him occasion to speak there of God's Law according to which he glorifies or damns men eternally and not of the Gospel-law according to which he either justifies or not justifies Men. But 2. We say that the Doctor 's Judgment was the same as to both to wit as to Justification as well as to Glorification and that 1. Because in his Answer to the foresaid Arminian Book called The Synod of Dort and Arles reduced to Practice Pag. 16. these are his express Words We say that Pardon of Sin and Salvation of Souls are benefits purchased by the death of Christ to be enjoyed by men but how not absolutely but conditionally to wit in case and onely in case they believe And Pag. 28. Men are called upon to believe and promised that upon their Faith they shall obtain the grace of remission of sins and Salvation and these graces may be said to be offered unto all upon condition of Faith And Pag. 189. The Promises assured by Baptism according to the Rule of Gods word I find to be of two sorts Some are of benefits procured unto us by Christ which are to be conferred on us conditionally they of this first sort are Justification and Salvation And Pag. 190. Justification and Salvation is promised in the Word and assured in the Sacraments upon performance of a condition on mans part Now the condition of Justification and Salvation we all acknowledge to be Faith And in his other Book against Hoard Some Benefits saith the Doctor are bestowed upon man only conditionally though for Christs sake and they are the pardon of sin and salvation of the Soul Twiss against Hoard p. 154. and these God doth conferr onely upon the condition of Faith and Repentance All these are the Doctor 's own express Words by which it plainly appears that his Judgment was the same with respect both to Justification and Glorification and that he held that God dispenseth to us both these benefits for Christs sake according to a Law 2. We say that the Doctor 's Judgment was the same as to both because there is the like reason for both and the Doctor 's own Argument holds for the Law of Justification as strongly as for the Law of Glorification since God hath as much constituted and ordained that all penitent Believers and none of ripe years but penitent Believers shall be justified as that all penitent persevering Believers and no others shall be glorified As it is written John 3.18 He that believeth on Christ the Son of God is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already Acts 3.19 26.18 because he hath not believed in the name of the onely begotten Son of God Luke 13.3 5. Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish Acts 2.38 Repent and be Baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins Acts 10.43 To him give all the Prophets witness that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins Acts 13.39 By him all that believe are justified c. Rom. 3.25 God hath set him forth to be a propitation through faith in his Blood Rom. 4.24 It shall be imputed to us if we believe These Testimonies of Holy Writ do as certainly and evidently shew that God proceeds according to a stated Rule and standing Law of his own making in Justifying or not Justifying Men as any other Testimonies do shew that he proceeds according to a stated Rule and standing Law in Glorifying or not Glorifying Men. 3. We Answer that our wise Accuser in the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th Pages of his Letter seems plainly to be as much against God's proceeding according to a Law in Glorifying Men or not Glorifying them at death as he is against God's proceeding according to a Law in Justifying them or not Justifying them before death Otherwise we would fain know what he means by saying that the Doctrine of Conditions Qualifications and Rectoral Government and the distribution of Rewards and Punishments according to the new Law of Grace will make but an uneasie Bed to a dying Man's Conscience and will leave him in a very bad condition at present and in dread of worse when he is feeling in his last Agonies that the wages of sin is death if he cannot by faith add the Gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. We profess we cannot see what our Authour should design by this passage but to reflect upon us as Subverters of the true Grounds of Christian Comfort and as driving People to despair by our Doctrine of God's being a Governour and Judge who distributes eternal Rewards and Punishments unto Men See Rev. 11.18 who live in the visible Church according to the Rule of the Evangelical Law and as he finds them to be qualified through Grace or not qualified to have performed the Condition or not to have performed the Condition to have complyed with the terms of the Evangelical Law or not to have complyed with them We say we cannot see what other design he should have therein but thus to reflect upon us And if this was really his design then he denies that God proceeds according to a Law as well in Glorifying or not glorifying as in Justifying or not Justifying Men And therein he opposes Dr. Twiss and all our other Divines that he knevv of as well as us And further upon that Principle that there is no such stated Rule and known standing Law according to vvhich God hath assured us that he vvill either give eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord or inflict eternal death We chalenge our Authour to shevv us hovv in an ordinary vvay vvithout a Miracle the dying disconsolate Man can be assured by Faith that God for Christs sake will give eternal life to him in particular and not inflict upon him eternal death for his Sins For if God have not revealed in his vvritten Word to Men that through Christ he vvill give eternal life unto all penitent Believers and consequently to that dying Man in particular if he be really a true penitent Believer We say if God hath not revealed this in his vvritten Word but kept it secret vvithin himself as a thing vvhich he vvill give arbitrarily as he pleaseth without regard to any stated Rule or knovvn Lavv hovv is it possible for the poor dying Man vvithout an immediate extraordinary Revelation to knovv but that eternal death vvhich he knovvs he hath deserved and not eternal life vvhich he cannot possibly deserve shall be his everlasting portion What depends upon the meer arbitrary will and pleasure of God can never be knovvn by Man unless God reveal it either by his vvritten Word alone or by his Word and Spirit conjunct or by his Spirit immediately vvithout the Word But the poor disconsolate Man can have no hopes that God will reveal it to him by his Written Word alone or by his Written Word and
Vnlest Grace deliver him or set him free by the Law of Faith which is in Christ Jesus Here again Augustin saith that we are freed from death by a Law that that Law is the Law of Faith that that Law of Faith is a Law of Grace for by that Law Grace frees us from death And he likewise gives us plainly to understand that that gracious Law is a new Law for he says it is the Law of Faith which is in Christ Jesus Now it is clear that the Law of Faith in Christ already exhibited in the Flesh crucified dead and buried raised from the Dead Glorified and appointed to be Lord of all and Judge of Quick and Dead made perfect and become the Authour of Eternal Salvation to all them that obey him must needs be a New Law if we compare it with any Law that went before it For before the coming of Christ no Man was or could be obliged to believe in him as already Incarnate Crucified and Glorified otherwise Men had been obliged to believe a falsehood In the same Fifth Century Salvian of Marseilles wrote his Eight Books of the Government of God where he calls the Gospel the Christian Law Book 4th pag. 140. Edit Ox. 1633. In nobis Christus pâ—â—itur opprobrium in â—nobis patitur lex Christiana maledictum Saith he Christ suffers reproach by reason of us wicked Christians the Christian Law is evil spoken of by reason of us We might bring others of the Fathers for Witnesses in this cause but for the present we will content our selves with these especially the first three Justin the Martyr Cyprian end Augustin who all call the Gospel a New Law Our next Witness is Bradwardin who though he be none of the Fathers yet he lived above three hundred years agoe and our Authour cannot in reason except against him because he says in the 13th Page of the Letter that he was a blessing to England and he would make the World believe that he is for him against us Let us hear what he saies in this cause Deus dedit hominibus talem legem De causâ Dei contra Pelagiam cap. 1. Pag. 29. quam legem si non legem sanctissimam Christianam God gave unto men such a Law and what Law but the most Holy Christian Law Again He thus argues Si sola Lex Naturae sufficeret Homini c. If the Law of Nature alone were sufficient for a Man unto all things whatsoever Ibid p. 63 64. wherefore hath God who doth nothing in vain even by your own confession given another Law yea other Laws the old and the new as what wâ—â— said before doth testify especially since both these Laws to wit old and new of Moses and of Christ are more difficult to know and hard to keep than the Law of Nature For who that is wise doth any thing by more means which may be sufficiently done by fewer as natural reason and all Philosophers unanimously testifie Vnless perhaps it may be done more decently or neatly more profitably and better by many means than by few which if it be true of positive Laws and especially of the Christian Law why do you not receive it and hold it Here Bradwardin expresly calls our Christian Law a positive New Law as distinct both from the Law of Nature and Moses And in the same Page 64. he maintains that it is a Law with a Sanction of the greatest Reward and Punishment imaginable Sic Deus Summus Oeconomus in maxima domo sua c. So also God is the highest Ruler in his most great House the highest Prince in his most great Principality and the highest King of Kings in his most great Kingdome wherefore then cannot he enact or ordain that whosoever shall keep the Christian Law shall receive Eternal Glory and that they who shall not keep but contemn it shall be deprived of Glory and shall inour eternal damnation Surely he could do it and he hath done it as is manifest by what hath been said before By this Passage it is as clear as the light that Bradwardin held that the Gospel of Christ is a Law with a Sanction of Reward and Punishment and yet notwithstanding its Sanction of Punishment as well as Reward he held it to be a Law of Grace as Augustin did before him and as manifestly appears from the main scope of his Book Of the Cause of God against the Pelagians and therefore we forbear to quote any more out of it at present From the premisses it is clear that above 300 Years agoe the profound Doctor Bradwardin expresly affirmed the Law of Christ to be a positive new Law with a Sanction of Reward and Punishment and the Scope of his Book is to prove it to be a Law of Grace And by all this we think the World may now see that the Authour of the Letter told a great untruth when he affirmed that The new Law of Grace is a new Word but of an old and ill meaning and hence also People may learn what credit to give unto the Word of that Man From Fathers and Antient Writers we will come lower down and see what some of our Modern Divines since the Reformation have said in this cause and first when we look abroad we find that the Professors of Leyden in their Synopsis of purer Divinity say expresly Disp 22. Thesi 32. That Evangelium aliquando legis titulo insignitur c. The Gospel is sometimes called a Law because it also hath its own Commandments and its own Promises and Threatenings We find also that the learned Gomarus not only allows the Gospel to be called the Law of Grace but likewise gives the reason why it is so called in these Words Beneficii ratione Evangelium Gomari Operum par 3. Disp 14. Thesi 30. c. with respect unto and because of the benefit promised in it the Gospel in Holy Scripture is called The Word of the Lords Grace Acts. 14.3 the Gospel of the Grace of God Acts 20.24 the Gospel of Peace Eph. 6.15 Isa 52.7 Rom. 10.15 and the Testament or Covenant 2 Cor. 3.6 And from the prescription Evang. est lex Dei 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or appointment of the condition and duty contained in it it is called the Law of Faith Rom. 3.27 and the Law of God by way of eminency or excellency Isa 2.3 And truly this was excellently said by Gomatus No Man we think can give a better account why the Gospel is called the Law of Grace And next when we look homewards again and cast our eyes upon our own Brittish Divines we find the greatest of them clearly of the same mind that the Gospel is a Law in the sense before explained it is the New Law of Grace We will instance in two only at present The first is Bishop Andrews no Popish Bishop such as Bradwardin was whom our Authour quotes with such an Elogium against us
Spirit together because according to the Principle aforesaid the Written Word is supposed to say nothing at all of that matter Therefore if ever it be Revealed to the Man and so if ever he be comforted in this World it must be by the Spirit without the Word And then all the poor disconsolate Mans ground of Comfort must be reduced to this That God will reveal it to him by his Spirit immediately without the Written Word But then we demand how our Authour will be able to assure the poor disconsolate dying Man that God will really do so that God will reveal it to him by his Spirit immediately without the Written Word For that immediate extraordinary Revelation being a thing that depends also upon Gods Arbitrary Free Will he may do it or not do it as he pleaseth and if God may freely not do it how can our Authour ever assure the Man that he will do it That is that he will by his Spirit immediately and extraordinarily reveal to him without the Written Word that he shall have Eternal Life and not Eternal Death for his Portion But now if our Authour should say that God hath given unto Man a Promise in his Written Word to ground his Faith upon though he hath not given a stated Rule and standing positive Law according to which he will proceed with Man at Death and Judgment We would readily reply thus Either the Promise in the Written Word made to the dying disconsolate Man is an absolute Promise that God for Christ's sake will give him Eternal Life however it be with him whether he be converted or unconverted penitent or impenitent believer or unbeliever And we are sure there is no such promise in the Bible and to tell him of such a Promise would be at once to belie God and to delude the poor Man Or 2. It is a conditional Promise That God for Christ's sake will give him Eternal Life If through Grace he unfeignedly repent of all his sins and believe on Christ with a lively effectual Faith a Faith working by Love which he is bound to do under the pain of Eternal Death If this be the Promise that the poor dying Man must ground his Faith upon that God for Christ's sake will give him Eternal Life then this is the very thing which Dr. Twisse and we after him call the Law according to which God proceeds in dispensing to his People the subsequent Blessings of the Covenant such as Justification and Glorification are And so our Authour comes over into our Camp which he must do at last and confess if not to us at least to God that he hath grosly misrepresented and falsly accused Christ's faithful Ministers and hath endeavoured to delude the People and to render the Ministers odious to the People and thereby to hinder the success of their Ministry And he must sincerely repent of having done so But if he will yet go on in the way of his own heart we shall be sorry for him and not cease to pray the Lord if it be his will to have Mercy on him and to give him repentance for the scandalous sin which he hath committed in publickly slandring Christs Ministers and in boldly asserting a notorious falsehood in matter of fact saying That the new Law of Grace is a new Word of an old but ill meaning And that he hath really done so we have not only said but proved by the plain testimonies of credible Witnesses whereof two Sealed the Truth of the Gospel with their Blood above fourteen hundred years ago SECT II. Of his second Error that the Covenant of Grace is Absolute and not Conditional SEcondly the Author of the Letter asserts that the Covenant of Grace is Absolute and not Conditional as appears from page 18. at the end and page 24. And particularly he denies that Faith in Christ is the Condition of Justification page 8. Some say that faith justifies as it is a fulfilling of the condition of the New Covenant if thou believest thou shalt be saved This he finds fault with and opposes to it the old Protestant Doctrine as he calls it That the place of Faith in Justification is only that of a Hand or Instrument c. Where we observe 1. That he makes faith its being a Condition and its being a hand or instrument to be two opposite things the one whereof is inconsistent with and destructive of the other and so in this he not only fights against us but likewise against the Assembly of Divines at Westminster who held Faith to be both an Instrument and a Condition in the matter of Justification as was shewed before 2. He makes it to be New Doctrine and contrary to the Old Protestant Doctrine to hold that Faith is a Condition of the Covenant of Grace and that we are Justified by Faith as a Condition of the Covenant wherein he makes the Assembly as well as us to be Preachers of a New Doctrine and Corrupters of the Gospel since they likewise held Faith to be a Condition of the Covenant as aforesaid And again in page 9. We say that Faith in Christ is neither Work nor Condition nor Qualification in Justification but is a meer instrument and he affirms that their saying so is that by which the fire is kindled So that saith he in page 10. It is come to that as Mr. Christopher Fowler said that he that will not be Antichristian must be called an Antinomian Here it is very remarkable that he not only denies Faith to be either Work Condition or Qualification in the matter of Justification but he also in effect affirms that it is Antichristian to assert that Faith is either Work Condition or Qualification and that he will therefore rather choose to be called an Antinomian for denying than to be an Antichristian for affirming it This is and must be his meaning or else he was dreaming and knew not what he did when he cited Mr. Fowler and brought in his Judicious saying with a so that it is come to that as Mr. Fowler said c. Finally in page 25 at the beginning he says that Faith in the Office of Justification is neither Condition nor Qualification but in its very act is a renouncing of all such pretences From all which it is plain that we do not wrest his Words nor charge him with an Opinion which he doth not hold for he so firmly holds the Covenant of Grace to be Absolute and not Conditional and particularly that Faith is neither the Condition of obtaining Justification nor a qualification of the Person then Justified when he believes that he glories to be accounted an Antinomian rather than renounce that Opinion page 24. And he holds it to be New and Antichristian Doctrine to maintain that Faith is either a Condition of obtaining Justification or a qualification of the Person justified or to be justified in that instant of time wherein he believes Before we refute this Opinion we will briefly
be really his meaning and he be of that mind that he will neither repent of his sins in order to obtain the pardon of them nor pray for the pardon of them for fear lest he should seem to merit the pardon of them we cannot but think him to be a very weak man and that he fears where no ground of fear is For assuredly if he do but exclude out of his own mind the proud Conceit and Opinion of meriting by his Repentance and Prayer he needs not forbear repenting and praying for the pardon of his sins for fear of thereby meriting pardon or for fear of doing that which looks like meriting pardon His own common Sense and Reason may teach him that by the very acts of repenting and praying for pardon he doth renounce all pretence to merit as well as by the Act of believing in Christ for pardon he doth renounce all pretence to the meriting of his pardon 4. We do not believe that Faith Repentance and sincere Obedience are the legal but evangelical Condition of the Covenant of Grace Which that our meaning may be understood by all we explain thus we do not believe that our Faith Repentance and sincere Obedience which are the Conditions of Justification and Glorification according to the tenour of the Covenant of Grace have the same Place and Office in this new Covenant and Law of Grace which most perfect sinless Obedience had and was to have had in the first old Covenant and Law of Works for in that first old Covenant personal perfect sinless Obedience was to have been Mans Righteousness by which alone he was to have been secured from Death and to have had still a Title and Right to Life but in the new Covenant and Law of Grace neither our Faith Repentance nor sincere Obedience are or can be that righteousness which secures us from Eternal Death and purchases for us a Right and Title to Eternal Life when God first made the new Covenant with us in Christ we had all lost our Right and Title to life and were become guilty of Death In which state we could never by any Act or Acts of ours by any Righteousness in us or done by us secure our selves from Death and recover our Right and Title to Life It was the satisfactory meritorious Righteousness of our Lord Redeemer Christ Jesus that could do and did do this for us It was Christs Righteousness alone that satisfied for our Sins and redeemed us from Death and that merited and purchased for us a Right and Title to Life Christ's Righteousness alone procures us the pardon of our sins and a Right and Title to Life so that it is Christ's satisfactory meritorious Righteousness alone that comes in the place of that perfect sinless Righteousness which was the Condition of the first Covenant and Law of works It is Christ's Righteousness that stands us in stead of that perfect sinless Righteousness which we should have had but have not It is Christ's righteousness alone that procureth to us the Restauration of all the good we had lost and more and better Our Faith Repentance and sincere Obedience have nothing to do at all in this matter This was Christ's work alone and we give him all the Glory of it with all our Hearts and Souls And as it was Christ's Righteousness alone that merited our pardon of sin and deliverance from Death and that purchased our acceptance with God as righteous in his sight and our Right and Title to Life so it is by his Promise and Law of Grace that the Lord gives us that which he had merited and purchased for us that he gives us the pardon of our sins and Right or Title to Life upon our repenting and believing so that our repenting of our sins and believing in Christ are but the immediate nearest means which God hath ordained to be used on our part that we may be fit to receive and accordingly may receive those blessings and benefits which Christ hath purchased and which by the promise are given unto us The use of this means the performance of those Duties of Faith and Repentance is that which our Orthodox Divines call the Condition of the Covenant of Grace For upon Condition that through Grace we do those Duties we shall have those blessings and benefits The Lord will graciously give us them according to his promise on condition that we by Grace do such and such Duties according to his Command Our Faith and Repentance are not our Legal Righteousness nor instead of it that is the Place and Office of Christ's Righteousness only but they are the Condition which the Lord in the Gospel hath required of us that according to his promise we may be blessed with the pardon of sin be accepted at Righteous in his sight and have a Right and Title to Eternal Life From the premisses it is manifest that according to our Principles Faith and Repentance are not a Legal but an Evangelical Condition of the Covenant of Grace and that they do not in the least detract from the Grace of it And we desire it may be remembred that though speaking of Faith and Repentance joyntly we call them sometimes the Condition of the Covenant or the Condition of Justification yet we make a difference between them and because Repentance includes an hearty sorrow for sin and purpose to for sake it and to return unto the Lord we call it the disposing Condition but finding by Holy Soripture and the Nature of the thing that Faith above other Graces hath a peculiar respect unto Christ and his Righteousness we call it the receiving Condition so doth our Reverend Brother Mr. Williams call it in Gospel truth stated c. page 114. and we approve the distinction He was not the first inventer of it for it was used by others before either he or we were born Now if this be true as the Lord who searcheth all hearts knows it to be then let the World judge how false and injurious that Authour is unto us when in page 6. he giveth the People an account of our Principles as to this matter in these following words They will not allow this personal Righteousness of Christ to be imputed to us any otherwise than in the merit of it as purchasing for us a far more easie Law of Grace in the observation whereof they place all our justifying Righteousness Vnderstanding hereby our own personal inherent holiness and nothing else They hold that Christ dyed to merit this of the Father viz. that we might be justified upon easier terms under the Gospel than those of the Law of Innocency in stead of Justification by perfect Obedience we are now to be justified by our own Evangelical Righteousness made up of Faith Repentance and sincere Obedience And Page 28. Many manage the Ministry as if they had taken up a contrary determination even to know any thing save Jesus Christ and him crucified We are amazed to see so many
ashamed of the Cross of Christ and to behave as if they accounted the Tydings of Salvation by the slain Son of God an old antiquated Story and unfit to be dayly preached And what comes in the room thereof is not unknown nor is it worth the mentioning For all things that come in Christ's room and justle him out either of Hearts or Pulpits are alike abominable to a Christian Again in Page 33. by an Innuendo he gives the People to understand that we teach that sincere obedience unto the Law is the Righteousness we must be found and stand in in our pleading for Justification and that in so doing we neither understand what we say nor whereof we affirm 1 Tim. 1.7 Lastly In his Appendix Page 39. by another of his Innuendo's he gives the People to understand that we bring our own pitiful holiness into Justification and thereby make it sit on the Throne of Judgment with the Precious Blood of the Lamb of God By these Passages that we have transcribed word for word out of his Letter it appears that he hath told the People a very tragical Story of some Ministers and if he mean it of us we know our selves to be so clear of those horrid Crimes he charges us with that we can declare with a good Conscience in the sight of God who will judge us all that it is as false with respect to us as any Story that ever came out of the Mouth of the Father of Lies For it hath been our chief desire and endeavour to preach Christ to the People to preach Christ both as humbled and exalted as crucified and glorified To convince them of their need of Christ of their being utterly undone without him that there is no help nor hope for them from any thing in themselves and of themselves or from any meer Creature either in Heaven or Earth that Christ is the way the truth and the life and that there is no coming to the Father but by him that there is no Salvation in any other but in Jesus Christ because there is no other Name under Heaven given unto Men whereby we must be saved That there needs no other because Christ being not onely Man but God also being God-man he is an all-sufficient Saviour able and willing to save able to save to the uttermost to save perfectly to save evermore all that come unto God by him It hath been our care and endeavour to teach the People that Christ hath not onely procured for us the new Covenant or Law of Grace according to which we may be Justified and saved if we comply with the Terms and Conditions of it but that he hath by his Humiliation and Obedience his Obedience unto Death even the Death of the Cross fully satisfied the Justice of God for our Sins merited for us the pardon of them with the acceptation of us as righteous in the sight of God and a Right or Title to Eternal Life if we sincerely Believe and Repent And moreover that he hath merited for us by his Blood and gives unto us by his Spirit all that Grace whereby we do both sincerely believe and repent and obey the Gospel We tell the People that God made with us the new Covenant or Law of Grace in and through Christ the Mediator and Surety of it That it is founded upon and ratified and confirmed to us by his Blood-shedding and Death and that he hath purchased for us all the Grace Blessings and Benefits of it We tell them and prove to them that Christ hath fulfilled all Righteousness that he most perfectly kept every Law of God that he was under the obligation of that he humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross That it was for us Men and for our Salvation that he came down from Heaven and was humbled and became obedient unto death That his Obedience active and passive was equivalent fully equivalent to all that we ought to do and to all that we deserve to suffer for not doing what we ought for not doing what is commanded us and for doing what is forbidden us That by his Obedience and Sufferings he hath paid the full price of our Redemption and by paying that Price hath made full satisfaction to the Justice of God for our Sins and hath merited for us the full pardon of our Sins and Eternal Salvation of our Souls if we sincerely believe repent and obey the Gospel by that Grace which he hath also purchased for us by his Blood promised to us in his Word and gives unto us by his Spirit So that we are compleat in him we have all in and from him who is the Head the living and Life-giving Head the ever blessed and glorious Head of the whole Church in whom dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily and in whom it pleased the Father that all fulness should dwell that out of his fulness we might receive and grace for grace Moreover we call People we command them we exhort and beseech them in God's Name to believe in Christ the Son of God and Saviour of Men to repent of their Sins and to be subject and obedient unto him The more effectually to encourage and perswade them so to do we assure them in God's Name that if they do indeed through Grace believe repent and obey they shall be first justified and afterwards glorified and that not for their Faith Repentance and sincere Obedience but only for the satisfactory meritorious Righteousness of Christ imputed to them So that we teach People to plead Christs Righteousness onely as that which satisfies God's Justice for them and as that which procures and purchases to them the pardon of their Sins the acceptation of their Persons as righteous in God's sight with their Right and Title first to eternal life and at last the actual donation of eternal life for their everlasting portion and inheritance On the other hand we faithfully declare to them that they ought by no means to ascribe unto their Faith Repentance or Obedience any of these things that belong to Christ's satisfactory meritorious Righteousness That the place and office of Faith in reference to Justification is to be the consenting receiving trusting Condition of it or the Instrumental means of receiving Christ as offered in the Gospel and with him his Righteousness for which alone we are justified That the place and office of Repentance is to be the disposing condition of Justification or rather if you will of the Person to be justified it not being consistent with the Truth of God's Word nor with the Perfection of his Nature to pardon a Sinner whilst he continues his full obstinate Resolution to go on in his Enmity and Rebellion against the Divine Majesty And lastly that the place and office of sincere obedience in the notion under which we now consider it is to be a condition of obtaining Eternal Life and Glory we do not say that
as refuse and neglect to use the remedy provided in the Gospel and so doing live and dy in Unbelief and impenitence they are certainly to be executively condemned for breaking the Law and moreover having heard the Gospel preached to them and having had in the Gospel a Soveraign Remedy offered them against the Curse and Condemnation of the Law they shall be condemned likewise for refusing or neglecting to use the said Remedy Heb. 12.25 Heb. 2.3 John 3.18 19. Matth. 11.22.24 So that professed Christians who live and dy in impenitence and unbelief will be doubly condemned both by Law and Gospel Rom. 10.14 whereas Heathens who never heard nor could hear of the Gospel for want of an objective Revelation of it they living and dying without Repentance and Faith in the true God under the guilt of Sins against the Law and Light of Nature will be condemned by the Law but not by the Gospel which they could not know Rom. 2.12 3. Since we believe that all Unconverted Impenitent Unblievers who live and dye in that State are so under the sanction of the Moral Law as that they are to be condemned for breaking it we cannot believe that the same Persons are so under the sanction of the moral Law as that they are not to be condemned but to be saved by keeping it For that were to believe a contradiction which we have not faith enough to do Yet 4. If the case be put disjunctively as our Author expresly puts it in his Letter we maintain that what he charges upon us is notoriously false and its contradictory is true to wit the sanction of Gods moral Law is not repealed so that no man is now under it either to be condemned for breaking it or to be saved by keeping it We firmly believe that this disjunctive is true Some men are now under the sanction of the Law either to be condemned for breaking it or to be saved by keeping it But take the latter part of the said disjunctive by it self and understand it determinately then we cannot believe it to be true we cannot believe that some men are under the sanction of the Law to be saved by keeping it because it is notoriously false And that 1. Because no meer man since the fall of Adam hath kept doth keep or ever will keep the Law so perfectly as never to sin against it and never to fall under the condemnation of it 2. Because that Holy Scripture assures us that if Righteousness come by the Law then Christ is dead in vain Gal. 2.21 And that if there had been a Law given which could have given Life verily righteousness should have been by the Law But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin that the Promise by Faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe Gal. 3.21 22. And again that what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the Flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh by a Sacrifice for Sin condemned sin in the flesh c. Rom. 8.3 This is our Judgment concerning the Law and its Sanction with respect to Unconverted Impenitent Unbelievers that so live and dye they are under it to be condemned but not to be saved by it Then for Converted Penitent Believers who are in Christ Jesus by Faith and walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit we believe that they are under the Law and not under the Law in different respects 1. They are under Gods Moral Law as it is a rule of Life representing to them what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God and directing them what to do and what not to do that they may please God in doing his will 2. They are under it also as it is a Law obliging them to most perfect and sinless obedience 3. They are under it as a Law forbidding all their sins and likewise condemning all their sins but they are not under it as a Law by its Minatory Sanction condemning their Persons which are in Christ by Faith and walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit for there is no condemnation to such Rom. 8.1 Gal. 5.22 23. 4. They are not under the Law as a Covenant of Works to be justified and saved by it Because none can be justified and saved by the Law considered as it was a Covenant of Works given to man in the state of innocency but those who perfectly keep it and never once transgress it either by Original or Actual Sin But that is impossible for any meer man to do since the fall of Adam and it is not only Morally impossible but it is Physically impossible yea it is Metaphysically impossible that is it is so absolutely impossible that it implies a contradiction and can be done by no power Moral Natural or Supernatural by no power Human or Divine For all meer Men without exception have already broken Gods Law so as that they are guilty of death for the breach of it And that which hath already been cannot possibly by any power whatsoever be made not to have been as it implies a contradiction and is absolutely impossible that the same thing should be and not be at the same time so it implies a contradiction and is absolutely impossible that the same thing should have been and not have been or should be past and not be past at the same time But it is a thing already past and true that all Converted Penitent Believers have already broken Gods Law and fallen under the condemnation of it thefore it implies a contradiction and is absolutely impossible now that they have kept it so as never once to transgress it and consequently it implies a contradiction and is absolutely impossible that they should be now justified and saved by the Law which they have broken and which for that reason would certainly condemn them were it not that Christ hath Redeemed them from its condemnation and by the Law of Faith absolves and forgives them Thus we have shewed how true penitent Believers are under the Law and not under the Law and how it hath lost its Sanction with respect to their Persons It hath lost its Promissory Sanction by reason of their Sins and through their own fault But its Minatory Sanction whereby it bound them over to condemnation for their sins is taken away from it with respect to Penitent Believers who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit by the Rich Mercy and Free Grace of God through the Satisfaction and Merits Christs obedience unto death even the death of the Cross Now from the Premises it is as clear as the light at Noon-day that we do not say as is pretended that the Sanction of the Law is repealed so that no man is now under it either to be condemned for breaking it or to be saved by keeping it So much for wiping off the Calumny which respects matter of Opinion The next which respects matter