thing yet remaineth which I promised to premise viz. what my intention is in excepting against Mr. Baxters book This is not either to oppose him in all things which he hath written therein For sometimes he looks out thorow truths casement that we might take him so a sonn of truth and the less suspect him when he vends his false wares In this case I will not jangle with him whether he speaks truth of envy and subtlety or of good will and sincerity Or 2. in all that shal seem to my judgment Heterodox in his Treatise but only or mainly in those things wherein he joyneth with the Romish Synagogue to maintain their damning doctrine against the truth which is and hath been professed in all the Reformed Churches about Faith and Justification Or 3. in every particular passage wherein he discovers himself in this point to be for Antichrist against Christ for sometimes he delivers himself with such ambiguities and aequivocations like Apollo of old in his Oracles that in pretence of another sense of his words than the more Grammaticall and usuall he may leave a way of issue to himself in case he cannot maintain his words in that sense wherein he would be understood that he may deceive Let it not therefore be thought all granted that shall not be here excepted against and that I approve all whatsoever I do not oppugn For method I desire no other may be expected from me than to follow Master Baxter in order as he hath written and to take up his Paradoxes and most profound and learned mistakes as they fall from him examining them not by the rules of Sophistry but by the touch-stone of the sacred Word These things thus premised we are now to begin to examine the unsavory particulars occurring in the Book it self Mr. Baxters APHORISMS Exorized and Anthorized OR An Examination of and Answer to a Book written by Mr. Rich. Baxter Teacher of the Church at Kederminster in Worcestershire ENTITVLED Aphorisms of Justification THE FIRST PART CHAP. I. Arg. In which Mr. Baxters Popish Doctrine of Implicit Faith is examined and whether the people may admit Doctrine upon trust from their Teachers THE first passage wherein he sheweth himself to smel of Popery in the point of Faith and Justification is before the work it self in the farewell of his Epistle to the Reader pag. antepenult of the Epistle where he doth not obscurely manifest himself to like well enough the Papists doctrine of Implicit Faith and to wish it more favoured and taken up at home among us His words are these speaking to his Congregation Bax. Who I hope do understand that to take upon trust from your teachers what you cannot yet reach to see in its own evidence is less absurd and more necessary than many do imagine A very proper insinuation to a people whom he would have to swallow such Doctrines as in the following Treatise he offers to them to be swallowed As far as he prevails or prevails not with this insinuation so far he hath or hath not men his Disciples This is the very foundation of Antichrists kingdom the authority of men as the foundation of Christs kingdom is the authority of the Scriptures If Mr. Baxter can perswade men to admit and suck in this Doctrine his whole business is finished and all his ends attained If they take upon trust even fundamentall doctrines from their teachers Let Mr. Baxter bring what doctrines he will with him of men and Devils nothing shall be refused all shall be taken upon his Credit By this slight he knew the Pope had gathered and many hundred years held under his vassallage in blind obedience many nations of the earth therefore will not Mr. Baxter baulk it when hee goes about to propagate the Popes doctrine among us But let us see what the Popish implicit faith is and then compare Mr. Baxter with the Papists to see whether there be not in both one mind and spirit The Papists distinguish betwixt Faith and Faith telling us there is an Explicit and there is an Implicit Faith By the Explicit Faith they mean a cleer and distinct knowledg apprehension and believeng of all the Articles and Doctrines of faith which the holy Mother Church of Rome hath prescribed to be received to salvation and that not in a bunch only but in particulars also This Faith they hold needful and expedient in the Clergy as they term their Prelats and Priests who are to rule over more than to teach the people By the Implicite Faith they mean a generall and confused apprehension and believing of all that the Church hath commanded to be taught and believed that it is all good and true though they that so believe know not in particular what the Church hath commanded otherwise than they take it upon trust of their Priests which tell them such and such things are commanded by the Church to be believed This Faith they hold sufficient for the Laity to salvation to believe what the Church believeth and enjoyneth to be true though they neither know what it is nor are acquainted with one least parcell of the word by which they may know it to be true which they have so taken upon trust to believe By the Church they mean the Pope and his Clergy by the Laity the people So that by their Doctrine if the Popes decree things in religion successively never so contrary and contradictory either to other and the titular Clergy follow them and go to Hell for it yet the people have this one supereminent priviledg that their Implicit and Colliers faith saves them as being still the same and unchanged that they believe as the Church believeth though they know not either with the Church or what believing is or what the things are which the Church believeth Compare we now Mr. Baxters words with this popish doctrine and see we if there be any difference I hope saith he you understand When Mr. Baxter saith I hope we are not to doubt but a man of such rare parts hath good grounds for his hope He knew there was means used to make them understand else would he not say I hope you understand and what means but teaching and who should teach them but Mr. Baxter their Teacher But what is it he hopes they understand it followeth That to take upon the trust of your Teachers what you cannot yet see in its own evidence is not c. Here is the Implicit Faith not to ground their opinions and belief in matters of salvation upon the known word of God but upon trust from the Teachers to believe because their Teachers say they belive it And what are the Teachers but what in Popish phrase is termed the Church the Clergy which is in their account at least the Church representative And Mr. Baxter to decline envy useth the plurall number Teachers not as I conceive that the people of Kederminster have more Teachers in ordinary besides himself for he names
himself in the Title of the book their unworthy Teacher not one of their Teachers so that his purpose is to deliver a general rule for all Churches His congragation to take upon trust from him and other Congregations from their Teachers what they themselves cannot reach to see in its own evidence i. e. such doctrines as they themselves by their own light and knowledg cannot tell whether they be white or black true or false from Heaven or from Hell And to do this is lesse absurd and more necessary then many imagin Mr. Baxter is scarce yet beginning to discover himself therefore we have yet Bona Verba from him we hear him speaking modestly afterward vires acquirit eundo we shall when once he is hot in his discourse hear him speak in the full of the mouth here only he saith less absurd and more necessary than some imagin But who knows not his meaning to be that for the people thus to pin their Faith to the sleeves of their Teachers specially to such profound Teachers as Mr. Baxter is so far from being absurd as that it is necessary I suppose he meaneth to salvation though some imbegin otherwise Here I would demand not of Mr. Baxter for I desire not familiarity with him while such an Aphorist but of any knowing man indulgent to him when he saith less absurd and more necessary than some imagine whom can he mean by those some but the Protestant Churches and Divines who at all times with one consent have cryed out against the absurdity of this doctrine in their disputations against the Papists And if so what doth he less therein than pronounce the Popish Doctrine herein necessary and the doctrine of all the Protestants in opposition to it a meer imagination But it may be objected that the Papists lay down this doctrine of Implicit Faith or believing upon the authority of the Church or their Teachers for a continual rule to the people But Mr. Baxter proposeth it but as a temporary rule useful only for a season Therefore the difference between him and them is considerable For so much may be gathered from Mr. Baxters words to take upon trust from your Teachers what you cannot Yet reach to see in its own Evidence It is but while they are yet weak while they cannot yet reach c. But when once they are strengthened and have attained to see truths in their own evidence thenceforth they are to take up such doctrines upon their own evidence not upon trust from their Teachers any longer I answer This difference is but supposed not reall For if we compare his words here with that which he hath written in the next Section of this Epistle before and with the whole frame and current of of his disputes throughout his whole book we shal find that he doth equally with the Papists labour to settle the people in an implicit faith to believe as the Church believeth still For in the former Sect he that knoweth best his own congregation acknowledgeth it to be in the number of those the greatest part whereof is uncapable af understanding such controverted points as are treated of in his book He saith not only that they understand them not but also denyeth them to be in a capacity to be brought to the understanding of them viz. in their own evidence therefore they must still hold them upon trust from their Teachers Besides if we look to the frame of his Disputes in this Treatise we shall find him concurring with the Papists in his indeavours to keep the people in a perpetuall incapacity to understand such Doctrines in their own evidence For what else can he mean by seeing a point of divine doctrine in its own evidence but one of these two things to see it in the evidence and cleer testimony of the word by which God hath set it forth or to see it in the evidence of Sophistical learning and disputes by which Mr. Baxter and the Sophisters whom he followeth pretend themselves to set it forth But by neither of these will Mr. Baxter or the Popish Sophisters if they can hinder it suffer the vulgar people to know any Evangelicall truth in its own evidence Not by the evidence of the Scriptures by which God hath cleered up and so plainly revealed the fundamental truths of salvation that even babes and sucklings may in good measure comprehend them Mat. 11. 25. 1 Cor. 1. 26. For here with his Masters the Romish Sophisters hee raiseth vain and distracting questions making difficulties where the wisedom of God hath left none and so puzling weak and tender consciences that even what before they had attained by the pure and simple light of the word seeing now such a thick fogg of doubts interposed they think themselves to have lost what light once they had and so sink into sadness and despair concluding it utterly unattainable What zeal Mr. Baxter hath thus not only to match but also to exceed all the locusts of Rome in darkning such truths as Christ hath in Scripture left cleer and open to all shining in the very Sun-beams of the Gospel we shall find in examining the following parts of his Treatise So that in this respect he hinders as much as in him lyeth his Kederminsterians from seeing the truth of Christ in its own evidence Nor by the latter Mr. Baxters sophistical way of quenching under a pretence of confirming Gospel-truth can the vulgar ever attain to know them in their own evidences not only because this humane Learning hath no power to search into them but also because it is not to be expected that illiterate men should ever attain any depth in this learning For if it be true what is generally held by Mr. Baxter and his side that without great acquaintance with school-learning the marrow of Divinity can never be effectually pierced into and what a great Scholler once told Erasmus that one of these School-Doctors John Scotus can in no wise be understood under nine years study at the least and what a 3d affirmeth that a man must have Aristotles Metaphysicks ad unguem before he can be capable of understanding one sentence of Scotus Farewell then all hope of saving knowledg ever to be attained by unscotified miserable idiots in its own evidence or by the Ministeriall help of such Teachers as have crept here below upon the Doctrine of Christ his Prophets and Apostles and not had so much time and patience as Mr. Baxter hath bestowed in the sublimated study of Aristotle Scotus and their fellows But what if Mr. Baxter herein speak the same things may some say with the Church of Rome and the same in opposition to the judgment of all the Reformed Churches yet this doth not certainly prove that it is savouring of error which he here delivereth except it be manifested that he speaketh against the Scriptures Doth the word any where forbid us to take up points of Faith on the credit of our Teachers though we
Christs undertaking c. The satisfaction was so virtually and effectually made by Christ and accepted by the Father as when it was actually accomplished First it seems there was such a Covenant For the Apostle tells us Rom. 5. 14. that Adam was a figure of him that was to come which is Christ And how a figure Doubtles not onely in this that as by him the one and first man sin and death by sin immediately came upon all men so by Christ righteousnes and by it life came upon all the elect But also in the manner of the agreement of the Type and Antitype together That as Adam representing all mankinde by his unfaithfullnes in breaking the Covenant brought sin and death upon all that he represented so Christ representing all the elect by his faithfullnes in performing the Covenant c. brought righteousnes and justification of life upon all the elect represented in him Yea the Holy Ghost in expresse words testifieth to such a Covenant In the volume of thy book it is written of me that I should do thy will O God saith he when he comes into the world i. e. it is testified in the word what Covenant hath passed betwixt thee and me c. Heb. 10. 5-10 yea and testifieth to the tenor of the Covenant his coming with a body to be offered in sacrifice this will of God he came to do And moreover he giveth witnes also to the faithfullnes of Christ in offering it Lo I come and to the efficacy of it upon all immediately for whom it was offered By the which will we are sanctified i. e. no more taken for sinners but Consecrated as holy to the Lord through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all ibid. The same is implyed in that phrase which here termeth the offering of Christs body the doing of the Fathers will And elswhere obedience unto death even the death of the Cross Phil. 2. 8. Obedience and will presuppose Command and Covenant And the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the one righteousnes or one act of righteousnes of Christ opposed to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that one offence of Adam for so the phrase seems to me to hold out more grammatically than the offence of one and the righteousnes of one doth not obscurely argue that one righteousnes of Christ in fullfilling opposite to that one offence of Adam in once breaking the Covenant Rom. 5. 18. And that all this was covenanted to be done and accepted for and in the behalf of the elect and to them and none but them to be effectuallized is also evident from the Scriptures For he did the will of his Father in offering himself as was before shewed i. e. did according as it was agreed and covenanted between him and the Father dyed for them onely for whom he made prayers and intercessions But when his time was come to suffer he prayed intercedâ—d not for the world but for them onely whom the Father had given him out of the world Joh. 17. 6 9. Therefore for them onely he undertook to satisfie Therefore is it that he is said to lay down his life onely for his sheep not for the goats Joh. 10. 11. 15. For them whose names were written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world Rev. 13. 8. The rest things conteined in this position are granted by Mr. Br himselfe therefore need no proof here I have couched together many things in this to avoyd multiplicity of positions 2 That by force of this satisfaction so given and accepted for the sinns of the Elect according to the Tenor of this Covenant between the Father and the Son all the Elect of God were Justified in Christ from the very time of Christs undertaking to be their Justifier Therefore in the last alleaged Scripture their names are said to be written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world Here though the book of life which is elswhere mentioned to be Gods book will be taken by Mr. Br to be the book of Election yet this book of life of the lamb is to be understood for the book of Justification implying indeed the election of all that are written therein but primarily and in its direct sense comprehending the names of them that are justified by the bloud of the sacrificed Lamb of God And these are said to be written in Christs book that is registred in Christ and upon Christs account from the foundation of the world immediately upon Christs undertaking to satisfie for them Of him ye are in Christ saith the Apostle who of God is made unto us Wisdome Righteousnes Sanctification and Redemption 1 Cor. 1. 30. When was he so made unto us Mr. Br answereth not onely upon the payment but upon his undertaking to pay our debt Therefore is he said to be Jesus Christ yesterday and to day and for ever Heb. 13. 8. And that not onely in reference to them that lived in all ages of the world but in respect of us also that in all ages of the world he hath been and will be what now he is our Jesus our Christ But this position hath been before proved in the former Chapter in answer to Mr. Baxters 13 Thesis and its explication where I spake to his sixth Argument 3 The Ministeriall way of offering and convaying the benefits of Christs satisfaction into the souls and apprehensions of men now used under the Gospel according to the command of Christ is or at least sounds like an inferior Covenant subordinate and sub-servient to this between the Father and the Son whereof we have spoken Christ having now made full satisfaction to the Father invites all and brings in his elect to taste and enjoy by faith all the perfections which he hath merited and received into his hands for them It is confessed by Mr. B. Thes 8. That God is so fully pleased with the Sons undertaking of this busines of Mediation that he hath delivered all things into his hands and given him all power in heaven and in earth and made him Lord both of the dead and living And the Lord Jesus himself affirmeth that the Father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgment to the Son i. e. the dispensation and ordering of all things in heaven and in earth And it is the opinion of great Divines that the Lord Christ in the old world before the Law and in all ages under the Law being that person of the Trinity which had undertaken to assume our nature unto him and in it to dye for the reconciling of us to God and entring from the beginning upon his power to set in order all things to this glorious end was he that conversed with the Patriarks and Prophets sometimes in an assumed body like a man sometimes invisibly making known the mystery of Redemption by himself to them and prescribing under what administrations he would have his Church
on which wrought the cure such are the operations of Christ and faith in the cure of the soul as here in the cure of the body 3. From 1 Gâ—r 30. 31. Christ is of God made unto us Righteousnesse viz. to Justification That he which glorieth may glory in the Lord. God hath made him righteousnesse but how to us or our righteousnesse that it may be of his donation to us Mr. Baxter must answer by faith else farewell his condition but if by the act of faith as our righteousnesse in fulfilling â—he condition or otherwise then an instrument to apprehend the righteousnesse of Christ to justification then have we somewhat of our own righteousnesse wherein to glory all would not be the Lords that we might glory in him alone 4. To this I might add also the phrase which the Apostle useth that we are justifyed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by faith through faith as an instrument and never 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for our faith or upon our faith as for a cause or upon a condition fulfilled as some of our Divines have well observed I proceed to the next position B. Thesis 59. Justification is not a Momentaneous act begun and ended immediately upon our beleeving but a continued act which though it be in its kind compleat from the first ' yet it is still in doing till the finall justification in the judgment day All this together with most of the Explication may be granted as being capable of an Orthodox sense 1. That justification as an act immanent in God is such as is here described is confessed But Mr. Baxter is deaf in this ear 2. That our justification in Christ is such in some sense we also grant but neither will he listen to this 3. Therefore if he would take off all ambiguity of his words and declare his sense to be the same with the sound we would grant to him also that such is our personall justification in our selves which he owneth only for justification For as it is an act of God it is never interrupted or dissolved till the day of judgement though as it is taken Passively there may be many interruptions of our sense and apprehension of it But his Thesis is faced like Janus lookes two wayes at once is set forth in such words as will more properly admit of an evill then a good sense And that he speaks them after the Remonstrant not the Protestant dialect is too probable though not infallibly evident from these reasons to be meant in an evill sense 1. Because he delivers it in the Arminian phrase For so his St. Episcopius Justificatio est actus continuus qui est Episcop Disp 22. Thes 12. de Justif durat quamdiu durat ipsius conditionis requisitae praesentia interrumpitur vero semper toties quoties actus praestantur ejusmâ—di qui cum vera fide conscientia bona consistere nequeunt i. e. Justification is a continued act which is and dureth as long as the presence of its requisite condition continueth but is interrupted so often as such acts are done which cannot consist with true faith and a good conscience To the continuance of justification Mr. Baxter here speaketh the same thing with him and though as to the interruption of it he speaks here as out of a cloud yet compare with this his 45. Thesis and you will have the whole of Episcopius from the pen of Mr. Baxter 2. Because his words do seem here to suppose a Magis minus in its active acceptation or sense It is not begun and ended immediately saith he but is still in doing in a way of perfecting untill the judgment day 3. His restriction added to the compleatnesse or perfection thereof at the first It is compleat at first saith he but in its kind which restriction makes the compleatnesse of justification incompleat and its perfection imperfect till the day of judgment as himselfe hath expressed himselfe before Thesis 41. These things from the position it self From the explication will follow 4. The heartlesse and comfortlesse proof that he brings to prove the continuance of this justifying act making it to reach only to the Genera singulorum not to the singula generum to such a kinde of men not to any singular man or individuall person upon earth to Beleevers but not to this or that beleever So that the holiest Saint if at any time his faith in some temptation faint and cannot be brought to sensible acting is left destitute of all comfort from the Gospell or new Covenant after Mr. Baxters principles It justifieth onely so long as faith actually receiveth Christ if faith through infirmity cease to act he gives the distressed soul no comfort that God continueth to justifie 5. From the first use of instruction which he draweth from this position This sheweth us saith he in the first place with what limitation to receive the assertion of our Divines that remission and justification are simul and semel performed his meaning is that we must understand them in this assertion to deal as Mr. Baxter is wont viz. to say one thing and mean another Not to think as they speak but to equivocate and retaine a mentall reservation within themselves That our justification is begun and perfected both at once and together but all this is but suo genere in its kinde that is conditionally even as the Usurer frankly and freely forgave to his debtor all that he owed him but with this limitation that if he were not paid the whole debt to day he would cast him in prison to morrow there to lie untill he should pay the whole forfeiture But because Mr. Baxter is disposed here to lisp and not to speak alowd and plain his minde we shall leave him to his humour and proceed to hearken to him where he speaketh plainly and without parables Mr. Baxters APHORISMS EXORIZED AND ANTHORIZED OR An Examination of and Answer to a Book written by Mr. Rich. Baxter Teacher of the Church at Kederminster in Worcestershire ENTITULED Aphorisms of Justification THE SECOND PART By JOHN CRANDON an unworthy Minister of the Gospel of CHRIST at Fawley in Hantshire LONDON Printed by E. C. 1654. Mr. Baxters APHORISMS Exorized and Anthorized OR An Examination of and Answer to a Book written by Mr. Rich. Baxter Teacher of the Church at Kederminster in Worcestershire ENTITVLED Aphorisms of Justification THE SECOND PART CHAP. I. The following Doctrine of Mr. Baxters Book reduced to some few heads and the question between him and the Protestants about Justification by works stated HItherto we have been busied about the view of Mr. Baxters swelling which the more and the farther we gazed on the more it increased and after a long expectation of an issue at length the imposthumated matter breaks out in the sight of all men to the offence of all spiritualized men Justification by workes This is the declared and professed Subject of all the following part of this
animosity as the ingenuity of Scaliger which caused him when he heard that one had busied himselfe about the correcting of the errors in his writings to cry out Ego meos corrigam errores I my selfe will be the corrector of my owne errors The same taske may this Author justly challenge to himselfe if living to be himselfe the defender of his owne writings Perhaps he is doing it perhaps he hath done it I shall therefore in my uncertainty what is done onely with such brevity seeke to disabuse the doubting readers of both that I shall in no wise prevent the Authors fuller vindicating of his owne or rather Gods cause in his hand Let us then attend to Mr Baxters accusations particularized Append. pag. 100. and so onward It was questioned as may be seen pag. 99. why he excepted against the Book called the Marrow of Modern Divinity he answers there because it is guilty of this hainous doctrine This he begins now pag. 100 to shew in particulars alleaging first the words of that booke thus B M. M. pag. 174. he meanes 179 Qu. Would you not have beleevers to eschew evill and do good for feare of Hell or for hope of Heaven Answ No indeed I would not have any beleever to doe the one or the other for so farr as they doe so their obedience is but slavish c. To which end he alleageth Lu. 1. 74. 75. Having thus alleaged the Author he thus endeavours to accuse and confute him B But that speaks of freedom from feare of our enemies such as Christ forbids Lu. 12. 5. where yet he commandeth the fearing of God and consequently even that feare of enemies is forbidden as they stand in opposition to God and not as his instruments in subordination Or if it be even a feare of God that is there meant yet it cannot be all feare of him and his displeasure So farr as we are in danger of sin and suffering we must fear it and so far as our assurance is still unperfect a jealousie of our owne hearts and a dreadfull Reverence of God also are necessary But not the legall terrors of the former bondage such as arise from the apprebension of sin unpardoned and of God as being our enemy Who ever heard any doctrine more unanswerably proved to bee hainous If any man question by what Arguments he can easily answer himselfe by this â—hat Mr. Baxter trying and finding himselfe unable to do it at length grants it to be sound and good Thus are they driven oft-times to wound themselves who draw the Sword against the Truth The Author of that booke proveth that beleevers or the redeemed of Christ are no longer to serve for feare of Hâ—ll by the testimony of the H. G. Lu. 1. 74. 75. That we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies might serve him without fear in holinesse and righteousnesse c. Mr. Baxter to evade the force of this Scripture first contendeth that by enemies are here to be understood not spirituall but mortall enemies wicked men and their persecutions Now may not a blind man perceive this to bee a shifting not an answer of this Scripture 1. The grouÌ„d of this not fearing is here layd to be our deliveraÌ„ce cut of their hands whom else we should feare And will Mr Baxter say that Christ came to deliver his elect from the persecutions of men and not from sin death hell which were our most formidable enemies This were to make Christs kingdome to be of this world and to joyn with the carnall Iewes that expected such a carnall Christ and câ—rnall kingdome that might be eminent in the world 2. Or hath he actually purchased to us such a deliverance doth not experience declare the contrary 3. Or must we so long suspend our serving of God in Righteousnesse and Holiness untill we be actually delivered from all feare and danger of mens persecutions For so runs the Text as well in the originall as in our translation that the deliverance is layd as the ground of the service and that put in our possession before this can be put in execution at least without feare 4. Is not deliverance heere the same thing with the salvation mentioned ver 77 which Iohn was to preach but that was salvation and so is this deliverance by the remission of sins and consequently we must serve who are in Christ without feare of vengeance and Hell He sees that with this evasion he cannot decline the edge of this Scripture therefore takes up the right interpretation of it at last thus Or if it be even a feare of God that is there meant c. Why had he not spoken full to the point in question and said the feare of Hell This minsing will nothing help him All that he saith against it in this sense is but such as is wont to proceed from the extravagancy of an astonished and self confounded man For who ever said that a beleever must cast off all feare of God and not be possessed still with a filiall feare to displease him Or that as farr as he is in danger of sin and suffering he must not feare it to shun it Or that so farr as our assurance is still unperfect or perfect a jealousy of our own harts and a dreadfull Reverence of God are not necessary But what is all this to the serving of God for feare of Hell How doth he daub with untempered morter At length he determines the question But not the legall terrors of our former bondage such as arise from the apprehension of sin unpardoned and of Gods beeing our enemy I need to say no more but where then is the feare of Hell in a beleever doeth it arise from the apprehension of the pardon of his sin and of God reconciled to him in Christ what can be said more weakly to confute or more strongly to confirme that which he cals a hainous doctrine Is Mr. Baxter an adversary or an accessary to him whom he pronouâ—ceth the Author of this wicked intolerable damnable doctrine Himself speaks more to confirm it than the person whom he opposeth But how according to his principles the terrors of our former bondage as he describes it are in this life removed neyther can I see nor he make out without contradicting himselfe B. In the 180. page Hee denieth the plaine sense of the Text Mat. 10. 28. Enough Magisterially if it were true what he objecteth to say only and not to demonstrate the truth of what hee objecteth But if false who perceiveth not the censorious spirit of the Objector That it is false appeareth evidently for how doth hee deny the plain sense which denieth no sense at all of the Text but onely declares what he thinks to bee the more principall scope of Christ in that Text than other And in this the context will evince that hee speaketh the truth B. In the 155. page He maketh this the difference betweene the two Covenants One sayth Doe this and
Mr. Baxters APHORISMS EXORIZED AND ANTHORIZED OR An Examination of and Answer to a Book written by Mr. Ri Baxter Teacher of the Church at Kederminster in Worcester-shire entituled Aphorisms of Justification TOGETHER WITH A vindication of Justification by meer Grace from all the Popish and Arminian Sophisms by which that Author labours to ground it upon Mans Works and Righteousness By JOHN CRANDON an unworthy Minister of the Gospel of CHRIST at Fawley in Hant-shire Ipse fecit nos non ipsi nos Ipsi nos justos salvos fecit non ipsi nos August de verbis Apostoli Serm. 11. God forbid that I should glory save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ Gal. 6. 14. Imprimatur Joseph Caryl Jan 3. 1654. LONDON Printed by M. S. and are to be sold by T Brewster at the three Bibles in Pauls Church-yard And L Chapman at the Crowne in Popes-head Alley 1654. ALthough it be matter of a very sorrowfull resentment to see Theologicall warres renewed among Brethren yet it is a duty to contend earnestly for the faith which was once delivered to the Saints And although I heartily wish that in these contentions all personal reflections were layd aside and opinions onely dealt with which latter consideration How-ever this Author I doubt not hath satisfied his owne Conscience and labours much to satisfie his Readers about it hath a little checkt my thoughts in giving an explicite testimony to the worke yet the doctrinal poynts therein maintained and vindicated The present freedome of beleevers from the Curse of the Law and their free justification by Faith without workes yea without Faith as it is a work through the alone satisfaction of Jesus Christ are of such moment and so fundamental in religion for the comfort of poore soules that I cannot but judge any essay tending to the clearing of them much more this large and elaborate discourse profitable for the Church of God and worthy of the publick View The 3d of the 11th month 1653. Joseph Caryl The Printer to the Reader Courteous Reader BY Reason of sickness and many infirmities of Body disâ—bling the Author oft from Revising the Sheets as they came from the Press during the whole time that the Book was in printing The work comes not to thy view without many mistakes in Printing The most considerable of them I have here collected to be amended with thy Pen before thou beginnest to read The rest confisting mostly in mis-pointing and mis-spelling I leave to thy judgement candor to Rectifie in Reading the Tractate M. S. Errata Preface PAge 4. line 1. it is not distinguished by the Italick Character which are Mr. Brs and which the Authors words the quoted place of Mr. Br. will shew it Pag. 10. line 26. for Catalogus read Catalogus p. 14. l. 7. for Tenet r. Tenets p. 17. l. 19. r. intrinseâ—al p. 20. l. 8. r. Communing p. 33. l. 38. to the word Logick add and the Metaphysicks p. 35. l. 2. r. puritate and l. 11 r. Doctrinae p. 36. l. 39. r. for Part 1. Arg. of Cha. 1. for doctrine r. doctrines p. 4. l. 5. r. imagin p. 12. l. 38. r. person p. 19. l. 11. r. stuttering p. 26. l. 35. for nor r. not p. 29. l. 9. for sinns r. sinn p. 39. l. 7. for and r. in p. 45. l. 35. add us p. 64. l. 40. for Covenants r. commandements p. 76. l. 3. for piece r. pierce p. 101. l. 13. r. controvertible p. 140. l. 23. dele in p. 227. l. 40. for for r. to p. 235. l. 13. for united r. merited p. 256. l. 1. for the r. their p. 257. for fruition r. futurition p. 264. l. 3. for innocent r. nocent p. 314. l. 33. for me r. us p. 330. l. 1. for first r. fifth p. 331. l. 30. for vindicateâ—h r. vendicateth Part 2. P. 7. l. 19. for make r. made p. 8. l. 2. for the r. this l. 24. for spitted r. spittled l. 34. for him r. the Reader p. 5. l. ult for latter r. letter p. 11. l. 26. dele not p. 18. l. 26. add them p. 39. l. 32. r. scripture p. 49. l. 26. for as r. or l. 30. dele to p. 51. r. operation p. 54. l. 37. dele the. p. 76. l. 27. for so to r. to so p. 81. l. 9. for heare r. here l. 36. for affection r. affectation p. 87. for in r. upon p. 97. for Mortuum r. mortuam p. 139. l. 2. for is r. is not p. 140. l. 33. for controvertibly r. convertibly p. 203. l. ult to Protestants add that use the word Condition in Justification salvation p. 206. l. 8. for given r. giveth p. 313. for and r. the. p. 240. l. 9. dele there l. 32. for if r. of p. 241. l. 22. for their r. them p. 244. l. 17. for have r. have made p. 212. l. 10. dele end p. 313. l. 12. for and r. he p. 361. l. 6. r. Restriction p. 381. l. 28. for O r. so p. 395. l. 35. for Gratia r. Gratiae ibid for paraeum r. parum p. 382. l. 32. dele and. TO THE REVEREND THE FAITHFULL AND Pious MINISTERS of the Lord Christ within this Nation Much honoured and highly Beloved IT might be Construed self-arrogance that so despicable a person in parts newly broken out of the black Cloud of Obscurity should not onely publish to the world but withall tender so rough-hewen a work to the speciall view scrutiny of them whom Christ hath made and named the Lights of the world But this imputation will appear undeserved to as many as shall consider that what is here presented to so great a fulgor of judgement and learning comes with a request not of Patronage alone but of Correction also Of Patronage where it defends the Truth in the Truth of Correction where it halteth into the defence of error in steed of the Truth or of the Truth but not in the Truth The work it self will sufficiently speak me out not fit to be registred inter Doctos yet hath it been still my study not to commit any thing by which I should deserve to be pronounced indocilis untractable to learn where the Lord holds forth a faithfull Teacher It is the height of my ambition and patheticall heartiness of my humble request not so much to all of you Collectively which is unattainable as to every of you divisively who in these slippery times Honored Worthies stand fast in the truth of Christ to be recalled by you into the way from which you shall finde me any where straying but so that by the Authority of the Word you lead me into it that I may gladly be a follower of such a leader As to the Book to which this answereth whatsoever Fate this shall have in mens judgements surely that must have a stinch with all the judicious and orthodox Neither could it so long have stood unshaken had he not cunningly prepossessed the minds of his
sinns against the Gospel as well as against the Law Though I have spoken of all these enough of each in its proper place within this Tractate yet somewhat for the fuller Clearing of my meaning may be said here also The first and second I shall for brevity join in one as of no small Cognation As farr as I hold and have declared my self to hold them 1 I have also manifested in due place how they are or seem at least to be grounded upon the Scriptures 2 They are expresly and boldly asserted by many of the most Conspicuous Divines in piety and Learning that any of the Protestant Churches have enjoyed ever since the Reformation 3. And that without the Contradiction or exception of any Church or Orthodox Writer for well nigh a hundred yeares made against it A great and probable Argument that it was the Common Judgement of all the Churches 4. Mr. Rhaeterfordt in his Exercit. Apolog holds it forth not as the private opinion of some particular men but as the Common Judgement of all the Churches And the Remonstrants take it as such For so I remember they oft argue in their Apol. and elswhere Justificatio est purus putus Actus in Deo immanens c. not that they express what Arminius his judgment and theirs after him is in this point but that from this as a conclusion which they knew common to and would not be denyed by any Protestant their Argument would stand firm against them Neither know I any one of the Protestants that hath written against them excepting against it 5 I never read any to make me dissent in judgement from these Worthies that hath given his reasons against it save Mr. Br. alone and he handles the question like a man spoyled with Philosophy and vain deceit as the Apostle termeth the use of exotick learning in purely Gospel matters after the traditions of men and Rudiments of the world not after Christ Col. 2. 8. And his nakedness in such his arguing is enough discovered by a learned Writer whose worth I shall still honour but have not so much as an Ambition ever to match * Mr. Kendal He tells us indeed that Dr Downham hath written against it as delivered by Mr. Pemble But I could not get the book to see his reasons nor know I any thing which he hath written but as I have heard from others Besides I have been told that some of the late Reverend Synod disrelished the doctrine but cannot finde that any one of them hath published his reasons for such a disrelish And Charity will not permit me to harbour the lightest imagination that any of those grave Divines culld and selected out of the whole Nation for their eminency in godliness and learning should without any means used for information and conviction exercise a Tyranny over the Consciences of their lesser brethren to force them into an implicit Faith to beleeve as themselves beleeve specially when doing it they shall put out that which they think at least to be the light of the word in their conscience and in consenting with them without hearing a reason they shall dissent from others whom their Modesty will confess to be of no less deservings in the Church who have given their reasons Yet still I hold 1 that those Scriptures which treat of Justification by Faith do all relate to the transient justification which no man partakes of till he beleeveth 2 That no man is personally justified but onely in Christ the publike person till he be by Faith united to Christ That righteousness and life so discend to us from the second Adam as sinn and condemnation from the first As by the offence of one judgement came upon all to condemnation so by the Righteousness of one the free gift came upon all to Justification of life Rom. 5. 18 19. In Adam the publike person we were all represented he was all and we all considered in him God saw us in all our individuall persâ—ns in him though we through Adam saw it not so that Aâ—am sinning we all sinned in him and became dead in law and guilty of condemnation before God as if we had been then being and actually sinning Nevertheless as to our selves we were not personally sinners and guilty untill we had a personall being in and from Adam So in Christ satisfying Gods justce for sinn the Elect were all represented as in a publike person satisfying in him by him and so all in him and by him justified and absolved in all their individualls from sinn and condemnation before God Nevertheless we are not personally so justified untill we have a personall being and new being in Christ and from Christ 3. That this Transient Justification is a justifying or being justified before God passed at Gods Tribunall set up in mans Conscience from which he pronounceth absolution to a poore sinner denying himself and resting upon Christ alone for Mercy So that now and never untill now he hath boldness to pierce by Faith into the Holiest and plead his righteousness before him that sitteth on the Mercy-seat Thus our justification which was before in God and in Christ is not at all derogatory to the justification which is by Faith but onely prevents that this latter may not be derogatory to the praise of Gods Grace and Christs merits which have completed all without our subserviency for us and thus God is all seen to be all and our boasting excluded This hitherto is my judgement untill I shall be better instructed Tu si quid novisti rectius istis Candidus imperti And at length if it shall be granted to be an error yet it cannot be Antinomism being a deviation not from the doctrine of the Law but of the Gospel It was not the judgement but malice of Mr. Br that gave it this brand of ignominy 3 To the free absolute and unconditionall Justification I need not to Apologize for my self at all It is to the truly pious of the Ministery to whom my words are directed who among other have given this evidence of your godlinesse that ye have not forsaken your first Faith by declining to Popery or Arminianism what others judge of me is to me a small thing saith the Apostle of such I weigh it not But ye no doubt teach that the very promulgation of Justification runs upon no other condition but Faith alone and upon Faith not as a quality or vertue but instrumentall to apply the righteousnesse of Christ to Justification that works and the universall conditionall Justification which Mr. Br. hath learned of his Masters are to be excluded In this your doctrine is one and the same in sense and substance with theirs that affirm Justification to be unconditionall And it is indifferent to me to deliver the same truth in their words or yours Onely I find that they make use of both the former and this Conclusion as strong Fortresses against Popery and Arminianism which causeth Mr.
reference to the times past the other to the time present and to come Palam est saith Amesius Patres ex Philosophia introduxisse in Ecclesiam Ames Bellar Enero Tom. 4. Lib. 6. Cap. 1. p. 136. varios modos loquendi precipuè de meritis humanis de Justitia Evangelij qui in scripturis non comparent inde occasionem datam arreptam Scholasticis fuisse perniciosos errores fabricandi i. e. It is apparent that the Fathers have out of Philosophy brought into the Church various ways of speaking especially of mans merits and of Gospel-righteousness which do not appear in Scriptures And that occasion hath been thereby given to and caught or raught by the School-Doctors to frame many Errors And Bullinger seeing this way of disputation beginning to peep and shew it self in its time within the reformed Churches having before described them that give their minds over-much to the study of Philosophy and Logick that they became such as are unuseful for the edification of the Church and in stead thereof Disputatores rixosi fiunt censores superbissimi nihil aliud quà m disputationes rixas spirantes omnia aliorum c. arrogantissimè consentes arrodentes maligne cavillantes Scholarum Ecclesiarum pestes ex quibus venenum altercationum simultatum c. effunditur in Ecclesiam i. e. become brawling disputers proud censurers breathing nothing but disputes and janglings most arrogantly censuring snarling and malignly cavilling at other mens labours nisi quod eorum capitibus gravidis admodulatum sit prescriptisque regulis congruant if they be not tuned to their heads great with Child and congruent with their rules and precepts of Art The very plagues of Schools and Churches out of which the poyson of brawlings divisions and distractions is powred out into the Church Having thus described them hee thus concludes in reference to the times past Equidem feliciter nunquam cessit Ecclesiae quando homines docti studiosi deserta simplicitate puritati verbi dei aliò converterunt oculos neque hos unicè in solum verbum Dei collimârunt i. e. Verily it hath never thrived well in the Church when learned Bulling Ser. Decad. 5. Serm. 10. and studious men forsaking the simplicity and purity of Gods word have glanced their eyes on some other thing and not fixed them only upon Gods word And thus in reference to the times to come and present Si hodiè quoque pergamus scripturis sanctis maâ—è copulare philosophiam illas superstitiosè ad disputationes revocare ac sub regulas cogere humanas vel Artium corrumpemus ipsi in scholis grandi cum Ecclesiae detrimento sinceritatem doctrinem Apostolicae i. e. If in our times also we proceed evilly to couple together the Scriptures and Philosophy and to call the Scriptures but outsidely or in a shew to our disputations reducing them to the rules of men and of the Arts we also shall to the great disadvantage of the Church corrupt the sincerity of Apostolical doctrine in the Schools So much said Bullinger a Classical Divine of his time neither without eminent learning nor an enemie to it for more than a 100 years sithence in the last of those decads of Sermons which he set forth in print Anno 1549. how long before the Edition thereof it was preached is uncertain Yeâ— gives after all this to humane literature its due praise Interim certum est saith he bonas Artes vel literas plurimum facere ad per spicuitatem evidentiam sed moderate cum judicio religiose adhibitas ut imperium relinquatur sacris literis serviant autem omnes Artes exoticae i. e. Mean while it must be granted that good Arts and Learning contribute much to the cleering and evidencing of things so that they be moderately judiciously and religiously made use of and the Scripture be still left as Empress and all extraneous Arts as handmaids not to justle it aside or sit in Chair with it but to do service to it In some things in many things I grant the rules of these Arts when agreeing with Scripture to be usefull to make out the absurdity or rationality of a mans reasoning about divine things But except they could be proved universally and in all parts perfect and indeficient it is neither safe nor warrantable to yeeld up our faith and judgment in Gospel-matters to their determination This ingenuity therefore is to be attributed to M. Baxter that he doth though not professedly yet actually to this end come armed a Cap ad Pe with this kind of learning to destroy not to maintain that sacred and fundamentall point of the Gospel Justification of meer grace Yet to shew how much more confidence he hath in his Sophistry than in his Divinity and to tell out aloud that he hath deserved to have the title of Subtilissimus Doctor which Scotus hitherto hath worn hee hath affixed to the end of his Aporisms a Table of Distinctions to speâ—k out himself to all that will not otherwise see it that he is whatsoever he is Sophistry it self that distinctions flow from him as thick as Bees from the Hive Only this one thing seems wanting in him that he sets not so much as an Asterisk upon any of these distinctions to tell us that either it is grounded upon the Scripture or that it distinguisheth him from a sworn enemy to the Doctrine of Grace I do not expect to be free from censure for so much length in my discourse upon this last subject to shew the impotency and impropriety of secular learning to bear any authority in spiritual things But I have to answer against such censures 1. That I have written therein nothing but words of soberness and truth and I had rather with tediousness make cleer a truth than to drop errors with concisenesâ— 2. That it was not against my purpose to be so large nor yet beside the mark aimed at For should I here put a period Mr. Baxters falsities are more than half answered because that more than half of his Book consisteth of meerly sophistical questions definitions arguments evasions equivocations distinctions and fallacies In all which if there be no force to prove or refute in Gospel-matters and that God is so farr from commanding or allowing such slights in handling Gospel-truths as that he explodes hates curseth the same as hath been manifested then the greater part of his work is hereby manifested to be vain As for the residue of the Book wherein he seems to confine himself to plain Scripture he seldom and little meddles this way but in confidence of his Sophistry that he hath at hand in ambush to succenturiate and help him at a dead lift else all the fat will quickly be in the fire his Scripturall reasons for the most part cutting the throat of his own causâ— and stoutly defending the truth which he oppugneth as we shall find when I come to examine them One
which is in our selves could be more excellent than that which Christ is made to us untill this new Doctor took the Chair to teach Mysteries and by inverting and misnaming Scripture-phrase hath so taught Nevertheles it behoved Mr. Br having resolved to keep on the triple Crown upon the Popes head by stablishing justification upon works though it were to the uncrowning of Christ to reject uprightnes and to seek after inventions Eccles 7. 29. First he must hold beleevers to be under both Covenants els while he builds up one peece of Babylon he should pluck down another and give his judgment against his holines in one point while he acts the Champion for him in another and adventure with all the loss of his Cause if he keep not as strong hold-fast in the Covenant of works with the one hand as in the Covenant of grace with the other 2 He must call the Condition or means of applying Christ to us or obteining interest in his satisfaction our Righteousnes els he will not be able to evade those Scriptures which assert our Justification by faith But by this feat he thinks himself in a fit posture both to answer this and to bring in all qualifications and works that he pleaseth in a partnership with faith to justifie True will he say we are justified by Faith as a part of our righteousnes and by all other good qualifications and works as other parts of our righteousnes 3 He must call faith and works our Evangelicall righteousnes having seen in what a stinking trance some of his dirty deer brethren in their disputes have been left when they would prove that good works as works of the Law do justifie and how little better they have fared who would have them to justifie onely as works of grace having not had enough subtlety to prove them Gospel or Grace works Need had he therefore to put himself upon strong and strange inventions that himself may not stick in the same mire after them But enough in generall let us hear him deliver his own minde in particulars B. Thes 17. p. 102. As there are two Covenants with their distinct Conditions So is there a twofold Righteousnes and both of them absolutely necessary to salvation The latter member of this proposition is grounded upon the former the Thesis upon the Hypothesis As true is the latter as the former But how true is the former that there are two Covenants and that they have their distinct Conditions First when he saith there are two Covenants he meaneth two Covenants in force to the very Saints in Christ that while they are under grace to salvation they are also under the Law to the Curse and Condemnation This hath been his busines to Confirm in the former part of this Treatise and he owns it in the explication of this Thesis But this is false as in disapproving of his arguments before hath been proved They are no more under the Law who are once under grace Rom. 6. 14. 2ly Neither have the two Covenants their distinct Conditions according to Mr. Br. For Thes 4. he makes the Condition of the first Covenant Perfect Obedience or Righteousnes The same he makes here the Condition of the New Covenant viz. Faith and Obedience but both as integrant parts of our own inherent righteousnes as we have partly seen and shall be forced to see more fully in that which is to come after So that we grant him that as true as there are two Covenants with their distinct Conditions in force to the same persons so true is it that there is a twofold Righteousness and both absolutely necessary to salvation if by salvation he means Justification At falsum prius ergo posterius When he brings proofs to Confirm his assertions he may meet with a larger answer In mean while a simple Negation stands fittest in opposition to his bare affirmation That which he brings in the explication to Confirm it hath been answered over and over before Onely he tells us in the upshot that He will take it as granted To which I answer that there hath been such a generation of men still upon earth so fingerative that will needs take that which was never granted and delivered to them such is the main bulk of Mr. Brs doctrine in this book taken but never delivered to him from God or his Christ Bax. The usuall confounding of these Righteousnesses saith he doth much darken the Controversies about Justification And Mr. Br doth no less cleer the Controversie than an Ecclipse the Sun-beams He proceeds to explain what this twofold Righteousnes is so absolutely necessary to salvation Bax. The legall Righteousness saith he is not in us or consisteth not in any qualifications of our own persons or actions performed by us But it is wholly without us in Christ Thes 18. p. 103. The righteousnes of the New Covenant is the onely Condition of our interest in and enjoyment of the Righteousnes of the old c. Thes 19. p. 107. Our Evangelicall Righteousnes is not without us in Christ as our Legall Righteousnes is but consisteth in our own actions of Faith and Gospel Obedience c. Thes 20. p. 108. What there is more in any of these three positions is transcribed at large before To the 18 Thesis he annexeth in the explication a dispute against the Papists not to Confute them as adversaries to the truth for joyning mans righteousnes with Christs righteousness unto justification for herein he professeth entire Communion with them but to admonish them as his loving brethren to defend this their Conclusion of Justification by their own righteousness not under the terms of their legall but of their Evangelicall righteousness Because the legall righteousnes is unpossible but the Evangelicall righteousnes according to his carving and forming of it is easie to be fullfilled and almost unpossible to be violated Not that the Papists were wholly ignorant of this mystery untill Mr. Br here teacheth them Nay many of them had and pleaded it very artificially before he was born And himself hath learned it of them But he as the most proficient of all their disciples hath more fully improved it so that now he becomes a teacher to his very Masters and exhorts them to learn of him the pious feat and fraud of making use of this distinction yet further than ever they had the wit or grace to devise even to all matters and purposes that tend to the eluding of the word of Christ and the advantaging of the holy mother Church in her doctrine of Justification that is altogether Contradictory to the doctrine of the Scriptures upon the same Argument To the 19th 20th positions he annexeth an explication of both of these and of all that was said in the two former positions also In it we shall finde whatsoever deserveth a fuller Answer than hath been yet given to all and every of these four positions or any thing in all or any of them conteined not
is a difference made up of a mans dreaming fancy without any least footing that it hath in or sustentation by the Word of God which utterly shakes off all mans righteousness works and qualifications in either and both senses from having any thing to do in the businesse of justification under the New Covenant as hath been in part already and shall be in its due place if God will more fully demonstrated afterward Nor doth he mean 2 things by Adams power by nature and our power by Grace Nature there and grace here to him are one the same For was not the power which Adam had to stand a power received by Grace what a malignant eye hath he so extremely to envie the raies of Gods Grace when they lustre and by their brightness discover the dimnesse and invalidity of mans nature He will own no longer Peter Lombard himselfe to be the Magister if he affirm as hee doth affirm that the power which Adam had to fulfill the conditions of the Old Covenant was not by grace but by nature or what means he by the grace of Christ now doth he under this word point out any other power than every man hath or may have that is no more Christified or Spirituallized now than Adam was then yea than he was immediately after his fall This book of his in many parcels of it doth not obscurely insinuate thus much of him and if we judge amisse it is his fault in writing so ambiguously and refusing to explain his own meaning that ministreth cause and evidence enough so to judge But as to the thing it selfe here posited by Master Baxter wee utterly deny that God hath ever given or any where promised to give unto the best of men in the state of sinfull infiâ—mity such a measure of Grace as might put him into a possibility by the power which he hath received to performe either a righteousnesse effectual and sufficient to justification or a righteousnesse perfect and Meritorious or a righteousnes which as righteousnes and by a worthinesse in it selfe can give him right and title to the righteousness of Christ to justifie him And these are the things which Mr. Baxter here either with the grace or without and against the grace of God contendeth for but neither hath nor ever will have the grace of God from the Word of God to prove and demonstrate though he bangle and bungle never so much with his loose shifts of Sophistry to give out an appearance to them that are more delighted with appearance then with substance as if he had done it CHAP. XVIII Arg. An examination of Mr. Baxters Doctrine about the nature and use of the Moral Law upon what grounds and in what sense and degrees the righteousnesse thereof is required under the Gospel what relation it hath to the Covenants and each of them His Paradox of sincere not perfect obedience required under the New Covenant and his extravagancies about all the rest of these particulars discovered THe three following Theses viz. the 28 29 and the 30th I purposely pretermit without examination not that there is nothing in them which deserveth exception against it but because whatsoever therein calls for examination by the touchstone of the Word is either not controverted between us and the Papists about the point of Justification or else hath been said and answered before or thirdly will offer it self againe more properly to bee answered in the following part of this Tractate where we shall find Mr. Baxter speaking it out more fully then he hath done here in these Theses and their explications To the 31 Thesis pag. 154. as it is considered in and by it self I have nothing to object but to the Explication thereof pag. 155. deinceps I have somewhat to say yet not altogether by way of exception against it but partly also for the substration of some grounds to answer him in things which in the following part of this Treatise hee hath to deliver accordingly as he layes down here for delivering them His words therefore I first transcribe beginning at pag. 155. B. That the Morall Law is yet in force I will not stand to prove because so many have written of it already See Mr. Anthony Burgesses Lectures But to what ends and in what sense the Gospel continueth that Law and commandeth perfect obedience thereto is a question not very easie 1. Whether Christ did first repeal that Law and then re-establish it to sâ—me other ends So some think 2. Or whether he hath at all made the Morall Law the preceptive part of the New Covenant and so whether the New Covenant doth at all command us perfect obedience or onely sincere 3. Whether the Moral Law be continued onely as the precepts of the Old Covenant and so used by the New Covenant meerly for a directive Rule To the first I answer 1. That it is not repealed at all I have proved already even concerning the Covenant of Workes it self and others enough have proved at large of the Moral Law 2 Yet that Christ useth it for other ends and for the advancement of his Kingdom I grant What is here meant by the Morall Law must bee first understood before there can be any well-grounded consenting or dissenting in judgements about the force in which it yet standeth Both the word Law and the word Moral have their ambiguity and are used in divers senses 1. The word Law is taken sometimes onely for a rule or guide or directive to give us light to discern between truth and falshood good and evill lawfull and unlawfull to which also may be added a power therein to command duty and to prohibit what is contrary to duty Sometimes it is taken in a larger sense also comprehending all these things in it and withall a promise of reward to the performers and commination of penalty to its transgressors Here I conceive Mr. Baxter taketh the word Law in the former sense onely because pag. 156. in answer to the first question he distinguisheth and puts a difference between the Covenant of Works and the Morall Law so plainly as if he did totidem verbis tell us that hee understands by the Morall Law the rule and precepts of Holynesse and Righteousnesse as considered apart from the pactionary Adjunct of life and death going with it 2. The word Morall also hath its divers senses sometimes Divines take it in a larger sense for all whatsoever pertaines to manners and then by the Morall Law they understand all the Commandements or Rules which God giveth for the regulating of our manners in reference to the qualifications of the mind and the outward operations also Whether those Commandements bee either of naturall or of positive right written in mans heart at his creation or had their first posituâ—e in time from the word and lips of God Sometimes in a stricter sense for that which doth eminently above other things concern the life and manners And then by the Moral
that time shall never be wholly done nor bee known to all whose works were vitall and whose dead works 3. That the very Saints as compared one with another shall be judged according to their works i. e. shall be adjudged to glory in severall measures above according to the severall measures of their services and sufferings heere is the opinion of many eminent for learning and godliness neither doe their Reasons yet wholly sway me who dissent from them and will have neither right hand nor left hand nor sun nor stars nor great nor small but all equall in one degree of glory It is no proper place heer to dispute it but I see no reason to conclude that hee which distributeth his gifts of grace heer in different measures may not so also there distribute the degrees of glory Seeing both are by the purchase of his death and whether by the former he puts us in a greater or lesser capableness of the later is in question But in any other sense how as he sayth the sentence of justification shall passe according to works and that as hee infers from 2. Co. 5. 10. according to works whether good or evill I cannot conjecture 1. Not according to works as they are a condition which is the next thing hee undertakes to prove for evill works cannot be the condition of our justification either negatively that if we have done evill we neyther are nor shal be justified then all must bee damned nor positively that whosoever hath done evill shall be justified then all shall be saved Nor 2. shall it passe so as that according to our good works we shall be justified and according to our evill works we shall be condemned then every man at least every true Christian should be both saved and damned 3 Nor that we shal be much justified if we have all good works little justified if we have done some evil works also for that is the last judgment where every man shall have a full discharge or no discharge I must leave this as one of Mr. Baxters Mysteries it must die with him as to my understanding unless hee vouchsafe his interpretation As for the thing it selfe I utterly deny that they which are in Christ shall be so judged or justified according to their works as other men that they shall stand as prisoners with the world at the bar of Christ to bee judged for life and death as the other according to their works What that the Lord Christ should then discover the nakedness and lay open in the sight of men and divels all the sin and shame of his beloved members That he should cast in their faces all the filth of all their originall and actuall pollution even when they are upon the threshold of heaven Let it be Mr. Baxters doctrine my eares are abhorrent from the sound thereof It is against the stream of Gospel doctrine which tells us that Christ hath born their sin and curs and done their law therfore they are not to be called to such a reckoning That their iniquities are forgiven and sins covered Ro. 4. 7. That the Lord will no more remember them Heb. 10. 17. That they are not under the Law but under Grace Ro. 6. 14. Therfore exempted from the accusations of the Law at the Bar of Justice where the world is to be tried and to receive no other judgement but what flowes from the throne of grace That there is no condemnation to them that the law of the spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus hath freed them from the law of â—in and death Ro. 8. 1. 2. So that the Law hath no mâ—re power of judgmeÌ„t over theÌ„ than the lawes of our Land to try an Angel of Heaven for life and death That none can lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect because God justifieth them and who is hee that is the judge and condemner even Christ which is their Saviour Ro. 8. 33. 34. That they are the sheep that shal be first separated and set at the right hand of Christ before he enters upon the judging of the world and so freed from judgement by the mercy of God in separating them as Augustine well observeth Aug. de Consens Evang. lib. 2. cap. 30. That they shall not come into condemnation but are passed from death to life Jo. 5. 24. That what to the world is the day of judgement to these is the day of Redemption Lu. 21. 28. They shall not come into judgement to answer for any one of their sins as is well observed by Reverend Mr. Fox the author of that which we call the De Christo gratis Justif p. 336. Book of Martyrs for saith he Sublatâ offensâ tollitur simul Judicii obligatio i. e. The sin being taken away viz. by the Lamb of God as appears Io. 1. 29. all obligation of judgement is taken away with it As for the works and righteousness which these Scriptures declare shal be mentioned to beleevers in that their Jubilizing day this speaks out the infinit freeness and riches of Gods grace in covering their nakedness and setting forth only the beauty and ornaments which he hath put upon them but in no wise any sufficient ground or reason upon which they might expect so great a salvation Suppose a noble and indulgent Father hath a prodigall and rebellious son that for many yeers hath grieved the spirit of his Father with his impure cariage and exorbitant outrages to whom notwithstanding his Fathers heart is no less indeared than was Davids to Absolom therfore never hath a thought of disinheriting him but reserves his whole heritage together with a boundles treasâ—re entire for him in the mean while wooing and even melting him with loving kindness into love and duty â— at length the son repenteth becomes ashamed of his base carriage toward so good a Father returns to him waits on him ministreth to him in his weakness and sickness and his Father by his last Will and Testament gives him all naming him therin his good and beloved son that hath done him great service ministred to him much comfort in the time of his necessity Will any hence gather that the attendance of such a son on such a Father at last is a sufficient ground and reason for the Fathers setling on him so vast an estate Could not the Father have hired a stranger for a few Crowns to have done him as much service Doth not the mentioning of the sons good deeds which he would seem to reward with so rich munificence speak out only the remarkable goodness of the Father that hath buried in oblivion all the disobedience and mischiefs which his son hath committed and will have his good parts alone to be mentioned or if another that was not his son had done a thousand times more in his service should he have been entitled for it to the inheritance So also in this case to attribute to the works of beleevers the
our selves which he teacheth to tend only to selfe-ruining B. 3. Thankefulnesse for what we have received either in possession title or promise must be a singular spur to duty But I pray you tell me Have you received all the life and mercy you doe expect Are you in Heaven already Have you all the Grace that you need or desire in degree If not why may you not labouâ— for what you have not as well as be thankefull for what you have Or have you as full a certainty of â—â— heerafter as you desire If not why may you not labour for it Al this is also totally besides the QuestioÌ„ which is not whether we may but how we are to labour whether with that most excellent and Gospel-frame of spirit consisting in love and thankfulnesse or mercenarily by works and whether in the way of Faith which the Gospel or of naturall Righteousness which the Law teacheth Many shall seeke to enter and shall not bee able faith the Master Wee through the spirit wait for the hope of Righteousness by Faith saith the Apostle Not so but by and for our Works not at all by Faith but as it is an act or worke saith Mr. Baxter let him shew his light and Authority to be greater than Pauls before hee looke that wee should run after him I shall put one question to him arising from the last of his Interrogatories which will be harder for him to resolve than a thousand such as he hath here wil be to us When hee tels us we must labour for the full certainty of Heaven hereafter is there any such certaintainty in this world attainable according to his principle of but â— conditionall justification and salvation untill the day of Judgementâ— or how is it to be obtained Let him make it out to us If he doth it I shall conclude that he can also turne Heaven into Earth and Earth into Heaven and nothing to bee unpossible to him if not let his Reader judge whether his indeavour be to delude or else to teach In the next Chapter or Section if wee attend onely to the sound and roare of words Mr. Baxter appeares more formidable from pag. 83. to the 98. of his Appendix in which hee presents us with thirteen Considerations to shew the vanity and intolerable damnable wickednesse of this supposed doctrine which he opposeth But the whole sloud of his wit wrath and eloquence heere poured out together runs into the dead Sea by a desart and desolate way in which it meets with no mortall crearure to wet or hurt it For who is there of all mankinde that hath said wee ought not to act for life in the sense which this man suborneth or otherwise than I have before oft expressed Much lesse is there any professed Christian that hath asserted as hee insinuateth That wee must not come to Christ that we may have life nor strive to enter in at the straite gate nor lay violant hands on the Kingdome of Heaven nor lay up for our selves a Treasure in Heaven nor seeke the Kingdome of God and the Righteousnesse the reof nor presse on for the attainment of the Resurrection c. Let him be named by Mr. Baxter that he may be brought forth and stoned which thus blasphemeth I shall not hinder it That which they teach is that Workes are not to be performed to this end that as works or doing as opposed to believing by and for their owne or our owne Righteousnesse in doing them they should put us into the possession of the life of justification and blessednesse If Mr. Baxter have any thing to say against this assertion or against that which I before laid as the state of the question it wil be taken into examination till then I shall leave him to fight with his owne shaddow having no loose time to spend in gazing upon the activity of such a Combatant CHAP. X. Arg. The Authour of the Booke intituled The Marrow of Moderne Divinity vindicated from the Aspersions wherewith Mr. Baxter defameth him and his Doctrine HEere because I am to follow and my taske is not to leave Mr. Baxter untill I have examined all that hee saith to prove Justification by works I am necessitated to fall into that which will be judged a Digression After hee hath enacted by a Law that to say wee must not worke for life is a Blasphemy or at least an intolerable errour and to hold it practically a necessarily damning Doctrine that whosoever doth it must be everlastingly damned for it All which wee acknowledge to bee in some sense true after the sound of the words though after the meaning of the Authour they can never be saved which practically hold the contrary as possibly I shall afterwards shew Now he proceeds to indite and arraigne to condemnation one Authour as guilty of this damning Doctrine viz. The Authour of the Book called The Marrow of Moderne Divinity and many his Accessaries viz. all those Divines that have annexed their approbatory subscriptions to the usefullnesse of it so finde we the man expressing himselfe Aphorism pag 330. B. When such a Book as that stiled the Marrow of Modern Divinity can have so many applauding epistles of such Divines when the doctrine of it is that we must not Act for justification and Salvation but onely in thankfulnesse for it This he speaketh onely in generall we shall finde his particulars following To this therefore I answer onely in generall 1 That it were to bee desired that Mr Baxter had inured no more dishonour upon thosâ— Divines to whom he dedicates his book by such his dedication than those forementioned Divines have attracted to themselves by their applauding epistles 2 And that those Divines with Mr. Baxter himselfe could mention so many sound parts in his booke both in the matter and ends of the Author as hee hath picked out imaginary errours in the other 3 As to the doctrine of that booke which he so accuseth I shall there examine in particulars where Mr. Baxter particularly drawes it into accusation and judgement Onely by the way let me thus far excuse my selfe 1 I never knew who was the Author of that worke 2. Neither have I read it otherwise than here and there a fragment as I found it lying in my friends houses so that I could no otherwise judge of it but ex ungue Leonem what the whole was but by that which my slender judgement told me the part which I read was not onely orthodox but singularly usefull 3 That I never knew there was a second part of it much lesse saw it until Mr Baxter by his quotation therof so told me But that since I have gotten both parts yet by meanes of other imployments have not had time any further to read it but where Mr. Baxter accuseth it of error 4. That if I knew the Author to be yet living I should have wholly left the defence of himselfe to himselfe It was not so much the
To the 2 d. That it hath had a great hand in turning many learned men from the Protestant Religion to Popery 1 I demand whether there be not a contradiction in the Quere How were they ever escaped from the dreggs of Popery that yet held Justification by works which is the very root out of which all other Popish errors almost spring and by it self alone is worse than all the rest Or how can such persons be said to have turned from the Protestant Religion that joyned not with the Protestants in the very Foundation Let all the Confessions of all the Protestant Churches be read and but one produced that hath not with all defiance râ—jâ—cted justification by works as a foul abhomination They must needs be very learned men that had learned this mysticall Art of turning in Religion from them to whom they were not joyned unto them from whom they were never severed 2 If any have so turned they went out from us but they were not of us for if they had been of us they would without doubt have continued with us But they went out from us that they might be made manifest that they were not of us 1 Joh. 2. 19. 3 Nevertheless they that are truly learned i. e. which have the mysterie of Christ revealed to them not by flesh and blood but by their Father which is in heaven that have learned as the truth is in Christ Jesus that have been taught of God and have so heard and learned of the Father that by his teaching they come to Christ being drawn and given to Christ by the effectuall teaching of God these shall never turn back again They are built upon the Rock and all the gates of Hell shall not prevail against them It is the will of the Father that of all those which are thus given to Christ he should lose nothing but raise it again at the last day Mat. 16. 18. Eph. 4. 21. Jo. 6. 45. 39. 4 By the vanity levity changes and whirlings of these learned ones in humane literature the Lord is pleased to publish to the world how vain and of no power such learning is while unsaâ—ctified to true blessedness I thank thee O father c. that thou hast hidden these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them to babes Mat. 11. 25. I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent saith the Lord. Where is the wise where is the Scribe where is the disputer of this world Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world 1 Cor. 1. 19 20. Professing themselves wise they became fools because they became vain in their imaginations Rom. 1. 21 22. So vain that they bring the transcendent mysteries of divine things to be tryed in the scales of humane reason and that which the Apostle saith is falsly called Science i. e. philosophicall learning A due stroke of Gods judgment upon them that will be wise without Christ and against him that while they will dispute and in their disputations subject the doctrines of Faith which can have no other foundation but the authority of the word to the rules and principles of secular Arts they shall with all their Art and Learning dispute themselves out of Christ out of Happiness 5 No more hath befaln them herein than God had before threatned should be the doom of such Because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved For this Cause God shall send them strong delusions that they should believe a lye that they might all be damned who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness 2 Thes 2. 10. 12. 6 And most justly for pride goeth before destruction And what higher degree of pride than that an impure worm should swell with such an opinion of his own righteousness that he will refuse the life and salvation which are by Christ except his own righteousness be valued at so high a rate by the eternall God as to constitute him worthy of it Yet such is the high spirit of these self-righteous workers that they will enter heaven triumphing in their own strength and righteousness or els refuse to enter Magis honorificum est habere aliquid ex merito saith Bellarmine speaking of Merit quam ex sola donatione ideo deus ut filios suos magis honoraret c. It is more honourable to have something of merit than of meer gift Therefore God that he might the more honour his Children hath made a way that they should get to themselves eternall life by their own merits To the same purpose is that of another of the same nest Absit ut justi vitam eternam expectent ut pauper Tapper in Art Lovan Tom 2. art 9. Eleemosynam multo enim gloriosius est ipsos quasi victores triumphatores eam possidere tanquam palmam suis sudoribus debitam i. e. Far be it that the righteous should expect eternall life as a poor man doth an Alms. For it is much more glorious that they should possess it as conquerours and triumphers do the Crown due to their labors When this arrogant conceit once possesseth M. Brs. learned men to make themselves glorious by their ecclypsing of the glory of Gods grace no marvail if we see them not so much turning as turned out among the dogs and swine How can ye believe which seek honour one of another and not the honour which is of God only John 5. 44. 7 Yet for one that Mr. Br. can mention who in hatred of this Doctrine hath made a defection from I dare to undertake to produce hundreds that by the sweetnesse of it and demonstration of the Spirit in preaching it have been drawn to the profession of the Protestant Religion It is a conclusion of Luther lamenting the schisms and Controversies stirred in the Churches about lighter and lesser things That if these had been layd aside and this one Article of Justification by Faith alone had been by the counited labors of all the Churches most of all though not only preached and continued to be preached to this day saith he the whole Kingdom of the Pope had by this time laid wholly shivered How adversatively do the spirits of Luther and Mr. Br. fight either against the other Yea of the many learned that Mr. Br. speaks of we can find him particularizing but one his St. Grotius pag. 331. thus B. This Doctrine was one that helped to turn off Grotius to Cassandrian Popery See Grotij votum 21 22 23. 115. Is Grotius so turned off most likely is it sure that Mr. Br. will follow him and truly we may add if not this doctrine surely that which is worse hath turned off Mr. Br. to Tridenâ—ine and Jesuitized Popery See Mr. Brs. Aphorisms not in four pages only but almost in all the passages of that Book and its Appendix And thus Grotius and he make up if not many yet a number of
learned men turn'd to Popery This shall suffice to have said to the matter of Mr. Brs. Quere But memorable and worthy to be written upon the purest chrystal waters where he that can may read them are the reasons which Mr. Br. annexeth for which this Doctrine hath had a great hand in turning many learned men to Popery viz. B. pa. 329. When they see the language of the Scripture in the fore-cited places so plain that no mortall eye can discern it to the contrary When Illyricus Gallus Amsdorfius c. shall account it a heresie in George Major to say that good works are necessary to salvation And when if Melchior Adamus say true eò dementiae impietatis ventum erat ut non dubitarent quidam haec axiom ata propugnare Bona opera non sunt necessaria ad salutem Bona opera officiunt saluti Nova obedientia non est necessaria When even Melanctons credit is blasted for being too great a friend to good works though he ascribe not to them the least part of the work or office of Christ And when to this day many Antinomian teachers who are magnified as the only Preachers of free grace do assert and proclaim That there is no more required to the perfect irrevocable Justification of the vilest Murtherer or Whoremaster but to believe that hee is justified or to be perswaded that God loveth him And again p. 331. This Doctrine was offensive to Melancton Bucer and other moderate Divines of our own What of all this and what is the issue at last Therefore these learned men with great learning and wisedom took the advantage Cum ratione in sanire like a pampred horse with a fly in his tayl to catch the snaffle in the teeth and in great indignation to runn mad to Rome Who els but Mr. Brs. learned men could have expressed so much grace and wit And it seems they were all fellow-students in the same School els could not their good wits have jumpt together upon so pretty a slight And it seems Mr. Br. by his exagitation of the damnable doctrines of the Antinomians in our days doth tacitely invite the learned to joyn with him in prosecuting the same learned device As to the matter of these severall particulars somwhat yet not much is needfull to be said 1 To that of George Major c. Mr. Br. here discovereth fully what elswhere in this his Tractate he doth not totally hide his enmity and swelling against the first reformation of the Churches by Luther and others that hee accounts it a schismaticall defection not a due reformation Hee spares the names of Luther Zuinglius Calvin c. lest his spitting in their faces shâ—uld make his own odious to all knowing Christians But the Doctrine which he reprehendeth under the names of Illyricus Gallus Amsdorfius c. he knows to be the frme which those former Divines which all the Protestant Churches have taught and propugned Concerning Gallus either what he was or what he did I can give no account Illyricus is reported by some to have been somwhat hot and heady in prosecuting all that he undertook but that at any time he entred the lists with George Major I find not This I find that they both lived and conversed together at Jenes in the same University and were both adversaries to Strigelius a famous Divine unto whom between them they procured great persecution But Amsdorfius was one of those eminent instruments of Christ in the reformation who bare the burden and heat of the day was a Colleague with Luther in the University of Wittenberg at the first dawning forth of the Gospel his yoke-fellow in the laborâ— and in the sufferings of the Gospel both in prosperous and difficult times one and the same Holding fast the same principles which were laid in his heart while a young man even to his old age and death which God prolonged untill the 88. year of his age I know not any one professed Protestant that hath aspersed him for any thing that in all that time of so long a life he either committed or omitted as unworthy of a learned and faithful Minister of Christ until the candor of M. Br. hath now done it Truth it is that George Major in his time about a hundred years sithence when Luther was dead not daring so to do while he was living set forth some propositions and disputations of the necessity of good works to salvation and finding himself quickly encountred he after more fully explained himself or rather endeavoured to make his Doctrine the more smooth to be swallowed by allaying it thus That we are justified by faith only but not saved without works So that good works are necessary though not to justification yet to salvation At this his Doctrine as all the Churches and their Ministers were much offended so were there many that confuted it among others Strigelius Wigandus this Amsdorfius who wrote against him his Bona opera officiunt saluti Good works are hinderances of salvation A proposition I acknowledg not well sounding in words but the substance of Treatises is not to be judged alway from their Titles This work of Mr. B. hath a golden Title Aphorisms of Justification untill a man hath read the Book he would have supposed from the Title they had bin Aphorisms to maintain not to destroy Justification by free grace So on the other side the Paradoxical sound of Amsdorfius his titular position doth in no wise deny his Treatise thereon to be orthodox except Mr. Br. can produce any thing thence to prove that he affirms good works in themselves to be so and not only in the sense wherein George Major affirms them necessary to salvation Or why this Assereion stifly maintained by George Major should not be counted a heresie in him as well as in the Papists or the Pharisees before them I see no other reason but this that then Mr. Br. having more worthily deserv'd than he will be thought fit to be honoured with the Title of Doctor in the same profession 2 To that of Melchior Adamus I say no more but that the Testimony of an Adversary without proofes is unworthy or at least incompetent to bow our belief to it What wresting and curtilating there is of their sentences whom in this case such men would defame is obvious to every mans notice He should in stead of his Individuum vagum his quidam have named some singular persons at least have quoted some of their writings in which they have propugned such assertions that we might have searched and found whether it were so if he would have been believed Otherwise if these things were only for disputations-sake handled in the Schools this argues not the propugners to be of that judgment 3 What he saith of Melancton and Bucer whether it be true or false is of the like moment Be it that some crazie brains or corroding sonns of Momus with whom the world too much at all