in the new Testament called by the name of believers So that as soon as faith comes in the tree is good it is made a vine a fig tree and so brings forth true grapes and figs If men have not faith let them have what goodnesse they can all is naught Heb. 11.6 Which place we shall further vindicate when we come to your reply to it For your last Argument He that hath the Spirit of Christ hath Christ c. 1. It is false in the forme just as your 1. Argument noted with a For 1. as that so this is all universails as you intend it in the third figure e 2. As in that the conclusion according to rule was to be inverted so this So that the right conclusion is this Therefore we believe before we have Christ For the Maior terme must be the predicat in the conclusion And this conclusion is true not onely according to forme upon your premises but according to matter in order of nature For when Christ comes to give himselfe in marriage to us he gives us the hand of faith to take him by the hand of his saving power the sun is seen by its own light and quickning life so Christ is received by the power of his own light and life of grace 2. This argument in the Maior or 1. Proposition clasheth against the proofe of the Minor or 2. Proposition in the beginning of the 2. Argument noted with b For there you say we must be in Christ before we believe To believe is a fruit of the Spirit c. whence it followes by your Argument that we must in your sense have Christ before we have the Spirit or else the Spirit must be in us a barren Spirit without its fruits or idle without working which may not be imagined Yet here you make the having of the Spirit to be the proofe if not the cause that we have Christ For you make having the Spirit to be the Medius Terminus the sinew of your argument which you know in point of art includes sometimes the cause sometimes the signe Therefore of necessity you must yeild your selfe mistaken in one of these assertions unlesse you will close with us that Christ and the saving worke of the Spirit and faith and consequently iustification come unto and into a man all at the same time Argument III. ALL the Elect of God are justified before God a But some of the Elect of God do not yet believe therefore some that do not believe are justified before God and so by consequence before they believe b The major is proved They that cannot be charged with any thing are justified But none of the Elect of God can be charged with any thing Therefore the Elect are justified The minor is proved Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect It is God that justifies Who is he that condemneth it is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again Rom. 8.33 He rose again for our justification Rom. 4.23 An Answer to Argument III. ALl the Elect of God are iustified before God a This is an ambiguous proposition Therefore we must pumpe out your meaning If you meane all the elect are iustified before God that is in Gods thoughts ever since they were elected then you may as well say that all the elect do believe before God in Gods thoughts ever since they were elected for both are equally within the eternall decree of God And so you gaine no before of time of iustification before faith If you mean that after the elect are borne before they are new borne by faith they are iustified before God that is in Gods thoughts or opinion You may say as well so the elect after they are borne before new borne by faith are before God in Gods opinion children of the devill of the world and of wrath even as others So evidently Ephes 2.1 2 3. to end of ver 8. And you hath he quickned who were dead in trespasses and sins wherin in times past ye walked according to the course of this world according to the prince of the power of the ayre observe the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of the flesh observe now and were by nature the children of wrath as well as others Till when was there no difference between them and others Till grace came and faith came and put them into Christ ver 4.5 6 7 8. The whole Chapter is to the same effect ver 12. to end of 18. They are without God without Christ till they be in Christ till Christ preached peace unto them and gave them his Spirit and then they come nigh and have accesse by one Spirit unto the Father Heed also 1 Cor. 6 9.10 11. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Be not deceived neither fornicatours c. And such were some of you Till when Till now that ye are washed ye are sanctified ye are iustified See he puts now sanctification before iustification that men may not conceive that they can be one minute severed All this while God thinks what he speaks for he cannot lie therefore before conversion we are no more actually iustified then we are actually uniustified If you say in Gods predestination we are eternally iustified we say as truly in Gods predestination we are eternally fallen in Adam For both are equally eternally fore-ordained or else somewhat comes to passe that God did not foreknow or could not hinder which would argue ignorance and impotency in God which to say were blasphemy To the Minor proposition of the argument to prove that all the elect are iustified before God before faith comes b for it is your meaning all along this dispute And to the proofe that the elect cannot be charged with any thing for which you alledge Rom. 8.33 We answer 1. That whiles they are meerly elected before iustification by faith they stand charged with many things God himselfe chargeth them with many heavy things as but now you heard out of Ephe. 2. As 2 Cor. 13.3 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Paul saith to them in whom Christ was mighty that they were refuse unlesse Christ by faith were in them They were but drosse till the substance Christ by faith were in them 2. That the text you alledge is cleerly against you look on it well and submit Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect Why Saint Paul Because it is saith he God that iustifieth what iustification Paul do you meane a iustification mentall in God or a iustification actuall received by the believer He shewes us he meanes an actuall iustification received and applied by the believer For ver 30. it is a iustification following vncation according to Gods purpose that is as effectuall as ever he purposed to call And ver 34. such a iustification as
AN ANTIDOTE AGAINST ANTINOMIANISME The first Dosis The unjustifiablenesse of justification before faith Prescribed and administred in a soft Answer I. To seven Arguments II. To the solutions of five Objections III. To the novell distinction of Gods reconciliation to man without mans reconciliation to God Penned plainly for the undeceiving of the plain-hearted Christian and mildely for the regaining of our mistaken brother H. D. by D. H. London Printed for G. B. and R. W. SEVEN ARGUMENTS to prove a that in order of working God doth justifie his Elect before they do actually beleeve VVith some Answers to the Objections that some make against the same For the confirmation of those that do truly beleeve b lest they should attribute any part of the Office of Christ to the act of their beleeving Ezekiel 16.2 3 4 5 6. c Son of man cause Jerusalem to know her abominations And say Thus saith the Lord God unto Jerusalem Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan thy father was an Amorite and thy mother an Hittite And as for thy nativity in the day that thou wast borne thy navill was not cut neither wast thou washed in water to supple thee thou wast not salted at all nor swadled at all None eye pitied thee to do any of these things unto thee but thou wast cast into the open field to the loathing of thy person in the day that thou wast borne And when I passed by thee and saw thee polluted in thine owne blood I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood Live yea I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood Live Printed in the yeere 1643. An answer to the Title In Order of Working God doth justifie his Elect a before they do actually believe So you 1. Here you do more then seem you do expresse your self to meane justification in act or actuall justification not justification meerely in Gods decree For Gods decree to justifie is not a working iustification so you flie off from that extreame of making a precedency of iustification before faith in Gods decree where indeed the decree of faith is as old as the decree of iustification yet in your dispute you oft fall on againe upon this extreame 2. Here you seem but you do but seem to wave the other extreame of holding a precedency in time of iustification before faith you seem onely to hold a precedency in order of nature because you say in order of working but you onely seem For if onely the difference be in order of nature this doth not inferre a necessity that they should be severed in time not an hour not a quarter of an hour But more is intended namely that a man may be instified many years before he believe so in the 1. Argum which is most false yea we cannot say that in order of working in the same moment when whole Christ is brought to the soule that iustification goes before faith if there be any precedency of one before another For 1. Actuall iustification is by union with Christ granted in 2. Argum. ad Phil. 3.9 Now the very instant of union is of Christs being in us by spirit of faith Ephes 3.17 1 Ioh. 3. ult Ioh. 1.12 you confesse the spirit unites in 2. Argum. e 2. If faith hath any thing to do in iustification it is an instrument but the toole is before the worke in order of nature 3. Though the King purposeth to pardon a fellon yet he doth not actually pardon and pronounce discharged till he accept and plead that pardon 4. The order of working set down Rom. 8.30 is Whom he predestinated them he called whom he called them he iustified if effectuall calling includes not faith it is not effectuall but onely that which may be in hypocrites but 2 Pet. 1.3 it s plaine calling is to glory and vertue It is a part of the office of Christ to give gifts and graces b and so that of believing to them whom he saves Iohn 1.16.17 And of his fulnesse have all we received and grace for grace For the Law was given by Moses but grace and truth came by Iesus Christ Iohn 17.19 And for their sakes I sanctifie my selfe that they also might be sanctified Ephes 4.7.8 But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ How proves he that From an act of his Mediatorship namely his ascension Wherefore he saith when he ascended up on high he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men Ezek. 16.2.3.4.5.6 To this we answer c that all that text doth not hold out that God iustified Jerusalem one minute before he restored her to spirituall life holines For when he passed by he said Live And when he said Live he entred into Covenant with her and washed her v. 8.9 Christs name and nature is not barely to save us in our fins but from our sins Matth. 1.21 to be as a Iesus a Saviour so to be Immanuel God with us Matth. 21.23 Now this of God being with us is applied not meerly to Gods decree but to the execution of his decree of calling iustifying and glorifying Rom. 8.30.31 Seven Arguments to prove that in order of working God doth justifie his Elect before they doe actually beleeve With some Answers to the Objections that some make against the same THis Proposition being contradicted we are iustified before God before the act of our beleeving This is the Proposition which I do now undertake to vindicate by the affistance of the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ whose honour is not a little concerned in it b I will first of all lay down seven Arguments for the confirmation of the Truth and then I will answer unto five Objections brought by some against it An answer to the Preface I had thought by that touch you give upon universall Gratians as you call them in the 5. a Argum. * that you had been an opposite to the universall Redemptionists the Pelagians Semi-Pelagians and Arminians But I finde your doctrine in this point to be very consonant and neere of kinne to theirs Herein you agree with them So â—sher delivers their sense who do thus say that the benefit of Christs satisfaction is to be extended so farre as that God for his part is actually reconciled unto men and doth really discharge men from their sins before they believe You differ in this onely that they say to all men God is so reconciled and gives a discharge before faith comes you say he is reconciled to all the Elect and dischargeth them before faith comes To deny this proposition in the sense you meane it That we are justified before God before you mean in time the act of our believing doth nothing derogate from the honour of the Father or his Son b Forthe Father hath committed all the businesse of the Church to Christ Matth. 11.27 28. 1 Cor. 15. sends us
seven Arguments which if need had required might have been seventie Now I will answer the Objections An Answer to Argument VII IF we are not justified in his sight before we believe a then we are unjust sinners workers of iniquity Answer So we are As we have shewed out of Ephes 2.2 Where we are said to walke after the course of the world to be guided by the Spirit that ruleth in the children of disobedience and to be children of wrath as well as others till we be in Christ by faith v. 4 5 6 7 8. So 1 Cor. 6.9.10.11 But then saith the obiection If we be workers of iniquity God hates us Psalm 5. 1. Answ We know no middle between Gods love and hate And the text saith plainly that till they be called they are in regard of actuall love a people not beloved Rom. 9.24.25 ☞ Some reply that this is meant of the Gentiles To which 1. We reply that that is all one In the Gentiles we see those that were not beloved afore the call are beloved after 2. That the text names Jewes and Gentiles and brings that of Hos to prove it with which if we go on to end of 3. chap. of Hos it is fully proved Chapters are of late invention Besides that 9. of Rom. we alledge that Ezekiell 16.8 It was a time of love This text is urged against us but you may see it is for us For it should seeme it was not the time of love till God passed by her and spread his skirt over her the righteousnesse and excellency of Christ In order of nature she lay in her blood before justified and loved But in order of time at the same time yea minute of time she was in her blood was justified and loved At the same time the soule is created in man But in order of nature the understanding acts before the will And whereas it is said Esau have I hated not Jacob But Iacob have I loved This the Apostle applies peremptorily to Election and reprobation Now Election is every where in Scripture called a purpose If any where it be called a love we must be forced to ioyn both together unlesse we will set the Scriptures together by the eares and say It is a purpose of love Now a purpose is not an act nor an act a purpose Gods decree is not the execution nor the execution the decreeing 2. Answ Isay 1.13 Your incense is abomination to me the calling of Assemblies I cannot away with it it is iniquity even the solemne meeting your new moones and your appointed feasts my soule hateth c. And all because their hands were full of blood But ver 18. Come now let us reason together though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow See here is as much said of hating those that should be pardoned ver 25. as of Sodom and Gomorrah ver 10. God cannot hate the essence of the Devill being his creature but onely his manners So of the iustified before iustified as we have shewed Answ b What absurdity can be conceived by one principled with Divinity For though man could fall in the first Adam yet he cannot fall from the second Adam being once in him For the gifts and calling of God Rom. 11. are without repentance We can perfectly sinne being out of Christ and so deserve to be hated But we being in Christ have a perfect righteousnesse in him that saves them to the utmost that is for ever that come to God by him seeing he ever lives to make intercession for them Heb. 7.25 So that as he breaks the power of corrupt nature that it cannot sinne perfectly with a full will Rom. 7. so he perfectly pardons all sinne that there is no condemnation Rom. 8.1 Objection 1. We are justified by Faith therefore not before Faith Answer First it should have concluded not before the act of beleeving a Secondly I denie the consequence and say we may be justified both by it and yet before in a different sense This Proposition We are justified by Faith is very ambiguous He was not a Foole who an hundred years since said that this Proposition was one of those things hard to be understood which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest as they do other Scriptures to their own destruction 2 Pet. 3.16 I would our Age had not proved it true that the misunderstanding of this Proposition hath turned upside down the Doctrine of Justification amongst pudling preachers There is in this Proposition two words ambiguous and doubtfull The first Justified which sometimes in Scriptures signifieth to be reputed reckonned or accounted Just as It is God that iustifieth Sometimes it is taken for to be declared or manifested to be Just as By workes a man is iustified James 2.24 If you take Justified in the first sense we say we are not reputed or reckoned Just by the act of believing If you take Iustified in the second sense I say we are justified that is declared to be Iust by believing Faith manifesting to our consciences that we are Iust before God By Faith we understand that God hath freely iustified us in his Son Another word ambiguous in this Proposition is Faith which is diversly taken sometimes for the act of Faith or believing and sometimes for the obiect of Faith the thing believed as Faith was reckoned unto him for righteousnesse Rom 4. that is the obiect of faith So that it is all one as if he had said God or Christ was reckoned to him for righteousnesse If we understand the act of Faith then I say as before we are not reckoned Iust by the act of our faith if by faith we understand the obiect of our faith then I say we are reckoned or reputed Iust by God in by or through Christ Jesus our Faith An answer to your reply to the 1. Obiection We are iustified by faith therefore not before faith Your Answer is 1. That the conclusion should be not before the act of believing We reply the conclusion should not have more termes in it then the premises 2. That if a man hath the habit of faith he cannot but be actually in Christ For it is part of Christ 2. You answer That you deny the consequence We reply That which is said to be done by an instrument inferres it is not done without the instrument 3. You reply that a man may be iustified by faith and yet be iustified before faith in a different sense distinguishing of the reputation of one iust and the manifestation of one iust And of Fides quâ fides quam of faith and its obiect What is all this to the purpose when your own former replies do intimaredly confesse that you took the Argument to mean iustification it selfe not the manifestation and faith the quality not the obiect For the Apostle doth not mean Rom. 5.1 that Christ is the instrumentall cause but the meritorious cause And faith the
instrument And the text meanes iustifying not bare manifesting of iustification Objection 2. He that beleeveth not is condemned already John 3.18 Answer This is all one with He that believeth not shall be damned a which you must understand of finall unbeliefe which I grant to be a note of Damnation An Answer to your Reply to Obiection 2. This you say must be understood of finall unbeliefe a As if a man were not in state of damnation till the last We reply 1. What then meaneth the termes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is condemned already 2. How do you answer to the Antithesis He that believeth is not condemned that is is actually out of state of damnation by faith Ergo without faith is actually in state of damnation 3 What say you to the reason he is said to be in state of condemnation for his past infidelity because he hath not believed Objection 3. Without Faith it is impossible to please God therefore we cannot be iustified without it Answer I deny the consequence and I perceive so will you also when you please a b c d e f For you will affirme a iustified person may displease God and then why is it not possible for a man to displease God and yet be iustified To please God is so to do those things which God approves in us to be well done which we cannot doe without Faith That this is the meaning of the Apostle is plaine by his reason For he that commeth unto God must be 〈◊〉 c. We cannot come unto God before we believe but cannot God come unto us before we believe Now Justification is Gods act upon a sinner not a sinners act upon God This also answereth the fourth Obiection Whatsoever is not of Faith is sinne An Answer to your Reply to Obiection 3. You deny the consequence Before we reply a note the meaning of the word please it imports to be well pleasing or acceptable 1. So the Greeks take the word So Basil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Abel the first that is said to be acceptable to God was a shepheard So Bud. renders it See you more instances in Greeke Authours 2. It s spoken in this 5. ver not of doing but of receiving God translated him for before his translation he had this Testimony that he pleased God which must be meant that he was well pleasing to God by faith in Christ which is the Apostles scope ver 1. ver 39. or else you will make his doings the cause of his translation 3. This 6. ver shewes that the word please must signifie to be accepted of God through faith in Christ because it is added we must believe that God is there is his essence or that he is Jehovah And that he is a rewarder of them that seeke him there is his attribute of mercy to them that come to him by faith in Christ For without faith no acceptable seeking him Rom. 10. 4. This Epistle being written in Hebrew the Hebrew renders the word please 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was a delight to him 5. Either this must be the meaning that he that pleaseth God pleaseth God by faith in Christ or else the Apostles Argument drawn from Enoch to prove the Excellency of faith which is the maine businesse of this chap. comes to nothing for this is the Apostles Argument He that pleaseth God hath faith Enoch pleased God therefore he had faith and so by faith went to heaven Now to answer to your reply you deny the consequence 1. We answer by proving the consequence He onely that is justified pleaseth or is well pleasing to God This you yeild in your 6. Argument therefore if a man be not justified by faith he cannot please God This inference is the Apostles in this 11. of Hebr. 5.6 compared with Rom. 5.1 For saith the Apostle being justified by faith we have peace with God And by faith Enoch pleased God as sure as Abel did But saith he without faith it is impossible to please God Observe and observe the word impossible and see how it can be possible for a man to be well-pleasing to God without faith 2. We answer though one justified by faith may do some displeasing act as Thomas did in doubting of Christs resurrection yet a man justified by faith cannot be displeasing to God in his person God may chasten the corruption yet love the person Revel 3.19 We hate wantonnesse and whip it but we love the child Faith brings in our Sonship 1 John 12. To your reason for deniall of the consequence b we reply thus That you seeme to inferre that because one justified may displease God in some action therefore he may a time be without faith and displease God in all his actions and yet be justified which inference is very much to be blamed both for the consequent and consequence To your definition of pleasing God in action c I demand whether God can approve of a greater thing without faith namely our persons being as you say iustified before faith comes but cannot approve of a lesse thing namely our actions without faith which seemes strange By faith our persons are united to Christ Ephes 3.17 And our actions are but by a naturall dependence united to us Therefore the person is 1. Accepted by faith then 2. Our actions are accepted because our persons the Apostle saith by faith Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice How saith the text Gen. 4. God had respect to Abel and his offering To your reason d that pleasing God in action must be the onely meaning of the Apostle I answer That from the effect the Apostle proves how a man must have faith to be well-pleasing to God in his person that so he may be well-pleasing in his practise To your demand whether God cannot come to us before we believe e I answer his making us to believe is coming in and dwelling with us Eph. 3. Before that God doth but onely purpose his coming Ephes 1. To your close that Justification is an act of God upon a sinner f not a sinners act upon God we answer that Gods putting faith into a man and by it a man into Christ is as well an act of God in iustifying him as Gods reputing him iust in Christ imputing his sinnes to Christ and Christs righteousnesse to him Obiection 5. We are by nature the children of wrath c. Answer This were of some force a if you could prove us altogether in the estate of nature as well in Gods account as in our esteeme and so quite exempred from grace untill we believe which you cannot doe for the Apostle witnesseth the contrary 2 Tim. 1.9 b According to his own purpose and grace given us before the world began If grace were given before the world began surely before ever we believed God is Alpha and Omega therefore what he promiseth shall come to passe to his c is done