Righteous and by that Righteousness I must say with them where they have our Divines on the blind side are justified to wit according to the Law of Faith or as they are judged at the Throne of Grace but they do sin they are Unrighteous and no flesh living can be justified according to the Law of Works or at the bar of the Ten Commandements When the Apostle argues against justification by the Law he proves none can be justified by it because all do break it Those that will follow truth shall argue as strongly if we be juâ—â—ified by grace then we must be righteous and perfect according to the Law of it The Orthodox are quite out that will have any justified without a Righteousness that is perfect according to the Law that justifies him to wit in regard to the conditional though not the preceptive part of it The Quaker is quite out that will have this Righteousness perfect according to the ten Commandements which does not justifie him The lover of Truth and Mediocrity will have every man have the Righteousness of a perfect heart for his justification and yet no man be justified but by the grace of God through the Redemption which we have in Christ Jesus There is pardon of sin and justification these may be distinguished not divided Pardon refers to the law of works justification to the law of Faith or the Gospel For this cause saith the Apostle he is the Mediatour of the New Testament that by means of death for the Redemption of the Transgressions that were under the first Testament they which are called may receive the promise of eternal Inheritance The first Covenant originally is that of Nature and the first Testament belonging to the Jew represented that first Covenant and the Transgressions for which Christ shed his blood are our sins only against that Covenant If there be any body sins against the new Covenant there is no Redemption for such We have a pardon then in reference to the law of works but we are justified in reference to the law of Faith To wit If we are accused as Transgressors of the Law we may confess it that we are guilty and plead our pardon through Christs Redemption but if we are charged as Transgressors of the law of grace we must not plead our selves guilty but righteous and such as perfectly come up to the terms required in the Gospel or else we are gone It is true Christ hath purchased forgiveness but it is upon condition Pardon is of the Transgressions of the Law but this condition is of Righteousness according to the Gospel and our justification lyes in the performance of the condition In the seaventh place This Opinion instead of leading these friends to the Spirit and the Life as they speak does lead them from both and bring them back to the letter and the flesh and ministration of death To understand this The Apostle we know does distinguish between the Letter and the Spirit The Letter killeth the Spirit giveth Life This distinction is expressed otherwhere by the Law of the Spirit of life and the Law of sin and death The Law of Faith and Law of Works The Covenant of Nature and Covenant of Grace The Law of Works is call'd the Letter as having been writ in stone and is the ministration of death the Law of sin and death or that which killeth because there is none but break it and so are guilty of fin and death by it The Covenant of grace is the Law of Faith that being the condition of it it is the Law of the spirit of life or the ministration of life for the contrary reason because we are enabled through grace or this spirit to the performance of this Law so as to be Righteous according to it and live by it The just man shall live by his Faith And unto the Law of the spirit of life is added in Christ Jesus because it is he hath procured this Law for us which is indeed the great benefit of our Redemption Now while the Spirit is given us for the performance of the condition of this Covenant it being the New Testament not the Law which is the ministration of the Spirit it is a great mistake in these Friends to expect such help from it as to perform the condition of the Covenant of Nature or Law of Works The Spirit indeed does help us but it is to keep his own Law the Law of the Spirit and that Law whereby we may have life If we do look to fulfill the Covenant of Nature we must return to our original Righteousness and our free will which we lost in Adam and that is to go from the Spirit to our selves who are but flesh But what Is not the Law of God the rule of our lives and does not the Spirit of God lead us according to rule and bring us to a conformity to his law I answer no doubt of it but that is a conformity so far as reaches the fulfilling the terms of the Gospel but not those of Works The law of grace does require a sincere walking before Go in all his Commandements and the Spirit of God does certainly help us so far as we sin not against that sincerity or sin no sins inconsistent with these terms but the spirit is not given to bring us up to the terms of the Law and that we should not sin at all What shall we say that Abraham as pertaining to the flesh hath found By the flesh we are to understand works as appears in the next verse and so is the spirit opposed to the flesh as it is opposed to the law of works If we seek therefore for a Righteousness by our works that is according to that law we shall find what Abraham did as pertaining to the flesh We shall find no such matter O ye foolish Galathians says the Apostle having begun in the spirit are ye now made peâ—fect by the flesh The Galathians belike who had received the doctrine of grace by Paul were come to be seduced to the opinion that they must keep Moses Law or else they could not be saved and this is their seeking to be made perfect by the flesh The flesh and nature are Synonymous terms and as in respect of those who were Jews by Nature the works of the Law as given by Moses are called flesh so must the works of the Law as a Covenant by Nature be flesh in respect to the rest of man-kind If the Quaker then is come to seek life by such a following his light as must answer the Covenant of Nature it self that is by a perfection as is without sin against the Law he is plainly under the notion of the spirit brought at last to the flesh for what he seeks In the last place It is an ancient saying that he who looks but one thing is easily mislead It seems that these Friends do apprehend that our doctrine which opposes perfection does serve
THE Middle-Way OF PERFECTION With Indifferency between The ORTHODOX AND THE QUAKER By J. H. Doing nothing by Partiality LONDON Printed for T. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheap-side 1674. Of Perfection PErfection is one of the Doctrines of the Quaker that there is a state of perfect separation from sin in this life That it is not onely possible for a man to keep the whole Law of God but that every true Christian doth attain it That the work of Christs Redemption does consist in this to bring men up to such a state to be free not onely in regard of the guilt but the inhabitaton of sin so that it is not indeed so much pardoned as abolished There are no mean Doctors in the Schools have gone before them and taught us that though there remain that which is fomes peccati to use Augustines expression yet not that which is peccatum in the regenerate after Baptisme and consequently the righteousness which they through Christ or grace perform the Quaker chooses to call it Christs Righteousness being perfect does not onely constitute them just in the sight of God but enables them to stand before the Throne of Gods justice and so justifyes them and saves them They now who are read here in the Controversies between us and the Papists may guess how far these friends are like to be supported and that they are not therefore to be put off as some think with sleighting and contempt onely For my part I will confess it is not the designe of these Papers to endeavour so much a refutation of any Party as to build up others in that Truth which Errour on all sides leanes upon Omne falsum innititur vero And as the best Physitians have been noted sometimes to take very great regard to the ordinary receipts of old women and the meanest persons so will it become the modest Divine to endeavour rather to discover and sift out that Truth which lies in his Adversaries meaning then to expose and shame their Opinions Before I come to my present subject it is necessary that I set a little out of my way which may else engender dispute in my last paper It is about pardon of sin which I take to be the effect not formal Reason of justification Pardon sayes Mr. Bradshaw is neither the whole nor any essential part of justification but onely a contingent effect of it Treat of Just c. 8. That a man must repent and believe which is to perform the condition of the Covenant of Grace in order of nature before he be pardoned is out of question That God accounts the person a performer who is so arises of necessity because his judgment is alwayes according to Truth Now when Gods accounting a man Righteous according to the Covenant which is all one with his accounting him a penitent Believer or performer of the condition is justifying him as I say there and pardon followes this it appeared to me that Remission must not be the form it self or part but the effect of justification And it is true remission is the effect and no part of this justification But there may be some other or further justification then this To avoyd needless difference therefore with Brethren I must distinguish justification Justification we agree to be a forensical act opposed to the laying any thing to a mans charge whereby he may be condemned Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect It is God that justifieth Now there is a double charge the charge of the Law that we are sinners and so condemnable for violation of it And the charge of the Gospel that we have not performed the remedying condition which God requires of us for the escaping that condemnation Though it be an acquittal of us from the latter charge is that justification which every man is so much concerned to provide for as that which depends upon the plea of what himself does and the acquittal of us from the former depends onely on the plea of what Christ hath done for us which can hardly suffer any debate I think before our Judge yet will I not deny but justification may be taken so comprehensively as to contain in it our discharge from the Law also There is a justification then in regard to a particular charge the charge of the one or a universal justification against all accusation or the charge of both As we must answer the charge of the Gospel by denying that charge and pleading our performance we answer the charge of the Law by confessing it and pleading Christs satisfaction that is we acknowledge that we areguilty and have deserved Death but yet that we are not condemnable because we are pardoned by the Law of Grace through the Meritorious Righteousness and Sacrifice of Christ Jesus supposing such a Charge can find place before our Law-giver Our Faith and Repentance is our Righteousness in regard to the Gospel but pardon of sin together with this righteousness may go both into Vniversal justification I cannot indeed but say still that that justification which is particular in regard to the Gospel Charge seemes to me to be the justification which St. Paul and James mainly intend if not altogether for when the one sayes we are justified by Faith and the other by works also and both prove it from one and the same Text that Abraham believed and it was imputed to him for Righteousness I pray what else can justification be with either but Gods imputing evangelical obedience to a person for Righteousness that is Gods accounting of him righteous upon his believeing repenting or performing the condition of the Gospel That the Apostles Righteousness without Works and Pardon is not the same and consquently that the one is a probation and not a description of the other as I noted upon reflection must be granted by those who make both these to be parts of our justification for such is the nature of parts to be diverse one from another Haec est natura partium ut unum corpus diversa componant Boethius de Cons l. 3. p. 3. Again Quod a qualibet re diversum est id non est illud a quo intelligitur diversum It must be also confessed by me that the diversity of two things as the cause and effect does not hinder those things to be parts of another third which is the compositum of both and consquently that Gods justifiying us by this Righteousness that is by Faith or Evangelical Obedience without the Works of the Law and then pardoning us as the effect of that act may both make up the compositum of Vniversal justification You see how tender I am of persisting in any mistake wherein I have or may prejudice others I doe not find that the Scripture does denominate or pronounce any one righteous or a just Man from one end to the other upon any other account then his doing Righteousness yet will I not quarrel with any
the Devil himself were again in his first station that he would say but I am now in that Seraphical state as is above all Cherubims Thrones Dominions Angells Archangells I am like God and none of these are like to me If pride if Spiritual pride if the most damnable pride to be proud of Gods grace which consists in such a monstrous overweening conceit of a mans self as this that he is perfect and in one too who hath scarce broken the shell yet in Religion to the neglect despising continual censuring and setting at naught of others be no evil then may the prudent the sober and pious amongst you who are best able to see and to mourn for the miscarriages of your sect have lesse reason to fear the tendency of this doctrine of Perfection But if it be the way of Christians to be humble to look on themselves as vile as nothing to live altogether on dependance upon God each man in lowlines of mind esteeming of others better then themselves then will it be your duty to have more care of what you are to rebuke and of what you are to teach Least that which is lame be turned out of the way and that which is weak be destroyed Last of all There is the danger that exceeding danger in the very entainment of this opinion that I am afraid at my heart it cannot consist if prevalent with the grace of God and justification of a sinner by Christ It is a high text that of the Apostle Behold I Paul say unto you that if you be circumcised Christ shall profit you nothing Circumcision was a bond to the keeping the whole law and if the Galathians upon the opinion that the Law must be kept for their justification were circumcised they are like as it seemes here to bring themselves into that condition as to stand or fall by it Let them look to it then if they break but one of the commandements to the whole whereof they are debtors the bond is forfeit The like instance is that we have in the Jews themselves God had given them his Law which was indeed to direct them in a holy life but the chief end of it was through conviction of sin to drive them to God for his pardon and grace which was to be received through the promise by their Faith Now the Jews being ignorant of this end look to the Law only for Righteousness and are lost I am really afraid at my very heart Sirs least your case be the very same in effect with these You have the Gospel Preached and if you accept of your pardon through Christ there is no more required but the walking sincerely before him and acknowledging him your Advocate if you sin and you may be safe but you have taken up an opinion that the whole Law must be kept that you must live without sin and unless you come up to this pitch you cannot be saved What is here then I say but such an Opinion as that of the Galathians and such an establishing of your own Righteousness as the Jews was only with this difference indeed in both that it is more For the Righteousness of the Law as given by Moses was not thought by them so strict as we know it to be as given by Nature And if they shall stand for their lives upon these terms who is not apprehensive of the danger of such Doctrine For I testifie again to every man that whosoever of you are justified by the Law ye are fallen from Grace I remember when Festus had brought Paul out to Agrippa and he had opened and pleaded his cause before him Agrippa said unto Festiu This man might have been set at liberty if he had not appealed to Caesar If these Friends being at the Bar of the Gospel would stand to that grace we have there they might be freed by course with other honest Christian folks through the Redemption which is in Christ Jesus Who hath any thing to charge upon them But if they will appeal from those terms under which we are brought by Christ unto their persection which is the terms of the Law to be judged by that what can we say else but they have appealed unto Caesar and to Caesar must they go Unto your perfection you have appealed and when you shall be found imperfect as all flesh living must be what shall become of you before the great Tribunal of God O Lord Thou seest mans foolishness and knowest his danger If any of these poor people are indeed upon such a precipice as my Soul fears for them deliver them save them from it bring them to a right mind that they may not depart from thy grace to go to their own Cisterns They went to the Wells and there was no Water they returned with their Vessels empty and were ashamed We have a singular president in Job A man may wonder sometimes why God should deal so severely with that Saint It was not perhaps without cause Job was a holy person and he knew it he stood upon it and it is possible he might by that temper of his be one who in the establishing this Righteousness of his own was apt to forget to submit to the Righteousness of God and that this was the very secret cause which makes him have need of so sufficient a course to be taken for reducing him out of that danger Friends Let me speak to you here in those words which Eliphaz did to his Friend Surely you have spoken in my hearing and I have heard the voyce of your words saying We are Clean without Transgression we are Innocent neither is there Iniquity in us Let me then speak to you in the words also of God Who are these that darken Counsel with words without knowledge I humbly beseech the Lord that what is offered here unto you to the like end supposing the end of the Lord to Job herein to be such may be received with the like effect That you may say Behold we are vile what shall we answer thee we will lay our hands on our mouths Once have we spoken but we will not answer yea twice but we will proceed no further Augustine Cont. Ep. Parmen l. 2. c. 6. Quamvis in quantum ex deo nati sumus non peccemus inest tamen adhuc etiam quod ex Adamo nati sumus Et quamdiu expectamus per patientiam corporis nostri redemptionem non audeamus dicere carere nos omni vitio ne ipsa superbia sit immanissimum vitium Although in so much as we are born of God we sin not yet does there remain in us that too which is born of Adam and so long as we through patience do wait for the Redemption of the body we dare not say that we are without all sin least that very Pride it self be a most monstrous sin The End An Advertisement Reader I Intended more Papers under this Title of the Middle Way but being Discouraged this I suppose is the last You have one Paper of Election and Redemption put that first Another of Justification A third of the Covenants Law and Gospel And this fourth of Perfection Expect no more The Bookseller now will Bind them together The letters N. B. are Nota bene Valete omnes condonate I. H Deo Gloria