bonum forsitan propter aliquod majus bonum The Concerns being so great sit down and consider May such Events be casual Did Angels and Man fall by chance or could that Providence which is waky over Hairs and Sparrows sleep over such a Concern Or if it could must not the great work of Redemption pendent on a casual Fall be casual also May Fortune ring the changes over Empires and Churches or cast out Persecutions and Heresies as roving Meteors to do her pleasure May lots be cast upon the Genealogy and Passion of Christ or the Acts of Gods Mercy Justice Wisdom Holiness and Power shining out in such Events hang upon a Peradventure May the All-wise and Almighty God sit complicatis manibus oculis conniventibus as Amyraldus speaks whilest such vast and wonderful Concerns are in agitation Methinks no sober Man can in Reason think it credible For my own part did I once believe a Lottery of such Events I should think that my next Fancy would be That Epicurus his Atoms by a lucky Hit made up that World which is so fortuitously governed in the very great Concerns of it He that allows not a determining stroke of Providence in such things May as Bishop Davenant saith avoid the suspicion of Stoicism or Manicheism but very hardly of Atheism This is the first thing These Events if unordained must needs be casual and without a Providence Neither is this to be salved by Divine Prescience Prescience as it is infallible is of things future and of determinate Verity and casual unordained Events not being such are no fit Object for it This made Episcopius doubt whether Prescience or at least the knowledge of it were necessary But might such a thing be of meer Casuals yet Prescience is not Providence Had the Epicurean Atoms rallied themselves into a World the Event though foreseen could not have been claimed by Providence as its own but must have been left to those Ethnick Names of Chance or Fortune and to the same must every unordained Event be left over which there is nothing but meer Prescience The other thing which constrains my Belief is That the holy Scripture from whence we must take our truest Measures expresly emphatically own such a Preordination of the Event not to insist on that Counsel of Ahitophel which yet observably hits the Mark only as God will have it to chastise David in the Concubines but not to destroy him in the pursuit I shall instance in others God turned his heart to hate his people Psal 105.25 God put it into their hearts to give their kingdom unto the Beast Rev. 17.17 It was of the Lord to harden their hearts Josh 11.20 The cause was from the Lord that Rehoboam hearkened not 1 Kings 12.15 Touching Absolon's Incest God saith I will do it 2 Sam. 12.12 Touching the lying Spirit he saith Go and thou shalt prevail 1 Kings 22.22 Antiochus tears and blasphemes like a Devil but that which was determined was done Dan. 11.36 The Jews crucisie the Lord of Glory but God's hand and God's counsel had determined it Act. 4.28 In such pregnant Scriptures can there be any thing less than a determining Providence or what other interpretation is tolerable May we interpret such emphatical places only of a nude Permission which leaves the Event pendulous and incertain It cannot be De Scient 219. the very Jesuite Ruiz will here confess Dei voluntate decreto consilio definitione fieri peccatorum actiones significat Scriptura But which is more valuable than Ruiz the Sensus fidelium which is one of the best Interpreters of Scripture runs this way It was not you that sent me saith Joseph The Lord hath taken away saith Job The Lord hath said Curse saith David Thou hast ordained them for judgment saith Habbakkuk of the Chaldees Still they look up to the hand of Providence in such Events And in truth what else can they do in such cases May they fear trust in or depend on Man He is but a Creature and there is a Curse in it Shall they fear trust in or depend upon God A God he is but such Events fall not under his Providence In a word These things give me such satisfaction in this Point that if Humane Reason could object what I could not answer I should yet adhere to the Truth saying with St. Austin Petrus negat Latro credit O altitudo quaeris tu rationem ego expavescam altitudinem tu disputa ego credam However I shall consider what the Author saith and first he tells us That such an ordaining is not consistent with Gods Holiness To which I answer I confess this Objection in the Remonstrants look'd to me primâ facie as a piece of Tenderness towards God lest any blot should light on the holy One they frame God's Decrees upon Prescience and suffer Man's Will to go formost in the Event of sinful Acts But remembring that even in the Event of good Actions they frame Gods Decrees upon Prescience also and let Man's Will take the Primacy it appeared to me that the great Center of all was no other than the Will of Man and from such a Center I despaired that any Divine Attribute should be truly glorified Indeed after the Scripture hath so often and pregnantly asserted a determining Providence over such Events for man to say That God is holier than so is a piece of fondness like that of the Masoreths who in the Hebrew Bible have put in some words in the Margin as cleanlier than those in the Text Nothing can be vainer than to imagine that Man should be able to draw the Picture of God's Holiness fairer than he himself hath done in Scripture or that what is spoken there touching his Providence should in the least reflect upon his Holiness But for a fuller Answer I say Gods Providence which in sinful Actions is as I take it operative of the Entity permissive of the Malice dispositive of the Order preordinative of the Event doth in none of these cast any blot on his Holiness As to the Entity God acts but as becomes the First Cause Arminius himself would have it Vt totus act us ritè Providentiae subjiciatur quà actus efficienti quà peccatum permittenti Providentiae As to the Malice God is but a Permissor Sin in the abstract hath only a deficient Cause viz. the Creature that as defectible in it self hath redire ad non esse à sel and as under a Law distinct from it self may fall short of it But God who hath no other Law but his own Perfection and can no more decline from his Rectitude than his Being is a meer Permissor As to the Order God disposes it here instead of a Blot the Glory of God breaks forth in that he hath his holy Line in the midst of the Ataxies of men either an Order of Penalty such as becomes him as the Prima Justitia or an Order of Coducibility such as sutes him as
make holiness needless Under pardon this is neither better nor worse than an old Popish calumny such as hath been cast into the face of Protestants over and over Chemnitius asserting justification by imputed Righteousness tells us Exam. Conc. Trid. de Justif Inde verò Pontificii texunt calumniam omnia decreta Tridentina ita condita sunt de justificatione ut obliquè nos insimulent quasi doceamus credentes non renovari quasi charitatem obedientiam ita excludamus ut nec adsit nec sequatur in reconciliatis And what return doth that learned man make thereunto Sed tantùm Syeophanticae impudentes calumniae sunt quibus strepitum excitant The learned Chamier brings in Sapeins Cham. de Sanctif cap. 2. charging the Protestants thus Non esse nos justos nist solû imputatione justitiae Christi non autem ullâ inhaerente qualitate And Costerus thus Christus est nostra justitia nulla est ergo alia justitia in nobis And Bozius thus Vt salutem consequaris sis sanctus aiunt omnes Protestantes nihil est necesse boni aliquid velis moliaris aut facias Christo fidas impunè quidvis audeas ad exitum perducas and then expresses himself thus Immanem ita me Deus amet calumniam The excellent Davenant De Hâ—tuali cap. â— ushering in Bellarmine and Campian and Becanus as casting the same dirt into the face of Protestants saith plainly to the two first quot verba tot serè mendacia and to the third calumnia est apertè falsa The Papists you see have cast out these calumnies but should a Protestant do so No surely the Author I confess hath done a great honour to these few Nonconformists in casting upon them that reproach of Christ for so as a Protestant I must call it which many a son of the Church of England would willingly bear hoping to have the spirit of Glory rest upon him but I suppose he hath done no great right to the Protestant cause therein How vain this calumny is doth assoon appear as we can open our eyes upon the common distinction between Justification and Sanctification Justification is an Action of God without us Sanctification an Action of the Spirit within us the one is by the perfect Righteousness of Christ imputed the other by the holy Graces of the Spirit infused and inherent in us In the one we are freed from the Guilt of Sin in the other from the Corruption and Pollution of it By the one we have a Title to God's Kingdom by the other a Meetness for it it being such as no unclean thing can enter into the same And what colour of Repugnancy is there between these two and how doth the one make the other useless Both are useful to the Believer and both in Harmony between themselves Obedience is so far from being needless that it is a necessary consequent upon Justification by Christ's Righteousness St. Paul in the Epistle to the Romans first treats of Justification and then of Sanctification as a consequent thereupon Good works as our Church tells us in the 12th Article are the Fruits of Faith and follow after Justification To me it is unimaginable that the holy Spirit which is procured by Christ's Righteousness and before whose inspiration as our Church tells us in the 13th Article works done are not pleasant unto God should inspire unjustified persons to Obedience nay had it not been for Christ's Righteousness the holy Spirit I verily believe would no more have touched in the least holy motion upon Men than upon Devils I shall close this Point with the Authors own words Christ's Satisfaction was for sins of Omission and Commission and by it we are reputed by God as having done nothing amiss and as perfectly righteous to have done all to have kept the whole Law pag. 60. and yet I hope the Author doth not esteem Holiness needless though I cannot tell how Christ's imputed Righteousness whereof his Satisfaction is a part should make any man more than perfectly righteous However Holiness is necessary with respect to Sanctification Mr. Sherlock We have in us a New Creature which is fed cherish'd nourish'd kept alive by the fruits of Holiness God hath not given us new Hearts to kill them in the womb or to give them to the Old Man to be devoured as Dr. Owen hath it The phrase of this is admirable and the reasoning unanswerable if men be new Creatures they will certainly live new Lives And this makes Holiness necessary by the same reason that every thing necessarily is what it is when it is The new Creature is fed with fruits of of Holiness Answer so Dr. Owen Upon which the Author tells us in sport that the phrase is admirable I suppose it is so Hear our Church As Men that be very Men indeed 1. Hom. of good works quoting St. Chrysost for it first have life and after be nourished so must our Faith in Christ go before and after be nourished with good works But for the reason I think it cannot be answered Exercise is necessary for the Body and is it not necessary for the Body and is it not necessary for the Soul It is necessary for the Soul in meer Moral Virtues and is it not necessary for it in spiriritual Graces too Reason though a natural Talent only necessarily obliges us to walk sutably to it and how much more do Divine Graces which are altogether supernatural bind us to live in a Decorum thereunto These things to me are very cogent Well! Mr. Sherlock but holiness is necessary as the means to the end but how Though it neither be the Cause Matter nor Condition of our Justification yet it is the Way appointed by God for us to walk in for the obtaining Salvation he that hopeth purifieth himself none shall come to the End who walk not in the Way without Holiness it is impossible to see God This is all pertinent and home to the purpose but it hath two little faults in it that it contradicts it self and overthrows their darling Opinions which I can pardon if he can What the necessary way to eternal Life and yet neither Cause Matter nor Condition At least it might be the Causa sine qua non and that will make it a Condition But not to dispute about words I am content it should be only a way to life but what becomes of Christ then who is the only way Cannot Christ's Righteousness save us without our own Doth Christ's Righteousness free us from guilt and entitle us to Glory and yet can we not be saved without Holiness What becomes of free Grace then Is not this to eek out the Righteousness of Christ with our own To make Christ our Justifier and our Works our Saviour This is all pertinent Answer It seems the former Arguments drawn from the sovereign Will of God from the End of the Love of the blessed Trinity from the
the power of sin and that by the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Thus the Author to which I answer God sent his Son indeed into the world that we might be sanctified by his Spirit but that was not all he sent him that we might be justified by his Blood and Righteousness to which purpose it will be worth while to consider that place Rom. 8. The Apostle in the first verse sets forth believers men in Christ by two excellent things first by Justification There is no condemnation to them no though there be reliques of corruption in them as is imported in the seventh Chapter there is none and then by Sanctification which is in conjunction with the other they walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit And in the other verses he confirms both but inverso ordine first he confirms their Sanctification from the great Origen of it the holy Spirit The Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the Law of sin and death vers 2. The power of the holy Spirit hath subdued the power of sin and then he confirms their Justification from the sufferings of Christ with which his active obedience is to be taken in conjunction What the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh vers 3. Their sins were condemned in the flesh of Christ there was an atonement made for them which certainly must relate to Justification from these sufferings of Christ with which his active obedience must be taken in conjunction the Apostle inferrs That the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us vers 4. The Law was not able to justifie us for want of a perfect obedience in us but God translated the impletion of the Law upon Christ Christ fulfilled all Righteousness for us Christ bore the wrath of God for us and these things being imputed unto us the Righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in us But then the Apostle returns again to Sanctification and subjoyns Who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit assuring us that those who are justified by the imputed Righteousness of Christ are also Sanctified and led by his holy Spirit This I take to be the meaning of the place But let us hear our Church treating upon this place in conjunction with other Scriptures r. Hom. of Salvation St. Paul saith Rom. 3. We are justified freely by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ And Rom. 10. Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to every one that believeth And Rom. 8. That which was impossible by the Law in as much as it was weak by the flesh God sending his own Son in the similitude of sinful flesh by sin damned sin in the flesh that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us which walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit In these places the Apostle toucheth three things which must go together in our Justification upon Gods part his great mercy and grace upon Christ's parts justice that is the satisfaction of God's justice or the price of our redemption by the offering of his body and shedding of his Blood with fulfilling of the Law perfectly and throughly and upon our part true and lively Faith in the merits of Jesus Christ which yet is not ours but by Gods working in us So that in our Justification is not only Gods Mercy and Grace but also his Justice which the Apostle calleth the Justice of God and it consisteth in paying our ransom and fulfilling of the Law And so the Grace of God doth not shut out the Justice of God in our Justification but only shutteth out the justice of man that is to say the justice of our works as to be merits of deserving our justification And therefore St. Paul declareth here nothing upon the behalf of man concerning his justification but only a true lively Faith which nevertheless is the gift of God and not man's only work without God and yet that Faith doth not shut out Repentance Hope Love Dread and the fear of God to be joyned with Faith in every man that is justified but it shutteth them out from the office of justifying so that although they be all present in him that is justified yet they justifie not all together These are the excellent words of our Church worthy without flattery be it spoken to be written in Letters of Gold but much more in the hearts of all true Christians We see here that there is in justification nothing on the behalf of man but Faith only no internal Holiness Repentance Hope Love Fear of God are in the justified but shut out from the office of justifying God's Grace and Christ's Righteousness are the great causes of justification But saith the Author Is there here any mention of Christ's Righteousness or the imputation thereof I answer Our Church surely thought so and we have his passive Righteousness expressed vers 3. and where that is expressed the active is implied This is clear when the Scripture saith That we are made righteous by Christ's obedience Rom. 5.19 It doth include his blood also and when he saith That we are justified by his blood Rom. 5.9 It doth include his active obedience also so that the Scripture because it expresses justification by both and because it must be consistent with it self in expressing the one includes the other When therefore Rom. 8.3 his sufferings are expressed his active obedience is also included both therefore are intended and withall an imputation without which they cannot be profitable to us But saith the Author The Law could not do it that is the Law could not deliver from the power of sin I answer The Law could not do it of it self and without the Spirit of Christ but if that divine Spirit take the Law into its hand and write it in the heart I suppose there will be a New Creature But the Author saith That the righteousness of the Law may be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit vers 4. How can imputation come in here What pretty sence will this make of the Apostles argument I answer The sence is very clear the Righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in us by Christ's Righteousness imputed to us and withall we to whom that is imputed walk after the Spirit the one is our Justification the other our Sanctification Both the Apostle proves to be in Believers and both consist very well together as appears from the first verse There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit The No condemnation appertains to Justification and the walking after the Spirit to Sanctification and both stand very well together As to what the Author saith afterwards That there was no reason to abrogate Moses ' s