who not acknowledging the riches of Gods Wisedome and Grace in that course of our redemption which God hath followed would accuse God of indiscretion for making much aâ— do about nothing and teach him to go a more compendious and easie way to work then his wisdom hath chosen These Criticisms upon Gods glorious wonderfull proceedings in his administrations we leave to Socinus and Arminius with their followers It is our part sapere ad sobrietatem and to understand what God hath not to tell him what he might or should have done To the Eighth Because he knoweth his assertion false he therefore saith something but conceals from us what it is tells us that all the Scriptures and reasons which are brought against his opinion do not hit it nor hurt it but will not let us to know one particular of all those Scriptures and Reasons that he hath heard or read urged against him lest that some one answering might manifest the falshood of the assertion This is safe disputing to speak so as â—o leave no footing for an answer Such baites may catch Froggs possibly but never a Fish And as he affirmeth neither Scriptures not Reasons prove more then this That our afflictions are not the rigorous execution of the Law what Scripture or Reason can be given why that believers shall not be damned in hell together with unbelievers For what is the rigor of the Law but the infliction of the Curse in its utmost extent and extremity But if the Saints be beaten with few stripes when the rebells are beaten with many and be damned but to the uppermost when the other are cast into the nethermost hell then is not the Curse of the Law executed upon them in its utmost rigor If this be not to abase the merits of Christ that hath purchased and abuse the grace of God that promiseth and abate if not to destroy the hope and comfort of believers that shall receive according to Mr. Baxter no better priviledges then this surely then nothing can do it As for that which he addeth of a mixture of love and hatred in God when he curseth the wicked and of love and anger when he curseth the godly This is a meer Chimaera of his own brain a making of God to be in a commotion against himself to carry fire in the one hand and water in the other to fight with the right against the left and with the left hand against the right sometimes the one and sometimes the other overcoming but of which side soever the Victory resteth still must the poor believer be cursed and when most under the curse we must believe Mr. Baxter telling us a strange wonder he is not at all under the hatred of God An excellent disputer to have stood alway at Marcions elbow prompting him with argument to prove this God to have been a malignant and envious God the author of all evill to mankinde what less doth Mr. Baxter affirm when he tells us that he curseth his very Friends those that trust in him those whom he hateth not yea those whom he loveth But doth he bring no Scripture to prove all that he hath said Yes one in steed of all and that as pertinent and proper to his purpose as a Pearl to a Swines snout Death hath lost his sting 1 Cor. 15. 55 56. There is no unpardoned sin in it Yet when God hath pardoned every of their sins he will neverthelesse powre upon them the Curse when they are without if not also because they are without sin ipse dixit and I must be silent To the Ninth It greeves me lesse when I finde Mr. Baxter leaving the pure fountain of Scripture stirring in his own element the puddle of humane art and wisedom then when he meddles with the word becaus he seldom toucheth it but with a defiled and defiling hand to pervert maim or add to it and so to prophane it So that his sin is greater in this than in the other The place which he quotes here 1 Cor. 15. 26. saith not that as he untruly alleageth Death is not yet overcome but onely saith The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death it is overcome already though not destroyed Yet not to strive about words Death is overcome and it is not overcome but in different respects It is overcome 1 In relation to Christ himself and his naturall body that it cannot reach or seize on him Els is not Christ risen from death and then our faith is vain But he is risen in the power of the Godhead having loosed or dissolved the pains and Chains too of Death it being unpossible he should be held by it Acts 2. 24. For how should a power finite over-power the power of God which is infinite Neither will any say that Christ escaped from the bonds of death by Treaty but by Conquest He ascended on high leading captivity captive Eph. 4. 8. Having spoyled principalities and powers he made open shew of them triumphing over them Col. 2. 15. By his death he hath destroyed not onely death it self but him also that had the power of death i. e. the Devill Heb. 2. 14. 2 In relation to the mysticall body of Christ the believers it is so overcome that it hath in it no curse to vomit out upon them That was carried away in Christs naturall body that this his mysticall body might be freed from it He took to himself saith the Apostle part of our flesh and blood that by death he might destroy him that hath the power of death i. e. the Devill and deliver them who through fear of death were all their life-time subject to bondage Heb. 2. 14 15. What was that in death that the Saints so feared under the Law before the Gospel had fully cleered to them their liberty but the Curse The Law threatned them with death as with the Curse and vengeance of God This made them to live all their life-time in a sad bondage for fear of death of the curse and vengeance in death at the last But Christ hath by his death delivered us from the Curse that was in death so that now we live not in fear and bondage in expectation of death It is but a sweet dormitory to the Saints in which they put off their corruptible and dreggish that at last they may put on immortall and spirituall bodies in them to meet with Christ in the day of Judgement and be for ever with him 1 Cor. 15. 44. 1 Thes 4. 17. In these respects death is overcome But it is not so overcome but that it hath its being yea full dominion with its curse over the wicked and in this respect it is said The last Enemy that shall be destroyed is death as will appear by reading the former vers with this Christ must reign till he hath brought all his enemies under his feet The last enemy c. The Apostle here from the Authority of that Prophecy Psal 110. 1.
concludeth that Christ must sit at the right hand of God having and executing all power in heaven and in earth untill he hath brought all his enemies under his feet Here if 1 We consider that death as the other enemies that are to be subdued is spoken of as an Enemy to Christ we must conclude that the Apostle speaketh not at all of death as a Curse For death is no more a Curse to Christ glorified than the other enemies wicked and reprobate men that are to be brought under his feet 2 A reason is here given why death must be the last Enemy destroyed viz. Because Christ must bring all his enemies under foot Now as long as there shall remain upon the earth enemies to Christ and his Gospel succeeding one another in their generations so long death in its fulnesse of the curse and wrath of God is usefull to seize on them at the Lord Christ shall destroy and bring them under its power so that as long as there is any other Enemy remaining death is not to be abolished in regard of its usefulnesse in respect of the other Enemies But when the end is come and the enemies all destroyed and no one more remaining to be seized on but that all shall be raised from this first to be sentenc'd unto and hurled into the second death hell and brimstone I mean all the enemies of Christ now death also it self shall be destroyed there being no further use of it That this is the proper meaning of this Text a blind man may see and consequently see it to be sinfully wrested by Mr. Baxter forcing it seemingly to prove that the Saints are yet liable to the Curse because subject to death To his plain case of our Corruption which he addeth I have spoken before To the tenth which is the last Every one will expect to find the sweet at the bottom and that the last stroke should drive the nail home to the very head Attend we to it therefore considerately and we shall find it if not the strongest yet the most portentous of all The whole stream of Scriptures saith he makes Christ to have now the sole disposing of us and of our sufferings Ergo because we are in Christs arms and under his dispensation we must needs be liable to the Curse For the Scripture affirms him saith he to have prevented the full execution of the Curse and to manage that which lyeth on us for our advantage and good but no where doth it affirm that he suddenly delivereth us Which of Mr. Baxters admirers would not have censur'd it in Bellarmin a most prodigious impudency if not blasphemy thus to father his conceits upon the holy Scriptures If Mr. Baxter had found but one least rivulet of that whole stream of Scriptures which he mentioneth to have been for his turn would he not have directed us to it or cited it to us If he took the holy Scriptures for any thing els then one of his Fathers once termed it to Cardinal Bembus Fabulam de Christo he would not dare so much to slander wrest and corrupt it While his dispute is wholly taken up about the Curse to bring believers under it he would fear that Curse denounced against himself all plagues upon him that shall add any thing to it and the taking away his part from the book of life whosoever shall take from it Rev. 22. 18 19. what less doth Mr. Baxter in pronouncing the whole stream of Scriptures to teach that which no drop of Scripture hath a relish of is not this adding And when the Scripture pronounceth Christ to have delivered us from the curse of the Law that there is no condemnation c. and he comes with his glosse he hath delivered us from the Curse i. e. hath prevented the full execution of the Curse There is no condemnation i. e. none is condemned to the Curse in its full rigour among all the beleevers is not this to take away from the word of God yea to enervate and emasculate it and make it of no vigour And further doth not his Arguing here tend to the abasing annihilating and even un-Christing of Christ What an absurdity is it to think that he who was God and accounted it no robbery to be equall with God should in overflowing love towards us make himself of no reputation take to him the form of a Servant humble himself to the death even the death of the Cross Phil. 2. 6. 8. and himself bear our sins in his own body on the Tree 1 Pet. 2 24. and all to this end that having disabled Law and Sin from all power to Curse without him to purchase to himself the Monopoly of Cursing or inflicting the Curse upon his own friends yea his own Body and Members that none henceforth should curse them but from by and under him Who but one that is ambitious to be his Vicar would make of Christ such a Pope Yea how is the glory of Christs grace and merits veiled nay extinguished by teaching that Christ is ascended into the Heavens and sit down at the right hand of God to manage the Curse to the tormenting yet if Mr. Baxter be heard for the advantage of his Saints on Earth The Scripture tels us of other and most glorious ends of his Resurrection Ascension and sitting at the right hand of God viz. to receive a Kingdom for himself and those that believe in him Lu. 19. 12 15. to prepare for them places and Mansions in it that coming again he may receive them to himself that where he is there may they be also John 14. 2 3. that being ascended on high and having led our captivity captive he may powre gifts upon his Saints even gifts greater than the whole world That he might be a blessing-giver to us that we might be blessed with all spirituall blessings in heavenly places in Christ Ephes 1. 3. to free us from the Curse and condemnation by making intercession for us Rom. 8. 34. But no where doth the Scripture make him a Curse-monger But with what impudence doth he close up all that he he hath to say upon this subject in a known falshood telling us that the Scripture no where affirmeth that he suddenly delivers us from the curse when the Scripture contrarywise affirmeth that he hath delivered us from the Law hath delivered us from sin hath delivered us from the Curse and that we are thus delivered already and already is a step before suddenly Thus abusive is he both to the Scriptures and to the Lord Christ CHAP. VII How manifoldly evill and hurtfull such sceptick and distinctionary disputes are and how farr Mr. Baxter and the Papists agree in the matter and form of this dispute I Have been large in answering these Arguments yet it hath proceeded not onely from my naturall slownes and uncapablenes of Concisenes but partly also from Mr. Baxters purposed Concisenes whose common slâ—ght it is here and elswhere under a pretence
the Article of Justification they wholly dissent from him It hath filled my spirit with sadness to hear not onely in the Pulpits of the Country but of the City of London pronounced by the Mouths of some in great esteem both for piety and Learning That to say God doth not punish his Saints for their sinns is flat Antinomism and affirmed that the afflictions of beleevers are punishments for their sin I beseech these men to Consider whom they here explode as Antinomians whether besides the Apostles and Fathers of the Primitive Church they do not brand all the reformed Churches and their Champions against the Papists with this ignominy Whether there be any one Article of Christian Religion that hath been more stoutly defended by these against the Papists than this which heat of zeal without knowledg or Consideration at least hath of late Called Antinomian Let them produce any besides the Socinian and Arminian Sophisters that have stumbled at this doctrine as offensive I beseech these men to read one Chamier at least Panstr Tom. 3. lib. 23. the six first Chapters where this question is not onely handled at large but also the Arguments of the Protestants who are also named Cap. 1. particularized and all the objections of the Papists against those Arguments Confuted and the Papists Arguments to prove the Contrary assertion answered The question being thus stated Vtrùm puniantur fidelium scelera utrùm dura quae ijs immittit Deus sint peccatorum paenae So much by way of answer to Mr. Baxters resolving of his third question There remain yet three questions more viz. Bax. 4. Whether it be not a wrong to the Redeemer that the people whom he hath ransomed be not immediately delivered from the Curse 5. Whether it be any wrong to the redeemed themselves 6. How long will it be till all the Curse be taken off beleevers and Redemption have attained its full effect The two former of these questions are sawcy arrogant and proud In their proposall Mr. Baxter acts the part of Satan in questioning and accusing Gods Justice In his answer to them he takes upon himself to act the part of an Angel to be an Apologist to plead for the defence of Gods justice 2 Gods justice is not cannot be injurious to any so that God needs not an Apologist to plead his cause if he needed his wisdome would not make choice of his accuser to be his Advocate 3 Mr. Baxter if he would have dealt ingenuously should have put the questions whether himself be not injurious 1 To God and his Christ 2 To the redeemed by denying their deliverance from and affirming their prostrate bondage under the Curse and not to have questioned whether his slandering of Gods justice hath made God faulty And then he should have received an answer to his resolving of the questions But as he puts the questions I reject his resolving of them as unworthy of an answer Onely by the way I say that what he speaks in answer to his own questions is all meerly sophisticall and fallacious The three first reasons that he brings to prove that Christ is not wronged by the not delivering of his ransomed ones being things in question not proved by Mr. Baxter therefore in arguing from them he doth as it is usuall with him beg the principle The fourth reason is not ad idem but so farr from the question as London from Barwick that there is no hope they will ever meet together The question speaking of beleevers The reason of Christs dealing with the world to make them beleevers And the same is evident in what he saith to the fifth question also The sixth question he thus resolveth Bax. The last enemy to be overcome is death 1 Cor. 15. 26. This enemy will be perfectly overcome at the Resurrection Then also shall we be perfectly acquitt from the charge of the Law and accusation of Satan Therefore not till the day of Resurrection and judgment will all the effects of sin and law and wrath be perfectly removed If in the conclusion he mean the effects of sin and law and wrath shall not be removed from the world untill the resurrection he speaketh truth but nihil ad rem far from the question which speaketh onely of beleevers If he mean of them that the Curse shall not be removed I have answered it before and the Scriptures here brought to prove it and will not here Actum agere CHAP. VIII Whether Beleevers are under the Law as a Covenant of works The Negative proved Mr. Baxters ambiguities and mentall reservations in stating the question and asserting the affirmative The Law not repealed to any but exauthorated to beleevers having inflicted its whole curse upon them in Christ Mr. Baxter had ended but he had not finished his dispute about the Curse upon beleevers He did but Parthian or ram-like go backward and decline a little to return with the greater force Or as an Actor upon the stage withdraw and make his exit to put on a new dress in which to appear again forthwith to act a second part So doth Mr. Baxter decline the dispute in one Aphorism and its explication which I also shall pass by without excepting against it and then he returns to prosecute the same dispute afresh yet in another dress of words that it might seem to be a resolving or determining of another question That was whether beleevers remain under the Curse of the Law This whether they remain under the Law as it threateneth and curseth And between these two questions who seeth not so vast a difference as is between an arrow in the quiver and an arrow out of the quiver within and without the quiver it is the same arrow still Yet let us attend to him stating the question which anon we shall examine The result of it is thus Bax. That the Morall Law not in its directive use but as it is a Covenant of works is still in force to threaten and bring the Curse upon beleevers in case they do in any thing transgress the Law This he undertakes to make good pronouncing it inconsideratenes to assert the contrary Thes 11. p. 78. explic p. 79. explic of Thes 12. p. 82. Here before we meddle any further with Mr. Baxter let us examine what the Holy Ghost in Scripture speaketh to this point Ye are not under the Law but under Grace saith th'Apostle to believers Rom. 6. 14. I conceive there is no one Christian upon earth that hath his head unbiassed with sophisticall fallacies and falshoods but takes the words in the same simple and clear sense wherein the Holy Ghost delivers them viz. That we are no more under the Law as a Covenant of Works when we have once attained by faith to be under the Covenant of Grace But a very thunder-bolt against Mr. Baxter and his Assertion is that Gal. 5. 3 4. I testifie to every one that is circumcised that he is debtor to do
thirst if they do not arise work and fulfill their task We require first that the Rock be cloven with the Rod of God that the water of life may gush out in full Rivers and that the fainting souls be brought to drink thereof and then called upon in the life and strength which they have hence received to work and be doing Yea to come to this stream often to drink that their strength and spirits may be daily more revived that they may bâ—come daily more enabled for and more abundant in the work of the Lord. We have not with Mr. Br. yet learned the skill of preaching good works to make Christ ours but follow the rule of the Scriptures to preach Christ into the hearts of men to make them fruitfull in good works Neither doe wee count all formall obedience and righteousnesse of men though conscientiously and by the guidance of Naturall Conscience performed to be either sanctification or the fruit thereof That onely is sanctification which flowes from the heart of Christ and is infused by the Spirit of Christ For the attaiâ—ment thereof we call all men into union and fellowship with Christ so far are we from holding that Nothing is preaching Christ but the preaching him as Justifier and Saviour that we hold it an empty Preachment that preacheth any good thing without Christ or out of Christ of which men are not taught to make Christ the Alpha and the Omega We leave it to Mr. Br. and his brethren to urge works duties obedience c. and once in a Moon upon an auspicious Tropick thereof to remember Christ and grace and tell us that all must be done by the help of grace and without Christ we can do nothing Yet leaving us uncertain still whether it be the Grace and Christ of Pelagius or else of God reconciled to us that he speaketh I should be too long in expressing fully how we hold forth Christ whole Christ and only Christ to Adoption protection perseverance strengthening comforting perfecting c. In a word to all that is either good to be received or good to be done In him wee teach that God will have all his frâ—sh springs to reside that without him we are nothing can do nothing that in him and by him we have all and can do all things That therefore we preach nothing but Christ yet preach all that is to be preached in preaching him because in him it pleased the Father that all fulness should dwell Col. 1. 19. even all fulness for us so that in him we are full out of him meer emptiness We would not have one beam of this Sun of Righteousness clouded but labour to discover to our people his full glory and Soveraignty to all those sacred ends to which God hath consecrated him that if any would have nothing of Christ to be preached but his pardoning and saving the sin may be wholly theirs not ours that they will receive the skirt of Christ and consequently refuse Christ when we preach to them whole Christ and all the benefits that are by him Nor 2 do we deny an ordinate and subordinate love to our selves as Mâ— Br. slanders us no lesse bitingly than secretly App. pa. 81 82. in teaching that it is the most Gospel-â—rame of Spirit to perform duty out of meer love to God without seeking by such duties wrought quasi opere operato remission of sins redemption from Hell and right to glory by the Merit thereof as he teacheth us to do thinking no doubt his glory shall be great if he can there perswade where all the suâ—tlest sons of Satan the Jesuits have not been able Nay we maintayn that none can regularly love himself who loveth not God above himself and seeks not Gods glory more than his own good That whosoever in a pretext of love to himself brings his fardle of trashie works at the feet of Christ by them to purchase to himself the benefits of his death is of all men the worst enemie to himself incurs rejection and expulsion from Christ and all the benefits of his death and resurrection For hee was sent to seeke oâ—ely that which was lost came not to call the righteous but sinners to repenâ—â—nce He loves himself indeed and spiritually that for his love to God denies himself The self-dejected Publican is acceâ—ted with God when the prating Pharisee is hurled with his mouth full of works out at the door Or is there any great difference between this and the Devils doctrine preached to our first Parents Ye shall be as Gods said the Devill Ye shall be all Christs Saviours Justifiers saith Mr. Br. Your righteousness and Christs righteousness shall jump together into the same kind of Causality to justifie and save you Our first Parents hearkned and seeking to become Gods became Devils or what is worse slaves to the Devill We have all felt the smart yet many and that of them which are termed Angels listen earnestly to the like hissing of the Serpent now again We can but mourn for them that in madd love to themselves will hasten up to heaven by climbing high Steeples that look fairly thither-ward but can never heave them up to it nay contrariwise can give them no such sustentation but that they fall thence and dash themselves into shivers Yet in our doctrine is contained a wise and ordinate love to our selves Though we use not works as waxen wings to soar aloft to kisse the Sun and settle our selves in the same Sphere with him yet wee make use of our qualifications and duties to the continuall encrease of our sanctification and to what greater good for himself can mans strongest love to himself aspire than to his full and real perfection consisting in his restitution to Gods image and conformity to his will and nature This shall be the Consummate blessedness which we shall enjoy above and it is a blessedness inchoate and increasing while we passe from strength to strength in it here Who are the self-haters and self-destroyers the Papists or we the success will at length evidence and such professed Divines and Christians among us as have not their eyes soyled with Kederminster dust and smoak can discern already Nor thirdly doth our doctrine tend to drive obedience out of the world So that we may answer Mr. Brs question Aphor. p. 325. If men once beleeve that works are not so much as a part of the Condition of our Justification will it not much tend to relax their diligâ—nce with the authority of the Apostle who having taught his Ephesians that we are saved by grace through faith not of works lest any man should boast Eph. 2. 8 9. Yet concludeth that as many as have learned Christ truly and heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus These all have learned to put off concerning the former conversation the old Man which is corrupt c. and to be renewed in the spirit of the mind and to put on
of good and evill But the Love overcometh the Anger therefore the good is greater than the evill and so death hath lost its sting 1 Co. 15. 55 56. There is no unpardoned sin in it which shall procure further judgement and so no hatred though there be anger 9 The Scripture saith plainly that death is one of the enemies that is not yet overcome but shall be last conquered 1 Co. 15. 26. And of our corruption the case is plain 10 The whole stream of scripture maketh Christ to have now the disposing of us and our sufferings to have prevented the full execution of the Curse and to manage that which lyeth on us to our advantage and good but no where doth it affirm that he suddenly delivereth us We have here an Antiscripturall and an Antichristian Conclusion yea a conclusion that hath many Antichristian and Popish Conclusions involved therein Therefore Mr. Baxter being extremely ambitious that an assertion of that nature should stand hath pillared and propped it up with no less than ten Arguments delighted more as it seemes with number than with the waight and strength of them And that he may go orderly to work he forelaies such a stating of the question as may not disadvantage him leaving the question obscure and ambiguous still The Common judgment saith he i. e. The Consenting judgment of all the reformed Churches is that Christ hath taken away the whole Curse though not the sufferings by bearing it himself and now they are afflictions of love and not punishments Who can perswade the Serpent to be streight and ceas from Crookednes and winding in his motions He that mainteineth a good Caus needs no shifts simplicity ingenuity and plain dealing sufficeth him Shall we think that Mr. B minceth and maimeth the judgment of the Orthodox Divines but for the advantaging of the Popish Caus which he mainteins against them With a Counited Judgment they assert a totall freedome by Christ both from the Curs and the sufferings also as they have reference to the execution of the law yea from the law also as it threateneth and curseth them that are in Christ so that their sufferings are chastisements and tryalls flowing from the same grace love from which Christ himself and the redemption which we have by him have issued dispensed toward them by a gracious and reconciled father not inflicted upon them by an incensed and unreconciled Judge But Mr. B casteth a veil over their judgments and le ts but a corner thereof to appeare becaus if he had set forth their judgment at the full it would have marr'd most of his Arguments wherewith he fights against them CHAP. V. The question stated between Mr Baxter and the Papists and Arminians whom he followeth and the Protestants whom he opposeth Scriptures and Arguments from scripture produced by the Protestants to prove 1 That Beleevers are not subject to the Curse 2ly That their sufferings have not the wrath and hatred but the love of God in them are not vindicatory judgments but Chastigatory tryalls LEt us now a little more fully state the question by shewing wherein that which Mr. B calleth the Common judgment and that which is his own pretendedly at least private judgment do consent together and wherein they differ either from other and so we shall avoyd all impertinencies and strife about words which are besides the question It is agreed then on both sides 1 That the Curse is the penalty or the revenging Judgment or an effect of Gods revenging wrath by the execution whereof he taketh satisfaction to his justice upon Transgressors for the breach of his Law so Mr. B. makes it out p. 17. 2 That the justice of God is so fully satisfied by bearing this Curse or penalty as by a complete fulfilling of all the righteousness which the Law requireth p. 48 50. 3 That the Lord Christ hath undertaken and made full satisfaction to God for all the sinnes of beleevers bearing the curse due to them and paying if not the idem according to Mr. B. yet the tantundem that their debt did amount to 4 That God resteth as fully satisfied with this satisfaction of Christ as if it had been made personally by the beleevers themselves These two last Mr. B so frequently asserteth that there is no need to quote the places To which I may add 5 That Afflictions are incident to the beleevers as well as to the unbeleevers so that Love and hatred are not discernable to the lookers on by that which befalls men in this life Eccle. 9. 1. 6 That these afflictions have in them a smart and bitternes as they befall the very Saints so that oft-times in their apprehension the very wrath and curs of God seemes to be in them These two things we grant Mr. B so that hitherto the judgements consent Heb. 12. 11. The difference then betwixt him and us consists principally in these two things 1 Whether when Christ hath by doing their law paying their debt and bearing their curse satisfied the justice of God for the sinns of beleevers when God hath accepted the satisfaction given when the beleevers have by faith apprehended and laid hold on it They do yet remain liable to the curse of the Law in whole or in part to be inflicted upon them 2 Whether the afflictions which God inflicteth upon beleevers in this life are the effects of Gods revenging justice the Curse which the law threateneth and so consequently whether after that God hath taken ful satisfaction from Christ he doth in whole or in part require and take satisfaction from them also Mr. Baxter with the Papists and Arminians mainteins the affirmative of both these questions we the Negative He that 1 after Christ hath born the Curse of the law for beleevers they are liable to beare it in whole or in part themselves also And 2 that the afflictions which they suffer are from the revenging justice of God the effects and Curse of the Law vindictive punishments of sin full of the wrath of God as in this his answer to the 3 question he declares himself But we utterly deny both these propositions either that the beleever is any more after his union to Christ subject to the Curse or that the afflictions which he suffereth have the Curse of the law and revenging justice of God in them but proceed not from the wrath of an angry judge but from the tender grace and love of a most wise and indulgent Father Both these assertions we ground upon evident Testimonies of Scripture First that beleevers are no more liable to but wholly freed from the Curse we have the Holy Ghost affirming Gal. 3. 13 14. Christ hath redeemed us from the Curse of the law being made a Curse for us c. that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith What can be said more cleer and full to the Confirmation
soaring still higher towards the very top of it and sinking lower from the Orb of Christian verity So by that something of man that must enright him to Justification he must mean something more then Repentance and Faith which he had before concluded necessary to Justification Thes 14. Els were he upon a retreating not a marching posture Nevertheles how subtlely doth he dâ—wb and paint to gull the simple and catch them that are made to be taken by putting fine words upon his course purposes telling them that we are justified by Faith and that there is required on our part but receiving and applying of Christs merits as if he were as innocent as a Dove and had none of the Serpent in him when contrariwise the sequele of his Tractate proclaimes him by that which he calls here somewhat of man to mean at the full with the worst Papists mans works to the totall exclusion of Gods grace In mean while his words leave it doubtfull here what this somewhat of man is and whether it be the hand or the heel that must receive and apply Christ to Justification His Disciples are not yet enough moulded he thinks to receive the Dragons voice in his own tone they must be accustomed to bear the Calf daily untill he become an Oxe that he may be born then too and at length we shall finde the instruments which Mr. B. appoints to receive Christ to be instrumentall onely to push him from us However he concludes thus because he will have it so That no man by the meer satisfaction made is freed from the Law and Curse c. absolutely but conditionally onely i. e. not at all And this he hath said over and over already and there needs no further Answer then that which hath been before given So that where he repeats this Assertion again in the Explication That Christ doth not justifie by the shedding of his blood immediately without somwhat of man intervening c. adding that All the Scriptures alleaged p. 79. do prove it I grant what he saith for I finde no Scripture there alleaged But if he mean p. 89 90. what I said there I say here again he shall not misse of an answer to them when he comes to alleage them again in their proper place and declares how he will argue from them Yet because the man is delighted to deliver first in generall what he will after deliver again in particulars I shall say something also in generall to his generall assertion That Christs satisfaction justifieth not without something of man intervening to give him right to it Let us see what the Scripture saith for or against it The Apostle speaking of mans redemption and justification and shewing the cause why some have and some have not their part in it affirmeth and proveth that it is not of him that willeth or of him that runneth but of God that sheweth mercy Rom. 9. 16. By the willing is to be understood all the good qualifications and operations of the soul by running all the good works of a mans life and practice as all confess When the Holy Ghost excludeth every somewhat of man within the man and every somewhat of man without man from conferring any thing to Justification what other somewhat remaineth of man to intervene c Let it be judged whether Mr. B. doth not purposely fight against Scripture Again Rom. 5. 6 8 9 10. When we were yet without strength viz. to any spirituall operation Christ dyed for the ungodly while we were yet sinners Christ dyed for us and we were justified by his bloud while enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son Here the Result of the Apostles reasoning discovers to us two things to our purpose 1 That according to the minde and language of the Holy Ghost Christ dying and by his death satisfying for any mans sinns and that mans justification and reconciliation to God by that satisfaction are equipollent terms holding forth one and the same thing For so the Apostle here useth justification and reconciliation as words of the same sense and weight And Amesius manifesteth Ames Med. Lib. 1. c. 27. Sect. 22. in what respects they must needs be taken for the same thing and makes both the same with Christs dying for him So that every person for whom Christ hath by his death made satisfaction is effectually justified and reconciled to God I mean in Christ though possibly not yet in his own apprehension 2 That we are thus justified and reconciled to God while ungodly while sinners while enemies while without strength to that which is good What somewhat of man can there be in such to enright them to justification unless any will say their impotency ungodlines sin and enmity shall do it Such contrariety is there between Mr. Br and the Spirit or word of truth There needs not much deliberation to determine which to follow But he proceeds Bax. p. 93. Let all the Antinomians shew but one Scripture which speaks of Justification from Eternity And what if it be but one of all or one that is not an Antinomian that shews it will Mr. Br harken and submit his judgement to that Scripture so alleaged I say in like manner Let all the Antichristian Jesuits or Mr. Br. or his Mr Grotius shew one Scripture which asserteth onely a conditionall and not an absolute Justification purchased to us by Christ I will hear and submit though I see not then how to be saved As to his Challenge I shall speak in a more proper place Bax. I know God hath decreed to justifie his people from eternity and so he hath to sanctifie them too but both of them are done in time Justification being no more an immanent act in God than sanctification as I shall shew afterward I shall therefore wait on him untill he hath the leisure and pleasure to shew it In the mean while why doth he Conclude so hotly and peremptorily before-hand that which he brings nothing save his own bare affirmation to prove He said not unwisely which said Let not him that girdeth on his armour boast as he that putteth it off 1 King 20. 11. Bax. The bloud of Christ then is sufficient in suo genere but not in omni genere sufficient for its own work but not for every work There are severall other necessaries to Justifie and save quibus positis which being supposed the bloud of Christ will be effectuall Qui non vult intelligi debet negligi He that will so speak that he may not be understood is worthy to pass without an Answer If he mean that the bloud of Christ is sufficient to compleat our justification before God and that this is its own work But that there are other necessaries to justifie us in our selves and our own apprehensions which being supposed the work is ended I will abstein from all contradiction If he mean otherwise and will not express himself Hony soit Qui male
elswhere pronounceth of men that when they lay in their blood in their nakedness then hee made it the time of love sayd to them live spread his skirt over them and covered them entred into Covenant with them and made them his Ezek. 16. 6 8. God of his great love wherewith hee hath loved us even when we were dead in sins and trespasses hath quickned us c. Ephes 2. 4 5. God commendeth his love to us that when we were yet sinners when enemies we were justified by Christs blood and reconciled to God by his death Rom. 5 8 9 10. Here it is evident to all men that the love of God justifying and reconciling us to himself goeth before our Faith and Workes was then in its power and operation when wee were yet sinners in all our pollution enemies dead in sinne therefore without any spirituall motion or operation to our own cleansing or happiness I demand now when this love of God so justifying us beganne Not when we beleeved and first obeyed the Gospel for it went before it was then acted toward us when wee were enemies dead c. Or when wee beganne to be sinners Then it seems our sinne begat this love in God and then let the Atheists Aphorism stand as an impregnable Principle let our sinne abound that the grace and love of God may abound Or was there ever an hatred of us as a contrary affection in God before which is now expelled that love might succeed in its place And hath God now changed his hating of us to condemne us into a love to justifie and save us This were to accuse God of mutableness and change For God is Love 1 Iohn 4. 8. and the Love of God is God himselfe loving and to affirme where wee finde the Love of God at present that there was a time when this Love was not in God and a time when God beganne to love is no other but to affirme that there was a time when God yet was not and a time when he beganne to bee God the will of God being God himselfe And the volitions or willings of God being God himself willing And the acts of Gods Love and Hatred being acts of Gods Will yea of God himselfe and no more subject to change because immanent in God then God himselfe So that these Scriptures which affirme Gods love to us when sinners doe affirm also consequentially his love to us before we were either in being or just or sinners even from eternity Thirdly when the Lord saith to his people I have loved thee with an everlasting love Jerem. 13. 3. Doth hee not mean a love which is from everlasting to everlasting Or is there a Love of God to everlasting which was not from everlasting Or was it not the Love of accepting and approbation of them unto Righteousnesse and Salvation whereof hee there speaketh And when the Apostle Iohn tels us that the glory of Gods love doth herein shine forth Not that we loved him but that he loved us 1 John 4. 10. making not our love or any fruits thereof the foundation of Gods love to us but the love of God to us to goe before and prevent our love is not this a doctrin universally true of all the Saints that are or have been that Gods love to them prevented and was antecedaneous to their love toward him if so then consequently before mans being as well as before his loving and if before mans being then from eternity was this grace given us that we were loved of God in Christ to justification and salvation It is that which the Lord Christ speaketh and that not obscurely in his prayer before his passion where having interceded and craved sundry blessings for his Elect he adds this reason why he craved those blessings in their behalfe viz. That the world may know that thou hast sent me and that thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me Jo. 17. 23. How is that in the next verse he explaineth himself thus Thou hast loved me before the foundation of the world what doth follow hence but that as Christ so they that are Christs were loved of God unto life before the foundation of the world why will not Master Baxter acknowledge what Christ hath prayed that all the world may know Object 1. Or will it be objected that God loving the Elect in Christ before the foundation of the world is to be understood onely in this sense that before the foundation of the world God decreed in himselfe to love them in Christ afterward in time Then must we so conclude of Christ also that God loved Christ before that is decreed before the foundation of the world to love Christ in after time not that he loved him from eternity for as hee loved Christ so he loved them in Christ But he actually loved Christ as the head of the Church before the foundation of the World therefore also he loved the Elect in Christ as the body and members of Christ before the foundation of the world Yea to decree from eternity to love them afterward in time and untill the time came to hate them or not to love them in Christ was to decree mutablenesse and change in his own will i. e. in himselfe which is wholly repugnant to his nature that cannot change by receiving augmentation unto or diminution of the acts of his Will which were in him from eternity Object 2. But perhaps Master Baxter may object with his friends of the Netherlands the Arminians whose ghosts have much infested us within this Nation these many years that this love of God from Eternity that which he shed abroad upon the Elect when they were yet sinners enemies and dead in sin is to be understood onely of Gods universal common love his love to all the creatures which he hath made or at the uttermost his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his love unto mankind which he extends to all alike Making the raine to descend and his Sun to shine upon the just and unjust and fills the hearts of all with food and gladness Sol. But how then was Jaakob loved and Esau hated when Esau partaked more of this common love than Jaakob or was it a Common love by which God doth justifie and reconcile sinners to himselfe then all shall be reconciled justified and saved Or when the Apostle termes it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the much or great love of God out of which when he quickned us yet dead in sinnes and trespasses Eph. 2. 4. was this the common love extended to all the Sonns and Daughters of Adam without difference Then also for God loved us as he loved Christ the love of God to Christ was a common love in nothing supereminent to the love wherewith he loved Cain and Judas Lastly when God saith I have not beheld iniquity in Jaakob nor seen perversnesse in Israel Num. 23. 21. it will I doubt not be granted that the meaning was that God did
altering his judgment is because that opinion would not subserve to his justification by works which he hath so pertinaciously determined to set up that whatsoever of sacred or humane Authority he meets with opposit to it he shoulders it out of the way and whatsoever occurres out of any sink and puddle making for it he takes up as a treasure But the Meritoriousnesse of Christs Legislative and Kingly office to satisfie for our sins being laid as a groundwork he thought it seems would tend much to the exalting of the works done by the Commandement of King Jesus to justification therefore he took it up from Grotius and made use of it as a paved way to Justification by works which here almost from the same grounds he urgeth And so we see that from the very beginning to the end of this Tractate all that he hath conspireth and aspireth to this end justification by works and to elude all that the Gospell hath against it But let us come to examine his Assumption to this Argument and what he brings for it B. Thes 66. Christ is not in any one part or work of his office alone the object of justifying faith as such but Christ in his entire office considered is this object viz. as he is Redeemer Lord and Saviour In a good sense we might grant him both all this and all the substance of all the Arguments which he brings to prove it For none of the Protestant Churches have denyed but maintain 1 That all the offices of Christ are needfull and cooperating to and in the worke of Mediatourship that Christ not only as our high Priest but also as our King and Prophet made satisfaction for us and makes his satisfaction effectuall to us 2 That the object of justifying faith is Christ in all his offices King Priest and Prophet 3. That these offices of Christ are not to be severed by us because counited and coworking in him He layes not down nor puts from him any one of his offices when he either justifyeth sanctifieth or illuminateth c. but doth all and every of them as Lord Saviour and Teacher Yet when all this is granted to him his cause is never the stronger nor ours at all the weaker Nay he declares himself guilty of the fault wherewith he chargeth the innocent viz. of separating Christs offices holding him forth to us as redeeming us only as our high Priest governing and giving Lawes to his Church only by his Kingly office enlightening us in the truth only as our Prophet when contrariwise we teach that Jesus Christ i. e. the Anointed of God in all his offices and anointings is made unto us of God wisdome righteousnesse sanctification and redemption not wisdome in one only of his offices righteousnesse in another c. but all in all as the Scripture witnesseth 1 Cor. 1. 30. Neverthelesse we deny not but some acts and benefits of Christ are to be attributed more properly and peculiarly to one then another office of Christ yet so that the cooperation of the other offices therein is nor wholly to be denyed But this we deny that there is any other fountain opened for the washing away of our sins but the bloud of Christ only or any other satisfaction made to the justice of God but by the sacrifice of Christ alone yet so as this bloud and sacrifice as they are primarily our high Priests so are they our Kings and Prophets also howbeit the bloud and sacrifice of one Christ alone And herein we follow the Scriptures leading threed which affirm not only the Priest to have dyed for us but our Prophet or Shepheard also I am the good Shepheard and give and lay down my life for the sheep Joh. 10 11 15. He came not to be ministred unto but to minister and to give his life a ransome for many Mat. 20. 28. viz. to seal the doctrine with his bloud which he had taught with his lips and to make the way through the veil of his flesh thorough his bloud which he had taught to be the only way into the Holiest to the Father And as the Shepheard so the Lord and King also It was the LORD that was betrayeâ— 1 Cor. 11. 23. crucifyed 1 Cor. 2. 8 killed Act. 3. 15. and raisâ—â— again 1 Cor. 6. 14. Even the Lord of glory and Prince of life Therâ—fore it is that the holy Ghost cals it the Lords death 1 Cor. 11. 2â— The Lords body and the Lords bloud 1 Cor. 11. 27 29. And needfull was it that Christ as Lord and King with all his power should thus grapple with sin death and hell on our behalfe how else should he have vanquished them and having spoyled these Principalities and powers made a shew of them openly and triumphed over them Col. 2. 15. And without this victory his death had been to us vain our enemies had remained unconquered and our selves unransomed The strong man had not been driven out by a stronger then he Luk. 11. 21 22. Thus we neither divide nor separate the offices of Christ one from another but conjoyn them all in the death and passion of Christ by which alone we beleeve and teach that the Lord Priest and Prophet Christ Jesus hath made satisfaction for our sins But we utterly deny that which Mr. Baxter drives at that Christ as our Lord that is as a Lawgiver and to speak in Mr. Baxters words Thes 31. as he doth establish the morall Law commanding perfect obedience and forbidding every sin as exactly as under the Covenant of works is the object of justifying faith as justifying This was that great and principall article which Luther with so much vehemency defended against the Papists viz. that Christ is Luth. in Gal. Cap. 2. 20 alibi no Moses no Exactor no giver of Lawes in reference to justification but a giver of grace a Saviour c. pronouncing it an accursed â—and hellish doctrine which the Papists taught that he justifyeth as a Law-giver that they which so paint him out make him not a Christ but a Fiend or Devill The state of the question then is betwixt him and us not whether Christ as Lord as well as Saviour but whether by the sacrifice of himself for us or else by giving Laws and Commanding all duties of obedience to us also be the object of justifying faith as justifying i. e. whether our faith by obeying Christ in the works of righteousnesse as well as by cleaving to Christ crucifyed do justifie We maintain that the death of Christ or Christ dying for us is alone offered to our faith for justification he contrariwise that Christ as commanding the duties of obedience is the object of faith as justifying Our Assertion that Christ suffering for us is the alone object of justifying faith as such may be confirmed by many Arguments One Argument may be drawn from the offerings and sacrifices of the old Testament and the sacraments both of the old and new Testament
animosity as the ingenuity of Scaliger which caused him when he heard that one had busied himselfe about the correcting of the errors in his writings to cry out Ego meos corrigam errores I my selfe will be the corrector of my owne errors The same taske may this Author justly challenge to himselfe if living to be himselfe the defender of his owne writings Perhaps he is doing it perhaps he hath done it I shall therefore in my uncertainty what is done onely with such brevity seeke to disabuse the doubting readers of both that I shall in no wise prevent the Authors fuller vindicating of his owne or rather Gods cause in his hand Let us then attend to Mr Baxters accusations particularized Append. pag. 100. and so onward It was questioned as may be seen pag. 99. why he excepted against the Book called the Marrow of Modern Divinity he answers there because it is guilty of this hainous doctrine This he begins now pag. 100 to shew in particulars alleaging first the words of that booke thus B M. M. pag. 174. he meanes 179 Qu. Would you not have beleevers to eschew evill and do good for feare of Hell or for hope of Heaven Answ No indeed I would not have any beleever to doe the one or the other for so farr as they doe so their obedience is but slavish c. To which end he alleageth Lu. 1. 74. 75. Having thus alleaged the Author he thus endeavours to accuse and confute him B But that speaks of freedom from feare of our enemies such as Christ forbids Lu. 12. 5. where yet he commandeth the fearing of God and consequently even that feare of enemies is forbidden as they stand in opposition to God and not as his instruments in subordination Or if it be even a feare of God that is there meant yet it cannot be all feare of him and his displeasure So farr as we are in danger of sin and suffering we must fear it and so far as our assurance is still unperfect a jealousie of our owne hearts and a dreadfull Reverence of God also are necessary But not the legall terrors of the former bondage such as arise from the apprebension of sin unpardoned and of God as being our enemy Who ever heard any doctrine more unanswerably proved to bee hainous If any man question by what Arguments he can easily answer himselfe by this â—hat Mr. Baxter trying and finding himselfe unable to do it at length grants it to be sound and good Thus are they driven oft-times to wound themselves who draw the Sword against the Truth The Author of that booke proveth that beleevers or the redeemed of Christ are no longer to serve for feare of Hâ—ll by the testimony of the H. G. Lu. 1. 74. 75. That we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies might serve him without fear in holinesse and righteousnesse c. Mr. Baxter to evade the force of this Scripture first contendeth that by enemies are here to be understood not spirituall but mortall enemies wicked men and their persecutions Now may not a blind man perceive this to bee a shifting not an answer of this Scripture 1. The grouÌ„d of this not fearing is here layd to be our deliveraÌ„ce cut of their hands whom else we should feare And will Mr Baxter say that Christ came to deliver his elect from the persecutions of men and not from sin death hell which were our most formidable enemies This were to make Christs kingdome to be of this world and to joyn with the carnall Iewes that expected such a carnall Christ and câ—rnall kingdome that might be eminent in the world 2. Or hath he actually purchased to us such a deliverance doth not experience declare the contrary 3. Or must we so long suspend our serving of God in Righteousnesse and Holiness untill we be actually delivered from all feare and danger of mens persecutions For so runs the Text as well in the originall as in our translation that the deliverance is layd as the ground of the service and that put in our possession before this can be put in execution at least without feare 4. Is not deliverance heere the same thing with the salvation mentioned ver 77 which Iohn was to preach but that was salvation and so is this deliverance by the remission of sins and consequently we must serve who are in Christ without feare of vengeance and Hell He sees that with this evasion he cannot decline the edge of this Scripture therefore takes up the right interpretation of it at last thus Or if it be even a feare of God that is there meant c. Why had he not spoken full to the point in question and said the feare of Hell This minsing will nothing help him All that he saith against it in this sense is but such as is wont to proceed from the extravagancy of an astonished and self confounded man For who ever said that a beleever must cast off all feare of God and not be possessed still with a filiall feare to displease him Or that as farr as he is in danger of sin and suffering he must not feare it to shun it Or that so farr as our assurance is still unperfect or perfect a jealousy of our own harts and a dreadfull Reverence of God are not necessary But what is all this to the serving of God for feare of Hell How doth he daub with untempered morter At length he determines the question But not the legall terrors of our former bondage such as arise from the apprehension of sin unpardoned and of Gods beeing our enemy I need to say no more but where then is the feare of Hell in a beleever doeth it arise from the apprehension of the pardon of his sin and of God reconciled to him in Christ what can be said more weakly to confute or more strongly to confirme that which he cals a hainous doctrine Is Mr. Baxter an adversary or an accessary to him whom he pronouâ—ceth the Author of this wicked intolerable damnable doctrine Himself speaks more to confirm it than the person whom he opposeth But how according to his principles the terrors of our former bondage as he describes it are in this life removed neyther can I see nor he make out without contradicting himselfe B. In the 180. page Hee denieth the plaine sense of the Text Mat. 10. 28. Enough Magisterially if it were true what he objecteth to say only and not to demonstrate the truth of what hee objecteth But if false who perceiveth not the censorious spirit of the Objector That it is false appeareth evidently for how doth hee deny the plain sense which denieth no sense at all of the Text but onely declares what he thinks to bee the more principall scope of Christ in that Text than other And in this the context will evince that hee speaketh the truth B. In the 155. page He maketh this the difference betweene the two Covenants One sayth Doe this and