Laws and therefore above them as morally righteous or gracious and jurally righteous or an owner of all things to make Man not only legally righteous according to Law and morally righteous according to Law but jurally righteous according to free Grace The CONTENTS Imputation Logick Logistick Christ's Righteousness TITLE II. Of the form of Justification Imputation THe Form of Justification is Imputation or rather Reckoning Accounting Reasoning or Concluding Computing Ascribing or Numbring The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that so signifies The great Acts of Counting are Logick and Logistick SECT I. Logick 1. Logick is the counting of sayings or Propositions according to their Rations or Reasons as they are composed to infer their Conclusions and to be resolved into their Principles For the Conclusion is the effect of two Propositions rightly figured whereof one is the Cause the other the Medium or mean between the Cause and the Effect and produceth the Effect The major Term in the major Proposition is the Cause the minor Term in the minor Proposition is the Effect and the medium or middle Term in both major and minor Propositions is the mean that produceth the Effect in the Conclusion as thus Every breathing Creature hath sense Every Man is a breathing Creature Therefore Every Man hath sense This last Proposition is the effect of the two former in which sensibility which is the major term is the cause and a Man is the effect and a breathing Creature is the means whereby this cause produceth this effect For because a Man is a breathing Creature therefore a Man hath sense or is sensible SECT II. 2. Logistick is the Counting of Numbers Logistick according to their rations or rates as they are composed into their powers and resolved into their roots The power or product is the effect of two numbers rightly multiplied when one of those two is the root of that power and the other is the rate between the root and the power As 6 is the cause of 12 and 12 is the effect of that cause and the root 2 multiplying 6 is the means between the cause and the effect producing the effect 12. So the cause of Salvation is God's promise The effect of this cause is Salvation it self The Mean between both that makes the cause to produce this effect is Faith And as in Logick the Conclusion is the effect of two sayings or propositions rightly figured when one of those sayings is the cause of that effect and the other saying is the reason or mean between the cause and the effect so in Logistick the power is the product of two numbers rightly multiply'd when one of those two numbers is the root of that power and the other is the rate between the root and the power Both these Countings or reckonings or reasonings do manifest the ration or rate of a saying to a saying and of a number to a number SECT III. The grounds of both these reasonings and reckonings are two 1. Those things that agree in one third do agree among themselves as in Logick the major and minor agree in the medium therefore they agree among themselves so in Logistick the multiplication and the product agree in the root or multiplier therefore they agree among themselves As 6 and 12 agree in 2 for 2 times 6 is 12. So God's promises and our salvation do agree in Faith 2. Whatsoever is affirmed of the genus is affirmed also of the species and all that are under it As whatsoever is affirmed of Abraham the Father of the Faithful is affirmed of his Children For all that believe are blessed with faithful Abraham A Believer is blessed Peter c. are believers Therefore Peter c. are blessed So that to account is to conclude by reasoning or numbring by arguing to find the conclusion by addition to find the total by multiplication the product and by division the Quotient The Grammatical sense of the word Impute is to cut divide purge or clear but custom hath made it to signifie to account reckon ascribe pass over the right or title to a thing or the thing it self or something for it by acceptilation either voluntarily by private act of gift Contract Payment release or consideration otherwise or necessarily by publick act of condemning or discharging for punishment or reward Imputation therefore that is accounting or reckoning is a Spiritual action for the conveyance of rights which are Spiritual things belonging to corporeal things Which rights are jural belonging to Persons and may be passed over from one to another by donation succession cession or dereliction deputation or assignment degradation or deprivation And therefore in this great business of Justification to the Rights of Spiritual and Celestial Blessedness Faith is the means whereby all these things are accounted or reckoned to be due unto us or which is all one Faith is accounted for our right unto them And this is clearly demonstrated Rom. 4.3 1. From the letter of the Scripture Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness Ja. 2.23 And ver 9. Cometh this blessedness then upon the Circumcision only or upon the uncircumcision also for we say that Faith was reckoned to Abraham for Righteousness And ver 22. It was imputed to him for Righteousness not for his sake alone that it was imputed to him but for us also to whom it shall be imputed if we believe c. 2. From the scope of the Scripture Faith is the means of Justification instead of works by the which no Flesh can be justified and this is the only true work that God would have us to work even to covenant with him and embrace what he hath promised as for other works of our own righteousness Joh. 6.28 29. we may not relie upon them at all but meerly depend upon Grace accounting our Faith only for our right What shall we do that we might work the works of God Jesus answered and said unto them This is the work of God Ro. 3.24 c. that ye believe on him whom he hath sent Being justified freely by his Grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through Faith in his Blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God to declare I say at this time his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus Where is boasting then it is excluded by what Law of works nay but by the Law of Faith Therefore we conclude that a Man is justified by Faith Ro. 5.1 2. without the deeds of the Law Therefore being justified by Faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom also we have access by Faith unto this Grace wherein we stand and rejoyce in hope of the Glory of God Much more then being now justified by his Blood Rom. 5.9
but the less it suppresseth it or provideth any Remedy at all against it Rigour The Meer Law as it is the first Covenant of Works contains in it nothing but Rigour and Justice but no Grace nor Mercy at all A Rule it is to declare what is Right and what is Wrong but no means of it self efficacious to the doing of Right or the not doing of Wrong And therefore there is an extraordinary Weakness therein as to the Justification of a Sinner Heb. 7.18 Rom. 8.3 What therefore the Law could not do for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof through the flesh Christ taking the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh That the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit And that the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus might make us free from the Law of Sin and Death Rom. 7 5 6 For when we were in the flesh the Motions of Sin by the Law did work in our Members to bring forth fruit unto Death But now we are delivered from the Law that being dead wherein we were held that we should serve in newness of Spirit and not in the oldness of the Letter So sin taking occasion by the Commandment works in us all manner of Concupiscence For without the Law sin is dead And so we were alive without the Law once but when the Commandment came Sin revived and we died And the Commandment which was ordained to Life proved in effect to be unto Death But sin taking occasion by the Commandment deceived us and by that Commandment slew us All this while the Law is holy and the Commandment holy and just and good And that which is so holy and just and good is not directly nor truly the Cause of our Death nor can it be so God forbid by its own Natural operation for out of good nothing but good can proceed but Sin that it might appear sin naturally worketh death by the occasion of that which is good For Sin taketh occasion by the Commandment to become exceeding sinful The CONTENTS Sin deceives Grace un-deceives My defect Fruition High understanding Ignorance True knowledge Means to discern Truth Rules Principles Authority Infallibility Will. My Lust Vnderstanding Physical and Moral Agents Will. Casual Cause of Sin Law TITLE IV. Of the Deceit of the Law THis seems to be a mystery Sin deceives that we should be deceived into sin by the Law of God It will not therefore be a Digression nor altogether unprofitable if it were to shew how a Law and a good Law and the Spiritual Law of God in the Old Testament should be said by St. Paul to be though but an occasion to deceive us into sin and death Strange that that which was so good should be made so much as the occasion of Evil and of the greatest of Evils to death it self and the greatest of deaths to a death in sin How then did Sin take this occasion by the Commandement of God first to deceive us and then to kill us if we can tell And how great then is the Power of Grace O the depth of the Riches of God's mercy that only can make us alive unto God Grace undeceives and be a death unto Sin and to the death of Sin and kill that which would kill us when nothing else can do it That when Sin did so abound by the occasion of Good Grace might so much the more abound by the occasion of Evil For which we must thank God who hath given us this great victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. When therefore Sin urges the strength of the Law against us and advances the Sword of Justice to strike us to death and that by the accusation of the Devil who hath the power of Death then Grace lays her hand upon the Sword of Justice and stops the mouth of Sin and the clamour of the Law and of the Devil that lays the Law against us and saves us from the stroke of Death and giveth us Victory over all those through Jesus Christ our Lord. So we may be deceived after a sort by the Law but we can no waies be deceived by Grace But yet we have not answered this point How the Law or rather Sin by the Law comes to deceive us This I say then Sin deceives me by misinforming my Understanding and by misguiding my Will The Law orders me to life but Sin deceives me in and by the Law unto death It will be sit therefore to consider here these four Points 1. My defect I am deceived that 's for certain 2. The direct efficient Cause of my deception is Lust 3. The casual or accidental Cause of Sin the Law 4. The Innocency of the Law My Defect My Defect I am plainly deceived He is said to be deceived that akes one thing for another this is all one with an errour or mistake in the Understanding and this in the Will declining to follow right Reason an Erratum He is properly decieved who fails of some end which he intended and aimed at Decipitur de quo aliquid capitur he is deceived from whom something is taken away which he should or would enjoy This is Fraud God praeordained every thing to its proper end All Unreasonable Creatures attain their ends but if they should not they cannot be said to be deceived because they understood them not that they might aim at them Reasonable Creatures fail of their Ends because they are deceived in their Judgments and Endeavours God in the Scriptures opens and offers Eternal life and gives me Understanding to apprehend it and a Will to accept it a Law to direct and his Grace to assist my Humane frailties But I am deceived 1. In my Apprehension by infinite Errors mistaking Falshood for Truth Vice for Vertue Pleasure or Profit for true happiness Temporal life and glory for Eternal 2. In my Prosecution by infinite Errata misdoing evil for good Fruition 3. In my Fruition which I fail of in the end and I deceive my self by way of fraud My Understanding I speak not of her privative Ignorance but of her Errors her oblique and depraved knowledge the more I have the more I am deceived High Understanding An elevate transcendent Understanding frames most irregular conclusions A fine Wit hath more refined Errors Learning it self is but a kind of progress in Error Ignorance When I was quite Ignorant I had no error in me but now I have got a little knowledge I have learned some Rules to erre by Learning is a remedy to Nescience but no bar to Error and Truth carrying the same countenance I have no perfect skill to discern them and especially because little Ore amongst a great deal of Dross and a pound of Error to a dram of Truth We are all deceived in one thing or other Truth is hard to come by and there
it may be said that when we are fallen from God we are not able to rise again of our selves We willingly grant it that we have need therefore of new strength and of new power to be given which may raise us up we deny it not Grace And thirdly that not only the power but the very act of our recovery is from God Ingratitude it self cannot deny it But then that Man can no more withstand the power of the Grace which God is ready to supply us with than an infant can his birth or the Dead their resurrection that we are turned whither we will or no is a conclusion which those premisses will not yield This flint will yield no such fire though you strike never so oft We are indeed sometimes said to sleep and sometimes to be dead in sin but it is ill building conclusions upon no better basis than a figure and because we are said to be dead in sin infer a necessity of rising when we are called Nor is our obedience to God's inward call of the same nature with the obedience of the Creature to the voice and command of the Creator For the Creature hath neither Reason nor Will as Man hath Nor doth God's power work after the same manner in the one as in the other How many Fiats of God have been frustrate in this kind How often hath he smote our stony and rocky hearts and no water flow'd out How often hath he said Fiat lux Let there be light and we remained still in darkness We are free Agents and God hath made us so when he made us Men And our actions when his power is mighty in us are not necessary but voluntary nor doth his power work according to the working of our fancy nor lye within the level of our carnal imaginations to do what they appoint but is accompanied and directed by that wisdom which he is and he doth nothing can do nothing but what is agreeable to it c. Mr. Farring p. 403. c. per tot Cant. 21. If we must die why doth he yet complain why doth he expostulate For if the Decree be come forth if we be lost already why doth he yet call after us How can a desire or Command breath in those coasts which the power of an Absolute will hath lay'd already wast Absolute Decree If he hath decreed we should die he cannot desire we should live but rather the contrary that his Decree be not void and of none effect Otherwise to pass sentence an irrevocable sentence of death and then bid us live is eo look for liberty and freedom in necessity for a sufficient effect in an insufficient cause to command and desire that which himself had made impossible to ask a dead Man why he doth not live and to speak to a carcass and bid it walk Indeed by some this Why will ye die is made but Sancta simulatio a kind of Holy dissimulation So that God with them setteth up Man as a Mark and then sticketh his deadly arrows in his sides and after asketh him why he will die And why may he not saith one with the same liberty damn a Soul as a Hunter killeth a Deer A bloudy instance as if an immortal Soul which Christ set at a greater rate than the World it self nay than his own most precious Bloud were in his sight of no more value than a Beast and God were a mighty Nimrod and did destroy Mens Souls for delight and pleasure And though they dare not call God the Author of sin for who is so sinful that could hear that and not anathematize it yet others and those no Children in understanding think it a conclusion that will naturally and necessarily follow upon such bloudy principles And they are more encouraged by those ill-boading words which have dropt from their Quils For say some Vocat ut induret He calleth them to no other end but that he may harden them he hardneth them that he may destroy them he exhorteth them to turn that they may not turn he asketh them why they will die that they may run on in their evil waies even upon Death it self When they break his Command they fulfil his will and it is his pleasure they should sin it is his pleasure they should die And when he calleth upon them not to sin when he asketh them why they will die he doth but dissemble For they are dead already horribili decreto by that horrible antecedaneous Decree of reprobation Thou didst distroy us before we were And if we die even so good Lord for it is thy good pleasure Fato volvimur it is our Destiny or rather Est Deus in nobis not a Stoical fate but thy right hand and thy strong irresistible arm hath destroy'd us And so the expostulation is answer'd and the Quare moriemini is nothing else but Mortui estis Why will ye die is the Text the Gloss is Ye are dead already Menander 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—pirituale Saâ—ificium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iamblichus In materialibus ultrà corporeas qualitates latent etiam rationes species mensuraeincorporeae atque divinae per quas quae adhibentur sunt congrua diis Profectò quicquid admovetur quandocunque consentaneum simile Diis mox Dii adsunt conjunguntur exhibentque munera precesque exaudiunt Qui verò purus est omnino talia supergreditur neque ad haec proportionem habet Sed quando Deos longè secretos in suà unitate collectos cupimus venerari honoribus a materiâ penitus absolutis eos venerari debemus Intellectualia enim his dona debentur incorporea vita virtus perfecta sapientia confirmata eorumque officia Arch. Parkerus de Antiq. Eccl. Brit. Et sane illa prima de Romanis ritibus inducendis per Augustinum tunc excitata contentio quae non nisi clade sanguine innocentium Britannorum poterat extingui ad nostra recentiora tempora cum simili pernicie caedeque Christianorum pervenit Cum enim illis gloriosis Caeremoniis à purâ Primitivae Ecclesiae simplicitate recesserunt non de vitae sanctitate de Euangelii praedicatione de Spiritûs Sancti vi consolatione multùm elaborabant sed novas indies altercationes de novis Ritibus per Papas singulos additis qui neminem tà m excelso gradu dignum qui aliquid caeremoniosi non dicam monstrosi mandati inusitati non adjecisset instituebant Suggestaque Scholas fabulis rixisque suis implebant Superstitio Nam prima Ecclesiae species simplicior integro interno Dei cultu ab ipso verbo prescripto nec vestibus splendidis nec magnificis structuris decorata nec auro argento gemmisque fulgens fuit Etsi liceat his exterioribus