reason surmounting the reason and capacity of the people to comprehend And these questions which they spin and spit out by dozens yea hundreds thousands as they are mostly superfluous vain useless and many of them presumptuously and arrogantly proposed about things which the Lord hath kept secret in his own bosom not revealing them by his word so are they oft no less peremptorily and audaciously by these men answered and determined out of their Philosophicall and Metaphysicall fancies without one particle of the word to ground their determinations upon Thus by their questionary sophistry they have both obscured if not totally quenched all true Divinity i. e. the Doctrine of the Gospel and have foysted in a confused Chaos of titular Divinity that hath nothing of light or life in it such as the Scripture owns not from their own reason Compare we now Mr. Baxter with these to see whether as the Apostle calleth Timothy his own or his naturall son in the faith 1 Tim. 1. 2. because he walked directly after him in the steps of his faith So Mr. Baxter doth not also declare himself the own and naturall sonn of these sophisters by walking directly after them in the steps of their cunning and subtlety to destroy the Faith The Poets feigned that Minerva was begotten and born of Jupiters brain because she was all wisedom it self And I think Mr. Baxter would be offended if it should be denyed that all the quintissence of sophisticall learning that hath been in all the brains of all the Schoolmen and Jesuits were not so extracted from them as to have its residency now in his He was as far as I can understand born and brought up in the Protestant Church within this nation as Costor Pollux c. were in the house of Leda but by a new and strange generation or adoption of eggs layd by these Serpents he discovers himself now in a manner to be wholly theirs so fully doth he resemble yea parallel them that unum nôris omnes nôris you may read in him alone the Genius and the Craft of them all Attend we els to his own words in his explication of his 7th Thesis pag. 25 c. All that he hath written before I passe by without exception against it pag. 19. he layeth down his 7. Aphorism in these words Bax. Jesus Christ at the will of his Father and upon his own will being perfectly furnished for this work with a Divine power and personall Rigteousness first undertook and afterward discharged this debt viz. mans debt to God by suffering what the Law did threaten and the offender himself was unable to bear To this as to the rest he addeth that which he calleth an Explication i. e. an Exposition explainning or making plain of the Aphorism or point so laid Let us trace him how now he makes it plain beginning at the 25. p. before mentioned I should be too large to write all his words yet shall not wrong him by writing any save his own words or the very substance of them Bax. Here we are cast upon many and weighty and very difficult questions 1 Whether Christ did discharge this debt by way of solution or by way of satisfaction 2 Whether in his suffering and our escape the threatning of the Law was executed or dispensed with 3 And if dispensed with how it can stand with the truth and justice of God 4 And whether sinners may thence be encouraged to conceive some hope of a relaxation of the threatnings in the Gospell 5 And whether the faithfull may not fear lest God may relax a promise as well as a threatning 6 And whether if the Law be relaxable God might not have released his Sonn from the suffering rather then to have put him to so great torment and to have freely pardoned the offenders And p. 27. The resolving of the first question depends upon the resolving of two other questions both great and difficult 1 What it was which the Law did threaten 2 What it was that Christ did suffer Various are the judgments of * He means the Popish Doctors specially for they with him are the Divines Divines about the former c. 1 Whether Adams soule and body should have been annihilated and destroyed so as to become in sensible 2 Or whether his soule should have been immediately separated from his body as ours are by death and so be the only sufferer of the pain 3 Or if so whether there should have been any resurrection of the body after any space of time that so it might suffer as well as the soul 4 Or whether soul and body without separation should have gone down quick into hell ar into any place or state of torment short of hell 5 Or whether both should have lived a cursed life on earth through everlasting in exclusion from Paradise separation from Gods favâ—ur and gracious presence loss of his image c. 6 Or whether he should have lived such a miserable life for a season and then be annihilated or destroyed 7 And if so whether his misery on earth should have been more than men do now endure And the more importance are these questions of because of some others that depend upon them As 1. What death it was that Christ redeemed us from 2 And what death it is that perishing Infants dye or that our guilt in the first transgression doth procure For it being a sinn against the first covenant only will be punished with no other death than that which is threatned in that Covenant And pag. 31. Besides it is needfull to know what life was the reward of that Covenant that we might know what death was the penalty and this also comes into question about the reward whether if he had not fallen he should after a season have been translated into heaven without death as Enoch and Elijah or whether he should have lived for ever in this terrestriall Paradise without addition of further bliss to that which he had at his first Creation And as touching the death which Christ suffered whether it were the same that was threatned to Adam Pa. 33. If we take the threatning at its full extent as it expresseth not only the penalty but also its proper subject and its circumstances then it is undenyable that Christ did not suffer the same that was threatned For the Law threatned the death of the offender but Christ was not the offender Adam should have suffered for ever but so did not Christ Adam did dye spiritually by being forsaken of God in regard of holiness as well as in regard of comfort and so was deprived at least of the chief part of his image so was not Chrst Yet neither is this certain that Christs death was not the same c. for It is disputable whether these two last were directly contained in threatning or not whether the threatning were not fully executed in Adams death and the eternity of it were not accidentall even a
who not acknowledging the riches of Gods Wisedome and Grace in that course of our redemption which God hath followed would accuse God of indiscretion for making much aâ— do about nothing and teach him to go a more compendious and easie way to work then his wisdom hath chosen These Criticisms upon Gods glorious wonderfull proceedings in his administrations we leave to Socinus and Arminius with their followers It is our part sapere ad sobrietatem and to understand what God hath not to tell him what he might or should have done To the Eighth Because he knoweth his assertion false he therefore saith something but conceals from us what it is tells us that all the Scriptures and reasons which are brought against his opinion do not hit it nor hurt it but will not let us to know one particular of all those Scriptures and Reasons that he hath heard or read urged against him lest that some one answering might manifest the falshood of the assertion This is safe disputing to speak so as â—o leave no footing for an answer Such baites may catch Froggs possibly but never a Fish And as he affirmeth neither Scriptures not Reasons prove more then this That our afflictions are not the rigorous execution of the Law what Scripture or Reason can be given why that believers shall not be damned in hell together with unbelievers For what is the rigor of the Law but the infliction of the Curse in its utmost extent and extremity But if the Saints be beaten with few stripes when the rebells are beaten with many and be damned but to the uppermost when the other are cast into the nethermost hell then is not the Curse of the Law executed upon them in its utmost rigor If this be not to abase the merits of Christ that hath purchased and abuse the grace of God that promiseth and abate if not to destroy the hope and comfort of believers that shall receive according to Mr. Baxter no better priviledges then this surely then nothing can do it As for that which he addeth of a mixture of love and hatred in God when he curseth the wicked and of love and anger when he curseth the godly This is a meer Chimaera of his own brain a making of God to be in a commotion against himself to carry fire in the one hand and water in the other to fight with the right against the left and with the left hand against the right sometimes the one and sometimes the other overcoming but of which side soever the Victory resteth still must the poor believer be cursed and when most under the curse we must believe Mr. Baxter telling us a strange wonder he is not at all under the hatred of God An excellent disputer to have stood alway at Marcions elbow prompting him with argument to prove this God to have been a malignant and envious God the author of all evill to mankinde what less doth Mr. Baxter affirm when he tells us that he curseth his very Friends those that trust in him those whom he hateth not yea those whom he loveth But doth he bring no Scripture to prove all that he hath said Yes one in steed of all and that as pertinent and proper to his purpose as a Pearl to a Swines snout Death hath lost his sting 1 Cor. 15. 55 56. There is no unpardoned sin in it Yet when God hath pardoned every of their sins he will neverthelesse powre upon them the Curse when they are without if not also because they are without sin ipse dixit and I must be silent To the Ninth It greeves me lesse when I finde Mr. Baxter leaving the pure fountain of Scripture stirring in his own element the puddle of humane art and wisedom then when he meddles with the word becaus he seldom toucheth it but with a defiled and defiling hand to pervert maim or add to it and so to prophane it So that his sin is greater in this than in the other The place which he quotes here 1 Cor. 15. 26. saith not that as he untruly alleageth Death is not yet overcome but onely saith The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death it is overcome already though not destroyed Yet not to strive about words Death is overcome and it is not overcome but in different respects It is overcome 1 In relation to Christ himself and his naturall body that it cannot reach or seize on him Els is not Christ risen from death and then our faith is vain But he is risen in the power of the Godhead having loosed or dissolved the pains and Chains too of Death it being unpossible he should be held by it Acts 2. 24. For how should a power finite over-power the power of God which is infinite Neither will any say that Christ escaped from the bonds of death by Treaty but by Conquest He ascended on high leading captivity captive Eph. 4. 8. Having spoyled principalities and powers he made open shew of them triumphing over them Col. 2. 15. By his death he hath destroyed not onely death it self but him also that had the power of death i. e. the Devill Heb. 2. 14. 2 In relation to the mysticall body of Christ the believers it is so overcome that it hath in it no curse to vomit out upon them That was carried away in Christs naturall body that this his mysticall body might be freed from it He took to himself saith the Apostle part of our flesh and blood that by death he might destroy him that hath the power of death i. e. the Devill and deliver them who through fear of death were all their life-time subject to bondage Heb. 2. 14 15. What was that in death that the Saints so feared under the Law before the Gospel had fully cleered to them their liberty but the Curse The Law threatned them with death as with the Curse and vengeance of God This made them to live all their life-time in a sad bondage for fear of death of the curse and vengeance in death at the last But Christ hath by his death delivered us from the Curse that was in death so that now we live not in fear and bondage in expectation of death It is but a sweet dormitory to the Saints in which they put off their corruptible and dreggish that at last they may put on immortall and spirituall bodies in them to meet with Christ in the day of Judgement and be for ever with him 1 Cor. 15. 44. 1 Thes 4. 17. In these respects death is overcome But it is not so overcome but that it hath its being yea full dominion with its curse over the wicked and in this respect it is said The last Enemy that shall be destroyed is death as will appear by reading the former vers with this Christ must reign till he hath brought all his enemies under his feet The last enemy c. The Apostle here from the Authority of that Prophecy Psal 110. 1.
them worse than himself Matt. 23. 15. And what should that be but that God takes satisfaction to his justice by his judgments upon them here that they may not have or may have the less to satisfie for in hell or in Purgatory In this therefore as in the two former points I take him expressing himself an adopted sonne of the ghostly Fathers of Trent 4. The Papists hold that there is a Purgatory which they describe to be a prison as hot and full of the same materiall fire and flames as hell it self into which the souls of Christians after this life are cast to satisfie Gods justice for all their veniall sins that they have not made satisfaction for in this life by suffering or doing and being once cast into this prison they cannot come forth out of the torment untill they have paid the utmost farthing of their debt i. e. untill they have suffered so much as may counterpoise to a very grain the sinns whereof they dye unpardoned This they prove by many undeniable Arguments specially by the testimony of many good souls that have obteined a dispensation to come thence with their bosoms so full of fire as of flesh and bones to tell them so Doth Mr. Baxter joyn with them in this opinion also Soft and fair There is skill in daubing first he will try how this Tractate will take if according to his minde probably we shall have a second part and therein he may tell us plainly his judgment in this and many other of his mysteries that here he leaves obscure and ambiguous In the interim it pleaseth him not to deliver his minde herein in words at length but in dark and uncertain figures Yet joyn we together what he saith here and there in parcells and somwhat may be made or at least conjectured of it First then he telleth us that some part of the Curse must be executed upon beleevers i. e. upon the whole man the soul as well as the body Thes 9. 2 That untill the day of Resurrection and of Judgement all the effects of sin and law and wrath will not be removed from them pag. 74. Pag. 71 Arg. 8. Therefore thirdly what he will not doth not at least say of any of their former sufferings he saith of death That there is no unpardoned sin in it which shall procure further judgment and so no hatred in it though there be anger A glorious privilege no doubt such as according to our usuall proverb a man may find at Billingsgate for a box on the ear from the worst of men that he meets with When a man hath in revengefull fury persecuted his hated nighbour with all the strokes and stormes of wrath and mischief and after many years persecution hath at last slaughtered him and trampled his dead Corps into the mire and dust now at last he ceaseth from hatred is but angry with his poor reliques forgives him all the rest when he can do no more to him and forgivenes can do him no good Such tender mercies of Cruelty as the wise man terms them Pro. 12. 10. doth Mr. Baxter here ascribe unto God in his gracious dealings with beleevers for Christs sake viz. to persecute them with all the strokes of his wrath and all the Curses of the law all their life time sparing neither their body nor soul and at last with great indignation to destroy them and trample their bodies into the earth dust and rottennes yea and their souls whither he list and under what torment he list and after this so remarkeable is his love he will hate them no more but be angry with them still When they are dead and can offend no more and God hath inflicted upon them all his judgments that he can inflict no more now their sins shall be so pardoned that they shall suffer no more no more than all which they already suffer Who denies this to be the very quintessence of mercy and spirits of love when Mr. Baxter hath so defined it and held it forth to us as the most Celestiall comfort that we shall finde in death There is saith he no unpardoned sin in the death of beleevers that shall procure further judgement Where note 1 that he saith not simply and absolutely that there is no unpardoned sin upon the Saints now dead and buryed but no sin so unpardoned that it should bring further judgement than that which is already upon them And 2 That when he denyeth that their sin shall bring any further judgement upon them he doth not deny but rather imply their sins to be yet still unpardoned as to the holding those judgements upon them that are already inflicted A comfort that the Devills and reprobates in hell shall not want after the very day of judgment in the midst of their flames That there is none of their sinns so unpardoned as that it should bring any further judgment upon them But put we all together 1 That the beleever must bear the Curse even the whole man in body and soule also 2 That he shall not be delivered from this curse in soul and body untill the resurrection 3 That although death puts him into a freedom from further judgments yet it doth not at all deliver him from those that at death are inflicted upon soul and body How shall we now make up the matter If the whole man both soul and body must suffer and not be wholly freed untill the resurrection this is not fulfilled in the suffering of the body alone If the soul also untill then must suffer then is it not forthwith upon its seperation from the body exalted to Heaven for there is no suffering no affliction Neither doth it suffer in hell for Mr. Baxter exempteth thence all that persevere in the Faith according to his definition of faith untill death Where and whence then shall it suffer but in and from the fire of Purgatory And so there is no unpardoned sin upon beleevers after death that can procure to them any further judgment beyond this If Mr. Baxter meaneth not so it is his fault to write with so much ambiguity and so little plainnes and perspicuity as to toll us on to a strong Conjecture that he meaneth so and is in this as in the rest apostatized to the Papists 5 I might add also here that he seemes to joyn with the Papists in holding beleevers in an uncertainty of their salvation all their life long It is considerable that neither in his Aphorism nor in the whole explication therof nor in all his arguments by which he goeth about to prove beleevers under the Curse doth he once name any pardon of sin or freedom from further judgment which they attain untill after death and then when they have persevered to the end and dyed in Christ now he mentions and affirms it What doth Arg. 8 p. 71. this argue but that he would with the Papists have men to hope well but to be still
uncertain without any assurance of Faith or certainty of their perseverance and future glory untill their very last gasp But because from meer Negatives no affirmative can be regularly and soundly deduced I leave this but as probable and conclude it not as certain We have found Mr. Baxters dispute here to be first against Scripture 2 Antichristian and wholly Popish in severall points There are many allegations more wherewith it may be justly charged viz. that 3 It is scandalous to the Grace and Mercy and Love of God that are the most sweet and amiable of all his Attributes So doth he paint out terror in the very Love and Grace of God and Cruelâ—y in his tender mercies making flames of fury to break out from the very bowels of his Compassion that poor souls beleeving what he saith will be apt to fly from God as from a Satan and from his Gospel dispensations as from death and hell it self When they hear him to be so bloudy to take delight in cursing crushing rending taring and tormenting in soul and body unto death and after death his own sonnes and daughters and that under a profession of grace and love to them what difference can they conceive to be between such a God and the Devill If there be such bitternes in his love who will desire the least draughts thereof If his armes of embracing be such Lions pawes who will not shunn all union all drawing nigh to him so doth he scandalize Gods love c. making it terrible which is amiablenes and life it self that none might desire him 4 It is slanderous to the justice of God 1 By accusing it there to inflict the curse wrath and judgements where he imputeth no sin 2 By charging it to receive ful satisfaction for our debt from Christ our surety and afterward when all is paid to require satisfaction from us too A piece of injustice so odious to the light of nature it self that Mr. Baxter would account him a prodigie of Nature a Devillized man that should so do yet hath the face to charge the most righteous God whose wayes are all equall yea equity it self therewith 5 It is injurious to Christ and his Mediation Charging him and it with insufficiency With the want I mean either of insufficient merit to free us from the whole curse and wrath of God because he could not do it or want of sufficient love to us that having all power given him in heaven and earth yet will not do it But in both these the Scripture testifieth Christ to be all-sufficient without the least defect either of merit or love to us that in the infinitenes of his merit he hath purchased all and by the infinitenes of his love he dispenseth this liberty in the fulnes of it to us Therefore is Mr. Baxter ungratefully injurious to our blessed Saviour in denying it and arguing against it 6 It tends to the advancing of mans vain-glory and boasting in being at least in part a self-saviour that his satisfactions have wrought with the Lord Christs in the procurement of his Justification and salvation This by the sequele of this work appears to be the main thing to which Mr. Baxter driveth For yeelding himself up to be the Disciple of men to see and judge onely by the light of mans reason he seems to me to be so left of God destitute of his Spirit that he can see no farther than a meer naturall man in spirituall things and so following the letter and scarce the letter without the Spirit of the word he can think of no other way to happines but that which the very instinct of nature suggesteth namely a mans own willing running and procurements To this end he laies a foundation here of humane satisfaction by sufferings perceiving well that if mans suffering of the curse of the Law be once granted to be effectuall by way of satisfaction to purge the soul from sin then much more the righteousnes of workes done in obedience and conformity to the Law by the help of the Spirit will and must be granted to be more powerfull to the same end Therefore seeks he thus to depress the grace of God and merits of Christ that upon the ruines thereof he might erect a Temple dedicated to mans righteousnes 7 It subverteth all the joy and consolation of Christians which the Holy Ghost requireth of them in their sufferings from Christ or for Christs sake How can we according to the precept of Christ Rejeyce and be exceeding glad when we suffer Matth. 5. 12. And with Paul Glory in tribulation Rom. 5. 3. and Rejoyce in our sufferings Col. 1. 24. And after the rule of James Account it all joy when we fall into many temptations Jam. 1. 2. If these be the curse of the Law the effects of Gods wrath and heavie displeasure Can a good childe rejoyce and glory in his fathers anger and in the curses and strokes of his fathers wrath which he hath justly deserved It is enough to add despair and death to the sorrow of the Saints in their afflictions to possesse their Consciences with an apprehension that all comes from their fathers wrath and hath the curse upon it 8 It holds poor Christians upon a rack of torment and under the spirit of intolerable bondage all their life-time For let Mr. Baxter though he were sworn against Christ to Antichrist deny if he can that when the Apostle Gal. 3. 10. saith As many as are of the works of the Law are under the Curse his meaning to be that they are in the state and under the power of damnation or that the curse and damnation are not in Scripture phrase the same thing I know he will not deny it lâ—st he should declare himself to haue taken at once his farewell of divine truth and of naturall reason also If then to be under the curse is to be under damnation then by affirming beleevers to be under the Curse he affirmes them to be under damnation consequently them that are in Christ to be so much the children of wrath and hell as the very reprobates 9 It inureth upon Christ a brand of evill which St James pronounceth detestable in a wicked man What that out of the same James 3. 9 10 11 mouth should proceed blessing and cursing saith he Yet Mr. Baxter makes the same Christ at the same time to blesse and to curse to absolve and to sentence to save and to damn the same person 10 Let Mr. Baxter consider whether while he labours so vehemently to fasten the curse upon them whom God hath blessed with faithfull Abraham Gal. 3. 9. He doth not pluck the curse upon himself which God hath denounced Gen. 12. 3. I will bless him that blesseth thee and curse him that curseth thee A word more I shall add by way of digression to some Ministers who by a faulty inadvertency speak in this point almost the same things with Mr. Bacter though in
saith nothing Yet because this still leaveth sub judice litem and certain Conclusions cannot be inferred upon premisses left uncertain I should answer secondly That the Curse pronounced and inflicted upon Adam related to him not as a private but publike person For so he fell and so was he sentenced As comprehending the Elect he had the blessing of the seed of the woman but as representing those that perish so he had the Curse But touching those things which he and the other godly do suffer the learned Sadeel Adver sus humanas satisfactiones answereth this Popish Argument here proposed by Mr. Baxter out of Augustine Posset aliquis dicere saith Augustine Si propter peccatum Deus dixerit homini In sudore vultus tui edes panem tuum spinas tribulos proseret tibi terra c. Cur fideles post peccatorum remissionem eosdem dolores patiuntur Respondemus saith Austin Ante remissionem esse supplicia peccatorum post remissionem esse certamina exercitationesque justorum i. e. Some one may say If for sin God said to man In the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat thy bread and the earth shall bring forth to thee bryars and thorns c. Why do the beleevers after the remission of sinns suffer these sorrowes We answer saith Austin Before remission these are punishments of sinns after remission they are tryalls and exercises of the Righteous Whereunto Sadeel addeth Non sequitur si mors vitae praesentis aerumnae per se sunt peccati poenae quippe propter peccatum in mundum ingressae eas esse proptereà peccatorum paenas ipsis etiam fidelibus quibus peccata sunt propter Christum condonata i. e. It followeth not if death and the sorrows of the present life be in themselves the punishments of sinn because they entred into the world for or by means of sinn that they are therefore punishments of sinn to the very faithfull also to whom their sinns are forgiven for Christs sake But to do him a pleasure should we give him his Argument forgiving the unsoundnes of it what doth he conclude Thus much that the suspending of the rigorous execution of the sentence of the Law is the most observable immediate effect of Christs death that the redeemed of the Lord partake of By suspending the rigorous execution of the Law he means that he doth forbear an hour or a day or some short time to destroy their lives and cast their souls into hell But so that every moment they must stand in expectation of it and that to their greater torment at last as their sinns during the time of the suspension is increased Whosoever now of Gods redeemed ones receives comfort by this doctrine will I doubt not give his verdit for Mr. Baxter having so nobly and divinely resolved this question that He is a Divine indeed He tells us there be other effects of Christs death c. But he is not at leisure now to communicate them But if they have no more sweet and marrow than this let him keep them to himself we will not be inquisitive after them P. 68. B. To the second Quâ—stion The Elect before Conversion do stand in the same relation to the Law and Curse as other men though they be differenced in Gods Decree Eph. 2. 3 12. Very short yet not so sweet as short He saith it but he proves it not For the Scripture which he brings for proof doth onely declare what the Elect are by nature before conversion not what they are before God in relation to his Covenant of Grace But Mr. Baxter purposeth to speak more largely hereunto in another place which will give me occasion to enlarge my answer At present he is in travell with his answer to the third question and cannot be at rest untill he be delivered of so beautifull a Monster and thus it comes from him Bax. To the third question I confess we have here a knotty question The common judgment is that Christ hath taken away the whole Curse though not the suffering by bearing it himself and now they are onely Afflictions of Love and not punishments I do not contradict this Doctrine through affectation of singularity the Lord knoweth but through constraint of judgment and that upon these grounds following 1 It is undeniable that Christs taking the Curs upon himself did not wholly prevent the execution upon the offender Ge. 3. 7 8 10 15 16 17 18 19. 2 It is evident from the event seeing we feel part of the Curs fulfilled on us we eat in labor and sweat the earth doth bring forth thorns and brayars women bring forth their children in sorrow our native pravity is the Curs upon our souls we are sick weary full of fears sorrows and shame and at last we dye and turn to dust 3 The Scripture tells us that we all dye in Adam even that death from which we must at the Resurrection be raised by Christ 1 Co. 15. 21 22. And that death is the wages of sin Ro. 6. 23. and that the sickness and weakness and death of the godly is caused by their sins 1 Co. 11. 30 31. And if so then doubtles they are in execution of the Law though not in full rigour 4 It is manifest that our sufferings are in their own nature evils to us and the sanctifying of them to us taketh not away their naturall evil but onely produceth by it as by an occasion a greater good Doubtles so farr as it is an effect of sinn it is evill and the effect of the Law also 5 They are ascribed to Gods anger as the moderating of them is ascribed to his lâ—ve Psa 30. 5. and a thousand places more 6 They are called punishments in scripture and therefore we may call them so Lev. 26 41 43. Lam. 3. 39. 4. 6 22. Ezras 9. 13. Hos 4. 9. 12. 2. Lev. 26. 18 24. 7 The very nature of affliction is to be a loving punishment a naturall evil sanctified and so to be mixt of evil and good as it proceeds from mixt causes Therefore to say that Christ hath taken away the Curs and evill but not the sufferings is a contradiction becaus so farr as it is suffering it is to us evill and the execution of the Curs What Reason can be given why God should not do us all that good without our sufferings which now he doth by them if there were not sin and wrath and law in them Sure he could better us by easier means 8 All those Scriptures and Reasons that are brought to the contrary do prove no more but this that our afflictions are not the Rigorous execution of the Law that they are not wholly or chiefly in wrath but as the common love of God to the wicked is mixt with hatred in their sufferings and the hatred prevaileth above the love so the sufferings of the godly proceed from a mixture of Love and Anger and so have in them a mixture
of avoyding tediousnes to leave the most precious truths hidden in corners and onely to leave a paint of plausibility and probability upon the Embryons and errors of his own brain in stead of bringing them openly to the tryall And this occasioned me to be the more in length to bring forth cleerly into the light the truth that he hath hidden and to take off the outside paint from his fancies that they might appear in their own nature and colors Partly also to discover the pernicious danger which lurketh in the doctrine which he hath here delivered against which too much cannot be spoken to prevent the taking of inconsiderate and over credulous Christians in his snares I shall shew my reasons why I call it pernicious doctrine and so leave the question 1 It is anti-scripturall and diametrically opposite to the word as is enough manifested by that which hath been already said in the examination thereof 2. It is Antichristian hath sundry Popish errors some more apertly others more hiddenly included in it So that when immediately before his arguments he professeth that it is not affectation of singularity that divides him in judgement from the reformed Churches we doubt not but he speaks truth herein For it is to follow the stream and Clowd of Popish Doctors whose sophistry hath more force upon his judgment than ever I could perceive the Word to have Those Popish errors then that are more openly conteined in his doctrine here are principally about Christs and mans satisfactions made to God for mans sinns in which as the Papists so Mr. Baxter will have man to bear a share with Christ that the glory may not be wholly the Lords And here in sundry points Mr. Baxter speaketh the very same things though not altogether in the same words with the Papists I shall in these severall points lay down briefly the doctrine of the Papists first and then compare Mr. Baxters with it that the Coherence betwixt them may be cleerly seen The Papists opinions I shall truly set forth to you though briefly as they themselves express themselves in the Councell of Trent Sess 6. Cap. 14. 16. Sess 14. Cap. 8 9. and Bellar in his two books de Purgatorio lib. 4. de Poenitentia and by sundry other of their own Writers 1 They hold that although Christ hath by his death and merits satisfied the Law and Justice of God for the fault of our sinns in offending Gods Justice and violating his holy Law so that God is no more at enmity with but reconciled to them which truly repent and beleeve hath fully pardoned their sinn and forgiven their offences for Christs sake yet hath neither Christ given nor God taken full satisfaction for the punishment but that after the fault is pardoned God may and will inflâ—ct punishment upon the offender In this and the rest points of satisfaction they give this generall rule that Christ hath undertaken for us onely that which we could not do for our selves and satisfied for us so far onely as it was unpossible for us to make satisfaction for our selves As for that which by doing or suffering was in our power to accomplish for our selves that he hath left to be without his preventing us accomplished by us But in this Case say they It was unpossible for man to undertake any work any suffering so noble worthy as might stand in equipoise with the offending of so infinite a Majestie and so to satisfie Gods Justice for the fault This therfore Christ hath done and God hath accepted from Christ in our behalf But it was possible for man to satisfie at least in part for the punishment which the justice and law of God exact for the offence committed This therefore is in part left to us to satisfie and after he hath forgiven the fault doth notwithstanding inflict upon us the punishment for the satisfying of his law and justice This they go about to prove by the example of Gods dealing with Moses and Aaron when they had sinned against him he forgave freely their fault and offence nevertheless called them exactly to a reckoning about the punishment was in perfect friendship with them again yet would not abate them an ace of the punishment which he had threatened to them they must dye in the Wildernes and never enter into the land that flowed with milk and hony The like they instance in David about his sin in reference to Bathsheba and Vriah The Lord forgave the offence The Lord hath put away thy sin saith the Prophet thou shalt not surely dye 2 Sam. 12 13. Nevertheles in reference to the punishment David shall smoke for it The child shall dye the sword shall never depart from his house c. so that David shall rue it to his very dying day Other Scriptures and reasons they bring which would be over tedious to insert Compare we now Mr. Baxters doctrine with theirs Thes 7. he tells us That Christ Jesus being fully furnished for this work of Mediation by his Fathers and his own will first undertook and afterward discharged mans debt by suffering what the Law did threaten and the offender was unable to bear And Thes 8. That the Father so fully accepted the satisfaction that by way of reward to Christ that gave it he hath delivered all things into his hands and given him all power in heaven and in earth and made him Lord both of the dead and living Yet Thes 9th addeth that It was not the intent of either the Father or the Son that by this satisfaction the offenders should be immediately delivered from the whole Curse of the Law and freed from the evill which they had brought upon themselves but some part must be executed upon soul and body c. And this he goes about by his ten Arguments which we have examined to prove of the beleevers themselves that they are liable to the punishment and Curse of the Law to bear it in part even to death it self and that though there be no unpardoned sin for which the curse as the curse Pag. 71. Arg. 8 is inflicted upon them Let any discreet man here judge if there be the least haires breadth betwixt Mr Baxter and a Papist according to the Councell of Trent i. e. the worst Papist The rule of both about satisfaction is the same Christ hath done and suffered for us what we could not do and suffer for our selves say the Papists Christ hath suffered for us what the Law did threaten and we were unable to bear saith Mr. Baxter implying that whatsoever we can bear must yet be inflicted upon us For this satisfaction the fault is forgiven saith Bellarmine By means of this satisfaction there remains no unpardoned Sin saith Mr. Baxter viz. upon beleevers Yet say both when the sin is forgiven the punishment curse and penalty of the Law must be suffered Here is noble mercy and forgivenes to pardon a man his fault and to pronounce with
the whole Law Christ is become of none effect to you whosoever of you are justified by the Law ye are fallen from Grace From these words must needs be deduced these Conclusions 1 That to be under the Law and to be under Grace are contraries and do exclude either the other so that it is impossible for the same person at the same time to be under both together If but circumcised if at all under the Law ye have saith the Apostle made Christ of none effect to you ye are fallen from grace and consequently if at all in Christ yee are not in the least part under the Law but free from the domination and Curse thereof 2 That whosoever yieldeth himself to be under the Law as a Covenant of Works in the least part hath his justification or damnation depending upon his perfect or unperfect keeping of the whole Law so saith th'Apostle if but circumcised c. ye are debtors to keep the whole Law How debtors viz. If ever ye will be justified and saved to keep it perfectly if ye fail but once to be damned for ever 3 That whosoever affirmeth whether he be a Bellarmine or a Baxter believers to be under the Law as a Covenant of Works the same by necessary consequence denyeth all actuall efficacy of Christs death that ever any soul was or shal be saved by his mediation and affirmeth all the Saints that have been are or shal be to be damned for ever For if at all under the Law then not at all under grace or in Christ but they must stand or fall according as they do or not do the whole Law which none doth ergo all must perish The same also may be gathered from Gal. 3. 10. but I have touched upon it before A noble Aphorist ye will acknowledg declaring a greater desire to bring the Saints under the Curse and damnation then there is force in his Disputes to prove them to be under it These Scriptures might suffice to satisfie every judgment that believers are not under the Law Yet I shall mention some few more to shew the copiousnes of the word in this point that there might be no doubting in this point Rom 7. 1-6 the Holy Ghost doth make out this truth as clear as the light The Law saith he hath dominion over a man onely during life as the husband hath power over his wife Let either the husband or wife dye the law or power which the husband had over the wife dyeth also If the wife dye he hath no power over the soul or ashes of his dead wife to exact under any penalty obedience from them If the wife be survivor she is no more bound to the dead ashes of her husband to fear either command or wrath thence but is wholly at liberty So also stands the relation between the Law and believers The Law in the height of its authority had power to inflict death but once upon man this death have believers suffered in Christ therefore are dead to the Law by the body of Christ have done their Law and suffered all that the Law had to inflict upon sinners in the body or humane nature of Christ suffering for them so that they are dead to the Law so far without the lists of further punishment or terrour of the Law as the Felon or Murtherer that is condemned hanged dead and buried is free from further punishment by the Law of the Land Yea the Law also is dead to them having spent it's sting and strength and life also on the naturall body of Christ and is thereby disabled for ever to re-assume the same against the mysticall body or any member thereof So that they are fully delivered from the Law All this doth th'Apostle speak out at the full in that place and no lesse in Gal. 3. 24 25. The Law was our School-master unto or untill Christ c. But after that faith is come we are no longer under a Schoolmaster This also he illustrateth Gal. 4. 1 c. by a similitude likening the Church before Christs coming to an Heir in his Minority by his fathers will put under Tutors and Governors so that though he be Lord of all yet differs nothing from a servant but is under his Tutors ferule and rod also to be constrained with fear when love becomes ineffectuall to move him to his duty such was the condition of the Church while in its minority and feeblenes of spiritual knowledge the Sun of righteousnes not being yet risen fully to enlighten them with the understanding of their liberty and glorious prerogatives During this time though they were Lords of all yet because of the weaknes of their knowledg they were kept Servant-like under hard Masters under the Commands and threats of the Law but resembling the Church under the Gospel to the same heir in his maturity of age now entred into the possession of his heritage and become rather Lord of his Tutors and Governours then any way subject or servile to their authority gently and generously accepting their wholsom Counsels but disdaining so to subject to their authority as to be brought under the rod of their power any more So also Gal. 5. 13 18 23. speaking of them that had been called to the liberty of the Gospel believing in Christ walking in the Spirit and bringing forth the fruits of the Spirit concludeth of them that they are not under the Law that against such there is no Law And 2 Cor. 3. 11. cals the Law as a Covenant of works that which was done away as he doth the Gospel as a Covenant of Grace that which remaineth Yea that the case might be so plain that no Jesuiticall distinctions might pervert it the Holy Ghost at once concludeth both negatively that believers are not under the terrours of the Law at all and affirmatively that they are wholly and onely under the sweet dispensation of grace Heb. 12. 18-24 Ye are not come to the Mount c. burning with fire nor unto blacknes and darknesse and tempest nor to the words and Covenants which could not be heard and born and to the terrible voyce which made Moses himself exceedingly to fear and quake These are the things done away in reference to believers But ye are come to Mount Sion to the City of the living God the heavenly Hierusalem c. to all the prerogatives and privileges of the Kingdome of Grace So also in the Epistle to the Galathians There are two Covenants saith the Holy Ghost the one from Mount Sinai where the Law was given which gendereth to Bondage the other from Hierusalem which is above and is free the mother of us all and concludes at last of all believers negatively that they are not the children of the Bond-woman i. e. under the Covenant of works and affiâ—matively But of the free i. e. under the Covenant of Grace Gal. 4. 24 26 31. Hence is that bold triumphant challenge of the Apostle Rom. 8. 33 34.
Christs undertaking c. The satisfaction was so virtually and effectually made by Christ and accepted by the Father as when it was actually accomplished First it seems there was such a Covenant For the Apostle tells us Rom. 5. 14. that Adam was a figure of him that was to come which is Christ And how a figure Doubtles not onely in this that as by him the one and first man sin and death by sin immediately came upon all men so by Christ righteousnes and by it life came upon all the elect But also in the manner of the agreement of the Type and Antitype together That as Adam representing all mankinde by his unfaithfullnes in breaking the Covenant brought sin and death upon all that he represented so Christ representing all the elect by his faithfullnes in performing the Covenant c. brought righteousnes and justification of life upon all the elect represented in him Yea the Holy Ghost in expresse words testifieth to such a Covenant In the volume of thy book it is written of me that I should do thy will O God saith he when he comes into the world i. e. it is testified in the word what Covenant hath passed betwixt thee and me c. Heb. 10. 5-10 yea and testifieth to the tenor of the Covenant his coming with a body to be offered in sacrifice this will of God he came to do And moreover he giveth witnes also to the faithfullnes of Christ in offering it Lo I come and to the efficacy of it upon all immediately for whom it was offered By the which will we are sanctified i. e. no more taken for sinners but Consecrated as holy to the Lord through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all ibid. The same is implyed in that phrase which here termeth the offering of Christs body the doing of the Fathers will And elswhere obedience unto death even the death of the Cross Phil. 2. 8. Obedience and will presuppose Command and Covenant And the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the one righteousnes or one act of righteousnes of Christ opposed to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that one offence of Adam for so the phrase seems to me to hold out more grammatically than the offence of one and the righteousnes of one doth not obscurely argue that one righteousnes of Christ in fullfilling opposite to that one offence of Adam in once breaking the Covenant Rom. 5. 18. And that all this was covenanted to be done and accepted for and in the behalf of the elect and to them and none but them to be effectuallized is also evident from the Scriptures For he did the will of his Father in offering himself as was before shewed i. e. did according as it was agreed and covenanted between him and the Father dyed for them onely for whom he made prayers and intercessions But when his time was come to suffer he prayed intercedâ—d not for the world but for them onely whom the Father had given him out of the world Joh. 17. 6 9. Therefore for them onely he undertook to satisfie Therefore is it that he is said to lay down his life onely for his sheep not for the goats Joh. 10. 11. 15. For them whose names were written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world Rev. 13. 8. The rest things conteined in this position are granted by Mr. Br himselfe therefore need no proof here I have couched together many things in this to avoyd multiplicity of positions 2 That by force of this satisfaction so given and accepted for the sinns of the Elect according to the Tenor of this Covenant between the Father and the Son all the Elect of God were Justified in Christ from the very time of Christs undertaking to be their Justifier Therefore in the last alleaged Scripture their names are said to be written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world Here though the book of life which is elswhere mentioned to be Gods book will be taken by Mr. Br to be the book of Election yet this book of life of the lamb is to be understood for the book of Justification implying indeed the election of all that are written therein but primarily and in its direct sense comprehending the names of them that are justified by the bloud of the sacrificed Lamb of God And these are said to be written in Christs book that is registred in Christ and upon Christs account from the foundation of the world immediately upon Christs undertaking to satisfie for them Of him ye are in Christ saith the Apostle who of God is made unto us Wisdome Righteousnes Sanctification and Redemption 1 Cor. 1. 30. When was he so made unto us Mr. Br answereth not onely upon the payment but upon his undertaking to pay our debt Therefore is he said to be Jesus Christ yesterday and to day and for ever Heb. 13. 8. And that not onely in reference to them that lived in all ages of the world but in respect of us also that in all ages of the world he hath been and will be what now he is our Jesus our Christ But this position hath been before proved in the former Chapter in answer to Mr. Baxters 13 Thesis and its explication where I spake to his sixth Argument 3 The Ministeriall way of offering and convaying the benefits of Christs satisfaction into the souls and apprehensions of men now used under the Gospel according to the command of Christ is or at least sounds like an inferior Covenant subordinate and sub-servient to this between the Father and the Son whereof we have spoken Christ having now made full satisfaction to the Father invites all and brings in his elect to taste and enjoy by faith all the perfections which he hath merited and received into his hands for them It is confessed by Mr. B. Thes 8. That God is so fully pleased with the Sons undertaking of this busines of Mediation that he hath delivered all things into his hands and given him all power in heaven and in earth and made him Lord both of the dead and living And the Lord Jesus himself affirmeth that the Father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgment to the Son i. e. the dispensation and ordering of all things in heaven and in earth And it is the opinion of great Divines that the Lord Christ in the old world before the Law and in all ages under the Law being that person of the Trinity which had undertaken to assume our nature unto him and in it to dye for the reconciling of us to God and entring from the beginning upon his power to set in order all things to this glorious end was he that conversed with the Patriarks and Prophets sometimes in an assumed body like a man sometimes invisibly making known the mystery of Redemption by himself to them and prescribing under what administrations he would have his Church
put a difference betwixt mid-day and mid-night It is plain by what light by what argument It is the thing in question and none untill Mr. Br. ever held forth this assertion in these his expressions Yet it must be plain viz. because he hath said it so plain as a New world created in Mr. Br. fist he that can see what is not may see it We deny both the righteousnes which is by Christ to be a legall righteousnes and our own qualifications to be the terms and grounds upon which he is made to us Righteousnes And let the world judg whether he shew himself a Christian Teacher or an Antichristian Imposter who having promised a confirmation of his strange and before unheard of doctrine brings nothing but flourishes of words to charm fools not one argument or Scripture to satisfie the wise and conscientious Himself seeth the grosnes and palpablenes of his delusions and left his Reader should stay in his meditations upon it to see it also he hasteth to annex a fourth Conclusion very plausible to them whom he hopes to beguile wherupon as on a Cross he naileth the picture of an Antinomian to crucifie him that with this pleasant spectacle he may divert his Readers eyes from the nakednes and nothingnes of what went before to the beholding of a new object set before him To affirm therefore that our Evangelicall or New Covenant Righteousnes is in Christ and not in our selves or performed by Christ and not by our selves is such a monstrous piece of Antinomian Doctrine that no man c. ut supra Which is as much as if he had said to his Reader if upon the bare authority of my words when I have no one good Argument to prove them thou wilt not become a rank Papist I will register thee for an Antinomian and make thee out to the world such a Monster that all shall abhor thee as unsufferable With this Thunder-bolt he knows he shall shake into an Ague all those that Nicodemus-like are Disciples of Christ but secretly for fear of the Jewes Should they be suspected of the least tang of Antinomianism they should never more have a good look from the Scribes and Pharisees But he is not forth with an Antinomian whom Mr. B. so termeth If Pythagoras his transmigration of souls into new bodies were Canonicall I should conclude that the ghost of one of those ghostly Fathers of the Councell of Constance had crept into Mr. B. body They to make John Huss odious painted an ugly Devill in paper and crowned John Huss therewith when they carried him to the stake to be burned at the view whereof the people exulted in his death as if they had seen some Witch or rather young Devill burned So deals Mr. B. here with them which are truly Evangelical inures upon them the black brand of Antinomianism so to make truth in their mouth hatefull as well as the persons But is it decreed that they are all Antinomians that hold and that it is a monstrous piece of Antinomianism to hold that our Evangelicall or New Covenant righteousnes is in Christ not in our selves performed by Christ and not by our selves If so I much question whether there will be found any one save Mr. B. alone in all the Reformed Churches that are or have been but must bear the imputation of a monstrous Antinomian I will not be over confident of Socinus Arminius Grotius and their followers because I take them not for members but troublers of the Reformed Churches For my part I know no difference about this point between the Orthodâ—x and Antinomians Both consent 1 That our Gospel-righteousnes which worketh effectually to our Justification is in Christ not in our selves save by imputation 2 That our Gospel or New Covenanâ— righteousnes in reference to our sanctification is in Christ radically but in us by derivation and influence actually to sanctifie us 3 That our faith repentance obedience holines good works though flowing from Christ himself into us are the Gospel or New Covenant Righteousnes not by which we are justified but by which we are sanctified And let Mr. B. or any of his Disciples produce that Orthodox man that ever called this doctrine Antinomianism or that hath not shunned the contrary doctrine as Popish and Antichristian Yet Mr. B. finding himself bound by promise to prove many things as was said before that his fallacious dealing might not be too notorious and shamefull he chooseth one of the many leaving the rest untouched to speak something to it as he had said though not to prove it And in that which he saith there is nothing to confirm his own assertion but a meer reviling abusing abasing of them that assert the contrary under the false imputation of Antinomianism And here he comes upon the stage like Hercules Furens who in a Phrensie taking his Wife and Children to be a Lioness and her Whelps falls upon them fiercly with his Clubb and envenomed Arrows untill he had utterly destroyed them So Mr. B. in somewhat a like fit not finding reall Antinomians but making in his fancy imaginary Bug-bears and phantasms of them curseth them with Bell Book and Candle for saying that Christ hath fulfilled the conditions of the New as well as of the Old Covenant and that our Evangelical righteousnes is not in our selves but in Christ At the supposition of such assertions which none ever laid down in these terms the man is in a rage beats the wind and flings dust in the Aire cryeth Blasphemy heresie impiety and enumerates Absurdities upon absurdities arising from such doctrine all which I am not at leizure to transcribe it being all superfluous and not to the purpose but may be read at large pag. 111 112 113 of his Tractate More proper shall it be for me here to make out Mr. B. either willing or unwilling mistake herein and then all his absurdities will â—ither vanish into winde or return upon himself First then as we deny not Faith in the Lord Christ to be instrumentall to apprehend to our selves Christ for our justification and a declarative evidence to our own souls that we are actually justified by him as before hath been granted so we affirm it to be hereticall and popish doctrine which Mr. B. doth here pag. 111 deliver in asserting repentance obedience submission c. and afterward all other vertues and good works to be conditions of the New Covenant viz. by which as by our Gospel righteousnes we are and without which preceding we cannot be justified For all these in Mr. B. sense as Austin from the tenor of the Gospel saith Non precedunt justificandum sed sequuntur justificatum are not the precedents but fruits of justification 2 We affirm Repentance Obedience Charity c. and all good works which the Gospel requireth to be originally and materially the works and duties of the Law Nature and naturall conscience it self suggesting to every of us both the rest and withall in
wrath his life and righteousnesse were hid with Christ in God He could claim nothing from God by any evidential title but wrath and condemnation though he had right in Christ yet had he no right unto Christ though in Christ all was his because Christ had united purchased and received all into his hands for him yet had he no right to Christ by which to claim a partnership and interest in the kingdome and priviledge of grace was without all true peace of conscience all joy and consolation in the promises of grace under fears and terrors in expectation of wrath and damnation could be sensible of nothing but anger hatred and displeasure against him for sinne knew not himselfe to be one of the children of promise Gal. 4. 28. to be entitled to Christ in whom alone the promises of God are yea and Amen 2 Cor. 1. 20. Therefore as if there had been no Christ no Mediator and reconciler no Covenant of Grace yea no Grace or acts of Grace eternal or temporary in God thorow Christ so he remained under a Spirit either of delusion or of bondage still But now when the father hath drawn him to Christ and Christ hath received him when Christ hath apprehended him to himselfe by his Spirit and he by faith hath apprehended Christ to himselfe for redemption reconciliation remission righteousnesse and whatsoever else is laid up in Christ for him and so hath union and communion with Christ hath Christ in him and is himselfe in Christ Now his justification which was sure before in God and in Christ is also made sure to his conscience He is now justified in his own conscience after the tenor and by the vertue of the Gospel and Covenant and promises of Grace findes and knowes himselfe through Christ absolved at Gods tribunal hath all the evidences for it that possibly he can desire the Word and the Oath of God that by two immutable things in which it is impossible for God to ly he may have a strong consolation Heb. 6. 18. The Word evidenceth and his faith evidenceth the Covenant is now sealed mutually and reciprocally between God and him by beleeving he hath put to his seal that God is true and God sealeth to his conscience by certifying it by his Spirit that his wrath is pacified that all accusations are silenced there is no condemnation to him being now in Christ Jesus Rom. 8. 1. Himselfe may now rest satisfied banishing henceforth all fears and doubts and glorying in the Lord that the fear of death is past it is enough my soul is now alive Christ is made sinne for me that I might become the Righteousnesse of God in him 2 Cor. 5. 21. Now Lord lettest thou thy servant depart in peace for my eyes have seen thy Salvation and in the interim while he is here enjoying a heaven upon earth a kingdome of Righteousnesse joy and peace in the Holy Ghost untill he was incorporated by faith into Christ Christ might indeed plead for him but he had no evidence no shew of title not an article under Gods hand or from his lips to plead at Gods barre for life or pardon 6. That neverthelesse when a man truly beleeveth then may he apprehend justification and remission of sinnes not onely as now first declared and evidenced to his own soul But also as past and compleat before the foundation of the world was laid Because from eternity Christ satisfied in that he undertook to satisfie for the sinnes of the Elect and God from eternity rested in this satisfaction undertaken by Christ and so laid aside all displeasure which without this Covenant between him and his onely Son he might have taken up as wel against them that should afterward beleeve as against them which dye in unbeleef For their justification in time doth à posteriore argue their justification before all times and where faith findes the least rivulet of the great stream sent forth it can it ought by it to ascend up to the very fountain to be filled and satisfied with the deliciousnesse thereof Thus shall we finde the Apostle almost in all his Epistles from the sense of their present enjoyments in Christ to carry upward the Saints to whom he writeth unto the very bosom of Gods eternal grace counsell and good pleasure where all was laid up and treasured for them from all eternity that thence it might in due time be shed forth upon them Faith runs not away rashly and hastily with the gift but delights to enter and pierce through the vail to contemplate and embrace the as well eternal as infinite love of the giver 7. That although no man receiveth the sensible comfort of his justification before he actually beleeveth yet every elect vessell hath besides and without his knowledge the true benefit thereof as to freedome from vengeance throughout the whole time of his infidelity was in Christ beloved accepted and owned of God as righteous in that his sinne was not imputed as fully before as after he beleeved the price of his redemption was paid all his sinnes borne and punished upon the shoulders yea the soul and body of Christ so that himselfe was no lesse exempted from the revenging wrath of God from all obligation to make any part of satisfaction in his own person for his sinnes as hee that was already in Christ by faith So that whatsoever afflictions befell him in the time of his unbelief were not the infliction of the curse as the curse for sinne but sanctified chastisements of a loving father flowing from his grace and favour not from his indignation and hatred against his person though against his sins tending all to his good not to his ruine Else if he should have born the least stroke of Gods revenging justice and in the least pittance have made but one least peece of satisfaction by his sufferings for his offences then either Christ hath made satisfaction for him but in part and is not his whole Saviour and redeemer for that himselfe hath satisfied divine justice in part or otherwise the father hath taken satisfaction twice for the same sins once from the Lord Christ and after that from the offender also But this were to slander either the perfection of Christs mediation or the incorruptnesse of Gods justice both which are unsufferable 8. That the justification which is by faith consisteth not onely in a bare apprehension of our justification and pardon from God for this is onely mans act and no express act of God but first in Gods actual declaration evidencing and certisfying the conscience of man drawn to the barre of judgement set up as it were in the conscience that God hath taken satisfaction to his offended justice from the Lord Christ for all the offenders sinnes and hath for ever quit-claimed and discharged him from all sin and wrath and admitted him into favour and family to be under the dispensations of his grace for ever And then indeed God having by this
slaves future service is not a condition but a consequent of his present redemption But let us see now whether Mr. Baxter with this paint of that which he cals right Reason do fight against God or Man doth resist the placits of men or else the holy Ghost himself He required before that all might be tryed by Scriptures Let us now bring his doctrine to the touch-stone I shall not repeat all or any of the Scriptures before alleadged or that might be further alleadged against him One arrow out of that holy quiver one Scripture out of the whole body of Gospell doctrine shall suffice to smite to the heart to death it self all that he goeth about here with fine flourishes of wit to establish Eph. 2. 8 9 10. thus speaks the holy Ghost By grace are ye saved through faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God Not of works lest any man should boast For ye are Gods workmanship created in Christ Jesus to good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them That the word Saved is an equipollent here with Justifyed if there should be any that will deny yet Mr. Baxter will and must affirme unlesse he will beat in pieces one of the chief pillars of the fabrick erected in this book and overthrow what he hath built In this truth he must joyn with us though in other he estrange himself from us The same Act of God being called justifying as it dischargeth us from the state of our misery as considered to be a state of sin and saving as it delivereth us from it under the consideration of it as a state of condemnation and vengeance Mr. Baxter will grant cannot but grant this And then there will naturally drop from this Scrtpture these following positions 1 That the justification or salvation of the Covenant of grace is by faith 2 That it is not of works but by faith in opposition to works 3 That the very works which flow from our union to Christ and to which we are new created in Christ Jesus even those which Mr. Baxter calleth the righteousnesse of the Gospell are excluded from bearing any part with faith in our justification 4 That the not justification by works doth in no wise hinder the beleevers performing of them for they are created in Christ Jesus their hearts are new wrought by the Spirit to a holy delight in them 5 That God hath not ordained them to justifie but for the new created and justifyed in Christ to walk in them 6 That to teach otherwise of works the very works of Sanctification is to depresse Gods grace and to extoll mans boasting and vain-glory 7 Even these gospell works and righteousnesse are excluded from having any part in justifying not only as collaterals with the satisfaction of Christ but also as collaterals with faith i. e. from bearing a part either in causality or conditionality with faith to justifie I challenge Mr. Baxter and all his Legall and Anti-evangelicall disciples here to deny any one of these positions to spring naturally from this Text. And if the the holy Ghost here speak all this then by it all that Mr. Baxter speaketh throughout this whole Tractate for justification by works is by the breath of Gods mouth blown to the curse as in many things I shall by Gods help shew afterward At the present what he speaketh of works comprehended in faith to justification is here shaken off as a Sophisticall phantasticall Antiscripturall dream the holy Ghost here by the positing of faith in expresse words rejecting works Gospell works all that Mr. Baxter makes a part with faith in that which he cals Evangelicall righteousnesse from all and any copartnership with faith in saving or justifying so excludes all as that he denyeth that justification by grace can any more stand if the best Gospell works of the best Saints are put in any cooperation with faith in the promoting of it All the rest that he hath in the explication pa. 240. and thence to pa. 243. is wholly besides the question which is not whether works and duties be reducible to faith or in what respect every particular qualification and duty standeth to it But whether reduced or not reduced it doth by Gods appointment help with saith to justify us before God This we have found to be an usuall feat of Mr. Baxter where his assertions are confident and peremptory but his proofs of them light and shadie to devise in such case some witty passage wherewith to divert the considerations of his reader from the shame and nakednesse of his foregoing Arguments And this most probably was his drift and craft here having given us but words in stead of Arguments to prove that works are comprehended and implied in faith in all such Scriptures as attribute justification to faith only that the emptinesse and nothingnesse of his argumentation to make this good may not appear to the reader he tols him a way to attend to a subtle and plausible dispute of the relation that every good endowment and work hath particularly to faith In which discourse of his we will not examine how many things are true and how many false for if they were all true they are nothing to the thing in question viz. whether in the severall relations that Mr. Baxter makes them to stand to faith or in any other they help with faith to justification and that so as that when all these with faith cojustifie we may be yet said to be justifyed by faith alone When he hath spoken all by meer affirming without confirming he thus indeed at last concludeth pa. 243. B. So then when you invite a man to your house it is not necessary to bid him come in at the door or bring his head or arms or legs or cloaths with him though these are necessary because all these are necessarily implyed Even so when we are said to be justifyed by faith only or when it is promised that he which beleeveth shall be saved all these forementioned duties are implyed and included How ecliptick is falshood but sincerity open and full No man invites another to his house but to some end either to taste of some dainties or hear some good tidings or see some excellent work or for some other end He should have named the end and we would grant him all thus that as much as the door head legs armes clothes of the invited do partake with the mouth in the act of tasting or with the eye in seeing or the ear in hearing so much when we are invited to Christ do other duties and workes partake with faith in receiving him to justification A third argument if indeed it be not one and the same in substance and differ only in words from the former he draweth from a wide wilde vast confused and incircumscriptive definition of faith begotten of his own brain and now first as an overgrown monster born into the world and baptized
altering his judgment is because that opinion would not subserve to his justification by works which he hath so pertinaciously determined to set up that whatsoever of sacred or humane Authority he meets with opposit to it he shoulders it out of the way and whatsoever occurres out of any sink and puddle making for it he takes up as a treasure But the Meritoriousnesse of Christs Legislative and Kingly office to satisfie for our sins being laid as a groundwork he thought it seems would tend much to the exalting of the works done by the Commandement of King Jesus to justification therefore he took it up from Grotius and made use of it as a paved way to Justification by works which here almost from the same grounds he urgeth And so we see that from the very beginning to the end of this Tractate all that he hath conspireth and aspireth to this end justification by works and to elude all that the Gospell hath against it But let us come to examine his Assumption to this Argument and what he brings for it B. Thes 66. Christ is not in any one part or work of his office alone the object of justifying faith as such but Christ in his entire office considered is this object viz. as he is Redeemer Lord and Saviour In a good sense we might grant him both all this and all the substance of all the Arguments which he brings to prove it For none of the Protestant Churches have denyed but maintain 1 That all the offices of Christ are needfull and cooperating to and in the worke of Mediatourship that Christ not only as our high Priest but also as our King and Prophet made satisfaction for us and makes his satisfaction effectuall to us 2 That the object of justifying faith is Christ in all his offices King Priest and Prophet 3. That these offices of Christ are not to be severed by us because counited and coworking in him He layes not down nor puts from him any one of his offices when he either justifyeth sanctifieth or illuminateth c. but doth all and every of them as Lord Saviour and Teacher Yet when all this is granted to him his cause is never the stronger nor ours at all the weaker Nay he declares himself guilty of the fault wherewith he chargeth the innocent viz. of separating Christs offices holding him forth to us as redeeming us only as our high Priest governing and giving Lawes to his Church only by his Kingly office enlightening us in the truth only as our Prophet when contrariwise we teach that Jesus Christ i. e. the Anointed of God in all his offices and anointings is made unto us of God wisdome righteousnesse sanctification and redemption not wisdome in one only of his offices righteousnesse in another c. but all in all as the Scripture witnesseth 1 Cor. 1. 30. Neverthelesse we deny not but some acts and benefits of Christ are to be attributed more properly and peculiarly to one then another office of Christ yet so that the cooperation of the other offices therein is nor wholly to be denyed But this we deny that there is any other fountain opened for the washing away of our sins but the bloud of Christ only or any other satisfaction made to the justice of God but by the sacrifice of Christ alone yet so as this bloud and sacrifice as they are primarily our high Priests so are they our Kings and Prophets also howbeit the bloud and sacrifice of one Christ alone And herein we follow the Scriptures leading threed which affirm not only the Priest to have dyed for us but our Prophet or Shepheard also I am the good Shepheard and give and lay down my life for the sheep Joh. 10 11 15. He came not to be ministred unto but to minister and to give his life a ransome for many Mat. 20. 28. viz. to seal the doctrine with his bloud which he had taught with his lips and to make the way through the veil of his flesh thorough his bloud which he had taught to be the only way into the Holiest to the Father And as the Shepheard so the Lord and King also It was the LORD that was betrayeâ— 1 Cor. 11. 23. crucifyed 1 Cor. 2. 8 killed Act. 3. 15. and raisâ—â— again 1 Cor. 6. 14. Even the Lord of glory and Prince of life Therâ—fore it is that the holy Ghost cals it the Lords death 1 Cor. 11. 2â— The Lords body and the Lords bloud 1 Cor. 11. 27 29. And needfull was it that Christ as Lord and King with all his power should thus grapple with sin death and hell on our behalfe how else should he have vanquished them and having spoyled these Principalities and powers made a shew of them openly and triumphed over them Col. 2. 15. And without this victory his death had been to us vain our enemies had remained unconquered and our selves unransomed The strong man had not been driven out by a stronger then he Luk. 11. 21 22. Thus we neither divide nor separate the offices of Christ one from another but conjoyn them all in the death and passion of Christ by which alone we beleeve and teach that the Lord Priest and Prophet Christ Jesus hath made satisfaction for our sins But we utterly deny that which Mr. Baxter drives at that Christ as our Lord that is as a Lawgiver and to speak in Mr. Baxters words Thes 31. as he doth establish the morall Law commanding perfect obedience and forbidding every sin as exactly as under the Covenant of works is the object of justifying faith as justifying This was that great and principall article which Luther with so much vehemency defended against the Papists viz. that Christ is Luth. in Gal. Cap. 2. 20 alibi no Moses no Exactor no giver of Lawes in reference to justification but a giver of grace a Saviour c. pronouncing it an accursed â—and hellish doctrine which the Papists taught that he justifyeth as a Law-giver that they which so paint him out make him not a Christ but a Fiend or Devill The state of the question then is betwixt him and us not whether Christ as Lord as well as Saviour but whether by the sacrifice of himself for us or else by giving Laws and Commanding all duties of obedience to us also be the object of justifying faith as justifying i. e. whether our faith by obeying Christ in the works of righteousnesse as well as by cleaving to Christ crucifyed do justifie We maintain that the death of Christ or Christ dying for us is alone offered to our faith for justification he contrariwise that Christ as commanding the duties of obedience is the object of faith as justifying Our Assertion that Christ suffering for us is the alone object of justifying faith as such may be confirmed by many Arguments One Argument may be drawn from the offerings and sacrifices of the old Testament and the sacraments both of the old and new Testament
Such as these have exhibited or do still exhibit Christ to us for redemption or justification such is our faith still to receive him But these all have exhibited and do exhibit Christ not as a Law-giver but as an offering or sacrifice for our sins therefore under this notion our faith is to receive him to justification So all the sacrifices circumcision paschal Lamb c. under the old Testament directed the faith of men to Christs sacrifice to the bloud and wounds of Christ for purging c. Or if any will say as he may truly say that circumcision typified also the renovation of the heart by the Spirit of Christ himself may answer himself that this was to sanctification and not to justification 2 The whole stream of the Gospell leads our faith to Christ crucifyed or dying for justification As the serpent was lifted up in the wildernesse so shall the Son of man be lifted up viz. upon the crosse that whosoever beleeveth in him should not perish but have everlasting life John 3. 14 15. I determined to know i. e. to preach among you for your knowledg nothing else but Christ and him crucifyed 1 Cor. 2. 2. If I be lifted up I will draw all men to me signifying what death he should die Joh. 12. 32 33. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my bloud c. Joh. 6. 47 58. Whom God hath set forth as a propitiation through faith in his bloud Rom. 4. 25. Being justified by his bloud Rom. 5. 9. The bloud of Christ cleanseth from all sin 1 Joh. 1. 7. The Lambe of God sacrificed that taketh away the sins of the World Joh. 1. 29. Having made peace through the bloud of his Crosse Col. 1. 20. And reconciled us in the body of his flesh through death Ver. 21 22. Having redemption through his bloud even the sorgivenesse of sin Col 1. 14. He hath purchased his Church with his bloud Act. 20. 28. Having boldnesse to enter into the Holiest by the bloud of Jesus by the new and living way which he hath consecrated through the veil of his flesh Heb. 10. 19 20. He was wounded for our sins and bruised for our iniquities and by his stripes we are healed Isa 53. 5. God forbid that I should glory in any thing but in the Crosse of our Lord Jesus Christ Gal. 6. 14. I might even weary the Reader with allegations of Scriptures every way as pertinently and properly making Christ dying for us the object of faith as justifying And I challenge Mr. Baxter and all his admirers to produce one Scripture proving Christ as a Law-giver to be the object of our faith to justification If they cannot do it let it be acknowledged as an audacious and daring presumption in Mr. Baxter from his own authority without and against the Word to lay it down here as a position and principle of Religion 3 If the death and sufferings alone of Christ and not his giving of Lawes and commanding duties of righteousnesse be the sole and entire satisfaction which he hath given to the justice of God for us then Christ in his death and not at all in his Laws and Commands of such duties is to be made the object of our faith for justification But the former is true therefore the latter also Both the consequent and consequence of the Proposition must needs be granted by all Protestants though not by Remonstrants and Socinians which hold the imputation of the obedience of Christ to us by which he hath satisfyed Gods justice that he for us and we in and by him have done our law that his satisfying obedience is by imputation so fully made ours to justification as if we had done it our selves which is the doctrine of all Protestant Churches But Mr. Baxter hateth this phrase of imputation of Christs obedience will not cannot admit it for then he destroyes and pronounceth all at the best to be erroneous whatsoever he hath spowted out for sacred doctrine he grants the imputation of nothing else but our own faith and works to justification so that after his principles the consequence is not so clear Let us see therefore whether also after and upon his own grounds it may stand firm and undenyable 1 Then Mr. Baxter Thes 18. affirmes our Legall righteousnesse as he cals it i. e. that righteousnesse by which the Law is satisfyed for our breaches of it to be in Christ and in calling this Legall righteousnesse ours and the satisfaction therein made ours he doth imply that the satisfaction of Christ is the thing that being made ours is that which justifyeth us This he speaks out yet more plainly pa. 218. telling us that Christs satisfaction must be made ours else we cannot be justifyed that so far as by imputation no more is understood then the bestowing of Christs satisfaction on us so that we shall have the justice and benefits thereof as truely as if we had satisfyed our selves in this sense he granteth the imputation of Christs satisfactory righteousnesse and thus according to his principles that act or those acts of Christ by which he made satisfaction for us or rather Christ in these acts is to be made the object of our faith as justifying According to this rule pa. 54. he makes the Active righteousnesse of Christ considered as such part of the satisfaction together with the Passive and to lay a ground for that which he here inferreth pa. 57 he affirms that among other parts of Christs righteousnesse or Active obedience his assuming of the humane nature his establishing and sealing the Covenant his working miracles his sending his Disciples to convert and save the world his overcoming death and rising again c. which were all works most proper to his kingly office to have been meritorious and satisfactory And all this to lay a foundation for what here and Thes 72. he buildeth viz. Christ as a Law-giver as well as a Redeemer is the object of justifying faith as such and that obedience to his Laws as well as faith in his sufferings hath to do in our justification We finde then Mr. Baxter making Christ in his Legislative righteousnesse upon this ground alone to be the object of justifying faith as therein he in part satisfyed for our disobedience Therefore hoc nomine and in this respect must the consequence of the proposition stand firm with him viz. If only the death and sufferings of Christ and not at all his Legislative righteousnesse be the sole and entire satisfaction c. then Christ in his death onely and not c. is to be made the object of faith as justifying For in that righteousnesse alone by which Christ satisfyed is faith to apprehend him to justification by his own rules The Assumption then remaines alone needfull to be proved viz. that Christs death and suffering alone is the entire satisfaction This is clear to them which will not wilfully retain beams in their eyes from these Scriptures which affirm the
be brought to leave the way that nature hath taught to find and enter into this way which the Father revealeth What then say yee is the broad way and wide gate by which men seek to enter into life I answer M. Brs. way the way of our own righteousness and strict carriage It is broad and wide because all learn it from nature corrupted which telâ—s us it was the way if we had kept it but cannot tell us that it is now blocked up to sinners so that many so many as seek for life by their own righteousness and works doe by this supposed way of life passe to destruction Not but that the way of vice is a broad way also buâ— our Saviouâ— speaks not heer of it but of the broad way by which men seek life but find destruction To this effect is that of our Saviour â—he Publicans and harlots enter into the kingdome of heaven before the strict living Pharisees Ma 21. 31 By what way did these vitious livers enter but by Christ into the Kingdom else if strictness of life had been the way to it the Pharisees had entred before them This is the interpretation of this Gospel text after the tenour of the Gospel and so Mr. Br. suo se jugulavit gladio hath brought a sword to cut the throat of his own cause B. Ma. 7. 21. Not every one that faith Lord Lord shall enter c. but he that doth the will of my Father c. This is the will and work of the Fathers willing and commanding as to life that we beleeve on him whâ—m he hath sent Jo. 6. 29. B. Ma 7. 22. 23. Many shall say in that day Lord we have prophesiâ—d c. to whom it shall be answered I know you not depart from me ye workers of iniquities Hypocrites that come with their mouths full of Works and merits to plead for Heaven shall all be shaken off and the ground of their exclusion is this I know you not ye were not built upon mee had no union with mee no setled dwelling and recumbency upon me therfore he shakes off both them and their works as workers and works of iniquity B. Ro. 8. 4. That the righteousnes of the Law might bee fulfilled in us which walk not after the flesh but after the spirit The righteousness of the Law is perfect And they walk not after the flesh but after the spirit which as the same Apostle saith worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh i. e. as in the following verses he expoundeth in legall priviledges or works of their own Righteousnes Phi. 3. 3. In these the righteousnes of the Law is fulfilled They have a perfect righteousnes even Christ made Righteousnes to them which the Law weak through the flesh could not produce in them B. Ro. 8. 13. If yee live after the flesh yee shall die but if yee through the spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body yee shall live Who they are chiefly that in reference to life and death doe live after the flesh and after the spirit the same Apostle teacheth not only in the forequoted Text Phi. 3. 3. but also Gal. 3 3. Are yee so foolish having begun in the spirit are ye now made perfect by the flesh In which words I challenge Mr. Baxter yea the whole pâ—ck of Jesuits if they dare to deny that by beginning in the spirit the Apostle means their trusting wholly on Christ for justification and salvation and by being made perfect by the flesh their seeking to perfect it by works viz Circumcision and with it the morall duties which the Law commandeth If in this place â—e will take the flesh and spirit in a larger sense yet compare we this 13 with the 1. vers of the Chapter and it will appear heer is nothing for his turn Ver. 1. he saith There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus But who are they Such as walk not after the flesh but after the spirit Let now Mr. Baxter put what sense he will upon flesh and spirit in the 13. verse it must bear the same sense as in the 1. verse And then if any demand why they that live after the flesh must die the answer is in readiness Because they are not in Christ Iesus or why they that mortifie c by the spirit shall live Every one can answer because they are in Christ Iesus So that in these there is no condemnation to the other nothing but condemnation Because he that hath the son hath life he that hath not the son hath not life 1 Jo. 5. 2. Heer according to promise I annex what I left unanswered cap. 16. of the third bunch of Scriptures quoted by Mr. Baxter p 236. referring them to this place to be examined as speaking more soundingly to glorification than to iustification by works I shall begin as I there left at B. pa. 236. lin 21. Mat. 10. 37. Hee that loveth Father or Mother more then me is unworthy of mee so of Sonne or Daughter When he meaneth the same with Bellarmine as he hath enough manifested under his 26. Thesis let him speak out the same with Bellarmine viz. That none shall receive salvation by Christ but those that by works merit it and make themselves worthy of it Let him so express himselfe and hee shall not want an expresse answer At present while he will lurk in the dark we will leave him in the dark B. Lu. 13. 24. hath been before examined Phi. 2. 12. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling Whether we look to that which precedes or that which followeth this Text we shall find its testimony to be to Mr. Baxters cause what a Colledge Brush alias called a hatchet to a Freshmans Gown cutting it in peeces because it will not be cleansed If to that which goeth before we are bidden v. 5-11 to follow the example of Christ as far as he was in a capacity to give him selfe a patterne to us in this kind in selfe deniall who being in the form of God and equall with God took to himselfe the forme of a servant made himselfe of no reputation abased himselfe to the death to the Cross to the Curs and so became exalted on high above all names c. So must wee deny and abase our selves in our relation as Christ did himselfe in his lay all the false glitter and glory of our works and righteousness in the dust as he did his true glory watching with a holy feare and trembling over our backsliding heart that is apt assoon as any shew of righteousness and goodness appears in our selves and works to depart from Christ and to rest in it as our sanctuary in this case is it that the Apostle requires this continuall working and heaving out selfe from our selves that Christ may be our All. And that with much fear and trembling watchfulness over our deceitfull hearts that are
all the justified by Faith are sanctified if it be sanctification indeede it may be made an evidence of justification 6 Yet neither all seeming peace and quietnesse of conscience or joy in expectation of salvation or hope that is made the ground of this joy and such other like seeming effects of Justification are alway sure evidences to a man that he is justified because not alway fruits or parts of sanctification they may proceed from another and baser principle viz. from the deceitfulnesse of their heart or self-love and self-advancing or from the spirit of slumber upon the conscience or from ignorance of Gods way and method of bringing many Children to glory Nor are all seeming holiness honesty meeknesse temperance patience and other like vertues either in their habite as they really affect the heart or in their act as they are with an ardent zeale for God brought forth into practice sure evidences of sanctification by Christ because these also may proceed from other and baser principles and not from the Spirit of Christ as from the abiding prints of the Law of Nature written in the heart or from the power and suggestions of a convinced and awaked conscience or from strong impressions made into the soule by a morall and vertuous education or other like sub-celestiall and unspirituall principles So that our certaine and known union to Christ and our justification and sanctification sensibly thence flowing may be properly and unfailingly made our sound evidence of the spirituall life and acceptablenesse of our vertues and works But these in themselves in no wise certaine evidences and demonstrations to us of our justification and sanctification by Christ Sanctification is one thing and a zealous endeavour to be in all things conformed to the will of God is or may be another The former is only from the Spirit of Christ and wrought only in them which are in Christ The later may proceed from morall principles and is incident even to them also that are aliens from Christ 7 Neverthelesse even these vertues and good works do so farr evidence that from the Negation of these a man is certainely denyed to be in Christ or to be justified or sanctified by the faith of Christ I mean that whosoever can allow himself in the habituall practice of any known sin or rejection of any known duty that man may know himself and be known of others to be an Alien from Christ Because whosoever is in Christ is a new Creature all things are become new not only in respect of his relation but of his manners and conversation also and in whomsoever the Spirit of Sanctification dwelleth it dwels in a state of reign not of bondage Withall these vertues and good works when they are found to flow from our union to Christ and the love of God shed abroad in our hearts through Christ and upon examination a man can truly say that he hath ceased to hew from any other Qâ—arrie or to dip from any other Fountain than from Christ that from his Spirit alone hee daily sucketh life as the branch from the root to bring forth fruit and from the sacrifice of Christs death a sweet odour to make himself and his fruit acceptable then they serve as good seconds to prove to his soul that he is justified and sanctified But so that his being in Christ must first prove his fruit to be good before his fruit can have any power to evidence him to be in Christ and the evidence of both his justification and sanctification consisteth not so much in the qualifications which he hath attained or works which he doth and hath done as in his continuall waiting upon Chrih from him alone to receive what hee ought to be and to do in all wel-pleasing before God and the love of God in Christ enabling to obedience 8 That although Sanctification and the fruits thereof do each in its own degree as aforesaid more or lesse evidence our Justification yet have they no concausality with Faith to the producing of it All that are in Christ are Saints in Christ yet their sanctity goes not before their being in Christ but is an immediate fruit thereof The forgiveness of sin and Adoption doth in order go before their doing of acceptable service to God and unacceptable service cannot justifie 9 The grace of God which bringeth salvation and justification teacheth men to deny ungodlinesse c. and to live soberly c. Cals upon all to stretch forth their Faith to apprehend to themselves in Christ both the imputed and the inherent righteousness so far is it from breathing a soul-cozening or a soul-corrupting faith Therefore is the justifying Faith called by the Holy Ghost a most holy Faith Jude 20. A soule purifying Faith Act. 15. 9. A sanctifying Faith Act. 26. 18. Implying its efficacy as well to sanctifie as to justifie and that there is no true sanctification but that which is instrumentally obtained or at least received by Faith Lastly that one chief end of our Justification is that we bring forth acceptable fruit to God here inchoate hereafter in perfect obedience to God and conformity with him And the Justifier doth and will attain his end in justifying therefore brings none to glory but such as have all vertues and good works at least in their root and seed while they are here and if after their effectuall calling they live to have time and opportunity do not unfeigâ—edly endeavour universally to declare the same in their practice So that to dream of any glorified man in heaven that was not actually a Saint upon earth is a dream from hell not from heaven All these things might have been largely proved both from the Scriptures and our Protestant Writers but that I esteem them all to be so known to be the consenting asserteons of all our Churches and by them so fully confirmed by the word that I should but abuse time to take it up in particularizing what is in this Case so generally written and read I have been the more large in expressing the doctrine of the Protestant Churches upon this Argument to wipe off the stain which Mr. Br. hath learned of the Papists to lay upon it in this and the former quere which are wholly framed to beguile the weaker sort having nothing in them to stagger the Judicious And now I leave it both to the strong and weak to judge whether the Accuser of the Brethren himself can possibly expresse more impudence and falshood in slandering the Churches of Christ than this man hath done or if he had not bound himself to speak after the Jesuits and Monks whatsoever they traducingly say whether there be any colour of reason for him to have layd upon us these two accusations To hold my self to that which I am now examining what is there in this Faith and Doctrine thereof which I have described deserving to be called a soul-cozening Faith And when he addeth That Faith which is by many
the integrity and purity of its celestiall endowments Without spot if this be but half Christ which is the other half 2 Or because he understands by whole Christ Christ in the fruits of all his offices as is most probable whether he will deny them to receive whole Christ which apply not all the severall Acts and Fruits of his severall offices to one and the same end but to severall ends to which his wisedom hath appropriated them Suppose a son of some Luke that is a Physician a Minister of the Gospel and a Father in his Family If the sayd son shall make use of the Acts and Fruits of all these Offices of his Father not at all to one end but to the severall ends to which they are proper of his Art and Physick to cure his diseased body of his Gospel-doctrine to illuminate his understanding and heal his wounded soul and of his provision of victuals to preserve his life and nourish his body and not of physick word and bread together for one and the same the nutriment of his body shall this man therefore be said not to own and receive his whole Father but half of him Even so the Offices of Christ are various and his actings in them tend to various ends some to our quickning som to our enlightning some to our justification some to our sanctification c. Do I take but half Christ because I apply not all the Actings and Fruits of all his Offices to my Justification only and none of them to the other honourable ends to which he hath appointed them who can bear the absurdity 3 Whether it be possible for any man according to the rule and tenor of the Gospel by a lively faith to apply to himself the satisfaction of Christs death and yet to remain unpardoned and unjustified or for such a one to abide unspiritualliz'd and unsanctfied If not then the reason why the multitude which profes they trust Christ for the saving of their souls as Mr B. is pleasd to phrase it do remain unjustified is because they profess but have not a lively faith in his death and not as Mr. Br. saith for want of I know not what Moral Theological decompounded phantastical sincerity consisting in laying hold on the half of Christ i. e. either his wounded and not his whole parts or Christ the Mediator not the Mediator Christ I can no better distinguish his meaning sith himself hath refused to do it Of the same nature is that which he hath pag. 328. B. Though some thinke nothing is preaching Christ but preaching him as a pardoning justifying Saviour Indeed among the Turks and Indians that entertain not the Gospell it is necessary to preach his pardoning office yea and the verity of his Natures and Commission Therefore when the Apostles preached to Jews and Pagans they did first and chiefly teach them the person and offices of Christ and the great benefits which they might receive by him But when they preach as James to be professors of the Christian Faith they chiefly urge them to strive to enter to fight that they may conquer to run that they may obtain to lay violent hands upon the Kingdom c. Either all this relates to Justification or it is meer babble in the Ayr sound without sense or substance as much to his purpose as was his that trudged about all the Town from shop to shop to buy two penny-worth of Circumstance for the cure of his tooth-ach For his quere is whether our Doctrine which teacheth Justification by faith without works do not confirm men in their soul-cozening Faith If all doth relate to justification then let him that can find help me without help I cannot find as much as a grain of reason in all or any part of it such reason at least as befits Mr. Br. who grounds all his Religion upon reason To the first Clause I stand stupified not knowing how to preach Christ to justification but as Christ the Justifier to pardon but as Christ the pardoner or to salvation but as Christ the Saviour Should I preach him as a condemner to justification as an unpardoning Judg to salvation As to his justifying me as he is a Law-giver either there hath been wanting something in Mr. B. dexteriry of teaching or in my docility to apprehend I am yet to be taught this lesson All that he hath said hitherto hath made it but odious and absurd and here hee saith no more to perfect it To that which follows the absurdity of it doth enough confute it self Who can endure to hear that the Apostles when they preached to Jewes and Pagans did and we if we should be sent to preach to the Turks and Indians must first preach Christ alone to justification and so generate in them a soul-ct zening faith But when once they become professors of the Christian Faith then the Apostles did and we must teach them better urging them no longer to cozen their souls with faith in Christ the Saviour but by their own works to justifie and save themselves He that delights in such a Gospel let him be Mr. B. disciple It seems he is angry with James for not helping him erewhile in his great exigency that he singles out him from all the Apostles to father him with this intolerable doctrine But whether James give him herein any relief hath been before examined As for the rest of the Apostles let Paul give the Testimony for himself and them There is one Lord and Mediator Christ Jesus one Faith one Baptisme one Lord and Father of all Ephe. 4. 5. 1 Tim 2. 5. Not two Christs and two Faiths one to cozen at first and the other to save the soul afterward If Paul or an Angell from heaven should preach any other Gospell then what you have heard from me at first while Pagans let him be accursed Gal. 1. 8. Therefore many years after the Romans and Galathians had been professors of the Christian faith he seeks to root them fast by faith alone in Christ and not to start from their first principles reducing such as went a whoring after works to help faith in justifying them pronouncing them accursed and Apostates from Christ that should so fall off from their first liberty in Christ That all obedience yea faith in Christ to all obedience vertue and good works is to be preached and urged upon them that profess the Christian faith is so true that he is but a maimed preacher of Christ that doth it not but all to sanctification not to justification This is the true Preacher of Christ that preacheth Christ to good works not works to win Christ that seeks to bring us into Marriage-union with Christ that we may bring forth fruit to God Rom. 7. 4. Not that we should bring forth bastard-fruit from another that we may be married to Christ But this is not Mr. Brs. business he speaks of fruit to justification To conclude what I have to say to this
praises of the man yet this act of his meriteth it not no not from Mr. B. For as far as he transcribes him p. 182. Mr. Ball no further foâ—lowes Grotius then to Gods relaxing of the Law to take satisfaction from Christ in our steed But if he had also asserted that after satisfaction actually taken they which in Christ have satisfied are yet all their life-time under the Curse of the Law to bear it in their own persons would Mr. B. have hidden it Yet this is the thing in question between Mr. B. and the Protestants whether after the giving and receiving of satisfaction for our breaches of the Law the Curs of the Law be either nulled or els onely in part relaxed as to our bearing it Yea if he â—e as Mâ— B. stiles him then have we the testimony of so great learned and holy a Divine as almost England ever bred against Mr. B. himself not being able to deny any one almost that England ever bred which hath written more directly and contrarily to Mr. B. then this man in his Tractate of Faith about Justification If elswhere he contradicts himself I shall oppose Ball against Ball yea Ball in afflictions when he lived by Faith and had nothing else but Christ apprehended by Faith to support his troubled soul to Ball nâ—w raised to a prosperous state in the world and whâ— seeing the Court infected with Popery Socinianism and Arminianism and no other bridge to prefermâ—nt so effectuall as some shew of bending at least to these wayes might possibly as far as Conscience would permit him make use of the language there held most authentick I say of the language for I cannot condemn his doctrine alledged in his three following Testimonies it taken in a good sense But his ambiguities of words seem to speak him out to have had a levell to somewhat els besides the supporting of the truth and yet his Conscience seems to hold him bound from saying any thing manifestly against the truth Mr. B. may possibly tickle himself with his words but his matter duly pondered gives him a sting sufficient to perswade him to forbear laughter Let the unbiassed judicious Reader add consideration to his reading and then judge The rest of the testimonies which he hath here cited and quoted I let passe as altogether besides the questions which Mr. B. hath set in agitation between himself and all the Protestant-Churches And thus at length have his Arguments been examined which he brings to confirm his Justification by works He hath many things tending to the confirmation of some other Paradoxes scattered in his Aphorisms beginning at p. 123. of his Appendix and ending at p. 164. but because those things are handled by way of disputation against others and Mr. B. as a challenger doth call out there by name Mr. Owen and Maccovius to a Duell with himself each after other exposing them to the world as base and silly Animals in what they have said except they come forth into open field to make it good It shall be both impertinent and uncivil in me to meddle in a business to which others and the same far more worthy and able are called as to their peculiar task I should not be excused by any herein from being one that loveth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be busie in another mans office specially seeing I know not what these challenged have done or are doing in the defence of themselves and the doctrine which they have asserted Were it that their reputation alone and not a truth of Christ which they had undertaken to defend were here clouded by Mr. B. I should think it no fault in them to pass it by in contemptuous silence but seeing Mr. B. endeavours upon their ruines to erect his mounts against the City of the living God to destroy it or at least spoyle it of its principall immunities denying the full justification of the Lords redeemed ones in this world holding them under the curs and wrath of God both in their life and death I perceive not how they can be silent without betraying the truth of God which they once undertook to defend Since this was written I understand Mr. Owen hath fully vindicated himself and learnedly defended all that Mr. B. had laid on his score Thus far to his Arguments that he hath brought to prove Justification by works I find no more nor in these have I hidden any thing but set them forth in their fullest strength CHAP. XV. Mr. Baxters Plea to prove his Doctrine free from Popery examined and refuted I Come now to the most accurate finest and chiefest part of Mr. Brs. Art his Alcumistry by which hee turneth the basest metals into gold darkness into light death into life deformity into beauty and hell into heaven it self All this he with strong endeavours labours to accomplish while with strong confidence hee goes about to vindicate his doctrine from all error all infection of Popery Socinianism Pharisaism and to render it the same with the doctrine of Paul and of Christ guiltless of all derogation to the praise of Gods grace Christs merits or the Saints comfort Yea to set it forth in such a splendor that although hee hath hitherto described such a grace of God as by his donation was no more appropriated and peculiarized to Peter then to Judas to the cursed in hell than to the Saints in heaven and such a Christ as reigneth Tyrant-like in the Kingdom of grace chaining up his own all his own subjects and friends under the curse of the Law to bear the horrors and torments of it in soul and body all their life yea after death as long as the world shall continue though he hath taken away from the Saints after their self-denyall repentance building themselves by their most holy Faith upon Christ the Rock after their renovation and sanctification by the Spirit all hope and possibility of attaining any assurance of Gods unchangeable love to them or of their sinns irrevocably pardoned or of their perseverance in the state of Grace or of their indefeazable right to glory or of their exemption from the curse and wrath of God while they live or of the rest and freedom of their souls after death either from the flames of Hell or of Purgatory as long as the world standeth After hee hath taught that no man shall have any part in Christ and his benefits which procureth it not by his own righteousness his own perfect righteousness in suo genere yea by the merits of his righteousness After that he hath proclaimed that his Gospel brings no better tidings of joy than these Yet at length hee comes to varnish over such a Grace such a Christ such a Gospel such a state of believers who are all of his own faigning with such paints and fine colours as by them to enamour all men to embrace these as the only true and appetible Grace Christ Gospel and state of beleevers That this Doctrine
pious and not unlearned men that have taken some infection of the Epidemicall disease of our times too easily to drink down errors differing herein only from the vulgar that error is more appetible to them from a learned and sophisticall than truth from a plainer though faithfull hand Let a man once have the name of a learnnd Scholar and strict-walking Pharisee all his Doctrines by such men are concluded to be of rare use and excellency before they be seen whether they be white or black from Heaven or from Hell Not a few of these men having in my hearing stood firm and up moved in the defence of the doctrines of this book of Mr. Brs. not being able to speak any thing to refell the objections made against it but this that the Author thereof is an eminently learned and pious man As if Satan had not the wit to make choyse of his instruments that have the most compleat aptitude and power to deceive or that the Jews had not so much to say for their Pharisees the Papists for their Bellarmine and the Remoâ—strants for their Arminius or the Devill had forgotten his ancient subtlety when he will seduce from the verity of Christs Gospel to change himself into an Angell of Light or that no damning errour could proceed from a self-saving or rather self-deceiving Pharisee To cleer up the truth to such at lest to give their occasion to search the Scriptures by which they may cleer it to themselves I shall lay and compare together Paul and Mr. Br. in that which Mr. Br. saith was the question about which Paul disputed that it may be made evident whether they agree or contradict either the other To this purpose by the way there is to be taken out of the way a fallacy that lurketh in Mr. Brs. words where he saith The dispute of St. Paul is upon this Question It is not enough to say this was A Question excâ—pt he say also it was the Question yea the Onely Question upon which the Apostle disputed in those places where he excludeth works and inferreth Faith alone to be ordeined as effectuall to justification He disputed in some of his Epistles upon many questions To reduce what hee disputed severally to the severall questions all to one were to make non-sense of the whole The same may be said of all mens yea of the most Scholastick disputes of Mr. Br. himself who is a greater Philosopher and more studied in Logick and Metaphysicks than ever the Apostle was But I deny it to be the onely or the chief question about which St. Paâ—l so disputeth what is the Righteousnesse which wee must plead against the Accusation of the Law or by which wee are justified as the proper Righteousness of the Law I grant it to be one but a less principall question upon which he disputes But the more principall question is in generall by what means we may be interessed into Christ or obtain the righteousness of Christ to become ours and so still retâ—in it to justification More particularly whether the Native Faederall holiness of the Jewes and the priviledges of the Covenant in part mentioned Rom. 9. 4 5. Phil. 3. 5. Gal. 2. 15. Or their actuall and personall righteousnesse and sincere obedience to the Law mentioned Phil. 3. 6. Mat. 20. 12. and the 19 20. together with all the Typicall purgings mentioned in the 9. 10. Chapters of the Epistle to the Hebrews On the other side whether all the Naturall and Morall righteousness of the Gentiles which they performed by the instinct of the Law of Nature written in their Consciences without the help or knowledg of Gods written law or their exemption from the Covenant of God made with the Jews For some of the believing Gentiles reading the promises made of calling unto the grace of Christ them that were not Gods people or beloved before weakly concluded that their former uncircumcision and uncovenant-ship was a speciall furtherance to their admission unto Christ as may be probably gathered from Rom. 11. 19. Gal. 5. 6. whether any of these kinds of holinesse and works of righteousness either with Faith or without Faith or whether Faith alone without all or any of these be required as instrumentall subservient and effectuall to inright us to the Justification which is by Christ This was the more principall question upon which Paul disputeth in the places before mentioned Somewhat he saith to the former but lesse principally and seldom but in subserviency to this So the question upon which Paul disputes in his Epistles and Mr. Br. in his Aphorisms is one and the same but their Conclusions absolutely contradictory either to other The one concludeth that Faith alone without mans works and righteousness The other that not faith alone but Faith as a work together with all other works of righteousnesse do justifie and all morall duties collaterally with Faith are required to make the Righteousness of Christ ours to justification No greater or more palpable Contradiction can be devised Whosoever shall preach another Gospell of Justification otherwise than by Faith in Christ without works let him be accursed saith Paul Whosoever shall be practically a solifidian trust to a bare Faith and not work for Justification shall be Damned saith Mr. Br. If one of these be granted to be an Apostle of Christ the other must needs be proclaimed to be the Apostle of Antichrist But whether this which I have expressed be indeed the principal question on which the Apostle so disputeth adhuc sub judice lis est We are left uncertain on both hands may some say True and if I onely say and not shew it I shall be guilty of the fault which I blame in Mr. Br. And so we may deserve both to be laught at as Triflers This therefore is the next thing to be added First then if we do but consider to whom and against whom the Apostle handleth these disputes for Mr. Br. reduceth them all to his Epistles it will be more than probable to every rationall man that his most principall question is By what means we possesse and continue in the possession of the righteousnesse which is by Christ to Justification And but secondarily less principally and in subserviency to this question What the righteousnesse is by which we are to be justified The persons to whom he writeth were all Christians the purest and most eminent Churches of Christ that had received the pure doctrine of Christ by the preaching of the Apostles viz. that whereas sinn and death and the Curse by sinn reigned over all men in all the world so that all wete Children of wrath and every soul guilty before God Christ was given of the Father to be the Author of Righteousness and life by the Mediation of his death that in him and in no other name under heaven was salvation attainable that whosoever would beleeve in him should have everlasting life should be Justified freely by Grace
justifyed if we beleeve our safety being as loose and uncertain then as before depending still upon the residence and abode of faith in us as before it did upon the possibility of its future ingeneration into us and acting in us and that we are no longer justifyed then while we beleeve and obey so that by beleeving and unbeleeving obeying and rebelling we may be justifyed and unjustifyed again a thousand times before we die and how often after himself expresses not I need not mention more these two differences are enough to declare that although here he speak in the same tone with some of our Divines yet his judgement no more agrees with theirs then the Pope with Luther and Calvine Elymas with Paul Simon Maguâ— with Peter or the Scribes and Pharisees with Christ In stead of speaking what might be further expected I shall onely content my self here to lay open some of the many monstrous absurdities and mischiefs that follow this doctrine 1. It proclaims mutability in God and alteration in his minde and will as swift and sudden as in mutable and sinfull man For if God justifie and unjustifie forgive and unforgive love and hate as oft as belief and unbelief obedience and disobedience do nod and succeed either after other in man through infirmity then is there no more stedfastnesse and consistency with himself in God then in man but rather God is swayed hither and thither in willing and nilling love and hatred by influx from man as the Sea by the influx of the Moon then man by influx from God Mr. Baxter sees this absurdity as well as his fellows the Arminians and goes about here and there by the Arminians Sophisms for lack of better to wipe off the stain telling us that the change is in man the object and not in God God hates Paul unbeleeving and persecuting but loves him beleeving and obeying the change is here in the object not in God No more then the Sun is changed by the variety of the Creatures which it enlightneth and warmeth or the glasse by the variety of faces which it represents or the eye by the variety of colours which it beholdeth pag. 174. But Aethiopem dealbat If God love to salvation and hate to damnation one and the same person and love succeeds into the place of hatred and hatred into the place of love and God that erewhile willed the salvation anon willeth the damnation and after that again the salvation of the same man c. as this kinde of Anti-Gospellers assert this is one and the same mutablenesse in God whether it proceed from a principle of inconstancy within or from the mutation of the object without him It denies not the Chameleons that change their colour from white to black and black to white to be mutable because these changes befall them from outward objects the divers coloured Carpets on which they are laid Or if he shall object as do the Arminians Here is no shew of change in God for God changeth not his purpose of saving because he had never but a conditionall purpose and will to save viz. if man will beleeve and obey and this conditionall intent remains in God still together with a conditionall intent to hate and damn him if he perform not the conditions I should answer him in the words of our Divines in answer to the Arminians and Mr. Baxter knows them to be beaten with shame out of this plea therefore to decline the strokes I finde him not yet adventuring to make use of this obiection 2. It denies in effect and substance the justification and remission of any man in this life for to forgive upon such a condition as no man hath power in himself to perform is but a verball not a reall forgivenesse And Mr. Baxter will not let out one gry or iote from his lips that shall give hope to the sinner yea to the believer of any dram of grace and power that the Lord will minister to the Elect more then to the reprobates for the supportation of their Faith and from themselves they have all propensivenesse to fall and no strength to stand In this respect therefore he makes the state of beleevers worse then the state of unbeleevers For Miserrimum est fuisse beatos To have had Faith yea Christ in hand and Heaven in hope and then to fall from all makes their case more miserable in the losse of it then it would have been if they had never had any thing in hand or in hope It utterly destroyeth all joy in beleeving all peace of Conscience all consolation in the holy Ghost while it sets the beleever in the arms of Christs love and participation of his merits and benefits as Dionysius placed Damocles at his table with all sumptuous provisions before him Musick attendance and whatsoever else was Majestical or delightful to cheer him but with a sharp sword hanging by a single hair over his head threatning him No other after Mr. Baxter is the state of a beleever in all his most spiritual enlargements and comforts in Christ there is but a single hair between him and hell fire Death is in the pot of all his contentments Fear of imminent vengeance gives him not leave to taste one of the sweet morsels upon or crums that fall from Gods table And this is a Gospel from hell contrary to the everlasting Gospel which Christ brought from heaven giving a joy that none shall take from beleevers Joh 16. 22. The foundation thereof the love of God in Christ remaining immutable impregnable I am perswaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities c. shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord Rom 8. 38 39. 4. Whereas there are three acts considerable about our Justification 1. Christs giving 2. Gods accepting the satisfaction given for us and 3. Gods justifying or declaring and evidencing us justified in and to our consciences for this satisfaction so given and accepted I would here demand of which of these Faith is a Condition If he say of Christs giving satisfaction this is a contradiction for Christ gave satisfaction before we beleeved or lived so that Faith which came after could not be the Condition of an Act that went before except he will say that Christ must so oft dye as sinners attain to beleeve If of Gods acceptance then more is ascribed to our faith then to Christs death for our justification and faith shall be more then collateral with the sacrifice of Christ to our salvation the sufficiency of satisfaction remaining only in Christs bloud but the efficacy thereof arising from mans faith yea and so Christ should have paid our debts and spilt his bloud for us at the feet of the Father without knowing whether he would accept it or no and so whether there should be the least fruit of his death for the justification of the beleevers before his death is but conditionall
untill the day of Judgement after Mr. Baxter and what may fall out as touching the apostasie of their souls before that day is uncertain And it being not known of those that should come after him who or whether any would beleeve and persevere in beleeving If of Gods justifying us in our selves i. e. declaring and evidencing us justified we do in some cases acknowledge that God hides his face and evidenceth not his love in Christ in the same degree to all beleevers but in God and in Christ they are still justified and their salvation is sure But Mr. Baxter shakes off this Act of Justification in disdain therefore the absurdities which follow in his conditions in respect of one of the former cannot be avoided I forbear to enlarge my self further in this kinde here having spoken to it before and finding a necessity of speaking more afterward But it will be expected that Mr. Baxters Arguments be rather answered then his conclusion denyed and opposed let us therefore examine them as far as I can finde they are in number two by which he proveth faith to be the condition of justification 1. It is plain and undenyable This I acknowledge is a Noli me tangere strikes dead in the place renders the respondent as mute as a fish Let a wiser man undertake it is past my skill to answer 2. The whole tenor of the Gospel shews that specially such Scriptures as give their testimony of our justification in Christ before faith entred to purifie our hearts When we were without strength when sinners when enemies we were reconciled to God by the death and justified by the bloud of his Son Rom. 5. 6 8 9 10. While we were in our blood polluted Ezek. 16. 6. While yet unborn and had done neither good nâ—r evil Rom. 9. 11. 13. When yet of the world and not served from the common masse of mankinde Joh. 3. 16. God loved us to salvation While yet dead in sins and trespasses he hath quickned and saved us by grace Ephes 2. 5. Blotting out the hand-writing c. forgiving all our trespasses unto us in Christ while yet hanging on the Crosse Col. 2. 13 14 15. making us accepted in Christ the be loved Ephes 1. 6. putting away our sin and perfecting us for ever by the sacrifice and blood of Christ i. e. in Christ offering himself and his bloud in sacrifice Heb. 9. 26. 10. 14. and all this before we had a being who now live much more before we were in a capacity of having any condition in our selves of Justification As also such Gospel Scriptures as affirm this remission or justification unreversible calling it an eternal redemption Heb. 9. 12. a perfecting of us for ever Heb. 10. 14. so that there is no more condemnation Rom 8. 1. no more remembrance of iniquity Heb. 10. 17. no more separation from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus Rom. 8. 39. and other many such testimonies before in part quoted and partly remaining to be alleadged if occasion shall require all which do concur in one harmony to evince Justification once obtained to depend upon no conditions but to be absolute and indefeasable that if any fall away it is because they only seemed but never were in the number of the truly justified 1 Joh. 2. 19. Whosoever layeth all these together and will not be convinced that Faith in Mr. Baxters sense is the condition of Justification but will beleeve the Gospel it self more then what Mr. Baxter speaketh of the Gospel for any thing that I know he may remain the Disciple of Christ and unconvinced still In the Appendix in the answer to the six and seven Questions or Objections pag. 41. to the 46. Mr. Baxter makes it his task again to prove the justification of the New Covenant to be conditionall and not absolute But so poorly doth he there handle his dispute so unlike Mr. Baxter who when Scriptures fail him is elsewhere wont to play his game with Sophistry which here doth very little help him that unto a discreet man nothing can more breed a suspicion of the goodnesse of the cause then the hard shifts confusednesse contradictions and other weak devices and extravagancies to which so accomplisht a scholar is put even when he hath no opponent but a meer question to make it seem probable How doth the man put himself here into a wood or wildernesse seeking but finding no certain way out acting his wit and study to the highest to expedite himself in a cleer way that might be visible and plain to himself and others and not finding it he at last doth what may be done in such a labyrinth trusteth to groping for what he cannot see And first he seems to have found in the dark a two-fold Covenant of Grace one absolute and the other conditional First then he follows the absolute Covenant if that will or can lead him with certainty to any safety or shew of reason what to speak of it as he makes it contradistinct to the Conditional Covenant or Justification that the former which he cannot deny may stand as a cipher but this be the Numeral and only in power and force here he is carryed in a maze of doubts and rovings not finding where to pitch 1. Pag. 41. Sect. the 42. he would shake off this absolute Justification as a Prophesie and promise made only to the Jews not extending to us but here the Apostle meets him in the way Heb. 8. 8 9. otherwise expounding the Scripture that holds it forth so that this shift fails him 2. He questions whether the Apostle mention it as an absolute promise or else in an opposition to he knows not what but foreseeing what would herein be answered he lets fall this too pag. 42. 3. He brings something which he thinks will hold water that this absolute Covenant of Justification is made with the Elect and not with mankinde in generall What is this to the purpose He is here treating of the New Covenant as it respecteth Justification And what one Scripture can he produce that tels us of all mankinde and not of the Elect only justified In what a straight is the man that in stead of distinctions which were ever wont to be his Egyptian Reed to succour him he is forced to fly to confusions for help For so he confounds together here the promulgation of Justification with Justification in its beeing or with the being of it when these are different As well might he pronounce the rich glutton to be no lesse blessed in seeing then was Lazarus by being in Abrahams bosome as to pronounce all mankinde justified because Christ is conditionally offered to all for Justification We have granted before the promulgation and offer of Justification by the Gospel to be conditionall but the gift and beeing of it to be absolute Neither is there any thing in this offer to our Justification in Christ which is absolute before and without any promulgation