2. p. 181. to p. 192 where ye will find the Old plain Protestant Truth about Law and Gospel delivered without any School-Terms To this add in your reading in the same Vol. 2. p. 497. to p. 509. Heresies and Errors falsty charged on Tindal 's Writings Where ye will see the Old Faith of the Saints in its Simplicity and the Old Craft and Cunning of the Antichristian Party in sland ering the Truth I must for my part confess That these plain Declarations of Gospel-Truth have a quite other Savour with me than the Dry Insipid Accounts thereof given by Pretendders to humane Wisdom But passing these things let us look to Principles and that with respect to their Native and Regular Influence on Sanctification And I am willing that that should determine the Matter next to the Consonancy of the Principles themselves to the Word of God It can be no Doctrine of God that is not according to Godliness Some think that if Good Works and Holiness and Repentance be allowed no room in Justification that there is no room left for them in the World and in the practice of Believers So hard seems it to be to some to keep in their Eye the certain fixed bounds betwixt Justification and Sanctification There is no difference betwixt a Justified and a Sanctified Man for he is always the same person that partakes of these Priviledges But Justification and Sanctification differ greatly in many Respects as is commonly known But to come a little closer The Party here suspected of Antinomianism do confidently protest before God Angels and Men That they espouse no New Doctrine about the Grace of God and Justification and the other coincident Points but what the Reformers at home and abroad did teach and all the Protestant Churches do own And that in sum is That a Law-condemned Sinner is freely Justified by God's Grace through the Redemption that is in Jesus Christ that he is Justified only for the Righteousness of Christ imputed to him by God of his free Grace and received by faith alone as an Instrument which faith is the gift of the same Grace For guarding against Licentiousness they constantly teach out of God's Word That without Holiness no man can see God That all that believe truly on Jesus Christ as they are Justified by the sprinkling of his Blood so are they Sanctified by the effusion of his Spirit That all that boast of their Faith in Christ and yet live after their own Lusts and the course of this World have no true Faith at all but do in their profession and contradicting Practice Blaspheme the Name of God and the Doctrine of his Grace and continuing so shall perish with a double Destruction beyond that of the openly Profane that make no Profession And when they find any such in their Communion which is exceeding rarely they cast them out as Dead Branches They teach that as the daily Study of Sanctification is a necessary exercise to all that are in Christ so that the Rule of their Direction therein is the Holy spotless Law of God in Christ's Hand That the Holy Ghost is the Beginner and Advancer of this Work and Faith in Jesus Christ the great Mean thereof That no Man can be Holy till he be in Christ and united to him by Faith and that no Man is truly in Christ but he is thereby Sanctified They Preach the Law to Condemn all Flesh out of Christ and to shew thereby to people the necessity of betaking themselves to him for Salvation See the savory words of blessed Tindal called the Apostle of England in his Letter to John Frith written Jan. 1533. Book of Martyrs Vol. 2. Page 308. Expound the Law truly and open the Vail of Moses to condemn all Flesh and prove all Men sinners and all deeds under the Law before Mercy have taken away the condemnation thereof to be Sin and Damnable and then as a faithful Minister set abroach the Mercy of our Lord Jesus and let the wounded Consciences Drink of the Water of him And then shall your Preaching be with Power and not as the Hypocrites And the Spirit of God shall work with you and all Consciences shall bear record unto you and feel that it is so And all Doctrine that casteth a mist on these two to shadow and hide them I mean the Law of God and Mercy of Christ that resist you with all your power And so do we What is there in all this to be offended with is not this enough to Vindicate our Doctrine from any tendency to Licentiousness I am afraid that there are some things wherein we differ more than they think fit yet to express And I shall guess at them 1. Is about the Imputed Righteousness of Christ This Righteousness of Christ in his Active and Passive Obedience hath been asserted by Protestant Divines to be not only the Procuring and Meritorious Cause of our Justification for this the Papists own But the Matter as the Imputation of it is the Form of our Justification Though I think that our Logical Terms are not so adapted for such Divine Mysteries But whatever Propriety or Impropriety be in such School-Terms the common Protestant Doctrine hath been That a convinced Sinner seeking Justification must have nothing in his Eye but this Righteousness of Christ as God proposeth nothing else to Him And that God in justifying a Sinner accepts him in this Righteousness only when he imputes it to him Now about the Imputed Righteousness of Christ some say That it belongs only to the Person of Christ He was under the Law and bound to keep it for himself that he might be a fit Mediator without Spot or Blemish That it is a Qualification in the Mediator rather than a Benefit acquired by him to be communicated to his People For they will not allow this Personal Righteonsness of Christ to be imputed to us any otherwise than in the Merit of it as purchasing for us a more easie Law of Grace in the Observation whereof they place all our Justifying Righteousness Understanding hereby our own Personal inherent Holiness and nothing else They hold That Christ died to merit this of the Father viz. That we might be Justified upon easier Terms under the Gospel than those of the Law of Innocency Instead of Justification by perfect Obedience we are now to be justified by our own Evangelical Righteousness made up of Faith Repentance and sincere Obedience And if we hold not with them in this they tell the World we are Enemies to Evangelical Holiness slighting the practice of all Good Works and allowing our Hearers to live as they list Thus they slander the Preachers of Free Grace because we do not place Justification in our own inherent Holiness but in Christ's perfect Righteousness imputed to us upon our believing in him Which Faith we teach purifies the heart and always inclines to Holiness of Life Neither do we hold any Faith to be true and saving that
serve to point forth the main things of difference and Mistakes Is it not a little provoking that some are so captious that no Minister can preach in the hearing of some of the Freedom of God's Grace of the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness of sole and single believing on him for Righteousness and Eternal Life of the Impossibility of a Natural Man's doing any good Work before he be in Christ of the impossibility of the mixing of Man's Righteousness and Works with Christ's Righteousness in the business of Justification and several other Points but he is immediately called or suspected to be an Antinomian If we say that Faith in Jesus Christ is neither Work nor Condition nor Qualification in Justification but is a meer Instrument receiving as an empty Hand receiveth the freely given Alms the Righteousness of Christ and that in its very Act it is a renouncing of all things but the Gift of Grace the fire is kindled So that it is come to that as Mr. Christopher Fowler said That he that will not be Antichristian must be called an Antinomian Is there a Minister in London who did not preach some twenty some thirty years ago according to their standing that same Doctrine now by some called Antinomian Let not Dr. Crisp's Book be looked upon as the Standard of our Doctrine there are many good things in it and also many expressions in it that we generally dislike It 's true that Mr. Burgess and Mr. Rutherford wrote against Antinomianism and against some that were both Antinomians and Arminians And it is no less true that they wrote against the Arminians and did hate the New Scheme of Divinity so much now contended for and to which we owe all our present contentions I am persuaded that if these godly and sound Divines were on the present Stage they would be as ready to draw their Pens against two Books lately printed against Dr. Crisp as ever they were to write against the Doctor 's Book Truth is to be defended by Truth but Error is often and unhappily opposed by Error under Truth 's Name But what shall we do in this case What shall we do for peace with our Brethren Shall we lie still under their undeserved Reproaches and for keeping the peace silently suffer others to beat us unjustly If it were our own personal concern we should bear it If it were only their charging us with ignorance weakness and being unstudied Divines as they have used liberally to call all that have not learned and dare not believe their New Divinity we might easily pass it by or put it up But when we see the pure Gospel of Christ corrupted and an Arminian Gospel new vanmpt and obtruded on people to the certain peril of the souls of such as believe it and our Ministry reflected upon which should be dearer to us than our lives can we be silent As we have a charge from the Lord to deliver to our people what we have received from Him so as he calls and enables we are not to give place by subjection not for an hour to such as creep in not only to spy out but to destroy not so much the Gospel Liberty as the Gospel Salvation we have in Christ Jesus and to bring us back under the Yoke of Legal Bondage And indeed the case in that Epistle to the Galatians and ours have a great affinity Is it desired that we should forbear to make a free offer of God's Grace in Christ to the worst of Sinners This cannot be granted by us for this is the Gospel faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation and therefore worthy of all our preaching of it that Jesus Christ came into the world to save inners and the chief of them 1 Tim. 1.15 This was the Apostolick practice according to their Lord's command Mark 16.15 16. Luke 24.47 They began at Jerusalem where the Lord of Life was wickedly slain by them and yet Life in and through his Blood was offered to and accepted and obtained by many of them Every believers experience witnesseth to this That every one that believes on Jesus Christ acts that faith as the Chief of Sinners Every man that seeth himself rightly thinks so of himself and therein thinks not amiss God only knoweth who is truly the greatest Sinner and every humbled Sinner will think that he is the Man Shall we tell men that unless they be holy they must not believe on Jesus Christ That they must not venture on Christ for Salvation till they be qualified and fit to be received and welcomed by him This were to forbear preaching the Gospel at all or to forbid all men to believe on Christ For never was any sinner qualified for Christ He is well qualified for us 1 Cor. 1.30 but a sinner out of Christ hath no qualification for Christ but sin and misery Whence should he have any better but in and from Christ Nay suppose an impossibility that a man were qualified for Christ I boldly assert that such a man would not nor could ever believe on Christ For Faith is a lost helpless condemned sinner's casting himself on Christ for Salvation and the qualified man is no such person Shall we warn people that they should not believe on Christ too soon It is impossible that they should do it too soon Can a man obey the great Gospel Command too soon 1 John 3.23 or do the Great Work of God too soon John 6.28 29. A man may too soon think that he is in Christ and that is when it is not so indeed and this we frequently teach But this is but an idle Dream and not Faith A man may too soon fancy that he hath Faith but I hope he cannot act Faith too soon If any should say a man may be holy too soon how would that saying be reflected upon And yet it is certain that though no man can be too soon holy because he cannot too soon believe on Christ which is the only Spring of true Holiness yet he may and many do set about the study of that he counts holiness too soon that is before the Tree be changed Matth. 12.33 34 35. before he have the new heart Ezek. 36 26 27. and the Spirit of God dwelling in him which is only got by Faith in Christ Gal. 3.14 And therefore all this mans studying of Holiness is not only vain labour but acting of Sin And if this study and these endeavours be managed as commonly they are to obtain Justification before God they are the more wicked Works still And because this point is needful to be known I would give you some Testimonies for it Doctrine of the Church of England in her 39 Articles Art 13. Works done before the Grace of Christ and the inspiration of his Spirit are not pleasant to God forasmuch as they spring not of Faith in Jesus Christ neither do they make men meet to receive Grace or as the School Authors say deserve Grace of Congruity Yea
rather for that they are not done as God hath willed and commanded them to be done we doubt not but they have the Nature of Sin So Confession of Faith Chap. 16. Art 7. Calvin Instit Lib. 3. Cap. 15. Sect. 6. They saith he speaking of the Popish Schoolmen have found out I know not what moral good works whereby men are made acceptable to God before they are engrafted into Christ As if the Scripture lyed when it said They are all in death who have not the Son 1 John 5.12 If they be in death how can they beget matter of life As if it were of no force whatsoever is not of Faith is Sin as if evil trees could bring forth good fruit Read the rest of that Section On the contrary the Council of Trent Sess 6. Cannon 7. say boldly Whosoever shall say That all Works done before Justification howsoever they be done are truly sin and deserve the hatred of God Let him be Anathema And to give you one more bellowing of the Beast wounded by the Light of the Gospel see the same Council Sess 6. Can. 11. Si quis dixerit Gratiam quâ justificamur esse tantùm favorem Dei Anathema sit This is fearful blasphemy saith Dr. Downham Bishop of London-derry in his Orthodox Book of Justification Lib. 3. Cap. 1. Where he saith That the Hebrew words which in the Old Testament signifie the Grace of God do always signifie favour and never grace inherent And above fifty Testimonies may be brought from the New Testament to prove that by God's Grace his favour is still meant But what was good Church of England Doctrine at and after the Reformation cannot now go down with some Arminianizing Nonconformists If then nothing will satisfie our quarrelling Brethren but either Silence as to the Main Points of the Gospel which we believe and live by the faith of and look to be saved in which we have for many years preached with some seals of the Holy Ghost in converting sinners unto God and in building them up in holiness and comfort by the faith and power of them which also we vowed to the Lord to preach to all that will hear us as long as we live in the day when we gave up our selves to serve God with our Spirit in the Gospel of his Son If either this Silence or the swallowing down of Arminian Schemes of the Gospel contrary to the New Testament and unknown to the Reformed Churches in their greatest purity be the only terms of peace with our Brethren we must then maintain our peace with God and our own Consciences in the defence of plain Gospel Truth And our Harmony with the Reformed Churches and in the comfort of these bear their Enmity And though it be usual with them to vilifie and contemn such as differ from them for their fewness weakness and want of Learning yet they might know that the most Learned and Godly in the Christian World have maintained and defended the same Doctrine we stand for for some Ages The Grace of God will never want for it can and will furnish Defenders of it England hath been blessed with a Bradwardine an Archbishop of Canterbury against the Pelagians a Twiss and Ames against the Arminians And though they that contend with us would separate their Cause altogether from that of these two pests of the Church of Christ I mean Pelagius and Arminius yet judicious observers cannot but already perceive a coincidency and do fear more when either the force of Argument shall drive them out of their lurking holes or when they shall think fit to discover their secret sentiments which yet we but guess at Then as we shall know better what they would be at so it is very like that they will then find Enemies in many whom they have seduced by their craft and do yet seem to be in their Camp and will meet with Opposers both at home and abroad that they think not of Our Doctrine of the Justification of a Sinner by the free grace of God in Jesus Christ however it be misrepresented and reflected upon is yet undeniably recommended by four things 1 It is a Doctrine savoury and precious unto all ser ous Godly Persons Dr. Ames his observation holds good as to all the Arminian Divinity that it is contra communem sensum fidelium against the common sense of Believers And though this be an argument of little weight with them that value more the judgment of the Scribes and the Wise and Disputers of this World 1 Cor. 1.18 19 20 21. than of all the Godly Yet the Spirit of God by John gives us this same argument 1 John 4.5 6. They are of the World therefore speak they of the World and the World heareth them We are of God he that knoweth God heareth us he that is not of God heareth not us Hereby know we the Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Error How evident is it that several who by Education or an unsound Ministry having had their Natural Enmity against the Grace of God strengthned when the Lord by his Spirit hath broke in upon their hearts and hath raised a serious Soul-exercise about their Salvation their turning to God in Christ and their turning from Arminianism have begun together And some of the greatest Champions for the Grace of God have been persons thus dealt with as we might instance And as it is thus with men at their Conversion so is it found afterward that still as it is well with them in their inner man so doth the Doctrine of Grace still appear more precious and savoury On the other part all the ungodly and unrenewed have a dislike and disrelish of this Doctrine and are all for the Doctrine of doing and love to hear it and in their sorry exercise are still for doing their own business in Salvation though they be nothing and can do nothing but Sin and destroy themselves 2. It is that Doctrine only by which a convinced sinner can be dealt with effectually When a man is awakened and brought to that that all must be brought to or to worse What shall I do to be saved Acts 16.30 31. We have the Apostolick answer to it Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house This Answer is so old that with many it seems out of date But it is still and will ever be fresh and new and savoury and the only Resolution of this grand Case of Conscience as long as Conscience and the World lasts No Wit or Art of Man will ever find a crack or flaw in it or devise another or a better answer nor can any but this alone heal rightly the wound of an awakened Conscience Let us set this man to seek resolution in this case of some Masters in our Israel According to their Principles they must say to him Repent and Mourn for your known Sins and leave and loath them and God will have mercy on
accounted the Tidings of Salvation by the slain Son of God an Old An iquated Story and unfit to be daily preached And what comes in the room thereof is not unknown nor is it worth the mentioning For all things that come in Christ's room and justle him out either of Hearts or Pulpits are alike abominable to a Christian How many Sermons may a man hear and read when printed yea and Books written about the way to Heaven wherein is hardly the Name of Jesus Christ And if he be named it is the Name of Christ as a Judg and Lawgiver rather than that of a Saviour And as little room hath Christ in many mens Prayers except it be in the conclusion When we cannot avoid the observing of those sad things let it be a sharp Spur to us to Preach Christ more to Pray more in his Name and to Live more to his Praise Let us not be deceived with that pretence That Christ may be Preached when he is not Named The Preaching of the Gospel is the Naming of Christ and so call'd Rom. 15.20 And Paul was to bear Christ's Name before the Gentiles and Kings and the Chrildren of Israel Acts 9.15 3. Let us Study hard and Pray much to know the truth and to cleave unto it It is an Old Observation Ante Pelagium securiùs loquebantur Patres Before Pelagius even the Fathers spoke more carelesly meaning well and fearing no Mistakes in their Hearers Now it is not so the more careful should we be in our Doctrine Let us search our own Consciences and see how we our selves are justified before God So Paul argued Gal. 2.15 16. And let us bring forth that Doctrine to our People that we find in our Bibles and have felt the power of upon our own hearts Let us not run into Extreams upon the Right or Left Hand through the heat of Contention but carefully keep the good Old way of the Protestant Doctrine wherein so many thousands of Saints and Martyrs of Jesus have lived holily and died happily who never heard of our New Schemes and Notions And for this end let us take and cleave to the Test of the Assemblies Confession of Faith and Catechisms More we own not our selves more we crave not of our Brethren and because we deal fairly and openly I shall set it down Verbatim Conf. Chap. 11. Of Justification Art 1. Those whom God effectually calleth he also freely Justifieth not by infusing Righteousness into them but by Pardoning their Sins and by accounting and accepting their Persons as Righteous not for any thing wrought in them or done by them but for Christ's sake alone not by imputing Faith it self the Act of Believing or any other Evangelical Obedience as their Righteousness but by imputing the Obedience and Satisfaction of Christ unto them they receiving and resting on him and his Righteousness by Faith which Faith they have not of themselves it is the Gift of God Art 2. Faith thus receiving and resting on Christ and his Righteousness is the alone Instrument of Justification yet is it not alone in the Person Justified but is ever Accompanied with all other saving Graces and is no dead Faith but worketh by Love Art 3. Christ by his Obedience and Death did fully discharge the Debt of all those that are thus Justified and did make a proper real and full satisfaction to his Fathers Justice in their behalf yet in as much as he was given by the Father for them and his Obedience and Satisfaction accepted in their Stead and both freely not for any thing in them Their Justification is only of Free Grace that both the exact Justice and rich Grace of God might be glorified in the Justification of Sinners Art 4. God did from all Eternity Decree to Justifie all the Elect and Christ did in the fulness of time Die for their Sins and Rise again for their Justification Nevertheless they are not Justified until the Holy Spirit doth in due time actually apply Christ unto them Art 5. God doth continue to forgive the sins of those that are Justified And although they can never fall from the state of Justification yet they may by their sins fall under God's Fatherly displeasure and not have the light of his Countenance restor'd unto them until they humble themselves confess their sins beg pardon and renew their Faith and Repentance Art 6. The Justification of Believers under the Old Testament was in all these Respects one and the same with the Justification of Believers under the New Testament This is the whole Chapter exactly Larger Catechism Q. How doth Faith Justifie a sinner in the sight of God Ans Faith Justifieth a sinner in the sight of God not because of those other graces which do always accompany it or of good Works that are the Fruits of it nor as if the grace of Faith or any Act thereof were imputed to him for his Justification but only as it is an Instrument by which he receiveth and applieth Christ and his Righteousness Let these weighty words be but heartily assented to in their plain and Native Sense and we are one in this great point of Justification But can any considering Man think that the new Scheme of a real Change Repentance and Sincere Obedience as necessary to be found in a person that may Lawfully come to Christ for Justification of Faith's Justifying as it is the spring of sincere Obedience of a Man's being Justified by and upon his coming up to the Terms of the new Law of Grace a new word but of an old and ill meaning can any man think that this Scheme and the sound words of the Reverend Assembly do agree Surely if such a Scheme had been offered to that Grave Learned and Orthodox Synod it would have had a more severe Censure past upon it than I am willing to name Do not we find in our particular Dealings with Souls the same Principles I am now Opposing When we deal with the Carnal Secure Careless Sinners and they are a vast Multitude and ask them a Reason of that hope of Heaven they pretend to Is not this their common Answer I live inoffensively I keep God's Law as well as I can and wherein I fail I repent and beg God's Mercy for Christ's sake My Heart is sincere though my Knowledg and Attainments be short of others If we go on to inquire further what acquaintance they have with Jesus Christ what Applications their Souls have made to him what workings of Faith on him what use they have made of his Righteousness for Justification and his Spirit for Sanctification What they know of living by Faith in Jesus Christ We are Barbarians to them and in this sad state many Thousands in England live and die and Perish Eternally Yet so thick is the darkness of the Age that many of them live here and go hence with the Reputation of good Christans and some of them may have their Funeral Sermon and Praises Preached