the Stomach and that the whole Mass of Blood is infected with ill Humours or the Morbid Constitution of some Parts Out of the abundance of the Heart the Mouth speaketh saith our Saviour our great Physician Is it not sad when there is a poysonsom Juyce under the Lips and a Mouth full of Bitterness Rom. 3. You first charge the Ministry of some and most hereabout know what sort of Men you mean with being the Cause of Men's Security in Sin And why Because they preach the Doctrine of the Gospel in a free Justification of a Sinner by Faith without the Works of a Law according to the Apostle Paul and preach down your Doctrine of Justification by Works But you express the Effects of this dangerous Doctrine to lie in these things 1. Security in Sin A Doctrine that quickens Men that are dead in Trespasses and Sins one part of which Death is Security in Sin doth not cause Security in Sin But the Doctrine of Free Grace in Justification of a Sinner without Works of any Law doth so Eph. 2. I shall not now enlarge upon you 2. Another ill Effect is you say That it causes the mistaking the Motions of sensible Passions for Conversion This is rather the Effect of your own Doctrine wherein you lay the whole Stress of Justifying and Saving Grace upon Sensible Passions and set Men wholly to judge of their State thereby It 's marvellously to be wondred at that any Man should have the Impudency to charge those Effects upon an opposite Doctrine to his which are the natural and palpable Effects of his own and he sees so to be 3. You charge upon it the general Abatement of an exact and humble walking This Charge is likewise of the same Nature Whereas the Spirit of God hath disclaimed any true Cause of exact walking beside the Grace of God that brings Salvation and then teacheth it as hath been proved As for Humble walking what is a greater Inducement thereto than the Doctrine of Faith which ascribes all to the Gift of Grace empties us of every high Imagination and Thought It exalts Christ and makes him all and in all Whereas yours is the contrary no Doctrine tends more to the lifting up of the Creature than that of Neonomianism next to that of the Papists And no wonder say you when so many affirm such and such things Where are the many or the any that you can charge with saying these things in the same Sence you put upon them Many Expressions that taken together with their Connexion in the explained Sence of him that speaks are not only true but safe and sound but abstracted and wrested may be made to look as black as Hell You may say David saith That there is not an honest Man upon the Face of the Earth Psal 12. That he saith There is no God Psal 14. That Moses affirms God to be a Man Exod. 15.3 And in a Thousand Places in your way and manner it 's easie to charge Blasphemy upon the very Scriptures And how often Lying if Hyperbole's be not allowed to be used without Wrong to the Truth As to the particular Charges I shall speak to each in it's proper place and lay open your Prevarications Errors and false Imputations to the World Neonom In this present Testimony to the Truth of the Gospel I have studyed Plainness Pref. D. W. p. 3. and to that end oft repeated the same things in my Concessions to prevent the Mistakes of the less Intelligent tho' I could not think it fit to insist anew upon all Antinom Your Testimony is against the Truth as shall be made appear and is not to be accounted a Testimony For a Testimony is a credible Witness or Evidence As the Apostle Paul saith Our Testimony among you was believed 2 Thes 1.10 And this Testimony is with a good Conscience 2 Cor. 1.12 And Paul testified the Gospel of the Grace of God Acts 2.24 1. Your Testimony is not to the Gospel of the Grace of God but against it and therefore not materially true 2. Your Testimony is formally naught it being not accompanied with a good Conscience but with a purpose and design to deceive You pretend to do Good but you manifestly design Evil to blast the Honour of God's Free Grace as if it were a Sin-teaching Doctrine and blacken a Holy Servant of Christ who is now in Glory for Preaching the Gospel your Testimony can't be believ'd because of your manifold Prevarications Equivocations and False Teachings in this Treatise of yours And whereas you say you have studied Plainness if you mean that in some places is no better than plain Falshood in others plain Error it 's true enough Or if you mean Plainness in respect of Style it 's homely enough and hardly plain Sence But if you mean Plainness of Simplicity without double-tonguedness I utterly deny it For when you speak of things that one would think at first Glance you intend Truth by it 's nothing so No Jesuite in the World can out-do you at Equivocation and there lies your Natural Excellency You have impertinent Repetition enough your Concessions every where fall about your own Ears in your glozing Oppositions to the Truth you deny You design the rectifying the Mistakes of the Non-intelligent This is false it 's manifest you design the blinding of them more else why do you quote Dr. Owen and the Assembly for countenancing those Errors which you know they directly oppose Let but the Mistakes of the less Intelligent be removed their Stomachs will rise sufficiently against you and your Book too Neonom I have in nothing misrepresented Dr. Crisp 's Opinion nor mistaken his Sence Antinom This must be true or false and here is the turning Point of the whole Book Either Dr. Crisp was or you must be If you have not misrepresented him then according to your Representation he was so If you have misrepresented him and unjustly blackened him what are you But that which we have in hand is Falshood and Lying As to this Assertion of yours we shall prove you guilty of Falshood throughout the Book that though you have repeated some of Dr. Crisp's Words from time to time yet you have only repeated such part of his Words as might render him odious not those that give a true and can did Sence of what he intended and herein you misrepresented him and that on purpose Now the Spirit of God lays the Formal Nature of a Lie upon an Intention to deceive or to deal injuriously with others as in the Case of Doeg Though I do not design now to come to Particulars I will give one Instance wherein you in your Book and your Party do frequently expose Dr. Crisp and his Abettors such as you call Divers as also Crispians and Antinomians that he and they do assert Sin can do no hurt and you would have Men understand that he means That no Person in Christ need fear to commit Sin and that Sin
Atonement had been unavailable for he could not Atone for himself D. W. p. 11. Antinom You should have said had he been the very Transgressor he was a reputed Transgressor and stood instead of the actual Transgressor he therefore was a becoming High-priest because he needed not to Offer for his own Sins but did at once Offer for us when he Offered up himself Heb. 7.25 27. All the places you mention are against you that especially 1 Pet. 3.18 and that of Heb. 9.14 above all as we have shewed before Neonom Christ then suffered for his own Sins Antinom So far as they became his own by Imputation To conclude because you will have it that in pleading for the Imputation of our Sins to Christ I must hold that Christ was the very Transgressor See what I said There is a certain transacting of Sin on Christ so real that indeed a Believer though an Actual Transgressor is as absolutely and truely discharged of his Sins as if he himself had not committed them As a Debtor when a Surety hath taken the Debt on him and the Debtor receives an Acquittance and Discharge he is as free of the Debt now as if he never run into the Debt So I say it is with a Believer Christ being made a Surety of a better Testament and thereby becoming really and truely the Debtor instead of the Believer he so bears all the Debts himself that they are altogether released and discharged as if they had never been in Debt Still I say this hinders not but there is an Acting of Sin and Committing of Sin every day by a Believer but still the vertue of Christ's Suretiship takes off the Sin as soon as it is committed nay he hath a Proviso or Stock in Bank to satisfie it as soon as it is Committed Dr. Cr. p. 289. Calvinist If this be Mr. Antinomians Judgment I see not but it is sound and according to the Scriptures and you have little reason to make such a noise as you have done and load him so invidiously with your loathsom Consequences and misrepresent him so hideously to the World as if he were a Person of no Divinity Logick Religion Brains or common Sense I must confess I think you have given a great deal of Ground of just offence in wresting the words and sence of so good a Man besides your taking advantage to insinuate to us Errours for I apprehend your Spleen is most especially vented at the Doctrine of Imputation it 's that which you principally aim at to Wound and cast to the Ground Laying Sin on Christ no other than that whereby Christ becomes accountable to God for our Sins and there is in it these things very easie and plain to be understood 1. Christ's Offering himself freely to be accountable to God for our Sins because none can be forced to be accountable for the defaults of another 2. His answering the Will and Pleasure of the Law-giver the Judge of all therein being called thereunto and accepted in so doing in the room and stead of the Delinquents 3. Hence it is for our Sins and not his own that he is accountable 4. Our Sins are the Material and Meritorious Cause of his Sufferings which he takes upon him our very Faults in non-conformity to the Law our Sins in the delinquency our very Sins in opposition to Punishment our Sins in their greatest foulness under the greatest Aggravations they are the very offending meritorious Causes and whereas when we are without Christ they are accounted the offending and the meritorious Cause of Suffering to us so Christ being substituted in our room they are the very offending meritorious Causes of Suffering to him Sin hath a double respâ—ct as a Fault and Demerit but as a fault is a demerit To be accountable is to stand under the demerits of Sin and indeed that is Guilt or reatus culpae which the Orthodox mean when they say Christ bare the guilt of Sin and it 's no other than the charge of Delinquency Dignitas poenae obligatio ad poenam is the same thing and there 's little weight in the distinction between Reatus Culpae and Reatus Poenae for Reatus Culpae is nothing else but Dignitas Poenae propter Culpam D. O. 280. And hence they say there 's no difference between Guilt and the Sin it self for Sin is no positive thing but privative and that which is remaining besides the Physical Act of that which is a Moral Guilt or just Charge of Abberration from the Rectitude and Duty required in the Law for which Men must be accountable to God and according to the sanction of the Law give satisfaction and that is in this case by receiving the Wages of Sin and in so doing the Payment is made And I shall now prove by many Arguments that it 's our Sins and our Sins in the highest degrees and aggravations that Christ was accountable to God for and that he bore them in this sence by way of Imputation though none of the macula or stain by way of Inherent pollution or defilement fell upon him nor could cleave unto him And we defend the Position as the Spirit of God every where states it That it was Sin as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Christ bore and in bearing took away from before God it 's said to be laid on Christ as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. That which is the Radical Cause of God's displeasure against a Sinner was laid upon Christ to take away but Sin was the Radical Cause of God's displeasure Ergo Sin in the radical Nature of it as it 's a Fault and blamed of God as such Now obligation to Punishment is not the Cause of God's displeasure but the effect of it that which renders a Person abominable in the sight of God is Sin as it 's against the preceptive part of the Law as to the Major it 's plain unless the Radical Cause of God's manifesting displeasure be taken away God cannot be reconciled to us it 's called the Enmity Eph. 2. even on God's part which is upon the default of Sin and it's Enmity on ours 2. That which Christ bore in his Body on the Tree was Sin it self our Blame as well as Demerit for there 's no demerit where there 's no blame He that suffers for a fault bears the fault the fault stands and claims the Meritoriousness of Sufferings The Apostle is express in it That he bore our Sins on the Cross 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 2.24 This is the Punishment only you will say but the Holy Ghost will tell you he bore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Nature of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not the Punishment of Sin but Sin it self 1 John 3.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and mark what follows ver 5. and ye know that he was manifest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he might bare away Sin in bearing it and notwithstanding this saith
The Changes that pass upon us doth not make a Change as to Electing Love nor as to the Satisfaction and Merits of Christ Neonom The Dr. may well infer that we are sanctified and possessed of Heaven in the Womb for God hath elected us to those as well as to Pardon and Christ merited these also Calvin No but he might not One imports a Relation the other a real Subjective Change A Child may be a Son and yet a very wicked one There is also a great difference between a Right and a Possession Neonom Do you not find that God justifies none but what are called Rom. 8.30 Calvin 1. He Justifies Infants dying in Infancy that were never called by the Word 2. What you would prove by that place that effectual Calling is before Justification is not manifest for it's whom be called them he also justified It might be before Calling as well as after for any thing appears in that Text. 3. But you go from the Terms of the Question all along for that which the Doctor saith is That the Sins of the Elect being all laid upon Christ who shall lay any thing to the Charge of God's Elect It 's Christ hath dyed and rose again for them Now God hath no Charge against the Elect considered as such if Justice remain unsatisfied Christ dyed in vain Neonom There is Joy in Heaven for one Sinner that repents Luke 15.7 10. And would there be such if they were pardoned and safe before Calvin Yes Why not For I question whether the Angels be acquainted with the Secrets of Election and Redemption as to the Persons concerned till it be made manifest by their Actual Faith and Repentance And as for the safe Estate of the Elect before believing you have said enough i. e. As to their Security from Wrath and Certainty of Eternal Life Therefore it 's strange you should deny it now say and unsay the same thing Neonom How much is our Ministry and Concern for Souls debased if all we can prevail with are actually pardoned Calvin You should have said If all you prevail with have had their Sins laid on Christ whereby God was in Christ reconciling the World to himself Paul might have said How then is our Ministry debased to be only Embassadors for Christ to beseech Sinners to be reconciled to God when their Sins are already laid on Christ and to Preach That all things are of God who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ who hath slain the Enmity and made Peace on the Cross c. There 's great difference between God's being reconciled to us and our being reconciled to God Neonom Who can reconcile this Notion to the Pleadings of God with Sinners Ezek. 33.11 Calvin Every one The Pleadings of God in his Word with Sinners is in Order to change their Hearts by his Word and Spirit in the Embassie of Reconciliation which God hath sent unto Sinners Therefore the Apostle saith We beseech you for Christ's sake to be reconciled unto God and all Arguments used in the Word are to that end and purpose viz. To work Faith and Repentance and to bring them unto God One great End why Christ bore their Sins Neonom I have the Assembly and Dr. Owen on my side Antinom We deny not what the Assembly and Dr. Owen saith according to their true Meaning and Intention For they all say no otherwise than what I have shewed the Doctor sincerely means and your own Assertions will bear out as well as his as to his particular Opinion That the Grace of laying Sins on Christ is secretly applyed as soon as we have a Being as to some Effects wherein we are meerly passive and it 's unknown to us till effectual Calling you see he grounds it upon matter of Fact in the Instance of Jacob which undoubtedly deserves Consideration Though I say not that it 's so with every one but apprehend the Spirit of God hath these things to instruct us thereby that Justification of a Sinner before God is not for the Act of Faith or Gospel-Obedience because Jacob was justified before either 2. That the Children of Believing Parents dying in Infancy may be justified and saved 3. That a believing Parent hath Promise Ground to baptize his Child and exercise Faith that his Child is embraced in the Arms of Free Grace to work upon it how and when and in what manner he pleaseth and though he can't be active therein yet he may be passive This we pray for and in praying believe God saying I will be thy God and the God of thy Seed I am not for Baptismal Regeneration nor Baptismal Justification Though there is something Analogous to it and therefore a kind of Justification in Foro Ecclesiae it being a significant Seal of it as Circumcision was called the Covenant And therefore if there be any secret Application of the Grace of Election and Redemption accompanying that Institution of Christ or coming before or after neither we nor our Children shall be ever the worse for it And therefore let us not banter and condemn such as have higher Apprehensions of the Secret Workings of Grace before we are aware of of it I am sure many Divines that you would not call Antinomians have defended Infant Baptism upon this Notion That Infants are capable of the Habit of Saving Faith And if so I am sure according to your Notion they must be Justified because they have the qualifying Condition For a Habit is a Quality and a Conformity to the Rule of the Promise as you phrase it and therefore must Justifie as such Neonom The Dr. mistakes the Nature of God's Decree because a Decree ascertains a thing shall be in time therefore he thinks a Decree gives a thing a present subjective Being Antinom The Decree of God gives an Objective Being to the thing Decreed for the Will willing and the thing willed are relata all things in time are present with God looking upon them in one Eternal Act there 's neither Time past or to come or Succession that his Decrees are measured by his Decree is himself But if we consider the Objects of the Decree in Execution they are in time and measured by Succession but yet things thus standing are the Objects of the Decree they have their first Cause in his Divine Idea and have their unchangeable Fixation as to their Nature and Order in the present or future Being and Working either as necessary or contingent Agents Neonom Because Jacob was an Elect Person or the Object of Electing Love in the Womb therefore he was then actually a Pardoned and Adopted Person Antinom Nay there was more in it than that For mark the Text ver 11 12. r. It doth not only tell us Jacob was Elected but that it was published and declared unto Rebecka Jacob have I loved If God should tell my Wife when with Child I have Elected and do love this Child that is in thy Womb I should
look upon this as a Justification of this Child it being a declared Sentence of God concerning it's standing in his Favour and unchangeable Love 2. The Text is particular in the Reason of this Declaration to Rebecka ver 11. that we may see that God accomplish'd his purpose of Election in the applying of the Grace thereof without Works not so much as upon the Account of Faith as a Work because the Children were not capable of doing Good or Evil the Application of his distinguishing Love could not be upon that Account viz. Of any Condition found in them nor could the Foresight of any such thing in them be the Cause of God's Purpose in Election and shews it's one and the same Righteousness that an Infant and Adult Person is Justified by Neonom Because an Eldest Son is an Heir in the Womb therefore an Elect Person who is in time to he Adopted is an Heir in the Womb. Calvin There 's a Difference between an Heir and Adoption If you know there is an Elect Person in the Womb as Rebecka did he is a more sure Heir to Heaven than ever any great Man's Son was to an outward Estate And as to Adoption that may not be till some time after For that is the Grace of Sonship It 's one thing to be a Son and another to have the Grace of Sonship And is the calling them the Sons of God manifestly taking them into the number and endowing them with the Priviledges of the Sons of God The Relation of an Heir and the state of Adoption admit of different Considerations The State of Adoption is the grown state of an Elect Person he is put into Possession of the Estate and all Priviledges sit together with Christ in Heavenly Places as a Coheir And thus we are the Children of God by Faith Gal. 3.26 The Spirit bearing Witness with our Spirit that we are the Children of God and so Heirs ex abundanti Joynt-Heirs with Christ Rom. 8.17 Let us now hear what our approved Calvinists say in this Point that speak most particularly and distinctly to it Speak Dr. Amesius Dr. Ames The Transaction between God and Christ was a certain previous Application of our Redemption and Discharge to our Surety and to us in him which hath the Nature of a certain efficacious Pattern to that Secondary manner of Application which is compleated in us so that this is the representation of that this is produced by vertue of that Now it 's inferred hence That our Freedom from Sin and Death was not only determined in God's Decree but also granted and communicated to us in Christ before it is perceived by us Chap. 24. § 3. Mr. Rutherford pray speak you wrote against Antinomianism Sane priusque electus credit c. Certainly before an Elect Person doth believe the Wrath of God and all the Effects of his Wrath are removed from the Persons by vertue of Christ's Satisfaction Exercit. Apologet. per gratiâ p. 45. Mr. Pemble That God doth actually love the Elect before they are Regenerate or can actually believe may appear further by these Reasons 1. Where God is actually reconciled there he actually loveth for Love and Reconciliation are inseparable but with the Elect before they are converted and believe God is Actually Reconciled Ergo he loves them before Faith and Conversion The Minor is evident because before they are Born a full Atonement and Satisfaction is made for their Sins by Christ and accepted on God's part whereupon all Actual Reconciliation must needs follow 2. God did Actually Love the Elect before Christ's time when Actual Reconciliation was not yet made much more therefore after the Atonement made 3. Justification Effectual Vocation and Faith are Fruits of God's Actual Love c. De gratiâ fide p. 22. Chamier Persuasissimum est c. We are most fully perswaded that our Sins are forgiven before we believe for certainly we deny Infants to act Faith and yet their Sins are forgiven them And although it be true that our Sins be forgiven before we believe i. e. before we know it as Actual Believers we do believe the Remission of our Sins because this is proposed to us yea promised to us in the same words which we relye upon by Faith and it 's Sealed by the same Spirit whereby that word is Truth Panstr Tom. 3. lib. 13. c. 10. Antinom I think I see Mr. Baxter appear in this Cause though I suppose he is seldom in this Society Calvin I pray let us hear Sir what you say to this Point Mr. Baxter The Anabaptists bring Eph. 2.3 against Baptism of Infants and say Because they are by Nature Children of Wrath the Promise belongs not to them Ans What though we are by Nature Children of Wrath doth it follow that we may not be otherwise by Grace the state of Wrath goes first in order of Nature and whether in order of time also is not worth our disputing but may not a state of Grace immediately succeed Jeremy was Sanctified in the Womb and John Baptist and the Infants that Christ Blessed were all by Nature Children of Wrath and yet by Grace were in a better state As they come from old Adam they are Children of VVrath but as they receive of the Grace procured by the Second Adam so they are not Children of wrath If a Prince should Entail some Honours upon all your Children you might well say by Nature or as they were your Children they were not Honourable or Noble and yet by the Favour of the Prince they might be all Honourable from the VVomb The Godly at Age may say that they are still by Nature Children of wrath even when they are sure they are Children of God by Grace and they use in their Confessions to say That we by Nature are Enemies to God Fire-brands of Hell R. Baxter of Inf. Bapt. p. 110 111. Calvin I would willingly hear what the Learned and Judicious Mr. J. Cotton saith Mr. J. Cotton in Answer to that Objection made by the Anabaptist against Infant Baptism Faith comes by Hearing Ergo Infants have not Faith Ans It is no Extraordinary thing which Christ speaks concerning Infants when he saith Except you receive the Kingdom of God as little Children c. and they cannot receive it without Christ nor without Faith in Christ and yet received not Christ nor Faith by their own immediate Hearing of the Word and for the second thing which you make Essential to Union with Christ viz. a Heart fitly disposed to apprehend and receive Christ be not unwilling to understand that which is Truth The Heart is fitly disposed by Faith to apprehend or apply Christ when Faith is begotten in the Heart for by this Gift of Faith begotten in us Christ apprehends us and by the same Gift of Faith the Heart is fitly disposed to apprehend Christ even in Infants for when Faith is wrought in Infants the Heart is quickned with Spiritual Life and made a
chargeable for them and Imputed to him Hence 3. If they bear their own Sins till they Actually Believe there must be an Hatred of God to such Persons till they Believe Actually which is Death and a Person may perform a Vital Act in a state wherein he is Actually Dead and at the same time 4. This must follow that there 's Believing before Union with Christ and then there must be some other Root from which this Fruit of Faith doth spring and it 's said Heb. 12. expresly Christ is the Author of our Faith I have received this Principle meerly for the vindication of the Glorious Priviledges which are proper and peculiar to Christ alone and therefore refer the being of Faith it self to Christ to this end I deliver that Elect Persons have a participation and share in Christ himself even before they do believe neither would I thereby diminish the Prerogative of Believing for there are glorious things done by Faith in Believers God hath honoured it above all meer Creatures in the World he hath made it the Conduit-pipe for the conveyance of all Peace and Comfort nay of all that strength which believers have all their Lives no Faith no Comfort no Faith no Peace of Conscience no Faith no Pleasure to walk with God The Soul lyes in Darkness while in Unbelief But still that which is proper and peculiar to Christ alone is not to be ascribed to Believing D. Cr. p. 616 617 618. Calvin Mr. Neonom We shall be the better able to take our measures if you will be pleased to state this Point aright and tell us what we may receive for undoubted Truth and what is to be Anathematized for Errour in your Judgment Neonom I 'le tell you then first what is Truth Truth The Atonement made by Christ by the Appointment of God is that for which alone the Elect are pardoned when it is applyed to them D. W. c. 3. p. 15. Antinom Pray Sir give me leave to make my Remarks as you dictate because my Memory is but short 1. You grant then that there is a compleat Atonement wrought finished and accepted by God if so there is a Fundamental Life of Justification laid up and reserved for them in Christ 2. That this precedes their Actual Justification by Faith 3. That this influenceth to Justification by Faith and is objective to Faith and Meritorious of Faith and of the Work of the Spirit working Faith Neonom But the Elect are not immediately pardoned upon Christ's being appointed to suffer for them nor as soon as the Atonement was made Antinom The Question is Whether there is not upon Christ's Atonement Pardon with God that he may be feared Or whether there be not a Life laid up for them in Christ which needs no addition to it There is a difference between Pardon and Pardoned one is the Abstract and the other the Concrete We say where there is Atonement for any there is Pardon but it follows not that because there is Pardon for any that therefore they are pardoned there may be a Pardon Sealed for a Traytor by the King and yet he not pardoned but the Law proceeds against him till the Pardon is sent down and read in Court So the Pardon is certain and finished for all the Elect but they have not the particular Pardons taken out nor pardoned till they believe Neonom Nor is that Act of laying Sins on Christ God's forgiving Act by which we are personally discharged Antinom I doubt you are too presumptuous to prescribe to God which shall be his forgiving Acts and which not if God's laying Sin on Christ be not of a pardoning and forgiving Nature to us I know not what it was did he not do it as a God pardoning Iniquity Transgression and Sin was it not his casting our Iniquities behind his Back And is it not this Act of God which reacheth every Elect Person unto Actual Pardon and Forgiveness Yea are we not Justified by this Act of God apprehended and applyed by Faith For is not an Act of God removing Sin from us and laying them on a Surety a Pardoning Act. Calvin I pray Sir deliver your self more distinctly for you do darken and confound things extreamly Neonom I will tell you what is not in Dispute between us in diverse particulars that you may not take up a wrong sense 1. The Question is not Whether Christ made a full Atonement for Sin Antinom Give me but the right scent of you which is hard to keep you make so many banks and turns and I will follow you as close at the Heels as I can You grant Christ made full Atonement for Sin there 's Pardon in that Atonement without Question for all God's Elect. Atonement always carries Pardon in it as its formal Nature or else it 's no Atonement Neonom 2. Nor whether that shall in time be applyed to the Elect for their Actual Remission as the Effect of it D. W. p. 16. Antinom Then there is Atonement wherein is Pardon eventually certain i. e. shall certainly be applyed and being applyed is actual Remission as the Effect therefore this Atonement is the Remission as the Cause and as the Object to be applyed Neonom 3. Nor whether we be so far Released thereupon as that God can demand no Atonement from any who shall submit to the Gospel way of Application of it Antinom It seems then if they will not submit to the Gospel way of Application God can demand some other Atonement from them I never understood before that the Suffering of the Damned was Atonement for where there 's Atonement God is at last appeased but he will never be appeased toward the Damned 2. You said but now that the application of the Atonement to the Elect in time should be I understood you certain but now you make it only conditional in case of their submission to the Gospel way of Application Neonom Nor 4thly Whether the Law be answered and God's Honour so vindicated thereby that the Sins of Men cannot hinder an Offer and Promise of Forgiveness and Life Antinom There 's a great Theological Intriegue here we must endeavour to unravel it What do you mean by answering the Law is it by Active or Passive Obedience or both and for whom for some absolutely or conditionally you tell us of a conditional Atonement and such an Atonement the Scripture is a stranger to 2. You would have us to understand the end and use of Atonement is to fence and secure God against his Law that so he might be at liberty to save Men this is to make an Atonement to Sin and not for Sin your suggestion is that God cannot in Honour offer Life and Salvation till his Law be vindicated i. e. I suppose he took out of the way and abolished that Law so another Law more practicable might be set up in the room of it this is a fine way of vindicating a Law to Abrogate it Neonom Nor whether
when we are Pardoned the whole Meritorious Cause of Pardon be that Atonement and what is required of Sinners is only a meetness to receive the Effects of it Antinom What do you mean by the whole Meritorious Cause Do you exclude Christ's Active Obedience from the Meritorious Causes And do you mean the Merit of Satisfaction or Procurement There 's a great deal of difference in the Case before us and what is the meetness whether it be not a meetness of Congruity if not of Condignity And whether this meetness be not of the Effects of Christ's Merits and if not from what other Cause it ariseth Neonom Nor whether this Atonement is the only way of Forgiveness which we can apprehend Antinom I had thought a meetness to be forgiven had been with you one way to be forgiven which you make to be distinct from Atonement and the Meritorious Cause of Forgiveness Now Sir you say these things are not the Question but they are questionable to me you might have told us of a Thousand more Questions which are not ours for there is no one thing but in genere disparatorum is separate from all other things in the World But after Sir you have freed our Brains from the mixture of all Impertinent Questions I pray put your Finger upon the very Spot Neonom The Real Difference lyes in two Things 1. Whether the Elect were Actually discharged of all their Sins at the time that Christ made Atonement D. W. p. 16. Antinom The Question is whether a Believer is not to look upon the laying of his Sins on Christ his full Release for I speak of an Elect Believer I say not that any other can whether Elect or no for all the burden and load of Sin was long ago laid on Christ it is not now to do Neonom Having spoken to the Question before I insist now only upon this Whether the very Act of laying Sin upon Christ on the Cross be the discharge of the Elect from all Sin Antinom You state your Questions still with great Ambiguity for what mean you by the Act of laying Sin on Christ The laying Sin on Christ must suppose and imply all things that conduced to the making him a compleat Sacrifice for Sin God's Acts and his own on God's part it 's to be supposed there was not only a charge of Christ but a discharge on Christ's part not only a Subjection to the Charge but a Suffering by way of Satisfaction not only an undertaking of the Debt but a payment I suppose you mean whether the Atonement that Christ made was in any sence a discharge unto the Elect for no wise Person will give a Discharge to a Debtor till the Money be paid or Suretiship accepted now then we distinguish of Pardon it was perfect and compleat by way of Impetration for all the Elect but it hath not an Actual Application till the Persons are in being to whom it is to be applyed and that Application in regard of the time of their Lives is according to the dispensation of Grace Now all this you seem to grant and need not put to any further Question you say Christ made full Atonement for Sin and it shall be certainly applyed you say only that a Sinner is not discharged till Application we distinguish of Discharge 1. There 's that which is Vertual and Fundamental and Real in Christ or else he could not have rose for the Charge upon him was our Sins and he must have a Discharge as a Surety and it was the Elects Discharge in the Mind of God and of Christ and really transacted But 2ly There 's a personal sensible Discharge which is at or by Application Now then in the same sence that Christ bore our Sins by Imputation as a Representative in that sence we were Discharged for the Discharge must be as large and full as the Charge to the very Person of Christ and all he undertook for or else he is bearing Sin still and the Sins of some of the Elect must be still upon him And 3ly If Christ obtained what he bore our Sins for then he had a Discharge not only for his own Person but for all he undertook for and represented and Christ having made good and full payment cannot remain undischarged for he finished the work which his Father appointed him to do Neonom But we can claim no Interest in his Atonement till we Believe Antinom A Sinner's first Ground of Claim is the Promise and free Offer of Christ in the Gospel and Faith is a laying hold upon him and receiving of him in whom is full Atonement and Pardon It is one thing to have Jus ad rem and another to have Jus in re a Child new Born or to be Born Heir of an Estate hath a good Right to the Inheritance else he could not be Heir which is previous and lyes dormant until the time of Claim and Possession and therefore the Apostle seems to speak in this way of Allusion Eph. 1.11 He saith In whom we have obtained an Inheritance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and it 's grounded upon what he said ver 7. in whom we have Redemption And Dr. Goodwin saith That the Apostle speaks not there of the Redemption that we have here i. e. the Fruits of Redemption but of the Work of Redemption which Christ himself hath wrought which is the cause of all the Redemption we receive And 2dly We have Redemption in Christ as in a common Person and we have it not only when it is applyed to us but we have it in him as we had Condemnation in Adam before we were Born into the World so we had Redemption in Christ when he dyed So Dr. Goodwin on Eph. 1. Neonom It was not that Will or Purpose of God or Christ that the laying our Sins on Christ should be the Immediate Discharge of the Elect John 6.40 1 Pet. 1.2 D. W. p. 17. Antinom It was the Will and Purpose of God and Christ that upon Christ's Satisfaction for Sin he should have an immediate Discharge and all the Elect Vertually and Really in him a general Discharge but not manifested and personally applyed to particular Persons and in this sence the Elect are Discharged at and by Application and the places mentioned hold forth no more than this and this is all the Dr. saith That the Church had a general Discharge in Christ not a particular Application till Being Neonom This overthrows the whole Scheme so wisely contrived for the distribution of the Effects of his Death Antinom It may overthrow your Scheme but it overthrows no true Scheme of the Gospel Mystery Antinom Things are so adjusted that forgiving the Elect should be the Effect of Christ's Kingly Office as well as his Priestly Office Acts 5.31 1 Cor. 6.11 Acts 26.18 Antinom Christ wrought out our Forgiveness by way of Atonement as a Priest and God was Atoned and Appeased thereby and therein he also Gloriously Triumphed in his
And is it not strange Gentlemen that after he had said this he should affirm a Separation Antinom And is it not strange that you cannot distinguish between Separations I may separate from a thing in one respect and not in another I may separate from another as to Communion but not as to Relation let it be Son Wife Brother c. and it 's strange you cannot understand forsaking to be but of a Relation Neonom The Lord Jesus could not be abhorred or odious to God for in him God was always well-pleased Isa 42.1 Matth. 17.5 Antinom We say the same Christ's Person in his Eternal Sonship was so All the Indignation that was testified towards him in his Humane Nature in which only he was capable of Suffering in that he became a Curse as well as Sin God saith it Neonom Mr. Calvin How horrid a Sound hath it to the Ear to say that Christ is odious to God and abhorred by the Father Calvin Methinks those new Words applyed to Christ do not sound so well and some Ears are offended at them I think it 's better to use the Scripture-Expressions Christ made Sin and Christ made a Curse for us Let us but have the thing Mr. Neonomian we will part with any Word that 's not Scriptural if you give us another that will express it as well Antinom Doth not this make as horrid a Sound in a Christian Ear that God manifested his wrathful Indignation against sin in the Person of Christ in a most awful and dreadful manner Calvin But that 's his way of expressing it he doth not like yours Antinom Then I will abdicate those Words Odious and Abhorrence and use his Words I be not fond of mine Neonom 5. Christ could not be separated from God or abhorred while his Body lay in the Grave his Soul went into Paradise Antinom No his Hypostatical Union was not dissolved nor God's Fatherly Love removed from his Person but yet at the same time he was under the Suffering of Death which was Penal for sin he finished his Soul-sufferings on the Cross but was under the Separation of Body and Soul which was part of the Threatned Indignation against Sin as also the lying of his Body in the Grave Neonom I will shew you your mistakes You do not distinguish between the Affection of Wrath and Effects of Wrath because God forsook Christ as to the usual Degrees of Comfort he thinks Christ was separated from God Antinom Sure this is a soul Mistake if he should mistake his Logick as to take the Cause to be the Effect and the Effect the Cause But I doubt you mistake your Divinity as to ascribe an affection of Wrath to God But I pray where there 's an Effect of Wrath in the Creature is not Wrath the Cause of it He that lies under the Effects of Wrath is he not under Wrath If Christ suffereth the Effects of Wrath he suffereth Wrath. I know not how any one should suffer Wrath any other way As to my Thoughts about Separation from God they are only your Imposition of Thoughts and Meanings upon me as I have told you Neonom Because he that is formally a Sinner is odious to God therefore he thinks Christ was odious to God who had on him the Punishment of Sin with the Guilt or Obligation to bear Punishment by his own Consent neither of which have any thing of the Loathsomness of Sin Antinom I will not use the Word Odious because you love not the smell of it I say therefore because a formal Sinner or Committer of sin unpardoned is the Object of God's threatned Indignation bearing the Effects of Wrath therefore an imputed Sinner is also the Object of God's threatned Indignation bearing the Effects of Wrath. You will be at the old Socinian Notion still That Christ bore but the Punishment for Sin and Guilt is only Obligation to Punishment which is absolutely false unless you mean reatus culpae for nothing is a Demerit of Punishment but reatus culpae Neonom I know not why you think Christ came not near God from the time of his Death to his Resurrection unless because of your Conceit for the Loathsomness of Sin God could not bear the sight of him Antinom Your frequent Banter and Scoffs at the Scripture-Account of the Nature of Christ's Satisfaction and of Sin I am sure is very odious and a horrid Sound to a Christian Ear. I shall not think such reasoning worthy of any thing but a Note of Contempt Calvin Mr. Neonomian you must know we can't part with this Article of our Faith That Christ was made a Curse for us no more than that That he was made Sin That Christ bore the Curse of the Law and was made a Curse for us is such a Gospel-Truth that we need no other Authority for it than what is contained in the Scripture being so expresly declared which all sound Protestants always understood of bearing the Wrath of God in his Soul and Body especially in his Soul undergoing Poena Damni and Sensus the first whereof I look to be the greatest and Cause of the other and also fully enough express'd by our Lord Jesus Christ upon the Cross Take Mr. Calvin in his Harmony on the Evangelists Altho' there appeared more than Humane Courage in Christ's Outcry yet it 's certain it was uttered from Extremity of Grief Verily this was his chiefest Conflict and more grievous than all his other Torments because that in his Anguishes he was not so refreshed with his Fathers Holy Favour that he did in some respect perceive him alienated from him for neither did he offer his Body only as the Price of our Reconciliation with God but in his Soul he bore the Punishment due to us and they are Men of unsavoury Spirits that slighting this part of Redemption do insist only on the external Punishments of the Flesh for as Christ satisfied for us so it was requisite that he should be set as guilty before God's Tribunal For nothing is more horrible than to perceive God as a Judge whose Wrath exceeds all Deaths Neither doth he complain Feignedly or Theatrically that he was deserted of God according to the insipid Cavils of some For the inward Grief of his Soul from the Depth of Anguish compelled him to break forth into this Outcry He did perfectly fulfill the Law endured most grievous Torments immediately in his Soul Conf. Assemb c. 8. § 4. He bore the Weight of God's Wrath and laid down his Life an Offering for sin Large Catceh p. 249. Quest What Death did Christ suffer when he Sacrificed himself Mr. Perkin's Catech. Answ A Death upon the Cross peculiar to himself alone For besides the Separation of Body and Soul he felt also the Pangs of Hell in that the whole Wrath of God due to the Sin of Man was poured forth upon him The Apostle doth not say that Christ was cursed but a Curse Calv. on Gal. 3.13 which is more for
Justitia Mediatoris not Justitia Mediatoria 2. You say this Righteousness is so Imputed to a true Believer as for the sake thereof he is pardoned I am sure by your so you mean another sence than we mean that we are only pardoned effective and that 's no more than we are sanctified and glorified for it's sake and this appears by your second Difference p. 39. where you say the difference is not Whether our Justification and all other Benefits when we are partakers of them be the Fruits of this Righteousness as the only Meritorious Cause So that you have no reason to quarrel with me for saying That through Christ's bearing of Sin we appear in perfect Holiness speaking there of Glory for you say Justification and all other Benefits flow from it therefore in the same manner as we are Justified by the Righteousness of Christ in the same manner we are sanctified and glorified i. e. effective in your sence 3. You say also pleadable for these Uses i. e. for all Uses in a like manner 4. As if they had personally done and suffered what Christ did as Mediator for them your meaning is That it 's as well done as if they had done it themselves A Man may do a thing as well as another that he doth not for another in his stead yea a Man may do a thing for another and not do it in his stead as a Taylor makes a Minister a Suit of Cloaths but doth not do it in his stead because it 's not his Business to make his Cloaths but it 's another thing for a Man to come and preach for him that is to do it in his stead because it 's his proper Work Profession and Business 5. And hereby you say they are delivered from the Curse What mean you by the Curse We shall find this Curse is not the whole Vindicative Wrath of God only Eternal Curse And for our Comfort you tell us this is all the Attonenement or meriting Price of saving Benefits that God can demand of us It 's so in our stead as that God can exact no other Atonement and so a Security from God's hurting us In a Word the Description of Imputation here that you have given is but a meer piece of Sophistry that Imputed Righteousness may be any thing for all this and we shall see by and by what you will have it be Neonom Nevertheless this Mediatorial Righteousness is not subjectively in them nor is there a Change of Person betwixt them and Christ neither are they as righteous as he but there remain Spots and Blemishes in them until Christ by his Spirit perfect that Holiness begun in all true Believers which he will effect before he bring them to Heaven Antinom Now you come to the Negative part of your Description which should have been first and having said nothing of the thing at first you tell us it 's nothing at last 1. You say this Mediatorial Righteouscess Sir is not subjectively in us I know no Judicious Divine ever talked so nor would you if you understood mediatorial Righteousness as it 's apparent you do not 2. You say there 's no change of Person betwixt Christ and them You mean that the Believer becomes not Christ nor Christ the Believer We mean so too 3. You say too that Believers are not as righteous as he you mean such a Righteousness Mediatorial 4. You basely insinuate that their Righteousness in Justification is imperfect for the Spots and Blemishes we speak of is in respect of Righteousness Neonom I question not whether Christ by his Righteousness merited for all the Elect that they should in his time and way be certainly Partakers of it's saving Effects and did not only purchase a conditional Grant of those Effects viz. That Proposition He that believeth shall be saved P. 39. Antinom It seems Christ then merited a certainty of Salvation only of the Elect I thought their Salvation was made certain by Election the Foundation of God stands sure 2 Tim. 2.19 Your meaning is Christ's Merits made our Salvation certain which in respect of Election was uncertain 2. And but certain in another way viz. Of a Conditional Grant that is not yet performed and belongs to the Non-elect as well as to the Elect and there 's yet an Uncertainty remaining notwithstanding the Certainty purchased 3. It 's very odd to say Christ purchased a Proposition and a conditional one too the Condition whereof must be something not purchased to be performed by us that we may have the Gift promised For if the Certainty depend upon the Merit and Purchase then both the Condition and Promise is purchased and then the Purchase is absolute I would know whether the certainty of the Salvation of the Elect be purchased conditionally or absolutely if purchased conditionally then this Proposition The Elect shall be saved is yet uncertain in respect of the Purchase of Christ and is but a contingent Proposition and not certain which is a Contradiction If you say Christ purchased absolutely the Salvation of the Elect all your contingent Purchase falls to the Ground But Christ purchased Persons absolutely not conditional Propositions and is he that believes shall be saved a conditional Proposition indeed Neonom Nor whether besides these Effects being made ours the very Righteousness of Christ be imputed to true Believers as what was always undertaken and designed for their Salvation and is now effectual to the actual Pardon and Acceptance to Life yea is pleadable by them for their Security and is as useful to their Happiness as if themselves had done and suffered what Christ did Antinom Gentlemen you would think that Mr. Neonomian had here owned the Doctrine of Imputation but it is nothing so he doth but sham it still Mark he says Besides the Effects of Christ's Righteousness the very Righteousness of Christ is imputed as to Effects or Effectualness i. e. Pardon and Acceptance is the Effects but he tells you not that it is the proper and immediate Righteousness he will have the Righteousness of Christ to have some Effects and is imputed as to such So that Sanctification and Glorification being Effects are as much the Imputation of the very Righteousness of Christ It 's a strange thing to confound the Cause and Effects to tell us the very Cause is imputed and presently to tell us he means the Effects This is to talk Daggers for Cause and Effect are opposita But he saith the Righteousness of Christ is what was undertaken and designed for their Salvation and is effectual and in that Sense imputed Very good so that it was a subordinate means to accomplish that end as was also Creation which was by Christ Col. 1. preaching the Gospel their Calling Sanctification hence the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness is but to give it a place in the order of means for our Salvation and in that order of means hath it's Effects But he saith there is a Priviledge by it as
though they are contraries yet do consist ex mutua alterius affectione and hence omnis integra relatio constat ex duabus partibus in respect of one the relatum is causa and correlatum the Effect In the respect of the other the relatum is effectum and the correlatum causa Redeemer and Redeemed are Mutual Causes and Effects and yet Contraries and the Contraries yet do Exist by the Mutual Affection that they have to each others Neonom What is all this to the purpose Antinom I would hereby give you to know that I understand the Logical Difference between Redeemer and Redeemed and if you knew it your self you would be ashamed to use this Argument to any Men of Learning but such studyed Divines take themselves to have such puzzling Pates that they can be dictators to all Men. Neonom It 's prophane Arrogance for us to pretend to his Prerogatives and it 's Blasphemy to debase him among their number who were Enemies and without Strength Antinom Logick failing it 's not amiss to betake your self to some high strains of Rhetorick some great words may make a Man look big but never affright Wise Men from the Truth Neonom My secâ—nd Argument is The Meditorial Righteousness of Christ is not subjectively in us Antsnom No nor by Imputation neither i. e. Justitia Mediatoria but Justitia Mediatoris is both subjectively in Christ and us Originalitèr in Christ Imputativè in or upon us we are the Subjects by your leave of Imputed Righteousness and Christ of Imputed Sin and this very subjectiveness cuts off both your Arguments at once because the very proposition that we are the Subjects of Imputed Righteousness denies our selves to be the Authors of that Righteousness and affirms another to be so my very saying that the Creditor took another's Bond for my Debt and delivered up my Bond to me upon his Payment doth sufficiently acquaint all rational Men that I not only ascribe the Payment to another Man but do affirm that his Money was accepted on my Account and if any should hear me say that I became a Surety because he paid my Debt they would think I were Mad but if I say that the Creditor took such an one as Pay-master in stead of me and his Money paid was reckoned to me no Man but would judge it very good sence besides Mr. Neonomian Neonom I do not speak of Inherent Righteousness of which he is not only the Pattern but also is the Cause and Worker Phil. 3.9 Antinom We would not mistake you you would be understood that we are the Subjects of Inherent Righteousness and I tell you so are we of Imputed Righteousness genere Imputationis Christ is not as Christ is the subject of our Sins genere Imputationis That which God Imputes to us and Faith Applies to us we are the Subjects of it for subjectum is cui aliquid adjungitur and here is a note of Conjugate Arguments wherein is Abstractum concretum modus Agendi Justus is subjectum Justitiae Imputatae and in this pair of Relates the adjunct is also the cause of the Subject which is a Logical Mystery that every unstudied Divine doth not understand As for Phil. 3.9 which you pervert and understand of our Inherent Righteousness we shall examine that anon I see you are very fond of your first Argument and every Argument must run into it like a Mathematical Principle that must clinch every demonstratâ—on such as this Three Angles of a Triangle are equal to two square Angles or that any two Lines not Parallel protracted will at last cut c. Now say you if Christ's Righteousness be Imputed to us who was a Saviour then we are Saviours and it runs thus if a Surety pays my Debt then I am a Surety if my Father pays my Debt I am thereby made a Father whether I have Children or no. If a Rich Merchant pay the Debt of a Poor Cobler and fetch him out of Ludgate the Cobler hereby becomes a Merchant A Justice of Peace takes off the Penalty from a Constable for some Fault whereby he hath forfeited his Office and therefore the Constable must become a Justice of Peace The absurdity of your Inference hence easily appears Imputation of the Action of one Party to another no way inferrs Physical Change or Individual Identity but signifies a Relative Change not of one into another but of both to the Law the Law takes the Surety for the Debtor and the Original Debtor to be a Pay-master in the Surety As the Sponsor becomes a reputed Debtor and the principal Debtor becomes the reputed Pay-master and note when we speak of the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness we understand not the Imputation of his Offices as you would have us is not that the Commutation here meant by you Neonom It 's Inconsistent with the Nature of Gospel Imputation Antinom It is Inconsistent with our Doctrine of Imputation but must necessarily follow from your Notion of Mediatorial Righteousness and all your Inferences upon this Hypothesis is but Fighting with your own Shadow and therefore we shall leave you therein Canere tuis Musis your Arguing affects us not in the least Calvinist The Doctrine of Imputation of Christ's Righteousness to us to Justification and a sweet permutation of Persons in a Law sence and relation we must assent and stand by notwithstanding all your Cavils against it the Scriptures are plain and express for it and will stand as Bulwarks to defend this Doctrine against all Papists Socinians and Neonomians and because you Mr. Neonomian quote Dr. Owen would have us to believe that he is a Patron to your Notions and Men that read him not may think so from your Authority I would disabuse them and shew you now naked how diametrically opposite to you that Learned Doctor is he saith There is in Scripture represented to us a Commutation between Christ and Believers Dr. Owen of Justific p. 39. as unto Sin and Righteousnes i. e. in the Imputation of their Sins unto him and of his Righteousness unto them In the Improvement and Application hereof unto our Souls no small part of the Life and Exercise of Faith doth consist This was taught the Church in the Offering of the Scape-Goat Levit. 16.21 22. This Goat was sent away with this Burden upon him and whether he did Live and was a Type of the Life of Christ in his Resurrection or whether he perished in the Wilderness being cast down the Precipice of a Rock c. it s generally acknowledged what was done to him and with him was only a Representation of what was done really in the Person of Christ He did not transfuse Sin from one Subject to another but transferred the Guilt of it and to evidence this translation of Sin from the people unto the Sacrifice Aaron in his Confession put and fixed both his Hands on his Head Thence the Jews say That all Israel was made as Innocent on the
stood bound for Onesimus to Philemon and unless Philemon had accounted Paul's Payment or Obligation to Onesimus in respect of any Wrong sustained by him Onesimus is still peccant and an unreconciled Offender in the Eve of Philemon Now the Effects of Righteousness is the Benefits received by Imputation not Imputation it self Suppose the nearest Effects of Christ's Righteousness as Satisfaction Reconciliation Justification Adoption Imputation is cause of those Effects God is satisfied and reconciled and justifies the Sinner because he imputes and reckons to him the payment or appeasing Act of the Surety I argue then 1. That which is a Benefit received by vertue of Imputed Righteousness is not imputed Righteousness it self but God's being satisfied reconciled and Justifying us is the Benefit only of Imputed Righteousness Ergo. As to the Major That thiâ—g which is received by vertue of something else is not the same with it nay they are contraria affirmantia Now God's giving us the Benefit of Imputed Righteousness is that which doth in a way of Justice result from the said Righteousness imputed The Imputation is the Gift of Grace therefore Christ's Righteousness is first imputed and graciously reckoned ours to all intents and purposes Hence results in a way of Justice God's Satisfaction Reconciliation and the Sinners Justification Hence it will needs follow if there be no more in Imputation than God's being satisfyed reconciled Justifying I will say how comes it to pass You 'll say Through Christ's Righteousness it 's an Effect of it I say so too But how come we to have these Effects if God never reckoned and accounted Christ's Righteousness unto us either we are righteous some way or other before God declares us righteous or we are not If not it 's not a true Sentence If we are righteous we are so by our own Righteousness or anothers if by anothers it must be some way or other ours either by Communication of it essentially or by reckoning and esteeming it unto us as if it were ours but to reckon the Effect only is not Imputing of it at all Arg. 2. To say the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness is only the bestowing of the Effects is to ascribe Justification to the Righteousness of Christ in no other sence than we do Sanctification and Glorification for it is to say that Justification is but a Meritorious Benefit and so is Sanctification and Glorification for all those are purchased and procured by him Now there 's a vast difference between payment of a Debt owing and making a purchase of a new Estate it 's true Christ did both he satisfied and he purchased as for the purchase Money there 's no need it should be Imputed to us if the Estate being purchased be bestowed freely it is enough but as for Satisfaction made for our Wrong or Debt this must be reckoned and accounted to us before we can come at a Legal Discharge or procured Riches Arg. 3. To say Christ's Righteousness is Imputed to us only as to Effects is to say That there is some other Righteousness besides this for us to be Justified by for it implies that we are become Righteous by another Righteousness the Priviledge of having whereof is only procured by Christ's Righteousness and the plain truth of it the Original Rise of this Notion is only to open way for another Righteousness to come in to our Justification which is another Gospel yea not only contrary to Sound Doctrine but Radically Destructive to the true Grace and Gospel of Jesus Christ Arg. 4. If we cannot have the Effects of the Righteousness of Christ unless the very Righteousness of Christ be Imputed to us then the Righteousness of Christ is Imputed otherwise than in Effects but we cannot have the Effects of the Righteousness of Christ c. The Consequence of the Major is so clear it needs no proof I prove the Minor we cannot have the Effects of the Righteousness of Christ unless his very Righteousness be Imputed The Reasons are 1. Because our Offences will stand in the Eye of Justice and we shall remain unrighteous having no Righteousness of our own nor any of another reckoned to us For we can be Righteous no other way but by our own or by anothers and Christ's Righteousness signifies nothing as to us if it be not placed to our account and hence being not made Righteous by it can never be Sanctified c. 2. We can have none of the Effects because they all proceed from Love of Reconciliation unto Sinners now the Enmity being not taken away by Satisfaction there is no Reconciliation and therefore we cannot possibly partake of the Effects of Christ's Righteousness Arg. 5. To say we have only the Effects Imputed is to deny Imputation for the Effects are not ours by Imputation but Personally and Really as suppose Justification God doth not Justifie us by Imputing Justification but really upon Imputed Righteousness 2. If Christs very Righteousness be not Imputed or Accounted to us in Justification some other Righteousness must for God cannot Justifie a Sinner without accounting him Righteous by some very Righteousness either of his own or of anothers 2. I prove that the very Righteousness of Christ is Imputed Arg. 1. That Righteousness that satisfied the Justice of God for our Offences is Imputed unto us but the very Righteousness of Christ satisfied the Justice Ergo The Major is very evident for if A do pay Money for B and D to whom it is due accepts it in discharge of B's Debt then D doth place it to B's Account and gives a Receipt accordingly to A as having paid him so much for the use of B. As for the Minor that the very Righteousness of Christ satisfied the Justice of God for us it appears 1. By his Intention in giving himself for us and God's accepting of us in him as his Beloved 2. Because if God be satisfied for our Breach of the Law it can be no other Righteousness that could do it it must also be the very Righteousness and not the Effects now that which God was satisfied with upon our account is accounted to us for if it be not accounted to us it is not accepted for us our Debt stands still and the Hand-writing against us 3. If the very Righteousness of Christ do not satisfie no Effects of Righteousness can for nihil dat quod non habet Arg. 2. That Righteousness which Christ our Advocate pleads for us is Imputed to us But Christ our Advocate pleads his very Righteousness for he entred in with his own Blood and pleads those very Sufferings and that payment upon our very account Heb. 9.14 C. 10.19 20. C. 7.25 Arg. 3. That Righteousness which answers all the demands of the Law on behalf of a Sinner is Imputed to Justification but it was Christ's very Righteousness answered all the demands of the Law in Active and Passive Obedience Rom. 10. Ergo Minor there 's nothing that the Law expects expresly as to
him P. 47. Antinom It would take up deservedly some Paper to shew the Error and Sophistry of what you have spoken The Summ is that you deny Christ to be a publick Person and that all that Grace and Fulness that is in him by reason of the Hypostatical Union of both Natures and that Unction without measure which he received was only to qualify him singly and for himself as an Individual Person and not to be conveyed and communicated unto us and therefore none of his Fulness is received by us that the Spirit not his Spirit Neither do we live by vertue of our Union to him as a Root Head Fountain but if we partake of the Divine Nature as the Apostle Peter Eph. 2. ch 1. saith We are made Gods If we partake of the Vertues of Christ we rob him and they are no more in him You abuse the Similitude of Husband and Wife used by the Apostle Eph. 5. and would make it run on Four Feet You consider not that Adam and Eve at first was the true Type the Apostle aims at to represent Christ and his Church by Eve being taken out of Adam had her Nature in him first and was created out of him and so was Flesh of his Flesh and Bone of his Bone You must distinguish between the Individual Person and Qualification of the first Adam and his publick Capacity Headship and common Nature he had a peculiar distinct Person and Habits belonging to it as such but he had also a common Nature communicable to his Wife and to his Posterity by Propagation not only Eve's Nature but ours was in him radically And therefore the Prophet Malachy saith that God made but one at first Mal. 2.15 though he had the residue of the Spirit and could have made more as he did in the Creation of Angels but therefore one that he might seek a Seed of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now this Seed of God was found in the Seed of the Woman that was made out of Man and was but one as Adam was made but one common Person so Christ and the Church his Wife is made out of him created in him as Eve was and have a Nature common in Christ And doth it follow that because Adam had the common Nature to Eve and his Posterity 1. That his Individual Qualities were communicated taken from him and given to Eve Was Adam turned into Eve Was Adam's Wisdom Holiness his Natural or Moral Vertues taken from Adam and given to her or them The common Nature of a Genus is communicated and propagated by Individuals without robbing the Individual Mankind is propagated daily by Individuals yet those Individuals lose nothing of their proper Adjuncts If Men were not Strangers to Logick and Natural Philosophy and ordinary Terms of Law they would not make so much ado about this common Nature of Christ which in him is Mystical and Transcendent I shall not here enlarge but enquire what is the Opinion of the Protestant Divines Calv. Dr. Davenant I pray speak in this matter what your Sense is Dr. Davenant on Col. 1.19 1. There was in Christ a fulness of habitual Grace neither take we this to be Infinite seeing it was a created Qualitas and inhered in the mind of Christ which also was a Creature it could not be infinite but by fulness of Grace we understand all those Perfections to which the Nature of Grace doth extend it self 2. We consider why Christ ought to have a fulness of Grace 1. E Debito congruitatis it was due to him in a way of meetness by reason of his Union to the Word 2. It was meet that which was nearest to the influencing Cause should partake most of the Influx 3. There was Debitum necessitatis It was necessarily due from the Supposition of the End by reason of the Habitude or relation of Christ himself to the Humane Nature for Grace was conferred upon him not as a private Person but as an universal Principle from whom it is transfused into other Men you say it 's not by Transfusion p. 47. All things ought to be full and in an oneness The Evangelist shews that Grace is diffused to us Eph. 4.7 And on Colos 2.10 1. To be compleat in Christ 1. Is spoken from the Effect Christ is not only perfect in whom dwells all the Fulness of the Godhead but he makes us perfect and compleat we having all things in him and his Doctrine necessary to Salvation 2. The Second Reason is taken from his Office Christ is the Head As to the first We have perfect Wisdom right Knowledge of the Doctrine of the Gospel John 17.13 1 Cor. 2.2 2. We have compleat Righteousness for Satisfaction to the Law of God and for our Sins 3. In Christ we have Sanctification or inherent Righteousness For what is Sanctification other than the washing away of our Errours and Vices whereby we are set at a distance from God and the Susception of Gifts and Graces whereby we may draw nigh to God in his Service And this is done as we stand united to Christ by his Spirit Rom. 1.4 ch 8. 9. In eo non ex eo aut per eum solummodo In him not from him or by him only but he saith We are compleat in him to give us to understand that we have that foresaid Wisdom Righteousness and Holiness not as we behold Christ as existing far from us but as we are incorporated in Christ as we have Christ abiding and dwelling in us and we have this Grace from Christ not the Stream from the head Fountain for it 's not needful that he that will drink of a Fountain should go into the Fountain But it 's otherwise here for we cannot receive of Christ's Fulness unless we are in him As the Old Adam is in us as the cause of Corruption and Death so the New Adam dwells in us as the Cause of Righteousness and Salvation So we are said to be in Christ to dwell in him to abide in him John 15.4 5. Whatever therefore Men hope or please themselves with of Grace Righteousness Sanctification or Glorification it will prove a meer Mock and Dream if they be not in Christ and Christ in them And now Christ is in us and we in him when we are united to our Head and grafted as Branches into the Vine by the Bond of the Spirit and Faith wrought by the Spirit in our Hearts Rom. 8.9 John 3.36 Calv. Speak to this Point Dr. Horton In that Text Rom. 8.2 There are three Terms before us There 's Life the Spirit of Life there 's the Law of the Spirit of Life 1. By Life we are to understand the Grace of Holiness and Sanctification not that which is inherent in our Nature being regenerate but the full and perfect Holiness which is in the Humane Nature of Christ as the proper Subject of it this is the Fountain from which there is a continual flowing of Grace to all that are truly
Preaching And let us consider a little the Nature of it Condition comes under several Considerations 1. Logical and there it 's Conditio conditionans or Conditio conditionata It 's more Ordinis aut Relationis respectu Ordinis It ariseth from a Priority and Posteriority of things All things can't be at once but one thing must be before another and here one thing is the condition of another respectu temporis there is Conditio relativa and so all Arguments are mutual Conditions one of another and consist è mutuâ alterius affectione and here is not Prioritas temporis sed nature Pater est conditio Filii or rather Paternitas relata affectio est causa filietatis correlata affectionis There is Conditio Axiomatica which ariseth from a Contingent Axiom or necessary and either connex because they 're mostly express'd Conjunctione connexivâ si And so there is also Conditio in dispositione Syllogisticâ ex dependentia inter conclusiones premissa There is also Law-Conditions Dr. Cawel saith It is a Rate Manner or Law annexed to Men's Acts or Grants staying and suspending the same and making them uncertain whether they shall take effect or no. And Papinian saith Conditio dicitur cum quid in casum incertum qui potest tendere ad esse aut non esse confertur This is a general Account of a Condition as arising out of a Contingency the effect depending upon an uncertain Cause And a Learned Lawyer saith A Condition is a Restraint or Bridle annexed and joyned to a Promise by the performance of which it 's ratifyed and takes effect and by the Non-performance of it becomes void Such a Condition I perceive you and Mr. Flavel will have Faith to be a Condition upon which the Promise is made and the Performance suspended by the Disposer till the said Condition be performed Conditio adimpleri debet priusque sequatur effectus Now this being your Condition I say it 's Foederal It 's Conditio Foederalis and let it be in value less or more it makes a Covenant of Works and is cloathed with all the Logical Notions of Condititions besides The Logical Conditions are in all things ex necessitate dependentiae mutuae rerum and a Man can't move a Hand or Tongue without them Even Brutes and all inanimate Beings as well as Men they belong to the whole Fabrick and Constitution of created Beings But a Foederal Condition belongs only to rational Beings and it 's related to the Promise ex pacto in a way of Merit and the Promise belongs to it by way of Debt And in this Sence the Apostle always decries the Law or any Law to have to do with our Justification he affirms that it 's always of Grace and never of Debt upon the least Consideration whatever of our Performance and Qualification And this is the Condition that I contend against and say That neither Faith or any other Gracious Qualifications or Graces of the Spirit are Foederal Conditions or Conditions of the Covenant of Grace My Arguments some of them in brief are these That which is a Gift of the Promise of eternal Life is no condition of it but Faith is a gift of the Promise Ergo. For the Major it 's clear for one thing can't be another eodem respectu tempore The Condition and Promise are Opposita they are Foederalia relata and therefore Contraria affirmantia a Father can't be a Son in that respect as he is a Father As to the Minor it 's out of all doubt by Divine Testimony See John 17.3 Eph. 2.8 To know Christ by Faith is Eternal Life and this Life of Faith is the Gift of God Hence Faith that is the Benefit promised is not the condition of it A Promise or Gift of the Promise cannot be the Condition of it self 2. That which would make the Promise a Debt and the Gift of it a Reward of Debt is not to be allowed But to make Faith a Foederal Condition of the Covenant of Grace would make the Promise to be Debt and the Reward a Reward of Debt Therefore Faith is not to be allowed to be a Condition of the Covenant For the Major it will stand with invincible strength from the Apostle Paul's Divinity and Logick Rom. 4.4 Believing and working are opposed as working and not working as Contradicentia It 's vain and frivolous to shift by evasive Interpretations and all that 's said to that purpose is easily wip'd off For the Minor That putting Faith in as a Federal condition would make the Promise a Debt The Performance of any Work or doing any Act as a Federal Condition let it be never so small the promising Federator becomes indebted thereby to bestow the Benefit promised on the Confoederator ex obligatione foederali and therefore a Debtor Now the Apostle will not allow any thing of this in the least Measure In those places where the Apostle opposeth Faith to Works he speaks of such Works as contain perfect and perpetual Obedience such as God required of man under the Law but not of those Works which comprehend that Obedience which God requires of us who believe in Christ Racov. Catech. c. 9. Therefore your Doctrine of Conditions is Socin 3. That Doctrine which will make all the Graces of Sanctification or gracious Qualifications Federal Conditions is not to be admitted But to say Faith is a condition of the Covenant in the Sence pleaded for will bring in all other Graces as well as it's self Ergo this Doctrine is not to be admitted for there is as much reason that all of them be allowed to be Conditions as that Faith should and therefore I see you and your Party bring in Repentance and other Graces together with Faith and say Our eternal Life is given unto us at the last upon conditional Meetness for it But the Scripture no where speaks of our Justification for or by Repentunce Love Patience Mortification of Sin c. not so much as once in the Sence that it speaks of Justicfiation by Faith And therefore Faith justifies not in it's qualifying nature which it hath in common with other Graces of the Spirit God never intended our strictest Holiness and highest degrees of Grace should be our Justifying Righteousness before God or Federal Conditions of the Covenant of Grace 4. That any Act of ours should be a Federal Condition of the Covenant of Grace destroys the very Nature of it Rom. 11.6 Eph. 2.8 9. Tit. 2.5 Rom. 5.17 18. Isa 55.1 2. 1 Cor. 2.12 Rom. 3.24 as it stands in opposition to the Covenant of Works it can't be distinguished otherwise from the Covenant of Works for the Condition of the Covenant of Works was as small as any thing imagining the Ability was given before the Condition was required He should have had persevering Grace in the Promise had he outstood this Temptation Now the formal difference between the Covenant of Works and Grace was in the Condition
first place For it runs thus If you receive there 's some body gives So the Giving is the Condition of Receiving Or see it thus If you be a Father you have a Son they are mutual Causes one of another but the Father is first in respect of Nature and Causality If Receiving lie upon the Condition of Giving then Receiving is not the Condition of Giving but vice versa but Receiving lies under and depends upon the Condition of Giving for if there be no Giving there can be no Receiving Neonom They judge the Covenant is conditional they scruple not to call Faith the Condition of our Interest in Christ and Salvation by him Antinom They do intend and so do we that the New Covenant is conditional and hath a great Condition Jesus Christ He is the Foederal Condition satisfactory and procurative but they mean not that Faith is a condition of the Covenant but a condition relative in the manifestation For they could not suppose Faith to be the Condition of what they make the Covenant for it 's but in the Foregoing Answer they say The Covenant of Grace was made with the Second Adam and in him with all the Elect as his Seed They speak not of any Condition of the Covenant of Grace which they give an Account of Quest 31. but speak only of the way and manner of the manifestation of the Grace of God in the Second Covenant and that they tell you it 's by Faith as a correlative receiving Condition They speak not of any Condition of the Covenant but of the manifestation of the Grace in the Covenant by the Participation thereof Neonom 3. They judge that Christ and Salvation are offered to all Sinners on the same condition though God effectually enable the Elect to obey the Condition Antinom They say he freely provideth and offereth to Sinners a Mediator and Life Is Faith the condition of God's providing a Mediator And upon the same Terms that he provideth he also offereth i. e. freely If you look for a condition here it must be of providing and offering And they say God requires and works Faith as a Condition i. e. no more in their Sence but a means of conveyance the Grace of the Second Covenant unto them Now that this is their meaning take a full confirmation their Sence fully express'd in their Confession In Ch. 11. Of Justification speaking of the Nature of Justification saith It 's not for any thing wrought in them or done by them but for Christ alone not by imputing Faith it self the Act of believing nor any other Evangelical Obedience to them 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 Faith thus receiving and resting on Christ and his Righteousness is the alone Instrument of Justification Thus Gentlemen you see what a Catch he hath got of the Word Condition made use of by the Assembly When they used the Word Condition it was but Aaron's Rod it 's now turned into a Serpent and every one that savours Christ aright will fly from it It is no better now than a Nehushtan and is to be brokee in pieces in the Sence of a Foederal Condition Neonom Errour The Covenant of Grace hath no Condition to be performed on Man's part though in the strength of Christ Neither is Faith it self the Condition of this Covenant but all the saving Benefits of this Covenant are actually ours before we are born Neither are we required so much as to believe that we may come to have an Interest in the Covenant-Benefits D. W. p. 59. Antinom We have told you and proved to you your Errour in saying That faith is the Condition foederally of the Covenant of Grace and we have shewed how far saving Benefits are prepared for us and ours in the Promise right before we believe yea before we are born and though it 's our Duty to believe and do believe as thereby partaking of Christ unto Salvation yet not in your Sence as a condition of a Covenent of Grace but as a promised Gift and Benefit bestowed upon us in Christ and wrought in us by him Neonom You spend more than a Sermon to prove this and say there is not any Condition in this Covenant D. C. p. 81. Anntinom In preaching on Isa 42.6 7. I shewed by way of Doctrine Dr. C. p. 81. That the Father is pleased to give Christ for a Covenant to the People and in opening it I shewed what it is for Christ to be a Covenant Where I shewed That the Lord means not a Covenant of Works but the Covenant of Grace which Covenant is mentioned Jer. 31.33 and renewed again Ezek. 36 26. and also Heb. 8.6 where you shall find this appropriated to Christ to be his great Priviledge to have the sole hand and managing of this New Covenant But now saith the Apostle He hath obtained a more excellent Ministry by how much also he is the Mediator of a better Covenant And what is this better Covenant Mark what follows Ver. 8. Behold the days come c. Here see the substance of the Covenant I will be their God and they shall be my People Now I shew the difference between this Covenant and others all others run upon Stipulations the Promise runs altogether upon Conditions on both sides The Condition on God's Part They shall live The Condition on Man's Part That he might live he must do this And in the Old Covenant in case Man failed the Condition was broke But in this Covenant there 's no Condition on Man's part to be performed because the Covenant is everlasting Heb. 8. God saith I will be merâ—iful to your Iniquities and your Sins I will remember no more Now suppose there were Conditions for Man to perform and suppose Man did fail in those Conditions what were become of the Covenant The Covenant is frustrated as soon as the Conditions are broken Dr. C. p. 81. Obj. 1. There are many Conditions mentioned in this Covenant there must be a Law put in the Mind writ in the Heart c. Answ It is true God saith I will put my Law in your inward parts But it is not said This is a Condition to be performed on Man's part Obj. But Conditions or no Conditions a Man must have his Heart in this manner Answ I answer It 's true by way of Consequence that after we are in Covenant he will bestow those things upon us as Fruits and Effects of this Covenant but it 's not true by way of Antecedence That God will require those things at our hands before we be Partakers of this Covenant Answ 2. You shall see plainly that Man hath no tie upon him to perform any thing whatsoever in this Covenant as a Condition to be observed on his part Mark how it is in Jer. Ezek. Heb. God saith I will put it
Appointments in that Dispensation whereby God would have them to be visibly a peculiar and separate People and what they did in this kind in a right manner was an Effect and not a Cause of their true Interest in the Covenant of Grace but the Covenant it self as externally made was a National Church-Covenant as appears Deut. 29.15 and so when it was renewed in Joshua's time ch 24. And I think any one that readeth that Solemn Covenant Deut. 29. will see that it carried with it all the Thunder and Lightning of Mount Sinai to enforce it and also the Blessings promised were Temporal and the Conditions were the Duties of the Moral Law and Ceremonies ver 26. Now I wonder that any can pretend that this Covenant was the New Covenant for so it was not in the Sence of the Apostle and that it was a Ministry of the Covenant of Grace any more than in a carnal and legal Dispensation after the manner of the Covenant of Works And you shall find among the great things promised for the strengthening and encouraging of the Faithful one thing was the reforming the external Dispensation of Grace in taking off the Vails and therefore always in those places we have it run as a free absolute Promise and God beginning first with them before any Condition is performed on their parts Ezek. 26.25 I will sprinkle clean water upon you and you shall be clean c. So Exek 27.26 I will make a Covenant of Peace with them and it shall be an everlasting Covenant c. Jer. 31.31 33. Zech. 8.8 Hence all external Covenant-Obligations that the Church makes are effects of this new Covenant-Interest Covenants that they are obliged to and Covenants that in the New Covenant are promised absolutely as their Blessings and Priviledges and in that way commended to Gospel-Churches 2 Cor. 6.16 17 18. I will be their God and they shall be my People It 's all Promise and upon this account they are commanded to walk as a becoming People under such an Obligation of Free Grace laid upon them Yea God always in these Old Testament Covenants made his goodness and kindness to them first as a motive and condition unto them to build their Obedience upon whereby he preached Free-Grace to them Exod. 19.4 ch 20.1 and innumerable other places And you mention places your self which shew our Covenant with God is promised by him Jer. 50.4 5. They shall go and seek the Lord their God They shall ask the way to Zion saying Come let us joyn our selves to the Lord in a perpetual Covenant that shall not be forgotten We grant every Believer doth actually and freely enter into Covenant but it 's because God hath covenanted with him first We are not reconciled to God but upon believing God's Reconciliation to us Therefore the Gospel-Ministry is the Declaration of God's Reconciliation and from thence an Argument to perswade us to be reconciled unto God So it is Ezek. 20.37 Neonom All these Expressions are convincing that there is a restipulation on Man's part and that it is a Covenant in respect of that mutual Stipulation between God and us Antinom It 's a strange thing that most of those Men that quote the Church-Covenant of the Old Testament to make good their Notion of the Covenant of Grace that it 's a moral conditional Covenant are against all Explicit Church Covenants whereby Men that profess Godliness should have an external visible Tie to walk in the Faith and Order of the Gospel which was the main Intent and Design that God had upon his People in the days of the Old Covenant and never intended it as a condition of their Personal Covenant with him but a fruit and consequent after they were in Covenant It 's mightily to derogate from the Covenant of Grace to make the Promise thereof to depend on a stipulation on our part For if we stipulate with God we also promise to him as well as he to us before Performance and likewise that we do our part before he doth his for the Stipitulation is covenanting and for any Man to talk of any such thing runs upon multitudes of Rocks Our radical Stipitulation was in Christ all other Stipitulations are effects of it Neonom To sappose the Covenant to be the sole Act of God and an Act that 's meerly absolute renders all these Phrases impertinent and impossible Antinom The Covenant of Grace is the Act of God in the Person of the Father with us in the Person of Christ in him we did restipulate he was the great Covenanter on our part and the Condition of this Covenant and when we by vertue of the Promise take hold of this Covenant we stand upon this Condition with God and God dispenseth all Benefits upon this Condition to us And it 's a free and absolute Covenant to us a Covenant of Promise because not only the Promise is bestowed without Foederal Conditions performed by our selves and the great Foederal Condition the Lord Christ is freely bestowed on us Neonom It was his Act to appoint a Covenant and enable us to keep it and it 's his Act to restipulate on his part c. Antinom This frees it not from being a Covenant of Works for God appointed Adam's Covenant and gave him strength to keep it which strength he had when God gave him the Law but to talk of God's covenanting with fallen Man in that state and say Man hath restipulated while in a state of Enmity is most absurd Or to say he shall restipulate when God gives him Power so to do is as much as to say I have sold to a Man my Horse for 10 l. and when he brings me that 10 l. he shall have it but hath not a Groat to pay Rags to his Back or Bread for his Belly and he refused my Horse too and hates me with a perfect Hatred yet I will make him willing to take the Horse and I will give him the Money to pay for 't there 's no Man can think this Man hath any other Design than to lose the Honour of giving away his Horse that this Man and all the World should look upon the Horse as purchased and so it was and the Law will find it so for all his giving him the Purchase-Money And it 's no less absurd that God restipulates to our covenanting to make us first in covenanting with God which is contrary to all the Account we have of the Covenant of Grace and when any place speaks so it 's ad hominem and in the Language of the Covenant of Works Neonom Consider the Seals of the Covenant Baptism and the Lord's Supper they seal not absolutely but conditionally Antinom Baptism is for Remission of Sins which is an absolute Gift and it supposeth it given where there 's no Qualification for it and this is an Argument to baptize Infants And if you will have it to Seal the Performance of conditional Duties you must never
God unto Salvation but not as the Cause this were to change the Covenant of Grace into a Covenant of Works our good Works are the effects of Grace the Reward of good Works are a Reward of Grace Good Works are necessary to Salvation as the Way not as an Instrument or Cause Faith is necessary to Salvation as an Instrument The Active and Passive Obedience of Christ is necessary as a meritorious Cause Calvin Mr. Antisozzo I pray do you now speak impartially to this Point Antisozzo I think I have met with his Scheme before now and as I take it it runs thus and the Question that lies before us is this What Influence the Sacrifice of Christs Death and the Righteousness of his Life have upon our acceptance with God The Gentleman that I once disputed with stated the Question so and resolved it as follows Antisozzo p. 580. All that I can find in Scripture about this is That to this we owe the Covenant of Grace That God being well-pleased with the Obedience of Christ's Life and the Sacrifice of his Death for his sake entred into a new Covenant with Mankind wherein he promises pardon of Sin and eternal Life to those who believe and obey the Gospel I think this is exactly your Scheme Mr. Neonomian Neonom Yes and something more D. W. p. 8. viz. That the Gospel barrs all Vnbelievers and dead Sinners from Pardon and Adoption and denounceth the continuance of Condemnation against them limiting it's Benefits to such as believe Antisozzo This Scheme contains three things 1. A Description of the Covenant of Grace 2. An Assertion that this Covenant of Grace is owing to the Sacrifice and Righteousness of Christ 3. A Supposition that this Righteousness and Sacrifice of Christ hath no other Influence upon our acceptance with God but that for his sake he enrted into such a Covenant with Mankind 1. His Description is this A Promise of the pardon of Sin and Eternal Life to those who believe and obey the Gospel Neonom You will not I hope deny this to be a true Description of the Covenant of Grace Antisozzo But I will for all your hast It is a Description so liable to Exceptions that it describes neither the whole of the Covenant nor a New Covenant nor upon the matter any Covenant at all Neonom If you prove what you say Eris mihi magnus Apollo I 'll strike out your Name from my Book and if I can be convinced I must subscribe yours Antisozzo You shall see what I can do presently 1. This Description gives us very little of a true Covenant of Grace For 1. Tho you think to put us off with a Promise of Pardon and Life to those that believe and obey the true Covenant of Grace hath given us a Promise of that Faith whereby we may believe and of that New Heart whereby we are enabled to obey the Gospel And First We have the Promise of the right Faith in the true Covenant John 6.37 Eph. 1.8 And least it should be said Faith is a common Gift as other things are the Apostle hath his reply ready Eph. 1.19 Secondly We have a direct and express Promise too of that New Heart from which we give to God new Obedience Ezek. 36. Ver. 26 27. c. 2. This Description gives but very little of the true Covenant of Grace there 's a Promise of Pardon and Life to them who believe and obey but Perseverance in Faith and Obedience is left to the Desultory and Lubricous Power of Free Will whereas in the true Câ—venant of Grace there 's an Undertaking that the Covenant shall be immutable both on God's part Jer. 32.38 4. God hath said He will not turn away from doing them good And 2ly He hath promised That they shall not depart from him c. p. 583. 2. As it describes not the whole of the Covenant so it describes not the Nature of a new Covenant 1. It describes no New Covenant in opposition to the Old Covenant of Works The Covenant with Adam promised Life upon condition of Oâ—edience and those Commands as easie as those now given to Mankind and much easier too if we consider Adam's Natural Strength 2. We are told by you that Christ hath added to the Moral Law i. e. to the Moral Duties required by the New Law Faith and Repentance which is to lay more Load on those that were overcharged before So that as you make Covenants Adam's was much the better Covenant of the two but you have wisely shuffled in a Promise of the Pardon of Sin which may seem to give this Covenant a Preheminence above that of Adam But that will not mend the matter both because it 's better to have no Sin in our Natures than such a Remedy better to have no Wound than such a Plaister and also because the Promise of Pardon as you say is suspended upon the condition of Faith and Obedience which without a Supernatural real Influx of immediate Divine Power reduceth the Promise to an impossibility of Performance 2ly This Covenant described is no new Covenant in opposition to the Old Administration of the Covenant of Grace there were the same Promises then that we have now the same Moral Precepts that we have now Though the Word Gospel come in for a Blind yet the Apostle assures us the Gospel was preached to Abraham 3. Upon the matter it 's no Covenant of Grace at all p. 584. For 1. A Promise of Pardon and Life upon condition of believing and obeying is neither better nor worse than a Threatning of Condemnation and Death to them who believe not and obey not It may with equal right be called a Threatning of Death as a Promise of Life It 's no more of Grace than a Covenant of Wrath And therefore 2ly If it be lawful to consider Man as the Word of God describes him dead in Sins and Trespasses It 's no Covenant at all to him For what is the nice difference betwixt the Promise of Life to him that obeys when it 's certain before-hand he cannot obey and no Promise at all c. Neonom Well Sir pray let us call another Cause Do you argue like a Voucher to my Book Mr. Calvinist he is a sharp Man and he doth this only for Argumentation sake he is of my mind for all this Antisozzo No do not you believe that you wheadled me in to vouch for your Book I know not how but I shall stick the closer upon your Skirts for that I have not done with you yet Calvin I will then propound one Question to Mr. Antisozzo Whether the Covenant of Grace be owing to the Sacrifice of Christs Death and so be distinct from that he calls the Covenant of Redemption Because our time now is up speak only what your Judgment is in this Point Antisozzo Mr. Neonomian I must tell you I have narrowly pryed into this Paradox That the Covenant of Grace is owing to procured by and
Iniquity the Lord hath laid on Christ God himself cannot charge one Sin on that Man and he makes a difference between a strong Believer and a weak to consist in the degree of his Perswasion Dr. C. p. 158. Antinom This was a Use that I made upon that Point of laying Sin on Christ If God have laid our Iniquity upon Christ then whosoever thou art to whom the Lord will be pleased to give the believing of this Truth that the Lord hath laid thine Iniquity on Christ that laying thine Iniquity upon him is an absolute and full Discharge to thee that there neither is nor can be any Iniquity for the present nor for hereafter that can be laid to thy Charge and then follows what he hath rehearsed And if this be not true Doctrine that every Believer that by the Grace of God sees his Sins laid on Christ hath a full pardon of all Sins past present and to come so that Sin shall never be charged on him for Condemnation before God I am to seek for the Doctrine of the Gospel I quote that place Rom. 8.33 to me a very full Proof And I do affirm that the Degrees of our Faith doth stand in the Degrees of the sight of Christ's Glory and the Perswasion we have in our Hearts of our part in him And I do not say That he is no Believer that hath not this perfectly far be it from me to say so there are that are Believers that are weak in the Faith and there are Believers that are strong in the Faith the more the Light and Glory of the Gospel shines in the true Intention of God to his People the more shall they return to their rest the more shall they have Joy and Gladness Why may not a Believer then say as David did The Lord hath been very bountiful to me that I may return to my rest God hath done every thing in Christ and taken away all things that can disturb my Peace and Comfort Dr. C. p. 158. Calvin I pray Mr. Neonom let us have your Description of Saving Faith Neonom I shall express it in the Assemblies Words ch 14. A. 2. D. W. p. 72 73. By this Grace a Christian believeth to be true whatsoever is revealed in the Word from the Authority of God himself speaking therein and acteth differently upon that which each particular Passage thereof containeth yielding Obedience to the Commands trembling at the Threatnings and embracing the Promises of God for this Life and that which is to come But the principal Acts of Saving Faith are Accepting Receiving and resting upon Christ alone for Justification Sanctification and Eternal Life by vertue of the Covenant of Grace Gentlemen weigh this Account of Faith well which if it were regarded and no essential part excluded when Faith is considered as a Condition of any Gospel-benefit One would think no man need prove that it is not saving Faith when any Essential part of it is wanting and that it must be saving Faith when we mention Faith as a Condition Antinom That Reverend Assembly do here express the Essential Parts of Faith and something more as the Effects of it I take it not to be intended for a Definition wherein only Essentials are put but a Description that takes in Subjects Adjuncts Effects c. The Definition is first given A. 1. That the Grace of Faith is whereby the Elect are enabled to believe to the Saving of their Souls After they proceed to shew the Causes of it the Word and Spirit and after that its several ways of Acting and it's Effects They do in the shorter Catechism give a briefer Account of it which may be more properly called a Definition Quest 86. What is Faith in Jesus Christ Answ Faith in Jesus Christ is a Saving Grace whereby we receive and rest upon him alone for Salvation as he is offered to us in the Gospel And if you please to turn to Quest 31. you shall see what they mean by receiving and resting There they say Effectual Calling is the work of God's Spirit whereby convincing us of our Sin and Misery enlightning our Minds in the knowledge of Christ and renewing our Wills he doth perswade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ freely offered to us in the Gospel And in the Larger Catechism you have a full Description of Faith as Justifying Quest 72. wherein there is the Genus of it a saving Grace the principal efficient Cause the Spirit the Causa ministrant the subservient efficient Cause the Word Both Causae procreantes The Subject in whom it is wrought a sinful miserable and lost Creature really so and in his own Eyes And then you have the Material Cause the truth of the Promise of the Gospel In the Confession wherein it's more largely express'd it's whatever is revealed in the Word this is the Objective part of it and Material The Form of Saving Faith is an Impression wrought upon the Soul from the proper Efficacy of the Spirit by the Word according to the acceptable Nature and Evidence thereof The Truth must have Goodness in it because we believe many things that we fear and are averse to The Word works objectively upon the Understanding perswading it to assent and set to it's Seal that the Word is Truth and from the Goodness in that Truth it perswades the Will to embrace because Voluntas sequitur ultimum dictamen intellectus and the consenting of the Will is an Effect of the assenting of the Understanding Hence then it 's not barely believing without Ground but upon some Authority In the Confession 't is said For the Authority of God himself speaking in the Word which is believing on Christ believing in God from whence follows an awful Reverence and Regard to his Word as also the resting and depending of the Soul thereon And when it 's determined to the Grace of Justification it 's as in the Larger and Shorter Catechism it receiveth Christ and his Righteousness in the Promise and resteth thereon for Pardon of Sin Justifying Grace through the Righteousness of Christ is the Object and that which it aims at is the accepting and accounting of a Mans Person Righteous in the sight of God for Salvation which is fuller express'd in the Confession shewing what saving Faith in the largest Sence designs viz. accepting receiving and resting upon Christ alone excluding all other Foederal Conditions for Justification Sanctification and Eternal Life by vertue of the Covenant of Grace Now you see how clearly they make Faith a Perswasion and that it doth all objectively by taking in the Truth and receiving it for the Understanding receiveth and embraceth by being perswaded it takes in the Light of Truth and the Will embraceth by being perswaded and the great procatarctick Cause is the Covenant of Grace Now I see you have a clean contrary Notion of making it a Condition and moral Instrument i. e. A moral Condition of the Covenant and so a Work and as such
with them he is Bone of their Bone and is not ashamed to call them Brethren Heb. 2.11 12. Psal 22.22 2. It presuppones a Legal Union between Christ and them that God made the Debtor and Surety one in Law and the Sum one so far as he laid our Debts on Christ Isa 53.6 2 Cor. 6.21 3. It presuppones an Union Federal God making Christ our Surety and to Assume not only our Nature in a Personal Union but also our State Condition and made our Cause his Cause our Sins his Sins not to defend them but to suffer Punishment for them and our Faith makes the fourth Union betwixt Christ and us whether Natural as betwixt Head and Members the Branches and Vine-tree or Mystical as that of the Spouse and Beloved Wife or Artificial as the Foundation and Building or mixed as that of the Imp and Tree or Legal between the Surety and Debtor Advocate and Client or rather a Union above all hard to determine for these are but Comparisons and this Christ prays for John 2.23 I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one And something to this purpose Mr. Norton Norton p. 292. speaks The Efficacy of this Relation springs from its Foundation which is first by the Absolute Grace of God in Election and thence flowing down in the Promise according to the Merit of Christ by the Effectual Operation of the Spirit Needs must the River of Life be full ever overflowing and quickning that ariseth from and is maintained by such Fountains Norton p. 287. And he shews the form of this Union 1. In the Tertium wherein it is 2. The Bands on Christ's part and the Believers 3. The manner as to the Tertium's 1. Sameness of Spirit He that 's joined to the Lord is one Spirit 1 John 4.13 Rom. 8.9 2 Pet. 1.4 2. One Mystical Body 1 Cor. 12.12 13. The third A Spiritual Marryed Estate Eph. 5.32 Isa 54.5 Ch 62.4 4th A State of Glory John 17.22 23. See more But you will see all along how he makes Christ first in this Personal Union to Christ by the Spirit and Faith Dr. Ames Ames Med. lib. 1. c. 26. Receptio respectu hominuÌ„ est vel Passiva vel Activa Phil. 3.11 The Passive is the Reception of Christ whereby the Spiritual Principle of Grace is Ingenerate in the Will of Man Ephes 2.5 This Grace is the Foundation of that Relation whereby a Man is united unto Christ John 3.5 Neonom I 'll tell you what I take to be Truth in these Points Every Man is without Christ or not united to Christ until he be Effectually called but when by this call the Spirit of God enclineth and enableth him willingly to accept of Christ as a Head and Saviour a Man becomes united to him and partaker of those Influences and Priviledges which are peculiar to the Members of Jesus Christ D. W. p. 90. Antinom I except against what you have asserted in these Particulars 1. You say a Man is not united to Christ before Effectual Calling thereby I understand you that he is not united to Christ in any sence whereas I affirm he is united to Christ before Effectual Calling in the Senses which Mâ—â— Râ—therford doth assert before mentioned 2. I understand you mean that in Effectual Calling a Man is not united to Christ till he doth Actually accept of Christ the Head by an Act of Faith whereas the Head unites the Members to it self before they can reach up to the Head 3. You make Union to be the same with Communion and to consist in a participation of Priviledges Now as to the second thing That in Effectual Calling there is a compleat Union with Christ before the Act of Faith I do affirm upon these Reasons 1. From the utter Impotency of the Soul without and before Union with Christ to any good Act for Union standeth in indivisibili it 's a conjunction of two in one an half one is none if we put forth an Act of Faith to lay hold on Christ before we be compleatly united to him we put forth a good Act and bring forth good Fruit before we be in him and before we be good Trees but we cannot bring forth good Fruit before we be good Trees and we cannot be good Trees before we be in Christ Mat. 7.18 John 15.4 5. Therefore we do not put forth an Act of Faith before we be so compleatly united to Christ so united to Christ as to live by him John 11.26 Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never dye c. Arg. 2. In our Regeneration we are meerly Passive our Faith is not then Active but in our Regeneration we are compleatly united to Christ Ergo we are compleatly united to Christ before the Act of Faith The major is proved from Eph. 2.1 2 3. Dead Men are Passive to Regeneration and Dead Men we are till we are Regenerated The Minor is proved from the joint concurrence of Regeneration Conversion and Union with Christ which are all wrought together simul semel Arg. 3. If we be united first to Christ by an Active Faith then an Active Faith is the cause of our Union with Christ but an Active Faith is not the cause of our Union with Christ therefore by an Active Faith we are not first united to Christ Min. If Active Faith were not the cause of the Union of the Humane Nature of Christ with the Divine then it is not the cause of our Union with Christ but Active Faith is not the cause of the Union of the Humane Nature of Christ with the Divine Ergo Maj. No other cause can be assigned of our true Union with Christ than of the Union of our Nature with the Second Person viz. Divine Assumption Isa 42.1 6. As the Divine Nature assumed ours John 1. so the Person of Christ takes us to Mystical Union with him Arg. 4. If our Union with Christ be first by an Act of Faith then it is by a Work of ours though a Work of Grace but it is not by a Work of ours Ergo Min. If it be by a Work of ours it is not of Grace but it 's of Grace Ergo Maj. Rom. 11.6 These are Mr. Cotton's Arguments Neonom I 'll answer your Arguments another time pray hear mine now to confirm the Truth 1. The Scriptures expresly affirm Vncalled Vnconverted ones to be ununited to Christ Eph. 2.12 Rom. 16.7 Rom. 11.17 Antinom It 's true in respect of the Union in Effectual Calling but yet not in respect of their Hidden Federal and Relative Union which Mr. Rutherford speaks of Neonom 2. The Spirit of Christ and Faith in him are the things whereby God hath ordained us to be Vnited with Christ 1 Cor. 12.12 13. Ephes 3.17 Antinom We grant it in respect of our Union to Christ in Effectual Calling Neonom I see you will throw off all my Arguments by Mr. Rutherford 's unhappy distinction of Vnions therefore
is Actually and Absolutely procured for the Elect before Faith and shall infallibly be applyed to them all in time seemeth to reach the Scope intended by the Godly Learned whose Spirits have more particularly laboured to hold forth the whole Truth in this precious part of Soul-Reconciling Doctrine and Soul-Supporting Mystery of the Gospel To say That we are Justified by vertue of a singular Promise in the Court of Conscience and in our own Persons in which sence the Scripture constantly saith We are Justified by Faith is not that I know of affirmed by any And for this he quotes Chamier Cham. Tom. 3. lib. 12 13. Sect. 18. Nobis persuasissinum est remissa esse peccata antequam Credidimus We are verily perswaded that our Sins are forgiven before we believe for we deny that Infants do believe And Perkins Perkins on Gal. 3.16 who saith Christ is first Justified i. e. Acquit of our Sins and we Justified in him And Dr. Ames saith The Transaction between God and Christ was a certain previous application of Redemption and our discharge unto our Suâ—ety Ames Medul lib. 1. c. 24. § 3. and unto us in him which to that secondary Application to be performed in us hath the respect of a kind of Efficacious pattern so that that the Application to him is the Representation of this Application to us and this is produced by vertue of that And he saith § 3. Hence our discharge liberatio nostra from Sin and Death was not only established in God's Decree but also in Christ and granted and communicated to us in him before it could be perceived by us Rom. 5.10 11. Hence the Father and the Son are said to send the Spirit to the performing of this Application John 14.16 and 16.7 And in the Chapter of Justification Am. Med. c. 27. §. 9. He tells us what the sentence of Justification is 1. It was in the Mind of God as it were conceived by him by his Decree of Justifying Gal. 3.8 2. It was in the Christ our Head pronounced when he rose from the Dead 2 Cor. 5.19 3. Virtually pronounced in that first relation which ariseth from Faith ingenerated in the Heart Rom. 8.1 4. Expresly pronounced by the Spirit witnessing with our Spirits our Reconciliation with God Rom. 5.5 Hence it appears that the Doctrine of our Justification before Faith is not an Errour but a Great and Glorious Truth and it is no prejudice to the Doctrine of Justification by Faith but the Foundation Ground and Reason of it neither is it any Door opened to Licentiousness an unbeliever having no more Confirmation or Encouragement to persist in Sin thereby than by the Doctrine of Election which gives none but as Mr. Norton saith It 's no small part of the Ministry of Reconciliation that God Imputed to Christ the Sins of the Elect before they did believe and will never Impute them unto the Elect. Neither is my speaking of Faith's taking hold of Christ's Righteousness and saying That it brings not Christ's Righteousness to us but presupposeth it given and granted such an absurdity as you would make it For Dr. Ames saith very distinctly Justifying Faith precedes Justification it self as a cause of its Effect but Faith apprehending Justification necessarily presupposeth and follows Justification as the Aâ—â— doth the Object about which it is Conversant and this I take to be the true Notion of Justification That Great Man for Holiness and Learning Chamier saith I deny that Faith is the cause of our Justification for then our Justification would not be of Grace Cham. Parstrat Tom. 3. l. 13. c. 10. Sect. 18. but of our selves but Faith is said to justifie not because it effecteth Justification but because it is effected in the Justified Person and in another place he saith Faith doth neither merit obtain or begin our Justification Lib. 22. c. 12. Sect. 5. and Sect. 9. for if it did then Faith should go before Justification both in nature and time which may in no wise be granted for Faith it self is a part of Sanctification now there is no Sanctification but after Justification which really and in its own nature is before it I think Sir I have cleared my self sufficiently from the Charge of Errour in this Point viz. That our Justification is in being before Faith And now Sir before we proceed to the other part of your Charge concerning the manner of Faith's Justifying let us hear your Arguments against Justification in any sense going before Faith Neonom One Real Difference between us is Whether we are Justified before we believe Which I deny for 1. We are Justified by Faith is the common Language of the Holy Ghost Rom. 5.1 Gal. 2.16 D. W. p. 105. Antinom We own it and say too that we are Justified by Faith and this doth not prejudice but confirm what we assert Neon Faith is enjoyned as an effectual means of Justification by Christ Antinom We deny not that Faith required in the Gospel and wrought by the Spirit is as an effectual means of Application of Justification but therefore it follows not that it 's in being before That which is not in being cannot be applyed Neonom The Gospel denounceth and declareth all condemned till they do believe Antinom The Gospel declares only their state of Condemnation under the Law the Gospel properly condemns not and we own that every one by nature is a Child of Wrath and in the sense of the Law is a condemned Person and every one is shut up under the Law as the Apostle saith till Faith comes his New-Covenant Blessedness belonging to him is not yet made manifest nor is his Nature and State changed Neonom Vnbelief is the Cause why men are barred from Justification and remain obnoxious to Misery Antinom It is God that justifies and no Sin can barr God's Act of free Mercy in pardon of a Sinner in the Pardon of Unbelief as well as of other Sins when God will justifie It 's very absurd to say Sin barrs God's Act of Pardon It 's true Unbelief influenceth a Sinner as to his own Acts and will be charged upon him as his Fault and will aggravate that Condemnation which he hath under the Law because from his own corrupt Will and Affection he will not receive Pardon and Life that is offered in the General and Indefinite Tender thereof made in the Gospel And therefore Christ saith John 5.40 Ye will not come to me that you may have Life Heb. 3.18 19. They could not enter by reason of unbelief Unbelief on our part doth keep us from Christ but hinders not on God's part that effectually draws all the Elect justifying of them and working Faith in them Rom. 8.29 30. Eph. 1. The whole Unregenerate state is a Barr till God break it by Regeneration which is a free Work of Grace as Justification is an Act of Grace and must be found where-ever a Sinner is Justifyed by Faith and that in
the New Testament are so often repeated which shew Justification to be sought only in the Person of Christ John 1.12 and 3.15 16. and 6.40 47. and 14.1 54. Rom. 4.5 and 3.26 Acts 10.43 and 25.18 Rom. 3.26 A Sinner is justified by Faith not properly as it is a Quality or Action Pemble of Justific ch 11. § 2. which by its own Dignity and Merit deserves at God's Hands Remission of Sins or is by God's favourable Acceptance taken for the whole and perfect Righteousness of the Law which is otherwise required of a Sinner but only in Relation unto the Object of it the Righteousness of Christ which it embraceth and resteth upon Justification is a Gracious Act of God upon a Believer whereby for the Righteousness sake of Christ Imputed by God Nortons Eang p. 300. and applyed by Faith he doth freely discharge him from Sin and Curse and accept him as Righteous in the Righteousness of Christ and acknowledge him to have a Right unto Eternal Life Q. 73. How doth Faith justifie a Sinner in the sight of God A. Faith justifies a Sinner in the sight of God not because of those other Graces that do always accompany it Assemb Large Catech. or of good Works which are the Fruits thereof nor as if the Grace of Faith or any Act thereof were Imputed to him for Justification only as it is an Instrument by which he receiveth and applyeth Christ and his Righteousness Q. 32. What is Justification A. Justification is an Act of God's Free Grace whereby he pardoneth all our Sins Shorter Catech. and accepteth us as Righteous in his sight only for the Righteousness of Christ received by Faith alone Whom God effectually calleth he freely justifieth not by Infusing Righteousness into them but by pardoning their Sins Confess c. 11. 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 nor 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 We are accounted Righteous before God only for the Merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by Faith Artic. 11. of the Church of Engl. and not for our own Merits and Deservings wherefore that we are Justified by Faith only is a most wholesom Doctrine and very full of Comfort c. The Righteousness of Christ as it 's Christ's and performed by him so it is ours as it 's Meritorious of Grace Efficacious of Faith it self that is to be wrought in us it 's ours therefore I say by way of Right because by the Decree of the Father and Purpose of the Son it 's wrought for us tho' not in our Possession as to Sense and Acknowledgment of so great a Benefit bestowed Haec enim agnitio this Acknowledgment ariseth from Faith The Righteousness of Christ is said to be Imputed to us and his Merits to be applyed by Faith not before God but in our Consciences as there is a Sense of it begotten in our Hearts by Faith and an Acknowledgment of the Saving Application from the Love of God which we taste by Faith and Spiritually perceive Justifying of us and Adopting us to be his Sons from whence ariseth Peace of Conscience Whence the Righteousness of Christ is said to be Imputed to us by Faith because it is not known but by Faith that it is Imputed to us by God and then at length we are said to be Justified by that kind of Justification and Absolution from our Sins which begets or produceth peace of Conscience Dr. Twiss C. 1. p. 2. de Elect. He speaks of Justification in a double Acceptation 1. As the Righteousness of Christ is applyed to us before Faith and Repentance by reason of which Righteousness we obtain Efficacious Grace to believe in Christ and Repent 2. He understands Justification to be that Notification that is by Faith made to our Consciences or in the Court of Conscience and this is saith he that Imputation of Christ's Righteousness Remission of Sin Justification and Absolution which follows Faith There 's none of us saith he say that wicked vitious Person allowing themselves to live in their Sins are bound to believe Christ dyed for them for my part I think otherwise that whilst all are commanded to believe in Christ they are not bid presently to believe that Christ dyed for them but rather to rest themselves upon Christ by Faith to renounce themselves and their own Works and cast themselves down at the Feet of Mercy this is only properly called Faith on Christ fides in Christum the other is only Faith concerning Christ Hence Mr. Norton hath these words Orthod p. 315. These are both Truths 1. Justification hath a Being before the Elect do believe 2. That the Elect are not Justified before they do believe Justification is the Object Faith is the Act or being actually Justified is an Effect Faith is the Instrumental Cause the Cause is before the Effect Maccovius Disput XVI distinguishes Justification into Active and Passive Active Justification signifies God's Absolution of a Guilty Person from Guilt for the sake of Christ's Satisfaction and accounting him Righteous for his Righteousness Imputed The Differences between this and Passive Justification by Faith are 1. This is one undivided Act of God Absolution by Faith is repeated 2. Active precedes Faith Passive follows c. A Digression concerning the Necessity of Repentance to Forgiveness Neonom GEntlemen if you please for a Diversion after this Arduous Attempt that I have made to bring in the true Doctrine of the Catholick Church let us make a little digression for our Recreation and treat upon a Point that hath not so much difficulty in it for having got in Faith to justifie as a qualifying Act I doubt not now but to pleasure some of its Relations and find them a place in Justification too Antinom Stay not so hasty I do not find you have yet attained your End about Faith festina lentè cry not Victoria yet but however Gentlemen seeing he is for a digression let him have it for he hath been in digression from Truth all along I know not how he can digress from the way he hath been in hitherto but by coming into Truth Neonom You judging we are justified before we do believe it 's no wonder if you tell us We are forgiven before we confess Sin p. 255. and repent and therefore I would enquire of the necessity of Repentance to Forgiveness D. W. p. 113. Antinom As a Qualifying Condition Gentlemen this is no digression for it 's the Right Line and Method that Bellarmine and all the Papists have taken in handling the Doctrine of Justification first to bring in Faith to justifie as
Antinom Very good then sure if the Spirit be an Earnest of Glory it 's an Evidence of Glory for what is a greater Evidence of a state than an Earnest Yea you say it 's also a Witness of our state if it be a Witness it is by a Testimony and if it bear Testimony and such an one as we take to be a Witness to our state it is something to this purpose Christ is thine thy Sins are Forgiven it must witness something that may beget in the Soul a joyful sence of its reconciled state there contrary to you Assurance must come in the immediate objective Revelation of the Spirit by the Spirits speaking in the Promise believed God is thy God Christ is thine thy Sins are taken away or something to this purpose Neither is this absurd to say the Spirit speaks thus ordinarily by a Voice because it is so interpretatively the Lord speaks when he causeth his Word to speak effectually unto the Heart and whatever Truth of God is made efficacious by the Spirit the Spirit speaks by it If any word of Promise become a truely comforting Word the Spirit as Comforter speaks by it you have granted us here in a manner as much as we can desire in this Point excepting an Equivocating Expression viz. as a Worker of Grace and whatever Evasion you have there this I will say that you make the Spirit an Evidence in its Efficiency it self as an Efficient whereas Signs and Marks are but Evidences as Effects And is not the Spirit received in its first sensible Efficiency in and by the Promise a great Evidence Gal. 3.3 2 Pet. 1.3 Neonom Nor whether the Spirit witnesseth by and with the Conscience in the manifestation of our Graces for Assurance Calvin It is a strange thing that you should make such a loud Cry in the World against a Man for Errour when you in a manner say the same thing and the Word of God asserts it so positively that the Spirit is the Comforter and witnesseth with our Spirits that we are his Children and you say as the Worker of Grace i. e. of all Grace and therefore of this Grace and if it works it must be by some Word of Peace that it speaks and is believed and you say it witnesses by and with the Conscience the Conscience speaking in and by the Spirit and how is the Conscience made to speak Peace more than by the sprinkling of the Blood of Christ whereby an Evil Condemning Conscience is taken away what manifestation of Grace works Peace most the manifestation of the Grace of Christ or of our Graces And these must appear to be the Graces of Christ and slow from him or else they are no Graces the Witness of the Spirit and the Intelligible believed Voice of the Spirit particularly applying the Declaration of the Gospel of Peace must be in all and is the most settled ground of all comfortable Assurance Neonom Nor whether the Spirit of God may in some Extraordinary Cases give an immediate Testimony by a Voice or some Equivalent Impressions D. W. p. 164. Antinom 1. You grant that sometimes the Spirit may witness by Voice or Equivalent Impressions 2. The Extraordinary Cases you here speak of must be meant of some not so usual in an ordinary way 3. I would know whether then the Spirit is to be believed and how its Voice may be distinguished from the Voice of a False Spirit 4. Whether when you speak of a Voice you mean an Articulate sound or such a still Voice as the Spirit speaks by which is an Impression of Gospel Truth with a particular application to the Soul this as you say is Equivalent to a Voice and it is the Eccho of the Word of Promise in the Heart and this is not an Extraordinary nor unusual way bringing Souls to settled Peace and Comfort Neonom But then there was the Truth of Grace though it was doubted before and nothing utterly inconsistent with true Grace either in the Heart nor then appeareth to the Conscience Antinom So that there is first a Witness from our selves before there 's Witness from the Spirit but how comes it that this Witness from our selves hath not Credit enough with it to be believed For if it hath whence comes doubting Here 's truth of Grace and nothing appears to the contrary and yet the Person doubts Doth any Man doubt of any thing when he apprehends nothing to the contrary And you say there 's the Truth of Grace before the Spirit witnesseth who wrought this truth of Grace do you not say that it witnesseth to our state as a Worker of Grace Neonom I will tell you where the true difference lyes 1. Whether none attain Assurance but by the Inward Voice of the Spirit pronouncing the Actual Forgiveness of Sins without manifesting their true Grace and Sanctification This you affirm and I deny Antinom You should have made the first Question whether any Assurance is attainable till Death because Perseverance is one of your Infallible Marks and all others signifie nothing unless we can take up upon that and that must run out to the last moment before we can 2. We affirm that there can be no Assurance without knowledge that our Sins are Forgiven assign an Assurance without it if you can and your Assurance from marks must come to this if it be Assurance 3. This must be by the Spirits pronouncing of it or no way when you have found all that you can it 's God must speak peace or else it will never be and Peace of Reconciliation however you Banter God's Reconciling the World and the Spirits bringing home the Word of Reconciliation 4. Who ever spake of the Spirits manifesting Forgiveness without manifestation of the whole Grace of God that brings Salvation in Sanctification as well as Justification both comes under the Witness of the Spirit and therefore you are besides the Question and state it not right Neonom The next Question is Whether the usual way of attaining Assurance is by the Conscience upon Tryal discerning and concluding through the help of the Spirit that a Man hath those Graces or Signs which describe a Man Blessed and Pardoned according to the Gospel This I affirm and you deny Antinom 1. That I deny Sanctification to be a sign of Justification is false for that which is an undoubted Effect is a sign of the Cause and an Argument of it to conclude it by 2. It 's not the Question whether it be not the usual way of attaining Assurance de facto such Gospel Preachers as you are still putting them upon this way and telling them there 's no other safe way 3. The Question is whether this be the only way Whether another way ought not to go first Neonom I will now confirm the Truth by some Arguments 1. This is the way that God appoints to attain Assurance 2 Cor. 13.5 2 Pet. 1.10 Antinom This is one way who denies it and a Duty
Righteousness before we be delivered from our Enemies Will you run at all Scripture and Experience Is it not true that the Law said to Man that had Life and Power concreated with him Do and thou shalt live And can this be the Tenor of the Gospel to say to a dead Sinner Do and thou shalt live Can a Man dead in Trespasses do any thing Were it not madness to say to a dead Corpse Walk and thou shalt live Doth not Christ first come as the Resurrection and Life to a Sinner before he can do any thing Do you think that Christ comes to a Sinner upon condition of any thing he can do in his natural Estate What is more plain than that Life is the Principle and Cause of Action and not Action of Life Christ himself saith a Man must have Life before he can Believe it 's first in Nature Joh. 11.26 Whoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die Now is the giving of Christ for Life the condition of our having Life Or our doing before we have Christ or Life the condition on which we have Christ and Life Calvin I think you have gained nothing nor yet made any proof of your Charge unless you think it be in this that the Doctor saith we must live before we can do If you take that for an Error I pray do you try your Skill the other way to make Men do before they live and if you can attain to that Art either in Naturals or Spirituals you will be the Wonder of the World Neonom He saith p. 124. The Freeman of Christ hath this freedom Christ doth all his Work for him as well as in him c. Christ doth all for them that God requires to be done Antinom You must know it is this I said A Freeman of Christ hath this freedom Christ doth all his Work for him as well as in him He that is in bondage under the Law must do every thing himself and that he doth he must do perfectly that is an unsupportable thing and heavy bondage for a Man to have more laid upon him than he can bear The Freeman of Christ considering that he is weak poor and unable to work Christ doth all his Work for him Isa 26.12 The Holy Ghost tells us he hath done all our Works in us and in the Margin it is render'd for us See Rom. 5.19 Their freedom is that they stand righteous in the sight of God by that which Christ hath done for us that they are as righteous as if they had done it in their own persons c. Thus I treat concerning the Obedience of Christ unto a Satisfactory Righteousness on our behalf But Obj. Doth not this take off Men from all manner of Obedience and all manner of Holiness A. It takes them off from those ends that they aim at in their Obedience viz. the end for which Christ's Obedience served viz. our standing Righteousness as it concerns us in point of Justification Consolation and Salvation We have our Peace we have our Salvation only by the Righteousness Christ hath done for us but this doth hot take away our Obedience nor Services in respect of those ends for which such Services are required of Believers to glorifie God to evidence our thankfulness to profit Men as Ordinances to meet God in to make good what he hath promised so far we are called out to Services and walking uprightly exactly strictly according to the good pleasure of God and in regard of such ends of Services there is a gracious Freedom that the Freemen of Christ have by Christ i. e. so far forth as Services and Obedience are expected at a Freeman's hands there is Christ by his Spirit present with such persons to help them in all such kind of Services so that they become strong in the Lord and the Power of his Might to do the Will of God Mark what the Apostle speaks I am able to do all things through Christ strengthening me of my self I am able to do nothing but in Christ and through Christ that strengtheneth me I am able to do all things c. There 's much more to this purpose Now judge whether here 's any ground for his Accusation Dr. C. p. 126. He slanders me to the World as if I taught a Doctrin of Licentiousness and were against all Duty but it will appear otherwise plainly enough if an impartial Man reads my Sermons especially that Sermon on 1 Joh. 2.1 2. Sermon III. p. 548. Neonom He saith p. 554. Man will be mincing of this Truth and tell you if you walk close to God and if you refrain from sin especially from gross sins God will love you and then you may apply these and these Promises unto your self but God speaks plainly before they had done good or evil Jacob have I loved the Grace of God is passed over to Men as they are ungodly c. This is the Grace of God revealed he hath exhibited it freely to Men Hath the Lord given us Commission to Preach this Gospâ—l Antinom In my Discourse from 1 John 2.1 2. this Objection is answered p. 557. viz. There are many admire and adore the Doctrin of the Free-Grace of God and yet are notoriously known to live in all manner of Lewdness and Licentiousness and upon this ground Because their Sins are laid on Christ The Sum of the answer is I confess I never knew any such Monsters c. There are many taxed for such but I cannot say any thing to the truth of this Charge by mine own experience c. But it may be there are such and Paul speaks of such in his time c. But if there be such I must tell you they are the greatest Monsters upon the face of the Earth c. And I dare boldly say they are the greatest enemies to Free-Grace and that open Drunkards Harlots and Murderers come infinitely short of them in Abominations c. But admit this that the Grace of God hath been abused hath not the whole Scripture been abused Law and Gospel Is not Christ set for the fall and rising of many in Israel Is he not a Rock of Offence But in the mean time shall the Children want their Bread because the Dogs catch at it c Shall not the Gospel be preached because some abuse it Obj. But you will say it may be done with caution and limitation A. But let us not be more wary and cautions than God would have us to be to put mixtures of Mens doings to the obtaining the Grace of God while the Lord himself doth pour out his Grace to Men simply for his own sake without consideration of any thing in them Men will be mincing this Truth c. Then follows what you rehearse And what doth all this amount to but what the Apostle John expresly speaketh 1 John 4.10 and the Apostle Paul Phil. 2.13 Eph. 2.23 That God's Love and Grace is the cause of all that which we do