Doctor with his Traducer and that according to the pure simplicity of the Gospel I will lay my Head under thy Feet to be trampled into Powder And this without any manner of reserves God assisting I shall nakedly clear up unto thee therefore look to it that thou be not deceived herein either by the Author or any other Act. 20. 29. 1 Thess 5. 21. Act. 17. 11. for herein I must declare my Judgment leaving thee to thine own and am ready to make it good at any time that the whole of what I have yet seen in Print against Dr. Crisp take it in the full matter and compacted design thereof will no more avail in order unto thy Salvation than the Turkish Alcoran it self would Nay further should any one be saved upon the Principles urged tho' hut tacitly and somewhat obscurely for the present by these to say the best of them Semi-justiciaries Rom. 9. 31 32. his Hallelujahs in Heaven as genuinly springing from such a root would be but meer Hypocrisie sufficiently seasoned with a Proud Pharisaical and vain-glorious Spirit Luk. 18. 11. c. This I tell thee again and again I will be bound to maintain And as I would beg no Man's Vote or Subscription to the work that lies before me as one that designed to catch or ensnare Souls from an appearance of Numbers and Names one of Bellarmine 's 15 marks of a true Church so neither would I conceal my self as one conscious of a vile undertaking But that which is most lamentable and calls for pity in our Author as not far distant from the unpardonable Sin it self if I understand any thing of the Word of God is His deliberate contrived and consequently approved Actings against his own Light as with rhe Jews of old who Three things concur to the making up of the Sin against the Holy Ghost 1. Light in the Mind 2. Malice in the Heart 3 The Insensibleness of the Sin Mr. Dod 's first Sheet and 27th Saying though the Matter of Fact in the Miracles our Saviour wrought was plain naked and so convincingly open before them that they themselves could not gainsay yet such was their Malice against the truth that they would rather ascribe the power which they were wrought unto Beelzebub than the Finger of God for there is scarce any one of his Charges against the Doctor but evidently demonstrates if the place be view'd that his confutation lay before his Eyes even then when he was picking the Matter thereof out of his Works Therefore thou wilt find that when-ever he is forced to own or Subscribe unto some things as being Truths in the Doctor 's Treatise he endeavours thereby to blast his Reputation without any manner of Proof as confidently assigning unto the whole of his Labours but a more crafty fetch ridiculing of the Gospel and all to deceive the People with several such dogmatical Assertions without any just demonstration mix'd with some Theatrical Flourishes so far from having in them any Savour of Grace or appearance of truth that indeed there is not so much as the least Tincture oâ— common-Morality in the whole Scope of this his pitiful Pamphlet wherein hâ—â— barking or canine keenness Psal 59. 6 7. is far more acceptable than all his fawning Treacheries by which he would usher in his pestilent both Antinomian as well as Neonomian Heresies I must confess that the shaking of my Dog's Tail is more pleasing as having more of Sincerity in it than the whole of his introductory Sycophancy to this his Treatise For the Proof of which we shall consider our Author's first Charge to begin withal 1. He tells us Page 4. That the Doctor will not ascribe unto Faith that which the Apostle â—aul so often doth in our Justification before God and withal that under a pretence of exalting Christ to omit the rest of his pitiful wyre-drawn and forced Sophisms he denies that we are justified by Faith in Christ Take a View Reader of his false Treachery herein and therein judge who it is though our Author would impudently fix it upon the Doctor that truly stumbles at the Threshold whether the Traduced or his Accuser The Doctor p. 98. whence our Author curtails his partial Quotation against him distinguishes between a passive and active recipiency of Christ which indeed if truly weighed is the very plague as well as Test of an Arminian This Discrimination and the Doctors manifest literal and expressed design therein had our Author but honestly attended unto and justly represented to his Reader he knew would have absolutely overthrown the whole of his undertaking subverted him in the very Grounds of his Proceedings against him and unvail'd him of all his forged seemingly colourable pretences whereon and wherein he constantly fixes and shades himself in the vileness of his Charge against him and thereupon miserably concludes that a Man may have a part in Christ either without or destitute of Faith i. e. living and dying in unbelief But Sir Ignoto Author or Knight of the Post rather know this that we must not be run down with bantering Impudence empty Flourishes much less forged Accusation but expect both our Information and Establishment from clear and undeniable Demonstrations back'd and fortified with solid and well-quadrated Scripture-proofs And this the Dr. doth immediately in the following Page 99. from Jer. 31. 18 19. which our Author takes no notice of though it at the very time of this his Forgery look'd yea stared him fully in the Face The summ and substance whereof is this That Ephraim must be turned before she can turn unto the Lord That she never reflected upon her self till after her conversion And doth not this bespeak a passive part she had in the Lord or a pre-possessing Act of God in her Soul before she could in the least put forth an active recipiency of him And doth not the latter absolutely depend upon the former Is not this also the Judgment of the Assemblies Cha. 10 Art 2. This effectual Call is of God's free and special Grace alone not from any thing at all foreseen in Man who is altogether Passive therein until being quickned and renewed by the Holy Spirit he is thereby enabled to answer this call and to embrace the Grace offered and conveyed in it This the Doctor furthet proves Ibid. from Psal 110. 3. where he tells us Hence it is that the entrance of Christ into a Person is attributed unto the Power of Christ the Power of the Lord must come over a Person before Christ can have a possession of that Person and then gives this reason in regard of the crosness of the Spirit of Man to the pleasure of Christ when Christ hath once revealed himself and made the Soul behold his Beauty and acquainted the Soul with his Excellency then the Soul begins to embrace him mark that Reader and to hold him fast and will not let him go Doth the Doctor now exclude Faith in the Apostle's Sense Or
means we know very well that the whole Mysteries of the Gospel in Election Redemption yea and Vocation also in the effectual Application of them both as to imputation on the one Hand and Inhaesion on the other unto a Sinner must attend upon our Faith and that as the antecedent Faederal but not meritorious by any means though perhaps STILO NEONOMIANENSI acquisititious condition of all the benefits both designed by and received from them This is evident I say in the Example of Lydia That the Lord opened her Heart is too notorious to be denied and that this opening of her Heart is express'd and clear'd up from the Fruit thereof even her Attendance upon what Paul spake which was no more than the hearing of Faith it was Faith upon this opening that caused her to listen Now is it not as evident a Demonstration of Irrationality in Logick as it is of Heresie in Divinity if we do but attend unto the Analogy of the Covenant of Grace ut priùs in all the parts thereof and that both of personal as well as real promises the latter depending upon the former That she should either have her Heart opened by the Lord and that thereby she should attend unto what the Lord by Paul spake unto her and yet not to be pre-possessed of or by the Lord unto both this opening and attendance TO deny this is not only blockish Nonsense but a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Man's self-ability engaging against God The Divinity and therein Reâ—â—gion and Practice of some in this our day may in a more especial manner by way of allusion be observed from the proceeding of that wicked King Ahaz 2 Kin. 16. 10 11 12 13 14 15. Who tho' after the sight of the Altar at Damascus and his thereupon bringing it in the exactly made formative frame and material fixing of it in the House of the Lord yet removed not the Altar of the Lord wholly out of the House but displaced it and that not as to render it entirely useless or of no advantage unto him but that under a colour of enquiring by it he might the more pretextually or covertly go on in the establishing himself in his own ways of Works and Holiness as knowing that the Merits or Worth of all his performances did typically lye there therefore a Brazen Altar as acknowledged by himself Thus according to our Neonomian Heresie some allow unto Christ but an adjunctive station remote enough from the fixed design of God unto the Covenant of Grace as to the acceptance both of our Persons and Performances with the Lord i. e. That as we perform this or the other duty though therein we Sacrifice but to our own Nets yet it is but running to this Altar or the Merits thereof by which we must enquire into and come to know that our Works and consequently our own persons become in a justifying Sense approved by or acceptable with him From hence our Author p. 5. le ts fly his barking or concisionary Arrows against the Doctor through the sides of Beza whose treatment is at best but tragi-comoedial or rather comoedially-tragical Alass poor Beza who it seems in his Sense is but a Pretender to mend Texts nay an Alterer of them by Daring and Presumptious Practices instead of a just Explainer of them as our Author acknowledges though with a perhaps as Hobs upon his Atheistical Entrance into Eternity it was the only considerable fault more canino dogmatico in that worthy by all means to Sugar the Pill Man's Annotations But however it seems Beza must down for in the judgment of our Scrutinous blind-Mans-buff he hath opened a Text of Scripture that gives too great a Countenance to the Antinomian Error which our Author is pleased very Learnedly to define by the Character of Crispianism and to â—ntitle himself amongst the number of the Criticks as having unmask'd the same The Text it seems is this Rom. 5. 1. Therefore being justified c. Therefore Wherefore I suppose the Word is an Illative and as it makes way for an Inference and Conclusion so it absolutely bespeaks some undeniable Maxim or Truâ—h formerly fixed upon without a retention of which it would prove but superfluous and trifling and indeed it is that no less than which our Author together with the rest of his Tribe under a pretence of exalting Faith would totally overthrow The Apostle having in the immediately foregoing verse chap. 4. 25. positively as well as inclusively declared that in what Christ as the Representative Head of the Elect did lay their Justification before God though the meer Act of God in justifying is purely of Grace Rom. 3. 24. yet considering that Christ and that by the appointment of the Father pursuant to the Eternal Counsels of his Will and that according to their mutual engagements in the Everlasting Covenant became Incarnate obey'd suffer'd yea rose again and that not for himself nor barely on the Behalf and for the good of those given unto him but more immediately in their room and stead Heb. 2. 14. It became just with God and it is a juridical as well as External Act in him to reckon upon such as justifi'd thereby and therein Rom. 3. 25 26. which Grace of Justification in the prefixed matter and form thereof they enter upon through Christ by Faith and all the Fruits of the same such as Peace with God c. otherwise this Text ch 5. ver 2. must be read thus By whom also we have access bâ— Faith into this FAITH instead of this Grace which purely refers to Justification as an Act in of and by God himself wherein we stand Dr. Owen brings in Cyrillus Alexandriâ—us in Joan. Lib. 11. Cap. 25. speaking thus Quaemadmodum praevaricatione primi hominis ut in primitiis generis nostri morti addicti fuimus eodem modo Dr. Owen's Treat of Justification p 482. per obedientiam justitiam Christi in quantum seipsum legi subjecit quamvis legis author esset benedictio vivificatio quae per Spiritum est ad totam nostram penetravit naturam And Leo. Epist 12. ad Juvenalem ut autem repararet omnium vitam recepit omnium causam ut sicut per unius reatum omnes facti fuerunt peccatores ità per unius innocentiam omnes fuerunt innocentes inde in homines manaret justitia ubi est humana suscepta natura Again This is the clearest Testimony that what the Lord Christ did and sustered was for us and not for himself For without the Dr. Owen 's Treat of Justification p. 287. consideration hereof all the Obedience which he yielded unto the Law might be lookt on as due only on his Account and himself to have been such a Saviour as the Socinians imagine who should do all with us from God and nothing with God for us And in his answer to Mr. Baxter upon the same Charge of Antinomianism and the Grounds thereof that flies about our Ears
it is not actually applyed to the Man's Person his Person is not put in foro verbi in the State of Justification Learn I say to distinguish between receiving a thing in Christ and receiving it with Christ you receive it with Christ when it is actually applyed to your Person we now sit together in Christ in Heaven would you desire no other sitting in Heaven with Christ than now you have Certainly you would As you sit in Christ so likewise you would sit with Christ so take a Man before such time as he believeth and is converted to God would he have no other Sanctification Would you have for your Child suppose you believe him to be elect or had an immediate infallible Warrant so to think no other Sanctification or Justification than he hath then No you would have him Sanctified with Christ and justified with Christ which is to have that which he had in Christ applyed to him and he put actually in his own Person in the state of it The want of the consideration of these things causeth a great mistake in this Age you shall find that still the Scripture useth that Phrase of these things which we not only have in Christ as in a common person but it must be applied unto our own Persons also for would any Man desire to be no more glorified than he is now Yet as we are perfectly glorified in Christ now so we were perfectly justified in Christ when he arose and perfectly justified from all Eternity Who shall condemn the Elect of God Saith the Apostle Yet these must be applied to our own Persons and our Persons must actually be put into this condition When we come to Heaven then he saith we shall sit with Christ in his Throne Rev. 3. but while we are here on Earth then it is sitting in Christ The Consideration of this distinction would in a word clear the great Controversie that is now between the Antinomians as they call them and others about being justified before conversion whether a Man be justified before conversion or no or whether he be not so afterward as in some Sense he was not before I say we are justified in Christ from all Eternity and we are justified with Christ when we believe NOW if thy Doctor be not a thorow pac'd Crispian I know not who is and let me tell this Author by the way that if he dare appear openly in this Controversie and in which I offer him a full unreserved meeting whereunto let him bring what numbers and degrees of Persons he possibly can either by hook or by crook according to the constant practise of those of his perswasion to back him in the same I question not but by the wisdom power and Grace of God sufficiently to manifest that Dr. Crisp fully accords with all those more antient and modern REFORMERS truly and undeniably reckoned upon as such though perhaps differing in other things as to the Doctrines ef Justification Sanctification Graces and Duties thereupon both in their spring nature order form matter and uses and that in the full scope and agreeing with the compleat tenure of the Covenant of Grace it self But our Author tells us p. 8. from the text he had cited p. 5. That the Apostle by way of Antithesis constantly opposeth Faith to Works in Justification Crispianism Vnmask'd pag. 8. that is an act of ours to some others of our own not an Act of ours to one of God as this Author would have us think The opposition which you may observe in St. Paul's Writings of Faith to Works is sufficient to perswade that it is but a Dream of the Doctor that to be justified by Faith is to have in our Spirits the Manifestation of God's Justification This hath no relation at all to what the Apostle so often saith c so far he Now this Antithesis according to our Author 's manifest Design therein one Mr. Antisozzo has notably anatomized in his Explication of Phil. 3. 8. c. unto which I refer the Reader for his being undeceived and shall let Dr. Good-win answer this from the fore-mentioned Treatise Whether it be the Act of Faith that justifies or that is accounted a Mans Righteousness when Dr. Goodwin on the Ephes Part 2d p. 301. we are said to be saved through Faith Surely no for God might have took work as well if he would have taken it as an Act he might have taken any Act Love it self THERE is this reason lies in the bottom of my Spirit against it besides all that else the Scripture saith against it That if when I go to God to be justified I must present to him my believing as the matter of my righteousness and only Christ's death as the merit of it which is the very controversie on foot this day for all our Author's seeming acknowledgment of the righteousness of Christ and the bare instrumentality of Faith in the reception thereof in order to our Justification What will follow Two things are clear to me First That the heart is taken off from looking upon the righteousness of Christ wholly and diverteth it to it 's own righteousness in the very act of believing for righteousness and presenteth that to God which the Scripture is clear against I say it doth take the heart off from the righteousness of the Lord Jesus or the eying of that and causeth it to divert into it self and present its own Faith to God Secondly Every man that will believe to be justified and go to God and say Lord justifie me he must have an evidence that he hath Faith for how else can he present that as the matter of his righteousness Now Millions of Souls cannot do this they were in a poor case if they should be put to it THE Apostle saith it was of Faith that it might be sure If Justification had been founded on the act of Faith it had been as sure on works as faith for that faith that draws out an act of love is as apt to fail as that act of love But here is no uncertainty while I believe to be justified by the righteousness of Christ but my faith is swallowed up there though I may doubt of my faith relying on him yet I have a sure object I have a sure matter to represent to God for me whereas if believing was that I had to represent to God to be justified by suppose my faith fail me I have not a sure matter of righteousness to represent to God THE very object Faith believes on is a contradiction to this that the act of Faith should be the matter of my Justification Yet further Q. Is not faith an act Iâ—'s true it is in a Grammatical signification an act but in the sense in the true real import of it it Dr. Goodwin on the Eph. part 2d p. 287 288. is meerly passive Faith doth not give any thing to God as Charity and Love doth but it only suffers God
A SHORT REVIEW OF SOME REFLECTIONS Made by a Nameless Author UPON Dr. Crisp's Sermons In a piece Entituled Crispianism Vnmask'd With some Remarks upon the Union in the late Agreement in Doctrin among the Dissenting Ministers in London Subscribed the 16th of December 1692. and that as referring unto the present Debates Exek 8. 7. Behold a hole in the Wall v. 11. Every Man his Censer i. e. Attonement or Inherent Righteousness in his Hand but not the Obedieâ—ce of one Rom. 5. 19. v. 12. Son of Man hast thou seen what the Hâ—use of Israel do in the dark every Man in the Chambers of his Imagery Prov. 17. 24. Wisdom is before him that hath understanding but the Eyes of a Fool are in the end of the Earth as roving in his implicit Universals Matth. 13. 25. While Men slept his Enemy came and sowed Tares among the Wheat and went his way i. e. would not be known or openly Subscribe to his Work Isa 28. 17. Judgment also will I lay to the Line and Righteousness to the Plummet and the Hail i. e. sharp and impartial dealings drawn from a deep and weighty Consideration of the Divine Perfections shall sweep away the Refuge of Lies and the Waters i. e. an over-powering and continued Testimony unto the Truth by the Spirit shall overflow the hiding-place Latet anguis in herba By THOMAS EDWARDS Esq London Printed for Will. Marshall at the Bible in Newgate-steeet Where you may be supplied with Mr. Edwards's Inquiry into the Gospel-Truth You may likewise be supplied with most of Dr. Owen's and Mr. Beverley's Works and likewise those other lately Published in Vindication of Dr. Crisp's Works 1693. THE Introduction Reader THere appeared lately and that openly upon the Stage in a Religious Sense or rather pretence an Italian Quack-Salver who failing to pass off his Drugs with that Expedition and Success that his high Conceptions of them might possibly suggest him with is withdrawn behind the Curtain and yet we may justly suspect his return upon us in this his Anonymous Proxy from the Matter and Process of this his Treatise as Mountebanks in their unsuccessful Attempts leave the Remainders of their dying and yet restorative Hopes on the Cryptical Efforts and renewed Endeavours of their Jesters or Jack-Puddings in their managing even the same Design though but in Disguise as they themselves had done before Therefore thou wilt find that all that this our Author produces against Dr. Crisp is no more as to the Matter and Manner Ends or Design thereof than what thou hast formerly seen fully opened and undeniably invalidated by others especially in a Treatise called NEONOMIANISM UNMASK'D and A REJOYNDER by its Author in Defence of the same unto which I expect not any sober or tolerable Reply The which our present Latent Author though I am apt to think conscious of his fault by his flattering Preamble to his bitter and false Charge against the Doctor takes no more notice of than the Journeyman-Taylor did of his Master's Reproof for sewing awry or amiss but desired he might stitch out altogether This our Author as we shall find doth in the Close of his Treatise Vain Glory Itching Fancies Carnal Appearances and Prevaricatory Practises are the infallible Sprouts of a self-Justiciary Therefore considering how fully the Truth and that under a Fundamental Consideration thereof hath been from Dr. Crisp's Works defended and maintained I shall be the more concise in my just Remarks upon this our Masquerading Stage-Player as not being willing actum agere Only I would desire thee to consider these few Heads 1. That the present Controversie lies not between Protestant and Protestant in the general as such i. e. Church of England-Man Presbyterian Congregational or Baptist either as to Forms of Worship or Modes of Discipline and their different perswasions therein neither doth it primarily or positively consist in the order of God's Dispensation in the Covenant of Grace for herein many upright Souls may unexitially be mistaken though this be the subterfuge our Adversaries most miserably betake themselves unto to amuse both their Readers and Hearers with but whether indeed there be such a Covenant of Grace as is mainly constitutive of a Representative Headship in a prâ—per and not barely and sâ—lely a Political Sense together with an actual real Commutation in an external Juridical Acceptation of Sin and Righteousness between Christ and the Flâ—ct not by Infusion but Imputation This is that they would under their gâ—ngling Pretences of the Merits of Christ Holiness Duties and Works remâ—ve out of the way which when done Farewel Reformation and the Covenant it self to Beet for by this they absolutely condemn our Separation from the Church of Rome and expâ—se us justly to the Charge of Shifm and Schismaticks and stabilitate the Council of Trent Nay I dare confidently assert and can make it evidently appear that there is never a Jesuit in the World but might unequivocally and that safely as well as gladly and roundly would if requested thereunto subscribe unto their Treatises Wherefore 2. Note That when-ever these our self-Justificaries speak mostly of the Doctrin of Justification and therein would express themselves by the Preposition in but for or by as knowing that the two latter are more capable in the Letter tho' not in the least as to the Analogy of Faith of a remoter Construction as to a Causality in the same and consequently becomes a more adapted suitable and undiscerned retirement to lodge their rotten Hypothesis in hence it is also that their revived Cerberus's Head dogmatically asserts without any manner of proof or so much as once offering at the same * Mr. D. Williams 's Defence of Gospel-Truth p. 3. That Merit and Matter in Judicial Acts or the same which is a positive Falshood either as to their identick or essential Coincidence or their more proper and dâ—â—â—inct uses and Applications tho' hereâ—n their wicked retiring holes do lye Thus â—â—â—â—ing them into a convertibility of terms they think to secure themselves as much as may be from othe Observations of others whereas in their Teachingâ— and Writings they absolutely contradict their own Assertion by separating between Merit and Matter in our Justification as that they take Merit of Christ's Righteousness from the Matter of the same which as they say abides in him and apply it to the matter of our own Righteousness the former being in Christ the latter in us which indeed is but our Justifaction not Justification by vertue of the same therefore thou wilt find by a diligent attendance upon their Treatises in the whole scope and design of them that they allow unto Christ but a meer Adjunctive station unto the Covenant of Grace or to be but a by-stander and Looker on upon poor Sinners That as they come in by Faith and Repenâ—ance notwithstanding their acknowledging that it is by his Merits and Spirit then it is that he steps in to apply a promise and that as
and built This will evidently appear from its contrary and that as relating unto the apparent Apostacies that have discovered themselves in the Treatises of some later as well as former Writers who notwithstanding their Vigour against the Papacy even to a Preparation for its Burial by a winding-sheet yet upon trial of them in the Fundamental Points which we must stick unto or we not only lose all but east a most wretched Aspersion upon the Providences of God and vindicate the Proceeding of our Enemies in the Death of the Martyrs of Reformation have been driven to shelter themselves under its argumentative Umbrage and to draw forth the Arrows of their Defence out of it Quiver yea and as it is too notoriously known to assign in a manner unto it from Protestanism in the general the very right Hand of Fellowship in Christoanity and all because the bottom is the same on which they are fixed both in their Hopes and Trust it being natural for every thing to incline to it s designed and as such proper and uniting Center Jo. 5. 40. comp ch 6. 64 65 68 69. Hinc illae lachrymae The matter and truth in Controversie having been by others so justly and fully stated and defended we may be the more brief with this our blank Author especially considering how weak as well as false his Attempts are against the same His confident and grave Trumpeter tells us in the Preface That the wrath of Man works not the Righteousness of God much less I am sure doth our Author's lurking and yet open Politicks with their false Reserves contribute in the least to the Manifestation of the same wherewith his Pamphlet is sufficiently stuffed for as Wrath is the resultive Operation of Anger which Anger is a Passion created in the Soul by God himself and drawn forth into its proper exercise by him into that which the Scripture calls Zeal for his Glory so also is Politicism in Man a meer exurgency from that reasoning faculty within him by which he is distinguished as well as by others of his Qualifications from the Beasts that perish but all thesâ—re discriminatively adjudged as to their sinful or gracious position frame or operation ae they co-work with or for or against the Righteousness of God and that as to their principles and ends the very Text our Prefacer produces sufficiently Demonstrates the same 1 Sams 2. 13. c. 1 Kin. 18. 27. 2 Kin. 3. 13 14. ch 1. 10. Luk. 9. 54 55. Judg. 5. 23. Eph. 4. 26. Ab equis ad asinos Our Author in his first and part of the second page highly commends after a little vent of his Gall Dr. Crisp's Sermons and that for some certain uses and ends that he is pleased to assign unto them That he exalts Free-Grace Christ's Righteousness his Paths in expressing the astonishing love of Jesus and that in the Redemption of Mankind how Mercy and Truth Righteousness and Peace met and kissed each other in him that Justice and Goodness had their equal discovery in his satisfaction and how that he depresses good Works and holy Duties but observe how he takes him p. 2 as to satisfying God's Justice or meriting any thing for us Here the hooks lies from being ingredieats of Justification and so on I doubt this word irgredients will prove but a very nasty one by then we have compared it with his ten charges against the Doctor but for all this we must endeavour as inoffensively and honestly as we can to rescue him out of his Hands for I never iiked ovem lupo committere or Agninis lactibus canem alligare since we see our Author hath no sooner got him into his clutches by his fawning reserved acknowledgments but like the Lyon in the Fable tears him to pieces Some few things to be remarked out of our Author p. 2 3 4. before we enter precisely upon his Decemvir'd Charge against the Doctor 1. His inconsistency even whilst he endeavours falsly to charge the Doctor wirh the same besides as we shall see in the Close of his Treatise how he overthrows the whole of his Forgery and that even with his own Pen unto our Hands from comparing what he says p. 2 3 and 4. and several other places with what his Armour-bearer in the Preface expresses Far be it from me to censure or arraign the State and Spirit note those words State and Spirit of the Reverend Dr. Crisp whose Soul I take to be in Heaven and whose Intentions and Designs might be sincere and good though not so distinctly see the nature order and mutual Relaâ—ions and Dependencies to and upon each other Pref. l. 17 22. Author p. â— His Zeal for Christ's imputed Righteousness makes him vilifie and almost mark that word exclude an inherent Righteousness of our own comp p. 3. Though the Author of these Sermons often attempts to perswade you thas he is no Antinomian i. e. that he is not against the Law of Righteousness and Holiness that he is no discourager of of Faith and good Works and the several Duties of Religion yet nothing is more evident than this that he is a professed Enemy to these and useth all the Art he can to make others so Suit but these together and thou wilt find a Preliminary Transcript of both his Treachery and Iâ—consistency wherewith we shall be sufficiently glutted anon besides p. 58. He makes him a Derider of the new Birth with many other false as well as bitter Sarcasms which should they be but in the Hundredth part of them true would absolutely bespeak the Doctor a Reprobate Gal. 4. 29 30. Scarce one or but very few of his Stigmatizing marks if Faith in its Analogy be attended unto that can be reckoned of the spots of God's Children 2. HIS Displeasure against him for separating between Justification and Sanctification which the Holy Scriptures as he says always joyn together p. 3. but not as to the ends for which our Author and his Jesuitical Fraternity would have them promiscuously jumbled together does the Scripture joyn them and in no other a Sense doth the Doctor separate them 3. HIS solemn Appeal unto the Searcher of Hearts before he enters upon this his allowed deliberate and studied false Dealings with the Doctor of his Innocence in the same I could tell him of the like Attempt of another with whom God hath met in the very Language of his Imprecation Let him and such remember Ananias and Sapphira BUT to the charges themselves Or ab equis ad asinos from bad to worse But before we proceed note Reader THAT there is not one Charge of the whole ten that our Author produces against the Doctor wherein he may be said to have done him the least piece of Justice or to deal equitably with him according to the matter he hath in Hand and that in the very literal Dependant Construction of the same which if otherwise thou findest upon an unequivocal plain and candid comparing of the
this day He says My second is that which is procured for any one thereunto he hath a right The thing that is obtained is granted by him of whom it is obtained and that to them for whom it is obtained To this is answered 1. In the Margent that I should make Appendix to Dr. Owen 's Answer to Biddle p. 35. great Changes in England if I could make all the Lawyers believe this strange Doctrine but of what the Lawyers believe or do not believe Mr. B. is no Competent Judge be it spoken without Disparagement for the Law is not his study I who perhaps have much less skill than him self will be bound at any time to give him Twenty Cases out of the Civil and Cannon Law to make good this Assertion which if he knows not that it may be done he ought not to speak with such Confidence of these things Nay amongst our own Lawyers whom perhaps he intends I am sure I may be informed that if a Mâ—n intercede with another to settle his Land by conveyance to a third Person giving him that Conveyance to keep in trust until the time come that he should by the Intention of the Conveyer enjoy the Land though he for whom it is granted have not the least knowledge of it yet he hath such a Right unto the Land thereby created as cannot be disanull'd This is the very thing for which it is that Dr. Crisp brings in this Text and Beza's Annotation thereupon and that in the very Page whence the Charge is fetcht Namely that Justification is truly and properly the work of God himself and cannot be the work of Faith Nay he goes farther Suppose says he Dr. Crisp's Works Vol. 2. Pag. 325. you should have the words to run as they are commonly render'd I answer Then are we to distinguish in Faith of two things there is the Act it self of believing and the Object on which we do believe and so the words may be understood thus Being justified by the Righteousness of Faith or by the Righteousness of Christ which we do believe We have Peace with God and so ascribe our Justification to the Object of our believing the Righteousness of Christ and not to the Act of Believing The truth is Beloved the Act of Believing is a Work and as much our Work as our Fear and Prayer and love is and the Apostle should contradict himself when he saith We are saved by Grace through Faith not of Works if he mean the Act of Faith And he might as well have said We are not justified by Works but we are justified by Works This he further distinguishes in the same Page unto which I refer thee which our Author with various huffing Reflections and rotten Inferences most partially and falsly quotes in his 6th and 7th Pages That to be short there is not only a distinction between the Act and Object of Faith and that as properly relating unto our Justification and Righteousness therein but also to God's Act of our Justification in Heaven as fully Precedaneous to the termination thereof in Conscience Dr. Owen upon the 1 Cor. 1. 30. in his refutation of Socinus and Bellarmine tells us That Christ is made of God Righteousness unto us in such a way and manner as the nature of the thing doth require Say some it is because by him we are justified However the Text says not That by him we are justified but he is of God made Righteousness unto us which is not our Dr. Owen of Justification p. 502. Justification but the Ground Cause and Reason whereon we are justified Righteousness is one thing and Justification is another Now either this Righteousness is in an eternal decretive and material sense truly and irrevocably theirs before they believe or upon what Grounds is it that God can be reckoned just in his justifying of them even when they believe But there is a secret grub lies at the bottom of all this our Author's Indignation which we must endeavour to find out See Dr. Owen against Mr. Baxter in the fore-mentioned Appendix Now I say that in the sense wherein I affirm that Justification is terminated in Conscience I may yet also affirm and that suitably to the utmost Intention Dr. Owen 's Appendix against Mr. Baxter in his Answer to Biddle pag. 19. of mine in that expression that Justification by Faith is not a knowledge or feeling of Justification before given nor a Justification in or by our own Consciences but somewhat that goes before all such Justification as this is and is a Justification before God And is not this true How many scores of our ancient solid Reformers might be brought in to attest this truth wherein and whereby they distinguish'd themselves in a Fundamental sense as Protestants from Papists But it seems as our Author thinks Dr. Crisp did not pitch upon a right Text in this of Rom. 5. 1. though it and it s Context undeniably prove he did to fix this his Discrimination upon and therefore alters the Scene of the Charge against him i e. from a distinguishing to a confounding Explication p. 7. where he to his own Admiration no doubt Learnedly explains Gal. 3. 24. for if the Apostle's Sense or Meaning be the same in one place of his Epistles as well as in another when he speaks more especially of being justified by Faith which our Author firmly asserts why then should he make a distinction between the Act and Object of Faith from Gal. 3. 24. which he denies unto the same Apostle from Rom. 5. 1. in Beza's Interpretation and the Doctor 's Quotation of him for that end A strong Memory I see is exceeding requisite for a Lying and Prevaricating Spirit This is not far unlike the Devil's Proceedings with Job who when he saw that his Accusation of him before God for an Hypocrite did not prove true or hold Water then does he slily seek by his Wife in an Instrumental Sense to cause him to part with his Integrity Just thus it is that our Author most shamefully spews out his own Treachery Dr. Goodwin upon Eph. 2. 6. saith that Our Salvation is in God's Gifts and in Christ's personating of us mark this piece of Crispianism and apprehending of us it is perfect and compleat though in our Persons as in us it is wrought by degrees Further. pag. 218 219. He Doct. Goodwin upon the Epistle to the Eph. ch 2. 6. p. 217 218. 219. tells us You see the distinction between in Christ and with Christ we are said to be quickned with Christ why because that Work as it is wrought in Christ once for us hath now some Accomplishment in us but speaking of the Resurrection to come he does not say we are raised up in Christ but raised up with Christ do but learn to distinguish for the want of this makes many Men to mistake A Man before he is called he is justified in Christ but not with Christ that is
whether in this our Author it be not an amphibious prevaricating and Delphian Oracle Case And to put the matter beyond dispute consider Reader That to be justified doth not only import but irresistibly presuppose an actual as distinguished from a personally possessed interest in such a righteousness as that wherein God may salva justitia and that not in a remote meritorious but immediate and substantial sense without the least interfering with the infinite unlimited spotless Justice and Holiness of his Divine Nature whence this Righteousness is reckoned the Righteousness of God received by Faith or the compleat and perfect demands of the Law whence it is also that Christ as being made under the same is accounted in an immediate sense THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS the latter being a full revealed Transcript of the former or can groundedly and positively in his very act of justification without any manner of reserves pronounce us just and that not in a bare meritorious and as such subservient sense of the same the Diverting Kettledrum of these our Spiritual Dâ—agooners to stave us off from our diligent attendance upon the Carbâ—nado'd and traduced Martyrs and Witnesses of our blessed Jesus in their distinct as well as materially faithful Testimonies concerning him from and in such a Righteousness as actually adequately and materially corresponds with the forementioned Perfections of God both in his Nature and Law for as possession properly such gives no man a juridical Title unto that whereinto he enters by possession so neither does Faith which is in this case at most a meer possessing grace entitle even an elect Vessel unto any one of the least of the promises in the whole of Scripture but it is his juridical forensick though founded in grace relation unto and interest in this Righteousness that gives him an undoubted Title and Right unto his Justification and all that is consequential of the same hence it is that Faith follows and that in two respects 1. AS a manifestating or evidencing Instrument with all it's Adjuncts Concomitants and Subsequents whence it is that Christ as the Author and Finisher of the same becomes the Wisdom of God unto such a Soul 2. AS an uniting applying clothing grace-conveying heart-renewing and fruit-bearing instrument and that in all the vigorous exercitious actings thereof both objectively and subjectively whence it is also that Christ as the Author and Finisher of the said Faith becomes the Power of God unto such a Soul but all this is meerly the fruit of a previous Title otherwise God could not be just in justifying neither could his elect ones be justly reckoned upon as Sons but rather Bastards or Impostors But all this blunder in our Author as in the close of this Charge p. 10 11. is no more but to bring in the Vertues and Graces of the Spirit as the matter of our Justifying Righteousness provided that Faith as an Instrument will but eye and betake it self unto the Righteousness of Christ and engagge the Soul to rest wholly upon the same in the bare merits thereof for it's Justification before and Acceptation with the Lord. Projicit ampullas sesquipedalia verba Hor. AS to the Second Charge II. HIS Second Charge p. 11. is That the Doctor Asserts and Defends that Doctrin which is the bane of all godly Fear and Dread of all suspicion of our selves of Spiritual Watchfulness and a wary and cautious behaviour Crispianis unmask'd p. 11 which yet are Graces and Duties much commended in Holy Scripture and greatly practised by the Servants of God This false imputation of his is managed with the same scurrilous and lying Spirit and to the same ends that his former and subsequent ones are produced for against the Dr. As 1. THAT he never gives thee an account upon what grounds it is that the Dr. urges this or the other discerpted sentence that he for his own vile ends does continually throughout his Pamphlet quote 2. NEITHER does he declare for what ends and from what principles as tending thereunto together with their uses and advantages as assigned unto them of the Lord in their proper places it is that the Dr. speaks for or against both duties and graces As for instance He tells us That the Dr. a bold and fearless man laughs at such silly creatures as fear and distrust their having Faith or no and being regenerated and sanctified or no and withal that he merrily brings in such an Crispianis unmask'd p. 11. one complaining thus I have neglected the Day of my Visitation I had once the Opportunity the presence of the Spirit of God Alass My fear is that that was the Day of God's Grace to me and now there is no more hope left for me And thereupon concludes Which words as you 'll find he speaks in way of Mockery And in several other places you will find him deriding such whining timorous Christians as these representing them as Persons of shallow Understandings and of a Temper not becoming the Gospel What Ground he hath received for this frontless and wretched Branch of this part of his Charge let the very place from whence he cites it determine p. 345. where speaking of God's laying Iniquity upon Christ that it is so entirely his own Act that none of our Duties be they the best that we can perform can have any Hand therein Therefore I shall be the more large in transcribing the Doctor even in this Page and that which follows that thou mayst apparently discern into the villanous Treachery of this Author and justly guess thereby at the base ends in the same The Doctor speaking from those words in Isa chap. 53. 6. that our Sins are already laid on Christ tells us It should therefore serve to put the People of God upon the Admiration of the great love of God seeing it is only the Lord that layeth Iniquity upon Christ to give unto the Lord the Praise of the Glory of his Grace Oh! Dr. Crisp 's Works Vol. II. Pag. 345. let nothing go away with that seeing none but the Lord doth the thing And to this end Beloved the Lord must open your Eyes that you may see It it is he alone that doth it but till you see it what ever you may think of your selves you will sanctifie to Nets and Drags instead of them If Righteousness seem to be the easing of burthens in Spirit then Righteousness shall be and will be exalted above measure From whence proceeds these strange Expressions Oh the Omnipotency of Fasting and Prayer and Repentance I What is this but to give the Glory of the Lord to our services as if they discharge us of our Sins when it is the Lord only that doth discharge us of them But I must hasten THERE is another observable Passage in these words more observable indeed than heeded by the most of them and that is to be taken from the circumstance of Time when the Lord laid Iniquity upon Christ The Text saith
of Faith is Sin but as to the Believer all things are clean Here comes our Author So through our Faith in Christ the whole Filth and Dung of our Works is extracted by Christ and he presenting the same purged by himself alone they became accepted with God Rev. 3. 4. But simply the works themselves as done tho' never so well are abhorred of God and Christ never takes them to purge till we our selves wholly renounce them by counting them Loss and Dung and that acceptance procured by Christ imports only a liking God takes to them no Efficacy at all they have with him Again But you will say again Christ makes our Righteousness to be Dr. Crisp 's Works Vol. II. Serm. 6. Pag. 322 323. accepâ—ed hâ— makes it pleasing and acceptable by purging away all the Filth that is in it and then it may prâ—vail with God to lay our Iniquities upon Christ I answer Herâ— our Author comes in with his Charge It is true Christ doth purge away all the filthiness both of Righâ—eousness and Unrighteousness in Believers but he doth not purge away the filthiness of their Righteousness that this Righteousness may prevail with God to lay Iniquity upon Christ but then that Righteousness may be accepted in the Beloved as Services Himself was without spot of the least Sin yet he takes not away the Iniquity by laying it upon the himself and if our Righteousness be made compleat by his taking away the Filth of it and putting his own perfection on it it is not to that end that Iniquities may be laid upon Christ by it but that it may be accepted in way of service I should go yet one step higher and let you know that as it is the Lord alone that lay iniquity upon Christ so not only all our performances are unable to lay iniquity upon Christ but even our Faith and Believing it self doth not lay iniquity upon Christ Ye may easily perceive Beloved what I drive at in all this Discourse namely to strip the Creature stark naked to leave it shiftless and unable any way to help it self that all the help that the Creature doth receive may appear to be of the Free-Grace of God meerly without the Creature 's concurrence in it I say therefore it is not the Faith of Believers that doth lay their iniquities upon Christ Suppose thou hast committed many sins and thy sins are apparent and plain thou wouldst be rid of these transgressions and hear of them no more what is the way Works are not of power to do it you will say But Faith is able to discharge the soul and quit it from all transgressions and lay them upon Christ But I must tell you albeit God hath given many glorious fruits and effects to Faith and made it instrumental of much excellent and abundant consolation to his People yet hath he not honoured Faith with this that it should lay iniquity on Christ or move God to do it Now thou mayst see Reader wherein the fallacy of our Doeg or malicious Author does ly for that which he lays as the foundation of this his Ninth Charge against the Dr. he quotes from p. 322. where the Dr. speaking of the best of Man's Righteousness that it will not serve God's turn as the matter of our Justification before him he presently diverts the same from the Dr's liâ—eral express sense and meaning therein That God is not therefore pleased with any of the Graces or Duties of his People A most ungrounded impudent falsehood But this is the manner of the Man throughout the whole of his Treatise and now that the Dr. declares which way they become of use unto us and acceptable with God namely by Christ's purging and extracting out of them the filth that does attend them and so presenting them to the Father and that when this is done yet none of this is that for which God is prevailed with to lay sin upon Christ He tells us that Truth had at last got such a forcible prevalency upon the Dr. That he recants what he before had said and withal that the latter is a vain surmise in the Dr. against some that would be accounted the greatest Protestants viz. That Christ doth not purge away the filthiness of their Righteousness that this Righteousness may prevail with God to lay iniquity upon Christ But their not only pitiful causa sine qua non as previous unto God's imputation of Righteousness in order unto Justification fully demonstrates that there were just grounds for this gracious Dr's surmises even in his day as well as now but also that Faith Repentance and Sincerity is the very matter of the same though the merit thereof lies in Christ It is no wonder therefore that our Author is so much concerned that the Dr's Book is got into so many hands wherein and whereby both his together with the vile Treacherie as well as Doctrins and Practices of others are so evidently brought to light And I am fully satisfied that the more they engage in this work the more they will not only labour in the fire but vomit out their own shame if there were any amongst them Now we come to his Tenth and Last Charge wherein he telleth us That X. And Lastly another wild Position which these Sermons maintain is this That All is done from Eternity and so nothing is to be done now He often tells his Auditors Your Business is done to your hand already Therefore there is no need of begging for Faith or any other Grace or for Forgiveness of Sin or Crispi unmask'd p. 50 51. any other spiritual Priviledge These are all granted already and not to be done now He frequently inculcates this and in one whole Sermon together insists upon it viz. That God's pardoning sinners and justifying the ungodly are not now or hereafter to be done they are not present or future but were dispatched long ago even from Eternity Whence he infers that we must not look for Remission of Sins or Justification in this Life we are not to be concerned in any such thing now we need not be solicitous about it for it is past and over All is done from Eternity Now thou mayst observe herein the Method our Author takes in his dealings with the Dr. and that in every one of his Ten Charges against him not one of them excepted As 1. When he lays down any one of them all against the Dr. he fixes upon some discerpted dragg'd Sentence or Position of his and thereon lays his load of Invectives by most false and violent inferences endeavouring to suit it by forcing it to speak what it never was designed for to the nature of that Charge he is more immediately upon But then 2. Finding by the Dr's Explanation of the said Position or Sentence That his viz. our Author's Treachery would more openly appear he reserves the said explanation or explication of the same unto the latter end of every one of his Chages