from helping to wash away the Guilt or Fault that they need to be wash'd in the Blood of Christ to take away their own Guilt and Fault and the making one Debt for our Lord Jesus to satisfie even that of the Fault in our best Works is a strange way for our clearing our selves from a former Debt or Fault §. CXLV I would humbly recommend to all that stagger in this Point but especially to the Dignified Persons of the Church of England to look again and again into the Sound Fundamental Doctrines of the Church as they are exemplified in the Homilies appointed by several Acts of Parliament to be read in the Churches when there is no Sermon which Acts have never been yet repealed and I may say are as necessary in this Degenerate Age of the evacuating the great Truths of our Religion as when first made These Homilies speak home to the Point that the Bishop is upon of Christ's bearing our Sins Those Holy Servants of the Lord that composed them soon after the Nations coming out of the Blind Popish Religion they say in the second Sermon of Man's Misery thus He Christ paid our Ransom to God with his own Blood and with that he CLEANSED us from our Sin They don't say he bare the Punishment only but he by his Blood shed on the Cross then at that time he cleansed us from our Sins How could that be if our Sins our very Sins were not then translated to Christ as Dr Crisp from the Scripture and these Homilies saith So that for Mr. Williams or the Bishop or any Man to say it is near Blasphemy to say our very Sins were laid on Christ is to run a Dagger to the Heart of the Doctrine of the Church of England and to evade plain Scripture as well as to make Dr Crisp an Antinomian for it for the Doctor herein runs parallel to the Sound Orthodox Doctrine of the Church for which besides the main Bulwark of the Scripture he hath many Acts of Parliament to back him from the Slanders of the Despisers of the Free Grace of God §. CXLVI I being now perusing these Homilies and considering how the Reverend Bishop in his Letter insists so much on Conditions required by God of Man in order to God's Favour I make bold to make a little Remark how much the Bishop differs from those Antient Doctors of the Church and from himself if he be true to his Subscription to the Doctrines of the Church First let us see what the Bishop saith then what the Homilies say In Page 67 the Bishop saith I could easily prove that in all the Transactions between God and Mankind some Conditions on our side were required in order to his Favour So it was in the State of Innocency a tydy Argument so it continued after Man's Fall But I pass over these and come to the Terms of Salvation as declared by Christ himself The main Business of his Preaching was to put Men upon performing such Conditions as were necessary to their Salvation Promising Blessedness to the Humble Merciful Pure in heart Matt. 5.3 4 c. What do these things mean if they be not Conditions on our parts necessary in order to Happiness But God he still insists on our own endeavours by striving to enter c Do not these note the necessity of the Performance of Conditions on our side And therefore all Imaginary Notions of such a Change of Persons as hath no regard to any Act of ours is wholly repugnant to the main Scope and Design of the Gospel Thus the Bishop What is become here of the whole Tenor of the Gospel we are Saved by Grace being Justified freely by his Grace through the Redemption that is in Jesus not of Works lest any boast this is thrust quite out of doors for what are these Conditions and these Acts of ours but Works which though called for and necessary to glorifie God by way of Service and Thanks yet not any way to Justifie us or Save us For we are Saved by Grace and not of Works otherwise Grace is no more Grace 'T is for another end that all our Holiness is called for to Repent be Humble Pure of Heart and Merciful 'T is to magnifie God that hath saved us by Christ Saints shall be Holy Humble Pure of Heart in Heaven Is that in order to get God's Favour No but to serve and glorifie God for his Favour and we are to do the Will of God as near as we can on Earth as it is done in Heaven not to get Heaven which Christ alone hath bought for us but to magnifie God for giving himself Son and Spirit to us and for giving Heaven and all Spiritual Blessings with him begun in this Life and perfected above to make our Works Conditions on our parts to get Heaven is to Rob our Lord Jesus of his Crown and Glory and to set it on the Head of our sorry imperfect Works But besides the whole Current of the Gospel that we are saved by Grace let us see what the Bishop hath signed to and is dignified by even the Doctrines of the Church of England and they are clear for our Interest in Christ and Salvation to be all of Grace they drive us from all Works of our own and say in that second Sermon of Man's Misery No part of our Justification is of our selves no part not the least dram of our Works is to come in for any share in our Justification And in the next line they say Our Justification cometh only by Jesus Christ Here is not the least tittle of our Acts of Obedience insisted on or Gospel-Conditions to get Salvation 't is only by Christ all they insist on is to render Thanks to God for Free Salvation by Christ as it follows What Thanks worthy and sufficient can we render to him Let us burst forth with joyful Voice praising this Lord of Mercy Then they reiterate our not being able to do any thing of our selves wholly to renounce our selves and say very unlike the Bishop's Letter In our selves we may not glory which of our selves are NOTHING but Sinful neither may we rejoyce in any Works we do How nothing but Sinful and no rejoycing in any Works we do May we not Joy in performing the Conditions and doing Acts to obtain God's Favour No no there is no rejoycing in any thing for we are nothing but Sinful As for Conditions to get God's Favour they knew none but Jesus Christ he was the great Condition he being the great only compleat Saviour the Alpha and Omega first and last in our Salvation This Doctrine would be accounted Rank Antinomianâ—sm in Dr. Crisp a dangerous Error to take Men off from good Works to tell them we are nothing but Sinful and we may not rejoyce in any Works we do But this is honest good sound Orthodox yea glorious Doctrine in the Hearts of those that have tasted of Salvation by Free Grace and is establish'd as
Faith in him or else we must feign that a Believer hath a Spiritual Life in him that is not from Christ if he have Faith before he is united to Christ as some pretend and so there would be two Spiritual Lives in a Believer one before Union to Christ which works Faith and the other from Christ upon acting our Faith But this Ass of our own Spiritual Life and the Oxe of Christ's Life in us will not draw well together So that I think I may safely conclude this is no Heresie to say that Union to Christ is before Faith much less is that which follows an Heresie to say that we partake of the Spirit by vertue of that Vnion This is brought in as part of the fifth Heresie Whence do the Branches partake of the Sap of the Vine but from the Root by Vertue of Union to the Vine 'T is strange to admiration that this should be question'd by those who like Peter seem to be Pillars in the Church to call it an Antinomian Heresie to say We partake of the Spirit by vertue of Vnion to Christ If the Spirit be not in us before Faith how can he convince of Sin in not believing and thereby work Faith Doth not the Scripture say plainly 1 Cor. 12.8 9. To one is given by the Spirit the word of Wisdom to another Faith by the same Spirit Doth the Spirit give Faith and is he not then in the Soul to work Faith before it is wrought Is not the Former before the Thing formed If so then sure my Dear Kratiste was in a great Mistake and has sadly imposed on those that profess Faith in our Lord Jesus to rank this for a Heresie That we partake of the Spirit by vertue of our Vnion to Christ which in Naturâ is before Faith The sixth as being much akin to the former I pass only with the naming of it 'T is Heresie he saith to say Justification in regard of Application must be before Believing Whose Saying this is or whence it is taken I know not If the meaning be that God applies it to us or reckons it to us before our Believing that we are Justified This is so far from Heresie that I think the contrary is a Contradiction Or 't is Nonsense for me to believe a Thing is mine before it is given me or applyed to me and so made mine And in that Sense the Application of Justification by God's Spirit to my Conscience that God hath loved me and given his Son for me this must first be applyed to me before I can believe it or else my Believing is but Presumption But if by Application of Justification before Believing he means that the Soul doth apply it to himself before his Believing I think he is to seek for any that hold that Tenet §. XXVII His seventh Heresie is this That the first Application ordine Naturae saltem is to an Vngodly Man eo nomine that he may believe That this is a blessed Gospel-Truth and no Heresie appears by what our Blessed Lord Jesus saith That he came not to call the Righteous but Sinners And his immediate Call made them follow him as Levi from being a Publican to be a believing Disciple Nay saith our Lord Publicans and Harlots enter into the Kingdom of God before you Ye believed not but the Publicans and Harlots believed Matth. 21.31 32. Here was Application to ungodly Wretches eo nomine that they might believe and when Publicans and Harlots they did believe and so came off from their Ungodliness Yea the Dog Syrophenaecian as Christ called her she had Faith given her while she was a Dog even to the Admiration of Christ himself who said O Woman great is thy Faith And saith the Apostle for a full Proof that the Application is to an ungodly Man eo nomine While we were Enemies we were reconciled to God by the Death of his Son Nay as God will have it the very word ungodly which they oppose as Heresie is asserted in the Scripture that the first Application of Christ is to an ungodly Man in Rom. 4.5 To him that believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his Faith is counted for Righteousness If the Blessed Apostle saith God justifieth the ungodly I trow this is no Heresie in him but if Heterodox Dr. Crisp say the same words then 't is an Antinomian Heterodoxy Now there 's a great out-cry what do you make God to be Is God such a Friend to Sin as to justifie the Vngodly Doth it become the Holiness of God to justifie an ungodly Man This is the way to vindicate all licentious Antinomianism That God justifies the Vngodly and that while he is an Enemy he is reconciled to God O out upon such profane Antinomians We can allow the Apostle Paul to use such Language because we can distinguish this into he doth not justifie the Vngodly that the Apostle means so whatever he saith but we cannot bear it that Apochryphal Tobias should say so nor that Mysterious Nonsense say so as Mr. Williams called Mr. Cole we cannot bear it in him for this is to open a gap to Profaneness to say God justifieth the Vngodly §. XXVIII The eighth Heresie is to assert That we believe that we may be justified declaratively The Case I take to be thus The Apostle saith in Gal. 2.16 We believe that we may be justified by the Faith of Jesus from whence the Neonomians conclude that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 credere our Act of Faith is that very Thing which justifies us or that we are justified by our Work of Faith if not by Works of Faith and Holiness which sometimes they joyn yet at least by a Work by our Act of Believing Whereas the Orthodox according to the Homilies and Doctrine of the Church of England from plain Scripture put Faith it self from us as that Act that justifies and say Faith justifies only declaratively as it manifests to the Conscience our being justified by Christ's Blood Rom. 5.9 and freely by his Grace not our Grace of Faith through the Redemption that is in Jesus Rom. 3.24 Titus 3.7 It is still ascribed to his Grace not any Grace in us our Grace of Faith being only the Instrument or Hand given us of God to receive Christ and all in him If Justification be as they would have it from any Act of ours as the Ground or Cause of it then we are not freely justified by his Grace but by our Work of Believing which if not a Popish is an Arminian Tenet to blemish the Free Grace of God in Jesus Christ So that it may be safely concluded that it is no Heresie to say our Justification by Faith is declarative in as much as the Essence of Justification is by the Blood of Jesus and the Grace of God imputing it to us is the form of our Justification which being received by Faith is thereby manifested or declared to the Conscience by the Illumination of the Holy
run very clear Streams from the Fountain of Israel and they as I quoted before out of the first part of the Sermon of Salvation are wonderful clear for such a Change as the Doctor affirms and Mr. Williams denies saying So that Christ is now the Righteousness of all them that truly do believe in him He for them paid their Ransom by his Death he for them fulfilled the Law in his Life so that now IN HIM and BY HIM every true Christian Man may be called a fulfiller of the Law This Golden Sentence which might be for an Ornament in Gold Letters in every House in England doth fully vindicate to a Tittle Dr. Crisp's Change of Persons Christ himself is their Righteousness he paid Ransom for them they were fulfillers of the Law in him and by him What can be more full to the Point I hope the Bishop will not charge these great Men the Composers of this Sermon as he has done the Doctor with an imaginary unproved Change §. CLI One word more to the Bishop's Argument to prove that it is but an imaginary Notion to think that we are compleatly Righteous by the Righteousness of Christ without any act of ours which Argument of his is in these words I could easily prove that in all the Transactions between God and Mankind some Conditions were required on our side in order to his favour So it was in the State of Innocency so it continued after Man's Fall as it appears by those words of God to Cain If thou dost well shalt thou not be accepted if thou dost not well Sin lyeth at the door Gen. 4.7 'T is strange so great a Man should offer so weak an Argument to argue from a state of Innocency or from the state of Reprobate Cain or from the Covenant of Works what belongs to the Elect under the Covenant of Grace and under the Gospel where Works and Grace are made opposite Terms If of Works then no more of Grace saith the Apostle Was not Abel first accepted and then his Offering Is not the first Promise all of Grace He Christ shall bruise thine the Devil's Head And is not the last Promise the like Whoever will let him take of the Water of Life freely But by the Bishop's Doctrine a clever way is made to overthrow the whole Gospel To you is born a Saviour and to subvert the Orthodox Doctrine of the Church of England at once by bringing from the Dead the Covenant of Works to be saved by our doing well and not by Christ's doing and dying for us Whereas Abel's Sacrifice was accepted he himself being first accepted and his Sacrifice being offered in Faith but Cain and his Sacrifice rejected being not offered in Faith not looking to Jesus alone for Salvation by him The Bishop seems to run counter diametrically against the Apostle who argues strenuously Not of Works of no sort kind or degree lest any boast and by the Deeds of the Law shall no Flesh he justified He sums it up in Eph. 2. By Grace ye are saved through Faith and that not of your selves it is the Gift of God Not of Works lest any boast And Christ is the end of the Law for Righteousness to every one that believeth Thus the Scripture is plain against this Argument of the Bishop That our performing of Conditions must be in order to gain God's Favour §. CLII. Then for the Doctrine of the Church see what that saith of Conditions or of any Works of ours to gain God's Favour In the second Sermon of Salvation the good Christians of those days that were singed by the Popish Fires in Queen Maries days they tell us So that the true understanding this Doctrine That we be justified by Faith freely without Works or that we be justified by Faith in Christ only is not that this our own Act to believe in Christ or this our Faith in Christ which is within us doth justifie us A Sentence fit to be ingraven in every Church in England in order to take Men from trusting to their Repentance or good Works The like again is in the same Sermon as followeth We must renounce the Merit of Faith Hope Charity and all other Vertues and good Deeds And we must trust only in God's Mercy and that Sacrifice which our High Priest and Saviour Christ Jesus once offered As great and as goodly a Vertue as lively Faith is yet it putteth us from it self and remitteth and appointeth us unto Christ for to have only by him Remission of our Sins Observe these Eminent Stars of the first Magnitude in the Heaven of that Church of Old they are so far from bringing in our Repentance Charity and good Deeds or any act of ours to obtain Favour with God which the Bishop pleads for that they exclude Faith it self as having any hand in justifying us any farther than as it remitteth us to Christ But alas how is our Gold become Dross How are our great Men fallen from the Pure Primitive Doctrines of the Church of England And though they live splendidly by subscribing to these Doctrines yet in their Preaching and Writing they miserably warp as here in part from them Witness the setting up some Acts of ours to be done in order to obtain God's Favour And because God treated with Adam on account of Do and live therefore 't is supposed monstrously that Men when dead in Sins must work for Life or as the Bishop The Ministry of Reconciliation in St. Paul is wholly founded on Conditions on our side which he calls Acts of ours and may as well be called our good Works And all this because the Apostle pray'd them to be reconciled to God which cannot well be construed to be more than to pray them to accept the Reconciliation which God had made of Sinners to himself by Christ at his Death For if as the Apostle saith God was in Christ reconciling the World to himself then the Work was done when Christ cryed out on the Cross It is finished And if the word of Reconciliation was committed to the Apostles to publish to the World the Reconciliation that God had made of Sinners to himself by Christ what could his Embassadors mean in praying Sinners to be reconciled to God but to accept of what he had mentioned before of the act done long before viz. That God had reconciled Sinners to himself by Christ and to let them know that they were some of the reconciled ones if they would accept thereof and take these Waters of Life freely and so accept the Exhortation as Titus did 2 Cor. 8.17 §. CLIII O! how sad is it to eclipse the glorious Gospel Truth That our Sins were laid by God on Christ as the Doctor insists on it while the Bishop is pleased to load it with such very bad Consequences as might deter the weak and unconsidering from believing the plainest Positions in the Scripture viz. That the Lord laid on him the Iniquity of us all and he bare
our Reformers from Antichristian Dotages That in Christ and by Christ we are fulfillers of the Law may help our Rebuker to rectifie his saying in Pa. 47 If Christ's putting on the Person of Sinners be left out it 's better out than put in till it be known what it signifies 'T is strange that our sharp sighted Rebuker cannot tell what it signifies when the first emergers out of Popery the Reformers are so positive that we fulfilled the Law in Christ which cannot possibly be without his sustaining our Persons Could all those Worthies of the last Age Luther Calvin c. know what it signifies and we that stand on their Shoulders cannot we see as far as they But they cannot see that will shut their Eyes Doubtless many of our New Law Men would say but for the out-cry of every sound Protestant that this Expression That we fulfilled the Law in Christ had been better left out of the Doctrine of the Gospel than put in for it hath strengthened a many of those he calls Antinomians So that now we cannot without great difficulty run down the Doctrine of Christ's sustaining our Persons but these Antinomians as we call them will be too hard for us so long as the Epistles of Paul and the Doctrines Establish'd by Law are so armed against us §. LXXXVIII But some may say Why should these old musty Homilies be trump'd up now against the Great Baxter and his Successor the Gospel-stater of Truth Those Good Men are gone to Rest and with them let their Homilies sleep No say I they being dead yet speak and their plain honest simplicity will go farther with every good Christian that we in him fulfilled the Law than the Sceptical Notions of Mr. D. Williams such as this That God provided for his own Glory while he promiseth Life by forgiveness and yet insists on some degree of Obedience Here instead of our fulfilling the Law in Christ this Gospel-Truth stater brings in our Obedience in our selves insisted on by God in his forgiving Sins Such a medly of God's forgiveness upon our Obedience the Reformers rejected as spurious Popish Doctrine They are so far from attributing our Obedience to be insisted on by God in forgiving our Sins that they will not allow Faith it self to come in for any share in farthering our forgiveness but say plainly of Faith thus Our Faith in Christ much more our degrees of Obedience saith unto us thus It is not I that take away your Sins but Christ only and to him ONLY I send you for that purpose forsaking therein all your good Vertues What 's that but your degrees of Obedience Thus through the good hand of God we are helped by our great Reformers to quell this New Law Doctrine of the Neonomians setting up some Gospel-Holiness of ours in co-partnership with the everlasting Gospel of being saved only by Grace through Faith and that Faith not of our selves it is the Gift of God to whom be Glory for that he hath freely given Christ and all with him §. LXXXIX My next Notice I take is with Grief and Sorrow at the dismal contemptuous treatment the Rebuker gives of Christ's sustaining the Person of Sinners This great tremendous Point which is sustained by many Reverend Persons my Dear Kratiste makes a Banter of in Pa. 53 saying What then can these Expressions signifie but that Christ wore the mask the vizor the disguise of Sinners that he was personatus histrio like a Stage player that puts on the Person of a King when indeed he is but some sorry fellow Do such Terms of our Blessed Lord become the Pen of an adorer of the Blessed Jesus to impose such a Sense and such horrid Consequences from a Doctrine professed by all sound Protestants when God himself saith he made him Sin for us And Thousands of Adorers of him adore him for this Thing that he was made Sin for them though he knew no Sin and on that account say he sustained their Persons that is that they were in him and fulfilled the Law in him and by him as the whole Nation of England have declared for Good Sound Orthodox Doctrine almost 150 Years And now shall such an Inference be fetch'd from it as scoffs thus at our Lord Jesus As if the Parliament of England in establishing that Expression by Law for good Doctrine as if they had thereby declared that our Lord was a sorry Fellow a Stage-player acting the part of a King that he wore a Mask a Vizor in so doing If such Language had been used in any Interlude Show May-game Stage-play or Pageant then the Act of Parliament would have forced the Rebuker to pay Ten Pounds For it saith If any Person in any of those five places shall Jestingly or Prophanely use the Name of God or of Jesus Christ or of the Holy Ghost or of the Trinity which ought not to be used but with great Reverence they shall forfeit Ten Pounds 3 James 1.21 And if a Stage-player or Buffoon shall forfeit Ten Pounds what shall a Divine who should both know and teach better Things what should he forfeit if he print such prophane Jesting with our Dear and Blessed Lord whose Name is dreadful O! that Men were wise to Sobriety and not suffer themselves to launch into such exorbitant Expressions concerning our Blessed Lord. To tax his opposers with such an Inference from Scripture Premises it puts me in mind of what Antisozzo saith in Fol. 191 Sed male dum recitas incipit esse tuus He that recites such Passages without necessity and abhorrence they begin to be his own Passages But I hope my Kratiste will never fall into such Language again §. XC There is a very great word to the Point of Christ's sustaining our Person in Ephes 3.6 which is this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render That the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs and of the same body but may be rendred fellow-heirs and fellow-body or co-body As Believers are heirs fellow-heirs co-heirs with Christ and of Christ so they are of the same body fellow-body co-body with Christ and in Christ And as before the Apostle forgave in the Person of Christ so here the believing Gentiles are fellow-body with Christ And what is this but his sustaining their Persons and they his Person But this is to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness To our learned topping Gentlemen it is uncooth unintelligible and better left out than put in till it be known what it signifies Just so the Socinians concerning the words Trinity in Vnity 't is to them Nonsense and Contradiction as all the Gospel is to Flesh and Blood as that a Wicked Man should be saved by the Righteousness of one that he never saw in his Life by a crucified Jesus but to them that are caâ—ied he is as sustaining our Persons as we are in him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 co-body he is Christ the Power of God and the Wisdom of God And