them into his Church from among the Nations It may be objected That the very mentioning the Prophecy of Jeremiah by the Author to the Hebrews does prove it to be applied to his times it does prove it indeed not to be in any time before and so not at their return from Babylon and that the mentioning that Covenant does prove it to be meant of the Gospel-Covenant But I deny it The mentioning of a Promise made only to the Jews is no proof of it to be made to all the Elect and the mention of a Covenant to be made with them after those days is no proof that it is meant of a Covenant made with us at the present day He does not say as Christ did when he opened the Book at a place prophecying of him This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your Ears for the day is not yet come the day of God's making this second Covenant with the Jews for I must inculcate that it is a second as to them only the Author cites the Prophecy in respect to his matter in hand which is that the Jewish Dispensation their Priesthood and Covenant was already ceased the Promise of a new to come shewing its intended Abolishment Which arguing is good and becoming Sacred Scripture though the time be to come For there 's nothing here argued but at present is true notwithstanding the peculiarity of this Prophecy is yet to be made good The Covenant of Grace in the Substance of it is one and the same since Adam's Fall to this day and to this time yet to be accomplished But the diverse Administrations of it were to be at several Seasons It was in the Promise only till Christ and then he ratified it by his Blood and promulgated it by his Apostles which all stands good very consistently with another Administration as to them upon the Jews Vocation I know now there are twenty Questions might be raised here by way of Objection or for the sake of Elucidation which I was a little thinking upon but I will leave them every one to others Meditations If what I have started be good there is an end of all Difficulty in regard to the Conditionality of the Gospel-Covenant and what I or others have answered to those Texts may be spared For there is nothing considerable but from these Texts that is against us I conclude If it be good there is some body or other at some time or other will make it good If it be not good I will be at my liberty to stand where I do and disbelieve it again as well as any other PART III IN the Point of Justification Mr. W. made this grant and presuming upon it in this Paper he tells me I have truly represented his words to wit that Besides the Effects being made ours the very Righteousness of Christ is imputed to Believers though I told him Mid. way of Just p. 56. that this as far as I can see is to boggle and yield our Cause to his Adversaries It is in vain really if it be not sinful daubing to be bewailed in the consequence of it for Mr. W. to argue against Christ's Suretiship and Commutation of Persons in the ill sense which he intends only to confute when that ill sense and all that the Antinomian says besides depends on this Supposition that Christ's Righteousness is made ours more or otherwise than in the Effects For my part therefore I do plainly here as plainly before say that if our Divines will have any other Imputation of Christ's Righteousness than quoad fructus effectus they must for me have none at all For when the Phrase of the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness is not once found in Scripture it must be gratis allowed them and if they will not accept this I can allow no more To open my self The common Opinion of Protestants is that we are Justified by the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness and that this Righteousness is imputed so as God does reckon Christ's Righteousness for ours that it may answer the Law of Works according to which they conceive we are to be Justified As the Scripture says Faith is imputed for Righteousness so do they think Christ's Righteousness is For they understand Faith Objectivé in sensu correlativo for Christ's Righteousness received by Faith When the Scripture says no where that his Righteousness is imputed as I noted but now and much less that it is imputed for Righteousness there being no good Sense thereof which is like to hold Of these Divines some and the most do understand by Christ's Righteousness the Righteousness of his Life and Death his Active and Passive Obedience both God does reckon us say they to have suffered the Penalty of the Law in his Death and so we are free from Condemnation And being Recti in curia there is required father a Righteousness of perfect Obedience to this Law for a Right to Heaven and so his Active Obedience is imputed also Others being convinced of a manifest Inconsistency here seeing if the Active Obedience of Christ be imputed to us which is to reckon us that we have neither omitted any Duty nor committed any Sin there needs no Imputation of his Sufferings they maintain that Christ's Active Obedience was Justitia Personae a Righteousness necessary to himself as a Man to fulfil But his Passive seeing he was Sinless was and must be for us only and in our stead and that is the Justitia meriti which is imputed to Sinners for their Justification It is the choicest of our Protestant Divines beyond Sea next Luther and Calvin that go this way But there have been some more pondering Thoughts on this Doctrine of Imputation by such as apprehend that as the Righteousness of Christ being an Accident inhering in him as its proper Subject and incapable to be in us also so neither can it be in se imputed to us or reckoned so as ours whether it be the Righteousness of his Life or Death To be accounted of God to be as Righteous as Christ himself is too hard of Digestion and therefore they will allow an Imputation but understand it sensibly that Christ's Righteousness is indeed imputed to Believers but not in se as ours in it self but so as to be ours only in the Fruits and Effects Thus that masterfully learned Man Forbs in his Modestae questiones and some others Which giving Mr. Baxter the Notion he hath so cultivated it delivering his Judgment that way and that in so many Books and so largely as it is hard for any to gainsay or to say that he does fully comprehend him He hath prudently used Bradshaw as to the making up Christ's Satisfaction of both Obediences Active and Passive according to that Mediatorial Covenant as we speak of it between his Father and him For this was the Father's Pleasure or Mediatorial Command This Commandment I received of my Father that he should repair the Honour of his broken Law and answer
sorry for Mr. Williams that he printed his Sheet when mine alone as a Third Person to let the World know how little they had against him how curious the Difference what need of bearing with one another had been enough because he must be forced to agree with me when he should have differ'd and is put upon the Defence of a Denial of that which I take to have been advantageous and the credit of his Books to have owned It is objected against him that he holds the Penal Sanction of the Law of Works to be changed What if he had owned this for his Opinion and said it is no Error but stood to it As Mr. Baxter hath his and I my State of the Point Mr. W. might have his and we never fall out Suppose then the Point stated only with two Distinctions 1. As to the Law between the Law it self and its Sanction 2. As to the Subjects of this Law between the Believer and Unbeliever Let him then say the Law it self is unchangeable but its Sanction is changed and that change to be understood as to Believers for he every where says the Unbeliever is under Condemnation And let me see who he is will be his Opponent I say let me see whether any of our Brethren out of whose Books Mr. Lobb does bring some opposite Sayings to Mr. W. and thereby shifts himself off from being Accuser or Opponent so as it is not he but they are engaged to make them good that will undertake to Oppose and Mr. W. be Respondent I suppose the Question to be Whether the Sanction of the Law be changed and held affirmatively being but thus stated This I take to be the very ordinarily preached Doctrine by our most Judicious Divines for to be more exact in Preaching may but amuse and hurt the People and Mr. Lobb does know and I think Mr. W. too that trite Determination I mentioned in my Letter to him which is co-incident with what is here said The Law is to be considered qua Foedas and qua Regula Qua Regula it binds us to perfect Obedience Qua Foedus it binds us to it as the Condition of Life Qua Regula then it remains Obligatory Qua Foedus it does not Christ hath freed us from it Let us suppose this to be Mr. W's Opinion and then bring Mr. Lobb's Objection There is a Change of the Penal Sanction of the Law of Works Very well he grants it The Gospel doth not denounce Death for the same Sins and every Sin as the Law doth Very true the one follows undeniably from the other Let us bring then Mr. W's Explanation Comment or Confirmation of this Opinion Though nothing be abated in the Rule of Sin and Duty yet Blessings are promised to lower degrees of Duty and a continuance in a State of Death with a bar to the Blessing are not threatned against every degree of Sin as the Covenant of Works did Can any doubt this to be the Grace of the Gospel-Promise Doth it promise Life to all Men however Vile and Impenitent they be or Doth it threaten Damnation or a continuance of it on any True Penitent Believing Godly Man because he is imperfect This change of the Sanction supposeth the Death of Christ and his honouring the Law by his perfect Obedience wherein God hath provided for his own Glory while he promises Life by Forgiveness to imperfect Man and yet insists on some degree of Obedience to which of his Grace he enableth us What can be spoken more appositely more judiciously more roundly to the purpose and more sufficiently supposing Mr. W. had but held and stood to this Opinion It is all exactly true according to the Point thus stated I cannot blame Mr. Lobb though I had a mind to do it to think that this was indeed Mr. W's Opinion because his Discourse loses its current upon a contrary Supposition Mr. Lobb shews himself a more piercing Man than I thought upon that account I will turn therefore to another place Gospel Truth p. 115. Dr. Crisp oft tells us that the Sanction of the Law of Works is removed and the Curse gone as to the Elect This is true if he mean that sinless Obedience is not now the way of Life and all bellow it shall not bind Death upon us so as to hinder our Relief by the Gospel Here Mr. Lobb shews me in a Letter that Mr. W. grants expresly that the Sanction of the Law is removed It is true that is he confesses it Very good all consonant to himself It is true in this meaning which he sets forth just in the Sense I say the Point is stated By the way let Mr. Lobb note that when Mr. W. says It is true in 〈◊〉 meaning it implies that if it be meant otherwise It is 〈◊〉 true which answers the Quotation By this it appears how well throughly well all would have been if he had maintained not denied the Charge of his Brethren Hear therefore a little more amply Mr. George Lawson with whom neither Mr. W. Mr. Lobb nor I are to be compared for a Conclusion There is one great Change in respect to the Law Perfect Obedience to it was first made the Condition of Life but afterwards that Promise of Life upon those strict Terms and that severe Commination of Death upon Sin were abolished and Faith was made the only Condition of Life So that it may be truly said that the Law of Works is abrogated but not the Moral Law considered by it self I would have therefore Mr. W. methinks here ask the Brethren to give him his hand in again or if he thinks good he may take it If not let us come to the Question waved hitherto Is a Change of the Penal Sanction of the Moral Law the same as The Gospel hath another Sanction to the Preceptive part of the Law For answering which Question by the Sanction of the Law I understand the Penalty under which the Duty is required and so does Mr. Lobb because when Mr. W. says Sanction he cites Penal Sanction supposing as here spoken nothing else by it but the Penalty Now then when Mr. W. says The Gospel hath another Sanction or a Change of the Sanction to the Preceptive part of the Law Mr. Lobb accounts he must be understood to mean That the Precepts of the Law being taken into the Gospel are not required under that Penalty as they were in the Covenant of Works and thereupon does collect this as his Error The Collection is Rational but Mr. W. denies this to be his meaning Every Sin out of doubt does deserve Death even in the Believer and therefore the perfect Duty of the Law is required by the Gospel under the same Penalty though that Penalty is remitted being not remediless as under the Law it was upon the other Terms of it Christ's Law comprehends I have said the Law of Nature and the Remedying Law both When the Law of Nature therefore remaineth it must
the ends of it by a perfect obeying of it and suffering for Man's Sin against it and thereby Merit to all Mankind it being done in their behalf a Right to Pardon and Salvation or to Impunity and Life which yet is to be given them upon such Terms as should please him and the Redeemer for so long as it was not the Persons themselves that obeyed and suffered but another in their stead and that by way of Satisfaction not strict Payment the Benefit of that Obedience and Suffering might be disposed at their Will Now this Right to Impunity and Life obtained is given or granted in an Act of Grace declared in the Gospel which runs thus that whosoever he be that Believes Repents and lives sincerely according to it shall be pardoned and saved Even as in an Act of Pardon by Parliament a Man hath committed Treason or the like the Treason is still by the Law Death but upon such an Act passing those Persons that are guilty are pardoned if qualified according to the Act In like manner that Man who performs this Gospel-Condition hath this Right by vertue of this Act Law or Covenant of Grace Grant Deed of Gift Will of Christ Testament or Gospel The Righteousness of Christ is the Meritorious Cause of it and this Act of Grace the Instrument of Donation or Law-title Here then we see is a Righteousness Evangelical that we have and must have and here is a Right to Impunity and Life which you may if you will call a Righteousness too that we have also But the Righteousness of Christ we have here only in the Effect As in the common instance I have a Friend made Slave in Algiers I give a 100 l. for his Ransom he never has nor sees the 100 l. but the Money is his in the Liberty he possesseth Note When the former sort of Divines mentioned say that by the Imputation of Christ's Death to us we become recti in Curia and there must be then a Righteousness of his Life imputed farther to entitle us to Heaven they understand still that it is by the Law of Works that we are to be tried and judged But let all understand aright as before that it is by the Law of Grace and supposing then we were thereby recti in curia that Righteousness required farther unto this Title must be the Righteousness of that Law we are judged by to wit our Evangelical Righteousness only which is accepted unto Life or made the Condition instead of that of the Law upon the account of this Righteousness of Christ Jesus We must distinguish here to avoid Prejudice and least the tender be offended There is the Duty and the Condition of this Law the Law of Grace the Law of Christ or the Gospel by which we are to be judged God hath constituted the Duty the Condition the Reward the Penalty of it There are few of our Ministers and much less of our People are sensible of the Advantage this Doctrine brings us and the Soundness of it No Man we must know does perform the Duty but every Man must perform the Condition or he cannot be saved This Condition as obtained for the World is the grand Benefit of Christ's Purchase or main Fruit of his Death and is accepted when performed only through him It is not for my Works or Merits sayest thou that my Person is accepted but for Christ's Righteousness and in this alone is my Comfort And I say it is not for the Works sake or Merit of any thing or all we do but for Christ's sake that the Condition is accepted and it is in this is my Comfort In this it is that we have or can have any grounded Sustentation To say thou art Justified by Christ's Righteousness when yet thou must acknowledge his Righteousness is none of thine unless thou hast performed the Condition What empty Comfort is that But to say that through Christ's Merits and Righteousness this it self that I do is the Condition here is Comfort indeed That what we are enabled by his Grace I say to do how little soever if sincerely done if it be but the Grain of Mustard-seed in a hungring and thirsting after Righteousness shall be accepted unto Life that is be that Condition upon account of what Christ hath done for us this I say is solid Consolation Thou saist when I look on my Works my Heart sinks I am not sure I am Sincere but in the Righteousness of Christ I am safe I say this is certain If thou art not Sincere thou art not Safe And when I doubt whether I am or not I can have no Support but in this that I hope I am I trust I am and that it is upon the Satisfaction and Merit of Christ that Faith that Hope does depend For that there is any Condition at all that the Condition is such that what I do shall be accepted as the Condition performed it must all be put upon the account of Christ's Performance or Merit in our behalf and his Merit is sufficient however imperfect be our Duty for its Acceptance with God When then upon a Sense of my Deficiency instead of sinking I grow bolder in my reliance on Christ's Merits and God's Mercy I do not presume on my self but I magnifie his Grace and the higher I raise my Faith thereupon provided I live not willingly in any Conscience-wasting Sin the more Glory am I humbly perswaded do I give my gracious Saviour and good God Thou Man hast the Comfort to apply to thy self Christ's Merits if thou hast performed the Condition But I have the Comfort to apply Christ's Merits to the Condition which makes his Yoke easie and burden light as to the Performance and my very Desires and weakest Endeavours to find Acceptance When I read such Prayers of David that God would not enter into Judgment with him that he would not be extream to mark what he had done amiss for then he could not abide it and that yet he will have God to search him and try his Reins and Heart and the like I cannot but be convinced that in the Acceptance of such an imperfect Righteousness as he accounted his was through God's meer gracious Condescention Mercy and Forgiveness to him he placed his * That there is a Righteousness set forth in the Gospel as another Righteousness than that of the Law by which we are to be justified is signally affirmed Rom. 1.17 Rom. 3.21 23. Now is the Righteousness of God revealed The doing what the Law requires and nothing less is Righteousness the Righteousness of Man I will call it If any one did that it would and must justifie him The Doers of the Law before God are justified Rom. 2.13 The Apostle still so accounts which we must know and tells us thereupon that no Man Jew or Gentile does it but that all fall short thereof in his three first Chapters to the Romans and consequently by their Works cannot be justified Upon
obeyed not that we might not obey he obeyed not in our stead How is it then Why Christ obeyed the Law as the perfect Obedience thereof required was the Condition of Life and by his obeying it thus he hath freed us from being under that Condition that is from so obeying it as by his Suffering we are freed from enduring the Curse Not by a Cessation of the Duty or Sanction Premiant or Penal of the Law of Works but by the Accession of the Law of Grace because the Sanction of that Law is remedied by this both being in Christ's hands neither abrogating the other To be freed from the Obligation of perfect Obedience as the Condition of Life does import or is all one as or with to be freed from the Commination of Death upon the least failing thereof so that the Promisory part of that Law and Comminatory part are alike concerned and must be understood both alike to be of force or cease as before shewn By Christ's Sufferings we are not freed from all Sufferings or Punishment for Sin but from suffering the Curse in that Punishment So by his Obedience we are not freed from endeavouring and doing what we can to become perfect but we are freed from the Obligation of the Performance as necessary to Salvation This comes in by the way but for the Imputation now of Christ's Righteousness Christ suffered and obeyed for us I say which must be understood aright Not that God looks on us as if we our selves had obeyed or suffered either in his Person or he to have done it strictly in ours but that he obeyed and suffered loco nostro to free us from so Obeying and Suffering as he himself did which is the making his Death and Obedience ours only as to this Benefit Thus much being right and the Righteousness of Christ consisting in this Obedience and suffering of this in our room now what at last is the Imputation of it Why certainly the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness is and must be nothing else but God's accounting the matter to be thus as it is Here is the Point That what Christ hath done is lookt upon is accepted as done in our behalf or the granting it to be so that upon this Obeying and Suffering of his in our place as the Meritorious Cause we shall be freed from the same Obedience and Suffering our selves as the Effect of it This is the only Fundamental Truth in the Phrase and this Imputation then of Christ's Righteousness which Man hath so phrased going into this Grant on God's part or obtaining the Grant on Christ's part which precedes the Application it cannot go into the Application it self that follows after upon the Performance of the Gospel-terms so as to make Christ's Righteousness ours any otherwise than in this Benefit only Besides this the fancying such Acts in God as the imputing Christ's Righteousness to every single Person upon his Believing any otherwise than by that one Act of Grace now promulgated in the Gospel is not becoming the Divine Being There is there can be no new Acts in God He is Actus purus his Will one I must not grow too Subtle here only I must say there is his Will and the Effects of his Will and in those Effects there is an Order In that Order the Righteousness of Christ precedes the Impetration of all the Benefits we have by him as the Meritorious Cause of them and the Impetration precedes the Application and the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness going to the Impetration the Application cannot but be of the Effects thereof Not of this Righteousness I say it self in se but of the Benefits themselves we have by it To be more short That Commutation of Persons and Imputation of Christ's Righteousness which come both in earnest to this one same thing Mans Benefit for Christ's Satisfaction how soever the Thoughts thereof have amused so many good Men when you have throughly considered them and made as much of them as ever you can it must all of it every drop of it you can make go into that Act of Grace Salvation upon Gospel-Conditions which is already procured and passed Unto the Impetration then of our Redemption Christ's Righteousness was indeed imputed in it self In the Application it can be imputed only in the Effects I know there are some Texts very high Texts about this matter in Scripture such as these He hath made him Sin for us that we may be made the Righteousness of God in him By the Obedience of one many shall be made Righteous Christ is the end of the Law to the Believer What is the meaning of such Texts The meaning really I take to be but the same I have now opened They all come to this That Christ by his Satisfaction and Obedience hath procured us such a Freedom from the Law that Faith without Works that is Legal Works may be imputed to us for Righteousness which is all one as that we may become Righteous upon performing only the Terms of the Gospel Christ is the end of the Law How I answer If I say by putting an end to it I speak what is plainest This is to give 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it s own proper Interpretation But how hath Christ done that He hath done it by satisfying and obeying it I have said in our stead He hath by the Merit of his Obedience procured our Deliverance from the Obligation to perfect Obedience as the Condition of Life This is such an end of the Law as will hold and can never be contradicted I will confirm it with the words following Christ is the end of the Law for Righteousness to him that believeth There are two Questions here will go to the heart of this Text What is the end of the Law and Why there is an end of it For the What we see The end of the Law is this Fredom as I say from the Condition mentioned For the Why the Text says it is for Righteousness to him that believeth Now what is the meaning of these words It is that by believing we make Christ's Righteousness ours and thereby are Justified No it is that by believing true believing which is also obeying the Gospel we may be made as one of the Texts has it Righteous and being so be accounted so of God and dealt with as so not Legally but Evangelically so and accepted in that Righteousness of God See my Book of Justif p. 57 58. opposed to the Righteousness of Works unto Eternal Life This St. John teaches He that doeth Righteousness is Righteous and Christ's own mouth hath confirmed And the Righteous to Life Everlasting As for that Text which is like still to be laid in our way the first of those that in the words I have quoted to wit 2 Cor. 5.21 I will accumulate thus much that In Christ's taking on him our Sins to become a Sacrifice for them and fulfilling the Law to procure those new terms in performance whereof
make the Punishment due but the Pardoning Law being conjunct with it makes the Impunity due also In primo instanti the Punishment in secundo Impunity It is necessary therefore I judge for Mr. W. to explain his Term Sanction and try if he can make his words so intelligible as one may say he gave no occasion of Mis-construction But seeing by this Phrase of his as I call it in Mr. Lobbs Sheets and much more by that Mr. Lobb hath added from another place The Gospel doth not denounce Death for the same and every Sin as Adam 's Law did there is occasion given to Mr. Lobb to believe him herein in an Error if it be one and the contrary be not and rationally to do so I must in my Judgment on the case so far excuse Mr. Lobb Let us consider again The words of Mr. W. may be construed either with Application of his Readers Thoughts to the Law alone or to the Gospel alone or to the Law and Gospel both together If the Readers Thoughts be applied to the Law alone then Another Sanction being the same with a Change of the Sanction and that upon Christ's Satisfaction too he must needs understand the meaning to be that the Penal Sanction of the Law is by the Gospel or by Christ's Death and Obedience made void for the same Law cannot have two Sanctions and if its own be changed it is abolished If the Readers Thoughts be applied to the Gospel alone they must recur for there is no change of Sanction questionable as to that If his Reader construe him with Application of his Thoughts to Law and Gospel both together then may the meaning indeed be understood that the Gospel Sanction is changed from that which was the Law Sanction so as to be another and not the same without making void one or the other which yet is a perplext Conception Now of these three Applications of a Man's Thoughts to the words if one did not know that the last was the Author's meaning because he says so the first Application I think likest to fall into the Thoughts of another Man as well as Mr. Lobb's rather than either of the other So far is he farther to be excused On the other side when I come to look into Mr. W's Books and see with my Eyes what he hath said I may excuse Mr. Lobb in a mistake of Judgment if he do mistake but do not till farther Scrutiny clear him from wronging Mr. W. I will turn to his last Book first Man made Righteous p. 100. There is hardly a Truth more plain in the Word of God than that the Wrath of God abides still upon Unbelievers notwithstanding Christ's Death Mr. Lobb says he holds the Penal Sanction of the Law abrogated and how does this place stare in Mr. Lobb's Face I will turn next to his middle Book Defence of Gospel Truth p. 2. That Men while they reject the Gospel are not at all under the Curse of the Law I abhor How any should be under the Curse of the Law and the Penal Sanction of it be not of Force I never yet had one thought Let us look then last into his first Book from whence the Exception was gathered Gospel Truth p. 5. That the Elect while Dead in Sin and Unbelief are Children of Wrath and condemned by the Law I affirm Again p. 107. The Gospel denounceth and declareth all condemned till they believe It declares they are so and denounceth they shall be so John 3.36 He that believeth not on the Son shall not see Life but the Wrath of God abideth on him And v. 18. He that believeth not is condemned already Here is the case of all men by the Fall they are condemned and under Wrath Here is the way of Relief a Christ believed on and they that believe their Condemnation is reversed These places at the reading moved me much and made me write to Mr. Lobb but I found him aware of such Passages and not moved answering that for all these words Mr. W. meant them only of the Gospel Denunciation Mr. W's Opinion he accounts was that Christ by his Death hath taken away the Curse of the Law and the Curse the Unbeliever is under is only that of the Gospel He that believeth not shall be Damned To this purpose may be observed those picked Terms of Governing Justice and Governing Grace which Mr. W. uses as equivalent to the two Governments of Mr. Lawson the Creator's Government and the Redeemer's Government which must be supposed to have their two Laws the New vacating the Old As also those Arguments Mr. W. offers to prove a new Law that do notable fit a Judgment so possest What kind of Government can we assign to Christ says he if there be no Sanction to his Law But if he hold the Sanction of the Old Law as taken into Christ's to stand good I pray why such a Necessity of it to the New Nevertheless the words of Mr. W. as I have quoted them are so express for all Men by the Fall to be under the Curse which does imply the Law therefore to be of force that I cannot give Judgment upon any such bare Reasoning Let us therefore see another place Mr. Lobb points me to Defence of Gospel Truth p. 23. Adam's Law must be altered by the Law-giver to admit of Satisfaction Here says Mr. Lobb is plain proof of Mr. W's holding the Law changed But though the word altered be unskilfully said and he should say relaxed that which follows in three lines after to wit The Sentence that condemned Adam seizes on all Men as soon as they have being there needs no other does again turn the Scale for Mr. W. The Truth is the words I am to judge of between these two Brethren are in Mr. W's first Book and it is that alone must shew what was his mind then The Passages for him I have mentioned are not so positively fixt in that Book as in the two other after he was warned And there are two places not mentioned by Mr. Lobb but observed by me in reading the Book afresh quite over that do put me to a stand One is p. 221. where he hath words to this sense We are not to preach the Sanction of the Law of Innocency but may press the Gospel Sanction The other is in the express words Is it the Grace of God to leave his Precepts without any Sanction when he removed the Curse of the Law Here is the Curse of the Law that is the Penal Sanction removed that is changed and another brought into its room as being that it is like he meant which lies on all till they believe There is nothing goes before or after to alieviate this sense P. 242. I must needs say here therefore that I was sorry to see this place because I had come to a Judgment and finished my Sheets and was brought to this pass within my self Mr. Lobb I reasoned does verily believe that Mr.
Effects only I conclude either then there is nothing at all in this or if there be something so as he may come off in his saying that Besides the Effects the very Righteousness of Christ is imputed it is a coming off but with a Fallacy fallacia dictionis For he understands that Righteousness of Christ which is so called in relation to the Sanction and we speak altogether of his Righteousness in relation to the Precept of the Law of Redemption I must yet add If Mr. W. will stand to it that the very Righteousness of Christ without equivocating is imputed to us besides or any more than in regard to the Effects then let him say that Christ obeyed and suffered not only for us or in our stead but also in our Persons taking it too in their own sense and so make a full end with his Brethren But I argue If Christ obeyed and suffered so in our Persons as well as for us and in our stead Then should not we obey at all Then should not we suffer at all for he that hath perfectly obeyed can be punished for nothing Then should we need no Forgiveness Then would Christ's Sufferings for us having obeyed be needless Then must he be lookt on by God as the Sinner Then must the Culpa as well as the Poena be imputed to him Then could not Christ be our Mediator because he is the Offending Party and a Mediator is a third Party between the Offender and the Offended in which Person he obeyed and suffered for us Then lastly should Impunity and Life be due to us immediately by a meer Resultancy from his Obedience and Sufferings and not be given by the Interposition of a new Law or Covenant upon terms as they are according to the Gospel which is subverted therefore by that Opinion Once more If Christ suffered in our Persons then should he have borne the same Sufferings and if they were the same they could not be instead of Ours You may say the Righteousness of Christ in it self is imputed to us though it be not Ours only in the Effects But Mr. W. must not come off so for I say To be imputed in it self is to be Ours by Imputation that is Judicially Ours which draws the same Consequences as Ours in it self But I pray let us consider a little in good earnest what is in this Conception of Mr. W. that besides the Effects being made Ours the very Righteousness of Christ is imputed Is there any thing in it or nothing in it Is it of any or no Signification Certainly if his meaning comes not to thus much that besides the Effects Christ's Righteousness it self is ours also by Imputation it is an idle impertinent vile Trifling with us which in regard to Mr. Baxter is not to be spoken without some Resentment in so exquisite a matter If he will grant his meaning to be thus much that though Christ's Righteousness cannot be inherently Ours yet it is indeed Ours by Imputation then is he come quite home to his Brethren who never said or intended any other After this I argue If Christ's Righteousness be imputed to us in it self Then were it pleadable by us as if we our selves had done and suffered what Christ did which Mr. W. does in effect allow or without Tergiversation must Gospel Truth p. 39 40. And also Then must God have dealt with us as if we had which he does more positively allow P. 42. To impute to one says he what is suffered by another is to deal with him as if he himself had suffered But God hath not dealt thus with us and we cannot plead so with him which appear by the said Consequences It is not all one as if we had done and suffered in Christ what he did and suffered for us for Satisfaction is another thing than this It is not all one in other respects it is as good for us only in the obtained when attained Effects PART IV. THERE remains now one thing and a chief thing yet to be done which is to offer something that may serve to reconcile such Brethren at least as agree in the main though it cannot such as quite differ in the Point I shall first dilate a little more for lights sake and so be lead thereto by the matter it self Christ in Scripture is said to dye for us and to dye for our Sins For our Sins he may be said to dye or suffer in these two senses For our Sins To expiate them to deliver us from them the Guilt and Condemnation due to us for them For our Sins As the Meritorious Cause of his Death and Sufferings upon his voluntary undertaking that Expiation Both these Senses are good and to be retained For us may have a double Sense also Loco nostro or Bono nostro In our stead or in regard to our Benefit The Socinians will have Christ to dye for us only bono nostro which they fetch about too so as makes his dying for us of no more concern than a Martyr's Christ by his Death confirmed his Doctrine This makes us believe it His Doctrine teaches a Holy Life By a Holy Life we leave Sin Christ therefore dyed for our Sins But we hold Christ dyed loco nostro in our stead in our room Now In our stead or loco nostro may have again a double Interpretation In our stead As representing our Persons so that God looks on us as having done and suffered what Christ did and suffered for us As what my Attorney or Delegate does for me I am accounted to have done He is the Agent Naturally but Civilly or Legally it is I In this Interpretation we are not to hold Christ dyed in our stead for that draws all those mentioned Consequences after it which must carefully be avoided There is another Interpretation then of Suffering in our stead In our stead that is To save us from Suffering our selves and this is the Sense we are first to know to be the right and then stand by it To do any thing or suffer it in the room of another I have said is to do or suffer that thing that the other may escape it and in this right sense it is that Grotius understands Christ's dying for us and speaks of a Commutation or Subrogation of Christ's Person in the room of ours in his Sufferings for us as the Beast was subrogated in the place of him that Sacrificed it If any stretch such words of his farther than so they abuse both their Understanding and him Now when this In our stead in usual speaking is Suffering or doing in our Person I am brought at last to a pause as to the words we use That Christ suffered and obeyed in our Persons is said by our Divines without scruple and Dr. Bates does but handsomly express what they speak ordinarily Nay Mr. Baxter does acknowledge that these words may be used if we put a right Sense on them And what is that Sense The Sense
Conscience of it also is hereby so resolved that under King James we would not be Papists under those that succeed We will not be Slaves * Having said this for the People I must say one thing also for the King out of the same Principle There is the Positive and Negative Power of Rulers According to our English Government it is true and to be held that the King can Positively do nothing but according to Law But it being true also and to be considered that the Supreme Law in all Polities is the Common Good if a Prince in the use of his Power only which is Negative should upon occasion do something otherwise than Law for the Benefit of the Subject Bona fide and not his private Ends I do believe both Politically and as a Divine that he may have a good Conscience in it and when he has that he is not to account he acts then against the Law but according to it seeing he does Govern in such a Case by the Supreme Law unto which all others are Subordinate Not long before King Charles's Death the Justices were sending Mr. Baxter to Prison for Conventicling but he hearing of it and being told it might kill the ill good Man out of his kind Nature sends word immediately he would have him forborne To have controul'd the Law to a Man's hurt it had been Tyranny but when it was only for Good without detriment to any who could open his Mouth against it It is to be supposed no Law-givers can foresee all Cases that may happen and when Equity and a good Conscience is against the Letter of the Law thus much I think Justifiable by the Old Covenant Oath where the King Sware to execute the Laws Cum Justitia Miserecordia If not it will be by that Power our Kings have of granting a Nolle Profequi in some cases to Offenders and much more by that of Pardoning All ad libitum which a Majore ad Minus cannot but warrant more than this It is fit that Kings before they Swear do understand their Oath to have this Construction and to know that which is much more to the purpose that any Law which is against God or Nature that is which is against the Law of Nature or Word of God or the Common Good is really in foro Conscientiae No Law so that in the Non-Prosecution thereof they are not to be condemned Nay if a Prince by Malversation even Positive or Privative shall render himself Obnoxious to God and the People it is good yet for the Subject to bear with him as we do with Storms so long as we can but if the Case comes to that once as the Nation is in danger of Ruin by it the Doctrine of Non-resistance any longer than we can help our selves is perfect Ignorance of our State or raving Obstinacy Salus Populi Suprema lex esto Habetüs Sententiam meam in Causa hac gravissima J. H. The Postscript to the Reader THERE are several Pieces that at several Times upon several Subjects I have written called The Middle Way One is the Middle Way of Justification which I printed in the year 71 or 72 and reprinted lately 95 upon the account of our Brethrens Difference about that Point In that second Edition I have gathered up all Passages that concern that Subject out of the rest of those Papers to put them to it and took advantage from certain Exceptions against Mr. Williams to add something that I thought wanting in a single Sheet and have here supplied what was yet in my Mind to say farther upon this Occasion Now if the Reader shall bid the Bookseller stitch these six Sheets that one Sheet so called and those eight or nine together and then shall take time to read them and notice of what he reads unless he thinks this Point of Justification be such as is not worthy his Time or Thoughts which was an Article of so great Concern to our first Reformers and does not meet with something or other in them and that as an Original which may serve at least Vice cotis to whet his own Understanding upon them then is it not I my self only but two of our most eminent Brethren while alive as appears by their hands put to one of my Papers are deceived I will add that if Mr. W. therefore shall not now set himself to peruse them and finding any such Matter which he can improve or make out better for me than I have done if he does it not then am I farther disappointed in one End of this present Work as also of my believed Estimation of Mr. Williams For according to what a Man's Mind is most upon in such Disputes as these the Investigation of Truth or the Defence of ones self such is his value more or less Having yet room the fear of the want whereof made me put those two Paragraphs p. 29. into a Marginal Note that should else have been part of the Book I will use it to supply one thing lacking in the single Sheet mentioned The Sacrifice and Righteousness of Christ's Death and Life is that which hath procured Pardon and Salvation to every Believing Sinner upon the account of that Satisfaction God as Rector hath received by it so that being Legislator also and above Law he might with Demonstration too of his Righteousness relax and hath relaxed or dispensed with his Law of Works requiring another Condition to those Benefits in a new one the Law of Grace or the Gospel This Pardon now and Life or Grant thereof upon Condition being the Grand Fruits of our Redemption it is a Question between Mr. W. and I whether the Condition it self also be a Fruit of Christ's Purchase which if it be not derives not yet from our Free Will but the Grace of Election It is not agreeable to my Genius to make Christ's Redemption which I would have One thing and Universal to be differently insluxive on the Elect and others I have opened this Apprehension of mine in that single Sheet mentioned and there are two Considerations moreover offered against the received Opinion which I desire Mr. W. to weigh Honestly and if he can to solve me the Difficulty or if he cannot to come with me to this Composition The Lord Christ by Redeeming the World and consequently by his Death hath obtained a Right of Dominion over it and by that Right does give that Condition to whom he will Acts 5.31 But though Faith therefore and Repentance in this remote way about may be said to be obtained by Christ's Death as he hath obtained thereby a Power or Right of giving it I deny it to be the immediate Purchase or direct Fruit of it I deny that Faith is a Fruit of Christ's Death in the same manner as Pardon and Life is upon Condition of Faith I deny that it proceeds from Satisfaction given to God's Justice which Christ's Death was though it may from his Merit or Redundancy of it as all other Good does seeing in his Name it is or through his Merits that we ask all things at the Hands of God as Health and Wealth and the like Blessings which we cannot say yet Christ died that we should have Again Christ came and died to Save Man by restoring him to Righteousness from whence he is fallen Now the Righteousness of Nature we never can be in this Life restored to and there is therefore a Righteousness of Grace which God hath ordained in room of that to Save us revealed in the Gospel and it is called the Righteousness of God because of this his Ordination By the Obedience of Christ we are said to be made Righteous and the Righteousness of God in him or by the Means of him as one has it But how by the Means of him Why by his Death but this way about still Christ died to procure for us a Covenant with another Condition than that of the Old which performing we become Righteous that never could be so else but mark it when the Condition is purchased the Performance comes not from thence but from the Free Gift of God In the mean time this Mercy that God hath ordained and doth accept of such a Condition as we do or can perform must not pass without Resentment Blessed be the God of Heaven for some Sense and Knowledge of this in these Sheets Blessed be God that it is not a Righteousness of the Law required of us but a Righteousness of the Gospel Blessed be God it is not by a Righteousness of Works that we are Saved but a Righteousness the Failings whereof are pardoned and the little Done accepted through the alone Merits of Christ Jesus Which when they had read they rejoyced for the Consolation Deo Gloria mihi Condonatio J. H. FINIS