being required on their part but to believe that Christ died for them and upon no other condition then that bare belief as if Christ did not give himself to redeem us from sin but to assert our liberty of sinning which is the most perverse and mischievous misconstruction of the grace of God revealed in Christ that possibly could be invented and point-blank against the end and design of his coming into the world For he gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works 5. Yet as repugnant and irrational as this Errour is it had attempted the Church betimes as appears by sundry monitions of the Apostles when exhorting their charge to holiness of life and real righteousness they often intimate their proneness of being deceived in thinking they had leave to be remiss in these matters Some instances you may have observed already to which you may add that of S. Iames Be ye doers of the word and not hearers onely deceiving your own souls But that of S. Iohn is most express and emphaticall Little Children let no man deceive you he that doth righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous that is even as Christ was righteous who was not putatitiously and imaginarily righteous but really so indeed though it seems by this caution there were that went about in those times to perswade it might be otherwise And I could wish that this errour were not so taking in the Church as it is at this day then which notwithstanding no greater I think can be committed nor more dangerous it rendring this admirable Engine as I have termed it which God has set up in the world for the advancement of Life and Godliness altogether invalid and useless 6. Wherefore all the following Powers of this Instrument depending on this first unless we can make good this the rest will have no force nor motion Therefore that I may make all throughly glib and expedite I find an obligation upon me not to rest in these though never-so-evident testimonies That we are strictly bound to inherent sanctity and holiness but to clear also to the judicious the unwarrantableness and weakness of the grounds of this Errour which they would obtrude upon the world as the chief Mystery of the Gospel namely That if one do but believe though devoid of all sanctification yet he is approved as holy and righteous by the imputation of Christs righteousness and so consequently shall inherit everlasting life let him live here as he will I shall take the rise of my discourse from that grave and affectionate counsel the holy Apostle has given to young and weak Christians and which I even now mentioned Little children let no man deceive you c. CHAP. V. 1. The Apostle's care for young Christians against that Errour of thinking they may be righteous without doing righteously 2. Their obnoxiousness to this contagion with the Causes thereof to be searched into 3. The first sort of Scriptures perverted to his ill end 4. The second sort 5. That the very state of Christian Childhood makes them prone to this Errour 6. What is the nature of that Faith Abraham is so much commended for and what the meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 7. A search after the meaning of the term Justification 8. Justification by faith without the deeds of the Law what may be the meaning of it 9. Scriptures answered that seem to disjoin Reall righteousness from Faith 10. And to make us only righteous by imputation 11. Undeniable Testimonies of Scripture that prove the necessity of real Righteousness in us 1. THAT which Plato commends in Law-givers and Institutors or Governors of Commonwealths that they have a special and prime care of Childhood and youth as the diligent in Husbandry make peculiar fences for their young plants to save them from the dangers their tenderness exposes them to that also is observable in the blessed Apostle who amongst many other provisions he has made in the behalf of all younglings in Christianity has also armed them and fenced them with this caution against being mistaken so dangerously in Christianity as to conceit they may by a bare professing themselves Christians be righteous though there were neither any real Righteousness in their hearts nor any fruits of it in their hands A wicked Errour which several Seducers tempted men to such as were Nicolaus Marcio and Carpocrates as Historians have taken notice of 2. And because there can be no better Antidote then the being convinced that there is an obnoxiousness in younger Christians to this contagion I shall diligently search out and set forth the causes whereby they become obnoxious that finding themselves so they may have the greater care to keep themselves from being smitten with this pestilentiall infection Where we shall finde that come to pass in Spirituall things that often happens in Natural For as weak bodies contract diseases from meats and drinks nay from that which is so perpetual and palpable a principle of life that we can scarce live one moment without it I mean the refreshing Aire which casts many tender bodies into Agues and Feavers and other distempers so tender and weak Souls often by ill concoction turn the very bread of Eternal life the Word of God into morbifick matter and in stead of getting growth and strength by feeding thereon weaken the Divine life in them and sink themselves into most dangerous and desperate maladies 3. The first cause then of the proneness of young Christians to this present Errour is certain places of Scripture the meaning whereof they not rightly understanding make bold to interpret them in favour to their own carnality and fleshly desires It would be too voluminous a business to cull out all the places that are perverted to this ill purpose We shall content our selves in producing the chiefest in answering to which we shall naturally satisfie all the rest And these I may cast into two sorts For they are such as either seem to import That a bare Faith will justifie us and so we may become righteous by an empty belief or else such as seem to say That the righteousness of Christ becomes ours or That we are righteous by that righteousness that is in him And of the first kind is that Rom. 4. Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness Now to him that worketh is the Reward not reckoned of Grace but of debt but to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted for righteousness And Rom. 5. Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through Iesus Christ our Lord. And Rom. 10. For Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to every one that believeth And at the ninth verse of the same Chapter If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Iesus and shalt believe in thy heart that God
Dispensation are we well approved of by God and being justified thus by faith we have peace with him through our Lord Iesus Christ Rom. 5.1 So that this Iustification is not a mere belief that Christ died for us in particular or that he was raised from the dead whereby anothers Righteousness is imputed to us but a believing in God that he has accepted the bloud of Christ as a Sacrifice for sin and that he is able through the power of the Spirit to raise us up to newness of life whereby we are encouraged to breath and aspire after this more inward and perfect righteousnesse Which advantages God propounds to all the hearers of the Gospel without any respect of works or former demurenesse of life if so be they will but now come in and close with this high and rich dispensation and be carried on with couragious resolutions to fight against and pull down the man of sin within themselves that this living and new way of real Divine righteousnesse may be set up and rule in their hearts I say if they be encouraged to this holy enterprise by Faith in Christ for the remission of sins and for the power of his Spirit to utterly eradicate and extirpate all inward corruption and wickednesse this Faith is presently imputed to them for Righteousnesse that is they are and are approved by God as dear children of his and as good men and are of the seed of the Promise For they are born now not of the will of man nor of the will of the flesh but of the will of God and their will is wholly set upon righteousnesse and true holinesse which they hunger and thirst after as sincerely and eagerly as ever they did after their natural meat and drink and God who feeds the young Ravens is not so cruell as to deny them this celestial food which food they reach at and as it were wrest out of his hands by Faith in the power of his Spirit whereby they account themselves able to doe all things 9. And this is the only warrantable notion that I can finde of being justified by faith Nor do those places above recited prove any other then this For that which seems to make most of all for another viz. Rom. 4.5 But to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted for righteousness may very well be interpreted according to that tenour of sense I have already declared For that is the great and comfortable priviledge of the Gospel that without any respect of former works if so be we do but now believe remission of sins in Christ and believe in his power that justifies the ungodly i. e. that makes just the ungodly and purifies and purges them from all sin and iniquity from which by their own naturall power they could not purged and restores them to inward reall righteousnesse by the working of his Spirit this Faith is imputed for Righteousnesse For they that do thus believe are good and righteous men for matter of sincerity so that they have peace with God through the bloud of Christ and by the power of that Spirit that is now working in them are renewed daily more and more into that glorious image and desirable liberty which arises in the further conquest of the Divine life in them and makes them righteous even as Christ was righteous And now the hardest is satisfied the other places alledged will easily fall of themselves by the application of what has been said concerning this nature of Faith and Iustification 10. As for those places of Scripture that seem to attribute the Righteousness of Christ to us as where he is said to be made unto us wisedom righteousness sanctification and redemption the sense is only this that he works in us wisedom righteousness c. Otherwise it might be inferred that we shall have only an imputative Redemption and that we shall not be really saved and redeemed As for that other As by the disobedience of one man many were made sinners so by the obedience of one man many shall be made righteous I say it is a place against themselves For by Adam we became really sinners and sinful contracting original corruption from his loins therefore by Christ we are to be made really righteous And this was the end of his obedience that was obedient even to the death of the crosse that we being buried with him by baptisme into death like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life Rom. 6. Wherefore there really being no ground in Scripture for this childish mistake and it being as unreasonable that one Soul should be righteous for another as that one Body should be in health for another if I shew that the Scripture it self does expresly require of us that we be righteous and holy in our own persons there is then nothing wanting to the full discovery of this childish and ungrounded conceit of being righteous without any Righteousness residing in us 11. And in my apprehension this very Text of S. Iohn is a clear eviction of this Truth it plainly declaring that they are mistaken who ever conceit themselves righteous without doing righteousnesse or without being righteous in such a sense as Christ himself was righteous There are also several other Testimonies of the Apostles to the same purpose some whereof I have noted already as where he saith That Christ was manifested to take away our sins and that he came to destroy the works of the Devil and that he that is born of God sinneth not because the seed of God abideth in him that is a permanent Principle of Divine life and sense whereby he seeth and abhorreth whatsoever is wicked and unholy And again 1 Ioh. â— Hereby we know that we know him if we keep his commandements He that saith I know him and keepeth not his commandements is a lyar and the truth is not in him but whose keepeth his word in him verily is the love of God perfected Hereby know we that we are in him He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also to walk even as he walked Like that 2 Tim. 2.19 Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity CHAP. VI. 1. Their alledgement of Gal. 2.16 as also of the whole drift of that Epistle 2. What the Righteousnesse of faith is according to the Apostle 3. In what sense those that are in Christ are said not to be under the Law 4. That the Righteousness of faith is no figment but a reality in us 5. That this Righteousnesse is the New Creature and what this new Creature is according to Scripture 6. That the new Creature consists in Wisedom Righteousness and true Holiness 7. The Righteousnesse of the new Creature 8. His Wisedom and Holinesse 9. That the Righteousness of faith excludes not good Works The wicked treachery of those
this was in stead of all other Righteousness to him and that he was reputed as righteous all over now although he were not so at all in any other things 7. Now for Iustification we shall best understand the meaning of the word from the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 First therefore besides the forensal acception 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to be just Gen. 38.26 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thamar is more righteous then I. So Eccles. 31.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that loves gold will not be just Secondly it signifies to appear just Psa. 51.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is that thou maist plainly appear or approve thy self to be just And Psal. 143. â— For in thy sight no man living 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall appear just Thirdly and lastly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to make just and pure to free from vice and sinfulness Psalm 73. v. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Therefore have I cleansed my heart in vain And Eccles. 18.22 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nec tuam probitatem usque ad mortem differas saies the Translation And Rom. 6.7 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that is dead is freed from sin Also Act. 13.39 And by him all they that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses i. e. Ye are more throughly cleansed and purged from sin and wickedness then you could be ever under the Law of Moses Which is consonant to other passages in Scripture as That the Law makes nothing perfect and again If there had been a Law that could have given life then verily righteousness might have been of the Law And now we have found out a warrantable sense of these words we shall be able more expeditely to discover the sense of the foregoing places of Scripture alledged for this pernicious conceit of a Christians being righteous without any real Righteousness in him 8. Wherefore to that in the 4. to the Romans whose force will be the greater if we adde that also which is written a little before in the 3 chap. v. 28. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the Law and what he inferrs also vers 9. That Iews and Gentiles and all are under sin Wherein the meaning of the Apostle is to magnifie as was most fit the ministration of the Gospel and so he signifies to the world that whatsoever is discovered hitherto is imperfect lapsed and ruinous all but weak and sinful before the coming in of Christ even the works of the Law themselves and that smooth external Righteousness of mere Morality and Ceremony So that all the world are found guilty before God and by the deeds of the Law there shall be no flesh justified in his sight For by the Law is but the knowledge of sin vers 20. it gives no strength to perform Wherefore now reckoning nothing upon all these things we are as it were to begin the world again and to endeavour after such a Righteousness as is by Faith in Christ Jesus and not to rest in any thing that may be done by the ordinary power of the flesh but to aspire after that Righteousness which is communicable to us by that Spirit which raised Jesus Christ from the dead But neither Abraham nor any one else can be justified by any carnal righteousness of their own but that highly-spiritual act of Abraham reaching beyond the common rode of Nature who against hope believed in hope that was that which commended Abraham so much to God And thus from the Example of Abraham would the Apostle commend the Christian faith to the world and in particular to the Jews the Offspring of Abraham For at the end of the fourth chapter he makes this use of Abraham's faith being imputed to him for Righteousness that is reputed by God as a very excellent good act as it indeed was that we might also be brought off to believe on him that raised up â—esus our Lord from the dead who was delivered for our offences and raised again for our justification In which verse are contained the two grand priviledges of the Gospel that is the forgiveness of sins upon the satisfaction of Christs death and the justifying of us that is the making of us just and holy through a sound faith in him that raised Jesus from the dead Which interpretation the 11 verse of the 8 Chapter doth sufficiently countenance But if the Spirit of him that raised up Iesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortall bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you viz. to Righteousness as is plain out of the foregoing verse And if Christ be in you the body is dead because of sin but the Spirit is life because of righteousnesse that is The body of death which we desire to be delivered from as the Apostle speaks appears by the presence of Christ in us to be thus deadly a body by reason of sin we feeling for the present nothing but an heavy indisposition to all holinesse and goodnesse in the body and its affections and all sinfulnesse and unclean Atheisticall suggestions from the flesh which is death to the Soul For to be carnally-minded is death So that by reason of the sinfulnesse of our body and the sad heavinesse thereof it appears as deadly and ghastly a thing to us as Mezentius his tying the living and the dead together when once Christ is in us but our Life is then that Righteousnesse which is of the Spirit we finding a comfortable warmth and pleasure in the gratefull arrivals of that holy and Divine sensation But he that raised Christ from the dead will in due time even quicken these our mortall bodies or these dead bodies of ours and make them conspire and come along with ease and chearfulnesse and be ready and active complying Instruments in all things with the Spirit of Righteousness Which belief is a chief Point in the Christian Faith and most of all parallel to that of Abraham's who believing in the Goodness and Power and Faithfulness of God had when both himself and his wife Sara were dry and dead as to natural generation and so hopeless of ever seeing any fruit of her womb who had I say Isaac born to him who bears Ioy and Laughter in the very Name of him and was undoubtedly a Type of Christ according to the Spirit For Isaac is the Wisedom Power and Righteousness of God flowing out and effectually branching it self so through all the Faculties both of mans Soul and Body that the whole man is carried away with joy and triumph to the acting all whatsoever is really and substantially good even with as much satisfaction and pleasure as he eats when he is hungry and drinks when he is dry And thus by our entrance and progress in so holy a
that teach the contrary 1. AS for that Text which we deferred to speak to we shall now take it into consideration It was Gal. 2.16 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but by the faith of Iesus Christ even we have believed in Iesus Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the Law For by the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified From this place of Scripture also there are some that would inferre a superannuating and annulling of all moral honesty and reall Righteousness whatever pretending that nothing but mere Faith is required to make us approvable before God And indeed they fansy that this whole Epistle administers invincible arguments to maintain this mischievous Conclusion though there be not to any indifferent Judge any solid reason of so full a confidence Which we shall easily understand if we take notice that the designe of this Epistle is only to reduce those Galatians again to the truth of Christianity that were almost apostatizing to Iudaisme and the Ceremonial Law of Moses Ye observe dayes and moneths and times and years I am afraid of you lest I have bestowed labour on you in vain Chap. 4.10 11. But the main scope of the Apostle is against Circumcision as is plain upon the very first perusall of the Epistle which he beating down together with the Law of Moses and extolling the Faith in Christ seems sometimes to excuse a man from walking according to the moral Law under the pretence of Faith in Christ. But as S. Peter hath well observed there be many things in S. Pauls Epistles hard to be understood which foolish men pervert to their own destruction But that we be not led into the same errour and mischief it will be of no small concernment to trace the footsteps of S. Paul that so we may wind our selves out of this dangerous Maze or Labyrinth 2. Whereas then he seems to nullifie or vilifie at least the Law in the advancing of that Righteousnesse that is by faith let us see what this Righteousnesse that is by faith and what that of the Law is Chap. 2.19 For I through the Law am dead to the Law that I might live unto God I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me I through the Law am dead unto the Law what a riddle is this that the Law should deprive it self of its disciples And yet it doth so For it is a Schoolmaster to Christ or rather an Usher which when it hath well tutour'd us and castigated us removes us up higher to be made in Christ perfect who is the perfection of the Law But the Law it self makes nothing perfect and this is the reason that Righteousness is not of the Law And to this purpose speaks the Apostle in this very Epistle at the 21 verse of the 3. Chapter Is the Law then against the promises of God God forbid For if there had been a law given which could have given life verily righteousnesse should have been by the Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A law that could enliven and enquicken us But that is beyond the power of the Law That 's the title and prerogative of Christ who is the Way the Truth and the Life I am the Resurrection and the Life he that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die Joh. 11. This therefore is the Righteousness of Faith or belief far above the Righteousness of the Law or killing letter 3. Wherefore when this Faith is come that worketh us up to a living frame of Righteousness within us we are no longer under the servility of the Law of Moses but are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus Now none are the children of God but those that are led by the Spirit of God as the Apostle elsewhere witnesseth in his Epistle to the Romans And those that have the Spirit of God what fruits they bring forth is amply set out by the Apostle in this to the Galatians chap. 5. v. 22. The fruit of the Spirit is love joy peace long-suffering gentlenesse goodnesse faith meeknesse temperance against such there is no law For indeed there is no need of it they being a law unto themselves So we see how those that are in Christ are not under the Law because that inward fountain of obedience or living law in their hearts is above it They do really and truly fulfill it through the Spirit that is by faith For that Spirit is the begetter of Love and Love is the fulfilling of the Law For all the Law is fulfilled in one word even in this Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self Gal. 5.14 This I say then walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh and these are contrary one to another that ye may not do the things ye would Which certainly is the true and genuine sense of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Grotius also has noted And these are contrary that is to say oppose one the other namely the Spirit the flesh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the end you may not do those things that your own corrupt will or carnall minde inclines you to which naturally coheres with what follows But if you be led by the Spirit you are not under the Law For against such there is no law as was said before Which implyes if they be not led by the Spirit they are liable to the curse of the Law to death hell and damnation For so also speaks the Apostle when he hath reckoned up the works of the flesh That they that do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God ver 21. And v. 25. he openly declares That they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts 4. So we see plainly that the Righteousnesse that is of faith is not a mere Chimaera or phansie but a more excellent Righteousness then that of the Law For the Law is no quickening spirit but a dead letter But Christ is the Resurrection and the Life And he is God our righteousness mighty to save and can with ease destroy the powers of death darkness and the Devil out of the Soul of man but we must have the patience to endure the work wrought in us by him I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me And if we will still cloak and cover our foul corrupt hearts with forged conceits of Hypocrisie's own making and excuse our selves from being good to one another or to our selves because God in Christ is so good to us hear what the Apostle speaks in the sixth and last Chapter of this Epistle at the seventh verse Be not deceived God is not mocked For whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also
making Christian Religion recommendable to them that are without 7. As also he does herein against the third Rule in no small measure For by spoiling Christ of his Divinity and of being acknowledged in very truth the Son of God all those condescensions of his which he stooped to for our good the esteem of them is much slackned and relaxed and will not stick the mark so strongly as upon this ancient and universal Hypothesis of the Church of Christ who did acknowledge that he was really the Son of God which must needs enhance the esteem of his Sufferings exceedingly and therefore more effectually melt our affections into the greater remorse for Sin and stouter resolutions to mortifie and kill all inordinate motions and desires all perverse and corrupt suggestions of our Natures be it never so harsh to us and bring them under the scepter of the crucified Jesus Which this Sect so little considers that they very hardly are drawn to acknowledge Christs death a Sacrifice for sin and so by their dry harsh and rash reasonings expunge one of the chiefest Powers and choicest Artifices of the Gospel for the making men good CHAP. VII 1. Imputative Righteousness Invincible Infirmity and Solifidianism in what sense they seem to complie with the second and last Rule and how disagreeing with the third 2. The groundlesness of mens Zeal for Imputative Righteousness 3. And for Solifidianisme 4. The conspiracy of Imputative Righteousness Solifidianism and Invincible Infirmity to exclude all Holiness out of the Conversation of Christians 5. That large confessions of Sins and Infirmities without any purpose of amending our lives is a mere mocking of God to his very face With the great danger of that Affront 1. THE last Examples of applying and examining of Opinions according to the Rules we have set down shall be in Imputative Righteousness in Perfection and Infirmity in Iustification by Faith alone and in the Reign of Christ upon Earth And as for Imputative Righteousness Infirmity and the Opinion of the Solifidians I must confess they seem to pretend much to the exaltation of the Person of Christ and to make men sensible of their great need of him and seeming to promise ease and security to careless sinners may also make the Gospel more passable to those that are without that have a minde to enjoy this world as well as that which is to come and is as plausible to such kinde of people as Roman Indulgences and Pardons Absolution upon slight Penances and the like To which kinde of errours and miscarriages I cannot but impute a great part of the degeneracy of Christendome at this day Nor can I imagine how the more perfectly Reform'd Churches could have failed of proving generally excellent Christians indeed if these Opinions of Imaginary Righteousnesse Empty Faith and the Invinciblenesse of Sin had not stept into the room of those Follies and Errours they had fled from Whence it is apparent how highly they transgress against the third Rule and consequently how cautious men should be of either receiving them or communicating them to others 2. For as for Imputative Righteousness it is very suspicious seeing the Scripture is silent therein that it is the suggestion of Hypocrisie and Deceit to undermine that due measure of Sanctification whereunto we are called For otherwise this invention is utterly needless the Sacrifice of Christs Passion being sufficient to expiate whatever sins we fall into from any pardonable Principle Which Sacrifice were utterly needless if the perfect Righteousness of Christ were so imputed to us as that we might reckon it our own For then were we as righteous as Christ for he has no greater Righteousnesse then his own whereby he is righteous And this Righteousness consisting as well of abstaining from sins as doing acts of Righteousnesse it is plain that all this is imputed to us and that therefore hereby we are to be accounted of God as never to have sinned and therefore there wanted no Expiation for sin and so Christ died in vain For the imputation of his Righteousness will serve for all Wherefore an opinion so absurd one cannot imagine why any should be so well pleased with unless they intended it a shelter for sin and to excuse themselves from real Holinesse and Righteousnesse 3. Neither do I know to what end but this men should so zealously press the Opinion of being saved by Faith alone in such a perverse sense as some do not meaning thereby a living Faith working by Love but we must be justified by Faith prescinding from Charity Obedience and whatever is accounted Holy and Just. But it is plain that unless a man will say he is justified by a dead Faith which is no more true Faith then a dead corps is a man that real Sanctity will as surely accompany Faith as Light does the Sun and that the controversie is as ridiculously raised of Faith whether it alone justifie as if one should move a question whether the Sun alone makes it day For if they mean the Sun without the raies it is evidently false but if they mean the Sun alone without the Moon or Stars it is as evidently true But by prescinding life from Faith and contending that it justifies is as incongruous as to assert that the Sun without Light makes day and as mischievous as to insinuate that inward Sanctity is not necessary to Salvation And therefore when they talk of Faith alone they ought to explain themselves so as that they may not be understood to exclude Christian Holiness but Iudaicall and what other needless imperfect and superstitious Principles of Justification men have stood upon in the world and withall to urge an operative Christian Love which is the fulfilling of the Law 4. To this Imputative Righteousnesse and Iustifying Faith from which they would fain disjoyn real Sanctity they adde Christian Infirmity whereby they would insinuate the Invinciblenesse of Sin So that two of these Opinions suggesting That that due degree of Righteousness we have spoken of nay indeed any degree thereof is needlesse and this other That it is impossible what can this tend to but an utter neglect of all Holiness in Christian Conversation The profession of which frame of Religion though some take it to be a great piece of service of God yet that Apostle whose expressions they too often abuse declares that it is a mere mocking of him as if they did naso suspendere adunco 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Be not deceived God is not mocked as a man sows so shall he also reap For this abuse and perverse application of the Mystery of Christianity to lewdness and secure wickedness is a mere deluding and mocking of the benigne counsel of God in Christ. It is to flear in the face of Heaven and under pretence of extolling Christ really to subvert his Kingdom upon earth 5. Is not this a mere mocking and confronting of the Divine Majesty whenas he has sent Christ into the World on
having been contracted by our Lapse may justly by Religion be set on our score This Sincere Christian whose Character I have given will be so far from setting the Person of Christ at defiance and vilifying his Passion Intercession and holy Priesthood that he will with the greatest reverence of Devotion that can be imagined love him and adore him and will not quit that sweet Repose of minde he findes in the recounting with himself what an inestimable Friend he has with God for all the Pleasures and greatest Interests of this present life nor presume to be justified by his own Life or Works but by Faith in Christ whom he rejoices to think that he shall see his Judge at the last Day 3. This is the true and sound complexion of a Sincere Christian and he that does not faithfully endeavour to arrive at this state discovers himself to be an halting Hypocrite and one that is no Lover of the Divine Life nor has tasted the sweetness of Sanctity and of the holy Spirit of God nor known the power of his operations He that pretends to be above it he is self-condemned and betraies himself of what Kingdome he is that he is inacted by the envy of Satan against the Kingdome of Christ to antiquate his Offices and to lay aside his Person which he perswades sundry fanatical Souls to do puffing them up with the conceit of Self-perfection on purpose to exclude our Saviour The danger of which errour is no less then the utter forfeiture of their Eternal Salvation For no man shall inherit eternal life but by the donation of the crucified Iesus whom God has appointed Judge at the last day Besides that the very life and moral temper in these Revolters from the Son of God if we compare it with that of the Sincere Christian there is as much difference to them that can tast as betwixt the wilde grape and the sweet So hard a thing is it for either Nature or the Devil to imitate the true tincture of the Spirit of Christ. Their vine is the vine of Sodom and their fruit as the clusters of Gomorrah and their Churches as a field whom the Lord hath blasted there is the smell of the Sulphurous Lake and of the pit of Hell amongst them 4. The last thing I propounded was the Personal Reign of Christ upon Earth Of which Opinion as the reasons are slender or none at all so the Usefulness thereof to me invisible not knowing that it promotes any End of the Gospel which I can take notice of But that there may be a Millennium as they usually call it or a Long Period of time wherein a more excellent Reign of Christ then has manifested it self yet to the World may take place truly it seems so reasonable in it self and there are such shrewd places of Scripture seem to speak that way that it is hard for an indifferent man to gainsay it But I conceive then that the Renovation of the state of things will be as S. Peter speaks into new Heavens and new Earth wherein Righteousness shall dwell wherein real Sanctity and universal Peacefulness shall bear sway wherein the crucified Iesus shall not be onely complemented aloof off and saluted in Statues and Pictures both himself and his Mother and all his Apostles and most eminent Adherents whenas in the mean time Mars Venus and Pluto and other Idols of the Heathen are cordially lov'd and serv'd all Christendome giving themselves enormously to War and Bloudshed to Lust and Luxury to Wealth and Covetousness worshipping these Deities in Spirit and in truth but as the Divine honour done to our Saviours person shall not then cease so the power of His spirit shall be more potently felt for the unpaganizing of the World and for the destroying of this spiritual Idolatry which is the Inordinate Affections and fierce endeavours of the Animal Life and shall implant such a love and liking of the life of Christ that Peace and Righteousness shall overflow all Contentions about Opinions shall then cease they being priz'd onely by the Pride and Curiosity of the Natural man and all the goodly Inventions of nice Theologers shall then cease and all the foolish and perplexing Arguments of the disputacious Schools shall be laid aside and the Gospel alone shall be exalted in that day And truly the Millennium being in such a sense as this stated it is both probable and very desirable and an opinion that agrees with nay such as may very well further all the designes of the Gospel as any one may discern by making application to the Rules I have set down Of which Rules these few Examples may serve to shew the use and to teach a man how to extricate himself from that mighty cumbersomeness of the numerosity of Opinions whether they be suggested from his own thoughts or offer'd by other men For if he applies them to these Rules he will finde most of them either so little to the designes of the Gospel or so much against them that he will account some not worth the sifting others not worthy the naming much less the entertaining by a sober Christian. Which practises and considerations cannot but tend much to the advancement of the Gospel of Christ if diligently observ'd though but by private Christians I shall onely give some brief touch what is proper for the Magistrate to contribute for the Advancement of Christianity and then we shall conclude CHAP. X. 1 That in those that believe There is a God and a Life to come there is an antecedent Right of Liberty of Conscience not to be invaded by the Civil Magistrate 2. Object That no false Religion is the command of God with the Answer thereto 3. That there is no incongruity to admit That God may command contrary Religions in the world 4 5. The utmost Difficulty in that Position with the Answer thereto 6. That God may introduce a false perswasion into the mind of man as well for probation as punishment 7. That simple falsities in Religion are no forfeiture of Liberty of Conscience 8. That though no falsities in Religion were the command of God yet upon other considerations it is demonstrated that the Religionist ought to be free 9. A further demonstration of this Truth from the gross absurdities that follow the contrary Position 1. BEfore we can well understand the Power of the Magistrate in matters of Religion we must first consider the Common Right of Mankind in this point provided they be not degenerated into Atheisme and Prophaneness For he that believes there is no God nor Reward nor Punishment after this life what plea can he have to Liberty of Conscience or how unproper is it to talk of his Right in matters of Religion who professedly has no Religion at all nor any tie of Conscience upon him to make that wicked profession For Atheisme as it is very coursely false in it self to any man that has the clear exercise of his Reason so is