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A66347
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Gospel-truth stated and vindicated wherein some of Dr. Crisp's opinions are considered, and the opposite truths are plainly stated and confirmed / by Daniel Williams.
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Williams, Daniel, 1643?-1716.
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1692
(1692)
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Wing W2649; ESTC R24559
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134,616
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268
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therefore he doth wash blot out and not remember the unpardoned Sins of impenitent Persons whereas there is not one of those to whom these Promises are made but God hath charged Sin upon them before Because God commands Israel Isa. 1. to wash and make themselves clean by Repentance therefore we are clean without it Because God can have no Communion with a Sinner out of Christ therefore he can have no Communion with an imperfect Believer in a Christ. CHAP. XVII Of the Hurt that Sin may do to Believers TRUTH IT 's true of Believers that if Sin should have Dominion over them they would thereby be subject to Condemnation And though the Grace of God will prevent the Dominion of Sin in every elect Believer and so keep them from eternal Death yet true Believers may by Sin bring great hurt upon themselves in Soul and Body which they ought to fear and they may expect a share in National Judgments according as they have contributed to common Guilt ERROUR The grossest Sins that Believers can commit cannot do them the least harm neither ought they to fear the least hurt by their own Sins nor by National Sins yea though themselves have had a hand therein Proved that this is Dr. Crisp 's Opinion P. 510 511. They need not be afraid of their Sins they that have God for their God there is no Sin that ever they commit can possibly do them any hurt Therefore as their Sins cannot hurt them so there is no cause of Fear in their Sins committed c. There is not one Sin nor all the Sins together of any Believer can possibly do that Believer any real hurt This he attempts to prove from Rom. 7. Some will be ready to say here is a Fear of Sin Oh wretched Man that I am Who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death But give me leave to tell you that the Apostle in this Chapter as I conceive doth personate a scrupulous Spirit and doth not speak out his present Case c. Obj. Sure the Doctor only meaneth that Sin shall not damn them A. Hear him putting this Case You will say no Condemnation in Hell but yet as there are Remainders of Sin in God's own People so there will some Evil or other fall upon the Commission of Sin He summs up his Answer thus Now Sin is condemned to the Believer it can do no hurt at all to him P. 513. Sins are but Scare-crows and Bug-bears to fright ignorant Children but Men of Insight and Understanding see they are counterfeit things c they are to know for certain it is but a mad thing there is no Fear from the Sins of Believers all the Terrour and Fearfulness of Sin Christ himself hath drunk it c. Sin is dead and there is no more Terrour in it than is in a dead Lion P. 515. He shews that the Sins of the Nation cannot hurt God's People though they had a hand in them P. 429. Are you sinful in respect of the Prevalency of Corruption Let it not come into your Thoughts that you are worse than others or less than others P. 522. So oft as Men fear Affliction from Sin committed so oft do they slander the Grace of God See P. 429 413 510 562 559. Wherein the Difference is not 1. It is not Whether God will preserve elect Believers from eternal Condemnation by keeping them from the Dominion of Sin 2. Nor whether a justified Person be freed from the Curse of the Law or the Sanction of the Law of VVorks 3. Nor whether a Believer should fear his eternal Condemnation no farther than his Sins bring his Sincerity in question or lead to Security or Apostacy 4. Nor whether God may in Soveraign Mercy spare to execute those Rebukes National or Personal which a godly Man's Sins may expose him to 5. Nor whether God may and can over-rule the Sin of a Believer afterwards to his Benefit All these I affiâ—m 6. Nor whether the Afflictions of the Godly be the Execution of the damnatory Curse of the Law or any Satisfaction or Atonement for Sin This I deny and add that Christ alone satisfied Justice The real Difference 1. Whether according to the Gospel-rule if a Believer should yield up himself to the Dominion of Sin he should perish This I affirm and the Doctor denies against plain Texts directed to Believers as Rom. 8. 13. 2. VVhether a Believer falling into such Sins as Idolatry Murther c. ought not to awe his Soul against Security with lively thoughts of Damnation and if he continue long herein ought not he to suspect the State of his Soul as in danger of Hell This I affirm and the Doctor denies and thereby he renders the Gospel-threatnings as urged by the Spirit on the Hearts of Believers to be all foolish 3. VVhether Christ is at liberty sharply to afflict a justified Person for provoking Sins though he be secured against Soul-destroying Judgments This I affirm and the Doctor denies 4. VVhether a Believer falling into great Sins ought to fear God's present Rebukes for such Sins This I affirm and the Doctor denies 5. VVhether great Offences be a real hurt to a Believer and oft brings on him much present harm This I affirm and the Doctor denies The Case of National Sins is concluded as these be and I have elsewhere spoken to The Truth Confirmed The principal Point to be proved is That Sins do a Believer hurt this will convince us of the rest for as it brings hurt it is the Object of Fear in all that wisely resent things And as any threatned Affliction is caused by it it argues a Power reserved in Christ so to threaten and afflict both which I have proved Chap. 13. One would think a little Labour will serve to prove a Point which the Feeling and Experience of all Men plead for yet take a Hint of those Heads of Arguments which might be improved 1. Sin it self is a great hurt to any Man guilty of it or pestered with it It 's so called Jer. 8. 11. It s a Wound or we need no Healing it 's a Defilement or we need no Washing it 's a Crime or what 's Forgiveness it's a going astray or where 's the Use of Returning it's a Weakness or Strengthning after it were needless Is that no harm which is a Blemish to our Natures the Disease of our Souls the Disorder of our State in reference to God and our selves as depending on him If Sin be no harm why should we pray against it Why doth God so warn us still against it Why doth Grace so oppose it Why doth the Spirit strive against it Wherefore do we praise God for preventing it On what Account hath God made it the Duty of Magistrates and Parents to punish for it and of Ministers to censure the Transgressors If it 's become so innocent in his People Why doth Christ complain so oft of it Why should the Doctor tell us we should
it was when his Body was in the Grave Luk. 23. 43. Alas how can any bear to think that as the Doctor affirms he never saw God's Face all that while Where was he Yea What tormenting Agitations of Soul must he be under even after Death in the unseen State The Papists indeed tell us he was in Hell but they assign Purposes more becoming Christ's being there than the Doctor 's Position imports It was the height of Hell for Christ to be banished from God's Face and be under his very Wrath and Abhorrence all that time and his Mind tormented with the Filth of sin made his He never would have been a Saviour on Terms so inconsistent with his Person But the whole Notion is contrary to Scripture for under the greatest Abatements of Comfort he owns God's Presence and Relation My God My God Matth. 27. 46. and just upon his loud Cry he said Father into thy Hands I commit my Spirit and having said thus he gave up the Ghost Luk. 22. 46. Was there a Separation or Abhorrence when he thus addresseth himself to God as his God and his Father Did he never come near God all that while when God received his Spirit or rejected his Prayer which God never did reject Joh. 11. 42. Me thou hearest always See Ps. 69. 13 14 15 17 18. Ps. 22. 18 19 20 24. Heb. 5. 7. He was heard in that he feared which refers to this time Testimonies The Opinion I oppose is such that I will only instance the Words of Doctor Owen of Justif. P. 286. There was no reason why God should hate Christ for his taking on him our Debt and the Payment of it And suppose a Person out of an heroick Generosity of Mind an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for another so as to answer for him with his Life Would the most cruel Tyrant under Heaven that should take away his Life in that case hate him And then the Doctor shews here and P. 287. the Word Hate signifies either an Aversion or Detestation of Mind or only a Will of Punishment In the first Sence saith he there was no ground why God should hate Christ on the Imputation of Guilt unto him sin inherent renders the Soul polluted abominable and the only Object of Divine Aversation But Christ was undefiled c. The Grounds of the Doctor 's Mistake The Doctor doth not distinguish between the Affects of VVrath and the Effects of VVrath Because God forsook Christ as to the usual Degrees of Comfort he thinks Christ was separated from God Because he that is formally a sinner is odious to God therefore he thinks Christ was odious to God who had on him the Punishment of sin with the Guilt or Obligation to bear this Punishment by his own Consent neither of which have any thing of the Loathsomeness of sin I know not why he thinks Christ came not near God from the time of his Death to his Resurrection unless because of his Conceit that the Loathsomeness of sin being on him God could not bear the sight of him till he had sweat it out a Reason too horrid for me to say more to and indeed inconsistent with the Notion of a Mediator for the sins of others CHAP. VII Of the Change of Person between Christ and the Elect and their being as Righteous as he Truth THE Mediatorial Righteousness of Christ is so imputed to true Believers as that for the sake thereof they are pardoned and accepted unto Life eternal it being reckoned to them and pleadable by them for these Uses as if they had personally done and suffered what Christ did as Mediator for them whereby they are delivered from the Curse and no other Atonement nor meriting Price of saving Benefits can be demanded from them Nevertheless this Mediatorial Righteousness is not subjectively in them nor is there a Change of Person betwixt them and Christ neither are they as righteous as he but there remain Spots and Blemishes in them untill Christ by his Spirit perfect that Holiness begun in all true Believers which he will effect before he bring them to Heaven Errour Every Believer or elect Person is as righteous as Christ and there is a perfect Change of Person and Condition betwixt Christ and the Elect he was what we are and we are what he was viz. perfectly holy and without Spot or Blemish Proved that this is Dr. Crisp 's Opinion P. 270 271. The Doctor saith Mark it well Christ himself is not so compleatly righteous but we are as righteous as he nor we so compleatly sinful but Christ became being made sin as compleatly sinful as we Nay more we are the same Righteousness for we are made the Righteousness of God that very Sinfulness that we were Christ is made that very Sinfulness before God So that here is a direct Change Christ takes our Person and Condition and stands in our stead we take Christ's Person and Condition and stand in his stead What the Lord beheld Christ that he beholds the Members of Christ to be c. So that if you reckon well you must always reckon your selves in anothers Person and that other in your Person And P. 180. God gives his Son Christ c. God gives the Person of Christ to Men as much as to say God gives Christ to stand in the room of Men and Men stand in the room of Christ. So that in giving Christ God is pleased as it were to make a Change and all the Loveliness the Person of Christ hath that is put upon us and we are as lovely with him even as the Son himself And P. 158. Here is a Person in Blood in a loathsome Condition but for all this as loathsome as the Person is in himself and in his own Nature yet here is Perfection of Beauty c. On the account of this he saith P. 428. We appear before God perfect in Holiness And P. 419 420. Christ draws up and exhales that Impurity which Men live in c. and when Men are without Spot and all fair God falls in Love with them c. The Church hath no Blemish at all no Imperfection See more of this in Chap. Of Union Wherein the Difference is not 1. It is not whether the mediatioral Righteousness of Christ habitual active and Passive be a Righteousness sufficient to and designed for the Salvation of the Elect. 2. Nor whether our Justification and all other Benefits when we are made Partakers of them be the Fruits of this Righteousness as the only meritorious Cause of them 3. Nor whether Christ's Sufferings and Obedience were so in our Stead that God cannot exact from us any other Atonement for Sin or meriting Price of any Gospel-blessings 4. Nor whether Christ by his Righteousness merited for all the Elect that they should in his Time and Way be certainly Partakers of its saving Effects and did not only purchase a conditional Grant of those Effects viz. That Proposition He that believeth shall be