And tells us P. 612. Our first coming to Christ is as a Coach is said to come to Town when it is but drawn to Town I shall make no further Remark on this than tell thee the Doctor distinguisheth not between what we are abstracted from the Spirit 's Influence and what we are by the Spirit 's Influence VVe are passive in effectual Vocation as that is God's Act on us but even then no Violence is offered to the VVill for the Mind dictates what it chooseth freely Under this healing VVork and that passiveness is not our coming to Christ but by the Effect of God's Act on the Mind and VVill we consent to the Call and that is our first coming and thereby we receive Christ and not before He is not forced on us but accepted from a Light that commends and a VVill that desires him VVhereas we come not a step whiles we do refuse and reject him Though I wonder why he speaks of any first coming against our VVills when his Principle is that we are united to Christ at latest in the Moment of Conception in the VVomb CHAP. XII Of Justification by Faith with a Digression about Repentance TRUTH I Have spoken of Justifying Righteousness chap. 7. Though Faith be no way a Meritorious Cause of a Sinner's Justification yet God hath promised to Justifie all such as truly Believe and requires Faith as an indispensible Qualification in all whom he will Justifie for Christ's Merits declaring That Unbelief shall not only hinder Mens knowing that they are Justified but that it is a bar to any Person 's being Justified while he continues an Unbeliever Reader Note 1. There is a Righteousness for which a Man is Justified This is only Christ's Righteousness This is the Foundation of the Promise and the Merit of the Blessing promised Nothing can add to it or mingle with it it 's sufficient and alone sufficient to satisfie Justice atone for Guilt and merit Acceptance and Life 2. There 's to be considered what the Condition of the Person is whom this Mercy is promised to He is one that hath this Grace of true Faith and exerts it into Act. This Grace is also required and commanded as indispensibly necessary to the Participation of Forgiveness Christ's Righteousness shall not be imputed to this use unless we believe And nothing shall hinder our Title to this Benefit if we do believe in Christ for the Promise is inviolable And this Faith being a Conformity to the Rule of the Promise some call it a Subordinate Righteousness not meaning any Righteousness for which Sin is forgiven for it 's Christ's Righteousness alone for which God Justifies us but it 's our answering that Rule by which Christ applieth his Righteousness for our Remission and a Right to Life and his Promise is the Ground of our Title Having premised these things for Explication of the Truth I proceed ERROUR The whole use of Faith in Justification is only to manifest that we were Justified before and Faith is no way necessary to bring a Sinner into a Justified State nor at all useful to that End Proved that this is the Dr's Opinion The Doctor p. 85. puts this Objection Is not Believing required to the Justification of the Ungodly Answ. An ungodly Person after he is Justified doth Believe But you will say It is an Act of Christ by Faith Ans. Then Christ doth not Justifie alone c. Nay I say more Christ doth Justifie a Person before he Believes c. He cannot believe that which is not and if he be not Justified before he Believes it he believeth that which is false but he is first Justified before he Believes then he believes that he is Justified The Doctor then asks But what doth Faith serve for He answers It serves for the Manifestation of that Justification which Christ put upon a Person by himself alone P. 86. We do not Believe that we may be Justified but because we are Justified P. 578. God doth add never a tittle of Pardon it self more to him that is a Believer than to that Person not yet converted to the Faith c. P. 597. I say Faith as it takes hold of Christ's Righteousness it doth not bring this Righteousness of Christ to the Soul but doth only declare the Presence of that Righteousness that was there even before Faith was He in that Page denies Faith to be so much as an Instrumental Cause of Justification In very many places he declares We are not Virtually but Actually Justified before Faith If thou ask when he thinks the Elect are Justified The Doctor tells us It 's from Eternity at Christ's death and the latest time is before we are born See p. 101 255 361 362 616 c. See more ch 1 2 3 11. Wherein the Difference is not 1. It is not Whether Faith or any Grace be a jot of the meriting Righteousness for which we are Justified 2. Nor Whether Faith or any Grace add any thing to the Value of Christ's Merits These I deny yea I add That if Christ's Righteousness could be applied for Pardon to the vilest Sinner before he Believes it would Justifie him but God hath declared it shall not be applied to Unbelievers 3. Nor Whether we are Justified the same moment as we truly Believe in Christ and the Blessing is not suspended for any time longer This I affirm because God Justifies us by the Promise as his Instrument and this Promise declares that he will Justifie him that Believes It 's a Christ truly Believed in doth Justifie us and a Christ so Believed on cannot but Justifie us 4. Nor Whether an elect Person once Justified shall by Christ's care be kept in a Justified state 5. Nor Whether God hath decreed That the Elect shall certainly Believe and so be Justified 6. Nor Whether True Faith be an Infallible Sign of Justification These four last I do affirm Wherein the Real Difference is 1. Whether we are Justified before we Believe This the Doctor affirms and I deny 2. Whether the Use of Faith in Justification be only to manifest our Justification which we personally had before This the Doctor affirms and I deny and add That Faith Justifies us by receiving Christ and therein answers the Ordination of God who hath promised to Justifie the Believer by the Application of Christ's Righteousness in this gracious Effect of it upon the guilty Soul The Truth Confirmed What I have said chap. 1. Of the State of the Elect and chap. 11. Of the Necessity of Faith to Union with Christ and chap. 3 4 10. render Enlargement needless Yet I shall add 1. We are Justified by Faith is the common Language of the Holy Ghost Rom. 5. 1. Gal. 2. 16 c. What is it to be Justified by Faith if we are Justified before Faith It contributes to our being Justified or words express nothing in a case of the highest moment Rom. 3 20. God justifieth the Circumcision by Faith and the
called justified sanctified and glorified Here thou seest Redemption and Justification are distinct things and the Elect are in Time called before they be justified In the Larger Catechis Q. What doth God require of us that we may escape his Wrath and Curse due to us The Assembly answer That we may escape Wrath c. He requireth of us Repentance towards God and Faith towards our Lord Jesus and the diligent Use of the outward Means whereby Christ communicates to us the Benefits of his Mediation Here thou seest that 1. We may be for a time without the Benefits of Christ's Mediation 2. That notwithstanding his Mediation we are under the Curse and Wrath as still due to us for sin till we repent and believe For it 's to escape these God requires Repentance and Faith 3. It 's by Means attended to and operating on us that the Benefits of Christ's Mediation are communicated for the Removal of the Curse and Wrath. VVhat can be more fully spoken against our being discharged when Christ suffered yea or before we repent and believe The Synod of New-England condemn this Speech viz. To say We are justified by Faith is an unsafe Speech VVe must say we are justified by Christ the Synod tells us it is no unsafe Speech But on the contrary to say a Man is justified before Faith or without Faith is unsafe as contrary to the Language of the Scripture p. 17 18. and they confute That as the 68. Errour viz. Faith justifies an Unbeliever that is the Faith that is in Christ justifies me that have no Faith in my self p. 13. Doctor Owen of Justif. p. 306. saith But yet the Act of God in laying our sins on Christ conveyed no actual Right and Title to us unto what he did and suffered They are not immediately thereon nor by virtue thereof ours or esteemed ours because God hath appointed somewhat else not only antecedent thereunto but as the Means of it unto his own Glory The Grounds of the Doctor 's Mistakes Because it was God's Act to appoint Christ to suffer for our sins that we might in his VVay and Time be discharged therefore he thinks we are immediately discharged by that Act. Because Christ's Atonement is the sole meritorious Cause of Forgiveness therefore he thinks God suspends not Forgiveness till he works any thing else in the Soul which he hath made requisite to our being forgiven tho' not as any meritorious cause Because the Scape-Goat carried their sins into the Wilderness who expressed their Faith and Repentance by laying on hands on it and confessing sin therefore the sins of men are taken away by Christ while they continue impenitent and unbelieving CHAP. IV. Of the Elect's ceasing to be Sinners from the time their Sins were laid on Christ. REader I shall premise 1. Men are sinners or cease to be sinners in several distinct Respects 1. As to the Filth and Obliquity of Sin with respect to this they are more or less sinners according to the degree of their Innocence and Holiness 2. With some as to the Guilt of sin which refers to the Sanction of the Law against Offenders With respect to this the Offenders be more or less sinners as they are forgiven or not forgiven 3. As to the Charge of the Fact which was sinful with respect to this neither After-sanctification nor Pardon will deliver a Transgressor from having been a sinner the Fact was his The first and last denominate one a sinner most properly The second denominates a Man punishable but not a sinner formally 2. In the whole Scheme of the Doctor 's Principles it 's the Elect as elect who cease to be sinners Therefore when he speaks of a Believer he doth not mean he was a sinner before he believed for he states the time to be when Christ had our sins laid upon him viz. on the Cross. Having explained the Title of this Chapter I proceed Truth An elect Person ceaseth not to be a sinner upon the laying of our sins upon Christ that is he remains a sinner as to the Guilt till he believes if Adult He is a sinner as to the Filth of sin till he be sanctified He is a sinner as to the charge of the sinful Fact he commits and that even after Pardon and Sanctification Nevertheless he is free from the Curse when he is pardoned and shall be purged from all the Filth of sin when he is perfect in Holiness And tho' Christ did bear the Punishment of our Iniquity yet it never was Christ's Iniquity but ours Errour The Elect upon the Death of Christ ceased to be sinners and ever since their sins are none of their sins but they are the sins of Christ. Proved that this is Doctor Crisp 's Opinion The Doctor puts this Objection p. 8. Must not he be reckoned to be a sinner while he doth sin A. I answer No Tho' he doth sin yet he is not to be reckoned a sinner but his sins are reckoned to be taken away from him c. A Man doth sin against God God reckons not his sin to be his he reckons it Christ's therefore he cannot reckon it his This he endeavours to prove p. 270. If thou hast part in the Lord Christ which he thinks all the unbelieving Elect have all these Transgressions of thine are become actually the Transgressions of Christ and so cease to be thine and thou ceasest to be a Transgressor from that time they were laid upon Christ to the last hour of thy Life So that now thou art not an Idolater thou art not a Thief c. Thou art not a sinful Person what sin soever thou committest p. 271. So that if you would speak of a sinner supposing that Person of whom you speak to be a Member of Christ i. e. Elect you must not speak of what he manifests but of what Christ was Wherein the Difference is not The Difference is not 1. Whether the pardoned Sinner shall be delivered from Condemnation 2. Nor whether God for Christ's sake will deal with a pardoned Sinner as if he had not been a Sinner 3. Nor whether Forgiveness doth take away Sin as to its Obligation to Punishment 4. Nor whether the Atonement of Christ when it 's applied in its full Effects will perfectly remove all Punishment and purge away all Filth and Defilement from the Elect. Each of these I affirm The real Difference 1. Whether because Christ obliged himself to bear the satisfactory Punishment of our sins did they therefore become the sins of Christ This the Doctor affirms and I deny Of which I have spoken Chap. 2. 2. Whether our sins were pardoned when Christ suffered on the Cross This the Doctor affirms and I deny Of this see ch 1. and 3. and 12. c. 3. Whether even they that are Members of Christ yet if they do sin are they Transgressors and Sinners and are the sins they commit their sins This the Doctor denies and I affirm The Truth proved One
it was when his Body was in the Grave Luk. 23. 43. Alas how can any bear to think that as the Doctor affirms he never saw God's Face all that while Where was he Yea What tormenting Agitations of Soul must he be under even after Death in the unseen State The Papists indeed tell us he was in Hell but they assign Purposes more becoming Christ's being there than the Doctor 's Position imports It was the height of Hell for Christ to be banished from God's Face and be under his very Wrath and Abhorrence all that time and his Mind tormented with the Filth of sin made his He never would have been a Saviour on Terms so inconsistent with his Person But the whole Notion is contrary to Scripture for under the greatest Abatements of Comfort he owns God's Presence and Relation My God My God Matth. 27. 46. and just upon his loud Cry he said Father into thy Hands I commit my Spirit and having said thus he gave up the Ghost Luk. 22. 46. Was there a Separation or Abhorrence when he thus addresseth himself to God as his God and his Father Did he never come near God all that while when God received his Spirit or rejected his Prayer which God never did reject Joh. 11. 42. Me thou hearest always See Ps. 69. 13 14 15 17 18. Ps. 22. 18 19 20 24. Heb. 5. 7. He was heard in that he feared which refers to this time Testimonies The Opinion I oppose is such that I will only instance the Words of Doctor Owen of Justif. P. 286. There was no reason why God should hate Christ for his taking on him our Debt and the Payment of it And suppose a Person out of an heroick Generosity of Mind an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for another so as to answer for him with his Life Would the most cruel Tyrant under Heaven that should take away his Life in that case hate him And then the Doctor shews here and P. 287. the Word Hate signifies either an Aversion or Detestation of Mind or only a Will of Punishment In the first Sence saith he there was no ground why God should hate Christ on the Imputation of Guilt unto him sin inherent renders the Soul polluted abominable and the only Object of Divine Aversation But Christ was undefiled c. The Grounds of the Doctor 's Mistake The Doctor doth not distinguish between the Affects of VVrath and the Effects of VVrath Because God forsook Christ as to the usual Degrees of Comfort he thinks Christ was separated from God 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 this Punishment by his own Consent neither of which have any thing of the Loathsomeness of sin I know not why he thinks Christ came not near God from the time of his Death to his Resurrection unless because of his Conceit that the Loathsomeness of sin being on him God could not bear the sight of him till he had sweat it out a Reason too horrid for me to say more to and indeed inconsistent with the Notion of a Mediator for the sins of others CHAP. VII Of the Change of Person between Christ and the Elect and their being as Righteous as he Truth THE Mediatorial Righteousness of Christ is so imputed to true Believers as that for the sake thereof they are pardoned and accepted unto Life eternal it being reckoned to them and pleadable by them for these Uses as if they had personally done and suffered what Christ did as Mediator for them whereby they are delivered from the Curse and no other Atonement nor meriting Price of saving Benefits can be demanded from them 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 untill Christ by his Spirit perfect that Holiness begun in all true Believers which he will effect before he bring them to Heaven Errour Every Believer or elect Person is as righteous as Christ and there is a perfect Change of Person and Condition betwixt Christ and the Elect he was what we are and we are what he was viz. perfectly holy and without Spot or Blemish Proved that this is Dr. Crisp 's Opinion P. 270 271. The Doctor saith Mark it well Christ himself is not so compleatly righteous but we are as righteous as he nor we so compleatly sinful but Christ became being made sin as compleatly sinful as we Nay more we are the same Righteousness for we are made the Righteousness of God that very Sinfulness that we were Christ is made that very Sinfulness before God So that here is a direct Change Christ takes our Person and Condition and stands in our stead we take Christ's Person and Condition and stand in his stead What the Lord beheld Christ that he beholds the Members of Christ to be c. So that if you reckon well you must always reckon your selves in anothers Person and that other in your Person And P. 180. God gives his Son Christ c. God gives the Person of Christ to Men as much as to say God gives Christ to stand in the room of Men and Men stand in the room of Christ. So that in giving Christ God is pleased as it were to make a Change and all the Loveliness the Person of Christ hath that is put upon us and we are as lovely with him even as the Son himself And P. 158. Here is a Person in Blood in a loathsome Condition but for all this as loathsome as the Person is in himself and in his own Nature yet here is Perfection of Beauty c. On the account of this he saith P. 428. We appear before God perfect in Holiness And P. 419 420. Christ draws up and exhales that Impurity which Men live in c. and when Men are without Spot and all fair God falls in Love with them c. The Church hath no Blemish at all no Imperfection See more of this in Chap. Of Union Wherein the Difference is not 1. It is not whether the mediatioral Righteousness of Christ habitual active and Passive be a Righteousness sufficient to and designed for the Salvation of the Elect. 2. Nor whether our Justification and all other Benefits when we are made Partakers of them be the Fruits of this Righteousness as the only meritorious Cause of them 3. Nor whether Christ's Sufferings and Obedience were so in our Stead that God cannot exact from us any other Atonement for Sin or meriting Price of any Gospel-blessings 4. Nor whether Christ by his Righteousness merited for all the Elect that they should in his Time and Way be certainly Partakers of its saving Effects and did not only purchase a conditional Grant of those Effects viz. That Proposition He that believeth shall be