description of our conference by introducing interlocutours as if I were ad incitas redactus and that they did interpose to helpe me for it seemeth to me to be his end in that relation hath made me willing to wipe off that obloquie by entring the lists once more with him whereas the true cause of that interruption was his popular appeales his usuall artifice to evade the force of an argument to enthrone himselfe as victor in the hearts of the in-judicious multitude In a word the ensuing reasons were no small motive to inforce me to this work The bridge of justification by which men must passe over from death to life is very narrow and one step awry may be the losse of many pretious soules and all gospel truth is a pretious depositum concredited to us ministers of the gospel and is a part of that * 2 Tim. 1.14 Jude 3. good thing committed to us and we are commanded earnestly to * contend for the faith once delivered to the Saints Aug ad Lauren cap. 64. and this doctrine of justification is articulus stantis vel cadentis Ecclesiae as Luther saith the Church standeth or falleth according as this truth is beleeved or violated and what Augustine saith of remission of sins that I may say of faith by which remission of sins is received per hanc stat Ecclesia quae in terris est per hanc non perit quod perierat et inventum est And therefore there is a necessity of keeping this doctrine pure and every minister is bound to preserve this truth and to keep the Philistins from throwing dirt into this well And if Shamma be recorded in Sacred writ for defending a field of lentills against the Philistins surely it cannot but be acceptable to God and man to defend that doctrine which is the summe of the gospel confirmed with the blood of Christ And if it were Pauls Eulogium to preach that faith which he did once destroy it cannot be Mr. Eyres encomium to destroy that faith he ought to preach And seeing God himself taketh care of the very haires of our head and numbers them all we have much more reason to make a precious esteeme of that truth which is worth all our heads and by which our very soules must be saved And no lesse care ought we to have of the honour of Christ and of his mysticall body For who is he that is a living member of Christ that is not sensible of the dishonour done to Christ our head and what dishonour is done to Christ by this doctrine by making an unbeleever a subject of justification and a member of Christs body let him that is least in the Church judge The Apostle could not without an absit thinke of it that a member of Christ should be joyned to a harlot shall I take the members of Christ and make them the member of a harlot God forbid and is it not an annoynted truth of the same authority 1 Cor. 6.15 that I must not take a harlot so remaining and make it the member of Christ If Mezentius was condemned for a wicked tyrant for tying a dead man to a living person can he be esteemed a good Christian and friend to Christ not to say a good minister that shall joyne an unbeleever dead in sins and trespasses as a member unto Christ the Lord give him the sight of this evill and God forbid I should cease to pray for him and I hereby beg a Collection of praiers for him from all that know him for I beleeve his owne principles will not suffer him to pray for the pardon of sin which in his opinion is pardoned long before it is committed And now that I might not trouble the Reader any further I will but mention a passage or two in his Epistle dedicatory and another in his booke and I will not hold him from the discourse it selfe Mr. Eyre hath in his second page of that Epistle perfumed his brethren opposite to his errours to render them acceptable to the magistrate It is remarkable saith he that they who ascribed unto magistrates a definitive and coercive power in spirituals have when magistrates would not serve their turns denied the power which they have in temporals refusing contrary to the rules of Christ to own them pray for them or to yeeld obedience to their lawfull commands as if none must hold the sword but such as will use it to fight their quarrel and to effect that by force of arms which they themselves cannot doe by strength of argument But is this an irrefragable argument to prove eternall justification or a lively demonstration of a man parboiled in his passion is this the effect of charity or the foame of a passionate man was he sick of a fever or troubled with the scurvy when this passage fell from him I am sure there is neither charity nor verity in it if it be examined by the law of God or the knowne lawes of the land if he be able let him produce any proofe of our disobedience to authority least the world say he hath linguam mentiri doctam But nothing is more usuall then for the nocent to accuse the innocent * 1 K. 18.17 4 Eph. 3. Ahab accused Elijah for troubling of Israel when himselfe was the person that troubled Israel * Athaliah crye's treason treason when her selfe was the traitor 2 K. 11.14 * 4 Act. 5. Tertullus accused Paul that he was a pestilent fellow and a mover of sedition when himselfe was the ring-leader of a notorious faction And were I minded to recriminate and did seeke rather to d sparage his person then to weaken his case I might more justly retort the charge upon himself for his bold attempt in indeavouring to affright the chiefe magistrate of the city of N. Sarum from or for his proclaiming the Lord Protectour fearing it seems that I may use his own words that he would not serve his turne and therefore he would not have him hold the sword because he would not use it to fight his quarrel But in this suggillation of his to make his brethren odious and obnoxious to authority the reader may observe how closely be followeth Lysanders Counsel vbi leonina pellis non sufficit assumenda est vulpina that where the lions skin will not serve he will eeke it out with a fox skin he would stop our mouths or pull out our tongues because he cannot answer our arguments as Herod dealt with Iohn Baptist cutting off his head because he would not hold his peace but reprove him for Herodias so he would silence us by power who he cannot overcome by reason To whom I will say as Hieron in his Apol. 3. ad Ruff talibus institutus es disciplinis ut cui respondere non poteris caput auferas et linguam quae tacere non potest secas In his third page of the same epistle he would have the magistrate punish
disallowed and rejected of God and though he call them not reprobates as opposed to the Elect because as * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rejectanci sic eos vocat Apostolus hoc loco non qui sunt divinitus ad vitam aeternam electis oppositi nec enim censendi sunt statim irae vasa quicunque vel in suis peccatis adhuc manent nondum efficaciter vocati Bez. in locum Beza observes they are not presently to be judged vessels of wrath that yet abide in their sins yet as to their present estate they are such as God approves not of nor are they in a capacity of salvation Rom. 8.1 There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Now in Scripture-sense it is all one to be in Christ or Christ to be in us and there is nothing but condemnation to them that are out of Christ So the m John 15.5 15th of John If any man abide not in me he is cast forth as a branch and withereth that is if any man be in Christ only by external profession and outward Baptisme and is not truly united to him and abide in him by faith so as to partake of spiritual life from Christ As the living branch liveth in the Vine you shall be cut off as a dead branch and cast into the fire So in n Joh. 6.56 57. John 6.56 57. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him As the living Father hath sent me I live by the Father So he that eateth me shall live by me that is as the body is preserved by meat and drink and our meat and drink turne into the substance of the body and become one with it So he that spiritually feeds upon my flesh and blood upon my death and suffering by faith he shall be inseparably united to me and I will become one with him And by this he shall live as I who am Mediatour am sent by the Father to this end to bring men to life so that I might be able to give life I have received life from the Father and live by his Spirit communicated to me And so as sure as God lives and as I live by influence of the life and Spirit of God so he that eateth me and so becometh one with me by faith as the meat with the body he shall live by me Ver. 53. And in Ver. 53. Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood ye have no life in you that is unlesse you become one with Christ by faith you have no life in you So the o 1 John 3.24 Rom. 8.9 1 John 3.24 and compared with Rom. 8.9 Hereby we know that he abideth in us because of his Spirit which he hath given us Where observe 1. That Christ dwelleth in his people Hereby we know that he abideth in us This is not a fancy or a conjecturall ungrounded hope but it is an infallible truth of eternal verity Hereby we know he abideth in us 2. Observe the means by which he dwelleth in us and how this may be known It is by his Spirit and this is a sure evidence of Christ dwelling in us because he hath given us his Spirit Now compare this with Rom. 8 ◠If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he it none of Christs He that hath not the Spirit of Christ dwelling in him he hath no Christ dwelling in him and so is none of Christs none of his members and so can never be saved so long as he lives without Christ so that you see the truth cleared That to be without Christ is to be without Hope Now the reasons why a Christlesse estate is a Hopelesse estate are Reason 1 Reason 1. Because there is no p Act. 4.12 name given under heaven whereby we may be saved God hath taken up an immutable purpose never to be reconciled unto man but in and through Christ so that there is not the least sounding of the bowels of God towards a sinner but in Christ Hence Christ is called our q 1 Tim. 1.1 Hope that is he is the object of our Hope in whom alone we are begotten unto a lively hope of eternal life Such is the distance and difference between God and the souls of men that none is found worthy or able in heaven or earth to umpire this difference but Christ and were he not a person of infinit worth he could never make any satisfaction nor work a reconciliation We are dead in sins and trespasses and none but Christ that is the Lord of Life can quicken us we are spiritually blinde and were not Christ God he could not cure our blindnesse for it was never r John 9.32 known from the beginning of the world that any but God could open the eyes of the blinde None but Christ who is the ſ Heb. 1.3 brightnesse of his Fathers Glory and the expresse Character of his Image is able to restore Gods Image in us without which we shall never see the face of God nor can God take us for his children nor delight in us unlesse this were restored such is the opposition made against our salvation by Satan and all the powers of darknesse that none but Christ is able to deliver us from this strong man So great is the mystery of godlinesse that none but Christ who hath lien in the bosome of the Father and knowes all things could reveal the Father to us whom to t John 1. 18. John 17.3 know in Christ is eternal life nor could he give us the Spirit u Eph. 1.17 of wisdome and revelation to know God and the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints nor translate us out of darkness into marvellous light Such is that perfect righteousnesse God requires to cloath us that we may be presented without x Eph. 5.26 spot or wrinkle in Gods sight that none but God in our nature is able to furnish us with such a righteousnesse Reason 2. As none but Christ can save so none but such as Reason 2 are united to Christ can have any communion with Christ for union is the ground of communion Now this will appear by induction if you consider all the unions in the world there is no communion between those where there is not an antecedent union In the marriage-union there is no communion as man and wife till the marriage-union be made in the naturall communion between the soul and body the head and the members the graft and the stock dissolve the union and the communion is destroyed In the Politick communion between a people unlesse united under one government So in all others and why not in the mystical union between Christ and us Hence saith Paul z 2 Cor. 6.15 What concord hath Christ with Belial Thus in the a Eph. 1.3 Ephesians 1.3 God is said to have blessed us with all spiritual blessings
mystical union to be apprehended not made by faith Secondly Mr. Eyre excepteth against it as propounded universally that there is no manner of union between Christ and the Elect before they do believe 1. They are his own words not mine for there is a unity of natures in which they agree and a certain relative respect or union very improperly so called between Christ and his Elect but a mystical union I know none till faith and were there any real union before yet Mr. Eyre might have known that rule Analogum quando per se positum stat pro famosiori Analogato and so it ought to have been taken for this famous union or implantation by faith Thirdly He acknowledgeth that That conjugal union between them which consists in the mutuall consent of parties is not before faith And is not this to yield the cause Eph. 5.23 32. is not this the mystical union spoken of in Scripture and so called in relation to the similitude it beareth to the marriage-union and is there any more mystical unions then one and that made by faith hath the wife any right or property to the body name goods of the man till she be married to her husband So till this conjugal marriage-union between Christ and a Believer he hath no actual right or property to the Body Name Goods and Purchases of Christ Fourthly And yet he addeth There is a true and real union that by means thereof their sins do become Christs and Christs righteousnesse is made theirs Shall we not need any more proof of this but your bare word where is it written there is such a union before faith by whom is it besides your self so called and by what name is that union distinguished from the mystical union by faith But let us hear this proof God from everlasting constituted and ordained Christ to be as it were one heap or lumpe one vine one body or spirituall corporation wherein Christ is the Head and they the Members Christ the Root and they the Branches Christ the first fruits and they the residue of the heap in respect of this union it is that they are said to be given unto Christ and Christ to them to be in Christ Ephes 1. That they are called his sheep his seed his children his brethren before they are Believers and by vertue of this union it is that the obedience and satisfaction of Christ descends particularly to them and not the rest of mankinde Oh rare invention Oh mysterious union hidden from all ages but now revealed and discovered by Mr. William Eyre a discovery as far excelling that of Columbus as heaven exceeds earth This is such a mystical union as that it is not only not to be apprehended by sense and reason because against both but not to be comprehended by faith neither because it is no where written but let us weigh the strength of his words which carry this sense Because God from everlasting constituted and ordained Christ to be a Head and Believers to be Members therefore there was such a union from eternity As good consequence as this your Book is in print therefore it is all true But I take this to be a grosse errour that the Elect and Christ were united from eternity For 1. Gods decree ordaining Christ to be a Head is terminus diminuens and doth not signifie that Christ was actually a Head having members united to him but it signifies Gods purpose what he did decree to be done in time and it is the continuall panalogizing of Mr. Eyre and the Antinomians to confound the decree and the execution of the decree God decreed to send Christ into the world was he therefore actually sent No not till the fulnesse of time came Gods decree ordaining Christ to be a Head and they to be Members doth not actually constitute Christ a Head and they his Members 2. That that is not cannot be united for union requires necessarily the pre-existence of the persons or things united But now Believers did not exist much lesse exist as Believers from eternity Christ had not a mystical body from eternâ—ty Therefore he was not a Head from eternity 3. This union to Christ is reciprocal whereby Christ is united to a Believer and a Believer to Christ and requires ligaments and bonds to make this union the Spâ—rit on Christs part Faith on ours But they that exist not are not subjects capable of receiving the Spirit or of Faith without which this union cannot be made 4. The Scripture no where speaks of an eternall union therefore there was no such union and as he telleth us We must pardon him if he believe not our unwritten verities * Aâ—â—d he must pardon us if we believe not his written vanities And therefore when it is said that God chose us in Christ Ephes 1. This is not to be understood as if we were then existing and had a being in Christ but it shewes the way and order how God would save us he ordained to save us in and through Christ and for his sake not that Christs merits were the cause quoad actum eligentis in respect of the act of Election but quoad terminum sive salutem ad quam eligimur but in respect of the end or salvation unto which we are elected or ordained And so Dr. Twisse a man of eminent worth and accurate judgement in his Vindiciae * Interca non dicimus Christum in negotie Electionis babere rationem causae meritoriae respectu actûs eligentis sed duntaxat respectutermini salutis videlicet aut vitae aeternae ad quam eligimur Nam Deum eligere nos in Christo ad vitam aeternam nihil aliud est quâ—m Deum constituisse nos ad obtinendam salutem per Jesum Christum Doctor Twist Vind. l. 2. digress 10. sect 2. pag. 74. c. 1. Perinde est ac si dixisset elegit nos ad salutem c. Ibid. In the mean while we do not say that Christ in the businesse of Election hath the consideration of a meritorious cause in respect of the act of God choosing but only in respect of the terme or end to wit of the salvation or life eternal unto which we are chosen for that God should choose us unto life eternal in Christ is nothing else then that God hath ordained us to obtain salvation by Jesus Christ and as he addeth Perinde est c. Even as if he should have said He hath chosen us to obtain salvation by Christ Hither also appertaineth the next verse wherein is taught that God predestinated us that we should be his sons by Christ Jesus implanted into Christ by faith Hinc enim nos filios Dei fieri profitetur Apostolus Gal. 3.26 Omnes est is filii Dei per fidem in Christo Jesu For from hence the Apostle professeth that we are made the Sons of God Gal. 3.26 Ye are all the sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus and therefore are not
sons antecedently to faith as Mr. Eyre would have it for though we are so called this is to be understood consequenter and not antecedenter because they shall be made such and whereas the Scripture saith he died for enemies and the ungodly therefore in these places where they are called his sheep children his brethren before faith this is to limit and restrain the death of Christ to such as shall be so made not that they are so de facto already but are so called in respect of certainty and what they shall be But to returne to that of Master Eyre that God hath chosen us in Christ as if we then existed in him Let the Reader observe how unhappily he joyneth with Arminius who seemeth such an enemy to him Arminius * Exam. p. 3â— saith Apostolus ait nos in Christo electos esse The Apostle saith we are elected in Christ And as something is put out of the Text by Arminius so something is put in God chose us before the world in Christ our Head this Arminius plainly asserts Exam. p. 158. and accordingly Mr. Eyre saith God constituted from everlasting Christ a Head and saith he in this respect we are chosen in Christ that is as in a Head the Text saith no such matter and as Arminius leaves out those words that we should be holy by which meanes the sense of our being in Christ is made obscure which if added would make it plain in what sense these words in Christ should be taken that is these words shew to what we were chosen to wit to obtaine holinesse and how to wit in Christ that is for Christs sake like as it is said vers 3. God hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly things in Christ Jesus that is for Christs sake So Dr. Twisse in his answer to Mr. Cotton upon these words of his that he saith God chose us before the world in Christ our Head p. 9. where because it 's very material to this passage I shall recite what he further saith Mark I pray you saith he speaking to Master Cotton of Arminius how he works upon each to be elect in Christ is with him to be elect being in Christ for nos in Christo with him is nos existentes in Christo and seeing we are not in Christ but by faith where let the Reader observe the Doctors judgement that we are not in Christ but by faith which is contradictory to Mr. Eyre Hereupon he maketh the object of Election to be fideles the faithful or in Christum credentes such as believe in Christ We answer first we may take as great liberty to interpret it for explication sake by supplying a participle of the future tense thus Elegit nos futuros in Christo He chose us hereafter to be in Christ like as it followes who hath predestinated us to be adopted Now we are adopted by faith Gal. 3.26 as he takes liberty to supplie a participle of the present tense especially considering that when we were Elect to wit before the foundation of the world we were not at all and consequently not fideles Believers Secondly we answer that the compleat sentence considered at full doth manifest in what sense this phrase in Christ is taken He chose us in Christ that we should be holy this shewes to what we were chosen to wit to obtain holinesse and how to wit in Christ that is for Christs sake like as ver 3. 't is laid God hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly things in Christ Jesus that is for Christ his sake and like as 1 Thes 5.9 't is said God hath ordained us to obtain salvation through Jesus Christ so here in conformable exposition 1 Thess 5 9 when it is said God hath chosen us in Christ that we should be holy a fair meaning may be this God hath ordained us to obtaine holinesse through Christ Jesus To this I will super-adde the testimony of Dr. Twisse and the rather because you alledge him for your defence in the Doctrine of eternal Justification Christus fateor caput est Electorum praedestinatorum sed non formaliter consideratorum Neque enim praedestinati quà praedestinati sunt membra corporis Christi sed potius futuri sunt membra ejus nam quod est membrum Christi procul dubio existit Neque enim membrum Christi est terminus diminuens existentiam at praedestinati quà praedestinati non existunt nam predestinatio fuit ab aeterno sed praedestinati non extiterunt simpliciter ab eterno hodie multi sunt Electi qui procul dubio adhuc non nascuntur Rursus unio illa per quam fimus ejus membra fit per fidem Ergo quotquot Christi membra sunt oportet esse fideles at non omnes praedestinati ex qùo primùm praedestinati sunt èvestigio fideles evadunt Adhaec cùm caput non potiùs fiat aliquorum quà m illi aliqui fiant membra corporis ejus sequitur Christum non ab aeterno fuisse caput cùm non ab aeterno corpus habuerit mysticum aut membra cujus ratione propriè dicitur caput Ecclesiae suae Membra verò corporis cùm fiant per vocationem unde dicitur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ãdque per vocationem efficacem consequenter per fidem apparet Christum non priùs dici posse caput quà m sint aliqui qui credant in ipsum loquor de Christo Mediatore Redemptore Dr. Twisse Vind. li. b 2. digress 10. page 74. Col. 2. I confesse Christ is the Head of the Elect and predestinate but not formally considered For neither the predestinate as predestinate are members of Christs body but rather shall be members of it for what is a member of Christ without all doubt existeth For neither is a member of Christ a term diminishing existence But the predestinate as predestinate do not exist for predestination was from eternity but the predestinate do not simply exist from eternity This day there are many that are Elect which undoubtedly are not yet borne Again that union by which we are made his members is made by faith therefore it is needful that all that are his members should be Believers but all the predestinate do not prove Beli vers as soon as they are predestinate Moreover seeing a Head cannot sooner be a Head of any then they can be members of his body it followeth that Christ was not a Head from eternity because he was not a mysticall body from eternity or members in which respect he may properly be called the Head of his Church But seeing they are made members of his body by calling from whence it is called the Chu ch and that by effectual vocation and consequently by faith it appeareth that Christ cannot first be called a Head before there are some who believe in him I speak of Christ the Mediatour and Redeemer Now 1. That we were not united unto Christ
pray tell me now what reall difference you make between the duties of an Elect unregenerate person and of a Regenerate person Let not the ignorant Reader mistake me here I affirme not that any duties of an unregenerate person are acceptable to God or that the want of faith hope and love maketh but a failing only in the manner and circumstances of the dutie but I have only presented the Reader with a glasse to let him see that Mr. Eyre for all the seeming difference he maketh between the actions of the Elect Regenerate and unregenerate yet indeed maketh none and according to him it cannot be found Pag. 18. Thus the Reader may see that one truth of Mr. Eyre verified where he saith We may no more judge of Books by their Title then of strumpets by their foreheads and although his Tittle-Page hold forth the Gospel-language of free Justification yet if thou read the Book thou shalt finde Esaus hands though thou sometimes hearest Jacobs voice And therefore the Reader that is judicious will not be like a silly fish taken with the bait though it swallow the hook I have given thee a few Animadversions but a judicious Reader will observe more This is enough to give the Reader warning to preserve him from the infection of this aire And I hope sufficient to reduce them that are led captive by him into the same Errour CHAP. VI. Proving that we are not justified from Eternity HERE I shall premise these few things First That as we hold Justification to be a transient act done in time so there is no transient act but it presupposeth necessarily an immanent act in God And therefore secondly I acknowledge there was an eternal and an immutable act of Gods will decreeing to justifie his Elect in time through faith in Christ Thirdly As for that conditionate decree which Arminians make in God making the condition antecedent to the act of Gods will I no way acknowledge and judge it absolutely inconsistent with Gods Nature and Essence but such a conditional decree as is so called subsequently not in respect of God willing but in respect of the thing willed sive objecti voliti is not repugnant to him especially in such contingent effects as come to passe by vertue of his decree ordaining them Thus God willeth salvation to the Elect which salvation they shall be brought unto by faith in Christ not that faith is the cause of the act of Election or God willing their salvation yet it may be the cause of the thing willed a subsequent condition wrought by God for the execution of his decree And therefore when the Orthodox acknowledge Election to be absolute they understand it not exclusively to the means which God hath ordained for the obtaining of salvation for God in the same eternall act did ordain the end and the meanes hence Paul telleth the Thessalonians that God hath from the beginning chosen them to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit 2 Thess 2.13 1 Pet. 1.2 and belief of the truth and Peter saith The strangers he wrote unto according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ And as I acknowledge this to be an eternall decree Because he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy so I willingly grant it to be immutable for he that changeth his purpose doth it for want of wisdome in deliberating or for want of power to execute it neither of which can be ascribed to God without blasphemy And hence the Scripture saith The foundation of God standeth sure having this seal The Lord knoweth who are his Fourthly I grant that Christ was elected and constituted to be a Head and all the Elect were predestinated to be his members and in this sense we were chosen in him not existing but only we were pre-ordained unto salvation by him And that this act was one in God in respect of whole Christ mystical although I deny that the Elect were by this act of God mystically united unto Christ which is done upon believing yet I grant a certain relative respect and mutual relation between them In which sense the Elect are called his people before he saved them from their sins and while they were not yet converted and his sheep for which he laid down his life although not yet brought home to him yet was not Christ the meritorious cause of their Election much lesse their foreseen faith or good works although he be the cause of the effects of their Election as therefore this salvation unto which we are predestinated is the act of God so Christ is the effect of Gods love of Election and the means of salvation and our salvation is the end in respect of us but as this salvation is our good so Christ is the cause of it Fifthly Though Christ were thus predestinated to be a Head and the Elect his Members yet was not he a Head actually from eternity nor the Elect actual members because he had not a mystical body from eternity and although God decreed from eternity to justifie the Elect through faith in Christ yet were not they actually justified For * Praedestinatio enim anâ—e applicationemgratiae nihil ponit in praedestinatis sed latet solùm in praedestinante Ames Medul Theol. cap. 25. sect 2. Predestination maketh no internall difference between the Elect and Reprobate untill actuall grace be given for applying the things intended in Election nor doth Predestination necessarily presuppose the existence of its terme * Praedestinatio enim nec terminum nec objectum suum necessariò praesupponit ut existens sed ponit ut existat ità ut vi praedestinationis ordinetur ut sit Amesii Medul c. 25. s 8. nor object but the futurity of both Having premised these things which I have the rather more fully done because he representeth me and such as differ from him as Arminians and Papists I shall now prove that we were not justified from eternity 1. Gods decree to justifie is terminus diminuens is a terme of diminution and therefore is not actuall Justification 't is amor ordinativus but it is not amor collativus it is a love ordaining and preparing good things for us but not an actuall bestowing them Justification is an actual bestowing of some special mercy a discharge from the guilt of sin and death a passing us from an estate of death into an estate of life this may be intended but is not actually performed by Predestination for it 's a known rule Praedestinatio nihil ponit in Praedestinato but I will not strangle the question so by the prejudice of a word or two therefore I argue 2. The Scripture no where speaketh of an eternal Justification Therefore we were not justified from eternity The Antecedent is acknowledged and made use of by Mr. Eyre and a negative argument in matters of great
propriè dicitur caput Ecclesiae suae Membra verò corporis cùm fiant per vocationem unde dicitur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ãdque per vocationem efficacem consequenter per fidem apparet ergo Christum non prius posse dici caput quà m sint aliqui qui credunt in ipsum loquor de Christo Mediatore Redemptore I confesse saith he Christ is the Head of the Elect and of those that are predestinated but not formally of the predestinated For neither are the predestinated as predestinated members of his body wherein he differeth from Mr. Eyre toto coelo Vide Mr. Eyre page 8. but they shall be his members for whosoever is a member of Christ without doubt existeth Nor is a member of Christ a term of diminution lessening his existence but the predestinate as predestinate do not exist for predestination was from eternity but the predestinate did not simply exist from eternity This day there are many Elect without doubt which are not yet borne Again That union by which we are made the members of Christ is made by faith Therefore as many as are Christs members it is needful that they be Believers but not all the predestinate as soon as they are predestinate do presently prove Believers Moreover seeing a head cannot be a head in respect of others before they are made members of his body it followeth that Christ was not a head from eternity seeing he had not a mystical body from eternity or members in which respect he is properly called the head of his Church seeing therefore men are made members of his body by calling whence the Church is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a company of persons called out from the rest of the world by the ministery of the word and that is by effectual vocation and consequently by faith it appeareth that Christ cannot first be called a head before there are some that believe in him I speak of Christ as Mediatour and Redeemer Where let the Reader observe that he plainly affirmeth a predestinate person is not a member of Christs body and that the mysticall union is made by faith and surely none are properly justified or saved before they are members and therefore before faith there is no Justification nor Salvation His next Author is Learned and Holy Mr. Parker who saith in his Book de descensu Christi ad inferos that Christ was justified in his Resurrection and we in him c. I acknowledge the testimony rightly cited but he understandeth no more then that we were meritoriously causally justified in the Justification of Christ but this is also a terme of diminution in respect to a formal and actual Justification till it be extra causas it doth not exist And that this Reverend man means no otherwise then we that untill faith we are not justified or saved Parker de descens Christ ad inferos lib. 3. sect 49. may appear from another passage in the same Book Nullâ siquidem ratione aliâ salutem ad suos derivare poterat quà m quâ ipsam damnationem transfudit Adam nempe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 illâ quâ omnes homines qui ei per fidem coadunantur in eo satisfecisse quemadmodum per 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 similem omnes Adami successores in eo peccâsse reputantur Christ could no other way derive salvation to his then that wherein Adam transmitted damnation to wit that communion wherein all men who are united to him by faith are said to satisfie in him as by the like communion all Adams successors are reputed to have sinned in him Where you may observe 1. That as Adam derived condemnation to none but such as were in him so Christ communicateth salvation to none but such as are in him And 2. That this union to Christ is made by Faith hence by necessary consequence none are saved and justified until faith and he sheweth plainly that we are not in Christ in a natural way as we were in Adam therefore he setteth down faith as the means and none satisfied in Christ but Believers therefore none are justified but such for Christ cannot derive salvation to any but such as are in him and before faith they are not in him His next Author is judicious Mr. Calvin * Fides porro ita justificationem praecedit ut tamen dei respectu sequatur Calvin Antid conc trid sess 6 p. 282. who saith that our Justification in respect of God doth precede our faith to which I adde you might have had the ingenuity to let your Reader know that he saith immediately fides ipsa nos in possessionem justitiae mittit that faith sends us into the possession of righteousnesse And he meaneth nothing but this that seeing God doth offer forgivenesse in Christ and we receive and accept it by faith that in this respect Justification precede faith but we are not actually justified untill faith where I will by the way minde you of a passage of learned Rivet Rivet Advers Baily Jesuit Tom. 2. p 245. against Baily the Jesuâ—t Ne quidem dicimus Christi justitiam esse causam formalem justificationis diximus eam consistere in relatione inter dantem accipientem sive inter condonantem eum cui condonatur uno verbo imputatione à parte dei receptione ex parte nostri Truly we do not say that Christs righteousnesse is the formal cause of Justification we have said that it consists in the relation between the giver and the receiver or between him that pardoneth and him that is pardoned in one word in imputation on Gods part and receiving it on our part so that now it is true God offering pardon his act precede our part of receiving but yet we are not in the judgement of this Learned man justified formally till we receive it And this is Calvins minde and many passages in the same discourse make against you I will take but one which Mr. Baxter hath observed to my hand Nos autem meminerimus fidei notuum à Christo estimandam esse quia quod nobis offert Deus in Christo non nisi fide recipimus proinde quicquid nobis est Christus id ad fidem transfertur quae nos compotes est Christi omnium ejus bonorum facit neque aliter verum esset illud Johannis fidem nostrum esse victoriam quâ mandus vincitur nisi nos in Christum inserereret qui solus est mundi victor But we have remembered before that the nature of Faith is to be estimated from Christ because what God offers us in Christ we receive it not but by faith whatsoever therefore Christ is to us that is imputed to faith which maketh us partakers of Christ and of all his good things Neither otherwise can that of John be true that faith is our victory whereby we overcome the world unlesse it did ingraf us into Christ who is the Victor of the world And the truth is
sins be imputed then that first transgression why should the sins of any other parents be imputed And the reason is not alike for none but Adam could be a publick person representing all mankinde and that sin was not only personal and proper to Adam but common to the whole nature and that by the will of God ordaining him a publick person For it is a mixt act in God when he doth impute Adams sin partly arising from his Sovereignty and partly from his Justice grounded upon that naturall relation although I deny not upon other considerations the sins of the immediate parents sometimes are and may be imputed to the children And whereas he saith Unlesse they can shew any proviso or restriction in the second Covenant more then in the first why life should not as immediately flow from Christs obedience to the Elect as death did from Adams disobedience the Argument will stand in force I answer here needs no other proviso or restriction but only to shew that we are not in Christ in a natural way as we are in Adam and therefore the benefits of his death cannot immediately follow our birth or be antecedent to it but is limited to the time of our ingraffing into Christ and the parallel holds firme for as in Adam we all virtually sinned and so were virtually condemned so we grant Christ hath meritoriously redeemed us and we are virtually justified in him and as sinne is not actually imputed unto any of Adams posterity till they have an actuall being and are actually members of Adam so are not we actually justified till we be actual members of Christ by faith As for the Logical Axiom Non entis nulla sunt accidentia it was used in my next Argument and therefore I shall consider it in its proper place CHAP. III. Containing an answer to M. Eyre's exceptions against my Argument deduced from our union with Christ shewing that where there is no union there can be no communion his unjust charge refuted and the nature of our union with Christ further declared MY next Argument against which Mr. Eyre is risen up to offer violence was drawn from our union to Christ Where there is no union there can be no communion for union is the ground of all communion which I made evident by an induction of the severall unions in the world and that there was no communion where there was not a preceding union But we are not united unto Christ untill faith Therefore we had no communion with him in his death to an actual justification And in the further prosecuting of the Argument I shewed that this union is such a union whereby the person of a Believer is united to the person of Christ therefore it did presuppose the pre-existence of the person before he could be united and that this union was a thing accidental as to the nature of man and it being attributed to us as the subjects of this union it must require our existence for an accident cannot subsist without its subject because * Where I take accidens pro omni quod de pendenter habe esse ab alio quâ— tenus opponit sub stantiae ne strictè pro omâ— quod inhaesive solùm existit in alio Accidentis esse est in esse vel dependenter esse and unlesse the subject exist nothing can be truly predicated of it for Non entis nullae sunt affectiones and that this union was the formal effect of faith Now let us see what Mr. Eyre saith to the Argument First he saith that I called our union with Christ a personall union which seems to fav ur that absurd notion that a Believer loseth not only his own proper life but his personaliâ—y also and is taken up into the nature and person of the Son of God I am sorry that I must confute him as the fellow did Bellarmine in one word and his shamelesse dealing in this respect is the more injuriously evident in that I did not only tell him in our conference in publick before a great multitude of witnesses that I neither said nor did own any such thing but did declaâ—e that I said and meant that it was such a union whereby the person of Christ is united to the person of a Bel ever yet is he a man of that face and fore-head to print and declare that to the world which he hath God Angels and men if not his own conscience to witnesse against him but this he hath done to render me odious to the world the Lord forgive him and let him see the evil of these and the like slanders against me and others of his brethren that differ from him And let him now know that I utterly abhor that Familistical notion that there should be an hypostaticall union between Christ and a Believer for Christ is one person and a Believer another Apage Theologiam hanc erco relegandam I forced my self publickly to oppose it as you may see in the Epistle before my Sermon and whether your Doctrine or mine do most favour that absurd notion that the Reverend Doctor doth condemne Dr. Chambers that a Believer loseth not only his own proper life but his personality also and is taken up into the person into the nature and person of the Son of God I desire no better Umpire to determine I affirme that the union made between us and Christ by faith is such a union whereby the person of a Believer is united to the person of Christ What is here that savours of such a notion yea Mr. Hooker Souls union pag 7 8. what is there which our Reverend Divines have not said before me Reverend Mr. Hooker in a Treatise called the Soules Exaltation and in the Sermon called the Souls Vnion with Christ expressing what this union is and how it is made by faith hath this passage he saith It is a totall union the whole nature of a Saviour and the whole nature of a Believer are knit together and page 8. Christ is the Head of the Church not only according as he is God but as he is God and man and a Believer is a member not only according to his body but according to his body and soul whole Christ being the Head and the whole Believer being a Member therefore a whole Christ and a whole believer must be joyned together Perkins 2. Vol. in Com. upon Gal. 2.20 p. 216. and so 1 Vol p. 36.78 The whole person of every faithful man is verily conjoyned with the whole person of our Saviour Christ God and man And the like testimony we have from Reverend Mr. Perkins Of this conjunction saith he two things may be noted The first that it is a substantial union in that the person of him that believeth is united to the person of Christ but Master Eyre makes all the Elect to be one person with Christ antecedent to their faith Because saith he they are given to Christ and Christ to them
be understood in respect of imputation to wit that God for the merit of Christs passion forgiveth our sins upon believing as if we had suffered and made satisfaction I willingly grant it but then we were not in him as one person making satisfaction for the person of him that suffered for us is distinguished from them for whom he suffered and by Mr. Eyre's opinion that we were really one in him and with him before our birth and faith can be understood no other way as I conceive 5. That to make us to be one with Christ antecedently to our birth when he suffered for us destroyes the ground of imputation of Christs righteousnesse for those which were truly in Christ in all his obedience and sufferings to them that obedience and sufferings cannot be made over by imputation for what need is there of imputation or what place is left for it when those to whom it should be imputed because of their union with Christ did themselves performe it wherefore either there was no such union or that imputation must be denied But the obedience and sufferings of Christ are evidently by Scripture declared to be ours by imputation Rom. 4.5 Hence our faith is said to be imputed to us for righteousnesse And Christ was made sin for us that we might be made the righteousnesse of God in him we are made righteousnesse as he was made sin that was by imputation therefore we were made righteous by imputation 2 Cor. 5.21 hence that union Mr. Eyre contends for I cannot say mole ruit suâ but for want of weight falls to the ground The next thing that we have undertaken to prove is that there is not any mystical union between Christ and us intecedently to faith which I demonstrate from Scripture-grounds thus First if Christ prayeth for those for whom he died that they may believe and that believing they may be united to him then before faith such for whom Christ died are not united to him But Christ prayeth for those for whom he died that they might believe and that believing they might be one with him The consequence of the Major is as evident as reason can make it unlesse we make Christ to pray in vaine to pray for that which was already done if therefore they were not one in Christ and the Father as the Father was in Christ and Christ in the Father before as this prayer intimates they were not then this union was not antecedent to faith The Minor are the words of Christ John 17.20 21. and need not a graine of allowance Christ in this place prayes for those for whom he was to die that after his death they might believe the instrumentall cause of that faith is set down to be the word of the Apostles the finall cause of that believing is that they might be one that is that they might be as members of the same body by faith nearly united to one another the manner how is declared by the near conjunction between the Father and Christ Secondly he prayes not only that they may be one or at unity among themselves Diodat in Lecum 171. John 21. but also that they may be one in us that is as Diodat upon the place in the communion of the Holy Ghost by which they may be mystically united to me and by me to thee and truly this latter union to Christ is the ground of the former of being united to one another now if they were mystically united before this would make Christ either ignorant of this union or his prayer to be in vain to pray for that that was done long before from eternity as Mr. Eyre saith but either of these were fearful impiety to imagine therefore this union is not till faith A second Argument I frame from the same place is this They that are not really united as members of the invisible Church to the rest of the members and mysticall body of Christ are not united to Christ But before faith no man is a true member of the invisible Church and so united to the rest of the members of the mystical body Therefore not to Christ The Major will not be denied by any but such as are baptized into a spirit of errour the Reason is plaine because the union between the members is a fruit of our union to the same Head but no man is united to the company of Believers to have a true fellowship and union with them but a true Believer For what communion hath a Believer with an Infide and Christ prayes that they might believe that they might be one that is that they might be mutually united as by one faith as members one of another and the same body So Piscator upon the place Pisca in â—oc 17. Job 21. in Anal. Vt per unam fidem inter se devincti tanquam membra unius corporis cujus caput est Christus mutuo amore sese complectantur That being knit together by one faith as members of one body whereof Christ is Head they may with a mutuall love embrace each other now a true communion of love cannot be between true Believers and those that are yet unbelievers therefore neither between them and Christ And hence I argue 3. Christ and Belial are not united Every unbeliever is a son of Belial Therefore they are not united 2 Cor. 6.15 The word Belial is as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an uncalled man nequà m a very wicked man a man that will profit none but is hurtful to all in Hebr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Hebricians agree not from whence it is derived but the signification given is either a man that will profit none or good for nothing or one that will be subject to no yoke I deny not but Interpreters do think many of them that Satan is in this place understood and Beza saith it very well agrees to him though he take it for a wicked man and Bullinger and Calvin take it for the Devil the head of all wicked men but I see not why it may not be taken here for a wicked man and not for Satan for it 's ordinary in Scripture by this word to understand very wicked men so in Deuteronomy it 's taken for an Idolater Deut. 13.13 and of such is the Apostles discoursing here that Believers should have no communion with Idolaters and so Elies sons being very wicked 1 Sam. 2.12 are called sons of Belial And it 's very agreeable to the scope for in the verse before he exhorteth them not to be unequally yoaked together with unbelievers he blames them for having too much familiarity with Heathens whether in marriages or in their feasts eating things sacrificed to Idols he would not have them draw in the same yoke by which Metaphor he would disswade them from keeping company with them and so partaking with them in their sins His Argument is drawn à contrario Your condition and profession is as
Head the spirit of every mans own faith is very necessary to all even to Infants For the just shall live by his own faith and not by anothers as neither any man is learned by anothers learning but by that learning which is in himself So also I will adde one Testimony more from Zanchy because Mr. Eyre shelters his opinion of justification from the time of Christs death under Zanchies authority John 6.56 Zanch. De tribus Elo. l. 40. cap. 3. p. 106. Tom. 1. Qui edit meam carnem bibit meum sanguinem in me manet ego in eo Alludit ad illam incorporationem quae fit inter edentem bibentem inter cibos comestos cibus extra nos manens minimè nos nutrit cibus sumptus dum in nobis manet nutrit vivificat c. Idem contingit nobis cum Christo extra nos positus non alit à nobis sumptus nutrit vitam adfert atque conservat He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleeh in me and I in him Up-which words Zanchy saith He alludeth to that incorporation which is made between the eater and the drinker and between the meat eaten meat without us doth not nourish us but inwardly taken while it abideth in us it nourisheth and quickeneth us The same happeneth to us with Christ Christ without us that is not united doth not nourish us but taken by us it nourisheth and bringeth and preserveth life Where you see Zanchy maketh Christ not to justifie and save us while we are disunited but when applied and united by faith then he saveth us I will end all with CAMERO Si quis ergo propriè loqui velit dicet Christum pro solis credentibus satisfecisse Johan Camero in opusâ— Mise p. 531. col 1. ii enim soli membra illius sunt Sicuti ergò Adam suos tantum peccato infecit ita Christus peccatum in suis tantùm abolevit Christi verò membrum non est ullus qui in Christum non credit Audi quid dicam fides te facit Christi membrum at fides illa te non servà sset nisi Christus pro te satisfecisset If any man therefore will speak properly he will say that Christ satisfied only for Believers for they only are his members Therefore even as Adam infected only his own with sin so Christ hath abolished sin only in his but no man is a member of Christ but he that beleiveth Hear thou what I shall say faith maketh thee a member of Christ but that faith would not save thee unlesse Christ had satisfied for thee To what hath been spoken I shall superadde some considerations about this union to Christ taken from the several similitudes under which this union is set forth in Scripture First It is compared to the Marriage-union Now as before marriage the wife hath no right nor title to the name body goods of the husband so before faith the soul hath nor that right to Christ his Body Name Goods Purchases Therefore this union is not made till faith and in this Mr Eyre yields the cause that the conjugal union is not till faith Secondly It is expressed by a body consisting of divers members Now Rom. 12.4 5. as no member is a true and living member of the body but that which by nearnesse and vital ligatures is united to the head from whence every member receives strength and sensation 1 Cor. 12.12 13. Eph. 1.22 23. so no man is a living member of Christs body untill by faith on his part and by the Spirit as by vital ligatures he is bound and united to Christ whereby he receives the life of justification and santificaction and lives by a life derived from Christ as the Head but no man but a Believer is thus united as an integral part of this body Thirdly It 's compared to a building or house whose stones are closely cemented together and do all lie directly and perpendicularly upon the foundation Eph. 2 2â— 21. Now as a stone in the quarry is not united in the building till it be hewen and squared and then by the hand of some Architect laid directly and evenly upon the foundation so a man in his natural estate till he be drawn out of this condition by the Spirit of God 1 Tim. 3.15 and hewed and squared out of the Spirit of bondage and by the same hand of the Spirit as the chief Master-builder brought to faith 1 Peâ— 2.5 and built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone he is not a lively stone in this building this is done by the work of the Spirit an unbeliever hath not the Spirit dwelling in him Fourthly it is compared to an ingrafture of a branch in a tree Now a branch may be in a stock two wayes 1. By contiguity or continuity or corporal adherency to the stock and so every branch that is dead may be in the tree but these partake not of the juyce and nourishmnt of the stock and such branches the husbandman will cut off and cast into the fire 2. A branch is in the tree by a reall participation of the sap and influences of the root Thus a man may be in Christ two wayes 1. By external profession of faith for that which maketh us to be in Christ any kinde of way is faith now if our faith be a dead faith such as makes us come to Christ to shelter us from the fire only and it derive not spiritual life and sanctification from Christ this man is a dead branch which the Father will cut off and cast into the fire if it so abide and untill a true faith such as is peculiar to the Elect all are but dead branches yea the very Elect themselves untill effectual vocation and were never truly in him But 2. There is a living operative precious unfeigned faith which so unites the soul to Christ that now it partaketh of the power of his death it is crucified with him and dies to sinne and yet also it lives and is partaker of the quickening Spirit and power of Christs Resurrection whereby it lives and the life it lives in the flesh it lives by the faith of the Son of God Gal. 2. â—0 and it lives unto God as its end as well as from God as the principle of its life this is the true branch that partaketh of the sap and influence of the Root Christ Jesus unto a heavenly life and none are such branches but such as are truly cut off from the stock of Nature and ingraffed by faith into Christ That which Mr. Eyre addeth in the Margin by way of Comment upon Heb. 2.11 He that sanctifieth Mr. Eyre vind pag. 8. and they that are sanctified are all of one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereunto saith he some do make 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be the substantive and
to be compleated by an act of our Faith performed by the power and liberty of our own free-will so that upon this condition to be fulfilled by us without the assistance of grace the fruits of Christs death shall depend for this had been to purchase for us only a salvability not salvation and to make us our own Saviours but Christ died absolutely to purchase salvation as absolutely is opposed to an Arminian sense of a condition already explained but if absolutely be taken to oppose Faith as a condition to apply Christs righteousnesse by the order which God hath appointed in his Gospel which Faith God hath ordained as a means to bring us into possession of Christ and his righteousnesse which faith God hath ordained his Elect unto and Christ hath merited and shall be infallibly given for this end In this sense I deny that Christs death was absolutely a discharge from sin And therefore affirme that an Elect person is not actually reconciled so as to be immediately justified and discharged from the guilt of sin from the time of Christs death antecedently unto faith nor did God accept of the satisfaction of Christ for a present discharge to the sinner but Christ having laid down the price the Father and Sonne did agree upon a way and order when this benefit shall become theirs and that not to be till actual faith according to the tenor of the Gospel which promiseth salvation only to him that doth believe Having thus explained my self I now shall prove it by these following arguments First If Christ did not die absolutely for the Elect that their sins should be pardoned whether they believe or not believe then are they not actually discharged untill Faith But Christ did not die absolutely for the Elect that their sins should be pardoned whether they believe or not believe Therefore c. As for the assumption it is such a sacred truth that none that have a spark of modesty or grace left will deny for if Christ have died absolutely that they shall have pardon though they die in unbelief let them shew this and I will yield the cause for if Christ had died to have the sins of the Elect pardoned whether they have faith or not then an argument drawn from Christs satisfaction and Gods accepting it so would be nervous and strong to prove an immediate reconciliation but this can never be proved for Without faith it is impossibe to * Heb. 11.9 John 3.26 Acts 13.48 please God And He that believeth not the wrath of God abideth on him And As many as were ordained to life believe◠And the Consequence of the Major is proved thus if Christ did not die absolutely to discharge them from sin without faith then he died for them conditionally that they believe and the benefit of his death is limited untill faith Nor will it availe to say that faith is a subsequent condition not antecedent which I disprove by these following Arguments 1. If an unbeliever remaining so cannot be the subject of Justification then Faith is not a subsequent but antecedent condition of Justification But an unbeliever cannot be the subject of Justification Therefore c. The Major will not be denied where Reason dwells the Minor I prove thus because the Scripture no where maketh an unbeliever the subject of Justification 2. Because then Justification is a priviledge common to Believers and unbelievers but the Scripture peculiarly and solely applieth it to them that believe 3. Because no man out of Christ or disunited can be saved by Christ for Christ saveth none but his Members Christ is called the Saviour of his Body Eph. 5.23 and no unbeliever is a member of Christ for as much as the mystical union is made by Faith for which I referre the Reader to my Sermon and the Vindication of it Secondly Justification and Sanctification are inseparably joyned But were not sanctified from the time of Christs death and antecedently to faith Therefore we were not justified It is evident to experience that Sanctification is not in the least moment of time separated from Justification indeed we grant a priority of nature and order but not of time Hence the Apostle maketh all that are in Christ new creatures 2 Cor. 5.17 1 John 1.6 And if any man saith St. John hath fellowship with God or Christ and walketh in darknesse he is a liar and doth not the truth for then a man might be the member of Christ and the limbe of the Devil at the same time if justified he is a member of Christ if unsanctified a childe of the Devil 1 John 3.8 He that committeth sinne is of the Devil nor can it be agreeable to the purity of Christs Nature and Holinesse to have an unsanctified member of his body nor will the purity and holinesse of God the Father bear it that any should be his childe that is not holy nor can he that is a holy God justifie a wicked wretch so remaining Institu Calvin lib. 3. c. 11. whence Calvin in answer to Osiander when he objected Contumeliosum hoc fore Deo naturae ejus contrarium si justificet qui reipsâ impii manent Atqui tenendum est memoriâ quod jam dixi non separari justificandi gratiam à regeneratione licèt res sint distinctae It is contumelious and contrary to Gods nature to justifie those that remaine wicked To which he answereth But we must remember that which I now said the grace of Justification is not separated from Regeneration although they be several things Thirdly If we were justified antecedently to our birth from the time of Christs death Eph. 2.1 2 3. 1 Cor. 6.9 John 3. then we were never borne sinners under the guilt of sin But this is contrary to many plain Scriptures that say we were children of wrath and such as were unrighteous and could not in our unregeneration inherit the Kingdome of God and for further proof I referre the Reader to the ninth Argument against eternall Justification Fourthly If the state and condition of a man be truly altered and changed and that before God upon believing then was he not justified from the time of Christs death But his estate is truly altered in the sight of God upon believing Hence it is said that they are his people which once they were not 1 Pet. 2.10 1 Peter 2.10 Which in times past were not a people but are now the people of God which in times past were not under mercy but have now obtained mercy Hosea 1.10 Hosea 2.23 which words are taken from the Prophet Hosea upon which words Zanchy observeth that a people are called Gods people three wayes 1. According to Predestination thus it 's said God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew 2. In respect of the Covenant under the Law and so the Sons of Abraham were Gods people and they that were excluded from that Covenant were none of his 3.
by our own works and to prevent an Objection concerning works for works being excluded from being a cause of salvatition then some might aske What place have they and why are they required the Apostle answers they are of necessary use though not to purchase salvation yet they are the way wherein salvation must be had for God hath ordained before that we should walk in them In the 11th 12th verses The Apostle that he might the better affect their hearts with the greatnesse of Gods mercy and freenesse of his grace to them he puts them in minde of their former estate in Gentilisme as if he should say Do but remember what once you were cast but an eye upon your former estate and compare it with your present and your very change will evidence this truth that ye are saved by grace Now this wretched and deplorable estate he setteth down in seven things Two whereof are set down in the 10th verse the rest in the 11th ver which I have chosen for my Text. 1. First remember that ye were Gentiles in the flesh living according to the flesh so that in that estate they could not please God 2. They were uncircumcised that is they had not the seal of Gods Covenant and so were despised by the Jewes who rejoyce in that Circumcision which is made with hands you not only were uncircumcised in heart but also you wanted the outward signe of it in the flesh which is a seal of Gods Covenant And in the Text here are five evils more that he would have them remember First That at that time ye were without Christ that is as Diodat upon the place observeth ye had neither union nor communion with Christ who is Head of the Church the Foundation and Mediatour of the Covenant and the Spring of all spiritual and everlasting blessings Secondly They were aliens from the common-wealth of Israel and so separate from Christs body which is the Church they had no communion with the Church Thirdly They were strangers from the Covenants of Promise that is as Bains observes they had no propriety in the Covenant or promulgation of the Covenant and as Diodat upon the place having no interest nor portion in the goods promised by the Covenant of Grace which was made with Abraham and so often reiterated and confirmed or as Dickson upon the place having no right to application of the promises or as Piscator upon the place Haec promissio foederis gratiae quâ Deus promittebat remissionem peccatorum propter meritum Christi renovationem cordium per efficactam Christi nihil ad eos pertinebat Fourthly They were without hope in that estate in a hopelesse condition without the thing hoped for nor had they while they so continued any ground of hope for salvation Fifthly they were without God that is without the knowledge or worship of the true God they were conscious of a divine power but were ignorant of true God and without all inward or outward worship of the true God they knew not God much lesse knew him in Christ What a chaffy crude jejune and ridiculous glosse then is that of our new Rabbi Mr. Eyre Vindic just gratui◠p. 73. Mr. Eyre in his Vindiciae justificationis gratuitae who makes the sense meaning of these words to be thus The Elect before faith have no knowledge or comfort of Gods gracious volitions towards them or of Christs undertakings and purchases in their behalfe in which respect they are said to be without Christ and without God in the world As if they were not so really but to their apprehensions they did apprehend themselves to be without Christ and without God and without hope in the world but were not as if he should say They were mistaken their estate was good enough but they wanted faith to give them the knowledge and comfort of it which is to contradict the scope and end of this place which is to shew what a change God had wrought by place as the next words declare I wonder with what fate he can thus grossely corrupt the sense of the Holy Ghost when as the plain scope and meaning of the words is to minde them of their former misery before conversion or actual faith they were a Christlesse-people without all actual communion with Christ the Spirit of Christ had not yet drawn them to Christ nor united them to him nor did he yet dwell in their hearts by faith but in respect of any real actual communion with Christ in respect of Justification or Sanctification they were as if there were no Christ and they were without communion with the Church without the means of grace and salvation in a very sad hopelesse-estate without any interest in God or any true saving knowledge of him My purpose is not to speak to all of these but only to the first of them which I shall take as it is in conjunction with that other expression in the Text that they were without hope Observ The Observation then I shall insist upon is this That a Christlesse-estate is a Hopelesse-estate And where there is no union to Christ that soul is without hope this is the head of all spirituall misery to be without Christ this makes a soule to be without God and without hope in the world Rom. 8.32 let a man have Christ and he shall with Christ have all things but let him be without Christ and then he hath nothing he is under wrath poor wretched miserable blinde and naked In the opening of this Point I will oserve this method 1. I will inquire what it is to be without Christ 2. I will confirme it by Scripture and Reason that a Christless-estate is a Hopelesse-estate 3. I will shew you that before actual faith even the Elect of God are in a Christlesse-estate in this hopelesse-condition and then will apply it First What is it to be without Christ and how could the Ephesians be said to be without Christ when they were Elect persons and redeemed by Christ The Apostle speaketh not here of Gods counsel and purpose for so he intended to give Christ to them and them to Christ yet for all that they were without Christ for this is terminus diminuens and did not put them into a state of actual union to Christ nor doth he look upon the price of redemption paid for them for they were notwithstanding this without Christ but he speakes in regard of actual application So Baines upon the place and thus they were without Christ they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 absque Christo seorsum à Christo. Now this may be understood in two respects First They were without the means wherein God offers and exhibits Christ for though God had given Christ for them he had not yet given Christ to them they had not the offers of Christ made to them in the Gospel while they were Ethnicks and strangers to the Common-wealth of Israel thus they
Apostle had been We are justified by faith that is faith doth evidence our justification and works do not evidence it this makes the Apostles words to be untrue and he should uphold a needlesse strife and they should be in the truth and he in an errour But we shall rather suspect this glosse then so farre question the credit of St. Paul who was Amanuensis Spiritûs Sancti the Penman of the Holy Ghost Vse 1 The first Use then may be to shew us the miserable estate of a Christlesse man an unbeliever not united to Christ by faith As the body without the soule is dead so is a man without Christ dead in sinnes and trespasses As a branch separated from the vine withers away and shall surely be cast into the fire so that soul that is without Christ will wither in his profession and make fuel for everlasting burnings What awretched condition doth this discover a multitude of persons to be in at this day not only such as are without Christ because without the means by which God offers and exhibites Christ though their condition be very sad but even of those to whom Christ is preached and salvation by Christ offered but yet alas they are as great strangers to Christ as if they had never heard of him they know not what union and communion with Christ means they never were cut off from their old stock but are members of the first Adam who are yet in their sins ready to perish everlastingly for want of union with Christ to give them a right unto his righteousnesse if God stop but their breath which he can as easily do as a man would crush a moth they are everlastingly undone and we may say of them as Christ of Iudas It had been good for them they had never been borne Let such persons as these are know that have lived under excellent means and yet are not drawn to faith It shall be more tolerable in the day of judgement for the Heathen that never heard of Christ then for them if they die in this estate they shall not be damned for not believing in Christ for Christ was never revealed unto them but Christ have been revealed unto you the unsearchable riches of Jesus Christ hath been laid open before your eyes God hath made many sweet offers of Christ and all his benefits unto your soules when God hath denied to Dives a drop of water to coole his tongue the windowes of heaven have been opened to you and the fountaines of the great deep of the bottomlesse mercy of God have been broken up and the Seas and depths of Gods mercies in Christ have been opened to you One would think the most iron-hearted sinner would be allured with such bowels of mercy as have wept over you and yet you have received all the grace of God in vain you have not been brought over unto Christ by faith how will this provoke the Lord to the sorest vengeance that the hand of a jealous God can inflict If the word spoken by Angels was stedfast and every transgression and obedience received a just recompense of reward how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation This will be condemnation with a witnesse That light is come into the world and men love darknesse rather then light Thou that art not united to Christ thou hast as yet no part nor portion in Christ thou art yet in the gall of bitternesse and in the bond of iniquity Indeed there is righteousness enough in Christ to justifie thee if all the sins of all the men in the world did lie upon thee yet if thou beest a member of Christ none of all these should condemne thee yea with reverence be it spoken God can no more condemne thee then he can condemne his Son that died for thee thou art as safe from condemnation as Christ but thou that art yet out of Christ by unbelief let me tell thee the very blood of Christ cannot save thee in this estate God must make a new Gospel and deny himself or else thou canst not come to heaven What claime canst thou lay to Christs righteousnesse that hast no interest in Christ himself will he give his blood to thee that never gave himself to thee Thou that art a Christlesse person thou art a gracelesse person for if God have not made Christ righteousnesse to thee to justifie thee he is not made sanctification to thee thou art a godlesse a hopelesse man in this estate As it was said of Coniah so may I say of thee Ob earth earth earth write this man childlesse a man that shall not prosper all his dayes he was a broken vessel in whom the Lord had no pleasure so thou art a broken vessel in whom the Lord hath no pleasure Oh earth earth earth write this man gracelesse hopelesse heavenlesse a man that shall not prosper all his dayes Oh what a dreadful thing must death needs be to thee when thou diest that hast no Christ to intercede for thee nor righteousnesse to appeare in If all the haires upon thy head were so many vipers in thy bosome they will not sting thy body more deadly then sin will sting thy soul unto death eternal Know therefore that without union with Christ it would be well with thee if thou couldest change conditions with the meanest beast or creature God hath given to serve thee yea take the Sodomites that now suffer the vengeance of eternal fire they shall have a Summers parlour in hell over that soule that hath had such offers of Christ as you have had and yet dies in a Christlesse estate without union with him I beseech you lay it strongly to heart before the wrath of the Lord break forth like fire against you and burne down to the lowest hell and there be none to quench it Vse 2 2. See what a blessed thing it is for the Lord to give a people the means whereby they may become one with Christ for God to give unto us his Word which is the means to cut us off from the old stock and to implant us into Christ for God to give us his Gospel and that his Spirit should attend upon the Word preached without which the Word preached would be as uselesse as the Gardners kniffe which cannot cut off a branch nor be helpful to the implantation of it without the hand of the Gardner to act and improve it and so the Word without the Spirit would implant none Oh râ—st it is the Spirit in the Word that works faith and so drawes and unites the soule to Christ Now that God should give a people his Word and his Spirit to apply Christ to them and them to Christ that there may be a mutual application of them as there is of the stock to the graft and the graft to the stock that the Beleever may apprehend Christ and be apprehended by him and so grow up into union and blessed fellowship and communion with Christ
our sin was imputed to Christ that we might be made the righteousnesse of God in him and he will have Christs being made sin and our being made the righteousnesse of God in him formally the same act in God For he saith this phrase that we might be madâ— doth not alwayes imply the final cause but sometimes the formal And so his meaning is that Christ was at the same time made sin for us and by that act of God we were made the righteousnesse of God in him To this I answer First it offers violence to the Text for that doth not say that we were then made but that we might be made the righteousnesse of God in him it laid the foundation for this Secondly Let him assigne any other end that God had in this act in respect to us if this were not his end surely had it not been for this God would not have imputed our sinnes to Christ Thirdly That which he saith is manifestly false for this phrase that we might be alwayes doth expresse the finall cause his instance doth not prove the thing in hand He saith That when light is let in that darknesse might be expelled the immission of light is formally the expulsion of darknesse I answer if it be granted this hindereth not but that it might be the end why the light is let in as in a roome that hath shuts to keep out the light the room is dark now let a man that desires light open these shuts at the same time the light doth physically expell the darknesse and yet it was the end of the man in letting in the light to expel the darknesse Fourthly The imputation of sin to Christ and righteousnesse to us are two different acts and have two different effects and therefore are not formally the same for by imputing sin to Christ he is charged with the guilt of it and is obnoxious to death and the imputing righteousnesse to us is a discharge from the guilt and we are made capable of life Now if this were formally our discharge then we are discharged and so made righteous before Christ had made satisfaction even so soon as our sin was imputed but this is a manifest contradiction for it is not Christs being charged with our guilt but his making satisfaction that procures our discharge but this is but one drop of that river of contradiction that flows from him as from a fountaine with which his Book swells like the river of Jordan till it is foardable by no reason nor any humane understanding 4. I deny that the imputation of sin to Christ and the non-imputation of it to us If you speak of a formal non-imputation and discharge or else you say nothing to the purpose is but one and the same act in God they are two distinct acts terminated upon two distinct subjects The first upon Christ the second upon us Imputation of sin to Christ is a transient act done in time for God did not charge Christ with our sin from eternity and every transient act requireth the existence of the subject upon which it is terminated or produceth it as did Creation And therefore we that had no existence could not be the subjects of a formal non-imputation which is an actuall discharge from it and therefore that which you answer to this objection we were nor then and therefore righteousnesse could not be imputed by propounding another objection Our sins were not then therefore they could not be imputed I answer the reason is not alike for the non-existence of a subject to whom any thing should be impated is of greater efficacy to hinder the imputation then the non-existence of a sinne for the terme or subject of a transient act is of absolute necessity to be or to be produced by the act but there is no such necessity of the thing that is imputed the act may be without that but not without the other Besides a sin is a moral cause of punishment and therefore the effect which is punishment which is that that is meant by imputation of sin is at the will of him that is moved thereby and therefore sometimes goeth before the cause as in the death of Christ for which the Patriarchs were justified before Christ had given satisfaction and sometimes after it therefore the punishment might be inflicted on Christ before the sin was committed I shall now addresse my self to give an answer to such Scriptures as he hath alledged in defence of his own opinion The first is Matth. 3.17 This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased From whence he argueth that if the well pleasednesse of God which is here declared is terminated upon Christ mystical and not to Christ personal then God was well pleased with all his Elect who are Christ mystical when this voice came from heaven and consequently before many of them do believe To which I answer that I take it to be and have proved it an errâ—r to say that the Elect as Elâ—ct are myst cally uni ed to Christ for union necessarily pre-requireth existence and Christ had not a mystical body from eternity 2. I deny as then I did the assumption and say the well-pleasednesse of God was terminated upon Christ personal and not Christ mystical And the meaning is This is my beloved Son in whose person I am well pleased and with whose work and office as a Mediator I am well pleased but it was not the intent of God there to say for his sake I am actually well pleased with all the Elect antecedently to their faith Now I prove it was spoken of Christ personal and not Christ mystical 1. If Christ considered as Mediatour be personally considered then this is understood of Christ personal and not Christ mysticall The antecedent is true Therefore the consequence The reason of the consequence is because this is spoken of Christ as Mediator But Christ mystical is not the Mediaâ—our of the world for then we have so many Redeemers and Saviours of the world as are united to Christ and then Christ alone did not tread the winepresse of his Fathers wrath 2. Christ mystically considered was not baptized by John But this beloved Son in whom God was well pleased was baptized by John Ergo. 3. This was terminated on him to whom the Heavens were then opened and upon whom the Spirit descended like a Dove But this is true only of Christ personally not mystically considered 4. This voice was terminated on him for whose sake God is well pleased with such as believe But God is not well pleased with believers for the sake of Christ mystically considered but personally Ergo. 5. This voice is terminated upon him who is by a peculiar generation and Sonship so a Son that it is incommunicable unto others But this belongs only to Christ personal Therefore this voice was not terminated upon Christ mystical 6. Now to all this I adde this that the consideration of Christ as a pubâ—ick