Faith in him or else we must feign that a Believer hath a Spiritual Life in him that is not from Christ if he have Faith before he is united to Christ as some pretend and so there would be two Spiritual Lives in a Believer one before Union to Christ which works Faith and the other from Christ upon acting our Faith But this Ass of our own Spiritual Life and the Oxe of Christ's Life in us will not draw well together So that I think I may safely conclude this is no Heresie to say that Union to Christ is before Faith much less is that which follows an Heresie to say that we partake of the Spirit by vertue of that Vnion This is brought in as part of the fifth Heresie Whence do the Branches partake of the Sap of the Vine but from the Root by Vertue of Union to the Vine 'T is strange to admiration that this should be question'd by those who like Peter seem to be Pillars in the Church to call it an Antinomian Heresie to say We partake of the Spirit by vertue of Vnion to Christ If the Spirit be not in us before Faith how can he convince of Sin in not believing and thereby work Faith Doth not the Scripture say plainly 1 Cor. 12.8 9. To one is given by the Spirit the word of Wisdom to another Faith by the same Spirit Doth the Spirit give Faith and is he not then in the Soul to work Faith before it is wrought Is not the Former before the Thing formed If so then sure my Dear Kratiste was in a great Mistake and has sadly imposed on those that profess Faith in our Lord Jesus to rank this for a Heresie That we partake of the Spirit by vertue of our Vnion to Christ which in Naturâ is before Faith The sixth as being much akin to the former I pass only with the naming of it 'T is Heresie he saith to say Justification in regard of Application must be before Believing Whose Saying this is or whence it is taken I know not If the meaning be that God applies it to us or reckons it to us before our Believing that we are Justified This is so far from Heresie that I think the contrary is a Contradiction Or 't is Nonsense for me to believe a Thing is mine before it is given me or applyed to me and so made mine And in that Sense the Application of Justification by God's Spirit to my Conscience that God hath loved me and given his Son for me this must first be applyed to me before I can believe it or else my Believing is but Presumption But if by Application of Justification before Believing he means that the Soul doth apply it to himself before his Believing I think he is to seek for any that hold that Tenet §. XXVII His seventh Heresie is this That the first Application ordine Naturae saltem is to an Vngodly Man eo nomine that he may believe That this is a blessed Gospel-Truth and no Heresie appears by what our Blessed Lord Jesus saith That he came not to call the Righteous but Sinners And his immediate Call made them follow him as Levi from being a Publican to be a believing Disciple Nay saith our Lord Publicans and Harlots enter into the Kingdom of God before you Ye believed not but the Publicans and Harlots believed Matth. 21.31 32. Here was Application to ungodly Wretches eo nomine that they might believe and when Publicans and Harlots they did believe and so came off from their Ungodliness Yea the Dog Syrophenaecian as Christ called her she had Faith given her while she was a Dog even to the Admiration of Christ himself who said O Woman great is thy Faith And saith the Apostle for a full Proof that the Application is to an ungodly Man eo nomine While we were Enemies we were reconciled to God by the Death of his Son Nay as God will have it the very word ungodly which they oppose as Heresie is asserted in the Scripture that the first Application of Christ is to an ungodly Man in Rom. 4.5 To him that believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his Faith is counted for Righteousness If the Blessed Apostle saith God justifieth the ungodly I trow this is no Heresie in him but if Heterodox Dr. Crisp say the same words then 't is an Antinomian Heterodoxy Now there 's a great out-cry what do you make God to be Is God such a Friend to Sin as to justifie the Vngodly Doth it become the Holiness of God to justifie an ungodly Man This is the way to vindicate all licentious Antinomianism That God justifies the Vngodly and that while he is an Enemy he is reconciled to God O out upon such profane Antinomians We can allow the Apostle Paul to use such Language because we can distinguish this into he doth not justifie the Vngodly that the Apostle means so whatever he saith but we cannot bear it that Apochryphal Tobias should say so nor that Mysterious Nonsense say so as Mr. Williams called Mr. Cole we cannot bear it in him for this is to open a gap to Profaneness to say God justifieth the Vngodly §. XXVIII The eighth Heresie is to assert That we believe that we may be justified declaratively The Case I take to be thus The Apostle saith in Gal. 2.16 We believe that we may be justified by the Faith of Jesus from whence the Neonomians conclude that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 credere our Act of Faith is that very Thing which justifies us or that we are justified by our Work of Faith if not by Works of Faith and Holiness which sometimes they joyn yet at least by a Work by our Act of Believing Whereas the Orthodox according to the Homilies and Doctrine of the Church of England from plain Scripture put Faith it self from us as that Act that justifies and say Faith justifies only declaratively as it manifests to the Conscience our being justified by Christ's Blood Rom. 5.9 and freely by his Grace not our Grace of Faith through the Redemption that is in Jesus Rom. 3.24 Titus 3.7 It is still ascribed to his Grace not any Grace in us our Grace of Faith being only the Instrument or Hand given us of God to receive Christ and all in him If Justification be as they would have it from any Act of ours as the Ground or Cause of it then we are not freely justified by his Grace but by our Work of Believing which if not a Popish is an Arminian Tenet to blemish the Free Grace of God in Jesus Christ So that it may be safely concluded that it is no Heresie to say our Justification by Faith is declarative in as much as the Essence of Justification is by the Blood of Jesus and the Grace of God imputing it to us is the form of our Justification which being received by Faith is thereby manifested or declared to the Conscience by the Illumination of the Holy
which is laid Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 3.11 and all hay and stubble upon it shall be burnt Which every sincere lover of our Lord Jesus daily prays may be hastened Even so come Lord Jesus §. LXXX Our Rebuker like some Captain General in the Confederates Army in Flanders where most of them are Papists or very sorry Protestants is in the next place giving orders for a kind of Popish Barriere to be set about the Divine Justice in pa. 51 though by the way a Barriere against an Enemy had been more like a General 's Word of Command but let it go for the Neonomian Word of Command a Barriere about Divine Justice his Sentence is this I would have I your General a Bar a Barriere about the Divine Justice that Men may not dare to represent him or it for better sense as a Tyrant in making so many millions to damn them eternally to damn them without respect had to their demerits This is plain Arminius or worse and such as I never suspected from my Dear Kratiste to justifie the general out cry of corrupted Natural Religion What did God make us to damn us How could we help our first Parents Sin But doth not the Scripture say In Adam all dyed for that or in whom all have sinned and by the offence of one judgment came upon all Men to condemnation Rom. 5. And will you now run with the Herd and cry God made Millions to damn them as a Tyrant without respect to their Demerits because they are condemned in Adam Now I see some Reason why the Rebuker said once in the Pulpit in Pinners Hall We did not sin Adam ' s Sin But I am sure he must own that in Adam all dyed then he must own with Augustine In Adam all are damned Damnati antequam nati Damned before Born and yet God no Tyrant but Holy and Just as well as Gracious and Merciful Hath not the Potter power over the Clay of the same lump to make a hundred Chamber-pots and but five drinking Vessels Shall proud insolent Man teach God what Vessels of Wrath prepared of old to this Condemnation to make Jude 4. and what Vessels of Mercy Or whom he will to have Mercy on and whom he will to harden O that Men were wise and not to set Barriers of their divising God hath set his Barriere and let Men stand and adore and tremble at that word What if God willing to shew his Wrath and to make his Power known endured with much long-suffering the Vessels of Wrath fitted for destruction Is God by saucy prophane Man to be called a Tyrant for shewing his Wrath on Vessels of Wrath before of old ordained to this Condemnation having fitted themselves by their Sin in Adam for this destruction Shall we say it is without their own Demerits when God saith in Adam all dyed O that Men were wise to Sobriety and would not think to jostle God out of his Throne Let us adore Free Rich Sovereign Grace that is published in the Gospel that whoever will may take the water of Life freely Rev. 22.17 All in the sound of the Gospel being invited to come to Christ and they shall find rest for their weary Souls Those that charge God as a Tyrant for damning Millions without respect to their Demerits when they are lost and condemned in Adam will not condemn a Temporal Prince for a Tyrant to take and sieze the Estate of a Traytor condemned and to take it from all his Posterity ever after to the Worlds end And shall Man be justified as no Tyrant and God be charged so arrogantly Let us adhere to God's Barriere that in Adam all sinned and the Wages of that Sin is Damnation to all that have not an Interest in Christ §. LXXXI In his hedge about Justification I take notice of his indispensable Bulwark that is That Faith be made indispensably necessary to it in all the Adult Here one might ask what precise time should be fixed for the Adult it being an odd word and unscriptural The Scripture saith He that believes shall be saved he that believes not is condemned already And if there be not the Seed of Faith in Infants before they dye which God alone gives as Sanctification in the Womb or afterwards when he pleaseth I know not how according to the Scripture our only Rule to judge by they can be saved if they have not the Seed of Faith in Sanctification Would you have one way for Infants to be saved and another for the Adult when Christ alone is the Way the Truth and Life But passing by that it may be ask'd what kind of Faith is it that is to be so necessary There is bare assent to the Truth and this many call a Faith sufficient provided they live good Lives as they call it but this Faith the Devils have and tremble Then there is Historical Faith and Temporary Faith There is above and beyond these a Faith of assurance which some make absolutely necessary I would hope he means none of these but a Faith of adherence to the Lord Jesus for Life and Salvation by him and him alone of relying on him trusting to him renouncing our selves and our best performances as loss and dung in the matter of Justification or as any cause of our Salvation This might have given some Light into his indispensably necessary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 about the Doctrine of Justification I fear there lyes a snare in this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this indispensably necessary Some and those mighty Friends to the Arminians make Faith necessary as a Cause or Co dition that stands in the place of Works of the Law Some make it a Condition as joined with Repentance and pers verance in Gospel-Obedience and so put it in the place of Christ's Righteousness imputed to us and make Faith as it is our Work to be imputed to us for Righteousness And so the Hedge is become a hodge-podge of our Gospel Righteousness joyned with Christ's Righteousness under the notion of Faith a Condition O how good is it for us to fence our selves with God's Word that the Foundation of God stands sure Whom he did foreknow them he did predestinate and them he called and them he justified and them he glorified Here 's not a word of what we do that we predestinate we call we justifie or we glorifie our selves 't is God doth all And if instead of our pleading to justifie and glorifie our selves we would indeavour to justifie and glorifie God for his free justifying and glorifying us through and for the sake only of his dearly beloved Son our Dear and Blessed Lord and Saviour it would be much better than to make a pother about the Conditionality of Faith when all is of Grace But I hope in this indispensably necessary Faith to Justification he doth not exclude some mixture of doubting with Faith though he names not the least allowance for that and yet where is the Faith
But we are to contend earnestly for the Faith once delivered to the Saints which Faith seems to be taking wing and leaving us under that sad word of our Lord When the Son of Man cometh shall he find Faith on the Earth There being very little of it now what with open Enemies scoffing at all Revealed Religion on one side and seeming Friends though as bad Enemies on the other side that joyn Man's Obedience with Christ's Righteousness as concurrent causes or means of our Justification and Salvation and so bringing in our Gospel-Holiness as co-partner with our Lord Jesus the Alpha and Omega the First and the Last the Author and Finisher of our Salvation To whom with the Father and Blessed Spirit even to him that sits on the Throne and to the Lamb that was slain and is alive in the midst of the Throne and to the seven Spirits before the Throne be Honour Glory and Praise for ever §. CXXI Now that these plain Remarks on some of the great Truths of the Gospel which have been struck at may be beneficial to the humble Peruser to settle him on our Lord Jesus the only Foundation in order to be built up in the most holy Faith by him who buildeth all Things who is God Heb. 3.4 is the fervent Prayer of the unworthiest I say of the unworthiest in his own Eyes of any that sincerely desires to cast in his Mite to the Treasury of the Testimony of Jesus God blessed for ever §. CXXII Having taken the freedom out of love to the Truth and zeal for the Glory of God's Grace therein manifest to be a little plain with my Dear Kratiste hoping for a Blessing of the Lord thereby on his and others Souls I find my self ingaged to make some Remarks on the Reporter the first occasioner of this thus-handled Debate And first I must and do own that I humbly judge that he hath done great and good Service to the Truth by delivering his Report with much plainness and perspicuity however it be censured by the Adversary and I take it that he deserves Thanks of Thousands besides my self who make the Truths of the Everlasting Gospel their daily Study for his ingenious Vindication of his Report from the Slander of its being called false by the Rebuker §. CXXIII But two Things wherein I take him to have exceeded I hope may be rectified that is his hard pressure on my Dear Kratiste and his tart Passages on Dr. Crisp As for the Rebuker was it not enough when the Reported had sufficiently foiled him nay and had laid him so flat on his Back as to be for ever unable to stand upright again in that Cause by clearing his Report from being false But when he had him down sure he should not have prest him to Death or worse by his Printing such a Letter as tax'd him not only with Buffoonry but with being by fits delirous and to charge him with denying Christ's Satisfaction for our Sins §. CXXIV As for the first I that have known him above Twenty Years never heard before or saw the least Tendency to those unhappy Fits Though upon inquiry of the ground of such a Charge 't is said The Writer knew well what he said But however this I take to be too severe a Reprimand for his Rebuke considering how terrible a blemish it is to so eminent a Person 's Ministry to be tax'd with being delirous O how few can be free if every Transport shall lay a Man under such a Censure Therefore this I would advise the Reporter to be humbled before the Lord for considering how in many things we offend all §. CXXV As for the Reporter's Argument That the Rebuker denies Christ's Satisfaction for Sin because he saith Christ's Death was for our good and it was impossible it should be more and that therein he Justâ—fies the Socinians I answer this Conclusion That he denies Christ s Satisfaction hereby looks like a strain upon the words beyond the meaning of the Rebuker for it seems apparent in this Rebuke especialâ—y in his other Writings That he expresly owns Christ's Satisfaction for Sin Though in that Expression of his in Fol. 37. he hath unhappily gratified the Socinians too far by saying It is impossible that Christ's dying in our place and stead should signifie any more than for our Good God forbid that my dear Kratiste should mean by that word only for our Good as the Socinians do That Christ's dying was only for our good as an Example or to confirm his good Doctrine only No He means I hope That Christ by his Death took away the Sins of all the Elect That he bare their Sins and bare them away into a Land of Forgetfulness never to be remembred more as our Scape goat That he suffered for their Sins That he wash'd them from their Sins in his Blood And so he died for our Good that we should have the Good and Benefit of his taking away our Sins and of his becoming a Propitiation for us a Sin-offering for us a Ransom to the Father for us and also himself to be ours the Lord our Righteousness for which let us ascribe Honour and Glory to him continually for that he hath loved us and washed us from our Sins in his Blood §. CXXVI Then for the Reporter's Tartness against Dr. Crisp I am Amazed so florid a Person should so far blemish his Discourses be so Dis-ingenious to the Doctor as to say He believes there is somewhat Dangerous in the Doctor 's Writings in Page 87. of his Vindication and not to give one Instance of it His words being these If there is any thing Dangerous in the Doctor 's Writings as I believe there is It would have been fair to have given one dangerous Passage at least but for want of that I turned to some of the most severe Passages of Mr. Williams's against the Doctor and to Dr Chancy's Apology for the Doctor to see what was so dangerous and I found in P. 37. of Gospel Truth Mr. Williams had loaded the Doctor thus Reader how horrid a sound must it have to a Christian Ear to say A Christ odious to God abhorred by the Father Here Mr. Williams speaks as if Dr. Crisp had said these words A Christ odious to God abhorred by the Father But Mr. Williams deals unjustly herein for as to the word A Christ odious there is not such an Expression in the Doctor and as for abhorred by the Father the Doctor s words are Christ is as it were abhorred by the Father But suppose it were as Mr. Williams brings it in How much more Horrid a Sound is it to say Christ is odious to God than to say Christ is made Sin by God himself If we had due Thoughts of the Horridness of Sin and that Christ was made Sin that is by Imputation we should think it as much a Debasing of our Lord Jesus to be made Sin by God as to be accounted Odious or Abhorred
assert he is so far from being a Sinner in himself that being God-Man he cannot sin nay he never could commit Sin or be guilty of any Sin of his own All that they affirm of his being a Sinner is only that he was so by Imputation only As a King 's Innocent Son undertaking for a Criminal may be a Thief or Murderer by Imputation if he suffers for the Thief And so Luther calls Christ the greatest Sinner in the World and yet Men dare not call Luther an Antinomian whatever they think And so to repute Christ an imputed Sinner we are taught by the Blessed Apostle when he saith God made him Sin And my Dear Kratiste knows in his Conscience that not a Man of his Antinomians have any such thought exprest by word that our Blessed Lord Jesus is a Sinner any other way than by our Sins imputed to him which nevertheless were as really made his so as to bear them and suffer for them as if they had been committed by him and yet though they were laid on him and so made his they nor ten thousand millions of times more Sins were not able to defile or pollute in the least his most Holy God like Body or Soul So that it is meer strain and looks like Malice to say they make Christ a Sinner because they say he was made Sin by Imputation §. LXXVIII I suppose this may rather be a moot Point in our New Divinity or New Gospel Whether be the greatest degraders of our Lord Jesus Christ the Socinians that say Christ is not God by Nature or the Neonomians that make Christ to be the Mediator upon a New Law of God's making Such Law admits or allows of Sin in obedience to it or doth not require Sinless Obedience That is That Christ hath purchased that our imperfect Obedience shall be admitted for perfect for his sake This is by the New Law of their coyning which is to un-God the Holy God and to make void the Death of Christ For if God be such a God as makes a Law that admits of Sin then he is not the true God for God cannot behold Iniquity with the least allowance no not the least Iniquity of a vain Thought And if the Blood of Christ doth not take away the Sin that cleaves to our most sincere Obedience we must perish to all Eternity because the Soul that sins must dye either himself or his Surety for him even for the least Sin And did not some Men count little Sins to be little Things they would not trifle with the Holy God as if of course he past by little Sins or that he hath made a Law that admits of that which is not Sinless Obedience And because Man's Law will not hang a Man for stealing a Pins head they wiâ—l have a God like themselves that cannot damn a Man for it whereas God's Law is without exception the Soul that sins shall dye and the stealing a Pins head may be with as felonious an intent as stealing a Kingdom So that stealing a Pins head needs the Blood of Christ to wash the Guilt away as well as robbing 1000 l. on the Road needs it for both need it though the latter be the more heinous And besides their ungodding of God by charging him with making a New Law that admits of Sin they hereby make vain the Death of Christ For if our imperfect Obedience may be accepted for perfect without washing away the Imperfections or Sins in it by Faith in the Blood of Jesus to wash away those and all our Sins then Christ's Death is in vain For if little Sins may pass without the Redeemer's Blood washing them away then may great ones also for without shedding of Blood there is no remission and it is the Blood of Christ which cleanses from all Sin If from all then from little as well as from great and if not from little ones then also not from great But it doth cleanse from all therefore there can be no Law of God's making that admits of Sin And if you will be making Antinomians here you have matter for it they being the true Antinomians that are against Sinless Obedience and if so they are for Sinning Obedience And it is their own brainless Brains and not the Holy God hath set up a Law that admits Sin in the Obedience If this be not Antinomianism there is none in the World I own God accepts sincere Obedience that hath respect to the pure perfect holy Law of God though there be Sin in such Obedience provided the Obedience be done in Faith looking to the Blood of Jesus and trusting to it to take away the Iniquity of our holy Things But to talk of a New Law that admits of Sin is so far to un-God God the Maker of such a Law that it may well be a moor Point Who are the most to be abhorred the Socinians that un-God our Lord Jesus or the Neonomians that un-God the Father of our Lord Jesus by attributing such a Law to him to be the Author of even a Law that admits Sins as Mr. Williams doth §. LXXIX He procoeds and saith This is a day wherein Antinomianism is triumphant That is to say in the Neonomian Dialect It is a day wherein Free Grace flowing to poor Sinners through the Blood of the Lord Jesus as the only ground of our Justification Sanctification and Salvation without any thing of our Works yea or Faith it self concurring as any cause thereof that this Free Grace is triumphant I wish you could make good your Position then the Doctrine of our English Protestant Religion in the Homilies then the Truths that have been delivered by Luther Calvin Twifs Dr. Goodwin Crisp Cole Mather c. would be triumphant But alas the new way the Cassandrian way the going about to establish our own Righteousness and not submitting to the Righteousness of God by Faith but as it were by the Works of the Law Rom. 9.32 10.3 this Doctrine hath its ten thousands among Papists Arminians common Protestants who are only for their doing well and so dying well and leaving out Jesus or if he come in 't is but like some Flowers on the brims of the Dish to garnish it in many Mens Sermons and Prayers while the other Doctrine of our Lord Jesus being all in all the Lord our Righteousness made of God to us Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption that there is no Name or Thing under Heaven whereby we can be saved in whole or in part but only the Name of Christ this Doctrine hath for its followers but its single hundreds But the day of the Lord is coming that will burn as an oven and will burn out all the Dross and Tin that is among his own People and utterly consume all that will not submit to the alone Righteousness of his Son to be saved by that and that alone imputed to them for Justification For other Foundation can no Man lay than that