not on the one hand to injure the memory of the Dead and on the other to prevent hurt or danger to the Living Nor do we say thus much of him as if he sought or did need any Letters of Recommendation from us but as counting this Testimony to Truth and this expression of respect to him a Debt to the spontaneous payment whereof nothing more was requisite besides such a fair occasion as the Providence of God hath now laid before us inviting us thereunto John Howe Vin. Alsop Nath. Mather Increase Mather John Turner Rich. Bures Tho. Powel AN EPISTLE TO THE READER Candid Reader CEnsure not this Treatise of ERRORS as an Error in my Prudentials in sending it forth at such an improper time as this I should never spontaneously have awakened sleeping Controversies after God's severe castigation of his people for them and in the most proper and hopeful season for their Redintegration And beside what I have formerly said I think fit here to add That if the attacque had been general and not so immediately and particularly upon that Post or Quarter I was set to defend I should with Elihu have modestly waited till some abler and more skilful hand had undertaken the defence of this Cause If ever I felt a temptation to envy the happiness of my Brethren it hath been whilst I saw them quietly feeding their Flocks and my self forced 〈◊〉 some part of my precious 〈…〉 time devoted to the 〈…〉 combating with unquiet and erring Brâ—thren But I see I must not be my own chuser Notwithstanding I hope and am in some measure persuaded That publick benefit will redound to the Church from this irksâ—me Labour of mine And that this strife will spread no further but the Malady be cured by an Antidote growing in the very place where it began And that the Christian Camp will not take a general Alarm from such a â—ingle Duel The Book now in thy hands consisteth of Four parts viz. 1. A general Discourse of the Causes and Cures of Errors very necessary at all times especially at this time for the reduction and establishment of seduced and staggering Christians and nothing of that nature having occurred to my observation among the manifold Polemical Tracts that are extant I thought it might be of some use to the Churches of Christ in such a vertigenous Age as we live in and the blessing of the Lord go forth with it for benefit and establishment 2. Next thou hast here the Controversies moved by my Antagonist first about the Mosaick Law complexly taken which he boldly pronounces to be an Adam's Covenant of works And secondly about God's Covenant with Abraham Gen. 17. which he also makes the same with that God made with Adam in Paradise and affirms Circumcision expresly called a Seal of the Righteousness of Faith to be the Seal of the said Covenant of Works first made with Adam 3. Finding my Adversary in the pursuit of his design running into many Antinomian delirations to the reproach and damage of the Cause he contends for I thought it necessary to take the principal Errors of Antinomianism into examination especially at such a time as this when they seem to spring afresh to the hazard of God's Truth and the Churches Peace wherein I have dealt with becoming-modesty and plainness if haply I might be any way instrumental in my plain and home way of Argumentation to detect the falsity and dangerous nature of those notions which some good men have vented and preserve the sounder part of the Church from so dangerous a contagion 4. In the next place I think it necessary to advertise the Reader That whereas in my first Appendix under that head of the Conditionality of the New Covenant I have asserted Faith to be the Condition of it and do acknowledg p. 246. that the word Condition is variously used among Iurists yet I do not use in any sense which implies or insinuates that there is any such condition in the New Covenant as that in Adam's Covenant was consisting in perfect personal and perpetual obedience or any thing in its own nature meritorious of the benefits promised or capable to be performed by us in our own strength but plainly that it be an act of ours tho' done in God's strength which must be necessarily done before we can be actually justified or saved and so there is found in it the true suspending nature of a condition which is the thing I contend for when I affirm Faith is the condition of the New Covenant How many senses soever may be given of this word Condition this is the determinate sense in which I use it throughout this Controversy And whosoever denies the suspending Nature of Faith with respect to actual Justification pleads according to my understanding for the actual Justification of Infidels And thus I find a Condition defined by Navar Iohan. Baptist. Petrus de Perus c. Conditio est Suspensio alicujus dispositionis tantisper dum aliquid futurum fiat And again Conditio est quidam futurus eventus in quem dispositio suspenditur Once more My Reader possibly may be stumbled at my calling Faith sometimes the Instrument and sometimes the Condition of our Justification when there is so great a Controversy depending among Learned Men with respect to the use of both those terms I therefore desire the Reader to take notice That I dive not into that Controversy here much less presume to determine it but finding both those Notions equally opposed by our Antinomians who reject our actual Justification by Faith either way and allow to Faith no other use in our actual Justification but only to manifest to us what was done from Eternity I do therefore use both those terms viz. the Conditionality and Instrumentality of Faith with respect unto our Justification and shew in what sense those terms are useful in this Controversy and are accommodate enough to the design and purpose for which I use them how repugnant soever they are in that particular wherein the Learned contend about the Use and Application of them To be plain when I say Faith justifies us as an Organ or Instrument my only meaning is that it receives or apprehends the Righteousness of Christ by which we are justified and so speaking to the Quomodo or manner of our Justification I say with the general Suffrage of Divines we are justified instrumentally by Faith But in our Controversy with the Antinomians where another different Question is moved about the Quando or time of our actual Justification there I affirm that we are actually justified at the time of our believing and not before and this being the Act upon which our Justification is suspended I call Faith the Condition of our Justification This I desire may be observed lest in my use of both those terms my Reader should think either that I am not aware of the Controversy depending about those terms or that I do herein manifest the vacillancy of
among them do hold those Errors but speculatively whilst the Truth lies nearer their hearts and will not suffer them to reduce their own Opinions into practice Now as to their Errors about Justification the most that I have read do make Iustification to be an immanent and eternal act of God and do affirm the Elect were justified before themselves or the World had a being Others come lower and affirm the Elect were justified at the time of Christ's death With these Dr. Crisp harmonizes Error II. That Justification by Faith is no more but a manifestation to us of what was really done before we had a being Hence Mr. Saltmarsh thus defines Faith It is saith he a being perswaded more or less of Christ's love to us so that when we believe that which was hid before doth then appear God saith another cannot charge one sin upon that man who believes this truth That God laid his Iniquities upon Christ. Error III. That men ought not to doubt of their Faith or question Whether they believe or no. Nay That we ought no more to question our Faith than to question Christ. Saltm Of Free-grace p. 92 95. Error IV. That Believers are not bound to confess Sin mourn for it or pray for the forgiveness of it because it was pardoned before it was committed and pardoned Sin is no Sin See Eaton 's Honey-comb p. 446 447. Error V. They say that God sees no Sin in Believers whatsoever Sins they commit Some of them as Mr. Town and Mr. Eaton speak out and tell us That God can see no Adultery no Lying no Blasphemy no Cozening in Believers For though Believers do fall into such Enormities yet all their Sins being pardoned from Eternity they are no Sins in them Town 's Assertions 96 97 98. Eaton's Honey-comb chap. 7. p. 136 137. with others of a more pious Character than they Error VI. That God is not angry with the Elect nor doth he smite them for their Sins and to say that he doth so is an injurious Reflection upon the Justice of God This is avouched generally in all their Writings Error VII They tell us That by God's laying our Iniquities upon Christ he became as compleatly sinful as we and we as compleatly righteous as Christ. Vide Dr. Crisp p. 270. Error VIII Upon the same ground it is that they affirm That Believers need not fear either their own Sins or the Sins of others for that neither their own nor any other mens Sins can do them any hurt nor must they do any duty for their own Salvation Error IX They will not allow the New Covenant to be made properly with us but with Christ for us and that this Covenant is all of it a Promise having no Condition on our part They do not absolutely deny that Faith Repentance and Obedience are Conditions in the New Covenant but say They are not Conditions on our part but Christ's and that he repented believed and obeyed for us Saltmarsh of Free-grace p. 126 127. Error X. They speak very slightingly of trying our selves by marks and signs of Grace Saltmarsh often calls it a weak low carnal way but the New-England Antinomians or Libertines call it a fundamental Error to make Sanctification an evidence of Justification that it is to light a Candle to the Sun that it darkens our Justification and that the darker our Sanctification is the brighter our Justification is See their Book entitled Rise Reign Error 72. In this Breviate or summary Account of Antinomian Doctrines I have only singled out and touched some of their principal Mistakes and Error into which some of them run much farther than others But I look upon such Doctrines to be in themselves of a very dangerous nature and the malignity and contagion would certainly spread much farther into the World than it doth had not God provided two powerful Antidotes to resist the malignity Viz. 1. The scope and current of Scripture 2. The experience and practice of the Saints 1. These Doctrines run cross to the scope and current of the Scriptures which constantly speak of all unregenerate Persons without exception of the very Elect themselves during that state as Children of wrath even as others without Christ and under condemnation They frequently discover God's Anger and tell us his castigatory Rods of affliction are laid upon them for their Sins They represent Sin as the greatest Evil most opposite to the Glory of God and good of the Saints and are therefore filled with Cautions and Threatnings to prevent their sinning They call the Saint frequently and earnestly not only to mourn for their Sins before the Lord but to pray for the pardon or remission of them in the blood of Christ. They give us a far different account of saving Faith and do not place it in a persuasion more or less of Christ's love to us or a manifestation in our Consciences of the actual remission of our Sins before we had a being but in our receiving Christ as the Gospel offers him for righteousness and life They frequently call the People of God to the examination and trial of their Interest in Christ by marks and signs and accordingly furnish them with variety of such marks from the divers parts or branches of Sanctification in themselves They earnestly and every-where press Believers to strictness and constancy in the duties of Religion as the way wherein God would have them to walk They infer Duties from Privileges and therefore the Antinomian Dialect is a wild note which the generality of serious Christians do easily distinguish from the Scripture-stile and Language 2. The Experience and Practice of the Saints recorded in Scripture as well as our Contemporaries or those whose Lives are recorded for our imitation do greatly secure us from the spreading malignity of Antinomianism Converse with the living or read the Histories of dead Saints and you shall find That in their Addresses to God they still bless and praise him for that great and wonderful change of state which was made upon them when they first believed in Christ and on their believing passed from death to life freely acknowledging before God they were before their conversion equal in sin and misery with the vilest Wretches in the World They heartily mourn for their daily Sins fear nothing more than Sin no Afflictions in the World go so near their heart as Sin doth They mourn for the hardness of their hearts that they can mourn no more for Sin They acknowledge the Rods of God that are upon them are not only the evidences of his displeasure against them for their Sins but the fruits of their uneven walking with him And that the greatest of their Afflictions is less than the least of their Iniquities deserve They fall at their Father's feet as oft as they fall into sin humbly and earnestly suing for pardon through the Blood of Christ. They are not only sensible that God sees Sin in them but that he seeth such
and so great evils in them as makes them admire at his patience that they are not consumed in their Iniquities They find cause enough to suspect their own sincerity doubt the truth of their Faith and of their Graces and are therefore frequent and serious in the trial and examination of their own states by Scripture-marks and signs They urge the Commands and Threatnings as well as the Promises upon their own hearts to promote Sanctification Excite themselves to duty and watchfulness against Sin They also encourage themselves by the rewards of obedience knowing their labour is not in vain in the Lord. And all this while they look not for that in themselves which is only to be found in Christ nor for that in the Law which is only to be found in the Gospel nor for that on Earth which is only to be found in Heaven This is the way that they take And he that shall tell them their Sins can do them no hurt or their Duties do them no good speaks to them not only as a Barbarian in a Language they understand not but in such a Language as their Souls detest and abhor Moreover The zeal and love of Christ and his Glory being kindled in their Souls they have not patience to hear such Doctrines as so greatly derogate from his Glory under a pretence of honouring and exalting him It wounds and grieves their very hearts to see the World hardned in their prejudices against Reformation and a gap opened to all licentiousness But notwithstanding this double Antidote and Security we find by daily experience such Doctrines too much obtaining in the professing World For my own part He that searches my Heart and Reins is witness I would rather chuse to have my right hand wither and my tongue rot within my mouth than to speak one word or write one line to cloud or diminish the Free-grace of God Let it arise and shine in its Meridian Glory None owes more to it or expects more from it than I do And what I shall write in this Controversy is to vindicate it from those Doctrines and Opinions which under pretence of exalting it do really militate against it To begin therefore with the first and leading Error Error I. That the Iustification of Sinners is an immanent and eternal act of God not only preceding all acts of sin but the very existence of the sinner himself and so perfectly abolishing sin in our persons that we are as clean from sin as Christ himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as some of them have spoken To stop the progress of this Error I shall 1. Lay down the Sentence of the Orthodox about it 2. Offer some Reasons for the refutation of it 1. That which I take to be the truth agreed upon and asserted by sound reformed Divines touching Gospel-Justification is by them made clear to the World in these following Scriptural distinctions of it Justification may be considered under a twofold respect or habitude 1. According to God's Eternal Decree Or 2. According to the execution thereof in time 1. According to God's Eternal Decree and Purpose and in this respect Grace is said to be given us in Christ before the World began 2 Tim. 1. 9. And we are said to be predestinated to the adoption of Children by Jesus Christ Eph. 1. 5. 2. According to the execution thereof in time So they again distinguish it by considering it two ways 1. In its Impetration by Christ. 2. In its Application to us That very mercy or privilege of Justification which God from all Eternity purely out of his benevolent Love purposed and decreed for his Elect was also in time purchased for them by the death of Christ Rom. 5. 9 10. where we are said to be justified by his Blood and he is said to have made peace through the Blood of his Cross to reconcile all things to himself Col. 1. 20. to be delivered for our Offences and raised again for our Justification Rom. 4. 25. Once more That God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself not imputing their trespasses 2 Cor. 5. 19. God the Father had in the death of Christ a foundation of reconciliation whereby he became propitious to his Elect that he might absolve and justify them Again 2. It must be considered in its application to us which application is made in this Life at the time of our effectual Calling When an elect Sinner is united to Christ by Faith and so passeth from Death to Life from a state of Condemnation into a state of Absolution and Favour this is our actual Justification Rom. 5. 1. Acts 13. 39. Iohn 5. 24. which actual Justification is again considered two ways 1. Universally and in General as to the State of the Person 2. Specially and Particularly as to the Acts of Sin As soon as we are received into Communion with Christ and his Righteousness is imputed by God and received by Faith immediately we pass from a state of Death and Condemnation to a state of Life and Justification and all Sins already committed are remitted without Exception or Revocation and not only so but a Remedy is given us in the Righteousness of Christ against Sins to come and tho these special and particular Sins we afterward fall into do need particular Pardons yet by renewed Acts of Faith and Repentance the Believer applies to himself the Righteousness of Christ and they are pardoned Again they carefully distinguish betwixt 1. It 's Application by God to our Persons And 2. It 's Declaration or Manifestation in us and to us Which Manifestation or Declaration is either 1. Private in the Conscience of a Believer Or 2. Publick at the Bar of Judgment And thus Justification is many ways distinguished And notwithstanding all this it is still actus indivisus an undivided act not on our part for it is iterated in many acts but on God's part who at once decreed it and on Christ's part who by one Offering purchased it and at the time of our Vocation universally applied it as to the state of the Person justified and that so effectually as no future Sin shall bring that Person any more under Condemnation In this Sentence or Judgment the Generality of Reformed Orthodox Divines are agreed and the want of distinguishing as they according to Scripture have distinguished hath led the Antinomians into this first Error about Justification and that Error hath led them into most of the other Errors That this Doctrine of theirs which teaches that Men are justified actually and compleatly before they have a being is an Error and hath no solid Foundation to support it may be evidenced by these three Reasons 1. Because it is Irrational 2. Because it is Unscriptural 3. Because it is Injurious to Christ and the Souls of Men. It is Irrational to imagine that Men are actually justified before they have a Being by an immanent Act or Decree of God Many things have been urged upon this
to perishing can never truly and properly be said to be saved If it be said the Elect were not justified till the death of Christ I demand then what became of all them that died before the death of Christ If they were not justified they could not be glorified for this is sure from Rom. 8. 30. That the whole number of the glorified in Heaven is made up of such as were justified on Earth Let men take heed therefore lest under pretence of exalting Christ they bereave him of the glory of being the Saviour of his Elect. 2. It bereaves him of another glorious Royalty The Scripture every-where makes our Justification the result and fruit of the meritorious death of Christ Rom. 3. 24 25. Rom. 8. 3 4. 2 Cor. 5. 19 20. Gal. 3. 13 14. Eph. 1. 7. But if men were justified from Eterternity how is their Justification the fruit and result of the blood of the Cross as it plainly appears from these Scriptures to be Nay 3. This Opinion leaves no place for the satisfaction of Justice by the Blood of Christ for our Sins He did not die according to this Opinion to pay our debts And here Antinomianism and Socinianism meet and congratulate each other For if there were no debts owing to the Justice of God from Eternity Christ could not die to pay them and 't is manifest there were no debts due to God's Justice from Eternity on the account of his Elect if the Elect were from Eternity justified unless you will say a person may be justified and yet his debts not paid for all Justification dissolves the obligation to punishment If there were any debts for Christ to pay by his Blood they must either be his own debts or the Elect's To say they were his own is a blasphemous reproach to him and according to this Opinion we cannot say they were the Elect's for if they were justified from Eternity their debts were discharged and their bonds cancell'd from Eternity So that this Opinion leaves nothing to the Blood of Christ to discharge or make satisfaction for 2. And as it hath been proved to be highly injurious to the Lord Jesus so it is greatly injurious to the Souls of men as it naturally leads them into all those wild and licentious Opinions which naturally flow from it as from the radical prolifique Error whence most of the rest derive themselves as will immediately appear in the II. Error That Iustification by Faith is no more but the manifestation to us of what was really and actually done before Or a being persuaded more or less of Christ's love to us And that when persons do believe that which was hid before doth then only appear to them Refutation As the former Error dangerously corrupts the Doctrine of Justification so this corrupts the Doctrine of Faith and therefore deserves to be exploded by all Christians That there is a manifestation and discovery of the special love of God and our own saving concernment in the death of Christ to some Christians at some times cannot be denied St. Paul could say Gal. 2. 20 21. Christ loved him and gave himself for him but to say that this is the justifying act of Faith whereby a Sinner passeth from condemnation and death into the state of righteousness and life this I must look upon as a great Error and that for these following Reasons Reason I. Because there be multitudes of believing and justified Persons in the World who have no such manifestation evidence or assurance that God laid their Iniquities upon Christ and that he died to put away their Sins but daily conflict with strong fears and doubts whether it be so or no. There are but few among Believers that attain such a persuasion and manifestation as Antinomians make to be all that is meant in Scripture by Justification through Faith Many thousand new-born Christians live as the new-born Babe which neither knows its own Estate or Inheritance to which it is born Vivit est vitae nescius ipse suae A Soul may be in Christ and a justified state without any such persuasion or manifestation as they here speak of Isa. 50. 10. And if any shall assert the contrary he will condemn the greatest part of the Generation of God's Children Now that cannot be the saving and justifying act of Faith which is not to be found in multitudes of believing and justified Persons But manifestation or a personal persuasion of the love of God to a Man's Soul or that Christ died for him and all his Iniquities are thereby forgiven him is not to be found in multitudes of believing and justified Souls Therefore such a persuasion or manifestation is not that saving justifying Faith which the Scripture speaks of That Faith which only justifies the person of a Sinner before God must necessarily be found in all justified Believers or else a man may be justified without the least degree of justifying Faith and consequently it is not Faith alone by which a man is justified before God Reason II. That cannot be the justifying act of Faith which is not constant and abiding with the justified Person but comes and goes is frequently lost and recovered the state of the Person still remaining the same And such contingent things are these persuasions and manifestations they come and go are won and lost the state of the Person still remaining the same Iob was as much a justified Believer when he complained that God was his Enemy as when he could say I know that my Redeemer liveth The same may be said of David Heman Asaph and the greatest number of justified Believers recorded in Scripture There be two things belonging to a justified state 1. That which is essential and inseparable to wit Faith uniting the Soul to Christ. 2. That which is contingent and separable to wit evidence and persuasion of our interest in him Those Believers that walk in darkness and have no light have yet a real special interest in God as their God Isa. 50. 10. Here then you find Believers without persuasion or manifestation of God's love to them which could never be if justifying Faith consisted in a personal persuasion manifestation or evidence of the love of God and pardon of Sin to a Man's Soul That cannot be the justifying Faith spoken of in Scripture which a justified Person may live in Christ without and be as much in a state of pardon and acceptation with God when he wants it as when he hath it But such is persuasion evidence or manifestation of a man's particular interest in the love of God or the pardon of his Sins Therefore this is not the justifying Faith the Scripture speaks of Reason III. That only is justifying saving Faith which gives the Soul Right and Title to Christ and the saving benefits which come by Christ upon all the Children of God Now it is not persuasion that Christ is ours but acceptance of him that gives us interest in Christ and the
searched and all those parcels brought together to an interview Ex. Gr. If a Man would see the entire discovery that was made of Christ to the Fathers under the Old-Testament he shall not find it laid together in any one Prophet but shall find that one speaks to one part of it and another to another Moses gives the first general hint of it Gen. 3. 15. The seed of the woman shall break the serpents head But then if you would know more particularly of whose Seed according to the flesh he should come you must turn to Gen. 22. 18. In thy seed saith God to Abraham shall all nations of the earth be blessed And if you yet doubt what Seed God means there you must go to the Apostle Gal. 3. 16. To thy seed which is Christ. If you would further know the place of his Nativity the Prophet Micha must inform you of that Mic. 5. 2. it should be Bethlehem-Ephrata If you inquire of the quality of his Parent another Prophet gives you that Isa. 7. 14. Behold a Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son and call his name Immanuel If the time of his Birth be inquired after Moses and Daniel must inform you of that Gen. 49. 10. Dan. 9. 24. So under the New-Testament If a Man inquire about the change of the Sabbath he must not expect to find a formal repeal of the Seventh day and an express institution of the first day in its room but he is to consider First What the Evangelist speaks Mark 2. 28. That Christ is Lord of the Sabbath and so had power not only to dispense with it but to change it Secondly That on the first day of the Week Christ rose from the dead Matt. 28. 1 2. And that this is that great day foretold to be the day to be solemnized upon that account Psal. 118. 24. Thirdly That accordingly the first day of the Week is emphatically styled the Lord's day Rev. 1. 10. where you find his own name written upon it Fourthly You shall find this was the day on which the Apostles and Primitive Christians assembled together for the stated and solemn performance of Publick Worship Iohn 20. 19. and other publick Church-Acts and Duties 1 Cor. 16. 1 2. And so by putting together and considering all these Particulars we draw a just Conclusion That it is the Will of God that since the Resurrection of Christ the first day of the week should be observed as the Christian-Sabbath In like manner as for the Baptizing of Believers Infants We are not to expect it in the express words of a New-Testament-Institution or Command that Infants under the Gospel should be Baptized but God hath left us to gather satisfaction about his Will and our Duty in that point by comparing and considering the several Scriptures of the Old and New-Testament which relate to that matter which if we be impartial and considerative we may do First By considering that by God's express Command Gen. 17. 9 10. the Infant Seed of his People were taken into Covenant with their Parents and the then Sign of that Covenant commanded to be applied to them Secondly That though the Sign be altered the Promise and Covenant is still the same and runs as it did before to Believers and their Children Acts 2. 38 39. Thirdly That the foederal holiness of our Children is plainly asserted under the New-Testament 1 Cor. 7. 14. Rom. 11. 16. Fourthly We shall further find that Baptism succeeds in the room of Circumcision and that by an Argument drawn from the compleatness of our Privileges under the New-Testament no way inferiour but rather more extensive than those of the Iews Col. 2. 10 11 12. Fifthly We shall find that upon the Conversion of any Master or Parent the whole Houshold were Bapized By puting all these things with some others together we may arrive to the desired satisfaction about the Will of God in this matter But some Men want abilities and others are too sluggish and lazy to gather together compare and weigh all these and many more hints and discoveries of the Mind of God which would give much light unto this point but they take an easier and cheaper way to satisfy themselves with what lies uppermost upon the surface of Scripture and so as it were by consent let go and lose their own and their Childrens blessed and invaluable Privileges for want of a little labour and patience to search the Scriptures a folly which few would be guilty of if but a small earthly inheritance were concerned therein The Remedies To cure this Spiritual sluggishness and awaken us to the most serious and diligent search after the Will of God in such controversal and doubtful points that we may not neglect the smallest hint given us about it the following Considerations will be found of great use and weight Consideration I. The most sedate impartial and diligent inquiries after the Will of God revealed in his Word is a Duty expresly enjoyned by his Soveraign Command which immediately and indispensibly binds the Conscience of every Christian to the practice of it Remarkable is that Text to this purpose Rom. 12. 2. And be not conformed to this world but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God Here you find this Duty not only associated with but made the very end of our Non-conformity to the World and renovation of our minds the very things which constitute a Christian And to sweeten our pains in this work that Will of God for the discovery whereof we search is presented to us under three illustrious and alluring properties viz. Good Acceptable and Perfect Good it must needs be because the Will and Essence of God the chief Good are not two things but one and the same And Perfect it must needs be because it is the Beam and Standard by which the Actions of all reasonable Creatures ought to be weighed and tryed as to the moral good or evil of them And being both good and perfect How can it chuse but upon both accounts be highly Acceptable and grateful to an upright Soul as that Epithete 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there imports Search the Scriptures saith Christ Ioh. 5. 39. To the Law and to the Testimony faith the Prophet Isa. 8. 20. This is not matter of meer Christian Liberty but Commanded Duty and at our peril◠be it if we neglect it Consideration II. No act of ours can be good and acceptable to the Lord further than it is agreeable to his Will revealed in the Word No Man can be a Rule to himself He can be no more his own Rule than his own End One Man cannot be a Rule to another The best of Men and their Actions and Examples are only so far a rule of imitation to us as they themselves are ruled by the Divine revealed Will 1 Cor. 11. 1. uncommanded acts of Worship are abominable to
of the Promise in our hearts yea the effects of those absolute Promises of the first Grace Ezek. 36. Ier. 32. Or else notwithstanding Christ's performance of Redemption on his part we can neither be justified nor saved For I don't think you intend to lay the Conditions of Repentance or believing upon Christ who in the New Covenant hath laid them upon us tho in the same Covenant he graciously undertakes to work them in us and yet your words sound in that wild Antinomian Note But I suppose you take my Notion to be as self-repugnant as your own when I say Faith is an antecedent Condition to Justification because I also say this Grace is also supernaturally wrought in us and is not of our selves This staggers you and is the very stone you stumble at all along this Controversie for in your sense p. 34. every Condition is meritorious by condignity or congruity First What do I say more in all this than what those Worthies before-mentioned do expresly affirm Doth not Dr. Owen the man whom you deservedly value make Conditions both in Adam's Covenant and the New with this difference that Adam's Covenant required them but the New Covenant effects them in all the Foederates Sir We take it for no contradiction to assert That the planting of the Principle and the assisting and exciting of the Acts of Faith are the proper Works of the Spirit of God and are also contained in the absolute Promises of the New Covenant Ezek. 36. 26 27. Ier. 32. 39 40. And yet Faith notwithstanding this is truly and properly our work and duty and that upon our believing or not believing we have or have not an actual interest in Christ Righteousness and Life For though the Author of Faith be the Spirit of God yet believing is properly our Act and an Act required of us by a plain Command 1 Iohn 3. 23. This is the Command of God That ye believe And if its being wrought in God's strength makes it cease to be our Work I would fain know what Exposition you would give of that place Phil. 2. 12 13. Work out your own Salvation c. for it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do And as this Faith is truly and properly our work though wrought in God's strength for it is not God but we that do believe so it is wrought in us by him by your own confession before the application of pardoning Mercy which is consequent in order of nature thereunto and therefore hath the true nature of an antecedent Condition which is that I contend for and did you but understand your own words you would not contend against Oh but say you p. 34. every Condition is meritorious either by way of congruity or condignity This is your ignorance of the nature of a Condition with which I find you as unacquainted as with the nature of a Covenant A Condition whilst unperformed only suspends the act of the Law or Testament it being the will of the Testator Legislator or Donor that his Law or Testament should act or effect when the Condition is performed and not before but it is not essential to a Condition to be a meritorious or impulsive cause moving him to bestow the benefit for the sake thereof A man freely gives another out of his love and bounty such an Estate or Sum of Money which he shall enjoy if he live to such a year or day and not before is this quando dies veniet this appointed time the meritorious or impulsive cause of the gift surely no man will say it but that it is a causa sine quâ non or a Condition suspending the enjoyment of the gift no man will deny that knows what the nature of a Condition is An act meritorious by way of Congruity is that to which a reward is not due out of strict justice but out of decency or some kind of meetness Merit of condignity is a voluntary action for which a reward is due to a man out of justice and cannot be denied him without injustice Our Faith is truly the Condition of the New Covenant and yet we detest the meritoriousness of it in either sense But you object my words to me in my Method of Grace where I assert the impossibility of believing without the efficacy of supernatural Grace p. 102 103. Sir I own the words you quote and am bold to challenge the most envious Eye that shall read those lines to shew me the least repugnancy betwixt what I said there and what I have said in my Vindiciae Legis c. p. 9. of the Prolegomena and p. 61. of that Book You shew your good-will to make an advantagious thrust but your Weapon is too short and can draw no blood But leaving these weak and impertinent Cavils let us come to your Solution of my Arguments p. 98. by which I proved the Conditionality of the New Covenant My first Argument was this If we cannot be justified or saved till we believe and are justified when we believe Then Faith is the Condition on which those consequent Benefits are suspended c. The sum of your Answer without denying distinguishing or limiting one Proposition is this That here Faith is properly put into the room of perfect Obedience and is to do what perfect Obedience was to do under the Law whereas say you Faith is only appointed as an Instrument to receive and apply the Righteousness of Christ which is the alone matter of our Justification before God and Faith it self is not our Righteousness as it would be if it were a Condition p. 105 106. Not to note the weakness and impertinence of this Answer I shall only take notice of what you here allow and grant That Faith is appointed as an Instrument to receive and apply the Righteousness of Christ which is the alone matter of our Iustification before God Whence I infer three Conclusions First That we cannot be justified before God till we believe except you can prove that the unaccepted and unapplied Righteousness of Christ doth actually justify our persons before God Secondly That the justification of our persons before God is and must be suspended as by a non-performed Condition untill we actually believe Which two Conclusions yield up your Cause to my Argument which you here seem to oppose Thirdly That hereby you perfectly renounce and destroy your Antinomian Fancy before-mentioned That if Christ have fulfilled the Law and purchased Heaven for men nothing can remain but to declare this to them c. for it seems by this they must receive and apply Christ's Righteousness by Faith or they cannot be justified you say not declaratively in their own Consciences but before God And thus instead of answering you have confirmed and yielded my first Argument and only oppose your own Mistakes not the sense or force of my Arguments in all that you say to it or the Scriptures
which the initiating Sign was one and a chief one too as ever the natural Branches that were broken off that is the Iewish Parents and their Children did or might have done And to deny this as before was noted is to straiten Covenant-privileges in their farther progress Thesis VI. Suitably hereunto we find that no sooner was the Christian Church constituted and the Believing Gentiles by Faith added to it but the Children of such Believing Parents are declared to be foederally Holy 1 Cor. 7. 14. and the unbelieving Iews who were superstitiously fond of Circumcision and prejudiced against Baptism as an injurious innovation are by the Apostle perswaded to submit themselves to it Acts 2. 38 39. assuring them that the same Promise viz. I will be a God to thee and to thy seed after thee is now as effectually sealed to them and their Children by Baptism as it was in the former Age by Circumcision And that the Gentiles which are yet a far off whenever God shall call them shall equally enjoy the same Privilege both for themselves and for their Children also We also find a Commission given by Christ to the Disciples Matt. 28. 19 20. To disciple all nations baptizing them c. from which Discipleship Infants ought not to be excluded Acts 15. 10. Yea we find that as at the institution of Circumcision Abraham the Father and Master of the Family was first circumcised in his own person and then his whole houshold Gen. 17. 23 24. Answerably as soon as any person by Conversion or publick profession of Faith became a visible Child of Abraham that person was first Baptized and the whole Houshold with him or her Acts 16. 33. 15. 'T is unreasonable to put us upon the proof that there were Infants in those Houses it being more than probable that in such frequent Baptizing of Housholds belonging to Believers there were some Infants but if there were none 't is enough for us to prove from their foederal holiness 1 Cor. 7. 14. and the extent of God's Promise to them Acts 2. 38 39. If there had been never so many Infants in those Housholds they might and ought to have been Baptized How the true sense and scope of the two last mentioned Scriptures are maintained and vindicated against Mr. Cary's corrupt glosses and interpretations see my Vindiciae Legis Foederis pag. 90. 91. We do not lay the stress of Infants Baptism upon such strictures as the Baptizings of the Housholds of Believers or Christ's taking up in his Arms and blessing the little ones that were brought to him These and many other such things found in the History of Christ and Acts of the Apostles have their use and service to fortify that Doctrine But if we can produce no example of any Believer's Infant Baptized the merit of the Cause lies not in the matter of fact but Covenant-right For our Adversaries themselves if we go to matter of fact will be hard put to it to produce us one instance out of the New-Testament of any Child of a Believing Christian whose Baptism was deferred or by Christ or his Apostles ordered to be deferred until he attained the years of maturity and made a personal profession of Faith himself Thesis VII The change of the Token and Seal of the Covenant from Circumcision to Baptism will by no means infer the change or diversity of the Covenants especially when the latter comes into the place and serves to the same use and end with the former as it is manifest Baptism doth from Col. 2. 11 12. as hath been I think sufficiently argued against Mr. Cary 's glosses and exceptions pag. 100 101. of my Vindiciae Legis Foederis The Covenant is still the same Covenant of Grace though the external initiating sign be changed For what is the substantial part of the Covenant of Grace now but the same it was to Abraham and his Seed before Is not this our Covenant of Grace Heb. 8. 10. I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a people And in what words was Abraham's Covenant expressed Gen. 17. 7. I will establish my Covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting Covenant to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee This makes Abraham's Covenant sealed to him and his Seed as truly and properly the Covenant of Grace as that which Baptism now seals to Believers and their Seed The rash ignorance of those that affirm God may become a People's God in the way of a special interest by virtue of the broken and abolished Covenant of works rather deserves sharp reprehension and sad lamentation than a confutation which nevertheless out of respect to my Friend Mr. Cary I have given it in its proper place in this Rejoynder I hope by this time I have made it evident That the defenders of Infants Baptism as it is established upon God's Covenant with Abraham Gen. 17. have not so mistaken their Ground as Mr. Cary hath by his endeavours to carry that Covenant as an Adam's Covenant of Works through such a multitude of other errors and absurdities as he draws along with it in his way of reasoning A Postscript to Mr. Cary. SIR I Resolved not to disturb my mind with your passionate provoking Language at least whil'st I was busily employed in searching for Reason and Argument two scarce Commodities amongst heaps of vain and fulsome words Nor will I now imitate your folly and rudeness lest I become an Offender whilst I am to act the part of a Reprover When I read your Title A Iust and Sober Reply and presently fell in among rude insults silly evasions and such inartificial discourses as follow in your Book I began to challenge you in my thoughts for matching such bad stuff with so fair and lovely a Title But a second thought quickly corrected the former for I considered no Man living could justly forbid the Marriage betwixt your Book and its Title since there is not the least kindred or relation between them Had your Answers been just you would have observed the Rules of a Respondent which you have not done And if they had been sober you had never been so free in your reproaches and sparing in your Arguments as you have been Is this the Man of whom it is said in the Epistle to his Solemn Call That his Lines are free from reflection and reproach towards those of the perswasion he contends with Is this my old friendly Neighbour It calls to my mind the Italian Proverb God keep us from our Friends and we will do what we can to keep our selves from our Enemies And though you act the part of an Enemy you shall be my Friend whether you will or no. If you will not be my Friend out of Love I will make you so by a good improvement of your Hatred I have been musing with my self what might be the true cause of all your
account to confute and destroy this Fancy and much more may be rationally urged against it Let the following Particulars be weighed in the Balance of Reason 1. Can we rationally suppose that Pardon and Acceptance can be affirmed or predicated of that which is not Reason tells us Non entis nulla sunt accidentia That which is not can neither be condemned nor justified But before the Creation or before a Man's particular Conception he was not and therefore could not in his own Person be the Subject of Justification Where there is no Law there is no Sin Where there is no Sin there is no Punishment Where there is neither Sin nor Punishment there can be no Guilt for Guilt is an Obligation to Punishment And where there 's neither Law nor Sin nor Obligation to Punishment there can be no Justification He that is not capable of a Charge is not capable of a Discharge What remains then but that either the Elect must exist from Eternity or be justified in time 'T is true future Beings may be considered as in the purpose and decree of God from Eternity or as in the Intention of Christ who died intentionally for the Sins of the Elect and rose again for their Justification But neither the Decree of God nor the Death of Christ takes place upon any Man for his actual Justification until he personally exist For the Object of Justification is a Sinner actually ungodly Rom. 4. 5. but so no Man is or can be from Eternity In Election men are considered without respect to Good or Evil done by them Rom. 9. 11. not so in actual Justification 2. In Justification there is a Change made upon the state of the Person Rom. 5. 8 9. 1 Cor. 6. 9 10 11. By Justification men pass from a state of Death to a state of Life Ioh. 5. 24. But the Decree or Purpose of God in it self makes no such actual change upon the state of any person It hath indeed the nature of an Universal Cause but an Universal Cause produceth nothing without particulars If our state be changed it is not by an immanent act of God Hence no such thing doth transire A mere velle non punire or intention to justify us in due time and order makes no change on our state till that time come and the particular Causes have wrought A Prince may have a purpose or intention to pardon a Law-condemned Traitor and free him from that Condemnation in due time but whilst the Law that condemned him stands in its full force and power against him he is not justified or acquitted notwithstanding that gracious intention but stands still condemned So is it with us till by Faith we are implanted into Christ. 'T is true Christ is a surety for all his and hath satisfied the debt He is a common Head to all his as Adam was to all his Children Rom. 5. 19. But as the Sin of Adam condemns none but those that are in him so the Righteousness of Christ actually justifies none but those that are in him and none are actually in him but Believers Therefore till we believe no actual change passeth or can pass upon our state So that this Hypothesis is contrary to Reason As this Opinion is Irrational so it is Unscriptural For 1. The Scripture frequently speaks of Remission or Justification as a future act and therefore not from Eternity Rom. 4. 23 24. Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him but for us also to whom it shall be imputed if we believe on him c. And Gal. 3. 8. The Scriptures foreseeing that God would justify the Heathen through faith preached before the Gospel unto Abraham The Gospel was preached many years before the Gentiles were justified but if they were justified from Eternity how was the Gospel preached before their Justification 2. The Scripture leaves all Unbelievers without distinction under condemnation and wrath The Curse of the Law lies upon them till they believe Iohn 3. 18. He that believeth on him is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already And Eph. 2. 3 12 13. The very Elect themselves were by nature the Children of wrath even as others They were at that time or during that state of nature which takes in all that whole space betwixt their conception and conversion without Christ without hope without God in the World But if this Opinion be true that the Elect were justified from Eternity or from the time of Christ's death then it cannot be true that the Elect by nature are Children of Wrath without Christ without Hope without God in the World except these two may consist together which is absolutely impossible that Children of Wrath without God Christ or Hope are actually discharged from their Sins and Dangers by a free and gracious act of Justification But doth not the Scripture say Rom. 8. 33. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's Elect If none can charge the Elect then God hath discharged them God hath not actually discharged them as they are Elect but as they are justified Elect for so runs that Text and clears it self in the very next words It is God that justifieth When God hath actually justified an Elect Person none can charge him 3. 'T is cross to the Scripture-order of Justification which places it not only after Christ's death in the place last cited Rom. 8. 33. but also after our actual vocation as is plain vers 30. Moreover whom he did predestinate them he also called and whom he called them he also justified and whom he justified them he also glorified Is it absurd to place Vocation before Predestination or Glorification before Justification sure then it must be absurd also to place Justification before Vocation the one as well as the other confounds and breaks the Scripture-order You may as well say men shall be glorified that were never justified as say they may be justified before they believed or existed So that you see the notion of Justification from Eternity or before our actual existence and effectual Vocation is a notion as repugnant to sacred Scripture as it is to sound Reason And as it is found repugnant to Reason and Scripture so it is highly injurious to Jesus Christ and the Souls of Men. 1. It greatly injures the Lord Jesus Christ and robs him of the glory of being our Saviour For if the Elect be justified from Eternity Christ cannot be the Saviour of the Elect as most assuredly he is for if Christ save them he must save them as persons subject to perishing either de facto or de jure But if the Elect were justified from Eternity they could in neither respect be subject to perishing for he that was eternally justified was never condemned nor capable of condemnation and he that never was or could be condemned could never be subject to perishing and he that never was nor could be subject
saving benefits and privileges of the Children of God Iohn 1. 12. But as many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God even to them that believe on his name So that unless the Antinomians can prove that receiving of Christ and personal persuasion of pardon be one and the same thing and consequently that all Believers in the World are persuaded or assured that their sins are pardoned and reject from the number of Believers all tempted deserted dark and doubting Christians this persuasion they speak of is not nor can it be the act of Faith which justifies the person of a Sinner before God That which I think led our Antinomians into this Error was an unfound and unwary definition of Faith which in their youth they had imbibed from their Catechisms and other Systems passing without contradiction or scruple in those days which though it were a mistake and hath abundantly been proved to be so in latter days yet our Antinomians will not part with a notion so serviceable to the support of their darling Opinion of Eternal Justification Reason IV. A Man may be strongly persuaded of the Love of God to his Soul and of the pardon of his Sin and yet have no interest in Christ nor be in a pardoned State This was the Case of the Pharisees and others Luke 18. 9. Rev. 3. 17. Therefore this persuasion cannot be justifying Faith If a persuasion be that that justifies the persuaded person then the Pharisees and the Laodiceans were justified Oh! How common and easie is it for the worst of Men to be strongly persuaded of their good condition whilst humble serious Christians doubt and stagger I know not what such Doctrine as this is useful for but to beget and strengthen that sin of presumption which sends down multitudes to Hell out of the professing World For what is more common amongst the most carnal and unsanctified part of the World not only such as are meerly moral but even the most flagitious and prophane than to support themselves by false persuasions of their good estate When they are asked in order to their conviction what hopes of Salvation they have and how they are founded Their common answer is Christ died for Sinners and that they are persuaded that whatever he hath done for any other he hath done it for them as well as others But such a persuasion cometh not of him that called them and is of dangerous consequence Reason V. This Doctrine is certainly unfound because it confounds the distinction betwixt Dogmatical and Saving Faith and makes it all one to believe an Axiom or Proposition and to believe savingly in Christ to Eternal Life What is it to believe that God lay'd our iniquities upon Christ more than the mere assent of the understanding to a Scripture Axiom or Proposition without any consent of the will to receive Jesus Christ as the Gospel offers him And this is no more than what any unregenerated person may do yea the very Devils themselves assent to the truth of Scripture Axioms and Propositions as well as Men Iam. 2. 19. Thou believest there is one God thou doest well the Devils also believe and tremble What is this more than a Scripture-Axiom or Proposition God lay'd the iniquity of us all upon Christ Isa. 53. 6 And yet saith Dr. Crisp p. 296. God cannot charge one Sin upon that Man that believes this Truth That God lay'd his iniquities upon Christ. The assent of the understanding may be and often is given to a Scripture Proposition whil'st the Heart and Will remain carnal and utterly averse to Jesus Christ. I may believe Dogmatically that the iniquities of Men were lay'd upon Christ and persuade my self presumptively that mine as well as other Mens were lay'd upon him and yet remain a perfect Stranger to all saving Union and Communion with him Reason VI. This Opinion cannot be true because it takes away the only support that bears up the Soul of a Believer in times of temptation and desertion For how will you comfort such a distressed Soul that saith and saith truly I have no persuasion that Christ is mine or that my sins are pardoned but I am heartily willing to cast my poor sin-burthened Soul upon him that he may be mine I do not certainly know that he died intentionally for me but I lye at his feet cleave to him wait at the door of hope I stay and trust upon him though I walk in darkness and have no light Now let such Doctrine as this be Preached to a Soul in this condition and we may be sure 't is the condition of many thousands belonging to Christ I say bring this Doctrine to them and tell them That unless they be persuaded of the Love of God and that God lay'd their iniquities on Christ except they have some manifestation that their persons were justified from eternity their accepting of Christ consent of their Wills waiting at his Feet c. signifies nothing if they believe not that their particular sins were lay'd upon Christ and are pardoned to them by him they are still unbelievers and have no part or portion in him Whatever pretences of spiritual comfort and relief the Antinomian Doctrine makes you see by this it really deprives a very great if not the greatest number of God's people of their best and sweetest relief in days of darkness and spiritual distress So that this Doctrine which makes manifestation and assurance the very essence of justifying faith appears hereby to be both a false and very dangerous Doctrine And yet there is as much or more danger to the Souls of Men in their III. Error That Men ought not to doubt of their Faith or question whether they believe or no. Nay That they ought no more to question their Faith than to question Christ. Refutation What an easie way to Heaven is the Antinomian way Were it but as true and safe to the Soul as it is easie and pleasing to the Flesh who would not embrace it What a charm of the Devil is prepared in these two Propositions Be but persuaded more or less of Christ's Love to thy Soul saith Mr. Saltmarsh and that 's justifying Faith Here 's a snare of the Devil lay'd for the Souls of Men. And then 2. to make it fast and sure upon the Soul and effectually to prevent the discovery of their Error tell them they need no more to doubt or question their Faith than to question Christ and the work is done to all intents Now that this is an Error and a very dangerous one will appear by the following Reasons Reason I. The questioning and examining of our Faith is a commanded Scripture-duty 2 Cor. 13. 5. Examine your selves whether ye be in the faith prove your own selves c. And 2 Pet. 1. 10. Give diligence to make your calling and election sure Let him that â—nketh he standeth take heed lest he fall 1 Cor. 10. 12. The second Epistle of
John verse 8. Look to your selves that we lose not the things which we have wrought With multitude of other Scriptures recommending holy jealousy serious self-trial and examination of our Faith as the unquestionable duties of the people of God But if we ought to question our Faith no more than we ought to question Christ away then with all self-examination and diligence to make our Calling and Election sure for where there is no doubt nor danger there 's no place nor room for examination or further endeavours to make it surer than it is How do you like this Doctrine Christians How many be there among you that find no more cause to question your own faith or interest in Christ than you do to question whether there be a Christ or whether he shed his Blood for the remission of any Man's sins Reason II. This is a very dangerous Error and it is the more dangerous because it leaves no way to recover a presumptuous Sinner out of his dangerous mistakes but confirms and fixes him in them to the great hazard of his eternal ruin It cuts off all means of conviction or better information and Nails them fast to the carnal state in which they are According to this Doctrine 't is impossible for a Man to think himself something when he is nothing or to be guilty of such a Paralogism and cheat put by himself upon his own Soul Iam. 1. 22. this in effect bids a Man keep on right or wrong he is sure enough of Heaven if he be but strongly persuaded that Christ died for him and he shall come thither at last Certainly this was not the Counsel Christ gave to the self-deceived Laodiceans Rev. 3. 17 18. but instead of dissuading them from self-jealously and suspition of their condition whether their Faith and State were safe or not he rather counsels them to buy Eye-salve that is to labour after better information of the true state and condition they were in and not cast away their Souls by false persuasions and vain confidences Reason III. This Doctrine cannot be true because it supposes every persuasion or strong conceit of a Man 's own heart to be as infallibly sure and certain as the very fundamental Doctrine of Christianity No truth in the World can be surer than this That Jesus Christ died for Sinners This is a faithful saying and worthy of all accepâ—ation 1 Tim. 1. 15. This is a Foundation stone a tried precious Corner-stone a sure foundation lay'd by God himself Isa. 28. 16. and shall the strong conceits and confidences of Men's hearts vye and compare in point of certainty with it As well may probable and meerly conjectural Propositions compare with Axioms that are self-evident or demonstrative Arguments that leave no doubts behind them Know we not that the heart is deceitful above all things the most notorious cheat and impostor in the World Ier. 17. 9 Does it not deceive all the formal hypocrites in the World in this very point And shall every strong conceit and presumptuous confidence begotten by Satan upon a deceitful heart and nursed up by self-love pass without any examination or suspition for as infallible and assured a truth as that Jesus Christ came into the World to save sinners The Lord sweep that Doctrine out of the World by Reformation which is like to sweep so many Thousand Souls into Hell by a remediless Self-deception Error IV. The fourth Antinomian Error before mentioned was this That Believers are not bound to confess their sins or pray for the pardon of them because their sins were pardoned before they were committed and pardoned sin is no sin Refutation If this be true Doctrine then it will justify and make good such Conclusions and Inferences as these which necessarily flow from it viz. 1. That there is no Sin in Believers 2. Or if there be the evil is very inconsiderable Or 3. Whatever evil is in it it is not the will of God that they should â—ither confess it mourn over it or pray for the remission of it Whatever he requires of others yet they need take no notice of it so as to afflict their hearts for it God hath exempted them from such concernments There 's nothing but joy to a Believer saith Mr. Eaton But neither of these conclusions are either true or tolerable therefore neither is the principle so which yields them 1. It is not true or tolerable to affirm that there is no Sin in a Believer 1 Ioh. 1. 8. If we say that we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us There 's not a just Man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not Eccles. 7. 20. In many things we offend all James 3. 2. The Scriptures plainly affirm it and the universal experience of all the Saints sadly confirms it 'T is true the Blood of Christ hath taken away the guilt of Sin so that it shall not condemn Believers and the spirit of Sanctification hath taken away the dominion of Sin so that it doth not reign over Believers but nothing except Glorification utterly destroys the existence of Sin in Believers The acts of sin are our acts and not Christ's and the stain and pollution of those sinful acts are the burthens and infelicities of Believers even in their justified State Dr. Crisp indeed p. 270 271. calls that objection I suppose he means distinction betwixt the guilt of Sin and Sin it self a simple objection and tells us the very Sin it self as well as the guilt of it passed off from us and was lay'd upon Christ So that speaking of the Sins of Blasphemy Murther Theft Adultery Lying c. From that time saith he that they were lay'd upon Christ thou ceasest to be a transgressor If thou hast part in the Lord Christ all these transgressions of thine become actually the transgressions of Christ. So that now thou are not an Idolater or Persecutor a Thief a Murtherer and an Adulterer thou art not a sinful person Christ is made that very sinfulness before God c. Such expressions justly offend and grieve the hearts of Christians and expose Christianity to scorn and contempt Was it not enough that the guilt of our sin was lay'd on him but we must imagine also that the thing it self Sin with all the deformity and pollution should be essentially transferred from us to Christ No no. After we are justified sin dwelleth in us Rom. 7. 17. warreth in us and brings us into captivity ver 23. Burthens and oppresseth our very Souls v. 24. Methinks I need not stand to prove what I should think no sound experienced Christian dares to deny that there is much sin still remaining in the persons of the justified He that dares to deny it hath little acquaintance with the nature of Sin and of his own Heart 2. It is neither true nor tolerable to say there is no considerable evil in the sins of Believers deserving a mournful confession or petition for
live but understand not that they live are born to a great Inheritance but have no knowledge of it or present comfort in it 4. I will further grant That the Eye of a Christian may be too intently fixed upon his own gracious qualification and being wholly taken up in the reflex Acts of Faith may too much neglect the direct Acts of Faith upon Christ to the great detriment of his Soul But all this notwithstanding The examination of our Justification by our Sanctification is not only a lawful and possible but a very excellent and necessary work and duty 'T is the course that Christians have taken in all Ages And that which God hath abundantly blessed to the joy and encouragement of their Souls He hath furnished our Souls to this end with noble self-reflecting Powers and Abilities He hath answerably furnished his Word with variety of marks and signs for the same end and use Some of these marks are exclusive to detect and bar bold presumptuous Pretenders 1 Cor. 6. 9. Rev. 21. 8 27. Some are inclusive marks to measure the strength and growth of Grace by Rom. 4. 20. And others are positive signs flowing out of the very essence of Grace or the New-Creature 1 Iohn 4. 13. Hereby we know that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us of his Spirit He hath also expresly commanded us to examine and prove our selves upbraided the neglectors of that duty and enforced their duty upon them by a thundring Argument 2 Cor. 13. 5. Examine your selves whether ye be in the faith prove your own selves know ye not your own selves how that Iesus Christ is in you except ye be Reprobates In a word For this end and purpose amongst others were the Scriptures written 1 Iohn 5. 13. These things have I written to you that believe on the name of the Son of God that ye may know that ye have eternal life And therefore to neglect this duty is exceeding dangerous but to deny and deride it intolerable It may justly be feared such men will be drown'd in perdition who fall into the waters by making a bridge over them with their own shadows For my own part I verily believe that the sweetest hours Christians enjoy in this World is when they retire into their Closets and sit there concealed from all eyes but him that made them looking now into the Bible then into their own Hearts and then up to God closely following the grand Debate about their Interest in Christ till they have brought it to the happy desired issue And now Reader for a close of all I call the Searcher of Hearts to witness That I have not intermedled with these Controversies of Antipaedobaptism and Antinomianism our of any delight I take in Polemical Studies or an unpeaceable contradicting Humour but out of pure zeal for the Glory and Truths of God for the vindication and defence whereof I have been necessarily ingaged therein And having discharged my duty thus far I now resolve to return if God will permit me to my much sweeter and more agreeable Studies Still maintaining my Christian Charity for those whom I oppose not doubting but I shall meet those in Heaven from whom I am forced in lesser things to dissent and differ upon Earth FINIS GOSPEL-UNITY Recommended to the CHURCHES OF CHRIST IN A SERMON Preached by I. F. Author of the Foregoing DISCOURSE FROM I COR. I. 10. Now I beseech you brethren by the name of our Lord Iesus Christ That ye all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment WHEN I consider this Healing and Uniting Text and the scandalous Divisions of the Congregations to which I recommend it I could chuse rather to comment thereon with Tears than Words 'T is just matter of lamentation to think what feeble influences such Divine and Pathetical Exhortations have upon the minds and hearts of professed Christians But it is not Lamentations but proper Counsels and convictions obey'd must do the work The Primitive and Purest Churches of Christ consisted of imperfect Members who notwithstanding they were knit together by the same internal bond of the Spirit and the same external bonds of common Profession and common Danger and enjoyed extraordinary helps for uniting in the Presence and Doctrine of the Apostles among them yet quickly discovered a Schismatical Spirit dividing both in Judgment and Affection to the great Injury of Religion and Grief of the Apostle's Spirits To check and heal this growing-Evil in the Church at Corinth the Apostle addresses his Pathetical Exhortation to them and to all future Churches of Christ whom it equally concerns in the words of my Text. Now I beseech you brethren c. Where note 1. The Duty exhorted to 2. The Arguments enforcing the Duty 1. The Duty exhorted to namely Unity the Beauty Strength and Glory as well as the Duty of a Church This Unity he describes two ways 1. As it is Exclusive of its opposite Schism or Division All Rents and rash Separations are contrary to it and destructive of it I beseech you brethren that there be no Divisions or Schisms among you 2. As it is inclusive of all that belongs to it namely the Harmony and Agreement of their Judgments Hearts and Language 1. That ye all speak the same thing 2. That ye be perfectly joined together in one Mind And 3. In the same Judgment This threefold Union in Judgment Affection and Language includes all that belongs to Christian Concord makes the Saints 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 men of one Heart and Soul the loveliest sight this World affords Acts 2. 46 47. 2. The Arguments enforcing this Duty upon them comes next under consideration And these are Three 1. I beseech you 2. I beesech you Brethren 3. I beseech you brethren by the name of our Lord Iesus Christ. These Arguments are not of equal Force and Efficacy The first is great The second greater The last the most efficacious and irresistible of all the rest But all together should come with such Power and irresistible Efficacy upon the Judgments Consciences and Hearts of Christians as should perfectly knit them together and defeat all the Designs of Satan and his Agents without them or of their own Corruptions within them to rend asunder their Affections or Communion And first he enforces the Duty of Unity by a solemn Apostolical Obsecration and Adjuration I beseech you saith he he had Power to command them to this Duty and threaten them for the neglect of it He had in readiness to revenge all Disobedience and might have shaken that Rod over them but he chuseth rather to intreat and beseech them Now I beseech you Brethren Here you have as it were the great Apostle upon his knees before them Meekly and Pathetically entreating them to be at perfect Unity among themselves 'T is the intreaty of their Spiritual