Devil and the Wrath to come No Incouragement to Holiness like this like the Perswasion and Belief of this because this carrieth in it the greatest expression of Love that we are Capable of Hearing or Believing and there is nothing that worketh on us so Powerfully as Love And herein is Love not that we Loved God but that he Loved us and gave his Son to be the Propitiation for our Sins He then that by Faith can see that the Body of his Sin did hang upon the Cross bâ— the Body of Christ and that can see by that action Death and Sin the Devil and Hell destroyed for him 't is he that will say Bless the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me Bless his Holy Name c. Psa. 103. 1 2 3 4. Secondly Moreover the Knowledge of this giveth a man to understand this Mistery That Christ and himself are united in one For Faith saith If our Old man was Crucified with Christ then were we also Reckoned in him when he hanged on the Cross I am Crucified with Christ All the Elect did Mystically hang upon the Cross in Christ. We then are Dead to the Law and Sin First by the Body of Christ Rom. 7. 4. Now he that is Dead is free from Sin now if we be dead with Christ we Believe that we shall live with him knowing that Christ being raised from the Dead Dyeth no more Death hath no more Dominion over him for in that he dyed he dyed unto Sin once but in that he liveth he liveth unto God Likewise reckon your selves also dead unto Sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. This also Peter doth lively Discourse of Forasmuch then saith he as Christ hath suffered for us in the Flesh Arm your selves likewise with the same mind for he that hath suffered in the Flesh hath ceased from Sin 1 Pet. 4. 1 2. By which Words he Insinuateth the Mystical Union that is between Christ the Head and the Elect his Body Arguing from the Suffering of a Part there should be a Sympathy in the whole If Christ then suffered for us we were even our Sins Bodies and Souls reckoned in him when he so suffered Wherefore by his sufferings the Wrath of God for us is appeased the Curse is taken from us For as Adam by his acts of Rebellion made all that were in him Guilty of his Wickedness so Christ by his acts and doings of Goodness and Justice made all that were reckoned in him good and Just also But as Adam's Transgression did First and immediately Reside with and remain in the Person of Adam onely and the Imputation of that Transgression to them that sprang from him so the Goodness and Justice that was accomplished by the Second Adam First and Immediately Resideth in him and is made over to his also by the Imputation of God But again As they that were in Adam stood not onely guilty of Sin by Imputation but Polluted by the Filth that Possessed him at his fall So the Children of the Second Adam do not onely though first stand Just by Vertue of the Imputation of the Personal acts of Justice and Goodness done by Christ but they also receive of that inward quality the Grace and Holiness that was in him at the Day of his rising from the Dead Thus therefore come we to be Holy by the Death and Blood of the Lord This also is the Contents of those other Scriptures which abusively you Cite to Justifie your Assertion to wit That the great Errand of Christ in coming into the World was to put us again into Possession of the Holiness which we had lost And that onely Designed the Establishing such a Holiness as is Sealed Originally in our Natures and Originally Dictates of the Humane Nature The rest of the Chapter being spoken to already I pass it and Proceed to the next Your Eighth Chapter tell us That it is onely the Promoting of the Design of making Men Holy that is Aimed at by the Apostles Insisting on the Doctrines of Christ's Resurrection Assention and coming again to Judgement Though this should be granted as indeed it ought not yet there is not one Sillable in all their Doctrines that tendeth in the least to drive Men back to the Possession of the Holiness we had lost which is still the thing Asserted by you and that for the Proof of which you make this noise and adoe Neither did Christ at all Design the Promoting of Holiness by such Principles as you have Asserted in your Book neither doth the Holy Spirit of God either help us in or excite us to our Duty Simply from such Natural Principles But the Apostles in these Doctrines you mention had far other Glorious Designs such as were truly Gospel and tended to strengthen our Faith yet farther As First For the Resurrection of Christ They Urge that as an Undeniable Argument of his doing away Sin by his Sacrificing and Death He was delivered for our Offences because he put himself into the Room and State of the Wicked as undertaking their Deliverance from Death and the Everlasting Wrath of God Now putting himself into their Condition he bears their Sin and dyes their Death but how shall we know that by undertaking this Work he did accomplish the thing he intended The answer is He was raised again for our Justification Rom. 4. 25. even to make it manifest that by the Offering of himself he had Purged our Sins from before the Face of God For in that he was raised again and that by him for the appeasing of whose Wrath he was delivered up to Death it is evident that the Work for us was by him effectually done For God raised him up again And hence it is that Paul calls the Resurrection of Christ the sure Mercies of David Act. 13. And as concerning that he raised him up from the Dead now no more to return to Corruption he saith on this wise I will give thee the sure Mercies of David For Christ having Conquered and overcome Death Sin the Devil and the Curse by himself as 't is manifest he did by his rising from the Dead what now remains for him for whom he did this but Mercy and Goodness for ever Wherefore the Resurrection of Christ is that which Sealeth the truth of our being delivered from the Wrath by his Blood Secondly As to his Ascention they urge and make use of that for divers weighty Reasons also 1. As a farther Testimony yet of the Sufficiency of his Righteousness to Justifie Sinners withal For if he that undertaketh the Work is yet entertained by him whose Wrath he was to appease thereby What is it but that he hath so compleated that Work Wherefore he saith that the Holy Ghost shall Convince the world that he hath a sufficient righteousness and that because he went to the Father John 16. And they saw him no more because he went he Ascended up to the Father was there
who is greater and also without the Law For albeit for our sakes he became under the Law even to the curse and displeasure of God yet the principles by which he walked in the World to God-ward they were neither humane nor legal but heavenly and done in the Spirit of the Son Wherefore it is not the righteousness you have described by which we stand just before God Thirdly The righteousness you have described cannot be that which justifieth us before God because of its imperfections and that both with respect to the principle and the power with which it is managed For though you have talked of a sound complexion of Soul the purity of the humane nature and that with this addition of power as to be able to keep it self incommixt with that which is not of it self yet we Christians know and that by the words of God that there is in man as man now no soundness at all but from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot Botches and Boyls Putrifactions and Sores We are ALL an unclean thing and our righteousness as filthy vlcerous raggs If there had been a Law given that could have given life verily righteousness should have been by the Law Could a man perform the Law to the liking of the justice of the eternal majesty then would the Law give life to that man but because of the perfection of an infinite justice and the weakness and unprofitableness of the Law through our flesh therefore though you speak yet farther of the excellency of your sound complexion and of the purity of the humane nature you must flie from your self to another righteousness for life or at the last stick in the jaws of Death and everlasting Desperation For by the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified Gal. 2. 16. It is therefore no better then error thus to ascribe to poor man that hath drunk iniquity like water a soundness of soul a purity of humane nature Wherefore Jude saith of you and of all such naturalists That even in the things that you know naturally as the bruit in them you corrupt your selves Jude 10. even in the very principles the first or original dictates of your nature or humanity There is none that understandeth or is good therefore there is none that doth good no not one that is none as continuing in a natural state none by the power or principles of nature for he meaneth here in your own sense as men by natural principles have to do with the justice of the Law Fourthly The righteousness which you have described cannot be that which justifieth us before God because it is that which is not of faith The Law is not of faith but the man that doth them shall live in them Gal. 3. The Apostle also in the 10 th Chapter of the Romans tells us that the righteousness that is compleated by doing the Law is one and another besides the righteousness of faith For faith in the justification of a sinner from the curse and wrath of God respecteth onely the mercy of God and forgiveness of sins for the sake of Christ. God for Christs sake hath forgiven him that is enabled to believe that is trust to and venture the eternal concern of his soul upon the righteousness that is no where to be found but in the person of the Son of God For there is justice more then answerable to all the demands of the Law and the requirements of the eternal justice of God and he is our justice He is made unto us of God righteousness or justice that is the righteousness or justice that is in him is by God accounted the mans that shall accept thereof by faith that he might be made the justice or righteousness of God in him For the righteousness that saveth a sinner from damnation must be equal to that in the eternal Deity but where can that be found but in him that is naturally God as is indeed the Son of the Father in him therefore and not in the Law there is a righteousness fit for faith to apply to Besides the Law is not neither can be the object of faith to men for that which is the object of faith I speak now as to justifying righteousness it must be a righteousness already compleated and as I said a righteousness to be received and accepted being now perfected and offered and given to us by the kindness and mercy of God but a man may believe long enough in the Law before that performs for him a perfect righteousness The Law can work nothing unless it be wrath Rom. 4. No thou must work BY and not believe IN the Law Besides all that cometh out of the mouth of the Law is Cursed is every one that continueth not in every thing which is written in the book of the Law to do them which no man is capable of doing so as to escape the curse by doing that hath once or first transgressed the same Wherefore it is a vain thing yea an horrible wickedness in you thus to abuse the Law and the weakneâ—s of man by suggesting that the onely the ultimate or grand design of Christ Jesus was or is the promoting of a righteousness by the Law that is performed by humane principles in us I could double yea ten times double the number of these arguments against you but I will pass from this to the second thing The righteousness you have described is not the true Gospel inward holiness I told you before that the principles which you have described are not evangelical principles and now I will adde that as they are not such in themselves so neither do they fetch in or obtain by our adhering to them those things which alone can make or work in the Soul those truly Gospel inward acts of holiness There are three things which are essential to the inward Gospel holiness of which as your description is utterly destitute so neither can they by that be obtained or come into the heart 1. The holy Ghost 2. Faith in Christ. 3. A new Heart and a new Spirit Without these three there is no such things as Gospel holiness in Man as before I have also hinted at But now as there is none of these three found in your discription of inward Holiness so neither can you or other by all your inclinations either to those you call first principles of natural reason or the dictates of humane nature obtain or fetch into the Soul the least dram of that which is essential to that which is indeed according to the Gospel description of inward Gospel holiness as will further be manifest in this that followeth 1. The holy Ghost is not obtained by your description that consisting only in principles of Nature and in putting forth it self in acts of Civility and Morality When the Apostle would convince the bewitched Galathians that your Doctrine which was also the Doctrine of the false
before we know it But say you the Actual removing of our Guilt is not the necessary and immediate Result of his Death Pag. 91. Answ. Yea but it is from before the Face of God and from the Judgement and Curse of the Law For before God the Guilt is taken away by the Death and Blood of his Son immediately for all them that shall be saved else how can it be said we are Justified by his Blood He hath made Peace by his Blood He loved us and washed us from our Sins in his own Blood and that we are Reconciled to God by the Death of his Son which can by no means be If notwithstanding his Death and Blood Sin in the Guilt and Consequently the Curse that is due thereto should yet remain in the sight of God But what saith the Apostle God was in Christ Reconciling the World to himself not Imputing their Trespasses unto them Those that are but Reconciling are not yet Reconciled I mean as Paul not yet come aright over in their own Souls by Faith Yet to these he imputeth not their Trespasses Wherefore because they have none or because he forgiveth them as they Believe and Work Neither of both but because he hat First made his Son to be Sin for them and lay'd all the Guilt and Curse of their Sin upon him that they might be made the Righteousness of God in him Therefore even because by him their Sin and Curse is taken off from before the Law of God therefore God for the sake of Christ seeketh for and beseecheth the Sinner to be Reconciled That is to believe in and imbrace his Majesty No say you The Actual Removing of Guilt is not the necessary and immediate Result of his Death but Suspended vntil such time as the forementioned Conditions by the help of his Grace are performed by us Answ. 1. Then may a Man have the Grace of God within him Yea the Grace and Mercy of the New-Covenant viz. Faith and the like that yet remaineth under the Curse of the Law and so hath yet his Sins untaken away from before the Face of God For where the Curse is onely suspended it may stand there Notwithstanding in Force against the Soul Now let the Soul stand accursed and his Duties must stand accursed For First the Person and then the Offering must be accepted of God God accepted not the Works of Cain because he had not accepted his Person But having first accepted Abel's Person he therefore did accept his Offering And here it is said that Abel Offered by Faith He belived that his Person was accepted of God for the sake of the promised Messias and therefore believed also that his Offering should be accepted 2. Faith As it respecteth Justification in the sight of God must know nothing to rest upon but the Mercy of God through Christ's Blood But if the Curse be not taken away Mercy also hangeth in Suspence yea lyeth as drowned and hid in the bottom of the Sea This Doctrine then of yours overthroweth Faith and rusheth the Soul into the Works of the Law the Moral Law and so quite Involveth it in the fear of the Wrath of God maketh the Soul forget Christ taketh from it the Object of Faith and if a Miracle of Mercy prevent not the Soul must dye in everlasting Desperation But say you it is Suspended till such time as the forementioned Conditions by the help of his Grace be performed by us Pag. 92. Answ. Had you said the Manifestation of it is kept from us it might with some Allowance have been Admitted But yet the Revelation of it in the Word which in some Sence may be called a Manifestation thereof is first Discovered to us by the Word Yea is seen by us and also believed as a truth Recorded before the Injoyment thereof be with comfort in our own Souls But you Proceed and say Therefore was the Death of Christ Designed to Procure our Justification from all Sins past that we might by this means be Provoked to become New Creatures Answ. That the Death of Christ is a mighty Argument to perswade with the Believer to Devote himself to God in Christ in all things as becometh one that hath received Grace and Redemption by his Blood is True But that it is in Our Power as is here Insinuated to become New Creatures is as Vntrue The New Creâ—â—ure is of God yea Immediately of God Man being as Uncapable to make himself A-new as a Child to Beget himself Neither is our Conformity to the Revealed Will of God any thing else if it be Right then the Fruit and Effect of that All things are already or before become New in the Christian Man But to return After all the Flourish you have made about the Death of Christ even as he is an Expiatory and Propitiatory Sacrifice In Conclusion you Terminate the Business far short of which it was intended of God For you almost make the Effects thereof but a bare Suspension of present Justice and Death for Sin or that which hath delivered us at present from a Necessity of dying that we might live unto God That is according as you have Stated it That we might from Principles of Humanity and Reason act towards the First Principles of Morals c. till we put our selves into a Capacity of Personal and Actual Pardon Answ. The Sum of your Doctrine therefore is That Christ by his Death onely holds the Point of the Sword of Justice Not that he Received it into his own Soul That he Suspends the Curse from us Not that himself was made a Curse for us that the Guilt might be Remitted by our Vertues Not that Sin was made to be our Sin But Paul and the New Testament giveth us Account far otherwise viz. That Christ was made our Sin our Curse and Death that we by him not by the Principle of pure Humanity or our Obedience to your first Principles of Morals c. should be set free from the Law of Sin and Death If any Object that Christ hath designed the Purifying our Hearts and Natures I Answer But he hath not designed to Promote or to Perfect that righteousness that is Founded on and Floweth from the Purity of our Humane Nature for then he must design the setting up Mans righteousness that which is of the Law and then he must design also the setting up of that which is directly in opposition both also to the Righteousness that of God is designed to Justifie us and that by which we are inwardly made Holy As I have shewed before You have therefore Sir in all that you have yet Asserted shewed no other Wisdom then a Heathen or of one that is short even of a Novice in the Gospel In the next place I might Trace you Chapter by Chapter and at large Refute not only the whole design of your Book by a particular Replication to them but also sundry and damnable Errors
causes of decay and remedies for recovery The second Edition much enlarged with the Addition also of Twenty signs largely improved The World surveyed or a brief account of many remarkable passages wherein the Omnipotent Works of God are brought to our knowledge with a relation of that dreadful Famine that befel the memorable City of Ierusalem while Grass Hay Leaves and Barks of Trees Dogs Cats with the dung of Fowl and Beasts was their desirable Food worthy to be known and read of all men The Tridentine Gospel or Papal Creed made at Trent and promulgated at Rome by Pope Pius 4. exhibated and demonstrated to be new 〈◊〉 and Antichristian In a Sermon by W. Ramsay lately professor of Phylosophy Priest and Confessary and Misonary Preacher of the order of Franciscans in the Church of Rome now by God's mercy Minister of the Gospel in the Church of England A Letter from Dr Robert Wild to his friend Mr. I. I. upon occasion of his Majesties declaration of liberty of Conscience Together with his Poetical Licentia and a friendly debate between a Conformist and a Non-conformist A true and impartial Narrative of the eminent hand of God that befel a Quaker and his Family at the Town of Panton in Lincoln-shire who affirmed he was commanded of God to pronounce Mr. Ralph â—ames preacher of the Gospel a Leper With a relation of one Mary Brown that at the hearing of Christ's Humanity preached was taken speechless and with a strange manner of swelling or heaving in the face and breast Also an impartial account of some remarkable passages of one Charles Baily another Quaker who professed himself a Prophet with his Prophesie and Revelation Youths Tragedy a Poem drawn up by way of a Dialogue between Youth the Devil Wisdom Time Death the Soul c. Mr. Bunyans confession of his Faith and the reason of his practice or with who and who not I can hold Church fellowship or the Communion of Saints shewing by divers arguments that though I dare not Communicate with the open prophane yet I can with those visable Saints that differ about Water-Baptism wherein is also discoursed whether that be the entring Ordinance into fellowship or no. The life and death of Iames Arminius and Simon Spiscopius professors of Livinity in the University of Leyden in Holland both of them famous defenders of the Doctrine of God's universal Grace and sufferers for it FINIS Rom. 7. 24. Isa 1. 6. Tit. 1. 15. Ephes. 4. 1â— Isa. 59. 6 7 â— 9 10. Rom. 3. Tit. 〈◊〉 15. Eph. 4. 18 19. Thes. 5. Psal. 39. 5. Pro. 30 12 Isa. 64 6 Job 15. 14 1 Cor. 6. 1â— 1 Cor. 15 Rev. 8 9. Gal 5. â—5 Rom 8. 14 Gal. 4 Rom 8 Eph. 1. 4 4 â— Heb. 10. 2 Cor. 5. 14 15 16. Rom 6. 22 Rom. 6. 22 2 Rom. 19. 3. Phil. 37 8. Rom. 3. 21 22 23. Heb. 9. 14. 2 Cor. 5. 21. Isa. 1. 6. Isa. 64. 6. Gal. 3. 21. Rom. 8. 3 Gal. 3. 13. Gal. 3. 2 3. Rom. 3 1 2 3. 1 Joh. 4. 5. Gal. 3. page 11 page 8 Eccle. 7 1 Cor. 15 Rom. 8. 29. Rom 5. 14 Gen. 3. Ephes. 4. 21 22. 2 Pet. 1. 3. Gen. 2. 15 16 17. Answ. 1 Joh. 2 8. Joh. 1. 16. Answ. Joh. 10. 1. Mat. 26. 39. Heb â— 22. Luke 24. 26. Acts 17. 3. Col. 1. 20. Ecclus. 4. 3â— Rom. 5. 1 Rom. 5. 6 7 8. 1 Tim. 1. 15. Ephes. 1. 12 13 Joh. 1. 12. Rev. 1. 5. 2 Cor. 5. Gen. 4. Hebr. 11 1 John 5. 11. 2 Cor. 5. 17 18. 2 Cor. 5. 21. Gal. 3. 13. Heb. 12. Isaiah 53. 1 Pet. 2. 24. Heb 9. 24. 25 26. Iohn 3. 18 2 Pet. 1. Iohn 1. 14. 1 Iohn 1. 2 3 Col 1. 15. Iohn 14. Mat. 5. Iohn 14. 2 Cor. 4 6. 1 Tim. 3. 16. Rom. 6. Exod. 12. 1 2 3 4 5 6. Iohn 1 29. 1 Pet. 1. 18 19. Isa. 53. Heb 7. 1 Cor. 14. 22. Iohn 12. 37. 38 39 40. Iohn 3. 14 15. Numb 21 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10. Rom. 10. Iohn 1. Ezek. 61. 2 Cor. 5. 14. 1 John 4. 10. Gal. 2. 20. Heb. 9. 7. Tim. 1. 15. Rom. 5. 6 7 8 9. Rom. 4. 3 4 5. Rom. 9. 18 Isa. 33 11. Rom. 2. Pag. 123. 124. Rom 8. 1 Cor. 2 13. Rom. 16 2 Cor. 5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8. 2 Pet 1. 1. Iude 20. 1 Cor. 1. 30. Rom. 8. Heb. 7. Jeâ—e 23. 6. Colos. 2. 15 16. Eph 4. 8 9. Page 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. Page 16. Page 223. 1 Iohn 3. Rom. 14. Zech. 12 10. Eâ—ek 16 63 1. John 2 1 2 3. Luk. â— 17. 2 Pet. 1. 19. Rom. 10. 3. 2 Cor 3. Gal. 3 24. Rom 9. 30 31 32. Rom. 1. 20. Rom 7. Gal. 2 19. Gal. 3. 7 9. Luk. 2. 52. Mat. 3. 17. Dan. 9. 24. Gal. 4. 4 5. John 14. 1 2. John 8. 24. Exod. 19. Deut. 33. â— Mal. 4. 1. Rom. 16. Rom. 5. 4. Pag. 22. Pag. 284.