continue till death Your fellow Soldier and labourer in his Vineyard GEORGE WALKER THE ANSWERERS PREFACE To the first Chapter THE question which is propounded and the state and drift thereof laid down in this first Chapter is in the Authors own words this whether the faith of him that truely beleeves or the righteousnesse of CHRIST be imputed for righteousnesse in the act of justification In this question the imputing of Faith is opposed to the imputing of Christs righteousnesse for righteousnesse to justification which no Orthodox Christian durst attenâ—â— to doe at any time for the godly learned in the Scriptures and acquainted with the writings of Orthodox divines both ancient and Moderne from the time of the Apostles to this day doe alwayes joyne Faith with Christs righteousnesse in the act of justification and do never account them such opposites as doe the one exclude the other and cannot both stand together and be reputed for righteousnesse to beleevers in justification Though the Apostle doth oppose justification by faith to justification by works of the Law performed by every man in his owne person as two opposites which cannot stand together in GODS justification of sinners And this all true Christians receive imbrace and hold for a solid truth and a fundamentall article of Christian Religion Yet they abhorre and detest the opposing of Faith and Christs righteousnes in GODS imputing of righteousnes to beleevers and doe with an unanimous consent teach that in this justifying act of GOD Christs righteousnesse of which all true beleevers have communion is that which GOD in a proper sense is said to accept and repute for righteousnesse and Faith as it receives and applies Christs righteousnesse is said to be imputed but in an improper speech the name of the act being used to signifie the object which we see frequently in Scripture as for example Gal. 3.2.25 where the name Faith is used to signifie the thing beleeved that is the doctrine of the Gospell and Coloss. 1.5 where the name Hope is used to signifie the thing hoped for that is the inheritance and reward laid up for us in Heaven of which kind many more instances may be produced But as for them who have called into controversie the imputation of Christs righteousnesse and having propounded this question whether Faith or the righteousnes of Christ is imputed in the act of justification have set up Faith and thrust out Christs righteousnesse they have ever beene branded by all true Churches of Christ for pestilent Heretikes and enemies of GODS saving truth The first mover of this question was one Petrus Abilardus a pestilent and blasphemous Heretick who being full of the spirit of pride and error did in disputing and writing deny the communion of Christs perfect satisfaction obedience and righteousnesse and the imputation of them for righteousnesse in the justification of true beleevers This filthie wretch was gelded for corrupting and defiling of a Maid and for his blasphemous heresies Saint Bernard and the Bishops of France caused him to be excommunicated and condemned for an Heretike and his blasphemous books to be burned publikely The next instrument of the Devill after him mentioned in former Histories was Servetus that blasphemous Heretike who for heresies and blasphemies which hee dispersed as a vagabond in several Countries in divers books was by Master Calvin discovered apprehended at Geneva condemned and burned and dyed blaspheming Christ most horribly as Beza testifieth in vita Calvini The third notorious Heretike who in writing and bookes published did maintaine this wicked errour and by his Disciples dispersed it in Transilvania Polonia and other adjoyning Countries was Faustus Socinus whose blasphemous faction and sect still continueth and infesteth those Countries at this day The fourth Grand Master and propagatour of this heresie who brought it into Holland nearer unto us was Arminius He did first secretly teach and instill it into the eares and hearts of many disciples and afterwards did openly professe it as we read in his Epistle ad Hyppolytum de collibus wherein he confesseth that he held Faith to be imputed for righteousnesse to justification not in a Metonymicall but in a proper sense And although this and other errours held by him are condemned in the late Synod of Dort yet his disciples the Remonstrants doe obstinately persist in this errour though some of that sect would seeme to decline and disclaime it The fift perverse publisher of this heresie who first openly professed it in England and in manuscript Pamphlets and Printed Bookes
any come to us and bring not the true Doctrine of Christ but damnable Socinianisme errour and heresie we must not show so much curtesie as to bid him God speed 2 Iohn 10. The Analysis of his first Chapter in generall THe first Chapter of his Socinianisme which he cals his premising of somewhat for cleare underderstanding of the state and drift of the question consists of sixe parts In the first part he goeth about to rehearse the severall significations of the words justification and justifying and to determine in what sense the words are used in those Scriptures which speake of the justification of a sinner before GOD. In the second he layes downe 4. Propositions which he takes for granted on all hands and by none denyed but Heretikes In the third he comes to speak of imputation of righteousnesse for justification or rather of somewhat which God in the act of every mans justification doth impute for or instead of righteousnesse to invest him in all priviledges of a man perfectly righteous and withall to shew the reason of this imputation and afterward to determine that Faith is that somewhat imputed In the fourth part hee shewes first negatively how Faith is not imputed and excludes out of his question fiue severally quaeres Secondly affirmatively that Faith as he holds it to be imputed is opposed to the righteousnesse of Christ as to a competitor which receives the repulse In the fift part to cover the shame and scandall of his Hereticall opinion he doth admit Christs righteousnesse into part of the honour for peace and fashion sake as Esau was admitted unto some vanishing participation of some temporary blessings with Iacob For he forgeth a strange and false kind of imaginary imputation of Christs righteousnesse unto which he laboureth to wrest the words of Luther Calvin and the Homilies and Articles of our English Church In the last part hee undertaketh to shew more light that it may be seene to the bottome clearely what he affirmes and what he denyes in the question propounded The particulars whereof we shall see when I come to the answer of them But first I will begin with the first part and will proceed to answer the rest in order Socinianisme THat the termes of Justifying Justification c. are not to be taken in this question nor in any other that are usually moved about the Justification of a sinner either 1. Physico sensu in a Physicall sence as if Justification signified to make just with any habituall actual or any positive or inhaerent righteousnesse 2. Sensu forensi proprie dicto in a juridicall or judiciary sense properly so called when the Judge hath onely a subordinate or derived power of judging and is bound by oath or otherwise to give sentence according to the rule of the Law as to justify were to pronounce a man just or to absolve him from punishment according to the strict termes or rules of that Law wherof he was accused as a transgressor though this sense be received and admitted by many But 3. and lastly Sensu forensi improprie dicto in a Iudiciary sense lesse properly and usually so called viz. Where he that sits Judge being supreme Magistrate hath an Independency and Soveraignety of power to moderate and dispense with the Law as reason and equity shall require So that justifying in this question imports the discharging or absolving of a man from the guilt blame and punishment of those things whereof he is or might justly be accused not because he is cleare of such things or justifiable according to the letter and strictnesse of the Law for then he could not be justly accused But because the Judge having a sufficient and lawfull Soveraignety of power is willing upon sufficient and weighty consideration knowne unto himselfe to remit the penalty of the Law and to deliver and discharge him as if he were an Innocent and righteous man As for that Physicall sence of making just by inhaerent righteousnesse though Bellarmine and his Angels earnestly contend for it yet till the Scriptures be brought low and Etymologie exalted above them til use and custome of speaking deliver up their Kingdome into the Cardinalls hand that sense must no way be acknowledg'd or receiv'd in this dispute yet to give reason and right even unto those that demand that which is unreasonable Its true that GOD in and upon a mans Justification begins to justifie him Physically that is to infuse habituall and inhaerent righteousnesse into him But here the Scriptures and the Cardinall are as far out in termes as in 1000. other things they are in substance and matter That which hee will needs cal Justification the Scripture will as peremptorily call Sanctification Concerning that other sense of judiciary Justification usually so called wherein the Iudge or justifier proceeds upon legall grounds to acquit and absolve the party guilty and accused neither can this be taken in the question propounded except the Scripture be forsaken because the Scripture constantly speakes of this act of GOD Iustifying a sinner not as of such an act whereby he will either make him or pronounce him legally Iust or declare him not to have offended the Law and hereupon justifie him but as of such an act whereby he freely forgives him all that he hath done against the Law and acquits him from all blame and punishment due by the Law for such offences So that in that very act of GOD by which he justifies a sinner as there is a discharge from all punishment due unto sinne so there is a profession withall or plaine intimation of the guiltinesse of the person now to be justified according to the Law and that he is not acquited or discharged upon any consideration that can be pleaded for him according to the Law but that consideration upon which GOD proceeds to justifie him is of another order the consideration of somewhat done for him in this case to relieve him out of the course or order and appointment of the Law He whose Justification stands whether in whole or in part it 's not materiall here in the forgivenesse of sinne can in no construction be said to be Iustified according to the Law because the Law knowes no forgivenesse of sinne neither is there any rule for any such thing nor the least intimation of so much as any possibility of any such thing there The Law speakes of the curse death and condemnation of a sinner but for the Justification of a sinner it neither takes knowledge nor gives any hope thereof Christianisme IN this first part here are onely three significations of the word Justification and Iustifying rehearsed The first is Naturall or Physicall that is making a man just with habituall inhaerent righteousnesse The second is a Iudiciary sense properly so called when a subordinate Iudge doth according to the strict termes and rules of the Law acquit and absolve a man from punishment which is due by the Law to him being a
proposition is that faith in the judgement of every man is the condition required by GOD on mans part to bring him into that communion of justification and redemption which Christ hath purchased c. In which I finde delusion and falshood First hee doth not meane a gift grace or Spirituall qualification appointed by GOD by which as by the hand of the soule stretched out wee must lay hold on Christs satisfaction and righteousnesse for justification and redemption though his words pretend so much but hee meanes that faith is the condition of the new covenant which man must on his part performe in stead of all righteousnesse which the Law requires and so it is in the new covenant the condition of life as workes of the Law and of righteousnesse were the condition of the old covenant This is the very haeresie and damned error of Socinus Secondly he doth here make the covenant of grace a covenant of life not freely but upon a condition performed on mans part and so a covenant of workes contrary to Scripture Rom. 11.6 Thirdly hee erres grossly in imagining faith not to be a free gift of grace but a worke performed on mans part as workes were required in the old covenant Fourthly hee falsely chargeth all honest and godly men to be of his judgment I know that all Orthodox Divines abhorre and detest this opinion Fiftly hee affirmes a manifest untruth in saying that without beleeving none can have part in justification and redemption for no regenerate Infants which die in their Infancy do actually believe and yet being by the Spirit of regeneration engraffed into Christ they have communion of his ransome and righteousnesse are justified before GOD and saved Socinianisme IT 's evident from the Scriptures that GOD in the act of every mans justification doth impute or account righteousnes to him or rather somewhat for or in stead of righteousnes by meanes of which imputed the person justified passeth in account as a righteous man though hee be not properly or perfectly such and is invested accordingly with those great priviledges of a man perfectly righteous deliverance from death and condemnation and acceptation into favour with GOD. The reason of which imputation or why GOD is pleased to use an expression of righteousnesse imputed in or about the justification of a sinner seemes to be this the better to satisfie the naturall scruple of the weake and feeble conscience of men who can hardly conceive or thinke of a justification or of being justified especially by GOD without a perfect legall righteousnesse Now the purpose and counsell of GOD in the Gospell being to justifie men without any such righteousnesse the better to salve the feares of the conscience touching such a defect and to prevent and stay all troublesome thoughts or quaeres which might arise in the mindes of men who when they heare of being justified are still ready to aske within themselves but where is the righteousnesse conceiving a legall righteousnes to be as necessary to justification as Isaac conceived of a Lamb for a burnt offering Gen. 22. He GOD I meane is graciously pleased so far to condescend to men in Scripture treatie with them about the weighty businesse of justification as in effect to grant and say to them that though hee findes no proper or perfect righteousnes in them no such righteousnesse as passeth under the name of righteousnes with them yet if they truely beleeve in him as Abraham did this beleeving shall be as good as a perfect compleat righteousnes unto them or that hee will impute rihteousnes to them upon their beleeving Christianisme THe first thing in this passage to wit GOD imputing righteousnesse to every man in his justification is a thing evident by the Scriptures and I willingly grant it But I abhorre and detest as heresie that which he adds out of his owne conceit to wit that GOD doth rather impute somewhat in stead of righteousnes which cannot make a man properly or perfectly righteous This is a blasphemous imagination that GOD can iudge falsly and account a thing for righteousnes which is not and esteeme a man righteous who is not properly righteous Secondly that which immediately followes is no lesse blasphemous to wit that a man may be invested by GOD with the great priviledges of a man perfectly righteous namely delivâ—rance from sinne and condemnation and acceptation into favour with GOD though he be no such man For hereby GOD is charged either with injustice and iniquitie or with errour in his judgement Thirdly his taking upon him to give a reason of GODS purpose and counsell is Luciferian pride and presumption For who knoweth the minde of GOD or hath beene of his counsell Rom. 11.34 Saint Paul who was taken up into the third heaven could never finde out any such counsell of GOD neither durst give a reason of GODS purpose and counsell but onely the good pleasure of his owne will Fourthly in the declaration of his reason I find many errours and untruths as first that a mans conscience can hardly thinke of being justified by GOD without a perfect legall righteousnesse Every regenerate man and true beleever can upon his owne knowledge and experience give him the lye and tell him that the weakest conscience of any who hath true Faith being taught by the Gospell can very easily thinke and beleeve that GOD justifies him by an Evangelicall righteousnesse even Christs perfect fulfilling of the Law which is farre more perfect then that legall righteousnesse which the Law requires of every man in his owne person This Abraham beleeved and was fully perswaded of it this David professes and Saint Paul preached and I know no true Christian who doth not both thinke and beleeve it If any man be found doubting of this it is because the spirit of Antichrist and Socinus doth worke strongly in him Secondly the thing which he imagineth being so notoriously false there can be no reason given of it but a reason as false as the thing it self And indeed so it is here For first hee assure most falsely that GODS purpose in the Gospell is to justifie men without any such righteousnesse as the Law requires in every man that is the perfect fulfilling of the Law For though GOD doth not purpose to iustifie men by their owne fulfilling of the Law every one in his owne person yet by Christs righteousnesse and his fulfilling of the Law in their stead and by communicating and imputing that righteousnesse to them he purposeth in the Gospell and professeth that men shall bee and are by him iustified and this is in Christ such a righteousnes as the Law requires for proofe of this see Rom. 8.4 and 10.4 Secondly the fathers upon GOD his own false and wicked conceits to wit First that GOD goeth about to cure an infirmity in his people which is not to be found in any of them after they are called to beleeve in Christ and to be his people for then
they bid their owne workes of the Law adiew and do no more dreame of iustification by them Secondly that GOD for the cure of their weak consciences tells them in the Gospell that if they beleeve in Christ this beleeving shall bee as good as a perfect compleat righteousnesse by this hee would make GOD a pure Socinian one who takes the Crowne from Christ and the righteousnes from GOD and man and sets it on the head of mans Faith which in the best beleevers and even in Abraham himselfe was mingled with much doubting and many infirmities In a word though all Orthodox Divines doe according to the Scriptures acknowledge that upon a mans beleeving truly in Christ GOD doth impute to him the perfect and compleat righteousnes of Christ which is made his before he can truly apply it by Faith Yet it can never enter into the heart of a true Christian but his soule will abhorre to thinke that any mans beleeving should bee to him as good as perfect compleat righteousnes or that GOD should accept it in stead of perfect righteousnesse and rather then the righteousnes of Christ GOD and man who is made unto us of GOD righteousnes 1 Cor. 1.30 and in whom we are found to have the righteousnes of GOD by faith Philip. 3.9 To conclude this passage let me adde this as a foule absurdity For if hee speake by experience that conscience leads men naturally to thinke that there can be no iustification without righteousnesse which is a perfect fulfilling of the Law Which I confesse my conscience and my reason tell mee and GODS word teacheth mee plainely Then what is become of his conscience who contrary to all truth and reason and the common conscience of all men will teach iustification without any true righteousnesse at all either of Christ or our owne and will crowne mans weak Faith with the Crown of righteousnesse which onely belongs to Christ and his perfect obedience Socinianisme SO that now the state and drift of the question is not either First whether Faith without an object or as separated from Christ bee imputed for righteousnesse for such a Faith doubtles in the point of justification was never dreamt of by any man that kept his 〈◊〉 company men may as well fancy a living man without a soulâ— or a wise man without his witts as a Faith without an object much lesse was such a Faith conceived by any man to bee imputed for righteousnesse Christianisme IN the fourth part or passage he first propounds five foolish quaeres which he denieth to concerne the state of the question Secondly he propounds a sixt quaere and that in plaine and precise termes hee affirmes I will first particularly answere the 5. quaeres and after lay downe the â—iâ—t at large and addresse my selfe to the confutation of his discourse upon it And first whereas he pronounceth him a mad man who dreames of faith without Christ the object or thinks that faith which believes not in Christ should be imputed for righteousnesse Here I must be bold to put him in mind that thus he dreames in the next Chapter where he boldly affirmes and by divers arguments laboureth to prove that the Faith of Abraham which was imputed to him for righteousnes was not a beleeving in Christ neither was Christ and his righteousnes the object of it And therefore by his owne confession and his owne wordes hee doth there play the mad man and keepes not his wits company but his fancy runs wild while he strives to prove that Abrahams Faith imputed to him for righteousnesse was not a beleeving in Christ. The second Quaere NEither is it any part of the intent of the question to enquire whether Faith bee the meritorious cause of a mans justification For both they that affirme and they that deny the imputation of Faith for righteousnes deny the meritoriousnes of Faith every way how ever it is true that they thaâ— would seeme most to disclaime it and cast it further from them doe yet in some of their most beloved tenets draw very neare unto it as will afterwards appeare Answer HEre behold either grosse ignorance or wilfull lying against knowledge and conscience For all the learned know that Faith and beleeving are held by the Church of Rome to be a principall part of mans righteousnesse and workes which GOD imputes and accounts meritorious of justification and of eternall life ex condigno Yea he himselfe in the passage next before hath plainely affirmed that Faith to him that beleeveth as Abraham did is as good as perfect and compleat righteousnes which if it be true then Faith must needs be as perfect and compleat righteousnesse is the meritorious cause of justification And therefore that which he here saith is verified in himselfe though he would seeme most to disclaime the merit of Faith and to cast it furthest from him yet in some of his most beloved tenets hee drawes very neare to it yea hee embraceth it with his heart in his whole discourse the maine drift whereof is to exalt Faith into the place of Christs most meritorious righteousnesse and to put the Crowne upon it For what can be imagined more meritorious of justification then that which GOD in a proper sense judgeth and counteth for righteousnes and for which he doth justifie men and counts them righteous The third Quaere NEither is it the question whether faith be the formall cause of justification that is whether GOD doth justifie a man with his faith as a Painter makes a wall white with whitenes or as a Master makes his Scholler learned with knowledge or learning conveyed into him for both parties make the forme of justification to be somewhat really different from Faith which is the genuine tenet of Arminius Answer THis quere is very ridiculous for to imagine a quality or act in man to be the formall cause of justification which is GODS act is the fancy of a distempered braine and the conceit of a mad man His exposition of his quaere shews his want of Logicall skill For the whitenesse wherewith the Painter makes a wall white is a forme introduced into the wall it is not the formall cause of his action of painting and so learning produced in a scholler is forma docti the forme of a Scholler as hee is made learned not the formall cause of his masters teaching surely his expounding of his quaere by such dissonant similitudes sheweth that hee had need of a Master to teach him some better knowledg and learning and to set on him some better stamp and superscription of rationall authority His phrase of learning conveyed is somewhat improper for learning is not conveyed into a Scholer but produced and begotten in him Let him not therefore condemne tropes of speech seeing he himselfe can and doth often speak tropically and improperly But to come home to his quaere If by justification hee meanes imputative justification in which GOD justifies a man by imputing
righteousnesse to him and man is justified by believing that GOD counts him righteous in Christ then wee deny not that faith in some respect is the formall cause of justification For in this justification taken passively as it is mans receiving by faith that which GOD imputes to him that is as it is a mans believing that God reckons him among the righteous and counts him to be in the state of a justified person so his actuall faith and believing is the forme of his justification But take Justification according to his owne opinion for GODS imputeing faith in a proper sense for righteousnesse Then is faith that somewhat by which a man stands in the state of a person Justified before GOD even his formall righteousnesse or that at least which is in stead of formall righteousnes Thus he is every way taken and entangled in his owne words Lastly what that is which hee saith is the genuine tenet of Arminius hee doth not expresse whether it be that faith is really different or not different from the forme of Justification for his words are included in a parenthesis which might very well be left out onely this I know that Arminius professeth this to be his genuine tenet That faith is imputed to the beleever for righteousnes sensu proprio non mâ—tonymico in a proper sense without a trope In Epist. ad Hippolitum de Collibus If elsewhere hee alters his tenet and writes otherwise It is but the common disease the vertigo and giddinesse of the Socinian faction to doe as here their fellow disciple doth in this his hovering and wavering discourse that is to say and gainesay affirme and deny the same things through the inconstancy of their windy braines and mindes unsetled The 4 Quaere NOr yet doth the question make any quaere at all whether Christ be the sole meritorious cause of justification of a sinner for both they that goe on the right hand of the question and they that goe on the left hand are knit together in the same mind and iudgment concerning this Answere WHosoever denyeth such a Spirituall union communion between Christ and the penitent and believing sinner iustified as doth make Christs righteousnesse and satisfaction to become his ransome and righteousnesse and to be imputed by GOD to him and to make him accepted by GOD as one cleane from the guilt of sinne and righteous in his sight This man denyeth Christ to be the meritorious cause of the Justification of a sinner For till Christ with his satisfaction be communicated and appropriated to the faithfull yea till his righteousnes be so made theirs and set on their skore that they have a right and interest in it Christ is no more meritorious of Justification to them then hee is to Infidels and reprobates for it is as impossible for Christ to be actually meritorious of Justification to any man who hath not an interest in him as for one mans money to ransom another who is a captive upon whose skore it was never set noâ— so much interest therein given to him that it is paid for him and accounted for his ransome 5 Quaere NEither doth the question as it is here propounded intâ—nd any dispute at all whether the active obedience of Christ falling in with the passive and considered in coniunction with it be that whereby Christ merited the Justification of sinners or that which GOD hath a principall respect and recourse unto in the Justification of sinners for this also is acknowledged on both sides at least by the greater partie of both Answere BVt while he denyes GODS communicating and imputeing Christs whole obedience hee denies the merit of them in our Justification and when hee affirmes that faith and not Christs righteousnesse is the thing imputed for righteousnesse to iustification he denies Christs obedience active and passive to be that which GOD hath a principall respect and recourse unto in the iustification of sinners and therefore here he contradicts himselfe and saith untruely that all sides hold the merit of Christs whole obedience when in his Doctrine he utterly overthrowes it The 6 Quaere which he alloweth and affirmeth BUt lastly the question in plaine tearmes is this whether the faith of him that truly beleeves in Christ or whether the righteousnesse of Christ himselfe that is that obedience that Christ performed to the morall Law consisting of all those severall and particular acts of righteousnesse wherein he obeyed in the letter and propriety of it bee that which GOD imputes to a beleever for righteousnesse in his justification so that he that beleeves is not righteous onely by account or by GODS gracious reputing and accepting of him for such but is rigidly literally and peremptorily righteous constituted and made as perfectly and compleatly and legally righteous as Christ himselfe no difference at all betweene them quoad veritatem but onely quoad modum the justified every whit as righteous as the iustifier both righteous with the selfesame individuall righteousnes onely this difference betweene one and the other the iustified weares iâ— as put upon him by another by imputation the iustifier weares it as put upon him by himselfe or by inherency That the Scriptures no where countenance any such imputation of the righteousnes of Christ I trust the spirit of truth directing and assisting to make manifest in the sequele of this discourse and to give good measure of truth to the Reader heaped up by testimonies from the Scripture pressed downe by the weight of many arguments demonstrations running over with the cleare approbation of many Authors learned and sound and every way greater then exception Multa fidem promissa levant Answere TO this question laid downe in plaine and precise termes I answer First that to move this question except with purpose to discover and oppose Socinus and his followers who affirme it and stand for imputation of faith in a proper sense for righteousnes is not to be tolerated among true Christians but to dispute for that damned errour which takes the Crowne from the all-sufficient righteousnes of Christ and sets on the head of mans weake faith is most hereticall impudency as in my whole answere I shall prove aboundantly Secondly his absurd expounding of Justification by Christs righteousnes imputed and how in this question the righteousnes of Christ and the iustifying of men by it are to be understood is a notable point either of calumny in slandering our doctrine and reporting it corruptly or of subtilty that when his opinion is proved to be blasphemous hee may have some starting holes through which hee may shift away and make an escape pleading that hee mistooke our Doctrine of being righteous by Christs righteousnesse imputed and ignorantly did oppose it First no man standing for the imputation of Christs righteousnes doth affirme that every particular act of Christ which hee performed was necessary to make up a perfect and sufficient righteousnes but that his righteousnesse containes in it all his acts
are not to seeke righteousnes by our owne workes but by faith in Christ for if wee can obtaine grace to believe in him and to lay hold on his righteousnesse wee are for Christ and his righteousnesse sake upon our believing counted righteous before GOD because by our communion which wee have with Christ by the Spirit dwelling in us and enabling us to believe The righteousnesse of the Law is fulfilled in us imputatively by the righteousnesse of another even of Christ which is also ours for we are flesh of his flesh that is one with him these are Musculus his owne words in which hee roundly expresseth himselfe in Rom. 8.4 and 10.3.4 Luthers words at which hee catcheth in vaine are to the same purpose in Gal. 3.6 GOD for Christs sake accounts this imperfect faith for perfect righteousnesse Here Luther doth not charge GOD with error or iniquity in judgement by judgeing and accounting that for perfect righteousnesse which is imperfect for his speech is tropicall imitating the phrase of the Apostle by imperfect faith hee meanes a true believer by a weak faith laying hold on Christs righteousnesse and by perfect righteousnesse a man set in a state of perfect righteousnesse by communion with Christ and this is the sense of the words that if a true believer doth lay hold on Christ by faith which in the best of us is but weake and imperfect yet GOD accounts him perfectly righteous with the righteousnesse of Christ which is most perfect and compleat Thus Luther expounds himselfe 1 Tom. pag 32. Editionis Ienensis Christ saith hee is in us by faith yea one with us but Christ is righteousnesse and a fulfiller of all GODS commaundements therefore wee also doe by him fulfill all GODS commandements when hee is by faith made ours And 2 Tom. pag. 515. Faith puts us upon Christs workes of righteousnesse without our owne workes and translates us out of the exile of our sinnes into the Kingdome of his righteousnes And Tom. 1. pag 106. By faith our sinnes are made no more our owne but Christs upon whom GOD hath laid the iniquities of us all and againe all Christs righteousnesse is made ours for he layeth his hand on us If a man had the tongue of men and Angels hee could not speake more fully for the communion and imputation of Christs righteousnes to believers for justification and of their sinnes to Christ for remission then Luther doth in these and divers other places as I shall more fully shew in the second Chapter As for Chamiers words who calles remission of sinnes the righteousnesse which is imputed to us they shew that faith is not that imputed righteousnesse for faith or believing is our act remission is GODS act who can forgive sinnes but GOD But indeed the meaning of Chamier is the same with Calvin to wit that our cleannesse from the guilt of sinne which is Passive remission or justification is that which GOD lookes upon in us when hee counts us righteous in Christ as I have before shewed wherefore I conclude with the contradictory of his conclusion which hee inferres upon the speeches of our Homilies and of other learned Authors to weet thus That wheresoever we find in the Scriptures or any Authors of sound learning this phrase of faith or believing imputed for righteousnesse we must not understand faith in a proper sense but the righteousnesse of Christ even his fulfilling of the Law for us which together with the power and merit of it so far as every believer hath need is communicated to him and imputed to him for justification For as a Merchant cannot be said to be enriched by the gaine of a commodity which never was his owne and in which hee never had any interest or propriety nor any man by an office which was never his owne nor by him executed So none can have the merit and benefit of Christs righteousnesse nor be said to bee thereby justified neither can any such thing be imputed to them except they have a propriety in it and communion of it Thus his instances and similitudes are turned against himselfe to the confusion of his haereticall opinion But that his sinne may appeare out of measure sinfull hee doth not content himselfe with his abusing wresting and perverting of the godly sayings of other Authors and using similitudes which are most contrary to his purpose but hee also layeth profane hands on the holy Scriptures That excellent saying Iob 33 26. which Master Perkins learnedly expounds to be meant of Christs righteousnesse which when men humbly seeke to GOD by repentance and faithfull prayers GOD renders unto them by renuing their sense and assurance of their communion with Christ in his whole satisfaction This Doctor novice most Popishly applyes to a mans owne righteousnesse and saith that GODS rendring to a man his righteousnesse is giving him the benefit of it not the righteousnesse it selfe And yet if wee should grant what hee perversely seekes it will availe him nothing for as the fruite and benefit which GOD renders to a man is not the fruit of a righteousnesse in which he hath no propriety or interest but is his righteousnesse so the fruite and benefit which we receive of Christs righteousnesse GOD renders to us when that righteousnesse is become ours in the propriety of it That place Ephes. 6.8 whatsoever good a man doth the same hee shall receive of the LORD it is for us and against himselfe for as the good which a man receives from GOD for well doing is the good fruite of his owne well doing so is the fruite and benefit which wee receive in our justification the fruite of Christs righteousnes made ours and imputed to us Those speeches Revel 13.10 and 15.10 here is the faith and patience of the Saints c. are not to be understood of the fruite and reward of their patience as the circumstances shew which are killing and slaying and leading into captivitie but of the patience and faith themselves that in such times they are seene tride and proved and GOD at such times gives them patience and faith by threatning and foretelling the finall destruction of their enemies as learned Brightman truely expounds the wordes Besides if patience and faith were here used to signifie the fruit and benefit of patience and faith yet he cannot say it is the fruit of any patience or faith but of the Saints themselves who receive the benefit Likewise if wee grant that in the other places Psal. 128.2 Labour signifies the fruit of labour and Heb. 9.28 Sin signifies the punishment of sinne and Gen. 19.15 iniquitie signifies the judgement of GOD on Sodom for iniquitie by a trope or Metonymie of the cause for the effect This proves that faith which is the hand or instrument of the soule receiving Christ with his righteousnes may by the same trope be used to signifie that state of righteousnes which we receive by it as by an hand or instrument Thus while he runs
against the invincible rocke of the holy Scriptures and seekes to turne them like a rowling stone against a barke they rowle and rebound back and tumbling upon him grind him to powder· For if hee had ten thousand instances of Scripture wherein the fruite and benefit which men receive are signified by the names of the things which are the causes and meanes of them yet still it will appeare that the fruite is not received except men have first an interest and propriety in the causes and meanes of it And thus you see his fift part or passage proved to bee a rotten heap of stinking lyes absurdities and grosse errors Socinianisme WHerefore to draw towards the close of this first Chapter and withall to give a little more light that it may bee seene to the bottome cleerely both what wee affirme and what we deny in the question propounded First when we affirme the faith of him that beleeveth to be imputed for righteousnes The meaning is not either 1o. That it should be imputed in respect of any thing it hath from a man himselfe or as it is a mans owne act nor yet in respect of any thing it hath from GOD himselfe or from the spirit of GOD producing raising of it in the soule though it be true it requires the lighting downe of the mighty arme of GOD upon the soule to raise it Neither 3 o is it imputed for righteousnes in respect of the object or as or because it layeth hold upon Christ or his righteousnes though it be also true that that faith that is imputed for righteousnes must of necessity lay hold upon Christ and no other faith is cable of this imputation besides because if faith should justifie or be imputed as it layes hold upon Christ it should justifie out of the inhaerent dignity worth of it and by vertue of that which is naturall and intrinsecall to it there being nothing that can be conceived more naturall and essentiall to faith then to lay hold upon Christ this is the very life and soul of it and that which gives it its specificall being and subsistence Therefore to make the object of faith as such the precise and formall ground of its imputation is to make hast into the midst of Samaria whilest men are confident they are travailing towards Dotha◠It s the giving of the right hand of felowship to the Romish justification which makes faith the meritorious cause of it in part But lastly when with the Scriptures we affirme that faith is imputed for righteousnesse our meaning is simply and plainely this that as GOD in the first covenant of workes required an absolute and through obedience to the whole Law with continuance in all things for every mans justification which perfect obedience had it beene performed had beene a perfect righteousnesse to the performer and so would have justified him So now in the new covenant of grace GOD requires nothing of any man for his justification but onely faith in his Sonne which faith shal be as availeable effectuall to him for his justification as a perfect righteousnes should have beene under the first covenant this is that which is meant when faith is said to bee imputed for righteousnes which is nothing but that which is taught generally by Divines both ancient and moderne Sic decretum dicit a Deo ut cessante lege solam fidem gratia Dei posceret ad salutem Ambrosius In Rom. 4. that is that the Apostle saying that to him that beleeveth his faith is imputed for righteousnes affirmeth that GOD hath decreed that the Law ceasing the grace of GOD will require of men onely faith for salvation and again upon Chap. 9. of the same Epistle Sola fides posita est ad salutem onely Faith is appointed to salvation Calvin writing upon Rom. 10.8 hath wordes of the same importance and somewhat more cleare and full ex hac distinctionis nota colligimus sicut lex opera exigit Evangelium nihil aliud postulas nisi ut fidem afferrent homines ad recipiendam Dei gratiam that is from this distinction we gather that as the Law exacted workes so the Gospell requires nothing else but that men bring faith to receive the grace of GOD. If GOD requires faith in the Gospell for that same end for which he requireth workes or perfect righteousnes in the law it necessarily followes that he shall impute this faith for that righteousnes that is accept from men upon the same termes and bee countable unto them the same favours rewards and priviledges upon it that should have beene given unto men in regard of that righteousnes had it beene performed or fulfilled otherwise he should require it for such an end or upon such tearmes as hee would refuse to make good unto it when the creature hath exhibited and tendered it unto him To require it for righteousnes or in stead of righteousnes and not to accept it for righteousnesse when it is brought to him should bee as apparant a breach of Covenant with GOD as it would be in a rich creditour that should compound and agree with his poore debtors for 1. in the pound or the like but when they brought the mony to him should refuse to take it upon any such tearmes or to discharge them of their debt and give them out their bonds Christianisme IN this last part or passage which is a meere confusion and distraction of wordes hee gives more then a little light that his Socinian heresie in this point of justification maintained with much non sense may bee seene to the bottome cleerely First hee takes upon him to shew that faith is imputed and how it is imputed Secondly hee strives to shew that Christs righteousnes is not imputed The first is in the wordes before recited The second followes hereafter First I will sift his wordes already rehearsed And after proceed to the second The summe of his speech last recited may be reduced into a Syllogisme of non sense without forme mood or figure The proposition and assumption whereof are contradictory And the conclusion damned Socinian heresie so that here I may say with the Poet. Spectatum admissi risum teneatis amici His proposition runnes thus Faith is neither imputed for righteousnes in respect of any thing which it receives from man the proper subject of it nor as it is mans act who useth it and performes the acts of beleeving nor in respect of any thing which it hath from GOD or his spirit in the production of it nor in respect of the object Christ and his righteousnes nor in respect of the life and soule of it which gives to it the specificall being and subsistence to wit the application of Christ and laying hold on him The Assumption BVt faith is imputed to men and is counted and accepted as sufficiently for justification and upon the same tearmes under the Gospell as perfect righteousnes of workes and of obedience to the whole Law
his owne personall righteousnes as the justifier they are righteous by communion and imputation as justified And as the hands and feet and other inferior members live by the same life and are sensitive by the same sense which is originally in the heart and head of the same body yet they are not so lively and sensitive as the heart and head but in a competent measure and proportion fit for every one of them So it is in the mysticall body of Christ betweene him the head and them his believing and justified members as I have before touched So that here we have an intollerable calumny and slander laid upon GODS sacred truth and the true professors of the same Secondly he utters a notorious untruth when he saith that to bee righteous by the same righteousnes which Christ performed is nothing else but to be performers of every act of his obedience in our persons Thirdly it is a wicked error to thinke as hee doth that obedience and righteousnes ether performed by ourselves or communicated to us should make GOD countable to us that is bound to give us the greatest rewards For the righteousnes of justification and the holynes and obedience of sanctification are onely free gifts which GOD gives to make us capable of eternall life and fit to stand in his presence and to see and enjoy his glory not bands to tye himselfe and to make him countable to us for if we be righteous what give we to him or what receiveth he at our hands Iob 35.7 eternall life though by Christ purchased for us yet is the free gift of GOD in Christ. Rom. 6.23 Here therefore this sublimate Doctor doth bewray his owne ignorance in the maine mysteries of salvation and is as David saith Psal. 14. become filthy stinking and abominable in his thoughts and imaginations concerning GOD himselfe while hee doateth after Socinian subtilties and sets himselfe to be singular by preaching his fond errors and heresies Lastly after all this in conclusion hee takes upon him to elude and evacuate those most plaine testimonies of holy Scripture wherein Christ is sayd to cloath and cover us with the garments of salvation and the robe of his righteousnesse Isa 61.10 that our sinnes and staines being thereby covered Psal. 32.1 sinne might no more be imputed to us but we in the robes of his righteousnesse may stand cloathed as with long white linnen robes Revel 19.8 And like Iacob in the garments of the first borne yeelding a sweet smelling savour may be accepted of GOD our heavenly father First hee saith that GOD in the justification of sinners cloathes none with the letter of Christs righteousnesse but every man that believes with the Spirit of it that is not with the righteousnesse it self but with the fruite and benefit of it that is with faith counted for righteousnesse where note that in his conceipt the righteousnesse of a justified man is a thing inhaerent in himselfe and a worke performed in his owne person not communicated to him from another ab extra as garments are and so no cloathing here is one grosse absurdity like as if one should say a mans cloathes are not on him but in him That speech of Paul these hands have ministred to my necessitie Act 20.34 are nothing to the purpose for he doth not say his hands were his necessary meat and cloathes but by working did get him necessaries and so Christ by his obedience procured righteousnesse for us which he doth communicate to us and cloathes us with and by GOD it is imputed to us and this Calvin calles righteousnesse gotten by Christs death and resurrection and all this is for us and against himselfe The other instances which hee brings from Scripture to prove that Christs righteousnesse is by a metonymie of the cause for the effect used to signifie the fruite and effect of it in us prove no such thing at all The first of them Iohn 17.3 this is eternall life to know thee the onely true GOD c. It is mistaken for to know GOD and Christ that is to have experimentall knowledge of GOD and Christ and to enjoy GOD in Christ as the word know by an Hebraisme signifies is not there mentioned as the efficient cause of eternall life but as the thing wherein it doth formally consist So also that speech Iob 33 26. as Master Perkins truely expounds it doth not speake of the fruite of a mans righteousnesse which GOD renders to him but of the righteousnesse of Christ which GOD renders to a man a fresh and after temptation doubting and distresse makes him feele and enioy it in himselfe when by repentance and humble and faithfull prayer hee seekes it And although the nation of the Israelites are often as hee alledgeth called by the name of Jacob in Scripture because he was their Father and they his naturall progeny yet this proves onely that the Scripture useth tropes of speech many times which we acknowledge willingly and in the next Chapter will prove fully Where hee forgetting and contradicting himselfe utterly disclaimes tropes and figures and exclaimes against all the learned who hold that Saint Paul useth a trope in saying that faith is imputed for righteousnesse Well for the present wee will grant him that our cleannesse from the guilt of sinne and the state of righteous and justified persons wherein we stand before GOD being the issue and fruite of Christs satisfaction communicated to us may very well be called by a trope the righteousnesse of Christ but this doth not overthrow but rather strongly prove the communion and imputation of Christs righteousnes to us Thus we see how hee labours in the fire and in vaine beats his braines and out of the confusion and distemper of them doth say and gainsay affirme and deny the same things oftentimes being like a clowd without water carried about with winds sometimes one way and againe the contrary way and never settling upon solid truth nor building upon a sure foundation Now what he promiseth in the conclusion of this Chapter you shall see how hee performeth by my answer to his second Chapter wherein as he begins here so he goeth on entangling and beating himselfe forging and falsifying and in every passage discovering his ignorance and folly mingled with much impudency hereticall perversenesse and pravity which that it may better appeare and that we may see his Socinian heresie to the bottome clearely I will lay downe the chiefe heads of the Doctrine of Justification as it is taught in the Scriptures and maintained by all Orthodox Divines both ancient and moderne Justification taken in a full sense is that act of GOD by which he justifies his elect and faithfull in his son Iesus Christ by the communion of his spirit that is doth make them righteous by Christs perfect righteousnes and full satisfaction spiritually made theirs and doth count them righteous by imputing the same unto them and doth declare them to be righteous inwardly to
for righteousnes The orthodox exposition I will in the first place prove and confirme froÌ„ the words of the Apostle himself by other strong reasons afterward confute overthrow the Socinian hereticall exposition The true Exposition proved and confirmed FOr the right understanding of the Apostles wordes three things come first to be considered and explained 1. What is here meant by faith and believing 2. What righteousnes is here meant 3. What is meant by imputation First by faith in this text wee must not understand that naturall habit and power which is common to all reasonable men who upon their apprehension and knowledge of things spoken and promised do give willing assent unto them that they are true either for the authority of the speaker whom they doe respect and judge to bee faithfull or because they see good reason in the things spoken and promised And if the things spoken and promised bee such as tend to their owne good they rest upon them confidently and perswade themselvs that they are sure and certaine of them already or shall receive and enjoy them in due time without faile But here by faith we are to understand that supernaturall gift and grace of beleeving wrought in the elect regenerate by the spirit shed on them abundantly through Iesus Christ Tit. 3.6 which is therefore called most holy faith Iud. 20. verse This faith agreeth with the other in foure points First as that is an habit and power of beleeving so is this Secondly as that containes in it notitiaÌ„ in intellectu and assensum in voluntate that is both a notice and knowledge of the things spoken and beleeved and an assent of the will so doth this also Thirdly as that faith when it goeth no further then knowledge and assent is called hlstoricall so this also Fourthly as that faith when it reacheth to good things promised to our selves particularly to apply them and to rest on them hath also fiduciam in corde et affectionibus a trust and confidence of the heart and affections in it so hath this also and is called a firme perswasion trust and confidence But they differ in divers things First that is a naturall power or habit this is a spiritual wrought in men by the spirit of GOD dweling in them and uniting them to Christ in one mysticall body Secondly that hath in it no knowledge but naturall arising from light of naturall reason nor any assent of the will or confidence in the heart and affections but such as are drawne stirred up and wrought by meanes of naturall light and common causes This hath in it a spirituall knowledge arising from the spirit of GOD inlightning the understanding the spirit also inclines and moves the will to give assent and confirmes the heart with confidence and firme perswasion Thirdly that is common to all reasonable men This is proper to the elect regenerate and sanctified by the holy Ghost shed on them through Christ and is the first and as it were the radicall grace and vertue of renovation Fourthly that hath for the object or things beleeved either naturall and worldly things onely or things heavenly and supernaturall seene and discerned through the dimme mist of naturall reason and assented to and rested on with a carnall and unsanctified will and heart This hath for the object things supernaturall heavenly and spirituall discerned by supernaturall light assented to with an holy and sanctified will confirmed to the heart by a spirituall sense and sweet taste of the things promised wrought by the holy spirit in the true beleever apprehending and applying them But to come nearer to the text the believing which the Apostle speakes of in 3.9 and 22. verses is the faith and believing of Abraham who divers yeares before this act of believing which it here said to be counted to him for righteousnesse was called out of his owne country and by faith obeyed GOD calling and went and soiourned in the land promised to him and his seed as appeares Heb. 11.8 9. He had overcome and slaughtered foure mighty Kings and their victorious armies by faith and confidence in GODS promises And Melchizedek King of Salem the Priest of the most high GOD had blessed him as we read Gen. 14. And after these things the LORD appeared to him and sayd feare not Abraham I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward and withall hee renued the promise of the blessed seed by meanes of which seed all the families of the earth should be blessed in Abraham and should become his faithfull Children besides his naturall seed and posterity which should come of the Son and heire of his owne bowels as appeares Gen. 15. verse 1.4 These were the promises which GOD made to Abraham and which Abraham believed to be true and resting upon the LORD by firme faith and beliefe for the performance of them the LORD counted it to him for righteousnesse Gen. 15.6 or as the Apostle expresseth the same sentence in the same sense though in words somewhat different it was counted to him for righteousnesse verse 3. even faith was reckoned to him for righteousnes verse 9. Now this faith was first an holy and spiritual beliefe and the faith of a man long before called of GOD sanctified by his Spirit and made obedient to GOD and his word Secondly it was a beliefe not onely of the promise of Christ the blessed seed in generall but more specially that Christ the blessed seed should according to the flesh come out of his owne bowels and that by Christ the Son of GOD made man of his seed the redemption both of him and of his faithfull seed all true believers should be wrought and performed GODS wrath appeased the Law fulfilled and justice satisfied and perfect righteousnes brought in for their justification and by his and their union with Christ by one spirit and communion of all his benefits they should have GOD for their portion and reward and for their shield and defence and should not need to seeke the blessing and reward from their owne workes or their righteousnesse and fulfilling of the Law in their owne persons but merely from the free grace of GOD and of his free gift in Christ as a reward of Christs righteousnesse freely given to them and of them apprehended by faith and believing Thirdly this faith of Abraham was not a weake but strong faith and beliefe without staggering even a full perswasion that GOD who quickeneth the dead and calleth those things which be not as if they were was able to make good and to performe what hee had promised yea it was a believing in hope against hope that GOD could out of a dead body and womb raise up a lively seed and make them spiriritually righteous which are by nature and according to the Law wicked sinners All these things are manifâ—st by the place before cited Gen 15. and by the expresse words of the Apostle in this Chapter from the tenth verse to the
confidently affirme that there is not one Orthodox writer to be found since that time which ever held that faith in a proper sense is imputed for righteousnes and denyed the imputation of Christs righteousnes Servetus Socinus Arminius and the rest of their sect branded for hereticks are the onely maintainers of that opinion To his testimonies and his impudent boasting of the generall consent of interpreters I answere First joyntly and in generall That of all the testimonies which hee hath cited there is not one which either affirmes that faith taken in a proper sense is imputed for righteousnesse or denies the imputation of Christs righteousnes Moreover that all Divines who are the most zealous opposers of his interpretation may say the same words which he cites out of Authors and yet hold justification by Christs righteousnes imputed yea and in proving that truth may with good reason presse and urge the same words rightly understood Soe that a more odious example of folly and impudency cannot be shewed then hee here shewes himselfe by making his folly strive for Mastery with his impudency Secondly for the particular testimonies which he brings both out of ancient and moderne writers They say no more but what Saint Paul saith and wee all acknowledg and embrace for truth viz. That Abraham beleeving that in Christ and through his satisfaction GOD was become his reward was thereupon counted righteous and GOD counted faith to him for righteousnes and so are we all iustified not by our owne righteousnes of workes performed to the Law in our own persons but by faith laying hold on the righteousnes of Christ which is counted for righteousnes not in a proper sense but relatively as it comprehends Christ and his righteousnes which Calvin calls apprehending the goodnes of GOD and trusting in it First for Tertullians words I take them as he doth render and rehearse them and so the rest in order and will take a light view of them that wee may see his vanity in citing testimonies which make nothing for him but some directly against his opinion Tertulian Lib. 5. c. 3 against Marcion BVt how the children of faith and of whose faith if not of Abrahams for if Abraham beleeved GOD and it was deputed to him for righteousnesse and hee thereby obtained the name of the father of many nations wee by beleeving GOD are therefore much rather iustified as Abraham was And lib. de patientia cap. 6. Abraham beleeved and was deputed by him to righteousnesse but hee tried his faith by patience when he was commanded to sacrifice his sonne All this wee grant for here is not a word of imputing faith in a proper sense onely an affirmation that Abraham by beleeving obtained this at GODS hands that he was accounted and reputed to be in the state of a righteous man which we all professe Origen in Epist. ad Romanos Cap. 4. verse 5. IT seemes in this present place that whereas many beleevings of Abraham werk before now in this beleeving his whole faith was gathered together and so was reputed to him for righteousnesse and againe in the same place Abraham was not by GOD testified to bee righteous for his circumcision but for his faith for before his circumcision hee beleeved GODS and it was counted to him for righteousnesse If Origens meaning be as Beza gathered from these and other wordes in that place that Abrahams faith and all his acts of beleeving made up a perfect righteousnesse and conformity to GOD will and law then is hee in as great an errour as the Papists who set up iustification by a mans owne inherent righteousnesse and his testimony is to be abhorred But if his meaning bee that by his beleeving and not by his circumcision he obtained from GOD this testimony that he was righteous by a righteousnesse beleeved then he is full for us and against his interpretation Justine Martyr Dialog with Trypho ABraham not for his circumcision but for his faith obtained the testimony of righteousnesse for before he was circumcised it is said of him Abraham beleeved GOD and it was counted to him for righteousnesse Wee grant that Abraham beleeving GOD to bee his reward in Christ this faith was the evidence of his being righteous by apprehension of Christ and his righteousnesse and therefore by it he obtained a testimony from GOD that he was in the state of righteousnes And Justine Martyres words say the same and so he is cleare for us against them who make faith the righteousnes imputed in a proper sense and not the evidence of righteousnesse Chrysostome on Rom. 4.23 saith that the Apostle HAving spoken many and great things concerning Abraham and his faith saith wherefore is it written but that wee might learne that we also are justified as hee was because wee have beleeved the same GOD and on Gal. 3.6 For what was he the worse for not being under the Law nothing at all for his faith was sufficient to him for righteousnesse All this we grant For as Abrahams faith laying hold on GOD as his reward in Christ by communion of his righteousnesse was sufficient to him for righteousnesse so is our faith also sufficient for us to iustification because by it wee possesse Christs righteousnesse Augustine on the 148 Psal. saith FOr by beleeving wee have found what the Iewes lost by not by unbeleeving for Abraham beleeved GOD and it was imputed to him for righteousnesse and on Psal. 140. for I beleeve in him who justifieth the ungodly that my faith may be imputed to mee for righteousnes and in his book de natura gratia For if Christ dyed not in vaine the ungodly is justified in him alone to whom beleeving in him that justifieth the ungodly faith is accounted to him for righteousnesse and in his 68. sermon de tempore Abraham beleeved GOD and it was imputed to him for righteousnesse See that without any worke hee is iustified by faith and whatsoever was possible to be conferred on him by his observation of the Law his beleeving alone gave it all unto him where note that beleeving gives righteousnes and is not the righteousnes given in iustification Primasius on Rom. 43. saith ABrahams faith by the guift of GOD was so great that both his former sinnes were forgiven and this faith alone is said to be accepted before all righteousnes that is before all righteousnes of his owne not instead of Christs righteousnes For if it had not laid hold and possessed the full satisfaction of Christ it could not have gotten pardon of his sinnes Beda's words which he citeth concerning the faith which is imputed are onely these not every faith but that onely which worketh by love This is a certaine truth for no faith can bring to us a true sense and assurance of our communion with Christ but that which worketh by love Haymo on Rom. 43 saith Quia credidit Deo c. Because hee beleeved GOD it was imputed to him for righteousnesse